//------------------------------// // Sick Days // Story: The Royal Fillies // by blazikenking //------------------------------// I did not feel good when I was woken up by Skyla running out of bed over me to get breakfast. My nose felt stuffed up and I had no energy. I couldn’t smell the food either. I wanted to get out of bed, even if I just rolled out and fell onto the floor. I had the willpower to move my body a bit, but not enough to matter. I also felt really warm for some reason. A few minutes later, mom showed up in the room. “Inova? Are you okay?” I tried to speak, but all I could muster was a groan, followed by some coughs that hurt my throat. Once the coughs were out, mom put a forehoof on my forehead. She pulled it away after only a second. “You’re burning up, Inova. You are sick and you are not going to school today.” I couldn’t argue with that, even if I wanted to. “You can stay there. I’ll be right back” mom said before quickly leaving the room. I heard her talking with dad and a minute later, he came in and put his hoof on my forehead for a second before taking it off. “You really are burning up, Inova. Your mom could have made today’s pancakes on your forehead.” Breakfast was pancakes today? Aww. I loved pancakes, but I had no energy, and now that I thought about it, I wasn’t hungry either. Weird. After helping me sit up and comforting me for a bit, dad left the room. After what sounded like Skyla leaving with dad, mom came back in, a glass of orange juice in her magic. “Are you hungry, Inova?” “No” I weakly said. “Oh. Well, you should at least drink this.” Mom floated the glass up to my lips with her magic and gently tilted my head back with her hooves, helping me drink the juice. For some reason, I couldn’t taste the usual sweetness and flavor of the juice. Still, I kept at it until the glass was empty. “Feel better?” “Not yet” I moaned. “What’s happening to me?” “You’re sick, Inova. Don’t worry though. I’ll be here to help you get better.” “Oka-. . . Ah. . . Ah. . CHOO!” I sneezed and a glob of greenish stuff flew from my nose, along with a bit of the orange juice coming back out my mouth. The sneeze was so powerful, it hurt my throat, making breathing painful for a few seconds. As the pain faded away, I slumped in my position, not caring about how my fur and feathers got messed up. “Inova, we are going to the hospital” mom said. “You’re sicker than I thought you were.” I looked at her and saw the stuff I sneezed out in her magic. It was kind of gross. “But first, let me get rid of this stuff. Could you get out of bed in the meantime?” I nodded before getting my body moving, a task that was a bit easier now that I was more awake. I was still sluggish, and I didn’t so much get out of bed as I did stumble out, landing on my side on the floor. The impact definitely helped wake me up more, and I got my hooves under me not long after mom got back. After making sure I was steady on my hooves, we left the room, though I found myself struggling to keep up even before we got to the front door. Not even in my P.E. classes did I get this exhausted. Mom caught on to that and levitated me onto her back. I would usually flail around from that, but I just didn’t have the energy to care. Once mom was sure I was in a good position, she went out the front door and took off from the porch, flying over the roads and houses. It didn’t take long for us to get to the hospital, which wasn’t very busy at all. We were quickly led through the hospital to a room that I had vague memories of, where mom put me on the soft table with the crinkly paper. It wasn’t long before somepony came in. Mom didn’t give him a chance to speak. “Doctor, Inova’s really sick. I cast a diagnosis spell earlier after she sneezed. She has both a cold and pony pox.” I didn’t know quite what she was saying, but it sounded bad. “Pony pox? Wasn’t she supposed to be vaccinated against that?” the doctor asked her. Mom leveled her gaze at him. “Are you new here?” “Moved to the empire last month from Fillydelphia, your highness. Why do you ask?” “There’s a reason Inova didn’t get the pony pox vaccine. . .” “Don’t worry Inova, it will be over quickly” mom softly said. It didn’t help me. All my attention was on the item in the doctor’s magic. I had already backed into a corner and my breathing was rapid. I could feel my heart beating hard in my chest. “Please, calm down” the doctor said. “It’ll only take a few seconds.” I wasn’t quite sure what happened next, but I felt something building up rapidly in my horn, and before I knew it, a huge blast of magic went in the doctor’s direction. I think mom got him out of the way, and for a few seconds, I wasn’t quite sure what was happening. Once the magic ran out, I saw a hole in the wall easily big enough for me to jump through. The hole went through a few walls, in fact. Despite my exhaustion, I didn’t fall asleep or pass out, my tired eyes staying on the doctor. “Doctor, I don’t think Inova will let you give her the injection” I felt some of my fur bristle at that last word. I don’t know why. “So that’s why there’s some orange circles here” the doctor said. “So, how long has she been sick?” “Since she woke up. She was fine when she went to bed last night. Right, Inova?” mom said. I nodded in agreement, since she was right. I felt just fine when I went to sleep last night. “Hmm. Normally, I would recommend something that would be injected-” I tensed up at that. “-but considering what has happened before, I can’t recommend that. At the least, Inova hasn’t shown any of the more visible symptoms of pony pox. In fact, if it she didn’t have a cold as well, it might have shown up later when treatment would have been really difficult, considering Inova’s reaction to needles.” “So what do I do, doctor?” “Go with higher doses of cold medicine” he said as he started writing something down. “Also go to the pharmacy and get this. Just have Inova take it with water once per day until she’s healed. She might get a little loopy though.” “Thanks. How long do you think it will take for her to be healed?” mom asked as she floated me onto her back. “With the medicines, plenty of fluids, and a healthy diet, she should be ready for school this Friday.” “That’s great. Have a good day, doctor. . ?” “Teal. Just Teal. And I wish you the same, your highness.” “Doctor Teal. Thank you” mom said as we left the room, a piece of paper in mom’s magic. We went down a few hallways, mom apparently getting lost a couple times. Eventually, we came to another room, this one with a mare behind a desk built into what looked like a sturdy glass wall. Mom gave her the paper and got a small white bag in return, and we were quickly on our way back home, mom flying once again. The next couple days were a blur, and mom says I acted like I was drunk, whatever that means. I do remember spending lots of time in bed, drinking lots of water, and mom not leaving my side for most of the time. I woke up on Thursday feeling just fine. No stuffed up nose, no aches, and no sluggishness. When Skyla ran over me as usual for breakfast, I was able to smell. . . prench toast! I felt my stomach growl, but paid it little mind as I chased Skyla to the breakfast table, us taking our seats with practiced ease, though I did miss a few days, so I wasn’t as practiced. It was still easy though. Mom brought the prench toast to the table and had a very relieved look on her face, though her voice still had concern in it. “Are you feeling better, Inova?” “Prench toast please?” I answered with a smile. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ then” she said before floating some prench toast to everypony, and drizzling the syrup as well, starting with my portion. I was quick to dig in, and with the first bite, I remembered what flavor was. It was a glorious thing. “Oh, Inova” mom continued. “I went to Pristine Pearl on Monday while you were asleep and got all the classwork and homework for the week.” Oh no. “You can stay home again today, but you’ll have to do your schoolwork.” “Why can’t I do that, mom?” Skyla asked from behind her sparkling clean plate. If I didn’t know her as well as I did, I’d say she wasn’t served anything. But I knew how she ate, and that was very quickly. “Because you didn’t get sick” mom answered simply. “You are going to school today, Skyla. No questions.” “Aww.” “As for you, Inova-” Here we go. “Here’s your schoolwork for this week.” mom floated over a stack of paper an inch thick. I felt a prench toast and syrup filled pit form in my stomach. “And I’ll be giving you extra flight and magic lessons too. We all know you really need those.” Okay, it couldn’t get worse than that, right? “And let’s get it all done before Skyla gets home.” It did get worse. It’s going to be another long day at home. I showed up at school on Friday and was almost immediately tackle hugged by Diamond Heart. “I missed you, Inova!” I liked the hug, but the tackle had a bit of force to it. “Hi, Diamond. I missed you too” I said, returning the hug, but not the tackle. “How have things been since I’ve been gone?” Diamond broke the hug and we went inside. This year, we had math together for first period. “Everypony seems to be getting sick now for some reason. I’ve been lucky enough to avoid it though.” “That’s good. Do you have any idea what it is?” “I’ve been hearing that it’s a cold that’s been going around. The teachers seem fine though. Maybe they’re the ones spreading it around?” “I don’t think so.” “Then what’s your idea?” “I think it just spreads from pony to pony. Somehow.” “Hm. Oh, I saw your mom come in on Monday during social studies and get your work for the week. Did she do that for all your classes?” “Yes. There was at least an inch of paper” Diamond groaned at that. “And mom made me do it all before lunch yesterday. And then she had me practice my magic and do wing exercises until Skyla got home.” “I have no idea what it’s like to have magic or wings. Can you tell me?” “You’re asking the wrong pony, Diamond.” “But you have both” Diamond said as we approached our classroom. “Why can’t you tell me?” “I often forget that I have my wings and horn. I’m also not very good with either.” “How bad could you be?” “We’re in the last semester of third grade. There are second graders who started out the first semester better than me in magic and flight.” “Really?” We sat at our desks next to each other. “Yes. All my magics are weak, and I don’t have much of them either.” “Is my earth pony magic stronger than yours?” “I think so. I wouldn’t be surprised.” Eventually, math started. A noticeable amount of our classmates were not there, likely out sick. We gave the teacher our daily work, my stack thicker than everypony else’s, and were given our warm up word problem. At least, everypony else got one. I probably turned mine in already. While everypony was working on their math problems, I chose to work on a different one of my own: basic levitation. I put a pencil on my desk and tried to levitate it. In the five minutes it took for everypony to finish their problems, I had managed to get my magic in focus (for the moment) and maintain a thin glowing field around the pencil for a couple minutes. The pencil never moved, despite my best efforts. The rest of the day passed by rather quietly and peacefully. Nothing of note happened. I felt sure that, within a couple weeks, things would be back to normal here at school.