It had been three hours since they’d arrived, but the mares were still in the hospital’s waiting room. They hadn’t heard anything about their friend, and the only staff they had seen was a nurse who offered them a washtub and a room to clean Clyde’s blood out of their coats. That had been two and a half hours ago.

Rarity looked to Applejack, and gestured to her head ware.

“Oh, there’s some blood on your hat, dear.”

The farmer removed her Stetson; sure enough, a few crimson drops had stained the brim. She began to spit into her hooves and rub the dried liquid off of her most prized possession, much to the dismay of her prissy alabaster friend.

“I’m sorry A.J.,” said Twilight, “I know that’s important to you.”

“Well,” Applejack started, feigning a smile, “this ain’t the first time this ol’ hat’s been sullied; won’t be the last time either.”

Before she could finish cleaning her hat, a unicorn stallion came through the door to the waiting room wearing scrubs, and piously approached the mares. They stood up as he came up to them, and immediately grew concerned.

“How is he Doc?” asked Dash anxiously.

The doctor looked at his clipboard suspended in front of his face in a sparkling glow, then into Dash’s magenta eyes.

“He’s holding on,” he explained grimly, “but I have no idea how. Most would have died by now from the blood loss he’s sustained alone, never mind the poisoning. We’ve given him some anti-venom, but we’re unsure how effective it will be. There isn’t much knowledge in the medical field regarding manticore poison."

"Other than that, we’ve stitched up the lacerations in his chest cavity and sealed the smaller cuts. Luckily the wound canal missed his vital organs but there is severe tissue damage, as well as several severed blood vessels, which we’ve attempted to close. We’ve stopped the bleeding temporarily, but the wound may need to be cauterized. Like I said, he’s holding up for now, but I have no idea if he’ll make it.”

“Can we see him please?” asked Fluttershy, her voice filled with despair.

The doctor nodded yes, and led the group through the doors he had just come out of and into a lengthy hallway. They followed him to a dimly lit room.

As they entered, the doctor held the door, saying quietly so as not to disturb his patient, “He needs to rest. Please try not to wake him.”

He shut the door behind them when the last had entered, and his steps receded down the hallway.

They gathered around the room’s only bed, and took in the grim sight of their friend. His chest was bandaged in white linen, but there were three characteristic red streaks showing where the claws had pierced him. The cuts on his face and neck were patched with pieces of gauze and medical tape. An I.V. was embedded in his forelimb, the bottle containing some kind of clear solution. His hind legs weren’t visible, concealed beneath the teal hospital bed sheet.
Clyde’s eyes were closed and his breathing slow. A cardiac monitor was slowly beeping off to the side, near the window sill. His coat was faded, and he looked gravely ill.

Looking at him, Rarity couldn’t help but to tear up. He had put himself between her and the manticore; he had made this sacrifice willingly, and she hoped, then prayed, that he would be alright. She felt sad for him at first, but then she felt guilt. She couldn’t help but recognize that if she and her friends had been able to escape on their own, then perhaps none of this would have happened.

“Oh Clyde,” she said, a few drops beginning to fall from her cheeks as she took his limp hoof in hers.

She looked at his mangled body, his chest barely moving with each shallow breath, and she bowed her head. Her friends each took a place at the bedside with her, A.J. even taking her hat off and placing it on the bed side.

The mares accompanied him in silence, holding the words they wanted to say to him now in for the moment. The monitor continued its slow pace, the only sound in the room coming from its speakers.

They watched, they waited, but the wounded warrior remained still. Fluttershy began to cry along with Rarity, and eventually, all the mares’ eyes were at least glossed over. The faint sound of tear drops hitting the floor added to the methodical rhythm of the monitor.

Suddenly, Fluttershy left the bed side. She made for a quill and paper near the entrance of the room, and began to write something down. Her friends came to her side, and looked over her shoulder at what she was scribbling on the parchment.

“A note?” asked Dash softly.

Fluttershy nodded, whimpering softly as she continued to write what she wanted to say to Clyde now, but couldn’t. The mares began adding little bits of what they each wanted to say as well, and eventually, composed a decent letter.

As Fluttershy was finishing the note, the doctor poked his head in, saying, “I’m very sorry, but visiting hours are over. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Fluttershy neatly folded the note, carried it to Clyde’s bedside, and gently placed it on his nightstand. Then, she reached to her ear, retrieving the yellow rose he had gifted her, and placed it over the top of the paper.

The doctor nodded to her as she left, and then began intently examining his patient. The mares entered the hallway without saying a word, and silently made their way for the exit together.

“Has he gotten any better?” asked Fluttershy, her voice quiet and meek in the hospital’s hallway.

The mares were all standing outside Clyde’s room. It was the day after the ordeal with the manticore.

The doctor looked to them with consoling eyes, and said, “He’s shown a bit of improvement, but it’s nothing like we’d hoped. The wound in his chest doesn’t seem to be the problem, but rather the poison. The changes have been in his chest cavity. We cauterized the wound to stop the bleeding. Had we not, he’d have died of blood loss sometime in the night. But other than that, he’s relatively the same as he was yesterday.”

“But he has shown improvement?” asked Twilight hopefully.

The doctor sighed, saying, “I appreciate your optimism, but unless he improves drastically, he won’t make it to tomorrow morning. We can only halt the venom’s spread temporarily. We’ve tried several smaller procedures, but the final operation’s preparations will begin in about twenty minutes. Should we fail, your friend’s fate is… uncertain.”

The mares deflated, and hope deserted their eyes. Pinkie Pie’s mane suddenly straightened as her knees grew weak. She leaned on her stronger friend, Applejack. She seemed shaken too, a rare occurrence, even to those who knew her best.

“May we see him again, doctor?” inquired Rarity sullenly.

The doctor opened the door while he spoke, accompanying the group to Clyde’s side.

“Yes, but make it quick. Like I said, we’re about to operate again to try and isolate the venom,” the doctor lifted the sheet and pointed to Clyde’s leg, which had turned dark blue and yellowish green around the area where he was stung, “which is spreading rapidly.”

The note remained at his bedside, still adorned with the rose, which had begun to lose its color. He looked to be in worse shape than the previous day. Even though his chest was no longer stained red, the wound was a badly mangled series of stitches in his flesh, running diagonally across his inflamed breast.

“Can we use magic to heal him?” asked Twilight, looking to the doctor with a glimmer of hope.

“We’ve tried that,” he replied, “but the venom seems to have qualities of dark magic. The first time we tried seemed to make it more potent, and a spell to try and reverse the venom’s effects did virtually nothing. Somehow, it’s impervious. The procedure we’re about to undergo will stop its spread permanently, but we’ll never be able to fully remove the venom. It’s joined to his cellular structure somehow. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

For a few minutes, the only sound in the room came from the monitor, its pace slowly decreasing. Nopony spoke. Nopony moved.

Suddenly, the doctor spoke.

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to leave. We need to get him to the operating room.”

And so, for the second time in two days, the group left the hospital devoid of joy.

It was the third day since Clyde arrived at the hospital, and for the third time, the mares waited in the reception area for the doctor, anticipating news about their friend. They waited for nearly an hour, seeing neither hide nor hair of the unicorn, and finally took it upon themselves to search out answers.

Dash pushed through the door into the hallway, still holding onto the last bits of hope she could grip, telling herself that Clyde would be fine. She went straight for his room, entering without waiting for permission, and her friends followed.

She stopped just inside the doorway, Twilight running into her backside. She stood at the front of the room, staring at the bed. It was empty, the bed neatly made, and the note on the nightstand missing.

She gaped in disbelief, her heart sinking. He was gone. She heard footsteps behind her in the hallway, and promptly ran out the room. She saw the doctor walking towards her, his eyes occupied reading his clipboard. He never saw her coming.

Dash darted for him, her sorrow and shock having transformed into rage. She grabbed him by the collar of his lab coat, and threw him into the wall, his stethoscope flying away.

“Where is he?!” she roared, her magenta eyes ablaze.

“W-w-w, I d-do?” he stuttered.

“WHERE IS HE?!”

“H-he’s gone. He left us this morning.”

Dash released the doctor, slowly stepping back and turning away. She violently kicked the wall and looked to her friends. They were all crying and holding each other, but Dash didn’t join them. Instead, she turned back to the doctor, sour tears starting to fill her eyes, grabbed him by his collar again and slammed him into the wall a second time.

She glared at him, furious, but the fire in her eyes was quickly extinguished by liquid sorrow, and she buried her head in his chest.

“He was my friend! You were supposed to save him!” she said in a hybrid tone of anger and grief, “You were supposed to keep him alive. You were supposed to save him, but you didn’t. He’s gone… I’ll never get to see him again.”

“He’s not dead,” explained the doctor, looking down to her, “He just left us. He walked out the door this morning.”

Dash, looked up, but only for a moment. She sped out the door, leaving a few blue feathers amidst a windstorm in her wake.

Author's Notes:

Hey! I hope you like it so far. Please tell me what you think in the comments! Thanks!