Artist's Block

by Hot Dog Jones

Chapter 10 - Wheels

“Heya there, kiddo!”

I brought my head up from the pillow to see my father, still in uniform, standing at my door with a big smile. I smiled back. “Hey dad,” I said as he came over to my bed.

“I wanted to check on you as soon as possible, so I came straight from work – and I have some great news too!” he said back in a happy tone.

“What’s the good news?”

“I just checked with the doctors, and guess what? You’re getting let out tomorrow!”

“That’s great!” I exclaimed, “I’ll finally be able to get back home. You have no idea how weird it is staying here.”

“I can imagine it, bud. But you only have to go through it for one more night. I’m gonna grab the paperwork on my way home and fill it out asap. Then I can get my Sketch back home,” he added, rustling my hair. I laughed and pushed away his hoof from my head. “Sorry I gotta be in such a hurry, but I have to pull a night shift tonight. But in the meantime, try to enjoy your time off school.”

I laughed and responded, “Okay, dad, I will. I’ll see you later.”

“Oh, by the way – I have another letter from your marefriend. I would go on about how cute you guys are, but you don’t wanna hear that mushy stuff.” We both laughed. He dropped the letter onto my bedside table, gave me a hug, and went to the door.

“Love you too, dad. See you at home!”

I heard his steps from the hallway slowly fade and fade, until they were completely gone. I was alone with my thoughts once again. And my sketch book. My poor, untouched sketch book.

I hadn’t opened the ragged book since the day I had the dream, and that was easily one or two days before. I guess I was scared of what I would decide to draw. My sketch book had seemed like some sort of gateway into my soul, revealing my true feelings about the world around me.

The problem was, I was scared of my feelings.

I fell asleep before I could even read my letter.

***

I was at home, inside my room.

Everything seemed pretty normal, like it had been before I was admitted to the hospital. I smiled, recognizing my past and glad to get back to it.

I walked around the fairly dirty room, looking for nothing in particular – just enjoying the splendor of being home. I heard a rustle of paper, and felt something under my hoof. Looking down, I saw it was just a scrap of paper that had somehow littered my floor. I picked it up and un-crumpled it, looking at what it had on it.

Oh, Celestia, not this again.

It was a familiar picture I had drawn, the outline of a mare. Recognizing it, I crumpled it again and threw it across my room. It hit my bed with a rustle, but then something odd happened that I’m not quite sure how to describe..

The paper started sucking in my room, like some sort of black hole. It grabbed my belongings and everything in its path, slowly growing. I stepped back, watching it devour everything dear to me. I ran into the hallway, still watching in awe, until it finally came near to me. I ran down the stairs and out my door, hoping my parents weren’t inside.

The black hole continued to expand, sucking in my house. I kept running – it started growing faster and faster, and I had to be quick to escape it. I passed Fluttershy’s house, the schoolhouse, and even the city line, but it kept growing until it sucked in all of Ponyville.

Then, it all stopped. Everything froze, as if stopped by time – everything except for me that is. With a big booming sound, the black hole disappeared, leaving behind no trace of Ponyville or its residents.

My family. My friends. My home.

All gone.

I fell to my knees, and pushed my face into the ground. It was gone. Everything. It was all-

***

“Sketch? Wake up, ya knuckle-head!”

“Civil!”

“Just a joke, dear.”

“Honey, please get up. We’re going to sign you out of the hospital today, remember?”

I dragged my face up from the pillow and grabbed my glasses. My parents were at my bedside, with a clipboard and a pen.

“Alright, I’m up, I’m up,” I pleaded, getting out from under my sheets and into a wheelchair they brought for me. I took the clipboard from my parents, signing the papers wherever they told me to. A few minutes later, I left my hospital room for the first time in four days.

We handed in the paperwork and walked (well, I wheeled) outside. I hadn’t really learned how to use the wheelchair yet, so my dad was pushing me around. In fact, I have no idea how I ever got used to the wheelchair, but I remember it being really difficult. For example, there was a certain lack of paved streets in Ponyville, so I clunked around the dirt roads.

There was also a lack of my home being wheelchair accessible. Thus, when we got home, I had lots of trouble getting around. Also, my dad couldn’t really push me around forever, so I had to learn how to push the wheelchair myself. It was a lot harder than I first thought – I always ended up going too slow, or too fast, turning the wrong way, or some weird combination of the three.

I decided to go outside to practice, as there weren’t any walls for me to bump into. I practiced moving back and forth, along with moving the wheels to turn the proper way. The sun was just going down as I heard a voice behind me.

“Well, well, well, look who’s out of the hospital.”

I turned (very clumsily) to see Scootaloo with a devilish grin on her face. “Oh, hey Scoots,” I said, “What’s-“ My words were stopped by her coming forward and sitting on my lap. I blushed and responded, “Hey, what’re you-“ She put a hoof to my mouth to silence me.

“I missed you,” she uttered, giving me a seductive grin.

“I missed you too,” I said, grinning back.

She leaned in, and softly kissed me. I knew it was coming, but for some reason, I didn’t want to stop it. Not that there was much I could do, but it just felt so.. right. Like I was kissing Starshine again.

But her last letter to me lay on my hospital room’s table, forgotten.

Comments

[TheRealShadowFoot]

ENDED TOO SOON `cry` took me all of about 5 minutes to read this chapter....wish it took me like 10 or 20...anyhow another awesome chapter. I hate to see this fic end though...