“Are you going to help me or finish me off?” he said in a voice that was both shaky and weak. He collapsed and dropped his pistol.
“James!” Scootaloo yelled. She jumped off of Rainbow Dash and ran over to James’ side, hoping he was still alive. He was hyperventilating and trying to keep the makeshift bandages on his bullet wounds, he looked up at Scootaloo and smiled.
“Who Dares Wins?” he wheezed.
“You do, you always have won,” Scootaloo said. By now, the six ponies and the rest of the Crusaders had ran over to witness James living through extreme bodily damage.
“He’s alive!” Apple Bloom said.
“You’re medical geniuses,” said James.
“Dash, get a doctor here now!” Twilight said.
“On it!” Rainbow Dash said. She flew off leaving a rainbow trail streaking behind her.
“So she can do it,” James said weakly.
“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked.
“No,” James said, “It feels as if my internal organs have been turned to mush.”
“He’s not as healthy looking as earlier,” Pinkie Pie said.
“Thanks for the update,” James replied. He then coughed up blood and spat it out.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Rarity said.
“At lest I’m not dead yet,” James said.
“Shh, keep quiet,” Scootaloo said.
James lifted his good arm up and held Scootaloo’s face, she put her hoof over his hand and pressed it tighter to her face.
“Funny,” James said, “You kids are a lot cuter like this.”
“Apple Bloom has always been like this,” said Applejack, “Too cute to handle.”
James lifted his arm up from his chest, it was soaked in his own blood. He knew that his only hope of living was a blood transfer and an operation to get all the lead out of him.
“Looks like my parents finally get what they wanted, me dead,” he said.
“No!” Scootaloo said, “You’re not going to die, you will beat your parents. You will live.”
“That the thing Scoot,” James said, “I don’t think I will.”
Pinkie Pie burst out crying and Fluttershy’s ears drooped down in sadness, Twilight walked over to James and sat as close as she could get to him without sitting in his blood.
“You’ve done a brave thing, taking care of these three fillies,” she said, “I really hope there is someway I can help you.”
“You want to help me?” James asked, “Then get as much of that magic of yours and try to heal me.”
“I can’t do that alone,” Twilight said, “Maybe Princess Celestia can help.”
James grabbed her leg and pulled Twilight next to his face.
“Listen closely,” James said, “I don’t care how who you bring in to help, I don’t care what you have to do, just make sure that I live, or at the very least, keep me safe and comfy when I die.”
“I’m not letting you die!” Scootaloo said.
“I know I know,” James said quietly, “The sad part is that you might not succeed.”
“I don’t want to be alone,” said Scootaloo.
“You never will be,” James said.
His breaths were getting shorter and weaker, James then clutched at his heart and started to convulse, his grip tightening on his chest. His legs were twitching violently and he was cringing in pain.
“James? James!” Scootaloo said as she tried to hold him steady.
“Don’t…let…go,” James wheezed. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell held onto James as he drew his last breath.
“Scoot,” he said, Scootaloo leaned closer to James, “Live for me will you? Just live your life, it’ll work out.”
He then exhaled and became still, the hand on Scootaloo’s face slipped from her hold and landed on the blood soaked ground and didn’t move another inch. The Crusaders stood before their fallen friend in silence, Rarity and Applejack took their sisters aside and let Fluttershy take Scootaloo away.
“No,” she said, “Why did he have to be the one to die?”
“It’s okay,” Fluttershy said, even though she was shedding tears she was still able to keep her voice stable, “You helped him as much as you could.”
Rainbow Dash zoomed into the picture with a doctor and a nurse following behind her, who were both ponies as well.
“Oh, am I too late?” Rainbow Dash asked as she landed, Scootaloo ran over to her and threw herself at Dash’s feet.
“What is this thing?” the doctor asked.
“He’s a human, he was blasted through the rift I opened,” Twilight said.
“Is the human male or female?” the nurse asked, not letting the sight of James unseat her professionalism.
“His name is James,” Scootaloo said.
“Can you help him?” Sweetie Bell asked.
“I don’t know if I can,” the doctor said he then turned to the nurse, “Nurse Redheart, you see if you can see what we’re working with.”
The nurse, now beginning to become a little unsettled at examining James, walked over to him and first took some of the blood in her hoof.
“What’s this leaking from under him?” Nurse Redheart asked.
“That’s his blood,” Apple Bloom said, “You’re not the first one to stand in it.”
“This is…blood?” Nurse Redheart asked, she wiped the blood off on the grass and went back to seeing how badly James was hurt. She removed some of the makeshift gauze that was covering James’ shotgun wound and her face turned green.
“I’ll be back in a second,” Nurse Redheart said as she backed away. Nurse Redheart then ran off and dove behind a bush, but that didn’t hide the fact that she was being sick.
“This is beyond my expertise,” the doctor said as he lifted up James’ arm and set it back down again.
“Can you at least try?” Scootaloo asked.
“I don’t know how to treat something like this,” the doctor said, “He’s got bits of metal stuck in his body, that I can remove, but these little balls have ripped him apart from the inside.”
“At least try, he’d do the same for anyone of us,” Apple Bloom said.
“We would,” Nurse Redheart said as she emerged from the bushes, “But we don’t know if he’s still alive.”
Sweetie Bell went over to James and pressed her ear to his chest.
“What are you doing Sweetie Bell?” Rarity asked.
Sweetie Bell shushed her and tried to listen for any sign of life. Sweetie Bell wiped the blood off her face and listened for James’ heartbeat, it was there, but it was very weak.
“He’s alive, but barely,” Sweetie Bell said, “If you help him now he might live.”
“Nurse Redheart, get the patient up and to the hospital,” the doctor said. The doctor and Nurse Redheart picked James up and carried him to the hospital, Rainbow Dash, Twilight and Pinkie Pie went to help the doctor. Scootaloo tried to grab and hold James’ hand one last time before he was whisked away but she only managed to hold his blood soaked fingers for a split second before she lost hold of him, she stopped and watched as the five carted him away.
“Take care of him,” Scootaloo said.