Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Rainbow Dash and Heartless IV

“I’ve really never seen anything like this happen before, have you?”

“No—I’ve never even heard of this happening. I didn’t think it could.”

“You must’ve been shocked when you saw it...”

“Shocked? I almost dropped her right after the delivery. You know what else was strange? She didn’t cry at all, she was warm but she wasn’t moving or acting like any other newborn I’ve ever delivered. I might’ve thought there was something wrong if she didn’t smile as soon as we let her mother hold her.”

“Speaking of—how is her mother doing? She was exhausted, wasn’t she?”

“Yes, she almost fainted soon after, but she’s doing well. The baby too is doing perfectly fine in one of the incubators in Room 112.”

Nurse Cherry Pie, wearing her simple pink uniform, looked over at the door leading out of the office, envisioning the hallway and the newborn baby quietly sleeping in the room just down the hall. “A pony born with a Cutie Mark… it’s fascinating. It has to mean something, doesn’t it?”

Doctor Earnest in his white coat looked up from the papers and books on his desk and raised an eyebrow at her. “Mean what?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Cherry Pie shrugged. “But it has to be some kind of miracle or sign, don’t you think?”

The doctor wryly grinned. “I think it has to be some kind of unknown medical phenomenon… magic and miracles has never been my business. There may not be precedent for it that I know of but I’m sure it’s explainable.”

“But her parents are completely normal aren’t they? You’re looking over their medical history and their family trees right now, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Doctor Earnest nodded, returning his gaze to his desk and the various items there. “I was too curious not to look it up. Wildflower and Corn Flakes, both earth ponies, both got their Cutie Marks at the typical age for ponies, no unusual medical conditions, nothing out of the norm in their families either—at least as far back as I can see. This is their first child too.”

“I saw Corn Flakes’s face when the baby was delivered—he was just as surprised and confused as the rest of us.”

“Who wouldn’t be?” Doctor Earnest sighed and sat back in his chair.

Cherry Pie tilted her head at him. “Is something wrong?”

The doctor merely shrugged and shook his head. “Wrong? I don’t think so. It’s just that I don’t like there being something that can’t be explained so far when it comes to a newborn baby. What if she’s sick in some way? What if something happens to her and we have no way of helping her? Yes, all the outward signs seem to point to a healthy baby, but with something like this I’m really not sure. We just have to hope she’s okay and this Cutie Mark birth is completely benign and harmless.” He chuckled. “And the Cutie Mark too… a big red heart with a black outline. Maybe you’re right about there being some kind of meaning to it.”

“Speaking of that, I heard that her parents already decided on a name for her. They were considering a few different ones depending on if she was a filly or a colt, but when she was born I think they felt that she needed a different sort of name.”

“So what are they going to call her?”

“Full Heart.”

Doctor Earnest smiled just a little bit. “Well, that’s a nice name.”

Cherry Pie smiled back at him and nodded. “Fitting too, isn’t it? Once Wildflower wakes up I’ll bring the baby in so she and Corn Flakes can spend some more time with her.”

“Right,” the doctor nodded. He rubbed his temple and went back to perusing some of the medical papers and Cutie Mark related literature on his desk. “You do that, I’m going to keep seeing if I can figure any of this out. There has to be something helpful in here...”

The nurse left Doctor Earnest to his research, leaving the office and closing the door behind her on the way out. Fascination and curiosity ran through her mind after the day’s events and the very unusual childbirth. Her heart was telling her that something truly amazing had just happened, an amazing filly had just been born. She wanted to go see her again personally and check up on her. Make sure the doctor was right about her resting perfectly well in the incubator.

So Cherry Pie walked to Room 112, down the hall of their clinic, right to what worked as their maternity ward even though they weren’t really a big enough hospital to have separate wards and wings. She peeked in the window first, seeing her beige face with amber eyes and big red locks of her mane reflected first and then the sole occupant of the room sleeping in her incubator. Cherry Pie opened up the door and walked in—walked right up to the incubator and looked down into it.

The baby was there, curled up in the middle, swaddled in a sheet. A perfect pink with a little tuft of white mane and tail. What a beautiful baby. Cherry Pie had thought that when she first saw her and her thoughts hadn’t changed at all.

“I don’t know what the doctor is worrying about, you’re just a precious little baby,” Cherry Pie smiled at the sleeping Full Heart.

Thump

Thump

The room was quiet enough where Cherry Pie could hear her own heartbeat.

“Hm?” Cherry Pie raised an eyebrow. The baby wasn’t asleep—not like pretty much every newborn would be at this point. Full Heart moved her head up towards Cherry Pie, looking towards her, and opened up her eyes.

Small but glistening blue eyes peered at Cherry Pie and the baby smiled. Wordlessly, Full Heart reached up towards her, reaching out with her hooves as if she wanted the nurse to pick her up and hold her.

“You really are special...” Cherry Pie said and lifted up a hoof to affectionately rub Full Heart’s head before she left. “You’re a little sweetheart, I know you’ll make your mother and father happy.”

As she reached Full Heart, the baby’s forelegs grasped her hoof.

Cherry Pie didn’t understand what just happened.

She fell over, knocking aside a tray table next to the incubator, and collapsed into the wall.

Breathing and gasping for air as her whole body seized up and her heart beat out of control.

She looked up at the incubator, where she could just barely see Full Heart’s hooves over the plastic lip of it.

Her eyes rolled back into her head and she took one last shuddering breath before her heart stopped.

---

The remaining leaves on Rainbow Dash’s body withered away and turned to dust, carried by the wind as Heartless continued to hug her. It was so much. It was so much more warmth and light than Heartless had ever felt before. No other creature had been like this. All it took was a tap for them, but now Rainbow Dash was still alive, still alive after being hugged tightly for so long as Heartless took everything from her. Heartless was smiling as she felt it. Her own heart and body were warm and beating with so much vigor. Longer and longer the two of them stayed there with Heartless’s hooves growing tighter around Rainbow’s body—not leaving anything behind. The faintest glimmer and spark were being taken away.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t fight back. Heartless hugged her until the pegasus’s wings and legs went limp, until her head fell limp too and her silently screaming mouth shut. Heartless hugged her until everything was gone and Rainbow Dash was nothing more than a shell being held in her grasp.

Everything.

Warmth.

Light.

Life.

She had everything.

Heartless opened her eyes wide and smiled.

And let Rainbow Dash go.

Falling through the sky.

Comments

[Chicago Ted]

Roll credits!

[Mini-Joe]

Terrifying

[Mini-Joe]

Guys, this is huge! Her name can be shortened to F. Heart

[redmar]

I'm wondering what's going to happen next. I'm still wondering when Pinkie's cake comes into play.

[RoboRed]

So...that's Heartless's origin story. Guess that answers some of the "how" she came to be, but it doesn't explain "why" she was born with that life-draining ability.

Wonder how Rainbow's going to get out of this situation, though.