Rebirth

I remember being moved, but not for how long or in which direction.

My eyes focus on something white. It feels like the first time I met Epona. Am I meeting her again?

No. This is different. I know I have a body this time. It doesn’t feel like I do, though. It’s kind of like an out of body experience, but I’m still in my body. I feel like a radio stuck in between stations.

A sound echoes in my mind. It sounds like someone talking underwater. Am I dead?

The sound repeats, this time clearer. It sounds like a voice. The sound repeats a few more times until I can finally identify what it's saying.

"Mark?" The voice says. I know it’s not Epona. She always addresses me with my full name, at least so far. "Mark?"

I try to say something, but the only thing to come from me is a moan. I sounded like one of those cliche zombies. Am I undead?

"Mark!" The voice says again. I can tell it belongs to a mare. Rainbow Dash? I feel a sharp poke in the ribs. Yep. Rainbow Dash.

"Ow..." I manage to say.

After about ten minutes of waking up my body, I manage to sit up with help from Rainbow Dash. I realize that I'm in a hospital.

"Are you okay?" She asks me. I can tell she really means it unlike those people that ask just to seem nice.

"I've been better, honestly. I've also been worse." I say. The familiar feeling of dryness is in my throat. Fortunately, there's a glass of water on the nearby table. I drink it all without stopping. It’s extremely relieving. I could use another. "Sorry about that. I think I had a panic attack."

Rainbow Dash sits on a comfortable looking chair. She looked nervous. "...Was it about that song?"

I slowly nod. "Yeah. It's not your fault. It's just..." Oh, how do I explain this? It foreshadowed my death, to start.

She reached forward, cupping my hand in her hooves. Her hooves are warm, like a human's hand. I don't know if I should feel comfortable about it or creeped out. "You don't have to say."

I hold up my free hand to stop her. "Yes, I do." Oh, dammit. I've started and now I can't stop. Ugh. Alright, Mark, just choose a place to start. I should have chosen a better way to reveal my past. "You know that I'm not from Equestria, right?" Of course she does. I'm probably the only human in the kingdom, based off of what I heard the other ponies say. "I should say how I got here. You can let the other ponies know, since I couldn’t before."

I started to explain what happened to me, starting from when I brought Dana out of the bar. I keep spilling my guts about everything that happened to the point of my car crash in horrible detail. She’s visibly disturbed by it. I’m sure my face is the same as hers. I can tell she doesn't have any idea what most of what I said was, but she understood that I died in an accident. I don't tell her about Epona.

"That's..." She started to say. The pegasus was at a loss for words. "I... I'm so sorry about that. I wish I was there to help."

"Nah. Don't be sorry about accidents." I say, paraphrasing something Fluttershy said when we met. "There wasn't anything that anybody could have done. It just sort of...happened."

The pegasus lets go of my hand. I didn't realize that her hooves were so hot until the cold air of the hospital room surrounded my hand.

I decide to change the subject. "Did the doctor say how long I to be in here?"

Rainbow Dash looks up at me. "Hm? Oh, yeah. Just until you woke up. Longer if you didn't feel any better."

"I say we leave. It's really cold in here. It's probably because I don't have a coat." I say. "I mean, like fur. Not the jacket. Well, either would be nice. I just need more clothes."

"Then we should talk to Rarity." Rainbow Dash says.

I remove the blanket. Fortunately, my pants are still there. “Alright, let’s go. Besides, I haven’t had the chance to talk to Rarity much yet.” I move my legs off the bed and try to stand. My balance is terrible, so I sit back down. “Dammit. Okay, give me some time.” We wait a bit until my legs feel like working.

I follow Rainbow Dash to Carousel Boutique. I can tell why it’s called that, what with the carousel on top of the building. I figure I’ll see the boutique part of the name come into play inside.

“Want me to tell Rarity about… Y’know?” Rainbow asks me.

“You can if you want. I’d rather you do when I’m not around.”

Rainbow nods and moves to the door. Instead of knocking, she just flies in, literally. I get that this place is a store, but didn’t Rarity say she also lives here?

I push the thought from my mind and enter the building. As I expected, it looks like a boutique. There’s pony versions of mannequins everywhere, some with clothes and some without.

Rainbow practically slams her hoof on the bell at the counter. “Coming!” A voice from another room says in a singsong tone. Rarity walks out a second later. “Oh, hello Rainbow and Mark. I know Rainbow Dash enough to know this visit isn’t for her, correct?”

“Yep. Mark needs clothes.” Rainbow says.

“You two have come to the right place for that!” The smiling Rarity says in a chipper tone. “I’ll just need to take your measurements, Mark, and you’ll have to tell me which styles you prefer.”

“Any special place we need to go for it?” I ask.

“No. Just here will do.” A tape measure covered in a purple aura different from Twilight’s floats over to Rarity. The white unicorn starts to measure various parts of my body. “May I ask what you did in Canterlot while we were at the cafe?”

“I talked to Luna, as you know.” I say. “I did meet a prince, though. Not a nice guy at all. I think his name was Blueblood or something like that.”

Rarity briefly stops, then continues to measure me. “Oh… I met him last year at the Grand Galloping Gala.”

“The what?”

Rarity almost drops the tape measure. “You don’t know what the Grand Galloping Gala is? I get that you’re not from Equestria, but you don’t know what the Grand Galloping Gala is?” She looks shocked.

“No, what’s a gala?” Rarity sighs. Rainbow Dash laughs. “But seriously though, what’s a gala? I’ve never heard of one.”

“It’s a fancy dance.” Rainbow says, flying over to us. “Dresses, tuxes, and boring music everywhere.”

“Like classical music? On pianos and violins and stuff?”

“Exactly.” Rarity says. “Do you not like classical, Mark? From what Rainbow told me about your… device, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Eh, it’s not my favorite genre.” I rub the back of my head. My arm is quickly covered in magic and straightened out. “I like some of the instruments, though. The cello and violin are probably some of my favorite instruments after the guitar. I tried to play them before I came here. They’re not very easy, even with fingers. I can’t imagine how hard they are with hooves.

Rarity stops measuring. “How could you even play any instrument with fingers?” She sighs to herself. “The measurements are done. What sort of styles, patterns, and colors do you like?”

“I’m not too picky. I like denim jeans, like what I’m wearing.” I gesture to my pants. “I like to have a few pairs of them. As for shirts and other things go, I like plaid as a pattern. I’d like a few button-up plaid shirts.”

Rarity nods and writes that down in a notebook. She holds both the notebook and pencil in her magic. She catches me staring, but doesn’t seem to care, like she’s used to it. “Who designed your current clothes? They don’t fit you at all, size and appearance.”

I look down at my clothes. “I don’t know. They’re mass produced. I bought these in a store.”

“M-M-Mass produced?” She looks shocked and almost faints. “Dear Celestia, that must have been a nightmare for you! How do your clothes even fit? Is everypony the same size?”

“Yeah, mass produced. There’s different sizes.” I say, trying to make my voice as calm as possible. Maybe my emotions will rub off on Rarity? “Humans are different sizes. I’m pretty much average size for someone my age.”

Rainbow looks like she wants to change the subject. “How old are you?”

“I’m 23 years old. Humans live to around 80 on average. I’ve heard of people living up to 120.” I say. “So you’re stuck with me for a long time. How long to ponies live?”

“It’s different for every species.” Rarity says. "Earth ponies live to around 70. Pegasi to 60. Unicorns, fortunately, live for 90.”

“What about alicorns?”

She thinks about that. “I honestly don’t know. I’ve heard of alicorns dying, but never by natural causes. Celestia and Luna have lived for thousands of years.”

“And what about Twilight?” I ask.

“She’s around our age.” Rainbow says.

That would help me if I knew how old these mares are. If they’re anything like girls on Earth, which they are so far, they’d get pissed off if I asked their age.

“I work fast, but I absolutely cannot make an entire wardrobe in twenty minutes.” Rarity says after some time. It didn’t feel like twenty minutes to me. These two are surprisingly fun to talk to. “Especially for somepony with such an unusual body… No offense.”

“None taken. Just don’t call me ‘ape’. I’ve had enough call me that already.” I say.

Rarity scoffs. “Just because you walk on two legs doesn’t mean you’re an ape.”

“Tell that to Prince Dickface.”

Surprisingly, Rarity laughs at that. Unsurprisingly, Rainbow does too. “I’ll have to remember that next time I go to Canterlot. I’m not normally one to use profanity, but that? That is perfect for Blueblood. If I meet him, I’ll say it to his face.”

I smile at the thought. It quickly makes me laugh. I would pay to see it happen.

“Might I ask what songs you have on your device?” Rarity’s voice takes the thought away.

“Why don’t I just show you?” I hand her the headphones. She puts them on.

“You sure about this, Mark?” Rainbow asks. “I dunno if she’ll like most of what’s on there.”

I turn on the iPod. “There’s only one way to find out.”

I look at the screen and skip to a random song. “Ooh. I like that sound. This stallion has a great voice.” She says. After a second, she looks into my eyes with a smile on her face. “Did you choose this one on purpose?”

I look back to my iPod. White Unicorn by Wolfmother is playing. I can feel a blush form on my face. “N-No… It’s coincidence.”

“What song?” Rainbow swoops in, brutally murdering the moment. She looks at the screen. Then she starts laughing. “I totally bet that was on purpose!”

“I chose a random song!” I defend.

“How many songs do you have on there?”

“A little over 400.”

“And it chose the one that describes my appearance.” Rarity points out.

“Hey, there’s a band called Rainbow on here, but I’m not hearing her talk about it.” I gesture to the pegasus.

She crosses her front legs while still flying. That has to be difficult. “I didn’t hear anything by them when I listened to it.”

“White Unicorn isn’t the only song about horses that I have.” I look through my iPod and read off titles involving horses. “Horse With No Name, Four Horsemen, and…” I stop myself and look at the screen. There’s a song on here I don’t remember hearing. And the title…

“What?” Rainbow asks. “Are you okay?”

I look up at her. “Y-Yeah. There’s a song on here that I don’t remember adding. It surprised me.”

“What’s it called? Can you play it?” Rarity asks.

“Uh… It’s called…” I re-read the screen. “A Rose for E-Epona. I don’t know how to pronounce the band name. Eluveitie or something like that.” I start the song for Rarity. I run over how the song could have gotten onto my iPod. I had a Finnish friend that sometimes added songs onto this. Maybe he put A Rose for Epona on here. It’s a little unnerving how a song about the creature that talks to me in my sleep got onto my iPod without me knowing.

“That’s wonderful sounding. What instrument is that? It sounds very-- Oh.” She looks surprised and somewhat disappointed. “That got loud quickly.” She takes the headphones off.

Rainbow takes them and takes my iPod out of my hands. She restarts the song. “It’s good enough for me, Rarity. Listen to stuff that isn’t just violins and cellos.”

“I said I liked that first instrument! Do you know what it is, Mark?” She turns to me.

I take the headphones from Rainbow with some objection from her part. I restart the song. “I don’t know. Maybe bagpipes. It kind of sounds like them” I keep listening to the song. I know I didn’t add this song, but I silently thank whoever did.

After a few more minutes of talking, Rainbow Dash and I leave Carousel Boutique. It’s almost dark already, so Rainbow says goodbye for the day and flies off into the sky. I wonder why she does that. From what I’ve seen in Equestria, I wouldn’t be surprised if she lives in a house made of clouds. There’s probably even an entire city made of clouds up there.

I head to Fluttershy’s house. She’s probably already asleep by now, so I enter quietly.