The stallion shifted uncomfortably in the bed, wincing in pain. His eyes shifted to his left wing, radiating in pain and cast in a folded position. His right wing, uncomfortably numb, sat folded underneath his body. He shifted his eyes back to the golden mare with the brilliant green eyes sitting next to him. "I still don't quite remember what happened."

Applejack just looked at him. "Uhh... well.... as strange as it sounds, ah found ya in a hole in the ground. Ya were barely moving, ah honestly thought ya was gone. Ya looked like ya may have been hit by tha storm last night and took quite a spill."

The stallion looked himself over again, noticing the bits of blackened fur and singed mane in the mirror, thinking to himself on the plus side I won't need a new mane cut anytime soon.... I think this actually looks cooler.

"I'm sorry, miss..."

"Applejack," she quickly cut in, giving a slight curtsy, crossing her hoofs and nodding her head.

"Applejack,  well thank you for helping me. But I honestly can't say I remember the storm even.... or much else for that matter."

"Well why don'tcha start with your name, sugarcube."

"Umm... Storm Shade, most ponies just call me 'Shade' though." Her accent is just fantastic, he thought to himself.

As he spoke, Rainbow Dash shifted in the corner, her gentle snoozing replaced by a snore that would scare a full grown dragon.

"Uhhh, excuse me, Shade." Applejack got up, walking around the bed to the chair Rainbow slept in. Looking around the room as if tracking an imaginary fly she turned her flank towards Rainbow and gave a quick buck to the chair leg with her rear, right hoof. The chair came flying out from under Rainbow Dash as she came crashing to the floor.

"Huh, what!? I'm awake I'm awake!" Rainbow shouted at the room before seeing Applejack with a hoof to her face attempting--poorly--to stifle a laugh. "Oh HA HA, AJ..." Rainbow grumbled.

"Well now that yer awake, can ya go let Nurse Redheart know that our friend is awake? And tell her he's got a name for us too."

Rainbow Dash looked at Shade, who was trying to keep himself from laughing at Applejack's little trick with the chair.

"Yeahhhhhhhhhh.... uhhhhh ok." Rainbow Dash slowly backed out of the room with her shoulders low in a defensive stance, checking to make sure Applejack wasn't planning anything else for her, before disappearing around the corner.

Shade started laughing hysterically at Rainbow Dash's reaction to Applejack.... for all of half a second. As soon as he started laughing his reaction turned from one of joy to one of pain as he started coughing, his chest expanding and contracting with each breath, each one seemingly causing more pain. "So where am I at again?"

"Yer in Ponyville, Shade. Do ya remember where ya were comin' from at least?"

Before he could answer, Rainbow Dash returned with Nurse Redheart and the doctor, a chestnut brown stallion in a white lab coat. "Ah, you're awake! Good, I understand you were at least able to tell us your name?"

"Shade, Storm Shade," the pegasus replied with a grimace on his face.

"Well, Mr. Shade, you seemed to have a bit of a run-in with a storm last night and.... well, frankly you lost. Your left wing is shattered in 5 places, your right wing is bruised but intact. You have several broken ribs, a fractured hoof, and electrical burns throughout."

The look of despair in Shade's face grew exponentially as the doctor rattled off everything wrong. "Uhh.... doc, that's great... but why are the only two ponies I know in this room?"

A quizzical expression came over the doctor's face. "You don't remember anything about last night?" Shade shook his head. "What do you remember?" The doctor came towards him and shined a light in both of his eyes back and forth until the pony was seeing spots and his eyes moved in circles.

"I remember flying and.... dark.... and waking up here. I don't know where I was coming from or where I was going, but it had to be important if I was trying to go through the storm."

Rainbow Dash sheepishly looked away and backed herself back into her corner, not wanting to admit that it was her fault he was here. The doctor spoke briefly longer with Shade before leaving. Rainbow didn't notice a thing he said. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute and as the doctor walked out, Shade shifted uncomfortably, pulling the sheet from under the bed. His rose-gold colored cutie mark just barely peeking out into the world. Rainbow Dash caught a glimpse of this color and before even asking she threw the sheet off to reveal the entire thing, her jaw slightly open, a blank stare on her face.

"Uh... Rainbow? Ya alright? You look like ya seen a ghost." Applejack gave her a blank look.

"Uhhh... of course! Why wouldn't I be alright? I'm awesome remember? By definition I'd have to be alright. Couldn't be more alright than I am right now. Yup!" She gave a wide toothed smile, catching on that she was rambling. Applejack just gave her another dead stare with her right eyebrow slightly raised.

"Uhhh.... ok?"

"Yeah!" The rainbow haired mane shouted. "Uhhh, be right back!" Rainbow jetted out the door without so much as a second glance. She couldn't quite place it, but that cutie mark had triggered something in her memory. She'd flown all over Equestria... and above it, and she could swear she had seen something like that before. She headed to Twilight's library without another second's hesitation, hoping the lavender unicorn would have a book or scroll or anything that could point her in the right direction.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy meekly walked around her cottage, trying to make sure all of her little critter friends were fed for the day. All of them seemed to be grazing happily at what she had provided... except Angel. "Oh please Angel bunny, you need to eat up so you can get big and strong!" Angel sat on his tail and crossed his front paws, giving her a glare, before pushing his food dish towards her and turning his nose up. "But you like fresh lettuce! C'mon now eat up. It's good, see! Omnomnomnom."

Fluttershy mimed eating from the bowl. Angel just looked at her. "Please Angel, I really need to get going. What if I fluff your tail extra today when I get back?" The bunny just stared at her. "Two times?" Angel wiggled his paw as if to ask for more. In an almost whisper, Fluttershy asked "three times?" Angel's eyes opened wide as he nodded before digging into his food.

He knew he'd win. He always did.

Fluttershy left for town hoping to find Rainbow Dash or Applejack to find out how the new guy was doing when she saw a rainbow streak across the sky to Twilight's library. She started to head towards the library before spying a particularly large, red stallion hauling an apple cart. "Oh my..." she whispered to herself before hiding behind a flower cart until the pony had walked past.

Ever since Pinkie Pie's last party for Gummy's one and three-quarter year old birthday party she'd been shy of Big Mac. As everything was getting out of hand (as it usually did with a Pinkie Pie party) she had been inadvertently pushed into Big Mac's haunches. Before she had even turned around she was already trying to apologize.

"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't even..." she stopped as she turned around and saw Big Mac looking at her with his own shy smile and his big green eyes. "....see you there. Are you ok?" she whimpered out before putting a fake smile on.

"Eeyup." The big stallion smiled at her, but before he could say anything else she had flown off.

Rainbow Dash had just landed outside the front door of Twlight's but just before she could knock, Fluttershy wandered up behind her.

"Um... hi?" She whispered.

"What? Who?!" Rainbow jumped as she spun around.

Fluttershy let out a quick "Eep!" Before falling back on her rump in the dirt.

"Oh, hey Shy. Never thought YOU of all people would be able to startle me. Guess I'm still a little worked up over Shade."

"Um... who's shade?" The yellow mare asked.

"Oh, that pegasus Applejack brought in yesterday is finally awake!" She said it excitedly, glad her actions hadn't killed somepony, but there was still a hesitation in her voice. Something coming from that cutie mark that she couldn't quite place. "He said his name was Storm Shade, but couldn't tell us much else."

As the two ponies were talking Twilight could hear the commotion and opened the door.

"TWILIGHT!" Rainbow Dash shouted before tackling the surprised unicorn. "I need your help with something. I was hoping you may have a book or record that could shed some light on something for me."

Twilight's eyes grew wide with anticipation. Not only was she getting another excuse to spend all day buried in her books (not that she needed one, she was planning on it anyways), but it was Rainbow Dash of all ponies who was asking her to do it! The fact the sportster pony was asking anything beyond the science to help her train harder was nothing short of a miracle in the lavender unicorn's eyes.

"Sure, Dash, happy to help! Just one thing..." Twilight grunted out the last sentence as the cyan mare was still sitting on her chest.

"Name it," said Dash coolly... noticing Fluttershy walking in and pointing at Twilight who was still underneath Dash she sported a sheepish grin. "Oh, haha, right." Rainbow got off of Twilight and helped her up. "

After filling Twilight in on Storm Shade and the whole incident that landed him (no pun intended) in the hospital she began to describe the stallion's cutie mark to Twilight. "It's the strangest thing, Twi! I feel like I've seen it somewhere before. That I should know what it means. That rose-gold color, the shape of a shield. Usually it pertains to a pony's special talent, but the only thing I can think of for this would be some sort of Royal Guard. He's DEFINITELY not that."

"Hmmm... I'm getting the same feeling you are, like I've seen this somewhere" replied the unicorn. "Or rather, read about it. Give me a while, I need to find a book."

"Shocker," Rainbow deadpanned. "Well, let me know what you find, k?" But Twilight was already turned away from her, buried in a pile of books, looking for just the right one. Rainbow turned to Fluttershy. "C'mon Shy, you wanna go see if Applejack has had to beat him back with a stick yet?"

"Oh Rainbow... I don't think that would be such a good idea. Applejack wouldn't hurt ANYpony unless she had to."

Rainbow Dash gave the yellow mare a blank look. "Fluttershy, we really need to get you out more." They both took off back towards the hospital.