The long, white-walled hospital hallway was virtually silent throughout. The entire place was empty apart from an antsy blue unicorn, a pissed-off griffon, and a couple nurses pacing up and down the halls. The blue unicorn lifted her head as her eyes absent-mindedly followed the swinging tail of one of the nurses.

‘What are they even doing?’ she thought to herself idly. ‘All these nurses keep walking back and forth like they have something to do, but no one is here besides us.’ One nurse, after she passed by the blue unicorn and the griffon, stopped for a moment and caught the blue one staring at her.

“Need something?” she asked snidely with a look of disgust, making sure to lower her tail down between her legs. Blue shook her head and blinked rapidly as she regained her focus.

“Huh-wha, what? Oh, ah, no thank you I was just uh… Admiring, I mean uh, gazing, at your uh… ass, no, tail. Yep. Carry on. Sorry,” Blue stuttered madly, blushing like she was trying to set records. The griffon beside her laughed a little at Blue’s embarrassment, but Blue payed her no mind. Both of them went immediately back to silence, though one of their cheeks were a lot rosier than the other’s.

‘What is going on with you Blue?’ Blue thought to herself. ‘I wasn’t trying to make it look like I was staring at her ass, I just kinda… Was. I guess if stallions are going to stare at mine so much then there’s nothing wrong with me doing it with other mares, right? To uh… Compare, yes. To compare. That's why. Can’t have any mares with a better ass than mine, right?’

Blue began hitting herself in the head with a hoof, eliciting a confused glare from Ember beside her. ‘Damn it, I’m not here to think about mare’s asses. I’m here to support Apple! He needs me! He wouldn’t want me doing this. He would want me thinking about… Him? You know, come to think about it, we’ve already had sex twice — scratch that, one and a half — and I barely know anything about him besides a minimal part of his personal life. Don’t they always say you should get to know a guy before you let him… Well, y'know, inside you? And oh boy, was he inside me… NO! Bad mind! Think non-dirty thoughts, you are a clean pony. Oh wait, you’re not a virgin anymore, Blue. That’s unsettling to think about…’ Blue sighed and rested her head on her upraised hoof. Ember stole a quick glance at Blue, unbeknownst to the unicorn. The silent griffon was very busy deeply contemplating how her life has changed since this beautiful blue mare came into her life. There’s no denying it; her life has changed, and when change comes, you can adapt, or you can be left behind. With all the new friends she had made recently, there wasn’t much about her life that was the same. Last year she spent the holidays alone, like the year before that, and the year before that. But this year? This year she had a whole big group of friends. ‘And two of them even had sex in MY bed…’ she thought to herself angrily.

They each glanced to each other momentarily before quickly snapping away upon noticing the other. ‘Why is she even here?’ Blue asked herself. ‘She threw Apple out a window, so I doubt he would even want her here at all. I would ask her but frankly I don’t even want to hear her voice. Already bad enough I have to sit next to this birdy bitch. What am I even doing with my life? The one pony, er, griffin, that has ever shown me hospitality is now sitting next to me furious because she somehow decided it was a good idea to literally pull my stallion OUT of me! Which REALLY hurt by the way! Tearing Apple out of me probably hurt me more than it did Apple, but considering I wasn’t the one thrown out a window I really can’t complain. It still hurts though…’ Blue stole yet another glance at Ember. ‘Look at her… She shows no remorse. She’s probably happy she threw him outta the window. She probably wants to throw me out one too. Note to self: stay downstairs from now on, and stay away from windows…’

The nurse from earlier walked past them once again but this time when she saw Blue glance at her — even just barely — she rudely flicked her tail at Blue, making her flinch and reel back in her chair. ‘What a bitch. She probably only walked past just so she could do that. There really is no reason she had to walk past so I assume that’s the case. There really is nothing going on here; Apple is the only patient. Every other room here is currently empty, surprisingly enough. They have like five nurses working and currently only one patient. To be honest I don’t even know why they have that many ever. Ponyville Hospital never has more than just a few patients at a time. Ponies here don't exactly get hurt often. Actually, I take that back. I hear that the rainbow-colored weather pony we have in Ponyville is in here all the time. They say she crashes a lot. But still, I swear half these nurses are here just so they can get the stallions and sometimes mares (like me) in the waiting room to look at them. Hmph, it’s not my fault like all of them look like they should be models. Hm, come to think of it I’m pretty sure I saw that one down the hall in last years “kinky nurses” issue of Playpony.’ Another different nurse walked by, but Blue carefully decided to look away this time and instead to the side where Ember was sitting. Oddly enough, Blue noticed Ember’s eyes were up and following the mare’s tail like Blue’s were earlier.

‘Oh you dirty birdy you. Never can get enough of us ponies now can you? Hell, I like stallions, that’s no surprise, but birdbrain’s mind here next to me can’t think of anything but the mares. I would know, I see her peeking at my behind every chance she gets. Funny thing, I think she sometimes knocks stuff on the floor from the couch just so she can see me lean down and pick it up. I guess she forgets I have magic, but I purposely don’t use it because it amuses me when I see her face afterwards. I swear next time she does that I’m gonna use my magic, but instead use it to force her to pick up whatever the hell she dropped. Celestia damn it brain! Stop getting off track! Stop thinking about these weird things! Goddesses… I need my coffee. I wish I was good at conjuration magic so that I could just make coffee appear. Well, technically I can but it just tastes bad. Conjuration was never my strong suit, I was always really good at transfiguration, but I don’t think the staff here wants me turning their potted plants into coffee mugs. Anyways… What was I supposed to be thinking about again? Oh, right! Apple. Goddesses I hope he’s ok. That gash in his side looked pretty deep… And his legs looked pretty twisted.’ Blue suddenly gasped. ‘Does this mean no sex?! No! Wait mind, don’t start thinking about that again! Right now I should be thinking about my stallion’s well-being but I'm too busy thinking about his big dick. I really need to stop that, what is wrong with me? Maybe my mind is just a bit restless. I haven’t exactly slept much recently. I could probably fall asleep in this chair if I wanted, but there’s no possible way I’d do that while Apple is in such bad condition. The doctor said he would be ok by sometime tomorrow and that a little magic should patch him right up in no time at all, but I took some medical magic classes before and I know full well that healing magic can only go so far. All I can do now is hope it can go far enough.

‘I don’t care what Ember told me, she still better sleep with one eye open for at least a month. Come to think of it, that still wouldn’t help her. She couldn't stop my magic even if she wanted to. I would tell her to go find somewhere to hide when she sleeps, but why would I want that? I want this birdy bitch to suffer! She not only tore a damn big dick literally straight out of me, but fucking threw said bearer of big dick out of the goddess damn window! She’s gonna get what’s coming to her all right! I have to make sure I get her back with something she’ll never forget. Hmm… Oh all the things I could do to her. I could throw her off a Manehattan skyscraper in her sleep, I could turn her into a dog and trap her somewhere, I could yank something out of her like she did to me, except her’s would have to be even bigger and more painful. Either way, I’ll get this bitch back for what she did. I still don’t even know why she came to the hospital. To laugh at us? She’s probably laughing on the inside right now. She doesn’t feel bad for what she did, she’s a griffon, they’re violent, that’s what they do. At least she hasn’t torn somepony open with those talons of hers. I’m sure as hell she’s thought about it before. I swear if she even scratched me with a single damn claw of hers… She would regret it, let’s just say that. In my life I’ve had bad tendencies to do bad things when it came to getting back at ponies. Back in college there was this one nerdy stallion who kept trying to make a move on me. He always got uncomfortably close, and always said the dumbest pick up lines possible to get me to give in. He even resorted to telling me he had a big dick, so in response I cast a spell or two and... Let’s just say he didn't leave the bar with a very big dick. Yep. Wow, that was ages ago… I never saw him again that’s for sure. Kinda weird to think about how I avoided all relationships back in school and now here I am today with Apple. I was too busy studying and focusing on school back then to care about all the stallions staring at my flanks. Speaking of flanks…’ The nurse that Blue believed to be a model earlier walked by nonchalantly, swinging her tail in just the right way as she swung her hips from side to side. Both Blue and Ember couldn’t help but each steal a peek. Blue thought the nurse probably was doing this on purpose. The angry nurse from earlier must have said something about Blue staring.

‘Alright, back to maliciously plotting. I’ll have to strike Ember when she least expects it for sure. If she expects it then it won’t be as fun. I just… I just can’t believe her! Why would Ember do something like that? Was her jealousy really that strong? I can’t really tell why to be honest. It was either she hated Apple, was jealous Apple was getting my flank and not her, or was mad there was now a dried puddle of cum on her bed sheets. Come to think of it, probably a mix of all those things… But why? Apple is such a nice stallion, he’d never hurt a fly. Ember knew she couldn’t have me. I may like mares a little, but in the end I always wanted a stallion. Only reason Ember ever got under this tail was because she happened to lift it herself while I was vulnerably asleep on the couch. She couldn’t fucking resist, that bitch! She couldn’t keep her grubby little lecherous talons away from me. If I really wanted I could file for sexual assault. It’s not like I consented to that or anything, she just up and decided to vibrate my insides while asleep. The only reason I shouldn't press charges is because I kinda have to live with her… For now. I would like to keep my place to sleep no matter how much I may hate this griffon sitting next to me. I could always just cast a spell right now and make her disappear forever, sending her to some far off danger in the Everfree Forest. Markus could take her place, nopony would know. I’m sure he can take the form of a griffon if he wanted. Hmm… I won’t do that but maybe Markus could help me with my revenge… Speaking of revenge, I just remembered, what Ember did to Apple and me is not the only thing I need revenge for…

'That little red bitch Scotch! How could I forget! I still need to get back at her as well! Frankly though, I’ve forgiven her a little bit, but she still needs to be punished... Just… Maybe not as severe as whatever I plan for Ember. I can probably just lock her in a basement or something like that, something easy. Hmm, yes, I like this. Putting fear in the hearts of other ponies fills me with excitement… Is that a bad thing? I mean, it makes me feel good just thinking about it. Too good… I’m not evil though, right? I’m just getting even. That’s all. Yep. You fool around with the filly I wanted to fool around with right in front of me: you get trapped in a basement. You yank a good rutting literally right out of me and throw it out a window: you… You get something really bad done to you. I don't know yet. Something that will make sure she will not to mess with me again! Or Apple!’ Blue noticed she had been maliciously rubbing her hooves together and caught Ember’s awkward stare. “Sorry, I was just uh… itching…” Blue said very quietly and timidly, in stark contrast to the borderline insane thoughts she had going in her head. ‘I’m sane! Quit judging me, me!’

The halls of Ponyville Hospital were silent save for the sounds of snoring coming from the waiting room. Ember had made herself comfortable on one of the padded benches and was fast asleep, not making a sound. Blue, on the other hoof, was sprawled out across her chair in a very painful-looking position, head tossed back and mouth wide open like a bird bath. One need not look far to see where the snoring was coming from. After a particularly loud inhale from Blue, Ember opened one eye and glared at the blue mare still fast asleep. If it wasn’t for being up so late the night before, she probably would have never been able to fall asleep in the first place with the snoring Blue was pumping out. Glancing to her right at the clock on the wall, she saw it was about ten minutes to six. Groaning, Ember slowly sat up and stretched her hind legs, wincing as the joints popped from being in such a confined position all night. Rubbing one eye with a talon, she reached over with her other and poked Blue to wake her up.

“Hey, chainsaw mouth, wake up, it’s morning.”

“I didn’t steal your mango I swear!” Blue blurted as she jolted awake from the poking in her side. Ember opened her mouth to say something but was thrown off by the bizarre outburst and just stared at her with a raised brow. “Ember? Where are we?”

“Uh, the hospital, remember?” Blue’s eyes flashed as she recalled all the events of the night prior and then immediately fixed Ember with a piercing glare. “Yes, that all happened. Now get up, the doctor should be around soon to tell us Apple’s condition.”

“Why the hell do you even care? You probably just want to make sure he’s not a vegetable so you don’t have to pay for life support, you heartless pigeon.”

“Oh don’t even sta-” Ember began to say before catching sight of the doctor rounding the corner of the room.

“Good morning ladies. I hope you’re not too sore from sleeping in those chairs all night,” the doctor said as he nodded towards them and glanced back at the clipboard he was levitating in front of him. He was a light brown-coated unicorn stallion who, from the looks of it, has only been out of school for a few years at the most.

“Could have been better,” Blue said as she stretched and winced as something in her back popped loudly. “Sweet Celestia I hope you know a good chiropractor.” The doctor smiled and sat down in front of them.

“My brother is actually a chiropractor in Cloudsdale and does some work for the Wonderbolts during their off time, but I don’t think he’d be too thrilled to come to little old Ponyville for a personal call,” the doctor chuckled. “He got dad's wings and I got mom’s horn and he flew off the first chance he got where I don’t have that luxury.”

“As fascinating as this family history is Doc, can you get on with how Apple’s doing? I’d really rather not be in this place any longer than I have to be,” Ember said in an exasperated tone. She hated hospitals immensely and couldn’t wait to get out of here once she at least knew that Apple wasn’t comatose.

“Right right, sorry. I tend to ramble sometimes. Yes, as for your friend there, he suffered quite a few injuries actually,” he said as he flipped through his notes on the clipboard. “Three broken ribs, a severe fracture in his right front leg in two places, a sprain in his left front fetlock, numerous lacerations all over, heavy bruising on his torso, and of course internal bleeding.” Both Blue and Ember winced as the list grew and grew. They both knew Apple was in bad shape, but to hear it all listed off like that led them both to think it was a miracle he was still alive. The doctor caught their looks and quickly sat up. “But it’s not all bad, we were able to heal all the lacerations and reduce the bruising with magic. The internal bleeding stopped last night once we stabilized him and we were able to set his leg in a splint so it’ll heal on its own in a few weeks time.”

“When can we see him? I wanna see him now!” Blue frantically said, hopping off her seat and shuffling her hooves anxiously. The doctor looked at the clock on the wall and turned back to Blue.

“Well, normally we don’t start visiting hours until seven, but seeing how you’re the only ones here, I think we can make an exception,” he smiled. Blue immediately took off down the hallway. “Uh, he’s in room 407, down the other hall.” A blue blur whizzed by them going in the opposite direction, nearly knocking one of the nurses over in the process who didn’t hesitate mumbling some expletives after Blue down the hall.

“Uh, is she always like this?” the doctor asked, turning back towards Ember who was still sitting on her bench.

“You don’t even know the half of it…” she sighed, slowly getting up and making her way down the hall that Blue had just bolted down.

Ember leisurely made her way down the empty hallway, the sound of her talons clicking on the tile floor was the only noise meeting her ears for a while until the faint beeping of a heart monitor caught her attention. Glancing to the right, she saw one of the room doors open and caught sight of Blue sitting beside a bed occupied by the yellow stallion. She quietly entered the room, ignoring the look Blue gave her, and took a seat in the chair by the window overlooking town. The room was small, only having the hospital bed, an end table, and the chair Ember occupied. Not much would be expected from a hospital in a town as small as Ponyville though. Efficient would be a better word to describe it. Nurses and doctors were never far away from patients that needed them.

Blue turned her attention from Ember entering back to Apple lying in the bed. Even with what the doctor said they did, he still looked like a huge mess. His hair was matted all over, bandages and gauze covering a good portion of his body, and his right front leg was in a cast held in place by a pulley system. She followed the IV tube running from his left foreleg up to the clear bag hanging beside the bed on the wall, then glanced at the green line jumping methodically on the screen beside it, eliciting the monotonous beep-beep-beep. Blue felt a lump in her throat as her eyes welled up with tears that she tried fruitlessly to hold back. She herself had spent very little time in hospitals and didn’t like them any more than any other pony, but she didn’t get super uncomfortable in them like Ember did. Her eyes wandered from the screen down to Apple’s chest, watching it rhythmically rise and fall with his slow breathing.

'He looks so peaceful…' Blue thought to herself as she watched him breathe, eyes closed, mouth ever so slightly open. 'Heh, he looks kinda cute like this in a way. This is the first time I’ve seen him asleep, just a shame it had to be like this…' She gently lifted his left foreleg and placed hers underneath, letting out a long sigh as she turned her attention back to the gentle rise and fall of Apple’s chest. Ember turned her head slightly and glanced over out of the corner of her eye to see what was going on behind her. From where she sat, she couldn’t see Apple’s face, just his lower body and Blue’s back, so not much really. Letting out a quiet sigh, she turned her attention back to looking out the window at the several ponies starting to go about their day in the street below.

After what felt like an hour, but in reality was only about five minutes, Apple let out a low-pitched groan and shifted on the bed. Blue immediately sat up straight and had her full attention on him as he shifted his position, winced, and slowly opened his left eye.

“Oh sweet Celestia you’re alive!” Blue squealed as she instinctively hugged Apple, causing him to immediately yelp in pain and she to quickly retract with a sheepish look. “Eheh… sorry. I’m just so happy that you’re awake you don’t even know.”

“If anypony is glad I’m awake I would think it would be me,” Apple said in a low, scratchy voice as he pushed himself up in the bed slightly. “Sweet Luna I feel like I was run over by the Friendship Express…” A small smile grew on Blue’s face at the analogy.

“So… Do you remember what happened last night at all?” she asked with some hesitation, hoping in a slightly selfish way that he did so she didn’t have to be the one to remind him of the awful events. Apple looked up towards the ceiling as he recalled the night before.

“Well, I remember being in you,” he smirked, “then something sharp in my sides and next thing I know I’m on a crash course for the window. After that it’s kinda blank. I don’t remember being brought here or anything.” Apple tried to swallow and winced. “Ugh my throat is as dry as the desert. Is there some water around?”

“Yeah, there’s some over by the door, I’ll get it,” Blue said getting up from his side, his eyes following her over to the right side of the room. “What I’m curious of, Apple, is if you remember who threw you out the window.”

“Well, it obviously wasn’t you. You were too distracted,” Apple smirked at Blue as she poured some water into a styrofoam cup. Blue rolled her eyes and smiled. “So that only leaves…” Apple’s eyes wandered towards the ceiling again before coming down on the left side of the room, right on Ember sitting in the chair by the window. “EmbehrhrrrAAHHH!” he shrieked and recoiled towards the opposite side of the bed, the ECG beeping with an increased vigor. “Gah! You’re here to finish me off! I should have known! Help! Nurse! Blue! Somepony!” Ember opened her mouth so say something but was cut off by Blue.

“Apple! Relax, I’m right here,” Blue said as she rushed back to the side of the bed, putting herself in between Apple and Ember. “She’s not here to hurt you, isn’t that right, Ember,” she said as she turned her head and fixed Ember with a glare. Ember opened her mouth again but instead of saying anything, opted to just shut it again and nod a few times. “See, it’s ok, you’re safe.” Apple’s breathing and heart rate slowly returned towards normal.

“Then why exactly is she here?” Apple asked, glancing over Blue’s shoulder and at Ember. Blue was wondering the same thing and had yet to really get a clear answer on the matter, so she turned towards Ember as well. Ember looked between the two of them for a moment before taking a deep breath and letting out a long sigh, letting her body slump in the chair.

“Look… I know I went too far here.” Blue and Apple both wore expressions that clearly conveyed ‘oh, you think?’ Ember dismissed them and continued. “Both of you know that I’m usually pretty good about keeping my anger in check, but something about walking in on you two doing that on my bed of all places just… caused something to snap in me and act without thinking.” She rubbed her left wing and glanced towards the wall. “I know it won’t mean anything to you now or probably forever, but I’m sorry.” Apple opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Blue interjected.

“Sorry doesn’t cut it you psycho! What if he had landed on his neck? You could have killed him!” Ember kept her focus on the floor in front of her. “You say you’re sorry, but I don’t buy it for a second. Why don’t you get the hell out of here before you get the sudden urge to launch us out this window too.” Ember looked up at them, opened her mouth and immediately closed it again. She knew nothing she said right now would help the situation in the slightest with Blue’s temper being flared like this. Apple stayed silent but didn’t take his eyes off of Ember. Letting out another long sigh, she slumped out of the chair and slowly made her way out of the room, not casting her gaze up from the floor.

“You didn’t have to yell, you know,” Apple said once he felt that Ember was far enough down the hall to be out of earshot. “I think she was legitimately trying to apologize.”

“Yeah? So? You believe any of that horseshit? She’s only apologizing to clear her conscience and make herself feel better. She doesn’t give two shits about you,” Blue said angrily, still staring out into the hall where Ember walked off.

“Look, Blue, I’m not so sure she meant it either, but I’d still like to believe that at some point she could mean it. I want that to be the case. I want us all to be able to be friends and get along without the thought of violence breaking out hanging over our heads anytime we’re in the same room together.” Apple let out a small chuckle, “Call me a crazy optimist, but I think it can happen someday.”

“You’re crazy, that’s for sure. Or the meds they have you on,” Blue said, turning her focus from the hallway back to Apple. “It’s gonna take a hell of a lot for me to trust her around you again, if ever.”

“Come on now, I’m not dead so there’s still hope, right?” Blue smiled a little and placed her hoof over Apple’s on the bed.

“I suppose…”

“That’s the spirit!” Apple smiled, then winced and glanced down at the bandages and cast on his leg. “Mmmm… guess this means no, ahem, relations for a while, huh…” Blue frowned and looked over his bandaged body.

“Yeah… Guess we’ll have to talk to each other. Ugh…” she said in a sarcastic tone, rolling her eyes and smiling. “Although, to be fair, we probably should have done more of that before just humping like rabbits.” Apple let out a small chuckle.

“That would be nice. Nothing wrong with getting to know each other more if we expect this to go anywhere between us.”

“Mhm,” Blue mumbled as she glanced out the door into the hall and caught sight of the doctor walking by. “Oh! There goes the doctor, lemme grab him and let him know you’re up. I’m sure he wants to go over stuff with you.”

“Ok, I’ll be here,” Apple smiled as he laid back on the bed and tried to hide another wince of pain that shot through his leg. Blue rolled her eyes before getting up and trotting out of the room and down the hallway after the doctor.

“Bbbbbbbrrrrmmm… Open up here it comes!” Blue’s voice said from inside the hospital room as she levitated a spoonful of food towards Apple’s mouth in an airplane-like fashion.

“No. I’m not a damn colt, I can feed myself,” replied an irritated Apple.

“The doc said you need to get something in you and you haven’t taken the liberty of eating yourself, so it’s up to me to get you to eat something. Now open that mouth up or I’ll make you open it!” Blue said at an increased volume.

“No! I don’t want it! Get that away from me!” Apple protested, avoiding the levitating spoon as much as he could while being confined in the bed.

“Damn it Apple I’m gonna get on top of you and shove this in your mouth if you don’t open up already,” Blue shouted.

“Ahem… Sorry, are we interrupting something?” Sunny said from the doorway as he looked at the sight in front of him; Blue was perched on top of Apple’s bed, careful to avoid standing on his injuries, with a spoonful of what looked to be mashed potatoes levitating in front of Apple’s mouth, which had several splotches of potatoes where Blue had clearly failed to gain entrance with the floating food. Both Apple and Blue’s eyes got wide as saucers as they both turned and saw Sunny standing there accompanied by Melon and Apricot. Sunny was holding back a smirk while Melon and Apricot were already giggling at the sight in front of them.

“Nice to see you taking advantage of Apple’s immobility, Blue,” Apricot giggled.

“She’s trying to force potatoes on me,” Apple said with a huff. “I don’t even like potatoes…”

“Oh be quiet, they’re good for you and yummy,” Blue said as she rolled her eyes and popped the spoonful into her own mouth as she climbed off the bed carefully. “Damn baby…”

“I heard that,” Apple replied, sticking his tongue out at Blue who didn’t hesitate to return the gesture.

“Seriously? Are we foals in here?” Sunny chuckled as he walked over to the chair in the corner and took a seat while Melon and Apricot sat at the foot of the bed. “So obviously we came by to see how you were doing after the rather colorful events of last night. I assume you’ve talked to the doctor by now?”

Blue glanced at Apple before turning to Sunny. “Yea, the doc went over the laundry list of injuries with us earlier, but assured us it wouldn’t take too long to heal. Said he wanted to keep Apple here a few more days to make sure he’s stable and then he can go home.”

“I see. Well that’s good to hear. Melon over here was up all night pacing back and forth worrying about you,” Sunny turned to the other mares in the room and regarded them with a smile. Melon’s eyes got wide and she instantly started to blush.

“I just didn’t want him dead Sunny geeze… Make me sound like I’m in love with him or something…” Melon said thru her mane that she pulled in front of her face.

“Did you guys go home or just stay at our place?” Blue asked.

“We just stayed there, did some cleaning up the best we could,” Sunny replied. “I patched the window with some cardboard I found in the shed out back but obviously Ember will have to get someone else out there to fix it proper, especially with the cold weather hitting.” He paused and looked around a moment. “Speaking of Ember, where is she? Wasn’t she here with you guys?”

“Yea, she was here earlier, but then she left after she tried giving Apple this bullshit apology,” Blue said, rolling her eyes.

“Blue, she left because you told her to, and I told you already, you don’t know if it was bull or not. Don’t be so quick to assume just because you’re mad at her,” Apple said. Blue let out a small huff but didn’t reply.

“So we don’t know where she went then?” Apricot interjected, a hint of worry on her voice. “I mean, we know she didn’t come home because we were just there and would’ve seen her heading that way on our way in.” She tapped her forehooves together. “Maybe we should go look for her. It’s really cold outside and she could get sick if she’s not somewhere warm.”

“Be my guest and look for the damn pigeon but I’m staying right here with Apple,” Blue said in a rather callous tone, eliciting another flat look from Apple. “Besides, he still has yet to eat something.”

“You guys stay here, I’ll go out and look for her,” Apricot said, turning to leave.

“Wait,” Melon said. “Here, take my scarf with you in case you do find her so she’ll have something to wear too.” Apricot smiled and gave Melon a quick hug before turning and heading down the hall and out of the hospital.

Apricot instantly shuddered the moment she stepped outside the warm hospital lobby into the biting cold winter winds. Squinting her eyes, she turned towards downtown and started walking, hoping it wouldn’t take her too long to find Ember. ‘I mean, how hard can it be to find a big griffon like her in a town full of ponies?’ she mused to herself as she walked. There wasn’t really any accumulated snow on the paths for her to look for paw prints, and even then Ember had wings so Apricot quickly tossed that tracking idea aside as her easy way out. Letting out a huff, she pushed open the door to the Watering Hole, hoping to see Ember at the bar, but was only met by the drunken glances of the few ponies in there at the time, none of which were griffons. “Eh, what the hell, might as well ask Berry if she came through here while I’m here,” Apricot muttered, making her way to the bar.

“What’ll it be?” Berry asked her as she took a seat at one of the empty stools. Apricot almost folded her forehooves on top of the bar in front of her, but quickly retracted them once she recalled the story Ember had told her of what happened on top of the bar after hours.

“Oh I’m not here for a drink,” Apricot began, eliciting an eyebrow raise from Berry. “I was hoping you might’ve seen a friend of mine I’m looking for, Ember.” Berry gave her a blank stare. “Uh, she’s the only griffon in town?” Berry’s eyes lit up in recognition.

“Oh, her, yea I saw her a few hours ago walk by out front. She didn’t stop in or nothing, just passed by.”

“So you don’t have an idea of where she might’ve been headed?” Apricot asked hopefully. Berry just shook her head.

“Like I said, I just saw her walk past the windows heading towards downtown, but that was a few hours ago now so who knows where she was really going.” Apricot’s expression drooped a little at the quickly- dashed hope of a solid lead. “Look, if she comes by again, I’ll let her know you’re looking for her, uh…”

“Apricot,” Apricot replied. “And I’d really appreciate it. I’m hoping I can find her before she gets sick from the cold out there.”

“Well Ponyville isn’t exactly a metropolis, and your friend stands out rather well I’d say, so I’m sure you won’t be looking too long,” Berry smiled at her. Apricot let out a small chuckle.

“Yea, good points. Anyways, I’m gonna get back out there, thanks for your help,” Apricot said as she dismounted her stool and headed for the door. Berry smiled and nodded before turning back to the other ponies sitting a few stools down.

“Mmm… Well that’s one strike,” Apricot mumbled as she stood outside the Watering Hole, tapping her chin with her hoof. “Maybe the market? Maybe she wanted to buy Apple something to show that she’s sincere?” With that thought in mind she started trotting towards the market in town.

Her hopes of finding Ember there were quickly dashed as she rounded the corner and was greeted by a completely deserted square. The only thing moving all around were the wisps of light snow being blown to and fro in the gusts of wind. “Fiddlesticks…” Apricot huffed as she plopped down to think. “I was certain she’d be here, but then again, nopony is so I should’ve thought of that. Hmmm… where else to try…” She idly glanced around the square until some movement at the far end caught her eye. A stallion wearing a red vest was pulling a cart stacked full of boxes of varying sizes and shapes, but it wasn’t the stallion that caught her focus, it was the bright red lettering emblazoned on the side of the cart: ‘Talon Logistics - Storage and Management’. Immediately Apricot’s eyes lit up with an idea. “Of course! I bet she’s at work! She always goes there when she’s feeling bad about something.” Without another thought, Apricot got up and started heading towards the more industrial part of town where Ember’s warehouses were.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, the buildings around her changed from the charming cottage-like buildings one was used to seeing in Ponyville, to a more sturdy, rough construction of brick and metal. The roads were rougher here from the much heavier loads being driven across them so dodging bumps and divots was keeping Apricot light on her hooves. She got turned around once or twice seeing how Ember had only told her the address once, and all the buildings looked more or less the same if you didn’t know what you were looking for. Pausing for a moment in the middle of an intersection, Apricot looked down the street to her left and smiled as she caught sight of the sign she had been looking for. As she trotted up to the building, she stopped short in front of it to admire its sheer size. The brick structure stood four stories tall and ran the entire length of the block. In front of her was a massive set of double doors made of solid wood and reinforced with iron hinges. Running beneath the door was a set of train tracks that led inside the building somewhere, clearly for hauling freight in and out. Suspended directly above the door, illuminated by a spotlight on either side, was a huge sign that read ‘Talon Logistics - Document Storage and Management - Warehouse H’. Apricot looked at the ‘H’ part with a bit of confusion before glancing at some of the smaller warehouses surrounding this one and noticing small red signs above each of their respective doors, each with another letter.

“Damn…” Apricot muttered out loud. “I didn’t know she had this much space.”

“It is pretty impressive, isn’t it?” said a voice from behind her.

“Sweet Luna fuck me!” Apricot shrieked and whipped around to see who was behind her.

“Woah, woah miss, I didn’t mean to scare ya,” said the stallion standing there. Apricot immediately recognized him as the stallion she saw in the square earlier on account of his red vest and the cart behind him. “Just heard ya commenting on the buildings and thought I’d put in my two cents.” Apricot took a moment to breathe and calm her heart back to normal before trying to speak.

“Ahem, excuse my outburst, I’m just not used to being snuck up on from behind,” she said, clearly embarrassed at her rather explicit exclamation.

“Meh, no worries. Sorry for scaring ya, though I’m kinda surprised you didn’t hear me with this cart and all,” he said, glancing behind himself at the cart stacked with boxes. “Anyways, what brings you by? You looking for something in particular around here?”

“Yes, actually, I’m looking for my friend, Ember. Apparently she’s the one who owns this,” Apricot replied, panning her forehoof at the warehouse in front of them. “I just didn’t know it was this big…” The stallion nodded.

“If you think the outside is big, you should see the labyrinth inside. Aisles and aisles of boxes as far as the eye can see. It really is quite impressive honestly,” he said with a small smile, glancing around at the other warehouses surrounding them. “If you’re looking for Ember, yea, she’s inside. Came in a few hours ago to catch up on some projects as she normally does. If you’d like I can take you to her.”

“Oh I’d really appreciate that, um, I didn’t catch your name…” Apricot replied.

“Fiddle,” the stallion replied. Apricot gave him a strange look. “Yes, I know it’s an odd name,” he said, turning to show her his cutie mark, “but when you’re cutie mark is a cog gear and a screwdriver, and you know how much I like to fix and tinker with mechanical things, it makes more sense,” he chuckled.

“Oh, so… what are you doing delivering then?” Apricot asked, not seeing the correlation between mechanics and delivery.

“Oh I just do this from time to time to help Ember out when we’re short hooved around here or when something comes up and needs rushed. Normally I’m the maintenance for all the buildings around here for her.”

“Ah, I see. Makes a lot more sense then,” Apricot smiled. Fiddle smiled back and started walking towards the doors in front of them.

“If you’d just follow me, I’ll show you where her office is in the back. Hope you don’t mind a bit of a walk,” Fiddle said as he reached in his pocket and pulled out a giant iron key. Apricot silently nodded as he pushed it into a hole next to the door and heaved it to the right a quarter turn. On the other side of the door you could hear a heavy metal bolt disengage from some other piece of metal and slide out of position, causing the door to become slack. Walking over to a handle on the middle of the door, Fiddle pulled hard and the giant door swung open slowly. Apricot stood in awe as she slowly got a look at the inside of the massive warehouse. Fiddle ushered her inside and pulled the door shut behind them, locking it back up again. In front of them, Apricot saw where the train tracks led to a docking platform directly ahead of them where the single set of tracks branched off into three separate bays, each with a crane mechanism beside it and pallets of boxes beside those. Above them were metal shelves with metal grated floors that you could see through the different levels, all the shelves were completely packed with boxes from top to bottom. Looking to her left and right Apricot could see nothing but more shelves and boxes as far as she could see, her mouth hung agape at the sheer size of it all.

“Yoohoo, you coming?” Fiddle shouted from where he now stood on one of the dock platforms, pulling her momentarily out of her trance. While she was standing there staring he had taken his cart and parked it on the side and made his way up a small set of stairs at the edge of the dock.

“Oh, uh… Yeah, I’m coming,” Apricot stuttered out as she made her way up the small stairs and began to follow Fiddle down a hallway beneath the racking. Their hooves elicited a gentle clang on the metal grating beneath them as they walked, the lights in front of them progressively turning on to illuminate the rows around them. Glancing down each one, Apricot could see endless boxes on the shelves along with carts and ladders scattered here and there. The whole place had this certain musty smell about it that Apricot found strangely appealing. She never took herself to be the kind of mare that would like the smell of dust and oil, but something about it here was putting her in the mood for it. Before she could complete that thought, she found herself running muzzle-first into Fiddle, who had stopped in front of her. “Oh! Ow, I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you stop.”

“Well I’d rather you bump into me than that metal pole to your right,” Fiddle chuckled as Apricot rubbed her nose from the impact. “Anyways, as I was saying while you were clearly entranced again, Ember’s office is down this hall and on the right,” he gestured down a hallway on their left. “I’m gonna go wash up a little and finish some work back there on the dock if you two need me.”

“Oh, ok. Thank you so much for your help, Fiddle. It really does mean a lot to me,” Apricot said as she started walking down the hallway he pointed down. Fiddle smiled and continued down the other hall. As Apricot continued down the hall, she read the signs on the wall pointing to various rooms. “Lunch room, mechanical, electrical, accounting… Ah, President.” She paused for a moment and smirked. “Heh… President Ember… Oh that sounds rich. Gonna have to remember to tell the others about that one.” Still with a smirk on her face, she turned right down the hall where the sign pointed and walked down past several vacant offices to the one where light was coming from the doorway. Slowly peeking her head around the doorframe, Apricot saw Ember sitting at her desk, looking down at a pile of papers with both talons on the sides of her head. The expression she wore clearly was not a happy one. Apricot frowned slightly as she glanced around the rest of the office. It was a decent size but somehow felt full. Besides all the papers on Ember’s desk, there were numerous filing cabinets lining the back wall behind the desk, each labeled with a different warehouse letter. The right wall was a giant window overlooking another part of the warehouse below which included more shelves and racking from what Apricot could see. On the left wall was a giant cork board with papers pinned all over, each covered with multiple colored highlights. To the right of that was a giant calendar with a whole bunch of scribblings on it. Apricot took a quiet breath as she slowly lifted her hoof to the doorframe to announce her presence finally. “Um… Knock knock?”

“Gah!” Ember exclaimed, her wings flaring out as she shot up from her focused position in her chair. “Apricot?! What the hell…? How did you even get in here?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. Um, Fiddle let me in?” she said rather tentatively, not wanting to get the nice stallion in trouble for letting her into somewhere that was obviously meant to be a secure area.

“Oh… Damn it Fiddle…” Ember muttered under her breath. “What are you doing here then?”

“I came looking for you of course,” Apricot said rather matter-of-factly. “When Sunny, Melon, and I went to see Apple this morning, they said you left a while ago and they didn’t know where you went. I got worried that you’d get sick out in the cold somewhere… So I came to find you and make sure you were ok,” she said, turning slightly to hide her reddening cheeks. Ember sat back down and let out a sigh.

“I’m fine, Apricot. I just have work to catch up on,” she said, gesturing to the mounds of paperwork on her desk. “This shit ain’t gonna do itself unfortunately.”

“Is there something I can help with?” Apricot asked curiously, craning her neck to get a glimpse of some of the papers.

“Depends. Do you know anything about the logistical functioning of a 100,000 square hoof warehouse?”

“Um… I don’t think so,” Apricot said timidly. “I honestly didn’t even know buildings this big existed in Ponyville until now, seeing how I’ve never been to your work before.”

“Well then I don’t see how you could help here unfortunately,” Ember replied. “Come to think of it, how did you find my place anyways?”

“You told me the address once a while ago when we were talking about you first starting the business, and I just remembered it I guess. I got the idea to look for you here because I was in the market square and noticed Fiddle on the other side pulling your cart with your logo on the side, so I figured you would be here.”

“Hm. Well I guess that at least proves that advertising on the carts gets noticed,” Ember mused. “You wanna sit down?” Ember gestured to one of two chairs in front of her desk. Apricot nodded and climbed on top of one and made herself comfortable, letting out a sigh at the cozy warmth of the office.

“It sure is cold out there,” Apricot said as she glanced out the window of the office to the right.

“Well, yea, it would be impossible to heat and cool a space this massive efficiently,” Ember replied, not looking up from her desk. “I only heat my office, the lunch room, and a few other offices where a few other ponies sometimes are. Plus an area that’s special climate controlled storage but that’s different.”

“I was referring to outside, but yea, I can see your point in here too,” Apricot said, turning back to Ember at her desk.

“Oh, yeah, that too. Sorry, I’m a little distracted. Between having to have this contract ready in a few days and the shit that happened last night with Apple, my brain is a bit frazzled at the moment.”

“I can imagine. Does this work?” Apricot gestured to a coffee / hot chocolate machine sitting on a table by the door. Ember glanced up and nodded. “You want some?” Ember shrugged nonchalantly. Apricot took that as a yes and got up and went over to the machine, setting up two cups on it and hitting ‘brew’ under the hot chocolate option. “So I hear that you tried to apologize to Apple. Is that true?”

“Ugh…” Ember crumpled up a piece of paper in her talon and chucked it towards a trash can in the corner, leaning back in her chair and rubbing her eyes. “I did try to, but Blue kinda interjected and told me to get lost, so rather than start shit and make a scene in the hospital, I just shut my beak and left.” Apricot nodded as she turned back around from the machine with two steaming cups in her hooves, handing one to Ember.

“Mhm. I heard. Well, at least you made an effort to apologize, that says a lot to me.” Ember rolled her eyes a little. “Look, I know it’s not me that you have to apologize to, but Apple isn’t a jackass. I believe he’ll hear you out if you try again when the timing is a little better and Blue’s temper has cooled a bit.”

“I suppose…” Ember mused as she gently blew on her cocoa and took a small sip before setting it down on the desk. “I honestly didn’t mean to go crazy like that Apricot. It’s like I told Blue, or rather tried to tell them both this morning, just something about seeing them do that in my bed just… snapped something in me.” Apricot nodded.

“I can obviously only imagine how I’d react in this kind of situation, but seeing how I don’t have the strength to launch a pony out a window, I would probably have to resort to bucking something really hard instead, which I imagine isn’t as satisfying as throwing the thing that pissed you off to begin with,” Apricot chuckled as she took a sip of her cocoa. Ember let out a small smile.

“Well, in its own twisted way it was very cathartic,” Ember chuckled. “I’m certainly not looking forward to having to clean all that up back at my house though that’s for sure…”

“Oh we took care of that for the most part,” Apricot said from behind her cup. Ember gave her a puzzled look. “Melon and I cleaned up as much as we could inside and Sunny went out to the shed and found some cardboard to temporarily patch the window so at the very least snow doesn’t get inside everywhere.”

“Well I’ll be damned…” Ember muttered. “Thank you. Really. That means more to me than you know.”

“Nah don’t mention it birdy, it’s what friends do,” Apricot said, giving Ember a quick wink and giggling. Ember smiled and took another sip from her cocoa. Silence befell the pair for a few minutes as they sat there and enjoyed their cocoa. Glancing out at the shelves once again, Apricot was the first to break the silence. “Ok, I have to ask, how in the hell do you find anything in a place this damn big?!”

“Heh… Honestly, it’s really not difficult at all, so long as the warehouse ponies are doing their job right and put boxes back where they’re assigned to go.” Ember reached over to a pile of papers on the corner of her desk and took the top one off. “Here, I’ll show you. Follow me.” She got up and, with Apricot in tow, proceeded down to the dock where Apricot had come in. Ember led her over to a pallet of boxes with a card on the side that read ‘Pallet H257 - Ready For Reshelving - H Building’. “Ok, see this pallet number?” Apricot nodded. “It coincides with this list right here.” Ember pointed to the paper in her talon with the heading ‘Pallet H257 - Current location - H-Dock’. “Now, all these boxes have these barcode numbers on the sides of them and all those numbers are here on this list. So for example, if you look for box number 14275982, and find it here on the list…” Ember looked down the list and found the box in question, “you can see it goes in location H204R697.” Apricot wore a look of pure confusion. “It’s easy, really. H is the warehouse, the one we’re in now. 204 means 2nd floor, 4th row, which they’re all labeled in the aisles. R means the right side of the row, and 697 is the slot in that row. See?” Apricot looked at the list in Ember’s talon and a look of clarity slowly came over her face.

“Oooooohhh… I see now… Huh, that really isn’t that hard after all,” Apricot said.

“Yep. Told ya. Also helps that this place was completely empty when I bought it so I was able to set everything up the proper way from scratch. I’ve been in other companies warehouses who have a different system and it’s seriously nothing but luck that they find anything,” Ember laughed, looking around them at the rows of racking surrounding them. Glancing up directly above them, she could see Fiddle on the 3rd floor, walking across the center aisle. “Hey, Fiddle! What’s the idea just opening the door for anypony on the street? How many times have I told you these warehouses are secure storage?” she said in a lighthearted tone. Fiddle looked down through the grating and rolled his eyes with a smile.

“She said she knew you and looked nice enough, so I said why not,” he replied before walking down an aisle and out of sight.

“Oh so now everypony who knows me and looks nice is allowed anywhere. I see. Next thing you’ll be holding parties in the vault,” Ember yelled after him.

“Already have. The one on last Tuesday night was smashing,” came Fiddle’s distant voice from down the aisle. Ember chuckled and shook her head.

“Fuckin’ Fiddle…” she smiled.

“Sooo how exactly did he end up working for you?” Apricot asked, curious more than ever after witnessing such an odd interaction between what she understood to be an employee / boss relationship.

“Fiddle worked for the manufacturing company that used to be in this warehouse before I bought it. Once I moved in, he approached me and asked if I’d be interested in his services as maintenance, and seeing how I don’t know every brick of these places like he does, it was a no brainer to have him on the team. Besides me, he’s the only other full time pony I have on staff, all the rest are part time during the week.”

“Huh. Nice. I can’t really fathom how the hell you managed to fill this place like it is with just you and him doing it tho.” Apricot remarked, looking around at the thousands of boxes surrounding them.

“Hm? Oh no no no, we didn’t move this all ourselves,” Ember laughed. “We’d be dead by the 4th truckload. Nah, when I initially opened and word got out that companies would have a local alternative to the competition, Sky King, who is located all the way in Manehattan, clients literally flooded me with wanting to switch. So of course I took them on, would be stupid not to, I just hired a lot of temp workers for the first several months while we got everything transferred from Sky King’s facilities to here. For a solid month and a half we literally had a steady stream of fully packed sky carriages and rail cars flowing in and out of this dock day and night. Trailer would back in, they’d offload it, barcode every single box, assign it an empty location from the master inventory sheet, and put it on holding pallets until they could be shelved. Was pretty smooth sailing honestly, which surprised me. I was expecting way more problems than we had.”

“But there’s no way there are this many companies in Ponyville, are there?” Apricot asked with a puzzled look. Ponyville was a growing community, but this was on a whole new level here.

“Nah. A good bit of it is Ponyville, but I have clients in Cloudsdale, Manehattan, Baltimare, Appleloosa, a few small contracts in Griffinstone, and even some government contracts in Canterlot. The way you can tell whose box is who's kinda quickly is by looking at the call letters on the barcode label,” Ember said, pointing to a box on the pallet in front of them. “See this one? It has the call letters BNBN above the barcode, which if you work here long enough you’ll learn stands for Bon-Bon’s Confectionery. Or this one here is CNBCS which is Canterlot Bureau of Census and Statistics. Some are a little more obvious like WBLTS for the Wonderbolts in Cloudsdale, who store all their personnel file archives here along with some historical memorabilia they keep in the vault.”

“Not gonna lie, I thought these were all just a bunch of boring, dusty boxes, but this is turning out to be pretty damn sweet Ember,” Apricot smiled. “I mean, you got it in with a lot of important ponies.”

“Well, yeah, I guess I do in a way,” Ember shrugged.

“One thing I don’t get though is how the hell don’t you live in like some giant mansion? You’ve got to be making a fortune off of this!” Apricot exclaimed, throwing her forehooves out beside her in an outward gesture.

“You would think so, but take into consideration how much this kinda space costs to keep. I mean, I have twelve warehouses on this block, H here by far is the largest, but still, that’s a lot of real estate, which equals more taxes, more electricity, more upkeep… Sure I save a good deal by not keeping a lot more full time ponies on staff, but between Fiddle and I, and the part timers during the week, we manage to keep things running smooth enough. Any money I ‘save’ goes away for emergencies like a roof repair or a water pipe bursting. Stuff like that. I simply pay myself enough to live comfortably.”

“Mmm… I see… Guess I don’t think of things like that,” Apricot mulled. “Would explain why you’re the successful business bird!” she smiled brightly at Ember, who smiled and turned away to try and hide her reddening cheeks. She wasn’t used to being complimented like this. Apricot moved in beside her and gave her a light hug. “You don’t give yourself enough credit for what you’ve managed to accomplish. There’s a ton of ponies that would kill to have accomplished what you have, so don’t feel like you’re not important.” Ember returned the hug and nodded slightly. “Now, how about you take a little break here and we head back to the hospital to see the others and maybe you can get that second chance at that apology that you wanted, huh?”

“Ugh, I’d rather be squished under this pallet…” Ember scoffed, lightly kicking the pallet beside them with her paw. Apricot gave her a nudge with her flank, eliciting a small, involuntary smile from Ember. She let out a sigh. “Ok, let’s go. Lemme just tell Fiddle I’m gonna be gone for a few hours and then we’ll leave.” Apricot nodded and waited by the stairs while Ember flew off to find Fiddle. A few minutes later, she reappeared and they headed off in the direction of the hospital.

Author's Notes:

Surprise! I'm not dead!

Let me just apologize for how long this took to get out. Between working more than just full time, and other projects that pop up and get in the way, progress has been an uphill battle to put it lightly. I'm really trying to get myself back into the habit of writing even just a little bit every few days but me and self-discipline don't always see eye-to-eye.

But, with any hope, 17 won't take almost 6 months to get out... Pathetic...

Feedback appreciated as always!