Angela was woken up from hearing a scream. “Kya!”
She sprinted to where she had heard Kya scream. Eventually, she found a door with a few ponies outside it. “Wha-what’s going on? Why did I hear Kya scream?”
“Who? Oh! Is she one of the three pokemon who came in yesterday?”
“I’m not sure about three, but Kya’s new here, yes.” Angela’s memories of the night before were blurry. Anything that happened after Grumpig had started to control her were harder to remember than everything else, but that normally happened. “She’s tan and dark turquoise, with a few red spots.”
“That would be the pokemon in here. You must have heard he screaming from when she woke up. She seems to be having a negative reaction around unicorn magic. All unicorn doctors in there had to leave once she woke up.”
“So now she’s scared of unicorns too? Great…” Angela said to herself. “How’s she doing?”
“Well,” Started a doctor who was just leaving the room. “Other than the obvious wounds, she seems to have a concussion. There’s also something else that you can learn from her, or from me. Which would you like?”
“From you.” Angela responded quickly.
The mare gave a small sigh. “She’s also blinded in her right eye now. We might have had ways to help, but that would involve a surgery. We’re still not sure if our methods would work on pokemon like her, and don’t want to risk her life on something she can live with.”
“But she will still live, right?” Angela asked.
“Yes. She was fortunate enough just to have a few cracked ribs, so she’ll be fine.”
“What about the others?”
The doctor looked through her papers. “The linoone that was brought to the hospital earlier this month opened up his injury again, Lea only had a broken leg, Matrix had a few cracked ribs and a large cut on his skull so we’ll be checking for a concussion there too, and then the little snake like pokemon with wings…”
“That would be Sparks.”
“He’s mainly just sick, though he does have a few minor cuts that we needed to put bandaids on. And overall, everyone had blood loss from their wounds, but not enough to be serious.”
Angela noticed the doctor had left a name off her list. “What about Caddi? How is she doing?”
The doctor looked nervous for a few seconds. “Ah, well… I was hoping you wouldn’t ask about that thing.”
“Caddi’s not a thing! Caddi’s a she!” Angela exclaimed. “And she’s my friend, so I want to know how she’s doing.”
Before the doctor could respond to Angela, a few doctors along with Blissey ran by. The doctor tried to stop Angela from following them, but she got away. Angela followed the group into a room with other doctors. She also found Midnight there with them. He was being held down by Citrus’ magic.
“I have to see how she’s doing! Kiwi needs me!”
“What are you two doing?” Angela tried to ask, but she went unnoticed.
“I know that’s her! I saw the necklace I gave her! Why can’t I see her?!”
“Midnight, stop! They’re doing everything they can!” Citrus tried to reason with him. “She’ll be better before you know-”
Citrus had stopped mid sentence. Angela also stopped trying to get their attention. All of their faces paled. From behind her, Angela could hear one of the most dreaded sounds in a medical facility. Caddi was flatlining.
“NO!!!” Midnight yelled. He moved so suddenly that Citrus’ magical grip on him broke. He pushed his way through the doctors to find himself looking at Caddi. For the first few seconds, he was confused. He was here for Kiwi, not a changeling. Then he saw the changeling was wearing the fire opal necklace and he pieced it together. “Kiwi… was a changeling…”
The doctors started to pull him away from the bed, but Midnight pulled back and threw himself over Caddi. “I don’t care if she was a changeling or not!” He stated, starting to cry. “I still loved her. That’s all that matters to me.”
The doctors were shaking their heads, a few of them calling him delusional for thinking he loved her, and that they’d find the real one soon enough. Blissey was the only one who stayed inside the room, and she was starting to cry herself. The mood was so somber, that no one noticed the change in sound coming from the equipment.
“Hey Midnight, what’s with the tears.” Came a slightly hoarse voice. “It’s like somepony died or somethin’.”
Midnight tilted his head up off of Caddi’s body just enough to see her looking at him, her eyes half open and her mouth in a weak smile.
“I feel like I was hit by a train.” She told him. “Kind of like one of those ones from the Crystal Empire. They kinda scare me.”
Midnight, who was a little freaked out about Caddi coming back to life, started to back away. “Wait, what’s wrong? Did I do something-” She caught a glance at the leg she had started to reach out towards him. Seeing it, her eyes widened.
“Oh, I… you… me… I messed up, didn’t I?” Caddi’s head and ears drooped down. This was what she was afraid would happen when he found out. He would first get scared, then angry, and then he would… ‘Hug me?’ Caddi thought as Midnight had started to hug her. His hug was very tight too.
“Woah! Midnight!” Angela exclaimed. “Don’t kill her again! I doubt she can come back to life twice!”
“What do you mean by that?!” Caddi asked once Midnight had let go. “Midnight, what does she mean by that?!”
“Well, your heart stopped for a short while there. We all thought you we dead during that time.”
Blissey cut in. “None of the doctors could find anything wrong except that you were having heart problems and had an irregular heartbeat. Before they could do anything to try and fix what was going on, it just stopped. But then once Midnight came over to you it started back up. I don’t think that normally happens with ponies.”
“It might have to do with me being a… um… changeling.” Caddi said the last word quieter than the rest. “I probably used up almost all of the love energy I had trying to save everyone last night and that was me running out. Basically, I kinda starved to death, but apparently Midnight was able to give me some just in time that I survived that short time that I was… well, my heart wasn’t working.”
The group stared at her, hoping for something a bit better than that explanation. “Hey! That’s the best I can do! I’ve never done this before! I also don’t want to do it ever again.”
“Well I don’t want that either Kiwi.” Midnight said, giving Caddi a small kiss, making her blush a little.
“Then if you don’t care that I’m a changeling, you might want to learn my real name.”
“So… it’s not actually Kiwi Lime?” He asked. “Is there a real one?”
“I made her up myself. The chances of her being real are one in a zillion now since Citrus is around. My real name is Caddi.”
“Wait, what does Citrus have to do with anything.”
“She happened to create a pony to be who looked exactly like me.” Citrus told him. “She even happened to get the name the same.”
Midnight started to help Caddi out of the bed before Blissey stopped him. “No! She should rest! Besides, she might be hungry and want some actual food! I’ll go do that!”
Blissey ran out after she made sure Caddi wasn’t going to leave the bed. After that, Midnight looked like he was about to talk when another scream was heard.
“What was that?!” Citrus asked.
“Kya.” Angela told him. “She came to help us last night. Apparently whatever Grumpig did to her, it made her scared of unicorns. Most likely it’s because they’re so much like psychic pokemon. It doesn’t help she was already afraid of them back on Earth.”
“Does Lea know yet?” Caddi asked.
“Last I heard, she didn’t. Midnight, might you know where she is?” He shook his head. “What about you Citrus?”
“I saw her this morning a little after she woke up. I haven’t seen her since.”
“That’s not good. I’m going to try and find her.” Angela told them before she left the room.
Angela had gone to the main room where many of the pokemon were. A large portion of them were asking her what was going on. She ignored their questions and asked if anyone them knew where Lea had gone. Angela felt something on her shoulder as a familiar voice answered her.
“I’ve asked them already, but none of them could tell me.”
Angela turned to find herself face to face with a walrein, whose flipper had been the one on her shoulder. “Pryce?! Is that you?”
The walrein smiled. “It’s nice that you recognised me so quickly.”
“Well I heard your voice before actually seeing you, so that kind of helped.” Angela told him. “When did you get here? How did you find us?”
“I actually met up with Kya and Sparks about three or four days after we arrived on Equus. Who have you found so far?” Pryce asked her.
“So far it’s just been Lea, Matrix, and Linoone. We also found Linoone’s son. His name is Ziggs.”
“So, you haven’t found Samuel yet, have you?” Angela gave him a strange look. “That would be Lea’s father.”
“Oh. No, we haven’t. I’m sorry…”
“That’s too bad. I was hoping I might get to see him again. Maybe catch up with each other.”
At that moment, one of Celestia’s guards came in trying to catch Angela’s eye.
“One moment Pryce. It seems someone wants to talk to me.” He nodded in recognition and Angela went over to the guard. “What do you want?”
“I’d like to know where Midnight is. I have some news for him.”
“I wouldn’t go looking for him. His girlfriend just died and came back to life, so he needs some time.”
The guard gave her an odd look. “Listen, I just wanted to let him know that as I was out looking for any of the ponies or pokemon from last night, I found this.”
The guard held out the object he had found on his patrol. “Hmm, that looks familiar. Do you recognize it Angela?” Pryce asked after he had come over to see what Angela was doing.
Angela turned to him, scared. “That’s Lea’s belt.”
The guard nodded. “The same one she had been wearing when you all ended up here last night, which means that she’s gone missing.”