A wilted rose

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

Chapter 1

The streets on this side of town were dark, some of the street lights having been damaged, or left in disrepair. Very few people could ever be found on this side of town for one reason or another while the unfortunates could be found of no other choice.

This night the world was cold, as a storm passed over, leaving everything even darker, rain falling in slanted sheets. The brightest lights found in the sky as lightning flashed, followed by the rumbling thunderous booms.

On a dark street, a young girls screams can be heard, though muffled by the sounds of nature unleashing its fury over the landscape. As the latest boom sounds off, a dirty man in a dark hoodie lurches out from a dark alley.

He checks the purse, dropping the contents onto the wet ground, quickly becoming lost in the drops as they coalesce into puddles around his feet. A flash of lightning momentarily shows a man unclean, unshaven, teeth near rotted out, his face contorted into a frenzied snarl until he finds a smaller leather purse and removes the colored paper of money from it. He drops the purse onto the ground and staggers forward.

Nearby, a young boy runs up a stoop and begins to pound on the door, the storm around seeming to work to try and muffle all sounds this night as it continues raging.

“Nero! Nero, it's Paquelo. Your sisters hurt, man. Nero!” The boy screams, pounding away. His body is already soaked through and through, his black hair plastered around his head, his face draining away the excess water down his angular tanned face, dripping from his chin. He has a dark loose coat, but too thin for weather such as this, and so, it leaves the majority of his shirt drenched in places as well, his pants, absorbing too much water sag even further down his backside, his shoes occasionally making a squishing sound as he leans from one foot to the other, looking over his shoulders into the nearly-abandoned city, and the torrential storm.

The door opens, a wave of heat, and a warm yellow light graces his features, lighting up his brown eyes. A man in loose blue jeans and a stained wife beater looks down at the boy as he chews on a pizza idly. His hair is shaved close to his skull, a thin black mustache on his upper lip, likewise, a thin black beard is left jugging his chin closely. His ears holding one earring a piece. His black eyebrows furrow briefly, looking down at the boy.

“Eh, lil man, whats the trouble?”

“It’s your sister, some junkie or guy hit man. You gotta come and help.” With the utterance of these words, Nero’s eyes widen in alarm, before narrowing in anger. He turns, moving into the house, tossing the partially eaten pizza onto a nearby table. After a few brief words in another language, he grabs a coat and leaves the house with several other men. They follow the boy as he leads them a few blocks over.

“Look, we don’t have that many rooms and are full. You need to find someplace else.” The young woman said, he brunette hair flat and straight around her shoulders, her thick makeup over her eyes, and even thicker eyelashes, gave no doubt she was too young to properly apply said makeup.

At least, in the opinion of the man standing before her. A level six foot, slightly broad shouldered, but thin, seemingly uncharacteristically thin. His face was pale, his eyes a dim hazel green held deep dark bags under his eyes. His head full of red hair was a mess, as was his thick beard.

Unconsciously, he reached up and scratched at the beard on his face, finding it uncomfortable, but not having a proper place to clean up since this was the last chance he had in the city where he could afford a room for the night. With a small sigh, he closed his eyes, his body leaning forward just slightly. He worked to keep himself upright, his body was sore, his stomach having stopped grumbling for a few minutes left a strange feeling of emptiness within him. He lowered his hand to the desk to helps steady himself.

The girl behind the counter was already reaching for her cell phone, not wanting to trust this crazed looking bum any longer.

Opening his eyes, the man immediately turned around, hefting a large overstuffed black duffle bag on his back to make it more comfortable.

“Thanks anyways.” The man said as he left.

The girl gave him a dark look at his back, not wanting to trust anything in case he tried something. But she finally relaxed as he left through the door, and out into the night.

Despite taking a breath, the girl decided to go ahead and make a call.

Once more back out into the storm-ridden night, the man pulled his hoodie closed and zipped it up, before pulling it up over his head. He didn’t care to have the hoodie up, but the thick coat he wore underneath it didn’t have a hood or cover he could use.

In his mind, had he worn the selection of clothes the other way, then the hood would have soaked up water and allowed it to get under his coat, which could have given him the unfortunate chance of getting a cold.

He shivered as he felt a trail of water run down his back. He reached up and adjusted the collar of his coat from beneath his hood, and pulled it ever tighter around his neck. He turned to the right and began his long trudge through the rain.

A step into an unseen puddle left him hesitating for a moment as, he felt the water soaking up into the cracks at the bottom of his boots, and quickly into his sock, leaving his foot cold and soaked through.

With a sigh, his shoulders sagged even more as he moved on, one foot now squishing with each step.

A few blocks away, someone in a hurry bumped into him and rushed past. Rolling his shoulder, the man with the beard stopped and checked his pants pockets to ensure he still had his necessities. He didn’t want to think he had fallen prey to a pickpocket.

With a nod to himself when he found everything he needed, where it belonged he looked around to find someplace he could set his stuff down.

When he found a dry doorway he set his stuff down and check the bag. He worked to fix the bag that had been covering the top part of his duffle and checked for any wet spots around the bag.

Hearing a noise and loud voices behind him, he began to turn to see a group of people running in his direction. He moved to step back out of their way until they stopped in front of him.

‘Well, I don’t recognize anyone, so, the question is. What do they want?’ As he looked around at the men, he could feel something off. The looks on their faces were that of anger and hatred.

A slight movement at the corner of his eye distracted him. He glanced over to see a young boy about half his height run around a corner.

“No, He’s-”

“Paquelo, stay out of this.” Commanded a man in the middle.

A deep foreboding sense overcame the man they surrounded, he knew their intention was against, and once more in his long tiring life, he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Seeing as how there were several people, this was going to be bad.

“You’re gonna pay for killing my sister.” The man spat.

He flinched, at gave him an incredulous look, “The fuck are you talking about? I don’t-”

A fist came across his face from almost behind him. It was a sucker punch, and it, unfortunately, sent him down to the ground in darkness.

What felt like a few seconds, he grunted as he felt a force of something hit him. With a groan of pain, he lifted his head to see the men surrounding him, their faces and bodies covered in shadows, the clouds far above them equally dark, as the rain fell from the heavens.

It took them only a second to see him raise his head to them before they all started in on kicking him, his chest, his face, his back, his sides, arms, and legs. Wherever they could put a foot, they pounded it against him.

“Nero, no!” Came the voice of a child, “He’s not the one. It was another guy, who looked like a drugy.”

“Yeah, well, as dark as it is, maybe you didn’t see him. You said it was some guy, in a hoodie, there is no one else we were chasing. This coward is going to pay for what he did.” A man responded, leaving the man on the ground to believe this was the one the boy called Nero.

‘So, my fate is to be beaten to death cause they think I’m some drug fiend who killed a sibling. Damn, ain’t life grand.’

He could make out a small shadow coming behind the group as he used his arms to try and protect his face, his body curling in on itself.

The boy began pulling and yelling that he wasn’t the guy. But these other guys were out for blood, they weren’t going to stop.

A good hard stomp to the back of his head, slammed his head down against the ground, knocking him out.

No longer was he aware of the men surrounding him, no longer was he aware of the intense pain of blows raining down on him.

There came a knock at the door, Fluttershy smiled as she turned away from the last bowl she had been filling for her animal friends.

“Oh, one second, please,” She called out softly, her voice sounding shy and reserved.

She set the bag of food down and smiled slightly wider as she took a second to watch the animals begin to dig in.

“Remember, not too quickly now, or you might get a tummy ache,” She said to them. A few ferrets looked up with black beady eyes and nodded before returning to the food before them.

Turning, Fluttershy untucked and retucked her wings more comfortably at her sides as she made her way to the door.

Opening it, she was greeted with a tall slender form of mismatched proportions.

He had the head of a horse, with one large oversized fang, extended from a crooked mouth. A white goatee like that of a goat, one antler horn, a light blue horn of a frost beast, the body of brown fur, one eagle claw for a hand, and one lions paw. His feet, one a cloven hoof, the other the claw of a dragon, and a red scaly tail of a lizard, and upon his back a pair of wings, one of a bat, and one of a bird. His eyes were the most startling as they were yellow, with red irises.

“Hello, Discord. I just finished feeding the animals.” She explained with the same tempered soft voice though she was still able to portray her happiness at seeing her new friend.

“Well, then, I take it you’re ready for our, Mmm, rendezvous?” He asked, as he fitted a tuxedo over his frame suddenly and bowed to the small yellow, pink maned pegasus.

“Oh yes, I am. I mean, that is, if you are.” She said lowering her head a little, allowing a cascade of pink hair to fall around her muzzle.

The two left the little cottage and began to make their way down the path and towards a village some distance away.

The two made their way through the village of Ponyville and continued on until they reached the white tail woods.

Once they were a short distance into the woods, Discord looked around and smiled down at the small Pegasus and opened a small portal.

“I hope you don’t mind, my dear. I thought a small change of scenery would be nice.”

“Oh, that will be just fine. I know I’m safe when I am with you.” Fluttershy said, smiling up to him.

The two made their way through the portal and into a dark alley, where after a few seconds, the sounds of the world around them came became apparent as the rain fell out on the street in front of them.

Fluttershy looked around, at the wet and dark place they found themselves in, the soft light from her home, coming through from behind them.

“If you don’t mind, we will need to dress up just a little. But no worries, I can take care of that.” Discord explained before he snapped his fingers.

Fluttershy looked around, now seeing a flash of light everything looked slightly different, where she was once low to the ground, and on four hooves, she was now standing on her hind legs, with pale soft skin on her legs.

Pink hair cascaded down around her face as she looked over herself fully now. She wore a pair of soft brown shoes, and white socks that stopped just under her knees, a small yellow and pink plaid skirt covered her lower body, and a pink coat over a white shirt covered her chest, with a picture of a bunny with a halo over its head ion the left side of her coat.

She took a moment to look over her new limbs and body. Marveling at how Discord was able to change her. He had recently started to change things up a little bit when they met up for lunches, or picnics, deciding to help her see new and exciting things.

She had reservations at first but quickly came to enjoy their excursions more as she became accustomed to the new surroundings, and often times the different changes Discord could provide to ‘Blend in with the locals’ as he would say.

As she looked up, she was surprised to see Discord in a form of his own, as a tall male, still in the suit, which seemed to fit this body of his far better than it did before.

Gone was his mismatched limbs and body, all except the white hair on his chin, brows, and the same yellow and red eyes. In one hand he held a large umbrella, over the two of them.

With a snap of his fingers, the portal seemed to close, as he offered her an arm. She took it and they began to walk forward, Fluttershy trying to remember how to walk in this form since she had only a chance to visit it a few times previously.

She found she was able to remember and move a lot easier than her previous attempts. They left the alley and stepped into the rain and sidewalk of this world.

All around her, Fluttershy could just make out large shadowed and bland buildings with even darker windows all around. Discord walked the two on and on until they came to a better better lit area.

They came to a stop outside of a well-lit restaurant.

Discord opened the door and bowed for Fluttershy, and allowed her to enter first.

Fluttershy looked around as she came back through the portal, now back in her pony form. She stretched herself out, feeling better now that she not only had a full stomach of salad and breadsticks, she was also back in her own body.

She looked around the forest, seeing as the sun was just now getting around to setting, before looking back at Discord.

“What’s wrong, Dissy?”

Trying to hide the shiver when Fluttershy called him by his new nickname, he turned with a concentrated look on his face.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Nothing at all, my dear.” He replied as he grabbed a zipper that appeared at the bottom of the portal and zipped it closed before it seemed to fade away.

‘Strange, I know very well I had closed that portal as we left. I didn’t want to run the risk of anyone or anything to find its way here and cause trouble.’

The two made their way out of the woods, and looking at the sun, Celestia seemed ready to set, so Luna could bring her moon up, Discord shrugged off the matter.

He decided he was in the mood for a little fun at tonights Night court, so he bid Fluttershy adieu, explaining he was needed for tea time with the favorite princesses.

Flutterhsy wished him a good night and asked that eh not get into too much trouble.

“Why, my dear Fluttershy, who do you take me for?” He asked, his head suddenly looking like a large oversized rat.

“Oh Discord, I know you mean well. But if you’re going to have tea with Princess Luna, just try not to cause her or her guards too much consternation.”

With a soft smile, Discord leaned down, a claw going under her muzzle, as he tilted her head to his.

“My dearest Fluttershy, just because you asked, I will be on my best behavior.”

“I’m glad to hear it, Discord, but please uncross your fingers from behind your back.”

With a defeated look, Discord rolled his eyes and pulled his arm from behind his back where he uncrossed his claws. “Oh very well, I suppose I can’t get past you.”

“Thank you Discord, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t have fun,” Fluttershy explained as she turned away.

Discord stood up, watching her leave. Turning looks away, his eyes bulging slightly, a red tie appearing around his neck.

“’Sheesh, I get no respect,’” he quoted, his voice altered to that of another's, as he tugged lightly on the tie.

As he watched her leave the forest, he shrugged before vanishing.

The night was calm and warm, warmer than it had been in the other world Fluttershy had just returned from. Yet, with such a quiet night, on this far side, one would have sworn they heard the call of the royal Canterlot voice screaming out Discords name.

The next mornings paper would read, “Raging Royal holds concerned conflict with Dizzying Discordant tea time.” Which would be followed by a picture of an angry Princess Luna, chasing Discord, while her thestral guards did their best to fight back against tea cups, pitchers, and such.

For this night, however, Fluttershy was only just leaving the white tail woods, quietly humming to herself, a smile gracing her features. As she made her way onto the path back to Ponyville, she halted as she came upon a dark lump in the middle of the road.

“What’s this?” She asked out loud to herself. As she closed in on the lump she could hear a low groan.

“Oh, no, you’re hurt.” She realized as she got closer and smelled blood. She nuzzled the thing on the ground trying to get a closer look at what she thought to be an animal.

She was surprised to see that it was a human, just like some of the ones she had seen just a little while before, though this one, was soaked through, a thick amount of hair covered the majority of his face, though, she noted, the parts uncovered were dark with bruises.

Fluttershy danced in place for a few seconds trying to figure out what to do. She needed to help this poor thing, and she was afraid of how badly it was hurt. She did her best to look for help and spotted some birds, and rabbits.

“Hello my little friends, I need some help. Can you rbing some other animals, and Berry the bear? This one is hurt badly, and I need help getting him to my cottage to see how badly. I don’t want to bother anypony else because of how late it is.

The animals chirped and tweeted their agreements and went off in a hurry.

Fluttershy paced for a few minutes before she heard the lumbering sounds of the bear and scamperings of other animals coming to her aid.

Fluttershy got some help from some of the animals still in her home as they had cozied up into a small pile for warmth before she arrived with another patient. She had them place down some blankets onto the middle of the floor as well as grabbing her plenty of medical supply.

The first thing she did was have Berry place the human onto the blankets, on his back, where she spotted drippings of blood coming from under a thick set of clothing. Biting her lip she worked the layers off as best as she could. She could see bruises all over his pale thin body and a wound of something sharp having pierced his body. It was small, but as she looked she could see how deep it was.

Fearing the worst, she immediately had some animals sent out to find Princess Twilight, hoping she would be able to bring a doctor.

While they left, Fluttershy grabbed her equipment and frowned. She had plenty of supplies for small animals, and such, but not for something like this.

She moved up along his body trying to find where his heart was. Once she was able to find it, remembering back to the times she had explored her own copy of a human body, she could faintly hear the heartbeat. It was seeming to fade, and fade quickly.

Biting her lips, she grabbed her supplies, no longer caring how little of she had, and set to work to the best of her ability.

Years of tending to animals which had not only gotten hurt, but had also gotten hurt in territory disputes with each other, and worse helped her to clean and dress the wound as best as she could. She had done her best to keep pressure on the wound he had.

She got help from the animals that stayed by her and the patients side when she needed it.

By now, quite a lot of time had passed, and she was now pacing waiting for more help.

After a few more paces she heard a knock and a voice.

“Fluttershy? Are you in there? I got a bunch of animals that ran into the castle. What’s going on?” The voice was that of Twilight and sounded a bit panicked.

She quickly opened the door and invited the princess of friendship into her home.

“I’m fine, but I found a human at the border of white tail woods. I didn’t realize this when I had found him, but he was badly hurt. He needs medical attention. I’m limited by the supplies I have and could only do very little.” She explained as she drug her friend over to the raggedy breathing human on her floor.

Twilight looked him over, seeing much of his body covered in gauze, as well as a red splotch over his stomach.

“Thank you for telling me, Fluttershy. We should go ahead and get him to the hospital for help. If our doctors can;t help him, then I will need to get him through the mirror back to his own world.”

Chapter 2

The darkness was all around him, seeing impenetrable, and suffocating as he tried to move around to find his way out. Trying to traverse this darkness was like being stuck in a mire. With his movements being so slow, he tried calling out for any others. But as he attempted this, he found his voice could only barely croak out any sound.

Only a few attempts before he quieted, feeling excruciating pain in his throat.

After a while, there seemed to be more, he felt his body growing colder and colder. He tried to wrap his arms around himself to keep warm, but to no avail. As the cold grew throughout his body, there came to be a different feeling.

Lower on his body, about where he thought his stomach or abdomen would be, he became aware of a strange sensation.

Where at first, there was a numbness to it, he began to soon feel a strange sensation of both heat and cold, as though the two temperatures were attempting to fight for dominance over this small spot.

His focus began to slip as he tried to think of what was going on. His movements had ceased, along with the shivering as well. But the coldness was still there, ever present in his body.

His eyes were first to begin to feel heavy, as he stood where ever he was in this darkness. As he blinked, still looking out into the ever-present darkness, he began to feel his body growing heavier and heavier. He tried to fight it, at least, at first.

He worked his mind to try and move his body forward, but it seemed to not want to respond. As he struggled to get his body to move, his eyes became even heavier and he began to lean forward. A second later, he felt his body heave forward. At least, that’s what he hoped it was.

To his mind, it felt as though the world of darkness, of nothing, all around him shifted and tilted until it forced him onto his knees.

Gritting his teeth, he tried to breath in and to regain his strength so he could try again. Now, though, it felt as though the rest of his body was falling forward, the darkness not only closed in around him, it felt as though it was penetrating into his mouth. Filling his lungs with a numbing coldness that further seemed to make him weary.

‘So, tired... I... I don’t...’

He shook his head trying to get his thoughts to form, but now there came a small ache as he did so.

‘I don’t what, though? I...’ His body felt pulled closer to whatever ground was within this cold, lonely darkness.

Again, he tried to fight it, this time by working to lift his head and move an arm out to the ground. He wanted to push against this darkness, but he didn’t know why, or even what it was.

‘Don’t fight it. It’s time to rest now. You’re so tired, so just lay down, curl up, and sleep.’

Came a whispered thought to his mind.

It sent a strange feeling through him as he heard it, like a chill down his spine, but he still couldn’t tell. Everything now seemed to be nothing at all, he couldn’t tell where his body was, where he was. All he knew was how cold, and tired he was.

‘Yes, lay down, and sleep. It will be better with sleep.’ Came the voice, yet again.

He couldn’t help but to agree. He only felt a strange heaviness, through and through, as well as being tired.

'Yeah, sleep... That... Sounds.... Goo-’ As his last thought seemed to flicker out, there came something strange and seemingly alien to him now suddenly.

He couldn’t figure out what it was, but there was something there, keeping him from sleeping. At first, he couldn’t understand it, he wanted to curl up now and sleep, he was still so tired. Yet, whatever was going on, it seemed to persist, and as it continued, he began to think again.

He wasn’t sure why, but it seemed as though something clung to his thoughts, something heavy that seemed to spread out.

His eyes opened, his mouth clenched his jaw shut as his thoughts flared again at what was going on. It seemed his mind comprehended what was going on faster than his thoughts could figure it out.

Instinctively, he knew what this was, he knew it intimately as he experienced so many times before.

Pain.

The flaring of heat and cold seemed to pierce through him suddenly, waking him completely. The darkness still permeated all around him, but it didn’t seem to matter as this new feeling brought to him waves of fresh pain.

His body twitched, spasm, jerked, trying to comprehend the sensations as they drove through him as if not to be ignored.

So much did it fill his entire being so suddenly, it even waged war with the sensation of sleep, he could feel something erupting from within him. Before it came out, he looked down to see red where his stomach was. That as here the pain as coming from.

His eyes widened, before the feeling that had been filling him completely came out, erupting into screams. The sound was horrifying, but he knew it, despite being everything, it was the sound of his own voice, something he had nearly forgotten in this place.

His body shook, now, and suddenly as if in a rush, there was a flash of light.

Light appeared overhead on a ceiling as his eyes opened, and his body twitched before it stiffened up. Once more, pain filled his entire being, bringing him to thrust his chest up into the air, as he screamed.

He could hear nothing else, could sense nothing else though some part of his mind barely caught up to his other senses and understood there were things going on.

A shadow appeared over him, blurred by the light overhead of them both, covering its features before he felt a sharp pain in his arm and suddenly his beating heart began to slow.

As his body fell back onto something soft, he could barely hear the murmurings of something. As darkness once again began to creep up to the edges of his sight, he caught that it was a voice.

Someone was trying to speak to him, soothingly, he felt something soft brush against part of his body as though it was a soothing gesture. As the darkness began to take over, one final alarm went off in his mind.

The darkness, where he wanted to sleep, it wasn’t a good place. He wasn’t ready to go back. His heart sped up again, and his eyes widened as he tried to fight the effects of sleep and the darkness.

The part of his mind that was focused on more instinct, and primal things, knew this old nemesis as what was the cold hand of death, and it wanted him. It wanted him something fierce, as it had tried taking him many times before and had always just lost him out of its reach. This was the closest he had ever come, even closer than several years before when he had tried to give himself over.

As he tried to lift his head, his peripherals caught the shadow that had been above him had suddenly moved beside him to keep from getting hit. There was an instant that he saw something white, pink, and a pair of eyes with concern, worry, and fear.

His heart beat harder, and faster now as noise, sounds of others, as well as things around him seemed to crash against his ears in a cacophony.

Almost as suddenly as the rush of fear came it to him, then it began to ebb and flow out of him. His head fell back his eyes rolling up, once more he felt tired and heavy.

Though, now, somewhere in his mind, he knew he would not be going back to that same darkness. Yet.

Twilight and Fluttershy had both entered through the door at the Ponyville hospital, followed by a large brown bear, carrying something on its back.

“Princess Twilight? Ms. Fluttershy? What are you doing...,” Looking and seeing the large bear behind them, she gulped and glance back barely able to finish her sentence with a whisper, “here?”

Twilight quickly spoke to Nurse Redheart and explained they needed help, and with a new creature to their world.

Nurse Redheart tried to argue they were not an animal hospital, but when the bear turned and showed the human on its back, she arched an eyebrow. She looked in shock to Twilight, unsure of what else to say or do. She had never seen a pony that looked like this before.

She asked if it had been in some accident, or had some sort of birth defect.

Twilight explained what the human was, and said he was not an animal, and needed more help than Fluttershy could give, he needed help from a real doctor.

Skeptical, Nurse Redheart called the emergency over the com, calling for a doctor.

Another hurried explanation to the doctor, and a few other staff members, and a promise to cover the expenditures whether they could help or not got the group working to rush the human into intensive care.

It seemed minutes after, as they removed the layers clothing and began to inspect it, they found the wound, which the doctor was able to specify was from a blade, and the bruises were from a confrontation of some sort.

Once they began to check his vitals and get him connected to machines, they found the heart rate had slowed considerably, when he went into cardiac arrest.

The nurses and doctor rushed with everything they could do. It wasn’t until the doctor tried to use magic that he then fainted. As he worked the magic over the humans body.

The nurses worked to get him revived, and twilight rushed into the room. She looked embarrassed and apologized as Nurse Redheart worked to get her out of the room so they could work on the human.

“No, wait, you need to know, you can’t use magic on him. For some reason, magic doesn’t work and it will drain you.” She called out as she was pushed back through the doors.

Hampered by this new development, the nurses, and the doctor tried to get back to work. That was until the body of the human stopped thrashing about, and the monitor they had barely hooked up to him showed him flat lining.

They did their best to bring him back, having to do things with gloves and more to work on him.

They fought to bring the human back, and every time it seemed they were successful and began to work on the wound at the side of his stomach, he would begin to flatline again.

It wasn’t until half an hour later, that they could no longer bring him back no matter what they tried. Just as the doctor, more than weary from the draining of his magic, that he could no longer help the human, he looked up at the clock.

As he opened his mouth to utter the time of death, the man seized and began to scream, fighting against the restraints. His chest was raised as far as the straps would allow him, his fists clenched. He screamed out loudly, scaring the others.

Nurse Redheart entered in and went to work with an anesthetic to help calm the patient as he had suddenly began to thrash about, and scared the other nurses so that they refused to come close again. The doctor once more went back to work on his task of finishing cleaning and stitching the wound.

Nurse Redheart seemed capable of getting the man to calm, as his body took in the sedative. But just as his eyes began to close, he began to fight once again.

His limbs flailing, even though they were hampered by the restraints, one foot was still able to knock over a small metal table of gauze, and tools, the doctor had to scream at the other nurses to help get the man restrained as Nurse Redheart moved back to keep from getting hit by the man as his now lifted his head suddenly.

As suddenly as it all started, it seemed to stop, as his body fell back to the bed and began to grow limp as the sedative more than took over to force him into sleep.

Hours passed by, as the human slept, covered by several blankets to fight what appeared to be the beginning stages of a fever.

Nurse Redheart was able to speak with Twilight and let her know the human was resting, finally.

With a little more study of his vitals, she and Fluttershy were finally allowed in to see the human for only a few minutes.

When asked for information, they had none to give, other than Fluttershy’s record of finding him at the edge of the woods and trying to treat him.

Time passed slowly before long Fluttershy had to excuse herself to go tend to her animals. With a brief hug, Twilight wished her well.

Twilight wanted to remain until the human was able to wake again. She wanted to speak to him and try to find out how he had gotten to their world.

Once again she found herself glancing up at a clock for the time and heaved another sigh as she watched the large hand slowly tick upwards.

She considered the things she had for the day, and knew she had more than enough tie to get them done. She also had Spike to help her whenever she needed, which he would no doubt be waking up soon as the rays of Celestia’s sun began to come up over the trees in the distance.

She knew he could basically take care of himself, including fixing his own meals, and doing the chores he needed to do, but she was a little concerned. Spike had just gotten a new stack of comics sent into him just the other day and he had been trying to get ahead of the schedule Twilight had set for him to find the time to read them.

She took a moment to think this over, lifting a hoof up to her chin. She also had Starlight Glimmer in town a swell, living in a home as her new apprentice. She and Spike had been through a lot recently with all of the time travel shenanigans, Starlight had put them through.

Perhaps there was something she could do to have Starlight busy enough for a while, and give Spike the day off. The castle was still nearly immaculate, just a couple of dishes left over from dinner. Twilight had promised to finish those off while Spike grabbed his first comic and had turned in early.

She had been nearly through when Fluttershy’s animals had come barging in. She had assured Spike everything would be okay before she left. He had heard the commotion and was understandably concerned.

Looking up to the clock and seeing it slowly tick over another minute she rustled her feathers slightly in annoyance, before glancing down the hall to the room where the human was. She huffed and settled herself as she got up.

Trotting over quickly to the Nurse’s counter, she explained she would be back soon to check on the progress of the human after she was able to tend to a few things.

The nurse politely assured Twilight they would have everything taken care of, and if the princess needed to go home and rest everything was in good hands.

Twilight held no doubts, but she still had it in mind to talk to him as soon as possible.

She had taken a moment before she left to consider if it was necessary to have any royal guard positioned at the Hospital.

As soon as she thought that, she immediately remembered her time at Canterlot High in the world on the other side of the mirror.

Twilight began to walk out the hospital, her mind immediately wondering if perhaps the Human who had been found had found another mirror portal to her world. If that was the case then it was somewhere in the White Tail woods, at least that’s what logic would dictate since that was where Fluttershy had found him.

Twilight continued on autopilot as she made her way back to the castle, her mind filling with possibilities, and wondering what this would entail. She did know she had to get a letter to Celestia and Luna since they were the ones who told her about the mirror after Sunset had stole her crown right after her coronation all that time ago.

As she continued, now walking up the steps of the castle, her mind seemed to begin to work out ideas and thoughts and began to organize them to find the most efficient way to do things.

Still wrapped in a few wayward bandages that had not been completely removed out of fear of taxing more unicorn magic, the human let out a groan and titled his head.

He tried to open his eyes, only to cringe and close them again immediately at the bright light of the morning sunlight coming in through a nearby window.

Feeling the vestiges of a headache, he tried to lift his hand to his head to rub away the rest of the pain. However, he found he could not as the sound of something clinking caught his attention. He lifted his ehad ever so slightly and lifted his arm again. HE found he could only lift it a couple of inches from a metal bar at the side of a bed.

Brows furrowing, he looked over his form covered in blankets, then spotted some wires coming from his chest. He followed them with his eyes to spot a monitor that was showing his vitals, his heartrate has increased ever so slightly. Looking around to see a white and clean sterile room, his mind seemed to make the connection that he was in a hospital of some sort.

Dropping his head back onto the small pillow, he looked up to the ceiling trying his best to remember what had happened that he found himself in a hospital. As he searched his memories, all of which were slow to come, and unclear at this time, he found himself frustrated.

Closing his eyes he did his best to relax, let his mind wander as he listened to the sound of the heart monitors intermittent beeps.

It was at this time he heard the door open.

Someone was coming to check up on him, though his brows furrowed more now as he heard a strange sound. It was odd, he wasn’t sure what to make of it immediately, until he realized as he searched his mind it sounded almost like a woman in heels.

He thought it was strange as he never saw or heard for that matter a medical personal who wore heels. They always wore the most comfortable shoes they could to avoid back, leg, and other pains that could develop since they were supposedly always on their feet. Now that eh thought about it, it didn’t sound like one pair but multiple, maybe two or three? He wasn’t sure.

“Well, either you’re awake, or you’re having a nightmare. And since your heart rate is this calm, good morning.” Came a female’s voice. She sounded nice and lovely, but he didn’t want to get distracted just because he had not been with a woman in a while.

“Sor-” He took a moment to feel his dry throat and the pain that accompanied it as he tried to speak. He took a few moments to use his saliva to wet his throat before clearing it and trying again.

“Need some water? No worries, I’ll be right back with that.” He could hear the sound, or multiple sounds again as he heard the woman walking away.

He felt it odd, unless, to his mind as far as he could consider it, she was being “Shadowed” by a nurse in training and nothing was happening at the moment that she had to do anything but shadow her mentor. Though why she had to follow her just to get him a small cup of water didn’t make any sense.

As he heard the faucet turn on, he decided to open his eyes now, though carefully this time so as not to blind himself again.

As he glanced over to the sound of the water just as it turned ff, he squinted. What he saw was the strangest thing he had ever encountered, and he considered himself unfortunate enough to encounter many, MANY, strange things in his life.

There across the way, at a small sink he had not seen before, was what looked like a small horse wearing a hat. She stood on her hind legs, one front leg on the faucet, the other with a small cup now filled with water.

He wanted to rub his eyes, but the jingling of the padded cuffs at his wrists reminded him he couldn’t. He glance away to look at them in frustration before turning back to see the horse turning around and walking towards him. He looked down as he heard that familiar sound of heels and realized it was only from one nurse, and it wasn’t heels, it was from horseshoes.

Despite having been born on a farm early in life, he had not been raised around farm animals. So the sounds of horseshoes on anything was rare in his memories. He looked back up at her, which made her flinched seeing his seemingly aggressive look.

He stared at her, his mouth seeming to come unhinged. She was white, with pink hair, and the small white cap on top of her head had a small red cross in its center

Blinking several times, he moved his head forward ever so slightly, squinting his eyes as though hoping this would allow whatever delusion he had to go away and give him a true view of what he was seeing. Though this did not work as he continued to stare.

She began to blush slightly, unsure of what he was doing, or why he was looking at her in the way he was.

With a small jolt, she realized that he was a different species; different than anything she had ever seen before last night, so in light of this, she was probably just as strange to him as he was to her.

“Um...” she began, her blush filling her cheeks ever so slightly more. As she stood there, unsure of what was going to happen, she realized she still had a glass of water in her hoof when she began to move her leg and nearly spilled it. “Oh, dear. I suppose you still need this. Here.” She said as she took a few steps closer and held the cup out to him.

He looked down at the cup in her outstretched hoof, and moved his head as far as it could go to place his lips on its edge. He pulled ever so slightly down on the lip of the cup and began to sip the water slowly, making a loud slurping noise as he did so.

When the water was too low for him to get any more, he pulled away, swallowing several times to make sure his throat was no longer dry.

“Thank you,” he said automatically. His voice was no longer gravelly as it had from the dryness as it had been before. His voice was clear, not too deep, and seemed a bit on the nasally side.

The horse smiled at him, “Well, at least you’re polite.” She said, a bit of hope in her voice.

Turning to her right, she placed the cup on a small table near the head of his bed. “Well, my name is Nurse Redheart. Sorry I don’t usually give introductions to,” She paused trying to remember if she saw his name on the charts or not, “Humans.” She finished lamely.

The human gave her a perplexed look, at least she thought it might have been, she wasn’t sure cause every time he looked at her with his eyebrows drawn down, and the slightest frown she thought he look mad.

“So... You’re not a figment of my imagination, and you really are a... Small horse?” he asked. The way he pitched the last words, seemed more like a question.

“Pony,” she easily corrected.

“But... Isn’t that what a small horse is? A pony?”

Nurse Redheart offered a small strained smile, trying to be as polite as she could. “Do, you have ponies, or small horses where you’re from?”

“As far as I know, yes. I don’t have much experience with them. Always thought it was strange when people would make jokes of little girls always wanting a pony for a birthday, but whatever.” He finished with a shrug and a shake of his head.

Nurse Redheart smiled again, a little wider, unsure if he was just making conversation, a joke, or what. She didn’t feel offended by what he was saying, just confused. She watched as he began to look around the bed, and then down to his limbs.

He moved them around a little, as if trying to get comfortable with the padded cuffs, then he moved his lower limbs around a bit under the blankets. Another familiar clinking could be heard as he became aware of the ones on those as well. He laid his head back with a sigh of resignation.

“Oh, sorry sir, but you caused a little bit of trouble last night and were thrashing about.” Redheart explained. Her eyes widened as she realized she still didn’t have his name. “Oh, I almost forgot, we need to fill out some medical forms, and we will at the very least need your name.”

The man had been wincing in a little bit of pain from his stomach, as she explained everything. HE looked over at her when she asked his name before turning back to look up at the ceiling.

He wasn’t sure if it was right to give his real name, due to still believing he had gone insane and was now seeing a colored talking pony.

As he mulled the thought over for a second, his eyebrows lifted a she thought of something, ‘Well, I’m a Taurus, maybe they won’t know that isn’t my real name. I don’t even know where I am. Well, no, Taurus, who really wants to walk around with a name like that? Eh, doesn’t suit me anyways. Hmm, Maybe Tauren, no wait.’ He thought of something finally as it seemed to flash in his mind.

“Uh, Terren is my name.” He said looking back at Nurse Redheart with a half smile.

“Oh, Terren, that’s interesting, and how do you spell it?”

“T-E-R-R-E-N. Terren,” He explained quickly, his smile widening. Yes, that seems nice, I like it, seems to work nice as an alibi.

“Okay, and where are you from, Terren?” Nurse Redheart asked as she walked over to a chart and began writing on it with a quill she picked up from nearby. The Paper seemed to be clipped to a board that was connected to the wall, and on a small shelf was a few quills and an ink well.

Terren looked at it curiously, he felt a strange sense come over him as he watched her, before trying to think back. His brows furrowed as he tried to remember, “Uh, Earth?” He offered vaguely.

Nurse Redheart raised an eyebrow at him, “Town, city, village? Desert, Woods? Ocean? General location with a street address would be best...”

Once more, he tried his best to think back, he even closed his eyes to try and focus, at least until a sudden jarring pain filled the top and back end of his head. He grunted, and groaned, as it assaulted him.

“Hmmm, severe headache? Where does it hurt?” Nurse Redheart inquired as she set the quill down and walked over to him. When he did his best to describe the location, as well as provide the intensity of the pain, she had him lean forward as far as possible to look. There she could see just in his mane, despite it being short and thick, there was a little bit of dried blood.

“Well, it would appear you sustained head trauma, and recently. I had better get the doctor to look at this. It may be the cause of the pain, and keeping you from remembering important information.

“So, wait. You took me in last night, tied me to a bed, and you have no idea who I am, where I am from, and you barely seem to understand that I am human?”

Well, Princess Twilight said you were found at the edge of our woods, and when you were brought in, yes you were practically dying on us. We did our best to stitch you up-”

“Stitch me up!?” Terren asked suddenly.

“Yes, we found a stab wound on you. Your stomach,” She explained as she pulled the blanket back just far enough to show a slightly red square patch of gauze. “Perhaps try not to move around so much. I will see about getting a fresh cover for your stitches.”

Seeing Terren shiver, eyes wide, she covered him back up and eased him into his previous laying position and waited until he was calmed before leaving to fetch the doctor.

After some time, of the doctor checking him over, Nurse Redheart changing his cover for his stitches that had been tugged just enough to bleed slightly. Terren was informed that due to his head injury, he would probably have a short term memory loss due to the trauma he had incurred.

During this, he had received a brief head cleaning, then his head was bandaged, while older thinner strands of gauze had been removed. HE had been told a local had found him and took him to their home, not realizing how badly he had been injured.

The doctor was a brown Unicorn stallion, with a white coat, and a pair of small black glasses, his mane and tail a lighter brown color who seemed a bit huffy with Terren.

When he had left, he had been told that before they got him tied to the bed, he had accidentally kicked the doctor in the face, and knocked over some utensils.

Terren asked that his apologies be sent to the doctor, as well as a thank you for staying with him to help.

He was then informed that word had been sent to the two ponies who had helped bring him in.

Terren shrugged at this, not sure what to say really. He figured he would offer his thanks, then try and figure out what fresh hell he had been sent to.

He did, to Nurse Redhearts surprise, ask if he could have a full head examination.

When asked why, he bit his lip, and seemed to shake his head and said, “nevermind”.

He really didn’t want them thinking he was insane as he was thinking.

So, he remained in his bed, not doing anything more than thinking, trying to remember what was going on. He could easily remember who he was, but not really where he was from, or what had happened that he wound up with ponies in a hospital beat up from an altercation.

As he sat, wondering about all of this, he suddenly realized he was missing something. He looked around, and began trying to think. He needed to ask where his bag was. He was beginning to remember he had a bunch of stuff stashed away in a bag of his.

With a sigh, he laid back. He would have to wait for one of the ponies to come back so he could ask them where his stuff was, if they even knew.

Chapter 3

Terren laid back and waited for one of the ponies to return as patiently as he could. But as he remained there in the hospital bed, he began to grow bored, and with this boredom he began to grow sleepy.

Time and again he tried to fight against yawns, until he could no longer do so. It wasn’t long before he went ahead and allowed his eyes to close.

Not long after, he was asleep, resting, his head tilted to the side. It seemed only minutes had passed before he felt something pressing against his arm.

Raising his head, Terren opened his eyes and blinked a few times to get them to focus before turning to look at a small purple hoof pressed against his arm.

Connected to the small hoof was another of the ponies, with a small smile, large eyes, and a horn. Next to this one was another with pink hair and a yellow coat.

As he stared at her, she seemed to shy away ever so slightly. He turned back to the purple one as she removed her hoof and smiled wider.

“So, the rainbow brigade?” He asked.

The purple pony with the horn frowned and gave him a confused look, “Uh, no. I’m not with a rainbow brigade. Fluttershy, is there a rainbow brigade in Cloudsdale?”

The yellow pony shifted slightly, raising a front hoof and placed it down in front of her as though thinking.

“There is a rainbow brigade with the weather team.” She said in a faint whisper.

Terren tilted his head as he raised himself up slightly to get a better look, and was surprised to see her raising wings from her side ever so slightly before settling them back down at her sides.

‘Wait, a small horse with wings, in mythology that is a pegasus. Which means this purple one with the horn would be a unicorn. NO WAY!’ He thought not realizing he was no staring intently at the small pegasus named Fluttershy, who no gave out small whimpers as she drew her body into a smaller tighter ball and began to shake.

The Unicorn turned to Terren, before looking at Fluttershy, “You’re not going to try to eat my friend are you?” She asked suddenly.

Terren’s face seemed to fall and twist into disgust as he reeled back from her. After a second, he let out a small snort and seemed to fight to keep from laughing.

“You, uh, you’re both female, yes?”

The Unicorn tilted her head and shot a tentative look at her friend before answering, “Yes...”

“No, I am not going to eat either of you... In any sense of the word.” He deadpanned. Once he was able to get himself under control at least.

“Oh... My...” Fluttershy said as she pulled her hair over her face hiding a large blush.

“’In any sense of the word’?” The Unicorn muttered, a look of concentration on her face. “But, there is only one meaning of the word in this conversation, there is no way to misconstrue, or misinterpret the use of my question. I... I don’t get it.”

“Uh, you okay there?” Terren asked as he watched a couple of strands of hair pop out of place.

Fluttershy reached a hoof over to her purple friend and tapped her shoulder gently to get her attention, “Um, Twilight, didn’t you have some questions?”

“Oh, hey. I’m sorry to interrupt, but uh...,” Terren stopped as he looked to the side, he didn’t want to be rude, but then again it may not matter if he had gone insane. “Uh, how about introductions first. Uh, I’m, uh Terren.” He said in an uncomfortable way before holding one of his hands out.

“Oh, I’m Twilight Sparkle, and this is my friend Fluttershy.” Twilight took a moment to look at his hand, before placing her hoof into it, allowing Terren to wrap his fingers around it gently and give it the lightest and briefest shake.

Suppressing a small shudder at the sensation she offered a bigger and friendlier smile to him.

Terren turned his attention to Fluttershy, offering his hand to her as well.

Fluttershy looked out from behind her waterfall of pink and raised a shaking hoof to Terren.

He gently took it into his hand, offering her a warm smile, and gave her a soft shake.

Eyes wide, Fluttershy returned his smile seeing that he was willing to be kind to her. She could feel the warmth of his body heat radiating from his hand, the firm, but gentleness of his grip on her hoof.

As he released her hoof, Flutterhsy turned to Twilight. “Is that what it was like to shake hands with a human?”

“Well, no. I had hands as well. I guess this is what it’s like to experience the sensation of two different species offering a friendly greeting to each other.”

“Uh... What?” Terren asked, wondering what they were talking about.

“Oh, it’s a long story, I’ll tell you another time.” Twilight offered with an embarrassed smile.

Terren stared for a second or two before just nodding.

“Hey, listen, I uh, noticed my stuff isn’t here. Did you happen to bring it in with me?”

Twilight turned to Fluttershy, who in turn frowned and looked down at the floor.

“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t find anything with you when I found you.” Fluttershy bit her lip and found the strength to look up at the human, and finding a distant look in his eyes as he turned away, and a deep frown she began to feel tears at the edge of her eyes. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Terren, if I had taken time to think I probably would have found-”

“What? Oh, no it’s okay. Um, you probably don’t even know what it looks like.” Terren explained, not even glancing at Fluttershy.

He was busy thinking, trying to find the memory or image of what his stuff would look like.

It was hard, he didn’t have any sort of organization to his mind in the first place, he always just let things float around until he needed it. Sometimes it proved overly useful as things seemed to fly to the forefront of his mind while at other times they were like trying to catch butterflies with a net that had holes in it.

Seeing that he was getting nowhere, he decided to think of something else that might help. It was often said of any person, 'if you can’t remember where something was then try to think of something else to remember'.

He sat in silence, closing his eyes, the voices of the two ponies fading as he mentally and physically tuned them out. This was something he had taught himself as a child to do when he wanted to be alone and read and people would try to bother him.

However, he had not done this is so many years, it was more like a teenager trying to drive for the first time with a lot of stops and starts.

He needed to focus, clear his mind, always something that seemed just outside of impossible. But he had many tricks and trials for this. If one thing didn’t work, there were always more. His eyes closed, the world vanishing from his awareness, he drew the image of himself floating in water. This was always the best way for him to clear his mind and to focus.

He mentally lifted his arms out to his sides and began to relax his body as much as he could. He allowed his body to become buoyant, smiling serenely to himself.

This was how he always felt free the most, the closest he could to relaxing and allowing his mind to clear, at least without force.

He slowly allowed his mind to lose focus and to drift, without allowing anything to weigh him down.

Time held no meaning here, nothing mattered, his own body would flow with his mind and it would wait until he returned his being to the physical to reflect on what needed to be done.

Eyes closed within and without, Terren came to a point where he felt he no longer needed to drift. Carefully, he filled his mind with the sensation he felt now, feeling as though he were atop the water as it filled his mind, bringing him to his errant thoughts.

He could sense, more than see or feel a shift in everything around him.

He had to maintain a form of calm as a small storm began to brew around him.

There was more, a growing sense of cold, droplets falling onto his face. A stench began to fill his nose, musty, filthy, and more. He reached out, carefully, and felt something in his hand.

The first millisecond it seemed strange in this place, but then like a switch being flipped, he grasped it, knowing this was what he had come to find. He drew it away from everything else slowly. A she did, a memory began to make its way to the surface, bringing with it, knowledge, and a few more memories.

What he held to him was everything that had become important to him, in his survival of a harsh, cruel, and unforgiving world.

In his mind's eye, he could sense and see it and he was filled with a knowing of what he was missing. Not everything, but enough.

Opening his eyes, he could see he was back in the bed. He raised a hand to his head, as the strange weightless floating sensation had, as always, followed him back. As it began to fade he began to remember what he was missing for his stuff.

He looked around, unsure of how long he had been gone. He spotted Fluttershy in a chair, the small yellow and pink pegasus laying with her head resting on a padded arm-chair in a corner on the far side of the room.

In front of her, Twilight paced back and forth, seeming to speak to herself in low whispers, practically muttering to herself.

Now that he was able to see her from a different angle, Terren could see that she also had wings. A pair of purple ones that blended in with her fur. If she had not been pacing, and occasionally shifting them he probably would not have noticed them till much later.

‘Odd, I thought she was only a Unicorn. So, she has both a horn and wings.’ As he stared and thought to himself, he held a sense of familiarity to her, as well as to Fluttershy.

Before he could follow that path in his mind, he decided to brush it off and grab their attention by clearing his throat.

“So, I remember a little bit, I mean, I can give you a description of my stuff. That is if you don’t mind looking for it, for me?”

Twilight stopped pacing, and Fluttershy looked up at him, both seeming a bit surprised.

“What?” He asked defensively

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Twilight said as she walked over to him and settled herself down.

A brief flash and Terren could now see a feather and a small notepad floating in front of him.

Terren, fascinated by what he was seeing, leaned down and poked at the floating pad. There was a brief tingling feeling, and a sense of coldness at the tip of his index finger.

The very second he did this, and registered the sensation the pad and quill fell to the floor.

Twilight heaved out a sigh, and briefly appeared tired.

“Wow, when you drain magic, you really drain magic.” She said as she shook her head, “Terren, may I politely ask you not to do that again?” She asked as she used her magic to lift the quill and pad once more.

Terren could only openly stare at his finger, then at Twilight.

Before he could think of anything else, he found himself staring straight ahead, eyes cast don slightly to just the end of the bed.

He gave off an automated description of his stuff, a large black duffle bag with a small raised lettering on one side that said, “Coranado”. A brand of the bag, as he explained it, and then continued on its rough size and shape, explaining it would be a bit heavy from the collection of stuff he had in it.

When he finished, Twilight said the two would be willing to, at least look for it, but didn’t know if it was here or left back.

Terren only nodded in response, his mind still elsewhere.

As they went to leave, Terren stopped them, and asked that the padded cuffs be removed, and, if possible, to allow him to get up from the bed. His body was in some minor pain and needed to move about, rather than shift in the bed.

It didn’t take long before Nurse Redheart entered, and smiled at him. She worked quickly to remove the cuffs, much to Terrens relief.

She stayed with him, as he carefully lifted himself up, and slowly made his way off the bed.

For a bit, he had to use a hand on the metal rail of the bed to keep himself standing. When he had enough strength, he breathed in, and slowly released it as he stood as much as he could.

He was nearly able to stand up straight before the stitches, halted his movement and a fresh wave of pain came over him.

“Not surprising you can’t stand up straight just yet. It is best to allow the stitches to heal more before making yourself do that. For now, don’t push it.” She advised.

Terren agreed firmly with her. He then asked if she would help him over to the window. One to get his muscles stretched and moving, and for two, he said he wanted to feel the sun from outside.

She smiled at him and helped him over. What he didn’t say, of course, was that he wanted a view of this world, if possible, and to start to think of how to get away.

He wasn’t sure why, but something felt off to him, and he had a sense he needed to get away. He couldn’t understand why, except, perhaps it was because he had been alone for a while over a year on his own on the streets though he often preferred to be in the woods and away from civilization.

He only wanted to be a part of the world when he didn’t want to deal with extreme weather, or he felt too lonely.

Terren looked out the window, wondering where that train of thought came from.

Perhaps, it was a memory, connected to a sense of things. Right no, though, he felt out of place.

Looking out the window, he saw the sun high above. Out before him from what he could see was a large town with buildings made of wood, painted white, with what looked like straw roofs.

For some reason, as he looked out over these buildings, an errant thought came to him. His mind filled with the image of him being a big bad wolf, and these ponies were like little pigs, frightened of him, as he huffed and puffed at their homes.

A feeling of sorrow filled him as he thought of this and mentally shook it away.

Once he did this he turned from the window and made his way back to his bed.

Nurse Redheart helped him, by allowing his hand to rest on her back, a little of his weight pressed onto her. Once he was back in bed, he rolled over mumbling he was suddenly tired.

Nodding, Redheart gripped the blanket that had been pushed to the base of the bed and used her teeth to carefully draw it up and over his body.

As she made her way to the door, she turned out the light and turned to leave. She hesitated only briefly when she heard a small sniffle, and a quieted sob.

Chapter 4

Twilight and Fluttershy came to a halt at the edge of White Tail woods, as the princess took a moment to light up her horn and lift the pad she had brought with her.

“Well, I would wager, the best place to start would be where you found him,” Twilight said as she glanced over to Fluttershy.

The yellow Pegasus nodded, already looking around. She took a moment to look over the ground before stopping just inside the first line of trees at the path.

“Here. This is where he as when I found him.” Fluttershy bit her lip as she looked down seeing a small red spot that had soaked into the ground.

Fluttershy unconsciously took a step back.

Twilight walked over, still looking over her pad of notes, not realizing she was stepping right over the spot.

“Well, in that case, we should go ahead and split up and start looking through the woods, can some of the animals help out?”

Fluttershy gave an affirmative squeak, to which Twilight, now looking up at the trees and bushes scattered about. “Spike should be here soon to help out, unfortunately, it’s just us. Rainbow Dash said she would swing by to help when she was done with today’s weather schedule.”

With that, Twilight began to head off in a direction, before calling over her shoulder, “Let’s meet back here in about an hour, okay? We should be able to cover enough ground by then.”

Fluttershy walked past the spot, the scent of blood still faintly in the air, unsettling her stomach ever so slightly.

With a sigh, Fluttershy began to walk through the woods, occasionally looking around a bush, or speaking to a rabbit, or squirrel, or some other animal for help.

It wasn’t long before a few animals ere able to lead Fluttershy over to a bush. Looking around, she saw a large black bag, practically as big as she was, if not a little bigger. Once she saw it, laying partially on the bush, she looked up.

As she thought about it, she felt this spot was familiar. It took her a few minutes to think before she realized she was only a few feet from where Discord had taken her to the other world through one of his portals.

“Dissy... Did you do this?” She asked her thoughts out loud.

The spark that Terren had felt had drawn something to the fore of his mind. It was troubling him, he could briefly feel a strange, sense of tiredness, and a bit of pain as well. It passed as quickly as it happened, and when Twilight had made her comment and saw how she appeared, he thought it strange, but his mind seemed to connect that what he experienced had come from her.

What had really got to him was a memory that had come to his attention. It was not a pleasant one, and for some time he tried to push it away and focus on something more important.

When he had crawled back into bed and closed his eyes, a wave of exhaustion and confusion came over him. But worst of all was the memory would not be silenced. He was not able to hold back, and cried out, doing his best to muffle it.

Off the side of a highway was a nearly hidden building, of an old sky blue color, countered with brown lining around corners still made of old wood, and window shutters.

Much of the paint of the building was already old, having once been a small hotel with a comfortable cowboy feeling, its whole shape that like a square horseshoe. The only disconnection of the buildings was the entrance, which was laid over a wide dirt drive with small rocks, leaving one the feeling of leaving behind the civilized world for something older and simpler.

Often only the form of the building would show marks of time with mud splashes on the lower side from vehicles splashing through as they entered, or black marks higher up towards the roof from the exhaust of larger vehicles passing. As well as a sole payphone set by the entrance just a few feet away.

The old hotel rooms were still used often as it had been refurbished into a shelter of sorts for those who needed help, or those who had no place else to go.

The center courtyard, surrounded by blue walls, windows, doors, and the rest of the dirt and stone path had only a few trees; the largest of which was an old oak that remained steadfast in the center.

This tree was no accompanied by a few newer tools of entertainment for children. A swing set, monkey bars, and a rusted seesaw which was no longer used in the normal sense as it was meant for.

More trees could be found some yards from the center of the courtyard, as the grass of this area continued on further back to a smooth tree line accompanied by bushes, and ivy vines.

Those who could be found here were an assortment though usually could be known to share troubles, and thus, they congregated here.

On this day, the clouds seemed to draw in over the former bright blue sky of spring going to summer, almost reflecting the feelings of the children don below who did not play with abandon, but rather meandered out of boredom. A few other children had recently moved on, another grounded, and yet another had not been seen for roughly a week.

It had been said that his mother had been in the hospital after an accident and he and his elder sister were there with her at her side.

As the children continued, the door to one of the rooms opened, and out stepped a young boy. His frame thin, almost stick-like, to any observer, pale skin, almost white. His features would be only slightly unusual, if not for his head of thick fiery red hair.

To many he appeared funny, for at this time few had seen a person with red hair, much less two, as it was often seen he took after his mother.

Terren was about six years old and had been with his mom since they had left his dad years before.

He began to make his way slowly toward the courtyard to meet up with the other children, now that his grounding had ended.

His only countenance reflected sorrow, his eyes barely receding from being bloodshot from all the crying he had done.

He had only wandered a few steps from the door to his current home before he stopped to look at a specific door only to down from his own.

To say Terren missed his friend, whom he thought was in the hospital with his mother was an understatement, and brought a few more tears to his eyes.

He looked down to the ground and stood there, shaking, fighting the tears as best he could, though they still fell.

He felt as though everything was his fault. The week previous he had gone to see his friend only to nearly be bowled over by an older man in a rush.

His friend had admitted his dad had returned to take him and his mom home. But, did not want to go and listen to the yelling anymore.

There had been a misunderstanding, at least, it seemed that way. Terren had been sure his friends dad had been a bad man. When he had pointed out the proof, he got in trouble and was grounded.

Now that he was out, he wanted to forget everything that had happened. Those first two nights he had barely slept having heard a lot of fighting that had penetrated the quiet night.

Right after that was when he heard his friend was gone, possibly at the hospital.

Looking up and trying to dry his face, Terren did his best to not be as upset as he was.

As he looked up, a vehicle turned into the drive of the shelter, going far too fast. He jumped back, fearing he was going to get hit.

He watched as the car screeched to a halt just in front of his friends door.

When he saw the mom get out, his spirits lifted. He hoped he could see his friend, but when he came up to the mom as she made her way around she seemed startled to see him there.

The look of shock quickly turned to a look of rage and anger.

“H-hi... I-I’m sorry about what happened. Can I see-”

“You, you horrible little monster. Do you realize what you did? I talked to my husband who proudly admitted he was cheating on me. He told me he only wanted me with him so he could have a maid. He only wants his kids near with us so he doesn’t have to pay child support. This is all your fault if you had kept your DAMN MOUTH SHUT,” the longer she went on, the louder she got, now towering over Terren, and finished screaming at him. She couldn’t seem to continue as she had now gotten too upset.

Terren had stepped back, tears streaming from his eyes, but despite that, he had long since gone past being scared, and even terrified. He fell back to what had always helped him before, the same thing she was using on him, anger.

“I said I was sorry, I never meant to hurt you. I was just trying to help. I’m sorry, just please, can I see my friend.”

“You little bastard. You are nothing, you are not an adult, you are only that bitch’s little monster. You ruined my life and my family. I never want you around me, or my son ever again as long as you live.”

Another friend lost, but this time instead of being forced back out into the streets, this time, he had done something bad. Something horrible.

Terren took more steps back, his head hung low, his shoulders slumped. He closed his eyes as he began to cry, choking out a few sobs.

By now, the other children had long since stopped and stared, seemingly unsure of what to do.

A few adults even began to make their way out of their rooms, the last was Terrens mother, a slightly larger red headed woman.

She had been asleep until she heard the yelling, she came out to look for her son out of concern and fear.

‘So, you cried then, and you cry now. How pathetic. When will you ever grow up? Look at you, well into your thirties and you still allow this.'

His quiet sobs had choked out as he laid silently, allowing his tears to dampen and stain the bed.

Terren growled inwardly at the voice in his mind. ‘Go away. I am in no mood for this crap anymore. You’re right, I am too old for this, just as I’m too old for you.’

Closing his eyes tight, he pushed away at the pain in him, along with the memory.

Try as he might, though, it took much more as it seemed his mind kept returning the memory stronger, always slightly altering it to make it darker, and worse. With this, Terren began to grow frustrated and angry with himself. He gripped the pillow hard, working his mind to will away the memory.

When time passed and he seemed to fail, he began to work to clear his mind as he had before, willing the sensation of floating in water. It worked finally, to push the memory away.

Opening his eyes, Terren let out a sigh, as he felt himself relax ever so slightly, the heat within him slowly dissipating. The problem he faced now, was he felt tired, and drained, as though the anger within him was a literal fire and had burned him from the inside out. The feeling of being consumed by this anger felt familiar, too familiar as he slowly began to feel a headache pounding away in his head.

‘Perhaps it’s true though. With everything that has happened in your life, being called a monster may be the truth of who and what you are. Any time you try and be a part of someone’s life, even as a friend, you fail. So many have come to you and told you ho badly you affected them.’

Terren let out a groan, ‘How long is this going to last. You have no proof. Yes, I made mistakes as a kid, but that was because I didn’t think. I came to know that, and understand it over time.’

It felt strange to think this at the voice, but as he thought it, he knew it to be true.

‘Sure, but often there were moments where others looked at you angrily just as she did. Others who have called you a monster. Maybe that was why so many hated you the moment you were born.’

Gritting his teeth, Terren worked to push the voice away, but it persisted, even as it faded.

‘Someone like you, a monster, hated since birth by all others. No one to love, or to love you. How long will it be before those in this place hate you? You know the truth of what this place is.’

Terren opened his eyes in shock, at this. He stopped pushing the voice away as his mind turned to where he was now. He still didn’t know where he was.

He felt something, almost as if the voice he was beginning to argue against was smiling. No, more like a smirk.

He frowned to himself since there was no one and nothing else there with him.

‘It’s been a while. But, the memories are there. Even those smarter than you have said insanity and mental illness was passed through genes. A family who believe in incest, racism, abuse, all as a distorted form of love. Would it not be surprising if in fact, you were laying in a padded room? If you think about it, as complex as you know the mind to be, Terren, you know sometimes the mind can perceive things differently at different levels.

‘Then again, you’re no doctor. Not even a head shrink, of course, you never could be anything like that. I mean, let’s face it, e already know how stupid you are. People tell you all the time ho stupid you really are. What if the truth were, that when you woke up, you woke up in a delusion. But in reality, you were in a hospital, tied and chained to a bed. Those pony things could have been real doctors, they even said you were violent, before-’

“Stop, enough. I can’t listen to this anymore.” Terren said, quietly.

He was angry, but it wasn’t the same anger that left him feeling burned through and through from the inside out. This as more of an anger that seemed to come from one who was defeated.

As the voice seemed to try and continue, Terren turned over and raised up in the bed, eyes squeezed shut. He placed his fists to the side of his head and began to hit them against the side of his head just above his ears.

The jarring sensation quickly developed into pain as he repeated his phrase, “Stop it, stop it, stop it...” He continued this like repeating a mantra, till he was left feeling dizzy and sick to his stomach.

As he stopped, he could tell the voice was gone, and he let out a breath of relief. That was until another memory came to the front of his mind.

He didn’t know where it came from, but in it, he knew he had been in a hospital for being considered mentally unbalanced. Potentially insane, even.

As he wandered through that memory, another came. Another memory of being in a different hospital, for the same reason, but that one had been the result of something else transpiring altogether.

Both times he had felt uncomfortable in the hospitals, they felt alien, cold, and uncaring to him.

“No, no more, I’m too tired to deal with this. I- I can’t...” more tears began to fall as he felt within him, his strength of will slip away. He gave in, to the possibility, but still he had to keep a small flame of hope alive that it as all a lie.

As he tried to think, his mind now seeming to jump from one thing to another, another voice came to him.

This one was not as harsh or mean as the last. In fact, it even seemed like his own thought, and so he allowed it to continue.

‘What if this is for the best? Everyone in society will consider someone as unbalanced as a danger to themselves, and to others.’

Terren glanced down to the padded cuffs that were still hanging at the sides of the hospital bed.

‘Maybe if I just stay here, it will help me, and everyone else will be safer for it.’

Terren shivered, before looking up. The clean, sterile white walls began to seem familiar, and alien.

He began to feel small, closed in. He needed to stand, and to walk, he needed to know he wasn’t locked away. The feeling of being enclosed had always been something that bothered him.

He knew the reason, but he could not remember it. So horrible was that memory, it had been locked away within his psyche, and he hoped to never encounter it ever again.

He began to breathe heavily and worked to try and keep himself as calm as possible.

With shaking limbs, he moved himself to the edge of the bed, and carefully placed his feet on the floor. It took him a few minutes, as he continued to shake all over, from being scared and feeling so cold.

It took so long because of how slow he was going, but it helped him to focus fully on his movements. As he finally straightened his body, now shaking less as he slowly brought his mind back under some semblance of control.

His body still shook, he realized now how cold the tile floor was on his feet as he only had socks to cover them.

He made sure he could stand on his on, without the need to rely on the bed before he attempted to walk.

Once he was sure he could make it on his own, he drew his arms up, shuddering and began trying to warm himself by running his hands over his sides, just under his arms.

Carefully he made his way to the window and looked out. With more awareness, he could see that the floor he was on was too high to get out by the window. So, that left him trying to find out either when the hospital would be willing to release him, or sneaking out.

He turned and looked over his shoulder at the door, and wondered what kind of security they had. The last hospital he was at, at least in the last place he had called home, had several officers, or security guards, who were more than willing to manhandle him or any others.

Terren set his jaw, he didn’t want to hurt anyone, he never did. It was something that scared him, but over the years, he began to hate himself for not wanting to hurt others as it left him feeling so weak and unable to fend for himself.

That was part of the reason he had taken his own money and left to live out on the streets, wandering till he could reach enough woodlands he could try and fend for himself with as little interaction with other people as possible.

He had convinced himself it had been for the best to keep others safe while he dealt with himself.

‘Who am I kidding? I don’t do it to keep others safe. I do it so I don’t end up in this place where they control me. Where I can’t make my own decisions, where I can’t do anything without someone watching me.’

Terren’s eyes wandered the floor as he considered this thought, his focus turned inward, making him seem distant.

Was it true? Was that really his thought, was that really how he felt? Was all of this because he could not cope, and he forced himself into a type of exile to avoid dealing with his problems?

He knew as he had grown he came to learn how to run away from things. Learned from his mother as she would often not be able to deal with things that came up and would always pick him up and leave.

With a heavy sigh, Terren brought himself out of his on dark thoughts and laid his head against the window.

He could feel the warmth from the sunlight and smiled to himself. He was no longer shaking from the cold.

As he turned his attention fully to the outside world, he could see figures down below moving about, some leaving the hospital, some coming in.

In fact, as he tilted his head slightly in thought, he recognized the color of a few. A purple form, beside a pink and yellow one. Though no, they were accompanied by a smaller, slightly fatter purple and green figure on two legs, and another pony shape that seemed to have a chromatic front and back and was hanging in the air.

This one, with wings spread out, looked like a piece of the sky just decided to separate itself from the rest of the atmosphere and came don to the ground, along with two pieces of a rainbow.

Author's Note

Well, a few things.

If there are any words missing the 'W', it's cause the key on my laptop is sticking. Having some issues with that. Usually, after a bit of use, it tends to unstick itself but it's been giving me problems for a while now.

Secondly, the description for the Shelter, that whole part is,a s I tried to explain in the story a aprt of Terren's memories from when he was a child. Had to work quite a bit on that whole bit. Spent several hours actually tryign to get it just right to make sense, even going back making sure everyone udnerstood he was the little kid when I did a read over and realized jsut throwing a lot of he's and him's around was horrible.

Thirdly, I apologize for any issues anyone has with the large spacing between events. I don't know what to use for breaks rather than jsut a bland line that aparently people at times have problems with. If I can figure something out, then I will see about going through and inserting those to make it easier to udnerstand when soemthing in the story in altering, or shifting.

Lastly, and this is the bigges tissue of all. I apologize for my form of writing. I kno it's fairly bad quite often. I don't tend to write things out ahead of time for any kind of brainstormign till I am already writing the story itself. Also I have a abd history of tryign to do too many corrections on a story when tryign to wrok it out of a first draft hich leads to me jsut giving up and tossign the story.
So, please understand, the stories are bad because I don't write past a first draft, and don't brianstorm ahead of time. Which also explains my really horrible updating on any stories at all.
All I really do is jsut rite up the story, till I am comfortable I have out what I feel I need to get out, copy paste it to FiM, then go through and try and make corrections. Sometimes altering a paragraph or sentence here and there.

Oh, and before I forget, if the paragraphs that are italicized and colored are a problem, let me know and I will try and change the colors to something more viewable, or jsut change them back to black and white font. I had them set specifically in these colors for reasons, as a sense to show kind of a mind that is having difficulty keeping things together. As it were.

At least, this is the best I can explain what is going on atm. Sorry.

Additionally, I feel I am going to have to set up another tag. Until I get the next chapter written up, I won't know for sure which one just yet.

Chapter 5

With a sigh, Terren turned from the window looked around. As he did, his eyes traveled over to the sink just a few feet away and saw the plastic cups set next to the faucet. He made his way over and grabbed one of the cups and filled it with water.

He closed his eyes at the feeling of the cool liquid flowing down his throat before he pulled the nearly empty cup away and let out a satisfied breath.

He walked over to the door after tossing the cup into the small trash bin on the other side of the sink and made his way to the door.

Once there he carefully opened the door a crack and peered out to see a hallway.

Directly across was another door with a three hundred number, most likely the three was the floor, and the rest was left to right the area and section or something like that. It wasn’t important to him as he opened the door more and pushed his head through and looked left to right.

He could see to his right the hallway came to an end with a door, a green sign above it that read, ‘Emergency Exit’ in green and white. From this angle, it seemed that the door was part of an ‘T’ intersection, but the light on the floor to one side showed it may just be a section made specifically for getting out if there was any form of emergency.

‘Wonder if there is an alarm to it. Maybe, maybe not. If I had magic at my disposal, I would probably have some form of alarm, both loud and silent. Well, that depends on the kind of magic as well. I wonder if it’s like a specific type of magic, multiple forms, elemental, or what? Cause the more options the more you could do to manipulate it more than likely.’

After coming to that conclusion to only go to that door if he knew he could escape, and quickly before any could catch him, he turned to look to the left.

Just a ways down the long hallway the other way, he saw a collection of doors on both sides of the hallway. In the distance he could see a pony walking by with a chart in his mouth.

‘Eww? Sanitation issue much?’

As he watched, the pony stopped at a rounded spot in the middle of the hallway before it continued and got up on his front hooves at the top.

It occurred to Terren it may be a nurses desk, or station of some sort, as the pony placed the object on top of the surface and began speaking to presumably another pony.

The moment he saw the familiar form of Nurse Redheart bring herself over the desk and grab the chart, Terren ducked back in to keep from being seen.

Nurse Redheart nearly dropped the chart as both she and the doctor looked down the hall where they heard a loud thunk sound and someone muttering obscenities.

“So, any issues with the human?” The doctor asked as he slowly turned back to the nurse.

“Not really, he asked to look outside through the window. Then seemed tired and laid back down.” She explained before taking the chart and setting it down on the side.

“Hello, Doctor.” Came a familiar voice.

“Ah, Princess, how are you?”

Nurse Redheart looked up over the desk to spot Princess Twilight Sparkle and a few other ponies.

“Just Twilight, and I’m fine doctor. Are you looking after, Terren, the human, or is it another?” She inquired.

“Miss Dash, while I fully understand your need and want to fly often, may I remind you, inside the hospital is a no-fly zone.” Nurse Redheart chastised the hovering Pegasus.

She got a snort in response but after a second, the mare settled down and folded her wings.

“Thank you, and currently, we don’t have any doctors appointed to Terren. Erm, Doctor Sprinter, unfortunately is home with some head trauma. We are working on getting another to stand in.”

“Pfft, that arrogant stallion deserved some sense knocked into him anyways.” The stallion next to the desk said.

“Sketch, er, I mean Doctor. That is highly unprofessional. You know we try to conduct ourselves in a different manner here in Ponyville General,” Redheart chastised.

The Doctor grinned and offered a shrug.

“Uh...” Twilight began before hesitating, unsure of what to say.

Nurse Redheart stopped before she began in on the doctor once again and turned her attention back to those present, “Would you like to see him?”

“Please.”

With a nod, she walked around the desk and began to lead the ponies and dragon to the room.

“Will you need any chairs, Princess?” She asked as she stopped at the door.

“Probably would be best, thank you Nurse Redheart,” Twilight responded with a smile.

With a smile, in turn, Nurse Redheart opened the door and excused herself.

Inside, Twilight found Terren sitting on the edge of the bed, head lowered. She smiled and moved to the side to let everypony else in before she went to sit in front of Terren.

“Well, I have good news, Terren. We were able to find your bag for you. I must say, from what evidence I could gather, I would say it seemed to have been brought with you and lost.”

With that, her horn glowed and with a brief flash there at her side was a large black duffle bag.

Looking up to Terren she saw a distant look on his face, that immediately brought a frown to hers.

“Terren...?”

His head turned to look at her, his eyes still distant before he began to turn and look at all the others.

Each pony he looked at seemed to flinch back, Spike practically jumped and backed away.

With a grimace, Terren closed his eyes and brought his hand up to his head, holding his brow tightly.

“Terren, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked in concern, taking a small step forward.

Opening his eyes and looking over at her, the distant look was gone as he let out a groan.

“Just, my head has been hurting for a bit. Seems to hurt when I try to stand and walk a bit. Thing is, I need to to keep my body from feeling weak.” He explained offhandedly.

“Have you had anything to eat?” Fluttershy suddenly asked.

“Uh... No. I don’t think I’m even-” Terren was cut off by a large grumbling sound, and bent over, his hand now going down to his stomach. “Spoke too soon, I guess,” He said as he frowned, looking down at his own body.

“Well, how about we talk to Nurse Redheart about getting you some food when she comes back.”

“When who comes back?” Came a voice as the door opened.

Nurse Redheart pushed a small stack of a few chairs for the ponies present.

Twilight took the chairs in her magic to help and spread them out for her and her friends.

“Terren has not eaten anything, is there any way you could possibly bring him something?” Fluttershy pleaded in her usual way though she seemed a bit more forward with her concern for Terren.

“Oh, of course. I had nearly forgotten. I’ll see about getting you some soup and bread, sound good?” Nurse Redheart offered a smile to Terren.

He returned the smile, eyes lowering slightly, “Please and thank you.”

Nurse Redheart smiled broadly at that and promised to be right back with some food.

Twilight introduced Terren to Rainbow Dash and Spike. They took some time to speak to Terren to see if he had been able to remember anything as of yet. The most he could do was offer was one or two old memories came back from when he was little, but nothing of his more recent memories.

In time, Nurse Redheart returned with food not just for Terren, but for the rest of his visitors as well.

They enjoyed their time, though noticed how quiet Terren remained. When pressed, he said he was just trying to figure out what was best to do to try and remember things. Though he did admit, the best thing to do would be to focus on other things and let them come back on their on instead of trying to force them back.

After they finished the food, Nurse Redheart had to get everypony to leave as visiting hours had come to an end and was sure Terren needed rest considering he was suddenly starting to slouch forward with an occasional snort.

The mares bid their farewell to each other outside the hospital and went on their separate ways.

Fluttershy looked up briefly to Celestia’s setting sun before she continued on to her cottage near the edge of the Everfree.

She had a lot of things on her mind, and needed to see Discord. She had already sent a message for him and was hoping to see him soon.

What she didn’t expect when she opened the door was the chaos entity laying in a hammock, tied between two palms trees seemingly rooted to her floor. Discord himself was wearing a pair of sunglasses, a bright colored flowery shirt, and sipping from an open pineapple.

“Ah, Fluttershy, there you are. I hope you don’t mind, but I thought I’d let myself in and make myself comfortable while I waited for you.”

Fluttershy smiled slightly and shook her head, “It’s fine Dissy. I invited you here because I needed to talk to you.” She explained as she made her way across the living room after closing the door.

“Oh? IF you want to go out again, it’s only a snap away,” Raising his claws ready to snap.

“NO!” Fluttershy called out, surprising Discord. His sent the palm trees, hammock, and clothing away, proving Fluttershy now had his undivided attention.

“I’m sorry, Discord, but this is very important, please, no more using your magic. We have a problem, and it’s sitting in the Ponyville General Hospital right now.”

Discord fidgeted, not used to Fluttershy being so assertive when talking to him or anyone. He felt a strange sensation around his stomach, he felt uncomfortable, and lowered his head, feeling no like a small foal being reprimanded for something even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. Recently.

He jumped slightly as he felt a hoof on his side. Looking over into Fluttershy’s eyes, a small tear escaped.

“Fluttershy, whatever I have done to upset you this much, I am so very sorry. I thought you were enjoying yourself.”

“Oh, Dissy, I’m sorry, I should explain what’s going on. Here, have a seat, please. I am sure it’s just a misunderstanding.”

As Discord sat on the couch, Fluttershy climbed up beside him and began to explain everything that had happened since their return from their last outing.

Discord had listened, until she began to describe the human, and everything that happened after meeting him and trying to help him.

It was around talking about going back to see him and finding his bag, that Fluttershy began to notice a slightly dark look come over his features as he turned to look at the floor.

“Dissy? I-I just wanted to know if by accident you brought the human here.”

With a small smile, Discord turned to regard Fluttershy, looking almost like himself once more.

“I don’t think there is anything to worry about. I usually do things for the sake of chaos, but not this.”

With that said, Discord stood and began to walk to a door that appeared in the middle of Fluttershy’s living room and stepped through it. The random screams and dark figures that flitted past showed it was a door directly to his own home.

As the door slammed shut, it vanished, leaving Fluttershy alone in her home wondering what was wrong.

After a little bit of silence, the animals that usually ran about freely all began to slowly make their way out into the open.

She fed them, talked to them, and went to bed. Her actions seemed distracted as she did, but with everything on her mind, she was not sure what to do.

Terren woke slowly and began to look around. The room was dark, with barely any light coming in through the window. At some point, it seemed while he slept, a pony had come in and closed the blinds over the window, leaving the room in an even darker night than outside.

He stretched out his limbs and back before rolling over, wanting to sleep more. Try as he might, sleep would not come easily to him after already a few hours.

It came as no surprise. He felt often he would only sleep for a short time and had a need to get up and move around.

It was as he began to stand up from the hospital bed that he began to remember he was not in the same place as he had expected. This place was a place of ponies, not just normal ponies either.

Ponies that could speak, act like humans, but more. They had command of magic, and came in various shapes and colors, from normal ground walking ponies, to Pegasi, to even Unicorns.

As he remained on this thought, he began to remember, also the voice in his kind and what it had said before.

Before giving it time to wake up, he shook his head and focused on one thing. He needed to get away from them all. He knew he didn’t belong, he didn’t even belong among his on kind.

With a sigh he stood, since his mind wanted to keep a hold of certain thoughts, and it bothered him.

What also bothered him was he seemed to remember only a little bit, but many things seemed to jump out from time to time as though he was aware of it, but couldn’t understand or remember why.

“This amnesia crap is total bull. How can I remember things, but not remember things.” He asked himself angrily as he began to move stuff in his bag around.

He stopped as he felt something small and cold from the metal. Removing it, he could tell it was the small flashlight he had bought not long before finding himself in this place.

Additionally, he was surprised he found his sleeping bag rolled up small, as well as his tent inside the bag as well.

Double checking he was glad to see he also had the plastic sticks to hold up the tent as well. He could vaguely remember wrestling with these two things, having tried numerous times to compact as much into this single bag as he could.

After grabbing hat he needed, he closed the bag and searched around for shoes. Finding a pair of black and blue boots under the bed, he grabbed them and slipped them on before meticulously stringing them and trying them tight to his content.

Once done, he moved quietly over to the window and split the blinds and eye level and took a look out of the window.

He could see nothing moving, which to him seemed like the best thing possible.

Still with no idea of what kind of security they had at the hospital, he needed to try and make his way out as fast as possible.

Once he was ready and had his stuff, he made his way over to the door, making a face as his stuff shifted as he moved and made some noise.

Opening it, he looked out and spotted a nurse moving from behind the desk a ways down and heading in the opposite direction.

He turned to the emergency exit door which seemed so much closer and held the illusion of safety beyond it.

“Fuck it, might as ell make a hell of an exit.”

With that, Terren pulled the door open all the way and waited to see if the nurse would do something or continue to walk. He practically grinned as she entered a room and vanished from sight.

Coming out of his room he closed it silently, hearing the faintest click as he grasped the door handle and slowly released it. He turned and made his way to the exit door and spotted the sign that said there were stairs beyond.

Without a care, he pressed the horizontal bar to open the door and heard a fading buzz sound while a slight tingle went up both his arms.

Wasting no more time, Terren let the door close on its own behind him with what seemed like an even louder sound than he thought as it echoed in the stairwell. He hustled down the steps, trying to be careful to not miss any in his rush.

Terren breathed in the surprisingly fresh cold night air and took a quick look around. He wasn’t sure which way to go now that he was outside, he just wanted to find someplace he could escape to.

He took a minute to calm his beating heart, as he slowly breathed in through his nose and out his mouth. During this calming exercise, he caught the scent of thick woods nearby in the air and decided the direction he thought it was in.

As he began to move he heard noises from within the hospital, thinking they had realized what had happened he booked it, his bag bouncing from side to side and he held the straps and kept running.

It was only minutes before he spotted a tree line, having ran past several of the houses he had seen before.

He wasted no time, running along the line looking for an entrance into the woods.

Minutes passed as he occasionally slowed to rest his body and lungs, the sounds and sights of the town fading behind him.

He came to a large clearing that seemed natural to the woods, and he spotted some weird building that looked like it had grass growing on the roof. Completely different from the other buildings.

Something stirred in his mind and he let out a chuckle, “Wonder if the talking ponies have hobbits here.”

He spotted an entrance into the woods not far from the place and headed quickly for it.

Terren stopped and bent over slightly to try and rest some. It brow, back, and arms felt as though they were pouring sweat. He noticed how much warmer the woods became after he entered it, the dense foliage covering the top blocked out nearly all light, the closeness of trees, bushes, and vines, some including thorns seemed to keep a lot of cold at bay.

Terren was glad for this, he had come to learn, in some instances, a thick forest was often the best place to spend winter nights, though it often held surprises when snakes and animals tracked his body heat.

Shivering at the thought of snakes, he stood and with another breath he continued on, now at a walk. He moved the light of his mini flashlight around looking around, occasionally hearing small animals scamper away.

Another hour or so, as he could guess he came to a decent wide clearing.

Terren took some time to walk around it, checking the clearing to see if there were any holes he could detect, random patches of stones, or anything else he could think of.

A tracker he was not, but he still looked to see if there were any obvious animal tracks and excrements. He didn’t ant to take the chance of finding himself in a pack of wolves territory, then again anything could have this place as its territory and he wouldn’t even know.

Once he was positively satisfied, though paranoid, he set his bag down and began to set up his small tent.

He placed his stuff inside after it was set up, barely remembering to pull out his sleeping bag. He zipped up the entrance of his tent and crawled into a comfortable position and quickly fell to sleep.