//------------------------------// // Rickcovery 2 - Make Me Feel At Home Again // Story: Why Do You Speak My Language?! // by Soaring //------------------------------// I woke up to the sound of shuffling… “Oh no, I think he’s waking up.” In the middle of the night, I saw her again. Redheart, in the dark, stood out like a sore thumb: her white fur in the dark was still visible even with the lack of light, and those light blue eyes gave her even more-so away, while her attire, although dirtied, kept her in view. Next to her was a big tin bath with a bucket of what I could assume was water to the right. A towel was draped over the edge of the bath. I tried to rationalize this picture, as anyone would. Nurse + towel + a bucket of water… Ice bucket challenge with a sleeping patient? Probably not. Maybe she was washing my old clothes? More likely, but still no. A bath for me? No way but I should probably—I sniffed my armpit—yeah maybe I do need one. But if it wasn’t for a bath, then why was she here with all of this? Her frozen in headlights perspective made me speak before I could think any further: “Uh… Redheart?” The rendition of a mannequin in a mall suddenly came to life, if it had a life in the first place. “Y-Yes, it’s me. I’m sorry I woke you up with all the shuffling.” “No worries,” I reassured her. “It’s just… I’m confused.” “Oh, by the set up?” I nodded, which made her go straight to the knob next to the door. She gently turned it, causing the lights to slowly creep on. She kept the light dim for me to at least see what was around me and I was right… sort of: tub full of water right next to my bed, a red towel ready to be dampened with glee, and, well, Redheart in her nurse outfit, still looking like she was on the job. The clipboard however was a bit odd. A piece of paper was attached to it. It looked like it had notes or something on it. What was she scribing? “I know it’s a bit odd, but I was told by Twilight that I needed to also keep you… uh, clean, so to speak. I was going to wake you eventually so you could assist me but—” “Why in the dead of the night, if you don’t mind me asking?” “It’s not in the dead of the night, Rick. It’s… Few past a sunrise.” “Few past a sunrise? What are you asking me? Do you want me to order an egg sunny-side up?” Redheart giggled softly behind her forehoof. “No, no, it’s been a few minutes since the sun came up. We just say it that way because it’s more telling, and it emphasizes the sun being, well, risen by the princess.” “Interesting. So that means Twilight is up?” “Yeah, she’s learned to become an earlier riser,” Redheart said with a snort. “And I’ve already learned that, especially with what my job entails.” “Right,” I said with a hum. She’s probably a very sophisticated nurse with how she handles herself. Probably has the same issues in my world as she has here: her hours are determined by need. Your shift was for eight hours? Sorry, we stuttered, you’re now working sixteen hours. I shook my head. “So you’re waking me up with a bath?” “Well, and breakfast, one that the doctor said will be way better for you than the…” The nurse’s voice trailed off, which made me smirk. An opening. “Unshakable vomit on a plate?” “That’s quite a way of describing it. And, I don’t know if you noticed but,” Redheart began, before she waved her hoof in front of me. Another ring? “I have one too now.” “I see…” I mumbled. Precaution I suppose. “You think…” “That my magic got you thinking elsewhere? Yes. Pretty certain it was the case too, so I asked Twilight if she could give me one before I entered your room. Glad she had one for the hoof, otherwise we would be having her trying to bathe you.” “Glad you’re in, because I think I had enough PTSD from her that it would knock me into a magical coma.” “Well we wouldn’t want that, now, would we?” Redheart asked, a cheeky grin gracing her face. She set her cap back in order before she spread her forehooves out, as if to say, ‘please, step off the examination table so we can see if you dance like a baboon, or if you act like a cat whose catnip was vodka-flavored’. “Would you mind if we got started?” “Got started? Is there a place called privacy?” “Yes, but you have to try and stand up so I know there’s no muscle atrophy or something.” I shrugged. I could easily walk out of this room probably so this would be easy— Suddenly, I stumbled and nearly fell flat on my face, but luckily Redheart was able to catch myself from falling again. “I think I was right,” I heard her jingle, that sing-song tune becoming grating quickly. I groaned. “G-Guess you were,” I said, breathing heavily. “Feels like I ran a marathon. What happened?” “Doing too much for your body to handle. Think when we patched you up, that magic must have finally drained you too. Figures, the world of magic is still unknown to us in some ways.” With the help of Redheart, I was able to stand up with my arm gripping onto the end of the examination table for dear life. I calmed myself down to help me try and go slower. Slowly I was able to take a few steps, with that mare viewing my every move. “Are you enjoying this?” I asked. “Pain is part of the job. There’s nothing to gain here other than recovery of the patient.” “Poetic,” I replied, earning a smile from the mare. “It’s… I’ve seen a lot. Those experiences helped me become the nurse I am today, and some may argue even the pony too, but I don’t know. College helped reinforce some bad habits…” I stayed silent for once, taking another step towards the other side of the room. There, I gently bent myself down to take a seat in the chair, which Redheart noticed immediately and came to my side, her hooves directing me into the chair.  I slumped in the chair and smiled. “Thanks.” “You’re welcome,” Redheart said, returning the gesture. She sat on her flanks. “I think you can walk now, just make sure you don’t go too fast and you will be set on that front.” “Perfect, I won’t. Now, uh…” Don’t know why I said whatever I said after ‘perfect, I won’t’, but here I was looking like a babbling idiot. “Now…?” She asked with a slight head tilt. “I have something on my mind that I think you might be able to help me with.” “Really? Is it about your condition?” I shook my head. I set my hands in my lap, and began to go down that rabbit hole as I rubbed my thumb once more. “No, more like… a question about mental health so to speak.” “Well, I’m not a licensed therapist, but if you truly think—” I held my hand up. “Don’t worry, I already had a consultation back home. This is different.” Redheart’s lips formed into an awkward, tweaking ‘O’. She must’ve seen my raised brow as the tint of her cheeks began to blossom forth, while her lips settled back to normal. I resisted the urge to chuckle, but the nervousness crept in again, keeping me at bay. I cleared my throat. “So, I don’t know if you ever had this situation presented to you before, but… have you ever had a sense of familiarity on a trip but feel like something is out of place?” Redheart cupped her chin with a forehoof, before tapping the edge of it lightly. “Yes,” she hummed, her tone low. “I remember going on a trip as a volunteer to assist a village outside Las Pegasus. Familiar, yet many things seemed foreign.” I sighed and scratched the back of my head. “It’s freaky, because unlike what you’re thinking, I have to take this a step beyond that. Back on Earth, humans were the only ones that could walk, talk, and chew bubblegum. Now that I’m here, I’m all out of bubblegum, and I am pretty sure ponies can do the same thing.” “Pretty sure?” Redheart asked with a giggly yet inquisitive tone. Her lips trended upward. “Why are you only pretty sure?” “Well, I haven’t seen it truly happen, but knowing what I’ve seen so far, I’ve seen talking ponies and talking dragons. Those don’t exist in my world, and they certainly don’t behave like us. Heck, even if the dragons didn’t talk, they don’t exist in that capacity either. They’re only myths told in epics, that is, unless you count a komodo dragon as one. It’s like a poser in name only, a wannabe dragon.” “Spike would probably want to hear about that,” Redheart said with a giggle. “Probably,” I began, before letting out a chuckle. I calmed down rather quickly though, my mind focused on getting this out. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be here for but I feel… lost. Stressed and certainly lost. Like I don’t belong here.” The words escaped me finally. I wasn’t thinking of this every second of the day, let alone every day in general. It just crept up. Everything served as a distraction, a mind-numbing collision course that ended up with me wondering if I was even alive still. I watched as Redheart processed what I said. Her face was unreadable, save for a twitch of her lip, and she was still cupping her muzzle, pondering over each detail with a fine comb. Once it appeared she was finished, she scooted closer to me and laid a forehoof on my shaky hand (wait why was it shaking). “While I would say that you need a therapist to answer this for you, I think you’re right. I do know what to say.’ She took a deep breath and smiled. “It’s okay.” “It’s okay?” “Yeah. You’re okay. It’s fine to feel stressed, lost, and alone. It’s normal to feel this way. The best thing to do is keep feeling distracted, let these familiarities in so you can leave those feelings of stress and loneliness behind.” Her watery eyes glowed in the light. “I know it’s hard now, but maybe you can ♐︎♓︎■︎♎︎ ♒︎□︎❍︎♏︎ ♋︎♑︎♋︎♓︎■︎. I'm here for you, and so is Twilight and her friends. We're all here for you.” This was the first time in the world someone’s interpretation of a language; which, in this instance, sounded like someone stubbed their toe, while being smothered with a pillow, and was forced to listen to ‘Friday’ by RB for ten hours; suddenly sounded like music to my ears. Comfort didn’t seem to be far away, and with this mare, I felt like I had gained a friend. Either that, or she was doing this because this was her job and she’ll get paid to be my friend for just a moment. Shallowness was always a hard thing for me to read in people—er, ponies in this case. I frowned. “I know. I guess that feeling of being lost is unshakable.” Redheart surprisingly shook her head. “No, it’s not unshakable. You just feel like your world is falling apart.” “To be fair, I did actually see it fall apart, but you wouldn’t know that.” “Huh?” Redheart said with a raised brow. I chuckled. “Yeah, it was a dream. I met Luna in it. She’s… great to talk to.” Redheart nodded slowly, as if she was digesting my words. She let out a slight hum before she spoke, “She protects everyone no matter if you asked for it or not. It’s a duty that sounds like she can’t shake off either.” “Is it not supposed to be her duty anymore?” “Technically not, but habits die hard.” Felt myself bobbing to that one. “True.” “Yeah…” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes with her forehooves. A quick yawn escaped her. “Sorry, even though I took a nap before I came in, I still feel absolutely drained.” She gave me her best, ‘I am not dead tired’ impression, her lips forming into a grin. “I hope this helped you.” “It did, yeah. I appreciate you talking to me about this. I feel that—” “They wouldn’t understand you?” Redheart finished with certainty. I pulled the rug out from underneath her by shaking my head. “Nope. I didn’t want Twilight and her friends to worry. Having someone else whose job is to worry about me felt a bit more… right to ask.” The mare got off her flanks and surprised me by rubbing her cheek against mine. “I’m glad you asked. It was the right thing to do.” This felt like the first time I truly felt comfort here in horselandia. This mare didn't have to sit down with me to talk about this. She didn't have to console me, tell me that everything was right. She didn't even have to nuzzle me, but her being here, it was like she was nuzzling me back to health, so to speak. I wanted to cry, but I didn’t feel like it was time for that. I needed to pull myself together, but I didn’t want to feel alone anymore. I pulled her close and thanked her profusely. She returned the gesture and told me it was okay. It was okay to feel alone. It was okay to be feeling foreign in this way. It was only temporary, right? Shouldn’t be something I need to worry about. Maybe I should talk to Starlight about this to see what she thinks. She seemed down to earth like Redheart. It only took Redheart and I a few moments to separate, before she left the room and gave me the privacy to finally get naked and take a bath. I took my time getting undressed, making sure I didn’t fall on my ass because that would be incredibly embarrassing. Thankfully, karma didn’t curse me with fate, as I was able to strip down and take my bath without injury.  The only thing that was on my mind was a lingering sensation, one that traveled down my spine. Uncertainty? Maybe, or it was a bad case of gas. I shrugged as I cleaned myself off and threw on my gown. Yeah, I need to talk to someone about it. Only time will tell when I get that chance.