Lily had only a few seconds to put together a plan of action as she stared into the desperate mare’s golden eyes, but she still managed to conceive something out of thin air. The only things they had down here that could technically be of use medically was the water in the river, though if they gathered enough moss, they may be able to use it to clean the wounds better. The wound looked at least partially treated, not completely untouched, which meant the mare had been here for at least long enough to wash it. Taking all of this into account, she took a deep breath, her eyes darting between the mare and Blue Knight.
“Yes, yes, I’ll help,” She agreed, beginning to walk towards the unconscious form of the Blue Knight. “We need as much water as we can get on him to cool and clean the burns. Go grab some moss and I’ll see if there’s a way I can drag him closer to the water.”
“No, you go grab some moss,” the mare demanded, sounding ever so slightly paranoid. Lily briefly glanced back, and while the mare still looked nervous as all get out, she was intensely staring at her. “I’ve been here for hours and haven’t left him out of sight for a second of it. I don’t know you and neither does he, and I don’t trust you enough to not try to sneak a look beneath the mask. Besides, you sound like you know what we need, and I don’t have a clue about what we’re trying to do. It just makes more sense.”
After the shortest moment of hesitation, Lily realized the mare’s point, and nodded. “Fine, I’ll go get some moss. You see all of the flowers around here? Try to squish one up and force him to eat it through his mask. He doesn’t need to eat it, but the bitter juice in it could help wake him up. If he’s awake, he’s alive.”
The mare nodded as Lily began running to the cliff wall, where she knew a majority of the moss would be. Indeed, there were large clumps clinging to the jagged, water-worn wall of stone, and she tore away large swaths by the hooffull. She took as much as she could, knowing that even though she might not need it all to clean and artificially dress the wound, it would help with keeping the stallion hydrated. Rushing away from the wall and falling water to where the river wasn’t so tumultuous, she rinsed the moss in the river, removing as much of the potential dirt from it as possible.
When she was satisfied that the moss wasn’t completely contaminated, she took the stock and ran back towards the stairway. As she got closer, she saw the white-coated mare crouched down besides where the Blue Knight lay, though she was unable to make out what she was doing thanks to her angle of approach. Rushing up to the duo, half-expecting mischief from the mare, she instead found her soothingly rubbing the stallion’s side, the furthest point from the burn she could reach. The sound of Lily’s approach halted her movements as she turned to face her.
Showing the large quantity of moss she was holding to the mare, she instructed, “Lay the large pieces on the burn and let it cool them over time. I’ll help administer water to his face and ensure he isn’t overheating and help him rehydrate. Is he conscious?”
“Somewhat,” Lavender answered, taking some of the longer strips from Lily. As she laid them gently on the stallion’s back wounds, she explained, “He was responding to me, but it was more like he was still asleep and simply reacting. There wasn’t any talking or anything, just physical reaction to whenever I touched him or talked to him. He may have tried to say something though, but it may have just been groaning in pain.”
Lily nodded curtly as she brushed past the younger mare, bending over the Blue Knight. She could hear his deep, ragged breathing, and became even more concerned. What if the burns had somehow reached his lungs and were affecting his breathing, or perhaps they had caused damage around the lungs and they were filling with fluids? Shuddering at the gruesome thought, she forced herself to sit beside him, keeping her eyes firmly on his masked face to divert them from his grisly back. Putting her weight on her back legs, she used her front hooves to squeeze the water out of a smaller piece of moss and through the mask where she guessed his mouth was.
Blessedly, the Blue Knight’s head began moving towards the dripping moss, his throat moving as he gulped the small amount of water given to him. Quickly trading out the piece of moss for a larger one that was sopping wet and pressing it near his mouth. The stallion thirstily took the moss from her hooves with his mouth, crushing it with his teeth through the mask and sucking the water out of it.
“Hey,” Lily whispered as she took a small piece of moss and began dabbing his forehead with it. “How are you doing?”
A groan was the only answer to her question, a chill passing through her as she realized how, while he was incredibly weak in his position, there was still a determined grit to his movements and sounds. He practically spat the piece of moss out of his mouth, a subtle extending of his neck demanding the last piece of moss from her. She gave it to him, allowing him to take control of it as she continued to cool his face down. Pressing her foreleg against one of the few dry patches on his face, she felt that it was warm, but not overheating. With a sigh of relief, she watched as he finished sucking the water out of it, letting the moss drop from his face, his head slowly lowering to the ground itself.
“Horsefeathers,” Lavender exclaimed softly as the Blue Knight suddenly hissed in pain. Lily whipped her head over to the mare, her eyes widening as she saw Lavender’s hooves bloodied. The mare, however, didn’t seem too fazed by the sight of blood, her hooves working quickly with a head-sized piece of moss to bandage a now bleeding portion of his back.
“The skin broke when it got wet,” the mare quickly explained, pressing the moss onto the blood to try and soak it up. Standing up, Lily raced over to the riverbed, not bothering to take the time to search the cliffs. She simply grabbed the nearest clump of moss and briefly dabbed it in the river before rushing back. “I don’t think it’s too bad…”
“We need to prevent it from staying open though,” Lily finished with a pointed glance. “It would be really bad if this all got infected,” she added, her eyes darting around the mostly covered wound.
Lavender had done well dressing the wound with the scrappy provisions they had, but the moss would not hold for long, the edges already drying out. The burns, while still severe, were at least not looking nearly as terrifying as before, but the terrible red of inner skin and burnt flesh was still sickeningly present. Swallowing a lump, she and Lavender worked together washing the wound and covering it until it stopped leaking blood. Sighing, the two shared a look, and the surreal nature of their meeting each other seemed to overtake them for a moment as they both began to giggle nervously. They would have continued to laugh most likely had they not been interrupted by a harsh, grumbling voice.
“Glad you find this funny,” the stallion they were tending to suddenly commented. “Don’t go into shock. I’d hate to die awake.”
“Oh sweet Celestia you’re awake,” Lily exclaimed, rushing back over to the stallion’s front, using one of her hooves to lift his head up. The mask had its life back again.
“Ye,” the Blue Knight grunted, the pain he was trying to hold back audible. “What the hay did you do to wake me up, and why the hay are you even here? I told you to stay away from me no matter what.”
“Even if it meant letting you die,” she harshly asked, knowing the answer.
“Well, probably best to be dead, actually,” the stallion commented, catching Lily by surprise with the honesty that was brutally unironic. Staring hard at the stallion, trying to catch a glimpse at the pony through the mask, she knew that he hadn’t been joking. “The public… they don’t trust me, do they now? I’ve killed somepony, possibly someponies.” The pause between the stallion’s words was torturous as she knew he was reading her like a book. Softly, he added, “You don’t trust me.”
“Wait, you two know each other,” Lavender suddenly exclaimed in disbelief, preventing Lily from focusing on those words. The Blue Knight started to jerk upright in surprise, momentarily seeming to forget his injuries. He let out a soft grunt of pain before slowly laying back down completely on the ground.
“You brought a friend,” the Blue Knight questioned furiously.
“Actually, she found me attempting to take care of you alone,” Lavender said, defending the mare she didn’t even know. Glancing over at the younger mare, Lily gave her a thankful smile. Nodding, the unicorn continued, “She was the only other one who came down here, and she knew exactly what to do to help you. You should be thanking her for saving your life.”
“I should be doing a lot of things,” the stallion gruffly grumbled. “Starting up a fanclub is not one of them. Help me stand up.”
“What,” the two mares cried at the same time, both of them putting their hooves on his side to keep him down.
“You can’t stand up yet, you’re way too injured,” Lavender declared. “Your back looks… it looks like I could touch your spine itself.”
“You aren’t going anywhere,” Lily firmly told him, a fierceness overtaking her voice. She was beginning to grow bitter with the way the stallion was treating the two of them, the injustice of his reaction to their help. Even after having his life saved by two mares who went out of their way to help, he was acting tough and pretending like he could’ve done better. Well, maybe she should let him go. After all, if he thought himself better than their help, why give it to him.
“And why not,” the Blue Knight dared to ask. “You two can’t keep both myself and yourselves down here for too long before having to resurface. Besides, I know a place where I can get help.”
“We’re giving you help right now,” Lavender calmly told him, keeping her hooves on him, though the hold was loose. “Please, just wait until you won’t start bleeding when you move. We can sneak some food and medicine down for you and maybe get you something to help stay warm and covered.”
“No,” both Lily and the Blue Knight said at the same time. The stallion beneath the mask turned his head over to the mare in surprise, obviously not expecting the mare to agree to the terms, but she was past caring. If he was so determined to show that he was stronger than everypony else, then this would be his sink or swim moment. Either he had to admit defeat, or she had to realize she wasn’t able to do much around this strange, infuriating stallion.
“Let him go,” Lily told Lavender, the young mare frowning in confusion, wordlessly pointing to his burnt back. Ignoring her gaze, Lily looked down at the stallion laying on the ground, demanding, “Get up then. If you don’t need our help, get up and get out of here. Prove that we’re all just wasting each other’s time. Otherwise, quit complaining like some little colt and let us take care of you.”
Beneath his mask, Lily could see whoever he was frown in a defeated way, or was that in consideration. Whichever it was didn’t matter to her, so long as she got her point across his thick skull. He may be a hero, but he’d stop being one if he didn’t live through this terrible, terrifying ordeal that she had once again found herself dragged into. Celestia darned fate.
She stepped back, using her hoof to push a reluctant Lavender away from the stallion, who still lay vulnerably on his stomach. As if moving away was a cue of its own, the stallion began to stand almost instantly, his legs trembling as he applied his weight to them and defied gravity, standing slowly. It took what seemed like hours before his stomach left the ground, his entire body beginning to shake, from pain or exertion, the Blue Knight didn’t show it. The stallion only silently raised himself from the ground, not a whisper of complaint or groan of agony escaping him, only the sounds of breathing forced to be calm. Lavender was visibly slack-jawed that the stallion they had deemed crippled just minutes ago was standing on his own. Lily herself had to clench her teeth to keep her own jaw from dropping, but with a determination not to be stood up to, she remained as emotionless as she could. Finally, with a fantastic shake of his head that set the moss falling from him, he stood completely, his masked face turning sharply to the two mares.
“I-I-I…” Lavender began before trailing off, too shocked by the impossible to form a cohesive sentence. The Blue Knight, however, had no such problems.
“Well, there, I’ve proved you wrong,” the stallion blandly stated. “I hope you aren’t happy. Now, before I go, there are two fundamental things I need to know from the two of you. First, who looked under my mask, and second, what did you use to wake me up from the unconsciousness?”
Both mares turned and stared at each other in shock, both instantly suspicious of the other for the accused crime. Giving Lavender a hard glare, she read the younger mare’s eyes and realized her shocked eyes were truly angry, betrayed even. Those weren’t the emotions of somepony with something to hide. Letting her glare fall, she looked over to the Blue Knight suspiciously. He had asked who had taken a forbidden look under his mask when it was now obvious that nopony had.
“If you had wanted to ask if we looked under your mask, you should have just said it outright,” Lily angrily told the Blue Knight, turning her back to him and storming away. “As for what we used, it was just some healer’s mark. The juice was bitter enough to get through even your thick skull. Come on, Lavender. We don’t have to deal with this… problem anymore.”
There was a quick moment of hesitation before her footfalls seconded Lily’s, but the mare did follow, her eyes lingering on the wounded form of the Blue Knight just a moment longer than Lily’s. In spite of the bright midday light, the both of them saw a bright blue flash that originated from behind them. Only Lavender turned back to find the stallion they had attended to gone.