Between Magic and Science

The large truck was driven by a soldier, who had offered to give Killjoy and his high priority asset- a young girl with pink hair, a ride to Tanktown. They sat in the back of the truck. It looked almost the same as the one they had carried the wounded soldiers in, except there was no roof covering them, and a large gun was fixed in the back with them. Killjoy was completely silent, staring off into space. Fluttershy was also silent, but was only too nervous to talk. Even though she had gotten used to the hardened commander and his job, she was still uncomfortable around him.

They drove along a dirt path in a forest, which seemed peaceful enough. The place called Tanktown was only about an hour away, but at the speed they were going, Fluttershy wondered how far it actually was.

Killjoy looked up, checking the area behind the truck. There was nothing. Then, he heard it. Over the engine of the truck, he could hear the whine of a smaller vehicle approaching them, fast. Several, actually, Killjoy saw several motorcycles approaching them from behind, with Raiders at their controls.

There were three of them, all carrying a rifle of some sort in one hand, while steering with the other. Killjoy tapped on the window separating him from the driver, and it was opened promptly.

“We’ve got three bikes on our 6 o’clock. Speed up, and try to lose them.” Killjoy ordered in a calm tone.

“Sir, this vehicle can’t go faster than-”

“I SAID STEP ON IT, SOLDIER!” He barked, making Fluttershy almost jump out of the vehicle.

“Sir, this truck will stall if I go over 70 miles an hour, it’s getting old, and I didn’t think-”

Killjoy sighed. “Just drive, then. I’ll handle them.”

Killjoy approached the forward facing machine gun, and spun it 180 degrees. There was enough room for him to fire it in either direction, and he could aim it side to side with ease. He positioned himself behind the gun, leaning in and aiming down the sight. He noticed the frightened look on Fluttershy’s face, and he motioned her for her to cover her ears.

The first bike had closed in on them the Raider on the bike taking aim. Before he could fire, Killjoy squeezed the butterfly handles of the gun together. The explosion of sound still reached Fluttershy’s ears, even though she had them covered. She huddled in the corner of the truck bed, close to Killjoy’s boot, cowering in fear. He noticed her and adjusted his footing as to not step on her. The bullets missed the bike, and the Raider driving had fired back, putting a crack in the window behind him. It had stopped the bullet that had hit it, but it wouldn’t hold up if any more came it’s way.

Killjoy adjusted his aim and fired back, remembering to fire in front of his target, for they were moving. The other two were close behind as the first biker had fallen off of his vehicle, the bike spinning out in the dirt. Killjoy aimed at the next bike, and opened fire. He couldn’t hit it as it swerved side to side, actively dodging his fire. The other biker had shot, and completely missed them. The mounted gun turned to meet the bad shooter, and ripped his bike to pieces, sending it spiraling out of control as it’s rider had abandoned the vehicle. Two down, one two go.

The last one was lined up, and Killjoy squeezed the handles together.

A metallic clicking noise was all that was heard.

“Son of a-” was all he had time to say before a wave of pain and lead coursed through his body, almost knocking him off of the vehicle. The glass behind him shattered, and Fluttershy wanted to scream, but she was too scared to use her voice properly.

He hit his back on the cold metal truck bed, and lost consciousness.

“What the hell? Is everything okay back there?” The driver glanced back through the shattered window, after the windshield had been riddled with bullets. Good thing they made those bulletproof.

“He...” Fluttershy was on her knees, looking over the Commander’s limp body. He was still breathing, that was good. She beyond words, beyond fear. How could they do this to their own kind? It scared her, it frustrated her, it saddened her, but most of all, it made her mad.

And nobody, not in any universe, would make her this angry, this upset, and live to tell the tale.

“YOU BIG STUPID JERK!” She screeched angrily, almost forgetting she was in a moving vehicle. She had taken one of the round, green, objects that had fallen off of Killjoy’s uniform when he fell. She knew what she was going to do. It was heavy, but she was too angry to care. As her face twisted with rage, she threw the green object off of the back of the truck with all of her might, straight at the Raider.

The Raider was surprised, and had raised his weapon to gun this pink haired girl down, but he was hit in the face by a hand grenade before he could, sending him tumbling off of his bike and landing on his back. He coughed, and looked at the grenade that had made a mark on his cheek. She hadn’t even pulled the pin on it.

Fluttershy took several angry breaths to try and compose herself. She had just hurt something, a living creature. Normally, she would have felt terrible and wouldn’t been able to have forgiven herself, but seeing the man who risked his life to save her, her only friend she had from this world, in the state he was in now had awoken something inside of her. That stupid Raider deserved it for what he did. Still, a part of her hoped that he wasn’t hurt too bad.

“He’s hurt, he needs to get somewhere where I can get those... oh, what are they called... bullets out of him!” She began to say to the driver, who was still trying his best to control the shot up vehicle.

“Right behind my seat there’s a first aid kit, should have everything you need,” the driver said in a monotone voice. All he could do was drive, “We’re almost to Tanktown, I’ve got orders to bring him to Nexus, so you’ll have to figure out what to do with him.

She retrieved the kit, a large red box with a white cross on it. Inside, she retrieved what she remembered using when treating the other soldier's wounds. Killjoy had taken five bullets, two in the chest, one in his left arm, and two in the stomach. His blood was beginning to pool beneath him, and his bright red uniform was stained a deep crimson. It made her sick to her stomach. Pulling off the red jacket and white shirt, she began to extract the bullet in his arm. She noticed a mark on his arm, closer to his hand.

It was of a human hand, grasping what seemed to be a sword. The sword’s angle seemed to say ‘Charge!’, and there was what looked like some sort of explosion behind it. Was it a cutie mark? Was his special talent fighting? Or did it mean something else?

The thought came and went as she removed the bullet with the tweezers, inspecting the wound. It wasn’t very deep. She cleaned it, and then wrapped it in the bandage she had taken from the first aid kit. Next came the bullets in his chest. She wasn’t an expert on anatomy, especially human anatomy, but she knew that those bullets had came dangerously close to his heart. All she could do was wrap them, for she wasn’t sure she had anything that could get through the bone to pull them out.

The ones in his stomach were tricky. One was in deep, almost passing right through his body. The other had hit him up higher, and had broken one of his ribs. Fluttershy had to cut open the skin and flesh where the bone had been pushing through, and remove it with shaky hands. The bullet was easily removed, but closing it was out of the question. She cleaned the opening as best as she could, and wrapped it up, the bandage wrapping around his entire body. The last one was the hardest for her to do, as she became aware of her makeshift surgery patient beginning to stir.

“Fluttershy...” he croaked, trying to figure out what had happened. His head was spinning, his ears were ringing, and he felt like he had been ran over by a Mac truck.

“Please... I’m sorry, this is going to hurt... a lot...,” she whimpered, with a look of depression on her face.

“What... what are you-” he noticed Fluttershy putting the tweezers into his wound, and then something being tugged on inside of him. He screamed out in pain, as Fluttershy removed the bullet that had somehow not hit any of his internals. Fluttershy put a hand on his shoulder and muttered something, but he couldn’t hear it. All he could hear was the pain. All he could see was the pain, and all he could feel was the pain. This wasn’t the first time he’d had a bullet removed from him, but he never had gotten used to it. No one did.

“I’m so sorry, but I had to get that out of you...”

“It’s...” he gasped for breath, and felt something irregular in his chest as he did so, “It’s fine... I...” his breathing interrupted his speech once more, “You had to... had to do that... Don’t blame yourself.” Out of breath, he rolled on his side, and looked down at his body. His arm had been bandaged, as well as a few spots on his chest. His red jacket was next to him, and his white t-shirt was in three, ripped up pieces, probably Fluttershy trying to get it off of him, and it was stained red. It still hurt. He passed out from the pain again.

“Killjoy, are you okay?” Fluttershy hadn’t even noticed they’d arrived at a house in what seemed to be a small town. A young man with dirty blonde hair was looking over the edge of the truck’s bed.

“What happened?” more voices.

“Get him inside, quick!”

Fluttershy fainted as the adrenaline of the situation subsided.

Killjoy awoke laying down on a table, and he looked at the stone gray ceiling. He couldn’t help but notice he felt a bit better.

“Hey, you’re up.” It was Nexus.

Killjoy blinked, trying to sit up.

“Woah, take it easy there. You’re lucky you made it out of that, from what Fluttershy told me.” Nexus had helped Killjoy sit up. He took in his surroundings. He was sitting on a makeshift medical table in Nexus’s underground lab. Not a big surprise, knowing Nexus. There was a table of surgical equipment on a stand next to him, and what appeared to be a fractured piece of bone.

“Now, what’s your name?” Nexus asked, a small smile forming on his face.

“Seriously?” Killjoy asked, picking up on the joke. A smile crossed his face for a few moments before he felt a stinging pain in his chest.

“It’s good to see your sense of humor is intact- hey, I wasn’t joking when I said take it easy. I pulled out two bullets that were near your heart. It may not be comfortable for a few days...” Nexus seemed disappointed when he said that last part.

“What... is that one of my bones?” He pointed to the fractured bone, on the stand.

“Yeah, that’s one of your ribs,” Nexus casually told him, “I had to replace two of them with titanium ones. Hope they don’t slow you down any. And don’t worry, I didn’t let Burning Star cauterize that nasty hole in near your rib cage there.”

“Good,” he said, half-jokingly. That pyromaniac probably would’ve scorched half his body, in all seriousness.

“You’ll have to take it easy for a few days, but you’ll have to help us out when the time comes. Twilight said that healing spell would take a few days until you were 100% again...”

“Wait, healing spell? Oh right, she’s the magical unicorn princess, right?” He recalled a few of the stories Fluttershy had told him.

“Yeah. I must say, for only being human for three days, Fluttershy patched you up pretty good,” Nexus said, as Killjoy inspected his body. There were no longer bandages on it, instead there was fresh skin that had regrown as if by magic. It probably was magic, too.

“So, what’s going on?”

Nexus sighed, “It’s not good. Nightmare is back, and he’s working with the Changelings.” Killjoy knew all about them. “They were probably planning to sneak in undetected, but didn’t realize how much attention the swirling black clouds gathered. Right now, we have all of Twilight’s friends gathered upstairs, as well as all of our combat unit.

“Oh boy, it’s like a family reunion.”

Upstairs, the others were all getting to know each other while Nexus treated Killjoy’s wounds like the not-doctor he was. Burning Star and Twilight had talked more about how the tank worked, and Peaceful Pride had entertained Rarity with several stories about his adventures. In the kitchen, Trax Dash was arm wrestling with Applejack, who was surprisingly strong for someone her size. Rainbow and Nova Burst watched intently, as one of them were going to challenge the winner. Pinkie Pie had also shown Buttercrust how to make several types of sweets that he could sell, like cupcakes, cookies, and other things she had made from ingredients that Nexus never had.

Back in the living room, Fluttershy was startled as the giant metal robot guy who called himself Powerjack was suddenly next to her.

“H-h-hello...” She said, frightened by his huge posture and appearance. She was shaking uncontrollably on the couch. An eerie yellow light shined through the helmet he was wearing, concealing his face.

“Hi...” came the voice from inside the suit, it seemed very quiet, like it was afraid of something, “I heard you like to take care of animals...”

“It’s... It’s my special talent...”

“Could you... um... tell me more about it? If that wouldn't be a problem...”

She was surprised by the question, assuming whatever was inside that suit to be hard and cold as the suit itself, but as she talked to it, she warmed up to it- him. She started to understand that inside the menacing suit there was a warm, kind, and friendly heart.

All of the discussion and noise was silenced by a knock on the door. Peaceful Pride stood up and opened it. It revealed a black haired young man who wore a green flight suit, with markings of the Raingear Royal Air Force. Baggy black fight pants covered his legs, and tan leather boots were upon his feet.

“Oh, hello Whirlwind, we must’ve forgot you in our headcount...” Pride allowed the pilot to enter.

“It’s fine, Nexus always misses someone. Last time it was you,” He chuckled, and then fell silent when he saw everyone in the living room. He turned to Pride.

“Oi! Nexus having a house party or something?”