88 - Unrest and Recovery
As Lex staggered into the shelter, still being supported by Sonata, the two of them were greeted with open-mouthed stares. The sight made Sonata blink, looking around confusedly. “What’s everypony staring at?” Silently, she congratulated herself for saying it right that time.
“What are we st-, look at the two of you! You’re hurt!” The outburst came, rather surprisingly, from Nosey, who turned to look at the other ponies in the room. “Some of you are doctors, right? Do something!” That was enough to snap everypony out of their stupefied state, and a moment later Lex and Sonata found themselves surrounded before being ushered off to the side of the room, where several stallions and a few mares were already laying out medical supplies.
Sighing, Nosey belatedly took out her notepad and scribbled a few lines, but her heart wasn’t in it. Instead she looked over at where Lex and Sonata were being treated. Since the shelter was one big room, there wasn’t really any privacy there, letting her easily notice that the majority of the medical ponies were focused on Lex, with only two attending Sonata. When she saw the doctors encourage Lex to lie down a moment later, she couldn’t help but bite her lip. Why was she feeling so out of it? After having been cooped up in this place for almost a day with nothing to do, a new story should have been just the pick-me-up she needed. Instead, she felt like…like…
“Think they’re going to be okay?” The voice came from Nosey’s left, ruining her train of thought, and she looked over at the brown pegasus mare with the black mane and tail, recognizing her as one of the group that Sonata had let in before she’d gone charging out after the newcomers had said that Lex was in a fight. She had been meaning to talk to them, but they’d spent the last several minutes getting cleaned up, having a combination of bruises and other minor injuries. Now seemed like as good a chance as any.
Forcing herself to perk up, Nosey managed a smile. “They’ll be fine. Sonata doesn’t look like she’s hurt too badly, and Lex…” she trailed off for a moment before rallying. “I’ve seen him come through worse.”
“Really?” The other mare’s eyebrows rose, and she looked at Nosey for a moment to see if she was joking, and when she realized that she wasn’t her eyes turned back towards Lex with renewed appreciation.
“Oh yeah. You should see the pictures I took of him when he fought a dragon all by himself.” The thought of her forthcoming book made Nosey’s smile more honest, feeling better at just the thought of it, though nowhere near as intoxicating as it had been before.
“Oh come on,” interjected a new voice, and both glanced over as another one of the newcomers, this one a pegasus mare with a white coat and a pink mane and tail, joined them. Nosey blinked at the sight of their new companion; she looked a lot like a female version of whatshisname, Fireflower’s brother who had generously volunteered his room after he’d been made to go wash dishes at Busy Bee’s. Idly she wondered if this mare was a magic-using spider-pony also. Meanwhile, the other mare kept speaking. “Nopony can fight a dragon off single-hoofedly.”
“This one did,” insisted Nosey. “I still have the photographs if you want to see them.”
“I would!” replied the other pegasus immediately, causing her companion to scowl.
“Listen, I once sat through a magic show by a mare who said that she’d defeated an ursa major, and that was unbelievable enough as it was. Saying that there’s a pony who could defeat a dragon all on their own, other than the princesses, is so farfetched that-”
“Here they are!” said Nosey as she fished her photographs out of her bag, holding them towards the pair in the gray glow of her telekinesis. She grinned as she did so, once again feeling the thrill of reporting on something to ponies that hadn’t heard about it yet. It was enough to make her forget about whatever had been bothering her up until now.
“Oh wow!” oohed the brown pegasus as she looked at the photographs. With each one, her eyes seemed to sparkle more, until she looked completely dazzled by what she was seeing. “He’s incredible,” she murmured, casting another look back at where Lex was being treated, though by now he was completely hidden behind the cluster of doctors.
Her friend seemed to be having exactly the opposite reaction, looking at the photos with a mixture of amazement and trepidation. “He really fought a dragon…? And won?” she muttered to herself, but loud enough to be overheard.
“Yep! I took the photos myself. I’m Nosey Newsy, ace reporter, by the way.”
“I’m Thermal Draft, but everypony calls me Drafty,” introduced the brown pegasus, before pointing at her friend. “And this is Cloudbank.” She nudged her friend, but the only response that Cloudbank gave was a grunt, still staring at the photographs.
“You two were part of the group that Lex brought back, right?” Nosey asked, notepad and pencil at the ready. She already knew the answer, but it was always better to get a subject to directly confirm something that she hadn’t personally witnessed.
Drafty nodded. “Yeah, us and our friends.” She pointed to a corner of the room, where a green-coated earth pony stallion was doing his best to comfort a depressed-looking crystal mare. “That’s Produce Aisle and Comfy Cozy.” She paused as Nosey wrote their names down, then added, “We wouldn’t have made it here if not for Lex.”
“About that, you guys have been here since all of this started, right?” Nosey didn’t look up from her notes as she spoke.
Cloudbank returned the photos with a sigh. “Almost all of us have. Cozy didn’t get here until a few weeks ago, but other than that, yeah.”
“Great. Would you all mind if I interviewed you about everything that’s been going on? This sounds like an even bigger story than Lex and the dragon, and I wasn’t sure that was possible.”
“Oh, uh, okay,” responded Drafty, clearly taken by surprise at Nosey’s request. The newsworthiness of everything they’d gone through hadn’t occurred to her before.
Grinning as her earlier malaise evaporated completely, Nosey started to compile a list of questions in her head. “Great! Let’s get started right now!”
“Owie!”
The nurse treating Sonata chuckled at her exclamation. Although she hated seeing a patient in pain, the way she’d expressed it was so cute that she couldn’t help but laugh. “There there now,” she smiled as she finished rubbing the ointment on the burns on her side. “This might sting a little, but so long as we apply it twice a day, you’ll heal right up. You won’t even have a scar marring that pretty flank of yours.”
“But won’t it be really hard to put bandages on after spreading that stuff around?” asked Sonata, glancing from where the nurse was finishing applying the burn cream to the bandages over her front. There were red stains on them, thanks to the wounds she’d received from Aria’s magic missiles.
The nurse shook her head. “We don’t put bandages over a burn. That just irritates it and makes it worse. The cream alone will be enough to take care of it.”
“Okay…” Sonata’s answer was listless, as she tried for the umpteenth time to glance over and see how Lex was doing. He wasn’t that far away from her, but there were enough doctors looking over him that he was almost completely obscured. The fact that there were so many of them, and so active, was starting to make her worry. “So, um, can you tell me what’s going on with Lex?”
The nurse glanced at Sonata, then over at where her colleagues were seeing to the pony that had brought them to Vanhoover, shaking her head. “I’m afraid I don’t know; I’ve been seeing to you since the two of you got back.” Sonata looked ready to protest about the lack of information, and the nurse spoke up again. “But since we’re all done here, let me see if I can get somepony to come and answer your questions, okay?”
Sonata nodded, looking marginally more relaxed, and the nurse trotted towards the gathering of doctors. It took several minutes before a light blue unicorn stallion in a lab coat came over to her. “Miss Dusk? My name is House Call, I’m one of the doctors seeing to Mr. Le-”
“Is he okay?” Sonata blurted the question out, unable to stay silent any longer.
House Call paused for a moment, then licked his lips, buying himself a moment to put his thoughts together before answering. “Mr. Legis has numerous injuries, and while most of them aren’t too dangerous on their own, the total amount of damage he’s taken is rather severe.” He paused to consult a clipboard, reading from it as he spoke. “Just a cursory examination shows multiple contusions, particularly to the cranial area. There are several deep puncture wounds to his upper body, and his chest, stomach, and legs have a large number of lacerations, most of which still have broken glass embedded in them.” He paused for a moment before continuing, a hint of worry creeping over his features. “He’s also exhibiting symptoms of nausea, abnormal pupil responses, and pronounced fatigue, which in conjunction with the head trauma suggests a concussion. There’s also what might be ecchymosis around his abdom-”
“What are you talking about?! Look, I don’t, like, speak doctor! Just tell me if Lex is gonna be okay or not!”
Lowering his clipboard, House Call let out a sigh. “The truth is, if we were back in Tall Tale I’d have him put into intensive care immediately. His life isn’t in imminent danger, but that’s the best thing I can say about his condition. We’re going to do everything we can for him, but he’s going to need to be kept under medical supervision and get as much rest as he can for the next twenty-four hours at the very least, probably longer.” He paused, then glanced back over his shoulder. “None of which he seems to want us to do.”
Sonata frowned. “What do you…” she trailed off as his meaning became clear to her, and she marched towards the mass of doctors. If he wasn’t letting them help him get better, she was so going to give him a piece of her mind! As she got closer, she could hear Lex’s voice ordering the doctors to give him…water? A moment later she heard him chanting something, recognizing it a moment later as him casting that rather feeble healing spell of his.
The sound made her come to a stop as something occurred to her, and she brightened. Looking around, she spotted the pony she was looking for, trotting up to them. “Hey, you. You can use healing magic, right?”
Cloudbank – looking up from where she’d been speaking with Nosey – blinked, her brow furrowing. “…huh?”
Nosey sighed. “No, Sonata, she just looks like Brightrose. She can’t use the same sort of magic that he could.”
“No way!” Sonata sagged in place, her sudden bout of enthusiasm dashed.
“Well, I can't, but my friend Cozy can,” offered Cloudbank. “Cozy!” she called, causing the crystal mare to look up. Seeing that Cloudbank had called her, she said something to the green stallion next to her before trotting over.
“Is everything alright?”
Sonata gave the crystal pony a desperate look. “You have healing magic, right?”
“I have one spell left, which I can convert into healing energy,” nodded Cozy.
“Great! Come on!” Without waiting for an answer, Sonata wrapped a hoof around Cozy and dragged her over to where Lex was. “Lex! I’ve got totes good news! This pony can use a healing spell on you!” The doctors made way for her, and past them Lex looked up as they approached, getting to his hooves with visible effort.
Stopping in front of him, Sonata nudged Cozy forward. “Okay, do your thing!”
Biting her lip, Cozy hesitated for a moment, glancing between the two of them. Swallowing, she lightly touched the symbol on her necklace before turning to Sonata. “If you don’t mind my asking, what relationship do the two of you have?”
“Huh?” Sonata cocked her head in confusion. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Just humor me, please?” asked Cozy.
Sonata huffed, but her features softened a moment later. “He’s my boyfriend. I, like, totes love him.”
Cozy smiled slightly, before turning to face Lex. “And you feel the same way about her?”
He was silent for a long moment. His eyes flicked over to Sonata, and for a moment he looked like he was about to answer, but then he flinched just slightly before looking back at Cozy, his features darkening. Unnoticed by everypony, a single drop of blood ran down from the barbed wire around his left foreleg. “You’re asking this because you want to confirm that the weakling goddess you serve would approve of your using her magic to help me, aren’t you?” He didn’t wait for her to answer before continuing.
“Well don’t bother. I don’t need help, from you or from her.”
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And now comes the time where Sonata needs to exercise the tried and true method of dealing with extremely stubborn patients: Knock 'em out, patch 'em up, and let 'em live to be angry later.
Nurse. I need two by four of Oakanium anasthetic for this patient, stat.
8054890
8054688 It's a really bad idea to knock someone out - at least via the traditional blunt force trauma to the head - when they already have a concussion, but your point is well-taken. Lex is being himself: unreasonably stubborn once he sets his mind to something.
...or is he?
Ah Lex, being stubborn as usual and always trying to prove a point. Can't blame him given his life of trying to prove himself to others.
However, I find Sonata to be equally obstinate, if not more so. She'll probably try to convince him to accept help while Lex resists all the way. Now to see which one buckles and gives in.
Also, Nosey is back!
8055230 I added a hint near the end about why Lex would refuse, but so far no one seems to have noticed it. That said, this might very well lead to a clash of wills between the two of them. Lex and Sonata are both very strong ponies, but he wants to use that strength everywhere, whereas she doesn't really care to unless there's a good reason for it. Another example of opposites attracting.
8056258 Ah, do you mean the part where Lex bled from where the hoof where the Night Mare's barbed wire is on? To me, that's Night Mare's disapproval of receiving aid from Lashtada. Granted, my mind is hazy from medication so not too sure about that.
8056323 That's exactly correct!
Well, some erasers could do, I guess...
You seem to be missing a word.
You used interjected twice in here. I would say changed one of them to "interrupted".
Change the second "by" to "at".
The Great and Powerful Trixie would like a word with you.
Nosey's nosy request.
8265402
Well now you're just making me sad.
I confess that I'm blanking on what word should be in that sentence.
You're right that using the same word twice like that was rather artless. But I don't think that "interrupted" is the right word, so I made it "replied" instead.
Change made.
I'm sure that everyone got that reference, but you're the first person to comment on it, for which I thank you.
Does she make any other kind?
8265702
Why is that making you sad?
"The pictures I took of him when he"
You are missing him.
Yeah, I figured interrupted was the wrong word too, but couldn't think of what was right.
No she doesn't.
8266056
I was lightly poking fun at the idea of your mention of taking erasers to my story (I don't think that's what you meant, but that's what it sounded like).
How did I miss that before? Blargh. Either way, it's fixed now.