For Better or Worse

The sound of Sweetie Belle’s shouting finally disappeared once Rarity had made it to the waiting room for the Critical Care Center. The doctor had suggested that perhaps they relocate there so that she could have a moment to try and reclaim her composure in relative privacy. Nurses and orderlies were busy seeing to Sweetie Belle’s needs as it was anyway, so there was nothing for them to do but simply wait.

Doctor Clover and Twilight had begun talking amongst themselves, presumably about something related to Sweetie Belle’s medical condition. Rarity knew that it was probably important and she should be listening, but … those screams. She just couldn’t get them out of her head. Instead, she looked out the window beside the waiting room bench she was sitting on. The view from this height was something that Rarity did not often have a chance to see.

Ever since Ponyville had begun expanding rapidly, towering buildings, the likes of which were commonplace in Manehattan, had started popping up all over the place. The borders of Ponyville had stretched outwards in order to make room for the massive influx of ponies that had moved there. To walk from one side of the town to the other would have taken Rarity about ten minutes in the past. Now though, assuming she didn’t get lost in between the skyscrapers blocking the view of the sky and landmarks, it could possibly take her an hour.

Still, there was a beauty to be had in seeing the city from a bird’s eye view. She supposed this was what Rainbow Dash must see every night. The street lights and lit up windows coated the city in an illuminated glow, causing the buildings to stand out from the darkness of the sky and open plains beyond. It had a particularly calming effect upon her.

“I’m sorry, Doctor Clover,” she finally said, interrupting the doctor’s and Twilight’s conversation. A few raindrops hit the window as she turned away.

“Pardon?” he replied as he adjusted his half moon spectacles so as to see her clearer.

“I wasn’t able to help at all, and I think I made it worse.”

Twilight looked pained as she eyed her friend. “Rarity …”

“On the contrary,” Clover said, a small grin making him look much kinder, “you did exactly what I hoped you would.”

Rarity leaned backwards a bit, her eyes widening. “I … what?”

“Well, you see,” Twilight said as she walked over to Rarity and sat down beside her on the bench, her voice soft and comforting, “the problem we were coming up against was that we had no way of getting anything out of her. She wouldn’t respond, she wouldn’t cry, she wouldn’t scream … She wouldn’t communicate in any way to any one of us.”

The doctor stepped forwards a bit and continued, drawing Rarity’s attention back to him. “As we discussed briefly, she’s a medical mystery. We have no information whatsoever on how her body is alive and functioning, and we have been unsuccessful thus far in gleaning any information whatsoever from her cells. With her being completely and totally unresponsive and apathetic, we were at a dead end with nowhere to go.” A flash of light crossed over his glasses as he leaned back, his grin growing a little wider. “You just changed that.”

She realized what the two of them were getting at. “She … responded to my presence.”

“Precisely,” Clover replied. “With this, I have a few ideas that I was discussing with Twilight on what to try next. We were actually–”

“Twilight! Rarity!” a familiar voice shouted out, interrupting the doctor.

Rarity twisted to her side and saw Applebloom and Scootaloo galloping down the hall, receiving a few glares from nurses in the process. They skidded to a stop in the waiting room. Both of them looked tired, but they had a spark in their eyes that Rarity hadn’t seen in a long time.

Twilight stood up from the couch and embraced the two of them in a hug which they eagerly returned. “Oh good, you made it,” she said as they pulled apart, a warm smile on her face. “I know you were amidst your Annual Gathering, but I thought that you’d want to know as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, of course! We barely got here before the rain did. Where is she? Can we see her!?” Scootaloo almost shouted. Rarity glanced back at the window – it really had started to rain, somewhat harder than normal too.

The doctor looked between the new arrivals and Twilight, catching the princess’ eye momentarily. Twilight frowned and turned back to the fillies. “I’m sorry, not yet. She can’t have any visitors currently.”

“Princess, I actually need to go check on the situation,” Clover said, already turning to head down the hall. “I trust you’ll fill these two in on what’s happened?”

“Of course. Here, why don’t the two of you sit down with me …”

Rarity turned back to the window and rested her chin on her hoof. Not really wanting to hear all the grim details about her sister’s condition a second time, she tuned out the three of them and focused on the moon. The way it shimmered through the streaks of rain on the window, as well as the dull patter of the drops hitting the glass, helped her think about other things.

At last, Twilight’s voice died down and an uncomfortable silence filled the waiting room. Rarity chanced a quick glimpse in their direction, already sure of what she’d see. Applebloom and Scootaloo had looked so full of hope when they’d arrived, but it had all drained away. Instead, they looked lost and confused. Rarity realized that the same thoughts she was having must surely be going through their heads as well.

How could this have happened? What should I have done differently? What can I do now?

She wanted to console the both of them, to tell them that it was going to be alright and that it wasn’t their faults, but … How could she do that for them when she couldn’t even do it for herself? Her insides only grew colder as she turned away and closed her eyes, pressing her left temple against the cold glass.

“Will you write to your parents tonight, Rarity?” Twilight’s voice broke the silence, sounding louder than normal because of it. Rarity’s right ear twitched.

“I cannot,” she replied without opening her eyes or lifting her head from the glass.

The soft clopping sound of a hoof on carpet reached her ears. “How come?”

“They stopped writing to me over six months ago.”

“They … stopped?”

Rarity nodded, her left temple causing a squeak as it shifted on the window. “As you’ll recall, they left for Manehattan in search of Sweetie Belle. They had this faint hope that they could … Well, do you remember what happened when Applejack went there last year?”

Twilight hummed in thought. “Of course. I’ll never forget …”

“Nor will I,” Rarity said, swallowing hard. “Anyways, as a result of that nightmare, Applejack met up with that … superhero that’s been running around Manehattan. You’ve heard the name of course. Everypony has.”

Twilight nodded in agreement. “Hurricane. Applejack’s interview in the newspaper back then described her as being able to control the wind with her thoughts.”

“Right, her,” Rarity continued. “You remember the stories and the articles coming out of Manehattan after that, don’t you? The ponies there fell in love with this … Hurricane. She was solving crimes left and right, stopping villains and catching killers; a real true-to-life superhero, like those Power Ponies comics that Spike is so fond of.”

Rarity could feel the weight of the bench shift as Twilight sat down in front of her. “What does all this have to do with your parents?”

“My parents thought, after everything that Hurricane did for the Apple family, she might be able to help them find Sweetie Belle.”

“So they went seeking Hurricane’s help … But then they stopped writing to you? Whatever for?”

Rarity shrugged, opening her right eye to look at her friend. “Their last letter was a normal one, stating that they had put out missing posters all around the city, and that they would write me again a few days later to keep me informed. They were staying in a hotel and the address was listed and when their next letter never came, I started writing back. They never replied, and when I wrote to the hotel’s reception asking what happened, I got a form letter in response stating that they could not and would not give out information on their guests, for any reason.”

Twilight frowned and Rarity could see the concern in her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me about this back when it happened?”

Rarity sagged and turned her body to face away from Twilight and down the hall, her forehead finally breaking free of its contact with the window. It was getting too cold for her anyways. “How could I? Truly, Twilight, how could I have told you?”

“I–” Twilight began before closing her mouth. She looked down at the bench and considered her words.

“When Sweetie Belle disappeared, I fell apart. You remember, you were there for me every day. It was the worst I’ve ever felt in my entire life, and I was only surviving off of the kindness and goodwill of my friends and loved ones. But it didn’t get better.”

“Rarity, I–”

“No, Twilight,” Rarity said, cutting her friend off. She shook her head as her eyes fell to the floor. “I became a weight on you, and on Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and–and everypony. I was barely eating or sleeping. And worst of all, I knew what it was doing to you all, to my closest friends.

“It was harming you just as deep, watching me suffer and wallow. And I knew it, but I was too focused on my own pains and my grief over Sweetie Belle to do anything about it. I let it drag you all down with me, and a part of me deep inside was happy because of it. Like I wasn’t alone in my misery anymore.”

She sighed as she leaned back and looked at the ceiling, a wetness growing in her eyes again. “I couldn’t do that to you anymore. So I forced myself to smile and laugh and attend Pinkie Pie’s parties and Rainbow Dash’s stunt performances like nothing was wrong. I decided I wouldn’t hurt my friends anymore, and when my parents suddenly stopped writing me I knew I couldn’t let it happen again. I couldn’t let you all suffer in your attempts to help.”

Twilight spoke up again, her voice quiet and pained. “Rarity, hiding the truth from us couldn’t possibly have helped. We care about you.”

Rarity closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath. “No, it didn’t. But I forced myself to just suffer through it; I wouldn’t watch you all suffer with me. Losing Sweetie Belle taught me that much. I needed to be stronger.”

“Rarity …” a voice said, but it wasn’t Twilight’s. Scootaloo had walked over and Rarity suddenly found herself locked in a hug.

“We should have come to you as well,” another young voice said, as Rarity suddenly found herself being hugged by Applebloom too.

“We’re sorry,” the two of them said in unison. Rarity didn’t say anything in response, surprised as she was by their sudden closeness, but she slowly wrapped her own hooves around them as well.

They stayed like that for a while, the three of them holding tightly to one another in their grief over their troubled friend and sibling.

“AAAUGH!” A scream suddenly tore through the quiet halls of the hospital, startling the three of them apart. Even Twilight jumped a bit as she turned to find where the voice was coming from.

Nurses and orderlies alike started running past their waiting room in the direction of the Critical Care Center. Rarity had to remind herself that this was, in fact, a hospital. Screaming ponies was sometimes the norm, as unfortunate as that may be.

The screaming had still not stopped though. It sounded like a stallion. They all got comfortable again as Twilight stood up. “I’m going to see if there’s anything I can do to help. It sounds like they might need it,” she said. With a flash of her magic, she teleported away.

Rarity sighed and turned back towards the window. She tried to look at the moon once again, but it had unfortunately become covered by the very same storm cloud that was raining down on the city. She shuddered heavily. The screaming was reminding her of Sweetie Belle.

The night Sweetie Belle disappeared

Darkness reigned amidst the large, gnarled trees of the Everfree Forest. Sweetie Belle could barely see where she was stepping, let alone try and keep an eye out for whomever had called out her name. She was constantly wincing and flinching as branches caught in her mane and stickers tore at her legs, but she kept moving forwards. There was no path to follow and more than once she considered simply turning around and going home.

Before she could make that decision, a large gust of air exploded forth from somewhere ahead of her. The trees shook with the force of the wind, Sweetie Belle having to throw a leg over her eyes and brace herself to avoid being knocked over, her mane and tail whipping out behind her.

But then it was gone. It lasted for less than a single second, but had contained the violence of an entire storm, or at least that’s how it had felt to Sweetie Belle whose legs were still shaking.

However, that wasn’t what had Sweetie Belle concerned. No, that belonged to the sound she heard while the wind had rushed by. Somepony ahead of her had screamed for just a fraction of a second before being silenced.

Sweat dripped down her forehead as she anxiously eyed the trees before her. What was she thinking? She should turn around right now and rush home, informing the guards at Twilight’s castle along the way.

… Inform them of what, though? That an unnaturally strong gust of wind had come from the Everfree Forest, a place that nopony could tame anyways? And that she thought she had heard the sound of somepony being hurt, but could have maybe just been hearing things?

No, with what she had currently, nopony would believe her. Humor her, maybe, but take it seriously? Not a chance. Crazier stories had been told from fillies and colts that had gotten lost in the forest, and they always turned out to be false. Only this was different … Somepony had called out to her, twice, which meant that the rest of this was real too. She couldn’t back out now, not when somepony who potentially knew who she was could be hurting and in need of help.

She steadied her breathing and began moving forwards once again. She had decided that as soon as she had more concrete proof that something was happening, she would then turn and bolt out of the forest. She wouldn’t linger around longer than was necessary.

A particularly low hanging branch was blocking her path, so she pushed it aside with her magic. However, right as she did so, she spotted something that made her insides freeze. On the other side of the tree, laying lifeless on the ground, was the body of a stallion.

At long last, the screaming was beginning to quiet down. Rarity was sympathetic for whatever the poor soul was going through, but the noise had been making it very difficult to stay calm.

The sound of wheels that were in desperate need of a good oiling reached her ears instead, causing her to look up. A bed was being rolled down the hall, and on it was one of the hospital’s orderlies. Rarity was shocked to realize that it was actually one she recognized. It was the large unicorn stallion that had asked her to leave Sweetie Belle’s room earlier, so that they could calm her down.

The poor pony’s face was contorted in pain as he cradled his right foreleg, which was bleeding out onto the bedsheets. The nurses who were wheeling him down the hall were doing their best to keep him from moving on the bed, but he wasn’t making it easy on them. However, when Rarity caught a glimpse of his injury, she suddenly realized that all that screaming before was from him. His leg had been broken at the joint and was bending in the entirely wrong direction.

“I wonder what happened to him,” Scootaloo whispered, her eyes following them as they disappeared down the hall.

Applebloom shook her head. “I dunno, but that looked painful. I’ve never broken a bone that bad before.”

Rarity didn’t say anything, but she was troubled all the same. After all, that stallion had been tending to Sweetie Belle just minutes prior. What had happened to him? How had he sustained such a terrible injury? She got up and began walking towards the hallway.

“Hey, where ya goin’?” Scootaloo asked, looking concerned.

“I’m going to find out what occurred. Please wait here, in case the doctor comes back.”

The two of them nodded their agreement and got comfortable, though neither of them spoke. Rarity didn’t want to alarm them when she wasn’t sure herself yet, but she had a sneaking suspicion about how he had been injured. She just seriously hoped that it wasn’t true.

She quickly found herself once more in the large, circular CCC. Nopony stopped her or even looked at her, and she briefly considered going to see how Sweetie Belle was doing. However, that thought disappeared as soon as she saw Twilight and Doctor Clover talking animatedly next to one of the desks in the center office area.

“It makes things complicated, no doubt. But along the same line of logic, in a … silver lining sort of way, this is still beneficial,” she heard him say before he spotted her and turned to face her, a frown on his lips. “Ah, Rarity, I was just about to come and speak with you.”

“Yes, I, uh –” Rarity momentarily caught sight of Twilight’s expression and was shocked to see that her friend looked rather flustered “– well, I saw that injured stallion earlier. He was in Sweetie Belle’s room.”

The doctor nodded as he closed his eyes. “Yes, that is unfortunately what I wished to speak with you about.”

Rarity winced, her stomach tightening as she feared the worst. “What happened? How bad is it?”

“Well, we don’t know how severe the break is, to be honest,” Clover said, casting a glance at Twilight. “I only got a quick glimpse of it and it didn’t look good. His entire knee appeared to be blown out. He’s being taken care of though. Doctor Fetlock is the top trauma specialist in the entire city.

“As for what happened though, well … Your sister is the one who injured him.”

“That’s …! What!?” Rarity shouted, stepping back a bit in shock. “But he must be twice as strong as she is! He’s so much larger than her! There must be some mistake!”

“... There’s no mistake, Rarity,” Twilight said, a thoughtful frown on her face as she looked at the floor. “There was another nurse in the room. They’re not sure how it happened exactly, but Sweetie Belle was thrashing against them as they were trying to restrain her. The nurse described hearing a loud snap followed by him screaming, but she doesn’t know how Sweetie Belle could have hurt him that badly.”

Silence entered their conversation momentarily as they allowed Rarity time to consider the circumstances. She sighed, her body sagging as though a heavy weight had been placed on her back.

“... I’m sorry,” she said, looking Doctor Clover in the eyes. “I’m so sorry. It was my presence that upset her and caused this to happen.”

Clover almost looked bemused before he laughed, causing Rarity to knit her eyebrows in confusion. “No, no, there’s no need for that. Nopony blames you, not even the stallion who got hurt, I assure you.”

“But I –”

“She is a patient here, a patient who has been through a terrible ordeal that we cannot even begin to comprehend. What has happened is no fault of anypony present, least of all you or her. It simply is the way these things go sometimes. Some patients are more complicated than others.”

Rarity fell silent, biting her lip as she looked at the floor. She understood what the doctor was saying, but still … She felt responsible. “Very well.”

Doctor Clover coughed, drawing both Twilight and Rarity’s attention. “Now, this does lead me to the real reason I needed to speak with you. In light of this development, Sweetie Belle can no longer stay at this hospital.”

“What? Why!?” Rarity shouted before looking at Twilight who was equally as shocked.

“We are not equipped to handle dangerous patients. I will be transferring her to a mental hospital. Dangerous ponies with fragile minds are an incredibly violent mix. You can’t reason with an individual who is not mentally stable. Sweetie Belle could potentially hurt somepony again, and there isn’t anything we can do to prevent it. It’s no fault of her own, mind you, she isn’t responsible for the condition she’s in. What has happened to her is a real shame, but it doesn’t change the fact that we are not capable of handling a violent patient.”

“I … But, I …” Rarity’s eyes could barely focus, her gaze constantly switching from one of his eye’s to the other. She tried hard to find a flaw in what Clover had said, but it honestly made sense, even to her. The realization left her feeling like all of her will to fight had drained right out of her.

“... Which mental hospital will you send her to?” Twilight asked, a curious expression crossing her face.

“There is only one I can think of that can handle truly violent patients,” Clover replied, adjusting his stance so that he could face Twilight directly. “I’ll be transferring her to Blue Blossom’s Psychiatric Hospital for Dangerous Criminals, in Manehattan.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking!” he said, raising his left hoof placatingly due to Rarity looking like she was about to have a conniption and Twilight’s eyebrows lowering dangerously. “She is not a criminal, but they are the only institution with a staff that has been trained to handle violent patients. They have the ability to restrain her safely so that she’s not a danger to anypony, herself included.”

Rarity was feeling like she was going out of her mind. Her sister’s return was supposed to be something that finally ended her pain and sorrow, but this … This was quickly spiraling into something much worse, and it was entirely beyond her control. Rarity had not felt this powerless in a long time.

Twilight, however, did not seem ready to just give up. “According to Equestrian Law,” she began, adopting her well used ‘lecture voice’ but with a hint of royal flare, “a pony in a condition such as Sweetie Belle’s can be placed in the care of their own family members. You could instead release her to Rarity’s capable hooves. Surely you must agree that love and a familiar, comfortable locale, such as Rarity’s home in this case, would soothe any fractured mind more efficiently than the austere, cold environs of a mental hospital, let alone the uncaring nature of one meant to hold criminals.”

A small flame seemed to ignite inside Rarity upon hearing Twilight’s words, causing her to look up with a flicker of hope in her eyes. However, it was extinguished faster than it had appeared when she saw the doctor shaking his head.

“I had already considered that, actually,” he said, looking at Twilight. “Under normal circumstances I would gladly agree and give Sweetie Belle over to Rarity’s custody. However, these are not normal circumstances. I feel I shouldn’t have to point this out, but it was Rarity’s presence which upset Sweetie Belle. Again, Rarity is not to blame, but it does not change the facts. How could I willfully and knowingly subject my patient to be cared for by the very pony whose presence was the cause of this outburst?

“No, I’m afraid my decision is final.” He turned and looked at Rarity, and she felt a hollow emptiness take form within her body when she met his gaze. He was dead serious. “Come tomorrow morning, she is to be transferred out.”

Sweetie Belle nearly shrieked when she saw the body, the blood pooling beneath its head. The wounds suggested that he had been smashed violently against the side of the tree that he lay at the base of, probably dead before he had even slid to the base. The pony looked to be as old as her parents, with a burgundy coat of fur and a disheveled mane on the lighter side of blue. She had never seen him before.

The taste of bile rose up in her throat as nausea began settling in. She had to look away, covering her mouth as she did. This was what she had needed to find. With this, she could turn back and go for help. But wait …

Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened as a sickening realization struck her. This pony hadn’t wound up like this by accident … Somepony else had murdered him, and it possibly happened just a few moments ago. The murderer could still be nearby.

Slowly, she lowered her hoof to the ground, flinching slightly when a twig snapped beneath it. Her ears and eyes scanned the forest around her, but she saw nothing. She was acutely aware of just how much noise there seemed to be in a forest, even at nighttime. Branches creaking in the wind, night time birds calling out into the dark, the sound of the plants and trees settling …

A single thought burned through her mind: Leave. Now. She didn’t think twice. She turned around, prepared to gallop away. Before she could even take her first step however, a voice called out through the relative silence, causing her ears to slick back and her eyes to widen in fear. The voice was feminine and it was coming from somewhere deeper into the forest.

“Hey, Two, you alright? We heard your shout,” the voice called out amidst the sound of hooves tramping through the underbrush and bushes being shifted out of the way.

Sweetie Belle twisted her neck and peered over her shoulder. She could just make out the visage of a pony on the other side of a rather large and thick fern. She couldn’t possibly get away in time. They’d hear her running. Thinking fast, Sweetie Belle hopped behind a tree, positioning herself so that the corpse was between her and this newcomer.

“Oh-oh god … Two, what happened to you!?” Sweetie Belle heard the mare shout out, presumably upon seeing the condition of her friend. “Hey, say something!”

Sweetie Belle chanced a glance around the side of the tree, getting a good look at the mare for the first time. She was a unicorn with a fur that was the shade of butter yellow, with a short cut pink mane and tail. She was shaking the body of her friend, and the expression on her face was one of fear.

“Help! Penumbra, Diva! Two needs help!” she shouted as Sweetie Belle attempted to hug even tighter to the tree.

There was another shuffling of bushes as two more ponies shifted into view, emerging from between some of the trees.

“One? What happened?” the first of them said. His appearance caused Sweetie Belle to gasp softly before covering her mouth. He was an earth pony with fur that was singed black, as though it hadn’t been that color before, and so was his mane and tail. As if to corroborate the fact that his appearance was not natural, the irises in his eyes were solid black, and his pupils were chalk white.

“It’s Two! He’s been attacked!” the yellow mare named One replied, her expression changing from fear to anger. “Somepony must be nearby!”

The second pony who had arrived with the black stallion started peering around the area. “What do you want us to do, Penumbra?” she said, drawing Sweetie Belle’s attention to her. This pony was a female unicorn as well, except she had a darkish blue fur and mane, and glowing orange eyes that almost seemed to shine without light.

Penumbra turned around and looked down at the body at their hooves. “The two of you take him back to our camp. This changes things.”

“What the …?” Sweetie Belle mouthed silently as she leaned out a little further from behind her tree, having just noticed something that drew her attention. When Penumbra had turned around, she noticed that … he didn’t have a cutie mark on his flank. Upon closer inspection, none of them seemed to have a cutie mark of any kind. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion.

She had expected them to simply pick up the body of their friend and carry him away, but instead the unicorn named Diva lifted a hoof and spun it in a circle. Out of thin air, an impossibly thin platform appeared above her, one that was glowing with a greenish hue and was not one hundred percent opaque, allowing a small amount of light through. Sweetie Belle at first thought it was some kind of spell, but then she realized that the unicorn’s horn was not lit up, and she seemed to be directing this floating platform with the movements of her body. Something very strange was going on here.

One and Diva both lifted and placed their ally on the floating platform, and then proceeded to disappear deeper into the wood, the platform floating along silently behind them. Penumbra was left alone in the clearing, and Sweetie Belle hugged the tree extra tight. She felt as though he already knew she was there …

But she was wrong, because a moment later and he had started stalking off through the trees in the wrong direction. As soon as she stopped hearing the sound of him trekking through the underbrush, she let out her breath and decided that now would be the best time to leave. She needed to tell somepony what had happened here.

She turned around, ready to gallop away, but instead found her breath stuck in her throat which was the only thing that kept her from screaming. Penumbra was right behind her, looking straight into her eyes with his eerie, soulless ones. A cold and hollow laugh came from behind his closed mouth as his lips slowly parted into a sinister smile.

“No,” Twilight said, standing firm.

The doctor’s eyebrows lowered as he thought about what she had said. “… Come again?”

“She is not being transferred to a psych ward for criminals. No, she is staying here. With me.”

Out of the corner of Twilight’s eye she could see Rarity staring at her in complete and total shock. She kept her gaze on the doctor however, a frown on her lips. She stared at him, showing her determination.

“I’m afraid that my decision is final, Princess, like I said before.”

“By decree of Princess Celestia, a Princess of Equestria can intervene in any and all matters that relate to the physical and mental health of their students,” Twilight said, her expression unchanged.

The doctor sighed, rubbing his temple with a hoof before adjusting his spectacles. “I guess I have to point out that she isn’t your student, Princess Twilight.”

“She is now. I am officially making her my protege, and she will come and live with me in the castle, where I will look after her personally.” Twilight didn’t even blink. She wasn’t normally one for this kind of behavior, but something about the way this doctor had been acting about all this just struck a chord with her. She kept her emotions in check, but she would be damned if she let him send Sweetie Belle away.

The doctor rubbed his face and mouth with a hoof as he stared at the floor in thought. A long moment of silence stretched on, until: “My main concern is for the patient. How can you deny her treatment by a trained facility designed to help ponies in her exact situation?”

“As the Princess of Friendship, do you not think me more qualified to care for her and help her recover with personal and individual attention, rather than a cold, emotionless mental hospital where the employee’s don’t care about their patients because they’re all murderers and criminals?”

Clover’s eyes narrowed in thought as he pondered all that she had said. Rarity looked back and forth between the two of them, not sure whether she should feel hopeful or discouraged.

“The patient is also a danger to those around her. How do you intend to handle that?” he said, his eyes piercing Twilight again, seemingly attempting to find a crack in her determination.

“The castle is under the protection of Royal Guards,” Twilight answered, her stern frown still unchanged. She was getting tired of this, but she would handle anything he could throw at her. “Nowhere in Equestria would she be safer, nor the ponies around her.”

Twilight normally hated to use her title as Princess in order to accomplish things, but all she had to do was look at Rarity, think about what Rarity had been telling her recently about her parents, think about the last year that Rarity had suffered … She’d do whatever it took to help Sweetie Belle and keep her here, safe and sound. Even if it meant ‘pulling rank’.

At last, Doctor Clover seemed to admit defeat. He sighed in resignation and closed his eyes for a moment. “Very well,” he said before opening them and piercing Twilight with one last stare. “However, I would ask one last thing. What if you did not know Sweetie Belle at all? Would you do this for any pony in a similar condition? Would you take this burden upon yourself if you did not already have a personal connection with the patient?”

Finally, Twilight’s stance faltered as she shuffled her hooves. She winced a bit at what the doctor was implying. “… I’d be lying if I said I did not have a lot of personal investment in this situation, but the fact that I do does not weigh in on my decision to make her my student. Whether you believe it or not, I was actually working towards doing this very thing before she disappeared.”

“Is that why you were spending so much extra time with her back then, teaching her different advanced spells?” Rarity asked, a small, hopeful smile on her face.

“Indeed. She had mastered Starswirl’s Dimensional Pocket just before she disappeared, and that was my final test for her. She did not know it at the time, but what I was teaching her was very advanced and they were not the parlor tricks I played them up to be. Even then I was intending on making Sweetie Belle my protege, and I had her parent’s approval. I am merely finishing now what was started back then.”

“Very well,” the doctor said, his voice bland and empty. “I don’t like it, but I can see that I don’t have a choice. I leave the patient in your hooves. Please see to it that she’s taken care of. I’ll have her file sent to the castle tomorrow morning.”

With that, Doctor Clover walked away, his maroon fur disappearing down the hallway leaving the CCC.

Twilight let out a heavy breath before smiling weakly at Rarity. She shook her head as she chuckled a bit and turned around, beginning the walk back to Sweetie Belle’s room.

Rarity caught up. “I … Twilight, I have no idea how to thank you for this. I don’t–”

“It’s alright, Rarity. I didn’t do it only for your sake. This benefits everypony involved, including Scootaloo and Applebloom, but mostly I did it for Sweetie Belle. The idea of her being strapped to a bed in a locked and barren hospital room, unable to even feed herself or-or go to the bathroom when she needs to … No, I will personally ensure her recovery before I ever allow that to happen.”

They reached Sweetie Belle’s door which was currently closed. The curtain inside the room had been pulled to cover the entryway once more, blocking the view inside.

“Shall we …?” Rarity asked, nodding her head towards the door.

Twilight frowned as she shook her head. “Unfortunately, the doctor is right about the fact that your presence is what caused the incident before. While that is no fault of yours, I cannot allow that to happen again. I must ask that you let me handle this from here on out, Rarity. I’m sorry.”

Rarity looked hurt as she turned away, failing to hide the wetness in her eyes, and her voice sounded strained as she spoke. “Of course ... I wouldn’t want it to get worse.”

Twilight sighed, exhaustion showing through her veneer once again. “Thank you, Rarity. If you could please tell Scootaloo and Applebloom what has happened so that they understand why they can’t come in just yet, I’d greatly appreciate it.”

Rarity nodded and left, but not before giving Twilight a tight hug and one last heartfelt thank you. Once she had stepped away, Twilight finally activated her magic and opened the door. Closing it behind her, she walked into the room and past the curtain.

Sweetie Belle was sitting crisscross on her bed, the blanket covering her lower legs. She was just sitting there, staring at her hooves which she couldn’t stop shaking. When Twilight had stepped past the curtain, Sweetie Belle turned her head and looked at her sideways. Twilight was shocked, due to the fact that until now Sweetie Belle had been mostly unresponsive to absolutely everything. Might that have finally changed?

“Is he going to be okay?” Sweetie Belle said, her voice scratchy and quiet. Twilight almost didn’t hear her speak.

Realizing that Sweetie Belle must have been asking about the nurse that she had hurt, Twilight decided that the best course of action was to reveal a partial truth. She glanced at the blood stain on the side of the bedsheets before responding. “We don’t know yet the full extent of his injury, but –” Twilight smiled comfortingly when she saw Sweetie Belle close her eyes and shudder, obviously feeling incredibly guilty “– I do believe he’ll be alright in the end.”

Without opening her eyes, Sweetie Belle spoke again, her voice shaking as she held back her tears. “I didn’t mean to hurt him.”

Twilight thought about that for a moment before replying honestly. “I believe you.”

She really did believe that Sweetie Belle hadn’t meant to harm anypony. She wasn’t sure how exactly she could have caused so much damage to such a burly stallion, but Sweetie Belle’s condition at the time lended her to believing that it had been entirely unintentional. However, it seemed that harming somepony had been the shock that Sweetie Belle needed to finally come back to her senses.

“Would you like to talk about what happened with you and that nurse?”

Sweetie Belle looked back at her hooves which still hadn’t ceased shaking. She didn’t respond to Twilight’s question, and instead asked one of her own, her voice even quieter than before. “Are you here to calm me down so I don’t hurt anypony else?”

Twilight walked a little closer and sat down on the edge of the bed, her body turned a bit so as to look at Sweetie Belle. “I honestly believe that you won’t hurt anypony again,” she said, a warm smile on her face.

This didn’t seem to cheer Sweetie Belle up in the slightest. Instead, she glanced at the multiple scars that were visible on her body, tears beginning to leak from her half lidded eyes. “… I’ve had to hurt a lot of ponies.”

Twilight’s smile slipped away as she looked at the scars as well, thinking about what Sweetie Belle meant. She found herself once again wondering just what must have happened to Sweetie Belle while she was gone. “I understand.”

A small silence expanded between them before Sweetie Belle hesitantly broke it. “What’s going to happen to me now?”

Twilight took a breath before placing one of her own hooves over top of one of Sweetie Belle’s shaking one's, holding it tight. “You’re going to come live with me in my castle as my student, and I’m going to take care of you.”

Sweetie Belle gasped and looked up at Twilight, shocking her with something that Twilight had not expected to see within Sweetie Belle’s eyes: mistrust. “… Live with you in your castle? Why? I should be locked up with the crazy ponies …”

Twilight leaned forward and softly wiped away some of Sweetie Belle’s tears before pulling her into a hug. Sweetie Belle just gasped, not returning the hug but also not fighting it. “I don’t believe you’re beyond help, Sweetie Belle. I don’t know what happened to you while you were away, but I know you can come back. Don’t try and go somewhere that we can’t follow, it won’t work.”

The poor filly started to shake as her shuddering breaths rolled out onto Twilight’s back. Eventually the tears started to fall once again, and she leaned more into Twilight’s embrace.

After a minute went by, Sweetie Belle finally wiped her eyes herself and leaned away, causing Twilight to push back to her sitting position. “You … you really made me your student?”

Twilight nodded, smiling once more. “Yes, I did. And just like how I lived with Celestia for a time while I was her student, you will be living with me while you are mine. This is, of course, all assuming you accept my offer.”

Sweetie Belle half laughed, half cried as she finished wiping her eyes. She turned her body a bit and looked out the window, a small frown settling on her lips. “… I accept.”

“Excellent! Then as soon as you’ve fully recovered, you and I will go home. Does that sound good to you?”

Sweetie Belle looked down at her body. “No, I’d like to leave now. I … I don’t like hospitals. And I’m already fully healed anyways.”

Twilight laughed softly. “I’m sorry, Sweetie Belle, but you’re not. Not yet. This morning when you were brought in, you were about as far from okay as you could be. It’s going to be about a week before you’re fully recovered.”

Sweetie Belle just shook her head. “No, it won’t.”

Twilight raised one eyebrow as she gave Sweetie Belle a perplexed look. Why would she even try and act like she was okay? “Here, let me show you what I mean. That way you’ll understand.”

With a bit of levitation, Twilight pulled the blanket away from Sweetie Belle and pointed to some of the bloody bandages that had been wrapped around her legs and barrel. “See these? Some of these are pretty deep, and the bandages are the only thing keeping them from bleeding.”

Sweetie Belle grunted before promptly ripping the bandages off. Twilight about had a panic attack, activating her magic to try and stop her, but it was too late. The biggest bandage around the worst injury was already shredded.

“See? I’m fine. Can we go?”

Twilight stared at the spot on Sweetie Belle’s body where just that morning a large and profusely bleeding wound had been. The skin had completely healed up, and there was hardly even a scar remaining. Even Sweetie’s fur had come back already. Twilight’s eyes roved Sweetie Belle’s body, looking at all the other pre-existing scars.

What in Celestia’s name …?

“Um, I … I suppose we can. Yes.” Twilight worked hard to get her brain moving. Now wasn’t the time though. This was just another mystery about Sweetie Belle’s body that would have to be added to the pile. As surprising as this was, it just wasn’t the biggest problem right now.

“Good …” Sweetie Belle whispered, sighing as she hopped off her bed. “And, um … can we leave a different way than the front entrance? I don’t … I just want to go.”

Twilight nodded as she stood up as well. “Of course we can. I’m going to go take care of the paperwork and such here at the hospital, and then we can just teleport to the castle, okay?”

Sweetie Belle agreed, and Twilight left the room, her brain still somewhat frazzled and not thinking straight. She needed to find some answers.

“Well, well, well. Where’s your friends?” Penumbra asked her, a cold chuckle lifting his voice.

Sweetie Belle tried to back away, but her rump bumped against the tree she had been hiding behind previously. She whimpered as her ears folded.

The smile on Penumbra’s face disappeared. “I know he was pretty weak, but you couldn’t have killed him on your own. Tell me, where did your allies go and how many of you are there?”

This was insane! Sweetie Belle looked around nervously, her legs trembling. She didn’t kill that pony, she had found him like that. She needed to say so, but her voice seemed to be stuck. Penumbra didn’t seem too keen on waiting for her to speak up either, as he sighed and waved a hoof noncommittally.

“You don’t fool me. I know you have allies out here. Now talk!”

“I … I’m alone,” Sweetie Belle finally managed to breathe as her body started shaking, barely louder than a whisper.

Penumbra just sighed. “Fine then.”

Sweetie Belle nearly shrieked as he lunged forwards, his pupils flashing from their stark white to a murky black as his body seemed to turn into a dark mist at the edges. His hooves latched onto her and her vision disappeared. Darkness enveloped her, squeezing her from all sides. The pressure that she felt was enormous, heightened by the fact that she couldn’t breath. It was as though she had been thrown inside a rubber bubble because she couldn’t exhale either.

A few moments in and she was beginning to panic, but it ended just as suddenly as it had began. With a soft ‘pop’, she could breathe and see again, and she was roughly thrown to the ground.

“Ugh!” she cried out as she landed on her side. She scrambled to her hooves and looked around frantically. She wasn’t beside the tree anymore. Instead, she was in the middle of some makeshift camp. A few tables covered in strange tools and weapons had been erected, and there was several tents on the other side.

Penumbra’s body was reforming in front of her, almost as though it was emerging from the very darkness itself, like a mist that was solidifying. His eyes had gone back to their clear white. To his left and right were the two other unicorn mares that she had seen a few minutes ago.

“Do you think you can get her to talk, Diva?” he said, half grinning as he looked at Sweetie Belle. Her eyes flicked over to the blue unicorn who smiled devilishly.

“I can certainly try,” she said as she raised one hoof from the ground. She used whatever magic or ability that she had used before when she created the floating green platform that had carried away their friend’s body. This time however, it created a small, green needle which floated in front of Sweetie Belle’s face.

“Alright, girl,” she said, stepping closer to Sweetie Belle as several more of the green needles appeared in the air, each one spinning and pointing at different parts of her body. “You’re going to spill whatever Penumbra wants to know.”

“No, please!” Sweetie Belle cried out, tears starting to form on the edges of her eyes, “I didn’t kill him, I swear!”

“Do you have any brains at all!?” Penumbra shouted, stepping forward as the unicorn named One chuckled behind him. “I know you didn’t kill him, I want to know who did! Where are the ponies you came into the forest with!?”

“I came alone!” she shouted, her head shaking as the tears started to roll down her cheeks.

“Liar!” Diva shouted as she swiped one of her hooves through the air, causing one of the green needles to shoot out. Sweetie Belle flinched as it whistled past her ear by just a hair’s breadth and stuck itself in the bark of a tree behind her with a soft ‘thunk’. “Tell the truth, or the next one won’t be a warning!”

Sweetie Belle was shaking, her eyes darting between the two advancing ponies. They wouldn’t believe her, no matter what. Her only hope was to run.

With a panicked and a teary eyed shout, she twisted around and tried to bolt into the woods. She didn’t even make it two steps before she heard a shout behind her and a sharp pain lanced up her back right leg.

“Auugh!” she cried out as she crashed to the ground, tucking her leg up to see what was wrong. One of the green needles had embedded itself in her cannon.

“I take no pleasure in this,” Penumbra said as he stalked up to where she lay crying on the ground. “But know that you brought this on yourself.”

Several minutes passed while Penumbra screamed at her, interlacing his words with painful kicks to her body. Her cries filled the forest but nopony came to her rescue. Nopony knew she was here.

At last, he walked away, leaving her laying in the dirt, bruised and bleeding from several open wounds. She couldn’t believe it, this was actually happening. Just an hour ago she was with her friends at their clubhouse, and now she was bleeding and sobbing into the dirt of the Everfree at the hooves of some strangers she’d never seen before.

“Let’s go, we’re leaving,” she heard Penumbra say to his cohorts. “We’ve been compromised, so pack up. I’m gonna take care of her,” he said, jerking his head back towards Sweetie Belle.

Just like before, he walked up to her, his body seeming to turn into mist as his white eyes once again turned black. “You’re coming with us,” he said as placed one hoof against her face. She felt a cold darkness ebb into her mind as her senses started to shut down, one by one. The last thing she heard was him saying that they’d figure out what had happened one way or another, and then …

… Nothing.