The rising sun never pierced the darkness of Jack's hospital room. The lights would not turn on until 8:00 that morning, since the hospital ran strict sleeping schedules. When the lights had finally been turned on, Jack was already wide awake, and was startled by the blinding lights directly above him. The familiar, white environment was filled with light once more. Letting out a moan, Jack rolled over onto his side. As much as he wanted to continue sleeping, he just couldn’t. It was as if the few hours of the night he had managed to sleep through were enough to keep him active through the rest of the day. Rubbing his eyes with his hooves, he sat back up in his bed, waiting for anypony to come and tell him he was clear to leave.
>---<
The doctor responsible for his release entered the room roughly an hour after the hospital lights had turned on. While waiting, Jack found himself playing a game of which he would think of a word, then the next word would have to start with the same letter the previous word ended in. Also, the two words needed to be related in some way, other than by the starting/ending letters. With something to do, time actually passed at a normal rate, instead of feeling like it took excessively long periods of time for just a minute or so. The doctor himself was a unicorn, wearing a white lab coat over his brown corpse. His mane was a very dark brown, almost black even. His cutie mark was a couple pills with a diagonal needle covering the majority of his flank. Slightly in front of the doctor a small clipboard and pen levitated gently in the air. Without even saying anything, the doctor began taking notes as soon as he entered the room.
“Your name is… Jack?” The doctor inquired. “Is this correct?”
“Yes” Jack responded, watching as the pen quickly scribbled down a few notes.
“From what I hear, you had a terrible fall and hit your head pretty hard. As from the nurse's view, you're perfectly health other than some blurred vision. Despite that you could still pass the literacy test.” The doctor paused for a moment. “And in other news, you have somepony who has offered to look after you while you recover.”
‘I wonder who might have offered. I doubt it was Biggs or Wings, those two rarely speak.’ Jack thought. ‘ Maybe it was Applejack, or…’
“Twilight Sparkle, I believe, offered for you to stay at her place until you are fully recovered.” The doctor stated. “She is quite experienced with healing magic, and I believe she can help you reach a full recovery quickly. Before you go, however, we noticed a few things about your vital signs.”
‘Vital signs? What is so different between a changeling and a pony when it comes to anatomy, other than the obvious.’ Jack thought. ‘Like the different colors, holes in the legs, weak magic, bile production, eating habits… Okay maybe there are more differences than I thought… ’
The doctor paused for a moment, staring at Jack noticing that his mind was not quite in the mood for the conversation. Before continuing, the doctor cleared his throat in order to retrieve Jack's attention, and Jack snapped back to reality staring intensively back at the doctor.
“As I was saying,” The doctor continued, “Your vital signs are quite irregular. Your heartbeat is normal, your brain is functioning as it should, but there are some strange things we found in your blood tests.”
“What’s wrong with my blood?” Jack said nervously.
Is there something clearly different between changeling blood and pony blood? Was it something blatantly obvious like color? He hadn’t gotten a chance to really look at any of his cuts quite yet, most of the time his mind had wandered elsewhere, numbing the pain coursing through his body. The doctor glared at Jack; it appeared he wasn’t very fond of being interrupted.
“Should you let me finish what I have to say, perhaps you will find out” The doctor grunted.
“Sorry.” Jack responded.
“As I was saying, your blood is not at the normal Power of Hydrogen levels. It appears your blood is significantly more acidic than any pony I’ve ever tested before.”
“What does that mean?” Jack asked.
The doctor let out a sigh, glaring once more towards Jack.
“Oh yeah, sorry, no more interruption.” Jack promised.
“From the data we collected, your blood acidity level is at 5.24. A normal pony has an acidity level between 7.35 and 7.45; it is extremely rare to have a pH level beyond those boundaries by one hundredth of a unit alone!” The doctor said, receiving a confused look from the grey stallion.
“We ran a couple tests on small tissue samples. Consider yourself lucky to be alive, that acidity level damages many of the core tissues required in order to preform standard bodily functions such as a heartbeat or the ability to breath.”
‘So what I’m getting is my blood could hurt other ponies. ’ Jack thought. ‘A little weird, but it sounds like he’s giving me the clear so I can leave.’
Jack was never really a good biology student. He would rarely pay attention in class; he never found anything he learned to be applicable to life itself. That’s why he preferred classes like physics, because it affected him every day, like gravity and stuff.
“Does that mean I can go, doctor?” Jack asked.
“Other than the fact you may need to stop eating acidic fruit, we assume you to be in healthy condition. \seeing as you have somepony to take care of you, we can release you from our care. However, we’re going to need you to sign this waiver,” The doctor said, slowly levitating a pen over to Jack, "Saying we aren't responsible for any destruction of tissue due to irregular blood pH levels."
Biting down on the pen, Jack attempted to sign the form placed just on his lap. It was challenge just to apply pressure down onto the paper with his mouth, let alone write anything. Once Jack had finally given a poor signature onto the dotted lines, the doctor nodded, writing down a few more notes. He then took a few steps to the right, clearing the doorway allowing Jack to pass.
>---<
Leaving the hospital, Jack saw very few ponies. Most of the ponies were sick, without any clear physical deformities or injuries. Smiling at the check-in pony, Jack pushed open the double doors and stared back towards Ponyville. He had never realized how out of the way the hospital was, there was a single dirt path leading to the hospital and there were very few buildings nearby. There was a fork in the road, the path to the left leading into one of the parks, and the path to the right leading back to the wooden village.
‘I wonder what ever happened to Wings and Biggs? I only saw them for a brief moment the other day. Where have they been staying at?’ Jack thought.
It was true that Jack was concerned about the other two changelings; their abilities to communicate their thoughts were quite limited. He assumed they had been able to find a place to stay, more than likely in the barn they had almost finished back at Sweet Apple Acres. Pushing the thoughts out of his mind, he decided it would be best to go confront Twilight about what had happened the previous night. Should he be forced to return to the Hive, which he shuddered at the thought of, his sudden disappearance would alert her for sure. He had to give her some sort of excuse; he couldn’t just leave after the previous night. Wandering forward, Jack knew he would get lost again should he not ask for directions. After meeting up with the first pony he saw, he found himself talking to Rarity.
‘This certainly is a small town, I swear I run into one of the mane six every day!’ Jack thought to himself.
“Oh, uh… Hi there. I was wondering if you could give me some directions.” Jack asked the white unicorn.
Rarity, gave a disgusted sort of look once she turned around and had a look at him. Obviously his injuries hadn’t made the best impression.
“Now what might have happened to you, dear? Certainly one does not get these sorts of injuries from one of Pinkie’s parties, I assume.” Rarity responded, scanning over his body with her eyes once more.
“I sort of fell while doing some house cleaning.” Jack responded.
“Now what kind of house would that be, dear?”
“Twilight’s place, actually. That brings me back to my original question, where is the library anyways?”
“Well you must have brought all the books down with you. Did any of those books have knifes attached by any chance?”
“No, I was cleaning the loose branches out, but could you please tell me where the library is?”
“Sorry, dear, it’s just that those injuries are so… terrible. But yes, the library is just over that way, make sure to take a right at the second street, and you’ll be there in no time!” Rarity said, pointing down an empty street.
“Thanks a lot, Rarity.”
“Good luck, darling!”
As Jack and Rarity departed, Rarity noticed something strange about the new pony. She had never mentioned her name, yet he knew her name was Rarity. Perhaps her fashion line had spread her name beyond Ponyville and to other areas of Equestria, but there were so many feelings in the back of her mind telling her than something was definitely wrong. She shrugged it off, perhaps one of her friends had told the new pony about her. It couldn't be something that threatened all of Ponyville, right?
>---<
Jack finally arrived at the Tree-brary and knocked on the door. For a few seconds, there was no response, until Jack heard the voice of a familiar purple dragon.
“I’ll get it, Twi!” Came Spike’s enthusiastic response.
The door swung open, and the little purple dragon stood his ground staring directly at the newcomer.
“Oh, weren’t you the one that helped Twilight clean out the tree?” The curious dragon asked.
“Yeah,” Jack responded, “But I kind of fell and ended up in the hospital.” Jack replied.
“Ouch, so what do you need Twilight for? A little healing magic?”
“Something like that, the doctor told me to find her since she knew a lot about healing magic, and I need somepony to take care of me until my injuries are fully healed.”
“Oh, okay then. TWILIGHT, THE NEW PONY IS HERE ABOUT HIS INJURIES” Spike yelled back into the Tree-brary.
Jack looked around the library; Twilight was nowhere to be seen. He thought she might be in the basement, in which case it would explain Spike’s yelling. As the basement door opened, Jack smiled knowing he had guessed correctly. As he purple unicorn stuck her head out the door, she gave Jack a smile in return, not knowing why he was really smiling.
“Come in, I was just analyzing this changeling DNA I picked up a few days ago. If you want you can come down stairs and take a look at it.” Twilight cheerfully said.
Jack’s heart stopped. How had she gotten some changeling DNA? Was it from Biggs, Wings, or himself? Had she taken some from him during one of the moments where he had been knocked unconscious? Twilight noticed the expression on Jack’s face, he looked quite panicked.
“Well, it’s nothing bad, really. It’s just a small sample of skin, not an entire corpse or anything. I know how changelings can really scare some ponies.”
Jack nodded, and resumed his normal breathing.
‘Everything is going to be alright…’ He was trying desperately to calm himself. ‘Just go see what Twilight has discovered, she doesn’t suspect me yet.’
The two ponies walked down the dimly lit staircase. Sitting at the bottom was a small metal table, with a few chemical bottles lying on top with a small piece of black pelt nearby. There were several microscopes hooked up, and many of the bottles were linked by strange devices.
‘I really should have paid more attention in chemistry…’ Jack thought.
Many of the liquids were bubbling, and Twilight grabbed a small pair of goggles from the metal table and resumed her work, taking small samples from the pelt and dipping it in different liquids.
“What I’m trying to do here is get some sort of reaction, to see what the composition of the changeling DNA is compared to that of ponies.” Twilight said.
Jack just stared at her with a confused expression. Twilight quickly caught on.
“In other words, I’m finding differences between changelings and ponies. So far, I found that their hide is more resistant to acid, but then again they do produce some nasty acidic bile.” She said.
‘Well, that would match up with the doctor’s reports of my blood being acidic. But still, how much has she learned about changelings? For all I know, me, Biggs and Wings could all be at risk.’
Twilight continued experiment, while Jack could do nothing but sit back and relax. There weren’t any chairs in the basement, so he sat on the semi-spiral staircase instead.
>---<
“Hey, Twi!” Came a voice from upstairs.
“What is it, Spike? I have almost completed a chemical decomposition of one of the pelt’s substances!”
“What? Well never mind that. Jack’s other two friends are here, you want me to let them go down?” Spike replied, opening the door while speaking.
“Tell them to wait upstairs for a moment, we will be right up.”
Jack knew that she was stalling. She hadn’t done much work since he had arrived, most of the time she stared at him through the reflection in one of the beakers, or just swished around a few bottles making it look like she was doing some. His presence was too much of a distraction for her to work, which Jack thought would be a bonus, since she would become less likely to discover the secrets behind the changelings.
“We should go upstairs and greet them. They haven’t got to spend much time with you since you were hospitalized.” Twilight said.
Jack nodded his head in agreement, and the two of them marched up the wooden stairs. They both pushed open the small door, and found the light purple mare and red mare staring at the couple.
“Cienna, Domina, nice to see you again!” Jack exclaimed, happy they were safe.
Blank stares were the response. Typical, really, Jack never expected any sort of reaction from the two.
“So where have you two been staying?” Jack inquired.
“The park.” Came a robotic sort of voice from Wings.
“You haven’t been sleeping there, have you?”
No response. The purple mare that had spoken simply stared back at him.
“I guess not…” Jack said.
“So while all three of you are here, it would be best to find you a place to sleep before it gets too dark. There’s plenty of room in the main room, although most of the supplies are down in a closet in the basement. If you are going to stay here, however, there are a few rules you’ll need to know…” Twilight said.
She began listing off a large list of rules which she had summoned using magic. The list itself trailed almost from her face to the bottom of the open basement. Jack tuned out Twilight’s voice, and began thinking about what he came here to do.
‘I can’t just tell her that we can only be friends, that would be too harsh.’ He thought. ‘I need to think of a way to tell her that I may be leaving soon, but why would I leave, and where would I leave to? I told her I was fleeing from Itrot, and why would I go to another big city with the little amount of money I have? I don’t really know of any other small towns nearby, and I can’t think of a good reason I would want to leave. Maybe I should just tell her the truth.’
“…And be sure you wipe your hooves when entering should you leave for whatever reason. I really don’t want to be scrubbing other ponies muddy hoof prints off the floor again.” Twilight said.
>---<
Twilight’s list was extensive, and she had gone over it three times. Three. Times. It took her at least half an hour each time as well, and Jack was a little upset that so much of his time was wasted on something so… Pointless. All he really needed were the major rules, such as no setting fire to anything without reason (but was there even a reason to set fire to anything?), or no going out after dark since the door would be locked at 10:00. Every little thing that could possibly go wrong was covered, even extremely small things such as the requirement to avoid reading books without asking. Twilight didn’t want to be responsible for accidently knocking a book off a shelf and either hurting yourself or damaging the book. Jack knew the library wasn’t quite her home, although it appeared she treated it so. Most of her references were related to the mayor, claiming she would be furious should damage come to the library, although Jack could never really see the mayor angry, on the other hand (or in this case hoof) he could see her upset. Once Twilight had finally finished going over her list, Jack let out a massive sigh.
“What was that for?” Twilight asked, looking slightly offended.
“Well, Uhh… I was just a little nervous about what would happen if we forgot about one of the rules. Or if... Uhh… Something happened that broke a rule but it wasn’t our fault.” Jack stuttered.
“Oh, well if something small like knocking over a book it should be fine, and should a paper airplane fly inside the library through an open window I won’t attack you over it.” She calmly stated.
‘So many rules… I knew she was very organized, but this is a little overkill, isn’t it?’ Jack thought.
He swore both Wings and Biggs never blinked the entire time. The must have always appeared to be staring in space, if you were to talk to them they would look at you but it never seemed like they were paying attention.
“Is there anything else important that we should know?” Jack asked.
“Standard Ponyville laws apply as well, but I assume you knew that.” Twilight replied.
‘At least she doesn’t have to go over those rules’ Jack thought as he rolled his eyes.
Twilight didn’t seem to notice Jack’s eyes roll, and she happily trotted back downstairs to continue her research. Spike had fallen asleep during Twilights lecture, and his body lay on one of the bottom stairs of the main library room. Jack felt a presence approaching him from behind, and when he turned around he found both Wings and Biggs looming right over him, back in their intimidating changeling forms. The door to the basement slowly closed, and the two changelings continued their march towards Jack.
“Umm… Guys? Do you want something?” Jack nervously asked.
The two changelings continued to approach him, small, wicked grins on their faces. Their fangs had never looked sharper.
“The Hive is calling.” Wings said, his grin growing further.
Before Jack had a chance to even call out for Twilight, he found himself blinded by a flash of green light.