The Hospital

Chapter Three The Hospital

Jackson was just gaining consciousness and the first thing he noticed was that he was floating. Obviously he did what his instincts told him and that was to freak the hell out but quickly stopped when he heard Twilight say, “If you keep struggling like that I’m going to drop you again and none of us want that”. Jackson decides to take Twilight’s advice and calms down and decides to look around and try to figure out what’s going on. Behind him he sees his gear along with his friend’s gear in a wagon getting pulled by the red one named Big Mac. He looks in front of him and sees George and Nathan being floated along by a golden glow that was coming from Celestia’s horn.

They travel along in silence until it is broken by Twilight because she can not hold her curiosity any more. “If you don’t mind me asking where are all of you from you seem to talk like applejack but she says she has never seen anything like you?”, Jackson decides he has nothing better to do than answer her questions and it might help pass the time.

We come from the southern part of what used to be the United States until the war now its commonly known as Dixie but the official name is Confederate States of America”. Twilight was shocked silent and so were the rest of them Jackson was puzzled and looked around at all of them wondering what he said wrong the only one of them that did not seem to be effected was Celestia. Jackson finally asks, “What did I say wrong?”

Twilight responds with, “Nothing we just haven't had a war here in over a thousand years and here you come saying there has been one recently”.

Jackson responds ,“It’s still going on before we got here we were on the battlefield at Gettysburg and a cannon fired at us and now we're here”.

Twilight looks him with a shocked expression, “You’re soldiers!? Well I guess that explains the sharp sticks you were carrying around with you”.

“Sharp stick?” Jackson thought then said, “Oh you mean my rifle”.

“What's a rifle and what does it do?”, asks Twilight

Jackson responded, “Well it’s a basically a miniature cannon but it would be better if I showed you”. Celestia gave a nod of approval and Applejack went to get his rifle that they thought was just a pointy stick.

Applejack gave Jackson his rifle and Jackson went on to check that it was safe to fire and it was hard to do with his broken arm but he managed. He asked Twilight to put him down and she complied. He took aim at a tree and fired, there was a bang that startled all the ponies. When the smoke cleared, there was a decent sized hole in the tree. Everypony looked on in shock. Even Celestia looked disturbed by this though she did not say anything.

Applejack was the first to recover from her shock and turned from looking at the hole in the tree to Jackson and said “This is what y'all fight with how do any of y'all survive when these things are being pointed at y'all?”

Jackson looked down in shame and said with a tear in his eye, “Many of us don't, we die by the thousands, me and my friends we are lucky we are alive when our fellow soldiers died right before our eyes.” Applejack seemed to realize she touched on a hard subject for the weird creature and quickly went quite.

Celestia said, “Maybe we should continue this conversation later once they are fully healed.” Everyone agreed and the trip to the hospital was continued in silence. Once they reached the hospital Jackson was not sure if he trusted a pony to his well being. No matter if its a pony or not but decided he didn't have any other choice so he let the doctor heal him and his friends.

Jackson absolutely refused when he was offered a room of his own, even though the staff said it would be more comfortable for him. He was not going to abandon his two friends to wake up in a room with no explanation. He was there for two days before his friends woke up but the whole time the ponies came and left to check up on them but Applejack stayed with them. He asked her why she did this and she responded with “I found y'all and now I’m going to make sure y'all get better”.

Jackson was still curious about Applejack’s southern accent seeing as she has never been in the south a day in her life. She said that she always talked like this and she picked it up from her parents and the rest of the Apple family. He asked about her parents but quickly realized it was a sore subject for her and stopped asking. Finally his friends woke up and he had to explain all that had happened to them Nathan seemed to take it in stride and seemed just fascinated by the fact there were talking ponies. George on the other hand had a panic attack when one of the doctors spoke to him and had to be calmed down by Jackson.

George finally came to terms with the talking ponies but was still nervous around them and kept muttering, “This ain't natural.”

Finally the day came the day that they could be released from the hospital and Celestia came to speak to them. She greeted them all by name and was about to start questioning them when you heard a yell, “WAIT!!!!!”. With that Twilight came skidding into the room with papers all over the place and quill and ink hovering in front of her. Twilight with a sigh of relief said, “Good you have not started yet just give me a second to get ready so I can take notes.” George and Nathan stared at Jackson with questioning looks and Jackson just shrugged.

Celestia looked over to her student as she finally got all of her things under control. Twilight waited patiently for them to start. Finally Celestia turned her head back towards the three new creatures and said, “My first question is what type of animal are you?”

Jackson was about to respond when George answered before he could, “We’re humans what else would we be?” He said like it was something obvious.

Celestia responded, “I do not know what a human is so please explain it to me.”

Jackson thought, “Oh boy this is going to take a while”. And it did take a while it took two hours just to answer that one question Nathan and George helping fill in some of the details that Jackson forgot to mention. The whole time this was going on Twilight was filling page after page with notes Jackson had never seen someone write so fast in his entire life.

Celestia asked several questions varying from what were yankees to where they had grown up. Obviously Celestia did not get to ask all the questions she wanted to because when she looked out a window she said she had to leave and she would entrust the questioning to her student Twilight Sparkle and expected a report on what she had learned about them. Twilight was overjoyed by this because in her words, “You don't get the chance to study a new species every day.” Celestia told Twilight she could do it later because it was starting to get late and they all needed their rest.

Jackson stopped Celestia as she turned to leave and asked, “Where do we go now we really don't have anywhere to spend the night?”

Celestia pondered this as George spoke up, “Don't worry about it I have a tent we can share in my pack”.

Applejack spoke up before Celestia could, “Nonsense y'all can stay with me at the farm. I found y'all I might as well take care of y'all”.

Celestia turned towards Applejack and said, “You don’t need to do this I’m sure we could figure out something else.”

Applejack responded “isn't problem I insist.”

Celestia said, “Well since you insist thank you for looking out for our new guests.” Celestia turned to leave but saw Twilight with a sad look on her face and Celestia asked, “What's wrong Twilight”.

Twilight said, “I thought at least one of them would be staying with me in the library so I could study there sleeping habits”. Jackson, Nathan, and George looked at each other with worried expressions at what the unicorn had just said.

Celestia said to her student, “They are to be treated with respect and not a science experiment Twilight I do not think they would appreciate being watched while they sleep.”

“Yes Princess Celestia”, Twilight responded with her face downcast. Which made all three humans give relieved sighs.

“Now I must go and I suggest you all do the same before it gets too dark”, Celestia said as she left the room and went to her carriage to leave.

Twilight to Applejack and said, “I should leave I have to go and organize all my notes and get more paper and ink so I can take more”.

“Ok Twi see you tomorrow”, responded Applejack. She turned to the three humans and said, “Follow me we're heading down to the farm. I’ll introduce you to the rest of the family.” Jackson, George, and Nathan followed Applejack out a hospital and down the road to Sweet Apple Acres. “Y'all are gonna like it here we have enough room for y'all and everything but I hope y'all don't mind apple for dinner”, said Applejack as they continued down the road.