//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: A Good friend // Story: In Equestria // by ARandomLonelyDude //------------------------------// The world around me was dark. Things ran around in the darkness, speaking gibberish as they did. I lay there curled up in a ball, knowing that they were talking bad things about me. I felt something poke me on the back of my head and turned to face it. I laid on a bed with a mattress that was too hard and a blanket that was uncomfortable. I found it difficult to breath and I laid on my back as well. I could hear some noise to my right but couldn't tell what it was. I tried opening my eyes but found that I could only open my left. My right was covered in some fabric along with the right side of my face. The room was a bit too bright and I had to wait a minute for my eye to adjust to the light. I tried looking around to see where I was but my vision was too blurry to tell me anything. I tried reaching for my glasses but my foreleg hurt too much to do that. I couldn't really do anything since I felt too lethargic and so, I just lay in the bed. Why was I here? I tried remembering but only got a few bits. I remembered being scared and then being picked up against my will. I looked to my right where the noise was coming from and saw nothing that I could make out. The noise then faded to silence which then morphed into the loud ringing sound that would come whenever it was quiet for too long. I waited for what seemed like an hour for something to happen. Eventually, I heard a door opening and the sound of hooves on tile. I turned my head to face the origin of the sound and saw a white blur in front of a vaguely door shaped brown blur. "Where am I?" I managed to ask. "You're at the Ponyville hospital, Ms Anya. Your friend brought you here a few hours back after you were attacked by a monster from the Everfree," replied a feminine voice that originated from the white blur. "How do you feel right now?" "Tired. Uncomfortable." "Hmm, don't worry, you'll be let out soon." And with that, the white blur left the room. I was left alone again and this time, the wait felt longer. In the time, I was able to remember the events of the morning, unfortunately. I wished that I could forget the thing or what it had said. The door opened once more and this time, the white blur returned along with another blur that was white and yellow coloured. "Good morning, Miss Khan. I'm Doctor Greymare. I'll be removing those bandages from your head and check the injury so please stay still," said the brown and white blur named Doctor Greymare as he made his way to the side of the bed, letting me make out the shape of a yellow coloured pony who seemed to be wearing a white coat. He reached over with his foreleg and undid the bandages on my head. "Hmmm, looks fine so far for magical burns," he said as he looked over my face, "Could you open your eye?" I tried to open it but it stung too bad for me to do it for longer than like, two seconds. The doctor seemed to be satisfied with that though. "Looks like you'll be needing an eye checkup for that." He then moved on to removing the bandages on my forelegs. Even though he did it slowly, it hurt a lot. He finally removed them, exposing my forelegs to the air, which made them sting. I could make out red blurs on the white of my forelegs and I could sense that the other ponies in the room thought it looked bad. "This looks worse than expected. Seems like the magic in the burns is still active," the doctor said. I felt and saw my forelegs being enveloped in a blue aura. It felt warm and somewhat soothing and the pain from them subsided, leaving only a dull ache. The red blurs gradually became smaller as well, until I couldn't make them out. The aura disappeared and the other white blur, who I guessed was a nurse, put new bandages on my forelegs. "So, miss, do you think you could walk? Because that eye needs to be checked out and then we have to get your magic system checked up as well." I wordlessly got up from the bed, happy to leave its uncomfortable touch even though I was tired, and gingerly stepped on the ground. I wobbled a bit at first but I could stand properly. "Ah, that's good to see. Nurse Redheart will lead you to the places you have to be," he said as he pointed to the other pony. I nodded in acknowledgement and turned to face her. She opened the door behind her and said, "This way, miss." I walked out into a hallway that smelt of disinfectant and tailed the nurse. As we walked, the nurse asked me asked a question. "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly attacked you?" I took a good ten seconds before answering, "Don't know what it's called and it probably doesn't have a name either, so, I'll name it Ugly shitface." The nurse giggled at my completely serious answer and said, "Most ponies are usually too afraid to even talk about monsters from the forest, let alone insult them." We went down a floor and to a room that felt familiar to me. It wasn't particularly large and it housed a bunch of machines used for eye tests, like the one that had the picture of the balloon or the other one where the doctor shines a light in your eye to see defects or something. "Nice to see you here, Redheart. This the patient?" said the voice of an older woman. An orange pony emerged from behind one of the machines. "Why don't you go take a seat there, miss. I'll be with you in a second," she said to me, pointing to a seat in front of the machine that they use to point light in your eye and see what's wrong. I did as she said and she was there with me in a moment after talking with the nurse in hushed tones about something. "Okay then. I'll need you to rest your chin on this and look straight ahead," she said as she cleaned off the thing where I was supposed to put my head with a sanitizing wipe. I rested my chin on it, ignoring the smell of the chemicals from the wipe, and looked straight ahead. The mare took the seat opposite of me and turned on the machine's light. "Good, now, could you open your right eye for a moment. I know it hurts so I'll be quick." she said as she got the light in position. I did as she said, managing to open my right eye and hold it open for the ten seconds she looked at it until she turned the light off and went to a shelf to get something. I shut my right eye, which had started to burn quite a bit, tempting me to rub it. I, of couse, didn't since it would make my hoof dirty and probably make my eye's condition worse. The mare returned, carrying a small box in her hoof. "Your eye look pretty messed up, but it'll be fine if you use these eye drops at least once a day. If any problems happen, you should come back right away. Anyway, you can go now." she said to me as she wrote down something on a paper and handed the eye drops to the nurse. The nurse led me out of the room and to the room right across from the one we were in. There were machines here as well but they looked like... like they came out of a mad scientist's basement. "Hello there. You look a lot better than when you came in," said a voice right next to me all of a sudden. I turned and saw that there was a light purple pony there. "Sorry if I surprised you. Could you take a seat over there, I have to run some tests." I turned to look at the seat he pointed at and saw what seemed to be a cross between those things at at a beauty parlor, the ones that go over your head, and an electric chair. I didn't question it and took a seat. The pony pulled down the helmet thing onto my head and went over to some other machine and watched as it printed papers. After about a minute, he came back to me and pulled the thing off my head. "Your magic seems to be doing fine, can't say that about a lot of ponies who've encountered magical monsters. Anyway, you're free to go. Have a good day." The nurse and I left the room and she led me back upstairs to the room I had woken up in. "Stay here while I get the doctor. If he gives the okay then you'll be free to leave," she said as she left me in the room. I took a seat on one of the two chairs in the room and waited for them. A question was brewing in my mind. How bad was my condition when Brush got me here? The doctor came in alone. He held a clipboard in his magic with some papers on it. "So, Miss Khan, everything seems to be well for you and I can say that you can be discharged," he informed me. "I have a question." "Ask away." "How bad was it when my friend got me in here?" "Hmmm, well, to put it simply, it was rather bad. There were magical burns on your face and forelegs, and your magic had been drained. Pretty common thing that the monsters from the Everfree do, so, you don't have to worry much except for the scars. It could have been worse but your friend got you here pretty quick." "...okay. So, do I have to make a payment?" "You don't have to worry about that. Most of your expenses are covered by the Everfree injury policy, and whatever was remaining got paid for by your friend. Pretty nice, isn't it? Now, you'll have to sign this form and we'll discharge you." It was 1 PM and I stepped out of the hospital. The doctor had instructed me to not remove the bandages around my forelegs till Wednesday since they hadn't healed properly yet. I was happy that I didn't have to change them because they had special medical magic in them. I had two goals right now. The first was to find my glasses and the second was to go and thank Brush for helping me out. I started on my walk back home, significantly slower than I would travel since I only had my left eye to 'see' with and didn't want to run into something. I didn't know which way I had to go and so, I picked a path and started following it, hoping to get somewhere familiar. As I walked through town, I felt the stares of several people and heard some hushed whispers. I started feeling rather uncomfortable and quickened my pace somewhat. I reached the town center which close to the hospital and from there, I was back onto the path to my home. I was able to get back to my original speed, allowing my lungs to recover from the extremely exhausting act of walking faster than usual. I put aside the criticism of my poor physical health as I reached the crossroads where I had been attacked. There was still the burnt grass but the severed limb was gone meaning that someone had cleaned it up. I turned to head to Brush's home even though my legs ached with the effort. Once at her door, I had to stop and catch my breath and hold back a cough that I knew would not be good. I knocked on the door lightly. It took only a few seconds for the door to open. Brush stood in front of me for a second and just as I was about to thank her, she pulled me into a very... friendly hug, nearly crushing me with strength that seemed unnatural for someone as small as her. Aside from the getting crushed part, it felt... nice knowing that someone cared that much about my health. "Thank Faust you're okay!" she said as she let me go. I immediately broke down into a coughing fit, showing clear signs of not being as okay as she had thought. She pulled me in and closed the door behind me. "I'll go get some water for you," She said and in a moment, she as back with a glass of water. I drank it all quickly and the cough subsided somewhat. As I tried to give the glass back to her, I caught her staring at me. "Everything all right?" I asked. "Oh, yeah! It's just... why are you keeping your right eye closed?" she asked, clearly deflecting from what her original statement was going to be. "Hurts too much to open it right now. Should be fine in a few days. Anything else?" "I uh I have your glasses. Found them where you dropped them. Let me go get them; you can go take a seat in the living room," and with that, she went upstairs a bit hurriedly. I was getting a tiny bit annoyed at how she kept avoiding saying what was on her mind. I went to the living room and took a seat on one of the couches, happy to get some rest from walking. Brush came back with my glasses and handed them over to me. I put them on and my vision became so much better. Just kidding, my left eye was terrible as it was and the glasses only made it slightly better. That combined with my right eye being out of order made me effectively blind. "So, Brush, what were you gonna say earlier?" "...I think it might be mean if I said that and I don't want to be mean to a friend." "It's fine if you say it, I won't think bad of you." "Okay... the scar on your face looks pretty bad." As I had told her, I wasn't offended or angry or whatever, but I was a bit surprised. I hadn't seen a mirror since like, the day I came to Equestria, let alone today, and was a bit confused. Hadn't the doctor said that the injury on my face healed pretty good? Were the ponies in town staring at me for that? I probably looked unhappy as I said this and Brush, who couldn't read minds, probably thought that I was angry. "Sorry if that made you angry." she said as she looked away sadly. I... felt bad for making her sad like that. "I'm not angry at you. Just a bit... surprised I guess. By the way, do you have a mirror, I haven't really seen how it looks," I said, trying to sound as neutral as possible. Her mood improved upon hearing that I wasn't angry and she left to get a mirror. She was back in a minute with a handheld mirror and I tried taking it in my magic only for my horn to give off a few sparks and then give me a mild headache. Brush looked concerned but I just took the mirror with my hoof and looked at my reflection. On the left side of my face was the brown patch of fur around my left eye like the last time I had checked. On the right side, there was a new group of patches of dark grey fur that looked quite gnarly. It was mostly centered around my right eye. "It might look bad but you're still pretty," Brush said, trying to make the situation a bit better. "I mean, I kinda look like a racoon now," I joked, not knowing any appropriate way to talk about getting a scar. "What?" Brush said, clearly not expecting that I'd joke. "I mean, racoons have white snouts, dark patches around their eyes, and are grey coloured and I have all of those." I explained even though Brush probably wanted an explanation about why I joked. "Aren't you sad that you look like that now?" "Not really. I might look ugly now but the truth is that I didn't look any better earlier." "You can't just say that about yourself, it's wrong!" I wanted to argue about how it was fine but stopped myself since that would involve revealing some pretty sensitive information that Brush didn't need to be burdened with. I just nodded, pretending to agree. Brush, however, didn't stop there. She got closer and pulled me into a hug. On one hand, I did not agree to the physical contact, on the other, the gesture did not feel hollow like the ones I had in the past and I could see that Brush was genuinely upset by my self-deprecating comments. I allowed the hug and made a note to be nice to myself while Brush is around. She pulled back from the hug and then switched the topic of our conversation. "So, how was the hospital?" "It was fine. They checked me up after I woke up and the doctor told me to rest and keep these bandages on till Wednesday. Other than that, I also got some... eye drops..." I stopped talking, realizing that I had forgotten said eye drops at the hospital. "What's wrong, Anya?" "I forgot the eye drops at the hospital like-" I cut myself off before calling myself an idiot, almost forgetting that I literally made a note to not do that out loud in front of Brush. It was hard to be as stupid as I was. "Like, now, I have to go back and get them," I continued in an annoyed voice, expertly covering up my slip up. "If you don't mind, I could go get them," Brush offered. While I appreciated Brush's generosity, I was annoyed at how she had no qualms helping me even when I should have dealt with the problem that was caused by my own stupidity. "You've already got me to the hospital, AND paid the bill. You don't need to do more," I politely declined. "Oh come on, Anya, anybody would have done that and you're literally my first friend in Ponyville. I can do that much. Besides, I only had to pay two hundred bits." Brush was determined to help me out, and I knew that there was no point trying to argue with stubborn people. "Fine, you can go but not right away." I yielded. Brush was happy to hear that. "So, do you want anything to drink? Actually, have you eaten anything since morning?" I shook my head no. "Well then, why don't you stay for lunch?" Brush was stubborn and a bit too happy to help with anything but she was a good friend indeed.