Heroes of Atria

"Why doesn't he believe me? I know what I saw." Solar stared out at the lake in front of him, longing to do something. His guard's armor lied in a pile beside him. "This is going to be the longest month of my life." he let out a heavy sigh and hung his head, holding back tears. Right before he started sobbing, he quickly grabbed his helmet and aggressively threw it as hard as he could towards the lake. "Worthless piece of junk!" he shouted at the gold headpiece as it sank into the lake. "I hate this damned kingdom! I've done nothing but help it, and what do I get?" He stood up and stared up at the sun. "Nothing." he whispered before collapsing and sobbing.

To Solar's left, a small group of trees and bushes began to rustle. He looked up with his face covered so that whoever it was couldn't see the emotional wreck that he was. The trees continued to rustle, and Solar watched in anticipation, mesmerized, forgetting about his punishment. After a brief moment, a pony stepped out. They were wearing a hood and cape, concealing most of their features, but their legs and nose poked out, revealing a deep blue, nearly black coat. Wordlessly, they looked at the guard pony and fell.

"Are you alright?" he quickly hopped up and ran to them, his guard's training taking over. When he reached to remove the cloak and assess any injuries, the pony put a hoof to their head, as if to block him. "What happened? Do you need medical assistance?"

The pony's breathing was heavy, as if they just ran a great distance. They nodded their head 'yes' to the best of their ability.

"I'm going to remove your cloak to help you, ok?" The pony gripped their cloak tighter, clearly not wanting it to be removed. "I can't help you while you're wrapped up like this, I need to take it off." Within seconds of him saying that, the pony's breathing calmed, and their body went limp. "Hey, can you hear me? Are you alright? Hello?" instinctively putting his ear to their chest, he could tell they were still breathing. Solar looked around for help, but he was completely alone, no other ponies had gathered at the lake for some reason.

"What do I do?" he whispered to himself. "What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?" he repeated. Suddenly, an idea clicked. "Stay here!" he said to the unconscious pony, as if they could move. Then, he quickly ran to the outskirts of town where his friend lived.

"Hurry Darim, they're around here!" Solar shouted back to his friend, running full speed towards the pony.

Dr. Darim, a bulky white unicorn was following close behind. "Slow down, you know I can't run fast!"

"Here they are!" he stopped by the pony, still collapsed, seemingly untouched since he left them.

"Why did you need me again?" he asked when he saw the pony. "You do have a guard's medical training, right?"

"I, I panicked. Plus I was suspended-"

Darim lowered his head to check the pony's breathing. "So you can't use your medical training?"

"Look, just, are they okay?"

"Yes, although I'm going to need to examine them for injuries." Darim said as he reached for the cloak.

"NO!"

"What?"

Solar hesitated. "I uhh, I tried to take it off, but they insisted I don't."

"Don't be ridiculous, we need to-"

"I don't think it's a good idea!" the Earth pony exclaimed.

"Solar, just let the doctor do his job."

"We should take them somewhere sterile, y'know, like your lab!"

Darim sighed. "You're acting so strange lately. But okay, fine. However, if anything happens to them due to delayed medical attention, it's on you. Okay?"

"Of course"

Darim used his magic to pick up the pony and rolled his eyes at his friend. The pony slowly lifted off the ground, a faint white glow surrounding them. "Let's hurry this up then." he said as he broke into a run back towards his house.