Chapters I click on a link on the library school computer. Two cases of people going into comas and disappearing. Strange, but I don't think it's true. Probably just the reporters making up stories. I print it, click off the web page and log off, heading towards the exit. I start heading towards where I live, look around and slip into the woods. I live in an abandoned house. It's pretty cool though actually, because somehow it still has power and water coming to it. I guess they forgot to cut it off. I take out the report and look at it. It says that there is no known reason for the comas and is thought that there are new species of bacteria, though they still cannot explain why people are disappearing. I yawn and carefully head up the broken stairs tucking the paper away into a drawer and deciding to skip supper and go to bed. I brush off some of the dust before climbing into the bed and soon fall asleep.
Another horrid day of secondary school. I change clothes so nobody will notice anything off and head out grabbing an apple from a short tree in front of the house on the way out as a makeshift breakfast.
When I get to school, I head to my homeroom class and start feeling woozy. Someone asks me if I am okay, and I reply that I'm fine, when suddenly I can't move. I fall down paralyzed and helpless watching the homeroom teacher rush to call the ambulance. I get lifted onto a bed thing and carried away to the hospital.
They think that I am unconscious. I feel like screaming, yet I cannot do a thing. They close the light and leave me there alone. I feel so helpless and even more so when I start feeling stabbing pains and crunching sounds coming from within myself. Everything goes black.
My hands felt there, yet not there. I could move them though! I could move! My eyes fluttered open. When had I gotten blonde streaks? I'll figure that out later, but I can move. I quickly lift my arm up and start waving it around when it catches my attention. It ends in a hard stub. Someone had cut my arm off! I scream in alarm and scream even louder when I realize there is yellow fur all over it. What kind of sick joke is this!? Still alarmed I examine the rest of my body finding my other arm and legs were like that too. Somebody had cut off my limbs, dyed streaks in my hair, glued fuzz on me, and left me- I pause and look around. In the middle of a forest. Wait though, why could I move the tail? My arms and legs move in odd directions too. I marvel watching my arms and legs as I move them.
I'd say it was a dream... It's too realistic though... In dreams i never even think of something being a dream.. So it can't be.. Have I really morphed into something? I wince as I look down at my appendages and hesitate before I try to get up. I push all four legs downwards and force myself up. I look around. Now for the hardest part. I shut my eyes and move one leg forward thinking I will fall. I open one eye, and when I see that I'm fine I open the other. I look down at my legs again and realize I could be a horse like creature. Or maybe even just a horse, an oddly shaped one though. I guess I could try walking like a horse too. I put another leg forward, then a back leg, then the other back leg. This is easier than I thought. It's still very hard, but easier than I imagined. Slowly I increase my speed faster and faster, walking along a path.
I get up to a small pond of water and decide it would be the perfect time to look at my reflection and see what my head looks like. I wait until the pond is still and look down at my reflection. My eyes are very big and a nice shade of green while my fur is yellowish orangish and I have a brown mane and tail with bleach blonde streaks. It is a very strange experience, but what bothers me the most is the long horn protruding out of my head. It looks almost.. Unicorn like... But that's impossible because unicorns are not real. I look like something out of a fairy tale.
I stare at my reflection for a while longer before continuing walking down the trail. Perhaps I would get to real people soon. They would know whats wrong with me. They would fix me. But...They probably already figured out by now I live alone in an abandoned house. My ears droop down automatically. They would send me somewhere and make me live with strangers! I sigh, but I can't lose hope because getting back to civilization is my best chance right now. I keep to the path, careful not to stray off and look up seeing lights in the distance through the darkness of the night. I make out shapes of houses. People! I start galloping towards the town and realize everyone would be asleep right now, and I should wait until morning careful not to wake anybody up because that is just how I am. I feel bad when I wake somebody up. I look around finding a cozy small bush in front of a house and curl up hidden safely behind it.
I wake up surprised to find another horse, but this one with wings standing in front of the bush. I look around realizing this is not a town of people but is a town of the same creatures I had turned into!
"What are you doing in my bushes?" It or he, asks me. It talks!
I decide to pretend I'm one of them, as not to raise suspicion, besides what could go wrong?
"Oh.. Sorry.. Must have been sleepwalking!" I try to reply with a sheepish grin and am also surprised that it ends up a garbled mess of words. With that I dash out of the bush and into what I guess could be an alley.
I calm myself down and convince myself to get out of there. I walk the opposite way down the alley and find myself on a long stretch of land. What the heck. I walk on a dirt road through it and find myself in a forest. No not exactly a forest. More like an orchard! Of apples! I realize I am hungry and look up already able to taste the apples and look on the ground to see if any of them fell, to my surprise there was an unbruised apple lying on the grass of the orchard. I tried to figure out a way to eat it and decided to just bite out of it while it was on the ground. I took a big bite finding it was the most delicious apple I had ever tried. I quickly gulp the rest of it down and turn around galloping back towards the way the town was to explore new things because after all, if I had to be stuck as a weird horse creature, why not enjoy it?
The Persistance Of Memory
I wake up in the morning hearing leaves rustling in a nearby bush. I fumble around until I sit up and silently freeze. Suddenly something jumps out of the bush and I fall over in alarm. I slowly turn my head around to see what it is and calm down immediately when I realise it had just been a rabbit. I slowly get back up in a sitting position and push my back legs up digging my hooves into the ground until I end up standing. I know I can walk again since I had figured out yesterday when I got here but.. I sigh having slightly forgotten because a while after I got back to town I decided to go to sleep, as I was drained of energy. Okay.. I can do this again if I did it once. I confidently put a leg forward and repeat what I had done yesterday, only more clumsily because somehow I had gotten less balanced through the night. I had also noticed I was slowly changing even more as my eyes were getting bigger, more so like the other ponies. I was also getting shorter and even more pony like. I guessed I must still be morphing. For some reason I could not recall how I had gotten in this spot, but after all I was very tired, so it must have been why.
I look around at my surroundings. I am near a forest and there is a small cottage a bit farther with a cobble stone path leading one way and the other way too far to tell. I decide to go the other way hoping I would find something to eat I head towards the path and look around. I had never seen greenery this lush before. The birds were chirping beautifully and I decide until I get there to pass time I should just look around I think looking at all the animals that were more beautiful than on earth. They were so... Colourful.... I realise I had ended up near the town again when I look up ahead and keep walking thinking I could probably snag something to eat without anybody noticing.
I continue going when I get in town when a building catches my eye. It looks like a big gingerbread house. "Sugar cube corner" it read. I quietly open the door and look inside. It looks pretty normal considering what the outside looks like. I slowly shrink down and move around people trying not to attract attention until I get up to a open display table. The smell is heavenly. I look around making sure nobody had noticed and grab one with my mouth before slowly getting out of there as not to attract attention. I then open the door as quietly as i can and I walk down the street until I get some ways away just in case anybody had seen me and then sit down behind some trees setting the cupcake down carefully. The cupcake is vanilla with pink frosting. It looks and smells delicious, I hope it tastes delicious as well. I hesitantly take a bite and the flavour comes rushing to my tastes buds. It tastes better than anything I had ever eaten on earth. It's.. Heaven in a cupcake! I try to eat slowly but it tastes so good that I cannot even try. I finish the cupcake in about twenty seconds enjoying every last bite. That was the best cupcake I have ever had I think before pushing my hooves down so I can get back up. It feels like I am getting clumsier every moment of the day.
When I eventually get up I look around realising I have the urge to pee. I hide as well as I can behind the trees so nobody can see me and pace around embarrassed but eventually when I can no longer hold it I stop and pee looking around. I then waited a while and finally came out from behind the hidden safety of the trees, shyly looking around.
Finally feeling better, partially from the cupcake and partially from relieving myself I walk at a more normal pace than the speed I was walking before until I trip over my own hooves. A startled eep escapes from me as I accidentally cut my flank with my own horn as i stumble. Let me tell you, for something that looks so dull that thing can cut! The wound was about one inch deep and it was bleeding heavily, the rich red staining the ground around me. I also gained some to be bruises but the cut hurts the most. Hesitantly I attempt to get back up putting most of my weight on my other leg but that only causes me to fall back down from the sharp pain of the cut. Slowly squeezing my eyes shut I try to get back up, but this time waiting for myself to get used to the pain as I get up more until I finally get up all the way. My energy suddenly lost from the blood loss leaving me feeling weak, I decide to take a nap as I uncoordinatedly limp to somebody's small shed and climb inside not trying very hard to hide myself. I shut my eyes trying to ignore the pain in my flank as a small pool of blood forms around my leg.
I slowly wake up half annoyed of hearing voices. I flicker open my eyes and realise I had gotten even shorter than the night before when I slept! Does this world age backwards, because suddenly I looked the equivalent of what might be a eight year old in this world! I then look up to see the sources of the voices. One of them sounds alarmed, and is talking to two people in a... Ohh no... There are two ponies in doctors outfits. One is brown and the others pelt is white. I look around and see they are covering the only way out and I suddenly feel helpless and regret not having found a better sleeping spot. I weakly try to get up and they look at me realising I'm awake. I try to say I'm fine I'm going to go now and smile but it ends up a weak grumble due to the shape of my mouth and me not knowing how to coordinate my new tongue yet.
I sigh helplessly and try to push my self past them to get out but one of them firmly stops me while he tells the other one "Go get the stretcher"
Oh no.. I think as I watch one of them leave and come back with a stretcher. My pupils undialate as the other one proceeds to push me on it and they both carry me into a white carriage with a red cross painted on the side that has two ponies pulling it. I try to protest but more nonsense comes out of my mouth.
"Stay calm, it will be fine" the brown pelted pony says with a smile.
I look up with a look up frustration and helplessness but stop trying to protest as I know I wouldn't be able to talk anyways. He carriage stops moving and they carry me out of the carriage and what I guess is most likely a hospital. I watch as they carry me inside and the brown one proceeds to switch carrying position with a white one and stays behind at the front desk. They bring me inside a room and put me on a bed and as the yellow pony leaves the white one who I guess would be on a nurse based on her outfit force feeds me a pill. I almost about choke on it but I swallow it and start feeling sleepy. Without even knowing it I drift off to sleep.
When I awake I notice I have gotten smaller again, but less of a change and a feeling washes over me and I realise that I have finally stopped shrinking, but the change had made me younger than I actually was. Either way I was happy that I had stopped morphing and hoped that ponies did not have to go to school. I hear the door click open and watch a nurse walk in.
"Are you feeling okay honey?" She asks sweetly and I wish I could ask them to let me go but that would be suspicious and I can't talk anyway. Even though I cannot talk I try to reply, because hey maybe I'd be able to and if I can they'd let me leave.
"Euaaaaaesssss" my yes comes out as which apparently she mistakes for a groan.
"I'll take that as a no." She says looking at me sympathetically making me want to scream and she writes something down with her mouth somehow balancing a notepad on her hoof as she walks out. No that was the opposite of what I meant! I silently yell in my head. At least they would probably give me real food here. I try to get off the bed but the pain in my leg had gotten worse and the cut was swollen. When I land I let out a yelp and squeeze my eyes hard not able to move because of the pain just as a different nurse comes in wheeling in a tray of food.
"Oh my! Are you okay?" She rushes over and I feel myself being lifted up in the air, I struggle shocked at what was happening and the pink aura around me. Unicorns could... Do magic? I wondered if I could. She sets me on the bed. "Now lets take a look at that leg, and don't you go trying to get out of bed anymore young lady." She says and examines my leg gently with her hooves. I wince every time she touches it. "My, it must have gotten infected, but we will make it all better" She smiles and presses a button on the wall saying something into a speaker
A doctor walks in carrying a first aid box in his mouth. He walks up to the bed and sets it down, opening it and taking out a syringe. My eyes widen as I have a phobia of needles and I try to inch away but he just sticks it in there and my leg starts feeling numb, it takes away the pain which I'm glad though. The nurse then takes over magically lifting out some type of tool and I cannot tell what she is doing but the pressure in my flank suddenly feels gone. She puts that back in, wiping my flank with a cotton ball of liquid, and lifts out a sewing needle and some type of string all as I watch shocked and afraid of the magic.
"There's no need to be scared, see we aren't bad guys" the nurse says sweetly and goes over to the side of the room to talk to the doctor.
"It's like she's never seen magic before" says the doctor
"She also seems kind of scared of everyone, and has not really said anything yet" whispers the nurse.
I try to listen but cannot hear anything more and I sigh, curling up and trying not to move my leg, feeling trapped and helpless. I wait for them to leave though, while looking at an open window. When they finally leave, I slowly climb out of bed, bringing another sharp pain, but feeling better than last time. I limp a little over to the window and look down. Oh good... It's only the second floor. I look around hesitating but this is my only chance for escape. I climb onto the window sill and slowly look down and squeeze my eyes. Oh I know I'm going to regret this, I think. Ok do it like a cat. I leap out forcing my painful flank to get into the right shape and shut my eyes as hard as I can while clenching my teeth, getting ready for impact. The wind rushes through my hair. I land on fours bringing pain but only lasting for a few seconds, before turning sore, except for my flank. My flank let terrible, but happy I was free I shook the hospital gown off and limped away to freedom. Yay I tried to yell, it still came out weird but I was getting better at talking. It only came out as "yea!" So that's a plus.
I look down at my hooves and feel like weeping. It had been a week and I had finally figured out how to talk, but my mane and tail were in a horrible mess unlike when I had gotten here. I had scrapes and bruises everywhere, worst of all, I was hungry. It was the worst hunger I'd ever felt, the kind that kind of just tore at you making you writhe in pain. I sigh trying to ignore the stares I was getting and I slowly walk with a small limp in my back leg when I notice a red and white checkerd blanket with a basket left unattended. It couldn't hurt to take it could it? I mean they probably have plenty of food. I scurry to it grabbing it quickly and running off as fast as I could with my limp until I get as far as I think is good with my mouth watering from the delicious smell of food. Food.. Food is all I can think of. I open the basket almost tearing off the lid in my hunger and lifting out a sandwich, sure it had daisies in it but it was food right? I don't even care if it would be bitter. I quickly stuff it into my mouth almost swallowing the thing whole and grabbing more food out of there not even glancing a peek at it. Just eating. My hunger is finally extinguished.
I immediately regret eating so fast due to the terrible stomach ache I was getting. At least I wasn't hungry any more though. I leave the basket there suddenly having more energy and walk towards a river a bit of into the distance wanting to clean my pelt because now that I wasn't hungry, I cared what I smelled and felt like. A few birds chirp at me while I walk. Seeing the river just ahead I take off running and leap in. How stupid of me, I land wincing from the pain of my hind leg but ignore it as I let the river clean me off. I wondered how I would get the nettles out of my mane and tail. Whatever, I'm glad I don't stink anymore. I look around when I suddenly regurgitate all the food I had eaten before leaving a mess of chewed up half digested food floating in the water. I watch in disgust as a raccoon that had been hiding in a nearby bush comes to eat it, shivering I walk away with pictures in my mind of raccoons eating all types of throw up. Oddly even though I threw up most of the food I had eaten I was not hungry.
I get back in town glad I am not being stared at as much though getting occasional raises of eyebrows when they see my hair. I stand observing the ponies when one of them looks at me and his pupils dilate. I wonder where I recognize this pony from as he comes towards me when it hits me. It was that doctor. My pupils constrict and I turn around about to dash of but as soon as I start running he yells out to someone else.
"It's the runaway filly from the hospital! Go get her!" And the two of them manage to catch me. If only my foot was less painful and I was a bit bigger, I could've gotten away. "Why did you run away from the hospital?" He asks me and due to my fear of doctors I break down in years telling him a half truth.
"I sniff am afraid of hospitals!" I say and wonder why I had slowly started to act more childish. Breaking down in tears.. Strange.
"You don't need to be afraid, it's okay we are here to help, not hurt you!" He says in a soft voice calming me down. "Now will you come with us? Please?"
"O-okay" I stutter and decide I'll go due to the pain in my flank and hope they might be able to take the limp away. Wait... I suddenly remember I was a human. But not anymore. Now I was a little kid again.. A PONY little kid... I sigh and walk after him sadly. A filly.
When we enter the hospital he talks to the pony at the front desk and then walks me up a floor of stairs and into a room. It wasn't the room I was in before. I look around curiously and sit down on the bed my leg sore. I look up in surprise as he asks me something. He asked me what my name was. "Oh uh... Er....." I had forgotten my human name and couldn't make up a pony name. Maybe they could make one up for me. "I seem to have forgotten."
"Is there anything else you have forgotten?" He asks with a sense of true care.
"I don't think so..." I reply with a small smile.
"Well, until you remember I guess we're just going to have to call you something. How about Spring Meadows?"
"Spring meadows. Hmm I like that! Okay then!" I say enthusiastically. "Now I have a different question.. Can you make my leg stop hurting?"
"Of course! Which leg is bothering you dear?" He asks as is how him. It turns out I had broken the leg I had also wounded when I jumped, and it had healed incorrectly. I would have to get surgery. My eyes get bigger and bigger slowly as he says that. "Umm. No thanks." I weakly whisper but he ignores that. Something about I wasn't old enough to make my own choices and I would regret this. Humph. He lifts up a needle and I shot my eyes as I feel it poke me and I suddenly feel sleepy. Anememenamesiaaaaaaaaaaamaaa I drowsily say before I fall asleep. The doctor had started surgery on my leg even though I clearly didn't to and was fine staying like this. I knew I wasn't going to ever get back to my human life and I didn't mind it much since I wasn't really losing much now was I? I was fine with being a pony. I didn't want any surgery though.....