The first expedition was underway, and those remaining on the ship, or at least the ones who could spare the time, watched the four brave ponies travel boldly across the meadow and disappear into the forest on the far side. After that exciting start, the rest of the day on the EAS Harmony proved to be long, stressful and very uneventful. Nothing emerged from beyond the bridge expedition had crossed. Some of the crew busied themselves with scurrying about the nearest section of the meadow, setting up tents and digging out a firepit. Others sat in the engineering room staring at dials, tightening bolts, oiling strained bearings and wondering if there’s anything going on outside for the 7,359th time.
Returning to sick bay entailed renewed frustration for Reef Skimmer. The purple pegasi just did not make any medical, magical or for that matter logical sense. The silver hippogriff had been at this most of the night, in between two more emergency surgeries on the still living crew, and was getting nowhere. Still too stressed to rest, he needed to get away from the stuffy air, smell of disinfectant and constant groans that filled the sick bay. Sleep had claimed Bluebell, but Winter Hope could handle the patients for a while. "Winter, look, I'm going out for a little while. I'll be on the top deck, do come get me if you have any trouble, understood?"
The unicorn nodded, understanding. "Yes doctor. See you soon." He turned back to an earth pony patient, sprawled on a cot.
Reef made his way out of the sick bay and up the central ramp, to the main deck. The larger debris had been cleared from the corridor, but signs of the ship's struggle through the storm were everywhere: broken lights, charred timbers, splintered remains of a door hanging loose where a flying rock had burst through. A few ponies were moving around, checking the damage and checking for intact supplies that might have escaped the exodus from the hold.
He headed towards the bow and ascended the final ramp, emerging from the dark, dusty interior into the bright midday sunlight. The teak deck was warm and pleasant under his claws as the hippogriff made a beeline for the port railing. Reef hadn't had a chance to really look at their new surroundings since abandoning the conn the previous day, so he took the opportunity to drink in the view. They were moored to a verdant green island covered in grass and trees, framed by much larger massings of rock further away, which were themselves surrounded by the tiny drifting shapes of even more floating land. There must have been hundreds of islands in total, just visible from this one vantage point. Unconsciously Reef let his wings unfurl and sprawl out on the deck beside him; the sickbay had been even more cramped than usual with the influx of patients, and he'd been holding them tightly folded all day and night.
The top deck was relatively untraveled, lacking debris as it had been swept clean by the storm. The hippogriff stood at the edge with the great canvas balloon hanging above him, a soft breeze full of peace and life ruffling his feathers, as beyond the ship the shining green meadow spread out in front of him. Fatigue aside, he was sorely tempted to leap off the deck and glide over the field, maybe take a dip in the inviting steam at the far side...
There was a commotion at the door to the engine room then, as a certain kirin engineer stepped blinking out into the sunlight, only to look back through the iron doorway saying, “The engine’s not gonna explode! I’ll just be a minute.”
A green haired mare with an oil-stained apron partially emerged, her voice full of concern: “Just... don’t go off into the woods or anything. We need you now more than ever.”
“You know we’re overqualified for this job,” Nutmeg said, flat-eared, “You could probably fix the whole engine yourself, Gimble. Don’t worry, I won’t... I mean, I’ll be careful.” With that, she parted from her associate, and danced eagerly across the top deck. The kirin skittered to a halt at the sight of the magnificent wings of the hippogriff stallion spread wide across the deck, looking guilty as she blushed and lifted an unsure hoof.
Reef's ear tufts flattened as he pointedly ignored the commotion of the crew behind him. He came up here to get away from things, not have another bloody meeting, and if no one was bleeding, he didn't want to deal with them right then.
Nutmeg stepped forward, then turned back, then hesitated, then just snuck around the hippogriff. She was certainly quiet on her hooves, as she hurried over to the railing. Rearing up to lean on it with maybe a small clink noise, the brown and red kirin looked off across the island they were anchored on, then down to further verdant green sky islands drifting below it. “Wow..." she murmured, tail switching behind her as she gazed over the edge. "I wonder how they stay up."
It took a couple of seconds for the question to filter through to the stallion's conscious awareness: when it did he blinked and tensed with surprise at the familiar voice. Shifting his gaze to regard the kirin sharing the view to his side, he exclaimed "Nutmeg! Fancy meeting you up here. Craving a little fresh air as well, I would think? But yes, excellent question of course. I mean the basis for pegasi settlements is well studied, but the mass ratios here..." Reef's voice trailed off as he realised he's rambling.
Nutmeg gave a mighty squeak at his sudden and enthusiastic address, jolting in place and hopping to the side to face the hippogriff on the tips of her hooves, "Fresh air! Yes! Right!" she said with a forced smile, "Just you know, getting some... fresh air. That's what I do. I don't...." Her loud claims stumbled to a halt as her face fell to curiosity, and she asked him, "Pegasi settlements? I never saw any of those. Are they flying islands, too?"
Reef looked perplexed, unable to imagine what Nutmeg might be denying doing. After a moment he explained "Well, err, not exactly. Pegasi have the ability to imbue their magic into water vapor, you see. Wing magic works a little differently from ours, some good papers on..., erm, but never mind that." He coughed, and tried to summarise "So what they do is sort of compress clouds and stop them from falling, so they can build a house or even a whole city on top."
"You can build a city, on clouds. Wow," Nutmeg said, wryly, "And I thought these things were impressive. But I mean take a look down there!" she pointed a golden hoof over the railing again. "I think this is a whole chain of islands!" she said excitedly, "I mean well obviously it's all a chain of islands up here, but it looks like the ones down there are chained together!" She regarded the distant green pillars, ropes, or chains stretching from island to island, far below the ship, their nature entirely unknown to her. "I wonder if those really are chains," she said, "But they have trees growing on them? I don't think trees can grow on chains, can they?"
Reef followed her lead, staring at the distant islands. "You know I think you're right. Those do look rather like rusty chains with something growing through the links, vines or roots perhaps." He titled his head, reflecting. "No small bit of metalworking either, somecreature around here must have industry... or did at some point."
Nutmeg squinted, and tilted her head, but eventually said, "I can't see it. Whatever it is they're covered in green stuff. I want to..." She stepped back away from the railing, her ears going down as she continued fretfully, "I want to go... down there and see. See what they are." Shaking her head, she tries to sound casual, looking aside, and remarking, "Maybe they have some old ruined forges or something, that... Summer Scribe would know more about than me. And that's why she's out there, and we stay here, right where we're needed."
Reef gave the kirin a long look. "Well, yes, indeed. Doing our jobs... like good ponies, following our cutie marks and all that. Except neither of us have cutie marks, hmm?"
"What do you mean? Ponies don't..." She paused, looking down, "Oh, huh, I guess Gearshift does have gears for his, but Gimble just has a compass rose. The firepony has three daisies I think." Lashing her tail, she blushed, meeting his eyes again, saying, "Sorry. I know I'm good at what I do." A half smile graced her face as she added, "This job is a waste of my talent, honestly. I can't miraculously get that engine good as new, but it's just an engine. I don't mind doing my job. I just wish there was something more... interesting to work on. Something to design, or take apart, or figure out."
"This assignment really was..." she sighed, looking away again, before concluding, "And I shouldn't to burden you with my personal problems. You already got enough on your hands, with all those injured ponies down there. I was lucky to be stuck in the engine room when all that went down. Safest place for a hundred miles from here, for me at least."
Was that a sympathetic look? Bird faces were still hard to read, for mammals at least. The hippogriff had raised his wings off the deck, holding them half-spread to his sides. "Hmm. Were you not... I mean, I just assumed, did you not refit the ship, convert it for the expedition I mean? Build that storm device on the front?"
A surprised laugh escaped the fluffy kirin, as she said, "Are you kidding? That's top secret military research! They didn't even let me look at the schematic! Though it's obviously some kind of antigrounding attractor framework. Looks like they worked backwards from kinetic energy in the air to make a kind of giant antenna that you could charge with the thaumoelectric effect to..." Nutmeg seems to realise something then, and her voice trailed off to silence, before continuing in a whisper, "Uh, hey could you not mention that I might have reverse engineered top secret military research? I'm only supposed to be here to keep the engine running."
This was proving to be a confusing conversation for the hippogriff. "I... see. Well, have no fear my dear, you can consider my beak sealed. And it's quite all right, nice to hear about someone else's problems for once, and it's not as if we have a psychiatrist on staff." Pausing for a moment, he fixed Nutmeg with another of his piercing stares. "Though I must ask... if you didn't build the ship and you don't find running the engine room terribly satisfying... why are you here?"
"It's a long story," Nutmeg replied with a roll of her eyes, "Long story short, didn't read the fine print signing the contract. I thought this ship was gonna be on a trade route, where we could've set up shop in Klugetown. It was top secret until recently, this sky island ruins exploration business, with the whole Storm Piercer device being seriously hush hush. Plus uh... well, let's just say there are some creatures in high places who might want to... get me out of the way, for... various stupid reasons. I can't name names, but... you know, every door starts closing for you, until you don't have any other options, and nobody's admitting they're all working together against you?"
A familiar but still eerie aura traced up her oddly shaped horn as she stomped in frustration. "Nothing I can do about it now though," she growled, before her mood quickly cooled. "It's just rotten politics in the industry. Could've been worse I suppose."
Reef tilted his head, considering, then looked away. "That does sound... unfortunate. Not that we didn't have politics in the Navy, but just about who got the plum assignments, who got promoted first..." He looked back at Nutmeg. "If you did your duty, didn't screw up, then your course was set for life. Not many options really, especially if your family... well, tradition and all that."
She tilted an ear at that, looking up at Reef again and asking, "You didn't get... railroaded here too, did you? I don't know much about family, but I hear for ponies it's like the village sometimes, with everyone in a family just living for the group. That's one reason I left. I guess you didn't though? At least not officially. You uh... you'd rather be working at a big, fancy hospital, I guess? Ponies have these huge buildings called hospitals with a ton of doctors and healers and stuff."
"Oh no, not at all." Reef said, in a surprised tone. "To be entirely honest, becoming a surgeon..." He paused for a moment, considering his choice of words. "...it was the best... compromise I could find. You see, my father was very insistent I should join the Navy, serve the Queen, uphold the family honour... while I, well, I spent my childhood filling our house particularly interesting sea urchins. Heh." The hippogriff paused, remembering those early years spent under the ocean. "Naturalist was... out of the question, for a nation at war, so he said. Medical school, training as a ship's surgeon, well, it was... the closest I could get." Reef ducked his head, suddenly intent on studying the deck planks. "But you probably don't want to hear about that."
"No, no it's fine," Nutmeg said, wide-eyed, "I know a lot of... well, kirin like that. But there was a lot of room for them to do it anyway, since we were nothing but naturalists just a while ago. Would you be any good with it? They were saying the biologist on the expedition was... lost in the storm. Not sure why a biologist would be needed for studying old ruins, but..." she waved a hoof at the verdant greenery adjacent to the ship, "There's a heck a lotta biology out there." Snickering, she continued, "It'd be funny if they came back and needed somebody to study some weird animal or plant or something. You might just get dragged along with!"
"Oh most certainly, that's why I applied for the position." Reef said with enthusiasm. The hippogriff gave a little flap, creating a downdraft that ruffled the kirin's mane, before loosely refolding his wings. "In truth, I was lucky the Queen was pushing the Admiralty to do more with the officer exchange program, otherwise my old Captain would never have released me..." he said, a little more seriously, "but... yes, that's why I am here. It's a whole new biome, multiple biomes even, and that's without the strange magic which no doubt means..." His voice trailed off and he frowned. "Of course, I wasn't counting on having half the crew injured and medically impossible purple pegasi to confound me."
"Well, you know, I might have some uh... notes that I might have taken on the uh... Storm Piercer," the little kirin said hesitantly, "Just in my spare time. It actually looks like it could get into the gigathaums, if the electricity... well I mean maybe we could compare notes sometime? I don't think I ever heard about anything getting exposed to as much magic as those pegasi would've gotten hit with, if it grounded on them somehow. Then again I haven't been around the world all that much, so maybe they have that up in those cloud cities."
"Hmm, you don't say." Reef said, considering, before the intensity returned to his gaze: "You know that might well help with this zombie pony business. No pulse, no breathing, yet not just moving around, fully verbal! Complaining quite a bit in fact. So, if you wouldn't mind... perhaps we could take a look now? If you aren't in the middle of something? Although, I may need you to explain the mechanical parts." he finished, looking down at the deck again.
"Pff, zombie ponies," she laughed, "I'm sure there's a sensible explanation for all this. Don't worry, it's right in the engine room, and my team's got this rig well under control anyway. C'mon, let me show you what I got!" And so tugging on his birdlike foreleg to follow her, Nutmeg lead Reef Skimmer to a tiny little private room around behind the engine, labelled 'Chief Engineer's Office'. The kirin wasted no time in sharing her most intimate and forbidden secrets with the hippogriff doctor. And as luck would have it, some of it even made sense!
All attempts to communicate with any inhabitants on the islands had failed, whether by magical broadcast, or rocket post. Long range mana-sonar mapping had mostly been swallowed by the storm wall; a few blurry but enchanting images had been gleaned, of the dilapidated ruins of a strange civilization unknown to ponykind. It was stated that nothing looked like a building in which creatures would still live, and repeated observations over the years had revealed no changes to the ruins, suggesting an abandoned land. With the life all around here and something clearly maintaining the bridges and paths, that assurance seemed more and more shaky. So everypony kept a sharp eye out for movement, be it eyes glimmering with the spark of intelligence, or intact buildings that might be hidden in the woods.
Following the path out of the village had led to another fork: Summer Scribe had chosen the right path, which had taken them over another well-kept bridge and finally to the overgrown remains of a quarry. Melonwater had been in his element, pointing out one mineral strata after another, commenting on the discarded tools and speculating about mining techniques. Even he had been stumped by the huge cubes that were scattered about the place, carefully carved with giant, flattened faces and serving no apparent purpose. Summer had finally pried him away from the site, much to the relief of Azure and Blue Type, and headed back to explore the remaining path.
Perhaps, after so much trotting back and forth, fatigue was setting in; that or complacency as the ponies became accustomed to the strange surroundings. In any case, one second the four ponies were making their way down the path, the next Summer Scribe and Blue Type had dropped off the face of the earth. Vanishing in front of Azure and Melonwater, the spine chilling shock was relieved by their sharp cries of alarm from below, and immediately replaced with worry for their safety. As the two remaining ponies hurried to the edge of the sudden dropoff in the trail, the ones who slid down into it were already standing up and brushing each other off, seemingly unharmed.
"Alright, I bet we'll be stumbling across the natives any moment noowAAiIieEEE!" Summer Scribe's triumphant spiel turned into a cry of fright, as she plummeted to her demise! ...Or rather falling face first with an oof, and stumbling to her hooves. Ok, demise postponed for now. She nursed her forehead as she swiftly assessed her surroundings: didn't really look like an intentional trap which probably means... she didn't get outsmarted, she just wasn't paying attention. Gah, typical!
Azure cried out as Summer suddenly disappeared down into the pit after wandering a little too far ahead... the unicorn's eyes clearly showing worry as galloped to the verge and stared down... She found herself on the edge of a steep dropoff into a very large dirt pit taking a bite out of perhaps 20 meters of the trail and the surrounding forest to either side. 'Bloody hell', she thought 'I just had to fail my first real test as a guard, didn't I?!' Urgh... she spread her wings, preparing to fly down and offer assistance.
It was a broad, round, flat pit with steep walls, a packed dirt floor untouched by the greenery all around the area, that Summer and Blue find themselves in. Totally empty of anything else, at least until something jumped into the pit from the surrounding undergrowth. The newcomer was a small, goofy-looking green creature, which proceeded to run around aimlessly, its two prominent eyestalks apparently not very observant.
Summer had been starting to piece together how she'll climb out, when they were paid visitor by an unexpected, not to mention novel, guest! Her horn reflexively flares up with magical energy as she turned her body to keep watching it at all times. "What is THIS?... It doesn't seem hostile. I think? But what is it trying to do, then? Umm... Hello, we mean no harm, critter?" she ventured. The creature didn't seem to notice. Summer Scribe side-eyed towards Blue Type, to see if her companion has any observations to make. Azure would doubtless catch up soon, so they probably weren't in TOO much danger. Just had to be careful!
Concentrating on her friends down in the hole, Azure hadn't spotted the creature until it was already falling into the pit. Her head snapped up as she desperately scanned the bushes, looking for further hostiles. Finding none, she lit her horn, mentally preparing to blast the critter if things don't go well. Her two charges seemed no worse for wear on the floor below, but she readied herself for anything as Summer once again attempted diplomatic negotiations, with something far too weird to trust to be diplomatic. She turned to Melonwater "I'm going down; you stay here. If the worst happens... we're counting on you to get help from the ship."
The little dopey green creature turned toward Summer Scribe as she spoke, paused for a few seconds, then immediately made a beeline for the unicorn. Blue Type shies away, and Summer scrambles back, but you know... steep wall behind her and all. Sensing impending disaster, Azure closed her wings and dropped down into the pit in front of Summer, horn aglow, glaring at the creature while snarling “That’s far enou-” before it sprang forward with surprising speed, opened up a big mouth full of sharp teeth, and latched onto Azure’s face.
Summer Scribe yeeped! as the cute little thing went wild and attacked Azure; it seemed you can't trust anything around here! After a few moments to process what was going on, she sprang into action: racing towards Azure, her own horn aglow, to try and tug at the critter with telekinesis and help Azure get it off! Her intervention came too late however...
That was about the last thing Azure had expected... but this wasn't her first battle either. The creature was about to learn that leaping onto a unicorn's face, who'd already got her magic charged, was generally not a good idea. Unable to see Summer's attempts to peacefully tug the thing off, Azure Feather's reaction was rather less peaceful, instead choosing to give the creature a nasty magical shock.
The creature immediately exploded into a rain of sticky chunks, splattering all over Azure’s snout which was already starting to bleed from the thorn-like teeth stuck into her skin. She tried to wipe the mess from her eyes with a foreleg. Strangely it tasted vaguely of banana.
“Oh, oh Celestia I’m sorry!” Summer said, not quite understanding what occurred, getting in Azure’s face, “You’re bleeding! Are you o—” and that’s when Blue Type shrieked. Summer whirls apart from Azure to follow the earth pony's gaze, where two more of those green creatures had leapt into the pit and are already headed their way.
“What? What is it?!” Azure shouted, still trying to clean her eyes out.
"Two more! Get ready to blast, close range!" Summer Scribe replied. She had an idea: after they leap into the air, they're unlikely to be able to change their trajectory, so she'd just go for the old bait and dodge strategy! Summer held her ground, just ahead of Azure to make sure she's the juiciest target; her horn cracked with energy as she charged up a spell. She fired a quick magical blast at the more distant one, and was filled with warm confidence as it instantly popped, oozing goo as it sinks like a deflating balloon. The nearest one was already moving to strike; Summer let it get into range, tensing her legs to leap to the side and roll back onto her hooves. It would miss and be perfectly lined up for Azure's blast!
Meanwhile Azure was grumbling, still trying to clear her sight as she furiously rubbed at her eyes. "Can't see a blasted thing here! Give me a minute!" she cried out, stumbling back as she completely failed to notice Summer's setup...
The critter leapt forward. “Now! Blast it!” Summer shouted triumphantly.. before jerking back reflexively as it goes for her face, instead of dodged right as she'd planned. She tried to recover, but only manages to turn her head enough for it to latch onto the flesh of her thick neck. And of course her supple rear having not moved an inch, is still blocking Azure's shot with her own magical beam of destruction.
"Oww! Shoot! Aah! Nerves!" Summer Scribe panicked as her strategy went south fast. The shock of the direct clamping and nomming down made her spin on the spot, hooves awkwardly stumbling as she couldn't get a moment to calmly reassess the situation. There was no telling what sight would greet Azure once her vision cleared: a complete botch, it seemed! Someone was screaming; she couldn't see but it must be Blue Type, still pressed against the wall.
Azure's sight finally cleared... only to see Summer starting to panic with... oh, by Celestia... the creature was latched onto her neck! "Summer, stop moving for a moment! I got you covered, just... I don't want to zap you!" Carefully channelling a less-intense blast to ensure she doesn't hurt her friend, Azure tried to draw a bead on the creature despite the now frantically bucking pony it was attached to.
The bad news was that Azure’s blast missed the creature. The good news was that it hit Summer’s neck close enough that the violent jolt made the creature let go. Summer crashed down on her side, merely dazed and twitching, while Blue Type shakily took a step forward, wincing before stomping down hard on the twitching green beast, bringing her hoof down again and again until it’s reduced to green mush. Beyond the earth mare, four more of the green creatures jump down into the pit and head directly for the ponies.
Azure bit her lip as she zapped Summer instead of the intended target: argh! She had one job, for goodness' sakes! A good showing from Blue Type, but then four more of the darn creatures made their presence known... okay...
Summer's legs twitched and shuddered as she tried, with great difficulty, to pull herself to her hooves. "Yaaah! Unnh..." she saw four more critters coming out of the edge of her vision, and reflexively winced. "Thanks for the save, Azure; I panicked. Can you take on *four* of these bitey things, or can you evacuate us?" She wearily stumbled onto her hooves and shook out.
"Evacuate, no. I'm not that good yet... all I can do is give you two wings and we can fly out... I think..." Azure grumbled.'...if it doesn't leave me unconscious' she thought. She should have spent more time learning combat magic, and less on her flying fantasies....
The three ponies huddled together, butts against the wall as their four enemies advance. A beam of magic lances out from Azure's horn, blasting one of the beasts into chunky salsa, only for two more of the creatures jump down. Just when it looks like they might be overwhelmed by the horde, a rock comes sailing from above, splatting another of the creatures. At that moment, a thick tendril flops down on Azure’s back. Turning in a panic to face the new foe, she sees it’s just a vine, hanging down the side of the pit. “Climb up!” comes a stallion's voice: Melonwater from beyond the edge of the pit. “It’s secured!” he shouts. Another substantial rock comes flying down: it lands between two of the creatures, leaving them intact but stunned.
Summer Scribe beamed up towards Melonwater: they were saved! "Thanks! Blue Type, you go first!" After all, it was impolite to let your coworkers get mauled - or chomped in this case - behind you! Of the three of them Azure was best placed to defend herself, and could just fly out once the two of them were clear; Summer would take the vine second and take potshots at any approaching chompers. How humiliating to be brought to their knees by these toothy little monsters; but an important lesson to learn: they couldn't slack off for a moment in this strange and dangerous new land!
Melonwater with a big save... Azure sighed as she watched both Blue Type and then Summer clamber to safety, vine in their teeth and Melonwater hauling from above. The creatures kept coming, throwing themselves at the ponies. Adrenalin pumping now, Azure blasted four in quick succession, but one made it through to bite Summer's foreleg; the smaller unicorn had to smash it against the wall of the pit. Another flanked Azure and bit down on a hindleg; she grunted with pain and vaporised it with another lance of magic. Her horn was warm, almost painfully hot... suddenly Azure realised that everypony was clear and there was nothing stopping her flying out of this hellhole.
A few quick flaps brought Azure up and out of the pit, landing heavily next to the others. Injuring her teammates and herself in the first outing: beautiful, just beautiful, she thought. Urgh.
“Well that—” she said unhappily, cutting off at a sudden pain in her ass. It seemed one of the creatures had decided to take a ride up out of the pit; in the fog of pain and anger she hadn't even noticed it latch on. Taking care to blow the thing off of her, rather than blow it up, its smoking remains went sailing back into the pit from which it came. The four ponies crowded together at the edge, watching the five remaining green creatures now ambling aimlessly around below. No more of them appear from the bushes, but the ones already down there don’t seem to be up and disappearing just yet.
With a bleeding muzzle, ear, leg, shoulder, and rear end, Azure had taken the worst of it. She didn’t have a neck wound, at least. Still in an adrenalin fuelled daze, Summer didn’t seem to notice her own wound still trickling blood down to her shoulder. Blue Type had a bite on her chest and foreleg, and... that’s about it actually. Melonwater got off with a minor scrape from rushing around to sever and tie off the vine, not to mention hurling sizable rocks. In summary the party was in a bad way, and though the path continued beyond the pit, the undergrowth grew thickly all around it. Further exploration was out of the question until they could regroup and find another way; or deal with this menace for good.
Summer Scribe carefully watched to make sure no more hostiles are incoming... and then took inventory of their wounds. Wincing, she addressed Azure, "You're looking really real messed up. I think Reef Skimmer will want to tend to your injuries." Blue Type and Melonwater seemed ok, at least. But... Oh goodness, is that blood? Summer hadn't even noticed that her own injuries were pretty serious as well. She winced, and assessed their meagre stock of first aid supplies: not enough bandages for every wound.
Azure sighed. "Nothing broken though, except for my ego. Don't worry... been through a lot worse than this." She shook her head. "I'm going to be honest, I'm more upset that I got you two injured. We'd best head back to the ship: there's no telling how many more hostiles are here, and we need to get our wounds cleaned and stitched, before they fester..."
Summer begrudgingly accepted Blue Type's pleading that she should have her own wound bandaged, allowing it before tending to Azure as best she could. "Yeah, we need to head back, right now: we're in no condition to last another fight like this, and these wounds are only going to get worse without proper attention." This was already a bad note to end their first expedition on, no sense making it worse.
The time spent trekking back to the ship was sombre, but a certain sense of relief prevailed once everypony had calmed down. They were all still accounted for, and nothing truly disastrous had happened. Aid was not yet procured, but many things had been learned about this new world. Returning in late afternoon, they found the crew had set up a small camp in the meadow next to the ship, with tents and a fire pit dug out.
As the battered ponies reach the gangplank, they see the ship’s doctor sitting contemplatively on deck with that engineer kirin, the one who kept the engine running through the storm. The pair are dismayed at the condition of the bold explorers: she backs away with a sheepish smile and one two-fingered hoof raised, as the doctor makes it clear there is no time for pleasantries. There are wounds that need cleaning, injuries that need to be assessed, bandages that need to be applied, and then maybe tales can be told that night, over the very first campfire in this strange place.