The Living Shadow Makes it to Ponyville
Caution: Rockslides and Bunnies
Chapter 1: Caution: Rockslides and Bunnies
Looming over the oblivious, quaint village of Ponyville laid a mountain, whose name was so overwhelmingly unimportant that it will not be presently mentioned. Said mountain stood miles high, composed of dull gray stone and red rocks, with a path of brown earth carved around its sides that led all the way to a rather large cave mouth at the top. Upon this day a young mare with a basket took it upon herself to go up the path to find a group of bunnies that had, in their apparent innocence, gotten lost on one of the breaks in the path. The young mare was a Pegasus with a long, dainty pink mane that complemented her pale yellow coat quite well. On the sides of her hips was a depiction of three fragile pink butterflies arranged in a triangle. Her name was Fluttershy, and she had scaled up the mountain path while we've been describing her until nearly halfway to the top, she found the missing bunnies. One by one, she got them all up in the basket she had carried along with her and she set back down the mountain.
On her venture down the mountainside, one of the bunnies, an unbearably adorable ball of fluff whose name is also of no particular importance, developed a devious prank to play on his weak hearted caretaker. To carry out his plan, he hopped out of the basket and lay on the ground, feigning death. The other bunnies cooperatively raised alarm of their fallen friend to Fluttershy. Unprepared for this sudden event, she immediately screamed, not knowing what to do about this poor ball of fluff.
She was reaching down to pick him up when the bunny opened his eyes and laughed wildly at her misfortune. Fluttershy tried to raise a shout (if you could call it that) of disapproval, but a low rumbling stopped her mid-breath. The rumbling grew louder and the bunnies looked up the mountain to see several large boulders tumbling down the path. This sight put the furry vermin into an inevitable panic. Fluttershy grew quickly frightened by this and her and the animals scampered down the path, avoiding the course of the rocks. Once at the end of the mountain trail, Fluttershy frantically took count of the bunnies to make sure all of them got here safely. One was missing; the one that had tricked her.
She panicked at this revelation. In her moment of fear, she had forgotten about the bunny that had tricked her. Wracked with guilt, she sat down and began crying. As if perfectly timed, the fluffy trickster scrambled down to the group from further up the path. He seemed to be in a flurry of insanity. The bunny tugged on the weeping pony’s tail, begging her attention. Fluttershy eventually turned and grasped the bunny with exceptional speed, hugging it fiercely.
“Oh, I’m so glad you got out okay! I should never have left you up there, all by yourself. I’m so sorry.” Fluttershy’s penitent pleading was ignored entirely by the bunny as he struggled to break free. “What’s the matter? Are you hurt?” Fluttershy let go of the bunny and placed him gently on the ground before her. The bunny shook his small head and pointed its white paw up the path where rocks had blocked access to the rest of the mountain. Nothing stood out in the huge wall of stone that now covered the path, but a small patch color that looked to be another pony. Fluttershy had not recalled seeing anypony else on the mountain, but she had no time for that. The form wasn't moving, and she saw what she thought to be blood. The mere thought of the thick, ruby-colored liquid made her want to keel over, but her determination to help that poor pony kept her conscious.
Driven by guilt – and that devious ball of fluff – Fluttershy made her way back up the path to discover a pain-stricken stallion lying belly up. His coat was a deep maroon in color, and his mane was split down the middle with an unholy black shade on one side of the split, and brilliant red on the other. His hind legs depicted a black three-point curved shield surrounded by a thin ring of flames. He seemed to be breathing weakly, attempting to muster a plea of assistance to the horrified mare before him.
Fluttershy could only stare in sheer horror at this fallen unicorn that now lay before her hooves. Her mind raced with the guilt of causing that celestia-forsaken rockslide. She blamed herself for this stranger’s tragic state. Fluttershy so desperately cried out for somepony to come to the stallion’s aid.
“H-help! Please, somepony help! Somepony, anypony!” Like a miracle, a calm, kind voice spoke into her head.
“It’s okay, he’ll be fine… as long as you pay attention and what I say. Alright?” Normally, this request would be met with obvious skepticism, but the calming sound of the voice combined with Fluttershy’s desire to make sure he’s okay, made her nod in agreement. “Good. Now he’s close to death, so you better be quick. Get him to a medical facility and he should be fine. But… you must stay with him at all times and you cannot get help from anypony else. This is your burden, and if somepony else helps, he will die.” The serious tone of the disembodied voice’s last words rung in her head as she picked up the pony onto her back. Initially, the weight of a full-grown stallion would be far too much for her to pick up, let alone carry, but the body seemed strangely weightless. In fact, he felt no heavier than the feathers on her wings. She didn't have time to fathom why this was, she only knew that she had to get him to the hospital, and quick.
The Living Shadow Makes it to Ponyville
SubChapter 2: Onwards to the Hospital
She carried him through the small town of Ponyville, bringing looks of shock and terror from its residents towards the grief-stricken mare. Several ponies trotted up, asking if they could help, but she solemnly ignored them and walked on. It was not long before her friends had taken notice of her burden. Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and even Pinkie Pie soon followed her along, barraging her with questions about what happened how they could help. She outlasted the salvo of inquiries with one remark that she kept repeating through her quivering lips:
“I have to get him to the hospital by myself. I can’t leave him.” This was said in a robotic tone that forced her friends into a puzzled – and worried – silence. Even Pinkie was caught in a state of befuddlement at this sudden change in her behavior. They truly expected her to ask for help from her friends, but something was a little off about her. The six mares continued on to the hospital, all but Fluttershy making nonverbal remarks and assumptions about her behavior.
At the end of the golden yellow dirt path flanked on both sides by decorative trees and shrubbery stands the Ponyville Emergency Hospital. Patients of various shades, ages, and illnesses roamed about inside and outside of the building. These patients had seen the ill escorted here many times before, so their reaction to the sight of a young mare carrying a limp body was nowhere near as surprised as the reception from the townsfolk. Nonetheless, they were still in disgusted awe at the spectacle. The group of six (seven if you count the motionless stallion still atop Fluttershy’s back) marched in grim unison, Fluttershy leading the group for a change instead of Twilight, towards the reception desk. The kindly face of the receptionist stared blankly, first at the group, then at the stallion lying on the yellow mare’s back. She spoke with a calculated, almost monotonous voice.
“How may I help you?” The shamelessly oblivious look in her eyes caused a surge of aggression throughout Rainbow Dash, who had kept at the back of the group. Of all of them, Rainbow Dash felt the most unease about their circumstances.
“Seriously, you’re gonna ask that?” The rainbow-mane mare burst. “This guy clearly needs serious help, and you ask a dumb question like that? Do you have any idea how long it took to get him here?” The receptionist drew a deep breath at this, as if the verbal lashing had created a mirrored sense of aggression in the calm pony. Maintaining her level head, the receptionist answered with the most generic response.
“Please take a seat, the doctor will see him shortly.”
It seemed like hours before the doctor, a kind and stout brown stallion, dressed in a white lab coat and the telltale stethoscope, trotted into the room. He took a look at the body Fluttershy carried and immediately raised a call for nurses to take the limp stallion to the emergency room. Another nurse with grayish pink fur and a neatly brushed pale pink mane escorted the six mares to an examination room just across from where the other nurses had taken Fluttershy’s burden. Fluttershy, believing her task to be completed, let out a sigh of relief.
“Go to him, go to him now. Remember what you need to do…” The voice trailed off into unintelligible echoes inside Fluttershy’s formerly eased mind. How was the voice still in her head? How could her friends not hear it? These thoughts appeared in her head synonymously with the voice. She did not have time to ponder these questions further before the voice ruptured again. This time it came with a violent headache that forced her to kneel in pain.
“Fluttershy!” screamed the others in unison. They swarmed to her side, worried about their friend.
“Fluttershy, what’s wrong?” asked Twilight.
“Darling, are you alright?” Rarity inquired.
“Whoa now, you all right there, sugarcube?” asked a most distraught Applejack.
“Fluttershy! Are you okay? Did you fall? Are you hurt? Do you have a headache? What’s wrong?” shouted Pinkie.
“Hey, Flutters, you all right there?” asked Rainbow Dash, desperately trying to keep cool. Fluttershy struggled to stand back on her hooves.
“Oh, I’m fine. Just a little headache, that’s all… Where did they put him?” Fluttershy’s attempts to change the subject were in vain as the ponies huddled around her. Consumed with the need to help the mysterious pony, she forced herself through the wall of peers, headed out of the exam room, and attempted to open the locked doors to the stranger’s emergency room. Upon finding herself unable to gain access to the room, she sat by the door, tearing up. Her friends found Fluttershy silently weeping outside the doors to the emergency room. All efforts to console her were invariably trumped by the repeated phrase that she kept mumbling while rocking slowly back and forth.
“This is my fault. I did this. I am a bad pony.” This phrase was repeated under her breath for hours – to the dismay of her friends – until the doctor and two nurses adorned in medical masks emerged from the swinging doors of the emergency room. The doctor spoke gravely.
“I’m sorry, we did all we could. He’s conscious, but he’ll die within the hour.” These words hung in the medicated air like stagnant fog watching over an unsuspecting populace. “If you wish to, you may speak to him.” The doctor and his nurses stood aside the doors to let them in.