There came the nurse to mess up the rings again. Luna lay still as she watched him pour the same liquids into her bowl of oatmeal. She didn’t even bother to physically struggle as he rhythmically spooned mouthfuls into her complaining stomach. She was used to this state of being semi-nauseated now. Thankfully the stomach pains and rings were enough to keep her from being bored out of her sanity. Only a few days had passed since the alicorn had been put down. If only the nurse would dust off the bar...
“Your behaviour has improved greatly.” the unicorn remarked. Luna offered no response but her insides groaned due to something outside of the glop she was being fed. “You know... you have a pretty good life if you consider it...” he paused but avoided Luna’s glare, “You don’t have to do anything except lie around in bed all day and relax. You know you’ll always be provided for...”
“Until they decide to put me down.”
“Well, we can’t spend all our taxes on keeping you comfortable.”
“You call this comfortable?" she wheezed, her eyelids at permenant half-mast, "I would gladly take your place any day.”
“Well you can’t... you’re disabled.”
"What do you mean disabled? You call me that but I wonder if you even know what it means."
"Of course I do! Everypony grows up knowing that alicornism results in extreme weakness, a depressed immune system, and paralysis."
“Why am I chained if I'm supposed to be so immobile?”
“So you don’t hurt yourself.”
“My fetlocks are bruised and bleeding... how am I not hurting myself?”
“You’d do much worse if you were free...” he said and pushed the spoon into her mouth, “You know? You were doing so well today too.”
“Stop...” Luna said and turned her face away before another spoonful of gloop could enter her muzzle.
“Well, what is it, then? I don’t have all day.”
Luna puzzled within herself and thought of which question to ask now that she had his attention. She turned to where she could see him out of the corner of her eye. Why had he allowed himself to stop this one time?
“What if you’re wrong and I am not disabled?” she asked. He replied with a laugh.
“But, I know you’re disabled. You’re alicorn, useless to society, unstable.”
“Then why don’t you just put me down now?”
“Well, the queen doesn’t allow it.” he said and forced the spoon into her muzzle again. she took the food and the chance while he was scooping another spoonful.
“Why does she have you keep us alive then?”
“Because... it’s merciful.”
“How is it mercy...” The spoon interrupted her.
“You’ve been thinking too much.”
“What else do I have to occupy my time?”
“Luna, stop it...” Cadence’s voice whispered from behind the nurse and the curtain.
“You should listen to her...”
“How is it mercy to keep us alive when only a few days ago one of you claimed it was better for us to be dead?”
“You’re confusing yourself.”
“You’re not answering...” a white aura appeared around her muzzle, forced it open and the nurse tipped the whole bowl of oatmeal into her throat gradually. When it was finally finished he forced her mouth closed.
“Let me give you the only answer you need: the queen demands obedience. While we obey her we are provided for and taken care of... not abandoned as we were under Celestia. We obey her without question and everypony is taken care of. One alicorn trying to ask questions cannot change that. From now on I won’t answer any more of your questions.” he said and let go.
“It doesn’t mean you won’t hear me though...” Luna said to his retreating tail. She glanced up at the rusting bar and nudged the curtain to straighten the rings. It always seemed that when they were finally straightened somepony would mistake her bed from another pony’s and mess them up or it would be time for her to be fed. Hopefully they would still feed her.
“Why do you keep doing that?” Cadence asked from the next bed.
“So now you’re talking to me?”
“Do you really think you’re the first one to try to change them?”
“Well it depends... what exactly is going on here?”
“We’re disabled. We’re being kept here and away from everypony else.”
“Don’t give me what they’ve been saying for who knows how long... what is really going on here? What dd he mean by being abandoned under Celestia?” Luna waited but no reply ever came despite repeated inquiries.
After a few minutes of silence, following her last petition to her niece, she went back to putting the curtain right again. It would look much nicer if the rings were evenly spaced. It was only this one section that really needed it. The nurses had stopped scolding her for making noise. She never woke anypony up anyway. There was no harm in fixing a curtain. She gave it one last bat and smiled as the rings were evenly spaced.
She leaned back into her pillow and tried to ignore the sound of gagging coming from farther down the room. If the nurses messed up her curtain again...
Hooves calmly walked towards the sound and passed her bed. Luna breathed a sigh of relief when the curtain was untouched. The gagging grew more irritating by the moment. Why didn’t the nurse stop it? It sounded simple enough. It sounded as if the alicorn was merely choking on something. Another set of hooves entered and stopped as the first set approached.
“I think we should put him down.” a female voice said, casually.
“Is he sick?” another female voice asked, somewhat concerned.
“Well he keeps choking and it’s disturbing the other patients.”
“Since when did you start caring about the other patients?”
“With the queen visiting next week we can’t have half of the ward cranky. We could lose our jobs.”
“You also can't kill an alicorn just because he’s noisy.”
“We’ll see about that...” the female nurse said before a set of hooves walked towards the exit. A voice sighed.
“I’m telling you, it’s not necessary to kill a pony just because he irritates you...” the second female voice said, her voice unmoved from the previous spot.
“The sooner you get rid of your archaic ideals the better. These are not ponies we’re taking care of. They’re alicorns. Yes, they were once called ponies but we have proved the facts to be otherwise. We only keep them here out of the queen’s mercy. That mercy is not something to betray... It would help you to remember that if you want to keep this job, Ms. Heartstrings.”