Chapter 1
It was a warm and sunny afternoon. Leif had spent the last few days prepareing to search for his cousin, as noone in his family, neither pony nor griffon, knew where she went after being banished from the Griffion Kingdoms.The only lead he had was her old friend Rainbow Dash, and she had moved to Ponyville quiet some time ago. Her parents passed about four years ago, his mother Medical Guard was assigned to train the members of the relativly new Crystal Guard in first aid and his father Achaius Whisperwing couldn´t just take a vacation, after all he was the best doctor at Cloudsdale Clinic, so Leif was the only one available. This was mostly because he quit his job as paramedic in Cloudsdale, because he couldn´t stand how he was treated by his coworkers anymore.
Ponyville shouldn´t be far away now. After I arrive should I inquire after Rainbow first or search for an inn to stay at? maybe I will be lucky and-
A dull thud interrupted his thougths. As he looked down, he saw three foals, an orange pegasus, a yellow earthpony and a ligthgrey unicorn. A red stain on the unicorns head implied that the sound came from him/her hiting the tree. Leif immediatly started to decent and about eleven seconds later he landed near the fillys. Minding his threatening look, he decided to introduce himself before coming nearer: "Hello I heard how you hit this tree, my name is Leif Guard, may I see how I can help you?"
As the fillys turned to look at him they didn´t quite know what to make of him, he had the head of an eagle, wings that looked like those of a griffon and claws instead of forhooves, but the rest of his body looked like a normal pony with a red coat, white and blue tail, and a cutie mark consisting of a live belt with a red cross on a white background inside. It took a momen till the yellow filly composed herself before and asking: "What kind of pony are ya, mister Guard, you look so weird, no offence."
"Just call me Leif, and I´m a hippogriff, but can your answers wait till later, I want to take a look at our friends head and neck." He answered, allready takeing a tiny flashlight and a bandage out of his saddlebags, "now can you look me in the eyes miss-"
"Sweetie Belle" the unicorn introduced herself woozy.
"Sweetie Belle, I will shine in your eyes with my flashlight to check how bad you hit your head." After this short explanatin he checked if her pupils both reacted to the ligth and, as he didn´t find a difference between them, he went on to tell her: "now I will wrap this bandage about your head, so the wound will stay clean is that okay with you?" After Sweetie nodded, he carefully bandaged her head. He then took out a bottle of water and took a gulp out of it. He then breathed out a cloud about he size of a foal´s head.
"Now to make shure you won´t damage your neck if it is hurt, i will use this cloud to imobilize it and then we bring you to the next hospital, so they can check your neck and head in detail in case I missed something." He then formed the cloud to fit aroumd her neck, and then increased the arpressure in it using techniques his father taugth him, so it was tnagible for non-pegasi and put it around her neck so it fit snuggly.
"Now that your friend is taken care of, have you some form of transportation to take her to the hospital, and do you know where the next one would be?"
"I pulled us here with my scooter, while the other two rode in our cart and the next Would be Ponyville General." the pegasus filly explained," but how did you make that cloud, and how is it dense enough for Sweetie to touch it?"
"Let´s get your friend in the cart carefully and while we bring her to hospital we introduce each other and I answer al your questionsif you can answer two questions I have." After the two healthy fillys agreed, he helped them to seat Sweetie belle in the cart nd took the hand le and began pulling it, while the pegasus led the way.
"So my full name is Leif Guard Whisperwing as you already told you I`m a hippogriff, which means I´m half griffon and half pony, which is also the reason I could comprese the cloud. You see pegasus magic works on the water vapor in the air, while Griffon magic works with the air itself, so in order to breath a cloud, I increase the pressure of my breath, so the water get´s spread wider than normal, and by 'stopping' the tiny dropplets, I force them to become a cloud. To make it tangible for non-pegasi, I reduce the presure inside it till of some the water gets solid, I create a cloud thats tangible for all ponies, but it won´t stay afloat in the air on its own anymore."
"My name´s Scootloo and I´m Rainbow Dash´s honorary little sister." the pegaus filly introduced herself, "but can you do anything else with this hippogriff-magic of yours?"
"Well I can move and form clouds like every pegasus, but I besides letting it rain out of a cloud I´m no use for weathermaking. I can however send out a presure wave with my breath, originally it was a figthing technique of the griffons, but i managed to modify it so I works like a echo sounder, to help me find drowning ponies at nigth. My father also taugth me how to fly with out making a sound, but there isn´t much magic involved in that." he explained to the pegasus,"but you mentioned Rainbow Dash? Because I came to Ponyville to ask her about a mutual aquaintance."He then turned to the earthpony, " Also what´s your name?"
"ah´m Apple Bloom, and ah wanted to know how strong you can do this presure shout thingie" the yellow filly said.
"Well the worst I can do is o make everypony before me dizzy for a minute or two, I could do worse damage if I trained for it, but I don´t really want to hurt anypony, that would result in extra work for me and I´m to lazy to do extra work."
They talked like this until they arrived at the hospital.
As they entered the lobby, the fillys and hippogriff were greated by a mare behind a desk: "Hello, I´m nurse Redheart how can I help you?"
"Sweetie Belle her hit her head, she has an open wound about a centimeter long, she was dazed when I came to help them, so she migth have a concussion. I also imobilized her neck to be on the safe side." Leif informed her professionaly.
"Ok Sweetie Belle your Rarity´s sister rigth?"
"Yes" Sweetie confirmed.
"Ok then take a seat and I will get nurse Tenderheart, she will bring you to your room and call yor sister so she can pick you up tomorrow."
"Why can´t she take me home now?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Because we need to make sure you don´t suffer delayed symptoms of you concussion, they can come in effect up to 24h after the initial injury." The nurse explained to the fillys, "On the brigth side, you hit your head in the afternoon, so you won´t need to go to school tomorrow."
At that moment, Tenderheart came into the lobby and, after a short introduction, took Sweetie Belle deeper in to the hospital.
"Mister-how was your name again?- you handled that situation quite professionaly, do you have some medical experience?" Redheart asked, because unknown to Leif and the girls, Ponyville General was in dire need of a paramedic since the last one moved away because she couldn´t stand the near weekly disasters in Ponyville anymore.
"Leif, Leif Guard Whisperwing and yes I worked as paramedic in Cloudsdale until last week, I´m also trained as lifeguard, why do you ask?"
"You see our last paramedic moved away because of ehm 'personal issues' so we are searching for somepony to fill this spot"
Well a change of scenery would do me some good, and they seem to be more open minded than those bigots at Cloudsdal clinic, the hippogriff mused,"Well I think I could give this a try, do you perchance have a dutyroom I could spent the nigth in? Then we can do the paperwork tomorrow when I´m rested."
"Ok if you start tomorrow it should be okay if you use the dutyroom tonigth it´s through the rigth door then the third door on the left." Redheart explained.
"Okay I will go there shortly", Leif told the nurse before turning to Scootaloo, "can you ask Rainbow Dash to meet me tomorrow, tell her I´m Gilda´s cousin and that we need to talk about her."
"Sure can do," she then turned to Applebloom," come on I bring you home, bye nurse Redheart, by Leif."
After the fillys left, Leif went to the dutyroom noteing that it was quite furnished quite simple a three story bed, and lockers, one of which wasn´t labled. he put his saddlebags in to the unlabled locker and then laid down on the top bed and drifted of to sleep.