Starry Scroll found himself whimpering. He couldn’t even say why:
He had completely forgot.
All that he felt was a sense of immense dread, pain, and fear; he was still unsure even where he was. The first thing that came to him was the smell. It smelt, it smelt real. It wasn’t just the thought of scents, however foreign and alien they seemed at this point. His eyes were closed tightly, tension biting through his body as the adrenaline and fear began to slowly fade. He strained his mind to remember what had plagued his thoughts so mercilessly. He vaguely remembered where he had been before that. For what seemed like a lifetime he had been diving in and out of dreams; only, they weren’t dreams, they were so much worse, so much more vivid, clear, and horrifying. At times it near felt like cold reality, however abstract, Starry truly felt there.
But now he was here and no longer there. Reality was slowly creeping back in. He was trying desperately to cradle himself, to rock and cry, and slowly let the fear ebb; but something worse was stopping his mind from easing and calming. Even worse still, it began to quicken and only make him more panicked. He tried to reach around, he tried to wiggle, but he couldn’t move, he was trapped. Stuck in his position by some unknown force, pain was still permeating throughout his body so even opening his eyes was the last thing on Starry’s mind. Yet, he could begin to hear his whimpering, his sobbing, he could begin to hear the pain wracking through his body as he cried out.
Yet what scared him the most, was the fact that there was a black spot in his mind when he tried to force motion to his left rear leg, his mind desperately tried to send signals to the leg but it felt… spacious, like the leg was only of his imagination. He desperately tried to move down to feel where the empty black spot was, but he was still trapped and restrained. The feeling of being tied only emphasized the same panic, the same fear he felt moments ago, his breathing becoming ragged and raspy as it struggled through his uncontrollable sobbing.
“Starry?!”
His name vaguely bounced around his aching head, unsure he even heard it, like his mind called out to him. But lost in a dreary haze he drifted through the weird space between conscious and comatose.
“Starry! Oh dear Celestia Starry. Starry! Shhhh it’s okay,”
He couldn’t feel anything, and the voice still floated around his head without any direction or coherence; like words drifting by, he barely knew what they meant as if stray pieces of a puzzle he couldn’t put together. In his moment of panic, one word permeated throughout his mind, gently slowing his sobbing despite his almost complete lack of awareness to it.
“Shhhhhh,”
Sounds still idly drifted by, like ‘coming’, ‘on’, maybe even ‘hold’, but they made no sense to him, his eyes still closed tight with the sound of his own voice and the surrounding white noise like trumpets blasting away the world around him.
He felt a hoof against his side. “Starry,” He heard, just once, drifting through his head like the rest, amongst the million other signals came distorting it. Now there were other voices starting to creep through the thick haze, yet far too incomprehensible. Only feeling his chest fall then seize up as the hoof slowly moved away and vanish along with the voice. Panic and fear began to befall him again, but he felt movement around him amongst the pain, he felt another hoof touching him, but this one is far more… artificial, more delicate, smaller. But after minutes of his breathing getting heavier and heavier he finally tried to call out, to know what was going on, yet still too scared to open his eyes; just as he made the attempt his breath left was taken from lungs and a heaviness begun to overpower the pain again falling into a deep, dark sleep.
this time it was far different, not a thought to be had, not a fear to face. Just him in the most tired state that had ever befell him, the heaviness plunging through his body, and yet it was the most satisfying heaviness he had ever felt, serenity finally flowing through him.
It passed all too quickly as he was suddenly jolted awake, his eyes shooting wide open. The room was dark, the dim LED lights keeping the room a strange combination of light where everything was perfectly visible, yet, creating a darkness that made it easy to open up a pair of extremely sore and sensitive eyes. He looked around the room as a weird feeling came over him as he realised this is where he had been since the incident. He could hear a ticking, it was light, but as he took note of it considerably louder. Looking around slowly he was scared to lift his head from the pillow too fast. He finally felt the bandages and gauze wrapped around him; his head, once lost in the clouds, finally came back to reality. Starry found the source of the ticking, spotting a clock on the far wall. et as he tried to read it his head began to throb and the arrows began to blur.
But the clock didn’t hold his attention for long as his eyes slowly drifted down to the figure slumped in a chair below it.
Silver.
He was sleeping in Starry’s hospital room… But why? Starry couldn’t understand what he was doing there, barely remembering the date that seemed like a century ago in his mind; e felt queasy at the memory.
But right now all he wanted was for Silver to wake up, to tell him where he is, what was going on, why he was here, where his attackers were, and if he was going to be okay. All he wanted to hear from Silver was everything was going to be okay. He was desperate to know that it was all going to be okay.
He needed everything to be okay. But as he was lost in thought he thought of the attack. What if Silver knew what he was? Would he hate him? But why was he here, maybe he didn’t know. He couldn’t handle anypony else knowing about him or who he was inside. Tears pooled and welled down his face as he thought of everything that had happened. There was so much fear trapped inside him now. He would flinch at shadows moving across the doorway, the underlying thought being that the guards were back to finish their work. It flashed across his mind as each new set of silhouettes made their way around.
But Silver wouldn’t let that happen… would he?
But when the door eventually opened and someone came in, it wasn’t a horde of angry guards, but a doctor, and a nurse, both looking very compassionate. They came right up to the bedside, making Starry flinch as they began talking, reassuring that everything was alright and that he was in a safe space. They explained the coma and his condition, but he was only half listening, as only one pressing matter came to his mind.
“The guards? Where are they?” panic began rising as the doctor’s demeanour faltered, and he looked visibly less happy.
“It doesn’t matter right now, all you need to know is you are perfectly safe and secure in this hospital room, no-one is going to come close to you without us knowing about it.” The doctor smiled again, but clearly more forced, “When your friend wakes up, he will be able to fill you in on everything, but as for now, both of you seem to need your rest. You will tire very easily for the next forty-eight hours as your mind comes back from the coma. I’ll let the nurse here take your vitals and give you something for the pain, and then we will be gone.” The doctor smiled again at him, and left the room once more.
Starry let the nurse do what she had to, using this time to assess his body. Everything felt tired and dull, all his muscles felt stiff and ache-ridden. Yet he still refused to look down at his lower leg, the one he still couldn’t feel, or move. He dreaded to know the fate of it. Thankfully the morphine’s effects quickly came in and took that fear away from him, he felt his body and eyes heavying rapidly, his mind becoming way too sluggish to hold onto consciousness with…
Starry awoke with a jolt, his mind had been empty and clear throughout his next bout of sleep. But this time, instead of opening his eyes to a vacant and depressing looking ceiling, two pony eyes attached to a very familiar pony face came into view. Despite the sleeping being slowly ridden from his mind he could still clearly make out the tears welling out the corner of Silver’s eyes.
“Starry?”
“Silver?” He croaked, surprised at the dismal state of his windpipe. It took emptying his lungs to even just say that.
“Oh Starry, oh my Celestia, it’s all my fault, all of this is my fault! I should have seen the signs! I should have not pryed in your life, I should have followed you out of the restaurant, I just can’t believe-”
“Silver…” Starry croaked putting his least bandaged hoof out gently, touching Silver’s shoulder, as the larger stallion leaned over his bed. “Please… don’t blame yourself for this. That isn’t fair on you. You’ve been here when you could have been working, or going to the Equestria Games. But first, thank you, thank you so much. You saved me from them... And from myself,” Starry looked away, looking down and frowning, “from being the same, shy, boring pony I always was. You really did save me.”
“Oh Starry… there is a lot for you to catch up on. But I should be the one thanking you.” Silver looked around as he said that.
Starry furrowed his brow and looked back up at Silver. Silver leaned over the bed, and pushed his lips onto Starry’s own, using his hoof to scoop his head gently and embrace him around his delicate bandaging. Starry’s eyes widened to dinner plates, all the throbbing and heat in his limbs suddenly shooting to his chest, which felt bursting at the seams. Tears trickled down his face as the kiss went on for several more seconds. Gently breaking the kiss, Silver smiled and sniffled himself. Starry laid back down, agape in every sense of the word.
“W-Why?” He stammered.
Silver just smiled, and put a hoof on Starry’s own, “for saving me.”