//------------------------------// // Dreams of Books // Story: A New Life // by Lunafan1k //------------------------------// I stared at the changeling in the mirror, somehow I know it was a changeling just as I knew what a pony was or how to write. I lifted my hooves from the sheets, examining the hard chitin and the holes seemingly bored all the way through my hooves, continuing up to about the middle of my leg. I examined my other foreleg, it too had holes in roughly the same places. I pulled the sheet down and looked at my chest and belly, they were soft to the touch, and covered in short black hairs. I was also defiantly male as well. I examined the chitin on my sides; it went from the soft furry skin of my belly to almost solid plates on my back. Also on my back, a pair of fragile looking wings. I gave them a quick buzz – yep! They work great! They folded against my sides comfortably as I lay back down. I held the mirror to my face and looked over the damage. As the doctor said, I’ve got several bandages around my neck with thick pads being held against the skin there. On my face and around my mouth there was the tube, held in place with several strips of tape. I opened my mouth and after a moment of looking at my sharp teeth I gazed into my throat. I was a bit horrified, my throat was still very swollen and pressed against the tube on all sides, if not for the tube I would have suffocated long ago. Also of note were several stitches and scabs here and there, overall not a pretty sight. “You’re lucky Zecora rushed you here when she did, a few minutes later and your throat would have closed and the tube would have to have been inserted directly into the trachea.” I had no idea what that meant but it sounded bad, so I nodded and levitated the mirror back to the doctor. “All done?” I nodded. “Alright, shall I inform Zecora and the others you are up?” I shrug and motion to the bandages. “Ah right, well in that case I can administer a sleeping agent to speed along your recovery. This evening when you wake up we’ll check the swelling and replace the bandages.” I nod and lay back in a comfortable position. I watch as the doctor uses a needle and plunger to squirt some stuff into a tube that seemed to end at my elbow. I got a little bit of morbid curiosity about how exactly the tube ends, but as the liquid entered by arm my head grew heavy and I was whisked away to the realm of dreams once more. Dreams are weird. I’m not sure what consists of a normal dream but this struck me as just plain odd. I was floating in a void, this time with my entire body, and it was lit up with all sorts of swirling blue colors mixed with bright reds and vivid greens and a bit of yellow thrown in for good measure, almost like someone threw a bunch of-oh, a painting where an artist threw a bunch of paint at the thing they paint on just floated past. The word for that paint thing escapes me. I look around and I can see what looks like shards of broken glass all around me, each one a motion of various colors. Some are large enough, showing part of a face of a pony, while others are more akin to dust floating on a breeze. “What is all this?” I blurt out, the slight buzz of my changeling muzzle quite comforting to myself. “Echo!” I yell. I didn’t respond back. “What indeed.” Perhaps I did respond back. “Uh, echo?” I ask the expanse of color. “We art behind thou.” Wow, my echo is weird! I turn around anyway to meet a strange sight. She looked like a pony, was furry like a pony, but had wings AND a horn not like a pony. I didn’t know what to think of it as tumbleweed blew between us. “Dost our appearance surprise you?” I nod, what else was there to do? “Dost thou know our name, or who we are?” She asked. I shook my head; I really had no clue if the blank white space behind me meant anything. Oh look! Now it’s showing me with a white space showing me with a white space, showing me with a –stop that! “We see, do not worry. Dost thou know, Thy name?” she asked as she poked my chest with her hoof. “Of course I know my name, I’m-” I feel my mouth move, but no words come out. “I’m-” Silence once more. “Thou cannot speak thy name, for thy don’t know thy name.” She said. She looked at me funny, was that pity? “But, I have a name, I know I do…” I trailed off, searching around me for the answers in the swirling mass of broken glass. “Dost thou- *ahem* Do you know what all this is?” She asked me, motioning towards the floating shards. “A really, really weird dream with a mare I’ve never seem before?” I ask. She shakes her head, “Close, I am Princess Luna, and we often walk among the dreams of our subjects. Although, I’ve never encountered a pony such as yourself. We had heard from our sister’s student, one Twilight Sparkle, and I’m afraid I was eager to meet you myself. I must say, you are not quite what I had expected.” “Uh, sorry?” I asked, not really sure what to say exactly. “No need to apologize, I just see I have many months of work ahead of me. I have no doubt I may be able to assist restoring your mind, for you see, all the ruins before you are the remains of your memories and experiences. Once you puzzle a few together, they merge and become whole once more, becoming a type of window. Unfortunately all of them are shattered, and scattered throughout the mindscape.” “So, what do I do?” I asked nervously. “Worry not, for the answer lies within the friendships you will form!” The dream scape began to crack and rumble as a great wind scattered the remains of my memories. “What’s happening?!” I yelled as I-I opened my eyes to see I’m staring at the ceiling of my room. ‘Well that was a weird dream.’ I thought. A glance to the hole-window, it’s a window- revealed that the sun was beginning to set. I reached up and felt at my throat, the bandages were still there and haven’t moved much, and the general sore-ness has gone away a bit. I looked to the door expectantly; the doctor should be here in a moment to change my bandages! I watched and waited and listened for a few minutes before growing rather bored. I looked to the basket and its tantalizing promise of something entertaining, but thought it might be rude not to wait for the ones who gave them to me. In my ever increasing boredom I started staring at the walls and the side of the bed. I noticed there was a plastic rail that could be raised over the side of the bed. I pulled it up with my magic and I see a bunch of colorful round things, each one labeled something different. After puzzling over them for a bit I pressed the one that looked like a triangle. My bed suddenly moved! After a bit of panic I pressed the upside down triangle and the bed lowered. Did every button do something like this!? I smiled and started pressing more buttons. I found the ones that lowered and raised the height of the bed, the angle, and I could lift the foot of the bed! One button still puzzled me, it was labeled CALL. All it did was light up, kind of disappointing really. I pressed it a few more times just to be sure. Yep, just lights up. Suddenly my door slams open, scaring me half to death as I jump in the air a bit before falling back into the bed. About seven doctors and nurses rushing in carrying various charts and equipment and speaking frantically before they stopped and stared at me for a moment. I waved nervously. They seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “Alright everypony, false alarm. Head back to your posts.” Dr. Cure said. “Redheart, care to fetch me the replacement bandages?” “Of course doctor.” She said and headed out as well. Dr. Cure turned back to me, “You gave us quite the scare just now.” I tilted my head in confusion. “Those buttons?” He pointed to the panel I had pulled up, “They aren’t just for the bed. We started getting emergency alarms in the office and thought something had happened.” I looked away, embarrassed. “Now now, no worries. Just keep in mind that those are for emergencies or if you need something” I nodded in understanding. Nurse Redheart came back with a few small packages. “Here you are Doctor, will you need anything else?” “No, thank you. I’ll just be a moment changing the bandages.” He replied. Nurse Redheart nodded and left us alone, closing the door behind her. “Now then, let’s see how you’re progressing, shall we?” He turned on more lights and the room got brighter, easily out doing the small amount of light coming in from the setting sun. I sat up so he would have better access. “No that’s alright, you can lie back down.” He said. I let myself relax as he pulled up a stool to sit beside me. “Feeling better than this morning I hope?” I nodded. “Great, then let’s see how you’re doing under the bandages.” I felt the wraps fall limp as he peeled them away. “Well, well! You’re healing up pretty quickly, almost can’t see the incision we had to make! Let me just clean the area a bit and we won’t have to worry about any more wraps for you.” I felt a damp cloth brush gently against the soft skin of my neck, before another dry one absorbed the excess. “Alright, let’s see how the inside is looking.” He said, strapping a strange object to his head. He flipped a switch and the object began to glow brightly. “Alright, now open your mouth wide for me.” I did as instructed, I could feel a slight stretching sensation but nothing too painful. I watched from around my muzzle as the doctor peered into my maw. “Still a bit swollen, but we should be able to remove the breathing tube.” I thought for a moment, I actually was breathing a bit on my own now, the air over my tender throat stung a little. “Alright, I’m going to remove the tube. Just lay still and it won’t be too bad.” I was confused, what won’t be-AH! It feels weird! I could feel every inch of the tube sliding out of my throat. It felt far longer than it actually was, and when the last of it was removed I had to suppress a gag and swallow several times. “Th… That…” I tried to speak but my throat wasn’t willing to corporate. “Pretty weird?” The doctor asked. I nodded in reply. “Yeah, just about everypony feels the same way.” His horn glowed and the sound of water running met my ears for a moment, followed by a glass of water floating towards me. “Here you go, just sip it till it’s gone and don’t stress your throat.” I nodded and grasped it in my magic. I pulled it closer and sat up straighter, then tilted the water into my mouth. At once the cooling freshness quenched the fires in my throat, soothing dried out parts I didn’t know could be dried out. I couldn’t help but take a few larger gulps. The sudden pain from doing so forced me to stop but the water was so refreshing. It was like… uh, I couldn’t think of an analogy, but something about being very thirsty. I passed the cup back to the doctor. “M-More…” I croaked. My voice sounded strained and broken, the doctor took notice as well. “Sure, not a problem.” I leaned forward and watched him; he refilled it from a sink on the other side of the machines. “But don’t try to talk just yet, you had ruptured your vocal chords after all.” He passed the water back to me and took another sip, the feeling just as heavenly as before. “Okay, so were past the worst of it now, I’m going to give you a few pills to help sooth any pain for a bit, and would you like a book to read to pass the time? I doubt you’re going to be able to keep sleeping, you’ve been resting close to thirty six hours.” A book? Book… Book book book… Aha! A thing to read! I want a thing to read! I smiled and nodded at the good doctor. “Perfect, I’ll be gone just a moment.” He stood and let himself out. I kept thinking about what a book was, it seemed to strike me with a bit of familiarity, like it was something I needed… but I couldn’t put my hoof on it. I tried to think, books had words. Words that could hold wisdom, knowledge, and power. Wait, power? What kind of power? Words don’t have power! Anyway, the words were written on paper, like the ones I wrote on the clip board paper. But that was just a paper, not a book. Unless… Unless a book is lots of papers with words on them? Yes, that must be it. But if it’s just a lot of papers wont they get all jumbled up? You would need something to bind them toget-Binding! Books have binding to hold the pages together! Ha hah! I’m so smart! Then there’s a cover to help protect the pages! Yes! That’s it! It’s a cover made of pony skin! Wait, what? Pony skin books? Pony hide? Leather? Somehow I doubt that books have that as a cover, unless I’m thinking of something else. Wait, what’s this… I think I remember something, was it… was it one of the shards from that dream? Yes, perhaps it was… I remember a book now, one made of pony hide. Where had I seen it? I feel a sense of importance about it… Perhaps the doctor has one? The door opened and I looked to see the doctor returning with a cart filled with books. It struck me just then that there could be more than one book available for reading, but as I looked them over from across the room I could tell that none of them were the one I was looking for. I felt a shiver, as though something crawled along my skin. I needed to find that book from my memories, it seemed to be calling out to me, needing me to hold it, to read- “I hope you’ll find something here to your liking.” The doctor said as he pushed the book cart up to my bed. “We’ve got a few of the older Daring Do books, Hairy Trotter, The Mocking Foal, and some other horror classics like Frankenhoof, Village of the Blanks, and the bat pony Drinkula.” I nodded and used my magic to grab a few titles, I’ll have to look for MY book once I’m healed up enough to go search for it. In the mean time I’ll just make due with a few of these. I pulled out a few at random and wound up with that Hairy Trotter and one with a Pegasus called the Lightning Thief or something. The doctor wheeled the cart out as he returned to the hall as I opened the first book about Hairy. I’m not sure what I was expecting exactly, but I couldn’t help but feel disappointment, like I picked the wrong book. I leafed through the other one quickly as well, and just like the first it wasn’t what I was looking for. With nothing better to do I began reading Hairy Trotter. Hours later I was rolling around on the bed in laughter, who knew books were this hilarious!? I especially like the main character’s aunt, uncle, and cousin. Making him live under the stairs? The best! I should do that! Oh, right, no home. And the teenage dragon Draco was pretty cool too, I wonder why the bood doesn’t focus on those guys? Oh well. Regardless, an earth pony learning magic with a secret society of magical earth ponies was quite hilarious. They held their horn in their hooves and called them wands! My laughter ended abruptly as a series of coughs racked my body. Once that was done I had another drink of water and set the book on the stand. I wasn’t too tired but I was able to nod off once again. I was back in my dream space, but it was different. Along with the dust and shards were now a few complete windows. One of which was the doctor that took care of me, and the other was my imaginings of the Hairy Trotter book. But, oddly, there was a large shard attached to the Hairy Trotter memory, it appeared to be a book’s cover, but I had no idea what it was other than a vague idea that I should find it. Fine! If my mind thinks I should find the stupid book then I will! I glanced around to see if that blue mare was back, but I couldn’t find her. With the rest of the night ahead I floated up to and delved through the window to dreams of Hairy Trotter and slept with a smile.