Dealing with Slavers [CLOSED]

Sky grabbed the healing potion and chugged the entire bottle in a couple gulps, guessing the zebras own alchemy will have to wait. In short truth, Sky would try anything at this point to get the poison out of her body. now all she did is let the healing potion do its thing while getting a med-x shot from the doc pony.

Athanix only offered a cracked smile as he watched the Pegasus greedily drink the health potion on take the med-x in stride.

''Why yes of course. I am sure that a seasoned doctor such as yourself would know a lot more than a zebra such as myself.'' Athanix said as he whipped out his ledger and began to flip through years of notes and research he had gathered with the years he spent with his surrogate parents. With one quick motion his hoof snapped onto a page that detailed the making of a antivenom potion. ''I have a lot of faith in your knowledge. I know you only want the best for these ponies. I just ask if you could have that same amount of faith in my work. I wouldn't go running around giving people my potions if I hadn't had any bucking clue on what I was doing now would I?'' He said pulling his glasses down and snapping the ledger shut. ''I understand, however, your distrust in my work.''

''Let us just let the venom wreak its havok. I just wanted to let you know that I was going to make some antivenom.'' He then turned to the blue unicorn mare. ''Now could you please fetch me those radscorpion glands? They are the large sac and tip of the tail. Thank you.''

Turning back to the two blue ponies he spoke.
''Now if you don't mind; would you still like my help miss? I have something to counter the venom that I could whip up to help you. That is now only if I have the doctor's permission.'' Athanix said. These ponies needed to have a little more faith in him. He was only trying to help.

Shutter, after spotting and greeting Sky, had been keeping an eye out for any potential trouble that might also see the campfire and come wandering over, his keen eyes glancing back and forth across the darkened wastes.
However, Techno and Athanix were making it a bit hard to concentrate...partly because of something Athanix said that was making him wonder...

Taking a few seconds, he turned back towards the two.
"Athanix, if what you can make can cure our injured friend over there, then I don't really see the issue, unless it has a risk of a bad side-effect...I mean, I'm not much of a doctor, but it would be better to get rid of the poison directly, then waste potions untill it wears off, right?"

He asked, glancing back and forth between Techno and Athanix.

Ky now looked at the zebra with a new found respect, to find out this zebra probably knows more than the rest of the ponies in the medical department. "if it can help, with the poison, so be it. you seem to be better suited for dealing with this sort of thing, and have more experience with this situation. so if makes you feel better, will you please help me out?" hoping the zebra would help Sky out.

"Oh! Uh, of course. Thaty's an excellent point, Shutter. I'll get those glands right away," Starry trotted back to the radscorpion corpse.

"I hope we didn't offend you. It's not that I don't trust your abilities, it's just that I know far more about medicine than I do about alchemy. I'm just more comfortable with the method I know better, at least during an emergency like this."

"Oops! This is an emergency! I should probably quit chatting and get to work, huh? Silly me, chatting away when somepony is in serious trouble, I should focus more on what I'm doing."

Starry looked down at the radscorpion. She had no idea how she would remove the glands from the tail. She figured one would typically use a knife, but she hadn't had the sense to bring one with her. 'I'll just bring him the tail,' she thought. She lifted her hoof and brought it down heavily on the tail, trying to smash through the tail's carapace to seperate it from the body.

In a moment of utter failure, Starry's hoof missed the tail almost completely. What it did hit happened to be the sharp tip of the tail. Starry whinced, she could feel her hoof bleeding lightly. She looked back at the other ponies to see if any of them had noticed and, not wanting to embarass herself, wiped the blood on her hoof off discretely on the underside of her stable uniform.

With a second, strike, aimed carefully this time, Starry managed to sever the tail from the radscorpion's body. She carried it back to Athanix, levitating it beside her. The cut was on the underside of her hoof, but she managed to carry it back without limping, since her hoof had gone slightly numb. 'That's probably normal' Starry thought to herself.

"Here you go, Athanix! Radscorpion tail, with glands intact! You can just cut those out, and make the antidote. Ooh, you should make some extra! You know, in case we run into any more radscorpions along the way."

Techno winced when Arthanix spoke. He stood up from wrapping the area tightly with Gauze to slow blood flow and the spread of venom. "Look, Arthanix, I'm not insulting you or your methods or anything of the like, I'm just using what I know will work. Radscorpion venom isn't exactly new to me, and I'm taking precautions in preperation of the next symptoms. Namely pain and slight hyperventilation, from the swelling and discoloration I already see." he said, waving in Sky's general direction as he talked to Arthanix. "Now I could go into a long description as to what exactly Radscorpion venom does, but I don't have time for that. She should be fine, but she's gonna need some rest."

He stopped for a moment and put a hoof to his chin as Shutter spoke. "Hmm... Shutter makes a good point. Caould you tell me what exactly that anti-venom of yours does? Any side effects?" he said, as he watched Starry drag back a large radscorpion tail. He then saw a little bead of blood drip down her hoof. "On second thought, go right ahead." he said, walking over to Starry. "Starry, I saw your hoof bleeding. You OK?" he said, rather nervous.

Starry's expression went blank and she froze in place. "Yes, yes I'm fine," she said in monotone. 'pain and slight hyperventilation' she thought to herself, 'I wasn't exposed to too much poison, just a small cut. I should be fine, just uncomfortable.'

For Starry, that discomfort would be a better option than the humiliation of admitting that she had poisoned herself from a dead radscorpion. "Let's just focus on getting our pegasus friend healed here, and then we can all get some rest. You know, since it's so late. I sure am tired!" Starry forced herself to yawn.

Techno stood for a moment, concern showing on his face. "You're a terrible liar, y'know." he said, stating the obvious. "And I've already done what I can for the pegasus. Now please tell me what happened, because the only way a pony like you could get cut in less than two minutes away from us is either you hitting something sharp or being attacked. I'd assume the former." he said, stepping foreward. "And the only sharp thing between here and that radscorpion is it's tail." he said, putting his perception to good use. "Now, what happened?" he said, now knowing, or at least thinking he knows, what happened. Oh sweet Celestia, please don't let me be wrong...

"N-nothing happened!" Starry stammered, raising her voice. "It was... peice of glass! A peice of glass, on the road. That's it, I'll be fine... don't worry about me!"

She chuckled awkwardly, trying to appear amused. "I mean, come on, that would just be ridiculous. What sort of foal goes and cuts themselves on a radscorpion tail? You'd have to be a real moron to pull off something like that."

Techno let our a big sigh. "Phew... And I thought you went and did just that." he said, rather relieved. "Want me to give it a quick wrap? I have barely any left on this roll, and this'll probably be the largest wound it could cover." he offered, still wanting to keep the group in good health. He still kept a slightly concerned aura about him.

All the confirmation I need is her next response... he mentally noted to himself

I-uh," Starry didn't know what to say. She lifted her hoof to her face, angling it so that only she could see the wound. 'It kinda looks like a glass cut, but Techno knows more about this stuff than me, he can probably tell the difference... What would a brave pony like Trails or Rodeo do?'

Starry pounded her hoof on the ground, and made a tough face, which was momentarily interrupted by the jolt of pain felt from slamming her injured hoof. "Ah ain't some lil' filly needin' coddlin', doc! Jus give me th' bandage, ah kin wrap mah wounds jus fine mahself!"

"You lot are bucking insane."

Lucky, who had stationed himself on the ground next to the fire, had just finished off the rest of the contents of his flask. He had been watching the group run around for the past few minutes, and finally opened his mouth to comment.

"If ya'll manage to have any poison left after you're done fuckin' with it, send it my way. It makes for a good drink."

Techno glared a dagger at Lucky and turned back to Starry.

Yeah, she poisoned herself. he mentally stated.

His expression fell to a blank stare. "Alright, if you can do it yourself, can I at least look at the cut to check for infection?"

Starry grinned widely.

'Yeah, he totally fell for it. she thought to herself, 'and to think, Athanix believes he's a better talker than I am. If only he knew.'

"No thanks," Starry replied smugly, "I may not be a doctor, but I know how dress a wound like it's going to the Grand Galloping Gala. That's some pre-war party thing I read about, real fancy. Point is, I can treat myself just fine."

"Oh, and Unlucky," she was referring to Lucky Draw, "If you'd like, I could let you borrow one of my firebombs. It's a far more painful way to go, but certainly faster than poison." Starry wasn't typically so eager to assist her friends with suicide, but she was eager to finally put her firebombs to good use.

Techno sighed. "Look, are you going to let me treat you for Radscorpion poison or not? I'll just say the former is a lot less painful both physically and mentally." he said, before adding with a grin "And dressing a wound and dressing for a party are two different things. One is for survival and the other is to keep you from bleeding all over the place."

Starry's eyes went wide. Techno had just announced her secret to everypony around. She looked at all the ponies around her. By the looks on their faces, it wasn't much of a secret.

"Fine," she finally resigned, throwing her hoof in front of Techno while she averted her gaze toward the sky. The hoof looked... bad. There wasn't too much blood, but a fair amount of dirt had found its way into the wound.

Athanix only smiled as he was finishing the small vial of antivenom. It sat in the campfire at a slow simmer. This was the most difficult part of zebra alchemy. One suc thing that he hated and took him years to pull off.

He needed to rhyme.

"Ponies lives may be at stake, what sort of rhymes could I make?" Athanix said as he tapped a hoof on his chin, deep in thought. His eyes widenend as a smile lit up his face. Now eyeing the vial, he began his chant.

"May this potion I brew cure the ill, this I wish with all my will. This poion was crafted with death, but make it give ponies new breath." At that moment the vial stopped simmering. Seeing this, Athanix coaxted the vial out of the fire and examined it. Content with his work, he trotted over to the downed pegasus and offered the un-corked vial to her.

"There ya go. That should rid you of all the posion in your system." Athanix said as he started to flip through his ledger. "To my knowledge this brew doesn't have any side effects. Although it would not be wise to drink more than half of it." He said as he tuned to face the unicorn mare. "After all, I brewed for two."

(Sorry if this was a little late. I am away from my tablet and typed this all up on my phone. So I also apologise for he post quality if is lacking its normal finess.)

After the look he was given by Techno, Lucky just began laughing. He got up and headed to where Athanix had just finished brewing the antivenom and administered it to the pegasus. He looked at what was left of the giant scorpion and said,"I'm serious about that poison, if there's any left, send it my way. It's worth a load of caps, and if done right, it makes some of the best damn booze in the wastes."

Lucky then took a small knife and started cutting pieces of the arthropod apart. He peeled off the shell and, using an old antenna from his bags, impaled the meat. Lucky held the kabob over the fire, and sat back down.

Giving a glance over at Lucky, Shutter couldn't really do anything but agree.

"Lucky is right, to an extent...I've seen some of the prices traders offer and sell poisons like this for when I was searching for camera parts in their stocks...and to be honest, it's completely understandable. A coating of poison on a knife or spear could probably end a dangerous fight alot quicker and neater then one without."

He said, before turning back to watch the wastes for trouble.

"...However, turning something like that into alcohol just sounds silly! I mean, I've heard alcohol was a poison before, but that just seems to be taking it too literally!"

Lucky looked at Shutter.

"Clearly, YOU have never tried Stinger before. We'll need to remedy that at some point."

He continued to roast his scorpion over the fire, noting that it was almost done.

"As it is, I doubt we'll find any, shit's harder to make than Sparkle-Nades, and if you fuck it up it turns into something kinda like battery acid."

Lucky looked back at his food, which was done by now. He took it off the fire and gingerly slipped it onto a flat rock he picked up off the ground. The scorpion meat glistened with juicy goodness, steaming in the cold night air. The brown pony voraciously tore into it, and between bites managed to ask, "Anypony want some? There's more than enough for everypony."

Sparkle-nades... Starry would have to try that some time. "You wouldn't happen to know how to make a sparkle-nade, would you?" Starry asked, "because if there's one thing I'm good at, well, it would be science, but if there were two things, it would be science and things that explode."

"Oh, and I think I'll pass on the meat." Starry was pretty hungry, but she had a can of beans in her saddlebag she would eat for herself. "I don't eat- uh, I don't want any."

Lucky stopped eating the steak long enough to respond.

"Actually, I had a schematic for them at one point, but I nearly killed myself tryin' to make one of the damn things. I sold it to some random traveler, got me a good few caps."

He noted Starry's refusal of the food as well, and turned to finish his.

"Don't eat meat, eh? No worries, took me some time to get used to. It's better than the scraggly crap we call vegetation out here though, and it sure as hell beats that two hundred year old stuff."

Techno turned his head and spat as Lucky suggested that he eat meat. "Damn meat-eaters..." he mumbled to himself. He took Starry's hoof and took what little gauze was left in his levitation and wrapped it tightly above where the cut was. He levitated a healing potion out of his bags. "Drink up." he said, wincing, since he was now down two potions out of the eight he packed. "That should keep you in good health for the time being. Just try to relax for a bit. Slow the spread of the venom, and let the potion take care of getting it out." he said, giving instructions and the reasoning behind them.

((Oh wow really need to pay attention to those new pages... Heh heh...))

Starry chugged down the healing potion, but nearly choked on it when she started to snicker . After draining the bottle of it's contents, she tossed it aside, and went on to explain what had humored her.

"Two blue unicorns who don't eat meat. You know, if we keep traveling together ponies are gonna start thinking we're related."

"Oh, and Unlucky, I happen to like the taste of two-hundred year old carrots, it's quite a bit more appetizing than carrion."Starry pulled a can out of her saddlebag, "Care to share a can of-" Starry turned the label to face her, "a can of two-hundred year old carrots?" 'That was lucky' Starry thought to herself.

Shutter gave a noticable flinch, when Lucky offered the meat around. Eating such stuff after a life of the usual Stable fare still didn't sit well with him...it just didn't seem right to eat something that had been alive before.

"I'm gonna have to agree with our Unicorn friends on this one...sorry Lucky, but if Ponies were supposed to be omnivores, then my stomach never got the message..."

He said, before turning back around, once again and heading back towards the campfire.

"Well, this has been nice so far...a fairly quiet night, aside from finding this Campfire...Luna must be smiling down on us tonight."

He said, before rooting through his own saddlebags, looking for one of the few cans of his own he brought along for the trip.