//------------------------------// // Progress // Story: White Sun // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// "Experience? How?" Butterscotch asked. Twilight started sweating nervously. "Uh, well, when you do what I do you have to know how to clean and bandage your own wounds and fix yourself or any 'friends' you have along the way that get any...nasty wounds." The medic glared at Twilight but shrugged his suspicions off. "As long as you saved one of my patients I have no reason to pry further," he said. The mare breathed a sigh of relief internally while Applejack gently patted her on the back. "Well done, Twah," she congratulated. "Looks like yer talents came in handy after all," she said with a smile. Pinkie jumped into view, a big smile plastered on her face. "Thanks to you I can throw my first 'You're still alive!' party when he gets all better. I get to plan so many new kinds of parties thanks to you." Her eyes sparkled with joy. "I love doing first time things! They're always so much fun. And then you get to improve upon what you already did and create a bunch of side-projects to make even funner parties! And then-- " While Pinkie started to ramble loudly, Fluttershy approached the medic and, with a great mustering of courage, very hesitantly tapped him on the shoulder. "Um, excuse me," Fluttershy started. "What is it?" the doctor asked. He was handed a clipboard with some documents on it and started filling everything out. "I'm busy with this patient." "Oh, I didn't mean to bother you during such a difficult moment, but I was curious if this sort of thing happens often." She looked at Twilight briefly. "I think that this kind of work would benefit Tw--The prisoner." The stallion scritched a little more onto the documents before answering, a scowl on his face from focusing so much on his work and the stress that was brought by the wounded soldier coming in so suddenly. "Accidents during training happen, yes, but most of the time they're just getting cuts and bruises." After every few words he would fill out more of the documents while the guards waited patiently. "The more experienced soldiers stupidly ignore the training weapons made purposefully for training!" he bellowed at the guards around him. "They claim that using fake weapons doesn't help them with learning how to use their weapons. Not the same weight and so on." He removed the documents and handed them to a unicorn guard who rushed out of the infirmary. "As for you, my little prisoner, I have plans for you." He walked over to a large, sterile closet that reeked of bleach and pulled out a white coat and chucked it at Twilight's head. "Put that on and follow me. I want to see the extent of your knowledge." The mare pulled the coat down and put it on despite her confusion. "Okay?" she agreed hesitantly. The four mares follow him to another room, this one smelling more like rot and bitter medicine than the previous one. Several other medics were working in there, treating several ponies whose limbs had darkened, despite the efforts made. The mares and stallions in the beds were agonizing and various parts of their bodies were draped in bandages soaked in medicine, but Twilight didn't know what kind. "These are victims of frostbite or icerot caused by the denizens of our tundras." Butterscotch wiped his nose and shook his head. "We've been progressing with conquering all this land we lost because of Sombra, but it's a long and arduous task. We only managed the south because your Council wanted to open trade relations with us and help us prosper." He snorted. "Or so they claim." Applejack raised a hoof. "Let's not get inta politics, doctor. Ain't the time nor the place fer it." "You're right. Sorry. Just...Well, you know how personal biases can leak out at times," the stallion said. The farm pony suddenly thought of Granny Smith and groaned. "Yeah. Ah do know." "All these ponies look so down," Pinkie said. "Could I bake them something to help them out? A cake? A pie? A kie?" "No," Twilight interjected. "They don't need sugar. They need simple nutritious foods and a lot of hydration." She rushed over to one mare lying on her back with her left foreleg bent downwards, seemingly unable to move. "Her frostbite is causing necrosis." "We're aware of that," Butterscotch said with irritation. "We can't do anything except attempt to help in relief before the inevitable." Twilight frowned and looked back at the blackened leg. "What if I told you that it's possible to save all their afflicted parts?" she asked. Butterscotch raised a brow and looked at Twilight skeptically. "And how would you do that?" Twilight lowered her horn to the limb but cursed when she remembered that her magic was locked. "I can show you as best as I can, but it'll involve a lot of time and precise, subcutaneous work on the afflicted flesh." "Are you sure?" Fluttershy asked. "Wouldn't it be better if you did it yourself?" she asked. The unicorn flicked the lock on her horn. "I would if I could." She started to show the doctor what to do and how to do it. The light show being created started attracting the other medics. While Butterscotch was a unicorn and could apply the techniques Twilight showed him, two of the other medics were only earth ponies. It was a technique that couldn't be used without a horn, but Twilight thought that, if they knew how to do it, they would be able to guide any other medics in the field to perform the tasks. It would be less efficient but that was fine. Butterscotch was sweating profusely throughout the process, and the pain to the delirious mare patient was so severe that the other medics had to force her into a medically induced coma. They were all shocked that she was able to feel anything in her necrotizing limb after a few hours of work. Each and every individual cell had to be repaired and restored using the natural resources present in the mare's body. Because the effort was so extensive, the ponies were forced to attach iv drips that fed the mares body vitamins, minerals, and other necessary materials like iron and proteins. The other unicorns started to slowly start assisting Butterscotch in his task and found themselves just as exhausted. Twilight's theory was that they 'only' needed to restore a large enough percentage of healthy flesh that the necrotic ones could be removed without too much damage to the recovered and healthy cells. With the recovered cells, the veins would be included in that task and blood would flow again, resupplying nutrients and oxygen to the flesh and muscles. It would facilitate healing and prevent any accidents caused by the increasing fatigue the ponies were feeling from their work. After several hours of work by the medics, everypony slipped onto the floor, panting from the effort. Horns were sparking, fur was getting damp from sweat, and lungs were working overtime to supply oxygen to the unicorns' bodies. The leg of the mare had switched from a black color to a vaguely yellow shade. It still contrasted with her vibrant yellow coat, but it was a far better shade than the alternative. "Alright. She recovered, mostly," Twilight noted. "All that's left now is to repair the nerves and make sure you didn't miss anything else. One of the medics threw her hoof into the air. "Alright!" She let it drop hard onto the ground. "Just...Just let us catch our breath. That...I never had to do anything that exhausting before." During the whole process, Applejack had become skeptical of the technique Twilight was showing the medics. "Ah ain't too sure, but Ah feel like she usin' necromancy," she whispered to her friends. "Well, she used it to help them, no?" Pinkie asked. Fluttershy nodded. "She figured out how to use it to benefit hurt ponies. I think that's something to be celebrated." Applejack pondered their words and nodded, a small smile growing on her face. "Yer raght. Ah was worried fer a moment there, but Ah guess it ain't got the same kick to it if the pony's still alive. " She lost her composure to shock after thinking about it more deeply. "Ya can use necromancy on the livin'?!" she whispered. "But that's fer the dead!" Fluttershy seemed confused and Pinkie remained empty-minded. "So?" Pinkie asked. "It's just dead cells," she said. "Doesn't seem like that big a deal to me." Applejack pulled her friends out and into the single hallway. "Pinkie, there ain't nevah been no necromancy what can affect the livin'!" she said. "That mare is advancin' necromancy by leaps 'n bounds." She shook her friend briefly. "We can't let anypony 'cept the rulers know about this!" "Whw-hwh-whyyy-y-y-y?!" Pinkie stammered. "Twi' could create somethin' awful with that magic if we don't find her a new purpose in life." The mare looked into the distance, feeling herself getting increasingly stressed. "Ah ain't no scientist, but Ah think the medical world would go mad!" Fluttershy put a hoof to her muzzle. "Oh my." Pinkie's brow creased. "Yeah. I can see everypony going mad and trying to approach Twilight if that got out. That's not fun for anypony to get swarmed like that." She tapped her chest lightly. "Even I need somepony to help me take a step back when I get too consumed by my love of parties and start invading personal spaces." "About that," Fluttershy said. Instead of taking her elsewhere, Twilight was left in the care of the medics in the infirmary. After learning of her affinity for necromancy even in these cases, Cadance and Shining decided to keep it quiet and hidden even further than they already were. Shining was even required to approach the medics who bore witness to Twilight's feats and keep it between them. The excuse was he was afraid of foreign spies stealing the knowledge or targeting Twilight for a kidnapping. He even stated the fear that, if doctors heard about her ideas, that they might swarm her and cause disruptions and a panic attack. She wasn't very good with many ponies, Shining had told them. While unhappy, the medics did as they were told. The two rulers thought that, with time, Twilight would eventually lose any progress she had made with her necromantic techniques, but every day she seemed to come up with new ones as strange and odd as the previous. "I don't know about this, Cadance," Shining said as he looked anxiously at the barracks from the throne room. "Ponies are starting to become suspicious of her." Cadance worried when she saw her husband shaking. "The medics don't think about it because they're learning of new ways to save their charges, but the soldiers? Healing necrosis? Reinvigorating dying cells? Replacing dead flesh?" "I can see how that would be a problem," the pink alicorn said. "How long has it been again? A week?" She adjusted herself in her seat. "The elements are still around?" she asked. "Surprisingly, yes," Shining answered. "They said that this is one of their longer 'quests', as the pink pony put it, but they've had longer." He nodded, tilting his head left and right. "They've gotten quite comfortable in the empire. Apparently, Pinkie Pie made friends with a lot of bakers around here." Cadance nodded, concerned for her husband. "That's good to hear, at least." "Fluttershy and Applejack work around the barracks as well, I think, but they're mostly watching Twilight." Shining's brows furrowed. "They've kept her away from trouble, but I don't know. I feel like something bad is going to happen." He rubbed the back of his neck, the muscles cracking in tandem the lower he reached. "How is Spike?" Cadance cleared her throat. "It hasn't moved from her room since she told it to stay there," the mare explained. "It's just there, looming over anypony that goes in. It's let Flurry play around and on it, too." Shining looked at her, immeasurable confusion eating at him. "I don't get it either, but it just doesn't seem to react to anything around it without Twilight being there for it to follow." "Well, at least-Hold on." Shining peered outside the window to see a small crowd gathering at the entrance of the barracks and felt his heart sinking. "We have to get down there, now!" the stallion bellowed. "What? Why? What's going on?!" Cadance asked. "I think they figured out who Twilight is, but I'm uncertain."