//------------------------------// // Chapter One - Static Helper // Story: Bloody Quartz // by Boom TheDemoPony //------------------------------// Static Helper was waiting. All Canterlot medical staff had been called in to work an extra shift in preparation for the Princess' wedding to ensure adequate care due to the influx of tourists and the residents partying all over Canterlot. The older medics called it, ‘Unnecessary’. There were hundreds of the finest medical staff available at the Royal Canterlot Hospital, but if the injury was truly serious, and they could not get there themselves, that is where his division came in. The Emergency Medical Recovery unit of the First Response Unicorn Division of the Royal Canterlot Hospital. Simply put, they received a call for aid, teleported to a location right near the where the call originated from, stabilized the patient and teleported them to the hospital emergency room or, depending on the severity of the injury or injuries, directly to surgery for the doctors to take care of. Due to the sheer amount of extra help called in today however, and with local clinics and medical centres sending out their own ponies, setting up shaded stands and the like to deal with minor problems, any medical issues were taken care of fairly quickly as they came up and it seemed that nopony needed the emergency responders. And so, Static Helper waited. He was fiddling with the various pockets of his uniform, unpacking and repacking medical supplies, checking mana batteries for the eighteenth time that day, ensuring his respiratory saddlebag kit hadn't spontaneously run out of oxygen in the three minutes since he had checked it last. Static was nervous. This was his first day with EMR. Years of study and practice, months of hands on experience at smaller clinics and countless hours going over and over the standard practice had finally led him here, to the First Response Unicorn Division, the best of the best and his goal since he was a colt. Sighing, he slid his shears into their special loop and fastened them down with his blue magical aura. The navy blue of the uniform matching his coat nearly perfectly. His black mane was cut as short as he could go with only a mirror and some scissors, and not nearly as neat as he would have liked, but he hadn't expected to be called in today. Technically, he was employed here, but his first official day was a week away. They really wanted all hooves on deck. Then, just as he thought he would stress out what remained of his mane, the little alarm attached to his collar went off. Jumping to his hooves, he galloped to the large teleportation bay. When he got there, it was just in time to see two senior pairs of medics and the emergency doctor vanish with a flash of light from the outgoing teleport sigil stand. He had missed his chance. But no, wait, his alarm was still going off? Looking around, he saw that the alarm of every medic was going off, nearly sixty pairs in all. That couldn't be right. Spotting his mentor and senior medic, Quick Gauze, he trotted over and asked him, “What happened?” Quick Gauze simply pointed out the window with a hoof even as more medic pairs flashed away behind us, disappearing only as fast as they could sign out on the outgoing jobs chart. The scene outside was like something from a nightmare. Black creatures rained down on the city, green fire erupting wherever their green bolts of magic struck. I watched rooftops explode into flame, despite the required fireproofing enchantments. Magical fire? I think it was my own weird way of processing things, because I didn't see the creatures invading the city, I saw the dangers they represented as I sprinted away, shouting over my shoulder, “We'll need the enchanted burn pads!” I never heard or saw my mentor respond, only running for the supply cabinets. Unsure, I just picked up the two large boxes containing the extra burn pads and carried them out into the main room. Instantly, pairs started grabbing extras, throwing them to the still outgoing pairs even as they disappeared. Only around thirty left. My mentor was itching to go out, but we all knew the rules. Normally, response depended on the type of report received, but during citywide emergencies, seniority led the charge. The older, more advanced teams went out first to quickly deal with situations and then return just as quickly where they were to restock and go to the front of the queue to ensure the quickest, most effective care. The strange thing is, no teams had returned yet. There were about twenty left now, although my mentor hadn't noticed yet. I went up to him as he watched the events unfolding outside. “Quick?” When he didn't respond, I tapped him on the withers, making him jump. Taking a deep breath, he went over to the boxes and slid extra magical burn pads into his saddlebags. He turned to face the sign out sheet, only five pairs left now, each of them similar to us, a senior medic mentor and a newer medic, when he hesitated. Turning on the spot, he vanished into the supply room and after some rummaging around, returned with a…fire extinguisher? Strapping it to his back, he trotted up to the table and signed us out. No other teams were left, and no other teams had returned. Walking up to the outgoing teleport sigil, we waited for the flash of light, and when it came, I closed my eyes against the brightness. ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Opening my eyes, I adjusted to the light, looking around where we were. Mane Street? “Static!” I heard Quick yell. I turned to look at him, before he shoved me sideways, sending us crashing to the ground together. Just where I was standing, a chunk of masonry twice my size landed. Looking from it, to my mentor, I barely had the chance to stutter out a, ‘thank you', when he dragged me to my hooves and over to the side of the road. His horn lighting up, he used a tracking spell to find our patient, the information sent up to the station being their last known location at the time of report. Confused, he looked up. There, about four or five metres directly above us, was a pegasus guard. He was upside down and I could see his face. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be unconscious. This was a case for immediate teleportation to the hospital, as unconsciousness could mean a multitude of things, none of them good. Quick Gauze's aura appeared around the pegasus who appeared to be stuck to the wall with some kind of green, goo like substance, before he quickly vanished with a flash of light. Surprised, I turned to my mentor and said, "We didn't even triage! How will the hospital know what is wrong?” Grim faced, Quick turned and said, “They will have to figure it out. We are going to be busy, so send any unresponsive patients straight to Emergency. And stay close." Taken aback at this sudden change in protocol, I realized he would know better, he must, so I nodded. Nodding back, he said, “We have to keep moving.” Stepping closer, I felt his aura wrap around me and barely had time to close my eyes before we vanished from that dust filled street. ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Opening them again, my eyes were forced to readjust to a dark interior. Once a stately residence, it had been devastated by fighting. It was then I saw one of the invaders up close for the first time. Then another, and another. I counted three of them, plus, judging from the two green stains spreading out from under the fallen double doors in front of me, two others. They had not fared well against whatever force they had come up against. “Static!” I heard Quick yell, but this time, his tone was impatient. He was kneeling by an elderly blue unicorn with his head lying on a discarded couch pillow. Rushing over, Quick gave instruction, “Responsive, but barely. Oxygen and mask, now.” As I complied, Quick expertly attached the connection points to the pony, each point having a lead that led to the defib strapped to his side. Sliding a pair of cuffs around the patient’s hooves, he checked the readout. “Mask him. I will take him to the hospital and you restock the O2.” Snapping the mask over the unicorn’s face, I nodded at Quick before they and the oxygen cylinder were wrapped up in his aura and gone again in a flash. I was about to do the same, when I heard a wheeze from behind me. Turning, I saw one of the black-blue creatures was sitting, leaning against the wall, and it was alive. At first I recoiled, quickly setting a ward between it and myself. I saw a twisted gnarly horn, unnatural hole-filled legs, green blood dripping from a torn ear, wheezing breaths and, as I watched, a wet cough. I had dropped the ward and was at its side in an instant, trauma kit opening in a flash of magic. I worked as quickly as I could, taking whatever manual stats I could and treating with single-minded efficiency. Before I knew it, the creature was covered in dressings to stop the green blood from escaping the cracks in its carapace and I had just prevented a collapsed lung. The creature was now breathing easier at least, and was watching me work, helpless to do anything about it. A flash behind me heralded the return of my partner and he caught himself at the beginning of his tirade, “What are you still doing here, I told y-". He had caught sight of the creature, and the injuries and then, my efforts to heal them. He hesitated only a moment longer before he was there as well, attaching the magical cables from earlier, grumbling under his breath. “Stupid do-goodering new blood making me do my job.” After he had deemed my work acceptable, we stood there, unsure what to do next. “Surely, we could not take this one to the hospital, could we?” I said. Shaking his head, he sighed and said, “We have to. It is stable for now, but who knows what’s happened internally. Ah horseapples, immobilize its neck and I'll take it to the ER myself.” I wrapped a soft collar around its neck as it gazed up at me in fear and confusion before it too was whisked away in my mentor's magical aura, but not before a firm warning that I was not to dawdle again. I closed my eyes and flashed away. ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Appearing on the incoming teleportation sigil in the medic bay, I moved quickly to the storeroom to replace the used equipment, frantically filling the bags and sorting them as quickly as I could. I didn't know how long I had been there, but as I was fumbling with the seal on a new oxygen cylinder, my mentor appeared behind me and calmly took hold of the maelstrom of medical equipment I had whirling around me and slid it into my bags before coming around to stand in front of me, putting his hoof on my snout and telling me, “Breath.” So I did. And again. And then I fell to my haunches, exhausted as the adrenaline left me. After a minute or so of breathing and after my hooves had stopped shaking, he nodded and asked me, “Ready?” I nodded. We went to the teleportation bay and we were still the only ones here. “Where are the others, Quick?” He swore and spat, "Most of them are hiding at the hospital, too scared to leave. The rest are missing.” I blanched, turning fully to face him. “But why?” He sighed, tension leaving his body. “Because this is an invasion and it is scary. Because technically, we are supposed to wait for the all clear before going out again. Because, technically, you should be kept safe and well away from this. This should not be your first day.” I stood there silently with my mentor, processing this information. After little thinking at all really, I walked up to the sign out book and, right under our earlier signatures, signed us out again. Walking to the outgoing sigil, I was quietly joined by Quick, before we vanished again. I didn't close my eyes, I wanted to be ready. ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ We appeared outside a residence and again, I was knocked aside by my mentor as we dodged a bolt of green magic, only his grip on my withers keeping me from falling over as he pointed forward. Crashing in through the nearest doorway, I heard Quick yell, “Up!” and up we went, the doorway opening into an entry foyer that led to two other rooms and a staircase. Up the staircase I went, Quick right behind me. When we hit the upper level, there was a small sitting room with a door on either side. “Left!” he cried. We dove over couches and poofs and a good sized hole in the center of the room that led from the roof, all the way through the floor and into one of the rooms below. Blood was around the edge of the hole and I got the impression of more downstairs as I jumped over it. Crashing into the leftmost room, a mare in the corner screamed, facing her back to the door and curling into a ball, trying to make herself as small as possible. Quick went straight to her while I slammed the door shut and placed all the wards I knew against it. Turning, I saw that Quick had calmed the mare down enough to show him the unconscious foal she was trying to protect. “Static, trauma!” Ripping the kit from my side, I was by his side with it open, just as the banging on the door behind us started and the mare whimpered at the sound and clutched the foal closer while we quickly dressed the stump that had once been the foal's right foreleg. “Are you her mother?” Quick asked and at that, the mare started babbling about how she was just the maid and that the masters of the house had been downstairs with their eldest while she was watching the little one play, when one of the creatures had burst through the ceiling and right through the floor, taking the foal's hoof off in the process. She had time to tourniquet the remainder of the limb as best she could and hid them in the foal’s bedroom before the commotion downstairs had ended. With a needle in the foal's remaining foreleg providing much needed fluid, the limp figure started to gain some colour back. Quick told me to go and take them both to the ER. I didn't have time to question him and could only throw my magic into his as his aura wrapped around all three of us and we disappeared, my vision being filled with splinters as the door exploded inward as my wards dropped. ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ We appeared on the incoming ER sigil and I nearly slipped on the blood present on the ground. Immediately, the mare and foal were whisked away by nurses and other medics acting as aides, slowing only to hear what we had done for them. I didn't stay long enough to see more as I dove onto the spotless outgoing sigil and, ignoring calls from the other medics to stop, vanished just as quickly. ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ I appeared on the street again, but this time, no green bolt came at me. I galloped back into the house and up the stairs again, turning into the room and no longer was it the clean, slightly damaged sitting room of before. Wreckage and writhing bodies were strewn all over. Four of the creatures lay around the entrance to the foal's bedroom, the door burst inwards, each of them clutching their eyes and hissing and snarling, faces covered in white powder. Another one lay beaten and bruised with an obviously broken leg, holding it and whimpering in the corner. Another lay half-out of the hole in the floor, eyes closed and not moving. No sign of Quick though. Checking the other room, an empty master bedroom, I ran downstairs and opened the first door. I entered a larger family room and found Quick standing over the crumpled bodies of three ponies with three more of the creatures all around him, and these ones were far from salvageable. The family downstairs must have been close together when the floor and monster came down on them at high speed as both they and it were smeared across the carpet. The three creatures around Quick were equally smeared, but much fresher. A discarded fire extinguisher, the one Quick had taken just before they left, was covered in green blood and lying forgotten next to him. I approached Quick, speaking quietly, "Quick?” His ear twitched, but he didn't reply, just staring at the unfortunate family in front of him. I walked up to him and placed a hoof on his withers, “Quick?” He turned in my direction, green blood covering his face and no feeling left in his eyes. I held back my horror and revulsion at the sight of my mentor, “We can't stay here Quick.” He looked at me like he didn't even recognize me before nodding placidly. Charging up my horn, I wrapped my aura around him and we both vanished. ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ When we appeared in the ER, cries that a new patient had arrived gave way to confusion as I quietly led Quick to a break room behind the nurses station. Another pair came with me, and then went ahead of me to clear some space in the room. After getting him there and setting him down on a blanket, he just stared ahead, motionless. I had never seen the like and I asked the senior pair what was wrong. “Dunno kid, but more like him have been coming in since this started.” The other spoke up, “Just dead to the world, drained.” I looked at my mentor, and then back at the pair, “Please, take care of him.” They looked confused again, before the closest one yelled to me to wait, diving to stop me as I ripped the guidance crystal off of Quick's uniform and flashed away to the next pony in distress. ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ I appeared outside a restaurant and was immediately assaulted with the sound of panicking ponies and hissing, flying insect creatures from all around, as well as from a pair of ponies yelling at me to get out of the street. Obligingly, I sprinted forward, barely dodging several green bolts as I dove in through the heavy front doors and met with two guards who were pulling anyone in that they could find. Upon seeing my uniform, the guard on the right said, “Thank Celestia you're here, we have injured. Behind the counter.” She pointed. I nodded and trotted to find them. Finally, those extra enchanted burn pads came in handy. Six stallions, each with burns of varying severity from magical fire along their sides and backs, were sitting calmly behind the counter. When I tried to help them, they all pushed me back and told me to help the others, taking the burn pads and applying it themselves, concern for the other member of their group overriding their concern for themselves. Apparently, a cart transporting magical fireworks for the celebration a block over had exploded and caught fire, trapping the two pulling it. The six stallions had coordinated to lift the wreckage off of the two occupants. A pair of tradesponies it seemed, although you could hardly tell with their clothing blackened by soot and torn to pieces. The stallion was fine, save for some cuts from when the cart exploded, but the mare was in trouble. Using the shears to cut away the last of her clothing, I found her chest crushed and she was clearly struggling to breath. The stallion holding her said that she had been hit by one of the heavy wheels when the cart went up and when I listened to her chest, I could tell she was well beyond my help. Charging my horn up, I simply sent them on their way, not to the ER, but to the surgery. The rest were suffering from mostly shock and the same emotional drain I had seen earlier, so I went back out to find the guards from earlier. As I approached the front door though, a wave of light passed through the building, and a sense of peace came over me. That sense of peace lasted a few seconds before an agonized scream chilled my blood. Going outside, I looked around, surprised to see no more monsters. It seems they had been repulsed by whatever that wave was as I watched it fizzle out towards the edge of the city and send a cloud of the creatures flying. Following the sounds of the screams, I arrived at a sorry scene. A stallion was on the ground, bleeding terribly from a hole on the back of his neck, screaming and unable to stand on an obviously broken leg, but the guards from earlier were there also, and while one appeared to simply be immobilized, the other was lying limply on the ground in a pool of blood. Deciding that screaming meant alive and that alive was good, I rolled over the guard on the ground and saw that it was the one who had guided me earlier. A jagged hole going right through her throat and into her head, combined with the sheer amount of blood I saw, I knew there was nothing to be done. Cantering over to the stallion, I opened my bags and got to work. He was terribly bruised, full of glass shards and his fur was wet, making it hard to find any more potential injuries, and while that leg looked painful, he didn't seem to even notice, trying to stand and, failing that, crawl away down the street, crying for somepony to, ‘Come back!’. “Sir, please, calm down, I need you to calm down.” I packed the hole in his neck where it looked like something had torn a chunk out of him and the bleeding slowed considerably. I had placed the splint and, when he had calmed down enough that he could hear me, I spoke into his ear. “I have to set your leg. This will hurt.” I set it, cringing at his muffled scream as he bit his foreleg to try to silence it, and quickly had the splint on and wrapped. I was standing up to review it when I was suddenly tackled. Landing on the ground with an ‘oof', I felt somepony grab my tail and start dragging me away. I was surprised when I saw the immobilized guardspony had gotten himself free and was now dragging me back to his fallen comrade. Not wanting to be dragged through any debris, I quickly bucked him and rolled to my hooves, getting myself free only for a second before he tackled me again and, standing over me, screamed in my face. “Why aren't you helping her?! She needs your help!” I had no response. I knew the answer, but I could not bring myself to say it. I had never had to before. Not being content with my silence, he began charging his horn. “Help her or I swear I will kill you!” Faced with this dilemma, I yelled at him, terrified, “I can't!” He stopped charging his horn and his magic evaporated, his face turning confused, and then stricken. “W-why?” he said, tears forming in his eyes and his forelegs on either side of my head starting to tremble. I felt tears spring into my own eyes as I whispered the response in the newfound quiet in the streets of Canterlot, the injured stallion crying softly nearby, “She's dead.” At my words, a flame of anger appeared in his eyes and his horn charged faster than ever, a great nimbus heralding my demise as he screamed, “Liar!” He pointed his horn at me, the aura alone singing the hair on my jaw and I closed my eyes against the light and my death. And then the heat dissipated, and I felt the weight of a pony collapse onto my stomach as he wrapped his hooves around me and pressed his face into my into my neck, sobbing, his city guard armour digging into my side as he said, over and over again through the tears, “Liar, liar, liar…” I lay there and let him cry, still aware of my need to help the nearby stallion, but held in place by the weight of this distraught guard, and then, the exertion, the mental strain, the magical strain, all of the things I had witnessed, they all hit me at once, and so I held the stallion closer and placed my neck over his, silent tears coming to my eyes. The all clear must have followed soon after, because that is how the other medics found us.