Looking at my surroundings, I find myself in a small room that didn’t have much in it. There is a sink on my right and a window to my left. In front of me was the room’s door, and on it a little window; however, I can’t see outside of it with my angle. I’m laying on a bed that was against the back wall in the center.

There’s a beeping coming from the right as well. Looking to my right I saw a couple bags with fluid in them. There was a cord that came from them at the bottom. I observed the cord and followed it with my eyes to see where it led.

Removing the warm covers, I could see that I’m connected to these bags with tubes.

This is a hospital, but where...and why? What happened to the ponies? Am I here because of Discord? Is this another trick? Questions kept flooding my mind.

Suddenly, a nurse eased her way into the room not really noticing that I’m awake. She now walks over to some machines which I assume were checking my heart rate. She looks at the screen for about five seconds and then turned to look at me.

She then stands frozen just starting at me for a while. I’m a bit confused as to why she is starting at me like that, but I have a really bad feeling now.

She started to make her way toward the door still staring at me and not breaking eye contact. When she arrived at the door, she turns her back against me and rushes out the door.

She bursts back into the door after shortly leaving still wearing her shocked expression and now pointing at me. A man enters after her wearing the same white scrubs as her. I would assume this is the doctor. He looks at me, intrigued, but not as appalled as the nurse.

He strolls up to the bed that I was laying in and carefully sits on the side of the bed careful not to mess with any of the medical equipment.

“How are you feeling?” The doctor asks with a slight smile. The nurse is still standing by the doorway now with her hands on her cheeks.

Maybe someone found me in the Discord’s Dungeon and when they did, they brought me to the hospital.

“I...I was in Discord’s Dungeon...I got the last Element..then...they arrived...and now I’m here...”

The doctor then raised his brown bushy eyebrows at what I had to say. He looks a bit taken back, but did a slight cough to relieve the shock. He quickly adjusts his glasses and looks at me.

Listen. There is something that I need to tell you that may be unexpected. I hope this will be as least shocking as possible.”

“I’m not sure of any other way of putting this,” the doctor continued, “but you have been in a coma...”

Is this some sort of freaking joke?! I have been traveling for years looking for the Elements! I found them all! Why would they lie to me?!

The doctor tries to comfort me as he continues to ramble on about how I have been in a coma. With aggravation and confusion, It started to become impossible to listen to him anymore.

“You liar!”, I spewed out of my mouth. “I have been traveling for years and you tell me this crap?! What is going on?!”

The doctor, not seemingly phased by my rebuttal, calmly replies, “I know this is hard to believe and a lot to take in...but you have been in a deep sleep for years.”

“When you hadn't shown up for work for several days, your boss sent a fellow employee to your house... he found you sleeping on a sofa upstairs. He tried to wake you, but he couldn’t. He called us and well... we brought you here. You’ve been here for a long time.”

The doctor continued, “You have a rare inflammation on your brain tissue, or Encephalitis, that triggered the coma. We have been trying to treat it...

He paused for a moment and looked down toward the floor, he seemed to be trying to figure out what to say to me next.

“I’m sorry to say, but everything you might have done, has just been a symptom of the coma...

“I am sorry.” The doctor scooted closer to me and put his hand on my shoulder “I truly am... I understand this is a lot of new news to you...

The doctor removing his hand from my shoulder started to look toward the ground once again. “Your Encephalitis is very severe... probably the most dangerous we have ever seen.

It has been difficult, almost impossible to treat. It’s highly likely that you will return to a comatose state...

Possibly be as long or longer than the last... if by some miracle you are actually able to wake up again, that is.”

But something inside of me knows he is right. My “adventures” didn’t even make sense. Nothing lined up in them. Collecting gems to find ponies?

I tried to think back on my adventures, but they were now seeming to slip my mind. My memories were fleeting, all the details of when I got the Elements were vanishing one by one. Why can’t I remember?

Why would the ponies come to my world anyway? They were a cartoon, so why would I go on an epic quest to find them?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The doctor is now out of the room, leaving me in the bed. He tells me not to leave the bed, it would make my risk for getting in another coma rise. He must have gone to get medical supplies or perhaps do some research.

It’s hard to believe that everything that has transpired was all a facade. But the doctor presented me documents of when I checked into the hospital. Needless to say, it was the same day I found the Element of Magic, the same day I fell asleep on the sofa.

I was dreaming my one desire, which was to be with the ponies. To find them, to be with them. To love them, and for them to love me back.

Hopefully I was just tired, but I couldn’t take the risk! I might be heading into another coma - I can’t waste my life away again!

But, I can’t fight it. It strikes me with a force I couldn’t resist. I’m afraid to fall asleep. I tried to move my hand over to the “Call Nurse” button. Yet, I feel so weak. I tried to use any muscle that was willing to move in my body, but I could hardly move let alone get out of bed. I try to yell to the doctor, but I could hardly even talk at normal volume.

I start to think back on what was left of my dreams, all that I have learned. Sure they may have only been dreams, but I still learned so much.

I’ve learned that sometimes unexplainable things need not to be questioned, but rather embraced. For they may lead to a good future.

I’ve learned to always tell the truth, because you will be rewarded. Maybe not right away, but at some point, you will.

I’ve learned that sometimes you have to put other’s before yourself. You never know, you might change their life with a few kind words.

I’ve learned that sometimes your life might really suck. But why should you be stuck in a mindset that will only make you sad? Laugh. Have fun.

I’ve learned that when you sacrifice something of your own, no matter what it may be, you will be the one who gets rewarded the most.

I’ve learned that no matter how hard things might get, always stay true to yourself. Never back down in what you believe in.
I started to weep gently. I guess up until now, I never realized all that I have learned.

All that I have learned is priceless. Even if I’m unable to use it in a living life.

But, there is one more question that needs to be answered. How could these ponies teach me so much if they were fake? How could a cartoon teach a grown man life changing lessons?

They could not. A cartoon about colorful ponies would not change a man, unless that is if they were real.

I don’t care if it was all a dream anymore! They had to be real! It is impossible for them to teach me so much and be fake at the same time!

Call me crazy, I don’t care. I have faith in them. I know they are out there, somewhere.

But it felt like that this sleep may be of the longest. Almost as if it were the last.

Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Princess Celestia all stood around my bed. They were frozen and appeared to be ghosts, but they were all there.

I knew better though, in my last moments I knew this was just my imagination. It was just something I wanted to see, they were not really there. I know they are real elsewhere, but these are just ghosts. It looks like I am now slipping into another dream.

I started to smile and laugh, "Heh, I wish you were all with me now." My smile slowly vanished, "I knew you were with me the whole time, even if it was a dream. I wish I could have found you.” I sighed and my eyes were nearly shut. “But you know, you are real, you will always hold a place in my heart. Even though I can't touch you, even though I can't hear you...I know you are there. There is no one else I would rather be with, then all of you right now.”

They may be just illusions, but it felt real good to say all of that. They might of heard me, wherever they may be, or maybe they didn’t hear me. But that’s okay. I will be at rest when I sleep.

Without warning, Twilight broke her frozen stance and looked over at me to smile.

My eyes instantly shot up and my mouth dropped. I was unable to speak. Tears over swept me once again, as I could not believe she was moving. How is this possible? I’m not asleep yet.

Twilight quickly retreated her smile and started to focus on something. I couldn't tell what it was until her horn started to glow.

From her horn emerged a blinding white light. I was looking directly in her horn so the full impact was on my eyes. I couldn’t get my hands in front of my face to shield my eyes, so I simply closed them and put my head down.

After a little bit, I slowly opened up my eyes and looked up still squinting from the impact of the light.

They were no longer ghosts. The colors of them became normal. They moved, they had life!

As I gazed at them...Celestia moved and was walking closer to the head of the bed. She put her hoof on my chest.

Twilight followed closely behind her and was eventually standing at her side looking at me with a small smirk on her face.
Applejack came near me on the other side of my bed and started to look me straight in the eye. She wouldn’t blink and she didn’t break contact.

Fluttershy used her little wings to hover her self on the bed near my right arm. Fluttershy, using her mouth, quickly tucked in one of the sides of the blanket that fallen loose from under me. She then layed down and put her head on my chest smiling at me.

Pinkie Pie was unlike Fluttershy. She jumped up on the bed, making it wobble a little bit and sat near my legs. A large smile she wore.

Rarity trotted over to where Applejack was and using her mouth, she took off the fashionable scarf that she was wearing and placed it around my neck, so that my neck wouldn't get cold as well.

Rainbow Dash flew over to the side that Princess Celestia and Twilight were on. She reached her hoof under my blanket and grabbed my hand with her hoof. She gave me a little smile but wasn’t able to keep eye contact for long. However, she never let go of my hand.

While hardly being awake, I looked at each of the ponies. Silent tears rolled down my face.

Princess Celestia was the only one to speak. “You found us. The first of your kind after many generations.”

She started to get closer to my face. “Although we must part, just remember, we will never leave you.

With what I had left in me, I could only get out a few words, “You...are..real...”

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And as I fell... I hear these final words, from a familiar voice. It wasn’t any of the ponies, but it feels as if I were close to it.

“Your journey has come to a close. It is now time for you to finally take your peaceful rest.”

“Good night...”

Faith

by Edock

Faith