I awoke to some kind of pressure on my chest. Opening my eyes to blurry vision, I moved my head to see whom I could only assume was Boomstick resting his hand on me.

"Uhg." I blurted. I tried to come up with something witty, but my head and body awoke along with me and threw everything into disarray. My head plopped back down onto some kind of padding as I noticed the rest of me wasn't on the grass.

His hand quickly left my chest, thankfully relieving the pressure. I assumed he was trying to grope me, but another look revealed bandages all along my midsection.

"You alright?" I heard a distorted voice ask. It was like he was underwater for some reason.

"Ehh?"

"Leave 'er alone, mate. She just woke up." I heard Tenna ask Boomstick. I rolled my head towards Tenna's voice, causing more pain for me in the process. "Easy there, Miss Unicorn."

"Why..." I asked, trying to move my arms to shield my eyes from the mid-day sun.

"Ah, no moving." He insisted, pulling my arm gently to rest atop of my chest. "Boomstick, go get a hat or something for 'er."

"Right." he agreed, walking off somewhere out of sight. I was laying out in the open in a forest clearing on some kind of makeshift bed. This would be a terrible spot if we were to get ambushed.

"How are you feelin'?" Tenna asked at my side.

"Auu." I complained.

"You don't speak much, do ya?"

"Hurts." I replied simply. Speaking took effort, and soreness was sapping all of my strength.

"I'll bet it does. Enchanted arrows, sticker bushes, lake water, and getting shot by Boomstick to top it off. Rough day?"

I nodded as much as I was able.

"Well, I'll let you in on'na secret. Boomstick over there has the hots for you, and his idiot self decided to shoot you like some wild animal and capture you. I thought our dear ol' dad raised us better'n that, and set him straight. If he makes any moves on you, he'll learn right quick how bad an idea that is." He vowed, pointing to his chest with a smile. "Trust me on it."

This didn't make a bit of sense. Why shoot me, pour some kind of burning liquid on me and punch me, then try to save me? "Why?" I asked.

"Why what?" He asked, confused.

"Why are you helping me?" I clairified.

He raised his eyebrows. "So, you can speak in full sentences!" He joked. My pained expression put a damp on his spirits though. "Right... well, lets say that we were raised to not be complete arseholes to ponies that don't deserve it. My brother seems to have forgotten that tidbit of information, leaving you in our 'care'."

I rolled my shoulder a bit, only for it to erupt in a fire of pain. "Aagh. Some care." I lazily jabbed.

"Well if you'd stop moving, it wouldn't hurt so much, would it?" he retorted.

I heard rustling of leaves, announcing the return of Boomstick. "I found 'er this boonie hat thing." He said, offering some large disc shaped headwear to Tenna.

"Sure mate. This'll do." Tenna replied, taking the hat and resting it on my head. It covered my horn and most of my face, giving me only a view of my bandage covered body and the surrounding grass. "Better?"

"Eh." I muttered.

"I'll take that as a 'yes', then." I heard Tenna stand and walk off towards his brother to talk. They were trying to be quiet, but I think all of their habitual shouting and loud walls of pain made hearing one of their weaknesses.

"You sure you wanna do this?" Boomstick began.

"Do what?"

"Take care o' some tribal?"

"It was your idiot libido that got us in this mess!" Tenna snapped quietly.

"I'm just sayin' we could leave 'er here."

"If you say somethin' like that again, I'm gonna make your anesthetic permanent, you wanker."

"Jeez, why so defensive of the miss?"

"Well for one, she's taken up half our medical supplies. For second, you bloody shot her for no reason. For third, She didn't even do anything to harm us, and we made her condition even worse 'cause o' you. We're morally obligated to nurse her back to health, an' I wont hear anythin' else."

"Morally obligated to suck my--"

*Thwack*

"Ow! You complete cu-"

*Thwack*

"Ah'right, fine! I'll shut--"

*Thwack*

"Would you fockin' stop?!"

"Get that weasly little maggot of being an arsehole out of your system right quick, mate!" Tenna scolded loudly. "So help me, you even think about abandoning another pony we could'a helped--"

"We both agreed never ta talk about that!"

"Well we need to talk about it!"

I was content to simply rest. Any attempt to move or get a better view of what was going on only gave me more spikes of pain, so laying still was the order of the day. I wasn't going to be going anywhere anytime soon unless...

I checked my chest, finding my belts and pouches had been removed. How did it take me so long to notice they were gone? I lifted my hat painfully to look around, finding what little I wore that amounted as clothing laying in a neat pile nearby. I scanned the pile, and saw the two potions that I kept on hand. Perfect.

I looked towards the arguing brothers, deciding to use my magic concealed by my new hat in order to retrieve the potions while they were distracted. Telekinesis wasn't that hard of a spell under normal circumstances, but with my entire body in pain it was an exercise and a half to just pry it from the holding loop. When my magic activated however, I heard a rapid series of clicking noises coming from Tenna and Boomstick.

"Oi!" Tenna shouted, rounding on me quickly. "What'd I tell you about usin' magic, huh?" he asked, smacking the hat from my head and flicking my sensitive horn.

"Aauu!" I complained, trying to move my bandaged arms in vain to nurse my body's newest complaint.

"No! Magic!" he insisted, jabbing a finger into my chest for emphasis.

"Fine!"

"What were you even doin'?" Boomstick asked. His pain thing was held in his hands, a strap around his shoulders letting it hang loosely.

I did my best to point towards the potion vials with my hand. "Potions, for healing."

Both of their eyes narrowed at me with a look of disbelief. "Right. 'Healin'' potions." Tenna scoffed, standing to full height. "What, you gonna poison us?"

I shook my head a bit too fast, hurting myself. "Nn-aau!"

Boomstick snickered at my expense, earning him a backhand to the chest from Tenna.

"Hey, If she wants her potion of 'healing', why not give it to her?" Boomstick reasoned.

"Because we barely know this mare, her tribe, and she has no reason to trust us aside from bandages and promises?" Tenna countered.

Boomstick sighed. "Fine, Tenna. You win." He then looked to me, patting his device thing hanging from his shoulder. "No potions, you get it?"

I carefully nodded my head.

"Good." They both said, walking away out of earshot but keeping an eye on me this time. Their conversation of hushed whispers continued, just as loudly as before.

"What are we gonna do wit' her?" Boomstick asked.

"I told you already, you git. We're gonna fix her." Tenna grumpily replied.

"I mean after that. We just gonna release her like a dog or somethin'?"

"She might not have the sharpest grasp on technology like us, but that doesn't make her a dog, you prick."

"I didn' mean it like that!"

"A'course you didn't." Tenna grumbled. "You just speak without thinkin' is what you do."

"Would you lay off for once?"

"Temporary truce. Next time you do somethin' stupid, you're fair game again."

"Grrr... fine."

The two of them then walked over towards myself, Tenna crouching next to me and Boomstick keeping a watch, I assume. Hopefully he wasn't spending his time staring at my now semi-naked body and actually ensuring nopony snuck up on us.

"So, about this 'potion' you're so interested in." He fell backwards, sitting hard on the ground and leaned towards my belts, bringing them closer to me. Potions included. He took the knives out, though. "What's so fancy about it?" he asked, sliding one of them from their holder and presenting it facing upwards to me between his fingers.

"Healing potion." I said simply.

He sighed. "Yea, you said that. How does it work?"

I looked at him blankly. What, am I supposed to be a healer? I don't know how it works, it just does! "I... um..." I nervously smiled as best as I could, which amounted to a small crack in my lips. "It just... does?"

His hand dropped, still holding the potion in his fingers as his other hand covered his face. "Of course it 'just works'." He moaned in annoyance. "I wish everythin' we came up with, 'just worked'."

"I can show you..." I offered nervously. I was still wary of annoying them, because at any point they could decide to kill me. I had overheard Tenna's desire to care for me, but with Boomstick I couldn't be so certain. He was the one with the wall of pain, after all. "I mean I'm hurt, it's a healing potion..."

"Sure. One sec'." Tenna replied skeptically, standing up and motioning his brother to him.

"She does anything that looks aggressive or violent, you blast her right in the chest. Got it?"

"Oh, not feelin' merciful now, are we?" Boomstick retorted.

"Just fokin' do it, you sod." Tenna shot back, dragging his brother with him by the sound of it.

The two rejoined me, and he handed me a potion. "No funny stuff, yeah?"

I looked at the potion, and at my bandaged arms, before giving him a look of need. "A little help?"

He kneeled down next to my arm, opened the potion vial and held it to my lips. "I swear, if this makes you into some kinda' raging wilda-beast, I'm not gonna help anypony ever again."

I stuck my neck out to meet the lip of the vial, and he slowly poured it into my mouth. When the vial had completely emptied, he set it down on the makeshift bed next to me. "Well... now what?" He asked.

"Can you remove a bandage on my arm?"

"Eh, you sure about that?"

"I'm sure."

"Alright. You get infected, it's on you." He conceded, carefully undoing various pins that held my bandages in place and carefully unraveled it. I was able to move my arm more freely now, and rested it across my chest for a better look.

"Now we wait for a moment, and it should work."

"This'll be good." Boomstick commented. "Magic potions of healing from a unicorn, fanciful."

"What, are you really gonna knock magic right now?" Tenna asked with annoyance.

"What's magic ever done that my gun or some other piece o' tech couldn't?"

"Apparently it heals better n' your gun does."

"A gun ain't for healin'!"

"Remind yerself of that when you shoot another unarmed mare for no reason!"

"She handled it!"

"Oooh, she handled it alright. You're lucky she don't have the strength to kill the both of us with a lightning bolt or somethin' right now, you idiot!"

"Hey, it's working." I commented into their exchange in an attempt to stop the endless bickering between them. It thankfully worked, as both of them looked down to my arm and saw the flesh mending itself back together like a thousand knitters with thread of muscle and fur.

"Well... I'll be damned." Boomstick said with awe.

"You got more o' those?" Tenna asked me.

"Just one. The others are limited, and kept with my tribe's healers."

His eyes narrowed at me. "So what's that make you, then?"

"I'm a forager and scavenger... I'm not allowed to use magic, and there were no other roles needed in the tribe."

"Why can't ya use magic? You no good at it?" Boomstick asked, leaning on a tree and scanning around for anypony trying to sneak up on us.

"I'm... decent with magic. The problem is that our home is flammable and... doesn't go well with fire." He smiled nervously.

"Jeez, now I'm really glad we have magi-tectors." he replied, subconsciously fiddling with his 'gun' as he called it.

"What?" I asked.

Tenna held up a small metal square with thin pillars sticking from it that he pulled from his waist belt. "One o' these. It detects active magic in a small radius around the user. Usually carry em when we're headed inta Uni-tory."

"Uni-tory?"

"Unicorn Territory, mystery mare." Boomstick explained.

"What's your name, anyway?" Tenna asked.

"I am Sanguine Dreams." I replied quickly, receiving odd looks from the both of them.

"That's an uncommon name if I've ever heard one." Tenna commented.

"Could jus' be a Unicorn name, yeah?"

"Well, at any rate, my name is Antenna, though most ponies just call me Tenna for short." He pointed to Boomstick. "This here is Boomstick, on account of his talent for shotguns. That's what he shot you with, by the way. He's my idiot brother."

"Hey, at least I used stun shot!" Boomstick protested.

"We're not gettin' into this argument again, Boomstick." Tenna groaned.

I looked down at my body and wiggled my fingers. Sure enough, most of my pain had subsided into the dull ache of sore muscles. "Do you think you could remove more bandages?" I asked. For some reason, he blushed at this and Boomstick looked away from the both of us. "What?" I asked.

"You want me to... undress you?" Tenna asked nervously.

"Well, you already touched me in order to bandage me, so I don't understand where the hesitation is coming from." I answered honestly.

"We didn't touch you!" Boomstick blurted out hastily. "Nothing bad, honest!"

I tried to move my arm to undo the bandages myself, yet they were still immobile for the most part. "Just get them off, would you?"

"Alright, Sanguine. Your call." Tenna agreed reluctantly. He then set to work undoing the bandages on my arms, neck, waist, legs and hooves. He avoided the bandages around my groin and breasts, for whatever reason. "There, all done!" He announced.

"You missed a few spots." I replied, attacking the bandages that were constricting my breasts due to my inability to find the pin that held them in place.

"Whoa whoa, hold on there!" Tenna interrupted hastily. "What're you doing?"

"Removing bandages?"

"But they're covering..."

"I don't wear clothes, Tenna."

"You mean, like all the time?" Boomstick asked in a faint voice. "Like, us catching you out in the woods a while ago wasn' a fluke or somethin' from your escapin' the Zebra?"

"Normally I would have a cloak and a spear... but those were both lost in my escape."

"Gaw!" He blurted, turning away from me quickly. His face was getting red as well.

"Really, you two are acting very strangely. It's just my body, not some kind of monstrosity." I said non-nonchalantly, opting to shift the chest bandages down my body along with the groin bindings, letting them heap into a pile on the makeshift bed. Now I was laying prone on my back, comfortable as I could get. I placed an arm behind my head to both massage my neck and to provide a pillow.

Tenna was just staring blankly at me, and Buckshot was messing around with his muzzle. "What are you doing, Buckshot?" I asked.

He looked to me, blood coming from his muzzle in thin red lines. "Nuddin! Um fine!"

"You're hurt!" I said with worry, trying to sit up against the protests of my still recovering muscles. A hand went reflexively to my chest in order to stop me, but Tenna quickly withdrew his hand when his palm accidentally cupped a breast of mine.

"S-sorry!"

"Uhg. You two are hopeless." I scoffed, doing my best to roll over and push myself to a standing position. Apparently Buckshot turned to look at me at the 'wrong time', as he shrieked like a filly when he saw myself bent over attempting to stand.

"Aaah!"

"Don't tell me this is going to be a constant thing!" I complained, getting to a single knee and pushing on it for leverage. "It's just me, Sanguine! I'm a mare! I have mare parts! Deal with it!"

"You don't wanna wear anything to cover up?" Tenna asked nervously.

"No! I'm perfectly fine with who I am, thank you." I snapped back, finally able to shakily stand. I looked over to my belts and pouches, making them my next immediate objective. "You mind helping me get those?" I asked Tenna, pointing to my belongings.

"S-sure!" he replied, scooting over on his knees and picking up my leg pouch first, handing it to me.

"Thanks." I said blandly, giving him a bored look. I wrapped the straps around my thigh a few times before tying it, moving my leg with some vigor to test the straps.

"Oh help me, they're jiggling." I heard Boomstick mutter, covering his eyes.

"What is wrong with you two?" I asked. I realized he had been referencing the slight movement of my breasts when I tested the straps. "This actually bothers you?" I asked, looking at him incredulously. "You're actually worse than my own tribe! They at least tolerated my nudity; You're outright embarrassed by it!"

I felt a belt get pressed into one of my open hands, and I looked to find Tenna avoiding eye contact. "You're kidding me. Just a moment ago you were all serious business and looking professional. Now you're a bunch of cowering foals!" I wrapped the belt around my waist, cinching it in front of me. My hand was soon filled with my shoulder belt, which I also donned and strapped between my breasts. I rolled my shoulders and moved around a bit to ensure everything sat properly, and it did well enough for having been removed with haste by these two.

"That's it!" Tenna announced, more resignation in his voice than confirmation.

"Alright, we have to get this set straight." I announced to the both of them. I was still weak from injury, but I had enough control of my body for walking and grabbing things. I grabbed an ear from both of them, bringing them close together in front of me at breast level.

"Ah..."

Nheh..."

"Listen, you two." I said officially. "I'm naked. I'm a mare. I don't like wearing clothing, and I'm not about to start wearing any. You're either going to have to get over it on your own, or I'll force familiarity about the issue, alright?"

"F-force what?" Boomshot asked.

"You both strip." I explained.

"Nope, not happenin'!" Tenna protested.

"Then get used to the nudity." I mandated, pulling the both of them into my bosom.

They both recoiled instantly, shoving me away and onto the ground while they had a small episode of freaking out. I chose to just rest on the makeshift bed while they recovered, my legs and arms still sore from the speedy recovery.

"Why'd ya have to go an' do that!?" Boomstick whined. "I won't be able ta think about anythin' else for days now!"

I picked the 'boonie hat' from the ground where it had fallen earlier and placed it on my head. "What, you've never been this close to a mare before?" I teased. I was reclined, my arms holding my upper half off of the ground behind my back by leaning on my elbows while my legs were spread lazily, making him extremely uncomfortable. "It's just fur, Boomstick." I said simply.

"That's a lot more than fur, Sanguine!" Tenna insisted.

"Oh well. It's your problem, not mine. Besides, if the Zebras are as distracted as you two are about my being naked, it works in our advantage, doesn't it?" I reasoned.

"You can't be serious." Boomstick asked with disbelief, his voice becoming shrill for a moment. "She's actually using her body as a distraction!?"

"I think it works, mate." Tenna replied, still covering his eyes and looking away from me.

"Yeah, I know it works mate, believe me!"

"I don't have to believe you; I can take a look at your trousers and confirm it!"

Boomstick blushed, attempting to adjust his pants in a way that would conceal his... 'appreciation' for my body.

"Are you two done freaking out yet?" I asked boredly.

"Give us a moment!" Tenna insisted.

I sighed. "Fine. Tell me when you're ready to do something, I guess." I pulled my hat over my eyes, laying down fully and reclining, my legs crossed at the hooves and with my hands behind my head for support. Hopefully this wouldn't take too long.

Author's Note

Hurray for social nudity!

Let me know what you think of the characters, as this was largely a character development chapter ^.^

Thank you for reading!