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// Chapter 2 
// Story: MEDIC! 
// by The Rohg 
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"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live." - Norman Cousins



        The dormitory was the only place The Eyes would rarely follow the fillies.  So, things were never very serious while waking up.  Mother would walk in from her private room; one of the only two doors in the dormitory.  She’d wake them and then quickly prepare herself for the day.  The sisters would take those short moments to goof off; they wouldn’t get many more chances to do what they wanted the rest of the day anyways.
        A pillow hit Flutters’ head as she was rubbing her eyes.  Startled, she looked up to see Sport hanging from her upper bunk.
        “You’re it!!”  She sprang up and over her bunk to the next.  
        “Yeah, but for how long?”  her wings shifted and vibrated in excitement as the chase between them was on.  Fizz was quick to join in the game.  It became even more fun and challenging as not only did the fillies chase each other, but they also dodged pillows and blankets thrown by Sassy, Vie, and Valed.  Even Harmony joined in the chase, although she preferred to pounce and hide rather than run and chase.
        Sport was it again, and the others knew to be extra wary and cautious; she was a much more superior athlete after all.  However, having shifty wings had its advantages.
        “Haaa!” Sport gave a battle cry as she charged at Flutters.  Reflexively, Flutters jumped and gusted her wings for extra lift.  Sport slid and ran into the wall below unharmed while Flutters landed on Number 3’s bed, and, much to her surprise, on Fins herself.  
        “Fins!?  What are still doing in bed?  Get up before Mother comes back; we’re having fun.”  The fluttered filly shook at her until she responded.
        “I can’t” Fins moaned. “I’m hurt”
        Instantly and instinctively, Flutters became dreadfully concerned, and took a close look at Fins.  She was warm and flushed, breathing was slow, but deep, and her heart rate was high for a filly who had been lying down.
        “Tag!”  Sport had jumped up to the bunk too, as unaware of Fins’ situation as the previous filly had been.
        “Hold on Sport, something’s wrong with Fins.”  Flutters held her back from Fins, preventing another body slam to the ill filly.  Sport's gaze wasn't leaving Fins, and her expression made it clear she saw and felt the same way that Flutters did.  The excitement in the room quickly halted.  The other fillies began to gather around Fins out of curiosity and concern.  Some asked “What’s wrong with her?” but none of knew, they had never seen an ill pony before, but they each felt the same concern and fear as they carefully inspected the lethargic filly.
        Mother quickly came in; alarmed by the sudden silence that the fillies had produced.
        “What happened?”  she stressed.  Any experienced mother would know that silence is more troublesome from a young one than noise.
        “Fins is hurt!”  Fizz blurted out.  This was the first time she spoke with a tone that wasn’t joyous.  Mother nearly galloped over to the bunk, displacing a few of the fillies in her urgency.  She leaned over Fins, feeling her brow and holding her hoof to check her pulse.  Harmony hung from the side of the bunk opposite of Mother, but she couldn’t tell if Mother was pale then or just looked that way compared to the flushness that enveloped Fins’ face.  However, her mood was obvious; Mother was very afraid.
        “Its best you girls get dressed and wait outside in the hall, I’ll take care of Fins.”
        “What about the mess?”  Harmony always looked forward to the cleanup after the fun.
        “Later dear.”  Mother didn’t even look away from Fins as she spoke.  
        They hadn’t a clue what was wrong, but none of, not even Sassy, were going delay things further.  A sense of urgency was in the atmosphere, it frightened as well as empowered them; it was the quickest they had ever gotten dressed and filed into the hall.  The fillies waited for Mother just outside the dorm.  They never went anywhere without Mother in sight.  
        A couple agonizing minutes later, two of The Eyes came from the restricted access end of the hall.  They quickly marched passed the fillies and into the dorm, closing the door behind them.  The fillies guessed that Mother had called them into there to help.  Flutters looked at her sisters; they were all a bit traumatized by what was going on.  Harmony was even starting to cry.  Fizz paced in a circle, mumbling.  Even Sport found a way to sit still, save for a slight twitch.
        Mother then came out of the dorm too; her fear wasn’t as obvious; maybe she was trying to hide it.  However, she felt like she may cry as well.  
        “How about we go to the activity room for a bit?”  Mother began to lead them away from the dorm.
        “Mother?”  Valed spoke up, and Mother looked over her shoulder; unstopping as she trotted down the hall.
        “Yes dear?”  She didn’t show it, but Mother knew what Valed was about to ask, and she was dreading it.
        “Is Fins going to be alright?”  Mother hesitated to answer.
        “She’s in good hooves now.”  Although the answer wasn’t direct, it satisfied Valed’s burning concern.
When they got to the activity room, Kevin was there.  Once a week, he would visit.  He was a young stallion with the title of the facility’s bio-technician.  His job was to check up on the fillies' cybernetics.
Some context will probably be needed to explain that.
Each of the sisters were implanted with numerous cybernetics en utero.  They helped augment and regulate many functions and were placed in numerous places in their brains, eyes and ears, CNS, and by each major artery.  At that time, they weren’t aware of them, and just thought this guy was being ridiculous and wasting his time.  They had to sit still for what seemed like hours while Kevin swept over them with his hoof held scanner.  He would try and be funny sometimes and call it Mr. Duck.
“Hello fillies, how are you?  Oh, and Mr. Duck.  What are we doing today?  Quack!  Quack!  Quack!  That’s right, scans.”  
The monotone didn’t help at all.
        None of them were in the mood to be scanned; not after what had happened.  Not even Fizz, who actually enjoyed his jokes.  She was always the first one to be scanned.
        “Fizz!  Why so gloomy today?”  Kevin probably didn't know what had happened, but it didn't take long for him to catch on that something was wrong.  Of course, a quick head count could probably give away what had happened.
        Kevin quickly straightened up his face and began to swipe ‘Mr. Duck’ along the sides of Fizz’s face.  For the first time, she stood still through the entire scan.  When Kevin was done, he looked up to Mother and just shook his head.  He always shook his head after scanning Fizz.  The fillies just thought it was because he couldn't get a good enough scan due to Fizz’s hyperness.  
        Mother looked like the negative nod was just more bad news.  A tear formed in one of her eyes.  Flutters and Harmony wanted to run up and give her a hug.  They both glanced over at the tinted glass window at the other end of the room.  A pair of reflective orbs hovered in the darkness.  Shoot!  They wouldn't be able to take a single trot out of line without being disciplined. 
        Kevin was working his way up the line, when the door next to The Eye’s window opened.  The fillies all nearly jumped out of our skin from the slight noise that it made.  In the door stood Dr. April and the Colonel.  
        Dr. April was a pleasant mare.  She visited from time to time and carried an aura of authority with her when she came.  She was almost like a grandmother to my sisters and I.
        The Colonel, on the other hoof, was a near opposite in demeanor.  He was the absolute authority at the facility, and if things weren't going his way, he made them go his way; a very dominating figure.
        The two ponies motioned for Mother to follow them.
        Mother muttered a four letter word none of the fillies had heard before and made her way to the authoritative couple.
        “Could you watch them for me please, Kevin?”  
        “No problem Jenny.”  
Sometimes the fillies forgot that Mother’s real name was Jennifer.
        Again, the sisters were without Mother.  The hall was one thing, but the activity room without Mother was near enough to make them panic.  Flutters kept looking at the tinted glass; the two orbs still hovered and stared.  Even as Kevin began to run his scanner over me, she still kept shifting around.  
        When Kevin was almost done with Sassy’s scan, Mother came back through the door.  The fillies could see Dr. April’s expression of empathy while the Colonel grumbled incoherently about waste, results, and funding from around the corner.  Mother was anguished.  Flutters didn't care if The Eyes were watching this time; she ran up to Mother and hugged her around the neck.  Several of her sisters followed suit.  
Mother was crying, and so were they, and they didn't know why.
It took a while to get things into a controllable order.  Kevin still had to scan Sassy.  Eventually, three pairs of orbs could be seen in the darkness behind the glass.  They were back, but Fins wasn't.  It was then that Flutters decided to do something she, nor any of her sisters, had done before.
“Where’s Fins?”  Flutters propped her front hooves on the glass as she peered up into the floating reflections.  She could see the reflection of Mother in the glass; she was shocked, but even that didn't bother her as much as the lack of Fins presence in the activity room.  Flutters knocked on the glass again.  “Where’s Fins?” she repeated.  Squinting into the glass, she could see silhouettes writing on clip boards, and quietly conversing with each other.  One reached out to the side for the intercom and it made a soft click, but nothing was spoken as The Eyes and Flutters were startled by the sudden SLAM into the glass.
“WHERE’S FINS?!!!” Now Flutters was the one shocked.  Fizz had rammed into the glass.  She glared at The Eyes through the glass as if she was making up for all the time that they had looked down at her from their end.  Her teeth were grit and breathing shallow.  Another emotion was emanating from Fizz that she had never seen from her, or from any from her sisters before; Rage.
“WHERE IS FINS?!!!”  Fizz demanded as she ran and leapt into the glass again.  
Mother quickly grabbed Fizz and dragged her away; Fizz kicking and screaming the whole way.
“Where’s Fins?!  Why did you take my sister away!?  How dare you? HOW DARE YOU!!”
        Another thing about the cybernetics that should be mentioned now is that it allowed the sisters to see and feel other pony’s vital functions.  Heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, perspiration, metabolic stability, and other calculable functions, and even though we weren't aware of them yet, we felt them like extra senses.
        Fizz’s anger at that moment was almost explosive on the charts.  She changed that day; she became very distrusting.  You probably couldn't blame her, they never did see Fins again.
        Also, reflecting back on what they sensed from Fins when they were on the bed with her. None of them knew how to diagnose an illness then; they had never seen anyone ill before, but later, with some education on the subject and some reflection back on the memory, it would be apparent that Fins was ill with a common flu, nothing more.  How you justify taking a filly away from her family, or the family away from the filly over something like the flu is… well… you just can’t justify it, but it happened at the facility with Fins when they were only five years old.
        And it didn't stop there.