Three weeks in a hospital bed, was more like one. Turns out you were supposed to only drink a third of a bottle every three days. Tripling the dosage and taking it every day tripled the effect. If you discounted the sweating, intense headaches, light headedness, convulsions and severe stomach pains then it works like a charm. At first Redheart had been reluctant to give me a tripled dose. It took a few hours of negotiating and a few attempts at rolling out of bed to get it myself before she agreed to increase the dosage. And apparently the Princess had swayed all my piling hospital bills, which had been a huge relief. Owing favors to people, or ponies, was something I hated.
The filly that had been in the clinic left the very next day as planned. She came into my room to thank me but I pretended to sleep. I had one of the more nasty headaches and the last thing I wanted was to be mean to the poor thing. She had stood there for a few moments before giving me a hug and scampering out of the room, the added weight to my cracked ribs had been a great distraction from my headache.
I had quite the few visitors during the week I spent there. Twilight had stopped by a few times to beg for a closer look at my equipment, much to her chagrin I said no every time. Applejack had stopped by with a massive batch of apple fritters and apple pie; apparently one of the fillies I saved was her little sister. I have never eaten anything that got even remotely close to being as good as her homemade apple pie.
Rose stopped by a few times. She had recovered well, her leg was bandaged and she didn’t put weight on it. It wouldn’t be long until she had recovered completely. She brought a bouquet of flowers the first time she visited. We would mostly talk about her day, mine was rather predictable. I woke up, I downed a bottle of the potion, I spent a few hours shaking, I stared at the wall and I slept. The same reoccurring nightmare of my home town burning haunted my sleep. So her day was naturally more interesting. She would talk about flower sales, the antics of the ponies around town etc.
I had already taken today's dose and the worst of the convulsions had stopped, time to bail. I rolled of the bed and landed on my hooves, no crack, no pain, perfect. I took a deep breath; the stale air of the room filled my lungs, bleh. I stretched, pretty much every joint in my body popped. I then trotted over to the window and swung it open; I shivered as I felt the freezing air wash over my body.
The town was covered in a thick layer of snow, the reflection from the sun in the snow made my eye sting. I had only seen snow once before and that was years ago. I took another deep breath and savored the cold air. I trotted over to the mirror, I only had the cast and the bandages on my head still on. I had gotten used to only seeing with one eye but it would be nice to have proper depth perception again.
I began unwrapping the cocoon that was my head. But when I removed the final length my heart nearly stopped. My left eye had a long scar across it, running from my eyebrow almost all the way down to my chin. It had a slightly smaller scar running down right next to it. As I opened the eye I gasped. Milky white, no sign of an iris or a pupil. And worst of all, I still couldn’t see.
I dragged myself over to the sofa and plopped down onto it, I sunk into it. I had gotten hurt before, but it could always be fixed. Broken bones, dislocated limbs, bullet wounds, stab wounds, poisoning… the nails from the crucifixion. I looked down at my wrists, the scars were gone but I could still remember the feeling of the nails breaking through my arms as they nailed me to the cross. But this… this was different.
“No! I have survived worse. Now is not the time for wallowing.” I said to no one in particular.
I leapt out of the sofa and went over to the pile of backpacks in the corner. The ponies had been nice enough to pick up the stuff I had dropped on my dash through the woods. I rooted through them before I found what I was looking for. My locket and the dog tags, they had been polished and the locket had a new chain. As the familiar weight of the locket fell down on my neck I could have sworn I felt stronger. I took one more look in the mirror.
“You would have thought I would have noticed my eye getting mauled.” I muttered to my reflection.
I looked over to the coat rack, empty. I surveyed the room. There was no sign of my clothes. I hoped my natural coat would be enough to keep warm. I reached down and swung my backpack around my neck. It felt lighter, ever so slightly lighter. I ripped it open and noticed that something was indeed missing, the Pip-boy was gone.
“Twilight…”
I closed the pack and trotted out into the reception.
“Going somewhere?” I screeched to a halt. I made it halfway to the exit before she saw me. I turned and looked over to the nurse sitting behind the counter in the lobby. Her smile was kind but her eyes were made of steel.
“I was going to ask Twilight about some missing possessions.”
“Leaving right now would be a bad idea.”
“Why?”
“You haven’t had your examination yet, plus the guards would be all over you if you came charging out here without warning.”
At the mention of guards my gaze hardened. It felt like the temperature in the room sunk a few degrees.
“Guards? I scraped my hoof against the floor and locked eyes with Redheart. “What guards?” The nurse shifted in her seat a little bit.
“The Princess decided it was best that a detachment of guards was sent here to keep an eye on things.”
“Keep an eye on me you mean.” I flashed a smile and turned to the door. “Let’s not keep them waiting then.”
“Not without your examination.” She stated as she galloped in front of me and blocked the door. We locked eyes and it was obvious she was trying to stare me down. I straightened up and noticed I was a good chunk taller than her. Her insistent nature had been getting on my nerves a lot recently, now it was starting to piss me off.
“You have helped me, however reluctantly it may have been you helped me and for that I’m grateful.” I towered above her as she seemed to shrink under my hard gaze. “But don’t push your luck.” She gulped loudly and stepped out of the way. “Thank you.” I pushed the door open and headed outside.
I took nearly three steps outside before slipping on a patch of ice. I found myself airborne for a few seconds before landing in a deep pile of snow.
I flew out of the pile and started shaking myself to get the snow off. Some was stuck in my coat and I had to brush it off with my hooves. I was shaking all over, my teeth rattled together like jackhammers. I glared at the offending snow pile with all the burning hatred I could muster for an inanimate object. I shook my head hard to get rid of the snow that got stuck in my mane.
I looked up and saw four ponies standing in front of me. Their coats whiter than the snow they stood on. First thing that struck me was the uncanny resemblance their armor had to the Legionaries armor except that they were gold colored, it looked like it was mostly for show. The second thing was how pathetically little protection it offered, it barely offered any protection for the throat or face.
I looked at each and every one of them. They all looked so stoic, not a single wrinkle on their brows or anywhere in their face. They only had the hard eyes of soldier, pathetic, unprotected and probably horribly trained soldiers but nevertheless soldiers. I have to give them some credit though, that glare they were giving me was starting to get a little creepy.
One of them took a step towards me.
“I’m sorry sir, but you have to stay within the clinic.” He said. His voice was deep and hard. It was obvious he was trying to sound tough, lots of people try that when they think they are in charge.
“Excuse me?” I faced the guard who had addressed me.
“We have direct orders from the Princess herself to keep you within the clinic at all times.” He stated. He was so stiff that you could probably beat down a door with him.
“Huh, well that ain’t going to happen.” I cracked the guard a smile.
“I will not ask again get back in the clinic or else…” He narrowed his eyes at me.
“Or else what?” I was determined to see how far I could push this idiot.
“Or we will drag you back in kicking and screaming.” He growled. I grinned at him.
“I’d like to see you try.” I snorted at them.
That pushed him over the edge. He lashed out at me with a forehoof. I waited until the last possible moment before making my move. I easily sidestepped his kick and slammed both of my hind hooves into his armored side. I felt my hooves connect with the armor and it sent him crashing onto his side. I heard the snow crackle behind me and spun around just in time to duck a kick from one of his buddies. Once I was beneath him I could see just how useless his armor was. It really offered no protection to his face or neck. I brought my right forehoof up in a powerful uppercut that caught him in the jaw knocking him out cold. He fell backwards and disappeared in a snow pile.
By now the first guard was up and charging me again. I didn’t know why the other two hadn’t joined yet but I had other things to worry about. Once he was within range I kicked up snow into his face. He flinched, giving me enough time to swipe his legs sending him tumbling into another snow pile. I turned and looked at the other two guards. They looked at each other and nodded. At the same time they extended long wings and flew upwards.
Oh fuck, forgot that some of them had wings. They separated and then came soaring back down towards me from two directions. I smiled and dropped to my stomach and heard the loud clang as they collided a few feet above me. My smile dropped as they both came crashing down on top of me though.
“Should have seen that coming.” I muttered as I pushed the two unconscious guards of off me.
I looked around. Four guards, three down. I walked over to the pile the first guard had slid into. Make that four guards down. His helmet had fallen off and he had stumbled into the pile and actually managed to knock himself out on it. I trotted over to the Clinic door and knocked twice before opening the door and poking my head in.
“Excuse me, Nurse?” The nurse looked up at me from the counter. “You got four new patients out here.” I grinned and closed the door.
As I walked past the first guard I noticed two dents in his armor. And they were deep.
“What the hell…” I went over to him and picked up his helmet to take a closer look. It wasn’t gold colored it was actual gold. If they wear actual gold armor they needed some serious overhaul to become adequate. I dropped it and stepped over him. If this had been my squad I’d have to whip ’em into shape.
/=/=/=/=/
The trot to Twilight’s place had been filled with perils. Some slipping around on ice. A few holes covered by snow. Tools and various sharp objects under a thin blanket of snow. In fact, that I hadn’t ended up needing medical attention was quite the accomplishment.
The town was sickeningly charming covered in snow, with snowponies all over town. Decorated houses and trees. Ruins of forts from snowball figths.
The library looked different covered in snow. But then again, it was a tree. I waded through the snow over to a window and peeked inside. Twilight was sitting in the middle of the main room, back towards the window, she was studying something closely. I made my way over to the door and after I had shaken the snow of my legs I knocked twice, hard, and pushed the door open. It let out a lovely creak. Twilight turned her head slowly and as soon as her eyes landed on me they shrunk to pinpricks.
“Twilight.” My tone was colder than the weather outside. She visibly shivered when I spoke.
“Oh, hey Michael!” Her eyes were dodging back and forth at an impressive rate. “The nurse said it’d be at least three weeks before you got out of the clinic.” She had turned around and was trying to hide something behind her back.
“I got better.” I shrugged.
“What happened to your eye?” She looked at my left eye with a mix of sympathy and mild disgust.
“It didn’t get better.”
She twisted in her seat a bit.
“Twilight, where is my Pip-Boy?”
“Your what? I have no idea what you’re talking about, hehe...” She rubbed the back of her head
with a hoof. The only way she could have been more obvious about it was if she had an actual sign above her head branding her a liar.
“Look, Twilight, let’s not do this. We could dance back and forth for a while and make me mad or you could give it back and that’s that.”
She sighed and levitated the Pip-Boy from behind her back over to me.
“Thank you.” I slid it onto my left foreleg and thanked god that there were only big buttons and a couple of wheels. I clicked up the Bio-lock and activated it. I winced as three long needles drilled into my leg; I gritted my teeth as they started working their way into the bone. Then the hole starting filling a cushion with air until it was attached to my leg. The screen went black as it rebooted.
The screen showed me a few details about my previous injuries, that my body no longer was dependent on Jet and that it was activating dormant computer systems… dormant computer systems?
A stabbing pain went through my skull as I felt something in my head heat up and lock itself into my nerve system. For a few seconds it felt like my brain was going to melt. After a little while it cooled down and stopped sending electric impulses through my body.
I looked down at the Pip-Boy, Strength Implant Online. Then another shot went through my head, this time it spread down my spine and the pain was far more intense this time. My spine felt like it was on fire. I dropped my knees and started panting. Twilight rushed to my side, she was talking but I couldn’t make out words. It was all muted and blurry around me. If she hadn’t had such a distinctive color I wouldn’t have been able to tell that it was her.
The duration was shorter than the first but it hurt a lot more. I glanced at the Pip-Boy again. After blinking away some tears I could see that the Reflex Implant was Online. Twilight left my side, I tried to look where she went but I could barely see anything.
“Third times the charm!” I grunted.
My whole body convulsed as the third implant fired. This time I knew what implant it was. The Sub-Dermal Armor. The flash of pain was mindnumbing but it only lasted a few seconds.
I was reduced to a sweating, twitching pile on the floor. I was panting heavily. My legs were shaking violently. After a few failed attempts to get back on my hooves I decided to stay on the floor for a while. My heart was pounding so hard I got worried it might explode.
I took a final look at the Pip-Boy. This was actually the first time I studied it, it was one of the
3000 - A models. Sturdy old things, damn near indestructible. I turned a wheel and clicked a button and a screen popped up asking me what color I wanted the screen to be. I clicked Green. Then a new screen popped up.
_____________________________
Strength Implant: Online
Reflex Implant: Online
Sub-Dermal Armor Implant: Online
_____________________________
Level: 30 (True Mortal)
HP: 385/405
AP: 86/86
Strength: 7
Perception: 8
Endurance: 8
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 7
Agility: 7
Luck: 1
_____________________________
Effect Strength: 1+
Effect Perception, Agility: 1+
Effect Damage Threshold: 4+
Effect Pony Charisma: 1+
_____________________________
Tough Guy
Ranger Takedown
Night Person
Kamikaze
Ferocious Loyalty
Weapon Handling
Terrifying Presence
_____________________________
After scrolling around its screens for a while I could determine one thing. I had no idea how these things worked. I finally managed to struggle to my hooves. I made my way over to the table. I plopped down on the chair I found Twilight on and smacked my head into the table. I felt so tired, I decided to close my eyes for a second.
oooOOOooo
I stopped in front of the officer at the desk. She looked ragged, beaten all to hell. She had a few nasty scars in her face and was wearing an eye patch. She looked up at me and flipped a page on her clipboard. Her eyes tracked down the paper.
“Michael Denton. Recruit. Specialty, CQB and Combat Medicine. Callsign, Reaper. Welcome aboard Ranger.”
She stood up and stretched her hand out to me. I took it and shook it firmly.
AN: Sorry about the *Looks at the calender* Dayum.. Real sorry about the slow update. There has been a lot going on lately. Most peeved off about the fact that I was going to get FoNV Ultimate Edition last friday, NO ONE had it in store. No one. As always thanks for reading and have a nice day.
Thanks to NeverKnown and DancingOnTheAshes for making this readable.