The Adventures of Two Best Friends.

A mess of wings, tails, manes, and crying fillies all sodden through, lay tangled in a heap, writhing in a muddy ditch, as the night slowly crept into the sky, poisoning the vibrant sunset with the darkness of the new moon.

Stormy Skies wailed, her left wing bent underneath her in an abnormal position, a mass of scratches covered her face and sides, her tail and main coated in a slimy, murky, film of mud and ditch water, showing a dull, deep, blue coat, blending her in with the night’s colours. Her eyes squeezed shut, her mouth wide open, screaming, while coughing up filthy water and choking on her fast-flowing tears.

Myst lay beside her, completely still, her face showing a serene calmness, even while covered with red, angry, cuts. Her back legs seemed bent at an awkward position, the bones seeming warped in one of them, the other, at a sharp, unnatural angle to her side.

“Over here! I can hear them!” Two ponies’ galloping hooves approached the two injured fillies. The rustle of parting greens drew the crying pegasus’ attention, silencing her for a second as she forgot herself, then a twinge ran through her wing, setting her wailing again with renewed vigour, now in fear of the approaching stranger-ponies, as well as pain.

“Mac, here, they’re over here...And they sound pretty upset...We should hurry.” A light mare’s voice called out, as the rustling moved closer. Two ponies looked down at the fillies, their eyes turning from merely concerned to deeper shades of worry as they surveyed their injuries.

“Cheerilee, miss, may ah suggest we get these fillies to the hospital? They look pretty beaten up, an ah don’t like the way that one ain’t makin’ a sound with legs lookin’ like that.” Mac finished, gesturing to Myst with his hoof.

“Definitely! Let’s get them into safe hooves for now...” The mare stared at the two fillies intently, a look of strong curiosity on her face,

“Y’ don’t recognise ‘em then?” Mac questioned as he reached forwards and his companion tried as lightly as possible to load the still figure of Myst onto his back.

“Never seen them. They don’t attend the school, that’s for sure. I wonder who their parents are...” She looked at the tiring figure of Stormy, her wails becoming much weaker, her throat hoarse from her crying.

“Can you get up dear?” Stormy just stared back in reply. Eventually she moved slightly, summoning up the strength to stand. She coughed a few times, then, her voice shaky, she spoke,

“Where are we?”

Then her eyes closed, and, exhausted, she fell. Just before she hit the floor, a dark pink hoof caught her, Cheerilee picking her and pulling her in close.

“Come on then Mac, let’s get these fillies back while there’s still some ponies awake to help us.”

“Eeyup.”

The two ponies, burdened with the two fillies, began their short journey to the nearby Ponyville hospital. They walked in silence, focused on keeping the fillies as still as possible on the way, as they tried not to trip on the uneven, night-soaked path.

-

A while later the safety-promising lights of the hospital came into view, right on the edge of the village. There were very few ponies around, it was too late for anyone to be out. The only life seemed to be the bored-looking door-ponies. One of them looked up at the approaching couple, subtly nudging the other awake with a jab in the ribs. They lit their torches, bathing the surrounding area in a soft yellow glow, cutting through the darkness,

“Hey! Hold-up there!” One of them called out to the couple, “What are you doing out at this time of night, huh?”

“We’ve got two fillies here. Both injured...One maybe worse..” Answered a tired-sounding Cheerilee, the combination of the late time and the weight of the filly taking it’s toll on her strength.

The guards looked at each other, then back at the couple, curious yet concerned looks appearing on their faces,

“What happened?”

“We have no idea...We just found them like this..”

“Take ‘em in quickly, the nurse’ll be at reception, she’ll take care of this.” The guards stood back by the doors, opening them to allow the two tiring ponies and their charges into the hospital.

The entry hall stank of strong disinfectant, making the ponies’ eyes water slightly as they trotted as quickly as they could without upsetting their passengers towards a small wooden desk at the far end. A white mare stood waiting behind the desk, her light pink mane done up in a tight bun, her small nurse’s hat tilted back slightly. She opened her mouth, as if to ask what was wrong, then, as they drew nearer, and the foals’ injuries became visible, she slammed her hoof onto a green button on her desk, and shouted,

“Dr. Stable! Come here quickly! We’ve got a few fillies broken!”

A sandy-brown stallion trotted out from a side-door, a white, pristine, jacket buttoned loosely onto his chest, and a stethoscope hanging from his neck. His lime-green eyes looked stressed and tired, yet he perked up slightly once he saw there were ponies aside from the nurse.

Mac grunted lightly, attracting the doctor’s attention,

“Mr, I don’t mean t’ sound rude or nothin’, but this filly ain’t movin’, she ha’nt made so much as a whisper since we found ‘em.”

The doctor frowned, walking over to the filly slung across Mac’s back, raising a hoof to her still neck. He spoke, his voice heavy as he applied his experience,

“She’s alive, just. She needs some pretty urgent treatment though. I’m thinking a severe impact to her head, leaving her to unconsciousness...We don’t know just how hard that hit was though, she may wake up with a bit of a headache and some dizziness, or she could fall into some form of coma. There’s no way to tell...”

Cheerilee nudged the doctor out of his ponderings,

“What about this one? She spoke a little, asking where she was, then she blacked-out. That wing doesn’t look very healthy either, is it broken?”

Stable trotted around the dark pink mare, taking in the burden-filly’s injuries,

“Looking much more stable than the other one...Hmm...Yes, and she spoke, you say? Well, we can be sure she didn’t get too badly injured then. I think there may be multiple fractures though- that wing is beyond broken, it’ll be out of use for weeks.”

He walked to a nearby blue door, opening it and motioning for the ponies to go through,

“Get those two in here quickly. That’s right, nice and gently onto the beds there. Alright, it’s up to us now, uh, I’m sorry, I don’t remember taking your names,

“I’m Cheerilee and he’s Big Macintosh.”

“And you’re their parents, right?”

The two ponies looked at each other, caught off-balance by this question, their faces reddening slightly,

“N-no, no, we just found these foals injured and crying. There was nopony else around, so we brought them in.”

“Alright...Okay, well we’ll deal with that once these two are taken care of. We’ll sign them under your names until we can ask them for their parents’ names, okay?”

“Okay..” Cheerilee turned to leave, taking one last glance at the two blanked fillies, “We’ll be back to check on them soon.”

The doctor nodded, and the couple left. Leaving the him and the nurse alone, gazing after the retreating ponies,

“It’s going to be a long night...”