//------------------------------// // 57- Caduceus // Story: Changing Expectations // by KKSlider //------------------------------// I looked myself over. I needed to work on my cover story. While I was alone in the hospital room, it would only be a matter of time before someone came in and checked in on me. ‘One gold star cutie mark. Brown fur. Blonde mane. Unicorn? Yep, unicorn. Good, if I disguised myself as an earth pony or pegasus then my lack of experience with gripping things with hooves and wingtips would give me away.’ Thank Panar for barely-conscious decisions. ‘Somepony. Need to remember to use their pony-centric vernacular. Right, cover story. Name is… Lone Star? No, too on the nose and generic... Back story, I was camping. No, they would ask where my stuff is and where my campsite was. Campers have gear and a plan, I have neither. I could explain the lack of stuff, but not the lack of visited campsites nor the lack of knowledge on where I am. I’m… unemployed. Traveling, looking for work, and down on my luck. A pack of dire wolves set upon me when I was between towns and my pack was lost in the river.’ I nodded. ‘Good. Name is… Name. Damn it, why are pony names so hard to think of? Star. Stars are in the sky. I’m alone and need a backstory and name that’s sad and full of loneliness to explain why no o– nopony will visit me. Far Sky. Yeah fine, that’ll do. Loner type pony, doesn’t like talking to others. Especially about his past. Changelings? What are those? I’ve been out of town for days. What else… Ponies care about marks, so how did I earn my Cutie Mark?’ I looked to my left, back out the window. Across the street, an open air cafe was crowded with customers. It was likely either noon or dinner time, judging by the amount of business they had. ‘That line of conversation is one that transcends all others. Everyone– everypony loves talking about their Cutie Marks. Even shy ponies. So, my mark… uh…. Hmm. Stars…. I snuck into a neighbor’s attic and found a telescope set up, pointing out of a window and into the night sky. I accidentally found a new star. Nah, scratch that last part. I was so enamored with the night sky that I knew I wanted to do something with it for my life. As for actually finding something like that… No opportunities like that in a small town.’ I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding and tried to relax. It wasn’t that difficult of a task thanks to the comfortable warmth that was still enveloping my body. ‘Drugs are great. At least, I hope this is from drugs. If I’m actually paralyzed or something, then my road to recovery is going to be very awkward. At least until I find another changeling that can heal me, that is.’ The ponies were happily chatting with each other. A tableful burst into laughter, with a red pegasus in the middle looking very pleased with himself. A waiter carried a tray covered in dishes of food on their back, weaving around the tables as he went. My stomach rumbled at the sight. I couldn’t see what exactly the food he was carrying was, but it was food all the same. Food that… did nothing for me. ‘I could try and look for a nurse call button or something. If they’ve got magical machines then they could have a magical alert system. Or something.’ I brought my hooves up to tap them together impatiently. When my left hoof met air rather than my right hoof, I remembered that my right foreleg was gone. ‘Oh yeah. That happened.’ I sighed and leaned my head back against the pillow behind me, closing my eyes. I was getting more and more reminded of the minutes before attacking Equestrian settlements and cities. The anxiety. The stress. Planning every one of my next moves. The wait. More waiting. Tensing up, but still waiting. My mind wandered further. Last night’s events… I would have thought the coincidences would have been too much and the whole rescue was planned, if it weren’t for the fact that I was simply too tired to care. ‘Luna came at the perfect time. Well, perfect would have been before all that happened. I could have really done without… without….’ –Piercing pain, lancing straight through my skull. My body seizing up, spazzing out of control as I screamed– Fear. I tasted fear. Not my own– that was impossible, but someone’s. That was another bad reminder; that thing implied that it was fear itself. An immutable, ineffable concept torturing me personally. I groaned in pain. Though I was still numb and hungry, what happened to me was something I could never forget. As I opened my eyes, I also heard the machines to my side beeping louder and quicker than last time I was awake. And then there was the source of the fear. A blueish-gray pegasus with a black mane and tail was fiddling with the machines. He was wearing a white hat with red plus on it but was otherwise unclothed. Since he was at my side, I could see his cutie mark, which was a feather with curls around it like it was on a gust of wind. Occasionally, he sent concerned glances my way. ‘Oh that’s much more complicated than my own mark. I hope I didn’t make something so simplified that it sticks out,’ I thought as a huge wave of warmth caused me to relax. It also made me want to throw up a bit, reminding me too much of last night. The beeping from the machines slowed and grew quieter and the pegasus let out a sigh of relief. He smiled and looked over to me. He gave a start when he saw that I was watching him with half-opened eyes. “Oh, You’re awake.” It was a good thing he was on my right side, where my hearing was better. “Mmmm,” I replied. My new voice was slightly deeper than my normal one. It wasn’t entirely out of forced relaxation or tiredness that I merely grunted instead of saying hello. The Thread of Emotion was something I had to focus on, especially when controlling the exact amount of emotion I was pulling out from a pony. Extracting love was a simple affair; simply pump power into the Thread and voila, food! Other emotions took concentrated effort. The amount increased exponentially if you wanted to extract emotions clandestinely. So while my muscles laxened and stilled, I had focused my mind on slowly pulling on the pegasus’s feelings of sympathy and concern for me. It was not filling, not in the slightest, but it did slowly lessen the pain in my stomach as the pegasus talked. He would be tired later but that would be the extent of the side effects. “Don’t worry, you’re safe here in Hooferville Hospital. The doctor will have some questions for you later, just rest now.” Though he smiled, his fear surpassed any happiness he was feeling. A nearly imperceptible darting of his eyes to my right shoulder answered any question of why he felt that way. “Wolves,” I mumbled. “The town guards have hunted them down. You’re safe here. ” “... Hungry.” ‘I don’t want to rest, I want you to stay here as long as possible, pony.’ “To be expected. The doctor will answer any question you have later. We will also bring you something to eat when the doctor comes.” The pegasus then picked up a long pillow from somewhere underneath the bed and placed it under the right side of my head, conveniently hiding where my right foreleg should be. ‘Hahahaha! I wonder how they’re planning on breaking that news to me. That is, if they haven’t figured out that that injury is old. That’s going to– oh wow, this pillow is soft. A chitin carapace might be a damn nice thing to have most of the time, but nothing beats the comfort of a bed for those with internal skeletons.’ “Okay.” Already, I felt sleep starting to take hold of me. I wasn’t done feeding, not nearly, but at least the pain of starvation was slightly less worse than when it was after first waking up. I let go of the Thread of Emotion. ‘But at this rate, it’ll take days for the hunger to go away. Patience, Phasma, patience. Feasting on the first pony I see is a great way to get myself burnt at the stake, or whatever they do to exposed changelings.’ I awoke with a start. The sunlight coming through the window was orange and casting a shadow on the wall next to me; I had slept for a few hours but not through the night. I was slightly less tired but otherwise felt the same as when I had first woken up this day. At the foot of the bed a light orange earth pony was looking a clipboard over. Her white and blue mane was tied back in a ponytail which amused me to no end. ‘Do they call that something else, considering a pony’s tail is already a thing?’ Her eyes looked up from the clipboard when she noticed me shift around in the bed. Lowering the clipboard, she gave me a fake smile and introduced herself. “Good evening, I’m glad to see you awake. I’m Doctor Hoarse Throat. Are you feeling any pains?” ‘Hoarse, or horse?’ I shook my head. “Great. Let me get Nurse Gentle in here and we can get started.” With that, the earth pony left the room. She dropped her smile before heading out of sight and I got a look at her cutie mark: a fan of tongue depressors. A few minutes later, the pegasus nurse returned, this time wearing a stethoscope. ‘Yeah that was a Doctor alright. First thing she did was find the nearest nurse to pass the work off to.’ “Good evening, I hope you’re feeling better.” “Still hungry,” I said quietly. “I ordered some food to be brought here when I was told that you woke up. Now, given your very sudden and unconventional arrival, we need to get some information. Let’s start with your name.” He picked up the clipboard that was hanging off the end of the bed using his wingtips. “Far Sky.” The fatigue that dripped from my voice was not faked. Once again, I focused on the Thread of Emotion to slowly siphon off the sympathy he felt for the cripple in his care. Faking injuries to take advantage of hospital staff was a seldom-used tool in the infiltrator arsenal, but it was a tool nonetheless. “It’s nice to meet you Far Sky. I am Nurse Gentle Hoof. Let’s start with how old you are?” ‘Something like nine months years old.’ “Twenty three,” I lied instead. That wasn’t my age when I left earth but that hardly mattered anymore. What mattered is the age I looked like. “Twenty three. Do you have any family that can be notified of your stay here?” “No.” “None? Any friends to notify then?” “... No.” “I see. Roommates? Landlord? Neighbor? Workplace?” “None of those.” “Okay, we’ll get back to that later. Do you have any preexisting conditions that we should know about?” ‘Genetic instability.’ “None come to mind.” “Good, good. Do you know who your medical carrier is?” “I don’t have one of those.” His eyebrows raised, “Are you sure? What was the last hospital you went to?” ‘Uhh. Small town pony… It would be a tiny clinic? So what’s a small town where I would be from…’ I tried to buy some time with a nonanswer, “The clinic at home.” “And where is home?” Gentle asked without any signs of annoyance. ‘A small town. Can’t be anywhere south due to my lack of accent. The farther from here the better… If only I knew where Hooferville was.’ “... Fillietown,” I replied after recalling the small outlying community the scouts captured after Cincinneighti fell. “Fillietown. Okay, where is Fillietown?” “North of Cincinneighti.” Gentle flipped a few pages over on the clipboard. “Alright, thank you. We’ll ask for your medical records to be sent over from the clinic there. Now, you were rescued from the Nieghagra River clutching the body of a dire wolf, covered in injuries. We have treated those injuries as best as we can. Could you please tell me what happened that led to all of this?” ‘Neighagra River. That means I’m pretty far up North…’ “I was… traveling through the woods.” “Alone?” “Yeah.” “For how long.” “I dunno. A week and a half?” “A week and a half through the woods? We did not recover any possessions you might have had with you. Did you leave them somewhere they can be retrieved?” “I had my pack on me when I, uh… went into the water….” “Oh dear. We’ll notify the guard to look around the banks of the river to see if it washed up anywhere.” “... Thank you.” “The town guard will most likely pop in later to ask you for more details on this all. They will want to be very sure that they got every one of those beasts.” ‘Ah shit. Last thing I want is to talk to the police.’ “Okay,” I said meekly. Nurse Gentle hid a yawn, “Now, while we’re still waiting on your dinner, I’d like to do a physical exam.” ‘Time to stop feeding. Damn it, the pain is still there.’ “Before we begin, I have something to say about your injuries… Though we have treated them the best we could, when you were recovered you were… Your right foreleg was severely injured.” I feigned confusion. “How badly?” He put the clipboard down and walked over to the right side of my bed. “I’m sorry, there’s no easy way to put this. Your foreleg was missing when you were found and we could not recover it,” he said as he removed the pillow. The stump was still wrapped up in gauze. “Oh…” I stared at the stump, blinking in confusion. I waved my left hoof around where my right foreleg would have been. ‘A week’s stay in a healing pod will fix that right up.’ “The wolves…” “I’m so sorry Far Sky.” The sympathy he felt only increased. It was tantalizing, especially now that he was so close to me. He was however already exhibiting signs of fatigue and feeding more off of him would only make those symptoms worse. That would draw too much attention. “Oh. The wolves, they... they...” Nurse Gentle Hoof waited an entire minute but when I did not say anything nor burst into tears, he decided to move on. He did check the machines twice over the course of the period of silence. 'Checking my heart-rate, I would bet. No, I'm not in shock... Should I be? I don't know if I can fake that.' “Doctor Throat will go over your injuries later with you. She will also talk to you about your… debilitation. Prosthetics, support groups, physical therapy, so on. Don't worry, you're in good hooves.” He put his stethoscope up to his ears. “Now, breathe deeply for me.”