//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: See You in the Marrow // Story: But For a Dream // by Doctor Axiom //------------------------------// The first warm rays of the sun hit my face and I slowly wake up. I blow my hair out of my eyes and sit up. I feel a lot better than I did yesterday in the facility. I only had to spend a short time without magic when I entered the facility and they took my bone marrow sample and a bunch of blood from me. Doctor Glance told me in that part of the facility all the magic is totally blocked off. She called it the isolation something. Doctor Glance told me I’d have to go there after my procedure. She said ponies feel terrible in there because there's a lot less magic around. She said it takes two nights before most patients acclimate to the lack of magic. I’m not looking forward to feeling like that again but I know it will be good for me to get the procedure. I hop out of my bed, land on the floor, and immediately regret testing my energy. My left side hurts real bad. I wince and shut my eyes as I wait for it to pass. Something is making a hissing noise like air escaping. Doctor Stroke, my other cancer doctor, said this is what pain from your kidney feels like. You'd think it would just hurt on your sides where your kidneys are on the x-rays. But sometimes the pain runs all the way down between your legs, and sometimes it runs into your back and you're scared to move that whole side of your body. As my pain starts to get better, I realize the hissing noise is me. I stop breathing through my teeth and shake my left leg slowly. That makes the pee bag flap against my leg. I need to empty it, but first I should take my medicine before the pain gets worse. I carefully step over to my backpack without bending my body too much and unzip it. I push my hoodie aside and my hoof touches the book I brought with me. The Young Daring Do series is really good, but “Young Daring Do and the Changeling Prince” isn't going help me much right now. I toss it onto my bed and dig deeper. I hear the rattle of the pill bottle and fumble with it for a second before I pull it out and get it open. I only have two left. I'll have to ask if there's something else they can give me while I'm here. I put both in my mouth and drink the glass of water somepony has conveniently left on my nightstand. That was probably Miss Jenny, my griffon nurse during the day. She seems pretty cool. It's going to take a few minutes for the pills to work so I climb carefully back onto the edge of my bed. I sweep my hair away from my eyes and get ready to empty my pee bag. Jenny gave me a container to empty it into because she said the doctors like to watch how much water goes in and out of my body. I hear a padding sound coming from the doorway, followed by two knocks at my doorframe “Hazel?” It’s Jenny. I can tell immediately from the voice and the tuft of hair with a green streak poking out from behind the curtain. She puts a breakfast tray on a counter near the door and takes a little cup with two pills in it. “Oh you’re up! Good. I brought you your medicine. Is that a bottle your own pain medications? Did you take one already?” I nod. “Alright,” she takes one of the pills out of the cup, “I guess I’ll just be giving you this one. It should also help make the pain better, it relaxes your kidneys a little bit.” I take the pill, as Miss Jenny works with my pee bag. Looks like she is going to empty it for me. “Thank you, Miss Jenny.” It’s important to be polite to people who take care of you. “You’re welcome, Hazel!” She smiles. “Actually, do you mind if I take your pill bottle to your cubby, and use our medications for the pain while you’re here?” I’m confused by this, and I think Miss Jenny can tell because she shakes her head as she works, and explains. “We like to track when all the medications are given, so that we don’t accidentally give you too much of something.” She’s done emptying the bag and walks over to wash her hands. “Too much of your pain medication can be bad for you, and I don’t want to accidentally give you some if we both get busy and I don’t realize you took some already.” “Oh, okay.” I don’t understand that but that’s okay. Miss Jenny washes her claws and takes my pill bottle. “Is your hip still sore from the bone marrow sample?” I blow my hair out of my eye and turn to look at my flank. It’s not as blank as usual since I still have a bandage at the top of it from yesterday’s needle. “Nuh-uh. I guess it hurts a little bit but I forgot all about it.” “Good! Dr. Glance said she used it to start growing your morphograft yesterday evening. Are you ready to give your second sample?” I nod my head, and a thought occurs to me. “Doctor Glance said something about using changeling magic?” “That’s right! The grafts are grown using changeling magic.” Jenny notices I’m still confused. “By the time the new kidney goes into you though, they remove all the magic from it. Did you have any questions about it?” I shake my head. “Great! Dr. Glance thinks she’ll have your graft ready in a week. Why don’t you have some breakfast, brush your teeth and get ready? I’ll go put this away and take care of some of my other patients. I’ll get you when it’s time.” I’m a little worried by the number of times I keep hearing about changeling magic. I know I’m not supposed think of changeling magic as bad since it’s mean to the changelings to think that. So I don’t really want to say anything. I think I’ll be able to ask Doctor Glance about it later. It’s probably way different from the changeling magic in my book anyway. It’s an hour before Jenny comes back. Breakfast was eggs and waffles and it tasted like hospital. I take my book with me because Jenny says I might still be waiting outside for a bit. Jenny leads me down the hallway and we take an elevator to the first floor. The procedure lab is just behind the main elevators. I remember it from yesterday. There’s a colt already sitting in one of the chairs waiting outside. He looks a little bit older than me. He’s got a red coat with gray hair and a little bit of stubble on his face. His left arm is short. It only goes up to the elbow and it’s wrapped in a bandage. He looks at me when we walk around the corner and then suddenly looks away at the corner of the hallway. Jenny sits me one chair away from him. Her amulet beeps and she glances at it. All the nurses wear those amulets and they beep when someone needs them. “Looks like you have two people ahead of you, Hazel. Are you going to be okay waiting here by yourself?” I glance briefly at the colt and then nod at Jenny. She knocks on the door and says something to Doctor Glance, and then gallops off towards the elevators. I idly kick my legs and look over at the colt to see if he wants to talk. He keeps looking away from me. “Hey,” I say. He glances briefly in my direction and then looks away again. “Sup?” He’s still looking away from me. “My name’s Hazel. Are you getting a bone marrow sample too?” “Yeah.” “I had my first one yesterday.” “Uh-huh.” “It only seemed to start hurting after Doctor Glance’s anesthesia spell wore off” “Yeah.” “But it didn’t hurt for too long.” He doesn’t reply. “Sorry. I won’t talk if you want me to be quiet.” He kicks his legs back and forth. “Sharp!” he suddenly shouts. “The… needle? Doctor Glance can use her anesthesia spell if you ask her.” “I’m Sharp. Sharp Trill.” He finally looks at me. It looks like he’s studying me. I fold my wings against myself a little bit tighter. “You’re a thestral,” he says, “that’s pretty cool.” “I guess so?” “How long have you been here?” “I just got here yesterday. Did you already get any bone marrow samples before?” He nods and turns his hip towards me. He has several bandages. His cutie mark looks like a little flute. “This is gonna be my fourth one. Doctor Glance says she needs a lot of bone marrow because she has to make a whole new arm for me.” “Oh,” I say. “I need a new kidney. Doctor Glance says she’ll probably only need two bone marrow samples from me, so this is my last one.” “Huh.” He blinks and looks around the room again, and then suddenly looks back at me. “Hey you’re a thestral so you know about, like, spooky stuff!” “I don’t…” “Because I hear there’s, like, an eeevil changeling in the hospital.” I blink a few times. “Changelings aren't evil.” I tell him. “Yeah but- hey! See you’ve got the Daring Do book too!” “Careful! Don’t knock it out of my hooves!” “Sorry but yeah! See you know how the changeling prince isn’t reformed? What if it’s like, an evil changeling!” I don’t really like this colt, but I want to be nice. “The book is make-believe though,” I frown, “And what would an evil changeling even want in a hospital?” “A lot of parents visit their sick kids here! What if it was feeding on all their love!?” I blow my hair out of my face and frown. “I guess? I don’t know anything about changelings. I’m a pony.” “Yeah I guess.” He looks disappointed. “But there was a foal here last week that said they saw it.” The door next to us opens and a pegasus pony with one missing wing limps out. Doctor Glance walks out with him and sits him on one of the chairs on the other side of the door. “Wait here until one of our ponies comes to walk you upstairs,” she says to him. Then she turns to look at Sharp. “Sharp? Are you ready for another bone marrow sample?” He nods loosely, and they both go into the room. Sharp is a little weird, but I know people say I’m a little weird too, so that’s okay. Princess Luna says to keep an open mind and an open heart. I see the green flash of Dr. Glance’s anesthesia spell out of the corner of my eye. I open my book to my bookmark and keep reading until Doctor Glance is done with Sharp and calls me in.