Author's Note

Just in case, the cursive speech is the protagonist thinking, and non-cursive is someone actually talking. It should be reasonably clear from the context, but I thought I better clarify it. Oh, and the speech in his native language would be bold.

I can't remember when I last heard birds thing! Or anything, really.

”What a lovely morning! The sun is shining, the birds are singing. I cannot even remember when I last heard the birds sing!”

I laid there in my bed, eyes closed, too lazy to move even an inch. The sun was shining through a window right at me, and I felt all warm and fuzzy. Yes, that was a really pleasant morning.

”Though, I wonder why the birds are singing now, even though they didn’t before today...” My brain, apparently, was also warm, fuzzy and lazy. ”Nah, it’ll come to me when I’m properly awake.” And with that thought I continued laying there, enjoying myself and being far too lazy to even think any more.

Alas, no good thing lasts forever. Or even barely long enough.

”Oh. Come. ON! That infernal itch could not wait for a few more minutes before assaulting me, could it?

Resigned to my fate, I tried to scratch my back. ‘Tried’ is the key word. I didn’t get far. A searing wave of pain shot through my whole body as soon as I attempted to move. I almost cried out loud, panicked, abandoned the effort, and immediately opened my eyes.

An unfamiliar small room greeted me. The early morning sun was shining from the window on the opposite side, right into my face. Thankfully, it was not bright enough to be blinding that early in the day. The room was plain white and almost empty. There was my bed, and at the window there was a desk with drawers and a single chair.

Next to my bed, there was some kind of strange device. It had many indicators, some of them were blinking, and it was steadily spewing out a paper tape with some lines plotted on it. The device had no text or numbers on it that I could read. Some tubes and wires were connected to it, and to me at the other end. I think they were connected to me, at least. I could not move my head to actually see due to the fear of pain.

”Am I in a hospital?” My panic started to subside, and my brain started working. ”How did I even get here?” Still slightly dazed, I tried to remember what made my body ache all over and landed me in that bed. I did not have much time to ponder that, though.

Suddenly, a door opened and a nurse walked in. That was to be expected, being in a hospital and all. What I absolutely did not expect was that she was a little horse. No, I did not misspell that! If she was not wearing a white cap with a symbol resembling a red cross, I would have thought that a random white horse strayed into my hospital room! To be honest, though, neither possibility made much more sense than the other.

My brain stammered at the absurdity of the situation. A little horse, working at a hospital! As a nurse! I almost chuckled. And then she spoke.

”What!?” That was the only thing I could think when it really sunk in. A horse was standing before me, looking like a nurse, smiling at me, and saying something to me! The only reason to believe that I was not dreaming was that the pain from before would have woken me up already. A sentient horse was tending to me in a hospital!

The horse, it seems, had noticed my stupefied state. She came closer and said something else, now with a slightly worried face. Her speech sounded kinda like normal horse noises, but it was most definitely structured and organized, like only an actual language could be. Also, now that I thought about it, calling her a ‘horse’ seemed wrong somehow. Sure, she looked kinda like one, but not quite. Her head and face were much less elongated, facial features more round, and her hair was like nothing I could imagine on an actual horse, and pink. Also, she was so small! She hardly was twice the height of my bed.

”Hmm, what was that word... Oh! Pony. Pony it is, then! Though I’m not really sure how this more precise, except for her size, it definitely feels much more right to call her that instead of ‘horse’.”

My thought process was interrupted by her saying something more to me. She was still looking at me, worry all over her face. I decided it was time to do something, and thus I spoke.

“Good morning. I do not really understand what you are trying to say, I don’t know your language. Do you speak — Damn, I forgot what my language was called! — Do you understand me? — How could I forget what my language was called!? Also, is it just me, or did my voice actually sound kinda weird?” I dwelt on the last thought for a bit, but nothing came out of it.

As I talked, nurse’s face changed from worried to surprised, and then to something worried-serious. She took a pencil in her mouth and jotted something on her clipboard, then went closer to the weird machine and took some more notes. While she was doing that, I was looking at her and chuckling internally.

”She’s writing with her mouth. She’s really doing it. This is hilarious!” Then a thought struck me. ”But how else is she supposed to do that? She only has her mouth and one spare hoof, two if she sits. How is one supposed to write anyway? How do I write?” And at that moment I realized that I had no idea whatsoever.

”Okay, that’s bad.” I was racking my brain hard to find something. ”That’s very bad.” Anything! ”I don’t remember writing anything, ever!” I started breathing faster. ”I have no idea how to hold a pencil, except in my mouth!” The machine started beeping, and the nurse turned towards me, mild panic on her face. ”But I’m not a pony. We don’t do that!” She said something frantically. I barely heard her. ”But who are ‘we’? Who am I? What am I!?” Nurse rushed towards the desk, looking for something in a drawer. I noticed a rather large snout at the bottom of my field of view. ”I’m not supposed to be a pony, am I!?”

My head snapped down so that I could look at myself. What I saw was four heavily bandaged legs, with dark brown fur visible in the gaps gaps. They were ending in hooves. Between my sheer panic and the extreme pain from actually moving, I screamed. And then I quickly fainted.