Darkness. All Sprout could see, was darkness. He didn't know what had happened. The last thing he remembered was tumbling for hours with Izzy Moonbow at the steps of CanterLogic, and then...it all faded to black.
Izzy. Sprout hissed at the thought of her. That mare singlehandedly ruined what was once a reasonable punishment and an opportunity to redeem himself, into a living nightmare. All ending with Izzy knocking him out on the pavement of Maretime Bay.
"Oh great! Now I'm dead thanks to her! Sprout internally groaned. This is the end for him, this was his legacy, dead at the hooves of Izzy Moonbow, forever to be remembered as the cruel irredeemable dictator he once was, to be forgotten by time, left to rot in this purgatory...or so he thought.
Suddenly, Sprout's vision got hazy. He wasn't seeing pitch black anymore, he was beginning to see light.
"Am I going to the great beyond?" Sprout thought as he continued to stare at the light. Although he was dead, at least he's comforted by the fact that Izzy won't be there with him.
Soon, the light Sprout was looking at became more defined, and it morphed into the shape of a...pear? Sprout realized the and there, much to his dismay, that he wasn't going to the afterlife, he was still alive, and the light he was staring at was a lightbulb
Other details of the location started to become more clear in Sprout's vision. White colored walls appeared beside him, an electric fan was just beside the lightbulb, and to his sides he could see railings.
"Railings?" Sprout thought, "Where the buck am I?!?"
Then, Sprout's other senses started to come back as well, more specifically: his hearing.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Sprout heard light beeping noises coming from his left side. He tried to turn to see the source of the sound, but couldn't. His neck felt as stiff as a wooden board, and he was not gonna let that slide. "Grr! Come on, neck! Just move!"
For the next few minutes, Sprout tried to move every part of his body. From his arms, to his hooves, to his stomach, to even his flank. But alas, they acted just like his neck: stiff, immobile, and painful.
"Ah! Why does this feel so painful!" Sprout groaned, still trying to get his neck to move. He kept twisting, turning and groaning, all leading to the same result: endless amounts of pain.
Sprout then decided to look at his body in full instead of just feeling it. He looked down to see mountains of body casts upon his body, from top to bottom. "W-what?! Why am I in a body cast?!" he shouted.
Sprout sighed, "What happened to me..." he sulked. At this moment, Sprout felt like the universe is out to get him ever since Hitch left Maretime Bay to go after Sunny. First he became a cruel dictator due to his own pride and his mother's damaging influence, then he had to do community service with Izzy Moonbow as his supervisor, and now he's in a full blown body cast, unable to move, thanks to said mare. Sprout honestly felt like he shouldn't even try anymore.
Silence befell upon the room as Sprout continued to sulk about his miseries. That is, until he heard a gasp.
Sprout immediately stopped when he heard the gasp. The gasp was high pitched, feminine, and strangely annoying. Sprout felt a sense of deja vu when he heard the noise. He recognized the voice, but he didn't know who the voice was coming from.
"S-Sprout? You're awake?" the voice said, concerned for Sprout's wellbeing.
When Sprout heard the voice a second time, everything clicked in his brain, and all the memories of who the voice was flew back right back in. He knew who the voice belonged to, he knew who was in the room with him, and he dreaded almost every second of it. It was her, it was Izzy Moonbow.
Sprout gulped. The nightmare didn't end, it just took a short break before coming back with a vengeance. Now, instead of being tortured by Izzy in the streets of Maretime Bay, he was going to be tortured by her in a hospital room with no way out, and he dreaded the next few hours.
Sprout forcefully laughed, "Yes, Izzy. I'm awa-" and before he could finish his sentence, he was tackled by Izzy into a bear hug, made even worse with his stiff body cast.
"Oh, Sprout! Thank Heavens you're awake! You won't believe how long I've waited for you to wake up! I'm so sorry that I hurt you a week ago!" Izzy cried, squeezing into the hug even further.
Sprout struggled to breathe as Izzy hugged him, "A-A week ago?! What the actual buck happened to me?!"
Just then, a door slammed open, revealing a brown pony with a black mane and a white doctor's coat. "Miss Moonbow! What are you doing to Mr. Cloverleaf!"
Izzy immediately stopped once she heard the doctor yell at her, "Oh, sorry, Doctor Midnight. Guess I kinda got too caught up in the moment." she then turned to face Sprout, "Hope I didn't hurt you too badly."
"You have no idea." Sprout muttered under his breath.
"Well, now that you're done squeezing Mr. Cloverleaf to death, I would just like to have a small one-on-one checkup on him, if you mind?"
"Oh, no problem at all, Doc!" Izzy smiled, and with a skip in her step, Izzy trotted out the room, humming a small tune along the way.
The doctor trotted up to Sprout's bed. "I hope Miss Moonbow wasn't a bother."
Sprout groaned once more, "I think she broke a few of my bones."
Dr. Midnight lightly chuckled.
"What? Now you're gonna laugh at my pain?"
"Oh no, Mr. Cloverleaf, it's not about that. It's just that Miss Moonbow has been by your side ever since the accident. She even pleaded to be in the operational room, but we had to decline. If she saw what we did inside of there, she would've been scarred for life." Dr. Midnight smiled at Sprout, "You've got a really dedicated friend over there, Mr. Cloverleaf."
"She's not my friend." Sprout muttered.
"Oh, then what is she to you then? Your marefriend?"
"What?! No! She's not my marefriend! We're not even close acquaintances! She's just my supervisor during my community service, nothing more, nothing less, doc!"
Dr. Midnight gave Sprout a suspicious look, "Uh huh. Well, I just came here to inform you that your injuries from the accident were major with a lot of broken bones, so you will need to stay in this hospital for about a month."
Sprout's eyes widened, "A month?! What accident?! Please just tell me what happened to me, doc!"
"Well, don't you remember? Your tumble at CanterLogic caused quite the fracture in your skeletal system, and you also went into a coma back then so maybe that's why your memory is a bit fuzzy." The doctor mused.
Sprout began to panic, "F-Fracture?! How long will I be like this, Doc?!"
Dr. Midnight put his hoof on his chin, "Hmm, if no further injuries happen after you leave, it will probably take about five months before you could walk properly."
"Five months?!" Sprout shouted in shock, "B-but what about my community service?!"
"Ah yes. After your recovery, you will continue from where you last left off, these hospital months won't count as community service hours, Mr. Cloverleaf."
Sprout was in shock at the news, so much so that he couldn't even mutter a single coherent word. Only sputtering out random gibberish from his mouth.
"You shall not worry, Mr. Cloverleaf. It will all be over soon, just be patient. And you will not be alone much longer, Miss Moonbow is going to be by your side for the rest of your stay here." Dr. Midnight comforted
"I was hoping you wouldn't say that..." Sprout muttered.
"Well, I believe our checkup here is done. I will see you tomorrow, Mr. Cloverleaf." Dr. Midnight slowly departed the room, and with a gentle shut of the door, Sprout was left all alone.
"One month...One month in this bucking hospital with her..." Sprout sulked in his thoughts. Not only is he stuck in a hospital, unable to move due to a body cast, and has a low chance of walking again because of his fractured bone structure, but he's stuck in said hospital with Izzy Moonbow.
A single petty tear dripped down from Sprout's left eye, "Why does the universe hate me?"