Striving To Belong

"Fluttershy, what's taking so long?" Rainbow Dash asked in a cry. She propelled herself into the air with one big flap of her wings. Flying high into the tall room, she tried to spot the timid pegasus, but to no avail.

"Dash, will you camp yerself down?" Applejack said in her southern accent.

"We been here for abou' five minutes."

"Where could she had left it? It's not like we went all over the castle," Rainbow Dash said in a puff.

"You really need to argue about everythang, don' cha?"

"Well what else are we gonna do in this place?"

"Oh, enough!" Twilight shouted in annoyance. Both the pegasus and the earth pony looked at her with their ears splayed back.

"Just stop it! You two have been arguing since we left Ponyville! What are you eve arguing about?" Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared a glance for a second before turning away from Twilight in embarrassment. Applejack crossed one of her forelegs over the other.

"Am mighty sorry Twilight, just a bit of tension between us right now," Applejack admitted, avoiding eye contact with Twilight. Twilight's gaze softened and she sighed.

"I won't push any further. Just stop arguing, please. I feel a headache coming," A light fluttering of wings came into hear shot and a soft voice was heard just above it.

"I found it," Fluttershy said in here usual soft voice. A saddlebag was wrapped around her flank as she fluttered to the ground next to the girls.

"Fabulous, darling. Did you lose anything?" Rarity asked in a helpful tone.

"No, everything's how I left it." As the words left Fluttershy's lips, the doors to the castle flew open. All head turned to see who, or what, had opened them. Gasps came from each pony.

There, standing in the doorway, was a creature never seen by pony-kind. It was bipedal, standing at about a staggering six feet. It had two long arms with five fingers on each hand. No fur covered it's body, only a pale skin. It wore pants, made from a material that looked like denim. It had a button and zipper to keep them from falling down. It didn't have hooves, and had feet with five and varying sized toes. It had brown, shaggy hair, looking like it hadn't been brushed before. Facial hair was starting to cover it's cheeks, jaw, chin, and around it's lips. It deep blue eyes seemed to pierce every soul it gazed upon.

But the most scary thing about it was the state that it was in. It was covered in scratches, dried blood, dirt, and the large bite mark on it's left forearm. The bleeding had long since stopped, since it had tied a black, cloth looking materiel around it's upper arm as a makeshift tourniquet. That meant that it had basic medical knowledge, and could possibly be an intelligent species, on that has never been recorded on Equis.

It stood there and didn't move. It seemed to be observing them, just as flabbergasted as the girls. Not taking her eye off the bizarre creature, Applejack slightly turned her head towards Twilight.

"Twilight, you know what that thing is?" She asked in a slightly fearful manner. Twilight shook her head.

"I... I've never seen anything like it before," Twilight responded. Fluttershy stepped forward.

"It looks hurt, maybe it needs help," she said while trying to creep towards the bipedal being. Twilight's right foreleg shot up in front of her before she could proceed.

"It may be dangerous," Twilight said while looking at Fluttershy, "everypony stay put. Applejack, Rainbow Dash. You two detain it if it tries to attack any of us," Twilight said in a slightly authoritative voice. Applejack and Rainbow Dash nodded at the demand.

It's breathing became heavy and trouble, and it's eyes seemed like they were struggling to stay open. All the girls gave each other uneasy looks.

"P...Please." It said in a wheezy whimper. Everyponie's eyes shot open, gasps coming from each pony. The creature fell to it's knees, barley catching itself with it's hands on the ground in front of it. It pushed itself back up as straight as it could on it's knees.

"H.. Help me." It's eyes rolled back into it's skull, and it fell backwards. Everypony, except for Rarity and rainbow Dash, rushed forward to assess the creature, even thought it could be dangerous. It needed help. Hay, it asked for help. The first pony by it's side was Fluttershy, she was instantly checking it's breathing, pulse, and the nasty bite wound on it's arm. She looked up at Twilight.

"It's alive, but just barley," she said in a unusually louder voice.

"It needs help, ASAP. If it has any chance at survival, it needs to get to a hospital."

"We can't get it back to Ponyville in time!" Twilight almost shouted.

"You need to attend to him here!" Fluttershy looked away fro Twilight, instead focusing on something behind here. Twilight followed her gaze and looked where she had been looking. A stack of scrolls sat on a desk, accompanied by a couple of sealed jars of ink and a few loose quills.

"I... I can't," Twilight said with a slight blush.

"Why not? It need's help, and the only help we'll be able to get is from Princess Celestia." Fluttershy shot back.

"She's... She's too busy," Twilight said, not looking at Fluttershy.

"Too busy to save an unknown creature? He could die within the hour if he doesn't get help!" Twilight chewed on her lip for a second before sighing. Looking at the creature one last time, she trotted over to the desk.

I was a awake, but my eyes weren't open. My entire body was fatigued and sore, and it felt like I hadn't gotten any sleep in days. I wanted to go back to sleep, but just couldn't. Something was wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on. I was on a semi-comfortable bed that seemed to just fit me. If I outstretched my legs to the max, then my feet would dangle off the edge. There was a thin blanket covering my body, going from my feet up to my pecs.

Wherever I was, it seemed to be dark, as no light was shining through my eyelids. The temperature was comfortable. Not too cold, and not too warm. The smell almost seemed... sterile. It almost smelt like a hospital.

Wait a minute...

That thought seemed to awaken me a little.

Am I in a hospital?

A beeping noise caught my attention. It had been going the entire time, but I hadn't noticed it in my paralysis-like state. I studied it for a few seconds before coming to the conclusion that it was a heart beat monitor. The beeps matched up with my heartbeat.

What happened? Why am I in a hospital? I need to know why.

Slowly, I opened my right eye to peek out at my surroundings. I was wrong, it wasn't pitch black. There was window on the right wall covered by a curtain, only a small amount of light shining through the white fabric. After adjusting to being awake, I gradually opened my left eye.

The room seemed like a normal hospital room. The bed I was in sat in the middle of the room. A wooden nightstand was placed to right side, and some medical equipment sat on the left. There was the heartbeat monitor I heard and an IV stand holding an IV bag that was connected to somewhere on my left arm. A small vase with a variety of colourful flours sat on top of it, and a small glass of water next to it.

The walls were a very light beige or white, with a sky blue line running through the middle. The floor was a tile-like materiel, the tiles were a pristine white colour.

On the far wall was a sleek, wooden door that was painted white. The doorknob was made out of some kind of metal, and was a shiny bronze or brass colour. A small armchair sat next to it, and on the other side sat a large potted plant. A small painting of a bay sat above the armchair. It's frame was made out of a dark wood.

Looking down at my body, I then realized why I was in this hospital.

My left forearm was bandaged to all hell, the IV drip pierced in a vein on my left hand, slowly feeding it to me. My right arm had small guts on them, and a few bruises here and there. I didn't have my shirt on, and saw that there was also bandages around my abdomen. A few cuts crossed my chest as well.

"What the fuck happe-" I cut myself off. My eyes widened in horror, remembering what had happened.

I though that was a vivid dream or something.. I though to myself, as visions of that horrid wood-wolf was on top of me, gnawing at my arm, and it's claws digging into my abdomen, desperately trying to escape as I crushed it's neck.

If... That really happened, that means I'm probably not on Earth. Then where the hell...

My thought was cut off by a beeping noise, louder and more erratic than my heartbeat monitor.

It was an alarm.

I realized that my heartbeat had been skyrocketing while I was remembering the situation I had been in, triggering some kind of safety alarm. It seemed to be coming from the heartbeat monitor.

Movement outside the door caught my attention. It sounded like hooves on tile, or stone. My widened as I remembered the castle, and the weird, talking ponies inside of it. The doorknob was encased in a maroon aurora before flying open.

A cup of coffee levitated up off of the counter, encased in a red glow and lazily floated over to a pony who was flipping through a magazine. It floated over to a unicorn mare in a nurse uniform. Her coat was a light maroon, and her mane was a dark gold colour with slightly lighter gold highlights. Her cutie mark was a golden cross that was mostly covered up by her uniform.

She brought the mug up to her lips and took a sip, not taking her eyes off of her magazine. Flipping the page, she found a particularly juicy picture of Princess Celestia gorging herself with cake. Her cheeks were stuffed, crumbles surrounded her mouth as she stared wide eyes at the camera.

The pony choked slightly, trying to hold back laughter with a mouthful of coffee. At that same moment, a beige stallion with a reddish-orange mane trotted through the main entrance to the wing. She looked up from her magazine at him as he came closer. Swallowing the coffee in her mouth, she set the mug and magazine down.

"How can I help you, doctor?" She asked, trying to suppress her giggles.

"You can help me by not slacking off while on shift," he said sharply. She rolled her eyes, but the action went unnoticed.

"Alright," she correct her posture, and took her back hooves off of the front desk. "What do you need?"

"How's the... 'patient' doing?" The doctor asked, almost in a whisper. There was no pony else in the room, so there was really no need.

"Stable. His condition hasn't changed at all." She in confidence. She lifted the mug into the air with her magic and brought it back to her lips, taking a small swig.

"Nothing's different? No signs of consciousness?" The doctor asked with falling hope in his voice. The nurse simply shrugged.

"Nothin'. Why, what's the matter? He's only been here for a day," She asked, slightly cocking her head to the side. The stallion sighed, but digressed.

"Celestia's been on my flank constantly, always asking if there's a change in his condition. Same as Twilight Sparkle. Just want him to wake up so he's out of our manes."

"Sorry," The nurse said in a semi-apologetic voice.

"Thank you, Golden Cross." The doctor said, before trotting off down the hall. She nodded once at him, and took another sip of her warm coffee. She levitated the magazine back over to her and began to sift through the pages again, ignoring what the doctor had said to her about "slacking off."

As she turned to a page that was completely taken up by a new Wonderbolts branded cereal, a small beeping noise came from a console to the right of her. Immediately, Golden Cross dropped the magazine and whipped her head over to the console. It had many individual numbers on it, just above each one was a little red light. All of the them were off, except one. It was flashing over the number "#142," each beep coinciding with the red flash.

Golden's eyes widened. She knew who, or rather what was in that room. She dashed out of her rolling chair and rushed out out from behind the desk. She ran down an adjacent hallway, leaving the office chair spinning in place.

Please don't be dead, please don't be dead... Was the only though racing through her mind as she galloped down the hall

Golden Cross ran straight for about twenty seconds before taking a left, then a right. She saw a room labeled "#142."

"Where are his guards?" She asked to nopony. She skidded to a stop outside of the room, almost landing on her flankk in the process. Scrambling to her feet, she went to open the door. Her magic sputtered for a second before the handle to the room was surrounded by her maroon coloured magic. She whipped the door open, almost taking it off it's hinges. Stepping inside, she flipped on the lights with her magic, but froze a second later.

The creature was sitting upright in it's bed, it was breathing heavily as the loud beeping of the machine next to it only seemed to increase. It was staring right at her. It's eyes were a deep, piercing blue. There was only one emotion on it's face.

Fear.

As I stared into the maroon ponie's dark golden eyes, my breathing started to become even heavier than before. She took one step forward.

"Are... Are you okay?" She asked, much like a mother asking is her child was okay after a nasty fall.

I didn't move or respond, but my breathing and heart rate slowed down a little. She tried to take another step forward, but I held up a hand defensively.

"Don't... Just... Please, stay there," I said, my voice quivering with fear. Her eyes seemed to widen even more somehow.

"You can speak Equestrian," She whispered to herself. We stared each other down for a few seconds before I built up the courage to speak.

"Where... Where am I?" I asked, a little less fear in voice.

"Canterlot General Hospital," She said while glancing down at her name tag. It displayed the name "Golden Cross," and above it had some barley visible words that read "Canterlot General Hospital." I blinked slowly, giving her an amused look. I had no idea what to do or say with that information. She opened her mouth to say something, but a larger pony with a beige coat hurried into the room.

"What's going on.. in... here," His voice was deeper than the other "ponies" that I've met so far, and his frame was bigger, so I guessed that this was a male. His jaw slowly dropped and eyes slowly widened the longer he stared at me. I only stared at him cautiously, not knowing my next move. He began to walk over to me, but the maroon pony stuck her foreleg in front of him as he tried to pass.

"He doesn't want anypony near him right now. He's scared, and rightfully so," She said, giving me a pitiful look. He seemed a little defeated, but stayed put. His eyes lit up, and he leaned down into the mare's ear and whispered something that I couldn't hear. She nodded, and he trotted out of the room, a look of determination on his face. The mare's head followed him as he left.

"What are you going to do to me?" I asked in a flat tone. Her ears perked up upon hearing voice, but splayed back as she took in what I heard.

"W-what do you mean?" She asked, cocking her head to the side in a cute manner. Her voice sounded hurt, as if I had said she couldn't go trick-or-treating on Halloween.

"Are you going to hurt me?" I asked. I felt a frog creeping up my throat, and my eyes started to water a little. I didn't know if they were going to hurt me, dissect me, or just flat out kill me. I felt hopeless. I didn't want to die. Even though my life hadn't been going the way I wanted it to, I still had hope that I'd make it somewhere. And now, I might be killed by some mythical beings.

Her whole face contorted into a horrified, and hurt emotion.

"W-why would we hurt you? If we wanted to kill you, we wouldn't have saved you," She said in an angry tone. I felt a huge weight lift off of my chest, knowing somehow that she was telling the truth. Tears began to run down my cheeks. I was in so much relief that I wasn't going to die.

The mare's face took on a sad emotion, and she said, "Are you okay?"

I simply nodded, felling tears trail down my jaw and onto my chest. I wasn't balling, but a few little weeps escaped from me every now and then. She walked up to me slowly, as to not alarm me. I didn't stop her as she walked over to the left side of the bed.

"You aren't going to hurt me, are you? I've never seen anything like you before, so I don't know what to think of you." I shook my head, not making eye contact with her as I stared at the floor, tears coming out of my eyes.

"Good. Now, I need to take the IV out. Can you show me your arm?" She asked in a polite tone. I held out my left arm, using my arm to wipe away tears.

"I'm sorry." I said, my voice cracking halfway through the sentence. She looked up at me with a reassuring look and smiled.

"There's nothing to apologize for." Her horn lit up with a maroon aurora, and the same glow was on the needle attached to the needle in my hand supplying me with IV. I stared at the mist surrounding the needle as it slowly slid out of my hand, and small piece of cotton and roll of tape levitated over with the same maroon glow. She looked up a me and raised and eyebrow.

"Not used to magic?"

"Magic?" I asked, bewildered. Before she could respond, two sets of footsteps could be heard coming down the hall. One set sounded like the one I heard before, but the other was different. It almost sounded like metal clicking on the bottom of the floor instead of hooves.

My suspicions were confirmed when I saw the two ponies enter my room. The first one was the stallion I saw before, but the other one was drastically different.

I was right about the metal, as there were golden gauntlets on her, at lease I believe it was a her, hooves. Her coat was white, and her mane was teal, green, blue, and pink. It also seemed to flow in an invisible breeze. She had a horn that was about a foot long, and had a pair of massive wings. Her eyes were magenta, and seemed warm and loving. She wore a large golden tiara with a purple gem embedded into it, with a matching golden necklace with the same gem.

Not to mention, she was fucking huge. Well, compared to the other ponies I've seen so far that is. She stood a good three to four feet above them, and was about as tall as me, maybe a little taller. She stared at me intently, with no emotion on her face. She studied my face, and her eyes softened, a little frown on her face. I had just remembered that I was crying, my eyes were probably bloodshot. My face was also pretty wet with tears as I rubbed away some tears with the back of my right hand.

As this mighty being entered the room, the nurse next to me bowed down, showing respect. This is when I realized she was a powerful being, probably a ruler or something. She definitely looked the part at least.

"Everypony please leave the room. I need to have word with him." She said in a slightly authoritative voice. The nurse and the doctor left the room at her command, the nurse having closed the door behind her.

Looking away from the closed door, I looked up into her eyes. She moved closer to me, standing about a foot away. The arm chair in the corner of the room was encased in a golden mist and slid over to her. Her massive spike of a horn was covered in the aurora as well. The chair stopped just behind her, and the glow dissipated. She sat down on the chair and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breathe.

"What are you." She said. It wasn't a question, more of a demand. I was taken aback by the question, almost offended for some reason. I wanted to give cocky answer, but my better judgement came over me as I knew this wasn't the time for shit like that.

"I am a human," I answered, a slight tinge of nervousness in my voice. She narrowed her eyes.

"How do you know Equestrian."

"Equestrian?" I asked, squinting slightly, cocking my head to the side.

"The language we're speaking right now," She replied , raising an eyebrow.

"We're speaking English. I have no idea what this "Equestrian" is," She raised her eyebrows, and her eyes widened a little.

"Where... Where are you from?" She asked, the authoritative voice replaced with a curious one.

"Actually, how about I ask a question," I said in slight annoyance. "Where the hell am I? I asked that nurse and she didn't answer me. I deserve some answers."

"You are in Canterlot, the capitol of the kingdom of Equestria," she replied. "I am Princess Celestia, one of the two rulers of this land."

My jaw dropped. Not at the fact that she was one of the supposed rulers, but at the name of the country. Her eyes studied my shocked state before her eyes opened up wide.

"W-what's the name of this planet." I said.

"Equis." She responded. She also realized what was going on.

"Show me a map."

The tip of her horn glowed bright white, before there was a flash. A rolled up map levitated in the air surrounded by a golden glow.

Slowly, it unrolled itself.

What it showed, was not Earth.