[DAY FIVE]
Having drifted in and out of sleep, Norman had been in the hospital for four days now. He was finally allowed to get out of bed, PROVIDED he was with an escort, and move about the facility to stretch his legs, no longer confined to his room. A nurse came to check on him. He hadn't seen Angel in almost a day, and presumed she had either returned to this Equestria place, or he was indeed going crazy. "Good afternoon, Norman." She said pleasantly. "I'm Vicky, I'm just here to make sure you're running properly. We ought to have you out of here in a day or two."
It was kind of a good sign, only it left him with a bitter taste. Good dreams always disappear when you wake up. However if you kept dreaming you'd never be in the real world, so waking up was a good thing. If Angel was just some part of the concussion, then he was glad to have seen her, however he had his doubts. "I'm glad to be out, lying still and not being allowed to read anything was horrible." He laughed. Still had a terrible headache, it came and went, sometimes sharp as a pencil being driven through his skull, other times just a deep uncomfortable pressure. He took as many painkillers for the headache as he was allowed. There was something he had to test though. "Is there a nurse on the staff called... Angel?" He worded it as if he might have gotten her name wrong.
The only time the headache went away completely was when the -what had she called herself... an alicorn?- pony was tending to him, and even then she explained it might never go away, but she'd help him however she could. "Yes of course there is, she's your own attendant. Didn't you know that?" She looked at him quizzically. "I had thought she introduced herself. Miss Angel is off today, but has left instructions for you to get a hold of her if you'd like her to come in."
"No that's alright, I just wasn't sure I got her name right." It was true, but not for the reason the nurse probably figured. So there was an Angel on the staff, and she was his attendant. That part of the story fit, or he was even more delusional than he thought. He asked for the instructions to contact her, in case he needed it, the pain was bad but not severe. Tolerable, if not comfortable. He had another mission though. Testing the theory. If he was seeing things, she simple couldn't be the only thing like that. So the mission of today was to go for a walk around the hospital, and casually spy for human like ponies walking about. Or anything off.
The nurse handed him a sealed envelope. "Angel was very clear in that you were the only one allowed to read the contents of this message. I'm not sure why, but she's very, very private. The staff wonder about her sometimes." She shook her head. "But, she has an exemplary record, so I suppose anyone is allowed that option. Do you need anything right now?"
"Not as long you keep filling up my vial of painkillers for the day," He teased. There was punch out in the aisle and a nice antiseptic smell. He looked around. Horrible architecture, made in the thirties probably. Long demoralizing corridors of near featurelessness, except for the doors to the various wings and the occasional nurses station. Doctors, nurses, porters milling about. He had a mission. To find ponies. He tried to be cheerful about the aspect of checking his own sanity. It wasn't too hard with some humor applied. It was what to do in case he found out he was crazy. Or... no, he put of the thought of what he'd do if he found out that it was all true.
He tried to piece together what Angel had told him. She'd only mentioned ponies from her land so far, but he had a suspicion of other species as well, if indeed this was all true. She also used her magic to get here, so if he saw any other ponies here, they'd likely be unicorns as well. Or maybe another whole new world really DID exist, and he'd be the first to see it. The corridors were long and rather bland. There was a childrens wing, a surgical section, a recovery section, there was something for everything. Nobody stopped him as long as he didn't draw attention to himself, or enter one of the restricted areas. But as far as what he'd seen so far, absolutely nothing was out of the ordinary. It was your average, run of the mill, over-cleaned hospital. If there were ponies here, they were either very well hidden, or he hadn't seen them yet.
That scratched the notion that he was completely out of the rocker. And subtle delusions were hard to make sense of. He had to see Angel again at some point. Moving was good though, so he kept doing that. Trying to find a small garden somewhere he could sit in if the weather permitted it. The slip of paper the nurse had passed to him was still in his pocket, he'd be able to read it. Sitting down he deigned to send a couple of messages to his family letting them know how he was recovering. "Got a constant headache that comes and goes, will ask the doctor about it at some point if doesn't diminish over the next week or two. Should be out in a couple of days if there's no sudden things. Everyone is optimistic, so so am I, love." He didn't write anything about Angel, but now it was time to read the paper slip.
His father, Alex, had visited him a few times, but there was nothing significant about those visits. They were not estranged, but they certainly weren't going to a ballgame together anytime soon. Conversation with him was awkward and stale, at best. Angels note was completely blank, but as he stared at it, words appeared upon the parchment. <If you need me, call me. I'll come.> He had the strange feeling, the way Angel operated, that if he showed the paper to anyone else, they wouldn't see anything at all.
What was wrong with just scribbling that in regular pencil? Then again how would a winged unicorn -alicorn?- write if not by magic. It made sense in its own internal logic. He looked around and contemplated 'realness'. The concrete was grey concrete. The sky was a good azure blue, with some leadened clouds. The sandy of the small path he had walked on was... indeed... sand. He felt the grit between his toes. How could something like that intervene into this world. This place was too, he searched for the word to describe how the grey buildings and substantiated of the ground under his feet made it hard to believe that Angel was real. Too solid. This world was too solid. The paper was, real, but the words seemed ephemeral. When he thought about it Angel too... seemed not quite solid. She looked funny, he couldn't place what it was. She was brightly colored, but... it was as if the colors weren't showing true. So… she's a figment? Hmm… then he thought of something. Feathers! Could she have dropped feathers? He quickly stood up and went back to the halls. Just one would do for this test.
Unfortunately, searching the halls would yield vain results. Asking other nurses about Angel was positive, they knew of her and had nothing but good things to say. However their descriptions indicated they only knew her as human, and absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. His room, however, would be more promising. Being as she had spent the most time there, it was the most logical place to search, and provided a single white wing feather under his bed.
There was a sharp pang of head ache. Unfortunately it wasn't time for pills yet. He bit back the pain, the joy of the triumph made it easier. Standing up he held the feather between his fingers. It had that off-ness about it, he couldn't quite place it. He wasn't sure that this would work. She had said the spells were put on herself. Perhaps they went with her. Time for a final check. He went out to the nurses station and struck up polite conversation, and showed her the feather. "I found this feather lying around, do you know what kind of bird its from?" Internally he begged for her not to tell him that it was a pencil or something like that.
She took it from him. The feather was oddly colored for this world, it was just a little bit too vibrant. And extremely large. The nurse took it, and frowned. "That's quite a fascinating find, Norman. My guess would be a swan, it's very pretty."
Not quite as long as his forearm. He took it back, nodding as if contemplating the same thing. Telling her he thought about taking a nap he went back to his bed, turning the feather between his fingers. This was the first tangible confirmation that what he was seeing wasn't just in his head. The nurse hadn't been lying, had she? No you couldn't doubt everything, otherwise you'd end up in a never ending spiral like Descartes. The feather was real, only it couldn't be real, so that meant that it was what? That it wasn't from any animal of course. Then it was a feather that Angel had dropped. The thoughts swirled in his head, equal measures of anxiety and excitement.