Ah, here we go. Chapter four. Now I noticed a little bit of (expected) discontent about the cliffhangers last chapter, so I'm going to resolve them both in one go! Prepare for abrupt and well-placed scene changes, and let's get started!

"Battle eh?" Cobalt grinned. "Good, things were getting boring around here!"

"Indeed, knave! Prepare to feel the kiss of death!" the knight shouted. "I shall purge this land of its sickness by slaying you and then the traitor Merluna!"

"Gee, do you think that'll happen, Caliburn?" Cobalt asked his sword.

"It shall, if you do not have your wits about you when you fight!" Caliburn retorted. "Do not take Sir Lancelot lightly! She is a formidable opponent!"

"Wait…" Cobalt held up a hoof as if to tell the others that he needed a moment. "She…? Sir…?" then it clicked in his brain. "Honorary title, right?"

"Indeed." Lancelot nodded, drawing her sword in her teeth and uttering one intelligible word through the handle, "DIE!" as she charged him.

BACK IN EQUESTRIA

Twilight charged through the hospital doors, levitating a dead-to-the-world Rainbow Dash after her. "Please! Help!" she shouted as she got to the reception desk. "She's really hurt!"

The receptionist, a dull-looking light brown unicorn mare, gave her a long stare, and then shifting her line of sight to the battered pegasus Twilight was levitating before sighing and replying as if it was the least interesting thing she'd seen all day. "And how was she injured like such at five o'clock in the morning?"

Even her voice is as boring as she looks… Twilight thought, before rearing up and putting her forehooves on the desk, glaring at the receptionist square in the eye. She felt another prick of guilt as she realized that she really didn't have the right to be rude, since this was technically her fault. "Look, lady! I don't have time for your stupid questions! My friend is hurt and she needs medical attention NOW!" Twilight didn't care that she was attracting strange looks from the few ponies in the hospital.

The receptionist's blank stare remained for a moment before her eyes slowly widened as if (finally) in shock. "Well then ma'am. We'll look at your friend, but it looks as if she is only bruised."

"Can you not see the blood?!" Twilight demanded, gesturing at the red liquid seeping out of some of the cuts on Rainbow's side. If I'd known going to the hospital would be this complicated, I'd have just treated her at home.

"I'm sorry miss. We'll just take a look and see if she's not going to die." The receptionist fired up her magic with what looked like as much effort as talking had seemed to take her and grabbed Rainbow Dash, and Twilight let go with hers, feeling the migraine that she'd gotten from the extended use of her magic go away.

Miss Drab'n'Boring levitated Rainbow, who was now looking unnervingly like a corpse, though that was probably just Twilight's panicked mind creating a delusional idea for her to worry over, into the back room. "Okay, miss. You'll just have to wait for now."

Twilight exhaled in relief. "Thank you."

IN OLD CANTERLOT

Cobalt grunted as he was forced to exhale, having dodged a sword thrust but not far enough, as Lancelot's armored shoulder slammed into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He used the momentum to roll back, jumping upward and using the trunk of a dead tree as a springboard to launch himself at Lancelot, roll in midair, tackle her, and bowl her over.

Lancelot reacted with the speed of years of battle training and whipped around, cutting Cobalt in his side. Thankfully the blow was blunt enough to only hack a little ways into his skin and be stopped by his ribcage, not puncturing any of his vital organs as a sword-point-first stab would've.

He retreated a little ways and felt the cut with his hoof. Blood was seeping out of it, and when he held up his hoof to inspect it, he noticed that it had been splattered with dark red liquid. He silently thanked the universe that it hadn't been on one of his bruises, or else he might've passed out from the pain.

"Hello there!" Caliburn called out, sounding bored. "Perfectly good blade right here! Wilt thou not use me?"

"Working on it!" Cobalt growled through the sword handle, parrying another one of Lancelot's slashes.

"Hah!" Lancelot gloated, seeing that her opponent was bleeding. "Dids't thou really think that thou coulds't defeat me?"

She suddenly stopped as she felt her sword violently knocked out of her mouth by another. Her eyes widened as she saw the blue pegasus she'd been so certain she could defeat standing right in front of her with his eyes blazing with fury. "Yes, I think I did." He kicked her in the chest of her armor and knocked her down into a small section of marsh, turning to retrieve the fallen knight's sword.

"I-impossible!" Lancelot breathed, realizing that this weak blue pegasus had just launched himself across the clearing in the middle of the forest, a feat the would've taken even the fastest pony in the land, Sir Percival, two seconds at least, in less than a second. It was almost as if he had used a teleportation spell, he had moved so fast. But that was impossible, as she could clearly see that he had no horn, and the fact that there were no other alicorns in existence besides the Queen and that traitor Merluna. "Wh-what dids't thou–"

"I won." Cobalt said flatly, facing her with a stare as he picked up her sword, holding it in his mouth along with his own.

"But why did not thou simply finish me off?" Lancelot revised her question.

"That was my question."

Cobalt grimaced. "I don't murder innocent ponies. You're not evil. You're just misled."

Lancelot opened her mouth as if to say something else, but then shut it just as quickly. Do I… she wondered. Am I just misled? Did I just try to murder an innocent pony? She was so consumed in these troubled thoughts that she completely missed Cobalt's exit.

BACK IN EQUESTRIA

"Miss Twilight Sparkle?" Twilight's ears pricked as she heard the receptionist call her name.

She raised her head and looked at the dull brown pony. "Yes?"

"Your friend is okay, if you would like to visit her." The receptionist sounded much more alert, and Twilight noted a cup of coffee now held in the grasp of her magic.

Twilight stood, stretched, and hopped off the bench she'd been lying on, zoned out. Once more ignoring the stares from the ponies in the waiting room, she followed the receptionist through the doors to the back and up two flights of stairs, coming to a room marked 331.

The receptionist nodded and trotted back down the stairs, leaving Twilight alone.

Twilight took a deep breath and opened the door, prepared for any amount of verbal assault imaginable. She deserved it. She was instead met with utter and complete silence, and as she trotted over to the hospital bed in confusion, she got her answer for why it was like this; Rainbow Dash was still asleep. She wasn't in a state of unconsciousness anymore, thankfully, and was instead apparently in a state of light dreaming.

Whatever she was dreaming about must have put her in a state of distress, because the cyan mare was gripping the bedsheets as if they were her last hope at life, and her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, but not tightly enough to stop the flow of a few tears out onto the pillow.

Twilight felt a stab of pity for her friend. She looked so small and fragile, huddled under the sheets.

"I'm sorry." She murmured, and turned around, leaving the room.

And there we go! Sorry for the short chapter. I've got a lot of stuff going on, but I think I did okay on this one. I don't think I'll check back in on Equestria again until this story is over, but don't worry, it'll still be just as interesting.

Radicool223 out!