Cryogen

"Agh... son of a..." I mumble to myself as I slowly open my eyes. Everything is blurry, not to mention the bright light above me hurts to look at, even with my eyes closed. I rub my eyes, trying to get them to focus. As I do so, I feel a sharp pain on the side of my face, as well as a similar pain on my back, making it uncomfortable to lie directly on my back.

My memories start to rush back to me, and I sit up, looking for the yellow pegasus I had been rushing to the hospital. Speaking of which, I'm apparently in said hospital, considering I'm hooked up to a heart rate monitor and an IV. I rip the cords out of my arm, and quickly stand up, only to realize I'm completely naked. I yank a sheet off the bed, and wrap myself in it before spotting my clothes neatly folded next to my shoes and backpack on a table on the opposite side of the room. What I didn't notice was the doctor staring at me from the doorway, his mouth gaping open, probably because I just ripped a bunch of wires off my body and had a small trail of blood trickling down my arm from where the IV was ripped out.

"A little privacy please?" I say as I squint at the doctor. He blinks and nods before rushing out of the room, probably to find security or something. I close the door behind him, throw the sheet off my body, and quickly gather up my clothes, slipping on my shirt and pants, then my shoes and socks, and finally my backpack which thankfully still has everything in it. I brush them off before slowly opening the door and peek around the corner, rubbing the side of my face as I do so. I swear if I ever see that little blue piece of crap that slugged me again, I'll tear her a new one.

I step out into the hallway, pressing my back against the wall, trying to be stealthy. I blame this on playing too many video games. I slowly sneak around, ducking behind trash bins, carts, anything that will hide me whenever someone passes by. If any of these ponies act like that blue one that attacked me, I certainly don't want them to notice me.

I have one goal right now. Find where that Fluttershy girl is, and make sure she isn't dead. If someone dies because of my stupidity, I probably won't forgive myself. She seemed pretty innocent, reminded me of a frightened young girl. She didn't deserve that to happen to her while I got away with nothing more than a scratch.

At one point, a nurse walks by pushing a cart in front of her. She stops and walks into a room, giving me the perfect opportunity to get what I wanted. I step out from behind the bin I was hiding behind, and approach the cart, shuffling items around on it till I find what I want. A clipboard with a list of patients and what rooms they are in. I scan the list, hoping that this list was made recently. I find Fluttershy's name near the bottom, and see that she's being kept in a room on the second floor. A quick glance out the window at the end of the hallway tells me that I'm on the first floor. Great, how am I supposed to get up there without being seen?

I crumble up the paper, and stuff it into my pocket as I break into a sprint down the hallway towards the elevator. If I can't sneak up there, then I'll just have to try to get there before being stopped.

I turn a corner, and find the stairwell that leads to the second floor, and swing the door open, only to run directly into a nurse, knocking her over.

"I'm so sorry." I say as I hold a hand out towards her, the other one rubbing my face, trying to get rid of the pain shooting through it.

"Hey, you're that patient that was-" She starts, but I cut her off.

"Sorry, can't chat right now." I say as I quickly stand up and rush up the stairs. I take a quick look behind me to see the nurse just sitting there, staring at the spot I once stood. I push the thought aside, and quickly rush up the remaining stairs, forcing the door open at the top. I stumble out into a hallway that looks similar to the one downstairs, and look for room 2B.

I follow multiple signs that show the locations of certain rooms, gaining stares from everyone that I pass. This is SO much easier than trying to sneak around. I stumble around the last corner, as the room comes into view at the end of the hallway. I lightly jog down said hallway, a small smile forming on my face as I made it successfully.

I open the door to Fluttershy's room, and walk inside. I must have been out for a long time, because Fluttershy looks like she's already been patched up, maybe even had some kind of surgery, who knows? It would make sense that I was out for quite a while. Not only was I knocked out cold, but my body was probably half dead from traveling for a major portion of the day. Hell, I'm surprised that I didn't die.

I approach Fluttershy, who appears to either be asleep or unconscious. The heart monitor next to her bed lets me know that she is still alive, thank God. I stop next to her bed, taking off my backpack and getting down a knee so I'm at her level.

"Sorry 'bout this." I say as I rub the back of my head. "It was kinda my fault huh?"

No response, not that I was really expecting one.

"Well, you're alive, so, I guess I did my job." I mumble as I get up, rubbing my face with the palms of my hands. I start slowly walking back towards the door, but I hear voices approaching from outside. Without even thinking, I dive under Fluttershy's bed, which is just barely large enough to cover me. My breaths come heavily, but I try to be as quiet as possible. I lie on my stomach, my face pointed towards the door which opens slowly, revealing multiple sets of legs.

"I'm sure you overreacted." A feminine voice says.

"You didn't see it Twilight! It was carrying Fluttershy, and she was covered in her own blood!" A raspy, familiar voice says. Fuck, that better not be that one po-

"Rainbow, Fluttershy had claw marks down her side, and that "monster", as you described him, didn't have claws. Trust me, I looked at him myself!" The first voice says.

"Maybe we should visit him and throw him a welcome party!" A high pitched, somewhat annoying yet innocent voice says rather loudly.

"No way, I still say that thing hurt Fluttershy." The raspy voice says.

"Did you actually even talk to Fluttershy, Rainbow?"

"Well... no, she passed out right after I defeated that thing. So I-"

"So you don't actually know what she saw, do you?"

"Well, no, but I know what I saw! And unless I get solid proof that it was something else that attacked her, I'm gonna keep my eye on that thing!" Alright, that's fuckin' enough. I roll out from under the bed, literally, I roll on my side. I stand up quickly, gaining the attention of four new ponies, and one that I'd seen before. One I wish I could forget.

"Ah son of a bitch, it was you!" I say as I stare down the blue one who I assume is this, "Rainbow" character that they've been referring to.

"Hey, what did you do to-" She begins to yell, but is suddenly stopped midair by some purple glow. I stare down at a purple pony, this one having not only wings, but a horn on it's head, covered in the same pinkish purple glow.

"Rainbow! Stop that!" She scolds the pegasus who is still frozen in the air. The others in the room still look mortified by me just standing there, which isn't exactly what I was hoping for, yet knew would happen.

"What were ya doin' under her bed?" An orange one wearing, believe it or not, a stetson hat, asks me, giving me a suspicious glare. "Were ya tryin' to hurt her or somethin'?"

"What? No! I saved her ass, thanks for asking! Then this one over here knocked me out before I could get her to the hospital!" I yell as I point to Rainbow, who is STILL in the air.

"Then why were you carrying her, covered in her own blood!?" Rainbow yells.

"Because she was attacked by some wooden wolf thing! I killed it, picked her up, and I was rushing her to the hospital until you knocked me down! If you want proof, I can take back there right now and show you the body!"

"Excuse me for asking, but um, what exactly are you darling? I've never seen anything of the likes of you." The last one to speak, a white pony with a horn, asks me.

"Name's Zack. Nice to see at least some of you have manners." I say as I flash her a quick smile before returning to my serious attitude. She smiles back, seemingly okay with me being here, and hopefully believing my story which is all too true, though I did leave out the reason that the wolf was actually near Fluttershy.

"Well Zack... I can't say I really know what you are, which does kind of bother me... But uh, you seem... nice enough." The purple one says, giving me a sheepish, nervous smile that seems all too forced.

"So uh, you guys going to introduce yourselves or..." I say as I rock on my heels.

"Oh uh, right. Well I'm Twilight Sparkle." The purple one says. "This is Rainbow Dash." She says as she gestures to the blue pegasus who she recently put down, and is now giving me an distrusting look. "Rarity." Pointing now to the white unicorn pony. "Applejack." Now she points to the orange one who gives me a suspicious look, but nods none the less. "And Pin- Where did she go?" Twilight says as she starts spinning in circles.

"Heya!" Suddenly my vision is covered in pink, and I feel something on my back, a part of it pressing into the sore spot where Rainbow slugged me. I WILL get revenge for that, I swear on my life I will. "I'm Pinkie Pie!" A pink, upside-down face appears in my vision, and causes me to stumble back against the wall, causing some of the ponies to giggle at me.

"Um, hi? Could you, y'know, get off my back?" I say as I try to force her off of me, but she's stuck to me like a headcrab. The next thing I know, she is standing among the group of ponies who are a good ten feet away. The scary part is that I didn't even see her travel between where I'm standing, and where the group is standing.

"What the... How the hell?" I say rather quietly, my brain going into overdrive as I try to think of a logical explanation for how she did that. "How did she-"

"Don't ask." Twilight says as she eyes the pink pony.

"But she just-"

"I said don't ask. You'll only hurt yourself." Twilight says as she rolls her eyes.

"Guys." Nobody seemed to hear Applejack who saw something that none of us saw.

"Twilight, I'm a man of science, alright? I wanna know how she-"

"Guys!" Applejack yells. We all look over to her, only to see her standing next to Fluttershy's bed. Speaking of which, looks like there is a sixth member of this "party" now.

"She's awake."