//------------------------------// // 4: Test time // Story: Safer in open hooves // by Elemental Fury //------------------------------// I stared around the chamber with my mouth agape. Behind me, I was aware the door had slammed shut. Neither of the princesses were facing me as they were too busy rummaging through an old battered chest. The room itself was littered with what looked like torture devices, from the classic stretcher to what looked like a weaponized dentist chair, as if they weren’t terrifying enough! “Uhh, w-what the heck is all this?” I asked nervously, a bead of sweat rolling from my forehead. Luna spun around remarkably quick, her eyes widened slightly as she stared around the room before short nervous chuckle left her lips. “Oh, Oops.” She said. “These are all old things, don’t worry, we have no intent to use them!” “I hope not!” I exclaimed. As cool as the stuff looked, I was not going to be going near any of it if I could help it. “But if all this isn’t being used for this test then what is?” “This little device here,” Celestia started, pulling out a small sphere-shaped object from the chest, “Twilight designed it in case of any alien encounters. If I’m honest I didn’t expect I would ever have to use it in my life but I suppose even I can still be shocked sometimes.” "What is it?” I asked, staring at the device. Suddenly without warning it lit up a magnificent navy colour. The device hovered out of Celestia’s magical grip and span a couple of times as though searching for something before it stopped and suddenly zoomed straight at me! “Jesus Christ!” I yelled as I dived to one side, unfortunately, it did nothing to deter the sphere, it was like a heat seeking missile as it rocketed towards me. Time seemed to slow for a moment, and I noticed the shocked, worried looks on the princesses’ faces. Luna was rushing towards the sphere to try and stop it. At the door to the chambers, the entrance was wide open as the girls probably heard my yell. Some of Celestia’s words came back to me as I saw the guilt on Twilight's face. “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU IF I DIE, TWILIGHT!” Was the last words that left my mouth before I felt the sphere impact with my stomach, resulting in the weirdest feeling of my life. It merged with my body, I felt it doing laps around my entire being. I felt it rush past my organs, and that is when I was engulfed in complete darkness. *** “Is he awake?” “No, and-“ “WHAT WERE-“ “IM SORRY!” “SORRY DOESN’T-“ I groaned, as I finally came to, I had nearly woken up multiple times yet fallen back into unconsciousness, from what I could remember. I was still in the chamber from earlier, nothing had been misplaced. Both the princesses were there, Celestia looked upset and irritant however Luna looked as though she would kill the next person or pony who spoke to her. It was Luna who noticed I had awoken from my unwanted nap. “Back in the land of the living?” I was surprised, despite her look of rage moments prior, she almost sounded as motherly as Celestia, yet if one paid attention they could still sense the anger in her voice. “Fortunately, what happened?” I asked, noticing the girls were no longer present. “Ignorant Twilight’s wretched device was a catastrophe!” Luna exclaimed and she looked ready to go on a tangent, however, the dawn princesses hoof stopped her. “While it methods were…concerning, it ultimately caused little harm and examined every atom of your being.” Celestia explained and gave me a moment to digest the information. “We now know about anything that can cause you sickness and we also know what you are able to digest. We gave the printed list to Twilight and her friends.” “Well, that’s good, though I have a question,” I told the princesses, “Where are Twilight and the others now?” “Twilight is currently in the royal medical wing because someone doesn’t know how to control their temper!” Celestia informed me, in a rather agitated tone. “It was her invention, I only delivered swift justice!” Luna was quick to defend herself, and she did so vehemently. “You could have killed her!” Celestia exclaimed angrily, with a slight look of disappointment in her normally caring eyes. “Lu-Luna? What did you do?!” I asked, concerned about the purple unicorn. “I…” Luna suddenly seemed to realise her actions in full, in that moment despite the actual doing of the actions had happened long beforehand. “I blew up the ground near where Twilight stood. I hadn’t meant for a loose shard to impale her hoof, though.” I blanched at the thought of twilight being injured in such a way that could possibly disable her. I finally stood up and decided that I wanted to see Twilight ASAP. “You said the royal medical wing, right?” I asked, however, a look of confusion grew upon the dusk princesses’ face. “No, left!” She said, and all I could think of in response was to stare for a moment. “Left, right?” I asked if the direction was correct, starting to sense what was the source of confusion the conversation. “No, left then through the red double-doors,” Luna said, and I couldn’t help but snicker before I took my leave to find the medical room. I hear the princesses calling after me as I hurried down the halls to find my friends. Finally, I found the room and promptly entered, half-expecting Twilight to be hooked up to dozens of machines. Fortunately, this was not the case, a nurse was helping Twilight walk on her injured hoof. All the other girls were sitting behind Twilight with looks of worry on their face, well, they were until they saw me. Immediately I was surrounded by six, worried yet relieved ponies all asking questions at once. “One at a time!” I yelled, not loudly mind you, just loud enough so that they would hear me. They looked at each other and seemed to be mentally determining who should talk first. “Ya feelin’ okay, Sugarcube?” Applejack asked probably the biggest question on the girls’ minds. “I’m just fine, I’m honestly more worried ‘bout Twi here, getting impaled by a stone shard has got to hurt!” I said, hoping for the good news I was starting to expect about Twilights condition. “Well, as her personal nurse, I’m happy to report that other than limping for a bit she will be fine. The shard was small and completely missed her bones, her hoof may sting from time to time but that’s the extent of the damage.” “And we would like to apologise for causing it.” The dusk princess’ voice admitted from behind us. “We are sorry for our actions, Twilight Sparkle, we over-reacted.” “Apology accepted, I just want to know WHY you over-reacted.” Twilight admitted herself. “We are not sure ourselves, we just now that we’re not happy with what happened. Perhaps an answer to the question will be revealed later.” Luna mused, starting to wonder into her own world of thoughts. “Oh, my.” Came the dawn princess’ voice. “Is that truly the time?” It turned out that the events of the day had taken longer than any of us had realised, and soon all but Luna were yawning due to exhaustion. “Well, you are welcome to stay overnight, as the trains will no longer be running and you all need rest.” Luna informed us. “First a hospital bed, then Rarity’s guestroom bed and now a bed in the royal palace? Ami I just a glorified bed tester?” I asked jokingly, getting a chuckle from everyone. *** The girls and I had all been shown to our bedrooms, though I had asked the guard to show me the way to the bathroom as well. (my room didn’t have one attached.) I knew the way back and forward and was familiarising myself with it one last time when I realised something, I hadn’t seen Cadence since I entered the test chamber earlier. Before I could freak out about the mare’s sudden disappearance, though, I heard her voice from inside one of the rooms. Despite the fact that I really shouldn’t have, I took a quick peek inside the room to confirm that it was cadence. Cadence was there and so was a white stallion which looked a lot like the descriptions Twilight had given of her brother while telling her stories of living life as Celestia’s student. I wish I had not peeked, though, as I saw them doing stuff that I will NOT discuss here or anywhere else! So my first proper day in Equestria ends with me being mentally scarred for life! Just my luck.