Concussions and Conundrums
The noise of an entire class of students filled the school bus to an almost unbearable level, pencils and paper balls flying as the kids horsed around, getting the all-day field trip off to a good start. At thehead of the bus, Cheerilee struggled to make herself heard.
“Class, if I could have your… Everyone, please…” The nose and chaos continued unabated. Smirking, Cheerilee reached for the driver’s speaker system, pressed the button, and held it close to the receiver. The electronic screech that resulted drove all of the teenagers to their seats with groans and yells of auditory anguish. Satisfied, Cheerilee brought the mic to her mouth. “Thank you for your attention. Just a reminder, I want everyone to be on their best behavior at the museum…” her eyes focused on Snips and Snails, who for their part tried their very best to look angelic. “Please, have your permission slips ready as I come down the aisle…”
Three seats from the back, two girls split their time between digging in their backpacks and peering out the window. “Now, where in the heck do you think she could be?” Apple Bloom worried, scanning the early-morning school grounds. “Sweetie Belle ain’t never late! And she’s been talking about this field trip all week!”
“I dunno. Maybe she’s sick or something?” Scootaloo mumbled, digging through the wreckage of homework past in her messy, overstuffed backpack, finally pulling out a rumpled sheet with a coffee stain on it. “Hey, this does look like my mom’s signature, doesn’t it?”
“What? Oh… Yeah, I guess… Mizz Cheerilee writes like that too, so you ought to get away with it…” Apple Bloom looked out the window again, her breath causing a fog on the cold glass.
“Maybe she got tired of hanging out with the short bus kids,” came a taunting singsong from the seat behind the girls.
“Shuddup, Silver Spoon, yer on the same bus as we are.” Apple Bloom grumbled, not bothering to look back, but smirking at the sputtering she heard in response.
“Wait… wait… no, wait… no” Sweetie Belle panted, running as fast as her sneakered feet and skinny legs could take her. Her goal was so close, she could see the school roundabout, and the idling bus – oh no, the moving bus! “Stop, wait, please, I have my… my!” She held a crisply-folded sheet of paper before her as if it held the power to make the bus hit the brakes.
It did no good, the yellow vehicle pulled into the main road, heading away from the running girl. Maybe, if she kept chasing, someone would look out the back and see her! Feeling winded and queasy from running as much as she had already, Sweetie Belle resolved to do just that.
It was three bounding steps, before the ground was yanked from beneath her. In the slow-motion realization of events that followed, she saw the loose lace of her left sneaker pull free from under her right foot, as the sidewalk leaped away. Looming ahead was the solid white granite plinth of the school’s mascot statue, Wonder.
A shriek burst from the girl’s mouth and she threw her arms up to protect herself. Surprisingly, the lightning-burst of color and lights inside her head came before the shuddering impact, and then insensible blackness as she crashed.
“Mwaw rong has eee in beer?”
“Mebbe day urtu, hardu dell”
Sweetie Belle’s eyelids fluttered as the strange sounds, like voices in a tin can down a long hallway. The light and color hurt her eyes and made her head throb, even though everything was blurry.
“Holdun, think eee’s aken up” One of the voices became a little more clear to Sweetie belle’s groggy senses, and the speaking figure loomed closer. “Are oo okay? Are you hurt?”
Sweetie Belle had to blink again – the speaker appeared to be a pink unicorn wearing a tiara atop a tutti-fruity head of hair. “Ohmigosh…” she mumbled, “I really like your mane…” and then the unicorn vanished into an indistinct haze as unconsciousness overtook her again.
Princess Cadance looked perplexed, giving a concerned look to the guard beside her. “It looks like she bumped her head pretty hard. We ought to get her to the infirmary, and let Princess Celestia know.”
“Yes your highness, of course.” The guard paused, looking from the figure on the floor, all arms and legs and lavender hair “Begging your pardon your highness, but, how do you know it’s a ‘her’?”
Cadence gave the guard one of those looks that only disappointed aunts and bored Royalty can manage “Just because she has them in a different place, doesn’t mean I can’t recognize-“
“Y-yes ma’am, sorry your highness, of course,” the guard sputtered, bringing his magic to bear, carefully lifting the sprawled being, and drawing her out of the artifact room.
After he was gone, Cadence lifted the folded paper the girl had dropped. Unfolding it, she saw it was headed with the words “FIELD TRIP.” Glancing at the Gateway mirror with a concerned frown, the princess turned to exit the room, sealing the door behind her.
When Sweetie Belle next opened her eyes, the light and color didn’t hurt nearly so bad. Lifting her hand to rub at her face, she felt the scratchiness of a hospital wrist-tag. That helped clear up some of the disorientation. The bandage around her head confirmed it; she’d crashed into the statue, and was in a hospital.
As the blurriness drained from her vision, she could see the pastel yellow walls, the pictures of balloons and the vase of flowers from a well-wisher, probably her parents or friends. The furniture looked a little short, but that must be because this was the children’s ward – why else would there be pictures of balloons? With a soft groan, she reached to the side of her bed, to press the call button so someone would know she was awake.
“Wow, that was weird,” she murmured to herself, closing her eyes and resting back against the pillow. “Rainbow unicorns… I must have hit my head pretty bad…” She giggled at the memory of telling the EMT about how much she liked his ‘mane’ – then winced, gasping. Giggling hurt. She leaned back into the pillow, squeezing her eyelids together and groaning.
“Good, you’re awake,” came a clear male voice. From the sound of it, he and another person stepped into the room. “We were awfully worried about you, you’ve been out for two days.”
Sweetie Belle opened her eyes again. If giggling hurt, screaming was agony… but this deserved a scream. In fact, she nearly tipped the bed over in her panic to get away from what was surely a hallucination. Standing at her bedside was a doctor, judging from the white coat and stethoscope looped over his neck… but... but he was a pony! And not just any pony, but a translucent, sparkling pony with gemstone-shaped eyes.
“Whowhatareyouwhyamihereyou’reahorseohmigawdi’mcrazyibrammagedmydainandnowI’mcrazyHEEEEELP!” the words came out in a scrambled torrent from the girl as she huddled at the head of the hospital bed. At least the doctor-horse backed away, looking startled.
“Now just… just calm down, little miss. Deep breaths, everything’s okay…” The pony mimed taking in some deep breaths, and was relieved to see the girl-thing doing the same, though he wasn’t sure if she was calming down or fueling up for another scream. “I’m Doctor Spinel Doublet, and I’ve been seeing to your care. You did take a nasty bump to the head when you hit the floor of-“
“Floor?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, eyes still wide. “I, hit, I hit, I mean, a statue, I hit a statue, it was a horse, and you’re a horse too, why are you a horse?” She bit her lip, whimpering.
Spinel Doublet offered a patient smile in return. “I’m a pony, actually. To be specific, a crystal pony. And I’m a crystal pony because both of my parents were.”
Sweetie Belle found this answer less than satisfying. But at least this horse doctor wasn’t doing anything too weird. “O-okay, I guess. But, I mean, that is… why is a hor… a crystal pony a doctor?”
“Four years of medical school and five years of residency program.”
Sweetie Belle blinked. Well, that… made sense, at least within the context of the hallucination. She took a deep breath, attempting to calm herself, and gradually eased down off the head of the bed. “Okay,” was her meek reply.
“O-kay,” Spinel agreed, nodding. Producing a clipboard, he flipped a page “As I was saying, you took a pretty bad bump to the head when you hit the floor. We think you’d been unconscious for almost a day before the guard found you. Mild concussion, a little contusion, nothing lasting, though.” He flipped the page back. “According to the papers in your knapsack, your name is Sweetie Belle?” At the girl’s silent nod, he continued “Very good, very good. Just, ah, two more questions, if I may?”
Sweetie belle gulped through a dry throat “Uh… okay? Sure.”
“Excellent. First, pardon if this comes off as a little rude, but… what, exactly, are you?”
The question brought a blink to Sweetie belle’s face. What was she? Wasn’t it obvious? She held up her hands, and they were indeed still hands, four fingers and a thumb on each. “I’m a… person?” She looked at Spinel, who seemed to still be waiting for an answer “Oh, but, uhm, I guess, everybody’s a person, right? I’m a human?”
“Hyoo-mahn,” intoned the doctor, pulling a pen from his coat pocket with his mouth, then speaking around it. “Oo schpell it lie it schounds?” at the nod, he scribbled it down, and tucked his pen away. “Very good. Next question…” he leveled a look at Sweetie Belle “Do you have any recollection of how you came to be in the Palace’s artifact room?”
“Palace? Artifact…” Sweetie Belle trailed off, looking as clueless as she felt. “I told you, I hit a statue, and that’s all I remember. My class was going to the museum, and I was late, ‘cause I lost my shoe, and then I tripped, and… and…” She noticed the doctor doing that calm-breathing thing again, and interrupted herself to do the same. “I don’t know anything about a palace, honest! I’ve got to get home, my mom and pop are bound to be worried, and-“
“I’m sad to say, that might not be possible, Sweetie Belle,” came a new voice, its rich feminine timbre drawing Sweetie belle’s attention. There in the doorway was a pair of unicorns. One, the candy-colored one from her earlier grogginess, and the other, the one that was speaking…
“…Principal Celestia?” Sweetie’s eyes bugged a bit, she was sure of it. Standing before her was a completely horse-ified version of her school’s principal… well, except for the long spiral horn, the wings, and the way her mane and tail floated on their own. Wait. “Why do you have a tail?” Given the moment, it wasn’t a dumb question, Sweetie Belle thought.
Celestia and Cadence shared a look with each other, before Celestia looked back to the human girl, “I understand that this is an awful lot to take in, but please be assured, we have no bad intentions towards you. In fact, this is something of a shock for everyone. When Doctor Spinel feels you are able, we will speak more.”
“I feel fine,” Sweetie Belle fibbed; a little dizziness still swimming in the back of her skull, and the lights still had a fuzzy sort of glow. But this was important. “I just need something to drink, and I’ll be-“ her stomach decided at that moment to make a noise not unlike an angry dog. “Uhm… Well, maybe something to eat, too.” She rubbed at her stomach through the awkwardly-fitted hospital gown, only to find that it was actually two pony-sized gowns, laced together at about her stomach. That little detail was too odd, yet too practical, to be a hallucination. Very slowly, she lay back in the bed, “or… maybe I’ll just let the nice Pony Doctor decide, yeah…”
“Gneiss is your nurse, actually,” the doctor corrected, though it was pretty evident that his patient wasn’t paying any attention.
It wasn’t until the next morning that Spinel Doublet felt his patient was well enough to make even the relatively short trip from the palace’s infirmary to the council chambers. Sweetie Belle had donned her clothing – freshly washed and smelling of newly-mown hay – and cradled a glass of grape juice in her hand to nurse her still-dry throat with. All around her, walls of gemstone, mica, and crystal rose, interrupted by alabaster furnishings and stained-glass windows. This was most undoubtedly a palace, and whether or not she was hallucinating, Sweetie Belle was awed and enchanted, having to be nudged along on occasion by the crystal pony guardsman accompanying her. She let out a soft coo of wonder when the doors ahead of her glowed with a combination of golden and blue light, swinging open without apparent effort from anyone.
“Hello again, young one,” spoke the rainbow-maned pony that Sweetie Bell had decided was her principal. “I’m glad to see you are well enough to join us.” ‘Us’ apparently consisted of three other winged unicorns – the candy one, a mostly-purple one standing a head below the others, and the last, a dark blue with the same sort of flowing mane as Celestia. Also in the room was a fifth unicorn, wearing a well-coiffed violet mane and an expression of wordless shock.
“Uhm, no problem, I guess,” Sweetie Belle mumbled, for a moment feeling awkward, gangly, and more out of place than ever – which was certainly saying something. She reached up, rubbing the back of her neck. “Am I in trouble? I didn’t mean to go in the, uhm, the artifact room...” She sounded uncertain, looking between the five.
Celestia chuckled softly “No, you are not in trouble. Please, have a seat.” Sweetie Belle’s mouth dropped open as the princess’ horn glowed, along with a pillow nearby, settling at the table as a seat. Gulping, Sweetie Belle settled herself upon it, legs folding together. “Allow me to make introductions. I am Princess Celestia. that is my sister, Princess Luna. And between are princesses Cadence, and Twilight Sparkle. The lady at the end of the table is Twilight’s friend, Rarity.”
“Wait… princess Celestia? Princess Luna?” Sweetie Belle looked between the two, chewing the back of her lip, then looking to the last pony introduced “There’s a Rarity that goes to my school. You… do sort of look like her, I guess? Except for… you know… Everything, I guess.”
Rarity just kept staring without a word. Celestia and Luna exchanged a look, before Luna spoke. “It sounds almost as though you know of us, young…” a glance at a paper in front of her “Young Hyooomaaan?” She turned to Twilight, muttering “Is that right? I have such a time with doctor’s handwriting….”
“Yeah, ‘human’ that’s right,” Sweetie Belle nodded. “And you two look sort of like the principal and vice principal of my school… I don’t recognize you two at all, though,” she said with a glance at Twilight and Cadence. “So, I guess if I’m crazy, I’m totally making you two up. Sorry.”
“We understand that you might be having a hard time,” Celestia began, looking back to the young girl. “But you can rest assured in that, if nothing else, you are perfectly well, aside from some bruising. But there is some… bad news, I am afraid…”
Sweetie Belle gulped. Bad news? She was in a room with telekinetic unicorns sipping tea and mispronouncing her species, and there was bad news? “Uhm, what sort of bad news?”
The purple unicorn took the opportunity, not noticing Sweetie Belle gawking as she used magic to separate and tap a stack of papers. “It seems that you translocated through a dimensional locus by accident, resulting in your being deposited on our side of the Temporal-Spatial boundary, precisely within the reliquary of…” Twilight paused, noticing the awkward silence around here, and the girl’s dumbfounded look. “Uh, what I mean is, you fell through a portal and ended up in our world.”
“You’re joking.” Sweetie Belle asserted flatly “That would be magic!” Magic doesn’t happen!”
“Would you like some tea?” Cadence asked demurely.
“What? Tea? No, thanks, I have… uh… bwuh…” Sweetie Belle’s jade-green eyes crossed a little as she noticed that the teapot, cup, and saucer were hovering in front of her at the table, limned in a pale blue sparkling light. “That’s, you’re, you’re, that’s…” The doors, the pillow, the papers, and now it was starting to sink in.
“She seems to be reacting better to magic than we thought she would,” Luna noted, sipping her own tea “At least she’s still conscious.”
“So you see, magic is very much a part of our world,” Celestia explained, ignoring the snark from her sister as she focused on Sweetie Belle. “And once every thirty moons, for a period of three days, our world connects to your world. Here, the portal is a mirror. Perhaps on your world, it is the statue you believe you fell into.”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes followed the tea set as they floated back onto the table with a little clink. She took a big gulp of the juice she’d been carrying all this time, blinking one “That… was… SO COOL!” Celestia’s words had gone in one ear and out the other, apparently. “Can all ponies do that? Can I do that now?” She closed her eyes and concentrated really hard, and all that happened was reminding herself of the splitting headache she still had.
“I don’t... think so,” Celestia admitted “But there is still much about your world, and how the two interact that we do not know. As I said, there is bad news…” This reminder recaptured the girl’s attention. “The portal opens once every thirty moons, and closes after three days. You’ve spent three days in the infirmary recovering from the blow you took, and Cadence believes you may have been in the artifacts room for as long as a day.
Slowly, surely, this sunk into Sweetie Belle’s sore head “But, then, that would mean... that it’s closed? As in, no way back through?” Four of the five nodded. “Well, oh, how long is a ‘moon’?” she chewed her lip “Is it like, phases of the moon? Thirty… I’m stuck here for a whole month?!” Her voice cracked into an undignified squeak at the last word, and she clapped her hands over her mouth, looking between the five unicorns, who wore a range of expressions, from concern and sympathy, tho curiosity and wariness, and the last one, Rarity… Yup, still shocked. Sweetie Belle wondered if she was broken.
“It’s a little longer than that, actually…” the purple one, Twilight Sparkle spoke up. “A moon isn’t just one phase, but, all of them, from new moon to new moon. Which is roughly twenty-seven days. So thirty of those.” She observed Sweetie Belle’s perplexed look. “Twenty-nine times thirty?” Still blank.
“I’m not very good at math,” the girl finally piped up quietly , a flush spreading on her bare cheeks.
“Eight hundred and seventy days,” Twilight deadpanned, choosing to ignore the soft ‘ooooh’ of understanding coming from her sister-in-law. “That’s two solar years. Well. Two solar years, four months, two weeks, and five days. Give or take a few hours owing to-“
“We will try to find a way to get you back home, safe and sound well before then,” Celestia interjected before Twilight could continue her astronomy lesson. “However, until then, you are our honored guest here in Equestria.”
Sweetie Belle’s vision blurred. For a moment she was afraid it was her contucussion or whatever it was, acting up again, until the wetness of tears spilled down her cheeks “But… but my mom and pop, and… and my friends, and…” Her lip quavered, on the verge of a full-out sob.
“And your sister?” the new voice belonged to the unicorn that had been busy gawping for so long. Through bleary eyes, Sweetie Belle thought she looked a little expectant.
“H-huh,-huh?” The word was a half-sob, forcing Sweetie Belle to reach up to wipe her eyes with the back of her hand “I don’t have a sister.” Confusion and sadness fought within her for a moment, sadness winning and making her snuffle and bite her lip. “You, you’ve all been… you’ve been very n-nice, buh… buh… “ she couldn’t get the last words out, instead just sobbing quietly covering her face to not make a spectacle in front of these princesses. Feeling two pairs of arms wrap around her was a comforting surprise, all the more so because they belonged to the unicorns Cadence and Rarity. Impulsively, needing the hug, she returned it.
Celestia let off a soft sigh, no less upset by the hurt the young human mare was feeling. “Well, I suppose that just as there are similarities, there are differences… Nevertheless, Rarity has kindly offered to take you into her home in Ponyville until this issue can be resolved. In our world, you and she are sisters. That is, she and Sweetie Belle are… I mean…” for a moment, Celestia lost her composure in the confusion that transdimensional travel is sure to cause anyone. She gave up, giving a soft snort.
“There’s a place called Ponyville?” Sweetie Belle sniffed, then giggled, which turned into a hiccup as her lungs tried to sob again. “And... we are? She is?” She turned to regard Rarity at her side, who just gave a mute nod. “Wait, so… “ she paused
The princesses looked to her expectantly, all but Luna whose mind seemed to be elsewhere.
“…So you mean there’s a pony version of me?!”
