The Orb of Magic

Chapter 2 - Understanding and Introduction

The birds chirp loudly together as if they were singing a small melody while the wind blows ever so softly around you. The Warm Sun shines down upon your skin to bring you seemingly endless comfort along side the strong scent of flowers and freshly cut grass. The ever so peaceful nature brings a small smile to your face as it starts to wake you from your seemingly endless slumber. "Ugh, what a weird dream". You don't even try to open your eyes as you feel so tired. You try to sit up but the weakness and exhaustion in your body keeps you down. "I hate mornings". You find it to be a slight chore to breathe through your nose as it aches constantly and the raising of your chest as your lungs inflate hurts as your chest moves. You hear loud trotting noises as you assume someone is walking on a wooden floor. As you force your eyelids to open, you are slightly taken by surprise at the fabric roof above you. "What the hell? Am I in some kind of tent?"

"Yes actually. You're in an outdoor hospital tent" a soft voice says.

At the shock of hearing someone else, you instantly try to jerk your head toward the voice. You instantly close your eyes and try to rub them as your painful shoulder tries but fails to restrict this action. As you open your eyes again the weird creature still remains where you saw it. "What the heck!?"

"Careful now. Try to relax, you need your rest" You are too confused to even comprehend the equestrian type figure in front of you. "Y-you're a talking horse!" You exclaim.

"Well excuse me! There is no need for name calling"

"But, Wh-what are you?"

"Hmmm, so it seems you have never seem my kind before? Well we don't exactly know what you are either..."

The fact that you are talking to some sort of horse baffles you to a state of slight panic. Are you going insane? Or are you in some kind of dream?

"I just don't understand. Where am I? What happened to me?" You think that maybe this talking animal might just know how to explain things.

"Well all I know is that six of the most lovely ponies came a brought you here in a hurry, and they were right to do so. Any longer in your state and who knows what would've happened to you" You remain silent as you eye the equestrian figure. As you watch, the creature walks over to a desk near you and seems to flip through a few pages on a clipboard.

"You had a broken leg..." The horse flips through a few more pages.

"Two cracked ribs and a broken nose. Oh! and it seems you had quite a blow to your head. What happened to you?"

You think back to what had happened to you before as you believe that might explain a few things. You remember a dark building, and being hunted down, and colorful beings. Looking back to the horse in front of you, you decide to take things calmly and try to get some answers. "I don't really remember. All I know is that i woke up in a dark and cold place, and..." you pause for a moment as all the horrible memories of that place come rushing back. "And I was being chased by something. I think they were after something I had." You remember the small glass ball that was in your pocket. You try to reach down into your pocket to realize that you aren't actually wearing any clothes. You are taken by shock but calm down slightly as you notice you are under a thin blanket.

"what was it you had?" the horse questions.

"I don't know. It was some sort of a glass ball" Upon realizing you have no clothes. You realize you also don't know where the ball is. "Where are my clothes?"

"Oh they are just in that drawer there" The creature points it's leg towards a drawer next to your bed. You believe its best not to take the ball out now as this creature may want it too. "So, do you know anything about why I'm here?" you question the equine.

"Not really I'm afraid. To be honest, I don't know anything about you. All I know is that I have never seen your kind before. What are you anyway? Do you know?" You think for a moment as you believe the horse may be as confused about what you are, as you are of them."I'm a human, and what about where I am?"

"Well, we are all Ponies. We live in this world as one of the dominant species. Alongside Griffons, Minotaurs and some others. But mostly Ponies".

Your mind begins to wonder as you think of what a world run by ponies may be like as the pony begins to speak again. "Well I have other patients to attend to, so if you have any questions about how you go there, you can ask the six ponies who brought you here when you next seem them. I do believe you have a scheduled visit in about an hour".

"Okay. Thanks" As soon as the pony leaves your tent your mind begins to think of a few unrelated questions. Why are you in an outdoor tent? If they don't know what you are, how did they fix your bones? Why are ponies the dominant species? Why can ponies even talk?

Upon realizing you are alone, you decide to open the drawer to your left to have a look at the ball. You reach over with your good arm thankfully and take a look inside the drawer. "Is that what I was wearing?" you whisper to yourself. After rummaging around, you find the pocket where the ball was last seen. You quickly shove your hand in and let out a sigh of relief as it is still there. You remove the ball and hold it in your hand for a few moments. You are taken away by how mysterious this looks. It's like someone has captured a never ending white smoke supply in it. You turn the ball around and rotate it to see if it is like this all over. As you realise that the ball looks kind of mysterious but not too much to see, you remember that it glowed last time you saw it. You cup your hands and put the ball into it. You bring your face closer to your hands to close the gap so no light can get in. The ball glows a soft white, about as bright as a small glow stick.

As you stare at the ball for a long time, you are taken back by the sudden trotting noises approaching. Although the trotting may not have been sudden at all but you had only just heard it now. You quickly slide the drawer open again a drop the ball back in and slam the drawer closed. You lie back down as to appear that you had not been doing anything when you hear voices just outside your tent. You realize that this may be the visit the assumed nurse pony had told you about. Has it really been an hour already?

As you lie down thinking, you don't notice three ponies walk in. "Hi there!" You are taken by surprise as you had no idea anything was beside you. As you quickly snap to your left, you see some familiar colors. The Pony closest to you is a lavender colored pony with a mane of dark purple and two streaks of pink and a lighter purple. This pony also seems to have some kind of horn sticking out from its mane. To it's left is a cyan colored pony that seems to have wings but has a peculiar mane color. It's mane has lots of colors next to each other, kind of like a rainbow. This pony seems to have a unimpressed look to it. And behind the purple pony seems to be a butter yellow one hiding behind it. You can see what seems to be a pink mane but as she is hiding, you can't see much.

"Uh... Hello?" The purple pony seems concerned about you just looking at them without saying anything. "Hi. Sorry"

"Ah! You can talk!" The purple pony seems pleased with herself while the rainbow one seems to just hover above the ground without much of a care.

"Okay! Well, I suppose we should introduce ourselves. I believe we may have gotten off to a bad start" The Purple pony smiles awkwardly as if awaiting approval but the un-approving look in your face makes her smile start to fade.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, I own a library on the edge of town" The pony looks to it's left a points a leg at the rainbow colored one. "This is Rainbow Dash" Twilight looks towards Rainbow Dash and gestures to introduce herself. The flying pony seems reluctant but eventually gives a sign of defeat as Twilight doesn't back down. "Hey" Rainbow Dash looks towards Twilight as she is met with a disappointed gaze. The purple pony continues. "And as you may not have seen, this is Fluttershy" The purple pony takes a few steps to the right to reveal the yellow one behind it.

The yellow pony seems frightened at first but as you give her your best look to try and seem friendly, she raises her head and whispers. "I'm..." The Yellow pony seems to say something else but you can't hear it under its whisper. "Fluttershy right? Is that what you said?" The Yellow pony seems to nod shyly while hiding under its mane. You also notice that Fluttershy also seems to have wings but they are tucked away to her sides.

"So, ugh, I assume you're all female?" you ask curiously "Just to clarify"

The purple pony turns her attention towards you as she speaks up. "Yes"

"And why do you have a horn and the others have wings? Is that normal?"

"Yes, I'm a unicorn, with my horn I can cast spells and conjure magic, and the others are called pegusi or a pegasus for singular". This world just gets stranger and stranger.

As you ponder on the fact that magic exists, you notice the three pony-unicorn-pegasus things discuss something privately. You sit up and lean back on the headboard of your bed. After staring at the three for some time, they turn to look at you when Twilight Sparkle speaks up. "Well we're sorry for... well... putting you here. I just don't know what got into Rainbow"

"That's Fine, don't worry about it". It's completely not fine but you don't want to waste your energy shouting when you need to be recovering. Twilight gestures to Rainbow as if to apologize. Rainbow looks slightly annoyed by this when she quickly speaks. "Yea, uh sorry. I didn't realize you had such weak bones" Rainbow looks back towards the purple unicorn as if for approval when Twilight shakes her head. Rainbow looks back to you reluctantly. "Uh, I mean, I didn't mean to go overboard. It's just that place brings back bad memories and I got angry and too carried away" Twilight sighs as what must be annoyance.

Twilight draws her attention back to you "Uh, anyway, we have a question for you. We would've tried and been friendly before, when Rainbow shot off in a violent mood". The purple unicorn looks apologetically towards you when you nod as if to accept the apology. "You have, or maybe had something very important. Its a Glass orb. Do you have it?" You ponder for a moment if you want to give this away to them. You decide to find out how important it actually is first. "Why is it important?" You try to sound innocent and it seems to work.

"Oh. It's... well... In short, it is the source of magic. It contains a type of gas that allows magic to be used. If it gets destroyed and the gas escapes, then magic won't be able to be used anymore. Unicorns won't be able to cast spells, pegusi won't be able to fly and earth ponies won't have their amazing endurance."

You think for a moment as you realize that it's probably best you give it back. You reach over to your drawer and open it. you reach in and take out the ball. "Is this what you need?"

"Yes! Quickly give it to me!" She lifts her hoof and holds it like an open hand. You lower your hand to just above her hoof and drop the ball on to it. "Ah!" Twilight quickly retracts her leg and shakes it in pain. You quickly move your arm "Are you okay?"

"Yea, I didn't expect it to be so heavy" Twilight goes down to pick the ball up in her mouth. She chomps down on it and tries to lift her head. She is unable to make the orb move an inch. "It won't move" she shouts. Rainbow Dash slowly hovers over to the orb "Here let me try". Rainbow somehow gets a grip on the ball with her two front hooves and uses her wings to lift upwards, however she stays in the same spot. "Wow that is heavy" she exclaims.

Twilight ponders for a moment tapping her hoof onto her muzzle a few times before she speaks towards you "It seems the orb is extremely heavy"

"I didn't have any trouble carrying it" you blurt out. Twilight thinks for a moment as she looks to her left and grabs some sort of tool. "This is quite heavy but I can lift it on one hoof. Here you try" You hold out your hand and drops it on to your palm.

"Wow it is kinda heavy". Twilight looks up and taps her muzzle a few times again.

"Hmmm it seems that only you can carry the orb. And you have no trouble holding it?"

"No"

"Well the orb will have to reside with you for a while until we can get you out of here".

Twilight looks up to you and raises another question. "What's your name anyway?"

"Uh, I don't know. All I know is that I'm a human being" A voice from outside the tent interrupts your conversation. "Okay my little ponies, visiting times are over!"

Twilight speaks one last time "Hmmm well I think you're leaving the hospital tomorrow so we will be here when you leave" Twilight and the others turn to leave when you shout "Okay see ya!". You finally sigh as you don't have to worry about any more questions, although you do have one yourself.

As you see the ponies leave you take one last look at the orb as you wonder why it is so heavy for the ponies but not you. You decide to put the ball back in the drawer in case you drop it and break it. As you lean over your attention draws the the pain of breathing once again. You worry as you believe that it will be annoying as the days go by, but if what the ponies say is true about you leaving tomorrow, hopefully the pain would fade soon. You lie back down as you notice the sun is no longer high in the sky but a touch of moonlight fills the tent. You are still unsure how the warmth is reaching you even under the cold moon's glare, but you decide to ignore it as you think about what you will even do in a strange world filled with ponies. You decide to brush the thought off as you will worry about that tomorrow when you are let out of hospital.