Rune Cascade

by Valtyra

Chapter 3

Princess Luna walked to the centre of her room and closed her eyes; the moonlight bouncing off her dress, making it look like the stars were interwoven with the fabric. The moonlight’s glow grew until Frederick had to close his eyes.

When he opened them again, he saw that instead of the young girl with the blue dress, there was a different type of pony in her place. “I take it this is your normal form?” He asked, getting up from the chair and walking over.

“That is correct. My sister, my niece and I are Alicorn; we rule over Equestria.” Luna explained, moving her hair out of her face, “Am I correct in thinking you don’t have any Alicorn on your planet?”

“No, we don’t.” Frederick replied, “This is still a dream.” He stated, not expecting her to reply.

Luna nodded, “Your dream broke down, and I brought you into my own and was asked to see if you were dangerous.”

“Am I?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t know, those canines seem quite sharp. There’s nothing stopping you from pouncing on me.” Luna grinned, “I doubt I’d even put up a fight...”

“It’s lucky for you that ponies taste awful to me,” he relied, receiving a gasp. Luna backed away, an unreadable expression on her features. “I’m joking!” Frederick said, laughing, “You’re not the only one that can make jokes.”

“So you didn’t eat ponies?” Luna asked with uncertainty.

“No, of course not.” He replied, “I’m sorry it was such a morbid joke though.”

“I, uh, guess it’s alright. But anyway, I think it’s time that you wake up.” Luna said, moving towards Frederick, “I still have to tell my sister that you’re safe.”

“Oh, I hope I haven’t offended you. If I have, I’m sorry.” He pleaded.

“No, you haven’t. I simply have to get back to my royal duties and this has taken up a fair chunk of time.” She explained, placing her horn on his forehead, “we’ll meet again, soon.”

“Goodbye princess, thanks for the talk.” Frederick replied, smiling. A cool glow enveloped him and for a second he felt a large amount of vertigo, then woke up.

Frederick opened his eyes to the cold glow of a hospital room. Sitting up, he looked around and saw that the room was sparsely furnished with surprisingly small furniture. “Of course... ponies, “he thought, knowing it would take some time to get used to the thought of living with ponies.

The room was painted a light blue colour, of which he’d only seen in children’s wards. Beside the left wall stood a small bookcase with less than full shelves. Next to his bed was a table with a tray placed on it, a small selection of meats, fruits and vegetables, “They must be seeing what I like to eat.”

The bed seemed a little too small for himself as his ankles hung off the edge. He moved them up as the room seemed a little cold and pulled the covers closer to himself.

“Wait...” he muttered, pulling the covers up, “they took my clothes... of course they did.”

He heard the sound of hooves on the ground and covered himself. The door to his room opened to reveal a completely white pony. She wore a nurse’s hat on her head and her red mane was bunched up behind her head.

Frederick sat still and watched as she walked into the room and looked at a chart that she was somehow holding in her hoof. She looked up at him and her eyes went wide, “Y-you’re awake!” She shouted, before looking back down to her chart. She walked over to his bed and read out the diagnosis, “You had third degree burns over forty percent of your paws, and you were in a coma for three days.”

Frederick looked down to his hands and looked them over, there were flecks of Unox still embedded in the skin, but other than that, they seemed perfectly ok. “How did you hear them?” He asked, making the nurse and himself jump at the roughness of his voice, “water please.”

The nurse pass him a cup of water and he downed it, sighing in relief, he coughed and said, “Again, how did you hear me?”

This time, the nurse didn’t seem quite as reluctant and replied, “The princesses personally helped out in surgery, it saved us a lot of time.”

“The princesses...” Frederick mumbled, before turning to the nurse. “How is that purple pony?” He asked, “Is she ok?”

“Purple... oh yeah, her name is Twilight sparkle. She’s doing well, just a small cold from laying in the mud.” The nurse replied, smiling, “I suggest you don’t move, I’ll tell the Princesses that you are alright to see visitors.”

Frederick nodded and the nurse retreated out into the hallway. He laid back and pushed back the creeping tears, he knew he was on a new planet, but didn’t know it would this strange. “If anyone said I’d be talking to ponies...”

“Then you’d be rich.” A soothing voice replied from the doorway. Frederick moved up and saw a large Alicorn standing in the doorway, “isn’t that how the saying goes?”

“I guess so,” Frederick said, analysing her. “Slightly bigger than Luna and certainly more confidence...” he thought, taking mental notes.

“I see you have recovered well, did you have a nice conversation with my sister?” She asked.

“I did, at least I think it was.” He replied, before saying, “You’re Celestia?”

“I am indeed,” she said, moving closer to the bed, “my sister told me some information about you.”

“What kind of information?” He asked, “I take it, it wasn’t anything horrible or you would have place me in your equivalent of a dungeon.”

“Of course not, my sister has the ability to read into a pony, while it’s more difficult with other species, she can still do it.” Celestia explained, sitting on the edge of the bed. “She said you are a scientist, is that correct?”

“Close, I’m more of a tinkerer. My main job was in a factory, like everyone else.” Frederick sighed, “I quit just before to work on an experiment, guess how that turned out...”

“I see, she also said you can do magic, can I see that?”

“It’s just basic telekinesis, nothing special. I’ve had to hide it, making it difficult to practise.” He replied, lifting up the cup of water, “I prefer to use my hands anyway, it feels less numb.”

“Yes, Luna explained why you had to hide it... don’t worry; while you’re living in Equestria, no harm will come to you, I promise you.” Celestia stated, placing a hoof on Frederick’s leg.

“Thank you princess, it means a lot.”

“It’s the least I could do, I am in your debt.” She got off the bed and moved to the door, “I’ll see if Twilight and her friends are well enough to see you, I’m sure they will want to thank you.”

Frederick nodded and watched as Celestia walked out of the door. He heard some quiet talking and waited till it died down. A few minutes later, he saw the same purple unicorn walk slowly through the open doorway, her friends in tow.

She levitated a few chairs over and jumped up on one of them, closest to Frederick. She took a few seconds to sniff back her runny nose then said, “Hello, my name is Twilight sparkle. What’s yours?”

Frederick coughed, not expecting the formality, “I’m Frederick.”

“Well Frederick, thank you for saving my life.”

“I, uh,” Frederick stuttered, “no problem, I guess...”

Twilight smiled, “What’s wrong?”

“Well, to be honest, I wasn’t really thinking of you... or anything really. I was just...” Frederick chuckled, which transitioned to full on laughter. “Oh man, I’m sorry, it’s just,” his laughter died down, “I’m stuck here, and nobody asks me how I’m doing, maybe I’m not alright, maybe I’m hurt!”

Twilight pulled the chairs away with magic and jumped off, moving towards the door, “Nurse!” She called out, getting scared.

Rainbow got up out of her chair and raised her wings in front of Twilight, “Listen here, just because you saved her, doesn’t give you the right to be a jerk!”

“Me, a jerk!” He laughed, getting out of bed, not caring he was naked, “I’m on a planet which could be in a different universe for all I know, with no friends, no family and you call me the jerk!?”

Rainbow’s expression faltered for a second, before coming back, “How do we know you didn’t plan this, huh.” She jabbed a hoof at him.

“Rainbow...” Fluttershy said quietly, behind Rarity.

“How do we know you didn’t want to come here, create that... thing and hurt Twilight?”

“Rainbow...” Fluttershy spoke up a little louder.

It was Rarity’s turn to speak, “She’s right. How dare you shout at us, when we brought you all the way here?”

“You should have let me die there, at least I wouldn’t be reminded, and I’m all, alone!” Frederick shouted, moving forwards towards the group.

“Frederick!” He heard Luna shout. A few seconds later, Luna walked into the room with an angry expression on her face, “what art thou doing!?”

“I,” Frederick was speechless.

“Nay, do not think to answer that. How dare thou show anger to them?” Luna shouted again, quite loud in his face. “Thou art but a well to them, yet thou has the nerve to call them petty names?

Frederick lowered his head, his anger dissipating. His face lost its red tinge and he was left with a strange feeling: nothing.

Luna backed up, giving him a little breathing room, “Well, anything to say?”

Frederick’s expression became unreadable, “I...I’m sorry.”

“Good,” Luna turned around to the group and looked at Twilight. She leaned down and whispered, “He’s going to need your help more than you think.”

Luna pulled back and looked at each pony in turn, “It wasn’t just him, was it?” She asked, looking at Rainbow Dash, who still had her wings up.

She quickly tucked them down and smiled sheepishly, “No, I guess not.”

Luna raised an eyebrow.

“Ok, geez.” Rainbow walked forward and Luna moved out of the way. Making her way up to Frederick, she looked back at the girls with a look of exasperation. They nodded and shooed her on.

Turning back she saw that Frederick was looking down at her with a piercing gaze. Well, to her it looked like that, in reality it was quite neutral. “Look, I’m sorer...”

“Ahem.” Luna coughed.

“I’m sorry alright,” Rainbow shouted, rubbing her leg.

“Okay,” Frederick replied calmly, and looked over to the bed, “Where are my clothes?”

Luna frowned at that blatant disregard for the Pegasus’s feelings, “You didn’t have any on, when you came in.” She snapped, pulling the Pegasus away from him.

“Girls, can you leave,” she asked, not turning around. The group shuffled out, whispering about how much they didn’t like him. After Fluttershy left, she closed the door.

Luna stared at Frederick, then turned to look outside. There was a golden sunset filling the mostly empty sky. “Frederick, I hope you know that Celestia and I will find you a way home.” When she heard no response, she carried on, “Those ponies saved your life, the nurse didn’t tell you everything...”

Luna turned around and saw that Frederick had taken one of the bed sheets and covered himself up with it, then sat on the bed. He was looking at her with a sad look in his eyes.

As much as she didn’t want to, she had to tell him the state he had been in. “While you did have extensive burns on your paws-” she was cut off by Frederick.

“Hands,” he said coldly, “they are hands.”

“Oh, my mistake. Carrying on, the girls found you unconscious and bleeding from several areas, most notably your lungs. The stones of Unox had burst, piercing your chest.” Luna sighed, “Fortunately Twilight and Rarity had taken basic lessons on healing magic, and otherwise you would be dead.”

Frederick sat there, looking down at the ground, blinking once in a while.

“Do you understand?” Luna asked, “They literally saved your life.” No reply. She groaned and shook her head, “be that way, I asked Twilight to house you for the time being, maybe she can talk some sense into you.” Luna turned away from him, opened the door and trotted out; slamming it shut.

Frederick turned towards the door, then took a deep breath. “Why did I get thrown here...” he thought as he played back and closed his eyes.
___
Luna huffed as she walked out of Frederick’s room. Immediately, she was bombarded by questions from the girls. “Please, calm yourselves,” she asked, moving through them and down the corridor.

The group followed her, keeping quiet; every so often she could hear Rainbow mutter something unbecoming of a mare. They walked out a set of automatic doors and into s small courtyard, “One at a time,” Luna said, laying on a stone bench.

The girls looked at each other, then to Twilight. She rolled her eyes, “Oh alright,” she muttered, “Princess, he-”

“I know what happened. I had been keeping an eye on him since he woke up.”

“Then why didn’t you stop him when he started getting angry?”

“I wanted to see if you could defuse the situation before I needed to step in. You didn’t.”

Twilight looked down, her ears folding back. The rest of the girls had a similar look as well.

“Nevertheless, what’s happened has happened. You will all have to be there for him, he’ll be fragile from now on.” Luna looked up to the sky, a small frown on her face.

“What do you mean? Will he get angry again?” Pinkie Pie asked, a little sad.

“No Pinkie, he won’t be himself for a long time.” Luna looked back down at the group, “I saw his true self, it’s nice...” she trailed off.

“Nice? How was he nice?” Applejack spoke up.

“Applejack, he’s in a strange new world. You would be a little angry if you couldn’t get back to Applebloom or Big Macintosh.”

“Of course I would,” she replied, before a she looked away in shame, “Of course, he has a family of his own.”

Rarity flipped her hair, “I think I’ll make him some clothes as an apology, it’s the least I could do. OH, I don’t have his measurements!”

“You can get them when he is settled in,” Luna suggested, “He’ll get discharged tomorrow and you will all help him out, no matter what.”

“Yes Princess.” The girls said together.

“Good. Now I think I’ll take my leave, it’s getting late and I need to raise the moon.” Luna opened her wings, pushed off the ground and flapped, flying away.

“I think I’ll go back home, I need to prepare for him to stay,” Twilight said, turning to the girls, “Oh no, I’ll have to clean out the spare room,” She muttered to herself as she walked off towards the exit. Stopping outside Frederick’s room she pressed an ear to the door, but pulled back after hearing muffled sobbing.

Exiting the hospital, Twilight walked down the path towards Ponyville. She was contemplating how life was going to be with Frederick living in the same house. “I hope it isn’t too bad, Spike might not enjoy having another stallion under the same roof...”

She made it to the door of the library and pushed it open in her magic. Trotting inside, she saw Spike laying on the couch and smiled. She let him sleep there for a few more hours as she tidied out her spare room. She placed everything in two piles, stuff she needed and stuff she didn’t; she placed the stuff she did need down in the basement and stuff she didn’t in large bags which she would later donate.

Looking back over to Spike Twilight lifted him up in her magic and carried him upstairs, taking care to not wake him. Feeling scared for the future, she placed him in her bed and wrapped a leg around him, holding him tight. Slowly, she felt herself drift off to sleep.
___
The next day, Frederick awoke to the sound of chirping birds. He turned over and tried to muffle out the sounds by using his pillow. This proved ineffective and soon he found himself lying wide awake. Last night, after the Princess had left, he had tried to get to sleep, but in the end it didn’t work and he cried himself to sleep.

“I’m guessing I have to spend more time with that group...” He muttered as, against his own will he got up. He wrapped a different sheet around himself; a thicker one this time and tied it up.

A few minutes after, he heard hoof steps and turned to face the door. The door opened and in came the nurse from before, “Oh, it’s good that you are up...” She trailed off, looking at her chart, “It seems you can be discharged today; how do you feel?”

“Alright.”

“Uh, ok then... I guess you can follow me then.” She turned and walked out the door. Frederick followed and every so often, the nurse would turn around and check on him.

“It’s obvious they don’t trust me,” Frederick thought, keeping a neutral face.

The nurse made it to the front desk and picked up a small form in her hoof. She passed it to Frederick, “Can you sign this please.”

“Sure.”

Signing his name, Frederick passed the form back and she smiled, making him frown for a second. She turned back and said, “Ok, now you’re officially discharged. But we can’t let you go until Twilight Sparkle arrives, so I’m going to have to ask you to wait in that area over there,” the nurse leaned around him and pointed to a small waiting area where a small colt was sitting.

“How long will she be?” Frederick asked.

“Not sure, it’s just past ten in the morning, meaning she should be up by now; or on her way, she’s very punctual.”

“Okay.” Frederick walked over to the waiting area and sat down. The small colt looked over and smiled at him, making Frederick look away.

“You look weird,” the colt exclaimed, surprising Frederick.

He turned to face the colt, “I’m sorry you think so.”

The colt stopped smiling and turned away, preferring to play with his toys than speak to somepony strange and mean.

Frederick turned and waited, staring at the door; he wanted to leave. Ten minutes passes and the automatic doors to the hospital opened, revealing Twilight Sparkle. She rushed in and looked about, finally locking eyes with Frederick. Twilight walked up to him, being mindful of the distance.

“How do you feel?” She asked, having to crane her neck ever so slightly.

“I’m fine, I’d like to go. I’m a bit tired,” he lied.

“I don’t see why not, let me check with the desk,” Twilight said, turning around and trotting up to the front. She conversed with the receptionist for a few minutes before coming back over. “All set, let’s go.”

Together they walked out of the hospital and down the path. Frederick looked over Ponyville and saw hundreds of ponies all going about their business, having somewhere to be, someone to be with; he looked away. He turned and saw a large castle on the side of a mountain, “What’s that?” He asked, pointing to the castle.

“Oh, that’s Canterlot, its lovely. I think you’d enjoy it there,” Twilight replied, smiling gently up at him.

Frederick turned back to Ponyville. He couldn’t decide which one he liked less at the moment, the town or her smile. Slowing down, he stopped. Twilight turned around and asked, “Are you o-?”

“I’m sorry.”

“I... No, it was our fault. We should have been more...” Twilight pauses for a second, thinking of the right words, “you were right to call us jerks. We didn’t think about what happened to you.” She walked up to him and placed a hoof on his knee, she looks up pleadingly, “We’ll be here for you, if you want it.”

Frederick didn’t expect this, “I don’t know Twilight, I have a lot to think about,” he replied looking away.

“Of course, I would be worried if you didn’t. Let’s carry on shall we?”

“Yes.”

Comments

[PickleSurprise]

I'm not sure how I feel about Luna in this chapter. She understands that he's in a whole new world without friends or family and shes mad at him for being mad. I figure if anyone could really understand him it would be her and even then she had her sister. Aside from that this is a fairly interesting fic.

[dando195]

"Rarity flipped her hair, 'I think I'll make him some clothes as an apology, It's the least I could do. OH, I don't have his measurements!'"
Because cloths are always the answer .
I feel this sums up her characterization http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBRv-4zF0L8
Also he seems to be the most depressing character in the history of forever.

[damnaion]

hummmmmm