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// Doctor, My Eyes...Are the Only Thing Unhurt 
// Story: Cryo-7 
// by Metal Pony Fan 
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When Astral woke up, the first thing he tried to do was scream from the pain.  The tube stuffed down his throat wouldn't let him.  He gagged and choked on it, but the tube kept him breathing.

The next thing he tried to do was pull the tube out.  The robotic arm clamped to his hoof wouldn't let him.  It held tight as smaller arms jammed sharp bits of metal into his already injured left shoulder.

The third thing he tried to do was to close his eyes and try to wake up from the nightmare going on around and within him.  The powerful lights above wouldn't let him.  He was awake, and this was real.

"He's awake!"  The voice came from above him, from somewhere in the light that filled everything beyond him.  He couldn't understand what was being said, the pain was taking up too much of his mind. "Sedate him, now!"

"We can't." There was another voice, and Astral became aware of shadows moving in the light above him.  "He's bordering on overdose already.  Anymore, and we'll have to do a liver replacement, and that's only if he survives."

Astral reached out for the shadows.  Grasping blindly at the hope that they might take away the searing pain that clouded his world.

"Fine, just get him to stop moving before he tears his leg free."

"Prepping neural disjunction.  Clear the table."

Several voices answered in unison.  "Clear!"

There was sharp jolt that cut through the pain.  It didn't hurt, it was more like an absence of any feeling, and it only lasted for a moment.  The pain returned seconds later, but those few seconds were all Astral needed to steel himself and maintain his sanity.

His eyes adjusted to the light, and he could see his surroundings clearly.  He was in a hospital.  Everything seemed to be made of glossy, white plastic, from the walls and equipment, to the surgical scrubs worn by the operating staff.

There were four of them that he could see.  His shoulder was being repaired by a blue, white-maned, earth pony operating through a complex series of robotic arms.  Another doctor, a gryphon, was removing bits of plastic from his body, deftly maneuvering a scalpel and a pair of forceps with his claws.  Two unicorn mares assisted them.  They were much younger than the doctors, either nurses or doctors in training.

The gryphon looked Astral in the the eyes for a moment.  He was large, even for a gryphon, and grey.  And the unruly feathers around his beak gave him the appearance of a bearded old hermit.  "Looks like the dysjunct was successful.  Hang tight young colt.  It may not seem like it, but this will be over soon."  His voice was low and gravelly, accented perfectly to match his appearance, and he offered Astral a warm, reassuring smile before looking away.  He addressed someone standing behind the pony.  "You should call Ribbon Dancer in.  He might be able to tell us something that could help."

"Already done, doctor."  The voice was feminine, and seemed to belong to somepony more mature than the two unicorns.  "She should be here any moment now."

Astral tried to look back, hoping to put a face to the voice, but found himself unable to.  He couldn't move his head at all.  He tried to move his hoof, the one that wasn't currently an automaton's pincushion, but it wouldn't move either.  With increasing levels of panic, Astral tried to move other parts of his body.

He stopped when he felt a gentle pressure on his neck.  He looked up.  His eyes worked at least.  The gryphon had set down his scalpel, and was holding him as if to restrain him, unnecessary as it may be.  "Calm down, buck.  That's just the disjunct working.  It disables conscious motor control from the neck down, you won't be able to move. Understand?"

Astral blinked.  He couldn't respond any other way.  He then blinked twice.

The gryphon smiled.  "Let me guess, one for yes, two for no?  You are surprisingly quick witted given your current circumstances."  There was a sound like an airlock, and the gryphon looked behind him.  "But that won't be necessary.  Ribbon Dancer, over here.  You can take my spot, and I'll get to work on his back."

The grey gryphon moved out of Astral's view.  He didn't walk, more like he just slid away.  Behind him, just inside a hermetically sealing door, stood another unicorn mare.  This one seemed to be even younger than the other two, by at least a year.  Her coat was a lighter, brighter shade of blue than the doctor, and she seemed a little smaller than she should be.  Her mane was bright and flamboyant, a full spectrum, laid out in hair, but her body language was the exact opposite.  She walked slowly, head held a little low, like she was trying to avoid some pony's gaze.  

She walked towards the operating table with her eyes glued to the floor.  About halfway to the table, she looked up at Astral.  Her eyes were filled with pain, and her hooves started shaking.  When she tried to take another step, her front left leg gave out.  She crashed to the floor with a soft whimper.

"Ribbon!"  The earth pony doctor left his machine and went to the unicorn's side.  He gave her neck a gentle, unprofessional nudgee.  "Ribbon, are you ok?"

The unicorn weakly pushed him away.  "Dad, I've been trained for this.  I'm ok."  Even to Astral, her words didn't seem very convincing, and he was trying not to pass out.  She took several deep breaths, and pushed her father away again, managing a little more force this time.  "You need to focus.  Do your job, and I'll do mine."

The earth pony reluctantly listened.  He went back to his machine while his daughter struggled to get back up.  Neither of the other two unicorns offered Ribbon any help, and one of them even seemed to be glaring at her.  The brightly colored unicorn limped up to the operating table and leaned against it for support, making Astral wonder just what her job was supposed to be.

"I... I'm sorry."  She was breathing heavily and seemed to be in a great deal of pain.  "You're handling this better than I am."  She closed her eyes for a moment.  Her eyes opened, and she made a big show of closing her mouth.  Her cheeks puffed out a little, and she looked like she was trying to hold her breath.  The funny face confused Astral, but it brought a smile to his face despite the pain and breathing tube.  "My name's Ribbon.  What's yours?"

Astral's smile disappeared as those last two sentences echoed through his head.  The unicorn was very careful to make sure he could see that her mouth hadn't moved, and Astral now knew exactly why she was here.  She was a telepath.  They were commonly used in medical situations like this where the patient couldn't speak, but the Celestial had spoken to Astral the same way.

Ribbon recoiled from Astral like he was a snarling dog.  "W-what's wrong?  You weren't angry a second ago."  She was still communicating telepathically, and she could sense him get even angrier.  "If something's wrong, tell me.  Just think it out in your head, and I should be able to hear-"

Astral didn't let her finish.  "Get out of my head."

She nodded slowly.  "I understand this may be unsettling for you, but it's the only-"

"Get out of my head!"

Astral's heart rate and blood pressure spiked, alerting Ribbon's father via panels on his machine.  The levels were almost as high as when Astral first woke up.  "Ribbon, something's wrong.  What's he saying?"

The unicorn frantically looked back and forth between Astral and her father.  She put her hoof on Astral's uninjured leg.  "Please, I'm only trying to help."

Astral didn't care.  He didn't see the young mare, in pain and nearing tears.  He saw the Celestial, tearing apart his ship and leaving him for dead.  He pushed her away with his magic, sending her sprawling.  He then turned his magic on the breathing tube.

"No!  Please don't!"  She clawed her way up.  "I'm sorry!"

Astral pulled the tube out.  It burned his throat until it finally came free with a sickly, wet pop.  He coughed, dropped the tube, and yelled as loud as he could, "Get out of my head!"

Everypony in the room stopped.  The young unicorn his shout was directed at worked her jaw, but no words came out.  Tears started rolling down her cheeks, and she ran for the door.  "I'm sorry!"  She shouted as she hit the control.  "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"  She kept hitting the panel while the door cycled, and ran through the moment it opened.

"What are you two standing around for?"  Ribbon's father shouted at the two assistants.  "One of you go and get her!"

"Don't bother."  Astral wheezed.  His throat felt like he had been chugging drain cleaner.  "You only needed her because I couldn't speak.  That's changed now, so you can save us both the pain."

A sharp pain in his back made Astral cry out.  It was followed by the gryphon's voice.  "Sorry, that one caught a bit of skin.  It might leave a mark."

The earth pony sighed loudly.  "James..."

"What?  It did."

After another sigh, Ribbon's father spoke to Astral.  "Just let us know if you feel any change in the pain."  His tone had changed.  Before, it was kind, filled with concern.  Now, it was cold, forced and professional.  "You aren't in any real danger now, but we're looking at another hour or two of reconstructive work on your shoulder, and at least another on the various holes you've managed to punch in yourself."

Astral hissed as he felt a needle enter his back.  "And, why am I awake for all this?"

"I'll answer that while the two of you get back to work."  The owner of the older female voice walked around the operating table so Astral could see her.  She was greenish mare with a greying red mane.  "I've been monitoring your blood work for the last 20 hours, trying to filter it, but the medications you took are notoriously slow to metabolize.  Until we can get most of them out of your system, we can only give you limited amounts of local anesthesia."

Ribbon's father cleared his throat.  "I will say this though.  If you didn't take those medications when you did, we wouldn't be focused on patching you up.  We'd be doing our best to keep you comfortable."

"How much radiation was I exposed to?"  Astral wheezed.

"Barely enough to mention."  James finished pulling pieces of Astral, and set about preparing the various cuts for dermal acceleration.  "Between the medication and that suit we had to cut you out of, you've probably been exposed to more radiation by our imagers and sterilizer fields."

The older mare nodded in agreement.  "All in all, you're a lucky one.  Far luckier than that body they dragged in with you."  She glanced back at the door.  "Since you're unable to move, I will mention that station security is waiting outside to speak with you about it."

"Of course they are."  Astral winced as some sort of chemical was brushed on his smaller wounds.  It burned at first, then cooled as it evaporated, much like alcohol, but with less burning.  "I'm not worried about that."

She nodded once.  "Yes, well, I had some questions of my own."

Astral raised an eyebrow, one of the few conscious motions he could make.  "Why do you care?"

"I'm curious."  She gave Astral an annoyed looked.  "Among other reasons, I had to help identify that pony.  You use a frighteningly efficient weapon for something so primitive."

"Not efficient enough.  You didn't see what else I had to fight."

"I assume you're talking the mutated prills?  Or maybe those robots in the cargo bay?  You seem to be quite the resourceful fighter, well trained.  Military, or a bounty hunter?"

"Nothing like that.  I'm just a pilot who's in the wrong place at the wrong time on a regular basis."  There was something odd about the way she asked that last question.  It didn't seem like simple curiosity.  "This was just supposed to be a simple cargo run.  Two dozen crates of apples to a restaurant on Canter Station Delta, some quick cash, and an easy break-in for my new ship."

She nodded slowly.  "Space has a way of wrecking the most carefully made plans.  There's just one thing I don't understand.  Your cargo bay looks like a war zone.  Not to mention there is damage on the ship that can't be explained away by the weapons used by you or those who attacked you.  Was there anypony else on the ship?"

Astral watched her carefully.  She was feigning casual indifference, and not doing it very well.  Her tone was light and conversational, but her questions were too direct.  "Who are you?"

"I am the head nurse of this hospital.  Answer the question.  If there was somepony else on the ship, they may need medical attention."

"There wasn't another pony."

"Then how do you explain the damage?  There's evidence of military-grade spells, and your body isn't capable of generating the base magic required for most of them."

Astral's upper lip pulled back.  He did not like being lied to.  "Who are you?"

The supposed nurse didn't seem to even notice his anger.  "Answer the question."

Astral scoffed.  "Would you believe me if I said a Celestial did it?"

"Who would?"  She turned and walked to the door.  She hit the control and looked back at Astral.  "I deal with criminals, not fairy tales.  That body I mentioned belonged to a criminal I've been after for a long time, so you aren't in trouble yet, but you better keep your hooves clean while you're on this station."

The door opened, and she left.  As soon as she was gone, Astral asked again, "Who was that?  She's not a nurse."

James chuckled softly.  "Just so happens, she is.  She's head nurse of this hospital, just like she said.  She's also my wife."  There was a short pause.  "But she also happens to be head of station security."

"Great."  Astral sneered.  "One big happy family."

"You two finish this up."  The gryphon came back into Astral's view, moving like before, a strange gliding motion.  "Look, buck, I don't know much about you, but I know you've never been here before.  And, if you're telling the truth, neither has the pony who gave you that cargo."  He backed away from the operating table, and Astral noticed for the first time that the gryphon was sitting on a small motorized cart.  He used a small joystick on a pedestal to control its movement.  He gestured to the walls around them with the claw not on the joystick.  "This is Canter Station Delta.  I run the hospital, where you are now.  We have one more room like this, then a lobby, and an office the size of your average closet.  The point I'm trying to make is, we're small.  We have one permanent restaurant on this station, and I haven't seen so much as a fresh vegetable on their menu in two years.  They wouldn't have room for two crates of anything, let alone two dozen of a single item."

Astral groaned.  "I was set up."

"Unless you're lying, it looks that way."  James moved his cart a little closer to the table.  "It also looks like you're going to be here a while.  That ship of yours isn't going anywhere anytime soon."  He took Astral's uninjured hoof and gave it a shake.  "Welcome to Canterlot."