Learning to Communicate Again
The cat-dude stood around five and a half feet and wore a green sleeveless fold-over shirt, with tan pants of some material I couldn't recognize. His fur was a dark orange and he had brown splotches all over his back. A swath of tan fur covered the inside of his neck and arms. His spear had been lowered but now it stood upright at his side as he stared at me. I'll call him Mr. Kitty until I know differently.
I, on the other hand, was trying to write a message into the sand with the stick I was levitating. It wasn't too bad but it was taking a while. I drew an arrow to myself and wrote
Help me, I can't talk.
This did nothing to alleviate Mr. Kitty's confusion
"I don't...understand? What...what are...you? A crystal? Is someone playing a trick? Show yourself!"
I drew a circle around me.
"..."
I wrote Only one here is me, I think
"I still can't read what you're writing."
He can't read it? But he's speaking English.....So, what do I do then? Draw pictograms? Ugggh, I'm terrible at Pictionary.
I drew a circle around my writing and drew some question marks next to it.
"You have a question?" 'Good, at least some punctuation is the same'
I drew an arrow to him, an empty circle near him and some question marks outside of it.
After studying it for a second, he asked "You want me to write something?"
I drew a check mark. Bright kid.
"Alright..."
He knelt and started writing. I was amazed. He was writing in what I recognized from the memories I had seen as Equestrian - and I understood what he was writing!!
He had written You're a dumb crystal and I hope you get shat on by a tortoise.
That's not very nice.
As I started out shakily, the knowledge of how to write the characters trickled in slowly and I began to write fairly confidently. 'And this just became a lot easier. Go freaky memories that aren't mine!'
Unused to the characters as I was, writing was hard at first. However, it came back to me much like riding a bike does. I scrawled I didn't realize you wrote Equestrian. Why do you know it, by the way? Also, it's not nice to wish others to be shat upon. Be more of a gentleman, I say.
He stared at me. I stared back. He stared some more. I stared back some more. He blinked
I wrote Hah! I win!
"That's not fair! You don't have eyes! Wait, I'm talking to a crystal. AUGH!" He held his head as he tried to make sense of his probably perturbed psyche.
You should get your head looked at if it's causing you so much pain.
"My head isn't causing me pain, YOU are! Ugh, since I can understand you now, what are you and what are you doing on Signal?"
Obviously, I am some kind of sentient crystal who can use magic. What I'm doing here, I have no idea. I woke up somewhere in the jungle and now I'm by this pond. I know nothing about this Signal you speak of.
"You don't know about Signal? How can you not know about Signal? What island did you think you were on?!"
I'm on an island? That explains the ocean I saw earlier. As to why I don't know, it's probably because before I woke up this morning, I wasn't a magic crystal of save file recording.
"Save what? And what were you before?"
I was a human, though considering you aren't one, you probably don't know what that is. Also, I don't remember any Signal Island. Might you know where that is compared to the closest large continent? His face paled when he read those words. I did not understand how fur could do that.
"You're...a human...just like the Captain..."
Excuse me?
"Ugh, this was just supposed to be a recon mission! How did I end up with one of the crazy things!?"
I see my reputation precedes me somehow. Suspicious. You still didn't answer my question, by the way.
"Ugh, the nearest continent is the Equestrian one. Before you ask any more, you're no longer on your planet or dimension. And now I need you to accompany me to the town. Also, welcome to Signal Island, where the people are free and the company friendly. I think that's what we were told to say if we found a human."
I took a few seconds before I responded. I have no problem following you back to wherever this town is, as I don't exactly have anywhere else to go. However, I will need some more time to recover my magic as it's the only way for me to move and I expended a lot today, unintentionally. And I'm sorry to hear I'm no longer on Earth. This will certainly put a damper on a number of things. Like my video game playing. I glanced around and saw the sky was darkening.
Despite my cool, calm and collected manner, courtesy of not having a face, I was pretty bothered and confused by the entire situation. Normally, I was not very easy to surprise or bother. On the one hand, it was not the first time I'd been away from home for an extended period of time. And this reeked of adventure, adventure that I couldn't have at home. A different dimension sounded like fun. On the other hand, I had no idea how to get home. There was nowhere to return to once the day was won and the adventure over. But, if I was trapped here, then I'd have to just make a new home. Easier said than done. Just as depressing either way.
"That's it? You're just going to come? I thought it would be harder."
Why?
"Humans seem to be rather...difficult creatures."
Oh, that's definitely true.
"You don't seem to be difficult."
You don't know me that well yet. Anyway, I think I need to sleep, or whatever it is that I do now. After that, I'll travel back with you. Okay?
"Okay...but I'm keeping an eye on you."
Feel free. I'm not going anywhere.
"Right..."
I looked around me once more.
.......
Damn is that a lot of scribbles. I've got to have taken up the entire ducking beach. As I looked at the sky, I noticed the sun was setting. How did it get that late? Man, writing in sand sure takes a lot of time. But now I need to sleep. I imagined closing my eyes as I had before and my sight deactivated. I can't help but feel like a part of me is missing. Spending some time now, it's like a hole. A hole in my very being. I hope I can find what was filling it.
I did not wake to chirping birds that day.
That day I woke up to a screaming cat-dude.
My senses came into focus quickly. It was still fairly early morning. I looked around and saw what troubled my new feline friend.
Five oversized buzzards had descended on him. They were all at least twice the size of the normal carrion-eating birds and seemed to have decided that Mr. Kitty was either dead or would make a good breakfast. Probably the latter, as he was very much not dead. I still haven't gotten his name have I?
I liked Mr. Kitty. Eating him was not okay. Thankfully, my sleep had brought back that nice, glowy feeling I had come to know as magic. It seemed there was more than yesterday, but the burn wasn't there. Does that mean I can increase my capacity? I'd be glad to hear that.
First, I grabbed one of the birds with my magic. It was a lot harder to do than with the shells, as the bird was squirming about as I focused my magic. I then mimicked my first experiment with a shell and sent him streaking into the forest. A loud crunch resounded from the jungle. I felt a little bad but he had been hurting Mr. Kitty. It wasn't the first time I had needed to hurt an animal to defend something, though it was normally myself being defended. While I had been focusing, Mr. Kitty had done his best to keep the other four at bay. I yanked another bird into the forest and another, hearing that same satisfying crunch each time. By this point, the last two had started to notice the magic I was using.
One determined the source of the magic aura his buddy was thrown in and flew to me, obscuring my vision. Blasted body aura giving away my position. Mr. Kitty yelped as something happened to him. The bird was attempting to lift me up but my faceted body gave him no purchase. It also seemed his claws weren't scratching or otherwise marring the surface of my body. That's neat. I suppose it's not easy to do damage to any kind of crystal. Wonder what my hardness rating is?....I'm glad I can't say that out loud, cause that would have been terrible
I grabbed the over-sized bird and threw him into the jungle with the rest, just in time to see Mr. Kitty hit the ground with a crunch. That...doesn't look good. His legs were bleeding. A lot. Bird first.
I flung the last bird into the forest, leaving a trail of destruction. Grabbing myself in telekinesis, I floated over to the cat who was groaning on the sand. I wasn't sure how high he had fallen from but his legs were definitely not supposed to stick out at that angle. Normally, I'd call for help on my cell phone and try and keep him from moving but without a proper body and no cell, I obviously couldn't do anything
"Help...*pant*...need to...Signal...."
Oh yeah, I have magic. That would help. I picked up my trusty stick and and waved it around myself, hoping he would get the message.
"...can't talk...right...*huff*... that way..." He pointed with his left arm in a direction.
Time to save a kitty-cat.
I lifted him in my magic field as well. My magic was dropping faster than before but it seemed I would have enough to get wherever I was going. Hopefully. Maybe. Floating us above the treetops, making sure his body didn't move from it's current position, I found the direction he was pointing and rocketed us that way.
Looking down, I discovered I was going incredibly fast, faster than a speeding car for sure. Definitely going to have to practice this more. At the same time, my magic reserves were dropping far faster than they had at any point so far, from making both myself and Mr. Kitty travel so fast while keeping him still. Can't have any jostling to his leg.
After only a few minutes, a lighthouse came into view. Hoping this was the village, I tried to slow myself and was relieved and surprised when it started to work. Wish it could have done that yesterday. Good thing it is working though. My magic was running very low and I felt exhausted. As I approached, I started to hear yells and screams. I was able to land in the middle of the town with my charge, setting him slowly down in the recently cleared plaza. He had passed out during the trip.
I was amazed by the variety of species I saw. There were ponies and griffons and diamond dogs and more of the cat people, dressed, or not dressed, in all manner of things. I think I even saw some tacky Hawaiian shirts. Holding onto my consciousness a little longer, I levitated a rock and dug Help him into the ground. Then I, too, fell to fatigue.
I'm spending far too much time asleep recently. At least my magic is back. Is it a little larger again?
When I opened my sight after an indeterminate amount of time, I found myself staring at a ceiling. Moving my vision around, it appeared I was strapped to a hospital bed. Random electrodes were attached to my crystalline form without pattern. I didn't remove the straps. With the entrance I made, I was pleasantly relieved to not find myself in a cell. I couldn't find a nurse button, so I resigned myself to thinking while I waited.
So, I'm not on Earth anymore, supposedly in another dimension. That sounds fun. And with the ponies I saw earlier, I must be in Equestria or at least on the planet. Mr. Kitty said an island right? Actually, come to think of it, how did they know I wasn't just a rock? Probably my aura. Maybe Mr. Kitty is awake! He could have explained some stuff to them. Although, now that I think about, I didn't really tell him much. He seemed to have heard of humans though. That's weird. If I'm in Equestria, how does he know about humans? I'll have to ask him about it. I don't what I'd do if I got sent to Equestria, though singing would probably be part of it. Too bad I can't sing. Wonder if there's a spell to play music...Or grant me speech? That would be even more useful. It's bothersome writing everything out. Takes way too long.
My thoughts were interrupted by the door opening and a light tan unicorn with a dark brown mane in a lab coat walking in. Seeing as he probably had no way of knowing whether I was "awake", it's not surprising he went directly to the various machines surrounding me. He seemed to find the results unsatisfying but I doubt there was any good way to measure anything about me, except for maybe magic. I'm not really sure what I'm even made out of.
Looking around, I spied a pen on a table. I levitated it and tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to jump. After waving the pen in front of him, I brought it over and tapped it on my shell.
"Er...I see you're...awake?"
He started pacing around my bed.
"This is the first time in ten hours there's been any magic around you, though your internal reserves have been replenishing steadily, at least as fast as a unicorn's, possibly faster. I'm hoping you can hear me. The scout you flew in earlier, Kahner, said you seemed to be able to hear but couldn't talk. He woke up an hour ago. I find this hard to believe considering the size of your magic reservoir, but if he's right about you being a human who just arrived, I suppose you wouldn't know how to use magic. Although... you do seem to have mastered simple levitation, not to mention the spell you must have used for the speeds at which you were flying."
He stopped pacing, turned towards me and...bowed?
"Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I am Dr. Quiet Peace and I've been monitoring you since you tipped over in the plaza. Normally, a nurse would be doing these simple procedures but with you being... whatever you are, I took the matter into my own hooves. Not to mention, yesterday was Hearth's Warming Day and I didn't want to call any of the nurses back. Unfortunately, the only thing I've been able to measure is your Biological/Magical Index, which I'm thinking is healthy, though I can't be sure considering I've never even heard of something like you. I have some questions for you but first I'll need a way for you to talk to me. Writing takes to long, so I'm going to cast a spell that allows you to project your thoughts for some time. We normally use it for patients who have injuries preventing them from talking, but it should be useful for your situation as well. You should be able to just focus like you're talking."
He took a second and his horn glowed white. I could feel magic washing over me but I couldn't really tell how it worked. I tried talking, like he said, and was pleasantly surprised to hear my voice again.
"Hello? Is this thing on? Oh hey, I can talk! Finally! Writing everything takes way too long. Thanks for that Doc, it was really bothering me. Oh, you said you had questions. Ask away! Oh, and can you teach me how to do that spell? It's reeeally useful." I couldn't tell where exactly my voice was coming from on my body, but heck if that mattered, I could talk again!
"Uh, yes... I'm probably not the best to teach you but I know someone who can. For now, you say you were a human. Do you know how you got here?"
"Nope! One day, I'm sitting watching ponies on the internet and the in the next moment, I'm falling down a pit of rainbows. I fell asleep and woke up somewhere on this island. As for how I got to the town, I've been directing magic out of my body. I'm pretty sure it's completely inefficient but I don't have much of a choice when I have no idea how to use it properly."
"Ah, you humans and your "internet"... So, you don't know how you got here. Do you have a plan, now that you're on Equis?"
"Um.... Not really. The world's called Equus? Interesting...I guess if there's one thing I need to do, it's find whatever I'm missing. Before you ask, I feel like I've got a hole in my....self. Like I've got a broken heart except it's not my heart that hurts. Does that make sense?"
"..Possibly. I've heard of people with only partial souls experiencing such a phenomenon but it usually leads to them losing some of their sanity. As you might imagine, it's an incredibly rare occurrence. Have you been hearing voices or noticed any changes in thought since you've come to this world?"
"Oh, certainly not, though I haven't been here for much more than a day. But no, I'd recognize the signs I think. I am - well, was - going to college to be a psychologist and abnormal psychology is what I'm best at. I haven't had the proper episode to be labelled bipolar or depressed, nor have I been experiencing any paranoia or hallucinations, unless this entire thing is a hallucination, in which case, no one has come to cart me away yet. I feel like the other part of my soul, if that's what's wrong with me, is really far away though. I'm sure I'll come to it eventually. These things tend to work themselves out for me."
"Right... So other then dropping onto an island, would you say you feel healthy?"
"I guess? I don't have a sense of touch, taste, or smell anymore, which kind of bothers me. But I can't do anything about that. Maybe I can get someone to teach me magic for that."
"I may be able to help you. For now though, supposing you aren't a threat to the town and you aren't injured, the Mayor has requested to meet with you at your earliest convenience. I can give you directions to his office when you're ready."
The doctor stepped up and removed the straps holding me in place. Stretching my magic for the day, I lifted myself off the bed and to a hover about six inches off the ground.
"Hey doc, how long is this talking spell going to last?"
"It should last for the rest of the day. I put more power into it than we normally do for patients, since I didn't know how long we'd need to be talking to you for. Normally, we gauge the time to exactly what we need, as if it's in place on a pony when they go to sleep, it... allows them to talk like as they do in their dreams. We've had a few nurses walk in on a patient and hear some, ah, interesting dreams on occasion."
"Like wet dreams or something?"
"...Yes, exactly. Before you go, what's your name? I forgot to ask."
"Oh, right, uh..."
What was I going to go by? I liked my name but being in a different universe, it could be fun to screw with people without them knowing about it. What to say? Cucumber? Chuck Norris? No, that one's terrible. Negi? I loved that manga but calling myself that is just asking for trouble. Cheese?I thought about it for a bit. Yes. Ooooooooo, Cheese MF Oak. That's what I'm going by. Gary reminds me of a Gary Stu and that's NO GOOD.
"My name is Cheese. Cheese MF Oak. I'd tell you what MF stands for but it's not the most polite thing to say. Now, how about those directions? Thanks again for the speech spell by the way. Also, where's Kah- Ku- Connor's room? I'd like to check and see how he's doing."
"Not a problem, Mr....Cheese. Do be sure to stop by later so I can direct you to the unicorn who can teach you. Hopefully, she'll be able to help you. Mr. Kahner is just two doors down on your left. I have the directions to the mayor written down here." He held out a sheet of paper.
After taking the paper in my telekinetic hold, I exited my room to a hallway with rooms only on one side. Turning left, I saw two cat-people leave a door and making their way towards the exit. I made my way to said door which has a temporary plaque reading "Kahner Smithsbury" ' Smithsbury? Strangely human name. And how do I say his first name? Ka-nor? Con-nor? I'm going with Connor. Well, let's see how he's doing.'
I knocked with the pen I'd inadvertently snatched and opened the door. Connor was lying on his back, his legs in casts hung from the ceiling. As I hovered in, he turned his head towards me and waved.
"I hear you caused quite the scare when you flew into town. Thank you though. I'd be in pretty bad shape if you hadn't gotten me here when you did. My family was just in seeing how I was doing."
"Not a problem." His eyes widened when I spoke. "Yeah, the good doctor cast a spell for me to speak. I'm coming back later to get directions to someone who can teach me. So, is it just a couple of broken legs? Nothing else wrong?"
"Yeah. Your voice is higher than I expected it to be. No, just some minor bruises besides my legs. Again, you saved me. It would have been worse. As it is, there won't be an infections or things to complicate the healing magic." His face grew concerned. "So, what are you going to do now? I can't imagine being thrown into a new world being an easy thing. Though this might be the best time of year for it to happen."
"Why is it the best time of year?"
"Hearth's Warming was just two days ago. While most people are on break, everyone is also pretty happy. Hearth's Warming is-"
"Actually, I know what it is. I knew about it when I was human. Dr. Peace mentioned it too. It was only two days ago? Damn! I missed my favorite Equestrian holiday!"
"You humans and your freaky knowledge." He shook his head and sighed. "Yeah, it was only a couple of days ago, so everyone has still got all the cheer. But what are you going to do now? Being on Equus and all."
"Well, right now, I'm going to meet with the mayor about something. After that, I don't know. I know I've lost something, I just don't know what. I'll probably go search for it. I know it was important to me, so I need to find it."
"Where are you going to start?"
"Here. I know I won't find it here; I can tell that it's very far away. But if I'm going to go adventuring throughout the world, I need to understand myself better, now that I'm in a completely new body. I only just barely understand how to use magic and that's going to have to change. I also don't really believe I know much about this world. I know some stuff about Equestria but nothing outside of a few towns. I've certainly never heard of Signal - at least, not before yesterday. No, I have much learning to do before I go anywhere."
"Wow. Well, I'll be bed-ridden for a while yet. Come visit so we can talk some more. I know I'll be bored and maybe I can help fill in your knowledge blanks. Maybe introduce you to my family. I'm sure they want to see who saved my life."
"I'll do that. For now, I'm off to see the wizard - er, I mean mayor. T-T-F-N, Tata for now!"
Waving with the piece of paper I was holding, I turned and walked out the door, closing it quietly behind me. I followed the exit signs out, waving with my directions at the strange looks I got from the few nurses and other patients there were in the building. A couple children in the lobby gasped at me and asked their parents what I was. I just waved back with the paper, chuckling a little. Smile and wave boys, smile and wave. How nice it felt to be able to laugh. I walked out the doors to this new world I was in. It was just waiting for me to discover it, I could tell.