Like Glass
“How are you feeling today, sir?”
Initially, my visits to Ponyville General weren’t handled in such an informal manner. After the first few...altercations with the local populace though, the nurses and doctors started to become accustomed to my repeated visits.
It’s not as if I don't get along with the locals, quite the opposite really. The problem with mingling with a race of sapient equines that stand at eye level, with weight multiple times my own, is the fact that ponies can sometimes be a bit...enthusiastic with their greetings.
Horses, and by extension, ponies--pastel or not-- are a very physical species. Much of their communication hinges on the gestures which they use to interact with one another. Unfortunately for me, this means that each hug, each pat on the shoulder, each hoof bump, and each general brush and scrape with another pony has the potential to inflict injury on my comparatively fragile human body.
I don’t hold it against them, really. Their ability to fix me up afterwards makes up for the initial...unfixing. The magical nature of the ponies’ health care treatments has an accelerated effect to my magically-devoid self. The various healing spells and potions already make quick work of broken bones and bruises on a pony. On me, moreso. While it may take a pegasus three days to recover from a broken or sprained wing, the equivalent severity of fracture on myself takes hours to minutes to resolve, even with low powered spells and poultices. This, mainly, is the reason why I am able to live a somewhat normal life in Equestria. Otherwise, I would be in the hospital for most of my time if not dead by this point.
Which brings me back to today’s visit. It has become a daily routine of mine to have a checkup by the ever-present nurses at Ponyville General Hospital. This came as a result of my first brush with death since arriving in Equestria.
You know how some say Pinkie pie gives “bone crushing” hugs? Well, it’s a warning, rather than a metaphor in my case.
I arrived at the hospital that evening with three cracked ribs, a slipped disc in my spine, and a collapsed lung. As one can now tell, I made it out just fine, but it was a harrowing experience for all involved.
Pinkie gave me a wide berth for the following weeks, and the general populace paid closer attention to the amount of physical affection they sent my way. That isn’t to say I’ve been avoided completely. I wouldn’t be currently employed at Sugarcube Corner as wait staff if the Cakes didn’t think I was up to the task of taking a few dings here and there. Luckily, none of my injuries sustained since my arrival have been beyond the severity of a few cuts, bruises, sprains, and general dislocations.
After a while, one starts to get used to such ailments, and their pain tolerance and standards of normality adjust accordingly. I am still nowhere as durable as a pony, but I am able to shrug off most small bumps and bruises until the end of the day, when I am due for my “reassembly”.
Another side effect of my stay here is my deadened aversion to gross and generally, unsightly bodily behaviors that come with my job of keeping myself together on a daily basis. It is always fun watching my pink roommate’s reaction to my “daily diagnosis” as it were. Twice daily, I would take stock of my facilities; doing stretches, cracking knuckles, and repeatedly dislocating and relocating shoulder and hips in case I was subject to a plush pony pummeling again. It was easier to simply allow a shoulder to dislocate if it meant I didn’t have to subject myself and others to the sight of broken bones.
Regarding my roommate, Pinkie has gotten much better with her hugs, but one can never be too careful. Not when said roommate’s antics have led to an additional clause and charge in most Ponyville insurance policies these days.
It was slow going, but I seem to have made a little niche for myself here. I may not be the most structurally sound person around, but it doesn’t matter as much since I have friends to put me back together if or when I start to come apart.
The thought gives me pause as I hesitate to answer the receptionist pony. Earlier in the day I was given a pat on the back for my hard work. That pat left quite the bruise that still stings when I rotate my shoulder a certain way. That being said, it didn’t hurt as much as the reaction I received.
It pained me to see Pinkie’s face so saddened after I flinched away from her. She recoiled as if she had been hit. It hadn’t been all that bad, really. I’ve inflicted worse injuries upon myself before I even set foot in Equestria. A single bruise wasn’t going to end my life as I knew it.
She had always been so on edge, so measured with her actions toward me following the incident. Every step in my general direction was calculated. Every touch a Schrödinger equation as to whether I would come away from it unscathed.
I have forgiven her, so why hasn’t she?
This morning was just the straw that broke the Pony’s back. I was left alone in the store, Pinkie hastily retreating to what she thought was a safe distance from me before I could start to reply. Whether she did so for my own sake or her own is to be determined. The pony easily twice my size if not more, had been reduced to a weeping mess at a perceived slight. Who knew ponies could be so empathetic, so emotional--
So fragile.
It makes sense now.
I had come to terms long ago with the fact that my continued existence in Equestria would come at a price. A price I was willing to pay if it meant being in the company of such great ponies--no--such great people. Even the recurring healing treatments seemed to have a positive effect on my composition, my threshold for damage remaining, but the speed and ease of fixing me increasing nonetheless. But I didn’t know of the effect it had on those around me.
I had accepted that I would always be different, and maybe that wasn’t all a bad thing. It made ponies stop and contemplate the repercussions their actions had on me, which carried over their interactions with others in their lives. Surely that had to be worth something, right?
Pinkie and I are going to have a long talk when I get back.
I return my attention to the receptionist, Redheart if I remember correctly, having noticed that I had zoned out during my pondering. She probably thought I was tallying up my ever increasing register of injuries, before repeating the daily outliers to her.
I think back to my shoulder, wincing slightly as I rotate it a few times in its socket. Uncomfortable as it is, it reminds me of my difference, my alienness.
My fragility.
It reminds me why none of that matters in the end.
I give the mare a smile.
“I think I’ll be just fine.”
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Ahh pain, my constant companion. I wake to your song, I work the day to your cadence, and I fall asleep in your embrace. What would my life be without you.
A wild story has appeared!
6413114
IT HURT ITSELF IN ITS CONFUSION
6413109
6413123 The reader uses "Like"! It's not very effective...
Btw, the story was great.
6413143
I'm glad you enjoyed it
6413125
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/6/23/354962__safe_solo_magic_lyra+heartstrings_lyra_grin_source+needed_reaction+image_speech+bubble_hands.png
Really enjoyed this story. Kind of wish it was longer. For what it is it's short and sweet.
This does kind of make me want to know more about how the insurance system in Equestria works, especially with a pottery like human living in it. Sn expose' on how ponies interact would be super interesting too. Definitely could be a fun little series. Would be interesting to see how far our human protagonist has come from an ordinary human too.
Hope to see more come out of ya, either way, man.
I write by hand on occasion. It's usually just when I'm travelling somewhere, though.
Not bad at all.
This is now part of my headcanon. Well done sir!
6413250
Glad you enjoyed.
Yeah. I liked that bit too.
Why do people do that? Just go through the comments and dislike Every Single One? It just seems a little silly.. Grats on the popular box by the way, tends to be more reliable than the featured one.
6413332
Thanks
Nice! This is a subject i have thought of several times, what would happen if a human appeard in Equestria and didn't get any special abilities?
"Yes i know that there are countless fics where this have happend, but i meant with humans still being as frail as we truley are in real Life, in most fics i have read, several of the humans seems to be able to take a pony kick pretty well even if they don't ahve any particular abilities."
Said person was just as he was when he left Earth, imagen living in a World where ponys fall down steps, get's stung by bees and have flowerpots, anvils and frikking pianos dropped on them and they'll just shrug it off "and that was just Twillight, and she is NOT exactly the fittest of the bunch unlike AJ and Rainbow".
I really hope you will make a chapter where it's shown how his first encounter with Pinkie Was, and how it all was from her perspective and how she and the newly arrived human human just sat down and talked about what happend and that Pinkie finally learns that not all beings can handle her Antics and VERY Physical shows of affection.
6413585
The cartoons physics change on a whim depending on what the story needs so I'd say it would probably apply to us also.
I mean It goes all over the place. From big mac pulling around a house to struggling with carrying a wedding cake and pulling a plow to rainbow dash smashing straight through trees to getting downed from a little knock to the head, from applejack bucking t applejack suddenly not able to buck a simple wooden door open and so on...
And to this story all I say is its called my LITTLE pony! In my mind Celestia is pony sized with her LITTLE ponies being miniature ones.
Like these:
freewebs.com/gar-won/sage%20dixiebell%20and%20tamborine.jpg
How could you resist such cuteness.
Ponies being freakishly strong compared to humans works as a way of providing a realistic interpretation of the cartoon physics of the show.
That was some adorable characterization with Pinkie.
Poor Pinkie.
An interesting idea.
Pinkie would be totally broken up if she hurt someone. She's that type of person.
Quite a nice about a underpowered human living among overpowered, yet good natured ponies, who don't intentionally hurt him.
I don't mind OP ponies, as long as they aren' big jerks to humans.
Great story.I'm a Chinese brony,and I wonder if you could give me a chance to translate this for my Chinese readers.Of course I will label the writer's name and the link to here.
Zyrian who did you tick off? lol
These comment dislikes are fairly hilarious.
6414254
Sure! I'd be honored.
is gud
6414768
Thank
6414773 welcom
6413613 "The cartoons physics change on a whim depending on what the story needs so I'd say it would probably apply to us also."
That.........is a very fair Point, heh, forgot that this is a fic based on a CARTOON after all, and as you said, the cartoon physics are all over the Place.
Are... are you calling ponies fat?
So r00d.
6415255
I'm sorry, but dem's the breaks.
I liked it but the ending felt like it cut off too early for me. Still I give it a like.
The description had me skeptical, but then I saw the comments that mentioned the "cartoon physics".
And then I was like "Ohhh, now it makes sense!"
Then I was like "Wait, ouch."
We don't hear much about how much ponies actually weigh. (There's a great deal of speculation as to length/height, most of which was summed up in a single sentence by Bad Horse t'other day.)
So this little tale was eye-opening, and yes, Pinkie is probably capable of exerting incredible levels of force without even trying. I liked it a lot.
Authors vary between making ponies appreciably larger or smaller than humans, but it's rare to find a story which touches so directly on the idea of humans being so fragile by comparison.
I'd like to see that chat with Pinkie, to be honest.
6417312
I'm debating writing it out, but I'm wondering if continuing it will dilute the impact of the original idea.
I don't want to fall short of the expectations.
Maybe I'll do it as a follow-up one shot
6417331 Do not permit yourself to be paralyzed by doubt. Done well, it could well add to the impact of the initial concept.
It might make sense as a further one-shot, but that's your choice to make.
Initially I thought it would be just another misanthropic fic
but I like how you handled it.
if you expanded on this I'd read it. maybe we could see how other ponies besides pinkie interact with him?
6417498
I'm glad you liked it
This was weirdly disturbing to read.
6418098
In a good or bad way?
6418109
In the "sort of uncomfortably reminiscent of domestic abuse" way. Nothing against the story, but something about it kind of creeps me out a bit.
6418121
I haven't thought of it that way. I think it might be the whole thing about the human forgiving them and accepting that this stuff happens.
6418128
Yes, I think that's more or less it. Brings up unpleasant memories.
6418134
I'm sorry II brought back bad times.
Hopefully you will find enjoyment from my other works, or the ones I'm yet to write.
6418225
I'm sure I will.
Family issues, not my own. Still, I appreciate the sentiment.
6418121 Have you ever heard of brittle bone desease? People with that have to deal with something similar to this. Also consider construction workers often perform tasks that at the end of the day leave them more battered and bruised than if they had gotten in a bar fight.
I know it still smacks of domestic abuse, sadly the most common kind. One person doesn't know their strength amd hurts another, and that memory sticks with both parties.
6428178
6418229
One thing I'm trying to imply with the fic is that they both have a serious heart-to-heart over what's happened, and they establish where they stand with each other. No Stockholm Syndrome, no ill feelings, etc.
6428223
I didn't mean to say in any way that it does or that I got that impression, so I hope nobod got the wrong impression there, just that it game me a lot of the same vibe that the very much" gave actively malicious version often has. Not putting it down to anything particular either, t's just something about the feeling I got from it. I just thought that it was intersting and unexpected enough to comment on it.
6428413
Alright. No worries.
Also,
I'm having serious trouble parsing that.
sequel now please, there is so many places this could go and I haven't ran into something like this before the idea is novel and original and demands more, wait no I'm demanding more
Awesome. :D I love HiE's like this.
And how about that Illya Leonov reading, eh? Eh? :D