The beeping kept the patient awake. The respirator, one of the very machines keeping him alive was also keeping him from sleeping. And if anything else, he very much wanted to sleep and have the opportunity to dream. The noise from the machine didn't fade into the background; it was ever-present, louder in his ear than his own breathing. It was too irritating to even focus in on and listen to the rhythmic pattern to fall asleep, every time he tried to it hurt. He looked at the name on the door. It was backwards because the sign was hanging on the opposite side of the door and was showing through the glass. It hurt, but he still managed to read it. “Room 42. Patient: Sean Engar." The beeping did nothing but make him lose focus of the rest of the sign. He couldn’t sleep like this.
So he had given up on sleeping but not dreaming. The last time Sean dreamt was when he was no more than six. It was a simple dream that most six year olds dreamed. He was saving the world from an evil villain with his favorite superhero. Sean’s at the time was Superman. After that, Sean stopped having dreams. He didn’t know why he stopped, he just did.
Since he couldn’t dream, he decided to imagine. He closed his eyes, and started to imagine a scenario. The beautiful night sky, covering the landscape. Thousand of stars shown throughout the sky, with the moon being the brightest thing in the sky. Mountains, carrying a palace on the side of it. A peaceful village on the verge of sleep. The residence greeting each other with smiles, and others retiring to their humble abodes. The perfect civilization. And it exists in our polluted, corrupted world. Equestria, it’s called.
Sean was a brony from day one. Before the civil war on 4chan. His mother forced him to watch the show with his little sister, because she didn’t want her to come into the kitchen to see her birthday surprise. His family had the Hub network on their tv, because it had only kids shows on it. And they were all appropriate. At least, to their knowledge.
Since its discovery in a vacant lot by a chain restaurant, Equestria had become something of a national phenomenon. Everything that entered the small space in between Denny's and the adjacent Motel 6 instantly was shrunk to near microscopic size. Equestria as it was known was a miniature world that inhabited the space of the disused lumberyard, roughly half a football field's worth of land transformed into its own little world.
With the discovery of a magical talking pony world in between an eating establishment, and a hotel, more discoveries have taken place. The country of Europe has discovered an entirely new species of human, Mexico discovered that cartoon characters can be brought to the real world, and can actually choose to live among us, and China discovered complete body transformation.
Before its discovery, My Little Pony had been known as a popular television cartoon for young girls enjoyed by older men and robots. Sean had taken an instant liking to the show and the adventures of its cast, the "Mane Six" as they had been dubbed, he used it as an escape from his otherwise mundane life. He'd been absolutely overjoyed to find out that the show was in fact real and immediately set out on a pilgrimage to the garden state to see the land he'd before only seen on t.v.
Unfortunately, the intersection before the Denny's of legend was prone to accidents and the Tuesday last week when Sean attempted to cross it was no exception. While Sean hadn't been involved in the first accident that day, the increase in police and emergency response vehicles that it caused directly led to Sean being in the hospital bed now. Unable to pass through the intersection, Sean parked his car in the parking lot of a Pep Boys and attempted to walk down the sidewalk to foretold land of ponies.
He was crossing the intersection when the police car hit him. The cruiser had been traveling fast enough that Sean was propelled onto the hood and then over the roof, finally sliding off the back and landing in the road. His injuries would've been far less severe had the officer driving the vehicle not tried to back up to see what happened. Most of Sean's body had been crushed, his midsection from the top of his pelvis to his rib cage had been pulverized by the cop car leaving him bleeding roughly two-hundred meters from Equestria. So close and yet so CAR.
Sean's condition had not improved in a week. Doctors had been blunt, he needed a new everything and didn't have health insurance. So really, it did suck to be him right now. Priority for organs transplants had been given to those based on their arrival to the hospital, those who were involved in the accident that led to Sean's accident had been chosen to receive aid first. It was only fair; first come, first served. Just like Denny's.
Information about his condition had traveled up the usual channels and he'd qualified for the "Make a Wish" foundation's services. He had only one request: if he couldn't make it to Equestria, he wanted Equestria to come to him. Sean had chosen that his wish would be for the Mane Six to visit him before he died just so he could see them. More than anything, he just wanted to go to sleep now and wake up surrounded by his heroes.
Sean's vision of Equestria he'd carefully spent the last hour painting in his head evaporated with the sound of his hospital room's door opening. The scientist, bashing the doors open, made a loud ruckus. Sean’s didn’t fair too well after the accident, so loud noises hurt them badly. The scientist has constructed something to help him communicate. Moving his mouth hurt a lot, so he didn’t talk much.
The machine was a simple stand for an iPhone. Except there was some cables hooked up to Sean’s brain, and there was another iPhone connected to some wires that were hooked up to the stand.
“What you do here, you just type in what you want to say, press enter, then hit send. The message will appear on the message board right there, making a computer voice say what you just put. Go ahead, try it out.” The scientist said enthusiastically. He was tall and slender. He looked around twenty-five, but he was actually thirty-nine. He had a mohawk that was dyed green. The rest of his hair was black. His lab coat was unbuttoned, and revealed a Metallica shirt.
A part of Sean wanted to believe in him, but the other part was a little afraid. How did this guy become a scientist?
Sean mentally shrugged off the feeling, and typed something in. After a second or two, a machine like voice spoke up, breaking the silence that Sean had become accustomed to.
“I think it’s working.” The voice said. It sounded just like Siri.
“Perfect. Now all we need to do is send you to the foundation.”
-------------------------------------------------------
Sean was pulled out of the car by a mysterious man, wearing a peculiar mask. He claimed he was one of the employees for the foundation. Sean didn’t know why they needed a guy wearing a mask, but I guess it must’ve been a work holiday or something.
The Make a Wish foundation was not at all what Sean expected. Instead of a bright shining building, he got a degraded warehouse.
“Is this some kind of sick joke?” The Siri voice asked.
“Sadly, no it isn’t.” A voice off to his left answered. Sean mustered up a little strength, and turned his head. He saw a brilliant man. He seemed to shine just like the sun. A second of glory passed until the bright light behind him moved away. “Thanks Bruce!” The man said.
“You’re welcome.”
“Hey... where did you go. You seemed to vanish a couple weeks ago.”
“I’m sorry sir, it’s all a blur. I just remember waking up in a Walmart parking lot with a few hundred pages folded up in my pocket. Apparently, I got lost on an island with six ponies. Stupid right?”
“Totally. Hey, I’ll buy you a coffee later.”
“That would be great. I’ll see you later.”
Sean didn’t pay attention to the conversation. He was busy studying the building’s “unique” structure.
The guy waved good-bye to the man pushing the giant lamp. He directed his attention back to the teenager in a gurney. The guy was somewhat tall. Well, everyone was taller than Sean right now. He wore simple clothing. Normal pants that had rips at the knees, and am aeropostale shirt. He was dirty blonde, with some sideburns running down the side of his face.
"Hello, there." The voice said.
“Oh cool. Uhh...” He stopped talking, and closed his eyes. “When is the end of the world?” He asked.
The phone replied to the answer on it’s own. “I don’t see any meetings about ‘the world.”
Brian laughed. “Make me a sandwich.”
“I’m not permitted to prepare food.”
“Does Santa Clause exist?”
“Stop asking stupid questions.”
“Huh?” Brian looked at the teen in the horrible state.
“Oh, I’m sorry. It was just kind of fun to do that.”
“Yeah, I know.”
He smiled at Sean for a little bit. “Anyway-” Brian clapped his hands. “This is the foundation. This is where we make dreams come true.”
“That sounds promising, but can you make MY dream true.” The siri voice didn’t catch the exclamation of the word ‘my’ like he hoped.
“We’re certain we can.”
“Don’t you want to hear my wish?”
“There’s time for that later. Right now, why don’t we show you the foundation.”
“But-”
“Stop being a wuss. Let’s go in.” The man pushing him started to do his job. Escort patients in gurneys or wheelchairs into the warehouse. “To enter suspicious looking building, move fourteen more feet, the take a left at the child in a stroller.”
“Well that thing is wrong.” Brian said.
When Sean was pushed through the automatic double doors, his mental jaw dropped. What looked like a worthless, abandoned warehouse on the outside was a glorious palace on the inside. If this was the place that would make his wishes come true, then he was happy to be here.
“Why does it looks so ugly from the outside?”
“That’s a good question. You see, here we like to surprise people. They think that this is just some old and abandoned warehouse, when in reality, it’s the place where you want to live for the rest of your life.”
“This place is cool and all, but wouldn’t people about to die not think to go here since it’s disguised as a warehouse and therefore, the last place they want to make a wish?”
Brian thought over the question for a brief time. He was probably thinking of the most legitimate reason for this. “Shut up.”
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Sean was checked into his own compartment. Well, not his own, he had to share it with a mystery patient on the other side of the curtain. It was like any other hospital room that you would normally see. Instead of a door, the room was open as wide as a garage. Sean guessed that people could walk in on him and greet them. This was the last thing Sean wanted
More than one doctor walked passed him, but they all stopped to talk.
"What's your name?"
"What happened to you?"
"What's your wish?"
Most of the doctors didn't
But, back to the question at hand. What is your wish?"
Well... I want to meet the mane 6, and spend a few hours with them.
"The what 6?"
The mane 6. You know, from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
Brian didn’t respond. He stared at him until he finally spoke.
“Oh, one of them bronies?”
Yeah. Brian looked a little unhappy. Maybe it takes a lot of effort to get more than four characters into the real world.
Again, he didn’t speak for a while. “Alrighty then. We shall get to work on your wish.” he smiled evilly.
Uhhh... ‘kay then. Brian walked away without another word.
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Brian walked into the control room where the scientists worked. He went over to the one staring directly at the machine.
“We got another one.” Brian said.
“Okay sir. But there’s a slight problem.” The scientist said. He was asian with a bald head except for tiny little bristles of black hair. He wore glasses that were badly damaged.
“And that would be?” He wasn’t amused.
“The machine... it’s been acting strange. The heating on it has been changing at random, the grid has been screwy, and it seems to be... playing with us.”
“What do you mean ‘playing’.” Brian made air quotes.
“It’s just playing with us. For example, when Dr. Brown went to check on the energy levels, and the machine threw a ball at him. He picked up the ball and put it back in it. It threw it again, and Brown went to pick it up again.”
“So you’re saying that the machine was playing fetch with Brown.”
“Yes."
"What do you think is wrong with it?"
"I don't know, but I think... that something is trying to break out of there."
Brian stared at him. The scientists assumption was not only unlikely, it was stupid. "Look. Nothing can get out of there unless we let it. I don't think that anything is trying to get to our world."
"I don’t think that we can make it run any longer. We need to let it rest or else something bad is sure to happen.”
“You’re right. We’ll shut it off today.” Obvious deceit was his tone of voice. “Why don’t you take the day off?”
“But I need to be here to-”
“Dad!” Brian looked back at his father. “Please.”
“Alright. Just be sure to switch off the machine after two more wishes.
“I will. Bye.” He waved to his father who left via the exit door.
“Sir.” A new voice came. The man wore a lab coat with a bow tie. Why a bow tie, Brian didn’t know. He had a square head and a comb over. It looked quite nice actually. His accent indicated that he was British.
“What?” Brian yelled.
“We have two more requests. There’s the man with the brain tumor who is asking for super powers, and there’s the twelve year old with cancer asking to meet Spider-man.”
“Okay, I’ll get on it.”
“Shouldn’t Mr. Moore be handling the machine. He is the one who designed the machine and all.”
“Moore... I gave him the day off.”
“Was that a good idea?”
“Who are you, the one who asks all of the questions? I haven’t even seen you around here. Who are you?”
“I’m the Doctor.”
“The Doctor. We have a lot of doctors around here.”
“Just the Doctor. I was just hired a few days ago.”
“And what do you do ‘Doctor’.” Brian made air quotes with his fingers again.
“I wander around here, looking for things wrong with the machines or patients.”
“Okay then. Then could you go do your job instead of hand me requests. That’s Cameron’s job.”
“He told me to get these to you because he was busy with something.”
“Just... give them here.” Brian swiped the requests from the Doctor’s hands.
“Now begone, I have some requests to handle.” Brian grabbed the lever on the machine. He was about to pull it, but the Doctor pushed him out of the way. He then pulled out a giant, pen looking contraption out of his pocket.
“What are you doing, you idiot!”
“I’m checking something really quickly.” A electronic sound and a green light erupted from the item. “Tell me, has anything stranged happened lately?”
“The machine played fetch with one of the workers. That’s about it.”
He stopped examining the machine. “Really, that’s pretty fu-” He stopped in mid-sentence. “Actually that’s not funny at all.”
“What are you even talking about? What is that thing?”
“First, no one ever knows what I'm talking about, and second, it's my sonic screwdriver.” He ran off.
Brian took in what just happened, and returned to the lever. He pulled the lever. “The limits that trolls will go to to hate on My Little Pony.” He put the machine to full power, and laughed hysterically.
--------------------------------------------------------
It wasn’t as bad as Sean expected. It was pretty fun actually. He saw something new every few minutes. A lot of his favorite cartoon characters came to say hi to him on a regular basis. The most memorable one was Courage the Cowardly Dog. He went up to him and asked him to help him find his masters. Sean told him no, and he whimpered a little. Sean petted him softly. He made Courage feel unafraid. Courage licked Sean's bruised face, then he wandered off.
After a while, a voice on the intercom of his booth came on. It was Brian's voice. “I hope you’re having a lovely time down there. You know, being in a coma and all. Anyway, the mane 6 weren’t able to come today, they’re kind of detained at the moment. But they did send you their newest cd... you know, looking at that now, might’ve wanted to mention your life expectancy. So... we’ll sort out the next-of-kin sorted out later.”
After a long pause, Brian spoke again. "Anyway, Pinkie Guy, turns out she was water skiing over a volcano into a ring of fire while playing the national anthem and eating ten chimicherrychanga’s and... well, to make a long story short, they're being detained in Mexico until the US can extradite them. It shouldn't take more than a few days... but it also shouldn't take more than a few days for your liver to fail either. Doctor's say it's bent and broken in two places and..." Brian was silent for brief time "They're out of onions!" he chuckled at his own horrible joke. “Well, that’s enough of me, I got boss stuff to do. Like paperwork, and wavers, and... firing people. Speaking of which, the guy who replaces the toilet paper for my office... You’re fired! Yeah, you’re fired. Get out now.”
Sean thought for a moment. Hmm... I thought they could make my wish come true like that. He tried to snap his fingers, but stopped himself. Right. I can't.
"Sean, we found this talking orange on a fruit stand near where you were... well, where it happened. He's says he's been to Equestria. Or Europe. Ahh, I think it was Equestria. Anyway, here is so... enjoy!" The foundation representative sat the piece of fruit in question on the nightstand next to Sean's bed. The talking suit then left without another word and shut the door behind him. Sean didn't bother moving his head but turned his eyes over to the produce in question.
"It's weird. They found me on a fruit stand and now I'm on another one," the orange said. Sean thought he had to be hallucinating. He could've sworn the piece of fruit had a face.
Sean summoned the strength to speak. Why he didn't know. "You... you've been to Equestria?" he asked, his voice loud enough to hear but weak.
"Of course I have! I mean, who hasn't?" the orange replied. Sean waited for some sort of detail. None came.
"What... is... it like?"
"What do you mean? You're doing it right now!" the orange said, a grin forming on its 'face'.
"Wha.. at?"
"You just asked me an "equestion". And I Eqanswered! Nyannh!" the orange laughed a nasal snort.
Sean felt himself die a little on the inside. Both physically and emotionally. Talking to this orange literally made him feel like he was dying more than the actual feeling of dying. More than anything else, he wanted at this very moment for Pinkie PIE to jump in and eat the orange. In fact, picturing that in his head made him feel better.
"So you got run over by a car?" the orange asked. Sean didn't make a sound.
"That's funny. How could you get run over by a car when cars don't have legs? Narrr!" it snorted again. Apparently, the orange didn't need an audience to be annoying. Sean did his best to ignore it.
"Hey," the orange said. Sean closed his eyes.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"Hey."
"Hey." Sean screamed into the mask covering his face. Summoning what little strength he had left, he grasped once again for the call button. He scraped his fingers across the plastic casing, the pressure of his fingers not strong enough to activate any of the buttons.
"Hey, are you okay? You're not having a heart attack are you? Cuz if you are, I hope you have heart insurance! Nyarr!"
Sean said nothing but kept grasping for the device that would signal aide, his only chance at sweet freedom from this fruit.
"Are you having a seizure? Better make sure that's all right with the rules. You don't want to get arrested for... illegal search and seizure! Nyah!" the orange was relentless. Sean growled something under his mask. Now he was getting mad. The beeping on his heart monitor began to climb steadily, his respirator pumped harder.
"I know you wanted to see ponies but they couldn't make it," the orange said. Something about its voice had changed. Its tone was sad and sympathetic now. It threw off Sean. Maybe the fruit was just acting immature and was now being sincere? He didn't know but it calmed him down a tad. Still, he fumbled for the call button.
"They probably wouldn't be allowed here anyway. This hospital's pretty strict about no horsing around! Nyarararaar!!" Something snapped in Sean when that orange said that. In an instant, he stopped trying to hit the call button. Rage boiled within him, rage at his circumstances and rage at how others were treating him. A cruel, inhuman anger began to take over him at the end of his life. The heart rate monitor skyrocketed. He bit down on his mask's tube and twisted in bed, turning all the way over.
The orange had a look of absolute shock on its face as Sean rolled over in bed. With an outstretched arm, Sean grabbed the obnoxious piece of produce and squeezed it hard in his hand. With all his might, he chucked it across the room. The fruit screamed as it sailed across the room, smashing into the wall with a juicy splat. It hit the floor with a squashy thud and rolled about a foot before stopping, finally silenced.
Sean gasped for breath and spat the respirator tube out of his mouth. Strange, he felt better somehow. He coughed a bit but finally caught his breath.
"I guess you... didn't vitamin-C that coming," Sean said to no one in particular.
"Yeah," the foundation representative said as he opened the door. He was on his cell phone and for some reason now sported a pair of sunglasses. "All right, thank you very much Mr. Ambassador. We'll see you soon." The rep put away his phone.
"Sean, I have some good news. The US has decided to extradite the mane six early and they're going to stop by the hospital to see YOU on their way back to Equestria! Isn't that exciting?!"
"Thril... thrilling," Sean gasped.
"Are you all right? Aren't you supposed to be hooked up to something? And what happened to the orange?"
Sean looked over to the rep. "I beat him. To a pulp."
"Ha. Good to see the accident hasn't affected your sense of humor."
“Yeah.” He used the Siri voice again.