Giving a pained groan I slowly open my eyes. The first thing I recognized was the constant beep of a what I could only assume after years of watching “House” and “Greys anatomy” was a heart monitor. I brought a hand up to my face and found my glasses were still on but looking down I saw I was in a hospital gown. Turning my head to the right I could see one wall of the room I was in had a large window that showed another room with several chairs facing my direction. Turning to my left I was faced with a bulletin board filled with papers and printed out versions of those crappy E-rays. Though in their defense these did show more detail than the ones before, must have worked hard to perfect them after my little conversation with twilight. I heard the sound of a door unlocking and the sound of hoofsteps. The light in the room behind the window to my right turned on and soon filled with ponies in nursing caps and others with scrubs.
They were mumbling to themselves and many were taking notes ‘interns most likely’. Then they all turned their heads towards the door they had entered from as suddenly Lyra, Vinyl, Octavia, Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Twilight, Flash, and Rarity burst into the room knocking several other ponies over as they looked at me through the window. I was unable to hold back a small chuckle at the scene they had made and gave them a quick wave.
“And how are you feeling today Mr. Nickerson?” asked a nurse pony who was holding my charts and looking me over. She had a coat as white as celestia’s but it lacked the same……’glow’ would be my word of choice, and a mane that was a soft pink. Somehow I remembered this pony but I couldn’t quite remember how.
“I’m feeling ok, can’t really complain I guess,……….e-excuse but have we met before?” I asked and she visibly cringed rubbing a hoof behind her head
“Well yes in a manner of speaking…..i was……….sort of the one who tried to get you to sit down in the medical tent in Saddle Arabia.” She gave me a nervous smile and my eyes went wide.
“Wait you were the one who kept jabbing my side when I first woke up?” she nodded and took a step back as if expecting me to lash out. I guess I surprised her when I smiled “Well it’s nice to finally see you clearly this time.” I said tapping my glasses in an attempt to lighten the mood. The nurse just simply stared at me trying to process my responce. “So…….h-how are things.” I asked trying to change the topic. This shook her from her daze as she quickly pulled out a Blood Pressure pad and wrapped it around my right arm before pumping it with air.
“Um…It’s ok. I mean besides my assignment in saddle arabia things have been rather quiet. Though I suppose I should thank you.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well ever since I told a friend of mine the story about you, stallions have been practically lining up to get a date with ‘such a courageous mare like myself’.”
“Glad I could help.” The two of us shared a short laugh. “So um…….”
“Redheart”
“Ah. So Ms. Redheart how much time do I have left?” I asked jokingly
“Well you have four broken ribs, a mild concussion, the lacerations on your forelegs were deep but-“
“You mean my arms?” I corrected holding my bandaged arms up.
“ So that is what you call them. Well we managed to close them after relocating you too the quarantine wing of the hospital….” Once again I cut her off.
“Wait quarantine? Why am I quarantined?”
“Well princess Twilight informed us that your body negates magic so we had to fix you up the Earth pony way. However the moment your blood touched the ones treating you they began to grow weak and almost seemed to be drunk. And by law that means we had to treat your blood as a toxin so we brought you here for treatment. Thankfully the effects your blood had on them went away once it was washed off and the doctors were able to treat you once they put on protective gear.”
‘Well that’s a relief.’
“……Other than that just a lot of bruising and other small cuts. I must say that from what the royal guard’s report of the robbery said I expected you to be much worse off. You sure are a tough one.” She smiled as she set the chart back and then began to gently run her hooves across my chest. Probably just checking if my bones are heaAHHHHH
“Sorry guess that’s still tender. Fortunately for you while your body cancels magic, pain killers can still work their own.” She said moving over to a tray and picked up a syringe in her mouth with a yellow liquid and brought it over to my I.V. drip line and pushed the needle into the tube before depressing the plunger with her tongue and injecting the yellow serum into the stream of fluids entering my arm. Right away I felt my whole body warm up and relax, the pain becoming nearly unnoticeable as I gave a relaxed sigh.
“Lucky me. so what happens now?”
“Well we have no reason to keep you here so you are getting released, just try to take it easy while your ribs heal up ok?”
“No promises.” I joked. She just rolled her eyes but still smiled and pulled over a cart with my belonging in it before turning around to leave when I noticed something.
“Nice tattoo by the way.”
“I’m sorry what?” she asked.
“The tattoo on your back leg. It looks nice.”
“Oh you mean my Cutie Mark? Why thank you for saying so.”
“Cutie mark?”
“You know the mark that represents your special talent……I’m surprised you don’t know considering you have one.”
“What do you mean? Humans don’t get Cutie marks.”
“Well then what’s that on your back.” She asked and I sighed. On my upper back between my shoulder blades was the symbol of the rebellion from the newer Devil May Cry video game
“That’s a tattoo. It is sort of like painting on my skin but the ink is sort of injected into it.”
“That sounds like it hurt.”
“Meh it wasn’t that bad.” I said trying to act tough even though I may have screamed like a child when they started it…….I DON’T LIKE NEEDLES OK. But it was worth it when they were done cause it looks awesome.
“Well like I said take it easy for a while and try not to get your blood on anypony.” She said
“Don’t need to tell me twice. Oh uh how long was I out?”
“About two days.” She answered walking out.
Slowly sitting up I felt a prickling sensation in my chest but no pain. Considering I had several busted ribs and only felt a slight prickling did impress me. The last time I had been in a fight I had fractured my sternum. Even with my prescribed pain meds it hurt to even breathe.
I got to my feet and was about to take off my hospital gown when I realized everypony in the other room was still staring at me. “Do you mind?” nopony even blinked. Realizing their curiosity outweighed their morals plus the fact that they don’t wear clothing that often if at all I knew that I now had an audience as I changed. Letting my gown fall to the floor I could see everypony gasp as they saw my battered and bruised body. The ponies in scrubs were writing notes but twilight and Lyra had them beat as they each levitated three quills and had already filled one scroll and were halfway into the next.
I then noticed a few of them were blushing and remembered I was on FULL display. My arms became a blur as I grabbed my boxers and hastily put them on followed by my pants. I reached around and found my shirt was……still wrapped around the griffons bloody arm. I facepalmed and sighed realizing that I now needed to get new clothing. It was then I remembered rarities offer and would have to ask if it was still on the table. I looked through my bag and noticed my butterfly knife was missing. Double checking the pockets of the bag and pants I groaned. “Ok the last time I had it was when I stabbed the griffon in the arm but then he managed to get……it….away…from me” I sighed and facepalmed yet again “I really hate that griffon.”. The fucker probably still had it as some sort of trophey of maybe even a memento or just cause it looked cool ‘can’t blame him if that’s the case’. Whatever the reason I was now without one of my favorite possessions. Zipping up my bag I slung it over my shoulders and stepped out of the room.
Rounding a corner I could see Mr. Rich with his daughter next to him sitting at a bench. He had bandages around his muzzle and a foreleg in a sling. Not sure what else to do I walked over to him and sat down. He noticed me walking over to him and smiled. I smiled back and noticed his daughter was asleep next to him.
“You ok?” I asked
He looked up at me and then gave a smile before gently scooting over to give me room to sit down which I did. “Oh yes just a broken muzzle and forehoof. I suppose I should count myself lucky that this was all I received.” He said brushing a hoof through his daughters mane before looking at me. “Thank you for everything you did i-If you hadn’t been there then diamond might have….” his voice began to get shaky, making it clear he was about to break down so I gently put a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey look you’re both ok so you don’t have to think about what could of happened, besides now you have a good story to tell later in life.” I said in an attempt to calm him down. It seemed to work a bit as he stopped shaking and looked at his daughter taking a deep breath. I then noticed the nasty scars on my arms from where I had been sliced by the griffons claw. “And I also got some wicked scars out of it so I guess we all win.” He looked at me like I was crazy.
“How is that a good thing?”
“Scars are a lot like books in my mind. Each and every one has a story behind it that you carry with you and pass on to others…………..”
“Well….if that is how look at it.” he said rubbing his bandaged hoof
“She was really brave though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your daughter. Hardly anypony where I’m from would struggle so much in a situation like that let alone a chi-I mean foal.” He then chuckled
“She certainly takes after her mother.”
“Don’t they always?” I joked and this time we both shared a laugh.
“Listen if you need anything at all just let me know. It’s the least I could do for you.” the stallion said with a look of pure gratitude.
“I couldn’t do that. I was just at the right place right time is all.” I said standing up only to have him grip my wrist with the fetlock of his working hoof and pull me back down into my seat.
“I’m not letting you say no to this. You saved my daughter’s life and it would be an insult if you didn’t accept some kind of reward.”
This stallion obviously had a lot of pride. Not wanting to be rude I thought about it for a second. I couldn’t just take his money or whatever else he had in mind but I also didn’t want to insult him as he said.
“Hmmm how’s about you just owe me a favor in the future and we call it even?”
He raised an eyebrow “A-are you sure? I-I could get you anything you wished out of life-“
I held up my hand to cut him off “Think of it like this. I saved you and your daughter’s life and by owing me this one favor you have the opportunity to save mine in the future and besides I really don’t need anything at the moment so as far as I see it that favor is as good as gold.”
He tapped a hoof to his chin “As good as gold, I like that. Very well we have a deal.” He said holding out his hoof and I took it in my hand shaking it lightly. “I’m filthy rich by the way.”
“Conner Nickerson, nice to meet you Mr. Rich.” I said standing up and made my way down the hall only to be bombarded by ponies. It took me a second to realize it was the girls and Flash
Rainbow Dash was the first to reach me “Oh man you were so awesome, at least that’s what I got from what everypony else is saying but still you took on an entire group of robbers single hoofedly. Gotta say Daring Do would be proud.” I decided to ask who that was later as fluttershy slowly flew up behind rainbow
“I-it must have been terrifying. You weren’t scared were you i-i-if you don’t mind me asking…...” She said hiding behind her mane as I mentally ‘dawwwwwwed’
“O’course he wasn’t scared shy. From what we’ve been hearin I reckon he’s got enough courage to rival Rainbow Dash, he probably was as calm as Winona is getting a belly rub” applejack said. (OOC that had to be my cheesiest line yet)
“Well saying I wasn’t scared at all is a lie. I just knew I had to do something before things got worse.”
Lyra and Twilight both held quills and paper in their magic
‘ oh boy here comes the storm of questions’ I thought
“So why would you just risk your life like that? You could have just done what the robbers said or escaped since magic doesn’t work on you. ” Lyra started looking me right in the eye
“Because if I hadn’t done anything or just ran away then other ponies would have gotten hurt..” I watched while the mares quills became a blur as they rapidly took notes.
“Ok so would you say that you and/or your race have a high natural protective instinct.” Twilight asked.
Lyra looked up from her notes at twilight “Oh no fair I wanted to ask that one.” She said giving a childish pout face
Twilight looked at Lyra before giggling a bit “you snooze you lose.” She said before turning back to me.
Sighing i answered “Well I won’t say that every human is highly protective, there are a lot that are as cowardly as mice. Besides the main reason I got involved was because a foal was pulled into it and I wasn’t going to just let her get hurt.”
“So you are saying that you only get involved in a situation if a foal is also in harm’s way because of it?” Lyra asked, her quills dancing over the parchment
“Well not just foals, if they had threatened to kill anypony I would have stepped in.”
“So it wasn’t the situation more so than the fact that somepony’s life was in danger that got you involved.”
I nodded “Yes that sounds about right.” Once I said this Lyra seemed to hold back a squeal of joy.
“See twilight I told you the poem ‘the nurtured storm’ meant that humans are protective and not just mindless killing machines.” She nearly yelled as twilight just rolled her eyes.
The questioning went on for a few minutes before the others had had enough.
Vinyl stepped in. “Hey come on girls go easy on him, he just woke up.”
Octavia followed “ I agree. Why not hold off on the questioning until after his injuries have closed up.” She said placing a hoof against my leg.
“Yeah lets let him rest so that way he’ll have energy for the stopping the robbery party I’m gonna throw him.” Pinkie said finishing with a large smile.
As the conversation continued I asked rarity about new clothes and she said to follow her to her shop to get my measurements taken. Lyra then asked if I was still up for helping her with the thesis to which I nodded. Twilight also said she wanted to be a part of it as well and it honestly didn’t bother me, I love sharing what I know with others so the more the merrier.
While we walked through the halls of the hospital I glanced at everypony’s flank and like nurse redheart said everypony had a cutie mark on their upper thigh. Each one was different though. Lyra had a small harp as her mark, Vinyl had two eighth notes, Pinkie Pie had three balloons, Applejack had three apples, Rarity had three diamonds, Rainbow Dash had a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt coming from it, Fluttershy had three butterflies, twilight had a purple star surrounded by other stars, I couldn’t see flash’s due to his armor, and Octavia had a purple treble cleft as hers. I found that sort of odd since she played the cello which is played with a bass cleft on sheet music. I wrote it off as a difference between mine and this world.
Finally making it to the front desk I signed out and made my way to the front door. I really should have seen this coming as the moment I opened the doors I was blasted with camera flashes and questions from reporters.
“Excuse me sir? Big scoop from the “Equestria Daily” here and I gotta know are you really an alien from another world?.” An earth pony with a microphone asked
“W-well I…..guess that’s one way of putting it.” I responded
“Are you here in the name of piece or is this only a scouting mission to gain knowledge of our weaknesses.” One mare shouted accusingly as she shoved her microphone in my face, the whole while pic after pic was being taken and I was nearly blinded by the flashes.
“What no of course not I was brought here by accident.”
“What do you plan to do now that you live amongst us ponies.”
“Well I just planned to ta-“
“Are you an activist for the environment”
“I um-“
“What is your world like.”
“You see-“
“Is your race a cultural one or a violent one”
“Is it true your blood immobilized the doctors that treated you and two of the stallion robbers”
“Are you the result of some kind of experiment.”
Eventually all the questions began to blend together into meaningless noise as they all began to speak at once while advancing forwards making me step back until I found myself back in lobby of the hospital
“We probably should have mentioned the reporters.” Twilight said giving a nervous smile. Rarity however took the opportunity to pose next to me as more and more pictures were being taken from the reporters. Everypony just looked at her.
“What? How do I know I’ll ever get a chance like this again?”
Everypony just rolled their eyes as rarity eventually stepped away.
The reporters were starting to surround me and I saw nearly no way out until I felt a few hooves wrap around my waist and pull me through an opening in the crowd.
“Honestly some ponies have no manners.” Said Octavia as she helped me up.
“Thanks.” I said.
“Don’t mention it.” she said giving me a small smile as the reporters hounded me again, only to be blocked by flash and a few members of the royal guard.
“Ok you seriously need to work on your timing.” I said to him
“Hey it’s better than nothing.” He rebutted
“Is that what you say to the princesses ?”
“You want me to let these reporters through?”
“No thank you”
“Good. There is an exit on the side of the hospital it should be clear for you.”
I nodded and made my way with the others to the side entrance. Twilight stayed behind to make sure Flash didn’t do anything stupid and would meet up with us later tonight for the Q and A for Lyra’s thesis. We made it to the exit with no trouble and the others began to disperse and say goodbye save for rarity who told me to follow her. We eventually came to a building that looked a lot like a carousel and she stood at the front door and raised her hoof up. “welcome to carousel boutique were everything is sheek sleek and manifeique.”