An End and a New Beginning
I felt numb. Just sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, my head down as I was bent over, looking into the cup of coffee in my hands. This all had to be a bad dream; I'd wake back up in my bed and all would be alright.
Pinching my arm didn't do a damn thing.
With a dread filled gulp, my mind lingered on what the doctor had said.
He wasn't going to wake up. My little brother was in a coma.
The crash had done a number on him and they'd had to put him in a medically induced coma that they said he'd be lucky to wake from.
I could feel tears starting to well up and I just stared down at my feet as they started to fall.
Goddamnit, I promised Mom. I promised Mom I'd keep David safe and now I couldn't uphold her last wish because he went and got into a fucking crash! And now he's probably going to jo- No, don't think that, don't bloody ever think that! He's not dead damn it!
“Mind if I sit next to you?”
Taking myself away from my mental chastising to look up, it took all my effort not to laugh. Standing before me was a silver haired man with a goatee, clad in what was probably the ugliest suit I had ever seen. Some weird amalgamation of yellow and lime green that looked like someone had turned up the saturation to a hundred and ten percent. I was sure he'd make my eyes bleed if I stared at him too long.
Before I could even tell him to piss off and leave me be, the man sat down in the seat next to me with a small groan. This old man better not try and start to chat, I'm definitely not in the mood for conversati-
“I always hate visiting hospitals,” the guy started to speak and I couldn’t help but let out a bemused groan. Great, he's starting to attempt a conversation. Of course no-one ever likes visiting hospitals; usually because someone they know is in them you daft old man.
“Look Mister,” I said, looking up at him and trying not to sound like I was being a total asshole. “I'd really prefer not to have a conversation right now. I'm definitely not in the mood for a chat at the moment.” Sheesh, didn't this guy see I was to be moody?
“So much untapped potential here and it's simply squandered,” the man said, tsking as he shook his head a little. Great, this asshole was ignoring me.
“Look man, I said I don't wanna talk alrig-”
“Like your dear brother David,” he said, looking at me with a glint in his eye and the faintest hint of a smirk on his lips.
Okay, what?! I looked up in confusion as I heard what he said. How in the heck did he know David's name? Let alone the fact he was my brother.
The smirk on his face grew as he let out a low chuckle, “That got your attention didn't it? But yes, dear David Hoard; a real shame too. Always awful to see young people cut down in the prime of their life and he would have had such a long and lovely one too.”
“How in the hell do you know David,” I growled at the man. His words did little to help my already sour mood. My brother was not fucking dead you insufferable old cunt! The doctor clearly told us it was possible for him to get better!
“Relax my dear Keith, relax,” the man said in a calm tone, not even sounding worried as I glared daggers at him. “I don't know your brother per se, but let's just say I'm an observer of the situation and leave it at that,” he said, ending it with devious chuckle.
Okay, now I wanted to punch this guy in the face. An observer of the situation? An observer of the frakking situation?! How in the hell does this guy damn well know our names if he doesn't know us! My teeth were definitely grinding as he started talking again.
“Truly is a shame though. He would have lived to such a ripe old age, had a delightful trio of children for you to bribe with toys and candy,” the man stated, sounding like he was almost sad.
I just blinked in surprise at what he said. That was oddly specific. David had told me multiple times that he didn't even want kids, let alone three of them. And the way he said that… it almost sounded like this guy was looking into the future or something akin to that.
“Okay my dear lad, would you like me to cut to the chase or shall I keep on chatting while you listen like you do to your grandmother, hmm?” The man gave me a toothy smile and I swear one of his canines looked longer than the other.
“Hey, I listen to my grandmother you daft old man,” I snapped at him. That insult only added more fuel to the fire as I glared at him. Yeah, my Mema tended to ramble but I still listened to what she had to say; I was the only grandki-
The man just grinned cheekily at me as I stopped my internal rambling. “Just get to the point!”
“I'm here to offer you a deal,” he said with a smile on his face and a glint in his eye, “A deal to help your brother.”
I was silent as I just stared at him. He may as well just have offered to turn off the sun. What the hell? How could he even help David if trained doctors couldn't?
“How in the world could you help him?”
“Look over at the nurses Keith,” he simply said with a smug look on his face and I did as he asked. Turning to look over at the nurse’s station on the other side of the room, I looked at the woman there behind her computer. Huh. There was nothing wrong, she was just typing something. Probably just mundane work stuff like a report or something.
“Look longer boy,” he said next to me as I kept looking.
Okay, I'd play along with him. As I watched the woman I started to notice it. She hadn't moved at all. No shifting in her chair, no looking at me for looking at her. Hell, she hadn't even blinked!
“Time is such an irresistible plaything,” he said in an utterly calm tone as I turned back to him and noticed his eyes had changed. The whites had turned green. “Just stop the seconds from ticking and so many ample opportunities are presented for you to use.”
The man; well, now it was debatable if he even was one to begin with, laughed a little as I looked at him in horror. “Relax Keith, I'm not here to hurt you at all. If I was, I'd have turned that coffee into solvent or something equally ghastly.”
“T-then why are you here? Wh-what are you?” My voice cracked a little as I promptly put down my coffee; trying not to look scared shitless and probably failing horribly.
“I’ve already told you what I'm here for. As for who I am, well, you can simply call me Discord.” He gave me a toothy smile. Okay, Discord is the name of the thing currently scaring me shitless, good to know!
“Y-you can help my brother?”
“Well, if you wish to be technical, I can help you help your brother,” he said, poking me in the chest to emphasize the point.
I jumped back a little at his prodding and stared at him in confusion. Help me help him? There was nothing I could bloody well do to wake David up from a coma! Unless this Discord was going to give me bloody magic powers or something like that, I couldn’t see how in the world he could help me.
“W-what do you mean by help me help him?”
“Exactly what it says on the tin dear boy,” he answered with a low chuckle that definitely sounded fiendish as he popped his neck. “I'm offering you a deal many don't get to see in their lives, no matter how hard they beg or plead of me. I'm offering to heal your brother to the peak of physical condition if only you sign this.” Reaching into his pocket, Discord pulled out what looked to be a folded up piece of parchment. “Just sign this and I can promise you both your fates will change forever.”
I stared in surprise as he handed me the paper and I unfolded it. What the hell! For what I knew, a goddamn daemon had just handed me a contract to sign, claiming ‘it'd change our fates forever’. What's to say he wouldn’t drag me to the depths of hell to be some butt slave to Satan or something.
“I… I dunno,” I said, my voice filled with trepidation as I began to read the paper. I groaned as I realized it was almost all a load of legalese on top of more legalese. I wasn’t sure if half of the damn thing even was in English! Of bloody course, it'd be confusing as hell to read; there's probably some soul selling catch in there somewhere. “I… I don't think I can take your offer…”
“Oh alright then Mr. Hoard, but if you want to turn down the only option for your brother to ever wake up again, I'll be on my merry way.” With a dramatic sigh Discord stood up, taking the document away from me before he slowly started to walk away.
“Wait!”
I stood up as soon after he'd taken a few steps. Damn it! I.. I couldn’t turn that opportunity down! I didn’t know what the fuck this Discord was but if he could stop time… maybe he could fix David and wake him up? Who bloody cared what the cost would be if it helped him. Even if I ended up a daemonic butt monkey, it'd have saved his life.
“I… I'll sign it… if only for David.”
Discord gave me another low chuckle as he turned to face me again. “Oh the things love for family makes one do. But, as I'm sad to say, the contract expired five seconds ago… however, we can shake on it if you'd like?” With that, he held out a hand.
All of a sudden my courage disappeared as I stared at his hand.
“Going once….”
Goddamn it! Just shake his bloody hand!
“Going twice….”
Goddamn it! Shake his fucking hand! Do it for David, damn it!
“And the deal is go-”
I took his hand and shook it as I looked at him. “Fine, we have a deal but you better heal him or else.”
As I said that, he began to chuckle and took over the handshake. Holy crap, he had one hell of a grip! After a few seconds, I tried to pull my hand away but he wouldn't let go. “Could you let my han-,” the words died in my throat as I could see the sleeve of my coat start to smoulder.
Discord started to chuckle as I looked at him in horror. I tried to yank myself away but couldn't move at all as my arm grew unbearably hot. “What the hell!” I cried out as I kept yanking at my arm.
As I watched in panic, the feeling in my arm started to fade before I could feel anything at all in my arm. The panicking turned into full blown terror as my arm detached at my shoulder!
“What the fuck!!!” I screamed as he let go of the severed limb and it fell to the floor before turning to a pile of ash.
“Oh maybe I should have mentioned the fine print.” He grinned, pulling the contract back out of his pocket. Snapping his fingers, a pair of old lady’s reading glasses popped into existence on his nose. He let out a short cough, apparently ignoring the fact that I was turning to fucking ash in front of him.
“By signing this contract, the signee agrees to relinquish their soul to the issuer. In exchange for this, the signee’s Vitae will be transferred to the subject. This is non-negotiable and will go into effect immediately after signing.” With that, Discord snapped his fingers again and the contract vanished in a puff of colorful smoke.
By now, almost all of me was numb. I couldn't even feel my body below the neck as he looked at me with a smile and spoke again.
“Well, my dear Keith, that means your soul is mine,” was the last thing I heard before my senses faded into blackness.
beep… beep…. beep….
As I came to, the first thing I heard was the steady beeping of a pulse monitor. Oh thank God, that had to have been a dream. I must have passed out; the stress or something had to have made me faint and I’d had a horrid nightmare. There's no way that could have been real. That had to have been a dream…
As I slowly opened my eyes, all I could see was a blurry white above me. Blinking several times did help, but my vision was sure taking its time to clear up. My damn contacts must have fallen out and I was as blind as a bat without them.
Grumbling a little under my breath, I couldn't help but notice my voice sounded a wee bit higher than it did normally. Laying there, I started to feel something weird behind my back.
Well, weird might not be the correct word. It felt exactly like that oh so annoying sensation of your arm falling asleep, but that wasn't it. The fact the feeling seemed to be coming from behind me was what was odd. It wasn't on me, yet it felt like it was.
My vision had cleared enough to see now as I looked about the room. I was most definitely in a hospital bed; the ugly white walls and medical equipment told me that much at least. But the hospital wouldn't do that for someone simply passing out; well, not without charging me an arm and a leg for it at least.
Smacking my lips a little, I shifted in the bed and wiggled up into more of a seated position. Huh, they covered me with a blanket at least. How nice of them. Looking down at myself, I smacked my lips a few more times before I realized I had that gunk built up in the corners of my mouth and pulled up my arm to whi-
That wasn’t my arm.
It was still kinda human; had a hand and everything but that's where the similarities ended. Instead they were slender and covered in soft brown fur. Lifting my other arm into view only resulted in the same thing coming into view as I just gawked. Did that mean?
Slowly reaching a hand up to my face, touching my cheek revealed the same thing. I was now covered in fur.
“What the hell is goin-,” I said aloud; well, more rasped out as my throat felt like sandpaper. But that wasn't why I stopped mid sentence.
I sounded like a damn girl. What in the hell was going on??
I needed to see the rest of my body. I had to see what I looked like. With a feeling of dread building in my stomach, I pulled away the blanket.
Long brown legs and a red tail disappeared into a hospital gown as the gown bulged at the chest with a pair of breasts. My eyes must have been the size of dinner plates as I started to hyperventilate. Houston, we have a problem; a very big fucking problem. And a feminine scream tore itself from my lips.
Author's Note
This is something new that I wanted to try and attempt to take a bit seriously in actually attempting to write something without my friend Seeking Dusk (as Greycait now calls himself) . I can't promise regular updates but I'll try my damnedest.
And see if you can spot the subtle Fallout Equestria reference!
Okay, time to stop screaming! It's time to stop screaming! As the cries of panic died in my throat, I continued to stare down at myself.
Okay, breathe, Keith! Passing out will only make the situation worse than it already is. Oh who am I kidding, the only way this could get worse is if I still had a dick or something. Damn it, don't think about that! That's not helping at all!
As I lay there, trying to calm myself down, I swear to God my ears twisted about as I heard what sounded like hooves on tiles running. And they were getting louder. Okay, another thing to add to the rapidly growing What the Fuck! list.
As the sound grew louder, the shadow of someone in the textured glass window of the door appeared before it stopped and the door handle turned. I waited for the worst, but all I got was confusion.
He was human shaped at least: two arms, two hands, two legs, a head on shoulders. And he was clad in what looked like nurse attire. But that was where the similarities ended. He was like me; but covered in deep red fur instead of brown. Gargantuan grey eyes stared back at me in complete surprise as I stared at him, the nurse's ears tilted down as his chest heaved.
“Horsedude?”
He, honest to God, looked a bit like a horse… if a horse was upright, talking, wearing pants. It was then that I saw a little red horn sticking out of his forehead. Okay, I'm staring at an upright talking hors- no, unicorn wearing clothes. So I.. I must be one too then? But a quick look up and a hand run through my hair cancelled that thought.
“You're awake!” The unicorn stood at the door, huffing in-between his heavy breathing. Jeeze guy, how far did you run?
“Umm… of course I'm awake? How is that an issue?” I said, coughing a little from the dry throat. “Umm… Can I maybe get some water?”
The unicorn stared at me in confusion for another second before finally reacting. “I.. I need to go get the doctor,” he said and before I could even respond he was already back out the door.
“And don't forget the water!” I called out.
Suddenly finding myself alone again, I took the opportunity to look around the room some more, as by now my vision seemed back to normal.
Okay, some sort of heart monitor off to the side there, clamped to my finger. Well, not anymore, I thought to myself as I took off the finger clamp and the monitor’s steady beeping flatlined. Crap, I hope that doesn't bring more horse nurses running, I don't need any more attention. It took a moment, but I clamped the sensor back on my finger; I did not need more attention. That guy alone looked like I’d returned from the dead.
Returned from the dead.
That thought left a sour note in my mind as I looked over some more hospital stuff around the area in front of me. This has to be some form of afterlife, it has to be. Maybe it's where that Discord hails from? He said he owns my soul so it'd make sense for him to keep me close.
I couldn't help but shudder at the thought. No, it's best not to think of that right now. Let's focus on the matter at ha- hello? What's this?
As my gaze landed on the small nightstand next to the bed, I saw a simple picture frame. I picked it up and looked at it in curiosity.
Three horse people stood on a beach, blue water behind them as they stood in a little group, two in front of one. On the left side in the back stood a lime green mare, I thought that's the right term, wearing a modest simple black bikini. Short red hair hung in the shade of a wide brimmed sunhat.
Beside her was a gu- no, a stallion. His coat was a rather drab brown and his close cut hair looked to be in a military style to me. What really made me look at it in surprise was the fact this guy had wings! Like seriously, a pair of wings were coming out from behind him. Sure, they looked too small for him to fly but they were still flipping wings!
And between the two of them, smiling up at the camera, was a mare looking younger than the two horse people behind her. That one had wings like the male behind her and her coat made me pause as I looked at the picture.
Her coat was the exact same color as mine. The same shade of brown as I could see under the hospital gown I wore. Was that my sister or something?
“They miss you, you know?”
HOLY MOTHERBUCKING CHEESE AND CRACKERS!! I jumped in surprise as I developed a sudden case of butterfingers, the picture falling from my hands to the floor as I pulled the blanket over myself.
Standing in the doorway to the room was another unicorn stallion. From the way his voice sounded and the fact his pale blue hair and moustache seemed more grey than blue, it was safe to assume he was an older horse dude. And the white doctor’s coat showed that he was a doctor, too. A pair of glasses were perched on his nose as he looked at me with comforting eyes and chuckled a little as I let the blanket down from in front of me.
As he closed the door behind him, I grinned a little. The nurse dude did hear me! This horse doctor had a cup with what I assumed was water in it.
“Relax Ms. Brew, I didn't mean to startle you,” he said, stepping closer and handing me the cup which I took and sipped from. The cool water felt absolutely divine in my parched throat. But, Ms. Brew?
“Miss Brew?” I asked in confusion as I looked up at him.
“That's your name,” he said. “Meadow Brew. You do remember that, don't you?”
The doctor just looked at me with a placid look on his face as I shook my head. What? I couldn't say that's not my name. He'd think I'd gone nuts or something. Oh Hai, I just met you and this is crazy but I'm an alien guy stuck in a girl's body now! Wow, that even came out to that damn tune. And what kind of name is Meadow Brew in the first place? Sounds like a damn coffee brand!
“Hmmm, well, Miss Brew,” the Doctor began. “Around…” The doctor paused for a moment, mumbling to himself, sounding like he was counting. “About fifteen months ago, you were in an accident and have been in a coma since.”
An accident? A coma? What in the world? Did this Discord give me a backstory or something?
“An accident?” I asked, the confusion genuine in my voice as I looked at him and he sighed, rubbing the bridge of his muzzle.
“First off, may I ask you a question my dear?” The doctor asked as he stepped in close to me and picked up the picture I had dropped when he startled me.
“Of course, Doctor…”
“Green Shift,” he said, giving me a polite smile as he held the picture in front of me. “Can you remember anything? Do you know who these ponies are?” He pointed at the mare and stallion in the photo and frowned as I shook my head. “Ahh, I see. There were complications.”
“Complications? What are you talking about?”
“Miss Brew, those are your parents.”
What? My parents!? That's bloody impossible! Mom died five years ago and my dad died back when David was barely two! There's no way in bloody hell that's them! Unless they got reincarnated as horse people, I doubt that's my mom and pop!
The doctor just sighed softly as he placed the picture back on the table. “Miss Brew, you were put into a coma due to suffering severe trauma to your Temporal Lobe,” he said, tapping the left side of his forehead. “That's the portion of the brain that contains memories amongst other thi-”
“BRAIN DAMAGE!” My eyes sprang open and behind me something else sprang open. Turning my head back, my already wide eyes practically popped out of my skull. “HOLY FUCK I HAVE WINGS!!”
Suddenly spread open in alarm, a pair of brown and creme wings were spread out from behind me. Gawking like an idiot, I just stared at them. Oh my God! I have bloody wings! They look too small to fly, but I have WINGS!
“Umm… Miss Brew?” Green Shift tapping on my shoulder drew me out of my excitement as I turned back to him. “You don’t remember the fact that you're a pegasus either?”
Shaking my head I still grinned like an idiot. The doctor just shook his head, frowning a little. “Well, as I was saying Miss Brew, your temporal lobe suffered trauma and that is the portion of the brain involved in speech, memory, and emotions. And since you’re not slurring and aside from that sudden outburst, it appears that you suffered no damage aside from memory loss.
Memory loss? Well, that could be the easy way of explaining not knowing anything without seeming like a clueless idiot. Besides, If the naming system is this utterly dumb what else could be different?
“Memory loss, just great just absolutely peachy! I couldn't even remember my own name till you said it Doc. Let alone my own parents or the fact I have wings on my back,” I said, letting out a defeated sigh as I looked up at the doc. “Is there any way to fix this?” Please pay off, those two years of theatre in high school, please!
The doctor shook his head. “No, not that I know of. The memories may return in time but the mind is a fickle thing Miss Brew”
“Oh okay…..” I said softly, nodding at what the doctor said. Thank God, he believed what I said. “Doc?”
“Yes?”
“Is that a restroom?” I asked, gesturing over towards the second door, “I.. I need to use the little bo- little mare’s room.” I didn't really need to go but if there was a restroom, there's a mirror and I needed to see what I looked like. The impending weirdness of peeing without dangly bits could wait till later.
“Yes it is but there is currently an issue,” Green Shift looked over at the door I pointed at before turning his gaze back at me.
“And what is that?”
“You have a catheter.”
Author's Note
Well, here it is. I admit this took waaaaaaayyyyyy to much time for the amount I'm posting but with my original plan the chapter would have kind of rambled on for a bit longer.
Once again, Edited by Celefin who has kept me from using the words "Confusion on my face" far too much than it needs to be.
