The Filly Without a Name

by Scribble Script


Chapter 4

Chapter 4
-
THE MYSTERIOUS FILE

As against the rest of the sanatorium, Calm Mind’s work room was pitch-black without the natural lighting of the moon. Only poorly illuminated by the oil lamps from the hallway, the three cabinets and the dark writing desk appeared like grim observers, tall figures, watching every step, silent and threatening.

Firefly closed the door very carefully to prevent it from creaking. Into the complete darkness, Sliderule said:

“Now, let me risk some more light.”

A warm and white glow lighted up the darkness, emitted from Sliderule’s horn. The light at first grew brighter, then it suddenly started to flicker. For a moment it turned dark again, and Firefly heard a feint expletive from the stallion. Then his magic awoke again and brought back the white glow, brighter and more even this time.

“Let’s see what we got here”, he said, trying unskilfully to overact that he had run out of breath a little. He seemed to have some problems with his magic, Firefly thought. Maybe the eerie hospital affected him, too… She just hoped he wouldn’t push himself too far.
The pegasus shook her head let her eyes wander over file cabinets opposite to her; magical problems or no, she guessed it was Sliderule’s show from now on. He had to be the one to read through Calm Mind’s files. Due to her own deficient ability to read, all the pegasus could do right now was watch and think. At this point it didn’t even surprise her anymore, when her eyes got caught by the silvery sparkle of an already familiar symbol hanging from the wall.

“Y’know”, she adressed Sliderule, as he read over the badges tagged onto the cabinets in the light of his own spell. “I’m wondering, what this crescent moon over there means. I’ve seen these moons all over town…”

Sliderule’s look followed Firefly’s pointing hoof. He scratched his chin.

“The Children of the Night…” he muttered, as if that would explain anything. “I wouldn’t have figured the Doctor would… Um, not that it should really surprise me, considering that there are still many of them in these parts... Ah, now this is promising…”

What are the Children of the Night, Firefly wanted to ask, but Sliderule had eventually opened one of the doors and now poked his head in. He brought to light a small pile of folders.

“These files all go under ‘rerum animae’. My guess: If we’ll be able to find anything useful, then within these seventeen envelops.”

Those folders which he spread on the writing desk were labelled with the letter A and the numbers 1 to 16, that much Firefly could read. The names of the relevant patients were put down beneath the labels in a fastidious writing.

Swift Gale, Lt.”, Sliderule read. “Ironhide, Lt., Lady Ivory Fire… Number One till number eight, all from the high society. And…” He slid the files to and fro on the table. “Yes, that one’s the latest. A-16.”

Firefly noticed that this one was the only file with no name written on it. Sliderule opened the folder.

“But that… That’s not right…” he muttered. “These papers say ‘Patient A-13’. That’s the right envelop, but with the wrong file in it!”
A little clueless in view of this bookkeeping affront, he ruffled through the pages, and then suddenly hesitated. That name on the file's header, it looked awful familiar!

“It can’t be. Do you know whose file this is?”

Firefly knitted her brows. This didn’t go according to plan anymore, didn’t it? And as vague as their plan had been to begin with, that meant a lot. “Alright”, the pegasus sighed. “I’ll play along. Whose file is it?”

“It’s the file of White Nimbus!” exclaimed Sliderule, almost forgetting that they were on enemy territory, as if this would explain everything.

“Yeah”, Firefly nodded. “I understand nothing.”

“Alright, alright", Sliderule hissed unwillingly. "Let’s start again from scratch. The name White Nimbus has won some notoriety in our town. She was the ward of Count Rainbow, you know? Three years and… Um, minus one day, actually… Anyway… The point is, the Count’s youngest son died, under mysterious circumstances. The Rainbow-family tried to sweep everything under the carpet, of course, but rumours circulated that the Count’s ward was somehow involved in this incident. If I’m not mistaken, she died two weeks later. And now here’s this file, oh, it could give answers to so many questions! That’s just brilliant!”
He suddenly blushed.
“And I probably shouldn’t be so excited…” he apologized. “It was… An awful loss for Count Rainbow…”

The name Rainbow, however, very well was known to Firefly: The renowned aristocrat with the rare, rainbow-coloured mane and besides heir of one of the most influential pegasus families was a good example that pride would always have a fall. It was bandied that Count Double Rainbow had been exiled to somewhere near the end of the world. That he had ended up in Hollow Shades of all possible towns shouldn’t have been exactly a surprise. The ponies in charge in Canterlot seemed to delight in ditching unwelcome ponies here, as Firefly had experienced first hoof.

She gave Sliderule a lopsided sneer. Curiosity might kill the cat, but as a pegasus and a mare she simply couldn’t resist this unique occasion to look into one of the Rainbow-Family’s dark past.

“Come on, hit me!” she smiled. “What’s in this file?”

Sliderule’s eyes glanced between the papers and the door as he seemed to assess whether they could afford to stay here for some moments more or if they should take the papers, and then turn tail immediately. His curiosity won…

“Let’s see…

Patient: White Nimbus, Rainbow-Family. Date of admission: Ninth Libra, year four hundred and ninety, reign of Celestia…

“What’s ‘Libra’, Sliderule?” Firefly interposed a question. “Never heard of a month with that name before…”

“Libra, dear Firefly”, Sliderule explained, not able to stifle a little grin. “Is a constellation of stars. Clover the Clever has created the first consistent calendar over five hundred years ago, the so called Zodiac. She divided each year into twelve months, named after the twelve constellations that are especially visible during that particular month.”

“You’ve rote learned that, didn’t you?”

“That’s basic knowledge”, Sliderule fought back, a bit unusual for him, actually.

He wasn't that strident before, the pegasus thought. Maybe I’m giving a bad example…

“I get it”, she said in a low tone, commemorating their current situation. “You’re smart and I’m dumb. But I know one thing at least: I’ve never heard about that Zodiac before, so we’re using a different calendar now, don’t we?”

“Uh-huh”, Sliderule nodded. “Only few ponies still use the Zodiac Calendar… Um, anyway… Can we get back to the crucial, please? The light spell’s quite exhausting and I’m not feeling very well wasting time here, either…”

Firefly tilted her head patronizingly, still having a feint smirk on her face. Most certainly a bad example…

Right on cue the light shining from the tip of Sliderule’s horn started to flicker again. Unwillingly the unicorn shook his head, casting prancing silhouettes of himself and Firefly on the walls. Once the light had regained its even shimmer, he sought with his hoof the spot on the paper where he had stopped to read.

“Ah… Here we go. Now, where was I?
Ninth Libra…
The patient has suffered a severe shock; she is not responsive. I deem it best to transfer her to our station for the curing of mental and emotional issues. For her firming I have ordered to initially administer her three valerian pastilles each morning, noon and evening.

The next entry reads as follows:

Thirteenth Libra...
The patient is silent for four days now. Have talked to her for two hours in the morning, then one each in the afternoon and the evening. No signs at all that she even notices me. Medication still with valerian pastilles.

And… And that’s it for the rest of the week. Valerian… Not very imaginative… But apparently it worked. Listen:

Seventeenth Libra...
After exactly eight days the patient shows a change. She appears confused, but is responsive again. We’re achieving progress!

Addendum: The Patient suffered a turn after the light have been extinguished. She seems to have developed a well-marked pavor nocturnus.
Administered black poppy to calm her down. It’ll be best to leave the lamps on in her room.

“At the risk of appearing dumb again”, Firefly expressed her confusion. “What the blazes is a pavor-thing?”

“That means abnormal fear of the darkness, I think."

"You mean she went cuckoo? Just like that?"

"It appears so, yes... And it’s not getting any better. Just stranger - Listen:

Nineteenth Libra…
The patient’s birthday.
She gets more and more restless with each hour. First she asked the nurse on duty, why she was here and then, following the answer that she would be very ill, she asked if her friend Cloud could come and visit her again today. After all it would be her birthday.
The poor filly seems to know nothing about the unspeakable accident at the lake’s shore anymore, in which Cloud Dash of the Rainbow family lost his life. That was over a week ago.
Considered it my duty to undeceive the patient, but she didn’t seem to understand what I was saying.
Still no clue what causes these episodes. Shock? A mental illness?
May a conversational therapy will help.

Twentieth Libra…
First meeting.
The patient entrusted me she would nurture the ridiculous fear something would lie in wait for her in the nocturnal darkness.
I confronted her again with Cloud Dash’s accident. She appeared consternated, but quite calm and mentioned that she must’ve been dreaming because she could swear Cloud had been standing at her sickbed, talking to her.
If I’m not mistaken, her memories begin to return. A good sign, now we just have to gain control over her fear of darkness.
Still medication with black poppy, but of strongly thinned concentration.

Oh Celestia, now it's really getting bad, Firefly…

Twenty-third Libra… This date has just a scribby note, much untidier than the rest of the entries:
Delusions gain upper hoof. Patient’s in a state of permantent fear, doesn't seem to notice even the brightest light. Relocation to closed station.
Damn it, we’ve been making so much progress!
Need to get down to the root of the trouble. Will advise Herbal Green to fabricate the strongest consciousness-expanding tonic he’s able to distil…

Sliderule’s had read out in a hushed tone from the beginning, but his voice had died off even more while he had read that entry. Now he sounded hoarse and was only barely audible, when he pronounced what the last letters on the page meant:

Twenty-fourth Libra… File closed…

Just two words, but like an epitaph in their finality. There was no doubt, these words sounded like a death warrant.

“Poor filly…” Firefly breathed. She felt sick. A well protected, young life, ended just like that, in tragic and insanity. Nopony deserved that fate! Hearing that, one could well start to doubt the equity of the world…

The pegasus fought against the lump in her throat and the sprawling feeling of anxiety in her chest. “Sliderule”, she uttered, trying for her voice to sound as clear and firm as possible. “I think I want to go now…”

****

From the cover of the nearby trees, a cloaked stallion watched the unsteady white light shining through the glass window of Calm Mind’s room on the first floor.

The light spell showed that the young pegasus had sought help from the guard’s unicorn paymaster.

Silver Blaze couldn’t help but smile. Luckily the holt prevented the light from being accidentally seen by somepony from town. These two of them made really horrible burglars!
But nevertheless they did just what Silver Blaze wanted them to do. They were a crucial part in his plan to uncover all the dark secrets this town was trying to hide from him. Not to forget the dark secrets of his friend Calm Mind!

To hoof over the reins so much was decidedly not his way but he was in a peculiar situation: For one thing Calm Mind had asked him to help her with this hopeless case – and had urged the fate of whole Equestria for an argument - but for the other thing she kept him on a short leash, withheld important details, and most important, she left him in the dark about her true intentions and indulged in mysterious comments instead.
Silver Blaze hated nothing more than to be taken for a fool, a fact he had already made very clear with Calm Mind, and he probably shouldn’t have warranted his help away. Nevertheless, there was a reason he couldn’t help but rack his brain about the missing filly. He would take care of this mess, alright, but he would do it his way and to his own conditions…

Up in the Doctor’s room the magical light died off. The two ponies apparently were about to end their nocturnal trip. His expression, which had temporarily darkened as he had dwelled on his own thoughts, brightened up again. The baits had been laid, and hopefully he would soon be able to pull in the line!

Now he would wait for fifteen minutes to give the two ponies time to retreat. And then, he guessed, he should lock the front door of the hospital.
We would not want another madpony to run around in town, would we?

****