Bells Bring The End of War

by Lamasioux

Chapter 2

Bell looked around, straining to keep his eyes open and saw other beds with more ponies all lying in them.

He was in a row of seven beds, most were occupied by a pony as well, but there was an empty bed near the end. On the other side of the room was another row of seven beds, which all had ponies lying on them. A few were talking, one was reading a book and the rest were laying down, presumably resting.

There was one entrance to the room, the door had a window on it, but it was covered by a piece of cloth, and then on the other end of the row of beds were windows that let in a bunch of sunlight, which helped light up one half of the room. The other half, which Bell was on, was mostly lit up by the lights inside the room. Bell couldn’t see what was out of the windows though as the light coming in was too bright for his eyes.

At the entrance of the room though, there was a pony that sat in a chair reading a book, off to the side from the door. They didn’t look like there was anything wrong with them, at least by the fact they were in a chair and not a bed. After a moment though, their attention was quickly obtained by some of the ponies that were closest to him.

Bell’s attention was brought back to the mare that had spoken just a moment ago, also due to their hoof waving about as it tried to get his attention and they said, “It’s alright, it just sounded like a bad dream. You’re alright! It’s alright. You’re just in the hospital.”

Bell shuffled himself a little bit before realizing what a mistake that was as it drained all his energy to do so, so he melted into the bed before realizing there was a familiar problem that he had now just noticed. The bed he was laying in was damp.

The mare cleared their throat and gave off a nervous laugh and said with a fake reassurance, “You’re probably not alright though… But you are safe! Better than anything out there right now!”

Bell had a slow time thinking but he eventually came around to hearing himself mumble some sounds out of his mouth, “Iwhahata.”

He had trouble understanding himself, so he inflated his lungs and held his breath for a little while before he started to feel a fizzy sensation at the top of his lungs and exhaled. It had woken him up enough that he finally could say something coherently, so with some gathered strength he said in a quiet voice, but still mumbled voice, “I- I just need some water.”

After saying that, Bell took a deep breath and then melted once again into the bed as he awaited the response the mare would give him. If not for the damp bed, he would have fallen asleep right there.

“It’s right there on the table next to you.” The mare answered softly.

Bell didn’t notice if the mare motioned to a location as he spent all the strength he had to sit up straight and remember her answer. His goal was to get the water he so needed right then, but his body was obviously fighting back against the action of such movements.

But nevertheless, he powered through the urges to lay back down and looked to his left, seeing a table nearby that wasn’t close enough to reach with a hoof, and then looking to his right, towards the mare who had been speaking before noticing the table that was pushed up against the bed he was on. Atop of it was a glass bottle filled with a cork keeping it closed, completely full of water. Next to it was a small cup that looked like it was made of glass as well. It was upside down atop a napkin to help keep anything foreign from landing inside of it.

At the entrance of the room, the pony that had been sitting was now walking over, watching Bell as they approached. They tried to speak up to get Bell’s attention, but he was too focused on the bottles.

Now that Bell had found his desired target, he clenched his mouth shut and powered through the headache he had and engulfed the glass cup with his magic and lifted it up to flip it around so he could then pour water into it.

But that didn’t happen. The cup didn’t move at all.

He failed.

Badly.

The pony that had been walking over quickly made their way over now, but it was too late.

For Bell, it felt like had been stabbed in the head, which paralyzed him, seizing him up for a moment before his body caved into the moment and he fell over, back down onto the damp bed, and passed out.

Nothingness seemed like it was unavoidable. Anything and everything Bell did seemed to only be nothingness now. He couldn’t escape it. It kept coming back at every chance it had.

At least this time it was quick and he came to quickly. Only this time when he opened his eyes, he saw the pony from before standing over him, putting their hoof against him to make sure he was alright.

After a few seconds, Bell felt his head start to pop, it felt as if there were bubbles inside of it and each time one of them popped, his headache came back slowly, which only pounded away at him.

While that happened, Bell saw the pony before him moving their mouth, trying to speak to him, but he couldn’t make out anything they said until the last popping bubble popped and he blinked a few times, and simply gave them a smile and muttered, “How’s it going?”

The pony before him had reached up and placed a hoof over him, to try and keep him from moving. They had slight frown on their face as they looked at Bell, but it was a very somber frown. The pony eventually said, “Normally better when the patients don’t hurt themselves while they recover.”

Bell’s smile faded away after hearing the comment the pony made. His face relaxed though as he stared at the pony until he barely opened his mouth and asked through his lips, “Why am I here?”

The pony before Bell looked a bit confused at the question, but that confusion was justified when they leaned in a bit more and asked him, “Could you ask that again?”

“Why–” Bell got caught up in the moment as his mind went blank as it continued to adjust to the headache, “Here? Why am I here?”

The pony looked at Bell for a moment, before his eyes glanced up at Bell’s forehead and then back down at him, “Hmm…” He then looked at the desk where the glasses were and removed his hoof from Bell and reached down under the desk to a shelve that was below it and brought up some pieces of paper that had been hidden there.

Bell angled his head better so he could watch the pony before him, but while the pony read the paper, he heard some of the other patients in the room start to talk. His headache kept him from being able to hear specific words, but he could hear their voices vibrate from afar. They seemed to be almost as if they were underwater.

The pony with the paper finished looking at the page and then hoofed it over to Bell, and before any mistake could be made, he quickly brought it back to safety, away from the unicorn and said, “No magic.” He then brought the page back closer to Bell so he could take it for himself.

As that comment started to dwell on him for a moment, everything started to come together and Bell’s eyes slowly fell on the ponies before him. Before he could take the papers though, the pony said, “Your horn was shot off, more than half of it. You can’t use magic anymore.”

He had said that with a straight face, and a little bit of a louder voice, just so Bell was certain to have heard it.

The first thing Bell tried to do upon hearing that was try and reach for his forehead and touch it, but the pony quickly stopped him by holding his hoof down, “Don’t.” They didn’t say anything else and as they let go of Bell, the pony hoofed over the papers and then tried to give a reassuring smile.

Bell took the papers and looked at them for a moment as the pony said, “Just try to relax for now. You’re at a hospital in Acornage. This is a recovery ward for ponies.” He looked away now and then said in a softer voice, “Everypony in this room is being medically discharged from service.” After a short pause, he added, “Those papers will explain everything and more, plus your injuries and surgeries.”

Once the pony finished talking, a quiet sounding alarm went off and he began to walk away, leaving Bell on the bed.

Bell watched as they left but realized he was still thirsty, so with a in the moment decision, he quickly asked, “Can- The water first? Can you help me with that?”

A few of the other patients quietly watched Bell after his question, but none of them said anything.

The pony had halted and turned to look back at Bell, before he himself swallowed and came back over and quickly filled up the cup and brought it over to Bell and said, “Only because you probably shocked yourself into losing your strength from that magic. Only this time.” He motioned for Bell to sit up first before bringing the glass up to Bells’s mouth and helped him drink it.

To Bell, the sips of water were the most refreshing thing he had in a while. At least while it was in his mouth. When he swallowed it, the back of his throat felt numb as the water washed over it, it felt like the water had just brushed up against his headache.

But after a few sips, the pony took away the glass and set it on the table and said, “You’re not a cripple, but you can’t use magic anymore, so get used to your hooves.”

After that final comment, the pony quickly left, not only leaving Bell, but also heading out of the room that had every other pony.

Once the taste of water dissipated from Bell’s mouth, did he finally notice that there were quite a few ponies staring at him, all of whom quickly looked away and went back to their reading, or small chats with each other.

The mare that Bell saw when he first woke up was still staring at him, but he ignored her and quickly laid himself back down, not bothering to look at the papers he had been given.

A voice spoke up after a moment of peace that said, “That was Metal Master.”

Bell hadn’t closed his eyes so he turned his head in the direction the voice came from and noticed it was the mare. She stared back before breaking out in a smile and laughing quietly, “He’s just here in case we need anything from the doctors and nurses while they attend elsewhere. I didn’t expect him to actually help you with that water.”

Bell gave the mare a questionable look before the mare waved a hoof at him and said, “And I’m Golden Colt!” She said with enthusiasm, “Your bed neighbor. I hope we can get along until we’re sent home.”

Golden had a smile on her face while she waited for Bell to answer in some form, but he didn’t immediately. He just moved his head so he looked up at the ceiling again before closing his eyes finally, but before anything happened, whether he passed out or she was able to say anything, he answered, “Bell– Flank.”

Bell didn’t understand anything Golden said after that as he quickly fell asleep again. It had been tiring to have talked as much as he did, so after a while, whatever noise Golden was making stopped and he finally fell asleep. Not even the damp bed kept him awake.

This time though, there were no weird dreams or nothingness. Just normal, dreamless sleep.

Comments

[SirCarrot]

Sad but interesting so far

[Lamasioux]

11415142
How's it sad if I may ask.
I did have a sad tag before, but removed it since I don't think I'll really be able to do it that well.

[SirCarrot]

11415177
Unicorn losing horn is like losing limb, and everyone else tells man to walk it off

[Lamasioux]

11415241
ahh, that makes sense.

I would say though that it's not like unicorns can't use their hooves. Earth ponies do. Plus it's a hospital so it's not like every patient can be helped for every small thing like drinking water.