The Copper Cannon was loud as it always was. Off duty soldiers of the Royal Guard and Lunar Guard drank in high spirits. Equestria had been celebrating a year of peace, and the second anniversary of the end of the war with the griffons. Laughter, chatter, and cheering reverberated around the large tavern, the entire bar brimming with life.
Six ponies sat around a circular table, mugs of cider and ale in their hooves. Casual banter and idle chitchat passed between the friends, a welcome reprieve from the usual seriousness their profession demanded. With the new additions to their coterie, catching up was the topic of the day.
“So long story short, I’m just about to make my getaway, when who do I run straight into? My CO,” Sharp Shot said, finishing up his story. “He looks me dead in the eye, grabs me by the collar, and just shakes his head and says, ‘I don’t even wanna know.’”
Cupcake and Midnight erupted into laughter, pounding their hooves against the table. Blue Shield smirked as he took a swig of his drink. Valiant just rolled his eyes, and Echo gave a soft giggle.
“How do you get away with half the things you do?” Valiant asked the sniper.
Sharp Shot shrugged. “Nopony really seems to know what to do with me. Fleet just doesn’t care, and everypony else before him was so by-the-book, they didn’t have protocols designed to handle me.”
“Sounds like me in the Shades,” said Midnight as she downed the last of her drink.
“Oh yeah?” A grin crossed Sharp’s face. “Let’s hear about it. What sort of trouble do bats get up to back where you’re from?”
“I’d love to tell you, but Echo and I have our psych eval in fifteen minutes, and I don’t think Fleet’s gonna give me any passes this time. I’ll tell you all about it some other time.”
“Wait, you’re going to a psychological evaluation after having three rounds of hard cider?” asked Blue Shield, raising an eyebrow skeptically.
“Hey, it loosens me up. I don’t test well,” Midnight rebuked. “Besides, Echo only had water. She played by the rules, and that means I did too by association.”
“What—?”
“It makes sense in my mind!” Both bat fillies rose up, making their way towards the door. “See ya later, guys!”
After the others had bid the fillies good luck, Sharp turned his attention back to the rest of his team. “Alright, colts, the mares might be gone, but I’m still gonna make you answer.”
Valiant cocked his head. “Answer what…?”
“What got you all into the Guard, of course! I don’t believe that you all believed the ‘Be all you can be’ crap they push around the high schools and colleges like Fleet did.” A moment of silence passed between the ponies as Sharp Shot eyed each one of them, grinning from ear to ear. “So, come on! What’re your stories? Why did you all choose the Guard?”
“Well, why did you?” asked Valiant.
“Hey, I asked first.”
Blue Shield shrugged his shoulders. “He has a point, Valiant.”
“How ‘bout you, doc?” Sharp asked, fixing his eyes on the unicorn across the table from him. “You’ve gotta be able to get a job in any hospital around Equestria. How’d you end up here?”
“My story isn’t very exciting, I’m afraid. I didn’t ‘end up’ anywhere. I chose this.”
Sharp made a dramatic motion of rolling his eyes. “Same difference. Why?”
Blue Shield took a long swallow from his mug, licking his lips as he rested the glass back down on the table. His eyes grew distant, staring into the far-off memories of the past. “It was… more of a compromise than a choice. It all started when I was back in school…”
* * *
Blue Shield blew a stray lock of cobalt hair out of his eyes, running a hoof through his neatly styled mane again and again in an attempt to get it to sit right. He stared back at his reflection in the mirror of the stallion’s restroom. It was difficult to believe the gaunt pony staring back at him was himself. Heavy bags sat beneath his eyes from many sleepless nights of study and mental preparation. He looked half dead, and had the feelings to match. He was running himself ragged. The worst part was knowing it was the truth and still carrying on anyway.
Blue Shield’s horn lit up as he turned the faucet hanging over the sink on. He splashed the cold water across his face, the cool liquid doing little to bring him back to life. He breathed deeply, his chest feeling tight, constricted with stress.
The bathroom door opened then, and another young unicorn poked his head inside. “Blue? You alright in there?”
Blue Shield sucked in a breath through his teeth, letting his lungs inflate to capacity before releasing it in a slow, controlled stream. He knew he had to go back out there. It was what he had wanted, after all.
“Yeah, I’m fine, Stable.” Blue Shield grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser with his magic and dried off his face.
“You look awful,” Stable said, looking over the unicorn as he trotted towards him.
“The price of med school, eh?” replied Blue with a tired smile. “Come on, we’ve got work to do.”
Blue Shield pushed open the door to the bathroom, stepping out into the busy hallways of the hospital’s intensive care ward. Ponies in white coats and uniforms trotted briskly around, while patients dressed in gowns lounged and recovered in their rooms. Blue Shield and Stable took a step back, pressing themselves against a wall as a pony on a bed was wheeled down the hallway towards the elevator.
Breaking free from the crowd, the two stallions trotted down the hallway, headed for their designated meeting point. Doctor Hay Fever was particularly surly when interns and residents missed his strict deadlines even by a second. Lately, Blue Shield had been realizing just how intensive lessons under his guidance could be.
Canterlot Royal Hospital had always been his aspiration, even before getting into school. Now that he was living his dream, he was quickly coming to realize it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. He had thought he’d be learning to save lives and make good use of his existence. So far, the most excitement he’d had in his years of studying with the hospital was the foal that had thrown up on his shirt the week before.
“So what’s on your mind?” Stable asked out of the blue as they rounded a corner, walking down a long corridor. “You seem distracted, more so than usual.”
Blue Shield was reluctant to speak at first. He had long denied himself the right to give up and admit he was falling out of love with the job. Admitting defeat was a sign of weakness. That lesson had been drilled into him far too many times…
“Do you ever get the feeling that this job isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?” Blue Shield said while stepping aside for another pony getting carted down the hall. He glanced back at Stable, seeing the confusion in the stallion’s eyes. “Maybe working at the most prestigious hospital in all of Equestria isn’t the ultimate life goal they make it out to be in the classroom?”
Stable gave a laugh. “That’s why I never planned on working here. I’m just getting my specialization out of the way. Once I have that diploma, I’m going to move to someplace like Ponyville or Trottingham and do my residency there. You were always the one with big dreams of saving lives.”
“Exactly—saving lives. I look around and all I see is ponies with the sniffles or the flu when it gets cold out. The only surgeries that go on are minor at best. Crime is virtually nonexistent here, and nothing life-threatening ever happens.”
“Are you actually hoping for a disaster to happen?”
“No, not at all.” Blue Shield sighed and shook his head forlornly. “I don’t know… I thought we’d be doing more than we are. And it’s not just us being interns. I look around and I see half the staff sitting around waiting for something to happen too. I guess I’m just hoping for a sign that this is what I really want.”
Stable shrugged as they walked into a room. “Well, maybe today will change your mind.”
“Ah, look who finally decided to show up.”
Blue Shield deliberately looked down at the cream tiles beneath his hooves to avoid making eye contact with Doctor Fever. His day was already rough enough with only two hours of sleep and an exam to deal with in a few more.
“Stable and Blue Shield, you colts are late.”
“With respect, sir, we’re right on time,” Blue Shield said, looking down at his watch. They were actually a little early, but he didn’t dare push his luck.
“Not by my watch, you’re not, and that’s all that matters to me,” said Doctor Fever, his voice gruff and unyielding. “Since you two decided to take your sweet time getting here, why don’t you go ahead and assess the patient first?”
Blue Shield looked up at Doctor Fever, and then glanced sideways at Stable. The unicorn simply gave another shrug and levitated the clipboard from the end of the bed while his friend moved around to the side. A mare lay comfortably in the hospital bed, sitting up and looking around at the small group of interns gathered around.
“Miss Star Bright was admitted today after consuming an unknown concoction during a lesson at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” Stable read aloud.
“Well, your vitals seem normal, Miss Bright,” Blue Shield noted as he checked her blood pressure. He levitated a small light from the pocket of his white coat and began checking her pupils. “How do you feel otherwise?”
Star Bright gave a roll of her shoulders. “I feel just fine, doctor.”
“He’s not a doctor,” interrupted Fever.
“Yet,” Blue Shield added. “No dizziness, nausea, loss of memory, blurred vision…?”
Star Bright shook her head energetically. Blue Shield pursed his lips, contemplating what Doctor Fever was trying to prompt him to do. There had to be something more to this he was missing.
“Well, you seem to be perfectly healthy, Miss Bright. If there haven’t been any adverse side effects to the potion by now, I don’t think—”
“Uh, Blue?”
Blue Shield turned around when Stable called his name. The pony had a cautious expression on his face as he took a step back from his friend. Blue furrowed his brow. What was he missing?
His question was answered when he heard Star Bright give a quiet groan of discomfort. She was doubled over in bed, clutching at her stomach with an expression of pain on her face.
“Star? Star Bright, what’s wrong?”
“Doctor, could you get me a—”
Star Bright was cut off suddenly when her mouth snapped shut. Blue Shield saw a look cross her face as her body shivered and her throat quivered. His mind made the connection only a split second before the mare grasped onto his shoulder for support and emptied the contents of her stomach all across his coat and shirt. The interns around the bed all gave various sounds of disgust and backed away while Blue Shield just stared up at the ceiling, shaking his head.
Thanks for the sign…
“They, uh… They gave her a potion to purge her system when she was admitted,” Stable finished slowly, smiling sheepishly at his friend while the mare spat the last few strands of bile from her mouth. “I just got to that part.”
Doctor Fever gave a loud, raucous laugh. “And that, students, is why it’s always important to read a patient’s file before trying to tend to them. Blue Shield here could have very easily avoided this mess by not trying to leap right into action like a war hero—and if he’d shown up on time.”
“I was on time…” he muttered under his breath.
“Oh Celestia, I am so sorry, doctor,” Star Bright apologized, her face a bright red. “I just— I couldn’t help it.”
Blue Shield held up a hoof, smiling as passively as possible. He couldn’t bring himself to be upset. “It’s quite alright, Miss Bright. These things happen. But at least you’re going to be okay.”
“Alright, colt, go get yourself cleaned up while I finish up here. Meet us in Room 417 in five minutes. Think you can be on time?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Blue Shield, trudging out of the room while trying his best to ignore the smell of vomit covering his clothes. Today was very obviously not his lucky day.
* * *
Blue Shield groaned as he scrubbed harder at his damp coat with a wad of wet paper towels. His shirt had been simple enough to swap out for a new one from his locker, but he still had to get his coat clean before he could go back to the group. Years of frustration and disappointment spurred his fervent scrubbing with his magic. As it turned out, the potion Star Bright had consumed had made it impervious to any magical removal.
But of course that would be my luck… Covered with body fluids you can’t clean, he thought. He had tried his best not to be bitter, but his patience had its limits. He was quickly reaching them.
With a defeated sigh, he tossed the paper towels into the nearby trashcan and examined his handiwork. Large damp stains were very obvious on his otherwise white coat, but at least it would be passable for the time being. He frowned as he stared at his name hemmed into the fabric just above the breast pocket. It sat there, almost mocking him, as if challenging him to earn the right to bear them.
“I can earn it…” he whispered to himself in the vacant locker room. He ruffled up the coat in his hooves, caught between the verge of falling apart and stuffing it down.
Giving in is a sign of weakness. Falling apart is a sign of weakness. Everything is a bloody sign of weakness…
Blue Shield let out a growled sigh, releasing some of his tension with it. His head was throbbing and all he desperately wanted to do was curl up in bed and sleep. He couldn’t quit. He’d come too far to give up on his dream now—even if his dream seemed like it would never be a reality. For all his hype and drive to do good, it seemed like the world didn’t need saving—at least not this world.
The long months of frustration he had kept bottled up inside himself were boiling over the edge. Tears of exasperation and disappointment spilled down his cheeks. His chest felt tight, and breathing suddenly became a chore. In the quiet loneliness of the empty locker room, Blue Shield, along with his hopes, fell apart.
The door opened a few moments later, prompting the unicorn to straighten his stance out of reflex.
“Blue, Fever’s losing patience with you.”
It was Stable coming to his rescue yet again. Blue Shield swiftly wiped his damp eyes on his coat before throwing it on with his magic. He caught another glimpse of his reflection in the mirror, refusing to believe it was who he had become.
“Alright, let’s get back…”
“Blue, wait… You look awful.” Stable paused, blocking Blue Shield from slipping through the door. He studied the bags under the unicorn’s bloodshot eyes and the damp trails running through his fur. “You should sit down, take a breather.”
“Is that your professional opinion, doctor?” Blue snapped impatiently.
“It’s my opinion as your friend. What the hay is happening, Blue? You look like you’re falling apart at the seams. You need a break.”
Blue Shield tried to push past Stable, failing as the pony sidestepped and blocked him again. “I don’t need a break…”
“Why not?”
“Because then I’d be giving up, and giving up is a sign of weakness.”
“This again?” asked Stable, following behind Blue Shield as he moved back across the locker room. “Blue Shield, forget about all the horseapples your father shoved in your head.”
Blue Shield gave a cold, hard laugh. “That’s like asking me to ignore everything I grew up knowing.”
“You’re going to be a terrific doctor.”
“It’ll all amount to nothing—just like me.”
“Blue Shield, stop it—”
“No!” shouted Blue Shield, slamming a hoof into the nearest locker with a loud metallic bang. “This was my dream! I was going to be saving lives, to be making something of myself! But he was right! I’m never going to amount to anything because I’m going to be stuck doing the same bucking thing over and over and over again! Diagnosing sniffles and sprained ankles, wiping vomit off myself, and wasting away like that old codger!”
Blue Shield rested his head against the cool metal lockers, his chest heaving as he fought back against breaking down again. The exasperation was tearing him apart from the inside out, and it felt like he was fighting a losing battle with reality. But he couldn’t quit now. He was too far along to lie down and surrender.
“I wanted to make a difference… I wanted to help ponies—truly help them…” Blue Shield released a shaking sigh. “It was something I really believed in. Now I don’t even believe in myself…”
Tears blurred his vision, blending the drab green color of the lockers into one swirling mass. His heart ached with each thump. A gentle pressure on his shoulder finally made him look up. Stable gave him a small smile, his hoof resting on Blue’s shoulder.
“Put the coat away, my friend. We’re getting out of here,” Stable said, slipping out of his lab coat and stuffing it in his locker. “By now, Fever’s already moved along and counted us as absent. No sense in hanging around. Hey, maybe you can catch up on some sleep now.”
Blue Shield rolled his eyes, reluctantly sliding out of his coat as well. “I’ve never been absent a day in my life…”
“Exactly why one won’t kill you now. Come on, let’s go.”
Taking the lead, Stable steered Blue Shield down the corridors of the hospital and down the elevator to the ground level. The lobby was expectedly crowded as always with doctors going about rounds and patients being directed in every direction. Blue Shield ignored the throng of multicolored ponies he pushed his way through, trying to tune out the chatter to prevent his headache from getting any worse.
It was an overcast day outside the pallid hospital walls. Canterlot was covered in a fine mist, drizzles of rain sprinkling down from the dense blanket of heavy gray clouds overhead. The cool moisture felt soothing against Shield’s humid, clammy skin. His eyes closed while he sucked in a breath of the chilled spring air, letting it blow the troubles from his mind.
“So why are you always so hung up on being a life-saving doctor?” Stable asked as they crossed the cobblestone walkway in front of the hospital.
“It goes back to my father,” said Blue Shield, keeping his eyes focused downward on the ground in front of his hooves. He didn’t want to look his friend in the eye when he spoke about his father. The conversation already left a sour taste in his mouth.
“Ah, the lieutenant expects big things from you, eh?”
“No, he expected me to join the Royal Guard and be a fighting soldier like he did. He never approved of me taking a civilian life. Being a doctor disgusted him, like I had slapped him in the face.”
Stable glanced sideways at his friend. “Why didn’t you?”
Blue Shield just gave him a hard look that told him to drop the conversation. Stable did just that, and the two walked in silence for a few blocks. It gave Blue Shield plenty of time to reflect on the memories of the many arguments he had shared with his beloved parent. It chewed him up inside. Ever since he had left home, he had vowed to prove his father wrong. He would be the exact opposite of him.
“Hey, I know this great café a couple blocks away,” Stable said after a while with a smile. “It might help take your mind off things.”
“No thank you, Stable.”
“C’mon, I’m buying. They have the best banana nut muffins in Canterlot.”
Blue Shield hesitated for a moment. He glanced to Stable’s smiling face, seeing the encouraging look in his eyes. He was baiting him. A smile of his own crossed his visage, and he gave a slow nod.
“…Alright. But you are actually paying this time.”
“Hey, colts! Can I get a moment of your time?”
Blue Shield and Stable looked up quickly, spotting the pony on the sidewalk that had called out to them. He was a Royal Guard, standing just out front of a designated recruitment center, dressed in the fine golden armor they all traditionally wore. Blue Shield was familiar with the pristine white coats and bright blue eyes every pony that wore the armor possessed—he had grown up with it.
“That’s quite alright,” Blue Shield politely declined. “We’re both in university. We’re not interested in enlisting.”
That made the pony’s eyes light up like a foal on Hearth’s Warming. “Ah, college ponies, eh? You know, if you sign up for ROTC training, the Royal Guard will pay off some of your education for you, and you’d be set to be officers right out of the gate.”
Blue Shield shook his head again. “No, thank you.”
“What programs are you two in?”
Blue Shield gave a frustrated sigh and rolled his eyes. The recruiter was persistent, he would give him that. Stable seemed to have slowed his gait as well, forcing them to linger and put up with him.
“We’re in medical school,” said Stable.
“Well, that’s fantastic! The Royal Guard has great positions for field surgeons and medics that would offer you both the chance to practice medicine while serving your country and fellow ponies.”
Blue Shield snorted under his breath and turned on the recruiter. “For the last time, no. I’m a pacifist anyway.”
“Let me be honest with you colts, you wouldn’t have to be infantry soldiers or do any real fighting. The Guard is actively looking for qualified ponies trained in the medical field. You’d get to travel, be taught disciplines and get experience you wouldn’t working in any old hospital, and it looks great on a resume.”
“Sir, there’s nothing you could say that would ever change my mind.”
Just as Blue Shield turned to walk away, the recruiter levitated a pamphlet over to him with his magic. “Alright then. But how about you give it some thought?”
“How about no.”
“You could be saving lives.”
Those five words froze Blue Shield in place like the pony had just insulted his mother. His eyes traced over the pictures and bold font across the front of the folded pamphlet. Photographs of ponies in uniforms setting a wounded soldier’s leg and giving immunizations to ponies that he didn’t recognize covered the front page.
“Save lives…?” he repeated slowly, enunciating each word to make sure he had heard him correctly.
The recruiter nodded his head, smiling while Blue Shield began to walk closer to him. “Yes, sir! Even if we aren’t actively fighting anything, there’s always a place for medics in the Royal Guard. You could be helping deal with a disease outbreak in Zavros, or aiding the wounded after some natural disaster anywhere in the world.”
Blue Shield’s horn ignited as he flipped through the pages of the information pamphlet hovering in the air right in front of his face. The insignia of the Royal Guard lay smack dab in the center of the pictures and passages of information, the motto wrapped around it in a banner. The Royal Guard: Make a Difference.
Make a difference… Save lives…
“How long is the service requirement?”
“Four years of active service, or eight if you choose to be in the reserves instead,” the recruiter explained. He motioned to the recruitment office with a hoof and a smile. “Why don’t you come in and I’ll give you all the details about it.”
For a brief moment, Blue Shield was surprised to find himself actually considering it. His father’s chastising voice echoed in his head, beating him down from the inside. He had always been instilled with a distaste for the Royal Guard because of his father’s abusive mannerisms, but now they were offering him the dream he had always wanted. It seemed too good to be true.
With a shake of his head, Blue Shield returned the pony’s smile and slipped the pamphlet into his shirt pocket. “I’ll think about it for now. Thank you.”
“Drop in anytime. We’re open every day from dawn to dusk,” the recruiter called after them as the two unicorns trotted leisurely away.
Once they had gotten a block away, Stable turned to him. “Are you actually thinking about signing up? What happened to all the ‘I’m a pacifist! I hate soldiers!’ talk?”
“I never said I hated soldiers—I pity them,” remarked Blue Shield, glancing down at the vivid leaflet sticking out of his pocket. “But if they’re giving me my chance to do some real good and help ponies that need it… well, how bad could they be?”
“Well, just don’t make that kind of decision rashly based on today,” Stable warned. “That’s a big commitment. Sleep on it.”
Blue Shield nodded his head vigorously. “Oh, don’t fret, I will. Now, about those muffins…”
* * *
Over the next two weeks, Blue Shield spent his days caught between studying, the everyday humdrum of the hospital internship, and daydreaming about the Royal Guard. The first night after he had run into the recruiter on the street, he had simply tossed the information leaflet in the trash. The next day, however, lingering thoughts had him retrieve it and pin it to a bulletin board above his desk.
Through the sleepless nights of study, he would occasionally glance up from whatever textbook he found himself with and stare at the glossy photos printed across the thin pages. Beside it hung a flyer for Canterlot Royal Hospital, the tagline regaling it as the prestigious flagship of modern medical science. But still, the contrast between the smiling doctors checking a patient’s temperature in a sterile room and the soldiers wrapping gauze around a wounded comrade’s leg was almost palpable, and felt like night and day.
Every day since then, Blue Shield took the longer way to the university and to the hospital, deliberately taking the route that would lead him past the recruitment center. He stood, unmoving on the sidewalk across the street, eyeing the gray stone structure with curiosity and wariness. It still felt too good to be true. Was it worth taking the chance?
With each day, Doctor Fever’s belittling passive-aggressive comments cut a little deeper, and with each day, his certainty in one dream died while the other grew more resolute. Stable had vowed his support regardless of his decision. But the decision had to ultimately be his, and his alone.
The night prior, Blue Shield had made his choice. Somewhere between memorizing symptoms of infectious diseases and his third cup of coffee, he glanced up one last time. He knew what he wanted.
That was how he found himself now, standing across the street from the recruitment center as he had every day. The information pamphlet hovered beside him, gently grasped by his magic. Blue Shield took a deep breath of the crisp morning air and marched assuredly across the street, throwing the two glass doors open and trotting up to the nearest desk. The recruiter he had met on the street was seated on the other side, filling out some sort of paperwork. He glanced up when he heard the hoofsteps, and his eyes lit up in recognition.
“Well, if it isn’t the soon-to-be-doctor! I’ve seen you outside every morning. Come in to get some more info?”
Blue Shield took a seat opposite the soldier and slammed the pamphlet down on the desk. With his magic, he grabbed one of the quills off the desk and dipped it in the inkwell.
“I’m here to save lives,” he said adamantly, the fire burning in his eyes making the recruiter grin from ear to ear. “Sign me up.”
* * *
“So you were all set to be a doctor here at Canterlot Royal and you turned it down to be a field medic?” Sharp Shot asked skeptically, his eyes scrutinizing Blue Shield’s face as the pony nodded. “Why? You could’ve had a massive salary, a huge house, your name in magazines!”
“It wasn’t about fame or money,” replied Blue Shield, shuffling his empty mug between his hooves. “It was about doing what I wanted to do. I know it’s probably not as exciting as yours, or Valiant’s, or the captain’s, but it mattered to me. It was my dream to be a significant difference in somepony’s life. And I got that chance with the Guard.”
Cupcake nodded his head vigorously with a gruff sound of approval. “Is noble gesture. I would do same thing.”
“So when did you actually get to live your dream and save all the lives you wanted to?” Valiant asked curiously, tilting his head slightly to the left.
“Why, the same place I met you and Fleethoof.” Blue Shield motioned up with a tip of his head to a framed article of the start of the Griffon War. “The war. You see, I opted for a position in active duty, not knowing that a couple months later, I’d be shipped off to the front lines. Worse of all, the Guard saw my studies at Canterlot University of Medicine and thought I was qualified enough to be one of the heads of my company’s medical units…”
* * *
Blue Shield hurriedly double-checked his bags full of medical supplies as the ship rolled through the thick gray fog. Very close up ahead, he could already hear the sounds of gunfire. The other ships had landed on the shore. Ponies were fighting and dying.
“Get ready, soldiers!” Captain Cuirass shouted out above the swell of the sea. “For Princess and country!”
The ship lurched and rocked violently for a few moments, and then everything was still. Gangplanks were thrown over the side, and soldiers swiftly began piling out. Pegasi took to the air, sweeping through the fog over the beach. Blue Shield approached the railing, glancing down at the dusky gray sand below. He wasn’t in Equestria anymore…
You signed up for this, doctor… he thought against his instinctive fear. Now get your flank down there and help those ponies!
His nostrils flaring as he swallowed a deep gulp of air, Blue Shield clambered onto the gangplank and rushed down until his hooves hit the soft sand, feeling the earth give way beneath his weight slightly. The cool water lapped at his fetlocks as he turned and rushed with the rest of his company up the beachhead.
The gunfire had increased exponentially up ahead. Blue Shield could see bodies strewn across the sand, rivers of blood flowing from beneath them down towards the ocean. He didn’t need to stop and check on them. None of them were moving. If a pony had been shot, they would be writhing and screaming in pain. They were beyond pain.
Up ahead, he could see the mass of the army bottlenecked at the gates of the city. He slowed his gait to a canter, lingering back to avoid getting caught in the fight. He could feel his rifle swinging on his shoulder, but adamantly refused to even touch it. It went against his code to do any harm to a living creature lest his life depended on it. The Guard had armed him as a formality. ‘Just because we don’t shoot medics doesn’t mean the griffons won’t,’ his commanding officer had told him.
Snap!
A bullet sliced through the air close enough to Blue Shield’s head that he felt the distortion in the air as it passed by. He yelped and stumbled to the side, hearing another snap of a passing bullet, followed by a third, and then a cry of pain. A soldier in front of him toppled to the ground. Blue Shield gasped, horrified that he had just witnessed the death of a pony right in front of his own eyes—until the soldier rolled over, letting out a shout while clutching at his bleeding leg.
“Oh buck! Aaargh, buck!”
“Hold still!” Blue Shield ordered the soldier, dropping beside him and began to immediately fish supplies out of his bags with his magic. “It looks like the bullet passed straight through the bone.”
“You don’t bucking say!”
Blue Shield licked his dry lips as he poured antiseptic onto two cotton patches. He pressed both patches to the entry and exit wound, making the soldier scream and squirm even more. Using his hooves to keep him still, he applied another patch and began winding gauze around the pony’s leg tightly to keep pressure on the wound.
“Alright, now stay down. Don’t put any weight on the leg yet—”
“Medic!” somepony shouted out above the chaos.
A startled Blue Shield looked up frantically, spotting several more injured soldiers lying on the beach. The entire area was a grisly mess of blood and bodies. He bit his lip, feeling the panic starting to set in. This was nothing like Canterlot Royal Hospital.
“Don’t move!” he told his patient once more before running over to a pair of soldiers. Bullets snapped past him as he ran across the open beach, skidding over the sand until he reached them. “What happened?”
“He took a round to the chest. He’s losing blood fast, doc.”
Blue Shield quickly assessed the scene. The pony keeping pressure on his friend’s chest had blood oozing from beneath his hooves while the other lay on his back, staring blankly up at the sky and gasping for air.
“His lung’s collapsed and he’s gone into shock, and he’s exsanguinating too fast for morphine,” he diagnosed, pulling out a stethoscope and listening to the pony’s chest as fast as he could. Each ragged breath of the pony told him something new. “I don’t think the bullet pierced his lung, but it won’t inflate. It’s under too much pressure and he can’t breathe. Keep holding that wound as tightly as possible.”
The soldier beside him nodded and held his hooves in place. Blue Shield pulled out his knife, ignoring the wide-eyed stare of his assistant as he made an incision just below the wound. Pulling out a small plastic tube, he slid it into the incision, watching the pony’s chest rise suddenly as he took a large gulp of air. Blue Shield heaved a sigh.
“Okay, the pressure’s been relieved on his lungs. Now when I say so, move your hooves. Ready?” The soldier nodded, looking as if he was in as much shock as his bleeding friend was. Blue Shield had already prepared another antiseptic swab. “Move!”
The pony moved his bloody hooves and Blue Shield swooped in, pressing the patch to the wound. The pony beneath him arched his back and his face contorted into a silent scream of anguish.
“Hold his shoulders down!”
The soldier shifted positions, keeping his friend restrained while Blue Shield wiped most of the blood away. Just as he began putting clean cotton patches over the wound, a large explosion shook the earth beneath them. Both ponies looked up quickly, seeing the gates of Skyfall disappear in a massive fireball. The army had breached the city.
Turning back to his work, Blue Shield repeated the process and wound gauze securely around the pony. The pony was still just staring around like he was in a daze. He could empathize. Retrieving an IV bag from his pouch and setting it into the wounded pony, he held it up in the air with his magic, watching as the fluids flowed down the clear plastic tubing.
“He’s stable for now, but he needs immediate attention,” Blue Shield said to the soldier with him. “Whatever you do, don’t move him. Keep an eye on him. If he starts fighting, hold him down. Once we get a safe place set up, we can fix him up.”
“Got it.” The soldier nodded his head, wiping the sweat from his sand-covered brow. “Thanks, doc. You saved his life.”
Blue Shield felt his racing heart flutter slightly when he heard those words. He had saved a life. Nodding his head, he watched as another medic ran up to them.
“Blue Shield! We’ve got a lot of wounded in the city! Captain Cuirass wants you up there, ASAP!”
“Here, take this bag and keep it elevated,” he told the medic, rising only once his place was taken. “And don’t let him move!”
He turned and charged up the sandy beach towards the gates of Skyfall, running past the smoldering rubble and into the city. The army had progressed through the tier, already headed up to the second level. The smell of smoke, gunpowder, and blood hung in the air like a thick fog of war. Death was everywhere he looked, even as he walked amidst the destruction as a harbinger of life, headed straight for the cacophony of gunfire.
Cantering up to the second tier, he found the bulk of the army fighting their way through plazas and marketplaces, fighting in the open and inside shops and buildings all around. The urban warfare was tight and constricting, providing little room to maneuver, and little room to evacuate the wounded.
Blue Shield wandered around the back ranks of the soldiers, seeing other medics already hard at work tending to the injured. Cries of pain rang out all around him. The sight made him want to be sick, but it renewed his sense of purpose. His drive had never been stronger.
“Hang in there, Sergeant. You’re all right. Medic!”
He glanced across the street when he heard the call. A soldier was pulling a wounded comrade down the road towards them. The pony was clutching at his neck, even as thick, red liquid flowed down his throat.
“Prop him up on the wall,” ordered Blue Shield, hurrying over to them. “Give me the story.”
“We were ambushed. He got hit in the neck. Damn birds jumped us in one of the stores,” the soldier muttered darkly.
Blue Shield studied the wounded sergeant grimly. His eyes were dilated and glazed. He was fading fast. Gently removing his hoof from his neck, both the medic and soldier made sounds of shock as blood spurted from the wound on his neck, splattering Shield’s face and chest with stains of red. Blue Shield pressed his hoof over the wound as fast as he could, hoping to stem the blood loss.
“His carotid has been nicked.” Blue Shield took a moment to think and catch his breath.
“Well, do something, doctor! Use magic or whatever!”
“I can’t!” he snapped at the soldier behind him. “Magic powerful enough to heal is impossible, the arcanate is preventing me from using most of my magic, and if I move my hooves, I don’t know how much blood he can lose. I need to get an IV in him before it’s—”
The sergeant gave a choking gasp and his body convulsed once, and then he was still. Blue Shield felt panic overtake him as he pressed his hoof harder to the wound. He could no longer feel the flow of blood.
Slowly, he dropped his hoof from the sergeant’s neck, falling back onto his flanks with a blank expression on his face. In a matter of only an hour, he had saved a life and lost one.
“…Too late.” He looked back at the shocked soldier with a remorseful look, grimly shaking his head. “I’m sorry. There was nothing I could do.”
The soldier said nothing. He stared at the body for a few seconds longer, and then just replaced the helmet on his head and trudged back through the throng of chaos towards the battle. Blue Shield took a deep, uneasy breath, feeling the stress twisting his insides up like a balloon animal at a party.
“We need a medic over here!”
The shout sent chills rippling down Blue Shield’s spine. His eyes slowly shut until blackness consumed his vision. Taking a moment to recompose himself, he rose to his hooves and returned to his duty. Trails of broken and bloody ponies ran the length of the street like a macabre labyrinth. Swallowing back his anxiety, he approached the nearest one, two soldiers already attempting to give another CPR to resuscitate him. An explosion up ahead sent a plume of deathly black smoke into the air.
“Get some stretchers out and start moving the wounded indoors,” he shouted above the sounds of combat. “We need to get them into shelter and set up a makeshift hospital so we can start triaging them.. Hurry!”
It was going to be a hard day...
* * *
“And it was the hardest day of my life. I saw a lot of madness, more than I ever expected,” Blue Shield said as he finished his second drink. “It was the first time I ever saved a life, and the first time I ever lost one… It truly was a test of my devotion and my skill. I like to think I succeeded that day…”
Sharp Shot leaned across the table and asked, “How many did you save, doc?”
“Personally? Somewhere around fifty ponies.”
“Hot damn…” Sharp Shot let out a whistle. “And how many… ya know…?”
“Didn’t make it?” The sniper nodded slowly. Blue Shield glanced down into the now empty mug in his hooves, a nostalgic glaze coming over his eyes. “Four. But I remember each like it was yesterday…”
“Why? You did good, doc—really good!”
“Da,” agreed Cupcake. “Why would you be feeling bad about four ponies when fifty are alive?”
“Because it’s the epitome of why being as sharp as I can be is vitally important. It’s the difference between life and death for somepony. Each one I save is fantastic, but each one I lose is like a knife to the heart.” Blue Shield sighed and shook his head. “My father was a very strict stallion. With him, it was either get the job done, or get lost. When I don’t get my job done, ponies die, and I can just hear him mocking me.
“But in a way, it’s beneficial. It forces me to remain at the top of my game and not make mistakes. It’s probably why Captain Fleethoof picked me out for Skyfall Team. He knows I don’t let myself make mistakes.”
“So what happened after the battle?” asked Valiant. “Where did you get sent to?”
“I remained in Skyfall, actually, with Cuirass’ company. By a stroke of luck, when the princesses arrived for the negotiations, I was taken by them to tend to one of their personal guards. Poor colt had come down with a nasty infection. It spared me from getting caught in the city when the griffons took it back though, or else I probably would have been killed too. After that is when I met you, Fleethoof, and Sharp Shot, and we escaped Skyfall together.”
“Jeez, that was… what? Over two years ago?” Sharp Shot just shook his head, a halfcocked smirk on his lips. “Time flies when you’re having fun with friends.”
“This is one hay of a way to have fun,” remarked Blue Shield with a touch of humor in his voice. “But that’s my story in a nutshell. You were all there for the rest. Which one of you colts is up next?”