A Disquieting Awakening
Ponyville General Hospital Admission
Patient Name “Mane Doe” Date: March 20, 1204 A.C.
Species: pony Tribe: unicorn Cutie Mark: Absent
Age: early 20’s
Coat: Royal Blue Mane and tail: blonde Eyes: sky blue
Attending: Dr. Bedside Manner
A 20 something, age unknown, male unicorn pony was admitted today due to an apparent case of thaumaturgic overload. Patient was brought in by Ms. Twilight Sparkle and her friends. It was reported by Ms. Sparkle that the patient was found in the everfree forest after an arcane explosion. No identity can be assigned at this time. Patient’s vital signs were within normal limits save for internal thaumaturgic currents which were extremely elevated. Neuromuscular response was normal when stimulus applied. No obvious signs of trauma were noted. Patient appears to have a history of trauma as numerous fibrous scars were observed over much of his body. No contributory medical conditions were noted. Differential Diagnosis: thaumaturgic overload, pericarbuncleitis, viral horn meningitis. Treatment plan is to detox the patient with an infusion of anti-thaumaturgic serum for 24 hours and observe the patient for signs of improvement. Will follow up at morning rounds.
Bedside Manner M.D.
When Max began to awake the first thing that he noticed was that he felt like there was a soft warm blanket wrapped all around his body. It was a comforting warmth and not stifling. As awareness started to increase for Max; the next thing that he noticed was that his fingers and toes felt numb and constricted like they were wrapped into a tight fist and could not loosen.
Max began to move his limbs ever so slightly and noticed quickly how extremely sore he felt. It felt like he had gone 10 rounds with a minotaur unarmed. An intense burning ache stemmed from all of his muscles the more he moved. Max began trying to turn on to his back. As he did so; he felt something altogether foreign to him. Something, that he was sure had never felt before. It felt like there was some sort of appendage to his spine that got caught between his legs when he was trying to turn over.
Max did succeed in turning over with grunt of pain as he dislodged whatever he was pinching between his legs. The moment of pain from this foreign source had served to clear his mind of the grogginess he had felt up to this point. Now Max felt that he would try to open his eyes and take in his surroundings. At first all he could do was wince in pain at the bright light to hit his blue orbs.
The world appeared to be a formless swirl of washed out colors. As Max’s eyes adjusted to the light and the images began to come clear; Max noticed that in the lower portion of his vision was some sort of blue fuzzy object that seemed to be blocking his view. Naturally, Max thought that someone had put something onto his face and he did the next logical thing. Max quickly went to reach for the object with his right arm.
“SMACK….OWWW!,” shouted Max. Max had instead of grabbing the blue object blocking his vision had instead smacked it. What was stranger was that he felt it. Boy did he feel it. It felt like he had his own face with a brick. So, not only did he have a part of face where it shouldn’t be, his hands now felt like bricks when pushing against his body.
Max then did the next natural thing. He raised his “hands” in front of his face now that his vision had cleared further. Unfortunately for Max what his saw was alien and wrong in his mind. For Max did not see a hand but instead he saw black hoof with blue fur covering all but the bottom of it. Max had had enough of this strange dream of whatever it was and screamed, “WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE LIGHT IS GOING ON HERE?”
Nurse Redheart had been dutifully attending to the patients in her ward. She was busy changing the linens on a patient’s bed when she was rudely interrupted by a loud scream that came from the next room. Not one to leave her charges unattended she went to see what the cause of the trouble was. Upon exiting the hall it became apparent that the hollering was coming from the “special” patient’s room. She was told to send word to Twilight Sparkle upon his waking, but she wanted to be sure. so she went into the room.
What Max saw next most peculiar, for entering into the room that he found himself in was what looked like a small white horse with pink mane and tail. It had a red cross upon its flank. Moreover, the horse had very large expressive eyes and a very large head to match. This was all quite odd to Max as he was unfamiliar with any such species of horse. What Max expected even less was that is began to speak to him in what could only be female’s voice.
“Are you alright? please try to be calm,” said nurse Redheart in a soothing yet commanding voice.
“Wow, a talking horse! I wonder what kind of enhancements were needed to make that happen,” pondered Max Aloud.
“Pony!,” nurse redheart interjected. “We are ponies, and all ponies can talk without the aid of magic.”
“Ok, pony whatever. I still have never seen a talking pony in the land of Rune before,” said Max.
“Land of Rune? Is that where you are from? haven’t heard of it,” said Redheart, “And in case you haven’t noticed you are a pony too, a unicorn to be exact. Making it hard to believe you have never seen one. ”
“What! Is this some kind of joke? A curse from Darksol perhaps. I need a mirror,” said Max.
“ What a mirror, ok wait a second,” nurse Redheart left the room to fetch the requested item.
While waiting Max noticed some other peculiar things about his body. Just as what he must assume is a muzzle blocking part of his lower vision he noticed a horn blocking part of the upper part of his vision. Max had looked up after nurse Redheart had mentioned that he was a unicorn. When he looked up he saw his horn and what looked like some blonde hair. At least his hair color was the same he thought to himself.
Nurse Redheart returned with a hoof-mirror on her back after she sent a very important message that is. She turned around and grabbed the mirror with her mouth before grabbing it with her right forehoof. She held up the mirror for Max to see himself.
What Max saw in the mirror was not himself but that of an alien. The image showed a royal blue unicorn pony stallion with a blonde mane, and sky blue eyes. At that moment Max’s world began to crumble. He thought, “this has to be a curse or some sort of dream this can’t be happening.”
“This is impossible! Is this a curse? Are we all cursed to be ponies?,” Max quickly said as he started hyperventilating.
Max had faced unspeakable evils but this change of events was beyond anything he had ever imagined. It was simply too much. And, so Max began breathing faster and faster until the world began to twist and swirl until he passed out.
“There, hopefully that sedative will keep our Mane Doe patient calm until the Princess’s student gets here,” said nurse Redheart.
_____________________________________________________________
Twilight Sparkle was already in the midst of an intense study session this morning. She had gotten barely any sleep to speak of whatsoever last night. She was simply too excited to be studying a new magical artifact that silly things like sleep just got in the way. For before her lay a sword of unknown eldritch properties. A sword that radiated power that had an almost palpable feel to it that one could detect just from being in the presence of the sword. She sought to unlock the mystery of this unique sword and the strange stallion that seemed to come with it.
At first you thought to study the tome that was discovered with the stallion. But, the tome was written in a language she had never seen before. In fact, it did not match any language on equestria according to the exhaustive collection of linguistics in Twilight’s library. This, was concerning to Twilight as it could mean she may have discovered an alien or ancient civilization that predated the nation of Equestria. But, Twilight decided not to dally on it for now; she hoped that she could ask the mysterious stallion about it in the future. Twilight had thus, spent her time meticulously examining the sword.
Twilight had performed nearly every test known to thaumaturgical science. She had determined that the sword was resistant to magic. It did not want to be scryed it seemed or at least to do so was out of her reach at the moment. The sword still gave off an aura peace and good. It also seemed to be luminescent and seemed to channel electricity. She had discovered the part about electricity on accident when she had levitated it with much effort lost concentration for a second allow the flat of the blade to touch her fur. Spike found the resulting static shock appearance to Twilight’s coat, mane, and tail to be highly amusing, at least until his older sister had assigned him extra chores to do that is.
Twilight was about to begin her next ritual of magical divination upon the sword when a knock came to the door of the library. “Knock!, knock!”
“It’s a public library come on in, oh why do I even bother anymore,” sighed Twilight.
Spike went to open the door and saw a familiar gray mailmare. “Oh, hey Ditzy Doo how can I help you?”
“Hey Spike, I have a letter for Twilight from nurse Redheart,” said Ditzy.
“Thanks, Ditzy. I will get this to Twilight right away,” Spike took the letter and closed the door behind him before handing it to Twilight.
“Hmm I wonder if this means he is awake?” mused Twilight.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
The patient has awoken and I am contacting you per your instructions.
Nurse Redheart.
“Spike I am going to the hospital to see the mystery stallion,” said Twilight.
“Oh, can I come?” inquired Spike “I always wanted to meet an alien”
“Spike we don’t know if he is an alien or not and you cannot come as I know a little dragon who still has a lot of chores to do,” responded Twilight.
“Oh, boo, not fair,” pouted Spike.
“I am sure you can meet him later. I should be back in time for dinner,” said Twilight.
Twilight gathered quills, ink, and paper into her saddlebags for note taking. She also placed the tome into her bags, hoping the mysterious stallion could shed some light on its contents. She secured the sword into her laboratory in the basement. Having completed her preparations she left the library and went to the hospital.
__________________________________________________________________
Max awakened again taking a quick survey revealing that he was still a pony. Max was calmer this time and figured that he may have to deal with this for awhile, as such he started to investigate his new body. As he began to examine himself he heard a bird out on a tree through the window. As he focused on the bird for a second he felt new muscles twitch atop his head and the sound became clearer than he could have ever heard it as a human.
As he looked out the window; he noticed the distinct features of the bird with greater clarity than he would have thought. He reasoned that it must have to do with his now much larger eyes. He managed to get his arm under his sheets and pulled them off of himself. He smirked and thought to himself, “ well it looks like I am hung like a horse too. At least something got an improvment out of this.” He then looked at his lower legs and noticed how his feet were now much longer and ended in a hoof, and how his thigh and shin were now much shorter but much more muscled. This got Max to thinking. The pony that came in here was naked and so was he. She did not even seem to care that they were naked either. Maybe ponies don’t care about modesty they humans do Max thought to himself.
Max started flexing his limbs and found them to be far more flexible than any horse or centaurs he had ever seen before. Max continued to stretch for awhile getting used to the new and different feelings until he got bored and thought about how to walk. Max wasn’t quite sure how to stand or walk with these limbs and started to deeply consider how to do what once was so simple.
____________________________________________________________
Upon arriving at the hospital; Twilight was met by nurse Redheart. “Ms. Sparkle as per your instructions the patient is awake, though I did have to sedate him about an hour ago. I should be wearing off about now.”
“Why did you have to sedate him?” queried Twilight.
“He began having a manic attack and was hyperventilating. He kept saying that he was cursed and that it was impossible to be a pony. He seemed quite perplexed when he saw me like he had never seen a pony before,” said nurse Redheart.
“Well I had better go see him then,” said Twilight as she finished writing her notes on what had been reported to her about the mystery pony.
Twilight then entered into the room where she noticed the stallion lying upon the bed and lazily looking in her direction like he was deep in thought. Twilight had not noticed until now that the stallion was very well muscled especially for unicorn, this made her think of her older brother. Perhaps this pony had a military background, it would certainly explain the scars.
“Greetings my name is Twilight Sparkle. Are you feeling better?” said Twilight as she put out a hoof to shake his.
Max just stared at her for what felt like an eternity, until “... Max” Max attempted to shake her hoof but only managed to bump hooves instead. “ Better depends on you explaining why I am in pony land” Max thought to himself, this pony isn’t wearing anything either. I guess ponies don’t really care about modesty or maybe it is the fur,
“Oh, well I was hoping you could answer some questions about where you came from and maybe we can figure out how an adult unicorn came here without a cutie mark. Was it a teleportation accident?, ” said Twilight.
“First of all I am not a pony or at least I wasn’t until I got here apparently. And I did cast a teleportation spell before I got here, but I wasn’t supposed to come out here, wherever that is anyway, ” replied Max.
“Really, hmm Max is a strange name for a pony,” mused Twilight, “Well if you were not a pony than what were you?”
“I was a human, we stood upright and were mostly hairless save for the top of our heads and had hands on our arms, And what the heck is a cutie mark?” replied Max.
“Interesting that sounds like some sort of primate like a monkey maybe,” Twilight was vigorously taking notes. “You mean that you really don’t know what a cutie mark is?” Max nodded. “Well a cutie mark is a symbol that a pony gets on their flank when they discover what special talent they have. You can see that mine is starburst representing my talent for magic,” Twilight gestured with a hoof to her cutie mark.
Max followed her hoof to look at her curvy flank. “Not bad for pony I guess, what the hell am I thinking eww.” Then Max looked down at his own flank and notice that it was blank, slightly disappointed he said, “ I guess I don’t have a talent huh? weird Ken would be laughing his ass off at me.”
“Well if what you say is true that you only recently became a pony that is not surprising as foals are not born with them,” said Twilight, “Who is Ken?”
“He was one of comrades in arms. He and I grew-up in Guardiana together, ” said Max.
“Hmm, Guardiana I don’t think there is any such country on Equus,” Twilight produced a globe with her magic startling Max, but also showing that the world did not have such a country. In fact to Max it was different world altogether.
“Wow, I guess I am not on Rune anymore after all,” exclaimed Max.
“Rune, is that the name of the world you come from? ” asked Twilight.
“So, Tell me what happened right before you ended up here,” said Twilight.
“Well, I was leading the Shining Force in our battle against the evil known as Dark Dragon. My warriors and I defeated him, but he seemed to be immortal so I used the weapon of the ancients, the Force Sword and plunged it into the beast. The Dragon was resealed to prevent the destruction of my world, but for some reason I could not let go of the sword. Try as I might I could not move. So in order to save my friends I cast my EGRESS spell. That would be the teleportation spell you asked about earlier it is supposed to get me and my friends back to a sanctuary, but I reappeared in a forest. My sword then floated up and split into two with a great explosion and then all I remember is pain and passing out, ” stated Max.
“Wow that is a lot of information, ” Twilight was feverishly writing down notes, “So, I take it that you were some sort of military commander? And you said you were fighting an evil known as Dark Dragon? What was this Dark Dragon? And you can cast magic and use a sword, makes sense that you are a unicorn I guess, You must be very skilled to be able to cast a mass teleportation spell of that magnitude. How did you deal with the quantum entanglement?”
“Whoa slow down one at a time please, ” said Max.
“Oh sorry, I sometimes get a little excited about learning new things,” said Twilight, “So what was that Dark Dragon?”
“Ha ha, you remind me of Anri, she was always trying to learn new things to make her father proud, so that she could be a good queen someday,” mused Max.
“Who is Anri?” asked Twilight.
“She is the Princess and heir to the throne of Guardiana and one hell of an ice mage too. She was there at the final battle against Dark Dragon raining down icy death on our foes,” said Max.
“Anyway back to Dark Dragon,” stated Max, “Our country was invaded Runefaust a kingdom that used to be called Protectora, but was renamed when the King went mad and sought to take over the world. Another great evil known as Darksol corrupted the king’s mind. It was all a plot to weaken the seal placed upon Dark Dragon. A plan to release him from his prison. Dark Dragon is a Devil King and defeated and sealed one thousand years ago by the ‘Ancients’’ a race people long gone that had magic and technology far superior to what we have today. Darksol sought to free him from his prison so that darkness could once again rule the world.”
“That story sounds kind of similar to our fight with Nightmare Moon,” Twilight though aloud.
“Nightmare Moon, Who is that?,” asked Max.
“She was a corrupted version of Princess Luna who wanted to put the world into eternal night,” responded Twilight, “She was also sealed for one thousand years and we purified her with the elements of harmony, six magic artifacts that embody the elements of Friendship, Laughter, Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, and Magic.”
“Well Dark Dragon could not be purified for all he is, is evil and darkness and according to legend he has existed longer than my world, ” stated Max. “These elements of Harmony remind me of my Force Sword. An eldritch weapon forged by the ancients, we think, by combining the powers of light and darkness, order was created that can hurt an immortal evil like Dark Dragon. ”
“Fascinating, so that is what I saw in my dream when your sword split one light and one dark, But why did is split?” inquired Twilight.
“Well I cannot say why it split. Anyway, we were able to defeat Runefaust and even Darksol, but we were too late as the seal had been weakened and Darksol sacrificed himself to awaken Dark Dragon,” said Max, “Ultimately, we prevailed against him after a difficult battle, but as I previously said he could not die. So I resealed him with the sword, and now I am here for who knows what reason. Oh well, a break from the fighting would be nice. A chance to just relax and smell the flowers like before the war started would be a welcome change.”
“That is quite a tale. Fortunately for you, you are now in equestria a nation that has been and is still at peace for over one thousand years, ” said Twilight as she was fastidiously taking notes. “According your chart and the Doctor your condition has stabilized and can be released when you are ready.”
“What condition, pony curse?,” said Max sarcastically.
“You had a case of thaumaturgic overload, likely from that magic explosion you were near,” said Twilight dryly.
“Oh, okay so I can leave eh?” asked Max, “only problem with that is where would I go and I don’t know how to walk.”
“Well, you can stay with me until you get your hooves off of the ground. Also, I still have a lot of questions to ask you,” stated Twilight, “About that sword you were found with and that tome. Oh I almost forgot. This tome,” Twilight raised the tome out of her saddlebags with her magic, “Do you know how to read it?”
Max looked at the book curiously. On the cover is said Father Cromwell’s Guide to Light Magic. “It looks like a book of magic for priests. Why, I thought magic was your talent.”
“It is,” replied Twilight with narrowed eyes, “but the book is written in a language I have never seen before on Equus.”
“Really, it looks like common runic to me, ” said Max unfaced by the harrowing look Twilight was giving him..
“Well maybe you can teach me to read it. I would love to learn a new type of magic,” said Twilight excitedly. Though she was a little miffed that Max didn’t respond in the least to her indignation. “Regardless, I am sure you can walk, I mean a foal can do it in only a few hours after being born.”
Max grimaced, “Alright I might as well try.” Max carefully started to move his legs over the edge of the bed. Ever so slowly until his left leg just met the floor. It felt weird. It felt like he was walking on his toes and that he had a pair of boots on that you could feel through. His hooves felt firm but conducted far more feeling that he expected. Carefully the slow movement continued until his left fore hoof touch the ground. This was even stranger to Max as it felt like he was standing on the end of his fingers.
Max continued to move his body ever so slowly off of the the bed. Then the inevitable happened. With a loud smack Max found himself with his muzzle flush against the floor. “Dangit I told you I couldn't do this,” Max groaned.
Twilight did her best to suppress a giggle behind a hoof, “I guess you are new to this huh.”
“No really, How could you tell,” Max said sarcastically. Max then attempted slowly get up to ease the pain in his sore muzzle. This was the second time today he had smacked his schnoz. It was a wonder how he didn’t have a nose bleed. He reasoned pony noses must be more durable as they don’t have hands and would have to do things with their mouths. Max ever so slowly inched himself up onto his hooves. For the first time he was standing in his new body.
Now came the new challenge of walking. “So, what now? ”
“Just place your right forehoof forward, then your back left hoof, then your left fore hoof , and then you back right hoof and repeat,” said Twilight.
“Ok worth a shot,” Max started to move his first hoof and was successful in keeping his balance. Max then went to move the second one and was not so lucky. Max came down head over hooves with a thud.
Twilight did her best to hide the smile on her face due the other ponies misfortune.
“I hope you know some healing spells, cause at this rate I am going to become a resident of this hospital,” said Max.
“Don’t give up. I know you can do it just keep trying,” reassured Twilight.
Max got up again. This time he was going to do it, With new determination, the stallion did one complete set of steps without falling. Max smiled to himself at his small achievement. Just as he went to take another step he slipped yet again onto his face. “sigh.”
“Well at this rate it will take far too much time to get home, Though you are showing improvement,” said Twilight. “So, I am going to carry you with my magic, so that we can stay on schedule. Don’t worry you can practice your walking once we get home and I have plenty of ice and pain pills too.”
“Wait, what carry me?” said Max confused. Before the stallion could protest further he was picked up in Twilight’s telekinetic grasp. She quickly marched out of the hospital having taken care of the discharge papers prior to meeting with Max.
A strange sight greeted Ponyville this afternoon, as the town librarian was carrying a strange stallion in her telekinesis. A stallion who seemed to be quite embarrassed, given the cherry red of his cheeks, to be carried in public. The other residents of Ponyville stared for a moment at the strange sight before going back to their business as it wasn’t that strange compared to many of the things that happened in Ponyville. Max took the time to notice that there were ponies of all colors that could be imagined in the little town. He also noticed that some of the ponies had horns like him and Twilight. Some had wings, and some had neither horn nor wings, but seemed to be more muscular. He also decided then and there that ponies truly did not care about modesty the way humans did as hardly any of them wore any sort of clothing save for the occasional hat.
Twilight entered into the library and deposited the stallion in her grasp onto the floor with a grunt of disapproval. “Did you really have to parade me before the whole town?” asked Max smugly.
“I did not parade you. I merely carried you to be more time efficient, ” said Twilight. “Spike I am home.”
“OK be out in a second. I am still scrubbing the kitchen,” yelled Spike from down the hall.
“Who is Spike,” asked Max.
“He is my assistant. He helps me with my studies,” replied Twilight.
At that moment a small purple and green lizard walked into the room on hind legs and with claws on his hands. The lizard reminded Max of what a juvenile Lizard man would look like. “So is he an alien?”
“Spike! That is a rude way to introduce yourself. And, yes he was an alien I guess but now he is a pony ok,” said Twilight.
“Okay, I am Spike nice to meet you,” Spike put his hand out to shake the ponies hoof.
Max stared at the dragons claw for a second, “Maybe it would be best if we don’t shake for now. I am still having trouble standing and walking. I am Max by the way.”
“Is it really that hard to walk?” asked Spike.
“You have no idea, ” said Twilight while giggling.
“Hey, you said I was making progress,” protested Max.
“You are, but you have to admit that it was kinda funny to watch you fall over and over again.”
“Well, I guess you are right. a little laughter is good from time to time,” said Max.
“There may be hope for you yet, ” said Twilight, “Anyway lets get some dinner and get your room setup. I am sure you are tired still we can continue our talk tomorrow.”
While leaning onto Twilight for support Max was able to hobble into the kitchen for some food. Spike set the table and placed what looked like hay, daffodils, and carrots onto the plates in front of Twilight and Max. Spike set out a pile of gems onto the plate in front himself and started salivating over his meal.
“Hay and carrots and flowers, Man I could really go a nice steak right now,” said Max.
“Oh your people, are omnivores I take it as most primates are,” said Twilight, “Well some ponies eat fish but anything else could make you sick also cows are sentient and that would be murder.”
“Ok, but how am I supposed to eat this. I cannot imagine it tasting very good. I have tried grass when I was a kid and it tasted awful,” said Max
“But, now you are a pony. I bet if you try it you will find that it tastes better than you think,” said Twilight.
Max just stared as Spike ate diamonds and Twilight started to eat her salad with fork using telekinesis. Max wondered how she was doing it. He knew skilled mages could do such things but he doubted he could. Max did the only thing he could think of and thrust his muzzle into his food and started munching away. What surprised Max was how good the food tasted. He expected it to taste boring and bitter, but it tasted almost like a good chicken dinner with rice. The daffodils were a little spicy even something he never expected.
“Why don’t you use your magic?” asked Spike who was staring at the stallion eating messily.
“Huh, I don’t know how to use telekinesis, ” said Max.
“What, but all unicorns know how to do that,” exclaimed Spike.
“Well I have never done that before,” said Max.
“I could teach you if you want,” said Twilight.
“That would be nice, thanks, oh and thanks for taking me into your home at least until I can figure out my place here,” said Max.
“You're very welcome, it wouldn’t be right to throw you out into the world in your current state, it’s just not how ponies do things, ” said Twilight.
The trio went back to their dinner. Upon finishing it Twilight helped Max get situated in the guest bedroom for the night. She left the stallion to sleep, allowing her some time to think on the days events. And time to write a letter.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I spoke to our mystery stallion today his name is Max….
To be continued….