//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: The End of the Road? 
// Story: My Faithful Student 
// by Darkblaze15 
//------------------------------//

Somewhere in a town on the outskirts of Equestria, a lone, weary stallion hauled an extravagant and fabulously decorated carriage through the streets, as the lone passenger - a cerulean mare with a purple magician's hat - contemplated everything that had happened in the past few days. . .
Of course she knew that the Ursa Major was an uncontainable beast; that was why she had chosen it as her prize.  After the humiliation she had experienced in Ponyville and beyond on numerous occasions, she could not afford to have her reputation tarnished.  So, with the last of her bits, she had purchased a Dragon-Binding Collar, snuck into the Ursa's lair while it was sleeping, and placed the collar around its neck, which she used to drag it to various towns and show off her "prize".  Of course, she had not planned for it to escape the collar; unfortunately for her, though, her plans did not always work out in the end.
"It's not my fault the Ursa Major escaped," she said to herself as she sipped a glass of water, "That pegasus was probably trying to let it loose, anyways, so I had to do something to stop her."  Nevertheless, the worst that could happen had happened, and she fled the town before things got too out of hoof; she has been on the run from authorities ever since, who are all trying to capture the magician that had nearly killed a royal princess of Equestria.
In truth, she actually commended Twilight for her efforts in fending off the Ursa like she did that night.  She had seen the lavender pony defeat an Ursa Minor before, but the Ursa Major was a different story.  She had never seen nor heard of anypony conjuring up a shield spell like the one Twilight used, except for maybe Starswirl the Bearded; she refused, however, to believe that Twilight was even more powerful than the greatest wizard of all time.
"Well, she may be good with the shield spell, but she still has a lot to learn if she is to defeat 'the Grrreat, and Powerful--'"  the carriage came to an abrupt stop before she could finish her sentence.  The blue mare bounced off her seat and onto the floor of the carriage.  "Jorge, why have we stopped?  You know quite well that we have to--" she began to say, but was interrupted when the door opened violently and a well-armored stallion entered.
"Please, finish what you were saying," the stallion said, tauntingly.  The mare gulped and scrambled into the corner of the carriage; she had just been addressed by the Captain of the Royal Guard.
"You know," the stallion began, contempt filling his speech, "I was promoted to 'Captain' because of my passion for keeping others safe.  That's how I got my cutie mark, in fact; I vowed to never harm a single pony unless the situation demands it."  He then leaned down closer to the magician so she could visibly see the menacing glare in his eyes.  "But, when it comes to my family," he continued, "I may just be content with breaking those rules."  The mare suddenly realized that the stallion speaking to her was Twilight's older brother, which only made her even more petrified.
He ordered her to hold out her hoofs, to which she willingly obeyed; he placed handcuffs on her and leaned down again; "You should be thankful that I've made this choice, but cross me or my family again, I may not be so considerate next time.  Understand?" he said vehemently.  The mare nodded fiercely as she was thrown into a barred carriage by more members of the Royal Guard.  As the prison carriage pulled away, she peered out through the bars and saw one of the guards giving her driver a sack of bits.  She sighed heavily; luck just was not on her side lately.

* * * *

When Princess Celestia heard about Trixie's safe yet forceful capture, she felt relieved but at the same time concerned for what Shining Armor had planned for her.  Although she wished that recent events had not happened, she had never wished for harm upon any of her enemies, whether they be fierce dragons or accident-prone mares.  She did not spend much time thinking about it, though; Twilight's friends had recently gone back to Ponyville, leaving her alone with her faithful student.  One of the nursed enters the room and summoned the princess to join her out in the hallway.
"What is it?" Princess Celestia asked, slightly concerned.
"Well," the nurse began, "I don't exactly know how to put this, so I'll just say it - we've done everything that we physically can to help Twilight Sparkle.  If she hasn't waken up by now, then. . ."
"No, please," Celestia pleaded desperately with the nurse, "There must be something else you can do, some other medication, right?"
The nurse shook her head, "I'm sorry, but to be honest, we've seen all sorts of terrible injuries to unicorns, but none quite like this.  Usually, when a unicorn cracks its horn, it can take days, weeks, maybe even months for it to heal properly, and the chances of a full recovery are - well, spotty, at best.  We'll continue to do what we can, but at this stage in the game, it's all up to her will to push through, I'm afraid."
Princess Celestia remained rooted to her spot as the nurse left to check on other patients; the thought of never speaking to Twilight again tore her apart inside, but she realized there was nothing she could do about the situation.  As she re-entered the room, she gazed at Twilight's limp form, her chest rising and falling steadily with each sacred breath of life that she may never experience again.  While waiting these past few days for Twilight to come out of her coma, Princess Celestia had had plenty of time to think; usually, her mind wandered to her relationship between herself and Twilight.  After all that they had been through together, Celestia wished that she could have expressed her true feelings to her former student and best friend sooner.  Now, Twilight may never wake up, and she may never know how close Celestia considered herself to Twilight.
Suddenly, an idea flew into Celestia's mind; maybe there is nothing the doctors can physically do to fix her, but what about mentally? . . .  In an instant, she wrote a quick scroll with some spare parchment and sent it away to the one being she believed could still help Twilight now.  As she watched the scroll float away in a cloud of magic, she turned back towards Twilight and rested a hoof on Twilight's shoulder; I haven't given up hope on you, Twilight.  I know you can pull through this, but this is just a precaution.  Then she lay on the bench that had become her home for the past few days and tried to get some sleep.
"Princess. . . .Celestia. . . .Princess. .Celestia. . . . . .PRINCESS CELESTIA!
Pricness Celestia bolted upright as the voice in her head, which sounded remarkably like Twilight's, echoed in her mind.  She whipped her head around to the lone bed in the room; Twilight remained unmoved on top.  Celestia pondered over what just happened; she thought that it was just a dream, but it had been way too loud and clear to have been a dream - almost as if it had been in the same room as her.  She rubbed the sleep away from her eyes and remained awake for the rest of the night, one thought constantly running through her mind;
Had Twilight just tried to communicate with me?!