A Fallen Angel

Angel sat at his desk, correcting math tests.

After the first three weeks, Cheerilee ran out of homework to give him. After the fourth, he had redone all his work until it his entire grade was 100%.

He had never complained about his punishment. He'd seen the logic his mother had punished him for. He had been stupid to use magic. He risked too much. He couldn't let somepony find out he was an alicorn.

He sat at his desk, the final month of the holidays grinding to an end. He was correcting students' work. Ponies that had summer schooling.

Cheerilee had used all the free time that Angel had given her doing whatever the hay she wanted. Right now, if his guess was correct, she was at the spa.

Angel sighed. He moved the corrected math test to the two inch high pile on his right.

He grabbed another one from on top of the three hoof tall stack on his left.

That's a lot of summer-schooled ponies. Angel peered at the paper, and read the name at the top. "'Ticker'?"Angel muttered. He grabbed another test off the top, and saw the school-name on it. "Manehatten..?" Angel grabbed another, only to find this one marked "Cloudsdale Elementary."

He was correcting tests for damn-near all of Equestria. A quick search proved him wrong. He was correcting for all of Equestria.

Angel sighed, suppressing his rage. He was too tired for displays of strength. He looked down at the paper in his hooves. "Sorry, 'Ticker.' But you did pretty bad."

Five hours of tests later, he heard himself being called for supper, with the accompanied sound of his door unlocking.

Angel walked into the kitchen. He sat down at his chair, neither talking to his mother or father.

"Did you wash the floor?"

Angel considered being snide. The floor was shining. His father had watched him do it. He had to; to let him get in and out of his room. He put the idea behind him, and answered with a small "Yes."

Melody then asked "Did you clean the gutters?"

Angel knew she already had the answer. She was just testing his patience. With a small sigh, he just said "Yes."

"How many tests have you marked?"

Angel had the number implanted in his head. It was all he could do, locked in his room, all day, as he was. "One-hundred, twenty four."

"How many do you have left?"

Angel finally let his patience slip a little. "Including the ones from Canterlot? Two-hundred, thirty eight."

Melody nodded. She obviously knew he had been doing more than just Ponyvilles' tests.

Angel considered losing his temper. He chose curiosity instead. "How did you even get your hooves on all those tests?"

Melody kept working at the pot she stood infront of. "Normally, Celestia gets Twilight to help with the correcting. It's not a task, she enjoys it. Twilight sometimes asks for Cheerilee's help if it gets to be too much, but instead sent her batch of the tests our way. If it pleases you, you've done more faster than Cheerilee has."

Angel sighed. He wanted to be free of his grounding, but he knew Ponyville thought he wasn't fit to look at anymore. He didn't know if he'd leave his room once his grounding was up.

If it ever is.

Angel had apologized to Diamond Tiara the day after his grounding. He had been forced to hold his temper as she beat on him, much to the humor of everypony. Scootaloo wouldn't talk to him, for obvious reasons. He hadn't seen his friends since just before the start of holidays. For all he knew, they thought he was dead.

He looked into the meagre bowl of broth his mother poured him. "Thanks." He said sourly.

After finishing his "soup", his mother sent him back to his room, locking the door behind him.

Angel cursed his luck: Having unnatural endurance had been his biggest defeat: He only had to eat once or twice a week to keep his strength. Though he had had his meals extended, only coming every month. Melody made a better warden then a mother.

He went back to his desk, sitting down and letting out a long breath."...'Hundred twenty five..."

Angel woke up at his desk. He must've fallen asleep there.

He forced himself to look to his left, and silently thanked Luna as he saw he had finished the tests. He picked himself off the desk, groaning as his cramps set in. He took them to his door, tying two strings around them before putting them into a small box and kicking them out the newly-installed flap at the bottom of his door.

Angel threw himself at his bed, forgetting his regular exercises for today. He was just too tired.

He hadn't left the house since the beginning of the holidays. His friends had thought he'd been getting unfair punishment.

Angel winced at the memory: He had stolen five minutes to try and talk to Kyzer and Trax.

They hadn't shot him down, like everypony else. They tried talking to him, but Rainbow had swooped down and grabbed Angel before they could get a word out.

That was the worst five hours of his life. By the time he left the ring, his mother had broken his jaw, as well as his right-foreleg, and fractured both his rear kneecaps.

She hadn't been kidding.

She had gotten Nurse Redheart to come to the house for Angel. He shook his head at the thought. How had she gotten so many ponies to help in his punishment?

Angel sighed. He had no way of knowing. He reconciled himself to just thinking about going outside. His room had no windows, and if he hadn't had a white coat, he would have been sure he'd be pale enough now. He wondered how much ammunition Diamond Tiara had on him now.

Angel, anger quickly fueling his strength, punched his bed as a thought occured to him. Filthy Rich. He was willing to bet anything that that pony had funded Angel's torture.

He felt his anger swell inside him. He couldn't bottle it any longer, but he refused to do anything to prolong his punishment. Instead, he rose from his bed, walked up to the nearest wall, and started smashing his head into it.

Angel woke up in his bed. He looked to his right to see Nurse Redheart at his side.

She smiled at him. "What, were you trying to kill yourself? Darn-near succeeded. You gave yourself a pretty bad concusion."

Angel started at her words. She had to have looked at his head. That meant...She saw the horn...

Angel stared, petrified at the nurse. She leaned in and whispered in his ear "Don't worry, I won't tell."

Relieved, Angel tried to smile, but found he lacked the muscle. Startled, he tried saying something, but all that came out was a low, monotone moan.

The nurse's smile faltered, and she left the room. She came back a few seconds later with Melody. "He can't stay in his room any longer. He's been doing his best to keep fit, but he has been working his muscles too hard. He doesn't have any of the proper vitamins. He needs to get some fresh air, Melody."

Melody looked at her, stubbornly shaking her head. "He can't. He's not allowed."

Nurse Redheart ground her teeth audibly. Through them she spat "Fifteen year olds are not supposed to have strokes."

Melody gasped as she got a full grasp on what the nurse was saying.

Nurse Redheart said it anyway, for full effect. "If you make him stay in here any longer, he'll probably die."

Melody looked at her hooves. She walked over to Angel's bedside. He looked at her, seeing what he thought was tears being held back in the bloody red eyes. He must be getting bad at reading pony's. Melody doesn't cry. He mentally chided himself.

After a long silence, Melody finally spoke. "Alright. But he can't go outside like this."

Nurse Redheart shook her head. "No, he can't. He needs to go to a hospital. Atleast then he'll have a window."

Melody nodded. "Alright." She repeated.

Angel tried to lift his hoof to his mom's face. He wanted her to be happy. If she was happy, he was happy. The effort proved to be too much, and he dropped his hoof after only moving it an inch.

Melody noticed, however, and put her hoof on his. She leaned over and hugged Angel, giving him a kiss as she sat there. "I'm so sorry, Angel." She whispered.

Angel tried to shake his head, and, failing at that, made another attempt at talking. All that came out was a small whimper.

Melody choked. She turned and almost galloped out of the room, confusing Angel.

Nurse Redheart sat in the corner of his room, watching Angel stare after Melody, with only his eyes being able to move. He longed to be able to chase after, and tell her it wasn't her fault.

Redheart stood and walked slowly over to Angel. Kneeling down, she said "Don't worry, Angel. We'll get you moving again. I promise."

She picked up a small box from beside the bedside. Opening it revieled it to be a medical kit. Redheart picked up a small syringe from the box, tapping the end on the side of her hoof to get any obstruction out of the way.

Sure that the needle wasn't blocked, she gently pushed the syringe into Angel's fore-front leg before injecting the syringe into his bloodstream.

Angel watched as the room slowly started to spin and get blurry, before his entire world went black.