Chapters Twilight Sparkle was having what she felt like to be a normal day. Applejack was working hard on her new apple cider recipe, Rainbow Dash was galloping in a marathon, Fluttershy was nowhere to be found, Rarity was dressing up for no occasion whatsoever, and Pinkie Pie was… Pinkie. And Spike was asleep, and he had become a bore as of late. So what did that leave Twilight to do? Plan her day.
She planned to do planning for the first part of the day, then do a bit of self-talk after planning what to do in the evening, then reading until it was time to go to bed.
The planning was shorter than it should’ve been. In truth, it was much shorter. A whole hour had not been planned, and Twilight had to do something in that time or face that terrible hour with the company of boredom, who is not terribly fun. She talked to herself into doing her self-talk early, since she needed to reflect on the past week as she had missed the opportunity to do so yesterday.
Before trying to leave the house, she grabbed her list of things to talk to herself about. “Let me see what there’s left on the list,” she stated. She flipped past the first fifty one pages. Those were over-talked about and the subjects had been crossed out. When she got to page fifty two, she found all of those subjects crossed out too. That’s fine. She told herself, I have plenty more pages . She turned the page. All those subjects were crossed out. She flipped to page fifty four. Same thing. Page fifty five. Fifty six. Sixty. Seventy three. Ninety eight. One hundred twenty seven. As she flipped the list some more, she realized she was out of pages to flip. She had reached the end of her list. This meant only one thing.
The emergency list was on the top shelf. She used her magic to get it down then blew off the dust from the cover. She had hoped to never use it, but circumstances had forced her hoof. As she lifted the cover of her book, she read the warning she had written to herself. WARNING! This book contains subjects that should only be talked about when no other pony can hear. They also should be avoided at all costs, unless circumstances have allowed.
Twilight almost didn’t dare turn the other page. Almost. She slowly uncovered the next page, and a bold red text revealed the first topic. Classified for boredom: Lint. She bust out in laughter. She had made this book over a year ago, and she obviously hadn’t been thinking. Lint?! Seriously! She decided her next fifty five minutes would be reading this book and seeing what else was in it.
Not the greatest idea Twilight had. As it turned out, the book had many subjects that made her shudder, and gag at intervals. But she pushed through. Disgust was a feeling she could cope with. Boredom was not. Boredom was the worst of feelings, since it was a lack of them.
She turned to the last page with squinted eyes and found a subject that was actually a rather good one. It read: Whatever the first thing I see is when I leave the house. That she could do. She looked at her clock and found it was time to do the self talk anyway, so she trotted up to her door and opened it, proud to have a subject to talk to herself about.
She saw a couple of ponies, both about her brother’s age, sitting at a table eating and talking. They were obviously on an outing together. They were…
DATING!?!
Twilight shook her head, telling herself no four times over. She looked to her right, where she saw a pair of bunnies with a lot of little bunnies following them. She looked left, where she saw a pair of birds circling each other. She looked down, where she saw dirt. She looked up where she saw an object hurtling towards her house.
Meteors. Twilight could talk about meteors. WAIT! NO!
But it was too late. If Rainbow Dash were here, she would have been jealous of the meteor, for not only did it accomplish more speed than her, it made more noise than her Sonic Rainboom. Not as much destruction as was once done to one of Applejack's barns, but reasonably enough to make a cloud of dust fill the house.. As the dust settled down, she saw the object had landed in the exact center of her library, where the dust still had not gone away. She could hear other ponies screaming and galloping towards her (along with Spike still snoring), but she was completely transfixed by the object that had just crashed. And as she moved closer, she found that it wasn’t an object at all. Not even close.
It was a unicorn. He was either dusty brown or caked in dirt, with a black mane. Interestingly, he had no cutie mark, even though he seemed around Twilight’s own age. And that was all that there was to tell about him really. Nothing else distinguished him.
He moaned, and opened his eye ajar. Twilight looked into it and saw a dark green iris. He said nothing for a second, as if it wouldn’t come to him, then he whispered, “Help me.” He raised his hoof to her, then it plopped back down on the ground and the eye closed.
Twilight couldn’t believe what just happened. A non-Pegasus pony had crashed through the roof of her house and had no cutie mark. She almost couldn’t believe it.
Almost.
“How’s he doing, Doc?” Twilight asked. She stood waiting outside the emergency room with the doctor that had looked at meteor pony (That’s what she decided to call him for now). She had taken him to the hospital straight away, with the help of some others. His front right leg was bent at an odd angle, and is horn was cracked in two places. He had remained unconscious all the way to the hospital, and remained so through the viewing window, where a heart rate monitor was hooked up to him.
“He may not be…” the doctor started out before changing his mind. “Well, his leg needed a splint because it was broken, and some of the bruises may leave permanent marks. Brain activity is somehow regular, but I expect him to be in here for at least two and a half weeks at the least. He will need rehabilitation services to walk again. Now if you don’t mind me asking, you said he crashed through your ceiling?”
Twilight sighed. She had been answering these types of questions since she got here. “Yes. He crashed into my house, I don’t know his name, he only said “Help me” so far, and no, he doesn’t have a cutie mark.”
“Well, that answers some questions I both did and didn’t have,” the doctor said. “But one more question. Who are his relatives? I can’t find any record of him of anywhere in ten miles of here. Reports are still coming in, but so far the results look bleak.”
That's weird. Meteor pony isn’t from around here? . “I don’t know,” Twilight restated. “I just met him.”
“Ah, well then why don’t you talk to him?” the doctor suggested.
Twilight gave this a thought. She had experienced boredom enough today, and she didn’t have any plans that were going to keep her from that.
“He will want to say thank you,” The doctor explained. “You saved his life by bringing him here. I’m sure he’ll want to see you eventually.”
The doctor was right. She should talk to meteor pony. She told the doctor, “I think will,” and entered the room.
She saw that meteor pony was still unconscious upon looking at the bed. She trotted up to him and took a good look. He was indeed light brown, and his black mane seemed even blacker because of the white filled room he was in. She checked his body again and there was still no cutie mark. And his hair seemed really glossy too. Sort of like a foal’s hair. She touched the hair on his arm softly, and found it to be the softest hair she had felt.
He coughed, and she withdrew her hoof quickly. He slowly opened his eyes and moaned. When they were halfway open, his eyelids stopped moving and his pupils set on Twilight. He made a faint smile and whispered, “You… You saved me.” Twilight blushed. She had saved plenty of other ponies’ lives before, but never before so on such a personal level. So she kept silent while he continued talking. “I can’t believe I’m alive. I was in so much pain back there, and you brought me here. Thank you.”
Twilight’s blush got deeper. “It was nothing. Anypony would’ve done what I did,” she muttered.
Meteor pony laughed with little energy, or as much as he could muster. Twilight couldn’t tell. “Maybe, but you still did it,” he croaked. The doctor entered the room at this point, but neither of them noticed. His eyes looked her over and he whispered, “It would be nice… to know your name, and not just keep calling you ‘you’.”
Twilight didn’t see why not. She offered a hoof, remembered the state he was in, and put it down saying, “I’m Twilight Sparkle.”
Meteor pony’s smile widened. “Twilight Sparkle,” he repeated. “That’s a fitting name.” At that, Twilight dipped her head in embarrassment, face nearly red. “I’m Lonely,” he stated.
Twilight looked up at him with puzzlement on her face. Then Lonely coughed and said, “Sorry, the painkiller is still in me. I meant to say I’m Lon Lee. As in, my name is Lon Lee.” Twilight’s face returned to normal, he yawned and continued talking. “I think I’ll go back to being unconscious again. So thanks again. Twilight Sparkle.” At that he closed his eyes and his breathing slowed, with the faint smile still on his face.
Friends and Dating and Waking Up
Twilight nodded at the air in front of her. Lon seemed to be a very nice pony. He was very polite in their chat, and he hadn’t made me feel uncomfortable.[i/i She was still thinking about him when she walked into the waiting room, where she found Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie waiting eagerly to talk to her.
Apple Jack was the first to see Twilight enter the room, and immediately spoke up saying, “Twilight! We all came as soon as we could. So you brought an injured pony all the way to the hospital from your house?” She continued talking, but was drowned out by Rainbow Dash.
“How much damage did he do when he crashed into your house?” She started saying. “I bet he almost caused it to cave in! How did he get up there?” Twilight couldn’t listen to Dash for long either though, because Rarity pulled her off to the side.
“I heard he was a unicorn. Well is he?” She inquired, giving Twilight a you know what I mean stare. “And I asked the doctors if I could see him. A mare has to know who's in town, right? Ooh, is he one of those cute actors from-“
Pinkie Pie was now directly in front of her face, drowning Rarity’s words in a series of three second sentences. “What’s his name? Huh? I bet his name is something cool, like Bartholomew or Blaster or something that starts with B, because Boom starts with B, and that’s the sound he made when he hit your house!”
Fluttershy moved her lips, but Twilight couldn’t hear her over all her other friends talking at once.
They all backed Twilight into a corner, where she got bombarded with questions. She squinted her eyes and covered her ears with her hooves. But even after that, she could feel them closing in. She just needed to answer the questions one at a time. “STOP!” she yelled, at which point they stared at her with surprise and stopped talking. Twilight took a deep breath then started answering questions. “First, yes, I brought him all three and a half miles to the hospital with the help of some other ponies. Second, he only punched a hole in my roof and library, no cave-ins. Thirdly, he is a unicorn. Lastly, his name is Lon Lee, and I can't tell where he is from.”
The other ponies thought about the answers Twilight had given them. They all seemed satisfied, until Rarity realized something and said, “You never told us if he was cute. Ooh, do you like him? Oh I can’t wait until-“
“No. I’m not going to let anything be between me and Lon.” Twilight stated. “I have much better things to do with my day.”
“Um, like planning?” Rainbow Dash suggested.
Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash. “Listen, I just saved his life. That’s all there is to it. After he gets out, he’ll do his thing, I’ll do my thing, and no dating is going to happen.”
“I don’t remember anyone mention dating…” Pinkie Pie recalled. Everyone looked at Pinkie Pie, and then smiled at Twilight. Twilight realized what she had just said and quickly exited the room, blushing madly.
****************
Twilight opened the door to her house hastily. She needed a break from today’s events. Taking a look around her house, she decided some cleaning was needed. Cleaning always took her mind off things.
But she quickly found cleaning kept her mind on the subject of Lon the meteor pony. She couldn’t stop herself from looking at the hole in the ceiling or the crater in the ground. The hole in the roof was the most prominent part of the house, and the crater in the center of it all. She tried to make the hole look as neat as possible, but in the end it was still big and obvious. Her entire home was in a state of disrepair. She did look at Spike’s bed and saw he was still asleep. He must’ve been very tired to have slept this long. Or he woke up while she was at the hospital then went back to bed. Either way, Spike was very sleepy today.
Just then there was a knock at the door. Twilight sighed. Would she ever get some time to herself? This morning everyone was busy, and now she was the most sought after pony in Ponyville. There was another knock and Spike woke up, yawning and saying “Good morning Twilight.” Twilight put a clock in front of him and went to go see who was at the door.
It was the nurse who had been working with the doctor at the hospital. She was still in her nurse outfit, so she was probably here on the hospital’s behalf. “Are you Twilight Sparkle?” The nurse asked.
“Yes, I am. Why do you ask?” Twilight responded.
The nurse flipped her mane back and said, “The pony that you brought to us today has some, well, medical conditions that we thought you might be able to explain. We already know you don’t know about the cutie mark, but if you would be kind enough to come with me, I’m sure you’ll see what we’re talking about.”
Twilight put a hoof up to the nurse then yelled over her shoulder “Are you going to be okay if I leave, Spike?”
“Yeah,” Spike yawned, “Just make sure I don’t sleep in past noon again. I think all that sleeping made me tired. Woah, what’s with the hole in the ceiling and the crater in the floor? Was there a meteor or something while I was asleep?”
Twilight laughed and walked out with the nurse. She was curious about what sort of conditions the nurse was talking about. She was interested in Lon, and not the interested a mare her age usually was in a colt.
The trip back to the hospital took longer than expected, probably because she didn’t have anypony to worry about. But she kept getting looks from other ponies that made her nervous. They’re just wondering what I’m doing back. She told herself.
When she got to Lon’s room she found him sound asleep, with the doctor looking over him. Seeing her, the doctor said, “Ah, glad you’re here Twilight. I was just looking over some of the readings we got from Lon and, you see, while you were standing by him, his cellular activity went way above normal. It went above what was even considered possible. There are some other issues that need addressing along with this one, but I need to make sure it wasn’t just a fault of the machinery.”
Twilight understood. The doctor had some pretty pricey medical equipment, and it would be very expensive to fix. She hoped that it was faulty though. How could a simple pony like herself do anything to influence cellular activity in a pony she had never met? Still, because she was nice, she would do what the doctor said. She asked, “What do I need to do?”
“Nothing much, just go and stand by him for a minute or two then step back into the information room. It’s the third door to the left of this one,” the doctor informed.
Twilight nodded and waited for the doctor to exit the room, then walked over to Lon. She didn’t feel any different. Lon didn’t stir, and a good two minutes of nothing happened before Twilight went to the information room.
When she walked in, the doctor and the nurse were both staring astounded at a monitor on the wall. It was a graph, and it was going slowly from the upper middle part to the bottom. Twilight coughed, and the doctor eagerly trotted over to her. “Twilight, never before have I wanted my equipment to be more right. We watched you walk over to Lon and, you won’t believe this, when you stood by his bed his cellular activity skyrocketed to seventy percent! I can’t believe it! A whole seven times more than normal! Almost five times as thought possible! It’s amazing! There’s absolutely no explanation for this! Well so far, I’m expecting some new equipment to come in a week or so that would help solve this.”
The numbers, while still comprehending to her ears and brain, didn’t quite register. She was too worried about what this meant for her life. Why did Lon have overactive cells around me? He was even asleep, unaware of my presence. And the doctor said it was something unexplainable.
Just then, the door to the information room opened, and a light brown, black maned unicorn walked in and said “Is there any juice around here? I’m quite parched,”
It was Lon. The pony who had a broken leg two hours ago.
Everyone gawked at Lon for a minute. Lon looked back with a quizzical glance at them. Blinking, Twilight shook her head and said "Wait a minute; you were just in the emergency room with a broken leg and horn. How are you able to just trot in here and ask for juice?"
"My leg was broken?" Lon asked, apparently not worried about his horn. "Which one was it?" He tested his weight on each individual one, showing no signs of pain.
The doctor went up to Lon and examined his front right leg. "No fractures, no swelling, not even a limp." He stood up again and looked at Twilight. "Was his leg and horn still broken when you were in the room?"
“I don’t… How should I know?” Twilight stammered. “I was only in there two minutes.”
“It was shattered into pieces! The amount of energy required to move the bone back into place in that amount of time would be comparatively colossal!” The doctor was practically screaming now. “Even with seventy percent cellular activity, his body should’ve withered to a raisin with all the energy being spent!”
“I did ask for juice.” Lon said in his own defense.
The nurse headed over to a nearby cabinet while the doctor was shaking his head. “Some things in this world are just simply too unbelievable to be believed, even when seen.” She got a juice box out and gave it to Lon, who sat down on his hindquarters and began sucking the sweet nectar out like a small foal would. The doctor looked at Lon with an intense glare, with both disdain and curiosity sparkling behind his irises.
“Wait, how could his horn have repaired?” The nurse asked in sudden realization. “Horns are made at birth and take time to grow. A split would have to be repaired by magic. You didn’t touch him, did you Twilight?
Twilight looked sternly at the nurse. She wanted answers as much as anypony else in the room. She almost snapped back at the nurse, but Lon got there first.
“What is magic?” He inquired, tilting his head to one side.
Every pair of eyes widened as their owner’s head turned towards Lon.
Something is seriously wrong with this pony.
“You are a unicorn!” Twilight screamed, for it was now her turn to be frustrated. “It’s what your horn is for! How in the name of Celestia could you not know what magic is? It’s like a Pegasus not knowing they can fly!”
Lon looked taken aback by Twilight’s sudden outburst. “Well it’s not like I remember everything in my life” Lon said with another sip of juice, looking at Twilight out of the corner of his eye.
“Wait, say that again.” The doctor asked, putting his hoof on his chin.
Lon looked with a raised eyebrow and shrugged. “That again.”
The doctor became frustrated again. “No! Say what you- nevermind. I need to look at your neurological readings.” With that he went over to another screen and started pressing buttons on a panel below it.
Twilight observed Lon. His juice box was now empty, and he looked at it unsatisfied as he tossed it at the trash can by the door. It swished in the basket and he smiled, looking proud of himself. A stallion of simple pleasures, obviously. He trotted over to the trash can, where he poked his head in and quickly withdrew it, covering his nostrils with both hooves and inhaling the fresh air deeply.
His horn was perfect, as if it had been sculpted by a sculptor. The body he exhibited seemed likewise, being toned but not exactly muscled like Rainbow Dash. His eyes were a pretty dark green, like the leaves of an oak tree in mid-summer. He seemed to be the perfect stallion any mare in Ponyville would want.
Not that Twilight would want him, she reminded herself. She was happy with her life. She had all the friends she needed. And nothing could change that. Her mind was made. It was a fact to her.
The doctor turned away from the monitor and motioned for Twilight to come over. She approached the doctor, who pointed to the chart of Lon’s brain activity on screen. “There’s an abnormality in his brain. Usually a brain uses about five or ten percent of itself at any given moment. However, if you look at the-“
“That’s nearly forty five percent brain activity there!” Twilight exclaimed. She looked back at Lon, who was now busy playing with the scale used to weigh foals. Could he really have the capacity to use that much of his brain?
Lon wandered over to the other side of the room, where he noticed the window. He put his hoof out and touched the glass, the invisible substance stopping his hoof. His smiled and began tapping it. “Hey Twilight,” he began, “I think that there’s an invisible solid here.”
Twilight double blinked. She turned to the doctor again with a frown on her face. “Are you sure your readings were right? I mean, there might be something in him that is making your equipment faulty.”
“That would be plausible.” He pondered. “But we haven’t found anything that would make that happen as of yet. But I’ll keep you posted. I plan on doing more testing.”
“Actually, Twilight will have to keep us posted.” The nurse corrected.
“Why is that?” Twilight inquired.
“Since Lon has nothing wrong with him, we can’t keep him in the hospital.” The nurse informed.
The doctor shot the nurse an angry glare and mumbled something about blabber mouths. “I’ll find something don’t worry Twilight.”
Twilight made a sigh of relief. She didn’t want to be watching Lon. As she had stated earlier to her friends, she had much better things to be doing in her day.
“But we need patient consent to do more exams. And the emergency services we provided for him are already costing us, so I don’t think the finance manager will allow-“
The doctor shot the nurse another angry glare, which caused the nurse to stop mid-sentence. The doctor turned to Twilight and sighed. “Well, as was just explained, we don’t exactly have the resources necessary to do more testing. I was going to keep him here for the while until I am able to get a grant, but since SOMEPONY can’t resist telling everything I do to an authority. If you could look after Lon here until I get the grant, it would be much appreciated Twilight.”
Twilight tilted her head to the side and looked at the ceiling, considering the options. “What if the grant doesn’t get accepted?”
“Twilight, this stallion here has performed miracles in the last day I would say not even the best doctor could explain. What makes you think we won’t get the grant?”
This was a true statement. And Lon did look like he was in need of some teaching in magic, if not other areas as well.
As if on cue, Lon exclaimed “OUCH! This pointy thing hurts when it touches you on one end!”
All three turned to seen Lon holding a needle and a drop of blood on his arm.
Yeah, this could be an adventure. Or a catastrophe.
