With that said Quentin went into a strange and deep silence and wouldn’t talk to Chris anymore except to make one remark that he was very disappointed and upset in him, and so with that the family went their separate ways on to bed without any more words being exchanged, but Chris could tell from the looks on their faces that they were disappointed and upset, maybe not as much as their older brother, but enough, the only one who didn’t look upset was Eve for some strange reason, he would have to make sure to ask her why later.
So the family went their separate ways to bed and eventually life went back to normal after the whole accident with Chris, and Quentin and the others did come to forgive him of his little mistake, “After all,” Quentin said, “All of us make mistakes, none of us are perfect, if we were then we wouldn’t have anything to worry about in life, but we do, like all the chaos and confusion and peril and danger that could come to us at any moment, and we don’t expect you to be perfect either, especially since you’re on the road to becoming something better, but the road has all kinds of obstacles that you don’t know about and must face, and it’s only natural to fall if you trip over a stone.”
Time passed on for the family and eventually Chris felt safe enough to wander through town in his new form, he wasn’t afraid of being caught this time.
But as he was in town on that fateful Tuesday, something strange and unusual caught his attention, some pony was coming from the Everfree forest, and they didn’t look well, the filly in question had strange and unusual black lines like some kind of shadow or something crawling across her body from a puncture point wound in her hooves, and although Chris wasn’t sure she looked grayer than any pony he had ever seen, it was indeed a strange and unusual sight, and figuring as the filly might be in trouble or sick he decided to call out for help, “Some pony help me!” he said, “I see a filly coming out from the Everfree forest! She looks sick! She could be in trouble! Is any pony here a doctor?”
Suddenly the crowd seemed to stop what they were doing and soon enough a doctor rushed over to examine the patient, “Who is she?” Chris asked.
“She’s Apple Bloom, and she looks very sick, in fact I’ve never seen anything like it just by looking at her, but maybe I need to look at her more closely to find something, I’ll have to take her to the hospital in order to know, every pony I need you to clear a path for me, we have a sick patient on the way!”
With that said ever pony did as the nurse instructed and cleared a path for them, Chris decided to follow the two along since he was the first one that had found her and saw her first, and his natural curiosity got the better of him.
When Chris got to the hospital he had to wait outside the room for the results that the doctors would find, but as he was waiting another pony suddenly came charging down towards the room and was saying, “That’s my sister in there! Don’t you know that it’s my sister in there? Just let me see her, please.”
“I’m sorry miss,” one of the nurses who was detaining her said, “But you’ll just have to wait outside like every pony else who wants to see her, the doctor still has tests to run you know, and he can’t be bothered by any pony else.”
“Fine then,” Applejack said sitting on the bench next to Chris, “I’ll wait here, but don’t expect me to be happy about it, because I won’t, and next time you might not be so lucky from stopping me from seeing my sick sister y’all.”
With that said Applejack did as she said and sat there on the bench in meek acceptance and stunning silence. Soon enough however more ponies, the friends of Applejack, including Princess Twilight Sparkle, came to join her.
But there wasn’t room for all of them at one bench so while the others went to find some other benches and sat there, Chris and Applejack sat alone in silence. Eventually however Applejack broke that silence by asking a question to him, “Say,” she finally said at last, “I haven’t seen you around these parts or town before; are you from out of town and visiting here, and if that’s so, why?”
"“I am from out of town, and I’m visiting here on business terms.”
“Well that’s nice, I hope you enjoy your stay, but you don’t have to stay here for my sister Apple Bloom if you don’t want to, you can leave any time you want you know. If you got other stuff to do right now I wouldn’t mind you leaving.”
“Oh no, I think I’ll stay, I am the one who first saw her you know.”
“You did? Well shucks, I owe you my undying gratitude for that favor sir.”
“Why would that be?”
“Because she could have fainted before some pony saw her, or she might not have gotten home before I or some pony else could have helped her either.”
“I did not consider that, well anyhow I think I’ll stick around if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all, it’s not like this ain’t a private room or something, all guests and visitors are welcome here so long as they don’t bother or upset me or my sister. But if you’re going to stay why don’t we talk some more about each other?”
“Nah, I think I would rather prefer not to talk while I wait.”
“Well suit yourself then, each pony on their own I suppose.”
And with that said they sat on the bench waiting in silence for the doctor.
Eventually the doctor did come back and at once Applejack was on her hooves.
“Is she fine? Is she okay? What’s the news? Please tell me something Doctor.”
“We don’t know how the patient is,” the doctor said, “All we now is that this disease that she has, it’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, perhaps your good friend Princess Twilight Sparkle can help us find what it is that we’re looking for, none of our books have anything, but maybe hers do have a thing that could help us, but of course she would need to examine the patient first.”
“I’ll be more than willing to help you doctor, and you Applejack,” Twilight said (who had now moved closer as well as the others ever since the doctor had come back). With that said Twilight went into the room and a few minutes later returned, “I may be wrong,” she said, “But there is nothing I know of in my books that could help us girls, I’m afraid this is a complete mystery to every pony, and that includes me, but I suppose we could look through the books again, but that would mean you would have to examine her, and so long as it’s to try and help her, I’m sure that they’ll let you in to see her now.”
The girls got the hint and rushed inside with Chris following close behind; when he got inside he saw that around the bed where Apple Bloom lay in that the space was crowded with the six ponies who all knew the filly very well.
“She’s a bit delirious and is running a very high fever,” the doctor said, “And her blood work shows something we’ve never seen before, but we haven’t been able to get anything out of her as to where she was or any clues on how she got it, if you could find that out it would be most helpful for us to know that.”
“We’ll find that out for you, doctor,” Twilight said, “Now Apple Bloom,” she said gently nudging the pony to focus, “Do you think you can tell us what happened to you? It would be very helpful for me and the doctors to know what happened so that we can have a better clue as to what’s wrong with you exactly.”
“Well,” Apple Bloom said sleepily with a loud yawn, “I was in the Everfree forest gathering some plants for Zecora, but then I got lost and suddenly I found myself somewhere where I had never been before or seen before, it was a place like no other that I had previously seen in that forest, I mean there was green grass and stuff, but the flowers I saw, well I’ve never saw anything like them before, they had gray petals on them and then I picked one up to smell it.
But the odd and strange part is that when I tried to smell it I couldn’t smell anything, the flower didn’t have a scent on it, but it did have some thorns on it, and I guess I must have accidentally pricked myself on one because the next thing I know I’m feeling all dizzy and wibbly wobbly, I could barely stand up straight on my four hooves, and I couldn’t see or think straight either, the only thought that I had when I came out of that forest was to find you Applejack.”
“Well that’s nice to know, thanks little sister, you’ve helped us out a lot today.”
“I did? Well that’s nice I suppose, tell Granny I said hi-,”
Suddenly as Apple Bloom uttered her last word she fell asleep on the bed.
“Oh she must be so tired from her illness the poor dear thing,” Rarity said.
“Yeah, I suppose so, we better leave her to rest, but if you don’t mind I’m going to stay here with her, the rest of y’all can get back to work with helping Twilight try to find some magical mystery cure for this strange and mysterious disease.”
“Will do,” Rarity said, “On the case,” Rainbow Dash said, “Well okay, if that’s what you really want,” Fluttershy said nervously as she flapped her wings, “I don’t want to read anything else, but if it’s to help Apple Bloom, then I will,” Spike said, “We won’t let you down Applejack, will we let her down girls?”
“No way!” they all said at once in perfect unison and perfect harmony.
With that said all the girls went on to their separate ways to go and do what they could to try to help the sick Apple Bloom into a healthy recovery.
Chris felt guilty at not having anything to do, but eventually his mind came up with an idea that he could do, “You know what,” he said as he backed out of the room, “I think I know what I can do to help her, I’m going to go get that plant of hers that she described, and I’ll do it even if it kills me or worse.”
“I don’t know about that,” Applejack said, “I appreciate your concern, but you don’t need to put yourself in this much danger and trouble for a pony stranger that you barely even know, even if that pony stranger is a very sick pony.”
“Nonsense, I love to help any pony I can, so you stay right here and I’ll be back before you even notice that I’m gone, and I promise that I won’t fail you.”
“Alright then, if you say so, but I still hope you’ll be safe out there all alone.”
With that said Chris went out of the hospital and off into the Everfree forest all alone to keep his word and promise, and he would not fail any pony.