//------------------------------// // Full Reset // Story: With Teeth // by TritiumAge00 //------------------------------// Chapter Four Full Reset 'Swimming or some some shit.' That is your first muddled thought as you begin your ascent through the the hazy layers of sleep. You find yourself, or rather some form of yourself, moving through a void of nothing but darkness. There is no water here, but you can't help but associate the odd pulsing sensation of movement buffering your entire body with memories of swimming in the ocean. You are reminded of the strange isolation experienced when diving beneath the waves, eyes screwed firmly shut plunging you into a world of only inner monologue and the cyclical sound of the current. You quickly decide this is pretty much alright. Considering how much of a shit storm things have been lately, you figure a little time spend chilling in limbo might do your fragile psyche some good. The colorful horse apparitions should be a dead giveaway that something broke in your brain during your slight detour. 'Hell, they even spoke Standard!' you chuckle to yourself while executing a lazy barrel roll. 'As if pastel colored ponies and lion scorpions weren't bad enough, you had to try to slip in something dumb like that, huh brain?' You'd probably be waking up in the medical facilities aboard your originally intended destination in the Lacaille 8760 system any minute now. Maybe they got fancy and finally managed to jaunt your entire brain out of your skull this time. As if sensing your clearing mental fog, a light appears in the distance, starting low on the horizon but approaching rapidly and expanding exponentially. 'Right on time' you muse. 'I was starting to worry you guys forgot me.' Before you can react, the light has overtaken you in a blinding radiance. You attempt to shield your vision, but your ethereal arms offer no protection. 'What the - hell?" you breath out as your eyes open to the real world once again. You groan as it immediately becomes obvious that your body is still in bad shape. Turning your head slightly, you take in the room around you. A gentle and warming bath of sunshine is spilling through the window nearest to your bed, dancing across a hospital room the likes of which you've never seen. Sure, the function of the room's furniture and equipment is obviously tailored to aid in a patient's recovery, but it all appeared so, rustic to you. It was as if you were stuck in some bizarre functional museum exhibit from a forgotten time. The heart monitor to your left serving as a cake topper to the cart of blinking medical devices just out of hand's reach is a welcome sight. Wherever you were, discounting the very real possibility of psychosis, at least they had some level of technology. You note that the beeps emitting from it have been steadily increasing in urgency since your awakening. Only thirty seconds pass before you hear the sounds of rapidly approaching footsteps from the hallway. Instinctively you scrunch your eyes closed and proceed to do a horrible impression of sleep. The clacking noises from outside stop almost as suddenly as they began. Minutes drag by as you become increasingly certain someone is watching you. In what passes in your mind as a pretty slick move, you slowly but evenly open your left eye, not noticing that you've subconsciously stuck your tongue out in concentration. There is a white pony with a pink mane staring at you through the door's slatted glass window. A white nurse's cap emblazoned with a red cross sits atop her head. Her blue eyes widen and she emits an audible gasp before the drapes remove her from your sight. You can hear as she flat out sprints away, the slam of a heavy door finalizing her departure. Rolling your eyes at your own stupidity, you try to roll over onto your side before being painfully reminded of your high flying (see; falling) adventures in the forest. You're still not sure what the hell you were thinking. That blue pegasus was likely to rip you a new one after you more or less felt her up. Everything from that point had felt like some sort of out of body experience. It was almost as if your consciousness had been relegated to the background while some outside party took hold of the reigns. Maybe it was just your inner awesome breaking free after years of repression. You keep a straight face for all of three seconds before you lose it, breaking down in laughter. You're self deprecating laughter is still tapering off when your attention shifts to the hallway once more. The sound of multiple voice approaching your room sets your heart monitor racing. Their trek and quiet conversation ends directly outside your room. Moments crawl by at a snail's pace and you swallow reflexively, noting how your throat has taken on a texture akin to fine sandpaper. The door opens with hardly a noise, and the nurse pony from earlier cautiously makes her entrance. Seeing that you are still in the same position from earlier, she turns, motioning into the hallway. Your entire body tenses as the purple unicorn from the forest enters. She is doing her best to present a confident expression, but her eyes betray her nerves. She glances to the white pony and gives a barely perceptible nod. The message is clear enough, and the nurse makes her exit, gently closing the door behind herself. For what seems like hours but is more likely seconds you stare at each other from across the room. It's probably the most awkward thing you've ever experienced. With a nervous cough, the unicorn breaks the oppressive silence. You can't help but smirk, releasing the breath you were unaware you'd been holding. Seeing your reaction seems to put her at ease, as she chuckles while approaching your bed. "Um, hi" she begins. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. Can you understand me?" At this you nod slowly, purposely avoiding any sudden movements. She gasps with what appears to be thinly veiled excitement before continuing in earnest. "What species are you? Do you have a name? Where did you come from? I've never seen anything quite like you before!" You feel your head begin to spin as your eyes cross slightly as she fires off questions in rapid succession, pausing barely long enough to breath. Before she has a chance to continue her interrogation, you bring your right hand up and wave it back and forth in front of her face. Seeing this, the unicorn pauses and chuckles looking off to the side sweeping her hoof about in a small circle abashedly. The display brings another smile to your face and you open your mouth to answer. You're fairly certain someone misplaced a 55 gallon drum of sand in your throat as nothing more than a wheeze passes your lips. You spot a pitcher of water atop the cabinet directly in front of you and gesture between it and your throat several times until she makes the connection. "Oh! I'm so sorry! Water, of course! You must be parched after being unconscious for three days!" Three days? Best be joking. How the hell were you out for three whole days? Your brain decides to be helpful for once and plays back a nicely detailed memory of you jumping out of a tree and taking enough venom to kill a rhino. Yeah, three days sounds about right. You forget to breath when a purple aura emanates from the newly dubbed Twilight Sparkle's horn, grasping the pitcher firmly before performing a perfect pour and levitating the glass to your now shaking hand. You forget where you are until her aura gently nudges the glass of water against the edge of your palm. With a comically slackened jaw, you glance down at the glass as it happily hangs in place, a few drops of perspiration already dripping onto your bed sheets. In a single motion you snatch the glass from its perch and almost throw the contents down your throat. It is quite possibly the best thing you've ever tasted. With a satisfied sigh of relief, you lay back staring at the clean white ceiling while simply allowing the now empty glass to lose itself in the pool of sheets around your body. "That was a pretty good trick" you remark without taking your eyes away from the space directly overhead. She gasps again surprised by the sudden sound of your voice. "What are you talking about?" she asks raising a single eyebrow in confusion. "The levitation of course" is your reply. She doesn't look like she quite follows so you continue. "The pitcher and glass. Is it some form of magnetic levitation, or perhaps a type of gravitational decoupling?" It looks like she understood some of what you said, but probably not the context. You notice she has gained a smile of her own though as she approaches your side. "Oh! You mean my magic!" As if to accentuate her statement she once again sends out her faint purple aura and picks up a potted plant from the room's corner. "I can use my magic for near limitless applications." You can tell she's getting excited at this point. "Magic?" You can't have heard her right. "Magic as in parlor tricks and clowns with balloon animals? That's magic. No, what you just did was not magic. I've seen thousands of applications of simple levitation before, but none using a particle field. Twilight looks at you as you would a child trying to cram the square peg in the round hole. "Here, let me show you." She places the plant back on its faded square of tile and screws her face up in concentration. "Trust me, this will be much better than just simple levitation." You notice that vast amounts of energy have begun to swirl about Twilight's horn as miniature bursts of bright purple lightning spark in and out of existence about the room. Just before you can interrupt her efforts, she flashes out of and back into existence far too quickly to see, moving perhaps ten feet across the room. "So what do you think?" she asks with obvious pride and just a hint of smoke curling from her mane. You can do nothing but stare at the pleased unicorn in complete disbelief, a single thought looping through your mind. 'What the hell did I get myself into?'