The Darkness Within Us All

As Fluttershy Put the cooked food in front of the patient they waited for him to start eating but he just stared at the opposing wall for three minutes.

"Uh, you think he knows the food is for him?" Twilight asked wondering if he even noticed their presence in the room.

"Well, Berry always digs right into a hot meal when I place it in front of him, maybe he's a picky eater?" Fluttershy taps her chin in thought.

"Let's get the nurses' opinions and thoughts, maybe they have ideas how we can get him to eat this?" Twilight suggested as she motioned for her and her friend to leave the room and find Nurse RedHeart.

With the hallucinations gone, you can finally relax and take a bite of your food, that, and it was a bit too hot to eat when the lunch staff had brought it to you.

Huh, guess it's my birthday or something, why else would they give me something this expensive?

Or they feel like it would be wise to get on our good side?

You don't exist, now let me have a decent meal for the first time since this massive trip started.

You dig in and cut the steak and fish into small cubes as your jaw had begun to hurt from your injuries or maybe a bad reaction to your new meds? Who knew at this point, hopefully, that nurse you could swear was a hallucination herself would be back with the blood tests soon. Hopefully, they could tell you if the new antipsychotics and mood stabilizers were working or wreaking havoc on your brain chemistry again. You finish your meal in record time as it had been a while since you had the chance to get your hands on any read meat, let alone something this good, you wipe your face and carefully put the dishes and utensils back where they belonged in what looked like a basket but you were sure was actually a food cart.

"Nurse RedHeart!" The mares called out looking for the nurse in charge as they wandered the upper level of the hospital wing.

"Shhhh!" the head nurse chastised them as they were making a ruckus in a healing unit which was labeled as a quiet zone near every entrance and exit.

"Sorry." Twilight replied sheepishly, "We were looking for you so we could find you and ask if you had any idea how we could encourage him to eat the meat we brought him."

"Barbara told me of your two's idea, and honestly I almost kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner, he has canines so it should have been obvious." She sighed as she explained, "Sadly though, I don't have any idea what would make the food more appetizing to him, he never eats with us in the room, we never see him even touch it, we stood in the for a full hour the first solid meal he was given and he didn't move a muscle other than occasionally looking in my direction."

"Maybe he likes you," Fluttershy said hopefully.

"I doubt it, I'm just the only one with enough nerve to draw his blood for testing, the other nurses are too nervous around him to hold the syringe steady which would cause undue pain and complication for the patient. I think he just keeps an eye on me because I'm one of the only ponies here who isn't afraid of him."

"You really think he is like that?" Twilight asked.

"Possible, his arms were as big as small trees when he first got here, he obviously had the muscle composition to stop us from getting near him if he were at full strength, but due to his injuries, he is left to let us treat him. He doesn't know us, trust us, and could possibly not even understand us as he has given us no verbal feedback to anything we say."

"You think his kind could be the top of the food chain?" Fluttershy asked trying to figure out all she could about him.

"We have no idea, but if he isn't I would hate to see what is, he seems to be more intelligent than we thought as well."

"How so? He doesn't talk."

"As a nurse was giving him his dose of medicine and morphine in the morning in a sleep deprived state she almost gave him a lethal dose even for something of his size but before she could he covertly unhooked his IV and it just dripped on the ground."

"If it just went to waste how do you know it would have killed him?"

"Because when I went in later on my rounds I saw the puddle near his bed and had it tested and it contained enough morphine per liter to knock out a manticore."

"You mean just by looking he knew she had made a mistake and even in his subdued state figured it out before she could open the bag?"

"Exactly, he is smarter than we give him credit for, and due to his overall size and how he must feel all nurses besides me since that incident have advised to avoid him."

"Why? he hasn't hurt anypony." Twilight asked.

"Twilight, how would a manticore act if it were injured and trapped?" Fluttershy asked rhetorically.

"It might lash out?" Twilight answered skeptically.

"And hurt itself further in the act of trying to protect itself."

"Wow, you really put a lot of thought into this."

"Of course, as a medical professional I have knowledge of most sentient species, besides dragons, and I would prefer to have a happy patient rather than an accident that could lead to further problems down the road."

"Right, like what if there are more of his kind and they think we mistreated him?" Fluttershy stated.

"You really think this species is native to somewhere outside of Equestria and-"

"He could be related to someone important it could go badly, I highly doubt any of this but we must take all precautions possible, for all we know he could have just wound up here by mistake and he's the only one of his kind left." She explained.

"That's very diplomatic of you Nurse RedHeart," Twilight said.

"Well, when you have a princess of Friendship down the road and the Diarchs make frequent visits you pick up diplomatic knowledge."

"Ah, right, well should we go back and check up on him?" Twilight asked.

"Sure, he's probably done eating by now anyway," RedHeart stated as she walked past the girls.

"I doubt it, we gave him a steak and a huge fish fillet," Twilight said.

"You have no idea how much he can eat in this amount of time we've been talking." She said as the three mares headed back down the hall.

By the time they all made it to the room and entered the plates and utensils had been cleaned and put back in the Fluttershy's basket neatly.

"See?" Nurse RedHeart knowingly.

"How did he do all this in the time we were gone? Not even Berry can eat that fast and do the dishes."

"He has a routine, a ten-minute shower every morning at five am on the dot, so it would make sense for him to want your plates to be clean before returning them as well."

"How nice of him." Fluttershy beamed.

"I don't think he did it to be nice, more likely to be out of habit."

"Oh, well it is still nice," Fluttershy smiled.

"Well he is looking at you now, maybe he wants to thank you." She said as Twilight and Fluttershy looked at him who was now looking at the yellow pegasus out of the corner of his eye through his bandages.

"Uh, h-hi?" Fluttershy squeaked out, and he nodded back in return surprising the nurse.

"Fluttershy, you did it! You got him to respond to us!" RedHeart tried not to, but still inadvertently squealed with delight, She quickly cleared her throat and tried to regain he professionalism.

"I did? I did!" Fluttershy cheered happily.

"Wow, leave it to Fluttershy to make a friend with something who doesn't talk."

And then the hallucinations leave happy they made "progress" and you sit there wondering what was going on.

They don't seem bad... But they never do

Keep an eye on them, something isn't right