Gifts and Curses

by flamevulture17

14. Atavism

[Chapter 14]

Atavism

---

The hospital appeared to be deserted for the lack of a single pony when Applejack and Andrew entered through the front doors. For a second, Applejack thought the building might have been closed, but knew that couldn't have been the case because the hospital was always open. They advanced several steps further in the room. The sound of their hoofsteps impacting the floor made their presence known. It started to feel strange for the both of them for finding the hospital unusually empty at first impression.

Seconds later, after standing with their heads looking at the framed pictures around the room, a white Earth pony with a light pink mane and a white bun hat bearing a red cross on her head strolled down the main hall.

“Oh my!”

A soon as Nurse Redheart laid eyes on an injured pony on the shoulders an orange pony, she instantly rushed over to their aid. Her first reaction was to help first, ask later.

“Let's get you checked in,” she said, taking over for Applejack as they walked slowly down the main hall to a nearby room. Applejack trailed closely behind them.

The room contained no other ponies in a similar state as Andrew, nor evidence of any pony recently housed in the beds. The three hospital beds left no sign of medical equipment. It all seemed so empty to Applejack, but she had more to worry about than an eerie feeling about the hospital.

They stopped in the middle of the room when a residual memory seeped into Andrew's mind. He wasn't quite sure if it was real memory, or even his own memory. A brief vision of a hospital room suddenly came to mind. However, throughout his life, not once had he been inside a health facility to be treated with any kind of medical problem. He'd never seen a hospital bed before either. Of course, the last time he had serious injury was treated by his mother at home at the age of ten at the expense of a biking accident, but even that may have been just as minor as his current injuries. It seemed like these ponies were over-concerned with his health. As for the flash memory, it left his mind in a convulsive way, causing his mind to go blank.

His eyelids began to flicker, then he suddenly slumped back in a complete loss in balance. Nurse Redheart and Applejack caught him before he could collapse to the floor. Andrew lost consciousness.

The nurse and farm pony looked at the unconscious stallion, then looked at each other.

“What in the hay jus' happened!?” Applejack asked.

“I'm not sure. Did he hit his head that might have caused a concussion?”

“Ah found him at the farm like this. He was hurt bad. Ah didn't see how.”

“Okay, let's get him on the bed and we'll get to work on him right away.”

Applejack and Nurse Redheart both carried Andrew onto the the nearest undisturbed hospital bed and set him down as gently as possible. As easy as a task it was to lift the fairly light unicorn to a safer and secure place, they had trouble with the clothes that covered most of his injured limbs.

“Wait right here, I'll get Nurse Sweetheart to help with determining his injuries.”

“What about a doctor?” Applejack wondered.

Before Nurse Redheart could respond, she already dashed out of the room, leaving the question unanswered. Applejack was beginning to sense an unnatural vibe in the air as if something didn't feel right about the hospital. She also thought what that meant for Andrew's condition, whether it was worse than they realized. Her gaze met with the sleeping face of Mr. Fera, pondering on what he said to her earlier. At first, she didn't believe a word from his little tale because she had never heard of some of the words that he spoke. She could tell he wasn't lying, but saw that it frightened him when they first made eye contact. Something was different about Andrew from the way he spoke and the items he wore on his body.

A few seconds later, Nurse Redheart strolled through the door. A light-purple Earth pony with purple and white mane followed after her, wearing a similar bun hat bearing the same symbol colors as that of the hospital itself.

“How bad is it?” Nurse Sweetheart said.

“Ah was hopin' y'all could tell me,” said Applejack.

“We'll take a look then,” said Nurse Redheart.

They examined the unconscious turquoise unicorn by attempting to remove the strange attire without adding more damage Andrew's body. They first took the gray bag off around his neck and gave it to Applejack. The farm filly let the nurses work and took the bag off to the side to examine it herself, trying to figure out how to open the darn thing to see what was inside. Next, the nurses slowly removed his pants that didn't quite fit and got tangled with his tail, but were relatively easy to slip off, setting them aside. The most tedious task came last with his garment on the upper torso. It struck both nurses as odd when they noticed equally sized bulges on each side of the stallion's body. They ignored it, thinking it was just excessive wrinkles due to the scale of the cloth draped over his body. They lifted Andrew's head to remove the shirt, but the next thing they saw made them freeze.

…

Applejack was preoccupied with trying to figure out a way to open the bag in front of her without ripping it apart when she heard a small squeal and light gasp behind her, followed by a heart-pounding silence. The thought of discovering some kind of life-threatening injury gave her chills.

She hesitated to turn around, but when she jerked herself a hundred and eighty degrees, she was met with two nurse ponies in complete shock. Applejack's head was below the height of the bed from her position, so she couldn't share the same level of astonishment. She frowned and motioned herself to her feet to get a glimpse of what frightened the nurses so much. Right then, she understood why when her eyes could not believe what they were looking at.

There, attached to the side of the unconscious body of her injured companion, was unmistakeably a feathered pegasus wing.

Applejack slowly stepped forward with her eyes fixed on the wing of a pegasus that seemed to be on the body of what appeared to her as nothing more than a unicorn a minute earlier. It shocked her to have observed the something that made Andrew strange from the very beginning. What made it shocking was the fact that he was a regular sized pony, no larger that herself. An alicorn this whole time? There must be a mistake. She shook her head to see if it was an illusion. It wasn't.

“What-” Applejack stopped herself as she was at a loss of words.

Both nurses were also at a loss of words as they simply stared at each other, then back at the peaceful face of the stallion where a horn was clearly visible. They couldn't believe what they found. Nor did Applejack want to admit what her eyes were looking at. Another feature that they noticed was the lack of a cutie mark. An alicorn with no cutie mark. There's no way.

Moments later, Nurse Redheart and Nurse Sweetheart quickly broke eye contact with the wing and continued to remove the shirt off Andrew completely and carefully began to move him into a more comfortable position. They set his head to rest on the pillow and covered him with the blanket of the hospital bed, deliberately covering his body up to the neck. Once finished, they turned to Applejack.

“Why- why didn't you tell us?” asked Nurse Redheart with a shaky voice.

“Ah didn't know,” Applejack denied. “Ah don't even think to poor fella knows either.”

“No?”

“He told me he was a unicorn when ah asked fer his name. He then told me 'bout what happened to him, but it made no sense. How can he call himself a unicorn when he ain't?”

Nurse Sweetheart and Nurse Redheart looked back at each other, then over to Andrew sleeping soundly on the hospital bed. The expressions on their faces showed empathy and sorrow for the stallion while their hearts pounded from an uncontrolled fearful concern. They didn't quite understand what they were dealing with, other than an injured alicorn with no other ponies to accompany him. If he was related to the royal sisters in any way, surely he'd have some guard pony following him around. None of it made sense to both nurses, and it made less sense to Applejack. It all happened without warning.

“So, what do we do?” Applejack pondered.

“I'm... not sure. Where did you say he came from?” said Nurse Redheart.

Applejack had listened to Andrew while he tried explaining his dilemma earlier, but didn't quite catch a name of a town or city where he came from.

“Ah don't know, he was talkin' so fast, ah didn't understand everythin',” Applejack shrugged.

“Okay. Well, we'll just treat his injuries regardless, and we'll make sure to take extra care.”

“Nothing to worry, dear,” said Nurse Sweetheart. “He'll be better in no time.”

Applejack wanted to stay by Andrew's side a little longer, but understood the nurses' intentions. She fully respected them to help Andrew out the best they can, but was a little cautious with trust. She just didn't want to leave him all alone.

“Alrighty then. Can y'all tell him ah'll be right back when he wakes up? Ah won't be long. Ah gotta see if mah friend Twilight knows anythin' 'bout this.”

“Of course, Miss Applejack,” replied Nurse Redheart.

Applejack left them to tend to Andrew's wounds and walked out of the room and down the hallway to the main lobby. Many thoughts flowed through her head now that a more important matter had presented itself. More important than her work at the farm. She didn't even get to tell her family where she had gone or why.

She paused at the front door and her gaze found a particular pegasus pony whizzing around outside through the round window. Almost instantly, she forgot what made her so concerned and made her way out the door to meet her speedy rival.

“Howdy there, Rainbow Dash,” she said.

The cyan pegasus finished a move she had gotten so good at perfecting and descended down to her orange friend.

“Oh hey, what's up Applejack? What are you doing here at the hospital?” Rainbow Dash cocked her head a bit.

“Ah was gonna ask ya the same thing.”

“Well, my new moves happen to take me here, I guess. Wait, are you here to see somepony? Is somepony hurt!?” Rainbow leaned in to Applejack's face with eyes slightly more open than before.

Applejack retracted in annoyance, stepping back to give herself some space. She was tempted to tell everypony she knew about her new friend Andrew, but had a hard time keeping it a secret. Keeping a secret is different from lying. The only ponies who knew where actually the ones who discovered it, but that was all. For all the times that a surprise like this came along, it wasn't so bad in the end, but she knew Andrew was a completely different kind of surprise.

“Uh.” Applejack looked away for a moment, “Ya, ah took in a hurt alic- … I mean, pony. Ah'm glad I was around to save him.”

“Oh good, you- … wait, save... him? Was it serious? And what do you mean you were 'around'?” Rainbow looked more suspicious than relieved. The thought of somepony in an accident that would have otherwise been worse if Applejack weren't 'around' was unsettling.

“Ah'm on mah way to Twilight's place,” said Applejack as she began to walk in the direction of the library. “Wanna come with?”

“Who is this pony?” Rainbow Dash said without motioning to follow Applejack. Instead she started toward the hospital. “Is he a friend of yours?”

Applejack turned around to notice her daredevil friend walking the opposite direction, then snapped back to block Rainbow's path.

“No no, he's all fine and dandy. Nothin' to worry about here, hehe. Ah'll tell ya 'bout it later. Jus' let the feller rest.” It wasn't exactly a lie, but it attacked her with guilt.

“Are you sure?” Rainbow squinted her eyes at the farm pony. Applejack managed a fake grin, but it was enough to fool her unimpressed friend. They both stared at each other for a moment before Rainbow Dash gave in. “Okay then. Where were you going again?”

“To see Twilight.”

“Oh, yeah, right, I haven't seen her all day. Might as well drop by.”

With that, both ponies headed off towards the center of Ponyville. Applejack couldn't help but think about Andrew and the details of what happened to him. Her belief in his story didn't change and neither did the truth.

---

*ZZAP!*

A bright light enveloped empty space on a dirt road where an intense magical spell instantaneously appeared out of nowhere. A second prior, there was still air, then as quickly as it came, a bright light flashed and gradually faded, revealing two unicorns and a dark blue alicorn.

Several flocks of bird flew off after the initial sound roared significantly louder than a conventional teleportation spell, but not enough to cause shatter windows. It simply caused temporary deafness. The ground shook and the displacement of air was just was Princess Luna predicted. Twilight Sparkle and Lyra Heartstrings lost some balance as they rematerialized, but maintained enough balance to stay on their hooves.

They took their time adjusting to the fatigue of reentry while Princess appeared unfazed, checking the environment for anything that might have gone wrong.

“Did it work?” said Twilight, keeping her eyes closed as her legs shook.

Lyra regained her composure to see that the spell worked better than she expected.

“Yes,” said Princess Luna.

Twilight slowly opened her eyes to see that everything was normal. Their arrival took them from Canterlot to Ponyville in a matter of seconds with no hiccups. She sighed in relief.

“Wow, Lyra! You were right.”

“It was nothing really,” Lyra blushed.

“Are you two alright?” Luna asked.

“I'm okay,” said Twilight.

“Me too.”

“Perfect,” Luna glanced down the road and found the entrance to the Apple farm. “First order of business is to stop by the Apple family and go on from there. Our priority now is to find exactly where the discharge occurred, with their permission of course.”

“Luna? May I run the library first to get a few things?” Twilight bluntly asked, feeling bad to have come unprepared.

“Request granted,” said Luna, feeling silly to have sounded so formal. “I will carry on with Lyra to Sweet Apple Acres. Join us there when you have what you need.”

“Sure thing, Princess. I won't be long.” Without a moment to lose, Twilight took off in the direction of Ponyville.

Twilight felt bad for leaving Princess Luna and Lyra behind for the investigation, but felt compelled to have a basis of information by her side. She ran down the dirt road that led her directly to Ponyville. It didn't take long for her to get there, but since the teleportation spell took a lot of energy out of her, it slowed her pace down significantly. She became exceedingly exhausted by the time she reached the edge of town where a few ponies wandered around. So exhausted in fact, she was ready to drop dead.

As she came to the first house, she slowed her pace to a trot, then to a walk, then even more so to the speed of a crawling foal. Hunger and dehydration also plagued her body, but only a few houses to go and she'd reach her home away from home. For what it's worth, her hopes on the unofficial case study on Lyra's connection to a non-existent being and the official investigation on an ancient magical mystery amazed her to no end. She had almost forgotten everything she had planned for the weekend and everything that occurred so far that day made sure of it.

Before long, she saw the large tree library ahead of her, just as she left in the morning. As long as-

“Twilight!”

A familiar voice from a distance called out to her before she could make it to the doorstep. She turned to find two of her friends, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, heading in her direction. A previous thought came back to her that caused her to freeze in place, yards from the front door of the library.

“Looks like we caught you just in time,” said Rainbow as she and Applejack stopped before the purple mare.

Twilight tried to hide her displeasure to meet more of her friends for the day, after being told not to tell them of anything about her current assignment. Things kept getting difficult for her at every turn.

“You alright?” Rainbow continued. “You don't look so good.”

Twilight took a deep breath, “I'm fine, I just came to borrow a few things.”

“But you live here. Why do you need to-”

“I'm sorry girls, I can't say anything more than that.”

“More than what?” said Applejack, now concerned. “Ah jus' came to ask ya somethin', but yer actin' stranger than usual. Now ya got me worried.”

“I'll tell you both when I'm done, I just need some things and then I'll be on my way.” Twilight turned around and used what little magic she had left to open the door and stepped inside.

“Where are you going?”

Twilight paused for a moment halfway through the door, then proceeded on inside with both her friends in tow. In Twilight's mind, every word she said made her two friends more suspicious of her actions. Every time she tried to work around a conversation by going off topic, her friends were consistent with bringing it back on topic to what was most important.

Applejack and Rainbow stood in the middle of the library with confused looks on their faces. They simply watched Twilight bounce all over the book shelves with interest. They grew worried that something bothered Twilight, and vice versa when Twilight noticed something bothered Applejack.

“Come on sugarcube, what is more important than yer friends?” Applejack asked as Twilight finished her last sweep of a shelf.

Twilight finished her detailed search by placing three books in her extra saddlebag, having left her main one back in Canterlot. She stopped before her friends to give them an honest answer.

“When you put it that way, nothing, but this is a little complicated at the moment. I'll tell you anyway.” Twilight took a long breath. “I'm here with Princess Luna and Lyra to investigate some weird magic, that's all. You might want to come with me Applejack because the Princess felt the strange anomaly at Sweet Apple Acres.”

This time, Applejack froze with what Twilight just told her. Her eyes locked on to the purple unicorn in realization of the importance of the alicorn stallion named Andrew she rescued from her farm. The purpose of getting to Twilight was to reveal him to her in the first place. It all came together somehow, but at the same time, didn't make her feel any better. Applejack simply began putting the pieces together. Most importantly, the appearance of Andrew with a dual visit from Princess Luna.

“S- so,” she blink profusely. “Ya said weird magic?”

“Yep.”

“Well, ya might wanna see what ah have to show y'all both.” Applejack looked at Rainbow Dash.

“Is this that pony you saved from-”

“Ya ya, ah told ya he's alright. Ah think ya might wanna come take a gander at it.”

“Can it wait?” Twilight said. “Perhaps you should come with me first since we are trying to look for signs of strange magic at your farm.”

“No no, y'all go on ahead, Twilight. Ah'll just stay here with Rainbow.”

“Hold on, can I tag along, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash begged.

“I don't know, I can't-.”

Almost immediately, the fast-flying pegasus darted out the door stirring up a strong gust of wind, blowing Applejack's hat off without letting Twilight finish. Applejack trotted outside in vexation to where her hat landed. Twilight followed and closed the door behind her. Her strength returned to normal after having a quick snack in the kitchen before looking for the books to put in her saddlebag. Even though it wasn't much, it was enough to keep her going for a few more hours.

“Ugh, never mind. So Applejack, can you quickly tell me what it is you wanted the show me?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, uh, maybe later” Applejack contemplated her options, but decided to have her friends complete their work before she'd tell them about Andrew. “Ya look busy, so when yer done, can ya meet me at the hospital?”

“The hospital?”

---

Andrew's head pounded, like someone took a bat and hit him over the head it. It was similar to the mental agony right before he teleported to the strange place with weird ponies and such, but the pain was bearable. He couldn't quite recall much of what happened before his collapse, only that he'd been aided to a hospital by an orange colored pony.

He slowly opened his heavy eyes. A spray of light caused him to squint just like every other time he blacked out, but this time, his vision was already functioning and the contour of a nurse pony stared back at him. He lay on his right side, facing the window that assaulted his eyes with light.

“Am I dead?”

“Far from it,” The nurse chuckled. “I'd say you're healthier than ever. Your wounds have healed completely. I never seen anything like it. You were... hurt pretty bad.”

“Thanks for reminding me,” he joked, feeling guilty for saying it in a mean way. The pink and white pony slumped back a little.

Andrew moved around in the bed sheet that covered his whole but his head. His form felt just as real as before he dropped unconscious. One thing that kept him from leaping straight off the bed was how cold he felt. Regardless of heat trapped under the sheets, the lack of cotton contacting his body was unnerving and uncomfortable. No clothes meant a cognitive reaction in being naked. Although, he noticed that the ponies he's seen so far did not wear clothes, which is understandable given that horses didn't use them. The only question that came back to mind was: What up with the colors of these ponies?

While helpless either way, he shuffled to his left to find his clothes folded neatly on a small table beside the bed and his gray duffel bag laying lifeless on the floor. To express his relief, he sighed and sat up.

“How are you feeling?” the nurse asked.

“Like hell. How long was I out?”

“Oh, uh, not long,” The nurse began shaking. “About half an hour. Would you, um, like me to get you anything?”

“My clothes would be nice. I don't want out of this bed until I put them back on,” he said.

“Uh, uh...” the white pony stammered, then bowed. “As- as you wish.”

“Why did you take them off anyway? You didn't have to take them all off. The pants could have stayed on.” Andrew looked at her devilishly.

“We- uh, thought you might have been hurt under them.”

The light-pink-maned pony paused for a moment. Andrew noticed her fear of him rose the more he spoke. Since his shirt and pants were just out of reach, the nurse slowly walked to the small table. She grabbed both articles of clothing with her mouth and carefully set them on top of him, holding her head down in a bow as she backed away. It struck Andrew as odd.

“If you don't mind, I like to dress with no one else in the room.”

“Oh! Of course. I'll leave you to it.” She bowed once again, then left the room rather quickly, shutting the door behind her.

Andrew was now alone. For the longest time, everything freaked him out since being transported to this... whatever this place is. He forgot the name already. Equal- ... something. The ponies, the hospital, the clouds in the sky, felt like something from a dream. Even in his earlier state of injury a half hour ago, he swore this place was what messed him up in the first place. After all, his unicorn pony form looks almost exactly like the nurse and the orange pony he met so far. Andrew stared at the door for a few more seconds just to finish up on his contemplation.

He hopped off the bed, sliding out of the sheet that covered his body. He contacted the floor on all four hooves – which he had gotten used to by now – and started to get his clothes back on. With the difficulty having no fingers, disproportionate shape of his body, and tail getting in the way, he decided to only put his shirt on. Unaware of the extra limbs that were attached to his torso, he slid the extra large long-sleeve shirt of with ease and walked over to a nearby mirror to see just how big it really was. It almost felt like a huge blanket on his back, but with leg holes. It was so large that it wrinkled up in several places, hiding the pegasus wings for which Andrew was completely oblivious to.

After looking at himself in the mirror for a while, the reflection staring back at him gave him a reality check. Reason for that was the thought of having to live with it for a few more hours, if not forever, just until someone had the answer as to why this happened to him and hopefully send him back. Andrew walked back to where he left his pants on the floor, which he picked up by mimicking how the nurse held them and placed them on back on the bed. Half clothed still felt weird, but he wasn't sure if he needed to be clothed anymore rightly assuming the society of tiny horses didn't wear anything. Finally he grabbed his bag with his teeth, and without any good way of opening it, wrapped it around his neck. He was ready to find out exactly what was going on.

Andrew pushed the door open and walked down the hall to the front waiting room. He was met by two nurses, one of them he recognized, and another pony. A unicorn with a doctor's outfit on. They were expecting him. Applejack was right, he wasn't the only unicorn.

“Hi,” Andrew began. “Thanks for everything, but I don't know if my mom's medical insurance works here. What do I do to check out?”

Without a word, all three of them simply bowed, to his surprise. An awkward silence filled the room for the fifth time since the start of the day.

“What I say?” Andrew's kept his head still, but his eyes bounced around the room.

“Oh, uh,” spoke the same white nurse with pink hair. “You don't need to check out, you are free to go whenever you like.”

“Just like that? No charge, I mean sure, insurance covers that, but like I said, I don't have any. My mom does, I think. There's gotta be more to it than that.” Andrew shrugged and started toward the door.

“Oh, wait, I almost forgot,” the white nurse stopped him before he could leave. “Applejack said she'd be back shortly. Do you want to wait for her?”

“I just wanna find out where I am first. I'd really like to stick around, but maybe I'll have some luck finding her around somewhere.” Andrew looked around the room one last time. “This place could use a little more... action. You know, for, uh... ponies, to come in with a warm welcome, unlike me.” He hesitated to say the words, but the whole time it was a joke to him and laughed as he finished talking.

Before any of the three medical ponies could stall his visit, Andrew slipped out the door and back outside, feeling totally awkward with that final statement. He was splashed with warm and calming air, as opposed to the chilly indoors of the hospital. It was the opposite of his own cold and wet neighborhood, where he apparently left his brother alone with his immature friends. That thought didn't make him feel any better, but the weather of where he was standing certainly helped a little. He couldn't quite explain the feeling, but everything seemed so peaceful, yet unreal around here, especially with the natives that turned out to be ponies. Reality was completely thrown out the window.

As his eyes scanned the surroundings, he found scattered houses that eventually clustered together in the distance. His only choice was to find someone that can tell him that he wasn't insane and everything was either a some level of dream, a bizarre setting for the afterlife, or both. Without second thoughts, he made his way towards the center of the small town.

As the number of houses grew, Andrew couldn't help but notice how European the exteriors appeared. Most of them looked the same, but a few stood out significantly. The hospital definitely had an old feel to it on the outside, but the interior was slightly more modern looking. The landscape was nice and the atmosphere didn't look like it was plagued with smog or pollutants. The clean smell of the country side in this strange place was noticeably different from that of central Missouri for which Andrew could recall was undoubtedly stale. Here, however, felt like a world untouched by man. There were no paved roads, no cars at all, no airplane trails in the sky, and especially, no people.

Andrew came up to a cylindrical light-purple building, two stories high. It was quite fancy and visually appealing with the amount of decorative ornaments on the outside. It appeared to be some sort of fashion business for its excessive design and architecture. He wondered what the inside looked like. Though, he didn't want to go barging into places in a foreign place demanding for answers. He didn't belong in this world. If there was a way to get back home, he'd do it in a heartbeat, but for now, he was flying blind.

For a few seconds, Andrew observed the structure and assumed the entrance to be on the opposite side. He took more caution, using a large tree for cover. He then quietly hugged to outer wall where he eventually reached the entry point. Just a quick peek, he thought. Before he could push the front door to peek inside, voices came so suddenly that he didn't have any time to react. The purple door swung open and hit him in the head.

*bop*

“Ow!” he complained, holding a hoof to his head and shuffling backwards.

“Oh no, I hit somepony,” said a young squeaky voice from behind the door as it recoiled back closed.

As Andrew backed away from the danger of being struck again, three tiny heads of three different colors slowly poked out from behind the door, one after the other, and started scanning their surroundings. Only one of the heads revealed a horn, but the rest were normal. As soon as the eyes of their small faces met those of a unicorn stallion standing off to their left, just feet from the door, they instantly jolted out of their hiding spots and ran to his side.

“We're so sorry, mister,” started the small white unicorn in an adorably sweet voice. “We didn't know you were there.”

Another staring contest began as the three young ponies waited for forgiveness. Andrew stumbled over words in his mind of what to say to the tiny things standing before him. Unsuspecting to the ponies, he inspected them, top to bottom. They were unmistakeably children that were no older than ten, maybe eleven. Each pony was brightly colored, perfectly groomed, and had different hairstyles. One had a sort of spiky style while another had the complete opposite. The white pony had a small horn on its head, further verifying the older farm pony's claim of more unicorns. Each of them where wearing a sort of cape tied around their necks with a symbol of a yellow pony figure on a solid blue shield. They weren't exactly clothes, but looked pretty neat to Andrew.

“Um, hi,” he said.

“Howdy,” said the yellow one with a red ribbon tied into a bow on her head. She had Southern accent, strikingly familiar to Applejack.

“Are you alright?” continued the orange one, a slightly darker tone than that of Applejack.

“I'm fine,” Andrew forced a smile. “I was just, uh, I was- uh... … never mind.”

“Did you come to see Rarity for advice on your fashion statement?” the white pony giggled, noticing the single piece of clothing Andrew had on.

“Sweetie Belle, don't be rude,” retorted the yellow pony while nudging her slightly with a hoof.

“Sorry, Applebloom, I didn't mean it.”

“Wait, Aaappleblooom? Do you by any chance know someone named Applejack?” said Andrew.

“Well sure, she's mah big sister,” Applebloom said with large grin painted on her face.

“I was kinda looking for her. Do you know where she is?” he asked.

“She should be at Sweet Apple Acres helpin' with the apple harvest.”

“But she brought me to the hospital earlier. I don't remember much, but the nurses said she'd be back soon, she's been gone a while. I thought I'd find her somewhere around here. She couldn't have gone far.”

“Oh, should we go look for her for you?” said Sweetie Belle. “How about it, Cutie Mark Crusaders?”

Andrew's face went from optimistic to downright confused.

“Cutie what?”

Comments

[skultech]

Dude I know the feeling of having way too much school work.
Take your time to write it. Nobody is rushing you.
The story is pretty good and in the last chapter I was really thinking something scary would happen in the hospital.
You really described it like in a horror movie.

[Snowfyre]

oh didnt expect that
cant wait for the next chapter

[Everwinter]

Good chapter. Take your time if you need to. We aren't going anywhere.

[flamevulture17]

Thanks everyone for the support, I couldn't have gotten this far if it weren't the people who read it. I know it's not the most original story, but it's something I've committed myself to over the past several months. Write and study is pretty much routine now.

1653382
Hehe, I created a false sense of suspense that never came. I've tried to include more like that in subtle ways.

1701659

[butterfield pancake]

Oh Nice Andrew didn't notice his wings

[Hereward]

Did you have to make him an alicorn? You've just lost points for that.