“Hey. Get up, lazy bones. Yeah, I’m talking to you, now get up!”
Rez stirred from his sleep as a hoof poked him on the side of his head. Repeatedly.
He woke and opened his eyes, and suspected that he had not opened them at all. Oh, wait. I’m still blind, he thought with a laugh to himself, his horn then igniting. Color flooded into his eyes once again as the world came into view. It was still beautiful. Never gonna get tired of this, he thought with a smile.
He then turned to see who was poking him, and was greeted by a red Pegasus Mare. She poked him again anyhow.
He stood briefly thereafter, towering over her with sudden heightened stature, coming to just over twice her height. She looked up at him with an almost frightened face, but replaced it with false courage. “Cool.” She said as he stood, looking him up and down as though sizing him up for something.
Galsthan gave a short grunt and rubbed his head. He noticed his leg looked slimmer, so he looked down at himself and almost gave himself a case of vertigo. He was much taller and more slender than he had remembered himself being. With similar curiosity, he put a hoof up to his horn, which was now even lengthier. He let his hoof come to a rest at the tip, which was very sharp as he quickly discovered. “Ow.” he said, then looking back down at the red Pegasus.
“So… how did you find me?” he asked, lowering his stance slightly as not to intimidate.
“Well, I was just flying over the forest looking for this thief who took something from me, and I saw you passed out on the ground, so I figured: ‘hey, why not go bother this guy and make sure he’s not dead?’ So I did, and it turns out you’re not dead. Name’s Pyre Aileron, and you can thank me later. Now, I gotta go back to Ponyville. Catch ya later!” With that, she gave a powerful flap and took to the skies in a flurry of wind.
Galsthan shielded his eyes then looked up, extending a hoof and shouting, “Wait! I don’t know…” It was too late. She had already flown off. “…how to get back…” He looked down at the ground sadly, before getting an idea in his head. Wait, if she’s going back to Ponyville, then maybe I can just go the way she went and find my way back! Yeah, that’ll w-
His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden force tackling him to the ground. He turned himself over to see a familiar pink psychopath standing over him, teary-eyed. “Oh thank goodness I found you I was so worried when I got up because you didn’t get up and I went to get help but I didn’t find any and when I came back you were gone so I thought some big monster ate you and that would’ve made me sad because I didn’t want to lose a friend to some big nasty monster and-“ she choked for a moment, tears streaming down her face and dripping onto Hi-Rez. She pulled him into a big hug, continuing through her crying, “I was just so afraid I’d lost you forever!” She was openly streaming tears now as they uncharacteristically shot like rivers from her eyes.
Rez was taken aback at first, unsure how to act, but returned the embrace, patting her back lightly and cooing, “Uh.. There, there, it’s going to be okay…”
It took several minutes for Pinkie to calm down, but she eventually managed to stop crying.
She gradually broke away from him, wiping her eyes, then a happy look sprang back onto her face. “Now that we’re travelling buddies again, let’s go find our way back to Ponyville like we were going to do anyway!” she immediately started to bound away, but Rez called out to her to stop, so she did.
“There was a Pegasus here earlier, and I think she knew the way back to Ponyville. Now, she flew off in tha-“ Rez was interrupted yet again by Pinkie.
“WHAT?! You found another travelling buddy?? What about ME?? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?” she took on an angry look and had grabbed his shoulders by this time, and was violently shaking him back and forth. Not stopping to ask how she was able to reach his shoulders, Rez replied between shakes.
“I was just getting directions!” he exclaimed, to which Pinkie stopped shaking him.
“Oh, that’s okay then!” she said, her normal happy look returning to her face. “Lead the way!”
So he did… for a while.
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Lens was bursting at the seams with excitement. Just two minutes until the train arrived and they could leave for Ponyville!! She was literally bouncing with excitement at the train station, which drew the attention of many a pony in the crowd.
As the train pulled up, you could swear Lens was going to explode if she got any more excited. She practically threw her parents onto the train, luggage in tow, and leapt aboard herself just as the doors opened.
The train departed shortly thereafter, and her parents couldn’t pry Lens off of the window.
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Rez’s leading ended abruptly as the duo found themselves on top of a cliff.
“Well, that was effective.” Rez said sarcastically, looking down the cliff. It could have easily been two hundred hooves high, and had jagged rocks at the bottom. Not a survivable jump.
Pinkie didn’t seem to notice or care, as she bounded right off the ledg- WAIT, WHAT?
Suddenly realizing what Pinkie had just done, Rez sprang forward and just barely caught Pinkie’s tail between his teeth. He dug his hooves in as much as he could, but was pulled forward significantly from Pinkie’s weight. Goodness, what does she eat?? Rez complained to himself as he attempted to haul Pinkie back up onto the ledge, whom had spread her hooves out wide and was shouting “Whoooo! I can fly!”
Struggling, Rez began to slowly back up as beads of sweat ran down his face. He almost lost his grip for a moment and could have gone careening down the perilous fall, but he managed to save himself just in time while still keeping a grip on Pinkie’s tail.
Pinkie, who was still unaware of the danger, was now flailing about wildly as she tried to control her ‘flight.’
Oh jeez! Please stop please stop please stop! he thought to himself in a panic as he began to lose his bite on Pinkie’s tail… which oddly tasted like peppermint.
Too late.
Pinkie slipped from his grip and started to plummet to her impending doom.
Rez wouldn’t stand for that, so he did what any other panic-driven pony moron would have done right then.
He jumped.
Pinkie was flailing about in the air as she attempted to fly once more, but her mysterious ‘power’ had seemed to vanish. She looked down, and the smile on her face broke as she realized what she was about to face.
As they fell, Rez managed to close the distance between him and Pinkie Pie. He grabbed her, even though she was confused, around the middle and maneuvered back towards the cliff, which he then tried to dig his remaining hooves into to slow their descent.
Instead of slowing down, Rez only managed to nick the Cliffside, which caused him and Pinkie to tumble end-over-end, distorting them beyond the time needed for recovery.
Rez held his last companion tight as the ground rushed up to meet them.
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The train slowed as it approached Ponyville. Over the loudspeaker, the conductor announced that they would be arriving in roughly five minutes.
Lens leaned into the window so hard that her parents swore she would fuse with it.
Hurry up hurry up hurry up hurry up hurry up hurry up! Lens egged the train on with her mind as they drew ever-nearer to Ponyville. She had already been bouncing with excitement, but now she was leaping with joy! She was almost there, and she could finally be sure that Rez was okay!
Lens had a grim thought. What if he ISN’T okay?? No, no! I refuse to let that be an option. Of COURSE he’s okay!
Restoring her positive thoughts, Lens waited eagerly to get off the train.
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Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Rez awoke dizzily, his head spinning as he became aware of his surroundings.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Rez shifted with herculean effort to move his hooves, and managed to get one out from under his covers and onto his night stand. For some odd reason, most of his body felt encased by something stiff. He fumbled around to find his alarm clock, but realized shortly that there was no alarm clock.
Must’ve knocked it onto the floor... he thought groggily to himself as he opened his eyes.. and was greeted by blackness.
Oh, right, he thought, I can’t believe how easy it is to forget I’m bliiiiiIIIIIAAAAAAA-
Beep beep beep beep beep!
Beep beep beep beep beep!
Beep beep beep beep beep!
Rez’s thoughts were interrupted by someone screaming. A jolt of pain and another yell later, Rez realized it was himself screaming in agony. Then the pain caught up with him.
It felt like he had been hit by the biggest boulder in the history of the universe... which was made of scissors. While on fire. While simultaneously standing on the sun... which was going supernova.
Between screams, Rez could hear various ponies rushing about and shouting. The pain intensified, regardless of how bad it was originally, for a moment, and Rez began to have spasms.
He could feel several pairs of hooves holding him down, then a needle went into his left foreleg, which caused him to yelp in pain and struggle against whomever was restraining him.
Then, bit by bit, the pain began to subside. Rez’s hearing began to clear up, and he wasn’t convulsing anymore. Slowly, he began to feel quite relaxed, and the pain eventually entirely faded away.
“..you......eelin...” a voice began, but Rez could not make out the entire sentence.
“..awake?” Rez could at least hear that much, so he gave a slow nod to the mysterious speaker. He would have nodded quickly, but he began to feel quite tired, and couldn't quite pin why, but he felt restricted as far as movement.
“.ood... goin... inj....... test.” Rez couldn’t decrypt that message, so he just displayed a confused look until he felt another needle in his foreleg. This time, however, it didn’t really hurt. He was just more or less aware of its presence.
A wave of energy coursed through him suddenly, which caused him to gasp and attempt to bolt upright. He quickly realized he couldn’t sit up. Pain soaked back into his body, but not nearly as severely as before.
“Whoa, take it easy, now. That was some fall. You’re pretty lucky to be alive, but you’re in good hooves now, so there’s nothing to worry about. Also, your pink friend’s been wanting to see you.” The same warm-toned voice from before spoke to him, and mentioned the pink mental patient.
Oh, no. No, no, no, no no no no no nonononononoNONONONO
Beep beep beep beep beep!
Beep beep beep beep beep!
A reassuring hoof was placed on his shoulder, which managed to calm him down significantly. Thankfully, he didn’t have to get injected again.
More hoofsteps were heard by Rez’s twitching ears, and a muffled conversation outside the door alerted Rez of a very familiar voice.
It was that pink psychopath.
The beeping machine only accelerated slightly this time.
Rez heard hoofsteps approaching his location, which he presumed to be a bed in a hospital somewhere.
“Omigosh! Thank goodness you’re alive!” The pink pony practically screamed.
Out of nowhere, he was pulled into a big hug and a wave of monstrously-proportioned pain rippled through his body.
Beep beep beep beep beep!
Beep beep beep beep beep!
Beep beep beep beep beep!
Rez clenched his teeth tightly as the mind-numbing pain locked up his muscles.
Rushing hoofsteps were heard as the pink one pulled away. Rez could make out someone scolding someone or other, which was likely the doctor to Pinkie. Thankfully, within a brief period of time, the pain had gone away and the beeping machine returned to its normal pace.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
After a short while and more hoofsteps, Rez heard a door close. A hoof was gently placed his face a moment later, but he wasn’t sure whose it was.
He tried to open his mouth to speak, but shortly found that the same rough material was also around his mouth and most of his face, preventing him from opening his mouth.
Muffled noises exited from his closed mouth, which was responded to with the hoof casually stroking his face. “There, there, my little Rezzy, everything’s going to be okay.” The voice that spoke, likely the owner of the hoof, was Pinkie Pie. She sounded slightly different though, with a sort of serious and reassuring tone.
That changed quickly. Her hoof moved away from Rez’s face as she shouted, “Once you’re all better, I can throw you a ‘nearly-died-but-didn’t-and-saved-Pinkie’s-life’ party! Woohoo!” A few flecks of paper fell onto Rez for all he knew, since hardly any of his body was not covered in the mysterious rough material, which he logically pieced together to be a cast.
I must’ve broken every bone in my body, he thought sadly. His mind then turned back to Pinkie, who had stated he saved her life. Wow, did I really? I mean, sure, I probably broke her fall, but there’s no way she could have lived anyhow! I hardly did! These discomforting thoughts and more began to plague his mind, which made the beeping machine accelerate its tone.
Beep beep beep!
Beep beep beep!
Beep beep beep!
This was quelled, however, when Pinkie’s hoof met his face once again. It was so soft...
He felt tingly for a moment as she began stroking him again, which calmed him down quite significantly.
In fact, he was feeling quite sleepy...
Pinkie’s soft touch, the roughness of the cast, and whatever pain lingered all faded as Rez drifted off into a relaxing sleep.