My Faithful Student

by Darkblaze15

Chapter 4: Those Who Care, Say Their Prayers

Several minutes passed by in relative silence, broken only by Twilight Velvet's occasional emotional outbursts, as everypony in the room mourned for Twilight Sparkle. Eventually, Twilight Velvet managed to stop sniffling long enough to trot over to her daughter and gently caress her immobile, bandage-wrapped head while occasionally whispering "My poor baby," with Night Light in return patting her on the back, trying to calm his wife. Shining Armor trotted briskly out of the room and Princess Cadence followed him; Princess Celesita could hear that they were getting into some kind of argument. After a short while, she stepped outside to see Shining Armor donning his Royal Guard Captain helmet with Cadence standing aside, looking forlorn and defeated. In an instant, Celestia understood what Shining Armor was planning to do, and she tried her best to persuade him the other way.

"Shining Armor, I know what you're planning, and it's not the right way to handle this situation," she said firmly.

"What other choice do we have?" he asked incredulously, "Just sit around here and wait for Twilight to-" he suddenly choked on a sob.

"I understand how you feel, but surely there is some other diplomatic solution other than seeking the culprit out and - well, you know what I mean," Celestia said soothingly.

After a pause, Shining Armor replied, "No. I have to do this. Not just for me, but for my family. They want and need answers as much as I do, and knowing this potential murderer is still at large - puts me at unease, to say the least."

Princess Celestia continued to plead with him, but she saw the fire in his eyes and realized it would be in vain; he had his mind set on one task, and one task alone, and would see to it that it was completed, no matter the cost.

"Fine," she finally said, "but please try not to hurt her too much," she added as Shining walked towards the door.

Shining Armor looks back at the two princesses and replied, in a very confident yet slightly aggressive tone, "I'm not making any promises," and with that, he galloped away to find his victim of poor circumstance.

Princess Celestia returned to the room, where she found Cadence helping her mother and father-in-law to head back home. Knowing Cadence should not be so active in her last stages of foal-bearing, she requested that a few of her guards escorted them home. Thanking the pale alicorn, the trio headed off for Twilight's parents' house. Princess Celestia realized that, while Twilight remained in her coma, the emotional stress would be too much for her if she were to return to her royal duties. Despite this, she could not let Equestria suffer in her absence, so she had a scroll sent to her sister asking for the favor of keeping her affairs in order while Twilight recovered. Almost instantly, she received a scroll from Luna, stating that she understood Celestia's mentality and would be more than willing to help her dear sister with such a task. Relieved that there was still some good on the world, Princess Celestia sat down on one of the benches in the room. Twilight can stay in her coma as long as she wants to, she thought to herself, because no matter what, I will never desert my most faithful student.

* * * *

Celestia awoke to the sound of beeping emitting from Twilight's heart-rate monitor; she did not realize that she had fallen asleep until she peered out of the lone window in the hospital room and realized that it was just past daybreak. She yawned and stretched rather loudly, not realizing there was another pony in the room besides herself and Twilight. A unicorn nurse mare had entered to draw some more blood from Twilight for testing, but stopped rather abruptly at the sight of their graceful princess stretching in awkward positions. Flustered, Princess Celestia righted herself and reclaimed her seat back on the bench as the doctor took more blood. Celestia wondered how much blood the doctors would draw from Twilight before she woke up from her coma as she watched the nurse work.

"No too much more, now," the nurse reassured the regal alicorn, almost as if she had read her mind. "This is so we can determine the right medication to get her to coax her out of this coma."

"Of course," Princess Celestia replied with a downcast expression.

"Now, don't go looking like that, hun," the nurse said to Celestia, noticing her sunken features, "I hear a bunch of her friends are trying to get in to see her; once we're done with these tests, we'll let them in, so you won't be alone for much longer."

Celestia did not consider herself 'alone' in the room with Twilight, but she became slightly more relaxed at hearing that Twilight's friends would be in latter today. She thought that, maybe, if Twilight's friends came to visit and talk to her, then hearing her friends' voices would lift her out of her reverie.

As the morning slowly turned into the afternoon, Celestia simply sat on her bench and watched for any signs of life from Twilight, other than the steady beeping of her monitor, with the occasional visit from a doctor or nurse. Fortunately for her, she did not have to wait long for company to arrive; there was soon a knock on the door. The nurse in the room at the time opened it and allowed a frantic-looking Spike to hurry into the room.

"Spike?" Princess Celestia exclaimed in surprise as Spike got down on his knees and bowed to the pale alicorn, "What are you doing here by yourself? Are the others here, too?"

"They're on their way," Spike replied, "I just wanted to get here a little early, spend some more time...with her," he added after a pause. He walked over to Twilight and looked at her longingly, almost as if he were waiting for her to wake up right there and then.

"Try talking to her, Spike," Princess Celestia offered, "Maybe she can hear your voice."

"Um, ok," Spike replied, and he scooted a little closer to the bed. "Hey, Twilight," he said in a timid voice, "H-how's it going? Well, actually, never mind. I-I was cleaning the library, just like you do every week - actually more like every few days," he said with a chuckle that sounded more like a choked sob. "A-anyways, as I was cleaning, I started thinking of other things I could do to get the castle ready for you, but then I started thinking about all the things we used to do when we cleaned, and then I felt a little sad that you're...that you're..." Spike could barely go on; he crawled up into the bed and hugged Twilight hard, his eyes watering fiercely. Seeing somepony as young as Spike having his emotions destroyed by such an event broke Celestia's heart. Luckily for the both of them, the rest of Twilight's friends, as well as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, barged into the room at the same time, ready to greet their comatose friend.

"Hello, your Highness," they greeted as they all bowed in unison to Celestia.

"Princess Luna told us that you'd be here," Applejack explained.

Princess Celestia nodded, "I couldn't leave her here alone. . .b-because she was my student, of course," she added rather hastily; she had almost let her emotions take control of her again. Spike crawled off the bed to allow the rest of Twilight's friends to greet her.

"Hey, egghead," Rainbow Dash said jokingly, trying to fight back tears, "I thought you might like this," she said as she pulled a leather-bound book from her saddlebag, "A.K. Yearling just released the next installment of Daring Do, and she made this copy especially for you for when, you know, you wake up." In that moment, Princess Celestia noticed a hint of a different Rainbow Dash flash in her eyes; sensitive, caring, and above all else, crying for help on the inside. It only lasted for a second, though; she was soon back to her blank expression.

"Hi Twilight," Pinkie said semi-cheerfully, despite her mane remaining flat and the usual bounce in her step gone. "Hope you get better soon, I've got the biggest 'Welcome Home' party ever planned at Sugarcube Corner! There'll be food, music, and everypony will be there waiting for you to come back."

"Yes, certainly," Rarity agreed, "And Twilight darling, be sure to stop by Carousel Boutique before the party; I'll have pieced together the best dress you eyes have ever laid upon. You'll be the envy of the entire party - won't that be smashing?" she asked, pretending for a moment Twilight was awake; there was no response, however. Rarity and Pinkie Pie silently shed tears together; as they did so, Applejack and the CMC walked up to her bedside, and Applejack removed her hat in respect.

"Twilight, I'll never forget the first time we met in Ponyville," she started off, "You musta' been the strangest pony I'd ever laid my eyes upon, but you've been helping me and all of us ever since the very beginning, and I want to thank you properly for that when you wake up. The rest of the fam' sends their blessings to your full recovery, Granny says it would be a crying shame to see such a young pony like yourself outlive some pony like herself." She puts her hat back on and keeps her head bowed as she makes room for Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Applebloom.

"Did ya bring it, Scoot?" Applebloom asked her friend.

"Of course, couldn't have possibly forgotten it," Scootaloo answered as she pulled a sheet of paper out of her saddlebag, which turned out to be a "get well" card.

"Twilight," Applebloom started, "we all hope for the best, but, if there's any chance that - you know - we want to know you'll be watching down over us as we try to get our cutie marks." Princess Celestia looked on the cover of the card and almost lost her cool when she saw the illustration; three little fillies with their cutie marks and a lavender alicorn with white wings and a golden halo above her head, looking down from a cloud. To get her mind off of that image, Princess Celestia looked around the room and noticed that, since their arrival, Fluttershy had slunk to one corner of the room, whimpering and not speaking to anypony around her.

"It's alright, dear," Princess Celestia tried to console the timid pegasus, "I know how you feel, none of us meant for this to happen, nor prevent it from happening." Fluttershy only curled further into a ball and mumbled something incoherent. "What was that?" Celestia asked calmly; Fluttershy mumbled again. "What, my dear?" Celestia asked again.

Suddenly, Fluttershy exploded in a fit of anger and sadness, "THAT'S NOT TRUE!" The pale ailcorn was quite taken aback, and even the rest of her friends turned on a dime to see what made Fluttershy so upset.

"Whatever do you mean, Fluttershy?" Princess Celestia asked; what in Equestria could have gotten the calmest mare she knew to scream in a fit of rage?

"B-because,' Fluttershy stammered, fresh tears coming to her eyes, "I d-didn't do enough to s-save her." Every pony looked on with a confused look, so she continued, "That night, the one when the Ursa Major attacked, I knew something was wrong, I knew it was angry and frustrated and confused for being dragged out of its home. So I flew up and tried to calm it down with some soothing lullabies, but then Trixie shot at me, a-and I dodged it, but it hit the Ursa Major instead.". Fluttershy was almost in hysterics, "It's m-my f-fault the Ursa Major attacked t-that night, my fault that T-Twilight got h-hurt, my fault. . ."

Soon, the emotional strain became too much for Fluttershy to handle any longer; she completely broke down on the floor, sobs wracking her her whole body, as if she wanted to wash away the guilt with her tears. Her friends immediately rushed to her side, trying to calm her down, while Princess Celestia remained rooted in her spot, shocked by the yellow pegasus' internal torment. She could not believe that Fluttershy had been blaming herself for the incident and ruminating over how it could have been prevented without telling any pony else. Then, she remembered back to when the attack happened; I was feeling the same way she feels right now, Celestia realized, and walked over to join the group of grieving friends. She removed one of her golden horseshoes and placed her hoof on Fluttershy's head, gently stroking her mane, helping her friends to calm her down, while she stared over at the bed with Twilight's immobile body. If there were anytime for you to wake up, Twilight, now is the time, she tried to convey to her faithful student, regardless of the response she would never receive.

Comments

[Xaldon Ajide]

6975929 Alright thank you for the answer.

[Darkblaze15]

6976114 You're welcome

[JFalk]

Since the story happen post-Rainbow Rocks... maybe Sunset would come to Equestria to visit Twilight?

[Darkblaze15]

6978514 These certainly made my day! I know poaching griffons may seem a bit - off - for ponies, but I thought it was better than prostitution, like the original.

[Darkblaze15]

6977502 I hadn't thought of that. Probably not in this story, but just maybe down the road. . .

[Ice Feather]

NO. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO BIG BAG OF NOPES.

But I love the story!!!!!!!