Chapter 4: Medical Measures

Once all the ponies came into the limits of the valley, the two Summer Wing ponies headed dejectedly toward their homes, knowing that their "tails" would soon be in for it. Chief had stayed behind at the cliff, making sure no remnants of the fire remained. Stinger and Cricket headed immediately to the home of Slither, the yellow unicorn and doctor. He had his practice in a room adjacent to his house.

When they landed, Pyro immediately got to his feet, refusing politely any help. He knew he could make the few simple steps to the clinic, and at any rate he wanted to be able to see Hacksign perfectly. Quite indeed, the boy was far mature for his age, and one, when given a chance to talk to him, could easily mistake him for someone much older who merely had a growth problem. He entered the office, casting small glances at the doctor inside, watching his moves carefully, studying him without a word.

"Slither, I know it's only 3:00 in the morning, but we have had a bit of an emergency," Stinger began. "Are your daughters okay? I heard they had run off together. I see you both have a child. Wait! That isn't Bumble nor Flutter! It's an earth pony! I've never seen him before. Son, what's your name? How old are you? What's wrong?" he began his barrage of questions.

Pyro did not like the way the man was questioning him, and he most certainly did not like his rushed tone. To quiet him, he merely motioned to Hacksign. "Hacksign has been hurt. We were in a storm, and she got cut up pretty badly. I think its been around 7 hours ago or so, and she hasn't woken up."

"Hack-sign," he slowly said the strange name. "Well, let's have a look at her. Would you put her up on the table please?" Stinger immediately complied. The young girl was still out cold. Slither began a slow, meticulous examination of her. His largest concern was in a piece of wood that was jammed in the side of her head. "I think this is the cause of her unconsciousness. This probably has caused a concussion. I need to remove it, but I don't want her to feel it in the event she would wake up." He made his way over to the cabinets, and grabbed a hypodermic syringe and filled it full.

Pyro watched cautiously as the doctor did his work, his eyes never leaving him, never resting from their in-depth study of each and every one of his movements. He was determined to make sure Hacksign would pull through, as well as to make sure these strangers could be trusted: and he could not and would not rest until he felt satisfied with their work.

Slither noticed Pyro's wariness. "She'll be just fine. This shot is just to numb the area around the wound so she won't feel anything. I promise." Quickly and deftly, the injection was given, and the good doctor had removed a large chunk of wood from Hacksign's skull. He rinsed the wound, ridding it of any remaining splinters, packed it with a special medicinal substance, and then quickly sewed the small hole up. While the little pony continued to sleep he cleaned the rest of her minor cuts and abrasions but found nothing seriously wrong with the young filly except for malnourishment. He went to his supply case and got the items together for an IV, and quickly had her hooked up to a slow drip that would replenish her body fluid and nutrients. This done, he turned back to Pyro. "Now, son, she will soon awake. Once she gets the nutrients in her she'll be much better. I just want to check you out, though,. Will you let me?"

Pyro hesitated for a moment. He really did not want to be examined by anyone, but he reasoned that if he trusted him well enough to take care of Hacksign, he should have no worries. So, reluctantly, he gave a nod, though his body was tense and rigid. Meanwhile, he kept looking over to Hacksign. He would stay with her the night to make sure she was all right.

Slither couldn't help but smile, although he turned around so Pyro couldn't see him. It was just that Pyro was taking on such an adult attitude about this whole thing, and he couldn't have been more than six years old! Slither wanted nothing more than to know more about these two, since it had been assumed that no ponies lived outside of Dreamvalley. But instead, he just turned his attention to Pyro, and carefully checked him for any injuries. Pyro had gotten off fairly easily, with some minor scrapes. Most of his exhaustion was coming from severe dehydration, which the water he had found at the cliff had only begun to touch. Slither got a cot from his spare room, and brought it into the exam room. "Son, I want you and Hacksign to stay here tonight, just to be sure you are both okay. Now, you need a lot of liquids. I need you to either drink a lot of Pedialyte (yes, ponies had it too) or be hooked up to an IV.... your choice.

"I'll drink the liquid," Pyro said without hesitation. The last thing he wanted was to be hooked up to some machine: the thought made him uneasy, to say the very least. However, he did not think twice about climbing into the cot, happy finally to be getting some rest. He stared long and hard at Hacksign, assuring himself that she would be all right before he slowly drifted off into slumber land.

The doctor went over to the two fathers. "If the little girl doesn't wake by morning I will use the smelling salts, but I want this as natural as possible. You can go ahead and go on home now. I know you'll have two little girls to attend to first thing in the morning. I will give you a call when they have both awakened and eaten something. We'll have to take them to the queens and see what is to be done with them. I'm sure we'll be happy to keep them, but then again... who knows. We'll have to find adoptive families for them. The two pegasi nodded, and sleepily headed off to their homes. Slither turned back to check on his patients, and found both of them to be sound asleep, even Pyro, who had a bubble of spittle formed at his chin.