Twilight and Spike had taken the elevator to the upper floors where the quarantine room was located - it hasn't been used since the outbreaks of feather flu and the cutie pox years ago, until now. Two guards were protecting the door of the room, only showing their formal poker face and not moving a bit. The lavender unicorn and her assistant were coming closer the door, just to be blocked by one of the guards spreading a wing and saying: "Halt! Who goes there?"
The other one rolled his eyes while saying: "It's Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike!"
"Oh, sorry." He retracted his wing and let his poker face falter.
The guard face-hoofed. "Unbelievable, you really forgot how one of the element of harmony looks like. Sorry for this Ms. Sparkle, you can go inside."
Twilight and Spike stood there, saying nothing. Okay, that was strange, nevermind. The unicorn walked up to the door and knocked.
A few seconds later the doctor opened the door; it was a unicorn whos cutie mark was of a heart rate monitor. "Nice to see you again Ms. Sparkle, I guess you are coming to see the human?"
"Yes I do. I want to write down some information about his anatomy."
"Well, we already have a lot of information about that, so you can easily write it down. I guess Nurse Redheart already told you about his status?" The doctor stepped aside, letting them in.
"Yes she did; I already saw the strange things he was wearing. But... wow..." Twilight saw the large body that was lying in the hospital bed; she always wondered how big these were, since a normal pony only needs one half of the size. "He's quite tall."
"He's taller than Princess Luna."
Twilight looked at his injuries; a big part of the human's body was covered in bandages and the right arm was covered in a plaster. "Are these the burns? How did he survive something like that?" She looked at the head; it wasn't as injured as the rest of the body, only some small scratches and a bandage wrapped over the eyes. "And why is he wearing a bandage over his eyes?"
"To answer your first question: Yes, these are the burnings he had; the strange thing about them is that they seem to heal faster than normal - like if we would use magic to heal them, but we don't. We only wrapped some bandages with antiseptic over them, to prevent an infection." Twilight opened her saddlebag, took out the writing-utensils and began to write. "To answer your second question: Princess Celestia wanted it that way and me too; when he awakes from his coma, seeing something unfamiliar could shock him. I will inform you and Princess Celestia when he awakes, but this could take weeks or months."
"Is there anything more you can tell me about him?"
"Yes of course, we made some x-rays of his body; his skeleton is similar to other vertebrates, the organs we could see were at the same place and the brain has the same size as ours. The teeth look like a mix of ours and a predator."
"Like the Lunar Stallions?" Spike asked.
"Not exactly, the fangs are nearly as short as the other teeth, only sharper. I wouldn't think that he's a predator at all; his body weight is too high and when he really walks on two legs, he wouldn't be fast enough for something like that; he doesn't even have any body weapons. But the strangest thing about him is his blood...."
"What do you mean with that?"
"Well, when we tested his blood it seemed like ours at first, but then we saw some strange black things in it."
"Black things?"
"Yes, we still don't know what they are; they are smaller than a red blood cell and they can move on their own."
"Do you think that they're bacteria? What do we do when we get infected?"
"Don't worry about that, the bed has a protection spell over it and no; they don't attack other cells - they protect them. Besides, we are still testing the blood on bacteria and viruses, but for now we couldn't find any that would pose a fret for us; we are also testing if we could infect him, but the results are looking good."
"Do you think that we could - if the princess approves - let him walk around freely?"
"Well, when he recovers as fast as he is doing now and the blood tests are O.K., I would say yes."
"That's good. Have you got anything more?
"No, this is everything I can tell you about him at the moment."
Twilight quickly wrote some last lines and put the finished sheets into her saddlebag. "Thanks doctor, how long can I stay?"
"Except for the night-time, you can be here as long as you want. May I ask why? After all he's in a coma and we already got all the information we could get."
"I think I've an idea: I am going enter his dreams and look if I can find some answers."
Spike and the doctor were shocked; entering the dreams of a creature that was still very unknown. "Ms. Sparkle, may I remind you that we know nothing about his mind? And when he sees you, he may get a shock; when this happens he could fall even deeper into his coma!"
"Don't worry about that. As long as I stay silent he won't see me."
"Is it the spell Princess Luna gave you after the wedding?" Spike was very worried about that spell - Twilight once used it on him to test it and he was very angry because he was dreaming of Rarity. From that on he viewed the spell as a privacy invasion and got mad every time Twilight spook of it.
"Spike, I already said that I am sorry for what happened, but this is important; we must know more about him."
The purple green dragon rolled his eyes, "Do what you want."
The lavender unicorn turned back to the human. "Okay, I will need to concentrate now, please be as quiet as possible." She closed her eyes while her horn began to glow; she was entering his mind, right into his dream, a dream that repeated every night...
— — — —
An hour later at Canterlot Castle...
Luna was sitting in her room, looking into the direction of Ponyville; she couldn't get any sleep - she feared to have her dream again. Suddenly her sister entered the room. "Hello Tia, is the human alright?"
"Yes he is, the doctor was able to stabilize him. By the way: I heard that you haven't slept since I left; is it still the dream?" Luna didn't respond. "Lulu, I already told you when-"
"-you don't think of it, it isn't real, I know. The problem is... that I can't... I thought of it since last night and I don't know what to do."
"Well I do." The moon goddess turned to her sister. "You could help Twilight at the hospital; I've got the feeling that she will use the dream spell you taught her."
"Hopefully she doesn't break rule number one: Never make any sound." For a moment both of them were silent. "I will better go." With that she walked out of the room and used her teleportation spell to get near the hospital.
I knew she would do that, Celestia looked upwards and a small smirk appeared on her face.
— — — —
Back in Ponyville, at the hospital...
Twlight had entered his dreams now; it was all pitch black - the dream was just beginning. After a few seconds she could finally see something: It was round, looked blue - no - only most of it was blue, some parts were green; she saw a planet! A planet? Can this be our planet? No; the continents look way to different from all maps I've ever- Her thoughts were interrupted when she could hear a voice.
"Jan! Stop looking at Earth and help me with this panel. We need to get finished with this in half an hour."
Her sight turned to the right - or better to say of the human, she was seeing the dream from his point of view; she knew how to enter a dream, but she just couldn't find a way to see it from a different point of view as the dreamer himself. What she saw looked like the strange parts Dr. Whooves was investigating, but the material wasn't as thick, it was skin-tight and the ball-like object looked different and was more fitting to the size of a head. But that wasn't the strangest part: Jan and the other human were floating! There wasn't any gravitation - she could feel it in her(his?) stomach. Am I flying? No, we are far too high to be flying - we aren't even inside an atmosphere at this height! At least I know the name of him now, Jan, what a strange name.
"I am coming, I just wanted to let my minds flow a bit before we start."
Twilight - or Jan, the human's name - was turning further to the right; there was a big tube-like object he was looking at; at the end was the other human; slowly moving toward her and stopping at the end of tube.
"Hold the panel in place, I will unscrew it now", he moved his hand - with something in it that looked like an electric screwdriver - to one of the edges of the 'panel' she could see; the whole tube was made out of them. The head of the screwdriver began to rotate; just about ten seconds later he held a screw in his hand. "Gotcha, three left, then we can put in the new panel."
After a minute the panel was moving from the tube-like object and floating in mid-air. "Now look at this", he was pointing at a dark colored dent. "Damn it, that one nearly went through! I already told NASA that these panels aren't thick enough! But noo! Don't listen to the engineer who's working at and with their 80 billion dollar space station!"
A space station? What the hay is that? Wait.... space... station... Does that mean that they live in space?
"We better hope that these panels hold."
"Nevermind, let's install the new one."
The humans were now placing a new panel over the gap and also screwing it down. After that they moved from the end of the tube to a big hole that was big enough for both of them and the panel. Now Jan was pushing a button on the wall, two metal doors closed and green words appeared in front of him saying: Compressing...
A minute later the words changed into: Compression complete!
The humans were slowly descending to the ground. And now they have gravitation? They put their hands on their necks, flipping over two lashes and pulling the thing they were wearing around their heads off.
The other human was laughing. "Oh boy, you should really comb you hair sometimes."
"I just can't do anything against it! It keeps on happening when I am wearing a space-suit!"
Space-suit? Is that the name of the thing they're wearing? In that moment the two doors on the other side of the room were opening; the humans now entered a much bigger room with some of the other 'space-suits' hanging on the walls. Each of them moved to one of the two gaps between the other ones. They each grabbed at their back, slowly moving down something and then pulling the space-suit off their bodies, hanging it onto a hook on the wall. Now they were reaching for something in a box in front of them; it looked like clothing, just with the size that would fit a human body.
Suddenly the dream was getting duller and duller: Twilight was running out of magic and couldn't focus on the dream anymore - she collapsed onto the floor. She slowly opened her eyes; she wasn't in his dreams anymore, she was back in the hospital.
"Oh horseapples! It was getting interesting right now!" She muttered.
"Three hours, that's pretty good for the beginning."
Twilight, shockingly turning around, was looking at Luna. "Princess Luna! What are you doing here already? Wait, did you say three hours?"
"Yes Twilight, I've arrived an hour ago, the time in dreams isn't corresponding to the real time."
"How are you doing? I haven't talked with you since the wedding."
The alicorn looked at the floor for a second - no, she couldn't tell her about the problems she currently had - and looked back at the unicorn. "I am doing pretty well lately, thanks." She turned to the human and was closely looking at every part of him. "So that's a human. I've never imagined them this tall." And this injured... "Could you get any information from his dreams?"
"Just a few, but they're VERY interesting."
The moon goddess rose an eyebrow.
"I will tell you the whole story; Spike, could you write down what I am saying?" Spike grabbed one of the paper sheets and an inked feather. "So.... where do I start?"
— — — —
30 minutes, lots of questions, descriptions and paper sheets later...
"...and then they clothed themselves. But then I sadly ran out of magic and couldn't see anything from the inside of this so called 'space station'."
Luna looked both impressed and confused; she couldn't believe what the human dreamed of. "This is incredible, the humans aren't from our planet at all and then the technology. I just can't believe how somepony can do such things without magic. And they really were in space?"
"Yes they were, or... it looked like they were... I could see the planet from above, HIGH above! But the strangest thing about them was the fact that they were speaking our language! The spell isn't translating it, is it?"
"No it isn't, but that's very good for us; we don't need to teach him our language first and we know his name."
"A strange name after all, Jan; I've never heard of somepony called like this."
"But keep in mind, he's from a different planet, so he has a very different culture."
"I need to know more about-"
In exact that moment Spike's stomach grumbled. "Could we get some breakfast first?"
"Spike, there are more important things than-" But her own stomach cut her off with a even louder grumbling. "Okay you are right, let's go to the canteen; are you coming with us Princess Luna?"
"I've already eaten, but thanks anyway. I will stay here and see if I can find anything more interesting in his dreams." Don't make a sound now stomach!
"See you later." Twilight and Spike left the room and were heading for the elevator.
Suddenly *bing* the elevator doors opened, with Lyra sitting in a wheelchair. "Oh Twilight! What are you doing in the quarantine?"
"I was looking for the hum-" OH! OH! Not good, I shouldn't have said that! What now?
Lyra was nearly jumping out of her wheelchair as she heard what the lavender unicorn was just about to say. "Did you want to say HUMAN?"
"I... uh... I mean..." You just leaked secret information about a human with the most human-obsessed pony in Equestria standing in front of you!
"I can't believe it! Finally my dreams are coming true! A real human in our world! There are so many things I want to ask him. Wait is he male, female.... or do they even have a completely different gender? I want to know!"
"Uhm, Lyra, Twilight wanted to say changeling not human." Spike was trying to save the situation.
"NO! She clearly was about to say human! I want to see him! Now!"
With that Nurse Redheart came running upstairs. "Lyra Heartstrings! I told you to stay in bed, you need to rest!" Before Lyra could even react, the nurse pulled her inside the elevator again. "Sorry Ms. Sparkle if she interrupted your studies." The doors closed and the elevator went down.
"Shall we use the stairs?"
"Would be better if we do so."
— — — —
In Jan's dreams...
It was white, everything was white; it was ice, the ground was completely made of ice and snow was falling. Interesting, is this how their planet looks like? Luna looked around, she wasn't limited to the first person view like Twilight was. Ah there he is, but why is he running? Wait a second he's saying something...
"This isn't good, he landed way too close to the AA-Gun. Hopefully the Chinese didn't find him... God bless him if they do!" Jan was nearly out of breath, Luna knew that he couldn't withstand this any longer. "Oh god thanks, he's still alive."
The moon goddess looked to her right; she could see a big fire in the distance and something that looked like a human running into Jan's direction.
"Jan, are you alright?"
"Yes I am, how about you?"
"It's okay." The other man was wounded; he had wrapped a bandage around one of his legs which was covered in blood.
"We must go to the tank we dropped off, it's our only chance, we will freeze to death before somebody finds us!" The other guy nodded and both ran off into the direction Jan was coming from.
'Somebody'? Seems like they use -body instead of -pony.
After a few minutes of following she could see a large object in the distance with a piece of cloth attached to it.
"Finally, the tank! Let's get inside."
"Jan, something is wrong. Where are our comrades?"
Comrades... are they-
*BANG*, something red flew through the air and Jan's comrade fell backwards. "Michael! NO!" The man who was called Michael hit the ground with a loud *thud* - the ice and snow around him turned red and he wasn't moving a bit - he was dead. "No...", his voice was very low and tears started dropping from his eyes, "my only friend... dead...", he fell onto his knees, "this can't be real..." Luna couldn't believe what she saw, just a few seconds ago they were near their 'tank' - whatever this thing was - and about to be in a safe place; now Jan's friend was dead.
She could hear that somebody coming closer, suddenly a third voice said something in an accent she never heard before: "Any last words, scumbag?" The moon goddess knew that this had to be the same person that killed Michael and was now pointing a strange object at Jan.
"Yes...", Jan still had a hoarse voice from crying, "I will... make you PAY!!!" Suddenly he turned around and hit the other guy with something he was holding in his right hand; it was a knife cutting in his lower body. The man dropped the strange object and tumbled backwards. Jan then pulled something out of a holder on his right, *BANG*, it made the same sound she heard before when Michael died - *BANG*, after every sound a small flame came out of the object - *BANG*, whatever this thing was; Luna knew that it had to be some kind of weapon.
The alicorn nearly gasped at the sight of blood; she had never seen this much, also she was over 1000 years old. No, this can't be real, how can they be so cruel? No Luna, remember: Tia already said that dreams don't have to mirror the reality. This could all just be a pure fantasized nightmare!
The man fell on his side and the ice turned red, but it didn't stop. All the ice that could be seen was slowly turning into a blood red colour, even the sky turned red. "No.... I... I... didn't want this... I never wanted to hurt anyone...." Jan was shivering - but not from the cold ice; he was shivering in fear.
The man screamed and was turning into ice - Luna couldn't watch this anymore; she wanted to get out of this nightmare as fast as she could; she quickly aborted the spell and bumped into the wall of the room. She was taking deep breaths and shivered; even if she had seen multiple nightmares this one was clearly the most horrifying she had ever encountered. This just has to be a pure nightmare, it can't be real; how could somepony be still alive with this pain in his soul?
— — — —
In the canteen...
"I already forgot that hospital food is poison." Spike wasn't happy, he ordered some simple oatmeal and got a grey goo. "Twilight, why do we have to stay here? Can't we just go home and eat there?"
"Spike, I can't just leave one of the princesses alone when they are helping me; besides, I want to explore his dreams again."
"What could be so incredibly awesome about somepony's dreams?"
"Didn't you even listen to the things I said?"
"Of course I did! But still, I can't imagine what could be so awesome about-"
"You could see it too; I am sure that Luna could get you into his dreams as well."
"Woah, wait! I am NOT entering his dreams!"
Twilight made an evil smile and teased him. "Afraid of it?"
"No I am not!"
"Yes you are, I can see it in your face."
"I fear nothing!"
"Then will you do it?"
"Yes if you stop bugging me about it."
"Do you promise?"
"I promise!"
"Pinkie promise?"
"Uhhh.... I cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."
It's so easy to manipulate baby dragons.
Spike realised what he had just said. "What? No! I.. uh... I mean..."
"Sorry Spike, you pinkie-promised." She gave him the scariest grin he had ever seen in his entire life.
The dragon crossed his arms, he was angry that Twilight had abused his macho-like self again. "Not fair."
"C'mon, you will see that it's really amazing."
"If you say so. But for that we get home first and get some REAL breakfast." He pushed the bowl away and stood up.
End of Chapter 4
Rise.... and shine.... Mr. Schneider....