You were practically skipping down the trail as you made your way back to Ponyville. You had to admit that it was an odd sight with your face obscuring coat on. You were even singing to yourself in the stereotypical family road-trip way. Yes it was loud, obnoxious, and off-key, but you didn’t care. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and you had a real family again. Nothing was going to bring you down. “I’m walkin’ on sunshine! Whoaoaoa. Walkin’ on sunshine, and startin’ to fee... Whoa sweet baby Jesus!” Well, nothing except whatever it was you just tripped on.
Somehow you had fallen in a way that your horn was actually stuck in the ground. “Annnd that was a serious buzz kill. Oh well, at least nopony’s around to see this.” You struggled for a few moments and were able to wrench your horn free from the ground, landing square on your flank. You rubbed your horn for a moment and looked up at the sky. “Ok, universe, I get it. I’m not allowed to be too happy. So from now on I’ll do my best to tone down the happy. What did I trip on anyway?” You picked yourself up and turned to see a pony lying on the ground.
You rushed over to the pony’s side and started to inspect her. The pony was covered in what you hoped was dried mud and grime. You quickly located the pony’s head and took her pulse and checked if she was breathing. You exhaled when you found both. Unfortunately, both were faint. This pony had obviously been here a while. Which would be easy, you were taking a less traveled path that was barely wide enough for a small trade caravan. You thanked yourself for your choice of shortcut and picked up the pony with your levitation.
If you wanted to help this pony then you would have to hurry. You couldn’t heal the pony yourself. You didn’t know the extent of the injuries. Besides, you were somewhat of a novice at healing magic. You couldn’t carry the pony all the way to a hospital. The nearest town was about five miles away. That left you one option. You would have to teleport the both of you into the town.
You gathered the energy for the spell into your horn and concentrated on the spell. Sweat started bead along your brow, and you clenched your teeth as the orb of light surrounded you and the unconscious body. In a matter of moments you were standing in the middle of a marketplace. To be more specific, you were standing on top of one of the various stands. Your sudden appearance attracted quite a bit of attention. The vendor of the stand glared at you and started to scream.
“MY CABBAGES! You ruffian, you’re going to…”
“I’ll pay for them later!” You snapped back. “Right now I need to know the fastest way to the hospital!” It was at that moment that the vendor noticed the unconscious body you were carrying and decided to point you in the direction of the hospital. You quickly thanked him and winked out of existence again.
You pushed your way into the hospital and skidded to a halt at the front desk. You explained your situation and the nurse had a crash cart brought to the pony you were carrying as quickly as they could. You decided to wait until the doctors were finished with the pony. You were curious what the pony was doing alone and in that kind of condition on a mostly forgotten road. Something didn’t feel right about this, and you wanted to know why. You settled in for a few hours and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
One of the doctors woke you up with a nudge on your shoulder. You snapped to attention immediately and the doctor chuckled a little. He was an older looking stallion with a dull yellow coat, and a brown mane that was slicked back a little.
“Relax, we just finished working on the patient you brought us, and she should make a full recovery.”
“That’s good to hear. What kind of injuries were they?”
“She was covered in a large amount of claw and bite marks. The puncture wounds suggest that whatever attacked her was canine.”
“Could it have been wolves?”
“No, the wounds were too large to have been caused by wolves.”
“So, you think she was attacked by Diamond Dogs?”
“The evidence does seem to lean that way.”
“That’s odd, Gem Fido has a very good standing with Equestria. So why would Diamond Dogs attack this pony?"
“It’s not entirely uncommon for Diamond Dogs to split off from their country and form small gangs. Actually, the same could be said for citizens of any country really.”
‘Even this world has its fair share of problems.’ You thought grimly.
“Anyway, thank you again for bringing this mare in. It’s nice to see a young stallion such as yourself.”
“Don’t mention it. I couldn’t just leave her like that in the road.”
“Glad to hear it. Listen, she’ll need some time to rest up, but I’m sure she’d like to thank the one that saved her life. Would you mind coming back in a day or so?”
“I was planning on leaving, but I guess another day or so away from home won’t hurt too much.”
‘Applejack was probably going to buck me right in the face anyway. Huh, that came out wrong. Glad that was just in my head.’
“Good, I’ll be sure to see you then.”
You exited the hospital and looked up at the sky. It was late in the afternoon and night seemed to be approaching. You pulled your hood up and decided to head back to the marketplace to ask where the nearest hotel was, and to repay that cabbage vendor while you were at it. The sun had fallen beneath the horizon as you sat on the edge of the bed in the inn at the outskirts of the town. You let out a sigh of relief; feeling refreshed having just stepped out of the shower.
‘I can’t believe I keep saving ponies lives. Maybe I should give up working on the farm and just become a superhero?’ You thought with a chuckle. ‘Actually… that doesn’t sound so bad. If I am going to be a superhero I’ll need some powers, or access to advanced technology. You then remembered your horn and realized you already had a power. ‘Okay, so I’m a magic based hero. So I should call myself something like… Mister Mystic.
‘Not bad, the alliteration does give it a certain flare. So, Mister Mystic would travel across Equestria and right all wrongs, and save anypony that needed him. He could stick to the shadows and become a whisper of a rumor to the superstitious and cowardly lot of criminal scum. Or he could become a symbol of purity and be a beacon of hope to all those who cry out in fear! Parades would be held in his honor and everypony would love him, especially the ladies.’
With that your mind started to drift off to more… explicit topics. You shook your head and were left with a puzzled look on your face. “Where did that come from?” You wondered aloud. “Oh yeah, years of sexual repression; I guess it doesn’t help that I’ve finally gotten used to the pony form. Come to think of it that mare I saved might be kind of cute. I guess that’s something to look forward to. “
With a simple shrug you lied down on the hotel bed and pulled out your journal and wrote down your thoughts from the day. Once you were done with that you drifted off to sleep peacefully, with dreams of the adventures of Mister Mystic to entertain you until the morning.
Surprisingly you woke up rather early to get to the hospital at the beginning of visiting hours. You chalked it up to wanting to get back to Ponyville as quickly as possible. You walked through the sliding glass doors and approached the nurse at the front desk. Luckily for you it was the same one as the day before so she knew what you wanted without you saying a word.
She got up and led you through the pale, white hallways. You had to fight the urge to shiver as you passed by several patients’ rooms. Not because the building was particularly cold, but because you had an acute hatred for hospitals. You had felt that way ever since the death of your mother. It had taken you years to learn to trust doctors again after the incident, but you were confident that no amount of time would lessen your feelings for their place of work.
Just as you were beginning to lose yourself to your thoughts the nurse turned and raised an eyebrow at you. “Is everything okay, sir?”
“Wha…” You said, with a shake of the head, “I’m sorry, did you say something?”
“I asked if you were okay.” The nurse repeated with a cute giggle.
“Yes… everything’s fine. Hospitals just make me uncomfortable that’s all.”
“Don’t worry about it. A lot of ponies feel the same way as you about them. Anyway, this is where we’re keeping the young mare you brought in. She should be awake, so don’t worry about disturbing her.”
You gave the nurse an appreciative nod and watched as she turned and returned to her post. Then, you took a deep breath and crossed the threshold into the mare’s room. You put the biggest and friendliest grin you could muster onto your face and introduced yourself to the mare.
“Hello there, I’m Blackstar. I would’ve introduced myself earlier, but you didn’t seem to be in the mood for pleasantries when I found you. So, what’s your name?”
“What! You’re the one that saved me?!” A familiar voice shrieked.
You opened your eyes, unaware that you had even closed them, and were greeted with the site of the last mare in Equestria you wanted to see. There, lying before you with a glare that could shatter stone was Trixie. A part of you wanted to groan and just walk out right there. Your other, and probably better half told you to stay and figure out what happened to her that put her in the condition that you found her in. You cursed yourself for your morality and ignored the death stare Trixie was shooting at you. You also had groan inwardly that you still found her kind of cute.
“Well, this certainly is a surprise. I didn’t expect to see you here, Trixie.”
“That’s the Great and Powerful Trixie to you!” She snapped. “So what brings you here? Do you want to gloat over me and mock me for needing the likes of you to rescue me?”
“Look Trixie,” You said, emphasizing the point that you refused to address her by the ridiculous title. “I didn’t visit to gloat over you. I told you the last time we met that I have no interest in things like proving whether or not I’m better than somepony. You can choose not to believe me, but right now there’s something more important than our petty squabbles. There’s something I need to ask you.”
“If you mean to ask me out, then I’m afraid you don’t meet my standards.”
“Wow, not even close to what I was going for. Look, when I found you, you were covered in dirt and dried blood. I may not be a detective, but I can tell that something or someone attacked you. So, if you could just lose the attitude and give me a straight answer, I’ll get out of your hair quicker.”
“Fine,” Trixie huffed. “I was making my way towards this town in order to hold a performance here. I normally take back roads and old trails in order to avoid annoying, travelling merchants. I was in the middle of preparing my grand entrance when the ground suddenly erupted all around me. Before I knew it I was surrounded by a group of Diamond Dogs.”
“The largest of them strode towards me with a wicked grin on his face. He told me to give me everything I had and I wouldn’t get hurt. So of course I tried to take care of them with my magic.”
“And judging by how I found you, it didn’t work.”
“No… it was awful.” Trixie stated with a shudder. Her haughty demeanor had melted away as she recalled what the Diamond Dogs did to her. “A few of them were tricked by my illusions, but the leader quickly got them under control. He placed one of his claws around my face and started to laugh. He had told me I had made a huge mistake. He made a signal with his other claw and the rest of them piled on me.”
“It was so hard to breathe.” Trixie said, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. “I wanted to scream but the noise was caught at the back of my throat. They ripped and teared at me for what felt like hours. The last thing I remember is seeing them go back underground with my caravan. After that I blacked out. I thought that I was going to die.” Trixie finished, freely sobbing.
Even though you hated her for what she had done. You couldn’t stand what happened to her even more. You held back the anger welling up inside of you and trotted up to Trixie to place a hoof on her shoulder. She gave you a confused look, but you just started to do your best to reassure her she was safe.
“So what?!” She cried out. “I just lost my home! I neither need, nor want your pity.”
“That’s good because I planned o doing a little more than planning your pity party.” You quipped with a cheeky smirk.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’m going to help you find the Diamond Dogs that did this to you and get you your stuff back.”
Trixie laughed uproariously at your statement but stopped when she saw you were serious. “Are you crazy? What do you plan to do against that group of monsters?”
“My plan was to kick plenty of ass and chew bubblegum, and I’m fresh out of bubblegum.”