A Cold Life

by gracial

Shadow in the Distance

Nurse Redheart had had an exhausting day. It had been a regular morning until a mother, her husband, and their two foals came in. At first, they seemed like regular ponies. The father had come for a regular check-up. He was lead into the back room, and the other three sat down quietly. That's when it began.

Apparently, the kids didn't like having to sit still for too long, so for the entire time they were waiting, they were horseplaying. The played leap frog, duck duck goose (which was just basically tag, but they kept saying 'goose' whenever one touched the other), and wrestling. She shivered at the memory of the two wrestling until they had practically destroyed the entire waiting room. Nurse Redheart had attempted to calm them down, but got scolded by the mother for 'surpressing their creativity' or something. The woman had been sputtering complete nonsense.

So, after the father came out, they left, having not paid for the damages. Redheart had to spend the rest of the day cleaning up the waiting room. Luckily, it was a slow day, so she didn't have to worry about anything else.

When she was finished, the day was over. She lounged in her chair for a few minutes before heading home, deciding that she had earned it. Right before she was ready to get up and leave, there was a loud 'bang' and the hospital doors swung open. She looked to see two mares, one with another pony lying on her back. “We need a doctor, NOW!”

Forgetting her weariness, Redheart sat up and called for a doctor. There was a quick response, and the cyan pegasus was wheeled off to another room. The three other ponies followed quickly, Redheart having adorned her mask.

The two ponies stood off to the side, allowing the doctors to do their jobs. “Oh I hope she'll be alright” Snowi said with a worried expression on her face.

“Don't worry,” Twilight said, “she's a tough mare, she'll be back to flying in no time.” In her heart, she knew that a gash like that wasn't enough to bring down Rainbow Dash. It was only a few inches, Dash had gone through much worse.

Regardless of what she knew, however, she still hated to see her friend like this. 'Whoever or whatever did this to her,' she thought to herself, 'is gonna pay.'

Snowi was not so sure about what Twilight said. Gashes like that can still take a pony's leg, if hit by a disease. 'What if whatever did that to her was diseased? What if it had a poison on it?' She didn't know what to think.

Twilight placed her hand on the other mare's shoulder, "Stop worrying so much. The doctors will treat it with antibiotics so it won't get infected, and if there is anything they'll find it before it gets her." This seemed to calm her down and the two watched as Rainbow Dash was treated.

After about an hour, the doctors told them that she was going to be fine. They said that she had head trauma, and that it was remarkable the she even managed to walk far enough to reach them. They put her on some medication, and said that she needs to get some rest. The last thing they said, however, deeply disturbed them. They had never seen the kind of gash she had on her leg. Sure, they had seen gashes like it, but the unicorn doctors said they felt some slight dark magic emitting from it. Dark, they had no other way to describe it.

They brought a barely conscious Rainbow Dash back to the library. She hobbled most of the way, Twilight eventually insisting that she get on her back so that she could carry her. She didn't bother arguing, she was far too tired.

When they arrived back at the library Twilight put Rainbow Dash in the guest bed, Snowi choosing to sleep on the couch again. While Snowi found sleep with ease, Twilight was not so fortunate. She spent half the night just laying in her bed, unable to stop thinking about what may have left that dark magic behind. The doctors had healed the wound, so she was unable to study it herself.

She eventually decided to write a letter to Celestia, though she would have to send it later when Spike was awake. It only told about the events that had transpired over that night and not much more than requesting some enlightenment on what it may have been.

For the rest of the night she looked through several books on creatures of the Everfree. She come up with nothing that used so-called “dark magic” or anything like it. It began to worry her that whatever attacked her friend was something unknown and thus posed an unknown threat.

When the sun rose, she was so tired that she wanted to go back to bed. However, she had things to do, and they required her to be awake today. She had a cup of coffee then went for a walk, knowing that the others wouldn't be awake for a while.

On her walk, she noticed a few ponies up at the crack of dawn. 'Early to rise ponies, should've known this walk wouldn't be completely lonely' she thought. “Wait a minute,” she said to herself, “Applejack's probably awake already! Well, at least I'll have someone to talk to.” She darted towards Sweet Apple Acres, hoping that her friend didn't sleep in today.

When she arrived, she saw Applejack moving some stuff out of the barn. “Well howdy Twi, what brings you up here so early?” The orange mare greeted her with the warm welcoming she had come to expect from the hospitable farm pony.

“Applejack,” Twilight started, “last night, Rainbow Dash got hurt by some...thing. None of the doctors could figure out what it was, and I wasn't able to study her wounds to see.”

Applejack gasped in surprise, “RD got attacked? Is she okay?”

Twilight was still trying to catch her breath from the run. “Yeah,” she said through her gasps of air, “the doctors fixed her up and she's resting at my house right now.”

Applejack exhaled in relief, “That's good to hear. Now, why are ya tellin me about this thing that ya'll can't seem to figure out?”

Twilight shrugged, “I guess I need somepony to talk to. This creature is on the loose terrorizing ponies. I'm a bit concerned as to whether it's really a threat or not.”

“Well, right now only Rainbow can tell us that. Ah mean, she IS the only pony who actually saw the thing.” Applejack stated.

Twilight lifted her head, “Yeah, I know that. I'm just a little anxious right now I guess.”

Applejack placed a hoof on her shoulder, “Why don't ya head back to bed Twi? Ya'll look a little tired.”

Twilight smiled, “Well, I did stay up all night, so that's predictable. Seeya later Applejack!” The purple mare pulled away and headed back to the treehouse.

Applejack went back to the tools she had been moving earlier, when a giant shadow was cast over her, “What the?” She turned around to see something out of a horror film, “Oh mah lor-”

Author's Note:

You know, after writing this chapter I liked AJ a lot more. I realized that she's actually a real nice pony, and it feels dishonest (see what I did there?) to say otherwise. Too bad about what happened at that last part though, makes me feel kinda bad.

Comments

[thesilentpony]

you really don't need to update so quickly!
great first story by the way

also advice: join a group, you'll get noticed way more!

[gracial]

2922132 Useful comment, yay! Also, I update so quickly because I like writing stories, it's kinda a hobby. However, this story already had the five chapters beforehand. It was previously being written on deviantART, but I decided to bring it here.

[thesilentpony]

2923496
yes but see when you update it shows your story in the updated area, so the most you normally want to update is once a day, it'll help get it noticed more

[gracial]

2924424 That's as much as I do anyways, but good to know I shouldn't do more

[Big115brony]

Nice, I felt that the walk with twi didn't make much sense, was she restless and then decided to walk? Or what?
Also...

She shivered at the memory of the two wresteling until thye had practically destroyed the entire waiting room.

Just a tiny error, and the and made it seem like you rushed in order to add Applejack's attack (?). Also, when I opened up the story, it sent me to chapter 7, so, after reading the first paragraph, I kinda saw Applejack being involved that way coming.