"...he's not all that well at the moment...."

...

"...his condition's critical!"

"Is he going to make it?"

"We don't know..."

...

"He's going to die, isn't he..."

...

"No, you deserve it, Jack. You made a fool out of me. You've got to die!"

I suddenly jumped awake, and quite possibly out of my skin, upon hearing these memories play in my head in a somewhat nightmarish fashion. I took in several uneasy breaths, trying to work out what had just happened to me, or what was going on now.

And then the smell hit me.

I'm in a hospital?

Again?

Great. Just what I needed.

As I looked around, I saw that it was your generic hospital - albeit I gathered from the equipment that was nearby that I was in the Accident and Emergency department. The clock was showing 5:16, but as there were no windows, I had no idea whether that was AM or PM.

On the table next to me, I saw a newspaper and my mobile phone lying on the top, as well as a glass of water and some flowers. Not feeling like having a drink at that point, I reached my hand for my mobile phone. Grabbing it, and pulling it back over as well as I could, given my restricted movement, I pressed the power button on the side to turn it on.

Only to be met with a flashing red battery graphic that I was all too familiar with.

I groaned in frustration as I put my phone back on to the table, as the place was clearly empty, and nobody was around. I grabbed the newspaper, and folded it out to full size. It was dated to 11th of December, which confirmed that I had been out for at least 2 days.

The paper in question was the previous day's Equestrian Mail, and had a picture of me on the front cover.

Grand Galloping Gala Poisoning!

Not exactly the best example of alliteration, I thought.

The article, however, still provided the necessary information. Seeing as there was no one around, I read the article aloud to myself.

"One of the three newly-arrived humans to Equestria, who had attended the Grand Galloping Gala last night, was rushed to Canterlot Castle's infirmary after it has been discovered that he had drank whiskey with poison in it.

Jack Luss, 36, was rushed to the A&E department of Canterlot Castle Infirmary on a stretcher two days ago after it was discovered that he had ingested a glass of bourbon whiskey contaminated with a unknown poison and was losing consciousness.

The Royal Investigatory Branch of the Equestrian Intelligence Agency are claiming they were investigating the incident and no possibilities were being ruled out at the moment. They are also interviewing everyone that met Mr Luss that night for information on the matter, and are refusing to rule out anyone currently as suspects.

A spokes-pony for the RIB released a statement on the matter: 'We are currently investigating the matter regarding Mr Luss and we are not making any assumptions now regarding the incident at hand.

'We have prime suspects in the investigation at the moment, but we cannot afford to take any risks and are currently in the process of interviewing everypony that ever spoke or met Mr Luss that night.'

When asked about the poison, the spokes-pony shut down any questions regarding it: 'We are currently not at liberty to release any facts about the poison used on the victim, as we also do not know the origins of the toxin, or who had access to it at the time. The situation regarding that matter is developing at the Forensics Department.'

Mr Luss has been previously fighting for his life as the chemical in question had not been analysed to find an antidote and had to be sedated as treatment was given.

More details will be given when we have more information on the matter."

I put the paper back onto the desk, sighing to myself as I took in what I had just read, and the memories from a few nights ago came flashing back to me: Blueblood smirking, myself stumbling around the corridors, drinking the salt water, collapsing etc.

I had a small sip of water from the side, as I realised I might be here for a while, and since there was nobody else around, I picked up the newspaper and a pencil that was lying on the table and flicked through to see if there was a page for puzzles such as crosswords, Sudoku... you know, that sort of thing.

I eventually found it, and while the crosswords were more related to ponies and Equestria, I still had a decent go at it anyway while I waited for a nurse, a doctor or somebody else to come nearby.

Which took quite a while, actually.

One hour and forty nine minutes, to be exact.

I still don't know how I remember the exact amount of time after all these years.

Eventually, though, after said amount of time, a nurse was doing her routine check of patients in the morning when she found me awake.

"Ah, so you're awake," she commented aloud. "How are you feeling?"

"Like somebody's hit me in the face with a baseball bat," I quipped, groaning in discomfort as I tried to move around in the bed.

The nurse laughed for a little bit. "Yes, the medication tends to do that to ponies after they woke up."

"What happened exactly after I blacked out, if you don't mind me asking?"

"No, not at all," the nurse replied with a shake of her head, to indicate this wasn't a problem. "You were rushed to hospital while doctors tried to analyse the substance in your drink. They came back within an hour to say that you had ingested a form of interfectorem cerebri."

I'm guessing my face was conveying confusion to her as she explained. "It's a type of neurotoxin that shuts down the brain's abilities to function properly. Once ingested, the victim normally has roughly two hours to be treated... after that, it's fighting a losing battle. We don't know that much about humans but we estimate you have a higher tolerance to it than normal ponies."

"Ah. So what happened after that?"

"We had to sedate you so you were fully unconscious before we could administer the antidote that was developed for it. You fortunately didn't take enough for the toxin to be lethal, but we couldn't have you living in a coma for the rest of your life."

"How long have I been out?"

"Around fifty five hours."

I inhaled, not quite sure what to make of this. I mean, that's a long time to be out... and I don't remember having anything to eat for quite a while, either. "What day is it?"

"Tuesday."

"How long will I need to be here for?"

"Six hours at the most. We think your condition's now stable, and you're conscious now, but we would prefer to be sure by running a few tests. That reminds me, one of your friends and some ponies from the Royal Investigatory Branch would like to interview you."

"Are the RIB here?"

"Not at the moment. They came to get a statement yesterday, but you were still unconscious so they left it until you woke up. I'll send for your friend now."

"Thank you," I replied as the nurse walked out of the room. I sighed and pinched my nose, taking in all of the recent events... just two weeks ago, I had no idea that something like this would ever happen to me.

But whatever... it's not like I was screaming at everyone in a hope the world would make sense to me all of a sudden.

Although I wonder what Brodie's reaction would be to this...

Anyway, not long after the nurse left, she came back, but this time with Thomas in tow.

"Alright, mate," he called out to me.

"Alright, mate," I replied, taking his hand and shaking it before being pulled into a short embrace. Not that I minded that it was brief, right enough.

"So, how are you doing?"

"Alright, if feeling like I've been kicked in the face counts as feeling okay," I joked. "How about you?"

"Alright," he replied. "The show was quite good, if you're interested. Between the Red Arrows and the Wonderbolts... I can't make a decision on who's better."

I laughed. "Did Nathan enjoy himself?"

"Yeah, I would say that he did," Thomas laughed. "I tried my best not to laugh when they came over to us. You know how Spitfire was flirting with Nathan the other day?"

"Aye."

"Well, it wasn't just a one-off thing. She's really come on to him, she's been giving him all of these hints to do it. But her teammates say that her behaviour might be amplified by her being in heat at the moment."

"Heat?"

"Mares become more... interested in 'physical activities', if that makes sense."

I laughed. "I don't know what to make of that..."

"It gets worse, though."

"How?"

"They can become obsessed over the one person, and it doesn't stop until it dissipates, even if they do it."

"Now I understand why Emily cheated," I quipped, getting some laughter from Thomas. "Where is Nathan, by the way?"

"I think they'll be going on a date today before Spitfire goes back, but at the moment, he's staying at the castle."

We discussed the issue surrounding my poisoning a bit more, from what the RIB was doing and what people were saying about it. Unsurprisingly, the Canterlot Chronicle had a overly slightly positive view on my poisoning, while most other papers were outraged at such an action.

According to Thomas, the RIB was somewhat like the FBI in our world, in the fact that they had similar roles in investigation and dealing with incidents relating to security. They apparently were looking into suspects, even including Thomas and Nathan, but they were cleared when another witness at the Gala confirmed their alibis.

There was really no prime suspect at the time, according to the RIB, but they said in the statement (that the newspaper was talking about) that getting an interview with me could be the key solve the case. My reply to Thomas was that it certainly would solve the case.

After another half hour of conversation, Thomas told me he was going to go back to the castle to get some sleep. According to him, he woke up at four in the morning, and because he had "nothing better to do", he waited outside to see if I were conscious.

"Well, in that case, see you later mate."

"Bye."

About another half an hour (and a tuna sandwich) later, two ponies from the RIB came to interview me regarding the incident.

"Good morning, Mr Luss," the older looking pony began. "My name's Inspector Straight Arrow and my partner here is Sergeant Smokey. We'd like to ask you a few questions about your poisoning for our investigation."

"Of course," I replied. "What would you like to know?"

"Perhaps if you give us an idea of what you were doing before you got poisoned?"

"Well," I began to explain, the Sergeant taking his notebook out and writing what I was saying down with magic. "I ordered a drink of bourbon from the bar area, but left shortly afterwards to go and talk to my friends, as we were separated earlier on. After a brief conversation with them, I left to go back to the bar area, and having a brief unfriendly conversation with Prince Blueblood."

"What was he saying?" Short Arrow asked.

"He was making these rather racist comments towards myself, and did my best to ignore him as I walked down the steps."

"So then what happened?"

"I walked back to the bar, and picked up my drink. I paid the barman for my drink and then walked off back into the hall area, where I arranged to meet my other two friends. I never let my drink out of my sight after that, so it had to be contaminated during that time period of me talking to my friends."

"Is it a possibility that the barman committed the crime?"

"No," I answered quickly, gaining raised eyebrows from the gathered ponies. "I gave him a tip earlier on when I had a glass of rye, so it wouldn't make much sense for him to poison me."

"So when did you realise you had been poisoned?"

"Well, Thomas, Nathan and I did a toast in the main hall between ourselves."

"This isn't relevant to the investigation, but what was it about?" the Inspector asked.

"To going back home, if my memory serves me correctly."

Both ponies winced slightly at this. To lighten the mood and move on, I kept going.

"But after I had that first sip of whiskey, I knew there was something that wasn't quite right about it. It was definitely bourbon, but it tasted as if there was a second drink in there mixed as well. You know what I mean?"

"So is that when you first realised the whiskey was poisoned?"

"I was suspicious... but no. I dismissed it at the time as not having drank bourbon in over a decade."

"That was a stupid assumption to make," the Sergeant commented to himself.

"SERGEANT!" the Inspector roared, turning towards said Sergeant with a glare so fierce, even my dad would shit a brick.

"Yes, sir?" the Sergeant replied nervously, gulping and trying to give a smile towards him that only conveyed his nerves.

"Keep those kinds of comments to yourself! You're NOT helping at the moment!!"

"Sorry, sir," the Sergeant replied, looking down at the ground in shame.

The Inspector turned back to me. "Sorry about that, but Sergeant Loud-Mouth here will never learn to keep his mouth shut. You were saying?"

"Well, I didn't realise I'd been poisoned until I zoned out of the conversations that were around me. I looked over to where Prince Blueblood was sitting, and he was smirking as he was looking right at me. That smirk turned into a creepy looking grin shortly after he noticed I was looking at him, and it kind of clicked to me what was going on."

The ponies looked back and forth at each other, wide-eyed expressions adorning their faces. They turned back around with the same shocked expression towards me. "Are you saying Blueblood is responsible for this?"

"Yes, I am."

"Why would you think that?"

"The newspaper that he owns, The Canterlot Chronicle, was writing some articles that were negatively biased towards ourselves."

"Is that all you have?"

"No. The princesses and the three of us humans were standing in the main hall for a bit. When he showed up to us, he was blatantly clear he didn't like us. When she stuck up for us, he started making comments towards a unicorn named Rarity, for no good reason, might I add."

"So what happened?"

I sighed. "I lost my temper, called him a knob, reprimanded him for his behaviour and gave him a lecture about respect in front of the whole hall with the princesses and all the other ponies in the hall."

The RIB ponies were flabbergasted, to say the least. Their faces expressed those of extreme amazement, as if I had taken on a seven nation army by myself - and won. Their mouths remained ajar for quite a while... at least fifteen seconds before they brought themselves back to reality.

"So you think that's his motives?"

"Not all of them. Those are the ones I think he has, but there might be more to this than just protecting his image."

The sergeant quickly kept writing this all down into the notebook, jotting down every detail. Soon after they finished, they looked to each other, and nodded. The sergeant walked away, while the inspector came back to me.

"Thank you, Mr Luss, for your time. I promise to investigate this fully."

"That's not a problem, Inspector," I replied politely. "It should be me thanking you for doing this."

"I'm only doing my job, Mr Luss. Goodbye to you."

And with this, he walked back out with his partner and out towards what I presumed was the exit. After they lift, I sighed and pinched my nose as I started thinking about the recent events - again.

After about ten more minutes, however, guess who turned up?

"YOU!" I bellowed at the top of my voice.

"Quiet, you ape," Blueblood replied with harshness in his tone.

"What are you doing here?" I asked more quietly, but with venom laced in every word I spoke.

"I came here to give you a warning," he replied coldly as he strutted over to me. "I already got rid of the evidence in my implication before you even realised you were poisoned."

"Aye, I thought you might have."

"You did?" Blueblood asked, raising his eyebrow at my neutral comment.

"You might be an impolite, rude and unrestrained racist, and you are very ignorant and stupid, but you're practical, and clever when it comes to saving your own neck."

Blueblood huffed in indignance at my comment, but for the most part ignored it. "After that PATHETIC lecture you gave me, I saw you talking with my rival in business, Fancy Pants and that whorse he calls a girlfriend, and his tiresome business partners!"

"So you weren't butt-hurt over a little lecture, then?" I joked.

"Here's the deal, creature," he refuted harshly. "You stay away from Fanny Pants and his bothersome business associates..."

"Or?"

"Or, what happened to you will pale in comparison to what WILL happen to you and your friends if they intervene."

My eyes widened at that moment. I wasn't fearful of Blueblood's comment... in fact, if he tried anything, I would have fly-kicked that bellend. What I was really scared of was who was standing behind him...

"Blueblood?"

"What's the matter, human? Is the reality of the situation hitting you now?"

"Blueblood..."

"Have you only realised how powerless you are compared to me?"

"BLUEBERRY!"

His demeanour changed from smug to furious faster than a Bugatti Chiron. "WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!"

"Look behind you."

Confused as to why I was getting his attention, Blueblood turned around, not expecting to find anything... and was both shocked and mortified to see an apocalyptically wrathful Princess Celestia, who was seething in undiluted anger. Seeing her furious temper, Blueblood tried to make an effort to speak.

"Uhh... good day, Auntie?"

"GUARDS!" came the ear-splitting response from Celestia, with her hair briefly taking on the appearance of fire as she stomped the ground with her hoof, creating a visible crack mark on the marble floor.

Within literally no time at all, a group of four guards rushed into the room, saluting their princess as they stopped. "You called, your majesty?"

"Take Vladimir Blueblood down to the dungeons," she commanded fiercely, using her magic to levitate Blueblood over to the guards. "Hold him down there until further notice. He is not to be given any special treatment for being royalty. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am," the leader nervously replied, before quickly putting on chains onto Blueblood's hooves, as well as a special type of ring onto his head that I later found out was to disallow his use of magic. Soon, Blueblood was forced out of the ward, the guards actually having to push him out as he wouldn't budge.

Satisfied, Celestia smiled at the scene, before turning back to me... and said smile vanished into thin air upon registering the terrorised look I was clearly expressing, as I have only felt more scared in one moment in my entire life.

I mean, who knew the motherly Princess of Equestria that was loved by all of her subjects could act so hot-tempered like that?

"Are you okay, Jack?" she asked, her own tone becoming slightly fearful as she walked over to the side of my bed, taking slow, slightly shaking hoof-steps.

"Y-yeah," was all I managed to croak out.

A silence lingered over us for a while, neither of us saying anything to the other. This silence became more awkward as the seconds ticked by. Eventually, though, after what must have been about two minutes, I was the one to break the silence.

"W-what's g-going to happen now?"

Celestia, however, didn't answer immediately. "I overheard the last part of the conversation you two were happening. I plan to strip Vladimir's nobility from him as a punishment for that and all of the other complaints that were made about him. I'd rather not want him to keep acting the way he is and ruin the Crown's reputation for his selfish desires. As for what happens regarding the last couple of days... that's up to the RIB to make a decision."

I was quite stunned to say the least. I thought Blueblood would always be able to get away with what he was doing to everyone, with being a Prince, but I never expected his title to be taken away from him...

"How have you been feeling, Jack?" Celestia asked me serenely.

"I- I guess I feel okay..." I replied, my voice trailing off into my own thoughts.

"Jack," she replied smoothly. "You can tell me about anything that's been bothering you."

"I guess I'm still trying to take in everything that's happened."

We soon after got into a full conversation on what she was doing during court, what was happening with the investigation and her opening up to me about her prank wars that she was having with her sister... some of the pranks that she listed sounded hilarious, while others were just downright lazy.

And to think it all started with Celestia sitting on a whoopee cushion...

Eventually, Celestia told me she had to leave again to go to court before it opened at 9 o'clock and got up to do so... but on the way out, she paused and hesitated. She then turned back round to me.

"Celestia?"

"What do you plan on doing when you leave the hospital?"

"Well, tomorrow, I'm supposed to meet this pony who might help us with development of Equestria's first car, but if nothing conclusive comes from it, I'll have to go seek out some permanent work in the Crystal Empire."

To my astonishment, Celestia looked away from me and started rubbing her front-right hoof in a circular motion in a similar fashion as to what Twilight was doing the other night.

Seeing Twilight be nervous around her teacher was understandable, but Celestia acting nervously towards me?

"Well... I could let you stay in the castle for as long as you need to, if that's any help to you, in the case that the car's development works out?" Celestia asked... no, offered me, with a slight tone of nervousness.

I was stunned to say the least. I was quite grateful to her niece for helping us by allowing us to stay in the castle temporarily, but now Celestia was offering me something that I still can't quite repay to this day. I was also stunned by Celestia's nervousness - you would think someone who's ruled on the throne for a thousand years and taken on many villains that threatened Equestria would never really be anxious about anything.

"I..." I began, trying to get the words out as to how grateful I was. "I don't know what to say, Celestia... Thank you for the offer, but you don't need to do that."

"Don't be silly, Jack," Celestia replied with a giggle, all nervous features gone. "You can stay at the castle for as long as you need to. I certainly don't mind."

"Well, in that case... thank you, Princess."

"Back to calling me 'Princess'?"

"Huh?" I asked, confused by the rhetorical question.

"You've been calling me by my name until now," she replied with a smirk upon her face.

I could feel myself heat up inside in a mixture of embarrassment and shame. "Oh... I'm sorry, Princess."

"Jack."

I got more panicky, worried I might have offended her. "It just sort of slipped out, really."

"Jack!"

"I promise it won't-"

"JACK!"

Coming back to reality, I looked up and saw Celestia looking at me.

"Jack, you don't need to apologise to me about that. In fact, on the contrary; it is actually rather nice for me to have a conversation with somepony - well, someONE - other than Luna where I'm not the Princess of the Day... but just Celestia, it's a bit of a break from regality and politics."

If I'm honest, I felt extremely sorry for her - and slightly guilty as well. I mean, who couldn't feel sorry for someone who had to have conversations with others as a head of state and not who they really are on the inside? Apart from Luna and Cadence, I guessed that she got rather lonely with not being able to converse with another as just a normal pony.

As for guilt - I felt like I had upset her by calling her by her title rather than her name.

"In that case... thank you, Celestia," I replied after a few more seconds of thinking.

"You're welcome, Jack," Celestia replied as she started walking away towards the doors. "Anyway, I'm afraid I must be off back to court. Goodbye for now."

"Goodbye."

After she had walked off, I sighed and pinched my nose for the third time within the space of three hours. My thoughts mulled over what had happened the last couple of days, especially at the Gala.

And then, another thought entered my mind... about Celestia.

During the dinner, on our first day here, I saw her one or twice looking at me specifically, for some reason. Then, at the Gala, I saw her looking at me a few times as well, she was calling my name after I left for the toilet, and then there's what had just transpired there, in the hospital...

Does the Princess... like me?

I tried to ignore that last thought as I laid back and relaxed in the bed, waiting to fall back to sleep again, being the lazy bastard I am.

It didn't take long for me to drift off.

Author's Notes:

Sorry this chapter's a little late. I've been caught up in trying to do this, work, other projects and other things lately.