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Pain.

I felt so much of it and never like before. The pain felt amplified by so much, and I wasn’t even awake yet. But I heard myself screaming inside of my thoughts, and picturing myself. Just squirming and holding the wounds that were squirting blood. I could barely remember what happened -- the only think I could remember at this moment in time was fighting a gang of Griffins before everything suddenly went black.

As soon as I awoke from what seemed to be only seconds of sleep, a bright light flashed in my face, stealing my vision for a few seconds. My vision soon unblurred a large room that was not like the one I was in before. The grey, steel ceiling was coated in all sorts of scratches caused by what seemed to be bullets and other projectiles that had collided with it. The scratches revealed the metal beneath the mundane paint that coated it. Large and wide light bulbs were attached to the ceiling, and there was about six of them inside the room in total.

My battle saddle was now gone, and along with it, my weapons and everything else I had. Even the caps were gone… all I had now was my PipBuck, my Stable clothing and of course myself in this room now. But to be honest, the items were the last thing I was worried about.

I looked around the room, finding myself on a rusty and degrading hospital bed. The bed’s frame was practically falling apart, and the mattress that was below me was punctured with holes where the fluff within it was flaky and dry. There was no pillow unfortunately, so I was rather uncomfortable. There were five other beds in the room, two on the right side of me while on the other side were three and the gap between the two rows of beds was just wide enough to allow one pony to pass through.

And at that moment, it all came back to me. A sharp, stabbing pain in my left eye was suddenly felt. Not as bad as it was before, but it did hurt. I groaned out in pain, before going to rub the eye that I thought was nothing more than just a socket, before feeling a glass like object in its place with a cold, steel rim in the shape of the eye socket.

What the hell was it?!

I kept feeling at it, before hearing a door open at the left end of the room. I quickly turned my attention to the chipped, wooden door that slid open before seeing a mare walk her way through the door. She had an ocean blue coat, her eyes a darker tone of blue and the wings she had were a silverish color underneath, while the top part was the same ocean blue color. Her tale was jet black, while mane was spiked backwards. She turned to me with a small smile.

“Ah, you’re awake,” she said with a tone of delight. She walked over to the side of my bed, keeping the delightful smile on her face. “Glad to see you’re okay!”

She sounded young. Not quite as old as she looked, but it didn’t seem to change anything. I know I needed answers now…

“What happened to me?” I grunted, looking to her with anger. However, she kept the same smile on her face yet again, before responding.

“Oh… your friends brought you here. You were damaged and you lost a lot of blood, not to mention an eye,” she stated as her smile soon turned into a frown. “Since you had no right eye, I inserted a mechanical eye. The reticle of the eye is red and made of glass, while the rim is made of steel!” She seemed to be proud, “I am quite proud of what I have made!”

I was rather silent for the first few seconds after she had told me. I was… confused. I remembered the event, but I didn’t think she would do this for me. But where were Dodge, Crystal, Violet, Swift and Cyber? I worried about them… but I somehow knew they were okay.

“What about my friends?” I mumbled with a depressed tone, dipping my head down slightly. “Are they alright?”

Her expression soon brightened up, before she nodded in a fast motion. “Yes. Though, the sky blue mare that was traveling with you was also pretty beat up. But she’s in safe hooves, mister, I promise!”

“Okay…” I nodded, blinking. My artificial eye’s eyelids were made of a thin bit of steel that acted like real eyelids. Looking at the PipBuck on my leg, I saw that the location I was at was not on the map at all. And when I went onto the smaller map which should show the surrounding area, there was nothing.

“What is this place?” I asked, looking to the young mare that stood by my bed. She was looking away at the moment of asking, but soon turned her attention towards me. She placed the small clipboard and paper onto the bedside table by her.

“This place is the Old Vermillion Community Base,” she yet again grinned widely, before proceeding. “It was on the map -- but it has been taken off due to the ponies that make the map for the Wasteland assuming that this place no longer exists much like the city on the ground level.”

I nodded to show I was listening to her. She walked to the front end of my bed, and as she did, I kept my eyes on her. A small, pale white basket hung from the end of the bed, and she began to search through it before taking out a Healing Potion.

She soon walked back over, with a smile on her face before placing the healing potion on bed so I could reach it from where I was. “Drink up -- it should heal some wounds I couldn’t treat...”

“Okay…” I simply replied, before consuming the potion by shoving it down my throat. It didn’t take long at all -- I soon felt a lot better and most of the strength I had soon returned. I was still sore in some places however, but it was nothing too major. It was nothing to prevent me carrying on.

“So what is your name, mister?” She spoke lightly and softly towards me.

I raised an eyebrow why the sudden question left her lips. She awaited my answer, but I soon decided to answer, just as long as she would tell me how bad Crystal’s condition was.

“I’m Tornado…” I mumbled bitterly, looking at her with a false smile, “what’s your name, miss?”

“My name is Ocean Wing!” Ocean happily responded, placing a hoof to her own chest. “It is a pleasure to have your acquaintance!”

“Yours too,” I felt myself smile. Not falsely or forcefully, but more naturally. Maybe because I was thankful of actually finding a stranger who isn’t trying to kill us all and maybe because she did save my life. “So how bad is my friend’s condition…? Crystal?”

She looked slightly confused when I asked her and then she began to ponder. It didn’t take long for her to remember who I was talking about and then she nodded like it all came to her. She looked to me with a soft frown and dipped her head.

“Well… she seemed to have a lot of different deep cuts all over her body. She was carried in by the other mare in your party. Currently: she’s in a coma.” Ocean wing regretted to say. “But believe me when I say this, we are doing everything we can at this moment in time.”

I was speechless… Crystal, the mare who had stuck by me longer than anypony else in my party was in a coma. I really didn’t know what to say, and a bunch of different mixed emotions collided inside of me. Hate, anger, fear, worry… I tried to hold back the sadness building up in me by looking down at the dirty, tiled floor.

“Hey, it’ll be okay, mister!

“You just need to remember, she’s in safe hooves!”

Ocean seemed to be smiling. Not in happiness though. She was smiling reassuringly; she was trying to make me less worried. For the most part, it did work, but I couldn’t help to worry. She was probably the closest friend I have out of everypony (of course not saying that I hate the others).

“I sure hope so…” I mumbled to myself, keeping my head down.

It felt like hours since I had woken up, the dead silence that had been dominating for the most part really made things travel even slower. I couldn’t rest at all; in fact the beds given to any patient of this facility were practically falling apart. I was thankful for Ocean to patch me up and give me a new eye, but I was slightly… uncomfortable knowing one of my closest friends was injured badly. And I felt at fault of it.

If I hadn’t attempted to take on all those Griffins after being spotted, then I would never have gotten both Crystal and I injured. At least the others were okay, but for Crystal’s injuries, I had only myself to blame and nopony else.

And to think I was trying to protect my companions, I only got them all in danger to a point where they were all nearly killed. Of course, the self blaming didn’t really help, but at that moment in time it was all I could do after all. I think I should be rather thankful that the others aren’t with me, as I am sure they would blame me anyway.

I should have never come out here, but it was now too late to turn back. I was no doubt days away from Stable 30 and even if I did try to get back inside, they wouldn’t do it anyway. I wouldn’t give up, no matter how guilt ridden and depressed I was. I wasn’t going to let it tear me down.

I was curled up on the hard bed that I was given when brought here, trying to get sleep. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a wink of it. The room I was in was now as black as night itself due to it being after dark outside in the Wasteland. However, within the time I had here, Ocean and the other doctors that were with her did take good care of me… but with each hour that passed, I grew more worried for Crystal and the more worried I got, the more guilty I felt.

Starring up at the darkened ceiling, I began to remember what exactly happened. How we were all inside of the Stable we were in. Griffins were inside of it. It started coming back to me bit by bit, until I could remember all the major events that had happened before I was here. Yes. My silly mistakes caused both Crystal and I to wind up in a place like this, inside of a facility with only a few ponies to help. The others still did not show their faces, and I was still waiting for them to storm in and tell me how all of this was my fault.

Creeeek!

I noticed in the corner of my eye, a bright amber light soon crawling its way into the room. Looking towards the light with my eyes, I saw a group of ponies carrying a seemingly unconscious pony on a stretcher into the room. I got into a sleeping position, acting like I was asleep to see who it was.

“Place her on the bed next to him.”

One of the stallion’s voices called as I heard a body gently land its way onto the bed next to me. As I adjusted slightly, I managed to turn myself to face the pony on the bed lying next to me, only to see who I had feared for. Crystal was lying there on her side, facing me, completely still and covered in all different sorts of bloodstained stitches around her body. And then at the moment of seeing her, guilt began to flood its way back in.

“We can only hope that she’ll make it…”

What happened to her? Those wounds were too deep for it to be normal bullets that had struck her. I wanted to ask about what had happened, but before I could, the doctors soon left, shutting the door behind them and leaving us both in the darkness. My eyes yet again adjusted back to the darkness, allowing me to see the body of the injured Crystal. She was letting out soft breaths that were just audible, but if there was no silence, you really couldn’t tell if she was alive or not.

Feeling the guilt creep its way back in, I hung my head low and reached out for her nearest hoof and held it in mine gently, feeling only but a bit of warmth. Not as warm as she used to be at all. Her lifeless body seemed only just alive, as if they only just managed to save her. And seeing the bloodstained fur around the sealed wounds made me frown.

“I’m so sorry…” I mumbled to myself, holding her hoof close by. I buried my hoof beneath hers, placing her her on my mane and then placing my muzzle down onto the cold and hard mattress. I closed my eyes feeling nothing but guilt and I remained silent.

It’s not like she could hear me. She was unconscious and with that being said, her hearing at the moment was disabled. But if she was awake, I would truly show how sorry I was for getting her into a situation where she was this badly injured.

Each of her soft and warm breaths gently stroked my face, but they didn’t come out frequently. In-between each breath was a maximum of five seconds without inhaling or exhaling and then she would do it again. Just seeing the scars all over her made me feel slightly lucky to have only one major injury -- her body looked like it had been dragged on the back of a carriage that a trader was carrying. Not inside the car, but being dragged behind with nothing but a rope holding her.

The saddle bag she used to wear was now gone, and all of her supplies gone with it. I kept saying I was sorry in my thoughts, but not out loud. And indeed, I was sorry for what I assumed I did…

In an attempt to actually sleep, I kept her hoof close by for reassurance to at least for the moment in time, know that she was okay. I actually began to feel tired, despite the fact of feeling uncomfortable and distressed; I began to actually doze off. My eyes soon shut closed, before I fell asleep and hugged the mare’s arm close to me.

I had a decent enough sleep for me. Usually, I would suffer from night terrors or some kind of bad dream that would wake me up in the night. Tonight was different. Knowing Crystal was okay gave me some sort of happiness inside my head aside from feeling guilty. I mean she survived, and that’s all I needed to know… but knowing she could die at any moment currently worried me.

But the sleep itself was rather peaceful. Other than sleeping on what was possibly the most uncomfortable bed in the history of everything that ever existed before and even after the Megaspells bombed Equestria of course. Another worry of mine however was losing the sister who by each passing minute or even hour was possibly traveling even farther into the Wasteland. But remembering back to the memory orb that I picked up within the Service Tunnels, she did mention something about helping civilians at Sunnyvale and she also mentioned something about a siege happening there.

I wasn’t one hundred percent ready to hurl myself in front of what could be millions of bullets, but it was worth checking out in order to find her. It’s the only lead I have currently to where she might be, and of course, resting hours had to be short if we were to reach her in time.

Hearing the door open, my eyes soon opened to see Ocean back in the room, and then walking down the small walkway in-between both rows of beds. The bright, amber light from the doorway again brightly shined into the room, lighting up most of it. She slotted her way down the side of Crystal’s bed on the side furthest away from me, before looking at her with deep worry. I looked towards Ocean, to see what she was doing and then she noticed I was awake. My guess was that my glowing, synthetic eye gave it away.

“Oh… mister Tornado, it’s a bit early to be up,” Ocean stated with a shaky voice. “And before you ask, Crystal is fine… so there is no need to ask.”

Ocean smiled reassuringly, but I just nodded slowly, looking once again to Crystal’s wounds. They looked slightly better, but only slightly. There really was no big improvement, and Crystal was still in the same position as before. Facing me and on her side. I didn’t really… believe she was fine. At least not for now, I think Ocean was just saying it to stop making me worry and unfortunately, that wasn’t working. I was worrying.

“So did any of the ponies who brought her in say what happened to her?” I asked, staring at Crystal’s lifeless body, before focusing my attention back onto Ocean who was examining her body to see if the wounds were ceiling.

“No,” she responded, keeping her eyes on the body in front of her. “They didn’t actually, they just begged for us to help her and we did just that -- and the doctors have done a great job at patching her up!”

“I see…”

I didn’t know whether to agree or not. The wounds still looked pretty bad, but at the same time, they didn’t seem all that bad anymore. She groaned in her sleep as Ocean attempted to turn her onto her side, but all Ocean did was softly shush her and told her everything was going to be alright.

“How did you get here then?” I asked Ocean. At this moment, she stopped what she was doing and soon looked at me, raising an eyebrow and looking awfully confused.

“What do you mean, mister?” Ocean tilted her head slightly.

“What is your story?” I asked, as Ocean soon went back to look at Crystal’s bodily wounds.

It took a while for the young Pegasus nurse to answer, but before she did, she stopped examining Crystal for the meantime. “Well you know my name… I’m fourteen years of age, and before I was here, I lived with my parents in the settlement of Sunnyvale -- but they were unfortunately killed within the battle when the guards were trying to evacuate as many ponies as they could…”

She was fourteen? She was pretty big and rather talented for her age. Nonetheless, I know how she must have felt. Not exactly, but I had a gist of what she was feeling at the moment. But the whole thing floating around Sunnyside poked my curiosity in a way where I had to know more. Mostly on why it was happening and how long it has been going on for.

“I’m sorry about your parents,” I said with a pitiful tone to my voice. “And the battle at Sunnyside, why did it start and how long has it been going on for?”

“Oh the battle has been going on for about two years now. It mainly involves the Enclave and Steel Rangers who are fighting for control over the small rundown settlement and it is vital that one of them controls it,” she stated, lifting a hoof slightly. “Some of the remaining civilians happen to get involved if they have to and only if they have to.”

“I see…” I answered with a small frown.

“Is there any reason to why you asked such a thing?” Ocean blinked in a soft but quick motion. I looked to her and sighed deeply.

“Not really… just curious,” I lied, but kept the frown on my face to make it more believable. “Did a pony called ‘Cyclone Flash’ walk her way through here at all?”

Ocean began to ponder. It took a while for her to actually come up with an answer, but eventually the teenage Pegasus eventually managed to come up with an answer. “Now that you mention it… yes.”

I felt my expression brighten up, knowing that she had seen her. “How long ago?” I asked, feeling slightly happier than before.

“About, three days ago, mister,” she nodded quickly. “I’m guessing you know her?”

Of course I knew her. She was my sister, though, I wasn’t sure if I told this young mare that. Anyhow, I’m glad that she had noticed her.

“I do know her, yes. And if I don’t find her, she could be in some serious danger!” I called out. Ocean looked at me oddly before pondering once again.

“Alright...” Ocean bitterly replied, before smiling once again. “The ponies who brought you here said they were setting up camp in a nearby cave, they should be back tomorrow morning and I guess that’s when you’ll be heading off.”

I nodded in response to that. “Well, as long as Crystal can carry herself for the rest of the journey, then yes.”

“Okie dokie.” She turned to leave, and as she reached the doorway, I soon called out to her to tell her my thanks.

“And Ocean… thank you for doing this for us,” I whispered softly just loud enough for her to hear me. I heard a soft, amused giggle come from the pony standing at the door, who then smiled yet again.

“It’s no problem, really. We just try to help anypony who needs help.” With that being said, she soon left, closing the door behind her slowly so it wouldn’t bang against the wooden frame that the door was on.

With an unknown amount of hours remaining until the morning, I attempted one last time to finally get to sleep. Luckily, knowing Crystal was next to me, it was slightly easier to get to sleep and knowing that Crystal was okay at the same time, helped me worry less. However, I didn’t want to stay here as long as we did… the more time I spent in here, the further away my sister got no doubt. And even if she stayed put, the more likely she’d be dead.

But I didn’t stop believing in myself… at least not yet.

Next Chapter: Chapter Sixteen: Enemies Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 13 Minutes