Falling. That's all I remember is falling for what seemed like forever. I couldn't see anything. I'd open my eyes and see nothing but black. The only sound was the audible wind whooshing past my ears as I tumbled down what seemed like an endless void. I didn't know where I was or how I ended up where I was at. The only thing I knew for certain was that soon I would meet my end to the ground that was surely rushing to meet me.

I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out. The air was rushing past me so fast that it made it all but impossible breath, let alone make a sound. Was this it? Was this how I was going to die? How did this even happen?

The next thing I felt was a jarring pain rack through my body and my a bright flash appeared in front of my vision as consciousness slipped away from me. There were no words that could describe what I felt at that moment, both physically and mentally. Physically, for a brief moment it felt as though every part of my body was broken; and most assuredly they probably were. Mentally though, when consciousness left me and granted me a blissful reprieve from the agonizing pain, I felt as though I ceased to exist. No coherent thought, no knowledge of what happened, anything. It was as if my very being was erased from the sands of time. I only could pray that this torment would eventually come to pass.

"Nurse Redheart! I came as soon as I got word, what happened?!" Fluttershy exclaimed as she ran into the Ponyville clinic's front door.

Nurse Redheart was sitting behind the reception desk filling out paperwork. As the yellow pegasus entered, and at the sound of her voice, she greeted her warmly. "Fluttershy! I'm glad you can come. Things have been crazy around here" She said as she stood up from behind the desk. As Nurse Redheart approached her, Fluttershy could tell that she was stressed. The usual lively white mare had noticeable bags under her eyes and her hair was completely disheveled. She had a slow pace to her to her walk, but she still moved with purpose despite her obvious exhaustion.

"Less than an hour ago a stallion fell through your friend Rarity's ceiling." She said as she began to walk back to the emergency wing with Fluttershy in toe.

"Oh my Goodness! Is he okay? What about Rarity? Is Sweetie Belle or her hurt?"

"Rarity and Sweetie Belle are fine. They were downstairs when it had happened. As for the stallion..."

They made their way through a set of double doors that lead to the emergency section of the hospital and inside was abuzz with activity and commotion. All manners of both doctors and nurses toadied about to and fro. Some pushed medical carts through the hall to various rooms and others walked quickly reviewing medical charts. As soon as they past through the doors Fluttershy could feel the tension that was in the air and being in the middle of so much activity made her uneasy so she brought her wings closer to her sides for comfort.

"As you can see everyone is in a bit of a rush and its really crazy right now trying to get everything ready for the surgery."

"Surgery?! Is his hurt that bad?" Fluttershy asked as a large stallion doctor in scrubs rushed past her in a trot towards the operating room.

"Bad?" Nurse Redheart repeated as they continued on their way. "No bad doesn't cover it. He's lucky if he's going to survive the night, let alone the surgery."

It felt like Fluttershy's heart sank into the pit of her stomach. "Oh my goodness..." she said just above a whisper.

The two mares continued on down the long corridor and passed through one more set of double doors that lead into a small waiting room that was adorned with chairs along the walls. In the middle of the room stood four of her dearest friends who talked in hushed voices amongst themselves. Applejack had pulled a chair over to the others and was sitting. Her yellow mane was a mess and her orange coat was completely askew. She had obviously left her house in a hurry because she didn't even have her stetson hat on. The usual hyper active Pinkie Pie stood next to her and, although she didn't look as disheveled and tired as her country friend, her usual poofy pink mane was completely flat and she had a very concerned look on her face. Instead of talking, (which was definitely something that doesn't happen often,) she sat and listened to the others talk taking in every word. Behind them was Rarity who looked worse than all of them put together. The white unicorn paced back and forth while she absentmindedly held a hoof to her mouth as tears slowly down her cheeks. Her eyes were poofy and bloodshot from crying and her mane, which usually was elegantly washed and done up at any time of the day, looked like a rat's nest. Rainbow Dash hovered above them all and she didn't look much different than usual. Her rainbow mane was messy and unbrushed as well as her cyan coat and matching rainbow tail. Despite that though, she was noticeably irritated for being woken up at this late hour. She hovered in one place which her front hooves crossed as she voiced her discontent about the whole situation. Fluttershy was about to ask Nurse Redheart if she knew where Twilight Sparkle was, but as soon as she was about to ask she remembered that Twilight was away in Canterlot trying to learn more about the mysterious box that the Tree of Harmony created when they had returned the elements back in their resting place a month ago.

As soon as they entered the room, all four of them turned and looked at them as the sound of the doors closing alerted them to their presence. Rainbow Dash landed with a clop and approached the two mares.

"Nurse Redheart I'm not trying to be rude, but that the hay were we called here for? I mean yea I know that there was an accident and somepony got hurt, but we're not doctors! There's really nothing that we can do to help." Rainbow Dash said with a flick of her tail. If there's one thing Fluttershy had learned through all the years of knowing Rainbow Dash, its that she hated to be woken up from her sleep and despite all that was going on it didn't really dissuade her grumpiness.

"Actually I was wonderin' the same thing. The truth of the matter is that we aint got no business in bein' here and we'll just be gettin' in the way. Mind fillin' us in on what this is all about?" Applejack said with a gesture with a free hoof.

There was an audible sniffle from Rarity stopped pacing long enough to levitate a tissue from a box on an end table in the corner of the room to blow her nose. Pinkie Pie, who was looking at nothing in particular up until that point, looked up at the white earthpony expectantly. Fluttershy had seen her pink friend upset a couple of times before over the years, but this is the worst she's ever seen her. It was obvious that the thought of somepony dying made her more depressed than she had ever been before and it was starting to worry Fluttershy at how bad she was handling it.

"Actually Applejack, there is a reason why I called you girls here. I would've sent for Princess Twilight as well but she's currently busy with business in Canterlot still so I have no way to get a hold of her in time for her to be of any help."

At the sound of that, Rarity joined the rest of the mares to hear what was being said. She had taken a moment to compose herself. After she blew her nose one more time she was ready to talk to the nurse.

"Is the poor dear going to be alright? I would've done more, but he was hurt so bad... and the blood..." a sob caught in her throat. as flashbacks of that moment came back to her.

Nurse Redheart let out an exhausted sigh and sat down on her haunches to address the questions being thrown at her. "Rarity I really don't know. You getting us as quickly as you did helped him more than you know. We managed to stabilize him an scene and get him here, but now-"

Nurse Redheart was cut off as the large stallion doctor from earlier burst into the room. "Nurse Redheart the patient is stabilized. We're going to need you in ten minutes!" the doctor said, his deep baritone voice booming in the small room.

"Okay, I'll be just a minute longer here and then I'll be right there for prep."

With a stiff nod, the stallion trotted back out of the room and doors closed swiftly behind him. With the doctor gone Nurse Redheart turned her attention to the mares who were still waiting patiently for her to finish. "To answer your question about why I called you all here? I called you girls here because you all are good at finding things out and, if there is a threat involved, you and the princess can deal with it."

Rainbow Dash gave a snort and rolled her eyes. "Oh come on. I wouldn't call a pegasus accidentally crashing while flying hardly a threat. I mean I even had my own share of accidents. You were my nurse when I had broken my wing remember?"

Nurse Redheart stood up an was clearly getting annoyed by the blue pegasus's indifference. "Rainbow Dash, ordinarily I would agree with you if were that simple. The problem is that he's not a pegasus, he's a unicorn!" That little bit of news took all of the aback. Even Rainbow Dash quirked her eyebrow and looked away as she took it in and considered that.

"Now I know what you all are probably thinking and no it wasn't a teleportation accident" Nurse Redheart continued. "I thought that too myself but the x-rays sow massive trauma; more so than the height of an average unicorn can teleport themselves even if they knew the spell. Quite frankly if I didn't know any better, I would say that either he fell out of a hot air balloon or a pegasus flew him up there and dropped him.

"There's a problem with both theories though. 1: It's too windy in the area for any form of airship travel. I know that because my brother is the dispatcher at the airship balloon rental place on the outskirts of Ponyville. He taught me everything he knows about airships when I was a filly and I know For Fact that no air dispatcher would NEVER give anypony clearance to take off in these weather conditions. 2: As far as the idea of somepony taking him up and dropping him? Well there hasn't been a murder in Equestria in hundreds of years so that is very unlikely."

Finally after all this time Pinkie Pie spoke up. "I'm not trying to be a mean-meanie-pants and judge somepony I don't know, but what if he stole a balloon from your brother's rental shop or from another balloon place? I know it's unlikely and I really don't want to accuse somepony of something they didn't do without any evidence, but maybe he had done something bad or maybe he there had been something chasing him so he took one for a quick getaway? Once he was up in the air he might not have known how to fly it or lost control due to the wind and he either jumped out or fell."

Everyone looked at Pinkie Pie then gave each other a look. Clearly they weren't used to see the crazy party pony using such logic in much of anything. All of them except Nurse Redheart who addressed her in kind. "That is plausible but there is a problem with that idea as well. The issue with any airship theories is that if anypony stole an airship of any kind then the guards would've been called and they would've been looking for him. Another issue with the idea is that if he did loose control of the ship or fell then the balloon would've crashed somewhere around here. Both of which didn't happen; there are no guards or a flaming wreckage of a crashed balloon."

The others exchanged glances while Rarity blew her nose a second time.

"So how in the hay did this happen?" Applejack asked after a brief pause.

"And now you see why I called you all here. This is too strange of an occurrence to not have somepony look into it. Not only that but without any substantial evidence of any crimes or any witnesses that may have seen him fall then the guards can't launch an investigation. Not only that but due to his condition it's impossible to ask him what had happened so there's no real way for me to gather anymore relevant information on this tragedy. I'm sure when Twilight returns-"

Nurse Redheart was cut off by the same doctor as before. "Nurse we need you now, the patient is flat-lining!!"

Fluttershy shuddered and gave a barely audible whimper as Redheart ran to the door. She looked back for a brief second at the five mares in the room and then quickly ran out of the doorway leaving the five friends alone. Visibly shaken; Fluttershy quietly walked over to a chair in the corner and cried quietly as she sat down on a chair. She hated the fact for anypony to pass away, especially when they have had something like this happen to them. What about his friends or his family? Will they even know?

Seeing their friend breaking down both Pinkie Pie and Rarity walked over to her to offer her some comfort leaving Applejack and Rainbow Dash the only two still in the center of the room.

"Well I feel like a complete jerk." Rainbow said realizing how out-of-line she had been. She absentmindedly kicked a hoof at the white tiled floor and looked at the room's decor while Applejack sat back in the chair she had been sitting in and put her front hooves behind her head completely at a loss of words. Applejack didn't even hear Rainbow Dash or what her other friends had been talking about and when Rainbow Dash noticed how quiet she was being she broke the awkward silence. "So what are your thoughts AJ?"

After a brief pause Applejack finally answered her. "You know I don't rightly know I reckon. I knew somethin' was amiss when that secretary from the hospital came an got me from the farm... but I didn't know it be somethin' like this. The way I'm figurin' it that this is either the worst accident that Ponyville has seen in ah very long time or someone was tryin' to rub that stallion out and almost did it. What ever it is though, I don't think Ah'ma gonna be getting much sleep tonight. Nurse Redheart sent for us so she thinks that somethin' is wrong with this whole mess."

"Well... what do you think? There has to be some"kind of explanation for this whole thing."

Applejack looked up at the ceiling while she spoke. "Like Ah' said Rainbow I don't rightly know, but here's what Ah can say: Ah got a really bad feelin'. I've had one for awhile now ever since we returned the Elements of Harmony to keep that tree alive. But tonight? I'm almost certain that theres'a storm a brewin'. And if by miracles chance that that stallion survives and by the grace of Celestia isn't a vegetable from his injuries? Well... I got a feelin' that whatevers'a comin' it has to do with him."

Rainbow Dash gave a small laugh which made Rarity and Pinkie Pie look their way while Fluttershy took a tissue offered to her from Rarity and wiped her eyes. "Applejack you're overreacting. I'm sure within the next couple of weeks things will still be going just like they've always been."

Applejack looked away from the ceiling and gave Rainbow Dash a look so serious that it made her uncomfortable and Rainbow shifted under her gaze. Every word that Applejack said next sent a chill down her spine. "Ah've never been more serious in all mah life. Rainbow Dash, my element is Honesty and I refuse to lie, especially about something like this. There's somethin' comin' and I hope that whatever it is; I just hope we're ready for it."

Meanwhile at Fluttershy's cottage...

"Well now, isn't that very interesting...?" Discord, the Spirit of Chaos said as he stroked his white beard in wonder. Discord was a draconequus; which is essentially a mix match of different creatures throughout all of Equestria. He was tall, towering over all of the ponies and was even bigger than the land's rulers themselves, Princess Celestia and her sister Luna. He had the head of a horse and the tail of a dragon. His right arm was a lion's paw and his left arm was an eagle claw. He had the legs of a goat and big bushy white eye brows that sat over a top of a pair of glowing yellow eyes that pierced through the darkness of the night looking at the small town in the distance. He had red pupils, which glowed as bright as flames when he was angry, now they sat as their usual crimson color.

Discord stood there in front of Fluttershy's small cottage while he recalled the scene that just played out a little over an hour ago, a smile on his face revealing his sharp teeth. One long protruding fang was bigger than the others and while he smiled a single drop of saliva slid down the whole length of it while he thought about it. He had been flying over the town of Ponyville as he did most nights when all of a sudden a black unicorn appeared out of thin air and fell from much higher than Discord had been flying. It had been so dark that Discord had to take a second glance just to make sure he didn't imagine it. The funny thing about it was though; there wasn't a trace of magic that brought the unicorn there. None. Discord would've sensed the discharge of magical energy from a teleportation spell so he knew that no one, not even the falling unicorn, could have summoned him there. The fall itself would've surely killed the stallion, that much Discord was sure of, so with the few seconds Discord had at that time he used his magic to create a white dampening spell around him just before he had hit. The spell would've cushioned the impact some, but with how fast he had been falling he would've still been seriously hurt. Discord had wanted to do more, but he knew that considering that Fluttershy had only 'reformed' him a little over a month ago that the ponies would've thought that he had been the one behind the accident and that was the last thing that Discord wanted. If that were to happen then it would run a risk of loosing Fluttershy as a friend over something he didn't do and that was completely out of the question. Sure they couldn't turn him back into stone anymore since the Elements of Harmony had been returned to the Tree of Harmony about two weeks ago, but was good is immortality without friendship?

The unicorn had landed and crashed through Rarity's roof and her ensuing scream had woken up almost half of the town. Seeing that, to ensure he hadn't been blamed Discord had teleported himself back to Fluttershy's place before anyone had seen him. The rest of what happened became known when the secretary from the hospital arrived to get Fluttershy and ask her to go to the hospital immediately and that there had been an accident.

Fortunately, Fluttershy's cottage was on the outskirts of town and she didn't hear the crash or Rarity's earsplitting scream so she had been asleep when it had happened. That gave Discord plenty of time to quietly slip into the cottage before anyone showed up and pretend to be asleep when the secretary showed up. Discord had figured that somepony would show up and tell her what had happened and if he wasn't there and accounted for then he would've been the first suspect that had came to everypony's minds.

He actually found the whole thing funny really, though not in the morbid way one would imagine. For one thing he found it funny how much Fluttershy trusted him now. Once she was done talking to the secretary, she actually had left Discord in charge of her place and told him to keep an eye on her animal friends. He wouldn't do anything to harm them of course and he would indeed take care of them, he just was amazed to think that literally less than a month ago he was her and her friend's mortal enemy. In a way, he was honored to see how much she trusted him now.

The second thing that humored him about the whole situation was the fact of how much of he himself, the God of Chaos, had changed on a personal level. Sure he would occasionally pull a harmless prank on the townsfolk for laughs, but to actually save a pony from certain death; anypony aside from Fluttershy; just shows how much of an impression the yellow mare has left on him.

"Well no matter what anypony says about me, I can still say I've done my good deed for the month." Discord said as he used his magic to summon a cup of tea out of thin air and took a sip. That was another thing that Fluttershy had changed about him, he was addicted to tea now. "Now about that unicorn..."

Discord began to levitate and he hovered up to the top of Fluttershy's cottage and sat down. When situated he crossed his legs and took a sip of his tea while looking over the distance toward the hospital. The wind was blowing really strong that night; so much so that the trees in the Everfree Forest shifted and groaned as their branches swayed in the breeze. In the distance the wind carried the sound of an owl hooting and frogs chirping from a nearby pond. To top off the perfect quire of nighttime melodies, all throughout were the sound of crickets singing and fireflies lighting up the night with small yellow flashes of light, giving the warm summer night a peaceful ambiance. While looking at the calming scene Discord sat sipping his tea lost in thought, his two glowing eyes the only constant shining lights in near the front of the massive expanse of Forest.

Discord finished his tea and with a snap of a claw the now empty cut disappeared with a flash of light. Fluttershy would more than likely be home soon and he had some things to take care of before she got back. He levitated himself down in front of her cottage and walked inside. He was going to make sure all of the animals had food and water and then was going to try to lay down for sleep. As he got the various foods out for the animals to get his chore done, his thoughts drifted back to the stallion. "Very interesting indeed..."

Author's Note

This is the start of a book I have been working on for over a year. It is bar none the longest book I've ever wrote and the real first one I've dedicated myself to finishing. The story switches perspectives as it progresses. When it is the main character, the story is told through the first person perspective. When it switches to a different character, it switches to the 3rd person perspective. Not only does this help me as a writer broaden the story being told, it also gives me more practice with both writing styles. The story takes place just after Twilight Sparkle became a princess and like a week or so after the Mane 6 gave the Elements back to the Tree of Harmony. Let me know what you think and please, be gentle. Either way please enjoy and I hope you like the story :)