6, 30, 1000, C.E.
8:00 P.M.
Canterlot Royal Hospital.
Dark ominous thunder cloud's hung over the city. The culprit behind there formation was currently inside the Canterlot Royal Hospital, pacing around the waiting room looking at everything she could to try and take her mind off of the pony now stuck in the emergency room. Her tufted ear's swiveled to and fro listening for any sound that could potentially be new's about her closest companion. The thunder storm got worse as she thought about the situation.
"Come on! What's taking them so long? Oh please, please let him be ok!" The clouds were now pouring rain as Midnight's cat like eye's began to water.
"WERE ARE THEY!?" She shouted as the sound of thunder resounded through out the city fallowed closely by a flurry of lighting bolt's. All of the pony's jumped at Midnight's outburst, yet none of them could bring themselves to chastise the grieving Princess. Princess Cadance got up and layed a wing over Midnight to comfort her.
"There, there, little one." She said as she bent down to Midnight's height. She gave the sad Thestral a small smile.
"You have nothing to worry about." Cadance said. Midnight looked at Cadance first with anger then sadness. She buried her head into Cadance's outstretched wing.
"H-h-how do you know?" She said sobbing. In the background more rain, thunder and lightning fallowed. Cadance looked outside then to the emergency room. Finally her gaze locked onto Midnight. She smiled.
"Because from what i have gathered Gadget has a way of drawing on the love of those around him to heal." She scanned the room.
"And as the princess of love i can feel the love that everypony has for him. With all of this i think he should be able to heal up just fine." She smirked.
"Plus his love for you is to strong." Midnight was taken by surprise.
"He l-l-love's me?" She looked at Cadance with curiosity. Cadance looked back.
"Well yes." She said looking confident.
"Right now he is in there fighting with all of his strength just to see you again." She said with her smile. Midnight just blushed and looked away. How--How could he love me? After what i did to him when we first met. With what he's had to deal with now thank's to me. How could he love me? As Midnight pondered this new mystery the rest of the friend's and family were discussing anything they could to try and take there mind's off of the situation.
"So Rarity what did you do tonight?" Fluttershy asked. Rarity thought about it and blushed.
"Well my dear i found a nice stallion th share my night with." And left it at that. Now that she thought about it she would have rather spent her time with her friend's.
1 hour 30 minute's ago.
"Come on now blue blood. Scream for me!" she said swinging her whip back and forth. Smack!
"AHHHHHH!!"
"Good Boy!" She said as she strutted up to the bound prince in her black leather outfit.
Rainbow, Pinky, and Apple Jack were discussing the strange pegasus they were following.
"So who do you think it was?" AJ asked. Rainbow thought about it. Then her eye's lit up.
"It was Hot Shot! Think about it he was there in the cell when we all arrived." Pinky thought about it.
"Ya but that pegasus that we saw wasn't the same color as "Him"." She said refusing to speak the evil pony's name. The group thought about it.
"Hey ya i remember that now." Rainbow said as she looked off in thought.
"In fact now that i think about it he looked rather strange." AJ and Pinky looked at her.
"Really RD? How was he different from any other pegasus?"
"I don't know? He just seemed off." She said racking her brain for the answer to her own statement.
While those three were trying to figure out the answer to a complex situation, Shining armor, Twilight, her parent's and Gadget's family were all huddled together comforting one another. Shining was sitting there his eye's starring off into space. His eye's were misted over.
"Shining are you ok?" Twilight asked as her brother looked around the room. He chuckled.
"You know it's funny." He said as he looked at Gadget's Family.
"Even tho i only knew him for a few year's while we were both at the Canterlot Royal Academy he always felt like brother to me." He said hanging his head. His shoulder's quaked as he began to cry.
"I failed him." He he said as his sister came up to hug him. She rubbed his back. She really didn't know her brother was this close to Gadget.
"Don't worry shiny. He'll pull through." She looked at the white double door's. He always doe's. She let go of her brother and looked to her parent's. They were holding each other sitting close to Gadget's parent's.
Sky and Rose looked over at Shining. They looked at Night Light and Twilight Velvet. The two nodded. Sky and Ruby made there way over to the shaking Shining Armor. He looked up at them and cringed at there neutral look's. They just starred at him.
"Shining?" Sky asked. He looked up. He saw the raw emotion in his eye's. There was a deep sadness in them. The two Stallion's starred at one another. Then without warning Shining was embraced by both Sky and Ruby.
"You have nothing to be ashamed of honey." Ruby said as she held Shining like he was her own. Shining was shocked. He thought about it. Gadget wouldn't blame me. As he thought about this he cracked a small smile and embraced the the two pony's that were more like extended family.
As these group's were doing there own thing the two princess's of Equestria were contemplating there own issue's.
"Dear sister how are these fiend's able to pierce our very wall's?" Luna asked her sister. Celestia was just thinking about that. She looked at her sister.
"I do not know Lu Lu. Perhaps it could be the answered when we discover the source of all of the magical anomaly's that have been happening lately." Celestia didn't show it but she was seriously worried.
Over the past few month's there had been quite a few anomaly's in the surrounding area's of Canterlot. She had sent her best Alchemist's to see if they could track down the source of the anomaly's. Even with there advanced equipment and magic they could only guess as to the cause of these strange fracture's in reality. Celestia was roused out of her thought's by a hoof on her shoulder. She looked over to see Luna looking at her with sad eye's.
"Dear sister doth thow think thee can put aside thine feeling for our doppelganger for tonight?" Celestia looked confused.
"Of course i can Lu Lu." She said looking from her sister to Midnight. Am i ready for this? She steeled herself and went over to Midnight who was starring out of a window watching the storm still raging on outside. Oh boy. I really better not stick my hoof in my mouth.
She came up and stood next to Midnight. She looked at the storm then to Midnight. She sat in a chair draped over the back, her hooves hanging there. Her eye's were red from crying and she had a blank look on her face.
"Good evening Princess Midnight." She said, a false sense of confidence in her voice. Midnight just starred.
"Good evening Princess Celestia." She said roboticly. Celestia looked on. This is not going to be easy.
"Midnight listen to me." She looked at the Thestral. She continued to stare off into the storm.
"I know what you are goi---" She was cut off by a blast of thunder and lighting striking the window they were standing next to vaporizing it into thin air.
"Don't you dare presume to know what i am going through!" Midnight yelled at Celestia. She was shocked at first but then calm flooded her system. Relax. She is just angry and need's to vent. As Midnight's magic swirled around her the other's came over. They all looked at Alicorn princess as she calmed down. Her eye's went from a bright light to their normal goldenrod color. Midnight stood there panting.
"Midnight are you ok?" Celestia asked the disgruntled Princess. Midnight looked up to Celestia then to she looked all around to see all of the group looking at her with sadness. She shook her head.
"No. No i'm not." She shook in place for a little while before suddenly collapsing into a heap on the ground.
"Midnight!" They all ran to her side. Celestia scanned her. She saw nothing out of the ordinary.
"Do not worry little one's." She said sighing.
"What''s wrong with her?" Ruby asked still afraid for Midnight's well being.
"She is merely exhausted from over exertion." Celestia said as she picked Midnight up. She levitated her body through the double door's to the emergency ward. The pony's there were about to stop the intruder until they saw who it was. They all bowed. One of them, a Doctor Steel, bowed briefly before getting up and heading over to the Princess. He cleared his throat.
"Um excuse me princess but is there anything we can help you with?" He asked eyeing Midnight for sec. Celestia gave him a nod.
"Yes Mr Steel. I would like to know were the unicorn named Gadget is being kept?" The Dr looked from the princess to midnight then down the hall. He sighed.
"Well your majesty i have some rather bad new's about your friend." He said as he turned around.
"If you will please fallow me." The Doc led the duo through out a maze of hallway's before he stopped at one of the door's in particular. He motioned for the princess to look inside. What she saw confused her then shocked her. She looked from the window to the doc.
"Is that him?" The doctor nodded his head.
"We don't know what he is but his recovery in going rather smoothly." Celestia looked at the doc.
"Then what is the bad new's?" The doctor shook his head.
"We don't know how he is doing this." He said looking threw the window. Celestia looked at Gadget. He looked so "different". His black fur was replaced with a hard shell like material. His horn was still the same crystalline material as usual and his aura was visibly glowing it's usual steady emerald green color. He was sleeping in one of the hospital's stasis module's. Suddenly he gave out a small whimper as his coma was interrupted by little fit's of restlessness. Midnight began to toss in Celestia's magical field keeping her aloft. She looked from Midnight to Gadget her sad expression changed to one of curiosity.
"Dr please open the room." She ordered Steel. He looked from her to the door.
"Your majesty are you sure? We still don't know what that thing is in--" His speech was cut off by a very stern look from the Princess.
"Dr steel when i give a command i expect it to be fallowed. Are we clear?" She said her eye's borrowing into the Dr's very soul. He gulped.
"Crystal." He said bowing once more.
"Good. Now please open the door to Sir Sky-Rose's room." She said making sure to emphasize Gadget's title and status as a knight of Equestria. The Dr complied. His horn glowed and the door unlocked with a soft electronic clicking noise. The sound of bolt sliding out of place noted the door was ready to be opened. Celestia grasped the door's handle in her magic and pulled it open.
As she stepped into the room she was careful to not hit Midnight on the door frame or anything else in the room. She made her way over to Gadget's bed. She turned off the stasis unit and he floated gently down to the soft cover's of bed just big enough to fit several pony's into. Then Celestia gently laid Midnight down next to Gadget. She slowly got comfortable as she snuggled closer to Gadget and them embraced him a soft hug pulling him closer. Celestia starred at the two with a sad smile.
"Sweet dream's little sister." She said as she left the two there. As she turned around there was a soft glow of green light. She looked back and was astonished to see that Gadget had taken on his normal pony form.
Interesting. This call's for more investigation. With a content smile on her face she left the two and shut the door quietly behind her not bothering to lock it.
"Um princess are you sure that it is ok to leave her majesty alone with th-" He stopped as he got a fiery gaze from Celestia. "T-t-t-he patent?" He quickly corrected. Celestia's eye's stopped glowing orange and went back to there soft cheerful violet.
"Yes doctor steel i think it is quite all right." She said smiling and walking away.