A Herbal Remedy [Closed] [Finshed]

Cross nodded and gave Flash his sign of approval, he was glad the pegasus was able to keep things running smoothly. Cross turned his head over to the brown colt and stared, not even a tinge of anger radiated from his expression.

"Look, I don't know whats wrong with you, we were just getting the supplies out of the safe and I didn't want to leave Winter behind....Blazen, your paranoia is past breaking point, if we can't trust you then you shouldn't be around."

"I will leave if i pose a danger here, but right now i have no intent on killing innocent people." The words began to set off alarms in Cross's head.

"So what? we wait until you do?!? get out!! theres no place for you here anymore, either take your shot at me or leave"

Blazen had said it wrong. He worded it incorrectly and that had costed him to be out of the group. He sighed, and walked away into the distance, looking at his pipbuck and trying to find a place to set up camp. In a way, he was banished from the group, and he kept wording things wrong in such a way that it made him look crazy, although he probably was crazy. He was seeing dead ponies that he had once loved. He had even seen his father, who was dead when he was nineteen. That guy, Cross though, was an ass. There was no denying it. He eventually found a little spot a long ways from the group, and found a few branches around the area, but nothing else. He then grabbed a small little pot that he had grabbed when he was back at Stableton. Good place. He then removed the meat from his saddlebags and put it in the small pot, but first checking out if there was still shrapnel that he missed. He found one that was loaded with such, and he discarded it. He closed the top of the small pot, allowing it to cook for a few minutes. He didn't have anything else to put on it, it was only food for now. But meat was meat. He sat, huddled up near the campfire, waiting for the meat to finish.

Lightning watched as Cross was finally pushed past the edge and he shook his head at all of it. Why can't the earth pony just cooperate? Such a simple task yet so difficult to just work together. He would watch Blazen just walk away with all of his things. Nothing the pegasus can do now.

Turning back to Cross, Lightning would say, "You made the right choice. He has to worry about getting off his addiction before he could actually go out and help somepony." The pegasus paused for a second before adding, "We should get moving. I just remembered but I found some strange orbs from the building up there. I think they are memory orbs but I have never seen one up close before. Perhaps you can confirm it."

"Sure, if you don't mind I'll take a look at them later, but right now we need to keep moving." Cross didn't break his frozen expression as he turned to the others.

"Alright, its done, lets get moving everypony, we have a job to do" and with that, Cross turned back to the road and set forward, deep down he was satisfied, it didn't take as much as he thought it would to deal with Blazen, it was a bit too simple actually and he knew he had the trust of the others, all he had to do was remember what Winter said, and he'd do his best for all of the.

He may have looked cold at that moment, but he was proud, proud he didn't have to resort to his old methods so brashly.

The teleportation still screwed with Scrap for a second but he quickly adjusted and went over to Atriark "Here. Some ammo, i'll fix the gun next time we stop." He said handing over the 10mm ammunition that he found. He turned towards Cross "I agree with Lightning on the issue of Blazen. You think I could look at the orbs after your done?"

Sky had flown around the area, nothing really to report other than just some bloatsprite bit to far to be any threat at all. With the return of Sky to the main group, she noticed a small flicker of light that seemed to be to far from anypony, so blaze got kicked from the group, called it Sky thought.

Sky returned to the group, landing with a thud. She turned to both cross, "nothing to report, that is of threat." Sky told cross.

Winter's ears had been down the whole time the confrontation occurred. She hated fighting between ponies, never mind that they were out here with the dangers of the world. She sighed, unsure what to say and watched as Blazen move away from the group. She watched him go with a sad expression and as the group departed she would be the last one left as she felt there was one last thing she could do before leaving with the others. She trotted over to Blazen and put the Fixer down beside him. "I'm sorry it's turned out like this... but please, use these any time you feel you need a Mint-al or you feel the withdrawal effects... goodbye, Blazen" she said softly before she turned to leave with the rest of the group.

Cross tilted his head towards the rest to see them following, he heard Scrap ask for the orbs.

"Don't worry Scrap, I'll be sure to let you get a glimpse at them later, but right now we need to keep moving", Further back he could see Winter leaving the fixer behind. He pulled over his hood and let out a small smile, he was at least glad she was still trying....

"Alright, onwards everypony..."

Winter wasted no time in bringing up the subject of Blazen to Cross as she trotted up next to him, slowing slightly to match his pace. "Are we really going to leave him there ?" she asked with concern in her voice. She knew the odds of him surviving alone and they weren't good. Leaving him behind was almost like a death sentence and Winter wasn't comfortable about it.

"Don't worry, Stableton isn't too far, I'm sure he'll be fine, if there was anything on the way back, it would've attacked us by now." Still Cross didn't like her worry, because in truth he was unsure himself, and much less cared for Blazen's sake, but would try to keep everypony happy nonetheless.

"On second thought everypony, lets head up to the shack and make camp so we're not so exposed out here. Plus we need to keep Scrap stable, I think he's running out those placebos, erh I mean 'medicine' so he'll need his sleep "

Winter sighed as she was still concerned. It seemed crazy that Winter would care so much about some buck who seemed to be more of a work alone pony then a team player... but she knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself if something happened to him and she hadn't already tried everything to make sure he was safe. As they made their way towards the shack she decided to bring it up again. She didn't want to pressure Cross as she had high hopes fir their relationship, but she knew she had to at least try for a second chance for Blazen. "Cross.. do you think that maybe he could get a second chance.. on the terms that I help him and get him off the drugs. Maybe he might be socially better when he's gotten over his addiction ?" she asked, looking into the yellow bucks eyes.

Cross looked at Winter's big sad eyes stare him down, and it was enough...Cross let out a deep sigh, if it was for Winter and nothing else then he'd deal with Blazen.

"I wish you would've said something sooner Winter...this was what I was afraid of, if you want to say something please do so, ....don't worry I'll take care of it" Blazen didn't matter, Cross wanted her to be happy, that came before his personal vendettas, always, and with that he took one last look at her before turning away......

*FLASH* Cross now stood some distance from where he had seen Blazen run off to.

*sigh* "Blazen, if youre there, ...get over here so we can go back to the others..."

Blazen, once the food was finished, tasted it. It was amazing, and it tasted delicious. It was bacon, it was bacon! It was great. He should have given it to the group since most of the kills was theirs, but he couldn't go back. He was kicked out. He covered the remaining food with clean cloth, and emptied the small pot of oil. He closed it securely and placed them all in his saddlebags, one of the bags having blood on the bottom. That sort of sucked, but the blood would become brown later on. It fit his coat and mane color, despite it being blood. He reconsidered, and put the meat on the ground with a carefully placed note for Cross or anypony that came from the group. He packed up, and cleaned up any trace that he left behind he could possibly see that moment and can remove. The pony, now having done with camp, slept for a nap.



He woke up in about ten minutes, having a nightmare he never wanted to have. He shed a few tears, but he tried to engrave the dream into his memory. That voice had said 'Shes alive, New Pegasus'. That was so far away from the Wasteland, but what if his dream was right? What if she was there? He held a new goal, but he needed to confirm his own dream before actually set off a few hundred miles from the Equestrian Wasteland. He got up and walked away, heading to Stableton again. He would think about it when he was back over there, not then. As he continued towards Stableton, he took continuous swigs of his water in his bottle. When he finally arrived at Stableton, he started thinking of the Zebra's reaction.

Maybe she'll be fine, maybe she wont give him anything, maybe she would be completely pissed. He doesn't know much about her, aside she's the one that hired the team. It was a bunch of incompatible colors, and he bet that as soon as he walked in she may have a look of disappointment when she discovers two things; he was kicked out of the group, and he doesn't have the seeds she was looking for. Blaze suddenly started getting an urge for Mint-als, but remembered he didn't have any. He left the tin at the shack. But he also remembered Winter handing him the tin of fixer. To be honest, she was the only one that seemed nice aside from Scrap, and Atriark. Those two had their own kind of cool. He quietly grabbed a tin of Fixer and took one, feeling the effects immediately. He felt better and fine, but still a little depressed due to the unpredictable reaction that the Zebra might have. He didn't know.

And with his thoughts pushed aside, he knocked on the Zebra's home door. He just hoped she wouldn't be angry. He would, and if she isn't and gives him the reward, he didn't want it. He felt like he didn't deserve anything. He felt like an outcast from those ponies(and zebra), just barely on their tolerance level. He heaved a depressing sigh, and waited for the door to open. But the thoughts were simply lingering there, waiting to have a discussion with himself. He felt his thoughts were fractured between his girlfriend and New Pegasus. New Pegasus was incredibly dangerous, but dangerous yields good fruit. By the time hes done confirming his sources, he hoped he was ready. He'd have to be.


-

When Cross arrived, there was nothing except the faintest trace that the campfire was there. And there it was, a gift for them in case they wanted him back. The cloth was by a note, and the cloth containing most of the meat that he made.

The note said:

I dont blame you.

You were right. Here's a gift, and its not poisoned, so please, accept it. And it tastes awesome. - Blazen Shield

PS: Winter is a great mare. Your lucky to have her.

Cross stared at the note, and thought... 'good....at least he isn't this stupid all the time' Cross still had little patience for those who tried to stir up trouble. He looked at the gift of wrapped up meat. The note though.....he was unsure, destroy it? leave it? show it to Winter? He needed evidence, he didn't want to lie to Winter, but he didn't want that crazy buck anywhere near her....ever. Cross bucked a tree out of frustration. Dregs weren't suppose to be capable of kindness, they weren't capable of anything like this! Cross let out a deep sigh and sat there...for the next 5 minutes while he thought about what to do, and with great hesistance, he packed up the meat and the note and stood up....

*FLASH* he once again stood in front of winter, he dropped the wrapped meat down for everypony to see it. Slowly he drew out the note and gave it to Winter. He chose the truth, but it really disturbed him to do so. He never wanted to see that buck ever again, but he'd rather have Winter know for truth that he tried ....and as he thought before....as long as she was happy, it did not matter. He just wanted to see her smile.

Winter looked hopeful when Cross agreed to try again with Blazen. She winced as he flashed away and blinked a few times as she now saw the spot where he was standing was now empty. She sighed, hoping he wasn't too late. She looked around at the other ponies, watching what they were doing as she was deep in thought about how she could help the brown buck. She knew she could help him medically but his mental stability was a whole different part of it. She could of course, still help him with it but it was a much, much longer process. Before she could think on it anymore there was another flash followed by Cross as he teleported back into the room, without Blazen. She saw the meat and cringed a little as she was quite repulsed by the idea. She then looked to Cross questioningly as he gave her a note. She read it over once and her face flushed a tinge of red before she cast the note aside. "I.. umm.. well I guess he's not coming back then" she stuttered a little bit before she tried to change the subject to his 'duties' "Maybe you should organize setting up the camp ?" she suggested. There was a pause before she moved closer to Cross, nuzzling him a little before she said quietly, "Thank you for trying Cross.. it means more to me then you know" she said before she trotted away, preparing to set up her own place for the night.

Cross looked to the others, and just sighed once more, at least that was over. Whilst the others would get themselves ready to sleep, he decided that now would be a good time to go though the memory orbs.... he needed to relax anyway....

Lightning watched the interaction between Cross and Winter silently. This seemed like a private conversation so he would walk away, moving to the corner of the main room. Winter seemed to be rather concerned of Blazen and with good reason. The wastes could be rather dangerous alone, especially at night. When Cross teleported away and returned without the earth pony, that only let Lightning to assume the pony walked away, attempting to either return to Stableton or in some direction where he believed another town was nearby.

The pegasus was thinking about staying away and keeping guard for a little while before heading to bed. But before he did, Lightning had just one thing to do. Reaching into his bag and pulling out the memory orbs, he would walk up to Cross and say, "Here. I think you should just carry these. I'll stay up for a little bit keeping a watch before I head to bed myself. Good night, Cross." He would hand the orbs to the unicorn before walking up to the broken window and staring out into the wastelands around.

The group trudged up to the shack, the night had come about now and there was only a sparse amount of light from the moon shining through the clouds. They cleaned up the main area and set up bedrolls and sleeping spots. they also took the skeleton out. It was creeping them out a bit as it was.

Winter decided to take a chance with the long disused bed and excused herself from the group. The mattress was in poor condition, but by flipping it over, it would make a significantly more comfortable sleeping place than the floor.

Cross' mind blurred as the shack melted away to be replaced by a different reality.



Suddenly, he found himself looking from the perspective of a male pegasus. He realised this by the unfamiliar feeling of wings sprouting from his back. Through the pegasus' eyes, he could see that the day was beautiful – the sun was shining down warmly and everything around him was clean and new and unravaged by time and balefire.

He noticed he was wearing a stuffy uniform, which he recognised as the one from the safe in the shack. He was standing in a group of what appeared to be very proud and happy ponies, who watched another group of uniformed ponies standing proudly to attention as a slightly wizened and grizzled pony, likewise wearing a military uniform albeit with many more medals, finished a rousing speech.

Or at least Cross assumed it was, as all the ponies started cheering loudly. With a stiff salute, the older pony left the podium, and the formality of the situation left with him.

Pushing his way through the celebrating crowd, he found himself in front of another pegasus a few inches shorter than himself.

"Look, bro! Now That I'm in the army, I can work my way up to become an officer like you!" The shorter pegasus puffed his chest out proudly.

Cross felt his host quickly grab the pegasus around the neck and vigorously rub his hoof in his younger brothers’ hair. Laughing, he finally let go. "Well, you've got the rest of the day off now, right? And I'm on leave, let's go have some fun!"

"I'd like that, Thunder. Since you became an officer, I barely see you anymore," said the younger pegasus.



The memory orb faded and Cross found himself back on the floor in the shack. After collecting himself – yep, legs still all there – he looked over to the rest of the group. Lightning was still silently peering out the window at the wasteland beyond. Most of the rest of the party were either sleeping or doing their own thing.

Everything seemed to be well enough in order. With a shrug, he rolled out the second orb, and as he touched a hoof to it, the world crumbled away...



Cross could easily tell that it was the same pegasus, Thunderlane. This time, though, almost everything else was different – the skies were grey and overcast, the atmosphere quiet and sombre. He could feel a painful sense of loss gnawing at his host’s heart.

He was standing in a small group of ponies, clad in black, around a headstone. Cross could easily read it from where he was: it was an epitaph to his host’s brother, Rumble.

The droning of the officiant faded into the background as the pegasus' eyes bored into the headstone, and with an overwhelming spike of misery, threw himself towards the grave.

"Oh, Celestia, I'm so sorry Rumble." He broke down, collapsing over the gravestone, great heaving sobs shuddering through his host’s body. "I should have written to you sooner; I should have said something. Now you'll never know how sorry I am." His hooves rapped against the surface of the headstone, still freshly carved from the unsuspecting bedrock.

A pony grabbed him, trying to drag him away, hissing that he was disgracing his uniform. Cross could feel anger swell up within Thunderlane. "Fuck you! And fuck your war!" he screamed, a bit of spittle flicking from his mouth. The pony that had been grabbing him leapt back in alarm. "We all went in so cocky and bold, so ready to spit in death’s face. No one thought we'd be here years later among rows upon rows of our dead fathers, brothers, and sons. So no, I'll mourn my brother however I want. You can take your war and stick it!" He threw his hat on the ground and with tear blurred eyes, he took flight, leaving behind the small group of shocked mourners.



The memory faded, and again Cross was returned to the shack’s dusty floor. The night was late and Lightning had presumably gotten bored during Cross’ mental absence and finally gone to sleep, his head slightly tucked under a wing.

Atriark was still uneasy about how the drab stallion had been treated. Yeah he said some stupid things and posed a danger to himself and ponies around him, but Atriark kinda liked the earth pony. Maybe he should have spoken in his defense. Would that have changed the out come?

These thoughts plagued the zebra as he looked about the house. He wasn't really paying much mind to his surroundings, but soon he came across an opened safe. The safe was picked clean of everything and lay completely bare. Giving out a sigh, Atriark returned to the group. The stable zebra gave the ashen unicorn the two 10mm's (his and the one he had him hold on to.) "I believe you were working on it earlier."

Lightning watched as Cross drifted into the world of the dead pony that originally lived in this shack. Letting out a low sigh, he prepared himself for a long night. His eyes would watch over the wastelands alert. But slowly, over time, he grew more and more sleepy. When Cross returned from his trip from the first memory orb, Lightning would look over to him, seeing him go straight into the second orb. Turning back to the window, he let another few minutes pass before finally deciding that it was time to sleep. Tucking his head under his wing, the pegasus would close his eyes, slowly drifting away to sleep.

Scrap wasn't exactly ecstatic to go back to the building-he didn't mind scavenging old buildings but this one bothered him, especially with the suicide that had occurred there-so he was getting ready to go to sleep to avoid thinking about it; when Atriark came over to him and handed him the 10mm's to fix, nodding to the zebra, he took them and thanked him before letting him know that he it should be done by morning.

Setting his stuff down by the softly glowing terminal as to have enough light to see but not to need a spell that may wake the others, he started to use his magic to disassemble the guns. Locating the damaged bits he quickly set to work repairing them with spares from the other weapon.

(Rolling to repair, repair 70, luck 6, roll 73+17=90)

Finishing the repairs after a few minutes he put the gun back together and put the scrap bits aside for reuse or sale later. Setting the 10mm inside one of his saddlebags, he set out his bed roll, laid down, and quickly started to drift off into sleep, until in his near sleep state he remembered something, which jolted him back to reality.

Wait a sec...Cross called those leaves Zestari gave me placeboes...he was kidding right...those things keep me sane...or saner then usual...but they helped...he must have been kidding...

Sky sat against a wall thinking about the, just thinking about anything that came into pass. The last weeks had been a pain to say the least, now its just a plain, nothing. Just doing a job, nothing more. A small sigh erupted form the mares mouth, as boredom and sleep was upon her. She decided to lay on her sleeping bag, dozing off until everything went to black.

Cross just sat there, he'd been in alot of memory orbs before but these two together carried such a different message. Regret. There wasn't anything he hated more than regret, it signaled a weak will. Cross watched as the others began to make their sleep, walked over to the end of the room and set a dim light spell. He never slept right at nighttime, it was too relaxing and he was too tired to sleep. So he just went by a window and sat with his hooves and head resting against the still....watching the darkness without gaze through within.

Eventually the quietness got to him and he decided to play some music from his pipbuck, it was a good piece...his favorite actually. He just listened as the cellos and violins matched his breathing and heartbeat to a key, just as he keept a low gaze to watch out into the darkness. He imagined he was doing good sofar at least so he thought.

They've only lost one, and Blazen was better because it...that must count for something, right? Regardless, Cross was determined to keep watch, these ponies were better ponies than he originally thought they could be, they really respected him and that felt nice.

He couldn't remember why he always tended to to be alone.

Atriark watched the ashes unicorn work with both of the 10's. He was quite skilled at what he was doing, and Atriark was mesmerized. The zebra laid his head on the floor boards and watched the unicorn take apart the guns. Soon, however, he found himself drifting off. The stable zebra would have to wait till morning to see the ashen unicorn buck's repair work.

Winter trotted into the separate room and flipped the mattress after she saw half of it was covered with dust. The bed seemed decent enough despite it being abandoned for what was obviously a long time. She leaped up onto it and set her saddlebag down beside the bed before she would get comfy, curling her tail around to her side. Finally she rested her head in her fore hooves as she closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to take her in. Winter never really had nightmares.. or many dreams for that matter. But tonight seemed to be an exception.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Winters Dream

Her hoof steps echoed as she ventured further down the crumbled remnants of a old world road. Around her lay the rusted carcasses of sky chariots as well as the remains of pre war buildings. She looked to them, lifeless and hollow, a reminder of a civilization long since past. She trotted on, an unfeeling breeze of wind and sand sweeping across the road in front of her, adding to her feeling of being so alone in that moment. Up ahead was a shadow in the road.. a rock maybe.. or maybe something else. She trotted onward. The ripples of the heat waves distorting her vision to what the object could be. Her eyes focused on the shadow as she drew ever nearer, her mind content to find out what it could be that lay in the center of the road. She got closer, and it was then that she saw the shadow had hooves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Winter woke up with a jolt. She gasped lightly as she put a hoof to her head, wondering what that all could have meant. She looked around and saw that it was still during the night, and every pony should still be sleeping. As her mind regained her surroundings she realized she could hear music, violins and orchestral kinds, like the music you find in higher class residential places. She got up and hoped off the bed as she moved towards the door, curious to where the music was coming from. She peered out and looked to the far side of the room, where a dim light had stolen her immediate attention. The music was coming from a Pipbuck, and from the size and shape of the shadow, Cross himself. She looked around before trotting silently over to him unsure of what to say as she made her way closer. As she got within the proximity of quiet talking she found the words she was looking for, "Having trouble sleeping ?" she asked quietly.