//------------------------------// // The Time of Day // Story: Jumper: A New World // by PTTN //------------------------------// The Time of Day 10 “I believe one thing holds it all together. Everything I’ve ever done was with excitement, because I wanted to do it, because I loved doing it.” - Ray Bradbury, Hilarity Ensues (Tucker Max) Darkness, once again. Jay woke to find himself on his side, his front and rear hooves sprawled out in front of him. He tried to rise earlier than he was apparently intended to and a crippling pain shot through his back and neck. ‘Well, can’t do that,’ he thought with a groan. With standing out of the question, Jay managed to roll onto his belly, tucking his legs under him for maximum comfort and even doing that left him wanting to shift positions again. As soon as he found the best possible arrangement for his limbs, Jay looked around. He noticed he was surrounded by nothing. Again. Jay sighed loudly. ‘This darkness thing gets old as hell.’ He thrust his snout into the air and inhaled deeply, testing the scent of the darkness. ‘Just as I thought! Nuthin’....’ Jay’s ears perked up alerting him to a faint beeping noise. It was a noise that one had to really concentrate on, else it went unnoticed. beep..........beep..........beep..........beep..........beep.......... It was a sharp, high pitched tone, with about a three second pause between each tone. It was constant, rhythmic and extremely annoying. At first, Jay didn’t notice it, but it was one of those kinds of sounds that once it was noticed, he couldn’t un-notice it- but at the same time, it was like he had heard the sound before. He couldn’t place where or when or even what it was, but something in his brain had recognized the sound and was now working to call up his memories. He decided it was best to just shrug it off, thinking to himself that if it was really that important, he would have remembered what it was. Once Jay was fully acquainted with his surroundings, which, in truth, wasn’t that hard, he decided he would try his hoof at standing upright again. With trembling legs, he managed to stand, and the absence of the searing pain was considered a pleasant surprise. With nothing left to do, he spun himself full circle. Repeatedly. Feeling like a school foal, he couldn’t help but giggle. Really, what would you do in the situation? The air rushed through his mane as he spun faster and faster, the unchanging darkness whipping passed him. This spinning was more entertaining than it should be, but he didn’t care. It was a way to kill time in a world where there was nothing but. For a moment, Jay could have sworn that the darkness brightened, a hint of a rainbow appearing as he spun, but as soon as he noticed it, the rainbow tint was gone, replaced with a red dash, directly at eye level. Either he was encircled by the dash, or it spun around him, maintaining its centered eye level position. As Jay slowed himself, his mirth fading, he noticed the dash were eyes. Those red eyes, looking directly at them. They burned brighter than last time, more intense, as their stare bore into him. Jay could almost feel the stare penetrating his coat and into the skin under the soft fur. He shifted uncomfortably and stepped to the side, but the eyes moved with him, unchanging. He couldn’t take it anymore. “What?!” he screamed, “What do you want?!” His voice sounded unfamiliar to him and he noticed an echo that carried the sound deep into nothingness, quieting as it went farther and farther. As soon as the echo was out of earshot, the droning of that wretched beeping returned, louder than before. Even more annoying to Jay than previously, as well. The eyes shifted and Jay’s gaze snapped back to them as his attention was drawn away from the beeping. They appeared larger than before and Jay assumed that meant they moved closer to him. Not being able to see what they were attached to left him in the dark (no pun intended) as to where their true position was. Jay laughed nervously, unsure as to what he should do. Once again, the laugh carried into the darkness and the eyes moved even closer. Jay would only have to extend his foreleg and he would be able to touch the eyes. It was probably the worst moment to sneeze, but the urge came upon Jay. He couldn’t help himself as he let loose, the sneeze sounding like a gunshot in a confined space. When he refocused on the area in front of him again, the eyes were there, this time they had moved to the end of his snout. Jay could have sworn that he could feel the breath coming from the being. He tried to back up, but the eyes moved with him, always staying on the edge of his snout, unchanging, staring. Giving up, Jay stared back. What seemed like a year had only amounted to a few seconds as he continued to stare back at the seemingly glowing eyes. He noticed the beeping increasing to an almost uncomfortable pitch, but he didn’t dare break his gaze again. The beeping filled his ears as he struggled to keep his concentration, afraid of what the eyes might do if they got any closer. The eyes appeared to notice his struggle and shifted diagonally, like the bearer was cocking its head out of curiosity. “What is it?!” Jay screamed, his mind on the brink of madness. The eyes widened a bit, as if shocked that he spoke, then, they blinked, still at an angle. It was then that Jay realized that ‘they’ were aware of his presence. The darkness receded, replaced by a blinding mixture of colors, strangely resembling a rainbow. ********** The first of Jay’s senses to return was his hearing. That (Faust damned) beeping filled his ears and Jay couldn’t help himself from thinking how many bullets he would put into the source if he could. The next sense he noticed that had returned was smell. Oddly enough, his snout felt clogged by some obstruction that was alien to his body. Next was touch and taste. He smacked his mouth a few times, trying his best to moisten it and rid himself of his nasty cottonmouth. His efforts were in vain and he quickly gave up when he noticed the sharp pain that wracked his body. Everything ached. Jay was afraid that if he moved, he would break. He also noticed various points in his forelegs that felt a little weighted. It wasn’t a pressing weight, but it was noticeable. Lastly, came his sight. Jay’s eyelids felt extremely heavy and the act of opening them was a struggle in itself. He strained his eyes to bid his command and in doing so, was rewarded with an extremely blurred image of a pony’s face directly over him. “Mrhm... R-Rainbow.. Dash?” Jay saw the figure turn away from him. “Doctor, he’s awake!” There was, what sounded like, a muffled, scuffling of hooves, signalling the approach of a pony. Through his blurry vision, Jay watched as the door to the room opened and a caramel colored pony outlined in white strode in. The newcomer picked up a brown, squarish thing, paused for a moment, then made his way to Jay’s side. There was a click and Jay’s vision was filled with a blinding white light, passing left and right over his eyes. Another click. The light in the room darkened, and a few seconds later, Jay’s sight started to return to normal. Now fully aware, he noticed the same caramel colored pony peering down at him; his analytical eyes working over every part of Jay’s face. “Erhhmmm.... hi?” Jay groaned. “Oh! I’m sorry. My name is Doctor Stable. How are you feeling?” Jay tried to sit up, but the series of monitors and machines he was connected to pulled him back to the bed, causing the doctor to shoot him a disapproving glance. “Now please, relax. You’re in a bad way,” the doctor said, his calm voice relaxing Jay slightly. The previous nights activities floated back into Jay’s memory, frowning as he struggled to remember where he was and how exactly he had gotten there. He looked around, taking in the room for the first time. The room itself was unassuming; just a default, sterile white walled hospital room. A window on the far side of the room gave a comforting look at Ponyville. Other than that, the room was just a room. Jay was definitely going to have to get out of there, fast, lest the boredom get to him. Doctor Stable took another look at his chart and started to relay the information. Unfortunately, his words fell on deaf ears, as Jay had long stopped (more like never started) listening. The implications of the other nights events were clogging his mind and he was unable to focus on much else. The Templars had found him. This changed everything and sitting here in this room wasn’t helping anything, either. Yep, it was decided, since he was almost sure none of his pain was crippling or life threatening, Jay was going to make a run for it back to Twilight’s guest room the first chance he got alone. Doctor Stable finished his overview and left the room. The pony that Jay had woken to had already left, probably realizing that they had better things to do than sit there and listen to the doctor as he rambled on. Now that he was alone, Jay tore the IV out of his arm, feeling the pinch as the needle left the skin under his fur, leaving the spot a bit sore. Reaching up to his snout, he felt the tube that was stuffed in his nose. With an intake of breath, he ripped the nasal oxygen tube from his nose, feeling the smooth plastic pulled up through his esophagus and out through his nose. He immediately gagged as soon as the tube came out. Jay remembered the time he had drank a raw egg for protein and he remembered the slimy, gooey feeling of the egg as it had slithered down his throat. He also remembered how hard it was to keep himself from throwing up because of the feeling egg. There was no doubt in his mind that he was going to have to stop himself from throwing up because of the tube. Looking at the heart monitor cable hooked to his chest, he knew that pulling it would cause a flatline, which would inevitably cause the doctors and nurses to come rushing into his room, foiling his escape plan- and he definitely didn’t want to try jumping with a wire on him. Just before Jay could do anything else, he heard two voices on the other side of his door. Both of them sounded very familiar to him, one more so than the other. He smiled to himself as he recognized Rainbow Dash’s unmistakable, scratchy yet flowing voice. The second voice spoke up, eliciting a giggle from Rainbow Dash from behind the door. A moment later, the sound of hooves approached his door and he quickly abandoned his escape, for now, tossing the now stray IV and oxygen tubes behind the plastic headboard of the bed. The blasted heart monitor would have to wait. Rainbow Dash’s head peered through the door just as Jay settled back into position on his bed. He turned to her and faintly smiled, she was certainly a welcome sight. Rainbow Dash pushed herself through the door and trotted to his bedside, a look of worry had replaced her usual mask of confidence. “Uh, hey,” she says, as her right foreleg comes up to scratch the back of her head. “Hey.” ‘I’m in a hospital and that’s all she can think of? Ouch.’ Rainbow Dash looks around the room, avoiding eye contact, as Jay looks on at her expectantly. She pauses and stares at something in the corner of the room, a sly smile spreading on her lips. “So, I heard you asked about me,” she says coyly. Jay’s face feels like it had been lit on fire. He knew his fierce blush couldn’t have gone unnoticed. “Uh, heh, yeah,” Jay managed to stammer out, “I, uh.... Yeah, I did,” he finished, resigning himself to whatever fate had in store for him. He was pretty sure that she’d just figure him a creep, because, in all honesty, it seemed kind of creepy to blurt out her name after waking from a mini-coma. It didn’t help at all that the heart rate monitor started emitting beeps faster and faster- surely Rainbow Dash would notice it. Jay made a vow that he would end that machine. And notice it she did. Rainbow Dash took in the beaming blush on Jay’s face and his audible, ever-increasing heart rate. Her coy smile grew, exuberating a happiness near a Pinkie Pie level. And there was the faint blush of her own that Jay noticed under the fine furs on her cheeks. That was when he noticed Rainbow Dash had moved closer, obliterating the space between them. She brought her head up to his and nuzzled him affectionately before whispering into his ear: “You had me worried... for a moment, uh, anyways.” She gave him a quick, but solid, peck on the cheek, and on that note, she bolted out the door of his room, stringing words together as she flew out. “I-have-to-talk-to-you-later-when-you’re-feeling-better-ok-bye!” The monitor was beeping so fast, it could have been mistaken as a flatline. The spot on Jay’s cheek where Rainbow Dash had kissed him burned as he reached a hoof up to feel it. For now, he would remain where he was, a small voice in the back of his head telling him he was only going to stay there for Rainbow Dash. He let his head hit the pillow as he lay there in his bed. In the hospital. There was a new world. There were the Templars. There was Rainbow Dash. Only one thought ran through his head: ‘What the hay have I gotten myself into?’