Truly Evil?

With the blades removed, the pressure, and the healing magic, the wounds weren't bleeding as bad as they could be by the time June sliced open the uniform. That being said, there were still several wounds and they were in fact STILL bleeding. Shakily, the stallion looked up with pain filled eyes that carried an overtone of annoyance. "N-not the f-f-first time....I've b-been s-s-stabbed," he said through a strained voice. "N-not, th-the last t-t-time either." he continued before letting his head slump back to the ground. His breathing began to slow just slightly as he seemed to be trying to control it, and he let out a sigh.

While the magic was helping, unspecialized magic could only do so much for such substantial injuries and the most severe were blatantly the two holes through the chest. Luckily, the blades seemed to have missed the arteries in his limbs, and while the two cuts on the head would likely leave scars, they weren't life threatening. Though something June would be readily able to notice once she sliced off the pony's uniform was that he was almost covered in scars from dozens of what must have been ghastly weapons. The uniform had hid most of them, but even the newest additions to his face were only the most recent in what appeared to be something that happened fairly regularly.

"Come on, come on..." Ician looked around at the others. "How can we save... him..." Dimly, he began to remember exactly what he was holding in his telekinetic grip. All at once, he realised that everything they needed to save him was already with him.

"Alright, June, stem the bleeding as best you can. I need to to sterilise his wounds with whatever alcohol you have left on you." He wielded the surgical tools around him, pulling out some bandages and gauze as well. "I'll sew the wounds shut."

Diamond's magic had a flicker of his natural blue bleed into it as he tried to examine the damaged tissues, look for internal bleeding, numb the pain, and keep the pony stable at the same time. Despite the fact that he was crying and on the verge of complete mental collapse, he was going to try to close any internal wounds with replica tissues. Sewing the pony shut would only stop external bleeding, Diamond was looking for internal bleeding. "Th-th...ere......might b-be.....inter.....bleeding..." He had just barely managed to choke the sentence out.

June swore in her foreign tongue, then pulled a variety of bottles out of her bag. Some alcohol, a few healing potions, a spare needle and thread. She poured the alcohol onto a cloth, and started disinfecting wounds. She pulled out a second cloth, and instructed Ician to do the same. "Once you've got the cuts disinfected and stitched shut, pour a bit of the potion onto them. But don't use too much, this is the good stuff. Save it for the ones that bleed a lot."

Ician began disinfecting the wounds, trying to recall the little bit of field first-aid that was mandatory learning for all Royal Guards, when what Diamond said caught his attention. "He's right, there might be internal bleeding. These wounds are quite deep." He turned to the others. "Can any of you fix that problem? Because I know I lack the necessary skills to do that."

Dusk felt rather helpless, as he was unable to add to what everyone else was doing. So, he kept his mind off of it by keeping watch. It didn't help much, but it was something that he could do. He did feel bad for Diamond, but he also felt he deserved the pain he was feeling.

While progress was slow, the pony was steadily patched up between the combined efforts. That however didn't mean he was up and moving at the moment though and was pretty solidly asleep at the moment. The pony's breath was stable though, especially in the form of the semi-regular snoring he was doing. If there was internal damage, they'd only be able to find out later.

June didn't look up from her bandaging.  "The vitals have been missed, and the healing potion should more or less handle the deep cuts.  Just focus on stopping the external bleeding for now.  If the internal's really bad, we won't find out until later anyway."  She finished putting the bandages on, and wiped off a bit of sweat.  "There.  Now, I reccommend we let him get his rest, but we could wake him up if we want to move quickly.  But gently, last thing we need is a heart rate spike."

"Then we should let him rest. Sin Ester's not going anywhere as far as I know," Dusk said, glad that the pony would most likely be alright. He held his gaze on Diamond though, giving him a bit of a glare. As sorry as he was, it didn't mean anything if he didn't change something so it wouldn't happen again.

"... Alright." Ician stood up, fairly certain that the danger had been neutralised. "I think he's stable. So next question is: What are we going to do now? I doubt we can move forward if we want to watch over him." He tightened his telekinetic grip slightly on the sleeping pony. "So I think we ought to stay here for now. What do the rest of you think?"

Diamond said nothing as he switched his magic off. The stress was starting to get to him, and he needed to take time to process everything that had happened. He walked away from the pony, wiped his eyes, and assumed a laying down position again. He pulled his hat down over his eyes, put his head between his forelegs and began to sleep. A strange sort of haze appeared around him, but it didn't seem to be doing anything.

June nodded.  "I vote we stay.  We could all use some rest."  She made her way to a relatively comfortable piece of ground, and took a sleeping roll from her backpack.  "Wake me up when the patient wakes up."  With that, she took off her sunglasses, her eyes shut, and set them aside.  She lay down, and after a few seconds, pulled a blanket from the bag, draping it over herself.  She fell asleep quickly, the rising and falling of the blanket slowing down as her breathing relaxed.

"Well, it looks like we're staying here for now. I'll keep watch if you want to get some rest Ician," Dusk said. He too lay down, but wasn't going to take a nap or anything. He'd remain alert in case any more surprises came at them. Though he noticed the haze around Diamond, he didn't think much of it. He figured it had something to do with him being a halfling.

"It's alright. I've spent enough nights without sleep to know how to stay awake and alert." He smiled slightly. "It'd be a little better with some caffeine though." He sat down next to the unconscious pony and maintained his slight telekinetic grip on him. He didn't want to take the risk that he might get away while they were all either asleep or watching for external threats. And he could stay awake that long... probably.

The sun didn't have far to go to set, in fact it was gone within moments of finishing up the work on the trashpony. And while there were plenty of noises out here in the open, it was fairly peaceful, and this far away from the cities, the stars were out in full tonight. Another thing that wasn't long off, was the front door to the manor shutting in accordance to the same complex enchantment that seemed to make sure every door closed at some point. This in some ways made the fact that they were all outside, in the front yard of the manor.

Some time after the sun set, June began dreaming, her hooves twitching occasionally.  Her dreams never seemed to involve fantastic fictions, as it seemed some ponies' did, but instead held snatches of memories.  She had lived for so long, forgotten so much, and small glimpses of faces and voices she used to know flitted through her mind.  A few lines from an old friend, and the face of a former enemy.  But, of course, no names.  Never names.  She had to write those down in the moment, and they were all in the pages of one of her journals.  But nevermind the names, she had a different goal in mind.

Lucid dreaming came relatively easily for June, it was just another skill to be learned.  But she didn't dream often, so she had to capitalize on it when she could.  Memories were precious things, but she had spent far too long focused on the present and future to properly respect the past.  Her life from before the Lab was nearly entirely forgotten, remaining only as fragments in her subconscious.  She watched as the memories passed through the beginning of the Adventure, back into the Lab, and finally they came to a time long ago, when Jon was first growing into his Figmentism.  The prospect of having so much time was so amazing then.  Looking to the future instead of respecting the past.

Finally, the dreaming June reached some of her oldest memories, from before Jon had even become a figment.  The scraps of memory were even more brief, and she struggled to piece them together into something useful.  After painstakingly putting a few together, she had remembered something.  And it was a big something, this time.  It was the face and voice of a mare, one Jon had been close to.  June felt a strong bond, but she couldn't quite place it.  An old friend?  One of Jon's sisters?  A marefriend? (Unlikely.  June had no idea how a relationship might work without her figment empathy.)  Whoever it was, they were important.  The voice was soft, but the words themselves were unclear.  She sounded... happy.  Relaxed.  Maybe laughing.  Regardless, this was an important discovery, this mare.  June held onto the memories tightly, and woke herself up.

In the material world, June sat up suddenly, her eyes open wide.  She reached for her backpack immediately, pulling from it a pencil and a different notebook than the one she had been using the whole trip. This one, when opened, would show simple Equestrian writing, as opposed to the triangular symbols June's ordinary notes were full of. Another marked difference was that every page had at least one picture on it, usually a close up of a pony's face. June found a blank page, and began sketching the mare she had seen, careful not to leave out any details.

Of course, caught up in the thrill of discovery, she had neglected to put her sunglasses on, and her eyes glinted in the starlight.

Despite Ician's offer to stay up all night, Dusk had stayed up to keep watch, at least until he wanted to get some sleep himself. He was awake when June suddenly woke, and at first was worried until he saw June wasn't scared or anything like that because of a nightmare.

This was the first time Dusk had actually seen her eyes, and he noticed the metallic silver in her eyes. He had heard of ponies having silver eyes, but not actually seeming to have silver in their eyes. He didn't think it was concerning, although it perhaps explained why she wore sunglasses all the time. It was probably something some ponies had bullied her for it. Perhaps a compliment was in order.

"Ahem, forgive me for saying this out of the blue, but you're eyes are rather pretty," he said.

Diamond lay sleeping. He stepped onto the dreamscape to see another unicorn of his height standing in front of him. The unicorn had a dark blue, almost black coat of fur and had a blue, crystalline mane that flowed like flames. Diamond spoke first. "Myalo?"

Myalo smiled back to Diamond. "Hey kiddo, how's it going? I was finally able to put the locate on you. Outside some sort of enchanted mansion or some such nonsense. I'd have my sentinels get you and take you home, but I'm sure my great-great-great-great.....uh....." He trailed off for a moment. "...Grandson! Skipping formalities and nonsense." He put Diamond in a headlock-hug type deal , knocking off Diamond's hat in the process. Meanwhile, Diamond's hat in the camp was knocked off as well.

Myalo let Diamond go. "Kiddo, I heard you got eyes for a mare. Does this mean my anti-social little halfling grandson is going to get a marefriend?" He tapped his hoof and two images appeared, one of June, and one of Queen-in-waiting Ambrosia. "Which is it Diamond? 'Cause I know you only have eyes for the exotic."

Diamond was taken back by Myalo's bluntness. He only had a few feelings for June....but to suggest that he was actually interested in that way? He hit Myalo square in the jaw, and watched as the unicorn had no reaction, and a cut appeared in the real world on the foreleg that hit Myalo.

"Child, don't think you can actually fight me, just because we share cutie marks doesn't mean that you can fight me yet. Now tell me the truth."

Diamond grimmaced. "F-fine, but don't tell my father...I-I l-love..."

"Who is it Diamond....Come on...You can tell me the truth."

"Ambrosia, Queen-in-waiting Ambrosia." Diamond felt Myalo pat him on the head.

"Good boy, you can always tell me the truth. Now then, that's enough sleep for you, too much is unhealthy, wake up."

Diamond snapped awake to find June and Dusk talking. He felt refreshed, but he didn't feel like talking with them, so he pretended to be asleep while listening in on there conversation. The haze around Diamond disappeared.

June suddenly stopped drawing, somewhere around adding the curls to the mare's tail.  A hoof went up to her face, confirming her lack of eye covering.  When her eyes were mentioned, she was used to it being along the lines of "What's wrong with your eyes," or "Why don't you have pupils," or on one memorable occasion, "Sweet Celestia, what are you?" All this had indeed made her a bit defensive, and she reflexively started going on the defensive. She got through "No, it's nothing, I have a-" before her still-sleepy brain fully processed the statement. A small blush rose into her cheeks. "I mean, thanks." A small smile crossed her face. "It's just- I don't exactly get that very often." Her gaze was averted, picking an interesting bit of ground to fixate on.

June decided to steer the topic back to Dusk. The subject change would definitely be noticable, but it was necessary. She met his gaze, and kept her voice low, as not to wake up Diamond. "You know, I don't know much about you. Where are you from?"

Blink.

He didn't quite know what had happened. One moment he'd been watching the unconscious pony Diamond had nearly stabbed to death; and the next he was back in Canterlot, behind his usual desk in the Guard office.

Blink.

Canterlot again. But this time it was on fire, with what looked almost like green meteors descending from the sky. He tried to think, to remember where he was, but there was an impenetrable haze in his mind, keeping him from thinking any further. All he could perceive was the burning city around him, and his telekinetic grip on somepony behind him...

Then it all came back to him. He remembered now. He wanted to stop in his tracks but his legs would not obey. He already knew what was going to happen, and he didn't want to live it all over-

Blink.

And there was the moment. He tried his level best to turn away, but the memory wouldn't let him. He opened his mouth in a soundless scream and reached his hoof forward, just as a struggling mare in the grips of several changeling guards faced her own nightmare and watched as a blade descended towards her.

Theria!

His eyes snapped open. Breathing heavily and sweating, Ician sat up unsteadily and turned his gaze to the pony he was supposed to have been guarding. His snake was on his back, now awake, alert, and staring at him in apparent concern.

I fell asleep. He realised. Perhaps I'm more reliant on caffeine than I thought. He placed a calming hoof on his snake's head, trying to convey a sense of serenity he did not feel.

On the plus side, he thought, I won't have to see that again until the next time I fall asleep. With that somewhat comforting thought in mind, he sat back and watched the pony he had been earlier silently, listening to as much of the conversation of the others as he could catch.

Dusk did catch the desire to quickly change the subject. He didn't mind though, nor would he call her out on it.

With a small grin he said, "Well, I'm from Trottingham, born and raised. I have a shop there where I make tools, weapons, and armor. Before I started that I was a Royal Guard, though I might go back there at some point, haven't decided on that yet. Now what about you? Where are you from?"

June returned the smile, but inwardly cursed herself for asking that question.  Of course he'd ask the same thing back.  She took a moment of thought, and picked a story that didn't betray too much.  A half-truth of sorts. Maybe not foalhood, but as far back as she knew.  "I tended to move between cities a lot when I was younger.  I did manage to get into a good school in Canterlot, and landed a job as a doctor."  She scrunched up her face.  "That got boring pretty quick.  I don't like being in one place too long."  She smiled again.  "Change just feels good, you know?  So I packed up my bits, gave the lab to Crow, and here we are."  June cursed herself again at her word choice.  She shouldn't have said lab.  But it was too late to change that, and she decided another question might keep the conversation flowing better.  And switch the topic away from her, again.  She focused on the bandage on Dusk's head.  "Speaking of doctoring, how is your ear feeling? If it's bothering you, I have some healing potion that can help."

The part about the lab caught Dusk off guard a little bit, although he didn't look surprised, just curious. However, the subject was being changed, once again.

"My ear's fine. Not the most lethal of injuries I've had, and the pain's more of a dull ache now. Might I ask what you thought of Canterlot? I was there when I was in the guard, but I like hearing what ponies have to say about it," he said. He figured this question wouldn't raise any barriers.

"...*incoherent mumbling*....grah, what in Equestria could be important enough to talk about in the middle of the night," the trashpony complained as he turned on his side and tried to fall back asleep.

June took a moment to think on the question, and let out a sigh before she began. "It's... big, I guess is the word. It feels alive, too like one giant organism. But that's not such a good thing. Ponies seem less like ponies, and more like... jobs being done, once there are too many." A frown. "I didn't much care for it, really. Nothing of substance in interactions." And for something that needed substantial interactions to live, it really did hit hard. "I prefer little tightly-knit communities. Small towns and businesses and such, you know? Everypony knows everypony. I think it feels a lot nicer, getting to know ponies as ponies. Or non-ponies." June smiled. "That's another reason I started adventuring. I wouldn't have met you if we were both still in Canterlot. I wouldn't have met Ician, either, and definitely not Diamond. Anyway, what about you?"

Then June's ears perked at the sound of the trashpony's voice. She glanced over at him with a quiet "Sorry," and turned back to Dusk, speaking quieter. "He's right. We all need to get some sleep." She glanced over at Ician. "Well, most of us, anyway." Back to Dusk. "Did you bring a bedroll? Sleeping on the ground is hardly good for anypony."