The C̸̞̙̭̽̌̀̈́̽̕̕ȗ̵̧̨̢̻̩̞̘͙̉̋̊͂͘ŕ̷͖̦̍͝s̵̫̪̋̍͂̆̆͆̄é̶̡̧̺͖d̸͎͒̒̿̈̀ Apocalypse

I couldn't believe how close I'd gotten to death. But more so, I was trying to imagine why Celestia and Luna would bring in more humans. Was it because of the apocalypse? Did they bring them in to help out and accidentally bring in the wrong kinds of people? Thinking of the alicorns, I shuddered at the thought of them possibly being dead. If they brought in this group of boys, they brought in horrible trouble.

It was even worse in a time like this. Now we needed to worry about two groups, and I didn't know which one scared me more. I thought about Daisy; I thought about Zecora; I thought about the zombie ponies we'd come across. Most of all, I thought about Pinkie.

I couldn't stop thinking about all the horrible things that were going terribly wrong. When I entered Equestria, I had never expected anything like this.

But then, I thought about Discord's mumbled words I heard before going completely unconscious. Even though my ears were echoing badly as they were, there was no doubt in my mind that the voice I heard was Discord.

But ... if the alicorns had brought in more humans, wasn't Discord there with them at the time? I thought Twi had sent him off to see if the alicorns were okay. He must have still been with them, because I hadn't seen any sign of him when we were at the castle. Even through my unconsciousness, these questions continued rolling around my mind.

Slowly regaining consciousness, I started to hear muffled words that I couldn't distinguish. I was laying on a bed ... or something cozy. The pain I had felt earlier arose again, but I couldn't even move. I was forced to suffer through the pain, though I could feel some movement coming back soon after.

The words were becoming a little more clear, but I still couldn't tell who they were from. A slightly high pitched ring whistled in my ears for a few seconds before fading off. The voices were muffled again for a few more seconds afterwards, but quickly came back.

"How long will he be out?" I could finally make out what somepony was saying. It was Dash who had spoke.

"It might be a while. The damage was severe, but you can never tell what might happen under his condition," the second voice sounded unfamiliar to me. It was a mare, but that's all I could tell. There was a harsh pain in my throbbing right eye. I could feel something wrapped around it, like cloth or something of the sort. I began wiggling my fingers a little. It was the only thing I could do at the time.

"He's moving!" I could hear Dash trot up next to the bed. "Devan ... can you speak?"

I tried hard to speak, but I still hadn't gotten all the feeling yet. I wiggled my fingers around some more.

"Please, give him some peace. He'll wake up when he's good and ready," the other voice directed.

"Can I stay with him?" Dash asked.

"Yes, but try to be silent. I'll spread the news to the others," the mare began trotting away. I heard the door squeak shut. My body and I worked hard to get all the feeling back. Enough so I could see, though enough that I could speak would be fine with me. I could feel movement coming back slowly, but I guess I'd have to wait for a while.

"Psst ... Devan. Can you hear me?" Dash whispered in my left ear. Once again, I tried to speak, but the feeling still wasn't there. I admired Dash for trying to get me up quickly.

"If you can, move your fingers again," she gave me more precise directions that I could follow. Doing what she said, I wiggled my fingers up and down.

"Okay, that's good-" she started, until the door opened again.

"Oh hey AJ," Dash said.

"How's he doing?" she asked.

"He's doing good. He can hear us now, but still can't speak," Dash answered. I heard AJ trotting up to Dash's side. "Do you think his eye will be alright? Is it gonna affect the other one?" AJ asked.

"I'm not sure. The nurse didn't go into detail."

Once again, somepony was talking about my eye. I felt cloth on it, but it wasn't too severe, was it? I guess I'd have to wake up fully to find out. I felt like that was coming on shortly.

After quite some time, I was able to respond to one of their requests. I opened my left eye, which didn't have a bandage on it, but the left one was numb and cold.

"There you are!" I could sense Dash wanting to pounce on me, but she was smart enough to stay back for now. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I ... could be better. What's wrong with my eye? It's numb now. How bad is it?" I slowly rubbed my fingers across the bandage on it.

"Don't you remember getting knifed?" AJ asked.

"Yes. But how bad it is? Will it heal?"

"The nurse," Dash said, "Nurse Redheart ... she put you on some drugs, and rubbed some liquid over it to calm it and stop the bleeding. Rarity came in with her and used the last of her magic to repair the lens. Nurse Redheart said the spell will take a while to come into effect. After that, she can remove the bandage. You'll have to take some eye drops the next few days. But if it works out, Rarity may have just saved your eye."

"Awesome. Tell her thanks for me, will you? I'll tell her myself if I get moving soon."

"Will do," AJ replied.

I looked around at how empty the room was. The plain wooden door stood on the left of the bedside, not completely closed. There was a bed, a dresser across from the end of the bed, plain white walls, a window on the wall to my right, and an end table to my right with a dimly lit candle.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Ponyville's hospital. Discord used his last magic to send those brats back to their world, and helped us escort you here," AJ informed.

"Where is he now?"

"He's with the others downstairs."

"Thank you all." I smiled. It was good to know they cared about me enough to drag me here, but I had recalled the trip from Twi's castle to here being a very long way. I assumed that Discord was the one that carried me.

"Of course." AJ smiled back.

"So can I go see the others? They're downstairs, right?" I requested.

"You just woke up ... I'd give your body a while to rest." AJ started.

I sighed. "Fair enough."