Darkness.

All Daring could see, all she could feel, was a vast and empty darkness that stretched in all directions. Truthfully, she isn’t quite sure if she can actually feel the darkness, as at the moment she lacks anything that can be even remotely called a physical body. Still, a part of her -- what part exactly she is not sure -- cannot help but be sad at the fact that there is only darkness. She had, perhaps in a foalish manner, expected death to be… brighter? Happier, perhaps. This darkness was just depressing, but then perhaps this was her punishment for all those ancient things she had stolen… or when she had conveniently left cake near Celestia all those times...

Yes, this was her punishment for feeding Celestia’s addiction to frosted treats.

“Well, this sucks.” Daring sighs, not sure how exactly she is doing it, but happy none the less to hear her own voice.

“I don’t know, it’s not that bad.” A voice comes from behind, followed by a bright light that slowly chases away the darkness. “Personally, I thought it was rather disappointing at first, but once you figure out what to do, it isn’t so bad.”

Turning around, and finding that she now actually has a physical body, Daring is dumbfounded to find the last pony she ever thought to see again standing before her.

“Midnight?” Daring whispers, eyes wide.

“Hey there, Yearling,” Midnight chuckles. “The look on your face is just priceless.”

“You’re dead…” Daring states, her ears drooping. “I… I’m dead…?”

“Yes, I am dead.” Midnight sighs, looking down at her hooves before looking up and smiling. “You, not so much.”

“So, if I am not dead… where am I?” Daring ventures, looking around at the now endless expanse of white. “Because if this is a dream, I have to admit it’s not the best I’ve had.”

“I don’t know if it’s a dream,” Midnight confesses, standing up and walking over to lay a hoof on Daring’s shoulder. “It could be the place in between, that you are so close to death that you and I are able to talk. Regardless, I figured I’d say hello, and tell you that you’re going to live.”

“Why?” Daring asks, leaning her head to one side.

“Because, you’re not done yet.” She pulls Daring into a hug. “Because Leaf needs you, and because a certain colt is currently shaking you and crying.” She releases Daring and smiles. “Now, ‘Auntie’ Yearling, time to wake up.”

Daring opens her mouth to say something, anything, when suddenly the world goes black again and she hears a voice calling her.

“Auntie Yearling! Wake up, please!”

Life rushes back into Daring with a sound akin to the waterfall that occupies part of Canterlot, bringing with it pain unlike she has ever known, her entire body feeling like it is on fire and yet freezing at the same time. Through the pain, and the loud ringing in her ears, she can feel and hear someone shouting beside her as she is shaken.

“Auntie Yearling! Please, wake up, you can’t die!” Tricks shouts beside her. Somehow, he had gotten free of her embrace after she had lost consciousness, and was now doing his best to wake her up.

“It’s… going to take more than that party favor to keep me down…” Daring wheezes through the pain, finding her hooves and attempting to stand up, earning herself more pain in the form of her back lighting up in a searing flash.

“Don’t move, you took a lot of glass to your back, Yearling,” another familiar voice comes from beside her. Turning her head, she chuckles to find Wind kneeling beside her looking completely unscaved safe for his hair being messed up and his jacket now sporting some dust and soot.

“You look like like crap, Wind,” Daring weakly jokes.

“Speak for yourself,” Wind chuckles weakly. “I thought all the stuff they said about you was just stuff you’d made up. Seems you really are as lucky as they say.”

“Really? I don’t feel lucky…” Daring mutters as she attempts to get up again, only to have Wind put a hoof on her back to keep her down.

“None of that, I’d rather not have to explain to Distant how I let you get even more injured.” Wind commands in a voice that reminds her of Silver Lining, causing instant obedience. “Good filly, now stay there for a moment.” Looking up at him, Daring watches him turn his head and fix his eyes on somepony on the other side of the room just out of Daring’s limited field of vision. “Sunset! Get your flank over here!”

“Give me a moment! I’ve got my hooves full stopping this guard from bleeding out!” a mare shouts from the other side of the room.

“Wind? Is Daring awake?” A familiar voice calls over from near the first. “I’ll be right over!” Daring’s ears perk up as the sound of rapid hoofsteps come over followed by a very familiar face devoid of its usual smile.

“Hey… Sierra, enjoying your vacation?” Daring chuckles weakly. “Ignore the mess, Canterlot’s usually a lot cleaner.”

“It’s cleaner than my house was before your godmother got her hooves on me,” Sierra says absently as he puts down a bag of medical supplies. “Now lay still, and don’t talk.”

“Is she going to be alright, Mister Sunset?” Tricks speaks up from beside Daring, his voice wavering slightly.

“She’ll be fine, little one,” Sierra replies with a smile. “I’ll tell you what, though. She’ll feel a lot better if you hold her hoof. This is going to hurt.” Tricks nods and gently takes one of Daring’s larger front hooves in both of his.

“Don’t worry, Auntie Yearling,” Tricks says with a wavering smile that Daring can’t help but return. “I am sure Mister Sunset knows what he is doing.”

“He… better,” Daring grunts as Sierra starts gently looking over her wounded back. “I’d hate for my godmother to put him in time out.” She grunts again as Sierra not so gently brushes against a shard of glass embedded in her armor next to her wing.

“Sorry, Daring,” Sierra apologizes absently. Grumbling, Daring remains quiet and allows Sierra to work, which also allows Wind to start talking again.

“Anyway, we seem to be lacking the Command Sergeant, so we’re in charge,” Wind sighs, looking around slowly. “Or rather, you’re in charge, and I am your advisor.” He then sighs and looks to Daring with a straight face. “Dawn and Knight are in charge of the Guards… Captain Aegis…” Wind clears his throat and looks away. “He didn’t make it, the blast caught him in one of the western corridors. With no place for the force to displace to, it hit him and his officers hard. He… died instantly.”

Sierra pauses for a moment, and Daring takes the chance to shift slightly and reach out with her other hoof to pat Wind’s hoof. “I’m sorry, Wind. I know he was a friend…”

“His sacrifice won’t be in vain,” Wind says solemnly, clearing his throat before continuing. “And that, really brings us to now. We’ve not had any reports from any of the outlying scouts, nor from the hospital yet.”

“Which is where you should be going,” Sierra says softly. “These glass wounds aren’t bad, but some of them look to be sitting quite close to the joints of your wings, I don’t feel comfortable removing them, and I doubt Corporal Summer will want to as well.”

“Not here, at least,” a new voice joins into the conversation, quickly followed by a mare with blood covering most of the front of her guard uniform as well as her hooves. “We should get her to the medical wing in the Palace, we’re taking all the injured there.”

“How is Sergeant Poppy?” Sierra asks absently as he pulls out some gauze. “I saw you holding onto his hoof, he was whispering to you.”

“He didn’t make it,” Summer replies quietly. “We need to pack some gauze around the glass, make sure it won’t move while we transport her.” Daring suddenly feels a tingling sensation all over her body as Summer continues. “Ma’am, I have to put a pain-killing spell on you, I am actually surprised you’re not howling in pain already, but when we start moving you, it’ll only get worse.”

“I’m used to it,” Daring mutters, the pain reducing spell settling in with a cooling sensation. “Where’s Leaf?”

“Your husband is in the medical ward,” Summer replies as she waves a couple ponies with a stretcher between them over. “He suffered lacerations similar to yours along his wings and face. Though, he is in better condition, no glass got stuck in him.”

“We… we’re not married.” Daring says softly, her body going numb as the adrenaline in her system slows down, as well as from hearing Leaf is injured.

“Not yet, they’re not,” Sierra chuckles before looking to Summer. “I think it won’t be too much longer though. At least, I hope not. I have fifty bits riding on it.”

“Traitor…” Daring mutters, body feeling heavy due to the spell as she is lifted onto the stretcher.

“I am not a traitor,” Sierra chuckles as he picks up his medical bag again. “I have the utmost faith in you and Leaf! You’re just like Distant, wild and free spirited. You two will just be a while yet before you tie the knot.” He then sighs and looks around. “I’ll… talk to you later, Daring. I need to go do what I can…” He looks to Summer. “After you, Corporal.”
Summer pats Daring on the shoulder, careful not to touch any of the glass wounds. “Stay safe.” She then goes off and leads Sierra towards a group of other medics who are waving for more sets of hooves for something. Daring sighs and settles into the stretcher, allowing herself to just go limp as she is carried from the room between two royal guards. She does her best not to look at all the destruction and the state the beautiful room has been thrown into. She even closes her eyes as they pass a large area that is cleared of debris, which is now filled with shrouded shapes lying motionless on the floor.

And then she is out of the room, the hallways and passageways of the Palace likewise full of ponies, though more of them are standing and moving around while avoiding the shattered glass from the windows and fallen decorations. There are a lot more civilians in the hallways now, mostly palace staff but also quite a few of the ponies who had taken shelter too, and many are helping Guards with the wounded. All of them, guards and civilian ponies alike, have a distant look in their eyes as if they’re walking around on autopilot, and as Daring passes by a row of windows that have been blown out by the blast and gets a good look at the city beyond, she understands why.

If she had not been on her stomach already, Daring would have sworn the sight would have knocked the breath out of her.

The city is in ruins beyond the Palace, or at least the part she can see, with trails of smoke and smoldering ashes still falling from the sky. Even the sun itself is shrouded behind a veil of thick, oily looking smoke. Pegasi also fill the skies, and as she is just about to turn a corner she watches one stop and dive towards a pile of rubble as they shoot a hoof mounted signal flare.

“The city looks like one of the ruins out of your story, Auntie,” Tricks says from where he is walking beside Daring, his eyes are full of both fear and a little bit of wonder.

“Doesn’t it?” Daring agrees softly. “Someday, somepony like me is going to look back on this day, and think it’s an interesting little moment in history.”

“I don’t like being on this side of the history…” Tricks mutters softly, causing Daring to reach out and ruffle his mane and smile.

“Me too, but we need to be brave for Witchy,” Daring offers softly, causing Tricks to look at her with a small smile. “That’s it, I need you to be brave for me and your uncle, too.”

“Why?” Tricks asks, sniffling a little. “You’re one of the bravest ponies I know, except for perhaps Witch Doctor…”

“I’ll let you in on a secret,” Daring whispers, gesturing for Tricks to come closer. “I’m scared, Tricks. I… I am used to going into ancient ruins, long after all the apocalyptic stuff happened… this…” Daring trails off, closing her eyes and sighs. A moment later, she feels A hoof on her shoulder and opens one eye to see Tricks smiling.

“Don’t worry, Auntie, we’ll be fine,” Tricks says in a confident tone.

Daring returns the smile and settles back down as they continue through the hallway and eventually reach the medical ward. Unlike the chaos in the hallways, the medical wing is orderly and clean, though even here the windows look like they’ve been blown out and are now covered with sheets or other thick cloth items. The wing is full of cots and beds, all full of ponies wearing guard or reserve uniforms, with nurses and doctors wearing the uniform of palace staff rushing between them.

The guards bring Daring to a bed that’s on the small side, though large enough that she won’t be uncomfortable. Before she is put down, a nurse rushes over and replaces the sheets, the last set having a rather… large and nasty bloodstain in the middle standing in testiment to the last occupant having a worse day than Daring. The guards set her down as gently as possible, Tricks instantly taking up a position near her bed with a worried look.

“Look who finally decided to grace the medical ward,” a familiar voice says from Daring’s left, causing her to look over and smile.

“Hello, dear,” Daring says softly over to Leaf, who is in the bed next to her. “Traffic today in Canterlot was deadly.”

“Tell me about it,” Leaf chuckles weakly. “I swear, when Luna gets back I am going to complain about her windows. They’re surprisingly uncomfortable when they hit you.” He gently lifts his wings, which are covered in bandages that have a little bit of blood on them. “I’ll never hear the end of this from Witchy now on my flight ability.”

“But, at least we’re alive,” Daring smiles, reaching out with a hoof towards Leaf, grimacing at the pain. Leaf reaches out as well, scooting over to the very edge of his bed so he can reach. “I never want to wake up without you again…”

“Hopefully, you never will,” Leaf agrees, a warm smile on his face as they touch hooves.

-----

“Sir, hold still!” a dark blue pegasus mare shouts as she holds her hooves, along with a piece of thick gauze, against a large gash in the neck of a unicorn stallion. “We need to stop the bleeding, but I can’t do that if you don’t stop moving!”

“I… I can’t feel my legs,” the stallion whimpers.

“You’re fine, it’s just a small scratch,” the mare continues, keeping the pressure on the wound. “You’re going into stress induced shock, you need to calm down and takes some deep breaths.” She turns towards a green and blue unicorn mare winding bandages a little ways off. “Ember! how long until those bandages are ready?”

“Just a few seconds more, Perfect!” Ember replies quickly, winding the bandages as fast as she can. “I’ve been enchanting them as fast as I can, but we seem to be going through them faster than I can make them.”

“Less talk, more enchanting,” a pale purple unicorn across from Perfect says wearily as she levitates some disinfectants over along with more gauze. “Perfect, I can handle this, you should get some rest now that the casualty flow has slowed down.”

“I’m fine, Faith, really,” Perfect states firmly. “If I get off my hooves now, I’ll never get back up, and next to Ember, I’m your most experienced nurse on this floor.”

“No, I’ve got…” Faith starts but is quickly cut off by Perfect.

“She is in the break room, curled up in a ball crying,” Perfect states, not even flinching as a roll of enchanted bandages levitates over her shoulder. “Thanks Ember,” she uses her teeth and one hoof to start unwinding the bandages and start applying them. “Sir, I need you to stay still, this is going to hurt but you’ll feel better in a moment.” The stallion whimpers slightly, but visibly braces himself against the pain he is already imagining will soon wrack him. Perfect wastes no time, quickly unrolling the bandage strip and lifting the stallion’s neck in one smooth motion with one arm. She wraps the injured pony’s neck gently, but tight enough to keep the gauze strip firmly against the wound and keep the flow of blood stopped.

As soon as the wound is dressed, Perfect smiles to the stallion and pats him on the shoulder before turning and walking away towards another patient. She gets about halfway before her tail is enveloped in not one, but two, magical auras and she starts walking in place.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Faith asks in a motherly tone.

“To the next pony in triage, we need to get them cleared before the next wave,” Perfect states quickly, her hooves working harder to move herself across the floor. “Let go of me, both of you!”

“No, Perfect you need to slow down,” Ember commands firmly, walking up next to Perfect and putting a hoof on her shoulder. “I know that you want to throw yourself into this and try and forget that your daughter and husband are both out there somewhere in the city.” Perfect shakes her head and keeps trying to move towards another bed. Ember hooks a hoof under Perfect’s chin and makes her look over at her. “Perfect Night, you are no good to anypony if you work yourself into the ground. Now, go to the break room and at least eat something, it’s getting close to evening, and the way things are going none of us are going to get anything resembling a good meal for a while.”

“I can eat when we’re finished, no point in being another set of hooves down,” Perfect retorts.

“And no point in being a set of hooves down when things really are on the line,” Faith says as she walks up on the other side of Perfect. “I know you’re worried about Evening and Midnight, but both of them are capable of handling themselves out there. For Celestia’s sake, your daughter is a Wonderbolt, Perfect! If anypony can handle this it’ll be her.” She smiles warmly and winks. “Just you wait and see, she’ll be flying her tail in here before you know it. All smiles and enthusiastic as she has always been, just itching to tell you how her and the other Wonderbolts defeated those upstarts with their flying fortress!”

Sighing heavily, Perfect allows her shoulders to slump. “You’re right.”

“Of course I am right,” Faith chuckles softly, nuzzling Perfect’s cheek like a mother would her foal. “I am many years your senior, and that makes me right when we argue!” She gently pushes Perfect down the hallway a few steps. “Now go, and if you can get the other two nurses to get their flanks out here.”

“I’ll try,” Perfect agrees softly, “but I don’t know if Natty is ready to face the world quite yet… All of this really hit her hard.”

“It has hit us all hard,” Ember nods soberly. “I don’t think a single pony in Canterlot will forget this day, or where they were when that cannon fired.”

Nodding in silent agreement, Perfect starts down the hallway slowly, her eyes and body now long numb to the sights of horror that fill the once peaceful hospital. Yet, her eyes are drawn to it all like a magnet, as if through observing, it might make the horrors less. Might by some divine intervention become nothing more than a devious trick of the light upon her tired body.

The hallways do not become any less full of the moaning, sobbing, and often more often than not deathly still ponies who have been streaming in for near a half hour now. Blood often covers the sheets they lay on and stains the bandages they’re wearing. More than once as she passes a pony on a gurney or a stretcher, it is as a doctor is pulling a sheet over them and declaring the time to a nurse.

Virtually all of them are Royal Guards or Wonderbolts Reserves, but that fact doesn’t make her stomach do any fewer backflips, nor her heart feel any colder. So many dead from the inner city, and more injured arriving every minute. A few yards from the sanctuary of the break room, Perfect stops and stares out the floor to ceiling window that stretches along this part of the hospital. The city beyond is unlike the Canterlot she had known her entire life, now it is a dark and alien landscape with thick clouds of ash choking the sky and embers raining down to choke the ponies who scurry beneath them.

Turning from the window, Perfect does her best to not think about the shape the city is in, nor the fact that she cannot see the part of the city her house sits in through the thick fallout. Instead, she focuses her mind on getting into the break room and getting off her hooves, a plan that, in theory, should be easy if not for the sound of quiet sobbing echoing from inside the room. Perfect hesitates only a moment at the door before opening it and entering swiftly, closing the door as soon as her tail clears the door frame.

Normally, the room where most of the nurses took their breaks was a spacious and well-lit room, having at one point been a conference room, that contained a few couches and a small kitchen with a stove to prepare food on the longer and later shifts. Now, however, the room is packed with cots and sleeping bags for hospital staff to fall onto when their bodies can’t continue without rest taking up almost the entire room save for the kitchen, which had in the hours before the influx of ponies had been converted to a station to make bandages and boil saline solution.

Walking further in, Perfect heads towards the only other two occupants of the room, both of which are currently in a corner on a cot, one gently holding onto the other as she sobs.

“How’s she doing, Poppy?” Perfect asks a pink unicorn mare gently, putting on a motherly smile for the younger mares.

“She stopped shivering a little while ago, Perfect,” Poppy replies softly, pulling the distraught mare closer. “I’ve never seen her like this, it’s…”

“It makes you want to break down and join her,” Perfect smiles sadly, sitting down on the other side of the brown earth pony in Poppy’s arms. “It’s okay, Natty, you’re safe.”

“S...so many…” Natural Remedy stutters. “And the ground, the magic feels wrong.” She looks over at Perfect. “How can we be safe when the very earth beneath my hooves screams in pain?”

“It’s the effects of that cannon, Natty,” Poppy says softly, resting her head atop of her friend’s. “I’m feeling it too. I can barely focus on casting spells, I can’t imagine what it’s like for you and other earth ponies.”

“It’s horrible…” Natty says softly, nuzzling in closer to her friend’s chest as if to find sanctuary. “I want to close my eyes and try and forget it all… but, every time I try it makes it all that much shaper… and I can see their faces…”

“We’ve lost a lot of ponies today, Natty,” Perfect sighs, scooting closer and putting an arm around both of the other mares. “I don’t think any of us will be able to forget a lot of faces after today.”

“I… the first pony I lost today…” Natty starts a full-bodied shiver causing her ears and tail to shake slightly. “I… I knew him… w-when I was younger, I used… used to foal sit for him and his wife…”

“I wish Witchy was here… She’d know what to say…” Poppy admits softly, trailing off with the unspoken thought on everypony’s mind: Was their friend alive?

The quiet that descends on the room and its three occupants is nearly as thick as the smoke beyond the walls of the hospital, and perhaps much more choking. The silence is especially strong for Perfect, as the fact that one of the dead was Natty’s neighbor brings back her own fears for her husband and daughter. Unwilling to give into despair, she instead gives into the side of her that is a mother, which has been screaming at her since she had walked in the door and saw the her two fellow nurses.

Wrapping her other arm around both Natty and Poppy, Perfect adds her wings in and pulls both of them into a warm embrace, much like she had done with her daughter on those nights she had startled awake due to night terrors. The three of them stay like this for a long few moments, the only sound between them their collective heartbeats and Natty’s sniffling sobs. All too soon, though, Perfect remembers that they do not truly have the time for this, and looks over at Poppy.

“One of us needs to go back out there,” Perfect whispers softly, a sad expression on her face. “Faith all but ordered me to rest, and I don’t think Natty is ready to face the world yet.” She looks down at the still shivering earth pony between her and Poppy. “But Ember and Faith will need help soon.”

“I’ll get back out there,” Poppy sighs, “I… am not sure I am really all that better than Natty, but… somepony needs to go help those two.” She looks down at Natty and gently runs a hoof through her friend’s mane and whispers softly in her ear. “I need to go now, Natty. Perfect will keep you safe, okay?” Natty nods slowly, and sniffles, but releases Poppy from her tight embrace.

“Stay safe, Poppy,” Perfect offers with a smile as she releases Poppy from her own arms and wings, which gently lay themselves around Natty who has scooted back against Perfect. “Tell Faith I’ll do my best to calm Natty down, but not to get their hopes up too much.”

Nodding, Poppy departs without further delay and is quickly out the door, back into the chaos beyond with a look of staunch determination.

Perfect sighs, and holds onto Natty a little tighter causing the earth pony to stop shivering. Perhaps it is her motherly nature, or perhaps Natty has simply cried herself out at last. Whichever it is, Perfect is simply glad to be holding onto somepony right now, her own frayed nerves rapidly nearing the breaking point.

“Perfect?” Natty asks softly from where she is nestled against the older mare. “D-Do you think my parents are alright?”

“They are, Natty,” Perfect says slowly, gently nuzzling the top of Natty’s head. “They were likely evacuated like the rest of the civilians. By now, they’re likely safely tucked away comfortably in one of those shelters Celestia and Luna had built in the wake of the Changeling attack.”

“I hope your husband is with them, Perfect,” Natty continues as she takes a shuttering breath and sniffles. “You two always know how to make everyone smile, your daughter too, I really hope nothing has happened to your family.”

“Me too, Natty,” Perfect whispers softly, her ears going back against her head as she squeezes Natty gently. “Me too…”

Author's Notes:

Oh, look, an... old friend showed up!

Crazy thing, being on the verge of death, isn't it! Anyway, I pulled Midnight outta the ether and gave her a small part in this chapter, sort of like Dumbledoor in Harry Potter when Harry almost dies. But, Daring doesn't die, though I bet she wished she did with all the pain, and it looks like she is in charge of the Reserves now with Wind Rider!

Also, say hello to Perfect Night! She is Midnight's mother and a nurse at Canterlot General, her husband Evening Star, is a night-shift weather pony and is taking shelter in an emergancy shelter near their home. Midnight, well you already know what happened to her, and if you don't go read Memories of Midnight so you can properly hate me like all the other readers :D

Also, four other characters introduces: Faith Cure, and Emerald "Ember" Haze. Faith is a shared character between the Wonderverse writers, and Ember belongs to Zoljin. Poppy Field and Natural "Natty" Remedy belong to Witching Hour.