Chapter 3: It begins

Three dark figures and a baby dragon jumped out of a bush near the Ponyville hospital and crept silently to the nearest

window that wasn’t lit up on the inside. It was the dead of the night, with the moon shining high in the sky to prove it, accompanied by many twinkling stars. There was no wind, but it was still quite a chilly night.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders wore black jumpsuits that concealed their manes, but their tails poked out of the end through a small hole. For Scootaloo though, her wings poked out of holes on the side of the jumpsuit. Apple Bloom had decided to go a step further, incorporating two lines of red paint on her cheeks. Spike, however, wore nothing fancy. Nothing at all actually; no one in Ponyville made jumpsuits for baby dragons.

The four tip-hooved (or in Spike's case, tip-toed) quietly to the side of the window (located at the back of the complex), trying to keep their breaths as quiet as they could.

“Spike, do your thing.” Scootaloo whispered, not bothering to look at the dragon; it was too dark to see much.

Spike nodded quietly, not that any of them could see mind you, and snuck to the window, looking inside. It was darker than the outside world, so it was probably an empty store room. Spike turned around, his back now facing the glass, and touched the window with the end of his tail. He closed his eyes and started to dig his tail into the glass and move it in a circular motion.

Screeeeeeech!

Everyone bit their lip and covered their faces as they heard that ear-piercing sound. Nevertheless, Spike kept going, but it soon became apparent that he was only making scratches on the glass. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo dived into the nearest bush, trying to conceal themselves in the leaves as best they could. Spike just stood there, continuing, too worried to perform any other action.

The sound felt like it lasted an eternity and all the Crusaders could do is hope that no pony actually heard them.

Crash!

Suddenly, a rock had found itself flying through the window, narrowly avoiding Spike and breaking through the glass. It made a decent sized hole, one big enough for all four to fit through.

Spike stopped scratching at the glass with his tail and opened his eyes, gasping. “What the heck was that?!”

Thankfully, Apple Bloom had seen the whole charade and sprung out from the bushing, pointing a hoof accusingly at Scootaloo.

“What did ya do that for?! Are you trying to get us spotted?!” she whispered angrily at the pegasi.

Scootaloo shrugged, advancing towards the hole in the window. “If Spike had kept going, we would’ve been caught anyway.”

Spike clenched his fists and looked at Scootaloo, who was now slowly climbing through the hole, avoiding shards of glass on the way in.

“You could’ve hit me!” he whispered bitterly.

He then climbed in the whole after Scootaloo, not as carefully though, as his scales protected him from the glass shards.

“Well I didn’t.” Scootaloo inspected her surroundings. Or lack of them. The room was almost pitch black, but she could just make out shelves. At least they found the right room to enter in.

After Spike came Sweetie Belle, followed by Apple Bloom, who both took great care to avoid glass on the way in.

Sweetie Belle sniffed the air, reluctantly stepping forward. “Smells like...hospital.” she said, a bit unsure of the smell in question.

“You don’t say?” Spike replied sarcastically, snickering quietly to himself.

“C’mon, let’s find the door.” Apple Bloom whispered, cautiously stepping forward. She noticed a slimmer of light at the end of the room, which must have been the door way. She began to trot towards the light, stopping just before it and looking up, noticing the door handle. She reached up to turn it, but couldn’t make it; this wasn’t a room for fillies.

“I need a boost!” She looked back, her friends now a bit more visible as they stepped closer to the light.

“Hold on, I’ll give you one.” Scootaloo went forward to Apple Bloom’s side and knelt down. “Climb on.”

Apple Bloom nodded and slowly placed two hooves on Scootaloo’s back, followed by the other two. Scootaloo immediately began to tire under her friend’s weight, and gritted her teeth, using all her power to stay still.

“Got it!” Apple Bloom grinned and turned the door knob and pushed open the door with her head. Perhaps she used to much force to do so though, as she toppled over Scootaloo and landed face flat in the hallway.  

Spike brought his hand to his face, shaking his head softly. “For Pete’s sake...” he muttered to himself.

Sweetie Belle quickly ran over to Apple Bloom and helped her up. “You ok?”

Apple Bloom merely nodded and stood up on all four hooves. Scootaloo then snuck into the hallway, followed by Spike, who was just casually walking at this point. He closed the door behind him by leaning against it. Thankfully, the door didn’t make a loud noise as it locked into place.

“So, how are we finding Rainbow Dash’s room?” Spike asked. He had already asked this previously and got a vague answer. It seemed he was just reminding the others, or just him being his snarky self.

“I told you...we’ll just get lucky.” Scootaloo replied, hiding her uncertainty as best she could.

Spike shrugged half-heartedly, “Well, if this all goes-“Spike then spontaneously burped out green flame, a scroll appearing from the flames and dropping onto the floor.

The rest of the Crusaders froze into place as they heard the distinctive sound of Spike receiving mail from Princess Celestia.

“Are we being punished?” Sweetie Belle sighed, sitting down onto her rear.

“Great idea Scoot, let’s recruit the dragon that randomly burps out letters!” Apple Bloom whispered harshly at Scootaloo, rolling her eyes.

“Hey! You went along with it!” Scootaloo quickly replied, raising her voice a little.

Apple Bloom was about to make a retort, when she and Scootaloo were hit on the head with a scroll in quick succession.

“You’re both being as stupid as each other by arguing!” Spike interjected, waving his scroll around.

“Spike’s right, let’s all shut up and move on.” Sweetie Belle said quietly, going up onto all four of her hooves again and preparing to advance once more.

__________________________________________

A dark blue Unicorn with a brown mane sat on the sofa in the Hospital staff room, using magic to hold up a newspaper in front him so he could read with it ease and comfort. Newspapers were his stalwart companions during the night shifts; since patients were asleep, you couldn’t really have a chat to your fellow co-workers.

The staff room was an average sized rectangular room. In one corner was a coffer table, surrounded by brown sofas that clung to the walls. This is the blue stallion sat, reading his newspaper. In the corner opposite the coffee table, was the ‘kitchen area’. The light green carpet that normally covered the room was stopped by white tiles. Again, like the sofas, kitchen cupboards and appliances hugged the walls. The rest of the room was mainly dead space, save the odd magazine or coffee cup here or there. The only other thing of note was the coffee machine next to the sofa corner.

The blue stallion shook his head in confusion as he read his newspaper, “I’ll never understand newspaper comics. They’re never funny.”

Soon after this, the door slowly creaked open.

An orange pony with a grey mane entered the room and quietly shut the door behind her. The stallion lowered his newspaper and gave the newcomer a nod, which she replied to by nodding herself. Nodding had become the way to say ‘hello’ to another pony during the night shift, since it was silent and to the point.

The mare walked over to the coffee machine, the stallion tracking her movements. Upon realising where she was going, he spoke out.

“It’s dry, I’m afraid.”

The mare blinked and looked at her co-worker. She sighed in frustration.

“Damn, was just what I needed.”

The blue unicorn chuckled quietly at her statement, “Heh, we all need it during the night hours. Don’t worry, it should be filled up by tomor-“he suddenly froze, and his ears twitched ever so slightly.

His co-worker raised an eyebrow, “Uh, something wrong?”

Using his magic, the stallion folded up the newspaper and put it on the coffee table. He stood up and walked over to the door, a stern expression on his face.

“I think I heard something. ...sounded unnatural.”

“Unnatural?” asked the earth pony, heading towards the stallion.

“Y’know, like magic.” He slowly opened the door (again, using magic) and peered down the hallway. He then turned around to face his co-worker.

“I’d rather be safe than sorry. Tell the others to be on high alert, I’ll grab my flashlight.”

__________________________________________

“This room smells of old ponies.” Sweetie Belle whispered, quietly shutting the door. “She’s not in there.”

“So that’s three rooms where she’s not in then.” Spike said, reminding himself out loud of how many rooms they had all checked.

“Yeah, its lucky everypony’s asleep.” Apple Bloom whispered, heading for the next door.

The low light intensity meant that the four were forced to stay close to each other so that they didn’t get lost in the darkness.

Due to the fact that they had heard nopony else, they were all comfortable will whispering casual chit-chat with each other.

“These jumpsuits are itchy...” Sweetie Belle groaned, fighting the urge to itch herself.

“Just deal with it.” Scootaloo replied, blankly, more focused on the task at hand.

They soon reached the fourth door, and once again, Scootaloo knelt down to allow Apple Bloom to turn the door knob. By now, both of them were used to the procedure, and were able to do it quickly and easily. After slowly pushing the door open, the two snuck inside and peered about. Sweetie Belle and Spike stood outside, on guard for any medical staff.

Inside room number four, were two hospital beds that were quite a distance from each other. Both patients, as expected, were asleep. One was snoring particularly loudly.

Scootaloo crept forward to one of the beds, whilst Apple Bloom approached the other. They got close enough so they could just make out who the pony was. Once again, neither was Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo shook her head silently and headed out of the door. Apple Bloom soon followed, and closed the door by pushing it lightly and leaping into the hallway before it closed.

Spike and Sweetie Belle took this as a sign that the room was absent of the rainbow pony and moved on to the next door with the others.

But then, all of them froze as they heard the sounds of a distressed patient from upstairs:

“Help, burglar! Burglar! Someone’s trying to steal my slippers!”

“This isn’t going to go down well...” Spike whispered to himself, as all four of the intruders started to panic.