"And you are?" Cross stepped forward, obscuring Caedes from view. Nurses don’t take crap from any pony.
Relic coughed. "While I am here as the proverbial judge and jury, I am here for liability protection." Cross settled a little, releasing the tension in her legs. "Ah, well this is awkward. You’re over there doing your job and probably a little more, and I’m here because I’m the Princess’s go-to pony when she needs something done. I’m Relic," he said as he extended his hoof invitingly.
"Mmm. Well met if you aren’t here to harm or maim." She shook hooves. They moved back to a respectable distance between the two.
"I must be a little imposing with the trench coat, and all, but I like it: nice and brown and thick, perfect for rain." He tilted his head, possibly in a smile. "Eh, I’m more here as an alibi for the Princess when she has to address the situation publically. I’m skilled in detection and containment if necessary."
"If that’s all, then do you actually need to do anything besides sitting down? I’d rather not have you near the patients, if you catch my drift."
"I’m not afraid! –Ouch! Deepsky, stop stabbing me with your hoof!"
"That won’t be a problem, although I’d like to cast some spells to check for.. dangers. The foal or filly might have some internal issues glanced over with the medical stuff."
Cross squinted, "Only if that’s it. Don’t harm her; I took an oath for the wellbeing of my patients." She made this very clear as she crushed the metal bucket next to Caedes’s bed.
Relic sweated a little, thankful for the thick coat, "Sure. It won’t take but a minute."
He approached and stood over the quiet, sleeping filly. Taking a breath, he pressed his magic to her horn first, checking for damage. Intrigued, he investigated further, snaking his magic around her form, looking for something different, but it was everywhere.
"The Hell?" he breathed, starting over again from the horn. Nothing had changed, although it had started to react to his magic, fighting it from looking deeper. Relic turned around at the nurse who was almost ready to pound him after the second pass of magic. "Do you know about this?" He gestured broadly to Caedes.
"What? Speak carefully, I don’t trust you."
"She’s full of something that’s not normal magic. Everywhere, head to hoof, she has some kind strange magic that gives me goose bumps on my horn."
"I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Is it dangerous to her or anyone else?"
"I’m not sure, but it doesn’t like being touched by magic. It started to push it away once it got wind of the first time I tried to assess it."
Cross’s constitution wavered in favor of every pony else in the room. However, it wasn’t an oath to the greater good. "I’m going to ask you to stand away from Caedes."
"What?" He stomped his hoof. "The buck you talking about, this could be dangerous."
"I don’t appreciate your language and such foul gestures. Back off." Cross’s lasts word were as much command as statement. Relic begrudgingly agreed; he was assigned to be an alibi and last resort if any harm were to come to any pony based on the situation, not to influence them.
"Fine. Just take it as a warning then." He stalked off, a groan of wood sounding out from behind the curtain. Red Cross was satisfied with his distance.
Bone Saw came in through the entrance, he had left to work the desk when Vein had left twenty minutes ago. "That seemed fun." He noticed the bucket. "You can’t keep damaging property like that. I know you’ll fix it , but come on, there’s a bit of water coming out now. Also, Laceration is taking over from here. See you tomorrow." Red Cross sighed. Laceration was early and still ended up starting work late.
"Sure. I have a few tests to run, so can you send him in on your way out?"
"Might as well, ta."
***
Three thirty, or at least that’s what the clock said. The tower was almost deathly silent except for Spike’s breathing. Twilight hadn’t slept much if any, it was hard to tell when clouds covered the moon and a pony couldn’t remember if the blank spaces in memory were consistent with sleep.
She had been recalling her notes she had taken though the scores of books she had flipped through. The biology book on avians had been a dead end as birds were not similar to ponies in many ways, even their blood was mostly incompatible.
Books on griffons when compared to the biology book had been different. They had some similar traits, but overall, they were very different, to the point that only feathers and similar external factors were the same.
The real breakthrough though was when she found a record of a criminal investigation that led the evidence pointing to a griffon as the convict. It was full of holes and racism which gave her doubt as to the validity of the sentence, but the investigation was quite thorough. Even though the case was over fifty years old, the biological evidence documented was highly similar to a pony’s, so similar that it was theoretically possible to mix up samples and confuse them.
So, that led to the why. If ponies, even earth ponies, were saturated in magic, why were other races unable to use the ambient magic, except in very minor amounts, like griffons being able to stay on clouds. It made little sense with being so biologically similar.
"Oh Spike, if only you could help more than to keep me on track.. It just all points to being a difference between species." She waited, seeing if Spike would wake up. He didn’t rouse though; he was a heavy sleeper when the night came. "Unless.. magic can choose for itself..."
Twilight rolled over, her spot becoming too warm. "I wish it was colder already. All the warm air rising makes the tower stuffy."