//------------------------------// // 30 - Symbiosis, Part 5 of 10 // Story: The Last Cutie Mark Crusader // by Jatheus //------------------------------// Beigh was assisting in the operating room. They were at a frenzied pace trying to keep soldiers alive, with a respectable degree of success. This last attack had left nearly seventy injured. That brought the total wounded in Ponyville to almost a thousand. He had fallen asleep twice in the middle of surgery, but there was no end to the madness in sight. Beigh didn't even go back to his rack anymore. He just stayed at the infirmary as he had for the last two weeks. Every three hours another attack would come. The only thing he looked forward to now was a letter from Sparklefly. He had only received one so far; naturally, he'd written her back immediately. As he finished cleaning up and preparing his assigned operating table for casualties, he felt incredibly weary. He found a corner and sat down for a moment of rest. He pulled the now wrinkled and stained letter from a pocket and looked at her deliberate script. The words were running together from his fatigue, but it was soothing just to see it. Before long, Beigh drifted to sleep. "Incoming wounded! Let's look alive!" one of the other medics shouted. Startled awake, Beigh jumped up, slightly confused for a moment at his surroundings. He snatched up the letter, stuffed it into his pocket and ran to get scrubbed for surgery. It was the same as usual: punctures, burns, concussions, lacerations, impalements, and occasionally something had been severed. The injured quickly filled the room as the medics tried to put them back together. After treating a nasty abdominal wound that would never survive the night and setting a broken leg, Duster stumbled into the infirmary with his sergeant. They were carrying a mare between them. She was so covered with blood from a head wound that Beigh couldn't tell what color her coat was supposed to be. At first she was trying to walk, but she suddenly went limp. Beigh and another medic reached her together and got her onto a table. She was still alive. A quick check of her dog tags revealed her name as Moonsliver. The injury itself wasn't terribly severe, but it had bled to the point that she had passed out. A day or two would see her to a full recovery. Her helmet was ruined, nearly split in half, but it had saved her life. They would have to check for a concussion. She was the last of the wounded to come through that day. Night had fallen, and the next attack would be in the dark. "Are you okay?" Beigh asked when he found Duster sitting near the tent exit. Duster looked up vacantly and stared, eventually nodding. Noticing several small cuts and bruises, Beigh offered, "Let me check your wounds.” Duster complied without any sort of struggle, following Beigh to one of the few empty beds. His physical injuries were not severe, but it was still good to get some antiseptic ointment in them to ward off infection. "I hear they're going to start rotating soldiers away from combat for rest." Duster looked up. He smiled and for a moment resembled his sister. "Rest? What's that?" Beigh snorted a laugh, "That's what we all need right now." "I think I should have stuck to farming." “Funny, I never took you for a farmer. Is this not what you expected?" Duster shrugged. "That figures," Beigh replied. He suddenly realized how tired he was, "For what it's worth, I've felt like that since the jackass head-butted me in boot camp." Duster smiled again, nodding slowly. He returned to staring vacantly ahead as he sat there. "My recommendation," Beigh began, "get some sleep. You can stay there for now until we need the bed, but we've got barely an hour and a half before the next attack. Duster laid down on the cot, and that's where Beigh left him. After getting cleaned up, he went outside and found a soft patch of dust next to the tent and laid down on it under the stars. His thoughts returned to Sparklefly. She was the only oasis he knew in the bloody days in which he found himself. He soon drifted to sleep once again. ... Scootaloo sat quietly watching the sunset. She could hear the soft muffled sound of hoof-steps on the cloud behind her. "Quite a view," the colonel said. "Hey, Rainbow Dash." The two were alone, just out of earshot of anypony else. Rainbow Dash approached and sat down beside Scootaloo. Quiet moments like this were never frequent enough. "I really thought we were going to find something up here," Scootaloo said as they looked over the Galloping Gorge far below. "Yeah, me too. That Omega is a slippery one. If she was here at all, I don't think it was recently." Rainbow Dash pounded her hoof into the cloud, a puff of which floated into the air from the impact. "How are you doing?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking down into the canyon. Scootaloo considered her response for a moment, but decided to be forthcoming, "I thought I'd at least have made major by now. Also, I think I'm driving all my friends away." "What do you mean?" ”Well, Cloud Blazer...” she searched for the right words. She hadn’t spoken of this with anypony, but she strongly believed that she needed some guidance. She again decided to be forthcoming, steeling herself to talk about it, “He told me... that he loves me, and I didn't take it well. We've been friends for a long time, but I just don't like him that way." Silence fell for a few moments. "I think I pushed him away too hard. We haven’t spoken since, and it’s been weird. And yesterday I yelled at Sparklefly. Pacer got me all upset, and I guess I took it out on her." Rainbow Dash sighed knowingly, "Yeah, he's a real loud-mouth. I think that stallion gets on everypony’s nerves. If he weren’t almost as good at seeing patterns in the reports as Flittergear, I’d have tossed him out by now. So, what are you going to do?" "I don't know," Scootaloo sighed, staring down. A sudden feeling of loss came over her, "I just wish Princess Twilight were here." If possible, Rainbow Dash looked even farther into the distance, almost as if she saw something on the horizon. "Me too, kiddo. She was the best pony I knew at sorting out friendship problems." Curiosity came back for the first time that Scootaloo could remember. She'd spent so much time focused on the problems in front of her that she always pushed out of her mind what might have become of the alicorns. "Do you know what happened to them? The princesses and Discord, I mean.” "No, I don't," came a solemn reply. "Something must have gone wrong. I would have been there if I'd been fit to fly. Skyflame was in command of the guard, but even she didn't see it. After they cleared the area above the forest, Princess Celestia ordered them to make a final sweep. When the explosion happened..." the colonel trailed off for a minute. "She searched for them while her force rounded up again. Half of them were killed in the blast, and the rest were hurt. I don't see how anypony could have survived that. I should have been there." "It's not your fault," Scootaloo replied, hoping there was something she could say to make this better. No amount of words or wishing was going to bring them back. "You know you would have been there if you hadn't been hurt." Rainbow Dash nodded slowly, the golden light of the setting sun lit her face brilliantly. "Take it from me, kid," she said, now looking directly at Scootaloo, "friendships aren't the easiest things. Twilight once told me that one of the hardest parts is going back to a friend you've hurt and telling them that you were wrong." With what passed for a laugh she added, "You saw how hard it was to get Sweetie Belle and Rarity talking again." Scootaloo smiled. Rainbow Dash became serious again, “Kid, all you can do is swallow your pride, admit you were wrong, and apologize. The longer you wait, the harder it's going to be." The younger mare hadn't considered that. She had been delaying in hopes that it might get easier. She quickly checked to make certain that nopony was watching, and she threw a hug around the colonel. "Thanks," her voice was shaky as Rainbow Dash returned the embrace. "Forget it," came the reply. "Now go take care of the one that's here while you have the chance." Scootaloo nodded as they separated. Her eyes were trying to water, but she choked back the tears. With a small smile, she walked away in search of Sparklefly.