Lingering Chaos

by nightelf37

Harsh Healing

Another pony was making his way to the hospital to check up on four of the patients.

A teacher of sorts, he had heard that something had happened to them from another of those he’d have called his students. Something that he had asked them to do had left them in the hospital which forced him into a swiftness to get there as soon as he heard.

After rushing through the entrance up to the reception desk, he spoke, breathless and panicked, "My name's Mystic Shield, and I've come to visit my students Greatstone, Bullseye, Chrono Cards, and Tricky Books. How bad are their injuries?"

"Oh, Mystic, good. I'm Nurse Graceful Breeze. They refused to say anything to us without you for some reason." She walked towards a door before looking back and asking, "Do you mind if this gentlecolt comes along, he seems curious." She gestured to Tango.

Mystic turned to look at the other pony. From what he could see, this pony was a unicorn stallion, perhaps a bit younger than he was. Red hair, black coat, hazel eyes, and rose cutie mark. There was also a smaller unicorn mare on his back whose head was buried in his mane. Pale, light grayish olive hair, light violet-ish gray coat, and a cutie mark depicting ruffled silk shaped like a wing.

They don't seem to be students of mine., he pondered. Then again, I do have plenty to handle, even with my First Four—now at the hospital thanks to me—as co-teachers now. I'll have to know this some more before inviting him. After all, if Miss Rarity of Carousel Boutique is anything to go by, not everypony has time for my classes.

He then turned back to Graceful Breeze and said, "I don't see why not. Maybe I can also check whether or not he'll make for another prospective student in my dojo."

The redhead stallion flashed another award-worthy smile at his newest acquaintance. "Thank you. I'll try not to be a bother," he said graciously.

Mystic was certainly charmed by the smile. "A bother? Heavens, no. It's always a pleasure to meet another unicorn. You look like you can be a prospective student in my Self-Defense dojo. What do you say?"

"Self-defense dough joe? Oh, I don't know...Waltz says I shouldn't make any decisions by myself, but I don't think we have much to do with the bread business, combat or otherwise," the redhead stallion said bluntly. The mare on his back gave a slight giggle. A look of puzzlement passed very briefly over his face, but dissolved once more into radiantly self-assured confidence. "You should ask Miss Crinoline. She's probably good at most everything of the learning sort."

Mystic realized that his acquaintance misinterpreted his words and replied, "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to imply anything involving bread. By dojo, I mean something like a training academy. Hay, I even managed to get Rarity to take at least one class and learned a useful spell from her. And very well, I'll ask Miss Crinoline. Perhaps she'll make for another potential student. Would you mind telling me what she looks like?"

The mare on the redhead stallion moved her head to her right, revealing her blue-violet eyes, then raised her head to his ear and whispered, "Tango, would you kneel down for me? I can't possibly get down on my own, pretty please?"

"Of course, little miss," he replied before elegantly dropping to two knees to let the small unicorn down. "I'll let her introduce herself. Tango is my name." he added.

The mare carefully slipped down from Tango's back and gave him a peck on the cheek before he can react. She blushed slightly and smiled at him. "I am very grateful for your help." With her magic she levitates seventy-five bits out of her dress pocket over to Tango. "If you don't mind I would like to rely on this service more often." She put a hoof under his chin and—with a big smile on her face—said, "I really enjoyed the ride. Seeing the world from above for once was really enjoyable."

She let out a soft laugh, then cleared her throat as she faced Mystic Shield. "Before I introduce myself, I first have to get more sightly." Using her magic, she levitated her assemble in front of her. First, she carefully put on her leg laces, after that her crinolette, followed by her dress and bonnet, her umbrella secured by two straps on the former's right side.

Finally, with her folding fan levitating next to her, she looked at ease now and spoke up. "My name is Crinoline Ruffle. Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Mystic Shield. I have nothing against training in your Dojo, but my magic abilities are rather poor. What you just saw is the best I can do. It took me years of practice to do that. I see it positive though. You see, over the years I got also more and more dexterous."

Just then, the group saw a mysterious cloaked pony walking up the halls toward them, her face covered in shadows cast by her hood, only her grey, hairless, muzzle was visible.

She stopped next to Grace, who said, "Oh, there you are, sweetie. Would you mind helping this pony with her leg?" She gestured to Crinoline's leg, then turned to address Mystic.. "I think we should get going, though. Don't want to keep your students waiting." She led the two stallions down the hall, leaving the two mares. Before she was out of earshot, she turned back to the cloaked pony to say, "Oh, and please do be careful with this one, dear."

Having little time to mull over whether or not he should be accepting money for non-work related services, Tango waved uncertainly back at Crinoline—who waved back at him with an amused grin on her face —as he was ushered out into the hall.

Returning to his previous subject, Mystic asked Tango, "Well, what do you say?"

The red stallion's mind quickly gave up the struggle as he deposited the bits in his coin pouch. "What do I say? Oh, the classes. I don't know. Waltz got mad the last time I signed up for classes. Can't imagine why. Said it was a sure-fire way to double your bits. Waltz usually likes making money," Tango commented wistfully.

He then brightened up immediately with the knowledge that this question, like all life's conundrums to his knowledge, could be answered in the usual fashion.

"But Waltz says I should always do what the smartest pony I know says to do. Miss Crinoline is the only pony I know here. I'll ask the little miss what to do when we're done." He flashed Mystic Shield another gleaming smile and happily trotted forth, positive that the purple unicorn must be impressed by Tango's flawless logic.

---

Ashen Rise had been helping out at the hospital for most of the day so far and was about to take a well-earned break when one of the nurses asked her if she could see to a pony in the reception with a minor injury. Since her assigned break time was coming up anyway, after helping out for most of the day she went to take care of it, even if a minor injury seemed rather insignificant with the ponies with actually dangerous wounds.

As she approached the reception area, she used a bit of her magic to put her hood back on just before passing through the doors. Inside, she saw Grace talking to two stallions and a mare as she continued her stride and walked up to the group. As her patient was pointed out to her, she simply nodded although this was only noticeable to most of them if they saw the slight drop and rise of her hood. She then saw Grace lead the colts out to visit the 'students' of one of them.

Okay, now for you, Ashen thought to herself as her mind started to analyze her would-be patient.

Unicorn mare, smaller than average but obviously far from a filly, blond mane and a coat of so light a shade of purple that it'd look like white from a distance and those with bad sight.

It might have been this last bit and the fact she was dressed up like some sort of princess-doll that the smaller mare reminded Ashen of another pony she'd run across once, one who she did not like very much at all after she tried to get her cloak off of her 'for the sake of fashion', which she couldn't care less about.

"Okay, kid. Your leg, right?" Ashen asked. "Just tell me which one and show it to me so I can take a look at what's wrong." Besides you wasting time I could spend on those that really need it.

She smaller mare took off her right leg lace on her hind leg to let the nurse see it. "I collapsed and hurt my right hind leg. Can you make sure it's nothing serious, and maybe tell me how long I have to treat it with care?", she asked, feeling a little intimidated as she stared at the floor.

As Ashen walked around the smaller mare, she spoke, half to herself half to her. "A fall, huh? Could be a few things. Sprained, but then there'd be swelling though that could take some time. Dislocation, which is never fixed without pain. Or even a break, which would have your leg wrapped up like a Hearth's Warming Eve present." When she got behind the little unicorn, who seemed to have been trying to follow her movements by turning her neck as she walked, she gave a light tap to her right hind leg. "Just stretch it out backwards so I can take a look. And keep your eyes forward, dear, I don't need you trying to pull away, which they always do when they look."

Using a mixture of skill, knowledge, and magic, Ashen sat down as she began her examination, slowly running her hooves across her patient's leg while applying pressure as well as keeping an eye on her reactions to locate the problem.

Finding the spot at which the smaller mare was reacting the most (the fetlock), she got to work on pressing the point in different ways and directions to try and decipher this little conundrum.

This caused Ashen's patient to cringe in pain as she felt her joint move. "It hurts right there when you move it. It also hurts whenever I try to move it. It feels numb and paralyzed," she explained before standing still, waiting for the nurse's judgment.

Ashen had suspected the ankle was the harmed spot and now her patient has confirmed it. She started thinking on what the injury may be and how to deal with it. Hmm, muscles feel tense, stretched and... Aha! There it is; a slight dislocation. That should be easy enough to fix, but first, the hard part. She sat down and kept the leg up with her left hoof before speaking to its owner again.

"Everything seems just fine so there's no need to worry but…" Ashen deliberately fell silent for a second to allow the almost white mare to get curious as a faint blue light began to form around her upheld leg. "Hey, is that the Princess?" she said without hinting at which one or in what direction. As the smaller mare was distracted and looking away, she made her move.

The blue aura around the hurt leg took hold. Her patient, having realized her deception too quickly, turned around to find out what she was going to do. Before she could respond however, Ashen used her magic to force the dislocated joint back into its place. The pain turned out to be excruciating and the patient immediately fainted as a result.

Ashen had expected screaming and kicking (lots of both, actually), but instead the unicorn whose leg she just forced back into place went as limp as a piece of cloth. Before she could hit the ground, Ashen caught the smaller mare in a reflex. ...Okay, did not see this coming.

Luckily for Ashen, there was nopony else in the reception hall, with all of the staff busy, which was good for her since she'd probably be kicked out again if she was seen next to an unconscious pony she was supposed to be taking care of.

Knowing how some would respond to this situation, she briefly thought about dragging the other unicorn off and hiding her in a closet, but quickly thought better of it and decided to just carry her to Grace and face the music.

"Troublesome little thing aren't you, huh?" she said, again more to herself than anypony else.

After picking the mare up with her magic and placing her on her cloak-covered back like a pair of saddlebags, she left the reception hall to go to the room Grace would have taken the pale mare's companions.

---

Erstwhile…

After leading the two stallions down a fraction of the long hall, Grace led them to a room with patients. What Mystic Shield saw there utterly devastated him.

His four students were resting on the beds, injured in varying levels, but all of them serious. Bullseye's entire body was covered in a cast save for his face, which lacked the eye-patch he usually wore, showing the scarred amber eye it hid. Tricky Books had a cast on two of his legs, scars over the other legs, and a bandage over the eye his hair usually covered. As for that, that portion was torn off. Chrono Cards had a cast on one leg, and bandages covering his flank and forehead, leaving a hole for his horn. Greatstone had a bandage around his body stained with blood, and a fresh scar on his front leg.

All of them looked…broken, as he had been once. He was one of the lucky few (like Berry Punch) to have been spared corruption when Discord warped Ponyville to his liking. When the draconequus invaded his dojo, his four star students opposed him…and were tossed aside and turned into various harmless stuff for their trouble. Mystic stood terrified and shattered after seeing that, and did nothing against him when Discord started turning his dojo's tatami mat into a swimming pool of chocolate milk, and everything else into pastel colors. Not wanting to meet the same fate as his students, and knowing there was nothing he could do, he made the best of it and dipped in after Discord left to cause chaos elsewhere. It was a very embarrassing sight when Chronicle barged in and—

Mystic shook the memory away. This isn't the time. I gotta focus on the task at hoof, he thought to himself as Greatstone got off of his bed and walked over to him. To see the tough unicorn injured was a tearful sight.

"Master," he said. "I'm sorry we failed our mission."

Author's Note:

For a description on what the four stallions at the end of this chapter look like, check out this chapter.