skullcrusher206-Thank you for your concern over my health. I have been sleeping earlier, and it feels great.
Chapter 8-Investigations
Rainbow Dash awoke to the sound of flapping paper. There was a pounding in her head, and both her wings had a serious case of pins and needles, as though she had been sleeping on them. She probably had been.
"Where am I?" she croaked. She cracked open an eye and took a look around. She was in a room full of books, and the walls were seemingly made of wood. The floor too, by the feel of it.
The…library? How did she end up here? Books…Cloudsdale…!
In a flash, the memories of the previous night's raid came rushing back to the cyan pegasus's mind. The last thing she remembered was the guards closing in on the library, and then there had been a bright blue flash, then nothing. Maybe she had passed out from fear and she was now on probation for breaking the law? What if she got banished?
Twilight's face filled Rainbow Dash's field of vision. She smiled with relief.
"Oh good, you're awake." Twilight said. "I was worried that you might not wake up. I wasn't sure how the teleportation would affect you."
"Teleportation? How did I teleport? I'm a pegasus."
Twilight bit her lower lip and squeezed out three words which she found very difficult to say.
"I don't know. You just appeared here in a storm of sparks an hour after you left. I've never seen anything like it before. Oh, and Fluttershy's already awake, but she went home to get breakfast ready for Angel and her animal friends before you awoke. Veil is still asleep, but I was going to change her bandages right now. She's bleeding worse than before; it's like nothing I've ever seen. There's breakfast on the table if you want it."
As Rainbow Dash slowly regained use of her wings and her mental facilities, Twilight made her way over to the heap of black fur and feathers in the corner. Although it had only been a few hours since the trio's explosive entrance, Veil had already lost quite a bit of blood, despite Twilight's efforts to keep the wound tightly wrapped. There was now a dark red puddle on the floor; nothing a little magic wouldn't fix, but it was still unpleasant. Twilight pulled out a roll of gauze, some surgical tape, and a pair of scissors and began to treat the wound. The cuts seemed deeper than they had been the previous night, and there were a few fresh ones, shallow, but long and painful-looking. Twilight taped the last bit of gauze into place and admired her handiwork. Not bad.
"How does anypony live with something like this? It must be awful." Rainbow Dash had ambled over with half a sandwich clamped in her mouth, muffling her speech a bit. "And somehow she kept up a pretty good flying speed last night, even with that leg! I'm impressed."
The cyan pegasus turned to look at a pile of gray metal piled in the corner. "Is that what she was wearing last night? It looked pretty cool, but also kinda dangerous, if you know what I mean. I mean, look at the sharpness!" Rainbow picked up a quill off Twilight's desk and pressed it against one of the wing blades. The quill was sliced cleanly in two, the severed end fluttering to the library floor silently. Twilight gave her friend a glance; she'd been in the middle of writing with that quill.
"It is kind of strange." Twilight agreed. She motioned for Rainbow Dash to come closer. "I did some exploring after you three left, inside the house." She whispered. "I found a whole set of armor in there."
"A whole set! Cool! Can we go see it? Maybe I can try it on…"
"NO."
"Aw, please? I'd ask first."
"Rainbow, now's not the time. I also found this." Twilight levitated the note off her desk and showed Rainbow. "I think it's a warning of some sort, but I can't be sure."
Rainbow stared at the note long and hard. Finally, she looked up.
"What's a V, Y, S, O, R?" she queried.
"You mean the 'V-y-s -or'?" Twilight said. "I don't know. I've looked through nearly the whole library on 'V' topics, but I've come up with nothing. I can't even restore the ink."
"Hmm. Where did you find this note? Maybe it's got something to do with where you found."
"I found it with the armor. It was tucked into the chest piece. That doesn't make the note any clearer."
"Hmm. There's three smudges before the 'or'," pointed out Rainbow Dash "Maybe it's supposed to say 'armor'?"
"Rainbow, you're brilliant!" exclaimed Twilight. "Hmm…' use of V-y-s armor may result in'… may result in what? I still don't know. What could it result in? And what's the final word? The 'CAU-' probably says 'CAUTION', but why?"
Reactivate the enchantments.
"Maybe you should write to Princess Celestia about this and see if-" Rainbow was cut off by an anguished moan from nearby, making both ponies jump. They spun around quickly. It seemed Veil had woken up.
She did not look good. The ebony pegasus was curled in a ball, clutching her bandaged foreleg against her chest, letting out sharp sobs and twitching as though she was having a fit. Veil cried out once again, her eyes unfocused and bloodshot. Twilight and Rainbow Dash ran over to their friend, unsure of what was causing her such intense pain.
"We need to get her to the hospital right away!" Rainbow Dash decided, as another scream tore through the early morning peace, causing ponies outside to eye the library warily. The cyan pegasus hauled Veil off the floor and onto her back, then galloped for the exit.
Twilight jumped in front of the door. "I know we need to, but we can't. She doesn't want to go."
"Why? That's crazy, she's dying here!"
"But she told us she doesn't want to-"
Rainbow cut her off. "She said she couldn't leave the house. But she's outside now, so we may as well help her and get her to the hospital. Makes sense." Veil convulsed on Rainbow's back, almost slipping off. "And we need to go now. Her leg's bleeding again." It was true, Veil's foreleg was bleeding profusely once more, leaving rivulets of crimson on Rainbow Dash's back. Twilight bit her lip; half of her wanted to get Veil some aid right away, the other half wanted to respect her wishes. But an earsplitting scream from the ebony pegasus made up her mind.
"All right, we're going." Twilight said, casting a binding spell on Rainbow and Veil, securing the two together. She stepped away from the door. "Now go! Once you get to there, ask for Nurse Redheart, and tell them there's a novice binding spell on you two. Hurry!"
Rainbow did not need further encouragement. She barged out the front door and into the sky, leaving a multicolored trail in her wake. Twilight set off in the same direction on hoof, hoping that the doctors would know what to do.
"Please be okay..."
Twilight arrived at the hospital ten minutes later, panting and wheezing with exertion. A dark blue unicorn stallion with a lab coat and stethoscope hurried over, escorting the exhausted unicorn to a seat.
"Now, don't speak yet, catch your breath first." He advised in a professionial manner. "Now, what's the problem? Are you ill? Is there somepony in trouble? What is it?"
Twilight shook her head vigorously. The doctor thought for a moment, then smiled. "Are you expecting a foal then? That's wonderful news!"
"I-I'm not-" Wheezed Twilight.
"No, it's no problem at all!" grinned the stallion, now seeming a little giddy. "I'll just get the forms-"
"Sure Cure, she's not having a foal." Said a female voice from down the hall. Twilight looked up to see Nurse Redheart, looking sternly at the stallion who Twilight assumed was named Sure Cure. He set down the papers and gave Twilight a once-over.
"You sure about that?" he asked.
Nurse Redheart rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm sure. Now she has an appointment with me now, so can you just get the paperwork sorted out?"
The stallion threw a salute. "Sure thing, ma'am!" he jumped back behind the desk and started shuffling through various important looking forms, muttering to himself.
Nurse Redheart turned to Twilight apologetically. "I'm sorry if he gave you a hard time. Sure Cure can be a little…over-enthusiastic at times, but he's a good pony at heart." The pair trotted off down a side hallway lined with doors that reminded Twilight uneasily of the old manor's ground floor. They took a left turn, then a right, entering the Emergency Rooms.
"I know why you're here, Twilight Sparkle. Your friend Rainbow Dash arrived not too long ago with a very serious case." The nurse flicked through a clipboard until she found the right page. "Multiple lacerations, severe exhaustion, nervous instability, and feelings of intense pain. Quite serious indeed. Nopony'd seen anything like it before."
They had stopped in front of door number 162. Nurse Redheart nudged the door open and they stepped inside.
The room was mostly white and brightly lit with various lamps, making up for the lack of light from the covered windows. It was dominated by a large bed in which a familiar black peagsus was sleeping, hooked up to various machines which read her vitals. Rainbow Dash was seated next to the bed, wiping off the last of Veil's blood with a towel. She smiled when she saw Twilight.
"Oh, hey Twilight! We got here just fine, and your spell worked great!"
Nurse Redheart made a 'shh' gesture. Rainbow grinned sheepishly and lowered her voice. "They had to sedate Veil though. Nopony here knows what's wrong with her. You should have heard it; it sounded like there was somepony getting trampled by a herd of buffalo with steel hooves." Rainbow shuddered at the thought of it.
"We need to keep your friend here until we can find out what the problem is. I hope you understand. If you have any information that might help, tell any of the doctors." Nurse Redheart said. "The only thing the patient said was tell us to close the curtains. We kept the lights on though, after she was sedated. I have to go now, I have many other patients I need to see to." And with that, the nurse quietly left the room.
"Ohh, this is all my fault." Twilight said dejectedly. "Maybe if she hadn't gone outside, Veil wouldn't be like this."
Rainbow Dash was at her side in an instant. "It's not all your fault, Twilight." She said firmly. "It was as much of my plan as it was yours. If anything, my fault for mentioning the yearbooks."
The two friends stared remorsefully at the deeply sleeping pegasus. Her foreleg was now wrapped up with heavy-duty hospital bandages, and her other foreleg was connected to an IV drip, channeling nutrients into the body it was connected to.
"The best we can do now is be here for her when she wakes up."
Rainbow Dash patted Twilight on the back as she made for the door. "I'm going to get Fluttershy. She needs to know about this."
As you suggested, it is time for a change in strategy.
The echoing, empty voice rang out from the shadowy corners from the manor, worming its way into cracks.
Of course. I will awaken your companion at once.
Excellent.
There was a sudden ripple in the manor's interior, thunder with no sound, casting a shockwave throughout the entire structure and shaking several paintings on their hooks. The shadows formed into a massive hand which clenched into a wraithlike fist.
Soon. Once the enchantments are too much for the mark to bear, it will have no choice but to return.
The smoky creature from the painting moved towards the room in which Veil's armor and lexicon were stored. The same room Twilight had so recently escaped from. However, the phantom paid these artifacts no heed, instead opting to drift straight through the far wall.
On the other side was a square room with no doors and no windows. On the floor was a circle of symbols and mystic runes. And in the center of that circle, was a disassembled pile of bones and a vicious looking double edged sword with a black blade etched with even more symbols. The smoky creature drifted over and tapped the hilt of the sword, emitting a small clicking sound.
Wake up. The superior requires your services.
The bones did not respond at first, but then a tremor ran from the hilt of the weapon and down into the bones, which began to glow a pale, poisonous green. A silky, reptilian voice emanated from the ancient remains.
"It's about time."
-Author's Notes
Well, this is getting serious. What did the enchantments do? We shall see.
In any case, I want to thank anypony who read this, regardless of whether you left a review or not. I'll get working on the next chapter.
