What should you say?
Royalty has just greeted you, so you should definitely say something. Anything! But that’s much easier said than done, as you are absolutely terrified.
How can you not be?
This massive room is full of guards who look like they want to hurt you. And why? You didn’t do anything to them. You don’t even know them! Why are they still glaring at you?!
Shining, who you have only known for about an hour and a half, and is the only being in this city that you may be able to call a ‘friend,’ has swiftly abandoned you. He is no where to be seen.
Not that you are specifically looking for him right now. You’re not even trying to.
When you were younger and saw a horror movie at night, or anything that frightened you, it was much harder to fall asleep that night. There was this feeling you got when you were so scared you couldn’t even move. So you just stayed in place, looking around your dark room with only your eyes, terrified.
You would say a similar feeling has settled upon you.
You’re too afraid to look behind you and see if Shining is still around, and you’re too afraid to look directly left or right.
So you settle for just looking at the Princess, who is raised high above where you are seated.
She is looking softly down at you, which is kind of relaxing, but still pretty scary. What does she want with you?! No one even told you why you are here!
Twilight just told you that she wanted to meet you. For what? Why would the ruler of the country want to meet you? And why did it have to be today? Couldn’t a simple meeting wait until you weren’t injured and exhausted?
You guess this isn’t a simple meeting, then, if it is so urgent. But then what the hell do they want with you?
You hear a male voice loudly and impatiently clear his throat.
You hesitantly glance down for just a second at the grey unicorn guards, who are still glaring at you.
‘It’s like they get paid to stand there and look at people in the most disgruntled way physically possible,’ you observe.
And you’re probably right when you say that too. You wouldn’t doubt it. Since you first saw the guards in the hospital a couple hours ago, they’ve looked incredibly pissed.
These aren’t the same guards as earlier, of course, which leads you to conclude that these guys get paid to look angry and stand there.
Doesn’t sound like a terrible job.
And they all look the same.
You’re not racist, but every guard you have seen looks exactly the same as the next one. For all you know, this country only has 4 royal guards, and they are just constantly moving around when you’re not paying attention to give the illusion that there are more.
You look back up at Princess Celestia, who is just standing there, smiling.
The guard clears his throat once more.
‘What the hell do you want?’ you wonder. ‘Go get a drink of water if your throat is bothering you that much.’
Looking down, you realize that the guards look pissed. Which is no different from how they usually are, it seems, but it makes you feel like you have done something wrong.
Oh shit. Yep. You’re not just doing something wrong, you’re doing everything wrong! This is not how you greet royalty!
Not only are you poorly dressed for the occasion, but you have done nothing but stare and not speak!
What should I do?! What should I DO?!
You’re not sure! Twilight was going to tell you proper etiquette this morning, but that clearly did not happen. Shit! If only she had!
You have no idea what to do. There are about a million things that could go wrong in the next 20 seconds, and only a dozen or so things that could go right. You’re too afraid to move.
‘What should I do?!... Uhm… Wait, what does everyone do when they meet royalty? Bow! Bow you fool!’
You want to listen to your thoughts, but that is easier said than done, as there is one small problem when it comes to movement.
You are in a chair. And you have a large amount of injuries all over your body, especially your back, which is in a considerable amount of pain.
‘If you don’t want to die, than bow, you moron!’
You decide to give it a go, anyway, and hesitantly bow. However, ‘bow’ is used rather loosely, as you basically just lean forward slightly in the wheelchair. You lean far forward enough to show respect, but not too far as to fall out.
You should probably stand up. That would be much more proper and respectful.
Can you stand up?
‘If you don’t want to have your fingers or tongue cut off, then you will!’
Which would you prefer? Your fingers or your tongue?
Important questions.
You don’t know. You enjoy having the ability to speak, and life without a tongue would feel incredibly strange. However, you also like having the ability to touch and move things.
This is tough.
It’s time to get up. You place both hands on the armrests on either side of you and begin to push.
Your arms are sore and your legs are killing you, but it will be over soon. The sooner you get up, the sooner you can get back down.
“Wait,” a gentle, authoritative voice commands, stopping you. You look up at the source of the voice, which would be the only female in the room. “You do not have to stand, traveller. You are injured.”
You would smile if you weren’t so scared, so you just sit back down, allowing your muscles to rest once more.
“But I appreciate the sentiment,” she adds after a moment.
Hearing her say that makes you happy, or ‘happier,’ you suppose. There is no way you will ever feel comfortable in this room, ever.
They could keep you in here with all of these guards for the rest of your life and you would still hate it. You guarantee it.
Questions as to why you are even here begin flooding into your mind.
Sure, you’re not from around here, and that’s pretty crazy, but this is the equivalent of meeting the President of the United States with angry looking Marines all around him. Not exactly the best of welcomes.
Do they want something from you? ‘Cause you don’t know shit.
You don’t know how you got here, why multi-colored miniature horses are talking, or… anything! You don’t know anything that they could possibly find as useful information! You’re probably more clueless than they are.
You glance back at the guards for the thousandth time since you’ve gotten here. Which was about 45 seconds ago. What the hell do they want from you?!
“May I ask you your name?” the giant white horse asks, making your heart leap in your chest out of surprise.
Your throat is incredibly dry all of a sudden. Should you ask for water? Would someone get you a drink if you asked nicely?
Why is it so warm in here? Have you been sweating this entire time?
You choke out your name as though this was the first time you have ever said the word. You clear your throat and say your name again, being sure to end your sentence with a respectful, “Your Highness.”
“Where are you from?” she asks, repeating your name.
Are you supposed to look directly at the Princess when she is speaking, or keep your eyes on the ground?
You don’t know.
Should you look at the guards again?
Probably not. Those bastards probably look as angry as ever, and looking back at them will do nothing for your nerves.
You look up at the Princess, who is looking back at you, one of her eyes being concealed by her multi-colored, moving hair. You look at the ground in front of you, noticing how shiny the floor is. It’s spotless! You can see the roof in the floor!
There is even a waterfall on the side of the throne! How cool is that?!
It feels as though every eye in the world is being directed at you, and you feel incredibly vulnerable.
You don’t even know why those guards are scaring you so bad. Shining is in charge of them, and he’s one of your only friends!
Remembering that Celestia asked a question quite some time ago, you attempt to process a proper response…
Before you are interrupted.
“Would you like to take a tour?” a female voice asks. You look up and see the Princess walking down her throne and towards you.
You glance at the floor before looking back up at her again, feeling incredibly nervous with the close proximity of the ruler of this magical land.
She smiles at you. “It was rude of me to bring you in here so suddenly without showing you around or offering you anything.” She stops when she is right in front of you, and she looks a lot bigger up close than she did on the throne. She leans in so her head is closer to yours, and you can see her purple eyes very well from this point. “There is no need to be nervous,” she whispers, saying your name. “My guards will not even think of touching you.”
This is the first time you have smiled since you began talking with the Princess. She seems pretty nice. And it especially calms you knowing that her guards aren’t gonna do anything to you.
Usually when you first meet someone, you smile out of politeness and laugh at a couple bad jokes or whatever. Common ice-breaker stuff.
But this is hardly an ordinary meeting. This is the ruler of a country, who happens to be a talking, magical, flying horse.
What the hell could possibly be ordinary about that?
So instead of awkwardness setting in, you felt fear. A lot of it.
Now that the white winged horse is next you, you realize just how big she actually is. She towers over you, and everyone else in the room, for that matter. Her hair in incredibly long, her horn looks larger than it probably is, and her wings, you imagine, are probably huge when she unfurls them.
‘Stop staring at the Princess you moron!’
“Would you like somepony to push you?” she asks.
You’re confused for a second, but then remember you’re in a wheelchair. It would have been weird if some guy just comes up to you and pushes you over.
“N-No,” you stutter out. “I can do it myself.”
She begins walking to the front of the room where you originally came in, which seems to be a mile away from where you are now. You grab one wheel and push while holding the other in place, spinning yourself around before moving to catch up with the Princess.
Two golden guards quickly move to her sides, startling you slightly with their quickness, and making you nervous once more, but that only lasts for a moment.
“You two may stay here,” Celestia says to the two guards without looking at them. She just keeps her eyes forward.
The guards were clearly not expecting her to say that. They stop walking, glance at each other, then hurry to catch up with their leader.
“Princess,” one of them begins, “that is not a good idea. For your protection, we-”
“I am able to protect myself, should I have to. And to put your mind at ease, I shall stay in the hallways.” Both of the guards stop walking and simply watch you and Celestia get further to the end of the room. “Besides, I believe I can handle myself against an invalid.”
She probably could, but you’re not gonna test it. You’ll just take her word for it. There’s probably a reason she runs this country, but you don’t want to find out why.
All she would have to do really is push you over and the fight is done. That is, if you were going to start a fight with her. Which you are not. You don’t want to fight anybody. Especially not right now.
The both of you exit the throne room.
==========
“Twilight has told me quite a bit about you,” she says as the both of you venture through the halls, every once in a while passing by a guard who is just standing there.
Now that you feel comfortable with looking at Celestia, as she is not looking at you and there is no one looking menacingly towards you, you notice a couple obvious things.
Her height, for one thing. It may just be because you’re sitting down, but even if you weren’t, you bet she is pretty damn tall. Especially taller than any other horse you have seen.
When those two guards ran up to her, they were quite a bit shorter than her, probably by a couple of feet.
She is also large. Her body length goes on for quite a bit, but, she is a horse after all.
However, despite her actually being a horse, she doesn’t really look like one. Not really.
Horses are taller and larger than even her. Not to mention that most horses you know from where you are from cannot speak. And they smell terrible.
Celestia smells like vanilla and whole bunch of other pleasing scents. And her hair is different.
Horses just have regular hair, but hers is a whole bunch of different colors and it’s still moving.
Which is quite surprising. You thought she had a fan next to her, originally, but you don’t see one anymore out in this hallway. Which is pretty freaky, but it looks really cool. You wonder what it feels like.
She has a giant tattoo - er, ‘cutie mark,’ of the sun on her butt (not that you were looking). Those little fillies told you that a cutie mark showed what a pony was meant to do with their life. So what does the sun mean?
It could mean a whole bunch of things. For example, it could mean she is the light of the country, for every citizen to look up to and follow and praise. Or, it could mean that she throws ponies at the sun with her magic. One is much different from the other.
You don’t know her very well at this point, so it would be best to keep all of your assumptions to yourself for the time being.
Celestia also looks incredibly young. Not that you really know what an old horse looks like, but her voice sounds youthful, yet experienced. She seems to walk and move around just fine.
When you look at her, you don’t think ‘old.’ You assume the opposite, really, but you’re not gonna ask her what her age is. That’s not polite.
If your assumption is correct, then she must have come into power fairly recently, what with how young she is.
So basically, she is a horse. That much you can see. But at the same time, she isn’t. She is shaped like a horse, but doesn’t really look like one. You can’t explain it. Does that make sense?
Kinda.
Remembering that she began talking to you quite some time ago, you respond.
“Really?” you ask before clearing your throat. “What did she say, exactly?”
Your body feels warm all over again. If Twilight wrote something and the princess took it the wrong way, she could be marching you to your death. Or a prison. Who knows?
“It’s nothing bad,” she says, chuckling a bit, probably at your nervous look. “Twilight is very scientific. She hardly gives her opinion on letters such as these, so there is no reason to be nervous.”
Well that’s certainly a good thing to hear. If Twilight didn’t tell her anything personal about you, then the Princess has no idea who you are, really. On a personal level, at least. Which means you get a clean slate with her.
Which is awesome. Who knows what the Princess may have assumed if Twilight actually talked about you.
Considering she talked to you for so long, you would have just assumed she wrote something about your personality in the letter. Apparently not.
Twilight is weird. Unpredictable, really, but not in a bad way.
“That’s good,” you respond, pushing on your wheels to propel yourself down the clean hallway. “If she didn’t tell you what she thought of me, then what did she write, Princess?”
“I am assuming she…” she looks around. “Oh, how should I phrase this? I assume she probably… ‘interviewed’ you recently?” She looks down at you.
You smile a bit at the memory. “Yes, Princess.” Her interview was hardly personal, even though the questions were. “‘Scientific’ is a very good way to describe Twilight, if I may say so.”
“She always has been,” Celestia smiles. “She told me things like where you are from and what you eat. Such simple facts do not need to be written in a five-page report, but that is what she prefers.”
God damn. Five pages after asking you a few simple questions. You could hardly write a five page report on anything back in school, but Twilight can after knowing you for a day.
That mare is crazy.
As the both of you venture through the beautiful hallways of the castle, which seems to be bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, you talk. Celestia asks you some questions, and you respond, always politely, and after a while you even gain enough courage to ask her some questions.
You ask her simple stuff, like what being the ruler of a country is like. You have never meant a Princess before, and probably never will ever again, so it’s a legitimate question, despite how bland it may seem.
The princess also seems to have lied to that one guard when she said she will remain in the halls, as the both of you are outside right now.
Not that you care. If the princess wants to walk outside, then so be it. There is a pathway that goes along so you can easily get around. It’s much too nice a day to simply walk the castle halls, Celestia says. You imagine that she will probably get tired of seeing it after a while.
This area of the castle grounds is a little weird. Around you are stone statues of many different creatures. Some of them are ponies, but others are… not. You don’t know what any of them are, really. They just look incredibly strange.
Behind them is a large hedge that seems to stretch on for quite a while, which Celestia tells you is a maze. You don’t know why the castle needs a maze, but it’s kind of cool. If you weren’t injured, or had any sense of direction whatsoever, then you may even be tempted to go inside.
Unsurprisingly, the garden is absolutely beautiful. The grass is the perfect shade of green that grass should be, the hedge is dark green, the flowers are all around you and bloom impeccable shades of red and blue and whatever they’re supposed to show.
This is the royal palace, though. The Princess lives here. So the impeccable nature of everything does not surprise you, nevertheless, it is beautiful. Probably the most beautiful garden you have ever seen. Or will see. Not that you have seen very many gardens.
The both of you re-enter the castle and continue walking (or rolling, in your case), exchanging questions and pleasantries along the way.
Celestia has even told you a few jokes, and they actually made you laugh! Which is incredibly surprising. The medley of emotions you have experienced today has been strangely diverse.
You went from being tired and all drugged up to being bored, then to be amused by Twilight’s overreaction to everything that comes up without her prior knowledge. Then you were scared, then nervous, then scared, and those two basically swapped places for a couple hours. And now you’re laughing again!
There is something about the ruler of the country joking with you that puts your mind at ease. You don’t feel like you’re going to have a heart attack anymore, so that’s good. Also, feeling like the most powerful being you have ever met doesn’t hate you is so great you might just explode.
“How did you meet Shining?” you ask, wanting to ask her some questions of your own. You have already, but they were boring. May as well figure something about the horses you will be in contact with for the next few days. Or however long it takes for you to get back home.
You remember Shining telling you he was married to the Princess, and you know Shining. And now that you know the Princess, you can have a nice conversation about their relationship.
“Hmm…” she thinks for a moment. “Twilight became my student years ago. Her entrance exam was very impressive, but that’s a story for another time. I suppose I met Twilight’s family soon after naming her my personal student, so that was probably… 13 or 14 years ago.”
Your eyes widen.
‘She met her husband 13 or 14 years ago?! What the hell?! How old was Shining 13 years ago?! Like, 12?!’
The thought is startling, but you have to remember that you are no longer in your old, familiar world. Obviously things will be different here. Besides, Celestia looks very young. 13 years ago she could’ve been 12. Maybe.
That is a much nicer thought, and you decide to stick with that one.
“I did not know him very well until he became a royal guard. He is very smart and quickly became Captain. He is one of the youngest stallions who have ever been Captain of the Royal Guard.”
Well, good for him.
“Is that when you started dating?” you ask, hoping you’re not being too forward.
You see Celestia’s purple eyes get even wider than they usually are, and she stops walking for a second before continuing again.
You easily notice her reaction and begin to get nervous again. “Forgive me for asking, Princess,” you say quickly. “I didn’t mean to pry into your private-”
Celestia giggles before stopping you. “We aren’t married, my dear,” she says calmly, looking softly down at you.
‘Wat.’
“O-Oh? Shining said he was married to the Princess. I’m sorry-”
“Shining is married to Princess Cadance,” she explains.
Who the hell is Princess Cadance?
“Oh…” you feel incredibly embarrassed right now. You just… wow you’re dumb. Wow. The ruler of the country. The Princess. You just said all that dumb shit to the Princess. Good job. Really. Good job, dumbass.
“Princess Cadance is my niece,” Celestia explains. “I’m sure you will meet her later today. Princess Luna is my sister. She sleeps during most days, though you may see her later tonight. They help me rule Equestria.”
Well now you know.
You should’ve done your research. If this place had Google, then you could have just looked this basic shit up online and would have known in a few seconds. But no. You had to learn the hard way. And you can only assume that your dumb ass will only continue to make false assumptions during your stay here.
“I’m sorry for assuming anything, Princess,” you say. You wouldn’t want her or her actual husband to take offense and kill you.
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” she assures. “There was no way for you to know.”
Damn straight.
The both of you turn the corner and begin trekking down another endless hallway. All of these hallways and corridors are starting to look the same. If Celestia wasn’t with you, you guarantee you would get lost.
Every hallway is the same color, has the same rugs, fairly similar paintings of horses you don’t know, and spotless floors. This place is impossible.
Celestia is pretty damn cool. You thought she was actually going to kill you for a while back in the throne room. Good thing she didn’t. That would’ve ruined your day.
She’s talking to you, and you are talking back to her, and you’re feeling a whole hell of a lot better than you were earlier.
You like Twilight. You like Shining. So far, you like Princess Celestia. And all three of them seem to like you too.
It is kind of weird though that you get along with the Princess’ personal student, the Captain of the Royal Guard, and the Ruler of this whole damn country, but you’re still afraid of the guards.
Oh well. It’d be best to avoid them whenever possible, though that may be difficult, as you will probably be meeting with Celestia for quite some time.
You’ll probably see them pretty often then, but just pretend they’re not there.
You roll along.
==========
“And then what happened?” Celestia asks, wanting to hear the rest of your story.
You take a second to breathe. “I don’t know, really. I guess I got hit, then before I knew what was happening, I was spinning. Then I stopped… That’s all I can really remember, Princess.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that,” she says with a frown. “It must have been scary.”
You chuckle. “Not as scary as waking up to a talking horse wearing a lab coat.”
She laughs with you for a moment. “I’m sure that must have been quite startling, waking up in a foreign land.”
You shrug. “I guess it’s not so bad. I’m starting to get used to it, I think. It’s still really different, though. It could be a lot worse.” You take a second to look around the hallway you are currently in. It’s just another ordinary hallway in a very unordinary place. “I could be dead… if I’m not already.”
Celestia giggles. “No, I assure you, you are very much alive. Just far from home.”
“How far?”
“Hmm?” she asks, looking down at you.
You shrink back a little. “Uhm… I was just wondering, how far exactly? Princess.”
She looks at you for a moment. “Sadly, I don’t know. I have never even heard of your world before this afternoon. I cannot be certain.”
“Oh.”
“Why do you ask?”
“...” You pause for a couple moments and just wheel yourself further down the hallway. Your arms are getting tired. “Just wondering if I was ever going to be able to get back.”
You would love to go back home, where everything is familiar. Familiar is good. You suppose surprises can also be good, but not like this. Situations like this are confusing and… terrifying.
You miss your friends and family. You miss everything about where you were and would do anything to get back.
Celestia releases a breath, but not a large one. If the hallway weren’t so large and empty and quiet than you may have never heard it. “I am sorry,” she says. “I do not know how to get you back.”
Your heart has dropped. It is not in your stomach, and your chest feels empty and strange.
‘Never going home?’ you ask yourself. ‘Never? It’s not exactly what she said, but that’s what she means.’
“Inter-dimensional travel has never been studied. There are plenty of theories about it, but none have been proven.”
‘I’m gonna be stuck here until I die.’
Your eyes burn for some reason.
“Do you know exactly how you arrived in Equestria?” she asks gently. “Did you see anything before you crashed?”
You slowly shake your head, suddenly interested in the floor. “Nope. Just fell off a bridge…”
You want to go home.
The both of you continue moving along, now mostly in silence.
==========
“And that, unfortunately, concludes our tour of Canterlot Castle,” she says, smiling softly down at you. “I would take you around some more, but in your state, that may not be the best idea.”
You agree with that. You are in a wheelchair, so going upstairs or off-road to see something is out of the question. But that’s alright. You were getting tired of pushing yourself around these endless hallways anyway.
Her horns lights up gold and the door next to you does as well. In a second, the door is open and Celestia walks inside, wanting you to follow.
“This is where you will be staying,” she says.
You’re confused. “I’m staying in the castle?” you ask. You’re most certainly not royalty, nor have you done anything to warrant this. You imagine this is a very nice place to live, and you’re just a… commoner.
“An individual has never travelled from another world to this one before,” she says, “and we would love to have the opportunity to study interdimensional travel with you . That is, if you would be so kind as to help us.”
You think for a moment before shrugging. “I guess so. As long as no weird tests are done on me.”
She giggles again. “As I have assured you earlier, no harm will come to you.”
You smile. “Alright then. I’d love to help.”
She doesn’t say it, but she also probably wants to make sure the government is keeping a close eye on you. They don’t know who or what you are. For all they know, you could come from a race of psychotic murders. You don’t, of course, but they don’t know that. Not yet.
Twilight can vouch for you. And so can the rest of the… the uh… shoot, what are they called… elements of… heresy? NO! Harmony! Yeah, Element of Harmony. You wouldn’t want the Elements of Heresy vouching for you.
They also probably want to keep you away from the public. If your case is so rare, then everyone will probably want to talk to you or take your picture or whatever. This seems like the best place to hide from those kinds of people.
“I will leave you to get settled,” the white horse says before turning away. “Dinner will be served at 7 p.m. I would love for you to join us and meet everypony, as you will be staying with us for quite some time.”
“Thank you,” you smile. “I would love to.”
“I will see you then.” She bids you a farewell, saying your name, and you return it. She exits the room and closes the door behind her.
Now you’re alone.
You look around the room right quick.
There is a simple bed. It looks small, and it is. It was made for ponies, not for you, but it should be fine. There is a dresser for clothes, a clock on the wall, and a desk with a lamp on it.
Simple stuff.
You’re concerned with being able to find this room again after you leave. It took you forever to get here and there is no way of telling where you are anymore. For all you know, you could be right next to the Throne Room.
Or you could be on the opposite side of the palace. You are so confused. Do they sell maps anywhere? Does this place have a supply store or something?
Probably not.
Well, you were left to get settled, but you can’t really get ‘settled,’ can you? You don’t have any personal possessions. Everything you once owned was destroyed. The only thing you have is your hospital gown.
Which reminds you, you will have to talk to someone about actually getting clothes. Didn’t Rarity say she made dresses? Could she make you something? Not a dress, of course, but just like regular clothes? Human clothes? Or would that be too difficult for her?
You don’t know, but if she could, then you’re gonna need money. Which means you’ll have to get a job here. What could you do? What use could you serve? There has to be something unique about you. Who would hire you?
You don’t know, but you shouldn’t worry. Those are questions for later.
Now, a nap.
==========
Your eyelids are heavy. Heavier than they usually are, at least.
But that is to be expected. The past couple days have been abnormally tiring, despite the lack of physical activity you have participated in.
Just a couple days ago, you were shot. Thrice.
Three times.
Three.
That’s a lot. And it’s a lot more painful than you would have expected.
You have seen movies where guys get shot with arrows, and what do they do? They either die within five seconds if they are an unimportant character, but if the main character gets shot, he just keeps going.
The main character will just snap it off, groan a bit, and then keep going as though it wasn’t a sharp object forever embedded into their chest or wherever they were hit.
And neither of those outcomes happened to you.
You were shot, but you did not die. But you also did not get up. How is this possible? Is Hollywood not to be trusted when it comes to injuries of this variety?
Perhaps. But they may just be right. You’re not dead, you think, but you are most certainly not alive.
It doesn’t feel like you’re alive. You feel weird.
That is to be expected, though. You were shot. If you didn’t feel weird right about now than there would definitely be something wrong with you.
Of course, since you were shot, you have been given pain medication. Very ample amounts of pain medication which has been messing around with your senses.
You remember when you first “arrived” here in Equestria you were given pain medication, and then you went completely insane and tried rushing out of the hospital. You just hope that whatever your problem was is now fixed, lest you try getting out of this one.
You have a feeling if you left right now, then you would probably die. You almost died last time you left a hospital, and it would be a shame to have survived everything up to this point only to die because you hallucinate and run outside.
Anyway, back to your injuries.
You were shot three times. One arrow pierced through your right shoulder armor, went through your shoulder, and came out of your armpit. So that area of your body is incredibly sensitive.
And you were shot in the stomach, just a few inches to the right of your belly button. Of all the wounds you suffered in the battle, which has still yet to be named as far as you know, this wound is your least favorite. Hands down. No question about it.
The wound is right in the center of your body! It’s so weird to feel all sensitive right there. It makes you feel like you can’t do anything. If you turn yourself, there is pain. There are ways to alleviate the pain in your shoulder when you move; just don’t move your shoulder. But you still have a problem with your stomach.
And the last of your injuries was an arrow to the thigh, which was entirely unprotected and exposed. With nothing to slow the arrow down, the projectile went through your leg. Which was rather painful, to say the least.
This last injury reminds you of Skyrim and all of those dreadful “arrow to the knee” jokes that everyone will tell at any moment that may present itself. Sure they were funny two days after the game came out, but they got old fast.
You are almost thankful this world has no video games, that way no one can get the reference and make a joke about your injury.
The key word there is “almost.” You would do anything for video games or television or… really anything at this point that reminds you of home.
Shit, if you could, if you had the choice to, you would probably decide to go back home.
And why wouldn’t you? There is nothing for you here anymore. Your friends are off still fighting a war, leaderless. You feel like you have let them down. Here you are, their leader, the one they are supposed to look to for guidance and support, and you are lying in a bed in a comfortable room miles away from them.
Some leader you turned out to be.
Not to mention you will probably get discharged from the Legion because of your injuries. It will be an honorable discharge, of course, but the Legion is your damn family! You didn’t have a single real friend until you joined.
Those guys helped you get used to Equestria and were eager to be your friends when no one else in this entire damn city was. They were the reason you wanted to stay in Equestria in the first place.
But that’s not the half of it.
Celestia doesn’t want you. She is basically the source of your daily happiness, and that happiness has been painfully ripped away from you.
Now she’s off with some Canterlot douchebag doing God knows what. Everything that you used to do with her? She’s doing it right now with someone else. You lost her.
And why would she want to keep someone like you anyway? You ran off on her. You don’t think you did, but you’re sure she does.
Celestia could have anypony she wanted if she so desired, so why would she pick you? She probably realized she could have somepony better. She deserves better.
You lost your old family and friends a long time ago, but you wish you had them back now more than ever. You wish you had someone.
No more Legion. No more Celestia. Only wishes of things to return to the way they were, and that will surely never happen.
You’re alone again.
This is such bullshit! You didn’t ask for any of this! All of this just happened around you, and you were helpless to stop it!
For once, once! you finally thought that you had what you wanted. You were content with just keeping things the way they were for once; you were perfectly happy that way.
Nope.
Not anymore.
You hear a beep, and a few moments later you relax and fall asleep.
==========
You wake up, still in the same room. Good. After travelling around as much as you have recently, it’s nice just to stay in one spot for a while.
You feel sore. Not in a painful way, but more in an achy way. Your muscles feel stiff even though you haven’t actually used them in days.
Despite having just woken up, your eyes are still heavy, and you want to go back to sleep again. It seems like that is all that you have done over these past few days. Sleep, wake up and remember where you are, sleep. So it goes.
Allowing your tired eyes to close and trying to relax your sore body as much as possible, you simply lie on your bed and think.
It is probably important to know where you are and why exactly you are there.
You are in a hospital in Canterlot. Which hospital, you do not know, but that hardly matters. The only hospitals you have even heard of in the country is Ponyville’s General Hospital and Johns Hoofkins over in Baltimare, but that’s beside the point.
Obviously enough, you are in the hospital because you are injured and are now unable to fight. If you tried hard enough you may still be able to pick up your armor and weapons once again, but Equestria isn’t so desperate as to have cripples fight their battles.
You forgot how nice it is to be inside. You haven’t legitimately been inside of a heated building since you walked out of Canterlot that night over a month ago. Sure you got to sleep in a tent, but that wasn’t nearly as fun as actually being inside and warm.
Oh how you missed it.
Back on topic.
This hospital just so happens to be one of the closest hospitals to the field of battle, where you were injured a few days ago.
Maybe it’ll be easier to recount these events from the beginning.
As you know, you were shot. Getting shot was not as cool as you thought it was, as all it has done is bring you immense pain and discomfort.
After that, a couple of your faithful soldiers dragged you to the field hospital set up behind your line.
“Field Hospital” is a fairly generous term for where you went. It was basically a giant white tent where everyone went to die. The doctors there probably weren’t even doctors. They were just ponies that wore white and used numbing agents to justify fucking around with your wounds.
It wasn’t a pleasant place to be. If you had a choice between going to the third circle of hell or going back into that tent, you would choose the tent. Duh. But the third circle of hell does seem pretty appealing.
Anyway, while there, they numbed you up with some kind of medicine and took your armor off as carefully and quickly as they could. Then they tried to remove the arrows.
The numbing agent didn’t numb everything, and you could still feel most of what they were doing, and it hurt.
Oh God, did it hurt.
You didn’t watch when they did this, as feeling them move the arrows around was bad enough. You just closed your eyes and clenched your jaw.
How much of the arrows they actually got out, you don’t know. Did they get the entire thing out? Or did they just get the part that was protruding outside of your body off? For all you know, there could still be pieces of the arrow inside of your thigh, stomach, or shoulder.
It was a painful experience, but it wasn’t so bad. You’ve had worse, surely.
You hear a noise which sounds like a door closing, causing you to open your eyes and pick your head up a little. After a quick scan of your surroundings, you see nothing unusual. Same white wallpaper and medical machines all around you. The door is still closed.
Whatever.
You close your eyes and rest your head again.
You were in that tent for a while.
After what felt like an eternity of just lying on a wooden bed inside and feeling the arrows move around inside you, they finally picked you up and moved you outside. Where you sat in the snow.
You got to lie out there for a while. At some point it even started to snow, so it was kind of cool watching the snowflakes fall. But it was really cold. And noisy.
Lying next to all the other injured soldiers was not enjoyable. Some were way worse off than you, and some seemed all right. Some of the guys with minor injuries are probably off still fighting. But the majority of the guys who were lying outside are probably in a situation similar to yours. Or worse.
You’re lucky.
It’s probably best if you stop thinking so much about those guys. It’s not healthy.
You take a deep breath and situate yourself into a slightly more comfortable position.
Anyway! You got to lie out in the snow for a while. It wasn’t particularly exciting. The only things to see really was your breath. With every exhale, you watched your warm breath turn into vapor before your eyes.
That kept you occupied for who knows how long.
Every once in a while somepony would fly high over you, and you watched. The battle must have been over by that time, though, as nopony was fighting or falling from above.
While you laid there, waiting for nothing in particular, you heard things. You weren’t listening, exactly, but you could still hear. Ponies moved constantly around you, talking, screaming. All that good stuff.
Hours and hours of endless torment later, when the sun was just about to set, leaving you with thoughts of the greatest being you have ever known, you were lifted up and brought into a tent. A legitimate tent; with walls and a roof.
You wouldn’t call it a bed, what they put you on. It wasn’t comfortable enough to be called a bed, but it was basically a bed. It probably would have been more comfortable if you weren’t injured.
There were two other ‘beds’ in that tent, but nopony else was brought in. You got the tent all to yourself, for whatever reason. Maybe it’s because you’re an officer? You’re not sure.
Doesn’t matter to you. It was nice to be out of the cold and to listen to nothing. Of course, it was still cold in the tent and you could still hear everypony, but it was better.
You remember, while you were in there, you tried to do something incredibly stupid.
==========
It’s nice to be alone. It’s only a tent, but to have privacy for a little bit in a camp of 50,000 soldiers is like being in heaven.
You hear ponies talking and their hooves crunching on the snow outside, but they’re not in here, and that’s nice.
It has gotten a lot darker since you were moved in here. It has at least been an hour and nothing has happened. Did they forget about you?
Maybe. You’re not entirely sure.
You wonder if your subordinates are looking for you. They probably know what happened to you, though, as you are two feet taller than them and stood in the front of the line all day.
You don’t want to be in this tent anymore. There are more important things for a Lieutenant to do.
After Action Reports, for one. There are a whole bunch of things you’re supposed to be doing right now that you’re not.
You’re shirking on your responsibilities. You’ll never be Captain if you keep this up. Time to be a leader!
You try to sit up and immediately fail. When sitting up, one relies heavily on their stomach muscles, and yours just recently had an arrow rip through them.
Placing your uninjured left arm on the bench, you push yourself up. You don’t sit all the way up, though, as you are too injured to do so.
However, you’re kind of sitting up. Your elbow is on the bed, so your head is about a foot from the wooden bench you’re lying on. It’s not much, but it’s progress. It’ll be better when you get your feet on the ground.
Trying to move your left leg is incredibly difficult as it recently had an arrow in it, but you’re slowly managing. If you move the appendage too quickly, then of course it’s going to hurt. But if you take it nice and slow, it doesn’t feel too, too bad. It could feel a lot worse.
You slowly inch your leg towards the side of the bed, the other one following. Before you know it, it’s at the side of the bed, and you gently ease it down to the ground.
At least, that is what you were trying to do. Instead, gravity takes over and pulls your leg down fast and hard and you have no way of stopping it.
You yelp in pain as your leg hits the floor harder than you anticipated, but not so loudly as to alert anypony, apparently.
You grab your injured, bandaged thigh as if that will stop the pain, which is does not. You bite down on your lip so hard that you would probably taste blood, if that flavor wasn’t already in your mouth.
“OK,” you whisper to yourself. “It’s alright. OK. I’m good.” You take a deep breath, feeling sweat on your forehead. The other leg follows the left one to the ground, much gentler this time.
Alright. Almost there. Now, you just gotta stand up and walk outside. Better take it slow.
You place your feet squarely on the ground so you will already have your balance by the time you stand up. You’re full of good ideas.
Placing your left hand on the bed behind you, you bend over a little bit as to get your balance. Summoning all of your power to your left and uninjured arm, you push off of the bed hard, sending your body into an upright stance.
You stand there for a second and smile.
And one second after that, you are on the ground, groaning in pain.
‘Fuck me!’ you yell in your head, rolling around on the cold ground.
That was probably the worst decision of your life, as all of the pain you experienced earlier and spent hours slowly alleviating has come back to you ten fold!
Every thought you just had about going outside has been forcibly discharged out of your head. The only movement you can currently make is mindlessly rolling around on the floor. There is no way you’re gonna be crawling out of this tent anytime soon, let alone simply standing up.
“What the hell are you doing?!” an angry female voice shouts from behind you. You don’t recognize the voice, so you don’t feel obligated to look at the source. You just settle for rolling around and groaning in pain. “Are you crazy?! Stay! In! Bed!”
Within a few moments you’re whole body illuminates a soft blue and you are lifted from the ground. Some of your pain subsides too, which is pretty nice, but it still hurts. You’re starting to get used to the pain, now. You are placed back on the bed.
“I will be back in five minutes,” the female voice informs. “Don’t you dare move.”
And you don’t.
==========
Yeah. That was the stupidest thing you’ve ever done. You’ve done some pretty dumb shit, but trying to walk around with fresh, sore, and partially open wounds and falling on your face is pretty bad. More pain coursed through you in those two minutes than anything else.
That nurse was pissed at you for trying to get up, too. Like, really pissed. She yelled at you for a while. But you imagine her job is pretty stressful, what with watching ponies die all day all around you. You probably weren’t making her day any better.
Oh well. You had good intentions.
You take a deep breath, feeling relatively relaxed.
Even though it was the stupidest and most painful experience you have had in… ever, it will probably be funny one day. You smile. Maybe you and Celestia will have a nice laugh about it too.
She’ll probably call you an idiot, but she will laugh. You love her laugh…
Fuck. Wait a second.
You’re not going to tell her anything. She doesn’t even like you anymore. You will probably never say anything to her ever again.
…
Fine. Whatever.
Who needs her anyway? Not you, that’s for damn sure. You’ve been doing just fine without her this past month. Look at you! You’re doing great!
You’re in the hospital, your friends may very well be dead, and your ex is off with someone else! You’re doing great!
You take a breath, wanting to calm yourself as you hear your heart monitor beep faster and faster.
Thinking those things made you think of your friends. They’re still fighting. You’re not. You hope they’re alright without you. They should be, but who knows? Without you around to control them, they can be pretty stupid sometimes.
Hell, for all you know, your friends could be in this very same hospital. You hope they aren’t. Or maybe you do? If they’re here, they’re out of danger. But that means they’re hurt. If they’re not here, then they are still putting themselves in harms way every day. Or even dead.
You don’t want to think about that anymore.
Shouldn’t your doctor be coming in here soon? You haven’t seen one in quite some time. Isn’t it their job to make sure you’re not dying in here? Shouldn’t they at least check up on you?
Whatever. You’re sure they know what they are doing. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be doctors, would they?
You have had enough thinking for one ‘awake period,’ as you have begun calling them. You’re not even awake for a full day. Hell, you’d be lucky to stay up for a full hour.
Closing your eyes and relaxing, you drift off into sleep.
==========
It’s been really difficult to see for whatever reason. To your knowledge, nothing happened to your eyeballs over the past few days, so you’re not entirely sure why everything is blurry.
Is it because of the drugs?
Maybe. You’re not sure what drugs are being used on you at the moment or what the side effects are.
Maybe you just need glasses?
You feel really weird since you woke up five minutes ago. Your vision has been impaired since arriving in the hospital, for whatever reason, but now, you feel weird. Like high.
It’s nice.
They have been giving you these drugs since you got here, but you suppose you were too focused on the pain of your injuries to properly notice the effects of them.
How long have you actually been in the hospital, though? From what you gather, you could have been here for either a week, or about 24 hours. You’re not sure which one, but it’s definitely one of the two.
The ceiling is weird. You don’t know why, but it’s suddenly very interesting to look at. And so is the heart monitor.
You look down at the foot of your bed to make sure your legs are still there. You never know when you’ll lose your legs.
Despite your vision being incredibly blurry, you see your legs. But that’s not what gets your attention.
To your left is a giant white… blur. You don’t know what it is, but it wasn’t there when you fell asleep earlier.
What is that? Whatever it is, it’s big. Massive. And it’s white. And it’s just… like…
Sitting there. Looking out the window.
‘Is that an angel?’ you ask yourself. ‘Am I dead? When did I die? Why is heaven in a hospital?’
You have no idea. For all you know, it’s a giant marshmallow.
Well if you’re dead, it’s about damn time. You have put up with so much shit recently and you’re more than happy it’s all finally over.
But wait. If this is heaven, shouldn’t you be able to walk? What is the use of a hospital in heaven?
Stupid heaven.
Oh shit! Wait a minute. Are you in hell? Do they have hospitals in hell? Doesn’t hell have fire, though? You don’t see any fire.
This isn’t what you imagined hell to look like. You would’ve thought it would have been full of fire and screaming. But there is none of that here. Just a simple hospital room. At the same time, though, this isn’t what you imagine heaven would be like either.
Purgatory?
What the hell do people do to get in purgatory anyway? For someone to get here, they have to not be bad, but not be good. They simply have to be.
You always thought you were good, but oh well. Guess you’ll just have to wait.
This place looks a lot more like your idea of purgatory than heaven or hell. It’s white and cold and basically empty.
Except for that white blob over yonder.
Maybe it is an angel. But why would it be here? Is it waiting for you to do something?
You really want to go home. Maybe if you ask it nicely then it will send you back. That’s how it works, right? Just say ‘please.’
You look at the angel.
‘Look’ is interchangeable with ‘stare’ in your current state of mind. You have never met an angel before, so for one to be so close to you is mindboggling.
Two extraordinarily large white wings extend to either side of the angel’s body, and you almost forget how to breathe.
‘Oh… wow...’
The angel whispers your name.
You barely even hear her say it. If the room wasn’t so quiet then you probably wouldn’t have.
Her voice is heavenly; beautiful in every way a voice can be, you think. And it’s incredibly familiar. For some reason, you feel a lot warmer than you just were.
‘How did the angel know my name?’ you wonder.
You suppose angels have to know a whole bunch of people. It’s probably part of their job to know who you are. Sounds like a pretty tough job. You wonder how one becomes a divine being.
“Yes, angel?” you hear yourself quietly respond.
There is a moment of silence.
You’re not sure if the giant white blur is even looking at you. You can see her wings, and you vaguely know where her head is, but not if it is turned towards you.
You see the outline of her, of course, but that’s just about it. Her large, white body and her wavy hair.
You wonder how hard it is to fly with those giant wings. They are very large so it probably takes a lot of work to use those things.
“Will you sit next to me?” you ask (well, ‘slur,’ basically), wanting to be closer to this divine being. For whatever reason, just the fact that she is in the room with you makes you feel warm and happy. It’s probably because you don’t feel so alone. You feel complete, right now.
You’ve missed this feeling.
After a moments hesitation, the white blur slowly moves towards the side of the hospital bed.
This is the weirdest dream ever, but you are absolutely loving it so far!
You hear the strangely loud footsteps of the angel slowly walk towards you. It sounds as though she is wearing high heels, and you simply assume she is. Though her footsteps sound rather weird, they sound like they are a thousand miles away.
Despite her being right next to you, of course. She stops when she is right next to you.
You look up at her face, but you still can’t see her. Not really, at least. Her face seems to be radiating light, and you suppose it would be, considering she is a divine being.
Slowly, you feel something settle on top of you. Looking down at your body, you see one of her wings lying lightly on top of you. Very lightly. It may as well not even be there.
It sits there for a moment, and you just look at it, thinking.
The wing is big. Really big. It covers a lot of your body, but not all of it. The feeling is familiar, and you feel all warm inside.
The wing is also incredibly feathery, but it should be, you suppose. It’s a wing. Wings have feathers.
You reach a hand down to touch it. The second your hand makes contact with the feathery appendage, it jolts in surprise and retracts from your grip.
Damn! Why didn’t you ask permission first? You can’t just do things like that? Who do you think you are?!
Angels aren’t supposed to be touched and poked at by people like you.
Before you realize it, the wing drapes itself back overtop of you, the top of it stopping a little under your chin. Though it’s still pretty loose around you, the grip is more firm than it previously was.
Taking this as a good sign, you slowly reach your hand out from under the wing and cautiously move to feel it once more. If she doesn’t want you to touch it, then she’ll just move it again, you think.
This time, she does not move, and your hand makes gentle contact with her wing. It feels nice. Familiar, actually, as strange as that may seem.
You put your entire arm on top of it, wanting to feel it. Again, she does not move away, nor does she say anything.
The wing is incredibly soft. So soft! It’s feathery and warm and… familiar… it’s so nice.
You rub it a little bit, feeling as much of it as you can. It’s amazing. You feel warm and safe now. A feeling you haven’t had in a very long time.
You look back up to the angel’s face, which you still cannot see. You would love to look upon this gentle being’s face. Just once. Just to know what she looks like. That would make you happy.
“Angel,” you say, “I can’t see.”
You feel the grip of her wing around you get tighter, but not painfully so.
The angel sniffles and you don’t know why. There’s nothing wrong. Not anymore.
You’re fine. You’re alright now.
==========
Written by - ScatMan2001
Edited by - TheTownCrier
Another new editor. Special thanks to TheTownCrier for editing this whole think like an hour ago.