Amenadiel floated in darkness, feeling nothing as he floated. Turning to his sides, he peered nothing but emptiness and the feeling of direction. He was upside-down, something he quickly corrected before a set of double doors appeared in front of him and opened up. A white horse almost as tall as Amenadiel stepped out with a hard gaze fixed on him.

“A stranger in these lands and the first thing you do is assist a Tyrant's greatest enemy.” She asked Amenadiel as he remained floating.

“Without darkness, the light cannot thrive.” The warrior responded simply.

“You say that as if you rehearse it in the mirror.” The white horse chuckled.

Smiling, Amenadiel folded his arms over his chest. “I rehearse a lot of things.”

“You're gonna need them.” She cleared her throat as her horn started to shine. “You think you're slick, so let's be quick. You hide behind what you seek to find. Emptiness fills your blackened heart, and death will follow like a poisoned dart. Heed my warning or meet your end. If you do not, you'll be mourning your untimely end.”

====----________----====

Amenadiel sturred from his rest, a steady beeping coming from something beside him. He looked over to the large metal contraption and then followed the wires connected to the machine to a spot on his bandaged chest. Grabbing the wires, he pulled them from his chest and sat up. The machine had let out a steady flat tone as the warrior turned and attempted to stand from the bed, falling to the floor. His legs felt numb and he looked down to confirm they were indeed still there.

The door in front of the bed he lied on opened up and a small creme horse stepped in. It sighed and walked up to Amenadiel. “Come on, back into bed. You're not healed yet.”

“I'll live.” Amenadiel said in a raspy voice. Coughing, blood shot from his throat and landed on the floor.

“After what you went through?” The small creme horse started, guiding the scaled beast to the bed. “I'm surprised you're alive and in one piece.”

He chuckled. “Tiamat will never let me die. She likes to watch me suffer.”

“I don't know who that Tiamut pony is, but you still need to recover.” After flopping Amenadiel onto the bed, she reattached the wires to his chest and the machine started to beep again.

“Nurse?” A groggy voice asked from the other side of the room. “Miss Redheart?” The male asked as a curtain was pulled back to show a heavily bandaged small horse lying in a bed. “Nurse, can you get water for us?” Wordlessly, the small creme horse walked out of the room and the bandaged one laughed. “Can't ignore me forever!” Looking over to Amenadiel, the small horse lied back in his bed. “You stuck here too?”

Nodding, Amenadiel sat up. “I have visited infirmaries before, but only for small wounds. Scrapes, scraps, cuts, bruises, and arrows lodged in my chest.” He smiled and gestured to his bandaged chest. “Though these bandages cover my prizes, they tell my history.”

“Bruised, beaten, yet still fighting?” The bandaged horse scoffed. “Sounds like my career as a Guard.”

The two were silent for a moment before the small horse started to rip the wires off his chest. “Who are you?” Amenadiel asked as the bandaged horse hopped off his bed.

Peaking through the window on the door, the bandaged horse shook his head. “You're talking to yourself.” He muttered, just barely being heard by the warrior. “You can call me Fox, but there's no time for talk.” Fox trotted over to the cabinet near Amenadiel and opened a drawer. Pulling out a needle, he slid it under one of Amenadiel's scales and pushed the plunger. “Morphine, you'll feel it soon.” Pulling the wires off of himself, the scaled warrior started to get off his bed before the bandaged horse pushed him back down. “Shh, nurse is coming.”

Ducking underneath the bed, the bandaged pony hid as the nurse walked into the room with a pitcher of water and cups on a tray. She saw the wires on the floor and rolled her eyes. “You have to wear the wires, it monitors your heartbeat. You start croaking without the wires on and we won't be able to tell.” The nurse reattached the wires and handed him the glass of water. “Drink up, you probably need it.” Amenadiel grabbed the water and took a sip, the nurse smiling softly. “There you go. Cooperation leads to you getting out of here faster.”

She turned and trotted out of the room. Fox rolled out from under the bed and went to check the window again. “We're clear, let's get moving.” Amenadiel pulled the wires off his chest again and attempted to stand. He had to hold himself up on the bed, but he could take a few shakey steps. “Morphine still not working? Give it some time, just crawl until you can feel your legs.”

“Where are we going?” Amenadiel asked as he crawled up to the door.

“Don't know.” Fox replied, peeking out into the hallway. “Out of here, but whichever way that is.”

“You don't know where we're going?” The scaled warrior asked as he crouched and followed Fox out the door and down the hallway. “Is this not a Infirmary?”

“It is.” The bandaged horse responded as he looked back and forth between the doors as they walked. “Seems to me it's a military hospital. Though, security is rather light.” Pushing a door open, Fox led Amenadiel into a stairwell and down.

Suddenly, a speaker crackled to life and the voice of the nurse came through. “Code Delta Pharaoh Lima on floor four. I repeat, code Delta Pharaoh Lima on floor four.”

The bandaged horse looked around the stairwell and picked up his pace. “That doesn't sound good. Come on, we are leaving.” He said as Amenadiel stood up fully and followed close behind.

They could hear a door burst open from above them and the scaled warrior stopped to look up. A small white horse wearing a gold helmet was looking down at him before it grabbed a small black box on its shoulder. “Patient Dragon is on floor three heading down. Repeat, patient Dragon is on floor three.”

“Run!” Fox shouted as he started jumping down the steps, Amenadiel following him. “We gotta get out of here!” Running down the steps to the first floor, the scaled warrior shouldered the door open and started sprinting down the hall. “Go right! Go right!” The two turned down the hall to be met by a group of small horses in gold armor. “Shit! Go back! Go back!” They turned back and went down the hall, being chased by the armored horses. “Left!”

Amenadiel turned left and jumped over a tan horse in an orange maintenance suit with a crowbar on his back. “Where are we going?!”

“Emergency exit! Read the signs!” Fox shouted back, gesturing to the signs that Amenadiel had to duck under every now and again to avoid. They were in a language the warrior recognized, but couldn't read. “Go right!” They turned down an empty hallway with a red door at the end. “Shit, it's a dead end! Get ready to fly!”

Amenadiel shouldered the door open and suddenly felt himself go weightless. “Oh shiiit!” He shouted as he fell through the air. The ground definitely wasn't close, but it was approaching fast. Two hooves hooked under his arms and he felt himself starting to slow down until he just barely crashed into the ground. Looking behind him, he saw Fox tucking a pair of wings against his back before they disappeared in a green flame.

Panting, he cleared his throat. “You're fuckin heavy.” Fox grabbed the bandages on his face and started to pull them off. His coat was a light red and his mane and goatee was white with specks of grey dotting it. Fox held his hoof out to Amenadiel. “Fox. Swift ‘Red Fox’ Strike.”

Amenadiel grabbed his hoof and shook it. “Amenadiel. Beast Master, Imperial Guardsman, and Kingslayer.”

“I heard.” Looking up, Fox watched the Hospital. It was a massive building set on a bunch of clouds. “You've been out for… two weeks since they set you in my room. You had some rather interesting visitors. The Sun Princess, the Moon Princess, some other ponies. Redheart stopped talking to me three days before you woke up, I flirted with her too much.” Shaking his head, he cleared his throat. “Princesses’ guards said you were some kind of assassin. Had a massive sword and some contraption when they found you. You got knocked out, they secured your stuff, and brought you to me.”

“And you had a plan to escape?” Amenadiel asked, sitting on the ground.

“Oh yeah.” Fox nodded. “They plopped you down in that bed and I knew you were my chance to get out of there. Granted, I had no clue what was beyond that door, but I knew how to get out.”

Amenadiel looked up at the hospital and saw a group of figures fly out of the hospital. “I think we should be going now.” The two stood up and started to run across the field they were in.

Author's Note

Updates bi-weekly, or monthly. Depends how fast I write, rewrite, and edit.