Megaspells: Far Away

Life is a fragile thing. When brought back for a second chance, cherish it, for life does not last forever. Walk a path never taken, and change the world.

Daring was staring at the ceiling, sprawled on the bed in her room staring out of the window longingly. She glanced quickly at the clock that was ticking away happily on the bed stand, something little that could drive anyone up the wall. Even the princesses were probably not immune to the gentle continuous ticking of a clock. Daring rose from her bed and took her key, and locked her room door. Walking out into the open, she spread her wings and took flight. She banked around in a wide, sweeping arc around the tall spires that made Ormont’s skyline and started to follow the train tracks into the dense rainforest which surrounded the city.

After half an hour of flight in a north-westerly direction and approaching the border between the city state of Ormont and Equestria, she decided to go no further than the grassy plains separating the rainforest and the sandy terrain the covered the Equestrian side of the border. As she was about to turn back, she spotted a brown speck on the ground, motionless. It was too large to be a sign of some sort, and too small to be a predator of the rainforest, as the herbivores resided to the canopies.

As she descended over the span of two hundred yards, she could see that the speck was a pony laying on the dusty ground, motionless. She landed herself down gently in the sands and walked over to the earth pony. She knelt down and look over him. He seemed to be breathing shallowly. She then checked the pulse of the pony by touching the artery that runs by the side of his neck. As she did, he opened his eyes in a daze and looked around frantically.

“What do you want?” he croaked though his parched throat, “Finally found me weak and here to kill me? I shouldn’t be surprised. You were always a coward anyways.” He closed his eyes and leaned his head back a little, resigning himself to death.

Deciding that returning to town and fetching help was the best course of action, she took off again. If he were a unicorn or pegasus, she would’ve been able to carry him back, but being an earth pony, he was just too heavy for her to perform such an action. Retracing her path back into the city by following the train tracks, she quickly arrived back in Ormont.

Daring set herself down in front of the hospital in the centre of the bustling city and walked into the reception briskly, which was filled with other zebras waiting patiently in line to make inquiries or the like. She lined up in the winding queue and waited for bureaucracy to take its time. Striding up to the zebra sitting at the desk finally after what seemed like an agonising hour, she said, “There’s a pony down in the desert. He’s lost consciousness and I think he needs help. Fast.”

The receptionist looked up at her sympathetically. “It’s common for ponies to be stranded in the desert around these parts, due to lack of planning or preparation. Very well, a chariot will be dispatched immediately. I’m sure you took note of where he is situated.”

“Yes, I have,” Daring replied.

“Ok. Now, we’ll just have you fill out this form, and then meet the crew up at the dispatch section of the hangar at the fifth floor. It doesn’t take long.”

After filling in the long pages of paperwork, Daring took the elevator to the fifth floor where a large corridor led her to as set of heavy iron doors that were marked with the word in bold white letters, ‘Hangar’. Pushing the door open, a large concrete room came into view with many chariots being moved around and patients being offloaded and brought into the hospital. The front side of the hangar was completely exposed to the open air, where chariots came in and out in an orderly fashion being directed by a set of automated flashing lights at the front of the hangar.

Daring walked deeper into the hangar, where she saw a small desk with messages being transported to and from the desk. As she approached, she saw a unicorn working tirelessly at the stack of papers on the desk, receiving them, filling them out and sending them back out through a small brass tube that dropped down through the floor from the desk probably into all the other sectors of the hospital.

“Uh, hello?” Daring asked, unsure is she found the right pony to ask.

“Ah, you must be the pony requesting a chariot be brought to the border?” the unicorn asked as she pulled out a wad of papers, “Is that right?”

“Yes, it is,” Daring confirmed, and the unicorn signed the document with a quill swiftly.

“Go to sector five of the hangar to your right there,” the unicorn pointed, “A crew will be ready for you.”

“Thank you,” Daring said as she left for where she was told. On the walls around the hangar were yellow lines with numbers painted in the same colour, representing sectors, landing zones and the like. Daring spotted the crew of paramedics bustling around their chariot carrying tools, while sparks flew and the sound of bolts being hammered in surrounded them. As she approached, a zebra from the crew spotted her.

“Hello there!” he greeted, “You must be Daring Do. There is a stallion stranded out in the desert sands that you want picked up, am I right?”

“Yes,” Daring answered, “When can we depart?”

“Whenever you give the word,” he replied.

The chariot rolled slowly through the crowds to one of the short runways that faced the open air. A sprawling view of the suburbia of Ormont was visible through the giant arch that led into the hangar. Daring held onto the frame of the chariot firmly as it sped up quickly, then took to the foggy dusk skies of orange and a set sun. Above the rainforest, they flew as fast as a frigate with its sails billowing fully in the wind.

They soon slowed as they approached the desert, still following the train line surely. Daring pointed the rough whereabouts the downed pony was, and they flew slowly in that direction. Soon, a familiar small speck could be seen on the ground, and the chariot was set to the ground next to him. A stretcher was carried off by the paramedics and they rolled the unconscious brown earth pony atop, then strapped him into the chariot along with all the other medical equipment that was now quickly connected to him.

With everything secure, the chariot raced along again, kicking up dust in a long trail behind them, then lifted off into the now evening sky with the heavens a rich dark blue. Following the train tracks back into town, then landing again in the hangar of the hospital, Jackson was offloaded and taken through the more obscure doors on the other side of the hangar to be treated. Daring was forced to wait in the reception, on the uncomfortable hard chairs for the all clear so that she could see the pony she rescued from the desert.

Staring periodically at the clock on the wall above the reception desk, Daring stood up on her hooves eventually and started pacing the ample amount of free space available the reception that was not filled with rows of chairs. All that was in her mind right then was to get this mess sorted and over with.

After an hour, signified by the chime of the clock tower in the centre of the town, a doctor walked into the reception with a notepad in a satchel and a pen over his ear. After glancing around the reception, he set his eyes on Daring and proceeded to approach her. “Hello Daring Do, the earth pony you retrieved with the paramedic crew is in a stable condition now. If you want to visit him now, I’ll lead you to his ward. He is currently awake, but slightly confused, but I’ll take that as a good sign.”

“Sure,” replied Daring, giving a sigh of relief, “Lead the way.”

The doctor led Daring through the hospital back to the elevator she was familiar with, then proceeded to push the four button on the panel. As usual, the elevator accelerated upwards, creating a false sense of extra gravity, then quickly decelerated, causing you to feel like you were weightless for a second. Through the elevator doors was a hallway and a pair of glass doors into the B Ward on level five. The naming scheme was consecutive, so the A Ward was to the left of the elevator and the C Ward was to the right, down the hallway.

Daring followed the doctor down the hallway into the D Ward, where he opened the glass doors into a smaller hallway this time with doors leading off into hospital rooms on both sides. She was led into a small hospital room, which housed one bed, a sink in the corner, a table laden with hospital equipment and a large window to the east side to catch the morning rays. On the bed, under a blanket, was the brown pony that she had pulled from the desert who was on the brink of death. There was a plush armchair in the corner of the room, where Daring took a seat, and waited for him to wake.

It was well into the night by then. The doctor left and closed the door gently behind him, only leaving a small amount of light from the corridor outside reach into the room through the small window in the top centre of the door. In the shroud of darkness, Daring looked over the city. It was bustling, even at night with vibrant lights shining from the streets, and crowds gathered next to stalls selling various different foods. Ormont: the city that never sleeps.

Morning came slowly with the first rays of day passing through the large window. Daring woke up gradually slightly confused, but then remembered what she had done yesterday and relaxed again. Looking over at the hospital bed, she could see the earth pony stirring, deviating from his deep breaths of sleep and rising into the conscious land of the living again. Soon he opened an eye slowly and looked around without physically exerting himself, then laid back down onto the bed with a look of exhaustion on his face.

Daring thought it would be best to leave introductions to later, when he had fully awoken; not in his current dreary state. Looking over at the clocktower through the window, it displayed that the time was six thirty – in the morning of course. The streets were filled with zebras making their way to work and whatnot. Whatever the residents here did in the mornings.

The doctor from last night came in again after an hour. He opened the door soundlessly, then pulled a chair next to the bed. “Hello, forgive me for not introducing myself last night. Doctor Ambrosia at your service,” he greeted Daring politely. He was one of the only doctors that wasn’t a zebra in the hospital.

“Daring Do, but I’m sure you know that already,” Daring replied.

“Quite. Now, let’s see if this pony will wake for us, eh?” Ambrosia said as he drew a pad of paper from the bed stand and the pen from his ear.

The earth pony seemed to stir again, then leaned up onto the bed, giving him a clear view of the room and the ponies who were in it. Daring couldn’t read his face, whether it was surprise or confusion. “Umm. Hello?” he mumbled, unsure of what to say, eyes flicking between Daring and Ambrosia.

“Take it easy there,” Ambrosia said, “We’ll explain everything in a moment. First, we must confirm your identity, as the pony who rescued you did it out of the goodness of her heard, and did not know you in any way. Can you remember your name?”

“Jackson,” he said, “Jackson Wanderer.”

“Ok. It looks like you don’t have any major damage to the brain, which was what I was most concerned about. We’ve been monitoring you for a while now. Your body seems fine as of yet,” Ambrosia informed as he scratched a note onto the pad. “By the way, my name is Ambrosia for future reference.”

“How did I get here exactly?” Jack asked, looking around the room then concluded, “Well at least I’m not being dragged into a dungeon and tortured. Anything else would be more than fine.”

“Right, probably wouldn’t be in your best interest to die in the desert again either,” Ambrosia laughed, “Well, I better be off now. I’ve got a busy schedule. I’ll leave you two in peace now.” Ambrosia opened the door again and slipped off down the hallway.

“How did I get here,” Jack asked Daring again.

“It’s probably time I answer that question properly,” Daring replied. She sat down in a more comfortable position and started.