- - - ch 22 - - -
Drums, the awful pounding of drums. Luna knew that sound: it was the chant of war drums. They stirred the bloodlust deep within her. Where were they coming from? She was dreaming, but this was not her dream. Opening her eyes, she found an iron door with bronze locks standing before her. She knew this door—it was Clover’s.
Reaching out, Luna laid her hoof against his dream, not to enter, but to merely feel the thump of the drums. At her touch, the locks fell from the door like rotten cloth, melting into the mist of the dream realm. Curiosity and confusion washed over her and she pressed ever so lightly on the door. It felt not of iron, but of old bread, not so much opening as crumbling away.
Before Luna could blink, she found herself surrounded by chaos. Steel spears danced on all sides of her while shields flashed before her. Armor clattered, and the screams of the dying filled her ears, but still there were the drums.
Her spear darted forward, and found a soft purchase; the shaft shook with death throes. The stink of death filled her nose and some ghost within her cooed in delight. Maille rattled against helm as she wrenched the tip free. With a roar, she lunged again, but this time it found the wood of a shield. Her heart pounding in time with the drums, Luna yanked at her spear, but the tip was foul within the shield.
Steel gleamed in her eyes, calling to take her head, but with the bend of her knees, the blade passed above her. Beside Luna, her friend cried in pain, but she smiled. She knew the yell, his armor had done its job; there’d be no blood from that wound. Dropping the spear, Luna loosed a blade from her thigh and hacked at the limb that had attacked her friend. Black vapors gave shade to the noon sun as a voice chanted, “Kill kill kill!”
Luna jolted from her bed. Dark thoughts swirled in her mind, whispered by a familiar voice. A breath, and they were gone. She was again alone in her mind, but still...
Rolling out of bed, Luna hurried to her mirror. Her eyes were soft, her teeth were dull. The colt’s nightmare had been powerful, and she had been reckless in touching the dream.
“Clover!” Luna spun to face her door. The colt was still trapped in that battle. Skidding into the hallway, Luna galloped into the great room where the feverish colt slept. He whimpered and twitched beneath his covers, his coat was frothed with sweat.
Luna rested a hoof on Clover’s shoulder, and shook him. “Wake up.” The words hadn’t left her before she jerked her hoof away. The colt’s flesh was painful to the touch. “Thou art ablaze with fever!”
“Luna?” Celestia groaned, raising from her makeshift bed under the window. “What is it?”
Shucking the quilt off the foal, Luna picked Clover up in her magic. “Fetch the leech. I will tend to him,” she said, already carrying the foal towards the bathroom.
Celestia nodded dumbly to her sister’s words. The sight of Clover hanging like a ragdoll in Luna’s magic twisted her heart.
“Go!” Luna’s snapped.
Without thought, Celestia ran to the balcony doors, and flew off into the night.
In the hallway, Luna started for the first guest bathroom, but then turned towards her own room. Her soaking tub was easier to move around than the shower stall.
Behind her, Merry’s hoofsteps echoed. “What’s wrong?”
“Boil us some willow bark. Make it strong.”
“We don’t have any...”
Luna paused just outside her door, setting Clover on her back with a sigh. Her horn flashed, and with its light also came the greater part of a willow branch. “Now we do.”
Merry only blinked once, before taking the branch in her teeth, and dragging it to the kitchen.
In her bathroom, Luna ran the water till she had it neither warm nor cool. The colt mumbled and twitched as she sat him in the tub. She could feel the nightmare still raging within him, and as she let water trickle over him, she could hear steel clash.
“Strange foal, where do you know of such evils?” Sealing up her mind, Luna focused on tending to Clover. In the minutes that passed, the water took some of the fever from him, while soft words and petting silenced the dream.
Hurried voices and hoofsteps echoed down the hall, announcing the return of her sister with the doctor. Pouring more water across Clover’s neck, Luna looked up just as doctor Healthy Glow entered the room. He frowned at the tub for a moment, but then nodded in approval after testing the temperature with a hoof.
“What’s his temperature?” the doctor asked, setting his saddlebag by the tub. A mare stepped from behind him, and began unpacking the bags in a practiced manner. She was a frail-looking pegasus, but she moved with an incredible inner strength. A mark of a bird with bandages in its beak told Luna she was probably a nurse.
“I have not paused to check it, but it is lower now than when I started,” Luna said.
The mare pulled a thermometer from the kit, and without pause lifted Clover’s tail to get his temperature.
“Where is my sister?” Luna asked, pouring more water across Clover; careful not to affect the thermometer.
“I asked her to wait outside,” Glow answered as he pressed his stethoscope to Clover.
“Here’s the willow tea,” Merry said from the doorway.
The nurse took a sipping bowl from the bag, and went to Merry to fill it with the medicine.
“Thank you, Dear,” Glow said, taking the bowl from her. Running his magic through it he studied the tea. “Temperature?”
The nurse removed the thermometer and held it up to the light. “One hundred seven.”
“We need to get two bowls of this in him,” Glow said, stirring in a bit of sweetener.
Luna lifted Clover’s head with her hooves, while touching his mind with her magic. “Wake up,” she whispered. “You are thirsty.”
Clover’s eyes cracked open. Mumbling something, he looked around, but his confusion faded when the nurse pressed the sipping bowl to his lips. He drank the medicine in one go, then whined when it was empty. The nurse filled it again with the tea, and when he emptied that, she filled it with something from the bag.
“No more,” the nurse said apologetically, putting the bowl away. “We need that to stay down.”
Clover started to protest, but Luna pulled her magic from his mind, and seconds later the colt was again unconscious.
“Let’s see if we can get his temperature down a bit more, but I want to get him to the hospital within the hour.” Glow said. “He’s dehydrated, and I heard fluid in his lungs.”
“I’ll see they’re ready for us,” the nurse said, then packed a few things before leaving the room.
The doctor examined Clover by hoof and magic as Luna continued cooling him with the water. There was a frown on the stallion’s face that unsettled her, and after the passing of a quarter hour, she could no longer remain silent.
“What disturbs you, Doctor?”
“I didn’t make a mistake.”
“I fail to see how that bothers you.”
“It’s just Cow Pox. He should be itchy and whiny, not unconscious from fever.”
“I see...” Looking towards the door, a familiar sensation nagged at Luna. “My sister would like to know if she can see him now.”
Healthy Glow looked behind him, but saw nopony in the room beyond. “Of course.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth, than a flash of gold light brought Celestia into the room. “Will he be okay?” she asked, floating to the floor.
A grim expression on doctor Glow’s face spoke more than his words. “He is very sick, Your Highness.”
Celestia seemed not to hear the words. Instead she casually took the job of ladling water over Clover from Luna. Silence took the room for the next half hour, till the doctor again took his temperature.
“It’s under one o’ six. Let’s get him dried off and to the hospital. Nightingale should have a room ready for us.”
Celestia’s magic shed most of the water from Clover as she lifted him from the tub, and onto a towel Luna had waiting for him. With thoughtful movement, Celestia dried the foal, then wrapped him in a fresh towel to guard him from the cold night. “I’ll carry him,” she said, placing the bundle on her back.
With long strides, Celestia walked down the stairs from her home. The two guards at the bottom gave her pensive looks as she neared them.
“I need a carriage out front,” Celestia said.
“Already there, Princess,” one of the guards said with a bow.
Celestia managed to smile at her guard. “Thank you.”
Hurrying ahead on wing, Luna took a seat atop the carriage. She nodded to the two guards yoked to the carriage, they were some of her strongest night guards. “Be quick, but do not jostle the colt, he is in a frail state.”
The two guards saluted their princess, then leaned forward to take the slack from their tethers as they awaited the command to go; which came the moment the door closed behind Celestia.
At the hospital, a fleet of ponies greeted their arrival. As soon as Celestia stepped from the carriage, hooves took Clover from her, and whisked him away. Luna stayed at her sister’s side as she followed.
The hospital's overly-bright halls made it hard to remember it was still night out, but before they had reached the room prepared for Clover that familiar nag tugged at Luna. Setting her moon to rest, she waited for Celestia, but the sunrise did not follow.
Looking to her sister, she found her watching a bustling room from outside the door. Without a word, Luna touched the sun, and nudged it into place, then stood vigil by her sister as medical ponies applied their talents to Clover.