The blackness of my mind gave way to chaos. Random images flashed back and forth in my head all the while increasing in speed. The sounds of panic and destruction soon added to the overwhelming oppression. It kept going on and on to what felt like an eternity until the terror finally met its awful climax. My mind pulled out its nightmare finale with the horrid memory of Twilight’s mind-piercing, agonized scream she made not long in the past.

I snapped awake in a cold sweat. My heart was pounding heavily and my head mimicked it with a painful throb. I attempted to take steady breaths to try and calm my nerves. However this futile effort was delivering little success. It ultimately took several minutes to finally relax.

After I somehow managed to master myself again, I tried to use my blurry vision to scan my surroundings. It appeared the room I was in was mostly dark except for a few sunbeams coming from under some window curtains. Additionally, what I managed to gather from the few minutes of inspection was that I, yet again, was in a hospital bed. This included the delightfully added bonus of being covered from horn to hoof in bandages.

My left eye twitched several times as my mind recollected just how often I been in one of these blasted beds. This continued until another part of my body made its lovely presence known for the millionth time in recent history, my stomach. It seemed to take sadistic glee in informing me that it was still empty by knotting up. I was on a verge of doubling over from stomach pain when I noticed there was a bed tray table directly in front of me. On it were two very familiar looking cylinders.

I rubbed my eyes a few times to see if I was perhaps dreaming. I then reached forward with my shaky front hooves and picked up the first cylinder. A simple joy filled me as I realized it was indeed real. I popped the lid and sniffed its contents. After analyzing that completely wonderful scent did not contain something horrifying and or deadly, I let my body have its way. Without any further hesitation I slammed the cylinder to my mouth and drank heavily of the blood contained therein.

I took several gasping breaths while I quickly discarded the first cylinder after finishing it. I then proceeded to practically dive at the second one. After inspecting it with haste, I slammed it to my mouth and drained it almost as fast as the first one. It felt so good sating that terrible and primal need. However, I could not help but realize that even in my rush, I did not spill a single drop of that crimson liquid. I was unsure whether to be frightened or proud at such a feat.

The thought was dispelled shortly before an awkward smile crawled up my face. I had begun to finally feel like myself again. As I started to place the second cylinder on the tray table, I noticed there was something else on it. The sheer sight of a teapot, a teacup, and fresh mint tea almost brought tears to my eyes. It was something so utterly simple and yet so gratefully welcomed. I was about to reach for them when I noticed a pair of bemused and glowing gold slitted eyes looking at me a few meters in front of my bed.

“No, do not let my presence stop you,” I recognized the voice as general Black Wing. “You seemed to have achieved in getting almost everypony in the palace addicted to that mint tea. I find it does a fine job at calming one’s nerves. Especially after one of my captains and his unit shows up, in public, half-dead while pulling what was left of a train. To which of course contained several injured ponies including Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends…” she added with a raised eyebrow while lighting a blue flame candle next to her.

“I…I can explain,” I said after I tried to nervously gather my thoughts.

“Oh do tell. This should be grand,” she stated with a smirk.

After having just fed it was too difficult to formulate a good reply. So when all else fails, I usually go for humor. I cleared my throat, rolled my eyes, and stated, “Well, you see I have been rather lax on my cardiovascular exercises as of late. So I said ‘What the hay,’ and helped pull a ruined train engine on a grueling six hour slog.”

In response my statement she sat back further in her chair and slowly lowered her head into her forehooves. After shaking her head a few times she stated through her covered face, “You do realize I have had others disciplined for less. Her tone had a hint of amusement in it.

I smiled at her and said “Well, then you would not have my delightful quips to entertain you.”

She took a deep breath and faced me again. “Entertainment…ha. If I desired entertainment I would just watch some of the younger recruits try and kiss plot to get in their superior officers’ good graces. Those fools can only dream of what we achieved when we were Midnight Knights,” she stated as the small smile on her face soon faded to a grim seriousness. “What really happened?” she inquired.

“We were attacked,” I said closing my eyes and lowering my head. My thoughts were scattered and foggy. My head soon began to the throb again while I tried to gather my memories.

“That much I had gathered,” she replied with a small laugh.

I could not even muster a weak smile as I looked up at her. The events of the train were gruesome at best and even joking about it did not seem to alleviate my somber mood. I took a breath through my nose and I was about to start when my throbbing head got worse. A small steam of blood came out of my nose and soaked into my bandages. My eyes slammed shut as I held my head with my front hooves.

“Blood Moon…you lost control again,” I heard concern in her voice, “By the moon, the initial reports were as awful as I had feared if you were forced into that state.”

I coughed and tasted blood in my mouth. “They were…almost killed. Twilight risked her life to save them. Her scream…her scream…I could not…let them,” I said and felt a twinge of pain as a small amount of my blood magic sparked from my horn.

“You damned fool…” I heard her say before I managed to open my eyes again. When I glanced to my left I saw her standing next to my hospital bed. She moved closer to me and dabbed at my nose with some spare cloth. “How you manage to keep yourself together all these years is an enigma. I have scheduled a meeting with Princess Luna for your official report tomorrow. Until then, get some rest,” she said placing the bloodied cloth on the tray in front of me. I was about to state something when she interrupted me and added “That is an order, captain.”

As she was walking out of the room, she stopped mid stride and continued to face out the door. She shook her head a little and stated, “As I know you are going to bend my orders to the breaking point, as usual. Let me at least prevent you from hurting yourself further. ‘She’ is in the room next to your’s. To the left.” She gave me a sly look over her shoulder before walking out of room.

I suppose when you are around somepony for an extended period of time they tend to anticipate your future thoughts and actions. Black Wing seemed to know me like a book. A well read one at that. My mind was already working out Twilight’s possible location as she was walking out of the room. Well at least she saved my overtaxed mind from the mental burden of working out the details. I waited a few minutes after Black Wing has left and then fumbled out of bed.

Balance was a problem and my legs did not want to hold my weight. After being able to somewhat stand, I glanced around the room until I found what I was looking for. “There you are my little beauty,” I whispered to myself. I then stumbled over to my scythe leaning on one of my hospital room walls. I grasped it in my left hoof and tried raising my power. My efforts however were only met with a coughing fit, a pounding migraine, and even more blood leaking out of my nose.

I leaned my throbbing head against my scythe and cursed. It seemed that I damaged my body beyond what I normally have done. This painful fact was interesting considering I more or less incinerated myself in that apple orchard and I was still able to use magic. Of course I was unconscious for a quite a while. My body had more time to heal then. Regardless of the circumstances, there was only one way to recover from this, rest and time.

In my stubbornness I had attempted to recount my options a few times, but it still only ended at the same conclusion. It truly appeared Black Wing was almost getting the last laugh on this matter. However, I was not going to let a little thing like a perfectly ruined body from doing my job. So I cursed some more and wiped my nose on my right foreleg’s bandages. I then unsummoned my scythe before stumbling towards my room’s door.

As I got to the door my vision started shifting and then vertigo set in. It ultimately took several tries at the door handle before I got the blasted door to open. To my displeasure I did not realize I how much of my weight I was resting on it until it had opened. With my support gone I gracelessly slammed face first into the ground with a thump. This was clearly going to be one of those days.

I was lying motionless on the ground a few moments trying to get my hurting head to work again. The only thought that came to mind was to resummon my scythe for support. So after trying and failing several times I got it to appear and I slowly got up. I proceeded to stand there looking like a shambling mess when a guard started walking by. She was about to help me until I waved her on. I could have sworn I heard her laugh under her breath. This included her whispering something about me looking like a mummy. “Well, that destroyed what little pride I had left,” I mumbled to myself.

Eventually, I limped myself to the room that Twilight was in. But again, my awful vision hindered my attempts at opening the damned door. However, this time I was intelligent. I had leaned my weight on my scythe for support instead of the door. A glimmer of pride began to well in me as I started to walk into the room. But no, the fates did not want me to have that. For I soon let out a small yelp as my front hooves slipped on some of my bandages and I ended up falling on my face for the second time. Shortly after my blunder the same guard from before walked passed again, snickering to herself. Yes, it truly indeed was going to be one of those days.

I picked my hurting body up and scanned the room. It was mostly dark and with a few sunbeams coming from under the window curtains like my room was. I limped myself over the bed and it seemed Twilight was fast asleep. She had a few bandages on her face, but looked in better shape than I was. I then chuckled to myself as I noticed her still holding my tome in her front legs. While it was amusing I had to admire the conviction to her habits.

After shaking my head a few times I glanced at the medical clipboard on the front of her bed. The only thing I picked out in the dark before my head started hurting again was they could not get her to eat anything. She must have been in this state since she got here. I would have loved to do something to heal her, but my focus was gone and my magic was unstable at best. The only thing I could do is see if I could get her to eat something. It would surely at the very least aid her vampiric healing in my stead.

I located two blood cylinders sitting next to her on a table. I then popped one of the lids, smelled it for poisons, and then tried lifting it to her mouth. This effort proved fruitless as she did not take any. I smiled as I remembered a pleasant memory from before in the everfree forest. She had trouble feeding back then too. So in turn, I decided to try that method again. I put a small amount of blood in my mouth and kissed her.

Her body leaned in as I let the blood spill into her mouth. After I felt her swallow a few times, I went for a bigger mouthful. This continued until we emptied of the first blood cylinder. She partially opened her eyes and I saw her right forehoof lift off my tome. She then gently touched the side of my face and made a quiet ragged laugh before stating, “You look ridiculous.” My face scrunched up in response.

What is this foreign concept called “Pride”? Oh, was it that poor part of me that died a whimpering death in the corner of my mind. Yes, I suppose that is what it was. It sure in Tartarus had gotten trampled while on its way to a grizzly end. Well, that is the gratitude I get for reviving somepony. Her laugh at my expense and make a comment about my awful visage. She must have noticed my annoyed expression because she giggled a little and kissed my cheek.

“I am glad you are well enough to mock me,” I stated as I closed my eyes and shook my head.

“Well…you do look like a mummy in all of those bandages. It has the makings of a good nightmare night costume,” she said and gave me a weak smile.

My face scrunched up further. I threw my forehooves into the air and grumbled, “All right! That is it!” I placed my forehooves on my head and tore off the bandages surrounding it. After a small amount of effort, I finally was rid those wretched pieces of cloth. They even had the gall to take some of my fur along with them. As such I had a hard time fighting the growing urge to set them on fire and laugh.

She giggled again at my sigh of relief and said “Was that really necessary?”

My left eye twitched a few times as I stated, “Dear sweat Luna yes it was.”

“All that for a small joke? You really need to-” she began to state, but I had opened the second blood cylinder, checked it, and stuffed directly in front of her mouth. She rolled her eyes at me and began to drink its contents. It did not take her long to drain it. Her hunger must have been as great as mine.

After she finished, I gave her a kiss on the lips before she snuggled up with my tome and fell asleep. I sighed when I realized how tightly she squeezed my tome to her chest. I had been thinking of looking over a few pages, but she let out a low growl every time I reached for it. It was probably for the best. My mind was too tired to read anyway. So I ultimately just located the most comfortable seat I could find and placed it close to the bed.

I had attempted to stay awake, but mind and body were still healing and everything hurt. So after fighting fatigue for several minutes, it had finally won out. I felt my head slowly rest on the side of the bed as my eyes began to close. It did not take long for sleep to take me and everything faded into blissful darkness.

After an unknown amount of time I woke with a stiff neck. I opened my eyes to notice somepony had placed a blanket over me and a pillow under my head. I cracked my neck a little and looked up to see Twilight's hospital bed was empty. A surge of panic flowed through me until I noticed a small note on the top of the bed next to me. It read “I went to check on my friends. Signed, Twilight. P.S. I took your book with me.”

I rubbed my face a few times, smiled and stated, “Of course you took it.” I had a feeling I was never going to have my tome returned to me. I probably had a better chance of making a brand new one. However, the amusing thought of her taking that one too made me laugh. After gathering what little motivation I had figured it best to try and find her.

I had managed to catch a break as I quickly located her. She and her friends were all gathered in one of the hospital rooms. My lieutenants were also there and seemed to be keeping an eye on them. Everypony looked to be in decent shape and spirits. I, on the other hoof, looked like an absolute mess in comparison.

“Ahh look who decided to join us. Ol’ mummy himself. Sorry, we’re fresh outta bandages and curses,” Shadow Dancer stated in a snarky tone. Everypony started laughing at his comment.

I glared balefully at him. “What was that? You said you wish to scrub the hallway floor outside our quarters again? My, that is very generous of you. It was looking rather filthy,” I retorted with a sly smile.

“Son of a bitch,” he snarled and kicked the floor.

Everypony started laughing again until Cloud Streak piped up, “When are you going to ever learn, Shadow Dancer? Every time you piss him off he makes you clean something else. I’m surprised he hasn't made you polish our suits of armor yet.” I took on a mock thoughtful pose in response.

“Luna damnit Cloud Streak! Stop givin’ him ideas!” Shadow Dancer screeched in reply. This of course led to more laughter. It felt splendid to actually have somepony else be the target of ridicule and mockery for once.

After I got everypony to calm down I cleared my throat and took on a more serious mood. “As we know all too well the rogue factions are trying to capture or destroy Twilight and her friends. As I cannot be in multiple places at once we are going to try a divide and conquer method. At dusk please make your way to the Reaper Knight training arena. I will explain more later. First, I need to somehow manage to look presentable to give an official report to Princess Luna and General Black Wing,” I said while trying to think of what to do next.

Shadow Dancer was about a make another snide comment, but he stopped when I made a motion of polishing my armor’s ring with my left forehoof. He then slapped his forehooves over his mouth to probably prevent further slip ups. Gray Mane chuckled and stated, “Ahh so the dumbass can learn to shut his trap. That’s a damn shame. This armor really could’ve used a good polish.” Shadow Dancer just glared at him while everypony entered another fit of laughter.

This chapter was amusing to write. While it was not as exciting as some of the previous ones, it was needed to lead further into the story. As always, enjoy.