Author's Note

Hey, a top-sided Author's Note! Now how about that?
Sorry about the wait, I got a new tablet as a get-well-gift from my brothers and completely forgot my obligations to you as an author. I'll get back to work.

Also, as a side note; I just found out about this band named "Fade" and this singer "Billy Joel." If I didn't have a girlfriend right now, I'd think I was in love. He makes me appreciate the english language even more...

Chapter 7: Regal Needs and Submissive Actions

I wake up, feeling decent. My back is a bit stiff because I didn't move the pillow from behind me last night, but other than that, I'm feeling pretty good. I open my eyes and sit up, noticing that I had slept in my poncho. Not that it really matters; the sheet kept me warm enough last night. Speaking of being warm enough...

I look over at the bathroom door. The blanket is still wrapped around Silver Star's sleeping form. I don't know what time it is, but I apparently wake up earlier than the guards. Either that, or Silver Star is lazier than I am, which still wouldn't be very lazy as I don't particularly care for standing around and doing nothing. But, the reasoning of laziness aside, I find it a little odd that she's still asleep. If every living thing in this castle perceives me as a threat, then why is she so calm around me? ...Calm is the wrong word. Why is she so unintimidated by me? Aside from Celestia and Twilight, Silver Star seems to be the only one who, bluntly stated, doesn't give a rat's ass about me or what I can do.

And speaking of Celestia... I need to talk to her. And speaking of speaking of, I need to re-word my thoughts better. I don't like repetitiveness, even in my head. It sounds unprofessional.

Anyhoo, with my goal fresh in mind, I swing my legs over the side of the bed and touch down on the soft carpet. I force myself to stand and stretch, popping my back and shoulders in multiple places. At the end of my stretch I raise my arms up over my head, which is a bad idea, seeing as how the gems on my forearms clink together in a painful manner. Quickly recovering, I bring my arms down and rub the gems, my touch soothing the crystalline structures. Weird, these things have nerves. I'll dissect them when I get home, with real hospitals, and human staff.

Getting back to my goal, I walk over to the door and softly knock. It opens almost immediately.

"Can we be of service?" speaks the guards in unison.

"Yes, I'd like to speak with Princess Celestia," I ask calmly.

Whispering ensues. "... We'll speak to her. We'll get back to you on your request."

"Alright, thanks." I close the door and return to my bed. Flopping down on it as unceremoniously as possible, I moan into my pillow. Actually, now that I think about it, the wait is to be expected. After all, I'm... uh... I guess I'm what they would call a political prisoner.

"You probably won't be getting that request for a while." I look over at the bathroom door, where Silver Star is sitting up and yawning. "...Mehm... As part of her work force, I know her schedule. And you aren't gonna be able to do diddley sqaut until she gets back."

"Back?" I ask. "Back from where?"

"She's gone to a meeting with some other rulers of other continents." Silver Star wads her blanket up and throws it at me. "Her sister, Princess Luna, will be taking over until she returns."

"When will that be?"

"A few days, maybe." She smirks. "You popping out of nowhere really put a spin on her to-do list."

"So I'm stuck here in this room with you for a few more days?" I throw my hands up. "Great, just great." I sulk a few moments more before grabbing the book off the nightstand. I open to the page I left off on last night and continue reading. "There wouldn't be a chance I could speak to Princess Luna instead, would there?"

"Not likely," Silver replies.

I roll my eyes and continue my reading.

Time passes slowly when you know someone is watching you, but based on the amount of light beaming through the windows and the fact that the guards outside delivered my breakfast, I'd say it's about ten a.m. I'm casually munching on a pear, trying to be careful not to drip any juice on myself or my book, and thinking about what I am going to say to Celestia when she returns. I sneak another glance at Sliver Star, who's been eyeing me the whole morning.

"...If you're hungry, then just say so," I state a bit louder than I should have. Before she can respond, I toss a green apple towards her. It stops in midair and gently floats to her feet. "You're welcome."

"You don't have—" Star begins, but I cut her off.

"Oh blah blah blah. How much longer are you going to be here? Locked in my room, I mean."

"Like my commanding officer said; until we make up."

I put my book down. "Are you serious?" I look at the door. "Okay then... I forgive you."

"For what?" she asks.

My mouth hangs open at her. "...For being a crazy bi—For assaulting my mind with that ludicrous telepathy of yours."

Silver turns her head. "I was just doing my job."

"You went overboard."

"It was just."

"I was physically sick."

"No, you weren't."

"Almost."

"Almost is still no."

I grunt. "Whatever. Just go and let the other guards know we "made up," I say using my fingers as literal qoutes, "so you can go back to work."

"Being your nanny is my job," Silver states plainly.

I sit up and look at her. "...You can be a serious pain in the ass, you know that?"

She scowls at me. "Same to you, you little ingrate."

"Ingrate?" I throw my arms up and gesture to the room around me. "I may be a damned prisoner here, but this is very hospitable. This is much better than any jail at home. And even though the food doesn't have much variety, it's still healthy, clean, and damn-well tasty. I may be here against my will, but I still appreciate the fact that Celestia is still treating me like a human being, not some animal."

Silver cocks her head at me. "What?"

"Maybe that wasn't the best choice of words," I say quietly. "I meant; Celestia shows a decent amount of humanity, no wait... integrity? Is that the right word? Whatever. She treats me like a guest, not a prisoner... Sort of."

The mare rolls her eyes. "Whatever you say."

I lay back down and begin reading again. "Just go tell them so you can leave."

Before she can even move, the doors open and the two guards stationed outside step in. "Garcia, come with us," they instruct at the same time. I open my mouth to object, but just sign and get out of bed. I don't even mark my place in my book, mostly because I didn't get very far, before tossing it over my shoulder onto the bed and walk over to the guards. Silver Star tags along for... reasons unknown. We walk in silence for a while, turning when needed, but its a pretty straightforward route.

I lean back and whisper to Silver Star, noticing that she somehow acquired her helmet again. "Where am I going?"

"Beats me," she replies. "Maybe you're being moved to another room."

As we walk, I start to hum a song I've been thinking about. A simple rhythm, but I can tell the guards don't like it when they look back at me. "Heh, sorry." This place may be full of color, but it's a real downer being here.

~ ~ ~ ~ ———— ~ ~ ~ ~

"If you guys wanted me to exercise, I could have stayed in my room and did a few pushups or something," I huffed as we continued down another endless hall. I don't know how long we've been walking, maybe forty minutes or so, but I tuckered myself out trying to keep up with the guards. They may be shorter than me, but they have a much larger stride. And don't get me wrong, I'm not unhealthy or anything, it's just that I was the type of guy who sat around gazing up at the sky most of my childhood, so my endurance is a little low when it comes to physical exertion.

"This has nothing to do with physical fitness, Garcia," both of the guards say simultaneously. We all pause as they stop and look at each other. Only one of them speaks this time. "We're almost there, anyway."

"Where are we going?" I ask.

The guards continue walking without answering. Silver Star just shrugs, I guess, her head lowered when I looked at her. Is thaT a shrug? It must be for these ponies. Anyway, she shrugs and walks forward, leaving me behind. And my thoughts go for a second. They are all in front of me, waiting for me to follow like an obedient pet. I could easily run the other way, get out of the castle with nothing but a spear in my ass.

"Hey, come on!" Silver yells back at me.

I hurry along, sulking at my behavior.

We turn another corner and my ears pick up on a lot of noises. Banging wood, hoofsteps, chirps, clattering metal, pinging glass, barks, and a few other sounds I can't really make out in the soft volley the hall is making. One of the two gaurds guiding me steps into a room, while the other positions himself outside the doorway. I walk into the room with Silver Star and hear a gleeful gasp.

"Ah, so you did bring it back, thank you."

"Princess Twilight's orders," states the guard.

I look over the gaurd and see the pale blue doctor pony with the black mane and tail who stitched up my head. I absent-mindedly run my fingers across the stitches on my forehead.

"Ah, so it seems to remember me," the doctor says happily. "And how are you doing today? Come by for a check-up, eh?" He grins like an idiot.

We make eye contact for a long time. After about a minute, I break the silence by leaning over to Silver Star and saying, "He doesn't know I can talk, does he?" I say this loud enough for the doctor to hear, but he doesn't really react. "Is he a real doctor?"

"Veternarian, actually," he says happily.

"You guys took me to a vet?" I ask in a slurred manner.

Silver Star blows a few hairs out of her face. "Doctors here know the anatomy of their patients. We don't know jack shit about you."

"Now, now Missy," the vet pony says sternly. "Let's watch our mouth in this office."

"Whatever," Silver replies.

I walk over and sit on the bed the vet is sitting next to. "So, uh," I stutter, "...What should I call you?" I ask the vet.

"Doctor Bytes," He says with a hoof outstretched.

I look around the room and wait a bit, but end up bumping my fist against his hoof. "Uh, I'm Maverick Garcia. Nice to truly meet you, I guess?"

"Let's get to work then, shall we?" Bytes says in his happy tone. "Robe please?"

"Huh?" I ask.

"Your robe, please?" he repeats.

"Oh, I get it." I slide my poncho off my head and fold it into a large triangle, then set it on the bed next to me. I wait for his next instruction.

"...Can you continue undressing?" he asks bluntly.

I look down at my boxers. "No."

"Fair enough." Bytes moves to the other side of the room for a moment.

I look at Silver Star. "You should take a lesson from this guy. He gets it."

"Gets what?" she says with a smile.

"Shut up."

All of a sudden, Doctor Bytes has my face in his hooves. He forces my head to move slowly. "Hm, nice healing. No visible infection. Stitches are grafting well. Redness and swelling are at a minimum." He backs away. "Your cut is doing very well."

I take his hooves from my face. "Next time, ask me before doing something like that." I take my jaw in both hands an turn violently to the left, cracking the vertibre in my neck. I repeat the process in the other direction, getting much louder pops this time. When I relax and open my eyes, I can see everyone's disgusted expression. "...What?"

"That was horrific," both the guards behind Silver Star say. "Abolutely grotesque."

Bytes returns to his desk, but scoots back to my side on an elevated wheeled stool with a pad in his hooves a moment later. He has with him a small sketch pad. I think he's drawing a diagram of me to document my being. After all, I am the first human in... whatever place this is apparently. Every few seconds, Doctor Bytes flips a page and asks me to hold up a limb and flex it so he can document how my joints move. After nearly half an hour, Bytes flips to a new page and asks me.

"Are you sure about—"

I shake my head. "I'm not taking my underwear off. Final answer."

Bytes flips the sketch pad closed and wheels himself back over to his desk. A second later, he returns to my side. "Arm out, please." I hold out my arm and he instantly wraps the pad around it. In matter of seconds he has me wrapped and is pumping some sort of ball. Oh, he's taking my blood pressure. "... One hundred over sixty. How does that sound to you?"

I open my mouth, thinking about anything I can remember from health class my freshman year. "...Um, I think that's a little low."

He unwraps my arm and spins around on his stool a few times. When he stops, he has a different tool in his forelegs. A stethescope this time. Bytes plugs it into his ears and leans forward, touching my bare chest with the cold tool. "...Healthy sounding pulse." He waits before speaking again. "Around... seventy beats per minute I suppose."

"That's normal," I answer.

The vet backs away and does his spinning trick again. This time he holds up a thick thermometer. I nod and open my mouth, which causes him to chuckle. "No, no, Mister Garcia. Other end."

My eyes widen. "...No."

"Mister Garcia, please le—"

"There is no way I'm letting you shove that thing up my ass. Get me an oral thermometer and we'll get down to business." I cross my arms, only to immediately uncross them and point at Silver Star as she snickers behind a hoof. "And you, shut it." I look back at Bytes. "Sorry Doc, no dice. Oral or nothing." More snickering. "Shut it!"

"You're so uptight!" Silver Star says while trying to control her chuckling. After a few seconds her eyes go wide and she starts hacking up a lung.

Now its my turn. "Ha! Looks like someone choked on their own spit!" I silently laugh, my chest puffing as I smile. Bytes come close and shoves something in my mouth, then backs away. An oral thermometer, like I had asked, or rather instructed. I nod. "Thah's morwe lwike ih."

"No talking," Doctor Bytes says quickly, his grin never leaving his face. "Keep that under your tongue for a few minutes."

"I nohw theh dwill," I mutter the best I can without the glass tube falling from my mouth.

"No talking," Bytes says again.

Silver tar smiles, obviously having recovered from her coughing fit. "You could take a lesson from this guy," she says smugly. I respond by flipping her off. I don't know how effective the gesture is in this world, seeing as how the ponies don't have fingers, but maybe monkeys or something with opposable thumbs have something similar.

We all sit in silnce for a short while. After some time, Bytes pulls the thermometer from my mouth and looks at it. For the first time, I see his smile falter. "Hm, a bit wierd." He looks at me, or more specifically the yellow gems on my arms and shoulders. "You are... a mammal, correct?" I nod. His smile returns, though its much smaller than before. "Let me get you a reptilian model."

"What's a rep—" I'm cut off as Doctor Bytes shoves a much larger thermometer into my mouth. It's big, about seven inches long and half an in thick. I feel stupid with this thing under my tongue. I rest my chin in my hand and wait.

Looking around, nothing is really any different from a human doctor's, er, veternarian's office. Supplies and tools on glass shelves, a small collection of kennels in the back of the room, charts and diagrams all over the walls. It feels weird to be here. Fuck, it all feels weird. The gaurds are talking to Silver Star, and I keep hearing something about a "report" of hers. Withher as my nanny, I guess she'll be reporting my actions every day.

Bytes removes the thick glass tube from my mouth. "...Hm, not very normal for a mammal."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

He holds up the thermometer. "...Your temperature is one-hundred and thirteen degrees Fahrinheit."

I smirk. "Sure it is. Humans can't survive if their internal temperature rises about one-hundred and seven. We're technically brain-dead then."

"Well, you are one-thirteen."

I stare at Bytes for a minute. Even the guards go quiet with their mumbling. "...What is the normal temperature for any mammal here? You ponies, seals, dogs, what is it?" I inquire.

Bytes looks back at his desk. "About ninety-nine degrees Fahrenheit."

I lean back. 'About the same as my world,' I think to myself. My attention turns to the crystalline growths on my forearms and shoulders. "...What about these things?" I ask bytes while holding out my arms. "These yellow things are brand new."

Bytes shrugs. "I've never seen a human before. Sorry, but I have no idea what those things may be doing to your body. But if they're new, we should keep you under observation."

"What do you think she's here?" I ask, pointing a finger at Silver Star.

You will see me here daily," Bytes states like he has all the power in the world. "Every day, at... How does one pm sound?" He doesn't wait for my answer. "Well, this concludes your checkup. You are in decent health, as far as I can tell," he mutters. "See you tomorrow then."

With that, the guards leave the room. Silver Star leaves as well. I get up to join them, but throw one more suspicious look at Bytes. He stands there with that stupid smile of his for a second longer before waving at me. I close the door and hurry to Silver Star's side, lest I incur the wrath of the guards for not doing so.