Once Pinkie Pie had completely shut the door, Fluttershy pulled her over near the closet door.
"Listen you have to swear not to tell anyone about what is in this bag, do you understand?" Fluttershy whispered.
Pinkie pie nodded as she stuck a hoof on her eye to indicate a Pinkie promise. Fluttershy looked at the bedroom door before finally revealing the contents of her saddlebag. Pinkie's eyes widened as she saw the elements glisten.
"Where did you get those?" she yelled in a loud whisper.
"It's a long story," Fluttershy murmured, "But even I don't know half of it. I was getting ready for bed when Rainbow Dash just burst inside and told me to grab Angel so we could get out. She was in a hurry. And then as I was going to ask her what was going on, I could hear the front door being kicked down by the anti-scouts. Very angry anti-scouts. I have no clue what Rainbow Dash got herself into that night, but all I know is that we had to fly all the way down to the Everfree Forest-
"OOOH," Pinkie Pie accidentally let out an excited squeak, "That was when I found you!"
"Shhh," Fluttershy nodded over at the door.
Pinkie Pie slowly glanced over to it. At the bottom of the door, where you could see a crack, you could also see the four, yellow legs of Apple Bloom who was, without a doubt, eavesdropping on their conversation.
"Ohhh," Pinkie Pie gave Fluttershy a weak smile, "Sorry."
"Anyway," Fluttershy could barely be heard, even by Pinkie Pie, "Rainbow Dash just had enough time to toss me this bag and tell me that she would meet me here in Fillydelphia."
Pinkie Pie suddenly bounced up and down, "Oooh," she whispered just as low as Fluttershy, "Before I found you, I also saw four or five anti-scouts flying in. I could only see three of them and they were holding somepony that looked really injured."
Fluttershy raised a head curiously before asking, "What did they look like?"
"Well…" Pinkie Pie thought back to the time she had the binoculars, "He had kinda a white-no, light-brown coat. His hair was a darkish brown and was all matted to the side with…sweat I think. And he had a cutie mark…but I couldn't really see it. It was just a splotch of black for me. He had to be carried by the two other pegasi and looked pretty bad."
"How bad?"
"It looked like one of his legs had been broken or badly sprained and there was blood running down the side of his head," Pinkie answered sadly, "It was an awful sight to see really. I dropped my binoculars just at the sight…in fact, I think they're still out there somewhere."
Fluttershy sighed as she leaned against the closet door, "I know the pegasi you're talking about."
"Huh?" Pinkie Pie leaned in closer, "Who is it?"
"His name's Sandalwood," Fluttershy's ears drooped slightly at the name, "He was the one who offered Rainbow Dash a job as an anti-scout when the real scouts fired her."
"Oh," Pinkie Pie stepped away slowly, "I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"Do you know where he is? And where the others might be?" Fluttershy stood upright, "Because for all we know, Rainbow Dash could be with them. In fact I know she is."
"They shouldn't still be at the scouting tower. If anything they're at the hospital. At least that's where I would go if I one of my friends was wounded."
"Of course," Fluttershy spoke softly to mostly herself, "That means that Rainbow Dash could very well be at the hospital."
"We could go there if you want. I sometimes go do special performances for injured ponies to help them revcover. Laughter is the best medicine after all!"
Fluttershy smiled, "Oh, let's go before Rainbow Dash leaves. She said something about getting a disguise so the pegasi wouldn't know it was her. But I don't know if she was actually serious about that at all."
"Who knows, I know I would be," Pinkie Pie sang aloud in a cheerful voice.
"We need to go," Fluttershy closed her saddlebag quickly before quickly opening the bedroom door, ignoring Apple Bloom when she fell head over hooves in surprise. Angel, meanwhile fell out of Fluttershy's mane and onto the floor. He gave Fluttershy a small glare before hopping off.
"Oof," Apple Bloom clumsily got back to her hooves, "Uhhh… hi. I was just, uh, dusting the floor."
"I've got my eye on you," Pinkie bent down to reach eye-level with Apple Bloom and stared at her with her right eye closed.
"Pinkie!"
"Coming!" Pinkie pranced away from a very frightened Apple Bloom.
The hospital at Fillydelphia was not as one would expect. It had once been a prestigious school for young fillies and colts alike long ago, but it had been converted into a hospital in the months before Celestia vanquished Nightmare Moon and banished her to the moon. When Pinkie led the way to the front door, Fluttershy was pretty certain that her curly-haired friend was a bit lost in her sense of direction since this building before them was obviously a school, not a hospital.
"Pinkie," Fluttershy started, "I don't think this is a-
Fluttershy didn't get to finish her sentence when they stepped inside. It was relatively calm for today, but with nurses and doctors running back and forth from room to room, anypony could ultimately guess what type of building they were standing in.
"Here we are," Pinkie twirled around in a circle with her front legs outstretched, "Welcome to the Fillydelphia Hospital."
"Uh, wow..."
"I know right," Pinkie miraculously avoided the stream of patients and nurses as she hopped and skipped over to the front desk.
Fluttershy took a hesitant step closer to where Pinkie Pie was, but fell short after a patient brushed past her. She stopped, letting out an inner squeak. Pinkie stood by, waiting and watching happily for her friend to cross the hallway. Fluttershy took a bigger step, only to almost hit an incoming nurse and doctor.
"Watch it," the nurse replied rudely.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Fluttershy mumbled softly.
"You're almost there," Pinkie Pie's grin never faded away.
"Pinkie...you're just going to go without me. I-I don't think I can make it that far."
"Nonsense," Pinkie said with a flick of her wrist, "You can do it."
The yellow pegasus let out a small sigh before stepping forward tentatively. There was a crowd of earth ponies that walked briskly around her. Again, Fluttershy came to an abrupt halt.
"Oh, Pinkie," Fluttershy called out from two yards away, "Please just ask for a Rainbow Dash or Sandalwood. I'll catch up with you…Eventually."
"Pinkie promise?" the bouncy earth pony stared into Fluttershy's soul.
Fluttershy could feel her insides shift away from Pinkie's awkwardly powerful stare.
She bowed her head, "Stick a cupcake in my eye. Now, please?"
"Okey Dokey Loki," Pinkie turned her back toward Fluttershy and instead began to talk to the white pony at the front desk.
"Hello, how may I help you," the white pony asked in a monotone voice.
"Hello," replied Pinkie Pie, "I was wondering if a Rainbow Dash is checked in here?"
"Let me check…" the pony ducked her head down to check a long list of patient names. After a minute passed by she came back up, "No. I'm sorry, there is no Rainbow Dash here."
"Oh. Oh!" Pinkie bounced up and down, "How about a…shoot, I can't remember the name. What did you say it was Fluttershy?"
"Sandalwood," the soft voice of Fluttershy floated over from the middle of the hallway.
"Yeah, Sandalwood," Pinkie repeated back to the pony, "Do you have him checked in?"
"Let me check," the white pony ducked down once again. She came up after a few seconds, "Actually, there is a Sandalwood here. He's in room 102. But no visitors are welcome at the moment. He's undergoing surgery in a few minutes."
"Thank you for the information…" Pinkie leaned a bit closer as if waiting for an answer from the white pony.
"Cloudy sky…" the pony gave a deflated sigh, "But most call me Cloudy."
"Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, Cloudy," Pinkie grinned from ear to ear, "I will see you later."
Pinkie Pie turned back to her yellow companion who was still stranded out in the middle of the hallway, "He's not open for visitors."
"What was that?" Fluttershy leaned in closer to hear, "I can't hear you."
"I said…he's not open for visitors! So Rainbow Dash could be anywhere!"
Fluttershy let out a puff of air, "She could be anywhere. It could take all day to find her…"
"What?" Pinkie called out.
"I said what are we going to do? It'll take all day to find he-oof!"
Fluttershy had been leaning in a bit too close and had toppled into some other pony. There was a scatter of hooves as the ponies around the pair dodged their sprawled out bodies.
"Ouch," a voice came from the floor, "My wing…it was just done healing too."
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry-wait…your wing?" Fluttershy swiftly got up to her hooves.
The pony she had crashed into had risen as well and was now dusting off her anti-scouting badge. To her disappointment, it was not Rainbow Dash she had crashed into, but a tall, grey pony with silver hair. The pony's green eyes darted over to Fluttershy and stayed in the same spot for some time.
"You're a pegasus," the grey pony whispered, "And you're not an anti-scout. What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I'm looking for my friend Rainbow Dash. You haven't seen her here, have you?" came Fluttershy's meek voice.
"Rainbow Dash, huh?" there was a hint of suspicion in the pegasus's tone, "Who are you?"
"Fluttershy…"
Recognition dawned onto the grey pegasus's face, "I know you. You're Dash's roommate, aren't you?"
Fluttershy gave a breathy chuckle, "That would be me. Yes."
The grey pegasus extended out a hoof for Fluttershy to shake, "The name's Storm. Hail Storm. I go by either name, whether Hail…or Storm."
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Hail Storm," Fluttershy slowly shook the pegasus's hoof carefully, "So, do you know where Dash is? I've been trying to look for her for the past hour and a half now."
"Wait! You're a peagasus," Pinkie Pie bounded over to the two pegasi, "And you're an anti-scout too."
"You're Pinkie Pie, yeah?" Hail Storm gave a backwards nod to Pinkie, "I saw your stunt show. I loved Act Two, just to let you know."
"Ooh," Pinkie said, "I like you…"
"Storm. Hail Storm."
"Well, you're alright in my book, Ms. Storm Hail Storm."
Fluttershy cleared her throat, "Ahem, so you were saying about Dash?"
"Hm? Oh, she's waiting outside Sandalwood's room. She looks devastated just to say. You see, Sandalwood is-
"I know Sandalwood," Fluttershy interrupted, "If you don't mind me saying…"
"Oh not at all," Hail laughed, "You saved me a long story to tell."
"Hey," Pinkie frowned, "I don't know who Sandalwood is."
"I'll explain later," Fluttershy half-whispered.
Hail Storm led the way down the hallway as multiple ponies rushed past them in different directions. Pinkie Pie skipped the whole length.
"Well, could you explain a bit sooner? Cuz, every pony I know who says that has never once gotten around to explaining it to me whatsoever."
Fluttershy mentally rolled her eyes, "He was the one who introduced Rainbow Dash to the anti-scouts...which reminds me, what happened that night?"
Hail Storm sighed slowly, "It's a long story, just to warn you. But I'll tell you anyway. You deserve to know."
Pinkie's skipping stopped as she listened intently to this new story unfolding before her. Hail Storm turned a corner before starting.
"I was at my usual post at headquarters. My job is usually scouting, so I wasn't there when…those clones attacked us. I was with my scouting partner, Dust Devil, in Las Pegasus. We were there to help slow down a message sent from one of the generals to the scouting leader, Icy Rain, in Cloudsdale. While flying back home after stopping the letter getting sent, we both saw that a whole crowd of anti-scouts were chasing somepony. I saw a blast of rainbow and knew it had to be Dash. She let the others eat her dust. I was going to cheer her on, but at the time, I had no idea what was going on.
Dust Devil on the other hand knew something was not entirely right. She spotted something and started zooming straight for it. I had no choice but to follow her. That was when I too saw that there was somepony falling from the sky."
"Who was it?" Pinkie's voice was surprisingly calm if not on edge.
"It was Sandalwood, plummeting to his death. Dust Devil and I caught him, but he had built up quite the momentum by the time we had reached him. He was dragging us down with him. Dust Devil let go of him at the last second. Her wing had gotten sprained. It seemed as if Sandalwood was doomed. I couldn't hold onto him for much later. And then out of the sky came a streak of color and Sandalwood was no longer in my hooves. Rainbow Dash had gotten him for me. She was carrying him higher into the air. I followed after them."
Fluttershy's eyes widened. For a few moments, she had genuinely thought that she was actually in Hail Storm's place. Her heart was racing and her breathing was heavier than it usually was.
"W-What happened afterward?" Fluttershy asked.
"Well, we were a few hundred miles away from Cloudsdale at the time, so it took a while to get here. Dust Devil and I took turns carrying Sandalwood. He had lost consciousness when we found him and wasn't showing any signs of waking. We all thought that he was dead or dying."
"I remember!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, "That was you two I saw holding him when you landed. But…there was another pegasus with you two. I didn't see Rainbow Dash because somepony must have been blocking the way."
"Oh, that was probably Shining Glory you saw. He was stationed over here with another scouting partner when we were flying over to Fillydelphia. He saw that we were carrying a wounded pony, so he rushed out to help us. His scouting partner is over by the Fillydelphia marketplace looking for some stuff to put in a care package for Sandalwood if he wakes up..." Hail Storm's eyes went misty at this sentence. She quickly dabbed her eyes with her left hoof.
"It's okay," Fluttershy gently rubbed the grey pegasus's back, "I can only imagine what you've been going through."
Hail Storm fought back the few tears that had already started to spill out from her eyes, "I'm fine, Fluttershy. It's just that...they're not letting anyone in, so anything could happen with him. Especially with the state he was in when we had found him...he may be dead by the end of that operation."
There was a loud sniff from the right of Fluttershy. She turned to see Pinkie Pie's giant blue eyes spilling with endless tears. Her eyes were like two giant, blue, orbs, shimmering in the light. Fluttershy stopped rubbing Hail Storm's back to rub Pinkie's instead.
"Pinkie?..."
"I-I'm sorry," Pinkie stammered after each sob that ensued, "I-I-I s-saw him. H-he was…was...really, badly injured. His leg, his head, his wings, his...his…"
Pinkie burst out crying at the memory of his gruesome appearance. She had never knew this pony, but she felt as though she somehow did from the way everyone talked about him. He was a friend to all. If he died…No. She couldn't think like that at a time like this. He wasn't going to die. He couldn't.
Fluttershy felt a lump in her throat forming rather quickly. There was a small silence between Pinkie Pie's bawling and Hail Storm's mild sniffs as they continued to walk down the long corridor. This corridor was almost empty of staff members. Instead it housed extremely nervous shells of what would normally be cool ponies, all waiting on loved ones. Hail Storm turned another corner with a throaty sigh.
"It's this door to the left."
Sure enough door 102 stood right in the middle of 101 and 103. A few empty waiting chairs stood end to end on the other side of the wall. But there was no cyan blue pegasus that was seated in the any of the seats. Fluttershy felt as though someone threw a bucket of cold water on her head. She had never been prepared for the possibility that Dash wasn't at the hospital. Hail Storm seemed to sense this as well.
"Huh?" she wiped back the last of her tears, "I…I could've sworn she was here a few minutes ago. At least, I think so."
"I think I know where she is," Pinkie Pie replied softly.
"Where?" Fluttershy and Hail Storm asked at the same time.
"Well, I'll just say this," Pinkie paused, "I hope you don't mind going back into the Everfree Forest."
"Oh, I hate this place," Hail Storm gulped as wet leaves crunched underneath the three ponies' hooves, "This forest always gave me the creeps growing up."
Fluttershy remained calm and unworried by the low hoots and growls coming from around them "Don't worry Hail, if Pinkie's right about this, then we'll find Dash."
"I'm right about this. And even if I'm not, at least we see another familiar face from this whole thing."
"And you two are talking about that zebra, yeah?"
"Oh, you'll like her," Fluttershy smiled, "She's a really nice pony once you get to know her."
The trees around them cleared out to make way for a particularly small, wooden shack built into a large redwood tree.
"I love this tree..." Fluttershy murmured as Pinkie Pie pranced over to the front door.
Pinkie Pie knocked once, twice on the door. There came the soft creaking of floorboards sounded from inside Zecora's home. The door opened silently with the black and white silhouette of Zecora poking out from its frame.
"What is this? Oh, Pinkie Pie. And...Fluttershy?"
"Zecora, it's so great to see you," Fluttershy beamed from her spot outside her shack, "But, is Rainbow Dash here?"
"Why yes she is, but I'm afraid she has been through an emotional event that hasn't come to rest quite yet. But you may come inside. I don't want you to fret."
Zecora opened the door to her shack wider, allowing the three ponies to come inside. The shack was a bit warmer than the last time Pinkie Pie noticed. The fireplace that had seemed to be there for only decoration now had a fire crackling away in its hearth. And sitting in front of it with a blanket thrown over her shoulders was no pony other than the cyan blue pegasus they had been looking for all of that day.
She turned to see who had walked into Zecora's shack slowly, the blanket slipping over her right shoulder slightly, "F-Fluttershy? Pinkie Pie?"
"DASHIE!" Pinkie Pie sprinted to her friend as fast as Rainbow Dash could fly. Fluttershy watched in horror as Rainbow Dash was tackled instantly by a flying Pinkie Pie hug.