50: Aye, there's the rub
“Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.”
-Sir Rabindranath Tagore, Indian polymath
Chapter 50
Luna had one thing right. There was so much darkness. For an insanely large amount of time, that’s all there was. A complete absence of any external stimuli at all. I almost went completely crazy trying to figure out what happened or even where I was. There was only my disembodied thoughts, an empty abyss, and a sluggish sense of time. I waited, waited and waited some more. Suddenly, light. A little pinprick, like a barely visible star on a perfectly dark night. I watched it do nothing for a nearly infinite amount of time. There was a sudden movement, and the light grew in size from a faint star to a glowing marble. It rushed up to me, growing even larger, until everything was extremely bright. It would have been blinding if there was anything else to see. The light congealed, gathering in some places and running away from others. It slowly resolved into surroundings. There was a lot of dark blue, and a big bright light in front of me. I squinted my eyes, because now it hurt. I had eyes now. I groaned.
“What was that, Nurse?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Check his heart rate. We don’t want anything funny to happen.” The first person said. There was a faint shuffling. A long silence settled, interspersed by mechanical beeps. I became aware, suddenly, of a blinding pain. I groaned again.
“Oh shit.”
“Nurse?”
“Doctor, he’s waking up.” The nurse said. There was a bustling around me. Suddenly, there was bright, bright light on one side of me, and then another. I tried to wave away the light, but my arms were completely limp. I groaned again and opened my eyes. There was someone above me, wearing a blue mask and cap. His coat was a dull peach color, and I could see some of his chestnut hair through his cap. He backed away from me when I opened my eyes. He looked away from me.
“Two hundred and ninety cc’s propofol! Now!” The doctor shouted. I tried to breathe, but nothing would go in. I gagged silently, my eyes boggling. The Doctor ran away somewhere, but the nurse came up and grabbed my head.
“You’re going to be okay. You’re going to be okay. You’re going to be okay.” The nurse repeated herself, growing slightly hysterical. I groaned again, trying to move my arms. One of them responded, moving towards my chest. Something grabbed it and pulled it away. I looked to the side. The doctor had his back to me. He turned around, holding a syringe. He injected it into a tube that led into an ‘x’ made with tape on my foreleg. I became dizzy almost immediately, but nothing else happened. I groaned again, moving my other arm this time. I reached over my chest. My hoof fell into something hot and wet. I pulled it out sluggishly and looked at it. It was covered in a bright red sheen. I tried to inhale again but couldn’t. My newly created world turned black at the corners, and a familiar cold seeped over me. Then there was something akin to sleep.
The light congealed once more. I blinked for a moment, turning to my left. There was a little tiny whiteboard with a little marker stuck to it. I squinted. There was writing on the board, but I couldn’t read any of it. I looked back to the front of the room.
“-your fucking fault.” A faintly familiar voice said. I could barely hear it, but I turned towards the noise. It was next to some door or other. I looked around some more. There was a window, but the speaking kept on.
“I don’t think that you weighed him correctly. I had just the right dosage for a person of his weight.”
“Look,” The other voice said. “You’re the fucking anesthesiologist. You’re supposed to keep this guy from waking up in the middle of my OR. I had his goddamn beating heart in my hands when this guy started moaning and floppin’ around like a trout. I’m the one that had to inject him with enough propofol to kill a clydesdale.”
“I don’t even know how he survived that. You’re lucky you don’t have your license revoked.”
“Enough about my license. He would have died of shock if I didn't do something. That, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much I didn’t sleep that night. He could be a fucking vegetable right now for all we know.”
“At least he’s alive.”
“Yeah. Let’s go in.” The first voice said. There was a clack and some noise, and then two people walked into the room I was in. I opened my eyes even wider. These were humans. One of them was very very pale with wire glasses on, and the other one was a tanned man wearing green scrubs. Both of them looked happy to see me. The man wearing the green scrubs pulled up a chair and sat in it so the back of it was touching his chest. He smiled.
“You doing alright, Mister King?” He said loudly, like I would have had trouble hearing him if I wasn’t. I gulped.
“I’m not Mister King.” I said. I was extremely surprised to hear that my voice was now a deep timbre that would put Othello to shame. I put my hand over my mouth in shock. The man with the green scrubs pulled a clipboard off of the front of the bed I was in.
“Jamal King, Twenty-Nine, lives at 3531 oakley place?” He asked. I just shook my head. The man frowned, looking to the pale man wearing blue scrubs. The man pushed up his glasses and spread his hands flat on his pants.
“Sometimes after anesthesia you can’t remember things properly, like your address or your shoe size or little things like that. Is there anything that you can tell me about yourself, Mister King?” The pale man said in a light, airy voice. I opened my mouth for a moment, looking down. My arms were a dark, dark brown, like dark chocolate. I lifted them up and looked
“Wow.” I said, smiling. There were hands on the ends of my arms, with long, nimble fingers. I snapped one of them and started laughing. “Oh wow.” I said again between laughs. The green scrubbed man and the Anesthesiologist both smiled at me.
“Fine motor control. That’s really good,” The Anesthesiologist commented, looking at my hands. “But I want to see if you can do some other things.” He continued, handing me a pen. I took it from him and held it in my hands. It was a really cheap plastic pen. “Take that apart for me, if you don’t mind.” I unscrewed the top of the pen and dumped out all of the plastic bits. The Anesthesiologist nodded with a serious look on his face.
“This is cool. So where’s Luna?” I asked. The man with the green scrubs flipped through my chart.
“Is she your girlfriend?” The man said without looking away from the clipboard.
“Yeah.” I answered. The man frowned and looked at an individual page.
“Nobody else was in the ambulance with you when you arrived. We were honestly surprised that you lived long enough to get you into the OR.” The green scrubbed man said. I looked away from my hands and looked at him.
“What happened?” I asked, shocked.
“You had a massive heart attack. I’m not kidding- It was a complete mess. People that were there said that you just grabbed your chest and fell over. I’m surprised that your heart didn’t just explode. We thought we lost you in the middle of surgery, but you bounced back.” Green-scrubs said. I finally realized that he was the surgeon.
“What?” I asked, confused. The surgeon looked back at the anesthesiologist, and the man shrugged. The surgeon sighed and turned back to me.
“You flatlined about three times. The first two times, you just skipped only a few beats, but the third time was almost a minute. We were about to declare the time of death when you came back. Then we had to do a cardiac transplantation. Pretty much we just took your heart out and sewed a new donor heart up to the different arteries. Fairly regular procedure. The, uh, the donor died in the riots, if you wanted to know.
“The riots?” I wondered aloud, completely confused. The surgeon chuckled.
“You must really be out of it. You didn’t see the King case?”
“The case?” I asked, still confused.
“The Rodney King trial? You didn’t see it?” The surgeon re-iterated. I shook my head. The surgeon smiled and tousled his hair with one of his hands. He held his hands open, leaning his elbows on his knees.
“Do you remember anything? Do you know where you are?” The surgeon asked. I shook my head. His eyes went wide and he leaned back in his chair. He grabbed onto the back of the chair and looked back at the anesthesiologist. The man opened his mouth like he was about to say something, and then started to chuckle. He scratched his arm and looked at me. His eyes were a bright green through his oval wire glasses.
“This is a very rare case of total amnesia. As far as I know, there isn’t really much documented precedence of what happened to you. It could be anything. It could have been the loss of oxygen due to the heart attack, the massive dose of sedative we gave you to keep you unconscious after you regained consciousness, anything. It was just a big mess. It could be anything.” The anesthesiologist said. I frowned, looking down at my arms. There was a stark contrast to the brown of my arms and the pale white of the blankets. I hung my mouth open.
“What happened to me?”
“Well, you had a heart at-”
“No, I mean, what happened? Last thing I remember, Slim was going to go eat that mare... Is she alright? Is that mare alright?” I asked, suddenly very worried. The surgeon looked very confused. He looked back to the Anesthesiologist, who shook his head and shrugged.
“We don’t know anything about that.” The pale man said. I frowned.
“Is this a joke or something? Did the Doctor put you up to this?” I asked. The surgeon shook his head.
“Which Doctor?”
“The Doctor. Or- or was it Marcus? Evangeline? Wh-Where’s Celestia? Was it Antony?” I asked, growing slightly hysterical. The surgeon put up his hands.
“Calm down, Mister King. Nobody is playing a joke on you. Now please, just calm down.” He said, I started shaking my head.
“It’s not possible. They have to be somewhere. Are they humans too now? What’s happening? I don’t understand.” I said, still confused. The Anesthesiologist walked around the surgeon and up to my bedside. There was a bunch of machines and monitors there, on my right side. He fiddled with my IV bag.
“Y-You don’t know anything?” I asked, afraid slightly. The Anesthesiologist shook his head, turning away from me. The surgeon sighed.
“I was really worried about you. You scared the hell out of us when you woke up. In all my years in surgery, something like that has never happened to me. We had your ribs ratcheted open and your heart was literally in my hands when you just started groaning. I almost fainted. You’re very, very lucky to be alive, Mister King.” He said. I turned back to the Anesthesiologist, who was injecting something into my IV.
“I don’t feel lucky at all.” I whispered hoarsely. A dull calm washed over me and the Anesthesiologist walked away from my tubes. He patted the surgeon on the shoulder and he got up with a sigh from his chair. He stood arms akimbo as he looked down at me.
“You’re healthy now, at least. That’s something to be thankful for." The surgeon leaned down and patted my leg. I turned away from him and looked out of the window. There were buildings and telephone poles, rooftops. I could even see an airliner flying across the sky cloudy, dark sky. I opened my mouth in shock. There were no airplanes in Equestria. This place was something else. Something different. I didn’t like it. I turned away from the window. The whiteboard was there. I could read it now that my eyes were used to the light.
Jamal King
Tuesday, May 5th, 1992
Los Angeles, California
Rainy
I turned away from the whiteboard. I was now looking forward. There was a little TV mounted to the ceiling. I looked straight ahead. There was a little alcove in the wall that held a sink and a little mirror. The man in the mirror looking back at me was intimidating. Dark brown skin, rigid brow, and a face set up in a scowl. His eyes were dark. I closed my eyes and sighed. A deep sadness settled over me and I thought of Luna. Sleep found me slowly.
I woke up with a start. It was nighttime, and moonlight streamed through the slats of the blinds. There was someone standing over me. It took a little bit for my eyes to adjust. The man was a doctor, wearing a white coat. I couldn’t see his face very well.
“Who are you?” I asked. I was surprised by my voice again. I reached up and touched my throat.
“I know who you are.” The doctor said. I blinked.
“What?”
“The two other doctors told me about you. You’re a famous case in here. Not many people survive what you did.” The doctor explained. I frowned.
“I don’t want to be famous.” I said. The doctor sighed.
“I know you don’t. But there’s probably something I should tell you.
“What?” I asked. The Doctor sat down in a chair next to my bed, a lightly padded armchair. He slumped down with a groan.
“I can’t remember the majority of my childhood. The first thing I can remember is waking up on the edge of a public pool with a lifeguard pounding on my chest. I was nine. They said that I drowned there in that pool, but I couldn’t remember anything at all. My own name, my address, my mother’s face. Nothing at all. But there were things I could remember. I tried to forget, to live my life like a normal child. But I couldn’t. I always had an unhealthy fascination with fire. I was always different. But you and I are more similar than you think, Mister King.” He said. I turned to him. His face was doughy and he wore tiny round glasses.
“Who are you?” I demanded. The doctor smiled.
“I’m Dr. Othello Williams. It’s an honor to finally see you again, Mister Shell.”
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I was sitting here reading this and thinking if he made all of that up while he was out I was going to be annoyed so very annoyed.
I'm out of words... I just... I mean...
So many questions...
So is this how it all ends?!
I mean... it could be the end... I don't know if i'd want it to be... but it could be...
But seriously dafuq did just happen?! How? Why?
Seems like it will be a hard wait for a post telling this was the end or a next chapter if it wasn't.
My mind.
it.
is.
so.
full.
Of fuck.
816927 True. So true. Imaginary thumbs up for you because this site doesn't have a like system.
11244
I SOLVED IT. META KNIGHT IS A BOT IN A SCHEME TO TAKE OVER FIMFICTION.
816958 Seems legit :D
Wow. You guys went crazy on this. MFW I understand everything. http://puu.sh/DWan
But in all seriousness, please bear with. I pinkie promise that the next chapter will explain absolutely everything. Also, there will be more chapters than just 50. I'm not going to give another number because I might get trapped like I did this time. So the story goes on.
816803>>816890>>816927>>816958>>816958
817165 Hey, just because I said that doesn't mean I wouldn't have liked it just have been annoyed because in my opinion it leaves very little available for closure.
817816 its no big deal, I wasn't criticizing you. I would have hated it too
817165
If you hadn't posted this I would have been asking what the fuck. I got enough mind fuckery from Believing Stories thank you very much.
All I have is this; dafuq just happen?!
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_TwilightWut.png OK, clearly, Discord decided to mess with the souls of dead ponies for his own sick amusement.
817165
Thanks for the reply :) I won't say i don't like this chapter, instead i would say we don't have enough information to judge it either way. But knowing that the story will go on seriously helps the situation.
However i can't resist to tell you, if we won't see Luna again, i really really really won't be happy. But i think you already know that from my profile picture, and from the mail that i sent to you, when you said you won't post new chapters here :) (I completely understand if you don't remember that mail, i think you should have got a bunch more mails in that period, so it'd be hard to remember them all :) )
I seriously don't know just what the hell can you do with this story from now on, but i've seen it already that if anyone has the professionalism to handle the situation, it's you. Sooo, yeah. Just keep up the good work sir, and don't leave us hangin' for too long
...
...
...
my mind...
is full of fuck...
1 word for this chapter...
DAYUM
I am kind of glad that I wound up back home and there being another chapter after this. I would have been confused and a wreck waiting for the next chapter. I cannot formulate words into a cohesive way that expresses how I feel about this chapter other than "I love it!".