Minutes later, a crimson flash from his horn revealed a scroll hanging in the air, tied with a ribbon and seal Derpy couldn’t make out.

“Oh, good! Is this what I think it is? He opened up the important-looking scroll, peering closer. “…Oh. This is most definitely not for me,” he muttered sheepishly. “Great. I'll just forward this...art... to him, goodness...” He lit it on fire with a spark of his horn, the smoke going out the window in a reddish glow. He sat down, hoping for what he was actually waiting for to arrive.

A few minutes passed, and another red flash lit the hall. A second scroll fell into his waiting hoof. He opened it excitedly, scanning it quickly, then whooped and danced around. “They said yes! Fantastic!” He turned to Derpy, barely able to keep himself from jumping up and down.

“As soon as I got you here, I immediately informed my commander of what had happened, asking for permission to heal you. Normally, we’re not allowed to use angel-grade magic on regular mortals, but he made an exception. Oh, this is great! Now, hold still, and relax.”

He pointed his horn, glowing silver and gold, at Derpy, who did her best to do as he said and relax. Holding still wasn’t too much of a problem, since she could barely move anyway. A brilliant beam shot into her from his horn, and immediately she began to feel weird – really good, but weird. It kind of tickled, and she giggled a little.

Soon, she felt really good – perfect, almost! The beam from Spirit’s horn slowly faded, finally shutting off. Derpy felt like she’d never been hurt in the first place! She happily hopped down off the hospital bed, trotting around in a circle. Flapping her wings, she fluttered around the room, the wind sending papers flying, but she paid them no mind.

Finally, she touched down, staring at Spirit in awe. Making a spur-of-the-moment decision, she ran to him and nuzzled against his side, the perfect height since she was a little shorter than him. “Thank you very much!” She smiled up at him.

Spirit grinned at the Pegasus. He raised his horn in the air, and in a moment, he was once again a normal unicorn. He was still a little taller than Derpy, so he was the right height to nuzzle the top of her head. “You’re very welcome! I hope I don’t have to do that again. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe. Nopony else will hurt you when I’m around.”

“I’m glad you found me, I’m a very lucky filly.”

They sat down, waiting for the doctor to come to give Derpy a clean bill of health and release her. While waiting, Spirit did one of his regular magic scans of the area. Being a little lazy, he didn’t bother to cloak it. He came up with not much, maybe a little darkness, but nothing major. Probably just the Everfree Forest nearby; that place always seemed full of darkness.

Finally, the doctor came in, and he dropped his clipboard out of shock. “Oh, um, I kind of healed her,” Spirit said, mentally berating himself for not telling them. Getting over his shock, the doctor put on a professional face, checking Derpy to make certain she was fine.

As the sand-colored unicorn worked, Spirit was unable to sit still. Something itched. And it was getting itchier. Funny, he thought, I remember the presence of darkness kind of itched like this-

A sudden explosion sent the three ponies flying back. When the dust cleared, it revealed a gaping hole in the side of the hospital, and a figure that stepped forward towards them. The stallion was tall and crimson, with a mane striped with black and the same red color his coat displayed. He had strange wings similar to Spirit’s, but not quite the same. A sharply pointed horn glowed with dark red magic.

Spirit paled, or he would have, if he wasn’t already white. “Fern?”

‘Fern’ bared his teeth. “Do not call me Fern! I am Inferno!”

Spirit shook his head. “Nah, you’re always gonna be Fern to me.”

Scowling, Fern got in Spirit’s face. “Don’t call me that. You know not to call me that!”

Spirit shrugged. “I know you don’t like being called that. Since you decided to betray everyone and go over to that side, I don’t care if you don’t like being called Fern.”

“Mom told you not to call me that.”

“Do you see her around here?”

“…Um, Spirit? What’s going on?”

The two looked at the grey mare, who was thoroughly confused. The doctor had already run off in terror, so she was the only other one there.

“Oh, sorry, Derpy. This would be my …brother, Fern.”

“It’s Inferno! Get it right!”

“Okay. Hi, Inferno, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Derpy!” She smiled.

“Yeah, hi, kid.”

“So, why are you here?” she asked the fuming stallion.

He smirked. “Well, I’ve been trying to track my brother for a long while. Not much luck, until I got a big, fat beacon yesterday, followed by another two today. I’ve got a score to settle,” he added with a malicious grin.

“Fern…” Spirit warned. “This is a hospital. Don’t turn this into a battlefield, there’s no need for unnecessary death.”

Fern scoffed. “Like that’s supposed to make me care?” He chuckled. “But don’t worry, dear brother, this isn’t my chosen battleground.” Flying out the hold he came in, he gestured to the town behind him. “This quaint little town is.”

Derpy stares at him in shock, then anger began to build up in her. Seeing a nearby bucket of water, she ran up to it, grabbed it, and threw the water on Fern.

Drenched, Fern looked at the mailmare incredulously. “What in the Dark Creator’s name was that?"

Sheepish, she dropped the bucket and hid behind Spirit. “Um… well, you’re a fire angel, so I thought…”

The dark angel laughed. “A brilliant thought, but no, water does not hurt me. But,” he added, charging up power in his horn, “I know what would hurt you.”

“Derpy, get down!” Spirit shouted, then fired a beam to meet his brother’s magic. The twin beams of fire raged against each other, but slowly, Fern's attack gained ground. As the attack came nearer and nearer, Spirit growled. “You may be more powerful than I, brother… But I know what tricks you can’t do!”

Snarling, Fern broke off the attack and lunged at him, but before he reached them, Spirit put a hoof on Derpy and the two vanished in a bright flash. “Curse it,” Fern grumbled. “Well… They can’t hide for long.” He jumped out the hole, flapping his wings and heading for the town.

Author's Note

Yikes, it's been a while.
This chapter has been sitting on the back burner half-cooked for a while, and I had a free period in which I had little to do, so I decided to do myself and all y'all a favor and finish it ^-^ Hopefully I can get back into the habit of writing. My collab with Trombone15 hasn't really gone anywhere, probably because it's sort of a sequel to this story, eheh... Kind of my fault there. I'll be working hard to finish it all, though!

(9/29/16: Edited out the cringy first paragraph, spaced the paragraphs.)