Forest Green

by Phazon

Stranded

‘Okay, just a little further up,’ Fluttershy thought. She hadn’t been on this mountain in over two years, but this time it was easier to climb. In fact, she was actually able to fly up the mountain this time because there was no dragon at the top; there was only Zero Volt. ‘This time, he’s taking it too far. I’m going to make him stop this senseless feud with Rarity… hopefully before the storm starts.’ The weather pegasi had scheduled a thunderstorm for today, and Zero Volt had chosen to go up this mountain right before it was supposed to start. ‘Oh, maybe I should do this later when the skies are clear and he’s not up here… no, I have to do this now, to show him that I mean business.’

It had already started raining by the time she found Zero Volt, who was relaxing near the cave that the dragon had chosen to sleep in. He was lying on his back with his forelegs behind his head when he noticed her. “Hey Fluttershy, nice weather we’re… something wrong?” He sat up on his haunches when she saw the look on her face.

“Zero Volt, you are going to apologize to Rarity, and the two of you are going to start being friends with each other. You are going to stop making everypony deal with your stupid arguing, and you are going to do so this instant!” In the last seven months, she had done everything else to convince him to make peace with Rarity. She had tried begging, and pleading, and beseeching, and asking politely. Now she was left with no choice. This situation called for something drastic. This situation called for The Stare.

Zero Volt looked at her with his mouth wide open. Fluttershy had always been so gentle, so docile. Now he was looking into her blue eyes, and he could feel her gaze pierce through him and instill a sense of dread within his very soul. A moment later, he raised an eyebrow and asked, “Why are you glaring at me like that?”

Fluttershy’s jawed dropped, and her confidence and assertiveness were completely shattered. ‘Is he immune to The Stare? How is that even possible? Nothing’s immune to The Stare.’ Moments later, a bolt of lightning struck close by and signaled the beginning of the storm. Fluttershy squeaked and ran into the cave nearby, hiding inside as thunder continued to sound. “Wh-what happened back there? First The Stare doesn’t work on Zero, and now that storm,” Fluttereshy said to herself. “Okay, calm down, it’s only a storm, and it’s only Zero.” Fluttershy flinched after hearing another bolt of lightning struck nearby. “He can teleport us back to Ponyville, we can talk it all out, and it will all be okay. It will all be okay.”

Fluttershy lifted her head and looked outside the cave, and when she did, every bit of composure she had regained vanished. Zero Volt lying motionless on the ground several feet outside the cave. Parts of his fur were charred, suggesting that he had been struck by lightning. Fluttershy ran toward him, but stopped after a lightning bolt struck near the entrance of the cave. She squeaked and back up a bit, preferring to stay inside rather than risk being out in the storm. However, she also remembered that Zero Volt was still outside. After hesitating a little longer, Fluttershy ran outside to him. She lifted Zero Volt’s foreleg over her back and dragged him into the cave as quickly as she could.

Once they were safely inside the cave, Fluttershy lowered Zero Volt onto the ground and prodded him with her hoof. “Zero? Zero, please wake up.”

Zero Volt let out a pained grunt and clutched his head with his hooves. “Fluttershy?” he groaned.

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“My head… what happened?”

“I think you were struck by lightning,” Fluttershy said. She placed a hoof on his shoulder. “You need to see a doctor. Teleport us to the hospital now.” Neither of them did anything for several seconds. Zero Volt opened his eyes and stared at Fluttershy. “Zero, what are you waiting for? Let’s go, now!”

“I can’t,” Zero Volt said. “It’s not working.”

“What? Y-You’re joking, right?”

“I’m afraid not. I think that lightning strike knocked out my teleportation ability.” He started looking around the cave. “I’m also having some double vision, unless there are two of you now. Either way, we’ll have to go on hoof.”

“You mean we have to go through-” The crack of thunder interrupted Fluttershy in mid-sentence. Her wings were already folded at her sides, but now she could feel them locking in place. “I’m sorry, Zero. I’m too scared to go out there.”

“Alright then,” he said. With some difficulty, he managed to stand up on his hooves, but his gait wasn't as steady as it normally was. “I’ll go by myself. If you’re still here after I get treated, I’ll come back and teleport you back to Ponyville.” He tried to walk out of the cave, but he stumbled with almost every step he took. Before long, he bumped into the cave’s wall and groaned as he fell back down.

Fluttershy trotted over to him and placed her hoof on his head. “Zero, what’s wrong?”

“Between the double vision and this pain, I don’t think I can make it back on my own,” he said as he pressed his hoof on his head. “Are you sure you can’t just fly us down?”

“I… I can’t. My wings lock up when I get really scared.”

“Okay then. I guess we'll just have to wait this storm out.”

Fluttershy watched him clutch his head and writhed in pain. “How are you feeling? I mean, how bad is it?”

“It’s hard to focus on anything because of the pain, but I don’t think it’s getting any worse. At least that’s something, right?”

Fluttershy gazed outside at the thunderstorm. She would have liked nothing more than to stay in the cave until the storm ended, aside from not being on this mountain in the first place. But with Zero Volt in so much pain, she felt herself torn between staying in the relative safety of the cave and helping her friend.

Eventually she made up her mind and lifted his foreleg over her back. “Come on, Zero, walk with me. We can’t just leave you here like this.” She hesitated after hearing the crack of thunder again, but before long, the two of them left the cave.

“Thanks, Fluttershy.” With Zero Volt’s foreleg over Fluttershy’s shoulder, the two of them walked down the mountain. “So, why were you glaring at me like that?”

“Huh? Oh, um… can it wait until after we’re off the mountain?” Fluttershy said.

“Sure, I guess.”

The two of them walked silently for a few moments. Thunder could be heard above them, but as Fluttershy remembered why she came up here and why she was mad at him, the storm only registered as background noise. “Actually, no. it can’t wait,” she said. “I have let this stupid fighting between you and Rarity go on for too long, and now you’ve taken it too far. This is the worst thing you’ve ever done!”

“Okay, first of all, Rarity and I are not fighting,” Zero Volt said. “It’s only a fight if there’s physical violence. Rarity and I are arguing.”

“What difference does that make?!” The sky lit up with lightning, and they both heard the deafening sound of thunder.

“Well, for starters, this is distracting me from a little bit of the pain,” he said. “And I’ll bet this talk is taking your mind off of the storm.”

Fluttershy heard the sound of thunder again, but she barely flinched at it this time. ‘He’s right. We’re both soaked from the rain, and this storm isn’t getting any better, but I haven’t thought about it much.’ She looked back at his cutie mark. “Is that you’re special talent? Distracting other ponies?”

“You’d think so, but no,” he said. “But back to me and Rarity. You know, the worst thing I’ve ever done, whatever that is.”

“Oh, um…” Fluttershy tried to think back to what made her so angry at Zero Volt, but he had somehow managed to distract her from both her fear of the storm and her anger at him. “I went to talk to Rarity earlier this afternoon and…”

- - - - - - - - - -

“Oh hello, Fluttershy,” Rarity said as she answered the door to the boutique. “I just have to tie up a few loose ends before our spa date, so please come in and make yourself at home.”

Fluttershy walked in and looked around the boutique. Rarity used her magic to put away rolls of fabric, spools of thread, and a few marequins with unfinished dresses on them. As Fluttershy looked around, she glanced at another unfinished project that Rarity had put to the side. ‘That one doesn’t look like something Rarity would make,’ she thought. She went closer to examine it. It appeared to be a large black cloak with sleeves for a pony’s forelegs. She saw a clipboard with a list of measurements and a vague description of what the cloak was supposed to be. At the top of the clipboard were the letters ‘ZV’.

“Oh, that’s nothing important,” Rarity said. She used her magic to hastily put the cloak and clipboard away. “It’s just a little side project for a personal acquaintance.”

“Those letters at the top,” Fluttershy asked, “are they the pony’s initials?” As soon as she said it out loud, she remembered a fleeting conversation from four months earlier and realized whose initials they were. “Rarity, did Zero ask you to make something for him?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Fluttershy,” Rarity said. “I would never design anything for that miserable fiend.”

“Rarity,” Fluttershy said with more assertiveness. “Did he ask you to make that cloak for him?”

“Yes, Zero asked me to make that cloak for him,” Rarity said with a sigh. “I honestly can’t imagine why he would ask me to make that. The whole thing is so faded, so oversized, so monochrome. That colt truly has no sense of fashion. At the very least he was polite and civil with me while we talked about it. You know, in spite of everything that’s happened between us, he and I might actually get along with each other.”

Fluttershy’s eye twitched as she stared back at Rarity. “I hope you don't mind, but I won’t be going to our spa appointment.”

- - - - - - - - - -

“That is not the worst thing I’ve ever done,” Zero Volt said. The two of them reached a narrow ledge along the mountainside. They walked alongside it with Zero Volt walking closer to the mountainside and Fluttershy walking closer to the edge. “In the nine months of my life that I can remember, I can think of two other things that are worse than that.”

“Zero, how could you?” Fluttershy said, her anger finally returning to her. “I don’t mind you giving Rarity a heart attack to get a laugh. Rainbow Dash does that to her friends all the time. But it’s bad enough that she’s making the costume you’re using to terrify her. Now you’re tricking her into thinking that you two are becoming friends. This isn’t some harmless practical joke. This is just cruel!”

“It’s funny that you should mention that,” Zero Volt said. “We actually are becoming friends.”

“What? Since when?”

“Remember the night of that blizzard when we were all at Twilight’s place? We actually made up then, but since some ponies enjoy the spectacle that she and I put on, we decided to fake it in front of everypony.”

“The two of you are doing this for fun?” Fluttershy said. “This isn’t fun for me. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Suddenly, the ground beneath one of Fluttershy’s hooves crumbled, causing her to fall off the ledge. With his foreleg supported on her shoulder, Zero Volt fell with her and they both rolled down the mountain. Fluttershy's felt her body scrape against the rock as she tumbled down the mountain. At the end of her fall, the right side of her body bounced off the rock wall before she finally made a hard landing.

Fluttershy lay on the ground for a few moments before confirming that she was on solid ground again. “Ow,” she groaned almost inaudibly before trying to stand up. After a while, she had managed to get to her hooves. Blood oozed along her yellow coat from several scrapes on her legs and body. She lifted her foreleg to place a hoof over another shallow cut on the left side of her face. “Zero!” she gasped, remembering that her friend was still hurt. Fluttershy looked around frantically for a moment and found Zero Volt lying on the ground with small cuts all over his body as well. She ran to him and shook him with her hoof.

Zero Volt looked up and saw Fluttershy giving him a concerned look. “Fluttershy?”

“Zero?”

Zero Volt glanced at Fluttershy’s right side. “Your wing.”

Fluttershy looked at her right wing, which was still folded at her side. With its plumage disheveled and stained with blood, her wing was in worse condition than the rest of her body. “It’s… it’s fine,” she said. “What about you? Are you hurt?”

“Hard to say,” Zero Volt said. “This headache is almost bad enough to drown out my thoughts, so it’s hard to feel any other pain. But you’re definitely not fine. Come on, we both need to get to the hospital.”

With some difficulty, Fluttershy lifted his right foreleg over her shoulder and started to carry him again. “Your two-second warning picked a really bad time to not work,” she said.

“Actually, I think that lightning strike knocked that out too.”

“What?” Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck near the two of them. Fluttershy squeaked and rushed the two of them underneath an overhang. “I can’t do this,” she said, pulling a pack filled with medical supplies from behind Zero Volt’s mane. “Maybe we should stay here until the storm ends.”

“Fluttershy, calm down,” Zero Volt said. “I know this looks bad, but we’re almost down the mountain. As soon as we get back to Ponyville, it will all be okay.”

“How can you say that? Aren’t you scared?” she squeaked.

Fluttershy, we’re all alone on a mountain in the middle of a fierce thunderstorm with all of my abilities knocked out. Of course I’m scared. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Fluttershy stared at him in disbelief. On the surface, Zero Volt had maintained his composure throughout this entire ordeal, and now he was telling her that he was scared too. “Y-You don’t look scared.”

“I guess I just respond to fear differently,” he said. “I mean, usually I wind up going after the things that scare me. Then again, I often end up with cuts and bruises, so that might not always be the best way to deal with fear.”

“So then there are times when you get scared, but you don’t look or act scared?”

“Lots of times,” he said. “Remember that look you gave me before that storm started?”

Fluttershy nodded when she realized that he was talking about The Stare. It was nice to know that he was affected by it, but she still couldn’t believe he could shrug it off like that. “What about those four thieves that you had to fight when you first came here? Were you scared to fight them?”

“Those four? Oh no, they were never a threat to begin with.”

“The four ponies who threw you all over that clearing and broke your leg weren’t a threat,” Fluttershy said incredulously.

“Okay fine, so I went a little easier on them than I should have,” Zero Volt said. “Besides, they weren’t nearly as tough as this one dragon I went up against.”

“You’ve fought a dragon before?” she asked. Zero Volt nodded. “And you won?” He nodded again. “I find this all very hard to believe.”

“Alright fine, if you’re not going to believe me, then I guess I won’t tell you about it.”

“Oh come on, you can’t just bring it up and not tell me about it,” Fluttershy said. “I’m sure it’s a good story.”

“Well… okay,” he said. “We should stay here and get a look at your wing, so I might as well.” Zero Volt tried to open the bag of medical supplies, but he was having some difficulty with the zipper, so Fluttershy opened it for him. “Sorry, it’s hard to do this sort of thing with double vision. Can you move your wing?”

Fluttershy winced as she slowly spread her right wing. “It doesn’t feel broken. How does it look?”

“Uh… it’s hard to see, but I don’t think it’s much worse than a flesh wound,” he said. “We should be able to clean it and put some bandages, but if I were you, I wouldn’t try to fly with it for a day or two.”

“Can you treat it in your condition? How are you feeling?” Fluttershy asked.

“I think so, but between the headache and the double vision, it’ll take a while,” he said. “Neither one is getting better, but at least they’re not getting any worse.”

“So, do you still want to tell me that story?”

“Right, uh, about six weeks into my travels, I was walking through the forest,” Zero Volt started. “I was a few days away from Fillydelphia when I met this dragon. He was definitely older than Spike, but he was still just a juvenile. Anyway, he and I got to talking, and when he noticed the greave around my foreleg, he decided that he wanted it for himself.”

“So you fought a young dragon because he wanted to eat your bracelet,” Fluttershy said. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but this isn’t a very- ow!”

“Sorry Fluttershy, but isopropyl alcohol doesn’t come in a sting-free form,” he said. “But yeah, at the time, he was only about my size, and while he could breathe fire, his wings weren’t strong enough for sustained flight. So he eventually realized that he was outmatched, and that’s when he decided to cry for his mommy. That’s when things really got ugly…”

* * * * * * * * * *

“Looks like your wing’s going to be okay, Fluttershy,” Zero Volt said. By the time he had finished his story, he had already disinfected Fluttershy’s wing and wrapped it in bandages. “How does it feel?”

“It feels better,” Fluttershy said. “It wasn’t as bad as it looked before, but I’ll keep it bandaged for a few days.”

"Yeah, you did wind up scraping most of your outer wing, but luckily it didn't reach any bone or major blood vessels. So, you think you’re ready to head back?”

“Uh, yeah, we can try to go to Ponyville now.” The storm had not yet ended, but it was less severe than it had been earlier. Fluttershy pulled Zero Volt’s right foreleg over her shoulder and the two of them walked out from beneath the overhang. “Zero, I’d like to hear the rest of that story, if you don’t mind.”

“Oh yeah. Anyway, once that dragon triggered the avalanche, I started teleporting those rocks above her. It only took four or five rocks to take out her wings, but by the time I realized that, I had already teleported most of the avalanche above her. I’ll admit, gravity did most of the work, but that’s one way to take out an adult dragon.”

“I suppose damaging her wings in midflight and sending her plummeting to the ground would work,” Fluttershy said, “but I still find your story a little hard to believe.”

“Either way, we’re finally off the mountain,” Zero Volt said. Fluttershy looked back and saw that they were now at the bottom of the mountain. “We were attracting too much lightning at that altitude, so that’s a relief, right?”

“Yeah, now we just have to walk back to Ponyville,” she said. “You know, there used to be a dragon living up there in that cave.”

“Really, what happened to it?”

“He went there to go to sleep, but his snoring was starting to blow smoke all over Equestria’s skies, so we had to ask it to leave.”

“So you asked a dragon to go sleep somewhere else, and he agreed?”

“Actually, I asked him to sleep somewhere else.”

“Fluttershy, that’s even less believable than my story,” Zero Volt said. “It’s one thing to spring a trap on a dragon, but those things are too sociopathic for your methods of persuasion.”

“Well, I sort of used The Stare on him.”

“The Stare?”

“The one I gave you at the top of the mountain,” Fluttershy said, “before the storm started.”

“Oh that one,” he said. “I can see how that might work.”

Fluttershy and Zero Volt continued their journey back to Ponyville. As they came closer to the town, the storm grew weaker in intensity. “Hey Fluttershy,” Zero Volt said. “You grew up in Cloudsdale, right? How much do you know about the weather?”

“Not too much. You’d probably be better off asking Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said. “If you don’t mind me asking, what do you want to know?”

“I was wondering about thunderstorms,” he said. “I’ve noticed that pegasi can trigger a single lightning strike by hitting a thundercloud with their hooves, but what about thunderstorms?”

“Well, if kicking a cloud once causes one bolt of lightning, then I suppose the entire storm would be caused by kicking the clouds lots of times.”

“Like dancing maybe?”

“You don’t think the weather pegasi are having a party up there, do you?”

“That’s what I want to know.”

Fluttershy and Zero Volt looked up at the sky as they walked toward Ponyville. The rain had finally stopped, and the clouds were now breaking apart rapidly. As the clouds disappeared, a rainbow was left behind in their wake.

“It looks like Rainbow Dash is clearing the skies today,” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, it figures that the storm would end only after we make it back to Ponyville,” Zero Volt said.

As the rainbow streak made its way across the sky, it took a sharp turn and shot in their direction. Rainbow Dash landed in front of them seconds later. “Volt, Fluttershy, what happened to you?” she asked.

“Zero got struck by lightning and now he’s really hurt,” Fluttershy said. “He needs to see a doctor now.”

“On it!” Rainbow Dash grabbed Zero Volt with her forelegs and lifted him off the ground. “What about you?” she said to Fluttershy.

“I’ll be fine,” Fluttershy said. “I’ll meet you two at the hospital.” With that, Rainbow Dash flew off toward the hospital holding Zero Volt with her forelegs.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy knocked at the door of the Carousel Boutique and Rarity appeared at the door a few seconds later. “Good heavens, Fluttershy, what happened to you?” Rarity asked.

“Zero Volt is at the hospital right now,” Fluttershy said. “We were on that mountain during the storm, and now he’s really hurt.”

“Oh dear… shouldn’t you be with him?”

“He’s with Rainbow Dash right now, so he should be okay,” Fluttershy said. “Rarity, I know about your act with Zero.”

“Oh, he told you about that?” Rarity said. She turned around and scanned the inside of the boutique. She then poked her head outside to look around. “Let’s talk about this inside.” Fluttershy walked into the shop and closed the door behind her.

“Rarity, why didn’t you tell me? You know that I don’t like watching you two fight.”

“I’m terribly sorry, Fluttershy. I was hoping to tell you today at the spa. I would have told you sooner, but I was worried that the performance wouldn’t look authentic without your genuine reaction.”

“Come with me to the hospital,” Fluttershy said. “If you two are friends now, you should visit him too.

“That won’t be possible,” Rarity said. “If it were just the four of us, it wouldn’t be an issue. In public, I would have to pester him as part of the act, and it is unbecoming of a lady to show scorn to the sick and injured.”

“Four of us? Rainbow Dash knows, too? Why would he tell her and not me?”

“Zero agreed to let me tell you when the time was right. I have no idea why he told Rainbow Dash, but to her credit, she has been playing the role of instigator during our façade.” Rarity approached Fluttershy and gave her a hug. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. We can reschedule our spa date for tomorrow, my treat. We’ll talk about it then, but right now you must go to the hospital. Zero will want you there with him.”

“Okay, thanks Rarity,” Fluttershy said, still feeling dejected. She left Rarity’s house and started going to the hospital.

* * * * * * * * * *

Rainbow Dash and Zero Volt were sitting in an exam room in the hospital, waiting for a doctor to see them. Zero Volt was lying on the examination table on his stomach while Rainbow stood next to him. “Hey, Volt,” Rainbow said, “How are you holding up?”

“About the same as I was a few hours ago,” Zero Volt said. “Hey Dash, can I ask you something about the weather?”

“Shoot.”

“How do weather pegasi start thunderstorms?”

“We just bring the storm clouds together,” she said. “If you hit one of the clouds just right, it starts a chain reaction.”

“Oh. For a while I thought the weather ponies were having some sort of party above the clouds.”

“A party above the clouds,” she mused. “That sound like fun.”

“No, you are not doing that,” he said. Rainbow Dash stared blankly at him. “Dash, do you have any idea what Fluttershy and I went through during that storm? How would it look if you were partying in the middle of all that?”

“Okay fine, no party above the storm clouds,” Rainbow Dash said.

At that moment, Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle walked in with the doctor. “Zero Volt, what a surprise,” the doctor said. “Usually our EMTs aren’t the ones who need medical attention. What seems to be the problem?”

“I got struck by lightning, and now my head really hurts,” Zero Volt said.

“How painful is it, on a scale of one to ten,” the doctor asked.

Zero Volt paused for a moment and looked up at the doctor. “It only goes up to ten?”

“He’s also experiencing double vision, and his teleportation and two-second warning aren’t working,” Fluttershy said. “Oh, did I interrupt?”

The doctor’s face lit up, and he looked at Zero Volt with greater curiosity. “Are you sure this was caused by a lightning strike? Was there any head trauma involved?”

“No, it was just a lightning strike,” Zero Volt said. “It happened a few hours ago, but it hasn’t gotten any better.”

The doctor brushed Zero Volt’s hoof away and stared at his head. “Well this is certainly strange,” he said. “There is one condition that matches your symptoms almost perfectly, but it shouldn’t be possible for you to have it. Although…”

“What do you think it is?” Fluttershy asked.

“These symptoms usually occur in a unicorn with a broken horn,” the doctor said.

“That’s it, we’re getting a second opinion,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Wait a minute, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said. “Let’s hear him out.”

“Normally I wouldn’t even consider such a diagnosis on an earth pony, but given his abilities and illness, it seems possible,” the doctor said. “Unicorns channel their magic powers through their horns, so if they get cracked or broken, they can’t use magic.

“How do you fix it?” Fluttershy asked.

“Why are we even talking about this?” Rainbow Dash said. “You should be figuring out what’s wrong with Zero Volt.”

“Even if the horn is damaged, a unicorn's magical energies still flow through it, or whatever's left of it," the doctor said. "That magic is always redirected to repair damage to the horn, but depending on how severe the damage is, the process can take months or even a year. But there is a spell that speeds up the process, if you’re willing to let me try it.”

“Yeah sure, but what happens if it’s something else?” Zero Volt said.

“If I’m wrong, than it should have no effect on you,” the doctor said. He approached Zero Volt and placed the tip of his horn on Zero Volt’s forehead. A stream of orange sparks spiraled around the groove of his horn and reached the tip. Once it reached Zero Volt’s forehead, the spell’s magic pulsed around his body and returned to his forehead before disappearing. When the spell ended, the pained expression on Zero Volt’s face slowly disappeared. “So, how do you feel?”

Zero Volt teleported off of the examination table and landed on his hoofs. “Better,” he said. “Hey Dash, thanks for waiting here with me.”

“No sweat,” Rainbow Dash said. “So what does this all mean? What are you?”

“I have no idea,” he said. Zero Volt teleported next to her and whispered in her ear. “I need your help with a prank I’m going to pull on Nightmare Night. Don’t tell anypony about it.” He turned around and looked at Fluttershy. “Hey, how are you feeling?” he said to her in a softer tone.

“I’m okay, and I’m glad you’re okay, too,” Fluttershy said.

“Want me to take you home?” he asked. Fluttershy walked toward him and placed her hoof on his foreleg. Seconds later, the two of them vanished with a green flash.

“Wow, this has definitely been enlightening,” Twilight said.

“Yeah, now we know that Volt shouldn’t be near electricity,” Rainbow Dash said. “Who would’ve thought that unicorns would lose their magic if their horns broke?”

“I know,” Twilight said. “Everypony in Canterlot is told to be careful with their horns, but I was never told why.”

“Unicorn horns are usually very tough, so it’s rare to have one of them crack or break,” the doctor said. “It does happen though, usually by accident, so that particular healing spell is taught to every unicorn that goes through medical school. Now there are other patients in the ER, so if you’re done here.”

Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle left the hospital. Rainbow flew back to her cloud house while Twilight trotted back to her library.

* * * * * * * * * *

Angel Bunny stood in front of the door to Fluttershy’s cottage tapping his foot. Fluttershy never took this long to return from her spa dates with Rarity, and even if she was frightened by the storm, it ended almost an hour ago. ‘Maybe she went out of her way to buy me something as an apology for being late,’ he thought. Moments later, he saw Fluttershy and Zero Volt appear in front of the cottage in a green flash. Angel saw Fluttershy’s bandaged wing and the blood stains on her coat. ‘You! What did you do to her?!’ he thought. Neither pony noticed Angel as he scurried toward Zero Volt and leapt at him.

Zero Volt’s two-second warning took effect. The wings on his bracelet spread out, and he held up his right foreleg to shield against the attacking bunny. Angel tried to climb over the black piece of jewelry, but Zero Volt teleported a few feet away, causing Angel to fall. “He’s funny,” Zero Volt said with a grin. “I’m sure Pinkie Pie would make a rhyme out of that.”

“She once asked me if Mister Funny Bunny wanted some honey. He didn’t like that at all,” Fluttershy said. “I still have to feed all the animals, but if it’s not too much trouble, if you want to...”

“You want me to stay and help you feed them all?” he said. Fluttershy nodded, and the two of them went to work bringing food to the animals under her care. Before long, they had fed almost all of the animals, and only the birds still had to be fed. Zero Volt brought berries and seeds to one group of birds while Fluttershy brought fish and insects to another group of birds.

“You know, sometimes I feel a little sorry for the little bugs when they get eaten up,” Fluttershy said.

“Well, these birds are just as vicious with their food, but you can’t really feel sympathy for seeds and berries,” Zero Volt said. "Hey Fluttershy, I can’t thank you enough for what you did for me today.” Fluttershy looked back at him. “If it weren’t for you, I would’ve never made it off that mountain, and I’m really sorry you got hurt in the process.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” she said. "You helped me down that mountain just as much as I helped you. Just please stay away from lightning from now on.”

“Yeah, definitely.”

Fluttershy looked around her cottage. “Okay, I think that’s all of them,” she said. “Um, this is just a thought but… would you like to stay for dinner?”

“Yeah, I think I’d like that,” he said. The two of them walked into Fluttershy’s cottage and closed the door behind them.

* * * * * * * * * *

Twilight opened the door and entered her library. “Spike, are you in here?” she called out.

“Up here,” Spike said. He was standing on the top rung of a ladder dusting the books on the bookshelves. “I don’t know why I’m always the one dusting up here when you’re the one with magic.”

“Spike, if you’re having trouble reaching up there, all you have to do is grow wings,” she teased.

“That’s not what I- ah, ah…” Some of the dust that he was dislodging from the books had made its way to Spike’s nose. Spike sneezed, charring five books on the shelf in front of him.

Twilight sighed and pulled out a checklist and a quill. She added a new task, Replace the books burned by Spike, and after giving it some thought, added a second task, Make Spike learn to control his flames when he sneezes, coughs, or laughs.

“Spike, take a letter,” Twilight said. Spike jumped from the top rung of the ladder and landed on a nearby couch. He found a quill and some parchment and began writing as Twilight spoke.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today Fluttershy helped our new friend, Zero Volt climb down a mountain after he was injured by a lightning strike. This isn’t much of a friendship report; we’ve already seen how strong Fluttershy can be at times. Nevertheless, I still find myself amazed by what she’s capable of, and it’s comforting to see Volt grow so close to us, especially considering how little we trusted each other when he first came here.

At the same time, today’s events have provided some new clues about Zero Volt. The lightning strike caused a condition in him that was identical in both symptoms and treatment to that of a unicorn with a broken horn. This new finding supports my initial hypothesis that Zero Volt is some type of pegasus-unicorn hybrid.

Despite this breakthrough, several questions remain unanswered, and a few new questions are raised. If he really is a pegasus-unicorn hybrid, then why doesn’t he present the full range of abilities of either subspecies? Why does he look like an earth pony while possessing cloudwalking, teleportation, and limited precognitive powers? Finally, why would electrocution of all things be analogous to him having his horn broken? I will continue my research. As usual, any collaboration on your part would be greatly appreciated. In fact, I’ve decided to send you a sample of his mane with this letter, in case you want to conduct some genetic tests.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

“Twilight, I don’t think Zero Volt is going to be happy if he finds out that you’re treating him like a science experiment,” Spike said after he finished writing.

“Spike, for the last time, you’re my personal assistant, not my moral compass,” Twilight said. She used her magic to levitate a bag with a lock of Zero Volt’s mane to Spike. “Besides, if it makes you feel better, I have no intention of vivisecting him.”

“If you say so.” Spike rolled up the piece of parchment with the bag placed in the center of the scroll. He blew fire on it, sending the letter to the princess.

Comments

[booman980]

Finally, why would electrocution of all things be analogous to him having his horn broken

His name is ZERO Volt

[booman980]

And alsoYEAH I am the first and second reviewer for this chapter