A magic glow enveloped the spoon full of apple sauce as it floated towards your face. You opened you mouth apathetically, allowing it to glide in. You wrapped your lips around the utensil and sucked down the food. You then reopened your mouth, allowing the magically aloft spoon to be removed.
“Well, that looks like the last of it!” Chirped the nurse happily as she levitated the spoon back onto the dining tray. As demeaning as it was, she did treat you like an adult during the whole affair. If she had said something along the lines of “here comes the airplane” you don’t know how you’d react. Of course they don’t have airplanes in Equestria, but you’re sure they have their own cultural equivalent.
As the nurse cleaned up, you rotated your head to gaze out the window at the bright summer morning that lay outside.
“You must be excited to finally be discharged today, huh Anon?” Questioned the nurse. You gave a soft nod.
“Yeah,” you replied. In truth, you weren’t sure what difference it made. A change of scenery, sure, but that was the only thing that would change for you.
If the nurse picked up on your melancholy, she didn’t draw attention to it. She placed the remains of you your breakfast feeding onto a trolley, and looked you over.
“Well your friends should be here soon to escort you home. If you need anything, I’ll be just down the hall, so all you need to do is shout, and I’ll be here in a jiffy!”
“Thank-s,” you respond as she left, with you still staring out the window. In the distance, you could spy pegasi flying through the air. In the past you had envied the way they were able to traverse the sky with ease. The unfettered freedom to travel where they wanted, not being restrained by gravity. Now though, you’d give anything in the world just to be able to move your legs.
You don’t know how long you stared out the window, absorbed in your thoughts. You didn’t even notice the multiple hoof steps approach until they were right next to your bedside.
“Hey Anon, how are you feeling?” You were brought out of your rumination and turned your head to see Twilight standing in front of you. Behind her were Fluttershy and Applejack, along with the nurse who had been attending to you earlier.
“Hey…guys,” you replied. You tried to force a smile for them, but you weren’t sure if you were able to succeed or not. “I’m…alright.”
“You ready to get outa here I reckon?” Questioned Applejack. You nodded. At the very least, you’d be able to appreciate the fresh air and the warmth of the sun on the little portion of your skin you could still feel.
“You gonna…c-carry me?” You questioned.
“Not exactly,” replied Twilight, as she stepped aside to reveal a wheelchair that you hadn’t previously noticed. It looked to be custom made. It had an elongated back and a form fitting head rest, and it had a raised leg rest. It reminded you of the type of chair that Steven Hawking rode around in, only it was more elegantly designed. Instead of steel, the metal seemed to be colored like copper or gold. The wheel spokes were studded with gemstones, clearly Rarity had offered her artistic touch to the design. However you knew the practicality of it’s construction came from Twilight. Your eyes widened when you saw the chair.
“We made this for you. We didn’t think a pony chair would suit you very well,” said Twilight. You felt a sad but grateful smile come to your face. These ponies…even at the worst of times, they knew just the right thing to do and say. There wasn’t a single one of them who you couldn’t count on to be there for you when times were tough.
“T-thanks g-guys…it’s perf-fect.” Twilight used her magic to carefully raise you off of your hospital bed, and placed you on the chair. As you were seated, your arms where placed over your thighs, and your head was placed securely on the headrest. Your neck was comfortable pressing against soft, form fitting padding. You were reclined back into a position of relaxation. You had to fight back tears of appreciation. With a sniff, you smiled gratefully.
“Ready to go?” Questioned Twilight. You nodded.
All eyes were on you as your friends wheeled you through town. The first few minutes of the journey from the hospital were refreshing. The breeze and sunlight on your face refreshed you in a way you’d never thought possible in the past.
‘It’s amazing the things you take for granted,’ you thought. But as you got further into town, the looks of pity became apparent. Some ponies looked at you with shock, some even stopped and stared. You didn’t like that. The pity they were giving you with their expressions cut into you like razor blades. Your friends must have noticed, because they increased their pace, pushing you along faster as Applejack and Fluttershy cast discouraging looks at the gawkers. Soon enough, you saw the Golden Oaks Library over the horizon.
“Aren’t we…g-going h-home?” You questioned.
“You can stay with me for a few days, while we figure everything out,” said Twilight. Great, now you were imposing onto Twilight and Spike.
“T-that’s not…are you s-sure?” You questioned.
“Really Anon,” countered Applejack. “Y’all don’t need to worry none. Friends stick by each other through thick and thin! You’d do the same for us, wouldn’t ya?”
“Y-yeah,” you replied. You would wouldn’t you? You always thought you’d have the courage and integrity to stand by a friend during a time as troublesome as this. Though now, you’d have no way to prove it. It’s not like you could be of any help to anyone any more. You were now permanently affixed to one side of the situation. As you neared the library, Fluttershy galloped forward and opened the door for you with her wing. Twilight thanked her, and rolled you into the library.
‘And so begins my role as a burden to all my friends,’ you thought. You only hoped you could minimize that burden.
Making peace with adversity is the very essence of existence.
Nice to see this fic live again.
It seems that our protagonist Anon was hit hard by depression; As a reader, I wish him the best.
Also, small mistake:
At least he’s finally out of the hospital.
Big oof...
But topkek author's note
Cried a little. Excellent work.
And the pain for this Human continues on
Say, can't Twilight turn Anon into a starfish or flatworm, remove the damaged parts of the transformed Anon, let him regenerate new parts, & then turn him back into a human with a functioning body?
P.S.- I get the story is one where Rainbow learns a harsh lesson & recieves consequences, but with how Equestrian spells are so bonkers I wanted to ask.
I thought he was going into a full time care facility. But being around all his friends -maybe one at a time in a rotation- will give him a change of scenery and routine. Rainbow will have to show up eventually.
What will they do when an Elements issue arises? Or an event that draws their whole group together? Surely, Twilight has a plan? Maybe?
Discord. I’m still trying to figure out what he’s going to do when he shows up. Definitely going to rub this in several of their faces…
Hey, so I'm just wondering… how does ONE become a prisoner of Somali Pirates? Just asking for a friend
I tried it and all i got was nord vpn
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sail the world in an expensive yacht wearing nothing but gold and diamonds
Hello people, I made a music, please judge me harshly
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Of course, there's a limit to how much adversity one can reasonably be expected to put up with before those kinds of sayings become flat-out insulting.
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Them's the breaks when you're doing that stuff within speculative fiction. See also: the plethora of Scootaloo stories which toss around disability-positive platitudes while outright ignoring the various canonical examples of technology that could get her flying.
I'm still holding out hope that they'll find some way to give him back some of his mobility someday, though given the tags...
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Untill you take this advice to heart it will always be insulting no matter how small your adversity is. But indeed there is limit how mutch of trial that is life can one lone soul take before it breaks
Remember kids, no matter how bleak things seem, they can always be worse.
So enjoy what you have.
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Personally, I'd love some M-word passes.
It's only one more letter across the alphabet, and I can finally get in Pinkie's and Applejack's faces.
MUD PONY
Oh the slur!!
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I imagine a solution will eventually come up, but given that this is a pretty novel situation for everyone on the pony side of things as well and that Twilight’s own track record with “easy” magic fixes to problems is somewhat spotty at best even in canon, I can see why she’d want to be extra careful and not just impulsively try to hornwave Anon back to health. He’s in bad enough shape after just one “prank” already and the last thing any of his friends will want is to only make things worse.
(Also, if Flim and Flam should have the nerve to even show up with an alleged miracle cure, don’t even stop to think about it and just kick them straight into orbit.)
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This is almost as insulting as when the self-help books claim “For every disadvantage there is an equal and corresponding advantage.” (And the like). The only advantages that I have that other people do not are an above average (and often near flawless) recall of songs, TV shows, and movies, along with perfect pitch. These are not nearly enough to offset the difficulties that I experience in my day-to-day life referenced below. My level one autism (for example) is sometimes mistaken for simple shyness/nervousness or mild social anxiety by people who do not understand what autism is let alone its effects. It is also sometimes mistaken (even by family) for being selfish or egotistical, having “A bad attitude”, “being difficult”, or “having behavior problems” but that’s a whole other discussion. My eyeglasses (with progressive lenses) allow me to mostly offset the effects of my near-sightedness and astigmatism, but otherwise my conditions (described below) are things that I just need to live with day in and day out.
As someone who is on the autism spectrum (level one (informally (and slightly incorrectly) referred to as mild autism), and who also has right hemisphere damage from a stroke at birth, as well as a mild form of cerebral palsy, scoliosis, color blindness, near-sightedness, astigmatism, and a slight speech impediment that causes my rs (and sometimes my ls) to come out sounding like ws (and is frequently mistaken for baby talk) I can confirm that I find any such platitudes to be insulting.
My conditions are nowhere near as debilitating as what Anon is dealing with in this story but he might find as the story continues that platitudes such as these (along with the implication that one can supposedly think one’s way out of a situation like this) is one of the worst parts of having a disability.
I would not be surprised to hear Pinkie Pie tell Anon to “Turn that frown upside down” at some point in the future, for example (I hate that expression!).
Even worse someone might talk to anon about “The law of attraction” (and other such pseudoscience) and falsely claim that he can undo his situation by vividly imagining himself walking again (and the like). How anyone can believe that any such nonsense can possibly work is beyond me. But people do. For example, I have had people (who (I hope) mean well) tell me to “Think normal (non-autistic) thoughts”, to imagine myself seeing in full color and perfect clarity, to vividly imagine myself having perfect posture, to practice smiling in the mirror, to vividly imagine myself saying my rs and ls correctly, and to record my voice when reading something out loud and to note any positive changes to my pronunciation over time. Needless to say I have tried all of these suggestions repeatedly for over thirty years and none of them even come close to working as advertised.
Regarding “Thinking non-autistic thoughts” this is not possible for someone who is on the spectrum. Over the years I have learned to mask my symptoms to some degree but if someone is paying attention it’s still noticeable no matter how hard I try to mask. In addition masking (even for as little as forty-five minutes at a time) is stressful and very draining. This is true of both in person meetings with people and video calls (even with close friends and family). I could go into more detail but this post is getting pretty long already.
I have to say that the only time that visualization, affirmations, positive thinking, and the (so-called) “law of attraction” do anything for me is on the (very rare) occasions when a lack of self-confidence is the only thing standing between me and a specific goal. For example, if I have been studying for a work-related exam of some type for a significant period of time and I know the material inside and out but I feel nervous about the upcoming exam anyway I find that in those instances these techniques can actually work (at least from time to time).
Most people who have read books on these topics who are not disabled in any way and who don’t understand the nature of disability assume (or have been told outright) that these conditions are brought about by self-imposed limitations and/or a lack of self-confidence. This is absolutely untrue in every single instance.
Since Anon’s condition (it would seem) cannot be reversed by science, Equestrian Magic, or even a combination of these and their training in science and critical thinking would seem to be no better than our own it is quite likely that some of Anon’s experiences from here on out will be like what I described in the paragraphs above. This will be true especially if Flim and Flam have a self-improvement program that can supposedly be used to overcome any obstacle.
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I think you missed the message that I was trying to put there (not talking about that this is just a quote from a stupid game). The idea behind this message is to understand and accept who you are, this quote is not even about disabilities but about hardships in life in general.
I don't suppose you think about yourself as less human with your condition, and want other people to pity you. You even said it yourself.
Yes you will never be able to see clearly thats true. But you accepted yourself as an equal person to anyone else and able to live. Thats what this quote is about (to continue living despite everything that happens, look forward)
I am sorry if I insulted you with my words past and present but I will stand my position.
Good luck with your life, I know that even despite everything you can do no worse than me or anybody else
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The problem is when the context makes it feel like you're trying to pass off generic feel-good words as a substitute for practical solutions, or expecting someone to be perfectly content with a rock-bottom quality of life.
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That wasn't intended
Yeah, I dunno.
At first, if memory serves, he's all so very grateful for the welfare system of the horseland, and it's a bit odd. Is this some American thing? What happens to someone who was misfortunate enough to be paralyzed neck down and can't pay for himself? Do they get launched off a cliff in hamburger land?
Then he's oh so very grateful to poners in general, and it is... What? Nice? I guess it is nice. But would it be what one would be going through? I always thought that if I had been... restricted like that there'd be all manner of terror going on in my head. Not self-pity or apathy. Pure unfiltered terror for a long while. Then anger, a lot of it, and towards everything, myself included. until I would have probably just given up. Which would lead to many different thoughts. None of them would have been any better.
It's a heavy subject if you spend a minute to think about it. And the motive is to 'appreciate what you have'. And the previous chapter is a dumbass joke so is it hinted that you shouldn't treat the story too seriously? There is that I guess.
at least I hope anon gets his arms back because that would still suck not having any legs to work with
‘And so begins my role as a burden to all my friends’. Man, that line really hit deep .
If his misaligned eye is giving him double vision, then wouldn't an eyepatch help? I don't know, monovision sounds better than double vision.
Poor, poor Anon...
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From what I've heard, they get stuck in a crap hole nursing home staffed with less than the bare minimum number of criminally underpaid caretakers.
That varies greatly from person to person. There are cases of people in this condition finding some way to enjoy life, and of people who've fought for years for the right to a peaceful death. It would most likely be influenced by things like the person's personality, what level of care is available to them, what they're passionate about, and whether there exists any solution for them to keep on doing that.
Which is one minor problem here - we haven't seen any of that with respect to Anon, of who he was and what he was doing with his life before this incident.
Update
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K
Is this story dead
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No, I'm working on the next chapter, I'll try to have it out within the week
Is your character based on YouTube series MLPpov if so, she needs to be fatter
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You mean my icon? Somewhat, but not entirely. I've taken inspiration from HDD's style to be sure.