//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: A Lost Friend // by Sirius Starshine //------------------------------// A Lost Friend Chapter Two         “Whew, that should do it,” Rainbow said as she and Fluttershy moved the last puff of cloud into position.  “Thanks again for the help Fluttershy.”         “Oh, my pleasure Rainbow, but um, if you don’t mind me asking that is, what is this new trick that you’re working on?”  Fluttershy asked.         “Well…” Rainbow rubbed her chin contemplating, “I wasn’t gonna tell anypony till I at least tried it first, but since you asked.”  Rainbow said with a sharp grin lifting her face.  “I plan on gathering the lightning in the cloud around me, then blasting out of the cloud, the lightning streaking behind me colored in a rainbow pattern!  I call it a Rainbow-Bolt!”         “Ooh, sounds dangerous, I mean, there is a lot of electricity in those clouds that we gathered”  Fluttershy said with a worried look.         “It’s no problem for the best weather pony in Ponyville,” Rainbow said with complete confidence.         “Well, do you want me to stay and cheer for you?”  Fluttershy asked.         “Um, actually I wanted to be alone the first time I tried it.  Like you said there is a lot of electricity in those clouds and, I’m sure I can handle it no sweat, but just in case.  I don’t want anypony around in case some lightning goes astray.”  Rainbow said, a slightly embarrassed look on her face.         “Oh, ok, I understand.  Well this gives me more time to check on that family of moles who have been feeling under the weather lately, but are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”  Fluttershy said.         “Yeah, don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.  You go look after those moles.”  Rainbow said waving her off.         “Well if you’re sure, are you still going to join the others and I for supper at Rarity’s tonight?”  Fluttershy asked.         “Absolutely!” Rainbow replied         “Ok, see you tonight then,” Fluttershy said waving goodbye.         “See ya, and thanks again for your help.”  Rainbow said         “Anytime,” Fluttershy replied.  And with that she flew off back to her cottage.         “Alright now with her safely away let’s give this a shot,” Rainbow thought to herself.  She then entered the cloud; she felt the electricity tingling all over her body when she fully submerged herself inside the cloud.  She slowly began to draw more of the electricity to herself, building up a massive charge.  One she gathered as much as she thought she could handle she started moving it all to her fore-legs.  The amount of electricity covering her fore-legs was almost unbearable.         “Now, let’s see how well this works,” She positioned herself so that she was facing down towards the ground at an angle.  She then flapped her wings and she shot forward like a bullet, and right as she left the cloud she touched her fore-hooves together to blast the lightning towards the ground with her trailing it to infuse her rainbow effect to it.         However, instead of a bolt of lightning forking out from her hooves, the charged electricity exploded, violently.  The force from the blast was so powerful it knocked her unconscious instantly, and sent her rocketing through the sky, away from Ponyville.         A pegasus was running down a forested path.  He was naked just like every other pony usually was in Equestria, except for a dagger in a sheath he wore on his left ankle so he could easily pull it out if he needed it.  He was light green in color, with a deep green mane and tail, both cut to military length and deep golden eyes.  His cutie mark depicted a gold crescent moon with one gold star inside the crescent and two more on the other side making a triangle pattern.  The mark on his right side however was marred by a long scar that went from his lower back then crossed diagonally across his flank.  Every day when he woke up he would run down this path leading out of the town he lived in to a small lake a couple miles away, and then he would fly back the same way.  Today he decided to take a quick drink at the lake before he flew back.  When he lifted his head to breath he saw something smash into the lake.         “What the hay was that!”  He watched the point of impact dumbfounded until he saw what caused it.  He saw a cyan pony’s head bobbing in the water for a couple seconds before it sank into the depths of the water.  “Horseapples!” He exclaimed and flew out to the point where he saw the pony go under then dove in after her.  He used his wings as well as his legs to propel himself down as fast as he could.  When he reached her he wrapped his fore-legs around her chest and swam back up to the surface.  He then swam back to shore on his back holding her to his chest to keep her head out of the water.  When he reached the shore he placed her on her back and checked her for breathing and a pulse.         “Nothing, come on don’t give up on me,” he immediately started chest compressions.  “Come on, come on, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30,” every compression he could hear and feel her ribs cracking under his hooves.  He then exhaled two breaths into her lungs and did thirty more compressions, repeating the process.  He did this for a few minutes before she finally coughed and stated breathing on her own.         “kkhhhhhh hack ack, huuuuuuuh gasp,” she coughed then started breathing heavily.         “Hey hey hey, stay with me, I’m gonna get you to a doctor, just stay with me ok?” the male pegasus said.  She tried to say something but he couldn’t make it out said before she promptly passed out again.  “Dammit,” he checked for vital signs again, this time finding that her breathing and heartbeat, while weak, were steady.  He then pulled her onto his back and leaped into the air, taking her back to the village.         When he got back to the village he touched down in front of a two-story house with a sign over the door that read “Clinic” in front.  He went up to the door and started banging on it calling for the doctor.         “Doctor!  Doctor!  I need some help here, it’s an emergency!”  He kept yelling and banging on the door until it was opened by a pale teal colored unicorn with blue eyes, blue main and tail, and a stethoscope for her cutie mark.  When she opened the door she had a slightly worried look on her face, but upon seeing the pegasi on her door step her face flashed to shock, then to a determined, expressionless mask.         “Bring her to the examination room in the back, quickly,” she said in a calm, but firm voice as she turned around and led them to the back of the house.  When they entered the room she used her magic to gently lift the cyan pegasus and set her gently onto the bed.  She then pulled her stethoscope out of a cabinet beside the bed and proceeded to examine her.  “What do you know of her condition?”  She asked the male pegasus.         “She fell from the sky and crashed into the lake at high speed.  She sank down and I went after her and pulled her out.  She wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse so I gave her CPR for a couple minutes, so she has broken ribs, when she started breathing again I immediately brought her here.” He told her.         “Well it looks like she also has several burns all across her body, a mild concussion, and some minor whiplash.  Oh you poor dear what could have caused this?” the unicorn said as she strapped a neck-brace on the cyan pegasus.         “Is she gonna be alright? Is there anything I can do to help?”  The male pegasus asked.         “The best thing you can do is leave and let me work,” she said a little harshly.  She paused for a second while she cut the dressing she was wrapping around the cyan pegasus’ head and flashed him an apologetic look.  “I apologize but I need to focus on her to make sure she doesn’t go into shock.  There are some bits on the table in the next room, go get some food for yourself and me, it’s going to take a while to stabilize her and dress her wounds.”         “Uh, ok I- uh, I’ll be back in a little while then” the male pegasus said and he left the room so the doctor could work without any distractions.  He grabbed the bits on the table, and left the house to go to the restaurant down the road.  “Who is that pony?” he thought to himself.  He felt like he’s seen her before but for the life of him he couldn’t remember where.  He knew she wasn’t with the Razorwings.  Was she at the Academy with him?  No, he didn’t believe so.  Wait, now he remembered.  She was that filly that he met in Cloudsdale, the one who was always being picked on.  He took to the air and flew towards his house right outside the village, the food temporarily forgotten.         “I wonder if I still have that pin she gave me,” he thought to himself as he entered his house.  He walked down to his basement where he kept all the things that he kept in storage.  There were several boxes, but a few of them were separated from the rest.  He went over to those and pull out the one labeled “foal-hood stuff” pulled out his knife and opened the box.  He dug around for a minute until he found it.  It was a small metal pin shaped and colored like the Wonderbolts symbol.  It was given to him by the cyan pegasus the day he left Cloudsdale.         “Are you sure you have to go?” asked the teary-eyed cyan filly.         “Yes, I’m sorry but my dad is already reassigned we have to go,” the green pegasus told her.         “I don’t want you to go!” she wined as she buried her face into her chest.         “Hey don’t cry, you know I hate it when you do that,” he said as he gently placed a hoof on her shoulder and pushed her back so he could at her.           “I’m sorry, but I’m just gonna miss you so much,” She said. “Hey, don’t worry,” he said smiling at her. “Friends always meet each other again someday,” he told her with a slight emphasis on “always.”         She sniffed and smiled back at him.  “Here, I want you to have this, so that you can remember me,” she said.  She then turned to her saddle bag and pulled something out and showed it to him.  It was a metal Wonderbolts pin.         “But that’s your favorite Wonderbolts pin.  I couldn’t take that,” he told her.         “That’s why I want you to have it.  If you didn’t stand up for me that day I smashed the obstacle course I would’ve given up on flying altogether.  I want you to have it, and I won’t take no for an answer.” She said with a fierce look on her face.  “Besides, this way you can remember me everytime you see it.”         “Alright alright, I if it’ll make you feel better I’ll hang onto it,” he said chuckling.         “Promise you’ll take good care of it too!” she demanded.         “I promise,” he said solemnly.         “Good!” she said.  Her eyes started to swim again and she embraced him once more and said “I hate saying goodbye.”         “That’s why I never do,”         “Huh?”         “I never say goodbye, instead I say ‘see you later’”         She looked up at him again and smiled a little when she said.  “Ok then, see you later!”         “See you later Rainbow,” he said.  Then he turned away and flew off to meet his family.         That’s right he remembered now her name was Rainbow… something, he couldn’t remember the second part of her name but at least he remembered part of it.  He placed the pin inside his bag so he could set it on her bedside table, though, he wondered if she would even remember she gave it to him or who he even is.  No, he can’t allow himself to get close to anypony again.  He’s lost so much already he didn’t think he could handle anymore, but you can’t lose what you don’t have.         “It’s for the best that I stay distant from her just like everypony else.  I’ll just return her pin and we can go back to our own lives,” he thought to himself.  He then left his house and headed back the restaurant to collect the food.  Once he got it he went back to the doctor’s house.  He took the food back to the dining room outside the infirmary and unpacked it.  There were a couple dandelion sandwiches, a small stack of apple tarts, and a jug of lime-aid.  Once he got everything set he went into the infirmary to tell the doctor the food was ready.         “Alright food’s up whenever you’re ready Doc,” when he walked in he saw the condition of Rainbow.  She was a mess.  Her head was covered in a thick covering of bandages, her neck was wrapped in a brace, her chest was completely wrapped up, her left wing was braced in a splint.  The rest of her body was patched in random places with small bandages, and there was an I.V. hooked up to her right fore-leg.         “Great, I’m starving!”  the doctor said and turned towards the male pagasus.  She then noticed the look of concern on his face, and the direction of his gaze.  “Oh, yeah she was banged up pretty good,” the doctor explained.  “In addition to the broken ribs and concussion she also sprained her wing pretty badly, and was covered in burns.  It’ll take some time but she should make a full recovery, assuming there isn’t any additional neural damage, but since it’s only a mild concussion there shouldn’t be any.”         The male pegasus sighed, “well that’s good, thank you Loveheart.”         “Well of course, I couldn’t just let her go without any medical attention, but I am curious, is this somepony you know?” she asked.         “Not for many years, you should go eat the food is getting cold.  I’ll join you in a second.”         The medical unicorn was going to say something else, but at the last second decided against it and walked out of the infirmary.  The pegasus then walked over to the side of the bed and pulled out the pin he picked up from his house.  He placed it on the bedside table facing her so she could easily see it when she woke up.  He heard somepony knock on the front door to the house, but continued to stand there watching Rainbow sleep.  A few seconds later Doctor Loveheart walked back into the room, however, she was followed by two royal guard-pegasi.         “Is this the pegasus you’re looking for Gentlemen?”  Loveheart asked them.         The guards looked from the male pegasus to Rainbow,” yes that’s her one of them said.  “What’s her condition?  Can she be moved?” he asked.         “Not for a couple of weeks at least no,” replied Loveheart.  “She has several broken ribs and a concussion, not to mention several other injuries that have exhausted her body even more.”         “Be that as it may, our orders from Princess Celestia are to return her to Ponyville as soon as possible.  Set up a transport so we can move her within the hour” the other royal guard-pony said.         “But she may have further neural damage from her head injury, but I won’t be able to tell until she wakes up, if you move her now it could possibly worsen it” argued Loveheart.         The guards seemed to hesitate for a second upon hearing that, but the first one replied, “Orders are orders ma’am.”         “Seems rather odd that the Princess would send out search parties for one pegasus when she hasn’t been missing for even a day yet.  What’s the deal?” asked the pegasus standing next to Rainbow.         For the first time both guard-pegasi placed their full attention on him.  “Well not that it’s any of your business, but she’s one of the Elements of Harmony and one of her friends knew she was working with some lightning clouds and heard an explosion come from where she was at.  Thus, informing the Princess who then sent several search parties out looking for her with explicit orders to return her to Ponyville ASAP.”         The green pegasus was surprised to hear that, “an Element of Harmony huh,” he thought to himself, “I thought that was just an old mare’s tale, but if these guards were sent by Celestia to find her they must be real,” these stallions though didn’t realize the seriousness of her injuries, however.  They were willing to move her even though it could possibly do more harm than help to her.  He needed to stop them before they have that chance.         “Did you not hear the doctor?” he asked rhetorically, slightly raising his voice, “if you move her now it could possibly do her more harm.  She isn’t going anywhere until she’s conscious and has recovered enough to be moved safely.” He said with authoritative command in his voice.         The guard-pegasi were taken aback by the assertiveness of the other pegasus, but they quickly recovered the first one saying, “and who do you think you are Bub?  We can arrest you for defiance to the Princess for that.”         The green pegasus glanced at their shoulder plates to see their rank insignia.  Both guards wore a single brass bar on both shoulders, second lieutenants then, probably just graduated from the academy not too long ago.  He knew the type, young officers convinced of their authority, wanting to impress the higher ups, nothing malicious in their intent, but still must be stopped before they unintentionally do more harm than good.  He hated to do this, but it was the fastest way to resolve the issue.         Without another word he walked up to the guards and showed them his knife sheath.  It was a standard issue Equestrian Military sheath and as such had two symbols emblazed on it.  One to show which branch he served, a silhouetted hawk’s head over crossed swords to signify the Air Force, and his rank insignia, two silver bars.         Upon seeing the symbols both guard-pegasi immediately snapped to attention and saluted the green pegasus.  He waited a long second before casually returning the salute.  He continued to stare at them, a look of obvious displeasure on his face, while they stood at attention.  After a little while he finally said, “Disrespecting a superior officer, that’s a serious offence men.  In fact it’s enough to warrant a Court Marshal.”  The two guard-pegasi gulped upon hearing that, but knew better then to actually protest the accusation, lest they make it worse for themselves.         “However, I know that you two are only doing your job, so I won’t report your misconduct.  But that doesn’t change my previous order, she is not to be moved until she’s cleared by Doctor Loveheart here.”  The unicorn in question had been standing in the background since he presented his sheath to the guard-pegasi.  She was shocked at how he was handling the situation.  She knew he was part of the military but she never knew what his rank or position was, and she had never seen him act with such authoritative command before.  In fact she didn’t know very much about him at all.  Nopony in town did.         She looked at the green pegasus and asked, “why me?”         “Because you’ve already seen her condition, treated her, and gave expected recovery assessments.  Plus, I trust your judgment.” He told her and gave her a reassuring smile.  She smiled and nodded at him before he turned to face the guard pegasi again.         “Permission to speak freely Sir?” asked the second guard-pegasi.         “Granted, and at ease,” the captain replied.         “Thank you Sir,” they both replied as they relaxed their stances.  “Well as we said earlier, our orders came from the Princesses themselves.  If we return to them, and we’ve failed to carry out their orders, we could be banished on the spot.” Said the first guard-pegasi.         “I understand that lieutenant, that’s why I will accompany you when you return to Canterlot to give your report.  I have my own report to give to Princess Luna as well so this takes care of two clouds in one kick.”  The captain said to them.  He then started to walk out the room and back towards the front door.  As he passed through the door frame he glanced back at Rainbow and paused for a second.         “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of her, you have my word,” Loveheart said to him with a reassuring smile.         “Thank you,” he replied and continued walking again, “come on lieutenants……”         “Lieutenant Sun Stroke,” said the first one.         “Lieutenant Moon Beam,” replied the second.         “Ok, Lieutenant Sun Stroke and Lieutenant Moon Beam, we must stop at my quarters first so I can put on my uniform and collect my report.  We will then leave for Canterlot.” He told them.         “Yes, Sir!” they both replied in unison, and the three of them left the doctor’s house, and flew off towards the captain’s house.         After a couple of minutes Lieutenant Sun Stroke asked tentatively “Sir, if you don’t mind, you know our names, but we don’t know yours?”         The captain waited a couple seconds, then he glanced back at the two guard-pegasi and said, “Captain Viridian Night.”