03 - Spark

"This 'god' figure doesn't actually exist?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Uhh- Well- It's not that He doesn't exist... I mean, we don't think He exists, but there are people back where I come from who would argue about that." Mr. Blazer, or rather, Charles explained. The four sat in a large, gothic dining hall. The elegance of it's intertwined bricks made it an almost impossible feat of engineering back in their world. But that was just it. This wasn't their world.

Maybe the panicking hadn't set in yet, but the three felt relatively calm, if a bit out of water, about the whole situation. It hadn't quite occurred to them how they currently had no way of getting home. It hadn't quite occurred to them that they were magical horses.

On the end of the wooden table, Charles was in the body of the dubious 'Mr. Blazer.' Abigail was 'Fiero Flame,' and Leo resided within 'Firebird.' Not a far distance away, enough to be safe, but not far enough to be rude, was Princess Celestia herself.

"If you don't mind me asking- which I'm sure you don't give a shit-" Fiero- or Abigail asked. "Why are you so trusting? If we're like, super-villains in this world, how are you so sure this isn't just one big trick?"

"Because you just asked that." Princess Celestia explained, leaning a metal-plated hoof onto her cheek in a very un-princess like manner. "I know my ponies, and Fiero was too... snarky to ask those questions."

"But what if that's also part of the-"

"And also due to your magic signature." She removed her hoof, shifting in her seat slightly. "A magic signature is like a hoof-print. It's entirely unique pony-to-pony, excluding twins. You can hide a magical signature from a pony's spell, but you can never remove a signature from the pony themselves. All of your magical signatures have been diluted. They are almost unreadable. They have been replaced with new signatures, entirely unique to you. Nopony has ever attempted to change their signature, and I don't think Mr. Blazer was quite bright enough to figure out how within the matter of days."

"But there is one aspect of your story I do not quiet understand." She continued.

"What is it?" Leo asked.

"Where is the fourth person?"

...

"Oh fuck, where's Andrew?!" Abigail shot up and out of her seat, surrounding the dining hall. It lasted for all of about two seconds, however, as her hooves gave out and she collapsed onto her muzzle. She still wasn't quite ready to walk yet.

"That is a good point. A very, very good point. Where the hell is Andrew?" Charles said, looking around. "How did we get here- but he didn't?"

"Because there was only three bodies." Princess Celestia said, still sitting calmly in her chair. "Mr. Blazer, Firebird, and Fiero. And, the backfire was targeted through a very specific part of space. It probably only grabbed who it could reach first. I'm sure Andrew is fine back on Earth." She lied smoothly.

"Whew, that's a relief." Charles sank into his chair, sitting like a human.

"But-" Abigail looked to the other two ponies. "That accident was really bad. I remember- God dammit, I remember dying!" She shook suddenly, her neck feeling slightly funny from where a shard of metal scraped in an alternate universe.

"Huh. That's funny." Charles said, sitting straighter. "I also remember getting basically beheaded by a car."

The silence permeated across the group.

"Then- does that mean Andrew didn't make it..?" Leo asked unsure. Princess Celestia looked saddened, her ears flattening against her head.

"I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that, my little ponies." She said solemnly.

"Well-" Abigail spoke up. "Wherever he is, I hope he's alright."

His eyes shot open. An overwhelming sensation developed deep in his stomach as his throat battled viciously against the urge. Despite his sudden awakening, he knew exactly where he was. He was perfectly sober in this moment. He remembered being in a car accident. He knew he was in the hospital. And, most importantly, he knew what was coming.

He leaned over the bed in a sudden swift motion, emptying his stomach contents onto the tiled floor below. His eyes were wide as he stared at the putrid liquid that had come from it's stomach, it's usual color being replaced by a sickening red. Staring at his own vomit made him nauseous, like he hadn't just emptied his stomach contents.

"Hey, hey! It's okay!" A gentle voice said. He found himself being pushed back into the bed as his delusioned and drugged-up mind imagined a white horse comforting him rather than a person. He was sober. He knew it was just a figment of his imagination, but dammit if it didn't look real. He closed his eyes, a headache rapidly developing as the world began to spin.

"Khn-" He swallowed the horrible liquid residue in his mouth. "Khnock- me out." He sputtered, barely recognizing his own voice. The nurse (or doctor) complied, the clicking of hooves on the tiles as she avoided the spattered spot.

"Relax. It's going to be okay. You're going to feel cold for a moment. It'll be alright." He heard a clicking sound, rushing liquid, and the mercy of the gods take over his soul as he delved back into a sleepless slumber. In another few moments, he was out like a light.

"Nothing." He said, flipping the folder over with his magic. "No foal with a white coat, blue and yellow mane, no cutiemark, aged 8-10, has ever existed in Ponyville." He sighed, letting the file clip back into the clipboard. He pushed open a heavy set of doors with his magic and entered the desolate waiting room.

"Lyra Heartstrings?" He asked. Silence. His dark blue eyes broke his gaze from his folder, flitting across the room. There was nopony there, with the exception of a turquoise unicorn sitting in a chair, leaning against the wall, her eyes closed.

"Lyra?" He asked again. Still, nothing. No response from the sullen unicorn. She looked tired, bags under her eyes, her coat still damp from having to rub off certain stains from the fur. He felt a pang of sadness through his heart, knowing deep down that he didn't have any positive news to bring to the unicorn. Everything he had to talk about would only make her day worse.

"Lyra." He said firmly once he got within talking distance. Finally, the mare jumped in her seat, eyes shooting open. It took a moment, but she focused her gaze onto the unicorn in front of her, him having a golden-yellow coat with a browned mane. Her eyes lit upon seeing the coat, and similarly the name tag which wrote 'Doctor Horse' on it's surface. The doctor cringed at her false-hope, even more so at her eyes. Her young eyes, full of hope. The doctor had been around a few times. False-hope only ended in heartbreak.

"Is she okay?" Lyra asked quickly. Infuriatingly enough, the doctor didn't just hesitate a response, but gave her a down-trotted, sad smile.

"She's... alive." He said slowly. "Unfortunately, I cannot speculate whether she will make it through another day."

"How bad is she?" Lyra asked. The doctor cringed again, but Lyra still held hope, however false it may have been. Maybe- just maybe- there was real hope hidden in there somewhere. But the look on the doctor's face only made her heart tremble.

"It's- It's looking grim." He admitted. "I'm- I'm surprised she made it through last night. There were a few times we didn't- we didn't think she would make it." Lyra frowned heavily, her ears drooping.

"But- and this is a huge but..." The doctor started, not wanting to hurt the unicorn further. "She woke up a couple of minutes ago, although briefly."

"S-She woke up?" Lyra said, opening her mouth in surprise. "How?"

"We reduced her medicine because we thought she might've been getting addicted. She pushed through the remaining chemicals in her system and woke up. After... emptying her stomach, she demanded we sedate her again, and we did."

"She wanted to be sedated?"

"Yes. She seemed pretty aware of what was happening." He looked uncomfortable for a moment. "Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"When I found her-" Lyra pushed, "What were her injuries?" She rephrased the question from earlier.

"Hm. She was- Well- She had-" The doctor pulled out the clipboard with his magic, opening up the packet and reading directly from the file. "Multiple broken ribs, collapsed lung, broken wing, spinal damage..." He stopped, seeing Lyra's face. "We're just now starting her on healing spells. Hopefully that will help with the pain when she wakes up next." The doctor flipped to the next page, his face darkening even further.

"What's wrong?" Lyra asked, picking up on his sudden mood-shift.

"Well- A foal her age should weigh..." He looked at the numbers... despite all her injuries, it still should've been higher. "She is shorter than a normal foal. Approximately eight-to-ten years old."

"She's that old?" Lyra asked, surprised at her age.

"Yes. She's small." Also underdeveloped... An unspoken voice told him. "The average wingspan for a foal her age is around ten hooves. She's currently rocking twenty hooves, and that's with her small stature."

"You mentioned how much she weighs." Lyra pushed. "What's wrong with her weight?" The doctor soon realized he had over-shared.

"Well- I mean... Considering her small stature, impressive wing span, and considering her injuries, she weighs... about twenty pounds less than she should." He said, ripping off the band aid. Lyra looked confused for a moment.

"Well- Why does she weigh so little?"

"Because she's malnourished." The moment the words left his mouth, he knew he messed up. Lyra's expression was similar to a pony who was slapped, all the emotion draining out of her face, leaving only a shocked open-mouthed pony.

"She- She's-"

"I'm not saying anypony did anything to her." The doctor tried to correct. "All I'm saying is the facts. She's malnourished, weighs sixty pounds... I'm not here to speculate, but perhaps she was on the run? Trying to survive out in the wilderness, got malnourished, and passed-out mid-flight? That's the most probable theory right now."

Lyra finally closed her mouth, the motion bringing tears in her eyes.

"Lyra?" The doctor asked. Lyra started shivering, and the doctor wore a concerned expression. "Lyra, are you alright?" He sat down quickly in the seat next to her, rubbing a hoof on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have even brought that up. I don't know what I was thinking."

"N-No." She squeaked out, sniffing and rubbing a hoof over her eye. "It's just that- That's a foal. We're talking about a real, living foal in the same building. One I found, and carried. What-" She sniffed. "What would've happened if I didn't find her? What if I did find her hours later?"

"Then she would've died." He said bluntly. Lyra's shocked gasp filled the room as she continued sobbing into her hoof. "And you saved her. You saved her." He continued rubbing her shoulder. "If it wasn't for you, she wouldn't have seen today."

"B-But what if I hurt her more? By carrying her?"

"And what, the alternative being her dying?" He said, slightly exasperated. "You did a service, Lyra. You didn't let her die. You put her on your back and carried her here, and that's all that matters."

The two sat in silence, Lyra's tears eventually subsiding.

"So..." He started again, wanting to move onto a subject more happy. "How did the spell come along? Did you do it yet? Last time I saw you, it was for my Canterlot Spell Division recommendation."

"O-Oh." Lyra sputtered, wiping the last of her tears away. "It's coming along... fine. It's fine." She shook her head. "Bi-weekly monitoring by specialized doctors to make sure everything's coming along fine. Everything's fine." She said. Although her words were true, her tone made it sound like she was trying to convince herself more than the doctor.

"Who performed the spell? You?"

"Ahah." She said sarcastically. "As if I could do such a complicated spell. Nope, not I. It was the- umm-" She waved a hoof. "The librarian. She did it. Was happy enough to, as well. She said something along the lines of 'performing an illegal spell with a license.' which was super reassuring. Took her five minutes. Five minutes to change my life."

"Five minutes to save one, as well." He said. Lyra's eyes momentarily flickered up to meet his before she continued staring at the floor.

"Thanks, Doc." She finally said. "It's been hard. It's been real hard."

"That's alright." He patted her on the shoulder. "I should know. Had to watch my wife go through the same thing- Hey, speaking of which, does Bon-bon know you're here?"

"Oh." Lyra looked up at the clock. "I guess not."

"Go to her. The foal will be fine."

"Heh." Lyra stood up. "I hope so. Is it alright if I come back to check on her?"

"I'm sure she'll love to see her savior's face." The doctor waved as she pushed open the heavy double-doors leading out of the hospital.

"Now." He said, pulling the clipboard back out. "Who are you?"

BEEP

Andrew. It's been five days. Are you alright? I know this might sound like mom-being-overprotective, but we're starting to get worried. Really, really worried. The last time something like this happened was when Josh was deployed over seas. We- We all know how that happened. If you- Please pick up the phone. If you could please pick up the phone, just- call us or something. Uhm- Alright. I love you, Andrew. Bye.

BEEP