Seven Ponies, Seven Trials, Seven Loves

by Lieutenant Bubbles

Chapter Two: A stranger in a strange land

Part One:
Chapter Two, a Stranger in a Strange Land

Phantom had drifted off to sleep only fitfully, the pain in the scars on his right side keeping him awake far longer than he had ever wanted to be. Now, Phantom wasn’t really his name, that would be Alex Buckley. Phantom Mask was his nickname, his moniker, another part of the many protective shields he used to keep people away. He’d earned Phantom because of the way he moved around the theater he worked in, and Mask was added on as a dig at the mask he always wore to hide the scars that were spread across the right side of his face.
The pain had kept him awake, and with being awake came thinking. The pain was probably a stress related thing, as earlier that day he’d received his Pink Slip. It hadn’t come as a total shock to him as he’d known that he couldn’t hide the fact that he was blind in one eye from his bosses forever. He’d just thought he’d been doing a better job at hiding it. So now here he was, a lonely, broken person who now had nothing left. No girlfriend, no job, and definitely nothing worth looking at. Perhaps it was time to just give up completely. As he drifted off, thoughts of ending his life floated through his pain wracked mind…

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Phantom awoke in midair, his wings spread wide to catch the warm updrafts of the early morning. He yawned and took in the sight of the beautiful countryside that seemed to stretch out endlessly before him. It was at about this time that he realized that he didn’t have wings and couldn’t possibly be flying and promptly preceded to fall out of the sky. He fell fast for a Pegasus, his wings flapping uselessly at his side, out of synch with each other, and his four legs waving in despair and terror. He screamed, and with a sickening crunch landed hard on the ground.

His right side hurting so bad it made the previous night seem like a little irritation, he started to take stock of the facts. As he looked down the length of his body, it appeared that he was most definitely in some sort of a dream. He no longer had any arms, but rather four legs like that of a horse. His coat was a deep blue, with darker splotches all over the right side. He had two wings, one of which was now sending waves of pain throughout his body, and he definitely had a tail. It all became too much for him so very quickly. He couldn’t begin to process what was happening, the pain was overwhelming, and he had no idea where he was. He was a fragile person to begin with, and a sudden shock like this on top of the one he’d received yesterday was too much for him, even if this was a dream, which he strongly suspected it wasn’t because he was in too much pain for it to be a dream. He folded his forelegs under him as if by instinct and did the only thing he could do at that time and cried.

Not too far away, Fluttershy was feeding her chickens. She jumped as she heard a hideous crunching sound and thud. A sound like that meant that something had fallen. She poked her head out of the door of her chicken coop and looked around. She didn’t see anything that looked like it had fallen. She inched forwards a little more and heard the sound of somepony crying. As nervous as she was, her compassionate side took over, and she decided to go investigate. Angel Bunny hopping along beside her, she went searching for the source of the sound.

It took her a while to find it, but she did find Phantom. He was facing away from her when she found him. It wasn’t a pretty sight. It was obvious that his right wing was broken, given the hideous angles at which it was bent, but it was even more obvious that there was more than that to fuel this pony’s sadness. He was laying on the ground, with his head between his hooves, completely oblivious to the world around him. Fluttershy walked up towards him slowly. “Um…Excuse me…..Ummmm….. Do you need help…..” Fluttershy asked in a very small voice.

Now, as upset as Phantom was, he still a pparently had good hearing, because his head turned towards Fluttershy as she spoke. He saw a yellow Pegasus with pink hair looking concernedly at him. He didn’t know how to take it. His eyes widened in the terror of someone who had no idea that what they were looking at was reality. The few events of the past few hours had already been far too much, but now the addition of a talking horse with wings sent him past his limit. He promptly passed out, his eyes rolling up into the back of his head, and his whole body suddenly going slack.

Fluttershy panicked for a moment, thinking he’d just died, but calmed down as she realized he was still breathing. A soft sigh escaped her, having injured ponies pass out when they saw her was not what she expected, or what usually happened. She’d have to get him to the Hospital somehow, but she didn’t have the strength to carry him that far. Well, she could get him back to her home, and take care of him until he was awake enough to make it to a hospital…

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Phantom started to wake up slowly, and refused to open his eyes. It was all just a dream, a horrible dream. When I open my eyes I will be back in my pointless life and fine…. he thought to himself. As he slowly let his eyes open, he saw a very unfamiliar ceiling above him. He shifted to try and get a better look at his surroundings when a sudden wave of pain washed through him from his right side and he let out a small scream. A brown unicorn with glasses walked in wearing a doctor’s coat, and tsked at Phantom’s scream. “Now now, that won’t get you better at all,” the doctor said sternly. Phantom looked around the room of what he now realized to be a hospital. All the same sort of equipment was there that you would expect to find in a hospital room, except that the furniture was nicer than normal, and made of real wood, not contact paper covered plastic. He just had to figure out one thing first…

“Um, Doc…. You’re a Pony?” Phantom asked shyly, afraid of the answer. He half hoped the doctor said no, and that he’d just gone crazy, but if it was real, he didn’t know if he could accept it. Much to his surprise, the doctor laughed.
“You must have had quite the bump to the head my friend. Of course I’m a pony! You are too,” the doctor said kindly. Phantom sat there looking shocked as the doctor continued. “Well technically I’m a unicorn and you’re a Pegasus, but I don’t think that’s what you were asking now is it?” Phantom shook his head a little mechanically. Then he shook it again harder, hoping to wake up from this crazy dream. The shaking of his head however caused him to twinge a muscle in his back and sent a very powerful wave of pain through him. That decided it then, this couldn’t be a dream because you don’t hurt in dreams. At least, not like this. Not body wracking spasms that make you wish you were dead…..

The doctor checked Phantom’s charts and made a few notes with a pencil that seemed to float magically in the air and move of its own volition. Phantom just sat there in shock. He had no idea how this had happened, or how it was even possible. He just sat there with a rather vacant expression on his face. He didn’t even notice when the yellow and pink Pegasus entered into the room and sat down in the corner. The Pegasus started at him in a rather shy manner, her cyan eyes peeking out from the edge of her mane. The two of them sat in that silent - and rather awkward - state for a while. At least until the Pegasus spoke up.

“Ummm…Are you going to be okay?” Phantom finally took notice of the Pegasus and simply stared. First a Unicorn, now a Pegasus…. This was a strange and discomforting world that he had somehow ended up in. The Pegasus spoke up again, her voice still faint, but slightly stronger now, “I’m Fluttershy, who are you?”

Phantom just stared at her. A name like Fluttershy was as abnormal to him as putting motor oil on apple pie. He thought about it for a moment. If this was going to be his new reality, he might as well accept it. His thoughts continued on, his overworked brain trying to find some good in the situation. Maybe it wasn’t all bad, especially not if he didn’t have his scars anymore. There, he did it. He found something positive. Now if he could only figure out how not to keep freaking out. Well maybe getting to know someone who could at least explain this whole topsy-turvy world to him wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. Now he just had to introduce himself, but which name to use. He thought for a moment, and decided to use his nickname. Alex would be dead, just like the empty shell of a person that he was. If this really was a new reality and not a dream, he’d just have to accept it, no matter how crazy or insane it is.

“I…I’m Phantom…. Phantom Mask. It….It’s nice to… meet you….” His voice was a little broken and disjointed, and he seemed even meeker than Fluttershy. He looked up at her and really took a good look at this Pegasus that stood before him. Something seemed familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his finger, no, hoof on it. She suddenly looked upset, as if she’d done something wrong.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you…..” Fluttershy looked down at the ground and idly tapped a hoof against the ground warily. Her voice was so quiet that it was barely audible over the sounds of the hospital equipment that was sitting in the room.

“You didn’t scare me…. I’m just….. not really sure where I am….. or why I’m here……” Phantom looked at her, wondering about her sudden dual personality. She was friendly at first and then suddenly acting all guilty... He wondered what happened to cause it.

“Oh, that’s… um…good. You’re in a Hospital because you got hurt… And I sort of, maybe, brought you here.” Fluttershy still hadn’t looked up, even though her voice had picked up by about several octaves. Phantom had to admit, her voice was rather pleasant and calming. Perhaps that was why he was able to think without being purely terrified. He thought about it for a moment, and remembered the falling dream that was apparently not a dream.
“Oh, so um… I guess I fell.” Phantom said sheepishly.

Fluttershy finally looked at him. “I don’t know, but I know you broke your wing. You fainted when I found you so I got you to the hospital. I just came to make sure you were going to be okay…” Phantom had a feeling that there was something going on, but he didn’t want to say anything just yet.

The rest of the conversation that morning was much of the same. Fluttershy talking about him being hurt, and him trying to figure out what had happened. There wasn’t a lot of genuine conversation, and after a while, Fluttershy left with about a dozen apologies for doing so.

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After a few weeks, Phantom was cleared to be released from the Hospital. He still didn’t fully understand how he’d become a pony, or why, but he at least had accepted by now that this was reality. He hadn’t seen Fluttershy since that first conversation, and he hadn’t really seen anyone else either. He stopped at the desk on the way out to ask the pony behind the counter where he could go to get a bite to eat. He was starved since he hadn’t gotten breakfast that day because of his impending release. The receptionist told him to try Sugarcube Corner. So it was that Phantom set off and into Ponyville for the first time.

As he walked down the short dirt path from the Hospital to town, he took more notice of things than he usually would. He noticed the brilliant colors of the trees and flowers, and the seemingly endless variety of small critters that were plainly visible, and not running in fright. He made good time on the path and was in a few short minutes at the edge of town. He figured that it might not be a bad idea to try and find this Sugarcube Corner. The only problem was that he had no idea where it was. He looked for somepony to ask. He’d gotten used to talking to ponies during his stay in the Hospital, since the nurses that had been tending to him were rather talkative. The first pony he saw was a pink mare that was positively bouncing. He watched for a moment to figure out if he was seeing things, or if the mare was actually moving around by hopping. As things would turn out, he wasn’t crazy, she actually was, but he still felt a little uneasy. It was bad, but not as bad as the last time his life had been totally changed.

He decided to try and talk to this pony, to see if she knew where this Sugarcube corner place was. He walked up to her slowly. “Umm, hello, my name is Phan-“ was all he could say before the Pink pony jumped into the air with a large and almost exaggerated gasp. The pink pony ran off. That was the least productive thing that had ever happened. He didn’t know what the pink pony’s problem was but that had not gone anything like he would have expected. He looked around and didn’t see anypony else to talk to. He trotted around the streets of Ponyville for a while, looking for this Sugarcube Corner place. After a while he saw a building that was incredibly bright and made up to look like a gingerbread house. He walked forward towards the building and saw the sign that said Sugarcube Corner. So he had found the place after all, and without help. He felt a little more confident.

As he approached the door, he saw no signs of anypony inside, so he walked forward, slowly and cautiously, not knowing what to expect. “Hello, is anypony in here?”

Comments

[Dark Lightning]

Just going to take this as a first.
I wonder what Phantom will do when he sees that EVERY perso is a pony.
Freak Out Sequence, COMMENCE!

Oh and was wondering if you could send me the link that you have as a cover art?

[Lieutenant Bubbles]

271131
This is a first for published, but I've been writing stories for people for six years. Also the changes in style are changes in the times I write.... I don't know why its just sorta how I do it...

And I'd love to send you the link, I ended up picking it up off google, but I can't seem to find the direct link. I want to give credit to the artist, but I can't seem to find the picture again.

[Dark Lightning]

271146: I think you kinda misunderstood me.
I said FIRST as in first comment. Didn't want to cause any trouble there...sorry.

[Lieutenant Bubbles]

271173

Oh it's fine. I wasn't upset, so no trouble at all!