"Angel," whispered Fluttershy. "Come on, sleepyhead. It's time to wake up."
The white rabbit's eyes remained closed, but his little pink nose began to sniff softly in response to the yellow pegasus's gentle coaxing. After a few seconds, Angel opened his eyes halfway and gave Fluttershy a big yawn. He then stood up, crossed his tiny arms, and frowned, glaring at Fluttershy for having interrupted his dream.
Fluttershy smiled. It was the exact same routine every morning. She placed a bowl of carefully arranged carrot salad in front of the grumpy bunny and watched happily as he sampled it, conveyed a look of satisfaction, and proceeded to devour the rest of the bowl.
Fluttershy began the daily feeding process for the rest of her animals in her cottage. It was early in the morning, before many ponies in Ponyville had even awoken yet. Winter had just wrapped up, and Fluttershy warmly welcomed the fresh smell of early spring. This was her favorite time of the year because it meant welcoming back the animals who had either migrated away for winter or hibernated. Fluttershy was so excited to see her animal friends that she usually forgot to feed herself breakfast. Today, however, she did remember. To feed herself, Fluttershy fired up her stove and decided to make a warm soup.
Before eating it, however, Fluttershy went outside, figuring she had time while the soup was cooking to restock the bird-feeder just outside her cottage with the freshest seeds. A few of the more talkative house wrens chirped happily upon seeing Fluttershy, and Fluttershy in turn greeted them warmly.
Suddenly, a giant shadow loomed itself over Fluttershy.
Fluttershy was unperturbed. "Good morning, Harry," she greeted, turning towards the giant grizzly bear. In response, Harry scooped up the comparatively tiny pegasus into a giant bear hug. Fluttershy hugged Harry in return, nuzzling her face in the bear's warm chest.
"Are you hungry?" asked Fluttershy.
The bear nodded, and Fluttershy giggled. "Alright, you big boy," she said. "I know just the thing for you."
Just as she turned to go back into the cottage, she heard the sound of fluttering wings behind her. As soon a flash of rainbow entered her periphery, she knew exactly whom the fluttering sound belonged to, and if she did not know who it was then, the raspy voice that followed confirmed its identity beyond all doubt.
"Hiya, Fluttershy!" said Rainbow Dash.
"Oh, good morning, Rainbow," replied Fluttershy. "I wasn't expecting you here so early in the morning."
"Heh, yeah. Normally on a Saturday, I'd still be in bed sleeping in, but today, I, uh…" Rainbow Dash placed a hoof behind her head meekly, which was unusual for the typically overconfident mare. "I need your help."
Fluttershy dropped the bag of seeds she was holding and turned to face her oldest friend with deep concern. "What's wrong? Oh, are you hurt?"
"No, no, no, it's nothing like that," replied Rainbow Dash hurriedly. She paused, then looked away from Fluttershy, upwards to the sky. "Do you… do you think I'll ever be a Wonderbolt?"
Fluttershy was momentarily stunned. Rainbow Dash flew all the way to her house just to ask her that? Since flight school, Rainbow Dash had always been the one never to doubt her abilities, much to the chagrin of all the school bullies. She didn't need to be told she would be a Wonderbolt. She already knew. Unless…
"Of course, Rainbow," said Fluttershy. "You're already part of the Wonderbolt Reserves. It's probably just a matter of time at this point. Is something wrong?"
"Well, I, uh…" Rainbow Dash trailed off, eyes pointed straight at the ground this time. "I don't know."
It hurt Fluttershy to see her friend like this. "Do you want to talk about it inside?"
"No!" Rainbow Dash practically screamed, and Fluttershy jumped back a little in surprise. Rainbow Dash immediately looked mortified. "Sorry, I— it was silly of me to bother you. I'll just—you can get back to whatever you were doing."
"Wait, Rainbo—
Before Fluttershy could finish, Rainbow Dash turned and shot up into the sky at a blindingly fast pace. Fluttershy was comparatively a rather weak flyer; there was likely no way that she would be able to chase after Rainbow Dash and catch up to her.
Eyes filled with concern, she promised herself that she would visit Rainbow Dash later that day to discover what was ailing her best childhood friend. Her mind was still on Rainbow Dash when she reentered her cottage when her nose detected a smell that was completely out-of-place.
Smoke.
Fluttershy's eyes widened in complete surprise, and once again, she dropped the bag of seeds she was holding. She let her wings unfurl, flapping them frantically to gain extra speed as she ran into the kitchen, where the smoke was coming from, and as soon as she rounded the corner, she nearly fainted in shock at the sight before her.
Fire. Everything was on fire. The curtains, the cookbooks, the wood of the cupboards—everything was engulfed in a frightening display of bright hot flames. The fire was quickly spreading too, and the smoke was rapidly making the air unbreathable. It was a matter of seconds before the flames reached the place where Fluttershy now stood paralyzed in fear.
Her internal survival instincts kicked into full gear. Fluttershy began to cough uncontrollably as the smoke billowed up towards her face, and her eyes teared up as she collapsed onto the floor, where the air was a bit less unbearable. Slowly, she began to crawl away from the kitchen back outdoors to get help, when out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something familiar. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized what it was.
Angel.
The little white rabbit was lying on his side on the floor, eyes closed and apparently unconscious, about fifteen feet away from Fluttershy, deep inside the kitchen over by the stove, where the flames were burning all around him. Without a moment's hesitation, Fluttershy began to crawl towards the rabbit. She was still coughing uncontrollably, and the heat of the flames made it extremely difficult to make any progress. "Angel," she managed to croak out in between coughs. "Angel, can you hear me?"
The rabbit gave no response. There were still about eight feet left between them, and some of the flames began to singe Fluttershy's fur and wing feathers. An ember jumped up and landed on her back, burning her instantly. Fluttershy screamed in pain. Blinking away tears, she forced herself to forge on ahead, eyes fixed on the unconscious rabbit before her. She looked at Angel's chest for signs of breathing, but it was completely motionless. As soon as she reached Angel, she checked for signs of a pulse.
"Please, Angel," she called desperately. "Please stay with me."
She felt around, and she thought she could feel a weak pulse, but the flames were so hot and distracting, she couldn't be sure. She realized that she needed to get outside to safety now, or else it wouldn't matter whether Angel had a pulse.
Slowly, she began the arduous process of crawling back to the door of the kitchen, keeping her face against the floor, where the smoke was less dense. She kept Angel pinned gently at her side.
Fifteen feet.
Twelve feet.
Ten feet.
She screamed in frustration at how slow it was taking, but the fire around her had taken its toll on her body, and the pain from the burns were soon growing unbearable.
Suddenly, part of the roof collapsed, nearly crushing her and Angel. Fortunately, it did not land directly on top of them, but it did block their path to the door. She realized that because of the collapsed roof, there was no way that she could continue crawling towards the entrance. It was too hot, and the path was completely blocked. The kitchen window was also inaccessible. Fluttershy began to feel trapped.
Then, she had an epiphany. She realized that the roof collapsing had conveniently created a third exit out of the kitchen. Above them, a large hole in the ceiling had been created by the fallen roof. Fluttershy could see the blue sky—a quiet oasis against the raging desolation presently surrounding her. Struggling, she held Angel close to her chest by her hooves, and she extended her wings, trying to fly up out of the hole.
Fluttershy flapped once, expecting to lift off from the ground, but nothing happened. It was as if she hadn't flapped her wing at all. Incredulous, Fluttershy began to flap her wings frantically, jumping up and down with her hind legs. It was no use. For some reason, her wings could not catch any air. On her fourth jump, her left foot accidentally landed on a hot piece of burning wood, and she immediately screamed in pain, collapsing to the floor, with Angel still in her clutches. Once she was on the ground, she suddenly realized why her wings were not working. More than half of her flight feathers had been singed so that they were either nonexistent or practically useless. Her once yellow coat had been replaced by the black of ash.
Slowly, Fluttershy felt panic start to set in. She could not fly, so she could not reach the hole in the ceiling. She also could not get past the burning flames to reach the door or the window. There seemed to be no way out. Extreme pain coursed through her body when she tried to move her hooves. She was quickly running out of options. In fact, she determined that she only had one sensible one left:
"HEEELLLLP!" she screamed.
There was no response. She began another bout of coughing, and this time, she could not stop coughing. Tears began to roll down her cheeks as smoke irritated her eyes. She began to feel light-headed. Time was running out.
"Heeellllp!" she screamed again, this time a little quieter. Due to her coughing, she could not get enough air to shout louder.
No one came.
Fluttershy turned her attention away from the hole in the ceiling and back to Angel. On the floor of her kitchen, she hugged the white rabbit's body tightly. The rabbit wasn't breathing. At this rate, she knew that without oxygen, brain damage was likely, but she pushed those thoughts aside. She was trying with all her might to hold on to her fading consciousness, but the smoke was slowly getting thicker and the fire hungrier.
She looked desperately back to the hole in the ceiling, and the action of moving her head immediately made her dizzy. The nausea refused to subside, and she began to see double.
"Angel…" croaked Fluttershy. "I'm so sorry." With her last shred of consciousness, she held onto Angel as tightly as she could.
The last thing she saw was a flash of rainbow.
Then darkness.
"Where's Dr. House?" asked Dr. Lisa Cuddy.
The nurse she was speaking to shrugged and pointed towards the door. They were currently in the walk-in clinic of the Ponyville-Canterlot Teaching Hospital. Dr. Cuddy was the Dean of Medicine at Ponyville-Canterlot, and she was in charge of administering most of the hospital's operations, which included keeping a particularly childish doctor reigned in.
Cuddy rolled her eyes, then walked out of the clinic and to the elevator, which she took to the fourth floor. House's floor. As soon as the elevator door opened, she could see that House was in his office. On the glass door to his office was the label: "Dr. Gregory House, Department of Diagnostic Medicine".
When Cuddy pushed open the door, she was immediately blasted with the sound of rock music, which House was playing on a boombox inside his office. In his chair, House was moving his hooves through the air if he were playing an air guitar. Cuddy shook her head in disbelief. This was no way for a doctor to act while on duty in the office. In short order, she walked to the speaker and turned off the music.
"House!" Cuddy cried. "Do you have a case?"
House looked at Cuddy, feigning hurt eyes at having the music cut off. "You have no taste."
"And you need to get your ass down to the clinic, or you're fired."
"You can't fire me," taunted House. "I have tenure."
Cuddy closed her eyes, her face flushed with anger. "No, I can't fire you, but I can make your life miserable."
"And so can I," replied House, using his cane to hit the button on the stereo, turning the music back on.
Cuddy shook her head in frustration and began to walk out of the room.
"Wow, giving up so easily?" inquired House. "This isn't like you."
"Shut up, House," answered Cuddy. "I'm not in the mood today."
House smiled and stared at Cuddy's flank as she exited the office. Slowly, he reached into the pocket of his coat and took out a bottle of Vicodin pills. Popping it open, he threw one pill into the air and caught it with his mouth, swallowing it in one action.
He resumed his air-guitaring.
Author's note: This is a crossover of the world of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the world of House, M.D. Admittedly, these shows have widely divergent genres: one is a children's fantasy cartoon that educates on the value of friendship, whereas the other is an adult medical drama about a jerk who is the greatest diagnostician in the world. For the sake of creating a story that blends together (and stays true to) the styles of both worlds, I have assumed some details, and to avoid any confusion, I am stating the most glaring technicalities upfront. There are three.
1. All of the characters from the House, M.D. world are ponies living in Equestria, working at the Ponyville-Canterlot Teaching Hospital. I've thought a lot about how weird that sounds, but I weighed it against the alternative: having the ponies as humans being treated in Princeton-Plainsboro, or doing some sort of confusing universe-hopping science-fiction plot that somehow warps the House team to Equestria. I went this way because I actually want this to be primarily about the ponies, with the House team as a fun bonus.
2. The story is set at a time analogous to season 3 of House and season 4 of Friendship is Magic. This means that House's diagnostic team consists only of Foreman, Chase, and Cameron. Post-season 3 characters (e.g. Taub, Thirteen, Amber, Kutner, etc.) will not be appearing in this story for the sake of keeping it simple, but there is a bit of fledging romance between Chase and Cameron ("it's Tuesday", anyone?). This also means that Twilight Sparkle is an alicorn princess, but she has not yet assumed the formal role of "Princess of Friendship" and still lives in the Golden Oak Library. Although Rainbow Dash is a member of the Wonderbolt Reserves, she is not yet a full Wonderbolt in this story. The Cutie Mark Crusaders do not yet have cutie marks. The one exception is that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's families from seasons 6 and 7 will make appearances.
3. Finally, this story will involve fictional diseases. I see this as the most logical solution to my lack of knowledge of the real-world medical jargon that characterizes House. I am assuming that in Equestria, some medical conditions can actually be cured with the assistance of unicorn magic. For example: broken bones can be mended magically, on the condition that the patient remains hospitalized for a few days while the bones heal (e.g. s. 2, ep. 16 "Read It and Weep", in which Rainbow Dash has an ugly crash landing and surely breaks a bone as a result). However, unicorn magic cannot fix everything. It is a treatment that a doctor may prescribe for some medical conditions, but similar to how viral infections cannot be treated with antibiotics, magic simply isn't the right answer for some conditions.