August was not having a great time right now. After that crazy dream, he had woken up and felt the bile rising in his throat, and barely made it to the sink before the foul sick in his stomach came up.

After a minute of dry heaving and less than savory things coming out of his mouth, his stomach finally took a pause, allowing him to think.

It took August another minute to remember where he was as he washed the sick down the drain, wiped off his mouth, and took in slow, deep breaths trying to keep what was left in his stomach down. It had been too long since he had a drink, and the withdrawal was getting worse.

August, with his back to the sink, slid down, warping his arm around himself as he shook.

“I can’t let any of them see me like this.” August thought as he tried to pull himself up, one hand clutching the sink base, trying as hard as he could to keep his body stable.

August’s body was trembling as he opened the window to let the foul smell out. Stumbling, August slowly walked to the entrance of the kitchen, and keeping one hand on the wall, he walked towards the cabinet in the corner. He reached out one shaking hand and opened it.

Elsewhere, Twilight's nose twitched as she slowly woke her foggy mind from sleep and sat up from her desk. A piece of sketch paper fell from her cheek and onto the floor.

“Spike must have made breakfast by now.” Twilight thought to herself as she trotted down the stairs, lured by the smell of coffee.

A light snore came from Twilight's room as she came into the kitchen. She was shocked to see not Spike but August, a towel warped around his chest as a makeshift apron as he pulled a large pot off of the stovetop and flipped two pieces of toast on a skillet.

“That you Twilight?” August asked, not turning his head. “I thought I’d make breakfast since I woke up first. I’ll, pay you back for the wine by the way, I promise.”

Puzzled, Twilight looked around the kitchen, her purple eyes taking in the items August laid out: some pears, an empty bottle of wine, half a loaf of bread, butter, and some seasonings.

Twilight trotted up beside August as he worked. “What are you making?” she asked, peering over his shoulder to get a better look at what was in the pan.

“Wine-soaked French toast and pears. It was about the best I could make, considering I can’t read anything here. Have a seat; the food is going to be done in a few.”

Not wanting to argue, Twilight sat down at the table, eyeing the human as he worked. She was not sure what to make of him.

One minute he was flirting with her and being a goofball; the next he was intellectual and had an air about him that was similar to royalty. Twilight could not get a good read on his personality and it seemed to change on a dime.

What was he really like? Twilight’s natural curiosity was only matched by her growing concern from the sheer amount of damage she’d seen on his back. Why would he not seek proper medical attention?

Unable to ignore the issue, she tried to remember the details of her psychology classes; she hadn't paid much attention to them and dropped them from her itinerary for more magic-focused classes after about a month.

In hindsight, she probably should’ve completed that class. Would’ve been useful in a number of scenarios.

"Ok, eat up!” August said, pulling Twilight from her thoughts as he was setting up a plate with pears and French toast in front of her while his plate mainly contained eggs.

“I hope you enjoy it. I haven't made this in years, so might not quite be up to par.” August said as he pulled the towel from his chest, looking even more bruised than yesterday.

Twilight barely heard him, now more than ever wanting to say something, voice some concern about his health but unsure how to do so without causing trouble.

“Well, I can’t say I have had wine-based foods for breakfast before, but I’m sure your cooking will be fine.” Twilight said, taking a bite of the toast.

The room was very quiet, as the two were not sure how to start a conversation. Twilight, for her part, was trying to figure out how to ask him about the injuries on his body and how to get him to the hospital to be healed by the doctors.

August, on the other hand, was trying to remember the dream he had last night. All he could really recall was a lot of water, ice, and darkness. That and some purple light. But other than that, nothing was odd for him; he always remembered his dreams.

“So Twilight, mind if we swing by my trailer? I kind of need a change of clothes before we visit these princesses of yours.” August asked, taking a sip of water from his glass.

"Oh, don’t worry about that; it's going to be a few days before they can make room in their schedule to see us,” Twilight said, broken out of her own thoughts.

August chuckled and swallowed the last of his food, taking his and Twilight’s to the sink and washing them.

“We may want to let your friend Rarity know that since she's probably still working herself raw on whatever she thinks is “royal appropriate attire” for humans. She seems the type to not stop until she either drops or finishes whatever comes first.” August said as he was drying his hands off.

Twilight let out a sigh and nodded, remembering more than one time that exact thing had happened.

“Ok, then I’m going to head to my trailer and clean up. You do your thing with the fashionista. Don’t worry, I promise not to make any stops.” August said, already heading for the door, not waiting for Twilight to try and stop him.
But try she did, and popped in front of him with a purple flash. A pout on her face.

“Oh no, you don’t minster; you're going to the hospital right now and getting looked at,” Twilight said, blocking the door, deciding to ignore any pretenses and go for the blunt approach.

August raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, a smirk growing on his face.
The young man squatted down to be at eye level with Twilight and held her face in one hand. Their faces were so close to each other that they almost touched each other.

Twilight froze, and her face grew red as she felt August’s breath on her cheek and the smell of her wine on his breath.

“Closet pervert says what?” August said it quickly and shot up and over Twilight while she processed what he said.

Twilight’s face went through several changes very quickly as she went over what happened. Confusion from the sentence itself, shock for being called a pervert, and anger from being vaulted over.

Also the insinuation that she was secretly a pervert annoyed her as well, but that went without saying.

Now more than peeved, Twilight turned around, her horn lit, and she tried to raise a wall in front of August as he ran to his bike, but his long legs carried him faster than she thought, and she missed him as he sat on his bike, pulling his keys. However, said keys were quickly encased in a purple aura before he could activate the machine.

August frowned as his keys hovered over to Twilight. She held them in front of her and jingled them with her own smug face, still a bit red.

August huffed and crossed his arms. “I keep forgetting magic is a thing here.”

The two were in a stalemate for a moment, Twilight still smugly jingling the keys, waiting for August to respond.

Eventually, August sighed in defeat. “That’s going to make it hard for quick getaways in the future. Any chance I can get those back without going to the hospital?”

Twilight seemed to think this over for a second and floated the keys in front of August, but as he reached out, they poofed away, and in their place was a mint which dropped into his hand.

"No, there is not August. Now, it's your choice. You can either go to the hospital willingly or I can float you all the way there like a foal that is misbehaving.” Twilight said, sounding like a mother scolding a child, though with a slight edge of satisfaction at getting one over on him.

"Wow, Bookworm, you got some sas don’t you?" August said, standing up, pocketing the mint, and ruffling Twilight’s hair.

Twilight smacked August’s hand away and stared up at him. “I get enough of Rainbow Dash calling me that, so don’t you start. Now come on, let's go. I want to get you looked at. Some of those stitches look infected, and I’m sure there are even more I can’t see.” Twilight said as she was pulling August by his hand with her magic.

August rolled his eyes and followed her as they went, trying not to look back at the ponies staring at them as he was dragged through town. But he did chuckle at a trio of mares at a flower shop, all fainting at the sight of him.

“I can say I’m surprised, Twi; the last time I got dragged to a hospital like this, it was my big sister after I fell out of a tree and broke my arm.” August snickered at the memory.

Twilight turned her head and stared at August as they continued walking—well, Twilight was walking, August being half dragged along. “That does not really fill me with confidence, August. Have you always been so danger-prone?”

August rubbed the back of his head, saying, “Well, not really? That was the worst I got hurt as a kid. I was like 11? And come on, kids do stupid stuff all the time that ends up getting them hurt.”

Twilight sighed as they entered the hospital, the pair already predicting the reactions they were likely to get.

The mare at the front desk looked like she had not slept in days and was sipping a large cup of what was mostly coffee—maybe just a bit of whiskey…assuming they had that in this world. This job was very stressful after all.

Twilight rang the bell on the front desk to get the mare's attention. The bags under her eyes contrasted with her pink coat.

"Hello, my name is Graveyard Shift. What can I do to help you?” She paused as her eyes focused on the tall biped standing in front of her. Her eyes went wide, and she shouted, “Oh, sweet Celestia!” and slammed her hoof down on an intercom next to her. “INJURED NON-PONY PATIENT AT THE FRONT DESK!!”

August and Twilight both jumped as the doors around them burst open, with several doctors and nurses running out and a gurney being pushed in front of them. August was the first to react, and he tried to bolt to the front door but was stopped by several large earthpony nurses blocking the way.

In spite of him being larger than them, their natural strength and sheer numbers made August hesitate.

As he stopped in place, several unicorns lit up their horns and multi-colored magic floated him into the air, holding him down to the gurney as they looked him over.

“The patient has severe bruising around the upper chest area and several loose stitches on the arms, chest, and back. Possible internal bleeding.” Said a blue pegasus doctor as they pushed August deeper into the hospital.
August was struggling with the magical bindings holding them down.

“TWILIGHT I SWEAR TO GOD IF I GET PROBED, I’M GONNA…..” August’s voice was cut off as the doors closed behind them.

Twilight was frozen in place, not having moved, as everything happened. She blinked several times and looked back at Graveyard Shift, who was panting behind the desk.

Finally regaining her senses, Twilight practically stomped over to the front desk.

“Where are they taking him?” asked Twilight, slamming her hoofs on the desk, her own eyes going wide, and a few hairs popping out of place on her head.

"Miss, calm down. The doctors are taking him into the non-pony wing to be examined. You can go visit him once we get him looked at.” Graveyard Shift said as she was handing a clipboard to Twilight along with a pen.

“If you could, please fill out the forms as best you can. We need as much information as we can about him. I don’t think I've ever seen anything like him, even in text books.” She said as she was going back to work on her desk.

"You have no idea.” Said Twilight, calming down as she levitated the paperwork to complete.

After calming down, Twilight sat in the waiting room, waiting for an update on August. Several times she asked Graveyard Shift what was happening, and all she got back was that he was in good hoofs and was fine…besides having punched a doctor and trying to jump out of a window once he got free.

She was going to need to have him apologize for that later.

Twilight sighed as she stared at the clock. At the moment she hadn’t been able to accomplish much in the three hours she’d been sitting. She could only fill out the patient information sheet; she knew so little about August or his species; for all she knew, he could be a baby, and this fact was driving her crazy.

Twilight was so lost in thought that she didn't notice Graveyard Shift until her pink hoof poked her in the shoulder.

“Miss Twilight? You can go and see him now.” She said as she was taking a step back when Twilight jumped.

"Oh, thank you,” Twilight said, completely composing herself as the two headed into the non-pony wing of the hospital.

Twilight glanced around as they walked; most of the wing seemed to be empty, with a few rooms being used for storage. It made sense though given how rare it was for Ponyville to have, well, non-pony visitors.

August’s room was towards the back, and he was sitting on a bed much too large for him. The same blue pegasus doctor from before, now sporting a black eye, seemed to be lecturing him as they approached.

“I understand your frustration, Mr. August, but please understand that we were simply running basic scanning and healing spells on you; we would never do anything more advanced on an unknown species.” He said as he was holding an ice pack to his eye.

August glared at him and crossed his arms. “Even if it was ‘basic magic’ that didn’t give you the right to use them on me against my will, and now that you're done, I want my pants back please.”

Twilight entered the room and saw that August was indeed without his pants, only wearing a large hospital gown. When he saw Twilight, he sighed and waved her over.

The doctor stepped to the side as Twilight stood next to August and smiled up at him.

“Is everything okay, doctor?” Twilight asked, trying to break the tension between the two.

The doctor groaned a little due to his still sore eye. “Well, miss, your friend is to put it simply, beat up. His body is practically covered in old injuries ranging from bruised bones, to minor infections from the old stitches, which we removed and replaced where needed. Thankfully nothing too serious and as long as he takes it easy and doesn’t try mending the wounds himself, he should be fine.”

That last bit got him a light glare from August, though the doctor simply brushed it off, partially because he couldn’t see it due to his black eye.

"That's good to hear. Thank you. I hope he didn't cause too many problems." Said Twilight, trying to look apologetic on August’s behalf.

The doctor sighed and removed the ice pack from his face. "Well, miss, I won’t lie, he was a hoof full, but I have dealt with worse in this line of work.”

August looked back and forth between them, taking his pants back from the nurse as she floated them up to him.

“I’m standing right here, you know.” August said as he stood next to the nurse and changed.

August caught her staring at him, one place in particular, and winked at her, her face growing red. Twilight saw this interaction and rolled her eyes, calling out to August.

“Let's go August and thank you again, Doctor.” August patted the nurse on the head and nodded at the doctor as they left the room, snickering to himself as they went.

“What is so funny?” Twilight asked as they left the lobby and headed into town.

August smirked at her, “Well, just that, it seems that somethings are the same here as in my world.”

Twilight’s eyebrow rose at that. “And that would be?” she asked.

August's grin grew wider as he spoke, “That girls can’t help but look at a few places on guys when they get the chance for one.”

Twilight knitted her brows in confusion, and she stopped in her tracks, her face growing bright red. August laughed and kept walking towards the library.

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait in between chapters everyone had a lot of family issues hit me all at one and didn't have the time to wright or the money to pay my editor. things should goa bit smoother now thou