Professor Suture, smiling, looked up and down at his students from his podium in the lecture hall. As with every year, they were his pride and joy. His medical classes had often been the best students of any university in Equestria, and this class had been especially high scoring. Suture’s teachings had gone on to create some of the best surgeons and healers that the world had to offer. And he could not be more proud.
However, one of his students in particular was, as the professor would later describe him, “the absolute best and worst student I have ever had the pleasure to teach.” Cardiac - “the mummy” to his friends - was on paper the stereotypical amazing success story. Orphaned at a young age, the unicorn colt had worked hard in school, graduated as valedictorian, and earned a full scholarship to the most prestigious university in Canterlot, probably all of Equestria. The problem was that no pony had ever seen the colt since he was seven. Oh, sure, he was always in class and he clearly stood out in a crowd, but no one could ever tell you what he looked like. Why? Because he perpetually kept himself wrapped head to hoof in bandages, meaning that all anypony ever saw of him was a pony-shaped pile of cloth. Even his eyes were covered, though he claimed that the material was thin enough to see through.
It wasn’t the bandages that kept Cardiac from being Professor Suture’s all-time best student, nor any (supposedly nonexistent) physical defects that they may or may not have been hiding. No, it was something else.
“P-p-professor...” the quivering, stuttering stallion asked, “i-i-is th-there a c-ca-cadav-ver d-d-dis-section tomorrow in l-lab?”
Sighing, the aforementioned educator said, “Yes, Cardiac, there is. I’m sorry.”
The stallion withered in his seat.
Cardiac had hemophobia, the fear of blood, on top of a disgust of everything to do with the body. Rumor had it that he was so disgusted by his own body, that Cardiac could not bare the thought of anypony else seeing it. Why in the name of Celestia he was in a surgical class, Suture didn’t know.
“Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhoooooooooo!” The cheer echoed down the hallway, easily overcoming the noise of the crowds that filled it. Under his bandages, Cardiac merely rolled his eyes - thankful that nopony could see them - and braced for impact.
The fast-moving teal blur that plowed him into the wall was promptly ignored by the rest of the students and staff; this was a daily thing, and it wasn’t like the overzealous, projectile pegasus ever actually hurt the unicorn with her antics. When the dust cleared, Wishful Thinking had scooped up Cardiac in a bone-crushing hug. “Thank you! Thank you! There’s no way I could have passed without you!”
“I d-d-didn’t d-do a-anything, Wish,” Cardiac replied from where he limply hung in her embrace.
(Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum.)
Wish gasped. “Didn’t do anything? Didn’t do anything!? Mummy, dude, you call spending several dozen hours helping me study nothing?”
Cardiac started squirming as he shrank away from his friend. “A-anyp-pony w-would ha-have done th-the same.”
“But they didn’t; you did,” Wishful retorted. “Card, I could kiss you right now, I’m so happy!” She flipped her wing up towards his face, allowing one of her prehensile wing feathers to hook around the edge of the bandages on his muzzle. “In fact, I-”
“NO!” A massive blast of telekinetic magic erupted from his horn, a knee-jerk reaction to Wishful touching his face. The teal pegasus was rocketed backwards, crashing into several other students and staff members. Thankfully, nopony was hurt beyond minor bruising, but that was little consolation to the mortified unicorn named Cardiac. They could have been. He could have just killed them all; a little force in just the wrong place, and his best friend would have been no more.
(Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum.)
He couldn’t help it; his traitorous hooves carried Cardiac away from the scene as fast as they could. He zipped by others far too fast for them to see the growing tear stains on his bandages, and even if they could, they couldn’t stop him even if they wanted to.
He slammed shut the door to his dorm as soon as he was within, and locked it with his magic. Cardiac’s entire body trembled with uncontained emotion. His chest heaved; sound sporadically burst from in between his lips. The unicorn’s face ached, pulled tight by the dozens of different muscles he knew by name, yet mercifully hidden from the world by his bandages. Memories of his past, good and bad, flashed through his mind. The frantic, exhilarating drumbeat of his namesake organ pounded loudly, dominating his world with that all-consuming sound. (Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum.)
If anypony were to look into his room, they would think he was having a panic attack.
Unfortunately, they would be only half right.
“Well, Cardiac, I can without a doubt say that you are one of the more interesting new recruits that I have ever had,” the earth stallion behind the desk intoned.
“Y-y-yes, sir,” the smaller unicorn meekly replied.
“I would have thought you would have wanted a job in the hospitals with these credentials, not as a grunt in the Royal Guard.”
“I... I want to b-be a f-field m-medic, sir.”
(Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum.)
The recruiter before him merely raised an eyebrow. “I feel like there’s more to that story.”
“Y-y-yes, but...” Cardiac trailed off. He didn’t continue.
After a minute of awkward silence, the recruiter apparently decided that he wouldn’t be hearing that story, and thus decided to move on. “Well, anyway,” the recruiter paused, flipping through Cardiac’s paperwork. His eyes hovered over Cardiac’s longer full name, then continued to the incomplete section below. “I see here that you neglected to fill in the details about your physical description, son. Normally, I would just fill that in myself, but...” He gestured to Cardiac’s bound form.
“I-I-I d-don’t like p-p-ponies kno-kno-knowing w-what I-I l-look like,” the unicorn defensively retorted. The earth pony before him couldn’t see Cardiac’s glare through the bandages. His ears, though bandaged too, reflected Cardiac displeasure in their movement.
“Fine,” the larger stallion relented. “What about your cutie mark? Your talent?” As an afterthought, he added, “And why hide it?”
“A broken heart, sir,” was Cardiac’s only reply. He was perfectly content to let the stallion behind the desk, whom he still didn’t know the name of, to draw his own conclusions about its meaning. “I don’t like blood.” (Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum.)
The recruiter jotted that down on his forms, not noticing that that was the only time in this whole conversation that Cardiac had not stuttered. “I think that’s about all we need from you, son. Welcome to the Royal Guard.”
“Th-th-thank you, s-sir.”
(Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum.)
Cardiac trotted up towards the 1st lieutenant he was assigned to after completing boot camp. If the rumors were correct, then lieutenant Shining Armor was almost certain to snag the position of Captain of the Royal Guard soon. While the thought of serving under one whom many considered a military prodigy would be exciting to most ponies, it simply served to make Cardiac more nervous than usual.
Slowing his pace, he walked up to and then stopped behind his new lieutenant. The ever-present drums of life pounded in the recruit’s ears. (Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum.) Cardiac tapped the lieutenant on the shoulder with his telekinesis. His signature venous-blood red* aura was his only naturally distinguishing feature, and the one thing he didn’t bother to hide. “Ex-excuse m-me...”
“Yes?” Shining Armor turned quickly, suddenly face to (no) face with Cardiac. “Gyaaaahhh!” He exclaimed as he backpedaled from the faceless stallion. “Whoa. Sorry there. You just startled me a bit, that’s all. Are you alright”
Cardiac withered. “I-I-I’m s-sorry, I-I d-didn’t mean t-t-to. Please d-d-don’t be m-m-mad,” he meekly replied.
Shining Armor put his hoof under Cardiac’s chin and raised his head up. “I’m not mad. Don’t worry; you didn’t do anything wrong. Now, how can I help you?”
The stallion, still small despite the additional twenty pounds of muscle from a year of boot camp, levitated his paperwork to Shining Armor. “C-c-cad-det Cardiac, s-sir, r-reporting f-f-for d-duty.”
The Lieutenant gave the stuttering unicorn a confused smile. “Welcome aboard?” he stated, though it sounded more like a question.
Betting and gambling were generally frowned upon in the barracks, though not technically against the rules. The exception to this was in regards to Cardiac. Everypony, regardless of age or rank, had a bet on what he looked like. The pestered him relentlessly after the first few days, once they realized that he could telekinetically hold steam in place while he showered. The bets had grown so large that ponies were considering bribing him to tell them what he looked like.
When they actually did start bribing him, his fellow guard members found he had two responses. If more than one pony confronted him at the same time, he’d have a nervous breakdown. Yet if he was confronted one on one, he would hold fast and refuse the bribe.
It drove them bonkers.
One particular day, nearly two years after he had enlisted, Cardiac was confronted by Flash Sentry about his looks. “Come on, Card, you got to tell us!”
“F-f-fine. M-my coat lo-lo-looks like y-y-yours.”
“YES! I KNEW IT! WOOHOO! Hear that?” Flash shouted, calling some other ponies came out from around the corner. “I WIN!”
Much money changed hooves that night.
Three days later, a thestral mare by the name of Mockingbird asked the same question as Flash, having not heard the results.
She got the same answer. Verbatim. He even stuttered in the exact same way.
It lead to much confusion when she told the others. When a third pony asked for clarification, Cardiac responded, “I t-t-told them th-th-that my c-c-coat looked l-like y-yours, Tar-targ-g-get.” The humor was evident in his voice.
Once they realized that Cardiac, the nicest pony on their squad, had pranked them, even more bits were exchanged.
Cardiac eyed the spear held aloft in his magical grip and scowled at it, though his expression was hidden by his ever present bandages. His blood pressure climbed with his irritation. (Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum.) He muttered under his breath at the weapon. If anypony could hear what he said, the would be quite disturbed by both the content and delivery - he didn’t stutter once.
But they didn’t hear him. They didn’t see the expression in his eyes. (Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum.)
And then the moment was gone, and the nervous wreck was back. He lowered his standard issue spear onto the carrying hooks on the side of his golden armor that rested atop his bandages, grabbed his medi-kit, and joined the rest of his squad for their patrol of Canterlot.
Sunlight filtered through the pink magic bubble that his Lieutenant-turned-Captain had conjured up. Other than that, it was a beautiful day for a wedding.
His hooves pounded on the stone street, rapidly carrying him away from his pursuers, matching time to the pounding of his heart. The broken remains of his spear levitated over his head, still useful as projectiles for warding off attacks. A poorly aimed energy bolt struck him on the back, severing his medi-kit’s straps, but doing little damage to Cardiac’s body.
He turned sharply, racing down a narrow alley way with enough overhangs to obstruct pursuit by flight, for the most part. The bugs could still hover faster than he could gallop, and they were gaining on him. One of them struck, tripping him. His helmet flew off and his face slid across the ground, tearing the bandages on the right side.
“You’re trapped; give up,” the one of the bugs behind Cardiac declared in its strange double-voice.
Cardiac stood and turned towards his attackers. In doing so, the damaged cloth fell away, revealing matted, mangy fur and an eye with a pinprick-like pupil. “Actually, no, I’m not. I won’t.”
“We got a brave one,” one of the other bugs commented. “Delicious.”
“My name is Arrest,” the bandaged unicorn declared. “My talent is my name. The doctor is in. Let’s practice medicine!”
That was the last thing the four changelings ever saw.
Arrest was the last thing over a thousand changelings ever saw.
(BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)
And when all was said and done, Cardiac awoke among the dead, the drums of war pounding in his ears. Just like the day he earned his cutie mark, a severed, bleeding heart. Just like the day his parents died. Just like the day his mind fractured.
And there were so many more who needed his help. After all, the doctor was in.
(Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum. Ba-Dum.)
