The arena was spinning like a twister. Rapid waves of nausea threw themselves endlessly and mercilessly at Twilight, who was still completely fixated on the massive piece of metal lodged in her flank. During her time in District 13, she’d seen her fair share of bomb related injuries, but having it happen to her was almost unthinkable. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, her light headedness cost her all sense of balance, and she collapsed altogether, landing on her left side, but not before she violently retched on the floor. The smell of vomit filled her nose as she realized she had collapsed just so her face was right in the middle of the chunky puddle of partially digested fruit and energy bars. Even with her dizziness overwhelming her, and the smell of her dinner making her gag reflex work overtime, she somehow found the strength to utter a single word as she weakly called out Fluttershy’s name.
The pegasus in question barely moved. She stood perfectly still, paralyzed on the spot, every muscle tensed as if her life depended on it, and her already light colored face looking paler than ever. Her eyes were fixated on the shard of metal, and the blood gushing from the wound. Twilight was lying in a deepening pool of her own bodily fluids, and Fluttershy was the only pony who could help her. She had to be snapped out of it.
“Fluh… fluh… Fluttershy,” Twilight repeated, growing more and more desperate with every passing moment.
Fluttershy remained still, and tears began to fill Twilight’s eyes as she thought over what she was about to ask of the poor mare staring at her wound, utterly mortified.
“Please… please… you need to pull it out.”
The result of this request did fortunately have the desired effect of snapping Fluttershy out of her trance and bringing her attention back to reality. Sadly, it also overstepped the mark as she backed away in a state of sheer panic, practically screaming her head off at the idea. She starting pacing back and forth, muttering loudly and anxiously to herself for a few moments before she was able to turn her hysteria down a few notches, and made her way back over to Twilights side.
“Nonononono,” she exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hooves in a somewhat superfluous effort to disguise her fear, as she rapidly tried to talk her way out of it. “I just couldn’t, I’m no good at medical stuff this big. I mean, I’ve looked after a few injured animals at home before, but never anything this big. There must be somepony else who can help. Oh, I know! I’ll go get help!”
“NO!” Twilight literally had to grab Fluttershy by the back hooves to stop her galloping away. She pulled her aggressively back, before looking her right in the eyes and mustering her breath, then talking as clearly as she could manage. “Nopony is going to help you. They’ll probably kill you sooner than look at you. Now if you don’t help me out here, I’m as good as dead.” Her voice had begun to crack up towards the end, and she was close to bawling out loud as she looked desperately up at the mare no better suited to helping anypony than she was, and uttered an almost silent “Please.”
The look on Fluttershy’s face was almost heartbreaking, but Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as she closed her eyes and gave a small nod. She started by helping Twilight move away from the large puddle of bodily mess, which was now starting to attract flies. She helped her up by letting her wrap a hoof around her shoulder as she helped her move away from the puddle she had been lying in, as the flies had begun to swarm around, the putrid smell offering what to them would make a decent meal. The sea was about ninety meters away, and Twillight knew the salt water would be good for cleansing the wound, so the two slowly made their way over, with Fluttershy also carrying the saddle pack, which had remained remarkably intact from the bombing run, with a few scratches and slightly blackened areas where the pack had been exposed to the patches of intense heat.
“What in the hay was that, anyway?” Fluttershy asked, desperately trying to not to gag as the smell of the mess smeared over Twilight's face and mane flooded her nostrils.
“What was what?” Twilight responded, beginning to feel a bit better, minus the lump of metal in her flank. It was a momentary relief to hear Fluttershy being back in a semi-rational state.
“The bombs. Why in the name of Celestia would they fire bombs at us like that?”
“Entertainment,” Twilight said distantly, worried about how Fluttershy’s mention of that name would affect her chances of survival. The Capitol wouldn’t take kindly to it.
“Entertainment?”
“Yeah.” No longer lying down in the puddle of vomit and blood was doing Twilight wonders as she began to feel slightly better, even with the blood pouring down her leg, leaving a clear trail on the woodland floor behind them. The sun had begun to peek over the horizon while she’d been down and out, and she found herself having to squint to move forward.
“I.. I don’t understand.”
“Well, this is first and foremost a television show. Think about it, the Gamemakers can’t have the games starting to get boring. Fire a few missiles in during the quiet times and boom, the audience stays happy.”
“Hmmph,” Fluttershy said angrily. “We were targets of a bombing run because the Capitol ponies were getting bored?”
“Pretty much,” Twilight replied before she forced a grin. “Ever hear of overkill?”
Fluttershy gave a small smile as they set hooves on the beach. The sand crunched softly underneath them as Twilight returned to lying down on her left side. The adrenaline from the bombing run was quickly wearing off, and with every step she had taken to get here, the pain had became more intense. Now it felt as if her flank was on fire, and she was struggling not to cry out from the feeling. Fluttershy trotted quickly back into the woods, returning a few moments later with a thick branch of wood. She quickly snapped it into a smaller one, before dropping it on the sand next to Twilight.
“Clench it in your teeth. You could bite your tongue off if you don’t, and I don’t particularly find that possibility too appealing.”
Twilight looked around nervously as she took the wood in mouth, clenching it between her teeth as per Fluttershy’s instructions. The bombing run must have been at least ten minutes ago, and would have attracted the attention of everypony in the arena. The clique ponies in particular would likely consider the area to be of great interest, as anypony who had survived the initial bombing, but was left injured, would make for easy pickings. In this case, she was the easy pickings, and even though she had been helping Fluttershy with knife throwing, the pegasus definitely wasn’t going to be in any position to defend them both against the clique ponies.
“Right, hold still,” Fluttershy instructed as she gave the shard an investigatory wiggle.
Twilight winced as an unimaginable pain shot through her system. She found herself reflexively biting down hard on the stick, which left her feeling grateful for the fact that Fluttershy had taken the initiative to recommend it. The pain was indeed intense, but it dispersed as quickly as it had come.
“Okay,” Fluttershy said trying not to look too closely at the wound. “It feels loose, so here’s hoping it comes out on the first try.”
“You’re not exactly filling me with confidence here,” Twilight mumbled, her speech slightly impaired by the stick with deep teeth marks still held tightly in her mouth.
“Right, sorry. On three, got it?”
Twilight gulped, closed her eyes tight, and nodded. She mentally braced herself for the agony that was about to come.
“Okay. One… Two…”
There was no three. Deceptively, Fluttershy yanked as hard as she could on the metal as she finished muttering the word Two. Fortunately, the shard came out quickly, and didn’t appear to tear the flesh too much as it came. Twilight’s body spasmed violently as the pain shot through her nervous system. The previous pain was nothing in comparison to what she was feeling now. The stick in her mouth shattered under the intense force of her bite reflex, filling her mouth with shavings and splinters. A large chunk of the stick rolled back down towards her throat, causing her to gag, before she coughed and spluttered the mouthful of wood out, nearly vomiting once again as she did so. With no more stick to bite down on, she clenched her teeth tightly together, unable to stop herself from softly moaning.
Fluttershy stepped back as she held the metal shard in hoof, right as Twilight was coughing up the remains of the stick. The metal was about ten inches long, and four wide. It tapered to a sharp point at one end, and judging from the blood stains, it had embedded half of its length into Twilight’s flank.
“Heh,” Fluttershy chuckled giddily, before she swayed gently left, then right, then all the way to back her left again as she fainted, her face now pale as a ghost.
Twilight gently facehoofed as she tried to figure their situation out. Every moment they spent here was more and more time the clique ponies could be making their way towards them, so whatever she did, she had to do it fast. Her wound needed cleansing, a job for which the salt water would suffice. Also, Fluttershy needed bringing around again, and they both needed to get out of the area as quickly as possible. The simple solution came as a particularly large wave washed up onto the shore and splashed the bottom of Twilight’s legs. She was going to kill three birds with one stone.
Groaning as she stood up, she found she was able to put a small amount of weight on her injured leg. She’d be limping for a while, but it was better than nothing. Slowly, she made her way over to the saddle pack, which Fluttershy had dumped by the edge of the sand, and quickly checked all their stuff inside. The fruit they’d gathered the night before was all tightly sealed in the zip bags, and the assortment of energy bars and crackers were all vacuum sealed in the first place. The only other thing of interest was the sleeping bag, but it would dry out.
Twilight picked the pack up, placing it on Fluttershy’s back. She had to roll her around a little to get it on properly, but as soon as it was, she began to drag Fluttershy’s limp body towards the water. Even though she wasn’t too heavy, the exertion put a lot of strain on her whole body, as the gaping wound on her flank was beginning to spread into a dull ache that was making its way along the length of her leg. Every single hoofstep was painful, but she mercifully reached the waters edge, where she laid Fluttershy down to face the sea just as a foaming wave washed towards them. The water splashing in her face was more than effective at bringing her around, as she sat straight up with a gentle squeal.
“Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed, gently coughing out some salt water that had flowed into her mouth and nostrils. “What happened?”
“What happened is you probably saved my life,” Twilight answered with a smile.
Fluttershy blushed as the moments prior to her loss of consciousness began to flow back. “Yeah, I guess seeing how deep the shard went, I just went so lightheaded.”
“Well, thank you” Twilight said as she began to step towards the water.
“Um, you’re welcome, but what are you doing?”
“Well,” Twilight responded, turning to face Fluttershy when the water was up to her haunches. “Salt water is good for cleansing wounds, and any kind of water is good for cleaning vomit and blood off. That and we need to escape.”
“Escape?”
“Yeah, that bombing run will definitely have some of the stronger ponies on our tails. They’ll come here looking for injured survivors, and in case you didn’t notice, I left a lengthy trail of blood coming down here.”
Fluttershy gave a cursory glance back, to confirm what Twilight had said. The trail of blood was easily visible from far off, and to anypony scouring the area of the bombing run, it would serve as a clear indication of where to go to get an easy target.
“We swim along the shoreline, cover our tracks. My wound can get all the cleansing it needs while we swim, and we get the hay out of here leaving no indication as to where we went.”
“But… we don’t know what’s in that water.”
Twilight sighed, as a particularly nasty demise flashed in her memory. “Whatever killed Papercraft, it must have been massive. As far as I can see, the water is pretty shallow for quite a distance outwards. We’ve got to risk it I’m afraid. We’re too vulnerable to attack any other way.”
“Um, o-okay then,” Fluttershy replied, clearly not happy about the arrangement. “Won’t our stuff get wet though?”
“The food is all sealed up, and we can dry out the sleeping bag when we get back on shore.”
“Okay then, where are we going?”
“We’ll head across the river. Keep to the shallows, and be as quiet as possible.”
Fluttershy nodded, and began to step into the water. Twilight winced as she walked further out, waiting for the pain to begin as the water level rose up her body towards the hole in her flank. As she finally found herself submerged in the water, it took every ounce of her willpower not to bolt straight back out. The salt stung mercilessly at the wound, the pain of which caused her back right leg to twitch and spasm frenziedly with every movement. Twilight had intended to paddle gently through the water, but she found this impossible with the lack of control over her leg, reducing her paddle to a forced and shaky one.
As soon as they were both up to their necks, they made a turn to their left, and proceeded to hug the shoreline as they swam, keeping as quiet as possible as to avoid the attention of anypony nearby who could be searching for them, with Twilight taking the lead and Fluttershy swimming just a few meters behind. Twilight dove under the surface a couple of times, before running her hooves through her mane to clear herself of the vomit she had been lying in. Mercifully, the position of the sun was of great help to their hiding, as its early position in the morning sky shone down on the water, and the reflected glare rendered it impossible to see anything in the water from the shore. This also had the less desirable effect of forcing both Twilight and Fluttershy to squint in order to see where they were going, but neither of them complained. The sharp stinging pain in Twilight’s flank was slowly lessening as the salt went to work on the wound, and the further they went, she found her control over the leg increased as the twitching eased away.
Even though they were both squinting, they found their visibility to be at little over a few meters, but Twilight had figured they should go at least half a mile, an idea that was confirmed when after what was probably a quarter mile, a gentle current could be felt pushing towards their rights, which must have meant they were paddling across the area at the mouth of the river. The two of them pushed on in silence, the only sounds around them being the gentle lapping of the waves at their necks and the tweeting of birds from the shoreline trees that hadn’t been destroyed. The tweeting served as a good indication that they had reached the opposite side of the river, so Twilight waited a few minutes for them to get a considerable distance from the river before she turned back and gestured to Fluttershy to head inland, by which time the stinging in of the wound had completely dissolved into the dull ache running the length of her back right leg, which had also spread along most of her right side. Irritating at the most, but nowhere near as bad as the pain of earlier had been.
“Right,” Twilight said, finally breaking the silence as they stepped out of the waves onto the beach. “We need to find something to wrap my leg with.”
Fluttershy thought for a few seconds, before she trotted a few meters away towards the edge of the beach, dropping the saddle pack at the line where the sand met the grass. Twilight found that she was incapable of moving forward any faster than a limp, so she followed slowly from behind as Fluttershy pulled out the knife and the sleeping bag. Twilight grinned when she worked out what she was up to, as the yellow mare dropped the rolled up sleeping bag out of its carry case, before hanging it from a branch to dry in the sunlight. The small carry case was perfect, made of what felt like a soft polyester, so Fluttershy went at it with the knife. She expertly cut off the top and bottom parts, before slicing it down the middle, leaving them with what could make decent wrapping. She then proceeded to poke a series of small holes on either side of the slice she’d made, something Twilight was curious about, but she could see from the look of concentration on her face that she’d be better off keeping quiet for now.
“Lie down over there,” Fluttershy said, not looking up, but gesturing to a nearby tree, the leaves of which provided adequate shelter from the sun.
Twilight smiled and did as she was told. The day was already warm, and even when still soaked from their swim, she could still feel herself beginning to sweat. She walked over to the tree, but had a thought before she lay down. She emptied the contents of the saddle pack onto the ground by the tree, before hanging the pack itself on the same branch from which hung the sleeping bag. By the time she lay down, she could see what Fluttershy was doing with the case. She was busy looping the pull cord from the bag through the series of holes on each side of the cutting, similar to how one might tie a corset, or how some dresses are done up at the back. This was no doubt meant to keep it from slipping down her leg once in place. Fluttershy, now satisfied with her work, walked over and placed the makeshift wrapping on the ground by their pile of kit, before grabbing a few bunches of leaves, and heading back towards the sea.
Waiting for her companion to return, Twilight cast her eye over the pile of their equipment. Fluttershy’s wrappings, a half empty water flask, a small bottle of iodine, the two bags of fruit they’d gathered the night before, a small pile of wrapped energy bars and crackers, a length of rope, and the EpiPen. Twilight had forgotten all about that last one. Earlier it had seemed like something she may never need to use, but ultimately could prove to be useful. Now, given her current state, it may be the difference between life and death for her, if in a situation where she could be cornered by the clique ponies, and her only option was to run, the EpiPen would be the most useful tool in her arsenal.
Her attention then returned to Fluttershy, who had returned with the leaves, which she had washed thoroughly in the seawater. Expertly, she pressed a bunch of them tightly against Twilight’s wound, an action which made her flinch. Her whole body tensed as Fluttershy held the leaves tightly in place, whilst she simultaneously picked up her makeshift wrapping, sliding it up Twilights leg until it was in place above the gash. She quickly made sure the leaves weren’t obscuring the area between the flesh, and once happy that there was sufficient room for it to heal, she then proceeded to pull tightly on the cord she’d woven between the series of holes, and then tightly tying it into place. The resulting bandage was pretty well done considering their lack of proper medical supplies for this particular job, and Fluttershy had been careful to tie the knot in such a way that it could easily be untied later on, in case they need to change the leaves.
Satisfied with her work, Fluttershy leaned in to help Twilight stand up. The wrapping stayed in place as intended, which gave left them both relieved that the wound now had a chance to heal, and was no longer open to the elements. Her leg was still aching slightly, and she was a bit shaky when she put weight on it, but at least the situation they were in was now infinitely better than it had been half an hour ago. Her leg was wrapped, and was no longer covered in blood and vomit, but the exertions of getting to where they were had left her exhausted and hungry. After walking a few paces up and down their small area of beach, she was happy enough that she would still be able to move around the arena. The worst she got was the dull ache and a little shakiness, but she was fairly confident the shakes were the result of her stomach being drained of its meal from the night before. She just needed to eat something.
“Let’s go crazy here,” Twilight said as she collapsed on her haunches, next to their pile of kit, wincing slightly as the ache momentarily intensified, objecting to the sharp movement. “It’s been a hectic morning, so I think we deserve a treat.”
Fluttershy, who had been washing the blood off her hooves in the sea, looked back at the meal being prepared for her. Twilight had put all of their food onto a small pile in front of her, from which she was making two smaller piles. Each of the piles was made up of three apples, a dozen strawberries, two energy bars, and a whole packet of crackers. She didn’t need any invitation, so she finished washing the last of Twilight’s blood off her hooves, and trotted right back over and dove into her pile of food in, demolishing half of her strawberries in a matter of seconds. Twilight was just as eager, and within the same span of time, she was halfway through her second apple.
“This is great and all Twilight,” Fluttershy mumbled, all manners gone out the window as she continued wolfing down her strawberries. “But how much have we got left?”
“Plenty,” was the response, as Twilight glanced at their remaining pile of food, her mouth full of the last of her final apple. “Half a bag of strawberries, eight apples, six energy bars and three packets of crackers.”
“Oh, good. Can you pass the water please?”
Twilight handed the small flask over, from which Fluttershy took a long sip, before passing it back. Only then noticing how parched she was, Twilight also took a long sip, draining the flask as the water flooded her mouth and cooled her down from the efforts of the day so far, continuing on with such unawareness of how long she’d been drinking, that before she knew it she was sucking on an empty flask, and gasping for breath when she pulled it away from her lips.
Fluttershy chuckled as Twilight blushed, before she stood up to go refill the flask at the river, a little over a quarter mile away. She headed inland slightly, to avoid collecting the water at the mouth of the river, for fear of collecting salt water by mistake. The area of beach they’d chosen was curved inwards from the mouth of the river, with dense trees making it impossible to see from the opposite side. As Twilight approached the river, she slowed to a crawl. The bombing raid had ended not far from the line of trees across from her, and the force of the explosions had damaged all the trees around it. The result of this was evident, for even from the rivers edge, she could clearly see the ruined area of forest, slightly over a few hundred meters from where she stood, through ruined trees where the heat of the blasts had roasted the leaves.
She thought it a subject best not to dwell on, and she went about her business of filling the flask and adding the iodine drops, before turning back into the forest, towards the beach where she’d left Fluttershy eating her meal. Her leg was still aching, but she found the more she walked on it, the more bearable it became as she grew used to it. She wasn’t too happy with a constant ache, but she was hardly in a position to complain. Their main problem for the morning was now dealt with, more or less, and she needed to figure out their next move. At least, she tried to, until a more pressing thought came into her mind. She hadn’t heard anything from Thunderlane, not even once since the game started. No picture in the sky, no chance encounters, nothing. Sure, the arena was big enough for it to be conceivable that they hadn’t encountered each other just down to chance, but it would be nice to see his face right now. Her mind wandered back to the cannon that had woken her earlier, and she wondered if that had been his cannon. Or maybe he’d been nearby, and was killed in the bombing run. It was very possible that they wouldn’t have heard the cannon fire, if he had been killed during the bombing run. Either way, she couldn’t worry about him just yet, not with Fluttershy to worry about, let alone her own injury.
Sighing, she was happy to hear the lapping of waves against the beach, and pushed through a thick cluster of branches to step back out onto where she’d left Fluttershy. The pegasus in question had finished her meal, and was now lying on the ground by the tree, surrounded by apple cores and food wrappers, snoring gently, and occasionally sighing in content. Twilight, considering the events of the morning, couldn't bring herself to wake Fluttershy up just yet. Judging from where the sun sat in the sky, it must have been somewhere between seven and eight, so Twilight decided to let her sleep for a few hours. She sat down with her back to the tree, making sure her knife was close at hoof, and waited for the iodine to purify the water while she considered what their next move should be.