A Herbal Remedy [Closed] [Finshed]

Cross hadn't been attention to Winter too much...he was still trying to wrap his head that the fact....that- ....still, it was wrong of him to just try hold his distance... he was really nervous at any moment he might do something that Winter wouldn't like, already dealing with Blazen might've showed more of his temper than he wanted to.

"Hey Cross, should we go see whats happening?" Cross recalled where he was and stopped daydreaming, he turned over to see Scrap, Sky, and Winter looking for him for guidance. He slowly walked over and gave Scrap an answer.

"No Scrap, Flash knows what he's doing, it means he's getting it done...." Cross let out a deep sigh and he turned to Winter

"Winter...I'm really sorry we haven't really talked in awhile, I've just been really worried about this whole 'transition' for me, I've been really scared of screwing up and scaring you off if I did something wrong...and Scrap, I really owe you an apology for Stableton.... I guess I've been putting it off since no one ever thanked me either, but it took alot out of me too"

Atriark finished his inspection of the pistol. It was as it appeared to be, in fair condition. It would survive the meager amount of ammo he had for the gun. The 10mm worked quite well and he was really starting to like the gun.

Holstering the ten, he heard the sound of glass breaking. They found a way in. He was happy that the pair got into the building, but Atriark was sufficiently bored.

Atriark laid down and rested his head on the cooling ground. He couldn't come up with anything to do. Talking? Bah, two of them probably didn't want to talk to the zebra anyways and he didn't know the other two.

Getting into the bedroom, the first thing they noticed was that the bed appeared to have been unused for a very long time and the sheets and mattress were sloughing off the frame and a spring was poking through. A solitary dresser stood across the way, the mirror in front pockmarked and faded from age. The floor was covered in a fine layer of dust and it was apparent that no-one or no-thing had been in this room for many years.

Like a pair well-oiled machines they burst out into a short corridor - and spied another door on the left and one down the end of the corridor. They were both shut. They hoofed down the door to the left, and peered in to see a badly aged bathroom. Scanning the room for threats they moved on. The door at the end of the hallway was easily breached.

This room was much larger, on initial glance it seemed to be a kitchen/dining/living space. In the darkness a figure loomed out and the pair trained firearms on it. From what they could determine, it seemed to be sitting at a table, its hooves resting propped up. After a tense few moments they realised that the figure wasn't moving, after a brief pause, they noticed that the building's occupant, a pegasus, was long dead. A quick peek under tables and counters revealed not even a sneaky radroach.

Having checked the building for enemies they could breathe a sigh of relief that nothing was hiding in preparation to jump out at them; although the seated skeleton was kind of unnerving.

In the main room, Blazen noticed the locked door from earlier, except he was on the inside where it could be easily unlocked from the inside. It took barely a moment for the door to be creakily pushed open once unlocked.

Winter was surprised by what Cross said and wondered if he'd maybe overheard her talking with Scrap. Either way it didn't matter as she was just grateful she now knew what the problem was. "Oh, I thought" she paused for a moment before continuing, "I thought maybe you had lost interest or I had done something wrong. But Cross you shouldn't worry about how you are around me, I like you for who you are and I'm sure I'm going to continue to like you as long as you just be yourself" she said with a soft smile before she took a few steps closer, rubbing her head against she side of his neck affectionately before pulling away, "Just promise me you'll tell me when something is bothering you like this" she said, retaining her smile.

Lightning moved slowly and tactically as he cleared the rest of the rooms. He glanced back at Blazen now and then to make sure that he was following and to make sure that he wasn't going to get shot in the back. So far, the earth pony had followed everything he asked him to do up to the letter. That was good. Now if only he can get him to stop feuding with Cross. At least the pegasus would have some good news to give him later.

As each room was cleared, an ominous figure caught Lightning's eye and with a wave of his hoof, he silently motioned Blazen to turn his attention to the figure, moving forward very slowly until he could see that it was just a skeleton. Letting out a sigh of relief, he holstered his weapon and said, "It's clear. Nothing hiding in here." Lightning would look around the corridor before saying, "I doubt the group would want to stay here for the night. Let's just grab what we can and get out of here."

Blazen walked up to the skeleton, finding some old clothes. He grabbed the clothes and stuck it in his saddlebags. Those could prove somewhat useful for wounds, to apply pressure and to coat them if you rip a few parts off. Or it could be sold. "Thinking some of the clothes can be ripped to coat wounds in case we run out of bandages or sold." He said, leaving his saddlebags open for a minute and found a 44 magnum on the ground. It was completely broken aside from the inside. He, as quick as he possibly could, disassembled it and grabbed a part for his own magnum and placed it in his saddlebags. He considered looking at the other parts inside and when he did, the rest of them were melted or simply unusable. He threw it on the ground. "Unusable." He said, looking around for more things to grab. He found nothing else. "Yeah, i doubt it too." He said, and followed Lightning the rest of the way and did whatever asked.

"It's okay Cross, in fact it probably turned out better for me, I met somepony new and, I can probably stake my claim as the only non-enclave unicorn to see above the cloud layer." Scrap said with a small laugh. "You think you could teach me how to launch something like that at some point?"

Cross smiled as Scrap accepted his apology,

"Maybe Scrap, but it took me years to do it so successfully-" Cross nearly finished as found himself blushing when Winter muzzled against his neck.

She still....Cross let out a small grin, but his brow was still burrowed. He really just felt accepted, he really didn't ever think, that maybe someday he could really have ponies that really wanted him around. Cross lowered his head and quietly spoke.

"Thank you Winter....I'll remember that"

The pair began scouring the house looking for objects and gear worth looting.

Beginning in the living area, Lightning uncovered a safe against the wall, which when he tested it was locked. Continuing around the room he pulled a sheet off a terminal, which blinked a slow green waiting for input. He resolved to come back to it. Meanwhile, Blazen had wandered closer to the skeleton and began dressing the figure down looking for loot.

Lightning opened a cupboard and after rummaging through broken and rusted pieces of junk pulled a small velvet bag. Inside were two pairs of nice goggles with a note wrapped around one of them. He unwrapped the note from the goggles and held it near the green terminal light to read:

"Thunderlane,

I brought these for you and your brother, I know you've both been having trouble resolving things between you, but perhaps you could bring these as a peace offering and patch things up?

Love mum."

Pulling one of the pairs of goggles on, the lenses helped bring a few things in the room into sharp relief and Lightning quickly realised that these would really help with flying.

• 'Thunderlane goggles' (+2 to flying skill)

Continuing to rummage in the cupboard he uncovered two memory orbs, he had no recollector, so just placed them into his saddlebags for now.

Closing the cupboard he watched as Blazen picked up a nice specimen of 10mm pistol, and with a strange smile began to pull apart the gun, muttering about how he'd found a .44 and all he needed was the hammer from this broken one.

Lightning smiled as he read the note. It was still nice to see some actual emotion in the wastelands. Especially one of generosity. Putting the goggles on, he liked the way they felt. Flying with these things would probably be easier too so the wind wasn't in his eyes constantly. Taking the goggles off and letting them hang on his neck, he continued to dig through the things in the cupboard. Two memory orbs...interesting. Putting them into his bag, he closed the cupboard to see Blazen muttering about a .44 revolver.

He paused for a second before saying, "Blazen? What are you doing?" Getting no response, Lightning watched as he began to pull apart the semi-automatic pistol. Yelling at earth pony, he tried to get his attention, "Blazen! Stop that!" He was going to break the gun if he didn't stop him immediately. Quickly, the pegasus would run at Blaze, slamming his body against his in hopes of knocking him down. If he was successful, Light would reach back into his bag and pull out Blazen's Mint-als that he discard earlier, dropping it next to him and letting the pony set his course.

(Rolling to tackle Blazen and knock the weapon out of his hooves. Unarmed 28. Roll: 62)

Atriark sighed and got to all fours. With nothing else to do, he decided he should probably sew up the wound on the inside of his right thigh. Scrounging around in his saddle bags, he could not find his needle. In disbelief, Atriark searched again, bit to no avail. Somewhere from when he used it last to now, it had gotten lost or fallen out.

Muttering a curse to the stars, the zebra let out another sigh and trotted over to the baby blue unicorn mare with the unshorn fetlocks.

"Hey Winter, you're a doctor right?" Atriark asked. "I have seemed to misplaced my needle. Can you help me with the cut I got on he inside of my thigh?"

Winter smiled to Cross before the Zebra named Atriark trotted over, asking for medical attention. She nodded, "Let me take a look" she said as she moved around to take a look at the wound. It looked fairly clean and reasonably easy to patch up. She went through her saddlebag and quickly found the materials she would need to stitch the wound. She threaded the needle carefully and tied a simple fine knot before she eyed the position where she would make the first puncture. "Now try to relax and not tense so much. This wont take long" she said as she began threading the needle through the skin in a tight knit so the wound would be perfectly closed up. Winter hardly had to focus as she did this, it was basic medicine and she had enough experience to be able to thread the needle without the Zebra feeling it much. When she was finished she cut the ends and finished the knots on both ends before eyeing her work. Satisfied she then applied a normal bandage around the stitch so that it wouldn't get caught on anything while they were out here. "There, that should heal up nicely" she said with a smile.

"Thank you ma'am," Atriark said looking the bandaging over. "That procedure would have taken much longer without a horn."

Atriark had grown up not understanding but respecting magic. Honestly, Atriark wished he had a horn, it would have made his line of work much easier. But, he was happy as he was. His mother had taught well and her son learned much from her.

"Here let me pay you for your excellent services," Atriark began rummaging around his saddle bag for caps.

Blazen was zoned out, disassembling the gun in front of him. He did it in a way that didn't destroy it when it was fully functional. He knew the ins and outs of guns, and he also knew how to aim them effectively. He started thinking about his whole past, but he was oblivious to the present. He was thinking about too many things already to pay attention to his hearing. Then, the pegasus slammed into him, disarming his weapon and placing a tin of Mint-als on the floor right by him. He didn't even know why he was being slammed to the floor, but that was because he didn't hear for that one moment. He was seeing the machinery inside, all intricate...it was amazing. It was ruined by the pegasus, though. "What the heck is wrong with you?!" Blazen said, getting away from him. But the Mint-als tin looked familiar....and he recognized it from the one he had thrown out in the distance back at their last camp. "...You brought that here?" He said, frowning and looking at the pegasus. "You brought that here?" He repeated, sounding incredibly disappointed. "What is wrong with you?" He said, and picked up the 10mm. He then quickly reassembled it, but some things were out of place from him ramming Blaze. He had to fix it later. Then he realized, the pegasus probably thought that he was breaking it. "...I wasn't going to break this, you know. I could quickly reassemble it. I was being careful." He said, frowning at the pegasus.

"...Lets just get out of here. I had enough of this place." He said, and added something else. He looked at the tin of Mint-als. "Never having those things again. Why would you even give me those accursed things?"

Lightning's tackle was spot on and it caught the earth pony off guard. He would tumble the pony down and walk away, letting the Mint-als sit nearby. "I know that's what you're on. You're not going to just instantly get off that stuff that way. I could see you zoning in and out. Now, I'm no doctor but I know that it's from the withdrawal." He would turn around and watch the pony pick up the .45, putting it back together. "Pick up the Mint-als and put it back in your bag. You're going to need it if you want to stay focused. If not, you're going to become a liability to me and to the rest of the group."

The pegasus would glare at Blazen a little more before saying, "Give me that pistol. I'll carry it back to the others. You were fiddling it around calling it a .44 when it's really a .45 Auto." Lightning sighed as he didn't like to get into confrontations but it seemed necessary this time. "Come on, we need to get back to the others. I have to make another run back up here." Waiting for the earth pony to hand him the .45 Auto pistol, he let Blazen walk ahead of him, keeping an eye on him as they started their journey back.

"Its not all from the withdrawal. I know what i should be seeing, and i know what i shouldn't. Im seeing dead ponies from my goddess-damned past." That was something that he didn't want to slip out, but it decided to slip out anyways. When Lightning asked for the 10mm, Blazen refused. "No, i found it first and im going to keep it. 'Sides, i can give it to Winter for protection if things go bad on her side." He said, and put it in his saddlebags. "I know the guy doesn't trust me, Cross i mean." he said, looking around and following Lightning. "And i dont trust him." He stated, leaving it at that.

Lightning frowned when Blazen blurted out that he was seeing dead ponies from his past. That was not good at all. Seeing things was usually a sign of unstableness. Now he was sure that he wasn't going to let him walk away with the powerful pistol. "Give me that pistol, Blazen. Don't make me do something more drastic." He listened to him complain about Cross and shaking his head, the pegasus let out a sigh. Cross was a strange pony, that was no doubt. He did have his faults but for this mission, Cross hasn't made a single mistake and he had kept everypony alive so far. That boosted Cross a little higher on his scale. "I don't care what you think about Cross. But like I said, if you become a liability to the group, I am not responsible for your death. Now give me the pistol."

"No." He said, sternly. "Im not going to give you it. So far, your the one that slammed into me and is threatening me." He said to Lightning, and made the saddlebags as secure as he possibly could. "Im not crazy." He said, looking straight in Lightning's eyes. "If i was, i would be killing people right off the bat, okay?" He said, with a normal voice. "I wont kill unless having the reason to kill. I will never kill an innocent pony, and if you stop asking, ill give you the damned gun later. It looks like it has a few problems inside since it was dropped on the floor, and i will fix it once we are with the others."

Lightning glared back into Blazen's eyes, an anger slowly beginning to rise in him. He tried to stay calm as he was quickly losing trust in Blazen. "Blazen...I'm the one leading this scouting mission. And if you choose to not listen to me, then so be it. But don't count on me to watch your back when the time comes. You're on your own." Unfolding his wings, he would take off to the sky and hover over Blazen. "Move. Give the weapon up to Scrap Parts once we get back or I will be forced to do something drastic."


Once Lightning and Blazen arrived back with the group, Lightning would say to him in a not so discreet fashion, "Now turn over that .45 pistol to Scrap and let him look it over. Now." His tone would hold one of annoyance and frustration in dealing with the pony.

Looking around and seeing Cross by Winter and Scrap, he flew over quickly, coming a soft and graceful landing, "Cross, I need to speak to you...privately." Walking a short distance away, he would say in a low but annoyed tone, "We managed to get into the building. There seems to be alot of things we can get on first glance but I didn't get enough chances to look around. I ran into a 'small' issue with Blazen. His behavior is turning rather rebellious and he is becoming unpredictable. He had been zoning in and out and while I was searching for items, like these goggles around my neck, he picked up a .45 Auto pistol. At the moment, he was muttering something that it was a .44 revolver. I tried to catch his attention but when he began to take apart the gun, I quickly tackled him. Blazen obviously didn't take it well and despite many orders, he refused to turn over the weapon to me. He wants to give it to Winter to keep her protected or something like that." He paused for a moment, giving the unicorn time to process what he said before adding, "Cross, there is still alot of stuff up there. Plus, there is a computer terminal. I want to take another pony up there. One that is more experienced with computers than I am. It's secure up there and I promise, whoever I take up, I'll keep them safe."

Blazen walked over to Scrap and gave him the 10mm. "Its a little broken from Lightning slamming into me." He muttered before walking away and going to Winter. "...Is there any possible way that you can cure my Mint-als addiction? It...its getting worse." He said to her, glancing behind her and seeing a different figure that he didn't recognize, but he ignored it. It was all in his head. He checked his saddlebags and found the old clothes. "These also maybe useful for wounds, in case we lose our bandages or use them. Just need to rip some cloth off but first off to clean it. It's all i could find in there." He said, lying. He had found the 45 he gave to Scrap, but he was forced to hand it over.

Winter Bell took the cloths and put them into her saddlebag, "Thanks, that was good thinking" she said with a smile. The cloths would make great supplemental bandages if they ran out. She would likely actually use the cloths first to save the bandages for when and if they really needed them. She was quite surprised when Blazen asked her for help with his Mint-als addiction. No pony had ever actively sought her help for it before, which was why she smiled more broadly when he came to her for help. "I don't think I can properly cure it without a decent medical theater but these should help keep you off the symptoms till we return" she said as she pulled out one of the fixer tablets, "Take this, you should start feeling less of the symptoms within the next hour, and less as you keep taking them" she said with a smile as she levitated the pill towards the brown buck.

Blazen Shield took the pill and put it in his mouth, swallowing the pill with no trouble at all. "Thank you, Winter. I appreciate it. And i hope you and Cross get along fine." He said, smiling also. He still felt the symptoms greatly, but from what Winter said, he was going to be getting much better real soon. He walked a short distance and looked through his saddlebags, some old clutter in there like scrap metal and a few other things, nothing thats really great. He didn't get it in the building, rather he got it back at home when looking through his stuff. It wasn't anything great anyhow. He would sell it when they reached a trader. He also seen Lightning conversing with Cross in the distance. It felt like they were talking behind his back, and the probably were. He sighed, and sat on the ground, waiting for the Fixer to kick in. Once it did....he felt a little normal-like then before. It felt right for once.

Scrap accepted the 10mm that Blazen begrudgingly handed to him. He was going to thank him but by that point Blazen had started to talk to Winter and it would be rude to interrupt.

He looked over the 10mm to asses the damage done to it, it wasn't significantly broken to the point that it wouldn't fire, it would just be a little less accurate. He could fix it he would just need the parts from another small weapon or some time to make a replacement part.

Atriark took a hesitant step toward Scrap, he seemed to be examining the 10mm that Blazen grudgingly gave over. He could only guess at the guns condition, but given where it was found, it probably wasn't in the best.

"You need a gun for parts? Or is that gun gonna become parts? Cause I have a 10 that needs repair or could used to repair."

"It's in decent condition for sitting around in a house for however long...but then again so was that prism blaster I found...which exploded in my face...but I digress..." Scrap replied to Atriark after he approached him inquiring about the 10mm. "How good of a condition is yours in? I could probably use this one too make yours better or vice versa should this one be better, either way I'll let you have it when I'm done...If I tried to shoot a gun-Id probably end up hitting myself somehow..."