Frozen Flame

by LavenderRain24


Chapter 2 - 1000 Years Past

The sound of echoing hooves could be heard throughout the corridor of the hospital. As the white alicorn mare approached Room 245, she heard mumbling coming from inside. She looked around to see if the coast was clear of patients, visitors, nurses and doctors before leaning in to try to make out what the pony was saying. "N...no. Stay back! Y-you can't.... the Empire.... m-my Queen..." Celestia jumped back in surprise. Though she was sleep talking it was clear the young mare was still in distress.

Breathing in deeply, she turned the silver door knob with her golden yellow magic spiralling around it. "Flame?" Celestia whispered as she entered the room quietly and closed the door behind her gently hearing a slight click from the lock. She turned to the pony lying in the white hospital bed with pale blue blankets on top of her. She noticed the IV drip wire going into the pony's right foreleg feeding her medicine and fluids to stay hydrated. She then heard a faint but constant beeping tone coming from the machine next to her bed with a black green lit up with a faint heart beat line running steady.

A vase of white orchid flowers sat on the table opposite the bed. Celestia could see nothing but blue sky and the snowy tips of the high hills outside the window as they were on the third floor of the building. The white mare looked right at Flame, though she looked peaceful in her sleep, she could sense the mare was anything but that. "Oh Flame... I'm so sorry you had to go through that."

The tall mare walked around to the chair near the window and made herself comfortable in the pale red soft armchair with a rounded back and stubby wooden legs that had rounded feet. along with a basic white chair cushion placed in the right corner of the seat. With her long mane flowing to her left side she couldn't really see out the window but she only wanted to focus on the friend she thought she'd lost forever 1000 years ago. She looked a lot warmer than when they'd discovered her embedded inside an ice cliff not far from the Crystal Empire during a visit to the newest princess of the city. "Mm..." Celestia almost jumped at the sound of the young mare's moan and noticed that she was slowly coming out of her coma. She looked up at the door and saw a doctor walk past and jumped from the chair.

She opened the door with her magic, "Doctor." The brown coloured stallion looked back over his shoulder and his eyes widened when he saw the Princess of Equestria standing there in front of him.

"Yes Your Highness?" He gave a low bow in respect holding a clipboard with his dark purple magic as he was a unicorn.

"I think Flame is waking up." he looked confused and looked at the number on the door above the window, Room 245. He suddenly realised who she was talking about and rushed past the princess and ran straight to the mare's bedside. It was then when the princess suddenly noticed a strange very light blue almost white patch on the centre of her chest. "Excuse me sir but what is the mark on her chest?" The doctor didn't reply for a while as he was checking her heart rate and the numbers on the monitor. He placed a stethoscope in his ears and placed the circular part onto her chest to check her breathing rhythm.

"She's been in a coma ever since you thawed her from the ice cliff in the Frozen North. I think you're right Princess, she seems to be finally coming out of it. But might take another couple of hours, perhaps even 24 hours more before she fully awakens." He picked up the mare's left foreleg and pressed down slightly to feel for her pulse and checked the levels of the fluid bags feeding into her IV drip wire.

"I see, that's still good news though! And... the patch on her chest?" But when he was about to answer, the young dark red mare suddenly gasped for air and her body went into an epileptic fit. Princess Celestia felt her heart almost beat out of her chest in fright at the sight of her friend shaking uncontrollably. "What's happening Doctor?" He pressed the emergency buzzer on the wall behind the bed and a nurse and another doctor rushed in a minute later.

"I'm sorry Your Highness but even you must wait outside while we stable her." He rushed the princess out of the room and slammed the door behind her leaving her shell shocked from the drastic turn of event. She stood wide eyed peering in the window and watched feeling helpless as they gave her extra medication injections and one of the nurses even grabbed the electric charger pads to help reboot her heart. That's when she became terrified of the worst.

"Princess? What are you doing here?"

She spun round to see none other than the infamous Spirit of Chaos himself, "DISCORD! What...but how?" She screeched in shock but then realised she should keep her voice down. "Discord! What on earth are you doing HERE?" the male draconequus looked over her shoulder and peered through the window with his squinted yellow and red eyes.

Twisting his head around in a full loop of his long horse-like neck he whispered, "Oooh my what's happening here? Some pony in distress are they? A friend of yours?" She mumbled looking down at the ground. Even though he was VERY annoying and chaotic, there was a certain charm to his character she found intriguing.

"Nows not the best time Discord... My friend is dying in there... I found her frozen in an ice cliff at the Frozen North when I went to check on how Cadence was doing in her new role." Discord's eyes lit up.

"Ooooh frozen you say? No wonder my senses have been going crazy recently! I've been sensing dark magic... that's IT!" he shouted with glee but then a white hoof with a golden shoe covered his mouth as she shushed him. "Oh right sorry..." he whispered hunching his shoulders up against his neck.

"What do you mean Dark Magic? Everything has been peaceful lately, no attacks involving magic of any kind!" She glared at him briefly as if to say 'how dare you suggest such things'.

"I'm the Spirit of Chaos Celestia! I can sense both chaotic AND dark magic. I guess you could say I'm your very own magic warning system!" He added with a cheeky grin showing his teeth. But Celestia just rolled her purple eyes. "The point is though, that there's something interesting about your 'friend' there my dear Princess. I think she's going to have both an interesting past AND an interesting future ahead!" and just as quickly as he appeared he vanished with a POOF of pastel pink clouds that dissipated into thin air.

A little shaken from his sudden appearance, she jumped out her skin when the door opened up behind her. "OH! Doctor... how is she? What happened to her?"

"Well... it seemed that it was a reaction to the ice embedded on her chest. It's like it's dark magic ice or something... we don't know yet." the Doctor shook his head at disbelief, "I'm surprised she's even alive still. It barely missed the poor mare's heart. Whatever she was hit with it left its scar as a scorch shaped ice patch to the right of her heart." Princess Celestia was horrified at what she was hearing.

"So is she...?"

"Dead? No. We managed to stabilise her condition. She might go into shock if she does too much physical work. So that means no long distance running, jumping, battling of any kind until we know how to treat her ice patch more with out causing more harm." Celestia nodded her approval and sighed in relief.

"I'm so relieved she's alive though. Is she awake and allowed visitors?" She looked past the unicorn and into the room to see the nurse and other doctor ponies packing up their gear to leave the room.

"Yes she's awake and can have one visitor a day for now. Just be aware that she'll be very exhausted from the episode she's just experienced. She shouldn't talk for long as she needs all the rest she can get."

Celestia softly smiled and nodded, "I understand Doctor..." she thought for a moment, "Would she be stable enough to rest in a different environment? She could be moved to my castle?" the doctor looked a little concerned at first but as he thought it over he came up with a solution.

"How about this Princess, we can move her to your castle on one condition. She must wear this bandage around her chest at all times and it will have a small flat disc shaped device inside that will alert us at the hospital of any dangers to her condition or any more seizures. Until the dark magic is removed from her completely, she'll keep having them every so often if her body comes under too much stress to handle. The device can be powered by magic to keep it running as long as she needs it to." He gave her the special black bandage that has a thicker padding than normal bandages as well as a thin pocket for the device to comfortably sit.

"Thank you Doctor, I will make sure she always wears it. She will stay indoors most of the time until she's fully healed. We will help find out what happened to her so we can treat her to the fullest." Princess Celestia promised the doctor and he nodded his approval letting her go into the room.