//------------------------------//
// Going Batty 
// Story: Dawn of the Chiroptera 
// by SilverNotes 
//------------------------------//

"Daring Do saw the clouds above, and knew what she had to do. She wouldn't let anypony, or anyone, threaten her newfound friends..."

Luster had never been very interested in adventure stories, and so only half-listened to Princess Twilight's reading. It wasn't a problem with the genre, precisely, just that she'd never developed a taste for fiction. Daring Do stood above many by being the embellished stories of an actual figure, but embellished was the key word. She'd read the more direct and factual accounts of Daring Do Dazzle's escapades during her International History classes, and so Ms. Dazzle making up details to make the tale larger than life didn't capture her attention much.

Redeye was another story. The pegasus was watching Princess Twilight, absolutely enraptured. Her empty cocoa cup was still clasped between her hooves as she leaned toward, her wings having partly emerged from the blankets. Some glossy blue feathers were still clinging to them, but not many, and the grey-blue skin beneath the sparse plumage was visible. Something about the skin didn't look quite right, either, though Luster couldn't quite put her hoof on what was wrong.

A unicorn nurse was in the room, gathering up discarded juice boxes and a container of pudding that looked to only have had a single spoonful taken from it. She was moving quietly, doing her best not to disturb the trio, but she and Luster made eye contact briefly and shared a polite smile.

While she wasn't overly interested in the novel, Luster did have to admit that Redeye was right about Princess Twilight's ability to read aloud. She switched easily from a steady, narration-friendly cadence to an array of character voices and back again, giving everyone from Daring Do herself, to her newfound allies on the mysterious isle, to the villains, their own distinct sound. Despite herself, Luster found her ears perking with each change, attention piqued every time a new voice took the stage. 

She imagined the princess had honed the skill with her niece, Duchess Flurry Heart, who Luster had also extensively read about during International History. Being the first born alicorn in well over a thousand years tended to result in a place in the history books, to say nothing of what had come to be called the Crystalling Crisis. There had been some talk of the Crystal Empire royal family coming to Canterlot for Hearth's Warming, and Princess Twilight had offered to introduce the pair, something that Luster still wasn't sure she wanted to take her up on.

"She flew up in a flash, seizing the first cloud she could reach, reared up and--Redeye, are you okay? Does your tummy hurt?"

Luster, who'd still been focused on the half-revealed wings, suddenly snapped her head toward Redeye's face. Her features were scrunched up, and her cup, no longer just held between her hooves, was being clutched tightly to her abdomen by her forelegs. The question made her ears flatten, and she at first gave a small, "No..." Then a sound emerged from her stomach, something that could be said to resemble a growl of hunger, in the same way an Ursa Major could be said to resemble a teddy bear. Redeye let out a whine as her ears flattened further. "...A little bit..."

Princess Twilight looked toward the nurse who was already moving over. "Can you bring her some juice boxes?" She looked at Redeye, seeming to be studying something about her, and added, "At least six." The nurse nodded without a word and hurried off, leaving the three alone in the room, and Redeye starting to tremble.

"M'sorry..." Redeye murmured, and Princess Twilight opened her wing, draping it over the bed. The little filly leaned into the feathers, even as her eyes squeezed tightly and her face was stuck in that pained grimace.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Redeye," the princess soothed, as she carefully slipped a bookmark into the book--Luster had long stopped questioning why she carried spare bookmarks in her saddlebags, accepting it as an eccentricity that their immortal monarch was entitled to--and set it down. "It's okay to tell me when you're hurting."

Another little whine escaped the shaking pegasus. "...Will you read the rest of the story?" she asked, quietly.

"As soon as you drink your juice, I will, I promise."

Luster found herself moving from the chair to the bed, settling next to Redeye and reaching out a hoof. She didn't know what precisely was wrong, but she knew pain when she saw it, and when her hoof touched Redeye's side, the empty cup was dropped and she latched onto Luster instead with a whimper. Luster froze, briefly, and then cautiously started stroking the silvery mane, and heard the sharp breaths of a pained pony start to smooth out.

The blankets had fallen away more, during all of this, and the position allowed a much closer look at the wings. The skin looked thick and leathery, nothing like what she'd been taught in biology. Pegasi had rather thin skin on their wings, usually a bit greasy-looking from the oils that kept their feathers healthy. The wings also looked a bit oversized for Redeye's body, though she supposed, as a unicorn, she wasn't the most qualified to make that judgement. Still, something about it was sitting in her mind, telling her that this seemed familiar.

Her thoughts were cut short when the nurse returned, carrying several juice boxes and lining them up in a row. Princess Twilight gently nudged Redeye away from Luster and toward them, but she didn't need much encouragement. Luster watched the little filly's eyes open, widen, and then her practically attack the first box in her reach. She fumbled with the straw of the apple juice, nearly striking herself in the frog of her hoof with it, but once it was in its proper place she drained the box in record time, and was on to the next. 

Orange, pineapple, peach, and blueberry were all mercilessly emptied of their contents, and then Redeye seemed to finally calm, sipping at the final box of raspberry juice as she blinked up at Princess Twilight with an owlish look, as if she'd forgotten the last few minutes had even happened. The princess smiled back at her gently. "Feeling better?" Redeye nodded, the straw never leaving its place between her lips. "Good. Want me to finish the story now?" That question got all the more enthusiastic of nodding, and the Daring Do book reopened.

Luster couldn't even pretend she was paying attention to the book anymore. Instead, she kept looking from Redeye with her juice box, to the nearly-naked wings.

Oversized, leathery wings on a red-eyed pegasus.

It couldn't be.





Luster's limbs felt leaden as she hopped down from the hospital bed, and she wobbled on her hooves for a few moments before she found her balance. It was nearly time for Princess Twilight to raise the sun, and Luster's body was crying out for her to find a bed to make up for the lost night's rest. The princess had merrily read throughout the night for Redeye, and now went about tucking the squirming filly in, who looked like she wanted to protest and stay up several more hours.

"There we go," Princess said with a smile as the glow around the sheets faded. "Snug as a pig in a blanket, as my friend Applejack would say." She lightly brushed Redeye between the ears with the tip of her wing. "Now, you be good for the doctors and nurses, and make sure to tell somepony when you need more juice."

"Okay..." Redeye's face scrunched up, but this time it didn't seem to be pain, or at least not physical pain. "...Princess Twilight?"

The princess, who'd been starting to back up from the bed, stopped in her tracks. "Yes, Redeye?"

Large, bright eyes started to glisten with tears as the words that nopony wanted to hear from a foal left Redeye's mouth. "Am I dying?"

Luster's heart stopped, and Princess Twilight was instantly at the bed again, both wings reaching out toward her. "Of course you aren't." She pulled Redeye out of the carefully-tucked blankets and into a wing-hug. "What in the world makes you think that?" 

It was nearly impossible to see Redeye in the princess's embrace, and Luster found herself silently counting the number of shed feathers left behind. "Because... because I-I keep taking my medicine like you say, but..." Her words were punctuated with sniffles and sobs. "My feathers keep falling out and my tummy keeps hurting and it doesn't feel like anything's getting better. And... and... I was thinking about my great-nana and how she stayed in the hospital and had lots of medicine but she never came home..."

Luster grimaced. A small filly didn't understand the difference between an ordinary hospital visit and palliative care, and it was no wonder such a thing may come to mind if she'd already learned that not everypony who got sick got better. She was thankful that the princess was there to comfort her, as she wouldn't have had a clue how to navigate this, especially since she had no idea what kind of condition this was. 

Sure, she'd read something about this before but... that was an old pony tale.

Princess Twilight held the crying foal, even as her sobs turned to wet-sounding coughs. "Redeye... You're a big filly, so I'm going to talk to you like a big filly, okay?" There was a tiny sound of affirmation within the huge wings. "You are going to be okay, and the medicine is doing things to help you, but you're not a normal kind of sick." 

She very slowly moved to place Redeye back into the bed as she continued. "This is a magical sickness, and even when you're better, there's going to be some changes that don't go away. Just like how I changed from a unicorn to an alicorn, a long time ago." Tips of long feathers moved to wipe away tears from her face, then gently tap her on the snoot, prompting a slightly gurgling giggle. "But those changes won't stop you from growing up and learning things and playing with your friends."

"But I don't..." Redeye gave a yawn. "I don't have any friends... We just moved before I got sick and I don't know anypony..."

"Yes you do," Princess Twilight said with a smile, as she started to re-tuck the pegasus in. "I'm your friend, Redeye."

"You are?"

"Of course."

"Are you my friend too, Luster?"

"Um." Luster blinked furiously at the attention suddenly on her, meeting the expectant gaze of both the filly and her mentor. "Yeah, sure, of course we're friends."

Smiling, Redeye's gaze went back to Princess Twilight. "Are you gonna come back soon?"

"I'll be back next week, just like always, and with a new batch of medicine," the princess assured her as the now-smiling filly was once again snug in the hospital bed. "What flavour do you want me to make it this time?"

"Hmmm..." Redeye's ears twitched this way and that in thought, until she said, "Grape, please?"

"Grape it is." Princess Twilight gave a nod, and resumed backing up out of the room. "Now you get some sleep, and say hi to Luna for me."

"I will..." Redeye yawned again. "G'night, Princess Twilight... G'night Luster..."

Soft goodnights were given in return, and Redeye was left to her sleep as mentor and apprentice were again strolling the sterile halls. Each step seemed to add extra weight for Luster, but if Princess Twilight was feeling any fatigue from the all-nighter, she didn't show it. She continued to nod and smile at the ponies she passed, greeting the tried night shift and the just-arriving morning shift with equal grace.

All the while, the question weighed on Luster's mind, and she wasn't sure she should ask. It almost felt like an invasion of privacy, to do so. She'd been asked to keep a sick filly company, and she didn't really need to know the nature of the illness to do that. All the same, though, there had to be a reason that Princess Twilight was personally delivering medical potions and staying up all night reading with Redeye, as well as a reason that she would ask Luster to join her. Not to mention everything she'd said to Redeye about said illness.

A permanent change. Like unicorn to alicorn.

"I really appreciate you coming with me tonight, Luster," came the soft words that broke her from her musings, and she looked up into Princess Twilight's warm smile.

"It was nothing, Princess," she replied quickly, and it truly did feel that way. She hadn't done anything, not really, not even been the one to read the book. "I'm already ahead in my studies, so taking a night away from it is no big deal. But..." She faltered. It seemed like a good time to ask, and curiosity and uncertainty warred together for a time before she hesitantly added, "Why are you coming here to see her in the first place?"

"Because I was asked to." The princess politely stepped past an earth pony in a wheelchair, being pushed by a unicorn nurse, giving them her classic nod and smile and only continuing when they'd passed by. "Most conditions treated in hospitals are relatively mundane. They can cause a lot of trouble, but they're doing it without any magic. Magical illnesses are a lot rarer and harder to deal with, and for those, you need magic of your own to counter it. And well, if you need a powerful mage..."

"Going to the Alicorn of Magic is a safe bet," Luster finished. "Still, don't you have somepony else you could--"

"I have personal experience with this one." Princess Twilight's head was hanging low now, the smile gone. "I could get somepony else to help me, and I did get help from an old friend in putting together the potion recipe, but... most ponies have never encountered this. I have."

Luster's teeth came down on her tongue. Not enough to truly bite it, but just to hold back words. The silence stretched on, until she decided that it was better to be scolded for her insensitivity than to let the awkwardness hang in the air. "What... is she sick with?"

Princess Twilight's head didn't rise, but she gave a sad little smile. "You remember my friend, Fluttershy?"

"...Yes. But--"

"Years ago I did something that had unforeseen consequences, and Fluttershy's one of the ponies who got the brunt of it." She sighed, and then Luster caught hints in her voice of the tone that the princess got when it was time to lecture. "Let me tell you a bit about fruit bats..."