//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Behind the Veil // by FeralFox //------------------------------// “Behind the Veil” Chapter 1 by FeralFox [Authors Note] This is the first story I have ever written out of pleasure/boredom. I usually abhor writing, given that all of my previous writing has been lifeless, monotonous assignments given to me during school. I do not have any pre-readers, and am using a generic version of Microsoft Word. I am writing this in an attempt to find a creative outlet to wither down my vast amounts of free time that is not occupied by Television, Youtube, or Video Games. If I do enjoy writing and/or I receive requests to continue writing, I may. Again, this is all experimental. Thank you, and enjoy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was another average winter day as Marckus returned home to his chilly apartment. In his attempt to conserve his limited income, he decides to keep his thermostat low and just bundle up instead. He shut the door behind him and locked the deadbolt and doorknob, ensuring his peace would remain undisturbed. He stood in the entry landing, deciding against stripping of his insulated Carhartt Coat and his government mandated steel-toe boots, seeing as they weren't dirty. As he worked in the automotive repair industry, it was required, by OSCA regulations, that they be a part of his “uniform”. He walked to his living room and sat in his recliner and reached for the remote, but instead, decided to venture to bedroom in hopes of reading book and drifting to sleep. As he walked down the short hallway towards his room, he felt a strange force that seemed to be beckoning to him from his linen closet. He stopped and examined the simple wooden door before lightly grasping the handle. To his surprise, the handle seemed as though it had just been passed through a furnace, and he recoiled quickly. As the cold of his apartment began to slowly enrapture his hand he reached for it once again and held it firm. It was hot, but there was no pain. It burnt, but did not scald. He slowly turned the handle and opened the door. Where his towels, cleaning products and other toiletries once resided, a brilliant white light filled the air. A light that seemed to shine so bright that it seemed to be beyond white. He braced his hands on the door frame as he was soon encompassed by a vortex of gale-force winds that seemed to affect only him, as the rest of his apartment lay unscathed at the powerful gusts. He was drawn into the glorious abyss as the door shut ever so gently behind him. As the light faded from his stunned gaze, he found himself in a state of weightlessness. On second observation, he was falling, and fast. He looked about himself, trying to find his bearings. Once oriented, he assumed the spread-eagle position, in order to increase drag, and slow his sudden decent. As he continued to fall, he attempted to gather his thoughts, which were racing through his mind as fast as his heart was pounding inside his chest. He looked down to see a strangely colorful town below him, approaching quickly. Between he and his almost certain encounter with the ground stood a strangely lone, small cloud. The sky seemed to have bled onto this cloud as a strange splotch of light-blue covered its center, and from that blue sprang the entire spectrum of color, a rainbow. Or two to be more specific, one from each “end” of this strange shape. The thought was quickly cast from his mind, however, as he concluded that he was hallucinating from his current situation. He fell through the cloud and something had grazed his arm. Now soaking wet, he plummeted directly towards a large hardwood tree. With a new spark of hope for his survival, he quickly assessed the situation and concluded that the best position to take the brutal impact of a 500 or so foot fall, into a tree at least, was to tuck his legs to his chest, and wrap his forearms around the front of his head, elbows touching knees, and let his limbs take the brunt of the damage, as they could recover much easier than his spine, or ribcage. He braced himself and solemnly awaited impact. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight was in her bedroom reading one of her favorites, a fiction titled “Shamrock Holmes”, a story of a detective who worked alongside Scotland Yard, with his trusted partner, Hertzson. Just as Holmes seemed to have “The Case of the Masked Mass Murderer” under wraps, a sudden sensation of magic broke her focus. It felt strange, but apparently not strange enough for her to investigate herself, so she turned back to her novel. After a few seconds of reading, her attention was once again disrupted, but this time, by something crashing through the roof, and landing smack-dab on her floor. She nearly jumped out of her chair as spike rushed up the ladder exclaiming “What the HEY are you doing up here?!” “I didn't do anything!” She retorted. Upon further inspection, she realized that something living had just destroyed her ceiling. What it was, she couldn't be sure of, but it was hurt, that much she could tell. A Cyan pegasus with her iconic rainbow mane flew in from the newly added skylight and landed next to an extremely concerned and confused Twilight and looked, dumbfounded, at the strange being that lay broken before them. “What is that thing? I was just snoozin' on a cloud above the library, when out of NOWHERE something flew passed and almost knocked me off! I heard a loud crash and thought I should check it out.” “I really don't know what it is, but it's bleeding, and that's never good.” Twilight spoke in a strangely calm voice, given the situation. “You go get Fluttershy, maybe she'll know what it is. I'll go get nurse RedHeart. Spike, you stay here in case it gets up.” “On it!” Rainbow Dash said as she rocketed off through the convenient hole in the roof, leaving her trademark rainbow in her wake. “Don't leave me alone with this...thing! What if it gets up and decides that Baby Dragon sounds really good for lunch?!” Spike said, with a little more than a bit of worry in his voice. “I don't think it's going to be getting up any time soon.” She said before galloping through the library and out the door. Spike now alone with a strange new creature, and a growing pool of blood. As Rainbow approached the familiar cottage, she slowed down and gracefully landed on the doorstep and gave a triplet of quick, gentle knocks, hoping not to startle the owner, but still to convey a sense of urgency. As she was about to knock again, she heard the soft padding of hoofsteps coming towards the door and stopped. The door was opened, slowly, to reveal the canary-colored pegasus who resides in the quiet home. She nervously peeked through the crack in the doorway to get a good look at her visitor, her pink mane drooped lazily in front of her eye. “Oh... hi, Rainbow, can I help you..?” She asked timidly. “You need to follow me NOW!” Rainbow yelled. Fluttershy squeaked and backed up slightly at the unexpected shout, almost running away, but standing her ground as she could sense the worry in her friends usually relaxed and even tone. “Oh my gosh, d-did something happen? You sound upset.” she said, just barely above a whisper, with a new layer of concern. “Yeah something happened” she explained “something...some...creature crashed through Twilight's roof and she figured if anyone knew what is was, it was you, so let's hurry!” she said before taking off, worried friend in tow. --------------------- Galloping through the streets Twilight found herself in the Ponyville Immediate Care Clinic. “Nurse RedHeart! Nurse RedHeart!” Twilight yelled. “Oh, Twilight, how nice to see you. Did you come by for a check-up? Or perhaps you wish to borrow another medical text?” The white earth mare questioned. “I wish it were that trivial, but you need to come with me, and quickly!” The lavender unicorn said, wishing eagerly to have already been heading back. “Oh my, is somepony hurt?” A new expression of concern replaced her previous smile of a pleasant visit. “Not somepony. In fact, I'm not really sure what it is. But all I know is that it crashed through my ceiling, and is currently bleeding all over my bedroom floor.” She said, ending the conversation by running out the door, calling back “Get what you need and meet me back at the library, ASAP!” ----------------- As she made it back to her room, she saw Rainbow and Fluttershy examining this creature intently, though not moving it in case of furthering any existing injuries. “Oh, thank Celestia! Do you know what this is Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, relieved to have some much needed help. “Um...I-I'm afraid I've never seen anything like this before. Poor fellow must be in a lot of pain.” She said, barely audible, though unfazed at the scene that lay before them. “Great, you're back! Did you get Nurse RedHeart?” Asked Spike, no longer worried about becoming this thing's next meal. “Yes, she's on her way. She just had to get some things and then she'll--” “I made it here as fast as I could, now where is the injured?” Interrupted the pink maned nurse. “It's in here! But unfortunately, Fluttershy doesn't know what it is, so helping might be a bit more difficult.” Explained the lavender mare. “I-I'm sorry...I wish I could do more to help.” The shy pegasus said, shrinking back a bit. “Don't fret, my dear! You can still help.” The nurse said as she gingerly placed a hoof on what she assumed to be the creatures head. “Oh my, the poor dear is sweating up a storm. Why don't you fetch some ice so we can cool 'em off.” “O-of coarse! Right away!” she said, making her way downstairs. “After a crash like this, there is sure to be some broken bones, if it has any bones, so Twilight, what I need you to do is to levitate it up really gently, make sure not to move it, and Rainbow, you grab some cushions for it to rest on.” Instructed the nurse, relying on the basics in hope of improving this poor soul's chances of survival. “Yes ma'am!” Said Twilight before channeling magic into her horn. A blue aura enveloped the creature and slowly lifted it into the air, not a single hair out of place. The nurse's instructions seemed to snap Rainbow Dash out of a trance as she stared at the gruesome scene. She shook herself back into reality “Huh..? Oh, right! Cushions! On it!” She began gathering all of the pillows off of Twilight's bed and couch and started to lay them out as a make-shift bed. “Like that?” She asked, not wanting anything worse to happen. Especially because of her. “Yes, that will have to do for now.” The nurse said as Twilight began to lower the creature back onto the newly padded area. “I've got some ice, now what do we do?” The pink maned mare said as she delicately set the bag of ice down on its head. “I'm not sure. We just have to wait until it wakes up, if it wakes up, and hope it can speak so that it can tell us what's wrong.” RedHeart said, sting of hopelessness that edged her voice resonated in the three others as they impatiently waited, hoping that their efforts were not in vain. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He began to slip back into consciousness when his senses were assaulted with pain, which, much to his discomfort, meant that he was still alive. For how long however, was unclear. As he opened his eyes, everything was a mess of blended colors and distorted shapes. His ears rang and prevented all perception. As his vision cleared his eyes went wide, for what he saw bewildered him. It was a soft purple in color and resembled something equine in form, though was too small to be a horse. Its head was large in proportion to its body and had what seemed to be a horn extending from beneath a similarly colored mane, which had a red streak through the middle. It was pacing back and forth in front of him and its mouth was moving as though it were saying something. The high pitch tone persisted, preventing any communication from being heard. Whether or not he would understand its speech, if in fact it was speaking, remained undetermined. He lay there in agony, when he realized that he had been placed on pillows. He concluded this seeing as if these were here beforehand, he might still be capable of movement. The dull noise quieted and he could here what sounded like, to his surprise, English! It seemed to be repeating the same phrase: “Please don't be dead! Please don't be dead!” He coughed and expelled some blood from his lungs. This caught what he determined by the voice was a female's attention. It turned and looked at him intently. He let out a faint moan of pain from the violent expulsion, and she jumped back and gasped. He attempted to raise himself up, but to no avail. His body was too badly damaged for any movement beyond looking. Suddenly he was being bombarded with a volley of questions. “Oh my gosh, can you hear me?! Can you understand me?!” Shouted the purple creature. It was soon accompanied by several voices from creatures unknown as they jumped into his line of sight. “Are you okay?! Can you breath?!” Interrogated a familiar Cyan creature with a rainbow mane. “Oh...a-are you hurt? C-c-can I help?” Said another, this one yellow, with a pink mane, just barely audible over the other two. “Girls, girls, girls!” Came a more authoritative voice. “Be quiet for a moment and please, move aside.” The three creatures responded and backed away as a fourth creature walked slowly into view, her coat white with a pink mane. She spoke softly and clearly. “Can. You. Hear. Me?” He lifted his head into a feeble nod. Her eyes, along with the others' lit up with new-found hope. “Thank the stars!” She proclaimed with a wary sigh of relief. “You can understand me?” She asked, not as slowly, but still just as softly. Another nod. It was met with more sighs and the exhalation of held breaths. “Please, if you can, tell me what's wrong with you.” She said. As he took in a ragged and pained breath to speak, the four all did the same in anticipation. “Too. Hot. Coat's. Insu- Insulated.” The sun to what seemed was a bright summers day was roasting the bundled man as its merciless rays beat down on him through the fresh hole in the roof. “Please. Take it. Off.” They stood there, confused looks played across their faces collectively. The purple one spoke up and said “Do you want us to shave it off?” Still confused. “No. Zipper. In front.” He managed through more fits of coughing up blood. “Oh!” exclaimed the timid yellow one, “O-oh, I'm sorry. I just thought that maybe it's a piece of clothing.” She said as she turned away, nervously drawing circles in the ground with what he could only assume was a hoof. This was met with another feeble nod. “Okay, well, in that case, hold on a sec, you may feel a tingle.” spoke the purple one, its horn shimmering with a faint blue aura. Suddenly the arms on his Carhartt were emitting the same faint glow. The light seemed to be stretching down the length of the coat, as if it was feeling for every stitch and hem, until it completely enveloped his coat, giving him a feeling similar to the doorknob on his closet, but no where near as powerful. A flash of light, and the offending oven of a coat was off his body, only to be found floating past him, onto the floor. Without the bulky winter coat to hinder her vision, the white one glanced at his left arm and grimaced. Even without knowing his anatomy, it was obvious by the unnatural way it was bent in comparison to it's counterpart. His arm was broken, the tibia and fibula were snapped in half, to be exact. Lucky for him, it wasn't a compound fracture, or he could have gotten a serious infection. In addition to the break, his left shoulder was also dislocated from the looks of it. “Oh dear, this is bad. Very bad.” Said the white one grimly, as the blue one cringed and shook in disbelief at the extent of the injury. The purple one looked as though she was going to vomit any second now. “Can you feel anything that we might not be able to see?” Continued the white one. “Coughing. Blood. Maybe, Punctured lung. Definitely. Cracked ribs. Maybe broke. A few.” His voice was hoarse (please forgive the pun) from the dry blood that lined his throat. He made an attempt at wiggling his toes. All together, then individually. They were all present and accounted for. Good. He rotated his feet on his ankles. Nothing bad there. He bent his left leg at the knee, nothing. The right one, same. He went to move his left leg at the hip to find a jolt of searing pain rip through his leg and up through his spine. “Left. Femur. Leg above knee. Maybe fractured. Serious concussion. Lots of bruises.” He laughed sadly at the last item he listed off. It was quite small in comparison to the rest. “Well” began the white one, “We're going to have to get you to the clinic, and soon.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nurse RedHeart turned to Twilight and shot a pleading look her way. “Do you think you can levitate him to the clinic?” She asked “Not without moving him too much. And that kind of trek would take a lot, and I'm not up to finding out whether or not I'll drop it half way there.” “Him.” He spoke up, obviously listening to their conversation. “Excuse me?” She said politely “I'm. Male. Please. Him.” He said. An unusual calmness about him. “Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean anything by it!” She said, embarrassed. A light blush taking its place across her nose. He simply set his head down and rested for a moment. “Well, if you can't levitate him, can you teleport him?” She asked in an almost pleading way. “If I teleport him, he might end up above a bed, or miss one completely, and the last thing he needs is another fall.” “Well, we're going to have to carry him.” she sighed, a look of dread in her face. “Rainbow, since you're the fastest one here, can you fly down to the clinic and tell them to send a- no wait, two stretcher teams out here?” Again lost in thought of the sheer pain this dude must be going through, and yet still be able to analyze his own wounds astounded her, but she snapped out of it, and with a salute, took off. Several Minutes later the Rainbow returned with the stretcher teams and guided them to the bedroom. They consisted of four Stallions, each in a white uniform signifying them as part of the medical community, but the two stallions in front wore a horn around their collars used to warn pedestrians and carriages of their presence. They looked awe-struck at what they were instructed to carry. He was 6' 4” and even though he had a very small, lean build, he must have weighed at least 150 lbs. They had quite the task ahead of them. With the assistance of Twilight Sparkle's magic, they got him, and a few pillows, safely onto the stretcher. They walked carefully through the streets as the crowds of citizens gasped and groaned in both pity and fear as they saw the mangled body of Celestia knows what being carried through their fair village. Once they had reached the clinic, Nurse RedHeart had gotten the large being onto a couple of beds, as he was a little wider than the average pony, but almost twice as long as they were lying down. After pulling the privacy curtain closed, Twilight merely sat and listened to the nurse and a crew of assistants work to heal this poor creature. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had left to inform their other three friends of this traumatic event. Although she could not see, Twilight could here sounds graphic enough to depict the scene for her. Nurse RedHeart had bandaged up his head and cleared his lungs of blood. Now came the truly awful part. She was glad she could not see this. From behind the curtain Nurse Redheart could be heard saying “Alright, now I'm going to try and re-locate your....um: “Shoulder.” He said politely, and calmly. He was beginning to breath very deeply, as though he had only moments before his precious supply of air would soon dwindle. “Ahem...right. I'm going to re-locate your shoulder. Are you ready?” There was no audible response. “Okay. One...Two...THREE!” there was a stomach turning “pop” as the joint fit back into its intended position. A long muffled shout came from the creature, and then more deep breathing as he tried to calm himself. Twilight could only cringe at the sound. “Bad news” began Nurse RedHeart. “that was the easy part. Now it's time to set your broken....arm was it?” Again no response was heard. “Alright then. Are you ready?” No response, only quickened breathing could be heard. “Oone.....Twoo.....THREE!” The most sickening “snap” could be heard immediately followed by the creature shouting without an attempt to hold back “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!” This made her almost jump completely out of here chair, and even startled a few other nurses in the area. The nurse slowly backed out of the hidden area with sweat lining her brow. She turned to twilight with a shaky grin “W-well, thank goodness that's over.” She then wiped her brow with her forehoof and gave a light chuckle to the still shaken Twilight, Maybe Continued.... Maybe. If I feel like it.