Eight days under the Zebrican sun

by The Cheeser

Chapter 14-Going Home

The caravan said its goodbyes to Swift Glaze. He was immensely thankful for their help. When he shook their hooves goodbye, he especially shook the mare's hoof and smiled with gratitude.

She took this with great joy. She tried to give him spices, however, the doctors prohibited her from doing so.

After these quick goodbyes, he was put onto the medical aircraft. Once the plane smoothed out in the air, the doctor immediately inserted an IV into his foreleg. Along with this, the doctor took a swab to check his snout. It came out with much sand and blood. The doctor immediately started clearing out his nose, which started bleeding. However, the doctor took a swab that had a strange end on it. With it, he closed the cuts in his snout and the doctor started working on Swift Glaze's bloodshot eyes.

"This is going to hurt," the doctor said, just before taking a sanitized cloth and wiping out all of the sand. It, indeed hurt. Swift Glaze had experienced worse in the past few days and was able to bear this.

Finally, the doctor finished wiping his eyes, then he dropped a few eye drops into his eyes, before putting the bottle away.

The doctor hectically worked on every part of Swift Glaze's body. However, Eventually, Swift Glaze arrived in Hippogriffia after around two hours of flight. Before he was allowed off the plane, he was required to wear bandages around his eyes to protect them from any more damage.

He stayed at the rudimentary hospital for the night, before being put on a plane in the morning. Swift's glaze wondered to himself at the beginning of the flight "Why do I hear them being so busy? I thought I was getting better" he thought, just before they sedated him with medication. He was flown back to Equestria over many hours, while a team of three new doctors worked on keeping him stable.

When he got back to Equestria, they immediately brought him into the emergency room for surgery. Swift Glaze was still asleep from the flight, all they did was give him more sedation medication before they got ready for surgery. During the surgery, many spells were cast along with mundane medical practices.

He woke up to his Mother's voice. He couldn't see anything since he still had bandages on his eyes.

He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

"He's awake!" his mother said, with joy, but also with sorrow mixed along with it.

His Father and Brother walked up to him. His Brother, Baked Glaze, with tears in his eyes tried to say something, but nothing materialized. His Mother, Sweet Glaze, tried next to tell their son, but she could only stammer out a few words. Finally, his Father, Orange Glaze, managed to speak

"Son, after surgery they told us that you wouldn't be able to see again. They tried casting a spell, but they didn't fully clear out all of the sand in your eyes. So when the spell was cast, the sand was ingrained into your eyes and destroyed them." he then added on to this "You won't able to speak either. We didn't understand what they told us, but from what I know, your vocal cords were too severely damaged to be repaired" he finished. They let it sink in for Swift Glaze, before he opened his mouth, as of gesturing for any more bad news

"There's so much," he said. Chocking up he finished "I don't know if you're going to make it. The doctors are hesitant to tell us, but with all that's happened to you, I think we all know the answer." he said quietly, choking up on his words as he spoke. For a while there was silence. Then the doctor came in and said "Alright, say your goodbyes for today. We don't want to overburden him." Just before they walked out of the room, Orange Glaze looked at his son, lying on the hospital bed. "Just remember, I love you, buddy," he said as he walked out.

Swift Glaze's heart fluttered on the Patient monitor when his Father said that.