“Oh my goodness!”
“I need to see a doctor,” Wolfsbane said redundantly.
“J-just stay here.” The mare at the receptionist’s desk rushed off, leaving the injured stallion all alone.
The walk to Ponyville had not been a pleasant one. About ten minutes in the pain started coming back, reducing his already slow pace to an agonizing crawl, only compounded by the limited range of movement his right foreleg was now capable of. The fact that the town was nearly pitch black was a mercy, though. The last thing he wanted was to be responsible for scaring some poor foal into having nightmares for the next month. Or some of the more squeamish adults.
He was thankful the local clinic had recently changed to a 24/7 schedule. Given the sheer number of accidents and disasters that took place it was inevitable.
His thought processes didn’t get any further as his body decided it had used enough adrenaline for one day and he fell to the ground heavily.
When Wolfsbane woke up, the first thing he noticed was the horrible smell. He’d never liked hospitals, mainly because everything smelled so painfully sterile. Compared to the earthy smells he had grown up around and loved, it was actually a little painful. The second was a near-total lack of feeling in the right side of his body. He rolled his head and managed to see why, the swath of bandages that completely obscured almost his entire leg and shoulder up to his neck.
“I envy you earth ponies, sometimes.” Wolfsbane looked up stiffly at the alabaster unicorn mare who had just walked in.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“A pegasus or unicorn with the injuries you walked in with?” the mare replied. “They probably wouldn’t have survived. I’m Doctor Heartbeat, by the way,” she said, introducing herself.
“Um, Wolfsbane,” he answered. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”
“I’ve only been here a week,” she answered before levitating a clipboard from the foot of his bed. “Is that two words?”
“One.”
“Like the plant,” she said with a nod, making her short powder blue mane bob up and down. “Explains your mark. So, what happened?”
“I... I was in the Everfree. I was attacked by a pack of Timberwolves.”
“You were in the Everfree?” she asked incredulously. “What were you doing in there?”
“I was collecting plant samples,” Wolfsbane explained.
“Surely there’s a safer way to do that,” the doctor frowned.
“There a lot of plants that grow in there that I can’t find anywhere else.” She rolled her eyes at that.
“You said something about Timberwolves?” she asked. “Were they the source of your injuries?”
“Yeah.” Wolfsbane looked away, deep in thought. “One of them ripped open my shoulder and just left me.”
“That doesn’t sound right,” she muttered. “Are you sure that’s what happened?”
“I... I don’t know. After it bit me, I passed out. Maybe something attacked them and left me there.”
“I’ll be honest, I have absolutely no idea what passes for normal in there, but that definitely doesn’t sound normal.”
Wolfsbane nodded. “So, how bad is it?” he asked, gesturing at his bandaged shoulder.
“Okay, the bandages should be ready to come off in a week or so. In the meantime, you need to take some antibiotics to prevent an infection.”
“Thanks, doctor.” Wolfsbane’s expression became slightly worried. “Um, I’m moving to Canterlot in a few days. Is that going to be a problem?”
“I’ll send a message to Canterlot General, get you an appointment.” Doctor Heartbeat nodded, her mane bobbing up and down. “Why are you moving to Canterlot?”
“New job.”
“Well, good luck then. Just go easy on that leg for a while.”
It was two days before Heartbeat declared him fit to leave. It was with a limp, saddlebags with only a few essentials and a heavy heart he walked onto the train the day after, preparing to depart for a new start.
Half an hour into the five hour trip, having rapidly lost interest in the book he had brought with him, he fell asleep.
He stepped between the trees, sniffing at the air. The source of the unfamiliar scent was close. There, one of those strange, colourful ones. He glanced, motioning towards his packmates to go around to trap them.
He padded towards it, keeping completely silent. It seemed to be cutting something from a plant for some reason. It didn’t matter. It was distracted. It was always quite fun when the prey had no idea what was happening until it was too late.
He got right behind the colourful thing and growled into its ear. It turned and looked him in the eye, the fear in its eyes amazingly vivid. He could even see his own reflection, his pointy wooden snout and glowing yellow eyes.
Wolfsbane woke with a loud yelp. He jumped off his seat where he had been curled up and fell to the floor with a loud thump. As he lay there, panting, he tried to make sense of what he had just dreamed about.
He had been in the Timberwolf’s position. Was it the one that had bitten him? Had he just seen its memories, despite how impossible that was? If it had been memories he was seeing, he was glad it had stopped when it had.
As he calmed down, he noticed a few more things. He had been curled up in his sleep. He never did that, not since he had been a colt in elementary school. And there was the panting. With a shock, he realised that he was still doing it, tongue hanging out and lapping at the air. He forced his tongue back into his mouth, slightly worried by his own behaviour.
He clambered back onto the seat and picked his book back up. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t force away what he had just witnessed.