I remember waking up, feeling like I had decided to go swimming in battery acid. My muscles were sore and stiff all over, my skin burned slightly, and every one of my limbs felt felt weak and fragile.
I remember my sense of smell coming to me first, and I could smell the unmistakable smell of a hospital. Then followed my sense of touch. I could feel the bed that I was laying in, though my feet were actually dangling off of the end of the bed. I didn’t think much of it at the time, since I was a bit taller than average.
My sense of taste came back, and all I could taste was that taste of blood, that familiar iron covering each tastebud and collecting at the back of my throat which made me want to go get something to wash my mouth out. Then my sense of hearing crawled through, ever so slowly coming back to me. It felt like I was trying to listen to something with water stuck in my ears.
I could hear people talking, but I wasn’t sure of who. At first, I thought it was simply nurses, but the longer I was awake, the more my hearing cleared up, and the more familiar the voices became as my memory returned to me. I… made it? I thought, before I turned my attention to the voices that came back to those that were arguing.
"Twi, he's been in this hospital for a week, I don't think he's going to get better." The southern girl said, annoyed.
Only a week? I… thought I had been in a coma for years. After that sort of trauma, I’d either be dead or just about there for a long time... He thought, before something stuck out to him. Wait, why would they not have faith after a week? The fact that I’m still kicking means that I’m lucky to even be alive, especially after a week!
"And how do we know that he isn't dangerous? He has all sorts of things in that bag of his that were strange, and then he had that thing in his pocket! I don’t know what it was, but it smelled of burning. For all we know, that thing could spit fire and hurt anypony!" The tomboy girl asked, sounding just about the same as the southern girl was emotionally.
"That’s all why we have taken everything that has caused suspicion to anypony here, but I'm pretty sure that whatever that device of his can't cause harm. It just makes a lot of noise at the same time of day, every day." The educated voice said, and I decided to try and crack my eyes open. I squeezed them shut immediately and regretted my decision as the white light burned.
So they actually managed to save me after being shot three times, and being beaten like a red-headed stepchild, and cut up like a chicken in a fajita…
I felt someone holding one of my hands and I couldn’t help but let my hands curl slightly around the soft hands. I heard the door open as everyone was discussing me and someone stepped in.
“Alright everypony, visiting hours are over.” The nurse said, but I couldn’t help but pick out one of the words in that sentence as everyone else groaned softly. Everypony? What about everyone? Or everybody?I thought for a moment about what the other ones had said and realized that they didn’t use the proper pronouns. I mentally scratched my head at that slip-up, before I thought for a second. …Where the hell am I?
I opened my eyes and groaned in pain at the light, and I could hear my heartrate picking up slightly on the heart monitor sitting next to the bed. I could practically hear everyone in the room turn towards me. I closed my eyes a couple of times to get my sight bearable in the light.
“He’s awake!” Someone new shouted in my left ear, and I winced at the volume as the door opened up again and someone exited the room.
“Oh my Celestia, we thought you’d never wake up! How do you feel? Do you need anything? Water, more blankets, another-” The educated voice was practically gushing at me, and I could barely keep up as my eyes finally cleared up, and I looked around the room slowly.
What in the seven hells am I looking at… I couldn’t help myself when I saw what was in front of me.
They were all quite obviously feminine. Varying degrees of it, for sure, but nonetheless, all females, all staring at me.
However, they weren’t human.
Let me repeat, they were not human at all.
I could tell my eyes were widening as I continued to stare at them silently. They may have been… What was the blasted word I’m looking for... humanoid is the closest to it that I could get.
Starting from the bottom, they were all standing on two legs, but the legs ended in hooves, like the horses that you see in those old medieval movies. Going up, most of them were sitting down, but two of them were standing, and they were showing off tails that came out from directly above their buttocks, right at the base of their spines. I saw one of them sitting with a pair of wings coming out of her back. I saw another one of them that was standing with wings as well. They had arms like humans, ending in fingers.
Now, their heads were freaky.
Like, they were shaped like a humans head, but they had a massive fucking nose sticking out of their skull. What was the word for it… snout! They had snouts sticking out of their faces. They also had ears on the tops of their heads. Two of them also had small horns that were a bit rounded at the top jutting out of their foreheads.
Yes, horns. Like fucking unicorns, because that’s exactly what they were.
I was in a new world where pegasi and unicorns were apparently real, and are humanoid creatures staring at me in a hospital room after I had gotten shot and left for dead by the mafia.
If this wasn't the start to a terrible porn plot, than I'd eat a rusty horseshoe.
I could feel my heartrate picking up as a sense of foreboding and fear washed over me, and I’m sure it showed on my face and as I was fidgeting since they all seemed to stand up and back away from me with their hands raised in a placating manner.
“Woah now pardner, there’s no reason to be afraid, we’re not here ta hurt ya!” One of the girls near the door explained, her voice the familiar southern one that I had been hearing before and after my unconscious state. She was covered in orange fur, didn’t have a horn or a pair of wings, and was wearing a cowboy hat. She was also wearing jean shorts and a plaid shirt that was tied at her stomach, but I wasn’t exactly paying attention to that since I had woken up surrounded by honest to god aliens of some kind.
Despite her words, I wasn’t exactly feeling like they weren’t ready to cut me up to learn biological secrets because science fiction is weird and it’s either the aliens probe or mutilate you in their spaceship or start trying to conquer Earth for some reason.
Of course, that’s probably because I watched too many movies and grew a healthy phobia of space traveling races, since they could deem humans either disgusting creatures that need to be killed before we could mount a proper defense, or too dangerous to their own way of life and that we need to be destroyed completely, again without even being able to defend ourselves. Maybe it's just me and I like being able to go out with a bang, and not the type of bang that has a gun to your head while you're on your knees and not one in your hands.
Take that whatever way you will.
"Yeah, he's fidgeting like he's got a couple'a monsters in his pants! What are you scared of us for?!" The blue female asked, looking and sounding very cocksure of herself, a smug grin on her face. I couldn't help but scowl slightly at her.
'Cause I'm still alive, and they're going to be busting my balls soon. My monsters are real, and they're trained to kill, you arrogant bitch. They'd definitely find me again, and when they do-
A knock on the door broke the tense silence that had befallen the room, and the door opened and another one of the horse people walked through the door, wearing a lab coat.
“We need you all to leave the room for the time being.” He stated firmly as he stepped inside, looking at me and not looking away. I didn’t like that look he had as he was staring at me for a solid five seconds. It made me feel like I was his newest project in his mad scientist's lab to create the perfect abomination to take over the world with.
They all groaned again collectively and started walking out the door slowly, some of them casting furtive glances at me as they walked through the door. The doctor waited for all of the girls to walk through the door before he turned to me, staring at me for a second, as if he was deciding what to do with me.
I wasn’t feeling much better being alone with one than I was being alone with the six of them, but it was an improvement nonetheless.
“Alright, we’re going to be checking on your wounds sir.” He stated, giving a gentle smile as he pulled out a clipboard somewhere from behind him, and a nurse stepped into the room with a surgical tray in her hands.
I immediately felt like I was ready to jump out of the bed and book it as quickly as possible at the sight of that tray, expecting to see scalpels and all sorts of other surgical equipment on it, but the only thing on the tray was an empty syringe, a few small vials, and a stethoscope. “It appears he’s panicking.” The nurse commented, glancing at the heart monitor that was currently spiking, despite my still manner sitting in the bed.
“I honestly would too if I woke up in a strange new world, surrounded by creatures that looked nothing like me.” The doctor murmured before turning to me, giving another small smile. “Can you understand me?” I slowly nodded my head, not trusting my voice to be steady enough to give an answer, silently wondering if I had gone crazy or had passed out in some sort of hallucinogenic mushroom field when I was running.
A small side note that I failed to mention immediately, now that I’m sitting down to think about it: Something about this place felt off, as if gravity was heavier here or something. It wasn’t enough for me to feel strangled or like I was being crushed, but it was noticeable enough for me to want to point it out. After a few seconds, I decided against it, since the people here might not understand what I was talking about and I didn’t want to ostracize myself more than I already would.
I’m probably still in a coma, and this is just a weird dream or something… I rationalized as the doctor walked closer.
“We’re going to be inspecting the wounds that we had treated, to see how they healed up since you arrived in our care.” I just nodded again in response.
“You only have a small scar across your forehead, but your cranial injuries healed up perfectly. Seems like you didn’t suffer much damage there as you did everywhere else.” The doctor commented as the nurse scribbled down notes.
They stepped closer together, and the doctor gently grasped the edge of the sheet covering me and folded the blanket back, and I looked down at myself to look at my body healed up. To say that it wasn’t pretty was an understatement. “They’ve healed completely, but there’s scar tissue left over. I’m not sure how long the scars will remain. The patient is a unique creature here, so only time will tell.” The doctor had switched from his consoling tone to a more professional one, and the nurse picked up the clipboard and started scribbling notes down as they stared at my chest.
I was stunned into disbelief, since in a week, I had gone from bleeding from dozens of holes and cuts across my body, most of which should’ve taken months to heal to the point that I’d even be considered safe or without complications, and they were all completely healed besides scars of where they were.
There was the gunshot scar that sat a few inches above where my belly button is. It was weird to see how the flesh had been stretched across the wound, with points stretching outwards like a star was burnt into my skin. There were clean lines across each one of my ribs, and the memories of that psychopath flashed in my head. I winced slightly as I felt phantom pains of what he had done to me. The doctor and nurse didn’t seem to notice and I looked over to my arms and saw the scars that ran across the top of my biceps, and the scar of where the knife had cut into the inside of my elbow. I couldn’t tell you what his thought process was, or why he decided to cut me in those specific spots, but they were very, very painful from what I had remembered.
They started rolling the sheets down further towards my legs, but I grabbed and held to prevent them from seeing me and the doctor paused.
“We’re just going to be looking at your legs. We’re not going to do anything untoward you.”
That statement didn’t really quell my nervousness, nor did it quell my anxiety of someone seeing myself below the belt.
Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. I had the balls to punch the godfather of a fucking mafia in the face, but I don’t like the idea of strangers seeing my junk, even if they might’ve already seen them since I’m nude anyway.
“Couldn’t you… roll the sheet up the other way? I… I’m not comfortable with my...” I trailed off as I looked down to where my stuff was hiding, and the doctor nodded, letting go of the fabric and moving to the end of the bed to roll the sheet up from the foot of the bed.
On my left leg, the shot had gone through right below where my knee, a few inches to the right and about three down from the kneecap. It looks like there were two scars on it when I twisted my leg around, one on the front and one on the back, the bullet having gone straight through. The next one on my right leg was in the middle of my thigh, and only the hole that was made by the bullet itself was there, so the bullet remained lodged in my leg until I got here and had it removed.
After their inspections, the doctor rolled the blanket back down and I pulled it up to cover my stomach to be a little more comfortable with being bare ass naked in front of two strangers. “I don’t think I have to tell you how lucky you are to be alive. We don’t know what caused the three main wounds on your body, but they were severe and it took a lot of magic to fix them. Besides them, the-”
He stopped when he saw my stupefied look. “M-magic? Like, spells and incantations and things like that?”
At his nod, I couldn’t help but lift a hand to the top of my head and run it through my hair.
“I really am dreaming…” I murmured, disbelief plain as the sun outside shining.
“Do they not have magic where you are from?” The nurse had asked, sounding as disbelieved as I was about there being magic here, and I just shook my head.
“We’ve got stuff that people call magic, but it’s just sleight of hand and distractions. Nothing like healing spells to bring someone back from the brink, or anything like that...”
I was still dumbfounded, but I was starting to believe this was a dream more and more the longer I was awake.
Maybe I had really died and this is some sort of purgatory? I tried to rationalize, but I couldn’t help but see several things wrong with that immediately. The first was that it was missing all of the fire and brimstone that was associated with purgatory. I’m not being bathed in purifying flames, nor am I being pulled down into a pit by demons or whatever it was.
Look, I was raised in a Christian household but I never paid attention to what they taught. I spent most of my time, bored out of my mind and trying to find ways to entertain myself. I was able to get away with having headphones in my ears when I got older, as I sat there on one of the pews when I started letting my hair get long so that it covered my ears, and I would just pull the headphones through my shirt so that my parents couldn’t see the wire.
“That’s something that you’re going to have to explain to someone more inclined to hear. It certainly would be something interesting to read about, but I couldn’t possibly think of what to ask an honest to Celestia alien.” The doctor said, and I felt like he was simply lying to hide the disinterest he actually had. He sounded like he was earnest about it, but his words were a little callous for it to be simply that.
Maybe I was looking for an excuse to make myself more comfortable with how things were back home, when everyone was a massive dick or bitch to everyone around them. They let you know how they felt about you and made sure you knew your place. And I’m not even talking about the mafia or my family about that either. Most people were just jackasses.
“I digress. You lost a lot of blood, and we weren’t sure if we would’ve had anything possible for you. Turns out, we were able to circumvent that problem by creating a substitute from a sample of your own blood we had taken.” He explained, and I nodded numbly, not really understanding at all. I mean, if they just created a substitute, wouldn’t they have problems getting the blood type right? Or would they just be able to magic up more of it because magic is broken and overpowered, plz nerf. “Besides external appearances, your body is actually quite similar to a ponies. Some things we’d like to clear up though...”
He grabbed the clipboard that the nurse had been writing on and looked over it for a few seconds. “So, we inspected your mouth and found incisors not unlike a carnivores, but molars akin to a herbivore. Does that make you an omnivore, or were you injured in your… beating, and your teeth were misshapen as well?”
“Omnivore.” I noticed a small grimace from the nurse before she smothered it, but I’m not really surprised. Finding out something can eat you isn’t exactly a great feeling. The doctor nodded and wrote something down on the clipboard before looking up.
“Your eyes, are they meant to be that color?” He asked, referencing my unique eye color. They were red because of the lack of melanin in my body. Sadly, I didn't have the crazy hair color to make myself stand out as a main protagonist in an anime, just plain old brown.
“Yeah, that’s natural. No, it’s not a common eye color in humans.” I said, and he scribbled something down on the clipboard, muttering something under his breath that was probably along the lines of, ‘answered my next question before I asked it’ or something. I definitely didn't hear him, no, not at all, you're crazy.
“And, these things at the end of your leg. What are they called?” He pointed to my feet with the end of the quill he was using to write. It was weird seeing a quill instead of a ballpoint pen, especially since they have modern healthcare machines in the room. Maybe they're just weird about keeping some things traditions instead of moving on to the obviously superior ink pen. Fucking casuals.
“Feet. A single one is a foot, both are feet.” I explained, and he wrote it down with a cocked eyebrow and an apathetic expression. I don't know what he's thinking, but I feel like he's just being a jackass for the sake of it since he's having to learn something new.
“Alright, so these next few questions are a little personal, and I would understand if you don’t feel comfortable answering. Are your genitals meant to be… displayed like they are?” I cocked my head to the side.
“Humans don’t have sheathes that cover their… stuff. They just hang there.” I answered, my face flushing somewhat. I could hear the nurse giggle lasciviously and the doctor looked over at her in disapproval.
The stallion wrote something down and looked back up. “How sexually active have you been in your life?”
I cast my gaze downwards and my face flushed a little more in embarrassment. “Ah… in my country, I wasn’t old enough to be… sexually active.”
Didn’t have any time to myself anyway. Having people constantly watching over you didn’t give me even a moment to rub one out, let alone invite a girl over and get away with anything. I added, but I didn’t feel like voicing that to him.
“How old exactly are you?” The doctor asked.
“Sixteen years old.”
He cocked another eyebrow and scribbled it down. “I’m going to say that many ponies are sexually active when they get their cutie marks, and that’s around the age of thirteen years.”
I grimaced hearing that, and the doctor took notice and stared at me curiously. “Is there a problem with that for you?”
I shook my head. “It’s not a problem. Just another thing I’ll have to get used to...” I grumbled, running another hand through my hair.
Didn't they used to do that back in... like, the medieval periods? Not saying that they couldn't, since they were probably dying before they hit eighteen anyway, but still, it's just... weird, thinking about how they're fine with themselves to start having sex at thirteen. Doesn't mean I'll be participating anyway.
“Well, there’s a group of people that have been visiting you ever since we told them you had been stable after you first arrived. They were the ones that actually brought you in.” I took a second for that to settle in, before I sighed softly.
“I guess you can let them in. I’m just a bit… overwhelmed I guess. All of this is just… insane.” I leaned back against the pillows of the bed, and the doctor turned to look at the nurse. She nodded to him, and stepped outside the room.
“I’ll act as a mediate for you, if you want. Just about everypony knows who they are, since they’re national heroes, but they’re also all very… eccentr-”
He was interrupted by the door slamming open and I felt something hit me in the chest. I wheezed slightly as I had been speared by a very pink -pers-pony. She had hit me right in the spot that I had been shot, but it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.
Not saying it didn’t, but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I’m a man and I won’t admit that I’m in pain, even when I’m dying on the ground.
That’s what I keep telling myself, and I’ll believe it one day dammit!
Everyone else walked into the room normally, taking up just about the same spots that they had been when I first awoke, and six heads turned to the pink pony as she had enveloped me in a tight hug. “You’re okay!” She shouted.
“He might not be after that! You just tackled him in the same spot he had been hurt!” The doctor exclaimed, glaring at her. The rest of them gave exasperated sighs and looks towards the -gir- mare that was still hugging me. I was just staring down at her, confused as all hell. I put my hands on her shoulder and tried to remove her, but she was stuck on me like a fat kid at a buffet.
“How’re ya feelin’ sugarcube?” I heard the southern accented mare ask me. I turned to look at her and scratched at the back of my head, seeing as the person was still attached me and wasn’t letting go.
“Besides the fact that I’m alive? Confused. Worried. Stressed. A few others that’re mixed in there, but I’m sure you get what I’m saying.” I mumbled, and the mare stared at me for a few seconds before nodding her head.
“I see where yer comin’ from. Ya just woke up in a strange world, surrounded by strangers, in a hospital of all things. Can’t get much worse than this.”
“Where’s my manners, my name is Applejack!” She extended a hand, and I took it into mine with a firm grasp.
I could tell she was made of much tougher stuff than everyone else here. She looked like a walking stereotype for a southern woman. I already described her outfit earlier in this entry, but I picked up on the red ribbons that were tied in her tail and hair.
The pink one still attached to my chest looked up and almost headbutted me, but gave me a massive smile that seemed to split her head in half. It was a bit creepy to see, in all honesty. “Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! I'm an employee at Sugarcube Corner, the best bakery in all of Ponyville, even though I’m pretty sure it’s the only one in Ponyville! What's your favorite flavor of cupcake, is it chocolate chip or blueberry?What's your favorite ice cream flavor, mint chocolate chip or moose tracks?What's your favorite type of cake, birthday or Germane? What's your favorite type of-”
The rapid fire questions was interrupted by a purple hand shooting forth to cover her mouth, but she was still speaking through the hand, just unintelligibly.
“I’m very sorry for her behavior!” The familiar nerdy voice came, and I looked over to the mare in question.
She looked like your typical nerdy girl or librarian. Let it be known that I’m not big on fashion... Well, not big on female fashion. I could tell you everything about a three piece lounge suit, and tell you how to tie it in a more sophisticated knot to impress the big guys who look for those small details. With casual fashion, I see a shirt, I decide if it looks good on me, feel the fabric to see if it's comfortable to wear, and I wear it. I don’t know the different types of names for different skirts or shirts besides polos, singlets, and tees, so don’t expect me to give you a name for everything I see.
Even though I’m supposed to be the only one reading this thing. Anyone reading this should suck start a shotgun.
She was wearing a plain beige skirt with a navy blue collared shirt, with black thigh highs. Her hair was purple with a stripe of violet running next to a pink stripe.
Looks better than most dye jobs I see nowadays.
“My name is Twilight Sparkle, I run the local library that’s just down the street. Please do come by soon so that we can get to know each other! Ooh, the idea of meeting an alien species is so exciting!” She practically gushed with excitement, and I couldn’t help but smirk slightly at her enthusiasm.
“My name is Rarity darling, pleased to make your acquaintance. I run the Carousel Boutique here in Ponyville. Be sure to visit me at some point in the near future.” I nodded my head at the ivory white mare, giving her a forced smile, but I remembered her posh English voice and couldn’t help but feel a little irritated at her for the words she said back at the forest, when I was bleeding out and she was talking about how I looked bad.
I inwardly debated whether or not I was going to hold a grudge against her, but decided against it. She probably didn’t mean anything by what she said, and it was probably her mouth running before her mind caught up.
At least, that’s what I thought at the time, so I dropped the beef I was ready to have with her for the sake of politeness.
“Isn't Pinkie crushing you like a foal does to a teddy bear?” The sky blue one with the rainbow hair asked, which to me practically screamed GAY PRIDE, looking at me in amusement with her arms crossed over her chest as she reclined against the wall.
I shook my head. “Besides the fact that she speared me right where I got shot,” I looked down at the pink mare with a hint of irritation, who just had a goofy grin on her face as she looked up at me with as much care in the world as your mother cares for you, “I’m fine. Is she going to be like this the entire time?” I asked, and she just answered with a shrug.
She then puffed her chest out so that she could snap a pose in front of everyone, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at her goofy behavior. “My name is Rainbow Dash, and I’m the fastest flier in all of Equestria! I’m currently the captain of the weather team here in Ponyville, but I plan on becoming a Wonderbolt!” I pursed my lips, smirking at her bravado for a second, before I wiped my expression clean and nodded my head.
“Big aspirations, I’m sure.” I commented, bemused, looking towards the last one of the group, who had been doing her best to appear small and unassuming, hiding behind a long strip of blossom pink hair. She was wearing a yellow wool sweater and a grass green skirt that ran down to her knees. Or whatever they called their knees.
She seemed to have noticed me looking at her, because she brought her hands together, tapping her index fingers together as a sort of nervous tick, as she tried to hide more behind her hair.
“Oh, that’s Fluttershy! She takes care of all of the cutesy wutesy animals in all of Ponyville!” Pinkie exclaimed as Twilight removed her hand, wiping it off on the mare since she had spit all over it.
So she’s just as her name implies. Most of them seem like stereotypes, one way or another. Rarity’s the prim and proper girl of this group, Pinkie’s the extrovert who likes to just touch other people, Rainbow is the lesbian… I glanced over at her as she was still posing, acting like she’s God’s gift to the world. Or she’s just too cocksure about everything she does and is probably just very tomboyish. Fluttershy is the shy one of the group that probably got dragged in my one of the others. Twilight’s the nerd of the group. Probably sits at home and reads books all day. Applejack’s the southerner of the group. Probably heaps of southern hospitality.
I turned towards the group, though they were sort of scattered around the room, I took turns looking at each of them as I scratched my chin. “So, uh, my name is Daniel. I used to be a student before I got...” I trailed off because I was about to say that I had died, but that was obviously not true.
“We were the ones who saved you after that group of people, the mafia as you’ve known them, left you to d-die in that forest...” Twilight stated, frowning slightly, before continuing. “This may come as a shock, but you’re no longer on Earth.”
I nodded my head numbly, having already figured that out myself since I was seeing beings from another world in front of me, and I was obviously not asleep and dreaming. I slumped slightly into the bed at the news, and Pinkie took notice and looked up at me with a small smile, squeezing me in a tighter hug to try and comfort me.
I sighed softly and shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant about the entire ordeal. “It’s for the best. Even if I didn’t die in that forest, I’d be hunted down for the rest of my life by that damned mafia." How short that life may be when those assholes start looking for you is only answered by how far you're willing to take it and whether or not you're going to keep living in paranoia for the rest of your life. "At least here, I won’t have to watch my back. It gives me a fresh start and a clean slate to work with.”
I forced a small smile to make myself seem happy about the change, which I really was, but I was still feeling overwhelmed about the news of being alive, and being on a new planet. I received several encouraging smiles back from the mares as well. Pinkie stood up from me finally, and I could feel myself grow a bit more comfortable now that she wasn’t latched onto me like a leech.
After a few seconds of silence, I turned to look at the doctor. “So, not that I’m exactly hating it here or anything, but when can I go? I’m not one for being bedridden for too long.” I asked, and the doctor pursed his lips for a few seconds as he thought about it.
“I’d say tomorrow morning, just so that we can do one last check up on you. After that… well, I’d say ask one of these fine mares what you can do once you’re outside. For now, visiting hours have been over and I’d like to get home soon.” The doctor turned to the mares, and they each collectively nodded and started to head for the door.
Twilight paused and turned back around as she was already one foot out of the door. “We’ll be waiting outside when you leave Daniel.” Twilight said before she walked through the door.
The doctor turned towards me after watching them leave in silence. He let out a soft sigh. “Try to get some sleep. I feel like you’ll have a long day ahead of you.” With that, he left as well, and I was now stuck with my own thoughts.
For a while, I was thinking about everything that led me to this position, and what I might be able to do once I’m outside. A lot of the time, I could feel my eyes drawn to the window, with the night shining through. I was always a fan of looking up at the night sky, but being in a big city meant that a lot of pollution clouded the skies and made it just a gray haze during the days and the nights were barely visible since the smog covered most of the stars made it hard for the moon to shine through. Here, there was no signs of heavy industrialization from what I could see, and those skies were perfectly clean, and you could see everything there is to see. Thousands of stars dotted the skies, each bright and shining, some more than others.
“The night’s here are beautiful.” I murmured to myself as I settled down into the bed for the night, sighing softly as I closed my eyes.
For about thirty minutes, I laid there, staring at the back of my eyelids, trying to fall asleep, but my mind was still racing. Counting sheep did nothing, and trying to focus on my own breathing did little to calm the storm in my head. I huffed in irritation as my eyes cracked open and I looked out the window, where the moon was peaking in the sky.
I noticed there was a small figure that was in front of the moon, and was steadily growing larger. I could see wings on the back of the pony. I simply shrugged it off, thinking it was normal for the ponies to be flying around at night as well as day, and rolled over, trying to get to that sleep I was vouching for.
Five minutes passed, and I rolled back over, glaring out the window. That night sky seemed to calm me, and my glare softened until I was staring blankly at the moon. “I wish that Earth had nights like this...” I murmured to myself, not realizing that I had a guest in my room.
“Thee bethinks…my nights are beautiful?” A female voice softly asked solemnly, and I shot up, looking around until I saw the dark figure. A pair of teal eyes that was surrounded by an eerie, dark figure were narrowed at me as she watched me get startled by her presence.
“Who… are you?” I asked, changing my tone from angered to neutral quickly. There’s a lot of things I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to piss off a spirit or whatever it was and end up dead in my bed anyway. That’s what I was thinking at the moment, not knowing that this was just a lonely mare.
“Do you really think my nights are beautiful?” She insisted in her questioning, dropping the Shakespearean English and sounding desperate, like a girlfriend crooning for her exes attention.
I slowly nodded my head as I considered the mare in front of me, at least what I could see of her. She looked like everyone else, just a head or so taller than the rest, with a larger horn sticking out of her forehead. What got me was the hair. Her hair was billowing softly in a breeze that wasn’t there, with the appearance of the same night sky from outside billowing in her mane. The only thing missing was the moon and she could be disguised as the night itself.
She was wearing a black dress that accented her figure well, with a necklace of sorts hanging off in front of her. A tiara sat on her head, nestled between her ears. Her fur was a darker blue than Rainbow Dash, but not so dark that it didn’t stand out against the shadows she stood in front of, or against the dress she wore.
“Of course… There wasn’t much that I could see. On Earth, the nights were always clouded with pollution and you could barely make out the stars and the moon was barely visible in the sky...” I turned to look out the window, staring at that bright moon and twinkling stars. “Seeing the nights here, with this much clarity, is almost like a blessing in its own right. Only-” I was interrupted as I was pulled upwards and given another hug, this one much tighter than the one Pinkie gave.
I could feel my spine start to compress, and a few cracks came from several joints. I swear I could start seeing the heels of my feet as the stranglehold continued. She released me after a few seconds, and I winced slightly as I stretched to make sure everything was not broken.
“Thank you...” She whispered, her eyes glistening with tears.
“You’re welcome, but why thank me? I didn’t really do anything...” I responded, and she looked down to the floor.
“Nopony likes my nights... That’s why they all sleep through it instead of appreciating the work I put forth to create it.” She seemed to grow bitter at the end, and I decided to placate and compliment rather than trying to dig at the problem and see where it lied, since that could very well end with me pissing this woma mare off.
I scratched my chin. If she controls the night, she must be a powerful deity. Maybe a god or demigod, if those exist here… I thought, before tilting my head slightly as I regarded her.
“Think of it like this, people work all day, and they’re tired after a hard day of work. The night is a perfect follow up to these days, when it’s dark, quiet, and peaceful. It’s cool and comforting, and allows people to get away from the sun, when it's hot and too damn bright for you to fall asleep in. Ponies sleep through the night because of the comfort it brings, rather than it being underappreciated. There’s also people that work during the night, and I’m sure they have an appreciation for the night just as much as you and I would.”
I could see a single tear drop from her cheek that glinted in the moonlight, and she gave me another hug, albeit a much more tamed and softer one, and one that I actually returned, whispering into my ear her thanks.
“You’re welcome.” I responded with a little more sincerity in my tone. She broke it after a few seconds, and backed off, giving me a good look at this new mare.
She was definitely taller than most ponies. I stood about six feet, give or take an inch or two, and most of the ponies stood about five foot two inches, maybe five foot four inches. She about five foot eight inches, maybe five foot ten inches, not including her horn, just a touch shorter than I was. She had her ethereal hai mane, and that horn that was twice as long as other unicorns that he had seen, and sharper at the point than the others. I noticed as she turned towards the window that she had wings, and that confused me.
So, she’s a winged unicorn? I asked myself as she made it to the window. I was also wondering how she was able to get into my room silently when she turned to look at me, gave me a small, almost imperceptible smile and a mischievous gleam in her eyes, and simply walked through the wall, extending her wings to catch her and lift her into the air.
I couldn’t believe my eyes, seeing her just… phase through the wall like that. I’m sure my jaw was on the on its way to the core of the world when I watched her just... melt through the fucking wall and appeared on the other side of the window, taking off into the night with her wings aflappin'.
I watched as she disappeared into the night, and lay back down into my bed, staring up at the dark ceiling. It took me a few minutes to calm down from the excitement of the day, and I drifted off to sleep.
My dream for that night was pleasant, as I was simply sitting at a small cafe, drinking coffee with the six mares that I had met in the hospital room. Everyone was sharing laughs and smiles with one another. A few doubts sprung up here and there, but I cast them aside to just enjoy my time. Before long though, I found myself awake, staring at the ceiling, the moon still shining through the window.