Morbid Curiosity

Twilight rushed through the doors of Canterlot Castle’s infirmary. Apparently bringing the ruler of all Pony kind into a hospital with wounds clearly inflicted by a simple metal weapon wasn’t a good idea. Maybe it was to hide that she could be injured at all? Perhaps it was because it would mean that somepony intended to injure Celestia, and the powers that be didn’t want news of an attempted assassination to spread. Twilight didn’t know who had harmed Celestia, but if she found out… Well, Twilight had already thought of a few ‘experiments’ to perform on live subjects. Nopony hurt her mentor. Nopony!

The infirmary was a lot more modern that the rest of the castle – Twilight had heard it was kept deliberately rustic to attract tourists. The infirmary was a sterile white area, a wide, dead-end hallway with beds lining either side – it appeared far less cramped than the Canterlot hospital, with enough room between beds for two ponies to stand back to back and still have plenty of room after shutting the medical curtains that surrounded each bed. The main walkway allowed three full grown ponies to walk down it abreast, and still allow another two to slip past either side in the other direction. The beds were empty, except for one at the end – the furthest bed on the left was where Celestia was. It was next to the wall that marked the end of the hallway. Twilight approached this bed with a little concern – she wasn’t sure she was supposed to be here, and she hadn’t seen any doctors. The wall at the end of the infirmary had a single, small door in the center with a plaque at the top that read:

‘Dr. Forensics, M.D.’

Twilight had never seen a doctor around the castle, come to think of it. He or she evidently never left the office.

Celestia was directly to Twilight’s left as she looked at the plaque on the door. Twilight turned to her mentor, and looked over her. The blood had been cleaned from her coat and hoof, and the aforementioned hoof had been bandaged. Sterilized too – Twilight could tell from the smell. Celestia’s head was propped against the wall on a few pillows, while her body was slumped in a comfortable position and covered by a few blankets, all with the royal insignia on them. It was odd – though Celestia had passed out, her mane still shimmered in all its colors, as if she were simply resting her eyes a moment, as she often did during some of her longer days. Twilight felt oddly calmed by this – Celestia looked as if she was sleeping, not that her conscious mind had been forcibly suppressed. Her chest rose and fell at regular intervals; her eyes still swiveled a little under her eye lids, if one looked close enough. “Rapid eye movement – typical of an intense dream,” an accented voice sounded. Twilight spun around to find a large Griffon looking over her shoulder at Celestia. They had the usual brown coat, but the head’s feathers were greying a little from the usual bright white. From the voice, Twilight deduced it was a he.
“Unfortunately, incredibly typical of all Celestia’s dreams. Poor creature has never experienced SW sleep,” the Griffon concluded. He had a slight roll to his R’s when he spoke, and his F’s sounded a little more like V’s. If Twilight knew this accent, it was from the North East, the last country to have left the Griffon Empire.

“Can you wake her?” Twilight asked. She was eager to have her mentor back.
“I could, but it wouldn’t be a good idea. The pain she experienced put her close to comatose, and right now, she’s probably lucid. When she wants to wake up, she can tell herself to,” Forensics responded. Twilight rushed closer to her mentor, but the Griffon laid a claw on her shoulder. “But right now, she needs rest,” he explained in a calm voice. Twilight looked back at him defeated, and made her way much more slowly to stand at Celestia’s bedside.

The Griffon stared at Twilight with the hints of pity clouding his eyes. “Is there anything I can help you with, Ms Sparkle?” Forensics asked Twilight. Twilight twisted her head round to look at the doctor in alarm. Forensics picked up on this, and quickly explained how he knew of Twilight.
“Celestia speaks very highly of you, child,” explained to Twilight. “As her personal Doctor, I hear things not many others do,” he went on.

Twilight nodded in understanding, and turned back to gaze at Celestia. Twilight once more felt the wave of calm sweep over her… being around the dead gave her a similar feeling, before she got excited about the things she did. ‘Come to think of it,’ Twilight thought, 'I’ll probably never be able to see if Alicorns have something unique about them. Maybe if...' Twilight panicked at her train of thought. ‘No! This is my mentor! Celestia has been my mother figure in life for a few years now. I couldn’t just…' But that was the problem. Twilight knew if she wanted to, she could. The internalized voice Twilight was using to talk to herself was shaken with fear… was she scared of herself, she wondered?

“Will her hoof be all right?” Twilight inquired. She rationalized that any question would take her mind away from her own thoughts.
“It’ll need to be bandaged for a few weeks, but she’ll recover… Really did a number on herself though, didn’t she?” Forensics responded.

Twilight was unsure who to look at. She shot a look of wide-eyed shock at Forensics, then with horror at Celestia, then back to Forensics. “Calm, child,” Forensics proclaimed “She did it for your and her safety, not for any other reason,”

Now Twilight was just terrified. ‘My safety? Why would Celestia hurt herself for me? How does hurting herself help her?’ Forensics shook his head quickly, more to himself than Twilight. Time to come clean. “You’ve been to the morgue again, haven’t you?” Forensics asked. Twilight nodded after a time. She decided that if Forensics wanted to turn her in or handle her personally, he would have done so as soon as she walked in.
“I’ve already been sent the report of the soul unfortunate enough to be down there with you; considering the use of magic, and the fact Celestia was down there, I’d say she went with you,” Forensics deduced. He worked out in his head how best to vocalize the next point he wanted to make – he had told Twilight what he knew that he shouldn’t, so he fancied it was best to tell her what he knew that she didn’t now. “They’ve already announced that he was the perpetrator – you’re in the clear Ms Sparkle,” he noted before continuing “Celestia likely wounded herself to make it seem that she acted in self defense – can’t have a Princess walk around snapping every criminal’s neck now, can we?” Forensics asked rhetorically. “But, from the angle the blade went in, I can tell it wasn’t inflicted by another party,”

Twilight was less scared now; he didn’t sound angry or disappointed like Celestia had when she found out what Twilight had been doing. “How did you know I’d been down before?” Twilight asked, her ears flopping back to the side of her head, crestfallen. “Because Celestia told me,” Forensics responded honestly. Twilight had a mixture of befuddlement and fear strewn across her features. “There are two kinds of…” Forensics himself wasn’t a pony, so the phrase ‘anypony’ seemed wrong. “… Creatures… in this world we all trust - our doctors and our bartenders,” Forensics began. “You trust your doctor, don’t you Ms Sparkle?” Forensics asked. Twilight nodded.
“Well, I am both to Celestia.” Forensics began. “I’m her personal physician for the rare occasions she does fall ill or injured, but I’m more often than not here to help her get through the rough times – usually with a glass or two of the medicinal Brandy,” he said, a slight tint of laughter creeping in to his voice. “Been doing that for the last 80 years…” he reminisced.

Twilight frowned at this remark. “How old are you? You still seem young,” she queried. Forensics let out a slight chuckle. “I am one hundred and twelve,” he answered. “We Griffons live a lot longer than your kind,” he added, his tone laced with pride; pride, but not contempt or vanity. The Griffon looked at the comatose Celestia, and his features became distorted by pensiveness “Yet, that is still merely flash for her. Alicorns live such long lives…” he sighed aloud. “One wonders if they get bored of it,”

Forensics visibly shook himself out of his musings. “But, yes, I know what you have done Ms Sparkle,” he remarked, attempting to bring the situation back into focus. “More importantly, I know why!” Forensics emphasized, seeming to both gain more energy in his speech and become less energetic physically as he spoke. “I went through the same thing!”

Twilight’s pupils dilated at this. Was this somepo… somebody she could speak to? Celestia didn’t seem all too keen to discuss the matter when she had brought it after the first instance. “Why then?” Twilight asked, taking special care not to sound enthusiastic about being able to talk about it.

A smile flashed for half an instance across Forensics’ face. It felt good to finally be able to get this off his chest also. “Ms Sparkle, you do these things because you wish to find out more about the creatures whom surround you. They seem strange to you, you don’t understand them, correct? When they gossip and play, you would rather read or think?”
Twilight nodded.
“You remind me of myself all those years ago, Ms Sparkle. I too was the social outcast, praying for the day I needn’t listen to their bullsh…” Forensics remembered that Twilight was, though mature, still a child. If she hadn’t heard those kinds of words, he sure as Tartarus wasn’t going to be responsible for teaching them to her. “When I could get away,” he corrected. “So, my mother pushed for me to study medicine. ‘Show those ponies that Griffons aren’t warmongers she would say. ‘Go out there and show that we mean to heal, not harm’! And so I did. I read up on all the medicine I could, studied as well as resources would allow me. But it still wasn’t enough! Is that how you feel, Ms Sparkle? That insatiable thirst for knowledge?”
Some of the words were a little too advanced for the young Twilight to understand, but she got the gist. She nodded once more. “I want to know everything, but sometimes the Princess doesn’t let me find things out. Bans me from sections of the library, stuff like that,”
Forensics nodded vigorously. “I felt exactly the same way! So, after school one day, I went over to the gallows – do you know what gallows are?” Forensics asked, remembering that Twilight hadn’t grown up in the harsher landscape of the Griffon Empire. “They’re… places bad ponies go…” Twilight said slowly, recalling her history classes. “We haven’t had them for a long time though,” she noted.
“Well, then perhaps your society is much kinder than mine. But yes, I took one of these ‘bad creatures’ and took him home, dragged him down to my basement, and…” Forensics trailed off. He had learned long ago not to speak of how he gained his knowledge. “Well, you know what I did,”
Twilight nodded vigorously, remembering with a certain glee at the first time she had discovered what lay beneath the surface of a living being. Such wonders…
“But, my mother found out. So, she ‘showed me her mercy’ as she put it. She packed my bags with what little I owned and sent me on my way down to Stalliongrad. I opened up a small practice, and began treating those sick and wounded with my new-found affinity for surgery and some herbal treatments mother had taught me to ease the process for the patient. From there, I suppose Celestia learned of a skilled Griffon doctor; and hired him for his longer lifespan.” Forensics recounted. “Replacing doctors is a time consuming business” he remarked. “Been in the castle ever since. Though, I don’t wander around it with the freedom you do. Some of the guards here haven’t forgiven what the Griffons did to their ancestors,” Forensics added, scowling a little down the corridor.

Twilight was still unsure of what to make of Forensics - he had summed up her thoughts pretty well, but not with the ecstatic manner Twilight had. He seemed embarrassed, whereas Twilight was eager to share her knowledge. He saw the dissection as something messy but necessary - Twilight saw it as a fun practical, like some of the experiments in her science class. What was so wrong about taking apart the dead? They weren't using their bodies anymore, so it was only fair that the living were able to make use of them.
"It's a slight miracle I'm here," Forensics said, bringing Twilight back to reality a moment. "I was taken from the environment where... it... was possible before I could continue. Disgusting business, I see it now, but back then; imagine what I would be if I hadn't stopped," Forensics said grimly, the air of finality looming strongly overhead. "You have 2 hours Ms Sparkle, then visiting hours are over," Forensics told Twilight, making his way back to his office.

Twilight sighed internally. Everypony seemed to have a different view on the subject; yet nopony found it as fun as she did... maybe they ought to try it. She'd ask Celestia that when she woke up.