Survival Island

As curious as ever, Wisp's attention was at first drawn to the raven. She watched the bird curiously as it watched her and the others right up until the bushes rustled. Feeling the wind though, especially since she was in the air, Wisp made the assumption that it was only the wind and, instead of remaining focused on it, turned her attention finally towards Oliver. From her aerial position, Wisp watched as Dusk inspected the unconscious otter and began to remove the bandanna.

Gem turned his head very slowly, watching the two began to draw weapons. Sighing, he took the log off his back and let it hit the ground with a thud. "In for a fight are we?"

Out of the bushes came a most unexpected sight, instead of whatever horror this island had, a deep blue pony hobbled out leaning on a very oddly shaped staff. He was covered in multiple cuts and bruises along with his left front leg sticking out at an odd angle, he was missing two teeth and his left eye had a deep scar going across the brow. His bags were filthy and had several small holes, while whatever jewelry he had on his right leg was tarnished and dirty. His clothing was almost nonexistant, only a few shreds clinging to his wiry frame. He let out a pained grunt as his walking staff slipped, causing him to fall and get wacked in the head with the smaller end. He was barely able to get back on his hooves as reopened cuts began bleeding again, adding to the already slippery grip on his staff. He gave one look at the group and fell over again, this time not getting up

When he heard this new pony grunt in pain and fall over, Dusk knew he needed medical attention immediately. And he was just about to check under Oliver's bandanna too. He grabbed his first aid kit and ran over to the new pony. As Dusk looked over this new pony, he figured he could save him, but would use up most of the bandages and a good bit of alcohol, not to mention some of the cuts were deep enough that they'd need to be stitched. He knew with his broken leg he'd be a burden on the group for a while, but he wouldn't be completely useless.

However, Dusk did want to see what the rest of the group thought about saving him. Though he planned on saving him either way, he thought it would give him a better idea of who he'd be dealing with. "I can save him, but I'll use up a lot of what's in my kit. I'd like to hear where everypony is on saving him though."

Griff's sigh came out as a slight roar in his sabre-tooth cat form. Seeing as there was no real danger, he transformed back into the pony form and walked over to him. "I suppose with a strong enough healing spell, we wouldn't need all those bandages. I have a weak one to clean and close the wound, but along with pain-killing spell that's pretty much it what I know about healing magic." he says. "I can try to clean his wounds first, but I'm not sure if the wound-closing spell will work, especially on the big wounds. Been a while since I used it." Griff adds as he casts the pain-killing spell first and then starts slowly cleaning his wounds, taking sticks and dirt out of the wounded pony's wounds.

Rebel sighed and sheathed her blade. She looked around quietly, muttering as she went back to Oliver and Dusk. "I don't trust Oliver too much." She whispered to Dusk. "He was a stowaway, he could be avoiding the law."

Oliver laid still, stirring slightly. The thing in the tall grass poked it's head out and looked down at Oliver. The thing was a bunny and it booped Oliver's nose. The bunny looked up at the other ponies.

The raven looked at Wisp curiously. It crowed at her, then looked down at the new pony. It crowed at the new pony too, flying off. The bunny hopping back into the tall grass as well.

Dusk first addressed Griff and said, "Do what you can, I can stitch up the larger wounds if need be."

He then turned to the Thestral. Her concern was valid. They really didn't know if Oliver was a criminal or not. But for now, Dusk didn't want to worry about it too much.

"He could be, but until he wakes up we can't know for sure, and even then he could lie," Dusk whispered back, "I'm okay with you questioning him once he's up and about, but let's not be too aggressive. Even if he is a criminal, we'll need everypony to pitch in here. And if he does become a problem, then, as fellow Solar Guards, we can deal with it."

Wisp had thought about flying after the raven once it cawed at her, but the presence of the new injured pony more than made up her mind about that. The wounds and blood once again dredging up those memories that had so recently resurfaced in her, but this time thought managed to hold it's place over irrational fear and she stayed more or less where she was in the air.

When Dusk asked his question though, it did cause a moments pause. She'd played witness to a false pity act more than once, ponies devoting time and resources to saving one only for the action to doom the saviors or turn out to be a trap for them. But again, she reminded herself that this wasn't that place, things were different here and she'd seen that too. Not all souls were evil, and Wisp was in no rush to join their ranks.

"I think we should do what we can to help him," she said in her slightly echo-ish, hollow sounding voice in regards to the newcomer. Rebel's concerns over Oliver didn't even seem to phase her though. From what she'd seen of the otter so far hadn't led to any suspicion, and Wisp would hold onto that with hope that it wouldn't change.

Griff nods and begins casting first pain-killing spell on the new guy, then started cleaning and closing his smallest wounds, later only cleaning his bigger wounds. "Alright, that should do it for now... well, that's the best I can do for now." Griff says as he stands back up, looking down at the wounded pony. "At least he won't feel pain for a while..."

Scroll wanders back after a while seeing a unconscious pony being treated with a mixture of magic and aid from physical sources, he nods, "That's a great idea, uh... " he stares at Griff as if trying to recall his name, "Mister... We don't want all the bandages lost at the moment, we may need those." He would have patted Griff's shoulder, but knows Unicorns need their concentration. Dusk was looking over the pony, Scroll noticed the leg was broken and leaned near him, "Should we get a few planks for a splint sir? I found a lot of useable wood from the wreck." He offered as he looked back to the injured pony, his thoughts now away from the journal in his satchel.

Dusk looked at both Griff and Scroll. He decided to first say something to Griff.

"That's good, I'm glad you know that pain killing spell. Stitching him up won't be so bad, even if he wakes up."

He then turned to Scroll and said, "Let me stitch him up first, then we can worry about his broken leg."

Dusk then got the needle and the sutures out of the kit, and began closing the larger wounds. It was hardly pleasant, but soldiers did unpleasant things for the good of others.

Dusk soon finished stitching and bandaging the pony's more serious wounds. He hoped the stitches would do the trick, considering he wasn't a doctor or a field medic.

He soon remembered the pony's broken leg. It looked like it had broken at the joint, so there probably wasn't too much damage. He first coaxed the leg back into its proper position before using a pair of planks and some bandages as a splint.

"There, he should be fine now," he said to no pony in particular. He then went back over to Oliver to check on him. Seeing his condition hadn't changed, which was kinda good, he decided to see what was under Oliver's bandanna again. He still was curious as to what was making that beeping before.

Oliver stirred slightly as his bandanna was lifted, but didn't wake up. Under his bandanna was a collar of sorts. It looked to be far more technology advanced. The collar had little buttons and a little monitor with a line down the middle. The line would spike each time Oliver would mutter something and snored. The beeping was coming from a little meter that had the little needle in the red area.

"What is that?" Wisp asked peering over Dusk's shoulder. In some ways, the technology looked familiar but at the same time it was so alien. Either way, it was well beyond her scope of knowledge and now she was just insanely curious about it.

"I don't really know what it is, but I don't think it's tied to his vitals. I think it'd be best if we ask him about that once he wakes up," Dusk said to Wisp.

He soon thought of what he, and perhaps the rest of the group, would do now. It was pretty much guaranteed the group would have to split up if any more exploration would be done while keeping an eye on both Oliver and the injured pony. He decided to voice this and see what everypony thought of this.

"Well everypony, were going to have to split up if we're going to continue exploring. I plan on carrying our newest addition back to the beach. Oh, and Wisp, could you carry Oliver and follow me back, I'd rather not make two trips. Everypony else can either help explore or come with me."

"You two carry the wounded to the beach." Griff says as he transforms back into eagle form. "I'll scout from above to find a shelter. If not, we're just gonna have to create one." he says as he takes off. "I'll be back in a few minutes!!" he yells before he disappears behind the trees. And thus, Griff starts circling the island, searching for anything helpful.

Rebel had wandered off a little ways, and let her gaze wander as she searched the trees for some form of fruit. She hoped she would find something, like mangos, she loved mangos.

Wisp nodded as her roll was given to her, and then proceeded to move Oliver onto her back. Taking extra caution so as to not cause the otter any extra strain as she settled him in between her wings. Once he was there, she unfolded the appendages slightly, surrounding Oliver in the translucent feathers. Sure, if he actually rolled off, the wings would do little more than slow him down as he went through them, but it was better than nothing.

Then Wisp turned her attention back to Dusk, and nodded. "Okay, let's go," she said simply turning back towards the beach, ready to walk along side Dusk.

Seeing that nopony else wanted to go with them, Dusk decided to leave with Wisp and the wounded members. He first got the wounded pony onto his back, and then began walking back to the beach.

He was glad to see Wisp following alongside of him. He decided to try to strike up a conversation with her since the walk would take a bit.

"So, what's your story? Like, where are you from, what do you normally do for a living, the basic stuff."

Wisp was quiet for a while after Dusk's question. Just before the wait would make the transition to painfully awkward, she spoke in her quiet hollow voice. "Less than a year ago, I wandered into Ponyville. I met some really nice ponies there that weren't afraid of me and they helped me out a whole lot," Wisp said with a happily reminiscent tone, throwing a quick glance down to her hooves, chuckling lightly as they moved about on the underbrush.

"But then I didn't have any money, or really much of anything, and I felt bad about them always paying for me, so I signed on with the boat to try and get a few bits to pay them back... Oh no, do you think we'll still be paid?" Wisp abruptly asked in earnest.

"I don't know," Dusk said, "but perhaps we'll be compensated once we return to Equestria."

Though it was a rather big "if" as to whether or not they'd get back to Equestria, Dusk thought he might as well stay optimistic. He soon wondered why ponies would be afraid of her. Sure, her voice sounded a little off, her hoof looked like it wasn't actually flesh due to the cracking he saw before, and, as he just recently noticed, her wings were see through, and likely magical constructs.

"I do have to ask... well, a number of things actually, but I kinda want to know why you think ponies would be afraid of you. You don't seem scary to me."

Once again, Wisp was quiet for several long moments. "Well I-... I just recently got this body, thanks to those nice ponies I met in Ponyville. They even agreed to pay Rarity for it and then cast this weird spell to make it look more normal," Wisp continued to explain.

Then after a few more moments of silence, and realizing that she hadn't completely answered his question she continued. "Where I was before that, there were a lot of, monsters, that used to be ponies. The ones that weren't monster's were really scarred and saw me as a monster too."

"Hmm... I guess something happened to you and all of those ponies that became monsters. I don't need to know the details though. However, since you needed something for a body, I can assume whatever happened to you made it so you didn't have one, like a ghost or something, and I guess that would explain why ponies would be scared of you. To be honest I probably would've seen you as a monster too if I saw you as a ghost before actually getting to know you. Now that I've met you, I can tell you're no monster."

Though Dusk was curious as to what exactly happened, and why he had never heard of it, he figured now wasn't quite the time.

He soon saw they had reached the edge of the forest, the beach in front of them.

"Well, here we are. Let's set them down in the shade," Dusk said. He then found a tree that was a little ways from the forest and set the wounded pony down, making sure he wasn't giving him a face full of sand.

From above there seemed to be nothing along the beach, just a cliff to the left of where they all were earlier. Near the middle of the island the trees seemed to have grown larger and it looked like there were some wooden structures in the leaves. On the ground near Rebel there were no fruit in the trees. The strange thing was there were no animals either.

Oliver shifted around a little bit on Wisp's back. He was still muttering something that had a little squeak to it. It didn't sound like he was saying anything in Equestrian. The beeping from his collar continued to beep, only now getting louder. The needle on the meter was very much in the red now.