Falling out of Bed
True to his word, Time Turner visited daily, if only to poke his head in and check how they were recovering and see what progress was being made on finding their family. The latter was unfortunately lacking good news. Despite it being a week, there were no leads and only countless dead ends. Without knowing their names, and even their ages, the already difficult task was made worse. For the sake of calling them something other than ‘zebra foal’ and ‘diamond dog pup’, the filler names ‘Stripes’ and ‘Spots’ was being used for the files. Their estimates put ‘Stripes’ at 10. As for ‘Spots’, their unfamiliarity with diamond dogs only kept coming up. They consulted with a vet, who also wasn’t sure, but estimated perhaps a year or two younger than ‘Stripes’.
In contrast to the unsuccessful search for their identities and families, the recovery and treatment was going better. Both were healing as well as could be expected, and the treatment for ‘Stripes’ alcohol intoxication had been completed successfully, his levels well within norm. The doctors had already lifted the induced coma and he only needed to wake naturally. As for ‘Spots’, they assumed without full certainty another day or two before he recovered enough to wake.
Since they weren’t sure exactly when ‘Stripes’ would awaken, the nurses included the room in their regular rounds, checking in every quarter hour.
James frantically grabbed at anything on the damp forest floor as he attempted to drag himself away from the creature that chased him; his legs dragging along uselessly behind him. Even then, those legs couldn't be called his own or even human for that.
They were short stubby things covered in dark grey and black fur and didn’t even have feet on the ends, forcing him to crawl on the leaf covered ground like a baby.
You defiled my holy ground.
Stopping his frantic crawling, James’ eyes went wide with panic as he heard it speak. Looking back over his shoulder, he squinted into the barely illuminated woods behind him.
The sounds of branches groaning and wood cracking broke the silence as a pair of piercing red eyes appeared in the darkness.
You and your insolent friend defiled my sacred ground
It slowly started to approach him. The creature was massive; it’s bulky bipedal frame towering almost as high as the low hanging branches of the trees. Its inhuman eyes bore into his soul from inside a deer skull that served as the head.
And now I must punish you for your transgression.
More of it came into focus: its massive frame covered in a long ragged cape of moss, errant branches forming something of a crown behind its head. Long, sharp, inhuman fingers glinted in the moonlight as it slowly drew closer to him. The creature had something slung over its shoulder.
A shiver went down James’ spine when he saw what it was: a human. He couldn't tell who because all he could see was a pair of legs in dirt-smeared and shredded bloody jeans.
YOU WILL DIE
The creature let out an animalistic roar that finally knocked James out of his stupor and he turned back around. Clawing at the ground to drag himself away from the monster closing in.
Heart thudding in his ears, he could still hear it unhurried approach. The ground shaking with each of its steps a-
James’ let out a pained cry as something grabbed his head from behind. Sharp nails dug into his scalp as he was lifted into the air. His useless legs flailing under him as he was turned and brought face to face with the creature’s skeletal visage. Its eyes blinded him as he could smell the horrid stench of rot, overwhelming his nose and causing him to gag.
I will enjoy this.
James screamed as he saw the creature’s maw open.
~~~~~~
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!” James screamed as he jolted awake. Springing up, his chest heaved as he surged away. He didn't care. He just had to mo-
There was nothing under him as he suddenly fell, letting out a loud and child-like yelp as gravity decided to kick in and a sharp sting came from his arm. Hitting the ground with a grunt of pain; he just lay there, breathing heavily as the panic left his system.
It was nighttime but he wasn't in the forest or in that damned grove anymore; the cool tile floor he landed on was all the proof he needed of that. But where was he? As the blood stopped rushing through his ears, he could make out the sound of a slow steady beeping. There was another one closer to him as well as well, far more rapid and frantic. His ears flicked as he heard cries and frantic running.
Light poured into the dark room as the door was thrown open, a figure somewhat illuminated by the dim light coming in from the hall. There was a click as someone turned on the lights and the room was properly lit. She hurried over and gave him a quick check before sighing in relief. “Oh dearie, are you okay? You must have fallen out of the bed! Pulled your IV out as well...”
James just looked up at whoever was checking on him; squinting so much his eyes were practically shut. Even then, all he could make out was a blurry mass.
“I’m sorry, are the lights too bright?” she asked.
“I need glasses unless you wish to remain to me as fuzzy masses,” he said slowly. His eyes widened from their squint; that wasn't his voice. Normally, he barely had any hint of an accent but what he said sounded almost tropical and seemed high like a kid's voice. And why in the heck did that come out as a rhyme?
“First things first, let’s get you back on your bed, dearie. Then we can figure out about the glasses,” she decided, moving around him. Picking him up under the arms, she deftly lifted him back unto the bed. “Much better than the ground, isn’t it, dearie?”
“Now can I ask a question? But I don't req-” The words hitched in James’ throat as he saw something he recognized. The small useless legs from his dream were in the bed. Slowly his eyes followed up them until he saw who they were attached to.
“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
No no no! This has to be a dream within a dream! Equestria isn't real. It’s a cartoon; this can't be real! I have to still be asleep! He thought to himself as his screaming quickly subsided into a scared whimper as he squeezed his eyes shut, mumbling incoherently to himself.
“Easy now, dearie,” the nurse shifted closer and brushed her hoof down his head and neck as she attempted to calm him. “You’re safe now. You’re in the hospital.”
“No no no no no. This has to be a dream; no god would be so mean,” he muttered to himself over and over, repeating it like a mantra. Even with the hoof attempting to comfort him, the one attached to his own limbs, he still tried to deny what was happening. Ponies weren’t real.
The nurse continued her attempts to calm the foal, holding his hoof and maintaining a gentle, though firm, pressure on his back in case he became violent. When another one of the night staff turned up in the doorway, she quickly exchanged glances and gave wordless instructions motioning at the foal. They nodded and trotted off, likely to get one of the doctors.
“Come dearie, do you want to talk to me?” the nurse asked, attempting to break him from his daze. “I’m Nurse Tenderheart. What’s your name?”
“N-name?” Her persistence was wearing him down, making her, the situation, harder to deny.
“That’s right,” she said, maintaining the soothing tones. As she spoke she unobtrusively checked on his condition, tutting slightly at the bit of blood on his foreleg from where he pulled out his IV. “I can’t keep only calling you ‘dearie’, after all.”
“Ja….Ja…” James paused. He couldn't just tell them his real name could he? No, he had to make up a name. James would never work here. Silently cursing himself for almost saying his name, he stopped to think.
“Jaja?” Tenderheart asked, relaxing her guard a little as he started to calm down.
He shook his head, “no, that is not my name. To be frank, that is quite lame. Ja… Jali is my claim to a name.” It wasn’t the best he could come up with but it’d have to do.
“Well then, Jali, a lot of ponies were worried about you and your friend,” Tenderheart said with honest care in her tone. “How are you feeling right now?”
Jali paused. Obviously everything felt off to him; he was in a new body afterall. But he couldn't say that to this nice nurse; this nice cartoon pony nurse that shouldn't even exist. He shook his head, banishing the thought as he finally spoke. “I feel a little meek and somewhat weak but you said I had a friend?”
“That is to be expected,” The nurse said. She gently angled his head to one side to peek at his ear. “You have been sleeping for a few days, and there was some medicine in your IV, that’s the tube you pulled out when you fell. And they found you with the diamond dog… youngling.” There was a slight pause when she tried and failed to come up with the right term. “He’s still sleeping in the next bed.”
At that, Jali looked over towards the bed. Squinting, he could see a blurry, possibly canine form in the next bed over. So Andie got turned to a diamond dog, he thought to himself, at least the lucky bastard still has fingers.
“He is your friend, isn’t he?” Tenderheart said, asking the question that had been raised a few times since care started. “We only assumed since you two dearies were together…”
Well, let's hope she isn’t good at spotting lies Andy. Time to go with the old orphan route writers use, He thought to himself as he nodded. “Yes, we are brothers without mothers.”
Nurse Tenderheart gasped softly, a hoof to her mouth. “Oh, dearie.” She refrained from making the cliched ‘I’m so sorry’ comment, though whatever follow up she might have said was lost when another pony came in The stallion had a white coat over his mauve fur, marking him as a doctor. “Oh, Jali, this is Dr. Touch.”
“Hello, son,” Dr. Touch said in a cordial greeting. He had heard the comment Jali made, but didn’t address it directly. “Nice to see you finally awake.”
“Hello Doctor, unless you want all to remain fuzzy masses, I’m going to need some glasses,” Jali repeated, squinting at the doctor.
“We thought as much from what we found during your check up,” Dr. Touch said easily. Nurse Tenderheart exchanged a nod with him before falling back to stand against the brightly coloured wall. “We can have an optometrist in soon enough. Do you feel up to me asking you a few questions?”
Jali simply nodded as he remained quiet as he looked at the doctor. However, his mind was frantically running on all cylinders as he tried to prepare for what the doctor might ask him.
Dr. Touch took the clipboard from the foot of Jali’s bed and a long stemmed pen he held with his leg. “Don’t worry, they won’t be any hard questions. It’s just that since we found you, we don’t know anything about you. We didn’t even know your name. We’ve been calling you Stripes and Spots!” He laughed. “Silly isn’t it? Okay, son. You said your name is Jali, and that this Diamond Dog is your brother?”
Jali nodded, “That is correct as you suspect.”
“I see,” Dr. Touch said as he jotted something down. “Well son, mind if I ask what his name is?”
“His name?” Jali paused, thinking, should I let him decide or shall I let him have the hono- Wait a sec-. “Doctor sir, you already had his nickname, which I say is far too tame.”
“How unexpected,” Dr. Touch commented. He could press for Spot’s real name later so, when the foal, Jali, was less likely to be overwhelmed. “Do you know how you two ended up in the Whitetail Woods?”
Jali just simply shook his head. At least we ended up there. If we’d landed in the Everfree, I think I would have keeled over from embarrassment; he let out a tiny chuckle but his eyes widened and he quickly shook his head some more.
“I see,” Dr. Touch said, his eyebrow raising almost imperceptibly. “You’ll be feeling better in no time. Until then, do you have anyone who was taking care of you would could reach?”
Jali shook his head without missing a beat, “We’ve been alone almost as long as we've had no home.”
“Sorry to hear that, son,” Dr. Touch said honestly.
Jali simply shrugged as he looked at the doctor.
“But that’s enough questions for now, don’t you think, son?” Dr. Touch said, putting his clipboard away. “Even if you just woke up, it’s best for you to rest a little more. I see you pulled your IV out, but since you’re awake you won’t need it anymore.”
At that indication, the young zebra looked down at where the needle was stuck in his leg. “One last question Doctor and it is a fast one,” he asked, looking up at the doctor, “I wonder how long I’ve been under?”
“Counting today, six days,” Dr. Touch replied. “Like I said, son, a lot of ponies were starting to worry.”
Jali’s eyes widened at that. Six days? That’s nearly a full damn week! We must have been hurt bad… He visibly shuddered as the memories of that accursed tree came back to him.
“You both have all the doctors and nurses scratching their heads, son,” Dr. Touch said. He raised a hoof and made a strange flick, almost like snapping a finger, just without the fingers. “I do have one more question for you.”
Jalis ears perked at that as he looked at the doctor.
“We don’t know your ages either,” Dr. Touch admitted with a rueful smile. “We guessed you were around ten and your friend about eight.”
Jali paused. So that's how old this new body is? That damn tree made us into kids! He nodded, “despite what you expect, that is correct.”
Unaware Jali was merely going along with whatever he suggested, Dr. Touch took it as a sign of how competent the staff was. “Thank you, Jali. Anything you might have questions about for us? You did wake up in a strange place.”
“Who found us?” he stated after a few seconds of silence.
“A stallion named Time Turner,” Nurse Tenderheart said, speaking up for the first time in a while. “He comes in to check on you two often, actually.”
“Does he know I've awoken or is his doorbell broken?”
“It’s still the wee hours of the morning, more than a few hours until the sun is raised,” Dr. Touch said cordially. “He will most likely stop by around lunch, if he keeps to his regular visits. You can meet him them.”
Jali nodded simply at what the doctor said as he let out a small yawn. Damn, he wasn't tired a few seconds ago. Blinking slowly, he asked, “may I get me some coffee or perhaps some toffee? I feel you’ll get nary a peep if I fall back asleep.”
“Coffee is not something a foal your age should be drinking.” To his credit, Dr. Touch only missed one beat and continued smoothly otherwise, though his thoughts did swing back to the alcohol levels. “Sleep, however, natural sleep, is something you are still lacking in if you want to get better. You might get some toffee with breakfast though. A treat.”
“Sorry, needing to stay up at night has made a habit to avoid fright.” Yawning again, Jali nodded, “but yes, sleep sounds nice and dandy. As long as I get that piece of candy.”
The next two days passed quickly for Jali as he was constantly visited by Time Turner. Their first meeting was somewhat embarrassing for him as he fell off the bed once again as he came into the room and twice more as he attempted to walk around the room a little bit.
The nurses and doctors seemed understanding of his limitations. They didn’t pressure him about it, attributing it to the already irregular nature of his and his ‘brother’s’ conditions.
And true to Dr. Touch’s word, Jali was visited by an optician who, in no time at all, had the young zebra set up with a new pair of glasses that were made by the day’s end. With Andy still out of it, the nurses moved Jali to the room across the hall to better care for the two different needs while close enough not to count as separated.
~~~~~
His eyes.
His eyes were all that Jali recognized in the bathroom mirror. His eyes were the same vivid shade of green they had been back on Earth. The rest of his body was gone; replaced by this strange but familiar alien body.
Equestria…
He let out a quiet scoff as he stared back at the grey and black face that looked back at him. The face that he'd have to grow accustomed to seeing.
I’m in a land of milk and honey but at what cost?
Sighing, he looked down at the sink as thoughts of home came to mind. How long had passed? Where their families searching for them? Had they even realized they were missing yet?
The frown on his face only grew sadder as those thoughts marinated in his mind.
The sound of rapid hoofsteps out in the room cut into his reflection. “Jali? Are you here?” The voice sounded like one of the nurses who he had met, but whose name he didn’t quite remember.
Jali didn't say a thing as he turned to the door. Pausing for a second, he shook his head, shaking the thoughts from the forefront of his mind. Before he finally opened the door and stepped back into the room they'd given him after waking up.
“Oh, there you are,” the nurse said in relief. “Your brother woke up.”
A little bit later than we were hoping but here is the fourth chapter and my atrocious rhyming skills
Anyways, we now have the awesome Celefin as an editor for us and he's gone over all the prior chapters as well as this one.
Anyways, enjoy the horse words
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i wonder how much diversity of species will see? i wonder if that "sacred" ground creature shall make a return? happen once it do it again.
7513556
There will be deers at least if grey hears out a plan i have for a future ark. And aside from thd regular pony races, diamond dogs, and zecora.... time will tell
As for the creature...
i.ytimg.com/vi/z_OGh81tk-A/maxresdefault.jpg
Lets just say jali's sleep may not be the best for a decent amount of time
7513579 so it going to torment them still? that different cause I never see that version it always stops after once to get the story moving some bad dream then nothing else but other drama hmm maybe that creature from equastria originally anyways? but was banished like the siren or artifacts were thrown to another world to rot left to terrorize another world inhabitance. maybe this is it attempt to get back?
I hope you'll have more time, To think of a better rhyme
7514191
I hope so too
7513590
? Hmmm.... honestly, thatd be something id have to see with grey on
7514259 nice chapter anyway, I hope that they will get settled after he is done freaking out and then the next arc
7514459
And dont worry too much. He'll eventually loose the habit. Kinda viewing the rhyming as a way of speech kind of akin to an accent
7514585 I'm talking about freaking out about the 'I am a Dog/Zebra in Equestria!'
7514598
Oh, thatll happen More next chapter XD
7514668 yay!
when do you think it will come up?
I eagerly await the oncoming chapter...
7515109
Well, at the moment, its greys time to shine
and now we get to wait another couple months.
7515302
Please XD me and grey are apparently far more productive togethwr than apart XD
7515559 so, only a month now?
7515570
Well this only took 3 weeks X3
7515619 close enough.
Wow! James is fast at reaching to conclusion!
He cannot see properly, but instantly recognise is legs as hooved one, directly deduce from it that he is in Equestria, without seeing her, he know that he is talking to nurse Tenderhearth and that she is a nice pony nurse...
He even managed to sneak in a line without a rhyme! Already overpowering his new body's instinct!
Yup! Very very good!
But he does repeat himself a lot. Twice the same line about glasses?
Overall, it's nice to read, but it could use some work on those kind of details.
7524396
Well, i can kind of answer that he deduced quickly because he, well, a brony
Can you point that out
That was actually intentional
7525312 He still did it too fast. There was no moment of "does that mean I am a pony? Does that mean that I am in Equestria?".
7525932
I was thinking fast and last worked as a rhyme...
7525941The rythm of the sentence place the line break at Doctor (rigth before the "and"), one (before a comma) and under. Non of those really rhyme.
If you wan't to place either place commav or a line break where you wish to rhyme.
7526008
Ahh. Consider that just a simple mistake from my abysmal rhyming abilities.
Seeing as I haven't been as active as of late, I'm glad I found this. Good job yet again guys!
7568514
And yet we cant apparently write at all alone XD