A midnight stroll with your family should be a peaceful thing, just like walking in the park should be. But not tonight, not for this family. The moon didn't peek through the dark clouds, and without a light of some sort, you couldn't see your own muzzle in the dark. Rain and wind hit Ponyville with a force that made the stone under your hooves want to shiver and wince in pain, if it was possible. Lightning lit up the sky from time to time, but revealed only the silhouette of things. From the tree's lining the paths, to the town in the distance, to the silhouettes of three ponies running to the Ponyville hospital. Once of the ponies was a large brown earth pony stallion, his already wild mane whipping his face with a force that stung, as he carried his white unicorn wife on his back. Just short behind the stallion and mare was a young colt, he was five. His horn sparked a bit as he struggled to keep what little light he could conjure up alight. The stallion, on the other hand, plunged into the seemingly eternal darkness without sight. He couldn't see his muzzle in front of him, but living in this small town since birth, he somehow knew were has going, like the area was a map in his mind. Through the booming thunder, the stallion managed to hear a thud on the stone path. He skidded to a halt and whipped around, to have the lightning light up his line of sight for him. There he saw his son, scrambling to get up and a soft call emit from the growing darkness.
"Keep going, dad! I'll catch up!" The colt screamed, straining his vocal cords.
The stallion looked at the colt then hollered back. "Alright! Be careful!"
The stallion stepped through the automatic glass doors at the entrance of the Ponyville hospital, only to stop in the warmth and shudder. He gasped for breath, as the only nurse in the area shot up from her chair. The nurse barked a few orders into a phone, the galloped over to the stallion with a mobile bed, the white mare still on his back.
"Its alright, sir. Please, follow me." The nurse murmured as she got the mare onto the bed.
"Sh-she." The stallion started before the nurse put her hoof over her muzzle.
"I see the wound, and I can promise we will help her." The nurse said before wheeling the mare into a room. "Feel free to sit behind the glass window, the doctor will begin right away."
The small light brown colt stumbled into the hospital, his knee's bleeding, but not enough to bother the colt. He shook his head, freeing a bit of rain water from his wild mane. With a sigh, he stopped his magic, and walked up to the nearest nurse.
"Excuse me, miss?" The colt said, with a soft tug on the nurses apron.
The nurse turned and looked down at the colt with a soft smile. "Hey there. Where are your parents?"
"My mom is hurt. My dad brought her in a few minutes ago. I don't know where they are." The colt replied, his eyes tearing a bit.
"Well no need to worry, kiddo. I'll call another nurse, but in the meantime, lets get you a band-aid for your knees."
The colt nodded and allowed the nurse to lead him to the check-in area, where she patched the colt up and called administration.
"Whats your name, honey?" The mare asked, holding the phone to her ear.
"My name? My name's Sega Jake Mash." Sega said, introducing himself.
"Ah. I'm nurse Red Heart." The older nurse said, smiling as her pink locks slipped from her nurse cap.
Red Heart returned the phone to its proper place, then turned towards Sega with a smile. The colt was rubbing on his band-aid onto his knee as the mare walked over. She took off her stethoscope and handed it to the colt. Sega looked at it with a curious gaze, then looked at the mare, puzzled.
"Its called a stethoscope. You listen to heartbeats with it." Red Heart said, allowing Sega to take the red stethoscope.
"Is that why its red and has white hearts on it?" Sega asked with a small smile.
"Sure is. Your parents are busy right now, so that means me and you can play for a little while. Wanna hear your heartbeat?"
"Sure do!"
Sega looked at Red Heart in awe as he listened to the small thumps his heart made. He grinned wildly then noticed his stomach grumble. He rubbed it a bit then looked at the mare.
"Hungry?"
Sega nodded and took the stethoscope out of his ears. "Can I have something to eat, please?"
"Sure. Lets go to the cafeteria, I'll get you something. My treat."
Sega hopped down from the black chair he had been resting on and followed the white mare. "Your coat looks like mine! Only I have more brown."
"That's right! Your mane has a bit of pink and brown too. That reminds me of somebody... hmm. Can't put my hoof on it, but you certainly have that jump in your step that I know from somewhere." The mare thought for a moment as they walked, and smiled. "Almost like a small white filly that would come in here once in a while with her friends. Hyper little kiddo's but they sure were a help with playing with the foals, along with her older sister."
"Really? My mom has a white coat, and a older sister. She also has two friends, but they are always busy." Sega said, thinking of his mother and her two friends.
"That's too bad, friends are a great thing. Old Zecora will tell you the same thing!"
"Who's Zecora?"
"Oh, she's a potions master. A zebra that lives in the everfree. She comes in here once in a while and helps with medicine in exchange for bits every once in a while. We always use her remedies first, as they work much better then normal medicine. What would you like?" The mare asked once they entered the cafeteria.
"Can I have a bowl of oatmeal? The kind with apple?"
"You sure can."
Sega finished his oatmeal at the same time a second nurse trotted into the cafeteria, to where Red Heart and Sega were sitting. The cream mare pushed her red mane back and bit and looked at Red Heart with a relieved sigh.
"I was startin' to worry i'd neveh find yah." The mare said in a country accent.
"Ah, Liberty Belle, this is Sega. I assume Doctor Horse has given the okay to see them?"
"That'd be correct, miss."
"What wing are they in?"
"The birthing wing."
"Oh! Alright, well could you take care of Sega's bowl please? Its empty so just throw it with the other dishes, I'll bring him over immediately."
"Did the griffons bring my baby sister?" Sega asked with a smile.
"They sure did." Red Heart said, helping Sega from his chair and leading him through the hospital.
Author's Note
I hope you enjoy the first part of the prologue, as I had a blast writing it. Only a few characters are briefly introduced here, but I must say, they do play a big part in the life of Sega, Atari and the Mash family.
The large pieces of this part of the chapter are a dream Atari is having of a story that she hears a lot. This will be explained more in part 2 of the prologue.
Thank you for reading!
Nurse Red Heart opened the heavy wooden door into the clean room. The room had a faint smell of lemons, despite the faint smell of sweat. Sega moved into the room a bit and allowed the nurse to step in as well. In the corner of the room sat a white mare with purple curled hair. She looked up at the sound of the door click as it shut and smiled.
"Sega, darling! Where are your socks?"
The mare had been referring to Sega's brown and light brown socks, a pair she made when the colt was born. Confused, Sega turned his head and looked at his back legs with a frown. As he noticed that his socks were indeed absent, he frowned.
"I'm sorry Auntie Rarity, I think I lost them on the way here."
"Well that's quite alright, honey. I'll make you some new ones. Though I was unprepared for Sweetie's birth tonight, so I don't have anything for the little foal."
"Can I help you make some matching socks for the new foal? Then I can give them to her when they are done?"
"Well that would be marvelous, Sega. How thoughtful of you." Rarity said, hugging the small foal.
Red Heart smiled and walked over to where Sweetie Belle was resting and looked at the clip board. "Ah, Sweetie Belle and Button Mash. I thought I recognized something in your son."
Button looked up from where he laid and gazed quizzically at the mare. "Oh?"
"He has the same bounce in his step that Sweetie had when she used to come in here with Rarity and her friends. Such a generous little group."
The mare smiled and left the room, allowing the family to be alone. Sweetie Belle laid on the hospital bed, her eyes shut and seemingly calm. Button pushed himself to a sitting position and yawned. He look at Rarity and Sega with tired eyes. He sighed, and shut his eyes for a moment, as Rarity and Sega looked at Sweetie Belle.
"Dad? Wheres my little brother or sister?"
The stallion smiled and moved over to the colt. "Well the doctors have to make sure she wasn't hurt. You know how mommy got hurt?"
"Yeah, she was cut with a knife by a strange pony in the park, right?"
"She was. Well they have to make sure the knife didn't hurt the foal. You can see her later though okay?" Button said before looking towards Rarity.
"I'll take him to my house for the night, and bring him back around noon." The white unicorn said with a smile, petting the colt's mane.
"Thank you, Rarity. I'm not so sure he'd enjoy sleeping in a hospital."
The mare nodded and yawned. "Come along, Sega. Say goodnight to your daddy, I think its time to go get some rest."
"Goodnight daddy!" Sega said as he hugged Button.
"Goodnight, Sega. Goodnight, Rarity."
The mare nodded and led Sega out of the room, and walked through the hospital birthing wing. As they walked down the halls of the hospital, Sega said goodnight to all the nurses and workers along the way. He even stopped and gave a quick hug to Red Heart on the way out and thanked her for the oatmeal. Eventually they hopped into a carriage waiting outside for them.
Sega was woken up by a pony hopping around where Sega slept on the air mattress. The purple pony hopped around dancing and singing as its green and purple mane flew in every way possible. The pony stopped by Sega's head and ran its dragon-like tail over his face.
"Syra! Why, you know how much I hate that. Furry scales, it just doesn't feel right to me." Sega said with a small glare.
"But you have to wake up, plus I like bothering you." The filly said, flashing her sharp teeth towards her little cousin.
"Ugh... is Uncle Spike at work?"
"Not yet, he's eating breakfast." Syra said, pulling her tail around her hooves.
The colt looked at his cousin, and rolled off the air mattress and out of the blankets. He was quickly greeted by two more foals, tackling him to the ground. His younger cousins, Spark and Gem tackled him as they dashed into the room. gem and Spark were twins and were both nearly white with a green mane and tail. They looked like normal foals, unlike their older sister. Spark was the only boy other then his dad.
"Really?"
"Hi big cousin!" The twins said in unison.
Sega gave them a half glare and pushed them off with a sigh. "Yeah, hi, okay. Can we eat now?"
Syra laughed and nodded. "Yeah, come on."
The group of foals trotted down into the kitchen, where Rarity served a bit of breakfast. Gem and Oats for the twins, while Syra and Sega settled for some scrambled carrots and turnips. Spike, the dragon, sat at the other end of the table, eating his gems as well. The dragon was the size of a normal stallion pony, though looked like a mature dragon. He smiled at Sega and put down his cup.
"Hey there Sega, I didn't know you were here."
"Oh, Auntie Rarity brought me here when we left the hospital."
He smiled and nodded and offered a piece of bread. "Must have been a long night, huh?"
"Yeah. I guess." Sega said, taking the bread and biting into it.
"Hey mom? Can I go with you to see my new cousin today?" Syra asked, giving her mother puppy eyes.
"Not today my little sparkling. Perhaps tomorrow." Rarity said with a grin as she ate her breakfast as well.
The six sat there and ate while they struck up small talk and laughed a bit. Eventually one of the twins asked why Sweetie Belle had the foal early, and caused Spike and Rarity to freeze. They explained that Sweetie was stabbed, only to the terms that wouldn't haunt a three year old foal for all eternity. Sega pushed his plate away once he had finished eating and glared at the part-dragon twin. Rarity sighed and stood, grabbing three saddlebags off the kitchen counter.
"School time, the bus is here, come along you three. Off to school you go." She said, giving the foals their saddlebags.
Once the foals had left along with Spike, Sega and Rarity got ready to go to the hospital. They got ready in silence and once they were done, ran outside into the sun to flag down a cab. The stone roads were damp, and got their hooves wet. The cab brought them straight to the hospital, where they went in to check-in. The nurse smiled at the two and asked them to wait in the waiting room while she got their bracelets prepared and printed.
