That's The Night The Lights Went Out In Canterlot

After that, Reggie was left alone for at least once full sleep cycle, which to the best of his estimate, was a night.

He woke up for some unknown reason. A little while after he woke, he heard the door open again.

“How are you feeling?” the person asked. It was the very first person he had met in the hospital. Reggie didn’t really like the idea of having any visitors, especially what crazy shit culture that would kidnap a random person from the middle of Nowhere, in the middle of Kansas, in the middle of the United States. But this guy treated him nicely, and Reggie was just too worn out from worry about his situation and the horror of his blindness.

“The headache’s not as bad,” Reggie admitted. “The rest—well, I don’t know. I can expect to get dragged out of here any moment to have my head chopped off. Or shot. Or whatever other manner of attitude adjustment that passes as such in your version of a civilized society.”

“You don’t have to worry about anything like that,” the guy countered.

“Except, I’m pretty certain I royally pissed off your princesses yesterday,” Reggie said, grinning. “I guess it was yesterday, wasn’t it?”

“Um-hmm.”

“So, I’m seriously trying to think of something that will top the shit I said to them for when they come to take me away. Please be so kind as to pass the word to my folks about my last act of defiance.”

“Where is your family?” he asked.

“The Pine family, Paul and Amelia Pine,” Reggie told him. “They live in Granville, Kansas, in the States.”

“Sorry, but I’ve never heard of it,” the other guy said.

“Well, Granville’s not very big,” Reggie said, laughing. “Neither’s Kansas for that matter, even with all the thousand of square miles it covers.”

“Uh-huh….So what are the ‘States’? States of what?”

Reggie blinked.

“The United States of America?” Reggie suggested. The response was long in coming.

“What’s that?”

“Whoa! And you people complain we don’t teach world geography in our country,” Reggie muttered sadly shaking his head.

“Anyhow, would you like something to eat?” the hospital staffer asked.

“Can you get anything from Mickey Dee’s?”

“What’s that?”

Reggie hung his head in defeat.

“Okay, what do you have?” he finally asked.

“We’ve got alfalfa burgers with hay fries, daffodil sandwiches, cucumber and tulip salad, carrot and rose salad,” the guy began. The list went on like that for a while, and Reggie listened in disbelief as he continued. Finally, Reggie caught one “normal” sounding item and pounced.

“I’ll just have the orange juice, please,” he said. “Make it a pitcher. My mouth is feeling pretty parched.”

“Of course,” the staffer said. “You’ve pretty much been out of it for a few days and they have you on IV fluids, but you still need to drink something to keep your mouth moist.”

“Sure,” Reggie replied, suddenly feeling the need to squirm. He hated needles, and only now realized the squicky feeling that had been present in his legs the whole time. Why didn’t they do it in my arms like everybody else? he wondered.

“Uh, now that I’m awake, are the IVs really necessary?” Reggie asked.

“I’ll check with the doctor to see what he says,” the guy said, leaving.

A little while later, he returned with the doctor in tow.

“Good morning. Greenleaf tells me that you’re ready to have your IVs removed,” the doctor said.

“Yeah, thanks,” Reggie said as they went to work removing the needles. He had to admit, the work was very professional, and he barely felt any discomfort.

“And your headaches are reduced?”

“I still get some spasms at times, but they’re not as bad as yesterday,” Reggie said. He was shocked when they started removing the restraints on his arms and legs.

“Uh—do—do your authorities know you’re untying me?” Reggie nervously asked.

“Indeed we do,” Celestia said from the doorway.

“Huh! Hey, uh, Greenleaf?” Reggie asked.

“Yes?” the hospital staffer inquired.

“Remember that conversation we had earlier about last acts of defiance? Looks like I’m going to be ‘shot while escaping’, so…” Reggie finished with flipping Celestia the bird from both hands.

“Luna and I are here to apologize for how you’ve been treated,” Celestia told him, taking Reggie completely by surprise.

“Yes. We are deeply sorry for thy injuries,” Luna added. “We hath instructed our healers to research and assist you in every possible manner to restore thy sight.”

“Doctor Splint, please be sure to see to this patient’s wellbeing,” Celestia instructed. “In the meantime, we have brought a friend of ours in order to assist you to get around as best we can. Her name is Fluttershy.”

“He-hello,” a very soft feminine voice spoke up. “I—I—I understand y-you have l-lost your sight. I’m so sorry. P-please let me help you, if—if y-you don’t m-mind, that is.”

“Yeah—yeah, sure,” Reggie responded, stunned by the sudden change in his situation. “I just need to—“

Suddenly, he got that squicky feeling all over again. As he shifted about in bed to get ready to stand, he came to the shocking realization that he didn’t have any clothes. Not a stitch! They hadn’t even bothered to give him a hospital gown!

The restraints that had been on his arms and legs had prevented him from discovering this fact earlier. And while he was almost willing to display his all to these “princesses” who had given him such a hard time, this newcomer sounded so nervous and meek that he suspected she’d likely faint if he stood up right now. He had to clutch at his bed sheet with his left hand to keep some decorum of modesty while he sat on the right side edge of the bed and supported himself with his right arm.

“Uh—I’d like to get dressed, if that’s alright with everyone,” he told them. “For that, I’m going to need my clothes, if they’re still in existence?”

“Of course,” the doctor said. Reggie felt something brush against his right arm and settle on the bed. Reggie felt for the object and discovered it was a pile of folded clothes setting on top of his shoes, and he felt his medallion among the fabrics.

“Thank you,” he said.

“And—uh—some privacy, please?” he added when it was clear no one was leaving the room.

“Of course,” Celestia muttered. There were the sounds of people leaving the room and the door closed leaving him in silence.

Disappointed to miss the show, no doubt, Reggie thought as he stood up and sorted through the clothes to identify and selected his underwear. And what sort of hospital doesn’t bother giving a patient any gowns? Especially any in the Middle East? Where a Western man and their women would encounter each other? Then he stopped in the act of putting on his briefs.

No. Not disappointed. She sounded—puzzled, he reconsidered.

After finishing getting dressed, Reggie carefully navigated to where his mind told him the door was with respect to the bed, using his feet to sweep the path for anything before taking a step forward and repeated the process. He silently cheered when he had run into no obstacles along the way. He opened the door and stepped through, expecting to encounter the princesses and the others.

“Hello,” he greeted. “I suppose I’m ready.” He felt a presence move up beside him from the left.

“On behalf of my sister, please allow us to formally welcome thee to Equestria,” Luna said, enveloping him with a cloak over his shoulder and an arm across his belly to hug him. “May the remainder of thy stay be without any further strife or suffering.”

Reggie puzzled at how she held him. His right hand felt at her arm while his left reached up to touch the cloak over his shoulder.

Feathers? Fur? he wondered. And there was something very odd about her arm. He moved his right hand down, feeling bone segments and joints that shouldn’t be there as he moved toward her hand.

“Pr-Pr-Princess Luna!” the newcomer named Fluttershy suddenly called out. “D-d-don’t do that!”

His hand found her hand—only it wasn’t a hand! It was a hard, solid boney mass that felt like a hoof!

What the fuck? he thought, snapping his head about, wishing he could see this “princess”. He quickly reversed his right hand’s direction and followed her arm up toward its source. Again, there were those wrong bone segments and joints.

“Hmm?” Luna questioned as his right hand reached a large body part that his mind couldn’t identify. Logically, it should be her chest, but it was at the level of his waist. Instantly, he followed it up, searching for her face. From the sound of her voice, her head should be nearly level with his shoulders, but if this was her chest, then she shouldn’t even be three feet tall!

“PRINCESS LUNA! LET HIM GO!” Fluttershy screamed.

Reggie added his left hand to searching the mystery that was forming from his examination of Princess Luna. His hands found a thick body segment rising up from the pseudo chest that reached what felt like a jaw, but if that was her neck, it was impossibly long!

“STOP IT! PRINCESS LUNA! LET HIM GO! LET HIM GO, NOW!” Fluttershy screamed.

He found a mouth, a very wide nose, a snout, a pair of long, swivel-type ears, a—spike?!? At the same time, his left hand swept back down and followed the pseudo neck to the pseudo chest and moved toward her back, only to find the root of a feathered wing! The same feathered thing that was wrapped about him!

That was enough!

He was suddenly bouncing off of objects in a mad scramble to get away. His mind had shut down all reason by now and it was time to just fucking run! Only he ran out of space to run through. There was a wall in his way. The wall ended in a corner. There was something keeping him from going any further, but voices pursued him. He couldn’t get away and crying, he fell in the corner, his back to the wall.

He sat there for an unknown amount of time before his mind began to reboot. Something was just out of reach trying to speak to him. Finally, he was able to make out what was being said.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. Nopony is going to hurt you. Please don’t be afraid,” the thing was saying to him.

“What—?”

“Please, let me help you. We’re not going to hurt you,” the creature that called itself Fluttershy said.

“What—The—?”

“It’s alright. Don’t worry. We’re going to take good care of you. Please don’t be afraid,” the monster spoke!

“What—The—FUCK ARE YOU MONSTERS!?” he screamed.

“We’re not monsters,” the impossible beastreplied. “We’re ponies.”