The Choice

by Not_available_now

Chapter 4. The hospital

The Choice

Chapter 4

Martin woke up in a Hospital bed. He saw Twilight and Rainbow sitting in the corner asleep. ‘What the hell happened? Why am I in a Hospital bed?’

“Hey.” He yelled. “Wake up you two, What happened to me?” He shouted to them

“Mhh, lemme sleep.” Rainbow grunted.

“WAKE UP!” Martin shouted.

“Waah.” Rainbow shot up to the ceiling and. “What’d you do that for?” She asked while flying down to the floor.

“Because you wouldn’t wake up, Rainbow” Martin noted.

“Alright, alright. I'm awake now, what do you want?”

“I want to know what happened?” He asked.

Meanwhile Twilight was still sleeping right through the noise, sometimes mumbling something inaudible.

“I did a sonic Rainboom a teeny tiny bit too close to the village and ruptured your eardrums.” She said.

“You did what ?!” He yelled at her. ”You knew that it would hurt me bur you still did it, then why did you still did it?.” He calmed down a bit but anger still showed in his eyes. He looked at her and it showed that he demanded an answer from her.

“I.. I.. I don’t know.” She stammered. “I just wanted to prove you wrong, because you were lying.” She said accusing.

“Why didn’t you just showed me it out of town or some other time. Why would you do it immediately?” He thought for a while and just as she was about to say something he said: “You really are concerned about your pride and that people say that you can’t do something, why?” He asked eager to get an explanation for her doing.

“Why do you want to know.” She threw at him.

“Because I would like to know how to help you so that you don’t pull this stunt again.”

“I won’t, I promise. I Pinkie-promise.” She then said the rhyme and did the movements. During this Martin looked at her with interest.

“Why did you just put a hoof in your eye?”

“It’s the Pinkie-promise, if you break one you in for big trouble.”

Suddenly Pinkie’s head appeared from behind the curtain of the next bed. She said: “Big
trouble.” She repeated after Rainbow while slowly disappearing behind the curtain.

“Well, she sure is a weird one.” He said still a bit baffled how she could even do that.

“Pinkie is just being Pinkie.” She said shrugging. “But just drop it about the crash, OK?”

“Sure, but I won’t forget it.”

“Fine.” She sighed and slumped back in her seat.

Martin looked at Twilight. “What happened to her?”

“She was concerned about you and what the princess would do when she found out what happened to you. When the princess came into the room and spoke, well, she fainted.”

He chuckled. “Why would she be afraid that the princess would do anything, she didn’t even do anything. I was the one who encouraged you.”

“She’s always like that. Always afraid that the princess would send her back to magic kindergarten because she’s tardy.”

“Alright, she really needs to lighten up. Well, I'm going to catch some z’s. seeya.” He closed his eyes and let himself fall back onto the pillow and fall asleep.

“Well, I’m going too then, bye.” she opened the window, flared her wings and flew out of the building toward her cloudhome.

---

He slept for a few hours before a nurse woke him up somewhere around 12:30.

“Hmm.” He looked to the thing that dared to wake him.

“Hun, I’m here with your lunch.” The nurse said.

He looked up groggily. “Whosta?”

“I’m the nurse and you need you eat something.” She put the tray on one off the beds.

“Ok, thanks.” He picked up the tray and put it on his lap as he sat up. “What’s your name?” He asked her while he poked at one of his carrots with a fork.

“It’s Tenderheart, dear. Be sure to eat it all and rest. Now I’m going, I have other patients to attend to.” She walked out of the room and left him with Twilight, who was still asleep in the corner. ‘She’s still asleep. How? Me and Rainbow argued and even the shutting of the door didn’t wake her.’ He thought about it for a while, playing with the thought of waking her and decided that she really should wake up at this hour of the day. He ate his food and put the tray beside him on the nightstand

He put his feet on the ground and tried to stand, he immediately felt lightheaded and fell back on the bed. He tried again, slower this time. He started to feel dizzy again, but it dissipated as quickly as it appeared. He walked to Twilight.

He shook her a little. “Wake up, come on, wake up.” He cooed to her.

“Spike stop, go away.” She mumbled in her sleep.

‘She thinks that I’m her dragon pet.’ He thought before giving a light poke in her ribs.

“Quit it, Spike.” She grumbled. He continued to poke her, harder as he went on. her horn glowed and an aura appeared around him. He felt an unseen force push him back slightly. He gave one last hard poke. She suddenly woke up and pushed him to the ground with her magic. “What’s your problem, why’d you poke me like that.” She bellowed at him, floating in the air with her horn glowing.

“I.. I.. I just tried to wake you up, it’s already 12:30.” He quickly stammered while trying to stand up but falling to the ground halfway. She enveloped him in her aura once again, but this time she helped him to his feet again.

“Wait, how late was it again?” She asked with a concerned face.

“The nurse just came in and gave me lunch, so I think that it’s around 12:30.” He said.

“I always organize the library on Tuesday. If I’m not there soon everything won’t organized, and then I’m *gulp* tardy.” She started to pace around the room. ‘Can I just leave him here. He looks old enough, so it should just be fine. Alright, I’ll just tell him that I’m leaving, yes, yes, that’ll be good.’ She thought while pacing around the room.

“Martin, I’m leaving. If you want to find me, I’m in the library. Just come and visit me.”

“Alright. How long does it take to heal my ruptured eardrums?” He asked.

“The princess casted a spell that should speed up the healing process. You’re lucky that it were just your eardrums, they are practically identical to ours. If they were different to ours than you should have to heal them naturally and that could take weeks. So it should take around 4 of 5 days.” She spoke to him, while he only was listening with a half-ear.

“So how can I hear exactly? With ruptured eardrums I shouldn’t be able to hear.” He asked wondering how he would heal if was done by magic.

“I cast an spell that forms a bridge to your brains so that you can hear without an ear. It’s use full for deaf ponies. I’m going now, see you in the library.” She walked out of the library and waved at him.

“Ooh, OK. I get it. Thanks for that. Goodbye.” He waved at her while she walked out of the room.

He walked over to the bed and laid back on it. He tried to sleep, but sleep wouldn’t catch him. He just kept thinking about the situation he was in. Would he be capable to return to earth, will he see his family ever again, and why is everyone here so crazy. It’s like they want to force their friendship into him, except the big red one, he just kicked him to last week when he met him. He called for a nurse and asked her when he could leave. She looked at the chart at the end of him bed and said that he could leave tomorrow morning. He thanked her and tried to sleep once more and after an long hour he finally fell asleep.

---

That evening the door opened while Martin was still asleep in his bed. An white pony walked into the room and walked up to him. She nudged him on his cheek with her hoof to wake him. He mumbled something about slender. She didn’t understand a word from what he said. She nudged him again.

“NO.” He screamed. He shot up and threw Rarity to the side in the process. She rushed to his side. She quickly got up and rushed to his side. “What’s wrong?”

“Whaa.. What.. Rarity, what are you doing here?” He asked her, still a bit dazed by the rude awakening.

“I just came to check on you when I heard you were in the hospital.” She said leaning on the edge of the bed.

“Oh, well, thanks for coming by. I’ll come and see if I can help you with some clothes, if you can keep your hooves with you this time.” He chuckled a bit and laid back on the bed. He sighed. Rarity didn’t noticed.

“I think I can handle myself the next time, dear. Now, what did exactly happened to you? I only just heard that you were in the hospital.” She asked with a concerned face.

“I, dumbly, doubted that Rainbow Dash could do a sonic rainboom, so she did one too close to the village and burst my eardrums and probably some other things too. Somehow even the princess noticed and she came and checked up on me. She casted a healing spell on me and apparently Twilight fainted in the progress. I slept some and then you walked through the door.” He finished talking and looked over to Rarity who sat with an angry face.

“Oooh, that ruffian Rainbow, couldn’t let her ego be harmed again, could she. I’ll have a talk to her after this, but dear, how long will you be in the hospital?” She asked calming down a bit.

“Somewhere around four till five days, and then I’ll be fine and thanks to some kind of magic Twilight used on me I can still hear and not be deaf. She and Rainbow left her tonight and left around 11 o’clock.”

“I’ll let you get some more rest and I’ll hold you to that promise. Now I’m going back to the Boutique and I see to it that Fluttershy and Applejack come to see you too.” She said as she walked to the door.

“Sure, thanks Rar, bye.” He said.

“Bye, Martin.” She closed the door and walked out, leaving Martin to himself. ‘I still can’t understand how they can be so friendly with and strange and new alien like me, but they accept me like one off their own. I still hope that the princess finds a way to get me home, back to earth.’ He laid down and sleep soon caught up with him.

---

Martin walked down a lonely road, stores on either side. The windows were smashed in and all of the lights were out. It was quiet, too quiet. He looked into one off the stores through the window. There were several broken shelves, a lot of cans on the unbroken ones and some on the floor, scattered everywhere. He stepped through the window and looked around. He jumped back. In the corner there was an skeleton covered in some kind of gleaming slimy black stuff and several opened cans, like the other ones, besides it. He shuddered at the sight of it and quickly made his way out of the store, not noticing that some off the cans somehow had moved, moving toward the window, towards him. He stepped on the street and continued his walk along the street. He came to an intersection.

He looked to the right. There was nothing there except some cans and more stores with broke windows.

He looked to the left. There were more skeletons, still some flesh clinging to the bones and the same black stuff he has seen before. There were more cans besides them, most of them opened. On the building on the side there was more of the black stuff on the sides.

He looked straight ahead. There was literally nothing, the street was cut off 2 meters from the corners. It was as if an black veil was spread across his face, you could see small specks off light through the veil. He walked closer to the veil, as he came closer he saw that it was the same black stuff the saw before. It had dug through the road and the buildings and continued for as long as he could see.

He turned around, there was a long man, clad in black. He had more long arms coming out off his back reaching several meters to either side off the street. He turned his head to the skeletons on the left, to see if anything had changed. Nothing had moved an centimetre. He looked back to the man in black. It was closer this time even though it looked as it hadn’t moved any of his limbs. He could now see his face, or rather, that he didn’t have one. It was one gleaming white skull, even his ears were stumps. Even though he didn’t had an mouth he still made an static noise that Martin hadn’t heard before.

He walked backwards, to the edge, but away from the thing that was coming towards him. he didn’t think about it, but soon he was standing on the edge of the street. He turned around and looked to the balk veil. The only thing between him and the black veil was a drop. A 2 meter gap had appeared in the street, stretching from the sides and down as far as he could see. He looked back at thing that was behind him. It was closer this time, Martin was almost in reach off the Thing’s arms. He made a split second decision. He turned around and jumped into the gap, trying to grab onto the black veil. The veil ripped under his grip, under it was more black, he tried to grab onto another part of the veil but he failed. He started falling with his face down. He looked at his hands, the black stuff started to spread to his palms. He tried to pull it off, but the black stuck to his hands and glued them together and he was in able to separate them. It started to spread to the rest of his arms.

The fall felt like it was endless. He decided to try and turn around. As soon as he did it the static noise started again. He didn’t see anything, just black on every side. He turned around to see if anything had changed.

He saw one thing. All that he could see was one large white face just in front of him. He felt a hand touching him (get your mind out of the gutter), more and more appearing by the second. He tried to scream, but no sound would come out of mouth. He felt some arms closing around his head and a growing pain in the back of his head. He screamed and he closed his eyes. Only the memory of the pain and the blank emotionless face sticking out like a sore thumb.

---

He woke up, drenched in cold sweat and attached to several machined. He tried to more his hands, but he discovered that he couldn’t move them, he couldn’t even feel them. He looked at his body. He had leather straps around his wrists, ankles and waist pinning him to the bed. He tried to move his body, but he could only move his fingers and his head. He yelled. “Hey, Hey, is someone out there? He tugged at his straps again, feeling returning to his arms. He yelled again. “Is anybody there?” He could feel his whole body again.

‘They must think I’m crazy, strapping me down like this. What did they want to do to me? Keep me locked up like an animal? I’m getting out of here!’

He easily ripped open the straps, they were made for ponies after all. He undid the straps around his waist and ankles and stepped of the bed, pulling several tubes out of his body and plopped some sensors off his temples. He sprinted to the door and slammed it open.

As soon as he opened the door he smacked a doctor onto his nose, pushing him to the ground. There were twin streams of blood coming out of his nose. “What are you doing, get back in there.” The doctor said to him as he dabbed his nose with a piece of his coat.

“No, I’m not going back in there! Bye.” He ran down the corridor ignoring the shouts of the doctor. The doctor punched a button on his wrist, immediately alarms began sounding everywhere and red lights began flashing. Some bulky ponies appeared out of a room down the corridor. He quickly ran past them before they could react. He ran around the corner, hearing his pursuers nearing. The corridor he had ran into was a dead end.

---

In one of the room down the corridor. In which 2 nurses and a doctor were present and a couple of patients in a bed with a failing hart.

“Doctor, his hart is failing!”

“I’ll start CPR. You,” He looked to the other nurse in the room. “Get the crash cart. I’ll clear the area.”

“Doctor, here’s the crash cart.” The nurse ran into the room with the cart and put it next to the bed for use.

“”Good, start charging it up.” He said to the nurse holding the cart, who put her horn to the device and started charging it up. Soon the device was crackling with energy. “Doctor, it’s ready.”

“Alright, hoof it to me, quick.” The nurse quickly gave him the paddles and just before he pressed the peddles to the pony’s chest. “He’s breathing again. We don’t need the defibrillator anymore.”

The doctor turned to the other nurse. “Good, turn it off and put it in the corner.” The nurse he said it to was only half listening, her mind thinking of somepony else. She put the cart in the corner near the door, but forgot to put it off. The nurse walked back to the other nurse and the doctor on the other side of the room and started treating other patients.

---

Martin looked around the end of the hallway. He saw a door on either side of the corridor, he heard nothing from both of them so he chose one at random. He ran into the left one, opened the door and ran in. He looked around for something he could use to stop his pursuers. He saw some braces and other medical stuff and ‘Ooh, a crash cart. I can do something with that, it’s even charged.’ He grabbed the cart and pulled the paddles of it. He dragged the cart by the peddles onto the corridor.

His pursuers almost reached him at his end of the hallway. As soon as the first pony was in reach of his arms he lunged forward and while pressing the large red buttons pressed the peddles onto the forehead of the nearest pony. A large magical charge discharged right in his face. The pony slumped to the ground, large black marks on his forehead, covering his entire face. The other one stopped dead in his tracks, anger raging in his eyes.

Martin muttered one word. “Shit.” Before the other stallion ran towards him and bucked Martin in the face, probably leaving an indent. The other stallion walked back to his fallen comrade and checked on him.

There was no pulse.