Chapter two: Wounds

       Snow is usually a gentle and beautiful thing when it falls. However, this was not the case for Coal Dust. The light and clean flakes made it difficult to see, and they stung his face with cold as they landed on him. With a wounded earth pony draped over his shoulders, flying was not such an easy task. Landscape was as if on a conveyor belt beneath them, appearing in front and disappearing behind. Now that they had lost their pursuers, Coal Dust and Gust descended to the ground to rest for a moment.

Coal dust gradually took it down, coming in at a very slight angle so as to be gentle to his passenger. His hooves cut through the snow before hitting the ground with a thud. He hit the ground running, slowing himself to a walk gradually.

"Gust, I'm going to get you down now," he said softly. Coal Dust crouched down until Gust's feet could touch the ground. Gust gritted his teeth as Coal Dust slid out from underneath him and lay over on his side.

Coal Dust shook the snow from himself and folded his wings. He immediately came over to Gust's side.

       "How are you?" Coal Dust asked.

       "Oh, I've had better days," Gust said with a weak laugh. His eyes were slightly glazed over and his face was pale.

       "I'm certain of that," Coal Dust said with a small smile. "Here, let me see the hit."

       "Don't worry, I'm fine," Gust said quietly.

"I wasn't asking, kid."

"Yes sir," Gust sighed. His breaths were fast and shallow.

       "Never mind the sir. We don't need to be formal at a time like this." He looked at the wound. "Oh no..."

       "How is it?" Gust asked through gritted teeth.

       Coal Dust was speechless. The beam had hit just behind the left shoulder. When the beam struck, it blew a large part of Gust's side away, leaving a sizeable chunk of him missing. The heat from the beam had cauterized much of the area affected, so blood was only oozing slowly from a few areas. In addition, the beam had left a puncture akin to a gunshot that continued on deeper.

       Coal Dust's eyes were wide. Fear filled his expression. Gust could tell from looking at the Pegasus that he was frightened by the hit. The pain also clued him in to how dire the situation was. Every snowflake that fell into the gash felt like a kick to the ribs with a red hot boot.

Coal Dust turned away and opened his saddle bag. After a small bit of rummaging through it, he pulled out a first aid kit. He set the kit down on the snow and opened it up. He grabbed a large gauze pad and a roll of medical wrap.

"Let's get you on your hooves," Coal Dust said. He grabbed Gust's hoof and helped him shakily get upright. It took some time to get Gust up, as he was barely able to stand without support. Once Gust was standing, Coal Dust went back over and retrieved the gauze and wrap. He unwrapped the gauze quickly. "This is gonna sting." he muttered as he lightly pressed the gauze into the hit.

Gust could not contain a scream due to the horrible pain. His eyes watered as he steeled himself for any more pain to come. Coal Dust laid the wrap over his back and started unrolling it around Gust's midsection. The roll only made it around Gust's torso four times before it ran out, but it would have to make do until they returned to the Empire.

Gust shut his eyes hard trying not to think about his injuries. He felt very dizzy, and Coal Dust's voice sounded far off.

"Let's get moving," Coal Dust said as he put the first aid kit back into the saddlebag. He gently crouched underneath Gust and lifted him onto his shoulders. The black Pegasus spread his wings again.

         Coal Dust looked back over his shoulder, checking that his wings were ready to go and that Gust was positioned so that he would not slip.

       "Coal Dust?" said a weak voice. Coal Dust turned. Gust smiled and said, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it, kid."

Coal Dust started a walk which gave way to a trot. He slowly sped to a gallop, flapping his wings. He lifted off slowly, taking care to adjust for a passenger. His wings struggled, but slowly caught up and built the momentum needed to stay aloft. The snowflakes once again bounced off of Coal Dust's face, stinging as they collided with him. He found a wind current which allowed him to relax his flapping and just coast for awhile.

The two flew in silence. Gust focused on breathing. "Even the simplest and most mundane things are difficult when you're hurt," he thought to himself. Every wing beat jolted him slightly, aggravating the wound. Gust continually passed in and out of consciousness over the next forty-five minutes of flight.

Coal Dust's wings burned. His muscles were pushed to the limit. Once while Gust was passed out, he stopped for a moment to rest. His mind buzzed with the same message:Keep flapping. The only way to keep himself on track was to follow the hoofprints his team had left below only an hour or so before. The tracks meandered up and down the terrain, occasionally splitting off where the group had gone off to search other areas. The snow had lightened, just a light flurry now.

Keep flapping. The cold air stung at his eyes, and the injured stallion on his back made flight vastly more difficult. Coal Dust looked down, noticing that the tracks were becoming harder to see. New snowfall was starting to cover them up. He put on an extra burst of speed, trying to get back before the tracks below were erased.

Keep flapping. Harder. He gritted his teeth and focused all of his energy on flight. The tracks were almost invisible now, just small imprints in the snow pack. Fear gripped at Coal Dust. What if we get lost out here? What will happen to Gust if he doesn't get to a hospital? He shook the thoughts from his head, again focusing on keeping his wings beating.

       Coal Dust noticed a faint white glow off to his left side. His eyes lit up, and he immediately turned toward the glow. His heart raced. Almost there! Gust stirred on his back, groaning quietly. He ached all over, but did not stop. His wings felt like they were on fire. His face was numb from the bitter cold.

   "We're almost there! Gust, we made it!" shouted Coal Dust with glee. Gust was silent. Coal Dust looked over his shoulder, noting that Gust was quite pale. He turned to the growing light and pushed his already exhausted wings even harder. The top of the Crystal Castle was now visible over the horizon. The castle grew up on the horizon, eventually revealing the beautiful city that rested at its base.

       The sleeping empire shone brightly at night even as the Crystal ponies slept. The Castle stood out as a beacon to lead Coal Dust in to warmth and safety.

As he approached, he slowed his pace. Coal Dust began his descent. He used the same strategy of coming in at a very slight angle to keep his landing smooth. He touched down on the road that ran under the gates. He slowed and stopped just under the floating crystal arch.

       "WHO GOES THERE?"  A guard was running towards them, weapon drawn. He looked as though he would kill without a second thought. When he came close enough to recognize the captain of his unit, he quickly sheathed his sword. "Lieutenant! What happened?" He asked as he noticed the wounded soldier.

       "I don't have time to explain. I need you to do something for me. Go to the castle and find a way to get Sombra down to the hospital. I need to see him there." Coal Dust started trotting down the road. "Time is of the essence. Go now! Hurry!" He yelled over his shoulder. The guard watched him run down the road and slowly grow smaller before disappearing around a corner. A small trail of dripping blood lay behind where he had just run.

       The street lights whizzed by, the light growing and shrinking as each one went by and the next one came up. He ran as fast as his legs would allow while keeping Gust steady. The hospital came into sight, being somewhat taller than many of the other buildings in the Empire. He did not break stride as he came up to the front doors.

         Coal Dust burst through the door to the emergency room. It wasn't a very big room, a few chairs sat on one side, all vacant at the moment. The reception desk sat across from the chairs, decorated with a potted plant. Two nurses were seated at the desk, busily sorting through paperwork. A doctor stood behind them, also handling paperwork, probably patient's charts,over a filing cabinet. He turned when the bell over the door rang. The doctor's eyes widened when he saw thr pale, limp, lifeless form draped over a black Pegasus' shoulders.

       He tapped the nurses on the side, "Bucky, go get room three ready, hurry." Remaining calm,he turned to Coal Dust and asked, "What happened?"

       "Long story. He's in really bad shape." said Coal Dust. "He lost a lot of blood on the way over here."

       "Okay, follow me." The doctor dropped his paperwork and came out from the desk. He turned down the hallway on the side of the desk. Coal Dust followed. They walked around a corner and into a small room with a stretcher and several pieces of medical equipment in a corner.

       "Lay him on the stretcher." Coal Dust gingerly set Gust onto the table, shrugging his shoulder and laying the wounded stallion on the stretcher the rest of the way. An immense sense of relief flooded through Coal Dust's body as the weight he had bore for so long was finally lifted. He sat down where he was and took a deep breath while the doctor unwrapped the wound. He pulled the soaked gauze pad out of the hole and immediately went to work disinfecting the site.

       "NURSE! NOTIFY THE O.R. THAT WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY CASE COMING IN!" he turned to Coal Dust. "Sir, I'll have a nurse take you back to an exam room and patch you up. We need room to work here, so I apologize if I sound pushy, but we can't waste any time. This stallion is in much worse shape than I thought."

       "What? I didn't get injured," Coal Dust stammered.

       "Look at your hind leg. You need to have that treated," the doctor said somewhat impatiently.

       Coal Dust looked at his hind leg and there was indeed a fairly deep laceration there. He hadn't even noticed.

       "As for those other cuts and scrapes, I don't think they will be a problem." A small tan unicorn mare with a tidy red mane walked in.

       "You needed me, doctor?"

       "Yes, Rose. I need you to take this stallion back to an exam room for treatment. Just some minor cuts and scrapes."

       "Sure." Rose turned to Coal Dust. "Sir, would you come with me please?" She started out the door. Coal Dust followed suit. As they exited, two more assistants wearing paper masks came galloping down the hall. They went straight into the room and rushed around the stretcher. Coal Dust watched over his shoulder as Gust was wheeled out of the room and down another hallway.

       "What's your name?" She asked.

       "Coal Dust."

       "That's an interesting one. I don't think I've ever heard of somepony named Coal Dust before!" She smiled, but could tell that he wasn't in any place to do the same.

       "Yeah," He said glumly. His eyes were laden with heavy bags, and his legs felt like they had weights attached to them.

       "You sure aren't much of a talker, are you?"

       "Yeah." He was barely listening to her.

They turned down another hallway and went into a small room. An exam table sat on the far side of the room, and a row of cabinets made up a counter with a sink on one end. Various medical supplies lay on top of the counter.

       "Just hop up on the table and and ill be right with you," She said as she dug around one of the cabinets.

       Coal Dust climbed up on the table, feeling the paper on the table crinkle and crunch beneath him. She walked over to the table with a few alcohol swabs and several adhesive bandages.

       "So, how did all this happen?" She asked.

       "I'm not at liberty to discuss it."

"Fair enough. This may sting a little," she said as she swabbed an alcohol patch over a scrape on his foreleg. "Turn around so I can see your back, please." He obeyed. Rose did not seem like one to put up with nonsense, he thought. "Okay, do you mind if I ask what you did to your wings?"

"What?" he asked as he tried to turn and  look at his back.

"Your wings aren't closing right. It looks like you pulled a few muscles."

Only once she said that did Coal Dust realize what kind of strain he had put on his wings. Pain slowly started creeping in, starting at the base of his wings and slowly radiating out through the rest of his body.

"Okay, let's see that cut on your leg." He turned over and presented his hind leg. "Dear Celestia, you sure had one heck of a night.!" She went back to the cabinet, went through a few things and retrieved a needle and thread.

Coal Dust felt butterflies form in his stomach. Ever since he could remember, needles had been something that could make even a brave stallion like himself unnerved. His eyes darted back and forth between the needle and a medical diagram on the wall.

'Okay, lie still." Rose filled a syringe with a clear liquid.

"What's that gonna do?" he asked nervously.

"This is gonna numb that cut so I can stich it up without you going through the roof," Rose said wryly. "Be still." She injected the numbing agent. "Okay, let that set for a minute and I'll get to work on it."

He relaxed a bit. She brought the needle and thread up with her horn, and he instantly tensed up again. To try to take his mind off of the stitching going on, he turned to the diagram on the wall and tried to read it. He got about halfway through the chart before he heard "All done!" behind him.

"Hop down off of that table, I'll take your vitals and then we can go back to the waiting room." She performed all of the standard procedure to take one's vital signs in what must have been a record time. It was barely a minute later when they exited the room and turned left down the hallway. They turned by the room Gust had just been in and went out into the reception area. They passed through another set of doors that led to the waiting room.

The waiting room was a fair sized one, a good bit larger than the reception area. The walls were all lined with chairs and benches. Coal Dust eyes the benches hungrily.

"You look like you've been beaten, Coal Dust. I think you should go lie down over there on a bench and get some rest. I'll come and get you when he gets out of surgery."

"Thank you," He replied. He trotted over to one of the benches, climbing onto it as though he hadn't slept in a week. Rose chuckled to herself and walked back out of the waiting room. He felt like he had been hit by a train. His wings were dreadfully sore, his legs were ready to give out, and his head throbbed like it had been hit by a hammer. Even through all of this soreness, he almost instantly fell asleep.