//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: The City of Healing // Story: To Save Equestria: The Mysterious Virus // by KalaAWild //------------------------------// The history of the virus was now aligned with the memories that Silvershot had seen over this entire adventure. The virus began when Armonia accidentally used the tablet of harmony to break apart the element of sacrifice. The virus spread across Afriki in a matter of days which caused mass deaths in Afriki and in Equestria. The virus was exterminated because there weren't enough ponies and things living to infect. One thousand years later, more ponies and zebras were living in Equestria and Afriki once again and Danja re-catalyzed the virus to cause extinction to the pony race. There was only one way Silvershot could cure the virus; he was sure about it. All he needed to do was to reforge the real element of sacrifice together in front of the tablet of harmony to stop the virus and save Equestria. Silvershot looked around to see if Danja was still nearby, but she was gone. None of his senses showed any signs of her presence or her henchmen. He dismissed his search and went into the forest to the City of Healing. He needed to find a map to the Forgotten Ruins as soon as possible. He only had one day until Equestria was doomed, and who knew? Danja could target the entire world after Equestria. Silvershot used his tracking skills to track down Rainbow Dash and Applebloom. It is nearly impossible to track down a Pegasus since they could fly and leave little tracks behind but there was a way. Silvershot analyzed the path she could have taken and looked at the ground. His eyes followed an imaginary path he recreated in his mind until he found what he was looking for. A small slither of a yellow hair was found at a spot where Silvershot stopped at. Pegasi were notoriously known to shed a hair once every hundred hooves they traveled. A trail of rainbow colored hair trailed off into the forest and he followed it until the trail started to get larger with more hair. "Rainbow Dash?" Silvershot called out into the forest. "Applebloom? Where are you two?" "Silvershot!" Applebloom's voice cried into the damp forest. "Help! Hurry!" He followed the sound of the voice and also the trail of hair. The trail soon changed weirdly when a single drop of crimson liquid was found on a spot. The drop soon became many and Silvershot no longer followed a trail of hair; he started to follow a trail of blood. His trail ended when the trail stopped at a tree. The tree was the oldest tree in the entire forest. Its leaves were gone and had fallen to the ground far before the other trees did and its bark was black as soot. It also was the largest tree in the forest. Silvershot encircled the tree until he found his two best friends. He bent to his knees and crawled beside them. He moved his foreleg around Applebloom's neck and pulled her closer. With his other hoof, he covered the bullet wound on Rainbow Dash's side. "Don't count me out just yet Silvershot," Rainbow Dash said softly to him. "I ain't dead yet." "With the amount of blood you lost, you're going to die," Silvershot admitted. "There's a way we can save her," Applebloom exclaimed. "We need to stop the bleeding by causing a blood clot. With the bleeding stopped, we can get her to the City of Healing." "Good plan, but how would we cause the clot? Don't we need a special herb to cause it?" "I have that covered. Take the bullet out while I look for the herb we need." "This is going to hurt me more than it is going to hurt you," Silvershot said as his unicorn horn glowed and Applebloom left to look for a special herb. "What are you-?" Rainbow Dash started, but got cut off. Silvershot used his magic to grasp the bullet inside her and ripped it out as fast as he could. A glop of blood came out of the bullet wound and Silvershot covered it with his hooves. "Sorry," Silvershot apologized. "It's cool. It didn't hurt that much." She lied; it hurt a lot. As soon as Rainbow Dash had gotten used to the pain, Applebloom returned with a certain plant in her mouth. The plant had purple petals and a multitude of stems branching off from the trunk. Yellow spores were coming off of the purple petals as it shook in the filly's mouth. She hung the plant over Rainbow Dash's wound as Silvershot lifted his hoof and shook it which released the spores. The spores landed on the wound and the bleeding stopped in a matter of minutes. "What is this magical plant?" Silvershot questioned her. "It ain't magical," Applebloom answered as she sprinkled more of the spores onto the wound. "It's an alfalfa." "Oh, cool." Silvershot looked at the white sky and saw a group of dark clouds rolling in. The cloud was familiar to him as clouds of a burning fire. "The City of Healing can't be far from here. Let's go." Silvershot lifted Rainbow Dash onto his back and carried her with all his might. She needed medical care, and he couldn't bear to have a friend die on his journey. Each trudging step bore a stake of pain on Silvershot, but he marched forward, with Applebloom following behind. The forest soon began to thin out as the group walked through it, and a clearing opened up as they reached the end of the path. A road rolled over the hill and beyond this hill was the City of Healing. "We're almost there," Silvershot said to Rainbow Dash. She was still unconscious when he turned to speak. "Stay close, Applebloom." "You got it, Silvershot," Applebloom answered. Silvershot continued to carry Rainbow Dash on his back to the City of Healing. A metal fence surrounded the city to stop any intruders from entering. The top of the fence was entwined with barbed wire that was dipped in poison. The city wanted to make sure that no pony got in. A magical force field was the next level of protection to fight against the virus and the only way in was for the doctor in the city to open it. He approached the force field after finding the opening in the fence and tapped his hoof against the force field. It bounced Silvershot off and actually mildly burned him. He waved the smoke off of his hoof and looked through the force field. He could see ponies and zebras walking past them like no one was on the other side. Applebloom and Silvershot waved vigorously at the passing bystanders but they were ignored. "What are we going to do Silvershot?" Applebloom asked. "The alfalfa ain't going to last long." He couldn't answer her question because he had no certain answers. An answer he had wasn't a good one, but he could try to force his way through the shield. He put Rainbow Dash on the ground and clicked his boots together to watch a small spark come off of it. He raised his hind legs up and impaled his hooves into the shield. The boots made grinding sparks come off as it touched the shield. The boots made a crack the size of a hair and it took too much work to do it. Silvershot lost his grip and fell face first onto the ground. He was determined to open the shield. He stomped once again on the shield and only to fall face first onto the ground. The ponies and zebras on the other side stopped in their tracks to watch the spectacle but they made no effort to help the desperate stallion or to stop him. Silvershot got back up one more time. Dirt covered his scarred eye and his hooves got burned even though they were covered in boots. He wanted to give it one last go, and he was going to make sure to break through. He stomped on it one last time and made sure he didn't slip. His eyes were filled with an intrepid flame of hope as he poured all of his strength into his legs. "I am Silvershot Crimson," Silvershot said as sparks hit his face. "Descendent of Armonia Fuoco Cavallo..." Unintentionally, his unicorn glowed with a grey light and so did the crack in the shield. An image began to form next to Silvershot and this time everypony could see it, not just him. A projection of Armonia appeared next to him and he had his hooves against the shield as if he was a mirror image of Silvershot and helping him. "And I will," both Silvershot and Armonia and said in unison. "save Equestria!" The crack on the force field broke a wider crack and the entire shield broke like glass. Silvershot fell on his face one last time, dazed. While he was slowly regaining his vision, he saw Applebloom yelling at him. Her voice was inaudible, but strident moments rang in his ears. "Silv..Silvers...SILVERSHOT!" Applebloom's voice screamed into his ears. "Get u...the force field wi....crush you!" Silvershot's eyelids shot open and he turned his head to look up. The broken shield was being rebuilt with magic and Silvershot was underneath where the shield was going to land. He quickly moved out of the way before the shield crushed him. He got back up and brushed the dirt off of his body. A mass of ponies and zebras surrounded Silvershot and Applebloom and all had a shocked look on their faces. "Um, hello?" Silvershot greeted. "King Silvershot," everypony chanted. They all bowed their heads down. "Wow, laughing out loud," Silvershot giggled. "I only get called 'King' in Venturia Reign." "Ignore these religious mumblers," a voice yelled out over the crowds of people. "Get back to work! We still have to find that cure!" The crowd dispersed after the random voice commanded it and only one zebra was left. He was a zebra with stripes that resembled zig-zagging lightning bolts. He had a mohawk that was short cut but his tail was long enough to touch the ground. "My apologies, Silvershot," the same zebra from before said. "I am the Shaman of this city." "It is no problem, Shaman," Silvershot responded. He glanced at Rainbow Dash who was still snoring on the ground. "Um, can I get some help for her?" "Sure, sure." the Shaman whistled by biting his bottom lip. Two unicorns came to them while carrying a stretcher. "Now, besides helping your friend with her injuries, what can I do you for?" Silvershot told the Shaman about their problem and asked for any assistance they could provide. He needed to find the tablet of harmony in one day or else Equestria would die with Afriki first. The Shaman scratched his chin with his hoof and thought about an idea. He asked them to come to his home for a drink of tea. The two followed the Shaman to his house where they humbly received herbal tea from him. They drank their tea with delicacy to enrich themselves in the flavors of the tea. When Silvershot finished his cup, he was desperate to hasten his pace. "Shaman, we don't have much time left," Silvershot bluntly said to his host. "Where is the Forgotten Ruins?" "The question is, my friend," the Shaman responded back as he poured more tea into his tea cup. He went into a rhyming scheme when he spoke again. "What are you really here to amend?" "What do you mean? I don't understand." "Is it not you can see your ancestor's memories? What part seems out of certain boundaries?" "I don't know. I wasn't able to see what the first Shaman said to Armonia about its location." "That's the key, Silvershot. Find where Armonia was brought." "Ugh! That doesn't make sense! Maybe I'll just drink about it." Silvershot levitated his tea cup to his lips and guzzled his tea down. "Pardon me Shaman," Applebloom asked while the Shaman brewed more tea for Silvershot's third cup. "Why did everypony call Silvershot 'King' even though they don't know him?" "It is because, Applebloom, it is written in our history books that a grey-maned king named Silvershot would save the world from destruction." The Shaman didn't rhyme in response. "Who said that?" "Why, Armonia did." "Did he say anything about me?" "Well he did say-" "Wait!" Silvershot interrupted. "Some of your history books were written by Armonia?" He paused. "That's it! The missing memory was transferred to the books! Where can I find them?" "You are fortunate that I have those books on that shelf." The Shaman pointed at the book shelf in the other room. Silvershot rushed over to look at them. "You are unfortunate though that it is in the ancient language of Venturian. I cannot read some of those words." "Then how do you know that they were written by Armonia, Shaman?" Applebloom asked as Silvershot went to the history books to read them himself. She was still curious if she was part of the legend he was speaking of. "The story has been told orally to shamans since Armonia's passing. We haven't forgotten a word nor have we changed any. Silvershot has been ordained as the hero of the world." "How about me? Am I in the legend?" "Well I don't know. Since we were not allowed to change the words of the legend, only one sentence remained a mystery for many centuries. Un rosso dalla criniera cavalla salverà l'eroe." "Well what does that mean?" "And the red-maned mare will save the hero." Silvershot muttered as he read the history book. He carried the book to the table. "The hero will fall and the red-maned will rise over the chaos. It is you, Applebloom that will save Equestria." "What? Really?" "Yes, really." Rainbow Dash's voice said to her. Applebloom and Silvershot turned to see her at the doorway. The light of the setting sun surrounded her and it gave her an angelic look. Her side was bandaged up. "Silvershot and I will be there beside you. Now, where are the ruins Silvershot?" "Several miles south...twenty steps up..." Silvershot read the text. Once he finished reading the directions Armonia left behind in the book, he gasped. "The ruins are under Ponyville!" "Why does everything have to be in Ponyville?!" "You are missing an important part Silvershot," the Shaman said. "You are missing the element of sacrifice. Once the true necklace has been forged, you can stop the plague." "I almost forgot." Silvershot flipped through multiple pages to look for an answer. He found it and planted his hooves on the page. "The lost can be found where the herder leads his flock." "Could a leader have it?" Rainbow Dash muttered. "Maybe you're right. We have to make a letter to Princess Celestia to ask all seven the leaders of the world if they have the pieces. There's seven of them but where can the eighth be?" "We don't know, but we have to return to the ship now. Sorry Shaman, but we cannot stay any longer." "Wait! What about the city? We can't leave it alone after the shield was just broken by Silvershot. It could break again," Applebloom interjected. She turned to the Shaman. "Will you bring your zebras and ponies to our ship? We can house several hundred of them." "It would be a good idea. I will have those who are unicorns set up shields in groups. We can have my entire city transferred to your ship in Zezebra in a matter of hours. We will meet you there." In these final hours, the quest to save Equestria rested on Silvershot and Applebloom's hooves. They must retrieve the element of sacrifice and return to Ponyville to get the tablet of harmony. Speaking of Ponyville, what is transpiring there? It was night time on the other side of the globe. The stars glistened in the black sky that Princess Luna controls, and the moon shone its natural light onto the ground. The Ponyville Hospital cast a shadow over the creek under the bridge. Ponies rested in the cool air; it was peaceful in the town, except in the hospital that is. Inside the hospital, the wife of Silvershot screamed at the top of her lungs in pain. Her baby was coming and the pain was nearly unbearable. She was carried on a moving stretcher to the ER room by two male ponies. Nurse Redheart and Spike followed behind her. Spike held a photograph of the sonagraph of Fortress Crimson with his small claws. He was still amazed that Fortress was pregnant with twin babies. The stretcher reached the room after kicking it open and placed Fortress on the bed. She continued to scream in pain as she was slowly placed on the bed. "Where is Silvershot?" Fortress gasped. Her breathing was fast and quick. "Where is my husband?" "I don't know, but we can't afford to wait any longer," Nurse Redheart said to her. "We need to deliver the babies. Spike, do you know how to deliver a baby?" "No! I certainly do not," Spike responded in a shrill and scared voice. "There's nothing to it." Redheart blinked at him with a smile. "All you have to do is hold Fortress's hoof while I do the rest of the work." Spike hurried to Fortress' side and held onto her hoof just as Nurse Redheart asked. Redheart went to the foot of the bed and asked Fortress to spread her legs for the delivery of the babies. She held her hooves next to her, um, marehood, and was bracing herself to watch the babies come out. This was her very first delivery of a baby as a nurse and all she knew was from reading textbooks. The doctor was nowhere in sight and waiting for him was no longer an option. "Get ready Fortress," Nurse Redheart breathed a slow breath to get ready with Fortress. "And push!