Pain, an unbelievable amount of pain shot through her left hind leg as she tried to stand up straight. The wave of pain forced her to lay back down on the cold floor. Biting back the pain Rainbow Dash was trying to figure out where she was. She obviously wasn't in Ponyville, or anywhere she recognize. The dimly lit area she was in was completely new to the cyan pegasus. While looking around she came across a light brown unicorn stallion looking right at her.
"Look who's finally awake." The stallion said in a nonchalant voice.
The startled Pegasus quickly tried to stand upright but was instantly reminded why she wasn't already. Becoming confused as of what was causing this pain she looked back and saw her leg wrapped in bloody bandages and snapped her head back at the stallion.
"What did you do to me!?" The cyan Pegasus spat at stallion who remained calm.
Without changing the tone of his voice he responded.
"I saved your life. If it weren't for me you would still be out there." He said as he pointed to the entrance of the cave they were in. Rainbow Dash looked to where his hoof was pointed. The stallion continued. "If it weren't for me you would have frozen to death out in that blizzard. Your leg was badly hurt so I bandaged it up, don't get comfortable because I have to change them now." There was a slight pause. "If you stay still while I change your bandages it won't hurt as much, but if you fidget around it will."
The rainbow pegasus never broke her gaze from the unicorn. "Why go through all that trouble, why did you save me?"
The stallion gave Rainbow Dash a puzzled look. "Why would I leave you out there to die. It seems rather pointless if you ask me." The stallions horn began to glow with a brown aura as he moved closer to the injured mare. Shortly after a small wooden crate engulfed in the same aura floated away from several similar looking ones, and landed right next to him. Each of the crates had different symbols on them. Dash recognized the food and water symbols, but the others left her puzzled. As the crate was placed on the ground next to him it opened followed by white medical bandages floating out of it.
Rainbow Dash tensed up as the stallion started to walk toward her and sat down next to her. Rainbow Dash didn't hesitate to extend her hind leg to the stranger when he made a gesture to do so. But such an action sent Rainbow Dash a new wave of pain causing her to Grit her teeth. The stallion gently lifted her leg off of the ground so he could use his magic to unwrap the bandages revealing a bruised and bloody hind leg. There was a large gash that had stopped bleeding hours ago. Before the stallion wrapped the fresh bandage around her leg he focused his magic back to the wooden crate taking out a bottle of disinfectant and bringing it to him.
"This is going to sting, but only a little." The stallion said in reassuring voice. "On the count of five I'm going to pour it on your wound, Okay?"
Rainbow Dash nodded confidently as he began to count.
"1"
"2"
"3"
Stopping at three he poured the disinfectant on the wound causing the cyan pegasus to scream. The brown stallion knew what he did was wrong, but he wanted to make sure she didn't change her mind last second. After waiting for the liquid to settle the he quickly but carefully wiped all the blood and disinfectant of from the wounded area. He began to wrap the bandage around her hind leg, covering to wound and her still bloody fur. His horn lit up and a similar aura surrounded Dashs leg.
He looked up into Rainbow Dashes eye and gave her a cheesy smile. She was clearly not amused by this.
"Why the hell would you do that?! You said when you got to five! If you do that again you'll regret it." Dash said with anger oozing from her words.
The unicorn didn't say a word. Standing up he used his magic to get a blanket that was behind Rainbow Dash. It had fallen off of her back when she woke up and tried to stand up straight. Using the blanket he covered the cyan pegasus with it and walked over to the other side of the cave.
"If you need me I'll be over here." The stallion stated plainly.
Rainbow Dash looked at the Blizzard that was showing no signs of stopping anytime soon and wondered why there wasn't so much as a breeze coming through. She looked over to the stallion who was laying on his belly facing the entrance.
"This stallion saved my life, and I don't even know his name." Rainbow Dash said to herself.
Forgetting her initial question Rainbow Dash broke the silence. "Hey..." There was a short pause before she continued. "I never got your name. Mine is Rainbow Dash."
The brown unicorn looked at her. "My name huh? Just call me Gizmo."
"Okay." Was all the pegasus said.
Rainbow Dash glance around back to the entrance and remembered the question she wanted to ask. "Hey, what's the deal with the cold and snow not coming into the cave?"
Gizmo cleared his throat. "Even though my magic isn't focused on it I have a force field up to prevent anything from getting in or out." Gizmo saw the worried expression that washed over Rainbow Dashs face and he immediately began to reassure her. "But the second you decide you want to leave I'll release the spell for you to leave. It's just that this blizzard doesn't seem like it's letting up anytime, and your leg is still in bad condition. Our best bet is to stay put and wait for you to recover." He paused for a moment. "It's getting late you should get some rest."
Gizmo watch as the cyan pegasus rested her head on her hoof and closed her eyes and only a few minutes later she was gently snoring.
After confirming that she was asleep Gizmo rose to his hooves and started walking over to the stack of crates that he got the medical box from. Opening one with his magic he got out a jacket, scarf and some snow goggles, a sharp blade was also withdrawn from the box. Putting on his gear he made his way to the cave entrance but stopped, he walked back to the crates. He quickly examined them and silently opened the one that said "Food". Inside was a couple of sealed containers with the same thing in them. Using his magic he pulled one of the containers out and closed up the crate. Without putting the food down he opened a different box and pulled out a non-transparent bottle of Apple Cider. Closing the crate, he walked silently to where Rainbow Dash was resting and placed both the container of food and the bottle of Apple Cider in front of her. He then walked back to cave opening and passed through it causing the invisible force field to briefly reveal itself. Seconds after Gizmos figure disappeared into the blizzard.
Dash's eyes fluttered open, she lifted her head and scanned the cave. Empty. The only thing she did find was the food Gizmo put in front of her and the stack of crates. Focusing on the food container that rested in front of her she realized that she didn't remember the last time she had eaten something. She grabbed the food container and slowly tore it open. Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly excited to see that her next meal would be a salad, but she was hungry and she wasn't going to be a picky eater. She started eating and after a couple bites she turned her attention to the bottle.
Dash didn't exactly know what it was, but when she turned the bottle so the label was facing her, her eyes lit up. She immediately recognized the all too familiar Apple family product symbol. Not being able to wait any longer Dash grabbed the bottle and twisted the cap off with her teeth she spat out the cap, and before it had even touched the ground her lips where already caressing the bottle letting the delicious beverage flow down her throat. The bottle was emptied before she knew it but the smile that was pasted on her face shows that she enjoyed it. She looked back at the half eaten salad and pushed it away, she wasn't going to finish it.
Dash look over to the cave opening and still saw the blizzard coming down at a dangerous pace. It was bright and sunny but that only made it easier to see the falling snow.
"What's going on up there in Cloudsdale" she thought to herself.
It took her a while but she finally realized that Gizmo wasn't in the cave with her. A chill went down her spine. If Gizmo wasn't in here, then that meant he was out there.
Almost as if on queue Gizmo had arrived at the entrance of the cave and all of Dash's worries vanished. When Gizmo passed through the cave entrance the force field once again revealed itself for a brief moment. Remembering that the barrier that was keeping the cold from coming in was the brown unicorns magic, even though he wasn't focusing on it, she thought about how useful this guy would have been back at the crystal empire when the changelings attacked.
Dash did notice that Gizmo had quite a few rocks and branches held above his head with his magic. He was also covered in snow. Gizmo dropped the magic aura, letting gravity do the rest.
"What are those for?" Dash question giving the colt a puzzled look.
Gizmo shook the snow off as he used his magic to take off his apparel. "You obviously don't like the salad." He stated while looking at the half eaten meal a few inches away from her. He then pointed his hoof to the deepest part of the cave."It's so cold over there, so I put all the meat over there." He cast an illumination spell toward where he pointed revealing three boxes stacked on one another. "With these rocks and twigs we can start a fire." Gizmo snickered to himself. "Fourteen years of magical training, but I can create a simple ignite spell."
After shaking the last bit of snow off his body, he sat down and started to arrange the rocks and twigs into a furnace, complimenting it with some dead leaves and such on the cave floor. Gizmo took two twigs from the ground and began rubbing them together to Try and get a spark, and sooner than he had expected he got one. Shifting is head to where the meat was, he used his magic to lift one of the boxes and bring it to himself. A barrier revealing itself after the box passed through it.
"How many of those this can you have, and how exactly do they work?" Dash asked.
"Since it doesn't put any strain on me I could have many as I want." He explained. "This barriers keep anything I perceive as a threat from passing through it, that's why the snow is unable to make it into the cave. If it's me or anything being controlled by my magic it can pass right through, and since it's my magic I can manipulate it to work differently, look here." Gizmos horn lit up as a brown platform manifested above the fire and shortly after disappeared . It didn't move nor did it fall. It just floated in place above the fire. Gizmo opened the box and took out a slab of meat. Normally most ponies are plant eaters, but Dash really never got use to her all green diet. He took the meat and placed on the platform which reappeared when the meat touched it. There was a low but still audible sizzle coming from the meat, as all the frost melted off of it.
"By using my magic I can allow the heat to pass through and heat up the other side of the barrier." Gizmo said as he floated the box back to its spot.
Dash followed the floating box and saw the barrier as it reappeared again.
"Then why do you have one around those boxes, what harm can they do."
Gizmo shrugged. "It keeps the bugs away from it."
As the meat cooked Dash and Gizmo just sat on opposite sides of the fire, neither of them wanted to break the silence. But after looking around for quite some time Dash started to wonder how long this colt had been here.
Dash finally broke the silence. "Hey, Gizmo? How long have you been living in this cave?"
Gizmo gave her a puzzled look. "Live here?What makes you think I live here?
"I don't know, it's just all these supplies? It's seems rather weird that they're just in here. I mean where did they even come from?
Gizmo's face switched from puzzled to concerned. "Wait, you mean that you don't remember anything that's happened. How we got here. What we were doing before we got here. You don't remember anything?
Now Dash had the puzzled look. "No! Would you care to inform me?!"
Gizmo sighed. "We were delivering goods, you, another Pegasus and myself. We were all warned about that dangerous weather conditions, but you insisted that we would be okay." There was a short pause. "Guess you were wrong. An hour after we left it started to snow, and it snowed hard. The snow must've affected you're flying because you went crashing down, and you brought us with you. When I came to the cargo was scattered about and you were still unconscious." There was another pause, but this one was longer. "The other Pegasus wasn't as fortunate as you, when I got closer to her for inspection her head had hit a rock, the snow around her was red and she wasn't breathing. Unlike her you were still breathing. After I picked you up I started to wonder aimlessly. I was sure we were going to be the next two victims of this storm, but soon I stumbled across this humble abode. After I set you down I saw that your leg was broken and I didn't have any medical supplies, but I knew that we were transporting medical goods as well as the food and drinks. So I had to go back out and recover those goods. Nothing really happened after that. I came back patched up your leg and waited a few hours for you to wake up."
Dash was speechless. She blushed shamefully after being informed that this entire situation was her fault. Dash had many questions, and knew they wouldn't be answered if they weren't asked.
"Who was the other pegasus?" She asked.
"I didn't know her name"
"Do you remember what she looked like?"
"Yeah uh, she had a grey coat with a lemon yellow mane."
Rainbow Dashs heart started to pound. "Did you see her cutie mark?!" She asked loudly. She said with fresh tears flowing from her eyes.
He saw the tears and was afraid to tell her what the other Pegasus' cutie mark was, but knew it would be better if he didn't lie. "Yeah it was..." He thought for a second. "It was a needle with a thread going through it. Do you know who she was?"
Every ounce of fear and concern that Dash had washed away after you found out her friend was okay.
Dash wiped the tears from her eyes. "No, but when you said she had a grey coat and yellow mane I thought it was one of my friends."
Gizmo sighed in relief, thanking Celestia that it wasn't one of her friends. That would've meant he would've had to to take care of a physically and mentally wounded pegasus.
Getting a smell of the now burning slab of meat, Gizmo created a new platform directly in front of Dash and moved the meat onto that one. The one above the fire disappeared, causing the grease to fall in the flames.
Dash's mouth began to water as the scent of her meal made its way to her nose. As she was about to bite in, but she was stopped by her companion.
"You'll burn your tongue like that. You might want to let it cool off for a few minutes." He warned.
Dash huffed in annoyance. She didn't want to wait any longer, but she also didn't want a burned tongue. She lowered her head closed to the meat and started to blow on it in an attempt to cool it off faster.
Suddenly there was a loud howl that startled the cyan mare, as her body jolted upward from the scare she put some weight on her injured leg. She tried to bite back the pain but it was too immense and she ended up letting out a low yelp of pain.
"Woah, calm down its just a Timberwolf." Gizmo said trying to calm the mare down.
"Calm down?! Do you know what that Timberwolf could do to us if it found us?!"
"Yes I'm aware of how dangerous they are, but my barrier won't allow him to get in." Gizmo put his hoof on his chin. "No it would be a serious problem if he were to break the barrier."
Dash's heart sunk to her stomach." Your barrier can be broken!?"
He nodded. "With the right amount of force yes."
"Why are you so calm?! There's a Timberwolf out there, and those things never travel alone so the probably more of them!"
"Don't worry, if they do manage to get into the cave I'll protect you." Gizmo said confidently.
Dash gave him a skeptical look. "You'll protect me?"
"With my life. " He finished.
Dash blushed. "Why would you say that? You can't be serious."
"But I am, once I saved you from that accident you became my responsibility. And now I have to make sure you get back home safely."
Dash's blush deepened. "What are you even talking about. Don't be stupid, no pony would risk their life for a complete stranger."
Gizmo flashed a smile. "You'd be surprised." He pointed to her food. "Also you might want to eat that before it freezes again."
The cyan mare looked down at her next meal. She lowered her head and as she was about to bite it she stopped.
"Why didn't you make yourself one." Dash asked wondering why he only made one for her.
Gizmo moved a few inches away from the fire. "Oh, I'm. It hungry." He said as his horn lit up. A few seconds later an all too familiar medical box levitated in front of Gizmo. "Take your time, but when you're done eating I have to change your bandages.
As Rainbow finished up Gizmo handed her one of the many clean rags that were in the medical box so she could wipe her face of the grease from her meal. After she had cleaned up Gizmo positioned himself closer to her injured leg. He repeated the same process as last time.
He got the disinfectant out of the box. "On the count of five I'm going to pour it."
Rainbow Dash nodded but already knew what was going to happen.
He began counting.
"1, 2, 3"
Rainbow Dash didn't feel the stinging sensation at three.
"4, 5." He finished and on five he poured the liquid sending the stinging pain the mare was waiting for.
She wasn't crying but the pain did cause a tear to roll out of her eye.
"Why didn't you go at three like last time?" She asked.
"There was no way I would get away with it the second time, I'm sure you were gunna kick my ass if I did." The unicorn chuckled.
He gently lifted up her leg and started to wrap the new bandage around it. After her finished his horn began to glow and the similar aura once again surrounded her leg. Dash took notice to it.
"What was that?"
"It's a spell, it can speed up the healing rate of injuries. You'll be walking in no time."
The blue pegasus smiled at the thought of walking again. The only reason she wasn't flying around the cave was because she didn't want to feel the pain of having to land on her injured leg.
Hours went by as the two ponies made conversation.
"If you live in Ponyville, how come I've never seen you around?" Rainbow asked.
"You probably have, but you just don't remember. I don't stand out much. Not gunna lie, when you volunteered to transport the cargo, I did recognize your mane. I mean who else has a Rainbow mane.
Rainbow Dash flashes a toothy grin. "Only the best flyer in all of equestria." She was going to continue bragging, but she remembered that it was he flying that got them into this mess.
Silence filled the cave.
Dashed looked down at the ground as her grin turned into a frown. "I'm sorry" she said in a low voice barely audible to the stallion she was talking to.
"I didn't catch that Rainbow, can you say it again."
She began to cry. "This is all my fault. "
Gizmo grew worried as he saw the tears hit the ground. "Hey, its not it could've happened to any pony."
More tears fell from her eyes and her voice gradually got louder. "Yes it is my fault. If I wasn't so stubborn we wouldn't be here right now. We would be safe. A pony died because of me!"
She was right and Gizmo didn't exactly deny that. But he had to comfort her. "But it was a mistake, something every pony makes. What really matters is that you and I are alive, and we're going to make it out of her.
Rainbow Dash looked up, with an angered look in her eyes. "Why are you being so nice to me?! I'm the reason you're stuck here. I put you through this! Why are you okay with this?! Because of me you-"
Rainbow was cut of by Gizmo suddenly pulling her into a hug. Causing a tiny amount of pain in her leg, but she barely noticed it.
"And I forgive you. I already told you it's not your fault." Gizmo said a soothing voice.
Dash was shocked, but the embrace made her feel safe like nothing could hurt her. She tightened her grip and hugged him back as she began crying in his fur.
"What am I doing, I barely know this colt and I'm crying on his shoulder." She thought to herself as crying slowing turned into loud sobs.
Gizmo started to stroke her mane. This calmed her down and eventually she broke the embrace and wiped tears from her eyes.
Gizmo smile. "You should get some rest."
Rainbow nodded her head and slowly laid down on the cold ground. Only seconds later was a blanket pulled over her body. Still on opposite side of the fire Gizmo also laid down. He also needed some rest.
A few minutes passed and almost out of nowhere Dash broke the silence. "Thank you" she said as she smiled again.
Dash was awoken by a foul stench filling her nose. The horrible smell made her look around the cave to see what it was. She saw nothing until she looked at the cave entrance. Her ears lowered and her heart dropped. At the entrance of the cave behind the barrier was a Timberwolf looking right at her with his mouth wide open.