To be Human

by Raptor

Confrontation

The Boy looked down at his Grandfather's wife's granddaughter. She was no more than 5. She had blonde hair, crystal blue eyes, and a flawless round face. She was being introduced to the Boy for... perhaps... the second time, maybe. The boy was more than twice her height, and over three times her age. The Boy smiled down at the girl. She shied away, her eyes not making contact with his.

The Boy then realized that he was probably VERY intimidating, towering over her. Keeping his friendly smile, he knelt down to be eye level with her. She returned the smile. "Hi," the Boy said, as friendly as possible.

"I haven't seen you very much," the girl replied with perfect punctuation. The Boy was surprised at the linguistic ability of the child. She didn't look like she was old enough to speak full sentences. They just get smarter and smarter, younger and younger.

The Boy saw something in the girl, a word. A word he thought of when he knelt down to talk to her.

Innocence.

That was the word.

She had innocence in her. She had done nothing wrong, nothing significant, anyway. She was innocent. A young, innocent mind. Guilty of no crimes, yet proud of no accomplishments. She was a blank canvas, easily manipulatable, and capable of anything. Unlike us, she is untainted, with no sins to be penitent for. She was innocent.

"...So why did you kill her...?"

---

I love bushes, the Man thought. He had landed in one that was placed conveniently right outside the window he had leapt from. He struggled to get out, but managed to escape the snare. The Man looked around. The sky was a dark purple, and a nearby forest off to his left was blackened almost entirely. There were structures off to his right, along with a dirt path, leading away from the "hospital".

The Man shook his head. Shouldn't take the path, he thought. Too easy to follow. Begrudgingly, the Man started moving towards the forest. He cursed as he tried to use his new body, stumbling and falling over. Eventually, he tried focusing on using all four of his limbs to stay upright, take a giant leap, land on all fours, jump, land, repeat. He liked this method. If he did smaller, more controlled jumps, he would land easier and take less time to jump again. Eventually, with repetition, his rabbit-like hops became faster and more controllable. This method of movement would work for now, until he figured out how to use this weird-ass body.

Finally, the Man made it to the woods. Instantly he was shrouded in shadow. His hopping method proved to be less effective in the woods, especially when he couldn't see the shrubbery underneath him. His movement was much slower, but he was determined to get deep enough into the forest to lose his captors. Or at least, his assumed captors. A thought occurred to him then. What if the change in his-

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted when he tripped over something sharp, and landed in a mess of jumbled sharp things. The Man came to the conclusion that he fell into a thorn bush.

I hate bushes.

---

---

Twilight raced down the hallway and down the stairs, closely followed by the other two ponies. They had to get to the stallion before he hurt himself further. She would've teleported out of the window, but it was late, she was tired, and she didn't want to risk giving herself a migraine. Or worse. Besides, given his condition, the stallion couldn't have gone far. The three ponies made it to the hospital entrance and burst outside. He was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, he didn't try to go into town," Nurse Redheart said. The three turned left and ran to the side of the building, rounding the corner. There, they saw the crumpled bush right outside the window he had jumped out of, surrounded by shards of glass. The stallion, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did he go?" Twilight asked.

"Well, at least we know he isn't severely wounded," the doctor said, adjusting his glasses. "He must've really wanted to get out."

"He couldn't have gotten far," the nurse added. "We should spread out and look for him." Twilight nodded.

"I'll get security," the doctor said, backing away. "You two go on ahead, I'll catch up." The two mares nodded to him.

"I'll check the forest," Twilight said, motioning to the dark woods. "You check the fields towards Ponyville." With a final nod, Redheart turned and galloped off towards the structures in the near distance. Twilight quickly ran towards the forest as well, hoping the mysterious patient hadn't gone far.

While she made her way through the ever-growing foliage, she thought to herself. Who was this stallion? Why couldn't the Equestrian database recognize him? How did he survive the fall? How did he get here? And most importantly... Why does he want to leave so badly...? As the foliage got thicker, it grew darker. Twilight quickly cast a light spell, illuminating her surroundings. It was then that she noticed the stallion must've been bleeding. Some of the ferns she passed by were stained with small amounts of blood, and a few sharp branches had caught small locks of gray fur. At least I know I'm on the right track, she thought.

She continued to follow the trail until she spotted something gray thrashing in a thorn bush ahead. She gasped and ran forward. "S-sir," she called out, as unthreateningly as possible. The stallion froze for a split second before continuing his struggle, more frantically. "W-wait!" Twilight called. "I'm not-" before she could finish, the stallion managed to free himself from the snare and thrust himself forward, disappearing from sight. When she finally made it to where he used to be, she looked past the bush, and her jaw dropped. There was a steep slope, littered with thorny vines and shrubs, descending several meters down.

Great, she thought. How am I going to follow him now? She peered farther down to see if there was a clearing of the brush anywhere in sight that she could teleport to. There was none. She looked to her left and saw a path leading gradually down the slope with a lot less thorns. It would take a while, but she could get to him.

---

---

The Man coughed violently. It wasn't the most painful experience he had been in, but there was no doubt that tumbling down a cliff full of thorns, rocks and vines was still painful as hell. Still, the Man got onto his stubs and shrugged it off, receiving more painful stings coming from all over his body. He gritted his teeth and trudged onward, hauling his strange form forward like dead weight.

He blinked, and was surprised (and a bit worried) when he realized how much effort it took to reopen his eyes. The Man realized how tired he was. He shook his head and trudged on. Every single cell in his body screamed at him to just drop to the ground and fall unconscious, but he would have none of that. He had to keep going. Then a thought came to him. Why was he so determined to leave? I just... I just want to be alone. But why...? Why did he want to be alone so badly? What had happened to him before he came here? And where was here?

His thoughts were interrupted when he came to a clearing, and he saw the most peaceful thing he'd seen since he had been there. In the middle of the clearing was a crystal clear pond, reflecting the radiant full moon that was just poking its head over the tree line. To the left of the pond on the Man's side was a smaller, lone tree. The Man just stood there, frozen, gazing at the scenery in front of him. He felt peaceful. The pain was subsiding, his body stopped screaming, and instead, one word rang through his mind: Tired. So very tired... The Man slowly shuffled toward a patch of grass between the tree and the pond. He stood on it for a moment, looking off at the moon. Then, carefully, he looked over the edge of the pond and into the reflective water...

What he saw was... confusing. His face was no longer human. His eyes were significantly larger, almost freakishly so, and seemed to have an enhanced glistening effect from the moonlight. He had some sort of snout which held his nostrils and his mouth, which actually looked human, seeing as the Man could read his own facial expressions. His ears were that of a mammal's, like a dog, or cattle of some sort, and were sticking upright. in between them was his hair, which appeared black, and was in a mess. It was then that he noticed that his gray skin was in fact fur. The Man stared blankly at the... thing looking up at him from the water, and said the only thing that came to mind...

"...What!?"

The Man proceeded to have a coughing fit, and fell to the ground. He realized he hadn't used his voice yet in this alien body. At least he knew he had a voice now. And it sounded like his. After his lungs were stable again, the Man decided to just sit and look at the pond. Eventually, he found a comfortable position, sitting down with his leg stubs spread to his sides and his arm stubs on the ground. Something like what a frog would do, but less extreme. He stared into the water... and waited. For what... he didn't know. He ignored all the pain, just relaxed, and stared into the water, thinking.

---

A long time passed. Well, it might have been a long time... maybe an hour, or... it could've been a few minutes, the Man didn't know. He didn't care either. The woods weren't exactly silent- there was a soft breeze that brushed through the trees, and several insects chirped as well. It wasn't annoying, oh, no, on the contrary. The Man felt the whole atmosphere was serene.

Still. He didn't pay too much attention to it. He dwelled back on his past, trying to uncover anything that was lost and explain why he was here. However, it's difficult to remember something right off the bat. No one can just call up memories like a file on a computer. The memories come to you. All he could remember were a few childhood memories that had come to him earlier... The Man exhaled and closed his eyes. He just... wanted...

He heard something behind him, like a rustling of leaves. He opened his eyes, but didn't take them off the water. If it was what he thought it was... After a pause, he heard light footsteps approaching him. It is. The Man just sat there. He had no more energy to run, and the serene environment had enchanted him to not move from his position. He kept his eyes fixed on the reflection of the moon in the water. The footsteps got closer. There were most likely two of them, from what the Man could figure. They stopped.

"Sir..." came a young feminine voice. "Are you alright...?" The Man didn't reply. He waited to see what the woman would do next. He heard her sit down behind him, to his right. "You're beat up really bad... Why did you run from the hospital...?" The Man remained silent. "Sir... can you hear me...?" The Man did nothing for a moment. Then, he slowly nodded. There was a pause. "...Can you speak...?" The Man waited a moment again.

"...Yes," he croaked in a dark tone.

"...What's your name?" The Man said nothing. More silence. The woman cleared her throat and started to say, "My name-"

"What happened." The Man said it like a statement.

"I'm sorry?"

"What happened to me." Silence.

"I... don't know what you mean, you fell-"

"Don't bullshit me!" the Man yelled. He turned his arm stubs over and looked down at them. "First I lose nearly all my memories, then I fall from the sky, and wake up in an alien body...!" The Man gritted his teeth and turned to the woman behind him, yelling- "WHAT-!...happened..." The Man's face shifted from anger to awe. The woman behind him... was just like him. Not exactly the same... but she was in the same kind of body. She had lavender fur, and plum hair. She was looking at him with violet eyes... and a look of shock. She had some kind of horn protruding from her forehead.

The Man the realized something. "My God..." he said quietly. "They did it to you, too..." The purple female gave him a quizzical look. He reached over to her face and gently touched her jaw with his stub. She recoiled sightly, and was obviously uncomfortable with this, but she let it happen. He turned her head left and right, examining her. "You're just like me..." He looked down at her limbs, and saw that she, too, had stubs. She also seemed to be sitting in a much more comfortable position than the Man. "Stubs and everything..." he muttered.

"Are... you okay, sir...?" she asked slowly.

The Man took his stub away and turned to face his body to her, which caused him to cringe and grunt as he reopened wounds he didn't know he had. "I'm so sorry. Tell me, do you have any idea what they've done to us in that... 'hospital'...?"

The female blinked. "What are you talking about!?" she asked with clear confusion and slight annoyance.

"The bodies!" the Man said. He motioned to the female and himself. "Our bodies! What did they do to us to make us look like this, and why?" The female just stared at him like he had gone insane. Which he probably had. Now that the Man thought about it, if she didn't know what he was talking about, he would look like a lunatic. He let his arms drop to the ground and lowered his head, letting out a sigh. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you...?"

"Not a clue." The Man remained silent and stared at the ground. "...Maybe you should come back to the hospital."

The Man's head snapped up and he backed away slightly. "N-no!" he stuttered. "Not until I get some answers!"

The female sighed. "Look," she said in a soft tone of voice, "I'll answer any and all questions you may have. But first, you need to get back to the hospital. We need to patch up those wounds of yours." She gave a kind smile. "I promise I'll answer your questions." She held her stub in the direction of the way she came from. The Man was hesitant. He didn't trust nameless organizations, especially the ones who acted kind yet vague. They also tended to use 'we' a lot. "Please," she said quietly. He looked at the female's face. Her kind, human smile... her pleading bright eyes... They held no devious or ominous intentions. The Man had dealt with such before... he knew what they looked like.

Wait... How do I know that...? I can't remember anything like that... He shook his head. Regardless. I'm fairly certain I can trust her. Whatever she is... Besides. If it means getting answers... He sighed. "...Fine."

Her calm smile grew slightly as she gestured toward the forest. The Man slowly got up, wincing in pain. The female quickly picked up on this. "Do-"

"-I'm fine," said the Man through clenched teeth. He finally got on his stubs, and attempted to shamble towards the forest... only to collapse on his right arm stub and hit the ground with a thud. "Ack- dammit!"

"You're not fine!" The female walked up to the Man and helped him up. She put his arm over her shoulders, supporting his weight. "There. Now come on." She smiled before guiding him forward. The Man was inclined to say thank you, but he stopped himself. He still didn't know where exactly she was taking him, so there wouldn't be any appreciation just yet. They slowly made their way to the edge of the clearing. The Man had trouble keeping up with the fluid motion of the female's walking pattern, but since she was supporting him, she helped him along.

The Man looked back once more at the tranquil scene behind him. He could have sworn he saw someone sitting at the edge of the lake, but at a second glance, there was no one there.

Author's Note:

Some of John's memories are actual instances that have occurred in my life, such as this one right here. The more darker ones are most likely NOT from my life. The peaceful, philosophical ones on the other hand, may be.
Just a lil' fun fact.

-Raptor

Comments

[NightmareKnight]

I don't remember this fic.