//------------------------------// // Chapter XXV: Hospital Visitors // Story: For His Majesty // by CrackedInkWell //------------------------------// Prince Blueblood woke up with a head-splitting headache with voices in his ears. The hodge-podge of sound blended, fuzzy at first, but as he listened further, his brain began to realize he knew those voices. However, due to the unpleasant pain that felt like his first hangover all over again, he found it difficult to concentrate. Moving his forelegs, he felt the unmistakable feel of a cheap blanket, thus forcing his eyes to open so he could see where he was. The first thing he saw was a window that had the endless sea. After looking down at the bed, the I.V. tube that was sticking out of his foreleg, and the light green divider he quickly deduced that he was in a hospital on the main Island. And those voices that he was hearing became clearer to which he realized that what he was listening to was laughter. “I can’t believe that actually happened to you,” the blond prince instantly recognized it to be the voice of his cousin. “How did that happened?” “Well,” Fancy’s voice was heard. “You have to remember that I was in college at the time. It was a huge beach party where all the other Fraternities were there so of course right away we’ve started drinking and everypony started pairing up except for me. Oh, and we were burning up a telegraph pole.” Blueblood heard the laughter of his aunts, “To this day, I have no clue who stole it, but I’m pretty sure that in any country that it’s pretty high on the drunk theft scale. “So I started walking about with a can of beer in my aura when I tripped on a blanket. I was so drunk that I remembered thinking, ‘Who in Tartarus brings a blanket to the beach.’ And at this point, the fire was right here to which my next thought was, ‘Huh, that’s close to my face.’ Then I see my forehooves in the embers that I exclaimed,” then Fancy screamed before continuing. “The next thing I knew, somepony saw me fall into the bonfire and rushed over, grabbed my shirt collar and throws me into the sand. Then, my drunken friends proceeded to stomp me out.” The Prince tried to light up his horn but hissed in pain, hooves clenched over to his horn, in which he noticed for the first time that there were bandages on his head. A familiar golden glow covered the dividing screen to be pulled aside. There was both of his aunts, his cousins along with her husband and his coltfriend that too was lying in a similar hospital bed. He noticed that Fancy’s hind leg was cocooned in a cast. “Bluey, you’ve finally come to,” this came from the night Princess in which she nuzzled him. “Finally?” Blueblood questioned, “How long was I out for? In fact, what happened?” An uneasy laugh was heard that the Prince quickly identified to be his cousin. “Yeah… about that… That was my fault. You have been knocked out for two days give-or-take. I didn’t know that the structure of that restaurant you were in didn’t exactly have adequate building materials.” Things began to click in the blond unicorn’s mind; he remembered what Prince Shining had told what was really going on. “Oh yes, thank you for reminding me, Cadance. So whose idea was it to place a bet on me and my consort?” All three Princesses turned pale, even Celestia which while the Prince did find it impressive since she is already white; he was still focused on the fact that they influenced his dating experience behind his back. They looked at one another before his Solar Aunt replied, “How long have you known?” “Roughly around the time that I ran into Prince Shining in drag in the restroom,” he said deadpanned. “No I wasn’t,” the other Prince objected. “You were in makeup and wearing a wig.” “She made me,” he pointed at the pink mare. “But it was all for a good cause,” Cadance said. Blueblood sat up in his bed. “For what? In case none of you have noticed, I’m doing pretty well with wooing my consort on my own, thank you very much. We were doing fine until the ceiling fell on my head or he had broken his leg.” “To be fair,” Fancy added, “he is right about this you know – none of you shouldn’t manipulate our dates for the sake of your bet; it’s rather unbecoming of all of you as Equestrian Royalty.” Shining snorted, “Believe it or not, both of you got off easy. I mean, when Cadie and I started dating, Celestia had betted with the Captain of the Royal Guard at the time that I might sleep with her before our wedding.” All eyes turned to the Solar alicorn, “What? When you have a job as monotonous for over a thousand years, you too would want some excitement every now and then. Besides,” she folded her forelegs proudly, “I did win in the end.” Her nephew’s jaw dropped, he was about to ask what was on his mind but quickly shook the thought, “I don’t want to know. Anyway, is that the reason why you’ve done this with me and Fancy? Out of entertainment?” “Truthfully,” Luna admitted, “it was an aspect of it, but we did it out of good intentions Bluey. We do want to for not only to be happy but to be with a stallion that will love you. Yes, I’ll be the first to admit that this is somewhat extreme to a degree, but we did manipulate behind the scenes so that you’ll find pure joy, openly and without shame. I mean, after how we’ve noticed when you came out to us, how afraid you were, we still want to support you with all the power we have.” “But it doesn’t make it any less wrong Auntie Luna,” Blueblood sighed and put a hoof to his bandaged forehead. “Just so that I know, what exactly did you bet on and who won?” “I did,” Cadance smirked. “As of now, they owe me and my husband twenty barrels of Sweet Apple whiskey, Auntie Lu’s famous recipe for Moonshine Cake, and paid vacations to Prance and Istaly.” The blond Prince folded his forelegs, “You know, this is still pretty upsetting that the three of you would do this behind our backs. It’s one thing to bet on something, but it’s downright deceitful when you stick your snouts into something that, frankly, is our own personal business – even if it’s done with good intentions. Now, would you please leave us before any of you start another bet?” His cousin quickly got an idea, “Ooh! How about how long it’ll take for them to get engaged?” “OUT!” Blueblood shouted as he pointed a hoof towards the door. “All of you get out!” They followed suit, all three Princesses and a husband walked out of the hospital room, closing the door behind them. “You know,” Fancy began, “I think I would go too, but my leg is preventing me from moving at the moment.” His coltfriend sighed, “No… Fancy, I’m so sorry for all of this.” He paused when he heard his consort laughing, “What?” “Forgive me, but compared to my family, this is nothing.” He waved a hoof. “At least we didn’t have Dad with a sniper crossbow that has been following us, aiming at your head.” Blueblood blinked, “That actually happened?” “Well, that… and Mum used to send ponies to spy on us… and by spies I mean my siblings.” “Why? What did they do? Did they place a bet on when you got married to your last husband?” The older unicorn snorted, “I wish! Why they-” a crash cut off whatever Fancy was going to say. There was a tremendous commotion that was coming from outside of the door to their hospital room. Shouting, clanging of metal and a stampede of hooves were rushing quickly towards where they were before the door flung opened. It was a pegasus stallion that was wearing blue police uniform. “Found him! He’s in here!” Stepping inside, the Prince got a good look at the officer. He had a gray coat, a strong complexion, and had blue eyes with a blond mane that reminded him of Ms. Harshwhinny. As soon as he stepped through, so did Fancy’s parents and a few other ponies that Blueblood didn’t recognize. One was a unicorn mare that seemed to be older than his consort that was a chocolate brown, a solid black mane that was tied up in a bun, wearing a suit. And by Harshwhinny’s side was a younger, pudgy looking Earth pony stallion that was royal blue with a ghostly white mane. Glancing over to his consort, Blueblood saw how all the color had drained from his face, “What are all of you doing here?” “Isn’t it obvious?” the police officer walked over towards Fancy, “We just heard that you got hurt. Of course, I would have come sooner to check up on my little brother…” he tilted his head towards the group of ponies that came in. “But they’ve heard about it too.” “Fancy,” Clavier, Fancy’s father rushed over to his bedside. “We came as soon as we heard, are you alright? Did anyone have you signed up to harvest your kidneys?” “Who are they?” Blueblood spoke up what was on his mind. “Oh, right,” his coltfriend cleared his throat. “My Prince, you’ve already met my parents. These here, are my brothers and sister.” He narrowed his eyes, “The same ones that promised that we wouldn’t all be in the same room at the same time after that dinner incident. Come to think of it, how did any of you know I was here?” “You do know that news travels by telegraph, right?” the mare in the sharply dressed suit answered in a deadpanned tone, “Especially when they’ve laid an underwater line between here and Equestria.” “Oh…” Fancy facehoofed. “Well then Blue, since the family is here, I might as well introduce you to them. The mare that just spoke is the eldest, my sister Keen Eye, the producer that I told you about a while back.” He waved a hoof towards the police officer, “Hoof Cuff is the second oldest and he works for the Manehattan P.D. and that over by Mum, is my step-brother, Mangeur Difficile, he’s a food critic.” He then coughed in his hoof, “Family, this is my official coltfriend, Prince Blueblood Everfree.” The Prince watched as all three siblings took a quadruple take as they realized who the pony in the other bed really was, to which all three dropped to the floor while the parents simply took a polite bow. Blueblood turned to his consort, “So should I be worried now that all your family is in one place, in a hospital room no less?” “No need to worry, Your Majesty,” Hoof Cuff rose, along with his siblings. “I’m a well-trained police officer. So you should be safe.” However, it didn’t make it any less secure when Fancy’s father snickered, “Oh, as if that ever helped anyone.” This got an icy glare from his ex-wife. “Look, we just came in here to see if he’s alright. We each got a telegram saying that you’re in a hospital on the Moneigh Islands so we want to see if you’re dead or not.” “Wow,” Fancy replied, his voice annoyed. “Thanks, mum.” The youngest sibling raised a hoof, “Okay, first of all, since when did you get a member of Royalty as a coltfriend? Because this is news to me,” and so, the couple retold their story to them. They told them how they met at the masked ball, to the dates, their time on the islands up to finding out that the Princesses had placed a bet on them. Once they were through explaining as much as they could to them, Fancy’s youngest stepbrother asked, “Oh… so if you and Prince Blueblood get hitched, would that mean that’ll make us royalty?” All three siblings plus two parents turned all their attention towards Fancy, thus making the Prince’s consort quite uncomfortable. “Why are all of you looking at me like that?”