Equestria no Kitsune [REDUX]

The vacuum of space.

A peaceful yet hostile environment, at a temperature of near-absolute zero, bathed with radiation and seething with all manner of particles, debris and energies nigh-undetectable. Above the blue sphere of the planet Gaia, it was only slightly more tolerable. The sheer lack of heat when not in the sun’s unrelenting, blinding whiteness was enough to kill off all but tardigrades, as was the radiation.

And yet, hanging above the planet, alone and comatose, was a figure -- a frozen, nearly dead but still living humanoid. With its back to the planet, the frozen, vacuum-ravaged humanoid seemed to be looking out into space… if it wasn't frozen and in extreme pain. A red glow surrounded the indistinct, half-frozen being, evidently protecting it from the radiation to some degree.

But this being was falling. Slowly at first, Gaia’s gravity took hold of it, and so it began to accelerate.

The being was gradually coming back to the world of the living as it began to plummet, the ice breaking off from its speed and the rapidly-building heat of atmospheric entry. Still indistinct from its vacuum-induced pitch blackness, the friction with the atmosphere continued to build up, the previously serene blue surroundings against space rapidly becoming a horrible, unbearable fire. The flames of atmospheric entry suddenly flared up to its maximum as the being exceeded the speed of sound.

Realizing its situation, the being was awake and panicking, its mouth open in a silent, ice-riddled scream, with no air to form one but just enough to send a smattering of ice crystals out, which then promptly evaporated in the bright red flames.

Reflexively, a red, thick glowing outline expanded around the being’s form before the heat could do much more damage -- this outline did protect the creature from the hellfire, but it was a poorly-summoned, easily compromised shield.

The magnetic field of the planet then came to the being’s attention as it entered the stratosphere -- a punch in the face by all means apart from physical; a blinding, disorientingly sudden shock that caught the being by surprise from inside its own skull.

The stifling pressure of the atmosphere was beginning to make itself known to the creature as well, blood escaped its body as it adjusted to the presence of pressure and breathable air. Still, the energy shield was holding as strong as it could, making the being look very much like a brightly-glowing meteorite, an image only boosted by the intense flames streaming off of the shield.

The wind direction and the gravity of the planet was altering the creature’s course -- instead of falling straight down, the energy-protected creature was cruising at supersonic speeds at an angle. Of course, such behavior was no less than expected of a falling object from that height.

Moving too fast to be able to see anything, not that its eyes worked to even try at this point, the being would have seen mountains rushing past, a curious city perched on one of the slopes, its denizens startled by the sudden ‘meteor’ speeding by far too quickly, followed by a merciful green plain that glided past, which soon gave way to a massive expanse of untouched, unbroken forest, which was coming alarmingly close to---

-

A bright red, glowing object sped through the trees -- literally, in the sense of trees being crushed, destroyed and burned by the object’s heat and speed. It tore through the shroud of ancient evergreen pines, ripping wood, rending the earth and starting fires here and there that quickly grew and spread. Several small ponds were near-instantly vaporised by the object’s heat as it continued its immensely destructive path through the forest. It eventually came to a stop in a small clearing that was quickly made much larger -- and distinctly more cratered, thanks to its absurd momentum and inconceivable heat.

The red glow surrounding the object was still bright enough to outshine the burning magnesium it had unearthed. The crater that it made upon stopping was deep. A huge hole scarred into the dark earth, with small, neon-red fires licking along the now-exposed roots, and some of the smaller rocks melting into puddles of lava as the larger ones glowed angrily. It had left a vast trail of burning destruction -- a massive, scarring trench gouged into the land, and a scene of immense destruction around it. All while, thick, billowing smoke from the burning vegetation, the beginnings of a forest fire, began to rise. The rising torrential curtain of black smoke rose higher into the sky, easily visible from countless miles around.

Stillness.

Is this--?

This is... weird.

Am I even alive?

what's that sound? some sort of... machine?

And that scent… iodine? Am I in a hospital?

the distant beat of a heart monitor

-

A dusky, yet vivid yellow eye opened, unfocused and stared up at the nothingness on the ceiling.

where

A quick glance downwards and a twist, with a few flexes and the crack of a knuckle confirmed that both hands still worked.

Eerily quiet, with stagnant, tasteless air and pale orange light filtering in through a window somewhere, off-white walls surrounding it all. It really was a hospital.

Muscles and joints complained with the several efforts to sit up, and the pads on the hands sore. A rather large, red-furred, bushy vulpine tail was freed up, a white tip surrounded by a black zigzag of fur. Digitigrade legs bent on their unusual knees as they tested their functionality. Even the pain was being sluggish on its way up the legs.

Pawpads scraped against the mattress, painfully catching on linen, as did blunted, jagged claws. Red fur had become much the same as black, with soot, dirt, ash and burns staining the body all over. Black hair was in ruins, frayed and charred, as was fur. A hand went up to a muzzle, slender fingers ending in broken claws brushing down it, as if testing for any sort of sensation.

A door opened somewhere.

Footsteps, short pauses in between, one sharp point of contact with the floor for each footfall what the hell is that

Nurse Redheart had her work cut out for her.

Only a week after being transferred from Ponyville A&E to one of Canterlot's hospitals, she had to deal with the strangest thing that anyone had ever come across in a very, very long time.

It was exceedingly stressful to be in that room for any long period of time, at least, according to everyone else. So much so that even the veterans, the trained and highly experienced among the hospital's staff, couldn't tolerate staying there for too long. Odd sensations of frustration, anxiety and fear took hold, and grew worse with every passing minute in there, until, eventually, no-one could spend more than twenty minutes in the room before having to leave.

In any case, there was a job to be done, and it had fallen on Redheart to do it.

Taking a deep breath, Redheart made her way towards the door, tentatively turned the silvery knob and entered, and made sure to close that door behind her, but didn't lock it quite yet, just in case. Pausing for a moment, she passed the thin steel table, picked up the clipboard that lay there and turned the corner, laying her eyes on the patient, her patient, for the next however-long she would be needed to spend in there.

She took a minute to take it in. She had never before dealt with anything that didn't pass as a pony, yet this time, her patient was anything but equine in even the slightest sense of the word. This time, a fox, for lack of a better word, lay in that bed. This creature, whatever it really was, almost definitely would be classified as a vulpine animal, discounting the fact that this particular specimen was very much a bipedal organism.

Even the best zoologists had been unable to explain this fox's existence. There were no other recorded specimens of foxes that stood on two legs and had hands, let alone any degree of sapience. While the fox hadn't spoken, it had clearly reacted to stimulus, once it was awake, of course, and could clearly understand speech.

The fox was sitting upright and slightly hunched over, with its eyes closed, and while Redheart had been told to expect as much, but she hadn't been told exactly why this was the case. Perhaps nobody knew. Redheart steeled herself and made her way to the chair next to the bed and sat down.

'Don't look into its eyes for too long,' she had been told by one of the senior doctors. 'Because one of our nurses did that, and you were transferred here the following week.'

However, she felt fairly safe, considering--

The fox's eyes flashed open, and it sat bolt-upright. And Redheart then knew exactly why she was warned.

Those eyes were yellow with white sclera. An extremely intense, bright yellow, not a damp, mundane hue belonging to, say, a banana, but vibrant in the most ominous possible ways, as if the sun itself were that same yellow as opposed to pure white.

And the thought of how the fox wasn't even looking at her only made it worse, mentally.

Slowly, deliberately, its head turned, the intensely, ridiculously yellow eyes swivelled to look at Redheart... and whatever it was that was so distressing disappeared. They were just normal, if mildly unusually-coloured eyes.

"Oh... er... Good evening. I'm Nurse Redheart," she tried as she put on a polite smile, at a loss for words for a moment.

what in the world was everyone so scared of?

No answer would come, save for just a slow, small nod of acknowledgement and a blink from an emotionless face. Oddly polite though, one would admit.

Redheart then got on with it. "W-well then... I've been asked to collect some information about you. Is that okay?" She asked slowly, reaching into her white nurse uniform’s pocket and producing a pen, spinning it on her fingers once or twice.

Another small, polite nod, but Redheart had an odd sense that this creature didn’t really understand what she was saying.

"OK, then," she smiled. With a quick shuffle of paper, she moved a blank sheet to the front, before clicking the pen, ready to take notes.

"First of all," Redheart began. "what's your name? Do you have one?"

It was the first question that came to mind. Nobody had gotten anything out of the fox as of yet, thanks to a very apparent, yet still somehow polite, refusal to speak. It seemed to give a sigh of sorts and avert its eyes.

It held up a clawed, padded hand, as if indicating for Redheart to wait where she was. Its left hand flexed and seemed to glow, giving off red, luminous smoke, which seemed to spill downwards like heavy, cold mist, dissipating as it floated away, only to be replaced by more.

"I'm sorry, w-what are you doing?" Redheart asked, her eyes a little wider as she sat up straighter. Was this thing casting a spell of some kind? Redheart had only known about unicorns being capable of casting spells, and was taken aback.

It paid her no heed as it held that hand up to eye level, the glowing smoke flowing around the creature’s head as it took a deep breath, inhaling much of the smoke with a hollow, echoing noise as it rapidly flowed down its throat, as if drinking the red vapour. The rest of the glowing smoke seemed to simply disappeared as it floated downwards, as if being drawn downwards before dissipating.

A moment of stunned silence fell upon Redheart as she tried to figure out just what had transpired. The fox just let out a short, shallow breath, which carried only faint wisps of the red, luminous vapour, like breath on a winter’s day.

It paused before turning to look at her again, and held back a muted, restrained cough before it spoke. “We… should be able to understand.. each other now,” it said, with a restrained, quiet voice, completely lacking in any accent Redheart could recognise.

“Oh. Well, that’s.. a very handy spell,” Redheart smiled, unsure of how exactly to respond. “Uh, in that case, I’ll ask again. What’s your name?” she asked, clipboard at the ready once again.

“It’s Ryuzaki,” it replied, still holding a quite blank, neutral expression.

"Ryu... zaki? A-and how would you write that? Can you show me?" Redheart asked cautiously, tentatively offering the clipboard and pen.

It nodded and took the offered items, and swiftly scribbled on the paper before returning it, but unfortunately, it seemed to be in a language Redheart didn't exactly understand, or even recognize. Instead of a regular string of letters, it instead read 'りゅうざき'.

"I-I'm sorry, that spell doesn’t work on.. writing," Ryuzaki quickly apologized, seeing Redheart’s confused expression as she looked down at the paper.

"Oh. All right, then, um... Would I be correct to guess that you're a male?"

Yet another small nod, but it was at least accompanied by words. "...Yes. I am male."

"Right. So..." Redheart began, tapping her pen on the side of her clipboard. "How are you feeling right now? Do you remember how you needed treatment?" She asked, deciding to revert to the usual questions patients were asked.

Ryuzaki paused, slowly running a hand over the bandages on his chest as he looked down at them. A few electrodes here and there, and an empty IV tube was stuck into his wrist. "...No. But I remember falling," he admitted.

"Well, that's actually how we think you were injured," Redheart affirmed. "But never mind that. How are you feeling?" she asked again.

"I'm okay. Nothing hurts," Ryuzaki said, slowly taking in the room. He had been slipping in and out of consciousness for a while, and thus had never had the chance to see exactly where he was. "May I ask you a question?"

"O-Oh, of course," Redheart smiled, jotting down the details and findings -- this would prove to be rather valuable at some point.

"Where am I, exactly?" Ryuzaki asked, still looking around. His ears swivelled, as if listening for something. Redheart had heard in passing that foxes could use magnetic fields to determine where they were, and she was immediately reminded of the fact.

She was more than happy to answer.

"You're in the Royal General Hospital, in Canterlot," Redheart said, though as soon as the words left her mouth, she realized that what she said probably just rose more questions than it answered. Ryuzaki simply nodded and sat in silence for a moment or two, as if considering that information... or it could have been him concentrating on the magnetic field, or listening through the walls, all things considered.

"I see." He simply said.

"Yes. Now, I’m sorry, but we're... well, rather confused with regards to your species. What exactly are you?" Redheart inquired.

Before he could answer, a knock on the door startled the two of them. Ryuzaki’s triangular ears swivelled in the door’s direction, a tiny flicker of what looked like a quickly dissipating orange flame that escaped his mouth with a sharp exhale. Redheart didn’t see it happen, however, with her attention elsewhere. Just a trick of the light, she thought.

“Just a moment,” Redheart said through a disguised sigh of irritation as she got up and paced to the door, clipboard still in hand. A look of surprise and bewilderment immediately shot across her face as she looked around the corner through the little window on the door, and she near-immediately exited through it, almost slamming the door shut behind her.

Ryuzaki cocked his head and listened, his finer hearing gradually coming back. Redheart was stood just on the other side of the door, sounding panicked and flustered as she spoke to someone.

...“But-- but why? I--I’m not denying you, but I really must ask, and I’m not sure if--”

“It’ll be fine, Redheart. I just need to see him for a few minutes, and I’ll be gone,” came another voice. One belonging to a female, by the sound of it.

“Oh, I… All right, then, I’ll-- I’ll let him know.”

Ryuzaki was confused as the door opened, with Redheart entering again, a much more positive expression on her face. “Ah, Ryuzaki? You have a visitor,” she said, holding the door open.

At that, another pony entered, this one vastly different from Redheart. Standing at least a head above her in height. This new one, Ryuzaki observed, not only had lilac-feathered wings, folded down onto her back and jutting up slightly behind her shoulders, but also sported a horn. Odd, to say the least, since he’d only ever seen ones with one or the other, or neither, like Redheart.

This mare, with purple fur and a back-length mane of at least three different shades of it in streaks, appeared friendly enough as she entered, regarding Ryuzaki with a distinctly amicable look on her face.

“Hey there, Ryuzaki,” The mare smiled, speaking as if she knew him well as she sat down in the chair Redheart was just using.

Even more confused than before, Ryuzaki sat up a little straighter. “I’m.. so sorry, but who exactly are you?” He asked, doing his best to hide embarrassment as he absent-mindedly scratched an errant itch on the back of his neck. Had he simply forgotten this mare’s name, or was there more to it than that?

"Oh, that’s right, I never told you," she chuckled, cracking a nervous smile as she sat back in the chair, hands on her lap. "My name’s Twilight. I got you to the hospital about.." she paused, as if trying to recall a fact. "Uh, two months ago."

A sinking feeling made itself known inside the fox’s chest. "Two months…? What.. what happened to me?" He asked as a hazy memory of cold soil and ozone came to mind, a tiny, cold shiver passing down his body as he turned away slightly.

Twilight dropped the overly smiley act as she looked at him with concern. Best to tell him now, or…?

"I found you unconscious in the woods near my home, so I brought you here," she said, going for what she thought was the safer option.

"I am sorry. I… still don’t remember,” Ryuzaki apologized once again, still at least mildly embarrassed. “But thank you, Twilight."

"Oh, it’s no problem," Twilight shrugged. "It’s quite amazing you survived, actually. You were injured pretty badly when I found you," she remarked. But of course, Twilight was just stalling at this point, and an uncomfortable silence took hold, with her not knowing what to say and with Ryuzaki not knowing how to feel, and just content to sit and listen.

Twilight began searching for the right words as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I.. don’t want you to take this the wrong way, Ryuzaki, but once you’re feeling better, I’d like to run some tests on you."

A terrible mental image involving sharp objects and scalpels flashed across the fox’s suddenly racing mind, but it didn’t show through the straight face. "Tests? Why?" he cautiously asked, though still sounding monotone and restrained as he turned to face Twilight.

"Oh, d-don’t get the wrong idea," Twilight reassured him. "I’d just like to run things like physical examinations, blood tests, that sort of thing. You know what I’m talking about, right?"

"Yes, I do, but…" Ryuzaki trailed off as he doubted her honesty, eyes darting in Redheart’s direction before looking back at Twilight. "I... am not sure if the hospital will let me go any time soon."

"Hey, don’t worry about that," Twilight said dismissively, waving the thought away. "I can convince them to let you out. Only if you’re feeling all right, though," she added, a hint of concern in her last sentence.

He nodded after a short moment of silence.

"Perfect!" Twilight suddenly beamed, springing up from her seat, her wings spreading then beating, lifting her a few inches above the floor for a moment. "I’ll come and get you once I’ve set up."

A pale lilac glow began to spread through the room a little way, emanating from Twilight’s horn as floating, tiny points of purple magic began to surround her and glow brightly themselves, as if absorbing the light in the room. Ryuzaki was forced to shield his eyes as the glow intensified, growing until it reached pure whiteness within fractions of a second, before…

She disappeared, the light 'collapsing' in on itself, like a camera flash in reverse as all the light suddenly retracted back into a single point before fading entirely, leaving not a single trace of Twilight’s presence behind.

"...I must learn how to do that," Ryuzaki remarked as Redheart made her way back over and sat down again. "I didn’t expect there to be magic here," he added with something of a sense of relief.

Redheart simply nodded and reorganised her clipboard, bringing her page of notes to the front. "So, you’re quite familiar with magic, Ryuzaki?" she asked.

"Yes, actually. Although, I’ve never seen anyone disappear like that," he replied, sitting up and cracking one of his knuckles. A heavy sigh left his muzzle as he looked around. "Um.. listen, Redheart-san, could you do me a favour?"

"Hm?" came the distracted response.

"Could I leave? I’m feeling perfectly fine."

Redheart’s pen stopped, and she looked over the top of the clipboard with discerning eyes. "Uh… what? Did.. did you say you wanted to leave?"

Ryuzaki shrugged and blinked slowly. "Well, yes. I'd like to get going. I mean, sure, I’m not particularly busy, but I assume I’ve been here a while, and I’m feeling OK, so…" he trailed off, beginning to pluck off the electrodes stuck onto his chest, and scowled at the shaven-off patches of fur where the electrodes had been.

Redheart was taken aback, and extremely against this new development. She shot to her feet, clipboard under her arm as she scowled at her patient. "Now look here, Ryuzaki, you can’t just--"

She was cut off by Ryuzaki’s utterly casual approach to pulling the empty IV tube out of his wrist, as if ignorant to pain as he simply eased the plastic tubing out and tossed it aside. Her stunned, wide-eyed reaction continued to hold as Ryuzaki then simply shoved the railing on the side of the bed aside, the railing clattering onto the floor as it was ripped away from its securings.

"Well, you know, Redheart, I really am sorry, but I don’t fancy dissection," Ryuzaki shrugged as he edged himself to the end of the bed and pushed himself up, his digitigrade feet padding against the floor, his claws clicking against it as he steadied himself.

Now standing, Ryuzaki was a solid six feet tall, and absurdly thin, with barely any muscle definitition present, much less any real structure to his body apart from visible bones, visible even under his fur, with prominent ribs and quite spindly limbs. The true extent of his apparent malnutrition was most likely hidden by his mildly grubby, matted fur, a slightly dullen shade as opposed to what it would have been otherwise.

He stretched, letting out a groan as vertebrae and joints clicked, an immeasurable sense of relief coming over him as Redheart just stared in utter disbelief. “Hm? What are you looking at? I am wearing clothes, right?” Ryuzaki asked as he looked over, noticing her staring.

"U-uh, yeah, but your jeans are kinda shredded, so… w-wait, what?! Why did I--?!" she gasped, confounded by how easily that had slipped out.

"Why did you answer, you mean?" He asked, slowly pacing towards the door, his claws clicking against the floor as he stepped. "I don’t know. But never mind that," Ryuzaki trailed off, turning back to face Redheart as he stood just a metre away from the bed. "I’m sorry, but I need your assistance, Redheart-san, and I... don’t think you’ll have much say in the matter," he grinned, a mischievous glint in his yellow eyes.

Redheart was getting annoyed, and clenched her fists as she snapped at him. "I sure don’t think so! First of all, there’s no way I can just discharge you on the spot, and second, you’re not even going to be dissected! Didn’t--"

Ryuzaki chuckled, and a faint glow began to manifest in his amber eyes. "So you’d just take this Twilight’s word for it? You really think she WON’T dissect me, or do you just think that?" He asked with a small smile on his muzzle as he shrugged, and took a single step forward.

Redheart thought for a second. It was true, she had nothing to disprove him with. And while she had little first-hand knowledge, she did know that Twilight would go to great lengths in the name of science.

"So, I’m really, really sorry, Redheart, but--"

She looked in the fox’s direction and gasped… and stopped there. Ryuzaki wasn’t smiling any more, and his eyes were undeniably glowing brightly, becoming the brightest light sources of the room if they had cast any real illumination onto the surroundings, which they seemed to fail to do -- instead, they seemed to suck in the daylight. Her body refused to move, and was rooted to the spot, her muscles apparently rendered immovable. Soft padding and clicking filled her ears, backed up by the sound of weight shifting on those footsteps.

"I really must hitch a ride, Redheart-san. It’s the safest option," Ryuzaki’s tired, quiet voice came from somewhere as the vague sensation of light pressure made itself known on her hand as it was pulled to her eye level.

"H… Hitch a ride?"

"Yes, a ride. Don’t worry, though. This won’t harm you," came the distant voice again, with something of a quiet, restrained chuckle behind it. Bright light filled her vision as she felt heat course down her arm and into her torso, shooting down her body in pulses of sheer, nearly unbearable heat, the vague sensation of smoke crawling across her arm accompanying the glow and the hotness--

The light faded, as did the heat and crawling sensation.

Ryuzaki had gone completely. Apart from Redheart, the room was completely silent and devoid of life or any movement.

Redheart was suddenly returned to her senses, the heaviness in her muscles completely lifted, and even her work-induced tiredness she’d accumulated throughout the day was gone. But there were more serious matters to deal with. Like a missing fox, for example.

She shook her head, thinking that the situation must have been a bluff. Of course Ryuzaki could teleport, she thought. He’d only said that he ‘wished he could do that’ to throw her off!

But instead of looking around the room, her body had other ideas. Redheart took a step towards the door, but couldn’t stop the second, or third, or fourth one. The sensation was beginning to fade, not just from her legs but from her whole body as her arm reached forwards by itself and opened the door.

No matter how much she wanted to stop, or how panicked she felt, Redheart kept on walking, even breaking into a run as her body seemed to drive itself, taking no notice of what she wanted to do. No matter what, though, she couldn’t stop. And she had the sneaking suspicion that the situation was only going to go downhill from there.