Philosopher of Earth

+++ The Apple Family Orchard, Dusk, with the Xeno +++

I had spent the last few hours collecting useful materials around the orchard. I didn't know what I needed them for just yet... But it was something to do. I was making my way back to the shack when I heard voices. I quickly hid behind a tree, rustling a bush would've been a dead give away. I saw a multitude of light beams through the trees. I couldn't count how many there were, but if I had to guess I would say at least four or five. Shit, looks like I settled in one place for too long… But I didn't have time for coulda-shoulda-woulda thoughts so I pushed them away. I mentally mapped out where I thought the sources of light were coming from, kind of like a submarines sonar. Those lights could also hide their numbers, so I started to expect more than four or five unicorns. One of their lights must of glinted off my glasses as suddenly one of them yelled

"Over there!" Shit, time to scatter. I ducked as a bolt of magic burned over my head. That hadn't come from the lights, that meant my revised original estimate was wrong, and that I was possibly surrounded. I lay prone and started to crawl under the brush.

"Where'd it go?!" a pony yelled. Good, off the radar for a small amount of time. I crawled about ten meters before I stood up behind a tree again, certain from the sounds of crunching and yelling that all my pursuers had only flanked me on one side. But I still might have to worry about pegasi, I kept a sharp eye on the sky. Ten meters wasn't a very long distance, that meant my hunters were still on top of me, albeit not aware of my shift. I pulled a rock out of my bag and threw it off to my left.

"Over there!" one of them yelled, falling for the bait. I then crouched and snuck the opposite way. Unfortunately my ruse hadn't fooled them all, as the whoosh directly over my head told me otherwise. I landed face first into the dirt. Ow. I was right, pegasi were in the area. I quickly got up and sprinted away, forgetting stealth for the moment. A fast moving target through the trees would be hard to hit for both unicorn and pegasus, potentially dangerous for the latter as they could hit a tree. All I had to do was concentrate on the surrounding trees, and not hit them myself. Blasts of energy whizzed nearby, I was saved by a tree on more than one occasion. Several bursts of air near my head told me that the pegasi were homing in, so I did an unexpected thing and turned into a group of tightly packed trees. I thought I heard two of them collide in mid air behind me. But my mind was instantly submerged back into the situation as renewed blasts of magic started burning the air around me. It was dark by this time, and the energy cast zipping over head shed an eerie light over the surrounding trees.

That was when I unexpectedly ran into one of them. The unicorn, I could tell by the horn that almost stabbed me, most likely was going to surprise me by blasting me from straight ahead. Very clever, I was busy dodging side blasts, so a straight on attack would've got me. But the unicorn underestimated the speed that I was moving at and jumped out too late to shoot. We went down tangled together. I gathered my surprise up first, was untangled, and was once again jumping through the orchard before the unicorn was up. It charged me, I couldn't outrun an equine in a straight run... It was impossible for a human to do so. What I could do, however, was use my two feet to turn faster than a pony. So I began to juke left and right, to throw off the direction I would turn in. Somehow the energy blasts stopped, from not wanting to hit one of their own, or lost us in the trees I didn't know. The whooshing overhead also stopped, so maybe I had lost most of them, besides the one right on my tail... I dived suddenly to the right. The unicorn didn't expect that at all, it tried to turn with me, but momentum kept it going forwards and it somersaulted. All I heard however was a bone shattering crack and a scream of pain. I got off the ground. The unicorn, she, had landed face first in her somersault and her front right leg had broken when her hoof it the ground. It was bad, I could see the bone sticking out of the skin. The moon was high and bright enough for me to.

Dammit, it was the downed pegasus all over again. Her pals were nearby... Supposedly... I couldn't hear them any more... Fuck me. And her leg was now bleeding profusely. I had no choice. I knelt by her side.

"Don't move, this will hurt a lot..." I said. She looked ready to reply, but I had grabbed her hoof and straightened her broken leg. She screamed in pain. Next, I had to stop the bleeding, I put my body weight on the tear, trying to force it to scab over and close, I didn't have any bandages...

"Fuck..." I whispered, I took off my sweater, my favorite, lucky sweater, and put it over the wound. The unicorn moaned. I looked around, something to bind and splint the leg would be nice.The only things I could see and/or think of were in the bag I had just thrown off. Dammit. I kept the pressure on the wound, still looking around. Anything would've helped a little... But she had chosen the most inconvenient spot to break her leg. That was when I was suddenly blinded by a bright beam of light in my eyes.

"Get off her!" some one yelled. I was instantly grabbed from behind and yanked away from the wounded mare.

"AAAH!" I shouted in surprise. "I'm trying to save her!" I yelled. I heard voices murmuring behind me.

"Let it try." said a familiar voice that I couldn't place. I was let go and I immediately started putting pressure on the leg, making sure that the leg was laying flat so I didn't knock the bone out of alignment.

"In my bag, get a sturdy stick and gather some long grass from nearby." I ordered. I was too busy to realize that they were murmuring behind me.

"Do it." said the same commanding voice. Someone handed me a stick, I used it to brace the unicorns leg. Grass started to appear before me and I wrapped it around the stick and my sweater and started tying it, making extra sure it was as tight as possible.

"Someone get the paramedics!" I cried. The ponies behind me sounded confused. "The ones who respond to emergency situations such as this!" I elaborated. I kept my hands pressing on the supported wound. I heard a flutter of wings that vanished into the night. I kept the pressure on the wound for who knows how long. Then this world's equivalent of paramedics suddenly arrived and took the unicorn away to the hospital. I laid on the ground, exhausted. It wasn't until later that I realized I blacked out.