Seasons

"Get me more blood!.... I won't let him die!"

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"No Kandi he won't, please go get me more platelets..."

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"GET THE DEFIBRILLATOR, I WON'T LOSE HIM!..."

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"No I'm not coming home tonight Penny Worth. If I don't stay herel we'll run out of pegasus blood... I don't care if that happens, if I was shot he would do the same for me.!"

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Beep Beep Beep

Spell could  hear the soft metallic pulses as he regained consciousness. Moving around wasn't possible because the pain in his chest kept him solidified. Looking around didn't work either, the pain was just too great. He started to close his eyes.

"NITEO! SPELL WOKE UP!" Came a ecstatic squeal from a candy spotted filly.

Spell instantly found soft lips pressing against his, full of worry. Relieved that he didn't die.

"I don't think that giving a patient a heart attack right after they wake up from emergency surgery is the best treatment option Kandi, you should let him breath a little." Niteo remarked with a smile, "Can you hear me Spell? You've been out for 3 days now, you were shot in the chest so you've lost a lot of blood, don't try to move around much."

"Mhhhhmmhh..." Spell mumbled as pain jolted his body.

"Yes, I can't imagine that the pain."   Or maybe I just don't want to. . "You scared me more than I like to admit, the bullet bounced off your upper right rib and pierced your right atrium. If that mare didn't get you to the hospital when she did, you would have easily died." Spell's situation reminded Niteo of when he treated a similar wound on the battlefield. He had all the medical equipment he needed and actually stabilized the victim from a shot to the heart, but as soon as Niteo tried to move him back to the field tent the pony caught a bullet in his head. Death is expected on the battlefield, but that memory was still haunting

"Yeah, and if it wasn't for Niteo we would have run out of blood and then you would have...." Kandi trailed off, fear clouding her eyes.

"I didn't do much, plus we don't have to worry about what would have happened now that Spell is up." Niteo shrugged humbled by Kandi's compliment.

"How can you say that? He was so close to dying and If you didn't use your magic to make more blood for Spell he would have died in the first hour! You almost killed yourself doing it!"

Niteo knew that she was right, but didn't want to admit that to Spell. The transfusion spell takes blood from the spell's conjurer and transfuses it to whichever type is needed. Thankfully, unicorn blood is not in short supply. Being that all of the nobles are unicorns and they would  figuratively "die" if they found out that their type was short in supply.

"I just know that if I was in Spell's position I would want everypony to do whatever they could to save me." Niteo replied.

Kandi nodded her head as Aeschere trotted in, his eyes occupied with a clipboard. "Are things better in here?"

"Yes, actually things are a lot better. Spell woke up and he's stable, though I do want him to stay in the ICU for about three days before he does anything though." Niteo said happy to see the snow-white pegasus. "I want to make sure the everything stays clean."

"Of course, wouldn't ironic to hear that Spell died of an infection after being shot?" Niteo shot Aschere a look, "Point taken, is there anything you need me to do?"

"I don't think so, Kandi is watching him and everything is fine. Niteo paused, "Now that I think of it, I do have something for you to do."

"Oh? What do you need?" Ash replied.

"I need you to come to the bar with me. I'm not taking no for an answer. You helped save my friend's life and I want to reward you. I'll buy. Plus you need to have more fun." Niteo said jokingly.

"I guess," Ash said seemingly dejected, "Only who is going to watch Spell? Plus I don't really drink."

"Oh come on, I don't drink either. And I'm sure Kandi will watch over Spell. Right Kandi?" Niteo asked, his mind on those amazing bar potatoes.

"Yes I will. I won't leave his side until he's walking on all fours again." Kandi said, raising her arm above her head in a salute.

"That settles that, and I just off call, so let's go?" Niteo wondered, already headed out of the room.

"Yeah sure." Ash started out of the room, "Hey Niteo, why don't we invite the mare that brought Spell in? She saved his life, it's the least we could do."

"Sounds like a great idea." Niteo smiled, happy he had the chance to somewhat repay the one who saved Spell, "Come on, let's go get her."

Niteo and Ash walked to the elevator where they illuminated the lobby button. The bad elevator music was only compounded by the fact that seemingly every floor needed and elevator  as soon as Niteo was in one.  When the doors opened at the lobby Niteo stopped, there sat the mare that brought Spell in. She had a pure-white mane like Ash's and deep forrest green hair. She looked so calm and innocent in her sleep and very attractive. As she turned over, and Niteo could see a small pink flower embedded in her hair, right above her ear.

Ash noticed Niteo's stare, "Niteo, maybe before you fall victim of your eyes again, you should remember how your last relationship went."

Niteo stared at Ash, "How... How do you know about that?" Niteo stammered, caught off guard by the comment.

Ash and closed his eyes, "Red Rover was a very popular mare, and most of all the stallions desired her, including you. Unfortunately you were no different to her than any other colt though you showed her kindness, something she's wasn't used to. You thought that you could change her, and I was personally convinced she changed when she agreed to marry you, she's had many offers before but never took them. Of course though she didn't change a bit. She's a malicious and manipulative mare and either you or anypony else deserves to be left at the altar." Aschere said, his face hardening "But you shouldn't blame yourself, there was little you could do to change the outcome."

Niteo could feel his eyes tearing as he thought of the wedding. He loved Red so much, he couldn't believe she said yes. He was so giddy the day before the wedding, laughing the whole day, having a wonderful time with his friends. He bragged to all of them about how he found the perfect mare, the one for him. He loved her so deeply that he couldn't listen to Spell when he told him that she was having affairs with other stallions. Niteo still remembers his thoughts that day She wouldn't do that, she loves me. Spell is only jealous because I'm spending time with someone other than him. He just doesn't get it. I know that she did things in the past but she says I'm different. She wouldn't cheat on me. Niteo believed that until the day of the wedding when Red never showed up. He searched and searched frantic that something may have happened to the mare he loved, only to walk in on her having sex with a stallion in his basement. He ended up obliterating his house with his magic  and nearly killed both Red and her partner in a uncontrollable rage. Something that almost landed him jail, but was acquitted.

Niteo started to openly cry now, the scars were still fresh and probably would never heal.

"I can't say I know how you feel because I don't, but if you come up to that mare weeping she'll think that Spell died, and we really don't need anymore heartbreak in this city." Ash conveyed while giving Niteo a pat on the back. "Come on, when everything is wrong we have to move along."

Niteo didn't reply but stopped his childish crying. He wasn't a foal anymore and he couldn't just give up and cry, even at the worst times. Ash was correct when he said he had to move on. Though that certainly didn't make him feel any better. Niteo crossed the room and tapped the mare with his hoof.

"Miss? Are you the one that brought that brown stallion into the hospital?"

"Hm? Oh yes, yes I am! Is he okay? I really want to know! I just saw him there and he was bleeding! I didn't know what to do! It was so scary! I thought I should run away but I couldn't just leave him to die! So I brought him here and I haven't left since! And I'm really hungry and tired, but is he okay?!"

Niteo was a caught off guard by the rush of questions that came from the mare. Ash, standing composed as he always was, didn't seem phased.

"Yes miss, he is okay, his name is Spell and he just woke up. Can you tell us your name? Mine is Aeschere, my friends just call me Ash and this is Niteo."

"Yes, my name is Cloudy Flower, and thank you both for saving his life, I wouldn't stop feeling guilty if he didn't make it..." Cloudy said, her voice trailing off.

"I think we should be the ones thanking you." Niteo recovered, "Spell is a very good friend of mine and if you hadn't brought him when you did he probably would have died."

"Oh I'm so sorry." Cloudy spoke with concern, "I'm just glad he's fine now."

"We all are, but me and Ash decided that we should take you out since you helped save Spell's life and all." Niteo asked looking down at the ground, playing with the floor with his hoof.

"Well after thinking about nothing else besides that pony getting shot, going out sounds like a great idea." Cloudy replied, a smile forming on her face.

"That's good to hear." Niteo responded, happy that she could come along. The Crystal Bar isn't that far from here and they have great live acts." The three ponies started walking, "I some fliers said there was a great comedian booked for tonight , I think his name is Beige Clair or something."

As their hooves clopped along the grey cobble streets mostly in silence, Niteo couldn't escape the war waged in his mind. I really wish I could simply wake up and get over her, but I can't. Why would you do this to me Red? Niteo sighed, I loved you so much and thought you did also. If you really didn't why not just say so? I didn't deserve to be left at the alter and you know that, or maybe you're just too dumb to care. Not that matters anyways, she's probably having the time of her life while I'm desolated. Why am I still living? Things aren't going to get better. Niteo's thoughts badgered his mind even after he started small talk with Ash and Cloudy.

"Looks like we're here," Ash said looking at the concrete box with a gray roof and neon sign. "I thought you said that it wasn't very far from the hospital Nite?" Ash asked somewhat surprised at the length of the walk.

"It's close enough, at least when compared to other bars near the Arbiter District." Niteo replied.

"Wow the Arbiter District," Cloudy's eyes shown with admiration, "I wish I could live there. All of the expensive houses, constant electricity, clean water. It's like the place you hear about in old foal tales, except it's actually real. Do you ever go to the Arbiter District Niteo?" Cloudy asked, awing at the thought of the beautiful gated section of the city.

"Yeah I do, I actually live there." Niteo looked away seemingly embarrassed, "It's where my dad raised me, and when actually compared to other districts in the city it's not that horribly different."

Ash stared at Niteo, "How can you say that? it's walled off and armed security patrol the only gate leading into the district. It has preference over the other districts in terms of food, water, electricity, and medical supplies, and even has public parks and a few fountains. Not to mention that all the nobles in the city reside there giving it the priority over the other districts. It may not be heaven on Equestria but it is most certainly different than other districts."

Niteo agreed with Ash's statement, by now he was used to comment like those. Working in the hospital meant dealing with patients mostly not from the Arbiter District, and all of those patients felt the same about his birthplace. To them it's just a place full of rich people callous to the needs and suffering of everyone else, and in honesty they were partially correct. If half the money that was squandered on personal vices in the District was used on infrastructure, education, and public works, the slums in the flooded district may have been eradicated by now. That being said  most of the ponies living in the Arbiter District don't gain pleasure by seeing the rest of the city rot, they just are richer and have a self-entitlement mindset that Niteo would never understand. The money they make is certainly theirs but how then can actively spend it on lavish parties while their fellow ponies go hungry is a feat that Niteo tries his hardest to fight against. To him the blind spending on personal pleasure while that money could go those in need is no different to kicking somepony while their down. Ponies in the District try to justify their actions with statements such as "If only they worked harder they could be like us", "He knew he wasn't rich enough to have a family yet he had one anyways, he deserves to starve for his stupidity", or "They're all just lazy poor people trying to live off the King and collect our money, I'm happy if they die". This ignorance and blatant class-conflict is something that Niteo has tried to draw attention to for years. He never turns any heads, but if everypony saw each other as equal and looked for similarities instead of differences when meeting, then the camaraderie could keep this city from crumbling. For when ponies only care about themselves and their own families, everything falls apart.

"I understand what you're saying Ash and I agree with it, but i should be a good enough example of how not everypony who lives in the Arbiter District acts like a king. My house is much larger than most but that's just how my father built it, I can't control that. I can control lavish spending though and that is something I do not take part in. I would much rather see a new school be built than host a 50,000-buy-in poker game." Niteo turned to the both of them, "Come on we're here, let's go check it out." Opening the simple wooden door, the three ponies entered the chilly bar.

On the inside, the Crystal Bar looks just as ordinary as it's outside. A simple bar, complete with rotting bar stools, a stained wooden bar-top, and copious amounts of alcohol all behind glass display cases. On the right of the rectangular building is a small stage, it's only identifying feature being the slightly raised floor that over looked the booths and tables placed in almost every available spot, to the point of little to no leg room. The bar also had a reputation of leaving ponies bloodied and bruised, which was complimented by the crumbling structure its self. The bar top was cracked and splintered, booths were torn, the roof leaked, mold grew in the bathrooms, dust collected on the glasses and bottles, and the peeling paint left an almost demonic  smile on the walls, liked laughing at the sorrow of the patrons inside. The bar's mental image was as busted as some patrons after a midnight brawl. This place created as much sorrow as it "erased".

Niteo looked around seeing if he knew any of the ponies currently partaking at the bar. His eyes rested on a unicorn with a red bandana and glasses: Wordy Notes, the head librarian at the New Canterlot Public Library,  an acquaintance of Niteo. The dark blue unicorn's presence perplexed Niteo, for he never saw Wordy outside of the library, especially not at a bar.

"Hey Wordy. Nice to see you again." Niteo started with a smile on his face.

"Oh, hey Niteo." Wordy replied barely lifting his head from the table where he was slouched.

"You okay Wordy? You look worse than some of the ponies back at the hospital." Niteo saw dark stains on the bar-top, evidence that Wordy had been crying.

"There shutting it down, Niteo. The public library. They're shutting it down. The one place that I loved in this city " Wordy said. His black bangs were  dampened with tears. "I don't know what I'm going to do, that library meant a lot to me. Not everypony is lucky enough to get paid for something that they love doing."

"You can't be serious. That's the only library in this city that's open to the public!" Niteo slammed his hooves on the table and then quickly apologized to everypony for doing so. He knew how much Wordy adored the library, he still remembered the day it was completed. Wordy jumped through so many hoops to become the head librarian there: waiting in lines, chasing after nobles, leaving messages at the palace that were never returned. When he got the job, Wordy was so ecstatic that he actually moved into the library, setting up a bed in the head librarian's office. Whenever Niteo needed a book or had a question he knew were to go, for the dark-blue unicorn always had an answer or a wonderful novel.

"This is so stupid, of all of the buildings that could be shut down, why the library?" Niteo questioned, rubbing his hoof, while apologizing again to Cloudy for scaring her.

"Apparently the King thought that the library was no longer worth the resources, I can't say I blame him. Being a king grants the responsibility of many ponies' lives on his shoulders, I'm not happy about it but I understand why." Wordy voiced, looking at the bottles of alcohol with wanting eyes.

Niteo shook his head, "There are so many other things that could be shut down. The King seems to become more and more incompetent each year. Seriously though, the library costs almost nothing to maintain, and you're really the only librarian who works there. It can't be 'not worth the resources' if no resources go into it! Maybe if the king didn't spend so much money on his fancy parties, exotic alcohol, and erotic dancers he could save a few damn resources." Wordy looked at Niteo with a you-might-get-in-trouble-wtih-that-kind-of-talk look. "Hey if I want to criticize the King for making poor choices I can do that, I have the right to my own opinion." Niteo turned away from Wordy in frustration and looked over to the stage where a green pegasus was on the mic telling some stand-up jokes. He had a unique look to him with square glasses and some sort of fedora hat, Niteo was sure it had a specific name but he didn't care enough to ask around. The pegasus known as Stage Air had some funny jokes but Niteo wasn't paying much attention until he heard shouts from the foot of the stage.

"Mmm Mr. Air you have 206 bones in your body, would you like one more?" said a oddly colored purple unicorn with light blue zebra stripes.

Another much larger earth-pony turned to the unique colored pony, "You think you're funny you sick freak of nature? Perverts like you belong in the streets bleeding."

"Hey get away from me, if you're insecure enough about your sexuality to bother others about theirs then I suggest you get  some help." The purple unicorn replied

"You made a big mistake saying that." The huge muscular pony smashed the face and glasses of the smaller purple pony, throwing him onto the ground, and stomping on him. Niteo immediately started moving towards the fight to try to defuse the situation.

Behind the larger earth-pony a familiar voice resonated, "Stand down unless you want a bullet in your leg asshole, I saw everything and you can guarantee I will arrest you faster than you a sonic-rainboom and break every bone in your body down at the station. Or how does two years of exile outside the city walls sound to you tough guy? I'm sure you could play tough with lots of fucking griffins and lunars out there" The now recognizable police officer moved closer to the assaulter and watched him gallop away from the bar quickly as he could tail between his legs. "You okay?" The officer asked to the purple pony.

"Yeah I am, thanks officer. My name is Splash O'Color, may I ask for the name of my lovely stallion saver?" Splash puppy-dogs eyes locked on the officer's pupils.

"I'm Deputy Blue LIne, sergeant in South Police station, it's nice to meet you." The officer gave Splash a quick hoof bump, " We should take a picture of your face and torso on the chance that you want to take that asswipe to court."

"Hey I think I know that officer." Niteo turned to Ash, "I feel like I treated him in the war, he took some heavy lead into his left hind leg and was discharged because of it."

"Well he does have a limp" Ash commented, "And if you look closely you can see the scaring of the incision above the tibia... Wait I think you're correct Niteo I do remember that pony. He held Fort Beta right outside the city all by himself. The rest of his squad died but he somehow survived, I remember finding him still swearing at the lunars for what they did to his team. Though he should have passed out due to the blood loss." Ash also remembered the emotional scaring of the incident for Blue Line. not being able to fight in the army was one thing, but seeing all of his comrades die while he still drew breath, nearly pushed the sergeant to suicide.

"I never thought I see him again, and judging by his language he hasn't changed a bit. He's still doing what he enjoys though protecting others . Some habits die hard I guess." Niteo's thoughts returned to his friend who just lost his livelihood. Trying to switch the subject Niteo asked Wordy for his feelings about homosexuality.

To which Wordy replied with "I just lost the one thing in my life that I thought I could count on being there for me, do you really think I care about what other ponies do in their beds?"

"It was just a question Wordy, I'm trying to get your mind off the library." Niteo put his hoof on Wordy's shoulder trying to think of something to talk about. "What's going on with Gavin, I haven't seen him recently." Niteo hoped that talking about Wordy's good friend would cheer him up a bit.

"He's doing fine. The King wanted to see him for some reason, something about another griffon coming into the city. It sounds like a load of hogwash to me, the king probably just wants to use him to improve relations with the Griffon Kingdom so he can decorate his room with more expensive things." Wordy said, his head still on the table. Tear stains could be seen where he laid he head down.

"I wouldn't put it past him, the King does like to do those... " Niteo stopped dead mid sentence. A certain smell diffused through his nose That smell, it... it can't be. She can't be here. Niteo's mind raced at the implications of the smell and instantly checked every patron at the bar in a frantic way. Once he was sure she wasn't here, he picked up his sentence and finished it with telling Wordy that if he needed a place to stay his house was always open. Thankfully Wordy was still too distracted to notice Niteo's sudden pause and panic.

"Yeah, I'll probably need to stay at your house. I don't have anywhere else to go, but for now I'm going to stay here." Wordy replied, resting his eyes back onto the stained wood.

Niteo turned back to Ash and Cloudy, "I'm going to head out, but first how about a toast to the one who brought us all together? To Spell Arrow, the greatest friend anyone could have."

"Before you go out, you may want to check out that dark purple pony by the stage Niteo. She can't seem to take her eyes off you." Ash winked. Niteo could easily tell he was getting drunk. "Anyways to Spell, who stares adversary in the face everyday and keeps on moving." Ash downed his drink.

"To Spell the cutest stallion in all of New Canterlot."

Niteo looked at Cloudy, gave an amused smile then went over to the pony's table.