> Infection > by Nano Discussions > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue: A Friendly Face > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The soft summer wind breezes through overgrown apple trees as the white-blue colour of the sun beams over the mountains of Canterlot, casting a dark shadow upon the old rotten town of Ponyville. Once a vibrant, friendly town, only now held resident to the jaws of the undead. In the past, the rising sun would be seen as the start of a brand new, lovely day, but to a certain survivor, it's a simple backdrop as they bash through the door of a cottage tree on the far end of town. It is a unicorn with a blood-soaked, dark scarlet fur, Rainy Day. She slams the door shut behind her almost catching her messy, short golden tail and mane in it. Luckily the door contained an exuberant number of functional locks. Happy she wasn't on the receiving end, she quickly locked the door. However, she had to break one of the locks, because she managed to get her black jacket stuck in it. A pistol almost flies out of an inner pocket inside her jacket when she breaks the lock.  After locking the door with the remaining locks, Rainy Day peered at the darkness with her soft aqua eyes. “Those locks won't hold them”. she thinks as she starts to grab anything to barricade the door. She ended up making a haphazard mess at the door with random furniture. Then an ear-wrenching sound of snapping bones fills the room behind her. Fearing for her life, Rainy Day forcefully pulls out her gun while twisting around to face the source of the noise. She found herself staring into the undead eyes of the house’s owner, Fluttershy. Horrified by the sight, Rainy Day’s magic fails her and the gun is taken over by gravity plummeting to the wooden floorboards. Fluttershy’s fur is pale and faded, riddled with small holes that present blood-soaked flesh. A massive hole spans from the side of her barrel through her stomach leaking decayed bile. Her back left leg is entirely missing, only the stump and rotted flesh remain. Her wings consist of only bones with saggy skin attached, yet they are completely connected as if the joints were veiled. Her face is mostly intact except for a continuously bleeding gash liquefying her right cheek. She looks at the invader, shock painted throughout her face. She then eyes the unicorn as she moves closer with unknown intent. Rainy Day, already standing with her back against the wall, concentrates all her magic to pull the gun off the floor. With the power of panicked magic, the gun crashes into the wooden roof with a loud thud. With a deep breath, Rainy Day is able to direct the gun to tilt at the corpse. To her surprise, Fluttershy pauses in her tracks and stares at the gun with pinpricks for irises. Her wings then start to brokenly flap as she shambles backwards terrified. However, she only made it a few steps before tumbling over herself, forcing Rainy Day’s mind to be struck pondering on this abnormal response. Rainy Day corrects the gun to aim at Fluttershy’s head as she trods dubiously closer. However, her eyes widen as Fluttershy wails, covering her head in her hooves. “P-Please don’t shoot me!” Her voice is slightly garbled. However, despite this deformity, Fluttershy’s voice was clear. Tears start to fill the dams of Rainy Day’s eyes, yet despite her efforts, memories of the shy pony win. Rivers of tears and sobs shove Rainy Day down to her barrel. Once again her magic fails her and drops the gun to the boarded floor. The uncharitable weight of cold meat meets Rainy Day's back, forcing her tears to continue their descent down her chin while making her sobbing stop. She knows what is going to happen next, she observed many ponies face the same fate. She waits, hoping that she would experience a quick death from the undead beast on top of her. However, moments pass as nothing arrives. “What is happening?” she mentally questions until her thoughts are disrupted by noise. A soft whisper from the putrid voice box of the pony that was laying on her. “Are you feeling better?” Rainy Day stands up, tears drying into her fur as the frigid weight is lifted off her. Fluttershy then staggers away and glances at Rainy Day’s gun, still placed on the ground. Rainy Day rubs the last tear from her eye and places the gun on a table. Fluttershy’s wings make another cringing snap as she struggles to extract the lounge away from the barricade with her mouth. Rainy Day, viewing the pathetic performance decides to use her magic to levitate the lounge back to where it resided. “Thank you,” Fluttershy whimpers, dusting off a place for Rainy Day to sit with her hoof. Perplexed by her current circumstances, Rainy Day quickly peers through the window. “No one ever visits me after what’s happened, y-you shouldn’t worry,” Fluttershy interrupts with an understanding smile on her face. I guess I was too obvious, Rainy Day tells herself, walking to the lounge. Fluttershy heads into the kitchen while Rainy Day plants herself in the undusted area. Leaving her to try to string questions together to ask Fluttershy. Suddenly the noise of a kettle fills the room, sending Rainy Day’s brain driving her into a mad panic. She launches herself off the lounge to immediately regret it as dust swirls around her. With dust covering her vision she follows the steaming noise, almost confident that her face will have a date with a wall. Her mind pacing the same messages over and over as she blindly sprints. They were chasing after me! They’ll be alerted to where I am! She trips over her hooves and slams her face into the hard unforgiving floorboards. Fluttershy limps into the room, frowning at the image of Rainy Day flank up on the floor. Her face red with pain, Rainy Day pulls herself up and immediately rubs the dust away from her eyes. “A-Are you okay?” Fluttershy asks, putting a decayed hoof on Rainy Day’s back as she rubs her new bruises. Precisely at that moment, the sounds of sprinting hooves and withered moans can be heard gathering closer at a sprightly speed. “Huh? They normally never arrive,” Fluttershy mumbles as she trembles over to the crudely secured entrance. Rainy Day manages to remove the boiling kettle with her magic. She then swivels around irritated with pain to question Fluttershy. “When was the last time you made this much noise?” Fluttershy looks back to Rainy Day and pauses, asking herself the same question. “Either way, they’ve been getting more aggressive recently,” Rainy Day tells Fluttershy as she magically pulls the gun at her side and checks the clip. "Not empty, but not full." “What caused all this? And if you don’t mind, w-who are you?” Fluttershy asks Rainy Day, confused, shocking Rainy into a face of pure disbelief. However, before Rainy Day could say anything, hooves smashed through the door and walls, throwing Rainy Day and Fluttershy. Loud shrieks cover Ponyville as undead ponies mindlessly try to get at Rainy Day. Two of them manage to rip through and pounce towards her. Gunshots are heard as two bullets are fired and land perfectly in the heads of the trotters. “How can you not remember?!” Rainy Day shouts over the screaming and tearing as more fill in the room. “Shit! I’ll have to take her with me. Maybe Queen Luna will know something about this?” Rainy Day thinks as she grabs Fluttershy by the ruff of her dead neck and runs into the hoard, focusing all of her magic. > Chapter 1: A Sweet Farm > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning sunlight beams, over Sweet Apple Acres now a makeshift base for the Cutie Mark Crusaders to stand against the hoard of undead. Walls built tall dwarfing any pre hoard fence, protecting the farm and the ponies within. The walls themselves have been reinforced with rusted metal, the metal welded over more metal. The walls, designed to be pushed back for more space. The recent sounds of gunshots and the shrieks of gallopers have placed everypony on their heels. However, Apple Bloom, the last Apple in the Acres won’t let anything stop her in training the new foals of Equestria survival. Apple Bloom has grown into a young adult, her yellow fur stained with mud and wood chips. Her rose mane, tied into a pigtail while her tail had ruggedly been cut short. She wore a green jacket that proudly held the apple family crest, the crescent moon of Luna and the shield of the Crusaders. Her cutie mark of the said shield held true of its shape even when she was a filly. She stands tall as she screams commands to the foals. Beginning their speed training, yelling with the fires of Tartarus, with soft compassion difficult for her throat. Soon after the foals started their training a thud is heard a distance behind Apple Bloom. Swivelling around, she sees a scarlet and gold pony on top of a corpse inside the base. “Now how in Equestria did you get here?” She asks confidently with a soft grin on her face as she strolls over to Rainy Day. Rainy Day groans, as she pulls herself up with a hoof to her head, then manically checks herself for bites. “Did you have to bring your friend?” Apple Bloom chuckles gesturing to the body behind Rainy Day. “Remind me to never teleport again,” Rainy Day moans with a hoof to her head as she falls into Apple Bloom’s hooves. Apple Bloom chuckles before she heartlessly drops Rainy Day onto the dirt floor. Rainy Day lays on the green grass floor with her head neatly cradled by a root from one of the nearby trees. Apple Bloom kicks at the lying mare forcing her to stand up, rubbing the back of her head. “Now you’ve got alot of explain’ to do,” Apple Bloom starts, not giving the sore mare any time to complain. Fluttershy wakes up, sprawled on a grass-filled dirt floor with the feeling of a mute pain in the nape of her neck, an odd runny feeling in her cheek and ringing penetrating her thoughts. Looking around, Fluttershy notices an old decayed wooden sign hanging sideways by a rusted chain, it reads. “Sweet Apple Acres” The wooden arc of which the sign swivels on remains. However, it is surrounded by large barricades well over the walls of the castle. though the entrance held large spikes that cradled already decaying bodies. Satisfied with her examination, Fluttershy then reaches to touch her cheek, not bothering to move as she felt too weak to bother. More soft pain is felt as her hoof takes a little longer to reach her cheek and almost instantly gets wet on contact. She retracts her leg to observe the damp material that graced her hoof. Her eyes open wide as she sees that blood has soaked her hoof and foreleg. Then the past flows back into her, she’s undead and these wounds were done before she was turned. Then she remembers her encounter with Rainy Day and how she jumped into the crowd with Fluttershy in her mouth. Slowly yet surely her hearing returns to her as she hears Applejack and Rainy Day argue, relief flowing through her at listening to an old friend’s voice. However, Applejack sounds colder, her voice strained and gruffer. “Are you honestly askin’ me to believe a tale like that?” Applejack aggressively asks Rainy Day as her voice grows closer in proximity with the soft clopping of hooves following suit. “And how many times have I believed your adventures with the original crusaders?” Rainy Day quickly follows back, her voice also growing closer. “Don’t ya dare bring the past up! Why shouldn’t ah just kill that undead fiend now!?” Applejack yells at Rainy Day, her voice vibrating through the air like she had years of experience. “Because you owe me with Granny Smith!” Rainy Day snaps back, causing the clopping to suddenly stop and a silence to stab through the air. …  “Fine... I’ll keep quiet like ya did for me. But this better not cause any trouble. Got it?!” Applejack commands only to return to silence as the clopping starts again, only to get quieter. After an uncomfortably long silence, broken only by the swaying of trees and tweeting of birds, Fluttershy tries to stand. She stumbles over her missing leg and her wings instinctively start flapping. They begin to grind on themselves, snapping into and out of their connective sockets as their non-existent muscles strain, giving Fluttershy enough leeway to stand. Standing, Fluttershy is able to witness the portrait that is of the environment Rainy Day solemnly sits in. The blue-white sun shines just rising above the Canterlot mountains creating a soft light blue glow along Rainy Day’s golden mane and scarlet fur. The apple trees paved the road in roots and the sky in olive leaves, making an impressive shadow along the path. Rainy Day herself was sitting down with her forehooves planted into the ground as she stared off into the sky, thoughts clearly clouding her sight. Rainy Day tilts her head into the shade, snapping from the grasp of her thoughts. After a swift flutter of eyes, Rainy Day exchanges glances with Fluttershy, with questions burrowing into her brain. “You’ve been out for a while.” Rainy Day awkwardly chuckles as she trots over after quickly standing up. “Would’ve sworn you died on me,” Rainy Day jokes as she awkwardly picks the ripest apple from a nearby tree. Fluttershy looks over to where she last heard Applejack, unable to see anypony. “Um. Where was it you wanted to take me?” Fluttershy asks, remembering that her past friend only saw her as another dead corpse. Rainy Day sighs, taking a large bite out of the apple, and gestures to the Apple family barn. The barn’s once fresh, red paint has peeled off leaving the barn to be coloured in oak and stained pink. The wood itself has rotted, still, through some Apple family persistence, it manages to stand tall and proud. “The barn is normally just used for storage,” she told Fluttershy, leading her while she kept a self-protective distance, still unsure of what had been happening. Finishing her apple, Rainy Day slithers down on her barrel, an adjacent distance from the inside of the apple forest. Her scarlet fur doing little to improve her camouflage within the blades of grass and bark. Fluttershy quietly stood distantly and watched, confused, as Rainy Day examined the opening between them and the barn, like a leopard to prey. “Um… What are you doing?” Fluttershy finally inquires after a minute of waiting. However, Fluttershy’s answer only came as a flick of an ear and Rainy Day dashing for the barn. Fluttershy pauses for a second to take in the blur that was Rainy Day until she tries to catch up with her. Fluttershy stumbles for a while, trying to run without her back leg. However, Fluttershy manages to do an uncanny shamble-like-run to reach the barn which Rainy Day was already at, enveloping the door in her aqua magic. “Quick, get in!” Rainy Day instructs, her eyes wide as she frantically scans around them. Fluttershy, complied to Rainy Day’s panicked order by falling over her non-existent back leg into the barn.  Rainy Day tried her best to stifle a giggle only to fail as she looks at the aftermath of Fluttershy’s tangled body through the opened door. Fluttershy had managed to crash through a crate of string with enough force for the string to stop her mid-faceplant. “How in Tartarus did you manage that?!” Rainy Day croaks as Fluttershy detangles herself by dislocating her wings to slither down the string. Fluttershy’s remaining cheek flushes red as she hides her face in her mane from the laughing unicorn. Rainy Day sighs, freshly relaxed after her fit, giving off a calmer demeanor much like she just had a much-needed massage. Fluttershy and Rainy Day glance around the barn afterwards as their recent actions set in. The inside of the barn is in worse shape than the outside, hardly any light oozes through the boarded windows making the only illumination the large double doors. Spiders hold supreme inside, colonizing the area with webs, while old barrels and crates limit the space. Rainy Day, retaining her distance from the door, curiously eyes Fluttershy’s limp wings as the deceased pegasus inspects the contents of a nearby crate. “This is our safest bet if we both want to keep our heads,” Rainy Day says as she inspects Fluttershy’s reaction with her gun at the ready. Fluttershy freezes for a second as Rainy Day’s words pierce through her, she then turns to Rainy Day with her mind clouded with thought. “Why did you take me with you?” Fluttershy asks as she keeps the distance Rainy Day has kept between the two of them. Rainy Day looks at how passive Fluttershy’s stance is and relaxes before closing the door behind her. Soon after the door closes, Rainy Day’s horn glows a soft aqua, mixing her horn in a swirl of blue and red. “I’m curious,” Rainy Day answers, her tone more cynical and emotionless, her face joins to match her tone. “Out of all of Equestria, you and the other…” Rainy Day stumbles over words, thinking of how to say her next sentence. “The other what?” Fluttershy asks as her curiosity is piqued with Rainy Day’s stutter. She tries to get comfortable as she prepares an onslaught of questions. Rainy Day tries to prepare herself if Fluttershy attacks, unsure of what she would do. “The other remaining elements of harmony,” Rainy Day tells Fluttershy, much like a parent to their foal, “are the only ponies that have reacted differently with this undead Plague.” “R-remaining? Th-then who…” Fluttershy asks as blood mixed tears start to run down into her fur and cheeks. “Who has died?” She continues as she stands and her wings convulse themselves into place, bone by bone. Rainy Day pulls out her gun and hurriedly backs into the barn door, her irises the size of fear-filled pinpricks as she watches Fluttershy’s eyes turn a deep blue before she screams. “Which one of my fucking friends died!?” > Chapter 2: The first Crusader > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainy Day managed to escape the raging carcass by splurging the rest of her magic to teleport out, leaving her an exhausted mess, lying outside the barn doors with the few boxes she accidentally brought with her. “Fuck me...” Rainy Day breathlessly groaned to herself. However, before she could pool enough energy to stand, the barn doors shook and banged with Fluttershy screaming demonically. Rainy Day hurriedly bucked one of the crates into the door, leaving the weak pony on the verge of throwing up from exhaustion. The crate was heavy enough to stop the large doors from swinging open. However, to Rainy Day’s tired panicked regret. The raging Fluttershy smashed through the wooden doors leaving holes, small enough for her to look through and reach out. The walls still held strong, preventing Fluttershy from jumping through, leaving her furry to slowly die into pained tears and pleading. "Please… Please tell me… I… I need to know." Fluttershy asked through gasps of breath. However, Rainy Day doesn’t answer the pleading corpse. Instead, she tries to focus on staying awake even with every fiber of her telling her to rest. Eventually, Rainy Day lost her battle and rest subdues her, leaving Fluttershy to tearfully make home in her prison. Apple Bloom sped after foals as they tried their best to outrun the older mare without using their wings or magic. However, only three earth ponies make it past the line. The rest passing to a disappointed mare.  “Now all of you take a 10 minute break” She told them, as they all pant exhaustedly. The three who managed to pass, smile gently as they try to sneak away. “Not you three.” She says, stumping the three in their place as the rest stumble to their tents. The tents stood within a large clearing amongst overrun farmland, filled with pumpkins, apple trees and other plant life. The apple house was far enough that it could watch over them. The tents, circling a large fireplace that gently burns with warm embers remaining within it. The foals stood nervously, two fillies standing ahead as the last colt awkwardly hid behind them. The fillies shared a colourful gold and Snow-white within their manes swirling together as it blended with their white coats. The colt had a smooth dark oak fur with a full grass-green mane, making him blend with the forest around them. Unlike the fillies, the colt held a cutiemark on his flank; a pony shape that had been cut out of a black patch. The two fillies salute the older mare, one having a nervous smile as the other shakes with the strong face. The colt behind them doing a limper, tired salute.  “Y’all are good at running! But you need to keep up with everything else if you think that’s all you need! Just running ain’t gonna save your Hide!” She scolds the foals, watching them as the two fillies nod with a sort of determination, one to try and prove her wrong, another to try and make her proud. The colt however, looks away, demotivated as he prods at a rock. “You’re both dismissed.” She tells the two fillies as they leave to return to their tents. “So, how did I do?” The foal asks looking up at Apple Bloom with an exhaustive smile, only to be met with a stifled giggle and a hoof gently rubbing his mane. “That was your final test. And you’ve passed.” She smiled kindly, her tone was as soft and kind, a voice that had spent years screaming could muster. “You’ve finished your official training, Treebark.” He looked at the mare confused only for it to quickly melt away into tears of joy as they streamed out of his eyes. “Thank you, Apple Bloom!” He smiles happily, jumping into the mare, hugging her. She would hug him back, smiling softly as he seemed to pause. “Does this mean I have to sleep in the tents again?” He tenderly asks, looking up at her. “You like pushin’ your luck don’t you?” Apple Bloom faints with a chuckle before she gestures to the old Apple house. “You can rest ya head in the ol’ house.” She smiles letting Treebark down from the hug. Only for him to excitedly rush through the trees towards the house. “Celestia, he reminds me of you, Rainy.” She smiles leaning back to watch Treebark before turning around to camp. It took TreeBark only a few minutes to reach the back porch of the house. The white painted wood was clean and pristine almost as if time had no effect on the porch or house. The screen door to the inside was closely followed by a solid red carved wooden door giving off a prelude to the warmth inside. He was more than happy to accept the invitation of the well cared home. The outside was not deceiving of the inside, it was warm and comforting despite the light layer of dust everything was covered in. The floor creaked and groaned with his hoof steps as he steadied past the kitchen. Towards a red vintage couch, it’s condition a testament of love as it sat within the living room. The feeling of sitting on something that wasn’t mud-covered or swarming with insects was lost to him. He gave the aged cotton a curious rub, never having thought he could have missed a sensation so much. He readied himself to jump upon the vintage cotton. However, before he could take the leap, his ears alerted him of the entrance as the sounds of two ponies talking muffle through it. Panicked and led by instinct, he crawled under the couch, hopeful that whoever was talking wouldn't notice him there. The voices grow louder as two silhouettes shadow through the front door. “Remind me, How did you forget that you should never teleport more than once per day?” A feminine voice asks, as the door swiftly opens. It was eloquent yet etched command, experience, it reminded Treebark of Apple Bloom’s if she wasn’t so, screamy. A sickly and groggy voice groaned back in reply, it was also feminine yet it lacked the same command, instead having it replaced with a cocktail of snarkiness mixed with puerility. “Unlike you, I’m all by myself out there, ugh,” the voice remarks as two unicorn mates enter the house, one magically levitating upside down by a lime aura. “You know being upside-down isn’t good when you’re about to-Brugh!” The upside down unicorn wetly retches, as she instinctively covers her mouth with her hooves. The mare responsible for the other’s levitation launches her counterpart outside the house, where soon after audible puking could be heard from. “Luna Dam it Rainy! You know bile doesn’t wash out easily!” The housed unicorn barates. The name Rainy sounded familiar to Treebark yet he couldn’t seem to be able to place his hoof on it. Curiosity eating at him, he slowly moved closer to the edge of the couch to get a better view of the two ponies. The internal mare was roughly the same age as Apple Bloom. Her fur was pale white and cleanly maintained with her mane and tail curled and styled, eloquently showing the surging colours of pinks and purples. She wore blackened scale armour that curved and cleanly followed contours of her body. “Is that Blood?!” She exclaims, her lime green eyes wide with shock as she runs outside to the vomiting mare. Treebark leaned further out, there was no pony inside the house. He stood out from under the couch as quietly as he could, and frowned. He had permission from Apple Bloom to be here, but it’s doubtful that the two ponies would believe him if he told them. So, taking the safe option he decided to try and sneak to the back door. However, before he reached it, he felt a magical aura cover him, lifting him from the ground. Before he could realise what happened he felt an invisible force push him through the front door, in front of the two mares outside. As he floated there he could see the two mares much clearer, as the white mare was patting the back of a vomiting Rainy Day, looking at him with a confused frown. The mare’s chest plate was engraved with two well maintained symbols that practically shined; Queen Luna’s royal moon and the Cutiemark Crusaders’ shield. There are only three ponies who wield the Crusaders’ shield, the original Crusaders. Treebark could only hold his breath as he realised who he was staring down. Sweetie Belle, the leader of the Head Hunters. A group of well known royal mercenaries that are known for slaughtering anypony on Luna’s hit list.  “Hey Treebark, Nice to see that you’re still here.” Rainy Day weakly smiles having a bile mixed blood puddle under her. She was pale, her body coated with exhaustion, yet her snarky attitude remained. Sweetie Belle turned to Rainy, rubbing the sick pony’s back concernedly as she asked. “I assume you’re friends with the colt?” Her tone was annoyed yet it was lathered in a protective instinct. Rainy Day answered Sweetie Belle with a nod of her head spitting some remaining bile out of her mouth. Sweetie Belle sighs, nodding her head in annoyance, muttering. “You always know everypony, Rainy.” Rainy could only let out a light chuckle as Treebark was dropped to his hooves. “So why were you in the house? Skipping training again?” Rainy teases through unenergetic exhaustive yawns and gagged breaths, trying to stand. However, her hindlegs failed her, causing her to only be able to stand up by her forelegs. Rainy’s words getting a disappointed glare from Sweetie Belle that pierced Treebark’s soul. “I finished my training, Apple Bloom gave me permission to rest in the house.” Treebark forced out, straining against the stare Sweetie Belle was giving him. Luckily Sweetie Belle’s stare stops crushing his soul so she can help Rainy sit down properly on the stairs to the porch. “Oh really? Or is this just another one of your famous Treebark lies?” Rainy teases to the foal as he frowns with a pit in his stomach. Sweetie Belle sighs disappointedly as she walks into the house calling out to Rainy. “I’ll get some water for you.” She says as the door closes behind her, leaving Rainy and Treebark. Who is still awkwardly thinking in his head, unable to think of how to make the truth sound believable. “What’s got your mind in a twist?” Rainy day says lifting her head up with a smiling sigh. “I… I’m not… I’m not lying.” Treebark says exasperated, gaining a soft concerned frown from Rainy. “Well that means we need to have a celebration!” Rainy cheers with a weak smile, trying to put on a brave face and unsuccessfully hold down whatever remained in her stomach, as it adds to the puddle of mud, blood and stomach acid. “Rainy you need to stop.” Sweetie Belle says levitating a glass of water next to her before she offers it to Rainy. Rainy takes it, panting and exhausted. Filling her maw with the water before swirling it and spitting it into the pool, slightly splashing Treebark and Sweetiebelle, who conjures a small barrier to protect herself. Before Rainy starts to sip the water. “I’d rather not get myself dirty unless I have to.” Sweetiebelle dryly complains with a sigh as she lets the magical barrier fizzle away. “Says the mare with one of the dirtiest jobs in Equestria.” Rainy smirks causing Sweetiebelle to roll her eyes with an annoyed sigh. The two adult mares start to bicker and joke while Treebark awkwardly sits next to Rainy, with his ears flat against his head. Looking around the overgrown forest and the swirling mix of blood and mud in front of him. Trying to distract himself so he doesn’t rudely listen in. However, boredom starts to sink into him as he looks up at the two. “U-um, Are you okay Rainy?” He asks concerned, trying to include himself into the conversation. Not wanting to be killed by the creeping boredom, and worried from the amount of blood in the pool in front of them. “Yeah, just some chest pain that should fade.” She smiles back with a brief chuckle, her body a little shivering as if she was cold despite the warm sun bathing the three. “You’re going to need some proper medical Rainy.” Sweetie Belle frowns as she takes a sip of her own water, getting an annoyed quiet sigh from Rainy. “You know I hate getting medical from Apple Bloom.” Rainy comments as she takes a soft sip. Getting a Nod of agreement from Treebark and a chuckling scoff from Sweetie Belle. “She’s very… rough…” Treebark agrees with folded ears. Sweetie Belle stands up from the top step, and finishes her cup. Grabbing Rainy from under her shoulder, lifting her up to sit next to her. “Then that’s your problem, Rainy. I’m not letting you shorten your own life because of this.” Sweetie Belle coldly tells Rainy, like a mother to her teenage foal. Before she turns her serious and chilling gaze to Treebark who stands up tall instinctively, feeling like he was under Apple Bloom’s gaze. “Get Apple Bloom over here.” She coldly orders him as she drags the disgruntled Unicorn inside the house. “Um… Yes Mam?” Treebark unsurely says watching before turning and jumping over the puddle of blood at the foot of the stairs, running into the apple forest to get Apple Bloom.