From the Journals of Quick Stitch Vol. III
Buried Alive
It's been a while since I've put anything down to paper like this. I guess after I lost my saddlebags to that mirelurk, and my journals with it, I kind of got out of the habit. I'm still a little upset over losing the nice bound ones I got from Glue, but after seeing Sunrise working on hers near the campfire tonight, I got to thinking about getting back into the habit of writing again.
I suppose I should explain a little. My name is Quick Stitch, and I'm a doctor traveling the wastes of Equestria on a mission to do my part in pulling this broken land back together. I've been traveling for a few years now, and I've got to say, I think I've finally found a place that I truly belong. Well, perhaps it would be more accurate to say a place that I'm truly needed...
Things took a sudden turn for the strange last night when I woke up in a shallow grave. Believe me when I say that it was one of the more confusing things that's happened in my life so far. After all, not many ponies can claim to have dug themselves out of their own grave. Though, now that I think about it, I can't really say that I have either...
I found out after the fact, the grave was actually that of Buddy, a sand dog that had been travelling with my current companions, much like I am right now. Trust me, the similarities are not lost on me, nor the awkwardness of stepping in to effectively fill the horse shoes of someone with arguably much larger feet than I'll ever had. The whole situation is just bizarre and prickles at the back of my neck like a dozen needles. At some point, I'd like to go back to that half burned settlement and take another look at things, but it's not likely to happen anytime soon.
Regardless, I managed to make my way to the closest settlement, Silver Fang Shanty, and barter a room for the night in the local Flophouse. As it turned out that while I was buried with all of my gear, my caps were mysteriously missing. The next morning as I headed to breakfast, I noted what in time could only be described as a menagerie of misfits round one of the tables. And when I say strange, I mean a bit out there even for the wasteland. Nonetheless I felt drawn to them for some reason.
The first was a taciturn gryphon by the name of Alguacil, a regulator with only one eye. There are two zebras, one black and white and the other white and pink named Nyota and Chifundo respectively. Nyota as far as I can tell is some sort of one eyed alchemy ninja. Chifundo on the other hoof is apparently a bonafide pink shaman. At first, I reckoned that the strangest member of the group would be another green pony, a young filly calling herself Wandering Sunrise, a stable dweller who claimed to even remember the days before the balefire bombs dropped. No, the strangest member, and that's saying something with a rag-tag group like ours, is a small filly by who called... You know I don't think I actually know her name even, everyone just calls her Box Pone or Corners. Come to think of it, I don't know that I've even actually seen her outside of the cardboard box that she lives in, so I couldn't even tell you what she looks like, only that she never leaves her box and professes her undying faith in some 'Box God' or 'Box Lord' something like that. As I mentioned, she's... odd...
After a somewhat awkward hello, I introduced myself to Alguacil, who looked like he'd spent some time making out with a blender. With a little healing magic, I patched him up with a spell, surprisingly leaving the gryphon almost as grizzled and beat up as before. After a while, the rest of them trickled into the main hall for breakfast, or well, lunch as time went on. I have to admit, it was a little funny to see Sunrise munching on a wax apple with bleary eyes before one of flophouse workers found her a plate of food.
Meeting the Corners for the first time was.. strange, though, most any interaction with her could be considered such. It was a bit startling to see a box trundle up out of nowhere and dump a massive pile of junk onto the table, including what looked like a needler pistol that someone had danced over. Looking to Alguacil, he just shook his head and said “Don't Ask” a maxim that I've come to take to heart. As I was fixing up a needler that somehow Corners found with her pile of junk, and I can only assume stomped the heck out of. Around that time Nyota showed up with, believe it or not, fresh coffee for the rest of the group. It had been a while, probably since I was still with Glue, since I'd had coffee. I like a hot cup as much as the next unicorn, but it was a bit of a shock to see half a cup disappear down Sunrise's muzzle in seconds. Heh, I'll have to remember not to get between her and the next pot that gets brewed.
That said, she was the one responsible for inviting me to join the, “terribly trouble prone group,” according to Nyota. Honestly, raiders, ghouls, mole rats, and a sentry bot!? It was a small wonder that they were still in one piece! With nods of agreement from the other four, assuming a nod from Corners, I found myself with a new group of companions, and a direction, if nebulous, to head in. Imagine that. At least it's harder to bury six ponies alive than one... After the meal, we all broke up with our own agendas, mine to stick around the community craft center to see if I could get the weird pistol that Box found working again.
Apparently the group is well known enough that as I was fixing up the needler, DJ Pon3 mentioned them on the radio playing in the crafting center. I paused and turned to Corners, the square filly box silent and offering no real explanation. Accepting things as they were, I turned back to my work, tools hovering about the pistol in and out of my kit. There's just something reassuring about working on a piece of equipment or patching something up, seeing all the pieces and figuring out how they fit together. Believe it or not, healing ponies isn't all that different, well, okay a little different, but it's the same basic concept. You just have to know how it all fits together. Time tends to slip away from me while I'm working, as when I finished up, four hours had passed. That said, the needler looked more like a gun now and less like a broken foal's toy.
Tucking the eldritch looking pistol away, I left the box to… whatever she was up to, I trotted around in search of the rest of my new friends. After a day of resupplying, it turned out that Al and Sunrise had set up a meeting about a job. Joining the pair of them, along with Nyota and Chifundo, I tagged along to the meeting, a little curious about this ‘blacked out’ regulator job. As it turned out, Sparrow, the area’s mercenary leader, had been the one who posted it, a request to search out her husband, another pegasus and Dashite. I’ve heard about them, and the Enclave, but that’s about it.
Over a meal and a few hours of discussion, we found that her husband, by the name of Cross Buns. had been the pony who was responsible for providing the settlement with electricity. He wasn’t well liked, but he had friends, and no one really hated him enough to kill or kidnap him. I was stunned. That's a horrid thing to have happen to anyone, much less a wife.. As an aside, Nugget is adorably precocious. Apparently Sparrow had flat out decided to adopt the young filly after the band had brought a group of rescued ponies into town last night. We quickly agreed to help find her husband, though I suppose I would have regardless of the decision of my friends. After a bit of searching, and a bit of spiritual guidance from Chifundo, we determined that the pegasus was at least alive when he was taken. I have to admit, outside of stories, I had no idea just what a real shaman was capable of. Watching the pink zebra chatting casually with thin air was new experience for me. For a moment during his ritual, I... I even felt like I had my ear back, something that stirred up a lot of memories I thought I'd put behind me...
That's neither here nor there, though I guess I'll have to write the story back down at some point. Not now though at any rate.
As bad as it was for me, it seemed like Sunrise had things even worse. Apparently she had been drawn into the ritual, and told me that it was like being dragged into a memory orb that she didn’t want to see. Far as I can tell there’s some sort of ‘Pink Pony’ living in her head that has a tendency nudge the filly in strange directions and converse with her on a regular basis.
On top of that, apparently Alguacil took it upon himself to shoot another pony in the head in the middle of a bar while following a lead. I’m the last pony to tell someone how to live their life, particularly dealing with an ex raider, but there’s no way that I can agree with talking about shooting somepony in the head in front of foals no less! Thankfully Sunrise had clapped her hooves over Nugget’s ears as soon as the gryphon started to speak. Apparently it’s not the first time it’s happened. I’ll admit, the gryphon has a tendency to be blunt… In any case, Sparrow sent Nugget to her room shortly after, leaving us to finish up our search.
We left Sparrow to get some sleep shortly after that. She was clearly worked up over the whole experience, and was also drinking heavily throughout. As an afterthought I did a quick cleaning of her kitchen and did the dishes before we left. It might seem a little unusual, but it was a small kindness that was easy enough to perform. The four of us returned to the flophouse after to get some sleep.
I’ll leave things off there for now, A lot has happened over the last few days with new companions and mysterious happenings. Hopefully before long some the questions that have arisen will be answered. In any case, tomorrow we’ll be setting out for the ruins of Las Pegasus to follow up on our best lead.
Trait Discovered: Good Natured
There's just something inside of you that leads you to lend a hoof to ponies in need. Non combat skills receive a bonus. All combat skills take a penalty.
Author's Note
I'm finally posting something here after such a long time lurking. Hopefully things go well and I can continue this little diary without being 'killed off'.
In any case, let me know what you all think, and I hope you enjoy.
Mines and Medical Emergencies
From the Journals of Quick Stitch Vol. III
Mines and Medical Emergencies
Things were pretty dry and desolate as we travelled. I mean, not that they aren't elsewhere in the wastes, but it was almost completely desert now. I'd never been this far West and I'll admit, the repetitive scenery was getting to me. I barely even noticed the first lump of sand that caught my eye. The thing was, it wasn't just one. As I took a closer look, I realized that there were dozens of them scattered all around us. We had wandered into a minefield without noticing...
Luna's grace did my heart race. There was no telling how the six of us managed to surround ourselves with mines without tripping any, but from what little I've come to suspect about Chifundo and our little vault dweller, it probably had something to do with them. There's an.... oddness... that surrounds that pair that I can't quite put my hoof on. Yes, I know, I'm griping that I can't figure out what's odd about a pink zebra and self proclaimed 180 year old filly, but that's how it is. Somehow things just don't always work the way they should around them. The best advice I've gotten is from our one eyed griffon to “just don't worry about it”, and I have to admit, it's not a bad idea.
No matter how it happened, we were stuck in the middle of a sand trap of buried explosives. I was in the middle of a discussion with Alguacil over how to fly all of us out of the field to the clear patch I had spotted on the far side when Sunrise suggested that we just disarm a path through. Turns out that the green filly has a knack with explosives. I'd considered the same briefly, but dismissed the idea. I might be a precision surgeon with no problem holding a pony's life in my hooves, but my patients generally don't explode. This was a little out of my area of expertise. After talking me through checking and disarming the first pile of sand, I had to hold in a stream of swears when it was revealed to be a pony skull, and then another in the next. Everyone was starting to wonder if this was actually a ‘mine’ field at all.
My brow furrowed in thought, I began scanning the mounds again, wondering which I should check next. Consequently I completely missed Sunrise creeping forward to stick her hoof into another pile suddenly until I saw her pull out a brick. For a second I almost laughed as she stomped her hooves shouting “Who’s the giant dick!?” in frustration, her tail snagging the brick and hucking it across the sand as far as she could.. Of course, it immediately died as the stone landed near a pile and triggered a sudden explosion, showering sand almost all the way back to our group. My stomach dropped again as Alguacil swooped up next to me, nodding to himself. “Yup, someone who didn’t have a lot of mines and wanted to make it look like they had more than they did.” I have to say, there have been moments that I’ve looked up at the sky and wished that I’d been born with wings, but this time trumped them all. All of us were a bit shaken, but Sunrise looked absolutely done with this field. Nopony really had any good ideas at this point, Al grabbed some cloud, trying to wash the sand off the mines. Corners started going on about rope and hammers. Everyone else just sort of shrugged until Sunrise and I started to ‘sweeping’ through the field together, carefully edging forward to find another brick.
Suddenly there was a meaty WHACK from behind me, followed shortly by a sudden “Ow!” Quickly whipping my head around, I saw Sunrise rubbing the back of her head from where she’d been hit by the skull I’d uncovered a minute ago. And to nopony’s surprise, Corners was standing behind her. You know, there’s one thing to be said about judging a pony solely based on their odd little quirks, goodness knows I’ve got my own, but throwing a skull at the back of a friend’s head? I just lost my temper for a moment, shouting out “Careful! We’re still in a minefield you know!” at the cardboard masked filly. I swear I heard a giggle as she quickly responded “I don’t think that’s a way to get a head in life!” Honestly, some ponies’ children!
I was just about to step over there and give that filly a piece of my mind before I stopped myself. This was neither the time nor the place, I reminded myself, taking a few deep breaths. On top of that, I realized guiltily, the thought of losing my temper and shouting at another foal hit uncomfortably close to home. There were plenty of unpleasant memories from my own childhood that started much the same way. I’m all for teaching foals proper behavior, but there was a point that things went beyond discipline and became… Regardless, I had sworn to myself that I’d never treat another foal the same way my parents had treated me, and Corners was not going to make me break that promise.
Of course, I should learn to take my own advice. I still want to buck myself in the face for now paying more attention. None of us even noticed that Sunrise had crept forward again until a second mine exploded in her face. My stomach dropped harder than a sack of lead as I dashed over to the filly as she weakly mumbled. “Ooooww… I’m okay!” I immediately could see otherwise from the angle she was holding one of her forehooves, along with the softly added, “Maybe not…” After a quick check to ensure that the filly wasn’t in danger of bleeding out, I started quietly re-assuring her that everything would be fine and that I’d get her checked out the second we got out of the field.
That seemed to make up everyone’s mind, though I was still a bit on the fence. Alguacil was carrying everyone out, and Corners would just have to deal with being outside till we figured how to get her box across as well. Unfortunately, it seemed like luck just wasn’t on our side today as the sand began to rumble and shift beneath our very hooves, and less than fifty feet away a massive, and I mean ridiculously sized radscorpion emerged in a cloud of sand, chittering angrily and waving a set of claws that could dissect any one of us with ease. For some reason the name Steve came unbidden to mind.
I quickly turned to warn the group just as Chifundo blurted out a warning of his own. Even now I have no idea how he managed to rhyme “Big Ass RADScorpion.” Regardless, Alguacil seemed to be more than on top of things, a sharp crack ringing out seconds after the monster cleared the sands and slamming into the beast’s head. Corners, surprisingly, seemed to be on the ball as well, two massive machine guns popping out of the box and starting to roar as the filly opened up on ~~Steve~~ the giant scorpion. Half a second later, a third explosion echoed through the desert to tear through the beast, causing it to shudder and collapse. One of the shots must have pinged off the carapace and ricocheted into a mine. The scorpions probably were part of why the field was set up in the first place.
I only had half a moment to shake my head in wonder as I noticed another five scorpions, smaller at least, claw their way up through the surface. Apparently smaller also meant much quicker as in moments one of them rushed Chifundo, one at Nyota, and another managed to viciously snag Sunrise by the leg with a claw, trying to grab the pair and sting them with their tails. The pink zebra managed to dodge, but I watched as the filly immediately let out a shriek and began to panic stomp the scorpion attached to her leg, managing to smash the claw into a meaty pulp in the process..
Whipping my pistol out I made to unload at the creatures swarming my new companions, snapping off two quick shots before, to my horror, the gun jammed. Holding in a ‘Luna buck me in the flank!’ I frantically knocked the pistol against the ground and did a speedy once over with TK to clear it and continue firing. As I did, out of the corner of my eye I caught Nyota bashing at the arthropod grasping his leg. Ripping his bleeding foreleg free, the zebra spun around and bucked it in the face, smashing his hooves in with an almost graceful force.
Snapping my pistol back together, I looked up to see Chifundo over the large box in front of me, turning his head to take a few shots at the scorpion attacking Sunrise, hitting it twice before Alguacil’s pistol cracked off over our heads repeatedly, bullets slamming into another creature with ease. Two of us were a little banged up, but things seemed to be well in hoof, Two scorpions were down and out, another was well on it’s way, and another seemed to have disappeared, leaving just one scorpion left standing menacingly below Al. How wrong I was.
Faster than I could track, the healthy bug skittered across the sand to lunge for the zebra around the box from me, both claws latching on seconds before its stinger plunged into Chifundo’s hide. In shock I saw my friend teeter on his hooves before collapsing to the sand. I was about to rush around the oddly silent Corners when suddenly the box erupted in the sound of a muffled filly screaming “No one puts Corners in the corner!” before the noise of her linked machine guns echoed out. I had no idea until later, but the scorpion that had disappeared somehow wound up inside of Boxy’s armor and the earth pony was fighting for her life inside of her shelter from the outside world.
With Chifundo poisoned and bleeding, the scorpion in front of him scooted around to swing its pincers at Nyota. I heard a grunt as they both sunk into his side and he slumped to the sand, bleeding heavily from his various wounds and clearly unconscious. Things had suddenly taken a terrifying turn for the grim. Another roaring blast from my side showed Sunrise with her shotgun in hoof, swearing and screaming as she blasted the scorpion alongside the unconscious Chifundo.
The shouting snapped me from the daze I had been in, standing there and watching my companions falling around me. I was trained for this. I was better than this! I would Not! Allow! Anypony! To Die! Snarling in defiance, my horn began to glow with an angry orange glow, calling forth my magic. For a second things seemed so clear to me, like I knew exactly what I needed to do and time slowed. This is what I had spent eight years practicing for. The magic built and built inside of me, pressing for release. Turning to Chifundo, I released the first of it, filling his unconscious body with my spell. Goddesses he was in rough shape, I could sense the damage and the torn flesh as the glow from my horn filled him, knitting together as much of his flesh as I could in then seconds that I had. I could feel the poison still flowing through his body, and wished that I had the time to cleanse it, but there was another zebra who’s life was in my hooves right then.
Like molasses, my head swung around to Nyota, another layer of aura lighting up my already sparking horn, I flooded his bleeding form with healing magic. He was in so much pain… I had to suppress a mental shudder as the power stitched his wounds back together, stopping the bleeding that I could in the seconds that I had. It made me angry. No, I was furious! Somewhere in my head there was a calm doctor pointing out that there was still large amount of blood seeping out from under Corner’s box, that the two unicorns still needed more than the seconds of healing I had given them, and that Sunrise still needed attention as well, but I didn’t care. My furious gaze falling on the closest scorpion, my horn lit up even more, the aura around it crackling and shimmering like a burning flame as I howled at it. “Do not! Buck! With my patients!”, and let loose all the energy I had built towards the arthropod in a searing blast of fire, flooding its insides with an agonizing heat. It had been years since I had cast any fire magic. Somewhere, I knew that my mother was cackling with glee that I’d finally used my power to burn something in anger. With my built up power spent, things returned to normal, and I quickly cast my gaze on the two fallen zebra, sagging on my hooves a bit in relief as they both staggered upright. For a moment I almost forgot how injured Nyota was as I saw the rage in his eyes. The ninja zebra crashed a hoof through its head, driving it to the sand dead and still smoldering with a satisfied snort.
A bit slower to his hooves, the poisoned Chifundo raised his pistol once more and let loose half a dozen shots into the final scorpion’s side, gore and bullets spattering out the other side as it curled up dead. We were finally safe, for the moment. I took a sudden gasp and rushed to the pink shaman’s side as he lost consciousness again. I could hear Nyota snorting with rage behind me, messy crunching and squelching as he pulverized the remains of the beasts. On the other side Sunrise’s shotgun blared out again, no doubt ‘making sure’ they were all dead. Shutting my eyes for a moment, I shook my head before quickly wrapping the most grievous of the pink striped pony’s wounds, worried that the poison running through him was even more than I had felt. Then again, maybe not as Chifundo leaned over to vomit a nasty purple and green mix of what I could only assume was the poison before flopping to the sand a third time. Honestly, the strange shaman continued to surprise me constantly with the things he did. Regardless, with his stomach empty, I floated out a healing potion and force fed the dazed zebra, finally less concerned that he might perish in the next few minutes.
I saw Nyota drinking a potion of his own as I scanned about for my companions, seeing his flesh pulling itself back together on it’s own. Blazing sun above, we had been through hell. As Alguacil and, shortly after, Nyota began to search the corpses for redeemable parts, I breathed a heavy sigh, heart still pounding in my chest. It was the first time that I’d been in direct combat in years and I hadn’t even gotten a scratch, yet I still felt wound tighter than a coiled spring that was slowly starting to unwind. A slight smile came to my face as I saw our pink zebra get to his hooves once more, no longer bleeding out or poisoned.
Of course, with everyone back on their hooves, the argument of how we were to get out of here crept back up. I had to hold back a sigh, knowing that we’d be standing here discussing in the same circles until somepony decided to do something again, just like last time. Fortunately, we didn’t have long to wait, as Chifundo seemed to give a stern wave towards the end of the minefield, and the sand split open with a soft rumble, revealing a safe path from his hooves to the edge and revealing the hidden mines along it. You know, despite my less than fortunate upbringing, I like to consider myself an educated ponie. I’m a stallion of science and medicine. I can look at something, and even if I can’t fix it myself, get a firm understanding of how it Should work. All this weird spiritualistic mojo that Chifundo can do, just gives me the willies sometimes. That said, damn if it doesn’t come in handy…
Eying up the mines that had been revealed, I watched Sunrise take a potion of her own. I shook my head, knowing that short of physically stopping her, she was going after it. Then again, the filly had a hoof for explosives, even a cutie mark for it. Continuing my general scan of the party and whether any of them still seemed seriously injured or just beat up, my eyes fell on the armored box, a box that as I thought about it, hadn’t moved or spoken in some time now, and seemed to have a large amount of blood seeping into the sand around it. With some trepidation, and a little guilt for not noticing sooner, I scooted over and gave a soft tap to the top, saying softly “Corners, you alright in there?” Not hearing a response, I leaned in to put my ear against the warm cardboard. She was snoring. It was quiet, but I could hear it even through the armored plating. With a sigh, I turned to the rest. “Guys, I think Corners took a nap…” Typical of the strange filly to find a place to sleep in the middle of a fight to the death.
My words went unnoticed it seemed as everyone was watching Sunrise as she snuck up to the closest of the revealed mines, dragging herself along by the inches on her belly. After only a second or two, she turned to back to us with a small grin, holding up the disarmed mine with a cheerful “Got one.” Rolling my eyes with a hint of a smile, I watched as she repeated the process for the other two that had been exposed, carefully disarming them, and even tossing the far one into the safety zone without incident. Trotting out of the field, she gave us the all clear with a smile and a wave. I couldn’t help but give a smile myself as the rest of us exited as well, Nyota dragging Corners along with. There was just something infectious about her innocent optimism. Even as she continued to learn about the sadness and pain of the outside world, the earth pony filly never seemed to let it get to her. I made a silent prayer to the goddesses above that she wouldn’t ever lose that spirit, no matter how dark things became. Sunrise didn’t deserve to have her innocence stripped away like mine had been…
After the harrowing experience, the lot of us decided that it would be best to rest a second as I took time to patch everyone up. You know, it’s always nice to have a chance to use your skills, but as I went around to my companions, I realized that there were certainly good reasons to hope you never had to. Nyota and Chifundo had taken the worst of it, gashes, scrapes, and torn flesh across their striped bodies. Thank god that Chifundo had somehow managed to puke up the poison surging through him, or even I might not have been able to keep him on his hooves. As my fiery aura flowed around them, their wounds disappeared, making sure that it seeped in to repair all the torn muscles and punctured organs that they might be suffering just in case.
It was only as I turned my concentration to Corners that I realized that the filly wasn’t actually napping, she had passed out from her wounds. Guilt flooded through me as I quickly flooded her box with magic, patching the bloodied earth pony together in a rush. The whole time I was mentally smacking myself with a hoof. I had completely ignored the strange filly due to my prejudice over her antics and comments. What if she had died in her box and no one noticed. Shaking my head I promised myself to keep better track of ALL of my companions next time trouble struck, not just the nicer ones...
After finally ensuring that Sugarcube was in fact sleeping this time and not passed out, I turned to Sunrise, watching as she pinned a “MINES” sign onto a nearby cactus. “All right Sunrise, just like I promised, let’s see that leg of yours.” Even before I lit up my horn to extend my magical senses towards her, I could see that things didn’t look good. Her leg was clearly broken. She would need the bone set, a splint, careful bandaging, as well as regular attention to make sure the wound stayed clean… But then I stopped, a thought flittering through my busy mind. Maybe… Maybe with a little extra magic I could skip a few steps… It would be a little tricky, but after running through a few calculations in my head, I was sure that it would work. I lit up my horn, adding a layer of overglow as I went to to work. Time slowed as I lost myself in the flood of healing magic once more. I had never tried a spell this complex before, and for a while it felt like I had half a dozen hooves flying around at once. There was a layer of telekinesis to hold her leg still, another holding the bone in place, one more to hold her muscles in place, healing magic to coax her bone back together without letting any fragments loose in her leg, pull everything back into place, stop the internal bleeding, and strengthen the whole leg back up as I finished. I could feel the sweat dripping down the side of my face as my senses finally returned to normal and my horn faded. I let out a dusty panting cough of exhaustion, dizzy for half a second. That was undoubtedly the single most challenging heal that I’d ever done. Oh sure, individually each piece of it was simple enough, but together it had really taken a toll on my arcane reserves. Still though, I was proud to see the green filly on all four of her hooves again without a problem. I couldn’t help but smile to myself. On top of that, I’d figured out a safe way to set bones without a cast. It wasn’t easy, but who knew when we’d run into another dangerous situation like that, and need everyone back on their hooves without a restoration potion.
What i saw next came as a shock to me. It wasn’t that I hadn’t expected Sunrise to leave a sign warning other ponies who came after us of the mines. Even wasting half a bottle of water on the cactus that she’d pinned said sign to wasn’t far fetched for her. No, the part that made me uneasy was that she’d drawn a picture of a winged pony with a shotgun on the sign as well. All of a sudden a few things clicked in my head. First was the obvious, “Ah, so that’s where the Angel with a shotgun comes from.” Second was that part that made me equally confused and uncomfortable. I’d seen that drawing before, and recently. Somepony, I can only assume our stable dweller, had drawn the exact same drawing on the rock that had been placed atop of the grave I’d been buried in. That raised dozens of questions, and answered none of them. Thoroughly confused, I trotted up to the filly and asked if the picture was something she had drawn much before, and confirmed that she was in fact the one who had drawn it. More than that, somehow I had been planted in Buddy’s grave less than an hour or so after the group had left for SIlver Fang Shanty to top things off.
After rushing over to double check with Alguacil about the ponies he’d buried, the three of us were left as confused as we started. Unfortunately our situation proved more pressing than the mystery at hoof. All of us aside from Al and myself were wounded yet, and quite severely in most cases. With Alguacil and Nyota’s help, we found a place to rest and heal for a few hours. As I trotted around our fire to give each of my friends a once over, I found myself oddly at ease. It was like something was there to nudge my hooves in the right direction to set bandages right and focus my magic on the most painful wounds so that less went to waste. I didn’t think about it at the time, but I suspect that Chifundo’s soft relaxing chanting as we took our respite might have had something to do with it.
Soon enough, sooner than I might have liked from a medical standpoint at least, we were on our way again, hoofs kicking up dust on the trail towards Las Pegasus. Well, not quite Las Pegasus. We were headed towards the coordinates Sunrise had decoded off of her pipbuck, they just happened to be on the way to Las Pegasus. After hours of walking I was almost glad when the sandy desert started to make way to rocky mountainous desert as we grew closer to our unknown destination. Alguacil mentioned that we had crossed into gecko country as things grew more and more rocky. I had heard of them, but never actually run into a gecko before, the gryphon told me to consider myself lucky. Two more hours and we reached our destination, not that any of us would have missed it. Carved into the side of the mountain was a long corridor about a hundred feet deep with a stable door at the end. Again, I’d never come across a stable myself, but this one seemed a little… off… From everything I’d ever heard, they all were numbered, and that number was plastered right across the front door. This one had a giant Phi painted on it in yellow paint. I had a moment to wonder if they ran out of numbers or something, before a thought scampered unbidden through my head. Perhaps it wasn’t numbered because it wasn’t a standard vault… one that wasn’t on the normal numbered list… It’s a thought that I’ve been more and more inclined to believe as time goes on, given the fact that the lot of us nearly died just trying to get inside.
The terminal gave us trouble right from the get go, spouting something about an “Unauthorized User” the second Sunrise plugged her Pipbuck in. The filly was already grumbling over her task as I trotted up and offered to help. It wasn’t something I particularly enjoyed, but I had gotten stuck with a lot of medical filing back with Glue. The crotchety old stallion had managed to get an old terminal set up sometime in the past that he kept the town’s medical records stored on. I wasn’t a genius by any standard, but I considered myself a stable hoof, heh, at the basics. As it turned out, maybe I should have spent more time learning the system and less time goofing off and playing Pip Fall… Only a few seconds after we got the back panel off and started to run the maintenance subroutine, an aggressively loud klaxon alarm began to go off. Echoing down the hall a stern mare’s voice began to repeat “Lockdown mode initiated. Forceable access detected.” My gaze snapped to Wandering Sunrise as she quickly pulled her link cable out, swearing to herself like a navy sailor. Down the hall I hear Alguacil call over the alarm. “That’s a hell of a lot of noise guys! Stay on your hooves, something’s bound to hear it!”
I had just turned to respond when I saw something that filled me with a fear like I hadn’t felt in years. From the top of the entrance, a thick stone door was slowly sliding down to cover the passage. Snapping my gaze back to the mare beside me, I saw in her eyes that she had seen and come to the same conclusion, and we both took off like bat ponies out of Tartarus. There was a split second of clarity as our hooves clattered against the paved passage as to why the stable door was so far recessed from the entrance, watching the entrance slowly seal off despite the attempts from Alguacil to stop or even slow the door. A yelp and a crash to my side made me skid to a halt, head whipping around to see Sunrise on the floor, having tripped over a crack in the pavement. Rounding, I ran back to help her back to her hooves and nudge her ahead of me before taking off towards the entrance once more, the door over half closed at this point. Even so, it looked like we were going to just barely make it.
But my hopes were dashed a second later as around the gryphon’s head, a heavy gear spang loose with a clang, and the massive door began to free fall towards the ground. Ten feet from freedom, my eyes flicked to Sunrise, and I knew we weren’t both going to make it. In a burst of desperation, my horn flared to life and I gave the earth pony an unceremonious shove across the finish line, praying to anyone who might be listening that I might make it out as well.
I could see the afternoon sky, the heavy woosh of air crashing down above me, as I dove madly under the sliver of space, armor scraping the ground as I slid free. Then all I knew was pain. More than even my mother had ever forced me to endure, I could feel pain. My left leg was still under the several ton granite door, caught underneath at the knee as I continue to slide out, giving off a ‘CRUNCH’ that I felt through my body more than I heard. I’m not proud of it, but my horn lit up immediately to heal my mangled leg. Glue told me time and time again to never under any circumstance apply healing magic to an unset bone, lest it heal permanently crooked, or with the joints out of place, or with an unattached ligament. Dozens of debilitating situations that could never be fixed as the body had already ‘healed’. I couldn’t help it. There was just so much pain…
A cuff to the back of my head brought my senses back as Nyota gave me a light slap and told me to stop. The zebra was right of course, taking a deep breath, I pushed the pain aside. While it was still the worst I’d ever experienced, I was an old hoof at dealing with pain. Working together with him, Nyota and I set the bone and put my leg back together. It hurt, phenomenally so, but it was absolutely better than the alternative of losing half of my hind leg. I could see the flickering of orange through the bandage that the zebra wrapped around the limb as my breathing slowed, the last of the energy dispersing as I gave him a heartfelt thank you and collapsed to the rocks. After the whole ordeal, I was more than ready to take a few minutes to gather myself together again. Buck, I had just nearly lost a leg. For a moment I just laid there in a daze as Sunset and Corners argued over how we were going to get the door back open.
The rest would be short lived as Alguacil swooped back down from where he was flying cover for us, warning of a “sea” of geckos converging on the closed door. Looks like he was right about that alarm. As much as much as my body protested, I was back up on my hooves in only a few seconds, ready to run once more. I hadn’t even noticed as we ran that Sunrise had baited the two pressure mines and left them behind until a roaring dual explosion ripped through the air. I almost stumbled on my newly healed leg in surprise, looking to the Earth pony, her slight smirk was enough to clue me in what she had done. The lot of us ran for a bit more just to make sure we were out of range of the horde of geckos, and one giant gecko according to our regulator.
Let me tell you, I was more than ready to rest for the night by the time we stopped to set camp. As much as I wanted to strip my armor and just collapse, I wasn’t the only one still injured. I made another round of check ups on the two zebras, casting one last spell to help them sleep and recover through the night before Sunrise came up to me. Turns out she was about to do the same thing for me, and was worried that I was mad at her for the situation with the vault door. I was shocked to be honest. There were plenty of things that I’ve had to blame on other ponies in my life, but today wasn’t one of them. Today was… Today was just bad luck, bad luck in spades, and I told her so. The filly staunchly agreed, showing that not only had the terminal been an ass, she’d been locked out of a second file on her pip buck. I gave her a hug and suggested some sleep, casting the spell of sound slumber on her as well before she walked off.
For all of my experience as a doctor patching up wounded and bleeding ponies, setting bones, and stitching skin back together, I’d never been through anything like today. Combat medicine is terrifying. Turns out that my friends weren't kidding when they regaled me with the stories of the struggles that they’d faced. Heh, makes me wonder how they survived without a medic in the first place. That said, I am glad to be there for them now. I haven’t known this group for long, but I believe that together we Are making the wasteland a better place, a little at a time...
Perk Discovered: Wasteland Surgeon
You’ve got the horn for putting ponies back together. It takes twice the effort, but you can magically heal limbs with your healing spells.
Author's Note
Especially compared to the last chapter, this one went way longer than I anticipated. Most likely any of the non-town episodes will be around this length.
