The staff at Canterlot Hospital went on full alert after receiving a call of two people being shot. Out of the staff that was heading to the emergency entrance, one of them was Canterlot High’s own school nurse, Nurse Redheart. She would offer her services on the weekends after the school week came to an end, since she would be helping other high school athletes who would get injured while playing. But this case was one she would not see coming.
“What do we know of the victims, Doc Top?” Nurse Redheart asked.
“One of them is in his 30s. Gun shot to the chest. No ID. Other one is in his teens. Gun shot to the side, but lost a lot of blood. No ID, but the girl that’s with him said that his name was Tidal.”
Redheart was shocked when she heard the name. “Tidal Wave Blue. 15 years old. His guardian is Principal Celestia. I already have his medical records from his parents on file.”
“You know the kid?”
“Just moved here before the new year started.”
“Then I’ll leave him in your care. I’ll focus on the adult.”
The two ambulances arrived at the entrance. Staff was divided into two groups awaiting both victims. The first one opened up, unloading the older man who was now listed in critical condition, along with the officer who was at the scene. Nurse Redheart went straight to the second ambulance, which unloaded Tidal, still on the stretcher. She was surprised when she saw the girl with him was none other than Sunset Shimmer, who’s hands were bloody from applying pressure to his wounds.
“Sunset! What happen?” Nurse Redheart asked Sunset.
“I don’t know? It happened so fast! I heard two gun shots. He was shot. Then… then…”
“It’s alright. We’ll take it from here.” Redheart went into her pocket and pull out her cell phone and placed it in Sunset’s pocket. “Go clean yourself up. Then call Principal Celestia on my cell. You’ll find her number in my contacts.”
Nurse Redheart and the rest of the staff took Tidal past the restricted doors, leaving Sunset back in the lobby.
“Tidal, please be alright.”
She made her way to the women’s restroom to wash her hands before making the call.
Celestia entered the lobby of the hospital to see Sunset pacing back and forth, worried about Tidal.
“Sunset!”
She looked up to see her principal, who was in a bit of a mess after getting the call about what happened.
“Tidal. Is he-”
“I haven’t heard anything so far,” Sunset replied.
“You said that he was shot,” Celestia replied. “Do you remember what happened?”
“I… was in the park. The officer told me about a robbery nearby. We heard two gun shots. Went to check. And Tidal fell in front of me. It… it happened so fast.” Sunset started to cry.
Celestia went to embrace her in a hug. “It’s alright. I’m sure that Nurse Redheart has this under control.”
At that point, the restricted doors opened up and Nurse Redheart walked out. She was still wearing her scrubs with some blood on them.
“Nurse Redheart. Is he-”
“He’s going to be alright, Celestia. The bullet was lodged in his lower left body, but we were able to remove it and patch him up. If Sunset didn’t apply pressure to the wound, then he could have lost a lot of blood.”
Sunset pulled out Nurse Redheart’s cell phone and handed it back to her, which she was able to put in her pocket.
“Can we see him,” Celestia asked.
“Not now. He’s asleep, and he needs it. We’ve already worked on a blood transfusion for now so that he could recover. As to how long he would be here, I won’t know until tomorrow morning. Best case would be three to four days. Worst would be a week.” She stopped to look over a see two men in trench coats walk in. “Can you two excuse me for a moment?” She left them and went up to the two men, who displayed badges to her. Words were exchanged between each other before she nodded and told them to come with her. And she walked by Celestia and Sunset, she stopped and said, “I need to handle this matter. Go on home and see if you can bring some of his belongings over tomorrow. By then, I should have a better idea on his status.” She went on and escorted the two men through the restricted doors.
“Were those… detectives?” Sunset asked.
“I think so,” Celestia replied. “Maybe it has something to do with the robbery you just brought up. Look, I’ll take you home, and we can come by and see if he’s doing better in the morning.”
“Actually, I want to stay her and keep an eye on him. I wanted to tell him the truth about me. Where I come from. Why the school has been against me. I was hoping to do so tonight before all this happened.”
Celestia placed her hands on Sunset’s shoulders. “Alright. I’ll message Nurse Redheart about what you’re doing so that she can get you settled in for the night. Just make sure you get some rest.”
“I will.”
Nurse Redheart was working late into the night and into the morning. She walked into the room that Tidal was resting and could see Sunset still asleep in the chair next to him. The sunlight was starting to come through the blinds in the room. Nurse Redheart went to check Tidal’s vitals on the screen and wrote them down on the clipboard. She went over to where Sunset was sleeping and gave her a little shake, slowly waking her up.
“Tidal. Is he-”
“Still asleep,” Nurse Redheart replied. “It might be a few more hours before he wakes up, since we worked on his injuries.”
Sunset rubbed her eyes before removing the blanket that was covering her so she could stand up and stretch her body.
“There’s something that I wanted to talk to you about.” Nurse Redheart motioned Sunset to follow her outside into the hallway. “Principal Celestia told me that you wanted to tell Tidal about what you did back in the Fall Formal.” Sunset nodded. “Well, I’m not supposed to discuss this with anyone, but I think it would be best to take note before talking to Tidal about your past. I’m sure you saw the detectives that showed up last last night. They were asking about the other guy that was shot in the chest. Turns out that it was the guy who robbed the old man’s used bookstore last night.”
“The officer that I came across at the park said that there was a robbery not too long ago before Tidal was shot,” Sunset said.
“Well, me and Miss Cheerilee know the business well. The old man who runs it only takes cash, and would get some students looking for books for their English classes. I was able to ask them if any students were hurt there, and they said there were two of them. One was a girl with rainbow hair.”
“Rainbow Dash!”
“That’s what went through my head as well. I can only guess that Tidal saw what happened and followed the guy in the process. Don’t know why he was doing what he did, but we won’t be able to find out anyway.”
“Why is that?” Sunset asked.
Nurse Redheart let out a sigh and said, “Because the robber is dead. Doctors tried to save him, but the damage around his heart was too severe for him to be saved. Now the detectives are working on identifying him and trying to find out if he committed any other robberies.”
Sunset took a moment to remember what Tidal told her before he collapsed in front of her. “He said that he was taking care of a bully. I wonder if he thought of the robber as a bully as well.”
“And that’s why you should choose how you want to tell him what you did back then before saying it,” Nurse Redheart explained. “Some bullies grow up to commit crimes, even join gangs. I can see that you won’t follow that path, but with Tidal’s past… just be careful how you word everything in front of him.”
“I understand.”
“Now. Principal Celestia is going to be by in a couple of hours, and I need to get some rest. I’m having one of the nurses take over for me on monitoring him, and the principal knows this. I plan to come back tonight to get a final assessment as to how long he will be here. If you plan to talk about your past, then make sure Principal Celestia is there to make sure things don’t get any worst. You did some bad things in the past. But there are others out there that have done worst. And they don’t need magic to do that.”
Taking the nurse’s word to heart, Sunset nodded and went back to the Tidal’s room. Nurse Redheart begin making her way to the locker room to clock out and head on home for the day.
About an hour later, Sunset noticed a familiar adult walk in with a few items in hand. Including a paper bag with a bagel in it and a small cup of coffee for Sunset.
“Nurse Redheart gave me an update,” Celestia said, handing breakfast to Sunset. “How are you holding up?”
“A… bit better than last night,” Sunset replied.
“That’s an understatement.”
Sunset looked at the doorway to see two familiar girls. Lyra and Bonbon.
“We were hoping that we get to see him today and see if her needed any help in his classes, only to find out that he’s in the hospital,” Lyra explained. “How did you know where he would be last night?”
“Pinkie called me last night saying that he was at the Sweet Shoppe,” Sunset replied. “I wanted to talk to him and make him understand what I did back then so that he would understand why the other students have been treated me badly.”
“Then we should be glad that you were there,” Bonbon added. “Because he might not be with us now if it wasn’t for you.”
Now Sunset was a bit confused. “I-I just did what the officer told me to do.”
“And he probability needed to help so that he could focus on the other guy and calling for help at the same time,” Bonbon explained.
“I… don’t know about that,” Sunset said. “The other guy died last night.”
“How do you know that?” Lyra asked.
Sunset explained what Nurse Redheart told her just earlier about the robber and what he did. And it started to make some sense to the others.
“So. That’s what happened,” Lyra said.
“So you’re sure that Rainbow Dash was at the bookstore?” Celestia asked.
“Girl with rainbow hair? Not quite sure anyone else has that,” Sunset explained.
“Expect for Rivet’s sister, First Light. She has rainbow hair,” Lyra explained.
“Only because she saw Rainbow Dash with it,” Bonbon added.
Sunset started to tap her chin. “Now that I think about it. Haven’t Dash and Rivet become close?”
“You might be right,” Bonbon said. “I think it has something to do with those Daring Do books.”
“I’ll look into them and see if they are alright later on,” Celestia said. “Why don’t you go and take Sunset home for now, and if Tidal wakes up and wants to see any of you, I’ll let you know.”
“Just make sure he check’s his 3DS system,” Lyra said, placing the unit on the table near his bed. “Now that it’s charged, he can check all the Streetpasses that he received yesterday.”
“I’ll see to it that he does,” Celestia replied.
The three girls made their way out of the hospital and towards Lyra’s car when something else came to their minds.
“Have you ever wonder why Tidal did what he did?” Lyra asked.
“You mean kill the robber?” Sunset replied. “He did say that he was a bully.”
“Only because he attack Rainbow Dash,” Bonbon replied. “And maybe Rivet, if that who was there at the bookstore. And if it was a robbery, then the robber would have the gun.”
“But there was only one gun there when we found them,” Sunset explained.
“That would mean that they struggled with the gun, right?” Lyra said.
“Maybe. There’s only one way we can get our answers,” Bonbon said.
“Oh no,” Lyra said to herself.
“It’s time-” Bonbon stomped her foot in the ground. “-to return-” She put on hand on her hip and pointed her other hand forward. “-to the scene or the crime!”
Lyra and Sunset were staring at Bonbon, stunned.
“Seriously,” Lyra said.
“Yes!” Bonbon replied. “Now get in the car.”
As Bonbon got into the car, Sunset looked at Lyra and said, “Has she ever been like this?”
“Depends on if it’s something serious.”
“Like this?”
“Yep.”
“Are you girls coming?” Bonbon yelled from the car window.
They arrived at the corner of the park where Sunset found Tidal and the robber after the shooting. Any blood that was there before was quickly cleaned up. As well as any other signs that would restrict them from coming to the area.
“Looks like they cleaned up the place, since the robber is dead,” Bonbon said. “And Tidal would have acted in self defense in the process. Sunset. Do you know where Tidal was coming from?”
Sunset pointed across the street where she remembered seeing him walking by. “Coming from that direction. Pinkie said that he was at the Sweet Shoppe.”
Bonbon started to think for a moment. “If I remember correctly, the bookstore would be on the other side of the street. Come on.”
Bonbon crossed the street that Tidal crossed over last night, with Lyra and Sunset in tow. They started to make their way towards where the Sweet Shoppe when they stopped to find the old man’s bookstore across the street. The store was already closed with a sign explaining the reason for the unexpected closing.
“Tidal would have to be… here?” Bonbon was looking around the area for a moment until she saw an alley between two buildings with no lights around. “No. Here. In the alley. With the weather we had last night, it would be dark enough for him to not be noticed. He saw what went on at the bookstore from here and started to follow the robber from this side of the street.” Bonbon started to make her way back to the park corner, whit Lyra and Sunset following her. “Tidal crossed this part of the street, and the robber crossed the other part of the street. My guess would be that Tidal knew that the robber was going towards the park, so he decided to intervene.”
“Why do that?” Sunset said. “The officer that found me was in the park.”
“Tidal must have been trying to find out where he lived in hopes that he could report him to the police. But felt that he would lose the robber in the park. You did say that they didn’t have any ID on him, right?” Sunset nodded. “The robber must know the park well to lose anyone, so he must have committed other robberies at other times to do this. And he must have knew that the bookstore would only have cash and nothing else. That’s why he targeted the place. He could have planned his escape route out ahead.”
“And what about the gun?” Lyra asked.
“My guess would be that when he encountered the robber, that guy begin pulling out his gun. So Tidal must have struggled with the gun, causing it to go off. First shot would have hit Tidal, then the second hit the robber. That’s where it ended.”
“Why take a risk if the robber had a gun in the first place?” Lyra said. “Unless you had… a… death wish. You don’t think he would throw his life away to stop a criminal, would he?”
“If he thinks they are the same as bullies, then… well I don’t even know,” Bonbon responded.
Sunset started to feel conflicted that she laid her back to the park wall with her arms crossed. “Girls. Do you think he should learn about my past? I mean, I tried to take control of the school and almost killed Twilight in the process. Does that make me the same as the robber that he shot?”
“I don’t think it’s like that,” Bonbon replied. “You were, well, dealing with magic at the time. And right now, the school is trying to keep it under wraps.”
“And from what we recall, it was also magic that saved Twilight and freed us from your control,” Lyra added. “None of us understands it well, and I don’t think the world is ready for it either. Or at least the city.”
“Plus, you was once the bully at school, and now you’re being bullied by the school,” Bonbon added. “That’s… going to be hard for him to understand which side is just.”
“Maybe we should have the other girls there with her to help with this,” Lyra recommended.
“After what Rainbow Dash just went through, it might be best to wait until Principal Celestia talks to her to make sure she’s better,” Sunset said.
“She’s right,” Bonbon replied. “Dash is probability still in shock from last night.” Soon then, her cell phone started to ring, which she answered. “Hello… Yes, she’s with me…… Yes, I…… OH COME ON! HOW DID YOU KNOW?”
“Busted,” Lyra said to herself.
“Principal knows that she does this?” Sunset asked, which Lyra nodded. “Figures.”
“Alright. I’ll bring her over.” Bonbon ended her call and looked at Sunset. “Tidal’s now awake. And he wants to see you.”
“Me?”
The three girls came into Tidal’s room in the hospital to see him awake in the bed with Celestia sitting next to him.
“It’s… nice to see that you’re awake,” Sunset said. “That’s… good.”
“So, how do you fell?” Lyra asked.
“It hurts, that’s for sure,” Tidal replied.
“That’s what you get for taking on a robber by yourself,” Bonbon said.
“So… I’ve been told,” Tidal replied.
“I told him what happened to the robber,” Celestia said. “And I think he has something to say, just so you can close the case… Bonbon.” She glared at the girl, causing her to display and nervous grin.
“I came across Rivet last night on my way to the Sweet Shoppe, and he said that he was meeting Rainbow Dash at the bookstore nearby. When I was heading on back, I saw the robbery go down, so I hid in the alley nearby. When he went to the back, he grab Rainbow Dash from hiding, followed by Rivet. I couldn’t make out what happened next, but I already saw the gun in the robber’s hand. It was a surprise that he didn’t fire it.
“When he left the bookstore, I kept my distance while following him, thinking I was just some kid walking on home. I was hoping to find out where he lived so I could report him to the police. When he started making him way to the park, I knew I would lose him there and had to do something to throw him off. So I ran across and ran into him in the process. It let him to drop the bag, exposing the money that was in it. That was when he started to go for his gun in his coat. From there, my mind just… went on autopilot. I just acted without thinking.”
“Is that what happened when you dealt with the bullies at your old school?” Bonbon asked, which Tidal nodded.
“I was tired of letting bullies getting the better of me. I just knew that they would get bolder the more they do. So that’s why I fight back. I wanted to put them in their place.”
“Even kill them?” Lyra asked.
“If my life was threaten, them it would be a possibility. I just… had to take a chance. I didn’t want anyone else to be harmed by him. Those two were lucky. But if he was to do it again, then maybe the next person wouldn’t be so lucky.”
“So you’re willing to risk your own life if you have to,” Sunset asked.
“Sacrifice the few for the many, they say. But it would be pointless if magic was involved.”
Now the girls were confused. So Celestia decided to clear things up.
“I decided to tell Tidal about what happened back in the Fall Formal, since you might have a hard time explaining it to where he could understand.”
“Then, you understand why the students were bullying me, right?” Sunset said.
“The same way that you bullied them,” Tidal replied. “And even though you tried to kill this… Twilight girl, She used the same magic to purge the evil inside of you, not kill you. The magic of evil’s bane, I guess.”
The girls looked at each other and said, “Magic of evil’s bane?”
“Helps if you play the classics to get the meaning,” Tidal said. “There was a game that had a sword that was referred to as the sword of evil’s bane. It had the power to repel evil’s magic back at them. So the evil that was in you was destroyed while it kept you alive. Somehow, there must have been a reason for that. But since I never witness it in person to understand, I really can’t give you an answer at this time. But having others bully you the way you treated them doesn’t solve anything. Unless they want to share the same fate as any other bully… or criminal. I wanted to ignore the bullies, but they just kept picking on me. So I decided to fight back. It’s not a good idea, I know. But I had to do something instead of nothing. And just telling about the problem hasn’t helped me that much.”
“And that’s why the students at your old school went against you at that time,” Bonbon said, to which Tidal nodded.
“Being popular is something I want to avoid. And I don’t mean the fact that my parents are popular in their own fields, but the fact that most popular people that I’m around can be self-center in the process.”
“I know the feeling,” Sunset said, looking down.
“But our school isn’t one for popularity now,” Bonbon said. “It’s one for coming together when we need it the most.”
“We might be all different on the outside. But we’re all friends the same,” Lyra said. “And I guess we need to give others a chance to change when they do something wrong. I mean, isn’t that why Twilight left you here in the first place instead of taking you back to your own world?”
“Maybe,” Sunset replied. “But Twilight knew that the portal would be closing. And I had to pay for the damages that I caused in this world.”
“So, this portal can only open in a certain time frame?” Tidal said.
“Once in every thirty moons from what I remembered,” Sunset replied. “I just kept checking the portal every morning until I found it open that one day. And I only knew that it would be open for a few days. So I have no clue when it will be open again.”
“So you’re just stuck here, right?” Tidal asked.
“Without any magic,” Lyra replied. “Which I hope we don’t have to worry about anymore. But enough about that. I believe you have a lot of Streetpass Tags to go through today.”
“And since you’re stuck here for a while, we need to find out how you plan to get your notes and homework assignments from school this coming week,” Lyra added.
“Well, we do have two classes covered,” Sunset said. “We just need to find someone to bring over notes and homework assignments from his other classes so that he can stay up to date, right?”
“I can let the teachers know about his excused absence this coming week and see if you girls can pick it up and deliver them to him after school,” Celestia explained. “I already brought over his books and homework assignments today so that he could get that done. But we might need to get his other books later on from school.”
“What about bringing his laptop over to work with?” Lyra asked.
“I’ll have to talk to Nurse Redheart if we can get Wi-Fi access here before doing that,” Celestia replied. “But right now, I need to get in touch with both Rainbow Dash’s parents and Rivet’s parents to make sure they are doing fine. So why don’t you spend some time on the 3DS while I work on some calls on my end. Then we can get things worked out for at least the next few days on what we need to do while he’s here.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Bonbon said.
“Well, I might as well leave you be for now,” Sunset said and started to head out.
“Oh no you don’t.” Lyra went and grabbed Sunset’s arm. “You’re going to stay with us for a while and have some fun with us.”
“Fun?”
“If we’re going to learn about these Streetpass games, then you should too,” Bonbon said.
“Plus, I think it’s time we started giving you a second chance as well,” Lyra added. “Just remember that we’re judging you, OK?”
“Just make sure you don’t end up like she did, remember?” Tidal said.
They all replied, “We will.”