Chapter 24 Hospital Food

"What the hell happened?!" I heard yelling as I came to. It was Cherry. I blinked at him groggily. "Shit! He's wakin' up!"

"Raiders, they set up an ambush." the Guardian was saying.

"How'd he break his leg like this?" somepony else was saying, but I wasn't sure I was familiar with their voice.

This made the Guardian pause, "He….he froze up. I don't know what got into him, but he wouldn't move."

"Damn," Cherry grumbled.

A door slammed open. I still couldn't tell where I was. "I came as fast as I could!" Lily Bloom's voice was frantic. "Is he okay?"

"Lily," the Guardian snapped. "He fell from the height of 3 hay bundles. I might not be a doctor, but even I know that shouldn't break a leg."

"I'll have ta explain later. First, we need to get him to the infirmary." she was above me now, a worried look on her face. "Buck!" she cursed aloud. "Is he conscious?"

"Not for long ma'am," said the other pony. Then a needle injected my neck, and I was out cold again.


The lights hurt my eyes when I woke up. I tried to sit up and get out of bed, but I felt dizzy when I lifted my head. I also couldn't feel my leg. I glanced around. I was lying in a bed with a fuzzy blue blanket. I wasn't sure I liked the way it felt. It was scratchy.

"I'm sorry, but you're hurting me Mr. Blanket." I said to it and tossed it on the floor.

The doorknob on the door to the room began to turn. Lily Bloom came in, a clip board floating in the aura of her magic in front of her. She glanced up for a second and her eyes widened. "Oh, OJ, why's your blanket on the floor?"

I stuck my tongue out at it, "I don't like him."

"Him?"

"Lily, what happened to my leg?" I looked down at my flank, with its big white bandages on it. It was wrapped tightly. "I thought the pain pills worked…"

Lily stooped down to pick the blanket up from the floor. As she floated the clip board over to the side table, the blanket began folding itself in the air. "Well dumplin', it ain't quite that simple. That only works if you don't fall from 9 hoof lengths up."

"I got shot at!" I grinned.

"That's not funny," Lily frowned. "Orange, I have to let you know something. You might not like it sugar bomb."

"Sugar bombs sound yummy."

"Buck—The Guardian is putting you on suspension until you're healed. Not surprisingly. We both agreed and I've put you on a week and a half medical suspension."

"Oh," I deflated.

"Don't worry, I have a nurse to attend you in that time." she turned to go, her clip board following her happily.

"Can I at least have the blanket from my room?" I asked.

"I can have that arranged, sure dumplin'."


Later, a nurse came in. For some reason I thought it'd be a mare, they always had the most important jobs. But it was a stallion. I guess the Fort didn't discriminate.

He was a cream colored pony with wine red bangs, and on his head he wore a folded looking cloth cap. He flipped his bangs slightly, looking at me with soft eyes. Eyes that were speckled! They were diamond blue with spots of gold.

"Whatcha looking at there?" he said in a smooth voice.

I put a hoof to my nose, trying to hide my reddening face. "You're eyes are more than one color."

"And yours are mismatched," he winked with a smile. "Here's your blanket, it's softer." Unfolding it, he passed it to me. I caught it in my magic, putting it near my hooves.

"I'm hungry," I stated at the rumble of my tummy.

"Heh," he laughed, smiling at me, "I'll roll out the hospital food."

He walked out of the room. I was set to preoccupy myself, but I didn't know what to do. There wasn't much to do other than stare up at the swinging light hanging from the ceiling in its bowl shaped holder. The ceiling did have lots of dots on it and I was just starting to stare at them when the nurse came back.

He hadn't been kidding about rolling out the hospital food. He was pushing in a cart with a tray of food on the top. The tray was divided into 6 sections, wait 3, no 5 I think. The biggest hole had what looked like oats but it was like soup. There were a couple apple slices and a small carton of milk.

"What is that? Are they oats?" I pointed at the oats. It looked kinda like gruel but it was easier to tell what it was.

"It's called porridge. I wish we had oatmeal." he passed me a glass container with brown stuff in it.

"What's this stuff?" I sniffed at it and it tickled my nose. I had to hold back a sneeze.

"I sneaked in some cinnamon from the kitchen. Don't tell anypony." he winked. That made me giggle. He showed me how to sprinkle the cinnamon onto the porridge and mix it in, then he had to go.

"Can I have a book maybe?" I asked him.

He grinned, "No promises."


The next day he brought in a book. "Here we are, one book. You know, it's not easy to find these."

"Thank you!" his hoof brushed mine as he gave it to me. I blushed and looked away.

"Anytime cutestuff. Hey, is there anything else I can get ya?" he was looking in my eyes as he set my tray in front of me.

I picked up my milk cartoon, unsure what to ask. "N-no." Then I looked at the book, "Umm, I can't read."

He glanced over to the side, tapping a hoof to his muzzle, that grin on his face. "Hmm." at that he pulled up a chair.

He read the words aloud to me, his voice as smooth as chocolate. I wish I knew what chocolate tasted like. This reminded me of Bookworm, and I seemed to recall her eating chocolate while reading once. Though she hadn't been reading to me, and certainly never like this. Nurse had a deep sort of connection between me, him and the words.

He kept looking at me with those eyes and I was mesmerized. I almost didn't hear the words coming from his mouth, and I don't think I'd remember them later.

Soon he was closing the book, and I blinked. "Did we already finish?!"

"Wha, this monster book?" Nurse chuckled. "I read ya a couple chapters, Cutie. It's been a few hours."

"Hours?" I meant that not as an insult, but as in, I didn't know how to tell time very well.

He rubbed the back of his mane, glancing at the clock, "Eh, I'm not the best reader, no one in the wasteland truly is."

My eyes widened at him, "Sure you are!"

"Why thank you." then he quickly left.


Each day for the next couple days Nurse would come in to read that book to me, and everyday I'd look forward to it. I knew we were close to finishing it, and I wasn't excited about when that would happen. Maybe he'd find a new book. Today Nurse came in before lunch and was busily organizing some stuff in the cabinets opposite my bed.

"Watcha doing?" I cocked my head and flicked an ear.

He turned around, "Oh, nothing much. I just keep thinking to myself, everyday I bring you lunch and yet I've neglected to ask if you'd like anything other than the plain ol' plain ol'."

"Plain ol' plain ol'?" I didn't understand what that meant.

He chuckled at me and shook his head, "What do you want, I'll get ya anything the caf has."

"Caf?" I questioned yet again. He certainly had a way of talking, and it made my heart skip a beat. "O-oh! Uh, how about chocolate milk? You always bring white milk. A-and I've kinda always wondered what chocolate tastes like."

"Alright, you won't be disappointed," he winked. He was bustling out the door when another thought hit me.

"Oh, what about orange juice!?" but he was already gone.

The door opened a few seconds later with a disheveled Lily Bloom heading in, "Colt, he shur is in uh hurry." she shook her head and ran a hoof through her mane, straightening up again.

"Hiya Lily Bloom!" I beamed.

She smiled, "Why hey there pardner, I'm just gonna do a quick check up. I think yer fast track on healing."

"That's good! I sure am bored. I like it when Nurse comes to visit."

"I think he does too."

The check up didn't take long, and Lily Bloom told me I was looking better by the second. As though on cue, as soon as she was out the door, that's when Nurse was back with lunch and his book to read. He brought chocolate milk too!

"Thank you so much!"

"It was nothing," he grinned, flipping his bangs.

The chocolate milk was not a let down, creamy and rich and very sweet. "Hey," I said while he was reading, taking my last sip. "I love chocolate milk!" I giggled.

He licked the tip of his hoof and wiped my upper lip, "Well, you certainly know how to down it." I blushed as his hoof touched me and he quickly withdrew. He smoothly transitioned back to the book.


The next day, I was expecting to see him again, for lunch and for more reading. We weren't done with the book. But it was Pumpkin Spice who came bouncing in, humming an off pitch tune. I think I'd have recognized her halfway across the Fort.

"Hi there ORANGE JUICE!" she yelled as she burst into the room. She held a box on her head and a book in one hoof. In the other hoof she was holding hammy, my little radio I liked to keep in my room. Yes, that meant she was walking on her hind legs.

"Hehe," I burst out laughing. "Why are you doing that?"

She set down the radio on the bedside table and the book in front of me, returning to all four hooves. "Doing what?" she seemed genuinely confused, like she hadn't just been walking on two feet. That only made me laugh more.

"What's this?" I gestured at the book.

"I wanted to visit you today! I thought I'd show you an old photo album I made!"

"Photo?" I asked.

"Yeah, I used to have a camera. It was a passion, just like mane-dressing!" She was giggling, her mane bobbing.

"Sure," I opened the book. There were some black and white pictures of some ponies that looked familiar, but I wasn't sure who they were.

Pumpkin reached forward suddenly to point, knocking the lid off the translucent box. It went sailing across the room and a faint light pulsed inside. I glanced at it, but Pumpkin was adamantly talking about the pictures now. I looked back down.

"These are Cherry, Buck and Lily! It was quite a few years ago though, so they're younger."

"That's why they look different." I breathed. "Where are you guys?"

She turned the page, "This is all of us together. It's when we first discovered Bittersweet Acres. Cherry was sooo skeptical. That's why he's frowning in this one." she pointed at a few pictures on the page. Beside the pictures were a bunch of letters lined up vertically and I think they spelled "Bittersweet".

"It became Buck's special place you know," she turned the page again, showing pictures of the Guardian alone. He was much younger, his mane shorter and he wasn't wearing his big bulky power armor he always wore. He had a rifle lined up at the firing range there, aiming down the sites at the targets I knew were out of the frame.

"That's so cool," I sighed, and ran my hoof over the page. Each picture was different and so unique. Buck looked relaxed, happy. There was a picture of him holding up the crossbow, on the next page a picture of him leaning back on a railing with a Sparkle-Cola in hoof.

The next page was in the Fort. Pumpkin threw a hoof forward to indicate a picture, hitting the box on the table next to me, "OOH OH, My first Nightmare Night Party! That reminds me…"

The box was lying beside me, tipped on its side. The light seemed so interesting, "Sparkly…" I reached for it. It was in the shape of a little ball.

"OJ, no! That's a memory—!"


"This is exactly like those twins." hissed an unpleasant voice. "However did he find out? I tried so hard to keep the secret."

I stood in a dimly lit room, staring at a prissy pink pony. She seemed angry, and that anger was familiar. I'd seen her before. The Overmare. I had found myself yet again watching a scene from the eyes of somepony else. I was terrified. I think, so was the pony watching the Overmare.

"Ma'am, if I may—" I looked over to the pony who'd spoken. It was Bookworm! She was standing stiff as a rod, her glasses slightly crooked on her muzzle.

"Enough!" bellowed the Overmare. "I'm through playing games here. A fatal mistake has been made, and I seek to correct it."

"A-and that is ma'am?" said the pony I was in.

"All of you in here have associated with UP-25 in some way. Some more than others." she stared sharply at Bookworm. She'd said my designation! They were talking about me…This was scary.

"If UP-26 seeks to start some sort of rebellion, it will be squashed."

Bookworm adjusted her glasses, finally, "That entails…what exactly?"

"Taking away anypony who may try to become his friend." said the Overmare. Then looking directly at the mare I was in, "Or who may be sympathetic to the stallions." she glanced over to another mare, "Or who may be a double agent."

The other mare in the room snickered, "Right. And for who exactly? Gadget?"

"That is a good point." the Overmare put a hoof to her chin, considering it. Then she narrowed her eyes, "Don't bring her into this! I will not have her be apart of meetings detailing extensive plans and I will not have you trick me into it either."

"I'm only saying, ma'am. But if you must have proof, I'll give up somepony who seeks to betray you now." I gasped, no, this mare gasped. She looked down at her hooves. She was pink, and I think I recognized her as the mare that had the Stable palace.

The Overmare shot a glare at the pink pony. "And who may that be?"

"Priscilla. She brought a memory orb into this meeting. She has quite the collection hidden from you."

"Prissy…?" the Overmare gasped. "Is this true?"

"Wha—? N-no!" she turned to the last mare, Lens Caps, "How dare you!"

Unexpectedly, Zebra Mare slapped Prissy upside the face. It stung really bad! Out from Priscilla's mane rolled a yellow memory orb.

"I-I can explain!" Priscilla gasped, turning to the Overmare.

"My own sister…" the Overmare looked deeply hurt, the most pony emotion I'd ever seen her portray. Then her face turned evil, more evil than I'd ever seen it either. "EVERYPONY OUT! LEAVE THE TWO OF US A MOMENT ALONE."

"I'm sorry," Lens Cap whispered as she walked past Priscilla. "Sometimes, you gotta look out for number 1."

"I thought you'd help us. My sister doesn't deserve this seat," she hissed back. But a tear fell down her cheek at the betrayal. I felt it too. "What's the point of number 1 if there's no other numbers?"

"I never said there weren't." Lens Cap smirked. She was turning away now, heading for the door Bookworm had already disappeared through. I'd heard her whisper something about me, I think she wondered what had happened. Lens stopped a moment, "You should learn a cause takes sacrifices Prissy." then she was gone, and the Overmare pressed the panel to shut and lock the door.

That's when the memory orb started to glitch. The Overmare kicked it and I felt the worst sense of hate ever. I wanted to tear my sister apart! Then it was terror, and darkness. All from poor Prissy. Next thing I knew my eyes were opening and I was on the floor, staring up at the Overmare. Prissy looked over to the orb, which was now shining a brilliant light.

"You have only ever wanted one thing Priscilla, and that has been to take what belongs to me."

"You have never deserved it! You stole everything from me. Even my own daughter."

"Hah, and teach that filly love of stallions?"

Priscilla sat up slowly, but the room was spinning. "Rose already loves a stallion. She loves Red, I can see it even if you can't. You're blind to love."

"DO NOT NAME THEM! And if you mean UP-26, don't make me sick. That stallion has disgraced the very walls of this Stable. He let his brother loose into the wasteland, that little orange popsicle, and for what?" the Overmare grinned.

Me? Brother? Popsicle? Hey! I'm not a popsicle!

"You disgrace the very foundation of what this Stable stands for. You disgrace Stable-Tech itself." Prissy spat.

A kick came, Prissy's vision blacking out. When it came back it was splotched. There was the orb again, shining like it was when I took it from Pumpkin's box. It was so dim earlier.

"What will you do with me?" Prissy gasped. She was too exhausted and hurt to move. "Will you kill me?" she slowly focused on the hooves that came to rest in front of her. She looked up at her sister.

"Kill you? Ha! You don't exist! No, what I plan to do is remove you from the picture. I will not have you spoil my niece's head any longer."

"She's never met her mother."

"I'm going to tell you what's going to happen, Prissy dear." The Overmare was at her desk, and she had a slick red object in her hoof. "I'm calling an emergency vertibird. It will deposit you somewhere I'll never have to worry about you again. Oh, and I'll be keeping this," she held up the memory orb. I again felt a ping of dark emotion, pure sickly sweet satisfaction at the destruction of her sister.

"You can't! You won't open those doors. Everytime you do you let in radiation, you hurt this Stable even more!"

"A healthy dose of radiation then. It says every ten years in my logs…"

"It hasn't been 1o years! It's been 10 days! You're hurting everypony! We're not used to it!"

"Then I'll adjust the air filtration, store it somewhere nopony goes, then fry the cells if those stallions ever try to stand up to me."

Hooves latched onto Prissy. "N-No, what is this?" she looked to her captors, a couple guards from security. "Please, don't do this to me."

"I already have…"

The orb faded out again, and I thought it was over. But Prissy blinked and the next thing I knew she was being thrown outside the stable. A very large car thingy was waiting for her. It had big metal protrusions, and it was making a loud hum. The air was wavy underneath it.

Behind Priscilla the Stable door was sliding shut. She turned around to watch it roll into the locking position. "I'll be back Rose, and I hope your path takes you to your stallion. Red is right for you, a born leader." she held up something in her hoof. The memory orb! "And for you, I'll take you where you belong."

She was walking to the thing, I assumed a vertibird, and she shook her head. "I'll find you Orange, you have to know the truth, all of it." she looked one last time to the orb, then stuffed it in her mane. Then it was over.


I blinked as I woke up from the memory, and as soon as I realized it was over I pulled my hoof from the box. "That orb!" I gasped, jerking so hard in shock that the box and photo album flew up and fell off the bed. Pumpkin caught the memory orb before it could shatter on the floor tiles.

"Ooh, ooh! What did you see?"

"R-Red," I shuddered, staring at the mare.

"Red? You saw red?"

"No, not the color! It was my brother!"

"You saw your brother? You have a BROTHER!?" Pumpkin Spice shot up into the air, smashing into the ceiling.

"N-No! I mean, yes! I mean, I have no idea Pumpkin Spice, I didn't know it was possible to have a brother in the Stable!" I was shaking.

"Sure it is! Buck had a brother, remember? You watched his memory orb." speaking of, she set Prissy's memory orb down in front of me. I stared at it.

"I didn't know he was my brother…I always saw him as one, I always wanted one. But I didn't know."

Pumpkin Spice was right above me all of a sudden, "How do you knooooow he's your brother?"

"The Overmare said it."

"YOU SAW THE OVERMARE?" she slammed into the ceiling again. When she was calmly beside me a second later, she said, "Sorry, had to do that."

"The Overmare has a sister. Or had, I don't remember."

"THE OVERMARE—Sorry, the Overmare has a sister?" Pumpkin asked me without flying to the ceiling this time. "Who is the Overmare?" she stroked her chin.

"Pumpkin!"

"Huh?"

"Where's Priscilla?! She said she had to find me!"

"Oh, right, her. Well uh, you see, I have no idea. Nopony does. I did find her memory orb though." she pointed at it.

I stared down at the little dangerous ball in front of me. It gently pulsed it's bright golden light. It was so different from all other memory orbs I'd ever seen. The others were like quicksilver, so dark and smooth with colors that swirled into each other and glittered like stars in the night sky. But this one was a star.

"Pumpkin, why's this one different?"

"It's different because it's a collection of memories. Kinda like my photo album! Where'd that go by the way?" she was suddenly on the other side of the bed, holding up the album. "Found it!" I tried to hide a smile.

"OJ!" she was right in my face, and I pressed myself to my pillow. She leaned away. "This orb has been everywhere. It's old! I can tell because it's glowing." she nodded matter-of-factly.

"Everywhere?"

"Everywhere."

"Glowing?"

"Glowing!" she screeched. "You know why?"

"No." I shook my head.

"Because it's collected a lot of memories. It's unique because it's been in and out of one Stable alone. Stable 28."

"How?" I asked.

"That door has opened so many times, you'd think some security guard was falling asleep on the job." I giggled at that. "Hey, OJ! I think you should keep it. Whoever Priscilla is, I think she'd of wanted you to have it." she held it up to me. "Go on, take it, it won't bite."

"Oh." I slowly took it from her. With that, Pumpkin Spice sprang up.

"Well, you're outta here tomorrow, isn't that exciting?"

"I uh,"

"I gotta go! I have a guest list to write." she bounced to the door, throwing it open.

"A guest list? For what?"

"I'm putting your nurse on it, that's for sure." she called as the door closed.

I guess that was that.

(Chapter 25 set for 1/17/18 at 1:30pm CT

Whoo, OMG so that was a rollercoaster. We just met Nurse, but he's a familiar face, don't worry. Hehe. I feel like this was a pretty cute chapter up till the memory orb. I enjoyed writing Pumpkin Spice too! She's fun, and the photo album was a nice little scene. Then it got serious didn't it? I threw in a major Incident of Stable 28 plot twist there. I hope you like that Yolo! It's interesting isnt' it? Whatever happened to Priscilla, we just gotta wonder! But there's another plot twist related to OJ. Orange and UP-26 are brothers! Me and Yolo talked about that and decided on it awhile ago. I was just waiting for the right time to reveal it. Hmm, I wonder what else is in Prissy's memory sphere? Anyway, look forward to next chapter. Love ya guys!)

Brohoof /)