Cheerilee let out a soft sigh as she plucked yet another small green flower and tossed it into the basket. It was boring, tedious work, but the children would absolutely adore pressing all the flowers into their books. The fact they were from the dark and scary Everfree Forest would make them all the more encouraged to continue with the new task.

Now, normally she wouldn't want to come any closer than Fluttershy's cottage on the edge of the forest, but today had been special. She shivered a bit as she thought of what had caused her to vacate the town.

Discord. The 'reformed' spirit of chaos. Every time he came to town he caused nothing but trouble and she couldn't imagine how any of the ponies in the town could deal with him. By the time she'd left she'd already seen a few of the children riding great animal crackers and she imagined the abomination was only getting started. He would only be there for the one day and for the sake of her sanity she decided to steer clear of the town as long as she could.

Besides, she wasn't that deep into the woods and she was staying near the path to Zecora's hut. She was being careful and smart. Even better, the children would absolutely adore having some novelty item from such a strange place. She plucked another green flower and tossed it into her basket before continuing deeper into the forest.

The soft tinkling of water caught her attention and she walked a little faster. A small stream quickly came into view and she trotted right to it. She froze at her reflection. She looked an absolute fright. Little twigs and leaves were stuck in her light pink and white streaked mane and her dark pink coat was covered in dirt. Well, it was better than risking having her mane come alive and trying to eat the leaves. It wouldn't even be the first time Discord had done something so inane.

She splashed some of the water across her face to clear the grime away before looking up to continue her search for pretty flowers. Her heart nearly stopped when she caught sight of the little silver and black ball a few yards away, collapsed by the stream. It took her a few moments to realize why she felt so horrified as her mind processed the sight. It was a child. A little colt or filly, collapsed by the stream. She leaped forward, racing to its side, completely ignoring her basket.

“Hello, hello? Can you hear me?” she called, gently reaching out to shake the child. It was a unicorn and a quick examination revealed it was a he. He was young, very young. Probably younger than many of the children she taught at the Ponyville Schoolhouse.

Worst of all, though, was the fact he wasn't moving. He was breathing, but he looked exhausted, half starved and her shakes only got little groans from him. There was no telling why he was out here. But she swore if she ever found the parents she would find a way, any way, to make sure they suffered. But first she had to make sure the child was going to be okay. She quickly scooped him up onto her back and galloped back the way she came.

------

“And you found him in the Everfree Forest, by a stream?” Nurse Redheart asked as she took notes down on a small clipboard. Despite the franticness of the day, she seemed calm and steady. Her light pink mane wasn't even disheveled and her white coat was neatly combed and cleaned. “Why were you even there?”

“Discord is in town,” Cheerilee said quickly. It had been almost ten minutes since she'd brought the poor colt in. At first she'd only been able to make light squeaking noises, having run almost the entire way to the hospital. Normally it wouldn't have been such a horrible exercise, but Discord had turned one of the streets to jelly and another to pudding. The children were enjoying it, but she was considerably less. She'd already had two glasses of water and had finally managed to regain her breath enough to tell what had happened.

“Ah, of course.” The nurse took down a few more notes. “You should have come here. The hospital is an official chaos free zone.”

Cheerilee blinked a few times before face hoofing, being rewarded by a face full of jelly, pudding and dirt. Of course it was a chaos free zone. Of all places that Discord couldn't be doing his... behavior, the hospital was the one place that such things couldn't be afforded.

“Here, dear.”

A small towel was put into Cheerilee's hoof and she wiped it away. “How long was he there? Did Discord do this?”

“Unlikely,” the nurse said. “As far as I know, the spirit has only been in town a day. That child seems to have been in the forest for at least two or three days. We're running a check to see if there have been any reports of missing children in the area. Do you recognize him from your classes?”

“Not at all,” she said with another nervous glance towards the door. “Is he going to be--”

“GAHHHHH! BACK DEMON HORSE!” a voice screamed a moment before there were a few loud thumps, followed by a shriek of pain.

“What was--” Cheerilee was cut off by a sudden small explosion, and a much louder scream.

“Get the fire extinguishers! Get a doctor! Get the tanks of oxygen away from here!” a voice called from the back. Redheart dropped the clipboard and ran towards the back.

“Get away from me! Get away! I'll blow you all up! Do you know who I am? I am-- AHHHH! Ow! Get off me!”

“Get a horn neutralizer! OW! He bit me!”

Cheerilee gulped and knew she shouldn't, but she had to. She followed after the frantic screams and soon came to the scene. Three of the medical ponies were working to put out the fire caused by one of the tanks of oxygen while another was struggling to hold the child she'd found down, while simultaneously swatting his horn whenever he started to try to use magic. The colt looked terrified and was trying to do everything he could to attack the person holding him, including goring with his horn. Fortunately, he seemed to have no real motor control and was more harmlessly flailing about than actually being a threat. She was shoved aside as one of the nurses ran in with a small metal ring. The nurse helped hold the colt down and they locked the device in place, clamping it down around his horn. Most of the fires were put out, too. Still, he was screaming none the less.

“Let me go! Do you know who I am? I am Valkala Del Hsskrugnr of house Araknioss! I'll have the flesh torn from your bodies, you'll be maimed! Tortured! You'll spend a hundred years being devoured from the inside out by our pets! Let me go! LET ME GO! You'll BLEEPing be sorry!” he screamed, frantically pulling against the nurses holding him. Cheerilee couldn't help but stare in horror. She'd never heard a child actually bleep before. Well, she had, but not one so young. The things he was screaming weren't helping either. Where did a child even come up with such words?

A unicorn then dashed into the room. There was a flash from his horn and then the child went limp, collapsing into their legs.

“Found him by the river, you say?” Redheart asked as she walked over to Cheerilee. Behind her, the ponies were working to clean the room up while they moved the child to another room. Somehow the nurse seemed completely calm and collected, as if she didn't have a care in the world.

“Y-yes.”

“Are you sure he wasn't just abandoned?”

“No. What did he do? How did that tank explode?”

“He blew it up!” one of the aides said as she shook her head. “Started screaming and then shooting little balls of fire all over the place. One of them clipped the tank.” She shook her head and motioned to the broken tank. “We could have all been killed if the enchantments on them hadn't held!”

“Fireballs? That's impossible,” Cheerilee said with a shake of her head. “He's barely old enough to start learning telekinesis. There's no way he could have started shooting fire balls!”

“It's not unheard of at that age,” Redheart said quickly. “Little bursts of magic when in a panic or excited. We have a name now,” she said as she started trotting back towards the waiting room. “We should be able to find out who he belongs with at least.”

Cheerilee nodded and followed after her. “He... seemed scared. I hate to ask but... is it possible that he's sick? Delirious?”

“A few days in the Everfree Forest? Yes. Quite likely, even. But don't you worry. He has the best care in all of Ponyville here. He'll hardly be the first pony coming out of the Everfree Forest acting crazy. Once we've run a few checks and find his parents, I'm sure he'll be fine. You can go home if you like. He'll--”

“I'll wait until his parents get here,” Cheerilee said quickly. I don't think I'd be able to think clearly until I know he's okay, anyway.”

Redheart nodded. “I can understand that. Feel free to wait in the waiting room then. I'll let you know if there's any changes.”

“Thank you,” Cheerilee said as she trotted back out into the room. That poor child, she couldn't imagine what could possess somepony so young to say such horrible, horrible things. She'd have to talk with his parents about that bleeping, though.

Author's Notes:

Welp, I wanted to write this story a long time ago, but I just never had the time. But here goes. The characters in it are inspired by an old RP me and a friend used to do. I hope you enjoy.