//------------------------------// // 4: The Release // Story: Under Her Wing // by Memz //------------------------------// I was nudged out of my sleep by something being nudged under my chin. Apparently whoever held the object noticed, because I felt it slide away after I heard a snip. “Sorry to bother, I’m just cutting you out of your cast, I took scans and you appear to be fine. How did you heal so quickly, anyway?” It was Fresh Bandage, again. She replaced what I now knew to be serrated scissors, and continued. “With all the severe injuries you had when you came in, I was sure you would take another month before you were out of this!” “I guess I have healing in my blood or something,”I joked, earning a look of confusion, “I was transfused with some special blood so I would heal.” I half-truthed. The confusion cleared. “I don’t know of any blood like that being stored here, but perhaps there was some transported from the castle.” She assumed, obviously clueless about the massive royal transfusion I was told I recieved. “Anyway, I’m certain that you’re eager to see the room you’ve been staying in, so let’s cut the conversation so I can focus.” I felt the scissors start to move faster as she concentrated on the cast, revealing the pale orange fur underneath. Soon enough, I was completely out of the cast, and I scooted against the head of the bed to take in myself and my surroundings. My tail, seemed to match the curly red and yellow locks that made up the hair on my head. Directly at the base of it, I saw final confirmation of the gender loss that I had previously panicked about, though I now felt more indifferent about it, resigned to the fact that everything I knew about my body was now completely different. I had some kind of tattoo on each side of my hind legs, picturing a radiating sun. There were a few dried blood stains, some with what appeared to be light scarring underneath. The room was about as standard as it could get for a hospital room. White walls, monitoring systems,a few chairs for guests, a small bathroom, and an impatient looking Fresh Bandage… Right. “Are you done studying yourself yet?” She asked, as my eyes locked onto her. Now that I could see the white unicorn in full, I saw that she also had a leg marking, resembling crossed bandages. “Get up and stop eyeing me like a newborn foal, you need to start trying to walk if you’re going to get back to your life.” Fresh was getting stern with me. Heh, I know just what to say. “Geez, alright mom.” I say, as I worked myself to the edge of the bed, bracing for impact between my face and the floor. When it didn’t happen, I opened my eyes, to find myself staring down at my hooves, which were firmly planted on the ground. I looked up, to find exactly the reaction I was looking for, flustered embarrassment. “What, can’t take a friendly joke?” She dragged her hoof against the ground for a moment, before collecting herself. “N-no, I guess I can’t. Anyway, at least you can stand. That’s good.” She finished restoring her mood before continuing, “Now we have to see if you can walk, at all.” She moved to my side, “I’m here in case you’re going to fall over.” I had no idea how to start with this. What did I even move first? Foreleg, hind leg? Left, or right? Either way, I had to get started somehow. I tried to start with my left fore. I took a step. What would I move next? Perhaps the right hind leg. That seems to have worked. Maybe I walk in a cross pattern? That would make it finish with front right then hind left. I tried my idea, and found that it worked, and felt natural. In fact, it felt… oddly familiar. I couldn’t remember ever trying to walk like this, so perhaps it could be the muscle memory of this body. Soon enough, I was doing a fast enough pace that Fresh had decided to stand to the side and watch as I learned how I moved in this body. It wasn’t long before I decided to stop, with a contended smirk on my face. “I feel like I got this, are you sure I need rehab?” I turned to face her, “Other than feeling stiff when I started, I’m walking perfectly okay.” “Well, you seem to be walking okay,” Fresh thought aloud, “I’m sure we can brush over that part of the rehab. We still need to check if your mana pool has atrophied any. Could you try to levitate this fork for me?” My face fell, as her horn lit, followed by a plastic fork sliding out of her mane and onto the floor. I tried to mentally command it, will it to float, but it didn’t work. I tried to pull off an incantation in my head, Wingardium Leviosa, but that didn’t seem to work either. I almost gave up, before feeling some sort of twitch, followed by a quick feeling similar to having the skin on my forehead pulled. I brought my attention back to the outside world, to find that Fresh Bandage was looking up, and the fork was missing. I followed her eyes, only to find that the fork was embedded into a chunk of the ceiling, and said chunk of the ceiling was completely broken free from the rest of it, and teetering at an angle, as if it cold fall at any second. “Uhh… sorry?” I said, as we both backed away from the area for our safety, “I think… I underestimated myself?” “Yeah…” She drew out, before forcing herself to regain composure... again. “Right. I think that means you passed the test with flying colors. You should do fine without any of the rehab, as long as you tone the magic down a bit, now let’s go sign you out before anypony notices the hole.” I silently agreed, before pondering over the vernacular I just heard as we made our way to the front desk. If my logic is right, then through Fresh Bandage’s use of anypony would hint that the name of the equine species is fittingly ‘pony’, and I would likely hear other vernacular and names parodied to match as well. Now I see where Canterlot got its name. Heh, Camelot. The walk had nothing worth noting, other than the fact that I had to figure out how a pony could possibly keep their balance on a flight of stairs, or three of them in my case. Turns out it’s really not that hard when you figure it out. When we got to the front desk, there was a pale pink pony with a red mane, the first I’d seen without a horn, wearing a bored expression, tapping her chin against the desk. When she noticed us, she perked up. “What do we need? Did somepony get rushed in the ER? Do you need Scalpels? Yes?” She questioned in quick series, before noticing it was me and Fresh Bandage. “Oh, I see. Just the patient of the week checking out.” She did a quick double take. “Wait, with those injuries, you shouldn’t have been out for another month! How did you do it? Is it some new rapid healing spell you made? Tell me.” She leaned over the desk, eager to hear about my rapid recovery. I noted that her cutie mark resembled a TF2 health cupcake, and she also had wings. A pegasus, if I remember right. Jeez, this gal was definitely on the hyper side. I better answer her before she pounces on me. “It was a special blood transfusion from what I was told. Can I go ahead and sign out now?” Got to get this over with, she looks like she’s going to burst if I keep her company much longer. “Okay, no probs!” She piped cheerfully, before practically slinging a clipboard around, with some paperwork and a spot for a signature at the bottom. I took a look at it, before my blood ran cold. I couldn’t read a word it said. “Is there something wrong?” “I can’t understand what this says.” I answer, “Why can’t I read it? I feel like I should be able to, but it’s not clicking.” I ask, wondering why the reading system was different, yet the spoken language was the same. “That’s the Earth Pony script copy, I can get you the Unicorn script version if I need to. Be right back!” The pink pegasus walked off in an odd fashion, an obvious bounce in her step. There were different forms of writing for different races here? I have a lot to learn. While we waited, Fresh Bandage decided to break the silence. “You don’t know Earth Pony Script? What’s the princess been teaching you to not know the base language for everypony?” She’s catching onto me, I think. Now’s as good of a time as ever to state my lack of knowledge. “I don’t know. Ever since I woke up, all I can clearly remember is what happened, and some basic stuff like how to speak. I couldn’t even remember the feeling of using my own magic until I made myself levitate that fork. Even then I was running blind.” I lowered my head, in shame and sorrow, “I’ve been winging it ever since I woke up. Metaphorically, of course. I didn’t even recognize the princess, until I pieced it together after that introduction thing you did. I still don’t think I remember the princess’s name right.” I felt her foreleg wrap around my shoulders, weird but oddly comforting. “It’s ok. Maybe you can read the unicorn script, and make your signature that way. If you’re that bad off, maybe I should help you get back to the castle, so you don’t get lost.” I looked up to her, to find a worried frown, not unlike the one that had often plagued the princess’s face when she came to visit. “And her name is Princess Celestia, if you really can’t remember.” Celestia? I thought that was just a nickname I came up with to replace ‘longhorn’, not her actual name. That’s odd, I’ll have to look into that later. “Thanks. The world needs more people like you.” After an odd look, she gave me a smile. “No problem, I’m happy to help.” The moment didn’t last, as the yet unnamed pink pegasus practically hopped back in.”Hey, I got those unicorn script for… Are you guys hugging now? Aww~!” Me and Fresh Bandage seperated before she could even finish, and I took up denials while Fresh once again went for the flustered blush. “No! I mean yes! I mean, just give me the forms!” She swiped them over, along with a… quill? I can work with that. The document was even in printed English, just like I had hoped! But how I was going to write, I had no idea, unless… I replayed the way she handed me the form in my mind, watching how she used her hoof, despite how impossible it would be to grip it like that with regular hooves. Perhaps… I got my hooves onto the desk, before acting as if I still had hands, and attempted to grab the quill. It rose in the air, exactly where I imagined the phantom muscles of my now missing hand to have it. I quickly signed it with my imaginary hand thing, and noticed that they were both staring at me. “How…?” Fresh asked, apparently confused with how I signed my name. “I have no idea.” I responded truthfully, “Anyway, let’s get out of here, I want to see the city.” On that note, we left. Time for me to see what this city has to offer.