My Name is Matt

I slept, that night, incredibly well. Remembering the evening with Rainbow Dash warmed my heart, and with a smile, I got out of my bed in a treehouse in the town of Ponyville. I'd only been here for 3 days and I was already getting used to it. Peering out of the window, I already see happy ponies walking throughout the town, pegasi flying around, kids.. well, foals, playing in the town centre. The town was incredibly peaceful and happy, unlike any place on Earth I could recall. Everyone knew eachother, were nice to eachother, and it was a place I would love to stay in, and was happy to say that I did. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to say goodbye to anyone or anything before I was brought here, but the consolation for this was that I was in an incredible magical world.

Happily, I half-walked, half-flied down the stairs, taking large bounds over many steps at a time.

"Good morning, Matt! I see that Rainbow Dash has really improved on your flying. Very graceful.", shouted out a familiar voice from downstairs.

"Good morning, Twilight. And how are you?", I replied.

"I'm good. Sleep well? I got Spike to make us some pancakes seeing as Rainbow's going to be coming over soon."

"Yum. And yes, I did sleep well, thank you very much."

After a few minutes of us idly chatting, there was a knock on the door. Twilight walked over to it, and opening it, Rainbow was standing in the entrance. When she saw me, her face turned slightly red but she smiled and waved, nevertheless.

"Hello, Rainbow! How're you doing?", asked Twilight.

"I'm doing awesome, thanks, Twilight! Ready for some exercise, Matt?", she replied.

I chuckled. "As always."

"Alright, you two. Spike should be ready with some pancakes soon."

As if on command, Spike, the little dragon that was Twilight's assistant, as it were, walked out of the kitchen with two plates, stacked with pancakes, and went back in, coming out again with another two, one smaller than the other, I assumed for himself.

Twilight motioned towards a little table, and we all sat down with a plate of pancakes in front of us.

"Hey, Matt", said Spike. He still hadn't got completely used to my company but at least he was welcoming enough.

"Hey Spike, buddy. Thanks for the pancakes", I replied, not to be rude.

We all tucked in. As usual, the food was absolutely great. As was usual from where I was on Earth, I rolled up the first pancake with my fingers and got a knife and fork (which for some reason ponies had, I'd assume for Spike's claws, but what do I know) and ate smaller parts. The ponies were confused by this, but I was equally as curious about how they ate. Twilight rolled up and levitated the the pancakes with her magic. Rainbow Dash used her hooves to pick up the pancake, and used her other to fold over the pancake into a half, then bit into it. Interesting.

Anyway, after we were done eating, we left for the park.

"Okay, Matt, I need to see your physical abilities. First off, speed, both because after the stamina test it'll be hard to do this, and because Rainbow Dash wanted to do it", said Twilight, when we'd arrived. "What distance do you sprint in your world?"

"We run a hundred metres for sprints."

"Okay, good. I've closed off a rarely used street, just in case anypony walks on to it while you're running."

At the start of a street near the park, there was a glowing purple line. I could, with my adequate eyesight, see another a ways away, which I assumed was a hundred metres away. Twilight was levitating a stopwatch-type contraption near her face and Rainbow Dash was beside me on the starting line, for "comparison". I remembered doing the sprints in school, athletics was one of the only sports I was good at. From how Rainbow flew, I knew she'd be fast, but I'd never seen her running. Guess it would be found out soon.

"Three", said Twilight, counting down. "Two.. One.. GO!"

My late reactions not helping me out, Rainbow Dash was ahead within the first second, her 4 strong legs helping her acceleration greatly off of the starting line. Putting all my power into my own two legs, I chased after her. After around 5 seconds of running, I had built up enough speed to get into a full on sprint, catching up within the last stretch of the race. My legs were longer, and the strides I took outdid her constant run. Within the last ten or so meters, I was neck and neck with her. I sped up to my full potential, my legs burning in response, giving out a burst of speed that propelled me over the finish line just ahead of the rainbow pony.

Flopping over at the end of the street, I panted to myself as my legs regained full control and strength, them shaking slightly from the exertion. Rainbow, looking at me in a similar state, with a look that told me that she was impressed and found it funny at the same time. Twilight trotted over to the two of us, looking surprised.

"Well, Matt, I certainly didn't expect that humans could move so fast, with those two spindly legs of yours. You did 100 metres in just short of 11 seconds. Very impressive."

I flopped over onto my back, laughing. I'd never run that fast before.

"Wow, Matt, you got some powerful legs there. Let's hope being that fast doesn't carry over..", panted Rainbow.

At the sudden unexpected remark from Rainbow Dash, doubling over laughing.

"Not quite there yet, Rainbow", I chuckled, winking at her. Sweat dropped down my forehead from the exertion of the run, and as I watched it drip, I found that instead of it hitting the floor in a straight line, it curved toward my right hand. Moving the hand towards the slow drips, one slowed down nearer my hand and shot toward my palm. It tickled.

"Twilight, are you doing this?", I asked the purple pony.

"No, doing what? Celestia, what's happening?"

The liquid started turning a shade of azure blue and swirling around my hand like a tornado. Speeding up, I could feel a slight tingling all around my hand. I shook it, but nothing happened. Next thing I knew, my palm was completely numb. But not numb enough to stop the sheer pain of a thousand shards of lightning ripping through the exact center of my hand. The pain was indescribable, like nothing I'd ever felt before. I fell to my knees, wincing loudly. A deep scream tore through the air, and I turned my head to find the source, only to find it was my own voice. Red liquid of which I could only guess was blood dripped from my hand. I slowly slipped from consciousness. The last thing I saw was Rainbow Dash leaning over me with a worried expression, shaking me by the shoulders, and shouting. I couldn't hear anything. And then, everything was dark.

All I could hear were my thoughts swirling around in my head. Not like usual. Deprivation from my senses must have made my thinking capacity incredible, as I heard every single thing on my mind. It was loud. Trying to block out the sound, emerging through my thoughts like a knife through butter was a monotonous, drilling beeping.

Beep... Beep...

A muffled voice broke through.

"Twilight.. alive.. listen...". I got the feeling I wasn't hearing all there was to hear.

Beep.. Beep.. Beep..

"Listen.. Matt?". I tried to open my mouth to answer, but nothing happened.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Matt?". I wanted to scream, tell them I was okay.

Beep-beep. Beep-beep. Beep-beep.

I was worried now.

The voices had cleared up, though.

"Matt? Can you hear me?", it was Twilight. "His pulse.. too fast. We've got to wake him up."

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.

I started trying to move any part of my body that I could, shaking uncontrollably and trying to scream. Nothing.

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep!

"MATT! WAKE UP! PLEASE!". Rainbow. Thoughts flooded back. Feeling. A fuzzy warmth on my right arm. Smell. Like a hospital. Taste. Antibacterial. Ugh.

"MATT!"

Sight. Sight! My eyes flicked open violently, and I jerked up into an upright position, causing the seven ponies in the room to flinch back. I looked to my right, almost in a robotic fashion. Rainbow, Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were all standing by my hospital bed, from what I could see, along with another pony, white and dressed in red robes.

"What happened?!" I said, almost instinctively.

"Uh, Matt." Twilight spoke up. "Look at your hand."

I rose my right hand up to my face, and as my focus gained balance on it, I noticed something was off.

A blue.. symbol? Engraved on my palm.

想

Matt?