Red and Black 2

The distant sounds of mortar shelling and the subsequent trembles through the earth were perceived by everypony in camp. Patient was more on edge than ever. The coffee didn't help, and the overcast made the whole situation even more dreary. There had been a raid last night in one of the nearby encampments. A few zebras had carved a swathe through sleeping pony soldiers, killing maybe twenty or twenty five, or so Patient had heard.

Shivering, the nurse stomped through the packed snow and into the main field hospital. It was an old, dark green tent with flap-covered windows. Empty crates of medical supplies were stacked neatly to one side of the hospital, collecting snow. The camp itself was nearly barren, with a few sentries standing guard as the rest of the soldiers were out in the trenches, getting torn to pieces. Most of the other tents in the camp were depressed with snow, and sparsely populated. Once inside, and in the heat from a few dozen oil lamps, he sighed, took off his coat, hanging it on a nail driven into one of the support posts. He checked in with his commanding officer, the only on-site doctor, and started working. Internally, he was happy to be posted during the daytime, at least for now.

The tent itself wasn't very big, about thirty feet in length, and about twenty in width. Good enough for immediate care, but not so good for those who needed long-term recovery. Along the length of the tent were several cots, each separated from one another by a fabric divider, which served to give the patients privacy and to keep infections from spreading. Half of the cots were empty.

Patient noticed that the only other on-site nurse, a mint green mare with a lyre cutie mark, was already brightening up the day of a private first class who lost his back legs by changing his bandages.

"Thanks, Lyra. It just feels so much cleaner down there, you know?" the private croaked with a warm smile of relief.

"Anytime. That's what I'm here for," she smiled back. "I'll be back in a second with your breakfast."

Lyra turned to walk to the mess hall before she noticed Patient. "Morning, sunshine!"

"Mornin'." Patient attempted a half-smile.

"You're not your usual peppy self. What's wrong?" Lyra asked, somewhat sarcastically.

"Kinda startled, is all. Just thinkin' about that raid from last night." He shook his head. "It's neither here nor there."

Lyra paused for a moment before looking to the doctor, who had his face buried in paperwork.

"We haven't had a shipment for a week. I just used up the last of the clean bandages! We've gotta resort to using rags and alcohol at this point!" She whispered worriedly. "I already told the doctor about it, and he said he put in the requisition a few days ago, but it never takes them this long to deliver!"

Patient shook his head. "Of course, not like Doc Ivory's gonna go and actually demand that we get what we need. He'll just politely ask once, and never again."

"Just get to work, staff sergeant." The doctor, Ivory Spirit, pipes up, not shifting his gaze from the paperwork.

Patient breathes silently through his nose. "Yes sir."

*********

"How does that feel, Distrance?" Patient asked as he applied the last remaining aloe gel to the burns of a pony caught in a grenade blast.

The poor unicorn's body was rife with bandages, stitches, and burns. The nurse recalled Dr. Ivory spending over four hours pulling out all of the bits of shrapnel in the unicorn's chest and stomach; not one piece made it to his heart, miraculously. Patient guessed the Gods were smiling upon the stallion that day.

"Muuuch better..." Distrance spoke as his angry red burns were soothed. His Trottingham accent was crisp, as he enunciated his words very clearly.

"Honestly, corporal, I know you've heard this a million times from the doctor and Lyra, but you're one lucky motherfucker, I'll tell you that." Patient grinned toothily at the brown stallion.

"I'm just surprised how I managed to survive as much as I did!" Distrance smirked and chuckled.

"I heard you fended off a hundred guys from one of the sentries. That right?" Patient asked as he finished applying the aloe.

"Not only that, but I did it with my loader dead." He corrected. "And I lead the counter attack!"

"You Maxim gunners are a piece of work," the nurse snorted. "I bet you couldn't hit shit with a flintlock rifle back in basic so they stuck you with that thing, eh?"

"Eat shit." Distrance punched Patient on the shoulder and the two laughed.

Lyra suddenly walked into view. "Your attention is needed, my good sir." the brown unicorn pointed to Lyra.

"We got a new one," she stated calmly, like she does whenever there's an emergency.

"Who?" Patient shot up and turned around.

"Officer. Stabbed with a bayonet." She briskly walked to the cot nearest the tent entrance.

Patient followed to see the officer in question being placed on to the cot by a pair of soldiers, who quickly trotted off after setting him down. The officer was an orange pegasus with broken wings and a bayonet plunged into his gut. His jacket and trousers were all stained with blood. Dr. Ivory was already busy pulling off the officer's clothing and applying some antiseptic to the grisly wound.

"Lyra, I.V.; Patient, info." Like that, Lyra cantered off to bring an IV bag and sterile needle while Patient picked up a clipboard and pen with magic to take down some information.

The officer was still awake, as his eyes trailed the doctor's and nurse's movements. Patient pulled the dog tags from the officer's neck and attached them to the clipboard.

"What's your name, sir?" Patient asked.

He already knew that. He was looking at his tags. He was only asking to keep the poor stallion awake and responsive for now.

"Sapphire Metal..." a weak voice croaked from the throat of the pegasus with a Trottingham accent.

"Rank, sir?"

"Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir. Blood type?"

"My blood type? I don't...fuckin' know, kid."

Patient nodded. "Understood, sir." He jotted the information down from his tags. "A negative."

"Where are you from?" The doctor asked.

"Derbyshire...th-the Sals'bry side of town..." the officer replied weakly.

"Figured as much. I recognized the accent." Dr. Ivory attempted a smile on his light grey face.

"That maxim gunner's from around that area too. Once we get you better, you be sure to talk to him." Lyra chimed in as she returned with a clear bag of saline fluid and a hypodermic needle.

"I hate needles..." Lieutenant Metal rolled his eyes and gulped before offering his hoof to Lyra.

"Alright, we're gonna put you under. You won't feel a thing and we'll get that knife outta you in no time, okay?" Patient assured the officer as he levitated a tank of general anesthesia and a cleaned face-piece over to the lieutenant's side.

The pegasus said nothing and closed his eyes in relief as he quickly lost consciousness. Seconds later, Patient removed the mask and walked out of the officer's "room"; only Lyra and Ivory were trained in surgery, so he simply returned to his other duties.

Within a few minutes of going over patient records, the nurse's ears perk up to an exasperated Dr. Ivory.

"This knife is serrated!"

"What in Celestia's name!?" Lyra responds, just as shocked as the doctor.

Patient nearly dropped his clipboard as he walked slowly over to the flap to the officer's cot. Through the little slit he'd given himself, he noticed blood. A lot of it. All over Lyra and Ivory as they attempted to remove the tissue from the officer's knife wound.

The yellow unicorn reeled back slightly and shivered before returning to the front of the tent where a small desk sat right before the main entrance flap. He sat down at the worn, wooden table and fiddled around with the lock on the pharmaceutical chest underneath, as he knew that noon chow-time was coming soon and some of the men would need their medication.

*********

An hour passed before anything happened. Patient could hear Lyra and Ivory mumbling things to one another whilst they performed on the officer. During that time, the nurse made his usual rounds, checking up on everypony, changing bedpans, chatting with them a little, just making them feel more comfortable.

As of now, Patient waited at the table, filling out recovery information, and just waiting. He was very good at what his first name describes.

He was almost about to doze off before a familiar snout poked its way through the tent flap.

"...Garnet?" Patient asked as the face he saw poking through the flap just stood there, motionless.

"You here for your meds, gunny?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Before he could react, the head of the red earth pony flew at him and smashed right into his cranium, knocking him out cold.

*********

Patient was unconscious for Gods know how long. When his consciousness finally seeped back into him, he jerked awake to the sound of shrieks of fear.

His eyes shot open as he quickly peered around the tent. The place was a mess; tables overturned, papers strewn everywhere, the blood--the blood.

Blood was all over the walls and flaps in each of the patient cots, all but 2 of the occupied ones held the dismembered corpses of their former occupants. The severed head of one of the camp sentries, gunnery sergeant Garnet, rolled about the floor next to him. The world sped up once again, and he could hear another scream of terror. Jumping to his hooves, Patient looked around to find the tent flap of the surgery open.

Inside was a Zebra. He was soaked head to hoof in blood, and in his mouth was a shotel. The headless corpse of Dr. Ivory rolled about on the floor before him, his black mane doused in blood and his light blue eyes glazed over. The dismembered corpse of the orange pegasus officer was lying on the table, with fresh wounds spouting torrents of blood. Lyra was curled up in the corner, as she had been taken off-guard by the surprise attack and had no weapon on her.

Patient's world went into slow-motion again as his eyes flashed to an electronic bone saw that was sitting on the medical tool tray; the saw was a circular blade spinning like a plate on a motorized handle. His eyes flashed back to the bloodsoaked Lyra, who looked him with the utmost horror.

The nurse used magic to pick up the bone saw and pull it towards him, turning it on. The zebra spun around and stared at him; blood red eyes fixated on the nurse before him. Several gold teeth clung to the Abyssinian sword carried in his mouth.

The next thing the zebra knew, however, was the searing agony of the bone saw blade digging into his neck. As the blade spun, it shredded the muscle and skin, spraying it on the already bloodied wall flap. Patient suddenly found a pit of anger he didn't know existed within him, and all he cared about was to make the remainder of this zebra's life as painful and traumatizing as possible.

The zebra stumbled back and fell to the floor. With that, Patient hopped atop the now dying enemy soldier and jammed the saw into his open, choking mouth, using his hooves to close the muzzle down as the blade sawed through the bone on both the upper and lower jaw. The gargling zebra's muzzle-less face spurted blood at Patient, who began slamming his hind hooves down on his head, shattering the skull.

Through Patient's roars of fury and violent plunges on the zebra's face, Lyra's pleads for him to stop as well as the concerned shouts of another pony could be heard. Once Patient had finally calmed down, he stepped back and looked at the zebra; his head was a red mush piled up at the cleanly sliced neck.

"Patient stop, he's dead!!" Lyra hoarsely cried, panting.

"What's going on!?" Distrance could be heard at the other end of the tent.

Just like that, several sentries burst into the field hospital, wielding flintlock rifles and bayonets with magic and wings. Patient stumbled back and tumbled over his knocked over chair and looked back at the other patient cots. The realization hit him.

These ponies, his comrades, his brothers. They were all just cut down in their moment of weakness, when they were at their most vulnerable. He cared for them since they had arrived, and they were all on their way to a full recovery! Now, they're on their way to the afterlife.

Patient began breathing heavily and scooted back a bit, trying to keep it together. Two of the sentries lowered their weapons and proceeded to help the nurse back up to his feet whilst two more walked over to Lyra to help her, one sentry ran off to radio-in for backup, and another one, a medic, tended to Distrance, the last surviving patient.