//------------------------------//
// I Trot these Lonely Streets 
// Story: Rebirth of Magic: Zipping It 
// by The Blue EM2 
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The world was foggy and unclear as I began to regain consciousness. I distinctly recall there being plenty of beeping as I slowly regained my senses, and some faint and unclear voices.

What could those noises be? This was a question I thought in my head as my vision continued to clear, although it was still badly fogged. It was as though I was looking at the world through badly fogged up glass, which made things rather confusing to me.

Suddenly, some of the machine became more distinct to my view. From what I could tell most of it was medical equipment sitting around me. This suggested I was in a hospital.

This was a positive development. I could only assume somebody found me and pulled me back up here out of the nightmare or fit I was having to be checked over. That was one wild dream, though. Or whatever it was. Being turned into a horse? That sort of thing only happens in weird stories on the internet. No way it happened down here in real life.

The sounds were getting a little clearer now. A little too clear for my liking.

"Keep monitoring her blood flow."

"Cranial readings are looking good. She took a pretty big knock out there."

"Blood pressure is stable and holding. Nervous system is running as normal."

I assumed the voices I was hearing came from doctors tending to another patient. They normally treat multiple people in a ward, after all.

What was said next confused me.

"Feathers seem a little clipped. Should we investigate?"

What? Who let a bird into a medical ward? I know the NHS is cash strapped but I thought such an obvious breach of the sterile environment policy was beyond even them.

I tried to move my head around to see where I was, and soon realised this ward was much posher than any I had previously been to. The walls were painted a nice colour, and I could only see two other treatment cots. The room also seemed to be air conditioned. Had I been taken to a private hospital?

I tried to say something, but only confused and strange noises came out. I guessed I didn't have enough consciousness yet to actually form coherent sentences, but this was normal, I thought. It may take a while for all the relevant systems to come back online.

Just then, a voice spoke. "Mom! She's waking up!"

I knew that voice from somewhere, but couldn't place it. I tried other parts of my body, and found I wasn't getting a response in either my fingers or toes. Perhaps the anasthesia was still yet to wear off in those bits of my nervous system.

"Where am I..." I said quietly, only to stop. My voice sounded completely wrong. It was still low in pitch, but too high to be my natural register.

Finally, my vision cleared up, and with considerable effort I pulled myself back to see what I was looking at.

It was then I connected the voice to figure. Looking intently at me was Pipp Petals, who remarkably was not on her phone, streaming this. Beside her was Queen Haven, whom I noticed had her crown on. Seriously, who wears jewellery to a hospital visit?

Wait, what? How could Pipp Petals and Queen Haven be looking at me? They're made up characters from a Netflix movie! There's no way any of this could be real!

I moved a limb up to take a look. And was promptly greeted by a hoof and white fur.

No. No no no no no no NO!

This had to be a nightmare. There was no earthly way I was a horse. I started thrashing about wildly whilst still stuck to the bed, screaming all the while.

Pipp backed up, seemingly both confused and frightened at what was going on. She did well to back up, as my movement disconnected several of the sensors on my body. I fell out of the cot and landed on the floor.

"Mom, what's going on?" I heard Pipp say.

"I don't know, but I suggest we let the doctors handle this," Queen Haven replied.

There was very little handling for them to do. Before I knew what was happening I was running for the door. I had to escape this nightmare and get back to the place I was before. Before long, I heard a familiar six-eight beat starting up as I moved along the corridor.

I glanced down and saw my limbs were moving in something resembling a coherent order. OK. So this was how cantering worked. I needed more speed though, and so tried to speed things up. Could I pull off a gallop?

It took a few attempts, but a distinctive beat of four hooves against the floor soon replaced the previous triplet pattern that had echoed through the hospital.

"To all assets! Princess Zephyrina has escaped the Royal Ward! Intercept her immediately and return her for further treatment!"

That I was not prepared to do. I had to get out of here. I was looking for any exit to get out of here. It was then I remembered a bit of trivia surrounding nightmares. If somebody is in a nightmare, a sufficiently heavy impact in the dream is enough to wake the person up, as it's impossible to actually die in a dream.

I appeared to mostly have gotten the hang of galloping, at least for now, but that was about it. I decided to experiment with the other bits. My ears swivelled up and down, which produced some very odd sound effects indeed with the pitch rising and falling seemingly at random. Beyond that, it was anybody's guess what the other features did on my body.

My mouth worked, as I'd already communicated. Despite having a thicker tongue and a differently shaped mouth I had no difficulty forming words and sounds. Muscle memory, maybe? That could explain a lot of things in this strange place.

However, I soon hit upon a problem. I decided to try my wings and see if I could simply fly away. After all, there's magic in this world, right?

I flared them out and flapped downwards. I got about two inches off the ground before crashing back down again.

I tried again to try and gain some air before exiting the building. But this seemed to be utterly futile, as no matter how much force I applied I could not fly anywhere. I could barely even glide, although the lack of a decent running start was probably the cause of that. I was forced to stop and reavaluate the situation.

I was getting a sneaking suspicion of when I was, not so much where I was. An exit nicely presented itself on the side of the corridor. This would be my ticket to freedom. All I needed to do was go find a nice wall to glide into and this nightmare would all be over. Or so I hoped.

I kicked the crash bar and the door flew open, and I dashed through it onto the next area. Once there I spotted something weird. The ground below me was made of glass, which was producing an odd echoing noise. At the end of the section was a large wall, painted gold and decked out in an art deco style.

I slowed down to avoid crashing into it, and looked down to see what was down below.

An incredible vista opened up before my eyes down below. A golden city slowly loomed out of the clouds, with massive skyscrapers that seemed to scrape the heavens themselves with their pointiness. Several golden and glass walkways spread across the landscape, connecting rocky islands in the sky. The sun shone off glass and steel masterpieces, with some structures being faced with marble and inlayed with golden plate.

The result was absolutely beautiful, and took my breath away, even if only for a moment. If this was a nightmare, it was a seriously pretty one.

It was then I recognised this place. It was Zephyr Heights, from the newest generation of My Little Pony! When watching movie I recalled thinking this place would be incredible to visit in real life. And now seemingly I was here, with this place unfolding before me.

Or was I? I still needed to get to the bottom of that.

I raised a hoof and wacked myself across the face with it. The collision produced pain in one of my cheeks, and I winced in pain. Those sensors were much more sensitive than I was expecting, to be honest. And not only that it did not bode well for the future for me, it caused me to have a profound realisation.

Somehow, somewhere, I was Zipp Storm. I was in Zephyr Heights.

As my eyes widened in horror at this realisation, I knew exactly what all of this meant for me.

I was trapped in a nightmare.

A nightmare from which I couldn't wake up.