Rainbow Dash paced up and down the hallway, her hooves making small clack sounds on the linoleum floor. Her friends sat against the walls, waiting apprehensively. Fluttershy absent-mindedly tapped her fetlocks together, while on her left Pinkie Pie toyed with the gigantic pink bow that adorned her ‘GET WELL REALLY SOON!’ basket of cakes. Applejack sat wringing her hooves nervously as Rarity groaned aloud at nopony in particular:
“Oohh, I can’t stand all this waiting!”
“That goes for the both of us, Rarity.” Rainbow Dash replied as she strode up and down the corridor of Ponyville Medical Clinic (Emergency Ward), “Nurse Redheart said she’d tell us how she’s doing soon, and that was, like, hours ago!”
“Oh, I hope nothing bad’s happened!” Fluttershy squeaked.
“You mean, worse than finding one of our best friends passed out on the fringe of the Everfree Forest with nopony else around?” Rainbow snapped sarcastically.
The heads of the five ponies turned as there came that familiar squeak of an opening door. Their breath held in apprehension, they watched as Nurse Redheart emerged from the adjacent room. The white pony’s face gave away
nothing.
“Nurse! How’s she doing?”
“Is she gonna be alright?!”
“What happened?!”
Redheart held a hoof to her mouth with a gentle “Sshh!” before joining the five worried young ponies.
“First off, “She said, “I’d like to thank you all for bringing Miss Sparkle to me straight away. You did exactly the right thing.”
Applejack pushed Rainbow Dash forwards “Wouldn’t have happened if Rainbow Dash here didn’t find Twilight when she did.”
“Heh, well what else could I do?” Rainbow Dash replied, bashfully waving her tail. “You’d have done the same.”
“Yeah, but not as fast as you, Dashie!” Pinkie replied, as she hugged her rainbow-hued friend.
“Well, you’ll be glad to know that she’s well on her way to recovery. She’ll be fine.”
The five ponies breathed a deep collective sigh of relief. Applejack stood forwards “So then, what exactly happened to her?”
The nurse-pony scratched with a forehoof at her pink mane “Well, we’re not sure, to be perfectly honest. Physically, the only thing strange about her is some strange marks that were on her horn, but they faded within hours…”
“Strange marks? Like what?” Rarity asked, standing up.
“There were four strange red welts that went down her horn, meeting at the tip and going the tip straight down to the base. At first we thought it was some sort of infection, but they faded away just an hour before you girls arrived.”
The five ponies wondered what this strange mark could mean, as Nurse Redheart continued:
“But other than that, it seems as if somehow, all her energy was sucked out of her. Her Vita energy, I mean.”
“Vita energy?” Applejack asked “What’s that?”
“It’s a sort of energy that Unicorn magic uses.” Rarity explained, she herself being a unicorn.
Nurse Redheart explained “Every conscious living thing in Equestria generates and contains a kind of magical energy, which is known as ‘Vita’, after the Old Equestrian word for life. Unicorns have the ability to channel and manipulate this energy by using their horns as a sort of concentration point.”
“And whatever happened to her, it somehow sucked out all this Vita stuff?” Applejack asked.
The nurse shook her head “Not all. She still has a small amount left, and she’s already regenerating her former Vita
energy. We’re doing what we can to help speed up the process.”
Pinkie stood up, her basket of goodies held in her teeth. “Sho Doesh dat mean we can go shee her now?” she asked around the handle of the basket.
“Certainly. Just go a little easy. She still needs her rest.” Redheart said as she opened the door, allowing the ponies into the infirmary.
The spotless white room held that strange chemical smell of hospitals: The blend of medicines, disinfectants, and everything else needed to maintain a sterile environment. The ward was filled with beds, each made up with green sheets and a single white pillow. But only the one in the far corner was occupied.
As the group approached Twilight Sparkle’s bed, they finally got a good look at their friend. She lay on her side, eyes closed, and her coat pallid and faded. She was hooked to a strange device standing by her bedside. Some sort of metal contraption, covered with various dials and gauges and brass knobs and levers, with a large crystal held on the top. The machine was positioned by the window, so that the sun shone on the crystal, bathing the ward in multi-coloured light. A cable ran off the machine, leading to a clamp that was secured to Twilight’s horn.
“It’s a Vita–converter.” Came Redheart’s voice from behind the ponies “The crystal absorbs the excess Vita given off by nearby plants and animals, which is then pumped into her.”
“Neat! So she’ll be back and magicking in no time, right?” Pinkie asked as she put down her basket.
Nurse Redheart did not answer at first. Drawing the assembled ponies close to her, she lowered her voice “I’m afraid not. You see, this machine means we can help her replenish her Vita, but she’s still going to take a while before she can regain all her former magical ability. Whatever happened to her, it nearly drained all her Vita in one go. The stress of such a draining is incredibly painful, and that’s what caused her to pass out.”
“How can we be sure she’s still got any of this Vita stuff left at all?” Rainbow Dash asked in hushed tones.
“Well, she hasn’t been reduced to a crumbling, dried husk of a pony.” Redheart said in a morbidly matter-of-fact tone.
Fluttershy ducked behind Rarity in horror at the thought.
“So, if you could, when we discharge her, please make sure she doesn’t over-exert herself. She’ll need to wait a few days for all her Vita to return, before she can fully do the magic she used to be able to.”
With that, the white pony bustled out of the infirmary, leaving them alone, gathered at Twilight’s side.
A few moments passed in agonising silence, when Twilight’s eyelids began to flutter, and she groaned slightly.
“Hmm…huh?”
She opened her eyes slightly, and raised her head to look up at her friends. Her dim eyes shone for the briefest moment with sudden terror as she shrunk back from her friends and pawing weakly at the cable clamped to her horn.
“Twi! Sugah, calm down. It’s just us!” Applejack said, reaching out a comforting hoof.
The violet unicorn blinked a few times, and her eyes grew wide with recognition. Relaxing, she lay down again with a sigh, as she smiled up at the faces of her friends.
“Oh guys… I’ve never been so glad to see you… Sorry about that, I thought you were…” She muttered weakly.
Applejack stroked her head gently “It’s okay, Twi, it’s okay. How ya feelin’?”
Twilight’s hoof rested on Applejack’s arm as she groaned “Ooohh… well, I can barely sit up, and my head feels like a piano landed on it.” She grinned weakly: ‘I should know…’ “So, how long have I been out?”
“About a day. Just long enough for me to put together this!” Pinkie replied as she hoisted her gift basket onto the table at the foot of Twilight’s bed.
She smiled as she saw the heaped cakes, muffins, sweets and pies of various colours and sizes in the basket “Aww, Pinkie, you shouldn’t have…”
“Of course I should have, silly!” Pinkie replied indignantly “How are you gonna get better without my food to help you along?”
Twilight nodded in agreement “Of course. With your food, I’ll be fine in no time...By the way, where’s Spike?”
“He’s away on business, but he’s gotten the message about you. He should be back by tomorrow.”
The ponies sat in relative silence as the treats were shared out to all. Pinkie Pie made sure that Twilight got all the biggest and best servings. She’d need all the energy she can get.
But Rainbow Dash’s mind was on other matters. Ever the forward-thinker, she was trying to put together in her mind what may have happened to her friend last night.
“Hey Twilight?”
“Mmmph?” was Twilight’s muffled reply, as she spoke through a mouthful of cake. She hastily gulped “Sorry…Yes, Dash?”
Rainbow Dash hesitated, unsure about what sort of reaction Twilight may have from recalling the events of last night. ‘But hey’, she thought, ‘surely all the other ponies are just as curious and anxious to know, right?’
“So, do you remember… y’know, what happened last night?”
Twilight put down her slice of cake, her face growing serious. Rarity caught the sudden change in her mood “Now, Twilight, you don’t have to think about it if you don’t want to…”
“She’s right.” Applejack said, turning Rainbow Dash “It might be a bit soon to start interrogating her, don’cha think?”
“No, it’s alright,” Twilight said, sitting up in her bed. “I know you’re all curious. Besides, if we work together to figure this
out, we might stand a chance.”
“A chance against what?”
“Against what’s been following me for the last few days. I got a good look at them yesterday...” Twilight replied, shuddering slightly as she began to remember her assailant.
“Well, you girls will remember that yesterday, not long after I told you about my whole camera thing, I suddenly ran off, right?”
They all nodded.
“Well, while you were eating, I spotted somepony staring at me from across the square…”
The five friends sat with undivided attention as they listened to their friend relate her account of how she chased the elusive pony she saw watching her, and how he mysteriously disappeared as they rounded a bend.
“…And that’s when I spotted another pony not far away. He was… beckoning to me. I know I shouldn’t have, but my curiosity got the best of me, so I went after him instead.”
“Oh fer Pete’s sake, Twilight! Didn’t anypony ever teach you about Stranger-Danger?” Applejack muttered, like a mother scolding her child.
Twilight twisted the bedsheets around her hoof “I know, I know! I dunno what came over me, I couldn’t stop myself!”
Rarity rolled her eyes: For all her genius and magic, Twilight could really be naïve sometimes. “So, where did this fellow lead you?”
“Out to the edge of town, by the Everfree Forest. But before I could do anything, somepony grabbed me and pinned me to the ground…” Twilight related, her voice beginning to quiver. “I tried to get free, but they just told me it would…hurt more if I struggled.”
“Wh-what would hurt more?” Fluttershy whimpered.
The violet unicorn bowed her head to hide the tears now beginning to form in her eyes. “I-I dunno… I also dunno how it could’ve hurt more! It was the most painful thing I’ve ever felt in my life…”
Rainbow Dash hesitantly asked “What happened, Twilight?”
“Well…when they’d pinned me down, this bunch of weird ponies came out of the forest… I couldn’t see their faces, they were wearing masks. Then, something else came out of the forest…It was like a nightmare!”
Twilight buried her head in her hooves as she sobbed uncontrollably as the horrible vision of that tall, faceless pony strode into her mind on its spindly, bony legs. Applejack leaned over and gently hugged her friend, as the others sat in silence.
“It’s alright, sugahcube. You don’t have to go on if’n ya don’t want to.” The blonde-maned pony reassured her.
“Besides, I think given the evidence, we can guess what happened…” Rarity added grimly.
But Twilight was determined not to appear weak. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she sat up again and took a deep breath.
“Rarity, you’re the best artist. I’m gonna try to describe what that… thing looked like. D’you think you can draw it to my description?”
The beautiful unicorn nodded, as her horn gave off a gentle glow and a pencil and a sheet of paper floated out of her saddlebag. Holding the pencil ready she nodded “Go ahead, darling. But don’t push yourself too hard. The haggard look really doesn’t suit you.”
The other ponies watched over her shoulder as Rarity sketched out the figure as Twilight described it:
“...And really long legs…no, longer than that, longer!”
“Oh, you mean like The Princess’s?”
“No, longer than that… Like, not natural…”
Rarity shrugged and made the leg stretch off the page, wondering to herself how such a bizarre pony could even stand up straight on such long, thin legs.
“And a black suit you say?”
“Yeah, with a red necktie underneath.”
“What about the face?”
“Leave it blank.”
Rarity raised her eyebrow in suspicion. “Blank? So, you didn’t catch its face?”
Twilight shook her head “No, I got a good look. But there wasn’t any face.”
Rarity held up the completed sketch for all to see. She turned it so that Twilight could get a good look. She gulped audibly and nodded.
“That’s him alright.”
“So… after it came out of the forest, what did it do?” Rainbow asked, somehow eagerly awaiting, and dreading, the answer at the same time.
Twilight gulped again and continued her story “Well, it came and stood in front of me. The masked ponies forced me to
look up at it, and I saw…it was like some sort of tentacle, but impossibly black… like it was made out of dark itself…It stretched out and the tentacle touched my horn…and then it…”
Any further speaking was drowned out as a fresh flood of tears poured forth. The others stood by uneasily as Applejack hesitantly rested a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.
“Okay, okay. You best stop there, Twi. From what the nurse told us, I reckon I know what it did.”
The violet unicorn gazed up at Applejack as she explained:
“Nurse Redheart told us that whatever happened to you, it drained you of something called Vita energy. My guess is this… thing, whatever it was, somehow took most of your Vita.”
Twilight nodded in understanding “That would explain a lot. Vita’s generated by emotion and conscious thought, so it would explain why I passed out after… after it happened.”
“But wait a minute!”
All eyes turned to Rainbow Dash, who had been silent thought during Twilights story. “When I found you, there wasn’t anypony else around. No masked ponies, no suit-wearing pony with long legs and tentacles, nothin’.”
“What are you talking about?” Twilight responded in confusion “They were standing right in front of me the whole time! That’s what I was pointing at before I passed out! You’re telling me you didn’t see it?!”
“Believe me, Twi, if I saw that thing, I’d have remembered it!”
Twilight’s head fell back to rest on the pillow. Just another enigma to add to this creature. ‘This is getting weirder and weirder by the minute! Am I the only pony who can see it?’
“What about that pony you saw in the market square?” Fluttershy asked, eager to steer the subject away from whatever may have attacked Twilight “What did they look like?
“Hmm… Well, I didn’t get a really good look at him…” Twilight mused, wiping the tears from her face for the second time that day. “Let’s see… it was a colt, and he had kinda pale brown fur… He was a brunette too; he had a longish dark mane and tail, kind of inbetween brown and black.”
Rarity’s eyes grew wide as something dawned on her “Was he wearing a black jacket?”
Twilight looked at her friend in confusion. Then it hit her “Ohmygosh, yes! It was him!”
Rainbow waved a forehoof between the unicorns “Was who? Care to share with us, ladies?
Rarity explained “Well, a few nights ago, I saw Twilight out walking around in the middle of the night, and a moment later, I
saw another pony following her. I’ll bet it was that same pony you saw in the market square!”
Twilight turned to Pinkie, who had been nervously munching away at the remaining treats in the basket “Pinkie, you know
everypony in Ponyville. Does that description sound familiar?”
Pinkie thoughtfully chewed on a pastille as she cast her mind back to see if anypony she knew matched that description “Hmm…lemme think… Not much to go on with that description… Nope, sorry, I got nothing.”
Silence fell on the group of friends as they digested this new information. Not a sound was heard in the ward save for the
clatter of hooves in the outside corridor, and the gentle hum of the Vita-converter.
Suddenly there came a resounding ‘thunk!’ as Pinkie Pie smacked herself in the head with a forehoof “Oh, of course! Look at me! I’m a dope, I’m a nitwit, and I am a silly-pie!!”
“Pinkie? What’s up?” Rainbow asked, her head cocked to the side.
“I DO know that pony! I didn’t recognise the description because I‘d forgotten about him! It’s been quite a few years since I last saw Tally Tome, I totally forgot about him!” Pinkie squealed in delight, bouncing up and down.
The ponies all looked to eachother in bemusement as Pinkie continued to bounce about the room in delight. Twilight tilted her head in confusion “Tally Tome? Who…?”
“Oh, you wouldn’t know him, Twilight” Pinkie interrupted, “He’s from before you moved here. His full name’s Talisman Tome.”
“I think I’ve heard that name before… but didn’t he leave town years ago?” Rarity asked, turning the name over in her mind.
But Pinkie shook her head “Oh no, he’s still around. He’s not exactly the most sociable of ponies. But I sometimes deliver cakes and sweets to his house, and your description sure sounds like him!”
Twilight leaned forward in her bed, her hooves grasping Pinkie’s “Pinkie. Can you take me to see Tally? He might trust you more.”
Pinkie smiled reassuringly at her unicorn friend “Okey Dokey Lokey! First thing tomorrow, we’ll go pay him a visit. I gotta give him his usual delivery anyway, you can help me with it.”
“Tomorrow?” Twilight asked, her ears drooping slightly “Why can’t we go sooner?”
“Because you still need to rest, Miss Sparkle!”
The group of ponies jumped collectively as Nurse Redheart spoke up from behind them. The white pony pushed a small trolley to Twilight’s bedside, gently making her way through the ponies gathered around her bed.
“You should be fit to leave tomorrow, but until then, you need to rest!” She ordered as she re-fluffed Twilight’s pillow and tucked her in again.
She turned and faced the others, ushering them out of the ward “Visiting times are over now, I’m afraid. Come by tomorrow around midday, and you can take her home then.”
They each gave a wave and a smile before they left, each saying their goodbyes.
“See ya tomorrow, Twilight.”
“Be sure to rest up, you’ll need your beauty sleep.”
“Get well quickly Twilight.”
“Yeah. Days just ain’t the same without ya.”
“And don’t worry. Tally will still be there tomorrow.”
Twilight smiled as she watched her friends leave. They were the best friends she could ask for. Always loyal, always willing to help, and always there for her.
“Well, Twilight...” She whispered to herself as she drifted to sleep again “I dunno what’s gonna happen next, but at least now your friends are by your side.”
She gave one last little yawn before she closed her eyes and snuggled down in her pillow, ready for a good, long sleep.
So deep in sleep was she, that she failed to notice as the doors of the ward opened again and a pony with pale brown fur and a dark mane, clad in a black hooded-jacket, entered the room. Glancing around furtively, the pony sidled up to Twilight’s bedside, and deposited on her table, a small, black leatherbound book.
With one last green-eyed glance in her direction, he hurried out of the ward, leaving no sound but the echo of his clacking hooves, and the gentle hum of the Vita-converter.