A More Magical Experience

My head is swimming. All the events that happened earlier in the night... They all... They all play back. Whilst my body rests, my mind recaps everything that happened. The space storm, the balcony, all of it. It's like a bad dream, and I can't wake up. My memory replays that horrific night over and over. I'm so glad I can't feel it anymore....

~ ~ ~ ~ ———— ~ ~ ~ ~

...I believe I may be somewhere safe. Every now and then, I gain enough consciousness to hear sentences. Mostly things like "We are trying our best," or "Life signs appear to be stable." If anything, I think I'm in a hospital. Sometimes I can hear beeping. Sometimes I hear plastic being crumpled. I'm safe for now, and Dad will be here to come and get me. I'm not ready Mom, I'm not ready to go yet...

~ ~ ~ ~ ———— ~ ~ ~ ~

My hearing is the first sense to return to me. I can hear more machines beep, more dripping, people talking. I can hear them clearly now.

"...-ject is still comatose. We're not sure if it will be responsive to any tests if it can even awaken."

"Regardless, this discovery must be preserved. Keep the subject alive. I want the Princess to hear of this."

Princess? I think. Where am I? I try and open my eyes, but I have little control over them. The people who were talking leave, I think. They sound like they are wearing tap shoes. I try to open my eyes again and am more successful this time. They slowly peel open, letting me see my surroundings through blurred vision. I wait a few minutes for my vision to clear.

The room I'm in looks a bit odd. It has white floors, white walls, and a gray ceiling with two hanging lights as my source of light. There is a green curtain to my left that is strung onto a rounded metal bar over my head. I look down and see myself covered with a white sheet. An IV line goes down from a bag on a pole on my right and under the sheet. I think it's, no, it is in my arm. I'm positive. Using my left arm, I throw over my covers. My shirt is missing, but my jeans are still on, though they are covered in burn holes and are more black than blue I can see my singed boxers through some of the holes in my jeans. Look down at my body, I see that my skin is red, charred, and peeling in some places, mostly my chest. I look at the IV line in the crook of my right elbow and...

I nearly scream.

On the back of my forearm, about two inches from my wrist, is a large crystal. It's almost as thick as my arm and is sticking out of my skin at I think is a thirty degree angle aimed towards my elbow. The crystal is yellow in color, and is jagged and rough looking. It almost goes up to my elbow, and I.. I don't know... I reach over with my left arm and gasp as I find out that a second crystal is sticking out of my left forearm as well.

Slowly, I run my left hand over the crystal on my right arm. It's warm. Rough in texture, like it would scratch me if it pressed too hard on it. My skin seems to grow up into the lower parts of the crystals. I touch it, and recoil at the slight pain. I then start to touch the rest of my charred body. My burns look bad, but they are doing... better? They hurt, like hell, but still better than before.

I reach back with my left arm and scratch the back of my head. Crystal formations growing out of flesh? That doesn't make any sense. As I'm scratching, I hear clinking, like glass. Looking over, I see that my shoulder is covered in crystals too. So is my other shoulder. These ones are smaller and less rough than the ones sprouting from my arms.

My head falls back onto the bed and I cover my eyes with my left arm, being careful to position my arm so that my new structure doesn't gouge my eyes out. I test my throat by clearing it, and I find it dry. "...Okay, okay, calm down," I say softly to myself. "You're in a medical facility with unusual protrusions and burn marks, possible head trauma. Think slowly and clearly..."

I don't get much thinking done before I hear more tap shoes. My door creaks open a bit and I look up at it. The voices are back.

"The Princess will be down shortly to see that thing." This voice is different than the one from before, its rougher. "What do you suppose it is anyway?"

"I'm not sure," the other one says in a more feminine tone. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"It's tall, I'll give you that. Anyways, do you need any trash taken out while I'm here?"

"Oh, yes, actually. One moment."

My door creaks open the rest of the way and someone walks in... Wait, what the-? It's not a person, it's a freaking horse! It's only four feet tall and its wearing a white coat over its light pink fur. The horse's tail and mane are both a bright blue, and its, ew, overly large eyes are blue too.

The small horse, no, that's not right. The pony walks into my room and over to the corner. It grabs a trash bin in its mouth and turns around to find me staring at it. We both freeze, well, I've actually been frozen since it walked in, but regardless. We both stare at one another for a long time, a few seconds at most, but it feels like so much longer. The bin drops from its mouth.

"Guard, it's awake."

My eyes widen further. I think... I think it just talked. Oh God, the miniature animal in clothing just talked... I close my eyes and lean my head back and groan.

I hear more tap shoes, no, those were hooves clip-clopping on the hard floor. I hear them again and the pony leaves. I may have just been struck by lightning and grown crystals from my appendages, but I'll be a monkey's uncle if I stay in this place with talking animals. I must be hallucinating. I must be. I pinch myself hard and try to wake myself from this unusual dream. It does nothing; I'm still in this stupid bed. It may be against every logical thing that I can think of, but I'm not staying here to wait for an encore of weird crap.

I sit up and groan again as my back pops about a dozen times. I wait a moment before I reach over and tug the IV out of my arm. I begin to bleed a bit, but it's not really what's on my mind right now. I hear more hooves coming down the hall to my room. My mind begins to fog a bit in fear as I throw my legs over the edge of the bed. I slip down and nearly collapse. I feel so physically weak. My groans and grunts are filled with exhaustion, and they continue to escape my mouth as I try my best to walk. It's like I'm a toddler again, trying to learn how to walk.

My efforts work, however, as I'm able to make it to the doorway. The hall is long and seemingly endless. The ceiling is nearly forty feet up and the walls are spotted with stained glass windows. The stone used to make the hall look aged, almost giving the place a medieval look.

The clip-clopping stops and I look to my right, seeing the pink pony from before and... Oh God. There are four other ponies with it, all of them gray with lighter gray manes and tails. What has me really scared is that they are wearing gold armor and carrying spears with their forelegs. The spears look pretty sharp.

The pony with the white coat on steps forward. "It's okay, Stay there, okay?" Her voice is soft, which freaks me out even more.

Talking animals with weapons... Not normal. Sweat beads on my forehead and my heart pounds blood painfully through my veins. The ponies step forward, and I bolt down the opposite end of the hall. I feel stronger now, a surge of adrenaline coursing through my body.

"Stop," a male voice calls out. "After it!"

"This isn't happening," I say to myself. "This isn't happening!" I turn down a smaller hallway and keep running. The red carpet beneath my bare feet is soft, but it gives me a good grip for better strides. I look back and see my pursuers turn and bolt down the hall after me. I'm about to look back, but I end up running into a wall and knock the breath from my lungs. I collapse on the ground and clutch my chest and trying to heave for air. My pursuers catch up to me and quickly surround me, their spears pointed at me like I'm some wild animal. Finally, I catch my breath and begin to push myself up from the ground.

"Don't move!"

I freeze. Looking up, I see the mare from before trotting over to the group. She slips between the two armored ponies in front of me and begins to slowly inch her way closer to me.

One of the armored ponies sways his spear. "Doctor Hurts, please stay back."

"But it's hurt," the mare says without taking her eyes off me. "Let me just try to calm it down." She inches even closer until she's about a foot away from me. "Hey there," she says quietly. "Are you okay? Let me..." Hurts, I think that's what the other one called her, reaches forward with her foreleg and tries to come closer. I back up a bit. "See?" she says. "It's just scared."

But a frightened animal is dangerous.

I know this is probably a bad idea, but I've seen enough news shows to know this may work. I throw my arms around the mare's neck and bring her close to my body, turning her around so that her back is against my stomach. I stand quickly and bring her up with me and put her in a headlock. She squeals and the two guards in front of my raise their spears to my face.

"Stop, stop!" Hurts shouts. "Don't move!" I move back and dig the new-found crystals on my left forearm into her neck. "Don't do anything rash!" she shouts at the guards. "Just let it do what it's doing..."

I slowly back up against the wall with the mare in my arms, and all four of the guards step in line to block my front path. I look to the left, then the right, trying to decide where to run at this T-junction. I begin to move towards the left exit in a slow crawling pace. "Don't do anything," the mare says to the guards. They look at one another, then back at me. I continue to walk backwards with Hurts in my grip until I'm about twenty feet ahead of the guards, and then I push the mare forward and cheese it.

My bare feet push me further into the depths of this... building. As I run, I constantly scan for a way out that- I stop myself from running and stare at my obvious option. I look around and end up ripping a torch, bloody Hell, a torch, from the wall and throw it at one of the many stained glass windows. It shatters nice and loudly and I rush over to the jagged opening and grab the ledge. My hands are bleeding from the broken glass, but I don't care. I'm almost out!

Until I see that the window led to open sky with no ground in sight...

I lean forward and look all around, up, down, left, right, the works. I see that I'm in some sort of a large stone building. I can't see any details from here, just that its really big. Apparently it's been built into the side of a cliff too, because of the missing ground below.

More hooves echo through the hall. My time is up. I begin running again.

~ ~ ~ ~ ———— ~ ~ ~ ~

My panting sounds ridiculously loud in the silence that surrounds me. After running for so long without stopping, my heart is pounding, my blood pressure through the roof, and my feet are aching. I've finally found solace in a dark room in one of the far halls. Multiple times I've heard those armored horses run past my room, but so far I've remained undetected. Good thing too, I'm not sure if I can run anymore. My adrenaline rush is done, and I can feel the fatigue seeping back into my body.

My heart beat begins to slow, my pants getting quieter with every breath, and my mind is clear. I'm seventeen, a great student, a simple kid, and I'm stuck running for my life in some strange unknown place with armed talking horses after me. I don't really know what to do now. I'm lost in this place. It's too big. It's too much...

I pull my knees to my chest, rest my forehead on them, and begin to cry.

I sit there against the door frame and weep for a few minutes, trying to keep quiet. I don't want to alert any passing guards to my presence, but it's so hard to hold in a sob. I let a few more out before trying to hold them in again, and then sob harder when I'm reminded that I've turned into some sort of freak when I try to wipe my eyes with my hand and scratch my face with the crystals on my arm. I quiet down after a bit more crying.

But it was already enough. The door next to me squeals on old hinges as it opens, and I snap my head up and look. Another pony is there in the doorway, staring at me. But this one isn't wearing armor, or holding a spear. It's just clothed in its purple fur, that's it. It has an unusual mane and tail, both a deep dark violet with stripes of light pink and purple that match its eyes. This one is very different though; it has a horn and wings.

I don't really care what it is. I stand up and push past the thing and begin running again. At the next T-junction I turn left, then right, then left again. The hall I'm in now is long, so long that I can't see the other end clearly. I sniff, wipe my face, and keep running.

Only to skid on my heels trying to stop when three armed guard ponies come into view and block my path. "Oh, fuck me."

"We have it in our sights!" one of them calls out.

I turn tail and begin running the other way, but now there are two guards behind me. I'm cornered. I feel like crying again. "...Fuck me sideways..." Looking back and forth as they close in, my ears begin to ring, my throat goes dry, and my legs cramp up. So this is it, this is where I die... But I don't want to die. I'm not ready yet. Not by a long shot. I'm weak, tired, scared, and defenseless, but that doesn't mean I can't fight!

The guards circle me now, staying about seven feet away from me. One of them holds a pair of shackles in its mouth from the chain, an actual pair of shackles, like from the times with dungeons and castles and whatnot. They all get closer, and closer... The one with shackles steps forward and I put up my fists to defend myself, even though my hands hurt from the broken glass of my fail escape route earlier. I throw a punch at the guard, which it easily ducks against, and that sparks the anarchy.

Two other guards tackle me to the ground and begin to wrestle me into submission. He tries to hold my arms back while the other grips at my legs, tearing the left pant leg of my burnt jeans off above the knee. I struggle to my back and wildly thrash my arms, smacking one of them in the side of the face with my crystalline forearm. It recoils and another steps up to take its place. I knock the other off of my and get to my feet throwing my arms in random directions. I never really knew how to fight.

And I think because of that, I didn't get too far. The last guard steps up and swings its spear at me. The blade catches me square in the forehead, cutting me deep. Blood rushes from the wound and stuns me enough for the others to tackle me again. I fall forward and smack my face on the floor, and I feel blood pour from my nose as it squishes against the cold stone. I yell out as the guards pin me down and pull my arms behind me. And then the feeling of cold metal around my wrists right below the crystals on my arms. I struggle and thrash as they pull me back up to a sitting position, and one of them backhands me. The fight leaves my soul. I know I'm beat.

I lean forward and let the blood ooze from my face and onto the ground in front of me. I see streams of crimson stain my chest and it speckles my jeans. I'm a bloody mess, beat up by a bunch of ponies.

One of them huffs. "Put it in a holding cell," one of them says. "I don't want a repeat of this..."

The others nod. They pick me up, or force me up, and keep me at spearpoint. Slowly, I walk with them down this long hallway, certain I'm going to perish within these walls. I hang my head low as the blood drips from my chin in a slow manner. If I'm going to die, I may as well make as much of a mess as possible. But in the end... It's a useless effort. I've had a good, if not short, run in life. I sniff as we continue down the hall, then hack the blood from my mouth as an empty threat to the guards. They ignore it as we walk to my "cell," as they said.

What kind of world have I been brought to?