Sunset

The darkness felt like it was getting darker, deeper into every crevice and into every heart. Ponies were giving up, too tired to fight anymore. They succumbed to the darkness, to become a slave or the darkness, a puppet. Exhaustion led to darkness, darkness led to death.

But a team of battle surgeons and nurses didn’t let that get to them. They stayed strong and fought the darkness, hoof on hoof.

They fought, not on the battlefields, but in a surgical tent. They fought not for a country.

But for a single pony, lying on a table, bleeding profusely as life was leaving her body.

It was the ponies job in that tent to save this strange ponies life, and help her fight the darkness that surrounded the tent, ready to close in and consume the pony and lead her to death.

Goldie watched ponies work hard, sweat coating their coats and soaking their manes. Tool by tool was passed, helping each other clamp blood vessels, ligate bones, repair muscles. The bleeding kept on, and the surgeons would put their hooves onto the wound, preventing blood to get out. They pushed on the wound and put all their effort into stopping the flow of blood and fixing this pony. Tool by tool passed through their hooves,on their way to the wound or the mayo stand. They pulled that pony from the darkness.

Soon all the bleeding stopped. The nub of was a wing used to be was closed up and safe from infection. A unicorn nurse put a spell over the nub, one that would make sure nothing got into the wound.

That team of surgeons and nurses fought to pull a pony from the darkness, battling with scalpels, forceps, and clamps. And they won.

Goldenrod watched as the ponies in the tent took glove off of each other. They trusted each other to not contaminate their hooves. Even know it was battle, sterilizing and cleaning tactics where to stay the same as ones at normal hospitals.

Goldie Sugar walked out of the tent, since the surgery was done and Goldie didn't want to be in the way of the clean up. She sat underneath a tree and pulled a small picture out of her mane. It was a picture of Brownie Button and her, smiling with the backdrop of a pinkish forest. Their wedding day. It was a magical day. A brisk fly through the mountains, Goldie using her wings and Brownie making some for himself with magic. All of Goldie's friends and adopted family was with her. She never knew her real parents, but she loved her adopted parents Agave Sugar and Grass Sugar like real parents.

But now she didn’t know were her family or friends were. Her husband was gone. Probably in a slave camp or worse. Tears began to leak out of Goldie's bright brown eyes. Her coat became a light grey, her mane and tail dusty pink.

A silver colored unicorn walked out of the medical tent, a cloth over his eyes. His blue mane as a mess, and his fetlocks were covered with crusty mud. He used his bluish silver magic to take the cloth off his eyes, and he blinked a few times. His blue eyes were still red for an unholy amount of tear gas that he was exposed to. Even battlefield nurses get injured. But not a lot of the soldiers believed that.

Except for Goldie Sugar.

Goldie seemed to take the young battlefield nurse under her wing, protecting him as if he was her son. Goldie was his mentor, his friend. They survived battles together, and he always found ways to let Goldie into the surgery tent so she could watch operations. Goldie always got Silver Scope his favorite candy when they stopped at Equestrian inhabited towns: mango chews.

And in the last battle, Goldie helped Silver get to safety when he was blinded by tear gas. All while being shot at. Silver wanted Goldie to be rewarded for that. He saw it as an ultimate sign of friendship and bravery.

Goldie just called it ‘what friends do for friends’.

Silver Scope noticed Goldie sitting under a tree, looking very depressed. He trotted up to her, worried about his friend. Something seemed off about the sweet pony. Scope, the sweet colt he was, decided to ask Goldenrod what was eating at her.

Silver Scope asked, trotting to Goldenrod’s side. He sat down and pulled a few mango chews out of his saddle bags. He offered one to Goldie, which resulted in a half hearted smile and acceptance of the orange sweet.

“Mrs. Goldie. May I ask a question?” Scope asked, his voice calm.

Goldenrod looked at him, and smiled a little throughout her glassy eyes.

“Sure, Go ahead,”

“Ma'am, what’s… bothering you?” Silver Scope asked, a bit shyly. Goldenrod looked at him and frowned as a few tears fell down her golden face.

“I… I… lost him.” She said, trying to hide her face from Silver Scope.

He put a hoof on her side, in a calming manner, and asked, “Who?”

“Brownie Button! That's who! The stallion of my life!” Goldenrod yelled to the darkened sky, tears streaming down her face as she looked in the direction of Ponyville.

Silver Scope was shocked by Goldenrods loud, angry voice. He was used to Goldenrod’s normally sweet, but commanding voice. He backed up a little from the distressed mare. He took a breath, breathing in the dry, dusty air, and sighed.

“I think I know what I can do to help you,” Silver Scope smiled a little. Goldenrod smiled and knew what he was going to do.

“Equestria, the land I love,” he sang, his voice filling the area around them.

“A land of harmony,” Goldie joined in, her mellow voice blending with Silver Scope’s. Her coat and mane started to regain its color, little by little.

“Our flag does wave from high above,” A few other ponies joined into the singing, some soldiers and some medical personnel.

“For ponykind to see,” Many ponies joined in, making a sweet chorus full of light.

A silver and blue stethoscope formed on Silver Scopes blank flank, with purple music notes at the chest piece. It fit him perfectly.

“Equestria, a land of friends,”

“Where ponykind do roam,”

“They say true friendship never ends,”

“Equestria, my home.”