What Bound Them

by Headless

10: Reveille

Spike awoke to the feeling of burning.

It wasn't the familiar, comforting burn of the flames in his gut. That had been uncomfortable when it had first started, but he had gotten used to it. Over time, he had learned to control how strongly they burned. It was almost like controlling his size, in a way. The constant pulsing of that flame soothed and relaxed him when he focused on it. It was part of him.

This didn't feel like that. This was excruciating. The pain lanced through him, bouncing around inside his ribcage and making his eyes water.

He opened his eyes.

He was inside a long, low, wooden building, lit by the soft, flickering light of oil lamps around the walls. Most of it was divided into partitions by white sheets hanging from the ceiling. They looked as though they could be pulled back, but they gave some semblance of privacy, at least. He was at the back of the building, resting on a cot that was far too small to be comfortable for anypony, let alone a dragon, and covered by a set of thin, tattered sheets. He could just make out the shadows of ponies walking about through the dividers, and there were several quiet voices at the edge of hearing.

So. Hospital, then, but a makeshift one. That was good. It was certainly a more welcome sight than crumbling stone and black resin.

Another stab of pain made him wince, and he attempted to lift the sheets to look at himself. The motion caused his back to scream at him in protest. He overruled it, and, grunting with the effort, lifted the sheets to examine himself.

Somepony had bandaged him up. It looked like a fairly expert job, despite his unusual proportions. The bandages criss-crossed his chest and stomach, and he could feel them on his back as well. That meant he was being taken care of. That was good.

The deep black splotches that were seeping through the linen, on the other hand, were less so. Spike groaned and let the sheet fall back into place for a moment as he took mental stock of himself.

His wings ached, but they hadn't been bandaged because they hadn't actually been wounded. It was simply the ache of overexertion, and he knew that would pass. He had done it before. Likewise, his head, neck, and shoulders throbbed with the dull ache of bruising. Forcing his way through the castle walls had not been easy, after all, but he could handle that.

What worried him was the decidedly unnatural pain from the wounds that Queen Chrysalis had inflicted on him. He had underestimated her. If he had been any type of pony, he had no doubt that he would have been killed on the spot. Even Princess Celestia had been easily defeated the last time Chrysalis had flexed her muscles. He just wished that he had been smart enough to remember that before she took it upon herself to remind him.

One wound just below his left-side ribs, a second on the right-hand side of his chest, and a third on his back, just below the left shoulder blade. None of them felt like the bruises on his wings and scales. Those, in a way, were a good pain. They felt like they were healing. This felt like something was bubbling, festering under the bandages, like it was eating into him an inch at a time.

He raised one claw and set it over the heart-cut ruby around his neck, feeling its reassuring weight against his scales. It helped to steady him. It wasn't just a reminder of Rarity, really, though she was forefront in his mind when he thought of it. It was a piece of his childhood, and all of his friends. For a while, he shut his eyes and let memories and exhaustion wash over him, trying to rest.

He may have fallen asleep at some point. The next thing he knew, there were raised voices outside. They were coming from the other end of the building, so the conversation was not fully audible, but he could make out someone shouting the words "it's a dragon".

Spike sighed, groaned, and, still wincing with every lance of pain through his wounds, rolled off the bed and onto his feet. His left arm didn't seem to want to move much, so he remained on his hind legs as he made his way down the aisle in the center of the building, limping slightly with each step.

Most of the beds he passed were empty, but a few of them had closed the blinds around them, and he could see shadows moving inside, along with the murmur of hushed voices from a few ponies he assumed were the doctors on staff. It wasn't until he reached the front of the building, where there was a larger, more open space he assumed was meant to act as a lobby, that he actually saw anypony else.

Pith Helmet was sitting on a cot by one wall. Another pony was busy putting the finishing touches on some bandages that wrapped around Pith's chest, while another, a severe-looking grey-coated unicorn mare in a white coat, was standing behind a nearby desk and making notes on a clipboard.

"You're ridiculous," she was saying. "You're just lucky that blood in your mouth was from biting the inside of your lip and not a punctured lung. Moving around so much with broken ribs... you could have been in much worse condition than you actually are."

Pith just gave a mute shrug, then grimaced as the pony putting his bandages on forced his leg back into position. "And don't move that," snapped the unicorn. "You've got several torn ligaments and possibly a hairline fracture. We'll be putting a splint on that next. Honestly, I really don't know why you didn't tell us about these injuries as soon as you arrived."

"Others need more attention," Pith answered flatly. The stallion caught sight of Spike coming down the aisle and gave him a faint, but pleased, smile. Seeing his attention shift, the unicorn turned to look as well.

Spike blinked down at her. He was still standing on his hind legs, which meant that, while he wasn't nearly as large as he had been back in the castle, he still had to hunch down considerably to keep his head from running into the rafters when he moved. The unicorn blinked up at him, and, for a moment, Spike thought that she was dumbstruck. Then he realized that she was inspecting his bandages.

"Yes, well," the doctor said briskly, finally lifting her gaze to look at him, "the discharge seems to have stopped for now, but you should be careful when moving about. We didn't have any sutures strong enough to hold in, ah, dragon-flesh, so we had to make due with packing the wounds and applying pressure, which seems to have done the trick for now." She brushed some greying hair out of her face and frowned at him. "Do not remove the bandages for at least a week, and come to us if the wounds start to seep again. My knowledge of dragon anatomy is... limited, but I might still be able to do something, at least."

"She's Doc Grey, by the way," Pith added. "Don't mind her. She's just worried."

The doctor shot him a glare. "I did say to hold still," she snapped. "You and that Compass Rose filly come crashing through the door with, of all things, a dragon in tow, multiple critical injuries for both yourselves and said dragon, and a pegasus who can barely breathe without magical assistance-"

She stopped. She could see the expression on Pith's face. So, Spike thought, for all the snappishness, she does have a heart in there somewhere.

Grey sighed heavily. "And anyway," she muttered, as she moved back behind the counter, "any minute now I'm going to have Reveille breaking the door down to see your friend-" she waved a hoof at Spike "-when our patients need rest and quiet, not a bunch of soldiers storming up and down the length of the hospital. If you can even call it a hospital. I swear, the conditions I have to work in..."

She trailed off into inaudible dark mutterings. Spike blinked at her, once, then took a step closer to Pith. The earth pony applying the bandages did their best to shrink into the wall, until Grey shot them a glare, at which point they did their best to shrink into the wall while simultaneously continuing to apply the bandages.

"So," Spike said. "Where are we?"

"Fort McHoofry," Pith said. "The place we were trying to steer you for. You hit the ground just outside the Tangle, passed out, and shrank down again." He winced as the bandages were tightened again. "Me and Compass got you and Tails back here as fast as we could."

"How?" Spike asked. Pith shrugged.

"Carried you. Wasn't much in the way of options. Compass handled Tails and I got you."

"With broken ribs and torn ligaments," Spike said. He gave the earth pony an appraising look. "I'm impressed. And grateful."

Pith smiled again. "Feeling's mutual," he said. "You saved our lives back in the castle. Least we could do is save yours." He winced again, and added, his voice sounding a bit more strained as the bandages were tightened around his ribs, "Besides, I don't leave a partner behind."

Spike blinked again. "Partner?"

Pith nodded, his smile fading. "We just spent the last day sneaking into changeling territories and facing off against the queen together," he said. "If that doesn't make us partners in... whatever this is, I dunno what does."

Spike opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the sound of more raised voices outside. He paused, watching the door; the voices were getting closer this time. One of them he recognized as Compass Rose. The other one was sharper and louder, and made him think of a male Doc Grey.

"He's not dangerous," Compass was saying. Her voice was low, quiet, and tired, with the air of one who has been repeating this same thing for the past few hours.

"It's a dragon," the other voice replied. "And this one's from the Tangle."

The door to the hospital swung open so hard that it hit the wall with a bang. This provoked a furious glare from Doc Grey, which was aimed squarely at the pegasus who was now walking in. He was surprisingly small, with a dark olive coat and close-cropped mane, but he still seemed to somehow fill the room. Walking along in his wake was Compass Rose.

The pegasus didn't even break stride when he spotted Spike standing in front of him, but took a few steps into the room as he slowly looked the dragon up and down. "So you're the dragon," he said.

Spike didn't answer. He was staring at Compass rose. For what felt like the umpteenth time since he had woken up in the Tangle, he felt as though someone had punched him in the gut.

The unicorn was still standing, but she was shaking and soaked in sweat. Her mane was matted and greasy-looking, her eyes were dull and glassy, and she looked as if she was going to collapse at any moment. She was obviously well past the point of exhaustion. What was keeping her upright was anyone's guess. But that wasn't the worst of it.

One of Compass' eyes was surrounded by a swollen, black bruise, and, above it, there was her horn. Even before she stepped in from outside and into the marginally better lighting of the hospital, he could see that it had been shattered. Almost the entire right half was missing, and fragments of the bone-white material of the horn's core glittered faintly as he watched.

She didn't look up at him. She just walked, silently, over to the bench where Pith was being bandaged, dropped heavily onto it, and shut her eyes.

The olive-coated pegasus stamped one hoof and snorted. "Okay, so you're a deaf dragon," he said sharply. Spike turned to look down at him again, frowning. To his surprise, though, the pegasus didn't look nearly as vitriolic as his voice would suggest. He was just... watching Spike, carefully. His posture was not aggressive, and his expression was somber rather than angry. It was only his voice that was sharp.

"His name's Spike," Compass interjected. Spike glanced back at her, but she hadn't opened her eyes. She was stretched out, full-length, on the bench, frowning to herself.

Slowly, Spike nodded. "Yeah," he said, turning back to the pegasus. "That's me. I'm guessing you're Reveille."

Reveille nodded. "That's Colonel Reveille, thank you," he barked, and again Spike was struck by the contrast between the angry voice and the calm speaker. Spike had spent enough company in the company of the royal guard to recognize a drill sergeant's voice when he heard it, but the pegasus looked and acted like something much less abrasive. "Commander-In-Chief of this outpost, and in charge of evaluating and dealing with any and all threats to it, its personnel, and-slash-or the settlements under its protection. And right now, you are a threat."

The pegasus began to trot around Spike in a wide circle, sizing him up as he went. Spike fought back the urge to turn to follow the pony's movements. If Reveille wanted his inspection, he would get it. The dragon wasn't exactly in the mood to fight with anyone, even if it was only verbally, at the moment.

"Now, the story Miss Cartographer over there tells me," Reveille barked, as he started a second orbit of Spike's person, "is that you're a nice dragon. Raised by ponies. Even married one. Then, when you wake up all sad and alone, you, out of the goodness of your reptilian heart, give them a key to a castle full of important books and offer to escort them there. And then you save them all from this 'Queen Chrysalis', because you're just so eager to throw yourself in front of the avalanche to save a bunch of ponies you just met."

The pegasus came to a halt in front of Spike once again, stamped a hoof, and snorted. "Now, that's what she said. What I heard was that a recon mission acting on questionable intel ran into unexpected and, frankly, unbelievable 'help' that knew all about where they wanted to go and was just so happy to show them the way. Then this 'help' leads them right into a nest full of changelings with no plan and no backup, makes contact with something that says it's the leader, wakes up every changeling in the Tangle, ensures that absolutely nothing useful is retrieved from the scouting mission, puts one of my best scouts in a magic cocoon that's got her in critical condition and did who knows what else to her head, and then flies back here, expecting to be welcomed as a hero."

Reveille drew himself up, frowning very slightly. "You can see how I might be a bit skeptical of this."

Spike sighed and returned the frown. "Yeah, I can," he answered. "But I'm also wondering why, if you're so suspicious of me, you haven't brought any guards along."

Reveille's frown turned, just for a second, into a slight smile, as if Spike had just been clued in on some private joke. "I'm suspicious," he said. "I'm not stupid. You're a dragon. We don't have the firepower to fight you even if we wanted to. There's no point in putting my colts in the line of fire if they can't win the fight." His voice was less vicious now, though there was still a pronounced edge to it, like he could start shouting again at any moment.

Spike found himself smiling in return. Unlike Reveille's, his lasted for more than a second. "That's good thinking," he said. "I also notice you said you didn't want to fight me."

Reveille shook his head slowly. "Oh, believe me, I'd love to believe that we've got a dragon on our side at all, let alone one that has all the answers for everything we're up against," he said. "But we can't trust you. Not just off a story that could be taken either way."

Spike nodded. "I guess," he said slowly, "it's not enough to say that I was raised by ponies and never hurt any of them, except once, when I was little and threw a bit of a... tantrum." He coughed, shifting embarrassedly on the spot, and continued, "Or that I don't eat ponies or anything like that. That's a common worry. I eat normal food, pretty much, with a lot of gems mixed in."

Reveille just shook his head, but Spike wasn't really watching. Something was bobbing in the back of his mind. "What if," he said slowly, "I gave you another reason to trust me?"

Reveille stared at him levelly for a second, then shrugs. "Depends on what that reason is."

Spike took a deep breath, then turned towards Compass again. "Hey," he said quietly. "Do you still have that book?"

She nodded, still not opening her eyes. Spike waited to see if an actual answer was forthcoming, but gave up after almost ten seconds' silence and turned back to Reveille.

"Before I fell asleep," he said slowly, "back when I was just a kid, the changelings attacked for... well, I say it's the first time, but they probably tried it before then. Anyway, the point is, they attacked, but we beat them, because there was a spell that one of our unicorn friends could cast that created a shield to keep them out. It wasn't easy to cast, and it had to be constantly renewed, but it worked."

Reveille stared. "And you think that spell's in the book Compass dragged in here with her?"

Spike broke into a wide grin. "That book may be the one good thing we got out of the castle, Colonel," he said. "It was written by Twilight Sparkle, the greatest spell-weaver there's ever been. Everything she knew about magic, she put down in that book. I'd almost guarantee that shield's in there somewhere, along with a bunch of other useful stuff. And that's not all."

The olive pegasus raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical again. "You walk in here and say you've just handed us the greatest weapon we could ever hope for on a silver platter, and you say that's not all?" Another snort. "I really am starting to think this is too good to be true."

Spike raised his good arm and held up a claw. "I can't guarantee anything, remember," he said slowly. "But there was something else. Something that protected Equestria from even worse than changelings, multiple times. And I might be able to find it."

Reveille quirked a brow again. "And this thing is...?" he prompted.

Spike lowered his arm. "The Elements of Harmony."

Author's Note:

So, as it turns out, my brain wanted to continue writing sooner than expected, to the point where I couldn't focus on anything else until I typed this up. So begins the second act.

Cheers.

Comments

[Yanitur]

At least everyone is still alive. It's turning into a grand adventure. Try not to burn yourself out with these constant updates, as much as I enjoy it, I'd hate to see you stop because it became a chore

[DragonPony]

Thanks for all the hard work. That was a great read. I cant wait to see the next generation will be like. As long as you are writing I'll be here to read it lol

[FashionablyHospitable]

Der Elements of Harmony

[Jake The Army Guy]

"Fort McHoofry," Pith said.

Just outside Baltimare, I assume.

You seem experienced in the mannerisms of a Drill Sergeant. Were/are you in the Army?

[Emptybee]

Found a typo:

He was staring at Compass rose.

- Rose