A wilted rose

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.