//------------------------------// // Ch04 Rude Awakening // Story: The Reigns of History // by 8chill //------------------------------// Professor Oat was sitting in front of a large chart; studying its contents. He was trying to make sense of what circumstances might have occurred to release the creature. The only hard data that he had was the fact that magic was the catalyst. But how was it possible to bring something to life? The creature shouldn't have even been alive, yet it was breathing. What on Earth was going on? "Was it possible that the magic truly revived the creature?" he wondered, stroking his chin with his hoof. "Or perhaps, it merely caused the body's functions to activate involuntarily." He got up from his seated position and walked towards his desk. Once there, he pulled open one of his drawers revealing a small fragment of the same crystal that the creature was trapped in. He picked up the crystal and held it up to his face. He stared deeply into its form trying to decipher its hidden secrets. He had ran several tests over the course of seventy-two hours. Results came back with nothing notably unusual. It was a basic crystalline solid that had an orderly structure. The only odd thing about it was its ability to somehow disrupt magic. You couldn't use magic to grab hold of the blasted thing! Now, there were ways to disrupt magic but none of those methods involved the use of an ordinary crystal. It was simply unheard of, yet, here it was defying all common sense. He set the crystal on the table and sighed wearily. Thinking up possible theories wasn't going to solve anything at this point. Everything thus far has lead to a dead end. The only other option was to study the creature for more clues. Unfortunately, the creature was in a comatose state with no signs of awakening. They had tried using mental scanning spells to see if they could coax its mind to resurface. However, it seemed to have had very little to no effect. Professor Oat's thoughts were broken when he suddenly heard an excited yell. "Professor come quick!" a voice demanded from just outside his office. Confused, Professor Oat walked to his door to see what the commotion was about. "Yes?" he answered unsurely. Looking around the hall he saw one of his aides, a blue earth mare, trying to catch her breath. A few moments later, she lifted her head up and frantically explained the situation. "Professor we require your presence! The creature is showing signs of mental distress; it may be awakening!" she all but yelled, excitement clear in her voice. "What! Take me to it immediately. We mustn't miss this opportunity to witness its return to consciousness," he demanded. "Yes, of course. But we need to hurry, Lab C was destroyed so we moved it to the infirmary," she said, turning to start running. "The infirmary? Understood. Don't bother running I'll get us both there," he said signaling her to come to him. And with that the professor teleported them both to the infirmary. Nothing. Darkness all around. Something. Substance. Thoughts. I...... Being. I am....... Sensations. Cool. Warmth. Soft. I.... am....alive. Professor Oat and his aide arrived outside the door to the infirmary and quickly went inside. The infirmary was a rather large room that looked as if it belonged to a hospital. However, it not only had medical equipment that was connected to each bed, but also scientific instruments. There were tables that were littered with notes and samples. Ponies were running back and forth comparing notes and moving equipment. And there lying on a table, all it's own, was the creature; with wires and tubes connected to it. It's muscles were flexing and twitching; most likely warming up after so long of disuse. One of the ponies recognized the professor and immediately directed him towards the table. He approached with caution not knowing how the creature would react. Upon getting close, he asked one of the doctors for a medical report. "Professor we were able to determine that he was in stable condition," she stated reading off the chart. "Unfortunately, because we never dealt with a creature of its type before, we were not able to run many tests for fear of harming it," she added. "He? How do you know its a he?" he asked while keeping his eyes on the body. The doctor looked annoyed before responding softly, "We had to strip him of his clothing to check for injuries......" she left the statement in the air, hoping for him to catch on. Not a chance. "That still doesn't..." he tried to answer. "Professor.... as a doctor and a female I know a male when I see one," she responded with a slight tinge to her cheeks, ending the discussion. Oh... I see. Coughs. Well then with his matter of gender out the way, let us welcome him to the new world. Ugh. What happened? I wondered, disorientated. My eyes were flickering; my hands and feet were twitching. I could feel warmth permeating through my body. So many sensations that, once lost, now returned with full vigor. It was overwhelming to say the least. I could tell that I was laying on something soft, most likely a bed. This meant that I was in a hospital but what for? I tried searching my memories until I came across that incident in the Alaskan wilderness. I was rescued huh? Thank goodness I was sure I was a goner. I started to open my eyes, only to regret the action and immediately shut them in pain. The light was too intense to bare so I settled for testing out my muscles. First my hands and feet, then my arms and legs. A little weak but mostly functional. At least I was not paralyzed or dismembered I thought happily. After that brief self check, I heard quiet whispers to my left. I couldn't really understand what they were saying only a few words here or there. Words like: Look. Wow. Amazing. Moving. The doctors were probably surprised that I made what looks to be a full recovery. Wanting to thank them, I sat up and attempted to reopen my eyes. It was still painful, but after a moment they adjusted and I was able to look at my saviors. What my eyes saw, did not register with my head however...... "Professor this is amazing!" one of the ponies whispered. "We discovered an ancient species of creature and brought it back to life." spoke another. "Look at how it moves, it must be a bipedal in nature." "Oh my goodness, he's sitting up and looking this way" The eyes of the creature were finally opening to take its first look in an untold amount of time. Professor Oat was excited. No that would be to simply of a word to describe his current mood. He was positively thrilled. He proceeded to calmly and carefully walk towards the creature and welcome it. After all it was a whole new world he lived in..... What in the world..... This was an illusion; It had to be. I must be hallucinating. I was in a room with colorful miniature horses wearing, what looked to be, lab coats. They were all staring; studying me like an experiment or some new undiscovered animal. I slowly looked around the room. It seemed normal enough for a hospital; if you ignored the weird quadrupeds that were communicating to themselves. One of them stepped forward slightly and opened its muzzle, moving it in a peculiar pattern making strange mouth gestures. I was expecting to here whinnies or neighs but what I got surprised me. It was trying to communicate with me! Okay, thats it. I'm hoping they drugged me up really good to make hallucinations like these. What I heard was what sounded like an alien language yet held some of my language in it. This was incredible, sadly, the only thing I understood from its attempt at speaking were words like: 'World', 'live' and 'Creature', the rest were indistinguishable. I couldn't really understand its sentence structure or its grammar. I would have pondered on this subject longer, if I hadn't made a startling discovery. I looked down at myself and noticed that my clothes were missing. I saw tubes in my arms that led to strange machines that I don't recognize. I was in a room. I was in a room with alien horses. I was in a room with alien horses and had strange machines attached to me. Also... I was butt naked.... .. ... .... Oh Hell No!! ~Authors Note~ I apologize as this wasn't my best chapter. Hopefully, I will get better as the story goes along. Moving on, I was trying something slightly different in regards to the language situation. I'm using a partial language barrier. I could have chosen a full blown barrier, and although it would have been hilarious imagining Carl speaking using neighs and whinnies, I don't believe I have the skill to pull that off at the moment. Basically, think of those old western shows that depict how Indians attempt to speak English. Or you can imagine the hulk trying to have a conversation. Most nouns, conjunctions, and sentence structure are completely new to him. At least thats what I'm going for. Let me know what you think.