//------------------------------// // A New Day // Story: A Colt's Tale // by my_little_medic //------------------------------// I woke to the sound of someone knocking on the door. I opened my eyes to the peaceful darkness of my room as I listened to see if the person at my door would give up and keep on walking. Another round of knocking quickly told me otherwise. "Jerry, come on downstairs and get some breakfast before school!" An older female voice said from the other side of the door. I let out a groan as I rolled over on to my back and put a hand up to my forehead. 'Was it really morning already...?' I thought to myself. I turned my head to the side and eyed the digital clock on my nightstand. "Damnit...!" I said out loud. I let out a sigh as I sat up in bed and brushed the hair away from my face. Throwing the covers off to the side, I rolled over and switched on the lamp next to the bed. I blinked several times as my eyes slowly adjusted to the light. My room was a mess. Clothes had been thrown everywhere and their were numerous piles of miscellaneous junk scattered across the floor. I groaned as I brought my feet around and sat on the edge of the bed. With the grogginess weighing me down like the anchor of a boat, I slowly got out of bed and began to get dressed. I put on the same jeans from the day before and a clean t-shirt. Another knock on my door brought me out of my groggy daze. "Jerry?! Are you coming down for breakfast or not?" The female voice shouted from the other side. "YES...!" I yelled back in an annoyed tone. I quickly threw on a pair of clean socks and my tennis shoes before throwing my bedroom door open and heading down to the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen to see my mother huddled over the stove as she put the finishing touches on breakfast. "Morning..." I said in a dry tone. She turned to face me as I took a seat at the table. She was a fair skinned woman with dark hair that she kept short. For being a woman in her late forties, she had aged very well. Her personality was always cheery and she almost always had a smile on her face. "Good morning!" She replied. "Were you up all night, or did you get some decent sleep?" I shrugged at the question. "So so..." I answered. She put a small grin on her face as she playfully rolled her eyes at me. She turned to the stove and loaded a plate with the food she had been cooking. With a cheery hum and a bounce in her step, she came up behind my seat and placed the plate of food down in front of me. "Thanks mom." I said as I shot her a smile. I had just reached for my fork when I felt her tap me on the shoulder. I looked up at her to see that she had an eyebrow raised at me. I could hear that she had also begun tapping her foot on the tiled floor. "...What?" I asked. She pointed a finger down behind me. I looked down at where she had pointed and saw a fluffy bright red tail with yellow streaks in it, sticking out of the top of my jeans and poking out through the back of the kitchen chair. I looked back up at her with confusion showing in my face. "You know your father doesn't like it when you leave your tail out. Would you run upstairs and tuck it in please?" She asked. I let out a long frustrated sigh. "Why do I care what he thinks?! The guy's found shortcomings with me ever since I was in third grade. You know, at one point in time, I used to actually try to make him proud. I just quit when I found out that it was impossible." "Stop being so damn dramatic Jerry!" A rough male voice called from the other room. An older man slowly walked into the kitchen with an unamused look on his face. He had the look of a man in his early fifties. His blond hair had begun to grey around the edges and you could see the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes. This did not take away from the fact that he was a very strong and muscular looking man as well. I rolled my eyes as I put my attention down to my plate, trying to ignore my father. "I might actually have something to be proud of if you didn't try to be such a damn outcast!" He said in an annoyed voice. "You've never gone out for any sports, never joined a single club in school, have mediocre grades at best and the people you have taken to calling your 'friends' are degenerates!" "Come on Mark, that's enough. Let's just all sit down and have breakfast." My mom said meekly. I sat up and threw my fork back down on my plate. "No thanks, I've lost my appetite." I said as I stood up from my chair. My dad quickly moved into my path. "Sit down and eat that food you ungrateful little bastard...!" He said in a slow and threatening voice. I stood my ground as he approached until his face was only inches away from mine. I saw my mother from the corner of my eye. She had her hands up to her face and I could see the shimmer of tear streaks along her face. I focused my attention back to my old man. "I don't have time for your threats old man! I've got to get to school..." I gulped and inched my way around his threatening form until I was on the other side of him and walking towards the door. Suddenly I was being dragged back into the kitchen, the pain from my tail being yanked shooting up my spine. I was spun around by my shoulder until I was once again face to face with the threatening gaze of my old man. He grabbed my tail and pulled it up to my view, I had tears forming in the bottoms of my eyes from the sudden jolt of pain. "What did I say about this! I told you that I never wanted to see this again and to always keep it tucked in!" He screamed. "Why's it so upsetting for you?! It's a part of me! Get used to it already!" I replied, the fear evident in my voice. The slap across my face that came next made my teeth clack. My mother was full on sobbing at this point and she ran out of the kitchen holding her hands over her eyes. My one piece of salvation from this nightmare had run away. "I wouldn't have to get used to it if it wasn't there anymore now would I?!" He yelled in a maniacal tone. I was dragged over to the kitchen counter by my tail, my feet slipping as I tried to maintain my balance. I turned in enough time to see him grab a large kitchen knife off of the counter. My eyes widened with panic and I tried to get my feet under me. With one sweep of his leg, I was on the floor on my stomach and he was on top of me holding me down. "NO STOP!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "STOP PLEASE!!!" "You're going to learn what it means to be NORMAL!" He yelled back, the sound of hatred clear as a bell in his voice. I turned my head back, tears in my eyes and fear in my chest. I saw him raise the kitchen knife and quickly bring it down towards my tail. I turned and shut my eyes before letting out one last horrifying scream. ~~~~~ I laid there holding my eyes shut tight for a few seconds before I realized that I hadn't felt the knife. I could feel my heart pounding in my ears and my body was soaked with cold sweat. I slowly opened my eyes to find my vision blurry and my eyelids sticky with dried tears. I realized that I was lying on my stomach still but there was no one on top of me. I brought my hand up to wipe my eyes but I was greeted with a familiar 'Crack!' As my hoof met my face. The pain wasn't so bad this time, it was more of an annoyance. I blinked several times, getting my eyes to clear. I held up my hooves up in front of me, confirming what the crack to the head already hinted at. I let out a sigh as I tried to look around through the dark and figure out where I had ended up. The sterile smell of the room I was in, immediately made me think hospital. I found that I was laying in a small bed with a thick cover pulled up over me. I heard a door open from over on my left. I raised my head up to look towards the door, letting the covers slide down my neck. "Well hello there!" A cheery feminine voice exclaimed. I stared at her as she approached my bed. She looked very similar to the group that I had run into in the forest. She flipped a light switch on the wall next to the bed with her nose. The lights of the room came on, giving way to momentary blindness as I blinked. I watched as she came right up to the side of my bed. Her fur was a pure white color which helped to show off her pale blue eyes. Her mane and tail were a very pale pink and her mane was tucked up into a bun. She wore an old school nurse's hat on her head with a red cross in the center. I noticed that she had what looked like a tattoo of a red cross with tiny pink hearts surrounding it on her flank. "I could hear you screaming from out in the hall. Is everything all right?" She asked in a concerned tone. I tried as hard as I could to actually form words in my head but as soon as I would open my mouth to say something, my mind would go blank. "Was it just a bad dream?" She asked tilting her head to the side. I nodded my head at her as I tried to back myself back under my blanket. "Ohh, I'm sorry sweetie..." She said in a caring voice as she reached her hoof up and stroked my mane. "Those are no fun are they?" I shook my head while still watching her. She moved her hoof up to my forehead and held it there for a moment. A smile suddenly spread across her face. "It feels like your fever's finally broken. You were burning up the last couple days." She said 'Couple days?! I'd been unconscious for a couple days?!' I thought to myself. I felt a cold shiver come over me as she pulled the blanket off of me with her mouth. I looked myself over, noting that I was once again a pure white, as oppose to the random colors of blood, bramble and mud that I was in the forest. My shivering body was starting to make my muscles ache. She began to give me a very thorough exam. She reached a hoof out to my left rear leg and moved it a bit, the movement reminding me of the injury the timberwolf had left to my flank. The pain was sharp and it caused me to wince. The nurse must have noticed this, for she commented. "Oohh, I know sweetie and I'm sorry. I just have to make sure that you're healing properly." She said in a gentle voice. I looked in her eyes and gave her a little nod. She smiled and moved over to my bandaged wings. "Can you move your wings at all sweetheart?" I looked back at my bandaged wings. I couldn't tell just how bad the injury was, but if I remembered correctly they had been in pretty poor shape after my encounter. 'How do I even go about making them move...' I thought. I had never even tried to see if I could make them move when I first found out that I had them. I guess now was as good a time as any. I focused on all the muscles in my back and finally I was able to make my right wing twitch. I gasped slightly and tried it one more time. I watched as my right wing moved up and down slowly with a little grin coming over my face. I let a little "Ouch!" escape from my mouth as the pain from my wing reminded me why they were all bandaged up and my grin quickly faded. "That's perfect sweetheart! Let's not overdo it okay?" She said. "How does your head feel?" 'My head? Oh, right... From when I crashed headfirst into the tree.' I thought as I could feel a light blush beginning in my cheeks. I gave the nurse another nod. I was starting to shiver more which was causing some more pain to step forward from my injuries. I watched as she came around to the other side of the bed and reached up with her front hooves and did something with a bag of fluid that was hanging on a hook in the wall. The bag of fluid had tubing that trailed from the bottom of the bag. I followed the tubing trail with my gaze until I saw that it ended at my left foreleg. The tubing was securely wrapped to my leg with bandaging. 'It's like this was a normal everyday hospital. Except that the patient's and staff have all been replaced with these ponies...' I thought. "Well, you seem to be healing all right." The nurse said with a smile. "I'm gonna give you a little medicine to help you sleep, okay hun?" 'Sleep? I've slept for a couple days already. How much longer was I going to be like this?' I wanted to protest. To tell her that there were other places I needed to be. But, I just couldn't get any words to come out. I nodded my head at the caring nurse as another bout of shivering came over me. She noticed it this time. "Oh I'm sorry sweetheart... I didn't realize you were so cold." She said as she trotted over to a shelf in the corner of the room. Using her mouth she grabbed a folded blanket from it and trotted back over to my bed. In one fluid motion of her head she tossed the blanket over me. It unfolded in mid air and came to rest on top of me. "There you are sweetie!" She said in her cheery tone. I managed a smile at the nurse. After all she seemed so friendly and was really doing a lot to make sure I was comfortable. She returned the smile before trotting back over to the other side of the bed. I watched as she opened a drawer in one of the cabinets with her mouth and reached inside it. She pulled out a small syringe that was filled with a bright orange medicine and walked back over to the bag of fluid on the wall. I watched as she turned her back to me and somehow injected the medicine into the bag. She turned back to me and once again started stroking my mane with her hoof. "Okay sweetheart, now I want you to try and get some more sleep. Young foals need their rest if they're gonna get better and be able to play with the others again right?" It should have been the most annoying thing in the world, being talked to like that. But for some reason I couldn't even get a little bit frustrated about it. It just felt so wonderful to have someone so caring and sweet watching over you. The way she was talking to me had brought back pleasant memories of my mother. Memories of when she used to take care of me when I was sick or hurt. I gave the nurse another little nod and I laid my head down on my hooves. She slowly walked over to the wall and flipped the light switch, bringing night time back to the room. I could feel the medicine she gave me working it's way through my veins and up into my head. My eyes were becoming very heavy and I could feel all of my muscles relaxing and slowly becoming numb. "Goodnight little one." She said in a hushed voice as she began to walk out the door. A little smile crossed my face as I closed my eyes. "...Goodnight..." I answered in a cracked voice.