That Others May Live

by CptBrony

The Boundaries of War

The Boundaries of War

Duke and Frost moved back and forth to the wounded warriors outside the boutique, solemnly helping however they could. For the most part, the ponies suffered lacerations and scrapes without much breakage of bone, so the primary issue was blood loss. WIth bandages running low, they had to tear up cloth and rags in order to meet the need.

There weren’t any painkillers to be found, so the groans and moans of the fallen dominated the scene. Duke and Frost ignored it to the best of their ability when working on one fighter, but as soon as they were done, they had to rapidly choose who to treat next. It was never an easy choice.

Frost was exclusively treating the injured, but Duke also had to take command as one of the few ranking officers left. Despite not being in the Equestrian chain of command, the ponies took his word as law for the moment in the hopes that it would maximize the number of lives saved. Duke ordered them to move all the wounded to the train station, where they could be prepped for transport to Canterlot for full hospitalization in a hospital that was undamaged and fully equipped.

Duke did this without a single major thought running through his head. Everything was stream of consciousness, one thing flowing into the next. He only counted the details he needed to know. Frost, however, wasn’t so lucky.

Frost was treating ponies left and right, focusing on exactly who he was treating and what. After a few soldiers, some of the civilians that weren’t able to get to the protected buildings started coming up. Some had been in houses damaged by explosives, and Frost had to remove shrapnel and wooden bits from their bodies. Others had been and barely survived, bleeding severely from several gashes along their sides and necks. Frost tried not to think about the ones that didn’t make it.

The few ponies who had any idea of how to help were doing everything they could, clearing areas to place the seriously wounded or comforting those who were hurt or scared. The fillies and colts were all kept inside to shield them from the imagery of their town in such shape.

“Sir,” a guard said, walking up to Frost. “We have doctors inbound from Canterlot. They should be here within half an hour.”

“Good,” Frost said. “Make sure the most severely wounded receive treatment first, and organize it so the doctors can work efficiently. I’ll keep here and do what I can.”

“Roger,” the guard replied. He turned and ran off.

Frost moved on to the next patient, functioning on autopilot as his hands worked. He had to remove his gloves to be able to do the more delicate work, so his skin was covered in blood and bandage residue. He wanted to clean them, but the urgent nature of the situation didn’t permit. He would just have to hope that nothing went wrong after he treated the ponies.

Back at the boutique, Amel slowly opened the front door and walked outside. The smell of the battle hit her like a brick wall, causing her to gag. While Akhal Teke had smelled bad, it wasn’t the zone of recent death and blood that was around her now.

When she looked up, she saw the enemies’ bodies being stacked in various areas and the bodies of ponies laid out carefully. She had always pictured ponies as being eternally respectful at all times, but in times of war, even the nicest of beings has to do the dirty work.

She tried not to look at the bodies or the ground as she walked away from the boutique to search for Frost. She knew he was working now and she couldn’t do much to help, but inside the boutique just didn’t feel right. She felt like she needed to be by Frost right now, where she knew it was safe and everything would be fine.

She didn’t need much time to find him, kneeling over and fixing up whatever pony came his way. Most ponies didn’t notice it out here, as they were in no state to, but she could see frustration and anger in his expression when she came close. It usually flared up when he was dealing with a body part he didn’t know or had to close a wound that wasn’t as typical to what she assumed a human would experience.

She decided to lean on an undamaged wall nearby and watch Frost do his handiwork. Despite the gruesome nature of it, she could see a certain beauty in how swiftly and efficiently his hands moved to close up a wound or cover a burn. There was a fluidness to it that she had rarely seen anywhere else. This must have been what attracted Frost to the profession in the first place.

When Frost finished up, there were no other ponies nearby, so he stood, stretched his back, and looked around. When he spotted Amel, he looked confused initially, but then stopped caring and walked over.

“What are you doing out here?” Frost asked. “This is no place for a little lady like yourself.”

“I didn’t want to stay in the boutique,” Amel said. “I came out to find you.” Amel looked up at his face and realized that there was a large gash on it. “Oh no!” Frost went rigid, then started frantically looking around.

“What?!” he asked.

Amel ran up to him. “Your face!” she shouted, grabbing his head. “What happened?”

Frost calmed down instantly. “Oh, I just caught one to the face,” he said. “I’ll be alright.”

“You’re bleeding!” Amel said. “Oh, we need to get you a bandage.”

“Amel, I’m fine, really,” Frost tried to calm her down. “It’s just a scratch.”

Amel huffed. “No, we are finding you a bandage to fix your face.”

Frost sighed. “Fine.”

The two of them walked back toward the boutique together, Amel dragging Frost by his hand and Frost still wondering how she gripped him like that. It was like a vice, yet there wasn’t that much force behind it.

When they got there, they started looking for bandages. All the bandages had been used up by now though, and Amel wasn’t willing to use a dirty rag to cover up Frost’s wound. The other guards watched with some amusement as Amel dragged her human around to find him something to cover his face. After a short time, they ran into Duke, who was just returning from commanding a few guards a small distance away.

“Amel?” Duke said.

“Do you have any bandages?” Amel asked.

“No, who needs them?” Duke asked.

“Frost,” Amel answered. “We need a bandage to fix his face.”

Duke cocked his head sideways and looked at Frost. “Sorry, Amel,” he said. “It’ll take more than a bandage to fix that face.”

Amel let out a laugh and Frost a sigh. “Hardy har har,” Frost said.

“You might try the bar, the Salt Lick,” Duke said. “They have alcohol there to clean the wound and anything you find to cover it.”

“That sounds good,” Amel said. “Let’s go!”

Amel and Frost made their way into town, stopping a few times to ask guards for directions to the bar. After a few twists and turns, they eventually came to a building whose sign was mostly destroyed and broken bottles littered the street outside.

“This looks right,” Frost said. The two of them entered the bar and looked around. “Hello?”

“Hello!” a female voice returned. “Come on in, I guess.”

Frost and Amel walked further in and saw a mare to the right cleaning up the floor. She had a broom and dustpan as well as a mop and bucket to get all the broken glass off the floor. Hooves and boots were okay, though.

“You got ransacked,” Frost said.

“You’d better believe it,” the mare said. “What brings you here?”

“We need something we can use as a bandage and alcohol to clean it with,” Amel said.

“Well, if there’s any unbroken bottles, feel free,” the mare said. “I’m restocking the whole place with my insurance plan anyway.”

Frost made his way to the bar. “You mind if I pull up something to drink too?” he asked.

“Have at it,” the mare said. she turned to Amel. “And who might you be?”

“I am Amel,” Amel replied. “This is Frost, the human.”

“Yes, I’ve heard of him and Duke,” the mare said. “I’m Shiba. I used to work here; recently, I came to own the place.”

“Sounds like the previous owner got out in time,” he said.

“Yep. She’s gone off to a new world,” Shiba said.

“I’m sorry,” Frost said.

“She’s not dead,” Shiba clarified with a chuckle. “She just left.”

“Why did she leave?” Amel asked.

“Ah, some guy or something,” Shiba said. “I can’t quite remember who he was. She had to make a trip to the Crystal Empire to get there.”

“I hope it was worth it,” Frost said.

“Me too,” Shiba said. “Though I own the bar now, so it ended fine for me.”

Frost came back to the two mares with two bottles of Applejack Daniel’s, one for a drink and the other for his wound. Without asking first, he went and ripped a curtain from the window and tore it up to cover his face right. When he had that, he poured the hard liquor on it and started wrapping his face, clenching his teeth as the alcohol burned in his gash.

“You’re a tough one,” Shiba said.

“I try to be,” Frost replied.

Shiba looked around and sighed. “I just own a bar,” she said. “I didn’t want to be in this fight. None of us did.”

“War is war,” Frost said. “We like to make up rules. We like to think there are boundaries. Truth is, war has no rules, and it’s all about who wins in the end. It’s just up to each of us to try not to lose ourselves in it, on our own. And we have to be the ones who win, or the world will burn to ash.”

“Seems like the world is already on fire,” Shiba said.

“The world has always been on fire,” Amel said. “It always was, it always is, and always will be.”

“We didn’t start the fire,” Frost sang quietly to himself.

“Are you fixed?” Amel asked him.

“Yeah, I’m good to go,” Frost replied.

“Thank you for your help,” Amel said. She and Frost exited the building and let the new owner get back to her work.

“Don’t mention it!” Shiba said. “And maybe you should take a page from my old boss’s book!” Amel blinked; was it really that obvious to everyone except Frost?

Together, Amel and Frost went back to the boutique to finish up the aftermath of the fight. She stuck close by his side the whole way, and gradually, she felt him leaning on her as the exhaustion set in. She took his weight happily, knowing that she would always be ready to fully support him wherever he went.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Welcome to the meat grinder gentlemen, here you will learn to live, or die.

We didnt start the fire.
Olivers Army.
19.

[Fa-18]

ok.....give me a heads up on the next chapter

[CptBrony]

6465807
I will do my level best

[Ink_25]

WIth bandages running low,

*With bandages running low,

Others had been ___ and barely survived,

Uhm... something is amiss here. Or did I miss something?

“We didn’t start the fire”

Mhmm.

I really like how you wrote the combat and what happened afterwards.