It's black.
Mind scared and filled with worry.
Did I fail?
Did... I die?
Leo is stuck within oblivion, his vision being consumed by the abyss. It was lonely. So deeply and utterly lonely. Isolation consumed Leo's soul. It was suffocating.
But, that's how it's always been. No girl... No meaningful relationships... I just wanted to play my music for someone to hear, yet, it never reached anyone's ears, let alone someone's heart. Dammit... it can't end here!
Leo flailed in the darkness, masking his loneliness with rage. If he could find what or who caused him this strife, he would do everything in his power to destroy. But, Leo knew thinking like this right now was useless.
With a sigh, Leo slowly drifts through the darkness, pondering where his choices have landed him. His regrets and unused opportunities began to pile onto his heart. All the goals and ambitions he had could have very well gone up in flames. Like ash, he will dissipate into the air and be forgotten.
Maybe I should've been more outgoing... Maybe I...
Suddenly he feels something gentle within himself. The energy creeps softly from his abdomen to the rest of his body. Sending a warm feeling across his body, wall the way down to his fingertips and toes. Slowly the veil of darkness lifts, replaced with a blinding light. With it, Leo feels the surging pain return from his injuries.
"AHHHhh, fuuuck, it hurts..." Opening his eyes, his vision is clouded over, blurring everything around. Spots of black were also scattered around his perception, as if he had stared at the sun for too long. Slowly, his eyes begin to focus.
Looking around, he appeared to be in a hospital, with clean white walls encasing the room. In the middle, he sat in a bed that wasn't too noteworthy. Standing beside him was an I.V., with the tube for it running to his somewhat uninjured left arm. His right arm, however, was heavily bandaged up.
I'm surprised my shoulder is still in one piece... Thank goodness.
As for his other injuries, they caused him to wince a little if he moves the wrong way. Somehow the injuries didn't seem nearly as bad as they were before, almost like they were just flesh wounds to begin with. Although the cuts on his ribs for example weren't very deep per-say, the ribs underneath were in shambles before.Leo ran his fingers down the cuts on his ribs, feeling a rough sensation. scabs Now, it was just slight scabbing more than anything.
But it was a huge gash on my shoulder, with the bones almost shattered like glass... How is the internal damage almost already healed? A fractured rib cage and shattered shoulder should've put me out of commission for months, but it's almost completely healed now. How am I alive anyway? I lost an absurd amount of blood...How... I... I'm... alive!
Without realizing it, Leo began to cry.
Holy crap, I'm actually alive!
Unfortunately, Leo's time alone was cut short. A voice cut into through the room.
"Are you awake?" Came a soft voice, presumably a woman. Looking over, Leo gets a look at who's talking. Over to the left of him stood some...thing.
She wasn't human. It was a quadruped, an equine, with a coat of fur white as porcelain, and a mane and tail that were baby pink, with the mane put into a bun. She wore a classic nurse cap with a medical red cross on it with four red hearts on the corners of the cross. Matching it was the same red cross with hearts on both sides of her flanks. Her gradient blue eyes were also huge compared to anything Leo's seen before.
It all comes crashing down. Leo's skin, began to form small bumps all along. His blood froze, his breath halted completely. Panic.
"What... are you!?" Leo exclaims, staring wide-eyed at the nurse. "This can't be real! I'm just dreaming HAHAHA!"
I NEED to get out of here, NOW!
In his severe delirium, Leo rips out the I.V. in his arm, causing a small trail of blood to roll down his arm. He abruptly stands up, starting with a wobble. Thankfully, he was able to stabilize himself on the railing on the side of the medical bed. Coming to grips with his body once again, he moves for the door.
"Sir, please, you must sit down!!" She cries out, trying to get the man's attention. Her eyebrows raised from his seemingly unwarranted response.
Unfortunately for her, Leo's adrenaline has already reached peak levels, drowning out the noise around him. He grips his arm to stop the bleeding and rushes out the door, creating a large amount of noise throughout the hospital.
Where THE FUCK am I?! First, there are monsters, and now there are talking HORSES?!! Just where the hell am I!?
Leo bites his lip from his frustration of the unknown. Spilling into the hallway, Leo hastily glances around for any sign of an exit. Down the hallway, there's a red sign on the ceiling pointing to a door at the end of the corridor. He doesn't check to see what it says, but rather the direction it points in.
THERE!
Sprinting full speed, Leo almost trips on himself before reaching the door. Wasting no effort, he throws himself at the door. Oddly, the door feels somewhat heavy.
My body is still fatigued...Dammit.
Once the door opens, Leo's vision is overtaken by the bright sunlight. Putting his arm over his eyes, he glances around.
...Fuck...
All around, there are these horses, appearing sapient. Like people, they're all doing their own thing. From walking around and talking, to running a stand selling wares. Unsurprisingly, however, they all begin to turn and stare, wide-eyed, at the human. This doesn't go well with Leo, making him feel like an animal on display.
They won't stop looking at me... stop... Stop... STOP!!
"STOP! You're injured! You need to get back before your injuries open back up!" The nurse from before shouts from behind.
Seeing that she's tailing him, he takes off once more. He doesn't know where he's going, but he has the guttural urge to go forward.
"Somepony, stop him PLEASE!" The nurse yells towards the crowd. With her eyebrows furrowed, she has visible worry written on her face.
At the command, the other "horses" start to congregate towards Leo, trying to block off his path. However, he keeps his momentum. His face distorts into almost a vengeful expression.
These bastards better stay out of my way!!
"S-stop!" A meek feminine voice comes from one of the pursuers, but he pays no mind as he rushes forward.
"MOVE," Leo screams out as he pushes one of them out of the way. He barely had the energy to throw her aside, but he did it.
THUD
"Owwww," comes out the feminine voice, but Leo doesn't look to see who it came from but instead keeps running. His legs start to feel heavier from exhaustion.
I just pushed one and I'm already reaching my limit!
"Haaaa...haaaa...haaa," Leo's breaths come out labored as he keeps rushing forward. He starts to feel a dull pain in his injured shoulder and along his scratched ribs. They pulse with pain, his body sending its agony to Leo's brain. Luckily, it seems that pushing that one aside has stopped the others from blocking him.
I just...wanna...go home
Leo bites his lip, causing blood to trickle down his chin as he causes all the commotion. He can't stand those eyes, staring at him like some freak.
Soon enough, his body can't keep up. His vision begins to blur; he doesn't know how long he's been running. It felt like an eternity, an inescapable nightmare.
*Stop Music*
"WHAT THE BUCK ARE YOU DOING!?!" He hears a voice screaming at him from up above.
Just... get out of my way!
Leo doesn't have the energy to speak, but he makes his answer clear as he continues onward. The voice, however, doesn't seem to like it.
A blur tackles him, pushes him to the ground with a loud thud. Out of everything, Leo's wounds seemed to not like this approach the most, the injuries' screams overtaking his mind.
Writhing in pain, Leo's eyes clamp shut as he howls in pain, "FUUUCK AHHHH!!" Over on his shoulder, the previously pristine bandages begin to transition into a slight shade of red.
It hurts so bad!!! FUCK!!! I need to calm down!
Slowly, Leo tries to calm himself down. However, how could it be so easy? His eyes are wavering with many emotions clouding them. Rage, indignance, fear, sorrow. He slowly opens his eyes to one of those horses, presumably a female, standing over him. She was a cyan-blue one with a rainbow tail and mane, the mane being somewhat unkempt and windswept. Her eyes were a magenta, matching her mane and fur. On her sides were even wings!
"I'll ask you again! What the buck are you doing!?" She says with a scratchy voice, its pupils dilated to a pinprick due to rage.
What am I doing? I'm taken from my home, beaten to a pulp, and thrust into the unknown. HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW!?
Choking back tears, he just says," I-I don't know." He couldn't seem to ground his emotions; he was under the most stress he had been under in his whole life. No one could possibly understand.
"So, you're telling me you pushed my friend over and freaked everypony out because YOU DON'T KNOW?!" She rebukes as her face distorts even further with disdain.
Leo snaps, "HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?! I got dumped in the middle of bumfuck NOWHERE, I fought for my LIFE, and now, it turns out there are sentient FUCKING HORSES everywhere! SO NO, I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!"
After holding it in, the dam finally breaks, his emotions spilling out for all to see. After seeing the talking horses he didn't want to admit and acknowledge it, but now it finally sunk in. He was not home, and he might not be able to get home. Life was truly cruel to him it seemed.
Speechless. She had no clue how to even respond to that, opting to wear a look of sympathy.
"I-I'll take you to the hospital, those wounds must've opened back up," she breaks the silence. Pointing her hoof at Leo's shoulder, the gauze is a very visible hue of red.
Leo hesitantly nods, steadily getting back on his feet. Absentmindedly, he stared at the prismatic horse.
...Just what is going ON?! Why is she being nice to me? Why are they speaking English? It's like they're humans, but not at the same time...
Human...
I didn't notice until now but her voice is scratchy and honestly kinda... cute... too bad she's... whatever she is...
"You're still not excused... for pushing my friend over that is. Uhh, my name's Rainbow Dash, what's yours?" She looks up, wearing a curious expression.
"Leo... Do you know where your friend is? I wanna apologize." he says, looking somewhat worried. He was never really the violent type against the undeserving, but this time he let his emotions take him over, leaving him feeling deeply ashamed.
"Yeah! Do you want me to bring you to her?" She asks with a smile. Leo seemed remorseful so she was willing to forgive him, and she knew her friend would aswell.
"A-actually, can you bring her to the hospital?" I'm feeling a bit woozy... Leo begins to slog towards the hospital. Although it's only a dull pain in his shoulder, it's still bleeding.
"Sure, we'll meet you at the hospital!" She waves as she takes off. Leo stared wide-eyed at how fast she flew off, not expecting a whole 'horse' to move at such speeds.
I must be anemic... Fuck, why did I do that?! I shouldn't freak like that again, I need to think about everything carefully. I can't put myself in a bad situation when I don't even know where I am.
As Leo makes his way to the hospital, he gets plenty of glares and gasps from the side of the road. Gripping his fist, he decides he needs to ignore them for now.
Once I'm out of the hospital, I DARE THEM TO GLARE AT ME!
After a few minutes of walking, he spots the nurse. She's sitting at the exit he ran out of prior, with a frown glued on her face, although he can't blame her.
Up close, Leo then bows his head, "I'm sorry I freaked out... Could you please treat me once again?" With only hope in his heart, he still expects to hear a 'no' from her mouth.
"Thankfully, you didn't harm any staff, or I would turn you down..." She says, her frown shifting into a soft smile. She then turns around, waving towards Leo, "Follow me."
Thank god...
Opening the door, Leo's greeted with a familiar scenery, but this time taking it in. It's a corridor with heavy wooden doors with windows lining the walls. Next to the doors are plaques that are numbered. Other than those features it's very bland and simplistic, but also very clean and easy on the eyes.
"In here," the nurse continues, "let me redress your bandages and then I'll give you an overview of your injuries." She reaches into a cabinet in one of the corners, pulling out gauze.
How does she grab that with her hooves?! This place is so similar to earth, but it also makes it even more bizarre.
To help the process, Leo takes off his "shirt", if it could even be called that with the damage it's sustained, revealing his injured ribs and well-toned body. Although the gauze on the ribs isn't as deeply colored red like the ones on the shoulder, it still took on a tinge of red. "Should I sit on the bed?" He asks the nurse in compliance.
"Yes please, you can lay down if you need, but I'll need you to sit up for some of it." She tells him, her voice taking on a hue of sympathy.
"Okay, by the way, what should I call you?" He asks as she makes her way to him with all of her necessities.
"You can call me Nurse Readheart," she introduces herself, wearing the same soft smile from before. "Before I start on your shoulder, what's your name?"
"Just call me Leo," he says, opting to wear a soft smile as well.
"What an odd name," she murmurs to herself as she slowly takes off the dirty bandages on the shoulder. Underneath, although all scabbed over, appears to be the aftermath of a gnarly gash, with scar tissue lining the outer edges slightly. Leo winces a little as she puts on the new bandages
Reaching down, Redheart slowly takes off the bandages on Leo's ribs, revealing four long cuts with scar tissue lining the outside of the scabs there as well. Somehow most of it is healed, with only two opened scabs leaking a little blood. Although they looked so much better compared to prior, something felt off to Leo.
How did they heal so quickly? I remember my ribs being fractured and my shoulder being basically turned to mush... It can't be this energy... can it?
With Readheart finishing up the bandaging, the door begins to open. In the doorway, there were two 'horses,' one Rainbow Dash, and the other that Leo presumes to be her friend. She has a soft yellow-colored coat, with a pink mane and tail that curl near the ends. Her eyes were a deep aqua green, almost like the color of a deep forest green, but not quite. She also had wings to the side like Rainbow Dash.
"Please, come in," Redheart allows the visitors into the room.
As they step in, Leo decides to keep his shirt off. After all, from his encounter, the black shirt was turned into rags. Rainbow Dash gets a full view of his injuries, going wide-eyed, "Holy buck, Leo are you alright?" Leo was initially embarassed from being shirtless, but he realized he had been this whole time with that war-torn shirt of his.
Chuckling, Leo retorts, "you should've asked me that before you tackled me." Rainbow Dash draws back, but Leo continues, "I'm alright. Before that though, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for pushing you over," Leo says, turning to Rainbow's friend.
"I-it's fine, I forgive you. Ironically, I was on my way to check on you," she says rather meekly, hiding her face behind her pink mane. "W-when I found you coming out of Everfree like that, I thought you might've... I'm glad you're okay."
"You're the one who saved me!? Ahhh, now I feel even worse... I can't say anything besides thank you. What's your name?" Leo voices his sincerity towards the meek savior.
"Fluttershy," she states, a warmhearted smile shaping her lips.
"Mm, I'm Leo" he nods, "Miss Redheart, could you tell me the injury summary or whatever?"
"Of course, when you came in you were a mess, with a shattered shoulder, fractured ribs, and open wounds on each site. Emaciated, you were out cold for a week. We didn't do a blood transplant in case something went wrong, but we had you on I.V... Now, somehow, your bones are completely healed with only scabs on each site.
WTF?! A WEEK??? It took a WEEK to heal a shattered shoulder? There's no way it was anything besides that internal energy! I honestly can't think of anything else.
Following the diagnosis, the room was filled with silence from the shock. All the 'horses' besides the nurse had their jaws dropped.
Cutting through the silence like a knife, Rainbow Dash's voice comes out first. "How the hay did you end up so messed up?!" Leo could tell how worried she was just from her voice cracking at the end.
Biting his lip, Leo comes out with it. "I ran into a manticore in that forest... I almost died. Honestly, it was a miracle I didn't. All I could do was run, but I ended up having to make a last stand."
Rainbow rebukes, "yeah, but, why in Celestia's name were you in the EVERFREE?! That's the most dangerous place EVER!"
"Well that explains the vibe I got from there, and to answer you, I don't even know where I am," he continues, turning his gaze to Fluttershy, "so exactly where am I? As far as I know, I might not even be on planet Earth."
Fluttershy responds, "Earth? This is umm... Equis. More specifically, we're on the continent Equestria. A-and our town is called Ponyville." Her face shifts into one with much more concern than before.
Leo doesn't even need to say anything, just heaving a deep sigh instead.
Fuck...I'm on a whole 'nother planet... just.. wow. HAHAHA, welp, I'm absolutely screwed...
Which bastard brought me here?! I'LL FUCKING SKIN THEM!!
"Okay so then going by the name of your town, y'all are ponies, and not horses?" Leo asks, but he still can't hide the deep grimace on his face.
"NO! We're not whorses, you jerk! You never seen a pony?!" Rainbow answers, somewhat sharply at Leo. Taken aback, he looks at her like she grew two heads.
Did she not hear what I just said?..
"What the hell are you talking about?! If you couldn't guess by now, no, I haven't seen a fucking pony that can talk before. And why are you getting so defensive? Aren't horses just ponies but taller?" Leo tries to explain himself, obviously misunderstood.
"Uhh, right, sorry. And no, whorses aren't tall ponies, they're ponies who get around, if you know what I mean." Rainbow says, breaking eye contact and blushing from embarrassment.
"Alright, anyways," Leo says changing the conversation, "Redheart, when can I get out of here."
"I would've said today, but because your wounds reopened, I'll have to ask you to stay until tomorrow just in case, then you'll be discharged." She says, causing Leo to scratch the back of his neck from embarrassment.
At least there won't be any experiments and the works.
"Ahh, I understand," Leo then turns to Rainbow and Fluttershy, "If it's not too bothersome, could I talk with y'all tomorrow? I honestly have a lot of questions that need answers, but I need to get some rest. I'll answer any of your questions you two have since I know you're curious."
"Uhh, sure. I'll come find you tomorrow and we can go to Fluttershy's place," Rainbow tells Leo, turning to Fluttershy and receiving a nod. They then begin to turn towards the exit.
"I'll look forward to it." Leo, wearing the most genuine grin since he's been here, waves towards the duo. "Bye!"
"See ya, Leo!" The prismatic pony calls out.
"I'll s-see you tomorrow, Leo," Fluttershy speaks softly.
As the door closes, Leo ignores Redheart as he begins to drift into his thoughts.
So I guess the first order of business is to adjust to this new place and look for a way home. Hopefully, it won't be too complicated. I also need to figure out how to become stronger so I don't end up in a vulnerable situation like that again... uhh I'll save it for future Leo.
Closing his eyes, Leo drifts into the comforting darkness of sleep.
-Snore