It was going to be a normal day at Ponyville General. Not quite peaceful, but certainly not crisis-heavy. Every hospital expects to experience some degree of emergency, but few experience quite the level of emergency Rainbow Dash brings to the table.
Rainbow Dash bucked the doors open, startling the receptionist. The older mare was about to object to the unsettling entrance, but Rainbow ignored her sputtering.
“I need a doctor, now!” Dash shouted in the receptionist’s face. She indicated the orange stallion lying on her back. “This guy just got hit with a massive bolt of lightning. Come on, where’s the doc!?”
Rainbow Dash was a sight. More of a sight than usual, that is. Her mane billowed out in a frizzy mess akin to a lion’s. Her coat stood on end; a few long, unruly hairs drifted towards any plastic lying nearby. Her tail was nearly as poofy as any good feather duster.
The receptionist reached out a hoof to touch her, maybe to give a reassuring pat on the shoulder, but Dash drew away. “No, no. You don’t wanna touch me. Trust me. Get a doctor.”
Rainbow Dash slid Flash Sentry to the ground. The stallion moaned as he gritted his teeth. “Dash,” he grunted, “we can’t let them get away.”
“Too late.” Rainbow Dash backed away as a few nurses arrived with a plastic gurney. “We’ll find them. I promise.”
After they got him rolling for the Emergency Room, Rainbow Dash was finally able to let out the breath she’d been holding. One of the nurses stayed behind. She fluttered her wings as she looked Dash up and down. “You need a doctor, too.”
Rainbow Dash blinked. “Oh. Hay, Redheart.” She ran a hoof over her chest, grimacing at the crackling sensation that ensued. “I’m fine. I just need—”
“You got hit with the same lightning bolt he did, didn’t you?” Redheart asked. Her eyelids lowered as she frowned. “You’re looking better than he does, I’ll admit.”
“I’m fine.” Dash turned and made way for the exit. “It’s just a little static. I—”
“Oh, no you don’t!” Redheart’s horn lit up. She grabbed Dash’s tail in a telekinetic grip. “You’re coming with me. I’ve got some questions for you to answer.”
Rainbow Dash groaned. “I said I’m—”
“Siddown!”
Rainbow Dash found herself flung onto another gurney. “Holy—!” Patients and staff alike gazed on in bizarre fascination as a rainbow-maned mare was trucked through the hallways by a pink-maned alicorn.
Rainbow Dash strained at the straps that seemed to move with a life of their own, holding her down despite protests. “What the heck are you—!?”
“Shh!” Redheart glanced from side to side as they traveled. “Like I said, I’ve got questions. Not here, though.”
An orderly glanced up from his station beside a huge set of doors. He brightened up and opened his mouth to greet Redheart, but she cut him off. “Open the doors, massive electrical shock!”
He nodded and cleared the entryway with a flash of his horn. Redheart barreled through, into the section of the hospital dedicated to injuries based on pegasus magic. The Wing Wing, some wry ponies were fond of calling it. Specifically, she headed to the area where the treatment of magic overload took place.
Rainbow Dash grimaced as she continued to struggle. “I thought you wanted to talk.”
“I do.” Redheart opened the door to a lab and slid the bed inside. “You talk, I’ll test. You’re clearly fried.”
“I’m perfectly f—” Rainbow Dash managed to get a single leg out from the restraints. Once loose, she swung it outward, where it contacted the metal doorknob. A bright flash and a loud pop echoed through the room, accompanied by lots and lots of swearing.
“Applebuck! Flying Feather! Celestia’s Sunkissed Butt! Discord’s Donut Holes! Shoot! Shucks! Horseapples! Cud Chewing—”
“Don’t you dare finish that last one!” Redheart huffed, shutting the door behind her. “Honestly, language!”
“‘Oh, honestly, laaanguage!’” Rainbow replied. She sucked on a dark spot in her leg’s hair. “Shut up. That hurt!”
“It’s your own fault.” Redheart brought a tuning fork over and hovered it above Rainbow Dash’s chest. “If you hadn’t been struggling—”
“I was struggling because I was being abducted by a crazy alicorn nurse.” Rainbow Dash sneered as the fork hummed. “Yeah, yeah, I’m overflowing with energy. I could’a told you that.”
Redheart checked an engraved number on the bottom of the tuning fork. “A lot a lot of energy. Crazy amounts. You should be at least as fried as Flash Sentry, if not more.” She brought a giant, black block to the side of the bed, which had two wires snaking out of it. Two clamps were attached to the end of the wires. “I’m gonna try and drain off the extra energy. This might hurt a little.”
“I can do it mys—” Before Rainbow could say otherwise, Redheart attached the clamps to the ends of the pegasus’ wings. An electrical strum filled the air as the black block gradually brightened a few shades.
“Eeeagh…” Rainbow Dash’s eyes crossed. She placed a hoof on her stomach and tottered on the bed. “Whazzat thing?”
“A sink.” Redheart stood a few meters away as the block began to glow white from within. “Magic sink. It’ll draw the excess from your body.”
Rainbow’s cheeks bulged, though she was able to hold back the gag forming in her chest. “It won’t drain too much, will it?”
“I don’t think it can,” Redheart said. “These sinks can only hold so much power before they can’t collect any more. I think they size them pretty carefully during production to only remove safe amounts.”
The nurse blinked. “Quit getting me off-track! First question: what happened to you two? Did you find Twilight Sparkle?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head, but that only brought on another wave of nausea. “We were gonna look for Twilight. He was getting a hold of his old buddy to cast some sort of spell for him, but his buddy had already gotten… Nightmare-ified-ificated-whatever.”
“Oh. More Nightmares.” Redheart grimaced as the magic sink shimmered in a wavy rainbow pattern. “Any chance you saw Lyra?”
“Heartstrings?” Rainbow asked. “Nah. Sorry. There was just Flash’s buddy—Soarin the Wonderbolt? Know him?—and this other chick I went to the Wonderbolts Academy with.”
“Two more.” Redheart ground her teeth. “Okay, next question: what can we do about them? Can we stop the Nightmares?”
“Flash sure acted like it.” Rainbow Dash lay back on the gurney. “He said he needed a unicorn to cast a spell, and that had something to do with stopping the Nightmares.” Her eyebrows lowered. “Or an alicorn, I guess.”
“Mm, hmm.” Redheart unclipped the clamps and tossed Rainbow Dash a comb. “Which brings me to my next question: how can I help?”
Rainbow Dash ran the comb through her mane, wincing every time it popped with static. “You’d have to talk with Flash about that.” She tilted her head. “Why? What’s your stake in all this?”
“Lyra.” Redheart sighed. “Lyra is a very… very good friend.” She ruffled her feathers as she stared into the magic sink. “I’m not gonna just sit by and let this happen to her. You understand?”
Rainbow frowned. “I guess. Talk with Flash. He’ll find something for you to d—” Rainbow Dash grinned about half-way. “Hay, how’s your spell-casting?”
“Better than I want to admit.” Redheart ignored Dash’s questioning eyebrow. “Look, can I at least convince you to stay here until Flash is better?”
Rainbow’s eyebrows leveled out. “Yeah, yeah, sure. Where’s the library?”
Redheart gave her a double-take. “Um, we can bring the cart to your room. At least once we get you assigned—”
“Cool.” Rainbow Dash got up off the gurney and trotted for the door. “I’ll be in the lobby. Let me know when you got a room.”
“You—you shouldn’t even be able to walk after that drain!” Redheart extended a wing to intercept Rainbow Dash. “How much energy were you holding on to!?”
Rainbow Dash looked at Redheart as she pushed the wing down with a hoof. “About a lightning bolt’s worth. Why?”
“How—” Redheart shook her head, and her pink bun bobbed through the air. “Forget being as fried as Flash. You ought to be dead. How’d you get that much magical capacity!?”
“Exercise.” Rainbow Dash pursed her lips. “And jealousy.” She turned her head to the side. “I saw somepony better than me, so I tried to make myself even better.” She snorted. “I’m still not good enough, apparently.”
She shrugged as she walked past Redheart. “Although, Lightning Dust is the Nightmare instead of me, so I guess it isn’t all bad.”
Flash Sentry glanced up at the bag of amber liquid being piped into his body. A small hose trailed down until it disappeared under a bandage on his foreleg. He turned his face to the tiny window on the far side of the room, where a deceptively happy sun shone through.
He looked under the covering of blankets. His stomach sparkled faintly with magic as the liquid did its work. His fried guts would be fully healed in less than a week. The skin around his eyes tightened. “Could we have taken them?”
He wasn’t really sure, to be honest. Those Nightmares weren’t holding anything back.
He lay back and stared at the ceiling. “First Twilight, then Soarin. Who’s next?”
A tap at the doorway drew his attention. “Come in.”
Redheart walked into the room with a cart in tow. A fresh bag of the golden liquid sat upon it. “Special delivery, fresh ambrosia. Imported directly from Breezie Bastion.”
Flash sat up slowly, but regretted it soon after. He settled for craning his neck. “Breezies. Strange folks. I served on a squad accompanying their nectar collection one year.”
“I love their cute little accents when they’re speaking Equestrian,” Redheart giggled. “Voot er eyoo gize doo’n!? Vee need to gert beck hoom!”
“I know a breezie who’d kick your butt for that impression,” Flash said. He allowed himself a smile as Redheart changed the ambrosia bag. “Seabreeze doesn’t have much of a sense of humor.”
“She’d have to settle—”
“He.”
Redheart raised an eyebrow. “He’d have to settle for body-slamming my ear, I think.”
Flash leaned back. “Probably. He wouldn’t quit, though. He isn’t the kind to give up.”
Redheart worked for a little while in silence. She brought the blood-pressure gauge up to Flash’s bed and wrapped the strap around his foreleg. “So, Rainbow Dash told me you were going after Nightmares.”
Flash bared his teeth ever-so-slightly. “Yeah. We were.”
Redheart watched the needle on the gauge go up, up, up. “I wanna help. How do I make that happen?”
He shook his head. “No, that’s not gonna work. I’m not putting anypony else in danger—”
“Besides yourself?” Redheart asked. “You’re wrong, that’s what’s not gonna work. You and Dash almost got killed out there. You could at least use some sort of medical… medic at your side.” She tapped her horn. “Plus magic.”
Flash didn’t answer. Redheart deflated the blood-pressure gauge with a groan. “Come on, Sentry. You can’t do it on your own.” She stomped a hoof and huffed steam through her nostrils. “You’re not the only pony with someone to lose, you know that!?”
Flash’s chest compressed, letting out a whoosh of air. “I know.”
Redheart sat, twirling a tongue depressor in her telekinetic grip. “I can help.”
Flash Sentry turned towards her. His ears drooped. “I know.”
She tapped her hooves together, a hopeful gleam in her eye. “So, what’s that spell of yours do?”
“It pulls you from your dream into somepony else’s.” Flash set his cheek on the pillow. “You and whoever you bring with you.”
Redheart leaned forward. “And that’s how we’ll save Lyra? Go into her dream and face the Nightmare itself?”
“That’s the plan.”
“And you can teach me the spell?”
Flash shrugged, though a small smile touched his lips. “I understand the mechanics, but I can’t actually cast it. Good enough for you?”
“Close enough,” Redheart said. She stood and gathered her medical instruments. “You rest. We’ll have a big job ahead of us when you get better.”
As she wheeled the cart out, Flash let out a small “hmm” sound.
“Nurse Redheart?” he said.
She looked over her shoulder. “Yeah?”
Flash’s mouth opened, closed, and then opened again. “Do you ev—do you ever get the feeling that you’re a character in some other hero’s story? Like… you’re not even allowed to save the day, because…” He sighed. “I dunno. Sorry, must be the fever.”
Redheart’s eyes flickered between Flash and the floor. “It’ll work out okay. It has to.”
The door shut, leaving Flash Sentry alone.
He reached an aching wing out and grasped a piece of scrap paper on his bedside table. A moment later, a pencil was clutched between his lips. He scribbled quietly as the sun set outside his window.
When Twilight falls
We must keep on flying
Wherever we go
Our wings the wind takes
So when we call
Our voices are crying
Up from our soul
For friendships we make
I’ll close my eyes
O’er the Sleeping Mountain
In the night
Where I’ll seek your face
I’ll watch your dreams
O’er the Sleeping Mountain
I’ll save the day
Just this once, I pray
Redheart sighed as she pulled the rubber band out of her mane. The pink hairs flowed freely over her neck and shoulders. Her reflection in the locker room mirror gazed back dispassionately, the bags under its eyes all but begging for a full night’s sleep.
A perky face appeared over her shoulder. “Heyah, Redhead!”
“Daisychain,” Redheart mumbled. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Not much.” Daisychain glanced to the right and left. “Look, I got a really, really awesome date planned for tonight. With that hunky Caramel fella, you know? Can you cover for me?”
“I’m not—” Redheart shook her head. “If I pull any more double-shifts, the ponies upstairs are gonna make me take forced time off.”
“Now is that my fault?” Daisychain backed off as Redheart’s glare gathered heat. “Okay, sorry. Bad choice of words. Can you cover anyway? It’s just one night.”
Redheart growled quietly as she retied her bun. “You owe me. Big time.”
“You’re the best!” Daisychain squealed. She wrapped her forelegs around Redheart’s neck in an unwanted hug. She sped away, her hooves clomping on the hard floor. She skidded around a corner and slammed flank-first into an empty cart, gleaning a small, yet sardonic, smile from Redheart.
Nurse Redheart, Princess of Hospice, walked out of the locker room and signed her name back into the log book. The receptionist raised her eyebrow. “I thought you were done for the night.”
“I’m too nice for my own good,” Redheart muttered. She gave the receptionist a cheeky smile. “How long ’til Daisychain gets herself fired?”
“Years, if you keep helping her like this.” The receptionist nodded towards the staircase. “Looks like a quiet night if we don’t get any emergencies. Maybe you can get a nap in during your break.”
“Thanks, Marzipan.” Redheart stretched her back and headed for the stairs. Before she reached them, the hospital doors opened.
“Hay, Redheart, what gives?” Vinyl Scratch trotted in, her sunglasses hanging around her neck. “I thought you were done for the day.”
“You weren’t the only one.” Redheart rolled her shoulders. “I gotta cover for somepony tonight.”
“Well, horseapples.” Vinyl’s eyes flitted around the hospital lobby. “So, do they have places for not-patients to hang? I don’t…” She blew a breath between her lips. “I don’t wanna spend tonight alone.”
Redheart looked at Marzipan, who shooed them away with a hoof. “Well, it won’t be the only rule broken tonight.” Redheart tilted her head towards the stairs. “I’ll get you a spot in the family waiting room. We’ve got a nice couch in there.”
“Sounds awesome.” An uneasy grin flitted across Vinyl’s face. “Hay, no safer place than a hospital, right?”
“You might be right,” Redheart chuckled.
The two of them walked through the halls, talking and chuckling quietly. Neither of them bothered to look up. If they had, they might have seen the shadow snaking its way overhead.