A Fallen Star

CHAPTER TWO: GETTING ACQUAINTED

“Nice to meet you!” As if she’d never heard of me. I am a wonderbolt for Pete’s sake. I didn’t have it in me to say anything else, so I did what I could and waved a hoof, trying to send her away. She didn’t acknowledge me. So I just closed my eyes, and went to sleep. No dreams haunted my sleep this time.

When I woke, there was another pony in the room, but they were talking in rather hushed tones. “You have a freakin’ wonderbolt!”

“I- I didn’t know…”

“How could you not know!” The other one sounded both angry and excited.

“I don’t know,” Fluttershy wasn’t meeting the strange pegasus’ eyes. The other one was blue, with a very odd mane, very colourful. She seemed familiar, but I was too tired at the time to identify her. I did something I regretted then. I talked.

“Hey.” They didn’t hear me. “Goddammit! Pay attention to me!” My voice cracked again, and half of it came out as a squeal, but both turned their heads, their eyes widened. In a flash the blue one was in my face.

“How are you doing? What happened to you? Are you hurting?” I couldn’t even move my head let alone answer all her questions, so instead I asked one of my own.

“Where?” Another one word sentence. Too much pain took hold of me when I attempted to talk.

“Huh?” She swept her head around to look at the other pony in confusion. This annoyed me partly because I caught a large part of her mane in my mouth. Trotting over, they again started talking in whispered tones. Why was I left out of all this? Wasn’t it about me? To this day I still don’t understand. They both came up to me this time. “My friend here, Fluttershy…” She sounded nervous talking to me. “She found you injured in the forest. This is her house.”

“Hospital?” I couldn’t help but wonder.

“Ask her.” My eyes flitted to the yellow pony.

“H-honestly… I just couldn’t c-carry you that far.” She seems to have trouble with eyes, never really looked in them that pony. She had a fitting name. I gave up with the conversation it was mostly one-sided any ways. I figured I’d find everything else out tomorrow. I closed my eyes, but I didn’t go to sleep, I just let my mind wander and wondered what the other bolts were doing without me.

My head was propped up again. This time the blue pony was here with the food. Oatmeal again. Still tasteless but filling. Where had I seen her before? I still couldn’t think clearly. I finished half of the oatmeal before closing my mouth to signify “no more” after which she gave me a cup of water, which I downed all of before going to sleep, leaving another boring day behind me.

I woke up screaming. Pain surged through my body. The same pain I had felt when I had first started falling, combined with the pain from when I had hit the ground. My whole body spasmed uncontrollably. Control of my lower half had been given back to me, but at the cost of this. I cried and arched my back, kicking one of my legs and propelling myself off the couch I had been on for so long. Again I passed out, but not before Fluttershy was before me, mouth agape as my eyes closed cutting off the tears flowing down my cheeks and bringing about unconsciousness once again.

When I woke, I could see the sun was going down out the window. I guessed it was the ninth or tenth day. I couldn’t tell. A dull pain racked my body, but at least I could move. I wasn’t in the couch anymore though. I had been moved to a bed that I guessed to be my hostess’. I called out, but my voice was still weak. “Fluttershy?” Again, it was as if she had been waiting for me to call her name. She appeared at the foot of the bed in a matter of seconds.

“What happened?” She thought I would be more clued in than her.

“Pain,” Another one word answer.

“Where? I already checked for bruises, sprains, broken bones. How can you be in pain?”

“Don’t know.” My throat was starting to hurt again. “Water?” She left and promptly returned with the same cup full of water I’d been drinking out of since my stay had begun. After taking a few sips, this time relieved that I was able to feed my self, even if it hurt, I asked another question. “Who was the…” I stopped for anther sip of water. “The other pony?”

“Hm?” A confused look crossed her face for a second before it lit up with remembrance. “That was Rainbow Dash.” The name hit me like a bullet and I let out a sharp exhalation.

“I know her.” I still couldn’t remember where from though. She walked out, leaving me alone and not bothering to respond. I could guess that conversation wasn’t her strong suit, but at that point, it really wasn’t mine either. I didn’t want to go to sleep. I had napped the whole day. So I just lay there thinking about the situation that had been thrust on me and what had really happened the day I crashed.

One time during the night I had been bored enough to try and get out of bed. It turned out to be a pretty bad idea. My legs almost instantly collapsed beneath me and I had to spend the rest of the night with my face buried in one of the carpets. Just my luck it was thin enough that it didn’t provide any comfort and when Fluttershy found me the next morning I stiff as a board and sore as ever. “What happened?” I don’t know why she kept asking that, but I was able to tell her this time.

“I tried. I tried to get up.”

“Bad idea huh?” She propped my body on top of her and with a groan, settled me back into the bed.

“Yeah…” Dipshit what does it look like? I naturally hate rhetorical questions, mainly because that’s just what they are, pointless. I couldn’t help but think she was still a bit stunted. In more ways than one. Granted I was also pretty sore from being cooped up for so long. Loosing control of my own life and putting it into a stranger’s hands. I didn’t know what to think. Anyways, she was kind, just… too kind sometimes. To the point where it annoyed the heck out of me. “Help me out of bed?” I wanted to go outside, but I knew I couldn’t do that. Maybe just a walk around the house. Fluttershy slowly got me out of the bed I had just been put into. Almost immediately my legs collapsed beneath me again, but this time, she caught me. I leaned on her side, draping a fore hoof across her to get my balance. “Couch?”

“Okay.” She sounded quiet but still we walked out the bedroom door, only to be confronted by something I was totally unprepared for. Stairs. I tried my best anyways; flexing my wings to see if flying down them would work. It didn’t. I let go of Fluttershy and flapped my wings as hard as I could. Of course halfway down, my body failed me and I landed on the stairs with a thud, rolling head over hooves until I reached the bottom, dazed. My caretaker was quick to join me. “Alright.”

“Yeah.” I rubbed my throbbing head. Changing my mind about the couch I asked yet another question. “How ‘bout the kitchen?” She propped me against herself once more, and I cold see that she had agreed. I was being led into a kitchen, which was conjoined with the living room. “Apples?” Celestia I missed apples. Oatmeal and grits for ten days straight. An apple would be a welcome reprieve from my usual gruel. She let go of me, letting me slide slowly to the floor, and dug around in a cabinet before bringing out a large, red delicious. I almost drooled. She handed it to me, passing it from her mouth to mine. I spat it out in my hooves and took a large bite. Still no taste. “So,” I looked up at her. “What’s your story?”