Rainbow had trouble believing what she was seeing. Daring Do was downed, dying perhaps, or maybe already dead. Tarnish was downed and unresponsive. Outside, a battle raged, she could hear the clang of metal on metal as Flamingo chopped through what had to be an entire army of automatons, but Flamingo was just one sword. It took time to chop through stuff, and time worked against them at the moment. Flamingo wasn’t quite the ace in the hole that Rainbow had hoped she would be.

The sound of metal against wood let Rainbow know that there was something just outside the hull, less than a yard away from her. Then, to Rainbow’s horror, she saw the mechanical monstrosity. It came in, poking its brass head through the crack, it was as if an unwanted guest had just dropped in to say hello, and she saw it looking at her with its creepy gemstone eyes. It was missing its right arm, but the left arm still functioned and had the horrible grabby fingers.

It stepped over the unmoving body of Daring Do and Rainbow assumed a combative stance, determined to remain in the way, as she was the only thing between Tarnish, Vinyl, and the mechanoid. She was confident that she could take it in one on one combat, but if more automatons came through the crack, she would be in trouble and she knew it.

“Get down!”

In Rainbow’s ears, Tarnish’s voice was slurred and difficult to make out, but she made out his command. She threw herself down to the ground and as she did so, what had to be the loudest sound she had ever heard in her life thundered in the tight confines of the ruined hallway. There was a brilliant flash of light that accompanied the apocalyptic BOOM! that seemed to press in on her brain, coming from all directions.

The mechanoid’s head just vanished. It was there one moment and gone the next. Its fingers flexed once and then it just tipped over, smoke and sparks spewing from its neck mounts. Pressing herself against the floor while clenching up her pisshole, Rainbow turned her head to look at Tarnish and Vinyl. Her friend was still down, but his head was up. Hovering beside him was the short barrel coach gun, the big fronkin’ gun. One barrel, the left, was smoking.

“The Almighty Celestia gave you a kiss, you mechanoid bastard!” There was a click as Tarnish flipped a switch to arm the other barrel, and then he said to Rainbow, “Grab Daring and pull her away from the opening! Do it now!”

Keeping her head down, Rainbow scrambled to do as she was told, because Tarnish got scary when he was like this.

Helping to hold Tarnish’s head up, Vinyl cast a radiant heat spell as Daring Do’s parka was pulled open. Right away, she saw it, the hole in Daring’s neck. It was off to the left side and it passed through an area that seemed dangerously close to the jugular vein. A lot of blood was oozing out, but it was not rhythmic spurting. The sound of battle was still happening outside, the clang of metal on metal as Flamingo carved her way through an army of mechanoids.

“Tarnish, can you even see?” Rainbow asked.

“Mostly,” Tarnish replied as he pulled supplies out of his saddlebags. “Keep an eye on that split in the hull!”

In silence, Vinyl reloaded the ten gauge coach gun. Its eighteen inch barrels were octagonal and it was quite heavy, because it was made to be a last ditch weapon, a bludgeon if necessary. The wooden stock was trimmed in brass. The look and make were undeniably Grittish, and Vinyl knew that if Octavia was here, she would be oohing and awing over it, while giving a lecture about the quality of Grittish goods. Octavia, a product of the Grittish Isles, was a fine, fine product indeed.

Leaning closer to Tarnish, Vinyl did her best to keep him steady while she cast a light spell. There was a heavy thump against the hull that almost made her jump out of her skin, and she kept the coach gun at the ready. Later, when this was was over, if they survived it, Vinyl resolved to reload the ten gauge shell with brass slugs made from fallen mechanoids. It just felt right, using mechanoids to kill mechanoids.

“Aw, shit, my head hurts,” Tarnish whined as he leaned in close to Daring Do’s neck.

Daring Do was starting to squirm a bit and Vinyl stretched out her magic a little further to restrain her. This was going to be dreadful, no doubt. Tarnish was skilled in combat medicine, but he lacked things like anesthesia or even numbing spells. Vinyl winced when Tarnish made a cut and opened the small hole in Daring’s neck, and Daring let out a pained whimpering sound. The wind from her cries passed through the hole in her neck and caused the blood to bubble.

“I can’t see shit,” Tarnish said as he worked. “I’m having to do this blind, feeling around with my magic, and my magic is kinda scrambled right now!” The panic in his voice made it crack and rise in pitch.

Vinyl knew what needed to be done, as she could see into the incision Tarnish had made. The inside needed to be sewed up first, Daring’s windpipe, and then the outside. And it needed to be done before she bled out, or lost so much blood that she became to weak to survive the recovery process. Tarnish was working against time. The exit wound was covered with white gauze that was now stained scarlet.

The sounds of combat ceased and was replaced with an eerie silence.

The needle and thread began moving, and the moment became quite surreal, as Tarnish was not looking down at what he was doing. His unfocused, almost concussed-looking stare was focused on the stairs. Vinyl felt a brief moment of pride, she had taught him how to feel around with his telekinesis, and it was now paying dividends. Tarnish’s unicorn magic wasn’t much, but he was learning how to make the most of what he had.

The tiniest, and perhaps most perfect knots that Tarnish had ever created began to form as he stitched up the inside of Daring’s throat, closing up her windpipe, stitching her torn esophagus back together. Vinyl watched, feeling squeamish, but unable to turn away. The flesh of her frogs felt as though something slithered just below the surface and a nervous sweat moistened the flesh of her nethers.

Daring started to kick a bit more and Vinyl clamped down tighter with her magic, knowing that any sort of squirming right now would be inviting disaster. A wet, bubbling gurgle could be heard and Vinyl knew that blood had to be trickling down inside of Daring’s throat. She hoped that Tarnish would be able to work fast enough to save the pegasus.

“It’s quiet,” Rainbow Dash said in a low whisper.

As Rainbow spoke, Flamingo hovered into view and then took up position in the split in the hull that now served as an entrance. It was quiet. Vinyl heard the sounds of breathing, the wet squelch of meat being sewn together, and the soft, muted thrum of magic. Flamingo’s pink light was somehow soothing and brought Vinyl a little much needed comfort.

“How are we going to get back?” Rainbow asked. “We have all these supplies… things that we need… and Daring Do is down and Tarnish is having trouble even holding his own head up and I don’t know if I can pull the sledge on my own. I guess we just go back and forget about this stuff?”

Watching as Tarnish now stitched the outside of Daring’s neck, Vinyl did not have an answer. They would need to get back to the cave, and they would probably have to leave the sledge here. She witnessed the repair spell in action, she could actually see the flesh mending together, growing back as the knots formed. Tarnish was good at this, but his skill had come at the price of much suffering, because somepony had to be busted up pretty good for Tarnish to get his practice in.

Something would need to be done about combat priorities, Vinyl knew. Tarnish was a skilled combatant, of that there could be no doubt, but a dedicated effort would need to be made to keep him out of combat, since he was the only one of them skilled enough to stitch them back together after a scrap. He was their medic, their sawbones, and Vinyl knew that if something happened to Tarnish, their chances of survival plummeted to unacceptable lows.

Daring Do let out a gurgling cry as Tarnish sliced open the exit wound to have a better look inside. The entry wound was closed and already mending. Daring’s hide was stained crimson, but no more blood leaked from the entry wound. The pegasus mare’s legs stiffened and Vinyl clamped down even more to keep Daring from kicking around. The pain had to be awful, but there was nothing to be done but bear it. Air whistled in and out of the bloody hole in Daring’s neck, and Tarnish was already stitching up the inside, connecting the flaps of delicate tissue back together with tiny knots.

Sniffling a bit, Vinyl caught a whiff of iodine and her eyes watered. The smell of iodine brought back memories, most unpleasant memories. Her mind drifted backwards in time, back to the fateful day that Grogar’s crown had been destroyed. Her own withers had been ripped open by those horrible, grabbing hands and iodine had been squirted into the gaping tears made in her flesh. Later, when the Royal Guard had come, they had all been hauled off to the hospital together.

The mute albino shuddered because she could still hear the singing of the automatons, their dreadful, dreadful chants made in the dark. The memories of the frenetic violence were still so fresh, so real, so recent. What was she doing here in this awful place? Why had she come looking for Skyreach? This was a horrible mistake, and Vinyl Scratch didn’t know if she would live to regret it.

The sledge vanished from view, but there were still plenty of scrapped mechanoids to be seen. Tarnish, held aloft in Vinyl’s magic, kept an eye out for danger. His legs didn’t want to work right, not after his brain had absorbed the impact of those shots. It was amazing that his magic even worked. He had no idea how many automatons had attacked them here, but those three wolves and the hunter had been the opening distraction.

Tarnish had trouble taking it all in. The sheer numbers around him, and Flamingo had chopped them down. This had to be what the crew of Ol’ Gertie had faced. Overwhelming odds, a vastly superiour force come to exterminate them. In the air beside him, also held aloft by Vinyl’s magic, Daring Do groaned and let out a feeble, burbling cough.

Looking at the brass bodies all around him, Tarnish didn’t know how to win. All of these scrapped automatons would soon be collected and recycled. At some point, he and his companions would succumb to sheer numbers. Looking at the bodies, Tarnish had an idea, the sort of idea that nice ponies weren’t supposed to have.

“Vinyl,” Tarnish said as he stared at a decapitated automaton, “I’m having an idea.” Pausing, he listened to the crunch of the snow as Rainbow and Vinyl trudged towards the cave. “We need to booby trap the bodies, Vinyl. I know I’m messed up, and I know you have to be tired, but once we having Daring back at our cave, you and I need to come back out this way and booby trap as many of these bodies as we can with those big explosive shells. If we can wreck the recyclers, maybe we can slow down or disrupt the supply chain a bit.”

“You know, Tarnish,” Rainbow Dash began, “if things had turned out a little different, I get the feeling that my friends and I might’ve had to come after you with the Elements of Harmony. For one of the good guys, you don’t act like it sometimes. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you have a certain meanness about you.”

“Hey, Rainbow, good don’t mean nice,” Tarnish replied as he turned to look at the pegasus pony bounding through the snow.

“Oh, I ain’t complaining… I’m just glad you’re on our side!”

Author's Notes:

This chapter feels much, much shorter than it is. I do not know why.