Prophetic Heart peered through her binoculars atop a large dead pine tree down at the target below. Brushing her long purple mane out of the way with her indigo hoof Prophetic Heart could see that the hospital was much larger than she had expected and there was way more activity outside than her squad had expected.
‘This will not be easy’ she thought to herself as she watched an ambulance drive up and unload its charge. On the side of the ambulance Prophetic Heart could see the name of the hospital written in bright blue letters Capital Medical Center Olympia, Washington.
The hospital itself was in surprisingly good condition compared to most other human buildings in the city. She recalled that this was a hospital for the human “twopers” which was why it was in such good repair. The very thought of this made her wince she never understood why humans thought it was okay for some humans to greedily hoard resources while so many others struggle just to survive. It was one of many things about humanity she did not understand and one of the many things that made her feel sorry for them.
Lowering her binoculars Prophetic Heart carefully made her way back down the dead tree and went to rejoin her squad.
The squad consisted of seven ponies including herself four unicorns, two earth ponies, and one pegasus which they were currently attempting to rescue from the hospital. All of them were new foals and all of them were members of the PER (Ponies for Earth’s Rebirth). She was a unicorn herself, but unlike the others she was not a newfoal, she was a native Equestrian.
The squad was led by Vanguard a large and imposing earth pony with a dark green coat and brown mane and tail. A former blackmesh Vanguard quit the security force after becoming disenfranchised with it, and joined the PER shortly after it was formed converting around the same time.
Seeing him as she approached Prophetic Heart mused at him standing there so commanding, ‘Oh Vanguard you like to act so tough and commanding, but we all know you're nothing but a big softy.
“How does it look?” asked Vanguard.
“Its gonna be difficult to get inside there's a lot of ponies er I mean humans around” she blushed a bit at her slip she’d never quite gotten used to referring to humans as humans and using terms like everybody rather than everypony.
Ignoring her blushing Vanguard straightened up and turned to face the rest of the squad. “Be that as it may we can’t give up now. We need to get Zero out of there and soon.” Vanguard paced for a bit pondering the best coarse of action muttering different plans to himself.
Heart watched as he paced for a bit before finally speaking up, “Vanguard you mind if I offer a suggestion?”
Vanguard stopped pacing and looked at her, “Of course Heart what did you have in mind?”
“Perhaps instead of trying to sneak in we should instead try and talk are way in.”
Vanguard thought about this idea for a moment before nodding, “I take it you have any idea Heart?”
She nodded, “Yes instead of trying to sneak into the ambulance area like we originally planned. We should instead just walk into the main entrance and tell the person at the front desk that we’re here to visit a hurt friend,” she beamed a smile.
The others took in what she said for a moment before nodding in agreement, “That’s a great idea Heart, thanks for sharing it,” they all said in unison returning her smile.
Scenes like this were quite common in the squad. As a native Equestrian the others often looked up to Prophetic Heart and viewed her as a role model.
Watching this display Vanguard chuckled a bit before clearing his throat grabbing everyponies attention, “Very well let us do as our Princess commands and go visit our hurt friend in the hospital,” Prophetic Heart shrank a bit at being called a Princess. The others often did this as a form of reverence for her even though she told them repeatedly that that title was reserved solely Celestia and Luna.
As they approached the hospital Vanguard fell back tell he was trotting beside Prophetic Heart, “So how exactly are we gonna get back to where Zero is being kept? Its not like there gonna let us visit him.”
“Just follow my lead Vanguard we’ll get in and save Zero you’ll see.” She grinned.
Vanguard rolled his eyes, “Geez it's times like this I think you should be the commander rather than vice versa.”
“Don’t sell yourself short Vanguard you are a great leader don’t ever forget that.” She smiled warmly at him.
Vanguard couldn’t help but smile back, “Thanks Heart.”
As they approached to the entrance to the hospital the paramedics unloading the new arrival gave the ponies a few curious looks to which the ponies waved in response smiling at them. The paramedics smiled and waved back before returning to their work.
Upon entering the building the ponies were immediately hit with the pungent smell of disinfectant which caused them to recoil a bit. “Oh boy I never liked hospitals before I got converted, but at least they didn’t reek back then.” complained Mystik who activated his TK field to plug his nose. The others nodded sharing his sentiment.
This exchanged was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. The ponies looked over to see a heavy set nurse sitting at the front desk with her arms crossed. She stared at them with a glaring gaze which made the ponies shrink a bit.
“What are you grass eaters doing here? this is a hospital for humans not a vet.”
Vanguard clenched his teeth at her insult and was about to yell back angrily before Prophetic Heart placed her hoof in front of him and shook her head at him.
Prophetic Heart then stepped forward and addressed the nurse. “Hello Ms. um...” she looked over at her name tag which read Rita, “Rita we’re here to visit a hurt friend of ours.”
The nurse looked the ponies over like she was sizing them up and then released an annoyed grunt, “Fine what's your friends name?”
Thinking quickly Vanguard spoke up, “A...man...da... Taylor.”
“Hmm,” the nurse stared at a him for a moment suspiciously, “Amanda Taylor?”
Vanguard nodded nervously, “Y.y.y...yes she’s supposed to be registered here.”
The nurse gave off an annoyed, “Fine give me sec.” The nurse sat down at her computer and began to sigh look through the database for the patient in question grumbling as she did “Stupid ponies things were much better before you grass eaters showed up.”
At that moment Prophetic Heart crossed her back legs and started to hop around, “Um miss if it's not to much trouble can I use the bathroom I’ve really gotta go.”
The nurse looked up at her suspiciously.
Prophetic Heart then stared at Vanguard who gave her a dumb look for a second before realization sunk in, “Oh yes yes yes I need to go as well.” he smiled crossing his rear legs to emphasize his point blushing a bit in feigned embarrassment.
The nurse sighed, “fuckin ponies,” she swore under her breath. “Fine it's back there and to the left,” she pointed behind her to the doors that led to one of the patient wings.
Prophetic Heart beamed her a smile, “Thank you miss.”
As she and Vanguard turned to head into the patient wing Vanguard quickly whispered to Mystik, “stall her while we find Zero.”
“Yes sir!” Mystik whispered back to him.
Entering the patient wing Prophetic Heart turned to Vanguard and giggled “Boy she really had you shaking in your fetlocks huh Vanguard?”
Snorting in annoyance, “No she didn’t it's just people come off as a lot more gruff and mean now than they did when I was human. I wasn’t scared of her I was just intimidated by her behavior.”
Teasingly Prophetic Heart stuck her tongue out, “Right whatever you say Vanguard.”
Turning their attention to the corridor they are standing in they quickly spie a nearby map detailing the layout of the hospital. The hospital has four different patient wings each with between three to five floors. The hospital is shaped like a giant capital H turned sideways with the entryway located at the left middle part of the H.
Studying the map Prophetic Heart shook her head a bit “Hmm finding him is not gonna be easy.”
“Maybe not, but we need to find him before those worldcorp thugs get a chance to interrogate him. It shouldn’t be too hard to identify which room it is though since it will be the room guarded by blackmesh.”
“Yes that will be the easy part. The hard part will be getting into the room once we find it.”
“No worries that’s what the potion is for.” He moved the satchel bags on his back to emphasize his point.
“Of course.” Prophetic Heart smiled warmly ‘and as a plus a few more humans will be saved,’ she thought to herself. That fact always made Prophetic Heart feel good knowing that with every human she converted she was doing Celestia’s will and saving more of these humans from a terrible fate. This was the whole reason she came to earth in the first place and joined the PER despite warnings about the dangers of this world.
From the moment she first heard about these humans and their plight she knew she had to help them, and once she got to earth she knew she really had to help them. Fortunately at least as far as she was concerned she soon found and joined the PER which was working in secret under Celestia’s orders to save as many of these hairless monkeys as they could.
“Just keep in mind Heart we only have three vials of potion each so use them sparingly.”
It took Vanguard and Prophetic Heart about 10 minutes of wondering around the hospital, but eventually they found the room Zero was in which as expected was guarded by a pair blackmesh.
The room was located close to one of the intersections of the hospital wings and seeing this Vanguard motioned for Prophetic Heart to keep walking past the room.
The two ponies walked by the room and waved at the blackmesh as they walked by. The blackmesh paid no attention to the pair and continued to scan the the hallway for trouble. Rounding the corner Vanguard and Heart turned and faced each other.
“Okay we’ve found the room Heart now we’re gonna have to act fast on the count of three we jump out and throw one of our potions at them and then quickly duck back around the corner.”
“Got it,” Prophetic Heart nodded.
“Okay...One...Two...THREE!!!”
The two ponies jumped out and threw there flasks of potion at the blackmesh. The blackmesh were caught completely off guard by this and failed to jump away in time both getting hit directly in the face with a flask of potion.
Vanguard and Heart quickly ducked behind the corner and a few seconds later they heard two loud thumps as the blackmesh hit the floor as the anesthetic took effect.
Heart quickly rounded the corner and activated her horn’s TK field pulling the uniforms off the rapidly changing blackmesh. “Oh these humans why must they always wear clothes and so much of it. If you didn’t converting you would so much easier.”
Vanguard chuckled at her rant, “Come we only got 15 minutes till they wake up.” Prophetic Heart nodded and they entered the room.
Inside Zero lay on top of a bed with various wires attached to him monitoring his vitals. He was not restrained since it was obvious he was not going to regain consciousness anytime soon so the blackmesh hadn’t bothered.
Prophetic Heart recalled how Zero went and got himself caught after he tried to flee from an earlier mission that went badly. The mission was supposed to be a very simple affair they had been ordered to attack and convert everyone in an indoor marketplace the humans called a mall. Things went south almost immediately when no sooner did they step into the mall then they were greeted by some HLF thugs hanging out around the entrance. Who upon seeing them decided to take a few potshots at them with their guns. It was when they ran out of the mall that Zero tried to flee by flying off in a random direction, just for him to slam headfirst into a blackmesh helicopter that happened to be flying by.
Vanguard looked at the poor pegasus lying on the bed and shook his head in frustration, “Zero when are you going to learn to watch where you're going? You could’ve gotten yourself killed.”
“Well luckily he ran into that helicopter otherwise he would have been killed by the HLF.” Of all the humans Prophetic Heart had encountered in her time on Earth the HLF was by far the most bizarre to her. How could those humans look at the paradise that was Equestria and reject it. This boggled her mind more then anything else.
“Anyway Vanguard we need to get him out of here.” Activating her TK again Heart meticulously removed the various monitors from Zero. Vanguard then carefully grabbed the injured pegasus and placed him on his back.
“You think he’ll be okay this time?” asked Heart as she examined Zero.
Vanguard nodded, “Of course he will Zero has already proven he can take worse crashes. You’d need a bazooka to kill him.”
“Bazooka?” Prophetic Heart cocked her head at the strange word.
Vanguard shook his head, “Never mind, let’s just go.”
No sooner did they step out of the hospital room then they heard a scream. jerking their heads to the right they saw a young nurse screaming at the sight of the two blackmesh converting. Seeing them she pointed a finger at them accusingly, “You two what are you doing here and with my patient? Your PER aren’t you!”
Prophetic Heart attempted to try and talk them out of this, but before she could even open her mouth the nurse reached down and hit a button on strange machine attached to her belt. Immediately klaxons began to blare and a second later a group of six blackmesh came running down the hall towards the nurse. Seeing this the two ponies did a quick 180 and ran down the hall as fast as they could.
The nurse pointed at the pair, “Get them they’re trying to kidnap the patient.”
Prophetic Heart and Vanguard pressed their ears hard against the side of their head as they ran down the hall. “Cupcakes that’s loud.” yelled Prophetic Heart as she tried to shout over the blaring sound of the alarm.
Seeing an intersection in the hallway Vanguard shouted at the top of his lungs, “Quickly there’s no time I’ll get Zero out of here. Heart you go down the left passage and I’ll take the right lead as many of those blackmesh away from me and Zero as possible.”
Giving up on trying to shout over the alarm Prophetic Heart merely nodded falling back so Vanguard could turn right first. Once he had Prophetic Heart quickly turned left and quickly sprinted as fast as she could. Looking back she could see two of them had taken the bait and were following her. Mentally she groaned, she had wished more of them would have taken the bait, but it was better than nothing. Now all she had to do was lose these two.
Heart ran down the corridor for a bit trying to escape the blackmesh but to no avail. “Wow these humans are persistent.” Prophetic Heart looked around the corridor desperate to find a means of escape before spying a door up ahead that led to the stairs.
Quickly opening the door with her TK she quickly ducked in the stairwell and hid underneath the stairs. The blackmesh chasing her bursted into the stairway shortly after. “Where did that pony go?”
“Spread out and look she couldn’t have gotten far.”
“Great now what. Its not gonna take them long to find me.” Prophetic Heart frantically scanned the room looking for some means of escape before finally looking up and seeing the door that lead to the next floor above her. Smirking she activated her TK and opened the door and then slammed it shut.
Hearing the noise the blackmesh stopped there search, “She went up to the second floor.” the blackmesh rushed up the stairs to the second floor slamming the door behind them.
Prophetic Heart crawled out of her hiding place and looked up, “Well thats that now all I have to do is get out of here.”
Prophetic Heart left the stairwell and proceeded back down the hall towards the exit. “Wonder what part of the hospital I’m in?” spying a nearby directory Prophetic Heart discovered she was in a place called a hospice.
Cocking her head she looked at the name curiously “What’s a hospice?” Going off this curiosity Prophetic Heart decided to take a peak in the room closest to her and see what the occupant was suffering from.
Inside she was greeted with the sight of a middle aged human lying in the hospital bed motionless. Looking over she could see the various human medical machines beeping away. Turning her attention back to the human she could see various wires attached to him much like they had been on Zero and curiously she also spied a long flexible tube which went from one of the machines to the humans abdomen and appeared to stick into him. Prophetic Heart winced at the site of that.
Walking over to the motionless human Prophetic Heart experimentally prodded him with her hoof from which he failed to respond at all. Perplexed by his unresponsiveness Prophetic Heart prodded him even harder “Hey human are you okay? What happened to you?” Once again though he failed to respond at all.
Confused by this Prophetic Heart looked around for his chart. After some searching she finally found it hanging from the foot of the bed, “Guess Earths not completely different then Equestria after all,” she mused as she read the chart.
Name: Sigurd Fiore
Age: 58
Date Admitted: April 23, 20XX
Diagnoses: Coma with intermittent periods of vegetative state.
Prognoses: Poor: Patient has been alternating between coma and vegetative state since he was in an accident as a child 50 years ago.
Family has insisted he be kept alive and has had the funds to keep life support going. Ponification has been recommended, but family
refuses to give the go ahead cited religious reasons.
Prophetic Heart drops the chart from her TK field and looks down at the comatose human in horror, and starts to cry. “How how could anypony do this to somepony? Keep him alive in a state like this for decades? Its just so cruel. Isn’t there anything they could have done?”
Rereading the chart Prophetic Heart’s sadness turned to anger, “They won’t even ponify him, why won’t they ponify him? Don’t they know that it would save him?” Prophetic Hearts vision grew blurry from her crying.
“Do they not care about him? Do they enjoy making him live like this? Monsters! Why do so many of these humans treat other humans so cruelly?” This was a question she had asked herself time and time again since she first arrived on this planet.
“NO! I won’t stand for this. I won’t let you be treated like this anymore you deserve better you deserve to live a happy and fulfilling life, and I’m going to give it to you.” Making up her mind then and there Heart reach into her saddlebags and pulled out the another one of her vials of potion and trotted over to the human’s head. She then threw her forehooves around him and gave him a hug.
“My dear human accept this gift of new life from the princesses. We welcome you to our herd with open hooves and hearts.” She unscrewed the lid on the vial, “We may never meet again my dear human, but know that I am the first friend among many you will meet in Equestria. I wish you happiness in your new life.”
With that Prophetic Heart pulled the blanket off of him and took the hospital gown off before pouring the contents of the potion onto his chest. Stepping down from the bed Prophetic Heart turned to leave room. Briefly as she was almost out the door she turned back at the now changing human and smiled, before finally exiting.