Nephila woke up slowly after the long nights sleep and got out of the bed stretching her dark form. She stumbled into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. For a moment she didn’t recognize the bug in the mirror for how dirty and disheveled she was.

“How awful, I need a sand bath, badly… OH MY VEVNITH! MY HAIR! This will not do, it must be cleaned.” She said to herself as she looked back over at the shower, “I guess a shower will have to do…” She used her magic to twist the knob, setting the water to boiling hot. She then walked herself into the small bathtub shower hybrid and began taking her nice long shower, letting the steaming hot water glide down her carapace, soothing the various sore muscles underneath it from the long journey, her horn throbbed from the overexertion of her disguise spell being used for so long.

She took her time to clean her hair and tail with the small shampoo and conditioner provided and made sure to scrub her carapace down with some body soap applied to a rag. Eventually she finished cleaning all the dirt and grime from her chitinous plates and she leaned against the shower wall to savor the feeling of the hot water upon her body. Finally dragging herself out of the shower, she violently shook her body before using a towel to finish drying off.

Wrapping a towel around her mane and tail as she stepped out of the bathroom she froze in place as her eyes landed on the alarm clock. It was only five minutes till her shift started. ‘Eeping’ in panic she set to work, quickly throwing on her disguise, followed soon after by her scrubs as she rushed out of the door, almost forgetting to lock it behind her. She ran like there was absolutely no tomorrow to the hospital panicking that she was going to be fired before her first shift had even started! She couldn’t believe she forgot to set the buzzing alarm of all things!

As she ran through the town, jumping over various bits of construction material lining the sidewalks of the developing town, she had to dodge and weave through dozens of ponies still out and about as the day drew to an end. Heck she almost toppled over a filly she didn’t see and could only let out a single, “SORRY!” as she juked around her, giving the little one quite a fright.

After her sprint across town she ran right into the door of the hospital all over again, having forgotten that it didn’t open automatically. She got off the floor with an audible groan and shook her throbbing muzzle and opened the door, pointedly ignoring the Nephila shaped smudge as she walked through. She made her way through the lobby and was almost immediately pounced upon by various ponies that were clearly the family of the patients asking, no demanding to know how their loved one was doing or demanding to know where certain things in the hospital were which she either couldn’t answer as she didn’t know or gave a random answer to get them to shut up, her head was hurting so badly as the various negative emotions were overwhelming her. It got so bad she quickly ran through a gap in the rest of the ponies and rushed quickly to the nurses station behind a pair of staff only doors just to get away.

Once at the nursing station she began dry heaving and softly whimpering as the small headache she had before was now intense and mind breaking. The pain was so bad that she felt that she was on the verge of throwing up which got the attention of the nurse that she was to be assigned to today who quickly rushed over and asked worriedly, “Are you okay Nephila? Sit down for a moment dear, would you like something for the nausea? Maybe some water?” The grey coated and tan maned mare trotted off.

Nephila looked up at her and nodded while still dry heaving; she could use the aid afterall. The Nurse rushed off and came back with a paper cup of water in her magic and a small shot glass sized potion bottle and gently hoofed it over to Nephila who began to drink them both very quickly. The Potion didn’t take long to take effect as the nausea almost immediately faded away and she stopped dry heaving. This just left her with a throbbing mind numbing headache as she looked up at her fellow Nurse and said, “More water… Please…”

The Nurse smiled at her and quickly left, then returned with a bottle of hospital branded water, “Here have a bottle, the hospital gives it to us for free, now sit there for a little while and I’ll come back in a few minutes to check in on you before we start rounds” The nurse then walked off after giving Nephila the water bottle which she didn’t take long to drink the whole thing. Nephila just sat there on her haunches as she tried to settle herself as her emotions were overwhelmed by the cacophony of emotions emanating from all around her from worried family members and miserable patients, it was times like these she hated being an empath. She could already feel the headache returning at the base of her horn. Being a nurse wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for all the sick ponies.

Eventually she settled her thoughts and got up off her haunches and just as she did the nurse arrived and smiled as she hugged Nephila with care, “Glad you’re feeling better, I remember just how overwhelming my first day was. You’re name’s Nephila right? I’m Fog Bank. Now come along dear, let’s get our shift started, lot’s of colts and fillies needing us tonight.” She said as compassion and a little amusement emanated off of her. “Plus I’m sure the day crew is ready to get the buck out of here. They hate waiting on us ghouls to get report.” She leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “Just between you and me, they sure like to take their sweet time in the morning, coming in with their fancy coffees and hot breakfasts.” Nephila’s muzzle scrunched from the sour taste of actual resentment from the mare. Fog Bank took her around the floor giving her a short and sweet tour before bringing her back to the main station and grabbing a clipboard and stack of folders in hoof.

They trotted over to one of the sub stations, looking to track down their day shift counterpart and begin taking their report. When they found the earth pony mare she was actively guiding a patient back to their room with the fakest smile Nephila had ever seen. She had a bandage across her swollen snout and aggravation was practically dripping off her even as she tucked her patient back into bed. When she saw Fog Bank and Nephila she gestured them over to an empty room. Fog was doing her best to suppress her mirth, “The Tartarus happened to you, Lemon?”

Nephila was taken aback when Lemon nearly snarled at them, “The little twat goblin in twelve fucking bucked me when I was giving him his suppository! You don’t have him do you?”

Fog Bank couldn’t hold back her giggles any longer, “Heheh, no we’ve got five, nine, ten, and thirteen tonight. Nephila, this is Lemon Sour, she’s one of our best nurses. Lemon, meet Nephi, she’s just starting today, but she’s got experience.”

Lemon fixed her with a cold, dead eye stare. “Bitch you better run, tear up your license, and find a job in accounting or giving sad hoofjobs to divorced stallions. These little bastards will break your back and put you in an early grave.” Nephila took a step back as the yellow mare’s eye twitched.

“Don’t mind her, Nephi,” Fog Bank rolled her eyes and flipped a page on her clipboard, “She just needs to get laid. Now give us report, my dodeca-spresso is getting cold.” Nephilia could only look between the two in amazement and horror as Lemon started running over the details of their four patients. These nurses were nothing like her sisters in the hive’s nursery. If this was what the first fifteen minutes were like, just what did the next twelve hours have in store for her? She desperately wished she could feel the hivemind, Queen Vevnith’s presence was always such a source of strength when she got overwhelmed… Oh buzz, don’t start crying, Nephilia she thought to herself, We can do this! I hope…

Author's Note

So sorry for the long wait everyling, we decided to split up what was chapter 8 into multiple parts, due to both how long and how difficult it is to write. Keep your eyes out for the next chapter!~ - Nephila