“Come on Chris, where are you?” Lyrin whispered to herself as she leapt backwards, avoiding another uppercut that could have sent her spiralling through the air. She let out a loud groan as she had lost her balance mid-air and slammed down on the ground on top of one of her wings painfully.
Both she and the oversized, armoured lizard had been fighting for two hours, and the exhaustion was beginning to get to them both. They were both making mistakes, but that was more of a worry was that Lyrin was making more than her attacker.
An hour before hand, Chris had sent a Text message to her suit telling her to buy him some time. This message had come shortly after tearing off one of the metal plates from the back of the lizards’ neck that she used as a grip while being flung around like a tied up ragdoll. Something about that plate didn’t feel right to her, but it was too far away from it to do anything about it, and she was still in the middle of a fight. She had a job to do for her friend, and she would follow through with it.
“Blaze,” She panted before swallowing, her throat and lungs felt like they were on fire and it almost pained her greatly to speak. “How far did I get with altering those booster packs?” She was able to catch the sight of another swing from the attacker and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the strike. She quickly got up and bolted for the closest wall to hide behind.
On one side of her view, a wireframe view of the entire suit was constructed and then zoomed in on four blocks in the shape of half an octagon that would be attached to her back which was used to represent the four units of hardware mounted between her wings. Four red bars appeared next to the blocks and filled up with a green bar almost three quarters of the way. A percentage count on top of each bar read 71%. Blazes voice then sounded in her ear. “Modifications of the renamed ‘Aerial Manoeuvre Gear’, which I must comment is not decently named, are Seventy-one percent complete.”
Lyrin couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “What in Tartarus happened to you to make you sound more like a pony than a bank of codes controlling a machine?” Blaze didn’t say a word for a few seconds and the silence had actually helped Lyrin greatly as she heard a grunt from behind the wall. She leapt through a hole to her side, entering the building next to her as the wall she previously hid behind had blown open by the evil plated fist.
“I don’t quite understand what you mean by ‘more like a pony’. Ponies are just animals.” Ouch, that last but struck a nerve. In return to the insult she had just received, Lyrin growled a response. “On this planet, they are just animals, but where I am from, they act almost like the Humans here. If it makes more sense, I shall rephrase my wording. What in Tartarus happened to you to make you sound and act like a HUMAN.” She had put in a little too much emphasis on the last word.
“Right... sorry.” was all she got back from Blaze, but that didn’t stop her. “Eventually I will lose my life in this world and will travel to another plane of existence and live another life. If what I have done to your platform works as I intend it to, you will be magically dragged with my soul to where my new body is. At some point, I will eventually be sent back to where I originally came from. Because of the threat that may still be looming back home possibly still exists, you will be required to protect the very being you arrived with: a Pony. Never say anything like that again as I take huge offence to that. Understand?”
It felt strange for her to be scolding a machine controlled by a computer program, but it still had the intending results she would have gotten if it was a living being. “Yes, Ma’am.”
“Good, now. Are you able to get the AMGs operational? Even if it is just to activate the core? That should at least be enough to convert the energy your systems operate off into raw magical energy and solidify it into a hardened material, generate a negativity field around the case and do what needs to be done. Right?”
She heard another grunt and ran forward away from the wall she pressed herself against. She ran under one of the holes in the floor above and used her wings to launch her up to the next level. She had barely made the jump due to the weight of the suit and caught the sides, pulling herself up just as the wall she was leaning against before was busted open. She knew there would be too much dust for her attacker to see where she went.
“I can, but may I ask a question first?” Blaze asked with a little more of a questioning tone than Lyrin had expected. Did her transformation change Blazes code? She nodded and allowed Blaze to ask the question.
“Why can’t you use your wings to fly?”
There was no thoughts needed to answer. “Because I have you equipped. I’m weighed down by at least forty kilograms more than average.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you are trying to point out.”
Lyrin sighed, but at least she wasn’t agitated anymore. “I have a very light bone structure so my weight in this form averages around forty seven kilograms. Because of the extra weight, I need to use more energy for the power flap. So there is that problem, but there is also the problem that my muscles in my wings are underdeveloped. That flap to get up was just enough to get me torso up above the floor, but I needed to grab on and pull myself the rest of the way.”
Her ears twitched at the sound of a deep growl coming from down below her as well as heavy steps. She quietly lowered herself to the floor and crawled along the ground towards the hole. As she got close, she saw her attackers’ tail move around just in sight. Moving a little closer to the edge, she was surprised to see that the lizard had been able to fit in the lower floor. The sudden feeling of being homesick crossed her as she noticed it was on all fours.
A random box suddenly pops up into her view with the message “Lead it to this location”, causing her to smile. She never bothered to check who it was from as she had already known who it was. Noticing a file was attached, she opened it up and saw it was a map with a virtual pin on a location which was at the next block from her. “It’s about time, Chris.” She whispered to herself as the directions were cleared from sight.
She stood up as quietly as possible and took a few steps back away from the hole, matching her steps with the ones sounding below. With a good bit of distance from the hole, she brought her wings forward, getting them away from the AMG’s. “Alright Blaze.” She whispered. “Activate them.”
The timing was more than perfect as the AMG’s gave off a hiss and ejected in sync with another footstep below, giving it the cover needed. The four units floated in place but rotated so the flat part of the units faced away from Lyrin.
The disks on both gauntlets spun faster and began to make a little more noise than she was comfortable with, followed by a glowing blue gas flowing out from the modified boosters. The gas didn’t disperse or evaporate into the air, but instead looked like it was filling up a long, invisible container. It didn’t take long before the ‘container’ was filled up completely and almost gave off a reflection of light from one of the street lights shining through the window.
The core she made for the AMGs did what she wanted. It had gotten her magic, converted it into raw energy, released it, and caused the magic to make a hardened case protruding from the base of it. The hardened magic was slightly smaller in thickness than the proper unit and was almost as long as she was in height.
When all four ‘Pylons’ were complete, she had just enough time to take a deep breath and launch herself out the window as the floor burst up. “Missed me, you filthy reptile!” she yelled out as the AMGs hummed with more energy being fed into them as they were no longer being fed raw magic. A quick thought crossed her mind: ‘Where did that line come from?’
When designing the Aerial Manoeuvre Gear, Lyrin came up with the idea to have four controllable platforms that were able to manipulate the air in a small area depending on how much magic was filtered through the devices. The more energy there was being fed, the less air pressure there was around the hardened case. Being able to control the magic, she should be able to create greater negative zone at one point and gradually weakening it at another point. If done correctly by focusing on those two points, Positive air pressure should flow through the negative to ‘fill’ the gap and cause a weaker version of an aircraft’s thrust.
One other idea she had was that the AMGs would be separate from the suit, but still be connected and controlled with a specially made device (of her own design) that would ‘hold’ the AMGs in place without physical contact using the connect of something like a magnetic pull and push.
Thinking over her work and plans, she focused on creating a stronger to weaker ‘zone’ around the hardened magic essence and was able to get a decent airflow and hovered in the middle of the air. There was no specific way for the air to flow as it could be manipulated to go in any direction by changing the angle of the AMGs.
Suddenly she was reminded about how far the progress was with the AMGs due to a sudden feeling of exhaustion, which then lead her to a question. “Blaze... Did I ever get around to setting up the Limiter?”
“Limiter?” was all she got in return, followed by a loud earthen curse flowing out of Lyrins lips as she realised she still needed to restart Blazes system for the limiter to register and work. The AMGs cut out almost instantly after her realisation, causing her to fall a lot faster than she would have liked.
She strained herself as she spread her wings to glide down but because of the extra weight and the lack of muscle development in them, she was able to glide down for a short moment before hitting the ground hard.
Ignoring the pain in her wings, she tucked them against her and made her way to the location Chris wanted her to go to. She was glad she didn’t need to worry about drawing attention, as she could already tell she was being followed by the sounds of the quickening thumps that grew louder every second. She didn’t even need to look behind to see that it was catching up to her as well.
It didn’t take long before she arrived at where the marked location was, but the arrival could have been a lot better than tripping on a section of raised road, slamming her stomach against the road, sliding along the surface and giving off sparks where tarmac met metal and slid to a stop.
Just as she rolled onto her back, she felt a massive hand pin her down against the road. The bridge between its digits pressed against her neck which the plate between them didn’t help with and made her struggle to breath. She was glad the armour was reinforced, but that did nothing to save the boned in her wings from cracking under the weight of her suit, her body, and the giant lizards appendage.
Its plated face moved down to hers and she could feel the breath of it being blown against her, it was way too warm for comfort, and that only made her uneasy. “I am getting tired of your little games, Neon.” It said as it pressed against her more, bringing a gasp from her mouth as the boned in her wings splintered and tears formed in her eyes. Health warnings began to appear in her sight, telling her what she already knew.
“As much as I would like to let the Shadow Lord end your pathetic little journey, I will have to do his job for him and finish you off myself.” It pressed against her harder, causing her to scream in pain.
She then bit her bottom lip to stop the screaming, but that only caused a new wound as blood began to drip from the bite. She gripped its hand with hers and tried to push it up to give her some breathing room. The artificial strength was enough to lift the massive hand up a little, but more warnings kept on appearing in her view, this time referring to the extra load on the joints. “Why.... do this?” she strained out. The beast on top of her halted its abuse which came as a surprise to her.
“Why do I do this?” It asks. “Because I was ordered to do it.” The tone was off in the response.
She knew all too well that there was something behind all of this. “Because you were... ordered to do it, or because you were forced to do it?” She found it hard to speak, it pained her to breath, and she was sure she could feel that one of her ribs were broken.
The beast didn’t move, didn’t say anything, but it did twitch at her question.
She continued on. “You don’t need to do this.”
“I do!” It shouted back at her. “I must to this in order to get him off my back.”
“Get him off your back?”
The beast pressed hard against her again, causing her to whimper under the pressure. “He gave me promise to release my family once you were taken care of. He wanted it done his way, but never said I couldn’t do it any other way. Killing you now will only just allow my family to be released from slavery sooner than later.”
“He’s... holding your family hostage?” she asked, but was not given a chance to say anymore.
“Enough talk, I will end your life, return to the Shadow Lord, and have my family released.” The beast then gave off a low growl before looking to its left. She looked over and saw a rolling piece of rubble coming from one of the buildings.
The attacker let go of her and she took deep breaths, she was already feeling better now that she could breathe deeply, but that only caused spikes of pain to come from her lungs. Yay, stretching lungs hurt.
“So this is where you have been hiding, you pathetic hairless abomination.” The monster growled as it spotted a laser pointing down at it from one of the windows on the second floor. Lyrin let out a gasp as the monster stood up on its back legs and slammed a fist through the window. “Got ya!”
“CHRIS, NO!” She yelled out. She was sure he was in the path of that fist, until a red dot appeared on the exposed part of the beast.
“THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TAKE THE EUCALYPTUS FROM A KOALA YA OVERSIZED GOANNA!” was all she heard from the building opposite to where she looked, followed by a bang from the building behind her and an explosion erupting from the weak spot. Chunks of smoking meat and blood splattered around her and the beast fell back from the building, landing in a bloody twitching heap.
After staring at the gore near her, she turned her head to the other side only to see Chris land in front of her, carrying the Rifle Dronin had and a smoking ‘explosive’ shell popping from the sniper rifles chamber. “So... What do we say?” He asked with a cocky grin.
“Uh... Thank you?” she asked, a little unsure.
“For?” he asked back.
“Uh... shooting that things neck?”
He shook his head.
“For helping me?”
He nodded. “And?”
“Uh... I’m sorry?”
He knelt down to her. “For?”
“Missing your birthday?”
He shook his head. “That’s not for another few months, try again.”
She winced as she tried to sit up, the broken bones in her wings shifting a little due to the movement. He noticed the pain on her face and looked at her wings. Noticing they were in bad shape, he reached into his back and pulled out a First Aid pack. “Keep guessing while I try to straighten these.”
She nodded and winced some more as he shifted the wings into the proper position and tied them to a splint, she was glad there were no wounds opened up. “For... not buying you dinner the other night?”
“Try again.”
“Eating the rest of the Christmas pudding?”
“So that’s where it went. And here I thought Dronin finished it off.” He stared at her as she smiled sheepishly again. “Still, no. Try again.”
“For- OW!” She yelped.
“Sorry! Sorry! Almost done!” He said quickly.
She waited till he was done before trying another guess. Once he was done, he moved back next to her and looked at her. “Any more guesses?”
She nods, she was sure this was the right one. “I’m sorry for telling you to stay back and thinking you wouldn’t be that helpful.”
He nods a few times as she answers before smiling. “Anything else you’d like to add?”
She nods and leans over, pulling him into a hug. “Yes, for now on I promise not to ask you to sit on the side while I do the work. It was stupid of me to think I would have been strong enough to go against him, but-”
“But,” He quickly cut her off. “You jumped the gun and didn’t take into consideration that you weren’t fully ready. You also forgot that your armour wasn’t complete as well.” He gave her a smile as they both knew he was right, but one thing began to bug her.
She loosened her grip on him and moved away a little, looking at him questionably. “How did you know it wasn’t finished? I never told you.”
“You’ve been broadcasting your voice for the last two hours over our private channel. I heard everything. And I mean...” He grinned at her which sent a heavy chill down her spine. “Everything.”
During the first hour of the fight, Lyrin had broken into a chatting spree with herself about what she would do after the fighting was over. She was positive that she would live a full lifetime for once compared the many she has lived previously. The ‘conversation’ ranged from traveling to learning more about her current home planet to foods prepared by the many cultures to spending time with Chris as more than just Partners of a war. Somewhere in the last topic, she had begun to talk to herself about what she would do with him and maybe experience what love was like once again, along with many other unmentionables. But during that little talk session, she couldn’t help but feel something was off. Now she knows why.
“Oh... Hah... Ha hah... Yeah... Um...” Lyrin was at a complete loss for words as the embarrassment was too much for her mind to come up with a straight answer.
He just smiled and hugged her tightly. “Not that I have a problem with it.”
The gesture and his words were able to calm her down, but then a question popped up in her head. “Why are you so accepting of this?”
Usually Chris would figure out the reason for a question, but for the first time for a number of years, he didn’t quite understand the question. “What do you mean?”
She looked at him for what seemed like a long time to her before speaking. “Humans don’t go for anything other than another human when it comes to relationships, right?”
Now he was beginning to catch on. “Yeah.”
“So...” She wasn’t sure whether it was right to ask the question now plaguing her mind. Chris knew she wasn’t done and just waited. Every time she looked at him with an unsure expression, he’d just smile, silently telling her to ask away when she was ready. And she did.
“Are you okay with liking someone who is possibly a completely different species to you?” She did try to hide it, but she couldn’t help but sound worried.
He didn’t say anything after she asked the question, which was beginning to worry her even more. Eventually, the worry turned into heartache the longer he was silent until it was just too much for her to handle. She slid herself out of his arms and stood up, almost falling over and realising she needed to get used to having hooves again now that she no longer had feet. “I’m sorry.” was all she said as she straightened herself up.
Just before moving away, he finally spoke. “In all honesty...” She just stood there, bracing herself for that one line that would shatter her. But it never came. “I think I can live with it.”
His response was a shock to her. She quickly turned around and had to look up at him as he was now standing in front of her. She had no time to curse herself for still being short as she blurted out “What?”
He chuckled lightly and took her into his arms again. “If I was someone else, I would probably shun you away, sure. But I’m not someone else, am I?”
She didn’t even need to move back to look at his face, the feeling in his voice was enough. He was happy. “There is a saying here on earth, not sure if you have heard it yet. It goes a little something like ‘It’s not what’s outside that matters. It’s what’s inside that counts’. I’m a very open minded person, so that is something I can follow.”
She didn’t move, she couldn’t move, she felt numb, but she was smiling slightly as he kept going. “A lot of people go for their own race in this world. Whites for Whites, Blacks for Blacks, Abbos for Abbos, and so on. Others go for the opposite race and not their own. But when you have those like me...” He released her and lightly lifted a finger against her chin, raising her head up, causing her to look at him. “I’ll happily take what I get. I don’t care what you look like now. Because you are still you on the inside, no matter your form.”
Tears welled in her eyes once again, happy tears, as she hugged him tightly. “I’m glad.” She whispered. Her wings twitched a little as he returned the hug and she could hear her feathers rustle lightly. She wanted to use them as a second pair of arms, but the current damage to them stopped that thought from becoming reality.
After a while, he let go of her and she did the same. If there were any onlookers, they would see how obvious it was the two were happy with each other. Some gunshots in the distance pulled them back from their little moment and things they still needed to two began to fill their heads.
“I’ll go get our stuff, I hid it in the building behind me after I set the trap.” Lyrin nodded and turned after wiping her eyes dry. “I’ll go...” ‘Dammit...’ she cursed herself as she remembered what happened with their third. “Get Dronins body.”
“There’s no need.” He quickly spoke up, causing her to turn around. “I gave him a quick burial after you went off playing ‘hero’ against that thing over there.” He thumbed back to the beast with the blown out neck. Looking at it, she could have sworn she saw it twitch, but he let the thought go as another one crossed her mind.
Just before he entered the building, he turned as Lyrin called out his name. ‘Why is she smiling like that?’ he thought to himself. That question was answered right after. “’Take the eucalyptus from a koala’? What is that supposed to mean?”
She hoped to get a better reaction from him, but he just simply shrugged. “Spur of the moment. And I’m sure you know what does happen when a Koala runs out of eucalyptus, right? Well think of me as the Koala and you as the eucalyptus.”
“... Oh.” was all she said.
He nodded and smiled. He then pointed over at the plate she tore off earlier which was not leaning against the wall. “Think you might be interested in looking at that.” He turned back and walked into the building to get their things.
Lyrin walked over to the plate and lifted it up. “It just looks like an ordinary piece of metal.”
“I am unable to determine what type of metal it is. The plate is too light to match anything recorded to this day.” Blaze spoke up out of nowhere. “And yet, it was able to withstand one of my punches.” She said to herself. As she turned the plate over, she noticed some sort of strange substance on the back of the plate, still dripping from the plate.
“So.” Chris said as he walked out with their stuff. “Anything interesting about that thing?” He motioned to the plate as he moved up next to her.
“There is...” she said softly. “I’ve... seen this before, but I can’t quite get my head around what it is...” She grabbed hold of something sticking out of what she was looking at and tore it off the plate. It was hard, it shined on one side, and it made her feel uneasy.
Then, it hit her. “Oh shi-.” A rumble sounded behind them and they quickly turned to see the beast was still alive despite the amount of blood lost. Stood up on all fours and turned to them. A dark fog seeped from the wound and part of the faceplate was blown off, showing part of a scaly face. The eye of the beast was black, the scales were a greyish-red, and the fangs on it were huge. Then the mask shattered and leathery wings burst out of the back of the beast and stretched out wide.
“Dragon...” She said softly as realisation hit her. Her eyes widened and her breath quickened greatly as she screamed out “Dragon! Run!” The Dragon inhaled and they both caught a glimpse of a glow within the dragons throat before bolting away from it.
It raised its head and let out a roar as fire erupted from the beast, engulfing them both in flames. The suit gave off warnings, flesh felt the hot licks of flame hitting it and fur was being burnt. Yells of pain sounded from them both as they took hold of each other. Lyrin was just able to open her eyes long enough to see Chris one last time in her arms as her vision began to fade.
They both stopped screaming as the pain as it hurt to scream and held each other for the last seconds of their life. The feeling of being hold, the crackling fire around them, the bright blaze, the bellowing roar, fading to black.
“I’m sorry...” A pained whisper echoed.
A blue Pegasus wakes from her sleep to the sound of beeps from an unfamiliar device with a sharp inhale of breath, she felt exhausted, sore, slightly damp and a little fearful as she could hear her heart racing. It takes her a few minutes of deep breaths before she is able to calm herself down a bit while the dream she had awoken from flashed in her mind. It felt so real as if it had actually happened, but a nagging feeling inside her told her otherwise.
She laid on what felt like a soft surface after the numbness in her body disappeared, thinking over the dream before she was calm enough to try sit up. That task alone was a challenge as she felt like she had no control of her body. It was alien and unfamiliar but she could feel things pressing against her back, which indicated that it was indeed hers.
She made attempts to move, and most of her bodies reactions were twitches, but those twitches alone was able to give her little aid in pinpointing her muscle groups. The first thing she wanted to do was to look at what was around her. This gave her the motivation to twitch her muscles more untill one of them felt like the right one.
Her attempts weren't in vain as she found the right muscle needed which made her head turn to the right a little, and it never mattered which way it turned, so long as her head and view were different to what she had before. The first thing that greeted her sight were white walls and a window with many colors within it. The view she saw was calming, she didn't want to look away from it, but the constant beeping caught her curiosity.
Her ears swivelled around to locate the source of the sound that peaked her curiosty, and it didn't take her long to find the source. With some effort, she was able to turn her head to the opposite side and stared at what she saw: White boxes with moving zig-zags in the center of a darker shape on the front of the box. Where the green line went from straight to the zig-zag, a beep sounded. There were some bags filled with clear liquids hanging on a pole, with hoses leading from the bottom of them to something out of view but she couldn't be bothered to follow those hoses.
They were strange things to her but she soon lost interest with them and turned her had back to her right. It had turned more than previously and her sight was filled with more objects, each one was something she didn't recognise and did nothing but stay where they were. However, her focused moved back to the window, the color of what was on the other side drawing her attention.
She felt her ears swivel around and soon stopped in what she imagined was the same direction as where she looked. He could hear a range of sounds coming from the opposite side, and she wanted to go and find out the source, but the lack of movement with her body was preventing her from doing anything.
Any motivation she was able to bring up to move was quickly lost as the sounds were too soothing, causing her to just lay where she did.
"It seems you're awake now." a soft voice sounded near her. She twitched a little from the surprise and turned her head back to her left. Instead of just those strange objects in her sight, she saw a light grey furred being standing on four legs wearing some sort of cloth over her body and atop her head with a red symbol at the front of it resting against its light pinkish mane with a hint of grey in it.
‘Mare...’ a distant voice said in her mind.
"My name is Nurse Redheart and i'm here to see if you are feeling alright. I do hope you slept alright, miss?" the mare asked as she released the clip board and pen from her mouth, resting the items on the floor.
‘Earth Pony...’ she heard again in her mind.
The Pegasus just stared at her for a moment, the words the Nurse spoke echoed through her mind as it processed what Redheart said within the few seconds she was silent before shaking her head.
The nurse frowned at the silent answer. "I'm sorry, miss."
The Pegasus grew a confused look on her face at the apology.
"There is only so much we can go while you're wearing that... what ever it is on your body." the nurse motioned to her, or more specifically, what she was wearing over her body.
The Pegasus blinked a few times before trying to look down at her body, but she wasn’t able to lift her head due to the lack of energy she had at the very moment. The nurse notices the struggle and moves over to the bed, pressing one of her hoofs against a button on the floor which caused the bed that the patient was laying on to lift her top half.
She froze as she could feel the bed moving and got a nervous feeling creeping into her, but that faded as she was soon sitting up and able to look over herself. The first thing she noticed was the armour that covered her top half and her forelegs which were tucked against her chest.
Plates of metal were somehow connected to one another over her chest and looked like they allowed some movement and flex, but she only guessed that. She then looked at the metal casing over her forelegs, she noticed that just like on her chest, the metal had been split into four parts, the metal from her shoulder ran down the top section of her foreleg, then a smaller plate over her joint, and then more metal covering her forelegs, and finally ending with a small... ‘Shoe’ at the tip. She tried moving her forelegs as she found the right muscle groups, but for some reason, they didn’t move like she wanted them to. Or at least, couldn’t see them move.
Staring at her forelegs, she noticed that right in the middle of the second set of metal plates were two disks that looked like they wrapped all the way around her legs. Between them was a faint glow which seemed to be pulsing.
Shifting her sight away from the glow, she notices that the bottom half of her was covered by a thin sheet of cloth and prevented her from seeing the rest of herself. No matter how hard she thought about moving that away, she just couldn’t get her forelegs to move. Tilting her head down a little more, she could notice blue fur on her neck, and crossing her eyes, she saw that her muzzle was the same colour as the fur, which made her assume that was her colour. Looking to her sides, she noticed two extra, feathered limbs extending and outstretched from her back. Wings...
“Now, I will need you to answer a few questions for me, then I will go and get the doctor to give you a check-up. Can you do that for me?” asked the Nurse, causing the patient to look at her. After a quick moment of silence, she nods in response, seeing a smile grow on the nurses’ lips.
“And do not worry, they won’t be anything difficult to answer.” She reassured the Pegasus before picking up the pen with her mouth. “First question. What is your name?” she asked expertly through her teeth.
The blue Pegasus looked down at herself for a moment, the expression of deep thought showing in her features. The Pegasus however, didn’t know the answer. She remained silent for a little longer, still trying to remember who she was, but nothing came to her mind. She looked at the nurse and shook her head.
“You...” Redheart blinked. “You don’t know your name? Don’t remember it?” Her response was a shake of the head. After a quick note written on the clipboard, Redheart asked the next question. “Okay. What about your Date of Birth, do you remember that?”
She frowned as her patient did the same thing: Pause for a moment, deep in thought, then look back up to her and shake her head.
After taking another quick note, she looked down to the clipboard. “I see... I think I already know what your answer for this next one will be, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.”
A very faint hum began to sound through the room. The Pegasus could just pick up on the sound before the next question was asked.
“Do you know where you are?” Redheart asked as she looked back up. She began to feel a little hopeful as her patient began to look around the hospital room they were in, then glances out of the window for a moment before looking back to her with the same response as the other questions.
That hope was lost and she couldn’t help but let out a heavy sigh. “Can you at least talk?” She never really saw any responses as she was looking at her clipboard in a disappointed manner. However, her ear twitched as she heard a soft voice in the same room as her.
Looking up, she notices the Pegasus concentrated on moving her mouth slightly, as if trying to form words. A few times, she swore she heard a voice come from the Pegasus as they continued to mouth something. The next thing that happened wasn’t something she expected from the Pegasus.
A very soft and quiet voice, barely auditable to the nurse as it almost sounded like a whisper, came from her mouth. “I... think so.” The Pegasus blinked a few times and a smile formed on her lips before nodding at Redheart. “I can.” Her speech was slow, but too not slow to be a problem.
Redheart smiled. “That’s good, I was afraid you would be somepony that could talk, but in a different language. But hearing you talking none the less is better than not at all.” She released her pen and picked up the clipboard. The Pegasus noticed that the pen and board were tied to each other by a thin string as the nurse picked up the latter of the two.
“I will go and let the doctor know you are awake and he will be with you very shortly.” And with that said, she turns to the door and noisily makes her way out of the room. As she left the room, the Pegasus notices that Redheart had some sort of picture on her rear... Flank which looked like the same thing she saw on the Nurses... hat?
The Pegasus stares at the empty doorway for a moment before turning her head back to the window, thoughts of the questions she was asked flowed through her mind. “Why can’t I remember who I am?” she questioned herself quietly as her smile faded.
Her mind began to go over the dream she had woken up from. The two smaller creatures, one with fur and the other without, fighting against that large monster. Why she remembers only seeing the Blue-furred ones side of the fight she had no idea. Then there was that explosion, the detail of that blast, and what damage it had caused, was almost too real.
Then there was the part where the monster grew large wings on its back and a mouth opening up in front of the two. The fire being breathed on them both was all too vivid to her, then came the screaming, the sounds of them burning, the roar of the monster, and even the feeling of what they would have experience striking her mind and her nerves. She felt her breaths shorten and her inhales rapid as her heart began to race again. She was scared and confused as to why the images were making her feel this way.
She closed her eyes shut tightly and tried to push away the thoughts, she didn’t want to feel the way she did anymore. Finally, after trying to calm herself again for a number of minutes, she was able to relax as her breathing returned to normal. “Why do I feel this way?” She mumbled to herself.
“That’s a very good question to ask, but I’m afraid none of us can answer it.” Came a voice from the door. The Pegasus turns to look at the door to find another one of the four-legged beings standing by it, wearing only the white coat over their body. They had Brown fur and their hai- mane were same colour as their fur but a darker shade. It felt strange as she finally noticed her thoughts were being corrected. Her mind quickly went over how many times she had been mentally corrected but was interrupted by that distant voice once again.
‘Stallion... Unicorn... Magic...’
“Is it something you’d like to talk about miss? Is there something on your mind?” the stallion asked. But before she could say yes, her mouth reacted on its own. “No. It’s fine.”
‘What? That wasn’t what I wanted to say.’ She thought to herself.
“I see. Well then I should probably introduce myself. I am Doctor Heath.” He then smiled. “Ironic isn’t it?” He asked. In return, he got a confused look from her as she didn’t quite understand what the doctor meant. “My name is Healthy Ways, and I’m one of the doctors at this fine Hospital. If you think about it, it’s like my family knew my special talent would be in the Medical Field before I even discovered it or before I even entered school, am I correct?”
She didn’t know what to say, so instead she just nodded.
“Good. Now, I understand that you don’t know who you are, when you were born, where you are, as well as many other things along the lines of Identification. Am I mistaken?” The Pegasus almost nodded until she caught that last bit of his sentence. She shook her head.
“I see. That is a little bit of a disappointment. But I suppose not much can be done about it. One thing I know I can do, is to try and clear up a few things with you through some questions that you may have...” He moved closer to her and sat down on his haunches. “Do you have any questions?”
She asked the first thing that came to mind. “Aren’t you supposed to be ‘checking me up’ or something?”
The question wasn’t something Dr Health expected. He blinked a few times, just trying to register what was just asked before he gave out a hearty chuckle. “My dear filly, I wasn’t expecting anything like that to be asked. But, a question is a question. Yes, I should be doing exactly that, but I have been monitoring your health ever since you were brought here and assigned to this room. I am quite happy with how you have turned out.” He paused for a moment before adding “Well, not including your lack of knowledge of who you are. But still! Better this way instead of finding out that we couldn’t save you from a serious injury or the like.”
She nodded, then asked the next thing that came to her mind. “Where am i?” There was a more noticeable hum echoing in the room and she felt her forelegs twitch for some reason, but ignored it. The Doc however, noticed something and looked in the direction of her forelegs and then back to her. “Ponyville, a small town in Equestria, but to be more specific, you’re in the Ponyville Hospital.”
She sits there for a moment before nodding, taking the information into her mind and memorising it.
“Next question?” he asks.
She looks around the room for a moment before returning her gaze. “How did I get here?”
The Doctor began to fidget a little which she found strange. “Oh... um... Well... When a father and a mother have strong feelings for each other, they tend to...”
The Pegasus’ body grew stiff and felt her cheeks warm up, her back began to feel very uncomfortable. “No!” she squeaked immediately. “I didn’t mean that!”
“She meant how did she get into the hospital, Doctor.” A strange voice sounded in the room, causing both of its occupants to look around for the source. “Who said that?” Dr. Health asked.
“Do you see the armour covering your patient, Doctor?” The voice asked. Both looked at the ‘armour’. “That’s what this voice belongs to.”
The Pegasus was speechless, and the Doctor was shocked.
“I must apologise for the confusion I am creating, but I do urge you to treat this as just another day and answer the Masters questions.” The armour said. “I must also ask you to return the device you have been using to read the instructions I have given you when looking after the Master to her ear. She will need it.”
“Master?” was all the Pegasus said under a breath while the Doctor stuttered. “O-oh, right. S-Sorry.” His horn flared up and a small device floated out of his pocket to her head. He slipped it over her right ear and tapped the side of it, causing the device to give off a beep into her ear.
Suddenly, her vision was obstructed by a blue screen giving off a blue glow and many different boxes and text that she had no clue and couldn’t understand that came with the screen. Just as quickly as they came, they were cleared away, allowing her to see again, but some of the text she saw around the sides of her visions remained. One box appeared in sight for just a second before disappearing again, followed by the screen shutting off, returning her vision to normal.
The armour thanked him and got a smile in response. She waited for the Doctor to answer her question but it never came until she said something. “Uh... my question?”
“Oh. Right. Yes. How did you get here...” He paused for a second. “Well, seeing your reaction, you know one answer.” ‘Thank Celestia I don’t have to explain that.’ He quietly whispered to himself. “So I’ll happily tell you the other answer.”
“A few nights ago, something fell from the night sky. Now I’m not sure what it was as no details were released about it, but apparently, an object from beyond our skies crashed in the middle of the Everfree Forest. Do you know about the Forrest?”
She shook her head.
“The Everfree Forest is one of the more dangerous places you can find here in Equestria. It’s unpredictable, unmanageable, and unliveable unless you want a death wish... Basically, it brings a new meaning to the word ‘Wild’.” He couldn’t help but shudder a little.
“Anyway” he continued. “I’m not exactly sure what happened over there, but when you arrived along with at least six exhausted guards, they had said you were required to be moved into the emergency room immediately, which was something we could not do since your weight was too much for our equipment to hold up.”
Why did she suddenly feel like lunging at this stallion and hurting him for what he said?
“So instead, we got some of the guards to get some reinforced supports for one of our beds while the rest of us checked up on your condition. We were able to thankfully say you had not obtained any physical injuries, and the worst we could discover was how burnt your fur and feathers were. You were still smoking when they brought you in, might I add.”
He then nodded at something underneath her. “I’m sure you can fill the rest out on your own. We’ve cleaned you up and got rid of most of the burnt fur from your coat, save for a few patches that couldn’t be washed off completely, removed some of the damaged feathers, and made sure you were given food for your recovery. Surprisingly,” He smiled. “Your armour, and how amazing it is I must add, was able to help us look after you and came though unscathed. It was slightly darkened as well which I assume was from whatever set you alight, but a little spit and polish cleaned it right up. Well... water and polish, but you get the idea.”
She only nodded, thinking over what she was just told. Then he adds a little more. “Best I can think of is you came with whatever crashed into the forest the other night. But if you need more information on that, I would suggest asking one of the guards in town, or the mare that found you when she arrives later today.”
“Later... today?” She asked curiously.
“Later today.” He repeated. “We were asked to send for her as soon as you woke up. Why such a thing was requested, Celestia only knows, but how are we supposed to turn down a request from a celebrity without gaining a bad reputation from the media?” He asked. She wasn’t sure whether that was a rhetorical question or a serious one, but at least she could answer in a way that was acceptable for both. A simple shrug.
“Was there anything else you’d like to ask?”
“Just one more thing.” With a bit of a pause, she looked down at herself. “What... am I?”
This was clearly another question he didn't expect to be asked, but he still answered it. “You know, usually I’d call this a concern and send you to one of the larger hospitals, preferably the Canterlot Hub. But, since you are a special patient to us, and have somepony famous coming to see you, I'll let it slide.”
Taking a deep breath, he looked into her eyes as she looked at him. “You are a Pony, one of the major species to trot on this world. That’s the general knowledge though, what you are in terms of race is a Pegasus, Pegasi if you wish to refer to more than one of the race.”
She canted her head to the side, edging him to explain.
“In Equestria, there are three races of ponies: Unicorns like myself, Pegasi who can fly through the air, and Earth ponies who cannot use magic like Unicorns or fly like the Pegasi. The nurse you saw earlier is an Earth Pony, so you've seen firsthoof what they are.” He stood up on all fours and moved over to the window on the opposite side of the room.
“Each of the three races have their own roles to play in day to day life. The earth ponies, lacking what the other two have, make up those disadvantages with Physical labour, strength and endurance. Now I am not saying their role is forced upon them because of their lacking wings or horns, but because their bodies are more built and toned for tasks that ponies like myself and you cannot physically manage. They are also looked up to by the other races for their natural skills for Construction, Agriculture, Engineering, Blacksmithing, and many other fields of work that many of us cannot easily fill.”
“Now, you would think all is fine and dandy with the knowledge of them doing all of the hard stuff, but they can only do so much and go so far. This is where Unicorns come in.” He raises an upturned lim-Hoof. There’s that mental correction again.
“Unicorns use their magic for a wide range of tasks such as Tailoring, Research, Science, jobs that require a delicate ‘touch’, and my favourite one: Medical. And I mustn't forget to mention this, but there have been some occasions where the odd unicorn or two give aid to the Earth ponies with their jobs. So this is to say that Unicorns are not exactly ‘required’ to work where many others do. This works for Earth ponies as well.”
“Then, there are the Pegasi.” He sits on his haunches and straightens up, raising his other hoof. “They generally have only one main role here in Equestria: Weather Control. But like the Unicorns, they can choose to work in other jobs as well.”
He couldn’t help but snicker a little unprofessionally as her expression changed to utter confusion. It’s very rare to come across a pony who showed this much disbelief. “The reason why the main job of a Pegasus is weather control, is because Equestrias weather can be both the boon of the lands, but also the bane of it. For some reason, without the aid of Pegasi, the land cannot grow under the lack or excess amounts of Water. And if it isn’t the Water, then the sun’s rays that if left exposed for too long, can cook the greenery you see outside this window. We don’t complain though, as their aid keeps us all going from one day to the next.”
The doctor lowers his hoofs to the ground and stands up on all fours, walking over to the Pegasus. “Did my little lecture answer your question, miss?”
“It did a little bit. Thank you.” She smiled.
“Glad to hear it! If you would like to know more about the three races, I could suggest seeing a play that will be hosted up in Canterlot on Hearth’s Warming Eve, or even reading a book about them from the local Library, you will learn a lot more from those. Now, anything else you’d like to ask me?” He never felt this excited to answer more questions in his life. Sadly, his excitement was shot down as she shook her head, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been with that thankful smile of hers directed at him. “No, I think I have asked enough questions. As much as how enjoyable it is learning this, don’t you have other... ponies to look after?”
He blinked as it dawned on him that he had more patients to visit. “Right, yes. Thank you for reminding me. I must get moving then.”
Before exiting the room, he stopped mid step and turned his head to her. “Oh right, if you require any assistance, just press that blue button on the table to your right and one of our nurses will come see to you. And if you decide to stay for the rest of the day, lunch will be in a few hours and dinner at sundown.” And with that, he turned back to the door and walked out. The mention of a button got her curious and he looked to her right as instructed.
There it was, the button he just mentioned... Why did it seem like it was sparkling?
“I wouldn’t if I were you, Master.” The armour interrupted her thoughts and she looked down at it. “Wouldn’t what?” she asked innocently, but that innocence was never bought. “Don’t push the button. He said to push it for assistance.”
She turned her head to the side. “I wasn’t going to push it.” She retorted.
“There is no fooling me. I can see what is going through your mind by observing your actions and comparing them to previous situations, so lying to me won’t work.”
She remained silent for a moment, looking outside the window. “Even if I was thinking it, I wouldn’t be able to do so. I can’t move my legs.”
“Sorry, that would be my doing. One second.” was all the armour had said. After waiting a few seconds, the joints of the armour over her forelegs gave off a hiss and a loud click which then followed up with her forelegs falling to her sides limply. “There, you should be able to move them now. I had to lock them up and disable the joints due to you thrashing about during one of your check-ups.”
The armour was right, she was able to move them now, but there was some resistance against the movements. After a while, she began to find it entertaining to move her front limbs around, learning about her body and what it could do while laying on top of the makeshift heavy-duty bed and kept herself occupied for quite some time.