• Published 4th May 2016
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The Filly Without a Name - Scribble Script



"It's cold... It's dark... Where am I? Why am I here? And most important: Who am I?"

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Chapter 6

Chapter 6

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TRACES IN BLOOD

Patient A-16, the name is blacked out. Date of admission: Twenty-sixth Alicorn, year four-hundred and ninety-three, reign of Celestia.

Twenty-sixth Alicorn.
Patient has been found unconscious on the northern road coming from Cauldron Lake. She had a collision with a merchant’s cart. One day for monitoring on the open ward under suspicion of concussion.

Twenty-seventh Alicorn.
We still don’t know much about her apart from her name. Until now, her relatives haven’t gotten in touch with us. Patient is a little emicated, decided to keep her in hospital a few days longer so she can cure herself completely and for once eat her fill.
The stars alone know where she comes from and whether the name she told us is even her right one… Patient seems nervous and only reluctantly agreed to stay in our house a few days longer.

Addendum: Her name sounds familiar. Need to check on that…

Twenty-eighth Alicorn.
First examinations uncover considerable yet untapped magical talent. Actually she would be exactly the kind of unicorn I’ve been searching for to finally perform my experiment to complete my research about the incidents from three years ago.
Still no sign of any relatives. The filly probably is a stray…

Twenty-ninth Alicorn.
Patient still very nervous.
My suspicions have condensed, the collision with the cart must’ve done more damage than initially thought. Patient intermittently suffers feelings of faintness, cause unknown.
She’s in that age were magic becomes unstable when in a state of emotional turmoil, so patient accidentally knocks over stools and dishes. After light-out patient suffered a panic attack and destroyed almost the entire interior of her room. Decided to administer her one Valerian pastille in the morning, noon and evening, to calm her down. Thought about talking to her about my experiment, then decided to postpone it until tomorrow.

Thirtieth Alicorn.
Decided to not tell her. Incident from last night convinced me to perform my experiment anyway, especially since it’s bound to stabilize her erratic magical outbursts before they can reach a dangerous level. Started change of medication today. Tried out a new medizine based on Datura stramonium. In a fifteen-times-dilution of Herbal Green’s original setting the remedy only shows little to no effect. Maybe it’ll need more time for the effects to ensue. However, patient seems to get a better grip on her magic abilities now, far less magical accidents for the rest of the day.

Thirty-First Alicorn.
Continuation of medication. Remedy shows effect now; expansion of consciousness is now almost fully formed.
However: Still no sign she can get in touch with HER– the word’s written in capitals and underlined.
Just a thought: Maybe I’ll be able to establish a connection if I remove all disturbing influences. Will try deep hypnosis tomorrow.

***

"So far for the first pages." Doctor Ragstitch put down the paper and looked at his opposites over the rim of his glasses. He had eventually decided to wipe the slate clean. And first of all that included presenting them the patient’s file he had taken away.

“Bad to hear, is it not?” he asked Firefly and Sliderule. “And I had no clue… What has come over Calm Mind to so reprehensibly contravene her oath as a healer? It’s hear in black and white. Pray, consider: Datura stramonium, that’s moonflower -mad apple- for crying out loud! She was hazarding the consequence of killing the filly during her experiment! For science's sake, we all have to turn a blind eye sometimes, but enough is enough!”

“The moral club doesn’t really suit you, Doctor”, Firefly accused the physician. “I bet you’d be willing to break the law as well if only it urges your so-called science!”

“What I find more intriguing than unfounded accuses, Firefly”, Sliderule curtly interrupted her before she could bluster herself into her righteous fury. “Is why the Doctor has kept this file rather than hooving them in to the guard. If he wanted to help the filly it would have served him far better than concealing evidence.”

That seemed to be how Sliderule was rolling, Firefly thought. He hated all fuss but excitement seemed to be the only thing that helped him get his own thoughts and words lined up properly. Maybe too properly because that hard undertone in his voice didn’t do him much credit…

“I can hear both of you very well, you know?” Ragstitch protested severely. “Is it my fault that performing an examination on a dead pony is considered something condemnable? I have never hurt a single soul, on the contrary, my rare knowledge about anatomy has save many lives until today! And of all ponies you guards have no reason to be so patronising. Maybe you should ask your Captain about all the deals he has been cutting with Calm Mind recently!”

It looked like the Doctor was about to get into a stalwart argument with Sliderule at that point and all of a sudden Firefly found herself in the totally unpredicted and inappropriate spot to be the one to remain level-headed. But she really wanted to hear his part of the story, so...

“Alright - I can’t believe that it’s me who has to spell it now – if we want to get any further we really need to pull together. Let’s calm down again, everypony! Doctor Ragstitch…” She turned to the physician. “You said something about wiping the slate clean. So please, start with telling us why you kept that file.”

For the first time, Ragstitch took of his glasses and carefully lowered them down on the table. Without the mirroring eyeglasses the watery-blue colour of his eyes was especially remarkable. He looked really tired.

“It was because of this”, he said and opened the envelop he had put the file in to reveal the second sheet of paper.



The worst scenarios Firefly had imagined since this morning seemed now all confirmed, all fear, despair and hopelessness of the world seemed to meet her from these three, bloody words!

“That…” Sliderule drawled. His voice was only barely audible. “That changes a lot... So she has been there… In Calm Mind’s bureau.”

“And she has lost quite some blood in there I can tell you…” Doctor Ragstitch said. “It took ages to clean up the mess… Not that I really had a choice…“

“To find something like this”, Firefly weakly spoke up. “It must’ve been horrible.” Still she couldn’t get the image of the bloody letters out of her mind even when she closed her eyes; however, the question still remained:

“But why did you hide it?”

Doctor Ragstitch grimaced. “Blood holds power. It can be used as paraphernalia for all kind of unpleasant magic”, was his rather cryptic answer.

“Para-fern…? Oh, come on, making up words to sound smarter doesn't count!”

“Paraphernalia, Firefly…” Sliderule weakly explained. “Are items needed to perform some sorts of magical rituals. I’ve… um, I’ve once read about a so called ‘Tracer Spell’ that needed hair or better yet blood from the sought pony. Is that what you mean?”

Ragstitch nodded. “Precisely”, he said and he might have said more, hadn’t Firefly jumped of her seat and loudly interrupted him:

“Wait, wait, wait! You’re honestly telling me there’s actually a spell for finding missing ponies? Then why don’t you just perform that spell and dips? There must be blood enough for a hundred of that spells on the sheet!”

The physician gave her the stare, once again miffed because Firefly wouldn’t let him finish talking. “Because, my impatient, feathered friend”, he said icily. “The Tracer no spellcraft known to the public. I have heard of it, but that is all. I neither know the necessary spell, nor am I able to perform it. And I guess same goes for Master Sliderule as well?”

“It's mentioned but never accurately described in any of my books... But Calm Mind has far better connections than I do, so I think it could be possible for her to get her hooves on the spell, yes…” Sliderule ruffled through his mane. “Alright, I think I get it now”, he said. “That solves the mystery how the filly could get away, doesn’t it?”

“No doubt”, Firefly confirmed. “It was the Doctor who freed her, right?”

As a gesture that this conversation had to come to a conclusion the physician put back on his glasses and rested his front hooves on the table.

“So, where does that leave us?” he asked in a business-like voice.

A pretty good question, Firefly wondered. Truly, where did that leave them? Her goal had been to make her mark in Hollow Shades, so she could eventually return to Canterlot in honour. But never had she thought that would make her end up on the wrong side of justice one day. Had she lost her grip for right and wrong recently? For Hollow Shades’s guard she had taken the task to retrieve the lost filly and it was her duty to do so, but could she really take responsibility for that, with everything that was going wrong in the sanatorium? She didn’t really know what to think anymore. Save for one thing, maybe…

“Oh Celestia, I’ll be stuck here forever”, Firefly groaned. Where the mind failed one had to listen to their gut feelings instead. And Firefly’s guts told her one thing for sure: “That will probably bury my career but there’s only one thing that matters now, and that is the filly’s safety, right?”

“It probably will bury all of our careers”, Doctor Ragstitch laughed bitterly. But he seemed satisfied with Firefly’s reply. “But you are right, of course. All the sadder that I really cannot say she’s safe.”

“But you where the one who freed her, weren’t you?”

The physician took a deep breath. “Alright, I guess it is my turn to complete the picture now. It all started with this interesting, black unicorn, that Nightshade. He identified himself as a royal sorcerer and said he had the order to inspect the House of Healing. And because Doctor Calm Mind had suddenly made off for Greensville, it was I who showed him around. At some point intrusted me that he had sensed something strange and unsettling within these halls.

He said that he was believing our runaway was, howsoever, connected to it. As he left he asked me to leave her where she was and take a look after her. But if you had heard her crying -this heart-breaking, bitter crying- you would’ve done exactly the same as I did!”

“Namely?”, Sliderule chased up.

“Namely, I waited until our janitor, Rover, and the night nurse had gone to bed, and I went to Calm Mind’s room to get the key. But then I made the first mistake:

I wanted to check the filly’s state of mind, after all she had suffered severe mental injuries. Moreover, I could not suppose she would trust me just like that. So I just opened her cell and went back to my rooms to wait. How could I possibly have predicted that she would so something so stupid once she was out? She set free the most dangerous pony that was ever held within these walls: Herbal Green. It was sheer luck I came in time to prevent him from choking the filly to death. I took him out with a magic blast. He’s tougher than any earth pony, I almost had to kill him to knock him unconscious, but I managed it. But then I made my second mistake, oh Celestia, such a blunder I have not made in twenty years!
Please understand my situation, because that is all I can put up in my defence: I had to make some quick decisions. On the one hoof there was the filly and I needed to take care of her. On the other hoof there was one unconscious madpony. I could impossibly tell how long he would be out cold, and so needed to get the filly out of there as quick as possible. I decided that, if I wanted her to trust me, it was best to leave her be for the moment. When she realized I really meant no harm to her she would come back to me eventually, I thought.
Well, I was wrong, obviously…”

Now would have been the moment for Firefly and Sliderule to say something as Ragstitch bit his lip and didn’t continue, but they weren’t able to reply anything. All in all, there simply was too much information to digest at the moment. After about half a minute awkward silence, the doctor finally said:

“So we are really out of options, are we not? She is still alive, something tells me that, and Calm Mind and Silver Blaze seem to be of the same opinion, but I do not know what we could do to help her. Not even where we could begin to look for her.”

“But maybe… Maybe I actually do!”

The others turned to Firefly. The disbelief on account of her muttered remark was unmistakably readable in their eyes and that was naturally getting her vexed.

“Hey”, she complained. “I may not be able to read, but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid! I can still think!”

And she had thought a lot indeed: Herbal Green was mad, alright, he was hearing voices, at least according to himself, but that didn’t mean they shouldn’t attribute more meaning to his words. Sliderule had wanted to get his testimony, so why not use it? Art often is a mirror for truth, the old creep had said. And what ‘truth’ could his so called art mirror? What was the one thing he had especially wanted to impart them? Well, these questions weren’t all too difficult to answer:

“It's what he calls ‘the cradle of all evil’, of course!” Firefly boasted.

“You… Are shockingly good at this”, Sliderule said approvingly. “So, if we consider Herbal Green’s words…”

“… And that was your suggest in the first place”, the pegasus interjected.

“Um, yes… Ahem, so if we consider his words, especially the part where he told us to search for the beginning, then that would mean…”

“… That his motive didn’t come by chance!”

“If I may interrupt that epic brainstorm of yours”, Ragstitch sourly barged in. “But would you kindly acquaint me with your trains of thoughts! Do you have a plan?”

Not a plan actually, to have a plan they would have needed to understand the connections instead of just having them before their eyes. But there was one fundamental insight to gain:

Somehow Herbal Green’s twisted mind had drawn the right conclusions. Cauldron Lake, as Sliderule could confirm, had always been at the centre of all kind of rumours and sad incidents through the town’s history, an eerie attraction seemed to spring from its deep, cold waters, Cauldron Lake was where all the threads concurred. Herbal Green’s choice of motive for his nightmarish art had been well-made. There had been one like the missing filly before, he had said. Could he mean anypony else but White Nimbus whose file had been closed under no less mysterious circumstances? Somehow, the lake was connected to her ailment, as well as it was clearly connected to Cloud Dash’s death, after all he had drowned. And didn’t the filly’s file mention she had come down the northern road, from Cauldron Lake?

After a short explanation, Doctor Ragstitch was in the picture as well. The lake admittedly wasn’t an all too good lead: Maybe or maybe not the filly would come back to the lake, in any case they had no choice, maybe they were mistaken altogether. That were a few ‘maybes’ too many for the physician’s taste, but at this point they had to grasp at any straw they could get. And in the end it wasn’t up to him to follow the lead anyway. Ragstitch would stay behind and let Firefly and Sliderule do the examination of the lake, after all there still was the possibility the filly would turn to him eventually.

“Good hunt”, he bid goodbye to the two guard ponies as they took their hurried leave.

Cauldron Lake was their next destination!

Author's Note:

Wow, that took forever to write...Naturally, job comes before hobby, nevertheless I apologize for my absence. Hopefully the next chapter won't take that long.