I had been in the hospital a few weeks now even though I felt fine after the first few days. They told me they were just taking precautions. More surgery was performed during the last week of my stay to take out a few more pieces of the timber shards from my body. They had brought in some fancy doctor all the way from Canterlot to oversee the final operation. Seemed a bit much for a little earth pony like me. Once I was awake the nurses brought him to see me.

 

He was old, might have been the oldest I’d ever seen. It was my first time seeing pony with a beard that this point. He was a unicorn, his coat of fur was made up various shades of light browns, his mane a dark brown, his colours reminded me of those old pictures on the walls at the orphanage, only here the ponies in them had decided to walk out of the frame into a world of colour. His cutie mark was a pair of crossed scalpels. He wore the white coat that all the doctors wore and even had a pair of those things they used to listen for a heartbeat. But instead of using them like he had done before he produced a sealed vial containing the blooded shards of wood and offered it to me.

 

I held the vial in my hooves. Fascinated and a little disturbed I’d had such large pieces near my heart and not have felt any pain. I felt the cold metal of the stethoscope as he placed it on my chest, the pressure allowing me to feel my own heart beat.

 

“That sounds a lot better.” he remarked taking the metal back off my chest. “How are you feeling, Mal?” asked.

 

“I’m a little tired but I feel ok.” I replied.

 

“That will pass in an hour or so.” he said.

 

“So are all of these shards out of me?” I asked, looking back at the vial.

 

“A small few still remain in your spine. Even with my skill we couldn’t risk removing them without fear of paralysing you. I am however confident that what few pieces do remain are longer a threat to your life. A few more days just to check everything is ok and you’ll be able to leave.”

 

I nodded, I looked at the vial and then at the books at my bedside, the doctor walked towards the window and looked out to the Everfree, he must have been stood there for few minutes before he spoke to me again.

 

“Malinter, you must never go back into that forest again.” he said.

 

“What?” I replied, suddenly nervous.

 

“You must never go there again.” he repeated.

 

“But why?” I asked. I thought for a moment on whether to tell him what happened back in the forest. But how could I explain that? I couldn‘t even begin to describe it.

 

“This isn’t the first time I’ve seen these injuries. In fact. I‘m the only pony with any experience in treating them. That is partly the reason I was called here.” He looked at my reflection in the window.

 

“You know what these are?” I asked.

 

“Only a theory. We believe it to be the spore of some form of plant, a parasite to be more accurate, that merges with another creature and transforms it. But in doing so it eats way at the parent organism and if it eats away to much then the creature dies and it consumes the corpse.”

 

I gulped. I remembered the pain I was in back in the forest. It was eating me? But the strength I felt? The power…. What was that??

 

“Malinter?” the doctor was back at my bedside again.

 

“I…”

 

“Go on.” he encouraged.

 

“W-when the vines grew in me, I… I grew a horn and did magic…” I said. He wasn’t going to believe me. Maybe they’d put me in that place with all the other crazy ponies. The doctor seemed to be thinking how to reply to this bizarre question but his answer surprised me.

 

“It was the plant that did magic. Not you. You’re an earth pony remember?”

 

“Yeah… I…I guess that makes sense.” Thinking it over in my head, it did make sense, I hadn’t been able to control it. It hurt to cast. The strength I felt was probably the plant fooling my body so I wouldn’t resist it and let it feed.

 

“If you enter the forest again, the remaining shards may not remain dormant and next time you may not be so lucky. Do you understand what I am telling you?” the doctor asked.

 

“Yes… but then what does this mean?” I replied pointing to my cutie mark. The horseshoe coiled in vines. I needed to go to the Everfree for answers, only to be told that if I ever went in there again. I would die. I felt defeated.

 

“It isn’t fair…” Tears were being to roll down my cheeks. I think this was the first time I could ever recall crying.

 

The doctor hugged me.

 

“Don’t cry, Malinter. I’m sure your cutie mark will make sense to you. One day we may find away to get those shards out of you. But until that day. Promise me you will not go back into that forest.”

 

“O-okay.” I wiped my tears away. The small hope that I might be able to go making me a feel a little better.

 

He smiled, he looked at the books I had and levitated the ‘Canterlot Royal Guard Program’ from the bottom of the pile with his glowing horn and began to leaf though the pages.

 

“This is rather interesting. Very few earth ponies would ever consider becoming a Royal Guard, especially in a town like ponyville.”

 

“I wanted to get stronger. So I could fight those wolves if the attacked me again… but there is no point in me doing any of that now is there.” I replied.

 

“Now Malinter, there are many forests in Equestria just as dangerous to ponykind as the Everfree and few ponies brave enough to enter them.” he replied.

 

Other places? I’d never considered that.

 

“You think I should still try and become a Royal Guard?” I asked.

 

“You must make that choice for yourself, Malinter. But you’ve already proven to others that you are a brave pony. A little foolish perhaps but there’s two ponies out there that wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”

 

“Yeah… I think I will…but don’t I need to enrol at the guard school in Canterlot to get in?” I asked.

 

“I can help you with that.” the doctor replied.

 

“H-how?” I asked.

 

“I’m from Canterlot, remember? And who do you think happens to be the chief surgical instructor at the Royal Guard College, hmm?”

 

“Erm… you?”

 

“Smart boy.” he smiled as he ruffled my mane a little bit. “I can arrange all the paperwork to have you enrol at the school, but you’ll have to finish your education at Ponyville Elementary first. And I expect you to pass with the highest grades possible . Does that sound fair to you?” he asked.

 

“Yes, sir.” I replied, the sadness in my heart lifted. I had something to work for again.

 

The doctor passed the book back to me taking the vial from my hooves in return.

 

“What’s the matter?” he asked.

 

“What are you doing to do with those?” I asked.

 

“They need to destroyed. They could just as easily infect another pony as they did you. I just wanted to show you them so you could understand how dangerous they are,” he replied. I nodded in understanding as he slipped the vial back into his coat pocket.

 

“Now I have other patients to be seeing to before I go back to Canterlot.” he said as he levitated the books on the Everfree I’d had brought in. “You won’t be needing these. I’ll have the nurses bring you some books on subjects you’ll need to cover so study hard.”

 

“I will do my best.” I replied and started reading the book with even more focus than I had done before. The doctor smiled and walked out of the room leaving me to my book.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The doctor entered the office the hospital had allowed him to borrow during his stay in Ponyville. On one table he had set up an alchemy lab, it was here that he can crated a chemical agent that would kill off the shards while leaving the surrounding flesh intact, a mild swelling perhaps but nothing that wouldn’t heal with time .

 

That colt was growing fast.

 

He would need to write a report to the princess soon. But before that there was one task that needed to be done. He worked to make sure the office door was locked before closing the blinds to stop the sunlight getting in. With the room now bathed in darkness, the doctor saw what he did not want Malinter to see.

 

As he removed the vial from his coat, the darkness revealed the fluorescent green glow that the light had hidden, they pulsed to a steady beat. They had been inert before he’d given them to Mal, partly to prove a hypothesis but also to confirm what he feared. That letter needed sending now.

 

He walked towards the alchemy table to a pot containing the dissolving agent and dropped the vial into it. The cap at the end lasted mere seconds before the fluid flooded in, attacking the shards which blackened and shrivelled before dissolving completely. The baleful glow dying with them.

 

“They cannot be allowed to take him.”