//------------------------------// // C20 - Results // Story: Trapped In Canterlot // by TartarusFire //------------------------------// Having never been to a place such as this, Caedes started to breathe, hard. A foreign object was in her, a place with unknown intent encased her, and literally unaware of what had actually happened caused her to panic.   Thrashing around a bit, she sat up with enough purchase on her pillow to grab ahold of the slender object with her teeth. Tugging at the object, a spasm of pain lashed through her. Even more terrified by the prospect of further pain, she whipped her head backwards and pulled it out, creating a gouge in her leg.   A flicking ear caught the sound of distress, alerting an eye to open.   Fighting the stiffness in her legs, Ceades managed to push off the sheets that were tucking in around her.   By now the eye had fully awakened and took in the sight of an escaping patient. Red Cross was not about to let that happen. Ridding herself of her own bedding, she jerked upright and managed to grasp the filly in her magic.   Just the prior day, Caedes was ensured by such a spell.   She thrashed around in Cross’s magic, adding further injury to herself and making the nurse’s job harder. “Hey, stop moving!” Caedes did not respond in any way. Cross attempted a more soft tone, “Just hold still, and it’ll be okay soon.”   She sized up in the aura, before lashing out even faster, trying to throw the larger pony’s magic off of her.   “Wh-at? Laceration! I’ll need some help; we’ve got a wild patient!” The doctor came in rapidly, noting if Cross was asking for his help, it must’ve been serious. “If you just hold her, I can put her under with some magic. I don’t have enough concentration to do both simotanteously at the moment.”   Folding his magic over the small, gray pony, Laceration grimaced as he noticed who Cross was having such difficulties. “You might want to hurry, Cross. You weren’t joking; she’s a hoof-full.”   “I was already halfway done when you fully assumed grabbing her. I’ll just –” she let out a red pulse which leached into Caedes’s body “– Do that. It’s faster than a regular sleep spell because the spell is just a strengthened version of a stress reliever spell.” Her words sparked a horror into the filly. She stared until she fell limp, whereupon the two doctors noticed a rivulet of red on her foreleg.   “Seriously? Again?” Laceration was not happy about having to patch her up again; all these wounds were just redundant with Caedes. He sighed, “Just bring her back to the table for some stitches and bandages, and I’ll see to her. Just try to figure out how to keep her from doing – that after she wakes up again.”       “Psst.” A pause. The sound moved closer to a fuzzy, tufted ear, “PSSSSSST!”   “AH! I swear I didn’t mean it!” Deepsky rolled off of Evershade. “What am I doing?”   “I think you must’ve slept through that then. So now that the doctor and nurse are done, I’ll tell you what happened.”       ***       Celestia had stayed silent for a time. After opening the box, she gazed into it, her eyes unfocused on anything. Strongbrows figured he had let her brood long enough and coughed. He coughed louder this time. Celestia did not elicit a response.   Madly grinning on the inside, he concocted the best plan of action to draw the Princess back to reality, seeing as the other guards had started to stare and go lax on the job. Creeping silently forward, he raised an outstretched hoof. Annnnd, a tinny sound was elicited from a fast poke at the box.   “Ah. Hello, Strongbrows.” She peered at the guards without turning her head. “I take it I zone out?”   He bowed slightly to save her dignity, “Indeed. Would you care to she about that bag of black seeds? It made the guards’ coats crawl when they levitated it with magic, so I assume from your reaction that it must be significant.”   She mulled it over. Her tongue rolled in contemplation. Realizing that it would impede or hinder their investigation, Celestia decided to give the key pieces of information about the bag. “Well, a good place to start is that these seeds are one of the four types of magic. These are made from Chaos magic.” A nervous shiver went up the guards collective spines. “So, you do remember where or rather who they came from. Long story short, I had assumed that these were wiped away by Harmony magic until today. All you need to know is that these will cause unpredictable results in any way they are used.”   A veil of silence hung over every pony. Work resumed with a serious tone, and eyes sharpened. When a catastrophe was remembered, they were there to help prevent another.   She capped the cube again by sliding the top in place. “Take notes and keep a lookout for seeds. I can only surmise that wherever they are, something important happened there.” She left, flying away back to her castle.       ***       “Didja get it all Deepsky?” Evershade asked with a bit of glee like a puppy.   “Yeah, I knew after the first two times. I think the third was redundant, and the way you changed words with every retelling threw me off.” He was soured from being woken up after only a few hours of sleep.   “Sheesh, grumpy much? You could’ve only slept two hours instead of four. Dude, it’s like ten thirty in the morning.”   “Ten thirty? I thought we fell asleep sometime past seven. That’s three and a half hours.”   “Shup.” Evershade sniffed at his partner’s better math. “I made it sound better.” He crossed his legs over each other and leaned back. “So, do you think we should even do anything?”   Deepsky thought about it and realized that he was still on Evershade’s bed. He moved over and sat up on, and started to scooch over to the side of the bed.   “Hey where’re you going?”   He chuckled awkwardly. “I thought I should reclaim my bed, since I managed to fall asleep in yours.”   “Oh no you don’t!” Evershade leaped forward, and held Deepsky on the bed. “My leg’s numb from having you use me as a body pillow. It’s time you return the favor. Besides, We’re comfier than the thin sheets and shoddy pillows.” Wrenching himself onto the bed, Evershade pulled Deepshy with him, and then rolled over on top of him, making sure to keep his wing from being strained or pulling at his own harmed leg.   Deepsky, being a decent sport and was still rather tired, allowed the action to happen unabated. After squirming to get comfy under his friend, he asked, “So, what do you think we should do?”   “I don’t know ‘Sky. That’s why I was asking you.”   “... Why do I give out all the life advice when you clearly know I mess up a lot of that stuff. Remember the delivery pony from breakfast?”   He thought back to the event, “Crap.”