The Last Watcher: Neighagra Falls

I'm a silhouette
Asking every now and then
Is it over yet?
Will I ever smile again?

I'm a silhouette
Chasing rainbows on my own
But the more I try to move on
The more I feel alone

So I watch the summer stars to bring me home

I knew what this was. I knew it when Bittercup had described it to me. Seeing it only confirmed it. It really shouldn't bother me so much. Why did it bother me at all? There had been some sort of natural cave here but the Old World had put one of those chain link fences up to block off the entrance. A chain link door allowed access when it wasn't locked, and it looked like the padlock had been broken off some time ago. The signs still attached were too faded to read.

It didn't look like much, but that had been the point. It was one of the military's emergency armories. Neighagra wasn't exactly close to the fighting, but the old world had contingencies in place for even the end of their world. Preparing for a fight on home soil was easy, relative to that. It was meant to be inconspicuous, so to not arouse curiosity, and the immediate inside was kept as unhewn stone so even if some juvenile delinquent were to break in they'd only see a cave. Deeper in there was once a stockpile, ready to be gathered up and given out to anypony read to fight for their home.

I knew as soon as Bittercup had described it just the same as I'd heard before. The Night Watch had gotten their start here. Or, not here, no. A place like this far away, before we'd decided to make Neighagra home. Before I was born. This was a different place.

This did not belong to the Night Watch. It is not mine.

No matter how often I said it, the burning anger only builds.

"Are you okay?"

I turned to look back at Bittercup, the fresh corpses behind her really put off a stench. We had mined the area outside the door, or she had as I covered her from a distance. She'd taken them as part of the explosives she'd taken with her when she'd left. It was easy then to lure a bunch of them out into our trap. Some were still inside, retreating back in when they realized what was happening. Or the ones who still could did, at least. There was going to be tense, close quarters fighting ahead. And I was standing here stewing just outside the front door.

"I'm fine. Four still left inside right?"

She nodded, then tilted her head at one of the corpses. "We got Top Gun." Top Gun, she'd explained, was the one in charge. Bittercup had explained he wasn't too bright. The mines were her idea, just for him. With their leader down, there was hopefully infighting about who was in charge. Even if not, they were still way down on numbers, now.

But the claustrophobic fighting we were going to find inside wasn't exactly my forte. Without a shotgun, I was not eager to go in. Thankfully, for once, I wouldn't be going in alone. "Take the lead, I'm right behind you."

Bittercup took up her bat, which would make it hard for us to talk, and confidently walked inside. I followed, more cautiously but careful to keep pace. Once we were through a few bends metal began to appear under our hooves. As the cave started to drop away the plates stayed level, keeping us above the sloping floor. I'd warned Bittercup to be careful about traps, but she was confident that she'd taken all the supplies they had for that, and they weren't going to have had time to put any more down. Since she was willing to go first, literally betting her life on it, I wasn't going to argue with her. We made it pretty deep in, our path only lit by the Spirit of Light in my rifle and the occasion lamp.

Bittercup stopped near a corner, setting down her bat. "The base proper is just ahead. You ready?"

She wasn't whispering. She spoke in as low a register as she could manage. I wondered where she learned that, but filed it away for later and responded in the same low register. "I've got the easy job. The question is, are you ready?"

She gave me this crazy smile. In one motion she turned to run, scooping the bat up in her mouth, and disappeared around the corner. I wasn't quite in position and was caught off guard by her eagerness. I quickly moved to where she'd been standing and leaned around the corner. I was just able to take in the prefab metal units where the stockpile would've been kept, with the catwalk run up to it, when a burst of light flashed in one of the windows. The sound of a gunshot in the cave was deafening. I barely registered it as I snapped my rifle into position and pulled the trigger twice. I couldn't be sure I'd landed my shots, but Bittercup was still running full tilt and more shots came from the other side of the doorway as I fired. I moved and double tapped where I saw those shots coming from as well. Bittercup had disappeared inside while I was firing.

Though my eyes were a bit dazzled and my ears ringing from the gunfire, I was fairly certain there wasn't any more return fire from the windows, so I followed Bittercup as quickly as I could. Bittercup was already engaged with somepony when I got there, but I paused to check the positions at the windows. Plenty of bodies, common raider decor started here, but two dressed in common raider mishmash lay by the windows.

Bittercup was pushing her opponent back and I didn't have a clear shot, but I raised my rifle anyway, ready to help if the opportunity presented itself. A unicorn stepped out of a doorway to my left, between me and the fight, and pipe floating next to his glowing horn. He turned his attention to me, eyes wide, and screamed. "You're dead!"

Bittercup's opponent made a clever move, pulling a leg out from under her. She stumbled. I fired. Her opponent dropped, a clean shot. Bittercup looked surprised. I had a moment to realize I'd made a mistake before my world was black from the intensity of the pain.

I wasn't out for long, but when I came back to my senses Bittercup and the unicorn were wrestling on the floor. Bittercup was under him, overpowered and choking. I didn't try to get up. My pistol came out and pressed into his skull, though I was careful to angle it not into Bittercup. He dropped the first time, but I put a second round into him to be sure before I dropped the gun.

"Ffffff, buck." I groaned, letting myself feel the pain now that all four were taken care of. My leg was screaming at me, trying to overwhelm me, but only now would I let it become the focus of my world.

Bittercup took a moment to try and catch her breath before coming over to me. "Are you....?" Her voice sounded bad and she didn't try to finish her sentence.

"Medical shipment." I reminded her. "See if, gaaaah, h-hydra."

"R-right!" She was gone in a moment.

I lay on the floor and focused on my breathing. I had an eternity to suffer before she'd get back. I knew my foreleg was broken, I didn't need to look at it to be sure. A broken bone is a distinct feeling. You don't forget it.

What had I done wrong? I couldn't place it. I knew in the moment I'd made a mistake, but that was a gut feeling. Review... Review, learn, move forward. A new enemy had entered the fight and announced itself. The current target got an upper hoof on my partner. I shot at them. My partner should have... Oh.

Cornerstone, after hearing the new opponent enter, would've used that trip to roll to face him and count on me to be there to cover for him. Of course, I covered for him. There wasn't a thought to it, pure instinct. It's just what we did. Bittercup was not Cornerstone. She wasn't my squad. She wasn't a Watcher.

How could I forget?

She hadn't been prepared for me to back her up and wasn't there to cover for me in turn. I fought like I hadn't for months. I fought like I was part of a squad again.

Lesson learned. Move forward.

As soon as Bittercup got back with the medical supplies anyway. For the moment I wasn't going anywhere.

She got back eventually, holding the easily identifiable bottle with the tubes running up to the mouth. "G-great," I said through gritted teeth. "Do you know how?"

"Needle in the cork. Pull up on the plunger. Inject it into your leg." She rattled off quickly.

"What're ya waitin' for?"

"Right..." She pulled out the needle and did as she said she would. I groaned from the pain, watching relief come oh so slowly.

"You know to- vein?" I grunted.

"I can do this," she assured me, walking over to me.

"Great," I grunted again, closing my eyes. It was only a moment later I felt the needle go in. Which was nothing compared to what was coming next.

I screamed as I felt my leg shifting on its own. The hydra went to work immediately setting the bone. The sounds it made were unpleasant, to put it mildly. Bone on bone didn't feel any better than it sounded. Eventually, with more of a crack, the bone finally set itself. I clutched at the leg and felt my hoof get wet. Oh great. Blood. The bone had broken the skin. How did I not notice that? The smell of blood should've... no wait, there it is. Guess I was too busy focusing on other things.

"Healing potion in my bag," I said, realizing blood loss might be why I was feeling light headed.

Bittercup went digging and came up with one. Healing potions were always kept on top. I downed it quickly.

"Feel better?" Bittercup asked.

"Ever needed hydra before? I'm gonna itch like a son of a bitch for a while."

"Sounds better to me."

I just grunted, giving it another minute. I didn't want to stand on it too soon. "I'll be fine." We fell quiet for a moment while I let my leg heal.

"You shot him."

I barked out a laugh, I couldn't help it. "Hi, I'm Longshot. Of the Night Watch. I don't believe we've met."

"No, I mean... you shot the one I was fighting, not the one coming for you."

"Paid the price for that." I grit my teeth and carefully got to my hooves. It didn't quite feel fixed yet, but it was taking my weight so that was good.

Bittercup was quiet as she watched me get up. "Thank you."

"Yeah, well..." It was hard not to think of Cornerstone in her place. We wouldn't be having a somber moment, we'd be celebrating a won fight. He'd rib me about not being able to handle a unicorn with a pipe, I'd tease him about how easy it was to make him stumble. Not exactly a steady cornerstone. One of us would challenge the other to some contest when we got back to HQ. Magnum would remind us the fight was over but not the mission... I reached out with my magic to touch one of the revolvers in my bag, just to make sure it was still there. "Next time return the favor a little faster, maybe."

I didn't wait for a response, heading back in the direction I'd seen her disappear in earlier. It wasn't hard to find the crate of medical supplies they'd dragged back here. I peeked inside and shook my head. "Looks like they used a bunch of the supplies already, " I muttered.

"Well they didn't take them to sell them," Bittercup said from the doorway. She actually caught me a bit off guard, I hadn't heard her follow me. "Plan to drag this crate back to Neighagra?"

"Not in the crate," I shook my head. "There's little enough left that if I can find a spare set of saddlebags I can just carry all this back in those."

"I'll do it," she said, stepping out of the doorway.

"Do what?"

She poked her head back in, "I know where a set of saddlebags are in here, and you have a healing leg. I'll carry them back."

I narrowed my eyes at her a moment, wondering if I could trust her with the supplies... I wasn't sure where the suspicion was coming from, she hadn't done anything to make me doubt her. Yet. "Yeah, alright..."

I sat down, staying off my leg as much as I could. Closing my eyes and trying to relax, though my head felt strange with the hydra still in my system so I couldn't really relax and refocus properly. Still... it was good to have somepony to share the load with, at least for a little while.

In Search of Salves
-Recover Medical Supplies: Complete