//------------------------------//
// Healing 
// Story: Upheaval: Breaking Point 
// by Visiden Visidane 
//------------------------------//

Upheaval: Breaking Point

Chapter 39: Healing

A day had passed since the first wave of reinforcements. With more ponies lining the walls, and patrolling the streets, the city felt a little safer, and the siege seemed a little less bleak. The reinforcements also brought supplies with them: food, materials, and ammunition. They also brought medical supplies, and, much to the delight of some legionnaires, liquor.

As far as Redbrand was concerned, it was only the last two that mattered. He was starting to feel a pinch on his brandy supply, and dreaded having to decide whether he should stop taking nips from his flask, or operate on ponies without trying to numb the pain. As if to highlight the situation, he had just refilled his flask. There were a lot of injured in the last battle. In the last several hours, he waded through a couple of amputations, a sweater's worth of stitching, and around a crate's worth of brandy.

Then, there was Applejack: the "highlight" of last night's emergencies.

"We've got a bad one incoming!" one of the senior medics called out.

Redbrand braced himself. Whenever his subordinates called that out, it meant that he was going to have to deal with the next patient. "Fluttershy!" he called out. Where was that filly? It was about time he exposed her to more serious cases. She was already trotting towards the patient when she suddenly froze. "What's the matter?" he asked. A quick look at the emergency answered him.

One of Fluttershy's chosen friends stood by the door. Redbrand could tell from the freakishly-colored mane. More than that, the blood that stained her coat and mane caught his attention. On the pegasus's back was a badly torn earth pony.

"Applejack!" Fluttershy cried out. "Applejack!" She rushed over to the fallen earth pony's side. Redbrand signaled for the other medics to place Applejack on the nearest bed, and remove what remained of her barding.

"Don't just stand there crying, filly!" he roared. "Get me my sutures!"

Another pony entered the ward. This time, it was Fluttershy's purple unicorn friend, the one that a lot of legionnaires were talking about. She rushed to Applejack's side, her eyes already welling up. Behind her, Vanguard Clash also entered the ward. At least he had enough sense not to barge into the place.

"Please stand back," Kneescrape, one of the senior medics, said. None of them heard him. Headwrap removed the barding from Applejack, and was stemming the bleeding as best he could. Kneescrape went on to wash out the wounds.

The sky blue pegasus was the worst of the lot. She grasped the side of the bed, and buried her face into the covers. "This is my fault...this is my fault!" she wailed.

Redbrand lifted the pegasus by the mane, and smashed a hoof into her face. She tumbled towards the door, and landed on her belly. "She's not dead yet, you idiot!" he snarled.

The purple unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, Redbrand finally remembered, gasped, and looked at him. Fluttershy, who had just arrived with his sutures, also gasped, but had enough sense to keep moving. He ignored the stares, and looked to Vanguard. "Get these bothersome fillies out of my ward, Captain," he said.

With a nod, Vanguard motioned towards Twilight, and the pegasus. "Everypony, we need to stand aside, and let the medics work." Twilight looked a little angry, but she left without a fuss. She had to help drag away the pegasus, who was reduced to cries of rage between her sobs. Vanguard stood over the bed for a few moments, and said something. Redbrand didn't bother listening. 

With the distractions gone, Redbrand was finally able to focus on his work. Applejack had taken an enormous claw wound to the side. The tears were deep, and jagged. In another minute, she'd be dead without help. He went to work swiftly. Just a foot away was the growing mass of anxiety that was his assistant. It was going to take a lot to save this mare even without feeling as if somepony was going to rip his head off if he failed.

Applejack almost didn't make it. The trauma had been so severe, and the blood loss so great that her life was slipping away from his hooves. He didn't know how. Perhaps it was due to that indomitable earth pony sturdiness, or it could be some kind of aspect of chosen anatomy. It could even be just sheer luck, or something as utterly preposterous as divine intervention. Regardless of the reason, Fluttershy didn't have to go through the loss of a dear friend for now. He shoved the thought aside gruffly. That was ridiculously naïve. Sooner or later it was going to happen, so why try to coddle her now?

"I'll see you later, Applejack!" Legionnaire Twocolt said. He saluted Redbrand on the way out. It was almost noon, and Twocolt was only one of Applejack's many visitors.

Before Twocolt, a pink, earth pony chosen had come. She had rushed into ward so quickly that Redbrand thought that it was another emergency. She was also so loud, and extremely distraught. She cried bout being so late, and how her "Pinkie Sense" had warned her about this, until he was about to throw her out of the ward. Fortunately for her, Fluttershy and Applejack managed to calm her down.

Pinkie Pie, as her name was, had brought a cake as a get well present. At least, Redbrand assumed that there was a cake under that cataclysm of frosting and candy. Kitchen Division must have worked wonders just procuring all the ingredients for it. A slice of that cake had somehow found its way to his desk, "as thanks for your part in Applejack's recovery" Pinkie explained. He was polite enough to accept, but he wasn't going to touch the damn thing until he had some stomach medication on hoof.





"See you later, Twocolt!" Applejack said as she waved at the leaving stallion. Once he was gone, she let out a sigh, and fell back on her bed. It had only been a few hours since she woke up, and she was already restless. She raised her legs in the air, and slowly stretched them to her sides.

"Applejack!"

The swiftness of Fluttershy's disapproving call nearly made Applejack jump. She could have sworn that Fluttershy was still by the other end of the room.

Fluttershy was next to Applejack in an instant. "Just how many times do I have to warn you about exerting yourself?" 

"I was just stretching my legs," Applejack said. "Isn't a little exercise a good thing for an injured pony?"

For a moment, Fluttershy looked like she had a fly crawling around her nose, and was about to sneeze. Applejack soon realized that she was trying to put on a vicious scowl. "If you pull those stitches, I'm going to nail you to that bed," Fluttershy said.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Looks like that grouchy doctor's been teaching you more than just medical stuff," she said. "It'll work better if you made a real angry face to go along with it, and if your voice didn't sound like you were singing me a lullaby."

Fluttershy glanced nervously at Redbrand, who was sitting by his desk at the far end of the ward. "Please don't tell him I tried that," she whispered.

With a chuckle, Applejack nodded. "So why are you over here again? Don't you have other patients to care for?"

"It's time to change your dressings," Fluttershy replied. "We don't want your wounds to become infected now."

"Okay, okay." Applejack lay on her side to let Fluttershy take the bandages off. She shuddered at the sight of the bloodstained strips. The white cloth had turned almost completely brown.

"Pretty bad, huh?" Fluttershy remarked. She paused, and stared hard at the wounds. She shook her head, and went back to changing the bandages.

"I sure did make a real mess of things here," Applejack said wistfully.

"You should have seen Rainbow when she flew you in here," Fluttershy said. "She was so covered in so much blood that I thought she was horribly injured too."

Applejack's ears perked up. "So, have you seen Rainbow after she left here?" she asked. She shifted slightly to look at Fluttershy.

"Applejack, please settle down," Fluttershy said. She put a hoof on Applejack's side. "And I haven't seen her after she left. It looks like she went straight to her flight. I hope she cleaned up first."

"Oh, I am so relieved to see you alive, Applejack!"

Rarity almost ran over to Applejack's bed to give her a hug only to be restrained by Twilight. Inside the medical ward, joyous tears and smiles were all around. All the attention left her awkward and sheepish, but she was glad too. These were the ponies she almost left behind. Even imagining them so distraught left her with an ache in her chest.

The last one to wake was Rainbow. All of them watched her slowly stir, and smiled when she opened her eyes.

Applejack grinned at the sleepy pegasus. "Howdy, pardner."

"Applejack?" Rainbow's voice was husky, and her eyes still red, and bleary. One of her eyes was swollen, as if it had been struck hard. "Applejack!"

Still grinning, Applejack extended a hoof towards Rainbow…who shrank from it as if Applejack was handing her a poisonous snake. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I…" Rainbow Dash quivered, and looked away. She tried to look at Applejack, but some invisible force seemed to have grabbed her by the head, and was turning it away each time she tried. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry!"

Applejack's grin dissolved into a look of concern. "Hey. Hey now, it's alright."

Rainbow didn't hear a word. Fresh tears poured from her eyes, and she started to shake hard. All of them were looking at her in concern now. When Applejack tried to reach in with her hoof, Rainbow bolted, zooming out of the ward so fast that blankets and bandages went flying in her wake. In the background, Redbrand swore violently.

"I hope she's okay," Applejack muttered. "And I hope that she doesn't think this is all her fault."

"I'm worried about her too," Fluttershy said. "She was so broken up about what happened to you yesterday. Not that I…well…"

Applejack looked at Fluttershy carefully. "Well what?" 

Fluttershy fell silent, and put a hoof on Applejack's shoulder. "Applejack, promise me that this won't happen again!" she suddenly cried out. She buried her face into Applejack's shoulder, and started sniffling. "I don't want to see you or any of our friends in here like this again!"

Applejack stroked Fluttershy's mane gently. Rainbow's reaction appeared the most severe, but that didn't mean that the rest of her friends hadn't gone through a lot.

"Promise me!" Fluttershy sobbed.

"Sugarcube, I can't," Applejack answered softly. "Not without lying."

Fluttershy drew back, sniffed, and wiped her eyes. "I hate this," she said with a quivering tone. "I hate all this fighting you have to do."

"You're fighting too," It was Applejack's turn to put her hooves on Fluttershy's shoulders. "You fought and won last night, right?"

Fluttershy choked back a sob. "Just…just be careful. You can promise that much right?"

"I will," Applejack replied with a grin.

Both of them looked up when they heard the door to the ward open. Twilight entered, and went over to them. "How are you feeling, Applejack?" she asked.

"Doing much better!" Applejack replied. She glanced slyly over to Fluttershy. "As long as Fluttershy here doesn't nail me to the bed."

Twilight looked curiously at Fluttershy, who coughed nervously. "I'd…um…I'd better go check on the other patients," Fluttershy said.

With Fluttershy gone, Twilight focused her attention on Applejack. "I wanted to talk to you some more about the Queen," she said.

"I already told you everything, Twi," Applejack answered. "Besides, shouldn't you be training, or something?"

"Mage Captain Owlsight told me to take a break." Twilight frowned. "Ordered me to actually. And I was only on my second spar. Tell me again about what the Queen told you."

With a sigh, Applejack narrated her encounter with the Queen again while Twilight listened intently, a small notepad floating in front of her.

"Nine rebellions…and we're already expecting the seventh." Twilight tapped her chin with the quill. "I wonder what the first six were. Then, there's this Oceanus, and Discord being called Lexarius." She tried to suppress an excited smile, and failed. "So much research!"

"Well, I'm glad you're happy about it," Applejack muttered. Giving Twilight another reason to bury herself in books was not exactly something she was excited about.

"And those words that the Queen told you," Twilight said. "Clearly a different tongue used by royalty! I wonder if Princess Celestia and her siblings speak it often among themselves. Are you sure you got the pronunciation right?"

"No, I'm not," Applejack said flatly. "I can barely say those slippery words. I just hope Prince Terrato will listen to me even if I can't say them right!"

"Maybe there are some books in this city's libraries that might help. Want me to--"

Applejack didn't catch the tail end of that offer. The door had opened again, and the sight of the stallion who walked in lifted her mood just a bit more. With a nod of a greeting towards Redbrand, Vanguard walked towards her, returning her smile with one of his own. "Feeling better?" he asked.

"Much better!" Applejack replied. "How'd it go?"

"'He has a message from the Queen' isn't exactly an easy pitch, Applejack." Vanguard replied. "It's done though. As soon as you can walk straight, I'll escort you to talk to the prince. Your barding's also being repaired. It should be finished once you've recovered enough, so just pick it up at Hammer Chain's once you're able to."

Applejack let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you kindly, Vanguard."

Vanguard waved a hoof dismissively. "It's nothing. If this message is important, it's our duty to make sure it does reach his highness."

"Can I come along?" Twilight asked. "I'd like to see how he'll react to all of this."

"We'll see," Vanguard replied. "You're not exactly his favorite pony, Twilight."

"He's still mad at me for what I did to the princess," Twilight said glumly. A look of determination crossed her face. "But I still want to be there. Who knows what he'll decide to do when he hears that the Queen wants him to act."

"If he decides to bring down the barrier, even if it means fighting Princess Celestia, what would you do?" Vanguard asked.

Twilight shook her head. "He won't do that. Prince Terrato is violent, and has a cruel sense of humor, but he would never attack Princess Celestia. That's why he's still mad at me."

"Isn't that why the Queen has decided to interfere?"

Twilight didn't reply to that. Sensing the mood darken, Applejack decided to intervene. "Hey now, why don't we leave that to when I can walk straight?" Vanguard, and Twilight glanced at each other, and nodded, letting her steer the conversation to lighter things.





Redbrand watched from his desk as Applejack dealt with even more visitors. "Terrato grind me, that filly has a ridiculous amount of worry-wart friends!" he groused. He took a small bite of the cake on his desk, and grimaced. Sweet. Too sweet. This wasn't a cake, this was an enormous lump of pure sugar carefully sculpted into a cake shape.

"Um…Doctor Redbrand?"

Fluttershy stood in front of his desk. "What is it?" he asked. He pushed his plate towards her. "Want some more cake? You can take this."

Fluttershy shook her head. "Um…actually, I wanted to apologize."

"Apologize?" Redbrand snorted. "For what?"

"When they carried Applejack here. I was so worried that you were just going to give up without trying. Instead, you worked so hard to keep her alive."

Redbrand's eyes narrowed. "I'm not surprised about how little credit you give me, Flutteshy. I've been doing this for thirty years, and I know when a pony's life can be saved, or not. Stick around, and you might learn something!"

"I'm sorry."

Redbrand made sure that he wasn't looking at Fluttershy when she said that. He had enough of feeling bad for things he shouldn't be. "Stop apologizing already," he groused. He opened his flask, and was about to take another pull to take the edge off the sweetness when a hoof stopped him. He quickly glared at Fluttershy, but she didn't back away. "You should know better than get between a stallion and his drink," he growled.

"Please stop," Fluttershy replied. Redbrand didn't say anything. His silence was more than enough to demand an answer. "I'm not as experienced as you, but I can tell that whatever pain you're trying to numb with that drink isn't going away."

Redbrand put his flask's stopper back. "I've been at this for ten years," he said. "What makes you think you can stop me?"

Fluttershy answered with a smile that took Redbrand aback. "I'll try my best."





Tailwind sorted through the papers on her desk as reports came in on her flight's condition. The last battle had not been a good one for Dreadwing. She was down three pegasi, and she was disappointed over her own performance. For the very first time, she started considering that she might be getting old. She even needed her stupid son's help to finish off a brachyurus, something that never happened before. She looked up as the door to her office opened, and frowned. Here was another issue to be settled.

"You sent for me, Flight Captain?" Rainbow asked. Tailwind looked her over. Rainbow looked haggard despite her desperate attempts to hide it. Her swollen, black-and-blue eye was the most glaring sight.

"That's quite a shiner," Tailwind said. "How'd you get it?"

"The angry doctor over at Medical gave it to me, ma'am," Rainbow answered.

"Foal of a nag, Redbrand," Tailwind muttered to herself. "Can't you even make exemptions for ponies who almost lose their friends?" To Rainbow, she spoke grimly. It wasn't that she was going to be any different. "That, and your lateness aside, I think you know why I called you here."

Rainbow remained silent. The luster in her eyes was gone. She barely seemed to be in the room at all.

"You disobeyed my orders, Rainbow Dash. I told you before that there's being brave, and being reckless. You're lucky, lucky, that your friend managed to make it out alive. It should come as no surprise that some discipline is in order. Report to the whipping post once you leave this office. A few stripes should remind you that, while we encourage initiative, it's not at the cost of discipline."

Rainbow looked at Tailwind dully. Tailwind saw the signs. The whipping didn't frighten this filly. The punishment would be a welcome sensation to all the misery. In fact, the mention of a whipping seemed to bring a small hint of determination back in Rainbow's eyes. "How many times?" she asked.

Tailwind leaned on her desk with her hooves, and looked at Rainbow shrewdly. "You tell me," she answered.

More fire returned. Tailwind smiled. It was going to take some work, but she might salvage a good flyer out of this wreck yet.