//------------------------------// // 93 - Light // Story: Perchance to Dream // by David Silver //------------------------------// I was led through the hallways of the castle. I was led by serious princesses that planned to take serious measures. There was no happy ending here. It was one of many bad endings, and I was doing a terrible job of avoiding it. I could accept it, be cut in half, and end it. I would be Linda. I would be True Shot. I would not know the other side. So far as each side would know, the other world was dead. What if I didn't want that? "True?" It was Celestia. "Are you well?" No! "I'm fine." I had to think of something. If that link was so much trouble, maybe it was a tool that needed using instead of fearing. I needed to get to the human world, to act there, try to avoid this. I'd felt that link before. Every time I started to slip from the pony world, it came onto me, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. I just had to... Luna opened a door to somewhere I wasn't paying attention to. "Soon you will know proper peace. No more living in such an unideal fashion. Are you looking forward to enjoying full days and nights, to lay your head--True?" Her voice was becoming distant. I heard Celestia say something excitedly, but couldn't make out the words. I woke up. I sat up suddenly in a hospital bed. Lethargy tugged at my motions. My body really wanted to go back to sleep, but I wasn't having it. I got out a groan and heard shoes hitting tiles. The door to my hospital room swung open suddenly. Several doctors were swarming over me. One of them was trying to encourage me to lay back down, and that was about the last thing I wanted to do. I waved him away with a scowl. "No, I'm fine!" I wasn't fine. "Bring me my phone." "We don't have your phone. Would a landline get you to calm down?" Ugh. "It'll have to do." I sat back on the headboard of the bed, still sitting up. "How broken am I?" "Now that you're awake, your prognosis is much better. We..." His voice was fading, much as Celestia's had done. I could feel it, the link. I was being pulled back. Suddenly I was back in the hallway, my body trapped in stone save for my head. I had been forced back by being unpetrified, in part. Just as the last time, being part stone was a horrible sensation. I couldn't breath. My heart wasn't beating. I could barely get out pained little grunts. Celestia and Luna stood there, their horns glowing in unison. They were busy working against the stone I had become. The wave of flesh swept out slowly, beating back the stone and giving me freedom. I slumped forward when I could, wheezing for breath. "I said... to never do that again..." Celestia sat down beside me. "We are sorry for any discomfort that may have caused, but we need you here to proceed." Luna was already speaking to some other pony that looked like a technician or doctor. It didn't take a genius to see where they were headed. It was a place I had no interest in being. "No." "No?" Celestia inclined an ear at me. "No what?" I reached for that feeling and pulled, trying to force myself so deep and far and fast that there would be no pulling me back unless I asked for it. It was my body, and my life. I would make my decisions. Something pulled loose. I felt like I was falling down an infinitely large waterfall. I could see nothing, yet I could see many things. Visions of life, both human and pony, danced before unseeing eyes. I couldn't tell which I was anymore. I was adrift. I snapped awake in a familiar hospital bed, but it was wrong. I wasn't sitting up the way I had before. My ears twitched. My ears should not be able to twitch. I was a horse. I was a pony, on the wrong side of the divide. I gave an awkward little laugh, deep and masculine. I was True Shot. My bow had come with me, arrows alongside it. It was all wrong... And yet... it meant I couldn't be pulled back. There was no statue to force into motion, if I was that pony. Where was Linda? I was Linda. Where was her body? I couldn't know. Maybe she was inside? I raised a hoof to my furry chest, wondering if a human female slumbered within my equine form somehow. The door swung open. Some of the doctors were the same as before. They didn't make it far before they noticed their patient had changed. Things were awkwardly quiet. I raised a hoof and gave a little wave. "Please don't scream. I'm harmless." "Jesus Christ," stated one. "Where is Linda Frohein?" "You're looking at her." I knew I didn't look, or sound like her. "I'll take that landline you were offering before, please?" "Shit..." It was one of the doctors that had been there before. "It's really... Get a phone." He waved away. "Look, how? This is a publicity stunt for someone, right?" I slid to the floor, hooves coming to rest on the tile. On the upside, my pony body had not been abused. I felt healthy, just the wrong species. "I am Linda Frohein. I can give social security, all my passwords, and any other information to confirm my identity. Right now, I need to start making phone calls, please. Thank you for taking care of me. I'm grateful, and expect a big bill." There was no way emergency care would be a small bill. "Does my family know where I am? Do you have their number?" A nurse pointed past everyone else at a phone attached to the wall. "Dial 9, then the full number." In a quieter voice I might have missed if not for big horse ears, she whispered, "How in the hell is a horse going to dial? You're all going to explain what's going on, I hope?" I willed the phone out of its cradle and it hovered beside my head as I got to dialing my parent's house quickly. It rang twice before a click told me someone had picked up. "Mom? Dad?" "Who is this?" Sounded like my mother. Right, sudden call from an obviously male person would be confusing. "It's a long story, but this is Linda, promise. I'm awake and need a ride home. I just need a promise for you to not freak out when you get here." "Linda? Who's the greatest hero of all time?" She sounded suspicious, which she had every right to be. I knew the test she was giving though. "Only the Shadow would know that." She laughed a little strained laugh. "Linda, really? Honey, we're coming. What happened? Nevermind, we're coming." The phone went dead. I held the phone in my will a moment, considering my next move. A hand touched my back, making me jump. The doctor who had done it hopped away, hands up and face showing obvious fear. "Woah woah woah, sorry, not trying to surprise you, uh, Miss Frohein?" "Look, I'm fine." I hung up the phone. "I mean, relatively. I'm healthy... healthy as a horse." I gave him an equine smile. "I need to make a few more calls, please. I'll call if I need a thing at all. My ride's on the way. Do you need me to fill out any paperwork before I go?" The call to the banality of paperwork seemed to have worked. Most of them left, murmuring, and my exit paperwork was brought for me to fill out. I imagined my writing coming out on the paper, and a pen moved to oblige me, completing the form even as I dialed on the phone. That one answered before the first ring. "Yes?" It was Director Swanson. I could have tried to avoid her, but I was tired of running. The problem had to be faced. "Director, I know this sounds like the wrong person, but this is Linda Frohein. I am healthy and alive, but also... it's a touch complicated." "Complicated is the standard. More details please, but not here. This is hardly a secure line." "I'm standing in a hospital on four hooves." I rolled my eyes lightly. "The top is blown on this can of secrets. I would be shocked if dozens of pictures haven't been taken, samples collected, and more beside that. I am calling to inform you of that, and to let you react. My suggestion, and you are free to disregard it, start making up a spin on this before others do it for you." "I will contact you shortly." The phone went dead. With a soft sigh, I hung it up and focused on the form, filling it out entirely. It was important. I needed a trail. I needed to not be easily vanished. With a completed form, I trotted out into the hallway. There I was, a pony, clip-clopping down a hospital hall. A door cracked open on my left and I peeked to see a small face peeking out at me. I smiled at him. "Hello there." He waved a little hand at me. "Are you a magic pony?" "In fact, I am." I nodded at him and ruffled the top of his head without approaching. "My name is Linda. Nice to meet you." "That's a funny name for a boy pony." He emerged from his room. He looked to be somewhere in the low-teens. "No offense..." "That's alright." I nodded at him patiently. "We magic ponies sometimes have funny names." "Can you give wishes?" Oh, how his eyes lit up with little boy fantasies. "Not quite that kind of magic pony." I laughed a little, sitting on my haunches facing him. "If your doctors are alright with it, I can give you a little ride." Tucked safely in a hotel room, they all let loose. Tod was surrounded by mares. They were sprawled out on beds, relaxing and recovering from their day of adventure. Trixie was rubbing her head between her hooves. "I really need to be more careful about how much magic she uses all at once." She frowned. "She isn't even speaking properly. At least we won't need clothing spells." Starlight waved a hoof lightly. "None of that, but we still need to keep Night hidden from human eyes at least." Speaking of Night, she was looking at the television. Tod had showed her how the remote worked, and she was clumsily channel surfing with wide eyes. "You have so many productions right at your beck and call without delay." She changed the channel. "How do you even pick one to watch?" Tod gave an emphatic shrug. "Turns out, we're a bit numb about them at this point. We just watch what we want, sometimes not even finishing it." He leaned back against the bed he was against. "Why am I the only not-pony in this room?" Starlight stuck out her tongue at Tod. "We are all as our mothers made us, pony or not. Why, that eager to have hooves again." She waggled a hoof at Tod. Trixie groaned. "Just don't ask her to do it. She is tired, and hungry. Can we get some food?" Night shook her head, looking Tod over top to bottom and back. "You're a perfectly fine, um, human was it? Kinda like a minotaur a little..." She sat up onto her haunches. "Nothing wrong with that." Tod was about to give a likely awkward reply when his phone started ringing. "It's dad." He answered it. "What's up?" "Linda's awake. We're headed to the hospital to see her. Everything alright?" "She's awake? Great!" He put a hand over the phone. "Linda's awake." The room gave a communal cheer. "We're just relaxing right now. Should we sit tight until you guys get back at least?" "Um, yeah, good idea. See you later, sport." The call disconnected and Tod tossed the phone aside. Hanging out with actual ponies seemed like not a bad way to spend a day.