November 13, 967 A.R.F.
Princess Twilight Sparkle
9:24 P.M
"Look out" I heard a familiar southern drawl voice call out to me from below, looking around I see a giant purple paw coming towards me at high speeds. I Beat my wings to avoid the strike but it proved fruitless, for I only managed to get the upper half of my body away. I feel a huge amount of pressure on my back before quickly hearing several loud cracks. Tumbling down and losing altitude quickly I spread my large alicorn wings only to feel more pain surge throughout my body, but with adrenaline pumping and having my life in danger. I push through the discomfort and unfurl the ligaments as much as possible wanting to catch as much wind as I could manage. I look down to see the ground coming to me rapidly. Slowly, my eyes close as I lose consciousness, The world around me goes dark.
Applejack
9:24 P.M
"Look Out" I called, Twilight was too busy making sure all the pony folk were far from the Usar Major she forgot to do so herself. She managed to hear me, but despite her amazing reaction time, she was just amite to slow and the Ursa's paw managed to clip her. It looked extremely painful. I watched in horror as she tumbled to the ground trying desperately to slow her descent. It clearly wasn't helping much, I may not be a pony of science but I knew she was going way to fast for a soft landing.
Boom
Panic fueled me when she touched down, I bolted over to the Ponyvile hospital I didn't see what state her body was in but it probably didn't look good to put it lightly. As I was running a loud roar fills my eardrums, wincing I look over my right shoulder to see some uninjured Royal Guard and Wonder Bolts chase away the aggravated and terribly wounded Ursa Major, it seems that the monster finally gave up and decided to retreat back into the Everfree Forest. Not paying attention where I was going I slammed into somepony.
"Ooof, Applejack watch where you're going." With my dizziness clearing, I look to who was speaking to me. It was Redheart.
"Redheart, Twilights hurt real bad she landed east field!" I screamed not that I meant to but this was urgent.
"What! I'm on my way now over there right now then." She said panic for her new patient evident in her eyes and voice. She sprinted so fast I swear I heard her break the sound barrier.
Getting back on my hooves I trotted after her and to Twilight. Upon arrival, I almost gagged at the sight, I've seen ponies be put through the ringer before but this must have been on a whole nother level of pain. Her body was beaten and broken, some bones twisted in wrong angles and others were sticking out. There was also blood covering the area.
"Is she alright?" I asked.
Nurse Readheart didn't say anything but she twisted her head around and glared at me so hard it would give Fluttershy a run for her money.
"Right, sorry, stupid question," I said as I tilted my hat forward a bit to avoid her ghastly gaze. "What I meant is, Is she gunna live?"
"She just might if we get her to the surgical room asap. Help me load her onto the gurney and push her to the hospital." She demanded. Not that I really cared, I wasn't gunna just not do it out of spite. Loading her onto the portable bed, we pushed her all the way to said surgery room grabbing any random doctors and nurses with us as we advanced.
November 16, 967 A.R.F.
3:15 A.M
"Hey AJ." A raspy voice called out to me in a monotone voice. Looking over I see an unmistakable rainbow main come into view.
"Hey Rainbow."
"I brought some water bottles from the vending machines." She said while hoofing me a crystal clear plastic water bottle.
"Thanks." Taking a big gulp improved my mood a little bit. I was parched for a while now so it was starting to get a bit annoying but I couldn't bring myself to leave Twilights side even if it was just to quench my thirst.
"Ya know you don't have to stay with Twilight the whole time right? The doctors said she's fine physically for now."
"Yeah but I don't want to leave Twilight is all, I feel like I should be here."
"Aj, I'm the element of loyalty if anypony has an obligation to stay here it's me, not you. And you look exhausted. Besides, don't you have to take care of the farm? It's almost morning."
"Big mac and Applebloom got it taken care of..." She shot me a quizzical look. "but... Yeah, I guess you're right. I should get some sleep." Bearly managing to lift myself from the plastic chair. I slowly trot to the door.
"Do you feel responsible?" Dash asked in a suddenly serious voice.
"Pardon me, sugarcube?"
"Do you feel responsible?" She repeated without missing a beat before continuing. "You've been acting mopey ever since it happened, and you aren't really taken care of yourself. I mean come on, you stopping working on your APPLE farm for Faust's sake. What's up with you?"
"Nothing Rainbow, just look at her... Is that not a good enough reason to stay with her?"
"You're a terrible liar AJ."
I sighed, she was right, I was a terrible liar. I repeated the phrase in my head before mentally hoof-palming. I lied without even thinking, Wait, lying I didn't lie. Twilights hurt and I wanted to stay, it couldn't be any simpler than that... Maybe there was some truth to what RD said of something being 'up with me'. I sighed again before speaking.
"I don't know rainbow, maybe? Just... I was right there but I couldn't do a single thing from beginning to end. I couldn't do squat to the Bear, I could catch Twilight from falling heck I couldn't even do anything to slow her down, and then, I couldn't even do anything while she was there on the ground."
"But you helped Nurse Redheart push her to the hospital didn't you?" She replied.
"Eeyup, I pushed her to a room, I did sooo much work." My voice was clearly laced with sarcasm.
"Okay, well you literally couldn't do anything, what's the problem why are you beating yourself about it?"
"That's just it, I LITERALLY couldn't do anything!" I shouted.
"You were just the wrong pony, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, it was all just bad luck Aj. Do you honestly think the Twilight is going to be mad at you for not being able to do anything?"
"No, no... course not, it just I feel like..." Huff "Okay, I get what you're saying, sorry bout that Rainbow, this was all really silly, thanks for getting some sense into me, and sorry fer yelling earlier."
"It's alright AJ, you just weren't the right pony for the job, and there's no shame in that. Nopony can do everything," She paused. "Anyway, you should head home it's getting real early, the sun is going to be rising in a few hours, and you haven't slept in who knows how long." She said while looking out a nearby window.
"Yeah, yeah, I'mma going." I paused and turned towards her. "But what about you why are you even her so early, don't you have like practice at the Wonder Bolt academy?"
"Yeah, but after the Usra Major came Spitfire let me take the next day off to be with Twilight, err rather today. As for why I'm her so early? Well, it's just that I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd just be with Twilight, the doctors said she should be waking up soon anyway, so I figured I'd be the first one to greet her if she wakes up is all."
Slowly nodding my head in understanding, I head for the door a third time. Shutting it quickly and quietly behind me.
Rainbow Dash
3:41 A.M
"Rainbow?"
I perked up immediately and my heart thumped just a bit faster as the weak voice touched my ears. Looking in front of me I see a certain purple pony look around the room, confusion plastered across her face.
"Twilight!"
"Ow, ow, not so loud Rainbow."
"Oh, sorry," I say as I scratch the back the of my head with a hoof. "How are you feeling?" I whisper.
"Ummm, I'm not sure. I feel relatively fine but my head is thumping."
"Hold on a sec. Let me see if I can find a nurse and hopefully she can give you some more pain medicine." Immediately after finishing the sentence I bolt out of the room only for exhaustion to hit me like a train from lack of sleep. I fall to my hooves and trot around the many white corridors casting a quick glance at some pictures hung on the walls, most likely donated toward the hospital to lighten up the mood. Making another turn I spot Nuse Redheart talking with Doctor Stable.
"Excuse me Nurse, Doctor?" I called fourth. "The princess is awake, but she says she's in a little pain, is there something you can give her?"
"She's awake already?" Doctor Stable questioned before continuing. "That can't be right, she shouldn't be awake for another few days."
"Doesn't matter right now, if she's in pain we need to help her, I'll get her some pain medication." Nurse Redheart says turning around and making her way down the long bland corridors.
"I'll go check up on her, there has to be some sort of explanation." Doctor Stable mumbles the last part to himself before trotting down the halls, I didn't bother reminding Stable that Twilight was an alicorn so she didn't take that long to recover anymore. Shaking off the thought, I follow his tail... both metaphorically and literally.
"Here you go Princess Twilight." Nurse Redheart hoofs over a pair of large white pills and a paper cup full of water. "This is all I can give you for now."
"Thanks, Redheart," Twilight responded. Taking the flimsy cup and pills in her hooves rather than her magic, understandable considering her current condition. 'What's up with me being all boring and serious lately? I must be getting old or something.'
Yawn "Uhh, what time is it?" Twilight asked arduously.
"It's umm," I started.
"It's currently 3:55 in the morning your highness," Redheart finished.
"Can we please throw formalities out the window? I don't really feel like dealing with it right now." Twilight spoke after downing her medication.
"Very well pr- I mean Twilight. Is there something else I can do for you while I'm here?"
"I have a question, when will I be able to be discharged?"
"I'll have to check with the doctor but you should be able to leave later today perhaps by this afternoon," Redheart acknowledged.
"Okay, thanks again Red."
"No problem, goodnight." Redheart then departed from the room.
"How long have I been out?" I pull my head from the door and look to Twilight.
"Umm about three days I think," I say as I scratch the back of my neck in thought.
"Three days!" The violaceous mare started to panic. "I've missed so many appointments, and my schedule is all out of wack now! What's even worse is th..."
Smack
"Snap out of it Twi, who cares if you did, you just got hurt the ponies can wait and don't strain yourself after you just... Well, you know. Besides, it was actually more of two and a half." Wow, it felt really weird to do that to the not so little mare. It's been quite a long time since she's had one of her little episodes.
"Ow... Right, I'm sorry Rainbow. Thanks." Twilight chuckled.
"No need. Hey umm, why are you giggling?"
"Oh, nothing just I thought that there was a lot of irony in the last few moments. You said not to strain myself right after slapping me across the face."
"Oh, Sorry about that, I... may have put a little too much force behind it than intended," I apologized sheepishly.
"It's fine Rainbow, Spike probably would have done it too. Anyway, as much as I would love to chat I'm really worn out." Resting her head, she brought up a blanket. She didn't say anything else but I got the message.
"Alright Twi, goodnight... er morning, will see you later."
"Will?" She questioned.
"Oh, me, the rest of the girls, Spike, even Celestia came down her the day you got knocked out. Heck, Applejack was here not too long ago before you woke up."
"Huh, well thank you for keeping an eye on me."
"No biggie," I reply making a slight shrug.
With that, I head out the door with a new destination in mind- A soft cloud pillow at the top of my soft cloud bed.
Princess Twilight Sparkle
8:43 A.M
"Alright, your highness, you're all clear for departure, stay safe." Doctor Stable said as he waved goodbye at the front of the Ponyville Hospital. Looking towards the center of Ponyville I stretch my wings and take note of the beautiful weather despite it being pretty cold, I immediately grimace. 'And the one time I actually wanted to go to the castle it ends up being a pretty great day.' I think whilst shaking my head. A big jump and a flap of my wings later, I take flight. Once soaring across the quaint little town it became notably difficult not to ignore the large crowd surrounding a small building upon my trip to the Castle of Friendship. If it wasn't obvious from just from the sight that there was a problem, the yelling would make it so, even if it was hard to understand. Clearly seeing that my warm bed was going to have to wait, I descend down the crowd where a group of royal guards were trying to contain the crowd. Emphasis on the word 'trying' there were about seven guards and roughly twenty-five civilians.
"Disperse immediately or you will be detained."
An earth pony was speaking through a megaphone clearly unsure what else to do against the raging crowd of ponies.
"Whats going on here?" I had to raise my voice a considerable bit for the soldier to hear me. It was clear he didn't hear me land from the fact he jumped and instantly presented a salute.
"You- Your highness, my deepest apologies for not seeing you arrive!"
"It's alright..." I made a gesture signifying that I wanted a name.
"Staff Sergeant, Swift Glaive your highness."
"Well Sergeant, back to my question, mind telling me what's gooing on here?"
His face blanched. "Well, umm, it appears the citizens are not happy with how we dealt with the monster attack just a few days ago that caused well... you know." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, I'm glad to see that you're well and out of the hospital. The rest of my men will say the same."
"Thank you, Swift I'm pleased about it too." A frown appeared on my face as I looked towards the party. "How long has this been going on?"
"It started a day after the attack, your highness," He responded.
"Hmmm, may I see that megaphone?"
"No need to ask, Princess." He hoofed over the device.
"Thank you." He nodded and stepped back a bit. Flipping the switch on the machine I take a deep breath, clear my throat, and speak clearly into the thing. 'This is completely unnecessary, I already have a spell that can do this.' I realized.
"Excuse me everypony, if I could please have your attention I would like for all of you to calm down. I'm sure whatever it is that you are upset about we can discuss a solution that will please you." That seemed to do the trick. The mad mob turned their attention to me about halfway through the little speech and shushed each other till there was nothing but silence. "Thank you, now if you could all raise your hooves I will call on you one by one, and you can state your sentiments. And please there is no need for shouting we can address all this in a friendly manner and as the stallions and mares that we are."
Almost everyponys hooves shot up within seconds. I pointed to a pony I (strangely) didn't know. "Ummm, you in the red beanie." It was a yellow earth pony mare with a sky blue mane.
"These royal guards are terrible at their job, we want different ones, ones that can actually do their jobs!" The mare argued.
"YEAH!" Shouted the rest of the ponies.
"I cannot simply dismiss the guards because that messed up one job. Even then, you all saw the monster that attacked Ponyville what could have they done about something like that?" I inquired.
"You said that the guards were sent here because the Everfree Forest was getting more dangerous, what's the point of having them posted here if they can't protect us from the very things the were sent here for?" A random stallion called out. 'Ponyfeathers, she was right I did tell them that and she also had a good point. What use are the guards if they can't do the job that the were sent to do in the first place?'
"I saw one guard scream and run away too!" Another pony yelled.
'Unbelievable' was a word I picked up when the other ponies started shouting again when said pony finished speaking. Looking over at a huddled group of guards. A mare with Celestia's gold plated armor whimpered and observed the ground in shame. 'Okay, yeah, this is looking bad... Very bad.'
"They hardly did anything too, you did all the work and that almost got you killed! How are they Royal Guards if they fail to defend the ones they're sworn to protect."
"YEAH!" The party shouted once more.
"They shouldn't have to rely on you to save the flanks all the time, you are not going to be there every time something goes wrong!" Roared another mare, a mare who seemed to be the group instigator judging from the fact she was being held up by two stallions and also seemed to be the 'most vocal'. Due to the continuous outbursts. 'Okay, it's pretty obvious they're not going to calm down until some major changes are made. But what could I possibly do about it? I'm going to need more information from Swift Glaive later.'
"Alright, everypony here's what I'll be willing to do if you would all quite down for a moment. Since I can see that you are very unhappy with the guard to let's make a deal." They went into silence eager to hear my solution. "I will personal inspect the guard stationed here over the course of two weeks. If they fail to meet my standards, I will have them replaced with a new regiment. But" I quickly added, "if they pass my judgment I want all protests of this sort to cease and an end to all harassment of the guards. This includes the times of the inspection phase as well. Deal?" The crowd looked at each other for a few long minutes discussing it amongst each other till eventually, they came to an agreement.
"Very well, your highness. We the ponies will accept your compromise." The head mare shouted. Others confirmed her response by either bobbing their heads or murmuring a response while others simply remained silent and giving no objections. 'Crisis avoided, great.' Once the crowd started to disperse I told Glaive about how I wanted to start inspections at the beginning of next week. Once finished, I made headway to the Castle Of Friendship once more. 'No rest for the wicked it seems.'
