Chapter 3: A Distant Memory

Izzy decided that she should leave the room and acquire some knowledge before attempting such a dangerous procedure. However, when she got closer, the intensity of Zipp's arguments with the doctors made her back away. It didn't seem like it was going well at all, and the only reason Zipp was still here was probably because of her rank as a princess.

There was a chance that if she left, she couldn't return. She glanced at Sunny's unconscious form. The affliction consumed more of her body while the arguments just outside the room grew louder. Sunny was still sound asleep.

As she struggled with indecision, she rationalized that even though she had no experience performing amputations, it was Sunny's best hope for survival. She took a scalpel in her trembling hooves and tried to sever Sunny's horn, but the affliction proceeded far enough that she would need to cut off the tip of her head. A slight miscalculation on her part also meant that Sunny wouldn't wake up again. She decided that she should start with the easy part first by amputating her wings.

It was still a risk of course, but the consequences wouldn't be as drastic if she failed. As soon as she made a slight cut into Sunny's flesh, so much blood came gushing out that she screamed and dropped the scalpel to the floor.

"What have you done?" Zipp yelled. She used her hoof to temporarily cover the minor wound.

"I tried to save her," Izzy said. "The doctors wouldn't help! There's so much blood. I can't lose her."

"We can fix this," Zipp said. "We have to."

It was certainly to her amazement that Zipp took the scalpel and continued where she left off. Izzy could tell from how Zipp's hooves trembled that Zipp was just like her. The cuts themselves were uneven and jagged as a result.

Sunny remained motionless throughout the entire ordeal even when the first wing came off and some hasty wrappings were applied to stem the loss of blood. At least, severing the appendage seemed to have worked.

"One down," Zipp acted as if it was nothing. "Piece of cake." Her voice betrayed her emotions.

Izzy realized she did nothing during the entire operation. She just watched it all. There was no way that she could let Zipp do the other wing alone. "Let me help. I can do the next one." She tried to sound as confident as she could. If only to spare Zipp the agony of amputating a second wing.

Without any argument, Zipp was all too happy to pass Izzy the scalpel. Zipp seemed relieved though she tried not to show it. Izzy hoped that she wouldn't mess this up. The first cut wasn't ideal either. This was just arts and crafts, but with flesh and blood involved. A friend might also die if she messed up.

Izzy started the amputation of the second wing. She tried to do it as fast as possible to stem the loss of blood. If Sunny lost any more blood, death was a possibility. She already lost a lot of blood when Zipp was amputating the first wing. They had to be fast to succeed. The cut was just before where Sunny's ethereal form began.

Zipp was quick to wrap the wound up after the wing came off. There was so much blood in the hospital room.

"Just one more to go," Zipp panted.

"I'll do it," Izzy said courageously. She was going to cut the tip of Sunny's head and something might drastically go wrong. If Zipp messed up and got Sunny killed, she wouldn't forgive herself. Not like she had much experience in this area, but it was better than letting someone else potentially fail.

Zipp shook her head. "No, we don't want to kill her."

"I won't," Izzy said confidently. "Trust me." She started cutting immediately – in case Zipp decided to stop her. It was easy at first, the scalpel made decent progress cutting Sunny's head. However, it ran into something hard and despite her increased use of force, the blade refused to cut through it.

"It's not working," Izzy said.

"Let me look," Zipp tried to sound confident. It didn't take long for them to find that her horn had a physical component and the scalpel wasn't strong enough to cut it through. She scanned around the room. "Aha! This should work." She grabbed a bone saw in the room. "Use this."

"This?" Izzy said. Her hooves trembled – a slight misstep would be dire. It wasn't like it wasn't already, but making an error with a bone saw would be so much worse. "Are you sure?"

Without a word, Zipp took the initiative to continue where Izzy left off. Zipp made a quick cut to remove the horn. The horn came off and Izzy sealed the wound as best as she could.

Zipp listened to Sunny's heartbeat. "She's still alive. We did it!"

There was so much blood in the room. No one checked on them since they started this unprofessional procedure.

"What are you doing?" Izzy exclaimed. She saw Zipp eating what little parts she could from Sunny's amputated wing.

"You know how you sang back then about how pegasi eat our young? I'm pretty sure that happened. My brother went 'missing.'"

"You had a brother?" Izzy said.

"One that went missing. A long time ago. Pretty sure that my mother served him up. The cupcakes did taste different that day. I never told anyone about this. What am I going to do? I – I think it actually happened. It wasn't rancid milk or spoiled frosting. Not to mention that it did taste good, my sister hated it though." As Zipp finished consuming the physical parts, the wing itself disappeared.

"I hear someone coming," Izzy said, eager to change the topic of conversation.

"You should leave," Zipp said. "What do you think will happen when they see this?"

The entire room was still a bloody mess from their inexperienced amputation procedures.

"I'll take my chances," Izzy said. "You're eating the other one?"

"Not like I'll have another chance. Do you want to try some?"

Izzy shook her head. "Something might happen to you if you eat it. It's not safe."

"You need to try It to understand."

Izzy shook her head again.

"More for me."

"It's not the same as Grinded Pony Hooves."