DownFall

by Redback Spino

Chapter 1

The little colt gazed out into the gardens that sprawled out in front of Ponyville Hospital, his dour mood unaffected by the flawless sunny day outside. Sighing glumly, he rested his chin upon the windowsill. One week down, one to go.

He looked down to his left hind leg, held firmly in place by a large bulky plaster cast. It itched as if ants were crawling up and down his leg, sometimes tugging at his white and brown fur, and made walk feel like lugging around a ball-and-chain like a prisoner.

“Didn’t I tell you not to go climbing that tree?! Didn’t I?!” his mother had said to him, as she held him tightly less than an hour ago. She had been angry at him for disobeying her and Pipsqueak felt a little confused as to why he had to apologise when he was the one suffering, but deep down, he knew she was just worried about him. He saw it in his mother's eyes when she hugged him, the last time she and his father had visited. She was just trying to keep him safe.

Pip hobbled over to his bed and sat down on the side in thought. He wanted to be a good little colt for his parents’ sake, but he couldn’t help it! He was born for adventuring! He knew it, and his parents knew it too. It was even in his blood: His great-grandfather had been the leader of a team of explorers and adventurers, famous for their forays into the darkest regions of the Everfree Forest, discovering countless new species of animals and plants, and all kinds of fierce monsters. He had always loved sitting down in front of his old great-grandpa’s rocking chair and listening to him relay another epic adventure tale from his own youth.

Good old Great Grandpappy, Pipsqueak thought to himself as he gazed around the foal’s ward. Maybe I really did get it from him. Not that it’s good for much right now, though. His latest escapade had led him to try clambering up the tall silver-birch trees in the Whitetail Woods, and on a whim he made a daring and very dramatic leap from the branches of one tree to another. Big mistake.

When he had regained consciousness, he was surrounded by half a dozen very worried looking ponies, with pain shooting through his leg. As he was hoisted into the air on the magic of some unicorn nearby, his senses once again faded to black, just as he felt his back touching the canvas of an ambulance gurney.

And now I’m stuck here, Pip mused to himself. A boring room with boring other foals who spend most of their time sleeping. Yucky food, yucky smells everywhere, and I gotta stay here for another week!

Grunting as his cast bumped against the floor, he lowered himself off of the bed and hobbled towards the door. He really didn’t understand why he had to stay any longer, he could walk fine now. Nudging the door open, he headed out into the corridors on his routine wandering around the building and the grounds. He hesitated for a moment, before hurrying back to his bedside table, grabbing in his mouth a small wooden box. Its contents rattled as he limped out the door and closed it behind him, heading off.

As Pip wandered through the corridors between wards and clinics in the hospital, he was greeted by about a dozen other ponies he bumped into along the way. The kindly, if tired-looking nurse pony with the pink mane. The grinning, muscular zebra shooing him away from the fresh delivery of baked goods (The only good food they ever served) as he stopped to sniff at the delicious aroma of fresh bread. The ever-silent red and ginger stallion, smiling at him as he hauled a cart filled with apples to the ‘deliveries’ door. The unicorn in the strange red, black and white cape, who sat out in the gardens, his medicine by his side as he levitated a paintbrush to a sketchbook, painting a study of a bright little butterfly in the bush before him.

But as Pip rounded a bend, he saw a shadowy, intimidating figure approaching him round the corner. Beneath the strange masked helmet, heavy gloves and black apron it wore, he could just about see the beaked face and clawed forelegs of a griffon. He froze on the spot, his breath caught in his chest. His instincts told him to run, and this was a time to heed their warning. Ducking back around the corner, Pip held his breath, hoping the fearsome figure would pass him by.

The griffon paused as he saw the tiny colt peeping around the corner at him, whipping his head back as soon as he spotted him. The masked griffon merely shrugged and adjusted his lead-lined apron, continuing on to a room labelled ‘X-RAY MAINTENANCE’ and locking the door behind him.

Continuing his exploration, Pip passed an open door on his right. Doubling back he saw a ward he hadn’t noticed before. Above the white double-doors, he saw a sign that read “LONG TERM/PSYCH WARD - MIN SECURITY”.

Peeping in, he saw a small room with only four beds, much smaller than the foals’ ward, and only two ponies inside. One was an elderly stallion with a greying indigo mane, lying in bed and muttering to himself in his sleep. The other was a sky-blue pegasus with a stunning multi-coloured mane, her head buried in a weathered old book. A wheeled trolley stood at the foot of her bed, laden with a good twenty or so books.

Pip squinted as he read the title of the book the pegasus was reading. His face lit up as he recognised the name, “D-Daring Do and the Equestrian Gardens…?” Hobbling tentatively into the ward, his cast making little clunking noises on the linoleum floor, he approached the pegasus. Standing by her bedside, he coughed loudly “Ahem…excuse me…miss?”

The pegasus’ magenta eyes looked up from the pages of the book and peered down at Pip. “Oh…hi there. What’s up, kid?”

He reached up with a forehoof, pointing to the pages of her book “I-is that a Daring Do book you’re reading there?”

She turned the book over, looking down at the cover. There was the titular heroine, sprinting down a pathway flanked by flowers and plants of ridiculously large sizes, with hordes of skeletal monsters chasing after her “Heh, yeah it is…just about the only good books they got to read here. Why, you a fan?”

Pipsqueak nodded enthusiastically “Oh yeah, I love Daring Do’s adventures! She’s just so cool and adventurous and brave and, and…”

The mare chuckled again, a smile gracing her face “Heh, ya got that right. As a friend of mine put it: adventurous, fierce and undeniably, unquestionably unstoppable! Glad to see some other kids still read this stuff.”

“Yeah. Most other kids I know read either Harry Trotter books or…blecchh, Moonlight!” Pip grimaced as he forced out the name of that book series he abhorred the most.

“Hah, couldn’t have put it better myself, kid! My folks made me read the first one of those Moonlight books back when I was a filly. Pretty much put me off reading up ‘till I started reading Daring Do…by the way, you look kinda familiar. You live in Ponyville?”

Pip nodded again “Yeah, my parents and me moved here about a year ago, just before the last Nightmare Night…”

He jumped as the pegasus rapped her forehooves together “Nightmare Night! I knew I’d seen you around before. You were with that group of little fillies weren’t you? Dressed as a pirate, right?”

“Yeah, that was me!” He replied “My name’s Pipsqueak. What’s yours?”

“The name’s Rainbow Dash! I was the one on that stormcloud that night…” The pegasus replied.

Pip pointed an accusing hoof “So that was you! You were the one zapping everypony with lightning!”

Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck as she smiled sheepishly “Heheh, yeah…I might have gone a bit too far with that…but it’s not like it was totally out of line! I mean, it was Nightmare Night for pony’s sake! Best night of the year for pranks!”

“I guess so.” Pip said as he shrugged “And it was really fun at the time too. Scary, but fun!”

She chuckled at the foal’s comment at the end, before she faded into silence. For about a minute, the only sounds were the gentle snores and inarticulate mutterings of the old pony in the bed opposite, and the gentle thuds of fruit falling to the ground in the orchard outside. “So, uh, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s in that box of yours?”

Pip held the box up, placing it on Rainbow’s bed. She opened it and saw that it was an old box that cigars used to come in. But instead of cigars, the inside of the box’s lid was covered with all manner of stickers and stamps of animals, plants, and old pictures of great sweeping landscapes. Inside the box itself was an assortment of trinkets and doo-dads: A tiny figurine of a unicorn pony in silver armour. A sheet of card cut into a fancy pattern around the edge, with a drawing of a pirate-ship in the middle. A photograph of Pipsqueak and a pair of older ponies, smiling as they stood outside a small cottage. A tiny chunk of driftwood, carved to look like a sea-serpent.

“This is pretty cool…where’d you get it?” Rainbow said, holding the tiny wooden serpent up to the light.
Pip pointed out the window “One of the ponies down in town. A big red guy with a thing around his neck. He carves them out of bits of wood, and he gave me one when I visited his farm with my parents.”

Rainbow turned the model over in her hooves “Big Macintosh? Huh, who knew he’d have spare time to do carving like this? I gotta see if he could make one for me sometime. And I’m betting this is you with your parents, right?”

Rainbow held out the photograph in her teeth. Pip nodded, smiling warmly at the picture “Yeah. Me, my mum and my dad outside our house. Well, our old house, back in Trottingham.”

“Huh…” Rainbow placed the photo back in the box “Your dad totally looks like you. Same spot over your eye. So, why’d you move to Ponyville then? Just need a change of scenery?”

The colt’s smile suddenly faded “Actually, our house got…burned down. We couldn’t live in Trottingham anymore, so we moved to a new house in Ponyville.”

Rainbow’s chest clenched up for a moment. “Ooh...er, sorry…”

“Oh, it’s alright… I mean, I like it here in Ponyville. Everypony’s so friendly here, especially to me!” He grinned widely, his ears perking up again.

Rainbow smiled back, hesitating with her next question. “So…um, if it's alright to ask, what happened to you? How did you wind up in hospital?”

“I was…I was climbing a tree and I fell. I was trying to jump to another branch and I kinda…slipped.” Pip answered, his ears falling flat once more. His leg ached just thinking about it. “What about you, miss Dash? Did you fall too?”

Rainbow Dash lay back on her pillow “As a matter of fact, yeah, I did…it’s got me grounded for a few days.”

Pip cocked his head “You really fell too? But you’re a pegasus! Pegasi can’t get hurt when they fall, I mean, you can fly, right?”

“Heh, nah, we can fall just like anypony else. In fact, ‘cos we can get higher than other ponies, we can fall harder and faster. I was…trying a new trick, things didn’t go as planned, and you can see how it turned out.”

“Gosh…” Pipsqueak muttered. She must have really landed badly, he said in his mind. Looking over her, he saw bandages wrapped around her middle, pinning her wing to her sides. Looking her in the eyes, he shuddered slightly as he noticed how tired she looked, her gentle content grin not matched by her eyes. Why did her eyes look so sad?

Rainbow sighed “I just wish they’d get some new books in sometimes! I mean, I love the Daring Do stories and all, but I can only read ‘em so many times!”

Pip sat himself on the little wooden chair that stood nearby the pegasus’ bedside “What about the other books? Aren’t any of them any good?”

She shook her head “Nah. They’re all non-fiction. Biographies, science books, poetry, all that boring stuff! Only thing that was even kinda interesting was this book all about the history of the pegasus tribes. Y’know, before all the different pony tribes started living together?”

“You mean like the story we hear about at Hearths Warming Eve?”

“That’s the one” Rainbow nodded “You know I was actually in one of those pageant plays, over in Canterlot. I played Commander Hurricane.”

Pip’s eyes grew wide with awe “You performed in Canterlot?! Wow!! What was it like?”

Rainbow closed her eyes “Oh, it was awesome! Nothing gives you a bigger thrill than having thousands of ponies watching you performing like that. You really felt like you were back in those days, during the blizzard…but the character I played, Commander Hurricane, it turns out she’s got a bit of a story herself. The book I was reading about pegasi history had a whole chapter all about her.”

“Gosh, what was she like?”

“Kinda like Daring Do, now that I think about it,” Rainbow said “adventurous, brave, bold, and a great leader. This one time, she led an entire battalion of pegasi warriors on this campaign into the Griffon Kingdoms, up north, y’know? There was some sort of war between the griffons and the pegasi, or something…I skipped that bit.

Anyways, this one time, she got separated from her army, while they were going through this huge desert. She was totally alone, just her and a dozen other pegasi. So there he was, in this huge sandy desert, totally empty, with no water for miles…”

---

Commander Hurricane pulled the heavy helmet from atop her head, tossing it aside, its mighty plume sweeping a cloud of dirt and sand into the air. Sweat poured from her brow, dripping into her eyes as she gazed up at the blazing sun in the sky. Catching a few drops on her tongue, she winced at the rancid taste. But she relished in the sensation of moisture in her mouth. It had been days since she and her troops had had any fresh water or seen any of the rest of her army.

The rest of her pegasi troops who were lost with her sat or lay around, tongues lolling out as they desperately tried to fan eachother with their wings. Nothing to do but sit back and conserve energy until their messenger returns. For the Commander had sent their fastest and fittest pegasus to fly out and find the rest of the pegasus army, wherever they may be.

“Hey, look!” cried a voice from behind Hurricane. She turned and saw one of her troops pointing out towards the horizon. Following his pointing hoof, Hurricane saw a tiny speck in the sky above the high orange dunes in the farthest distance of the desert.

As the minutes passed, the speck became more distinct. It was their messenger pegasus, carrying something in his forehooves. After what seemed like an eternity, he touched down, exhausted, before the Commander. In his forehooves he carried a helmet, filled with…

“WATER!” Came the cry from the pegasi around Commander Hurricane. They surged forwards, like a group of wolves charging forth to get the first mouthful of food from the kill.

But the pegasus withheld the helmet, carefully trying his best to not spill a drop. “Wait! I have something important for the Commander to hear!”

Commander Hurricane stepped forth, forcing her troops to stand back with her outstretched wings “I am here. What is the message? And for that matter, where is the rest of my army?”

The messenger bowed down before Hurricane “My commander, I’m afraid they are currently being besieged by the griffons. They are actually in a similar predicament to us, stranded far out in the desert wildernesses. They gave me this note to give you.”

The pegasus took off his own helmet and retrieved from inside it a small sheet of paper, passing it to his Commander. Hurricane held it up, examining the paper, noting with some curiosity the strangely-cut edges and the picture of a great galleon drawn on the back. Flipping it over, she read aloud of the note:

“My Commander. Court-Martial me as you will for saying this, but I feel that your mighty army is on the verge of defeat. Not, however, from the swords and spears of the cruel and brutish griffon armies, but from our own greed and thirst.

This helmet contains our last supply of water in the entire army. The griffon armies have us pinned down and blockaded, with all other supplies at their limits. So, we entrust our final supplies of water to you.

O Commander Hurricane, I believe that your wisdom shall save us all.”

The pegasus commander lowered the note, casting an eye over the small crew of two-dozen pegasi that gathered around her. Her eyes fell upon the helmet that sat on the ground before her, the water glistening and shimmering in the sunlight. All eyes were upon her as she stepped forwards, infinitely slowly, and lifted up the helmet, carefully trying to not spill a drop.

The messenger licked his lips as he anxiously watched his commander’s face, her gaze giving away nothing. But as Commander Hurricane lifted the helmet to lip-level, she tipped it over, letting it fall to the ground.

Time itself seemed to slow down as the helmet thudded into the sand, the spilled water vanishing into the sand, staining it a dark orange colour.

Silence reigned over the troops who watched in shock as the water evaporated into the air. Finally, the messenger pegasus spoke up, in a voice far too young to be his own:

“Why?”

---

“Well, it was…” Rainbow hesitated, as she mimed Hurricane tipping the helmet of water over “It was so that nopony would feel inferior. Y’know, left out. It was…it was her way of showing that all her troops were equal and…”

“It’s stupid.” Pip said.

Rainbow folded her forelegs, raising an eyebrow “Oh yeah, squirt? Well what would you have done?”

Pip sat back, tapping his chin with a forehoof “Well, I would’ve just given each soldier a tiny bit, like a drip of it.”

“I dunno,” Rainbow replied “One helmet of water for over a thousand thirsty pegasi, I just don’t see that working.”

“Hmm…when you put it like that…Yeah, you’re right.” He relented, gathering up his box of trinkets and sitting back down “It was a pretty cool story though. You’re really good at telling stories, miss Dash.”

Rainbow was slightly taken aback “Heh, just Rainbow is fine. Miss Dash makes me sound like some old maid. You really think I’m good at tellin’ stories?”

Pip nodded enthusiastically again “Oh yeah! Tell me another, please?”

The pegasus sat back, thinking hard for some story she knew to tell him. It was obvious the kid was a fan of adventure and fantasy, but the only stories she knew alike that were Daring Do stories, and he no doubt knew them already.

Luckily, she was saved by the arrival of Nurse Redheart, who came through the door as she spotted Pip “Oh there you are, Pipsqueak! C’mon you, it’s time for supper. High time you were back in the foal’s ward.”

As she tried to usher the tiny colt away from the bedside, he turned back to Rainbow “C-can I come back to see you tomorrow, and hear another story? Can I?”

Rainbow once again found herself grinning warmly at the colt’s enthusiasm and energy. He reminded her alot of herself as a little filly “Sure thing, kid. Tell you what; I got somepony coming in to see me around lunchtime. Come by here after you’re done with your lunch and I’ll tell you another story. An epic tale of swashbuckling, adventure and revenge! It’ll be awesome!”

Pip gasped with excitement, looking up imploringly to the Nurse. Redheart sighed and smiled, unable to say no to the charming young colt “Well, I guess it’s okay. Just don’t be too big of a hooffull. Miss Rainbow Dash needs her rest if she’s going to recover. And same goes for you, miss Dash! Make sure little Pip doesn’t over exert himself."

Rainbow jokingly saluted “Sure thing. See ya tomorrow then Pip.”

As she watched the young colt and the pink-haired nurse going round the corner, she lay back for her nap. Honestly she had very few ideas exactly what kind of story to tell Pip tomorrow. But she had an idea. The little guy could prove to be helpful for her. She just needed a story. Something to keep him coming back. Some kind of romping adventure…ideas…ideas…

Thoughts of the story drifting about in her head, she relaxed further into her pillow and let herself drift off to sleep. No doubt her dreams could provide some ideas.

Comments

[Earth Galvanising]

556282

YOU FUCK!

1.bp.blogspot.com/-_TkbcIBMy1Y/T2Ioh3r-T_I/AAAAAAAABGA/BAJcgUhFm7c/s1600/firstpost.jpg

WAS GONNA BE MINE!

[Rechte]

556327
majhost.com/gallery/RCB/Pics/you_mad.png

[Earth Galvanising]

556373

YEAH IM FUCKING MAD!

[Coal Buck]

I giggled like an idiot at "Moonlight". Very funny.

Very charming story so far. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I'll be looking forward to the following installment with gusto!

[Fernin]

Hmm, interesting stuff so far.

[Inari]

I'm interested to see where you take this. You have a very intriguing concept going here.

[MellowMabari]

I've been meaning to read this for a while now, but kept putting it off for whatever reason. I'm glad I finally checked it out. I'm really enjoying this so far - Pip's and Dash's interaction was pretty adorable. I can really see them getting along well together, too, the way you write them. Hopefully the storytelling sessions prove to be mutually beneficial and Dash can recover emotionally as well as physically. Well, anywho, onward to the next chapter!

[Hellblazer]

This reminds me of a movie I once saw... Can't remember the title though.