Awakening (Chapter 1, Part 1)
It was a bright day in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle, a purple unicorn who had probably read more books than all the other ponies in town combined, walked down the street with Spike, her young purple dragon assistant who often had to return those books to their shelves. They were discussing a list of tasks that needed to be accomplished that day and over the next couple of days. The purple pony was levitating a checklist with her as the two walked down the road.
"Okay Spike, after that, all we have to do, besides running the library, is..." she stopped for a second to check her list, "help Applejack harvest a few apples. That shouldn't be too hard."
Spike decided to throw in his own opinion, "Personally, I just hope I have time for a few snacks in between all those things. I could really go for a few rubies right now." Spike's stomach made it clear that it agreed with him, and Twilight let out a small laugh.
Suddenly, clouds began to darken in the sky and started thundering. Twilight began to feel quite confused, "There wasn't supposed to be a storm today." Spike looked around up at the sky, "Maybe there was a change to the schedule?" Twilight shook her head, "Somepony would've told us if that were the case, like Rainbow Dash when we spoke to her a couple minutes ago. Remember?"
As the thunder continued to build up, it eventually culminated in one sudden bolt of lightning directly in front of the two, but something was off, the lightning stopped a very noticeable distance from the ground, had a strange red tint, and, strangest of all, a figure began to form at the termination point of the bolt. It had a strange shape, like nothing Twilight had ever seen. Of course, Twilight didn't have much time to consider the appearance of the figure, as once it finished forming it immediately began to fall to the ground. Other ponies in the area were muttering to each other about what it could be as it hit the ground, and Twilight quickly galloped over and examined it, Spike being not too far behind.
The creature was about the height of the average pony on all fours, maybe a little taller. To add to the strangeness, it was mostly devoid of any fur, only having a mane at the top of its head. It also had a very unpony-like body, not too similar to any species she was aware of, except maybe a monkey, but even that was a stretch. To make the mystery even more enticing, it also wore a large amount of clothing. The uppermost part of its outfit was similar to a suit, but much simpler, being only one piece and one color, a deep blue. Just below that, it had on a piece of clothing that seemed to be designed to cover its lower half, it was a lighter shade of blue with a pattern of vertical and horizontal white lines overlaid onto it. The last two articles of clothing Twilight could spot were something similar to boots but more compact, it had a couple strings and a strap at the top, beneath the boot-like footwear was some kind of white material poking out of the top of the object, along the creature's leg, perhaps made of cotton.
I woke up in a bed that I could feel wasn't my own. My eyes were groggy and, when I tried to get up, I could feel a pain in my shoulder. 'Where am I?' I thought to myself, before a bit of worry hit me, "Have I been kidnapped?!"
I decided to look around at the room to see if there were any clues. 'Blue walls, brown... trim, I think that's the correct term, checkered floor, looks like a colorful array of beige and dark beige, everyone's favorite colors, and one door.' I took a quick look at my right side, there was a single drawer with a lamp and a window on the wall to my right, the walls also seemed to have some sort of plant-like pattern. I turned my head to the left, there was another bed there, it also had something wired above it, "Is that a... hospital bed? These walls look more like a hotel room." I thought aloud.
'Maybe I was kidnapped by someone who just bought a hospital bed.' I began to think before a bit of clarity hit me, 'Wait, can people even buy hospital beds?' I decided to stop and reflect on my situation, how did I even get here?
Kai picked up the key he'd found in his adoptive father, Rowan's bedroom and inserted it into a lock on a door with a sign saying, 'Rowan's storage room: Do not enter'. Upon turning the key, the lock quickly opened and Kai grabbed the doorknob, turning it and opening the door. Inside the room were many boxes scattered around the area, there was also a few pictures here and there depicting Rowan, seemingly with someone much shorter next to him, but there was too much dust on them and not enough light to make any of them out clearly. However, none of these things were what stood out the most to him, what truly caught his eye was some type of strange machine against a wall in the far side of the room.
As he approached the machine, he examined its appearance. It was mostly just a big box with buttons and dials on it, as well as a small screen, but there were a few stray cables and cords connecting to a large, clear, cylindrical tube. It looked about big enough for two or three people to stand in, if not for the fact that it didn't seem to have any way to open it. Kai examined the machine further, on the front there was writing saying 'D.R.T.T.V.P.'
'I wonder what this does? Maybe I can find a way to turn it on,' he thought. Taking a quick look over the machine, he saw a worn and faded sticker on the side, but he couldn't make out much past the age, dust, and dirt. He decided to just focus on the front of the machine to try and activate it.
Upon pushing a few of the buttons the screen lit up, simple green text appeared on it saying 'Unlocking chamber' before changing to say 'running Z.E.T.A. function 1' as the front of the tube slid over and opened. "Cool!" Kai said enthusiastically to himself as he stepped inside the chamber. Suddenly, the tube closed and a circle of cameras blinked around him. Kai ran over trying to pull the front back open, but it was hopeless, when it closed back, it had sealed on the other side.
As Kai pounded on the glass, it did not budge, it must have been tempered glass or something. A grid of lasers began to move down from top of the chamber as the young human continued panicking. The lasers passed over him to the floor peacefully, and for a moment nothing happened, then suddenly, everything happened. Kai felt a strange feeling in his head, then everything felt weird.
First, he saw and felt nothing but pure white, then he could feel his body and saw his hands in front of himself. Suddenly, he heard thunder, and when he looked again, he saw a cloudy sky, and felt wind moving past his body as if he was falling. Then, he blacked out.
As my reminiscing concluded, I suddenly heard something similar to footsteps, but not quite, from outside the door. Still unsure of if I had been kidnapped or just wound up in a hospital because I did something stupid, I decided to find a place to hide, just incase. My first thought was to hide under the bed, but it was flat against the door, looking to the other bed, however, I got an idea. Getting up off of the bed, I tried to ignore the pain in my shoulder as I quickly walked over to the opposing bed, seeing that it was farther from the door, I got down and hid against the far side of the bed, internally noting that the beds and other objects in the room were shorter than normal.
I heard the door open, followed by a feminine voice gently saying, "Hello, are you awake?" I then heard a shocked gasp followed by what sounded like a series of... clips and clops heading towards the bed I awoke in?! Confused, I poked my head up just enough to see who was standing there, only to be met with more shock and confusion. Standing next to the hospital bed was a white horse-like creature with a pale pink mane shaped into a bun at the back of its head and a tail that was a matching color. On its head was one of those old nurse hats that you only ever see in 90s cartoons, on the cap was a logo of a white medical cross with a red heart shape in the center and four more heart shapes pointing out from the inner corners of the cross, a quick glance also revealed that this logo was also somehow visible on the fur of the creature's flank.
For reasons that I presume to be obvious, I immediately let out a shocked gasp of my own upon seeing this creature before me. This, of course, quickly gave away my hiding spot as the horse-like creature turned to find the origin of the sound. Knowing that my cover was blown, I ran over to the wall with haste, hoping to put some distance between the two of us. The strange creature spoke slowly in what seemed to be a reassuring tone as it looked at me with its massive eyes that seemed to be as wide as one of my hands, "Hello, can you understand me? I'm not going to hurt you."
Although I had already heard the creature speak when I was hiding, it was still shocking to see with my own eyes and I let out the brilliant observation that, "Y‐you can talk!"
The creature had a blank, almost confused look on its face for a moment before letting out a small laugh, "Well, of course I can talk, almost everypony can talk. It's far more surprising that you can than it is that I can!"
I sat there silently against the wall, mouth agape, staring at the white... 'pony'? It seemed to notice my confusion as it said, "Oh! I should introduce myself, I'm Nurse Redheart. What's your name?" then, it extended one of its front hooves towards me, as if initiating a handshake.
I slowly got up and walked towards it, noticing that it‐ no, that she was a similar height to me. I reached out and grabbed her extended hoof with my hand, "I'm Kai, Kai Sol‐ uh, Kai Frost. Nice to meet you!" I smiled with a warm tone.
A curious question quickly popped back into my head, "Hey, uh, where am I? Why am I in this... hospital‐looking place?" I looked to her, the look of curiosity visible on my face.
She put her hoof to her metaphorical chin and thought for a moment, "Well... from what I hear there was some strange red lightning, then you appeared in the sky and fell to the ground. After that, a kindhearted young mare decided to bring you here in case you were hurt. Luckily, it wasn't anything too bad, just had to fix your shoulder there." She pointed to my shoulder, then walked back to the door, picking up a clipboard, and continuing, "By the way, I do need to fill out some information for your patient file here, I've gotten your name, but could I get your age if you don't mind."
"Oh, of course, I'm seven. Anything else?" I replied with my usual smile for interacting with people I'm unfamiliar with, and in this case, ponies I'm unfamiliar with too.
She had a look of what seemed to be surprise on her face for a moment, but I couldn't tell what, "No, that's all I need for now. I have all the other important information for you filled out. There is one thing I must ask of you at the moment however."
"What?" I asked, "I'm sure it's no big deal, miss."
"The mare who brought you here would like to speak with you."
Author's Note
And with that, the first half of Chapter 1 is complete. I decided to split my outline in half so I could get this out before the end of November as I have been planning.
Next chapter, introductions are made with Twilight, and the family realizes what has happened to Kai.
I would also like to dedicate this chapter to a deceased follower of mine, PrinceOfDarkness, he did not live long enough to see this fic occur and this makes me deeply regret my previous procrastination, I hope he would have enjoyed this reboot.
