//------------------------------// // 40. Becoming an Egghead // Story: My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship // by Danieru //------------------------------// Everything was black and quiet. Only the sound of statics and some voices in the distance could be heard. Those were the only things that Star Twinkle was aware of now. Eventually, he opened his eyes and saw some blurry images in front of him. He quickly realized by the colors and the voices that it was his friends, who were looking down at him with concerned looks on their faces. “Hey! He is finally awake!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed happily. “Oh, thank goodness!” Rarity added relieved. The blurriness went away and he managed to recognize every one of his friends. In that moment, he also realized that he was not in his own bed. He was confused. So he asked some obvious questions. "What happened? Where am I?" "In a hospital bed," Twilight answered. “Hospital?” He replied almost in disbelieve. “Yes. After the crash, we brought you and Rainbow Dash here as soon as possible,” Fluttershy explained. “Rainbow Dash?” Star Twinkle replied, not sure what she had to do with anything. Everypony then moved their heads to the left. Star Twinkle turned his head to his right. Rainbow Dash was inside of a hospital bed too. She had a bandage around one of her wings. For some reason, she was waving at him awkwardly as soon as he looked over to her. “Don't you remember what happened?” Twilight asked, coming closer to his bed out of worry. “Don't you remember the crash?” Applejack asked. “Crash?” He replied confused. They all looked at each other because they didn't know how to explain the situation. Since Star Twinkle was sick of being completely lost, he tried to remember what happened before he woke up in this hospital bed. Though it was a little hard at first, his memories slowly came back to him until it was fully clear what happened. Earlier this morning... "And another day begins..." Star Twinkle said grumpily after waking up in his bed, because of the beams of light that shined through his window. Star Twinkle had no plans on what to do today. And whenever he didn't know what to do, he usually let his friends do the thinking. So he went outside to look for any of his friends. One of them, most likely, will know how to spend the day. And fortunately, some of them seem to be already waiting in front of his house. Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were standing there, looking up to the sky with some worried looks on their faces. “What are they looking at?” He wondered as he watched how they focused their eyes on the sky. Suddenly, Twilight's eyes widened in shock as soon as she noticed Star Twinkle. "Star Twinkle, watch out!" she screamed at him, causing him to stop walking towards them. "Watch out for wha-" Back in the hospital... But then, suddenly, everything went black. That was the last thing he remembered. The awkwardness in Rainbow Dash's face. The fact that she was in the hospital too. The reason why nopony flat out explained what happened. It was all clear now. Star Twinkle knew exactly what happened. And before he knew it, this knowledge made him angry. "You!" He exclaimed angrily while pointing at Rainbow Dash who got startled by Star Twinkle's sudden reaction. “It was you wasn't- OUCH!” Before he could finish his sentence some sharp pain was going through his head, making him instantly grab his head with his front hooves. It was now that he realized that he had a bandage wrapped around his head. “Easy, Star Twinkle! The doctor said that you need rest for a few days. So you should relax,” Twilight advised out of concern of Star Twinkle's health. Star Twinkle did lean back in his bed again due to the pain but couldn't help to look at Rainbow Dash with an ice cold glare on his face. Rainbow Dash noticed and could only laugh awkwardly as if she was apologizing to him. Of course, the others noticed the tension in the room and tried their best to change the subject. Twilight looked behind her for a moment and noticed how one of the nurses was pushing a bookshelf along the hallway. She quickly grabbed one of the books out with her magic and levitated in front of Star Twinkle. “Rainbow Dash was complaining that it would be a little boring to sit in your beds the whole day so how about a good book, Star Twinkle?” She suggested, levitating the book closer and closer to Star Twinkle's face. But Star Twinkle didn't even blink and continued to focus his glare towards Rainbow Dash. Twilight figured that he was a ticking time bomb right now and gave up concentrating on him for a while and instead offered the book to Rainbow Dash. When Twilight poked Rainbow Dash with the book to get her attention, she only gave it a confused look. “What's this? 'Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone',” she read out loud from the title of the book. "This is the first story in the series. I own all of them," Twilight said with a proud grin on her face. Star Twinkle knew this book too. It was an adventure novel, starring a brave Pegasus pony named Daring Do. He knew that there were more adventures of this story but he never read past the first volume for some reason. "No thanks. I so don't read," Rainbow Dash said refusing to read the book and throwing it away. I'm a world-class athlete,” she added. “A world-class athlete who crashed and broke her wing...” Star Twinkle added with a really mean tone of his voice. Rainbow Dash returned his words with a glare on her own, to which Star Twinkle replied with just turning around in his bed. He knew that he was behaving a little childish due to blaming Rainbow Dash for putting him into the hospital so he decided to calm down a little and hoped that the days in this hospital would pass quickly. Rainbow Dash also decided to calm down and ignored Star Twinkle's words. After all, they were just supposed to provoke her. “What I tried to say was: Reading's for eggheads like you, Twilight. "No offense, but I am not reading. It's undeniably, unquestionably, uncool," she explained to everypony. Everypony except, Star Twinkle was laughing about Rainbow Dash after this statement. He would probably laugh too if he wasn't hospitalized right now. "Is she serious? Who doesn't like to read a bang-up tale from time to time?" Applejack said amused. "Why, a good book is almost as magnificent as silk pajamas on a Sunday morning!" Rarity added. “Reading is for everypony, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight said, levitating the book back into Rainbow Dash's bed. “Yeah! I love reading, and my head isn't even close to the shape of an egg! It's more the shape of an apple, or maybe an orange, but a big orange! More like a grapefruit really...” Pinkie Pie added, easily confusing herself by her own words. They all tried to convince Rainbow Dash that reading is something for everypony. Star Twinkle himself was not reading on a daily basis but he does like to read too from time to time. But he was not feeling like talking to Rainbow Dash so he kept quiet. Eventually, a nurse entered the room and told everypony to leave so that Star Twinkle and Rainbow Dash could rest for the rest of the day. Everypony left the room as they were told and closed the door, leaving only Star Twinkle and Rainbow Dash in the room. Of course, there was a huge awkwardness in the room and neither of them knew how to break that. Star Twinkle was still blaming Rainbow Dash for the accident and Rainbow Dash was still annoyed by Star Twinkle's childish behavior. But Star Twinkle knew what he should do to avoid that. "Well, time to sleep," Star Twinkle said, covering himself in his bed cover. Rainbow Dash only looked at him, without him realizing with a puzzled reaction on her face. “It's in the middle of the day...” she said, reminding Star Twinkle that it was way too early to go to sleep. Star Twinkle, however, didn't move an inch and replied annoyed. “So? I'm stuck in a bed so I mind as well sleep...” he replied, still with a bothered tone in his voice. Rainbow Dash let out a sigh. She was clearly not interested in going to sleep in the middle of the day. But right now, Star Twinkle didn't care about that. Time went on a little but Star Twinkle found it hard to get some sleep, mainly because of Rainbow Dash. There were all kinds of things going on, that kept him from sleeping. Rainbow Dash did all kinds of things to keep herself busy, like throwing a ball against the wall, turning the lights on and off and so on. But the ultimate straw was her, hitting her head repeatedly against her bed. Eventually, Star Twinkle couldn't take it anymore. "Rainbow Dash!" Star Twinkle exclaimed annoyed turning to Rainbow Dash, who turned her head to Star Twinkle in response. “Please?” He said, hinting that he was trying to sleep. "I don't understand how you can sleep through the whole day," Rainbow Dash replied. "What do you mean? I see you napping on some clouds almost every day!" Star Twinkle replied annoyed. “That is completely different!” She replied, annoyed by Star Twinkle's behavior. “So the first time, when she has no option but to sleep, she doesn't... I don't get this mare...” Star Twinkle thought. He then noticed how the Daring Do book was still next to her, untouched by her hooves. "Just read the book, Rainbow Dash," Star Twinkle advised but at the same time, he wanted her to be quiet. "Ugh, not this again..." she replied as soon as Star Twinkle brought up the book again. “I don't read, Star Twinkle!” "Rainbow Dash, I also seldom read a book but I can assure you that this book is not bad so just give it a try. The least it can do is killing five minutes of your time...” She was getting, what Star Twinkle tried to say. Even though she was not looking forward to it. But eventually, she gave the book a try and opened it. She began to read out the first lines of the book with a bored tone in her voice. "As Daring Do trekked through the tropical jungle, the wet heat sapped her energy and slowed her every step. If only she could escape this oppressive atmosphere and fly up into the cool blue sky. But her crash landing in the jungle had injured her wing and she was grounded for a few days. Few days... it might as well be a few months, or a few years!" She read making her think about her current situation as well. "Huh. I'm right there with you, sister," she said looking at her own wings. Star Twinkle was turning around to the other side with his back turned to Rainbow Dash in order to finally get some sleep. Rainbow Dash continued to read the story, whispering the words rather, than reading them out loud. Star Twinkle could still hear her but she was quiet enough so that he could doze off for a while. Before he knew it, some more time has passed. Sleeping most of the day was the only thing Star Twinkle could do but he had to admit that he couldn't do it all day. He was awake now and couldn't just doze off like that again. Then he remembered that Rainbow Dash probably gave up on reading her book. Maybe he could read for a while to skip some time. He already read that book but at this moment, he didn't care. But when he turned around to face Rainbow Dash, he got surprised by what he saw. Rainbow Dash was still reading the book. And reading was still an understatement. Her eyes were focused on the pages, as she whispered the words that she read. She didn't even notice that Star Twinkle was watching her. “Wow, you're still reading?” Star Twinkle said impressed after all those things Rainbow Dash said before. But suddenly, Rainbow Dash snapped out of her trance-like state and poorly attempted to hide the book under her bed cover, before she smiled at Star Twinkle awkwardly. “Hey! What's up Star Twinkle? You're not sleeping anymore?” She said desperately trying to change the subject as fast as possible. “What was that about?” Star Twinkle wondered. He didn't want her to stop reading. She maybe got surprised by Star Twinkle's word all of the sudden, while focusing on reading but he wouldn't mind if she continued. “And why was she hiding that book, just now?” However, Rainbow Dash sat there, still awkwardly smiling at him. To say the least, it was really suspicious. Everypony could have seen that. “Don't mind me and continue. I didn't want to interrupt you,” Star Twinkle assured. “What do you mean? You weren't interrupting anything! I was just...err...” “I saw you reading that book...” Star Twinkle said, making Rainbow Dash stagger a little. “No, I wasn't!” She protested, crossing her front legs stubbornly. “You sure?” “Yeah!” After thinking about what Rainbow Dash's opinion was before reading the book, it was only fitting that she would say something like that. However, Star Twinkle wanted to test something. “Then, would you mind giving me the book?” Star Twinkle asked. “What?” Rainbow Dash replied as her eyes widened in shock. “You said you weren't reading the book just now so it's okay if I read it for the rest of the day right?” Rainbow Dash was hesitating to give an answer. She looked very desperate after his words. Of course, Star Twinkle knew exactly why she acted that way. He felt like a puppeteer. And right now, he pulled the strings on one of his puppets. “Well?” Star Twinkle said, still waiting for the book. Eventually, she took out the book from under her bed cover and attempted to give it to Star Twinkle with heavy hesitation. Star Twinkle watched as the book got closer to him with an analyzing look on his face. But as soon as he tried to grab it, Rainbow Dash pulled it away and pushed it against her chest. “No! You can't read it right now!” She exclaimed, even more nervous as before in frustration. “Because you want to read it?” “Yes!” She exclaimed but as soon as she said it, her eyes widened as she realized what she just said. There was no way that she could up with an excuse now. She flat out admitted that she wanted to read it just now. Even Rainbow Dash realized that there was no escaping anymore. “You know, you don't have to hide it from me...” “I'm not hiding anything!” Rainbow Dash protested angrily. “Come on. Do you really think, that I care if you like to read that book or not?” Star Twinkle replied annoyed. Rainbow Dash looked away in annoyance but also with some slight signs of sadness. First, Star Twinkle thought that he imagined it but then he remembered his choice of words. “I didn't want to say it like that! Now it sounded like I don't care at all about her... And I probably sounded like a total jerk too...” Star Twinkle thought while wishing to take those words back. All he wanted to say is that he doesn't mind, if Rainbow Dash likes to read books. But of course, he had problems to put that in exact words. As soon as he realized that Rainbow was trying to hide, that she liked that book, he planned to get it out of her but that was all ruined. “Come on. Think...” Star Twinkle thought, desperately as he tried to find a solution for this. “How about I tell you a secret about me too? You know...so that we could be even... That way you can make sure that I won't tell anypony,” Star Twinkle suggested in order to defuse the situation. Rainbow Dash seemed hesitant at first but she was also curious. It's not every day that somepony offers to tell a secret to you, after all, so she decided to give in. “Sure...” she replied still confused because she doesn't know what exactly to think about that. “Great!” Star Twinkle replied unnecessarily happy because he now can make it up to her. Now he just had to find a secret that he was willing to tell her. But after some thinking, he realized that it had to be something that was not easy to say for him. He eventually knew something that he would like to share with her. “I know!” He said, causing Rainbow Dash to draw her attention towards Star Twinkle. “But promise me that you won't tell anypony! Especially not Steel Hammer!” Star Twinkle said, making sure that nothing that he would say left this room. Rainbow Dash didn't show signs to do so and nodded in response. She was rather curious what he was about to say if he wanted to make sure that nopony else should hear it. “Okay... It's about my work in the Iron Hammer... Sometimes, in the middle of the day, Steel Hammer has to leave the workshop for a while. To do some errands or customer conversations or...I'm not even sure what he does...but the point is, he leaves the Iron Hammer and lets me take care of the shop in the meantime,” Rainbow Dash was closely listening and moved her head as close as possible to him. It must have been something really embarrassing if he didn't want anypony to find out. She had to admit, that she was quite curious now. Meanwhile, Star Twinkle continued to reveal his secret. “Whenever he does that, I... Close the shop...” he admitted hesitant, followed by a paranoid look on his face as if he felt somepony would have heard it. “What?” Rainbow Dash replied confused, lowering her eyebrows. “Well, you know... By now I know how long he is away and can predict when to reopen the shop again so that he would notice... I mostly take a nap inside in the meantime... I even have an alarm clock hidden inside of the shop so that I can wake up in time,” Star Twinkle admitted, after getting a little more comfortable, revealing his secret. However, Rainbow Dash was not showing the reaction, that Star Twinkle anticipated. In fact, she looked a little disappointed. “That's your big secret?” She replied after Star Twinkle was done. “Yes, why?” Star Twinkle replied, oblivious. “I don't think its that great of a secret!” She replied in disappointment. “What do you mean? It's not supposed to be “great”! It's supposed to be something that I don't want anypony to know!” Star Twinkle exclaimed, defending himself. “So you don't want anypony to know that you sleep on your job?” Rainbow Dash figured. “I don't need to hear that from you...” Star Twinkle replied, obviously referring to Rainbow Dash's naps during work. “Working in the Iron Hammer IS hard work!” “So is cleaning the skies!” Rainbow Dash replied, angrily. “Yes, but unlike you, I am not an ultra fast pony or a great athlete. I'm just some ordinary and weak pony, who is good in something!” Star Twinkle replied. Rainbow Dash's anger vanished a little after hearing that. Him talking down on himself was something that she didn't want him to say. “Don't say stuff like that...” She replied a little hurt. “The only reason why you think you're weak is because you keep telling it to yourself!” Whenever Star Twinkle described himself like that, every time his friends disagree with him and every time he doesn't know how to react to that. Just like now... “You promise to not tell anypony?” Rainbow Dash said to break the silence. She looked like, she was really ashamed of it but she also couldn't hide it anymore. It surprised Star Twinkle that Rainbow Dash seemed to admit it now but at the same time he was glad that this conversation was getting to somewhere at least. He still thought that it was stupid from her to think that her friends would think otherwise about her if they know but it did seem important for her so Star Twinkle promised to not tell anypony. “Close my eyes, don't know why, stick a piece of cake in my eye,” Star Twinkle pinkie Promised, to which Rainbow Dash replied with a light smile on her face. Before he knew it, Rainbow Dash reopened her book and continued to read it as if Star Twinkle wasn't in the room at all. Despite that little argument before, everything worked out fine. “Oh...and...sorry...” she said quietly almost not loud enough for Star Twinkle to hear. “For what?” “You know...for crashing into you and putting you into the hospital...” she said in an embarrassed voice, avoiding as much eye contact as possible. Star Twinkle could tell that it took her much courage to say that. Suddenly, all the anger that he still felt against Rainbow Dash vanished. Maybe in his mind, he knew that an apology was the only thing that was missing the whole time but his anger was just clouding his senses. Whatever it was, it now made him feel bad to act like that. “I'm sorry too... You know...for blaming you and acting so harsh before...” Rainbow Dash could also see that Star Twinkle was having a hard time admitting his mistake. But instead of answering, she just smiled and waved her hoof in an almost relaxed or chilling manner, as if she wanted to say ”don't worry about it”. Star Twinkle knew what she was “saying” and replied with a relieved smile on his face. Rainbow Dash then returned to her book while having a smile on her face. Probably because she was happy to read again. Or maybe because the argument between her and Star Twinkle was now over. With all this out of the way, Star Twinkle still had some problems skipping the time inside of the hospital. It was nice that Rainbow Dash had something to do now but Star Twinkle was bored right now. But before he could even think about how to get rid of his boredom, a knocking on the door could be heard, instantly getting Rainbow Dash's attention, who, just like before made sure to hide the book under her bed cover. Shortly after, Twilight and Fluttershy entered the room, happily greeting the two hospitalized ponies. Even though Rainbow Dash tried to hide how nervous she was right now, it was painfully obvious. Twilight and Fluttershy offered to play a board game with her since she complained about how boring it would get in the hospital. It was a game where you had to guess the positions of each players clouds and other flying objects. The first one who finds every single one of them wins. And of course, Rainbow Dash let Twilight be the one who starts guessing. Rainbow Dash just pretended that her clouds got hit by every single guess and lost in the very first turn. Twilight, of course, sensed something fishy about it but Rainbow Dash was trying to cover it up as good as possible. She really wanted them to go so that she could continue to read her book and was ready to anything to accomplish that. “Well, maybe Star Twinkle wants to play?” Fluttershy suggested. But since Star Twinkle knew that Rainbow Dash wanted to read her book, he had to come up with an excuse. But he didn't have one ready. Except for one. “Hey, Star Twinkle do you-” But Twilight stopped in the middle of the sentence after she saw how Star Twinkle was covering himself in his bed cover, trying to convince him that he was asleep. “Weird,” Twilight wondered. “Wasn't he awake just now?” This was also the perfect opportunity for Rainbow Dash. “What are you talking about? He was asleep the whole time!” She said, supporting Star Twinkle's excuse. “I think I also take a little nap. Thanks for coming!” She said before she turned out the light and pretended to fall asleep in front of them. Twilight and Fluttershy were not sure if Rainbow Dash was asleep or not but they decided to not bother her and Star Twinkle so they left the room again. After Twilight and Fluttershy left, the two hospitalized ponies got up again and were relieved that their little “performance” was actually believed by them. “Clever...” Star Twinkle commented on Rainbow Dash's act. “Better than just falling asleep out of nowhere,” “True...” Star Twinkle admitted after putting up such a poorly excuse. Once again, after everypony left, Rainbow Dash pulled out her book and continued reading. "Daring Do stood at the entrance to the central temple chamber..." she whispered excitingly, reading out loud the words in the book. And once again, Star Twinkle didn't know what to do... Star Twinkle wished that Twilight would have given him something to read too. He could talk with Rainbow Dash but he didn't want to interrupt her. For somepony who was so against reading, she sure was drawn into this book. It almost scared Star Twinkle... Star Twinkle could only watch how the time was moving on the clock in their room. Until... “Hello!” The shrill voice of Pinkie Pie said. Rainbow Dash, who got startled by Pinkie Pie's voice, was instantly hiding her book again, to not let anypony know about her obsession with this book. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity entered the room, this time. Star Twinkle was actually happy to see them. Now he had somepony to talk to for a while. “How are our two patients doing today?” Rarity asked, to check up on both of their conditions. Applejack quickly went to the window, claiming that there must be not enough air in the room since Rainbow Dash was sweating a lot. When Star Twinkle checked up on her, he realized it too. She must have been nervous that the others might find out about the book. She probably will try to find out how to get rid of them as well. “Okay, now, dinner time for Star Twinkle and Rainbow Dash,” said a nurse, bringing in two plates with food. At least, Star Twinkle thought it was food. He could barely identify what was on his plate... All the rumors about food in a hospital proved to be right as soon as he saw his plate. The strange thing is, that he was hungry before but that seemed to vanish, right now. “Oh, just in time. I am sooo hungry,” Rainbow Dash said almost excited. She probably was hinting at that her friends should leave so that she could eat but they insisted on staying and didn't mind if she was eating. “Is she really going to eat this stuff?” Star Twinkle thought confused. “Maybe it just looks bad?” He wondered, raising an eyebrow while inspecting his food once more. He decided to let Rainbow Dash taste it first. Maybe if it tasted good, he would also give it a try. Rainbow Dash seemed to make sure that she was watched by everypony and started eating in the most disgusting and gross way that nopony has ever seen before. Needless to say, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity were so grossed out that they decided to leave. Star Twinkle would like to leave too, after seeing that. As soon as they left, Rainbow Dash spits out her food again, most likely due to the bad taste. This proved enough that Star Twinkle should leave the food on the plate. “Again...clever...” Star Twinkle admitted, almost complimenting on Rainbow Dash's efforts to get back to her book. “Heh...I know,” Rainbow Dash replied, taking the compliment. She wasted no time to get back to her book, dozing off in the world of reading again. Star Twinkle somehow managed to skip some time until it got dark and decided that it was the perfect time to go to sleep. Rainbow Dash, however, was still reading having a lantern right next to her due to the darkness. She was reading quietly so it didn't bother Star Twinkle and he decided to go to sleep. Maybe if he wakes up tomorrow, the doctors will say that he can leave... On the next morning... Despite, sleeping a little on the day before, Star Twinkle slept through the whole night without interruption. His head also seemed to get better. There was no more pain in his head. Actually, after thinking about it, there was not much pain, to begin with in the first place. This gave Star Twinkle some hope to leave the hospital soon. “Good morning, Star Twinkle, Rainbow Dash,” said an unfamiliar voice. It came from a unicorn with a light amber colored coat and a brown mane, wearing a doctor white coat and some glasses as well as an electrocardiograph monitor as a Cutie Mark. “We didn't have a chance to meet yet, haven't we? I am doctor Horse,” he introduced himself. Star Twinkle figured that he must be the one who was responsible for him and Rainbow Dash. He wanted to introduce himself too but that would be pointless. The doctor probably knew everything about Star Twinkle anyway. It felt kinda weird for him. “I am happy to announce that one of you can go home now,” he said wasting no time bringing some good news. “Please me, please me, please me, please me!” Star Twinkle was praying inside of his head. “Rainbow Dash!” Doctor Horse announced. “Of course...” Star Twinkle thought annoyed. At least one of them could leave the hospital. Star Twinkle wondered if Rainbow Dash was happy to hear that and turned around to look at her bed but when he looked at her he noticed that she was already up, covering herself under her bed covers with the same lantern beside her than last night. “Wait...was she up all night, reading that book?” Star Twinkle wondered since everything was pointing at it. Doctor Horse went to her bed and made sure that she received the good news as well. As soon as she noticed that Somepony was addressing her, she came up from under her bed cover in surprise. She even got more surprised after realizing herself that she was up all night. “Well, I'll be quick. Congratulations, Rainbow Dash, we're checking you out of the hospital,” Doctor Horse said, delivering the good news to Rainbow Dash as well. But instead of excitement, pure fear was seen in Rainbow Dash's face. “What? Later today?” She said biting her hoof nervously. “No. Right now!” Doctor Horse replied, causing Rainbow Dash to become more frustrated. Before she knew it, she was practically thrown out of the hospital. Almost as if everypony wanted them out as fast as possible. “That could have been me...” Star Twinkle said disappointed. Rainbow Dash seemed to be sad to leave Star Twinkle. She even reached out one hoof in his direction with a sad expression on her face. “Wow...did not thought she would have taken it so hard...” Star Twinkle said, surprised to her reaction. When he turned his head to his right, he noticed how the Daring Do book was still hidden under the bed cover. Since Rainbow Dash was not going to read that, Star Twinkle would either give it back to one of the nurses or read it himself. The rest of the day was extremely boring for Star Twinkle. He had nopony to talk to for a while. His friends did show up scattered through the day but were only allowed to stay for around an hour. There was also a new roommate that replaced Rainbow Dash but Star Twinkle didn't know him and he didn't look too good either so Star Twinkle didn't talk much with him. But the good news was that he could leave the hospital on the next day. Awaiting this day to come even faster, Star Twinkle decided to go to sleep, early so that he could get out of the hospital fast. However, since he was sleeping a lot lastly, he couldn't manage to fall asleep fast and laid there in the dark with open eyes. Maybe it was because of the excitement to leave the hospital on the next day, that kept him awake. Whatever it was, it bothered and annoyed him. Suddenly, while practically waiting to fall asleep, he noticed how somepony was breaking into his room, dressed in a black leather suit. Star Twinkle thought it was a burglar and pretended to be asleep, to not get into trouble. But after getting a closer look on the pony, he recognized who it was in an instant. “Rainbow Dash?” He whispered to her, getting her attention as she crawled on the ground in an attempt to not get caught. However, she didn't reply and just moved her hoof in front of her mouth, trying to signal that Star Twinkle should be quiet. Star Twinkle did not understand what this was all about until he noticed that she was going to the bed, where she was in before. When she noticed that it was occupied, she quickly looked under it and found what she was looking for. The Daring Do book. “Gimme a break!” Star Twinkle thought, after realizing that she just broke into a hospital for a book. Instead of grabbing the book and reading it somewhere else, she decided to read it under the bed, which was not a good idea at all since Star Twinkle's roommate woke up, screaming for help, thinking that Rainbow Dash was a burglar. “Help! Burglar, burglar! Someone's trying to steal my slippers!” He screamed, alerting the nurses and doctors in the hospital. Rainbow Dash then ran away but not without being followed by some nurses and doctors, who's attention she captured. Star Twinkle was playing with the thought of not doing anything but he eventually decided to follow Rainbow Dash and the hospital staff. Rainbow Dash was surrounded but she was a Pegasus so she just flew over her everypony in order to escape but since her wing was not fully recovered yet, she crashed down on the floor and lost the book. She then ran away with four ponies chasing her and Star Twinkle right behind them. Even some dogs seemed to follow her, though Star Twinkle could only hear some barking and didn't see any dog. Star Twinkle did not know exactly why he followed her too but he was worried that Rainbow Dash could get into some trouble. They chased her throughout all of Ponyville, ranging from Sugarcube Corner, trough Carousel Boutique and finally ended in front of the Golden Oak Library. Rainbow Dash found herself surrounded by the hospital staff and her friends, who woke up due to the noises from the chase. When Star Twinkle approached the ponies, two of the ponies walked past him, one of them being a guard from the hospital and one of them being a patient, who was barking constantly, which Star Twinkle thought was a little weird. The closer Star Twinkle got to the group of ponies, the more he could hear how they were asking Rainbow Dash about what was going on. As expected it was a little hard for Rainbow Dash to admit, that she was doing it for a book. Luckily, Star Twinkle knew what to do in this situation to protect Rainbow Dash's secret. “There you are, Rainbow Dash!” Star Twinkle said, instantly getting the attention of everypony. “I know that you wanted to visit me as soon as you got out but couldn't you wait for tomorrow morning?” Star Twinkle said, trying to somehow save Rainbow Dash and keeping her secret safe. But unfortunately, nopony seemed to believe him right away. Especially not Twilight... “She wanted to visit you in this kind of get up?” Twilight asked, referring to Rainbow Dash's leather suit. In this instant, Star Twinkle's excuse was busted and he didn't know how to respond. Rainbow Dash knew what Star Twinkle was planning and appreciated, how he was defending her secret but she also knew that it would only be a matter of time until everypony found out. “It's okay, Star Twinkle...” she said, getting Star Twinkle out of this situation. “What's going on, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked Rainbow Dash. “The truth is... I'm an egghead,” she admitted. “See, I was trying to get back into the hospital to finish the last chapter of—“ “—'Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue'!” Twilight said, finishing Rainbow Dash's sentence. “Wow, I knew the book was good, but I didn't know it could drive a pony to petty theft!” “Good? Try awesomely amazing. That book is undeniably, unquestionably, un-put-down-able! But then I had to put it down; I was sent home before I could finish it,” Rainbow Dash said a little ashamed, by her actions because of that. Rainbow Dash expected laughter coming towards her from all sides but instead, everypony was just relieved that she was only trying to get back the book instead of stealing something. It was just like everypony said before, reading is not only for smart ponies like Twilight. Reading is for everypony. Some more, some less but there was nothing to be ashamed of at all. Rainbow Dash learned this lesson too and realized that she was in the wrong. In the end, everypony was happy that Rainbow Dash came to that conclusion and went home again. Or in Star Twinkle's case back to the hospital. Doctor Horse was about to accompany him back but they were stopped by Rainbow Dash. “I just wanted to say, thank you, trying to keep my secret... I didn't think that you would try to cover it up for me until the very end,” Rainbow Dash said, gratefully but also a little embarrassed in front of Star Twinkle. “I just figured that I had too. It's what friends do for each other, right?” Rainbow Dash nodded relieved and was grateful that Star Twinkle thought that way. “Well, if you excuse me, I have a book to finish!” She said as she walked off in direction of her home. “And we have to go back to the hospital!” Doctor Horse said, trying to mimic the enthusiasm that Rainbow Dash had before she left. “Right...” Star Twinkle thought as he realized that he still had to spent one night in the hospital. At least it's only one night...