Ponyville General isn't a big hospital like in Canterlot or Manehatten, but considering the fifteen thousand ponies that lived in town and on the surrounding farms, it had plenty of business. Since my arrival, and certainly since the castle and the school were built, the royal purse had vastly modernized it with the latest equipment that bleeped and blatted, and refreshed it with a new green and yellow decor that boasted plenty of daisies and cherry-wood accents. Between being a bit of a klutz, and injuries I'd suffered protecting ponies, I knew the hospital way too well.
I teleported into the reception area, startling waiting ponies from the sofa and chairs. I spotted Rumble, too tired to flutter his wings with his red nose standing out against his gray fur. Thunderlane put up a wing over his brother, as others scrambled away.
The perfect in-teleport left me standing as the biped settled on the floor—which was flatter than the grass he'd lain upon, so he moaned.
The pink maned charge nurse, Nurse Tenderheart, rushed up. "Don't you think you need Dr. Fauna instead?"
"I think he's bleeding internally. Let's get him looked at and we can call Dr. Fauna while that's done."
The wiry creature took two gurneys, being almost one and half times longer than a pony. With no further delay, attendants wheeled him into the ER but insisted that I remain to restrain him. They gave me a face mask and sprayed antiseptic as they turned bright lights on him and began cutting away his stained shirt. Everything gleamed with white tile or shiny steel that could be completely sanitized. Three unicorns worked on the paired gurneys, using magic and machinery. Thread and utensils flew through the air.
He had left drops of blood on the reception floor.
Starlight's exit teleport made me jump and I turned to the doorway. I saw the lavender unicorn—frost steaming from her hide—and another. True to the spell, the magic had shoved the biped to the floor as there was no chance that she could stand in the doorway except crouched over. She grunted as she looked up, her muscles tensed as if ready to spring.
Starlight immediately cast Levitate around her, but didn't restrain her as she looked around. The biped looked astonished. I supposed that hospitals looked similar in every world, so maybe she recognized it—or had never seen its like. I could only speculate if one without magic could function affectively, but her gaze focused on her mate. Her eyes alighted on the heart monitor, which now beat regularly, sounding very much like the heart of a pony. She shuddered as she watched as the doctors cast repeated spells into his chest. The tension in her body caved suddenly and she collapsed with a heartfelt sigh.
Whatever she'd been thinking had changed.
Keeping an eye on the stallion lest he suddenly move, I approached the mare, motioning her inside to let a wary lime-green nurse trot in around her.
She understood, levered herself up though bent over, and approached a few pony-lengths closer.
I sat and spread my wings widely, motioning around me. "Hospital."
She blinked at me, then said a word too strange sounding to repeat.
I pointed at my own chest and said, "Twilight Sparkle."
She glanced at her mate, then at me, and said something that imitated my name, but her lips just couldn't buzz right as she said it. Then something miraculous happened. I saw something that resembled a smile as she pointed a claw at herself and said something guttural that sounded like, "Oh Neigh," followed by, "Broader," pointing at the stallion on the gurneys. She had tears in her tiny wary eyes, but I took it as a good sign.
Princess Celestia teleported in. She'd bowed her head, knowing she faced a low ceiling. A yellow pegasus, Dr. Fauna, frost on her hide, trotted past to assist the doctors.
"My guards informed me what happened. And this is one of the mysterious bipeds?"
The biped just stood dumbfounded, blinking in surprise. The whole teleport thing was probably beyond her comprehension, but then again Princess Celestia could not help but generate awe. She might be significantly shorter than one of their horses, but she gleamed. As did her regalia. And her particolor mane flowed in the zephyr of the magical pulse. Maybe the bipeds had their own royalty, for the biped made an obvious dip of her head. (She could scarcely do much else as her brown hair brushed the ceiling. I did notice a momentary strengthening of Starlight's spell around the mare.)
"Princess Celestia, this is Oh Neigh."
The alicorn ducked her head slightly in acknowledgement, then looked at the operation. "He will survive?" she asked.
A doctor said, "Broken ribs and a collapsed lung, but we're on it, Your Majesty."
The biped communicator took that moment to bleep and hiss in my saddle bag. I realized suddenly that I still wore the barking arrow, and the two other weapons strapped to me. Levitating the noisy black amulet to the princess, I said, "The others may know more about us than I hoped."
The princess brought the rounded device to her eye, as if looking for a hidden door for a breezie to hide inside, then shook it. "Then you had better put your plan into action, now," she replied. "I'm certain I can charm this young creature in your absence, and the clouds are gathered."
"I will need to return Oh Neigh and Broader to their brethren, shortly."
"An exchange of hostages?"
"Nooo. Okay, maybe. I did say creatures of applied force, didn't I? By that time, I hope it will be a simple good-faith return."
The princess nodded.
"I need you, Starlight."