//------------------------------//
// Chapter 27 
// Story: Friendly Fire 
// by Starscribe 
//------------------------------//

There had been no time for Jacob's talents during the prison raid: however many sickly ponies there might've been, there was no way to find them and help them when there were so many just trying to escape from a small space.

Then they escaped. Jacob was one of the last to pass through the doorway, when the sound of shouting and pounding on metal was loudest and they were helping the weakest through. He stood right beside Sunset on the other side as the doors were breached, giving the finger with both hands to the soldiers who broke in.

Jacob found himself on an apparently uninhabited tropical island, somewhere warm and apparently still daylight. It might've been one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen, lapping waves and jungle plants and all, were it not for the huddled masses crowding every inch of beach.

Well, the sickest crowded the beach. Those who were strong enough washed themselves in the salt water, which had gone much cloudier than he had first seen it.

It was still a little tricky to tell ponies apart, but he was pretty sure he could identify Stalwart, waiting near Sunset and not looking dirty. "Hey, what happened to Danni?" He would have thought finding one of four humans in their whole group wouldn't be that hard, but he couldn't see her. Just Sunset, Harley, and the other earth pony somewhere in the distance, tending to a sick pony. What he should be doing.

"Nevermind. Is she okay?"

Stalwart nodded. "Sure, she's okay. Unconscious from what she did to get all the prisoners out."

"Does she need a doctor?"

"No, I don't think so." It was easier to see the pony's expressions than it had been before. He still had the bracelets on Harley had given him, but they hadn't stopped him from changing. How much longer would he still have two legs? With the mirror gone, would he ever be himself again?

It wouldn't stop him from working now. He didn't know what Harley and Sunset were talking about, though Sunset looked drained and weak. They probably weren't going anywhere soon with Sunset in that condition. 

Of course, this island didn't have any food he could see, but that was a problem too big for him.

With the majority of the healthy either washing or just enjoying their freedom to walk more than a few steps, the sickly were easy to find. They lay covered in their own filth not far from where the portal had been. Many were shriveled, or had open sores seeping sickly fluid. Their eyes were cloudy, their coats washed-out and weak.

You aren't an Alicorn, he thought, or thought he did. You can't help them all.

He tried anyway. Jacob had been little more than a waste of space so far: the least he could do was try and make his being here mean something.

He walked between the sick and dying without even a wand this time, gauging how healthy they were by feeling at the magic with his instincts. Those who seemed better off than they looked he passed by with only a few kind words, while those who seemed seriously sick warranted more attention.

He worked rapidly, making conversation with the healthy ponies that eventually started to follow him around. Explaining what he knew about their situation and the state of the world so the ponies could pass it along. He found Elise following closest of all, keeping the crowd away from him and assisting the ponies with whatever her animal body could manage.

It was draining work. Jacob's method of healing might be effective, but it was personally costly. Each pony stabilized made it a little harder to stay awake and keep working. Unlike the earth ponies, there was only so much magic a unicorn could contain at one moment, and no source he could just pull from forever.

Eventually it got dark outside. The air got cold, and ponies huddled together for warmth. Ponies didn't go hungry, but he didn't even bother asking how. He practically dragged himself between them, not even conscious of the fact that he had lost his shoes when he no longer had anything to hold them on his legs. Only the next life mattered.

"Jacob?" A familiar voice cut through the haze of a hundred healing spells, one that he had known much better over the last few months. Danielle. He stopped walking. Where was he even going? 

"Where are you?" He looked around, but couldn't see another human anywhere. Only at the beach, now packed with groups of ponies all huddled together against the chill.

"Right in front of you," said a cream pony with a soft green mane and a Cutie Mark like a broken chain. "I only just woke up."

"You're smaller," he muttered. And she was, though not as much smaller as a pony should be. "How'd you shrink so fast?"

"Too much magic too fast." She shrugged. "But from the story I heard, it was for the best. Sunset needed all her magic for a fight or something, right?"

"I didn't know ponies could do things like that." Elise was still beside him, looking nearly as worn as he felt.

Jacob could barely hear the words. Everything seemed fuzzy and melty, no doubt a symptom of just how much magic he had used. None of the ponies he had helped had been seconds from death, as Elise had been, but so many lesser treatments could still wear him out just as completely.

"Me neither." Danni shoved him gently. He stumbled and fell onto his rump without much resistance, his feet sliding strangely through the sand. It felt strange, as strange as the tail he still wasn't used to, but one blur was not more offensive than the next. "Jacob, Harley sent me to stop you. If you try to do any more magic, you're going to kill yourself."

He tried to rise anyway. "There are still—"

Danielle pushed again, with far more strength than he could manage. Her small size didn't stop her from being strong. Well, the pony that had her voice. Jacob couldn't really tell it was her beyond that—nothing physical about the pony had carried over. She was as naked as most other ponies, her hair and eyes were different, so what was there for him to see?

"Not for you." The pony climbed into his lap, resting one hoof on one of his kees. "You've done your part."

"I have to go," he said again, his voice weak and pitiable. He tried to muster the magical strength to lift her off, but couldn't manage more than a few useless sparks. "They need help. You saw how they were treated."

Elise cleared her throat. "Jacob, what kind of service would it be to the ponies who might need you tomorrow, or next week, if you die to heal a few more tonight? How many more will die later because you kept working now?"

He stopped fighting. "Oh."

"Yes, oh." She sat down on her haunches. "You find somewhere to rest and you sleep, soldier. The moon…" She glanced up, then back to him. "It's nearly midnight. You should get a good five hours until sunrise."

"Okay." He didn't "find somewhere," he just leaned back and dropped onto the sand as though it were the finest pillow in the world.

Jacob woke up when the sun did, just like everypony else, though he didn't want to at first. Sleeping out in the open, even in such a hospitable environment, meant that he woke up sore all over and soaked through with dew or sweat. He had apparently chosen a spot of sand just on the edge, where jungle roots crept as far into the inhospitable land as they could, and so his tail was thoroughly mixed with twigs, sticks, and other refuse.

He didn't just feel starving, but strange. His pants were torn ragged, his legs didn't seem to fold the right way beneath him, and the air was warmer than he expected. Too warm, in fact. What had happened last night.

Jacob opened his eyes to find much as he had feared. The legs half-buried in the sand were the same satyr-like monstrosities that Katie had back in their safehouse. His looked different, a few different shades of brown instead of the blue coat she had. Still, looking strange did not apparently mean they hurt, even if they ended in flat, blunt hooves. The beginning of the end. We're all sacrificing our humanity on this altar.

His final memories from the night before were hazy, but he still remembered Danielle, as a little pony forcing him to rest. As he moved gradually from sleeping to awake, Jacob wondered what he might've thought about his life a semester ago. Would he have been able to imagine a future where he woke up surround by naked ponies that had been his friends, after surviving an attack on a top-secret government bunker?

Danni was already awake, munching on… god, he had to be imagining it. "Danni, are you eating a bush?" He sat up, not trusting his legs for anything more yet, yawning like a cat. "I must still be dreaming."

The pony blushed, turning around to face him and tucking her tail between her legs. "It tastes horrible, if that makes a difference. But it's either that or eat nothing. The others are doing it, and they haven't started puking all over the place yet."

He grunted, rubbing the grogginess out of his eyes. "I… am I dreaming about the whole…" He gestured down at his legs. "Those are real too, aren't they?"

"Afraid so."

He sighed, flopping onto his back. He closed his eyes, but there was no hope of sleeping again. He could hear the dull murmur of thousands of pony voices mixed in with the ocean, and he was far too light a sleeper to get through that. "Have you talked to Harley? Know what the plan is?"

Danielle spoke next from much closer to him, and without a mouth full of leaves anymore. "Sunset Shimmer is preparing another door. We'll be going with them."

"I don't want to leave Eric behind." He sat up again, a little unsteadily. "We've apparently earned some time behind the lines after a mission like that, so no risking our lives for awhile. There will still be plenty of work to do… somewhere."

"Where could possibly be big enough for all these ponies?" Elise asked from his other side, staring in wonder at the multicolored beach. 

Jacob thought it looked a little like a terrible accident at a crayon shop. With some exceptions, it seemed as though the ponies couldn't be happier. They had no real food, and no source of water he could see. But compared to their freedom, it didn't seem to matter.

"Sunset said… something." Danielle shrugged. "When she was making the portal. Some… unfinished second base. We'll be the ponies finishing it."

"I hope it has real doctors." Jacob shook his head, as though trying to shake loose something stuck inside it. "I tried my best, but ponies need long-term care and I can't give them that. I only know magic."

"Magic's all ya need!" Harley came suddenly into view from the trees behind them, grinning at him. "If the delicate little princess is done with his beauty sleep, Sunset wants a word. You two too.” She gestured into the trees, away from the thick gathering of ponies. "It shouldn't take long."