Chronicles of an Unknown World - The Awakening

by Blue Blaze {COMET}

Chapter 7: Brash Instinct, Part 4

{*Omniscient point of view, Lockdown's Bunker*}

There he sat, waiting patiently for the results of Time Turner's examination.

They were in the medical ward, which, to his surprise, was vastly different compared to the rest of the building. Unlike the main hallways, which were metallic, solid and cold, the medical ward was just like any other hospital, except a bit smaller. The stone floor was tiled and polished to a bright shine, the flimsy walls were painted a plain white and long overhead lights adorned many parts of the hallway. A low hum could be heard throughout the ward; the sure sign of fans working in the background to keep the air circulating.

There were two chairs right outside the ER, one occupied by a human. Besides said being, the medical ward was dead empty, safe the doctor and the unicorn that were occupied in the ER. There were doors to other patient rooms, but all were empty. At one point in time the human wondered why Twilight was in the ER even though her condition didn't seem too fatal. Time Turner briefly explained that she deserved to have a room for herself, because the other rooms had several beds that were meant to be shared by other occupants to save space.

The overly bright lights were starting to give him a headache. He longed for the natural sunlight, even the light from thunder strikes from the outside storm. But for reasons unknown to him, not a single window was built into the medical ward. There was no sight of glass for meters around, and the only sources of light were the ones stuck to the ceiling. He had been sitting there for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes since he had an almost unfortunate encounter with the rest of the ponies in the hub area. Twenty long minutes to worry about the well-being of his seemingly only ally and their future. Closing his eyes, he sighed and told himself to patiently wait just a little longer.

The worry was starting to pain the boy. Twilight's health was obviously his main concern at the moment, but with no experience with equine health, all his conclusions drew a blank. All he could do was wait until Time Turner gave him the go. The stallion confused the boy. He swore that he heard that voice before, even with the British accent he so cleverly recognized. It seemed that the other ponies had no problem with him, so he was just a denizen of Ponyville for all the human knew.

The 'operation' light that sat above the ER doors turned off with a ding. Griffin sat up back up in his seat, fixing his slouched shoulders and driving himself back to attention. His hands clamped together in his lap, his thumbs twiddling with each other nervously. He lightly chewed on his lip, an action his has seen his mother do many times when she was stressed out. The ER doors slid open, revealing Time Turner with a stethoscope around his neck.

"How is she?" the bipedal blurted, eager to know the answer.

"She's fine. You can come in now." Time responded. He walked back through the entrance while Griffin got to his feet and hastily followed. Taking a mere two steps away from the door, he heard them firmly slide shut behind him. But that didn’t matter to him, for the lavender unicorn that was situated on the bed exhaled softly in slumber.

Twilight laid underneath the blankets, her forehooves sticking out of the fabric. Her face was a peaceful one, one which granted the human a great amount of relief. She slept deeply, her breathing slow and un-laboured. Griffin took a glance towards Time Turner, who was standing beside the bed watching the outsider's actions. He silently pleaded to the doctor permission to approach the patient. The pony nodded in approval. Slowly but surely, Griffin walked to the bedside, kneeled down and rested his palms on the bed. Reaching out, he carefully brushed the bangs out of Twilight's face. Once satisfied, he asked the question that had been hanging around his head ever since she fell asleep at the Sugarcube Corner.

"What happened to her?"

"She was suffering from magical exhaustion." Time Turner answered. Griffin's gaze turned from Twilight to his speaker, and the stallion continued. "When a unicorn uses more magic than his or her magic threshold, they become magically exhausted. This causes the body to go unconscious to recover the lost energy."

Griffin raised an eyebrow. "So every unicorn has a limit to what he or she can cast?"

"Precisely." Time Turner began, picking up a clipboard on a table near the bed before reading its details. "Every unicorn has a certain magical stamina. This stamina is just like mental and physical stamina; it decreases with use and strain. When a unicorn runs out of magic, he or she will need to take a break to get it back. Depending on how much magic was used, more of a break is needed. Twilight used up so much magic that it rendered her body weak and tired, which is why she is unconscious."

Griffin's eyes went back to the being in the bed. (So is that was happened to me when I tried magic back in the library? I used so much that I fell unconscious?) he analyzed.

It was Time Turner's turn to raise an eyebrow to Griffin. "Twilight's the local magician. But not only that she’s the Princess’s personal student, and a protégé of her own accord. I know for a fact that she’s one of the most powerful unicorns this side of the century, meaning that it’s a rare occurrence for her to fall asleep like this. She must have been either using a very, very strenuous spell or many small spells with little to no rest to leave her this tired." he commented, closing his eyes and turning to face the door. The teen twisted his head to meet the back of Time's mane.

(I didn't know it was that bad! Sure, I knew she was casting a lot, but I… I just had no idea that it would have come to this!)

"By the way…" Time Turner began, catching Griffin's attention once again.

"Huh?" he spoke, his focus getting back to real life.

"…That was some great acting you did there." Time commented.

Griffin paused, startled by the sudden reveal. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

The stallion turned around to address the supposed liar. "You were fake-crying in front of Carrot Top back at the entrance."

There was no use hiding it. Griffin did in fact fake-cried to the best of his ability when he entered the bunker, but he thought that it was done so well that no one noticed. He secretly hoped that someone did notice, and Time Turner did. However, it was a tab bit disturbing to him that Time Turner picked up on his acting. "Ok, so maybe I faked the crying a little bit. That didn't mean that I wasn't sad for Twilight, I just wasn't emotionally moved to cry for real."

"I see." Time responded. "Well, never the less, I have to commend you for doing so. Otherwise, we might not have had Carrot Top's help."

"Yeah. I figured that if they thought me as a monster, I just had to do something very un-monster-like."

The doctor grinned. "So you showed one of the most powerful emotions to pony kind. Compassion."

A smirk squirmed its way onto Griffin’s expression. Finally someone understood him at a higher level of thinking. It gave him relief that someone around here had enough of a head to put the puzzle pieces together but it also kept him on his toes that Time Turner actually figured it out in the first place. He doubted not that Time was an abnormally smarter than the average horse, much so that Griffin decided to choose his next words carefully.

"If I showed anything else then the end result would have been… Unsavoury."

"I agree. Good thinking." Time acknowledged, nodding his head.

"Thanks. And thanks to you, you saved Twilight."

"Well, she was going to be fine all along. She just needed someone to identify what was wrong with her." the doctor said, showing a sly smile in recognition that went with his good deeds. "Although, to be perfectly honest with you, I'm not a real doctor."

"You're not!?" Griffin exclaimed, shooting up from his kneeled down position.

"Well, I do know the standard pony anatomy, and many kinds of health conditions, sicknesses and diseases, but the title of 'doctor' here in Ponyville goes to First Aid." he explained, enjoying the boy's confusion.

"So where's First Aid?" Griffin questioned, adding (First Aid, Time Turner… These aren't even real names!) to his queue of thoughts.

"Well, he's not here, that's for sure." Time Turner answered, his tone turning slightly dark. Griffin knew what he meant, which was the fact that First Aid was most likely lost to the black hole in the sky.

Suddenly, the ER doors opened. In came a neon Pegasus, one with gauss wrapped around her mid-section and a bandage on the tip of her muzzle. She entered grounded, with her wings wrapped up, preventing any kind of flight. Her eyes lit up when she spotted Time Turner standing to the right of her, completely missing the now angered alien perched beside Twilight's mattress.

"Loveluck told me that you were taking care of Twilight in here?" she quizzed, addressing the not-doctor.

"Yes, I was." he simply answered. Rainbow turned her head towards Twilight, but spotted Griffin in the corner of her eye. When the two stares met, the dirty looks they gave each other clashed in a fury of pupil fire. It was Griffin's icy-cold stare against Rainbow's alit rage. Neither one faltered, but neither one budged.

"I'll be back. I need to go check on something." Time Turner notified, turning away from the pending conflict and choosing to leave the room. With the clipboard in his teeth, he approached the door and exited. The passage slammed shut, leaving a slightly injured Pegasus and an exhausted human boy to do battle with each other. They both held their ground, waiting for the other to make a move. The ambience of Twilight's breathing and the hum of the lights was just the calm of the storm.

"What are YOU doing here?" Rainbow queried, keeping here stare locked on target.

"I was checking on a FRIEND. Seeing if she was ok." he responded, taking a step away from the bed. Griffin didn't want Twilight to get caught in the crossfire.

"Friend? Hah, she would never consider you to be a friend!" the vibrant pony snorted in amusement.

"Well, considering that she WOKE UP to SAVE ME from your UNJUSTIFIED BEATING, that's saying something." the human commented, bringing his right fist closer to chest area.

"Unjustified? You know what you did!" she yelled, her rage only beginning to grow.

"Here we go again, spreading unnecessary lies to cover the truth you're too stubborn to accept." Griffin stated while folding his arms.

"Too stubborn? Are you kidding me? You're the one who's too stubborn!" Rainbow ranted. She took a step closer to Griffin.

"Oh, well do tell, Rainbow, how exactly I’m the one who’s too stubborn, preferably with a sentence that's more than 'HURR DERR I BE MAD FOR NO REASON HURR!'"

"You're askin' for it, bub!" she called out, getting a mere foot away from her rival.

"Oh look, a tiny blue horse says I'm asking for it. I'm really. Fucking. Scared." Griffin sneered, putting emphases on every corresponding word. He stepped up to the plate, sticking his face closer to Rainbow.

"This won't be the first time I've kicked your sorry flank!" she called out, raising her forehoof in preparation.

"Yeah, considering you haven't done so in the first place!" he growled under clenched teeth, about to punch Rainbow's face in.

"Stop… It…"

The two paused. They were about to trade blows when a weak whisper rang in the background. Looking at the bed, they spotted Twilight, fragile as she were, conscious and watching both of them with a careful eye. Her eyelids were half open, her breathing was rapid and sweat her coat was slick with perspiration. For her, staying awake was almost an impossible challenge. Almost.

"If…I…have to… tear you… both apart… with my bare hooves… then I will." the Element of Magic wheezed, trying to keep her breathing stable.

"Twilight!" Rainbow and Griffin called out. The two of them rushed to the bedside, both choosing one side to stay on. The bipedal got to his knees while Rainbow leaned against the mattress, attempting to get a good look at the injured mare.

"Stop talking. You need to rest." the boy hushed, putting one finger against her lips to prevent her from speaking again.

"Yeah, go back to sleep. Don't worry about us, go back to sleep." Rainbow Dash cooed, coaxing Twilight to do as she said.

"You two… You two are the only friends I have left…" the unicorn muttered while glancing at the being to each side of her. Griffin and Rainbow looked at each other with a nervous glance. "…Don't mess it up for me."

The daredevil Pegasus was already deep in thought about the patient’s words. It both confused her and created inner conflict. Twilight called Griffin her friend. Was that right? Was that the absolute truth? Was Griffin a friend to her? Is that what she felt about the alien? It came from the mouth of one of her best friend, it had to be honest! More so, what did she mean by the only two friends she had left?

"Both of you can play nice while I'm around, right?" Twilight muttered under her breath. Griffin barely picked up what she was saying she was so quiet, and gave her a look of concern. Twilight was talking too much. She needed to rest and regain her energy. That was the logic that was going through the human's head.

Twilight, exhausted by her short-lived awakening, mouthed the words "My friends…" before falling back unconscious. The pony and the person stayed by her side, determined to support her all the way until she was back to full health.

They looked at each other. Whether they liked it or not, they had to be peaceful towards one another. That was the solution to their problem. Otherwise, their squabbling would get them nowhere, and it wouldn't help the overall morale inside the bunker. The other ponies were already riled up as it is without Rainbow making more excuses to hate the hateable alien. Besides, what would it eventually lead to? Suffering? Torture? Perhaps even murder? The Pegasus was certain she didn’t want to take that responsibility, so the only way out was to make peace, even if it was for a few hours. And if they couldn’t do it for the good of the bunker…

Rainbow’s expression softened.

So did Griffin’s.

"Truce?" she asked, holding out her hoof.

"Truce." Griffin accepted, grabbing her hoof in a tight grasp and shaking to the agreement.

They could do it for Twilight.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the slightly late update, I've been working on this one for a while and had to let it sit with me for a few days just to make sure that everything I wanted in place was in place. Furthermore, I've had a lot on my hands for the past three weeks, and unfortunately it's not going to get any better, so just be warned!

Comments

[Blue Blaze {COMET}]

I tried to change the story description to mention Griffin into the story. I dunno if it's just me, but I feel like my story's not getting the views it needs. Whatever, I'm just going to leave the mention of the human in the description, just to experiment and see whether or not the view count changes in the next few updates.