Chapter 14
The world around Flicker roared with a great and terrible sound, then went silent. There was nothing that could be heard. At the same time this was happening, a mighty invisible force slammed into him, picked him up, and sent him flying. The shockwave and the resulting impact smashed into his body, he felt it in his balls, through his bowels, through his organs, the wind flew from his lungs, his heart stopped beating, and for a dreadful moment, he was almost certain that his eyeballs were going to pop right out of his skull.
He ragdolled through the air, wrapped in a shroud of silence, a silence as profound as the grave. As his insides rippled and jiggled, Flicker thought of his little sister, Knick-Knack. He loved her a great deal, and in what was sure to be his final seconds, he took solace in the fact that even now, he was providing for her. It was impossible to breathe, inside of his barrel there was a stillness that might have troubled him, had he thought about it. A roaring inferno of pain blazed through his groin and it felt as though his dock was being smashed with a hammer over and over.
All around him, the world was on fire and he flew through clouds of flames.
End over end he tumbled, but he had no presence of mind to determine how far he had been flung. There was no longer any sense of up or down, no feeling of dizziness, there wasn’t much of anything but pain, pain and regret that he would not see his sister ever again. In that moment, as he tumbled end over end, cannonballing through the air, his final thoughts were of love.
He loved his sister, she was his princess, and he was her knight. There was a fond memory of his sister just after she had been born, when she was still wet, still damp with afterbirth, when she still smelled of his mother’s blood, and she had been placed into his forelegs so that he might hold her. In that moment, he had changed, and was no longer a son. He had become a brother. Looking back on it all, it was a moment that defined not just his life up to that point, but his whole existence. From that moment to this one, everything he had done was to keep his sister safe, to ensure that she could grow up happy, secure, and free from worry.
At the long end of his parabolic arc, still hurling end over end, Flicker’s head smacked into a stone sticking up out of the field. There was an explosion of stars that blinded him, and then he knew no more, having sank into the merciful embrace of the void.
Using his magic, Doctor Sterling snuffed out the fires all around him and extinguished Flicker’s body. Some of the rubber on his suit had melted from the immense heat, but Flicker’s armor had held up rather well, given the circumstances. The doctor could only assume that the incendiary grenade that Flicker carried must have gone off during the big explosion that he himself had witnessed.
“He’s not moving.” Piper’s voice was a shrill whine that got on the doctor’s nerves.
Ignoring Piper, Doctor Sterling went to work, casting a spell to detect broken bones and severe trauma. Lots of trauma detected, but no broken bones. Smothering the last of the flames, he moved close to Flicker, and with a tug of his magic, he pulled off Flicker’s mask. He peeled back the colt’s eyelids and saw no signs of consciousness.
“There’s so much blood coming out his ears,” Piper said as Doctor Sterling began to peel away Flicker’s cowl.
The doctor nodded. There was also a lot of blood coming out of the gash just behind Flicker’s left ear. The doctor touched the wound with his magic, trying to get a feel for what he was dealing with. When the doctor realised that he had competent help, Piper was peeling off Flicker’s suit, he felt a rush of gratitude. Her movements were careful, ginger, she was mindful of her actions.
“Why is so much of his hair gone on his back half?” Piper asked as she peeled away Flicker’s leggings.
“Explosions cause funny forces,” Doctor Sterling replied. From the looks of it, Flicker’s entire back half was going to be one giant bruise and yes, most of Flicker’s coat was now missing from back there. The doctor’s concern grew and worsened.
The doctor paused when he saw Flicker’s ribs. There were three long gashes in his side, terrible gashes, lacerations that had gone right to the bone. He began pulling out the first aid supplies. His ears perked at the sound of Flicker’s shallow, almost nonexistent breathing.
With his magic, he passed Piper a wad of gauze and said, “Press and hold this to the wound just behind Mister Nicker’s ear. Steady pressure. We have to stop the blood from pouring out or he’ll exsanguinate.” Much to Doctor Sterling’s relief, the filly was good in a crisis and did as she was told. She didn’t seem squeamish either.
It was amazing that no bones had been broken and the doctor counted his blessings as he began to apply a field dressing to the stomach churning lacerations on Flicker’s side. For now, Flicker needed to be patched up so he could be carried back to the Don’t Panic. More work would have to be done later.
There was the sound of steel hitting the ground and Hennessy said in a slow, sticky drawl, “I done found your sword, Doctor Sterling. Flicker’s lucky it didn’t go sticking into him, ain’t he?”
“Mister Nicker is an extraordinarily lucky individual, but he is going to regret living through this!” the doctor snapped, his emotions getting the better of him. He loved Flicker like a son, and like any father, he was stricken with worry.
“There ain’t much left of the bear. I went and had a look when I saw your sword flashing in the sun.” Hennessy’s slow drawl was comforting to his companions, but he had no way of knowing. It still sounded as though he was saying ‘bar.’
A growing sense of the jitters was taking over the doctor, and he struggled against them. Nothing felt right and it took effort to keep his telekinesis steady. In his mind's eye, he could see the explosion, he had dropped Piper and Hennessy a safe distance away and had come charging back just in time to see the massive detonation when the bear had gone from a solid state to a cloud of molecules flying off in each and every direction.
“I ain’t never seen no bear get blowed up before,” Hennessy remarked, “I done reckon that’s an image that’s gonna stay with me for all my days.”
The doctor frustrated, angry, seething that his orders had not been obeyed, tried to calm himself. Sweat poured down his face and into his eyes, so he ripped off his mask. He needed air and he sucked in the warm, humid air that reeked of black powder as he secured the dressing on Flicker’s side with tape.
“You… you devious, demented little shit!” Doctor Sterling’s face contorted with frustration and his anger grew as sweat stung his eyes. “You just wait, I’m going to tell your mother what you did!”
Piper, holding a bloody wad of gauze to Flicker’s head, gulped.
“Doctor Sterling, I think he’s suffered enough—”
“Hennessy, he has only begun to suffer!” The doctor sucked in a deep breath and continued, “Never, ever disobey my orders! Now I am going to be in trouble! I might get flogged for this, because I’m not taking my walking papers! This is why it is so important to obey me. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Doctor Sterling.” Hennessy nodded.
“I understand.” Piper pulled off her own mask and began to suck in a few panicked breaths. She looked at Hennessy, who wasn’t wearing his mask, and she guessed that he had pulled it off when he had gone to retrieve the sword.
“I am going to dress the wound on Mister Nicker’s head, and then we are going to carry him back to the Don’t Panic. I’ll make a stretcher from our stilts so the two of you can haul him back. It falls on me to keep us safe from any hostile wildlife. It’s going to be a long, slow walk back because we can’t jostle him too much. He has a dreadful head wound and I don’t know how bad off he is just yet.”
With an ever growing sense of worry, the doctor went to work, trying to make Flicker ready for travel.
Doctor Sterling felt an immense amount of gratitude when Phyllo lifted Flicker from the makeshift stretcher and set him down upon a folding table. Doctor Nightgown moved beside the table and began looking over the limp body of the colt with a well-practiced eye. She was an alchemist, and no doubt, a healer.
“I have some alchemical body spackle,” Doctor Nightgown said. “That’s a lot of bruising and he’s missing a lot of his pelt. Might I ask what happened?”
“Mister Nicker done blew up a bear,” Hennessy drawled in reply. “He done blew himself up real good too. Miss, have you ever seen what a few sticks of dynamite will do to a bear?”
“No, I can’t say that I have.” Doctor Nightgown’s ears bobbed up and down and she looked a little queasy. She didn’t know what a bar was, not exactly, but whatever it was, it had been blown up. With dynamite. And from the looks of things, so had the colt on the table.
Humming to himself, Phyllo began pulling off the bandages from Flicker’s side, peeling away the tape and the now bloodied gauze. The unicorn was smiling, calm, it was as if he had done this every day, and he didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the sight of Flicker’s ribs. With his telekinesis, he pulled over some jars from his supplies and a black satchel.
“Doctor Sterling, we’re druids and we know quite a bit about healing. Please trust us. We’ll get your colt patched up in a jiffy with a bit of body spackle and then you can look after him as he recovers. Phyllo seems to be in a fine mood, so I think everything will be okay.”
Grateful, exhausted, Doctor Sterling sat down in the grass and he could feel eyes upon him. Some of the villagers were watching, fearful, he could hear their worried murmurings. He looked at Piper, who stood near the table, and then at Hennessy, who was watching everything Phyllo did.
“I have to ask, what on earth is body spackle?” Doctor Sterling blinked and shook his head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“Well,” Doctor Nightgown began, “The Heliophant, he gets hurt a lot. Bad things happen. We druids tend to go into some very dire situations, it’s kind of what we do, but Tarnish especially. After a particularly messy adventure, he comes back covered with lacerations, and he’s got this idea that there needs to be some kind of skin replacer in emergencies. So, he talks to his friends, and he floats this idea for a body caulking compound to plug up the leaks when they happen.”
As Flannel Nightgown spoke, Phyllo began to apply a foul smelling grey paste to Flicker’s side, slathering over the lacerations and daubing it into the wounds.
“From what I understand, a few of his associates, led by one Black Briar, developed a synthetic protein compound that bonds to and gets absorbed by equine skin. I don’t know what’s in it, but I know the primary ingredient comes from some kind of cultivated fungus, there are toxins from a special type of jellyfish, which I assure you are quite safe to use, and a myriad of other compounds. It forms a protective film over the wound, acting as a bandage, and gets absorbed as it heals. Healing is very rapid, due to the jellyfish venom, which triggers an explosion of cellular growth.”
“I see.” Doctor Sterling’s mustache quivered as he listened.
“All of this was tested on the Heliophant, until we had a worthwhile remedy. Soon, we will be submitting it to the Royal Academy of Science for analysis.” Doctor Nightgown turned and watched as Phyllo continued the application of the grey, foul smelling goo.
“What a marvellous age we live in,” Piper remarked.
“Ayup.” Hennessy took a step back to make sure that he was out of the way.
“He’s got some burns, some severe bruises, and a whole lot of swelling in his nether regions,” Phyllo said as he made a few casual observations. “His soft tissues got quite a shock, no doubt, but he’s young, solidly built, and I think he’ll recover just fine. His ears worry me a bit, but I’m not a doctor.”
“You look dehydrated.” Doctor Nightgown moved closer to Doctor Sterling and frowned. “Take off all that heavy gear, strip down, and start drinking. You’re no good to anypony if your brains get scrambled from dehydration or heat stroke.” She turned to look at Piper and Hennessy. “You two as well. It’s warm for a spring day, unseasonably warm. Get that body armor off and start drinking.”
“Yes, yes of course.” Doctor Sterling nodded and then began peeling off his gear as Piper started undressing Hennessy. “Thank you, Doctor Nightgown, I don’t know what I would do without you. Your help is appreciated.”
“Less talk, more naked.” Doctor Nightgown looked somewhat annoyed.
Even though Doctor Sterling would never admit it, it was nice having somepony care for him for a change…
I can't take credit for the body spackle, Doctor Zed invented it. 
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Bars blow up real good!
YES bars blow up real good Fluttershy would be mortified
There is such a thing as overkill part of it is Flicker didn't know what he was doing
At this point in time
It's even more fun when you have a bar, named Bar, running his own bar... called Bar's Bar.
7753006
7753005
There is no overkill. No such thing.
Oh gosh, the Felidae flashbacks... *shivers* One who knows the book will understand what I mean.
Also, this song will forever be tied to Flicker in my head now.
7753053 So you would use a nuke to kill a fly. Its a fun saying a great saying but there such a thing it can also be called excessive force..
7753009
Bar the bar's bar. They only serve bars. And they have a special: made-in-house chocolate bars.
It's Bar the Bar's Chocolate Bar Bar Bar.
I learn more new words reading these fics...
I'm sure he would rather fight a rabid bar... again
Also, I saw the early google docs draft, when only about a pages worth was up... it was cute
. I certainly hope more of that happens. I would say more, but I don't want to spoil it if it becomes canon!
7753105
It's a lovely word, such a lovely word, almost sounds romantic.
So I am guessing that he is now going to be either sterile or a gelding now; I hope it wan't be the case.
7753085
You haven't seen the flies I've seen.
At the first mention of Body SpackleTM, I was charmed and fascinated by the possibilities.
There's a bar!
Whar?!
Over thar! And thar...and thar...and thar
Flicker obeyed orders literally, he ran as Sterling said, just not the right way. The Doc didn't say which way?
Flicker did not disobey orders, he was told to run and he did. Doctor Sterling simply failed to indicate what direction
You know, Flicker never disobeyed the letter of the doctors order.
But that won't save him.
7753215 surfsource.net/images/sized/images/uploads/RedDevil-spackling-250x299.jpg
This is Hennessy, should that be 'bar' vs 'bear'?
7753405
He's saying bear.
Others are hearing bar.
That's the joke.
If Flicker lives through this, he is sooooo dead.
7753009
7753089
Gotta watch out for those exploding bars, they pack a punch.
7753447
That's just as beautiful as it was when I took German in High School. Thank you for sharing it.
7753176 'cause nobody knows. OH THE FLIES I'VE SEEN!!!
No clever comment, just a stupid shoutout for that specific line.
I told them!
I told them mushrooms would save the world.
They didn't listen, but I was right!
THE GODS THEMSELVES WILL USE MY MUSHROOM PASTE!
That. . .that sounded better in my head.
Ok know i am a little confused i have read both the weed and its sequel and dont remember tarnished's side of the above events did i miss them or is there farther in the time line
7925887
Things happen and progress. Stuff happens over the years.
7753009
Of course, in times of desperate need, the bar would wield a BAR.
7753405
maybe a bar with a bar in a bar
7753022
imagine their review of a micheal bay film :p