Everything was black... and cold. It was dark and cold. This must be what it's like to die, he pondered.
Bloodvein opened his eyes. It stung the moment he did due to the freezing... water?
"I'm alive?" He thought to himself. He was still holding his breath as he floated in place under the freezing, dark water. Blood looked around slowly, spotting the bottom of what he thought was an underground lake. It was certainly smooth, but still rocky.
After glancing around for a minute, he realized that even if he did try to go to the surface, he'd never be found. In one final attempt, the colt opened his mouth, allowing the air he kept stored in his mouth out, to float to the surface in a few small bubbles.
"I need to end this. What's the point of going to the top?"
The thought of death tugged on his heart strings, but also believed he would be reunited with his father, or maybe even his mother, in case her and everypony else weren’t able to escape in time. Then, a new feeling came across young Bloodvein. It was nothing at all. After seven long years, he was at peace. It felt like forever, but after one minute, he finally shut his eyes in one final attempt to end it all. He knew that if he fought back, death would keep coming after him. Once again, everything went purely black.
"Bloodvein."
...
"Bloodvein..."
...
"BLOODVEIN!"
Blood shot awake, attempting to pant, but instead swallowing the ice-cold water. He shrieked, despite slowly being flooded internally with water, and swished around so he was no longer floating on his back, and he started to swim back up towards the surface out of a random surge of motivation. His eyes narrowed as he quickly swam up towards the surface. After a few moments, he pierced the surface, gasping for air and coughing out whatever water he had yet to swallow.
Blood glanced around, immediately spotting a flat surface of black stone and swimming to it, panting for breath. He grabbed onto the rock, slowly pulling himself onto the dry rock with whatever energy he had left. After pulling himself up, he laid belly up on the rock, staring up at the dark ceiling and panting. His entire body shivered at the feeling of his cold, wet coat. His little heart raced a hundred miles an hour as he shivered.
"What is wrong with me? I... I fought back. Wh—why do I need to go on? No one is going to find me down—"
A stone fell into the water, creating a slight disturbance in it. Blood shot up, staring at the water and trembling as the tiny waves bounced against the cold stone. Suddenly, a ray of white light shone down onto the water. His eyes moved up to the ceiling, and to his surprise, he could see outside.
"Is that..."
Bloodvein slowly stood, and attempted to walk closer without going back into the pool of icy water, but found his right foreleg in more pain than his feather flu shot he received a few months back. He held the hoof in the air and limped over to the edge, peering up at the tiny hole. He then gasped at the sight. "It is the moon."
He stared for a full two minutes, flabbergasted that he could see the moon.
"Am I dead?" Blood mumbled to himself. The only real explanation for seeing the moon while underground to him meant he was dead, and he was still feeling pain somehow...or he wound up in a small pit somewhere else that was right below the surface. The next thing that came across his mind; even if he is alive, and he is that close to escaping, what are the chances he'll find somepony to help him, and he knew the chances of finding someone friendly to help were almost at zero.
He then sighed and looked down at his injured hoof, knowing the only ways out are to swim back where he came from, and hopefully find another way out, or somehow dig his way up through the thin layer of dirt and rock separating him from the outside world. Either way would be near-impossible in his condition. He was hungry, his hoof was badly hurt, and he was very weak after being submerged for Faust knows how long.
Suddenly, he heard a new noise. His ears perked up at the noise, and he looked around the tiny cave he was stranded him. To his surprise, it was coming from above. Blood glanced back up at the hole, and noticed it was opened some more, but not by much. The next thing that he could hear, was faint talking.
"M-mom? Dad?" His ears pinned back, not sure what to expect. The talking slowly got closer, and soon enough he could hear hoofsteps, one set light, the other set heavy. It took a moment, but soon he realized they weren't his parents' voices. The next thing he realized, was they could help him.
"Hey! Hey!!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, voice shaky and weakened.
"I'm telling you honey, I think we should adopt!"
"Cloud, please, just—"
"Hey!"
"Do you hear that?"
"Help, please!" Blood cried. His throat was dry, and it pained him just to talk, let alone scream. Soon, the hoofsteps got louder and louder, before finally stopping directly above him.
"Where are you?!" A deep, slightly roughened voice called out.
"Down here!" Blood replied.
The two ponies looked down at the tiny hole in the ground, peeking into the dark. Bloodvein looked up and saw a purple eye stare down at him.
"I can't see you, where are you?"
"Over here!" Blood waved his injured hoof, hurting it more in the process. "Ow!"
The eye pulled away from the hole, and the two ponies talked for a moment, before one of them ran off. Moments later, a pair of green eyes stared into the hole, down at Bloodvein. "He's going to get help, we're going to get you out of there, okay?"
"O-okay! Please, hurry!" Blood whimpered, looking around frantically.
No longer than five minutes later, more heavy hoofsteps could be heard approaching quickly. Blood glanced up, now laying on the rock and shivering even more. The hoofsteps came to a stop just above him, followed by the sounds of three stallions panting.
"Are... are you alright?" A new voice yelled from above.
"Cold, but I think s-so!" Blood shivered, huddling up into a ball to keep himself warm.
"Okay little one, we'll get you out in a jiff!" The new voice called. "Everypony, stand back."
The two other ponies stepped back, before the other stallion put all of his weight into his hind legs, standing up on them, before slamming his forehooves back down into the ground, breaking open a large hole in the ground and whatever dirt and rock was loosened fell into the water next to Bloodvein.
He glanced back up after the rocks finished falling, and finally got a good look at the ponies. To the far right stood what appeared to be an extremely light grey, or even white pegasus mare, with grass-green eyes and a brown, curly mane with what appeared to be either a white or extremely light yellow stripe down the side.
To her right stood a head-taller brown unicorn stallion with a silver mane resembling a mohawk-buzzcut mane. Blood then glanced over to the third pony, who was reaching his hoof down to him. The first thing he noticed was his hoof, which was trimmed on the bottom, revealing the bare mid-blue hoof. He looked up at the stallion, which was a pale-white pegasus, a royal guard he pondered to himself.
"Come on, reach!" The pegasus grunted, holding his muscular hoof out to Blood, trying his best not to fall into the water.
Bloodvein slowly stood up, holding his injured hoof in the air slightly. His body shuddered as he moved. The colt took a few short steps back, before running and jumping into the pegasus’ hooves.
"Whoa!" The pegasus jumped slightly, not expecting Blood to jump. He caught the colt, who immediately buried his face into his chest and begun to cry. "Easy, easy...you're safe now," he hugged back, feeling his freezing, wet coat.
"Th-th-thank you," Blood sobbed and shivered, clinging himself to the stallion's warm chest.
The pegasus looked up at the couple. "He's freezing."
The mare gasped and looked at the unicorn. "Should we get him a hospital?"
The unicorn glanced at Blood, then back to the mare. "If he's just cold, we can take him home and warm him up, give him a hot bath, whatever he needs."
The pegasus pried the small colt off of him for a moment. "Are you hurt?"
Blood nodded and held his hoof in the air, sniffling a bit. "I-I don't kn-know how it happened..." He shivered more.
The pegasus looked closer. "Let me see it little one."
Blood whimpered slightly and slowly extended his hoof to the pegasus’. His hoof was red and was still bleeding. The white pegasus moved the fur away to look at injury. He gasped a little at the sight.
He then looked up at Blood. "Okay, this is going to hurt for juuust a second," he leaned his head down, quickly yanking back up.
Blood yelped and whimpered more, pulling his hoof out of the pegasus’ and holding it in his own.
"I got it," the pegasus spat out a sharp black rock into his hoof, which was half red from the blood. "It went in pretty deep, it needs to be bandaged. You're lucky it was cold water, or else amputation would have been needed. Cold water helps with deep injuries."
Bloodvein whimpered more and looked down at his bloody hoof, catching a brief sight of the deep cut. The little colt stood up and faced the unicorn and the mare.
"He should be fine if the cut is bandaged up, and he is warmed up. Whatever he went through shook him up pretty bad too," he said to the two ponies, before leaning closer. "I also don't want you bringing him to any hospitals, or else it may start a panic."
The unicorn and the mare exchanged looks in confusion, before looking back at the pegasus. "Why would it cause a panic?"
The pegasus looked back at Blood in some concern. "You'll see it. Please, get some bandages on him and get him warm. He's probably too shaken to talk much."
"Okay. Thank you... so much, sir." The mare smiled at the pegasus stallion.
The stallion nodded. "Anytime," he returned the smile, then nodded at the unicorn, who nodded back, before trotting away.
The pegasus mare glanced down at the colt, smiling faintly. "Hey, don't be scared... we got you out of there," she smiled more and approached.
Bloodvein simply looked up at her, still shivering and whimpering slightly, his heart racing.
"Come on, let's get him home before he gets sick. Hopefully he isn't already," the unicorn walked closer, looking at the mare.
The mare nodded at him, before looking back down at Blood. "What's your name?"
"B... Bloodvein..." He trembled.
The unicorn raised an eyebrow at the name, but continued to look at him, while the mare smiled more.
"Where are you from?"
Skywatcher stared... and stared... and stared some more. The cave had completely collapsed in on itself shortly after he and the other soldiers escaped. His deep blue eyes were full of dread, as the scene of the rocks cutting him off from his son played and replayed in his mind. Meanwhile, bat ponies worked to try and remove the rocks that had fallen, in a final attempt to get back in and search for anypony who may have been trapped for hours.
Luckily, that wasn't the case, but Sky still ordered for the caves to be unblocked in case Bloodvein was still alive. His muscles shifted from tense, to feeling like they were simply full of air. It was the first time in a very long time that the other Legion soldiers had seen him as distraught as he was at that very moment. His ears were flat as a deflated ball, and his wings were folded tightly against his sides.
"Sky... t-this isn't your fault," Midnight rolled over to the stallion in a wheelchair, resting her hoof on his shoulder.
"It is, Midnight. I could have grabbed him," Skywatcher spoke in a low, depressed tone. As he did, his eyes became glassy while he stared further at the blocked cave, which used to be their home. "He was right in front of me. Because of me...our son is gone."
Midnight sat up some, then kissed him on the cheek. "Don't say that honey... he could still be alive."
"What are the chances, Midnight?" Sky snapped his head back, giving her a cold scowl out of pure anxiety.
Midnight quickly sat down and recoiled back a bit. "Miracles happen."
"Well, here it is," the door opened to the house, and Bloodvein, as well as the unicorn stallion and the pegasus mare stepped in. The house was enormous, and could certainly fit three, maybe four of his old house in it over! He looked up and spotted a glassy object he’d never seen before, which lit itself with small candles.
To their left was a large living room, with a large couch and a love seat, as well as a recliner, all surrounding a large fire place that remained darkened. Inside was quite warm—scorching, even, compared to the water Blood was in for over eight hours. He took in a deep whiff the air, detecting a brand new scent. It smelled sweet, but he couldn’t quite put his hoof on what it was.
"I will go make some soup for you, Bloodvein," the unicorn strode off into a room to their right—the dining room—before turning again into the kitchen.
The mare glanced down to Blood and smiled. He still looked quite scared, but she knew it was because of what he went through.
"Come on, Blood," she walked into the living room, taking up a white fleece blanket with red snowflakes, edging off of the couch and motioning for him to come over.
Blood steadily limped over, still holding his cut hoof a few inches off the floor, which changed to carpet the moment he stepped hoof into the living room. He hopped up onto the couch, and the mare covered him with the blanket.
"I'll be right back, your hoof needs to be wrapped up," the mare then walked off.
The blanket was comforting, the softest he had ever felt! It did not take long for him to feel warm again. After being out of the water for so long, his coat dried at last, and it fluffed at the feeling of being warm again, along with his feathers.
A few short moments later, the mare returned with a small blue box with a red cross printed on the front. She then opened the box and plucked out a roll of thin cloth, as well as a wet bathing cloth.
"Here, give me your hoof," she smiled and pulled the roll end off slightly. Blood shakily extended his red-soaked hoof to her, and she dabbed it gently with the steaming-hot wet cloth. He cringed and tried to yank his hoof back, but couldn't due to the mare's grip on it.
After a moment, the now-clean cut ceased to bleed. The mare began wrapping it with the thin cloth four times over, before tying it down on its own to his hoof, and finally, planting the softest of kisses on it. "There."
Bloodvein looked at his hoof, then smiled up at her faintly. His coat then fluffed again, this time enough to be noticed.
The mare giggled. "Well, aren't you a little fluff ball?"
Blood let out a small laugh and nodded, smiling even more. The mare's smile dropped into a look of surprise at the sight of his teeth, gasping a bit.
"You have fangs?" She raised her hoof to her mouth.
Blood's smile vanished, and he recoiled back in fear now, lifting his unhurt hoof up to his mouth and shielding his fangs. "N-no, I don't!"
The mare lowered her hoof gently. "Don't lie, please. I won’t judge. If you have fangs, that just makes you special!" she said with a smile.
Blood looked up at her, shaking still. It took him a few moments to trust her word, before slowly lowering his hoof, revealing the tiny fangs poking out between his lips.
"It's okay, Bloodvein..." the mare scooted closer and looped her hooves around him gently. "We'll take care of you until we can find your parents again."
Blood shivered slightly still, only to slowly smile and hug back. "Th-thank you," he nuzzled her chest, sighing a bit.
"I promise, we will find your parents."