Author's note: This chapter has a helluva lot of action. No not 'action', the other kind.

Bronze lay beneath the rubble and broken glass of the explosion. Barley conscious, he couldn't stand or push the pieces of wall and window off him. He saw figures run by each one dressed in black metal. None stopped for him they ran for the stairs. Bronze's body roared with pain as he moved to rubble and glass off. He stood, his cuts and bruises screamed their refusal. He made his way up the stairs of the castle, ignoring his pain. He knew who they were, he had killed many of them before.

Celestia heard the explosion from her and Bronze's room at the top of the tower. She tried to tap Bronze in bed, she couldn't see in the dark. She couldn't find him with her hoof, so she lit her horn up. He was gone! She got out of bed and made her way to the door. As soon as she opened the door, there was another explosion from below near the base of the tower.

Bronze ran up the stairs quickly, as soon as he saw the black armored assassins he sprinted and attacked the nearest one. He had tapped the assassin's flank making him turn around, Bronze then hit him hard in the center of his neck. The assassin chocked and coughed, Bronze put his front two hooves on the side of the assassin's head and jerked it down the stairs until the assassin was tumbling painfully down the stairs as he coughed.

The other assassin had turned around when their comrade began coughing and had gone down the stairs to attack Bronze. Each of them had a hoof held blade, much like the one Bronze had built. A thin female assassin charged at him, blade out roaring. Bronze dodged the attempted stab, reared up and kicked the assassin. The female assassin flew back out a window on the spiral stairs, screaming as she fell the few hundred meters back to the base of the castle to her death.

Now two more came at him at the same time. Bronze took one assassin's hoof and redirected by force to the other's throat. The one who had his throat now slit stopped mid attack and collapsed on the stairs, gurgling on his own blood. He put a hoof into a satchel on his flank and pulled a small fray circular object with a rectangular half with a small fuse on it. The bleeding assassin quickly lit the fuse with a match from the same satchel and as he died let the bomb roll to under Bronze's feet.

"Oh cra...." Bronze wasn't able to finish the sentence. He had dived down the stairs as the explosive went off.

When Celestia made her way down the stairs, she came to an area where most of the stairs were missing, there were at least seven dead bodies the ones closer to the hole in the stone were charred and extremely gory. Celestia stepped past the bodies and the crater. She found Bronze, on his stomach head against the stairs.

"Bronze!" she shouted and rushed to him.

He was alive, his silk robe was burnt and torn all over, the most damage was done on his back. A large area of the skin on his back was burnt straight off and was now bleeding. Celestia checked for a pulse as the guards came running up the stairs.

"Were in Equestria where all of you!" Celestia screamed at them her tears coming from her eyes as she looked at Bronze in his current state.

"We were investigating the first explosion zone, princess." One guard spoke up "Please stand aside, let us take him to the hospital."

Celestia had let the guards take Bronze to the hospital, she followed of course. She now sat in the hospital waiting room just outside of the emergency room. They had taken Bronze into surgery as soon as he was brought in. That was close to 20 minutes ago. Suddenly a doctor came out he still had his surgical mask on and his gloved hooves were bloody. He was smiling.

"Princess Celestia, your Bronze will live." he said as Celestia approached

"Thank you doctor." She said relieved

"Yes but one minor warning, we are taking him to the burn care unit to deal with the burns he received from the explosions, but also" the doctor's expression turned to an extremely serious one "he was dead for about 6 minutes, we were able to revive him but barley. However there appeared to be no sign of brain damage, but we can't be certain through a few scans."

Celestia became worried once more.

"Princess, please go get some sleep come back in the morning and Bronze will be in a standard room." the doctor promised.

Celestia did go get some sleep, in the waiting room. Celestia does not need to be awake to raise the sun, raising it in a flashy way is usually just for fun or for show. On most days she just sort of grunts in her sleep as the moon goes down on the western horizon and the sun comes up from the east. Today she awoke to a voice the doctor from the night before.

"Princess...Princess...Princess, wake up, Princess Celestia."

Celestia opened her eyes and said "Yes?" her memory of why she was in a hospital groggy as she awoke and her mind reactivated.

"It's close to 10 in the morning and Bronze is awake, he won't fill out any of our medical forms until he see you."

"He's awake?! Lead me to him, doctor." she said getting out of the chair she had slept in.

"Yes Princess Celestia"

Bronze lay in his hospital bed talking to his room mate. A restaurant owner with burns on her rear legs, fromm when a cook had tripped and spilled boiling water on her flank. Her name was Sushi Sue. Sushi was a nickname for serving sushi.

"So, you and the Princess...wow."

"What? Whats so wowing about me marrying the Princess?" Bronze questioned from his bed

"Well its just I thought the Princess would never have a child or a husband." Sue said from hers to Bronze's left.

There was a window right next to Bronze and the door to the rest of the hospital was to Sue's left. Suddenly during their conversation, the doctor and Celestia entered the room. Bronze was on his back in the bed, he had many white bandages wrapped fully around his torso. He also had some small bandages on his face and upper torso from the worst glass cuts of the first explosion. Celestia rushed to his bed side, and looked him over. He also had an IV cord running from a bag on a stand to his right hoof.

"Bronze! It's good to see you alive!" Celestia exclaimed as she locked lips with him.

He broke her kiss and looked to the doctor "What paper do you want me to fill out?"

"Well first I want to inform you on your injuries. You suffered 3 broken ribs. We pulled 23 pieces of shrapnel from your torso, and treated massive burns on your back, also you died for 6 minutes during surgery. Any questions?"

"Yes, I have one" Bronze said "I was dead for 6 minutes?"

"Yes"

Bronze cursed aloud

"What? You wanted to die?!" The doctor asked

"No, no, just....just give me a minute with Celestia."

"Okay as you wish. Miss Sue, you are going home today, so the nurses are going to wheel you to a clinic room and we'll get those bandages off." the doctor said leaving the room

Shortly after several nurse took Sue out of the room.

Bronze and the Princess were alone.

"You wanted to die?" Celestia asked astonished

"No! When I died my 'condition' was broken, if you die, now I am stuck here if I fail to kill the Dark Queen!"

"The Dark Queen?"

"The mare who keeps sending assassin's after you."

"Yes, but why is that bad that your condition is broken."

"I will be hunted down if I fail, held and tortured, and eventually killed..."

"Well Bronze....you aren't planning to fail are you?"

"No! I love you too much to fail, but there is something I need to know."

"What is it, Bronze?"

"Ask the doctor when I will be able go back to the castle, I miss those silk sheets." he said his tone changing.

Next Chapter: Realization. Estimated time remaining: 39 Minutes