//------------------------------// // Overpowering The Guards (Alt End) // Story: Royal Affection // by NightShader //------------------------------// With your mightiest battle cry you start charging towards the guards. “WULULULULU!” The guards visibly flinch the moment your cry commences, but soon put themselves in a battle stance, ready to retaliate the moment you get close. “This is for Celestia, it’s my only choice!!” You keep telling yourself in your mind as the gap between you and the guards keeps getting smaller and smaller. You prepare yourself for your first attack, a flying dropkick would be a nice opener wouldn’t it? It didn’t come to that though, as you were brutally interrupted by a sharp pain striking you in the back as you instantly fall to your knees. You try to turn around to look at what hit you, but fail because the movement proved too painful to do. The pain had progressed through your back towards your stomach area, looking down, you are horrified to see what had actually happened. There was a spear point sticking out of your stomach. You had been impaled. You could see a bloodstain growing larger on your shirt, a feeling of panic is starting to well up in your mind. Your breathing becomes faster and heavier, and you suddenly don’t feel so well anymore. You fall down onto your side, a light taste of iron present in your mouth. Your vision starts fading but you manage to whisper one last thing. “I’m.. sorry... Celest...” And with that, your vision fades completely. ----------- 2 days later ----------- You hear voices but can’t understand what they are saying, slightly distorted visions of ponies against a white background walking towards you and then back from where they came from are all you see. You couldn’t count how many, everything was blurry. Where am I?  A feeling of cold numbness was present throughout your whole body. After attempting, and failing, to move your body you notice that you’re arms and legs are strapped down. Looking to the left, you see a distorted image of what seems like a heart rate monitor. Am I in a hospital? For a moment you wonder why this was the case, until it all came flooding back to you. Oh, yeah.. Right... Thinking back on what you had done, maybe it wasn’t the best choice after all... Still, the binds that contained you were incredibly tight, even painfully so. You attempt to get the attention of one of the blurry ponies by making some noise. Your first attempt fails as you try to inhale deeply, but are stopped by a stinging sensation in your stomach. The pain makes your vision go black for a split moment, and your heartbeat instantly goes up making the monitor go crazy. This manages to catch the attention of some ponies as you could see some of them turn around. I was so stupid...  “rrrghaar....” Low pitched grumbles were all that you could produce, You could now see one of the blurs closing in on you. . You look straight at the pony, it was a white mare with pink hair who had a nurses hat on her head. “Doctor! He’s awake!” She yells after you manage to make eye contact with her. You cringe at the loud sound and accidently contract some of your muscles, sending another stinging pain through your whole body. This time the pain proves too much as you can see your vision go black once more. “A-ahh c-crap..” You gasp as you start to lose consciousness. -------------- What doesn’t seem like too long after ------------ You slowly open your eyes, it seems like your vision is partially regained as this time you could see the room more clearly. You also see all kinds of wires and tubes attached your body, you had failed to notice this the last time you were conscious, or maybe they put it just now? the room was dark, and it looked like there was no one left within the room except for you. You let out a defeated sigh. “Y- you’re awake?” You could hear a soft voice speak. It seemed oddly familiar Looking to your right you notice that it was the same pony that called for a doctor right before you passed out. You simply look at her for the moment as the strain of moving your neck slowly faded. The nurse pony took a few steps backward, seemingly scared that you would do something.. You decide to speak up. “P-please don’t be afraid...” You manage to whisper. Even only talking was taking way more energy than it should as only those few words left you pretty exhausted. “I-it was an accident...” You said several seconds later, taking your time to rest up after each word. This didn’t make the pony less cautious as she still stayed a great distance away from you. An awkward silence engulfed the room, she hadn’t spoken and simply stared either at you or at the floor the whole time. You carefully return your head to it’s original position, and close your eyes again. It’s only natural that ponies would be afraid now, right? A few minutes pass, everything stopped hurting again, and you wanted to attempt to speak once more. “What’s your name,” you ask softly, this time managing to restrain the pain to only a slight stinging sensation. “I-I’m nurse Redheart.” Congratulations!! Nurse Redheart Route unlocked!