Chimera

Night was beginning to fall on the primordial forest known as the Everfree. It's gnarled, leafless branches intertwined to shield the forest floor from direct sunlight. Coupled with the regions ever-present wild weather, the Everfree had few visitors and fewer permanent residents, but there was one.

A light carpet of snow cushioned the hoof falls of the forest's most peculiar resident. Zecora, the only zebra to be found anywhere near Ponyville, trudged through the forest.

"Oh, thank the powers that be, the snow fell after the clouds were out of the Everfree," she said to no one in particular.

Dragging a large sled, piled high with firewood, was tiring enough on just a thin blanket of snow. If the forest had been hit with the kind of blizzard that Ponyville had just endured, then this task would have been downright exhausting.

"Just a few more pieces for my sled, then back to home I can head." A slight shiver ran through her body, even with a thick winter cloak and leg wrappings, with the sun setting it was getting cold fast.

Gathering firewood in winter was easily Zecora's least favorite chore. She had been at it most of the day, not because she had to look very hard to find firewood, but because of the extra caution she had to exercise during the winter months. While most of the large predators were either hibernating like bears, or dormant like timber wolves, the ones that were still active were usually quite hungry.

The sudden snapping of multiple branches jolted Zecora onto high alert. Something had just fallen out of a nearby tree. Zecora stood rigid, whatever that was had fallen close by. She was about to bolt when she noticed something. Silence.

No roars of aggression, no heavy footfalls incoming, not even the brief struggle of a small animal being brought down. All that could be heard was the absolute stillness of the forest.

Emboldened by the lack of aggressive noises, Zecora began moving forward. Eyes scanning the trees, and ears pivoting back and forth, she made her way forward. Perhaps the forest is being nice, and a few large branches were brought down by ice. As she crested a small rise in the earth, the sight before her made her eyes go wide as fear shot through her. There on the ground was a familiar looking naked hairless figure, covered in red.

"Lero, is that you?" she yelled, galloping up to the prone figure, only for realization to dawn, "No, you are new."

*****

It had been a long, and tiresome day for the physicians at Ponyville General Hospital. While the rest of the town had been out helping to clean up the recent snowfall, the doctors and nurses had spent all day dealing with the injuries that inevitably followed.

Most of them had been minor, an ankle twisted while ice skating, a bonk on the head from a dropped roof shovel, and one unfortunate earth stallion who had gotten caught up in the music of harmony and momentarily forgotten that he couldn't fly. Fortunately, after dancing off of his roof, he had landed in a sizable snowdrift and sustained only minor injuries. His herd however had insisted that he go to the doctor and get checked out.

Doctor Vital Signs, having finally assured the two mares that their stallion was fine, had just walked past the front desk and was heading towards his office. It was getting late, and he was looking forward to going home before too much longer.

A sudden crash, and the sound of yelling snapped his attention back around. Charging back around the corner he saw the unmistakable form of Zecora. She was shouting in that bizarre native language of hers, and pulling what looked like a loaded toboggan behind her. Her eyes were frantic, and she seemed to be having trouble catching her breath.

"Miss Zecora, what is the matter?" He asked, trying to get her to focus on him.

In response to his question, Zecora grabbed the cloak she had used to cover whatever it was she had on her sled, and pulled with all her remaining strength.

As the object on the sled came into view, Vital's heart nearly stopped. A thousand thoughts flew through his mind at once, threating to overwhelm him. Just as he was about to stagger though, his medical training kicked in.

Priorities, what are the priorities?

"Nurse, get an extra-large stretcher out here, and tell them to prep the E.R.!" he shouted.

Within moments a team of medics was in the hospital's foyer, with a stretcher designed for a minotaur, and preparing to move the one thing they had all hoped that they would never see like this... a human.

"On three!" yelled Vital Signs, "One, two, three!"

With that the five ponies pulled the blanket that they had managed to get under the patient, and lift her onto the stretcher. With a quick flic of a hoof the stretcher was raised, and they were mobile. Vital Signs paused just long enough to look over his shoulder, and bark a command.

"Somepony, detain, and get some answers out of her," he exclaimed, gesturing to Zecora, "I want to know everything!"

With that the team of ponies was off. Racing through the hospital halls they quickly found themselves in the waiting emergency room, and got the patient onto the operating table.

"Sterilize!" Signs shouted.

All the ponies in the room closed their eyes, as Signs and the other two unicorns focused magical energy through their horns, and a bright white light engulfed the room. As the light faded the ponies could feel its effect washing over them. All the dust and sweat that had they had accumulated over the course of the day was washed away, while the room and everything in it was purged of microscopic life.

The patient was also cleaned. A thick layer of dirt, grime, and dried blood having been instantly wiped away, only to be replaced by new streams of red.

With a clear view of his patient, Vital Signs could finally asses the damage.

"Alright ponies, we have multiple lacerations across the body including one on the side that looks very bad, what looks like a broken arm, and from the looks of the chest area, fractured ribs as well. Your first priority is the bleeding, we don't know how much blood the patient has lost. Nurse I need to see inside the abdomen," he instructed.

As the other ponies in the room set about trying to stanch the bleeding of the less serious wounds, and hooking up monitoring equipment, a pale blue unicorn mare came around to Vital's side of the table.

"Where at doctor?"

Signs motioned to the large gash on the patients side, and the nurse went to work casting a very special spell. While Vital did his best to stop the bleeding of the wound with his magic, a second magical aura appeared around his. As the nurse beside him concentrated, the skin that was engulfed in the glow of her magic started to become transparent.

"Thank you nurse See Through, but we need to go deeper," Signs instructed.

At the doctors urging, See Through focused more magic into her spell. The human's skin vanished entirely, followed by fat, and muscle, until finally she reached the organs.

Vital Signs let out a deep sigh. This was what he had been afraid of, organ damage. Specifically, it looked like the patients liver had been slashed.

"Hold it there See, let me see what I can do," Signs instructed.

As his magic flowed into the patient's body, Signs let years of practice guide his actions. As his magic worked deeper into the body flesh was knitted back together, and blood vessels reattached, until the outer wound was all but gone. Now for the hard part. Repairing a liver was always arduous, the organ was so complex that even a small mistake could do irreparable damage. Fortunately, I don't make mistakes.

With sweat beading on his brow, Signs blocked out his surroundings and focused on his task. With the kind of concentration that most ponies never experience, he felt his way through the damaged tissue. Weaving strands back together, and repairing damaged structures, Vital didn't even notice the nurse who was yelling at him until she passed a hoof in front of his eyes.

"What, what is it?" he snapped.

Then Vital saw what she was motioning too. The heart monitor had flat-lined.

"Defib!"