JUN 5 Tuesday.

I look over the injured stallion's side and try my best to ignore the current placement of my sight. The wound is fairly close to his crotch and on the inner side of his left hindleg.

An elder stallion, around sixty or so years old with a mild infection from a puncture wound. He didn't say what caused it but I don't really care all that much. It's around three inches deep from what my senses can tell me and it doesn't look too bad all things considered.

The infection seems to mostly be on the outside of the wound, it having been bandaged but not stitched closed. The nurse shadowing me keeps an eye on my actions but seems content to let me do my own work knowing I have done so several times before. "Alright, Sir, I'm going to get you something for the pain and clean it out with a spell, if that is fine with you?" I ask just to be thorough as he obviously needs treatment.

He nods his head slowly and shifts a bit while he continues to lie on his side atop a bed. He lets out a small wince at the motion, "Ya." That's all I get from him so I nod and walk over to the herb cabinet, taking out two doses of a herb for more mild pain, a plant called Pain Throb, and marking it down on a clipboard.

I walk back over and pass it to him, letting it sit in his stretched-out hoof. "Chew it for a while before swallowing," I instruct and he nods before putting them in his mouth and starting to chew. "That should take a few minutes to take effect, I'll check on a patient for a moment and be back to clean out your wound," I explain and he just nods again before laying down fully.

I leave the old stallion alone for a moment and walk over to a different patient, a young pegasus mare who looked at me a little too much earlier before falling asleep. Luckily I don't need to wake her and just look over the strings that are hanging down from the ceiling to keep one of her wings elevated and limit its movement.

A fracture with a wing bone is an unpleasant thing, especially considering many pegasi can be impatient and often don't like being confined to bed rest. That's not to say every single pegasi is like that, far from it as I've had several who were exceptionally patient, but my point stands.

The different tribes of Ponies may act as a single whole most of the time, but there are important differences between them, and doubly so when healing them. So I've taken the opportunity to study the flows of life magic in Ponies while working here, I obviously can't pay full attention but I am noticing some differences.

Life magic flows in many different ways, and even individuals of the same species can have variations in their flows. Most structures and flows remain consistent overall though, and that lets me study and memorize certain parts of a pony's life flows, it is a very slow process though.

The things I've memorized are very small and the sheer complexity of it all is hard to put into words. The magical flows of fauna and anything made of flesh seem to all be much more complex than plants. And complexity isn't the only problem, flora also have much slower flows than fauna.

I can watch a plant's flows in real-time and keep up easily, the flows of a Pony are a few times faster and take more effort to track and observe. Still, my observation should prove to be useful in time. Simply put, it should in theory let me heal a Pony more effectively with my life magic the more I learn, similar to plants just in a different way. I have to actually start healing Ponies with my life magic first though.

I walk back over to the old stallion after a minute and see that his breathing is more steady along with his body being more relaxed. He tilts his head up as I walk over, "I'll be casting a cleaning spell, you might feel some pain but it should be minimal, please tell me if it's not." He nods again and there is a small flash of light.

I see him jump a little bit at the sudden appearance and disappearance of a spell matrix, his breath hitching as the spell takes effect and the wound is mostly cleaned out in a moment. That's the problem with infections, cleaning spells can only get you so far unless you want to drain an insane amount of magic.

All cleaning spells aren't one hundred percent effective, even the one I made has some limitations. My cleaning spell may clean things but that's only to a certain degree, the more magic added the better the cleaning spell but at the lower end, a cleaning spell can miss small things, like bacteria for example. I just cleaned his wound of most dead flesh and infected bits, but I can't clean out every last microorganism.

The runes used in my cleaning spells and all other cleaning spells, also have no information about bacteria and that makes it harder for them to clean it up. It's not impossible, in fact you can do it fairly easily as long as you have enough magic. Because the spell isn't made to specifically kill and remove bacteria you need to heavily overpower it to do so, and that's to kill most, not all.

Magic has no limits, but the structure we gave magic to use with more ease does have more limitations. I could look into making some runes to specifically target bacteria, but that's very time-consuming and I'm not sure I even know enough to do it well. Wasting all that effort to make a bad rune might end up with it being so ineffective that overpowering a normal cleaning spell would cost less magic and be better.

I take a swab and apply some tincture, a simple mixture of pure water, and some herbs to help wounds heal and deal with infections, before applying it slowly. It takes a few minutes and by the time I'm done the old stallion has really relaxed as the herbs take full effect. I can't do much more beyond this so I just take some bandages and start bandaging his wound.

I can't really heal the wound, mostly because I could trap the infection inside him and that will completely fuck things up even more than normal. For now, all I can do is recommend him some rest and send him to a doctor to get him a prescription. "You can rest here if you wish, Sir. And here is a recommendation for something that will help it heal." I write it out on a notepad and pass it over.

I've been keeping both a notepad and a quill with me as it has proven very effective. He takes it with another nod, "Thanks." He promptly lays his head down and I leave him to rest while walking over to a nurse I'm assigned to for the day. I've learned a few of their names but with so many, I often just read their badge.

The mare nurse nods a bit at me to acknowledge my presence as she cleans out a pony's cut, a small moment of silent concentration on her face as a spell matrix forms in front of the cut a second later. This is one of the nurses I've learned the name of, nurse Blue Stone, an interesting pegasus mare.

A deep blue coat, aquamarine mane, and cobalt-colored eyes. She is one of the few other runic casters I've encountered at the hospital, being around thirty I think and like me, she is a Journeypony Runic Caster. Although from what I know she actually went to a smaller magical school unlike me. "I'm done with my patients, anything else that needs doing?" I ask as she's supposed to be in charge of me today.

She thinks for a moment after casting her spell, taking a little longer than I normally do but seemingly proficient in her magic. "Good, we need to check on a different patient before you go, it shouldn't take long as we just need a basic check-up, they are in ward B Six." She says while finishing wrapping the wound and standing up. "You should be fine now Miss Lever, just keep any pressure off of it." She informs her patient and turns to me fully. "Let's get going, big guy."

Blue Stone has proven to be an interesting mare, not too talkative or silent, and mostly only interested in her work. But she has proven to be friendly enough and we share an interest when it comes to the magic we use. I haven't run into too many other Ponies that are full Runic Casters.

Most Runic Casters never get very far into it, but those that do are normally fairly dedicated to it. I've only come across a few as in all of Equestria there are probably less than ten thousand Journeypony Runic Casters and most aren't in a predominantly unicorn city. There aren't particularly unheard of though as there are far more Apprentice Runic Casters.

There are even small communities that use it more often, never the truly advanced stuff, just basic spells to improve quality of life. She stands up and starts to lead me, her head only coming up to nearly half my height being the reason for my nickname, a nickname several others have used.

I am tall by most standards and even if my growth is leveling out pretty hard I've still grown from the time I started here. As we walk she turns her head to me, "So, thinking about taking the nursing tests? They are in July so if you are, you should study up, maybe volunteer less?" She makes some small talk and tries to be helpful.

The test she is referring to is more of a course, it lasts three days and if you pass you can become a nurse or apprentice healer. It's not so simple but like Blue Stone, I could become a full nurse if I passed, not that I'm sure I want to do all that. I'm still on the fence so far. "Not sure, I'm feeling pretty comfortable with things as they are." I am mostly honest as she might have some actual advice for me.

She nods, showing a slight frown at my seeming lack of ambition. "True, but with your skill it would be a waste." She shows a small amount of bitterness but doesn't direct it primarily at me. "Anyway, you should think about it, it's not like you'd need to work the whole time, you could still just volunteer." She says as we enter a different patient ward.

I'm not sure that really helps with my dilemma so I just nod, I wasn't expecting too much from a mare I don't really know beyond her name and skills to begin with so I move on quickly. I do wonder why she seemed a bit unhappy, I guess I can see how she might feel that my current use of my magic skill is a waste, at least from her point of view.

I move that all to the side as we enter another patient ward that is both more and less busy, with more staff members but far fewer patients moving around inside. I raise a brow and turn back to Blue Stone as we sit near the edge of the group, all of them centered around a few Ponies on beds with flashes of magic going off every minute or so. "I assume this was not what you meant?" I ask in a calm tone.

Her expression is more worried and focused now, shaking her head slightly in answer. "No, I meant a Pony I treated for a broken leg a few hours ago, looks like they moved them to a different ward to make space." She looks around and spots a tired-looking doctor to the side. "I'll go check." She moves without me giving an answer and I instead focus my senses on the injured Ponies in the middle of this controlled chaos.

I can't tell too much with just my senses, there are three in total and all seem to have skin damage. Two have most of their fur missing from a leg or their hips, but one seems much worse and it is also who most of the hospital staff are working on. As far as I can tell the entire left side of their chest along with both forelegs and their belly have no hair at all.

It could have been shaved off, it is done sometimes to help with operations so the fur is out of the way. But the skin underneath seems uneven and this is too much fur for an operation, it's hard to tell but I can at least say something happened to their skin, likely burns if the slight scent in the room is any indication.

I stay to the side of the other wall of the long room of the ward we are in, keeping my calm and just waiting while they work. Maybe it's been all the less pleasant things I've seen, or maybe the human in me, but I'm able to mostly remain calm even here. I do feel some worry for them and wish to help, but it's best to wait until called upon.

I take note of another Pony rushing over, one I recognize and have seen a few times but rarely had a reason to speak to. Dr. Stick, I don't actually know his full name. A unicorn stallion on the taller side but still a decent bit shorter than me, with a brown coat similar to mine with a darker shade, a light red mane, and deep purple eyes.

He's been interesting and I've seen him around from time to time, we haven't really talked much though, the only reason I remember him was that shrapnel incident. He moves his dark-rimmed round glasses up his muzzle a bit while looking through some papers and walking over to the group.

He abruptly stops as he glances over at me for a moment, seemingly recognizing me. He looks at the papers again and gives me a focused look. "Mr. Evergreen, correct?" I raise a brow and nod while sitting a little straighter. "I remember you have a good magical capacity, how much do you have left and do you know any spells for burns?" He asks quickly not mincing too many of his words.

I don't remember telling him my name, but we all wear badges and I'm on the schedule like everypony else so it wouldn't be hard to find my name out if he got curious. I nod and stand fully to move quickly if needed, "Full, and I know two, one to heal flesh and the other for skin." I answer back just as quickly.

He nods and motions me to follow him before moving over to the two patients with the least amount of Ponies attending to them, sitting side by side on different beds while the rushed hush comes from a few beds further away as they try to heal the worse off Pony. Two nurses who are cleaning the wounds of the patient we approach, and getting closer let me confirm my suspicions as I see a Pony with some fairly severe burns on them.

The nurses move out of the way as Dr. Stick casts a scanning spell on the pony, a mare that thankfully seems to be either unconscious or sedated. He looks over the results for a few minutes with tired eyes, he seems to be pretty exhausted at the moment and I'm not sure how much he can do in that state.

He surprisingly looks at me after a moment. "They need treatment and I don't have the magic, you work on them while I supervise, heal as much as you can but start with the flesh damage. If I tell you to stop do so immediately, understood?" His voice has a slightly odd accent to it, a small blandness that seems to seep into his words making him sound more calm than he looks.

I'm a little surprised as I've never healed something like this in the hospital before, but the calm and serious tone he has along with the opportunity to help makes me push the surprise to the side.

I nod and step closer to look at the poor mare. Her left foreleg has most of its fur burned off with heavy skin damage from her hoof to the top of her foreleg. The damage is mostly on one side but the limb is not looking good overall. "Cleaned already?" I ask knowing I can't heal her before that happens.

He looks to the nurses who nod silently. I take a moment to lift the limb from its resting position on the bed and glance back at Dr. Stick for permission just to be sure. He nods and I quickly form a spell matrix, this being an active spell I need to continually supply.

I need to heal the missing and raw flesh before the skin, the good news is I have plenty of magic. I overpower the spell a bit and the flesh is slowly regrowing at a visible rate, still it takes a few minutes to fully regrow what little was missing and I have Dr. Stick's eyes on me constantly.

I keep my calm look and I think he's a little intrigued by my lack of reaction. Even the nurses look a bit squeamish about the wound and I'm intently watching the healing process without showing any discomfort. I do feel a little discomfort but I can ignore that without issue and not show it, being human has made me mostly indifferent to the sight, the bloody mess after fighting that wolf only reinforced that.

I'm able to heal the flesh while only using a fifth of my magic, more than enough to fully heal her skin. I pause for a moment as a question comes to mind, what happens if I add some life magic to my spells? Not even fill them completely with life magic, just adding some.

I can't see how things could go wrong if I tried, I'm not directly controlling the life magic, I would just be adding it to boost a healing spell. It's one of the most basic things somepony with a life magic affinity can do, but something I've never done myself.

Every last thing I read says all I need to do is add my life magic when forming a spell, just like anypony else would when using an affinity to boost their spells. Still, it feels a little unprofessional to do it, but it could also heal them both faster and better.

I go back and forth and try to decide. I think it over for a few moments and decide better, just moving my natural magic to heal the patient. As much as I want to find out, and as much as it could actually do some good, it's best not to mess with the unknown like this.

The next spell I cast hangs next to the limb in the air, having a slightly deeper green color to it due to me overpowering the spell with my magic. Dr. Stick doesn't seem to react and just watches as her skin heals over the regrown flesh, this time much quicker than before as I added more magic than needed to speed along the healing and skin can be healed faster.

The effect is a little more than I wanted as the skin only takes a minute to regrow and I have to force myself to look more tired than I am as Dr. Stick glances at me. I sag a little and let out a slow breath as I stop the spell, the foreleg is still hairless but now healed back to what it was before.

I can see a bit of caring but she can get that taken care of at a later date. Dr. Stick nods in relief. "Thank you, how much magic do you have left? The second patient could use some healing as well if you can manage it." He asks, still in a very professional tone while looking at the other less injured patient.

This stallion has his back hindleg and some of his underbelly burnt, it looks like a lot of the flesh damage was already healed but not his skin. "Enough, I could do his skin but I can't do much after that." I decide to half-lie, I have plenty of magic left but both Ponies will be healed regardless, it's just a matter of now versus later.

I don't feel good lying in this situation, but I take some comfort in still helping others while trying to keep my secrets. All three of these Ponies would have survived regardless from what I can see, they are all stable and just need healing, so my lying won't kill somepony.

I move my mind away from that as he nods and motions for me to act "Do it, and thank you again." He says in the same calm, almost cold way. I don't hesitate and cast the spell, watching the skin close at a slower rate than before as I didn't overpower it as much. A minute later the skin is healed and I have to pretend a little less as I've used a quarter of my magic and feel the drain slightly.

I have to continue to pretend that I'm a lot more drained than I actually am, as I nod to Dr. Stick and move to sit on the side of the room where I was earlier to rest. Dr. Stick ends up following me, sitting down as his exhaustion seems to deepen some after the patients are taken care of. "Thank you, sorry to keep you here longer again." He says with that same odd tone, so professional it almost seems cold, but not emotionless.

I shrug as I didn't even notice I was supposed to get off a few minutes ago. "It's for the best, I was just going to go home and read, using the magic now does more good." I try to assuage his concerns away. "What even happened? If I'm allowed to know?" I ask curiously but don't pressure him.

As I signed several confidentiality agreements I can't talk about patients' health outside of volunteering, I'm also not privy to all information. He gives me a nod that turns a little blank at my question, "House fire, not sure why but I think a few said it was the oven. They should be fine, we'll need to keep a close watch though." He answers with a bland tone, one used to this line of work.

He shakes his head a little and turns to me, while I continue to pretend to look tired. "You have impressive reserves of magic for your age and with no official schooling, fifteen right?" I shake my head and he nods. "Sixteen then. Sorry just remembering when I last looked at your file." I raise a brow in a silent question after hearing that.

He gives me a tired look like he realized I might take offense to that. I give him a smile and just take the compliment, "Thank you, I've practiced a lot. It was good to put that all into practice, thanks for the opportunity." I do actually appreciate the opportunity as I rarely get to practice my healing spells, I even got to see what burns were like in my senses.

He smirks a tiny bit, still pretty tired from the looks of things. "No thanks needed, I must get back to it though, have a good day Mr. Evergreen." I nod as he tiredly walks off and I leave the ward after looking at the Ponies in the beds one last time.

I really need to test boosting healing spells with life magic. I guess I need more bugs, time for some research then, I think I still have some notes on bugs from a while back. I think? My mind buries itself in plans as I walk through the hospital and make it to the main staffroom.

I ignore the sideways glance from Bristle as he sits behind his desk working in his office. I actually don't blame him too much, turns out running the cleaning staff for a hospital can be stressful, he's still a bit of a condescending prick though. I grab my things and close the locker before heading outside.

I stop at the door and look at the overcast sky with the seemingly never-ending rain. I heard we're going to get some rogue weather as even the weather teams failed to control everything that happened, an inconvenience to many. I happen to like the rain though.

I put on my cloak with a small smile, happy to have helped a few more Ponies and have something good with a bit of my time. Maybe that test is something to think about?

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :)
Current year is 996

A little less going on in this one, but I thought it would be nice to see a little more of the hospital.