Bone Saw choked. He had never seen such a thing before and neither had Vein. However, at the moment he didn’t want Vein to see it due to her tendency to overreact.
"She’s just so – mutilated. Bandages and gauze everywhere." She looked around the room to divert her attention off of the wounds. She locked onto the semi-stuttering vanilla doctor. "Are you alright?"
"W-well. Yeah, I’m just looking her over, making m-mental notes." In a rare moment of insight, she looked to where his eyes were pointing.
"Hmm." Vein walked over to his side.
"N-no, no. I can do it just fine. My eyes are just tired."
"Then, what’re you staring at—"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Well it certainly looks like it’s not standing or anything..."
"And! And! The backdrop of it.. It’s like it’s..."
"I know what you’re thinking, but neither of us are cutie mark experts. Let’s just calm down, and actually work for our bits. Obviously this is only a tiny part of her physical examination." Vein nodded.
They worked, making notes and marking figures. Tools floated about, measuring everything from hoof width to tail length to barrel thickness. With the wounds and conditions being previously noted, they only had to write detailed description and make sure nothing was missed initially.
As per normal, the third and fourth sheet were filled with the physical examination results.
"Well, that was fast."
"Yeah.. I don’t know how I feel about her cutie mark though."
"Look, Vein. If it’s any consolation, or distraction, we still have three other patients to do the same to." He groaned inwardly, trying to make Vein stop talking. "Okay, and I’m kind of creeped out by it too."
She sniffled. "Yeah, okay. I’ll figure out who’s already been examined, and we’ll work from there." She went over to the stallions, a bit forlorn. The two clipboards however were quite full of hoof writing not from any of the doctors she could think of. "Well, that’s strange. They’ve already had their checkups."
Bone Saw’s heart skipped at the news, "Could it be that Laceration did actual work?"
"I don’t know honestly. It’s not his hoof writing." Vein trotted over to Red Cross’s clipboard. It was empty except for a note, "I’ve admitted her as a patient, so she can sleep in the ward. However, if I have to examine her, she’ll kick my face in, so whoever is doing this, good luck ~Laceration."
"Seriously?" They both said, as Vein had read the note out loud.
Needless to say, when Red Cross was woken up, it went from violent to very awkward. "Stop kicking! Or Punching! I don’t know what you call it when you’re laying down!"
"Well, I thought were that lazy excuse for a doctor!"
"Yeah, I’m not! Please stop kicking now!"
"Only if you let me write that myself! I don’t like being stared at."
Red Cross received a clipboard to the face. "There!"
"Why thank you, Vein." She bowed for no reason. "Leme just grab – mmf." She took the pen in her mouth. Writing took longer than usual for some reason. In any case, she had taken about twice as long as either of the other two staff members. "Here."
Vein grabbed the clipboard with fuscia magic. "Soo, why didn’t you just, you know," she tapped her horn.
Aaaaannd, Cross face hoofed. "I forgot I was a unicorn. Fffffffuuuuuuu—"
"Hey! They’re children here, even if they’re asleep!"
Cross banged her head on the frame, "Ffffffuuuuu—"
"What did I just say?!" She stomped a hoof.
Cross coughed, "Eh, knee-jerk reaction." She inched ever closer to her bed, "I’m, just going to, you know, sleep now." She jumped in. "I’mNotOnTheClockDon’tAskMeToDoAnything! Snore!"
A crunching sound was heard behind Vein. When she turned around, she saw Saw eating a bag of trail mix. "Ah don’t mind me. Nom. I’m just here for the show. Nom! Crunch! Personally, I think Cross is the better fighter, but I’m rooting for you! Munch. I just love underdog stories."
"Oh of course," Vein’s eyes rolled, "And you always call me out when I’m emotional or unprofessional or acting like a filly. Tch. Hypocrite."
He went to grab more mix out of the bag but accidentally sloshed some of his lifebood onto the ground. "Hey! I’m only a hypocrite when it counts! Plus, you made me spill my trail mix!"
"I didn’t make you. You spilled it when you heard the word hypocrite."
A few choice curses lingered on his tongue. "Fine, whatever. Cross, can you be an impartial third observer?"
"Snore, snore, snooze, dream, hoof moves deamily."
"I’ll assume you mean no, but really this is serious from what we can tell."
"Snore?"
"An intrigued sleeper. Seriously though, I have legitimate concerns about young Caedes over there. We were doing the usual physical to assume any other health issues, and we came across looking at her cutie mark. I have no idea why it hadn’t been noted before, unless no one actually looked, but it brings certain.. ethical concerns." He waved his hoof at the last two words.
"And what am I supposed to do about it?" Red Cross hadn’t rolled over, but at least she spoke back. "The last time I checked, I wasn’t getting paid for this time, passed out in one of these beds, and had to deal with a sobering Laceration."
The pair shuddered at the realization of a drunken doctor. A pony who could make mistakes that cost lives. Vein spoke first, her goodwill for patients to live. "And why didn’t you report him?"
"Long story, but basically, his cousin has filled his hooves many times in the past, and this was just another one of these occurrences. It pisses me off, but I have to admit Laceration is one of the best surgeons and doctors here. He’s just overconfident and that makes him lazy."
She paused, trying to think of the topic. "Yeah, I guess I could settle whatever concern you have about the filly, but really, I am no ethics committee." She rolled over and fell out of bed, the short fall making her regret not using her legs. Trudging over with muffled distain, she peered at the mark.
"’Looks like she has a butt mark that looks like a murder scene in a crime book. A shadowy figure dead, on top of a splash of his own blood." Her muzzle scrunched, "Oh, I see what you mean."
They held a meeting outside of the curtain after dampening Ceades’s rags again. "Should we even do anything about it?"
"Feeling lazy Cross?" Vein asked. "This could be horrible for her to get involved in."
"Vein, are you listening to yourself? She’s already involved; it’s on her flank!"
"Hey, don’t get snippy, Saw. Vein’s just trying to look out for ponies other than herself. Learn, some empathy, stallion."
"Yes, let’s go there. I’m the one to blame here – no not really. We don’t even know if it even means what we think it does. None of us are experts, and now we’re just yelling at each other." Some rustling was heard, accompanied by a grunt and a slam onto the floor. "Looks like we have some guards awake now, and it’s six thirty. Perfect! We get dinner and a story."
As much as the other Nurses hated to admit it, they were all being quite aggravated and blaming the doctor. So, they agreed with each other just to eat a dinner and be nice, unless Bone Saw turned out to be a complete jerk again.
A new servant delivered the loaded carts of food, three for the six ponies, one cart per two ponies which was still a ludicrous amount of food. Raven took her bed while Vein, the active nurse, doled out the carts of food, one in between the guards, one in between Caedes and Cross’s beds, and one off to the side for the herself and Saw.
"So, Vein clopped her hooves, tell me, Deepsky and Evershade, how was last night or rather, this morning?"
"TAKE THE BUCKING APPLE EVERSHADE!"
"NO I DON’T BUCKING WANT THE APPLE, DEEPSKY!"
"EAT THE BUCKING APPLE, AND LIKE IT!"
"Fine..." Evershade ate the apple with mute appreciation. "Hey, thanks man, I need your help to stick to my fruit diet. No more carbs for this bat, or at least for a couple of weeks."
Bone Saw had a crap eating grin. "Cute, you two are like a married couple."
"We’re not, but we do have to know each other from head to tail in the guard; it’s so we can work together to the best of our abilities."
"Ah, so you KNOW each other from head to TAIL."
"Oh you dirty little ‘itch." Evershade was ready to smash the doctor’s face in with his good hoof.
"Just stop for a second, Evershade, I got this." He lowered his hoof, letting Evershade sit back on the bed. "We definitely aren’t, but if we were, ‘Shade here would be the wife. Just look at him, he’s too sensitive about his weight, cough, cough 240 kilos."
"Hey! Most of that is muscle! I just.. you know, got some extra belly.."
"Snrk. See, told you doc. Also, ‘Shade, that was for earlier. Consider us even."
"Cough, Cough." Cross was bad at acting, but sarcasm served its purpose. "Now then, thank you for being complete jerks, unintentional or otherwise, to Vein here." Their ears drooped.
"Buh, buh, my diet..." Evershade’s hoof reached out and pawed the air until it fell limp.
"And for you Saw," A resounding slap was heard. "Seriously, you and Laceration are the worst stallions I’ve ever met, and I’ve met Prince Bluebood!
"A diet, yeah I get that, I guess. But seriously, I bet you’ve said it like three million times, so just humor Vein until the official report comes out with whatever limited insight it provides."
"Sure, I’m sorry for being crass—"
"Yeah, yeah, stop trying to land yourself a mare, and get on with it, ‘Sky."
He seethed silently, planning out the fastest way to dispose a corpse. With teeth clenched, he said, "In any case, I think I speak for both of usss, when I say that the morning was just a terrible event. We both got laid up in here—" Evershade snickered as Deepsky said ‘laid’ which only angered Deepsky more "—AND are there any MORE questions?!"
Vein tapped her hooves, she didn’t cause the quarrel between the two but it didn’t serve to aid her confidence. "Well, I was, you know, wondering about the morning events.. Was any pony actually murdered?"
He thought for a moment, placating his anger in favor of recalling memories. "I honestly have no clue since we were the first on the scene and the first to leave the scene. However, if there was another murder after that mare had escaped, I’m sure that there would be gossip by now. However, I cannot speak of what went on in that house. Why do you ask?"
"Well, you see, we were inspecting the other patient, and well..."
"She has a butt mark of a murder."
"Don’t you mean a cutie mark, nurse—"
"Cross. And yes, while I have a cutie mark myself, I was never fond of it as it was the symbol on top of the first aid kit. I felt like I was a box and you had to rip me in half to get healing supplies. That was never a nice thought to me when I was young, so yes, I call them butt marks sometimes when I lack patience."
"O-okay then," Deepsky all of a sudden felt his morbid curiosity pique. Would she contain bandages... or just blood and gore? "Besides that thought, I have serious concerns about her now. We would have to turn her in for sentencing as we are bound to do by oath, if she does have a mark for murder."
"I’m not going to let you do that." Vein stepped forward, reasserting herself. "I don’t know why, but I feel like it’s not her fault."
"Oh really. I’m sorry to disappoint you, since you are my normal coworker, Vein, but cutie marks happen as a direct result of action, or inaction. Never have they just appeared as a consequence of age or random accident."
"Saw, you’re saying that you believe she killed a pony!"
"Definitely not a question, but yes, I do." His words spooked a silence through the gathered ponies. No one said anything, but every one of them, including Vein believed what Bone Saw had said to be true.
Still, she persisted. "And what if there was something more involved? What if it was forced?"
"You can’t force a cutie mark to appear."
"No I mean.." She pressed a hoof to the side of her head. "Like, you were good at two things, but you were forced to choose one thing over another against your will, like choosing between baking and cooking since your mother was a baker herself."
Evershade decided to finally add his two bits. "But if you were forced to choose, wouldn’t she have to have been good at killing already?"