Trapped In Canterlot

by TartarusFire

C21 - Intersection

Try as the might to figure out something to help any pony in the ward, doctor or patient, they lost the battle and succumbed to sleep. Red Cross moved back into the ward to check on the patients and Caedes’s third blood bag when she realized the two bat ponies were in an even more compromising position.

"Look away now, Red. You shouldn’t think like that."

She failed.

***

Even though Raven was bored to tears just relaxing in the Castle, it was preferable than being hauled around by the Princess, as Celestia had stated, "I will be flying to speed up the journey. You can come and be carried because you will never catch up to me on hoof, or stay here and rest." It really wasn’t much of a choice. Still, the in ground hot tub was always lonely at ten thirty in the morning.

"Ahhhhh, yeah. This is great." She had sunken deeper into the steaming water with only her snout poking out for air, so no pony could understand her bubbling words of joy. She played around for a moment, just letting bubbles pop on her fur.

Her leisure was killed though by a metal sound on stone which revealed a white some pony with an aurora mane. "Hello Raven. I’m here to invite and to check. Actually, I need to check that I haven’t missed anything first. I just completed the round with the investigation."

She sighed, and clambered sloppily out of the warm water. "Ah, here’s my stuff." A pile of assorted writing utensils and papers were stacked, far out of the splash zone of water in case anything random happened. She levitated a paper off the floor, "The first thing on the list was marked off by you, as ‘due process.’ You just finished the second one of ‘direct involvement’, and the third is related to the second as, ‘visiting the ward.’"

Relieved at being able to remember such a simple list, she laughed slightly. "Ah yes, just checking to see if my memory had left me or not! In any case, I wanted to invite you along, in case you are curious about the events, and the medical bay should provide some definite answers to this ordeal." The sound of dribbling water finally caught her attention. Her smile became more genuine, "Oh, I forgot. I could.. help dry you off if you do want to come."

Raven pretended to think about it: Curiosity satisfied or even more than twenty minutes of soaking in a rare treat of a hot tub all to herself. "Nope. I think I’ll stay here... Because after all this is over, you might need an impartial pony to help with.. decisions?"

Both mares considered this, and had a silent agreement. Celestia left, and Raven all but jumped back into the water, "Ahhhhhhh."

Celestia thanked the layout of having the bathing room and the medical hospice on the first floor; it made the walk much easier to navigate through the winding hallways. Most ponies living in the castle commons had left to work at their respective businesses, leaving only the wealthy enough to afford to not to work behind, so it was no surprise when her trot slowed to nearly a crawl as she had to greet back the usually snobbish nobles that greeted her.

Finally skirting the corner into the side hallway leading to the medical bay, she ended up being stopped by a closed door. "How odd," she thought, and called upon her magic to knock on the door.

"We’re closed to the public unless you have a medical emergency," came a slightly disgruntled male voice. "Come back tomorrow to visit."

Even stranger. "Ah, I hope I’m not intruding upon something important, but I came to see how all the patients from last night’s debacle were holding up." Her soft voice cut through the door.

A few hooves could be heard scrambling from behind the door. "Oh Princess. We can’t refuse you after all..." His voice turned into mumbling about patient safety and dictators. "In any case, I can confirm that the two wounded guards are hindered a bit and one of them will be disabled for a while to come, but they are well. The filly, Caedes, is stable, but we were facing concerns with her wellbeing and closed off the hospice for safety."

Celestia nodded, and stepped through the wide entry into the ward. She thought the bat ponies were cute, snuggling like they were. She surveyed the opposite side with a much smaller pony, strapped down to the bed by soft cloth. Intrigued, she asked, "What are the purpose of the restraints? I assumed this was about safety."

Laceration chuckled. "Well, it’s not about contamination, but when she awoke, she was causing a lot of self-harm. We think that it may have something to do with the strange surroundings and the circumstances where she was last lucid."

"Thank you for answering my questions, Doctor." She bowed slightly in appreciation. "Now are there any further documents you could provide a copy of to help with the mysterious circumstances?"

He thought about the medical forms which thankfully were confidential without an official request, even for the Princess. About to shake his head, Laceration remembered, "Well, the documents provided in the Housing statement would be something to look at. It contains her current family members and other biographical information which would have to be requested again, otherwise."

"Wonderful," she gave a smile.

"You know, Princess. Now that I think about it, the census was dated two years ago, and her age was four." His face was devoid of expression, "She’s six years old and nearly died. It would have been a waste of life."

"And we all thank you. In time, she will as well. We can only hope that she will be able to live to her fullest, and you Doctor Laceration have enabled her. You’re a wonderful pony."

Laceration smiled, but opted not to correct the princess. Even if he wasn’t the first pony to take care of the wounded, he had helped keep them together...

Author's Note:

I'm a little ishy with how this turned out, but eeeehhh, the real info dump is going to come within 2 or so chapters.

Thanks for sticking around with this ishily written story; I swear I've been doing stuff... just not writing at the moment

Desktop Ponies with the first non R&D version is ago!
https://sites.google.com/site/tartarusfiregaming/ai/desktop-ponies-the-war/download-versions