Happy fucking New Years Eve. I’d say good riddance to 1011, but 1012 is looking to be even worse. My New Year Resolution: Survive.
It’s a holiday so I didn’t have any clients today, besides Miriam of course. Of course, nopony told the Changelings that, so instead of fireworks and wine, there’s bombs and blood. I could use a drink.
I caught a glimpse of a plane falling from the sky earlier. Unfortunately, the red sun on its wing marked it as one of ours. At least there were some friends in the sky, we weren’t completely abandoned. Though I wonder if whoever’s house the plane crashed into would disagree.
Speaking of friends, Heartland came back to the clinic today. It was a huge relief to see him still alive. The pink cross on his jacket looked good on him, though I was more concerned about the blood stains. How many ponies had he saved? How many ponies did he fail?
He was still his chipper old self despite what he must have experienced. He wanted to check up on me, see how I was handling the clinic. It was sweet of him, but there really wasn’t much to do except tend to Miriam. He asked me if I wanted to help him, he could use my expertise.
I told him that I wasn’t going out there and risking my life. He said I didn’t have to. The hospital was being overwhelmed with casualties and it might become a target for the Changelings in the near future. He just wanted to know if he could send some minorly injured townsfolk to the clinic for medical aid, so as to not tie up the doctors from working on some of the more seriously injured. Even if I wasn’t a doctor myself and didn’t have the experience than Heartland did, I could do a simple cleaning and stitching or set a broken bone. Though anything more than that was out of my league.
I had to consider it. Being only a vet certainly didn’t stop Heartland from working on ponies. Anypony coming in would know that I wasn’t a licensed doctor, but I could quickly write up a small liability form for them to sign to cover my own rump. I was at the mercy of the doctors to vet (hee hee) the patients sent my way, but it should be obvious who not to send my way.
I agreed to help. I may be a coward and a pessimist, but I care about other ponies damn it! I will have the time for it as I expect very few animals will be coming in and they will be a lesser priority to the ponies anyways. I expect it to last only a couple of days anyways. The Changeling will win soon enough and either there will be less ponies getting injured, or I’ll be dead. Either way, I won’t have to worry about it for too long.
Heartland thanked me. As he headed out the door with more supplies in hoof, he told me about a speech the leader of the Equestrian forces in the town, one Major Red Flag, had made to the volunteers. The commander said that everypony mattered in the defense of the town and that the fate of Equestria rested in our hooves. Sounded like a bunch of manure to me. Yonderhill is just a little bump in the road for the Changeling warmachine. How does what we do here matter besides throwing our lives away?
Heartland said that fighting gave ponies hope. It feels like he’s trying to guilt trip me into helping more directly, but I have my own hope. Hope that I will survive. It will be under the heel of the Changelings, but survival nonetheless. Is that really that selfish of me?
Heartland left and for all I know, it will be the last time I’ll ever see him. I wished him a happy New Years anyway, for all the good that will do. I’ll probably end up staying up late myself, not to celebrate, but because the gunfire and bombs will probably keep me up all night. See you next year.