Nurses Snowheart, Sweetheart, Tenderheart, and Nursery Rhyme all exchanged knowing glances with one another. A few were in uniform, others had been just called in, and the hospital was busy. Two royals in desperate need of fluids and food, as well as a whole host of ponies who had fainted from fear when the ice encrusted demon locomotives arrived from Tartarus to invade the town. Nurse Redheart was already out on the floor, growling, spitting obscenities, and smiling sweetly whenever she was in close contact with her fellow equines, a perfect nurse by any account. Nurse Redheart and Doctor Horse were both a little nervous about keeping their jobs after giving the prince sedatives due to his frightening manic and rather insane behaviour.
Things went from frantic to worse when a dark blue alicorn materialised in the middle of the nurse’s station. She yawned, looking sleepy, and then peered around with bleary bloodshot eyes. A possum clung to her horn with four grabby little feet, and his tail was wrapped around her ear.
“Um, we do not allow rodents in the hospital,” Snowheart said in a low worried voice.
“TIS NOT A RODENT!” Luna bellowed in reply. “He is my precious Tibble-kins.”
“Oh, well if he is not a rodent then there is no problem,” Nursery Rhyme said as she gave Snowheart a swift kick in the leg and offered Luna an appeasing smile.
Princess Luna, having just been woke up with news of the crisis, was not in the mood to be bothered by her subjects. She took off down the hall, peering through doors, looking for a pair of ponies she was deeply concerned about.
“An enema is not something to be sheepish or shy about,” Luna suggested to a nurse as she stuck her head into one door. “It is far better to simply get it over with,” she stated as she gave the enema bulb a hearty squeeze with her magic. She smiled when she heard the stallion groan, then gasp, and then a moment later Luna was rewarded with the sounds of something splattering into a metal bedpan. “See? Already so much better,” Luna remarked as she trotted away.
“Nurse, help me, I think I’m pooping out my pancreas!”
Humming to herself, Luna made her way down the hall. She realised that she was not wearing her regalia and she probably looked like quite a sight. She sighed, exhausted from the long night. The dreamscape had been rife with nightmares of a demon locomotive, the residents of Appleloosa in particular had nearly been scared to death. Luna, who knew how to craft a fine nightmare on her own, had to admit, the imagery she had seen in the dreamscape was quite impressive.
Sticking her head into a random doorway, she found what she was looking for. One sleeping lavender alicorn and one dopey looking unicorn. She entered the room and began to check them both over.
“I rode the BOMB!” Bucky announced in a wavering voice. “Big fire. Gooey kablooie.”
Her nose crinkling, Luna realised she smelled feces. She lifted Bucky’s blanket. He had been cleaned up a bit, but not nearly enough. A quiet anger seethed inside of Luna’s mind. He deserved better. She immediately began conjuring up what she needed to get him cleaned up, including fresh sheets and a blanket.
“I rode the train of consequences,” Bucky giggled, his manic giggling slowly turning into a cackle as his remaining eye darted around wildly. “The train of pain exploded mostly on the plain.”
Sighing, Luna realised she had her work cut out for her. “Where is that stupid bloody phoenix?” she asked. “At this moment, Freezerburn would be most useful.”
“I kept them safe… I kept them SAFE! I brought the food. The food. THE FOOD! Everypony expected me to fight. Everypony thought I would fight. I would fight and I would kill and the Badlands would become an ocean of blood and that tiny little voice of the equine inside of my head would finally go silent forever and then the killing would be so much easier… just a chore… JUST A CHORE! Now a bore… but I didn’t stay to fight, I ran away… and the little voice went silent anyway, THAT STUCK UP LITTLE CANTERLOT UNICORN… should be screwed with his own horn… he stopped talking to me… I think he hates me… what did I ever do to him? WHY WON’T HE TALK TO ME? AM I NOT AN EQUINE? AM I A MONSTER WHOSE THOUGHTS ARE CONSUMED WITH TEATS AND OTHER JIGGLY BITS OF MAREFLESH? I just rode the worlds longest penis and I screwed Equestria good and hard… cumming fire and ice everywhere. I belong way down below… should have left me with Scorch…”
“Buckminster, enough!” Luna commanded as she booped the raving unicorn on his nose with one bare hoof. He became sluggish from her touch, Luna doing what multiple injections of powerful sedatives could not do.
“Mommy, my fear has died, his voice forever silent,” Bucky mumbled as he drifted away.
“My poor foal, you deserve better than this,” Luna grumbled as she went to work, trying to clean up and restore a pony that was very dear to her.
Twilight Sparkle awoke to a throbbing hornache. She opened her eye just a tiny bit, was assaulted by the sunlight, and immediately squeezed her eye shut with a groan. There were times she hated Celestia’s sun.
“I saw her blink!” a raspy voice cried out.
“Hush Dash,” another voice responded.
“Twilight?”
“Ugh,” Twilight grunted. Everything in her body throbbed with pain. And the bed felt too small. “The blinds… close the blinds,” she begged.
A moment later, the sounds of the blinds being closed could be heard and Twilight tentatively opened one eye again. Seeing that there was no horrible sunlight, she opened the other eye and looked around. One blue alicorn, one sky blue pegasus, one grey pegasus, all of whom were staring at her. She started to stretch her legs and felt the tug of an IV in her right front leg.
“Twilight say something,” Rainbow Dash pleaded.
“Something,” Twilight muttered. “Buckminster?”
“Sleeping peacefully,” Luna responded.
“I don’t know how we did it,” Twilight murmured.
“You’ve grown Twi!” Rainbow Dash gushed, unable to contain herself any longer. “Your legs, all of you, it’s larger now!”
“What?” Twilight muttered in reply.
“You’ve experienced some alicorn growth,” Luna said, offering the briefest of explanations. “I will explain more later when you are capable of understanding.”
“Oh. Is that why the bed feels too small?” Twilight asked. “Is the food okay?”
“The grain in the first few cars is being magically dried. It became damp from the steam. It should be fine,” Luna replied.
“The locomotives are all wrecked,” Derpy said as she paced near the bed where her husband slumbered. “They’re melted and big pieces are missing.”
“In the span of about nine hours you traveled almost two thousand miles,” Luna said.
“So we were doing at least two hundred miles per hour,” Twilight groaned. Her horn thudded with its own heartbeat. “On average. Give or take… oh my horn is killing me.”
“Currently our fastest steam locomotive goes one hundred and ten miles per hour,” Luna stated. “So I believe some recognition for breaking a speed record might be in order.”
“Pfaw, that’s slow,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “I’m the world’s fastest flier. Mach two confirmed after my trip to the Shetlands.”
“Not bad for a pegasus,” Luna said in a rather haughty voice. “Rather slow by alicorn standards.”
“But… hey… no… why… ugh… my dreams… that’s not fair!” Rainbow Dash sputtered. The skinny little pegasus puffed out in an attempt to look as large as possible, her feathers fluffed, her legs stiff, and her ears perked forward.
“Is Bucky going to be okay?” Derpy asked.
“Yes, try not to be troubled,” Luna replied.
“He was cackling,” Twilight remarked. “I think I was too.”
“Your task was stressful. He will be fine. He just needs sleep,” Luna said and then gave a yawn. Her yawn caused Tiberius to yawn, and then the contagious yawn spread to other ponies. She didn’t feel the need to worry them with details of Buckminster’s little breakdown. She was currently hard at work restoring what she could of his mind.
“The nurses said he was a little off,” Derpy said in a worried voice.
“He was a little delirious,” Luna explained in a comforting voice. “I assure you, when he wakes, he will be fine,” she promised.
“Okay,” Derpy said nervously.
Something seemed off, and Bucky wasn’t sure what it was. Twisting his head around, he looked over his body. He stretched out his wings and looked at them. Still the same wings. He was certain his eyes were still full of Taint. Something was out of place though. He looked at the Tree of Harmony and then scratched the side of his head against it.
He kicked out a leg and had a look. Still the same foal leg.
“You’ve grown.”
Not even feeling startled, Bucky sighed with relief. It was one of the many voices he had been waiting for. He knew that voice, and the two others who accompanied it. He turned around to have a look at them.
“Our little brother has grown. Not to worry too much. You have the beast contained. But your power has certainly grown,” the zebra explained.
“Just like Twilight has grown,” the earth pony muttered. “She needs to leave her comfort zone more often. This experience has been good for her,” the unicorn remarked.
“We have a task for you,” the zebra said.
“Yes, a task,” the earth pony repeated.
“We wish to repurpose one who has passed beyond the mirror. Once you are done dealing with the griffons, we wish for you to aid us, since you have offered to do so,” the zebra said, offering a partial explanation.
The earth pony moved to Bucky’s side and laid down near the Tree of Harmony. Reaching out with her foreleg, she pulled the foal down to her. Bucky, not resisting, lay down beside her, and leaned close when she kissed him softly. Something about her kiss eased his troubled mind and made everything better. She was warm against him, her pelt was velvety against his own, and he felt safe and secure against her, like any foal would feel against his mother or bigger sister.
“She was wronged. Celestia believed her to be something that she wasn’t. Our parent had gone silent and Celestia acted out of fear and doubt. She still has a powerful destiny, but it has been… disrupted. We wish to restore to her some of what she has lost, and offer her a better fate. You will use your authority to claim her as an asset. Demand that she be fetched from beyond the mirror and brought to you. She will make a fine teacher for your school, and a fine student for you to impart your ways upon,” the earth pony explained.
“So I am to take a student? What about Dinky?” Bucky questioned.
“She from beyond the mirror will be your student in the sense that she will learn from you. You will be an example for her and offer her shelter. Should you take her on as your apprentice, that is entirely up to you, but it is not a bad idea,” the unicorn answered.
“Celestia will challenge your decision, but you must be strong. Celestia needs for this to happen. Healing must take place. The scab must be ripped away or the wound will forever fester. She may come down hard upon you,” the zebra warned.
“Seek Twilight’s aid. If you appeal to Twilight’s sense of reason, Twilight will help you,” the earth pony said, nuzzling Bucky as she spoke.
“And what do you hope to gain from this?” Bucky inquired.
“Ah, our brother is on to us. Yes, there is something we want. We wish to reconcile with our sisters,” the unicorn replied in a low voice.
“But first, she must be made to see that she can make mistakes,” the zebra stated.
“And that those mistakes have terrible consequences. She may plan for the long term, but many have suffered in the short term. She must be made aware of this,” the earth pony whispered into Bucky’s ear.
“Our beloved sister has help now. She no longer has to make impossible decisions for long term gain. She can focus more on the here and now. And having her reconcile with Sunset Shimmer will hopefully set her upon a better path,” the unicorn explained.
“I will do nothing to move against Celestia or do anything that will bring harm to her,” Bucky said, nearly melting under the earth pony’s affections. “I will help you, just so long as I am never required to do anything that will hurt her.”
“We want her hurting to end,” the zebra said.
“You have made us decide that it is time to bring our family together. When the time is right, we will present ourselves to Twilight. Cadance is already aware of us and our efforts. She is undecided if our cause is right,” the earth pony said and then planted a wet smooch upon Bucky’s head, just behind his ear.
“It is our hope that all of us together can prove our mother wrong,” the unicorn said.
“Our sister Luna repairs what has been injured in your mind. You have endured. With your growth, you will be a little stronger and a bit more prepared to deal with such strain, but be careful,” the zebra warned.
“We worry for your safety,” the unicorn added.
“Sombra and Platinum send their best wishes and their love. We spoke with them recently, both are very proud of you. Celestia has been speaking to them as well. All of us are slowly coming together. I hope it will be enough to convince father that he is wrong,” the zebra said.
“Life must continue,” Bucky agreed. “Even if it is a hard life.”