Books, Bats, and Bad Mojo

by Yuri Petrovitch

Bedside Bedlam

Vanhoover General Hospital was one of the newest buildings in the city, though 'Newer' in this case didn't necessarily mean the prettiest when it came to architecture. The concrete slabs of its exterior clashed with many of the sleek glass sky scrapers and even the older brick buildings that surrounded it. It's construction wasn't designed around aeasthics, instead it's massive size was out of a utilitarian goal; to care for the growing influx of patients as the city expanded.

It wasn't long ago since new trade deals between Equestria and other nations began through the small Western city, bringing it onto the map. The shipments from the port brought many things through, everything from fabrics and spices from across the ocean, and in exchange many ponies grew wealthy through the exchange; and where there was bits to be had there were those to jump on the chance.

That was nice and all, but that also Blooming Jubilee had to contend with the influx of every Pony, Griffon, Zebra, Yak and even the occasional dragon (if they could not be so stubborn and admit they needed medical attention). Through the front doors many beings called out for attention, to heal their broken wings or lacerated hooves, and sometimes their pleas for help got to be too much. There was only so much one pony can handle.

That was why the teal unicorn nurse had opted for the night shifts; with a city like Vanhoover things never seemed to end when the Celeatia set the sun, but at least the flow of patients was a lot less than the daylight hours. The trade off though? Besides having to become basically nocturnal, was that you always got the weird ones late at night.

Sitting across from the her desk was a rather peculiar Bat Pony, outwardly she appeared normal for a mare her age; her mane and coat was neat and tidy, no obvious injuries or maladies afflicted her, aside from the occasion nervous glance or twitch at any loud noise she seemed fine. Except she hadn't spoken a single word the entire time she had been here.

At first Jubilee had thought the mare didn't speak Equis, but that notion flew out the window after every pony and griffon in the hospital had tried all the language they knew, only for the mare to stubbornly refuse to answer them. It wasn't until somepony had suggest that she was a mute did they move onto sign language, and although the mare didn't know a lick of ESL she was pretty good at charades. Turns out she wasn't completely mute, just with a severe anxiety disorder causing selective mutism.

The mare had come along with an unconscious unicorn into the emergency room earlier, though when initially asked about who she was in relation to the patient the paramedics had just shrugged their shoulders, they hadn't even known she had followed them to the hospital.

The note pad the nurse had levitated in front of herself had been making notes throughout the interview, and from what she had learned she slowly put the pieces together.

"So you're saying this unicorn came into your store, had a couple hundred dusty old books fall on him, and when he briefly woke up he screamed bloody murder until he fell unconscious again?" Jubilee rubbed a hoof along her temple, feeling the headache already forming.

Ms Bluebell simply nodded her head once in confirmation. Well at least that explained the mare's nerves being a bit frayed, she probably felt guilty for causing the stallion to wind up with a wickedly huge goose egg on his noggin. She might be worried she'll get sued or worse.

"Well, I can assure you Ma'am that we'll take good care of him until he's ready to trot on out." Jubilee put her notepad down next to her little desk plant, "If you'd like we can take down your contact information and inform you should anything arise or-" Just then a loud crash came from down the hallway, followed by several ponies shouting.

Oh boy, sounds like another nut case on the loose again...

---

Desmond wasn't having a good time of things, nor a great or fantastic one either, in fact you could say he was having one of the worst times of his life.

Imagine if you had your skull drilled into by a medieval surgeon and then filled your head filled with angry red ants. Suffice to say the mind shattering headache was now on his top ten list of worst experiences.

The world was now pitch black to Des, but that would easily be explained by the cotton wraps that swaddled his head. Whoever put them on seemed to have done an awful job of it, as they probably wasted an entire roll of gauze when all he needed was just his forehead wrapped. But then again, his whole body felt off, so maybe it was called for, for all he knew he could be suffering from massive disfiguring burns to his whole body. Nothing felt right.

With a throat feeling like dry sandpaper the only thing the unfortunate man could do was groan out in agony.

There was a near constant electric beeping of a heart monitor to keep him company, but other than that no other sounds entered his world for the longest time.

He didn't know how long he stayed like that, holding his sanity together with loose threads, maybe it was hours, days, or even minutes. At some point Desmond realized that he wasn't alone anymore, they must have been wearing some weird high heels, because their shoes made a click clacking sound with each footstep.

Swallowing a bit the cotton mouth feeling away Des tried to call out to them, but to him he just sounded like gibberish. His tongue probably wasn't in the right spot or something.

The croak had its desired effect however, as whoever had the loud shoes came closer. "Hello?" He tried again.

This time he must have sounded more like a human than a dying opossum as his company replied back, "Shh, don't talk too much," the voice was soothing, like a gentle bubbling spring, "You've got yourself a nasty hit on the head. The doctor should be here shortly."

The owner of the voice drifted away as Des's head swirled, "W-wait! Don't go!" But they must have been too far for his brittle plea to reach them.

Soon enough more high heels clicked on the floor, with the number it sounded like a dozen of them all together. If I'm in a hospital, that's one weird dress code.

"I can't see who you all are, but if you're patching me up I guess I owe you my thanks."

A deep baritone chuckle came from what sounded like a middle aged man, "No thanks needed, it's what we're here for. My name is Dr. Greenline, my staff and I will help you through this."

A twinge of shame made Des realize something, "Ah, I still appreciate it... I'm not sure if I'm covered by this, but as soon as I get my next paycheck I'll pay back any medical fees."

Another good natured laugh came from the man, "You don't need to worry about that! Just focus on resting up for now. You took a pretty heavy hit to the head, nearly broke broke your skull too! You're lucky nothing seems to have permanently damaged your horn."

The gears in Desmond's head stopped turning then, almost enough that he could ignore the splitting throb in his head. Did...Did he just say I had a horn?

"P-pardon me Doc, but am I able to see? I think I need a mirror..."

"I don't see the harm in it, nothing's wrong with your eyes, I'll remove those wraps for you. I will warn you, your horn has a magical seal placed on it until we can be fully asses the damage, so you'll need to get used to not using any magic for a bit." As the bandages were gently moved out of his eyes Desmond could only look on in horror.

All around his bed were giant bug eyed horse creatures, each stared down at him with colourful irises the size of grapefruits. They all had four legs, with one having a set of wings on it's back and another a spike jutting out of its forehead. Their fur coats came in a rainbow of colours, with hair on top their heads and tails being an equally dizzy array of hues.

They all stared down at him from where he laid back his hospital bed.

They reminded him a bit like that monster from the bookstore, with one with the sharp fangs and glowing predator eyes.

A few other things immediately popped out about himself as being unnatural too; the Human's nose stuck out further and seemed much rounder. His arms were covered in a light cream coat of fur that stretched out over two stubs where his hands should have been. Wires and tubes were attached to the amputated limbs, they hooked back up to a wall of machinery next the cot.

The EKG machine started to beep loudly as the graphs went erratically up. One of the creatures wearing a white medical coat and stethoscope around its neck immediately sprung into action. "He's going into shock, nurse get the defibrillator ready! I'll need him held steady."

"Get your hands off me you damn dirty horses!"

A swift kick from one of the Human's mutated limbs sent a brown misshapen horse reeling backwards, knocking over a machine on a dolly. Another soon replaced its alien friend's spot beside the hospital bed, where several of the creatures attempted to hold Desmond still with their blocky limbs. The few things within arms reach were tossed around, a lamp was shattered and a tray of medical tools was soon scattered on the floor.

The green coated one that had been standing near the back had a glowing horn on it's forehead; a needle encased in a similarly glowing aurora floated next to him.

"Hold him steady!" the green one shouted once more, "strap the patient down if you need to!"

The whole room was in chaos as half dozen ponies in scrubs attempted to contain the thrashing limbs. Then the flying needle plunged deep into one of Desmond's new arms and released its payload, a wave of numbness spread up the "leg" as the fight soon left the human.

Everypony still standing blew a sigh of relief, many of the more bruised ones rubbed at purple jaws or left to seek immediate care. The green unicorn sat down on his haunches and proceeded to dab at his forehead with a handkerchief. "There, the tranquilizer should leave him sedated. Nurse Tulip, please see that he's restrained before he can cause more damage than he already has."

With a grimace one of the pastel pink creatures moved closer to the bed, where she began to attach several hefty straps across Desmond's ruined body.

"Hehe, your name is Toolipp, like a flower," Des giggled like a moron, the drugs already taking full effect, he could barely even feel his face anymore. "Didja parents mame yus like dat?"

The nurse didn't say anything, but her ears did slightly flatten as she finished with the straps. Once sure no limbs could move more than necessary to prevent the cutting of circulation she made a hasty retreat to the other side of the room, where's she joined her fellow nurses in hushed whispers.

Dr. Greenline looked at the ruins of a once pristine medical wing with a heavy sigh; many of the equipment had been overturned and shards of glass crunched underhoof. Luckily nothing looked seriously damaged, but it would still cost a small fortune to replace anything beyond repair. Thank Celestia we're insured for... Incidents such as this.

A knock from the doorway drew the unicorn's attention away from thoughts of how he would have to report this. Nurse Jubilee stood there with another mare Greenline didn't recognize, though the latter seemed to take shelter behind the teal nurse when she was being looked at. Both seemed to stare slack jawed at the carnage. "This all wasn't from the patient that came in earlier, right? It looks like a stampede came through here..."

The doctor shut his eyes and willed himself together, "That would be one way to say it, yes..."

"...W-why would he act like t-that??"

The question was spoken in such a soft and wispy voice that it took awhile before both doctor and nurse found the source. That was the first words anypony had heard the timid Thestral say all evening, even she seemed just as surprised at her newfound voice.

Greenline would have loved nothing more than to have the answer to such a simple question; what would cause a pony have such a violent mental break? Though a solid diagnosis was premature at this point until many variables were eliminated there was always the possibility that the cause for the break was due to an environmental exposure, possibly when the patient had received his concussion...

"Nurse, I know you were busy interviewing this mare for information about our patient, but what exactly is her relation to my patient?" The doctor fixed his gaze to Jubilee and her notepad that she had brought along, though he watched the bat pony out of the corner of his eye, "I cannot break any patient confidentiality in the matter without their permission, unless they are a spouse or next of kin."

The reaction from the strangely quiet grey mare was to shake her head in denial and returned to her spot behind Jubilee's tail. The nurse too nodded her head from side to side as she made a motion towards her notes. That was all the confirmation Greenline needed in the matter. "I see, well ma'am you may hopefully hear the answers from our young unicorn friend here once he's well and able to do so."

A low groan came from the hospital bed, though it seemed more due to the drugs working though the stallion's system than any pain. One of the nurses set about reconnecting several of the still functional machines up to the patient, while another fastened an oxygen mask above the muzzle.

Greenline grabbed a privacy curtain and drew it closed to give the poor pony some privacy as he was being tended to, no need for anypony unaffiliated to watch. Turning his full attention back the bat pony the doctor gave as gentle a smile he could, "Now if you'll excuse us ma'am, we're got some work ahead of us."

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why don't you go all the way and give every part of our main character's name a name that starts with a b?

[Yuri Petrovitch]

10399907
i.imgur.com/tbTa9Ag.png

[Mix-up]

Nice it's been a while sense I seen a hospital setup I wonder how he will manage to get out of the hospital and try to pass off as a native, or will he be in denial the entire time; could Discord somehow explain the situation for me and get him to nod along and play nice long enough to be discharged form the hospital? I wonder what that batpony involvement will be in all of this?

Nice chapter keep it up.

[silvadel]

If his bad luck follows him he might be in for some harsh times.

[Yuri Petrovitch]

10400118
Desmond's fortunes:
i.imgur.com/80XPddA.jpg

[Scyphi]

"I will warn you, your horn has a magical seal placed on it until we can be fully asses the damage, so you'll need to get used to not using any magic for a bit."

Ohhhhh, that's not going to a problem in the least bit, Doc.

Somehow missed the posting of the previous chapter, but after a bit of catch up, I can say things are still being interesting. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting the crossing over into Equestria to play out quite like this, but it does make things all the more interesting, especially as now Desmond's only contacts who could have any hope of clearing things up for him are a god of chaos that had deliberately set him up for this, and skittish bat pony that doesn't talk much.

[Ali della Morte]

Mental breakdown...

[ibanix]

Bro, do you want an editor? Because the number of typos suggests you need an editor.