Rebirth

“Twilight.” I say. “Set me down.”

“No.” Twilight replies.

"Twilight." I say with more force. "Come on."

"No."

"You're being worse than my mother was."

"Then your mother wasn't hard enough to you."

I sigh. I'm not going to be able to stop her from this. "For fuck's sake, Twilight. Seriously. Let me go."

"If I drop you right now, you won't be able to move." She replies.

That's actually a pretty good point. "So take me back home."

"No." Twilight replies.

"Alright, fuck it. I'll go. You're picking me back up when I'm done, though." I say. She looks at me with a confused expression. "Do you expect my legs to work perfectly after the first day?" I explain. There's a bit more to the explanation that I'm not going to tell her. The first thing I do when my legs work is kick her ass. I'm not even going to walk before then.

"Good point. I'll pick you up in a few hours." Twilight says. "I hope you make some friends there." She says with a giggle. I give her a soft glare. "I feel like somepony's mother bringing her filly to their first day of school." She explains. I don't reply. Twilight looks at me expectantly. "It's a joke."

I snort. "Hardly."

Twilight glares and continues to walk. She remains silent for the rest of the brief trip to the hospital. The doctor inside, who happens to be a winged mare, looks up at the sight of a Princess carrying a human with magic. Aside from her, the room is devoid of ponies. "Um... Can I help you two?" She asks with an enthusiastic voice. I can tell she's trying to fight off the confusion.

Twilight clears her throat. "Mark here needs physical therapy for his legs." She says. She starts telling the doctor the story of my legs, though skipping the part with the cockatrice. "His legs aren't circulating blood properly and are stuck in this position. Can you help him?"

"Of course we can help him." The doctor says. She gives me a smile. I return it. She drops her smile and quickly whispers something to Twilight, who shakes her head after. The doctor lets out a sigh of relief. "Then we will help him, too."

"Thank you." Twilight says. "Where do you want me to put him?" She asks. I hate how she's treating me like I'm some sort of fucking item. I need to kick her ass later. Saying something wouldn't help me out at all.

"Follow me, Princess." The doctor replies. She walks down a hall and into another room. Inside the room is a bathtub. Next to that is some sort of wheelchair. It looks like one from Earth, but longer. "Set him down on here." Twilight does as the doctor says. "We'll take care of him, Princess. You don't need to worry."

"Thank you." Twilight says. "I'll be back to pick him up in a few hours." She heads out of the building.

I look at the doctor. "How are you going to help me get my legs back to working condition?"

"A series of experiments." She replies.

"So you're just going to... Fuck around with my legs?"

The doctor giggles at that. "Not at all. We know exactly what we're going to do." She says. I feel a shiver run down my spine. I don't like the way she said that. "First, you're going to have to take a hot bath."

"Do I smell bad or something?"

"No. Well, yes, but that's not the point." She replies with a smile. "The heat will help your legs. Princess Twilight did say your legs didn't have a lot of blood circulation. Hot water helps with that."

It does? I haven't heard anything about that. Of course, I never really cared for science or anatomy. "You're the doctor."

"Technically, I'm just a nurse at the moment. I'll bring the doctor in." She says before heading out. A few minutes later, an older mare walks in.

She grunts. "You can't take a bath with clothes on." She says. Unlike the previous mare, there's not even a hint of a smile on her face.

“You’re not worried to see me naked?” I ask the doctor.

She looks me in the eyes. She looks half asleep. “I’ll have you know that I’ve seen a lot of penises. A lot. I’ve worked here for only eight years, but I’ve seen enough penises that I could claim I’ve worked here for a lifetime. Half of the stallions that have came here tried to… Well, fuck me.” She groans. “So, no. I’m not worried.”

I blink. I wasn’t expecting that. “A simple no would have worked.”

“Whatever.” She exhales through her nose. "Now, get your clothes off and get in the bathtub, please."

If she was a human, I'd find that order to be incredibly sexy. But she's not, so I don't. I do as she asks. The doctor doesn't change expressions even as I remove my clothes. She does, however, look slightly impressed that I'm flexible enough to remove my shoes without having to bend my knees.

I crawl into the bathtub from my wheelchair with difficulty. The water inside the bathtub is hot. It's not warm. It's hot. I almost feel like these ponies are going to eat me, like they're cannibals in some old cartoon. Thank Celestia they only eat hay.

"How long do you want me to stay in here?" I ask the doctor.

She pulls her head away and tilts it slightly. I don't know why she's doing that. "You're a lot bigger than anypony. I'd say about two hours." She answers and heads out of the room. She closes the door on her way out. She didn't even allow me to ask how the bath water is going to stay hot for two hours.

I groan loudly. Two hours of just sitting. I really should have brought my iPod.

The two hours pass by painfully slowly. Of all the boring times I've had in my life, the two hour long bath is easily in my top three most boring moments ever. During that time, I noticed that the water never changed temperature. It didn't cool down at all. I have no idea how, though. Probably something to do with magic? It's the only thing I can think of.

The door of the room opens, exposing the older doctor, who has a towel, and Twilight to my vision. I notice a blush on Twilight's face. The doctor's expression hasn't changed from before yet.

"Time for you to come home." Twilight says.

It's about fucking time. I never should've left. "Help me get out of here." I command. Twilight's horn lights up. I do too. "I said 'help me,' not do it for me. Don't use your magic on me."

"Sorry." Twilight says before killing the magic. The two ponies do their best to pull me out of the bathtub. With Twilight looking away in hopes of not seeing my dick, it's very difficult for them. The doctor doesn't seem to care, though. They put me in the wheelchair and the doctor, with my help, dries me off with the towel Twilight brought. I put my clothes back on. My pants aren't even remotely comfortable. I feel like my legs are numb. It's probably just the denim that's fucking with my legs.

"Alright, take me home, Twilight." I say.

Twilight, with a deep breath, turns around to face me. Without a word, she pushes the wheelchair out of the hospital and to my home. She fortunately doesn't use her magic.

She stops at my door. "You know, Mark... You weren't being very nice to me back there."

"I know." I reply. "At least I didn't force someone to go somewhere they didn't want to go."

"I'm sorry about that." Twilight says piteously.

"Honestly, Twilight, I don't give a fuck if you had good intentions or not. You forced me to go, and that's what I'm pissed off about." I tell her. She hangs her head. "Don't get me wrong, Twilight. We're still friends. If you force me to go somewhere like that, I might have to change that fact."

Twilight doesn't reply for a while. I don't know if she heard the last couple of sentences or not. I kind of don't care. "I'll... I'll just be on my way." She walks off with her head still hung low. I move inside. I don't feel any regret.

Hours pass by. I spend them finally listening to music. A knock on the door interrupts me. I take my headphones off. “It’s open!” I shout so whoever behind it can hear me.

The door opens and I look at it. At the door is none other than Princess Luna. “Hello, Mark.” She says and steps inside. She closes the door with her magic.

I look for something to say. “Uh… Hi.” I say after fumbling around in my mind. I’ve always had a way with words. “Is… Something going on?”

“Nothing special, in particular.” Princess Luna replies. “I simply wished to check up on you.” She gives me a faint smile. “Do I need to remind you of what I did to your hand?” She points her horn at the hand I burned a while ago. It’s still wrapped up, not that it’s still injured. I just don’t want anypony to worry about the scars.

“Oh, yeah. I remember.” I say. “What about it?”

“Well… I fear the magic I used on it is conflicting with your recent injuries.” She looks at my legs. I see worry in her eyes.

I rub my neck. “Yeah… How did you hear about that?”

“Twilight sent me a letter.” She replies simply.

I suppress a groan. "Oh." I say, successfully fighting back audible frustration at Twilight. "Why do you think that?"

Luna just looks at the floor. "It's happened before."

Oh shit. "If something bad's going to happen to me, tell me now." I say to her. "If I'm going to lose my legs or be paralyzed forever, I want to know."

She lifts her head back up. "I doubt anything that bad is going to happen to you. At least it didn't happen to that poor pony." Luna says.

"Is this a story you're going to tell me?"

Luna shakes her head. "Not at the moment."

I lean back and rub my head. I guess that's a good thing. "So... Why do you think my body's going to react to the spells?"

"I heard from Twilight that you were naturally resistant to magic, so I used a bit more than I’d give to a normal pony.”

I rub my chin. Normally, I'd ask how much magic she used. I still don't know a damn thing about magic here. "Thanks for telling me, Luna."

Luna nods with an adorable smile. "If you ever wish for more information, don't hesitate to ask."

"Thanks again, Luna. I owe you."

She takes a step forward. "I know a way you can pay me." She says with a flirtatious smile.

Holy. Fuck. "Um... Luna?"

She places her front hooves on my couch, both flanking my hips. She leans her head in. I close my eyes.

The next thing I know, her hooves are around my shoulders. I feel Luna's head next to my ear.

My eyes open. I look around. Luna's hugging me. Well then. She pulls away from me. "Hey Luna?" I ask. She looks me in the eyes. "Can you spare some time?" I ask. "There isn't a lot to do around here, admittedly. I've got a bit of wine." I look over to the cooler Twilight built for me.

Luna looks at it. I watch her face as a smile grows on it. The smile falls after a second. "As much as I wish I could, I have to decline." Luna turns around towards the door. "I must go now. Goodbye, Mark."

"Bye, Luna." I say. I can hear defeat in my words. I'm sure Luna does too. I look away from the door. The Princess opens my door.

"You have another guest." Luna says. I look back at her. Rarity's at the door.

"Come on in, Rarity." I say. She does. Rarity says hi to Luna as she leaves.

Rarity looks behind her. "Might I ask why Princess Luna was here for you?"

I stretch my body. "She just wanted to check up on me." I start telling Rarity the brief story of why Luna was here.

Rarity nods. "I see." She says. I'm starting to notice how similar her voice and Luna's voice are. It's eerie. It's almost like they're the same pony.

"Are you here to check up on me, too?" I ask.

Rarity nods. "Of course I am. I've heard of both of your injuries, and I'm terribly sorry about them. If there's anything I can do for you, please, don't hesitate to ask me."

I look down at my legs, then back to Rarity. "Could you make me a few new pairs of pants? Something out of a different material? The denim’s just bothering my legs.” I explain to her. "I think silk is good? I'm not an expert on clothing materials. You would know better than I do."

Rarity puts on a smile. "I can, and I will. There's no need for you to pay for it."

"I'm going to pay for it." I say forcefully. "And don't give me that 'anything for a friend' speech. I'm going to pay for your work. You put effort into your clothes. Paying you money isn't the least I can do, but it's the least I'm going to do."

She shrugs. "If you're so insistent, I won't stop you." She says. "You seem awfully adamant about it. More so than usual. Did something happen to you?"

I don't know what adamant means. I've heard of adamantium. If adamant's anything like adamantium, it's a compliment. "I did just have a pretty bad argument with Twilight not too long ago." I admit to Rarity. I didn't even intend to say that. Now that I have, I've set myself down a path I can't go off of, so I continue going. I explain to Rarity the causes of the argument. I force myself to add in that Twilight and I are still friends.

"I'll have to have a word or two to Twilight about this, then." Rarity says after a brief silence. "Friendship is magic, as Twilight says, but it's not always permanent. I do wish it was."

I sigh and hang my head. "Me too, Rarity. Me too."