Colour
trees
The steps circling themselves, leading further up-
Dialogue from his computer-
A river winding between hills-
–corner of the room. A pitch black claw, it's digits twitching–
A black coated mare was pulling with every scrap--
The night sky bloomed into existence, pushing the other images away.
^
< ◇ >
v
Peter awoke with a snort, rambling mumbles spilling from their lips as the experiences of their dream flitted away…
'When did I even fall asleep?' I wondered, rolling from my back forward onto my belly, wincing as… something got pinned between me and the mattress. 'oh yeah, I have a tail now.' A quick flick of that group of muscles and the appendage was free to flop over the pillow. 'You would think I'd have had enough sleep lately, but, here we are.'
I reached to rub my eyes, quickly remembered that the gentle instruments known as fingers had been replaced with hooves, and very carefully scrubbed my face against my wrists/ wrist-like-joints. 'If I'm stuck like this, I'm gonna need to learn horse anatomy.'
Pushing that somewhat terrifying thought aside for now, I blinked a few times, chasing away the tired sluggishness and clearing my vision to something acceptable.
Going by the light streaming in through the window, it wasn't that much later, maybe an hour or two, but I wasn't exactly experienced in reading the time via the sun. I could basically tell you if it was early, late, or night, and that's it.
But things looked about the same, so it couldn't be that much later. I stifled a yawn, and looked around a bit. On the bedside table, sat a tray of food. 'Food!'
I pounced – literally pounced – the thing, somehow dragging it several inches up and back onto the bed without spilling anything. There was a sandwich, of some kind. I didn't recognize the stuff between the bread, but it looked cooked and smelled absolutely divine!
A small apple had been cut into slices and arranged in a spiral, with some pink-fades-into-white flower sitting in its center, possibly as garnish, but it smelled good too. Obligatory emerald green hospital jello sat in a sealed little – glass, whats wrong with plastic!? – container with a spoon, and I honestly had no idea how to go about opening that up. It all looked, actually really good, for hospital food.
The only thing that didn't get dragged onto the bed was the glass of water with a curly green straw sticking out of it, but that was because A; I wasn't stupid, B, I doubted I could get it up here, and C, knew that needed a stable surface to sit on, not the spongey bed, that was just asking for a mess.
Through a combination of batting at it with my forelimbs, and nosing it into position carefully, I got the sandwich standing at an angle against the lip of the tray, and took a bite. The bread was better than just about anything I'd ever had alone! It was wholegrain, and the flavor was rich and fresh and just plain amazing!
Whatever made the filling for the sandwich snapped like fresh lettuce, but the flavour was so far beyond that. It was comparable to the quality burgers you could get at a little mom and pop joint, complete with a hefty swab of mayo that complimented it perfectly, but as this wasn't meat, it was an entirely new brand of awesome, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Sadly, the sandwich was gone before I knew it. I moved onto the flower over the apple slices, it snapped like fresh greens as well, and the short stem attached to it was chewy, and filled with a natural sweetness that was amazing. The apple slices themselves were crisp, a perfect balance of tart and sweet.
I took a brief break to take a sip of water, and found that even that somehow tasted better? 'That one doesn't even make sense!' I thought, but continued to drink anyway.
I went back for more apples, and began trying to figure out how to manipulate the spoon into stabbing open the jelo when my ears flicked at the sound of approaching noise. What sounded like eight sets of steps, and therefore likely just two horse-ish people, were coming my way.
I broke out of my food frenzy long enough to wonder what was happening now.
"So, yer sayin she's finally up then? Well that's a relief. We were all gettin' a mite worried about the little lady, with how long she was sleepin'." Someone drawled in a distinctly southern accent. I felt like I had heard it before, strangely.
"Oh I know what you mean. I still don't know much about her, but I didn't want to overload her with questions. She already seemed to be freaking out when I found her this morning, I hope she's doing better now." That one sounded like Redheart.
'Huh, I wonder who they're talking about. This is a hospital after all, it must have a few patients… I wonder if they call themselves doctors or vets?' I mused idly, giving up on the jello to chomp down on another apple slice.
"So, how's your brother doing?" Redheart asked the stranger, just outside the door to my room. "I haven't gotten to check on him today, pediatrics has been swamped with a recent batch of flurry flu."
'Whatever the hell that is, patients confirmed.'
"Ah, he's doin' better. Buncha you fine medical ponies lookin' after him right good. They say he'll be up 'n kickin' in abouts two weeks or so… gonna have to do the whole harvest without him, seems." The second voice sighed.
"Well, that's good to hear, and I'm sure you can manage without him, is Apple Bloom well enough to help out yet?" Redheart asked.
'Wait, is that a name?'
The country voice made a noise of discomfort. "Nah, she's doin' much better, an'll be goin' back to school soon, but she's still shiverin' all the time. She don't need to over work herself and get herself sick all over again."
"Oh, that's a shame." Red Heart said sympathetically. Their conversation seemed to stall for a moment, or drop to a volume I couldn't hear. "Are you positive you have the time to meet her? Seems like you've got a lot on your plate."
"Aww, that's sweet of ya to worry about, but the harvest ain't gonna start for a few more days now, so it's no trouble, sides, Ah'm here already, seems a bit silly to turn tail now."
"Alright, wait here a moment, I'll check on her." And with that, the door clicked open, admitting Redheart's head into the room once more. She cast her gaze about quickly, before checking the bed. "Oh good, you're still resting." She smiled.
I narrowed my eyes in suspicion for a moment, my head automatically cocking to the side in question. "Yeah?" I looked down at the tray and nudged it to the side a little. "Oh, and the food was very good, thank you."
The nurse nodded. "I'm glad you enjoyed it." She stepped into the room, closing the door behind her but leaving a hoof on the handle. "Now, I told you earlier that one of the mares who brought you in was here, are you up to meeting her right now?"
I nodded emphatically. "Of course!" 'She might know how the hell I got here, and by extension, how to get me home!'
"Well okay then." Redheart turned and pulled the door open, admitting entry to… the brightest orange creature I had ever seen. Her coat was Brilliant gamboge, and if it were any brighter I'd seriously wonder if she glowed in the dark. Her hair was the color of wheat – or close enough to it to evoke the comparison – and kept in a loose ponytail via a red scrunchy, her actual tail was thick and held in a similar fashion. Atop her head sat a worn, but clearly cared for, cowboy style hat, not sure which kind though.
We locked eyes – hers were a bright and cheery shade of green – for a moment, before she blinked, and went from deer in the headlights to warm and welcoming. "Well howdy! Glad to see you're up 'n about. Mah name's Applejack, what's yours sugarcube?"
The amount of country twang in her voice was only matched by her hospitality. She took a few steps closer and… shook my… hoof? 'Wait, why would that be the greeting developed by quadrupeds?' "Uuhhhh… Hi?" I managed to get out, trying to shake off the tingly feeling in my right foreleg from her shaking it with such… restrained strength and vigor.
The nurse put a hoof over the country mare's back, pulling her back slightly. "Now now, let's not scare the filly, take your time, dear."
Applejack's eyes widened in shock as she shrank back a pace, an apologetic smile framed by lowered ears as she dipped her head. "Sorry 'bout that, ah'm just happy to see you up, 'Bloom's been excited to meet you, we all have really." The nurse shot her a hooded look, and the orange mare jerked back further.
'So… a lot of people want to meet me, for some reason… Are extended periods of unconsciousness that interesting?' I wondered, before asking just that.
"Well, that would be part of it, there is more to it than that." The pinkette began.
"What's real interestin' is how we found you in an abandoned castle in the heart of the Everfree Forest. Jus' what were you doin' out there?" Applejack cut back in, taking one step forward with reproach and concern in her tone.
"... A castle? I have no idea how I got into a ruin in the middle of some... everfry forest?" I shook my head, ignoring their looks of surprise in favour of finishing my answer. "Anyway, I have no idea how I got out there. All I know is that one moment I'm going to sleep in my own bed, then I wake up in the hospital, and that I've been unconscious for a week." I paused for a moment to eat another apple slice. "Honestly, I was hoping you could tell me how I got here, since Nurse Redheart said you brought me in. Thank you for that, by the way."
The country mare nodded In acknowledgment of my appreciation, then she "hmm"ed for a moment, rubbing her chin. "Nah, can't rightly say ah do. It was Pinkie who found ya first, and I was only just wakin' up mahself."
"Would she know how I got here then? Please, I just want to… I want things to go back to normal." I felt my ears droop on either side of my head. Coupling that with the crack in my voice, I must have looked pretty pathetic, because I was immediately pulled into a hug by Applejack, my front legs dangling off the bed as she held me close. '...Well I wasn't expecting this… apparently these horse people are very touchy feely?'
The orange equine must have heard something in the way I spoke, and read me as far more upset than I was. "Now don't you fret none, I'm sure we can get you back home real quick, before you kin say 'Granny Smith's apple pie.' So you jus' wait here, get yourself some more food in that belly, and I'll be back with everypony 'fore the sun goes down." She gave me a quick squeeze before putting me back on the bed.
Once I was sitting on the bed again, and no longer had a being three times my size in my personal space, I noticed how a knot in my chest that I hadn't even known was there came undone, leaving me with a warm, content-ish feeling. 'Somehow, I feel like she's serious. She's at the very least extremely convincing.'
While I was busy sorting out how I felt now that the tension had left me, the two taller equinoids hashed out some quick conversation before leaving the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
After a minute or two, I turned back to my unfinished meal, and went about cleaning the tray of sustenance.
^
< ◇ >
v
I very carefully stacked my dishes together, empty glass in the middle of the tray, spoon set inside it, and the now empty container of jello next to the glass.
Stomach filled and free of distractions, I had nothing to do, well, aside from think. Think about how I got here. Think about what I woke up as.
Think about the word filly, as I still haven't remembered what that meant.
I decided to think on none of these things, and hopped off the bed. It is to my satisfaction that I only stumbled for a total of three of my own body lengths, which is pretty good for someone who has had their usual mode of locomotion replaced with a different system entirely, I think.
On the ground level, I went about trying to push a chair in front of the window. 'Y'know. Because I'm small, And I wanna see what's going on. And I say 'trying' because, one, small, two, no hands, and three quadruped.' The main issue with my plan involved the fact that the only chair in the room was on the other side of the room.
It's immensely difficult to walk on three legs when your body Is meant for four. It's even more difficult when you're trying to do it backwards. And even more difficult when trying to pull a chair at the same time.
Going at it from another angle, I tried butting my shoulder up against one of the legs, and pushing it that way, which was difficult, but manageable.
After agonizingly slow minutes, in which the chair toppled twice, and nearly toppled three times, I finally had a seat by the open window, and hopped up into it.
Standing on my back legs, I propped myself up against the sill, arms folded, which I attempted to rest my chin on. It worked, kind of. I just had to sit down first, and I rested my head less on my arms, more on just the hooves of them, the rest of my arms having been pulled down with the rest of me.
I wiggled a bit on the cushion, finding how my new body liked to sit, before wrapping my tail around my legs like a small blanket. 'Comfort established.' I smirked at the robotic monotone of my thoughts, before finally turning my focus to what was beyond the window.
The view was a picturesque rendition of medieval – or perhaps fantastical would be more accurate – town. Buildings constructed out of tastefully exposed timber frames, walls ranging the entire expanded white family, windows marking each floor when visible. The roofs were thatch, or at least covered in thatch in an attempt to conform with the traditional aesthetic, at this distance I couldn't be sure. Roads consisting of flagstone and ordinary dirt criss crossing and linking every building together.
A vibrant little train done all up in hearts – way too many hearts, the front window was a heart, there was a heart on the giant lightbulb on the front, the plow thing for removing snow and parked vehicles from the tracks was littered with little yellow hearts – pottered down the track into station. The sun sat nestled atop a bed of clouds, of which there were just enough to make the weather Ideal.
And everywhere, absolutely everywhere, were horses. And I do mean everywhere. Walking the paths, sitting in the grass, what looked like singing out the window of a house, flying through the air.
Every colour you could think of, on display in both coat and mane, in every style imaginable. On top of that, we had, well, obviously, wings on all the ones in the sky, but also a few on the ground. We also had horns on a number of the populus, but the vast majority seemed to lack any addorning features.
Aside from the tramp stamps. It seemed that on every horse that I could get a good look at, they all had some picture displayed on their… their… flank! 'That's the word! Feck, why did it take me so long to remember that?'
Despite the oddly pastel/psychedelic colors on display, nothing seemed to… clash for lack of a better word. 'How a prey species got so damn vibrant, I have no idea. I mean look at that one!' I stared in disbelief at a light blue pegasus that had an actual rainbow for hair, flying at high speeds, with clear division between the colors. 'Actually, I can see how the airborne variety would develop bright colours, if I equate them to birds. Although that doesn't explain my hair…' I thought, rolling my eyes heavenward to blink at my own colourfully streaked hair.
Still, despite evolutionary likelihood or lack thereof, it was actually really fun to just sit and people watch like I was, and so I did.
^
< ◇ >
v
I yawned, my eyes falling half closed as I zoned back in. I hadn't fallen asleep, I had kinda just glazed over, not paying any real attention, but not thinking about anything either.
The sky was slowly transitioning from blue to orange as the sun trekked towards the horizon. Most of the equines below had moved on since I had been paying attention. The rainbow haired one was still flitting this way and that, pulling off aerial maneuvers I was fairly sure broke some universal law, or would at the very least have some aeronautics people pulling their hair out.
A very pink pony was sitting on a bench a good clip from my window, bouncing to some tune and apparently enjoying herself. Himself? I couldn't actually tell at this distance.
I sucked in a breath as I pushed off from the window sill, letting it out in a groan of satisfaction as I leaned back and stretched my ar- forlegs. 'Dang, I've been sitting here a while.' I thought, turning around to hop down from the chair and back into bed. 'Looks like the orange one got busy, or forgot. Either way, I guess I'll worry about it tomorrow.'
Craning my neck out over the edge of the seat, I carefully judged the distance to the floor, aimed up where I was going to land, tipped off the chair and stuck my front hooves out over the edge, preparing to catch myself and bleed off my momentum in a brief walk. 'Err, Trot. Or was it Gallop? Screw it, a brief stretch of horse locomotion.'
I hadn't even got halfway to the ground when a breeze picked up from the window, curtains billowing out around me. The blanket blew off the bed, the sheet rippled, air whistled beneath the door as it passed though the small space.
Oh, and the chair rocked.
I somehow snapped back to a seated position, my hooves sticking to the cushion for some inexplicable reason. With my added weight, I managed to keep the chair steady and upright, though it did squeak rather loudly as it slid three inches away from the wall.
And then an almighty snap filled the air, driving the wind up ever higher. The chair left the ground. I didn't leave the chair. I screamed. I went screaming across the room.
I bounced off the bed, the chair deciding that the wind was stronger than my grip, it left, clattering off the wall and coming to rest in front of the door.
Two more snaps, which were lighter than before and sounded suspiciously like flaps, and something clacked onto the window sill.
"And she sticks the landing!" Came a scratchy, brash voice from the direction of my very own personal wind tunnel.
I gingerly poked my head up over the edge of the bed, my entire body shaking as I beheld… the rainbow haired pegasus from before, posed confidently...? I think i'm reading that right. The horse person was perched confidently upon the window frame, chest puffed out, eyes closed, with a small smirk on her face.
Magenta eyes cracked open, and her confidence immediately gave way to surprise and worry. Our gazes locked, and the light blue winged equine shrank back sheepishly. "Hehe… I… I'm sorry about that."
"Two things." I rasped between paniced breaths, while she crawled into the room and found a comfortable spot. I clawed my way onto the mattress, lack of digits be damned. Lying flat and still shaking, I leveled my best glare at her. "One, how in the name of… name of… whichever thing you hold dear, did you think it would be a good idea to loose a small hurricane in a hospital, and two, how did you stop like that? Speed like that should have had you going through that floor," i swing a leg to point at the ground I had gotten all to familiar with at fractions of fractions of her speed. "Not alighting on the ledge of a window like you weighed as much as a sparrow!"
I may not have been taking things like casual disregard for physics well, coupled with my new body. My voice in particular right now, it's really starting to annoy me, and being hurled across the room didn't help.
"Hey! I didn't mean to do that! I just wanted to give you a sneak peek at some of my awesome moves, since you'd been staring at me for a while, I thought a grand entrance would be cool! And I… didn't mean to throw you around like that, Earth ponies are supposed to be heavier than that… my bad."
I went to berate the winged natural disaster as best I could, but the doorknob jiggled as someone tried to open the door. Someone knocked with a decent amount of urgency as the wood refused to move more than a half inch. "Helloo? I heard a loud crash, are you alright in there?" Came a distinctly accented voice, posh, prim, and properness wound tightly around each syllable, and yet I could easily hear the concern.
With no prompting, the pegasus took to the air once more, though thankfully without inviting more inclement weather, hovering just a few feet off the floor as she went to the blocked entry. She picked the poor chair up in both forelegs and stood it up beside the door, at which point the entire thing began to glow blue, and swung open forcefully.
The pegasus dodged with a yelp, doing several flips as she attempted to stabilize. Meanwhile a snow white unicorn clipped into the room, her curled purple mane and tail bouncing gracefully with each step. Her eyes landed on me, and she cringed visibly before composing herself. "A-ah, there you are darling. Are you quite alright, from the looks of things you've had quite the day."
I looked up, realized I couldn't see anything on my left, and looked through the bathroom door and at the mirror instead. Turns out that standing in a DIY wind tunnel is bad for a plushie's appearance, as I had gone from mild bedhead to looking like a plane crash survivor.
I brushed the wayward locks out of my face and turned back to her. "You have no idea."
The mare frowned lightly at my reply, but it looked more sympathetic than anything, before walking – trotting? – over, producing a hairbrush from… I'm just gonna assume thin air, since it sparkled with the same blue light the door did. It was also floating.
'What?'
"Allow me to just-"
"What in tarnation happened in here?" Applejack asked, appearing in the doorway and picking up the blanket. I pointed at the still airborne occupant of the room as I… melted into the bed a bit. Apparently having your mane brushed feels amazing, which is not something my life had prepared me for.
Peeking around the doorframe, a yellow coated, pink haired equine blinked, one eye obscured by their long mane. She looked back out the door, for reassurance or to leave, I wasn't sure, but after a moment of indecision she came into the room and sat at a comfortable distance from the mild bickering match that had erupted between the technicolor one and the white one, ruffling her wings a bit.
I blinked, and a section of her mane appeared to have pulled away and become its own being. The pinkest of pink individuals now sat on the chair behind the yellow one. 'When did that one even get in here?'
Over the steady din of conversation now filling the room, I could just make out the approach of more horses. Rounding the corner together was Nurse Redheart, accompanied by a purple coated unicorn, her dark blue hair divided by streaks of rasberry and a dark purple.
The new equine's face passed through confusion, to surprise, exasperation and resignation, with a foreleg clasped over her muzzle in a fashion that looked vaguely similar to pinching the bridge of one's nose.
Redheart, on the other hand, skipped straight to incensed. "Why are you ponies crowding my patient!?"
I fell ever deeper into the trance that the gentle brush strokes caused.