9/12/97...

1245 hours…

Saddle Arabia…

Rubbing my brows with my thumb and index finger, I try to formulate an excuse to explain to the crew members along with the rest of the ponies, of, why Fluttershy isn't moving and has blood in her hair. Coming to conclusions, I couldn’t find any answer that would cover this mess.

So, I kneeled down to the motionless pony, picked her up, and began my some what longer journey to the raft at shore. I wanted to kick myself for not being a little more passionate for the shy pegasus that I probably knew was a little skittish around, you know, blood and guts and stuff along those lines, but of course, when I kissed her, my mind was still raging about me nearly dying, that I totally forgot about her.

Coming over the top of a ridge, I spotted Charlies marines boarding along with the rest of the ponies. But, when they spotted me, they all dropped what they were doing and rushed right over.

“J-john! What happened?” Yelled Charlie rushing over to me first.

“Oh, you know nothing special except that, I nearly died!” I yelled right back at him. He gave my a confused look when he looked at fluttershy,

“Then, why is she down?”

“Cause she fainted.” I say, as the marines take the motionless pony from my arms and begin heading back to the raft. By this time, Rainbow Dash had gotten to me and instantly got into a defence mode.

“Why? Why did she faint?” Rainbow Dash said closing in on me. I lifted my bloody hand and showed it to her. She instantly backs off, then flew over again to inspect my hand.

“Ugh, w-why is your hand bloody,” she says, then her face changed from worried to fuming “wait, is this HER BLOOD?” She says pushing my hand away and wrapping her hoof around my shirt collar as my nose and her snout connect together as charlie backs off about a foot. My eyes and her eyes finally meet parallel as I could feel the tension in the air increase by every second that I looked at her.

“No! not at all, it’s my blood, my blood got in her hair because I was bleeding. Plus, she saved my life. See for yourself!” Saying this I push her off of me and show her my hand again, this time she looks closer. The gashes and cuts along my palm make her recoil back a foot as her ears flop down in embarrassment. Charlie also looks at it. Feeling sort of foolish, Dash drops from the sky and land in front of me.

“S-sorry John, I didn’t mean to lash out at you like that, it’s just that,” she looks away as if she is embarrassed to even look at me, “ I get really personal when someone hurts my friends, and I guess my emotions got the better of me.”

Not really wanting to have to deal with this at the moment, cause, you know my hand still hurt like hell. I walked past her while saying, “It’s okay.” as I sort of threw it over my shoulders, but, not really at the same time.

I made my way to the raft, jumped over the rubber bow, and found a place where I could sit in peace. Eventually the rest of the Marines got in and started the raft back up and pushed off the shore. As we made our way back I tried to see if I could some how stop the itching pain in my hand, but to no avail, I couldn’t.

But, since my hand hurt like fire, the ride back was more painful than I thought it would be. Probably cause I was in pain. Upon reaching the Boston, I climbed to the top of the deck and headed straight down to the med bay deep within the ship. I knew the ship like the back of my hand, so it didn’t take me long before I arrived at the white walled rooms of the medical housing area.

I moved to the counter and tapped down on top to wake the nearly asleep doctor who was slumped down in his chair. He looked up with his eyes half shut and yawned. But, upon seeing me his eyes opened up to full and he stood up out of his chair.

“Evening sir, it is evening, right? Whatever, what brings you here?” He asked trying to make his uniform look nice and clean from the wrinkles that he had created. I didn’t say anything, I just lifted my hand.

“Ah, I see, lets get that treated shall we?” He asked stepping aside and motioning for me to come with him.

“Yes, please, it burns, itches, stings, and probably more things, but I don’t really care, I just want to make sure it doesn’t get infected.” I followed him into a little room behind the counter. Inside the room was a table along with a few glassed cabinets that held what looked like glass containers full of medical supplies and gauze.

It looked more like a dentist office than a Doctors office.

He moved over to the far right side of the room and patted his hand down on the top,

“Here, take a seat sir.”

“Thanks.” I said as I jumped up. He turned around to one of the cabinets and began rummaging around for something. He hummed as he did so. Minuets went by, until he began a conversation.

“So,” He began, “How did the search go?” He asked as he lifted out a roll of gauze and a brown bottle with a black top.

“Oh, It was just peachy…” I said in a sarcastic kind of voice.

“It didn’t go so well?” He asked resting the supplies on table before returning to the cabinet.

“No, it’s not that, we found what we were looking for, it’s just that, well, you know, my hand…” I said looking down to my rather disgustingly bloody hand full of gashes and cuts.

“Oh alrightly then, by the way, how did you get those cuts?” he asked closing the cabinet with a click.

“Oh, I, uh, was climbing up this, damn wall, but the rocks I was using were loose, and I almost fell.” Now the doctor was going to work on my hand, his cold, clammy hand inspected my tears and cuts as he took a rag out and wiped away the wet blood that was still there.

“Uh-huh, go on, what happened next.” He asked reaching for the brown bottle of black liquid, or it looked that way because of the light.

“Well, Fluttershy saved me…” I said rather quietly.

Now he stopped, he looked up from my hand, and up to my face.

“Really?” He asked. His face was that, ‘I smelt something bad,’ face.

“Yes, she did, she may not look strong, but, beneath that fur is a different story, trust me she held me up for a good ten, uh, maybe fifteen seconds before dropping me off.” Now he looked back down and started dabbing the liquid on the rag,

it was alcohol. I knew what was to follow so I held my tongue. He began rubbing my hand with the soaked rag as the stingy sensation of the liquid began to burn the cuts of my hand and cleaned the rest of the dried blood away.

Good god, I hate alcohol cleaning, it’s one thing when you have a small cut on, maybe your knee, but when you have dozens and dozens of them, you can’t match that kind of stingy hell. Next after the rag, was the gauze. He wrapped it up tightly and carefully. Finishing with a knot.

“There you go sir, it will be good as new in a few days, give or take…”

“Thanks doc,” I got off the table and moved to the door, “I’ll see you around.”

“Alright, you too sir.”

9/12/97...

1525 hours…

open waters…

I clinged to the railing of the bridge of the Boston as I felt the waves crashing against the bow of the ship as we sailed in the suspected direction of the Missouri. I Looked over to the Yarnell as it sailed along with us pushing against the waves just like us.

Even though the Yarnell wasn't really part of my timeline, it was still part of my Navy. It was just that, it looked so foreign, but, at the same time, looked just like my ship. Even though this ships fate will be, long before his and if this, well, accident never happened, we would never have meet each other. We would have never meet these ponies. I would never had fallen in love with Fluttershy.

Which, brings up something else. The accident. Something was really bothering me. Back when we actually first meet the ponies, face to face, when they told us it was a accident. I wasn't actually angry at them. I actually was sympathetic for them. They were just trying to do something for the greater good of their world. Hell, we would have done the same if the roles were reversed. I had no hard feelings toward them for a honest accident. I could see why they felt so bad...

I move off the bridge and move back into the cabin. The sailors were hard at work, taking data and follow the invisible path of the Missouri. I went to the center of it all and looked out the windows and watched as the waves continued to splash around the ship metal hull, and seagulls swarmed of the bows of both mine and Charlie’s ship. But, other than us, nothing else was on the ocean, but of course, why should there be anything near us, were just little specks in a bigger picture.

Except the life raft two meters away.

Now, my eyes focused on the raft. I didn't notice myself, but, when I focus on things I sometimes get closer to them. So I found myself hitting the glass of the window before any of the ship mates even saw me.

But, luckily, one did.

“Sir, you see it too right?” A sailor asked. I looked to him with the same kind of face he was sporting. The, ‘Here we go again.’ face.

“Yes, yes I do, get charlie on radio, now.”

Author's Notes:

So, new chapter... what do you think, let me know in the comments...