The Battle of Stableton

Techno grunted at Starry as she levitated the bandaging out of his saddlebag. Trails was just about as fixed as he could get in his current state. His legs still had several bullet wounds in them, but with the multiple shots of Med-X, it shouldn't be too much of a problem for now. As for his chest, he was capable of breathing, but some armor would be really useful, because there was no way in Tartarus he could survive another beating like that.

However, when Starry told the arriving griffon to lay on his back to fix a broken wing, Techno decided to save them both a bit of hassle. He turned to give a suggestion to Starry. "Hey, if you're going to be fixing wings, you should lay on your front. Just a tip." he said, giving his tip to Starry, hoping she would take his advice. Hurting wings and lying down face-up is not a good combo.

"Er, doh!" Starry facehoofed herself. "That's what I meant to say! Lie down on your front!" Starry had been hoping that Kes wouldn't lose trust in Starry based on that slip of the tongue, she did not want to lose the confidence of her first patient.

"You're not my first patient, you know!"

Kes for the most part seemed to ignore that little slip of the tongue. He may not have been a doctor but he was no fool, he knew what fixing a broken wing usually meant. He had been though this before.

Apparently neither Starry nor Techno noticed that both of the gryphons wings had been broken though. No matter, it became apparent when Kes untied the sheet that was holding the appendges to his back. Neither wing could support any weight, even their own, so with the barely audiable sound of ruffling feathers the wings fell limp at Kestrels side. Flaring out just a bit, revealing their suprising length.

Again following old instinct the bird drew his knife, wrapping the sheet around it, holding it in one set of talons.

"Don't fuck up." The gryphon siad, voice just as cold and intimidating as Starry remembered. He did not say anything more after that, his just took the wrapped knife and inserted like a bit into his beak. If he had something to bite down on the bird could resist the pain alot eaiser.

He would need it if Blue messed this up. Techno had better be waiting on standby just in case, otherwise Starry could end up needing even more attention than Kes.

His one warning given the brid eased himself down onto his stomach, stretching out as best he could.

This was not going to be fun.

"Oh, don't worry Mr. K! You're a friend, and I don't botch medical procedures for friends!" Starry told him, cheerily. She trotted around to one of his wings. "Okay, now hold still, I'm gonna have to snap all of these bones back into place, so that they heal properly. On the count of three, okay? One... Two... three!" Kes would feel an incredibly sharp pain in his wing.

"Oh wait... I think I fucked up. Ummm.... oh, no, I did it right! Awesome! I honestly wasn't expecting to get it right the first time!"

Starry took out some of the gauze, and began wrapping the wing. "After I do this to both of your wings, we'll go ahead and feed you a healing potion. The bones will mend, but you'll have to stay off of them for a few days. Might as well be a few weeks, huh?" Starry pulled out some more medical supplies, which she had borrowed from Techno for this operation. "Wait a minute," she asked herself, "Was I supposed to inject the painkillers before, or after I started the procedure? Heh, silly me! I knew I'd forget something!"

Starry finished with the wing, and trotted around to his other side to repeat the procedure. "You know, I just thought, maybe I'm not fit to perform an operation like this when half of my blood is in my coat, instead of in my body. Oh well, I seem to be doing well enough as it is."

Shutter would watch Starry try and help out Kestrel, giving a wince as he heard the snapping of the Griffon's wong back into place.

To be honest, he still thought Starry would be better off resting after those injuries, rather then performing medic duties on the wounded, but he didn't bother trying to stop her...as he had learned, when Starry decided she wanted to do something, then you would have an easier time stopping a bullet with your teeth then stopping her, especially if it was to help somepony...he had to admit, it was a trait he was really starting to admire about her.

Instead, he trotted over...He was no doctor...not really even a medic (The most medicine he knew was the basic Stable CPR courses, and where to stick the syringes when someone needed a good dose of painkillers), but at the very least, he could observe, and be ready to help if Starry's blood-loss really did start getting in the way.

Lucky had gotten up and was now in the group watching Starry perform 'surgery' on the poor bastard of a gryphon. As soon as he heard that snap, he cringed.

"Damn, Starry! Somepony remind me to NOT get shot when she's around and Techno isn't..."

He decided to see how his own wounds were doing, and pulled back the tatters of his stable suit that were still attached over his shoulders. He looked at the intense scarring that had taken place, and a look of bewilderment crossed his features.

"Guys, you will NOT fuckin' believe this..." He grinned.

If the group had been expecting the bird to cry out in anguish at having his bones reset they clearly did not know him very well. Kes had felt far worse pain before, and he had always been one for hiding his suffering inside and say nothing.

But he was not perfect however, and his discomfort did show in another way.

His talons, normally used to rend flesh and bone tore gaping wounds into the earth below him as he bit down on his blade to resist his insincts demands. His muscles flexed harshly, the thick cords of lean flesh bulging with restrained power has he forced himself to keep from moving.

When all was said and done he would push himself up off the ground, remove the blade from his beak, and return it to its sheath. The sheet it had been wrapped in was cast aside for now. It had served its purpose, no need to keep it around.

(may edit later.)

Kira didn't look up or even move from her position on the ground as they spoke about her and directly to her, it seamed that she had just shut down not reacting to the world around her in the slights. It was not until Starry put her hoof in Kira's shoulder, she got a strange image of her ripping the ponies throat with her talons. Blinking she looked at Starry and got up to her feet how were shacking as she stared to walk about.

"I'm fine." She said to them while she walked to the side of the group, she was still shacking and seemed to not be able to stop. She could not be shacking now she needed to stay focused right now then she just remembered, she opened the bag the brought out the inhaler of Steady she had taken from the slave. They were right she had to suck it up and keep going and sometime you just had to do thing to keep it up, she took a deep breath from the inhaler a she felt her entire body stop shacking.

It was just about then she heard the snapping noise as Starry snapped Kes wings back in position, she could actually feel the pain in her own wing. She knew how that felt as she her self had been in that position except she had not been so luck with the surgery and now was she just a flightless chicken.

She walked back over to the group as Starry helped Kes with his wings, she had not until now know actually how strong willed he really was something that she could really admire in anyone.

"Hey Starry." She said to the blue unicorn. "Thanks."

Starry gave a one-hoofed salute to Kira, "No problem, friend! Now, Mr. K, I'm gonna do the same thing with this wing. On the count of three, ready? One, two, oops! I went on two! Heh, looks fine though. Let me just wrap this up, and you'll be good to go! Here, drink this." Starry passed him a healing potion as she wrapped the second wing. The medical procedure seemed to be a success, everything was in the right place, but it was probably quite a bit more painful than necessary.

"Now, I hate to be a burden on anypony," Starry said, addressing the group at large, "but I'm sorta missing a lot of blood here, and I totally want us to run up that hill to confront that lunatic of a commander those slavers have, but I think I might pass out if I exert myself too much. So, uh, would anypony care to give me and my missile launcher a lift up that hill?"

Trails had stopped at the sound of Kes' voice and come back for the operation. He winced a couple times as Starry snapped his bones back into place. He made a mental note to buy Kes a beer the next chance he got and gabe Kira a sad look. He knew why she had shot up, just like he knew how big of a mistake she had just made. Even know he still got the occasional itch for hydra. He was taken from his flashbacks by Starry's request. Wordlessly he flipped her onto his back.

"Kes, good to have you with us."

Lucky felt the ground shake behind him, heard a cruel voice, and then spun around.

What was directly in front of him was a dragon, sitting in an attack stance.

Lucky reflexively started unloading everything he had on the dragon's face, only pausing to reload.

(rolling to fire 10 bullets in Faith's face, gun skill of 51)

Starry rolled off of Trails's back, and braced herself on all four hooves. She aimed her missile launcher directly toward Faithheart, ready to fire at the first hostile sign. She saw Lucky unload his weapon on Faith, but Starry wasn't sure what the dragon's intentions were.

"Who are you? Are you a slaver?!" Starry barked.

When Kria heard the loud thud and felt the ground shack beneath her she instantly knew this could not be good. When she heard the cure voice and saw the large dragon that she had seen fight Kes in the air at the beginning of the battle. This dragon was with the slavers and slaver meant someone who deserved to die. Wasting no time she aimed her assault rifle right at the dragons head and squeezed the trigger not letting go until the rifle went click.

Kes took the arrival of the familiar scaled lizard much better than Lucky did. He actually finished drinking his health potion before he turned and opened fire with his brand new repeater. The weapon did not have as much punch as the gryphon's hunting rifle, but it was still a heavy hitter in the world of ballistics.

Now normally Kes would have given the dragon a chance, like he had with Spark, but Faith had already injured him, she was a threat plain and simple. It only made sense that Kes attack her without question or warning.

With a full magazine in his lever action repeater Kes would be able to fire a total of seven times before he needed to reload. Three rounds would soon be flying towards the dragon that stood what looked to be a dozen or so feet away from his current position.

Each round was aimed quickly, key points chosen as targets. The first two were aimed at the upper chest, near where the lungs, heart, or vital organs would have been in most creatures. Then, utilizing the recoil from the shots, Kes racked in another, final, round and squeezed the trigger; sending a .357 slug straight towards the dragons throat.

Cross stared down at the burning hell he helped created and sighed...pretty soon Starry's group would be here, and he didn't really want to face them all to much right now. Roid Raid and the General stood behind him on the cliffside, giggling everytime a building leapt out in flames.

Cross just waited patiently for his...friends....he wasn't even sure he had the right to call them that anymore....to come up and finish the final step in his long, and grueling plan. But then something flew over Stable and began to land in the square, was it Spark? No,....it couldn't have been, the colors didn't match,....and Cross brought him down much...earlier it must've have been.... "FAITH!!!" Cross roared, he turned back to the General, "Faith is taking on the stragglers in the square, I'll go assist him"

*FLASH* "Fuck, fuck, FUCK!!!" Cross began running between the buildings, dodging the flaming debris, and the collapsed tin sheets, rushing to get the idea that Faith was screwing everything up, the whole plan meant jack now! He had to get closer, before he could teleport in, he didn't want to risk miscalculating the distance....

*FLASH* Cross appeared between Techno and Ashen....neithe of them noticing him....Cross riped the Prism rifle out his pack and shoved it into Ashen's chest. "What the fuck is wrong with you???? SHOOT DAMMIT!!!!" Cross looked at Techno and recalled that he was a pacifist....

Cross was furious, Faith was screwing everything, the Lunadamned dragon was going to try to hurt ponies he cared about.....

"FAITH!!!!!" Cross let out a huge metallic roar on the respirator, smoke streaming out with each long, deep breath... Cross used his magic to lift out his Grenade Rifle, along with the 5 rounds he had for it..

"I'll RIP YOUR LUNADAMNED HEAD OFF FAITH, YOU PIECE OF SHIT DREGON!!!!", The roar shook the nearby walls, and caught more ponies attention, probably catching some attention from the others, but he didn't care, nopony fucks up Cross's plans and gets away with it. Cross lifted up the rifle and let the grenade fly out....reloading and trying to get off every round he could load......

Techno sighed at Starry's statements. There wasn't exactly anything in particular he could do to help with blood loss, so Starry would probably be a little loopier than usual for a few days. He sighed and packed up his supplies from taking care of Trails.

Then Faith landed a ways off, near Lucky. He took a battle stance as Lucky shot at the dragon's face and Kes just shot it in general. Not two seconds later, there was a bright flash over to Tech's left, and in the flash's place stood Cross, who yelled at the dragon and started unloading a grenade rifle at the unwelcome visitor. Starry stood there and yelled at it.

Techno took action as well, his horn glowing as he was about to put up a shield. He looked for a place to set it, but there wann't anywhere he could get it that would cover any more than two ponies/griffons/dragons. Instead, he took the next best approach and aimed a magic bolt at the dragon's legs, hoping to stagger or knock the fearful reptile over, both of which would work in Tech's book. He let it fly and started charging up another.

(Magic 45)

Ashen at first just stared impassively at the newly arrived dragon, remembering that he was burning defenders alive not long ago. He started to back away, knowing that without any weapons he wouldn't be any good in this fight.

And then Cross teleported out of nowhere and handed him his Prism Rifle back.

Ashen's face continued to show no signs of emotion as Cross yelled at him to shoot the dragon, but nevertheless he raised the weapon and aimed at the dragon's face, before squeezing the trigger several times and sending scorching beams of scarlet energy blazing towards the beast.

(Energy Weapons 50)

Trails heard the roar and felt his heart stop. Fuck me with a radscorpion! He felt starry roll off of his back and unslung his rifle. He spun on his back hiooves and snapped the rifle to his shoulder, taking his time to aim. First two shots to the eyes and the one to the throat. He heard his repeater click dry and went to reload it, then he heard Cross' modified voice roaring behind his ear.

Trails stopped reloading with justt two rounds in the chamber then turned to fire on Cross. Just as he was about to fire at the unicorn, ready to finish the job, something made him stop. What Cross was yelling registered, then his actions. Trails went back to reloading and grinned broadly.

"Nice to see you picked the right side!" He yelled.

There was a loud thud and when Lightning looked down, there was a huge dragon sitting right there. "Oh crap..." Quickly leaping into action, he flew upward and flipped around, drawing out his SMG as fast as he could. 'This must be the dragon they spoke of earlier...' he thought to himself as he dived back down, aiming his SMG at the dragon. He could see the dragon spew flames at somepony he couldn't tell but all Lightning knew was that he had to stop this dragon. Pulling the trigger, he let out a burst of five rounds straight at the dragon.

Faithheart was met with a massive barrage of fire as she started running forward towards Cross. Cross fired a grenade toward her, but it had been launched too high and too far to the side, and ended up exploding on a nearby rooftop. Kira had also opened fire with her automatic weapon, but most shots either missed or didn't penetrate Faith's thick scales. The same happened with Lightning Flash's shots, which failed to sink in. Kes, although aiming carefully, could not land his shots on the moving target.

The first shot that hit was Techno's magic bolt, which struck Faith's leg and nearly caused him to trip. As Faith opened his mouth to let loose the flames on Cross, who had just gotten in range of his attack, the missile launched by Starry had managed to land squarely against Faith's side. Faith's thick scales managed to absorb some of the damage of the explosion, but he was nevertheless flung from the blast against a nearby building. The explosion had left two of his legs crippled, and several bones broken. Faith managed to make a sizable dent in the side of the building when she impacted with it.

Ashen managed to hit Faith with his prism rifle. While he didn't hit his face, which he had been aiming for, he did manage to hit Faithheart in the shoulder, which penetrated the scales and caused significant damage. Trails also managed to land his shots on Faith successfully, but did not hit the eyes as he intended. One of the bullets was deflected by Faith's scales, the other two managed to penetrate softer areas around Faith's stomach.

Lucky managed to land every one of his five shots, and each managed to penetrate through the scales. Four of them landed in Faith's already crippled legs, and one lucky bullet managed to barely penetrate the thick scales on the crown of her head. The bullet narrowly missed the skull as it grazed across the top of her head, but the impact had managed to give Faith a concussion, knocking her out.

///Lucky Draw rolled a 100.

"Stupid ass-scaled bitch....."

Cross stared at the dragon, he wasn't sure who noticed he had been there, but before anypony could react to his presence...

*FLASH*

There would time to explain himself later....

Starry stood there blinking for a moment. She had just hit a dragon with a missile... She had just hit a dragon with a missile! "THAT WAS AWESOME!" Starry shouted, hopping excitedly. "Did you guys see that?! We took down a DRAGON! We are amazing!"

Techno watched as the dragon was shot at, blasted, and knocked out. He winced as the dragon hit the wall of the building, making a large crater in it with a large *Bam* punctuated by the sound of a few bones breaking. As the dust settled, his horn ceased glowing and he addressed the group after shaking his head. "Okay, apparently, we're going to need somepony to keep an eye on the sky as we move up." he said, hoping that there would be fewer aerial enemies coming for them, and planning for those that would be.