Descending Darkness

by Mr Tinkertrain

An unexpected visitor

Twilight Sparkle was reading on a bench in the park since it was a nice day, she thought she could read the book about old pony tales outside of the library. It wasn’t good to be inside all the time anyways. But she was so focused on her lecture that she didn’t notice her surroundings, which lead to a massive shock as somepony spoke to her. “Hey Twilight!” Rainbow Dash was hovering just in front of the bench Twilight picked to read and looked down on the unicorn. “Did you already hear it? They found an injured stallion at the border of the town.” Twilight just needed to recover from the previous shock to fully comprehend what her friend just told her, but she didn’t get a chance to answer. “Nopony has seen him before. He just came from nowhere with some serious wounds on his flanks. Hey, if you want to check it out, you should go to the hospital, they brought him there.” Twilight was about to answer her friend, but got cut off again before she could say a single word. “I just thought you wanted to know. Well, gotta go now again, clearin’ the clouds and stuff.” The athletic pegasus turned around and flew away, leaving Twilight behind with an open mouth.

Twilight shook her head as she looked after her winged friend. But she should pay a visit to the hospital, though. She packed her book and went in the direction of the hospital. The closer she came to it, the more ponies crossed her way. It looked like everypony was going to the hospital to see what was going on there. Soon, Twilight thought that almost entire Ponyville must have come to the hospital. Soon, she couldn’t get any closer to the hospitals entrance, so she decided to use her magic to teleport there. Just a blink and she was standing behind the front doors of the hospital, where one of the local doctors tried to keep the door closed under all circumstances. “Hey you! How did you get in here?” He was asking right in the moment he noticed Twilight in the hospital. “Magic!” She yelled over her shoulder and went to the reception. She put her fore hooves on the counter as she saw Twilight coming in, and the glasses she wore on her nose. “How did you …” Twilight didn’t let her finish her sentence. “Magic! Can you tell me where this stallion is who was found at the borders of the town?” She asked the nurse, a friendly smile on her face.

The nurse just looked at her and pointed then down a hallway. “He’s in room 10.” The nurse answered and went on with her previous work, ignoring Twilight now. The unicorn just shrugged and walked down the hallway till she reached room 10. She opened the door and stopped for a moment, as the smell of sickness rose up into her nostrils. She suddenly remembered why she didn’t like hospitals. They always smelled so awfully of disease and sickness. She pulled herself together and entered the room. It seemed so sterile with its white walls. In the room were only a few beds lined up, with white blankets and pillows on them. Only one of the beds was occupied – by a stallion with brown fur and mane and a helmet as his cutie mark, who was lying with the back to her. Some blood drenched bandages were wrapped around his chest, and Twilight could hear him breathing. The unicorn stepped closer onto the wounded stallion.

“What happened to you?” She whispered, standing now very close at the bed. She could clearly see that the bandages didn’t get changed for quite some time now, probably because of the masses of ponies who wanted to catch a look of who they found. She remembered that she still carried her book and dropped it on the next free table top she saw. Somepony knocked at the only window of the room, which was covered by curtains. A nurse must have closed the window and the curtains because of the pegasi. Anyway, Twilight already guesses who knocked on the window. She opened the curtains just to see a well-known face of a cyan colored pegasus with a rainbow colored mane. Twilight also opened the window now to let Rainbow Dash in.

The athletic pegasus flew in too fast and almost crashed into the bed at the opposite wall. She just sopped in time and was standing next to Twilight now. “So you’ve cleared the sky already, mh?” Rainbow was just looking at her friend. “Hey, I proved it already that I can clear the entire sky in ten seconds flat!” Twilight had to smile as she remembered the moment when she met Rainbow for the first time. The pegasus stepped onto the bed in which the stallion was lying. “So … this is this stallion they found at the city’s borders, huh?” She asked the lavender unicorn, who stood by her side. “Yes. This is the one.” They looked at him for a while, until Rainbow broke the silence. “Well, is he gonna make it through?” Twilight just shrugged as answer. “I don’t know; it is not like I’m not a medic or a doctor.”

A soft whispering from the bed let the two ponies fall silent immediately. “Did you hear that?” Twilight asked her friend. “I think he said something.” They moved even closer to him, a curious look on their faces. The stallion slowly opened his eyes and tried to say something, but nothing else than a whispering could be heard. “Did you understand what he said, Twi?” The pegasus didn’t looked at her friend as she asked her. He eyes were locked on the stallion who was slowly waking up from the coma he was in. “Stay quiet, Rainbow, I think he’s trying to say something.”

It was just another whisper, but this time they both tried to listen. “I think he asks where he is.” Twilight was stating, while Rainbow was answering to the wounded stallion. “You’re in the hospital of Ponyville.” They looked up as somepony coughed at the door. It was the local doctor, Redcross. “You should leave now, girls. This stallion got severe wounds and needs rest. You shouldn’t be in here at all. How did you get past the front gates anyway?” The two friends looked at each other and smiled. “Wings.” Rainbow replied and stretched her wings, while Twilight tipped at her horn. “Magic.” Before the doctor could say something else, Twilight teleported away and Rainbow flew out of the window again. The pegasus could see how Redcross muttered something as he closed the window and curtains again. Twilight had just left them open earlier.

A while after their visit in the hospital, Twilight and Rainbow met up again at the park bench Twilight was reading before her friend told her about the injured stallion in the hospital. “This guy surely is pissed right now!” Rainbow couldn’t help but laugh about it, while Twilight kept serious. “What do you think where this guy comes from?” She asked her friend, who was rolling on the floor in laugher. Rainbow suddenly stopped and looked up to her friend. “Do you really think I would know that? You’re the egghead here. For me, I couldn’t see anything that could tell us where he came from.” She shrugged. “Does it matter?” The unicorn shook her head. “Probably, I don’t know. It would be really helpful to know where he comes from, or at least his name.” The pegasus thought about it for a moment. “Do you think this would be important?”

Now it was the unicorns turn to shrug. “I don’t know, it could probably be important, though.” Rainbow just looked at her friend in disbelief. “Are you serious? Have you seen this bandage? I am more worried about what could cause such wounds than where he comes from or what his name was. If whatever did this is still around, it is possibly dangerous! Did you think about that yet?” The unicorn blushed as her friend reminded her of the wounds. She should have had this idea herself. “Well, I guess we can’t do much but wait till he gets well again, do we?” The athletic pegasus rolled on her back and looked up to the purple mare. “I don’t think that Redcross would be happy to see us again in the hospital, talking to that stallion.” They kept quiet for a while, until Twilight broke the silence. “Do you think we should tell the princesses about what happened here?”

Rainbow looked up to her and got on her hooves again. “If it was important, somepony would have done it right now. And if princess Celestia would consider it important, she would be here already and take care of that stuff.” Twilight nodded, after she thought a bit about it. “Yeah, I guess you’re right, Rainbow.” The pegasus, who was satisfied with this answer, almost forgot about the stranger almost immediately. “So … are we gonna sit here the entire day or are we gonna do something?” Her friend looked around quickly, checking the surroundings for her book she brought here earlier. “I think I’ve left my book in the hospital. Do you mind getting it back for me?” She smiled at the pegasus, who just shook her head. “You’ll have to get it yourself, the doctor closed the window after I was out. You know that you can’t open them from the outside without magic.” She looked into the unicorn’s purple eyes. “Fine, you open up the window and I’ll check for your book …”

A few moments later they were standing on the roof of the hospital again. Rainbow was lying with her hooves hanging down the edge and looked downwards. “You sure that this is the right window?” She asked her friend, without looking up. “This entire thing looks all the same everywhere.” Twilight stepped next to her friend and looked also down. “Yes, I’m sure, this is the right window.” She closed her eyes to concentrate better and her horn was glowing up for a moment, then Rainbow could hear a soft clicking noise from below as the window unlocked. “Just one question, though, Twi. Why don’t you just teleport down there and get the book yourself? You don’t really need me to do it.” The lavender mare opened her eyes again and looked with her purple colored eyes at her friend. “I didn’t think about that. Besides of that I dislike hospitals.”

The pegasus didn’t seem to be very amused about that. “Because I like them so much better. Let’s get this over with already.” She took off of the roof and flew down to the window. It was quite easy to open it from the outside once it was unlocked. She flew in and looked around. Everything was like it was when they got thrown out by the doctor. She flew and quickly found Twilights book. She must have put it on a table top as she let Rainbow inside the hospital. The pegasus grabbed the book, as the wounded stallion said something, now with a louder voice. It seems he recovered enough to speak now. “I got a duty to fulfill.” He said, and Rainbow was startled by his words, as she didn’t expect them. She moved a bit closer to the bed, only to see that he was sleep talking. Steps on the floor caused her to fly out of the hospital again, but not without closing the window carefully behind her.

She had to tell Twilight about this. If this guy had a mission in Canterlot, the unicorn was probably right about it being probably important. But before they could do anything, they would have to wait till the stallion got better and could go out of the hospital again. And this would take a while with those injuries on his flank.