“Welcome to Equestria,” I heard a voice say, as a bright flash of light overwhelmed my vision and I closed my eyes against the brightness. Unseeing, I felt the shock of landing through the belly sling I was in, as Derpy’s hooves touched solid ground and a truth of this new world came to me.

Everything about this place was too much. The light was too bright, the sounds were too loud, the smells too sharp. Even my sense of touch was hyper sensitive, the cloth of the sling being almost like a bed of nails while the softness of Derpy’s chest fur was like the caress of the finest silk. I heard a tremendous growling from an animal nearby, and realized it was me, groaning.

“ARE YOU OKAY?” someone screamed in my ear, and the only coherent response I could make was a whimper, as I tried to bury my face into Derpy’s chest.

“I THINK HE’S SUFFERING FROM SENSORY OVERLOAD, TWILIGHT,” Discord yelled at the top of his lungs. Geez, Discord, you think?

“IS DISCORD RIGHT? IS EVERYTHING TOO LOUD AND TOO BRIGHT?” some new idiot with a megaphone blared into my ear.

“Shut UP!” I yelled out, frustrated and angry with the morons around me. In hindsight, it was easy to see how shouting my frustrations was just about the worst possible thing I could have done, but at the moment all I wanted to do was to make all the crazy loud people just...go away. Even as I shouted, it was like someone jammed a steel spike into each of my ears and I almost blacked out from the pain.

“Equestria is more than your senses are used to,” a calm voice said, lowering itself down from a scream to a normal level. “I’m going to put you under for a couple of minutes until we can get some sort of filter going, okay?” I nodded, in gratitude. I had heard about “cluster headaches” before. Headaches so powerful that some people who had them tried to kill themselves, just to make the pain go away. I understood those people now, was my last thought, as a cool blackness descended over me.

After what I assumed were a few minutes later, I woke up again and things felt much better. I could only hear a dull background rumble now, and when I opened my eyes there was only a dim diffuse light shining in them. My face was reporting in that something soft was pressed against it all over, from the back of my head to the front of my...muzzle? Now that my brain wasn’t being overloaded by my senses, I could think for a minute and let myself explore my environment through my sense of touch.

A hood or wrapping of some sort had been put over my head that held soft pads over my eyes, ears and nose to block off those inputs, which was a pretty good idea, as even with the pads, my senses were still dialed up to eleven, but at least things were muted enough to be survivable now. Which is right about when I realized that someone had tied my ha...front hooves together and my rear hooves to each other as well.

“Hey, what gives with the rodeo?’ I asked out loud, or as out loud as I could. The hood kept my jaw from opening more than a little bit and I was forced to mumble the words. Again, it kinda made sense seeing as my last shout had come close to blowing out a good portion of my brain cells.

“You were thrashing around, flailing wildly, after we put you under,” I heard a muffled voice say to me. “We had to restrain you before you hurt yourself or somepony else.”

“Oh, okay,” I said, relaxing as I realized I probably had been acting a little off. “You can undo me now though, I’m fine.”

“Not just yet,” the same pony said, “I want to try a spell to acclimate your senses to the thaumatic levels that they are experiencing and I need you to hold still while I do it.” I could barely recognized the voice as female, and I tensed back up as I processed her statement and realized I was in the hands, I mean hooves, of a nerd.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I asked, trying to squirm a bit. Nerds were awesome, but they tended to have huge blind spots in their plans for important things, like vital organs.

“Of course, the theory is completely sound. Tell him Der--DERPY!” the nerd shouted, and I winced as the volume level punched through the muffler on my head, followed by a surge of adrenaline as I heard the fear and concern in the nerd’s voice. “Sweet Celestia, your entire side is covered in blood. Doctor Stable, come quick! Derpy’s hurt!”

That tore it, sensory overload or not, screwed up nervous system or not, there was no way I was going to lie in a comfy hospital bed while my friend needed help. Maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe it was my desperation to help a friend in need, but miracle of miracles my new body answered the call to action my brain sounded, and I surged upwards with all the power and speed I could manage. Getting all of about four inches before the bonds on my hooves snapped taut and I fell back to the bed, only to try to get up again.

“James, stay down,” Derpy said to me, from somewhere nearby. “I’ll be fine Twilight, it just looks worse than it is. Help James.”

“He’ll be fine, you’re the one bleeding out on your hooves,” the nerd said, and I could feel her lying over my back, trying to hold me down, as that bit of news seemed to double my strength. “Nurse Redheart, thank goodness. Help Derpy, while I deal with this pony.” Between the urgency I felt to help Derpy, and the overload I was inflicting on my senses by my actions, I admit I wasn’t exactly thinking right then. A burning need to get off that bed filled my thoughts, and liquid fire poured into my limbs as one of my hooves came free. I could feel another hoof beginning to slide loose when an odd sensation struck me.

Have you ever had someone pour a bucket of ice water over your head, or splashed cold water over your face? The best way to describe the feeling that hit me is that it was like that, except instead of hitting my face, the cold water splashed directly into my brain, snapping me out of my half-crazed frenzy.

“What is wrong, my little pony?” asked a cool thought from inside my own head, pulling me a bit away from outside reality.

Oh great, I thought to myself. Vulcan ponies.

“I am afraid I do not know the term,” the voice said, hearing my thoughts, and I could hear hints of gentle amusement and authority. “But please, calm thyself. The reason for thy struggles does thee credit, but they are to the detriment of loyal Derpy.”

“Can you help her?” I begged, into the echoing chamber of my thoughts. “Please.”

“You can help her best,” the cool female voice said, “by calming yourself and letting Twilight attend you. Then your friend can concentrate on her own healing and not worry about you.” Something about the voice said she had been in my position and knew what she was talking about.

“Will Derpy be okay?” I asked, but allowing myself to relax and go limp, as I recognized the wisdom the voice was giving me. As I did I felt bands of pressure cross my body at intervals, tight enough that they felt like they were cutting into my body.

“As long as she lets Doctor Stable close her wound she will be fine,” Cool Voice said, and things went quiet and I got the feeling of being looked at before she added. “Wait, are you in pain, my little pony?”

“Some,” I admitted. “My skin is hypersensitive right now and I’m guessing that after my outburst they’re strapping me down. I can’t blame them for being careful, and I don’t think they’re actually hurting me, it just feels like it.” There was another pause and a moment later all the bands of pressure fell away while Cool Voice returned.

“I’ve spoken to Twilight,” she said, “and as long as you promise to stay in bed she will not strap you down. Will you give me your promise?”

“As long as you promise me that Derpy will be okay,” I said. I was more than willing to compromise my own dignity, as long as it meant Derpy would be fine.

“Now that you are calm and not panicking, Derpy is letting herself be attended to,” Cool Voice said, satisfaction in her voice. “She is in no danger. So, will you give me your promise to behave?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” I said. I’m not sure why I called her “Ma’am” but it felt like the right thing to do and I felt Cool Voice leave even as the nerd gently nudged me.

“James, are you okay?” the nerd asked. “Princess Luna told me that you’ve promised to lie still, so I’ve taken the restraints off. Don’t make me put them back on.” To say I was surprised at the identity of Cool Voice was an understatement. I didn’t know how the hierarchy went here in Equestria, but a princess had to be pretty high up on the list and I had gone and talked back to her.

“Ya, I’m fine,” I told the nerd, mumbling the words past the hood. “Sorry about the freak out there, I sort of lost it. Won’t happen again, I promise.”

“It’s okay, everypony has their moments,” the nerd said to me. “I’m Twilight by the way, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Pleased to meet you Twilight Sparkle,” I said to her, trying and failing to coordinate my limbs again. “How’s Derpy?”

“She’s fine,” Twilight said to me and I felt her gently arrange my limbs for me. “Doctor Stable is working on her right now next door, and he’s sewing up that slice along her side. He said it looks like it started healing but she’s been re-opening it when she flies.”

“Goddamn it, Discord,” I said, feelingly and I didn’t need to have my full vision to see Twilight’s look of curiosity. “He told me that she would be fine and that cut didn’t need treating.” To my surprise I actually heard something of a growl come from the nerdy pony.

“Discord may know a lot about how ponies feel and how their minds work,” she said, huffing out a breath that I felt as a breeze against my fur, “But he still doesn’t know a lot of how much damage pony bodies can take. Don’t worry about Derpy though. Doctor Stable should have her stitched up pretty quick, although he might insist on keeping her here for a while to make sure she doesn’t reopen it again.”

“Sounds good,” I said, relaxing even further as Twilight’s words reassured me. “So...what happens next with me?”

“Well, while we’ve been talking I’ve cast several spells to check on the problem,” Twilight said, complete confidence in her abilities in her voice. “And as the old saying goes I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. Which would you like first?” I chuckled a bit at that. New world, new body, same old problems.

“Good news first please,” I said, letting my head loll a bit onto a provided pillow.

“Alright,” Twilight said, and her voice became happy. “The good news is that your oversensitivity is actually a pretty easy fix. All I need to do is cast a spell to rebalance your inner thaumatic levels with the outside world and you should be fine almost instantly.”

“That sounds great,” I said, and I meant it. “It’s bad enough that my body isn’t really working, but not being able to see or hear normally sucks. What’s the bad news?”

“Your body is the bad news, I’m afraid,” Twilight said, and my stomach fell as my imagination treated me to all sorts of horrible possibilities. “Unlike your senses, there isn’t a quick fix for your body. Your entire nervous system has been rewired and it’s just going to have to take time for your brain to reconnect everything.”

“But what about earlier?” I asked, remembering the surge of power I had felt. “Everything seemed to be working then.” Twilight sighed, loudly.

“You thought Derpy was in danger,” Twilight said. “So you instinctively used earth pony magic to give yourself the power and speed you thought you needed, but in doing so you burnt out the fragile connections your nerves had started to make and now you have to start over from scratch.”

“Oh,” I said, trying to take it in. “Um, how screwed am I?”

“Not horribly,” Twilight said, and I began to feel a tingling sensation. “Give me a minute here, I’m going to try to fix your senses now.”

“Anything I can do to help?” I asked as the tingling began to grow and cover my entire head.

“Just...try to hold still,” Twilight said, and the feeling around my head grew stronger until it became pins and needles, pressing hard against every inch of my skull, like a needle-tipped vice was trying to squeeze the juice from my brain. The force against me grew greater and greater, until just as it became actively painful, there was a sudden snapping feeling and all the sensations just sort of fell away. I slumped in my bed and went boneless, as if a great weight had been taken off of me.

“James? James!” I heard Twilight exclaim and I felt her fiddling with the laces holding the hood onto my head. She pulled it free after a few moments and I blinked as the pads on my eyes and ears fell away and I got my first real look at this new world called “Equestria.”

The first thing I noticed was a lovely purple-pink face right in front of mine, topped with a gorgeous mane of purple streaked blue. A cute little horn pushed through her mane, drawing my eyes to her expressive violet orbs and I had to fight down the urge to fix the concern on her face with a kiss. That took me by surprise for a moment as I tried to figure out why the hell I wanted to do that so badly. With Derpy I could understand it, seeing as we were friends and we had already been through a pretty intense bonding experience, but Twilight Sparkle here was a complete stranger. So, I clubbed desire over the head with a baseball bat and told it to shut the hell up as I smiled up at the concerned pony.

“Hey, I think it worked. Thanks!” I said, as much to change my thoughts as to thank the nerd, and I began to look around at my surroundings.

“Great, you just take it easy for a bit while I get Doctor Stable, or maybe Nurse Redheart if the doctor is still busy with Derpy,” she said, backing away a bit, her frown turning to a satisfied smile as she did.

“Hey, it’s not like I’m going anywhere right now,” I said, smiling to take the bite out of the comment. Twilight smiled back and as she turned to go I noticed something on her side. My vision seemed to zoom in of its own accord and focus on a pair of furled lavender wings at the sides of the purple unicorn. As I wondered about whether that was significant or not Twilight slipped out the door, closing it behind her and leaving me by myself for the first time.

I looked around the room taking in the sights. It seemed to be a typical hospital room with spots for two beds, of which I was taking up one. Various bits of equipment were behind me, none thankfully in use and there was a single window, currently closed, showing some trees growing under a golden sun. Everything was bright and cheery, a perfect day, and it took me a minute to spot the difference between here and Earth.

Have you ever watched a really old movie? From like, even before the 1980s? Me and my dad used to watch a lot of “epic” movies together from way back then, and his favorites were all directed by Cecil Somebody and they had literally thousands of extras in them. The big thing that I always noticed was how bright the colours were in those movies, despite how old they were. I asked Dad about it once and he told me that these movies were filmed in something called “Technicolour” which made all the colours deeper and richer than they would have been in real life.

That was what Equestria was like. Everything was brighter, with deeper colour and softer edges to everything. It was quite probably someone’s idea of heaven, but to me it was going to have to be home, at least for awhile, and I stared out the window to try and see more of this strange new world. As I did, my vision did that weird zoom thing again, letting me see details on leaves that were at least a good forty to fifty feet away.

I decided to try the trick out on the items in the room and got the same effect with anything I looked at. It seemed that if I wanted to I could focus my sense of sight into being essentially a pair of binoculars. As I pondered this development my ears caught a creaking noise by the door to my room, and I decided to see if my hearing could do the same trick as my eyes. To my delight, I was able to pick up on the conversation just outside my door.

“I am the attending physician here and as such my authority is supreme,” a male voice said in a voice that expected to be obeyed like it had been hundreds of times before.

“But I have to get home,” I heard Derpy’s voice reply. “I need to see Dinky and check on my home.”

“Miss Hooves,” the doctor said again, in that no-nonsense voice. “Let me spell it out for you. You’ve lost a great deal of blood from a wound that you reopened not once, but twice, and on top of that, the cut is deep and may be infected with something from that other world. So, you have exactly two choices. One, you can stay in that bed and with luck be discharged in the next day or two, or you can fight me on this. In which case I will have the nurses fit you with restraints and keep you here for a week long mental health hold until I’m sure you are no longer a danger to yourself. Which would you prefer?”

“But I need to see my daughter,” Derpy begged, and my heart went out to her as I heard the love for her child in her voice.

“I’m not heartless, Miss Hooves,” the doctor said, relenting as he sensed that he was going to be getting his way. “Once you are settled in a room, I’m sure Princess Twilight would be more than happy to bring your daughter here, and as she is your daughter she can stay with you as long as she likes.”

My brain locked up as a word that the doctor said echoed through the empty vault of my skull. It was obvious that my noggin had to be only good for holding up my hat, because no one but a complete and utter moron would talk back to not one, but two members of royalty the way I had. At least I knew the name of this princess and that she was at least a half ways decent person or pony. While I was pondering if this meant being sentenced to the mines of Rura Penthe or a more merciful execution, the door opened and another hospital bed was wheeled in.

“Hi James,” Derpy said from the bed, looking happy to see me. She was lying on her stomach and her entire torso had been completely wrapped in gauze several times, forcing her to keep her body in a straight line. Her wings had been furled against her side and wrapped in more gauze to become part of the main dressing and as her bed was pushed up beside mine, I could see an IV line running into one of her legs delivering replacement blood for what she had lost.

“Hey Derpy,” I said back, giving her a smile I didn’t really feel. “How you doing?”

“Like a mummy,” Derpy said, her smile becoming a bit lopsided. “It looks a lot worse than it is though, so you don’t have to worry about me. We pegasi are tough. We have to be, with all the hard landings we make.”

“Sure,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “Every doctor wraps their patients up like that when they’re being careful.” Derpy gave me a shrewd look, and I gave her my best innocent look back. We held that pose for about thirty seconds before we both burst out laughing.

“Oh James,” Derpy said, wiping a tear away from an eye. “If I have to be stuck here, at least it’s with a good friend. I just wish--” A knock on the door interrupted her.

“Can I come in?” a male voice asked through the door, and I recognized it as Discord’s.

“C’mon in, Sir,” I said to my boss, trying and failing to sit up straight.

“Hi, you two,” Discord said, coming in. His face was downcast and he was holding the end of his tail in front of him. Derpy and I shot a quick look at each other as we took in our employer’s extreme embarrassment.

“Hi Discord,” Derpy chirped in her usual happy voice. If anything, Discord got even sadder from the cheerful greeting.

“This isn’t easy for me,” Discord began, twisting his tail in knots, “but I need to apologize to both of you. James, I’m sorry. I didn’t think that you would suffer like you have when you got here and I definitely didn’t think the collar’s transformation would make you so helpless.”

“Don’t sweat it, Sir,” I said to Discord, interrupting him. “Without you, I never would have known that any of this even existed, and besides, Princess Twilight has a plan to get me back on my feet, er hooves in short order.” Discord looked up at me, relief plain on his face that I was willing to forgive him so easily, but his face fell again as he saw the wrappings around Derpy’s torso.

“Derpy, I’m even more sorry for what happened to you,” Discord said, and he actually began to tear up. “You were hurt a lot more than I thought you were. Fluttershy got mad at me and said you could have been crippled, or even killed. I’m sorry!” He flung himself onto Derpy’s bed and hugged her as hard as he dared, and I looked on in astonishment as a pair of literal waterfalls emerged from his eyes to splash to the floor.

“It’s okay, Discord,” Derpy said, reassuring him. “I’ll be fine, and I should have told you that it was a pretty good hit that I took. Besides, I don’t think Fluttershy really said I could have died, did she?”

“Well, not exactly, no,” Discord said, sniffling as the waterfalls disappeared as quick as they had come, leaving the floor an inch deep in tears. “But she did say that you were hurt, and that it was my fault for making you work when you were hurt.” He hugged Derpy and once again the waterfalls appeared. I figured I better do something before the water got high enough to drown us.

“You know Discord,” I said, in a musing tone to change the mood. “There is something you could do to make it all up to us.”

“What?” Discord demanded, shifting to clutch one of my lower legs, “What?”

“Well, Derpy really misses her daughter,” I said, and Discord straightened as he began to see where I was headed. “Plus, until I get things rewired again I could really use somepony to help me do basic things. Like eat and sit up straight.”

“That’s a wonderful idea James!” Discord exclaimed and he snapped his fingers. There was a flash of light and the water on the floor disappeared to be replaced by an adorable little pink unicorn pony who appeared in the room.

“Momma!” the little pony shouted, clambering up onto the bed so that she could hug her mother. Discord and I just smiled as we basked in the glow of the reunion.

“Oh, I missed you so much,” Derpy said, joy in her voice as she hugged the little one, who squirmed happily in her mother’s grip until a misplaced hoof found the covered wound and drew a hiss of pain. “Easy there, Dinky. Momma got a bit dented.”

“You gonna be okay, Momma?” Dinky asked, worry on her face.

“Of course, dear,” Derpy said, ruffling her daughter’s mane. “Doctor Stable is just being careful, is all. Now, I’d like you to meet a friend of mine.” She pointed a hoof over at me. “Dinky, this is James. James, this is my daughter, Dinky Hooves.”

“Hi Dinky,” I said, cheerfully to the little one. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Little Dinky bounded off her mother’s bed and onto mine, hugging my upper torso. After a moment she looked at me in puzzlement as she noticed I wasn't hugging back.

“Did I do something wrong?” she asked, confusion on her face. “Did I do something wrong?”

“I’d love to hug you, Dinky. But I can’t right now,” I said, thoroughly confusing the little filly. “In fact, that’s why I asked for you to be brought here.”

“Oh,” Dinky said, eyes and ears perking up.

“Yah,” I said, smiling at her. “See, I haven’t been a pony for very long, and until Princess Twilight helps me learn how to use my new legs and stuff I’m going to need somepony to help me with things. Light things, like holding my food, showing me how to use a glass the right way...stuff like that. Think you can help me with all that?”

“Oh yes,” Dinky said, happily clopping her hooves together. “I can help lots with that.”

“Great,” I replied, and dear God, was Derpy’s kid cute when she was happy. “Now all we need to do is clear it with the doctors and maybe get you a name tag or something.”

“Oh, I can do better than that,” Discord said, and snapped his fingers as another flash of light appeared over Dinky. When it faded, she was wearing an adorable little filly version of a nurse’s outfit with the title “Official Helper” emblazoned on it, and all three adults in the room chuckled as Dinky jumped off my bed to spin in a circle checking herself out.

“Okay then, Official Helper,” I said, speaking in an authoritative voice, and Dinky jumped back up onto the foot of the bed, throwing me a mini-salute as she did. “I’m feeling kind of thirsty. Think you can get me something to drink and help me with it?”

“You bet!”

Author's Note

Things seem to be moving along, don't they?

It does feel good though to get things moving along in this story again.

If you want to say "Hi" or anything, you can find me often on Damaged's Discord server. Just be aware, the server is for 18+ as any and all conversation there should be considered NSFW. You can also find me hanging out in Second Life as "Penalt Godenot." Frequent hang out locations are the YouMustObey sim, which is welcoming to all avatar types and has some very mellow tunes that I find good to write by. I can also be found in Trotsdale or The Burning Mare near their central fires.