Drip... Drop... Drip... Drop... Drip... Drop...
"That's funny." I say to myself. "Who's playing music?" I listen. "That's a catchy tune." I continue. "I think I'll sing along."
"Drip... Drop..." I chime in, giggling. "Drip... Drop... Drip... Drop... Dri-" For some reason, my dinner doesn't want to stay in my stomach anymore. Oh, well, I'm not going to stop it. Spatter spatter spatter spatter spatter. "I liked that song." I say, wiping the leftover food from my mouth. :Too bad it was so short. Oh, well."
I continue singing the drip song. Suddenly, I hear a voice calling my name. "Kailee?" It says. "Kailee? Are you there?"
"Silly colt." I whisper. "You can't win hide-and-seek that way. I'll let him find me." After a few minutes, I decide to let him win. "I'm in here!" I call. "You win, I lose!"
A colt's hazy silhouette appears in the doorway. He kneels beside me and presses something white against my forehead. It comes off red. "Oh no." I say, scared. "That's my - my blood, isn't it?" He begins to slip in and out of focus.
"Kailee!" He says, gripping my shoulders. "Kailee! Stay with me!" I black out.
I can feel somepony's hooves underneath me. Wind is rushing past me. Suddenly I realize that I'm flying!
Oh, no! Earth Ponies can't fly! What if they drop me? I try to scream out, to tell them to put me down, but no sound comes out.
I have to try harder! I can see a light below me. It's the way out, I know it! I squirm out of the pegasus' grip. As I fall to the ground, I remember. Earth Ponies can't fly. "NO!" I shout. "NO! NO! NO!" I enter the light.
Suddenly, a barrage of color, sound, smells, and all other sorts of things collide with my senses. I'm sitting upright in a bed, screaming "NO!"
Doctors try to push me down, but I fight them, pleading them to tell me who, what, why, how, and where I am. None of them answer.
"Kailee." The voice is sweet and melodious. "Lay back down." I do so, mesmerized by the voice. "Thank you."
I look over to see a pale blue unicorn mare. "Who are you?" I ask.
"That doesn't matter right now." She says. "Farewell." She leaves.
A familiar blue colt walks in. I know him. Well. He's a friend. A good friend. He's my coltfriend. He's - "James?"
"Yeah, it's me, Kailee." He says.
"Where am I?" I ask.
"Canterlot Royal Hospital." He answers. "You were in such bad shape, they shipped you over here."
"What happened?" I inquire.
"You were -" Jake stops. The look on his face worries me.
"What happened?" I enunciate.
"You were - abducted." He says. "By a serial killer."
"What?" I shriek, bolting into a seating position. A searing pain in my head stops me. I press my hooves against it and throw myself back down. Doctors rush over and rip off bandages, then pour a liquid on my head. It stings really bad for a second, then mellows.
"What happened to my head?" I as fearfully.
"The serial killer that got you kills his victims slowly." James explains. "He had embedded a knife in your head and left you to slowly die. Good news is; you didn't."
My hair falls over my face. I notice that one lock of it is blood red. I remember before James found me. I was singing along to the sound of dripping. I suppose that must have been blood dripping off of my mane. Now my stark white mane has a section of it stained red. It will never wash out. My beautiful white mane that contrasts perfectly with my dark grey body now has an imperfection in it. That was the one thing I was ever proud of. Now it was gone.
"And the bad news?" I worriedly ask.
"You lost the use of your back legs. Permanently."
Shocked, I try it. I attempt to move my back legs. Nothing happens. I begin to hyperventilate. Frantic, I start to move every other part of my body. They all work, but, from the flank down, I can't move. Doctors rush over and try to subdue me.
"No." I say, fighting them. My voice begins to rise. "No! NO! NO!" One of them calls for a sedative. "Earth Ponies can't live without their legs!" I scream. "We need them! We don't have wings or horns, all we've got is our legs! Please! You have to give me prosthetics, or something!"
"I'm sorry." One of the doctors says. "We can't. Only for little things like teeth. Maybe for part of a hoof. But for both of your back legs, it's impossible at the moment."
"NO!" I scream, even more worried now. Then it hits me like a herd of stampeding buffalo. I don't have my cutie mark. And the cutie mark of every single Earth Pony in Equestria had something to do with their legs. Even Pinkie Pie's. She had to walk to deliver cupcakes and throw parties. "I don't have my cutie mark!" I scream. "And I'm fourteen! I need to use my legs to get my cutie mark! I need them! I NEED THEM!" Even as they inject the sedative, I'm fighting. "I - need - them." I black out.
I have to stay for three more weeks, though. To pass the time, I read. The only other thing I do is lay there and wonder what I'm going to do without my legs. I don't want to be a blank flank forever, but that's my only option right now. Unless I can somehow get prosthetics, then I won't ever have a cutie mark.
Yesterday, James visited me. He said that he'd applied to the Canterlot Medical College. He said that his one goal in life was to make me happy. He didn't want to see me cry anymore. He said that all he was going to research were prosthetics and therapy, in the hope that he could regain the use of my back legs.
Its hopeless, though.