Superfluous

Superfluous.

That's the word of the day. My therapist says it's a combination of ADHD and anxiety - and probably a few other things - that cause these words to get stuck inside my head. But for some reason, that's the word stuck inside of my head for the day.

I don't know why that's the word of the day. I don't even know what it means. I think it has something to do with doing too much? Normally I would look it up to figure it out, that helps get the word out of my head, but I don't know where my phone is nor do I have a dictionary on hand.

Well, even if I did have a dictionary on hand I wouldn't be able to use it. Right now I'm stuck in the inky black void that is my mind. The last thing I remember was getting into my truck, driving to work, lighting a cigarette, and then… a loud bang? I don't know what it was. Probably that tree. There's this really scary corner that if you drive too fast you'll probably hit this massive oak that leans out over the road. It's been hit at least 10 times since I moved here a few years back. People have gone to the city about getting that turn made safer but they haven't listened. Damn government… Focus, Lilly.

DING

Wait, that was my phone. Okay, so I must still be in my truck. I'm just unconscious. And that was probably my manager asking where I am. If only he knew…

"Okay, enough dickin' around. Let's try and wake back up."

I fold my legs and sit in the void, taking in a deep breath and focusing on waking up.

"...shock…"

I look around, trying to figure out who said that. My stomach drops as I recognize the sweet British accent.

"Chloe! Help! I'm still here!" I shout, immediately losing my cool and waving my arms in the middle of the void.

Of course it had to be my friend Chloe who answered the call. She was a paramedic for the county that I had met about two years ago. Normally she worked the third shift though, so I don't know why she was answering my call. It had to be about… well, I had no idea what time it was. I left the house at about 11:30 a.m. but there's no telling what time it is now. If only I had my phone.

Suddenly the black void starts to become brighter, the inky blackness turning into a dull grey then a blinding white light. Is this… death? Oh shit, I'm actually dying. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuck. Chloe, please for the love of all that is holy, SAVE ME.

I let out a scream as electricity courses through my body, my muscles tense and my back arches as my lungs are quickly devoid of oxygen. But just as quickly as it came, the electricity goes away. Hunching over, I pant heavily as I try to regain my breath and start to open my eyes. I notice that the bright white light has disappeared and the black void is back.

"Okay, guess I owe you yet another one, Chloe." I pant, looking around at my surroundings. Instead of being in an endless aether, the area surrounding me is starting to take shape. I feel light pressure on my back and legs, and have to fight to turn my neck. They must have me on an immobilization board.

Ow, the fuck was that? Ow! Fucker! 3 rapid bee stings moved down my right arm, then a final fourth one on the back of my hand. I look down and see there's now an IV hooked up to my hand.

I rub my sore arm and then look around again. While my back was turned, someone must have come in and changed the room I was in. Gone was the black void and now I was in a full-size hospital room with numerous people swarming around me all looking down with varying degrees of worry on their faces. I looked down at my body, seeing that I was in fact on the immobilization board, along with a few splints and heavy gauze wrapped around various limbs and parts of my body.

"Fuck…" those were my final words before I passed out again. This time, there was no inky void or blinding light. There is only the faint hum of the fluorescent lighting overhead and the beep of the heart monitor that slowly faded out as I lost consciousness.

=-(+)-=

I regained consciousness sometime later. I have no idea how much time passed, but it was now dark outside. I had to fight to open my eyes, the crust of many nights and mornings had welded them shut. The darkness outside the window was the first thing I noticed. The lights were dimmed in my room. The second thing I noticed was a four-legged animal standing by a wall of cabinets, reading over a clipboard that seemed to float in front of them with a white aura shimmering around it. Wait, is that a horse? Why is there a horse in my hospital room? And why is it wearing a lab coat?

My panic started to rise as it noticed me looking at it and started to walk toward me. A little-known fact about me, but horses scare the absolute shit out of me. I can appreciate them from a distance but getting near them just scares me. They're huge, extremely strong, and can be intelligent, but are also extremely skittish and can be extremely dumb. One wrong move and they'll take your head off. I know this because I watched my father get kicked by a horse and now he walks with a limp.

The clipboard it was looking at floats over to my bedside table as it stands over me, looking down at me with intelligent blue eyes. "Ah, good morning! Or should I say good evening?" The horse says with a chuckle. "How are you feeling today?"

All my thoughts come to a screeching halt as this horse talks to me with a deep voice I would expect to hear on the radio. "Uhh… fine?" I stammer out, looking around my room again. I've spent a good amount of time in the hospital growing up, but I'd never seen a room like this before. Everything was so…short. Like the room was built for - oh no. I look down and see that the bed I'm laying in is much wider than any hospital that I've been in but is also much shorter. It looks like they had to remove the bars at the foot of the bed and put a table there for my feet to rest on. I knew I was tall, but never had I had that issue before.

Seeing my panic, the horse puts a hoof on my shoulder. "Everything is okay, you're safe. I'm Doctor Sawbones. You're at Ponyville Hospital. You were in an accident and were brought here."

Like a switch being flipped back on, my mind starts racing. Before I can ask a question, my therapist's voice echoes through my head.

Breathe.

I take a deep breath, then another, then another. "Okay. Doctor Sawbones."

What the hell kinda name is Doctor Sawbones?

I look back at the horse. Wait, he's pretty short to be a horse. He's about as tall as a Great Dane but much stockier. So he's a pony. Much less terrifying. Actually, kinda adorable. I can't help but picture him wearing a silly little cowboy hat like I'd see at the rodeo all the time as a kid. I snap back to reality realizing he's waiting for me to keep talking. "Where am I?"

"You're in Ponyville Hospital in, believe it or not, Ponyville." He chuckles again to himself. Pony or not, I do enjoy his bedside manner. Much better than the doctor I had for my last surgery.

"What the f-... Okay. Are there any human doctors here?" I ask cautiously.

He tilted his head again. "I'm sorry I don't know what a human is. Is- is that what you are?" He looks a bit uncomfortable asking that question, as if he was embarrassed to have to ask such a thing.

"Is that what I am…?" I mumbled to myself thinking about what he meant by that, terrified of the actual answer. "Uh, y-yeah. I am human."

He perks up at my answer, seemingly excited to finally know. "Ah! Wonderful. Now if you don't mind me asking, we need a bit of information from you. We don't know anything about you."

"What do you need to know?" I always hated going over medical history with doctors. It took forever and was so complicated.

"Well, let's start with your name."

"Lillith Craig. Lilly, for short."

The horn on his head that I somehow missed glows bright white as the clipboard floats back over in front of him and a pen comes up from his coat pocket. He starts filling out whatever form is on the clipboard.

I stare, dumbfounded. "How did you just do that?!"

"Do what?" He looks up from his clipboard with a quizzical look. Tracking my eyes, he looks up at his horn. "Oh! You mean my horn! Yes, I am a unicorn. Do they not have unicorns where you're from?"

I think for a moment. "...technically? It was always thought to be a myth though. Like dragons, pegasuseses, and griffins."

"Interesting! We have all of those here. Well dragons and griffins not so much in Ponyville, but we do have pegasi."

"Ain't that some shit," I mumble as he starts on more personal questions. Medical history, any allergies, and any real information they should know.

"Alright, I think that about does it." He clicks the pen shut and then pauses. "Oh, I have a final question," he pauses for a moment, looking a bit uncomfortable. "While admitting you, we noticed your teeth. Do you have any dietary restrictions?"

My teeth? The hell is he- oh. Ohhhh…

"Uh, nnnno. I'm a vegetarian. Well, trying to be at least. I'll occasionally have a burger or something, but I try to eat healthier."

He looks a bit relieved but not fully. "You don't… eat ponies do you?"

I laugh a bit then shake my head. "No, of course not. No one eats horses where I'm from. They're companions and work animals that don't… talk. I typically only eat…" I pause for a moment, wondering if cows are sentient here as well. "Uh… cow. And occasionally chicken."

"Well, unfortunately, we don't typically keep," he swallows, "meat on standby. I hope the vegetarian meal will suffice." He offers a smile, still looking a bit green around the gills.

"Yeah, that'll be fine. Might finally get me into shape." I look down at my stomach and then cock my head. I wasn't an unhealthy weight, just had a little extra belly fat. But that appeared to be gone. I looked borderline emaciated. "Before you go, doc. How uh… how long was I out?"

He sets the clipboard on the side table and then grabs another paper. "You were found in the woods about 2 weeks ago. We don't know how long you were there, but judging by the state you were in, it had been a day or two."

"In the woods? Did y'all find my truck?" My mind raced back to the contents of my truck. It wasn't illegal per se, but it wasn't strictly legal either.

"The pony who found you did say you were next to a heap of twisted metal, so possibly? I can't say I know what a truck is."

"That…" I frown. I liked that truck. It was the first car I ever bought by myself and it helped me with multiple moves. We had been through a lot together. "That was probably my truck. How much longer do I have to be here?" I was scared of how much longer I'd be stuck here. Part of me wanted to get out while the other half was terrified of this new world.

"Well, we were waiting to see if you'd wake up first. We'll monitor you for a few more days then make our decision on whether we need to keep you or not."

Translation, they don't know. Been there, done that.

"Gotcha…" I sigh a bit then lay back in the surprisingly soft bed. My hand moves for my phone out of instinct then stops. "Gonna assume y'all don't have cell phones?" I look around the room at the lack of any real modern machine. Namely a TV.

Shuffling papers onto the clipboard and getting ready to leave, the doctor looks up. "I'm sorry but I'm not quite sure what that is."

"No worries. I figured as much."

Damn it, I liked that phone too.

Satisfied with his paperwork, the doctor heads for the open door. He stops in the doorframe and spins to look at me. "Well Lilly, it's been a pleasure meeting you. If you need anything, please feel free to press the blue button next to your head. A nurse will come in and be able to assist you. I will also have a meal sent to you. You get some rest and have a wonderful night."

"Thanks, Doc. I'll try." I fake a smile and lay back in the bed as he leaves. This was gonna be a long few days. Might as well be months, or even years. I settled into the bed, taking in my surroundings.

To my right was an ugly green and blue painted wall lined with brown cabinets. They looked like the standard pressboard crap you'd see at an Ikea or in a college dorm. To my left was the same ugly wall but this time with a low window with green drapes that matched my hospital gown. Looking up and behind me, I could finally see the machine making that insistent beeping noise. It looks similar to a heart monitor back home, but something straight out of the 90s. Next to the heart monitor is the IV bag connected to my hand. The bed itself has the standard hospital railing in case you try to fall, and even has a button about the size of my fist built into the side. I assume it's to call the nurse, but I don't want to find out at the moment.

Going from the room, I check on my body and casts. My right arm is free, thankfully. I'm right-handed and am useless with my left. It has a few cuts and scrapes on it but nothing extreme. My left arm is in a full cast, a deep purple spiraling up from my fingers to my armpit and bending ninety degrees at the elbow. Looking down at my legs - half of which were on the table - each was in their own purple cast. My left leg had the cast going up from my toes to just below my hip while my right was just from my toes to my knee. My chest had a tight gauze wrapping and after feeling my head, realized my head had the same wrap.

Thank God there are no mirrors in here. I'm sure I look horrible.

With all the exciting and interesting things out of the way, I lean back into the bed and sigh.

This is going to be my life for the next week. Great. Wait. What about after? I don't… I don't know anybody here.

I sat up quickly, panicked thoughts filling my mind. Tears well up in my eyes. "Everyone I know… I'm…"

Suddenly a knock comes at the door. I wipe my eyes and look up. A white-furred pony wearing an old-style nurse's cap with her pink mane in a tight bun is in the doorway with a metal tray balanced on her back. She has a nervous look on her face. "Is this a bad time? I can come back."

I take a deep breath and then shake my head. "No, no. I'm fine. Just realizing I know no one here and trying to figure out what I'll do when I get released." I shrug a bit.

She frowns a bit as she walks in, setting the tray from her back on the bedside table. "It's a daisy sandwich, I hope that's okay. At this time of night, the kitchen isn't open, so I made you something." She says as she sets the plate in my lap.

"Daisy sandwich?" I lift a piece of bread. It's exactly what I thought it was. "I don't mean to be rude but humans can't eat… flowers."

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I can make you something else if you'd like." She goes to pick up the plate with her mouth.

"I can pick around it, it's not a big deal. I don't want to impose."

"Oh, no. It's no problem! I insist." She smiles as she picks up the plate and sets it back on the tray. "What would you like instead? I can make you a salad or a different sandwich."

I think for a moment. "A peanut butter and jelly sandwich sounds amazing actually. If that's not too much."

"Of course not, Lilly. I'll be right back." She sets the tray on her back and then leaves the room.

"The hell was her name?" I mumbled to myself in the darkness. I had always been terrible with names. Even at my current job where everyone wears nametags, I still don't know most people's names.

A few minutes later the nurse returns with a new sandwich, and a few crumbs stuck to the hairs on her muzzle. "Okay! Attempt number two." She sets the tray down and then puts the plate on my lap.

Looking down at the sandwich, my stomach growls. "This looks perfect, thank you." I pick up the sandwich and then take a bite.

Blueberry jam? That's a new one. Good though!

"Oh! I'm Nurse Snowflake. I'll be helping you on the road to recovery!" She grins from ear to ear. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

I finished the sandwich far quicker than I meant to. It was delicious and I was starving. I wipe my mouth with the napkin then lay back, looking over at the pony. "Can you just stay here and talk for a bit? I don't want to be alone right now…"

"Oh, of course." She offers a smile and pulls up a chair.

We talked for a few hours. She told me about Ponyville, a bit of the history of Equestria, who the Princesses are, and the ponies who found me.

"Oh my! Look at the time!" She looks at the clock on the wall above the door. "My shift ends in 15 minutes, but I'll be back tomorrow." She stands up and stretches.

I try to hide my disappointment as she stands. "Aw, man… Okay. Well, I'll be here. I need to get some sleep anyway."

She giggles and picks up the tray. "Get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." She sets it on her back and then walks out of the room.

"Goodnight, Snowflake." I lay back in bed, my mind racing with this new information as sunlight starts to creep in through the window.

Okay, so first things first. Find this Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash and thank them for saving me. Second, find a place to live. Third, well, we'll figure that out when we get there.