After Fluttershy's shocking revelation, the majority of her friends conveniently found reasons to head back to Ponyville - or at least to get away from the bloody mess that the hamon was. Applejack trotted out nervously, saying that she needed to check up on the farm anyway. Rarity pulled herself away from the mysteriously appeared sofa that she had draped herself over and muttered something about needing to finish an order. Rainbow Dash said she had to go practice some of her tricks for the fan club exhibition later in the week, stopping only to vomit loudly in Fluttershy's yard. Only Pinkie and Twilight stayed behind. Turning back to her remaining friends, Fluttershy spoke. "I'm so sorry I had to show you like this, but I -" She skidded to a halt when she saw Pinkie crouched in front of the couch, forehooves resting on the edge of the cushion, staring with narrowed eyes at the injured animal.
The pink mare looked at the hamon suspiciously for a few more moments before backing away slowly. "I still don't know what it means, but whatever's been going on with my Pinkie Sense, it has something to do with this thing. Anyway, I have desserts to make," she continued, her demeanor reverting back to normal, bubbly, cheerful Pinkie Pie. "After all, cupcakes don't bake themselves you know. I mean, how weird would it be if they did? Can you imagine, just a tray of cupcakes putting themselves in the oven, and then taking themselves out when they were done? Oh, and even before that, the eggs cracking themselves, and the flour and sugar and butter all mixing themselves, and the frosting when they're done, it would be sooooo funny!" She burst into a giggling fit as she bounced out the door.
The two remaining ponies watched as she left, baffled looks on their faces. Twilight shrugged, and said, "Pinkie. So, um, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly happened to this... hamon?" Twilight struggled to get her mouth around the unfamiliar word.
Fluttershy winced and hesitated. Slowly, she explained, "Um, as far as I can tell, sustaining all of these injuries should have killed him. I... I really have no idea why he's still alive. He suffered five broken ribs, a punctured lung, numerous lacerations across his throat, torso, and legs, and a multitude of other wounds. That, combined with all the blood loss... I just don't know what's keeping him alive." As the pegasus got further on in her explanation, Twilight could see her manner change almost completely. She went from being slightly cowed by the fact that she was the sole pony in charge of coming up with an explanation, to being completely absorbed in the creature's well-being, hardly even paying attention to Twilight anymore. She stayed like that for several moments before turning back to the unicorn. "Anyway, I don't want to bother you girls with taking care of him, so go ahead and do whatever you want. Tell them to go to the spa without me; I don't know when he'll be well enough for me to take an entire day off of caring for him. It probably won't be for another few weeks, at least, and I don't want you to have to wait that long just for me. Oh, and I won't be in town for a few days, but don't be worried, okay?" she smiled reassuringly.
Twilight gave a small smile at her friend's assurances. "I understand, it's no big deal. I'll tell the girls, you do what you need to do." The smile faded. "Just... be careful, alright? I don't want you to get hurt because of your kindness."
Ushering Twilight out the door, Fluttershy said, "I'll be fine; after all, if things go wrong, I always have the Stare. Not that I'd ever want to use it, I just mean, in case."
"I understand, Fluttershy. Do me a favor and get some sleep, though - you look exhausted."
"Alright Twilight. I'll do that." Fluttershy closed the door and sighed. Twilight had no idea how close to the mark she had been in telling Fluttershy to sleep. Wearily, she flitted down the hall to get a drink of water, then made to head upstairs. Before she did though, she stopped to look one more time at the hamon. He looked so sweet and innocent (even if not particularly cute and cuddly) and Fluttershy wanted nothing more than for him to live through his injuries - injuries which, as she frowned at them, seemed already smaller than they had earlier. The pegasus shrugged, putting it down to sleep deprivation. "Angel," she yawned, slowly trudging up the stairs, "come get me if something happens please." The white rabbit saluted sharply, and bounded over to sit next to the hamon. Knowing that the animal was in capable paws, Fluttershy continued her trek up the stairs. She collapsed on top of the covers, not even bothering to crawl underneath their warmth. Swiftly, she began falling into sleep. Her last conscious thoughts were about the hamon. She unintentionally smiled as she realized that it wasn't going to wake up for at least a few days. Then she felt bad about feeling happy, but at least she could get a fair amount of slee-
A familiar thumping sounded in the recesses of Fluttershy's mind. Clutching her last vestiges of awareness, she arduously pulled herself back to the land of the living. She forced her eyes open and blinked groggily. Standing at the foot of her bed was Angel, waving his paws in the air frantically. "W-what is it Angel?" Fluttershy yawned. Surely nothing could have happened in the fifteen seconds since she'd gone upstairs. Angel began to pantomime something, and, as Fluttershy watched, her eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped open.
Zeke was in pain. He didn't know what was happening, but he was in pain. He was also floating in a mysterious darkness, with no landmarks - or land - to be seen for miles in any direction. Then again, Zeke might not have been able to see for miles. For all he knew, he could very well be stuck in a pitch-black tunnel, surrounded by rocks and bats. So, so many bats. But back to what he actually knew for sure. His chest felt like it was on fire, but when he looked at it, he saw nothing wrong. Likewise, his neck and legs burned with the same invisible fire. The pain was unbearable
Amidst this pain, he heard a voice, whispering in the shadows. "You must know of the evil..."
Zeke started, shouting out, "What! Who's there?"
The voice came again, hissing softly, insidiously. "The darkness is here... The darkness hungers..."
"Hey, you better stop fucking around! Who are you?"
"The darkness drives me to evil itself... it drives me to madness..." The sounds echoed off of something, leading Zeke to believe once again that he might be in a cave.
Zeke was starting to get seriously terrified. "I'm going to ask you one more time: who- no, WHAT are you?"
The voice suddenly changed. A smooth baritone emerged from the darkness, chuckling wickedly. "You will know in time. And you will know the true meaning of pain. I have plans for you, my friend, but now, it's time to wake up..."
He awoke shouting. Or at least trying to. The agony he'd felt in what he now recognized as a dream was amplified tenfold in reality. Zeke pushed himself into a sitting position, soundless cries escaping his mouth as he fought through the pain. When he finally succeeded, he was rewarded with the sight of a ridiculously sized white rabbit. It didn't seem like other rabbits, though. It was thinner, yes, but the main difference was the spark of intelligence Zeke could see in its black eyes. It didn't seem to notice him at first, though, being preoccupied with the carrot it was munching away at. However, when the rabbit saw Zeke out of the corner of its eye, it dropped the carrot in shock, then bounded away, the sounds rapidly fading.
Undeterred by the strange occurrence, Zeke then attempted to look at himself. Even looking down hurt, though, and hurt badly. He involuntarily cried out in pain, sending more waves of torture through his body, especially his neck. Each spasm brought more misery, and he was swiftly reduced to tears. "Why is this happening?" he tried to say, but it both hurt intensely and came out as a hoarse, unintelligible mess of air and saliva and blood. Zeke decided to just stay still and evaluate his situation. Alright. Severely injured, no idea where I am or what happened, no... clothes. Well. On the bright side, he grimaced as he moved his arm up to feel the tightness in his chest, I got stitched up by someone, and this cushion is ungodly soft.
He lay there, breathing heavily for a few moments, until he heard - barely heard - a voice coming from somewhere behind him. "Um... excuse me..." The voice was very gentle and feminine, and Zeke let go of some tension he didn't realize he had. It sounded like his caretaker was kind at the very least. Of course, he never expected what he saw next. His mysterious benefactor approached the cushion with very light, hesitant footsteps and what sounded like Japanese fans. Sort of. Not at all. Zeke slowly turned his head toward her, swearing he could hear his neck creaking in protest. All thoughts of whether or not that was physically possible flew out the window when he saw that his rescuer was not in any way, shape, or form, human. Seeing the strange pink and yellow... horse, was the closest thing he could think of, finally cemented the truth in his mind. The giant wolf made entirely of wood, the huge rabbit, and now this brightly colored horse that was much larger than the rabbit and a bit smaller than the wolf... All of it added up to one logical conclusion. Toto, he thought wryly, we aren't in Kansas anymore.
Fluttershy was shocked, to say the least. Nothing, and that meant nothing could wake up so soon after sustaining such heavy injuries. Either the hamon was much tougher than he looked, or something strange was afoot, and Fluttershy might have - okay, wouldn't have - placed money on the latter. She reached the top of the stairs and looked over the banister, only to see the hamon convulsing wildly on the couch, sending blood spattering into the air. Some of the crimson liquid bubbled up from his mouth as he made a strange, wild grunting sound. Frightened, Fluttershy started to hide behind her mane, before remembering who she was and what she did. She glanced at her cutie mark of three butterflies to reassure herself. When she looked back, the hamon was feeling the stitches on his chest tentatively. She glided down the stairs, only touching the ground when she landed gracefully at the bottom.
"Um... excuse me..." she said quietly, so as to not startle the animal. At the sound of her voice, he seemed to relax a bit more. Okay, Fluttershy, good start. Now just go and do what you do best! She carefully made her way over to the couch using a strange combination of walking and flying that probably wouldn't have made sense to anypony watching. The hamon slowly looked at her, the small smile on his oddly pronounced lips turning into what Fluttershy could best guess was an expression of shock. He looks like he's never seen a pony before. Fluttershy paused, then nearly facehoofed. Well of course, it makes sense that he might not have seen a pony before. I mean, I've never seen anything quite like him before. She spoke again. "It's alright little guy, I'm not going to hurt you. Everything's going to be okay, I'm going to take good care of you." She used a soothing voice, the type of tone one usually reserved for foals and senile ponies. The hamon did not seem mollified by this one bit. However, his slack-jawed expression transformed into a strange mixture of mirth and despair. It was strange though; usually, Fluttershy could tell a lot just from an animal's eyes and facial expressions. With this one, though, she could hardly discern anything at all.
Yes, the land of magical talking horses, because WHY THE HELL NOT?!? Zeke couldn't tell exactly how he felt about that; compared to everything else that had happened, this was relatively tame. And yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that it was the lower degree of in-your-faceness that made it all the more disconcerting. This horse, apparently the one who had given him first aid, was also talking to him like he was a child, or... Zeke's blood grew cold. Or like he was an animal. Suddenly, he recalled a half-conscious memory. When he was being mauled by the wooden wolf, he hears someone scream something about getting away from an animal. That was it! This discovery made him want to laugh and cry at the same time, from the absurdity of the fact that the horse thought that he was an animal, and the thought that in whatever God-forsaken place he'd ended up in, he was just an animal. He closed his eyes and thought for a few seconds as choked laughter forced spasms of pain once more through him. Maybe, just maybe, it would be best to listen to what the yellow - and, he now realized, winged - horse (or would that be pegasus, then?) had to say. He put on his best poker face and mentally prepared himself for the ordeals that were sure to follow in the upcoming weeks. Zeke took a deep breath and stared intently at the pegasus, waiting to see exactly what she would say next.