//------------------------------// // The Days Hell Froze Over // Story: The Trotting Dead // by Harmonic Scrible //------------------------------// THE TROTTING DEAD The Days Hell Froze Over *Beep... Beep... Beep...* Another routine checkup on a comatose patient of Cynfilliana general hospital. *Beep... Beep... Beep...* Soaked Bandage checked Garden Acre's vitals again. She was a local farmer for the town of Cynfilliana; she ran Floral Acre's Farmstead. It happened to be the second biggest farm estate in the area and one of the towns major sources of income. Garden has been in a coma for nearly a week now. Cynfilliana hospital had been doing everything in their power to keep her stable and eventually wake up. However, Soaked had been in this room everyday for the last five days and he'd noticed her vitals slowly lowering. She was barely holding on as of right now. Even the best doctors couldn't help with the coma. *Beep... Beep... Beep...* It saddened Soaked to see such a hardy young worker just lie helpless and unable to do anything. Her vitals were fading and there wasn't much time left for her here. He wished so very much he could do something to help, yet he was new to being a nurse and there was still much he had to learn. He had been paying attention for the time that he was assigned to Mrs. Acre's care. *Beep... Beep... … Beep... … Beep... ...* Soaked looked to the clock hung on the wall to the right of the bed. It read 3:11 in the pm. He frowned and looked down towards the ground, closing his eyes in preparation. *Beep... … … Beep... … … … Beeeeeeeeee-* He opened his eyes and looked at the vital signs monitor, the signal was flat. Putting a hoof gently against the underside of Garden's fetlock he held it there to try and catch signs of a pulse. Nothing, Garden Acre was gone. He looked up to the clock again; 3:12 is her time of death. He pulled the patient filing clipboard off the table beside the bed, pulled the cord on the vital indicator and began writing time of death and date before walking out of the room and calling over another nurse to help him bring Mrs Acre to the morgue. He looked down the hall, spotting on of his co-workers Nurse Crimson Rain. Soaked called out, “Um, excuse me. Nurse Rain? I need some help in Mrs Acre's room. “ “Hmm? Oh, yes of course I'm on my way.” Crimson Rain, second nurse to the head nurse on the second floor. She was a light red unicorn mare with a darker red mane. It was done up in a style that was fashionable and practical, it was “all the rage” in Manehatten. Soaked thought she was quite striking really, but now was not a time for gawking. He looked back to the patient bed, Mrs. Acre lay there peacefully waiting for the next step in her journey. Nurse Rain brought in a mobile table using her magic. Gently lifting up the body, she lay it down on the table. Turning to Soaked she took a copy of the patient record laying underneath the original, and began filling it out with the records Soaked had written. “I'll go and begin writing a letter to the Acre family, you alright taking her to the morgue?” Rain asked. “Yeah, I can bring her down.” “Okay... I'll let Blueheart know that Mrs. Acre has passed...” “Doesn't seem right, you know? A healthy mare barely 30 winters, and she gets sick and falls into a coma. It's like nothing we tried had helped her at all.” “Well Soaked, sometimes we can help somepony and sometimes we just can't help somepony, not even with magic. It's unfortunate, but its true.” Bidding goodbye, he turned and began trotting down the hall pushing the table with his mouth. Something that had bugged him since he was young was the unfairness of being born an earth pony. He didn't have any fancy magics or wings to fly. He felt that if he had magic of his own, maybe he could have been able to help more. But as he grew up he got used to it, just like he got used to controlling things like mobile patient tables with his mouth. As he forlornly walked down the hall, he caught a glimpse of one of the Acre family trying to talk with one of the nurses. But as Soaked was walking by, the family member turned in mid sentence to see Soaked rolling the cart with the late Mrs. Acre laying atop the bed covered in a bed sheet. His jaw dropped as he watched Soaked walk by the nurse station. Soaked averted his attention back the walk in front of him. He already had to bring the poor pony to the morgue and didn't know how to react to a family member trying to find out what happened to their loved one. Sure enough the family member began argue with the nurse he was talking to and demanding that he see Garden. All Soaked could do was to continue walking to the morgue and hope that the poor stallion could come see her after he was calmed down enough. A short while later after delivering the late Mrs. Acre he began walking down to the nurses station to report his work and continue about his day, his shift was due to end soon. Completing his tasks for the day and cleaning up after dealing with Mrs. Acre's paper work, he was walking back down one of the long corridors of the hospital towards the nurses change station. Passing one of the stairwells, something caught his attention. A high pitched scream rang out from down the stairs. He turned his head and moved towards the stairwell. The sound of hoofsteps filled his ears as a blue earth pony stallion began running up towards him, shock covered his countenance as a splotch of red dribbling along and up the stairs behind the stallion. Soaked began trying to calm the pony down taking a step towards him, to no avail. The pony pushed soaked out of the way, he tripped and began tumbling down the stairwell. The last thing he saw was the ground closing in to him. And then darkness.