Patriots of Equestria, Part 1

The city of Manehattan had never seen anything like this before. Sure, they had seen many cases of petty criminals attempting to be big and mighty creatures that could be unstoppable at what they did, but this was something completely different. Two bombs had gone off on one of the most important days in Manehattan's history, resulting in hundreds of ponies getting hurt by the blasts.

However, at Manehattan's General Hospital, the most concern was in four of the hospital's main operating rooms.

"About 60 milograms!" shouted a doctor as he and several other doctors and nurses looked over the wounded Celestia. "Get me a blood sample!"

A nurse stuck a syringe into Celestia left leg and drew out several pints of blood.

"Give me something to close the wound!" cried another doctor, trying to hold blood coming out of a wound not far from Celestia's cutie mark. A nurse handed the doctor a freshly cleaned cloth to cover the wound.

"Stay with us, your highness," pleaded a nurse, carefully watching Celestia's heart readings. "Please!"

…

For the next few minutes, it was all borderline chaos as they all did everything in their power to try and help their sovereigns. Similar situations were carried out in the other operating rooms of the hospital including the ones where Luna, Cadence and Twilight were being worked on. Down in the waiting room, Starlight, Sunset and Trixie waited for any news along with other ponies worried about their loved ones.

"A bomb," whispered Starlight, grunting in frustration. "It was a bomb! No wonder I could hear a ticking sound! This Moon Dancer was right, Twilight should not have gone."

"She is a princess after all, Starlight," remarked Trixie, sighing despondently. "It is Princess Twilight's duty to attend such an event like this. And, I know she can make me jealous at times, but even I know that she doesn't deserve to suffer any of this."

Just then, the three unicorns looked over to see Moon Dancer walk into the waiting room, clearly panicked.

"Where is Princess Twilight?" she begged to a nurse.

"In surgery," replied the nurse, trying to sound calm. "But we will let you know when you can see her."

Moon Dancer continued to protest, but it was all for nothing and she eventually backed off, not wanting to be more of a burden. Rising from her spot, Sunset Shimmer walked over to console the troubled unicorn.

"I know how you feel, Moon Dancer," sighed Sunset, placing a hoof around Moon Dancer's neck. "I'm Sunset Shimmer and I want to see Twilight as much as you do, but we are just going to have to wait. You were right to warn us about suspicious activity, even though they were too late to be reached."

Moon Dancer turned over to Sunset and let out a surprised gasp, confused at what had just been said to her.

"You know Twilight?" cried Moon Dancer, backing away slightly. "And how did you know I sent her that letter I wrote her?"

"It's a long story," replied Starlight, as she and Trixie joined Sunset. "But, we can talk about it later. I'm Starlight Glimmer, Twilight's pupil and right now, we need to get to the bottom of this and we need to get to the bottom of this now. Are you certain there was any strange behavior before the marathon?"

"Yes," answered Moon Dancer. "I know who is responsible for this and if ponies are saying that it is other ponies involved, it's not. Those two changelings I was watching before the marathon about are responsible for this. I just know it."

"Then why didn't you tell anypony?" asked Starlight.

"I went to the police, but they didn't believe me," answered Moon Dancer, again. "They thought that the Changelings were eradicated completely or something. Well, perhaps maybe now, they will believe that there were Changelings involved."

The rest of the unicorns nodded in agreement for that they needed to go after the two Changelings and bring them to justice.

"So, I guess we are on our own now," sighed Trixie. "We all need to understand the dangers of what we are about to undertake in finding out who is responsible. When should we start?"

…

But before the ponies could make a move, the nurse that Moon Dancer had been trying to talk to came back and approached the ponies.

"Princess Twilight is out of surgery now," said the nurse, much to the relief of the unicorns. "You can see her, but you cannot be inside for very long. She does need her rest after all."

"Where is she?" asked Moon Dancer.

"Room 2204," answered the nurse and the four unicorns were led towards the room where Twilight was being held. Seeing all of the injured ponies from the marathon made them all feel sad and angry. But, they couldn't focus all of their attention for very long as they entered Twilight's room. Walking towards Twilight's bed, they saw the young alicorn princess lying on her back, IV's stuck into her front and back legs to provide fluids and bandages were placed around the wounds that she had sustained. Seeing her teacher like this almost made Starlight cry, but she couldn't let her emotions get the better of her.

"Twilight?" whispered Sunset, placing her front left hoof on Twilight's front left hoof. "I don't know if you could hear me, but this is Sunset Shimmer and your friends. I swear that whoever did this to you will pay dearly."

But, all Twilight could do was open her eyes weakly, unable to speak.

"I don't think she can talk back, Sunset," remarked Trixie. "Look up there."

Sunset looked up to see a container hooked up to one of the many IV's already in Twilight's system. Inside the container was a clear fluid that was being placed into Twilight's body.

"She's probably sedated because of the medication," said Starlight. "But, I am sure she can still hear us."

Twilight weakly nodded before falling back asleep as a result of the sedation. At that moment, Twilight's assistant, Spike, walked into the room with bandages on different parts of his body, including his tail. This was a good sign for the unicorns to see, knowing that someone close to Twilight was not really that hurt.

"Oh, hey guys," said Spike. "I guess you see the battle Twilight is fighting right now. She's not hurt that bad, but they want her to rest comfortably."

"That's good to hear, Spike," replied Starlight walking over to him. "How are the other princesses?"

"Celestia's still in surgery and Cadence just got out," answered Spike. "Luna's got some broken legs and a broken wing, but aside from that she is fine."

Suddenly, a loud scream was heard from all the way down the hall and running out to find the source, Starlight looked out for a brief moment before Spike drew her back inside.

"It's been like this since we got here," sighed Spike. "The doctors are saying that over 200 are hurt and many are probably going to have to lose parts of their bodies."

"What do you mean?" asked Sunset in a worried tone. "What do you mean that they are going to lose parts of their bodies?"

Spike felt his stomach churn when being asked this question. It was very rare of something like this to happen, but he didn't want to keep four unicorn ponies in suspense.

"Well, to answer your question," he answered, clutching his bandaged tail. "Some ponies injuries are so great, then in order for them to save their lives, the doctors are saying that they will need to have their legs amputated."

"Oh, no!" gasped Starlight, her right front hoof covering her mouth. "That's awful!"

"Yeah, it's pretty bad," remarked Spike as he continued to rub on his tail. "Applejack and Rainbow Dash said that they had never seen anything like this and neither do I. Everything that we faced up until now was nothing more than just creatures either wanting magic all for themselves, love all for themselves, wanting to bring eternal night, wanting to cause nothing but eternal chaos, you name it."

Just then, a bright flash appeared and the ponies gasped to see Discord standing before them, looking stone faced and not carefree like he normally was.

"Who did this?" he growled, his face filled with fury and his eyes litterly glowing red in anger. "Who did this to Fluttershy?"

"Changelings," answered Starlight, approaching the infuriated creature of chaos. "Those two Changelings who escaped captured after Chrysalis was overthrown."

"Then we have to find them," said Discord, snapping his fingers and revealing himself to be dressed in highland garb and his face covered with war paint, with one side blue and the other side white. "Then can attack our traditions and our way of life, but they can't hurt my friends, especially Fluttershy!"

And Discord flung a sword into the air, dedicating himself to finding who did this to the only true friend he ever had.

"I agree with Discord," added Trixie. "If we trust the authorities, then these Changelings will continue to cause rampage. Only ponies with advanced magic can find these Changelings and bring them to justice."

"Then, when do we start?" asked Moon Dancer.

"We start now," said Starlight firmly and leaving Spike alone with Twilight, used her magic to make herself, Moon Dancer, Sunset Shimmer, Trixie and Discord disappear from the room and soon, they found themselves back at the finish line, which was now a crime scene and canvased by law enforcement ponies.

The hunt for Hopper and Thumper was now about to begin…