Mobile Apostolov Surgical Hospital (Medical Chaplains)

Winter trotted into the MASH tent, having played with Brutus, throwing the ball far before walking inside. She looked around, her gaze sweeping the place before she sought out Zestari, making sure to check in on her friend before anything else. She saw the Zebra over by Sky, which made her wince and feel sad inside at the sight. She trotted over and placed a shoulder on Zestari's shoulder, "Hey, how are you holding up?" she asked sympathetically at the sight of Sky.

Violet just smiled at the angry griffon, as if his threats did nothing to affect her demeanor...Which was pretty much the case.

“I’m a pony silly!” she turned to the earth pony helping her, holding up a hoof as if to muffle what she was saying, although regardless she talked loud enough for the griffon to hear, possibly intentionally. “I think there’s something wrong with his eyes. We may have to do some surgery.”

“Oh, and to answer your other questions, you’re in a medical tent, and we injected you with Med-X and Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, covered your burns with Silvadene, splinted your leg, and disinfected your cuts! You should be all set to smash meany pegasi heads in no time! Although I think we need to check your eyes first.”

......Pain.....Just pure, shocking, paralyzing pain. Lightning let out a low groan as he slowly opened his eyes, his vision all blurry. After blinking a few times, his vision cleared up a little. The pain was extremely...well...painful, despite the Med-X coursing through his veins right now. He began to sit up and look around but the second he even tried to move, a sharp jolt of pain would force him to yell out and flop with failure.

Now that his vision was more or less clear, Lightning began to look around. Where was he? How did he get here? Was he in the MASH tent? The pegasus began to search in the deepest parts of his memory to find out what happened. For a while, there was nothing. Simply blank. A "great" testament to the head injury he received during the battle. Wait...battle...Milk Run! Enclave pegasi! Soon, the memories flowed back to him like a waterfall and looking around, he didn't recognize the other patients around him but however, he did recognize two. Sky and Bonehead.

Wait, what...?! Sky?! Sky was taken out of the sky too?! No...this was his fault. He brought his upon her. Lightning gritted his teeth a little, not hard as it hurt, but a low anger began to rise in him. It was one thing for the Enclave to hurt him. It was another for the Enclave to hurt a friend. But worse, it was another thing for a friend to get taken down for a mistake HE made. For a mistake he should have thought of. Lightning was the one leading the pegasus and the griffon into battle and he had gotten them hurt. Without even calling for help, Lightning just turned his head to the side and took in a deep breath, just praying silently that this was just some nightmare and he was going to wake up and forget about all this. To simply move on with his life and continue to live his life with Spectrum....

Another piece of his memory suddenly returned to him simply by that one thought. Shooting Spectrum! He had to find her! She has to know what happened! He had to tell her something. Even if he died, he had to make sure he got his message through! Looking up back to his surroundings, Lightning felt the strange urge to cough and when he did, pain would shoot up his chest with a groan.

Kestrel entered into the MASH and was buffeted with the heavy scent of antiseptic, scorched flesh, and death. The talk around Milk Run had been true then...a lot of casualties and hard hits for that front. Kestrel himself had been lucky, his armor taking up most of the blows. His burns having barely been of note, only faintly stinging.

In here though...the moans and groans of pain made it obvious that he'd been lucky thus far. Everyone here had been hit far harder, and half had black X's on their clipboard. Kestrel was no fool...he knew what that meant. Those ponies were now dead...or dying, no help would be given to them now. Only the isolation of death.

Kestrel bowed his head in respect for a moment before continuing on to scan the beds to see if there was anyone he knew.

Row after row, pony after pony, Kestrel passed by; dodging doctors and nurses as they rushed about desperately trying to save who they could. To most it would seem a somber place but not to Kes. He'd seen things worse than this in the streets of Filly. Things far worse.

His journey eventually led him the bed of the rookie he'd helped train once; Lighting Flash. His body was puffed up like one of those 'balloon' things that Starry had at her parties, burns evident even without looking; Kestrel could smell the flesh from here. A low groan escaped the buck as he lay there after he'd tried to cough.

He moved closer to the buck, looking him over beak pressed into a frown. He considered his words carefully before speaking. When finally he spoke, his voice came out as a low growling rumble.

"Tried to fly, didn't you?"

Lightning's ears moved very slightly at the sound of Kes' voice and moving his head to look up at Kes, he wondered how such a large griffon could move so silently. But then again, this was Kestrel. The one griffon that could take down the Enclave army all on his own. With his damaged pride, all the pegasus could manage was a light nod, "...It was an order..." He wasn't sure why he told Kes that. Perhaps he was trying to justify inside what he felt. Or trying to just take the blame off himself. Either way though, Lightning was sitting here injured while the others, as far as he know, got out unharmed. And he took Sky and the other griffon with him when he failed. "...I led a group of pegasi and one griffon to the sky for distraction...I...I lost two ponies. Sky, over there, and that griffon, who is over there." Lightning weakly pointed with his hoof toward the pony and the griffon that he mentioned, silently wondering why Kes was here to talk to him when he could be out doing something more...Kes-like.

When Trails entered the MASH proper all the confidence he'd built up from his talks with Bell and Brutus vanished. This was a terrible idea, she probably hated him now. He'd let the sarge run one fucking mission and the god damn stable ponies had run wild in it, and now here he was paying for out the fucking nose. If he had a time machine he'd go back to that Luna forsaken city and kick the shit out of himself. At least then he'd just be sore, rather than self immolating.

Luckily Bell went ahead and talked to Zestari, letting him occupy himself otherwise. He strode over to Breeze and gave her a warm smile. "Feel nice to be back in the saddle?"

Kestrel followed the direction of Lightning's hoof, scanning te two he was pointing at with swift precision. Griffon would be fine it seemed, leg might give him trouble, and his apperence. The big bird looked a bit more brutish than most, judging by that and his other features Kes would guess he was more a melee or unarmed fighter. The whole 'raider' vibe coming off him only reinforced that idea.

Not the best sort to have in a place like Milk Run, but workable.

Sky he recognized, and unlike the griff she looked decomissioned. If not for the rise and fall of her chest Kes would have said she was dead; the rest of her being far to still. Turning back to the young burned buck before him, Kes gave a slow nod, then spoke. Kes could hear the pain in his voice, and not all of it sounded like it came from the burns on his body.

"What went wrong?"

Lightning simply stared at the pony and the griffon that he led into battle. The griffon didn't look like the best of...well...griffons. But he was still part of his team at the time and still was under his responsibility. Sky followed him into battle as well and in turn, ended up downed just like him. Lightning simply let out a sigh and explained, "Me, Sky, Dash, and that griffon over there were all suppose to take to the sky then strafe the Enclave. Our weapons weren't strong enough to pierce their armor. We took a shower of plasma the second we strafed over them. Dash was the only one who escaped injury, as far as I know, because he didn't follow me to strafe over the enemy...Sky and the griffons did...After that, I was hit several times more with plasma in which I simply...fell...when I woke up, I was here..."

The tone of his voice was filled with guilt and if Kestrel listened closely, he might even detect the slightest sense of anger. Anger at who, it was anypony's guess. Maybe it was at the Enclave. Maybe it was at himself. Maybe it was both. Lightning would look back at Kes and say, "It was my fault that they went down, Kes...it was my fault..."

Bone head was not amused by the violet ponies response or her follow up suggestion. "My eyes are just fine thank you very much. It's your eyes that are concerning, after all the last time I check pony eyes don't glow in the dark." Bone head looked past her to his surroundings. it was indeed a medical tent, bone head hated these, and hospitals, hospitals too, oh and clinics, basicly he hated all medical facilities. A true warrior does not accept aid, he just toughens up moves on to the next battle. He looked back at violet, "Alright night light you want to help me? Give me something that will get me up on my feet, i'm not just going to lay here and let the war pass me by."

Bone head let his head fall back on the pillow, then he heard a voice come from across the tent, a voice he vaguely recognized. He turned his head to see the blue pegasus that led the charge and a fellow griffin standing over him. He heard the pony taking the blame for the failed operation. He chuckled, "Normally I would agree and let you take the fall, you can always count on a pony to mess things up." Bone head's expression suddenly became very serious. "But in this case that would be wrong. That earth pony, brass, he sent us up there knowing full well that it was a death sentence, i could see it in his eyes, so much hate for us, it would just be convenient if we managed to get a kill or two before dieing. If you want to blame anypony then blame him." Bone head smiled, "Hey blue, how about when we get out of here, we take turns kicking his wingless ass, I can hold him for you."

“Well those other ponies you’ve seen must of been pretty boring.” remarked Violet, her smile shifting to a more mischievous grin. It shifted back into her old beaming smile when the griffon called her ‘Night Light’.

“Ooh, nobody’s ever called me that before! I like it! Anyway Mr. Griffon, you’re kinda pumped full of Med-X at the moment. You could try getting up, but you’d have a bit of trouble with that many pain killers running through you. But, don’t worry, you should be all set to get moving again in...About roughly thirty minutes. Probably.”

The little filly looked up when Mr. Griffon started talking to the now-conscious Lightning, which is when she noticed another griffon in the medical tent. “Oh hi Mr. Kes!” she called to the griffon, waving. “I haven’t seen you in awhile!”

Zestari was sort of keeping quiet vigil over Sky. She wanted the Pegasus to wake up, just so she could be sure that she was okay. She was at least relieved that of the patients she had worked on, all of them had made it through, unlike some of the less fortunate doctors working with and under Grace.

When Winter came over and asked how she was going, Zestari jerked her head in surprise, she’d been a little out of it.

“Winter,” she smiled softly, “Pretty well, all things considering. Hopefully with time and rest things’ll get better.” She turned away from Sky, “How was your ‘secret mission’? Did everyone make it back?”

Winter gave a sympathetic smile as she replied, "Well if there is anything I ca do to help..." she trailed off, knowing she need not finish the sentence. When the Zebra asked her of the 'secret mission' she sighed, looking back with a slow nod, "Luckily, it could have been worse but a few times we came very close to..." once again she didn't finish but chose to give a confident look instead, "Everyone is safe, and that's what matters" she said with a small smile.

Kestrel listened to Lightning explain what had happened earlier with careful attention. Ah so he'd guessed right then, they'd tried to fly and distract the enclave and had been shown the error of such a decision. Why Lightning had decided flying was the most viable choice in that matter was unknown to him. Sure moving around quickly often helped you avoid getting a faceful of plasma, but against the Enclave? The so called 'Owners of the Sky'?

Such action was suicide.

He'd just been about to speak up again when two voices from behind him stopped him from doing so. A casual shifting of his thick neck muscles and Kestrels eye's were upon the two, scanning and noting different things before he responded to them.

Violet, the little troublemaker that she was, seemed to be doing alright. It had been a good long while since Kestrel had seen the weird glowing-eyed filly. He'd never really understood why those orbs of her's glowed the way they did...but he'd never really cared to ask either. Everyone in the wastes had some sort of distinguishing feature about them. Those eyes just happened to be hers.

She was given a low nod of greeting from Kestrel before his attention went back to the other griffon in the room.

From his words alone Kestrel learned a bit more about the griff. He seemed mildly racist against ponies, an ideal Kestrel had never really understood, and rather violent at that. Threatening to beat down a high ranking officer, even if you were not a part of the army/militia they served in, was not a respectable or ideal thought.

"I'd recommend against that. If you've an issue with Brass I can deal with him. If understand of the rank structure here correctly, I currently outrank him." Kestrel said calmly, letting the words hang before asking another question.

"Why'd you try strafing kid?"

Lightning couldn't help but frown a little at the other griffon. Attempting to beat the earth pony would simply be a bad idea. The AL would toss them out faster than the Enclave and considering how good they were at destroying Enclave, there was nothing stopping them from killing him since he was a pegasus. He shook his head toward Bone Head and said, "No, thanks."

Lightning would then look back at Kes, almost completely expecting him to critize him. Or worse. Whatever the griffon was thinking though, he was hiding it well. He could see no indication of anger, disappointment, literally, nothing. All the griffon did was ask another question. Questions were good. Better than some painful words telling him how badly he messed up. "...Brass, the commander in charge of us at the time, ordered the pegasi and him (Lightning motioned a little toward Bone Head) to strafe. Those were his words...I knew I shouldn't have done it...I knew it was a bad idea...I...I did it anyways."

Kestrel nodded slowly, processing the information. Then he asked a question that was quite possibly the exact opposite of good. It was a simple little thing, deceptively so. But how it was answered really would determine what would happen next.

"Why?"

Lightning paused for a moment as the answer he just gave didn't seem to satisfy the griffon. He thought for a moment and thought the question over. Why DID he do it? Internally, he already knew the answer. However, the pegasus was hestitant to voice it. Because he knew exactly how it would sound. Lightning simply said it anyways, "...I did it because I was following orders. I knew Brass was sending us in a dangerous situation. But I wanted to prove to him that we could do it. In the end...we failed...I failed..."

Cuppa frowned as Lightning Flash woke up, about to tell him to stay still and rest before Kestrel arrived, initiating in conversation with him and the other griffon. Quietly stood there, thinking for a moment before she glanced over towards Zestari and Winter Bell having their conversation... She was just sort of there right now, nothing to do...

But being a moderately good medical pony, Cuppa gently tapped Kes' side. "Kestrel, ya gonna be talkin' t' them fer long? Ah want Lightnin' t' rest, he ain't able t' do much.

Kestrel started when Cuppa interrupted him. What was it with ponies and interrupting him today. He kept calm however and gave the nurse a response. "I'll leave when I'm done."

That said Kestrel went back to talking to Lightning. The young buck got his horror's realized. Kestrel went from asking questions to telling him what he'd done wrong. "That you did. You let your emotions lead, listened to an order blindly, and failed because of it. Now your stuck in bed and unable to fight." He let the words sit there for a moment before he continued.

"Pain is an excellent teacher kid. You learned how to shoot that rifle of yours with a little bit of pain. What lessons are you learning this time?"

Lightning watched as Cuppa walked over and tapped Kes gently to let the griffon know to end his conversation. With typical Kestrel fashion, the griffon said one simple sentence but that one sentence said so much. Pretty much, he will do what he has too and nopony will stop him.

The next words Kestrel said was pretty much a summary of what he just said but a lot shorter. But in his heart, Lightning knew he was right. He had let his pride and his emotions guide his actions and because of that, he had not only gotten himself hurt but Sky and Bonehead as well. Lightning would look down toward the bedsheets and away from Kes when the griffon spoke, giving him a light nod. "I learned...to do the logical thing. To think an order over before actually trying to execute it. To keep my teammates safe and use them to their best potential instead of simply flying targets."

"Good lessons, but they are meaningless without action to back them up. You know what to do now, I trust you'll do so." Kestrel said leaving the words to hang in the air a bit before turning and walking away.

His job was done here. Time to leave the kid to heal and wrestle with his thoughts. Without word or sound Kestrel began moving through the tent, disappearing out into Milk Run yet again. As he went by he saw Winter and Zestari talking, offering them both a respectful nod before he exited the tent. Out of the corner of his eye the griffon also had seen Trails.

Perhaps he was here to finally mend the broken bonds between himself and Zestari. Bout time for it really...

Lightning listened to Kestrel's last words before watching him walk away from his bed. Letting out a light sigh, he knew Kes was right. Saying what he learned was one thing. Acting upon it was another. He had to rest up and get back out into battle. It was the only way he can redeem himself. But first, he needed to talk to Spectrum. He still had a message to deliver her. Looking over at Cuppa, he would say, "Doctor, how long was I out? I need to get back out into the battle."

Bone head looked up at the ceiling, he was mulling over his thoughts about his situation. "Thirty minutes, well it could be worse, I could have been bedridden for a few days or months." Bone shuttered at that thought. He looked back down to violet and though to an old saying, a watched campfire never dies, and decided to try and pass the time with conversation.

"Tell me night light, what's a filly thats so young doing in a military medical tent. Last time I checked griffins were the only ones who sent their children off into the waste at such a young age and thats to teach them to survive out there as warriors not to learn medicine. Did that change or is the Apostolov that desperate to put bodies into the uniforms?

“Anything to help?” she echoed looking down at Sky, “I think Sky is okay, but if you have some time to spare for Flash, his injuries didn’t really respond well to our medical care. You might be able to advise us on a thing or two for further treatment.” Zestari turned towards where Flash was lying, only just now noticing the rest of the super-secret squad Happy had put together earlier and an irritated looking Cuppa.

Kestrel towered over the bedridden form of Lightning, and Zestari was glad to see her quiet friend appeared to be still in good health. Near the entrance were Kira and Scrap Parts. That was good, but then, where was Happy?

Leaning her head further out, she spotted him off talking to Gentle Breeze. She sighed wistfully.

Turning back to Winter she said softly, “You may also like to talk to Grace, she may have patients of her own that might require some sort of specialist attention.”

Waiting for Kestrel and Lightning to finish talking, Cuppa seemed rather patient, if not a little tested by the fact that most insisted on pushing themselves and talking further despite knowing they're meant to be resting. There was a tiny twitch of the eye as Lightning said how he wanted to get back out to the fight.

"Ya'll were out long enough fer me to be able t' patch ya up. Ah must admit, there was a lil' close call, but ah managed t' fixed ya up." She started, then making a serious face as she continued. "And, if ya dun wanna be in pain fer the rest o' this, ah'd suggest ya dun go anywhere, ya burns have gotten inflamed and it's gon hurt like hell."

Lightning frowned as he heard what Cuppa said he sustained during the last battle. Damn it, this will take forever for him to heal. It now occurred to him to look over himself for injuries. Looking at his wing, he realized that it was broken. And...that means...he's...grounded...The pegasus let out a sigh and a wince from the pain before looking back at Cuppa, "Doctor, do you think you can find a white pegasus in Skunk Works named Shooting Spectrum? I really need to speak to her."