Rainbow felt like a bucking train wreck! Her body felt like it was used as a boxing bag, being hit by giant sledge hammers made out of boulders. In all honesty, the cyan pegasus has never felt this bad, not even after some of her worst crashes. At least those she can walk away from.

Slowly opening her eyes as she starts to regain her consciousness, the mare only had them open for a second before she had to close them, as the light from her surroundings stung them. like having an electric shock course through her whole body. A few seconds later and the mare opened her eyes and managed to keep them open, and found that she was laying on a bed in the hospital, with various parts of her body covered in bandages. As she looked around she caught a quick glance out the nearby window, and saw that it was still very bright out.

“What happened?” the mare groggily asked no pony in particular as she turned away from the window, and just laid there on the bed.

“Oh good you finally woke up.” Rainbow heard a peppy soft voice say from her left, and when she turned to look at who said that she found nurse Red Heart standing by her bed with a clipboard.

“Red Heart? What’s going on? How did I end up in the hospital?” the pegasus asked in confusion, to which the nurse gave the mare a quirked brow as if she was uncertain how to respond to such a simple question.

“You don’t remember anything prior to now?” the nurse asked as she placed the clipboard on a nearby nightstand.

“Well, I remember that I was practicing my flying maneuvers on the outskirts of town since this morning, but then I saw—” that’s when a sudden sense of revelation came over the pegasus as her eyes widen.

“There was a creature! A, ugh, I don’t know what it is, it can shoot lightning, and teleport!” Nurse Red Heart trotted to the other side of the bed where a curtain was fully extended, and when the nurse pulled the curtain back, Rainbow’s eyes widen even larger.

“Is this the creature your thinking of?” Red Heart said as she gestured to the big biped creature laid out on a larger bed, it to covered in bandages, only more so than the pegasus. and most of them were tainted red, especially its left leg, forehead, and right forearm.

“Yeah that’s the creature.” Rainbow said as she pointed at the creature, but ended up wincing in pain as she placed a hoof on her side.

“I’d advise you not move around so much Rainbow. You got some fractured ribs, and some pretty bad burns.” Red Heart said as she trotted up to Rainbow Dash.

“Not only that but you may have also developed a busted back. you did after all fall through Sugarcube Corner’s roof, breaking the roof and the first floor.” The pegasus could only groan in pain as she starts to remember the encounter she had with the creature, and having bot her and it, fall and crash into the bakery.

“Both of you were lucky to survive the fall, but whatever this creature is, it ended up in worse condition than you.” the nurse said in a worried tone as she pulled out a clipboard from the foot of the bed. “Not only does it have a few cuts and bruises, but its also got some fractured bones as well, plus the huge gash in its forehead.”

“Red it came from the Everfree Forest, it’s a monster. You don’t need to treat it like it’s a patient.” Rainbow grumbled as she looked over to the creature, seeing its chest rise and fall with its very slow and shallow breathing.

Before Red Heart could say anything to counter Rainbow Dash’s claim, the door to the room suddenly received a few knocks from the other side. When Red Heart went over to go and see who it was, she immediately stood off to the side as Pinkie and Spike came trotting in, along with the rest of their friends, even with Twilight and princess Celestia following behind them. Rainbow wasn’t surprised to see her friends stop by, they always do whenever she gets hurt and sent to the hospital, but the pegasus was a little surprise that Celestia was here to check up on her. Or at least, that’s what Rainbow thought. As the pegasus’s friends gather around her and start to fuss, and worry about her, the princess trots over to the other bed, and just looked at the creature with a worried expression.

“Rainbow how do you feel sugarcube?” Applejack asked worriedly as she stood to close to the head of the bed.

“Are you in any pain?! You didn’t break anything did you?!” Fluttershy asked sounding equally worried and very panicked.

“Guys I’m fine, just a little bruised up is all.” Rainbow bluffed as she tried to show that she wasn’t in to much pain, mostly to make her friends not worry so much about her. but the pained hiss when she tried to move around to much kind of spoiled her act.

“It certainly doesn’t look like your alright dear.” Rarity commented as she gently pats Rainbow’s head, making sure not to cause her friend any further pain.

“Yeah Rainbow, you don’t need to act all tough, I mean you were literally smoking when you and, whatever the hay that thing is, came crashing through the Cakes roof.” Spike said as he gently hopped up onto the bed.

Speaking of said creature, when the group turned to get a good look at it they saw a, odd sight. At least off to them. When they all looked over to the bed the six adolescent mare’s, plus Spike and Red Heart, saw that princess Celestia was slightly bent down, bowing her head, and placing the tip of her horn on the creatures forehead, while the alicorn’s horn glowed softly with magic. all of the occupants of the room just stood, and watched as the princess started gently pour her magic into the creature, bathing it in her golden aura and seemingly aiding in its recovery.

“Princess, what are you doing?” Twilight asked as she watches the princess continue to pour magic into the creature, healing its wounds, albeit at a slow pace, but healing it all the same.

“I’m trying to close, and heal his wounds.” Celestia said as she continued her healing ministration, eyes closed as she focused on the task.

“Wait. How do you know that it’s a, he, princess?” Twilight asked curiously as she stepped towards the bed, looking between the princess and the creature, who was actually looking better every second.

“I’ll explain all of this later, but for the time being.” The princess stopped her treatment and looked over to Red Heart, whose been standing by the door. “Is there a vacant room we can place him in? once he wakes up he’ll be disoriented, and I want him to be as calm as possible.”

“Of course princess. I’ll get somepony to help move the cre—I mean, him to a nearby room.”

With that Red Heart was about to leave the room to go get somepony to help move the creature, but the princess carefully lifted him off the bed, and escorted him out. Leaving the six mare’s and dragonling perplexed as to why the princess has an interest in the creature, and what she knows about it as she seems familiar, and certain, with its gender. Once the princess, nurse, and creature were gone, Rainbow’s friends all returned their attention towards her. most having curious and bewildered looks upon their faces.

“Say Rainbow, how did you and that creature even get into this situation?” Pinkie Pie asked as she looked at her beat up friend incredulously, same with the rest of the group.

“Well…”

~~Earlier that day~~

Out in the fields on the outskirts of Ponyville Rainbow Dash was zooming, and zipping around clouds and performing tricks and maneuvers to keep her skills sharp, as well as ready herself for a competition that would be coming up in a few days. Aside from her basic training routine, the pegasus was also trying to get some of her more flashier moves polished, as she really wanted to wow the crowds when the competition she’s preparing for came around.

Especially since the Wonderbolts themselves will be there, acting as judges, and to present the prize to whoever is the winner. Making the pegasus squeal in fan girly joy, not that she would do that around other ponies, Rainbow tries to keep a ‘cool and awesome’ appearance amongst the residence of Ponyville. Instead of a tough girl with a soft spot for cute things, and squeals in joy when she sees or hears something that she likes, and admits to it.

“Alright RD time to bust out the Buccaneer Blitz! That will really wow the…what the?” Rainbow stopped in midst of psyching herself up when she saw a flash of light come from the direction of the Everfree, accompanied by a distant echoing clap of lightning.

“What the heck?”

The pegasus then speeds off towards the forest to see what was going on. Since Rainbow likes to train outside of town, and amongst the wide-open fields, she gets to be the first one to see any dangers approaching town, which she can then warn the towns ponies to take shelter and hide. She’s essentially an early warning system for the town, which was fine for Rainbow as she likes playing the hero. Reaching the border that separates the Everfree from the town, Rainbow scanned the area for anything that could’ve been the source of the light, and the clap of lightning, but she couldn’t see anything.

A few minutes of patrolling, and not seeing any threats, Rainbow was about to head on back to her training until a resounding ‘ZAP’ sound echoed from the forest, and when she turned to see what was the cause of the sound her eyes widen with surprise. When the pegasus turned to look at the main entrance to the forest she saw what looked like pulsing rings of electrical energy, bursting forth from the trees in a straight line, tearing through any brush in its way, even scraping bark and branches of any trees it brushes pasts. A moment later the cyan mare saw a tall upright walking creature come stumbling out of the forest, placing one of its claws on a tree, as it placed something in its other claw into a slip on the belt it was wearing, breathing heavily as if it just finished a physically tiring task.

With her keen eyesight Rainbow was able to see some details of the creature while remaining a safe distance. For one thing its face seems rather flat when compared to a ponies, and its eyes were pretty small, and the clothes it wore were all wrinkled and covered in dirt and some red patches, which could’ve been blood stains. The creature was also holding something in its left hand, which when Rainbow narrowed her eyes to look at it, appeared to be…she couldn’t really tell what it was. Whatever it was it looked like a foals toy to her, so she shifted her sights back onto the creature. The creature seemed to be catching its breath, probably because it was running around in the forest doing, whatever it was doing in the dense cluster of gnarly trees. That’s when the cyan pony saw the creature look squarely in the direction of town, and looked to be in a really happy mood, like the jump in the air and hoof punch the air kind of happy.

“Oh HAY no!” Rainbow said out loud as she thought she knew why the creature looked so happy.

“Ain’t no way some monster from the Everfree is going to town, just to wreck shop!” the pegasus then bolted down to the ground as the creature took a few steps away from the forest. and when she landed on the ground, she arched her back, flared her wings, and gave the creature the meanest look she could make to scare the creature away with. And it seemed to have worked as the creature skid to a stop when it laid eyes on her.

“Alright you…you…whatever you are, I’m only going to tell you this once: turn around and walk away, or get a nice flank kicking until your butt is red as an apple!”

To emphasize her threat Rainbow hopped onto her back hooves, and made a few shadow boxing punches before looking back at the creature. But instead of a look of fear and being intimidated on its face, the only look it had was a flat deadpan expression. The creature then slumped a little, its head hanging low as it said, something, Rainbow couldn’t exactly understand what it said but from how its acting she thought it was insulting her. snorting in annoyance Rainbow stomped her hooves onto the ground, and readying herself to charge at the creature.

“Alright monster I gave you a fair warning, but now I’m going to make you go back into your forest home.” and with that the pegasus launched herself at the creature, but before she was a foot from it, it quickly grumbled or growled something, before the thing held in its other claw flashed a bright light, and making the same lightning clap sound while the creature just, vanished!

“What the?! Where did it go?” just as Rainbow finished asking herself that question, the same flash, and sound cue appeared, but this time from behind her. twisting her body in mid-air Rainbow saw the creature reappear after dim glow of light faded from it, before seeing it running towards the town.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Rainbow quickly changed her flight path and bolted towards the creature, and in no time the pegasus came crashing into the creature knocking it to the ground, while she tries to pin it to the ground. emphasis on trying, as she was barely half this creatures height. But the creature proved to be stronger than it looked, and managed to squirm most of its body out of Rainbow’s grasp, and managed to turn to face the pegasus, and punch her squarely in the face! the cyan mare reeled back as she brought her hooves to her face, as the creature actually delivered a hard punch, feeling like it broke her nose. The creature then used the opportunity to shove Rainbow off itself, allowing it to get to its feet and continue to make its way towards the town.

But Rainbow was anything but a pushover, and again charged at the creature, and then time instead of simply try and restrain it, the pegasus decided to knock it out and drag it back to the forest. When she reached the creature she spun in mid-air, sweeping her left leg, and striking the creature in the side of the head. and while the attack did stagger the monster, it didn’t drop. Instead it stumbled for a few seconds before turning to look at Rainbow, give her an equally menacing glare—which seemed more effective when it did it—and wrapped its arms around the mare’s body, and head. it was as if it was trying to strangle her. But with Rainbow kicking around, and even biting onto one of its exposed arms, the creature was having a hard time in trying to strangle her. yet it was still able to keep its hold on her.

Feeling a little scared that she was trapped by a pretty tough monster, Rainbow’s instincts to fly away kicked in actually caused the mare to lift the both of them up into the air, albeit at a slow pace as the creature weighed as much as a stallion. At least two of them.

With the creature still firmly holding onto Rainbow Dash, the cyan pegasus starts to fly about the area in trying to flail the creature off her, but this thing just wouldn’t let go. And amidst the flailing about Rainbow hadn’t really noticed that she had flown into town, and was just above the buildings. In one final attempt to get the creature off of her Rainbow again bit down on the arm in front of her face as hard as she could, while also kicking her legs into the stomach of the creature, and then…

~~Present~~

“…that’s when I felt like I was struck by lightning.” Rainbow said as she reached the end of her pretty long telling of how she came in contact with the creature. “After that I guess I blacked out, and now, well, I’m here in the hospital.”

“Dang Rainbow, that’s one heck of a tale.” Applejack said as she tipped her hat back.

“But did you have to try and pick a fight with the creature?” Fluttershy piped up, looking a little baffled after hearing the story. “I mean, it just sounded like the poor thing was exhausted, and happy to see a place where it could rest.”

“Well, I…ugh…I d-didn’t exactly have time to try and figure it out, it could’ve been a dangerous monster. So I decided to take action.”

“I understand that Rainbow, but maybe you should’ve thought about the situation a bit more, before deciding to take action.” Rarity added on to the conversation. “I mean look at how both you, and that poor creature ended up.” Rainbow just groaned as she slumped more into her bed.

“Okay, okay I get it. I’ll think first before thinking I can handle something on my own.”

Rainbow grumbled to her friend’s worry. She knows that her friends were just looking out for her, but most times it comes across like their scolding her to not to do something foolish that ends up with her being hurt. But she knew better than that. As Rainbow and the other continued to talk, mostly on how long Rainbow was going to be in the hospital, and the speedster asking Pinkie how the Cakes were doing, and if there was a way she could make up for busting their roof, Rainbow noticed something. During the whole time she was telling her story, the pegasus noticed that Twilight was standing off to the side of the group, and looks to be in some kind of deep thought. As if she’s trying to sort something out.

“Hey Twi, what are you thinking of over there?” the group turned to look at Twilight, while the unicorn continued to have a puzzled look on her face.

“I was just running everything through my head.” Twilight simply said as she turned to trot over to her friends, before explaining what it is that she has been thinking.

“We defeated Discord a couple of days ago, then that night we had that weird light show, which I learned coincides with strange artifacts being found where they crashed in Equestria. And now, we have a creature never before seen, and yet Celestia seems to know what it is.” As Twilight points out the strange events that has happened in the past few days, and how close they all appear to be, the rest of the group all looked at each other with varying degrees of uncertainty.

“I can’t put my hoof on it, but I feel like something even stranger is about to happen.” The room was dead silent as the group all took in what Twilight had just said, and after thinking about what has happened after Discord’s defeat, now all six mare’s plus Spike were now very worried for the future, and what else would be unfolded.

Author's Note

Well it looks like things are about to get strange in Equestria. but what do you, my readers think? what do you personally think is going on? is this somehow Discord's doing? or is it something else, and why does Celestia seem so familiar with our human protagonist.