Zenith
"Dear, would you mind letting me look at your legs?"
I let out a small sniffle and a nod as I held my forelegs out. I had done a real good job on myself.
Sweetheart gingerly took the arm I had bitten and inspected it. Turns out I hadn’t bitten hard enough to draw blood with molars, my primary fangs had come out. The wounds were shallow, and there didn’t seem to be any blunt force injuries. Should be an easy recovery.
Now, of course I wasn’t gonna act like I knew that. I had severely fucked up when I injured myself right after she left, so now there was no way they’d think I actually had time to fall asleep and have a nightmare. There were several options on what else could cause the “nightmare” from attention-seeking behaviors, some sort of severe anxiety issue, or meth, but I’m pretty sure they weren’t going to assume that last one.
“Oh dear, does it hurt a lot?” Sweetheart asked gently, making eye contact.
I dropped my eyes to my foreleg and shuddered for the effect. “Mhm.” I responded quietly.
"I'm just gonna bandage this a bit so the doctor can look at it, okay?" Sweetheart asked softly, pulling out some gauze from her saddlebags.
I silently watched her work, holding my bad leg in close to my chest.
"Can you tell me what happened?" The nurse asked, taping the gauze onto my leg. The tape looked kind of weak, probably so it didn't rip off hair when it was removed. "I'm just going to tape this gauze here so the doctor can look at your injuries when he comes, okay?"
I nodded.
Alright. Cover story time.
"I just…" I let out a wet sniffle for good measure. "After you left I remember closing my eyes, and the next thing I know I felt bugs crawling on me.”
Sweetheart’s brows furrowed just the tiniest bit.
“Do you still feel or see them?”
"No ma'am." I shook my head. "It was more of a feel than a see."
Probably best to angle it more towards a panic attack.
"Okay." Sweetheart smiled. "Has this happened before?"
And probably a safe bet to say yes.
"Not often." I sniffed.
"Hm. Tell me Sunny, does the thought of being alone or… leaving the hospital scare you? It's perfectly understandable and okay if it does."
That made it sound like they were leaning toward anxiety issues, but I know they wouldn't write me off that easily. Did they think I was acting out because I was scared or lonely, or actually experienced the hallucination?
"Well I um…" I made my voice small. "I don't really like being alone in strange places, but that's not why I hurt myself. I really thought I was being crawled on."
Sweetheart's face softened. "I could get you a stuffed toy. Would that help?"
"It might."
Yeah sure, easy play, distract the kid with some material possession. Why don't you give me something shiny to chase while you're at it? Maybe jingle some keys in front of my face for me to grab at?
The door swung open and Dr. Horse walked in, adorned with white saddlebags.
I bit back an instinctive sarcastic reply.
"I hurt." I put on my best pout.
The doctor fixed me with a sympathetic look. "I know, and we'll get that taken care of, okay?"
I nodded again as the doctor pulled off the gauze and inspected the injury.
"Looks like some sort of stressor caused the primary incisors to come out." The nurse spoke in a low voice next to him. "And if they are a defense mechanism as the studies have shown…"
The doctor nodded thoughtfully as he stared at my arm.
"Nurse, bring me a section of tubigrip and a small dosage of morphine." The doctor ordered, not looking up from my foreleg.
The nurse nodded and left, taking with her all my worries. What I had done might be seen as despicable, but by God it had worked.
The doctor dropped his saddlebags and pulled out some gauze and bandages.
"Now this might hurt just a bit, but it'll help you heal and stay safe." He smiled, dabbing some liquid onto the gauze and pressing it into the injury.
I let out a low hiss as he started wrapping bandages around my foreleg.
"Are you scared of needles?" The doctor asked nonchalantly, not looking up from his work.
I really wanted to make a joke about how fearing needles would be kinda ridiculous considering I just fought a timberwolf, but fought it back. Looking too comfortable might prevent me from getting more sweet relief from the painkillers.
"Not really." I replied.
"That's good." The doctor smiled at me, nodding at Sweetheart as she re-entered the room with a syringe and a roll of wide, tannish bandage on her back.
"Now this…" The doctor tapped the needle after taking off the cap. He inserted it in my arm and connected it to an IV bag. "Will take a couple minutes to work, okay? But then you'll feel better."
About fifteen minutes later, the nurse came in to ask how I was doing. The painkiller had started really kicking in, giving me a nice, vaguely floaty feeling. It was akin to a nice buzz.
But who drinks to just get a buzz? Go big or go home, I always said.
So I told the nurse I was still in a lot of pain. I tried my best to pull off puppy eyes again, but when using, the perception gets skewed first, so I can’t be sure it worked. Of course, since I was in a world of trusting, gullible, and easy to manipulate horsies, they gave me the second dose of morphine.
Soon enough, I was straight up floating. Figuratively speaking, of course. My vision was blurring, and my arms felt kind of numb, getting that weird pins and needles feeling.
Was I drunk? No. I guess since it was as a result of painkillers, I was high. But it was enough. The foggy feeling in my head spelled out far more safety than the sterile white walls of the hospital. It didn’t matter that I was stuck in the body of a preteen horse/dragon hybrid with a rocking beard.
I was home.
Nurse Sweetheart came by at some point later with a cart of stuffed animals. I picked out a big stuffed green caterpillar that was almost half of the size of me. I named him “Bee”. Not sure why I named him that, or named him in the first place, but it seemed to come naturally. The nurse also offered a nightlight, but I waved her off with a dopey smile. I think she took the IV fluid cart out with her after switching off the light, but I wasn’t paying attention. I was too busy holding Bee close, and enjoying the feeling of blissful stupor.
I’m not sure when I drifted off, but I know I was the most at peace this body had probably even been.
I wondered when I could do it again.
I woke up the next morning without a hangover. Do you get hangovers from painkillers? I wouldn’t think so. If that was so, I knew what I was switching to when I got back to human body. Assuming I ever would.
But that didn’t matter, because as soon as I saw Sweetheart, and the obviously fake smile that didn’t reach her eyes? I knew something was about to get worse.
Let’s see… Mysterious happenstance, no family nearby, possible substance issue, and apparent anxiety issues? Yeah, I can see the bad news coming from a mile away.
“Social worker coming?” I interrupted.
Sweetheart’s eyebrows shot up. She blinked at me a few times, then shook her head.
“Psychologist.”
"Ah.” I wasn’t sure if it was relief or anxiety crawling in my chest, but to know I was about to see a psychologist against my will made me a bit uneasy. To know this pony could walk in and pull some first degree quackery, and get me screwed for life? Not a welcome idea. I always hated the mental side of medicine.
Minutes went by as we waited, Nurse Sweetheart fiddling around the room and checking on supplies while I held Bee close to my chest. It felt juvenile and did nothing to calm me.
“Have you met this psychologist before, Nurse?” I asked, hoping to make small talk and ease my growing nerves. Being anxious wouldn’t help the session, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try and relax a little.
Then again, I really didn't have any reason to hide, right? I was in the head of a completely different species that shouldn't be real, but I was also in a land of magic. They might be able to fix me.
I mean losing my responsibilities is great and all, but I miss the abilities I had as an adult. Like buying alcohol. That was a big one.
And I was absolutely not going through puberty twice.
“Oh, I have a few times around here. Often in quick passing as they come in for a session, or outside the hospital running errands in town.” She sat back in the visitor’s chair, watching me as my mind wandered.
My thoughts were soon interrupted with a curious tone of voice. “I’m surprised you can correctly pronounce psychologist. Not a common word for a filly of your age. Quite a vocabulary I’d assume? Maybe a dictionary at home?”
I bit down on my lip to prevent a physical reaction.
"Well, I'm not too social, and we don't have a lot of books, ma'am."
That was a flat out lie. I had to do a lot of reading to study for my degree, but I hated reading. I'd much rather go out and party, or do some sports.
"Well that's defi-" The nurse was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Oh, that must be her!"
Sweetheart opened the door to reveal a pegasus mare with a pink coat and a short white mane, curled at the end. She was wearing green-rimmed semicircle glasses and had blue eyes.
"Hello!" She greeted chipperly, flashing a radiant smile. "You must be Sunny Meadows. My name is Evening Glow. It's nice to meet you!"
I clenched my jaw. This was gonna suck.
"Likewise." I responded in a flat tone, nodding at her.
Sweetheart made her leave as Evening smiled at me again. She sank to her haunches and clapped her forehooves together once.
"Well Sunny, how about you tell me about yourself? I bet you have lots of interesting stories."
"Tell you about myself?" I parroted. Oh god this was gonna be painful. "My name is Sunny. I'm a Kirin." I paused for a moment, then lifted my leg, wrapped up in a cast. "I broke my leg."
"Ooh." Evening winced. "Ouch. I bet that hurt, huh?"
"Breaking bones does usually hurt, yes." I replied in a deadpan tone.
"But a big strong filly like you toughed it right out, huh?" Evening winked at me.
Yup. I was right. This was painful. Not to mention I had to deal with one of those individuals that was way too happy all the time. Those kinds of people always sketched me out.
"Well, it didn't kill me, so… yeah."
I had to bite back an "obviously". I get she was trying to be friendly and build a rapport with me, get me to loosen up, but that didn't make it any less aggravating. I wished she'd just cut to the chase.
"Do you know why I'm here, dear?"
Gotta choose my words carefully.
"Because the hospital doesn't know enough about me to make them confident in my treatment and release."
Evening nodded. "I heard you don't have much family in the area."
I couldn't resist rolling my eyes.
"Oh no, all those Kirin you see wandering around? Related to all of them."
The way the nurse had spoken when I just woke made it sound like Kirin didn't actually live here, so I figured this was a safe comment. Fake a bit of knowledge so they could think I'm more in the loop than I was, and use that to help them pry less.
"Ah, of course." Evening gave off one of those stupid fake laughs adults give kids. "Not too many Kirin around. That just means you're the talk of the town." Evening walked closer. "I heard you had quite the experience that led to you getting here."
"Yeah, I was attacked by a giant monster."
Giving these cold, quick answers will probably only extend this, though. Would kids answer these freely? Well I mean, kids don't know when to shut up, so probably, yeah.
"Wasn't the most fun I've ever had." I continued.
Evening gave off another fake laugh and I briefly considered finding a brick wall to slam my head against. "I also hear you like your calming substances."
Oh god they are going this route.
"Oh and I get that, no worries. I was known to be a bit of a party animal myself back in my heyday." Evening winked. "'Course I'm a bit too old for that now. Know what I mean?"
I cocked my head to the left. "Uh, no ma'am. I have no idea what you mean. My dad said no partying until I'm out on my own and mature enough to make decisions like that."
I could see Evening just barely chew on her lower lip.
Score! She wasn't expecting that.
"Well I sure wish I was as smart as you when I was your age." Evening simpered. "I unfortunately grew up on a farm where my parents grew corn and made a good few bits making moonshine with it."
I blinked in confusion.
"If they used corn wouldn't that make it whisk-"
I slammed my jaws shut, my eyes shooting wide open.
Fuck me and my stupid big mouth.
Evening stared at the wall above me and pondered for a moment.
"Yeah I guess that would be whiskey, wouldn't it? That's not common knowledge for one your age. How do you know that?"
Thinkthinkthinkthink!
"My parents run a distillery." I lied, hoping to hell that Kirin had distilleries. Or at least that she didn't know if they didn't.
"Gotcha." She nodded. "Family business?"
She was offering me a potential way out. There has to be a catch.
"Yup!" I faked a smile. "My grandma, I think, started it."
Evening's brows knit together.
"Huh, that business must have been hard to keep running during the whole 'stream of silence' situation. How did your family do it?"
I froze.
She had pulled out a wild card. An event I had no knowledge on, that I was supposed to. Either she came up with it and it was fake, and I'd be going along with something fake, or…
"Well, uh…" I stalled for time.
There was no good answer.
So I had to bullshit as hard as possible.
Okay, so, stream of silence sounded a bit too bullshit and on-the-nose to be literal, and it sounds like it had something to do with alcohol at least. Maybe some kind of prohibition laws, and it was called stream of 'silence' because there were less loud drunks causing trouble?
"My dad had a part time job as a writer." I bullshitted. "And my mom became a singer in a little local band. Never went big, just played at events and stuff. Y'know."
"Aw, that's nice." Evening chuckled. “Unfortunately my brother and I got all the creative talent in the family, but that does sound nice."
So either I successfully convinced her, which was a chance considering how gullible I remember the ponies being in the show, or she was just not showing her reaction.
She had shown a reaction to what I said earlier, though. But that could be a red herring.
"And you never got curious and tried what your parents made?" Evening raised an eyebrow, one side of her mouth twisted into a small smile.
"Well, I mean, curious, sure." I felt my breathing pick up. She had a professional look of curiosity on her, but looked just a bit too smug. She knew something I didn't. She had to. "But I never tried it on my own. I saw enough drunk ponies to make me not want that."
"Smart filly." Evening smiled at me again. "I will have to talk to the doctor about this, but don't you worry none. Also, I have a surprise for you, sweetie."
Oh god.
"We found your sister. She's waiting to see you whenever you're ready.”
Well fuck. This is it. If my sister was actually here, she could easily unravel the web of lies I had just spun. I doubt Evening would lie about there being a sister, and it would make sense somebody had seen me jump onto the train.
Which meant this body existed before me.
And I had no idea what happened to the consciousness who originally owned the body.
“Would you like the nurse to be with you when your sister comes in?” Evening asked.
I nodded wordlessly, and that was it. She disappeared, and was soon replaced by Nurse Sweetheart, who took a seat next to me on the floor, on the side of the bed facing the door.
“Nurse Redheart is bringing her in.” Sweetheart smiled. “Eager to see your sister again?”
Eager wasn’t the word I’d use to describe my current feeling. I had a big ball of anxiety gnawing at my insides. Not only would this sister definitely undo all my lies, and as a result get me in some sort of trouble, but I knew nothing about her. I don’t know what kind of relationship we had. I had ended up off the train, so she could have thrown me. Or I could have jumped to get away from her. But now here I was, faking a smile while waiting for this mysterious pony that would impact my immediate future in a drastic way.
Even with all that, some part of me was actually looking forward to seeing her. Some small, naïve part of me in the back of my mind affiliated “sister” with safety. This was weird, as I’d never had a sister, and my brother, even though I loved him, wasn’t exactly somebody I’d affiliate with a protector.
I ended up smelling my sister before I saw her. The smell of smoke and ozone, rapidly growing stronger and closer, chased away that feeling of safety, and I began feeling my skin start to crawl. I tried to logic that she was a kirin, and had some sort of freaky flame abilities, so the smoke didn’t mean I was in danger, but it didn’t help. The smell of smoke was everywhere, even though the room lacked any actual smoke, and it assaulted my nose. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut as the smell attacked my nose, and found myself hyperventilating uncontrollably.
My eyes still closed, flames danced across my vision, and I started coughing, no longer able to breathe. I found the world around me filled with darkness, the only light coming from a large pile of wooden rubble burning brightly in front of me. I could feel my throat sore from the smoke and screaming, and the tears streaking wildly down my face. The light from the fire and the smoke stung my eyes and I shielded my eyes with a blackened foreleg.
“Sunny!” The room of the hospital flew open and so did my eyes. I only had a moment to spot a much larger Kirin, just as tall as all the adults, with the same color coat as me, but brown eyes and emerald colored scales, before I lost complete control of my body. Against my will, barely able to breathe, much less choke from the apparently invisible smoke, I shut my eyes, threw my forehooves around the nurse next to me, and hid my face in her leg.
It was about the same time as the pathetic voice from back in the forest started screaming.
I had no idea how long it had been. I still had no control of my body, which was currently shaking and sobbing against my will, curled up in the fetal position. The screaming had stopped.
I could vaguely register the feeling of somebody running a brush down my side, which seemed to actually be calming the body down. I felt the body take a deep breath, wipe its eyes, and sit up. And then, with a sudden rush in my head, I was in control of my body again.
“Sunny?” Sweetheart asked from next to me. The first thing I noticed was that she was now wearing bandages around her left foreleg. A pang of guilt shot through me when I realized that was the leg my body had curled around, and last time I had been that nervous I had erupted into flames.
My fear was more or less confirmed when Sweetheart followed my gaze and immediately hid half of her foreleg behind the other.
“Are you…” I managed, my throat sore.
“Oh never mind that.” Sweetheart laughed. “Slipped and fell, clumsy ol’ me.” Her expression became serious. “You want to talk about what happened?”
I sat there quietly for a few moments.
“Can I please have some time alone to think?”
Sweetheart nodded and placed a hoof on my shoulder. “I’ll be right outside. Shout if you need anything.”
And she took her exit I stared back down at my forelegs. Unblackened, still bandaged. What had I seen? I’d had panic attacks before but whatever has just happened was way beyond that. And losing control of my body? What was that about? To make it worse, that voice that was screaming, the same one as right outside the Everfree?
I mean... it was impossible. It had to be! But all the same, I had to find out.
“Uh, hello?” I spoke aloud. “Is there anybody in my head with me?”
The next few moments I didn’t dare to even breathe, and right before I was about to call it quits, and call myself a paranoid idiot, the voice spoke back.
“Uhm, hi.” It responded in a subdued tone. “I’m Sunny Meadows, and you’re in my body. Are you… are you going to hurt me again?”
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Ya blew it sucker. Writing sure, but you can't mime singing.
Oh my sweet buggering Zog, the ethics of this! This just got tangled in the best sort of way. And by "best" I mean a huge moral quandary for all involved.
Ooooohhhh boy, this took an unexpected turn! I was going to criticize her, being an asshole to a medical professional when they're trying to help her, but now he'll punish himself enough if he's s half decent human being. She effectively, kidnapped, endangered, attacked and drugged a small girl in her addiction & stubbornness. She's what any slightly reasonable human society puts amongst the worst of their scum. That's one hell of an unexpected twist, bravo!
On one hand, a reason for her to stop attacking herself in increasingly self destructive ways. On the other, she has quite a fuckton of things to make up for. Let's hope she not only rises up to the occasion but also grows from the experience. It'd be dreadfully irresponsible and utterly monstrous to continue to physically abuse and turn into a chemical addict a worse than helpless small filly...
Edit: fixed the gender of the MC.
...Oh, ouch (in more ways than one). Quite a predicament he's got himself in now.
...and pulled a cartoonishly gigantic ACME-brand syringe out of the bag, while wearing the most stereotypical crazy cartoon doctor smile. "Don't worry! I WON'T FEEL A THING!!"
And that's when our protagonist realized Hell was animated by Warner Bros.
And now our protagonist is a Body Snatcher! Yay!
This will be EASY to explain away!
Our hapless twit, "Soooo, what REALLY happened is I'm an ALIEN entity that has taken control of the body of this filly!"
Twilight, "Girls, git the Deus Ex Rainbow Laser gems. We got ourselves ANOTHER exorcism to perform."
AJ, "Ain't that like the 4th one this week?"
Oh shit, this ..... this is bad.
We have two people living in the same body, this is bad. Especially since the first one isn't Sunny Meadows. Though she has been using her name for sometime. Maybe we can learn her name though this interaction.
...
Well.
That's...
I don't...
Huh.
Like I said before... Poor Sunny... she has to be terrified.
And... there's... that's a lot of issues that suddenly pop up.
Does Sunny feel our protagonist as she seemingly feels Sunny?
Does Sunny have some semblance of a reason to have jumped off the train?
Are the two going to be friends or enemies?
...
Can anything make either one better?
Ok this has shifted track, and become more interesting. Can't wait to see where this is going
oops
okay I can see were this is going and I love it
10941411
10941461
I'm pretty sure our body snatcher protagonist is a women. As she was quite happy when she first woke up to find she still had the same genitalia as before. The only way I would think that you mistook her for being originally male, has to do with a throw away line, where she muses about a dream she had.
10941684
Oh horseapples, you're right. It's been almost two months, forgot that and just went with the standard in these kind of stories.
I'll correct that mistake, thanks for calling me out on it!
I gave this an honest shot, I just can't empathize with the character.
Every decision that he makes is opposite of what I would do.
Not my cup of tea.
The Monk
10942148
She's not meant to be emphasized with in the beginning. She's supposed to grow throughout the story. But if you don't want to read it, that's you. Thanks for giving it a shot anyway.
Ha! This fic's still going!
10947600
Not weekly anymore, as life is... well, life.
But yes. I will not abandon this.
Oh boy, this just got ten times more complicated. Our protagonist is going to have to make every decision bearing in mind that he's choosing for two. And I can only imagine what Sunny's made of this whole experience thus far, poor thing. Definitely looking forward to seeing how this plays out. And what the healthcare staff do with the thing that claims their mother worked as a singer during a magically enforced, town-wide vow of silence.
10950705
She, not he. I don't say that because that's her current physical gender, but because she was relieved that she hadn't undergone a sex change along with the change in species.
This filly has a drug problem.
Well then. Congrats lady, you just violently abused the foal you're body-snatching. That's some high octane nightmare fuel right there.
Ugh.... A body snatch story... I'm out
11044429
11071664
To be completely fair, it doesn't appear she deliberately stole the body, or any role in taking it for that matter, which is what body snatching implies
I remember that when I was a kid it took three or four people to hold me down long enough to give me a shot; for years whenever I heard "bloodwork" i had an adrenaline rush.
Full consciousness, oh dear, that complicates things quite a bit.
11044429
Oh yeah. It's all coming together.
At this point, ida ran. Ozone? Who the fuck is actually coming, the devil?
I can't stop cringing. Why the hell didn't they check first if there was someone with them. Heck-
10941463
https://youtu.be/4c27L8d8Jk0?t=1m56s
11297325
Enough fics where that doesn't happen.
Ah great you are a bodysnatcher.