//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Remembering // by Starburst Pony //------------------------------// The sun had just rose over Equestria and a cool breeze flowed through the large field just beyond an apple orchard. Winter wrap had just occurred and spring had finally sprung. In the middle of the field stood a large tree and under it lay a beaten and bloody Pegasus. His normally dark blue coat was covered in dry blood. His eyes fluttered as he began to wake up. He felt pain up and down his body as he attempted to stand. The Pegasus felt a sharp pain in his left front hoof as he put weight on it. He slowly looked over his body taking a damage assessment. The aforementioned front leg had a large gash going down it, he had bruises up and down his body, and his right wing hung limp. He attempted to move his wing and felt a sharp pain in shoot from the injury to his brain causing him to inhale sharply. ‘I won’t be flying anytime soon,’ he thought to himself as he slowly began to limp towards the line of apple trees. ‘No way those trees are natural. There has to be somepony in that direction.’ Slowly he began to make his way towards the line of trees, cringing from pain with every step he took. After about five minutes of walking he collapsed to the ground again. He looked back at the path he had made in the tall grass. His eyes followed it back to the tree where he had woken up and he began to feel defeated. He couldn’t have made it more than fifty feet. He rolled over onto his back, wincing as his right wing shifted. He stared blankly up into the sky with only one thought going through his head: ‘I am going to die…’ Although the wound on his front hoof wasn’t gushing blood, it was still bleeding quite a bit. His stomach was empty and his throat was bone-dry. He had cuts up and down his sides. With every movement his wing stirred causing horrible pain. Every muscle in his body screamed at him to just give up, and that’s exactly what he was going to do. His eyelids closed halfway as he stared up into the sky at a small cloud. ‘So peaceful,’ he thought. This peacefulness did not last long. The cloud exploded into smaller pieces as another Pegasus shot through it at lightning speed leaving a faint rainbow trail behind it. The flying Pegasus made a sharp turn as it started flying through the smaller clouds it had created. The wounded Pegasus’s eyes shot wide open as he stood up ignoring the pain. He tried to yell “help” but nothing came out. He began to cough as his throat burned. The Pegasus in the air destroyed the last cloud and began to fly away. ‘NO!’ The injured pony on the ground stood up on his hind legs and expanded his good wing to full length hoping it would catch the Pegasus’s attention. Taking a deep breath and fighting the pain in his throat he finally screamed out. “HELP!” The flying Pegasus stopped dead and began to hover looking around. He took a deep breath again. “HELP!” The Pegasus looked around frantically and finally spotted him as he collapsed back to the ground unable to feel anything. Wheezing as he lay there he watched as the Pegasus flew to him. As the Pegasus drew nearer he began to notice some of its defining traits. It was a mare that couldn’t have been any older than him, she had a cyan coat, and a rainbow mane and tail. She landed a few yards away and quickly galloped up to him. “Holy buck…” Was all he heard her say as he slipped back into unconsciousness. *** Although the sun was just rising, Rainbow Dash had already been awake for hours. Many ponies didn’t understand why Dash napped so often during the day, most would just regard her as being lazy unless of course you asked any other Pegasi on the weather team. The weather team has three main duties: first is to make sure the sky was clear of clouds before the sun rose, second was to make sure the sky stayed clear during the day, and third was to make sure no harsh weather from the Everfree forest drifted into Ponyville at night. Since Rainbow was the lead weather pony for Ponyville, not only did she have to keep tabs on all of the ponies under her command but she also had to do this close to twenty four hours a day. This week the weather team had been short handed, Derpy Hooves is out of town for Muffin Con in San Stallion and Flurry had gotten sick from flying at too great of altitudes. The worst part of it was both ponies were in charge of the area in and around Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville’s largest sector. Since Dash couldn’t find any replacements for them, she has had to clear the giant expanse herself as well as maintaining it and keeping Everfree weather at bay. Rainbow yawned as she flew towards the last patch of clouds just beyond Sweet Apple Acres, it was a miracle that she was still in the air. She hadn’t gotten sleep in three day and wasn’t likely to get any for at least two more days. The only thing that has been keeping her awake were the many Manticore energy drinks she drank throughout the day. Dash knew they weren’t good for her health but without them she would barely be in air let alone flying at high speeds like she was now. As Rainbow got closer to the cloud she rose high above them so she could dive right through it and dissipate it in one fly through. As she got higher she began to look for the spot she needed to hit for the cloud to dissipate completely. If this worked she would be on her way but if it didn’t she would have numerous smaller clouds to destroy. Judging by how high she was she figured she would be able to gather enough speed and began her decent. Gaining speed quickly now that she had gravity working with her she made minor adjustments in her direction. She closed her eyes moments before she hit the cloud. Pomf! She made contact with the cloud and quickly exited out the other side opening her eyes and beginning to pull up. She began to hover as she turned around to admire her work only to find the she had only separated it into smaller pieces. Groaning, she flew back and made quick work of what remained. Within seconds she had completed her task and was flying away when she thought she heard something. Rainbow Dash quickly stopped and began to hover as she frantically looked around. ‘Weird, coulda’ swore I heard somepony scream…’ “HELP!” She heard it again and noted the distressed tone the voice had. She quickly snapped her head to the source of the sound. She saw the Pegasus for just a second before he collapsed to the ground. ‘This can NOT be good’ Rainbow thought to herself as she flew towards the injured Pegasus. As she drew closer she noticed that the Pegasus was covered in dry blood and barely conscience. She got about three feet away from the Pegasus and realized how bad the situation was. Rainbow could easily tell his wing was broken, he had lots of cuts up and down his body, and one large gash on one of his front hooves. He was covered in so much blood that she could barely tell what his coat and mane looked like. “Holy buck, Dude, what happened?” Dash asked but received no response. She quickly closed the gap between them and lightly set her hoof on his chest. ’Barely even a heart beat and his breathing isn’t too good either.’ Dash stared at the dieing Pegasus and noticed that he was still bleeding quite a bit. ’If this guy’s gonna survive I gotta act now.’ Leaning down she gently forced herself underneath the injured stallion and lifted him up. Almost instantly she felt his blood dripping down her back and in between the feathers on her wings. Dash began to run as fast as she could with the extra weight in her back. If he had been anypony other than a Pegasus, she wouldn’t have been able to run as fast as she was. Luckily, Pegasus ponies had a high metabolism so it was very hard for them to be overweight, as well as hollow but strong bones making Pegasi extremely light weight. As Dash pushed herself to her limits, the fatigue and exhaustion from staying awake for so long was hitting her like a brick wall. Rainbow Dash weaved in out of apple trees as she finally came in sight of Ponyville. She picked up her pace as she finally broke out of the orchard and into open ground. She rounded the corner and came in to sight of the market square, bustling with ponies out running errands. She spotted Ponyville General Hospital on just the opposite side of the square. Fueled even more so by the fact her goal was in sight she picked up her pace even more. “OUT OF THE WAY!” Rainbow shouted at the top of her lungs. Everypony in the square immediately turned to look at who was shouting at them and all were shocked by what they saw: a beaten and bloody Pegasus barely clinging to life and Rainbow Dash covered in blood and carrying him. Needless to say all ponies in the way complied giving Dash a straight shot to the hospital. Within seconds Dash burst through the doors of the hospital and immediately called out to the nurse sitting behind the desk. “Nurse help, quickly!” Dash shouted. The nurse looked up and gasped as she saw the sight in front of her. Without a moment of hesitation she pressed a button and then leapt over the desk and shouted over her shoulder. “We need a gurney, NOW!” The white coated nurse was almost instantly next to the two pegasi in need of help. In the years that Nurse Redheart had spent as a nurse this was by far the worst thing she had seen. Seconds later an orderly burst through the doors pushing a gurney with unicorn doctors in tow. Dashed watched as they lifted the stallion onto the gurney and started wheeling him away before she passed out from exhaustion. *** As soon as they had the stallion in the emergency room, Doctor Cell instantly began work on him. As Cell quickly took assessment of the injured pony his expression grew grim. The Pegasus had multiple lacerations, the worst of which was a large wound on his front leg, and a broken wing. Judging by the pattern of the cuts, Cell could tell that they had been intentional and not a flying accident. Even if he could ask the unconscious pony questions, they would’ve had to wait. Cell went to work checking the stallions vitals and made a horrible discovery. He was not breathing nor was his heart beating. Cell had to act quickly. “Paddles!” Cell commanded the orderly, who quickly took action. He grabbed the small cart, plugged it in, and turned it on. The doctor took the defibrillator in his telekinesis and placed it onto the stallions chest. As he waited for it to charge the orderly attached a heart monitor which, of course, emitted a loud, monotone beep. “Clear!” Cell shouted as he discharged the first round of electricity into the dying Pegasus. The heart monitor spiked and instantly went back to a flat line. “Clear!” He shouted again as he sent another surge of electricity into the patient. The monitor spiked, proceeded to remain consistent before descending back into a flat line. Doctor Cell, not being one to give up easily, was certainly not going to give up just yet. “Clear!” He shouted as he released another jolt into the patient. Unlike the other times, the heart monitor remained constant. Satisfied the patient was not dead yet, Cell quickly worked out what he needed to do. Using his telekinesis he picked up a empty hypodermic needle and took a blood sample and proceeded to empty it into a vial and turned to the orange coated nurse next to him. “Take this to the lab, find out what blood type he is, and then find a donor.” He ordered, the nurse quickly nodded, taking the sample, and ran out the door. Cell turned to the orderly on the opposite side of the patient. “Get him suited up with a respirator, his breathing is erratic. After that see if you can find out who he is.” The orderly quickly fetched the equipment and proceeded to hook it up while Cell began his next step. Using a healing spell, he proceeded to close up the wounds up and down the Pegasus’s body. He then set the broken wing and bandaged it so it would heal. He then began giving the stallion two injections, starting with penicillin to fight off infection, then gave the unconscious pony some painkiller in case he woke up. Finally he inserted an IV and took a step back to examine his work. The Pegasus with no name laid there. His heart beat was slightly higher than normal, but this was expected because of what his body just went through. He was now breathing easily with the help of the respirator. The lacerations were all shut and beginning to heal, but before the pony was moved to the intensive care unit, he would have to have a nurse clean the blood off of him. Doctor Cell had no clue who this pony was or what happened to him, but he knew one thing for sure. This stallion was lucky to be alive.