//------------------------------//
// Dash in a Box 
// Story: Little Dashie 
// by Dashiel 
//------------------------------//

	I looked at the small box held in my hands. It was quite heavy, really, after being carried all this way through the rain.
        "Won't be long now, little one," I said, gently. The mewling sounds carried on, along with scuffling and kicking. She was hurt, that much I could tell. She was a very, very special little equine-shaped creature. I had found her a half-hour ago, wailing piteously in the alley, trapped in a cardboard box. Where she had come from, I didn't know. Who she belonged to, I had no idea. I guess now she was mine.
        Wings, hooves - a pegasus, it seemed. Her coat was blue, but her mane and tail - oh, they were gorgeous! Even though they were dishevelled, the light in her eyes and the firey temperament endeared her to me.
        She had held one hoof out, unwilling to let me near it, unable to put weight on it. This, this alone, this pain she was in, led me to risk a trip to the vets.

        "And what do we have here then? Oh my! A little... horse? No, a pony!"
        "Yes ma'am, I... can you keep this a secret? I mean, she's hurt an' all, and I need you to help her - you can help her, can't you?" I asked the vet. The vet was an older lady, a thin pair of spectacles on the bridge of her nose. She looked down at the weakly mewling blue lump held in my shaking hands.
        "Oh my deary me, yes, I can help her. I won't be a minute."

        I smiled happily, stroking the little creature's mane softly, crooning to her. The vet returned, with a hypodermic.
        "It... it won't hurt, will it?" I asked.
        The vet shook her head, "No, no, not at all." The needle was jabbed in to the scruff of the little blue creature's neck. She yowled, and fussed, I soothed her.
        "There, there love, it didn't hurt, did it? Not really, huh?" I looked back up at the vet, "Now what?"
        "Now we wait."
        "What for, will her leg stop hurting? Then you'll put a cast on it?"
        "Cast?" The vet shook her head, "No, no, an animal like that, with a broken leg? I've put her down, love. She'll pass away peacefully, she won't be in any pain. See? She's already falling asleep."

        I looked down in horror at the lump, she had stopped shivering, and seemed to be wavering to and fro. She suddenly slumped, her eyes closing. She hiccuped once, breathed in a shallow breath... and went still.

On the bright side though, I wouldn't need to pick up anything for dinner.