This chapter was written for the following reasons:

1. to show how badly hurt Sunset Shimmer really is. I needed a means to show this and to try to give a good reason as to what happens in the follow up chapter that picks up right where this one leaves off.

2. to try to give a very good reason for Twilight's decision that take's place in the chapter that again picks up right where this one leaves off.

and lastly:

3. To try to help explain why another character that shows up in next chapter is there and what her purpose is.

For those of you that have not been in a coma before please don't judge this chapter or the next one to harshly. For those of you that have been in a coma I hope my attempt to explain things in the next chapter makes at least a little sense.

“Drop that knife and lay flat on the ground with your hands behind your back! Now!”

Dumbbell dropped the knife, blurting out as he was forced into the ground by the officer behind him, “Officer, I wasn’t going to hurt Vinyl! She attacked me first. I was only trying to scare her so she'd back off, I swear!”

Looking over towards Sunset, Officer Brushed Jade said into her shoulder radio after she was done handcuffing Dumbbell, “Assault and battery at Canterlot High School. Need an ambulance ASAP. Location, main hallway just past the principal's office, someone will be ready to receive. Repeat, assault at Canterlot High, victim needs immediate treatment. Over.”

“Roger that, Officer Jade. Ambulance is en route. Over.”

“Copy that.” Picking Dumbbell off the floor, she snarled as she ended her transmission, “Alright, Dumbbell Stallion, you want to tell me what the hell happened here?”

“I swear, Officer, I was just defending myself. Vinyl--”

His words fell short when he and Officer Jade both heard, "I'm gonna enjoy this. Just like I enjoyed raping you two years back. Remember that? I sure do. Fondly. And I almost got that hot, rich piece of ass Octavia, too. Too bad Sunset showed up to stop me. Hard to believe big, bad Sunset could do something so noble, but whatever. You shouldn't have gotten involved, Vinyl. Because now, I get to cut you up even more. Maybe I can give this scar here a friend. I'm sure it's been lonely all these years. And you won't be able to scream this time, either. And after that, I can go back and finish what I started with Sunset."

Dumbbell's eyes widened with fear as he looked to Vinyl, who was holding a small tape recorder. A slight smirk was on her face as he yelled out, “You little bitch, I’ll kill you for--”

His words fell short again when a charcoal-grey fist suddenly slammed into his jaw, sending him into the lockers behind him and knocking him out cold. Fearing that another fight was about to happen, Vinyl quickly dropped the tape recorder, wrapping herself around Sunset's unconscious body.

“Vinyl, you can let go of Sunset now,” An elegant voice said soothingly. “You don’t need to fight anymore. He won’t hurt Sunset again.” Vinyl looked up with eyes full of pain and anger as she slowly released Sunset, allowing Octavia to help her off the floor. “I am happy you didn’t take your vengeance too far, Vinyl,” Octavia whispered into her ear while hugging her warmly. “I’ll ask my father to help you in this case, if you'd like?”

Vinyl nodded, then looked to Officer Jade, who was looking to her now unconscious suspect lying in a slump in front of the lockers he had hit. Octavia said, “Are you going to arrest me for doing that, Officer?”

“No, Miss Treble Clef. I'm going to look the other way just this once.” As she looked back at the downed criminal, Brushed Jade finally got a good look at the knife that Dumbbell had been holding in his hand. Taking out an evidence bag from her pants pocket, she put on gloves and carefully picked it up. “No. It can’t be.”

Before she could say anything further, Fluttershy spoke up, “Officer Jade, I have a file here for you.”
Taking the file and looking through it, Jade suddenly spat, “That bastard! That fucking bastard! I should've fucking known Tirek was the one that took this knife.”

Twilight, in the meantime, was just making her way into the school and down the hallway when she heard from behind her, “Get out of the way!”

Quickly looking behind her, Twilight saw four paramedics rushing down the hallway pushing a gurney in front of them. One of them yelled out as they all rounded a nearby corner, “Everyone out of the way! Move!”

Before she could say anything, a hand grabbed her and pulled her into a nearby office. Twilight yelped in surprise as Principal Celestia quickly said, “Twilight, it is good to see you, but I don’t have time to talk with you right now. Go to my office and remain there until I get back.”

“But--” Principal Celestia ran out of the office before Twilight could finish. Wanting to know what was going on, Twilight followed her. To her shock, she soon found Sunset being loaded onto the gurney and being taken away by the medics. “Sunset!”

“Miss, please stay out of the way!” one paramedic yelled out. “This is a very serious situation.”

“But that's my friend! Let me--” Twilight began, only to be grabbed by Principal Celestia

“Twilight, didn’t I tell you to stay in my office?”

“Yes, but--”

“Twilight, this is a very stressful situation, and I need to get things under control. Will you please just do what I ask and go to my office.”

Twilight scowled and turned around, only to notice Fluttershy standing nearby, a look of horror on her angelic face. Quickly moving past the medics, Twilight grabbed Fluttershy by her arm, pulling her into a nearby room.

“Fluttershy what happened here?”

“D-Dumbbell! He--”

The girls stopped talking when they both heard, “Let's get her to the ambulance!”

Twilight rushed out of the room with Fluttershy in tow, yelling out, “I’m going with her!”

Principal Celestia quickly got in front of Twilight, saying, “You can’t. Only family can go with her at this point.”

“But--”

Before Twilight could finish, Principal Celestia heard Luna's voice over her radio, “Celestia, we have a all-out food fight in the cafeteria. It's chaos in here! Send us more faculty now! I can’t--”

The radio went dead. Principal Celestia snarled, “Great! What else can go wrong!?”

One of the medics suddenly yelled out, “WE’RE LOSING HER!” as they raced down the hallways.

Twilight, fearing she was about to lose a close and dear friend, screamed out in fear, “SUNSET!” She immediately gave chase as the medics rushed Sunset down the hallway to the awaiting ambulance outside.

Pinkie Pie, meanwhile, was coming out of the music room, wondering what all the noise was. Spotting Fluttershy sitting in the middle of the hallway, she quickly rushed over. “Oh, gosh, Fluttershy, what happened?” Pinkie looked around and paled when she saw Sunset's damaged locker, the broken display case, and the blood all over the floor. “What happened, Fluttershy!?”

Fluttershy, unable to form the words, pointed towards the front door. Pinkie looked towards the door just as Principal Celestia ran through it. Pinkie helped Fluttershy up and walked outside with her, only to freeze in shock as she saw Twilight getting into Principal Celestia’s car and an ambulance loading Sunset into the back of it.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?” Pinkie exclaimed, not noticing Fluttershy slumped down on the stairs and sobbing. “Who did that to Sunny?”

“No!” Fluttershy yelped out in anger. “You don’t get to call her that! None of us do, not after...after...” Fluttershy sobbed hard as Pinkie knelt down next to her, pulling the tender girl into her and allowing Fluttershy to cry into her shoulder. “We treated her so badly when we should have been her friends. I watched as no one helped her while Dumbbell brutalized her. Rainbow walked away, and Applejack just stood there.” Fluttershy wrapped her arms around Pinkie, holding tightly onto her. “If it wasn’t for Officer Jade, he wouldn’t have stopped.”

Sniffing hard, Pinkie held Fluttershy in her arms until they both heard Fluttershy’s phone chime out, “Incoming post to MyStable.”

Fluttershy fished her phone from her shirt pocket and gave it to Pinkie, who saw the new post. Confused, Pinkie said, “This is from Anon-a-Miss. But, Sunny--er, Sunset--couldn’t have posted this. We just saw her getting loaded onto that ambulance. So... So Sunset really is innocent.” Putting away the phone, Pinkie continued as she held Fluttershy with one arm wrapped around her. “But, if Sunset didn’t do this, then who did. And why?”

Ten minutes went by before Principal Celestia called into her walkie-talkie, “Luna, if you can hear me, I am not on school grounds right now.” Stopping at a red light and taking notice of the very fearful look on Twilight's face, Celestia continued, “I am in my car, driving Twilight and myself to the hospital. Sunset has been attacked and is on the way there now. Over.”

Celestia pulled up into the parking place, turned the car off, and said softly to Twilight, “Listen, Twilight. While you may be a princess in your world, you're just a normal girl here. If the doctor's okay us to see Sunset, we will be able to do so. However,” Celestia sighed, “If they don’t, then we will have to leave or get permission from the Cakes to see her, although I am not sure they will let us, considering all that has happened over the past few weeks.”

Twilight gulped and said, “I hope Sunset will be alright. I had some...issues with her in Equestria. She...” Twilight looked down, not wanting to continue her words.

“Let's talk about that some other time, okay, Twilight? Right now, we need to focus on Sunset's health.”

“Alright.”

Getting inside the hospital and finding the reception desk, Principal Celestia asked the receptionist, “Can you tell me what room Miss Shimmer is in, please?”

Looking up, the clerk said, “I need the full name of the patient you plan on visiting today, ma’am.”

“Sunset Shimmer,” Twilight injected before Celestia could say anything. “Can you tell us how she's doing?”

“Let's see,” the clerk replied, typing in the full name. “Oh, here she is.” Looking back up, the clerk continued sternly, “She is in operation room four. That is all I can tell you. You’ll have to wait until the doctor comes out.” Looking back at the computer, the clerk added, “I’ll let the doctors know that you are here to see Miss Shimmer. Are you friends or family to her?”

Confused, Twilight was about to answer, when Principal Celestia reached into her purse, taking out Sunset's adoption papers. Pointing to her own name, she said, “I am her guardian. This girl with me is her...cousin.”

Before Twilight could react to the lie, Celestia took her by the hand and led her over to a nearby waiting room. Seeing the angry look on Twilight's face, Celestia quickly said as she sat down, “How else did you expect me to get you in to see Sunset?” Seeing that Twilight wasn't satisfied, Celestia put a hand to the bridge of her nose and explained, “I have no idea how it's done in your world, Twilight Sparkle, but in this world, you can’t just see anyone that you want to in a hospital. We have visiting hours, and even family usually have to obey the faculty when told to leave. Shoot, some patients aren't allowed to have visitors. They do tend to be lenient with family, though, so I figured telling them that you were Sunset's cousin might win you some extra time.”

Twilight didn't argue further, and they resigned themselves to waiting in silence. A few minutes went by, then twenty, then thirty, and before long, one hour passed as Twilight paced back and forth, waiting for any news on Sunset's condition. Celestia had used the time to call the Cakes, both of whom were upset by the news, as was clearly evident when Mr. Cake and his wife walked into the hospital twenty minutes after getting off the phone with Celestia. Mr. Cake looked mad enough to deck the principal, while Mrs. Cake looked more worried than anything else.

Before either party could say anything, though, they all heard, “Excuse me, but which of you are Sunset Shimmer's parents and Celestia Soleil?”

“We are,” Mr. Cake explained sternly. “The person standing next me is Principal Celestia. The younger girl is our daughter's cousin.” Mr. Cake frowned at having to tell a lie but kept silent, wanting Twilight to see Sunset.

“Very well, then,” the doctor replied. “If you all will follow me, I will take you to her.”

“How is she, Doctor?” Twilight asked, looking very worried “I really want---”

A soft hand on her shoulder cut her off. Principal Celestia said softly to her, “Twilight, let him tell us when we get there alright?”

“Alright,” Twilight replied, sighing.

“Her cousin has good reason to be worried for Miss Shimmer.” The doctor stopped just short of a nearby room as he continued, “Miss Shimmer has eleven broken ribs, bruising on her lower and upper back, a severely twisted right knee, three broken fingers on her left hand, a severe stab wound with some foreign substance in the wound itself that we have yet to identify, a badly broken nose, and a fractured eye socket that will need several operations, which may yet fail to restore sight in that eye. She also has a twisted right wrist with indentations that appear to be a shoe-print, leading us to believe that whoever did this stomped on her wrist.”

Mrs. Cake gulped hard as the doctor continued to lead them towards Sunset's room. As the small group all headed around a nearby corner, the doctor continued, “She also has seventy-six stitches in her face and scalp to close the wounds from the glass that we pulled out. And worst of all, she's suffered severe brain trauma that has resulted in her slipping into a coma.” Looking down and closing his eyes, the doctor continued. “The next forty-eight hours will let us know if she will be alright.”

Opening the door to Sunset's room, the doctor led everyone inside, and Mrs. Cake gasped in horror at seeing her daughter hooked up to all sorts of machines. Tubes stuck out of Sunset's mouth, her face was half-covered in thick bandages, and her right hand was placed into tight, splinted casts. Her right leg was also covered up with a movable, metal knee brace. Her fingers on her left hand were in casts and splints, and a heart monitor was hooked up to her chest.

Twilight looked to Principal Celestia and grabbed onto her. As Celestia soothingly ran her fingers through the very distraught teen's hair, Twilight sobbed, “I hate this world. I want Anon-a-Miss to pay for this.”

Laying a hand on her shoulder, Mr. Cake said, “Anon-a-Miss will pay for this outrage, Twilight, as will the person that did this to our daughter. I will make sure of it.”