She watched the dawn displaying itself in front of her window, a gloomy and abstractedly expression adorned her face. Just a few minutes before, she finally managed to lean herself against the head of her bed to reach a more upright position. However all initial enthusiasm and cheering for her accomplishment faded not two seconds after that.
Wow she sat herself up, how awe-inspiring.
It was so humiliating.
For something so simple like sitting up she exhausted herself to the point that her heart was racing and she was covered in sweat. She needed whole minutes to calm her labored breathing. She was not unaccustomed to receiving help and she was not so proud that she would deny it. But she could not take being a burden.
In addition she had not a single bit in her possession and, sure as tartarus, she had no health insurance coverage. Redheart certainly was a nice and caring mare but she too needed to earn her living.
She heaved a heavy sigh. As beautiful as this dawn was it did nothing to ease her nerves. Slowly she turned her gaze away from the colorful display and looked down on her hand/paws. Her thoughts, one more time, returning to the deity which visited her that night. Why was she so overrun with fear? Why did she shy away from this mare?
One of her hand/paws laid itself on the place on her chest where she could feel her heart beat. There, just underneath it she could feel this new thing. Not as present anymore but if she concentrated enough she could definitely feel it. Why did this thing react so extremely to the presence of Luna and why did it see to it that she was horrified beyond measure?
As much lost in her thoughts as she was she did not notice that the door to her room opened until the by now familiar voice of Redheart snapped her out of her stupor.
“Good morning, Eris. I see that you are doing way better.”
When no answer followed the white mare tilted her head slightly. She actually smiled at the nurse but it was obvious that she forced it. Of course this made the pony frown.
“Is anything the matter?”
Again a sigh escaped her lips and she felt her ears drop down as she turned to look out of the window again. When she answered it was but a whisper. “Just look at me… I’m pathetic…” She smiled sadly. “Don’t say I’m not. I’m reclining here and almost pass out if I try to sit myself up.”
A surprisingly soft hoof touched her hand and albeit she did not want to be touched she did not flinch. “You are ill. It’s just normal that you are a bit under the weather.”
She kept on staring at the roofs of the town underneath. In the distance she could see a clock tower which explained why there was no clock in her room. “Don’t play it down. I’m not just a bit under the weather. Even a foal would put up more of a fight than me.”
“Pardon?”
“What I’m trying to say is that I’m not able to stand up and walk around. Hay, I can’t even sit properly!”
Redheart put a hoof on her chin and turned her face towards her, smiling reassuringly. “But that is perfectly normal. Are you even aware of the fact that you are on sedatives and painkillers? They tend to make you weak and sleepy. All you have to do is to recover first.” The nurse ruffled her mane playfully and to her own surprise she actually giggled at that. “Don’t worry about feeling a bit weak. It will go away if we discontinue you medication. So be a good filly and eat your breakfast this time.”
She rolled her eyes but could not suppress a smile. “Yes, ma’am.”
With that the white mare turned around and pulled a metal cart in her room which was loaded with several trays. One of them was marked with the name ‘Eris’ whereas the others were not marked in any way. She could only assume that the diet of dragonequui actually did differ from the one of ponies.
She waited patiently while Redheart placed her tray on the pivoted construction which served as a table. As a matter of fact it was quite interesting to observe how the pony ‘grabbed’ the tray with her fetlock joints while at the same time balancing herself by leaning back to the point where her backhooves were almost under her chest and thus pushing her hindquarters out.
A blush crept to her face as she caught herself staring at the flank which swayed just the tiniest bit in front of her. Quickly she forced her gaze away. What the hay was going on with her that she not only almost immediately fell for the beauty of the princess but was entranced of her caretakers flank? She. was. not. into. females!
“Everything’s alright? You just zoned out there.”
The voice of the nurse snapped her back to reality and she blinked, surprised that the table was already swiveled over her bed with the uncovered tray on it. What she honestly did not expect was what she found on her plate. Well maybe she should have expected this cause their only reference was none other than the god of chaos himself. In the episodes was shown that he got quite the sweet tooth. But she never assumed that candies and sweets in general could be the proper diet of a dragonequus.
Her plate consisted of various kinds of sugary treats accompanied by nothing less than a glass of chocolate milk.
While she looked over her supposed-to-be meal her expression went blank. She admitted that she tended to allow herself a piece of chocolate or a lollipop from time to time in the past but she never really liked sweets all that much.
“Eris? Will you keep on zoning out here?”
“Ehhh… Huh?”
When she took her gaze off the plate and turned to look at the mare she was met with a worried frown. “You seem not to be very excited about your breakfast. Is there something wrong with it?”
She hastily shook her head and put on a fake smile. “No, not at all. It’s just that… uhm… it is… so much that I don’t know if I’m able to eat all of it.”
To emphasize her point she grabbed a candy cane and began to nosh it slowly. When she chewed off the first bit she had to keep herself from gagging due to the syrupy sweet that invaded her mouth. She rubbed her belly and hummed in appreciation which elicited a giggle from Redheart.
“Okay. Take it slow. Just eat as much as you can. I have to leave you for a bit to provide the other patients with breakfast.”
The white mare then began pushing the metal cart with the other trays on it out of her room. She swallowed as she remembered something.
“Nurse Redheart?”
The pale pink maned pony stopped at the door and turned to look at her. “Is there anything you need?”
“No thanks I’m perfectly fine. But can you do me a favor and call for Twilight Sparkle? I have some things I wanted to ask her.”
It was obvious that Redheart was not too fond of the idea of letting the lavender unicorn step in her hospital again if she was not injured. “And what would that be?”
“Well… for starters what happened to me. I mean, I was fine, weak but fine. And then I just… passed out and lived through tartarus for I don’t know how long.”
She flinched a bit as she felt a scowl on her. “And why would that be that you prefer to ask her about that instead of your nurse?” A sigh echoed through the room. “Listen, what you experienced was a magical overload. It occurs if an individual is isolated from the environmental magics for a very long time and then is fully exposed to them without protection. It overstrains your body’s own magic circuit which causes a defensive reaction just like if your body would try to fend off a foreign matter. Though your case was the most severe one ever recorded in history.”
At her blank expression the nurse frowned.
"It's just like if you would go outside from a dark room and look in the sky. I can promise that it will hurt. But it's actually not the eyes themselves that hurt but the nerves which transmitt the signals. It's the overload with stimuli which causes the pain. Now try to imagine staring directly into the sun with barely used eyes. The only difference is that you can't become magic-blind. If your circuit is ever on the verge of being, for the lack of a better term, blinded your body would break under the pressure..."
By now every ounce of anger had left the voice of the nurse and was replaced with something Eris could not name. “We almost lost you but then you suddenly began to recover. Nopony knew why as some less optimistic ones even had given up on you. Just like that, without any noticeable reason.”
A heavy silence laid itself upon the room as she could do nothing but stare dumbstruck at the pony who just told her that she very nearly died just from entering this world. She took neither notice of the worried face nor the waving hoof in front of her eyes.