Little Keys

by Skijarama

The Hospital

“How much longer?!” Rainbow demanded in exasperation. She was pacing in the air over the door that led deeper into the hospital, a grimace of anxiety on her face. Her hooves were wringing themselves over her chest, and she kept shooting pensive glances at the door as if hoping that her gaze alone would open the way.

Twilight, who was seated in one of the many chairs of the waiting area like everypony else, couldn’t blame her. Everypony was in similar straits, and it was taking all of her will to keep herself planted and patient in her seat. The doctors would come sooner or later. They would tell them that Pinkie would be fine. Probably. Hopefully.

Applejack sighed at Rainbow’s question, tilting her hat back to speak. “RD, c’mon, sit down. Yer pacin’ ain’t gonna speed anythin’ along.”

Rainbow paused in the air to shoot the cowmare an indignant glare. “No, but it helps me think! I can’t just hold still, ya know!” she barked back.

“Darlings, please, volume,” Rarity gently interjected, glancing back and forth between the two with a stern frown. “We aren’t the only ones here.”

Rarity was right, and the reminder drew Twilight’s eyes around the waiting room. It hadn’t changed at all in the years she had called Ponyville home. It was bright in color, as always, featuring largely marble whites, pale greens, and gentle blues to soothe the senses of those who waited within the spacious lobby. Several other ponies were scattered around, occupying their time with one thing or another. Some of them occasionally cast curious glances at the princess in the room, but otherwise kept to themselves.

Twilight recalled multiple occasions on which she and the girls had, for one reason or another, had to wait here for news of one of their number. The most prominent examples were when Rainbow’s wing was busted after her outburst on the Friendship Express—an incident that felt like so long ago now, yet the repercussions still haunted them—and the times when Twilight had been checked in early on during her time with amnesia to make sure she hadn’t retained any other forms of mental damage.

Rainbow sighed after a moment, drifting lazily back before plonking down in the chair next to Twilight’s. “Sorry… I just hate waiting like this,” she grumbled, her wings ruffling in agitation.

“Pinkie will be okay,” Fluttershy, who sat on Rainbow’s other side across from Twilight, assured her with a small smile. She reached out and patted Rainbow on the back. “She was hurt, but it wasn’t too bad. She’s strong, and she’ll make it.”

“She is.”

Twilight winced before turning to the owner of the new voice. Maud was standing a short ways away, having opted to keep on her hooves. In all of the chaos, she had moved quickly and with fiery intensity. She had been first in line to bring Pinkie to the counter and explain the situation, and she had lent her strength to get Pinkie onto a stretcher and on her way. After that, she elected not to sit down. She kept a silent vigil near the center of the room, her eyes never leaving the door. All of the previous emotion had evaporated from her expression, leaving her much the same as Twilight and the others were well familiar with by now… but they knew.

Maud was hurting just as much as they were, if not more.

Applejack leaned forward in response to Maud’s words, putting on a small smile. “Ah reckon there’s a story there, ain’t there?” she asked knowingly.

Maud blinked. “It could be told like one. Pinkie’s always been one of the strongest ponies in the family. Once she found her cutie mark, she didn’t go into the mines very much or work in the field. She mostly helped mom with cooking for the rest of us, or bothered Limestone to smile more, or spent a lot of time with Marble, trying to help her out of her shell. And she threw parties for us. A lot of them. But she was still strong. I remember a tunnel collapse that happened once. We all thought that Marble had been buried since we couldn’t find her afterward. Pinkie was there to dig through the rubble before anyone else. She moved almost as many boulders as I did.”

Fluttershy’s hooves flew up to cover her mouth. “Oh my goodness. Was, uh, Marble okay?”

Maud nodded. “Yes. She wasn’t anywhere near the mine when the tunnel collapsed. She was hiding under her bed in the house.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Whatever for?”

Maud turned to her. “She’s scared of thunder. There was a big storm that day. We found her there hours later, and Pinkie threw a massive party out of relief.”

Rainbow snickered quietly at that. “Heh… yeah, that’s Pinkie for ya.”

Maud turned to her. “Because it is. But the point is that Pinkie’s tough, and I know she’ll be okay.”

As if on cue, the door that had been the focus of Maud’s attention slid open, and the doctor stepped out: a light brown unicorn stallion with a darker brown mane and tail. Twilight recognized him as Doctor Horse, the same pony who had tended to Rainbow’s wing. He glanced down at a clipboard, then looked up to the group, a smile adorning his lips as he approached.

Rainbow stepped forward. “So? How is she?!” she demanded, unable to hide the edge of desperation in her voice.

The doctor continued to smile and lifted a reassuring hoof. “You can rest easy, Your Highness. Pinkie Pie will be just fine, and we expect her to make a full recovery. It’s a good thing you brought her in when you did, or things might have been a lot worse.”

A wave of relief washed over everypony present. Twilight heaved a huge sigh, her hoof wandering up to settle over her heart as the weight was lifted. Maud stepped forward, her eyes boring into the doctor’s. “When will she be out?”

Doctor Horse turned to Maud and put on a more solemn frown. “Well, we’ve managed to get the broken ribs back into alignment. We’re monitoring her for the rest of the day before we commit to a specific treatment, though. The most likely case is that she’ll need a couple of days for my healing magic to run its course, and then she’ll need to take it nice and easy at home for about a week to make sure there is no lasting damage.”

“Is she awake?” Maud asked without a moment’s hesitation.

The doctor shook his head. “No. I’m sorry, but to better monitor her condition—and because we know how hard it is to keep Pinkie Pie still—she’s being kept under sedation until tomorrow at the earliest.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Twilight asked, leaning forward and already running through everything she knew about healing magic. She knew precious little, sadly, but with a little bit of time and research, she could probably turn something up.

Her desire to help was mirrored by her friends, with just about everypony offering an affirmation and leaning forward as well. The doctor smiled at the visual outpour of support before pushing his glasses up. “You’ve all done plenty already. Digging her out of the debris and getting her as fast as you did was no small feat. You’ve done admirably, but the rest you can leave to us. Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her.”

The enthusiasm in the room was quelled by that statement, but not by much. It was replaced with a subdued form of satisfaction. Twilight looked to her friends, and she could see they all knew it too. The doctor was right. They had done all they could. It was out of their hooves now. But Pinkie was going to make a full recovery, according to the doctor. “What more is there for us to do or worry about?”

“How about how she got injured in the first place?” Midnight suddenly suggested from the depths of her mind.

Twilight twitched. Midnight had been quiet ever since they came here, in spite of the storm of emotions rolling around in Twilight’s mind. She frowned, turning away to hide her expression from her friends as they continued to talk with the doctor. “What are you talking about?”

“Think it through, seeing as you’re supposed to be the smart one,” Midnight bit back in a condescending drawl.

“If you know something, say it already!” Twilight inwardly snapped, her lips peeling back into an agitated frown. “I don’t have the patience to waste my time beating around the bush with you!”

Midnight chuckled in amusement at that, sending a chill and a series of furious sparks coursing through Twilight’s veins. “Oh, but what if I don’t want to?” she jeered mockingly.

Twilight barely resisted the urge to growl. “If you’re hiding something from me… I’ll-”

“You’ll what?” Midnight challenged confidently. “Yell at me? Make a scene? Make all your friends think you’ve gone crazy? They’re already feeling like they’re walking on eggshells with you as it is.”

Twilight’s teeth ground together behind her lips, a fire building up at the base of her skull. She closed her eyes and took a series of deep breaths, forcing herself to calm down. After a few seconds, she managed to find some semblance of calm and opened her eyes again. “Look, are you going to tell me what you know or not?”

Midnight sighed. “Oh, and here we go again. Why do you automatically assume I know something that you don’t? I can’t exactly leave your mind, you know. I’m simply connecting the dots that you aren’t.”

“And which dots are those?!”

Twilight could practically feel the smug smirk Midnight was giving her. “Oh, I’m sure you can figure it out. Just think back on what I’ve said...”

And with that, Midnight fell silent. Twilight snorted in frustration before shaking her head. Oh, how she wished she could gain the ability to attack Midnight sometimes. She definitely wanted to scream after most of their interactions, but right now she didn’t have that luxury; a fact that was made plainly apparent when a hoof found her shoulder, making her jump.

Rainbow was next to her, looking into her face with concern. “Twi? You okay?” she asked in a hushed whisper.

Twilight shook her head to dispel any lingering echoes of Midnight’s voice. “Er, yes. yes, I’m fine. I was just… my mind was elsewhere,” she said, not technically a lie.

Rainbow frowned at that but did not press the matter, thankfully. “Well, did you hear what we all said, at least?”

Twilight frowned. How much of the conversation had she missed? Looking back over her shoulder, she just caught sight of Doctor Horse’s tail disappearing through the door, along with Maud’s, while everypony else was heading for the exit. It appeared that she missed the entire discussion. She put on an apologetic look and turned back to Rainbow. “Sorry, but, I think I missed it.”

Rainbow sighed. “Maud’s gonna hang out here for the night, and she’s probably gonna extend her stay in Ponyville for as long as she can. Doc’s not letting the rest of us visit right now, seeing as we’re not Pinkie’s family, so we gotta get a move on.”

Twilight nodded, her ears drooping. “Right… fair enough. Come on, then. Spike doesn’t know what’s happened, yet.”

Rainbow cringed at that, following Twilight for the door. “Oh, yeah, somepony’s gotta tell him, huh?” she asked, her wings ruffling uncomfortably at her sides.

Twilight hummed at that. This was shaping up to be an exceptionally unpleasant day, and there were still many hours to go before it could be considered over. Pinkie was injured and in the hospital, and now they had to tell Spike about the entire disaster. That was a conversation she wasn’t looking forward to having. Not to mention the aggravating discussion with Midnight she had just gotten done with.

It was strange, though. The longer she thought back on Midnight’s cryptic-as-ever antagonisms, the more it began to feel as though she knew more than she was letting on. Twilight’s brow furrowed with thought as she cast her mind back to their discussion, and the last thing Midnight had said to her.

“Oh, I’m sure you can figure it out. Just think back on what I’ve said...”

Just think back on what she said… Had Midnight left some clue for her throughout the course of their discussion? Twilight thought back, scouring her recollection of their chat. Some small part of her was questioning why she was doing this. Midnight was a parasite, a malevolent force to be expunged. There was no good to be had in listening to anything she had to say… but at the same time, Twilight couldn’t stop herself. Something about this whole incident felt wrong to her, as if it shouldn’t have happened to begin with, and Midnight’s comments had her wondering if she was right about it...

“What more is there for us to do or worry about?”

“How about how she got injured in the first place?”

Twilight faltered mid-step as the beginning of their conversation resurfaced, and almost immediately she was reminded of something else Midnight had said, just after Pinkie’s construct had collapsed on top of her.

“Are you sure it could have happened to anypony?”

There was an implication there that made Twilight’s skin crawl. She shuddered uncomfortably and instinctively drifted closer to Rainbow. She felt the pegasus drape a wing over her on reflex, and she managed to relax somewhat from the affection. She lifted her head to look at Rainbow, her expression turning anxious. “Rainbow… I think you can handle telling Spike about what’s happened. There’s something else I need to do.”

Rainbow paused, bringing them to a stop. She faced Twilight directly and raised an eyebrow. “Huh? What are you talking about? You heard the doc, didn’t you? It’s out of our hooves, isn’t it?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, no, that’s not what I mean. It’s something else. It’s just… I have a bad feeling about all of this.”

Rainbow’s expression soured significantly. “...What do you mean?” she asked slowly, her tone making it clear that she was listening intently.

Twilight swallowed heavily, weighing her words before she said them. “...I’m not sure. But something about all of this just doesn’t add up to me… about the collapse, specifically.”

Rainbow hummed, glancing off into the distance toward the scene of the incident. “I dunno, Twi…” she mumbled uncertainty.

However, there was no uncertainty in Twilight’s mind. She felt she was onto something. She knew she was. She leaned forward, speaking emphatically. “I know it’s probably crazy, and maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I still want to look into it. I’m going to head back to the crash site and poke around, see what I can find.”

Rainbow sighed, her shoulders slumping. She then gave Twilight a small smile. “Alright… fair enough. Guess I can’t stop you, can I?”

“You could give me an order,” Twilight pointed out.

Rainbow bit back a laugh. “Ha! Twilight, I have given you all of two orders in the time I’ve known you, and you flat out disobeyed one of ‘em. I ain’t doing that unless I gotta,” she said with an amused shake of her head. A few seconds later, she straightened up and cleared her throat. “That said, you mind waiting till tomorrow to do this? If you’re gonna be poking around the scene, I’m gonna hafta make sure you’re authorized to be there, which means paperwork.”

Twilight frowned. She wasn’t keen on putting this off if she didn’t have to… but at the same time, Rainbow had a point. Odds were high that there were already ponies being organized to go in and start cleaning up the debris. Getting them to stop and getting Twilight the appropriate clearance to do her own little investigation based on nothing more than a gut feeling would require the resident princess’ signature.

“Always have to do things by the book, don’t you?” Twilight thought, imagining that Midnight would probably say something like that. She managed to shake the thought of the devil of her shoulder away and nodded at Rainbow. “Alright, I can wait. Just don’t keep me waiting too long, okay? I know I’m onto something here, I just have to find out what it is.”

“Will do,” Rainbow said before extending out her wing. “Now c’mon. Spike’s waiting… and I dunno about you, but I could do with a good lunch right about now.”

Twilight chuckled and rolled her eyes, falling into step beside Rainbow. She cooed as she felt the pegasus’ wing drape over her back and pull her in. She leaned into Rainbow’s side and rested her head on the pegasus’ shoulder. She gave off a content sigh as the warmth of her lover chased away her doubts and her fears. She knew she had a lot of work ahead of her, but it could wait. Right now, she was happy to walk in silence with Rainbow down the street, leaving the hospital behind.

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

Is Twilight going to let Rainbow help her more on the Midnight situation besides doing it herself with some help from Luna?

What was the second time Rainbow gave a direct order to Twilight?

[Skijarama]

10505052
The first order was 'come and see me and mom for dinner to discuss these freaky visions' back in Glimpses. Technically it was a royal summons, but still, Twilight was obligated to comply.

The second time was the recent time in Memories when Rainbow ordered Twilight to not return the Elements to the Tree of Harmony by herself. Which she then promptly did anyway.

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

10505054
Thanks! I thought the order which Twilight disobeyed was from a different occasion. Thanks!

[Starfreedom444]

Twilight is worried she did it isn’t she

[JMP]

Hmm. Wonder what Midnight was getting at. Glad Pinkie's ok, though.

[Unity Bringer]

Is Midnight implying that Pinkie PURPOSEFULLY put herself in danger for this?

[Comickook]

Whoa. Excellent job on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up as usual. Completely understood the dialogue at the hospital both while they were waiting on news concerning Pinkie AND when they actually GOT the news. As well as Maud sharing a story of how strong Pinkie actually is. And, yeah, Midnight's inner taunts toward Twilight continue to be quite frustrating (like she's suggesting that the way Twilight broke the bad news to Pinkie motivated Pinkie to get herself hurt ON PURPOSE to give her friends and Maud an opportunity to bond, but that could just be me overthinking this).

But anyway, definitely looking forward to more of this.

[Anon E Moose]

Interesting to see Midnight taking on Discord's role of jerkass mentor in this timeline.

Wish Twi would mention these internal debates to her friends more often, though.

[justheretoreadstories]

10505132
Could be that or it could be some sabotage by some unknown person or group.

Good setup for a mystery ether way.