The first thing my mind could comprehend was the crackling of fire and the heat steadily growing against my back. My eyes snapped open the second I smelled the smoke, and while the smoke did make it a little hard to see and hard to breathe, it was pretty easy to tell that I was inside the cockpit of my prized Cessna 172. I immediately was saddened by the loss of my only plane, but my survival quickly took priority over sadness.
My first instinct was to try and open the door directly to my left but was surprised, to say the least when instead of my usual stocky arms, I was greeted by a small, white, fuzzy arm that ended in a flat stump extending in front of me. I quickly just assumed that I must be hallucinating from lack of oxygen. This also made me realize how dire of a situation I was in if I was already hallucinating causing my body to kick into overdrive, not quite in panic mode yet, but getting there.
I looked towards the latch, which I noticed seemed to be about a head higher than usual, and stuck out my stubby arms in an attempt to open the latch. The only thing that happened was me punching the door repeatedly as I continued to try again and again and again to get a grip on it only to get the same results.
My hand just seemed to slip off as if my fingers were gone. At this point, I was full-on panicking. I’m stuck inside a burning plane, I’m hallucinating, and oh yeah, I’m stuck in a burning plane! My mind, beginning to seriously feel the effects of air deprivation, came up with only one solution, punch out the window.
I quickly stood up, neglecting the fact that I shouldn’t be able to stand on the seat, and began pounding on the window. It seemed, however, that I had lost all of my strength as each hit I threw barely did anything to the tough windows of the plane.
My heart was now beating a thousand beats per second as I continued to attempt to break the window. Each second I continued my useless endeavor the smoke in the cockpit got noticeably thicker. My mind soon began to dull to the point of only being able to think of escape. And after one last punch, my oxygen-deprived body finally gave out and I fall back across the seat. My thoughts were now nothing but a haze, completely unable to think coherent thoughts. My mind, given its current state, failed to take notice of the dark figure that appeared outside the window shortly before consciousness finally escaped me.
The steady beeping from my left slowly aroused me from my sleep. My mind began coming back to me as my mind was finally shifted from the dream world and into the waking world. With a groan, I shifted a bit and immediately hissed as I felt the pain of how sore my body was causing me to groan again sending another spike of pain through my body.
The pain caused me to squeeze my eyes shut, but after a few deep breaths, I opened my eyes which promptly greeted me with a white tiles ceiling, immediately reminding me of the sterile hospitals I had to spend countless time in.
The beeping to my side finally got my attention causing me to look. The sight of the heart rate monitor sent a jolt of fear through me, causing the beeping to increase in speed noticeably. I quickly sat up, ignoring the pain, and looked around which revealed to me a sight I wished I would never have to see again, a hospital room.
To my left sat a heart rate monitor with the familiar green line moving across it. Just in front of it sat a table with a small glass of water and a vase filled with a few flowers I couldn’t name on top of it. Looking past those, I saw four other beds with their tables and medical equipment next to them all with a chair across from it against the opposite wall, including mine. The door, which sat on the opposite side of the room, and the walls were all painted blue with a single yellow stripe circling the entire room. All of this along with the general smell of antiseptic did nothing but confirm the fact that I was indeed in some kind of hospital room.
I looked out the window to my right causing my eyes to widen slightly. Rather than a parking lot or another building, all I could see was the vast expanses of what appeared to be clouds. This would have been fairly standard if I was below them, rather the window appeared to be looking out over the top of the clouds blanketing the ground below.
I knew that some hospitals in big cities were huge, but I never knew that they got this big! Heck, I lived in rural Florida, the nearest hospital that could possibly be this big would have been in Tampa, Orlando, or Miami and I lived north of all those places!
My mind now had a thousand questions piled up that wanted to be answered all at once, most notably how I ended up in a hospital this big. I tried to rub my temples, but all that ended up doing was causing me to punch myself electing a slight ‘ow’. I looked down at my bed and froze the second I saw my arms. They were little white stumps without hands! This caused me to blink a few times to make sure I was seeing this right, only to conform after a few blinks that I was indeed seeing things right, little fur-covered arms without hands.
I held my arms up in front of my face and just stared at them, waving them around, my mind not sure what to make of it. I just couldn’t find any logical explanation other than that I must be dreaming or I’m dead and this is what happens when you die. But I felt pain a second ago, and I thought I remembered reading that when you feel pain in a dream you wake up which means I can’t be dreaming.
“I’m dead!” I nearly shouted exasperatedly before flopping back down onto the bed, my new arms spread wide. “But how could I have died?” I asked, sadness creeping into my voice. I began to question how I could have possibly died, the last thing I remember was flying away from that storm in my plane. “A plane crash? That’s how I went?” I sighed dejectedly, my regrets, everything I ever did wrong quickly came pooling into my head as I sat there and stared at the ceiling trying to take in the fact that I died.
My head almost snapped off with how quickly it turned towards to door, the sound of it opening breaking me out of my little thought process. I let out a small gasp at the sight of the creature that entered the room, it was a teal blue horse with a yellow mane and tail. Though it looked nothing like a horse at the same time. Its proportions were all out of wack, as if a child had tried, and failed, to draw a horse. Though the thing that stood out the most were the feathery appendages attached to its side, which were extended in front of it and holding something similar to that of a clipboard. And to top it all off, a little hat with a red cross was resting right on top of her head.
My mind immediately recognized this as a pegasus, I liked reading about old mythology in my past time and the pegasus is easily one of the most recognizable. It was somewhat horse-shaped and had wings, that’s a pegasus.
It looked up from whatever it was reading and spoke, “Oh, you’re awake!” It said, shocking me even more. Also, seeing another living creature made me rethink the possibility that I was dead.
I watched it hastily walk over towards my bed before it deposited the clipboard into a bin hanging on the front of the bed before walking over to my left and pushing a button on the wall behind me. “He’s awake doctor!” She spoke into the grate just above the button before stepping back and returning her attention towards me. “Hey there little colt, how are you feeling?” It asked in a distinctly feminine voice as she seemed to examine the portion of my body that laid above the sheets.
“Am I dead?” I asked bluntly.
She seemingly recoiled a bit at that with a small gasp before regaining a consoling expression. “No no honey, you’re okay. They rescued you, and now you’re in the infirmary, still perfectly alive!” She said with a reassuring voice.
“Alright, well that’s good,” I responded, not sure of what else to say, my mind now filled with a thousand new questions.
“On another note, how are you feeling?”
“I’m doing alright,” I lied “just a little sore is all.”
“Oh well that’s to be expected, you’ve been out for a whole day!”
“A whole day… what happened to me?” I asked, looking up at her expectantly.
“Well, I’m not really sure,” she said, tapping her chin “but the ones who found you would know, all they told me was some medical stuff that would bore a little colt like you.” She said with a small laugh. “Oh, and would you be able to tell me your name? Mine’s Tender Breeze.”
That’s an odd name, I thought to myself before responding. “My name’s Evan, Evan Tokarski.”
“That’s a strange name for a little colt, but it’s unique in its way.” She spoke with a smile.
Also, hearing her speak and then myself reminded me of a child talking to an adult. Her voice just sounded so much more matured while mine was unnaturally high, similar to that of a young child.
While she stood there continuing to examine me, I also took notice of how big she appeared to be compared to me, and if I’m connecting all the dots right, that must mean that I am a child... a child of whatever I am, heck, I might be a pegasus too, though I decided not to ask her that for fear of her thinking something was wrong with me for not knowing.
“Would you like some water?” She asked as she held up the cup with her hoof… somehow.
“Uh…” I mumbled as I was completely baffled by the display in front of me before quickly regaining my composure. “Sure, thanks.” She then held the cup out to me expectantly, something I was somewhat dreading.
I hesitantly took both of my arms and placed them on either side of the cup and pushed them together as hard as I could without risking damage to the cup. A second later she let go, and the cup slipped right through my arms and spilled all over the sheets.
“Oh no! I’m so sorry, I should have known you may have trouble controlling your magic fields.” She continued profusely apologizing again and again before she placed the cup back on the table and began taking the sheets off and the bed and promising to get new ones right away. And true to her word, a few moments later she was out the door to get some new sheets, leaving me all to myself.
As I tried to think, I realized my mind was currently in a state of complete chaos, a seemingly endless stream of questions continued to pile up, most, if not all of which I have no answers to. Everything I just saw made me question everything I ever knew about the world. The fact that I was just talking with a pegasus coupled with my own dilemma did nothing to improve my rapidly deteriorating mental state.
I decided to take my mind off of, well, my mind for the sake of not having a mental breakdown by looking over my now exposed body. I soon realized that I was completely naked, and come to think of it, that Tender Breeze was also naked minus that little cap she wore on her head. This made me blush a little, something I did not expect to happen. But taking my mind off that, my body structure appeared to be nearly identical to that of the Tender Breeze only my colors were different and I’ve been scaled down by about half. I was intrigued, though, by the little wings that were attached to my back. They were tiny, like really tiny. I estimated that they were about a sixth of Tender Breeze’s wings. I didn’t know if that was normal because right now nothing about me is normal. Though they were way too small for flight, just the idea of the possibility of being able to fly on my own power brightened my mood just a smidge.
Smiling, I also began contemplating the reality of the situation I was in, causing my smile to fade. If I am a child, then that means I am supposed to act like a child and generally do what a child does, not an adult. I didn’t know if I was still on Earth, nor did I know if there were people here. They may not even know what humans are, and me just saying I’m a human and not some pegasus may not sound the greatest, especially coming from the mouth of a child. It was there that I decided that hiding my identity and playing along with everything would most likely be the best move until I learned more about the situation is was caught in.
My attention was pulled once again to the door opening, revealing Tender Breeze with some fresh new sheets balanced on her back. Although this time she was followed in by another horse, this one brown with yellow hair and wearing a white coat with a stethoscope around its neck. However, this one lacked a pair of wings like me and Tender Breeze, rather, it had a horn adorning its head. I immediately recognized this as a unicorn, yet another creature I once thought only to be a myth.
“Evan, this is Doctor Ginger, she’s been taking care of you since you arrived.”
“Hello, Evan, as she said, I’m Doctor Ginger,” came a distinctly female voice, “but you can just call me Ginger. Would you mind if I performed a check-up on you now that you’re awake?” She asked, to which I nodded in response. “Good, but first let’s get you some new sheets.”
I yelped a little as I felt a small pressure encapsulate my entire body, but I nearly screamed when I started to float off of the bed. Looking around to see what was going on, I noticed that there was a hazel-colored aura around me and Doctor Ginger’s horn. I stared wide-eyed as the same hazel aura engulfed the sheets on the bed before they were lifted, folded in mid-air, and put on the table next to my bed. A second later, the sheets on Tender Breeze’s back were engulfed in the same glow before they too were lifted into the air and unfolded before being neatly laid out on the bed. I watched the whole process with wide eyes, somewhat intrigued and yet also scared. If this unicorn can levitate things with such ease and precision, who knows what else she can do with that horn of hers.
“Alrighty, there we go!” She smiled as she lowered me back onto the bed. “Let’s begin the checkup!” She exclaimed. “Oh, and if you’re good, there may or may not be a lollipop waiting for you!”
*30 minutes later
I was nice and cozy under the bedsheets happily sucking away on a cherry lollipop that Breeze placed into my mouth a few moments earlier before she and the doctor left saying I had some guests.
The check-up went… well, I’m not really sure. A few of the tests I recognized like when she hit my arm and leg with that little rubber hammer to test my reflexes. Though some of the other ones I didn’t recognize, like when she placed a weird, metallic band with a tiny meter on it around my wing. But the weirdest tests were the ones where she used her horn to do stuff causing me to feel all tingly inside. It was one of the most unnatural feelings I had ever experienced, but it was in no way painful. Overall, she seemed pretty satisfied, but I could tell that she didn’t get the results she was expecting from a few of the tests, particularly on a few of the tests I didn’t recognize.
They also asked me a few questions, but thankfully they didn’t ask me too many. Most of them were the usual doctor’s office questions that you’re always asked. As long as they steered clear of any questions regarding my past, I would be fine. This also made me realize I needed a cover story and made a mental note to start thinking about it when I had the chance.
The door opening quickly drew me out of my mind and back into the real world. I looked over and saw three new pegasi, all dressed in some kind of blue, rubbery material along with a pair of goggles pulled over the eyes walking over towards me. I raised an eyebrow as they walked over, wondering why they looked like that.
A moment later, the three of them stopped at the side of my bed, each one lifting their goggles before the orange-haired one began speaking. “Hey kid, you feeling better?”
“Yeah, I feel alright, could be better, but I’ve had worse,” I said with a shrug. “My name’s Evan Tokarski, what’s yours?” I asked, not expecting the surprised expression all three of the pegasi gave me which worried me a bit.
“You don’t know who we are?” Asked the one with rainbow hair, a hint of offense evident in her voice.
“Nope,” I said bluntly “also, why are you guys all wearing those?” I said, pointing at their shiny apparel.
“Well first,” began the one all the way on the left with white hair, “we’re the Wonderbolts, I’m Fleetfoot, that’s Spitfire, and that’s Rainbow Dash.” She stated, pointing to each of them respectively.
“And as to why we’re wearing these,” Spitfire started “they are the official Wonderbolt uniforms.”
“Okay, I don’t mean to sound rude,” I said as I held my arms up in an innocent manner, “but why are you guys visiting me?” I inquired, actually curious as to why these people would just come and visit me.
“Well, we’re the ones who found and saved you!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed pridefully.
“So, do you know what happened? I don’t remember much.”
“Well,” Fleetfoot began, thinking to herself “we were doing our patrols around the academy, where we are now, when Rainbow Dash spotted smoke off in the distance over the White Tail Woods. We decided to check it out to make sure it wasn’t a forest fire, but when we arrived, we saw that the metal thing you were in was on fire. Spitfire happened to notice you pounding on the window. So we got you out and Spitfire brought you back here while Rainbow Dash and I put the fire out.”
“Alright… thanks for telling me that,” I said, each of them giving me a you’re welcome back.
Spitfire took a step forward and began rubbing my hair. “We’re just glad to see that you’re okay kiddo if you ever want to talk to us, just tell one of the nurses, we’d be glad to keep you company.” And with that, I thanked them once more before they said their goodbyes. But as they were about to exit, Rainbow Dash said something to the others before she turned around and came back to my bedside.
“Hey squirt,” she said as she got a little closer to me “this may sound kinda awesome, but I’m friends with Princess Twilight and when I told her about you she said she would love to meet you.”
I froze in place, praying that I didn’t hear what I just did.
“Yeah, Twilight’s one of my best friends and she’s the princess of friendship. She figured you could use a friend right now seeing as you’re up here all by yourself for the most part.”
“Alright… I can’t wait to meet her!” I exclaimed with fake enthusiasm.
“She said she’s going to be here tomorrow morning, so try not to sleep in too much. Anyway, I better go catch up to the others, see ya later squirt!” And with that, she left leaving me alone once again.
As I slowly laid back down, only one thought ran through my head, “I’m doomed!”