Princess Celestia flew as fast as her massive alicorn wings could take her. She didn't have time to wait for any guards to bring her royal chariot around. An Ursa Major, arguably the biggest creature in Equestria, had attacked Ponyville. And according to Spike's hastily-written message, it had hurt Twilight. The Princess had bragged to many of her peers that Twilight was a formidable magic-user, proven by the fact that she had saved Ponyville from an Ursa Minor. An Ursa Major on the other hand, was a completely different story. Even the Princess herself would think twice about challenging one. But she had her subjects to protect, just as Twilight had her fellow Ponyvillians. She could sympathize.

As Ponyville appeared on what passed for the horizon at that time of night, she saw the beast tethered down and subdued several miles away.  Even at that distance, it's size was mind-boggling. The Princess saw its paw-prints on the ground around Ponyville, but the rustic town was in one piece. As she descended, the Princess noticed a very large ring around the entire town, as if a gigantic circular cookie-cutter had tried to take Ponyville out of the earth. Something had stopped the Ursa Minor, and Celestia knew she'd seen this before, recently in fact! But she couldn't put her hoof on it... one thing was for certain, at least. If Twilight had so much as a misplaced hair because of this Ursa Major, Celestia would very soon be enjoying a new bear-skin carpet in her room, and Canterlot would be enjoying a a boom in authentic Ursa Major fur coats...

"PRINCESS!" Yelled a voice as Celestia touched down in Ponyville. She recognized the accent instantly, it was Twilight's friend Applejack.

"Applejack, where is-"

"They took Twilight to the hospital" Applejack said, predicting the Princess' question.

"Which way-"

"That way." said Applejack. It was obvious that Twilight was The Princess' only concern, since Ponyville was in one piece and nopony seemed to be anything more than shaken with fear.

"Thank you." The Princess quickly headed in the direction Applejack had pointed. The ponies of Ponyville were surprised to see her in the wake of such a close call with such a ferocious monster, unaccompanied by any guards. Some tried to bow as she ran by, but most just stared with curiosity about where the Princess was headed in such a hurry. Soon enough they would realize she was tearing plot to the hospital where Twilight Sparkle was being attended.

When she finally reached the Ponyville Hospital, Princess Celestia found an empty waiting room, which was a good sign. Empty, except for a shaking Fluttershy. That pony had a knack for being invisible.

"P-Princess..." whispered Fluttershy. Since their first meeting, Celestia knew Fluttershy was very soft-spoken. But something in her voice and the expression on her face were as if she was apologizing for something. What could such a sweet little pony have done to warrant forgiveness from Her Highness?

Celestia didn't have time to ponder Fluttershy's intentions as Rarity came through the door to the emergency rooms.

"Princess! Twilight is this way!" She said.

Celestia wasted no time in folowing Rarity through the corridors, keeping her eyes peeled for an injured purple unicorn.

"Over here," said Rarity as she turned into a different hall. The Princess had to catch herself so as not to slip on the slick hospital floor.

For an emergencies wing in the wake of an attack from a giant bear, it was eerily empty of any doctors, nurses, and patients. That was, until The Princess found herself standing behind Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. They were watching as an army of nurses, led by several doctors, rushed in and out of one room. Twilight was in this room, and the hospital staff was doing everything in their power to keep her alive. Celestia had to see. She had to know that Twilight was alright.

"I'm sorry Your Majesty, you can't go in there" said one of the nurses.

"I am your Princess. Stand aside, I must see the condition my child is in!" Ordered Celestia. In her flustered state, she hadn't noticed she'd just referred to Twilight as her "child" not "student", a sentiment she would have smiled about, if the circumstances were different.

"I'm sorry Princess, but this is my hospital and I make the rules." Said a very serious-looking doctor.

Celestia didn't have a comeback, because the doctor was right. The staff was obviously doing the best it could to help Twilight.

"Please understand, Your Highness. We have a very seriously injured pony in that room, if you persist, you'll only get in our way of helping Ms. Sparkle to recover. If you really want to help, follow her friend's examples and let us do our job." The doctor treated The Princess with the same amount of respect he gave everypony. He'd handled this same situation a hundred times before.

The Princess did as she was told, and sat down next to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Rarity had most likely gone back to console Fluttershy for whatever crime it was that she'd committed.

"Princess...?" Asked Rainbow Dash in a very uncharacteristically scared voice.

"What is it, my little pony?" Asked Celestia in deadpan tone, only half-paying attention to the rainbow-maned pegasus. The Princess was too busy worrying over Twilight to bother with Rainbow's silly questi-

"What happens when a unicorn breaks their horn?"

Celestia's heart stopped and sunk, her eyes widened and she nearly broke her neck as she swiveled her head to face Rainbow Dash.

"What...?" The Princess had to fight hard to suppress a whimper beneath her quivering lip.

"Twilight...broke her horn." Replied Rainbow Dash. The Princess' efforts to hide her fears about Twilight's condition had failed, as Rainbow Dash started to feel her fear for Twilight's safety as well.

"Did it...is it still attached...?" Celestia asked, begging for the best possible answer in this situation.

But as she expected, Rainbow gave her the worst.

"No...it broke off..." she said.

...Part of being ruler of the land, and goddess to your people, was never showing weakness. If her subjects saw Celestia in any weakness, their faith in her would be shaken and her kingdom would slowly start to come apart at its seams. But this was one instance in which she would be forced to make an exception. Celestia sobbed quietly as tears fell from her face. Rainbow closed her eyes tightly and gritted her teeth as she punched the wall of the hallway and stormed off. The only sound that came from Pinkie Pie during the entire exchange was the sound of her mane deflating.

"Pinkie, what happened?" asked The Princess. There was nothing to do but wait, so Celestia wanted to hear the whole story.

"Well...you remember that obnoxious unicorn that came to Ponyville, bragging about how she'd defeated an Ursa Major?"

The Princess did remember. Spike had boasted about Twilight proving that she was the most talented magic user by defeating an Ursa Minor some colts had lured to Ponyville. They had meant for the other unicorn, Trixie, to vanquish it. But in the end she was exposed as a fraud and ran away.

"She actually went out and captured a real Ursa Major, and brought it here to show off to Twilight. I wasn't close enough to hear exactly what they were saying but Twilight said something about draggin' around the Ursa with a collar not being good or something..." recalled Pinkie.

Something in that sentence caught the Princess, dragging around the Ursa? No, not draggin'...dragon! Those collars forced dragons to submit to the will of wizards! And that fool Trixie had placed a Dragon Binding Chain on a monster it had no effect on!

"Then it took the collar off and everyone started going crazy! And then Twilight shot some light into the air before the Ursa could attack and blocked it from attacking Ponyville!" continued Pinkie.

Shining Armor's spell. That was what caused the ring around Ponyville, and Celestia remembered that it had left a mark around the perimeter of Canterlot after the wedding as well, that's where she'd seen it before. But Twilight wasn't as experienced with the spell as her brother, and where he could blast it with magic and keep it stable for long periods of time, Twilight didn't have that sort of magic style. The way Twilight used magic, she must have been connected to the shield the entire time, constantly funneling magic into it.

As Pinkie continued with the story, Celestia started to piece together what had happened. Twilight had placed a protective shield around Ponyville, and the Ursa, not understanding what was blocking it, had kept attacking it. But since Twilight was connected to the shield, the recoil of every hit on it would bounce back onto her. Taking into account the amount of force the shield itself absorbed, from a beast the size of the Ursa Major that would feel similar to being repeatedly battered with a sledgehammer. It was a miracle she was able to withstand even one blow, but Pinkie said Twilight held the beast off for roughly half an hour before she couldn't take anymore.

"I asked Twilight if there was anything I could do to help, but she just turned around and yelled at me to get everyone to safety." Pinkie was tearing up, and Celestia knew the story was reaching its climax.

"So while I was helping some fillies onto a cart so they could get away, I heard Twilight scream, and the barrier around Ponyville came crashing down! I turned around and she was on the ground convulsing! Oh if the Wonderbolts hadn't shown up to lure the Ursa away when they did, we woulda been toast!" recalling the story obviously caused Pinkie a lot of pain, but Celestia had to know what had happened.

"Rainbow Dash and I went over to help her up and I carried her here to the hospital. When the doctors put her on the gurney, they asked me where her horn was and I didn't know! But Rainbow had it and she gave it to the doctors before they carted her away...and now we're here."

"We've stabilized her, Princess. All we can do now is wait." said the doctor, emerging from the room exhausted. "You should be proud...this hospital was expecting everypony in town to come through these halls, but thanks to Twilight Sparkle we only have one patient tonight, and the entire town owes her thanks. We promise we will do everything we can to help her."

The Princess wanted to stay with Twilight until she could be sure she was alright, but she knew Twilight wouldn't want her to dwell on her condition. The Princess stood up, excused herself, and headed back to Canterlot under the escort of a few guards that had caught up with her. Every one of Twilight's friends would be praying to Celestia that she would be alright. And just then it occurred to the Princess, when everypony prays to you, who do you pray to?