A Second Chance

Fluttershy looks around Rarity and then watches a couple guards trot over and lift them up and rush them to the emergency room and then looks over to Twilight and says, "I wonder what Rainbow did to make them cough so hard like that, I hope they will be alright."

Twilight then looks at Applejack and says, "Hey Applejack, are you going to be alright there? Rainbow is going to be ok, she may not be flying for awhile though. Let's head to the hospital and find out what is wrong with her, you girls can stay with her while I go check on that extremely friendly human. I get the feeling that the coughing wasn't caused by Rainbow striking him with her hooves."

Applejack trembles a little bit from worrying about her friend and then says, "Ah don't really remember everything, but ah heard Rainbow scream and cry, ah then got really angry and yelled somethin and then zoned out."

She then looks over to Fluttershy and then cocks her head and asks, "Why were you so focused on his eyes Fluttershy? Did you see something in them that made you uncover your other eye?"

She then blushes and looks away before saying, "I uhm...saw something in his eyes?" She then remembers looking into his eyes before the song began and then says, "The only thing that I could see before the song took over was that they had a tough life."

Twilight then sighs at the bad start to the day and hopes it gets better and says, "I need to inform my sister-in-law and Celestia about this incident." She then starts heading to the Hospital to keep an eye on Rainbow Dash and the human, pulling out a quill and a piece of paper before starting a letter to Princess Celestia and Spike.

Fluttershy then sees the group start heading to the hospital as she follows after them when she hears somepony clear their throat twice and stops to see who it is.

Lou gets the yellow creature's attention and then hangs her head a little saying, "I hope your friend makes it through okay, Arthur hates to repeat himself. When he is really pissed off, he resorts to violence if he has to repeat himself. Could you pick his hat up and take it to him, he does not go anywhere without his favorite hat."

She then blinks twice and then slowly nods her head and says, "Thank you for showing your concern, you mean that the humans name is Arthur? Who and what are you, and why are you in Equestria?"

She introduces herself saying, "My name is Lou, I am a Thoroughbred Horse. I do not know why I am here, I remember being in the stable and the next thing I know, I find myself in the large entrance to a cave with a raging blizzard outside. What is your name miss?"

Fluttershy smiles and then says, "It is nice to meet you Lou, my name is Fluttershy and I am a Pegasi Pony. I can do that for you and take his hat to him, but only if you could tell me more about where you came from."

Lou chuckles and then sighs and says, "I can do that but I won't tell you about our lives, I will leave that for Arthur to tell when he is ready."

She then looks at the hat and walks over to it, picking it up and then says, "What was it like to live over there, is the land beautiful?"

The thoroughbred looks at her and smiles saying, "There are some breathtaking sights over there, yes. Life over there is...challenging for four legged animals like me, and sometimes even harder for the humans. When a wild horse like me becomes paired with a human, our lives change and are not always nice and peaceful." She says no more as she begins to walk in the direction the others are heading when her stomach growls and stops saying, "I need to find some food to eat, I am very hungry. The only things I had to eat today was an apple and an oat cake, but after pushing our way through that blizzard, my body needs food. Do you know where I can find something to eat?"

Fluttershy then cocks her head in curiosity and gets mixed emotions then says, "It must have been really hard for the both of you to go through a storm as bad as that one, are you feeling alright? I do know of a family run restaurant we can go to if that sounds good to you?"

Lou then shakes her body to throw some of the snow off of her coat and then says, "I am a bit cold, but this nice weather here will fix that. This ice and snow all over my body is irritating me, but will melt away as my body warms back up. It is more important to me right now to find some hay to eat and a water trough to get a drink. Whatever the cost is, my rider will pay what is owed."

She then cocks her head and then says, "What do you mean by a trough?"

The thoroughbred then chuckles and says, "Well you see, all horses where I come from don't have any way to grab things. Therefore, humans have come up with ways for us to get our food and water to survive. For those that are still wild and free of having a partner or rider, they get their food from fields of grass and the water from water sources. A water trough is basically a box without a lid on it so a horse can lower their mouth down to it and satisfy their thirst."

Fluttershy then feels sorry for the horses in that world and says, "Things are very different from where you two came from, it sounds like some ponies over there have to learn to trust humans if they become partnered with them."

Lou then looks at her and says, "Don't feel bad for the horses over there, that is just the way things are there."

She then look to Lou and then says, "Well Lou, are you ready to go get some food after I go check on my friend Rainbow Dash first?"

The thoroughbred nods and says, "Of course, I understand that you are worried about her. I shall go with you to get some food and water until Arthur calls for me to come to him. So please lead the way Fluttershy, but first could you throw those lines across my neck behind my withers so I don't step on them? The right line crosses over my neck to the left side, and the left one crosses over to the right."

Fluttershy then nods and grabs the two lines and then lays them over her neck and then says, "There you go, what are those for?" She then looks for her friends and sees they are a ways away from them and then says, "Oh my, we are falling behind, we need to catch up to them Lou." She then takes off at a jog and starts to catch up with her friends.

Lou then goes into a trot and follows after her easily and then says, "These lines are what he uses to tell me where he wants me to go, he was the one that caught me and taught me a lot of different signals and movements."

Rarity hears the conversation and then looks back saying, "You say he orders you around like a slave, how despicable!"

She then slows to a walk and looks at the white pony and says, "That's not gonna happen anytime soon because that is just the way things work where we came from. There, humans don't understand the language of the horses over there. That is why we form a partnership of trust with them, we allow them to sit on our backs and guide our movements when they need to. We allow them to see things from a new perspective as well, making the trade on the unspoken conditions they take care of our needs such as food and water, the care for our bodies with the option of letting us breed."

The fashionista then scoffs and says, "Oh how utterly barbaric darling, you should have freedom to do what you want and how you want!"

Lou then starts laughing and says, "Oh you remind me so much of a gathering of human women in Valentine demanding to have the same rights as men. This place is so much more different than where we came from, but he and I came from there and we will stick to the partnership we have now or I won't let him ride on my back at all until he listens."

Rarity then smiles at hearing that and then says, "Well at least you still have your dignity and pride as a pony darling. If you don't mind me asking, what is up with your equipment...it looks so...tacky and doesn't match your beautiful light brown coat at all! Don't get me wrong, the saddle color and the metal pieces on it are fine. The straps hanging down from the saddle are fine too, but those metal things and the rest of the equipment are just simply atrocious! You really should let me at least fix it!"

She then snickers and says, "My rider did what he could with what was available over there, but humans did not care that much about how something looks so much as how it would function. If you wish to do anything, I would recommend you talking it over with him as he would be the one to pay for it."

The fashionista then narrows her eyes and then says, "Oh believe me darling, I plan on doing exactly that. I will do that after speaking to him about what happened with our dear friend Rainbow Dash of course."

Lou looks her square in the eyes and says, "Okay but I warn you right now... Do not push for more when he gets really pissed, or you may wind up like your friend...or worse."

Rarity feels a cold shiver run up her spine when she hears that and decides to say, "What do you mean by that darling, can you please explain it better?"

She then sighs and says, "I'm sorry, but I can't. I promised him that I would keep our personal experiences in life secret. I already said more than I should, so I will let him tell you when he feels ready."

A few seconds later, at the Canterlot Castle

Celestia then wonders how the friendship mission in the Crystal Empire is doing when a letter pops up before her with Twilight's royal seal on it and takes it in her magic saying, "I apologize my little ponies, but I must look at this letter before tending to more requests." She then opens it and reads the contents of the letter saying: "Dear Princess Celestia, The six of us have arrived at the Crystal Empire with no incidents and combed the city for the friendship problem, but had no success after three hours of searching. Pinkie Pie then got a message through her Pinkie Sense, saying that something unexpected and scary was about to happen and then suggested that we should just wait for the problem to come to us. After waiting for a half hour, a creature then appeared. After it got close enough, I made the observation that it was in fact a human riding on top of a large pony. Immediately after saying that, Rainbow Dash then took off in the air and struck the human in the chest with her hooves. The strike then stole the air from the human's lungs, greatly angering them. After a heated exchange of words, the human then pulled something from their outfit and did something that caused a loud noise. Rainbow Dash then screamed in pain before being pushed off of the human and clutched her side in pain, while the human then stood up and pointed the object in her face and then harshly berrated her for her actions and words. A few moments later after the human finished talking, Rainbow Dash then started to sob and then struggled to say something when the human said something, calling her a stutter brain. After saying that, she broke down into tears and bawled out I'm sorry repeatedly. Applejack then saw this and got really mad, then yelled what are you doing to my friend without her usual accent and charged the human. The human then reacted super quickly and pointed an object similar to the one pointed in Rainbows face, there was a click as he finished pointing it at Applejack..." She then finishes the message and then gets up and folds the letter up saying, "I'm sorry my little ponies, but today's court session is over as an important matter has came up that requires attention. You will be notified when Day Court is being held." She then swiftly walks out of the room, leaving the petitioners behind with curious and shocked looks on their faces.

Luna is laying on her bed in her room reading a book called The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe when she looks at her clock saying that it is about 4:15pm and returns to where she left off, until her door is nearly pushed off of its hinges ten minutes later by her sister and screams in surprise. She then notices it is her sister and then scolds her saying, "How many times must we request that thou knock before coming in, thou gave us quite the fright Sister!" She then sees her face and then knows something is wrong and then says, "What hath happened Cece?"

She then closes the door with her magic saying, "I apologize for frightening you dear sister, but I received a letter from Twilight containing terrible news Lulu. This news concerns me greatly, so much that we must raise the sun and lower the moon early. We must then go to the Crystal Empire via teleportation, please read it for yourself and you will understand why I am so worried." She then holds the folded letter out to her sister to take and read as she then looks to the side and says, "You know about the mirror portals that are gathered in the portal room correct?"

She then nods and says, "Yes, I remember that thou showed it to us after our return. I remember when we found our first mirror portal, what does that hast to do with the terrible news and why does it hast thou so worried?"

Celestia then continues and says, "Well, after you were banished to the moon, I discovered another mirror portal and asked Star Swirl the Bearded to find a way to activate it. When he succeeded, I asked him to keep an eye on it while I went through it. When I went through, I opened my eyes to a new world. I was in that world for three years until I finally found my way back to the mirror I came through, when I got back to this world Star Swirl told me I was gone for thirteen years here. I learned a few things in that world that I wish I could forget about, such as what it feels like to be taken captive and then raped by a member of the human race, life there is harsh and cruel. A couple sad things about that world is that magic does not exist, and harmony does not exist there. Immediately after my return, I commanded Star Swirl to permanently seal that mirror. I then added a secret room hidden behind the mirror room, sealing that mirror I discovered within it.

The lunar princess places her bookmark back in the book and sets it on the nightstand and then gets off the bed, taking the letter from her sister's hand and then reads through it. Her eyes widen as she continues reading on, scooting to the edge of the bed before standing up and finishes the letter. She then folds it back up and returns it to her sister saying, "I wish that you never experienced such things, if you ever wish to talk about it more, I will always make time to listen. Okay, let's get started now. We will do it on my balcony instead of the Throne Room like we usually do." She then walks up to her sister and gives her a big comforting hug and then goes behind her dressing curtain and changes into her dress for traveling places, then gets into her royal regalia and silver decorative hoofshoes. She then steps out from behind the curtain and nods to her sister, then heads to the balcony and steps outside of it with her sister right next to her.

The Sun Princess then looks fondly at her sister as she says, "Thank you for always being there for me Lulu, I shall be there for you too if you ever wish to talk to me about sensitive things."

The two sisters look at each other first before turning to look into the sky, activating their magical ability and begin switching the day over to night.

Celestia then finishes her part and then slows down her magic, letting go of her hold on the sun's position and then looks to her sister saying, "Alright, let's go back inside and be on our way then Sister."

Luna nods and follows her inside and closes the balcony doors before taking her sister's hands and activate a long distance teleportation spell saying, "We are on our way to assist you girls, so please hold on."

In the Crystal Empire, at the Hospital an hour later

A doctor then finishes up dressing Rainbow Dash's injured wing and side wound saying, "I have seen arrow, crossbow, sword, axe, and spear wounds before, but these wounds are something I have never seen before in my life. I am curious as to what caused them, now where is this other patient that needs to be tended to?" He then starts setting it into a cast after carefully removing damaged feathers first.

The nurse beside him then says, "He is in the Emergency Room waiting for you, Princess Twilight said that they were seriously wounded. I must ask why you didn't listen and proceeded to treat Rainbow Dash first?"

He then sighs and looks at her saying, "I treated Rainbow Dash first because of two major reasons, one is that she is the Representative of one of the Elements of Harmony. Two is that she is a member of the Wonderbolts, so I treated her first because my career wouldn't be ruined if I treated the other one first and she died while I treated them. Nopony truly cares about a strange violent creature's life, so get off my back!" He then goes back to focusing on making the cast.

About fifteen minutes later, the nurse then waits for the cast to set and harden. She sighs and thinks of Rainbow Dash's friends and then says, "Since Rainbow Dash is going to the recovery wing after this hardens, what do I tell them?"

The doctor then stops and looks at her saying, "I will go tell Twilight myself, you go start on the other patient."

She then says, "Okay doctor." She then waits a few more minutes for the cast to finish hardening before watching the doctor leave, then takes Rainbow dash to a room in the Recovery Wing.

He then makes his way to the waiting room where the Representatives of Harmony are waiting to hear the news and then approaches Princess Twilight Sparkle and guides her to a corner and says, "I treated your friend Rainbow Dash first and here is what happened. A decently sized object passed through muscle and tissue on her left side, missing all major organs and arteries but fracturing a couple ribs. Her Ulna bone in her left wing was shattered in the center, and is held together by a spell. She won't be flying for three months at least. Luckily, the damage wasn't any worse than that or she would have completely lost the ability to fly, other than that she will make a full recovery and can go home tomorrow. She will have to keep the wrap on her lower chest for six weeks so her ribs can set properly, strictly no sports or strenuous activity that could cause her ribs to not heal correctly."

Twilight Sparkle lets out a sigh of relief at hearing that she will make a full recovery in about three months and then says, "That is good news doctor, but what about the human that was brought in? What is the status on them?"

He then looks at her and says, "I didn't feel that the human was in any immediate danger, so I am having my nurse start to work on him while I came to inform you about your friend being moved to the recovery wing. You may visit her once she wakes up in a few minutes, and the anesthesia wears off. I need to get going to the ER to look at this human now, so if you would excuse me Princess Twilight."

She doesn't get the chance to respond as the doctor then heads off towards the ER to treat the human patient when she then turns around to head back to her friends to tell them the news when she is shocked to see Princess Celestia and Luna in the waiting room heading straight for her and says, "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, I wasn't expecting you to come to the Crystal Empire!"

Celestia then stops in front of Twilight and then says, "We are both concerned about what transpired recently, what have you learned just now?"

Three minutes later, in the Emergency Room

The nurse starts to use her magic to examine the patient, when they suddenly start moving and says, "Please don't move, you may have sustained injuries!"

I then continue to sit up and shake my head with a sigh saying, "Nah, I ain't seriously injured. I just am slowly dying with a disease I caught a few years ago. Where am..." I am cutoff again by a coughing fit and then raise my coat sleeve against my mouth and then cough hard into it a few times before gasping for air again and collapse back onto the cold, hard bed.

She then looks at them seriously and then quickly asks, "What disease do you have and do you remember how you got it?"

I then get my breathing back under control, then sigh and look at the creature harshly and say, "I will tell you if you swear to keep what I did quiet, am I clear?"

The nurse then sighs and nods saying, "Yes I understand, now please tell me what you have and how you got it so you can receive treatment for it."

I watch her closely and then say, "A doctor looked me over and said I had Tuberculosis, then said how long I have left depends if I take the medication to keep it from progressing any faster. I got it after I beat a sick man nearly to death to collect a debt when he then coughed some blood on me."

Her eyes widen at hearing that and then quickly goes into action and says, "Wait right here, I have to get another nurse to take some blood from you so we can run some tests to see if it can be treated. Don't you dare go anywhere or I will have a security team hunt you down and strap you to a table, some strains of that disease can be cured, while others are still being studied for a cure."

I then chuckle and say, "Well don't worry bout me, cause I don't wanna go back out into that god damned blizzard out there."

She then hurries out the door to grab a nurse to take some blood from them and then sighs thinking, 'I sure hope that the strain of TB they have can be cured, but they have my sympathy if it can't be cured. Wait a minute, they came into contact with Rainbow Dash. I need to get another nurse to prevent it from setting in once the strain is identified, today is turning out to be a bad day.'

I watch as the door closes behind her and hear a voice coming from somewhere saying, "My my my, you sure know how to make a great entrance and first impression Arthur Morgan." I then look around and see the traveler step into my line of sight from the side of the room.

The nurse then sees the doctor heading for the ER and stops him saying, "I'm sorry Doctor Van Colt, but the patient has TB and I need to get a nurse to take samples of their blood to identify what strain they have so we can determine what treatment to give them as well as which inoculation to administer to those that have come into close proximity of them to prevent the disease from taking hold."

Doctor Van Colt's eyes widen at hearing that and then says, "Thank you for stopping me Nurse, I sure hope that they don't have the strain that is resistant to magical and medical treatment. If they have that aggressive and untreatable magic and medicinal resistant strain, they don't have much time left to live. They would be lucky to survive six months at the most in the late early stages, I'm glad that a way was found to stop it from taking root within a few hours of being in close proximity to it. I shall return to my other duties until the lab results come in."

She then nods and then continues on her way to find a nurse to do the bloodwork and says, "I hope that they don't have that strain, because they may not last through tonight."

He turns to her and says, "Their case is that advanced?"

The nurse then stops momentarily and says, "Yes it is, they tried to sit up when a coughing attack struck. After the coughing fit stopped, they collapsed onto the table gasping for air. Before leaving the room, I saw that the sleeve of their garment was really wet with fresh blood." She then starts jogging down the hall, desperately looking for a nurse to start taking the blood from them.

Doctor Van Colt then looks at the floor and then says, "I really should have listened to the Princess and treated them first, they will be lucky if they live to see tomorrow." He then continues on down the hall to tend to a few more duties until the lab results come in.

Discord keeps his appearance the same as he last saw it and then moves his hands behind his back, turning to look at him saying, "You immediately respond with anger at being winded and knocked on your back by a girl, then shoot an unarmed assailant because they wouldn't get off of you. Then you verbally berate her and act on instinct when you notice something charging you, taking aim at yet another unarmed girl and nearly kill her. If it wasn't for that magical song getting your attention, you would have killed the representative for the Element of Honesty. If you had actually killed her, you most likely would have been hunted down and sent to Tartarus."

I then raise an eyebrow in confusion and then say, "I don't understand understand what you are saying Traveler, say that in words I can understand."

He then hangs his head and sighs and then lifts his head back up and says, "I can't explain it any clearer than that I'm afraid, but let me explain some things to you concerning this world after I properly introduce myself." He then bows like a gentleman and then extends his hand saying, "Can you do me a quick favor first, and pull my finger?" He then curls all of his fingers, leaving the forefinger on his right hand extended.

I then feel unsure about doing this and then reach out and say, "Sure I guess, what is the harm in that?" and then pull on his finger.

Discord then lets out a massive fart and drops the illusion, returning to normal and then says, "Please do excuse me for that, but I have been just dying for someone to fall for that prank for a thousand years. My name is Discord and I am the one that is responsible for bringing you here and returning you to life twice now. Welcome to the world known as Equus where war is practically nonexistent, and peace and harmony can be found in most towns and cities in Equestria."

I then wave my hand in front of me saying, "Christ that fucking stinks!" I then stop waving my hand as the smell goes away and then say, "This world sure sounds too good to be true, what is wrong with this world if everything is the way you say it is?" I then examine Discord's new look and say, "By the way, what the fuck kind of a creature are you?"

He then rolls his eyes and says, "Your manners leave a lot to be desired, but to answer your question...I am a creature called a Draconequus, and I am the spirit of chaos and disharmony."

I then shake my head and say, "Yeah, like I am going to just believe that right away. Tell me what you can about this strange new world I am now a part of."

Discord then sighs and says, "Very well, I will tell you what I can until someone arrives. After they leave, I will return and continue where I left off. Don't tell anyone that I was here, because if they find out I was involved with you being here, I would either be sent to Tartarus or turned back into a statue in the garden and may lose what friends I do have."

I then smile and chuckle at getting something I can use against him if the need arises and say, "Well, you will have me as a friend if I don't die first that is. Why couldn't you get rid of my TB when you brought me back to life the second time?"

He then looks at him and then says, "I do apologize for that, but the magic I used is strictly forbidden. It has conditions upon it's use, like when you were returned to life the first time. It allowed you to be alive and healthy again in that world you were in, at the cost of getting a non human body. When I brought you back to life here, the condition was that you still had your disease. The conditions change with each time it is used, and that is why it is forbidden."

I then look at them and say, "Well at least I am still living, that is what's more important right now. Therefore, I must thank you for doing that and bringing me here. Now, if you would so kindly tell me about this new world I am in."