As the sterile clean smell of chemicals affronted my senses, I rolled over quickly and tried to vomit. Instead I retched and gagged as my stomach trying to loose contents that weren't there. I leaned over and slid off the bed that I was in.
My legs were shaky and carrying my own weight felt unfamiliar. I walked a few steps forward and then threw myself at the nearest wall, relieving my unsteady legs of the strain.
My body felt numb and sluggish.
I started to hyperventilate, I needed to escape. I needed to get away from this place.
I looked around and found the door, without giving a second thought I charged at it with whatever power I had left. It crashed open and I fell over onto the floor.
I was now in a hallway with several ponies, they all saw my little display and wore expressions of shock. Ignoring them and tried to stand up, their muffled voices were white noise to me now.
Once again I collapsed onto the floor. Recovering I studied the pattern of tiles on the floor.
I felt a shadow pass over me. Looking up I saw a doctor watching me. He moved his mouth but his dull sounded rumbling was drowned out by the steady thumping in my head.
I pulled myself back onto my feet with the walls support and shoved the doctor out of my way. There was a quiet yelp as he crashed to the ground, thrown off balance.
Now back on my feet, I slid across the wall heading further down the corridor. I didn't know where I was going but it didn't matter as long as I could escape everything that threatened to overwhelm me.
I started to move faster but my body still didn't feel right, it felt too strange to be mine.
I came to a pair of double doors and shoved my way through them.
I was in a room.
A white room.
There were more ponies here.
Too many faces.
Too many eyes staring at me.
It was too much and yet I couldn't look away.
My gaze passed everyone there.
I saw seven faces of shock.
Seven faces that I knew.
I studied each of them.
My gaze landed on one pair of eyes.
I found myself looking at the sky through two blue orbs.
And then everything shifted.
Into darkness once again.
The pounding of my head and silent whispering brought me back to the waking world. I felt the scratchy roughness of hospital blankets. The bed itself felt strange by the fact as it wasn’t built for human comfort. I couldn’t feel any intravenous lines on my body.
I sat laid there without opening my eyes and swallowed the groan that was slowly building itself in my throat. The whispering stopped and I heard somebody open a door and leave.
Silence...
"Somebody say something!" I didn't have to open my eyes to know that whoever else was in the room jumped in the air from surprise.
"O-oh... you're awake." Fluttershy.
"But Nurse Redheart said that the anesthetic would keep you asleep for the rest of the day!" Twilight.
"Yay! Now we can have a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party and a 'Glad you woke up early' party too." Pinkie.
"Darling, I don't think Jack is in the best of conditions to be gallivanting about." Rarity.
"He took an Apple family buck to the head, Ah’m sure a nibble from a dog ain’t gonna hurt him none." Applejack
"You knocked him unconscious AJ." Rainbow Dash.
"He lost a lot of blood from the ‘nibble’ that ‘dog’ gave him." Alex.
Again there was an awkward silence.
"So what happened to Scootaloo?" I opened my eyes and looked around the room. I was back where I had woken up the first time.
Although now my mind was less fuzzy and there were pillows on one side near the door. My... friends... sat on these pillows, Alex looked slightly uncomfortable though.
He was the one who replied to my question, "Scoots is doing fine, a few scrapes and bruises but nothing too bad."
I grunted in acknowledgment, "Right, what about my leg though?"
Twilight answered, "Well we don't know much about human bone structure.”
Alex piped in, “And all I know is that, being older, my bone is less dense.”
Twilight continued, “And seeing as we would need a third human to be able to properly assess what was correct and what wasn't, we erred on the side of caution. Instead of using unicorn magic to heal the damage, we had to use a potion. Although the side effect of the potion is also to increase bone density."
I kept my face void of any emotion as I turned to look at the lavender mare.
She promptly gave me a sheepish smile, "Uh, what I mean is, your leg is healed and now harder to break while you're also a few pounds heavier. Unfortunately, it also shifted your center of mass a little."
I thought about this, “How did you get me to swallow the potion? I don’t see an IV or anything. And I’m really hoping you guys didn’t use suppositories.”
Twilight spoke up again, “Although we could have found a vein from Alex, it would have been too late as your body was going into hypovolemic shock. Saying that we didn’t use magic was slightly untrue, we magically dissolved the potion, medication, and saline solutions into your blood. This caused complications though, because we still had to worry about metabolic acidosis. We were able to find a way around this using...”
Twilight stopped and looked at everyone's expression of incomprehension, “I did it again didn’t I?”
We all slowly nodded. Twilight let out a defeated sigh.
I let out a sigh of my own, “Yeah well, if earlier was any example I need to learn how to walk correctly again.”
Rainbow Dash spoke up, "What was all that about any ways?"
The question brought back the memories that I had long ago buried.
I turned to her with a pained expression and felt my blood run cold. I opened my mouth to speak but I couldn't get any words past the lump in my throat.
Everyone noticed the sudden change and looked away. Rainbow stared down at the ground, "I'm sorry."
Alex knelt beside me and put his hand on my shoulder. As much as I hated physical contact, I felt a sudden need to be comforted.
I turned my head to look at him and saw a sad little smile, “You saved my daughter. You’re a good man, and we,” he waved expansively, “are your friends. But, if you don’t want to, we can accept that too. It’s up to you. Explanations are a gift not a right.”
I looked at them and shook my head, "No... it's alright... I can tell you..." my voice was strained and hurt to talk.
Could I tell them my story?
I should.
It's not a story if it's never been told.
I swallowed hard and cleared my throat,
"It's a long tale... and not an all too happy one either.
I grew up in a place Chicago. In a small community called the suburbs.
My family consisted of my mom, my dad, my sister, and me. We were the perfect family. Everyday was a happy day as long as we had each other.
My mom and dad had met during their senior year in college. They fell in love instantly. He proposed on their graduation dinner.
My dad was a hard working and proud man. He always made time for me and my sister, for him family came first. He managed a small business that brought in enough to provide for us.
My mom was kind and always there for us when we needed her. She was a stay at home type mom. Always helping us with a comforting word or a supportive hug.
My sister adopted who she was from both of them. She looked exactly like my mother, always trying to take care of everyone. And so carefree she could brighten anyone's day. Don’t get me wrong though, she could be serious when she needs to be."
I looked at all of their faces in turn. Many held curious smiles at the thought of learning more about my past. Some held simple smiles. All were caring.
I slowly, raggedly, sucked in more air and tried to keep my voice steady,
"Nothing that shines so bright, with so much love, can shine forever, so one day, my mother got sick. Out of nowhere she collapsed. I immediately called for help. They had paramedics there within the next ten minutes. We were so scared we had no idea what had happened.
We waited in the hospital for hours waiting for any news. My dad and sister went to get food while I stayed. While they were gone a doctor came to me and explained what was wrong.
It was a blood disease, extremely rare and nobody knew enough about it to do much. He tried to assure me that she would be fine. I could see that he was lying though, he probably knew just as much as I did about the disease. But of course I ignored it and believed him. The doctor said that my mom would stay there until she got better.
We visited her every week, for a year. And all the time she might have been sick but she was still our mother. She still gave us advice and support. Even though now our pillar was unsteady she was still there for us.
Everyday we saw her, she seemed to get better. Eventually they said she was healthy enough to go home.
We were so excited for her. I had been saving any money I could. My sister and I set up a party for the day she would come back. We were setting up the banner when the phone rang. I was the closest, so I answered it.
It was the hospital.
My mother, my pillar, the person who had given me life, had died.
She collapsed in the lobby, her heart had given out, they weren't able to revive her.
We were all devastated by the news. My dad took it the worst of us though. We were all depressed so my sister and I couldn’t see just how badly it had affected him. A week later we found out just how bad.
One morning... he just... he just didn’t get up.
I just couldn’t understand why my life had turned out like this. Why me?
It was up to me to plan their funeral. I had them buried together.
I was now alone and taking care of my sister. I got a job to provide for us. We kept the house we grew up in and I took up the mantle of being the pillar of support. I did everything I could for her. I never really had a dream in life, never really had a goal. So instead, I lived my life for her. To help her achieve the goals that had hid themselves from me.
For a few weeks we were happy again, the past was just that, the past. And I thought that everything would be fine.
But of course fate decided to continued to toy with my life like a sick and twisted game.
Turns out the blood disease that took my mother, was hereditary in females.
The doctors said that it was triggered earlier due to stress.
I received a call at work that she had collapsed during class.
I made it to the hospital only minutes after ambulance already brought her into EC.
Again, I was alone in a hospital. Waiting for news on some one I loved.
Scared didn't even amount to half of what I was feeling.
I sold our house and moved into the city, closer to the hospital where she stayed.
Unfortunately my day job didn’t pay enough to cover the cost.
So I occasionally dabbled in the less than legal side to help make up the difference.
I was a messenger of sorts for the local criminal organization.
I transported drugs, cash, and information.
The middle man, inside the ring but never close enough to be suspected by law enforcement.
Everything was at least manageable for a year or so.
But one day... one day..."