A Time Traveler's Perspective

There's something that surprises me when I finally wake up. Well, there are a few things that surprise me. The most important thing, though, is that I don't feel the pain anymore. Oh joy of all joys, I don't feel like I've been kicked in the face now. Now my nose just has a nice numb sensation. Whenever I breathe out of it, it also whistles.

That's something that probably shouldn't happen.

Another important thing is that it isn’t sunrise. When I look out of the window, I’m able to discern about what time it is relative to high noon. By that, I mean that I know it is past noon. That means I need to figure out what I’m going to do for the rest of the day, and it apparently can’t involve going outside. That’s something that I was told not to do, and I intend to actually listen to the idea. It isn’t like she told me that because of something malicious.

Thirdly, if that is even a real way of putting it, I don’t hear the pony whose house this is. I would have thought that I would have heard Cloudkicker, but I do not. I open my door slowly, trying to see if she’s there making sure I don’t leave, but she isn’t. In fact, I’m actually there all by myself. I can go look around, read her diary, see what’s in her room, go see what’s in the fridge, and do all sorts of things that actually seem more like what a child would do.

Actually, a couple of those sound like horrible ideas. I don’t think I need to know any more about Cloudkicker for now. I don’t know why, but the vibe she gives off says I need to stay away from her room for now.

I tip-toe into the kitchen, just to see a plate on the table. On the plate is a sandwich of some description, with what looks to be flowers. Next to it is a piece of paper with some writing on it.

Greetings Roger,

I know that it might seem weird to leave you there alone, but I have some things I need to do. Besides, I left you alone that on night. There isn’t a lot that you can really do anyway. I have a sandwich here for you to eat, I’m taking you up on the idea that humans eat whatever they have in front of them. This is what we, as ponies, generally eat.

This and hay.

Try to make sure you get comfortable for the rest of the day. I might end up sending Nurse Redheart by later, just to check on you. She owes me one after that one night.

Don’t make too much of a mess, or I’ll have to punish you later.

Cloudkicker

I actually don’t think a letter has ever made me feel so uncomfortable in my entire life. Most of it isn’t so bad, but that last part is definitely something that I hadn’t expected. Maybe I should have, but I still don’t know how to react to something like that. I put the paper down, and look at the sandwich. “When in Rome and all that.” I say to nobody. A hand moves to pick it up, and then soon enough I take a giant bite out of it.

Yep, I don’t like this.

Nope, I probably don’t have a lot of say in whether or not I have to get used to it.

It actually takes me a grand three minutes to finish the sandwich. I probably could have eaten it faster, but I still don’t know if I can get used to it. I just want some water, or soda, or tea, or something else that might help get the taste of flower out of my mouth. After eating it, though, I’m left with a feeling of immense boredom. I don’t know what to do in here. It isn’t like she has a set of books that I want to read, or a television with some movies for me to watch. She wants me to stay in here, but she doesn’t want to make it any less of an incredibly dull experience.

It is about this time that I hear the door open.

“Oh hey Cloudkicker.” I say in a nasally voice. Occasionally I make the mistake of breathing out through my nose and it whistles. I stand up, move into the living room, and I see a pony that is definitely not Cloudkicker. She looks nothing like Cloudkicker. She’s white, as white as is possible, with light pink hair in a bun. From what I can see on her rear, her mark is a cross. She’s also wearing a hat, the stereotypical nurse’s hat from what I can tell.

Yep this must be the nurse.

I move over to get the paper, and then I look at the name. “So you would be Nurse Redheart?” I really hope this isn’t Cloudkicker’s idea of a joke. The idea hadn’t come to my mind until now, but now it was there. This could be one of those things, pranks I think they’re called. A pony might have a name that is close to what they do, like Cloudkicker or Bon-Bon, but it just seems unnatural for somebody to name their kid Redheart.

I can only hope nurse is a title.

“T-t-that would be me.” I don’t know why I have this effect on the ponies. It might have to do with the size difference between us. I’m much larger than a lot of the things that they likely encounter. Maybe it’s just because I’m different, that is another possibility. Darn it all, I can’t remember doing anything to give off the impression that I’m to be feared, though. “I-I-I was asked by Cloudkicker to see how a Roger Fleitas is doing, she said he h-h-has some injuries.”

“That would be me.”

Something of curiosity seems to take over as she slowly walks over. Her eyes scan over my face, as if she’s trying to figure out what it is that happened to me. As she studies my face, her courage seems to come back to her. “I see you have some bruising on your cheeks and around your eyes, your lips seem to have been busted, and from the way you’re talking I’m guessing your nose is broke.”

Well, that’s useful knowledge.

“So, tell me… what happened? Somebody as big as you doesn’t look like he’d have much trouble out there.”

“I walked into a candy story and got kicked in the face.” That isn’t something that sounds like a heroic story, mostly because it isn’t. I didn’t expect that to happen then, and looking back at it I still wouldn’t have thought that it would have happened. But it did, and now I’m here being looked at by a nurse with a red cross as her special mark thing. Then again, I have no idea what to expect from any of these ponies right now. My notes about them have occasionally conflicted.

Some are nice, happy, and trusting. Some are scared. Some seem like they’re violent and angry. I don’t know even half of the ponies of this town, though.

The look on her face, though, tells me that she doesn’t really believe that. “Really? I don’t really think anypony around here is really violent.” I give her a look, I have to wonder why she thinks I might be lying. “Not that I’m saying you’re a liar, it’s just that it doesn’t seem like something that is real.” She must not like the look I’m giving her, but being called a liar is not something that I’d like on the best of days.

This most certainly isn’t the best of days.

When she pokes around my eye, that’s when it starts to hurt again. I really have to wonder if she’s a trained nurse. Maybe she just wants to see what type of expression I give. I definitely wince, that’s for certain. Not only is it unexpected, but it freaking hurts. I have no idea why she really just did that, either. She pulls back and rubs her chin a few times before she takes a step back away from me. She definitely doesn’t look happy either.

“From what I can tell, I have no idea why I was told to check up on you.” That is a sentiment that we both share. I don’t know why she’s here either. She is a nurse, but still. Something tells me that pony medical science is different than human. “Aside from the lack of knowledge about human physiology, there also isn’t a lot I can do. Two black eyes, a broken nose, and busted lips are the problem, but they’re only solved by time. I can’t exactly just will them away or anything.”

I want to say that I called the first part, but once again I don’t think she can read my thoughts to understand what I would mean. The idea of her not being able to do anything, that isn’t something good. Time might fix a lot of things, but the occasional spike of pain is nothing something that I want to have to wait out. I want something to make it go away. The only way to see if there is anything is to actually say something, though. “So, ponies don’t have pain medicine?”

“We do. I have no clue how it would affect a … whatever you are, though. If you were a pony, it’d be so much easier.”

That is something I hadn’t thought about. I know we have different everything, aside from words for whatever reason, but I wasn’t thinking about what medicine might do to the two groups. The idea of toughing out the pain, though, is something that is making me second-guess the idea of being careful. Actually, this is a perfect chance for me to figure out if I will have to find a way to make my own medicine. “I like to be called human, or Roger. Either one works. And there’s no time like the present to figure out the difference. I’m sure it won’t be too bad anyway. Worst case scenario, I just try to flush it out of my system. I won’t take enough for it to do anything too bad, just to take the pain away.”

Maybe there’s just something about me that gets people, and ponies, to change their minds. Or maybe I give off an aura that I’m not going to give up. That would make sense, considering I’m determined to get that medicine. I need it on the off chance that the pain flares up again. Well, not need, I really want it in case the pain comes back. I look right into her eyes, and I can see Nurse Redheart starting to change her mind.

“And if something happens, you learned something.”

“Fine. I’m no Twilight, but the idea of knowing something about medicine is … motivation enough for me. Besides, you probably know more about humans than I do.” She still doesn’t seem to particularly like the idea, but I feel like she probably is overthinking things. I doubt there is some medicine that will kill me that’s a painkiller, unless I overdose or something. I really intend to watch how much I take, too, just to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Then again, these are rather small creatures. Whatever their dose it, I might have to take two just to get the effect.

“I will be right back with the pain medicine.”

Of course, I have nothing to do but simply wait for her to come back with whatever it is that the ponies consider pain medicine. From what I can gather, it’s probably something that grows. They don’t seem like the type that actually have laboratories that make anything. That won’t be too bad, most of the things that grow out in nature won’t kill you. There are a few things, but they generally aren’t able to be used as painkillers.

I hope my basic knowledge of plants isn’t wrong here.

Well, now the waiting game starts.

~

I don’t know how long it takes for her to get back.

I do know it has been more than twenty minutes by the time I hear the door open again. The only reason I know this is because I count a grand total of twelve hundred seconds before I decide to give up. If I had counted any longer and I probably would be insane by now. Either way, she has a basket of what I soon see are green plants.

I seem to be on a roll when it comes to calling these things.

She then sits them down and sits in a chair. I look at the basket, then back to her, then back to the basket. “If you’re waiting for me to take some, I don’t exactly feel any pain right now. Well, not enough to take medicine. I’m sure you have patients to go deal with, right?” At first, she just continues to look at me.

“It’s my day off, actually.” I start to feel bad for her. She’s here on her day off looking at a human. This is not something that I would imagine she likes doing on her day off. “I ran into Cloudkicker, though, on my way to get the medicine. She asked if I can stay a little longer to make sure you don’t do anything stupid. Apparently, she thinks you’re going to go running off to … I don’t know, she didn’t tell me. She just told me I need to watch you, so I am.”

We’ll this is awkward.

“You don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to. I’m a big boy, I can be trusted to look after myself and not get into trouble.” I don’t know what I did to make it to where Cloudkicker wants a pony to look after me. Whatever it is, I’m going to have to make sure I don’t do it again. “Besides, I’m sure you want to be doing something else with your day off.”

“That’s not the point. I told Cloudkicker that I would watch you until she gets back, and so I will.” She isn’t smiling, she is just looking at me. Apparently, she is taking the idea of watching me to mean just that. All she is going to do is stare at me. There’s the occasional blink, but other than that she doesn’t seem to have much of an intention to do anything other than watch.

“So, what is it like being a nurse? Are there a lot of problems?”

There’s no response. I’m starting to wonder if the medical things, and the lines about Cloudkicker, are all she’s going to say. She certainly isn’t answering my question about her nursing job. Maybe there’s another question that I can get an answer to. I do have a captive audience, so this is as good of a time as any. “And why does every pony out there keep looking at me like I’m going to eat them. I eat meat, sure, but I don’t eat pony.” It is almost as if the only thing that she catches is the idea that I eat meat.

And she doesn’t seem to like that idea, not at all.

Actually, she goes so far as to back away.

I can only wait for Cloudkicker to show back up again. I am really not liking any of this. For a moment, I had thought that this would be a pony I could talk to. She had seemed to have gotten over her nerves. Maybe I’m just a horrible judge of character in ponies, though. My mind keeps going back to the idea that my face is a testament to the fact that I am completely out of my depth when it comes to judging those around me.

If she is just going to keep watching me, as if she expects to have to run away at any point, I’m going to watch her back. If she isn’t going to answer questions, I’m not going to bother asking them. I don’t have to worry about answering her questions, though at this point I’d love the conversation.

~

Words cannot describe how happy I am when Cloudkicker gets back into the house.

It seems that Nurse Redheart thinks the same thing, as she quickly rushes over to talk to Cloudkicker. She even occasionally looks at me, as if she still thinks I’m going to do something. I really don’t know what I did to give the impression that I’m going to eat them. The only mistake that I can say I made today was when I told her that I eat meat. I’m going to pay for that in the court of her opinion, not that it carries a whole lot of weight to me right now.

The opinions of ponies mean little to me, with a few exceptions.

As soon as Nurse Redheart leaves, and I think she won’t hear, I let out a sigh of relief. “That has to be the worst nurse in the history of nurses.” I actually can’t validate that claim. The only nurse I know of that isn’t her would be my mom. She isn’t that good of a nurse, either, but she’s better than my dad was when he tried to play nurse that one time.

“You just can’t get along with anypony, can you?”

That is the last straw. She might be joking, but I haven’t done anything so far other than be assaulted. “I didn’t do anything! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the worst thing I did was be different. I just see ponies around here.” The bigot card isn’t one that I have ever been able to pull before today. When the only people around are all of the same family, it is kind of impossible. “And I get assaulted, ran away from, and assaulted.” I don’t even know if she’ll understand what this is like for me.

I had hoped to be around humans right now, and making the best of it isn’t exactly something that is being made easy. At this point, I’m almost tempted to try to find another time in the future. Maybe humans take over again at some point. Even if that isn’t the case, anything is better than now. I end up letting out a sigh of frustration. I close my eyes, there has to be a way to calm down.

Then I feel what has to be a hug.

“I shouldn’t have said that.” I don’t know if I should feel bad about what I had said or not, but I kind of do. Cloudkicker hasn’t done anything wrong, and I just accused her entire species of being bigots. I really should say something, maybe apologize, but I just can’t. Aside from a few examples, they all have been bigots to me. Well, they might have been. I don’t really know why they’re acting the way they are. “This has got to be difficult on you, more so than us. You’re the one that is the only one of your kind around here. Even if there are some ponies who are nice, they probably can’t understand that sort of thing.”

Now I do feel bad.

I have to say something. “It could be worse, I could be stuck here. And I could be forced to be the only one of me for the rest of my life. But I plan on going back to get my parents at some point, if I can ever figure out how to make all of this ponies a lot less hostile.” All of that is true. I have to figure out how to make them tolerate me, maybe even like me. I have to go back and get my parents. And I really don’t want to be stuck here alone.

Maybe I should head off for a little into the past and vent some steam.

Nah, I’m supposed to be figuring out how to survive here.

“Why don’t you tell me about them … your parents?”

I can tell that she’s trying to be nice, so I just smile. The hug stops, she takes a couple of steps back, and she sits down. “Alright. Where to start? I think I should tell you about my dad. Oh, he’s my bigger influence when it comes to how I live. He’s a scientist, a theoretical physicist. He wants me to take in his steps one day. I remember this one thing he told me, important thing, about the difference between a normal physicist and a theoretical physicist…”

~

“And that’s I got the idea to find somewhere new. It hasn’t worked out for me so well yet, though. I hope that changes. No offense to you and Lyra, but there’s only two of you and a lot of them.”

That seems to bring a look of concern to her face. “That reminds me. I spoke to Lyra today about what happened.” This is something that can end one of two ways. Either she is going to tell me that everything is okay, or she is going to tell me that everything isn’t okay. From the look, I can only assume that this is going to be bad news. I just hope that she isn’t going to tell me that I have to stay in here another day. “I tried to talk her into giving you a chance, but she didn’t listen. She seems to think that you’re going to eat her. I doubt that the stories that Lyra used to tell her helped at all.”

I have to wonder why Lyra ran up if she thinks that I’m some sort of threat.

“We’re going to have to wait until Twilight gets back. That way, we can get her to do some experiments on you and have you be declared safe.” That doesn’t sound like a normal idea. It is something that I think might be a good enough excuse for me to leave the house, though, which means I’m going to give it a big thumbs up.

“When should Twilight get back?” I don’t know anything about her beyond the fact that she is obviously some sort of expert on things. It is also obvious that they listen to her, for whatever reason. I also seem to remember a Twilight Sparkle being named one of the Elements of Harmony. “And can you tell me more about this Twilight? Is it the one you told me about before, the Element of Harmony?”

“Yep, Twilight is the Element of magic I think. And she is Celestia’s student. And she should be back by now, but I think she’s going to want to sleep before she does anything. I plan on going by her house tomorrow. The duchess does love her sleep, I’m told.” So she’s the Element of Magic and she’s apparently royalty, and she’s apparently the student of one of the princesses. “Just a nickname, by the way. She loves being called it, you should greet her by it when you see her tomorrow.”

~

After we eat dinner, Cloudkicker lets out a yawn. “Getting you out of trouble is more difficult than I had thought it would be.” I decide to not tell her that she didn’t do anything, it wouldn’t be worth it. “And I’m going to need to wake up early tomorrow anyway.” That is something good, since this seems to be a perfect time to test the medicine that I have been given. I don’t want to tell her, but that hug she gave me has made my nose sting a little.

That sneeze during dinner isn’t helping either. I’m kind of surprised I’m not bleeding right now, though I had checked when it had happened.

“See you tomorrow, Cloudkicker?”

“Not much, duchess doesn’t like being watched when she does her experiments.”

I head off to my room, more things ready to be written down.

Nurse Redheart
- doesn’t trust me
- Doesn’t know anything about humans
- White with pink hair and a nurse hat
- Red cross as her special mark
- Obviously a nurse

Twilight Sparkle
- Element of Magic
- Likes to be called Duchess
- Student of Celestia
- Probably a unicorn
- Likes experiments
- Hates being watched

Elements of Harmony
- Symbolize loyalty, kindness, laughter, magic, honesty, and generosity
- Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Rarity
- Important

I take a couple of bites of one of the plants. It doesn’t taste good at all. I have to finish it off, though, and then eat another. If one of them is enough for a pony, two should be enough for me. With both of them out of the way, I know I should be feeling the effects soon enough. Maybe it will help me go to sleep, too. I haven’t had much trouble, but it would really suck if that were to change.

Ten minutes later, the pain is slightly diminished.

These ponies definitely take less, but this is ridiculous. Lucky for me, though, I’m tired enough to go to sleep anyway. I haven’t done much, I know, but dealing with Nurse Killjoy wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Besides, when I sleep I can think of what I’m going to do when I finally get to be able to go outside without the ponies acting like I’m going to eat them and their children at the same time.

I can only hope this works.