Talia took a whiff of the bitterly cold air. Ever since Blaze had taken off over the magical forest, no longer did the stench of ashes sting her nose. She recalled that it was an unbelievable sight to see the forest magically renew itself in an instant. Talia hadn't caught a whiff of smoke from the forest ever since, besides the times when Blaze thought that it was a good idea to beat his powerful, flame-like wings indoors. When he did so, it would smell of smoke that emitted from his wings, as he would also send gusts of air that were strong enough to send everyone's hair flying, and even knock Candi off of her feet every time. Actually, Candi had always been one of the clumsier ones. Talia wouldn't have been surprised, if somebody's breath could even knock Candi down.

Since Talia couldn't smell any trace of ash that could now come from Blaze, she wondered, "What could be taking them so long?" Displeased, Talia whipped around, and headed towards the shades of the stables. That was when Eve pointed up at the sky and exclaimed, "Look!"

Disgruntled, Talia pivoted and squinted at the bright sky. It was hard to see anything due to the glaring rays of the sun that made the clouds become even brighter. Just then, what looked like a moving dot appeared in the sky. Talia was surprised that Eve had even noticed that before the rest of them. Talia kept on squinting, and used her hand to shield her eyes from the blinding rays of sunlight. The dot had appeared from a cloud, and it was getting closer and closer.

Too close in fact! Talia shrieked, "Watch out!" Talia wheeled around to dive for cover, only to find that Ani was unexpectedly behind her. Ani squawked in shock at Talia's sudden turn, before she stumbled over her own foot. With fast reflexes, Talia managed to push Ani out of the way just in time. The pegasus' golden hooves sailed over their heads, before they heard a thump and saw that the carriage had skidded to a halt on the fresh, green grass.

'Nightmare' threw his legs off of Blaze the pegasus, and narrowly missed being bit by Blaze. Weighed down by all his equipment, Blaze decided against giving a chase to 'Nightmare,' but gave a snort of resentment.

'Nightmare' threw his arms behind his head in a laid-back position, before lightheartedly striding and sarcastically remarking, "Man, it was a fine time back there. Hovering in midair…"

"Hovering in midair?!" bellowed Talia, as she gaped at the condition of the carriage.

"Yup," replied 'Nightmare' imprudently, as he leaned against the stable's pole next to Talia, and scratched some of the soot off of his cheek. He ignored the fact that Ani was right next to him on the ground, and she shuddered when some of the soot fell upon her costume. Ani immediately scooted away from the two, while she let Talia demand for an answer, "How did you hover in midair?! You could've been hanging limp or dangling in midair with those kids!"

"Kids?! We're not kids," shrieked Eve from afar, but Talia ignored that comment.

"Naw, the wind currents kept us afloat," answered 'Nightmare,' who began brushing himself off.

Talia eyed him beadily. She knew that he wasn't telling her something.

'Nightmare' knew by that look, and he released his fury, "Okay, fine! If it wasn't for Blaze…"

"Me?!" hollered Blaze, "Well, you were the one who hit me with that stabby-stab thing!"

'Nightmare' was about to deny it, but Blaze trotted around. Facing away from them, he asserted, "So what's with this?!"

The audience gasped. For a moment, it was completely silent, until the wind rushed by and rustled at the leaves. Even Talia had to wince a bit, for on the backside of Blaze, there was a big, purple bruise that sunk into his skin. The sleek surface of the bruise made it seem as if Blaze was a shiny, dented car.

"You should apologize," professed Eve.

'Nightmare' bit his lip, and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He exhaled, before he forced his words off of his tongue, "Fine. I'm sorry for stabbing you, Blaze, even though you nearly wrecked the carriage with an excessive amount of… impressive… speed."

Blaze blinked, speechless, in his state of amazement.

Marie whispered to her group of friends, "I honestly doubted that he would do it."

'Nightmare' turned to perceive Talia's stunned expression. Her face remained frozen with that expression for a while, before she turned to him and acknowledged, "I honestly wouldn't have done it myself."

'Nightmare' smiled a small smile, before he responded, "Sometimes, you just have to put down your pride in order to achieve a higher standard."

Talia looked affronted. She then turned away, flustered. Failing to hide her emotion, Talia snapped at their five remaining passengers, "Marie, Cyndi, Eve, Fern, Ani! Get to the carriage right now!"

"Actually..." interjected 'Nightmare'. He approached the carriage and purposefully broke off the last pillar. This severed the roof completely from the carriage. 'Nightmare' tossed the broken roof onto the grass. "Now," he corrected, "It's a chariot."

He turned to find Talia's glare grow even more menacing. Talia felt even more irritated now. She hated it when people were one step ahead of her, and what he just did proved that he was more knowledgeable than her, even though he was nearly a year older than her. She still felt bothered, before she thought that she caught him grinning through the aperture in his mask. She bit her lip, and resisted the impulse to melt at the sight of him smiling, but his grin had already mollified her. With a sigh, Talia wearily pointed to the chariot and directed, "Now," to Ani, Marie, Cyndi, Eve, and Fern.

Knowing what to do, the startled girls snapped to attention. Marie even saluted, before they immediately dashed inside the chariot with unrefined corners, since the poles had snapped off the corners. Fern was about to shut the gate to the chariot, before Eve protested, "Wait, what about Talia?"

'Nightmare' immediately ran to the chariot and shut the gate for Fern, before he swiftly swung his legs on Blaze. He taunted, "Don't worry about her, she'll be fine."

"What?!" shrieked Cyndi.

Ani shook her feathers angrily, and insisted, "We are not leaving our friend behind!"

'Nightmare' joked, "Mathematically, there's not enough space in the chariot for her. Hee-yaw!" Without delay, 'Nightmare' had taken ahold of the reins and induced Blaze into a gallop. Obediently, Blaze bounded across the grass, beat his mighty wings, and then took off into the vast, blue sky.

Stunned, Talia watched them go. She could hear a few screams, as she imagined her… friends… holding on tightly to the sides of the chariot. Then, she heard Blaze neigh, as one of the girls yelled, "But there is enough room in the chariot for one more person!" Talia still didn't know how to react to how everyone was so open to her— they didn't want to leave her alone. She also knew that 'Nightmare' didn't mean to come off as unwelcoming, because she thought that she saw him wink at her, right before he took off into the clouds.

[Meanwhile...]

Joy took Melody's temperature. It was still higher than normal. Joy's face tensed into worry. She'd tried nearly everything to lower Melody's temperature. So far, she had used several ice bags, cool liquids from water to juices, and even opened all the windows for fresh air, but she didn't give Melody any medication. Joy took a handkerchief and wiped away the sweat on her forehead. This was the strangest case that she had ever had. The reason why she did not give Melody any medicine was because she did not seem to have a fever. There was no cough, nor sneezing that came from her. It was just a scorchingly hot forehead. Joy was sure that if it got any worse, then they could cook eggs on her forehead. Speaking of "they"…

Joy pivoted when she heard the sound of heels clomp against the tiles of the floor. Joy inhaled in shock, "Sierra, what are you doing here?" Catching eyes full of disinterest from Sierra, along with lips drawn in a cheerless expression, Joy began suspecting something. She felt Sierra may have felt grouchy, after she had been waiting for something quite long. Sierra had never been the most patient anyway. Joy questioned apprehensively, "Wait… how long have you been here for?"

Sierra just kept the same expression, and walked towards the bed next to the entrance that held Raine.

Joy reported, "Oh, it's not Raine that I'm having trouble with, it's…"

Sierra ceased Joy's blabbering with a gesture of her hand, "It's not Melody's abnormal condition that I'm concerned about…"

Joy interjected, as she waved her arms about, "Wait, what?! I have a patient with a case that I've never seen before, and you're…"

Sierra paused Joy's ranting again, "That's enough."

Joy huffed irritably, and bit her own tongue, as she watched Sierra pull out a large, brown briefcase. Joy hadn't noticed it until now, since it was concealed from her view by Sierra's long, blue dress.

Sierra sat down on a stool, before she began unlocking the briefcase. She sneezed loudly once, before she eyed Raine. She snapped at Joy, "Take those horrid flowers off of her!"

Joy looked at Raine's slumped figure. Her hands were clutching a purple bouquet of lavender that had been laid upon her chest. Joy knew that it would be horrendous of her to take it away, since she knew that her companions had dropped by earlier to give her them. It especially tormented her to know that the brown-haired one felt torn to leave her, after he was the one who placed the bouquet on her. It seemed that he would never leave the hospital ward, until the one who appeared to be his brother dragged him away. They had to attend their next class, after all. Joy had given them instructions to get to their next class, in order to prevent them from getting lost.

Joy glared at Sierra. She shook her head and lamented, "But those flowers are from…"

Sierra snapped, before she sneezed again, "Does it matter? You're going to have another patient in here, if you don't…"

"Ohh," realized Joy, as she reluctantly removed the flowers promptly. The moment that she removed the flowers, she noticed that Raine's hands jerked, trying to reach for her flowers. Failing to find them within that moment, her hands tensed, and fell back upon her chest. Joy turned away, as she saw Sierra blowing her nose into some tissues. She perceived that Sierra had allergies. Perhaps that was why Sierra rarely strode outside. Joy then eyed the briefcase, as Sierra opened it.

Sierra pulled out a syringe and needle, and assembled them together.

Joy recoiled, recognizing that those tools were alike the ones that nurses normally gave kids vaccination shots with. She watched Sierra swirled the translucent, cyan-blue mixture within the syringe.

Sierra hissed, "This won't take long."