//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 - Platonic Grounding // Story: A New Adventure // by Late2TheGame //------------------------------// It had been a quiet ride back to Ponyville, with Blaze pulling the cart and Twilight spending her time playing with Coco. She had told him the directions to the hospital from the Everfree, once they were there Blaze walked with Twilight from the cart and into the hospital. Nurse Red Heart was going over charts at reception when she heard somepony enter “Hello there, is there anythi-thi-thiii” She begun stuttering and tripping over her words as none over than princess Twilight Sparkle walked in, bandaged and beat up. She was accompanied by an unknown stallion who helped her to the reception desk. Twilight cleared her throat, trying to ease the tension before speaking “Excuse me, can we-“ “GET THE DOCTOR HERE NOW! PRINCESS TWILIGHT IS INJURED!” Red Heart yelled down the corridor, panicking as though Twilight were dying in front of her. Seconds later, a full medical team swopped in, put Twilight onto a bed and rushed her down the corridor. Leaving Blaze alone in the lobby, blinking in surprise. He waited a moment until another nurse comes up to him “Excuse me, sir? Do you need somepony to take a look at your leg?” “Ehh, aye. Why not?” He eventually said, dismissing the almost superequine feat as ponies worrying about their princess. He followed the nurse into a small room were she asked him to take a seat on the bed and give her his bandaged foreleg. The nurse unraveled the bandages, seeing the teeth marks still fresh but now not bleeding as much, thankfully the think hair on his fetlocks stopped the teeth form going too deep “That’s a nasty bite you’ve got there, wolf?” “Timber wolf to be exact” Blaze responded. “Wow, not many ponies get so lucky with timber wolves. How’d you manage to get away?” She asked with a small twinkle in her eye, cleaning and redressing the wound. “Well lend me your ear and I shall enlighten you” Blaze joked as he began telling the story of his Timber Wolf encounter. Some time later, Twilight stay laying in her hospital bed in a private room with fresh bandages and some painkillers. She was waiting for the doctor to come and discharge her. Her mind was wandering to Blaze, and his injured leg. He has told her what happened with the timber wolves, and he was able to walk to the hospital so she knew that he was probably fine but she’d hate for him to have injured himself further by helping her. Maybe she could go and see how he was doing once she was free to go “Or maybe he’ll come and visit me?” she wondered before shaking her head “What am I saying? he’s probably still down in the lobby or in his cart outside” she reasoned to herself. At that moment the door to the room opened, pulling Twilight out of her thoughts. She looked to the door, expecting to see the doctor. However, in the blink of an eye there was a flash of pink and there was a sudden great force enveloping her. Coming out of her panic, she looked down and saw her assailant “Pinkie? What are you doing here?” Her friend, Pinkie Pie that was now holding her while sniffling, her hair straightened and the colour of her coat a lifeless muted pink. Then one by one bell the rest of her friends rushed into the room, with various looks of panic and concern shown on their faces “Girls? What’s going on? How’d you know I was here?” Twilight couldn’t have been there longer than twenty minutes, how’s they know she was here? “We heard you were in the hospital, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked with her voice quivering, eyes welling up with tears. “What ever happened to you Twilight?” Rarity asked face full of concern. “I’m fine, really. I’m just a few scrapes and bumps” Twilight said trying to reassure her friends. Who gave her a look over and have a collective sigh of relief that she was unharmed. Though Pinkie Pie refused to let her go. So Twilight returned the hug, knowing that it was what Pinkie needed to recover her original colour and the poofyness of her mane and tail “How’d you know I was here?” She asked. “Somepony came rushing from the hospital yelling that you were injured, the news is all over Ponyville!” Rainbow Dash said gesturing out the window. “We rushed over here as soon as we heard the news sugercube. We’re just glad to see you okay” Applejack said, placing her stetson back on her head “Right girls” The rest of them agreeing with her, they each relaxed. At that moment Pinkie jumped back to her hooves, vibrant pink and hair like cotton candy, gave a beaming smile “You really had us worried there Twilight, but don’t you worry. Once you’re all better, there’ll be a huge ‘Welcome home from the hospital’ party waiting for you!” “I appreciate it Pinkie, but I should be getting out in a few minutes” said with a small laugh, knowing Pinkie would want to throw a party to celebrate. Pinkie just let got a huge gasp “Then I better get started right away!” She tries to rush out the room only for Applejack to stop her by her tail. “Hold on now, before any party plannin’ starts. How did this happen Twi?” Applejack asks, looking back at Twilight. “Well, it’s a long story. Do you all remember the vault I told you about this morning?” Twilight asked as she began her story of the events of that day. After fishing his timber wolf story and having his fetlock properly bandaged, Blaze’s mind turned to twilight and their close call with the sentry “What was she even looking for in that chamber?” he thought to himself.Then suddenly, he was stuck with a idea. He headed out to his cart and made his way down the path, back toward the Everfree Forest. As Twilight told her story, her friends gave varying reactions. Fluttershy seemed terrified the whole way through, while Applejack held a concerned look. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were completely enthralled, particularly when she brought up the sentry attack. Rarity on the other hand, was giving a look Twilight could only describe as giddy. Twilight then finally finished her story “And then he helped me into the hospital we’re they took me away almost immediately” Upon finishing her story, Rainbow Dash was the first to speak “That sounds awesome! . I wish I coulda been there, why didn’t you wait for us!” She pointed with an accusatory hoof at Twilight, clearly annoyed that she didn’t take her. “I was going to. But then I kept thinking about all the learning opportunities and next thing I knew I was there” Twilight answered with a sheepish smile. “We’ll ah’d say you learn’d plenty about going into these situations alone” Applejack said with a disapproving look “Ah’d say this ‘Blaze’ feller had the right it’s scoldin you like that” “Y-Yeah you’re right, I should waited for you all. But I was just so tired of everypony treating me differently now that I’m a princess. I thought that maybe I could show them that I’m just a normal pony by doing this one thing by myself” Twilight said in frustration, thinking about how this should probably only make the situation worse. “And we understand that Twi, but you can’t go throwing yerself into danger like that” Applejack said, softening her expression. She understood that her friend was having a bit of an adjustment period to her new life and it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. But she wasn’t going to let her potentially hurt herself to in the process. “I know, I’m sorry. You’re my best friends, and I should had respected that you were all busy. Had I been patient, this never would have happened” Twilight said with a heartfelt tone. “Awww, group hug!” Pinkie Pie called as she pulled them all into one big hug, the other five returning the hug in turn. As the hug ended Twilight looked around “Where’s spike?” “Back at the library darling, he wanted to update the princesses before she heard about it in the papers” Rarity explained. “That’s right, the whole town knows. It’s only a matter of time before this whole thing blows up” Twilight thought worriedly. At that moment the doctor came in with discharge papers “Hello princess, I won’t take up too much of your time so if you just sign here then you’ll be free to go” he said with a smile, passing her the papers. “Thank you doctor. We should get back as soon as possible so ponies know I’m not actually hurt” Twilight said looking to her friends and she signed. “Agreed, we wouldn’t want a panic on our hooves” Rarity said, the others nodding in agreement understanding how dramatic ponies can be about these situations. After giving the doctor the discharge papers, the six of them left the hospital together. Twilight looked around, disappointed and a little hurt that Blaze’s cart was nowhere to be seen “Did he really leave without saying goodbye?” she thought to herself as they headed back into town. Being pulled out of her thought; she found herself surrounded by a crowd of ponies asking if she is okay. Twilight was trapped in the middle of the town square, her friends unable to clear a path through the worried townsfolk. Knowing that the ponies are just concerned for her, Twilight knows that she needs to say something to reassure them that she is okay. So she levitates a cate from a nearby stand and stands atop it, breathing a breath breath in before addressing the crowd “Everypony, I know that you’re all concerned for my health but I am fine, I am unharmed” “What happened to you?” One of the townsponies called out. “I will say more another time but for now, just know that I am not hurt” Twilight explained as calmly as she could manage, not wanting to worry the townsponies anymore. The crown seemed to calm slightly at the explanation and seeing that Twilights wasn’t seriously hurt. They parted enough for Twilight and her friends to pass. Once they were out of earshot from the crowd, all six of them let out a huge sigh of relief. “Nice save there Twilight” said Rainbow Dash “It worked for now but they’ll want to know what happened, but I want my family and the princesses know I’m okay first” Twilight said as they pressed onwards to the library. Once they got there and opened the door, Twilight was almost immediately tackled by Spike who now clung onto her “Twilight! You’re okay!” He cried relieved to see her safe. “I’m okay” Twilight repeated back to the little dragon, giving him a comforting hug “Did to send a letter to princess Celestia?” “Y-Yeah, I-I didn’t know what else to do” Spike said, sniffling slightly. “You did the right thing, Spike. Come on, let’s go inside” said Twilight, with Spike now having let go of her and waking back into the library wiping away tears from his eyes. “Thank you girls, I think I’ll sleep for the next three days” Twilight jokes as she started to follow Spike into the library. “Hold up now sugercube” Applejack said before Twilight could head inside “Now while you learned yer lesson, we still can’t just let go of the fact that you coulda got yerself killed. So I think you should stay at the library until this mess with the news in town has calmed down” “What? Are you grounding me?” Twilight said full confusion at Applejacks words. Looking to the rest of her friends. “We just want to make sure that you’re safe darling, and that nopony gets the wrong idea” Rarity said, trying to reassure her. “We’ll make sure ponies know what happened so this doesn’t get out of control” Rainbow Dash said with a determined smile. “Wait” said Fluttershy raising a hoof to get her friends’ attention “I don’t think we should be forcing Twilight to stay inside her home” “Yeah I’m with Fluttershy on this one” Pinkie Pie said standing next to and putting a hoof over Fluttershy “That seems mean, and boring. Also, how is she supposed to progress the story if she can’t do anything?” Looking confused for a moment before dismissing the comment at ‘Pinkie being Pinkie’, Applejack rubbed the back of her head uneasily “Ah know; it’s just that, you were hurt and now everypony is on yer flank about it. Ah don’t think that’s fair on ya” she said looking back to Twilight. “As least let us try to calm things out here, so you can rest a couple days” Applejack said trying to convince her. Twilight took a second to think before a deep breath “Okay, I’ll rest for a few days, but after that I’ll do everything I can to help” Twilight said giving in to Applejack’s request. “Thanks Twi, we’ll be everything we can from our end, trust us” Applejack said with a smile. With the rest of her friends sharing the sentiment, Twilight gave them a smile knowing that they would do their best for her. “Thank you girls, I’m thinking I’ll turn in for the rest of the day. I’ll see you all soon” she said while heading back into her home, the rest of her friends also saying goodbye before going back into town. Hours later, Blaze had finally come out of the Everfree. It was now sometime after 9pm; later than he would have liked it so he quickened his pace into town. Thankfully there were still ponies up and about so he walked up to the nearest pony, an earth pony stallion, and asked for directions to the town’s library. The stallion was confused at first but pointed him to a building in town that looked like a large tree; no wait scratch that, it was a large tree “Ah yes, of course the princess lives in a tree. A tree that’s a library” he thought sarcastically to himself, making his way to the tree, now seeing the sign ‘Golden Oaks Library’ and seeing the lights are still on “Good, I’m not too late” he said as he parks his cart on the side of the road. He heads inside the cart and comes out holding something wrapped in cloth. He walks up to the door and knocked. He waits for a few moments before the door opens, his smile turning to confusion as their doesn’t appear to be any one in at the door. He looks around for a second before hearing a slightly annoyed young voice “Excuse me, down here” Moving his gaze to the source of the voice, Blaze was surprised to see an honest to Celestia baby dragon with purple and green scales “Oh hello there, wee man” he said with a small smile “I’m looking for Twilight, she said she lived in the library in town. Is she here?” Spike looked at him in thought for a moment “Yeah, but she’s resting just now. You got a message for her?” Blaze was a little disappointed but understood, so he pulled out the cloth wrapped item and presented it to Spike “Just looking to give her this, tell her it’s from ‘Blaze’” Spike took the item in his claws and looked up at the unfamiliar stallion, unsure of what to make of him “uhhhh thanks, I’ll pass both on. Take care” he said as he closed the door. “You too” Blaze said with a small wave. Strapping himself part to his cart, he went to go find somewhere to park it for the night. After doing so, he turned in for the night and climbed into bed. He glanced to the photo on his shelf; today had been stressful, confusing, frustrating and exhausting. But, it was also exciting, interesting and….. fun. “Today was actually a good day” Blaze thought with slight surprise, as he slowly drifted off to sleep.