A dark streak traces its way across the moonlit sky. Suddenly, two more trails join it, hot on its tail. The first dark streak begins zooming around erratically, attempting to lose its attackers. They refuse to fall behind, and instead, get closer, due to the shadow pony's frantic zig-zags. To his dismay, he spots a humble little town ahead.
"Crap. I can't afford to lead these things into a town of innocent ponies..." he breathes, already exhausting in his flight.
He quickly darts to his right, hoping to lead the unnatural dark creatures away from this clearly cozy place. But seemingly out of nowhere, a peculiar cloud reveals itself, with waterfalls of rainbows pouring out over it. He swoops up to avoid this as well, but the creatures aren't quite as agile. They come so close to hitting it that the resulting draft causes it shake rather violently.
"Shit!" the panicked pony exclaims under his breath.
He begins to head back over toward Everfree Forest, where the chase began, when his sensitive ears pick up the sound of an extremely angry pony.
"Hey! What the heck was that about?! What is your pr-" a vibrant cyan and multicolored pony begins, as the sight before her shuts her up. The expression of shock fades as quickly as it had appeared, replaced by a face that, anyone who knew this pony, knew it meant, "Bring it on!"
The black pony had no time to think about these things though, and was intent upon drawing the creatures as far away from this town as possible. There was no way these things were gonna cause damage to an innocent town just because he was a coward! Suddenly, a flash of vibrant color zipped by him. He was just starting to wonder what it was when it came back and began flying right next to him.
“Hey, what the heck is goin on here?!” the bright pony exclaims over the sound of the rushing wind.
“These Embernaithes are chasing me, and have been for a while now.” he explains calmly, despite the desperate situation
“Embernaithes? What!?! I thought those didn’t exist!”
“Well... They do... and I inadvertently summoned a few... I took one out, but the other two knocked me out of the summoning chambers and decided they didn’t like me very much. I hardly blame them, I destroyed their... brother... sister... friend... I don’t know... I hardly expect them to throw me a greeting part-” he faltered as a vision consumed him. A vision of one of Pinkie’s famous parties, that he has seen in his scrying globe. This nearly cost him his life, as he began to plummet. Because as if he were a weeping angel who’d been seen, he just froze up, unable to move.
“No!” called the multicolored pony, worried that the Embernaithes had an ability to paralyze their victims.
The dark pony quickly recovered, but not quickly enough. He shot his wings out, but it was too late to prevent him from colliding painfully with a series of Everfree trees. He fell to the ground, completely stunned, but not dead. He quickly took stock of injuries, and realized he had broken a wing and a leg.
“Shit... She’s gotta deal with those things on her own now... Dammit...” he hissed in pain, as the world went dark.
~~~
“Crap, what happened to him? Who is he anyway? What am I gonna do with these-” the vibrant pony began rambling, when the two Embernaithes shot up, over, and past her. They headed with purpose deep into the Everfree Forest, vanishing from sight.
“Where are they going? Oh well, this is my chance to find that mysterious pony that led them here. He’ll probably know where they are goin’” I hope he’s not hurt too badly, though, cuz... Wait, why am I thinking like this? This is HIS fault! I should be mad at him, not worried about him like I’m his mother! she thought to herself.
She flew back to where she saw him hit the tree last, and thought of how much that had to hurt... She descended to the forest floor, and saw him. She couldn’t help it: she gasped aloud. She could clearly see that the wing was at an angle it wasn’t supposed to be, and knew in an instant that it was broken. Same could be said for his left foreleg.
There’s no way I’ll be able to carry him all the way back to Ponyville Infirmary in this condition on my own... I’m going to have to ask Zecora for help... With that thought, she shot up just above the canopy, and b-lined it to the helpful zebra’s hut.
“What is wrong, Rainbow Dash? You say a dark pony has had a terrible crash.?”
While she explained to Zecora the injuries she observed, the exotic equine quickly collected some herbs and other materials. Strapping the components of a stretcher to her back, and putting the herbs in her saddlebags, they headed for the fallen pegasus, with Zecora saying, “You were right to come for assistance, for this pony’s injuries may exhibit resistance.”?
When they reached the area where he was located, Zecora first checked to make sure there were no injuries other than those Rainbow Dash had described.
When she found none, she put a splint on both wing and leg, with a poultice in the wrappings. Then she and Rainbow Dash gingerly lifted him onto the stretcher. As soon as they placed him upon it, he shifted his head a bit and groaned in his state of unconsciousness. Dash bit her lip, worried that they had shifted a bone painfully, and done permanent damage. But Zecora assured her that he would be fine, as long as they got him to the Infirmary before his bones started to set. So they quickly lifted the stretcher with the attached harnesses. The way the stretcher was designed was so that the pony being carried went hind-hoof first, so as to prevent an awkward view for the rear carrier. It also resulted in the rear carrier to have a prime view of the injured pony’s face. Rainbow secretly took advantage of this and spent most of the time staring curiously at his dark visage. She also noticed something else: a pair of [bracelets/anklets] on his lower forelegs, that seemed to emanate a magical aura, that even she could feel. After a while, she started to think she recognized him, but she couldn’t remember where from.
Once they left Everfree Forest, they passed by another house, that had a light on inside. As they began to get beyond the house, the door suddenly burst open, with a yellow pegasus with a pink mane came out, running toward them.
“Hey, um, what happened? Who is...” began the shy pony. He looks oddly familiar... she thought to herself.
“I don’t have time to explain right now, Fluttershy. We’ll talk after we get him to the Infirmary, and make sure he’s gonna be all right...” responded Rainbow Dash.
So Fluttershy decided to follow the others to the Infirmary.
As soon as they got there, the sun broke over the horizon in a brilliant flash of golden light.
Rainbow Dash wondered if that was really why the creatures left: they knew morning was coming soon.
They quickly explained the extent of the mysterious pony’s injuries to the nurse that was there
“Is he gonna be alright, Nurse Redheart?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Well, he won’t be able to fly for a while, and he will have a limp for a week or so, but otherwise, he will be fine.”
“Thanks... I wish he would be able to fly earlier, though...”
“He had quite the crash, as you said.”
“Well... I’ve got jobs I’ve still gotta do... So... Let me know when he wakes up, okay?”
“Will do! And don’t worry, he’ll be okay.”
Rainbow Dash just smiled in response.
