Chapter forty one

Discord pulls out a few columns that collapsed in the scuffle and prop them against the wall to be fitted back in later, while both Applejack and Rainbow, along with about a half a dozen guards replace it with temporary braces. Thanks to being almost immortal to some degree, and having magic that can best that of many a unicorn in Equestria. The prince manages to move heaps of debris without even breaking a sweat as the ponies around do the same.

There isn’t much they can do other than repair the patch work of walls that were busted, windows that shattered and a few places that needed reinforcement to help strengthen them after a wall or two gets a hole in it. After seeing to it that they can work in safety, parts of wall are removed to be replaced along with Rainbow now using a pair of hoof covers to protect herself as she takes out the remaining shards of glass that stayed in the window frame.

“Easy there now sugar cube…” Applejack says to her winged friend as she places the shards in to a cart so they can be hauled away, “Don’t drop them now so we get glass everywhere to get in ponies hooves.”

“I heard you the first time, AJ…” Rainbow rolls her eyes as she neatly sets the piece in and flies off to get more. As her country friend pulls off the full cart so another can be brought around.

Discord looks up at the sky over head through the fully open window arch as the sun remains high up, not having a pony to lower it. It seems for now the younger sister will be the one to do that when she gets the chance. ‘At least it gives us more light to work by,’ he looks at the bright side of the matter, until he finally realizes what this particular window frame was. A slight chuckle coming up in his gut, even if this is the worst time to have it, but right now anything is better to feel than this.

“What’s so funny?” Rainbow asks trying to find the humor in picking up the pieces of a battle… literally.

“There are many things I like about living in Canterlot. One of which is the history that is here, considering I can look in many historic books and go ‘I remember that’, all that said though,” Discord pauses to pick up a few of the pieces from the frame with his magic as he levitates them close to him so he can inspect them, “This was the only stained glass window that I didn’t like to walk by and see every day…”

Rainbow looks at the pieces while attempting to get a mental image out of all them, then looking at the others that are still in place. From her many times walking through this part of the castle, she does remember quite a few of the stained glass windows in place. Putting two and two together, the rainbow mare realizes that this historic art piece is in fact the one that shows the defeat of Discord himself by his wife and sister in law, way back when.

Now even she can’t help but hide the giggle under her breath as she looks over to the smug prince, “Okay, now I get it… it is funny.”

“No, what’s really funny is Tia refused to remove it upon our relationship… heck even after the wedding,” Discord rolls his eyes in slight annoyance while thinking back to the early parts of them being together and all of Equestria being oblivious to them as a couple.

Those were the simple days… working with one another on what went on in the kingdom and getting at one another’s throat from time to time. Plus the many times of ducking back in to their ‘respective’ rooms and itching a particular scratch on occasion as the… need, would arise. He starts to giggle to himself, having all those times together that eventually ended up in their children.

‘A pair of accidents, that I would happily make all over again, if I had to,’ he summarizes before continuing, “If we had an argument, she loved to walk down here and remind me what happened last time we disagreed on something.”

“Who won those fights after she pulled that card?”

The prince starts to wade off the subject rather eagerly, “Hehe…well… ahh… she did. Though after the kids, I doubt that she would have trapped their father in stone,” he finally answers her as they go about their task.

“Eh… that I wouldn’t be so sure of now,” the cyan mare answers as she flies about and continues working.

Finally clearing the room of all broken pieces, and giving it a clean sweep in time for the repair crew to come in and start patching up the area. Thanks to the gift of magic in a short time they have, for the most part, the room complete and water tight to keep away any rain that is scheduled to come in the near future. Moving on to the rooms further down the hall, one after the other. The stains of blood drenched tile, entrails here and there, broken weapons, missing limbs, shattered glass, and chipped stone that litter parts of the castle are taken care of. The first step to picking up the pieces, is quite literally, picking up the pieces.

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A guard is set up on the table with a broken fore hoof from where a mace crushed his bone. Already wailing in pain from the initial hit, he has to bite down on a piece of wood so that Twilight can set the bone properly with the help of a few other nurses to hold him down. Easing the bone next to the other, she puts a tight splint on him and wraps the area in a generous amount of binding so as not to have it move out of place again.

“Alrighty that’s in place now… nurse? You want to take it from here?” she asks as the guard starts to settle down now for the moment after the movement of his bone has stopped.

“Gladly, princess…” she pulls out a syringe and pumps the pony on the bed full of morphine so they can get to the next casualty.

“How are you handling yourself, Fluttershy?” Twi asks the Pegasus.

Fluttershy stands there next to the bed of another unicorn guard who sustained burns on the lower part of his ribs. The shy pony is used to cleaning up after animals and healing their wounds, so treating a pony in some cases is no different, other than maybe the amount of bandages to use.

Applying some burn ointment on the inner wrap, she cools down the wound with a light dab of a sponge before answering her friend, “oh I’m holding myself together…” she answers in hushed tones. Even though she has and is more than capable of treating a pony from time to time. The yellow Pegasus doesn’t like having to take that chance very often, preferring to stick to her animals.

“How are you doing though, sir?” she asks her actual patient.

“As well as one can expect madam…” he starts to cringe as the sponge is put on. Watching as the mare puts some alcohol to the bandage to sterilize it now. Without even a word though, Fluttershy puts a hoof in closer so he can give a slight squeeze as the sting hits home as she applies the wrap to his side. It’s not a lot of pain, more of a discomfort than anything. But it’s the little things that can count right now to a pony who finds himself in the med ward. “Thank you, miss...?” he pauses after realizing he never got quite cute nurses name, as he lightly gives her hoof a squeeze.

“Oh, I’m Fluttershy…” she answers, lightly beaming at him as she puts a safety pin to the end to hold the wrap on.

“Well Miss Fluttershy, my name is Cobalt Mail,” he smiles warmly at her through his similar to the name colored eyes, admiring the delicate aspect of her being, as one would a light flower. The guard extends a hoof of his own for a proper introduction, “I’m thankful to have you as my nurse.”

Returning the gesture, Fluttershy ever so gently squeezes his hoof in a gentle shake, “the pleasure is all mine… Mister Cobalt.”

“If it’s not too much to ask…” Cobalt waits for her to shake her head in response, “I know this isn’t the best time, but perhaps, you would like to get a coffee next time you’re in town?”

The shy mare starts to blush, as she looks off to the side from him with a slightly larger smile than she would care to admit, as she tries her best to hide it, “Well… ah,” Fluttershy stumbles for a second, before recalling what her fellow Pegasus friend said earlier, ‘What could it hurt?’ she returns with a flushed face, “As a matter of fact… I would love to.”

With that date set up between them, the Pegasus bids the unicorn fare well, as she watches him put his armor right back on, and head out of the med bay to help about the castle. Even after he leaves, it’s rather hard for the Pegisy to hide her prideful expression. Something that their fellow princess friend picks up instantly on.

“Did you really just get a date, while here in medical?” Twilight asks while looking over the charts of a knocked out pony.

“He seemed rather sweet, and polite,” Fluttershy blushes again while the few fleeting memories fill her mind, and she makes a note to save them there for when she returns, “even after coming here with third degree burns to his torso…”

“Well he’s determined I’ll give him that…” Twi answers with a chuckle, making a final decision about the one in front of her as she talks to the other nurse, “his skull has a fracture to it and that’s probably what knocked him out to begin with. I don’t see any other injuries along him though.”

“So just a nasty bump on the head?”

“It would seem so…”

“Well in that case we will put a stabilizer around his skull to keep the plates where they are.” The nurse jots down on the chart for later, “and go from there, if any other issues come up I’m sure he’ll let us know…one way or another.”

“Noted, nurse…” Twi hears the door swing open with a guard on the stretcher being brought in, a sword still impaled in to his chest, though astonishingly the colt is still clinging to life. Rushing over to his side, Twilight immediately looks at the ponies bringing him in to the room for answers, “how long has this been in him?”

“Not sure, your highness. We found him in the corner of a room buried under a few bodies, with it still stuck in place,” he taps on some bandages already in place that have been well soaked through with blood to the point of it even dripping off the side of the stretcher, “he had these on when we got him, must have done it himself.”

The nurse that was with the princess previously, and even Fluttershy go up to either side of the patient as he is is lowered on to the bed, and they go to work on him. Using her magic, the princess is able to see inside under the skin and where exactly the sword reached. ‘Let’s see… spleen, liver, pancreas, kidneys…check, check, check except for,’ Twi looks up after finding the main source of the blood through the eyes of her horn, “the Sword is clear of most vital organs in the area, but it nicked the right kidney after going through the intestines.”

“Internal bleeding then… the intestines can wait, but that kidney will need attention now,” the nurse brings out fresh wrappings as she starts to cut off the old ones, “this is probably the only thing that kept him alive…” the others bring out the necessities from a med table. Needle, thread, scissors, alcohol wipes, forceps, and sponges for the interesting fix… or patch work at least. “We’re going to have to pull that out of him eventually,” she points to the sword.

“Once we do there won’t be much time to stop the bleeding…” Fluttershy answers while grabbing a surgical mask and puts it over her mouth, the others soon following suit as it seems things are going to get rather messy right now.

Placing either side of her hooves on the sword, Twilight nods to the others as she starts to mouth a countdown. ‘One, Two… Three,’ slowly she starts to draw the blade out from its place in the body. The crust along the side of blood that formed a seal, breaks open as fresh pints of red liquid seep out and even splatter in the face of a few of them, as Twilight manages to get some in her hair and even eyes as she blinks furiously to be able to see right now. Thankful that she put the mask on prior to this little operation, otherwise she’d end up tasting it. Though hating the fact that she neglected the face shield.

The mare tosses the weapon that caused this to the ground, as Twi helps bring out the forceps so she can cut blood to the injured organ. While the nurse tries to soak up some of the blood that seeps out with a sponge, so they can at least attempt to see what they’re doing. Fluttershy meanwhile holds pressure on either side of the wound with her hooves, trying to stem the flow.

“The kidney is spurting out to much blood!” the nurse grabs another sponge as the first one is soaked already.

“I’m working on it!” Twilight snaps back in the heat of the moment, as she uses her magic to grasp the forceps and a needle with thread to go along with it.

Digging the tool in to the patient using the power of her horn to hold on to the tools and see what she is doing through the soft tissue. This is a first for the nurse/princess at the moment. Granted, Twilight’s put her fair share of stiches on ponies in the past, though in this case it now involves fixing the organ itself. Using the clamps, she pinches off the organ at the artery so the bleeding will break for a moment, and she can get a clear view through the skin at the organ, without so much blood disrupting her magic.

Puncturing the kidney with the needle, Twi tunes out the sound of the pony himself almost bucking back in the bed, as the ones who brought him in now try to hold him down. With every stab of the needle, it puts more and more pain coursing through his system, at the same time closing off the opening where the blood can come out. Careful with her own ‘hoof on’ touch, it doesn’t take long to close the entire wound, although it felt like a few hours. After tying off the ends of the thread, Twilight starts to pay attention to the other issue of blood pooling up inside and sitting there to fester.

“That’s closed off…” Twilight answers the nurse while taking off the forceps, “Fluttershy, pass me the suction hose.”

“The…what?” she looks back at the table next to her, seeing the small device attached to the side of the bed, “oh right…” she hooves it over to her friend, as she watches the alicorn expertly handle the tool like she was born to do this instead of learn about magic.

The blood slowly goes down the tube and in to the bag on the edge of the bed as she cleans out the area. Soon enough even the actual nurse doesn’t have to soak up any blood with the sponges and is able to take over from here. Sterilizing the area with some alcohol, and putting a new thread on the needle. The nurse starts to puncture the side of the nicked intestine, working a pair of forceps in her hooves to dip the needle in and out and close off the cut. Luckily she doesn’t have to worry about the victim kicking her in the face anymore, he’s passed out from just the shock.

“That should just about do it you two… are you sure you don’t want to go in to the medical profession?” the nurse readies another needle and thread, and closes up the surface wound, “both of you would do great in Manehatten Medical. And I would more than happy to give you a recommendation just from what I’ve seen here.”

“Oh, I think I’ll stick to my studies now,” Twi answers, while she appreciates the offer.

“And me my animals,” the timid mare does the same, though more so for the reason of way too much blood for her liking after this experience.

The nurse wipes away the blood from around the bandage to clean it up a bit, “Well I can’t really blame you,” she now gets a better look at the two ponies as she raise her head, “though I think, princess, you may want to go wash up before you continue…”

Twi looks at Fluttershy, curious over the response, when she sees her yellow feathered friend even cringe. Picking up a hoof mirror off the med table to get a better glimpse of herself, the mare doesn’t like what she sees. Blood stains all across her face and even a good amount has made its way in to her hair, giving it the same effect as a dye. It’s far more than she originally thought at first, as she now sees it even leaves a clear line when she removes the mask from her face, and even some starts to drip down along her neck.

“Yea…” she groans out, “I’m going to go use the mare’s room…” Twilight starts to trot off to the door, as two of her other friends come in to the room now and pass by her.

Pinkie bounces up and down even as she goes through the door. Though the pink mare quickly stops when she sees the look on her friends face, almost getting chills running up and down her spine as she states the obvious.

“You ahh… have a little something, here,” she points to Twilight’s muzzle, quickly moving it to the other various spots, “And here, and here, and…here.”

“Thank you, for reminding me…” she rolls her eyes, seeing the white unicorn next to Pinkie with the purple mane and tail opening her mind to ask another question, Twi quickly intervenes, “no Rarity, don’t worry… none of its mine.”

“Took the words right out of my mouth dear,” the unicorn answers to her as she watches the princess step out for a moment to clean up.

Continuing inside the med bay, both mares with bags draping over their sides, carry supplies here and there or where ever needed by those around. So far they have probably been around the whole castle twice, and the sun is barely even starting to touch the horizon. Rarity looks out the window and gets a clear picture of Luna as she takes on her older sister’s task while Celestia remains in her state, lowering the sun and giving way to the dusk of the moon as it starts to fill the sky.

“Fresh bandages and other medical supplies for you all, from the storerooms…” Rarity opens the bag and uses her magic and pulls out a couple boxes, placing them about on various tables here and there while Pinkie does the same with sterile surgical tools wrapped in sterile cloth to keep them clean.

Fluttershy gladly picks up a few of the former, “Thank you girls, these are sure to come in handy.”

“What happened to Twilight?” Pinkie asks recalling the still vivid image in her mind.

“The princess played surgeon here, when a pony came in with a sword protruding through their chest…” the nurse that worked with them answers as she changes out an IV bag for another pony and adds a serum of antibiotics to the mix.

“Oh my…” Rarity gasps at only the thought of one getting their coat saturated with the blood of another, “Well how did she do?

“If only your friend wasn’t a princess…”

“I figured she did that well,” the unicorn chuckles as she puts some pads next to the nurse.

“Have you two seen Flash in your travels?” Fluttershy is the one to ask while cleaning up and putting an ice pack on a guard’s swollen joint, “Me and Twilight have been in here for a while, and this is the first time either of us have even stepped out of the room, she must be wondering what he’s up to…” she whispers as the shy pony asks for her friend.

“Flashy is helping Spike with moving the bodies of those that have, well, passed,” Pinkie answers as she still manages to bounce up and down even while surrounded by the misery of being in a medical bay. Now looking at the odd looks from her two friends, already knowing its reason for being brought to her, “What? Twilight may be dating him, but that doesn’t mean I can’t come up with a cute nickname for the colt… beside if you put them together, you get Flashlight,” she trails off only getting an eye roll from them both as they silently think the exact same thing without even saying a word.

‘…Oh Pinkie pie…’

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Spikes claws go through yet another pair of gloves that he has put on while moving the bodies of those that fought. Wondering why he even wears them in the first place, if his sharp claws will slice through them over and over again. He soon remembers that there is a particular unicorn that would not want him with in hooves reach of her if he touched corpses bare clawed. Grabbing a pillow case off of a cushion from a couch nearby, the dragon covers his talons and helps the bright orange Pegasus colt with him.

Both he and Flash have been hard at work for what seems like hours, picking up and moving bodies of those that died. The pair has blood coating parts of their bodies, as it came out of those that they moved and seeped on to their skin. Already having beads of sweat rolling down their faces to mix with the juices, Spike dabs a handkerchief over the top of his fore head as he and the pony take a breather.

“Well this isn’t the best job to do after a battle…” the dragon starts off.

“…But somebodies got to do it,” Sentry finishes for him as he stretches out his wing to try and test it. The injury seems to have gotten better sense being here, along with his rib. At least enough for this kind of work. As both he and the scaly counterpart nod at one another in agreement.

“You said it…” the drake finishes, as they get back to the gruesome work and finish loading a few more bodies in to the cart as its pulled out by another stallion and the corpses are taken out so the rooms can be cleared.

Flash and Spike take to the sky and hover just off the top of a pony stature in the room as there’s a changeling body there just hanging off the back like it was riding it. Lifting the creature up and off to the side, they drop it to the ground and the sound of his now useless armor hitting the floor is the only thing that fills the space at the time.

“This is kinda an odd time to bring this up…” Spike scratches the back part of his spines, “but ahh, how long exactly have you and Twilight been, well, together?”

Flash’s ears twitch at even the sound of her name being called, “Well not the worst time to bring that up, but it takes off from the task at hoof.”

“Hmm, good point.”

“As for how long, technically after Twilight had every pony down in Ponyville for that day,” he explains some of the events, “when every pony left, we didn’t call it a night quite yet…”

“Oh do tell…” Spike grins, wondering how this played out for his best friend. Also keeping in mind that Rarity is going to probably bring this up later on when they see one another, asking what the two talked about.

“We went to a café to get some caffeine in our system, and then went back to the park, and found a classic band playing in the gazebo. Twilight ended up dragging me out there in front where other ponies were dancing and-”

“Wait you two danced?” Spike cuts him off with the question.

“Yes…” he reads the puzzled look on the dragon’s face, “why?”

“I have seldom seen Twilight dance, and have never known her to be the one to get out and be the one to drag another on the floor,” Spike tries to picture the alicorn taking the guard for a spin, or making herself look like a fool while doing it.

“Well I have to say it was a rather interesting surprise, to be taken by a mare in that way.”

“Oh I can imagine, though what happened afterwards?”

Flash goes back and talks about what happened after the music and the dancing, and continues in to the park. Leaving out a few more choice details that are a little too personal and should be kept between him and the princess. After finishing up with his little story of how things turned out between them, the supply mares come in to the room with a few bags on their back as they greet their friends with the less than stellar job that they’ve had to contend with.

“This is not something I would imagine me seeing…” Rarity comments as she sees the blood on Spike’s scales, dripping down along him.

“There isn’t much more to go at least. And I will wash up after we’re done here,” he answers the unicorn before she can say any more about his current condition.

“Same here in this case…” Flash says as he looks over at some of the red and green stains on his coat.

If it weren’t blood, Sentry would have thought that the colors looked rather festive, almost like the holidays. Though considering that its bodily fluids that came from a recently killed pony or changeling. That sort of takes away from the warm fuzzy feeling that one would get. Pinkie puts down the bag and pulls out a cloth, spitting on it a bit before using it to try and dab away some of the blood on his face.

“And… there we… go,” she smears some of it around as its picks up with every rub. Watching the face on the guard like a foal being taken care of by his mother as he starts to squint his eyes.

“Thank you, Ms. Pie.”

“Oh please,” the fanatical mare beams at him, even as she removes the fluid, “you can call me Pinkie, after all you’re dating our friend…”

“And a friend of Twilight’s, is a friend of ours,” Rarity adds as she sprays some air freshener on Spike to cover the obvious smell of decay.

“Thank you both then,” Flash nods politely to the mares as the dragon raises a questions to them.

“Being the supply ponies, among others doing the same…” Spike starts to ask, “You two have run about the castle more than either of us. Have you seen Twilight yet in medical?”

“Oh we have, trust us…” Pinkie answers thinking to when she saw her blood covered friend, “she just got out of surgery when we saw her. Rather plastered in another’s fluids and walking out to clean up first.”

“I’m… not even going to touch on that subject…” Flash shakes his head with an awkward smirk at the thought of seeing his marefriend coated in red, or green blood… which ever came first. Much like himself at the moment.

“Well she is very good at what she does,” Rarity throws in there.

Flash looks down at his rib cage as it still has bandages on it, painkillers pumping through his system. Yet even with them slowly starting to wear off, he still feels better already from her earlier touch, ‘oh I know she is… that much is for sure,’ he tells himself as the two mares drop off what they can offer and head back out in to the castle to carry further supplies where need be.