Wings of Mercy
By Spiral Pony
(I still don’t own any of the characters in this story)
I feel a need to explain, the sequel to "Look Before You Climb" seems an inappropriate way to describe this, rather Wings of Mercy should be viewed as an aside, this is merely a brief step aside from the story of Rarity's madness, and ultimately it's the setup for the next and for the final portion. The reason the story is described like this is that at the time of writing this story, I had not intended to include the stories together but had meant to give them separate entries. Given where these sequals take the story I will adjust the information on this story appropriately.
Despite the warm summer night Twilight Sparkle found herself shuddering as a cold wind whispered its way through the Ever-free Forest. Twilight started a bit when she stepped on a branch but calmed down when she saw that it hadn’t called forth any of the monsters of the forest. She’d come out to visit with Zecora and while she enjoyed visiting with the zebra she didn’t like walking back in the dark through the dangerous forest alone. The forest was dark and Twilight couldn’t see far past the edges of the path, but she could hear the creatures of the forest; quiet strange bird song, low growls, rustling leaves, and occasional howls from out in the darkness.
The vague threat of the forest had felt worse this trip, for some reason that she couldn’t quite place. Granted almost every time she’d entered the forest she’d found herself in danger and rescued by her friends, so she did have ample cause for feeling uneasy. For now not only was she in the forest, in the dark, but she was also alone, that last time that sort of thing had happened to her she had run into a cockatrice and been turned to stone, rescued only by the intervention of her friend Fluttershy. Twilight swallowed out of nervousness and froze still as a twig snapped somewhere in the darkness.
She didn’t freeze due to the noise, there were some good sized creatures around the forest, many of them nocturnal and not all of them were bound to be completely quiet. As a result the was always an amount of such noises in the forest and they where nothing to be afraid of. Rather what had scared her were to larger realizations, one that she wasn’t able to recognize where she was, and two that her last step had just turned over a bone lying on the ground. The bone was the lesser of the two reasons, given that any forest with predators in it is bound to generate it’s share of bodies. But given that staying on the paths in the forest was one of the only ways to ensure safe travel through the forest, the fact that she was lost could cost Twilight her life.
Twilight glanced nervously around hoping in vain to find something recognizable, she tried without success to figure out when she’d lost track of her surroundings. As she did she took another step forward and her hoof landed on another piece of the same skeleton snapping it with a crack that seemed as loud as a thunder crack. The sound had forced twilight to realize just how terrified she was, though she only did so following her emitting a sharp yelp and beginning to run off into the darkness.
She ran without bothering to look, barely able to make out where she was running, managing somehow to avoid obstacles she couldn’t actually see. Branches whipped across her face as twigs and leaves snapped and crackled when they were trampled under her feet. At times she missed head on collisions with trees by only the slightest of measures actually feeling a hot scratching on her side as they scraped by her. She didn’t realize it until after she’d stopped but she’d been screaming the entire time. Ultimately what stopped her was completely external, the sheer shock everyone experiences when they suddenly find a complete lack of ground beneath them.
The gorge had caught her completely by surprise, and had it been any steeper than it was, or at the least had Twilight been any less lucky, she’d have fallen to her death. As it stands her front left hoof found no ground hand she fell hard onto that side. For a few horrible moments she found her world to be absolutely nothing but blurring spinning movement in alternating shades of deep night sky blue and rocky gray and an incredible amount of pain. She found herself panting heavily when she finally stopped with her back hard against the side of a large rock looking back up perhaps several dozen yards of angled loose rocky ground.
Further examination revealed that she had fallen perhaps halfway down into the depth of the gorge leaving a swath of disturbed rocks and loose dirt tracing upwards. At the center of the gorge was a narrow dark line that she assumed must be a river or perhaps some sort of creek. Her first attempt at standing brought an immense wave of pain from her right foreleg, and slightly smaller waves from the rest of her body as well as a feeling of nausea from the pain. She collapsed almost immediately barely managing to resist actually vomiting from the pain. Her next attempt was to rouse her magic to create some light, it came at first but then quickly flickered out amidst a fresh wave of pain. Knowing what to expect however, did allow her to succeed on her second attempt and she began to examine the extent of her injuries.
Her right foreleg, just below the knee was swollen, misshapen, and bruising, combined with the severe pain from earlier, she thought that it must be broken. The rest of her injuries looked painful but superficial, numerous scrapes and bruises covered her flanks and limbs, she could also taste blood but not in such amount that she’d assume it serious. She followed the inspection by attempting to stand.
On attempt number three she made sure that her side rested against that same rock that had stopped her previous descent when she swooned. Managing to support herself on three legs she took one step and came to the rather wise decision that she would have to proceed downward. Given the hobbling and extremely difficult progress she began to make it was obvious that she wouldn’t have been able to make the uphill trek. As she found herself able to she would make an attempt to teleport some length down hill, each time she found herself stumbling and nearly falling over when she touched down.
It bears noting that at this point in her clumsy hobbling that she was no longer moving with any real concern for where she was, or for where she was going. Rather at this point she was simply moving forward for the sake of continuing in any sort of action that bore any resemblance to forward progress, no matter how slight that resemblance was. Had she been aware of where she was going she’d have known she was coming out close to the eastern edge of the forest nearest to Ponyville and that her current route was indeed leading out of the forest and towards her home. But at this moment, rather than thinking about where she was and where she was going she was consumed simply with a need to make progress.
When she reached the bottom of the ravine with a final shaky and pained step she saw that a small creek did indeed make its way in a fairly straight path through the bottom of the gorge. In the pale moonlight, now free to brighten the night with the removal of the interfering trees, Twilight could see that the water looked clear and clean. The long trek had left her mouth dry and the water looked like the most pleasant thing in Equestria, she slowly limped her way down towards the river.
In all fairness many things become bait, a part in some terrible trap or danger, with absolutely no outright intent on the part of any of the things involved. In this case neither the river nor its nearby resident was even aware that their combine presence had produced a most dangerous trap for the tired and wounded pony. As a result it cannot be considered that any of these parties are responsible for what happened next, rather that it is merely the purest form of an accident one could come across. Purely coincidental circumstances whose generation results in a terrible and tragic consequence without the willful decision of any involved.
Twilight’s hoof landed next to a large rock and in a blur of motion a series of unpleasant events in the night seemed to reach a peak with a sudden sharp pain in her left foreleg. Twilight’s head snapped to one side granting her an instant of sight that seemed to last an eon, and that was perfectly and clearly etched into Twilight’s memory. The sudden tilting landscape, the large wedge shaped head of the snake a deep red looking dark brown in the night, its body a series of blue and yellow rings appearing as black and yellow. The scales of the snake scraped roughly across the sand as it slithered away, leaving the now spoiled cover the rock had provided.
As she collapsed, gasping in pain, her legs now locked into mutual screams of pain, the stabbing pain of he broken right leg and the burning agony of the venom in her left leg. Within seconds the light of her magic had been snuffed out and try as she might she couldn’t restore it. She tried everything she could, every spell simply never started, as if her magic had been completely isolated from her. She thrashed about in pain her motions slowing as she came to her senses, realizing neither of her forelegs were of any use. She found herself to feel very faint, a burning sensation creeping over her head and a dark blur creeping over her vision.
She was looking downstream as she slipped into unconsciousness as the gorge petered out it lead to some more of the thick trees. She could see the moon above the trees, she thought it seemed very pretty. But at the same time it seemed to give her some reminder of how alone she was at this exact moment. She wondered momentarily where her friends were and why they hadn’t come to save her. She found herself one by one wishing for each of her friends in turn, Fluttershy, Rainbowdash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and finally she found herself wondering where her beloved tutor was.
Even as she wondered that and her vision became a thin gray blur, even the moon growing completely out of focus, she saw a movement a white blur out of the edge of her vision. “Celestia” She thought to herself “Celestia must’ve come for me.” As that though finished the blur shifted to blackness, and twilight found that she wasn’t thinking much other than how tired she was.
The next thing she knew her leg was afire with agonizing pain, she couldn’t make out which leg it was, the poisoned left leg, or the broken right one. Even as she wondered that it occurred to her that she hadn’t opened her eyes yet. She did so.
The room was wooden, it appeared to be the inside of a tree, not the most uncommon of housing in equestrian. Twilight found she couldn’t move her neck and she could see that her forelegs were held down by a pair of sturdy leather straps. Her right leg, under the strap had a pair of thin wooden length and bandages on it in a simple splint. Additionally it looked like the wounds on both legs had been cleaned to some extent.
She could see that she lay on a flat simple wooden surface parallel to the floor. A pervading smell of medicine lay about the air and as she looked about she could see that numerous shelves and tables about the room seemed to be covered in what were doubtless medicine and medical equipment. There were no windows in the room, and the light came from several candelabras on the wall. Across the room from her were two doors, one simple rounded wood, the other a heavy reinforced and locked door, a single round window covered in frost at its center.
As she examined the room she heard a slight humming sound coming from the simple door, it was a simple sweet song, and the final clue as to who had cleaned her wounds and where she was. “Fluttershy?” She asked, her voice hoarse and cracking. The Pegasus pony had just entered and snapped her head to alert attention. Her face bright as she walked quickly to her friend’s side followed at her feet by the small white bunny.
“Twilight, I’m so relieved that you’re awake,” Fluttershy breathed in her quiet subdued voice. “Angel Bunny showed me where you were and you were so badly hurt that I was worried you wouldn’t wake up.” Fluttershy shook her head as she spoke, “I’m really so glad that you’re okay.”
Given that her friend’s statement had just filled in most of the blanks she had only a few questions left. “Why am I tied up?” Was the first thing she asked her friend.
Her friend was slowly looking over Twilight’s injuries as she answered “Well while you were unconscious you were thrashing about and spasming so much that I had to strap you down to treat you. I’m just glad I keep this table for when I need it for some of the animals I treat.”
“Oh, than if I’m ok, could you untie me?” Twilight asked as she attempted to turn her head, and getting annoyed at being unable to do so.
“Let’s wait,” Said Fluttershy “I’m going to put some medicine on some of you scrapes and it may sting a bit. I don’t want you hurting yourself anymore, so just stay put a while longer please?” Her friends tone was its usual hushed and quiet sort, but it had the sort of condescending feel one often get’s from medical personnel talking to uncooperative patients.
Twilight didn’t like having to wait or the fact that her friend was making the decision for her, but her reason did win her over with its point that Fluttershy had far more experience with such matters than she did. Also the primary argument against it was mostly the discomfort caused by her leg throbbing where it had been bitten. As her final decision on the matter she lay there quietly as Fluttershy Walked over to a nearby shelf and pulled out a small brush and began to dip it into an open jar of green fluid that had some sort of medicinal smell coming from it. Holding the brush in her mouth the Pegasus walked down towards a lower part of Twilight’s body and began to apply the brush to some of the deeper scratches on her side.
No one in the history of any of the vast and possibly infinite worlds that inhabit any universe, whether real or imagined, has ever used the phrase “it may sting a bit” and failed to be understating it. As the brush traced across the scratches a lacework of searing pain erupted on Twilight’s flank, she gasped and attempted to struggle despite herself. Though she twitched she found that the restraints prevented any more than the slightest of movement. Blinking through tears that had come to her eyes Twilight quietly whimpered through the application and for some time after it stopped.
When she looked up she found Fluttershy had set the brush next to her forelegs on the table and was looking closely at the swollen bite on Twilight’s leg. “Um Twilight, if you could,” The Pegasus mumbled “how did this happen?”
Twilight was panting moderately from the pain, and it took her a moment to answer “Oh, that, it was a snake bite.”
“Oh, I thought it might be,” Said Fluttershy as she walked away and opened a cabinet and began to move about what sounded like a large assortment of bottles. “What kind of snake?” She asked over her shoulder amidst the clink of glass.
“I don’t know, it was all black and gold bands.” As she said it she tried to think of other details to give.
As soon as her friend had spoke Fluttershy had stiffened, there was more nervousness than usual in her voice as she asked “With a brown pointed wedge shaped head?”
Twilight’s nodding was stopped by the strap holding her head and neck still, “Yes, that’s it, do you know what kind it is?”
Twilight’s friend nodded without looking at her. She backed away from the cabinet and towards the door she’d entered through. The entire time she seemed to take great care not to look at Twilight. When she spoke it had an undercurrent of a sob to it “Yes, Twilight I’ve got to get something, I’ll be right back.”
Twilight yelled for Fluttershy a few times after the door shut but got no result from the Pegasus and she stopped shortly afterwords. It was of course completely reasonable, outside of all the bad things happening, the fact that Fluttershy had seemed pretty distressed when she left, and that bothered Twilight. After a time the pain in Twilight’s leg began to recede to numbness, and though it was hard to tell, strapped down as she was, it seemed the numbness was spreading up from the wound. All of this spawned a nervous quiet little idea at the back of her mind, one that she had to keep buried deep so that she would not be brought to screaming mindless terror.
She didn’t realize she had fallen asleep until the shutting of the door woke her, at the opening of her eyes Twilight saw Fluttershy pushing a small cloth covered metal cart into the room. Pulling off the cloth she revealed a small glass container, a syringe, and few liquid soaked cloths. Fluttershy’s face was neutral, but somewhere beneath that lurked something that to Twilight seemed to be sorrowful. “Fluttershy? Are you alright? What’s wrong?”
The Pegasus swallowed and turned to face away from Twilight, and when she responded she had put great effort into removing emotion from it “Yes, Twilight, everything’s ok, everything’s ok.” As soon as she said that Twilight saw the bunny nudge Fluttershy on one knee. The Pegasus looked down at the bunny and whimpered, when she glanced back at Twilight there were tears lining around her eyes.
Twilight gasped, trying to find something comforting to grab onto “What’s in that jar Fluttershy, is that the antidote for the snake bite, can that make me better?” As she asked that, her friend seeming not to hear her slowly inserted the needle into the container and drew the plunger back, filling the syringe with a dark blue liquid.
When she turned back Fluttershy had lost the mask of neutrality she had previously used. Her face was pained and looked as though she was barely keeping herself from audibly crying. Tears had fallen from her eyes and ran slowly down her face. When she spoke it was in a voice barely above a sob, “Yes, Twilight, it’ll make it all better.”
This time Angel Bunny gave a sharp kick to one of Fluttershy’s shins and glared daggers up at the Pegasus. In response Fluttershy sobbed “Oh, Angel,” and collapsed to the ground, placing her head between her forelegs. She began to weep loudly her sobs shaking her whole body.
“Fluttershy what is going on?” Twilight asked her friend. Under normal circumstances she’d have waited for her friend to finish crying but at this point she was far to terrified and worried. “What is that stuff, what are you going to do?” She asked, her voice cracking a bit from her terror.
Fluttershy’s sobs were broken by mangle words from the weeping Pegasus “Oh Twilight! I can’t heal you, I can’t do anything.” At that point she looked up, her face soaked with tears and her eyes reddening. “That snake was a brown head viper,” She continued her words occasionally interrupted by sobs “There’s nothing to cure it, no medicine, no magic, nothing!” After that she buried her head in her legs again.
“Fluttershy,” Twilight spoke, suddenly gaining a measure of strength to her voice, despite the deep internal confusion she was dealing with, “What is in that needle.”
“It’s…”Fluttershy broke off a bit as she looked up at Twilight ”It’s to put you to sleep.”
“What!?” Twilight blurted “You’re going to kill me.” She couldn’t believe what she’d heard, not from Fluttershy, not from her friend.
“It’s just that the last part of the snakes venom,” Fluttershy explained “It’s horribly, horribly painful, the worst in the world. I can’t put you through that, this way you’ll just sleep through the pain, you wont suffer.” As she finished speaking Fluttershy seemed to regain some of her composure and stood up. “I can’t put you through that pain, not when I can prevent it.”
“But, I don’t want to die!” She yelled out, though her throat was too dry for her to get much volume.
“I don’t want you to die either,” The pegasus responded “But I told you, we can’t help it, even Celestia wouldn’t be able to save you, there’s nothing I can do to help you, except to save you from some of the pain.” As she spoke she picked up the syringe and though she walked towards Twilight her body was still shaking a bit.
“No!” Twilight shouted “No, no, no, no, no!” She continued on thrashing as best as she could as her friend approached. She thrashed and yelled as she felt a slight prick on her flank, made worse by her own movement. She thrashed as best she could and continued yelling her volume slowly lowering as her friend set the now empty needle on the tray. Her voice was little more than a whimper when she felt Fluttershy place her fore-body on the table, her hoof resting lightly on Twilight’s shoulder.
Fluttershy whispered into Twilight’s ear as the unicorn whimpered and her movements slowed. “It’s ok Twilight, sleep, I’m sorry, I’m so very, very sorry.” Twilight shuddered as she felt her mind getting fuzzy around the edges, she could feel tears streaking down her face, and over it all Fluttershy slowly and gently speaking to her “At first I thought it was the red-head viper, that I could help you, but I was wrong, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
That last thought that Twilight had as she drifted away into unconsciousness, Had she really been that certain of the color of the snake? It had been dark, what if she was wrong, had her friend just killed her when she could’ve been saved. She found herself really wishing as her vision faded away that she had stayed at home that night.
