The Healer, The Thief, and the Painter. Act 1 The Healer

Standing alone in the darkness with only my thoughts, I lowered my breathing to barely a whisper, in case there was anything hidden by the darkness’ loving embrace. I focused my will again and the sparks burst forth, and brightened a small area around my feet. I swung my arm in a slow, nearly graceful arc until the sparks illuminated of a pair of heavy silk curtains. I walked towards them slowly until I could reach out and grab them. I ripped the curtains to one side, and blinked spots out of my eyes as fresh blinding light flew effortlessly into the chamber. A short scream emanated from behind me, and I whirled around just to glimpse a thin figure disappear underneath the covers of a four poster canopy bed. The lump of whatever was under the covers was very large and was shaking uncontrollably. There was a medium sized bedside table on my side of the bed. There was a pyramid of scrolls and an inkwell with an eagle feather quill sticking out proudly. Yet as I walked closer a small dulled sparkle of amethyst and gold from under the bed caught my interest. As I continued towards the bed, I got on my knees and reached into the shadows of the bed for the object. My hand grasped cool metal and I stood up with the object in my hands.

                It was a crown of gold with three golden spikes sticking straight up from the middle of the headband. In the large center pyre there was a large diamond shaped amethyst. The crown was in a terrible condition; the gold was dulled and dented beyond belief. The amethyst was the worst part; it was cracked in dozens of places with the most deadly being a deep shatter piercing the center of the once beautiful gem. I stood with the wrecked crown staring at its once beauty. I could have stayed there until the world ended if a small whimper of pain and crying shattered the quiet. It came from the shivering lump of blankets in front of me. I reached out for the blankets and nearly pulled it away as there was heat like a bonfire oozing from the linens. The smell of decomposition I had smelled on the air before now wormed its way into my nostrils fiercly and nearly made me nauseous. I kept my stomach from doing advanced gymnastics and placed the crown in front of the scrolls before grabbing the blanket and pulled back.

A horrible image met me. There was another pony, yet this one differentiated itself from the others because of many reasons. One of them was that it had a horn and a pair of wings which were lying weakly at its sides, its hair was pink blue and green which looked like it weighed its head down. The second was that it was the size of a normal horse, at least my height if it was standing, and about six feet long. It also had a tattoo on its flank, which was the image of a blazing sun so life like that I felt that if I stared at it too long, my corneas would start to burn. It looked up at me and our eyes met. It had eyes like the amethyst in the crown, and they were just as broken. Then I saw why. Its flank, except for the area around the tattoo was layered with horrible black scabs up to the middle of its’ barrel, with more layering the bed beneath it. A horrendous acid green slime was forcing its way out of areas where the scabs had broken off.

As I watched the pony shifted slightly, and another patch of scabs scraped off its flesh. It cried out with another sign of pain, and a single tear fell down its eyes.  As we met eyes again, it looked up and spoke three words, “Help me. Please.” with a feminine whisper. I stood looking at her for a while until Allumere spoke in my head softly.

“Cut your finger.”

“What?!” I whispered back as to not frighten the mare anymore, who had laid her head back down and continued weeping.

“Do you remember the forest?” he spoke. “Yes I do,” I said, “but that was a gunshot, this is something that I have never seen before.”

“Yes,” he continued, “but with my power and your's combined, you can heal any wound or illness except for those inflicted on yourself. Your blood infused with my magic will act like a transformer to the sparks, taking them and making them increase in power.” I slowly turned back to the scroll table and retrieved the crown again. The amethyst had a small chunk taken out of the middle, leaving a hole about a centimeter long and razor sharp at the edges.

I placed my finger on this hole and whispered “Here goes.” I pulled down my finger with all of my strength. Silver pain raced up my finger as the stone cut through my flesh like a blade. Blood welled out from my finger, and I reached down and smeared it along the recently revealed flesh beneath the scabs. As I watched my finger became stuck on the mare’s barrel same as the mare in the forest. The same amber sparks floated lazily out of my flesh as I willed them to heal this disease. I noticed that they were flowing too slowly, so I forced my hand down upon the mare’s sensitive flesh, which made her gasp with pain. The small trickle of sparks turned into a torrent as I forcefully willed them out of my body. They picked at the scabs ravenously, prying them up before healing the inflamed flesh underneath. A loud banging came from the wooden doors followed by a loud shouting. I didn’t know how they could not get in until I saw that the door was encased in a golden aura. I looked back at the mare, and saw that her horn was also glowing with the same aura. She was trying to help me. “Why?” I asked her. She leaned in close and replied softly “For you are the only one who can save my life.” I stared at her stupidly as the sparks continued their job.

They were completely finished with her barrel now, and began work on her flank. The scabs rained down upon the silken sheets with the sound of a soft rain. As the amber balls continued working, I could feel myself beginning to become tired yet again. No doubt, for I had no breakfast, and barely any sleep, I was running on adrenaline now, and that would soon wear off. The healing had finished on the mare’s flank and began finishing up on her hind legs. She shook her head slowly and gave out a small sigh of relief. I watched as the sparks picked away at the final parts of the disease until the last one fell to the ground. I tried to move my arm away, but to no avail. I collapsed on the cold ceramic floor breathing heavily with the mare sighing gracefully above me. It was almost peaceful until I noticed a scab near my left arm begin to move.

I slowly inched its way towards my fore arm until it was lying upon my flesh. Then it changed. It transformed from a hardened bit of blood and skin to a near black opalescent quality like obsidian. I watched unable to move as it began to burn with a small flame, red in the middle, but the outside flame being as black as a nightmare slowly consuming the small object. A burning sensation filled my entire arm as I watched horrified as it melted directly into my unmoving flesh. I would have screamed if I had the energy, but as I began to open my mouth, the pain vanished leaving with it a cooling sensation.

The endorphins that rushed from my brain to vanquish the pain, when arriving found no pain and instead threw a party in my cranium. It was too much, and my eyes began to cloud over yet again. The last thing I remember seeing was the doors bursting open and a guard patrol rushing in. The white body of Aurora trotted over my nearly unconscious form, and reared his back hoof back and slammed it directly into my face. As I fell back into the blackness, a sinister voice, definitely not Allumere’s whispered in my head. “Goodnight my vessel… tomorrow a new day dawns for me.”