The first thing I saw as I opened my eyes were two blurs on each of my sides, one grey, one white. As my eyes focused, my eyes immediately shot to the grey pony's eyes, which were at opposite corners of her sockets.
My eyes then turned to the white mare, who spoke when I looked at her.
"Sir, can you hear me?" She said, my ears muffling the dialogue as they adjusted back to their normal state.
I nodded. As I moved my neck downward, I found it to be stiff. I turned my neck to one side, then the other, feeling the stiffness go away with each crack as my muscles adjusted.
"Do try not to do that as much, sir. We still don't know the extent of your injuries and how they have healed." the nurse stated.
My mind then started to process information. The last thing I remembered was Princess Luna smashing him into the ground, demanding for information about Dusk, then screaming in agony when he refused.
His mind then focused on Dusk. She had not once talked to me inside my mind while I was unconscious, nor when I woke up just now. He pushed the thought out of his mind. Dusk can take care of herself, he thought, I have to worry about my own situation first.
"W-where am I?" He asked the pink-maned figure.
"You are currently in a room at the Ponyville Hospital, sir." She motion to the grey, cross-eyes mare. "Derpy found you in the park and rushed to get me. If she hadn't found me, you would be dead right now." She ended.
Huh. Looks like Luna didn't make me truly immortal after all, I thought. We had had one hell of a fight, and the magic we used to fight each other probably would have been enough to decimate the whole town.
I looked to the window, and realized something: light was coming into the room. Someone had defeated Princess Luna.
I leaned up, but felt pain in my chest as I did. A pair of hooves pushed me back down into the bed, and I turned my head to see the white mare with a serious look on her face.
"Oh no you don't, mister. As long as you're here, you won't be going anywhere until we are sure you are healed." She said.
"Umm, Nurse?" The grey mare asked in a slightly slurred, but clear speech. The nurse turned to the mare.
"I have to go check on Dinky. Can you make sure that he stays safe?" She asked.
"No problem. Tell Dinky he's awake as well, can you?"
"Sure thing Nurse." She responded. She then left the room, the door shutting behind her.
I slumped back down into my bed, the nurse turning back to me, an inquiring look on her face.
"So, who knows I'm here?" I asked the nurse.
"The city knows that somepony is here." She said. "Only me, Derpy, her daughter, and a handful of doctors know that you're an alicorn, though. Derpy wanted to keep things discreet, and I agreed with her. After all, it would've made it much easier for your opponent to find you and finish you off."
"Huh. Well, thank you for that, Ms, erm." I didn't know her name.
"The name's Nurse Redheart, sir." She replied.
I stared out the window for a bit before I spoke to her again.
"I'm guessing you would be wondering a bit about me as well." I started. "Well, which name do you want first, the one for your records, or the true name that cannot leave this room?" I asked.
"How about the one for the records first." She responded.
"Very well, then. I am Celest. I do not know who my parents are, nor any of my other kin. I have no permanent residence, although I am a citizen of Equestria." I paused. "This is the alias I give in public, and it is how I wish to be addressed as to anyone outside of you and me."
She pulled out the clipboard at the foot of the bed and took down the information. She then put the clipboard back, closed the windows, and put a "Do Not Disturb" sign at the front of the door before locking it.
She then turned to me. "Well, we've got as much privacy as we're going to have." She said.
I leaned back in the bed, being extra careful not to lean on my wings, which were held stiff by a heavy casts.
I thought to myself for a second: Do I really want to tell her this? She did nurse me back to health and save me from death.
Could I have died back there?
Her eyes were still focused on me, intent on learning my true identity.
Pushed by guilt, I began. "My real name is Dawn. I am son and brother to Princess Celestia. I am about a thousand years old, cursed into immortality by Princess Luna the night she was banished to the moon."
Her pupils grew wide at the information received, but kept quiet, hoping that I would speak more.
I continued. "I am not the only person who was cursed, though. During the spell, part of my soul, and possibly some of Luna's, was ripped from me and her, and my sister, Dusk, was created."
I sighed, signaling to the nurse that my tale was done.
"Amazing. That explains your rapid recovery." She said.
"Rapid recovery?" I asked, my eyes moving over to the x-rays on the wall. Surely enough, the bone became more and more mended with each x-ray, and the x-rays had time stamps only hours apart.
"Yes. As you can see from the x-rays, your front left bone seems to have recovered fully. Judging that this happened for all of your body, all of your bones are probably fully repaired." She commented.
"I'm as surprised as you are. I really haven't done much to test my own body's biology to this extent before." I added. The picture of me falling off of the plateau came to mind. I quickly shoved it out.
She paused and thought to herself.
"How long do you think it will be until the other mare will return?" I asked her.
"She lives on the outskirts of town, and she also has to sort the mail this evening, so I would say that it'll be a while." She replied. "I, on the other hand, need to go see my other patients. Will you be okay alone for a while?" She asked.
"I'll be fine. Remember, nothing I just said cannot leave this room." I reminded her.
"No problem, Celest." She said with a wink. "I Pinkie Pie promise that I will keep my mouth shut."
The term confused me. "Pinkie Pie promise?" I asked, raising a brow.
"Yes. It is the highest-honored promise Ponyville. Anything that is Pinkie Pie promised cannot be broken, and lasts forever."
Forever I heard in a certain pink mare's dialogue in the back of my head.
"Anyway, try to get some more rest. By the looks of it, your muscles are still repairing themselves." The nurse said while stepping outside the door to remove the sign. "By the way, the name's Nurse Redheart." She added.
"Yes, Nurse Redheart," I replied, attaching the name to her face in my memory bank.
She smiled at the acknowledgement, and stepped outside, shutting the door behind her.
"Damn, I wasn't sure when she was going to leave." I heard from my right. I turned my head to find nopony other than Dusk, approaching my bedside.
She wrapped her forehooves around me, I returned the embrace, feeling the same happiness that she probably felt.
After we broke the embrace, she began to speak.
"Are you sure she's trustworthy? I mean, she did promise, but how do we know that will stick?"
"I saw a characteristic of trust with her. Also, I was returning the favor. She did fix me up."
"Yeah, good point. Man, Luna did do a number on you." She responded, wearing a sheepish smile.
"Well, I did stall long enough for you to get away." I said, wearing a similar sheepish smile on my face.
"True," She responded. "Speaking of which, I have to tell you what happened."
She spared no details.
"...and then Princess Celestia forgave her, and they hugged!" She said, taking somewhat-heavy breaths after her long-winded story.
"Do you think that your message you gave to Celestia the night we went into the castle happened to influence this?" I asked.
She nodded in agreement.
We both sat in silence, me pondering what I had just heard, and her silently awaiting any other thoughts I might have for her.
"Celestia's student, defeating Princess Luna...amazing." I said to myself. "She had planned this after all."
"Yeah. Do you think she also knew of the other ponies and their characteristics as well?" She asked me.
"I have no idea." I responded.
Right then, the the door handle turned. Somepony was coming in. Dusk quickly hid in a nearby shadow below a chair, and I leaned back down in my bed, which I had tilted up for comfort.
Nurse Redheart walked in with a cart, which had a dish on it.
"I have your dinner, Celest." She said, watching the door close behind her as she rolled the cart to my bed side.
As she moved the bedside table over my lap, she spoke.
"You can come out from under the chair, Dusk." She said firmly. This took me by surprise: nopony was able to detect Dusk's presence before.
"How, how did-" Dusk said speechlessly as she came out from under the chair.
"I'm not blind." She said coldly, before returning to a cheery tone. "I just assumed you were Dusk because of what Dawn told me. You appearance also helped."
We both sat speechless for a while before Nurse Redheart walked over to Dusk and started to examine her.
"Hey, what are y-" Dusk started, but the nurse hushed her.
"I'm checking you for any injuries. After all, you were at the scene." She said.
"How did you-" I started, but met the same fate that Dusk did.
"My office is next to your room. I heard everything." She said. "Anything I heard also falls under the promise I gave earlier, so don't worry." She added.
The room was silent for a while, the only noises being Nurse Redheart's prompts for Dusk to take breaths.
The Nurse finally broke the silence.
"Well, you seem to be fine. No broken bones, no internal damage, nothing." She said. "It like you weren't really involved in whatever Dawn got himself into."
"That's true," I assured her. "I threw Luna through several trees before she even tried to lay a hoof on Dusk." I added.
"Through?" Nurse Redheart said with great astonishment.
"Yes, through, but it really didn't do any damage to her. All it gave her was a bloody nose from me hitting her." I said, feeling embarrassed at the lack of damage I did to her.
"Wow. Alicorns are amazing beings." She remarked, her eyes still wide from my previous statement.
"Well, I have to go home. My daughter is probably wondering why I'm not home by now." She said. "I'll tell the nurses guarding the door that you have a visitor, and that she can stay as long as she likes."
"Thank you Nurse Redheart." I said as she opened the door.
"No problem, Celest." She replied.
As the door shut, I turned to Dusk, who was lazily staring out the window at the night sky.
"Hey Dusk."
She turned to look at me. "What?"
"Aren't you wondering at all why you were still in your physical form today?"
She thought. "I've been thinking, and I may have a theory." She responded. I scooted up in my bed, eager to hear her explanation.
She began. "Luna has been trapped in the moon until now. I have only been able to come out at night."
I nodded in understanding.
"So, I theorize that her presence is somehow connected with my presence in a physical form, and since she is now in Equestria, I can stay in this form."
Her explanation made sense, and it went along with the theory that she held part of Luna's soul.
"Have you tried switching between your forms at all?" I asked her.
"Not really." She replied. "Now would be the best time to try, though."
I nodded in agreement, and closed my eyes. The second I opened them, she was gone.
Did it work? I thought.
Looks like, Dusk said. Before I knew it, she had taken her physical form again. She went over to the empty bed adjacent to mine, and laid down in it. We had both had long days, and before I knew it, I found myself dozing off as well.
Although unanswered questions pestered my mind still, I pushed them aside, and welcomed the haze that set me into sleep.