Author's Note

So this is the second chapter that has been edited by the lovely SynthetaCrete. Hope you enjoy

Vistir Of The Night

Chapter 2 edited by SynthetaCrete

The sun soon rose over the horizon shining its light down on Ponyville as Celestia took over control of the day from her younger sister who had watched over the night. A soft beam of morning light passed through a window shining upon the unconscious Pegasus that was Rainbow Dash. The cheerfully painted hospital room was basked in the growing light of day and her injuries from the previous night had been bandaged and cared for by the poor family she had startled in the middle of the night by literally crashing into their home.The bandaged blue Pegasus groaned and shifted her body slowly as she cracked her eyes open confused as to what was going on.

"Owww... Why do I feel like I got hit in the head by a barn?" She closed her eyes only to snap them back open again after memories began to painfully flood into her head. Quickly, she sat up right and tried to figure out what happened only to lay back down groaning in pain from her many injuries. She knew what a broken wing felt like and she was convinced she had at least one.

"Okay...let’s see what happened. I chased it down past Sweet Apple Acres, and next thing I know, there was a bright light and then...." She groaned, holding her head in her hooves as pain blossomed in her brain from the memory. "Oh...yeah. I flew into the barn and got knocked out. Ugh! So not cool..."

She heard the door open and turned to see her friends filing into the room, circling around with looks of deep concern. Nopony else seemed to have been hurt by the alien which hushed the bulk of Rainbow Dash’s silent fears even though she would never admit she was scared of what could have happened.

"Oh Rainbow Dash darling, are you alright? Applebloom said you took a terrible blow to the head! We have been worried sick! Oh! I could simply faint!" Rarity said, using her magic to levitate a beautified ice pack against the large bruise on Rainbow Dash's forehead.

"Yeah! That was one doozy of a landing, Rainbow!" Pinkie exclaimed a bit too close for Rainbow Dash’s comfort and only making her headache worse.

"I'm fine you guys. Really, it doesn't even hurt that bad." She frowned before looking over to Applejack with a look of deep remorse. "Sorry about the hole I made in your barn, Applejack,"

"Aw, shucks Rainbow. Don't worry abou’ it. It was an accident after all. B’sides, Applebloom has been wantin’ anotha window fer some time now," Applejack chuckled giving her friend a wink. "You just saved me half th’ trouble, sugarcube."

Rainbow Dash smiled and turned to see that Spitfire was standing behind the group with a look of worry. This was in and of itself concerning as Spitfire was a legend at keeping her cool. Whatever was wrong, it was worse than bad.

"Something wrong, boss?" She asked after sitting up slowly in order to better look at her, Spitfire’s frown deepening as she was addressed directly.

"Well, after we managed to get out of the lake and found you knocked out, we lost track of that thing and haven't found a single trace of it anywhere," Spitfire admitted, looking to the side as if to save a bit of her dignity at having to admit defeat.

The room went silent. Everypony was wondering what in Equestria that strange creature was and, more importantly, where in Equestria was it? What was it up to? Was it destroying Manehattan? Had it vanished into thin air like it never existed? Were they all going crazy…?

"So, Rainbow Dash, what did it look like when you guys were chasing it?" Twilight asked with a quill and some parchment ready to write down some notes. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and tilted her head trying to remember the details through the haze of pain throbbing in her bandaged head.

"Hmmm.... well it was really tall, like taller than Princess Celestia. And it stood on its back legs and had these weird foreleg thingies," As she talked, Twilight started writing away, not missing a single word and even jotting down the word ‘thingies’ as if it qualified as a descriptive term.

"Uh-huh, and what else? Were there any features that stood out?" With that question, something popped into Rainbow’s mind.

"Yeah it had a long tail, kinda like a monkey," She explained looking to Twilight, noticing her raised eyebrow and look of bewilderment.

"Hmmm, well I've never heard of any creature like that before." She placed a hoof to her chin and began to ponder over what little she knew about what had happened.

Everything about the situation was bizarre. She had checked and rechecked and re-re-rechecked her astronomy notes from the previous night and was absolutely convinced she had not seen a massive meteor hurtling through space bound for Equestria. She would have spotted it months ago. No...it had somehow appeared out of nowhere but that wasn’t logical at all now was it? There was something very off about the whole situation but even Twilight had to admit defeat in face of the lack of any concrete information. Science and observation had served her well in the past and she was determined to have them see her through to the end.

"Well, there's no point wondering about that dreadful creature," Rarity said, fluffing Rainbow’s pillow and helping her lay back down. "For now darling, you should get some rest until the doctor says it is okay for you to leave,"

As Rarity placed the custom ice pack back on Rainbow's head, the others nodded and left the room so Dash could rest.

"I'll see you when your feeling better Dash. Till then, relax and we'll worry about that thing later," Spitfire smiled as she left the room along with the others.

Rainbow Dash was now left alone in the room staring up at the ceiling. From time to time she adjusted the ice pack to fit more comfortably on her head but otherwise had nothing else to do to keep her occupied. As she laid there, awake and unable to sleep due to the pain, she realised that she had left out some crucial details that Twilight should have known. The first was the way the creature looked at her. Her mind raced back to just before she had crashed into the barn and right at the moment she almost had it by the leg. She remember the look on its face as it turned towards her. At first her imagination at the time made it seem like the creature was looking at her with a look of intimidation. However, as she played the memory over and over in her head, she soon realised that the look it gave her was that of both confusion and fear. The second thing she remembered was that it spoke.

She began to remember clearly how it raised its arms to its face, and closed its eye before yelling ‘SOLAR FLARE!’ and the bright light was the next thing she remember. It was so bright, as if Celestia herself had placed the sun right in front of her. She could still see the bright light burned into the back of her eyelids. It was a miracle she hadn’t gone blind.

“‘Solar flare’?" She repeated the words it had spoken. What did those words mean? Where did the light come from? And what the heck was that thing?

She began to wonder again in silence but quickly stopped when she felt the pain in her head rising once more. The ice pack had lost its icey coolness not to long ago rendering it next to useless. Reaching up, she took it off her head and placed it on the table next to the bed but as she did so, she could have sworn she had saw something by her window. She started and took a second quick glance and saw that nothing was there.

"Must have been my imagination or something," She shrugged, leaning back against her plain white hospital pillows wishing for something, anything to dull the throbbing pain in her head and body.

Soon seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours, all the while the pain in her head still throbbed causing her to wince in pain. She called for the nurse but received no answer. She knew they kept medicines and painkillers on hoof for ponies just like her who needed them. Heck, she had gotten them the last time she was here, why not now?

"Oh man. This headache is gonna be the death of me,” She moaned as she tried for rub the pain away only for the pain to increase from her touch. Her eyes scanned the room in a desperate attempt to try and get her mind off the pain.

As she looked around, she decided to take in the little details of the hospital room seeing as she had literally nothing better to do. Every little detail was taken in and nothing escaped her boredom. From the plain sky blue paint on the wall to a poster of a cat hanging off a branch with the words ‘Hang in there!’ in bold words underneath it, she saw it all.

"Heh. Bet Fluttershy would like that poster..." She chuckled, continuing her scan of the room. As she did, her eyes had locked onto the window for the second time. This time she could have sworn she saw something at the window again. But as she turned her attention back to it, yet again there was nothing there to see.

"Geez. The thing I hate about hospitals is how creepy they can get...sheesh..." She muttered, shivering at the idea which was reasonable as the sun was soon setting and the lights in her room hadn't been turned on yet.

"Heh, look at me all scared for nothing! It's not like that thing is waiting by my window," She laughed, imagining the creature standing at her window watching her from the shadows growing outside.

In her imagination she could see it now. That thing was at her window looking in from the outside as the sun went down and basked the world in darkness, the perfect time to be all sneaky and creepy. It was a classic horror movie cliche after all! There was always at least one scene in any of those movies where the killer was framed in the window as a silhouette with some scary music trying to get in a cheap jump scare. How wimpey did they think she was anyway? Rainbow Dash doesn’t get scared. Maybe taken by surprise and forced to...advance in another direction away from what surprised her but never scared. Her pride would never allow it.

"Next thing you know it’s gonna decide to open the window and let it self in, haha!” She chuckled to herself, laying back in bed and looking back at the ceiling to occupy herself once more.

She laughed at the idea being so ridiculous. Of course the thing wouldn’t have followed her to the hospital. It had to have some sense of right and wrong since all it had done to her was flash a blinding light to get her off it’s tail so she didn’t see it as an enemy per-se. Nothing with bad intentions ever assaulted somepony in the hospital. A cool breeze swept over her feverish skin bringing some relief to the pains of recovery and after being abandoned by the nurses hour before, she considered the breeze to be her greatest friend at that time.

"Mmm, that feels nice. It was getting kinda warm in here. Good thing the window was open already or I just might die of heat attack or whatever they called it." She sighed, enjoying the cool evening breeze kissing her fur and cooling her sweaty skin.

As she closed her eyes, she remembered that she hadn't opened the window and nopony had come in to check on her since the others had left some hours before. So how could there be a breeze if the window is closed? She slowly looked back to the window only to see it had been opened, and that something was directly outside silhouetted against the night sky like a creature in a horror movie.

Rainbow felt her heart racing as her eyes never moved away from the window.Whatever was outside was tall and was beginning to slowly and stealthily climb its way in. And then she remembered she was on the third floor and there were no ledges for somepony to stand on to reach her from the outside. Her heart sank as the head of...something looked right at her. Those dark brown eyes were looking through her. It was the creature from last night and it was trying to get inside her room. As she saw a foot make its way to the floor, she could only watch because her body was stiff in fear and horror as she watched it make its way in.

Soon the second leg was in, and it arms reached in to grab hold of the inside frame as it ducked its head in. It was now completely inside the room and it was just as tall as she remembered it. Rainbow’s body was now completely shaking, but she couldn't move at all, as if it placed a jinx on her. She could not move,or make a sound. Not even a yelp for help. For this once...Rainbow Dash felt confident in admitting she was absolutely terrified.

The creature looked around the room before turning its attention to Rainbow Dash, causing her body to stiffen and stop shaking entirely. It gazed upon her with those dark brown eyes, and though there wasn't a light on she could barely make out the black and spikey hair on its head. It moved slowly, closer to the paralyzed pony until it was at the side of her bed looking down at her. Its movements were slow and deliberate and any trained athlete could tell it was packing a lot of muscle and even more experience using them.

‘Why is it here? Why is it in this room? Why is it in my room?!!’

As the questions raced through her mind, it approached her bed and bent over her. With a swift movement it was now at eye level with where she laid unable to move. As she looked it in the eyes, unable to look away, she noticed it turning its head to the table where she left the ice pack. She barely tried to look at what it was looking at before it turned it's gaze back to her. watching she noticed it titling it head looking at the bruise at on her head. She couldn’t comprehend the expression she could see on its pale face or the emotion behind its brown eyes.

"What...d-do..w-want?" She stuttered her body shaking once more. As if in response to her question she saw it turn its head to the side, and saw it's arm move down to what she could only imagine was a...pocket? It had pockets? She wondered before seeing that it pulled something out of it. As it raised the object out so the moonlight from outside shined on it casting it in silvery light and revealing...

"A… a bean?" Even in her fear stricken monument she was caught off by this. The next thing she know if nodded it's head and using its free hand gesturing to open her mouth by opening its own.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widen as she could see a row of incisors and sharp canines.
"Y-you want me t-to eat t-that?" she questioned with a stutter. In response it nodded, repeating it's earlier action.

"Why?" Were the only words that escaped her mouth. For what seem like forever, it did nothing as if shocked it had been asked this question.

The silence was broken as she could hear it breath in. "It will heal your injuries and make you feel better".

Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. It could speak. It could actually talk! It’s voice was deep but not threatening. Before she could say anything else, it spoke again,

"This will remove any pain you feel and restore you back to full health." She heard it speak yet again, this time she noticed more of how it's voice sounded. It was somewhat deep like a stallion’s, but also gentle in its own way.

For another brief moment, Rainbow Dash just laid there, thinking and thinking until she had no other response but to open her mouth and close her eyes. She felt something fall into her mouth. It was small and smooth.

"Now carefully chew and swallow" She heard it speak again, still unable to get over how its voice sounded.

Slowly she began to chew the bean and notice that it had no real flavor. It was almost like eating a soybean. Really plain and tasteless. Soon, she swallowed and as she waited she noticed that the pain in her head was gone, it was actually gone. She moved her hoof to rub her head with her eyes still closed and prepared for the pain she might feel from touching it again. Flinching as her hoof reached her head, she was taken aback that there was no pain at all. She rubbed harder, tempting fate that it might all of a sudden sting again, but it never came. The pain simply wasn't there anymore as if it had never existed.

"Hey, the pain! It's all gone!" She opened her eye to look at the creature once more, but to her surprise, it was gone. She looked back at the window and saw it was still open. She scanned the room again only a bit faster.

"Where did it......?" She looked around again and again thinking she might have missed it the first time, but it was nowhere to be seen. She looked at the window and thought ‘Did it go out the window when my eyes were closed?’

The sound of hooves clopping could be heard from the other side of the door and soon a nurse walked in and turned on the light. She couldn’t believe that she had called for a nurse for hours and hadn’t gotten any response until now? Of course it made sense...why would the Laws of Irony be any more forgiving to her now than they had been in the past?

"Alright, Miss Dash. Time to change the ice in your ice pack!" Rainbow just continued to gaze out the window.

"No thanks. I'm actually feeling a lot better now," She said to the nurse, not turning her eyes away from the open window