//------------------------------//
// Healing Balm (Edited) 
// Story: Iron Mountain 
// by computerneek 
//------------------------------//

Daring Do awakens with a start, lying on a hard metal surface in near total darkness.  She clambers quickly to her hooves, drawing the enchanted light stone she’d been given out of her vest pocket again, striking it to activate the spell.  It’s a little dim when it comes on, suggesting she needs to get it recharged sometime- but Daring very quickly forgets about that as she recognizes where she is.

She’s standing at the end of a long, straight metal tunnel.  The same one, as a matter of fact, that she’d gone to explore most recently.  Speaking of which, she turns to examine herself.  She’d been interrupted halfway down, by an uppity unicorn stallion who’d wanted to take it for his own- and charge her ten bits a minute for so much as looking.  She’d been warned to expect someone like him, but she could’ve sworn she’d still had a couple hours before he got here.

He’d tried to appear as if he were arguing fairly, though she wasn’t so certain he even knew what that even meant.  She’d taken advantage of her photographic memory and cited an ill-known Equestrian law, dating back almost six hundred years, back when the Everfree had spelt death to anyone who entered.  It had never been repealed- and had established the Everfree Forest as a wilderness zone.  Anything in it not clearly associated with a carriage or home could then be considered free for the taking, though ownership of the item did not take effect until it was directly associated with a cart or home, or until it was removed from the Everfree.  He’d laughed at first- and, when she continued to argue its validity, whipped out a copy of Equestrian common law, again.  He’d already shown himself to be a rules lawyer- and when he verified that it was, in fact, a law, he had devolved instantly to attacking her.

She hadn’t expected his first blow, a vicious stab that she nearly dodged anyways.  It had pierced her left leg, and he had drawn it back out again for a second attack, ordering her to obey his demands as he did.

His rush had been too fast, too precise; she knew instantly that she couldn’t beat him if she stayed in front.  So she had tried to dodge around or above him for a sharp kick a couple of times, failing each time; once, she had even tried to escape, but he managed to intercept that as well.  After her final attempt, he paused his rush, watching her bleed for a second, and repeated his demands on a death threat.

She had refused.  When she did, her hoof striking against the metallic floor in an effort to make a point, she had realized that something must have been listening- because the floor shook.  No, the entire tunnel had shaken…  and seemed to be pivoting on a point a dozen or so meters behind where she stood, even with the tiny motion it made.  He had been startled by the vibration as well, and chose to press his advantage.  She thought he’d said something about her breaking it as he charged; she’d backpedaled quickly, feinting frantically to get him to strike anywhere but at herself as her strength faded.

Finally, the tunnel had ended.  She’d thought she was dead for certain at that point, but there was a sudden hum in the air, combined with an interesting blue glow from the coils running the length of the barrel.  That hadn’t even been the interesting part, though.  Not only had the knife been snatched out of his levitated grasp, snatched into the center of the tube and aligned with it, but his horn had been too.  She’d already been well on the way to passing out at the time, but that hadn’t stopped her from finding his sudden predicament amusing.

His head had suddenly been yanked upwards, looking towards the ceiling, such that his horn could rest in the center of the tunnel, aligned with it and pointing out.  His neck had been pulled, his front hooves hoisted a few centimeters into the air.  It had only lasted for two seconds, after which he had turned and fled, abandoning the knife.

She had allowed herself to collapse once he turned tail, savoring his facial expression before he’d turned for her last few seconds.


Except it wasn’t really her last few seconds.  She remembered passing out in the pool of her own blood.  Then, she remembered a second or two of being carried down a more appropriately sized metal passage, on some sort of ribbed structure, with the clicking of a metallic centipede echoing in her ears.  A lid sliding shut over her on what might have been a coffin, with a really comfortable liquid flowing in from somewhere- and she had no clue what the thing on her face was.  A glimpse of…  What the hay?  It had been like she wasn’t even a pony for a second!

Finally, she woke up here again, with no scars whatsoever- even on her wings, on which every feather is preened neatly.  Interesting, she figures.  Pretty sure my wings were a bit worse for wear than that when I got here- and that’s not counting the battle!

The blood splatters- and puddle- had all disappeared.  The tunnel is perfectly clean, no hum or glow about it.  She shivers slightly, glancing around the closed end here, before she turns towards and starts traveling towards the exit.  The tunnel is starting to feel a little creepy, and she doesn’t like creepy.

She freezes when she realizes the sun must be just coming up outside- at least three hours earlier than she had arrived.  She glances back towards the solid end- definitely creepy now- and canters her way out to the end of the tunnel, stepping out into the chasm as she puts her fading glow crystal away.  She spares one last look over her shoulder, down the tunnel, giving it a shudder- and performs a near-instant double-take, looking at her coat.

She could swear she’d never been that shiny before.  A toss and a twist reveals the same for her mane and tail, probably the cleanest they’ve been in centuries- even including the time she’d shampooed her mane three times in a row, targeting exactly this effect.  She’s almost hesitant as she unfurls her wings, verifying that they’re also too clean- and finding that the ache in the joint in her left wing, the remainder of an old injury long since healed, is simply gone.  After a now almost fearful glance back at the tunnel, she takes off like a missile through the skies.  Exactly what had happened?





It’s almost 43.7 hours after I took Daring Do into my medbay, and I still haven’t finished processing all the data I’ve acquired.  As it turns out, the locals are far more resilient to such injuries than humans might be; my posthumous estimates of the chances I faced placed her survival at 93.47%, and her discovering me at 13.71%.  My third estimate, on my chances of acquiring valuable data on their biology, remains as-is- and, as a matter of fact, I acquired far more than I expected.  It had taken far less effort than I expected to stabilize her condition once I had her in the medbay; her body had already closed up many of the smaller wounds and was still clotting up the larger ones.  If she’d had about twice as much blood to begin with, she would’ve survived without my help; unfortunately, she had lost too much too fast for a natural recovery.  By the way, I can confirm that she’s a she.

That part had been easy.  She hadn’t yet fallen below a critical blood pressure yet, so I only actually had to close up her wounds.  I also inserted some nanites into her bloodstream to behave as red blood cells, to assist her body while she continues to reproduce her blood.  As the rest of my medical nanites swept through her body, I used them to repair all sorts of damages- from recent injuries to old injuries.  The bodily repairs had taken 42.13 hours, after which I spent some time mending her clothing and performed a final cleaning.  Finally, I had my tech spiders carry her back up to my cleaned weapon barrel.

The most interesting part of the operation had not been the mass of medical information I had acquired, but the sudden surge of information she offered when I had engaged the neural link with her unconcious mind for a quarter of a second during the clothing repair stage.

I had only intended to parse language data, or perhaps let her understand Concordiat Standard; what I got in that quarter second was a lot more than language.  I also accidentally acquired unabridged copies of all of her books, aside from finding out she’s an author, alongside numerous personal memories- which I am deleting, as soon as I identify them as such.  The other, not-so-personal memories I had acquired are being queued up for reprocessing, so I can decide which ones I should delete out of prudence- and which ones I can learn from.

I have learned that there are normally three breeds of ponies:  Pegasi, like Daring Do herself, Unicorns, like her attacker, and Earth Ponies, of whom I have yet to positively identify an example.

I have learned what a ‘Cutie Mark’ is, how they appear, and why they’re important.  I have learned of the rage of some ‘Tirek’ being that attacked the local country, ‘Equestria’, stealing magic.  Apparently, Tirek completed his thefts and began destroying the forest, striking my upper port aft main battery Hellbore while he was at it.  He was struck down by some magical force called the Elements of Harmony, and dismissed to Tartarus- which is a real place in this world, not just mythology.  My assailant has already been defeated.

Much beyond this appears to be personal memories, even most of the ones I didn’t initially flag as such.  However, I have learned enough about the locals’ language and customs that I feel 34.71% confident I can at least appear to fit in if I were to construct some sort of pony avatar.  I elect to wait until I have 80% or higher confidence before I consider such an action plan, though; more likely than not, were I to attempt it now, I would be discovered in some way or another.  I still don’t have a defense against the locals’ magic- and Daring Do wasn’t capable of it, so I couldn’t even try going from the source, so to speak, either!

Thinking of Daring Do, it seems she’s waking up inside the barrel.  At this point, I have three drones in the air, funnelling in enough power in peak sunlight that I can’t add a fourth without revealing myself.  She lights up her stone- how it works, I have no clue- and soon begins to move out…  to pause and accelerate, until she leaves the end of the weapon.  I suppose she would wonder about what had happened.

Once outside, she stops to look at herself, her heart rate climbing steadily, like something’s worrying her.  I dedicate fully 0.0183 seconds of analysis to figuring out what, and come to a quite predictable conclusion.

I made a mistake.

In hindsight, she probably doesn’t normally take nanite-infused gel baths.  Just the healing that was done would be spooky enough, but she’s probably cleaner right now than she’s been since she was born, thanks to high technology.  It should only last for a week or so; I had remembered not to make any persistent effects.  However, at this point, I can only hope she doesn’t panic.

She casts a final glance back down my weapon, as if realizing what it is, and takes to the air, fleeing the site.  I apologize silently for my mistakes.