Sunny Starscout woke up to her phone's alarm vibrating on the nightstand next to her bed; the only reason it didn't topple to the floor was the charging cable wasn't long enough for it to slide off to the carpeted floor of her castle suite.
She had been an honored guest of Queen Haven for three days now, and she was most excited about this morning, because if everything went well, this was the end of Zephyr Heights General's observation period for perhaps their most precious and certainly most unexpected find up in the frozen remnants of the Crystal Empire; Flurry Heart, the Crystal Princess, daughter of Prince Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.
The Crystal Heart had kept the princess in limbo in an incredibly weakened state. Weakened was still alive, and they had managed to get her down to the Scouticus and kept her warm and hydrated enough to survive the trip south where qualified physicians could evaluate her condition. The magical artifact had done wonders of some kind or another; save for being just a tad malnourished and chilled, they had given Princess Flurry Heart a clean bill of health and insisted on keeping her for observation for the next few days.
'Just Flurry Heart, Sunny. Remember, just Flurry Heart,' Sunny told herself. It made sense, when she thought about it; the Crystal Empire was a frozen husk, with thankfully no frozen cadavers, so Flurry Heart was essentially, a princess of nothing currently. Or maybe titles and honorifics made her skin crawl, like Zipp.
Getting up and stepping into the rather luxurious rain shower, she was clean and ready for the day, and the sun was barely starting to come up at 7:15 am.
Putting her mane into her signature braid and strapping on her saddlebags, she left the room and pocketed the key card, which Queen Haven insisted she keep, and to come by anytime she liked. Every guard she passed came to attention and saluted her as she made her way to the exit. On one hoof, she understood why they did it, and appreciated that she was getting recognition for reuniting the three pony kinds of Equestria, on the other hoof she understood why Zipp wanted little to nothing to do with it. Sometimes it was just... Too much.
She exited through the front, onto the wide red carpet, and trotted down to the elevator, which was still at the top; nopony had used it to go down into town yet. Not really surprising, since everything but the earliest breakfast places weren't open yet. The elevator ride took about sixty seconds, before touching down at the edge what was known as the Cloud District, that the castle took up when it came to the city's official zoning. There wasn't a whole lot of shopping to be done here like there was in the Wind District, so ponies didn't make it to this one too often, unless they were visiting the castle for a special event, most likely one of Pipp's performances.
The zone directly south of there was the Wind District, which was where downtown Zephyr Heights was located, and was by far the busiest district, as it contained all the stores, hotels, and attractions that most tourists were interested in when they weren't visiting the castle, where the visiting hours were considerably limited. The zone around the Wind District was the Sky District, where most of the residences were, aside from business owners, who usually lived in an apartment directly above their business.
Sunny's destination, Zephyr Heights General Hospital, was also in the downtown Wind District. Admissions had thankfully gone down, after spiking considerably after Reunification Day, with the city's population, now with the ability to fly for the first time in generations, suffering from multiple flying-related accidents, mainly collisions with buildings, and midair collisions with other pegasi.
Thankfully, after Queen Haven and the city council worked tirelessly to come up with rules and regulations for airborne traffic flow, and almost immediately, injuries and hospital admissions declined.
After walking a few blocks south, Sunny found herself in front of the hospital, going through the non-emergency main entrance and right into the main waiting room, coming up to the administration desk.
"Good morning, Miss Starscout," the attendant greeted, having gotten used to her presence as she had been here all three days since they had brought Flurry Heart in.
"Here for Flurry Heart, I take it?"
"If she's ready to go," Sunny replied.
"Let me go check," the attendant told her, getting up from her seat and going down the hall towards the patient rooms. A few moments later, she went into the first room on the left. Sunny took a seat in one of the chairs against the wall. A few minutes later, she saw the attendant come back out of the room, with Flurry Heart behind her, the Crystal Princess a full head taller than the pegasus attendant. Having never seen her up on her hooves before, Sunny found herself surprised at the alicorn's height. The attendant led her out to the waiting room where Sunny got to her hooves, greeting Flurry Heart with a smile.
"She's good to go, Miss Starscout," the attendant told her, before returning to her seat on the other side of the desk, and put a clipboard on the desk. "As soon as you sign this discharge form."
The attendant put a pen on the clipboard, and Flurry Heart's horn lit up as she levitated the pen up and signed her name, probably the single action she had repeated the most throughout her rule.
"You're rather early, Sunny," Flurry commented after she set the pen down, giving the earth pony her whole attention.
"I figured you'd want to hit up one of the restaurants in Zephyr Heights for breakfast. This city takes pride in a lot of things, but hospital food is still hospital food," Sunny replied, then glanced over to the attendant. "No offense."
The attendant merely shrugged.
"Hey, I'm not in the kitchen."
Sunny and Flurry walked side by side as they headed for the front entrance.
"I imagine you have so many questions for me, Flurry. I can definitely say the same. I already sent Sprout and the others on when it was clear you'd be here for a few days, so you and me can have a nice slow time on the way back to Maretime Bay. That is, if you don't mind camping."
"I don't mind much of anything, Sunny. You really don't have to ask what I'm okay with; you pulled me out of whatever limbo I was in, and I'm certainly in for more than a few surprises now. I'll answer whatever I can, and am certainly up for camping. Show the way," Flurry replied with a smile.
Sunny smiled back as they stepped out into the Zephyr Heights morning light.
"Welcome to a new Equestria."