“Yes, I will,” I answer.
“I expected that you’d agree,” Celestia said with a warm smile.
Suddenly I began to feel light-headed.
“Oh... crap..” I groaned, wincing as pain stabbed through me.
“Oh, no! You’re bleeding, and bad! Nurse! NURSE!” She screams, as I totter over to a desk and begin leaning on it.
My vision’s blurring, I’ve got to stay conscious, I can’t die now...
My eyes dilated as my windpipe begins to constrict.
“I-“ *HACK* “can’t brE-“ *COUGH* “aaAAHH-“ *CHOKE* *SPLUTTER* “HELP ME!” I scream, and is that blood on my arms!?
I struggle to keep Celestia updated on condition while I cry out in pain, all the while I can tell I’m going to lose consciousness, no matter what I do.
A nurse rushes in, and seeing my condition, gasps and rushes over to me, and attempts to help me to a hospital bed.
But blackness begins to overtake my vision and my weight is enough to rip me out of the nurse’s grasp as I fall to the floor, unconscious.
The last thing I hear before everything goes black is “KNIGHTY!”
*THIRD PERSON POV*
As the Knight falls out of the nurse’s grasp, Celestia leaps out of her hospital bed and bolts to the unconscious bug’s side.
“He’s gravely wounded, Princess! I can see cuts and stabs all over. The Element bearers told me he healed himself after getting stabbed by Chrysalis’ horn, but it seems it wasn’t enough. Wait a minute... oh, no.. WE NEED TO GET HIM TO SURGERY! NOW!” the nurse barks.
Celestia immediately, but gently, grabs the wounded bug and gallops at full speed towards the nearest operating room, with dozens of Equestria’s best doctors, surgeons, and nurses right on her heels.
Breaking the doors down by accident (but paying them no heed), the Princess places the Knight on the operating table, a grim, but determined expression on her face.
The receptionist, annoyed that this random pony had just burst in without an appointment looked over her desk, about to reprimand the pony, before paling as she realise who the pony was.
“U-uh... Princess? Do y-you have an appointment?” the receptionist nervously asked.
“No, but this is urgent. I have a being here who has been gravely wounded during the battle with the changelings in Canterlot. He was the one who stopped Chrysalis, and he needs surgery, now!” Celestia said.
The receptionist quickly went back to her desk and put the appointment on the top of the priority list, while the dozens of medical personnel galloped in and headed to sterilise their hooves for surgery.
Celestia began to pace inside the room, her head low.
‘I hope he makes it,’ she thought, as she allowed a tear to roll down her face.
Twilight and her friends galloped into the hospital, concerned for their friend.
They’d just gotten the news. Knighty had been wounded, and had to go into the operating room.
“Are you the Element Bearers?” The receptionist asked, a look of urgency on her face.
“Yeah! What happened to Knighty? How bad is it, and will he be okay?!” Dash asked.
The others looked at Dash, surprised. Rainbow Dash hadn’t trusted Knighty much up until now, and had been slightly hostile to him when they got to Ponyville. To see her this concerned for him was a surprise.
Noticing her friend’s stares, she blushed slightly, before answering her friend’s unsaid, but obvious questions.
“He saved us back there. To be honest, he’s REALLY cool. Maybe even cooler than me! If he can stand up to Chrysalis like that, the I think he’s gonna pull through.”
Looking at each other, they all thought simultaneously, ‘she’s got a crush on him,’ before shrugging.
“It’s good to see you trust him now, Dashie! I still need to throw him a Welcome Party, and a ‘Yay, we beat Chrysalis!’ party,” Pinkie said, “but I don’t know if I’ll get to throw them for him, now that he’s...” she broke off, her mane deflating.
Seeing her friend in distress, Applejack piped up, “Ah’m sure he’ll pull through, Pinkie. He’s made ‘o tough stuff, ah tell you. He’s brave fer somepony that young.”
Pinkie looked up, her face brightening slightly, but still unsure.
“How can you be sure? I got a look at him just earlier while he was visiting Celestia in here, and he was doing well, until he winced and began leaking blood everywhere, and began choking on his own blood, all the while SCREAMING FOR HELP! I EVEN SAW CELESTIA CRY!” she said, her voice starting out quiet, but raising in volume before ending in a scream.
“Because Equestria’s best doctors and surgeons are working on him now,” a voice behind them said.
Turning around, Twilight, recognising the pony, lunged at them and pulled them into a hug.
“Princess Celestia! You’re okay!” She cried.
Wincing, Celestia quietly protested her student’s actions.
“Twi-ow-light, you’re-ouch- crushing ME!” the Princess, said as Twilight squeezed her harder.
“Oh! Sorry, Princess,” Twilight apologised, blushing, while she released her teacher.
“It’s okay, my student. My injuries aren’t too bad, I just need to take it easy for a bit. As for the Knight... well, you heard from Pinkie about his deteriorated condition,” Celestia said.
“Yeah, I hope he makes it out okay... at first I thought he’d pull through, after all, he survived Chrysalis’ horn, but after hearing Pinkie’s account, even I’M not so sure anymore,” Rainbow Dash said, her voice low.
“I assure you, he will survive. He just exited surgery, one of the surgeons sent me the message via telepathy several seconds ago, and his vitals are stable. We’ll get the details on his injuries... and one the nurses told me the reason they needed to operate on the Knight is because there was a lot of foreign contaminants and shrapnel lodged inside him, some just inches from his vital organs...” Celestia explained.
Everypony in the room breathed a sigh of relief they didn’t know they’d been holding, overjoyed that their friend was on the path to recovery.
A doctor stuck his head out into the hallway and shouted, “Celestia! We’re wheeling him into Intensive Care now. You should be able to visit him.”
Hearing that, everypony looked at the Princess.
“What are we waiting for, girls? Let’s go visit our friend!” Twilight said.
Trotting down the hall towards the Intensive Care wing of the hospital, the seven ponies talked amongst themselves about what will happen next.
“So, What are we going to do after Knighty gets out of the hospital?” Rainbow asked.
“The wedding of course,” Celestia answered.
“Huh. I thought you might do it without him,” Dash said.
“Well, he deserves to be at my wedding after he defeated the witch who ruined it,” a new voice said.
“Cadence! You’re okay, too!” Twilight squealed.
Doing their trademark greeting, the two hugged.
“How’s Shining? Is he okay?” Twilight asked.
“He’s fine, just tired after being sapped of energy by Chrysalis,” Cadence said.
“Are you also coming to visit Knighty?” Pinkie said.
“Yes I am! Oh, one other thing - when I get my hooves on the Queen that hurt the poor little bug, I swear, I will tear her apart!” Cadence fumed, prompting reactions from the Mane Six.
“Aye!” “Yeah!” “Me too!”
“I’M - ah! - NOT LITTLE!” a voice screeched from the room they were outside.
Raising their abused ears, the ponies looked at each other, before trotting inside.
“Knighty! You’re awake!” Pinkie squeaked, before rushing over and crushing Knighty in a hug.
“Pinkie-gasp-can’t-ack-BREATHE!” he rasped, prompting Pinkie to put him down.
Groaning, he was propped up by Twilight’s magic.
“It’s good to see you’re recovering, Knighty,” the unicorn said.
“Yeah, although my back is killing me, not to mention I actually woke up during surgery. Oh, god, the pain,” he said, shuddering at the memory.
“Try not to dwell on that memory, Knight. In the meantime, let’s think about the future,” Rarity said.
“Like making me a new suit for the wedding?” he asked his voice dry.
“Yes, and what we’ll do after the wedding. Like, maybe your name! We can’t just call you, ‘the Knight,’ ‘Knighty,’ or ‘Knight’ all the time, since the first and third are titles and not real names, and the second is more of a childish nickname. Although you are basically a child,” Rarity replied.
“Yeah, you’re right...” the bug said, pondering for a moment.
“Call me... Noble Guardian.”