Northern Lights

Shala felt dizzy and numb. Her pain was starting to go away, but it was being replaced by a cold feeling. She had not bled enough to be losing consciousness, but the blood she had lost combined with the trauma and pain was bringing her closer to fainting.

Intel's words helped soothe her. She was responding to them, but only with a soft nudge. Weakly, she popped off the cork of the bottle and groaned miserably before she started to drink down its contents with little regard for volume.


Beyond the door, the sound of some ponies scuffling could be heard. Apparently Intel's signal had gotten some attention.

"I..." Intel looked at Shala drinking, not sure how to respond. "Just hold on, kay? Hold on." He raised his voice to shout, "In here! Hurry up you tortoise ponies! A unicorn's been badly hurt!"

A medic pony stuck her head in the tavern. "What?" she looked down at the scene, "The wounded one's in here!"

"About time!" Intel replied crossly.

The pony apologised emphatically. "Sorry, sorry, sorry. We came as fast as we could. Was there a fight?"

There was an awkward pause as Intel looked around at the ruined tavern for the first time.

"Okay..." the medic pony said, "That might have been a stupid question."

Shala happily kept drinking her Bacardi. It wasn't until one of the ponies that showed up took the bottle from her that she stopped. That pony learned a hard lesson though as an emptry bottle was thrown at him for taking away her prize.

Shala groaned angerly and tried to get up on her hooves. It was a mistake as the blood rushed from her head and she fell right into Intel. She let out a fresh moan of agony and did not try to get up again.

She was quite helpless and definitely needed a hospital. Already it looked like she was losing consciousness.

Intel staggered under the weight of Shala. "Anyway," he said crossly, "I think questions on how this happened could be left until after Shala gets medical assistance. Which should be now."

A pair of medic ponies nodded, and carried the wounded pony out on a stretcher. One was still shocked at almost being hit by a thrown bottle. Intel trotted next to the stretcher as it progressed to the hospital, talking to her to try and keep her awake. Unfortunately for all within earshot, he quickly ran out of things to say and started talking about ambience and the theory of uncertainty.

"...well, it's like if you keep a cat in a box, and you're not exactly sure if it's alive or dead..."

Shala hardly was able to keep her attention on anything. It wasn't long until she blacked out. By then they were to the hospital where they took her into the emergency wing and did not allow Intel to follow.

"You will have to come back tomorrow." They said. "She is too fragile right now."

Intel bit his lip, then nodded.

"Perfectly understandable."

He went home, mind repeating the question of what happened.