Silent Artemis

by Hokusai3211

5) The Visit

---

As the day progressed Rainbow could hardly contain her excitement, but she was a mare of class after all, so with some dignity, she calmly flew back to her home, though perhaps a little faster than she usually did, closed the door gently, though she may have used a bit more force and speed than was usual for her. Then she had locked herself in her room, gently turned the key, before finally braking down like a foal in Hearths Warming, jumping onto her bed, screaming, hollering and cheering into her pillow until her throat begged her to stop.

Even then, when she found herself finally winding down, she had only to look down at the scroll practically glued to her hooves in a vice grip, before the whole process began again in earnest, much to the chagrin of her throat, pillow and neighbours.

Eventually however, her throat had had quite enough of her nonsense and decided if it wasn't going to be used properly anymore, then it was going to take away her speaking privileges for a while, with a dolloping of pain for good measure. It wasn't long before she found herself in her bathroom, gargling mouthwash and rubbing at her aching neck, hoping to numb the pain she had caused herself, but she found she was still smiling regardless.

She had done it, her dream was within her grasp, she was going to be a friggin' Wonderbolt!

But it was also in that moment, that the little thought that had sprung up deep in the back of her mind during the meeting finally decided it was tired of being ignored, and with nothing else currently occupying her thought, besides being the next captain of the Wonderbolts, it decided it was now or never to bring up the question.

So dude, congratulations and everything, and hey, not to cramp your style or anything, but like, what are we actually going to say?

The little thought came on so suddenly, that she nearly coated her bathroom wall in peppermint. She somehow managed to get most of the backwash into the sink, before she looked up at herself in the mirror, wide eyed, mouth agape, a living antonym of what she had just been only a moment ago.

Oh ponyfeathers, what the heck am I going to say?

She had been so caught up in what she was going to get out of all this, that she didn’t even think about what Checkers had actually asked her to do. But now that she had, the faintest feeling of panic announced itself like a tap dancer on her chest.

Her eyes widened further as the magnitude of what she had been asked came on her with the force of a hammer on an anvil. She was going to talk to that creature she had just rescued, she wasn't just going to have to save it, she was now going to have to use her words, to like, ask it questions and stuff.

That was totally not the same thing at all!

She was going to be alone with this creature and talk, about what, she didn't even know? What did they even want her to say, she hadn't paid Checkers any attention after she had read the note, how could she focus on anything but that? Just why did he want her to do it anyway, she was just a weather mare for pony's sake.

Did it know how to talk, did it understand her, was it going to like, spit acid at her if she asked the wrong question?

Rainbow thought about that for a moment as she turned the faucet off and splashing her face with the water, probably not, she considered. But heck anything was possible, it might as well have been an alien, this was straight out of a comic book or something, she was going to talk to a totally unknown creature!

She smacked her hoof to her forehead, why hadn’t she asked Checkers some questions when she could have?

Nervously she looked out at the glazed cloudglass in her bathroom and at the rapidly declining sunlight shining through it, maybe it wasn't to late?

As if fate had been waiting with it's ear to the door for that exact question, a sudden knocking startled her out of her thought and she arched her head past the bathroom door to her bedside table. Gazing across the room at her clock on her wall and it took all of about a minute, before the anxious tapdancing in her chest became more frequent.

"Holy curding ponyfeathers, I'm late!" She yelled, as she bolted out the bathroom.

All at once she moved, shooting her wings to her sides, she flapped around the room as she threw open her draws, flinging clothes out of her wardrobe, most too old or tattered of well worn to be smart enough, the rest, well she didn't even remember buying, it had been years since she had to go to an event that actually needed clothes.

Heck the last time she had worn anything smart at all was, well a funeral most likely, and she hoped she wasn't going to do that poorly. But she needed something right? It wasn't everyday you talked to a new species!

Gah, what do I wear! Should I put on a suit, tie, a dress? She blinked, nah not that. But what the heck do you wear for something like this?

Scanning around the room, she heard the knocking again and now it was like an entire trope of dancers was breaking into a chorus across her chest, she chanced a look into the mirror, she was not the type of pony to fawn over her herself, usually a quick wash under the shower head and a bit of strategic rubbing with her hoof and she was good to go.

But not right now, she was going to need a fire hose to sort out this mess.

Forget the clothes focus on the mane!

Her mane had often been kindly described as windswept by nicer ponies and a ragged birds nest by the more unkind rest of them, not that she had cared before, it worked for her. But an evening curled up screaming and hollering into her pillow like she was watching a tightly contested hoof-ball game in the stands of Cloudsdale, pulling at her mane with each touch down almost scored, made even her admit she needed a brush.

She brushed an idle hoof in it and almost got it caught in a knot, maybe a rake in stead of a brush at this rate.

The knocking grew louder and her anxiety and frustration only grew with each rattling of the hoof on wood.

“I heard ya the first tim-” she tired to yell, but coughed as her throat gave out on her, still not happy at it's abuse.

She rubbed at it with both hooves, looked back at the mirror with a hopeful expression, sighed deeply, spat into her hooves and tried to smear down what upward strands she could, before it sprung back up again in defiance.

“Celestia help me,” she pleaded into the mirror, before taking a deep breath and trotting down towards the door like a pony resigned to the gallows.

When she opened the door, it wasn’t with the brashness of her usual self, the come at me world pose she often screamed though merely being there, but as a young filly about to jump off a dam, having only just realised when the snapping sound came above, why ponies double checked there bungee cords.

On either side of the threshold, two pegasus towered over her, muscles budging under fur. She paused for a moment when she noticed neither one of them was white furred or dressed in their ornate guard armour, but instead one was pale purple the other was grey, adorned only in fur and scowls.

It took her a moment to realise, but when she saw that white mare, sitting like the moon in the cloud further back from them she understood. This was supposed to be clandestine meeting after all, one that golden armour would have stood out like a, well like a pony in golden armour she supposed, nothing quite as loud as that really.

Heck even still, she was expected some of the reporters to flock over even now, she had only just got them to leave her alone, after two weeks of avoiding them and when that failed yelling and insults and still they clung around like an flea on her back.

She stepped forwards towards the mare, what was her name, Night Light? Who still wore her aggravating impish smirk, as well as her glasses. Rainbow grimaced a little when she felt those red eyes on her, even concealed behind those thick glasses, she felt them dressing her down from muzzle to tail.

There was something unsettling about that mare, she was beautiful, Rainbow had to give her that, every curve carved into her like a statue of antiquity, her long following golden locks rested against her cheeks to kiss the nape of her neck, like water droplets curled down an ice cold wine glass on a summers day.

Any other time, Rainbow would have shaved her tail off for a mare like that.

But there was just something not right about her, she could not put her hoof on, something not quite there about the way she looked. It was something that touched Rainbows fight or flight reflexes and instead of a pleasant feeling seeing something beautiful, it gave her the feeling of seeing a cat looking down at the mouse it intended to play with before it worked up an appetite and she was pretty sure she was the mouse in that scenario.

“Hello little foal,” Night Light purred, in an almost sing song like voice, “I’m looking forward to our little trek tonight, lets not waste any time shall we?” She said, somehow framing the sentence so that it was a statement not a question, which was further punctuated when without any time for a reply, she lifter her wings and took flight into the dark skyline.

Rainbow said nothing but gave a short sharp mutter of a prayer to whatever cosmic being had pushed her into this mess and flapped her wings.

She had wanted some sort of excitement in her life, it seemed now that whatever had heard her wish had granted it.

She just hoped that whatever bastard it was, it was having a real good laugh right now.

Because she certainly wasn't.

---

“Now when you talk to her, talk softly, she may be stable, but we don’t want to exacerbate anything, she’s already had...episodes." the mare said with a scowl that seemed to be the only expression the filly was capable of making, "we don’t want a repeat of any of them, so be brief and specific and always stand behind the yellow line. No going outside of it, at all and whatever you do, do not give her anything at all, understand!”

Rainbow yawned as she nodded robotically at the nurse, like she had been for the fast fifteen minutes as she walked down the maze like hallways of the hospital. Nightlight and the two other guards strolled down the hospital halls behind them both at a polite distance apart, but Rainbow could feel Night Light's eyes burrowing into the back of her head the entire time.

Not only that, but she felt drunk almost, her mind was dizzy from the torrent of information that had been vomited at her from the moment she landed by the entrance by the medical team at the hospital.

From the instant she had set hoof on the sky entrance, the hospital had been a buzz of activity, in stark contrast to the silent flight interrupted by the occasional gentle whistle of wind around her. Even now on the upper levels, the hospital wing was a defeating beehive of doctors, nurses and guards alike, each darting around as if at any moment the whole building might collapse if even one of them took a moment to breath.

All the while she had been thinking of what she was going to say to the creature, what was she going to talk about, she felt like a younger filly again, fumbling for topics of conversation on a first date, thoughts of questions were not so much forming neatly in a row in her mind as tripping over their shoelaces and topple down a flight of stairs.

It had not helped that she noticed the waves of press and reporters still camped outside the hospital itself. They had snuck her in with out any pony being the wiser. But really, the stress of it all was, as much as she would never admit it, perhaps kind of getting to her.

Thoughts of messing up so badly that it was almost news worthy had suddenly stopped being just hyperbole now.

A small part of her wondered if this was what it was like to be a Wonderbolt all the time? The idea had always seemed awesome in her head at the time. But now that she was in the thick of it, she was starting to see that it might still be awesome, (because it was the Wonderbolts, duh?) but it might not be awesome all the time.

That was an idea she would have considered anathema only an hour ago and thought she tried to shake it, the thought was playing with her head and making her do uncomfortable things like question herself, something she was not cool with.

“Miss?” The feminine voice was like a rubber band to the forehead and Rainbow turned to look at the nurse who was giving her a puzzled look.

“Yeah?” She stuttered out.

“Did you have any final questions before you go in?” The nurses tone was ever so slightly softer, it was still felt like a knife edge, but Rainbow guessed that was about as friendly as she ever came.

Final question, wait, what, I have like thirty? The thought screamed at her, damn it she hadn't been paying attention. But as she looked around at the nurse and guards all slowly staring at her, embarrassment took over from rational thought and instead she just smiled.

“Nah I'm good.” She said waving her hoof dismissively, trying her best to play off the fact that she had thousands of questions, but didn’t know how my of them had already been answered in her distracted addled mind.

She silently scolded her less than exemplary capacity for concentration, she had tried to pay attention, she really had. But they just kept droning on and on about the same thing, don't do this, don't do that, hell why did ponies take forever to say something that could be summed up in a sentence?

It felt more like she was about to sit a test, rather than... well, whatever this all was?

She sighed inwardly, it didn't matter, once this was over she was going to be captain of the Wonderbolts soon anyway, they didn’t do tests. Well they did, in fact that was the biggest problem to her being one, but she didn't have to worry about that anymore.

After all she was about to be the next Spit-

“-Hello!” The nurse snapped waving a hoof in front of Rainbows eyes.

Rainbow blinked, flinching backwards “ Wha? Oh sorry, I was, eh, thinking about other things.”

Damnit, how hard was it to just pay attention!

The nurse sighed as she sat on her flank, holding the bridge of her muzzle “why do I always have to babysit-” she paused stopped herself, then went into a speech she had clearly practiced and perfected a long time ago. “I know it might seem scary, you clearly have a lot on your little mind." she said earnestly, but Rainbow couldn't help but detect a level of sarcasm in it. "But you will be perfectly safe, the creature is contained to her cot and guards will be just behind the doors. She doesn’t seem to have any magical abilities that we can discern. But just to be safe, we have a horn disrupter attached to her leg, it was designed by one of the Princess's leading pioneers in magi-engineering so I’m told, just don’t do anything stupid and you’ll be fine.”

Rainbow stopped, blinked again then crinkled her brow , “wait, why would I be in danger, I'm only talking to her right?”

The nurse paused, looking back with an unamused deadpan expression, then when she searched for the joke and found the mare she was looking at was deadly serious, Rainbow watched as the nurses jaw open and close a few time’s before she answered, “you’re being serious?”

Rainbow nodded growing more annoyed at having to repeat herself, “yeah, why would I be in danger?”

The nurse eye twitched and she made to speak, but stopped suddenly and only shock her head, Rainbow raised an eye at her and looked back, but all she could find was Nightlight fixing her glasses behind her, before she turned and fixed Rainbow with what she probably assumed was a friendly smile.

Rainbow repressed the slightest bit of a shudder, before looking back at the nurse, who was shaking her head.

“Never mind, it’s not my fault if this all goes to muck, here, just sign this, I have a lot of work to do.” she said hoofing over a clipboard towards Rainbow who looked down at it but didn’t take it.

“What’s that?” Rainbow asked starting to feel annoyed at the nurses barely concealed contempt.

“It’s just a legal document, so that we have proof that you were properly informed before you go in.” The nurse said offhandedly, all but thrusting it onto Rainbows hooves along with a pen.

Rainbow took it begrudgingly and began to read it slowly, ignoring the pen which further annoyed the nurse who rolled her eyes. Behind her Rainbow could hear a chuckle escape from Night Lights mouth, but she was too busy reading to really notice.

“It says that you guys aren't responsible for maiming, what’s my hair got to do with anything?” Rainbow asked clutching one of her shaggy multi coloured locks.

“Funny... oh Celestia you’re being serious again, aren't you?” The nurse raised a brow as Rainbow read on.

“The hospital is not responsible for any mayhem, destruction of property, or battery inflicted on the client who breaks hospital policy?”

“Like I said, Legal stuff, nothing to worry about.”

“This includes but is not limited to, larceny, ligament damage, spontaneous combustion and full body Implosion?” Rainbow yelled as she read the statement again to make sure what she said was actually correct. “You really think I’m gonna explode?”

“How do you know what spontaneous combustion is, but not maiming?” The nurse asked, but was met with an incredulous look from the cyan mare.

The nurse shook her head condescendingly, “You know what never mind, I don’t control what the layers write, I’m a nurse, not a solicitor, if it’s in there it’s just to be sure, now if you want to argue the finer legalities of the paper, we have legal experts that would be happy to help, but I have patients to attend to, so if you would just sign the thing we can be on our way.”

Rainbow grabbed the pen and shot the nurse a sideways glare, “alright alright geez, for a nurse you got a pretty lousy bedside manor.” Rainbow muttered as she scribbled down a name.

Without even looking the nurse tucked the clipboard under one of her wings before pointing to a door down the hall. “Head down that corridor on the left, the guards have been briefed, so they will let you in. Again be concise and be gentle, don’t do anything moronic she maybe eh, whatever the heck she is, but she’s still a recovering patient, a very confused, very temperamental patient so don’t go barging in yelling.”

“Yeah yeah, indoor voice anything else I need to know, mom?” Rainbow answered feeling more than a little annoyed at being talked down to, she didn’t even wait for the nurses response as she began her trot down the hall.

Rolling her eyes the nurse yelled out one last time. “Be warned, we have your name Ms" she looked down at the document, "Ima Nass.” She yelled threateningly as she watched Rainbow turn the corner smirking.

The nurse paused, mouthing the odd name again, as something about it didn't feel quite right before she looked down at the legal documents again. “Ima Nass?” She said aloud again, until it finally clicked.

---

Rainbow turned and just as the nurse said on the other side of it was two guards and a door, the corridor was not particularly large, in fact it was the same size as the rest they had walked down save for the main one, like the veins of a leaf, but to Rainbow, here and now, about to set hoof inside the room of a creature unknown to all, it felt like it might as well have been on the other side of the planet.

Rainbow stopped a few hooves before the guards, She felt Nightlight behind her stop, she had not heard her hooves behind her since she came here but now it was almost deliberate, like she wanted Rainbow to hear them, slowly Rainbow turned back.

“Afraid?” Nightlight said before Rainbow had a chance to say anything, smirking as she inquisitively tilted her head slightly.

“As if!” Rainbow said, but did not move forward.

Nightlight trotted forward and placed a gentle hoof on her shoulder, “Relax little foal, do not be so scared, you are well protected, there are at least thirty guards in and around the hospital, and me of course.”

If she had meant that last part to be a comfort it didn’t quite have the effect she had wanted, but Rainbow wasn’t about to be out done by this prissy white creep.

"I ain't scared and stop calling me a foal, I'm twenty for pony's sake!" Rainbow yelled, shrugging off the hoof like it was diseased, "it's just somepony in hospital, I already saw it, I mean her before anyway, not sure you know this, but I was the pony that sort'a dragged her to this place you know, so quit playing around with my head." Rainbow growled pointing at Night Light, who only smiled back at her.

Come on, you’ll be fine just go in already, your making us look bad. Came a thought in her head and she huffed as she turned back towards the hallway and trotted forward. She wasn't scared, it was every pony else trying to make her scared, she had already met this creature anyway, so why did that do little reassure her?

“Be careful of her fangs,” Night Light yelled to Rainbow with a giggle, “see you in a little while… I hope.”

Rainbow scowled at that, she really was starting to hate this mare, mostly because it seemed she was actually the only pony who really could see just how nervous Rainbow was, and that bugged her more than anything.

Yo, you gonna let her mess with us, show her we're not scared, say something back at her!

“-yeah, well right back at ya pal!”

Smooth Rainbow, smooth.

Gritting her teeth she walked up towards the guards, who lifted there spears without so much as a glance, she hesitated for only a second, staring at the slightly off coloured bronze of the door handle, the only bulwark between her and the unknown, then shaking her head, she steeled her resolve, turned it and stepped inside.

---

Rainbow did not know what to expect when she entered the room, perhaps a cage or a string of magical runes or a platoon of armoured guards pointing sharpened obsidian spears surrounded by magical rune enhanced cages and a rockodille for good measure. Whatever it was she imagined, the thoughts shattered like glass as she stepped into the room.

Instead of some secret clandestine meeting, she was greeted not with the heavy panting of the hound of Tartarus, but instead with the steady beeping rhythms of a heart monitor. The room itself was dimly lit, almost pitch black save for the light coming from a crocked lamp in the corner and the dreary white furnishing's of the hospital walls slightly yellowed with time and a coarse lime green bedding that almost made her feel itch just to look at.

In a lump of blankets lay the creature, though from this angle, Rainbow could make out nothing save for the fact that the figure was at the very least in her bed, which was if nothing else a comfort in and of itself, knowing it was there and not waiting for her in the shadows, or something like that anyway.

About where the creatures head would be, sat an oxygen mask and dotting under the sheets and spreading out, like the tendrils of some spindly spiders web were plastic tubing of what Rainbow assumed was an intravenous drip and the wires of heart monitors stickers.

She might not have been a doctor, but she had enough experience to know that just from a quick glance, even after so many years.

Like most things in real life, the reality of things compared to fantasy, were far more depressing and mundane.

Inside this dimly dreary room sat Rainbows fantastical creature, all that worry, all that tension she had felt, slowly leaked out of her, replaced by painful memories of her past. So much time spent in a hospital no different from this one, she didn't know what feeling she disliked more the anxiety or the aching nostalgia. But still Rainbow kept her guard up, better to be cautious and look like a fool, than brave and have your front teeth push in, her uncle had once told her.

Admittedly she was five when he had told her that, probably a little too young to be told something like that, but she never quite got the phrasing, or the meaning out of her head, and really it was sage advice, if a little morbid.

Rainbow trotted to the side, her back never quite leaving the wall by the door she had entered from.

She could see the creature, no that didn’t really feel right to her, she wasn’t an animal she was a… er, well a She! Yeah, that would work for now. She lay with her head up against the pillow, ashen blonde hair draped down, like cascading rivers on either side of her head, as they splashed against her shoulders. Her deep pale blue eyes were closed behind the veil of sleep and pinkish white eyelids, she looked peaceful, as anything in this position could.

And try as she might, Rainbow couldn't shake the slightest weird feeling of disappointment in the fact that those eyes were closed to her.

Rainbow looked around at the uncomfortably quite and unmoving room, as if some pony might give her the next step in what the hell she should actually be doing. But as she had been explicitly told no less than thirty times, she was and would for the foreseeable future be, completely alone. Out of a lack of options Rainbow thought about speaking up, but then remembered what the nurse had told her about not agitating the She and pursed her lips into a thoughtful frown.

Just what the hell was she even doing here?

She slumped her shoulders, feeling that tense, anxious feeling back in her chest again. Even though she had only been in the room for a minute, it already felt like she was letting Checkers down and by extension herself. But she honestly didn't have the slightest clue what she should be doing, all her thoughts and stratagems about this moment had hindged on the tiny but now seemingly vital fact that this She would actually be, you know awake.

It wasn't like she was going to shake the She awake for a game of twenty questions.

Looking around the room for anything to distract herself, she spotted a large chalkboard that she hadn't noticed was there before. Both boredom and a lack of direction drew her eyes up to where she would normally have turned away with all haste, as she gazed around at the black markings and hasty scribbles on it's surface.

Most of it was chicken scratch, either written too frantically or in a medical nomenclature that might as well have been gibberish to her. The only thing she had noticed out of all the diagrams was the crude drawling of the creatures claws, (or whatever they were called.)

The most prominent images of the claw things and the ones it seemed that had not been rubbed out and re drawn at least a dozen times were the two at the very end, easily the largest illustrations, one of a claw flat out and one two claws touching the smaller one in an ‘o’ shape.

‘Yes and No,’ were written underneath them both, followed by another hastily written side note next to them that read ‘both, neither?’ All four words where aggressively underline multiple times, leading Rainbow to guess that whoever had wrote them had no real idea if that was actually right or wrong.

Looking back up at the jumbled mess of drawing and words, she could sympathise with their frustration.

Looking back at ‘She,’ Rainbow began to walk to the side of the bed to get a better picture of the her real claws, hoping if nothing else, they might perhaps hold the answers. Answers to what? She had no idea, but it was better than sitting on her plot as far as she was concerned.

Trotted over Rainbow looked down just in time to see the yellow line on the floor and the fact that she was easily a hoof past it.

Pausing a moment, she thought about the ramifications of implosions and laser beam deaths that were not so much promised, but heavily implied by the nurse for those who crossed the line. Then, she thought of the other ramifications of being left in a dark dreary room for however many hours with nothing but boredom as her companion.

Rainbow made it fully past the yellow line not a moment later, as she landed near the foot of the bed. She stopped and studied She for a moment, the soft almost undetectable rise and fall of her chest, the smooth furless shape of her thin toned arms, the lines and wrinkles of her claws. She looked...Soft?

Rainbow wrinkled her nose at the thought and shook her head.

Dude, seriously?

Stepping closer towards She's claws, Rainbow noticed something else, a thick line was bulging out from the blankets imprinted even under the bedsheets across the creatures body horizontally. Rainbow blinked in surprise, before she quickly deduced that this was the hospital straps. Three of them to be exact, starting from her chest, then waist and ended by her hooves.

No that was definitely not right, even under the bedding Rainbow could see these weren't hooves, they were too large for a start, what the heck were they, talons?

Nah, not pointy enough, they're probably eh, leg... end things?’ She considered, then nodded, yep, that would have to do.

She sighed inwardly , it was something she would have to ask She when She woke up... Which was when exactly?

Rainbow eyes gazed over both She's leg end things, then back up to her eyes and that was when she got her answers. Blue sapphires meet her own scarlet ones as Rainbow looked into ‘She’s’ face. Rainbow tensed at the sight, like a deer in the headlights or more accurately, like a mare who had stepped over a yellow line after she had been told not to no less than fifteen times.

She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand to attention, as she met those cold blue eyes and for a moment the room stood frozen beyond time, then without thinking she stepped to the side, knocking against the bed and felt something touch her side. It was when she flashed a look back and noticed the claws tracing her fur ever so slightly that she shot a look back to see the creature staring at her that terror really griped her. It was closer to her now, leaning against the restraints of her bed towards her and now She was smiling wide down at her.

Rainbow never screamed, she was above such things, ask anypony, well ask Rainbow first, because other ponies lie, but if you where to ask her at that exact moment she would have said no, she didn't scream. She just yelled out something that just so happened to sound very much like a scream.

Diving back as quickly as her wings could carry her, she was just across the yellow line when the doors flew open and two stern looking guards marched in.

“What’s going on?” One guard commanded.

“Are you alright Mrs?” The other, a mare asked, leaning over towards Rainbow who was plastered against the wall.

Rainbow's eyes tore away from the creature and towards the Guard who had spoken, then back to the creature who was back against the pillow now, asleep as though the whole last five minutes had not happened.

Then suddenly Rainbow realised where she was and what she had done to get away, and not wanting to look craven pushed herself back onto her hooves and brushed pretended to brush dirt off her shoulder, a weak smile on her face. “Fine guys, all good, just eh, making sure you’re on your hooves, just a test haha.” She laughed showing too much teeth as she stroked the back of her neck, nonchalantly.

The two guards shared a knowing glance before the stallion spoke. “I said five minutes before she screams, so I win.”

Rainbow gave them an incredulous look, almost aghast at their accusation, “Screamed, what-da-ya-mean, I didn't do that, what are you talking about!”

"No, that was four minutes thirty seconds, I was counting Iron hoof," the mare guard said. Pulling out a stop watch from somewhere in her breastplate.

"A bet, you guy's where betting on me, what the heck!" Rainbow was yelling now, but all the while she was throwing her glances over at the creature as if she was about to pop up and wave, in on this little bet.

But she was still asleep on the bed, or at least pretending to it seemed.

"Hey, keep you're voice down, you'll get in trouble, this is a hospital, lieutenant orders!" The stallion said, his voice somewhat pleading as Rainbows eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh yeah, well news flash buddy, I ain't a guard, so maybe if you don't tell me what's going on, I might just start actually screaming, then we'll so who really get's in trouble here?" She said positively seething, though she was not quite sure at who, the guard or the creature or both?

Again the two guards looked at one another, the stallions shook his head grimly at the mare, but it seemed to go over her head as she turned back towards Rainbow, “Look it's just a game, no harm telling her Iron hoof, might as well tell her?” the mare said to the stallion who was giving her an expression that seemed like he wasn't quite sure that was a good idea.

“Just tell me already!” Rainbow snapped.

“It’s sort a game she likes to play, like a prank.” Iron hoof answered with a sigh.

“She acts like she's asleep and then when ponies go over the yellow line-”

“-And they always do.” He interrupted with a shrug.

“She scares them, like she got you.” The mare said with an impish grin.

“She totally didn’t get me, I’m like ungetable… She didn’t get me, alright!” She snapped again, folding her hooves in front of her and glaring past at the sleeping creature again.

“Whatever filly, I’m just saying what usually happens.” The stallion shrugged again, clearly unconvinced of the mares bravado probably having heard the same excuse many times before.

“It was annoying at first but well, we can't exactly stop her doing it, plus we figured it makes for quite a good bet, I won a ton of bit’s last time with this one nurse, we're not supposed to play for money, but whatever no harm done.” The mare guard confessed with a shrug, before looking at his fellow guardsman who was giving him a deathly glare.

“What?” the mare guard asked, looking back up at him, “didn't tell you about the money par-gah!” she grunted as the other guard was already marching out the room collar first, most likely to give her a measured and clear speech about the finer points of being a guard and probably one about blabbing secret bets to random civilian as well.

Once more Rainbow was left alone with the creature. This time whatever tense feeling that had been there before was gone, replaced instead, by rage and embarrassment, as she waltzed right up to where she had been before.

“So, you like scaring ponies, do you?” She asked accusingly, looking up at She's eyes, now closed again almost serenely. Rainbow glared up at the creature, but froze on what she had to say as she gave this She a closer look, she never actually had the chance before, what with all the blood, the panicking and trying to get help before something bad happened.

It was like nothing she had ever seen before, no muzzle, no fur save for the mane on her head only skin. Her nose, if something that small could be called such, was like an arrow, curved and sharp, her lips thin but plump. Her face was rounded but pointed in places and ended with a sharpness at the base, everything was just so flat, so alien to Rainbow or any other type of race she could think of, how could a face be so flat, no muzzle to speak of whatsoever.

It looked uncomfortable, like one of those short snouted dogs, she wondered if it had trouble breathing, then she looked down at the oxygen mask on her face and rerated that thought almost immediately.

She found that so odd, yet she could not look away from it, it was like staring at one of those optical illusionary paintings, where one thing from afar was actually a lot of other things. Every second she looked she would see something new, something she had not seen at first glance, it confused her, yet enraptured her all the same.

She’s so pale, like a piece of paper. She rubbed her eyes, what was she doing she was supposed to be talking to the creature.

She waved her hooves over the creature's face, but it didn’t flinch.

She was convincing to say the least. Probably from days of practice. “Well you might have thought you got me, but you didn’t, that was just my reflective judo reaction noise, if I wasn’t so trained, I’d have knocked your head off before you before you could even blink…”

The creature made no noise in response, neither did she move, in fact the only indication that she was even alive came from the beating of the heart monitor.

“Yo, you hear what I said? I know you’re not asleep, you know, you can cut the act now, you hear me right?” She snapped again, unamused by this little game of hers. Though if she considered the fact that if the tables had been turned, she would be a hypocrite for yelling.

She was one of the biggest pranksters she knew after all.

Her ear twitched reflexivity as she heard a single knocking noise coming from the creatures side, looking down she caught sight of She's claw flex against the strap holing it in place toward the metal rack underneath her bed, then with great effort, brought it back to the position fixed against her sides.

Looking back up she once again was greeted with the creatures pale blue eyes. Only this time she did not flinch, but looked glared into them.

“That ain't going to work twice," Rainbow said narrowing her eyes, and moving ever so slightly closer towards the creature, "you understand me right?”

Silence reigned for a long moment there as the two of them stared at one another unblinking, then finally after an age another knock came, Rainbow chanced a quick glance again at the creatures claws then back at the creature's face.

“That a yes or somethin’?” Rainbow asked and got her answer with another knock against the metal frame, as the creature began to draw her lips back into another smile, much like before. Rainbow was not sure whether the smile was warm or unnerving and settled in her mind that it was somehow both, but she wasn't about to let that show on her face.

Rainbow glanced at her teeth, they looked sharp there was no lie, but there where no fangs, at least not the ghastly yellow needle like ones she had imagined, in fact save for four small ones they were mostly flat like hers, almost as white to.

“What are you?" she said, almost unable to help herself, before she rethought her question, "I mean what sorta species are you, also like, you got like a name as well, because the no name things kinda' getting to be a bit of a drag, and well... rude I guess.” She shrugged, rubbing the back of her mane, looking up at the creature who merely shook her head ever so slightly an ever so slight twitch in her eye, probably from the pain of moving.

Rainbow blinked at her, “What, you don’t got a name, you like a, like a nameless sort of creature, like there isn’t like hundreds of you and you’re like an escaped clone. Because I read a comic once about that and even though you might be clone one thousand and thirty three, we can totally always come up with a real name or something. Something that’s cool but also means something too, like the silencer, or the knocker or old blue eyes… any of those names sound good?”

Instead of knock, or perhaps two knocks that might mean no, not that anypony would say no to an awesome nickname like The Silencer, Rainbow only heard the flurry of squeaking noises. Puzzled she looked down for just a second at her hooves, thinking a mouse had somehow gotten into the room.

The creature smirked as it shook its head once more, rolled it’s eyes and fixed her gaze downwards, drawing Rainbow’s own gaze to the creatures claw thing, which was closed into a ball except for one claw pointing outwards, Rainbow traced the line of her claw towards a small table at the side and raised her brow.

"What's that gotta do with a name?" Rainbow asked, but for whatever reason the creature said nothing and continued to point.

Rainbow looked over to the desk and walked towards it. Taking the initiative, and because there was no pony to ask permission, (not that she would have asked anyway,) unceremoniously opened it only to be greeted with a pen and an empty scroll. The sight of it sent unsettling memories of school and test and she reflexively frowned when she picked it up.

“Oh right, why didn’t you just say so?” Rainbow stated as she tucked the open and paper into her wing and walked back, only to be greeted with a confused, almost bemused look. “What?” She asked, before her eyes drew her to the mass of cloth and bandages around her neck and finally the dots finally connected.

Thankful the room was so dark so that she could not see Rainbows immense blush of shame, she cringed at her own blunder and muttered. “Oh right the neck thing?”

She did not respond with anything, only looked back at Rainbow blankly.

Wow dude, neck thing really? I would have said it a bit soother if I where you. A voice inside her mind chided her, as she halted halfway across the room.

Waiting for whatever distasteful look she had rightfully incurred, instead she looked up in surprise as she heard once again the soft squeak of what sounded like one of Fluttershy's many mouse friends and suddenly realised what that squeaking sound was.

She was laughing, or at least that’s what her body was doing, the sound was anything but the noise of laughter, it was like a whistle blowing short little burst in the wind. The gesture was an uncanny dissociation in her head, she had never seen laughter without the actual sound coming out a mouth before. It was both intriguing and if she was honest slightly unnerving.

But it sealed any doubt in her mind, This creature was truly unable to make even the most basic noise, she was not faking it for a prank or perhaps even a sinister ulterior motive. The simple explanation was ever the right one and it somehow saddened Rainbow more that the most pleasant noise in the world, a laugh was now impossible for this creature to make.

She couldn’t even imagine a world without that sound, it just seemed so very sad.

It was only when she heard a rapid succession of taping that she snapped out of her senses, She looked up to see the smile gone from She, replaced by a confused frown and raised brow.

Rainbow felt once more ashamed by the reaction she had, she felt like she had been that bummer at the party who had brought the mood down. Robbing this mare of whatever enjoyment she might of had, even at Rainbows own expense, amusement was a rare but treasured commodity in a hospital bed, she should know. It struck her that this creature probably didn’t get many chances to laugh, even if it was only half of one.

“So eh, about that name?” She asked moving the paper over to She's claw, along with the pen.

The creature studied her for a few seconds more as if trying to read Rainbow through just her expression alone, then suddenly a gust wind howled against the side of the building and the creatures eyes wondered slightly towards the window of her room and Rainbows followed her towards it.

After a moment, Rainbows eyes wandered back towards She, but when she tried to meet her gaze again she noticed the woman simply looked past her, transfixed to the window or presumably what lay past it, she noticed the woman's eyelids dilate slightly, a deep feeling of longing affixing her expression. She even noticed She's nostrils flare as she breathed in, as if trying to absorb the scent of the air. But the window was firmly closed, and the only scent was the somewhat nocuous lingering scent of the cleaning chemicals and sterilised tools in the room.

That's funny, I thought uncle said there weren't gonna be any wind today? She mussed for a moment as she watched the whipping winds pull the tops of the trees around like marionettes.

Rainbow wanted to stare a little long, perhaps thinking she would catch whatever it was She was looking at. But looked back, when she felt the pressure against her hoof and did her best to slowly look down at She's claw moved up and down with a familiar if shaky sound of scratching pen on parchment.

It seemed based on the effort that even writing was painful in the creatures position, but then finally Rainbow saw the claw move back, she looked up at the creature, who smiled at her ever so slightly, before Rainbow brought the scroll with feverish anticipation to her face.

“...I-like-your-voice?” She read aloud after a long moment of silence, then read again, “what kinda’ name is that, like Prench or somethin'?” She asked. Before looking back up at She hoping that her facial features might tell her what the hell that kind of name meant.

But when she looked back up, she saw that She's eyes where closed.

Rainbow waited for whatever trick this might have been, well versed at this game now. But as the moments stretched into minutes Rainbow began to worry that perhaps something bad might have actually happened. Lifting herself with her wings she hovered over her, lifting a hoof up to her mouth, feeling the tickle of warm breath on her fur she calmed down.

She watched as the creatures chest rose up, then fell, rose and fell, until Rainbow realised that She had fallen asleep… for real this time it seemed.

Looking back down at the scroll she pondered if there was a double meaning behind it. But came up with nothing, she didn’t really strike Rainbow as a somepony who dealt in anagrams, but even if she did, there was nothing she could do about that at this moment.

Despite herself, Rainbow chuckled as she thought about leaving the scroll back onto the table, but instead decided to keep it. Despite it all, she had to give the creature props, she didn’t know if she could ever be able to make light of a situation like this or even pull a prank off, in that condition.

She didn’t know what to think about the creature, she didn’t even get her name, but she had to admit to herself, in some weird way, she kinda’ liked her.

Nopony with eyes like that could be evil. She thought and shook her head.

What was with her today?