Boredom was something Sunset Shimmer was experiencing way too much as of late. She guessed that being stuck in a hospital for almost a week with really nothing to do would do just that to any person. Sure, there were her training exercises to regain her lost physical abilities, but they became really old, really fast.. Her friends visited as often as they could and stayed for far longer than was actually allowed for visitors in a hospital, but even they couldn’t stay 24/7. Add to that the fact that by now they all had jobs they had to attend to and there were long periods of time between the visits of her friends. Finally, the TV was busted. Yeah, as if Sunset’s luck hadn’t been shitty enough, there was no way for her to spend the in-between time, aside from sleeping. Something she had done for the past four years!
So, she had asked if one of the nurses could push her outside in a wheelchair in order for her to get some fresh air and see the outside world. She didn’t have a good view from her window. Only a couple of hundred yards away was another building and the street at the bottom of the hospital wasn’t particularly interesting. Plus Sunset had to get up and walk in order to even look down. Two things that she currently had a rather hard time in doing.
However, it seemed that on this particular day luck was on her side. The door to her room opened, after a short knock, and it came in form of her friend Fluttershy, who pushed a wheelchair into the room. Sunset’s expression lit up immediately.
“Good morning, Sunset.” Fluttershy softly greeted her friend.
“Hi, Fluttershy.” Sunset greeted back, waving her hand casually. By now she didn’t have any trouble doing simple things like this and didn’t need to be fed anymore. Though, Fluttershy still insisted on doing this and Sunset allowed it in order to keep her friend calm. In fact, Fluttershy almost treated Sunset like one of her pets these past days and did things like stroking her hair, speaking in a motherly, reassuring tone to her, softening up her pillow, generally having more body contact with her and a lot more things to add to the list. Like right now, as Fluttershy had approached Sunset’s bed the pink haired woman pulled her friend into a hug and slowly stroked the fiery haired woman’s hair.
“How are you today?” Fluttershy asked in the previously mentioned motherly tone of hers. “They treat you alright, don’t they?”
“Of course they do.” Sunset chuckled, returning the hug. “The food is fine, the bed is comfortable and the nurses are really helpful with everything. The doctor even said I’m recovering at a really fast rate, well given the circumstances.” Sunset gently took Fluttershy’s arm and placed it on her own back. “They still said it’s going to be at least three months until I am back in shape and that is an optimistic guess. But still, there’s no need to worry anymore.”
Fluttershy disagreed, shaking her head and placing her hand back on Sunset’s head. “But I do worry about you.” the girl whispered. “I just can’t stop worrying about you. You’re so weak, so helpless, I just want to take you home, care about you, feed you-”
“Uh...Fluttershy?” Sunset pulled back, looking at her friend a little worried.
“Yes?” the woman asked with a sweet smile.
“Are you alright?”
“Of course, I am. Why wouldn’t I be alright?” Fluttershy asked, seemingly oblivious to her friend’s worry.
“Well...it’s just...no nevermind.” Sunset shook her head, deciding it was better not to approach certain waters. “Uh...you brought a wheelchair. Does that mean we can go outside?”
Fluttershy nodded enthusiastically. “Uh huh. I spoke with your doctor. He said it is alright for you to go outside.”
“Awesome!” Sunset cheered. “It was getting really boring here, you know? TV is busted for some reason,” she pointed at the device hanging from the ceiling “and there’s just nothing to do here. You’re a lifesaver, Shy.”
“Oh, you’re welcome,” Fluttershy replied. “Anything for a friend, after all. The others wanted to come too, but sadly, they couldn’t.”
“It’s alright,” Sunset assured. “I know you all have the stuff to do and well, I didn’t really give you a heads up call, did I?” the woman joked, but Fluttershy didn’t think it was funny at all.
“Don’t say that.” Fluttershy softly chided.
“Sorry,” Sunset replied sheepishly. “Mind if we go now? I’m kinda itching for some fresh air.”
“Oh, of course. I’m so sorry for keeping you here for so long.”
Getting into the wheelchair proved to be quite troublesome for both. Fluttershy had never been the strongest in the first place, so Sunset couldn’t really support herself on the other woman. They tried of course, but after Sunset almost got dropped to the ground they relinquished that strategy immediately. Instead, Sunset slowly sat down on the chair. At first, she slowly got off the bed, on her feet with her hands supporting herself on the bed. It may sound ridiculous, but this put quite the strain on her legs. Next, she turned around as quickly as possible so that she faced the bed. Fluttershy placed the wheelchair behind Sunset as quickly as possible. With steady support from the bed, Sunset managed to place herself on the chair, literally dropping on it, as her strength left her. The former unicorn sighed in relief when she was safely seated in the thing.
“Oh man, I can’t wait to go back to walking on my own again.”
“I’m sure you do,” Fluttershy said, her hand going through Sunset’s hair again. While the fiery haired girl wondered what the matter with that was, Fluttershy’s hair glowed a little bit and the woman silently worked her magic on her friend. “Let’s go,” Fluttershy spoke softly and pushed the wheelchair through the door.
Outside of her room, Sunset saw what she had been expecting outside her room. Brightly lit, white hallways with doctors and nurses hurrying across and down it, too occupied to pay any attention to a patient who from the outside looked alright, at least compared to other patients. Speaking of, some of them were outside of their rooms as well. Pregnant women, other people in wheelchairs, mostly with broken legs, people with varying degree of other injuries, families, and friends going into rooms, probably here on a visit. It was quite busy.
In the meantime, Fluttershy saw something quite different. She had been never fond of the dark style the castle generally had, with a few exceptions, but she had been outvoted on this part. At least she could design her own castles however she wanted, mostly asking Rarity for help.
Servants were busy hurrying through the hallways, doing their daily tasks or whatever order they had been given by one of the Empresses. Guards patrolled the hallways and from time to time stood in front of certain rooms for whatever important stuff might be hidden there. Like Pinkie Pie’s party supply closet. A number of explosives inside was enough to possibly blow up an entire mountain. (Like that one in the Himalayas.)
Everyone, of course, went out of the women’s way. They didn’t question why the Empress of Kindness looked the way she did. The guards had been informed and if you were a servant working directly for the Empresses, you were smart enough to not question whatever they were doing.
Finally, the two reached the elevator, which had been waiting for them for quite some time. Stepping inside, Fluttershy clumsily turned her friend around and pushed the button for going upwards.
“Wait, that’s the wrong way.” Sunset pointed out.
Fluttershy shook her head, only to realize that her friend couldn’t see her. So she spoke. “There wasn’t enough space for a proper courtyard when they built the hospital. Instead, they made the roof available for people to sit down and enjoy the view.”
“Really? That sounds awesome.” Sunset commented, but then remembered something. “Wait, aren’t you afraid of heights?” she asked, turning her hand around. Fluttershy smiled down at her friend, happy about the kind thoughts of Sunset.
“Don’t worry about me. As long as you’re happy, I’ll be happy.”
In another part of the castle, the Empress of Magic was standing in front of the portal, arms crossed and a scowl on her face. The mirror shimmered purple in magic, meaning it would be any time now when the “guests” would arrive.
As soon as those thoughts went through her mind, three humans stumbled ungracefully out of the portal. Understandingly, since those particular three had to transit from walking on four legs to walking on two.
The human on Midnight’s left could be mistaken for her former vice-principal, as she was a carbon copy of the woman, even wearing the same clothes. There was a difference, however, namely the hair. The hair was floating in a seemingly non-existing wind, with stars appearing and disappearing inside of it. The same was the case for the woman on the right, almost looking like Midnight’s former principal Celestia.
Only the woman the middle appeared to be normal. For some reason the portal still gave her the same clothes, only adjusting the measurements for everything. The only difference from Twilight Sparkle’s former attire was the necklace she was wearing, which consisted of a few gems, carefully crafted and attached together to make them look like her cutie mark. Midnight was wearing the same one.
“Princess Luna, Princess Celestia...Twilight.”
“Midnight.” Twilight greeted stiffly, her eyes narrowed at her human counterpart.
“I must say, you threw all of us a little off guard.” Midnight admitted. “With all of you coming here, only I was able to clear my schedule to greet you today. What is the occasion, if I may ask so bold?” Midnight spoke with authority.
“Apologies, Empress,” Luna answered in a polite tone. “My sister, Princess Twilight and I will be outside of our kingdom for the coming days, as we were invited by another Kingdom for a formal visit. Rescheduling was out of the question and it this invite is of significantly political important to us. As such, we found the need to reschedule our weekly visit. I myself decided to come as well since I have seen so little of your world and wished to use the opportunity.”
“I see.” Midnight never had problems with such trivial things. If she wanted to go somewhere she just did and if she didn’t want to go somewhere, she just didn’t. No one questioned her and she didn’t feel very obliged to give her reasons to anyone. “Well, in that case, I have bad news for you, Twilight. You might want to cancel your little business trip because you have something more important to do here.”
“Here? And what would be so important to keep me here occupied? Another weapons project? Do you want to learn a new way to torture your subjects more than you already do? Or do you simply want to gain even more power?!” Twilight spat with venom in her voice.
Midnight narrowed her eyes, suppressing the urge to blast her damnable counterpart away. “She has woken up.” Midnight spoke, eyeing each and every one of the princesses. “Sunset has woken up from her coma, not too long ago.”
That revelation rendered Luna and Twilight speechless, both staring with wide eyes at their host. Celestia, who had been quiet up until that point, immediately walked in front of Midnight, glaring straight into her eyes.
“Lead us to her this instant.” The solar princess demanded. And for once, Midnight obliged.