Delayed, unplanned, bit of a rushed ending and barely proof read, had to stop it before it got too long (this one is longer than average at the 6k word mark).
For whatever it is worth though here is another story bit tied to the migrant wave, last part out of two before I resume actually playing the stable (and fuck, it's been a long time now).
The newbloods make an appearance one way or the other, Leaf gets a mention but is otherwise kinda left out of this part (sorry about that).
Day 8
POV PSI
PSI walked into her newly smoothed home barracks floating a cup of steaming hot coffee.
Being an unicorn was great she thought, she had a hard time imagining how those poor bastards Replica, Splint, Zebio and Lojack could live without a horn, she had tried doing things with her hooves and mouth but she’d only end up toppling things over.
Her hooves felt like two logs, she couldn’t really grasp anything with them, how THEY did it was a complete and utter mystery to her.
She looked around the room, there was a group of six new recruits which had been sent down one by one by Replica to join up with their shoddy little militia.
They were green as grass, they were completely embarrassing themselves in their cute little attempts at sparring with one another.
It was a good thing that all they had were wooden sticks and brooms, or somepony would have gotten seriously hurt the way they were taking hits to the head and ribs.
She sighed and hovered her coffee close her nuzzle, close enough to feel the heat.
She just wanted to check and make sure that it was still warm, just in case she had been standing there glaring at the recruits for longer than she thought she had.
It was still hot.
Good.
She hadn’t had coffee since before they left Lemon.
Honestly she wasn’t into the stuff herself, she absolutely hated the taste, it was like warm piss to her.
The coffee wasn’t for her however, she spotted the pony she’d been looking for.
“Hey Splint.” She called out.
The periwinkle blue stallion was snoozing on a smoothed stone stool crafted by none other than himself the day before, by his side, leaned against the wall was his crappy little BB gun.
He didn’t respond to her.
Maybe he was napping, he’d deserved it, Replica had kept most of everypony up all night to help sort out and bring the new arrivals up to speed on things.
Splint, Pokon and Maklak had all worked all night on organizing their new recruits, Pokon and Mak were both in the next room lecturing their rookie rifleponies on proper firearms usage, the importance of aiming down sights, how to effectively reload a BB gun and so on. It was all they could do for now, really.
PSI was supposed to work with her own recruits, but she’d been dead tired, Splint had been so nice as to soldier on and relieve her for the night, insisting that he’d do just fine teaching them how to use and defend themselves in melee.
Because, how hard could it be teaching pones how to swing sticks?
Very hard apparently.
It seemed like the only thing Splint had managed to teach them was what the ass end of a beating stick wa- oh, nope, there was an earth pony swinging his broom with the lower end in his mouth, Celestia damn it.
PSI couldn’t help but giggle, the recruits took notice and stopped their sparring to glare at her.
An unicorn stallion stomped up to her with his wooden baton floating above him, poised to strike.
He stopped a couple of inches away from her and striked her an intimidating pose that PSI found adorably cute in that 'I've seen more horrifying things than you' kind of way.
She’d had bigger fish than this chump, all it made her think was ‘Ah am ah scarey unicorn! Rawr!’.
“Who the hell are you?” the unicorn asked with a threatening tone of voice.
She smirked. He didn’t know.
“I am PSI. Commander of Pineapple and it's ramshackle militia.”
The unicorn’s eyes narrowed, oh shit!
He backed off nervously and stood at the ready, god he was sloppy, if this had been Lemon the drill sergeant would have been standing over him beating him with that horrible whip-like rice that the drill sarges carried around there.
“I-I’m so sorry!” the stallion whimpered.
PSI damn near broke out into a hysteric laugh, this was hilarious!
HE was scared of HER, she was like half his size!
“I’m sorry WHAT?” PSI prompted.
The stallion was shivering like crazy, poor sod was waiting for her to let him go.
“I-I’m s-sorry, sir!”
SIR? She was no ‘sir’ she was a ‘ma’am’!
Oh, she was gonna have fun with him.
She tried to look as angry as possible and then took a step closer to him so that her face was just an inch from his.
“I’m sorry MA’AM!” she yelled at him, the stallion was startled by her sudden outburst, his ears drooped and he shut his eyes in an attempt to make the bad little mare go away. “YOU’RE PATHETHIC RECRUIT! PA-THETHIC! HEY! LOOK AT ME! LOOK. AT. ME.” She barked.
The stallion opened his eyes and tried really hard to look her in the eyes, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.
“WHAT’S YOUR NAME, RECRUIT!?”
“E-eh, u-uh, M-moss Entrylisten, ma’am!” he stammered.
“WELL FORGET YOUR NAME! FROM NOW ON YOU’LL BE CALLED CANDY!”
She almost broke her mask there, too rich!
The stallion looked confused.
“C-candy, ma’am?”
“DID I TELL YOU TO SPEAK, CANDY!?”
“I-I… n-no…”
“THEN I SUGGEST YOU SHUT YOUR TRAP, MAGGOT!”
The stallion didn’t respond.
Good. He was learning quick!
“CANDY, WHAT RACE OF PONY ARE YOU?!”
“I… uh… w-what?” the stallion said confused.
“Is the question too hard for you Candy? Or are you just mentally deficient?”
“N-no… I’m… I'm an unicorn ma’am…”
PSI pretended to look surprised.
“Unicorn? Reeeeeaaally? Why, that’s the biggest pile of shit I’ve ever heard in my entire life. I'm an unicorn, and by claiming to be an unicorn you are implying that I am just as much of a sack of shit as you are.” She walked around the stallion carefully looking him over.
“No. No, you aren’t an unicorn. You aren’t even a pony. You are a… a… SUB-pony. Yeah.”
“A-a… sub pony? Ma’am?”
“You are an insult to all ponies. You are a joke Candy, you’re pathetic. And you know what? You shouldn’t even be here, I don’t think you have what it takes to be a soldier. I’ll talk to Replica later today and see if I can have you reassigned to something a little more suited to you… I’m thinking brewing or farming.” She said, ignoring the fact that both Corai and Replica were working with those things.
She nonchalantly turned around and began walking towards Splint who was silently watching the whole scene.
"B-but ma'am! I want t-" he tried.
“Candy, get the fuck out of my barracks. The rest of you can go take a break, we’ll resume tomorrow morning.”
The recruits left the barracks, PSI gave Splint the coffee she had brought for him.
She watched over him waiting for him to say something but all he did was stare at something behind her.
She turned around and the stallion she had nicknamed ‘Candy’ was still standing there, his head bowed, gritting his teeth.
“Still here Candy? I thought I told you to fuck off.” PSI said.
“No ma’am…” he responded slowly.
“No? You’re done here, finished. Get out.”
“I’m not leaving… I’m not useless… I am NOT a sub pony…”
PSI grinned.
“Oh really? Those are big words… got something to back those up?”
The stallion didn’t respond with anything, instead he charged at her screaming at the top of his lungs in a fit of rage floating his wooden stick above him.
PSI was caught by surprise and shocked over his sudden outburst, just as he swung his wooden stick at her she managed to snatch Splint’s BB rifle with her magic and use it to parry his attack.
Splint immediately rushed up.
“No! Stay out of this!” PSI said, “I want to see how he’ll handle himself…”
Candy threw another attack at her, he swung at her in a wide and forceful arc from the left side, she easily parried his attack and swung the butt of Splint’s rifle at him in a counter attack.
She missed, the rifle flew past Candy, leaving PSI vulnerable to attack.
Seeing the opportunity Candy launched himself at PSI, having a larger frame he tackled her to the floor, the two tampered for a moment but in the end Candy ended up overwhelming her.
He held her pinned to the floor, his wooden stick was pressed against her throat and kept from chocking her by PSI holding her hooves against it.
Candy was snorting, he was pissed.
“I-impressive…” PSI said, sounding a little frightened.
“Not so high and mighty now are you!?” Candy yelled at her.
PSI grinned.
“Oh, you didn’t win this…”
The stallion looked puzzled.
What did she mean? He had her pinned, she was at his mercy…
Suddenly, he felt something poke his delicates… the BB gun.
His eyes narrowed. “........damnit!" he whispered to himself. He shook his head and loosened the pressure on PSI's throat slightly. "No…”
“Yes.” She nodded, grinning.
“D-don’t…!” the stallion whined.
PSI looked up to Splint.
“Have you assigned a squad second in command yet?”
“No… They have barely been here for a night PSI…”
She looked back to Candy, who was now terrified again.
“Congratulations Candy, I’m promoting you to corporal.”
The stallion barely had time to react before PSI pulled the trigger.
After Moss (or Candy if you will) was brought off to the bunkers modest little hospital PSI and Splint were left alone in the barracks, there wasn't any special reason for it or anything, Splint was just enjoying his cup of coffee while PSI checked her recruits gear out of curiosity for what they might have brought with them and what they had been using as training weapons that night.
The two were silent, Splint was mostly just minding his own business while PSI was riffling through the mess the recruits had left in the barracks footlockers, every now and then he'd glance over to her, or at least her flank...
PSI looked up and closed the footlockers one by one.
"Hmpf. Damn rookies," she picked up a wooden stick somepony had brought along, it looked kinda frail. "These wont do. We need better training weapons... and shields, we'll need shields too."
"So talk to Replica about it." Splint said.
She floats her wooden spear and goes up to Splint. "Spar?"
He eyes her warily, he was a gunner, what did he know about melee combat?
"I promise I'll go easy on you..." she says reassuringly.
"...okay." he gets up and brings his BB rifle up.
"So, I WOULD talk to her about it." she says while making a quick thrust at Splint with her spear, he deflects her attack. "But all she'd do is lecture me on how dangerous it would be to bring in a couple of logs." she smiled, "What a joke, thirty ponies make it in safely and she still argues that its too dangerous to go topside for half an hour..."
"She does have a point PSI...", he swings the butt of his BB rifle at her.
She parries it.
"What?"
"Maybe those thirty ponies were just lucky, maybe going to the surface isn't such a good idea..."
She pauses.
"You can't be serious Splint. We came all the way out here for the scavenge left behind by those horseflies and we're just gonna sit curled up down here with the scavenge being literally just a stone throw away?" she frowned, "We NEED the scavenge, AND the wood Splint! This isn't a temporary hidey hole, this is supposed to be our new home, as shitty as it is. I don't wanna share six beds with a whole block of ponies forever damnit!"
"PSI... please, be patient... listen to Replica... it's not going to be like this forever..." Splint said calmly.
"Why are you agreeing with her!? Whose side are you on!"
"...sides... when did this become about picking sides?"
"Well either you agree with ME," without warning she jabs at Splint, he takes a quick jump back, "Or you agree with HER."
"It doesn't work like that PSI, Replica is concerned about our safety because she was appointed to be our leader. It's her job to be protective of us."
"Protective yes, not OVER-" she parries a clumsy attack from Splint aimed at her forehooves, "-protective!"
She launched a serious counter attack at him and struck him in the right side, he recoiled.
"That's not fair PSI..." PSI wasn't sure if he meant the attack or their discussion. "She's trying really hard to be a good leader..."
"What? No she isn't!" she thrusts at Splint from above, he beats the flying spear out of her grasp and she immediately picks it up again. "She had a mental fit just a few days ago over something Zebio said and she left us to go sob in her room, and where the fuck was she yesterday?"
Splint didn't say anything.
"Yeah! That's right! That sure as fuck doesn't sound like 'trying to be a good leader' to me!"
Splint looked annoyed.
"Being a leader isn't easy PSI," he performed a downwards swing from above which PSI gracefully sidestepped. "Replica has a lot of responsibilities and things to think about, it's pretty normal that she'd be under a lot of stress right now."
"Why do you insist on defending her!"
"Because I am loyal to my boss."
PSI gaped.
"Splint. I'm your boss, you serve under me first and Replica second." she said irritated.
"..."
Her eyes narrowed and she took a step back.
"Oh. I see what's going on... I see..."
"...what?" Splint wonders, confused.
"You and Replica."
Splint blinked at her, still confused.
It took him a minute to realize.
"Oh. OH. What?! No!"
PSI just kept staring at him.
"No! With Replica? I'd never!"
"You betray yourself." she looked down "What did you do with her..."
"Well what the fuck! How would YOU react if I suddenly accused you of being with Lycaeon or Zebio!?"
"What. Did. You. Do. With. Her."
"Nothing! There is nothing going on!"
"You're lying..."
"No, it's the honest trut-"
"You're lying! YOU'RE LYING!" she looked up and yelled at him.
"PSI-"
Splint was cut short by her charging at him with her spear held high.
He raised his BB gun to brace against her charge but he underestimated the kind of force she had, she was stronger than she looked!
Splint was knocked back, PSI threw a relentless flurry of stabs and thrusts with her spear which hit Splint all over his back and neck, he was lucky that the spear was made of wood or he'd have gotten more than just a few bruises and minor cuts...
"PSI stop! Stop!" he tried, but she wasn't listening to him, she kept attacking him.
He gathered strength and pushed her away, being an earth pony he was at a serious combat disadvantage, he couldn't parry her spear attacks and PSI at the same time so he had to just pony up and try and take her down directly as best he could while taking hits.
PSI didn't react well to being pushed away, she recovered instantly and forcibly gored Splint in the chest with her horn, toppling him over, she continued launching her attacks with her spear stinging at him from above like a paradore and forcing him to shield himself with his forelegs.
But Splint wasn't just going to lie there and take it, he caught glance of an opportunity to strike back and managed to trip PSI, she wasn't prepared for a move like that and fell over, she was distracted from attacking and this gave Splint another window of opportunity which he used to throw himself over PSI to restrain her.
"AAAH!! GET OFF OF ME!" she yelled.
She struggled to loosen his grip, she had been overpowered like that one times too many that day.
"PSI, CALM DOWN!"
"LET ME GO!!"
It was no use.
He held her firmly and looked at her struggle for a few moments, then he leaned in and kissed her.
She stopped struggling and calmed down.
The two shared a long and loving kiss on the barracks floor which was ultimately broken by Splint, he looked at her with a gentle expression.
"Please PSI, you have to believe me... There is nothing going on between me and Replica... I'm not interested in her."
PSI looked away.
After a bit of an awkwardly long moment of silence she muttered "You... you can get off me now."
He realized that he was still holding her down firmly.
Embarrassed he let her go and stood up.
"Sorry..."
Still laying on the floor PSI looked up to Splint.
"No... I am the one who should be sorry... I... I didn't mean to doubt you..." she looked him over, she noticed the bruises and cuts she had inflicted upon him, "...or... or hurt you the way I did..."
Splint checked himself out and laughed.
"Oh these? Just some minor wounds, it's nothing." he smiled.
"I could have killed you... if they had let me bring my thermal spear, I... goddess..." she looked ashamed of herself, she was clearly regretting what she had done.
"Luckily for me they didn't." he chucked and reached out a helping hoof to PSI.
She looked at his outreached hoof reluctantly before accepting it, Splint pulled her up with more force than he had intended too, her strength had made him think that she weighted more than she did, PSI bumped into Splint.
"Whoops! Sorry-"
PSI hugged him. Splint returned the hug.
"I love you..." she said.
"I love you too PSI."
*Beep! Beep!*
PSI's PipBuck rang, it was Replica who had pinged PSI.
PSI groaned. "I don't wanna go..."
Splint broke the hug and smiled at her.
"It's alright, we'll talk later."
She sighed. "Okay... See you later then..."
"Bye hun."
PSI left the barracks.
She leaned against the wall and sighed again, "Alright, where is that bitch..." she muttered and brought up her PipBuck.
She checked her local map, it was a total mess of name tags over a small area, the largest concentration of tags seemed to be in the bunkers tiny mess hall where there were what looked like 15 to 20 tags. She imagined that it must have been pretty cramped in there, she made a mental note to have her future meals in the barracks until they expanded the mess hall a little.
"Okay... if I was a dimwited idiot, where would I be..." she carefully looked through the local map, room by room, sorting the mess of tags out one by one... it was strange... Replica was nowhere to be found.
*Beep! Beep!*
"Yeah yeah you stupid cripe, I'm looking for you..."
*Beep! Beep! Beep!*
She tabbed to her messages, these weren't pings, they were messages, all from Replica.
'PSI HELP'
'OUTSIDE'
'HELP ME'
She zoomed her local map out and found Replica's tag next to the tags of those merchants who had been killed by those horrid ghouls, what the fuck was she doing all the way out there?
She began typing a message to her but then she stopped, if she messaged her, Replica's PipBuck would beep and potentially reveal her position if she was really up there on the surface, she'd die.
She'd die...
Hmm...
She finished her message and held her hoof over the button to send it off.
Should I? Shouldn't I?
...
No.
She erased her message and opened the barracks door and peeked in.
"Splint?"
Splint was sitting on a footlocker bandaging himself up, he was surprised to see her.
"PSI? Thought you were off to see Replica?"
"Replica is topside."
"Oh... shit."
"Are you okay? Think you can fight?"
"I..." he finished wrapping a bandage around his rear leg. "...yeah, yeah I'll be fine."
"Good, grab your gear and meet me by the entrance."
PSI rushed off to Pokon and Maklak's barracks, the two were still in there instructing their recruits.
"Pokon, Maklak, we have a problem."
"What is it?" Pokon asked wearily.
"Replica has gone up to the surface, we need to bring her back in."
"What? The surface!? What the hell is she doing up on the surface!?" Maklak wondered.
"Fuck if I know. Just, get your gear and meet me by the entrance, I already informed Splint."
"Very well." Pokon said. He turned to the recruits who were looking at the three with wide eyes, "Class is over, we'll resume later today. Everypony go grab a bite and get some rest."
--
The four ponies met up by the entrance, PSI and Splint were the only two who had any kind of armor, their bronze and kevlar security helmets and bardings.
As for the rest they wore just their jumpsuits, Pokon had a cloak and Maklak had a kind of leather beret of sorts, despite the half decent protection PSI and Splint had the group was poorly equipped for what they were about to do. A wooden spear and three BB guns with a very limited amount of pellets wasn't going to help them out all too much.
PSI was just about to speak when a fifth pony showed up.
It was a burly large earth pony stallion with a crimson mane and tail, rust colored worn out eyes and a cutiemark of three horseshoes.
There was something very unusual about his appearance in that he was unusually hairy for a pony, his coat was many times longer than that of the average sort. Over this thick coat he wore a heavy looking trench coat of an unfamiliar and dark design which had a purple and yellow badge of a cloud and thunder embedded on the shoulders.
"Wait up comrades." he called out with an uncommon thick accent heard only in old pre-war documentaries about ponies living in the Crystal Mountains in the areas laying beyond the legendary Crystal Empire...
PSI turned to him. "Stand back, we are about to open the doors." she warned.
"I know, I want to come with you."
"Can't let you do that. I don't want to risk civilian lives here."
"I'm not a civilian, you are my superior officer, Captain PSI Sparklecoast, yes?"
"Wh- how do you know that? I haven't exactly told anypony my rank or about our chain of command."
"Replica told me when I was interviewed by her and this Lycaeon fellow. She assigned me to your squad."
"What?" she looked to Splint, "Is this true? Is this one of the new recruits?"
Splint shrugged.
"I don't know, I've never seen him before."
She looked back to the burly pony.
"If you were assigned to my squad then why weren't you at combat training?"
"Sergeant Splint was asleep when I checked in."
She looked back at Splint again.
"Uh... s-sorry..."
She shook her head.
"Okay, and why didn't you look for me instead?"
"I did. Couldn't find you." the stallion said.
"You have a PipBuck us-" wait, no he didn't. The stallion didn't have a PipBuck strapped to his leg. He wasn't a stable pony.
"Wait, you aren't one of us. You aren't a stable pony. Who are you?"
"Aye. My name is Frost Byte. I come from way up north. I stumbled across miss Lemon Mountainplan's group on my travels and ended up sticking with them."
"What, you just jumped on an expedition to this shithole just like that?"
"I was starved. She offered me food. I owe her."
"Right. Still, you can't come with us. You don't even have a weapon for Celestia's sake!"
Frost Byte showed his flank to them and indicated his cutiemark.
"My hooves are all I need. I'm a martial pony. I can buck pretty hard."
"..."
PSI turned to her companions.
"What do we do?" she whispered, "Should we bring him with us?"
"Wah, are you kidding!?" Maklak burst out, "Of course we should bring him! Have you SEEN what we are working with here!?" he threw his BB rifle by PSI's hooves.
"He'd do a hell of a much better job bashing ghouls than we ever could!"
"Wow Maklak, thanks for being so subtle." PSI said with drippy sarcasm. "But I see your point, you're right." she turned back to Frost Byte who just passively observed the four. "If you want to come with us then okay, sure, I wont stop you."
"Great. So what's the plan comrades?"
"The plan is that you drop that comrade shit."
"..."
"Replica fucked up and went up to the surface for whatever reason, the local map pins her down to where the dead traders are at. DON'T call or message her or her PipBuck might end up revealing her position to the ghouls."
"So what do we do?" Pokon asked.
"We go up there, get Replica and get the hell back inside as quickly as ponily possible."
"Ponily possible? Is that even a word?" Splint asks.
PSI cast him an angry glare.
"Sorry."
"Sounds good." Pokon said.
"Whenever you're ready PSI." Maklak said.
They all turned to the cog shaped stone door.
PSI brought her PipBuck up and made a call.
"Coldnar? You there?"
"{Yes PSI, I'm here.}"
"Open the doors."
In a brief moment the doors wheeled open, the five ponies were met by a cold cloud of whirring dust, there was a storm going on out there.
God damnit, they could have messaged her regardless and the ghouls wouldn't have heard anything.
"Dust storm! Perfect!" Maklak yelled to overvoice the roar of the storm.
"No this is good!" Frost Byte yelled, "We can use this as cover!"
"Cover your faces ladies! We are going out there!" PSI shouted.
The five ponies went outside, PSI instructed Coldnar to shut the doors and to stay put in Replica's office.
They climbed out of the little pit they had dug out previously and up into the plains above.
It was impossible to see more than a few meters ahead, the storm engulfed everything, it was the perfect cover.
PSI checked her PipBuck for direction.
East-south-east, she pointed her hoof in that direction.
"This way!"
The others followed her.
The five wandered slowly through a number of scrap piles and trees, all quiet so far, Replica was literally right before them according to PSI's local map.
"Well where the hell is she!?" Maklak yelled, having brought up his own map.
There were four half eaten corpses there and a brahmin carcass, but no Replica.
"Replica!" PSI called out.
She heard faint coughing.
"Over here...!", the voice came from the brahmin carcass, the five rushed up to it.
"Oh my god..." PSI whispered to herself.
Replica was leaned against the brahmin with an injured hindleg, she had a ghoul laying over her.
"Help! Please!"
"Is it... is it alive!?"
"I don't know!! It just collapsed on me! Please, get it off!"
PSI and Frost Byte carefully pushed the ghoul of Replica, she dragged herself away from it.
The ghoul woke up with a gasp and immediately dived for PSI's legs.
"GAH!"
Maklak took aim and shot the ghoul in the right eye with his BB rifle, the ghoul hissed and stopped going after PSI.
Frost Byte rushed up to the ghoul and pressed a hoof down over its skull, part of it caved in and the ghoul died.
He went up to Replica and helped her up, just as she got up the ghoul lifted its head and roared at the ponies.
The roar was returned from multiple directions.
"LETS GET OUT OF HERE!" Splint yelled.
Replica was herded off by Frost Byte.
"NO WAIT, WE HAVE TO GET TH-"
"NO TIME REPLICA, LETS GO!"
It was a wild rush back to the entrance, for the entire way they could hear the ghouls hiss and roar behind them, they were looking for them and were following their trail through the storm.
PSI had Coldnar open the doors and they all got in, they were safe now...
Replica was brought down to the hospital where Moss Entrylisten was sitting with a bag of ice in his lap, they had no refrigerators, so presumably an unicorn had frozen some water or something.
He was in the company of an earth pony mare with a sandy taupe coat and cerulean mane, she had a strawberry cutiemark.
Moss cast PSI an ill look, she nodded at him with a smile. "Corporal."
They placed Replica on a bed and gathered around.
For whatever reason Splint insisted on taking a good look at her rear leg despite having just as little medical expertise as the rest of them had, fortunately, for PSI's patience, he didn't get much time to look at it before somepony came by.
It was Rina, the chubby unicorn Replica knew.
He had the kind of stupid grin that would make you want to punch him on the nose.
"Hello Replica, its been what, two and a half weeks since I last had you in? Then of course, last time w-"
Replica's face reddened.
"Shut up. You're a doctor, you have sworn to respect the privacy of your patients!"
"Mmhmm. Wasn't going to tell them obviously, just wanted to see your reaction."
"Yeah, hardy fucking har..."
"Wait who the hell are you? Where is Coldnar?" Maklak wondered.
"I am doctor Rina Glowpearl. New arrival. Was assigned to..." he sighed, "'Assist' young Coldnar in running this hospital." he said with some annoyance clear in his voice.
"Yeah, okay. Why isn't Coldnar doing this?"
"Why, I am a qualified doctor. Don't you trust me to do my job?"
Maklak gritted his teeth.
"We don't know you."
Both Rina and Splint opened their mouths to say something but they were both interrupted by Replica lifting a hoof to stop whatever argument was about to break out.
"Guys, this hurts. I know Rina since many years back, I trust him. If you are going to bicker about it then I'm afraid that I am gonna have to ask you to leave."
Maklak and Rina stared at each other for a good long awkwardly silent moment. Heavy tension was in the air.
Then Maklak lifted a hoof in resignation.
"Fine, I'm leaving, I don't want to cause any trouble."
"Maklak it's okay, you can stay as l-" Replica tried to say.
"No no, its fine. Don't have much of a reason to be here anyway."
Then he left in a hurry.
Everypony were quiet for a moment, then Rina looked at Replica.
"Jeez, what's his problem?"
"Forget about it. I don't want you, or anypony else, starting any trouble now. Just leave it be guys." Replica says.
"Okay. Sorry..." Rina goes up to a cabinet and brings out a bandage and a rag, then he comes back and kneels down besides the bed to get a better look at the wound.
It's an ugly gash, it looked like an animal had clawed her and smudged the entire wound with dirt.
It wasn't very deep, but it was rather big and had made it difficult for her to walk back to the entrance, she had to be carried by Frost Byte for the last stretch.
Rina sighed.
"So how did you get injured this time?"
Replica looked to PSI.
"Water. He means 'Please PSI could you get me some water to clean her wound with?'"
PSI didn't feel like arguing so she just got up and floated the bucket of water sitting in the corner of the hospital closest to the door to the bed.
"No, that's not what I meant at all." Rina said, dipping the rag in the bucket. "What did you do? Why were you on the surface?"
"How do you know, we ju-aagh!" Rina cleaned her wound, it stung.
"Don't be a baby Replica, it's just a flesh wound."
"It hurts!"
"No shit, that's what it feels like when you get injured, you of all ponies should know."
"..." she frowned.
"A-at least be gentle about it! You don't have to cram the damn thing in there!"
Rina rolled his eyes.
"So anyway. Coldnar told me. I caught him in your office when I came looking for you. So why were you on the surface again?"
"Yeah, I kinda want to know this too." PSI said. "What the HELL were you thinking?"
"You could have gotten killed out there!" Splint said.
Replica looked at them.
She lowered her head and sighed.
"You wont believe me if I tell you. I know you wont."
"Wow, really. Just cut to the chase and tell us." PSI said impatiently.
"PSI, its stupid. You wont believe me."
PSI enveloped the rag Rina was using with her magic and added pressure onto her wound.
Obviously it put Replica into a great amount of pain.
"OOAGHWHY!!"
Rina moved the rag away and cast PSI a glare which she ignored.
"Zebra ghost!" Replica exclaimed.
"What?"
"I had to go up to get the name tags of a zebra ghost so that he'll go away!"
PSI raised an eyebrow. She wasn't the only one to do so.
"...zebra ghost? Really? ...you're right. That IS stupid. You can't be fucking serious."
"I swear! It was a caravan guard! He didn't have a PipBuck so we didn't memorialize him properly! He came to me and said that if I didn't give him peace he'd haunt us!"
Replica looked absolutely hysterical, and she sounded completely insane.
"Ghosts do not exist Replica."
"Actually," Pokon interjected, "They do exist. Nopony knows how, but some areas of the wasteland can make the souls of the dead return as living spirits." he shrugs.
"But I haven't heard of a ghost talking to anypony though."
PSI looked at Pokon in disbelief, but she knew better.
The stallion must have been a hundred years old for all she knew, and she didn't know for sure, maybe ghosts DID exist.
"...alright, fine. But why go to the surface to get his name tags rather than asking him his name? Like seriously, how come that thought didn't cross your mind?"
"Don't you think I did!!" Replica said with frustration.
"The bastard can't tell me his name for some reason! The tags is the only way to learn his name!"
PSI was having a hard time imagining this. She couldn't believe that Replica was their damn leader, she was clearly insane!
"Ugh, and did you get the tags?"
"NO YOU IDIOT! YOU GUYS DRAGGED ME AWAY BEFORE I COULD GET THEM!! AAAGH! THEY WERE LITERALLY FIVE METERS AWAY FROM ME!!!!" Replica burst out.
"There," Rina said suddenly, ignoring her outburst, "Got you all patched up now." he got up.
"Now, I suggest you gang leave the hospital. Replica needs rest and arguing, um... hurts the patients rate of recovery." he said uncertainly.
"That's not true." PSI said.
"It kinda is.", the voice had come from the door, it was Coldnar.
Nopony had noticed him coming in.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough.", he approached the group and stood next to PSI.
He looked up to her.
PSI found the size difference to be interesting.
She herself was a smaller than average mare, but Coldnar was really small, even for a colt of his age.
"Please leave my hospital. You can come back and ask her about fairy zebra ghosts later." he said.
"Alright." she looked to Replica, "You. Next time we talk you better make sense. You made me the commander of this joint. You are responsible for our survival out here, yeah, but I am responsible for your protection, and you leaving the stable to prance around on the surface isn't making my job any easier." she points a menacing hoof at her. "Don't pull crap like that again."
Then she turned and left the hospital.
The rest of the day was mostly quiet with nothing really interesting going on.