Guest - I guess you'll just hafta read and find out. ;)
GentlestCobra2 - Oh don't worry, I have plenty more written up; I plan on saving them in case I can't get a chapter written on time, that way you still get an update on time. It means a lot to me that you enjoy the story though. I also have extra in case you guys unlock one of my secret achievements, which will get you two chapters for the price of one on the next update.
A/N - Hi there everypony! I've got some news I'm sure you'll all love; yesterday was my birthday, and I feel like giving my readers a gift: two chapters in one update! Enjoy my little ponies.
"That sounds like Fluttershy!" Vinyl exclaimed when we heard the scream coming from the woods near the cottage. Something in my mind snapped into place and I went into action without thinking about it. I took off over the bridge and past the cottage, towards the general direction I had heard the scream coming from. It wasn't long before I came to a small clearing in the woods, and was met with a very strange sight.
I stopped momentarily at the edge of the clearing to assess the situation. On the left side of the clearing was a pale yellow Pegasus with a long pink mane and tail cowering with her back against a small pile of logs. She appeared to be huddled over a small animal, probably a squirrel from the looks of it.
On the other side of the clearing from her and slowly approaching with a careful, predatory gait were a pair of what looked to be large wolves, only they were made of tree branches and other various bits of wood and they had green glowing eyes. There was also a foul odor in the air, like fetid plant matter.
My fight or flight response kicked in, and it was screaming FIGHT! I flicked my hand down to my hip with a speed that came to me through weekend upon weekend of practice; only to realize that the pistol I normally kept holstered there was gone. I suddenly remembered why as another fragment of my memory flashed in my mind for an instant and I remembered leaving it behind when I made the decision to come here. I was already regretting that decision. I hadn't wanted to kill them with it; I had instead intended to scare them away with it.
With no time to dwell on that, I quickly reached down and picked up a fist-sized rock and took aim at the creature closest to me. They hadn't noticed me yet, and I planned to change that. I hurled the rock at the creature and charged at it, the rock impacting the side of its head moments later.
The creature shook its head, apparently dazed by the rock. Both creatures then looked in my direction, and the one that had been hit by the rock snarled at me. Seeing as these creatures were made of wood, trying to use my fists would likely be a futile and painful effort, I decided to use my relatively armored feet instead.
"Timberwolves!?" I heard Vinyl shout behind me, obviously afraid. "Blake, be careful, those things are dangerous!" She shouted in warning. Timberwolves, huh? An oddly fitting name, I thought. The timberwolf closest to me lunged as I got closer and I lashed out with a vicious kick to its face. The timberwolf yelped and dropped back to the ground, but not before swiping at me with its claws, leaving lines of torn cloth and flesh across my left shoulder.
The second timberwolf attempted to circle around behind me, trying to flank me and make it easier for them to take me down. I kept my ears open for the one behind me and heard a single scrape of its claws on the ground at the same time that the one in front of me leapt again. Figuring the one behind me to have done the same, I ducked below the timberwolves and rolled to my left. The timberwolf behind me managed to score a hit with its claws along my right side before the two collided above me, causing the one that had been in front of me to collapse in a heap of disjointed parts.
The remaining timberwolf got back to its feet and snarled at me and ran straight towards me. As it closed, I prepared for it to lunge again. It had other plans, however, and feinted a lunge before springing to the left, catching me momentarily off guard. It swiped its claws at me again, and I managed to dodge with only a few more tears in my shirt.
On instinct, I threw a right hook that connected with the side of its head. I felt the bones of my hand dislodge and the skin split under the impact; but due to the adrenaline in my system, there wasn't much pain. The timberwolf shook its head, dazed, giving me the opening I needed. Planting my right foot, I spun around and, using the weight of my body combined with the strength of my leg, delivered a devastating kick; planting the heel of my boot across the side of its head as it shook it, still trying to clear its mind from the punch.
The timberwolf's head dislodged from its body and landed several feet away, its body and head crumbling to the ground in a heap like the other one had. "I um… I didn't mean to kill it" I said sadly, not really fond of taking life like that.
Vinyl trotted up to me, "Dude! That was awesome! I've never seen anypony take on two timberwolves and win like that!" She seemed really enthusiastic about the whole ordeal.
"I was just trying to protect those two over there." I said motioning to the pink maned Pegasus who was making her way over to me, slowly. The creature that she had been protecting was racing towards me, and turned out to be not a squirrel, but a small Pegasus. This one had an orange coat with a purple mane and tail, with its mane being relatively short and unkempt and having darker purple eyes.
"That was amazing mister!" the little pony shouted in a somewhat tomboyish sounding voice as she ran excitedly around me. "I'm Scootaloo, what's your name?" she asked, still running circles around me.
I chuckled at her antics. "My name's Blake" I replied simply.
"It's nice ta meet ya, Mister Blake!" She exclaimed as the yellow Pegasus got to where we were all at.
"Th-thank you for saving us… M-my name's Fl-Fluttershy…" the yellow Pegasus said in a quiet voice, introducing herself. Her aquamarine eyes seemed to be full of innocence. "Don't worry about the timberwolves, they'll pull themselves together eventually and make their way back into the Everfree Forest." Fluttershy said softly.
I was relieved to hear this; even though they were threatening both Fluttershy and Scootaloo, they were only looking for food, and I hadn't wanted to kill them over something like that. I didn't have long to think about what had just happened though, as the adrenaline in my system began to wear off and I felt the pain of all the injuries I had just received. The most notable of these was the one to my side, running diagonally across my ribcage, the pain was so intense that it caused my right leg to become weak, causing me to clutch the area with my left hand and drop to my right knee. My hand was met with a warm, sticky liquid, and I knew that I was bleeding, badly.
"Oh my, you're hurt!" Fluttershy exclaimed quietly. "We should get you back to my cottage. I have medical supplies there, so we can get you patched up." She seemed to be really concerned about me, I hoped I wasn't injured as badly as I thought; otherwise I might be in trouble.
I tried to stand back up, but the pain intensified every time I tried. On the third try, I managed to stand, but I was already breathing hard from both the exertion and the pain, and wasn't sure how far I could walk. Vinyl had a concerned look on her face. "You think you'll be ok to walk back to Fluttershy's cottage? I can carry you with my magic if you need me too."
"I think it would be best if you did carry him… if you don't mind that is." Fluttershy said, concerned. "If he walks there himself, he might make his injuries worse. Plus he'll lose blood faster if he walks."
Vinyl nodded her head and her horn began to glow, and I was surrounded in her magic and lifted off the ground. The four of us made our way to Fluttershy's cottage, which fortunately wasn't too far away, as I couldn't tell how badly I was bleeding. Fluttershy opened the door to her cottage and Vinyl carried me inside. Fluttershy looked over at me as Vinyl set me on a small couch in the main room of the cottage. "You'll need to take your shirt off so I can treat your wounds… umm, if that's alright with you that is." She said, timidly.
I nodded and started undoing the buttons of my shirt with my left hand, trying to be as careful as I could to not aggravate my wounds. I got the shirt unbuttoned with relatively little difficulty, but the wounds on my shoulder and especially my side made taking it off all but impossible. Suddenly my shirt was engulfed in a light blue glow and I looked over to Vinyl to see her horn glowing with a small smile on her face.
My shirt peeled off my bloodied side and Fluttershy gasped as she got a good look at my wound. "Oh my… this is worse than I thought. I don't think I can fix this. I'm sorry, I'll do what I can, but I've never seen an injury this bad before." She said with a sorrowful expression.
Vinyl walked over to us and looked at my side. "Whoa dude, that looks nasty…" she said as she raised her glasses with a hoof, revealing crimson eyes. "Do you wanna see it for yourself?" She asked, looking up to me.
I was apprehensive, I honestly didn't want to see it, but it would be better if I did; I needed to know how bad off I was and what could be done to fix it. I looked at her and nodded my head slightly, indicating to her that I did. Without saying anything, she looked over to a nearby table and levitated a small mirror over to me. I took the mirror from her and nodded my thanks. Using my left hand, I positioned the mirror to see my side. My eyes widened, it was bad indeed, the wolf's claws had gone clear through the muscle and my rib bones had visible gouges in them, though fortunately the bleeding seemed to have slowed somewhat.
Scootaloo spoke up for the first time during the conversation at this point. "I think I might know someone who might be able to help us." Vinyl and Fluttershy turned their attention to the little orange Pegasus, "Do you know where Zecora lives?" She asked Vinyl.
Vinyl shook her head. "Shouldn't we take him to Ponyville General so the docs there can treat him?" She asked Fluttershy, making a valid point; trained physicians would be able to fix this.
Fluttershy shook her own head at this. "That would be a good idea, unfortunately it's on the opposite side of town from here, and poor Blake's been through enough as it is. I'm afraid if we move him much more in this condition, it might be too much for him…" The yellow Pegasus said sadly.
This caused a look of worry over both Scootaloo's and Vinyl's faces before Fluttershy spoke again. "I think Scootaloo is right, Zecora is the only one who can help us. I'll go and tell her what happened and bring her here. You two stay here with Blake and make sure he stays awake. Vinyl, I'll also need you to bandage his side so he loses as little blood as possible. My medical supplies are in the closet in the next room." She said as she gestured to the room in question with her hoof, a sudden change coming over her. She seemed far more determined than before.
Vinyl nodded and gave a salute. Fluttershy smiled and said; "Good, I'll be back as quickly as I can. Please be careful Blake, I'd hate to see anything happen to you…" She walked out the door, off to get this 'Zecora' as she said this. I hoped she would return soon, as I was already feeling the effects of the blood loss.
Vinyl trotted into the room with the medical supplies and returned a moment later with them levitating by her side. She opened the box and pulled out a bottle of clear liquid and a roll of gauze, along with a few gauze pads. I identified the liquid to be rubbing alcohol when she opened the bottle and I was struck by the strong scent. She then looked back to me and frowned. "This is gonna hurt dude." She said, sounding upset that she had to cause me pain.
I nodded my head and smiled. "It's ok Vi, I've been through this before, you just do what you need to do." I said as I reached and pulled my wallet out of my back pocket.
Vinyl looked at the wallet and took a step back. "Is that?!" She asked, a worried tone to her voice.
I looked at the wallet, confused for a moment before I realized what she was afraid of. "No, it's only synthetic leather, it's not real; it just looks like it is." She let out a sigh of relief and walked back over to me.
She smiled. "Well that's a relief, had me worried I'd be next for a minute." She looked over my wound for a moment, "Now, let's get to this, shall we?" She asked in a false chipper tone.
I had an idea at that point. "Hang on a sec Vi; does Fluttershy have salt, like a lot of it?" I asked, drawing a look of confusion from her. I smiled as best I could, as my condition was worsening. "It's for the wound. After you clean it out with the alcohol, I want you to load it up with salt before you cover it with the gauze."
Her expression changed from confused to horrified. "Are you crazy Blake?!" she asked incredulously. "Do you have any idea how much that's gonna hurt!?" She had a worried expression again, probably thinking that I had lost too much blood and I wasn't thinking clearly. This was true, but I knew that salt would stop the blood loss better than the gauze pads alone would.
I chuckled. "I may be a bit delirious from blood loss right now, but I know what I'm talking about. We need to stop this blood loss now, and those gauze pads alone won't cut it at this point. And yes, I know exactly how much this is gonna suck, I've been through that before too, that's how I know it'll work."
She let out a sigh of resignation and went off to find salt, returning a moment later with a big canister of it in her magic. "Think this'll be enough? It's almost full." she asked, showing it to me.
I nodded. "Yeah, that should do it, though you'll probably use most of it, so I'll owe her a new can of it." She shrugged and walked back over to me.
"Alright tough guy, here we go…" she said as she walked to my right side with the medical supplies held in her magic.
We had sent Scootaloo outside to play while Vinyl worked; as we agreed she was too young to see something like this. The next several minutes felt like an eternity as Vinyl slowly and carefully irrigated the wound on my side with the alcohol, stopping occasionally to wipe a bit of debris from it with a cotton swab. This was why I had gotten my wallet out, to give me something relatively soft to bite down on and to muffle my screams of pain. I wasn't screaming yet, but I knew that would come with the next part.
Vinyl had a pained look on her face the whole time. I could tell that causing me pain like this, even if it was to save my life, was tearing her up inside. I just hoped for her sake that she'd be strong enough to pull through it. Once she was done cleaning the wound, I was breathing heavily and felt light-headed.
I looked over at the white unicorn with concern. "That was the easy part, are you sure you're up for what's next? If not, I think I can do it on my own if you wanna step outside or something." I wasn't sure I actually was though, the room had begun to spin and I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold out.
She shook her head and put on a determined face. "Nah, I can do this. Besides, I got through this much, haven't I?" Her determination to help me was heartwarming.
I nodded and put my wallet back in my mouth. I'll probably need a new one after this, if they even exist here that is. I thought. Vinyl steadied her breath and opened the container of salt, taking her time in pouring it over the wound, making sure it got into every nook and cranny of the jagged claw marks. I tried my best not to scream, for both Vinyl's and Scootaloo's benefits, but I didn't last long before I started. It was an involuntary reaction, and I knew Vinyl was probably hurting just as bad emotionally as I was physically.
My vision became blurry and my screams had died down to hoarse grunts when Vinyl said "There, all done. But please don't ask me to do anything like that again. Like ever…" My vision cleared slightly as the pain dulled somewhat, and I could see well enough to make out the trails of tears tracing their way down her face from beneath her sunglasses.
I weakly reached my hand out and wiped her tear trails away. "I'm sorry you had to do that Vi, if there had been another way…" I trailed off then, Vinyl smiling and nuzzling her face into my hand.
"It's ok dude, I know you needed me to. But we need to finish dressing this wound and start on the one on your shoulder." She was right; though the salt had staunched the flow of blood from my side, it still needed to be wrapped, and I was still slowly losing blood from my shoulder.
Not long after, Vinyl had wrapped my side and cleaned and dressed my shoulder, we had decided not to use the salt there, as it wasn't that bad. My hand wasn't really bleeding, but it was still dislocated. I knew how to reset it, but I didn't have the energy or the clarity to do so; Vinyl didn't know how, and she wasn't comfortable doing it herself. We decided it would be best to wait for Fluttershy and her friend to get back to help. Vinyl went outside to let Scootaloo know it was ok to come back in, but came inside shortly after to let me know the young Pegasus was nowhere to be found, probably scared off by my pained screams.
With her help, I laid down on the couch, which was more like a loveseat. Vinyl and I chatted and made small talk, trying to keep me awake, which was critical at this point; even if I did feel like sleeping for about a week. I was starting to get nervous, as staying awake was getting harder and harder by the second, and I knew if I fell asleep now, I'd likely never wake up again.
After a small lull in conversation, Vinyl spoke again. "So hey, I noticed that bracelet you have earlier, it's pretty cool. Where'd you get it?" Vinyl asked after a moment of silence.
I looked down at my left wrist to see the bracelet I had woven for myself out of about six meters of OD green paracord. My memory flashed back to my time with the princesses again, when I decided what to take and leave, but I didn't remember seeing this; I must've skipped over it somehow. I looked up at Vinyl and smiled, "I made this actually. Well, I wove it myself at least; I bought the cord that I used."
She smiled at this. "That's so cool! Do you think you could do one for me sometime?"
I chuckled, grimacing at the pain that shot from my side. "I'd love to… though I'm not sure I could get this particular type of cord here." She had a crestfallen look when I said this; well, as crestfallen as she could look through those glasses.
She perked up quickly though, "Well, what kind of cord is it? I might know where you can find some." She said with a smile back on her face.
"Well, it's a special type of cord from where I come from; it's called five-fifty paracord. It's made entirely out of nylon, and it has an outer shell surrounding inner cords, and it's very strong for its diameter and weight."
Vinyl looked confused again. "What's 'nylon'?" she asked, obviously never having heard of it.
As I was about to reply, the front door opened and Fluttershy walked in, being followed by what appeared to be a zebra. Something was off though, instead of being white with black stripes, she was light grey with dark grey stripes. Her mane, which was done up in a Mohawk, and tail still appeared to be the black and white of an Earth zebra though. She also seemed to be a few inches taller than Fluttershy and Vinyl. She looked at me with her deep sapphire eyes, "Hello my friend, Zecora is my name; potions and brews are my game. If you would be so kind, please undo your bind."
She had a relatively deep voice, but it was still feminine, and the way she rhymed was interesting. I tried to sit up to comply with her request, but found the blood loss had left me too weak to do so. I suddenly found myself surrounded by a familiar blue glow as Vinyl used her magic to help me sit up. I carefully and slowly unwrapped the bandage from around my chest and side before removing the gauze pads covering the gashes. I heard a pair of gasps from Zecora and Fluttershy. Wh-what happened?" Fluttershy asked in a shocked voice.
Zecora however, seemed more impressed than anything. "What you have done is good without a doubt; the salt you have used has kept you from bleeding out.
This caused Fluttershy to gasp again. "Yo-you put salt on your wound!? Oh my, didn't that hurt?" She seemed very concerned for me.
I smiled and stifled a chuckle, afraid it might cause the gashes to open further. "Like you wouldn't believe, Fluttershy. Don't worry though, most humans can tolerate quite a bit of pain. But like Zecora said, if we hadn't, I probably would've bled out by now and we wouldn't be having this conversation." The fur around her face seemed to somehow pale a little as the implications sunk in, but she didn't say anything.
Zecora walked over to me and began inspecting my side. "While it has saved your life, this salt we now must manage; so that we can see the full extent of the damage." Vinyl left the room and returned a moment later with a large glass of clean water and an empty glass suspended in her magic.
She then used her magic to pull some of the water out of the glass and used it to flush the salt out; which she then deposited in the empty glass to keep it from running all over Fluttershy's couch; which I was very grateful for, even if it did burn like crazy. After about a minute of this, the wound was clean and Zecora could see just how bad it was. It must've been, because her eyes widened at the sight of it. "My friend, you have my sincerest gratitude; to be injured like this to save a stranger shows the noblest attitude."
I just smiled at this, still feeling very weak, and without my wound being properly covered, I didn't want to waste what little energy I had left. Zecora reached into the pack she had strapped to her and pulled out a vial of strange liquid. It was blue, but had swirls of purple flowing through it. "This will hurt my friend, but will fade very soon; it will cleanse you of this dire wound. The bone and blood are a different issue; this potion can only heal the soft tissue."
I nodded to her and Vinyl levitated my poor abused wallet back into my mouth before Zecora poured the liquid on my side, and was she ever right. The pain was somewhere between the alcohol and the salt. I was glad for the wallet; being able to bite down on it kept me from screaming again, though I could feel my teeth begin to pierce the synthetic leather as I bit into it a third time.
I could hear a fizzing sound, like what you hear when you mix vinegar and baking soda together. The pain began to fade, and to my surprise, it kept fading until there was nothing left. Curious, I looked down to my side to see only a set of faint scars where the four gashes had once been. I was astonished, I knew there were unicorns with magic here, but I never expected what appeared to be magic from an herbal brew.
I smiled sheepishly, "You wouldn't happen to have enough of that left to fix my shoulder, would you?"
Zecora smiled, "You have a pure and noble heart; with more of my healing brew, I would gladly part." As she removed the cork from the bottle, Vinyl removed the dressing from my shoulder with her magic, and we repeated the process.
Once that was done, I looked up at Zecora, "Thank you so much, I have no idea how long those would've taken to heal on their own, and I doubt the muscles would've healed right." I attempted to get up to give Zecora a hug to show my gratitude, but I was still weak and light-headed from blood loss, so I didn't push myself.
She smiled warmly at me and embraced me in a hug instead. "It is you who should be thanked my friend, you saved gentle Fluttershy from a terrible end." She said as she released the hug and looked me in the eye. She smiled, "Now I must take my leave, but stop by sometime to see me; I would enjoy having a pleasant chat over tea." I nodded in agreement.
With that, Zecora walked out of the cottage, bidding her farewells to Vinyl and Fluttershy. They both then turned to me, Vinyl Smiled at me, then put her hoof to her face in what I guessed was a face-hoof; "Aww dude, we should've had her take a look at your… umm, what's it called?"
I chuckled at this, "It's called a hand, and that's alright; she got me out of danger, so I think I can let this heal on its own." She nodded in understanding.
With that, and a small measure of my strength returning, I proceeded to relocate my fingers, once again relying on the poor, abused wallet to manage the pain. Afterward, Fluttershy helped me dress my hand so it could heal properly. Vinyl looked outside, "It's getting late, and I have a gig tonight, so I need to head out. I'll catch you two later." Vinyl waved with her hoof as she left the cottage.
That left just me and Fluttershy. "You should eat something to help you replenish what you've lost today, let me make you something nutritious for dinner, then you can sleep here tonight. I'm sorry, I would let you sleep in my bed, but in your condition, I don't think you could make it up the stairs. I hope you're not mad…" Man, she really was shy.
I smiled at her. "How could I be mad at you, after all you've done for me? You've been nothing but kind to me, when I'm basically a total stranger. Besides, I've slept in worse places than a comfy couch before." I chuckled a bit and added; "Even if the comfy couch is a bit small." She seemed to perk up at this.
"Oh, I'm glad you aren't upset. I'll go make you some dinner so you can get some rest, you've had quite a day." She said as she flew off to what I assumed was the kitchen.
Fluttershy came back and offered me a large salad with cut up hard-boiled eggs and nuts, and a glass of orange juice, with a few sweet treats for dessert, and the same for herself. We chatted as we ate, and when we were both finished, she took the dishes into the kitchen, and brought me a blanket and pillow. "Goodnight Blake, thank you again for saving me and little Scootaloo."
I wished her a good night and settled in as she walked upstairs to get herself ready for the night. As I lay there, I couldn't help but think about all that happened, and all that might happen. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought to myself; Man, if all this happened on the first day, what will every other day be like?
If every day were this exciting, I was in for a heck of a ride…