//------------------------------//
// Bandaged 
// Story: The Forgotten King 
// by Ghost Writer 
//------------------------------//

	Several hours passed before Twilight came back. But when she came back she brought a group of ponies with her. The first pony she had decided to take back to the spot was Nurse Redheart, a pony doctor. She had also brought back Pinkie, who decided to come with her when she had heard what happened to Eclipse. Rainbow dash also came, along with Fluttershy and two others.
Eclipse slowly opened his eyes to see seven faces looking down on him.
"Look he's waking up!"
"Thank goodness, when we first got here and I saw that he was hadn't moved at all and I feared the worst"
"Well shucks, I ain't never seen a pony like him before. I didn't even know male alicorns existed, that is reckoning you can still call him an alicorn"
"Girls! Stop talking, he needs to rest. When he hit that tree he got a concussion and now isn't the best time to go making a commotion right in front of him."
Eclipse could barely see the ponies talking over him. His head hurt and he wanted to go back to sleep. He thought he recognized a few of the ponies but trying to figure out who they were made his head hurt and he decided it wasn't worth the effort. He dozed off again and slept for a few more hours.
The next time he woke up his head didn't hurt nearly as bad. He could see straight now and think clearly. He slowly sat up from the ground. Every muscle in his body protested the movement but he sat up anyways. He noticed that it was night time and all of the ponies that had come back with twilight were sleeping by a fire that was now nothing more than some smoldering embers casting a dull light around the area.
He also noticed that he had a patch over his left eye. He desperately hoped that he could still see out of it after the bandage came off and wished that it would not be anything disfiguring.
Now that he was fully conscious he could take a look at all the ponies that were there. The first pony he noticed was Fluttershy, it was nice of her to come all the way out in Everfree Forest to see if Eclipse was ok. He knew that she was scared to death of the forest but had come regardless.
Then there was Pinkie, she was sleeping on her back in a funny looking position that involved her having four legs sticking up into the air. Eclipse had to make sure he didn't laugh and wake everypony up when he saw Pinkie, but he doubted he could laugh with the pain in his ribs.
Rainbow Dash was there too, which came as a slight surprise to Eclipse. He thought that she would hate him after he had hurt the bully, but maybe not. After all a broken wing was nothing serious, it would heal in two or three weeks and he would be fine. Of course he would know not to mess with Rainbow Dash ever again.
The other ponies there were Twilight, a white pony with a nurse hat, another white pony with a purple mane, and an orange pony with a pale blond mane.
Eclipse decided that there would be no use in staying up and went back to sleep after he managed to drag himself to the area the others were sleeping in.
He slept comfortably until morning, or at least as comfortable as one can sleep on a grassy floor with multiple injuries. He awoke feeling much better than he had the night before. His muscles still ached but other than that he seemed to be doing pretty well.
The other ponies too were beginning to wake up now. Pinkie was the first to wake up and sprang up from her spot as soon as she saw the Eclipse was up too.
"Oh my gosh! Eclipse, you’re awake! How are you feeling?" Pinkie asked
"I've been better, but for the most part I'm fine." he replied.
"That's great news!" exclaimed Pinkie "When Twilight ran into town we were all so happy to see her. She was yelling that she needed help so I went up to her wondering what was wrong. Then she told me the story of how she had been turned to stone by a cockatrice and that she was saved by a mysterious alicorn, but that he had gotten hurt and needed help!" Pinkie said, now out of breath from the lengthy explanation. Then she went on by saying "As soon as she said alicorn I knew it must have been you! So I gathered up a few friends and Nurse Redheart and we came here looking for you and now here we are!” Pinkie had been wildly gesticulating throughout the explanation and finished with her front hooves in the air. It seemed odd but it was just the kind of thing Pinkie would do.
"Wow" Eclipse said in a mild tone, "You went through all that trouble for me?"
"Well duh! You're our friend and you needed help so we came out here!"
"Gee I don't know what to say, thanks for caring so much." Eclipse said.
Now the rest of the ponies were awake too. They had probably been woken by Pinkies quick, and rather loud, explanation to Eclipse. Nurse Redheart walked up to Eclipse and did a quick inspection of his condition.
"Well you seem to have gotten off without any broken bones, that's good. A bit of bruising from your impact with that tree but that's nothing serious. You also have a mild concussion so you'll have to keep from shaking your head around or hitting it against anything for a day or two." Nurse Redheart said, then her expression saddened. And she continued, "I'm sorry about your horn, but there's nothing I can do to help you there. I'm sorry but I doubt you'll be able to ever use magic again. Then there's the matter of your left eye, when your horn shattered there must have been two shards that flew across your eye. But don't worry you'll still be able to see out of the eye when the patch comes off."
Eclipse had now for the first time noticed that there was a bandage around his head and Nurse Redheart saw him looking at it.
"The bandage was for a few scratches you got, it doesn't do anything for your horn though so you’re free to take it off if you feel like it"
Eclipse sat down on the grass and reached up to take the bandages off of his head. As the white cloth dabbed with a bit of red fell to the ground Eclipse felt the spot that used to be his horn. He had known that it was his horn that burst and caused the explosion but he dared not take a look at it until now.
There was a stub left of what used to be his horn. The remnants of the horn protruded out about half an inch and had a few splintery points on it. It looked as if somepony had broken his horn off like a stick and the protruding pieces and the short stub were what was left of that stick.
Overall it was not a pretty sight and Eclipse was hoping that he might look somewhat normal after the ordeal was over with. Hopefully he wouldn't be feared by everypony who saw him.
"Alright maybe it would do some good to look at the brighter side of things" he said to nopony in particular, "Without my horn and with a scar or two ponies won't mistake me for nightmare moon anymore, right?"
As Eclipse thought his situation through, the other ponies were packing up the makeshift camp they had made. Nurse Redheart was packing up a few tools she had used to treat Eclipse. Some of the tools looked pretty scary and Eclipse was wondering which ones she had used on him while he was unconscious. She couldn't have done too much to him, afterall his wounds were only minor.
Pinkie was busying herself by throwing some dirt on the smoldering embers of last night’s fire. She noticed a small branch sticking out from the mound of dirt she had just thrown onto the fire. She walked up the the stick, pulled it out, and examined it. It had been in the heart of what was left of the fire and its tip was still glowing red hot. She pointed it at Eclipse, a broad smile on her face.
"Hey Eclipse! Got any cauterizing you need done?" she cheerily said, waving the glowing tip of the stick around in the air.
"No, you know I'm actually feeling pretty good!" he said as he made the effort to smile and prance around a bit. The prancing wasn't too delightful, what with his soreness and bruises and all. It was all in good humor however, and the pain wasn't unbearable.
Time came when everypony was ready to head back to Ponyville. The walk back would take a while but Eclipse didn't mind some time to chat, after all he didn’t even know two of the ponies there and it was always nice to make new friends.
Eclipse was walking behind Twilight and slowed his pace a bit when he realized that the white pony was behind him. After he slowed down she was eventually next to him and he decided to strike up a conversation.
"Soooo.............this weather...." Eclipse said, with an awkward feeling pervading the sentence. He thought Wow... Weather. Could I have used a more boring opening if I had tried? He silently chastised himself for the stupid introduction, but the other pony started talking.
"Kind of hard to know what the weather is like don't you think? You can't even see the sky with the thick trees overhead" she said.
"Haha yeah, stupid of me.. Anyways I'm Eclipse. What's your name"
"I'm Rarity, nice to meet you Eclipse."
"Rarity. That's a cool name. Sounds fancy, you look fancy too. What is it you do exactly?"
"I make dresses for all of the ponies in Ponyville. Not to brag but I've had Hoity Toity feature my dresses in one of his fashion shows before."
"Uhh, Hoity Toity? I've never heard of him. Is he famous?"
"How could you not know who Hoity Toity is?! He's only one of the biggest fashion stars in all of Equestria!"
"I guess I wouldn't have known. There's a lot I don't know about Equestria."
They stopped talking for a moment as they sidestepped a large root sticking out of the ground.
"A lot you don't know about Equestria? Where are you from?"
"That's the thing, I don't know where I'm from. I just woke up here one day."
"Well what are you planning on doing when we get back to Ponyville?" asked Rarity.
"I honestly have no idea, I'll probably go to Twilight's house and see if there's anything I can do magically at all anymore" he replied.
"It really is a shame that you lost your horn. I don't know what I would do if mine broke. Without magic my career would be ruined, I wouldn't be able to make dresses anymore"
"Sounds like it's a good thing it happened to me and not you" Eclipse commented.
"It's awful that you had it happen to you. Believe me when I say I truly feel for you."
"It's not that bad. Really. The scars I'll have on my eye will make me look cool. And the horn..." Eclipse stopped for a second to contemplate how the horn could possibly do any good; then he got it, "The horn adds character!"
"Well it certainly makes you noticeable" Rarity added. "Maybe after we get out of this mucky forest you can come over to my house and get cleaned up. You've spent days without a good cleaning from what I've heard."
Now that Eclipse thought about it a bath did sound nice and he really hadn't had a chance to get clean. "Ya, maybe getting clean wouldn't be a bad idea"
A little while later they cleared Everfree forest and the group of ponies turned and went their ways towards their homes. Rarity and Twilight remained with Eclipse though. Rarity, because Eclipse would be going to her house later; and Twilight because her house was across Ponyville and Eclipse might need somepony to help explain that he was harmless .