Descending Darkness

by Mr Tinkertrain

Revelation

“So, you say this guy in the hospital isn’t just a wanderer who passed through Ponyville?” Twilight asked the pegasus as they were walking back to the library. “Hey, I just heard him sleep talking. Could be that it just means nothing.” The lavender unicorn ignored her. “This means that this could really be important …” Rainbow was just hovering beneath her and let her head hanging. “Not this again … Twi, really, you should just wait until this guy gets well again.” She pointed back to the hospital. “You can even camp in front of the hospital and ask him about every single detail as soon as he gets out.” Twilight didn’t look really convinced. “But what if it is really important …” She tried to contradict her friend, who just was fed up with this talk about this guy being important.

The pegasus just sighed and gave up. “Fine, write your letter to the princess … not that I would stop you from doing it.” Twilight was just looking at her friend as if she said something silly. “What? Do you want to tell me you don’t want to write the letter to the princess anymore and solve this on your own?” The grin on Twilights face told the pegasus that she was right, but the unicorn told her otherwise. “No, I won’t do it on my own. WE will do it on OUR own.” The pegasus stopped walking and just looked at her friend in completely disbelief. “You don’t mean this serious … do you?” She just put her hoof at her forehead as the unicorn nodded in a convinced manner. “You were there, in the hospital. You’ve seen the bandages soaked with blood. Why in Equestria would you want to do this on your own?”

“You were the one who complained about it that this probably isn’t important enough to bother the princess with … And now you suddenly want to tell the princess?” The pegasus now gave ultimately up. She didn’t want to discuss with Twilight. “See, Twi … I’ll come with you.” A third pony came suddenly out of nowhere. “Coming with you to where?” Pinkie just hugged them both as greeting and didn’t wait for any of them to respond. “I’ll come with you, of course! Where do we go?” Rainbow, who was the first who winded out of Pinkie’s hug, was also the first replying to the pink pony. “Pinkie, well … We don’t have an idea.” Pinkie released Twilight out of her hug, who was instantly trying to specify what her winged friend just said. “Did you hear about the stallion they found at the city’s borders?” The pink pony placed a hoof on her chin and thought about it. “Why, yes, I have heard about that. But I didn’t pay much attention to it, I was preparing a party!”

Pinkie Pie was jumping around her friends, but Twilight hold her down to the ground for a while. “Rainbow here said that she heard how he was sleep talking of some duty when she got my book out there. So it is probably important and we’ll investigate this now … If you want you can come with us, of course.” She raised a hoof with the book. “Let me bring this back to the library and think about it. We’ll meet up tomorrow afternoon at the hospital then!” The unicorn was waving her hoof as she went into the direction of the library, and Pinkie turned over to Rainbow. “Hey Rainbow! You wanna make some muffins with me?” The pegasus just shrugged. “I got nothing to do anyway, so I guess anything goes …” They went off together to Sugarcube Corner.

As Twilight went to the hospital the next day, she could just see Pinkie waiting for her with a basket full of muffins. The pink pony was more than excited as she saw the lavender mare trotting towards her. “Hey Pinkie. Have you seen Rainbow around today?” Her friend shook her head. “Not today, no. Last time I saw her was when she left Sugarcube Corner. Want a muffin?” She hold one of the muffins almost directly under Twilights nose. “No, thank you, Pinkie. I would rather know where Rainbow is …?” Her question got answered as a certain pegasus almost crashed down in front of her, but could catch the dive just in time before hitting the ground headfirst. “Sorry for being late guys, I forgot the time!” Rainbow said after she landed.

“Well, then let’s go then.” Twilight was the first one to walk towards the front entrance of the hospital. Unlike yesterday, nopony was here. Not a single one. Twilight just guessed that they were tired of standing around. As they entered the hospital, they were a bit surprised by how busy it was in here. Twilights guess was wrong: They weren’t tired of standing, they weren’t tired of standing – they just moved from the outside to the inside. The three friends pushed the one or other pony out of their way as they moved through the masses. In a spare moment, Rainbow turned tapped the unicorn in front of her on the shoulder. “Twi, why don’t you just teleport past all those ponies?” The answer the lavender mare gave her friend was quite simple: “Because we don’t know if they moved him or not.”

Rainbow kept quiet, thinking about what her friend just told her. They finally reached the reception, but as Twilight asked about the stallion, the nurse behind the counter couldn’t understand her because of the noise all those ponies in the room caused. Twilight had to yell so she could be heard. “In which room is the stranger?” She yelled over the noise. The nurse just pointed down the same hallway again and said something that sounded like ten. Same room, then. Twilight tried to concentrate enough to cast the teleport spell on herself and her friends, but it wasn’t very easy with the noise around the reception, but she managed to do it. A blink of an eye later, they were already standing in the room, where one of the doctors tried to keep the door closed.

He noticed them just a few moments later, but when he did, he asked them for help. “Hey, you there! I don’t know how you came in, but help me to get this door closed!” While Rainbow went over to the door and did her best to close it while the doctor locked it. He then swiped off the sweat of his forehead as he turned to the three ponies. “Well … thanks. You know, this is the first patient with severe wounds we have here since ages. No wonder that everypony wants to look.” He shrugged. “We wouldn’t care about it, if they wouldn’t come all at once. The entire hospital is a mess.” He pointed over to a stallion lying on a bed in the corner. “He is awake; you girls can speak to him if you want to.” The doctor turned his back to them and then just minded his own business.

While Twilight and Rainbow already knew how he looked, Pinkie’s eyes went all big as she stared on the bandages. The personnel of the hospital had changed them and only a few stains of blood were on the new ones. The stallion looked at them as they stepped towards him. “I know you. You were here before.” He said, as they stood in front of him. “You may not know me or even trust me, but you need to help me. I have to get out of this hospital.” Before Twilight could react, Rainbow moved her head close to his. “Why are you in such a hurry to get outta here when you’re still wounded?” She couldn’t tell why, but he had a convinced and stoic look in his eyes.

“My name is Dust, I’ve been sent from a town far in the east to deliver a package to Canterlot Castle. I’ve been charged with that duty and I will fulfill it … even if I have to die for it.” The pegasus moved her head back and looked at her friends. “Do you think we can trust him?” Pinkie smiled and nodded. “Sure we can!” She said in her usual euphoric manner. Twilight, however, wasn’t quite sure about it. “When you were sent to deliver a package … Why didn’t you carry it when you were found at the towns borders?” She asked Dust with an undertone of suspiciousness, and the stallion looked on the ground as the talk came on the package he told of earlier.

“I’ve ran into a waylay, something attacked me in the night shortly before I reached this town. Whatever it was, it didn’t just almost kill me – it also stole my saddlebags and the object within them. I …” He was cut off by Twilight, who raised a hoof. “Wait, wait … You want to tell me you didn’t even know what you were carrying?” Dust just shook his head. “No, they didn’t tell me. And the side of the saddlebag with the object is sealed with magic, so I couldn’t even take a look on it. But I guess whatever attacked me was after what was in those bags.

“Hey, we’ll help you to get your stuff back, of course!” Pinkie said before any of her friends could prevent her from it. Rainbow turned her head over to Twilight. “Well, Twi … It sounds pretty made-up to me. What do you think ‘bout this?” Twilight put one of her hooves on her forehead. “I don’t know … It could be made-up, thought it could be true …” She removed her hoof from her head and looked at the injured stallion in front of her. “Tell us, where did you get attacked by this thing?” she asked him, but he just shrugged. “I should’ve reached this town from the east, but I’m not sure. If you want to look for the place where it stole my saddlebags, you should look for a small group of trees somewhere around this town.”

The lavender unicorn looked disappointed. “I hoped for more than this, but we’ll go and look for it.” He nodded and closed his eyes. “Please hurry.” Those were the last words they heard from him, as they went out again. “Do you believe him, Twi?” Rainbow still didn’t trust the stranger. “I don’t know, but we definitely should check for the spot he said he got attacked. Pinkie and I will check the south and west, and you will check north and east since you’re the fastest of us.” Twilight spoke the last words when they left the hospital again. “Remember, he said he got dragged into a small group of trees … so keep an eye out for them. If you find something, come to me. If not, we meet up at the library then.” The pegasus saluted and flew off to do what Twilight told her.

Twilight looked around the tree, but could see nothing. She checked now every tree and every group of trees very carefully without success. She couldn’t find any trace of where the stranger said he got attacked. She looked up, letting the afternoon sun shining into her face. “Hey Twi! I think I found something!” Pinkie came walking along with a piece of fabric on her back. “Look at this!” She threw the fabric over to Twilight, who caught it with her hooves. “Pinkie, where did you find this?” The pink pony scratched her head. “Uhhh … between some bushes … and trees … and … some weird, red grass, I think.”

Twilight hold the piece of fabric in her hooves and looked at it. It had some dried blood on it. “I think this ‘weird red grass’ was just normal grass, Pinkie.” She looked at the pink pony, who had a questioning look upon her face. “Normal grass – covered in blood. It looks like Dust’s story is true. Show me where you found this, now. Probably we’ll find something else there.” She followed as the pink pony led her to a place nearby. Twilight had the smell of dried blood in her nostrils before she could see it. “Yes, his story is true.”

She looked upon a small spot between some bushes and trees which was covered in blood. It was dried and hard now. They looked around this place carefully, but couldn’t find much more than some cracked branches. “Let’s go back to the library and wait for Rainbow.” She said to Pinkie Pie, who nodded. The pink pony was just happy to get away from this place.

Comments

[NoxCaelum]

You've got me exited now, can't wait for the next chapter!

[Mr Tinkertrain]

80382 I promise you won't have to wait very long ... next chapter is halfway done