Chapters Author's Note
So fun fact, this story has been in work ever I saw a review of Equestria Girls, which was two and a half years ago. This is my 20th attempt (I think) to bring something onto paper. The plot has changed dramatically. Originally this should take place before the first movie, with the protagonist not even having heard about the movie. But the MLP universe expanded greatly over time. And now that I finally have decided on a concept...well, I'll never stop being a fimfiction writer with how many stories I come up. Luckily, I don't forget the others. It's just progress is fairly slow, especially when you're addicted to video games. Anyways, tell me what you think, I'm looking for an editor, have fun.
Chapter 1
“And now to the weather. Heavy rainfall is to be expected, starting tonight. The temperature drops to 12°C, so better get your raincoats out folks. Our weather stations predict it’ll stay grey for at least until the weekend. If you have some grocery shopping to do, better do it now folks. Back to you Sound Bite.”
“Thank you Cloud Buster. Uff, rain. Kinda reminds me I still have my laundry hanging outside. I just hope I get back, before it all gets soaked, haha. Well, lucky for me, it’s over with me. But don’t worry! It’s not like I’ll leave you alone! Mega Phone will soon be here, after only three songs! My name has been Sound Bite, thanks for tuning in and have a nice day!”
The radio station began to play an older song, back from the beginnings of Countess Coloratura. Twilight Velvet tuned down the music a bit, as she wasn’t a particular fan of the songs of the so called “Countess”. In her eyes, the singer was just another one of those girls, wasting her life in the so called upper class, going from one show to another and another and another. Well, to give the girl some credit, she did a lot of good with her money. In a magazine Velvet once read that the Countess had spent half of her money savings into charity. Now that was something.
Velvet stopped the car, as the streetlight turned red. She used the opportunity to pick out her list of groceries that she still needed to buy this week. Curtesy of her daughter Twilight Sparkle. Sometimes Velvet wondered if her girl made lists while sleepwalking.
“Well, I guess I should go now, as long as it isn’t raining.” the woman said to herself. Not that rain mattered much, but the short time periods she was between the care and the supermarket, she’d rather spend the time dry than completely soaked, like during last month’s rainstorm.
Having decided, Velvet mentally re-planned the route she was taking home, so she would stop at the small market near the penthouse she and her family were living. It was run by one of Velvet’s former classmates, who sadly didn’t made much more of his life, than being a store owner. At least he himself saw it positive: “Hey, I thought I was gonna be a simple cashier. But guess what, Vel? I OWN the register!” And then he proceeded to make a drumstick joke sound from his phone.
Velvet shook her head, looking for some parking space. It took her fifteen minutes to finally find something, which would not involve shoving other cars out of the way. Stepping out of the car, the Writer used the opportunity to stretch, before she locked her car and walked into the store. The door had been already open, strange considering it wasn’t that warm outside.
Lock Pick, Velvet’s friend and store owner was nowhere to be seen, leaving the register unattendant. Fun fact, Lock Pick had been robbed at least three times that way. Luckily for him he installed surveillance cameras throughout the store. That may actually be the reason for him being so careless.
Shaking her head, the woman made her way into the store, already knowing the layout inside out. There were just two other customers in the store, aside from her. A teenager and an old woman, muttering something, while making wild gestures with her right hand. Velvet decided to avoid her.
Quickly the woman picked up the things she needed, scratching one thing after another from the list. She only slowed down, when she came to the vegetables. After all, if she just grabbed randomly some tomatoes, she might accidentally take a rotten one. She spent around ten minutes there, when out of the corner a red skinned man, with short cutted hair, a simple white t-shirt, a black vest, jeans and blue/white sport shoes appeared from behind a door that said: “Employees only.”
“Vel! How are things?” Lock Pick asked, surprised to see his longtime friend.
“Lock! Pretty good. And you?”
“Eh…” he shrugged. “Better than these past months, definitely. Internet add revenue is certainly helping, but I can forget about going to Berlin once again.”
“Oh too bad.” Velvet smiled wryly. “Maybe next year?” she asked.
“I have a feeling you said this last year already. You know, deja vu? Oh, gotta go to the register.”
Lock Pick quickly turned around and walked to the teenager waiting impatiently at the exit, where the cash register was located. Velvet herself, returned on getting everything she needed. After the vegetables, she still wanted to buy a cantaloupe. She smelled the different cantaloupe’s, looking for the one with the most intensive sent, as they tended to be the sweetest. After she decided for one, the woman went over the list one last time, looking if she forgot something. Satisfied that nothing was missing, she made her way towards the register, where she found Lock Pick, putting some exchange money inside.
“So, how’re the kids Vel?” Lock asked, scanning the things Velvet bought.
“What can I say? Twilight is still a shut in and doesn’t even attempt to make some friends. She said we, her family and Spike are enough.”
“Uh huh. You know, I read about a man who in his entire life had only one friend: a parrot. These guys are pretty smart, you know and live pretty long. Speaking off...you think Twilight will handle it well, when Spike passes away? Small dogs tend to live only a couple of years.”
Velvet frowned. “Spike is just turning 2 this year, Lock. I think it is hardly appreciated talking about something like this now or rather ever.”
“Sorry.” the man held up his arms. “I’m just worried, ya know? Family is nice and all, but it can’t replace friends, just like friends cannot replace the family. What I’m saying is, of course she will turn to you, when the time comes, but the thing is, it’s not enough.”
“What makes you say that?”
It was Lock Pick’s turn to frown. “Let’s just say, I have personal experience.” He shook his head.
“Whatever, that’ll 20-”
The man was cut off, by a loud crash coming from right outside the shop. Both Velvet and Lock Pick jumped at the loud noise, their hearts beating against their chest, as if they wanted to get out.
“What was that?” Velvet asked, looking outside. To her surprise she didn’t find anything.
Lock himself stood up and jumped over the table, sprinting outside. He ran to the right, looking frantically for whatever this sound had been. Only seconds later, his eyes fell upon a turquois skinned teenager, lying on the ground face down. Blood was coming out from the back of her head.
“Fuck!” Lock Pick cursed, running to the girl, crouching down. “Hey! Can you hear me?!” He shook her a little bit, but there was no response. Carefully he turned the girl around and checked for pulse.
“At least something…”
Behind him there was the sound of someone gasping. Turning his head, Lock found his old friend standing there, her hands clasped over her mouth.
“Vel! Call an ambulance! She’s out cold!”
“I...I…”
“Do it NOW!”
“R-right.” The shout coming from her friend, brought the woman back to reality. She opened her purse and frantically looked for her cell phone. She almost dropped it, as she finally took it out. She quickly dialed the emergency number.
“No, I’m alright.” Velvet spoke into her phone. She was inside the hospital, talking to her husband, who sounded worried. “I couldn’t just leave her alone, Nightlight. Lock Pick can’t afford to close the store early and someone had to look after her.”
“Did the doctors say anything?”
“No, the doctors haven’t told me anything yet. Look, I’ll come back as soon as I know that she will be alright, okay?”
“All right. Love you, honey.”
“Love you, too.”
Velvet cut off the connection and put her phone away, before anyone could catch her using it. She was in a long, empty hallway, the girl being taken care of inside the room in front of her. Back on the streets, the ambulance had arrived within 15 minutes after the call. They had quickly taken her in and drove off to the hospital. Velvet had decided to follow them, since no one else around seemed to know the girl. Of course after paying her friend for everything.
Inside, she had quickly spoken to one of the nurses. Apparently the girl had nothing with her, which could possibly identify any family the girl had, so the nurse told her where they had brought the girl for examination. So now, Velvet was here, waiting for already fifty minutes for someone to come out. Luckily she didn’t have to wait any longer, as a doctor came out. Upon spotting the woman, he asked.
“Can I help you miss?”
“Yes...I think so. You see, I’m the one who called the ambulance. I just...well, I wanted to make sure that she’s alright. I know I’m not even a family member, so you probably can’t say much…” Velvet trailed off.
The doctor sighed. “Considering the circumstances...she’ll make it. The head wound looks worse than it actually is. We have detected a large amount of alcohol in her blood system, though.”
“Oh.” Velvet blinked surprised.
“She will probably wake up with a huge headache, but else she’ll be fine. You don’t happen to know the girl or any family members?”
Velvet shook her head.
“That’s too bad. At any rate, you can visit her tomorrow, if you want. She probably won’t wake for at least another few hours.”
“I see. Thank you doctor.”
“No problem. I’ll see you then, Miss…”
“Velvet. Twilight Velvet.”
“A pleasure meeting you, Miss Velvet.” The doctor nodded and headed down the hallway.
Velvet let out a sigh, looking towards the door. She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved that the girl was not mugged or worried that the girl had been drunk. She certainly hoped that the girl just partied too hard and as a result hit her head. With these thoughts, Velvet walked out of the hospital and into the rain. Of course it had to start raining now. Just her luck.
Thirty minutes later, the Sparkle family was sitting at the dining table together, with the exception of Spike, who was lying comfortably near the heater. He and Twilight Sparkle had just come back from a walk, when Velvet finally arrived at home.
“Alcohol?” Nightlight asked. “Explains everything.”
“Nightlight! Don’t just jump to conclusions like that!” Velvet scolded very loudly. Spike let out a whine from his position, rolling to the side.
“Hun, you know how where girls like her come from.”
“Dad.” Shining Armor butted in. “You don’t really know that. She might have just partied really hard. Things like this happen nowadays at our age.” the son argued.
“I hope you don’t use this as an excuse to come home drunk yourself one night.”
To this statement, Shining Armor merely rolled his eyes and continued eating. Velvet frowned towards her husband, following her son’s example.
Nightlight decided it was best to change the topic. His eyes fell onto the only one in the room, who had been quite the entire time: his daughter. From the looks of things she probably didn’t even listen one bit to the small conversation. Or any other they had previously to this one. The girl was slowly eating her vegetables, her eyes on the plate. Her mind was probably far away, trying to solve the mysteries of the universe.
“Twilight?”
No reaction.
“Twilight.”
Still no reaction. Nightlight decided for a more direct approach, by leaning over and tapping the girl’s hand. The reaction was immediate. Twilight jumped, causing her chair to lean too far backwards and the girl falling to the ground with a scream. During the fall, her legs hit the table. The vibration caused her plate to fall down. The foot perfectly landed all over her clothes, not one tomato or potato hit the ground. The others couldn’t help themselves. They all bursted out laughing at Twilight’s misery. To make it even worse, Spike had once again jumped at the opportunity of free food and was now happily licking Twilight’s face, which was covered in steak sauce.
After she recovered from her fall, Twilight shoved Spike out of her face. With a grunt, she slowly went into a sitting position, the plate sliding down her body and onto the ground. Spike yelped upon the clattering noise nearby and ran under the table. Twilight let out another grunt, slowly but surely getting back up on her two feet. Embarrassed, Twilight shot her father an evil glare, before leaving in a huff, looking for something else than Spike’s tongue to clean the floor.
By the time she returned, her family members were still snickering.
“Here, hehe. Let me help you, haha.” Nightlight couldn’t fully suppress his chuckles, as he grabbed some paper towels himself and got to work.
“So, how was your day?” he asked cheerfully.
“Like always.” came Twilight’s simple reply.
Nightlight and Velvet frowned, which Twilight didn’t see. Their daughter barely talked about the school nowadays. Actually, she only told them when a test was coming up or their parents needed to sign something or other.
“And you, Shining Armor?” Velvet asked.
“Not much, really.” The older sibling shrugged. “Sports was pretty boring, preparations for the finals, yes Mom, I am confident that I will pass them. I had Twilight to tutor me after all.” He winked at his sister, who smiled a little.
“Well, then there’s nothing to worry about, is there?” Nightlight asked in a rhetoric matter.
“I’m going to take a shower.” Twilight announced. “Mom? Can you put a bit aside from me?”
“Of course.” Velvet nodded. “Just don’t take too long.”
“Mom, we have a microwave.” Twilight retorted, before leaving the room. Spike tried to follow her inside the bathroom, but was sent back to the living room by Twilight. Back there, he placed himself right next to the heater again.
“So, mom, Cadance’s asking when your new book is coming out. She said, she can’t wait for another one of your masterpieces.”
Velvet chuckled rolling her eyes. “I just released my newest novel last week. Besides, I’m not sure yet if the next one will be a romance novel or if there will be romance at all. And honestly, right now, I don’t want to think about it. I want to clear my head first.”
Suddenly the phone in the household rang. Velvet stood up and walked into the hallway, where the phone was positioned on a small desk. Looking on the display, Velvet found that it was Lock Pick who was calling. On hindsight, she should have been expecting this.
“Hello Lock.”
“Hi Vel. Just wanted to ask how the girl was doing.”
“Oh, well they brought her to the General. They couldn’t find any identification items on her. Also the doctors found alcohol in her bloodstream.”
“Alc? Huh. Maybe some boy filled her up to get her greens. Hopefully she just forgot it somewhere.”
“Lock, you haven’t seen the girl by any chance anywhere, have you?”
“Definitely nope. This is the city after all and not the outskirts. Anyways, docs say she will be fine?”
“Yes, they said she just needed some rest. The wound wasn’t that great they told me, it just will add to her upcoming headache apparently.”
“Ouch. I bet her parents will give her hell too for getting drunk in the first place.”
“I certainly hope so. They must be worried sick, not hearing from their girl. I mean, she didn’t even had her cell phone with her.”
“Hmm, yeah. You don’t see this kind of thing happening. At least usually. Oh yeah, reminds me. The scarf, the girl had been wearing, dropped off her body. I’m cleaning it right now and wanna give it back, tomorrow after I close. If she’s still in hospital afterwards that is.”
“You know, I planned on visiting her tomorrow.”
“You do?”
“Yes...seeing her like this…… you know...it was kind of a shock...and...I just want to be sure she’s okay.”
“I get it. So, can you come over and pick up the scarf tomorrow? That way she’ll get it for sure. Lucky you, you can set your free time however you want.”
“Oh, shush. How often have I caught you playing on your PC or phone in your store?”
“Hey! My store, my rules. I clean this shit-hole up every damn day by myself. I should be allowed some kind of reward.”
“Whatever you say. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Yup. Bye.”
Velvet stood in front of the reception desk, tapping her foot impatiently, her umbrella leaning against the desk from her side. They were not kidding about the rain yesterday on the radio. At night, she could even hear thunder going outside, which didn’t help her sleep that night. Luckily for her, she normally didn’t uphold any particular schedules and so she could allow herself to sleep in a little. The nurse had been gone for over ten minutes by now. Other people who talked to the other nurse behind the desk had gotten through much faster with their requests. So what was the holdup? Checking whether she could visit a patient or not normally didn’t take this much time. At least to her knowledge. This was actually the first time she visited someone in the hospital.
Finally after five more minutes, the nurse returned.
“I’m sorry this took so long. It turns out the girl was recently transferred into another room and of course, once again no one has the time to take five minutes and update the database.” The nurse rolled her eyes, causing Velvet to chuckle.
“Anyways, the girl is now in room 207. You can take the elevator over there and go to the second floor.”
“Thank you, very much for your trouble.” said Velvet.
“It’s no trouble. All part of the job.”
Velvet nodded and walked towards the elevator. Once inside, she realized that she forgot to ask about the girl’s name. Oh well, she could always ask the girl herself. With an audible “ding” the elevator stopped on the second floor with the doors opening. The corridor was filled with people, patients, doctors, other visitors and even two police officers. Careful not to bump into anyone, Velvet made her way through the mass of people. Room 207 was in the middle of the corridor. The woman knocked at the door, politely. To her surprise, it was immediately opened from the inside by the doctor she spoke to yesterday.
“Ah, it’s you.” the doctor greeted her with a quick wave of his hand. “I didn’t expect you so to come so early.”
“I have flexible working times.” Velvet replied. “Is it okay for me to visit?”
The doctor nodded. “Though, I should tell you, she is still a little tired and not all there. She might say something that doesn’t make such sense.”
“Oh dear.” Velvet frowned.
“Don’t worry. I think she is just tired.”
Suddenly there was a peeping sound. The doctor took out his phone and looked at his display. “Duty calls once again. If you will excuse me.”
“Of course.” Velvet stepped aside, letting the doctor go out of the room. Once he was gone, Velvet closed the door, perfectly shutting out the chatter from the hallway. To Velvet’s right was a door which led into the bathroom, to her right hung a first aid kid. Further in, the room contained four big beds with white sheets on them. Only one of the beds was occupied. Inside was the turquois skinned girl from the other day. Her eyes were half closed and she had her left arm outstretched, looking at it lazily.
“Are you sure I’m not on drugs, doctor?” the girl spoke for the first time since Velvet saw her. The woman had to suppress a giggle. Obviously she didn’t notice the doctor leaving already.
“‘Cause I’m sure as hell, my skin is not supposed to be blue.”
“Well, it isn’t exactly blue dear. I’d rather call it turquoise.”
“Huh?” confused upon hearing the new, unknown voice, the girl turned her head into the direction Twilight Velvet was standing. The girl blinked exactly two times, before her eyes widened in shock. “W-w-w-w-WHAT THE HELL?!” the girl screamed, surprising Velvet.
Shortly after the scream left her lungs, the girl clutched her head, letting out a short whimper. It was then that Velvet noticed the bandage around her head. Slowly the woman approached the bed, hoping not to give the girl another scare. Whatever she was scared of in the first place.
Said girl looked up again, after the pain in her head subsided. Velvet was a little disturbed upon finding a manic gleam on her face.
“All, all right. Now I definitely know that I’m in a drug dream. Hehe…”
Velvet blinked, now really worried. She looked over to a panel with a nurse call button. She sat down on a chair next to the bed, so that she could quickly push the button if the need would arise.
“Are you alright? Should I call a doctor?”
“I don’t think this will help.” the girl said, still smiling like a madwoman. “I mean, I’m already hallucinating about people with candy colored skins. And now there’s you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah! Man, for a figment of my imagination, you’re pretty clueless.” she giggled. “I mean, why else would Twilight Velvet sit right next to me. Not to mention the doc telling me, white and brown skin colors are fairly rare around these parts.” A snort. “And then his name! Doctor Thin Needle! That name is as hilarious as it is creepy.”
She turned her head to Twilight Velvet. “I mean, can you IMAGINE someone naming their kid like that? Of course you can, you’re my imagination after all.” the girl let out a whole heartily laugh. This all caused Velvet to worry even more. She was about to press the button to her right, when out of nowhere the girl winced again, grabbing her head.
“Urrgh, I swear, this is the last time I get wasted like this.” she growled, massaging her temples.
“Do you maybe need something? Water, maybe?” Velvet asked.
The other girl shook her head. “No, the nurse already gave me some. Hehe, I thought my imagination would know this already.”
Now Velvet was getting slightly irritated, but kept her cool. Everyone handled shock differently. The woman decided however that it was better if the girl realized that this was in no form or shape an hallucination. She gently put her own hand on the girl’s one, who looked over to the woman curiously.
“Did you know that there at least twelve ways to check if you’re dreaming or not?” Velvet asked.
The girl just shook her head.
“One way to check if one is dreaming or not, is to check if a detail doesn’t add up. For example” Velvet turned the girl’s hand around “a hand normally has five fingers. In a dream you normally can’t really tell. But let’s check, shall we?
One, two, three, four, five.”
Velvet tapped on each finger with each count.
“There seems to be nothing wrong with this. Also, there is the fact that we’re having a normal conversation. Tell me, when was the last time you dreamed and actually talked to someone?”
The girl looked at Velvet for a full minute. The woman patiently waited for the girl on the bed to react in any way. After a while the girl retracted her hand and pulled of her sheets, revealing a long, white hospital gown, along with bare, blue legs and feet.
“I think I need to go to the bathroom for a while.” The girl said, before moving her legs to the edge of the bed. She shuddered when her bare feet touched the cold floor. Each step she took left a “tap” sound, echoing through the room. The sounds disappeared as soon as the girl disappeared behind the bathroom door.
Velvet sighed, leaning back in her chair. When she woke up this morning, she definitely didn’t expect this.
“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!”
*CRASH*
The mirror shattered into thousands of tiny pieces after it hit the ground.
This is crazy. She told herself.
This can’t be real.
There was rapid knocking on the door, followed by a female voice. She ignored both. Instead she looked at her now blue or turquois, like the woman said, hands! They weren’t supposed to be that color! They were supposed to be brown! She picked up a rather large piece of the mirror she not so accidentally broke. It showed even more turquois skin and a red or rather violet, she wasn’t sure, eye! They were green only a few hours ago! And then there was her hair! Not that it looked bad or anything, but the last time she woke up with pink hair, someone had painted a clown face on her face!
The banging repeated, this time more urgent, but she ignored it.
“CRAP!” she threw the shard piece away, accidentally cutting her hand.
At least the blood is still red. She thought through gritted teeth. She was only numbly aware of the pain, as there were other things going through her head. For the first time in her life she really had a hard time grasping a single straight thought. So much was going through her head, her new look, Twilight Velvet, the itching bandage, the headache, a possibly new world, another new world literally right outside her doorstep, the sheer fact that there was a high chance of never ever seeing her friends again and so much more that she couldn’t even file it away.
Some people seemed to be talking outside.
Why…? How…? This...this all...I….what...what…?
Her thoughts were interrupted, when the door was opened from the outside. The Doctor, Thin Needle, rushed in, along with a green skinned nurse. Green! Her brain was at the edge of a meltdown at this point. Shrugging it all of as a drug dream, she’d been easily able to cope with the situation. But realizing that this all was too real to be a dream…
“Let go of me!” she shouted as soon as the doctor touched her arm. She raised her own arm, accidentally slapping the doctor across the cheek. The nurse nearby misunderstood the gesture as an act of violence and took out a little syringe. She quickly grabbed the girl’s arm and stuck the needle into a vein. The girl hissed in pain, pulling back the arm. But the sedative was already inside her system. The last thing that entered her mind, was her wondering how the nurse was able to put the needle into her so fast.
“I’m sorry.” Velvet bowed her head. “I should have called the nurse from the beginning.”
“Don’t worry. All’s well that ends well.” the doctor shrugged and gave the woman a smile. “Besides, I don’t think she hit me on purpose. More likely is that she was still distraught about waking up in an unknown environment. There are rare reports about patients acting even worse than she did, although they were perfectly fine from a physical standpoint. By the way, she didn’t happen to tell you her name, did she?”
“Uh no.” Velvet blinked. “She didn’t tell you either?”
“No.” the doctor shook his head. “I guess we should let her calm down first. I imagine we won’t see you anytime soon again, will we?” the doctor asked.
Velvet looked to the side. “I’ll think about it. Oh yes, I completely forgot to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“She somehow knew my name and my face.”
“She did?” it was the doctor’s time to blink.
“Yes. She might be a fan of my work.” Velvet took out a small card and handed it over to the doctor.
“Twilight Velvet? Ah, you wrote the Harry Trotter series!” The doctor smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, fantasy isn’t exactly my reading genre.”
“It’s all right. I hope I didn’t overwhelm the poor girl.”
“Don’t worry. She’s a toughie.” He rubbed his cheek. “I can tell, hehe.”
Velvet giggled. “Can you please tell, that she can call me, when she feels better?”
“Will do.”
There was the beeping sound again. Doctor Thin Needle took out his phone and sighed. “The work of a doctor is never done. A pleasure to see you again, Miss Velvet.”
“Likewise.”
The doctor hurried to the staircase, leaving Velvet to herself. She breathed out slowly, before leaving the hospital.
This wasn’t exactly how I planned this day to go. She thought to herself, while exiting the building. The rain had somewhat calmed down, but wasn’t completely gone as of yet. Still, she could have left the umbrella at home today.
Nurse Sleepy Leave sighed, as she closed the door behind her.
At least he wasn’t too mad.
She had just been chewed out by the doctor in charge of the unknown patient for using the sedative so fast and without any warning. At least she got off scot free, since she had a somewhat bad experience when it came to patients. She unconsciously put her hand on her throat for a second.
It had been a few hours since she knocked out the girl. Sleepy Leave needed to go check on her. Probably even change the IV bag as well. Taking up her pace, Sleepy Leave went to where they stashed the IVs on the second floor, before heading to 207 for a second time this day.
As soon as she opened the door, she could hear music playing! To her surprise she found the girl awake, still lying on bed and with the TV remote in her hand. Currently there was some sort of music channel turned on.
Upon hearing the nurse’s footsteps, the girl tilted her head, making eye contact with the nurse. She raised her arm lazily and gave a short wave.
“Hey. Sorry about earlier.” she said.
The nurse quickly walked towards the bed.
“Are you feeling alright?” Sleepy asked.
“...Fine.” the girl said after a Moment “Just a little weak right now. And hungry.” she added.
“How long have you been awake?” the nurse asked.
“About an hour or so.” the girl shrugged.
“An hour?” the nurse repeated. “Oh well, at least you’re alright. Do you need something to drink?” Sleepy asked.
“Nah, drank from the sink. Oh yeah, sorry about the mirror.”
“It’s no problem dear.” Sleepy Leave smiled. “You must have been confused from everything that’s happened. Don’t worry, mirrors can be replaced.”
“Hmm.” The girl turned her head towards the TV again.
“Should I call for the doctor? Or do you want to recover a little more?”
The girl seemed to think for a moment. “Can I have maybe a little lunch first?”
“Of course.” the nurse smiled reassuringly. “Just wait here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Sleepy Leaf headed to the exit, but then stopped in her tracks, as she remembered something important. “By the way, would you mind telling me your name?” Sleepy asked.
“...Fantasia. Fantasia…….Gleam.”
“Fantasia Gleam. What a lovely name. All right, be right back.”
The nurse left the room quickly, slamming the door shut pretty loudly. “Fantasia Gleam” flinched a little, refocusing on the TV, watching as some girl named Countess Colo-something performed a dance on the stage, while singing. To be honest, she was more interested in the background dancers, simply because they looked utterly ridiculous. The hairdo, the clothes and did these guys ever eat?
“Music’s good at least…” she muttered, but still changed the channel. It now showed a grey skinned weather reporter. The map...it definitely was not any country Fantasy Gleam was familiar with. Not England, France, Russia, Japan, Libya, Germany, USA, the list goes on.“-The following week promises much more sunshine. Still, expect some rain in the south. The temperature climbs back up to 15°.”
On the screen it showed small predictions of the following week. Fantasia also noticed that the temperature that was shown was Celsius and not Fahrenheit. So Equestria Girls was not taking place in America like most bronies thought. In fact, it seemed to be taking place in a whole different country altogether.
“Nghn…” Fantasia cringed a little, as her head acted up again. She made a mental note to ask the doctor about some aspirin or something similar. She switched to another channel.
“The murderer must have used something huge. Something like a sledgehammer.”
“Hmm. We found a lot of things on the crime scene that could have dealt a blow like this. It’ll take ages to test everything for blood traces.”
...Why do I feel like I have seen this before?
She changed the channel again, this time showing an even more colorful cartoon than the world already was! She might be a pegasister, but this there was G3 times eleven! She changed the channel and landed on some commercials.
“Crunchies! With the extra crunch!”
“...Is that a changeling?” Her head really started to hurt now.
“She already woke up? She wasn’t due for another two hours.” Doctor Thin needle pointed out the obvious. “Just in case, we should check on our anesthetics. Please make a note of that in the system.”
“Of course, doctor.” Nurse Sleepy Leave quickly wrote down a personal reminder to do that later.
“So, how is our patient fairing?” the doctor asked.
“Well, Miss Gleam appears to be stable and calm. She apologized for the broken mirror and asked for something to eat. I provided her something already, so she’s eating right as we speak. Else she had complains about headaches and muttered something about how she was never going to drink again.” The nurse smiled wryly, knowing that her patient would not be able to uphold that promise.
“That’s good to hear. Did she say something on how she got the wound?”
The nurse shook her head. “No and I didn’t ask for that matter. I didn’t want to put too much stress on her, doctor.”
“Hmm, I guess you’re right. All that’s left for us to do is to call her parents and see that there is no permanent damage. If nothing goes wrong, we should be able to release her tomorrow. Please prepare the papers. I’ll go and talk to her later.”
“Of course, doctor.”
Thin Needle nodded at the nurse, before leaving the office, placing his empty coffee mug on the table. So far his day had been the usual fair, with only Miss Gleam being the one unusual patients. But they appeared every now and then, so yes, so far a very average day. Entering his patient’s room, he found her desperately chewing on a steak, while simultaneously watching TV. He didn’t envy the girl. There was rarely anything in the cafeteria that was good in any sense of the matter.
“Hello, miss Gleam.”
The head of the girl turned towards the doctor. With all her might, she swallowed the piece of meat in her mouth, before answering. “Hey doctor. Sorry ‘bout the freak out. I...don’t really know what came over me…” she grinned nervously.
“Ah, it’s no problem. I can only imagine how it is, waking up in a place you don’t know and having no memory of moving there. I came here to ask on how you feel and if you can remember anything.”
“How I feel, huh?” The expression on the girl suddenly became very serious. “Well I do have the occasional headache, but it’s fine now. Everything else seems to be in order.” She said, raising her arms and turning them a few times, before placing them back on her lap. “As for what I was doing...well, I was partying the whole night, no need to hide that. There’s also something you should know doc.”
“And what would that be?” he asked.
Fantasia took in a deep breath. The doctor noticed her hands were shaking a little.
“You see…oh god, this is embarrassing...urgh, I can’t pay for this.”
The doctor blinked. “Pay for what? Oh, you mean the hospital?”
“Yes, you see, not only do I not have the money” she took in another breath “I….I...I also...I don’t have any legal papers whatsoever.”
The doctor blinked again. “Pardon?”
“I have nothing, okay? No birth certificate, no ID, no passport, I don’t even have enough money to buy myself a pair of socks.” the girl counted everything with her fingers.
“So…” the doctor trailed off, not sure on how to proceed. It happened from time to time that a patient had no means of paying, but there was a law in place, in which the state would take over. However for this to happen, you needed to be able to identify yourself. There was the occasional guy from the street who couldn’t do so, but normally they had some sort of record somewhere. It was the first time that a teenager couldn’t identify herself, but that could actually be easily explained.
“So you ran away from home.” the doctor concluded.
The girl looked down to the side, making the doctor belief he was right.
“No...I...I don’t have any parents. Or any other family for that matter.” She suppressed a sob.
He didn’t believe her for one second. For starters her clothes were in an exceptional well condition for someone who lived her entire life on the streets. But Thin Needle knew better than to distress a patient. She had just arrived here and woken up after a sedative had been forcefully injected into her. He would leave the questions to the police.
“You are aware that I will have to contact the police about this?”
Fantasia shrugged, acting like she didn’t care. “I guess. Since I’m still underage I’ll probably end up in an orphanage anyway. Might actually be an improvement…” she muttered the last part.
“I...see. Well then, I’ll leave you to it. And don’t worry, we won’t kick you out or anything like this.”
“If you say so…” the girl replied carefully, watching the doctor leave. Once he was outside, she looked down on her food, thinking.
“Dead, huh? He might as well be…”
The following day, Twilight Velvet was waiting in front of the room this Fantasia Gleam was staying in. According to the nurse, the girl momentarily had visitors and had asked Velvet to wait outside. She waited for a good of twenty minutes until two police officers stepped out.
“Man, that’s not exactly how I expected my first case would be.” the younger officer sighed.
“Get used to it, kid. Crime rate is on an all time low and honestly, I’d rather dealing with a runaway girl, than a murdered one.” The older one spoke as they went down the hallway. “Anyways, this way I can properly show you how to access our different databases…”
Velvet looked after them, until they were out of sight and entered the room. She found the girl, fully dressed and staring out of the window. Upon hearing the footsteps, the girl let out a grown.
“Look, I answered your questions about a thousand times” she turned around “and I’m not gonna change- oh, it’s you.” She blushed embarrassed. “Sorry, those officers were getting really annoying. I know they were just doing their job, but still....really annoying, I tell you.”
“Oh...it’s alright, really.”
Fantasia let out a dry laugh. “That’s what everyone keeps telling me.”
“Then it has to be the truth.” Velvet stated. “I hope you don’t mind me visiting.”
“No, no, it’s fine, really!” The girl waved with her arms. “But, why are you here? I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I’m a complete stranger to you.” Gleam pointed out.
Velvet looked at the girl for a second. Fantasia was unable to read that expression or even take a guess. The writer proceeded to rummage in her purse, until she took out a yellow muffler.
“I found this one lying next to you. I guess it’s yours.”
“Er….uh….thanks? I guess…” Fantasia accepted the scarf and rubbed it with her fingers. The fabric felt really nice and she had no doubt it would be comfortable wearing that thing.
“It isn’t yours?” the author asked.
“So...uh...thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Velvet smiled. “I hope the doctor releases you soon. That looked like one nasty head injury.”
“Er, the doctor said it was only on the surface. Third time it happened, actually.” the girl chuckled. Velvet titled her head, frowning.
“When I party, I party really hard.” the girl smiled a guilty smile. Velvet understood the implications immediately. Her frown deepened.
“Well, I’m normally not one to judge another one’s behaviours, but if this really happens regularly, you will end up damaging your liver permanently.”
Fantasia rolled her eyes, but didn’t comment on it. She knew the woman was right, but she made sure not to party too often. Normally only Saturday and Sunday. “Mhm. Are you going now?”
“Oh! Am I annoying you?”
“Not at all.” Fantasia Gleam shook her head, causing her head to fly around like crazy. “I just thought you were here to bring me the scarf and that’s it.”
“Actually, I hoped we could talk a little. Since you seem to know about me, I assume you have read at least one of my books.”
“Know about you?” Fantasia blinked. A moment later her eyes widened in realization. “Oh, Oooooooh...ehehehe, I’m afraid I have to disappoint you.” she tapped her two pointy fingers together, looking to the side and blushing. “I….just saw your picture somewhere...and read your name….a magazine...or something…*ahem*.”
It didn’t take a detective to see that the girl was lying. Twilight Velvet just wondered as to why the girl was lying. Maybe it was because Velvet was, as the girl said, almost a complete stranger to Fantasia.
“I see…” Velvet spoke carefully. “In that case, can I interest you in one of my novels?” the woman asked, taking out a book from her purse. “I imagine it gets pretty boring inside the hospital?”
“Depends really.” Fantasia shrugged. “Haven’t checked out the TV as of today. Though I would love to take a little stroll outside, but the doctors won’t let me. Said they wanted to observe me for a little longer.”
“Well, it is better to be safe than sorry.” Velvet replied. “We don’t want you to fall unconscious all of the sudden, now do we?”
“Exactly what the nurse told me.” the girl answered with a wry grin. “Makes me wish I was a unicorn, so I could teleport outside.” She crossed her arms. “Well, I would need to ask another unicorn to teach me how to teleport first of course. Luckily I know where I can find one.” She finished the last sentence with a wink.
Twilight Velvet blinked a couple of times, before she began laughing very loudly at the seemingly random comment from the girl. “A unicorn, hahaha, oh this gives me such a good idea for a book. Hahaha.” The woman took in some deep breaths before continuing. “Normally I don’t write stories in the fantasy genre. I mostly write crime novels.”
“Really?” Fantasia blinked. “Huh, I write mostly fantasy and completely nonsense slice of life.”
“You write?” Velvet asked, surprised.
The girl in return smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. “Only fanfiction. You know, the stuff where you take someone’s idea of a story and write your own stuff about it? Like an alternate universe story, reinterpretations, funny situations, the list goes on.”
“Hmm...can’t say I have heard about it. I did hear about a website, where young people can put up their own stories. Is it that?”
“Nah, that’s whole ‘nother thing. Belief me, I checked the site out. Sorry for the vulgar vocabulary, but on the site you mean are way less assholes than on fanfiction websites (except for fimfiction).” She muttered the last part. “Some fanfiction sites allow you to upload your completely own story, but most don’t have a category where you can upload it. Most sites focus on Anime, Comics, Cartoons, Games, TV-Series and sometimes even mythology.”
“Mythology?” Velvet asked, now clearly interested. “Maybe I should have a look at some point.”
“Don’t.” Fantasia deadpanned. “Seriously don’t. Most attempts of any story are either half-baked or have so many grammar and spelling errors in them, they’re a pain to read. Especially for professionals.”
“Huh? Oh, come on. Are you really expecting me to throw a fit, after looking at some badly written works?”
“I have seen it happening. And it wasn’t pretty.” the girl replied in a low tone, her hair covering her eyes all of the sudden, casting a dark shadow over the entire face.
Velvet blinked in surprise, but smiled only a second later, thinking the girl was exaggerating on purpose. Heck, when Velvet got a writing blockade, she tended to write the most random things that came to mind, not really caring about grammar, structure and sometimes even right spelling. She even saved up some of these “works”, thinking they might make good story ideas at one point or another. Every time she rereads those texts, she would only smile wryly and go on with her work. And some of those texts were really awful to say the least.
“I’ll manage. But now I am interested. What kind of stories did you write in the past? What were they about?”
“Uh...uff…” Fantasia sat down on her bed. “I normally only read fanfiction from time to time, not write. Though, if I had to choose, I think it would be the one where a unicorn, a dragon, a human, a gryphon and a chicken go on a road trip.”
…
…
“Why the chicken?” Velvet asked eventually.
“Er…...I thought about a vampony, basically a vampire pony, but that would have been two ponies already. I wanted some variety, you know.” the girl grinned sheepishly.
“Okay...so...the group...is going on a road trip…”
“Yeah, but soon they notice that the government is after the chicken, because the government thinks the chicken can talk. The thing is, it’s the only thing in the bus that can’t talk.”
Velvet couldn’t hold it in anymore. She completely lost it, the picture of the human, gryphon, dragon, unicorn and chicken sitting in the bus, driving on a sandy road, while being chased by police cars. She lost her balance, falling back on a chair, while holding her sides.
“Oh...oh dear...AHAHAHAHA! A CHICKEN! WHY?! WHY?! AHAHAHAHA!!!”
Her laughter was contagious, as soon enough Fantasia Gleam herself started laughing herself, falling back on the bed the hospital staff had provided her with for the entirety of her stay. It took an entirety of five minutes, until both had released their final giggles and two more, until the oxygen supply had been restored in their bodies.
“Oh...wow.” the older woman breathed out. “I imagine you must have gotten quite the reviews from a story like this.”
“Er...not really.” Fantasia shrugged, looking up to the ceiling. “I only uploaded five chapters and hell, I thought I was only able to write three.”
“Hmm? Why did you stop?”
“Lack of caring, if I’m honest.” the girl stroked the hair away from her eyes. “I just wrote it for fun. Also the like, dislike ratio was almost 50/50. If I remember correctly I only had one more like than dislike and it might have even been my own.” she chuckled dryly.
“You never know. It might just be the breakthrough you need to start your career as a writer.”
“My career?” Fantasia asked with a raised eyebrow. She wanted to say even more, but her stomach beat her to it. “Er...I agree with my stomach on this one.” Fantasia said with a blush on her face. “Right now I want to rather think about food than my career.” she giggled a little. “Guess I’m gonna need to call the “room service”.”
Velvet raised an eyebrow at this. “Why don’t we just go to the cafeteria downstairs? I’m sure the doctors would allow it.”
“Truth is, they already did. But truth also is that I’m flat out broke.” Fantasia grinned for an entirety of three seconds, before her face became very stern. “And don’t even think about paying for my food. You’ve done enough as it is.”
Velvet was taken aback by the statement, especially after hearing the seriousness in her ways. It was a completely 180 to the carefree attitude the girl had shown the writer all day. However Velvet quickly found her composure back. A reaction like this one was completely normal after all. The girl just didn’t want to be a burden to the woman, but said woman would have none of it.
“Nonsense. Come on. I once heard the cook working here, once was chef at a really good restaurant.”
“Hey, whatcha doing?! H-HEY! At least let me put my clothes on!”
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