Stitched Together

We couldn’t move fast through the forest like how we had arrived. I was seriously wounded and bleeding out. I used my tattered shirt to stop the bleeding as much as possible, wrapping the whole shirt around my body to cover the injury I had received from the windigo. Still it took us four days to arrive back at my cave. I had passed out multiple times from blood loss along the way and I very nearly didn’t make it. On the fourth day my body couldn’t take any more. I felt my eye socket flare with pain as if there was a blazing inferno where my eye used to be. I fell to a soft cushiony mat. I opened my eye to see that I had somehow fallen on a gurney of some kind with Glib pushing me. Somehow Glib had put me in a gurney that came from seemingly nowhere and was racing me back to the cave. I was breathing erratically and I could feel my lung starting to collapse.

“Stay with me buddy! We won’t make it to the cave in time, by ordinary means.” I was about to ask him what he meant when all of a sudden strange shaped rockets poked out of the gurney and propelled us forth at extreme speeds. “Yehaw! Nitrous on a gurney! That should speed things up a bit don’t you think?” Glib asked however I was unable to answer. The pain racking my body was overwhelming and I could barely understand his words over the roar of the rockets and how fast we were going. I looked at Glib to see him wearing some kind of doctor outfit and smiling at me as if he was crazy. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was. He then pulled out a syringe from seemingly nowhere and injected my thigh with it.

“Don’t worry the morphine I just gave you should knock you right out, in a few seconds.” He said with confidence. I could feel the drug in my body numbing the pain quickly. However I was worried about the dosage of how much he had given me.

“How much?” I managed to slur very difficultly. I was barely holding on to consciousness.

“Oh, only about 6400 milligrams, I think. What’s the standard dose again?” He said more to himself than to me. I looked at him worriedly, it wasn’t that I didn’t trust him to save my life, it was just that I really didn’t trust him to save me at all. He saw how worried I looked and looked down at me and smiled.

“Don’t worry I’m a professional! Always wanted to say that.” He said making me worry all the more as I finally lost hold of consciousness.
I’m falling into the dark. A tiny light shines above me getting smaller and smaller as I fall further and further away from it. I reach my hand to the shimmer of light that’s left but it is pointless and stops nothing. Around me images blur and a sense of regret washes over me. It feels like I’m reliving my life all over again except someone put it on fast forward. Then suddenly the images stop and I’m forced to remember a memory that sticks to my conscious like a bee to a flower.

There was fire everywhere. I remember this scene vividly as if I just happened yesterday. I’m standing in a school, where little kids go. The fire was roaring with intensity that no one could control. I stood there helpless in the room as I looked on in horror as the little children burned away. They screamed for their mothers and their fathers. They yelled for anyone to come save them. I couldn’t do anything, but cry. That day I felt truly powerless and weak, and have never been able to forgive myself. As hundreds of kids were sacrificed for one man’s death, I tried to reassure myself that it wasn’t my fault, but I was the one responsible for burning that school to the ground. So that it would look like an accident. By the time the fire fighters got there everyone had long since been dead. Nothing in my life had ever made me cry until that event.

Now here I was reliving this tragedy once more. once more I’m forced to look on as the kids are set ablaze, forced to smell the foul stench of cooking humans, forced to remember the price of one man’s life. Tears quickly ran down my face as I hear their screams. It feels like those screams echo around me, tormenting me, driving me to the brink of insanity. Then suddenly the memory falls apart.

Beep

‘Where am I?’ I think to myself. My eyes refuse to open and my body doesn’t want to listen to me. I lay there immovable for a few minutes before I hear multiple footsteps. It sounds like the doctor’s coming to check on me but it feels off for some reason.

“The patient still appears to be sleeping doctor.” Says a feminine voice sounding nervous. I assume she’s talking about me.

“Hmm, it has been asleep for three days now. It very nearly died during the operation. It should be lucky that it has similar anatomy to Griffon’s or we wouldn’t have been able to save it.” The doctor says arrogantly. He sounded really stuck up and kept calling me it. It was very rude and I felt like getting up and punching him in the face. Instead I did the only thing I could do growl at him. They both were startled and gave cries of surprise.

“Maybe we should let it be Doctor Feelgood?” said the female. I couldn’t help but crack a smile at that. If I could I’d be laughing my ass off at the ridiculousness of the situation. It was a little sad that I had thousands of different puns in my head and no way to say them, unless they understood grunts and growls.

“Well Nurse Redheart I think that you may be right.” Dr. Feelgood says as they both leave the room. I sit there listening to the steady beeping of the heart monitor. It slowly lulls me back to sleep.

Red decorates my vision. Everything is a bright red as if everything were bleeding around me. My hands feel heavy, and I’m breathing haggardly as if I ran across the world twice. I’m on my knees staring down at what was once a face. Now it is nothing more than a bloody mush of brain matter and flesh. I feel hatred for this person in front of me. You take in your surroundings to see dozens of other bodies beaten and hacked away. It looks like a battlefield had occurred. You see most of the bodies skewered with swords, pikes, spears and any other weaponry known to man. Then as if the world was against you, you began to fall through the air rocketing downwards to earth. Before you could hit the ground all you felt was rage at something you lost. Try as you might you couldn’t remember what it was that you lost that made you so mad, but whatever it was made you feel like losing yourself to the rage once again. You screamed in anger against the world just before you hit the ground.

With a loud gasp you shoot up in your sick bed. Only to regret moving so quickly as your body aches with the sudden movement and your side feels like it’s on fire. I could hear the heart monitor next to me beeping loudly as my heart felt like it was going to leap out of my chest. I punched straight through the thing and threw it at the wall in anger. It stopped the infernal noise at least. It was then I noticed that I could move my body again. I rubbed my temples as I tried to forget the most recent dream that was still running through my mind. My body was covered in cold sweat leaving my clothes damp. I noticed that I was now wearing a hospital gown that was far too small and barely covered my crotch.

I start to sit up only to regret the action as my body protests greatly aching from the stiffness of not moving for at least a few days. I groaned audibly as I stretched my body slowly getting the kinks out of my body. After I was able to finally get up I searched the room for my clothes. I found some spare clothes that looked like Rarity had made them in one of the dressers in the room. I searched for the less sparkly clothes and luckily found one set of clothes that managed to look somewhat good, meaning they weren’t covered in gems or overly fancy. I put on the new clothes and ripped off the overly small gown. I noticed that there were stiches covering my side where I almost bleed out to death. They seemed pretty well done for amateurs.
I covered myself up and made my way out of the hospital unnoticed by the doctors and nurses completely. As I snuck outside I was greeted with the bright rays of sunlight. I squint my eye, noticing with great anger the loss of one of my eyes. I frowned as I walked through the town noticing that the ponies weren’t running away from me this time but were whispering amongst themselves about me. Rather loudly too as I heard much of their conversations.

“What’s with the hairless ape walking through town?” one said to another.
“Ape I thought it was a monkey?” the other replied.
“Mommy can I pet the big monkey?” a child asked his mother.
“No dear it looks like it might bite.” A mother said nervously.
“What is that strange thing walking around town?” A lady said gossiping.
“Maybe it’s an exotic creature from a far off land?” Another lady said continuing the gossip.
“Or worst, it could be from the Everfree!” The last lady said finishing the gossip, making them all shiver as the imagined that possibility. My frown deepening to a scowl with each remark I heard. I continued my unheeded walk scowling as the ponies continued to gossip about me only furthering my desire to throttle them all. I clenched my hands in rising anger. Then suddenly as if knowing that I was close to boiling over in anger a pink blur tackles me to the ground immediately dispelling my anger.

“OhmygoshJiwassoworriedaboutyouandwheniheardyouwereinthehospitalithoughtyouweregoingtodiebecauseiwasoverthinkingeverythingandyourtheonlyonewhohaseverunderstoodwhoireallyamandhowireallyfeelandididntwantyoutodiebeforeitoldyouabouthowifeltforyou-“ I cut off Pinkie before she could say anymore already feeling a headache coming on from hearing her talking incoherently.

“Pinkie you have to slow down if you want me to understand you. I’m fine anyway so don’t worry about it.” I say nonchalantly trying to brush off the subject. Pinkie simply cries onto my chest awkwardly clinging to my sides. I grimace in pain but she doesn’t notice and only squeezes harder much to my chagrin.

“Don’t scare me like that again. I was so worried.” Pinkie says still crying on me as if I was handkerchief. I dislike crying people, especially children. I feel bad for them and I feel guilt tripped into helping them. All I could do here is simply pat her head as she bawled her eyes out trying to reassure her. It drew attention to us both and I hated direct attention towards me. The whisperings grew louder as they gossiped more about me. As I got up to leave Pinkie grabbed my shirt tightly. I looked at her as she looked at me with those big eyes.

“Don’t leave me again.” Her eyes and her voice were so compelling that I was moved to compassion. I hated every minute of the unfamiliar feeling. I shifted awkwardly under the unwanted attention. However Pinkie was oblivious to my uneasiness or she just didn’t care as we lay there in the middle of the road gaining more attention to us. I could feel my cheeks blush a little as my embarrassment increased with every second.
“Pinkie can we do this somewhere else? We’re getting a lot of unwanted attention. That way we can have a little of privacy and I can breathe.” I say feeling like passing out from the pain. I manage to get up with Pinkie still holding tightly onto to me and drag the both of us to Twilight’s library for some privacy. As I waltz in to the library I hear Spike calling from the other room that he’ll be right there. I find a couch and sit there trying to catch my breath. I feel my eyelid get heavy as I feel drained of strength. I look down to see Pinkie sleeping peaceful still clinging to me. Then my savior came in the form of a baby dragon as he yells out “J’s back!” He then runs up to me and hugs me. I hear the clacking of hooves as Twilight runs downstairs to embrace me as well. This only added to my pain as more weight is put on me.
“You had me worried sick J.” Twilight mumbles into my shirt

“Yay Group hug!” Pinkie yells out squeezing us all in. It was painful and I felt like my stiches would rip any moment. Thankfully they didn’t sadly we stayed in the hug for a while. When they finally got off of me to breathe they immediately wanted to know what happened to me.
“Fell down a flight of stairs?” I ask trying to act coy about the situation. Twilight looked at me disapproving as she could see through the lie. Pinkie laughed at my response.
“What really happened we found just outside of the Everfree bandaged up. You were still losing a lot of blood though it’s surprising that you’re alive.” Twilight says looking crestfallen as she recalls the event.
“I tripped.” I say as if that would totally explain everything. Both of them stared at me as if I was crazy to actually think that they would buy that. “I’m kinda hungry, do you have anything to eat?” I ask evading the question now.
“Why won’t you tell us what happened to you?” ask Twilight as if I would actually give her a straight answer.
“I told you already I tripped end of story nothing more needs be said.” I say trying to end the conversation there.
“J you’re missing an eye and you were bleeding out that doesn’t happen from tripping! What is it that you’re hiding from us that you don’t want us to know?” Twilight snaps at me trying to get a truthful response.

“It’s none of your business, if you don’t believe me when I tell you that I tripped. What do I have to hide from any of you?” I say smugly knowing she isn’t going to get a straight answer from me. Twilight realizes it too as she sighs overly exaggerating the sigh. “Now if you don’t mind I have to go back to my cave.” I say in a serious tone. I was caught off guard and almost died because of it. I was a fool to let my guard down. It won’t happen again.

“But you just got back J and you’ve only just gotten out of the hospital! Did they let you out? They didn’t did they?” Twilights says it more like a statement than a question.

“Maybe they wanted to give him a surprise party and let him go so he could be surprised when he came back.” Pinkie always thinking of a party.

“Yeah let’s go with that.” I say hoping to brush the subject off.

“J you are not going to just brush this off!” Twilight yells at me. Now I’m a pretty laid back guy, but if you yell at me you best to expect to be yelled at as well.

“And who are you to say what I can and can’t do!? You will not control my like your slave Spike! I have a mind of my own and can think for my own damn self.” I yell getting more and more riled up by the second. I see Pinkie flatten her ears as she sees this starting to go out of control.

“Spike is not my slave! Stop changing the topic we’re talking about you!” Twilight yells back only degrading the situation.

“Can’t we just get along guys?” Pinkie says trying to defuse the situation to no avail.
“He might as well be one with the way you treat him! You lock him indoors and force him to shuffle around this library doing your bidding! Your over protectiveness is suffocating him. One day he will run away from you at this point from your ignorance.” I say clenching my fist. I could care less about Spike but slavery left a bad taste in my mouth. This was more of my anger at my loss of an eye and the injuries I sustained from my lack of preparation.

“So he can become as reckless as you and hurt himself severely!? So he can lose a limb or even an eye like you J!? You are impulsive, stupid, brash…” My rage had reached its peak and within seconds I was in front of Twilight. I took a knee to look her straight in the eyes with my eye.

“Continue that train of thought, I dare you.” I say with malice dripping with each word. Both Twilight and Pinkie shivered at my voice and Twilight trembled in fear at what I would do to her. “I refuse to controlled by anyone. I will not sit there and let you insult me any further. I have better things to do than listen to you prattle on and insult me.” With that I leave the library quickly. Neither of them dared to follow me in my current mood.

I quickly made my way to the cave and found Glib playing with a huge looking pistol humming a familiar tune. I shook my head as he started singing.
“Hey look buddy, I'm a badass, that means I solve problems. Not problems like, "What is love," because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. I solve practical problems. For instance, how am I gonna get my gun to blow off your head? The answer is with extreme precision. And if that don't work, use more bullets. Like this custom made .308 gun thought by me, made by me, and you'd best hope.... not aiming at you.”
I smirk a little at the words. “Don’t suppose that song comes with a wrench and a few turrets?” I ask just for the hell of it.

“Now where would the fun in that be?” He asks jovially.

“Could’ve used that gun earlier when I was getting mauled by the two ton hulking yeti.” I say a little irritated that he wasn’t more helpful.

“Not my fault, little Snuggems has a mind of its own.” He says caressing the gun lovingly.

“You named the gun Snuggems? I don’t even want to know. Next time use the damn thing.” I say shaking my head at the situation. “Anyway we need to gear up and train ourselves so situations like that don’t happen again.” I say. ‘Never again will I be so ill prepared’. I vow silently to myself.

Author's Note

Man took me a minute to finally post this. Sorry about the long delay but J is still kicking. You didn't honestly think i would end the story there now did you? If you see any errors let me know.

CA/N: Thanks for your patience hope you like this one more is to come