Behind the Veil

by FeralFox

Chapter 16

The vicious boom of thunder sent a smile crawling across the man’s face. He immediately about-faced and walked briskly into his temporary dormitory, snagged his Carhartt and pulled his other shirts out from within. He tossed them onto the sofa and quickly walked down the stairs as he slipped the heavy coat over his arms.

“Where are you going in such a rush?” Twilight asked, following him with some concern.

“Outside.” He simply put, zipping up the front of his coat.

“Are you crazy? There’s a massive storm going on out there!” She shouted.

“I know!” He said excitedly. With that, he reached the front door and opened it a crack, immediately being greeted by the strong winds against the flat of the door. He crouched low and snuck out through, keeping the opening as narrow as possible to save any loose documents from being blown around. He shut the door behind himself, only to have Twilight open it back up and lean her head out.

“Marckus! What are you doing?!” She yelled over the howl of the storm. Another flash of lightening cast ominous shadows across her worried face. The following crash of thunder was rival only to the pounding rain as it pelted the Library’s roof and windows. Marckus had drawn up his hood over his head to block against some of the rain. He turned back to the mare screaming for him with a peaceful expression.

“I’m enjoying the show!” He yelled in reply. With that, he turned his back to the building and looked off into the distant sky with his hands in his coat pockets. Twilight looked at him in confusion and levitated a large umbrella from a container underneath a coat-rack before stepping out into the storm and standing beside the sky-gazing man.

“You watch storms?” She asked loud enough for him to hear over the fury of nature.

“Yup!” He answered plainly. And to almost compliment his response, another blinding bolt of lightning ignited the sky in a white-hot blaze, and let its presence be known with a deafening crack of thunder. “There’s just something so…beautiful about thunderstorms! I can’t rightly explain it, but the flashes of lightning and the booming thunder…amazing!” He explained, taking another pause to watch the formidable force of nature take command of the skies. “Plus, when all’s said and done, the rain drags all of the dirt and dust out of the air, giving it such a fresh, clean smell!” He concluded. The lavender mare was somewhat puzzled by his notions, but stood with him in the brunt of the weather, and watched.

The gale-force winds of the formidable storm pushed and shoved at the tall man standing in the middle of the cobblestone road, causing him to sway and adjust his stance to stay upright. The heavy rain buffeted his coat and pants as the gusts caught every single wrinkle, trying to pull him off-balance. Another bolt of electrical energy arced across the sky, its company of thunder shaking the entire Library, even startling a flinch out of the man. He stood still, gazing on in wonderment, basking in the normally terrifying maelstrom of nature’s, or in this case, pegasi’s mighty design. As he watched the brutality of the thunderstorm unfold in the air above the town, a small figure caught his sight. It was far too dark to see what exactly it was, but he could see that it was flying evenly, so it wasn’t something caught up in the winds.

Another bolt of lightning gave the object a distinct silhouette – a center mass with wings, some appendages extended out in front and in back and a large, round head – a pegasus. Marckus wasn’t sure if he should be concerned about the pony flying around so close to the clouds with all the lightening going off, considering they’re the ones who apparently hold control over the weather. He turned down and looked to Twilight with his question.

“Is it safe for pegasi to be out in the storm?!” He yelled, but his voice was lost to the thunder. Twilight was, at this point, too captivated by the raging storm to notice either his words, or the faint figure in the distance. He looked back up in time to see another arc of superheated energy to pass straight through the pegasus. He cringed at first, but when he saw the figure start to descend rapidly, he snapped alert and nudged Twilight on the side urgently. As she turned up to face him, she only had enough time to glimpse the worried expression on his face before he took off in a full-on sprint towards the falling pegasus.

“Marckus?!” She called, taking off after him, now equally concerned. Being of such a smaller stature, and not much of an athlete, it was futile for Twilight to try and keep pace with the large man. He was currently using his long legs to their fullest advantage. His heavy boots splashed through puddles of rainwater and mud as he sped off across the slick hills and roads.

As he rounded one last building, another flash of thunder displayed the pegasus spiraling towards the ground at a dangerous velocity. Moving as fast as his legs would carry him, he ran for all his worth, desperately trying to make it to the pony before they hit the ground. But with every footfall, the shaded figure came ever closer to impact. He was only dozens of yards away when the pegasus hit the ground, emphasized by another lick of lightning splitting the sky.

He reached the fallen figure seconds later and immediately dropped to his knees, his chest heaving as he gulped down lungful after lungful of air. From the close proximity, he could smell the charred fur. “Hello?! Can you hear me?!” He called, not being able to see the status of the pony through the darkness of the storm. He waited for a moment and received no response to his calls. “Fuck!” He cursed in frustration. He frantically looked around himself for any sign of Twilight’s pursuit. “TWILIGHT!!” He called, cupping his hands over his mouth to amplify himself. He looked back down at dark lump on the ground, unable to do anything without a proper light source. “Shit, shit, shit, shit!” He continued to swear. Again, he turned and shouted out for the lavender mare. “TWWIIIIILIIIGHT!!!” He called through the downpour. Seconds later, the unicorn could be seen rounding the same building he had, her horn glowing brightly through the thick sleet of rain.

As she neared him, the edges of the light illuminated the fallen pony. To his dismay, it was the spunky young mare from Twilight’s circle of friends – Rainbow Dash.

“Marckus?! What’s wro-“ She said before gasping in terror at the sight of her injured friend. “RAINBOW!” She cried and went to go help the mare up, only to be blocked by Marckus’s arm.

“Wait! Don’t move her!” He quickly ordered. Twilight halted and remained completely still. “Just hold the light over her!” He ordered over the roar of the storm. The light gave them sight to the extent of her injuries. There was a black patch on her right shoulder, right at the wing joint – where the bolt struck. Her front right leg was broken severely, as was her hind right leg. “She must’ve landed on her right side…” He thought out loud. Finally able to see how she was lying, he could actually start doing something. He carefully placed his hand on the back of Dash’s neck and pressed on it lightly, sliding his hand down the length of her spine. “Good, her back and neck aren’t broken.” He said, greatly relieved. Still acting quickly, he then gently turned Rainbow onto her back, minding her legs, and pressed his head to her chest. His eyes widened at what he found and he immediately placed his two hands on Rainbow’s sternum and began chest compressions.

“What is it?!” Twilight asked, the fear in her voice was clear through the storm.

“Cardiac arrhythmia!” He replied. “Twilight, I need you to shock her!” He directed.

“What?! Why?!” Twilight responded, confused.

“We need to stop her heart!” He shouted.

“Are you crazy?! Why would you want to that?!” The mare asked, astonished.

“Because it’s not gonna fix itself unless we stop it first! Right now, Dash’s heart is twitching and spazzing out from that lighting! It’s not circulating the blood! If we get it to stop completely, her body will restart it correctly so that it beats with rhythm!” He explained, recalling the basic principles of defibrillation. “Please! You have to trust me, Twilight! Every second you wait, Rainbow’s chances for survival slip away!” The man insisted as he repeatedly pressed down on the pegasus’s chest.

Listening to the logic in Marckus’s words, Twilight concentrated and wove together the strands of a simple shock spell. Her horn began to spark and snap as the electrical energy surged.

“You just need to get a straight shot through her heart! But it has to go in one side and out the other! It can’t stop inside her body!” He instructed as he backed up off of Rainbow, giving Twilight ample room to perform the spell. Taking his instructions into consideration, Twilight positioned her horn on Dash’s chest, just below and to the left of her heart. She closed her eyes and cast the spell, sending the bolt of energy into Rainbow’s body before moving her horn over to the opposite side of Dash’s heart, pulling the bolt back out. Rainbow’s body lurched from the jolt and Twilight backed up. Marckus put his ear to the mare’s chest once more, but shook his head, cursed under his breath, and resumed the chest compressions.

“No good! Give it fifteen seconds and try again!” He said, pressing down hard on Rainbow’s solar plexus.

After the dictated amount of time, the man backed off and let Twilight cast another spell. Dash’s body jumped again at the shock, and Marckus leaned down to listen for that desperately sought after sound.

*THUMP THUMP*

He quickly sat back up, hope in his eyes, before he listened for it one more time to make sure.

*THUMP THUMP*

“It worked!” He shouted. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, and Marckus immediately took off his coat, and slid it under the fallen weather-pony. Wrapping her up in it, he carefully picked her up and cradled her in his arms. “We need to move, quick! With the lack of blood flow, she could become hypothermic within minutes out in this weather!” He said, taking off in a run, minding the hard jostling of his gait. The magnificent storm boomed overhead and pelted the man with icy rain, soaking through his thin tee-shirt without much effort. Even with his slowed pace, Twilight struggled to keep up with the quick man.

They ran through the deserted streets of Ponyville towards Ponyville Urgent Care. From where they started, they were a dangerous distance away. Twilight’s hooves clacked on the cobblestone roads and Marckus’s boots thumped heavily as they rushed through the sheltered town. Many lights in the windows were still on, and every few houses or so, there would be somepony walking by their window in time to catch the pair dashing by.

Another bolt of lightning tore through the blackened sky, coupled with another shuddering boom of thunder as the two turned down the last street. Moments later, Twilight threw open the double doors to the medical facility as Marckus charged through. The nurses and orderlies that were meandering through the lobby immediately had their full attention on them.

“This pony was flying up real high and got struck by lightning!” Marckus shouted. Several of the nurses gasped, and within seconds there were teams of EMTs storming into the lobby. They ushered the man down the halls as they waited for someone to catch up with a gurney. “We’ve stabilized her heart-rate, but both of her right legs are broken and she’s in danger of hypothermia. That’s all I could gather.” He spoke quickly, leaving as little guesswork for the medical technicians as possible. At last, an orderly ran up from behind them with a gurney and they had the man set Rainbow down.

“You’ve done very well. We’ll take it from here.” One of the EMTs said. Marckus stopped and watched the team of medics rush down the hall and turn a corner, through a pair of saloon-hinged double doors. The man slowly walked back through the halls to the lobby where Twilight was still standing.

“Well, what now?” She asked, her concern and fear for her friend’s well-being plain in her tone.

“She’s in good hands now. Er, hooves, rather. All we can do is hope and pray.” He said solemnly.

After a moment, a nurse came by and showed them to a waiting room, where they were allowed to stay until further news on Dash’s condition. The staff gave them both towels and blankets to warm up with while they waited. Meanwhile, the storm raged on in all of its terrifying glory.