~Where I've gone~
The night was calm and quite, yet the low hum of lights could be heard from beyond the door of the small room. Like many others in the building, the lights in this room were off for the evening. Only the lights from the moon and the distance stars were able to force the shadows to the very corners of the room. In the middle of the small room sat a modest bed, and situated within its covers lay a mare with gauze protecting the wounds of the day's events.
The door to the room creaked loudly with a sound that echoed around the deserted hallways. Another mare stepped into the room with a unassuming bag dangling by strap between her teeth. On her head sat a small cap bearing a red cross. With a movement as slick and silent as the shadows the mare made her way to the bed and opened the bag. Slowly she pulled out a roll of fresh gauze and a new pair of clips. She began to unroll the tape, letting it unroll from hooftip to hooftip. She stood there for a moment, just staring at the mare in the bed. She looked at the crimson stains that were soaked deep into the tapes lining her head. And even in the faint light they were easy to tell apart from the coat of the mare.
She just stood there and stared at the unconscious mare. She dropped the gauze onto the bed and just stared. Her eyes tried to bore through the fog that clouded the mare's eyes, but they would not open for her. The nurse just closed her eyes slowly and looked away as she turned her gaze out of the tiny window and out towards the forest. Out in the distance the trees of the Everfree swayed slowly in the wind as they always had.
She looked back to the bed; her eyes were misty with tears. She blinked them away and wiped her face with a hoof. She eyed the unconscious mare one last time, hoping for some sigh of consciousness. There was no response. The nurse just sighed. She was not expecting a response. And as the room returned to its former lifeless self with the nurse slipping out of the room, all that could be heard was the light breathing of the comatose mare.
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The sun was shining down through the windows stirring the pegasus that slept beneath the covers of her bed. The mare responded by turning around until her back was facing the sun and pulled the cloud covers over her head. But the sun would not give up easily. Seemingly doubling in brightness, the sun shone through the misty blanket with intensified strength forcing the pegasus to squeeze her eyes shut with just as much strength in an effort to block out the sun. Reluctantly the mare pulled the covers down from her head and slowly rolled out of bed letting her long mane fall beside her face. With a yawn she stretched her wings and made her way to the front door of her home.
The mare used a hoof as she swung open the door revealing the vast blue sky. A warming smile spread across her face as she slowly began to flap her wings until she hovered off the foggy floors of her home.
With a graceful leap she took to the skies flying up into the void allowing the wind to dance with her mane. She closed her eyes and took in the sensations. The sounds of songbirds could be heard far off into the distance. The cool wind could be felt as it slowly rolled through the pegasus's mane and tail. The scent of burning wood could be distinguished from the sweet smells of the bakeries from town.
Wait, burning wood?
The mare opened her eyes to take in the sight. Before her entire portions of the Everfree Forest were burning right before her eyes. It was absolutely terrifying. Flames were flickering right above the treetops engulfing each tree in a blazing inferno. The mare froze, completely stopped in the air. Her first though was to hide, to run away, to just avoid the fire. But as she turned her gaze towards the horizon, off in the distance was the small town of Ponyville.
She had to tell the residents of Ponyville that a massive fire had started in the forest. Without haste she dove out of the sky and flew over the treetops on her way towards Ponyville. As she flew towards the distant town she thought of how to go about telling the inhabitants of the quiet town. At first she wanted to just fly into town and yell at the top of her lung warning everypony about the incoming inferno. But she quickly perished the thought reasoning that that would only scare the townsfolk out of their minds.
She thought long and hard about what to do, but nothing came to mind. She did not go into Ponyville that often and come to think of it. She had not set a hoof in that town for a while now. The only times she would venture into the town was to buy some groceries, nothing more. Although recently she had just been released from the Ponyville hospital for some injuries she had sustained while out in the Everfree. After being released she had been living quite peacefully in her home until today. She thought long and hard once more about her options. She didn't know anypony in town to warn so how was she going to tell everypony?
Stopping at the edge of the Everfree she stared down the long path leading to Ponyville. She pushed her mane out of the way to see a small cottage sitting right on the edge of the Everfree. Looking over the treetops she saw that the fires were approaching the edge at an alarming rate. Seeing this she flew towards the cottage and stopped at the front door and with a hoof she lightly knocked on the front door of the cottage.
It took a while but before long the door opened up revealing a yellow Pegasus. At the first sight of the new pegasus at the door the yellow mare shut the door with such a force that it shook the very foundation of the small cottage.
Determined not to let that be the end of the conversation the pegasus waiting outside knocked on the door again. She was beginning to get a little fidgety for the sounds of the fire could be heard out in the distance.
“Hello? Hello!?” the pegasus said from outside the door. “Excuse me but there is a fire in the Everfree forest! Can you please come outside? I need to get you someplace safe.”
Without warning the door swung open again to reveal that the yellow pegasus. This time she wore a frightened look on her face. She just nodded slowly not removing her gaze from the pegasus just outside. It took a while before she realized that she was staring, but after shaking her head clear of any thoughts, the yellow pegasus spoke up.
“A fire..? Um, well…” she said now avoiding eye contact.
The pegasus just outside sighed loudly as this she could now hear the crackling sounds of the fire.
“Do you know anyone we can tell about this? I didn’t want to frighten the ponies of Ponyville.”
The yellow pegasus just nodded as she slowly flew outside and down the path towards Ponyville, gesturing with a hoof for her company to follow along. As the other pegasus followed suit, she swore she heard a soft sigh coming from the pegasus leading her.
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The trip to Ponyville had been brief. Both pegasi entered the town without raising suspicion or turning any heads. They dropped out of the air and onto the paved backstreets of the small town breaking into a slow canter as they continued down the path. The long maned pegasus took this opportunity to take a good look at her surroundings. The backstreets of the small town were unassuming. The only thing that made them so different from the main streets was the complete lack of ponies. No pony seemed to use these streets for the sounds of the two pegasus’s hoofsteps echoed off the walls of the surrounding houses with ease.
As they rounded the corners, a familiar building came into view. It was larger than the surrounding buildings taking up as much space as two homes combined. The yellow pegasus walked up to one of the doors of the building. She walked inside only stopping to notice that her new friend had not followed her inside.
The pegasus just stood there and stared for a moment.
“What are we doing? I thought we were going to tell somepony about the fires in the forest…”
“Well,” The yellow pegasus began. “I um… I need to do some things before we go… I have been meaning to attend to them for some time…”
The other pegasus just frowned.
“With all due respect Miss…”
“Fluttershy…”
“-Miss Fluttershy. There is a fire raging in the Everfree forest and the more time we waste here, even more of the Everfree will burn up.” The pegasus couldn’t understand why they were wasting time when they could be using it for more productive things.
Fluttershy just let out a deep sigh as she brought her gaze up to meet the pegasus’s stare.
“I promised a filly that I would visit her here in the hospital and I would rather have an Equestria where the sun never raises than break this promise,” the yellow pegasus said. She steeled her gaze as the turned and walked further into the building.
The pegasus just sighed as she followed Fluttershy into the hospital. Even though she was upset, she understood the pegasus’s reasoning. As they walked down the twisting hallways of the hospital the mare started taking notes of her surroundings once more. Around her lay many different ponies of all races and walks of life. Some lay in beds fast asleep while other less fortunate ponies tossed and turned in their beds in a restless sleep.
As they walked down the hallways, the mare almost failed to notice the light pink earth pony pushing a small cart of medical supplies down the hallway. They collided moments later as much of the medical supplies fell to the floor.
Apologies were exchanged as the pegasus helped the earth pony nurse up, but when the nurse looked up to the pegasus, she stopped. Her stare was a mix or confusion and shock and the pegasus just couldn’t understand why. The nurse just looked at her, and then turned to Fluttershy with an equally confused stare. When the pegasus turned her gaze to Fluttershy, the yellow mare just smiled politely in her direction. After helping the nurse up, Fluttershy suggested that her pegasus friend should go into the room just down the hallway. The one that help the filly that she originally came to see.
As the pegasus walked down the hallway, she could swear that she hear some words being exchanged between the nurse and the yellow pegasus, words barely audible to each other let alone the other patients in the room. Whatever they were talking about, they needed to make sure that no pony else heard.
As the pegasus rounded another corner she came across the room that Fluttershy had told her to go to. She looked at the golden plate that sat on the door.
‘Intensive care’
The mare took a deep breath and opened the door. The room was quiet and dark. The shades were pulled back as not to let any light into the room. Slowly the mare pulled her hoof across the wall until she found the switch for the lights. As she flipped the lights on, she could not help but gasp. For within the bed lay a small filly. Her one of her hindlegs and both of her fragile wings were bound in casts. The filly, thankfully, was asleep. Only Celestia would know what could have caused such pain for the filly.
The mare stepped closer to the bed as to get a better look at the filly’s long purple mane. It was a tangled mess. One would think that the poor thing had not been bathed in days, but the strong scent of lavender coming from the filly said otherwise. Other than a few bandages and bruises, the filly’s orange coat seemed well kept. But something else stood out on the filly’s coat. There were patches of peachy skin where fur was only beginning to grow back. This was just too much for the pegasus as she felt a single solitary tear roll down her cheek. What could of happened?
“Poor Scootaloo…”
The sudden appearance of Fluttershy in the room almost created an entirely new door in the wall. And after some apologies and whatnot they both turned their gazes to the filly in the bed.
Fluttershy let out a familiar deep sigh.
“You know,” she began. “She has been here in the Ponyville hospital for some time now. The doctors have been keeping a close eye on her incase, Celestia forbid, something would happen to her. She had been out in the forest just a couple nights before.”
The pegasus didn’t need to be told, she put two and two together as she spoke up.
“Oh dear goddess no… Was she caught in the forest fires? What was she doing out there?”
There was no response for a while. Eventually the pegasus moved her gaze to Fluttershy. The pegasus had somehow failed to notice that Fluttershy had opened the windows revealing the small town of Ponyville to her and the dark clouds of smoke of in the distance.
“You don’t remember do you…?” Fluttershy said quietly. Maybe it was because she was facing the window, but she was barely audible.
“What was that?” the mare next to her said. “I can barely hear you. Please speak up.”
Fluttershy turned around now revealing an extremely distraught look on her face. She was tearing up and showed no signs of stopping.
“You mean you don’t remember what had happened to her?”
The pegasus was now become irritated.
“Can you just tell me what happened to her?! Who did this?”
“I thought bringing you to her would snap you out of it.”
“Snap me out of what!?”
Fluttershy steeled her face as she shot her stare straight at the mare.
“It was you who did this. You did this to Scootaloo.”
The pegasus was speechless. For one thing her mind was buzzing with questions. It was hard to even think, but one question kept resurfacing over and over in her mind.
“What are you talking about…?”
Fluttershy just continued to stare at her as she spoke.
“Do you remember how she got all those injuries do you?”
The pegasus was about to speak, but Fluttershy cut her off.
“She was dropped. She was dropped from the arms of a pegasus, and that pegasus was you. You were flying out around the Everfree forest practicing a new stunt. And when Scootaloo asked to come and watch, how could you say no. You took the filly in your arms as you started to do tricks in the air.”
The pegasus heard enough as she cut Fluttershy off.
“What do you take me for? A fool?! Only a fool would-“the pegasus stopped mid-sentence as Fluttershy shot her stare at the mare again. Her stare seemed to paralyze her, not allowing another word to come out of the mare’s mouth no matter how hard she willed it to be.
“That’s just it! You didn’t notice until you finished your trick. You were too absorbed in your little stunt that you failed to notice that you had dropped the filly halfway through. Luckily I had been out in the forest helping along a family of squirrels when she exploded through the treetops. I did not delay to rush to her aid. She was badly hurt and I could see you flying up there just staring at us Rainbow Dash.”
That last bit struck the pegasus hard.
“Who did you just call me…?”
“Rainbow Dash.”
The pegasus snapped at Fluttershy.
“That can’t be…! Rainbow Dash is the most loyal pony in all of Equestria! I don’t believe that she would let this kind of thing happen!”
Fluttershy snapped back with more than enough rage to rival the pegasus’s.
“That is exactally it! I saw it on your face Rainbow Dash! You could not believe what you had done. And you could not live with yourself, so you flew away. You flew away into the Everfree. I wanted to come after you, but I had to get Scootaloo back to the hospital. I went back into the forest as soon as Scootaloo was stable in the hospital and that’s when I found you lying there with a large gash across your head.”
The pegasus was trying to make sense of what she was being told. But none of it made the slightest bit of sense to her.
“Do you expect me to believe that? I have been living in my cloud home in the Everfree for years now!”
“You can’t have a cloud home above the Everfree Rainbow Dash. You cannot control the clouds above the forest. Every pegasus that ever came out of Cloudsdale knows that.”
The pegasus was only angered at all of this.
“How about the fires? Don’t tell me you can’t see the smoke outside…!”
Just then the nurse pony from earlier walked into the room with a familiar cart of medical supplies. She didn’t even seem to notice the heated argument between the two pegasi.
Quickly the pegasus grabbed the nurse and forcibly made her look out the window.
“Tell her that you can see a fire out there too!”
The nurse swiftly broke out of the hold and turned to stare at the pegasus. She looked extremely angry, but with a heavily practiced exhale and inhale, the nurse calmed herself.
“Miss Dash, there is no fire out there, there never was. We have been trying to tell you this for an entire week now.
“Are you telling me that my entire life is a lie?” The pegasus said.
“Yes Rainbow Dash, you have been lying to yourself ever since this happened. You need to stop running from yourself Dash. You need to forgive yourself for this. Scootaloo has long since forgiven you. It hurts her more than any cut or bruise on her body to see you like this.” Fluttershy said.
“You need to stop running from yourself, you need to face this Rainbow Dash. We have been trying to tell you all week.”
“No.” It was a simple answer.
“No.” The pegasus repeated. “I do not believe that I am the cause of his filly’s pain. If I know any better I think you two are trying to frame for this!"
Fluttershy put a hoof on the pegasus's shoulder.
"Rainbow Dash, please try and understand..."
The pegasus just brushed Fluttershy's hoof off.
"Don't give me that!" she said as she made her way towards the door. "This has just been a giant waste of my time!"
And with that the pegasus walked out of the room.
A small cough came from the filly in the bed. Slowly she opened her eyes and at the sight of Fluttershy she smiled.
"Hey Fluttershy."
Fluttershy just smiled back.
"Why hello Scootaloo. Good to see you’re awake, are you feeling okay?"
"Yes I'm feeling great." Scootaloo said waving her casted limb at the two mares.
The nurse just smiled as she wheeled the cart over and began to measure some of the medicine. She almost spilled all the medicine on the cart for the second time today when the sound of Rainbow Dash hollering outside interrupted her concentration. Scootaloo just looked outside to see the cyan mare flying around outside warning the townsfolk of a fire that did not exist.
"Fluttershy?" Scootaloo said. "Is that Rainbow Dash?"
Fluttershy just walked up and nuzzled the filly.
"No Scootaloo, that's not Rainbow Dash. The Dash we know is still locked up inside."
"Are we going to try again tomorrow?"
"Yes Scootaloo, I will see you again tomorrow."
"Are you going to bring Rainbow Dash again?"
Fluttershy just sighed for the third time today.
"I will try Scootaloo."
~Where I've gone~
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