Reunions
The half-hour’s wait which Diamond had predicted passed quickly for the three fillies, sped along by small talk and jokes; and it came almost as a surprise when Nurse Snowheart returned to the room and announced that Copperwing was to be moved then and there to her mother’s ward. Diamond and Auburn retreated out of the nurse’s way as she transferred the various apparatus attached to Copper from their former homes in the medical devices at the bedside to their new ones in the array of smaller equipment affixed to the ends of the bed; feeling somewhat out of place. Catching the apprehension in Auburn's eyes, Diamond smiled kindly at her and waited with a facade of calm for the nurse to go about her work.
Once the last piece of machinery had been plugged into place, the time came for the bed itself to be moved, and Copperwing with it: with a deft motion of her hoof, Snowheart disengaged the brakes keeping the hospital bed in place and walked slowly backwards, turning as she did so to point the end of the bed towards the door. It was time to go and, sensing this, Diamond and Auburn cautiously approached the bed, taking position on either side of Copperwing as Snowheart began to push forwards and power the pegasus’s bed on its way to its new home beside her mother’s own.
Speeding up a little to give herself the time to switch from four hooves to three, Diamond gripped Copperwing’s hoof in her own and shot her a reassuring smile, which her friend returned in gratitude; a smile which only broadened when Auburn extended a wing over her sister’s chest and met Diamond’s gaze with a nod. It did not take long for the small group to make their way down the clean white hallways to their destination, but in that time; through those small actions; a great many steps were taken by both Copperwing’s sister and her friend which might, under other circumstances, have taken far longer than those short minutes.
*
Their arrival in Ward B was marked instantly by a wordless cry of joy from somewhere over to Diamond’s right, and all three fillies glanced in the direction of the sound: there on one of the many beds on the large ward was Burnished Gilding, beaming at the sight of her visitors despite the pain crinkling the corners of her eyes and the injuries covered by the myriad bandages wrapped around her right foreleg, wing and barrel. As Snowheart commanded an orderly to remove the empty bed next to Gilding’s, Auburn sidled over to her mother and Diamond gave Copperwing’s hoof a reassuring squeeze, before standing out of the way so that her friend could be moved into her rightful place by her mother’s side.
Soon, Copperwing’s bed had slid to a halt beside her mother’s own and the orderly left the room, with the only other pony besides the pegasus’s family and friend in the immediate vicinity being Snowheart, who was going about her work checking on the other patients. Judging that there would be no unwanted interruptions, Gilding turned on her side to face her daughter better and began the long-needed conversation.
“It’s such a relief to see you at last, my brave little filly – I was so worried when they told me what had happened. How are you feeling, sweetie?”
“Well as can be expected, I guess. Everything in here-“ she tapped a hoof against her ribs, “-hurts like Tartarus, but I’m better than I was for sure. Just glad Diamond was there, really, without her I’d be a lot worse… Inside as well as outside.” She gave a meaningful glance towards her sister on the word ‘inside’, and Gild raised her eyebrows in a look of hope-tempered surprise at the implication that her daughters’ mutual friend had acted as their mediator.
“Auburn’s apologised, has she?”
“Yeah, she did… I didn’t really want to hear it at first, but Dee-Tee gave her enough of a talking to that I was able to cut most of my own anger out of what I said. Good thing she did, too: Diamond wasn’t particularly kind in what she said, but I had a whole torrent of horrible things ready that I’m glad I never said.”
Gild turned her proudly beaming face towards Diamond then, looking to thank her; the intensity of her smiling eyes never even wavering as she gazed into the suddenly shy face of the only filly present not of her own flesh and blood.
“Well… Dee-Tee, was it?-” both Copperwing and Diamond flushed with embarrassment at this unwanted use of the nickname, “-It sounds like you’ve grown to be a very good friend to my fillies, and I owe you and your father a great deal of thanks for all you’ve done for us these last few days. You’ll always be welcome in our home – not to say that you weren’t before, of course – and you can go right ahead and consider yourself one of the family…”
“Wow, I, uh…" stuttered Diamond, "Thank you, Gild – it was nothing, really.” Unnoticed by the earth filly, Gild rolled her eyes at Diamond's modesty.
“I wouldn’t call saving my daughter’s life and then helping patch up her relationship with her sister ‘nothing’. You’ve done a lot of things to be proud of today, Diamond; nopony is going to complain if you let yourself feel good about them.”
“It sounds like I did a lot more when you say it like that,” replied Diamond, still unwilling to accept the mare’s praise in its entirety, and Gild smiled broader than before then turned to Auburn, who hadn’t spoken a word since they’d arrived.
“Your father won’t be back until midday tomorrow, so you’ll need to fetch your school stuff from the house and stay the night somewhere else, okay? I know it’s a pain, but the earliest train he could get back was the 9AM tomorrow – all of the earlier ones were fully booked days ago. Typical Manehattan public transport: late, delayed for hours or packed to overflowing, and usually all three at the same time.”
Diamond piped up again at this, and Auburn allowed her to answer it in her stead, hoping beyond hope that she would let her sleep round her house again, her friend, unbeknownst to the pegasus, catching the expression on her face.
“She can stay at my house as long as she needs to-” Auburn visibly let out her held breath and smiled in gratitude as these words left Diamond’s mouth, which only served to encourage the earth filly to add a reassuring statement onto the trailing end of the sentence, “-She’s one of my best friends, after all.”
“Thanks Diamond,” beamed Auburn, coming closer at last following the reaffirmation of their friendship; her mother wasting no time in agreeing with her.
“Yes, thank you very much, young mare," affirmed Gilding emphatically, "You’ve already done so much for us today, but apparently your selflessness knows no bounds.”
“Anypony would do the same,” replied Diamond with a light blush, determinedly evading the compliment.
“You’d be surprised,” muttered Gild, her gaze darkening momentarily, before her sunny demeanour returned once more. “Anyway, it’s getting late and as nice as it would be to have you here with us all night, I think it’s about time you and Auburn went home.”
Diamond glanced nervously at the clock, and saw that it was even later than she’d thought: nearly ten in the evening – her father would be worried sick!
“You’re right, I should really be getting back – I’ll just say my goodbyes and go, before I worry Daddy any more than I already have done. You ready to go, Auburn?”
“Yeah,” she replied with a nod, “I have a few small things I wanted to say to mum and Copper, but that shouldn't take long.”
While Auburn spoke to her mother, Diamond immediately went to Copperwing’s side; reluctant to leave her friend in the place she feared so much and looking to soothe the other filly’s nerves.
“Hey, Copper… I really do need to go now, but if I could, I’d stay the night here, with you. You don’t deserve being stuck here on your own, especially after everything else today, but you’ll have your mum right next to you if you need somepony, and I’ll come see you tomorrow as soon as I can… You are going to be alright, aren’t you?”
Copperwing nodded, the hints of a grin etching themselves onto her features.
“Yeah, I’ll survive one night here – like you said, I’ll have mum with me, so it won’t be too bad. Would be nice to have you here, too, but your dad needs you right now, not me… Still, I appreciate the gesture, it really means a lot to me to hear that.”
“No problem, Copper,” Diamond replied, starting to turn away before a spark of inspiration flashed in her eyes and she returned to Copperwing’s side, saying “Hey, I have an idea” as she plucked her trademark, namesake tiara from the top of her head. After tugging some caught hairs free of the gleaming jewellery, she held it out to her friend, whose confused expression prompted her to explain.
“I want you to keep this for the night, so you’ll have something of me here to remind you that you’re going to be fine. I was just thinking that it sucked that I couldn’t stay with you, so I thought maybe this was the next best thi-”
Her sentence was promptly cut off as the idea clicked into Copperwing’s brain and the pegasus instantly pulled her into a hug, a mask-muffled “Thank-you!” issuing from her friend’s mouth; meanwhile Diamond contemplated the surface of the pillow she’d been unexpectedly introduced to, grinning to herself despite the reaction having caught her off guard.
Extracting herself from the embrace, Diamond watched happily as Copperwing set the tiara down on her own head and shot her a grin.
“How do I look?” she asked, fiddling with the new weight of the headwear.
“Sprout a horn from your head and I could mistake you for a princess… Seriously, though, it really suits you – I’m almost tempted to let you keep it.”
“Only almost?” joked Copperwing.
Diamond put on a tone of mock-authority, which was somewhat ruined by her growing smile.
“I can take it back if you want,” she threatened, Copper widening her eyes comically and holding her hooves up in a gesture of surrender.
“No, it’s fine; I’ll be good,” she promised, trying not to laugh.
“You’d better be, little miss,” Diamond replied, trying her best to look intimidating but being thoroughly betrayed by the persistent grin on her face.
“Wait a minute," Copperwing said, something having just occurred to her, "I thought I was supposed to be the princess here; why are you calling the shots?”
“Do you want to go to the dungeons?" deadpanned Diamond, "Because that’s how you go to the dungeons.”
Trying to keep a straight face, Copper made a show of grovelling before her friend, making it all the way through before snorting with laughter.
“Forgive my transgressions, almightiest Princess Diamond Tiara, oh wise and beautiful goddess of pretty metal hats; please, pay no heed to this lowly peasant who most certainly isn’t planning to make off with your tiara.”
Diamond frowned. “Did you just call me the princess of tin-foil hats? I thought that was Lyra’s job.”
“Princess Celestia fired her for being unprofessional – since when did tin-foil princesses wear biohazard suits, honestly?”
“That is a good question, my faithful student…”
Diamond trailed off, losing the absurd train of thought she and Copperwing had been following, and after a few moments of awkward silence, the pair broke into giggles; Copper coughing a little and forcing herself to stop after a moment but still smiling broadly through the pain of her burning lungs.
Auburn, who had finished talking with her mother, sidled over to Copper’s bedside, prompting Diamond to give the sisters a little space while they gave their goodbyes. Turning one last time to Gild, she realised that she still didn’t know the cause of the mare’s injuries and decided to kill time by finding out.
Approaching Gild a little nervously, Diamond plucked up the courage to speak when the wounded pegasus smiled kindly down at her and said “Hello, Diamond,” deliberately starting the conversation.
“Hi, Gild… I was just wondering – if you want to talk about it – what happened to you in the Everfree? I mean, you had Guard armour, didn’t you?”
“Oh, that? I suppose you could blame the manticore for knocking me off a cliff, or gravity for making me hit the ground so hard, but most of the damage was from the rocks I landed on. Punched right through my breastplate, some of it, and did a really good job messing up my leg… Wing’s pretty beat up too, but somehow it made it out of all that in one piece.”
“Were any of the other Guards hurt?” asked Diamond, concerned.
“The manticore knocked one of the new recruits off with me, a young mare by the name of Glimmer Blade: she landed almost entirely on her right foreleg… Nasty stuff – if she wasn’t a unicorn with a talent in magical swordfighting, she’d probably have been honourably discharged; as it is, she’s going to need a prosthesis before they let her back out on the field. Other than a few scratches on our C.O. though, nopony else was hurt.”
“What happened to the manticore?”
“Dead. We identified it as soon as we encountered the thing: that manticore’s been attacking villages on the Everfree fringe for months, taking the unlucky souls who couldn’t get away back to its lair. It had a taste for pony flesh, so we had to take it out – it was actually trying to tear mine and Glimmer’s heads off when it overshot its pounce and sent us all over the edge. Glimmer wounded it bad – somehow the filly was able to use her magic well enough to stab it with her sword even after that fall, not to mention what happened to her leg – and the rest finished it off with spears and magic.”
Diamond's eyes widened: this sounded much more risky than the stories made out. “Does... This sort of thing happen often in the Guard?”
“Nah, usually it’s just your run-of-the-mill timberwolves and the like, or some amateur thief trying to make it big off somepony else’s hard work… Only time I got hurt like this before I retired was when a particularly grouchy dragon decided it would be fun to see how well I flew with all the air knocked from my lungs… Not as cool as it sounds. He was ticked off because I interrupted his, and I quote, ‘handsomeness sleep’ and didn’t take the time to realise I was a Guard.”
Diamond Tiara’s response was cut off before it could even leave her mouth – Auburn was done with Copperwing: it was time to leave.
“You ready to go, Diamond?” asked the pegasus, glancing concernedly at the clock hanging on the wall opposite.
“Yeah, we’d better get back,” replied Diamond, beginning to trot out of the room. As she neared the doorway out of the ward, she turned back and waved to Gild and Copper, before looking ahead of herself once more and leaving the ward entirely.
*
Cheerilee wound down from her gallop into a brisk canter, and from there slowed expertly into the purposeful stride of a pony with no time for being bothered with such trivialities as greetings. The hospital filled her view now that she was close to it, and she began sweeping her gaze left and right in search for her missing students, not wanting to chance missing them by looking the wrong way.
Minutes passed, in which she strode along paths and then bleak, white corridors, and still there was no sign of the fillies. A glance at a sign told her that she was not far from the ward Auburn’s mother was being kept in, and she changed her gait up a gear, powering down the hallways with a rhythmic drumbeat echoing from every clacking hoof as she neared her destination.
She rounded the corner and there was Ward B: not one of the fillies she was looking for could be seen within it, although she spotted a mare and a teenage filly with similar colourings to Auburn. Just as she was about to head over to them and ask if they knew where Diamond and Auburn were, she heard a distinctive giggle over to her right.
Turning to where the sound had come from, she saw that the corridor branched in a ‘T’ shape, one way going left and another going right, and hurried over to it. Not knowing whether Diamond – if the laughter had indeed been hers – was leaving or simply heading somewhere else in the hospital, such as the toilets, she glanced down the new corridor in both directions, catching a glimpse of two tails – one pink, the other coppery – flick around the corner to her right.
They were likely leaving, judging by the direction, and Cheerilee put on yet another burst of speed to catch them up: if they were in anywhere near as much of a hurry to get back as they should be, considering the time, there was still a fair chance of her losing track of them. That being true, Cheerilee was confident that she would not lose the fillies – she liked to think that teachers have something of a seventh sense for finding those under their care, and it had not failed her yet.
True to her gut feeling, the fillies had made a beeline for the nearest exit at a fast trot, and she found herself closing on them with ease. It had been a somewhat frustrating, roundabouts trip to find them, but at last she was nearing the end of the little adventure.
“Diamond! Auburn!”
The fillies stopped dead and turned at the sound of their names being called, eyes wide with surprise and a little fear – no doubt worried that they were in trouble for their late exit from the hospital – but as Cheerilee caught up to them, she beamed a warm smile at the two, instantly soothing their nerves.
“H-hello, Miss Cheerilee!” said Diamond, her surprise clearly audible, while Auburn gave a shy smile and waved her hoof by way of a greeting.
“Hello, Diamond, and hello to you too, Auburn. Diamond, your father sent me to look for you two – I’m sure you have some very good reasons for staying as long as you have done, but he was very worried about you when I spoke to him.”
“Sorry…”
“No need to apologise; I’m just glad you’re both alright – we’ve all had more than enough bad news for today, without you pair getting yourself hurt. Say, Auburn, where’s your sister? I’d have thought she’d be leaving with the rest of you…”
“Copper’s… Well, she’s… Uhm…” began Auburn, looking uncomfortable. Diamond lay a reassuring hoof on the pegasus’s shoulder and finished for her.
“Copperwing had an anxiety attack, and she’s asthmatic so it just… spiralled from there. She’s alright, but they’re keeping her in overnight just to be sure. It’s part of why we took so long: it was a few hours before the doctors would let us see her, and there was a lot to talk about after what happened to her, so I kinda forgot to check the clock. Next thing I know, it’s already dark outside; so we said our goodbyes to Copper and Auburn’s mum, and headed home.”
“I’m sorry about Copperwing, but it’s good to hear that she’ll be alright. Now, we’d better get you fillies home, right?”
“Actually,” Auburn said, looking apologetically up at her teacher, “I need to fetch my school stuff from my house before we go back to Diamond’s, if that’s not too much trouble.”
“Not at all; we can’t have you turning up to class without your books and pens, can we?”
“I don’t know,” quipped Diamond, “I think she could manage without her homework… Homework is complete rubbish.”
“I can give you more if you want.”
“Oh, I’m fine, really.”
“Are you sure? I’ve got some really nice questions on binomial expansion if you want them…”
“I am very sure. I have enough algebra in my life without more question writers asking where their ‘x’ is, and ‘y’ they left them in the first place. I’m a filly, not an agony aunt!”
Auburn sniggered at this, and even Cheerilee covered a giggle with her hoof, and after the laughter had cleared, the trio moved off in the direction of Auburn’s house, the slim pegasus taking the lead while rich filly and schoolteacher walked side by side, enjoying each other’s wordless company.
*
After twenty-five minutes or so, they found themselves at Auburn’s house, and the pegasus drew a small golden key from under her wing in a practiced motion, before standing at an angle in front of the door so as not to block her light. A moment of fumbling hooves and squinting passed, before the door opened with a low click and Auburn trotted inside, turning to her companions a second later and gesturing for them to come inside.
Cheerilee and Diamond trotted after her, and the pegasus filly closed the door behind them, taking her key back from the outside lest someone steal it before galloping up the stairs to her room. Her two guests sat down in the living room whilst she located her belongings, and after a moment or two of silence, Diamond struck up a conversation with her teacher.
“Cheerilee?” she asked.
Broken out of her reverie, Cheerilee turned to look at her student.“Yes, Diamond?”
“Do you think Daddy’s going to be mad at me?”
“Not even a little bit. You worried him a lot, but I’m sure he’ll understand why you were gone so long. More than anything, he’ll be glad to see you’re alright… I know I was.”
“You were worried too?”
“Of course I was, silly. I care a great deal about all my students, and after everything you’ve done to put things right, I have to say you are one of my favourites... I honestly don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”
“O-oh… Sorry… I should have realised you’d be worried for me, it seems so obvious now. Thanks for coming after me, by the way.”
“No problem, Diamond: it was either me or your father, and I thought it would be better if I did it and let him do his work.”
“That was really nice of you.”
“I do my best to help my friends out when they need a hoof, and it felt like the right thing to do.”
Diamond's face twisted into a light frown of minor confusion at this answer. “So you and Dad are friends?”
“Yes, we’re friends. Your father’s a good pony and I’m glad I got the chance to know him better… I suppose I have you to thank for that, as well as for being brave enough to try and fix what you did.”
“It’s nice you two like each other… Daddy doesn’t really see anypony much, he’s always working and when he does go out, none of the ponies there are the sort he likes. I’m glad I could help find him a friend, really, and you seem like exactly the sort of pony he needs.”
Cheerilee was thankful that the darkness hid her light blush. “…Thank you, Diamond.”
The pair fell once more into silence, broken suddenly a short while later when Diamond, having been shifting uncomfortably on her seat, got up to find the bathroom.
“I’m going to look for a toilet, I really need to go,” she explained, with a pained expression, before glancing up the staircase and spotting a tiled wall, to which she ran as fast as she could without risking a premature release.
To her relief, the tiled room was indeed a bathroom, and in it was a porcelain throne which she was all too happy to take. Closing the door behind her hurriedly, she trotted awkwardly over to the toilet and sat down to do her business. Moments later, as she reached for some toilet paper with which to clean herself up, the improperly closed door slowly swung open on a light night-time breeze, revealing the bedroom at the top of the landing, which Diamond had missed before in her haste.
Finishing up in the bathroom and flushing the toilet before washing her hooves in the sink, Diamond found her gaze drawn to the room, its door labelled proudly in a familiar, twirling cursive as Copperwing’s own. Paying a nervous glance towards the closed door of Auburn’s room, Diamond found herself unable to stop now that her interest had been piqued so much and trotted nervously into the open room.
It was smaller than her own, but not so much as to feel at all cramped, and filled with semi-organised belongings from floor to ceiling, those objects upon the sturdy wooden shelves being the most immediately interesting to the intruding earth filly. A small cardboard box, its lid removed and sat to one side, with the word ‘friends’ drawn on the side in marker pen, caught Diamond’s eye and she pulled it down off of the shelf, tottering a little on her hind legs as she reached for the high-up item.
Gripping the box between her teeth and setting all four hooves gently back onto the ground, Diamond lowered the box onto a nearby desk and peered inside. Within the box were a number of hoof-made pewter figures, mostly painted, along with a number of photographs showing a joyful Copperwing with various other foals, but what stood out most to her was the little figurine of Auburn which sat alongside those of the unknown foals from the photos.
Picking it up to admire it more closely, Diamond could see the painstaking detail which had gone into the miniature version of her friend, from the nearly-lifelike green eyes to the softly shimmering mane and tail seemingly constructed out of individual strands of copper wire. Jaw hanging slightly open in awe of the work, it took the sound of a zipper being done up from Auburn’s room to remind her that she was on borrowed time, and the earth filly regretfully replaced the miniature in its box and balanced once more on her hind legs, returning the box to its rightful place on the shelf.
Hurriedly, she exited the room and trotted as quickly as she could downstairs without alerting Auburn and returned to her seat next to Cheerilee, waiting for Auburn’s imminent arrival, trying to calm her speeding heart. After a moment, the pegasus trotted briskly down the stairs and called over to them.
"I've got everything, let's get back to Diamonds before it gets much later," she said, already heading over to the front door in her eagerness to get back to her temporary home. Hot on her heels, Diamond and Cheerilee followed her out into the cold breeze of an early summer night, waiting to one side as Auburn pulled the key back out from under her wing, where Diamond presumed there must be some sort of holder for it, and returned to the door. Locking the door behind Cheerilee, Auburn turned to her companions and grinned, gesturing out in the general direction of the village proper as she commanded:
“Onwards, to Canterlot!”
*****
Stats
Page generated in 0.019 seconds
Total duration
610 users online
764,390 hits today, 1,996,409 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Fluffy chapter was fluffy. If DT keeps this up she's going to replace Cadance as the Alicorn of Love. :P
Cute chapter.
Well, now Diamond's gonna feel guilty next time she she see Copper, at least I'm pretty sure she will considering she entered another pony's room without permission.