//------------------------------// // Chapter XXIX: Perspectives // Story: The Equestria Games: First Blood // by 8_Bit //------------------------------// The broken wood crunched underhoof as Pyro stepped out onto the newly created plains where bombs had hit less than half an hour earlier. Leaves, branches, and entire trees had been reduced to thick crumbs that coated the landscape as far as she could see, a distance which was significantly lower than normal due to the imperfect angle of the morning sun shining awkwardly onto the ocean and glaring the land. Of everything that the Gamemakers could have provided but didn’t, at this moment it seemed the cruelest decision was to deny them sunglasses. “Nopony could have survived this,” Nighteye said with a confident grin. The fellow ponies of Pyro’s clique squinted as they stepped out of the shade provided by the intact branches and into the blinding sunlight, each shielding their faces with their forelegs and blinking rapidly, desperately encouraging their eyes to adjust. “They’re alive until we find what’s left of them,” Rainbow Dash said matter-of-factly. “This area wouldn’t have been bombed if nopony was here, so let’s see if we can find who the Gamemakers were aiming for.” Pinkie Pie nodded in agreement. “Split up?” “Sounds like a plan. You and me, we’ll check the forest around the perimeter, see if anypony nearly got away but took a blast to the flank.” She turned to face Pyro. “You and Nighteye, take the middle. See if you can find anypony, either alive or dead.” Everypony nodded in agreement, and the group split to perform their assigned jobs. There hadn’t been any debate about it, but Rainbow Dash had simply assumed the role of leader of their group. She had a natural authority about her that allowed the others to simply accept her as the one to be in charge. The arrangement of being in a group wasn’t going to be permanent, a fact which they were all only too aware of, but for the time being, they were all content to watch each other's backs. They’d already lost three members of their team, meaning that their opponents in the arena knew all too well how to defend themselves, and having each other for support was one of few shreds of comfort. “Who do you think they were aiming for?” Pyro said as she walked alongside Nighteye, an ocean breeze blowing gently through her mane as the various chunks of wood crunched beneath her with every step. “Hard to say,” Nighteye responded. “Both the river and the ocean nearby, it’s good to be near a water source, let alone two, so it could have been anypony with a reasonable amount of intelligence.” “Sparkle?” “Maybe. She’s our biggest concern, that much is certain. But the others aren’t exactly stupid either.” “You think she’s partnered up with anypony?” “I dunno. She got on well with her coltfriend during training, but then again she was friendly with quite a few ponies.” “She was with Cube Twister when we did the compulsory exercises, it could be him.” “Well there’s no point in just wondering. We could name off everypony still alive and not in our group, and she could have joined forces with them.” “It could have been her who killed Fire Work.” “And it’s just as likely somepony else killed him. He was stupid for wandering off alone, and in here, stupidity will leave you dead sooner or later.” Nighteye’s apathy had a way of sending a chill down Pyro’s spine. Many ponies had seen horrific things during the war, and many ponies dealt with the trauma in a wide variety of ways. Pyro, for example, had taken to simply forcing the negative experiences to the back of her mind, and used them to drive her forward in life. Anything would be better than what she’d seen. But Nighteye seemed to block out everything, showing not even the slightest bit of remorse for anything he’d done in the arena. Pyro couldn’t even recall him smiling, at least, not a real smile. He seemed to grin at his opponents, like he’d done when he’d killed Featherweight, but it was a grin to intimidate. A grin that screamed ‘I’m going to kill you, and have fun doing it’ at his opponents. Pyro didn’t know if the war had made him this sadistic, but she assured herself that she would do her best to put herself in the most advantageous position possible to fight Nighteye when the time came that they would all turn against each other. The pair continued to walk on in awkward silence, scanning the terrain for any sign of any survivors of the bombs. Pyro kept her sword close at hoof, held in its sheath strapped to her back, whilst Nighteye carried an oversized sheath full of razor-sharp javelins, which rattled loudly against his large saddle pack with every step. Pyro was used to this being the only noise coming from Nighteye, who was a stallion of few words, so she was surprised as she was scanning the landscape to her left when she heard a small splash come from him. “Oh horsefeathers!” Nighteye exclaimed loudly, stepping backwards. Pyro looked down, only to back away similarly as the rancid smell hit her nostrils. On one hoof, they’d discovered irrefutable evidence that somepony had survived the initial bombing. On the other hoof, Nighteye had walked straight into a puddle of what smelled like vomit, which now meant he was walking in circles, desperately scraping his hooves at the ground to wipe off the smelly mess. Pyro could see Rainbow Dash and Pinkie at the forest edge to their right only a few hundred meters away, so she whistled loudly, waving them over when they looked her way. As soon as she could see them running her way, she looked back to the puddle Nighteye had stepped in. A thick puddle of partially digested food, stained slightly red where it had mixed with blood. She could tell this immediately by the trail of blood leading away from the puddle towards the sea. “What is it?” Rainbow Dash said, gasping for breath slightly after the short run, before she backed away from the smell, trying not to heave. “Need I say more?” Pyro answered with a smile. “Don’t feel too bad, Dainty Hooves over here stood right in it.” Nighteye scowled at her, still pawing the ground to wipe the mess away. Pinkie leaned in, trying not to breath through her nose, looking back and forth between the blood trail and the thick puddle. “How do we know this wasn’t here before the bombs hit?” “Look closer,” Nighteye said, finally rejoining the small group, giving up with wiping his hooves. “Both the puddle and the trail of blood are on top of the wrecked foliage. With the pile of wrecked forest this thick, if it had been here before, it would have been covered up completely.” Rainbow Dash smiled. “True. The trail leads to the sea, so let’s just follow it, hope for the best, and we can work out our next move then.” The group all nodded in agreement, and began to follow the trail. Nighteye took an extra wide path around the puddle before he caught up with the group again, walking alongside Pinkie Pie. “So,” Pinkie said, leaning up against Nighteye. “How did you miss it until you were stood in it, ‘Dainty Hooves’?” Nighteye scowled at her. “Look around; the terrain here isn’t perfectly flat, and the sun is shining right in our eyes. It was easy to miss.” “And we were both looking all around us for pony remains, not for a puddle of puke,” Pyro added. “Well when we get to the sea, you can wash your hooves,” Rainbow Dash said sternly to Nighteye. “You’ve got most of our food for today in your saddle pack, and you are not handling it when all you’ve done to try and get the puke off is scrape your hooves on the ground.” “And the rest of the food is safe, thanks to Ms. Psycho here,” Pinkie said, nudging Pyro. The unicorn smiled. “If there’s one thing I know, its fire. Anypony comes near our pile of equipment will be charcoal before they can count to four.” “Well that’s encouraging,” Rainbow replied. “But what about us? You sure you can disarm that thing when we head back later?” “In a heartbeat.” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The sunlight had been burning for several hours now, but Blue Streak still winced as she opened her eyes, struggling to recall the events of the night before. She sat up to find herself only meters from the beach, lying in the shade of the trees facing the water. The smooth cliffs which surrounded the arena lay only about twenty meters to her right, putting her right on the edge of it. She looked around to see Scootaloo sat on the beach, also facing the water, with her face buried in her hooves. Blue Streak began to call out to her, but immediately found her throat too dry to function properly, and erupted into a wheezy coughing fit. Scootaloo, upon hearing the coughing, immediately turned to face her, before running over to check on her. “Easy, easy,” she said reassuringly. “You got beat up real bad last night.” “What happened?” Blue Steak said weakly, her voice faint from her dry throat. “Well,” Scootaloo began, sitting down on her haunches. “Fire Work turned up and wanted to fight us fairly, so you offered to hold him up while me and Clockwork Dawn escaped. You told us to head to the beach, so we came here and waited. About ten minutes later, we heard crashing noises in the bushes, so we went for a closer look, and we found you passed out.” The memories of the fight began to fade back into Blue Streak’s mind. She winced when she remembered her brutal kick to his hundred points, as Scootaloo continued. “You were hurt pretty bad, you had all these bleeding cuts, so we patched you up as best as we could, and by the time we were done, the sun was coming up.” Her body was aching all over from the bruises, and when she looked down at herself, she could see a multitude of cuts that were beginning to scab over. “Eventually we remembered that we’d left all our supplies back at the tree, so Clockwork Dawn went to go get them back. That must have only been about twenty minutes ago now.” “He left you alone to look after me?” Scootaloo shrugged indifferently. “It’s bad however you twist it, whether he’d sent me alone, or if we’d both gone and left you here alone.” “You could have waited until I’d woken up.” “Have you looked at yourself? We didn’t know what condition you’d be in when you came to, so we figured this was the best option.” Blue Streak still wasn’t completely happy with the idea of a filly being left to defend her unconscious body in the event of an attack, but her sore throat was making every single word painful to pronounce. She could complain about it later. “Is she up yet?” a voice called from the forest. The pair turned to face the direction from which the voice came in fright, only to breathe sighs of relief as Clockwork Dawn pushed through the foliage, carrying both Blue Streak’s saddle pack and the double sheath that Fire Work had been wearing, with the pair of swords in them. “Found one sword poking out of a nettle bush,” he explained, sitting down. “The other one, well, I think you can guess.” “Yeah yeah, thanks for reminding me. Have we got any water?” Clockwork Dawn took the pack off and had a quick rummage through it. After a few moments he came up with the flask, a sight which relieved Blue Streak, but only until he gave it a gentle shake to reveal it to be empty. All three ponies could feel their hearts sink. Scootaloo grabbed the flask and shook it, just to be sure. “It can’t be empty. It can’t be.” “Well it is,” Blue Streak croaked. Clockwork Dawn took the flask back, before standing up and walking towards the sea. “Wait a minute, what are you doing?” Scootaloo asked. “What? We’ve got iodine.” “It won’t work on salt water,” Blue Streak said knowingly. Clockwork Dawn paused. “Are you sure?” “Certain.” “Dammit.” Scootaloo thought for a few seconds. “What about the river?” “You mean the river that’s basically on the other side of the arena?” Blue Streak asked. “Yeah.” “I’m already dehydrated, as well as being badly cut and bruised.” “Well what choice do we have?” “I’m afraid she’s right,” Clockwork Dawn said. “We’re all thirsty, but that river is the only safe source of water.” Blue Streak sighed. “Fine, what way should we go? It’d probably be safest to hug the beach.” Scootaloo and Clockwork Dawn looked at each other, both coming simultaneously to the same conclusion, before Scootaloo explained. “See, there were a bunch of explosions earlier. We don’t know what caused them, but when we looked around for a bit, we could see a whole bunch of smoke coming from down the beach, which is exactly where you’re proposing we go.” “Well where else should we go?” “I know,” said Clockwork Dawn. “How about the waterfall?” Scootaloo and Blue Streak paused to consider this. Blue Streak in particular could remember looking around at the arena when she’d been stood on her entry plate at the cornucopia. She could just about recall the location of the waterfall, which was situated roughly on the north-western part of the cliffs. They were currently, as near as makes no difference, at the most southern point of the arena. “It does seem the smartest place to go. Fresh supply of water, and very little chance of anypony in the arena interfering with it as a water source.” Scootaloo seemed confused. “Interfering?” “Yeah,” Blue Streak explained. “Say somepony got poison or something in their saddle pack. They may not be able to force it down anypony's throat, but they might not have to if they…” “Put it in the only supply of safe water,” Scootaloo finished. “Exactly. If they add it there, it'll wash down the river, and away from the waterfall itself very quickly.” “So,” Clockwork Dawn said, putting the flask back in the saddle bag. “It sounds like we're agreed then. How we’re going to get there though, that’s the tricky part.” “Straight across the arena. We’ll hit the river eventually, then we’d just have to follow it to its source,” Scootaloo suggested. “But there’s a greater risk of running into somepony,” Blue Streak pointed out. “I say we hug the cliff walls, head inland. It may take longer, but it’s safer I think.” Scootaloo and Clockwork Dawn nodded, before they noticed her trying to stand up. They quickly leaned in to offer a hoof, only to be shooed away. "I'd rather try to manage this on my own," Blue Streak said determinedly, taking a few shaky steps on her weak legs. "Dawny, you got the saddle pack?" Clockwork Dawn nodded, only allowing her to call him 'Dawny' because of her injured state. "Lead the way then." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Judging by the sun's position in the sky, Twilight guessed it was somewhere between ten and eleven, and firmly decided that it was time they got moving. As Fluttershy had slept soundly, Twilight had been considering a plan while slowly finishing what was left of her small pile of food, but hadn’t really come to a definite conclusion. She wanted to head inland, as being close to the ocean, for all its benefits, left them easy to surround by the clique ponies, as escape on one side was completely obscured by the sea. Being further inland left them with more options in case of an ambush. She gently nudged Fluttershy, who had curled up into the fetal position as a reaction to the tender sea breeze. She groaned a couple of times, desperately trying to prolong her sleep for a few more precious moments, but Twilight’s third nudge denied her this, and she found herself back in the arena. “Oh,” she exclaimed as she sat up. “I must have dozed off. How long was I asleep for?” “A few hours,” Twilight replied. “It’s been a tough morning, so I figured I’d let you sleep for a while.” “Oh, thanks.” Fluttershy answered, not wanting to relive the grim events of earlier. “How’s your leg feeling?” “It’s not too bad. A bit achy right now, but it’s a big improvement over how it was earlier, so I can’t really complain.” Fluttershy stood up, stretching her back as she did so, before she noticed the pile of food waste near where she was lying. Several apple cores lay in a small cluster, beginning to lose their colour in the air, as well as the small group of cracker and energy bar wrappers that she’d placed the cores on top of to stop them blowing away in the wind. “What should I do with all this?” she asked Twilight, who was retying the cord on her wrappings, to make sure they wouldn't slip down as they walked. “Leave it. We’re heading inland today, so we won’t be coming back here. If anypony finds it and thinks this is a regular spot for us, they might waste some time hanging around nearby, waiting for us to come back.” “Huh, that’s clever.” “Thank you. Now let’s make sure we’ve got everything packed up, and we’ll set off.” “Are we going anywhere specific?” “Not exactly, but we really ought to stay close to the river. We can find some more suitable trees to make a base in, change tree each night. We’re too exposed here close to the sea, so sticking inland gives us more escape options should we be attacked.” “And there’ll be more options for food sources too.” “Exactly. Sticking near the sea has done us alright so far, but we’ve probably been riding on luck there. The bombs were a good wake up call.” “I suppose,” Fluttershy said as Twilight shakily made her way up onto all fours. “Do you want me to carry the saddle pack?” “No, you’re alright. I’d rather get used to wearing it, what with my weak leg. Well, that, and I think I’ll feel a bit safer having my knife close at hoof.” Fluttershy nodded understandingly. Twilight was undoubtedly the best throw of the pair of them, and it made most sense that she be the one with quick and easy access to their only weapon. She did her best to help though, making sure everything was packed up and the saddle pack was done up properly on Twilight, before the pair of them began to trek into the woods. The sun was approaching its midday height, making the whole woods significantly hotter than it had been earlier. Both Twilight and Fluttershy were dripping with sweat less than five minutes after setting off, boiling in the humidity as they trudged across the uneasy terrain. Twilight had no way of telling what the exact humidity was, but it felt significantly higher than it had been the day before. The thought crossed her mind that the Gamemakers were ramping up the temperature inside the arena on top of launching the bombs at her that morning, but she quickly decided not to dwell on it. It was hot, and trying to figure out why exactly it was so hot wouldn’t get them anywhere. Time seemed to melt as they walked. The scale of the arena had never really seemed to sink in to Twilight until now. It had to be at least five miles from the sea to the furthest backwards cliff face, but it was hard to tell. It could have been anywhere up to fifteen miles for all they knew, as the dense forest covering the majority of the arena made it almost impossible to judge the scale with any kind of accuracy. They’d been walking for almost half an hour before the heat got to Twilight, and she decided they should take a quick rest. They’d been following the path of the river, while sticking far enough into the forest to make them hard to spot from the other side, so the gentle trickling noise provided a soothing soundtrack as they settled down for a quick breather and a few sips of their flask. Twilight reached into her saddle pack, too tired to go through the process of taking it off, and pulled out the flask. She tried to limit herself, but ended up drinking several large mouthfuls before she passed it to Fluttershy. The pegasus reached out to take it, but froze half way as her eyes widened in horror. “What’s wrong?” Twilight asked quietly, in case anypony was nearby and Fluttershy had spotted them. “Your wound,” she responded. Twilight looked down and gasped. The sleeping bag case was sodden wet, not from Twilight’s excessive sweating, but from massive amounts of fresh bleeding. The leaves were doing little to stop it from flowing out. Fluttershy was quick to respond, taking a small sip of the water and rushing to Twilight’s side. She untied the sleeping bag case and slid it down and off her leg. The small collection of leaves she’d gathered earlier simply fell off, pushed away by the large amount of blood spurting upwards from below. Fluttershy placed her makeshift wrapping sharply onto the wound, an act which made Twilight yelp. “Hold this in place,” she said sternly, to which Twilight obeyed. Fluttershy went about repeating what she’d done earlier, plucking several clusters of leaves from the trees nearby, before rushing over to wash them in the water. She managed to get some much larger leaves this time, which she got Twilight to hold firmly in place while she pushed the wrapping back up her leg, tying it in place again, much more tightly, but not so tight as to risk cutting off the blood circulation. “What’s happened here?” she asked Twilight, as she was tying the cord up again. “I don’t know, the shrapnel must have caused more damage than we thought. And it’s definitely more humid than before. I’m no expert, but that may be stopping the wound from drying and clotting.” Fluttershy stepped back when the wrapping was in place again. The blood was being mostly held back, but it still trickled out in a few places. Twilight’s upper leg was now coated with a dark red stain where the blood had started flowing again. "Is it the blood loss or can I hear buzzing?" Twilight asked, her ears twitching slightly. Fluttershy looked around briefly. "No, it's not you. There's a bees' nest in the trees over there." Twilight began to stand up, but Fluttershy pushed her chest gently, forcing her to stay sat down. "But what if it's a tracker jacker nest?" “It's not, the nest is far too small. Trust me, it looks like a honey bee nest. Besides, we need to do something about this bleeding,” Fluttershy said decisively. “We can’t just leave it like this, it won’t heal properly. And if it’s started bleeding again, it could become infected.” “Coagulation wipes would be nice right about now,” Twilight said, remembering some of her training in District 13. “Some what?” Twilight looked at her, slightly confused. “I thought you were first aid qualified. When did you learn it all?” “Years ago.” “Before or after the war?” “Before. At least two years before. My mum trained me herself. Working with some of the bigger livestock can be dangerous, so she thought it was important I knew how to help if she got hurt and nopony else was around.” Twilight nodded understandingly, and explained. “Coagulation wipes were invented by the Capitol during the war, and while expensive, they became part of basic first aid kits. They have a special chemical agent that speeds up blood clotting on open wounds. They disinfect wounds too, so they became pretty standard across Equestria.” “Oh. My family is pretty poor.” “If you haven’t heard of them, that may explain why. They're pretty standard, but they've got a hefty pricetag, so not many ponies living in poor areas have even heard of them.. I only found out about them when I was in-” Twilight abruptly ended her sentence. She couldn't finish it, not when she was being broadcast live to a Capitol audience. "When you were what?" "Nothing. Don't worry." "Oh, okay," Fluttershy responded, realizing it to be a subject best avoided. “But where are we going to get them?” Twilight thought to herself for a minute. She needed the wipes to properly clean the wound and let it heal, there was no question about that. Without it, she ran the risk of blood infection, and maybe even gangrene. But there was only one way she could get them, and she knew where. She stood up, and faced Fluttershy. It made perfect sense when she thought about it. The Gamemakers had launched the bombing raid at them to keep the games interesting, keep the Capitol audience watching. But this was just the start of their plan, if the shrapnel had also been deliberate, and made to look like sheer bad luck for her. She thought back to where she’d seen the standard first aid kits, exactly where the Gamemakers wanted her to go. “I’m going to the cornucopia,” she said determinedly. “What?!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “No way, I’m not going back there.” “It’s the only chance I have to get some wipes.” “I hid in the bushes when the games started. I saw what happened there. And I am not going back there.” Twilight paused and thought this over. The bloodbath was probably the most brutal part of the games so far, and Fluttershy was the most timid pony in the arena. Pulling out the shrapnel and tending to her wound had pushed her to her very limit, and there was no way she’d be able to convince her to go back. Twilight sighed, for there was only one option. “Then I’m sorry. I need those wipes, or I could die. I have to go back there, and I’m going, with or without you.” Fluttershy’s pupils shrank in horror, realizing what was going to happen. She knew in her head there was no way she could bring herself to go back. But the thought of being left to fend for herself was far more terrifying. “I… I…” “You’ve got one more chance to change your mind. Are you coming?” “I… can’t,” she said, hanging her head sadly. Twilight sighed, reaching into the saddle pack. Fluttershy winced when she saw that she was pulling out her knife, but was soon surprised when Twilight held it by the blade and offered it to her. “I’m not leaving you without anything to defend yourself with. Take it.” Fluttershy didn’t move. “Go on, take it. I can get another weapon while I’m up there. If it all goes well, I’ll meet you back at the beach.” Fluttershy began to reach for the knife, but was interrupted by a noise to the side of them. They both looked round to see Pyro and Nighteye stepping through the bushes, Pyro beginning to unsheathe her sword and Nighteye reaching for one of his javelins. Twilight had less than a second to think. Her attention was drawn upwards to the bees' nest Fluttershy had spotted earlier, hanging directly above the advancing clique ponies. It was far too small to be a tracker jacker nest, as had been pointed out, but it didn’t need to be a huge one for what Twilight had in mind. Without even needing to think, she threw the knife as hard as she could. It drove itself deep into the bees' nest, knocking it backwards with the impact. It swung first back, then forwards again, when the strength of the knife impact finally took its toll and the nest lost its fragile connection to the branch from which it hung, falling to the ground and smashing open on Nighteye’s head. “SPLIT!” Twilight shouted to Fluttershy. The timid pegasus needed no further instruction, charging downriver back towards the sea, whilst Twilight ran upriver towards the cornucopia. Things were less planned for the clique ponies, who were desperately swatting the bees around their heads. Fortunately for them, the nest seemed to be fairly old, and there wasn’t a huge amount of bees inside it. There were still enough to cause them a fair amount of pain from the stings, and after a few moments of aimless swatting, Pyro grabbed Nighteye’s hoof and pulled him towards the river, where they both jumped in. They stayed under for what felt like an eternity, until Pyro’s lungs couldn’t hold it any longer, and she resurfaced. The bees had disappeared by that time, so she went back under and signaled to Nighteye that it was safe to come up, before swimming towards the shore. She climbed out and collapsed breathlessly onto the river bank, her whole upper body aching from the multitude of stings. Nighteye climbed out a few moments later, standing next to her and offering her a hoof up. “Tracker jackers?” she asked. Nighteye shook his head. “They’re a lot bigger, and you’d be in much more pain right now.” Pyro breathed a sigh of relief as Nighteye led the way back to where they had planned to ambush Twilight and Fluttershy. The only things left behind were the shattered remains of the bees' nest and Twilight’s knife, which Nighteye picked up and examined closely. “They split up,” he said, looking at his reflection in the polished metal. “Did you hear where Sparkle was going?” Pyro shook her head. “I heard her say to Fluttershy to meet her back at the beach.” “Yeah, that’s what I heard too,” Nighteye said, putting Twilight’s knife in his saddle pack. “What are we gonna do?” “We’ll regroup with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. We don’t know where Twilight’s going or what she’s doing, but I’ll bet my cutie mark that her friend will know.”