//------------------------------// // Awakening // Story: Bad Memories // by brohoof22 //------------------------------// All was silent in the small town of Ponyville. The moon, high in the sky, gazing into the beautiful lands of Equestria. But not all had slept in this quiet town. Upon a hill, on the southern region of Ponyville, sat a hospital. Several stories tall and wide, all of the windows in this unassuming building were dark, save for one... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "What's going on!" The woman next to Matt had cried. "BOMBS! WE ARE BEING BOMBED!" Screamed Matt, as he ran to the window. "Get the food packed! We need to get out of here!" The woman nodded, quickly running out the door, followed by Rocky. Matt looked outside into the streets of Paris, and watched in utter shock as he tried to comprehend the scene. Solders, to the left and right of Matt's vision, had been spread out and were engaged in a gunfight between the red-coated Russians, and the green uniformed French and American, former being on the left. Each solder was taking cover behind overturned cars, or keeping their heads down in huge craters. Looking farther to his right, Matt got a clear view of the Eiffel Tower, in all of its, beautiful, burning glory. The once proud structure, had now been razed and felled by the communist bombs. Returning his gaze to the street in front of the hotel, he saw the Allied forces being driven back, away from the hotel. The Russians had now gotten complete control of the street, and was now sending teams of three inside each of the buildings to find stragglers. Including, the hotel that Matt was watching from. "SHIT!" He cried. Rushing to his pack, he pulled his standard M-9 pistol and placed it in his holster. He was lucky that he had the foresight of bringing this along on the trip, despite the haggle of getting it past security. "What is going on!?!?" Cried the woman from the other room. "Russians have entered our building, and they are probably killing anybody they find! PACK FASTER!" He yelled over the bombs. His skill with his gun might hold off one or two, but he needed a different approach to this situation. More men would come if a survivor radioed for help. After gathering the two extra clips he had packed, he ran into the other room to help with the packaging of the food. *CRACK!* *BANG BANG* Matt froze, listening to the sounds that had come from just below their room, hearing a cry of pain followed by another shot. *BANG!* He heard more noises, this time from his own hallway. Voices that sounded Russian, though he understood little Russian, he recognized that they were talking about their orders, which was to kill anyone on sight. Matt had already known this, judging from the noises below him just a few minutes ago. He looked desperately around the hotel room while the woman was sitting with a terrified expression. His eyes fell on the kitchen. "Hey!" Matt whispered to her. "I have an idea." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matt shook slightly as he woke up. He did not remember much, only that a huge creature, which looked remarkably like a manticore, had attacked him in some strange forest. The he remembered waking up to himself being moved by God-knows-what. But that could not have happened, that just did not seem logical. Oddly though, his sleeping bag did seem much more comfortable then last night while he was laying cold on the ground. "Hmph." Matt said groggily. "What a stupid dream." Slowly, Matt opened his eyes, eyes blurry before he blinked several times, clearing out the sand. Focusing, he saw a ivory white ceiling, with a small light above him. Matt blinked, this wasn't his tent color, the tent was green. He tried sitting up, but cried out in pain when he moved too fast. "Oh great! Your awake!" Said a feminine voice next to him. Was he in a hospital? Was this still a dream? It certainly felt real. The voice was English, perhaps some fellow troops had found him in the forest and carried him back! "Here, let me help you sit up" Said the voice again. Matt could not see the speaker since he could not move his neck too much. He felt some pressure on his back as he was helped up into a sitting position. Matt briefly glanced around, he was clearly in a hospital, various medical supplies adorned the whitewashed walls. He looked out the window to his right, and saw that it was dark outside, perhaps midnight based on the light given off by the moon. "Ugh" Matt groaned. "Thanks nurse." He said. "No problem!" Said the voice again. Matt craned his neck to look around for the nurse, but he could not see her. He glanced to the left side of the plush, white bed and saw...a...a...pony? Matt stared. WAT "Is something wrong?" Asked the pony, backing up from the bed, giving Matt a clearer view of her. The white pony was about three feet tall, going up to about his waist were he standing. She had a nurses cap on, with a red cross stitching in the middle. And had a picture of another red cross emblazoned on her flank. Oh and he noticed one more thing. It just spoke English "Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nurse Redheart." The pony curtsied, bending her right foreleg so she sloped down on that side. Matt just continued to stare at the talking equine. "Um, sir? are you okay?" Matt stared for a few more seconds, then began to laugh nervously and dropped back onto the bed, unconscious. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "So Twilight, anything new on that...thing?" Asked the baby dragon. Twilight nodded her head. "Yes, Nurse Redheart informed me that the creature had woken up just last night, around midnight." Spikes eyes grew with excitement. "And?" "As soon as the creature, who I would guess is male, saw Redheart, he laughed and passed out again. "Awww, bummer! I had been hoping that after a week he would finally be awake and able to talk. He can talk right?" Twilight nodded. "Yes, Redheart told me that he said several words before passing out." "Sweet!" Spike said, getting a rolled pair of eyes from Twilight. Twilight returned to her desk, opening a large textbook titled "Guide to the Animals of Equestria" and opened the book to the bookmark. She had been looking through a number of textbooks, trying to find anything even remotely related to the creature that was currently lying asleep in the hospital. But the closest thing she had found to it, was some species of apes, and even that gave her no indication as to what it was. It was sentient, she knew that, but it sounded like he had never seen a pony before, given the fact that he passed out as soon as he saw Redheart. Closing the book and returning it to the Non-Fiction section, Twilight walked into the kitchen, and poured herself some water. Drinking the glass of water, she thought about what she should do for the rest of the day, as her library obviously had no information regarding the strange species. Or even that huge dog that he had with him. She glanced over to the grandfather clock in the corner, 10:30, and decided to visit the creature and talk to Redheart again, for the fifth time this week. Gathering up some paper and quills, she strode out the door, leaving Spike to handle the library by himself for a little while. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fluttershy was in her cottage, busy checking over the dog's right leg and chest. Fluttershy had found out that the name of the dog was 'Rocky' with his collar, that had the name engraved on it. Another medallion was also next to the name-tag saying, 876, Burban street, NY. She thought it looked like an address, but she had no idea what this 'NY' or 'Burban street' was. Checking back over Rocky, who had been sleeping for a few hours now, she re-tightened the cast on its leg, and made sure its spine was stable so it did not move the ribs too much. After Fluttershy had finished the check-up, about a half hour later Rocky had woken up. Fluttershy smiled. "Good morning Rocky. Are you hungry?" She asked. *BARK!* Smiling some more, Fluttershy trotted into the kitchen and gathered up some dog food she had made for Winona, Rocky seemed to enjoy it as much as Applejack's dog. With the bowl of food in hoof, Fluttershy went back into the foyer, noticing Rocky looking out the window. Fluttershy sighed, and flew over to pet Rocky on the head. "You want to see your master, don't you?" She asked. Rocky whimpered in return. After Rocky woke up inside of Fluttershy's cottage, he was rather hostile. Barking as soon as she entered, but unable to move. After Fluttershy had gained his trust, she found that Rocky was a very smart and very loyal dog. Of course, after a week of not seeing his master, Fluttershy could understand his sadness. Fluttershy then said. "You know. Your master woke up last night, I was thinking that I could take you to him later, maybe he will wake up again!" Rocky looked excitedly at her, only reinforcing her position at how smart the dog was. "Ah ah ahhh. We can't see him if you haven't eaten yet, you are going to need the energy." She smiled as Rocky scooted down and began eating the food Fluttershy had placed on the table. After Rocky was done, Fluttershy took him outside, picked him up, and began flying towards the Ponyville hospital. Carrying a very nervous dog. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back inside of the hospital, Matt began stirring awake again. "Heh heh heh, my mind was playing tricks on me again, first this "manticore" and now talking ponies? Haha, good one brain!" He thought, as he opened his eyes. He started, looking back up at the familiar white ceiling and the suspended light. He sat up quickly, ignoring the pain and quickly moved his gaze around the room, which looked exactly the same as his "dream". He averted his gaze over towards the window on his right, the sun was shining bright, leading Matt to believe it was noon. He began looking over himself, and realized that he was wearing his green undershirt, which had several large holes in the chest area, and smaller ones in the gut, shoulder, and arm area. He knew what the smaller holes were from, bullets, but the holes in the center, could they be...? No, that would be stupid, there was no way a...manticore had done that. But, it was exactly where he remembered in the "dream" that he had. Was that reality? He diverted his attention from the holes, which all were stitched close, and focused on the door to his left when he heard some voices discussing something. "...and he just passed out? Just like that?" Said one voice. "Yes, almost as if he had never seen a pony before." Said another voice, which Matt had recognized from the dream. "Odd." Said the first voice. "Is he hostile?" "No, it doesn't seem like he is, at least not right now. Ah! We are here." Matt heard the squeaky door open and shut to his room, two figures walked in...or rather, trotted in. The first one that had made itself visible, was the nurse that Matt had seen from his dream, if it was a dream anyway. This equine was followed by another pony. The second pony had a lavender coat, some stars emblazoned on its flank, and a horn in the middle of hits forehead. Matt also had just realized how huge their eyes were, much bigger in proportion to their heads than Matt's eye to head ratio. "Ah! You're awake again!" Said the nurse. Nope, not a dream. Matt was about to fall back to the welcoming tides of unconsciousness before the nurse cried out. "Wait! don't fall asleep again!" Matt finally got his senses together and said. "Wha...where am I?" The nurse replied. "You are in the Ponyville hospital! I hope that you remember my name." "Uh...yea. Redheart right?" The nurse nodded. "Alright...um...could you tell me what exactly happened?" "I think that Twilight here can explain better than I can Mr......." "Just call me Matt" "Alright Matt, well Twilight can better explain what happened to you" The nurse indicated to the purple unicorn standing to her left, whom had been staring at Matt the entire time. "Right well..." Twilight cleared her throat. "Well, me and five of my other friends found you bleeding to death in the Ever Free Forest. In front of a body of a manticore that had died from some holes in its eyes. You had a broken hind leg, three huge claw marks on your chest, and several small holes that looked to be about a day old. Fluttershy, one of my friends, found you first and kept you alive while we carried you back here, in the Ponyville hospital." She finished. Matt stared. "I am going insane aren't I?" He said to nobody in particular. The unicorn raised an eyebrow to this. "Ummm, I hope you're not. Haven't you ever seen a pony before? We certainly do not know what you are. Or what any of your gadgets that you had with you are." Matt was still trying to process all this information. Talking ponies, magic, manticores, new world, a hospital. None of this seemed real or logical. Maybe I was found and captured by those damn Russians. Who knows what ungodly experiments they practiced in their labs. Maybe they are practicing one of those experiments on me now! I have to go with it though, if they figure out that I know this is a experiment, then they would most likely kill me. Matt sighed, there was no easy way of getting out of this. He will still play along, but he would be careful with what he would say to these...ponies "No, I have never seen anything like you before. As for what I am, I am a human." "A human..." The unicorn seemed to levitate a piece of paper and a quill out of her bags, and wrote something down. "Um, what did you just do? "Hmm?" "That...thing you just did there, it was like you just levitated the paper and quill out" She raised an eyebrow. "What? Magic?" Matt face-palmed. "Okay lemme get this straight." He took a deep breath. "I have been...teleported into this world, where there are unicorns, non-unicorns, and god-knows-what else that can talk. The unicorns can do magic, there are manticores, and I am the first human that you have ever seen, ever." Twilight and Redheart nodded. "It would sure seem that way." Again, this just reinforced his thoughts on the experiment theory. Matt sighed. "Alright, can one of you help me get up? And also, where is my gear, and my vest?" "Here, I'll help you up." Said the nurse, biting and pulling off the covers, revealing his leg which was in a cast. He threw his legs over the side of the bed. Redheart hoofed him a crutch and then helped him get off the bed. Switching the crutch to his left shoulder, he took a few steps to get comfortable. The nurse pointed over to the corner next to the window, showing him where his gear was. "After we got you back here, my friends and I searched your campsite for your stuff. I don't think we found everything, but we found quite a bit." Said Twilight. "Its alright, thanks." Replied Matt with a nod. Walking over to the pile, he ignored most of the bags and picked up his torn Kevlar vest. Reaching into one of the pockets, he pulled out a ring and sat there, gazing into the diamond that adorned it. Twilight watched from across the room, seeing the ring and was about to ask Matt whose it was. Then she saw a single tear fall down his cheeks, and decided against asking. Matt sat there for several more minutes, then placed the ring inside of his pants pocket and walked over towards Twilight. Kneeling so he had and eye-level view he asked. "Thank you for saving me, but I had a dog with me. His name is Rocky, and he is about six inches smaller than you with a grey coat. Did you see him?" Matt kept a cautious ear tuned to her answer. Twilight nodded. "He was laying down next to you when Fluttershy found you. She said that Rocky was growling as soon as she got close to you. Rocky had a broken right fore-leg and some broken ribs as well so Fluttershy carried Rocky to her cottage in the forest and has been caring for him for the past week." "Whoa whoa whoa, the past week?!?" Redheart nodded. "You had sustained serious injuries and lost a lot of blood. In fact, its a miracle that you even woke up at all." "That right? Well thank you then nurse for caring for me for the week." "Your welcome!" She said brightly. "Anyway, how is Rocky doing?" "Very well." Twilight said. "He really is a very sweet dog, I went to go visit him and I watched him play with Winona,my friend's dog." "Great." He looked outside the window and saw a yellow figure flying towards the hospital with a grey blob on its back. "Hey Twi, what's that?" He indicated the yellow blob, which had landed and was walking inside of the hospital. "Oh, that is Fluttershy, she is a pegasus." "There are pegasi too?" Twilight nodded. "Yep" After sifting around his stuff for a few more minutes, he heard hoof-steps coming from the door. "Oh um, hi, um, can I come in? I mean, if that's okay with you." Said a quiet voice. Turning around, Matt saw a butter-yellow pegasus at the door. It seems like each species, Unicorn, Pegasus or whats called earth ponies are all the same average height. Each at about 3 feet tall, half of his height. Twilight turned to the newcomer. "Oh hi Fluttershy! Come in!" Twilight beckoned Fluttershy inside of the room. "Hi there Fluttershy." Matt said, squinting hard at her. "I heard that you're the one who saved my life. I wish to thank you for saving me and my dog." "Oh, um, your welcome." She replied quietly. *BARK BARK!* Rocky padded from around the door and started limping towards Matt. Matt looked up. "Rocky! How are you boy?" Matt walked over to the pooch and gave him a big hug. *BARK!* Matt smiled. "That's good" Matt turned to Fluttershy. "So how is his leg?" "His leg has healed up rather nicely, I got a friend named Zecora to make a special potion that should heal him up in a few more days. She should be done with your potion by tomorrow." Fluttershy nervously replied. Matt nodded. "Thanks Fluttershy" Twilight turned to Nurse Redheart. "So nurse, will he be able to come outside with us any time soon? I want to introduce him to every-pony else." Nurse Redheart nodded. "As long as he takes it easy, he could leave now if he wants too." Twilight turned to Matt. "Well? Would you like to go meet every-pony else?" Matt shook his head. "Maybe tomorrow, I got a lot of information crammed into my head for one day. What with talking, multicolored ponies, magic, manticores, and an entirely different world, getting anything else into my brain, I would probably go insane. I appreciate the offer, but I think I am going back to sleep for the rest of the day. I will go and meet others tomorrow, but I need rest. Twilight nodded. "Okay, see you tomorrow then." She left the room. Redheart gave Matt one quick checkup, then left the room as well. Matt turned to Rocky and Fluttershy. "Hey Fluttershy, again, thanks for saving me. Can you give Rocky a quick checkup back at your home? I am still worried about that leg, despite the potion your friend made." Fluttershy nodded, picking up Rocky on her back. Rocky began to whimper. "Hey boy, come on, I will see you tomorrow. Don't worry about me." Rocky did not seem content, but he stopped whimpering and allowed himself to be carried out the door. Matt sighed, and climbed onto the bed, looking out the window for a few minutes. How was he going to get out of this? This must be Russian work, this just could not be real. Although this certainly felt real. His eyes became heavy and he laid his head on the pillow on his bed. He quickly embraced the calling of sleep and passed out. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight made it home and quickly moved to her desk. Picking out a piece of paper and a quill, she began to compose a letter. Dear Princess Celestia...