Cloudsby ramdom_player201ChaptersChapter OneChapter TwoChapter ThreeChapter FourChapter FiveChapter OneI am lying in bed with my eyes closed, waiting for sleep to claim me. And suddenly there’s this large popping sound accompanied by a bright flash of light that seems to blind me through my closed eyelids; then suddenly I feel like I’m falling. Naturally, I scream. I continue to scream as I fall. Until I feel something catch me. It’s soft and squishy, so much so that my momentum pushes me through its surface before I stop. I can feel it wrapped around my body, but my head and legs are free. My screaming stops as nothing appears to be happening, so I open my eyes. That is a mistake, I stare down in horror at the large drop still below me. I can just about make out a small town in the distance, with small colourful dots moving around its streets. I feel a wave of nausea and close my eyes. Instead, I focus on steadying my breathing. As I calm down, I begin to notice that my body feels wrong. I try to shift my arms, but the squishy substance holds firm and I can’t get my hands free. Speaking of my hands, I can’t actually feel them. I try to grasp at the walls around me, but nothing happens. I begin to feel panic welling up in me, but I quickly catch myself and focus again on my breathing. Sufficiently calmed, I continue mentally checking my body for any other unusual feelings. I try moving my legs. They are still free, but I cannot feel my toes. I try angling my legs downwards and push against the squishy ground. But the soft stuff just deforms out of the way, causing my legs to slip free every time. Giving up, my attention is drawn to another feeling against my legs. Unlike the strange substance I am stuck in, this feels more like hair. I shift my legs against it, feeling a response further up; like a strange muscle that never existed before. I give it an experimental flick and feel something attached to it fling into the air, at the same time moving the hairs off my legs. But then the hairs fall back down into place, is it just me or do I now have a tail? What else is different? I try to shuffle my body, I’m still stuck but I notice something against my sides. I attempt to make them do something; they try to respond but are held in place by the walls. I decide to worry about all that later, I need to work out what to do next. I’m definitely stuck and can’t move, but what am I stuck in? It’s soft, squishy and very comfortable, while also being firm and maintaining its shape. But it still deforms such that I can’t get any traction against it. I decide to risk opening my eyes. Although I’m prepared, it’s still a shock to find myself suspended so high above the ground. I peer down at the sprawling town below. The houses all look quite small and many have yellow roofs, are they thatched? The town seems to have no structure to its layout, with random buildings spread haphazardly around; although there is a large circular building in the middle that looks quite important. There is also a large tree nearer to the edge of the town, I wonder if it has a purpose? Tilting my head, I see a large forest stretching endlessly into the distance. It looks dark and foreboding. I twist round and see another forest, although it’s a lot less dense and appears to be part of a farm, I guess it’s some kind of orchard. I can see a red barn near the back of it and a few miscellaneous fields beyond that. Still, I am curious as to what I am stuck in, so I pull my head upwards, causing my long hair to come loose and fall to hang below. What I see when I look upwards is surprising. My eyes widen, am I in a cloud? I am distracted from my thoughts as a large vibration runs through the whole structure. Moments later, I am pulled sharply from that strange muscle group on my behind and slip up and out of the cloud. The hole seems to close itself up behind me as I hold out my four limbs for stabilisation while the structure reforms itself. When the vibrations cease, I carefully adjust my position, the cloud wobbles and compresses under me as I move, but holds firm. I take a moment to look down at my arms, only to find an orange furred stump. “Hey, you alright there?” The voice comes from behind me. “Uhh… yeah, I think so…,” I answer as I carefully turn myself around to face the speaker. My voice trails off as they come into view. They’re some kind of quadruped, cyan in colour, with large magenta eyes and a mutli-coloured mane. I can only stare confused as my brain tries to comprehend what I’m seeing. And it was doing surprisingly well throughout this, I suppose it’s from how tired I am. “You sure you’re okay?” it asks. I quickly snap myself out of my stupor. “Wha- … Who are you?” I ask. “I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all Equestria!” it exclaims, wriggling its previously unnoticed wings. I simply tilt my head. “What, never seen a pegasus before?” I shake my head, one of the things on my side falling open onto the cloud surface. I turn my head to look at it. Wait, so I’m a pegasus now? “I- I don’t know how I got here, or even where here is.” I say. I carefully make my way to the edge of the cloud and peer over the edge, careful not to get too close lest I slip and fall. “We’re in Ponyville, Equestria. I need to be meeting with some friends at Sugar Cube Corner right now, wanna come?” “Umm- sure, but how do we get down?” “We fly of course!” “One problem, I don’t think I know how to fly…” Author's Note This is my first story to be published on this site. It's more of a practice / warm-up story to see what I can do. I do not know whether I plan on continuing it or writing a new story from one of my other ideas. It depends on how well this one performs I guess. Chapter TwoAuthor's Note After publishing Chapter One, I was honestly a little scared to go back to this story. Then I had exams. After rereading the first chapter, I regained my confidence in the story and decided to make a new chapter. Chapter Two “You’re kidding!” Rainbow exclaims. “How did you even get up here if you didn’t know how to fly?” “I just told you… I d-don’t know how I got here.” I respond. The cyan pegasus just stares back in confusion for a moment, before falling on her back and laughing. I stumble backwards slightly. That is a mistake. The edge of the cloud begins to deform under my weight and I feel myself slipping backwards. My back legs slip out from under me and I slide backwards off the edge of the cloud. The wind rushes past me as I find myself falling once again. I watch as the cloud shrinks away from me. I can feel the air tugging uncomfortably on my wings, pulling them in a way I’m not sure they’re meant to go. My hair and tail trail behind me. Overall, the fall feels longer than before, but luckily there was another cloud below. I land on my back, wings splayed out flat either side of me. I lay there breathing for a moment as I try to calm myself. After a few moments, I realise I don’t particularly want to be seen in this position. I try to roll over sideways, but my wings remain stiffly extended at my sides, I can’t get them to retract. Instead, I try rocking myself back and forth. The cloud begins to rock too. But then it rocks too far and I begin to slip off. I tumble forwards and close my eyes as I slip back into the air. Except this time, I find that the wind doesn’t rush past me. I open my eyes and find myself suspended in the air, the town directly below me, and much closer. I look across at my outstretched wings, but this causes me to lose my balance and pitch forwards. I soon find myself in a steep dive, picking up speed. I close my eyes as I try to regain control. I successfully pull out of the dive, but only for a moment before I crash painfully. I just lie there for a moment. My whole body aches. After a few seconds, I open my eyes; it appears that I am in a bush. I hear a soft thud from somewhere behind me. “Hey, you okay there? That looked like a nasty crash.” I recognise the voice from the blue horse creature “Uhh… I think so,” I groan as I carefully pull my legs out from under me and pick myself up. For the most part, my body doesn’t seem badly injured, which is kinda surprising. I step out from the bush, broken sticks tugging painfully against my wings. I look around me, I appear to have crashed into some bushes just outside of a building that looks like… gingerbread? My ears swivel towards a sound on my left, my head follows. I watch as more colourful horse things rush out, I guess they must have heard me crash. The white one seems to notice me first and rushes over. “Oh my, what in Equestria happened to you?” she questions in a posh-sounding voice. Before I can even begin to contemplate an answer, the pink one is up in my face. “Ooo, a new pony, welcome to Ponyville new pony whom I don’t yet know the name of! I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name? Ahh, I need to get planning for your welcome to Ponyville party! Also, good luck with your wings, they look terrible!” And then she was gone just as quickly as she appeared. By this time, the other ponies had reached me. The white one spoke again. “Oh, don’t mind Pinkie. She can get a bit…excitable…when a new pony’s in town. Anyhow, as I was saying before I was interrupted… What in Equestria happened to you?” I glance sideways at my still outstretched wing, the feathers are a mess and there’s even a couple stray twigs in there. “I crashed into a bush,” I state. The orange one steps forwards. “Howdy, ah’m Applejack. D’you need that wing looking at? You really should stop by the Ponyville hospital and get that wing checked out. Ah’m no expert, but that doesn’t look healthy.” I gently prod at my wing, it hurts. “I suppose I’ll go and get it looked at, which way is the Ponyville Hospital though?” Applejack points her hoof down one of the streets. “Jus’ follow that there street to the edge of town, you can’t miss it.” I thank her and carefully turn my body in the direction she indicates. The white one steps ahead of me. “Oh, before you go, my name’s Rarity. You really must come stop by my boutique later so I can get that mane of yours fixed up.” I reach up into my mane, it’s also covered in broken sticks. “Ok, thanks, I’ll make sure to stop by I guess.” Rainbow comes up to me. “Hey. Mind if I walk with you to the hospital? “Sure I guess.” We walk in silence through the town. I take the opportunity to look around at the numerous buildings on either side. They look a bit mediaeval, except that they’re painted with much brighter colours and… Are those decorated with hearts? We pass a few other ponies as we walk. They’re all in different colours, and I notice that they appear to come in slightly different species too. Some of them have horns on their head, which I guess make them unicorns. And the ones with wings, like me and Dash, are pegasi. But there’s also some with neither, I wonder what they call themselves? Normal ponies? But they wouldn’t be considered normal since there’s just as many as the other species. A few of the ponies glance curiously across at us, or I guess me; I must really look a mess. Rainbow eventually speaks up. “Hey, I’m sorry that I laughed at you earlier. I mean, a pegasus who can’t fly, who’s heard of such a thing… Well, now you’ve gone and gotten yourself injured… and I guess I’m feeling a little guilty about that.” I respond quickly so I don’t give her a chance to continue. “It’s fine Rainbow, I’m still alive aren’t I? Don’t get yourself worked up over it.” I notice a large building on our right, I wouldn’t have been able to tell it to be the hospital, if it weren’t for the large sign outside with a big cross on it: the seemingly universal sign of a hospital. Except this cross also has hearts surrounding it. “Looks like we’re here,” Rainbow exclaims as she steers me in that direction. As we step up towards the door, I realise that my wings are still extended. I concentrate and try to make them retract. They begin to fold, but the tangled mess of sticks and feathers prevents them, and just causes me to cry out in pain. “You okay? Right, you’re wings… just keep them open for now.” Rainbow steps behind me to give me room while I sidestep diagonally in through the front entrance. Inside is a small waiting room and reception deck. A white pony with pink mane and a hat decorated with a red cross is stationed there, talking to what looks like a male pony. She then passes a paper bag over the counter. No longer distracted, she notices me and her eyes widen. She quickly rushes out from behind the desk. “Oh my, what happened to your wings sir? That looks quite serious, follow me please!” She turns and hurries to a door on the side of the room. She stops at the door and turns back to me. I stumble forwards to follow, Rainbow following just behind. Chapter ThreeI am standing alone in one of the hospital rooms. The nurse had left pretty much as soon as we had arrived and Rainbow also had to leave explaining that she had to quickly go check on her friends. It is as I am standing there that I notice a mirror tucked behind a curtain. I realise that I don’t really know what my new body actually looks like, other than that it is most likely similar to the other pegasi I have seen. I carefully trot over to get a better look. It appears to be mounted on a wheeled frame, but unfortunately, the curtains obscure the reflective surface too much to get a clear view of myself. I reach up to grab the curtains, but my hoof just brushes uselessly against them. Mildly frustrated, I hook my foreleg around the back of the fabric and attempt to pull it across; it is heavier than it looks and so I nearly lose my balance. After readjusting my position for stability, I slowly pull back on the curtain; but it slips over my hoof before I can get it out of the way of the mirror and it falls back into its original position. Okay, one last try… how does a pony do this? After staring for a moment at the stubborn curtain, I have a new idea. This time, I nose my head into the gap behind the curtain, then sidestep my whole body. The heavy curtain resists, but I am eventually rewarded with the grinding of metal on the curtain rail as I shift the fabric mass out of the way. Stepping back in front of the mirror, I can finally examine my new body in detail. As I already knew, I am covered in short orange fur. But where I once had hazelnut eyes, they are replaced with large blue pony eyes and my head sports a mint green mane; a mane which looks more like a bird’s nest than anything else. I let my eyes drift to my new wings; they are covered in orange feathers of the same shade as my fur. They are also an absolute mess. It seems like every other feather is broken and almost all of them are splayed at seemingly random angles, not a single one lays flat. On top of that, there are even a few stray twigs sticking up painfully through them. I turn slightly to try to get a better look behind me, but my extended wings block my view. I conclude that my new form is completely unrecognisable and shares next to nothing with my old body. The only thing that seems to have carried over is my voice. I am interrupted from my musings by the sound of the door opening. I turn to see the nurse walk back in, she is followed by a brown unicorn male. “Sir, I’m so sorry about the wait. My name is Nurse Redheart and this is Doctor Stiff Hoof.” She looks expectantly at me. “Oh, sorry. My name’s Seth… Seth Greenwood.” “Alright Zeph… Zeph’s short for Zephyr right?” “I guess?” I say, nodding dumbly. Doctor Stiff Hoof speaks up. “Alright then, let’s get those wings of yours cleaned up and you can tell us how it happened.” The stallion starts walking round me, studying my wings. “Well, I was on a… cloud? And… and I fell off it.” “And why did that happen?” prompts Redheart. “I slipped,” I state dumbly. I feel a strange tingling in my sore wings, not that I could tell what normal should feel like in limbs that I didn’t have an hour ago. I wince in pain as something yanks on my wings. I turn to look at them, but don’t see anything… except now, all the sticks are gone, strange. I turn to face the ponies, Doctor Stiff Hoof seems to have finished his examination. His horn is glowing strangely and my wings are still tingling. His brow furrows in concentration and I feel my feathers start to shift… and then more pain. I turn to watch my faintly glowing feathers bending back into place, well the intact ones anyway. About half my feathers are now missing. I watch as another snapped feather is plucked from my wing and floats over to join the rest, a floating ball of broken feathers. It’s at this moment that the door opens and a familiar blue pegasus steps in. She stops in her tracks at the sight of me. Rounding on the two medical ponies she almost shouts. “What did you do to his wings?” She facehoofs and mutters softly to herself as she walks over to me. “Just look at the state of them…” I look once more at the wings; the feathers that had just been reset are already starting to bend back out of place. I can feel them sagging in exhaustion at being left open for so long and concentrate on letting them close, they respond and begin to slowly fold themselves to my sides. A feather falls out as they do so. The doctor speaks up. “Alright Mr Greenwood, no flying for at least a week, and make sure to keep good care of those wings.” “I also recommend doing 15 minutes of gentle wing exercises twice a day, morning and evening to keep them from seizing up. And remember, no flying,” Redheart continues. “Zeph, you’re free to leave now if you want, do you have anywhere to stay while in Ponyville?” Doctor Stiff Hoof finishes. I glance out a nearby window and notice that it’s quite a bit darker than it was when I got here. “Actually no, I don’t have anywhere to stay while I’m here,” I feel something on the top of my head fold down when I say that. “Hey. Zeph was it? I have an extra room if you wanna bunk with me?” “Actually, Miss Dash, remember that Zeph isn’t allowed to fly,” reminds Redheart. “Oh, right…” “Zephyr, feel free to stay here at the hospital tonight as it’s already getting quite late,” Redheart offers. “Thanks, I think I’ll do that.” We are led back out into the corridor and up a set of stairs to the first floor. I am brought to a door and let inside. “Here’s your room sir,” the Doctor states before hurrying off somewhere. “If you need anything, just give us a call,” Redheart says before also leaving. “I best get back home, see you tomorrow Zeph,” Rainbow says cheerfully, before also turning to go. Now left on my own, I turn to my room. I nudge the door closed behind me and wander towards the bed. I realise just how tired I am from the day’s events. I also realise just how much I need to use the bathroom. Luckily, there’s one adjoined to my room and I hurry inside. It did take a while to figure out how to use, but I somehow managed it. I head back to the bed and clamber in. I roll onto my back, but yelp as my injured wing is caught under my body and I am forced back onto my belly. I bend my neck round to look back at my body, and can finally get a clear view of my back. My wings, now free of trapped undergrowth, still look terribly messy and feel slightly itchy. My tail is quite long and hangs over the side of the bed and out of sight. I sigh and reach my neck towards the covers. I contemplate how I should do this, before I simply take them in my mouth and pull them over me. I take one last look around the small hospital room before I rest my neck on my pillow and let my eyes drift close. Chapter FourSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Chapter FiveSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Chapter OneI am lying in bed with my eyes closed, waiting for sleep to claim me. And suddenly there’s this large popping sound accompanied by a bright flash of light that seems to blind me through my closed eyelids; then suddenly I feel like I’m falling. Naturally, I scream. I continue to scream as I fall. Until I feel something catch me. It’s soft and squishy, so much so that my momentum pushes me through its surface before I stop. I can feel it wrapped around my body, but my head and legs are free. My screaming stops as nothing appears to be happening, so I open my eyes. That is a mistake, I stare down in horror at the large drop still below me. I can just about make out a small town in the distance, with small colourful dots moving around its streets. I feel a wave of nausea and close my eyes. Instead, I focus on steadying my breathing. As I calm down, I begin to notice that my body feels wrong. I try to shift my arms, but the squishy substance holds firm and I can’t get my hands free. Speaking of my hands, I can’t actually feel them. I try to grasp at the walls around me, but nothing happens. I begin to feel panic welling up in me, but I quickly catch myself and focus again on my breathing. Sufficiently calmed, I continue mentally checking my body for any other unusual feelings. I try moving my legs. They are still free, but I cannot feel my toes. I try angling my legs downwards and push against the squishy ground. But the soft stuff just deforms out of the way, causing my legs to slip free every time. Giving up, my attention is drawn to another feeling against my legs. Unlike the strange substance I am stuck in, this feels more like hair. I shift my legs against it, feeling a response further up; like a strange muscle that never existed before. I give it an experimental flick and feel something attached to it fling into the air, at the same time moving the hairs off my legs. But then the hairs fall back down into place, is it just me or do I now have a tail? What else is different? I try to shuffle my body, I’m still stuck but I notice something against my sides. I attempt to make them do something; they try to respond but are held in place by the walls. I decide to worry about all that later, I need to work out what to do next. I’m definitely stuck and can’t move, but what am I stuck in? It’s soft, squishy and very comfortable, while also being firm and maintaining its shape. But it still deforms such that I can’t get any traction against it. I decide to risk opening my eyes. Although I’m prepared, it’s still a shock to find myself suspended so high above the ground. I peer down at the sprawling town below. The houses all look quite small and many have yellow roofs, are they thatched? The town seems to have no structure to its layout, with random buildings spread haphazardly around; although there is a large circular building in the middle that looks quite important. There is also a large tree nearer to the edge of the town, I wonder if it has a purpose? Tilting my head, I see a large forest stretching endlessly into the distance. It looks dark and foreboding. I twist round and see another forest, although it’s a lot less dense and appears to be part of a farm, I guess it’s some kind of orchard. I can see a red barn near the back of it and a few miscellaneous fields beyond that. Still, I am curious as to what I am stuck in, so I pull my head upwards, causing my long hair to come loose and fall to hang below. What I see when I look upwards is surprising. My eyes widen, am I in a cloud? I am distracted from my thoughts as a large vibration runs through the whole structure. Moments later, I am pulled sharply from that strange muscle group on my behind and slip up and out of the cloud. The hole seems to close itself up behind me as I hold out my four limbs for stabilisation while the structure reforms itself. When the vibrations cease, I carefully adjust my position, the cloud wobbles and compresses under me as I move, but holds firm. I take a moment to look down at my arms, only to find an orange furred stump. “Hey, you alright there?” The voice comes from behind me. “Uhh… yeah, I think so…,” I answer as I carefully turn myself around to face the speaker. My voice trails off as they come into view. They’re some kind of quadruped, cyan in colour, with large magenta eyes and a mutli-coloured mane. I can only stare confused as my brain tries to comprehend what I’m seeing. And it was doing surprisingly well throughout this, I suppose it’s from how tired I am. “You sure you’re okay?” it asks. I quickly snap myself out of my stupor. “Wha- … Who are you?” I ask. “I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all Equestria!” it exclaims, wriggling its previously unnoticed wings. I simply tilt my head. “What, never seen a pegasus before?” I shake my head, one of the things on my side falling open onto the cloud surface. I turn my head to look at it. Wait, so I’m a pegasus now? “I- I don’t know how I got here, or even where here is.” I say. I carefully make my way to the edge of the cloud and peer over the edge, careful not to get too close lest I slip and fall. “We’re in Ponyville, Equestria. I need to be meeting with some friends at Sugar Cube Corner right now, wanna come?” “Umm- sure, but how do we get down?” “We fly of course!” “One problem, I don’t think I know how to fly…” Author's Note This is my first story to be published on this site. It's more of a practice / warm-up story to see what I can do. I do not know whether I plan on continuing it or writing a new story from one of my other ideas. It depends on how well this one performs I guess.
Chapter TwoAuthor's Note After publishing Chapter One, I was honestly a little scared to go back to this story. Then I had exams. After rereading the first chapter, I regained my confidence in the story and decided to make a new chapter. Chapter Two “You’re kidding!” Rainbow exclaims. “How did you even get up here if you didn’t know how to fly?” “I just told you… I d-don’t know how I got here.” I respond. The cyan pegasus just stares back in confusion for a moment, before falling on her back and laughing. I stumble backwards slightly. That is a mistake. The edge of the cloud begins to deform under my weight and I feel myself slipping backwards. My back legs slip out from under me and I slide backwards off the edge of the cloud. The wind rushes past me as I find myself falling once again. I watch as the cloud shrinks away from me. I can feel the air tugging uncomfortably on my wings, pulling them in a way I’m not sure they’re meant to go. My hair and tail trail behind me. Overall, the fall feels longer than before, but luckily there was another cloud below. I land on my back, wings splayed out flat either side of me. I lay there breathing for a moment as I try to calm myself. After a few moments, I realise I don’t particularly want to be seen in this position. I try to roll over sideways, but my wings remain stiffly extended at my sides, I can’t get them to retract. Instead, I try rocking myself back and forth. The cloud begins to rock too. But then it rocks too far and I begin to slip off. I tumble forwards and close my eyes as I slip back into the air. Except this time, I find that the wind doesn’t rush past me. I open my eyes and find myself suspended in the air, the town directly below me, and much closer. I look across at my outstretched wings, but this causes me to lose my balance and pitch forwards. I soon find myself in a steep dive, picking up speed. I close my eyes as I try to regain control. I successfully pull out of the dive, but only for a moment before I crash painfully. I just lie there for a moment. My whole body aches. After a few seconds, I open my eyes; it appears that I am in a bush. I hear a soft thud from somewhere behind me. “Hey, you okay there? That looked like a nasty crash.” I recognise the voice from the blue horse creature “Uhh… I think so,” I groan as I carefully pull my legs out from under me and pick myself up. For the most part, my body doesn’t seem badly injured, which is kinda surprising. I step out from the bush, broken sticks tugging painfully against my wings. I look around me, I appear to have crashed into some bushes just outside of a building that looks like… gingerbread? My ears swivel towards a sound on my left, my head follows. I watch as more colourful horse things rush out, I guess they must have heard me crash. The white one seems to notice me first and rushes over. “Oh my, what in Equestria happened to you?” she questions in a posh-sounding voice. Before I can even begin to contemplate an answer, the pink one is up in my face. “Ooo, a new pony, welcome to Ponyville new pony whom I don’t yet know the name of! I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name? Ahh, I need to get planning for your welcome to Ponyville party! Also, good luck with your wings, they look terrible!” And then she was gone just as quickly as she appeared. By this time, the other ponies had reached me. The white one spoke again. “Oh, don’t mind Pinkie. She can get a bit…excitable…when a new pony’s in town. Anyhow, as I was saying before I was interrupted… What in Equestria happened to you?” I glance sideways at my still outstretched wing, the feathers are a mess and there’s even a couple stray twigs in there. “I crashed into a bush,” I state. The orange one steps forwards. “Howdy, ah’m Applejack. D’you need that wing looking at? You really should stop by the Ponyville hospital and get that wing checked out. Ah’m no expert, but that doesn’t look healthy.” I gently prod at my wing, it hurts. “I suppose I’ll go and get it looked at, which way is the Ponyville Hospital though?” Applejack points her hoof down one of the streets. “Jus’ follow that there street to the edge of town, you can’t miss it.” I thank her and carefully turn my body in the direction she indicates. The white one steps ahead of me. “Oh, before you go, my name’s Rarity. You really must come stop by my boutique later so I can get that mane of yours fixed up.” I reach up into my mane, it’s also covered in broken sticks. “Ok, thanks, I’ll make sure to stop by I guess.” Rainbow comes up to me. “Hey. Mind if I walk with you to the hospital? “Sure I guess.” We walk in silence through the town. I take the opportunity to look around at the numerous buildings on either side. They look a bit mediaeval, except that they’re painted with much brighter colours and… Are those decorated with hearts? We pass a few other ponies as we walk. They’re all in different colours, and I notice that they appear to come in slightly different species too. Some of them have horns on their head, which I guess make them unicorns. And the ones with wings, like me and Dash, are pegasi. But there’s also some with neither, I wonder what they call themselves? Normal ponies? But they wouldn’t be considered normal since there’s just as many as the other species. A few of the ponies glance curiously across at us, or I guess me; I must really look a mess. Rainbow eventually speaks up. “Hey, I’m sorry that I laughed at you earlier. I mean, a pegasus who can’t fly, who’s heard of such a thing… Well, now you’ve gone and gotten yourself injured… and I guess I’m feeling a little guilty about that.” I respond quickly so I don’t give her a chance to continue. “It’s fine Rainbow, I’m still alive aren’t I? Don’t get yourself worked up over it.” I notice a large building on our right, I wouldn’t have been able to tell it to be the hospital, if it weren’t for the large sign outside with a big cross on it: the seemingly universal sign of a hospital. Except this cross also has hearts surrounding it. “Looks like we’re here,” Rainbow exclaims as she steers me in that direction. As we step up towards the door, I realise that my wings are still extended. I concentrate and try to make them retract. They begin to fold, but the tangled mess of sticks and feathers prevents them, and just causes me to cry out in pain. “You okay? Right, you’re wings… just keep them open for now.” Rainbow steps behind me to give me room while I sidestep diagonally in through the front entrance. Inside is a small waiting room and reception deck. A white pony with pink mane and a hat decorated with a red cross is stationed there, talking to what looks like a male pony. She then passes a paper bag over the counter. No longer distracted, she notices me and her eyes widen. She quickly rushes out from behind the desk. “Oh my, what happened to your wings sir? That looks quite serious, follow me please!” She turns and hurries to a door on the side of the room. She stops at the door and turns back to me. I stumble forwards to follow, Rainbow following just behind.
Chapter ThreeI am standing alone in one of the hospital rooms. The nurse had left pretty much as soon as we had arrived and Rainbow also had to leave explaining that she had to quickly go check on her friends. It is as I am standing there that I notice a mirror tucked behind a curtain. I realise that I don’t really know what my new body actually looks like, other than that it is most likely similar to the other pegasi I have seen. I carefully trot over to get a better look. It appears to be mounted on a wheeled frame, but unfortunately, the curtains obscure the reflective surface too much to get a clear view of myself. I reach up to grab the curtains, but my hoof just brushes uselessly against them. Mildly frustrated, I hook my foreleg around the back of the fabric and attempt to pull it across; it is heavier than it looks and so I nearly lose my balance. After readjusting my position for stability, I slowly pull back on the curtain; but it slips over my hoof before I can get it out of the way of the mirror and it falls back into its original position. Okay, one last try… how does a pony do this? After staring for a moment at the stubborn curtain, I have a new idea. This time, I nose my head into the gap behind the curtain, then sidestep my whole body. The heavy curtain resists, but I am eventually rewarded with the grinding of metal on the curtain rail as I shift the fabric mass out of the way. Stepping back in front of the mirror, I can finally examine my new body in detail. As I already knew, I am covered in short orange fur. But where I once had hazelnut eyes, they are replaced with large blue pony eyes and my head sports a mint green mane; a mane which looks more like a bird’s nest than anything else. I let my eyes drift to my new wings; they are covered in orange feathers of the same shade as my fur. They are also an absolute mess. It seems like every other feather is broken and almost all of them are splayed at seemingly random angles, not a single one lays flat. On top of that, there are even a few stray twigs sticking up painfully through them. I turn slightly to try to get a better look behind me, but my extended wings block my view. I conclude that my new form is completely unrecognisable and shares next to nothing with my old body. The only thing that seems to have carried over is my voice. I am interrupted from my musings by the sound of the door opening. I turn to see the nurse walk back in, she is followed by a brown unicorn male. “Sir, I’m so sorry about the wait. My name is Nurse Redheart and this is Doctor Stiff Hoof.” She looks expectantly at me. “Oh, sorry. My name’s Seth… Seth Greenwood.” “Alright Zeph… Zeph’s short for Zephyr right?” “I guess?” I say, nodding dumbly. Doctor Stiff Hoof speaks up. “Alright then, let’s get those wings of yours cleaned up and you can tell us how it happened.” The stallion starts walking round me, studying my wings. “Well, I was on a… cloud? And… and I fell off it.” “And why did that happen?” prompts Redheart. “I slipped,” I state dumbly. I feel a strange tingling in my sore wings, not that I could tell what normal should feel like in limbs that I didn’t have an hour ago. I wince in pain as something yanks on my wings. I turn to look at them, but don’t see anything… except now, all the sticks are gone, strange. I turn to face the ponies, Doctor Stiff Hoof seems to have finished his examination. His horn is glowing strangely and my wings are still tingling. His brow furrows in concentration and I feel my feathers start to shift… and then more pain. I turn to watch my faintly glowing feathers bending back into place, well the intact ones anyway. About half my feathers are now missing. I watch as another snapped feather is plucked from my wing and floats over to join the rest, a floating ball of broken feathers. It’s at this moment that the door opens and a familiar blue pegasus steps in. She stops in her tracks at the sight of me. Rounding on the two medical ponies she almost shouts. “What did you do to his wings?” She facehoofs and mutters softly to herself as she walks over to me. “Just look at the state of them…” I look once more at the wings; the feathers that had just been reset are already starting to bend back out of place. I can feel them sagging in exhaustion at being left open for so long and concentrate on letting them close, they respond and begin to slowly fold themselves to my sides. A feather falls out as they do so. The doctor speaks up. “Alright Mr Greenwood, no flying for at least a week, and make sure to keep good care of those wings.” “I also recommend doing 15 minutes of gentle wing exercises twice a day, morning and evening to keep them from seizing up. And remember, no flying,” Redheart continues. “Zeph, you’re free to leave now if you want, do you have anywhere to stay while in Ponyville?” Doctor Stiff Hoof finishes. I glance out a nearby window and notice that it’s quite a bit darker than it was when I got here. “Actually no, I don’t have anywhere to stay while I’m here,” I feel something on the top of my head fold down when I say that. “Hey. Zeph was it? I have an extra room if you wanna bunk with me?” “Actually, Miss Dash, remember that Zeph isn’t allowed to fly,” reminds Redheart. “Oh, right…” “Zephyr, feel free to stay here at the hospital tonight as it’s already getting quite late,” Redheart offers. “Thanks, I think I’ll do that.” We are led back out into the corridor and up a set of stairs to the first floor. I am brought to a door and let inside. “Here’s your room sir,” the Doctor states before hurrying off somewhere. “If you need anything, just give us a call,” Redheart says before also leaving. “I best get back home, see you tomorrow Zeph,” Rainbow says cheerfully, before also turning to go. Now left on my own, I turn to my room. I nudge the door closed behind me and wander towards the bed. I realise just how tired I am from the day’s events. I also realise just how much I need to use the bathroom. Luckily, there’s one adjoined to my room and I hurry inside. It did take a while to figure out how to use, but I somehow managed it. I head back to the bed and clamber in. I roll onto my back, but yelp as my injured wing is caught under my body and I am forced back onto my belly. I bend my neck round to look back at my body, and can finally get a clear view of my back. My wings, now free of trapped undergrowth, still look terribly messy and feel slightly itchy. My tail is quite long and hangs over the side of the bed and out of sight. I sigh and reach my neck towards the covers. I contemplate how I should do this, before I simply take them in my mouth and pull them over me. I take one last look around the small hospital room before I rest my neck on my pillow and let my eyes drift close.
