Fallout Equestria: Snapdragon

Snapdragon blearily opened his eyes in the dim morning light, finding himself alone on the mountain face. Wearily pushing himself up, he screamed as pain ripped through his wing and he collapsed back onto the ground, sobbing in agony. Overnight, the combined painkilling effects of the healing potion and shock had worn off and he could now feel every single badly healed bone in his wing. He could feel the rock grating against the exposed bone marrow, the sharp plastic of the rad suit fragments tugged at the raw, poorly healed and inflamed flesh of his wing, the flight feathers bent and snapped, twisting with his sudden movement.

Hoof beats ran up behind him and he could hear Jackdaw swearing, but it sounded so very far away, the tunnel of agony being all Snaps could focus on. Fresh pain bloomed on his flank as a needle jammed into his skin and emptied it’s contents into his body. Screams retreated into whimpers as the pain faded into a dull ache, his body becoming sluggish and slow moving.

Through the mist he realised that Jackdaw had overdosed him on Med-x, numbing his entire body instead of localized pain.

Snaps sighed internally. Well it was better than feeling the wing pain, but he wouldn't be traveling anywhere until his body metabolized some of the potion.

He wearily rolled his eyes up to Jackdaw’s worried and frantic face, winking one of them slowly to show he was okay and not dying, despite how he looked. His tongue felt hot and swollen in his mouth and his eyes drifted closed as sleep overwhelmed him.

* * *

Consciousness seeped back into Snaps, along with the pain. Groggily, he shifted slowly across the burnt earth to the medical chest in the wagon, and slipped out a syringe, plunging it into the base of his wing and squeezing out the correct amount this time. Sighing in relief as the fire in his wing faded, Snaps sat down to think. It was very late in the evening, Jack had dozed off next to the fire, opened bean cans stacked neatly next to him. Knowing that the Med-x was just suppressing his appetite, Snaps forced himself to open a can of peaches, the preserved fruit slimy on his tongue. Gulping down the nectar, he leaned back and suppressed a burp, his stomach feeling tight after not eating for a full day. Thoughtfully, he looked down at his mangled wing. The pain would only get worse as the infection set in, and then it would start to rot, poisoning his blood and eventually killing him. The only other option outside of a miracle, he thought, was to cut it off.

Strangely, Snaps felt calm. His mind wasn’t screaming at the thought of hacking off his beloved wing, it was like he didn’t feel anything. So this is what shock was like. He couldn’t cut it off himself though. He leaned walked over to the wagon, and gathered what he needed.

“Jack.”

“Jack.” Louder this time.

“JACK.”

Jack startled awake, his hoof jerking out and knocking over the can pile he had made. Bleary, sleepy eyes focused on Snaps.

“What are you doing up? You should be resting!” Jack scooted over to him, wincing as he looked away from his wing.

Snaps looked calmly at the shaky stallion, his eyes a cooler blue then normal. Maybe it was the drugs, but his mouth felt like it belonged to someone else as he uttered his next words.

“I need you to cut my wing off.”

Jack stared at him, the colour draining from his face, his mouth agape. He made as if to talk, but only a squeak came out.

“Please.” Snaps lifted the medical tin and began to methodically set out the equipment onto the fire blanket, muscle memory from setting up experiments in his lab making the tools neat and tidy. The blanket made a small crinkle noise as he set each one down.

Disinfectant. Crinkle.
Super strength restoration potion. Crinkle.
Med-x. Crinkle.
Bandages. Crinkle.
Tape. Crinkle.
Tourniquet. Crinkle.
Mouthwash. Crinkle.
Scalpel. Crinkle.
Hacksaw.

Crinkle.

“No.” Jack was shaking his head. “There has to be another way.”

Snaps mind was as placid as a frozen lake as he stared the handsome stallion down.

“Either you cut off my wing now, we get off this mountain and find a way back into the stable. Or you don’t, and the infection that has already started gets worse, poisons my blood and I die right here, while we eat up our precious supplies. Your choice.” Snaps sighed, putting his hoof over Jacks. “I cant reach my wing to get a clean cut. I need you to do this for me.”

“But my horn… I cant…”

“Use your mouth. We have hospital grade mouthwash.”

Snaps turned, sloshing disinfectant over a stone and his wing. Laying down next to the rock, he spread his wing up over it, turning his head to once again stare at the shocked Jackdaw.

“I need your help, Jack. Please.”

Stiffly, Jack walked over to the pile of tools, looking at Snaps with eyes that almost couldn’t believe what he was doing.

“What..” his voice croaked and died. “What do I do?”

Once again feeling like his mouth was moving on its own, Snaps began to talk Jackdaw through the procedure. It was a fairly simple procedure, so easy to remove the thing that allowed him the freedom to fly.

“First, disinfect your hooves and mouth. There are gloves in the medical box, put them on then wrap the tourniquet around my wing.” he watched as Jackdaw moved slowly to his instructions, reluctance in every single step. “Pull it tighter, you want to cut off the blood supply.”

Jackdaw looked down at him, worry almost aging his chiseled features. Pulling his face into smile that was fooling nobody, Snaps tried to look as reassuring as possible. Jack sighed and picked up the scalpel, moving over to Snapdragons wing. Snaps took one last look at his once beautiful wing. The pale blue feathers, all bent and broken, blood matted in between them. The skin was bound to the rock, tugging and pulling as his muscles shifted, angry red and leaking pus. He felt the tourniquet dig into his skin, creating a horrible pressure on his wing. His beautiful, precious and now deadly wing. Snaps inhaled, his slender chest expanding with the breath he needed to say the next words.

“Do it.”

There was no pain, Jackdaw kept him topped up on the Med-X as he used the scalpel to slice through skin, veins and ligament. Snaps could feel each cut, a strange and invasive feeling. Small snapping feelings radiated down his wing as each layer was sliced through. Blood ran in small rivers down the rock, staining his fur and Jack’s muzzle.

There was a scrape.

“I’ve hit the bone.” Jackdaw said, spitting the scalpel out and picking up the hacksaw.

“Can you see the joint?” Snaps asked, not willing to turn around and see what had become of his beautiful wing. “Cut just below it.”

“Roger.” Jackdaw was in full concentration mode now, his eyes focused solely on the important task before him. Snaps could feel the intensity radiating off him, and took comfort in it. Closing his eyes, he began to list off his favourite flowers, trying to avoid hearing the sound of the hacksaw, and ignore the grating feeling of it slicing through his bone, the pain radiating even through the haze of drugs. It was a deep, burning pain, as if it came from far away.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, it ended. As if a great weight was lifted from his side, Snaps tipped over onto the crispy dirt, sprawling onto his remaining wing. He looked down at his side, seeing himself drenched once more in blood, but now instead of soft feathers, there was only a bloody stump.

He moaned, closing his eyes and fighting down vomit as he barked out the last of his orders.

“Pour half the restoration potion over it, then bandage it up, just like you were taught in first aid.”

The small amount of pain ebbed from his side as the potion closed the wound, and Snaps guzzled the rest of it. The potion tasted clammy and slimy down his throat, his body still feeling alien, even more so now that his sense of balance was thrown off. It would take a few weeks to heal fully as they had to preserve their medical supplies, but it would heal cleanly now. He lowered his head to the ground, tears staining his beautiful blue fur as his body shook with sobs. He was now a demi-wing, a flightless bird.

A groundwalker.

Bandaging complete, he felt his body shift as Jack laid down next to him, tenderly laying a hoof over his flank and pulling him close.

“Are you in pain?”

“No.”

“Do you want some water?”

“No.”

Silence fell upon them, their breathing in quiet tandem, as they simply took comfort in each others presence. The night fell around them, eerily silent in the wasteland. No birds, no insects, not even the familiar whine of the stable lights that had been present his whole life. Just himself, Jackdaw and a tight bandage around his midsection, holding his stump against his body.

And a thickening lump against his flank.

His body reflexively stiffened and he pulled away from Jack, who flushed with embarrassment.

“Sorry. I don’t know why it happened.” Jack mumbled, shifting himself over to the camp and covering himself with a blanket, his face red and dark in the fading light. “I’ll just start the fire. You should eat.”

“Eating. Right.”

Snapdragon flopped back down to the dirt, his mind racing. That was an erection. Jackdaw got an erection while holding him. Did that mean Jack desired him? Why now? Why when he was covered in blood and tears? Was it an accident, like he said? A natural reaction to the loneliness of the wasteland?

Snaps put his hooves over his head and squeezed his eyes shut. This was too much right now.

The smell of beans cooking wafted past his nose and he began to drag his exhausted body over to the fire.

“Hey, you stay there. I’ll bring this to you” Jack had recomposed himself and was spooning beans into a bowl. “I’ll bring you to the fire myself after you’ve eaten. You shouldn't be moving around too much tonight.”

Snaps opened his mouth to argue, only to close it again as weariness set over him. It was too much. Too much right now to deal with.

Jackdaw settled in front of his muzzle, the hint of unwashed muskiness and blood causing Snap’s nose to twitch. He couldn’t even imagine how he smelled. They both needed a bath, but until they found more water to purify, they had to just put up with it.

Awkwardly, Jack lifted the spoon of beans to Snaps’s mouth, still unused to the lack of magic. The warm beans filled his mouth, but for some reason Snaps couldn’t bear to swallow them. His throat simply wouldn't perform the simple act of swallowing a simple mouthful of humble beans!

Jack looked at him, concern in his eyes. “Not good?”

Turning, Snaps spat the beans out, pulling his canteen to him and drinking. Swishing around his mouth, he cleaned it of the feel of the beans.

“I don’t know. I just cant eat right now. I think,” Snaps swallowed, “I think I need to be alone.”

“Oh. Alright.” Moving back to the fire, Jackdaw slumped onto the ground, facing away from him.

Snaps scooted himself closer to the fire, guilt gnawing at his insides while he looked at the broad muscles on Jack’s back. He wanted to reach out to him, run his hoof through the smooth fur. The feeling at his side was overwhelming. He just felt so wrong now his wing was missing, it felt like a hole had been torn in his heart.

Closing his eyes, Snaps began to recall the feel of flying, hot tears slipping from his eyes.