The C̸̞̙̭̽̌̀̈́̽̕̕ȗ̵̧̨̢̻̩̞̘͙̉̋̊͂͘ŕ̷͖̦̍͝s̵̫̪̋̍͂̆̆͆̄é̶̡̧̺͖d̸͎͒̒̿̈̀ Apocalypse

We inched down the trail we had gone. It had taken a few minutes of rest to finally get away from the dreaded train station and on the path to the hospital. Discord was still squeezed in a tight, depressing coil. Flutters and AJ walked with him, trying to loosen it. There had been a long talk between Discord and Flutters that cleared his mind.

Nurse Redheart trotted over to me. She had been consulting with Rarity to see if her injuries were stable enough to continue travelling.

"You got pretty roughed up back there. Are you doing alright?" she asked.

"Never felt better," I muttered. I had really started feeling it after the others were looked at. The skims had caused a lot of blood loss, so I was feeling pretty light-headed. I struggled walking, or ... limping really. I was lucky to not get shot elsewhere. Then I wouldn't be limping right now. I'd need to be carried, and I doubt Discord was in the mood for that.

"Do you think you can last?"

"Hopefully."

The hospital wasn't far. My legs could survive cracking in half until we got there. Rarity's wounds seemed worse, but my legs were killing me. The sun was barely high in the sky, and we had been through more today than the past two. Overall, the past three were crazy in general. Dash and the others were keeping their eyes peeled on everything around us. There was no way we were gonna get attacked again without being ready.

"Is everypony at the hospital still there?" Twi asked Cloud.

"They were all shaken but alive. I just stood up for the others and let them take me. All the boys I could see came and left the hospital behind them," she explained.

"Thank you for sacrificing yourself for them, Cloud. I'm sure they'll be real happy to see you're still alive."

My bite ...

For some reason, that brought me back on the fact that my bites were completely healed somehow. I tried my best not to stop, but curiosity leaped into my skin. I rolled up my sleeve and glanced up and down to see if the bites were possibly just hiding themselves.

"Devan?"

It took my brain a second to realize how much time had gone by.

"Huh?"

"What are you waiting for?"

I sighed.

"It's ... gone."

"What's gone?" Twi moved closer.

"My bite."

Now all eyes glued on me.

"You were bitten?!"

Oh boy.

"I couldn't get away from Pinkie when she turned," I explained.

She stepped forwards and took my arm. It was enough to reveal that there used to be teeth marks. "Wow ... okay," she coughed mildly, "we'll talk more when we get to the hospital, but for now, let's keep walking."

Everybody continued warily. Twi slowed to trot next to me. She probably needed more info. After a few seconds of awkward silence, the others got back to the level they were at moments ago.

"Were you with Dash when she bit you?" she eyed her.

"No, it was when I was taking her to Zecora's."

She sighed. "I can't imagine losing Flutters," she said suddenly.

"Twi. Please don't think about that. Not yet, at least."

She threw me a stare. "She's gonna turn Devan ... I have to think about it."

"I know ... but we have more time than with Cheerilee."

"Yes ... I'm just concerned."

"We all are."

We were finally back at the hospital. We slugged forwards until we were welcomed by worried ponies and both the returned nurses. They saw the blood and severity of our injuries and immediately called for newly sent guards from Cloudsdale to get everypony to their room. There were four of us in total who were injured in some way. They had to focus.

"You made it. Good to see ya'," somepony hugged Cloud before she was sent to her room. She looked on the verge of sobbing with relief.

One of the nurses looked at my leg and directed me to a seat. I sighed with relief. She took a moment to undo the bandages and examine the wounds. We were located in the main lobby, where everything seems to go down. The nurses were on their hooves and the guards were giving orders here and there. It was semi-organized. The doors to the main lobby were slanted and hanging from their hinges where the boys must have attacked.

"I'll try to get Doc Hooves to look to ya'," Nurse Snowheart insisted.

"Thanks Snow."

The business of the lobby immersed the moment we stepped through the door. The atmosphere was still stressful and worrisome. The new attacks left more marks on the place. Doctor Hooves walked over from working on Rarity to assist me.

"Hello Devan," he scanned me up and down, "looks bad, but we can fix it up."

"Thanks Doc."

Snow turned from her work and gave him the report.

"Okay. So he's got one skim on the left leg and a small opening near his left thigh. There's no exit wound and I see at least two fragments in there. We're gonna keep his the skim wrapped, but we need to get in there and remove the fragments. The walk stressed his leg and caused swelling, and a bit more bleeding. I don't believe there's any internal bleeding, but we could put him on a quarter pint of Ambevexion and get him those stitches."

The doc quickly wrote stuff down while she spoke.

"Can you check our supply of Ambevexion while I evaluate him?" the doc asked gently.

Snow hurried off as he examined my leg intently. Snow had wiped off some of the blood and exerted pressure in an attempt to reduce any more bleeding momentarily.

"Guards! I need two of you to get Devan's room set, please."

The guards nodded and picked two of their group to head upstairs. Knowing that there were guards to help protect us now eased our stress. The hospital was regaining its structure and other barriers in the sides and rear were being constructed. After a while, I was finally taken upstairs by the guards. Time passed as I laid in my hospital bed. The window revealed the time of day to be a bit past noon while the still clock on the wall showed 8:57.

Soon after, the door opened. Snow came in with a cup full of red liquid that I assumed to be the Ambevexion and a glass of water. The formalities and questions had been addressed at an earlier stage of the arrival. Slowly at first, I sipped the red liquid until my taste buds figured out that it wasn't all that bad. And I don't remember too much after that ...