Fuel the Eternal Flame | A DOOM MLP Crossover

by NotAnEditor

Blank Flank

[Author’s Note]

(Apologies for breaking the once a week chapter schedule. I had to focus on other things. Now I think everything should be alright. Sorry for leaving off on a bit of a cliffhanger. Enjoy, and feel free to hate me for the chapter name. I know, I’m evil.)

“I assume you all are here to see Fluttershy?” Nurse Redheart asked the trio of ponies, and a dragon.

“Yes, please.” Twilight answered as Pinkie Pie hopped around the waiting room, peeping over the shoulder of a stallion attempting to read a magazine from an emplaced shelf. He looked at the mare like she was crazy as she bounced from place to place, trying to scout the construction magazine.

“Oh, well she’s just this way!” The white nurse-pony led from behind her counter, going into a hallway which had numbered doors lining the walls.

Pinkie Pie ended up swiping the magazine from the stallion as she realized Rarity and Twilight were on their way. “Thanks, mister!” She shouted as she followed her friends.

The pink earth pony landed right next to Spike, somehow walking bipedally as she read. The four followed the white mare down the hallway, her looking around at the different doors. Twilight followed the nurse pony’s gaze worryingly as they encroached upon their location.

Pinkie Pie giggled a bit at the page she was reading. ‘Lightning fast construction, quicker than a blitz!’ An advertisement for a construction business showed on the page. “What even is a blitz?”

The magazine suddenly lit with a light blue aura before floating away. “Pay attention, Pinkie! We’ve got to make sure Fluttershy is alright!” Rarity had her head craned to the pink mare. “Now, do you have that ‘get well soon’ card?”

Pinkie nodded with a goofy smile, pulling an envelope from seemingly out of nowhere. “Yuppers! And the ‘get well soon’ gift-basket, and the ‘get well soon’ balloons!” She began pulling them straight from apparently the void essence. “A ‘get well soon’ cupcakes! Even a ‘get well soon’ muffin!” She held all these things somehow. “Oh, and let's not forget the pair of ‘get well soon’ cutie marks! Just in case she lost her first two.” She smiled innocently, holding up a pair of ‘get well soon’ stickers just the size of a pony’s markings.

The fancy unicorn nodded with closed eyes. “Good, good work Pinkie Pie.” She stated, opening her eyes to find that all the stuff she had pulled from nowhere seemingly had vanished. She had grown used to these kinds of time and space defying shenanigans.

“Here we are!” Nurse Redheart announced to the group, stopping in front of room 222.

Twilight looked up at the wooden door, taking a deep breath of the sterile hospital air. “Lets hope she isn’t hurt too bad.” She muttered, engulfing the door knob in front of her with her magic. Her ears twitched nervously as she mentally twisted the handle, hoofing her way inside with her friends.

“H-hey…” Fluttershy weakly muttered the greeting, coughing a small bit. A strange green substance hung on her lip afterwards.

“F-Fluttershy?” Twilight stammered a bit at the sight of her friend in such a poor condition. She laid on the hospital bed, pelt faded slightly in illness. There was a doctor and nurse at the bedside. Both unicorns. The nurse had gauze in her aura’s grip, dabbing on the pegasus’ lower body gently while the doctor pony held a clipboard up, checking stuff off on occasion.

Rarity gasped, coming to the bedside next to the nurse. “Fluttershy! You look… horrendous!” Pinkie Pie slowly joined her, refraining from her over-excited personality for just a moment.

Fluttershy snickered a small bit. “J-Just a little.” She had trouble getting her words out.

Spike went up to a nearby stool, hopping up to sit down and looking at his pegasus
friend with a worried expression as his alicorn friend went over to the doctor. “Hey, doctor?..” She looked at his nametag. “Haysworth?”

Doctor Haysworth glanced over at Twilight Sparkle. He was a light brown stallion with a pair of spectacles on. He had a white blaze down his head and muzzle. Twilight could just make out a couple white speckles on his sides and assumedly his back, below the doctor coat. The clothing covered his cutie mark however.

“Yes?” He replied with a mature voice, averting his eyes back to the clipboard.

Pinkie Pie brought out the tray of ‘get well soon’ cupcakes for her friend. “I got you these cupcakes!” She kept her voice low, assuming the mare was pretty sensitive in her current state.

“Oh, thank you.” Her voice was way more hushed than usual as she took one from the tray, munching into it slowly.

Twilight looked away from her other friends as they continued talking to Fluttershy. “What’s wrong with Fluttershy?” She asked, looking at Haysworth.

The doctor gave a stressed sigh. “We don’t know.” The stallion answered.

“Don’t know?” Twilight tilted her head.

Fluttershy laughed a small bit to her worrying friends. “It’s a-alright! Don’t worry, f-f-friends… It's just a lizard bite…” She mumbled, eyes growing heavy before she rapidly blinked them awake again.

Doctor Haysworth looked away from Fluttershy and back at Twilight Sparkle. “Look at the bed sheets next to her flank.” He whispered, the princess allocating her look down to the bunk.

From below the blanket Fluttershy was tucked under, a sickly green color stained the white covers underneath. The alicorn looked at the disgusting color in slight horror, more of the green stuff trailing down and off the bed. Twilight lit a corner of the blanket with her magic, lifting it slightly to see the source of it.

Fluttershy’s leg was heavily wounded, covered in bandages and gauze which were completely doused in blood and a similar green color. It all made up for a disgusting light brown from the colors mixing. One wound was on her ankle and the other was where her cutie mark should be. She gasped, letting the blanket drop.

The other two mares, too focused on their conversation, failed to realize what the nurse was doing on the other side, dabbing away the leaking green substance from the wound actively.

“What… Is that?” Twilight whispered to the doctor.

The pony doctor sighed, lowering the clipboard to his side. “Follow me.” He said, starting out of the room and to the door.

Twilight glanced at her friend sadly before following Haysworth outside.

“Okay, so what in Celestia’s name is going on with her?” Twilight questioned as soon as the door shut behind the two.

“We’re not sure, but we know it isn’t any natural illness we’ve come across before.” He floated the clipboard in front of the princess, several pictures of Fluttershy’s sides with several drawn on question marks surrounding the disgusting depictions of the wounds.

Twilight gave a disgruntled look at the injury. Especially the ones on her sides, the large gashes and scars overlapping her cutie mark. It was practically unseeable now. “What… Lizard could have done this?”

The doctor shook his head. “That’s the thing… If she was bit by a Komodo Dragon like she said, the poison would have killed her two nights ago. No, this was certainly from something more intelligent.”

“Well, ponies don’t have claws!” Twilight rushed to point out.

“I didn’t say it was a pony.” The doctor replied. “At first we thought it was a dragon. But, when we got the substance tests on the green stuff, the only thing our ponies in the lab could gather was that it was similar to Swamp Fever.” He shrugged. “But if she had something like that, then the yellow markings certainly would have appeared by now…” Haysworth pondered to himself.

“Is there any way we could help?” She put a hoof to her chin. “I know that the Flash Bee Honey cures stuff like it. Perhaps we just need to find th-”

The doctor shook his head. “We’ve already tried that. Zecora has been supplying us with the honey after the two discovered it.” He sighed. “We tried, but nothing worked.” Haysworth repeated.

Twilight was filled with worry over her friend. “Is it… Lethal?”

“That's the thing.” Haysworth began. “We have no idea what it exactly is. However, judging by the frequent c-”

“Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie shouted from inside, dreadfully serious.

Twilight’s ears perked up, rushing into the room. The pegasus was convulsing on the bed, shivering and shaking in apparent distress. The mare gasped in agony, trying to halt the sudden pain and movements forced throughout her body.

“Fluttershy?! What's going on!” Twilight asked as the pegasus writhed.

The doctor sighed, looking at the nurse with a not-so-concerned look. It seemed like it had been happening frequently.

“Fluttershy! Calm down, darling!” Rarity held her shoulders in her hooves, trying to stop her from shaking.

Slowly, ever so slightly, the pegasus calmed down. The shaking slowed, calming down to a halt as her eyes slowly closed, the pony delving into unconsciousness.

Rarity let go as her friend stopped, worryingly stepping away. She looked down at her friend’s heavily injured side. “By Celestia…” She muttered at the sight of the disgusting wound.

Haysworth leaned towards Twilight Sparkle. “She’s been experiencing frequent convulsions since she was checked in.” He whispered.

Twilight sighed. “How in Celestia’s name are we going to fix this?”

The doctor thought a bit. “I’m not sure there is a way… Then again, perhaps Zecora would have some kind of idea.” He suggested.

“Of course, Zecora would know all about this kind of stuff.” Twilight responded, nodding slowly.

Doctor Haysworth nodded as well. “Yes, once-if the zebra finds you a cure, bring it back to me and we’ll hopefully have your friend back in shape.”

“Zecora?!” Pinkie jumped into the conversation. “I haven’t talked to her in a while! I wonder how she’s doing? She must be having tons of fun doing witch-doctor stuff! Being a witch-doctor sounds fun.”

“I’m sure we can find something from Zecora.” Twilight assured Rarity and Pinkie Pie.

Rarity smiled. “Zecora is a very bright pony. I’m sure she knows exactly what to do!”

Twilight turned to the bed bound pegasus. “I promise, we’ll come back with something in no time, Fluttershy.” She reassured her unconscious friend before starting out, Pinkie bouncing behind her and Rarity elegantly following. Spike looked up from the magazine, realizing they had left before rushing after them.

~

Spike brushed a piece of foliage out of his way sluggishly. The humid swamp air clung to him, making the dragon slightly sluggish through the heat filled air. “Are we almost there?” He asked with a groan

The Everfree Forest was surrounded by a musty heat. Dark green bushes and leaves surrounded them, the canopy blocking most of Celestia’s holy light. Various animals chirped, filling the air with sounds of livelihood, one of the only comforting things about the Everfree.

“Nearly.” Twilight replied, easily walking through the short bushes that were just the height of the baby dragon.

“I wonder what Zecora has been up to lately?” Rarity pondered out loud over the ripe forest’s nature.

Pinkie smiled. “Maybe she’s making some cakes for us!”

“Pinkie, darling. I’m not sure Zecora exactly specializes in… Baking.” The posh mare to her right replied.

“Everypony bakes once in a while!” She pointed out. “Who knows?” The pink jokester stated as Twilight levitated a large leaf out of their view, advancing through the swampland.

“Hey! We’re almost there.” Twilight smiled at the sight of her tree emplaced home.

Spike scampered up beside her. “Yeah, you’re right!” He exclaimed, continuing on towards the home.

The four encroached on Zecora’s home, Pinkie in particular bouncing to the front of the group and knocking on the wooden door. “Hello! Zecora?! Are you home!” She shouted in an unreasonably loud fashion. “We have another one of those mystery disease thingies you know about!”

The door suddenly opened, the zebra standing before the group. “What brings you four all the way to my door?” She rhymed questioningly, Twilight shimmying her way to the front past Rarity.

“Our friend’s in trouble. She’s sick with… We don’t know.” Twilight confessed.

Zecora nodded wisely. “I see you have come to me for the usual.” She turned, heading in. “Would you mind telling me what has happened to this individual?”

Twilight followed in first, Spike joining next to her and the last two mares filing in from behind. The aroma of several herbs, spices and candles filled the nostrils of the four, pleasant and tangy. Pinkie Pie immediately began inspecting the various masks, gourds and other relics lining the literal tree house. Giggling if they looked silly.

Rarity took a strong attraction to the surrounding masks along the wall, a specific one hanging on the wall with the shape of a toucan’s head. Three blue stripes fell along the mask’s ‘beak’ and a couple of fancy feathers sprouted from the top of it. It looked particularly used.

The princess looked about as well, although much more focused on the task at hand. “Well, Fluttershy recently got checked into the Ponyville hospital. She says she got attacked by an animal but she’s… You know, Fluttershy.”

Zecora made her way to her cauldron, gripping the spoon inside of the orange liquid and began stirring it. “This better not be phony.” She started around the spoon. “I’ve been getting strange reports from everypony.” The last time the zebra had met with Fluttershy, the animals she interacted with weren’t very affected by the pegasus’ creature-friendly charm.

Twilight shook her head. “We feel like it was something else. It…” She had trouble recalling her friend’s grievous wounds. “It scratched off her cutie marks right off.” She explained.

The witch-doctor’s eyes widened slightly at the explanation, remaining focused on her cauldron however to let the princess continue.

“All her scars had this weird green puss stuff coming from them. Like, leaking from them.”

“By Celestia! It smelled like death.” Rarity added.

Zecora thought for a moment, lifting her head from the cauldron. “Would you all have happened to see what had injured her? I may know a particular cure.”

The alicorn shook her head. “No idea.”

The zebra grew an uncertain look, going to a nearby window and looking outside. “I may know how to aid your friend. However, the thing that had caused it must be brought to its end.” She began. “A treacherous beast, mightier than myth. You must end it in a battle that is swift.”

“End? Like, kill?” Twilight tilted her head.

Zecora nodded. “Slay the beast, before you become it’s next feast. The being is very lethal, the destruction of it’s strikes are maximal.” She explained in her rhymes.

“And where do we find this thing exactly?” Spike asked.

“These very woods. Be careful when hunting it, if it catches you off-guard, you will be killed in all likelihood.” The zebra explained ominously.

Twilight awkwardly laughed. “That’s, hehe, comforting?”

Zecora nodded gently, going over to the portions of the tree’s walls that extended out into sort of tables. Between the potions and candles sat an object wrapped in old red and dreary gold cloth. She picked it up gently, going over to Twilight. “Keep this artifact with you. It has aided me in battling a few.” She offered it mystically.

Twilight Sparkle looked down at it, engulfing it in her magic and levitating it with her. “Thank you, Zecora. We’ll find… Whatever the thing is soon. Do we really have to kill it?” The princess asked, hopeful for an alternative.

Zecora shook her head. “That is the only way. I know them from ancient books, but I’ve only begun to see them yesterday.”

The alicorn hadn’t killed anything before. “What if it has… A family? Friends?” She asked hesitantly.

The zebra expected this kind of reaction. “They are not like us. It cannot make friends, and it’s thirst for blood is a clear must.”

Twilight gave a slightly unnerved look, opening her mouth to begin a sentence only to get cut off by the rhyming witch-doctor.

“Well, you four better be off! The creature will be getting no less tough.” Zecora bid them.

The alicorn hesitantly nodded, turning and walking out with her group in tow.

Once the four were out, Rarity began. “That was cryptic.” She commented as they returned to the outside swampland.

“Spooky, even!” Pinkie agreed.

Twilight nodded, looking down at the object Zecora had given her. She slowly removed the red cloth covering it, staring down at a stone tablet. There, in the middle of it stood the exact same symbol she had seen in her castle, where she had found the cube. It glared angrily at her.

Comments

[Late_Night]

oh, so you didn't kill her
you did something WORSE