Who are you?

Chapter Two - Unconscious

"Come on doc, Its this way!"

The doctor did not speak he only followed Rainbow Dash's lead as the young mare showed him to the unconscious stallion and her worried friends, gathered to one side of said pony providing needed shade.Rainbow noticing that her friends have multiplied since she left, noticing her pet Tank was now hovering over to her, could not help but forget for a moment the situation and cry out.

"All right Tank lets play!" This reaction was quickly stifled by her own two hooves over her mouth and a bright red face. In this time the doctor being a no nonsense pony had already moved over to the side of the unconscious stallion and had begun to check the pony over, prodding the pony lightly in places and asking for a response of any kind.

The other's just watched for what felt like hours, watched the doctor move like a machine over the still body that lay before him. Finally the doctor slowly rose from the pony's side and calmly spoke though a small field of magic he had created in front of himself.

"Fetch the stretcher" the doctor spoke though his field, and two disembodied voices replied too muffled for anypony to understand except for the doctor him self.

"Stretcher?! Why a stretcher I check this pony my self, I thought he was just unconscious, from the heat maybe?" Twilight spoke, clear confusion in her voice.

"Yes miss Sparkle, this pony is defiantly unconscious, and I did noticed some pony's work on him, a clear sine being the recovery position he was in when I arrived." Replied the doctor in his monotone, calm voice.

"Then why the stretcher? the medical book I read clearly stated that a patient who has fallen unconscious from heat stroke, should be place in the recovery position and left to wake on there own. right?" although Twilight knew her words where right, knew that her books were always correct, she had to know if she had been wrong in her quick examination of the pony.

After a brief moment of silence, a moment that the doctor used to think of how to best reply to twilight, he finally spoke.

"Twilight you are correct on all count's" earning a smile from Twilight "However, although this pony is indeed unconscious, I don't think it was the heat that did this. There are no clear sine's as to why this pony is unconscious. In fact the only thing I could deduce was that he is completely unresponsive." this new information took the smile of Twilight's face, replacing it with one that could only be described as a mix, of confusion, concern and saddens.

"The stretcher, is so I can have this pony moved to the hospital for extensive research into why this pony is unconscious. So that the best medical care can be provided." As the doctor spoke this, two stallions wearing green tops with the Ponyville medical hospital's logo on there sides, arrived stretcher in tow and carefully moved the unknown and  unconscious stallion onto the stretcher. With a nod from the doctor they began to move over to the medical carriage that they arrived in, closely followed by Twilight and the gang.

No pony spoke a word, nothing was said or even whispered, aside from small word's of communication from the two stallions checking that no pony would drop the unconscious pony by mistake. after a five minute walk the group finally arrived at the medical carriage and watched as the unknown pony was loaded on board.

"Now, I'm happy that you girls took such good care of this pony, but we can handle it now. If you want to check his progress then come by tomorrow, now I must leave." and with that the doctor and the unknown pony where gone, without even a chance for reply form Twilight or her friends.

The rest of the day went by quite uneventful, the pony pet play date was called of and each pony went home to mull over the strange events of the day, on the promise that they would all meet at Twilight's library the following morning. Each pony had her own thoughts on this unknown pony, and what should be done about it and each pony in there own way tried to push any negative thoughts about him away.

Applejack went back to her routine of bucking apples and working the farm, thinking "hard work will help me think about what I should do next"

Rarity donned a black cloak and a particular red fainting chair, and simply sulked the day away, she didn't know why she felt so sad for a pony she does not know, but knew in her hart she would have to do something to help.

Fluttershy took to the day's events quite well, quickly coming to the conclusion on her journey home that tomorrow she would help out any way she could, and pondered on just how she would do that, while tending to her woodland friends.

Rainbow Dash feeling out of the loop, on the events of the day took to vigorous flight over Ponyville stopping for no pony, willing the thoughts away, until finally, the pinkish glow of the setting sun, almost forced her to retire from flight, forced her to return home and stay still long enough to think. Rainbow came to one conclusion "Twilight will know what to do!"

Pinkie Pie returned to the cake's Sugarcube corner and promptly began planing a welcome party for the unknown  pony, with the idea that "a party is the best way to help a pony wake up, and if its a welcome party too, it means they get loads of new friends"

Twilight took the day hard, real hard. Although she knew that she did everything by the book for the unconscious pony, she couldn't shake the feeling that had she noticed just how unresponsive the stallion was, maybe she could have helped more.

"Had I been thinking strait I could have help more!" Twilight cried pacing around her bedroom floor "I could have used my magic to provide shade! Stupid Twilight, Stupid Stupid Stupid" she repeated while banging her head with a hoof.

"Twilight, is... is something wrong?" Spike had entered the room, hearing Twilight's cries only moments after she entered the library, and promptly shut herself in her room.

"no...YES...I, I don't know spike" Twilight fell onto her bed burying her head into her pillow, crying softly, believing she had failed.

"I don't understand Twilight, What happened? You ran in, WAY early from you pet play date, and now your shouting and, and crying. What happened!?" Spike was almost in tears himself at this point believing something terrible must have happened to brake Twilight so fiercely.

"Please talk to me Twilight, maybe I can help, I could write a letter to the princess, she would know what to do"

"No!" Twilight Barked "You cant tell the princess, if she finds out, she, she wont want me to be her student anymore"

"What? what did you do? Why would the princess want to drop you as her student? Tell me, PLEASE!"

Spikes plea was finally heard and after a few more minutes of ranting about how the princess would punish her for failing, Twilight eventually let out.

"It's not what I did spike, its what I didn't do" Twilight went on and explained to spike the events of the day, how she Applejack and Rainbow found an unconscious pony, how she sent Rainbow off to get a doctor and how she placed the pony into the  recovery position, followed the book to the letter even had Applejack provide shade with her body and even helped her do this with her own body. How she failed to realize just how unresponsive the unconscious pony really was, failed to think that her magic could have provided far better shade and how she just down right failed.

After choosing his words carefully Spike added how silly Twilight was being about all of this.

"So what, you didn't notice one little thing, the doctor said you did everything right, and so you got a little overwhelmed by the event that you forgot how useful your magic was. You can still help out, cant you?"

A brief moment passed and twilight raised her head slightly.

"Theirs a reason you are my number one assistant" Twilight's voice was quiet and hoarse from all the crying, she knew Spike was right, she had done everything she knew how too and would do everything she could to help from now on.

Twilight's day seemed to slip away before she new it. After all the crying, all the contemplating it was dark outside her room. Twilight decided that her next move would be easy to plan with her friends around, and with that thought, she slipped into bed with a half smile, thinking about her friends.

Morning broke over Ponyville and all was peaceful, all except the Ponyville library which was oddly active for this time time in the morning. As promised, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie pie and Rainbow Dash had all met up at the appointed time to discuss the events of the previous day. The conversation began as expected, each pony explained what they had seen that day and went on to what each pony thought  the next step should be. Rainbow Dash was silent when she found out that the one pony she expected to have the answer to this, Twilight, was having a hard time of it her self.

"I'm not sure on what to do to help girls, but i do feel somewhat responsible" Twilight said this hoping somepony would have the answer she needed, but everypony stayed quiet. Twilight didn't even have spike to turn to this time since it was early he was still sleeping.

Frustrated Twilight almost shouted at her friends for help, but in a moment of thought decided that simply asking them calmly would grater benefit her, since having five ponies mad at her would not help her in her lessons in friendship, nor would it help her in finding out what to do next.

"huhh, Alright. dose anypony have something to say, we need to make a plan"

There where a few more moments of silence as everypony thought of what the right move was. The silence finally broken when Fluttershy spoke out first.

"Maybe, we should go to the hospital and visit the stallion. that's if its okay with everypony"

This suggestion was met with a resounding yes from the other five pony's and with Twilight leaving a note on the door for spike, explaining  where they had gone the group set out for Ponyville hospital.

Ponyville hospital was surprisingly active considering that it was still so early in the morning. The walk though Ponyville showed almost no pony was out and about, save the occasional early riser most likely of to begin a day of work. The Ponyville hospital however showed the opposite, nurse's and doctors could be seen running from room to room tending to several patients at once. The gang moved though the ruckus and made there way to the front desk, Applejack was the one to speak to the frantic nurse behind the desk.

"uhh, Hello"

"...."

"Excuse me, nurse I was just wondering if we could ask you a question"

The nurse motioned a hoof of silence to Applejack, and continued to quickly fill out the forms that where piled up on her desk using her horn to wisp the quill across the paper as quickly as she could. Once she had finished with the first she quickly looked up to a confused Applejack.

"I'm sorry Its been ever so hectic in here, we have the overflow from Fillydelphia the have an out brake of pony pox, what was it you where asking girls?" the nurses voice was notable stressed, and everypony could see that she had bag's under her eyes, tacitly ignoring the Fillydelphia problem, Applejack jumped right onto the matter at hoof.

"We need to know about a pony, a stallion that was brought in yesterday evening."

"The name?"

"Name? we don't know."

"Don't know?"

Twilight stepped in and briefly explained the day events leading to why they where here now.

"A unconscious stallion you say? well that narrows it down. we don't get many unconscious ponies."

After a few seconds of searching though files the nurse turned back and reviled only 2 pieces of paper quickly examining them she places one back where she found it.

"The pony your looking for is in intensive care, that's down the hall behind me up the stairs and to the end of the hall and its the room at the back on the left. You cant miss it."

"intensive care!?" the six pony said in unison, Fluttershy was the first to rush ahead followed closely by Pinkie, Rainbow and Twilight, Applejack and Rarity stayed for a moment to thank the nurse before joining their friends.

Once in the intensive care ward of the hospital the ponies where halted at the entrance by a familiar face, it was the no nonsense doctor from the day before.

"I'm sorry girls you cant enter this part of the ward unless you are family to a pony in it."

"Doctor don't you remember us?" Rainbow shouted as she tried her hardest to make her way past the doctor, stepping left and right even trying to fly over him only to be stopped each time by the doctors magic.

"I do Remember you Rainbow Dash, and your friends, but I still cant let you on the ward. Although..."

"Although?" Rainbow parroted, making one final attempt to slip by the doctor, this time being dragged away by her tail courtesy of Rarity.

"Yes, well as I am sure you have noticed we are quite over populated and understaffed." the doctor motioned behind the six ponies showing the same as before. Frantic doctors and nurses moving from room to room. "I think seen as, the stallion your here to see as of yet, has no recorded family. I could allow two of you into the room at any given time, so long as you promise to behave while your in there." the doctor said this with a stair aimed like laser's locked onto Rainbow and Pinkie.

There where a few moments of silence as everypony mulled over the doctors words, finally Twilight stepped forwards then turned to her friends with a look that said, "I have a plan."

"Everypony listen up. we should split into three groups each group will spend two hours with the unconscious pony"

"Whoa now twi, I understand we should help out. But what good will spending two hours with the pony do, what exactly can we do to help?" The question Applejack pitched flummoxed Twilight greatly, so much so she had no answer for her friend at all.

"ehhem, if i may" The doctor interrupted with a hoof "You girls can be of help, we are understaffed. Having ponies to watch him means that I can go about helping with the ruckus here. Their is a button on the wall to call for a doctor should you need one, and as for his need's, well the i.v is sustenance enough, and he should he wake you can call a doctor, as I said."

"That settles it then, I will go in first with.."

"ME!" Rainbow cut in with a leap as she shot to Twilight's side "I went to get the doctor so I want first dibs on watching him"

"uhm. Okay?" Twilight's voice did not sound nearly as confused as her face showed, if her eyebrow could raise any higher it would. However Twilight chose to ignore Rainbows 'first dibs' remark passing it off as her normal over enthusiastic way about thing's. "Well I guess I'm with Rainbow"

The girls decided on their pairings, Applejack with Rarity and Pinkie pie with Fluttershy. Once this was decided the girls then went on to decide how they would rotate watching over the unconscious pony, deciding that after Twilight and Rainbow's shift Fluttershy and Pinkie would go next leaving Applejack and Rarity four hours to finish their work before their shift begins.

Twilight and Rainbow's shift began after some short goodbyes, they entered the unconscious ponies room. His room was situated at the back of the hospital, it was a small room with a single bed at the left side of the room with a double seated chair and a coffee table next to it and to the right of the room was a large open window, that revealed the morning glow over the Everfree Forest. The hospital bed its self looked more like a bed one would have in there home only the hospital's basic green sheets played over it, and inside the bed lay the white coated, blue maned stallion with a I.V drip placed into his front right hoof. The pony that was going to be the attention and focus of Rainbow and Twilight's next two hours. Or at least, so they thought.

Little did Twilight and Rainbow know or anypony for that matter, the unconscious pony was not so much unconscious anymore. He was mealy now, in a heavy sleep.

An hour passed by and neither Twilight or Rainbow had much to say, side the comment of how the room had the 'worst view ever' in rainbow's opinion. The hour passed slowly this frustrated the normally fast acting Rainbow to no end, until finally she broke.

"AAAAAHH!! I cant take this silence anymore Twilight, Please you gota think of something anything to talk about." Rainbow pleaded with the purple Unicorn literally taking Twilight in her hoof's and shaking her, hard, as if that would shake the much needed entertainment out. "Come on Twilight say something!"

"ughh" Twilight replied

"What?"

"please.... stop.... shaking....me" Twilight was instantly released, almost loosing her place on the double seat next to Rainbow. Quickly composing herself, she shot a glance at Rainbow, and was met with a apologetic yet pleading look from Rainbow. "huhh. Alright so what do you want to talk about?"

Meanwhile

"What was that? I know i heard something.. but where did it come from?" I thought to myself. Now i looked all I could see was black. My eyelids felt heavy and my head was pounding like a drum. "Is that, talking... can I hear talking?" I tried to open my eyes, they felt not only heavy but as if they where glued together by some unknown force. I couldn't move at all, In fact all I could do was listen as the sounds as they became clearer to me.

"And then once I'm as high as I can go, I will tuck my wings in and go into this wicked free fall"

"Oh my, that sounds dreadfully dangerous Rainbow are you sure you want to do that for your next big trick?"

"Duh, Twilight of course I want to. I am Rainbow Dash after all, The best flyer in all of Ponyville"

"I don't know who this Rainbow is, but she should listen to her friend" I thought as I ease dropped on the conversation. I now realized that I felt allot lighter than I did before my head was not pounding as hard and I felt like I could even move a little. "its decided then, I want to see this 'Daring' Rainbow my self" slowly I turned my head towards the sound of the two female voices. I opened my eyes, slowly at first. Everything was bright and blurry but it only took a moment for my eyes to adjust, but I almost instantly wished I had not looked. What I saw filled me with fear I didn't know why but I knew I was in danger. Quickly I shot my head back to its original position and closed my eyes hoping that this was the dream no, nightmare and that I would wake up, hoping that my movement had not been spotted by what I now knew to be ponies.

"Rainbow did he just move?"

"shit!" I thought.

I could hear movement around me but neither pony spoke for what felt like the longest moment. It was silent. Then like a slight breeze washing over my face, I could feel what I knew to be a ponies shallow breathing over me. With this reality I knew I would be found out, I knew I was in danger, and almost as if my fear had its own will my body reacted. What I felt next was the hard furry face of which ever pony was over me being punched away against my hoof, instantly I forced my eyes open and jumped out of the bed feeling a sharp tug on my front right hoof, it was a cord of some kind snapping away. My eyes raced around the room and in what what must have been seconds I took in what I saw. The pony I had hit was a cyan colored mare, a  Pegasus who was now heaped up at the foot of the bed. Standing over her was a purple Unicorn who seemed frozen still, in shock most likely. Finally and most importantly I saw my exit. Across the room was a large window, more importantly it was an open window. Shooting for it like a bullet form a gun l leaped, feeling my freedom, feeling the outside air rush over me, feeling the ground as I hit it.

"Ouch!"