Inside

by StarlettSkies

Remembering

Inside; chapter 3

The room was dimly lit. Only a few rays of orange light seeped through the snow white curtains. Ponies of all colors dashed around, often pausing at different machines before darting off to their next destination. all except one who lay motionless on a mattress located in the middle of the cramped room. Rainbow dash had been moved to a more isolated room so it was possible to run more tests without distraction. Next to the bed was a tall machine. Numerous wires trailed out of it, most of them directed to Rainbow's left hoof which hung lazily over her sheets. The machine was visibly rusting with old age and had presumably not been used for a while, however it's screen still wildly flashed with words that only an experienced doctor, familiar with these mechanisms, would be able to keep up with.
"Doctor!"
A small and thin mare galloped into the room and over to the brown colt whose eyes lay unmoved on the machine next to the bed even through the small pony's call. She skidded to a halt only inches away from the doctor.
"The results... are back! I apologize... That it took so long... The printer... It broke." She she managed to say through shakily drawn out breaths, hardly surprising since she had just ran up two flights of stairs. The colt hesitated before turning round to look at the mare.
"Thanks," He murmured silently before levitating the piece of paper out of her hooves.
The mare simply nodded before hurrying off to join the other ponies.
The sheet of paper was folded neatly in half. It yielded the results from the bedside machine.
The machine.
He looked over his shoulders towards it. The old piece of equipment was never supposed to be used, or needed to be used. It was created to be able to sense unnatural occurrences in a regular pony's body. While it was unable to detect magic it could detect unfamiliar or unneeded sensations inside the pony. More importantly: it could locate it. Although it was mainly intended for unicorns it could just as easily work for a pegasus.

More and more ponies were now pausing what they were doing and were looking expectantly at the doctor, there eyes were wide with anticipation and looking at the paper in the grasp of the doctor's levitation.
What was he waiting for?
His levitation became stronger as the paper cautiously opened before stopping in it's tracks. It had only moved a centimeter or two.
Why was he stopping? All day he had hungered for answers, for clarification on what was happening. Never in his career had he come across such a miraculous recovery.
Something was obviously wrong. He wanted to know what.
Did he?
The doctor's instincts screamed at him to open the piece of paper, however for some reason he seamed reluctant.
A croaked wail interrupted his thoughts.
before he could even turn around to find the source of the noise a heart monitoring machine was sent hurtling towards his head. It missed. Narrowly missed.
He followed the objects path which was heading towards the wall behind the colt at intense speeds.
It stopped. It hovered a feathers length away from the wall. It's cords and wires that had been ripped out of the wall sockets hung down from the monitor.
It stayed put for a never ending second.
A white cloak of levitation enveloped it before turning on tail and heading past the doctor and towards the other ponies.
They got knocked over in all directions from the impact.

The doctor looked over to where the heart monitor should have been however it was something else that caught his attention. Rainbow dash was now awake. Wide awake. Her eyes were like saucers and were glowing in a blinding white glow. Her limbs were jerking in pain and her wings were shaking like they didn't know to do with themselves. As if on cue, more objects were enveloped in a white light before getting hurtled at random places or random ponies. The doctor released the paper from his levitation and made a run for the door. A scream erupted from Rainbow as more and more objects started flinging across the room.
The doctor ran towards the door, whilst dodging random things being lobbed at him. Screams and cries of pain filled the room as ponies got knocked down like bowling pins. He wanted to help. However there was nothing he could do for them. The knowledge made his stomach turn with guilt however he continued to run.
The door was nearing closer. He was almost there.

He hit the floor.
The impact sent his head spinning. The exit was right in front of him. It towered over him, the door handle too far away from his reach. His head started throbbing and he grunted in pain. He felt as if his head was about to burst. He put a hoof up to his head and shut his eyes tight. As the pain slowly started to fade he regained his strength and steadied himself up before noticing the electrical current swim up his leg.

Oh no.

He winced as he felt it climb up his body. He looked round to see what attacked him. A pile of metal and wires lay sprawled across the floor. small sparks of electricity appeared out of the wires before disappearing further into the heap of what used to be a lamp.
Before swiftly dodging another incoming object he made for the door and fled down the hallway.

Jaws hit the floor.
"I came to get Miss Sparkle so she could help restrain Rainbow dash."
The doctor paused and looked over to Rainbow dash who was frozen where she was. Her eyes were focused on her sheets and she was muttering incomprehensible words of denial to her self.
" I suppose there was no need."

Twilight broke her vision away from the doctor and surveyed the room. She hadn't noticed what a mess the place was, heaps of metal and wood littered the room's floor. her sight traveled across the ground until it came to what looked like the remains of a cupboard, however that wasn't what caught her eye. Being crushed under the body of the cupboard she saw the corner of a piece of paper. She trotted up to the pile of wood cautiously and yanked the piece of paper out angrily before trotting back towards the group who were now murmuring to each other in a worried tone, all the while their eyes following Twilight as she slowly came to a stop. With her back to the others, Twilight closed her eyes in tight frustration before flipping the paper open and looking down at it. Rainbow's x-ray was imprinted on the paper, but that was not all. Ghastly clouds of dull amber were littered in groups around the wings and head. More accurately her forehead. Twilight focused on the dull amber, she eyed it in suspicion. She didn't know what it was, but something about that color daunted her.
The doctor was now looking over at her. Twilight sensed his stare and wordlessly levitated the paper over to the doctor. Her eyes lay fixed in a sightless stare at where the paper once was.

She'd had enough. She didn't want to be there anymore.
She turned on tail and trotted out of the door and into the hallway. She stopped just as she fully made it out the doorway.
"I'm going to do some research." She mumbled before slamming the door shut behind her.
----

" oh come on! Pleeaaaassseee?" Begged three pleading fillies. The pony at the desk shook her head stubbornly.
" For the last time; you can't go in!" said a rather frustrated Redheart. Her tone and gaze suddenly softened in understanding " I'm sorry kids I can't let you, they're running a few tests on your friend."
" Tests? What kind of tests?" Asked Spike. He had reluctantly been dragged along with Scootaloo, SweetieBelle and Applebloom. However he snapped out of his sulk at this point.
"Ooh! Ooh ooh ooh!" exclaimed Sweetiebelle, waving her hoof madly in the air as if she was still in class. "I bet it's like one of those check up thingies! You know! Where they hit you leg with a hammer to test your... Um." Sweetie struggled to find the right word.
"Reflexes." corrected Scootaloo.
"Yeah!"
"No, no. That's not it." Applebloom stated. "It's one o' those ones were they sit ya' down and bring out a big needle to check your heart or somethin' an' say: "'Ok this aint gonna' hurt a bit."' but it always does." Applebloom said, nodding wisely.
Scootaloo and sweetie winced in sympathy for Rainbow whilst nurse Redheart rolled her eyes at how naive the fillies were and continued with her work.

Distant hoof steps echoed down the wide hallway as Twilight made her way past the hospital rooms and towards the reception. She passed quite a few paintings as she walked by, some of them she knew; however most of them she had no knowledge of. Her head snapped from one side to the other in an agitated manner as if her life depended on seeing these paintings hung up between the hospital doors. As more and more paintings passed, the detailed and beautiful pictures became colorful and meaningless blurs. Twilight's attention span was thinning as the matter on hoof slowly broke through the wall the painting distraction had built up. Her walk ascended to a trot as the dull amber cloud slowly cut it's way through her thoughts. Its poisonous grasp swallowing up her mind. She started running, trying to escape the horrors of that color. She imagined it behind her. Its ghost like fingers snapping at her, trying to pull her in. It loomed over her like a tower. It was coming. She was too slow.

She felt something brush her foreleg and before she realized she was tumbling clumsily across the smooth floors below her. She eventually stopped, she found herself in a heap.
The cloud had disappeared and all that lay in it's wake were the walls and paintings. Twilight got to her feet and shook her head to clear out all the nonsense she had just thought. She grunted to herself as she walked further towards the corridor's end. She was bringing herself to the brink of insanity. However as she walked she couldn't help look over her shoulder at the corridor every now and then.

She made her way through the doors and into the reception. She swiftly made for the door but was stopped in her tracks by three fillies zapping in her path. In her surprise she raised a foreleg to her chest and stepped back.
"Twilight!"
"Is Rainbow dash Ok?"
"when do we get to see her?"
"Did you tell her we said hi?"
"What kind of tes-"
"GIRLS!" Twilight screamed. The fillies yelped at the librarians shout before cowering down towards the ground. Twilight looked down at the fillies. Shocked by her own out burst, she rubbed her neck sheepishly in guilt.
"uh, sorry girls, could you tell me where Spike is?" she asked in a more softened tone.
The children obeyed her orders and pointed a hoof over to the reception desk where Spike was too busy talking to the nurse to notice their stare.
Twilight's look hardened as she saw Spike. She nodded to the fillies in thanks whilst still not breaking her stare and trotted towards the exit.
"Come on Spike." She said simply as she continued to trot towards the door.
" Huh? Wait what about Rainbwaauughh!" Spike's sentence was interrupted as he was harshly picked up and thrown on to Twilight's back with the aid of his carers levitation. The baby dragon looked at Twilight in confusion and then turned round to the three fillies looking on.
"Um. Bye girls." Spike said waving a claw lamely before the door shut behind him.

------

The library was dark when Twilight entered it. The pale red rays from celestia's sunset did nothing more than light the path inside, however the book shelves and stair wells still loomed in a mix of dark grays and velvety black patches. As she made her way inside, Twilight lit a candle before beckoning Spike over who had a quill and scroll clutched tightly in his claws.
Twilight sat on the couch at the side of the room. Her tail curled round her body defensively. When Spike was ready to take her letter she opened her mouth to speak.
"Dear..." She paused. That wasn't the right thing to start with. She wasn't writing a report, this was urgent. The princess was no longer her mentor in this situation, she was simply someone who she needed to talk to.
"Princess Celestia." She began again. "I'm writing to request your immediate presence in Ponyville. I will explain the situation when you arrive."
Twilight paused and looked up to the window. The sun was descending. It was now or never.
" Your's sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight stopped and only the faint scribbling of Spike's quill met her silence.
"Should I send it?"
Twilight continued to stare out the window. She nodded. "Send it."

Comments

[StarlettSkies]

Yay! Another chapter! Sorry it took a while
I thought I'd base this chapter around Twilight a bit more but don't worry there'll be more Dash next chapter .
Don't be afraid to give me your thoughts on this chapter, all your tips have helped me improve.
I love you all and I hope to here from you soon!

[MLP BRONY 27]

cover art could be better... but the story is good in my books, (twilight sparkle pun...) keep it up

[JellyDrivex64]

When someone is caught off the words like when spike said Rainwauugh it should be Rain-waughhh but yeah, anyway im bad at writing so i shouldnt complain good jib

[Arkenai]

I'm hoping for an update at some point. You can do it!

[StarlettSkies]

1407416 Almost finished the next chapter. Don't worry