It was night once again in the hospital. Harmony and Shadow was told that they needed to stay for a day or two to wait for the X-rays and diagnosis. During the day Harmony was mainly asleep and didn't eat much of her food, most likely cause hospital food is the worst. Shadow made some conversation with the little made when she was awake. It was weird for him though. This was the first time nobody wasn't acting shyly to him. Usually ponies are afraid of him for his tall menacing look and frown on his face most of the time. It felt good to actually smile and even share a laugh with someone who is willing to listen.

Right now Shadow is asleep on his chair next to the bed where Harmony supposedly slept. There was small noises coming from her bed. They were loud enough to make Shadow perk his ears and look at Harmony in confusion. They sounded like... Crying. Shadow quietly got up from his chair and softly poked her back to make sure she turns around. He felt Harmony flinch and turns around to look at Shadow straight in his eyes.

"What's wrong Harmony...? I don't like pointing out the obvious, but your crying." Shadow said, reaching his hoof over to Harmony's face, softly rubbing the tears off her cheek. Harmony blushed at this action and carefully took his hoof away from her face, not completely mind you, but only a couple of inches away just to not give off a rude gesture.

Harmony gave a soft sigh and let more tears overflow and make their way down her face. Shadow didn't like seeing her cry. Usually he'll try and back away from the problem so he couldn't make it worse, but seeing Harmony cry is just as bad as seeing a puppy alone in the alleyway. It was to hard to do nothing for her. The cuteness level was over... Well let's not put that meme in here shall we. Shadow asked once again in a soft tone on why she was crying. Harmony apologized and wiped some tears off her face before explaining her reasoning, in her mind hoping that he didn't think it was stupid and repetitive. She let out another sigh before calming herself down, letting her words speak for themselves.

"W...well Shadow, you might think this d...dumb of me to say, given that you look pretty mature and kinda scary, I'm just gonna be s..straight up with you. I'm having nightmares about the beating. I just keep thinking about what if things played out differently you know? Like what if the gang ponies beat me to death, or what if you joined in to the wrong side. Yeah I know it's crazy just saying it outloud, but you don't know what I've been though OK.. Just know that I'm a sensitive, annoying little mare trying to survive these heartless comments I get. An outsider is always an outsider... No matter what you do... No matter what you say."

Shadow was left with a surprised yet sad expression. Seems that she has been through some serious stuff just like him. He got closer to her and rubbed her cheek softly. It made sense that she would have nightmares of what happened to her. It's like a young kid having nightmares of a scary story someone told them during a sleepover. He couldn't blame her really. It was normal for ponies like herself to be scared, especially in a hospital at night.

"Harmony listen... Having nightmares like those doesn't make you stupid at all. It's a normal pony reaction actually. All I can say right now is to not be alarmed of what happened. You're gonna get better sooner or later and then you can live on the rest of your life. Don't make what happened haunt you. You may be the easily scared type... But I know you have potential to be a beast. Trust me Harmony..."

And with that, Shadow gave her a soft smile and closed her eyes, making her drift off back to sleep with a small smile appearance on her face. Shadow yawned and laid his head on the bed and also drifted off to sleep, knowing that he finally helped somepony.

~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning the two ponies finally got some answers. The doctor showed Harmony her X-rays and pointed out that she had some of her ribs broken. This spooked Harmony as she gulped and asked if she will be OK. The doctor nodded, but then told her that she'll need to have surgery done to fix the vial Parts so they can protect her organs. This also means that she'll have to stay at the hospital for a couple more days, something Harmony was not pleased on doing once again because staying once was already bad enough.

Shadow yawned and told Harmony that it'll be OK. He then told the doctor that he'll take care of her until the surgery is done. The doctor then leaved thr room with the X-rays. Harmony told her savior that she was very scared about the surgery. She never had anyone go into her body before. Shadow then shyly gave her a soft hug, making sure to not squish the poor pony and making sure that he doesn't put pressure on her ribs. This is gonna be a long couple of days...