Nurse Redheart
It was dim in the lonely mail room. It was cluttered with packages and papers strewn about, and the walls felt like they were closing in on her. This was the night shift at the hospital. Nurse Redheart shuffled through the mail, organizing it and putting it into the appropriate outgoing box. She looked up at the clock on the dull green wall, and saw that it was a little past midnight.
She sighed, jamming a package in its appropriate compartment. The clerk and the other nurses had gone outside for a smoke break, and she was left inside to make sure everything remained stable with the patients. She accidentally spilled a stack of mail papers on the floor, and among the letters was a fluorescent yellow folder. It read, “Canterlot Laboratories” in bold print over the cover. There was a big “URGENT” right underneath the title.
Redheart looked around to see if anyone else was looking. She had been looking for this folder. Crystal Glow had requested that she take it straight to her office as soon as it came in the mail. “So, this is the toxicology report.” She said to herself.
She took up the folder and began walking down the empty white hallways. All the rooms she passed were dark, the rooms on this side of the hospital were empty and seldom visited. Crystal’s office was adjacent to the isolation room where the sick foals were. She had heard that Firespark’s body composition had started to look more crystalline than flesh and bone. What kind of wicked disease has afflicted these children?
She shook the folder. In here, they would find answers. After a few minutes of trotting through the eerie silence, she saw Crystal’s office. She checked the isolation room first, and saw that it had been darkened inside the room. The beeping of heart monitors, the wheezing of the ventilators, and the small gasps of the comatose foals created a monotonous ambience in the dark room.
Satisfied, she unlocked Crystal’s office. She turned the white lamp on and closed the door behind her. She turned down the blinds so no one could see her, and settled down on Crystal’s chair. With trembling hooves, she opened up the toxicology reports. Everywhere she looked on the paper, the words “ABNORMAL” and “IMMEDIATELY CONTACT CANTERLOT HAZMAT TEAMS” jumped out at her.
What in Equestria? thought Redheart. She had never seen such dramatic labels in anything from those stiff-necks working at the Canterlot Labs. As she read in detail, her face twisted in horror at the implications. Lethal hazardous waste in the town’s drinking water? A possible chemical attack by terrorists? The crystals forming inside the foals are actually….
The lights flickered, and Redheart clutched the folder to her chest. Her heart was racing as the lights flashed on and off, and eventually went completely dark. There was the whirring sound as the last of the power was drained.
Redheart was frozen in the darkness. There was a clinking sound, and the emergency generators kicked in. Everything was bathed in the eerie red luminance of the backup lights, and she trembled in the office.
She peeked through the blinds, her hooves damp with perspiration as she clutched the folder. All she could see was the empty hallway. She locked the door anyway.
She swallowed, and fumbled with Crystal’s phone. She picked up the receiver, but she couldn’t hear a thing. She looked to see if it was even connected, and saw that the wire had been cut straight through.
Redheart was terrified now. She was trying to wedge herself underneath Crystal’s desk when she heard the sound. It was the shrill alarm of a heart monitor. She leapt up from instinct. One of the foals’ hearts had stopped beating. One of the foals would die if she remained in here.
She swallowed her fear, and grabbed a flashlight from one of the drawers. Her hoof fumbled with the doorknob, and she finally unlocked it. She stepped outside into the red lighted hallway. She looked over to the adjacent room where all the comatose foals were. It was pitch black inside the room. She leapt back. Was it just her, or was something moving in there?
No, it’s just my imagination, she told herself. I just…I just need some sleep. The shrill wail of the heart monitor grew louder, and she heard another sound: A visceral ripping sound. The sound of flesh being torn. Then there was a solid snap, as if…as if someone had broken a bone. Rip, tear, crunch, crunch, rip, tear, crunch, crunch…
Redheart shuddered and considered running, but she turned on her flashlight and waited. Just one look, she told herself. One look, and then I’ll run as fast as I can.
She held the light in her mouth, and slowly cast her light into the room. Her light found the bed of a sleeping foal, and she slowly turned her head, the light’s beam moving from bed to bed. Her circle of light lingered on the floor for a moment. Rip, tear, crunch, crunch…
There was a large spatter of blood there. Her light caught the bottom of Firespark’s bed, and she saw thick streaks of blood and gore soaking the sheets and dripping onto the ground. Rip, tear, crunch, crunch…
She moved the light up, and saw it. A hulking figure with piercing red eyes hung over the gory remains of the foal. The thing drove its muzzle into the gore, and lifted its monstrous head back up, the foal’s entrails hanging from its mouth as it chewed. It was eating the foal!
Rip, tear, crunch, crunch…The figure knocked the heart monitor over, and she yelped as it hit the ground. The monster looked at her then, its red eyes piercing her. It let out an ear splitting shriek and lunged towards her. Redheart dropped her flashlight and screamed.
Celestia awoke screaming, her entire body trembling and drenched in perspiration. What was that thing she had seen!? She hadn’t had such a vivid nightmare in ages. She slid out of the poster bed, her heart still hammering in her chest.
There was a knocking on her door, but before she could answer, Luna trotted into her bedroom. “Did you see it, sister?”
Celestia nodded. “Yes, I saw it. A great evil has come to Ponyville.”
Luna beckoned her. “Then there is no time to waste, we must get there as soon as possible.”