Cicada was hiding in her house. She had almost run out of energy outside and had come close to revealing herself as a changeling too soon. She stood a few minutes behind her door to catch her breath before running upstairs to find Lila.
‘If I were Nymph and not myself, I wouldn’t have made it.’ The queen thought as she reached the top of the stairs. She entered her bedroom to see Lila taking a nap on the bedpost. Cicada decided to try and rest a little bit too while she waited for Lila to wake up. She grabbed one of the books she had brought to her bed earlier and started to read. Eventually, her stomach started to growl and it actually woke Lila up.
“Sorry about that Lila. Guess I’m pretty hungry.” Cicada apologised.
Lila looked at Cicada for a few seconds before giving a quick flap of her wings and landed on her owner. Once she had settled down, the bird nuzzled Cicada, rubbing her head in the changeling’s mane.
Cicada gave a small laugh before giving a small sigh of relief. “There, now all I need is something to eat.”
Getting to the kitchen, Cicada started to look around for something to eat. Since she didn’t normally eat anything that was currently in her kitchen. Lila was also helping to looks for something they could have for dinner.
“Find anything Lila?” Cicada called out. The phoenix was rummaging through the cabinets when she found a can of food. Next to it was a can the same size with the same label on it. She poked her head out and gave a small to Cicada so the changeling would come over to see what was there.
“What’d you find?” The queen asked before looking at the two cans of food. “Two cans of something called Chowde- wait, Clam Chowder. Ooo, Seafood! You like that!”
Cicada took the cans out and read the set of instructions on the label. She dumped the contents of the cans into a pot and turned on the stove. After a while, the food started to bubble enough that when Cicada went to check on it, a bubble popped and splattered a little bit of the chowder on her face. As she tried to wipe it off, Lila flew over and turned the burner off herself.
“Thanks Lila. Could you maybe get something cold I can put on this?” Lila nodded and flew over to the sink. The phoenix grabbed a towel and put it under the faucet before turning on the cold water. After it was somewhat soaked, Lila turned the water back off and placed the towel on Cicada where the food had hit her.
“Thanks again. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Lila buffed up her chest before Cicada gave her a small nudge. “Okay, you don’t have to brag about it.”
Cicada grabbed the pot and two bowls. She also found a rather wide straw that Lila could use to eat her dinner. As they ate, Cicada started to feel a pain near her chest. For the most part it wasn’t too bad, but as the queen finished eating, a large burst of pain shot through her. Lila was startled by Cicada but flew over to see what was wrong.
Cicada was gripping her chest right where the burn she had gotten from her Twilight. On it was part of the chowder which had landed there when she had been splashed. Cicada tried to wipe it off, but instead of being easy to wipe away, the food was actually hotter than before.
“Ahh!” Cicada cried ask she brought her hoof away and waved it in the air. “We need to get back to that hospital.” Cicada said to Lila.
Cicada got up and tried to become Fireworks, but when she tried, the burn hurt more and she fell to the ground. “Lila, Can you help? Please go find Healing Touch.”
Lila flew to the other room, but quickly flew back with an object in her talons. Attached to it was a long spiral cord. Lila put the object near Cicada’s head and pressed a combo of three buttons. Cicada heard a buzzing sound come from one end of the object. Finally, after the buzzing stopped, a voice came out from it. “Yes? What is your emergency?”
“Cure?!” Cicada asked. “What are you doing in there!”
“Um, I'm just using the phone. Who is this?"
Cicada breathed in sharply and her eyes teared up as another burst of pain came from the burn, worse than before. "Look, I came in yesterday with Twilight and her friends. We came to see Healing Touch. I can't get there and he's the only one who can help."
Again the pain ripped through her, enough that it made her start to really cry. "Ple-ee-ease!"
And with that, the pain caused the queen to fall into unconsciousness.
“...Seems to be waking up now.” Cicada heard as she started to regain consciousness. She tried to open her eyes, but there was some kind of light shining straight in them. “Good, she looks fine now. I’m glad she called, or else it might have been too hot and it would have killed her.
“Wha…” Cicada tried to talk, but she felt to weak right then to say anymore. Instead, the changeling tried to at least sit up, but she was kept down by someling.
Finally, the lights dimmed and Cicada could open her eyes without being blinded. In front of her was Healing Touch, with Lila right beside him. It was still a little bright, so she still had her eyes halfway open, but she could still see them.
“Now, you’re probably going to want to stay in bed until tomorrow morning.” Touch started to explain. “It seems that whatever spell was used on you to create your burn is still active. Usually spells used on a pony, or changeling in your case, won’t last that long because of how your outer cells shed while new ones replace them. Because the spell is still working, it seemed to magnify the energy coming from whatever you had land on your burn. I found from your pet that it came from what you were cooking for dinner.”
Cicada gave a small nod, as that was all she could manage. Touch continued, “My one question is how your phoenix knew to call the hospital. There was almost know way she could find out for herself in the short time you’ve been here, and when I asked, she told me you told her. And I also heard from Tentative Cure that you had not idea what a phone really was when you called her.”
Cicada didn’t know how Lila had known either, but was fine without knowing for right now. The doctor made mention of how once he had come, Lila had also helped in providing care after he had finished the main portion.
“Your pet has a really knack for it. Makes me wish there were more like her. It would end up saving a lot of lives if there were.” Touch commented before reminding Cicada to stay in bed, and then left.
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