//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Where no mare has gone before. // by Tobbzn //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash felt her world crumble around her. Whoever - or rather, whatever - had found her was unlike anything she had ever seen, and was certainly no pony. Though blurry, she could see a long, beige claw-like thing stretched toward her face. She tried pulling away from it, but she was still too weak to move any significant distance. The claw slowly retracted, perhaps startled by her attempted gesture. The creature to whom it belonged loudly shouted something incoherent, as if calling to something else like it. Soon, that something appeared. There's more of them. I'm doomed. Stooping her head, she let her tears run. They'll rip me open and eat me, and there's nothing I can do... This is where I die. Nopony will even know... She felt two sets of claws burn the skin across her face and eyes. Any second now, her life would be... The tears were wiped from her face, and a claw started gently stroking her chin. It was still painful, but far from the treatment she had expected. Why am I not dead? Finally, she dared open her eyes again. Now closer, the creature didn't look all that scary anymore - it even reminded her a little of a pony. It had blue eyes, a long, smooth mane, and a friendly smile on its face. In its own way, it was pretty. Rainbow, confused, allowed herself to get her hopes up a little and relaxed her tension. As soon as she had done so, though, her stomach started roaring in starvation, and she tensed back up. No wonder she felt so weak. How long had it been since she last ate anything? The two creatures quietly laughed as they heard. The one that kept caressing Rainbow's face said something unintelligible to the other, who then promptly darted off. The remaining then turned back to her, softly speaking a language that might as well have been song. She couldn't understand the words, but just hearing them filled her with calm. It didn't last long until the one that had run off came back with a couple of large red apples, which were sliced into small cubes and given to her. She still had no idea what happened, but it seemed she might have been wrong about them. As she gobbled down the delicious food, she felt strengthened and renewed. For the first time, she could see that she actually was in a hospital bed - whatever these things were, they had been taking care of her all along. "Thank... You..." she whispered, and drifted back to sleep, no longer fearing for her life. Christina thought the little thing was cute, especially that sound it had made when it closed its eyes. "Aww, don't you just want to wub-wub-wub the cute widdle thing?" She tossed her arms around herself in a hugging motion, substituting the blistered animal with her own body. Her playful gesture was cut short, however, when the visitor bell rung. She left immediately, but two men had already appeared in the doorway, one holding a bloodied handkerchief to his head. "Oh, dear." She tossed her eyes towards Tarry, who already had covered up the animal. Turning back to the new patient, she offered some respite. "Would you like to lie down before you tell us what happened?" "Yeah, thanks." The bloodied man dropped like a sack of potatoes into the empty treatment bed. Obviously trying to hide the pegasus, Tarry moved between the beds and started talking to their newfound patient. Christina decided to instead focus on the other man. "I was told to drive this guy here when I was going past the ALICE entry point. Apparently he was down in the collider, and he slipped. He told me he'd fallen down the stairs." He shifted uncomfortably. "Can I leave now? My department head will be furious if I arrive late..." Second accident in the collider in two days. Usually, the medical station was a quiet place, but lately there had been little time for research or routine health inspections. "Alright, you can go." She fetched a glass of water before returning to Tarry and the patient. "He had a mild concussion," Terry explained to her. "I told him he can stay here and rest until he feels well enough to go home." Christina offered her glass of water to the patient, and, as usual for someone with a headwound, he gulped it down with glee. "You'll need to keep hydrated to speed up your recovery, but you'll be just fine," she told him with a smile. "You know, you're our second - no, third, actually - patient we've treated from the ALICE tunnel since yesterday. What's going on down there?" The man took a deep breath before answering. "The experiment blew up. Don't know why, yet. We finally managed to pump out the leaked helium earlier today, but when my team entered entered the tunnel, the water vapor from the air had condensed and frozen, so I slipped in the stairs and hit my head." He closed his eyes and moaned. "Wait, third?" Flora was picked up at the Geneve airport after a daunting six-hour airplane ride. She had been on holiday when she got summoned to Switzerland, supposedly to assist in the treatment of a strange animal discovered at CERN. She had originally been sceptical to whether or not it was really worth her time, but after she was presented with a recording that detailed the apparent physical aspects of the creature, as reported by a reputable medical scientist, she was intrigued. A hooved, six-limbed mammal with a mass density at bird-level wasn't something you saw every day, and it should be far more interesting than treating the same old dogs and cats all day. Once she had packed her stuff into the trunk of the car, she fastened herself in the back seat, since it was held open for her. The woman she had spoken to on the phone had told her they had no theories on what the animal was, where it came from, or how it got there. Flora hoped they hadn't solved that riddle yet - when there were no explanations, she could pretend there was magic at work, and it would be her job to figure out how exactly how that magic worked. Once that had been figured out, it wouldn't be magic anymore, but at least the mystery would have been magical until then. Her driver had to repeat herself to get her attention, since she was lost in her own thoughts. "Oh, my apologies... Did you say something?" "Yes, I did. I asked what brought you here to CERN. It's a place for particle physics research, not animal treatment." Her driver was very matter-of-factly about it. Flora supposed she shouldn't be surprised, since she was at the heart of nerd territory. "So you weren't told? There's a wonderful, unidentified animal here who's badly hurt, and I'm here to take a look at it." "Unidentified animal? At CERN? Why wouldn't they just send it off to the hospital, then? Why would they pay for a plane ticket from across the globe just to get you here?" The driver sounded surprised. "Well... I don't like to brag, but I'm pretty good at handling new species. I've classified over twenty myself, and I guess they're afraid a new species would cause panic if too many people knew." Realizing what she just told a complete stranger, she added: "Oh, please promise me you won't tell anyone about it!" "Don't worry, I have no wish to see harm come to the animal," the driver responded. It was still before dawn, but Flora hoped she could be let in as soon as she arrived. She didn't want to have to wait to meet a member of this new species. I do have a wish to limit the expenses those secretive doctors cause, though. Fauna kept that last part to herself.