Chapter 5 - The Hospital: Part 2 -(R1)
It had been five days since Cassie first woke up in the hospital. In that time, she had only had one more panic attack, though not as severe as the first. However, she was still scared and pulled away every time the ponies got too near to her. She was also quite miffed that no doctor had ever actually come in to see her yet, despite her loud protesting of the fact. The only interaction she had was with those two ponies that wore nurses’ hats, and the one with the lab coat. She even named them when she noticed they all had tattoos on their rumps.
Cassie had this bad feeling that these mutant ponies were some sort of test, and she was now part of the experiment, which only served to make her angry. She had no idea what the test could be, but she thought it could have to do with slightly smarter pets for service animal related tasks. It didn’t explain how that one had seemed talked to her, though. In her mind, Cassie determined it was just these ponies’ language, like dogs barking or orcas singing.
The dash-mark-faced, analog clock on the wall across from Cassie’s bed indicated it was almost time for when they delivered lunch. She smiled at the thought of food. A little bit of drool even escaped her mouth as her stomach growled in anticipation. Her breakfast had been a disaster, when a sudden sneeze caused her to spill it all over herself. Cassie was thankful that since the first night, they had stopped bringing her hay, oats, grass, and flowers when they fed her.
During the dinner feeding time on the second day, Cassie finally let the pony she named Redcross into the room without yelling or throwing things at her to make her leave. The actions never worked anyway, and just kept the pony in the room longer to pick up whatever she threw. However, Cassie would still not let the ponies get too near to her. She was pleasantly surprised that night when the mare had smiled at her before rushing out of the room, and came back with a small dish of pre-shelled peanuts. Since that night, for every lunch and dinner, a small pile of the peanuts with a light dusting of salt was set on the side of the plate near whatever dessert they brought.
Watching Redcross push the serving cart in, Cassie noticed the peanuts again and smiled. Whoever was watching this experiment at least realized she liked the tasty nuts. Some time later, the pony Cassie dubbed Whitecross returned to get the serving cart. Cassie worked up the courage to try and interact with the pony.
"Don't bite me or anything, but can you bring me my leg?" Cassie asked, pointing to the leg on the bench.
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Nurse Snowheart smiled with delight. Her tail lazily swished behind her as she held back the urge to dance and clap her hooves. The doctor had told the nurses to always be careful around Rings so that she wouldn’t be spooked, and not to talk to her. Snowheart still didn't like that name as much as Ring Wave or Rainbow Rings, but the Princess and Dr. Scope had decided on Rings.
Though unable to understand her, Snowheart could tell Rings wanted her leg. Just as she was about to pick it up with her mouth, Rings cried out. Snowheart looked up to see fear and worry in Rings’ eyes. One of Rings’ hands was partly outstretched in the direction of the leg. The other hand she had in her mouth, apparently biting her nails.
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"Oh, please be careful! Don't bite it hard. Wait! …Don't get it. No… bring it, but be careful!" Cassie pleaded.
Cassie’s face was strained. Her brows were pushed together and arched up in the middle just slightly, the edges of her eyes pulled in some. The leg's outer shell was pretty resilient, but she didn’t want to test its resilience against a pony chomping down on it. The rise and fall of her chest froze as she watched Whitecross pick up the leg in her mouth, then slowly bring it to the end of her bed. Cassie's face relaxed when the pony dropped it onto the bed and backed away.
When the pony left, Cassie crawled to the end of the bed to retrieve her leg. She was surprised to find that it wasn’t covered in pony spit, and relieved that the pony didn’t bite it hard enough to remove a chunk out of the rubber, or even leave a mark. The leg already had enough small cuts and abrasions from her trek in the forest.
Cassie looked at the connection point. Her eyes started watering, and her smile turned into a frown as her lower lip quivered. She let her arms fall to the bed, and the leg fell over as she leaned back with her eyes closed. Cassie never saw the lavender unicorn in the doorway, but heard the click of the door shutting. She assumed Whitecross just hadn't fully closed it earlier.
After a few minutes, Cassie exhaled loudly. She picked the leg back up to determine how to make it useable again. In its current state, she could figure out a way to make it partly useable. The right side of the socket had been bent badly. With the proper thumb screws in the left side and front holes, the leg would be mostly fine to use, provided she did not put too much strain on it with movements that would cause the top of the leg to kick out to the right. Without the thumb screws, Cassie would be mostly restricted to standing up and slowly walking. She decided that eventually, someone here would talk to her, and she could just get her leg sent in to the company for repair, or find someone local to do a partial repair if needed. Cassie put the leg down on the floor, leaning it against the end table.
Cassie was quite bored sitting in the hospital room. There was that window she could go to to look out at the colony, but having to lean against the wall and hop on one leg was not very fun for her. Doing that to go the short distance to the bathroom was enough of an annoyance for her. Doing what she did best lately, she tried to take a nap.
Cassie couldn’t really call it a nap, though. She mainly just laid there in the bed with her eyes closed and tried to ignore everything around her. It usually worked, until she heard the tell-tale sound of hooves on the tile floor. She looked up to see that lavender, winged unicorn from the first day. Next to her stood a shockingly pink pony with a bird's nest of a mane. Seeing that they also had rump tattoos, Cassie named them Sparks and Balloons. It still confused Cassie how they tattooed the fur like that.
Maybe they did some weird hair transplant to mark these ponies.
Sparks slightly scared Cassie. She stood there with a smile showing all of her teeth. Sparks’ horn was glowing like the labcoat-wearing pony Microscope's did sometimes. Cassie had no idea how they were able to shrink down an anti-gravity device and implant it into these unicorn ponies. She was also baffled at how they could control and power the implanted device. The only thing she could come up with was that since she had been gone from the solar system for at least six years, in that time, who knows what advancements they had made? What intrigued Cassie more was that the backpack that Sparks held in her anti-gravity aura thing was hers. The pony never dropped her smile, as she used her anti-gravity aura to place the bag next to the bed.
Cassie felt a pressure on the bed and turned her head to look up. Her eyes widened to their fullest extent, the pupils shrank, sweat beaded on her forehead, and the heart monitor started beeping out of control. Cassie's muscles tensed up, locking her in place, and her mouth opened in a silent scream.
The pink pony loomed over Cassie so close that the fur on its muzzle lightly tickled her nose, and she was overwhelmed by the scent of cotton candy filling her nostrils. Cassie stared into Balloon's large, blue eyes that seemed to glisten in delight, and peer into her being. In the edges of her vision, Cassie could see the radiantly white teeth of a grin that seemed way too large to fit the pony's face.
"De! Q'u Lejgea Lea! Epib'a ukqn vium? Lw ukq he—," came from Balloons in a fast-streamed, high-pitched voice.
Cassie reacted without thinking. Her right arm flew up with a closed fist and slammed into the pony's face. Cassie yelped in pain, along with the pony. She swung again, and this time she struck the side of the pony as it retreated off the bed. Cassie pulled the covers over her head, like a child hiding from monsters.
"Get out!" Cassie yelled.
She felt the bed shift a little on the left side, and one of the ponies made those noises right next to her bed. Cassie lashed out with her left arm from under the covers, striking nothing but the air.
"I said. Get. Out!" Cassie yelled again, with a soft whimper escaping her.
Her hand hurt a lot from hitting the pony. Cassie's face twisted in anger, and her eyes squeezed shut. She was angry at herself for lashing out like that. She didn’t want to hurt the pony thing; she only wanted it away from her before it could hurt her.
Cassie made herself as small as she could under the sheet, and put the pillow over her head to block the noise of the ponies out. She held her hand and flexed it some to try and get the sting out. Through the pillow, she heard the ponies making loud noises at each other, until it fell silent.
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Pinkie's normally poufy mane lay half limp and straight. She looked down at the floor with the corners of her mouth dropping, and drops of clear liquid forming a trail behind her on the light blue tiles. Twilight tried to cheer her up, but all Pinkie could think about was that she just made Rings cry. It didn’t help that moments ago, she had been viciously yelled at for her actions by Nurse Redheart. Twilight stopped trying, and let Pinkie reflect on what happened, as the two mares made their way down the isolation wing's corridor on their way back to the reception area.
As they entered the reception area, Twilight asked, "Are you sure you’re okay, Pinkie?"
"I'm fine," Pinkie answered dejectedly.
"What's that on your coat, Ms. Pie?" Nurse Snowheart asked, pointing to Pinkie’s side.
"What's what?” Pinkie replied. Noticing where the nurse was pointing, Pinkie said, "Oh that's just where Rings punched me. I didn't think it was enough to bruise." She rubbed her hoof on the spot and realized it felt a little sticky. "Oh my Celestia, I'm bleeding!"
Nurse Snowheart rushed over. "Ms. Pie, you are not cut. Where did this blood come from?"
"Didn't Rings punch your face first, before she punched you in the side?" Twilight mentioned.
"Yuppers! And it was a doozy of a punch," Pinkie said, the area around her eye slightly swollen.
Nurse Snowheart trotted to the reception desk. "Paging Dr. Scope to Isolation Room 103B. Dr. Scope to Isolation 103B."
"What's the problem?" Twilight asked.
"Our patient possibly appears to be injured and in need of care," Nurse Snowheart said over her shoulder as she cantered off with Dr. Scope, who had just run past them.
Twilight made to follow, but the reception desk attendant stopped her.
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Several minutes passed before Cassie poked her head out from under the covers. Now that they were gone, she breathed in deeply, and slowly exhaled. However, her relaxation was short-lived; when she looked to where her leg should have been, it was no longer there. A quick look around the room revealed that it had been taken.
"God-damned evil ponies! Give me back my leg!" Cassie shouted.
Cassie threw her arms up in exasperation. At that point, she felt something wet hit her cheek. She rubbed the location and looked at her hand. She found a small, red smear on her finger. With her earlier adrenaline gone, she started to feel the nagging sensation of pain in her right hand increasing. Looking down, she started to worry. Her right hand was partly covered in blood. In fact, there were little red streaks all over the bed and pillow, too.
Before she had time to look closer, the door burst open, and Microscope and Whitecross rushed in. Cassie didn’t have time to react as Microscope's gray anti-gravity aura forced her down to the bed on her back. She tried to struggle against it, but to no avail. Her last image was the nurses’ hat-wearing Whitecross poking her in the leg with a syringe before darkness claimed her.
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A short while later, an angry, and tired-looking Dr. Scope returned.
"What happened, Doctor?" Twilight questioned.
Dr. Scope took a moment to wipe the sweat off his forehead. "Not much, really. I must say, with the resistance she has, holding her down while she is struggling takes a bit more effort than I am used too. Anyways, apparently Rings clipped Ms. Pie's teeth when she punched her. Put a nice cut on her hand between the last two knuckles. I healed it mostly with magic, so it won't need stitches. Before you ask, no, it won't leave much of a mark, if any. It will be tender for a few days, though, and the skin is very thin at the moment. Also, I am sorry to say, Ms. Pie, but you are not allowed back to visit for a while. You were told not to do anything outrageous, and you did it anyways, which resulted in an injury to our patient."
Pinkie's mane deflated the rest of the way as she sank to the ground. Fresh tears fell from her eyes. "I'm sorry, Doctor. I really didn't mean to hurt her. I was just so super-duper excited to make a new friend," Pinkie said, blowing her nose into a handkerchief that she pulled out of… well, no one saw where she pulled it from.
Dr. Scope looked down at Pinkie; he wanted to reply, but Twilight beat him to the punch.
"We know, Pinkie. Perk up— you’ll get your chance, just not right now," Twilight said, pulling her friend into a hug.
Pinkie's mane instantly popped out to its full glory, and she wiped a foreleg across her eyes. "You're right, Twilight! And I’ll make her the bestest best super-scrumptious peanut-covered cake ever to make it up to her!" Pinkie exclaimed as she shot up into the air a few feet, leaving a small, short-lived, cloud-like shape of herself as she zoomed out of the hospital.
Twilight rolled her eyes at her friend's antics. A smile played across her face as she said her goodbyes to the nurses and doctor. With the prosthetic leg sticking out of her saddlebag, she made her way to Sweet Apple Acres.
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The sun was close to setting when Cassie awoke. She looked at her hand and noticed it had been bandaged up. It still felt sore, but a lot better. She noticed her bedding had been changed also. While not happy about what happened earlier with the ponies, at least those running the experiment had fixed up her hand. Cassie assumed that the doctors sent the ponies in as a test to see if they could assist with an actual medical situation. She surmised that whatever intelligence boost they gave these pony-like things was enough to teach them how to stab a needle into a leg. Cassie shuddered to think what would happen if they were improperly trained, or forgot, and stabbed someone in the heart or eye on accident.
The food cart with her dinner on it was already next to the bed. Cassie looked at the tray to see what they’d brought. Delight spread on her face when she saw a piece of apple pie, but slightly diminished upon noticing that the peanuts were not there. Once she had finished her food, she gave the cart a little push towards the door.
Trying to forget the incident with the terrifying pink pony, Cassie picked up her bag. After a quick search, she noted that everything was still there except her energy pistol. Unfortunately, she could not remember if she’d had the weapon in the bag when she collapsed in that clearing, or if she’d had it on her side. If it had been on her side, it might have fallen out when she ran through that stream, or in the trees, on her way to the clearing she collapsed in. Since everything else was returned to her, Cassie assumed she’d dropped it, and the weapon was now lost in the forest on that alien world. She was, however, mildly surprised to find a plastic bag of shell-less peanuts; the few shelled ones that had been in the bag were now gone.
I wonder why they keep giving me peanuts? I mean, I like them and all, but did they get the idea from the ones in my bag or something?
Cassie noticed that her clothing had been cleaned, and more importantly, fixed up. She briefly wondered who fixed them; the seams of the stitching had been done very well. All the clothes were still usable and would look alright to boot. Her navy blue tee-shirt was now sleeveless, but she didn't mind. Her lips curled up. She had the urge to put the newly sleeveless shirt and her skirt on, but decided against it. She folded them all up and put everything back in the bag.
"All I would do is get you all wrinkly if I put you on to sit around in this bed," Cassie said to her neatly folded and packed-away clothes.
She debated whether to take a shower or not. After some time, her internal argument ended in taking a shower. Cassie was thankful that the attached bathroom had a shower and bathtub combination in it. Hopping into the bathroom, Cassie climbed into the tub and sat down. Making sure not to get her bandaged hand wet, she hung it over the right side of the tub through the shower curtain. For a while, Cassie just let the warm water fall from the shower head and create small rivers across her torso. Eventually, she proceeded to wash up using her left hand.
To dry off, Cassie had to sit on the edge of the tub, since standing on one foot would not have been in her favor. Having used up a significant amount of time in the shower and for subsequent hair brushing, for no other reason than she had the time on her hands to do so, she made her way back to her bed.
Once in her bed, Cassie pulled out her music player and checked its power level. She was happy to see it still had most of its charge. She popped the wireless earbuds in and listened to some of her music for a while until she decided to try and get some sleep.
Cassie was already awake the next morning when Microscope pushed the serving cart into her room. She was returning from the bathroom when he saw her. His horn started glowing, and the aura started to form around her.
"No! No, don't pin me with it again!" Cassie said, futilely trying to brush it off.
Cassie sighed with relief when the aura stopped. She finished hopping her way back to the bed to get her breakfast. A smile graced her face when she saw that scrambled eggs with cheese and some cinnamon toast were on the tray. While she ate, the pony made himself at home on the bench between the potted plants. Once she finished her meal, he took the cart and left.
Cassie went to grab a tissue for her nose from the end table when she noticed her leg leaning against it once again. She bounced in the bed as she rolled over to pick it up. Looking at it closely, she found the socket partially repaired. It still wasn’t perfect, but the right hole mostly lined up now.
Cassie's eyes widened, and her mouth opened to form a large grin. A few tears welled up in her eyes, not enough to spill over, though. On the table, she saw a roughly round piece of metal. The metal looked rather old, with a few signs of rust pitting. It also appeared to have been beaten with a hammer to straighten it.
Excitedly, Cassie reattached the leg. It took her a little time to bend the ends of the metal pin enough so that it would not slide out as easily. After five days, Cassie was thrilled to finally be able to stand up properly. Swinging her legs out, she firmly planted her feet on the ground. Standing up, she gingerly tested out movement. In her excitement she jumped slightly, only to fall as she landed, trying not to put pressure on the piece of metal holding her leg on.
"Oops," Cassie laughed.
Giggling with a smile, Cassie got back up. She walked over to the window to look at the colony for the first time. The sun hung above the horizon, still a few hours from setting.
Laid out before her, a short distance away, was a small, medieval type town. From what she could see, most of the homes stood two stories tall, with some reaching to three. They appeared to be made of wood, or stone, with thatched roofs. The streets looked clean from her vantage point, and were comprised of mostly a mixture of dirt, gravel, and well-worn grass, with some stone blocks now and then. Lots of bright green grass could be seen around most of the buildings.
It wasn’t the lack of the atmosphere shell every colony had, which was needed to hold in the air and regulate the temperature, that caused Cassie's jaw to drop and her breathing to increase. It was the residents of the town trotting around.
It took several moments before Cassie shook her head. She brought up a hand to brush her hair back behind her ears. Looking again, she confirmed what she saw just seconds ago. Her hand went to the wall as dizziness overcame her. She made her way to the bench and laid down, placing her hand on her forehead. After several minutes of deep breaths, Cassie felt her heart rate dropping. She opened her eyes to stare at the ceiling as she began analyzing what she had just seen.
Multiple ponies ran around in the town beyond the window. Some were just trotting from place to place, others were pulling carts, and some seemed to be operating market stalls. An idea started forming in her mind, one she had not previously thought of.
"A-am I still on that planet? Are these actually the inhabitants of this world?" Cassie wondered aloud with a shiver.
Cassie cursed herself for not thinking of this possibility sooner. The evidence had been placed in front of her eyes from the very start; she only refused to believe it. From waking up and still being weak and hungry, to only having seen the pony things instead of any human doctors. Her mind raced as she thought of other clues. Everything was sized for these ponies, even the bathroom, which she had just assumed was an old Japanese style toilet. Thinking it over, she realized the noises the ponies made did seem too organized to just be ‘animal talk’ noises. Cassie pressed her palms to her face, then slowly slid them through her hair while groaning, before she stood up.
“We… I was prepared to find alien life. I was prepared for Bigfoot, talking birds, little green things, sapient dinosaurs, Alf, even polka-dot jellyfish with arms, but this… never did I expect intelligent life to be equines," Cassie murmured to herself while pacing back and forth.
Cassie froze mid-step as her brain started kicking into overdrive. She began to sweat, and her heart thumped in her chest. She realized she had been treating these ponies like they were some sort of genetically modified service animals, and letting her fear of horses cause her to lash out at them. Cassie began to wonder if they thought of her as some alien to experiment on. She did not want to dwell on that possibility, and pushed the thought away.
They’ve taken care of me so far. Surely they don't plan on doing any weird experiments on me… do they?
Cassie did not want to find out. She spent the rest of the day preparing a plan to leave that night when the moon rose.
When lunch came that afternoon, Cassie ate the food as normal. Just like last night, she noted that the peanuts were not on the tray. Later that night, Redcross brought in her dinner. When she came to pick the cart up, she dropped a bag of peanuts off on the end of the bed. Cassie waited for the nurse to leave before she grabbed the nuts and put them in her backpack.
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The moon sat high in the sky when Cassie awoke from her small nap. The time had come to set her plan into motion. She entered the bathroom and filled up the small water pouches from a pocket of her backpack. Though she would be a little warm, she dressed in her blue jeans and gray, long-sleeved hooded shirt with pink lettering on it.
Cassie slowly opened the door to her room and looked into the hallway for the first time. It seemed that every other light had been turned off, but more importantly to her, there were no ponies in sight. She crept down the hall to a door with light shining through the windows.
Cassie placed her back against the wall. Making sure she stayed in the shadows, she slowly slid up until she could see through the window at an angle. It appeared to be a reception area, where a pony sat behind a large oak desk. Cassie waited for roughly 30 minutes before an opportunity presented itself.
She slipped into the reception area and started making her way to the double doors that appeared to be an exit. When she got close, she heard voices on the other side. Cassie's adrenaline started pumping. She frantically turned left and right, looking for an escape. The door she had come from was too far away, but just to her left was another. She darted through the door just in time to not be seen.
Cassie leaned against the wall of the well-lit hallway, taking fast, deep breaths in an attempt to calm her nerves. Looking around, she saw doors every so often. When she looked into a few of the rooms, she realized these must be patient care rooms, much like her own, but these rooms were colored differently. The walls were more solid blue, with dark swirls in them, and the floor looked like sand; she preferred the cloudy sky of the walls in the room they had placed her in.
Cassie reached up to push an errant strand of hair out of her eyes, and continued down the hallway, coming to a T-intersection. Closing her eyes, she started swirling her arm in a circle and counted to ten. Once she hit ten, she stopped her arm and opened her eyes.
"Right it is," Cassie said, the corners of her lips arching up at her childish way to pick a direction.
Cassie passed many doors en route to the end of the hallway, which ended in a door and a short hallway to the left, with another door at the end. Her eyes twinkled at the sight of moonlight streaming in through the far door's window. She was about to turn and head down to her escape, but a niggling sensation beckoned her to look into the room in front of her. Peeking in the door, she quickly entered.
Thanks to the many windows on the wall, the room shone like silver. Looking around the room, Cassie saw small circular tables littered the room, with cushions surrounding them. Larger rectangular tables with bench-like seating lined the walls. To her right stood a long, buffet style counter, currently empty, and behind that was a swinging door.
Cassie made her way through the door into a kitchen and pantry. Shelves of cooking supplies and food lined the room. She immediately started searching for food to jam into her bag. After about fifteen minutes, she had completely stuffed her bag full of supplies.
"Hah! I won't be hungry for a while at least. Sorry that I have to dine and dash, ponies," Cassie whispered.
Cassie saw some parchment laying on one of the counters. She pulled out a pen from her bag and proceeded to leave a note. She returned to the hallway, feeling a little bad that she was stealing the food and a few other supplies.
As she swiftly made her way to the end of the short hallway, with a slight bounce in her step, Cassie’s stomach fluttered in anticipation. She took a deep breath as she turned the handle and pushed on the door… nothing. She tried again only to get the same result. The door handle violently rattled in her hand. She huffed loudly, and a loud thud echoed through the hallway as her foot struck the door.
Crouching immediately, Cassie’s hands flew to the top of her head as she mentally berated herself for the unthinking action. She listened intently to see if any ponies came because of the noise she made. Minutes felt like hours to her. Finally, she crept to the corner of the hallway. A sigh of relief escaped her lips.
Cassie made her way back towards the reception area. After peering in, she started making her way to the exit. Her hand was on the door when she heard hooves behind her. She did not hear the noise the pony made as she bolted out the door at the best speed she could.
She finally found herself outside, where the moon shone brightly in the night sky. Few clouds blocked the deep, vibrant purple-black of the star-filled backdrop. The town lay out before her. Only a street lamp here or there broke the darkness of the town. Most windows were darkened, the occupants of the homes asleep.
Cassie did not pause to take in the view; she ran as best as her leg would allow into the town. She had just reached the first houses when she heard the pounding of hooves on the hard-packed dirt street, along with yelling. She jumped into an alley and started snaking between the houses. After a few minutes, Cassie found a box just big enough to hide in next to a small wagon. She could hear the ponies nearing as they searched for her. She waited until their voices sounded farther away, then she slowly climbed out of the box and looked around.
Seeing that the coast was clear, Cassie pulled out her ship locator and noted that her ship was southwest of her current location. She put the locator back in her backpack and pulled out her regular little compass, before stuffing it into her pants pocket. She started making her way in that general direction, avoiding the searching ponies.
Cassie had just started crossing a street when she heard a pony yell, followed by a blast of wind. Brushing the hair from her eyes, Cassie looked up, and stumbled back against a wall. She had only seen one of the ponies with wings— that lavender one with the horn. This one didn't have a horn, only the wings. The pegasus had a more angular face, and was larger like Microscope. Combined with the voice from a moment ago, Cassie assumed it was male also. He had a dark gray coat, amber eyes, and a blue-silver mane done up like a mohawk.
Sweat dripped into one of Cassie's eyes, causing her to blink. The pegasus hovered above her, shouting like he was calling the others. She looked around for an escape. When the pegasus turned its head to shout again, Cassie scrambled across the street towards an alley. She was just about to enter the alley before she suddenly found herself smelling the grass between the houses up close. She lay there gasping, trying to get the air back into her lungs.
"Asshole," Cassie wheezed.
Cassie looked around the alley, then smiled as a plan formed in her head. Grabbing some dirt, she turned and flung it at the smug-looking pegasus. He turned away in surprise, giving her time to reach the end of the alley. Cassie watched the pegasus fly towards her from the corner of her eye. Right when he was about to hit her, she rolled to the ground and held up a thick piece of board.
She grunted when her arms jarred in their sockets and the board ripped from her hands, leaving a small splinter in her index finger. The pegasus yelped in pain as he plowed face-first into the dirt, eyes rolling in opposite directions. Taking the opportunity she created, Cassie took off down the adjacent alley, continuing on her way as the other ponies neared her previous location.
It took her quite a while to get to the other side of the town. Cassie had no more incidents, but she also knew a few more ponies were looking for her. She had seen a couple more of the pegasi flying around, and watched another pony run by, strangely barking like a dog. Checking her compass, she continued on.
Cassie began feeling tired, and she had no desire to travel the forest she had been in before at night. She looked around at all the apple trees, looking for a place to make camp. She had a feeling that making camp here would be a bad idea, since the trees were lined up nicely in rows like an orchard. Grabbing a few apples to eat, she continued on through the trees.
Leaning against one of the trees, Cassie took a drink from one of her water pouches, then let a little water splash on her face to rinse off some of the sweat from earlier. She was just about to continue on her way when the leaves rustled, and her skin goose bumped as the wind hit the water on her skin. In that brief moment, she saw a structure off to the side of where she had been heading. Picking the new direction, she made her way toward what she had seen.
Several minutes later, Cassie found herself standing below a decently sized treehouse. In the moonlight, she could not tell the color of the treehouse. It had a ramp with raised wooden slats, which made a 90° turn halfway up, leading to a balcony which encompassed the treehouse, with a rope hanging almost to the ground from a branch with a large knot on the end. On the structure at the top of the ramp stood a door with a heart carved into it, framed by wood of a lighter shade. Cassie spotted a window above the door with a flower box attached, and looked closely for any sign of movement behind the glass. Not noticing any, she moved her gaze to the larger window with wooden shutters on the right side of the treehouse and repeated the process.
Circling the treehouse, keeping sure to stay hidden by the apple trees, Cassie took note of another ramp just like the one from the ground. This ramp led from the balcony to another smaller treehouse with a telescope at the very top of the tree. Continuing to the left side of the main treehouse, she spotted another four-paned window, just like the right side, but also a small square window next to it.
Not wanting a surprise, Cassie picked two fallen apples from a nearby tree. She hurled an apple at the door, and a wet splat sounded against the wood as it splattered from the impact. Cassie hid behind a tree, waiting for any sign of movement. After a minute, she repeated the process. Satisfied no one was home, she picked a few fresh apples from a tree before she climbed the ramp and entered the building.
Once inside, Cassie plopped her bag down. Detaching her bedroll, she unrolled it to get her flashlight out so she could look at her home for the night. To her right was a green painted ladder leading to the next floor. When she saw that the two larger windows of the room had pink, checkerboard patterned curtains, she moved to close them. Unfortunately, the smaller square window had no covering, so she would have to be careful not to shine the light directly at it.
The walls were of a light-colored wood— pine or aspen, Cassie assumed. In one of the corners sat a crate, containing what looked like arts and crafts supplies on it, while a small, somewhat lopsided round table stood in the other corner. Cassie moved across the light green floor to the center of the far wall, where a podium stood. She brushed past the podium to inspect the red banner that spanned the wall. She giggled at the crudely cut and sewn on blue patch in the shape of a shield, but she shuddered upon noticing the yellow silhouette of a pony wearing a cape while rearing up. She backed up quickly, almost knocking over a lantern that hung on the back wall under the banner.
Cassie decided this would be as good a place as any to sleep for the night. She laid her bedroll and blanket out on the white fringed, shaggy, brown rug in the center of the room for extra padding, then grabbed one of the cushions laying around the room to use as a pillow.
Before she dozed off for the night, she ate one more of the juicy apples, hoping she would wake before anyone came to the treehouse.
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There's not enough stories where Pinkie gets punched in the face for surprising the Human so Im glad you did it I enjoyed that.
Pinkie had that coming.
no offense,Pinkie
Pinkie, love ya, but this was going to happen eventually, so better a human than something that could actually do some damage to you.
Oh Topaz, you silly joker
I'd absolutely love to help you edit. I'm an editor myself, and this story has me quite intrigued. Really liking where the story is going, rather than the usual HiE wish fulfillment.
Today, Chapter 3 was edited. Grammar was the only thing that changed other than one little section.
The section with Kozlov near the end has been expanded to my orginal plan for it. The over all happenings in it are the same, only the way it is presented has changed.
Keep it coming, this is good :)
thanks for having pinkie get punched for surprising her, I like her character just a bit to exuberant sometimes.
>the CMC clubhouse
This can only end in tears...
>CMC
Doooooom
Just one line to translate in this chapter; here it is:
There are no words in any human tongue that can adequately describe just how satisfying seeing that pink demon getting decked was. Her heart's usually in the right place, but. . .
If only more HiE protagonists did that.
Okay, this is getting beyond ridiculous.
That's not a "moderate" case of equinophobia. That's full-blown panic attacks, on sight, at a distance, every single time. That's the kind of thing you take meds for. Really heavy ones best enjoyed with lava lamps, an electric guitar, and the urge to stare at your hands. It's also the sort of thing that utterly disqualifies you from being an astronaut or in the military, much less both.
For perspective, it's pretty rare for postwar PTSD to be that strong and that consistent.
A space traveler from the future, presumably going out with the possiblity in mind of meeting alien life, would at least have enough of an abstract concept of sapience to recognize it being displayed to this degree. It's not exactly a difficult idea to grasp, and she's been awake and coherent more than long enough to remember that she's on an alien planet far from human space.
No. No you weren't. The last couple chapters seem to indicate you've never consumed a single piece of sci-fi or fantasy media in your poor, sheltered life.
Also the hospital staff wrestled down and sedated a patient known for severe and frequent episodes over a cut on her finger? The buck?
7225138 There is a big difference when something is close enough to touch you quickly that you are afraid of, than if it was in a place it could not, like behind a fence. That little spider can be 5 feet from me, and I will freak out and usually jump... until I figure out how to kill it with out it being able to get to me.
Anything but equines.
It was a lot more than just a minor cut. She sliced open her hand between two of the knuckles. It required healing magic, and would have required a few stitches here. A little cut would not have left a bloody mark on the side of Pinkie Pie. And they sedated her quickly to not give her much a chance to freak out.
7225138
I have to agree about the phobia, her absolutely pathetic failure to recognize speech patterns enough to realize they were actually speaking a true language, and that clearly she wasn't properly prepared to accept likely forms of alien life (quadrupedal life makes up the vast majority of ALL land based non-insectile life on Earth, after all).
The only thing I disagree with is the bloody knuckles.
Even if it were just a little scrape, ANY time you break the skin on someone or something's TEETH, you're very likely to get a serious (easily fatal if left untreated) infection.
The Doctors said she'd have needed stiches if not for the healing magic, so it wasn't just a superficial scrape either.
Well, did you heard second one ever? (I mean Orca's)