Love Heart quickly washed her hooves thoroughly and sterilized all of her equipment. Her horn glowed a bright blue, lifting the needle and thread while carefully threading the needle. Star Lane began to start roll over, but two stallions kept him from rolling off the table. Love Heart took a deep breath, closing her eyes and opening them again. She slowly brought the needle close to the wounds and began to slowly stitch together the open wounds. Star Lane let out small grounds and gave a small jolt as the initial prick of the needle pierced his skin. She slowly but carefully closed each of the wounds on his back. After what felt like hours, she had finally managed to stitch all of the open wounds closed. She leaned back and let out a loud sigh but knew that her job wasn't close to be being done. She threw the swabs over in the pile of bloodied swabs and cloth then looked down at her hooves to see that they was stained heavily a crimson red.

"You did it Love Heart!" one of the on looking ponies shouted out in joy.

She let out a sigh and looked directly at the blade that was still lodged in Star Lane's shoulder. "I'm unfortunately not even close to being finished. Cross Bound, I will need your help with this one," she motioned him over and the large stallion trotted over to the table.

"What do I need to do to help Love Heart?" he asked.

She let out a sigh and pointed at the blade. "I need you to help me remove that thing from his shoulder as carefully as you possible can", he nodded and went around the table to the base of the blade coming out of Star Lane's shoulder. "How should I do this? Do I need to push it out completely through his back or pull it out of his shoulder?" Love Heart lifted some fresh sheets of cloth onto the table.

"What I want you to do is pull the blade by it's base and slowly begin to pull it out of his shoulder," she prepared the fresh cloth around wound. "Now, when you start pulling, I am going to try to keep pressure on the wound to try to keep it from bleeding profusely," the stallion nodded, wrapping the base of the blade in cloth and gripping it with his teeth. Love Heart placed cloth around the wound and placed her hooves on it.

"Are you ready Cross Bound?" she looked at him with a serious look. He nodded and waited on her signal.

"Alright, ready...go," she applied pressure down on the wound as Cross Bound began to pull the blade slowly out of Star Lane's shoulder. Star Lane let out a yell, grinding his teeth from the sharp pain that shot through his shoulder and back. He started to rock from side to side, giving Love Heart a hard time to keep up the pressure.

"You have to stay still!" she quickly let go for a split second and climbed on the table and sat on top of Star Lane and returned pressure to the wound. Cross Bound managed to pull the blade almost have way out before letting go of the base. "Cross Bound, get something for him to bit down on!" Cross Bound looked around and picked up a clean piece of cloth, twisting it tightly. He knelt down at face level with Star Lane and lightly shook him. "Hey....hey, here use this while I'm pulling the blade out," Star Lane slowly opened his eyes and seen the stallion holding out the cloth. "Ju...jus....just pull it out quick. Get it over with please," Star Lane muttered. The stallion nodded as Star Lane open his mouth and bit down on the twisted up cloth as hard as he could.

"Alright Cross Bound, are you ready? This is going to be the final pull," he nodded at Love Heart and gripped the base again with his teeth waiting for her signal. "Alright, ready?.......pull!" Cross Bound pulled on the blade more quickly, but was careful to not rip it straight out. Star Lane grunted and yelled, but the cloth in his mouth muffled his scream. Cross Bound stumbled back slightly as the entire blade was completely removed from Star Lane's body. He dropped the blade on the floor and quickly helped pressure on the wound while Love Heart cleaned the wound with alcohol soaked swabs. Star Lane let out another grunt as the burning liquid ran into the hole in his shoulder.

"There we go, we are almost done. Just hang on for a little bit longer," her horn glowed again as she levitated the needle and thread over to her. Cross Bound stepped back and watched as Love Heart quickly stitched up both the enter and exit wound on his shoulder and back. Love Heart stitched in the last one and let out a sigh of relief. All of the ponies that was observing the operation began to cheer and celebrate.
Love Heart dropped the thread and needle and made her way off top of Star Lane and walked over to a old wooden rocking chair and plopped right down in the seat. Love Heart shut her eyes and began to rub her forehead,but felt a hoof rest on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Cross Bound smiling down at her.

"You did good Love Heart. He is alive because of your great work," he said comfortingly. She gave him a small smile and looked down to see her hooves and part of her chest was dyed a crimson red color. "I guess I should maybe clean up," she said somewhat jokingly. "Not only that, you need to get some rest as well," Cross Bound said. Love Heart sighed once again. "Not before I check on Smoke Cloud. His wings was damaged pretty bad," she said with a gloomy tone. Love Heart took trotted over to Star Lane and completed her work by wrapping a bandage around his forehead.

"Cross Bound, could you please and carefully take him off the table and put him in the bed in the corner of there?" she pointed at the small bed in the back left corner of the room. He nodded and carefully lifted Star Lane on to his back and took him over to the bed and gently layed him down. "I'm going to go check on Smoke Cloud real quick," she said as she made her way to the door. "Love Heart, you need to get some rest afterwards," he said with a concern.

She gave him a small hearted smile and nodded. The crowd of ponies moved out of her way as she made her way through and out the door. "Alright everypony, let's let him get some rest. He needs to be alone to recover. We need to begin to rebuild all the damaged homes from the attack," he motioned the ponies out the door. The crowd dispersed and began to put out any remaining fires and began to clean up.

Love Heart made her way to a home in the north western corner of village and lightly tapped on the wooden door. "Come in," she gently opened the door to see a white Pegasus mare with smokey grey man sitting on the edge of the bed. "How is he doing Swirl Wave?" love Heart asked. Swirl Wave stroked his mane, tearing up and gently placed a hoof on his chest.

"He has been sleeping the whole time. He hasn't moved a inch since he got into bed," she looked at his wing that was completely covered in bandages. There was a complete silence in the room until Swirl Wave finally spoke up.

"Tell me....will he ever be able to fly again?"

Love Heart's chest became tight and felt a lump in her throat.

"Please tell me...."

Love Heart looked down at the floor, ashamed to look at her in the eyes. Even though her duty was to help fix ponies who had been hurt, she still always found it heart breaking tell a pony that they wouldn't ever be the same.

"His wings.....was severely damaged. Many of the bones in his wings are broken and on top of that, his wings are too mangeled to be able to realign so they can heal back properly. Best case senerio is he is able to regain partial function in his wings, but it is highly unlikely that he won't be able to even partially fly ever again. I'm so sorry."

Swirl Wave clutched the sheets,Love Heart looked up just enough to see drops of tears slashing on the sheet. Love Heart counsels bare to see the mare cry over the sheer thought that her own son would never fly again. She quietly turned around and silently opened the door to make her way out.

"Love Heart..."

Love heart stopped in the door way,perking her ears and turning her head.

"Thank you...for helping my son. He might not be able to fly anymore, but thanks to you I still at least have a son," she looked up with tears rolling down her face, but gave a warm smile.

She returned the smile back at Swirl Wave. "Please, no thanks are needed. I am just doing what I was destined to do. To help sick and injured ponies when they need me."

"We are so lucky to have somepony like you. Why don't you get some rest, you look really tired." She said somewhat concerned.

Love Heart chuckled, "You aren't the only pony to have told me that today. Come to me if his condition changes at all," Swirl Wave nodded and Love Heart made her way out the door and to her home. She made it to her home, a simple cobble stone, one room home with a roof made from planks and hay just like every other home in the village. She opened the door and made her way inside and looked up to notice a gaping hole in her roof. She let out a sigh, not even bothered during the moment that her roof had succumbed to damage. She trotted over to her bed and plopped down on it, completely exhausted. She pulled her covers up and over her snuggling to get herself comfortable. Her exhaustion had finally over came her as her eyes had slowly shut, drifting off to sleep.

***

A knock came to Love Heart's door with a familiar voice. "Love Heart! You need to come see this!" Love Heart sat up in her bed and regained her focus. "Love Heart? Are you alright?" She quickly recognized the voice, it was Cross Bound. She threw the sheets off of her and got up and trotted to the door. The gently opened the door to see Cross Bound standing in front of her. "What's going on Cross Bound? Is something wrong?" he shook his head and urged her to follow him. "You absolutely won't believe this," she cocked her head to the side, interested in what he was wanting to show her. They made their way through the village and noticed a crowd of ponies forming a circle. The two made their way to the back of the crowd then Love Heart tried to peer over the crowd. She decided to make her way through the crowd until she made it to the front when her mouth fell wide open.

Star Lane was standing there in the middle of the crowd, standing completely straight up. How was this even possible? He had just been injured yesterday and yet, he was standing there talking to the ponies, wrapped up in bandages on his shoulder, back, and forehead. Love Heart made her way past the crowd and trotted towards Star Lane. Star Lane turned around and looked at the mare with a warm smile.

"Ah, you must be the lovely mare that attended to my wounds. Thank you very much. My name is Star Lane," Star Lane bowed to the mare, causing her to blush.
She didn't say a word, completely frozen and blushing profusely. Star Lane cocked his head to the side with a puzzled look. "Are you alright?" Love Heart shook her head, snapping her out of her trance.

"Oh....yes! I am perfectly fine," she tried hard to not zone out again."You don't need to be up and about. You need to lay down and rest so your wounds can heal properly," Star Lane rubbed the back of his mane and chuckled. "Oh! I am incredibly sorry for that. I really don't like to be sitting down for long periods of time," Love Heart shook her head. "Please, you need to lay down so they can heal properly," she kept pressuring Star Lane. He chuckled and shrugged his shoulders which caused an alarming bit of pain. "I guess you are right. I apologize, I'll lay down for a bit," Love Heart pointed at her house. "Come and let me check on your wounds for you," she insisted. Star Lane smiled warmly and nodded. The two began their way through the crowd as the two trotted off to Love Heart's home. A couple of mares whispered to each other.

"Did you see that? Love Heart is getting that dream of a stallion all alone," one mare said.

"I don't blame her, I would do anything to get that sexy thing alone with me!" another said.

"Oh please! It takes a real mare like me to tame that kind of beast," a third said.

The two made it to her home and Love Heart slowly opened the door, revealing the small one room home to Star Lane. he quickly noticed the hole in the ceiling right above them. "I'm sorry about your home," Star Lane trotted over and sat down on her bed. Love Heart was rummaging through one of her shelves when she realized he was talking to her. "Oh! Um....it's alright," she said somewhat quietly. She trotted over and examined the bandages. They had quickly became dirty and soaked with dried blood that stained the pure white bandages. "You definitely need these changed," Star Lane smiled and nodded as Love Heart slowly began to unwind his bandages. She started to blush heavily when she got a good look at his body tone. It was really cut, making his abs and muscles really noticeable. She tried to keep her cool as she completely got off one of the bandages. "If you don't mind me asking, what is your name Mrs..?" Love Heart blushed even more. His voice was really soothing with a sweet, caring tone to it. "It's Ms. Love heart, but everypony just calls me Love heart," What was she doing?Blushing over a stranger like a little school filly. Even though this stranger was extremely handsome and had something about him that just attracted her to him.

" Well, Ms. Love Heart, I am forever in your debt for being able to take such good care of me," he gave her a comforting smile.

She returned a small grin and began to wrap the new bandage around his wound. She noticed the bandages on his back also needed to be changed so she began the task of removing those as well. She threw away the old bandages and checked each of the individual stitches on his back. Everything seemed to be ok for now so she began to wrap the wounds around his back. When she reached around the front of Star Lane to grab the roll of bandage, she had accidentally brushed up against his chest and her face began to turn red. She quickly grabbed the roll and quickly finished re-bandaging Star Lane.

Her horn began to glow as the pile of old bandages lifted up and floated over to the trash can and dropped inside.

"Love Heart?" she looked up at Star Lane meeting her eyes with his. "Do you know who that stallion was that attacked the village?" he asked. Love Heart sat beside him and let out sigh.

"His name is Bolt Shock. He is part of a gang that terrorizes our village and extorts us for money," Star Lane shook is head and frowned at the thought of ponies doing such thing. "They come to our village at the end of every month to come collect the money that we all break our backs trying to earn for them. As you can see, they are capable of brute force and show no mercy to us, even if we do pay them," she trotted to the window beside the door and opened the shutter, pointing to the top of a hill just outside the village. "That hill is where we have buried many of our own that have been slain from their sheer brutality, including my own family," Star Lane opened his mouth, trying to say some words of comfort, but couldn't find the courage to.

"It has been this way ever since I was little and even far back before I was born. We have suffered under the hooves of them for far too long. Stallions, mare, and even fillies," she let out a subtle sigh. "Sadly, I'm afraid things aren't going to change," she trotted over and sat back down on the bed beside Star Lane. He quickly jumped up and turned around facing Love Heart. "No, their terror is going to come to an end now. I am not going to stand by knowing that innocent ponies are being hurt," Love Heart just stared at Star Lane. "I won't let them hurt you all anymore."

"Star Lane...you don't need to do this. This isn't your problem to bare."

"I have taken an oath to protect any and all ponies who are in danger or can't fight back themselves," he said with a serious tone.

"That was just one though, and look what he did to you," she pointed at his bandages while frowning.

"You are correct, but I am not going to let these wounds from stopping me from protect all of you. That is a promise and one I intend to keep," trotted over to the open window.

Love Heart looked at him and couldn't help gaze at the stallion. She quickly snapped out of it again. Why did she keep losing control of herself? Even though she hasn't been with a stallion since she was a teenager and preferred to be on her own, what made him so much different that it made her want lost in his presence? Star Lane turned around to face her. "Love Heart, what happened to Bolt Shock?" she nodded and got up. "Some stallions got a hold of him and ended up chaining him up to a wood beam inside one of the destroyed houses," Star Lane turned around looked back out the window. "Can you take me to him?" he asked. Love Heart didn't say a word and trotted over to the door and gently opened it.

"This way," she said.

The two made their way to one of the destroyed houses that had its roof completed caved in and the side wall that had collapsed revealing the inside. Star Lane poked his head in and noticed the stallion had his two backed hooves chained together and tied to a wood beam. His front hooves were also chained together and tied off to a near by metal grate that covered a old fire place. Star Lane slowly made his way inside and noticed that the stallion's front right hoof was partially a stump. He metal hoof had actually been detachable and was placed on top of the fire place mantle. The stallion looked up, his face all bruised up and one eye was swollen shut. He saw Star Lane enter the room with his one good eye and chuckled.

"Well well, look who it is! What? did you miss me all of a sudden?" he gave a nasty grin.

"Not hardly," Star Lane replied.

"Oh, so you came to kill me right? That isn't very noble of you to kill a stallion while he is down," he let out a groan trying to stand but falling back on his stomach.

"No, that would be an easy way out for you. Even what you did that doesn't deserve such a easy escape," Star Lane trotted over and sat in a old rickety wood chair.

He let out a laugh, causing him to cough viciously. "You fool, once Storm Barrage realizes I haven't came back, he is going to come here and burn this entire shit hole to the ground," he raises his head and looks directly at Love heart and grins. "And he is going to kill you, and your pretty little mare friend over there," he lowers his back to the floor and begins to cough harshly.

Love Heart became shook, but Star Lane got out of the chair and stood directly in front of Love Heart, breaking Bolt Shocks view of the terrified mare. "You are wrong, he isn't going to kill anypony. Yours and his days of hurting innocent ponies are over with," Star Lane stared down at Bolt Shock. He gave out a crackled laugh as he lifted his head again looking right at Star Lane.

"I wouldn't count me out just yet," Star Lane saw the stallion click down on one of his back teeth that didn't seem like all the rest. it looked...metallic with something on the crown that began to blink. A beeping noise started to emit from the metal hoof sitting on the fire place mantle. It took Star Lane milliseconds to piece together what was going on. He looked down at the stallion who had the biggest smirk on his face.

"Gotcha!"

"Love Heart!" Star Lane quickly turned around and lunged at Love Heart, wrapping her in his arms as a massive explosion erupted from the inside of the house causing a large cloud of smoke bellow up into the sky. Star Lane landed in the dirt directly on his back causing a sharp pain to dig into his back. He gritted his teeth, but opened his eyes to see Love Heart laying on top of him with her face borrowed into his chest. He looked up to see the house was completely engulfed in flames, knowing that the stallion couldn't have survived and laid his head back down in the dirt.

Love Heart came to and lifter her head up to see that she was within inches of Star Lane's face, causing her to blush a bright red. Star Lane lifted his head to see Love Heart with a bright red face just staring at him.

"Are you ok Love Heart?" he asked.

"Ye...yeah...are you?" she asked back somewhat quietly.

He nodded and Love Heart quickly got up and helped up Star lane then both took in the scene of the house in the process of burning down to the ground.

A pain shot through Star Lane's back and should witch caused him to kneel to the ground. "Star Lane you need to lay down," she knelt down to help up back up. "you need to get some rest," she said concerned. He chuckled and gave her a assuring smile. "You are right. I won't be much good to keep my promise if I am hurt now am I?"

She gave me him a small smile and helped him up and helped back to the original house where he was operated on. She opened the door and slowly helped him to his bed and helped him lay down.

"Thank you again," he smiled.

"I should be the one for thanking you. For risking your life for us," she said, returning the smile.

"It is the path I have chosen. To protect innocent ponies like you and everypony here from being hurt by wickedness," he said with a smile, complemented wtih yawn.

Love Heart giggled and got up. "I'll let you be so you can get some sleep. I need to be out there helping do clean up," she said as she made her way to the door. She opened the door and only made it half way through the door when she heard Star lane. "Love Heart," she turned around to him. "Everything will be alright. I promise," he turned his head over to her and gave warmed smile.

She smiled with tears forming in her eyes as she mouth the words 'thank you'. Star Lane turned his head back over as she made it out the door and slowly closed his eyes with a smile on his face.

Author's Note

Shew finally! I honestly went back and rewrote basically the whole thing twice I was so dissatisfied with what I wrote, but I think this second version is a lot better than the first time around c: I hope you all are enjoying the story so far!