Crossing Over the Arcane Hiatus

Chapter 14: Cast Off

Probably should have asked for directions before I left.

I’m lost. Judging by my surroundings, I must be in the town square or something of the like. Surrounding me on all sides are buildings, and town hall is right beside me. The good thing is that I’m more or less known around town, so getting help shouldn’t be too difficult. The bad thing is that I don’t do well with introductions, so getting help will be a bit difficult for me.

Another thing is that I don’t think I like to submit to defeat so easily. That’s probably why I’m still wandering around and haven’t asked anypony for help yet. That and the whole socially awkward bit.

“Good afternoon, Chris.”

I can’t go anywhere without being surprised or scared, can I?

“Oh my, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. A-Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked, obviously concerned.

“Oh Fluttershy, it’s you. I-I’m alright. How are you doing?”

“I am fine, thank you for asking. I-I was just on my way to the hospital, I’ve had this cough recently and I fear I might be getting sick.” She looked at me and smiled wearily, blowing her mane out of her face. Something caught Fluttershy’s attention and her eyes wandered off into space.

“Oh no…” she mouthed the words so discretely it could have just been her breathing. Her facial expression turned from one of worry to that one horrific face one would make if they stuck their nose something terrible. She heeled up on her hind legs and waved her forelegs wildly in front over her, falling back on her haunches. Fluttershy, still holding the same face, slowly opened her mouth and brought both of her front hooves up to cover it.

”Ack!” She coughed.

D’awww… Fluttershy brought herself back onto all fours and looked up to me in distress.

“It’s awful, isn’t it?”

“You probably think it’s worse than it really is, Fluttershy.”

“It still doesn’t hurt to see a doctor.”

“True. Speaking of which, I’m also trying to get to the hospital. Can I follow you?”

“What’s wrong? Is something broken? Are you also sick?” Fluttershy went into overprotective mode and started asking me sorts of questions, poking my chest and inspecting my arms.

“Oh no, what if I gave it you? That would be… what if you gave it to me? No, what if it’s something I don’t have yet? My immune system is already weak!” Fluttershy shot into the air, hovering about ten feet above me.

“No! I’m not sick, Fluttershy! I’m not going to infect you!”

“A-Are you sure?” She lowered herself down landing a fair distance away, still hesitant to get near me.

“Yes, I’m fine. The hospital wants me to stop by so they can give me a physical and do blood tests. I’m not sick.”

“Oh. S-sorry for overreacting.” She sheepishly walked back up to me. “The hospital is this way though. I-If you’re going to follow me, you might want to be at a safe distance. I-I don’t want to get you sick.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m pretty sure my immune system can handle whatever virus you might or might not have.”

“Here we go, Ponyville Hospital.” Fluttershy and I walked up and through the main the doors. The reception lobby was… predictable. Somehow it the inside looked exactly like what I thought it would; the walls were lined with pale green wallpaper with very fine and ornate white swirls in it. Numerous paintings hung from the walls, evenly leveled and spaced apart. The ceiling, a sharp leathery brown, also had the same sort of decorative swirl textured on it, standing out from the wood grain. A light blue plush carpet made up the floor, with the exception of cyan colored tiles that made a smooth pathway around the room and down several corridors, and assumingly the rest of the hospital as well. A nurse stood behind the receptionist counter, scribbling something down on a clipboard. By what I could tell she was visibly older than most of the other mares in Ponyville; her coat light gold and her curly cyan mane were both fading.

“Umm… hello? I-I don’t feel so good…” Fluttershy spoke to the nurse.

“Do you have an appointment?” She deadpanned in response, not even looking up from the clipboard.

“Um, no… but he does. I think.”

The nurse looked up to Fluttershy with a compassionate yet bored expression, and then around her to see me. Her eyes quickly widened in shock and a small smile appeared. Without talking back to either of us she hastily returned to her clipboard, finished whatever she was writing, and took off with it down a hall.

“Well that was rude.” Fluttershy said in a huff.

“The doctor will be out in a moment!” The nurse appeared from behind the wall, again smiling as wide as ever, before turning back down the hall. Her brief and sudden announcement scared Fluttershy and she yelped gritting her teeth, her legs going stiff, and promptly fell over onto the ground as if she was made of stone. Thankfully she fell on a pillow so she shouldn’t be injured. Actually, there were so many pillows around it’d be hard not to step on them. Sighing, I took a seat on one of them and Fluttershy held her pose, too afraid to move.

“Fluttershy, she’s gone. You can snap out of it now.”

No response other than her pupils frantically searching whatever part of the room she could see without moving her head.

“Fluttershy?”

Nope. Still nothing.

“Well… your cough’s probably gone now, right?”

After I said that she stopped searching and her eyes narrowed, focusing on some imaginary speck of in the distance.

“Ack!” Taking a second to absorb what just happened, the yellow pegasus started hyperventilating in addition to her frantic searching. She still hadn’t broken that pose, but at least she was moving more of her body now.

“Come on Fluttershy, snap out of it. You’re fine.” I tried one more time but again to avail.

Stop before you make things worse. Just let her do her thing.

“Hello? Aha! You’re finally here!” A voice said from behind me. I turned around to see an obvious doctor-figure standing before me, apparent by the stethoscope he had wrapped around his neck. He wore a white collar shirt that covered the front half of his body, which itself was a sandy-yellow color. His thick light brown mane stopped right above his unicorn horn. I’m not even sure if his horn was holding his hair up or not.

“I take you’ll be my doctor?”

“Yup. Doctor Stables. I must say, it is an honor to be the first to analyze a new species!”

“…Thanks?”

“Well let’s not waste any time. Follow me down here and we’ll-“

“Wait!” Fluttershy jumped up and screamed, “W-what about me?”

“Alright Fluttershy, I suppose we could start with you. What seems to be the trouble?”

“I-I got this terrible cough!”

“You don’t seem to be coughing right now. Is there anything else?”

Fluttershy looked at the doctor blankly, her eyes narrowing again. Once more she stood up on her hind legs, pawing at the air with her hooves and fell back onto her haunches.

“Ack!”

Dr. Stables simply smiled at her, chuckling to himself.

“It’s awful isn’t it?” She whimpered.

“It sure is. Hold on a second, I think I might have the solution,” he said and left back down the corridor her came from. Fluttershy watched as he went, and didn’t divert her attention from the doorway until he got back. Dr. Stables returned with a paper cup of some sort of liquid.

“Here, drink this.” He calmly gave her the cup and she immediately drank it in a rush.

“Feel better?” He asked.

Fluttershy stood motionless, glancing back and forth between him and the cup. “Mm-hmm! Thank you so much!” She finally said at last with an enormous smile spread across her face. She took a second to thank the doctor once more before she asked worryingly, “How much is it going to cost me?”

“Oh, it isn’t much. I’ll take care of it for you.”

“Oh, bless you. Thank you so much!” Fluttershy said again, getting up and leaving through the front doors, “G-good luck Chris!” She waved a hoof at me before flying away.

“What was that you gave her?” I asked him.

“Hmm? Oh, it was just water from the fountain.” He smiled, picking up the cup Fluttershy had dropped on the ground. “She comes by with something silly about once a month. It’s no big deal really. Come on now.”

He turned back down the hallway and I followed. The ceiling lights dimly lit the hall, only the window at the end and any opened doors allow brighter light to make its way around. The hallway also had the same color scheme as the front lobby, and other then the occasional beeping of machines or small talk between patients everything was quiet.

“In here. Room A-7,” he said, leading me into a very small room. A single hospital bed sat in the middle with a not to comforting IV machine sitting next to it. The assorted needles and biohazard-labeled lunchbox on a bedside tray weren’t to reassuring either. But aside from that, the room looked like it would be any ordinary hospital room. Not that I haven’t had the luxury of even being in a hospital before. A cabinet sat in one corner and a desk with all sort of instruments sat in the other. A small scale was tucked away underneath the desk, and atop it are several odd looking objects. I assume they’re for checking things like blood pressure and body temperature.

“Alrighty then, please remove your shoes.”

I complied, and he pulled out the scale and set it on the ground for me to stand on. I hadn’t noticed a nurse had followed us into the room, and she was taking the readings from the scale. I hadn’t seen… no I’ve seen her before in the show. Nurse Redheart was her name, or at least it was the fan-given one.

“One hundred and twenty five pounds,” he told her and she scribbled that bit of info down on a clipboard, somehow holding a pencil and a clipboard with her mouth at the same time.

“…Is that normal for a human your age?”

“I’m eighteen, but I haven’t had a checkup before in... a long time, so I wouldn’t know. I might be slightly underweight.” I helplessly shrugged and he did too. Next he measured my height and had Nurse Redheart write that down as well, then motioned for me to sit down on the bed. He took his stethoscope and was about to put it on my chest when he hesitated.

“Err… where is your heart? And your lungs?”

I smiled, and pointed to the dead center of my breastplate.

“The heart is contained inside my ribcage which protects most of my vital organs. My fits inside a small pocket between my lungs.”

He nodded in approval, and went to rubbing my chest with the cold piece of metal.

“I’m counting about eighty-five beats a minute. Is that normal?”

“Yeah, it should be. I know it’s not safe for it to go over a hundred or below sixty.”

“And we’re supposed to be the doctors.” Nurse Redheart joked, getting a slight chuckle out of the doctor.

“Yeah, well now that that’s over with, time to draw blood for our records.”

“I knew that was coming,” I sighed, getting a curious look from Nurse Redheart. Dr. Stables went over to the tray of needles and picked up a syringe. I cringed at the sight of the thing.

“I’m terrified of needles…” I shuddered, getting a sympathetic nod from the two of them.

“Well, it’ll be over before you know it.” Nurse Redheart tried to reassure me.

“I-I don’t even know what vein that goes in.”

“No worries. Your physiology doesn’t seem that far off from ponies, so it shouldn’t be that challenging to fine the right vein. Could you pull up your sleeve?”

“Eehhuhuh…” I don’t know what that was, but I reluctantly did as I was told.

“I’m assuming this large blue vein is correct one,” he said, positioning the needle right above the vein.

“Hey! I know it’s not supposed to be that low on the arm!”

“I knew that,” he scoffed with a nervous grin, and repositioned the needle.

“Not really reassuring. How much blood are you going to need?”

“Just enough to fill this one syringe. I don’t want to take out more then I need.”

“Right. Hey, nurse? Could you maybe hold my arm down? I’m afraid…” I spoke too late. Dr. Stables was using his magic to hold my arm down already, and I hadn’t noticed he already stuck the needle in me, and the syringe was already half full! Of my blood.

“See? That wasn’t so bad,” he smiled, and nervously I smiled too. Nurse Redheart came up with gauze and wrapped the wound tight.

“I believe that’s all we need for now. I’ll be sure to keep you posted if we need any more tests done.”

“Thank you two for not killing me,” I sarcastically said, getting the two of them to smile again. I stood up and put on my shoes, ready to get the hell out of here. I’ve already decided I do not like hospitals.

“I’m sure you’re wondering about the hospital bill, but don’t worry. In the name of research, we won’t charge you a bit.”

“Thanks again,” I said waving goodbye and turned down the hall.

“Wait a minute! What about your crutch?” Nurse Redheart called after me.

“What?” I turned around and saw her holding my crutch in her mouth. I looked down at my leg, and yes it’s still in its cast. Getting a nervous surge of adrenaline I fell and sat on the floor.

“You just walked with a broken leg,” she said, walking up to me and setting the crutch down. “Did you feel any pain? Is your leg healed already?”

“No, that shouldn’t be possible. It takes months for a broken leg to heal!”

“If you don’t feel pain, it should be fine.”

“I… I took a potion this morning. Twilight Sparkle gave me some red liquid in a vial earlier.”

“Did Zecora make it?” Dr. Stables asked, appearing behind Nurse Redheart.

“Yeah. Yeah she did!”

“Well that’s interesting. Usually her healing potions take a few days until they reach full effect. And yours did so in just a few hours?”

“Huh. Can we X-Ray it to be sure?”

“Of course, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Rarity, I’m back. Sorry I took so long.” I walked into the boutique and threw Crutchy onto the floor.

I see the Crusaders cleaned up the place in my absence. It actually looks presentable. I looked at the few mannequins that stood in the center of the room on a pedestal. There were sixteen total, but only six of them were dressed. One of them wore the suit I helped Rarity make earlier. Maybe this was where she put her completed work?

“Oh thank heavens! Come quick, I need your help nnnooooooooooow!” She called back from the workroom, and I ran off to meet her. The workroom was still the mess it had been when I left though, and Rarity was frantically working on her sewing machine putting the finishing touches on some garment. Sweetie Belle was off to the side cutting fabrics to predetermined sizes.

“Oh darling, I know it was important of you to go but now time is of the essence! One of my clients will be picking up his gown earlier than expected, and it hasn’t even been started yet!”

“They’ll be here today, actually.” Sweetie Belle innocently spoke, “Hey your leg’s all better!”

“Sweetie Belle! Back to work!” Rarity barked to her sister who immediately went back to cutting. “Yes that’s nice and all but we can celebrate later. Chris, I need you to bring me that piece of Kevlar.”

Kevlar? Why does… who does… never mind. It’s nice not having to shift my weight onto that crutch so I could very easily get across the room now. Or compared to before. The workroom was still a complete mess and it’s still hard not to trip over something.

“Here you go.” I handed Rarity the Kevlar. Without hesitation she yanked it from my grasp and stuffed inside a dress, stitching it shut.

“Just some finishing touches…” Rarity softly mumbled to herself, “Sweetie Belle! Do you have the decorative patch done?”

“Yes ma’am!” Sweetie Belle jumped up from the floor and ran over to Rarity with an oddly shaped piece of red fabric. The emblem slightly resembles a heart, but the tail was pulled down and back up, wrapping around the rest of it coming to a point near the top. Rarity took the fabric and returned to her sewing machine.

“Who’s this for?”

“Sorry but I can’t say,” Rarity finished and pulled the dress off and dressed to a mannequin before walking away, “Customer privacy and such.”

Rarity brought the mannequin to the other end of the room and pulled out a white chest that sat off to the side. Opening it, countless gemstones lifted out of the box and floated around her, and she meticulously examining every one. As she looked through them all, she either dumped the rejects back into the box or added others into a small cloud of stone behind her.

“Fabulous. Horrid. Horrid. Perfect. Wonderful. Hideous. Fabulous…”  Rarity kept talking to herself as she sorted the gemstones. The familiar ringing of a doorbell sounded, followed by that of a door opening.

The cloud of gems fell to the floor, scattering dozens of them across the ground. Rarity quickly brought her head around and stared through the doorway, her legs trembling. “Oh dear,” she muttered.

“Chris! Sweetie Belle! I’m not done with the dress yet and the client is here! I need you two to stall him now!” Rarity commanded, getting a salute from Sweetie Belle before she darted out the door, and I quickly followed behind.

“Hello Commander Ares!” I heard the filly say as I rounded the corner.

Commander?

Sweetie Belle sat on the floor in front of several outfits, obviously showing them off to who I assumed is the customer. I hope he’s the customer. One of Celestia’s Royal Guards stood before Sweetie Belle. Unlike the unicorn guards I have seen previously his armor is not gold but silver and covered more of his body then a normal guard’s armor would; plated armor wrapped around the entirety of his abdomen instead of only covering his back and the boots that usually only ran up the front of the shins wrapped around the entire lower leg. The galea crest that usually runs down the top of the helmet is not the normal shade of white but a fading black, his tail matching. His coat still the normal dull gray, but his eyes had a dark blue shade to them instead of the normal brown.

The unicorn looked down to the young filly, the normal expressionless face replaced with a warm smile as the two made small talk like they were distant friends. The sound of my footsteps alerted the Commander and he shifted his attention to me, the smile across his face slowly fading into a blank stare.

“Um… hello Commander.” I nervously walked into the room, getting him to cock a brow.

“So the stories are true. You can talk.” He spoke bluntly, dull but with authority. Sweetie Belle still sat on the ground, an overenthusiastic grin wide across her face.

“Christopher, yes? I see your leg healed. It’s no longer broken?”

“Yeah, how’d you know it was broken in the first place?”

“I lead the extraction team that recovered you in the Whitetail Woods.”

“You brought me back to Canterlot then.”

“That I did, and you were in quite the… wounded state. I didn’t know that...”

“Humans!” Sweetie Belle chimed in, getting a small smile to appear across the unicorn’s face for a brief moment before it receded.

“Yes, humans. We didn't know how hazardous you would be if you were to wake up, so after a brief examination we locked you in a cell. Be happy I was able to get convinced to give you a pillow. I didn’t even think that humans could heal so fast.”

“Well, I owe it to Zecora. She made some sort of healing potion that accelerated everything.”

“Zecora? I see you’re already making friends far and wide,” he chuckled to himself at the thought and returned to Sweetie Belle, “So is the dress ready? I can’t wait to see it.”

“Oh yeah, about that…”

“Who’s it for?” I intervened, getting a sigh of relief from Sweetie Belle. I forgot we needed to be stalling. The Commander turned his attention back to me, slightly surprised by the outburst.

“Are humans always so assertive?” He spoke in a negative tone, obviously upset.

“You would be surprised. And forgive me for my lack of manners. I’m not use to such formalities.”

“I do suppose I can’t hold you against it; call me Ares. But if you must know, the gown is for my wife. Her birthday is tomorrow.”

“Don’t want to forget that,” I rolled my eyes, getting him to nervously laugh.

“Ah… yeah. I learned my lesson before. And before I forget, since you’re here I don’t have to waste time searching for you. You have been summoned to Canterlot by Princess Luna, and I’ll be taking you there myself as soon as possible.”

“Canterlot? Can I come please?” Rarity appeared from out of the workroom and walked up to us.

“Sorry Miss Rarity, but I’m afraid we can’t take you. I was only ordered to pick up Chris. We’ll be leaving shortly.”

“He’ll be leaving again? But I need my apprentice!”

“Apprentice?” Ares looked to me confused, and all I could do was shrug.

“I need to get money somehow.”

Ares awkwardly shook his head in disapproval and went back to Rarity, “So, is it finished?”

“Why of course! Here we are.” Rarity’s horn began to glow a soft blue and a mannequin drifted into the room wearing the completed outfit. Several long, silver strands of silk run down the length of the navy blue dress from the bottom to the collar. The red heart emblem Sweetie Belle made was stitched on the flank where a cutie mark would be, and small blue sapphires outlined it. A light blue star proudly rested on the chest, similar to that of the one on Ares’s armor. Rubies also outlined the star and the front holes where the forelegs stick out of.

“My wife will love it. I could always rely on you Miss Rarity.”

“Oh you flirt…” Rarity turned away blushing getting Ares to blush as well.

“Ah. Yes. Well, about your pay... what do I owe you?”

“Forty-two thousand bits,” Rarity said cheerfully, and enormous smile spread from ear to ear. Sweetie Belle and I were completely shocked by this, but Ares nodded in satisfaction.

“You’re killing me Rarity,” he joked.

“Well Kevlar is expensive, darling.”

“That it is,” he sighed. His horn began to glow a dim green and a lockbox materialized in front of him. Rarity took the dress and folded it neatly into a bag and the two exchanged gifts.

“Thank you again Miss Rarity, but I must get going now. Follow me, Chris.”

“Wait a second,” Rarity stopped him, “When will he get back?”

“No telling when, sorry. But I can’t expect it taking more than a few hours. No guarantees though. And Chris, bring your… technology with you. Princess Luna made it explicitly clear that you take it with you. All of it.”

“So… why so much Kevlar?” I casually asked Ares, but he ignored the question. The usual blank stare guards normally expressed brought itself dimly across his face. The flight to Canterlot sure is going to be a long one.