Did You Know That Forty-Eight Hours Was All I Needed?
It was two licks and a dollop short of a white drop of paint when Doctor Stables walked into my room. He had on his old doctor garb with the stereotypical white gown like you’d see in those hospital dramas. He even had that black stethoscope that draped around his neck. However, what separated him from those dramas was the ring on his horn. It had the same gold hue, which shined brighter due to the light that was fixated above us. He had the same precaution that everyone else had when they’re within a block radius of me. It was glaring at me as the doctor stood at the end of my bed.
“Looks like you’re almost ready to bust out of this infirmary, Rick.”
He had said this while laughing, which made me groan. “Like you wouldn’t believe, doc. Unfortunately, I know you have to give me a look over and lecture me about this forty-eight hour plan you and Nurse Redheart made.”
“Yes… and no.”
I raised an eyebrow at that. “No to the look over or no to the lecture?”
He snorted before adjusting his glasses on his head. Then he grabbed the clipboard and read off something that I don’t recall Nurse Redheart even mentioning to me:
“Patient experienced a magic microburst. Not sizable, but due to his breakfast provided by a third party, we will need to verify if the magic has worn off before release.”
“Magic… microburst?”
Doctor Stables nodded. “You had enough energy from the magic in your fingertips that, if you had a way to channel that energy, you probably could have sparked a lightning bolt from your fingers and possibly electrocuted somepony to death.”
I closed my eyes, and then slowly opened them. “W-What?”
“Exactly. You still have some magic in you. Probably from when Princess Twilight had her wings left unbound. Mix that in with the possibility of some leftover residue we missed when sewing you up, and you got yourself a mighty cocktail of magical hoopla,” Doctor Stables said, eying me up. He went to my right side, asked me to lift my arm up, and then repeated for the left. Once he did this, he nodded, then grumbled to himself. Doctor Stables scribbled some stuff into the chart and spit out the lead splinters into the garbage can nearby.
I was spellbound the entire time, just letting him have his space. He was probably confused by that, mostly because I did want to interrogate him about everything, but I felt like I didn’t want to bombard him with questions.
There was no time like the present though, so I sighed. “So even though I had that magic microburst… Does this mean that I’m stuck here?”
“Not exactly. You’re still able to be released back into the castle, but you will be only allowed on the castle grounds. Nowhere else. Not until they figure out how to fix you and with direct permission from us before they proceed.”
I tilted my head. “I’m surprised you can say that so nonchalantly.”
“It’s how I get the bits, Rick,” he said with a shit-eating grin on his face. He then wiped it clean with his forehoof and continued. “You’re probably also wondering why we are not able to assist Princess Twilight in her investigation.”
“How did you know?”
Doctor Stables rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t born yesterday. Nor the day before that… and the day before that—” He stopped and facehooved, almost nearly punching himself in the eye. The stallion yelped and then continued, “Point being is that it’s the most logical way of thinking here. Everypony—erm, everyone wants to know the six w’s to every problem imaginable. And sometimes, those six w’s don’t get all the answers from me alone.”
“So you’re suggesting what I think you’re suggesting.”
“That would be correct. This all lands solely on Princess Twilight and her friends. Ponyville Medical staff can only assist her momentarily, as her research on the subject is outside of our purview.”
I leaned forward and pointed at Doc’s get-up. “But don’t you guys use magic in the medical field?”
A soft smile wormed onto Doctor Stables’ face. “Yes… and no. Yes, I would need it to conduct surgery, but no we do not use spells to directly correct injuries. It’s… dangerous actually. A last resort for any doctor. One wrong spell and the next, you could have ruptured the patient’s spleen or made irreversible damage that could cause a leg to become another, albeit deformed, head.”
I gasped. “Well, that would definitely leave a mark or provide a new fetish to someone.”
Doctor Stables nodded. “Indeed. And sometimes, when magic is used, we have to diversify how we manipulate the spell due to the composition of the patient. There’s way too many variables to even account for, so that’s why it’s primarily used as a last ditch effort.” He paused to lick his lips. He took a deep breath before he continued, “So, with this being said, I would suggest staying here for a couple more days to recover. Nurse Redheart will assist you in starting your physical therapy. She’s going to make sure you’re able to walk around and feel your hands.”
“Well that’s a relief,” I interrupted. “For a second there, I thought I was going to need to be wheeled around for the rest of my life.”
“Not out of the realm of possibility if this happens again,” Doctor Stables replied lamely. He leaned over and held my hands with his forehooves. “No sign of bruising from your magic outburst, and you just used your hands to move yourself around, so the magic must have subsided or taken residence elsewhere in your body.”
“Is that a problem?”
He sighed. “Can be if you are in contact with somepony who is not wearing a magic nullifier. In the current state you are in, the magic could only move places with the same measure of effect and nothing more. However, we won’t take too many risks here, especially with this type of condition. We will need to have a check-up—”
“Every couple weeks just to be sure, yeah. That’s what Nurse Redheart said.”
This time it was Doc's turn to tilt his head. “She told you?”
“Yeah,” I said through a slight yawn. I took a deep breath and continued. “She said that and bet like twenty bits or something on you saying it.”
Doctor Stables rolled his eyes. “That mare… unbelievable. Guess she has read me like a book all these years—” The stallion shook his head. “Well, other than what we have seen, the rest of your chart is clear. So, with this in mind, I’ll leave you to stare at that wall you were so intensely looking at before I walked in.”
I groaned. “Do you guys have anything I can read or something?”
“Well…” He paused, and scratched his chin with his forehoof. “I could ask Nurse Redheart to deliver that outdated magazine about music/vacation destinations that we had out in the waiting room.”
“Anything is better than nothing, even if I can’t read it.”
Doctor Stables laughed. “You are right about that one. I’ll make sure it has loads of pictures so you don’t keel over from getting a headache staring at all the Equestrian on it.”
I facepalmed. “Dude, I don’t know how you guys even draw your symbols yet. Twilight and Starlight haven’t taught me any of it!”
“Well, there’s never been a better time, Rick,” Doctor Stables said matter-of-factly, cracking a cheeky grin. “I hope that when we meet again, it is not because you need another surgery.”
“I hope for the same, doc,” I said, offering my hand.
He got the message loud and clear, and we shook hand in hoof.
“Thanks for the help.”
“It’s my pleasure, Rick.”
And with that, Doctor Stables click-clopped his way out the door and into the hall. The door sullenly clicked to a close.
I sighed. Hopefully the magazine is good. I’m tired of this slow race I’m watching.
Nurse Redheart returned to my room with a bag on her back.
“Wow, just a sling. Where’s the cart that you usually bring?”
Nurse Redheart giggled. “A cart is not required for what I’m about to give you!” She smiled and began unpacking. In front of me was a stack of magazines, piled just enough to make sure I wasn’t bored.
The white drop on the wall slithered another .000000000000005 centimeters in response.
“Got all of the magazines that we had sitting up at the desk. Forgot that we had some of them stored there just in case if anypony else needed one to read.”
“That long of a waiting time?”
Nurse Redheart nodded. “It can be. Depends on if Doctor Stables’ is stuck in a surgery and ponies are not keen on rescheduling.”
Understandable, unlike the magazines that were spread out in front of me. Equestrian, the language of a drunk game of pictionary gone wrong, gone grammatically hectic, was beaming at me with its brights on. Thankfully the vibrant pictures on the magazines gave the needed contrast to the paint drying next to me.
Nurse Redheart put her hoof on top of the stack, which emitted a rather loud tap that reverberated quietly in the room. I looked up at her, seeing her cheeky grin. “This is your reward for later. Right now, I need to talk to you about how we’re going to get you off this table and on your feet again.”
I tilted my head. “That bad?”
She nodded, much to my surprise. “Very. You might not be able to walk today.”
I looked down at my legs. I wiggled my toes and moved my legs as much as I could. “Well I can move them just fine—”
“That’s completely different then putting your full weight on them,” Nurse Redheart said, leaning next to my bedrail.
“Are you calling me fat?”
“Can’t say for sure. I don’t have any reference material on a ‘skinny human’.”
“Thanks…”
“No problem!” She gave me a light smile. “If you got what it takes, try and get off the bed on the side I’m on.”
I attempted to move my legs over to the side. As I moved, my knee stopped and then didn’t want to move any more. It was like it was out for lunch and I was left to fend for myself. In this compromised position, I looked over at Nurse Redheart like I was in dire need of help, but I probably looked like a doofus with my eyes open wider than the sun outside. “Uh… little help here?”
Nurse Redheart giggle-snorted. “I apologize, that shouldn’t have been a time for me to laugh.” She cleared her throat before moving my legs back to where they were, which were lying flat on the table again. “Looks like they have a mind of their own.”
“You could say that again,” I said, frowning.
“Hey there,” Nurse Redheart cooed, patting my head gently with her forehoof. You are going to be just fine. Thankfully, the magic didn’t harm you mentally.”
I threw my arms in the air. “Great, so I’m still a disappointment to my parents and I can’t do anything about it now.”
“If that’s how you want to interpret this, by all means,” Nurse Redheart said this with a slight bow. She rolled her eyes. “Stallions and their dramatic conclusions. The magic changed your muscular density primarily. As I said, it looks like the magic targeted your legs and your hands. We will need to get you back in shape, and not by using drugs.”
“Really? No lethal amounts of the crystal powder in my veins?”
Nurse Redheart shook her head. “Just a lot of sitting, walking, standing and… you will most likely be using a wheelchair for the first few days.”
I tilted my head. “Great… And how does that equate to being out of here in two days? Sounds like a longer process.”
A smile wormed onto her face. “The two days are for us to work through how your therapy works and do all the exercises that we can do during that time. Then, you’ll have somepony with you who knows your exercises.”
“And… let me guess. This is going to be Starlight?”
“Close. But it’s Princess Twilight—”
“Why didn’t I guess her?” I said, facepalming. I heard the nurse stifling a laugh, but I chose to ignore her. “Well, if that’s the case, I might as well get started—”
“Actually, you can’t yet. Not for another hour or two.”
“Why’s that?”
“Princess Twilight will need to be debriefed on all exercises before we start, per her request.”
I groaned. “She’s really leading the charge here, huh?”
“Yep!” Nurse Redheart exclaimed, before getting onto all fours. “To be honest, we probably should keep you longer, but Princess Twilight has other plans.”
“I probably should talk to her about it. Did she tell you what her plans were for me?”
To my surprise, Nurse Redheart shook her head. “She’s set in her ways, Rick. Not much use of getting her to change her mind, but you could try.”
I rolled my eyes and scratched my chin. A pricking sensation danced on my fingertips. I sighed. “Well, it would be worth a shot.” I cricked my neck again and continued, “So, I’m destined to read all these magazines in the meantime?”
“Not without company of course.”
“Company?”
Suddenly, bursting through the room and nearly busting the door down, there was the purple and green scaled dragon himself: Spike. In his claws were a bag full of what I could assume was more magazines. He hobbled on over, an uncontrolled grin plastered on his face. His white teeth matched the walls around us.
The walls dried in response.
“Good to see you, Spike.”
Spike threw his bag to the side and pulled up a chair. He then offered his fist, which I tried to match his energy, but felt my fist barely graze his. “Good to see you too, Rick. I’m so happy that Twilight wanted me to visit you today.”
“She put you up to this?”
“Not forcibly!” Spike exclaimed. “She has been really digging her hooves into the grindstone. She’s got a lot of books and charts and… way too many pieces of paper. I swear, she bought out all the writing supplies they had at Quills and Sofas! Do you know how much paper they have there?”
“I could only imagine.”
“Let’s just say too much and call it a measurement. Luckily, she had enough bits laying around, otherwise we’d be getting an earful from the treasury.”
I laughed and gave him a smile. “So, she’s been digging herself in trying to figure out what to do, and she thought, ‘Better send my assistant over to see how Rick is doing’, right?”
“Not exactly,” Spike replied with a shake of his head. He looked down at his bag and scooped out a book that he brought. “I actually said I wanted to visit you so I could share with you one of my favorite comics. Not sure if you’re a fan of them but—”
“I don’t read comic books all that often, so this is definitely something new for me,” I said, staring at the blue and red cover that he brought. The symbols on it looked so odd, but recognizable. However, the picture was of an owl with a helmet on. It was staring intensely out into the vast expanse in front of it. I wonder what ❄︎♒︎♏︎ ✌︎♎︎❖︎♏︎■︎⧫︎◆︎❒︎♏︎⬧︎ □︎♐︎ ☝︎♋︎🕯︎♒︎□︎□︎●︎♏︎📪︎ ✞︎□︎●︎ 📂︎🖳︎ ⚐︎⬥︎●︎🕯︎⬧︎ 🏱︎♏︎♋︎🙵 meant?
“Then allow me to get you into this one at least. It’s about this owl named Soren who travels across a place called Ga’hoole to help every owl he comes across! He’s really awesome and his friends are too. Although, I’ve been too deep into my Superpony comics to finish off the fifth volume.”
I chuckled. I was expecting the second one—but the one Spike brought did sound interesting to say the least. I smiled. “Then we can read those for a bit, although, I think we should still dig into what Nurse Redheart brought us. Might help me figure out more about Equestria, y’know?”
I looked over at where Nurse Redheart was and found that she had already left, her bag no longer on top of my feet. She must have left us to our own devices or something and slipped out without letting us know.
Surprised, I thought I would’ve felt that bag move—must be those nerves of mine being shot by the magic I had in them. Who would’ve thought that I would be like this right now?
I sighed, and looked over at Spike. The dragon had snagged one of the magazines Redheart brought, his claws flipping through the pages like he was being pointed about the details. His eyes bore intent as he looked through each page, read an article and then went “Nah, that sounds boring” and continued. He flipped through like three magazines before he stumbled upon one he liked with a gasp.
“Look at this one, Rick!”
He tossed it over at me and inside was a picture of a waterfall, surrounded by a tall green canopy of trees. There was no other change in sight, other than the dense forest being the backdrop of a small hut, a bit of smoke billowing out of the chimney, which looked to be like the hollowed out trunk of a once giant skyscraper of pine. The windows, small and oval-like, showed the yellow glow of a candlelight inside. The text on top read ❄︎♒︎♏︎ ☟︎◆︎⧫︎ □︎♐︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ☜︎❖︎♏︎❒︎♐︎❒︎♏︎♏︎
❄︎♒︎♏︎ ♏︎⌧︎♍︎●︎◆︎⬧︎♓︎❖︎♏︎ ♓︎■︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎❖︎♓︎♏︎⬥︎ □︎♐︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ☪︎♏︎♌︎❒︎♋︎ ♓︎■︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♐︎□︎❒︎♏︎⬧︎⧫︎📪︎ ◻︎♋︎♑︎♏︎ ⧫︎⬥︎♏︎●︎❖︎♏︎.
“What’s this about?”
My question made Spike smirk. “This is the Everfree Forest. It’s got this haunting history behind it, but to put it short, basically it operates on its own. It has magic, but the magic can be all over the place! It’s like it’s outside the realm of Harmony.”
“Realm of Harmony?”
“Yeah, Twilight could explain that to you better than I can,” Spike said, before pointing a finger at the gray-ish hut. “And I know the pony who lives there in that hut. Her name is Zecora. She’s a zebra that lived in a place called Zebrica. She makes potions, studies plants, and sometimes scares the locals.”
“Why do I get a feeling that the ‘scares the locals’ bit is not actually what she likes doing?”
Spike chuckled. “That one was a joke, but in all honesty, that’s what many ponies thought of her before she decided to not look so shady. Now she just helps ponies out whenever they stop by her home, which, honestly isn’t too much.”
“And why’s that?”
“Probably because of timberwolves… and manticores…. And—oh, and Hydras. Don’t mess with Hydras.”
“Guess those are apex predators in this place?”
“Well that’s definitely one way of putting it.” Spike paused to scratch his chin with a claw, letting out an awkward ‘hehe’ to go alongside his scratching. “It’s… not as safe as being in Ponyville.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, that’s cool. Hopefully when the magic doesn’t eat me alive, I could visit her too.”
“Mm-hmm,” Spike hummed, before he picked up another magazine. He flipped through it with malicious intent, while I kept my eyes glued on the one that he pointed out to me. That was how it went for the most part: he’d show me a new magazine, let me look at it and answer any questions I had, and then we’d move through them… until we had no more to go through.
And then the door opened up.
“It’s time for your exercises, Rick,” Nurse Redheart chirped happily, before she saw what was going on in our room. “I see… you guys made a reasonable dent in the magazines.”
“That we did,” I said, stretching my arms and legs. “Never thought I’d learn so much about Equestria through reading travel magazines.”
“Not to mention he picked up on some of the letters,” Spike added.
Nurse Redheart smirked. “Well, hopefully we will see you fluent in Equestrian soon.”
I shook my head. “I’ll pass on that. Don’t want to sound like a tire skidding forever on pavement.”
“Your loss,” Nurse Redheart said with a shrug. “Spike, I’m not sure if you want to sit around for this.”
“You’re right,” Spike said with a sigh. “I probably should go check in on Twilight to make sure she didn’t dig a trench in her study. Last time that happened, we had to get the Royal Guard to help clean up the mess, while teaching them how to dig one like hers.” The dragon got up out of his chair. He put his comic books back in his sling and waved at me. “Cya around, Rick!”
I gave him a weak smile as he left. It was now just me, Nurse Redheart, and the disarray of magazines.
“Let’s clean this mess up before we start, shall we?”
I nodded, before realizing how much I could really do. I looked around and grabbed at what I could that was on my legs, being able to scoop up a few in my hands. I stacked them, and then waited for Nurse Redheart to get the rest. Thankfully, it didn’t take too long for her to get them all as she added her haul to the pile, before setting them in the chair behind her.
“Now that we got that out of the way, it’s time for us to exercise. It’s going to be quite simple, but I’ll make sure to be around you at all times. Okay?”
“Loud and clear,” I said with a weak mock salute.
Nurse Redheart giggled. “Well, before we actually get you off your perch here, I’m going to have you do some bending of what we think are your knees.”
I reached up and touched those rascals. “You mean these?”
“Yes, those,” Nurse Redheart said with another chuckle. “We will need you to practice bending them first, and then after a few repetitions, we can have you attempt to put pressure on your legs. Does that sound okay?”
I stretched my arms as much as I could, before giving her a nod. “I’ll see if I can move them now.”
“Careful,” Nurse Redheart advised, propping his leg as he moved with her forehooves. She hopped up to get a better position. “You couldn’t move them that well before. Let’s see if you can do one whole repetition first. Try bringing your knee towards you.”
I attempted to do this.
My knee cracked in response almost immediately.
“Uhh… is that supposed to do that?”
“I mean, does it hurt?”
I blinked. “No.”
“Then maybe it’s normal?” Nurse Redheart said with a head tilt. “Try again.”
Once again, another pop. I gasped.
“Did that one hurt?”
“No,” I muttered. I kept moving my leg, doing the motion that Redheart suggested. I pulled my thigh toward myself and bent my knee so that my lower leg folded into it. It felt… odd, but it didn’t hurt at all. I wonder why it was locking up earlier? Maybe my leg muscles went out for lunch or something.
Once I folded it in, I reversed the process, and repeated. It felt smooth after a few reps, so I switched legs, and the same result happened.
Nurse Redheart hummed an affirmative. Sounds like that was to her liking. “Now try and move your right leg off the side of the bed. Let me know if you experience any changes in your pain.”
I took a deep breath and took one great big gulp. My saliva painfully moved down my throat.
I moved my leg, angling myself so that way I didn’t tip over the edge. It slowly bent just like I had done before, except… it went limp. Wet noodle syndrome. They dangled endlessly.
“Can you move it at all?”
I grunted and grit my teeth. Fishing my leg from the ramen bowl they had called My Life was extremely annoying, but it worked with a bit of shimmying of my upper body, and a little bending of my leg. Not sure why I suddenly lost all of this feeling that I had. “Yes, I can—agh—not sure why when I let it hang that it just loses all feeling. Am I cutting off circulation or something when I’m sitting like this?
“Not sure, it doesn’t look like you are,” Nurse Redheart replied, craning her neck lower to see where your leg was situated. “Hmm… so it feels like you laid on it by accident in that position.”
“Yep, just like that,” I said, snapping my finger. I sucked in a bit of air, the cold feeling brushed past my teeth as blood rushed back into my poor tortured leg. “You think I should hold off on doing that then?”
Nurse Redheart sighed. “Maybe what we should do is reposition you so that way we avoid cutting off blood flow to your legs…”
I sighed. It looked like the rest of my stay was going to be entertaining… to say the least.
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All I know is pain.
Hope you all enjoy this update! Feedback is always appreciated.
You should get more sleep!
Other than that, happy to see another update :D
11755142
Problem is my inspo happens at like 2 AM and then I'll slam out an entire chapter in 30 minutes. I'm not even joking, some of my best stuff is written really late at night. You're right though, I should get some sleep tonight. Thank you for giving this story a read! More updates to come in the near future.
11755189
Understandable, a good muse is a fickle mistress
Glad to hear on those latter fronts though! Hope you get some good rest!
A great chapter! Glad to see this becoming a pattern ;)
He'll learn in time. I wonder if they can give him some kind of... 'magic vent' to make things safer. If anypony can come up with something like that, it'd be Twilight...
I need to catch up on this story. I was just casually going through my favorites list, and I saw there were a bunch more chapters on this story that I have yet read.
When is he getting a ✨magical✨ colonoscopy?