//------------------------------// // Good bye, and good luck // Story: Please tell me I'm real // by Synthetic Soul //------------------------------// The hospital can be a very scary place, especially for a child. The only thing that could make ones situation worse is if you knew that you would never leave. Only fate could be so cruel as to allow a seven year old to know that he would not leave the hospital alive. The hospital room was devoid of all life, except for a young boy lying in his bed. He was pale and thin, not from malnourishment, but from the illness that plagued his body. His hair was black, and he wore a teal hospital gown. The only noises in the room was the beeping of the heart monitor, and the rhythmic breathing as air was forced through his nose with the help of a machine. Young Michael Flint's eyes opened, revealing his sky blue eyes. He looked around the room, and looked at the various get well gifts, balloons, and flowers that decorated his room. His eyes fell on a toy transformer that his parents had given him. 'My parents,' he thought. He hadn't seen them in about a week. He understood though, they were busy people. His father ran a corporation and his mother was a United States senator. But they promised to visit him soon. They promised. *Cough cough* Mike coughed up a spat of blood, which landed on his hospital gown. Suddenly, his breathing got harder and harder. In fact, he couldn't breath at all. He started to panic, trying to do anything he could to get air into his lungs. He heard an alarm sounding, and in rushed several doctors and nurses. As his lungs screamed for oxygen, his vision started to blacken. The last thing he heard was; "We're losing him". The last thing he thought was; 'where are my parents'. And then all was back. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The black void of death is eternal, and unending. And it was all that Michael knew. He couldn't remember the life he had once lived. His name, age, even his species evaded him. As far as he knew, he was born in the darkness. His drifting could have lasted a few minutes, or a thousand years. But he was more than happy to see a bright light ahead of him. "Maybe that's the way out," thought Mike. Purely through the power of will, he began floating towards the light. As he approached, the light became blinding. He had to shield his eyes from the light. Then, he felt his body being rushed forward. His gravity increased, and he felt his body fall to the ground. When he opened his eyes, he saw blue skies above. He sat himself up, and looked around. He was in a grassy field, and a few meters away, there was a pond. He got up, and walked over to it. While he walked, he found himself wondering how he came to be in this field. He couldn't remember if he'd ever been outside before, but he knew what outside was. When he reached the pond, he got the first look at himself that he could remember. He had pale, almost white skin. In contrast, his hair was pitch black. He had dark circles under his blue eyes. He had a white short sleeved shirt on, with white dress pants. He also noticed that he was bare foot. After taking in his appearance, he bent down to take a drink of water. His throat was dry. But when the water entered his mouth, he spit it right back out. The water burned his mouth with its horrible taste. It bitter, like cherry cough syrup. He scrubbed his tongue with his hand to try to expel the taste. He stood up and looked around. To one direction, there was a dark and scary looking forest. In the distance to the other way, he saw a town. He decided to head that way. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ After about ten minutes of walking, Michael came to what looked like a market place. But instead of other creatures like him, Michael saw that the towns people where not people at all. They were ponies. There were ponies of all sorts of colors, just about every color in the world. Michael saw the ponies talking with each other, and buying various things, such as fruit, vegetables, flowers, etc. Michael noticed the buildings. They looked primitive, with straw roofs. 'Is this normal?' he thought. Without any memory of the life he'd lived, he didn't know if sentient ponies were normal or not. The one thing he did know was that he was not the same kind of creature as these. 'Maybe they can help me,' thought Michael. Mike walked up to a blue unicorn with a red mane. For some reason, there was a picture of a flower on the ponies flank. Mike cleared his throat, then spoke. "Um, excuse me? C-could you tell me where I am?" asked Michael. But the pony didn't respond. The pony just kept talking to the vendor, haggling over a jar of pickles. "Um, ma'am? Or sir? I'm sorry if I sound rude, but I've never seen any of your kind before. Please, can you tell me where I am?" Still the pony didn't respond. 'Well that was rude,' thought a disgruntled Mike as he walked away. 'Maybe some one else can help me'. Mike walked up to a stand full of apples. Behind the stand was a red pony with a blond mane, and freckles. Kike stood in front of the stand to address the pony. "Please, um sir or ma'am. I'm sorry, I've just never seen any of your kind before. Could you please tell me where I am?" The pony didn't even blink, he just kept staring into the distance. 'Why is every one ignoring me?' thought Mike. He ran up to another pony and tried to get their attention. "Hello! Please, I need help! Can you hear me?" Still nothing. Panicking, Michael ran to the center of the marketplace, and screamed as loud as he could; "SOMEONE, PLEASE TALK TO ME!" he cried. No one, not even one pony acknowledged his existence. Why were they ignoring his existence? Why where they ignoring him? Mike stood there in shock. It was almost as if he wasn't there. Almost as if he was a ghost. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Twilight walked towards the town of Ponyville. She was on her way back from visiting Fluttershy. The tea they had was wonderful. She walked into town and proceeded to head towards her library. She passed a few ponies she knew, giving greeting and such. "Oh, hello Twilight," said Miss Cheeralee. "Hello Cheeralee," replied Twilight. "How was school today?" asked Twilight. "Oh, it was fine. The children had a math test, and then show and tell. I had to deal with that Diamond Tiaras refusal to leave the Cutie Mark Crusaders alone, but other that that, my day was pretty uneventful." "Oh, well it was nice talking to you, but I have to get home." "Alright, well I'll see you later," said Cheeralee. "See you later," said Twilight as the two departed ways. As Twilight walked past the schoolyard, she cast a glance to the playground. She glanced at the human on the swing, and then continued walking. She walked another ten paces, before she realized what she just saw. She backtracked and looked towards the swing. A HUMAN was sitting there on a swing! Twilight gasped in surprise. Once she composed herself, she decided to go and speak to the human. She trotted up to a few feet behind the human, and then spoke up. "Um, excuse me?" said Twilight. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Michael had been sitting on the swing, thinking to himself. Who was he? What was he? And most importantly, why was no one acknowledging his presence? "Um, excuse me?" Michael's head perked up as he heard a feminine voice sound behind him. He stood up and looked behind him to see a purple unicorn with dark purple hair and a pink stripe running through it. "Hello young human, my name is Twilight Sparkle. What's yours?" Michael gasped. "Y-you're actually talking to me?" replied Michael. Twilight saw he was smaller than the humans she'd encountered through the mirror. He sounded like a young colt. "Um, yeah, I'm sure you've never seen a talking pony before, right?" asked Twilight. "It's not that, it's just, well, all the other ponies ignored me when I tried to talk to them," replied the boy. "What?" exclaimed Twilight. "That doesn't make sense, you're quite possibly the only human in Equestria, it doesn't make sense that ponies would ignore you!" said Twilight. "Well it's true. Oh, by the way, if you don't mind my asking, what is a human?" asked the boy. Now this caught Twilight off guard. Here before her was the first human in Equestria, and it didn't even know it was a human. "Seriously?" asked Twilight. The human boy nodded, looking ashamed about his lack of knowledge. "You, you're a human," replied Twilight. "I am?" asked the boy. "Yes, you really didn't know that?" asked Twilight. The human looked down to the ground with a sad expression. "I can't remember anything," replied the human. "You can't?" asked Twilight. The human shook his head. At this point, Twilight noticed how sickly and thin the human looked. That couldn't be healthy. If she had to guess, she'd say he looked and sounded like he was at most, ten years old. "Well, I know a little about humans. I believe that you're just a foal." "A foal?" asked the boy. "It means that you look and sound like a child," replied Twilight. "Oh," replied the human. "You seem too young to be alone without an adult. Why don't you come with me back to my home. I know some stuff about humans, and I can tell you about pony kind. Also, you look pretty hungry," said Twilight. "OK, sure," replied the human. "Before we leave, I think we need to figure out what to call you. I can't just call you human," said Twilight. "Sure, at least until I remember my real name," said the human. Twilight nodded, and then began thinking. What would be a good name for the young boy? After a few minutes, Twilight believed she'd come up with a decent name. "How about White Shade?" asked Twilight. The human smiled, and nodded. "Sure, that sounds like a cool name," replied Shade. "Well then, why don't you hop on my back and I'll take you to my home to get some food," said Twilight. The boy nodded, and climbed onto Twilight's back and, then they started heading to the library.