//------------------------------// // Hospital Wubs // Story: Wub me or Hate me // by Vesperia //------------------------------// As cliched as it probably sounds, the first thing I heard when waking up was a rhythmic beeping sound. I opened my eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the light that suddenly started pouring into them. I groaned in mild discomfort. When I was done being blinded by the light and was able to finally see, I noticed that I was not dead. And that I was currently in a bed, in a hospital. This was good all things considered. I liked being alive. The room itself was really just a standard hospital room built for one. I turned my head and saw a vase of flowers and a very pink get well card. I could smell the scent of sweets coming from it, even from my spot on the bed. I figured it came from pinkie. I also noticed a lot of coffee cups stacked up in the trashcan in the corner of the room. Other than those two things, nothing else broke the monotony of the room. I was tempted to call out for something when the door to the room opened. Choc walked in, bleary eyed, holding a cup of coffee in a shaky magical grip. He looked at me for a second, not seeming to comprehend anything. That was until he finally realized I was awake now, his eyes shot open, all trace of tiredness gone, and his coffee dropped out of his magical grasp. He was at the side of my hospital bed before the cup hit the floor. “Sweet Celestia! You’re finally awake! How ya feelin’?” I tried to say something but coughed when I noticed my throat was really dry. “Buck! Right, I’ll get ya some water!” He was out and back in before I even knew he was gone. He levitated the cup to me and I carefully took hold of it, “Easy now, you’re probably feeling weak.” I gulped the water gratefully down. After clearing my throat I looked at Choc and said, “I’ve felt better. What happened, and how long have I been out?” He took the cup from me and set it down on the side table. Then he said, “It’s only been three days since we were at the warehouse.” “Three days? Whatever happened to me must have been pretty bad.” He continued, “And I myself don’t know what exactly was wrong with you. The doctors said that from whatever your species is, you didn’t look to be suffering from anything lethal as far as they could tell. Even the blood loss from that cut on your hand was fixed with a spell, though they couldn’t fix anything else beyond stitches. But you just didn’t wake up, so they kept you here just to be sure. Those cuts were the only injuries you had.” Speaking of my hand, I moved the covers on the bed I was laying in and looked at my right hand. It looked pretty ugly. The entirety of my palm was a mess of cuts, there was even a longer cut that went down my arm and wrapped itself on the right side of it, just stopping short of halfway to my elbow. I didn’t like them, they looked ugly. There two different types of scars in my opinion, ones that look cool and usually have a story to go along with them, and the ones that just look horrifying and no one wants to really say anything about them. Sadly, these scars on my hand fell into the second category. “There is one thing I should mention, it’s about the machine in the warehouse.” I looked up at Choc in surprise, “You find something?” He nodded, “Yeah, though I don’t know how much use it could be.” He levitated a large ringed binder from… somewhere. It had a title on it called “Bass Accelerator Operation for Dummies”. He set it down and said, “I’ve looked through this whole thing, thinkin’ it might help. I have figured out why we didn’t see any unicorns at the warehouse beyond the boss lady.” “Why’s that? They aren’t… ya know, sacrificing them are they?” I asked. “What?! No! Where the buckin’ Tartarus did ya get that from?!” He yelled, looking horrified. “Over active imagination? Whatever, just continue.” He looked at me oddly before shaking his head and saying, “Well, the unicorns are needed to shove magic into this thing. And I mean, a lot of magic. They’d be so tired after it, even with a full workload of them, that they’d fall asleep where they stand once it's over and done with.” “Huh, no wonder that machine was glowing so much.” He looked uneasy, “That’s the thing,” He flipped a few pages of the manual and showed me a page that had a couple of fancy equations on it, it even had a small coffee stain in the corner. “The amount of magic we’re talking about would’ve made that thing detonate with enough magical force to level the city and its surrounding provinces. It only knocked you back.” My eyes widened, “So, what you’re saying is that thing was barely even working? Like it was running on fumes at the most?” “Exactly.” “So, we’ve got a supervillain running around with a primed nuke? Oh, that’s wonderful.” I sighed. “What’s a nuke?” Choc asked. “Big bomb that levels cities.” I replied, that was basically what they were. “Oh, well don’t worry, I don’t think that’s what they are designed for. The thing only exploded with magic and bass force because you threw those fancy marbles of yours at it.” I rose a blue eyebrow, “If they aren’t meant to explode and cause mass destruction, then what?” “I’m still working on that… the manual doesn’t say.” He held the thing up to his face, “I’m guessin’ this thing is distributed to the boss lady’s underlings so they can build it where directed and she doesn’t have to be here. I doubt she would want her true masterful plan to be in easy reach of anyone.” I hummed in thought. A thought hit me, “Wait, if we know how to build one, then maybe we can study the thing ourselves. Figure out what it does by how to build it!” “I don’t know how much help I’d be in that department. Science and studying things for any length of time is not exactly my forte. I’m the action oriented one.” Choc said. I shifted my seat in my hospital bed and sat up, “Don’t worry about that. I know a mare perfectly suited for that task. If we slam our heads together over this then I’m sure we’ll have it in the bag.” Choc seemed to agree with me, “Aye, I assume you mean that purple unicorn that goes by Twilight right? Seems like the nerdy type.” I looked at him confused, “Twilight was here?” I knew Pinkie was, judging by the card, so I really shouldn’t have been surprised she was here. “Yup! She and five other mare’s visited you from Ponyville. I think they had to go back to their hotel, but since you’re awake now I’m sure the hospital will let you leave provided you take things slow and report to the hospital in Ponyville. That’s where you live right?” I nodded, “Yeah. Oh, and where’s my stuff?” “Under your bed, you want to leave now?” He looked worried about me. I started moving off the bed, a bit slowly since I was a little sore and stiff from laying in bed for three days. “Yeah, the sooner the better. You can shove the manual in my bag, Twilight and I’ll get to it when we get home.” I was thankful I was still in my normal clothes, minus my shoes and jacket, which were on the floor and in my bag respectively. I was happy about the small things like that, as I didn’t want to wear the apron that leaves my butt hanging out. Choc levitated my stuff over to me and I gratefully took them, I didn’t want to try and bend over just yet. Checking out of the hospital was easy. I just had to sign my name on a few forms since any bills were taken care of by Twilight. Something I needed to thank her for, even if the bills were extremely low. Choc lead me out of the white building to wherever Twilight and company were, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the massively big red cross decorating the front wall. I rubbed the stitches on my arm, they were really starting to itch under the bandages.