Fluttershy finally stops, and stares at all five of her friends and Princess Luna, resting on their neatly-arranged beds. She’s still completely unharmed- luckily for her friends, as well; when she’d asked the ship to help them, it had errored and said something about a missing database. Fortunately, she knows quite a bit about pony anatomy as well- and, from the medical classes she’d taken to better help her animals, she also knows a good amount about treating injuries.
Not that she’s ever seen injuries so bad as these. At least the machine had, when she had asked, been more than willing to send in some giant robots of some kind to help her move her friends to safety. It’s a bit toasty in here, but this is where it had chosen to take them. She’d followed- and, she’s pretty sure because it used the little cubicle thing on the hallway just off this ‘observation deck’, it had taken less than a minute to get here.
Here, which had turned out to be intended for treatment of the injured. She hadn’t stopped to marvel at it, as many a doctor- or Twilight- might have done; no. She’d started by asking if it could help them- then, after it errored, had requested specific tools- and, when she didn’t have the skill to perform something, had requested a specific operation. Which, more often than not, it was willing to do, using metal arms that popped out of the walls or ceiling around the beds. Once, she’d been at a loss for what the tool she needed was called.
The tool she’d had in mind was a unicorn-made tool, requiring recharging after each use, used to replace a part of a pony’s blood with magic. It seemed to have understood her description, but declined to have one on board. It had, however, asked if her current patient- Rainbow, at the time- needed a blood transfusion, whatever that was. She’d confirmed that Rainbow needed blood- so, as another arm emerged with a strange-looking needle on it, it asked how much. Two minutes later, since she didn’t know how much but did know what blood pressure she should have, Rainbow had a healthy blood pressure once again. Apparently, its machine- she hadn’t asked what it was called- could actually replicate her existing blood. Even unicorns couldn’t do that.
Even as she had worked, she had noticed- and ignored- little things about the tools that it was offering her or using on its own. Things like the heart rate monitor, that could calculate an exact beats-per-minute from a matter of two or three beats. Or how the same windowlike panel displayed such things as blood pressure- live-updating, and very precise. Wherever it came from, its builders hadn’t only built a ‘starship’, but had developed medical science far beyond that of Equestria.
She shudders at the thought of what might have happened if it hadn’t done that. All six ponies had been thrown- no, slammed- against that front wall in that tiny moment. An enormous amount of force no pony could normally handle, she’s pretty sure.
At least, not safely.
Princess Luna had lost an eye and broken her jaw. The rest of her injuries had been fairly small; at least, once the machine got done with whatever it had decided she needed without asking. Something about a collapsed windpipe. Her eye was a total loss- but the machine had suggested something foreign to her: A prosthetic. She’d asked if it was important; it had declined, stating that it would restore the function of the missing body part. She’d said okay, but specified that everything important takes priority. It didn’t seem to be listening, though, and simply stated that it was ‘beginning synthesis’ while it scooped out the remains of her damaged eye. That had been after she had set Luna’s jaw; it had spent almost five seconds in reconnecting the lone break, a feat even unicorns couldn’t manage. It’s still working on her eye, even now; when asked, it’s ‘preparing her to receive the prosthetic, three minutes left’.
Pinkie had been a very quick job, even compared to Luna’s- which had taken all of fifteen seconds, discounting whatever it did before she got there and its preparation thingy. A quick check had shown that Pinkie had tanked the impact like only Pinkie could. The machine said she had a concussion and would likely be unconscious for days, but she couldn’t find anything else wrong- so she had skipped to the next pony.
Her next target had been Rainbow. The machine had contained any and all bleeding across everypony as they arrived; exactly how, she’s not sure. Her entire right wing had been smashed between her and the front wall; the bone had been splintered into so many pieces she hadn’t been able to figure out what went where, even with the machine’s helpful images, normally only produced by a unicorn spell. As such, she’d had no choice but to finish the job the wall had started and completely remove the shattered wing. Of course, she’d asked the machine to perform the amputation; my some miracle, her wing had been Rainbow’s only major injury. It had asked her about a prosthetic again; she’d shrugged, and given the go-ahead. It had proceeded to remove her wing- and, when asked, is ‘preparing her to receive the prosthetic, one minute left’.
Then she’d turned to Rarity. The machine’s ‘X-ray’ images proved incredibly helpful here- just like all of its arms and etceteras. Her ribs had been cracked, broken, or in one case, fractured; her hip had been crushed. Even her skull had cracked, but that had been an easy fix for the machine. She’d spent a couple minutes helping it knit her bones back together, and checking her for damage to her internal organs- none that she could find, even once it ran its great big ‘MRI’ scan thingy over her to produce all sorts of helpful images. So she’d headed for the next pony in line, even while it continues its ‘surgical reconstruction’ of her hip.
Applejack had a similar story to Rainbow, though slightly different. Her right foreleg had been smashed to bits- and actually torn off during the impact. That being her only injury, she’d asked the machine to clean the wound- and okayed the prosthetic before it even asked. When asked, she’s got two minutes of preparation left.
Then she’d come to Twilight. She’d mostly just been bruised, though she also suffered from a neck sprain- something the machine had taken care of in less than a second. Her most grievous injury… She’d asked it for a prosthetic this time.
It had refused. “Error: Insufficient data on functional workings of the Unicorn Horn for assembly of a functional prosthetic.”
So she had left it, broken off about halfway up.
She looks up and down the row and sheds a tear. She’d even asked the machine if it could take them back home- but it had errored again. “Error: Internal power grid offline. Systems operating on emergency power.”
She doesn’t know what that means. She needs Twilight.
But she’s unconscious.
She gazes up and down the line. Somepony. Anypony that might know what to do.
Then she hears a noise. A yelp. She searches up and down the line- but doesn’t see anything… Wait, those arms have stopped moving.
“Surgical reconstruction in progress, please hold still,” it murmurs near the stalled arms. She starts running forwards- and, as she does, the arms resume their work.
Rarity awakens slowly- then she feels a gentle tugging at her flank. She turns her head slowly to look down at it; Opalescence is probably-
She lets out a yelp- and probably would have jumped several feet in the air, if the many metal arms working inside her flank hadn’t held her still.
“Surgical reconstruction in progress, please hold still,” the ship’s voice sounds, somewhere near her head.
She freezes, then forces her muscles to relax, much like she does when beauty sleep time comes when she’s angry. She might not understand what the arms are doing, nor know why so many of them are necessary, nor even where they came from- but ‘surgical reconstruction’ is a term she’s heard before. Not on herself, though; as a matter of fact, she doesn’t remember exactly where she heard it from. All she knows is that it’s a delicate medical procedure… and she’s pretty sure the patient is kept completely unconscious throughout. She dares to take another look, raising just her head, to see exactly what is going on.
It’s… most certainly not Equestrian medical science. She sees ropes of blood floating in the air, pulsing gently with her heartbeat. She sees many fragments of what she assumes is bone floating in the air, with an occasional arm snagging one to pull it down into the incision. She sees…
Her eyes track up from her flank, up her side, and widen. Her side has been butchered, covered in ugly scars back and forth. She starts taking in a breath- then Fluttershy appears, galloping up next to the bed she’s lying on, past the moving arms.
“Rarity!” she gasps. “You’re awake!”
Her charged breath leaks out wordlessly. “I… What happened to my side…?”
Fluttershy cringes away from the question- but she wasn’t the only one listening.
“Sidelong impact with an alloy wall at eight hundred thirty-seven meters per second within active inertial compensator field; diagnosis, broken ribcage, cracked skull, crushed hip. Surgical reattachment has been performed on skull and ribcage; surgical reconstruction in progress on hip. Estimated time to completion, one minute.”
They both blink, then Rarity looks up. “If… If you can fix bones that easily, can you fix… scars?” She looks at her side.
“Medical regenerator offline.”
“Can… Can we turn it on?”
“Medical Regenerator is necessarily offline while the vessel is operating on emergency power. Estimated time to restoration to full power, eighty-seven hours.”
She blinks, and looks down at Fluttershy. “What happened…?”