“Being nursed back to health is not for the faint of heart.” Waking up from a nap it comes to you. For these are words quite true, and they are words that burn themselves into your mind, on your road to recovery.

****

Your body has always done what you asked of it, but now it felt as if it’s decided to work against you. Physical actions that you didn’t need to think about now have to be planed down to the smallest detail, if you are to have any chance to succeed. For the first week just sitting up in bed was a daunting task.

Usually you would use your abdominal muscles, with your legs as a counterweight, and you would sit up. No matter how hard you try your body wouldn’t budged. You have to use your arms and grab either the sheet or your knees with your hands, to be able to sit up. For a simple task to become so difficult, you have something to add to the list of defeats you tally in your mind.

The list has calmly grown since you woke up. It started right after Fluttershy had fed you and tucked you in. Your brain had told you to eat since you hadn’t eaten in over a month. The food you had gotten was through an IV drop in your arm, leaving your stomach idle. This made you wolf the soup down, or rather you would have if you could, but it went fast enough. Fluttershy had been a gracious host, and seeing how much you liked the soup, had let you eat your fill. Your stomach however, like the rest of your body saw it as a personal insult, that it suddenly was required to work after such a long time of inactivity. It had done what any landlord does with unwanted residences; it promptly evicted them from the premises.

The ensuing series of unexpected regurgitations from your stomach sent the soup out into freedom. Luckily you managed to turn your head a split second before it reached your throat, so you didn’t hit Fluttershy; instead you hit the bed, the floor and anything else within range. Lying down and only being able to turn your head most of the substance formerly known as soup had landed on the bed or on you.

Fluttershy had quickly helped you up into a sitting position and for lack of a better option, had held the bowl under your mouth. This had caught some of your stomach contents but, the volume and velocity of it had meant, that most of it had fallen on the blanket. When your stomach had finally evicted the last unwanted resident, you were left gasping for air. The bed and the front of you body was now covered in your stomachs refusal.

Fluttershy had let you sit there until your breathing was back to normal and you stopped coughing. She supported you, so you didn’t fall backwards or forward into the mess you made, while she gently rubbed your back as she tried to comfort you with kind words. When your breathing was finally unconstricted, she did something you didn’t think possible. She had lifted you in her hooves, out of bed, and placed you so you were lying on the floor. Making sure you were lying as comfortable as possible, she flew into what you guessed was the bathroom. You heard the running of water, and when she returned she was holding a bowl and a washcloth. The bowl turned out to be a mixture of lukewarm water and soap. Gently, she helped you up into a sitting position, and began to wash you with the washcloth. She continued to try to comfort you with kind words, as she washed you until you were clean.

Your low blood count meant that your body couldn’t generate enough body heat without a blanket to trap it. When she was done washing and drying you, you were shaking from the cold. She had then gently laid you down on the floor again and wrapped you in a blanket, while she changed the linen on the bed. Finally when she was done, she had lifted you up again and flew you back to bed, where she tucked you in and comforted you until you fell asleep. You hadn’t uttered a word during all of this, too ashamed of your weakness and helplessness to even being able to think of what to say. Even if you wanted to say something, you were suddenly so tired, from what you had seen and experienced in the few hours you had been awake.

The next two points on the defeat list came shortly after each other. The first was your voice. Thinking back on how it sounded when you woke up, it had been raucous at best. You hadn’t thought about it when you woke, because you just enjoyed that your body had decided to cooperate again.

Now thanks to your panicked screaming session from yesterday, it would probably have reduced it to a whisper. Your regurgitation however had an unforeseen result. When Fluttershy helped you sit up, to better help you vomit on something other than yourself, it resulted in some of the stomach acid running back down your windpipe. This had resulted in your vocal cords being put under even more strain, reducing the whisper to a non-existent entity.

You and Fluttershy got what could only be seen as a scolding, from Dr. Cardio when he came around the day, after your feeding mishap. Or rather Fluttershy did. He pointed out in no uncertain terms, that she was not to indulge you. Your meals should be small, but often. This would be the standard procedure, until your stomach had gotten used to deal with holding food again. Even if you wanted to you couldn’t answer, your throat hurting if you just tried to use your vocal cord. Worst of all was that Fluttershy constantly took the brunt of the scolding. Even though you could see, that Dr. Cardio was being very gentle in his scolding. It clearly hurt her to be the center of all the negative attention, but even so she constantly placed herself between the scolding and you.

Her actions didn’t help on your mood. All though some of your friends probably wouldn’t describe you as such, you saw yourself as an adult, and being an adult meant taking responsibility for your actions. Her constant stepping in to take, the fall, made you feel infantilized and impotent. It also made your situation clear. For the first time in your adult life, you were totally dependent on someone other than yourself, and it scared you as much as the wooden wolf had.

Later that day you were sitting up in your bed, when you felt your bladder reaching its limit. Fluttershy was in town getting groceries, so getting her to help you was out of the question. You looked at the bell on the nightstand that she had given yo, so you could call on her if you needed anything. You had grown to hate that stupid bell. It stood as a symbol of your emasculation and dependency. You straightened your index finger and gave the bell a slight tap. It fell to the ground and rolled in under the bed. You smiled, out of sight out of mind, you may be weak, but the bells of the world had better be careful and not try to mess with you. Your triumphant feeling of utterly defeating the bell in single combat was brought to a sudden stop, as your bladder saw it fit, to give you second reminder.

After the stunning victory over the bell indignity, you felt it was time to defeat the diaper of despair. You pulled the blanket to the side and lifted your legs out of the bed one at the time. The door to the bathroom was only five or so yards away. You took your time, mentally preparing for what you knew would be an arduous journey. You took a couple of deep breaths, and then using all your might you stood up.

The sudden rising of your body however had an unforeseen consequence. Your heart suddenly had to pump blood vertical rather than horizontal, before either your heart or arteries had time to adjust to this; your brain registered the lack of oxygen.

The blackout was short, no more than a few seconds, but in your weakened condition it was enough. When you fully regained consciousness, you were lying on the floor. From what you could guess you had fallen forward. The fact that you were lying on your stomach, only seemed to support that thesis. As you opened your eyes fully, you could see the stairs that led down to the living room. Your left hand was lying next to your head, your right felt like it was between your chest and the floor. You tried to gently pull it out when a surge of pain ran through your arm. Your vocal cords couldn’t make any sound, so the scream that left your lips was a silent one, though in your mind it was real enough.

You carefully rolled right, onto your back, so you could see your right arm. The arm itself didn’t look to be broken, which filled you with relief, but the feeling vanishes when you looked at your hand. Your hand was pointed ninety degrees at a downward angle from its normal position. When you tried to move it back into its normal position, with your other hand, the pain returned with a vengeance.

The sudden tidal wave of pain made you lose focus completely. When you regained focus you felt the tell tale signs that you had hoped to avoid when you started this endeavor. The fact that you hadn’t made it to the bathroom in time you could have handled, falling over you could have handled, breaking your wrist you maybe could have handled; but all three at once pushed you over the edge. Tears started to form in your eyes, and soon they flowed like raindrops down the sides of your cheeks. Your sobs, like your screams, were quiet ones, and only the jolty movements off your thorax and abdomen gave any indication that they were there. In your mind, however, they were as real as ever. You don’t know how long you laid on the floor sobbing; a couple of hours, a couple of minutes, your sense of time was gone.

When Fluttershy had returned from her grocery shopping and came up the stairs, she almost had a panic attack. Your only reaction had been to roll over so you had your back to her. You went into a fetal position and covered your face with your good arm. While she made sure you were alright, you refused to look at her. You felt weak, pathetic and worthless.

****

“And I’m still worthless.”

The thought is coming with increasing regularity since you gained consciousness. From the time you woke up until now, you haven’t been able to use your body as you used to. The strain of constantly being weak, tired and now having your arm in a sling is constantly gnawing away at your feeling of self worth. Dr. Cardio had put your wrist back in place and had applied some sort of ointment that should help it heal. It should also take the pain, but there is still the occasional sting from your wrist.

With no small effort, you sit up and slowly move backwards, until your back is resting against the headboard of Fluttershy’s bed. You find the pillow and place it between your back and the solid wooden frame of the headboard to get comfy. A sigh leaves your lips, even getting comfortable is a trial of strength for you.

You look at the mirror and stare at you reflection. The thin and bald human looking back at you looks nothing like you remember having looked before. If you didn’t know it was you; you wouldn’t have guessed it. Looking down at your arm, you notice how thin it has become. You have never had a body like a bodybuilder, nor were you twiggy either; you fell into the ‘normal’ group as most people do. “And now I can probably join a sideshow as the human stick insect, it’s no wonder that Fluttershy could lift me as easy as she did last night. My body weight is probably as low as my granddad when he died. He had been sick for a long time where he couldn’t leave his bed.” You remember you were one of pallbearers at his funeral. The memory of how odd you found it, that a man of his height could be so light, like a feather.

Shaking your head, you send the memories back to its designated box in your brain; your mood is bad enough as it is, no reason to bring more sadness into it. You give another sigh as you lean your head back against the headboard. You really need something to do, without something to take your mind off your current situation time move forward at a snail’s pace. You miss your DVDs, you miss your game console, and you miss your internet and all those mindless things that could speed up time. Even against time you are helpless.

The feeling of helplessness also brings out a side of you that you thought you left behind in the magical days of your childhood. As a child you couldn’t fall asleep without having your nightlight on, or having your cat sleeping in your bed. Otherwise you knew without a doubt that you were helpless against the monsters of the night who would come and eat you. The light, you knew, would scare them away. If the nightlight wasn’t an option, you knew that your family cat had senses that were far more developed to sense things in the night. You knew that as long as he purred you were safe. Now the night doesn’t scare you, but your own body does.

“How the fuck can you let me down like this!” you mentally scold your body. “I’ve taken good care of you! I fed you and clothed you, and this is how you repay me?” Your body doesn’t reply, as you knew it wouldn’t, but its lack of ability starts to make you angry “Fine be that way.”

Your thoughts on your body’s weak state are brought to a halt when you hear a knock at the front door from down stairs. From what you can hear Fluttershy walks over to the door and opens it.

“Oh! Vet Goodall, I’m so glad you could come by,” Fluttershy sounds happy to see the pony, whoever she is.

“Well I heard that he’s awake, so I thought that I better take a look at him, and make sure he’s on the road to recovery.”

The voice from the visitor brings her back from the voices you heard while you were in your semi unconscious state. She was the vet that had given Fluttershy and her friends the lecture on your species, or at least your main species group.

“That’s a good idea. He's just taking a nap, I’ll just go check if he's awake. Please wait here,” Fluttershy says and you hear the sound of light hoofsteps moving up the stairs.

As she reaches the top of the stairs, you see that it appears she is walking on the tips of her hooves, like she is trying to sneak as to not wake you. Seeing that you are wide awake she smiles at you.

“Ah you're awake, that’s good. Did you have a nice nap?” She walks over to the bed switching back to her normal gait.

Not being able to speak, you nod your head and give her your best attempt of a smile.

“Oh that’s wonderful.” She gently checks your injured arm making sure it's laying in the right angle in the sling Dr. Cardio had applied around your neck. “Vet Goodall is down stairs and would like to give you a checkup…, if that’s alright with you.”

When she is satisfied that your arm is okay she looks up at you and gives you one of the kindest smiles you ever remembering seeing. You nod again and give her a thumb up with your uninjured left hand. She looks at this with a puzzled expression on her face, then she looks up at the ceiling as if to make sure that you aren’t pointing at something among the rafters. Not finding anything out of the ordinary she looks at you even more puzzled. Remembering that ponies don’t have hands or fingers, and therefore would not know what a thumbs up means, you send her a sheepish smile and nod your head once again. She returns your smile and walks down the stairs, still giving the ceiling a couple of looks, to make sure she hadn’t missed whatever you were pointing at.

“He’s awake and doesn’t mind a checkup follow me.”

Again you hear the sound of hooves walking up the stairs as Fluttershy returns with vet Goodall accompanying her. Vet Goodall is a normal pony well as normal as they come here, normal in the sense that she isn’t a pegasus or a unicorn. Her coat is a light gold completion and her mane is light blue with gray streaks in it, she seems pleasant enough. She puts her saddlebags on the floor and then turns her attention towards you.

“Well looks like he has taken a turn for the worse,” she says as she sees your arm in the sling. “How did this happen?”

“Um… I was out grocery shopping and he tried get out of bed and he… fell.” Fluttershy tries not to look at you or vet Goodall, and looked at the floor clearly feeling guilty, again taking the full blame for your current state.

You look at Fluttershy with an annoyed expression on your face. “OH WOULD YOU STOP BEING SUCH A DOORMAT!” If you could use your voice you would have shouted it at her. “I DID THIS, NOT YOU!” Why is she constantly taking the blame for you?

Your mental berating of Fluttershy stops, as you see that vet Goodall turns her full attention towards you.

“Well hey there little fella, and how are we doing today?”

The way she asked it made you cringed. It isn’t the way you would ask a fellow human being, it’s the way you ask a dog. “Well not entirely, but if she start to do use puppy talk-.”

“Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy?” Vet Goodall pats you on your head as she asks you the question.

Your bad mood doesn’t exactly improve when she walks over to her saddlebags and produces a jar filled with what appears to be doggie treats.

“Siiit.”

Had you taken the time to remember that Goodall was in her uniform, and therefore in her job mind mode, you would most likely have let it slide. Now her behavior on top of the stings of pain in your wrist, your body’s weakness and Fluttershy constantly stepping in to take the blame, it becomes the famous straw that broke the camel’s back. You look at Goodall like she was a telemarketer who had called you when you’re just sitting down to eat your dinner. Vet Goodall however didn’t notice the amount of negative charged energy, that you were sending her way; she was too busy taking one of the doggy treats from the jar and holding it towards you.

“I don’t think he likes the way you are talking to him.” Fluttershy tried to cut in, her voice as meek as a skittish fawn’s.

“Hm… maybe he doesn’t like the treats I brought.”

Or maybe I think you’re a complete ass! You counter reasoned with her in your mind. I swear if you-.

“Luckily I came prepared,” vet Goodall says and from her lab coat she produces of all things a banana. “Oh that's such a good boooy, would you rather have this yummy banana than those boring doggy treats?”

Normally anger is not part of your character, far from it. You are not a doormat, but you have been taught from an early age that anger gets you nowhere. Throughout your childhood, whenever you threw a tantrum or raised your temper, your family would shut you down, until you found some other way to get your point of view across. That however was in the past under normal circumstances, and this is the now, where there hasn’t been a whole lot of normal since you came here.

You feel your upper lip give a series of jumps like it want to make a snarl like an angry dog. The calm side of your personality keeps it down however, so your lips still covers your front teeth. A battle of will takes place in your mind. Part of you wants to take a violent swing at the banana sending it flying through the room. Another wants to take the banana and just leave it at that, no harm done. The battle ends in a stalemate and a compromise.

You smile at vet Goodall. A smile can send many different signals, I’m happy, I’m relaxed, or you’re funny. Your smile however is more the kind of smile a tiger sends a bunch of annoying elementary school children, banging their hands on the bullet proof glass to its enclosure. Your smile shows no teeth, but to the trained eye it says. “You may be out of my reach, but given the chance I will tear you apart.”

“Well that looks like it did the trick, now he’s smiling. I knew the banana would be the right approach.” Vet Goodall apparently oblivious to the signal your smile is sending laid the banana on you blanket, and returned your ‘you are toast smile’ with a genuine happy ‘let’s be the best of friends smile’.

“Why thank you my dear and now.” You raise your uninjured left hand and start to flex your index finger in a come-hither motion.

It works, vet Goodall seems to be almost hypnotized by the flexing of your finger joints. She comes closer, and closer, and-.

“Vet Goodall, stop I don’t think you should!” Fluttershy tries to stop her, but to no avail. Vet Goodall was preoccupied with the evolutionary wonder in front of her. “S-S-Stop it! Don’t you-!” The last sentence is directed at you, but you chose to ignore it, your target is finally within range.

Turning your hand over in a quick motion, you bended your middle finger and lock it with your thumb. Stretching your three remaining fingers for added tension and power, you release your middle finger, and flick vet Goodall over her nose. “Boo-yah!”

The flick although not that hard, came as a complete surprise for vet Goodall. Giving a loud yelp and grabbing her nose with her front hooves, she jumped backwards all most slamming into Fluttershy in the process. The jump however comes as such a surprise that she hasn’t thought about the landing, before her back hooves makes contact with the floor. This means that the muscles in her legs isn’t tensed enough to keep her standing. The end result is that her back leg buckled under her, so she collapses on the floor still holding her nose. This leaves vet Goodall lying on the floor rubbing her nose, apparently not knowing what just hit her. Fluttershy standing between the two of you looks like she is close to a state of shock. Her eyes going from you to vet Goodall in quick succession, her mind seemingly incapable of tackling the turn this situation has taken. And finally you, sitting in the bed with a smile that many an over dramatic Hollywood villain would be proved of. The only thing in your mind that could have made this better, is if you could use both your hands to make a finger-pyramid in front of your face. Sadly your prior accident makes this impossible.

“OH NO!” Fluttershy, the first of the ponies able to wrap her head around what just happened runs over to vet Goodall, who was still dazed by the ordeal that just happened to her. “Oh my gosh are you okay?! I’m sure he didn’t mean to do that! He’s just had a very tiring day and-!”

She is stopped mid sentence by a raised front hoof from vet Goodall. “I’m just fine.” She says giving her nose a final rub to make sure it’s alright. She turns her brown eyes towards you; you are still sitting with a devilish smile on your lips. “And I congratulate you; you apparently have a healthy… a healthy… snake monkey on your hooves!”

“Snake monkey?!” That was clearly meant as an insult. The smile on your lips vanishes, as you don’t really know how to tackle the in human terms crude insult. “Is she referring to my lack of hair?” Paltry as it may be, it still struck a nerve. Like most humans, a very large part of how you chose to show the world your personality is through your hair. Without it you have no personality as far as the world is concerned; at least that how you feel.

Getting up and still fuming, vet Goodall put on her saddlebags and began to descend the stairs. “And since he seems to be quite healthy, my services clearly aren’t required!”

She continued down the stairs to the ground floor. Fluttershy is following her trying to mend fences by apologizing on hers, but specially your behalf. “I’m so sorry, it wasn’t his fault, really it’s my fault. I know him better than you, and I should have seen it coming and-!” You hear the sound of the front door being slammed hard as vet Goodall leaves the house cutting Fluttershy’s apologizing short. You then hear what appears to be a low squeak from Fluttershy.

For what seems an eternity not an audible sound can be heard in the house. You start to get down from your adrenaline high and begin to wonder if Fluttershy is alright. The sound of hoofsteps coming up the up the stairs tell you that she most likely isn’t. During your stay, both semi-comatose and awaken, you’ve rarely been able to hear Fluttershy hoofsteps when she walked up the stairs. Even with her hooves she can move silently like a jungle cat, maybe because she didn’t want to disturb you in your slumber. The steps she takes now however are loud enough that you could hear them even in you sleep. Slowly and deliberately they are moving up the stairs, each one of them like an ominous distant thunderclap in your mind.

Since only your ears are telling you what’s going on, you mind starts to fill out the missing pieces of the jigsaw that is your current situation. From the images it’s showing you, things aren’t boding well. You remember that Fluttershy can be very fierce, so much so that it frightened you. That was triggered because you wouldn’t give her a spoon. Attacking a pony, that might very well be her friend, can only bring the most severe of repercussions.

Your heart rate starts to accelerate along with your breathing, and you start to sweat even though the room suddenly feels ice cold. All the tell-tell signs that your body is preparing for a fight or flight scenario are appearing. Your body has however forgotten that it’s in no way capable to either of these actions in the state it’s in now. You however know this, and this knowledge starts a chain reaction in your mind. Mental images of Fluttershy exacting her anger on you, becomes wilder and wilder as the steps of doom moves closer.

As you see her pink mane slowly appearing over the top step of the stairs, your mind reaches its final bid on the outcome of this situation. In your inner eye you see Fluttershy placing a piece of firewood between your ankles, before she goes to work on your feet with a sledgehammer. You look down at your ankles and feet which are hidden under the blanket, already seeing them bend and broken out of shape. Remembering how bad the pain was with only one wrist, you can’t even start to fathom the pain that awaits you now. You look up seeing Fluttershy having finally reached the top of the stairs and now moving towards you. Her face carries no readable expression that you can tell, and her gait is slow and deliberate as she reaches the bed you are lying in.

Trying to move you discover that you can’t. It’s like her eyes are holding you in place like a snake hypnotizing a mouse before it devours it. “Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! I’m dead!”

“I’m very disappointed in you…” Her voice seems devoid of any emotions, like she’s trying to control her temper.

“Now comes the berserk mode and out comes the sledgehammer!” You look at her. Your fear probably as visible as the sweat on your brow.

“I mean… she was only trying to help. I know you’ve had a hard day, but that really doesn’t excuse what you did.” Fluttershy’s voice carries a hint of firmness, but no hint of anger and certainly none of the rage you expected.

You blink your eyes a few times in utter surprise. “Ooookay this isn’t the way I pictured this.”

Fluttershy comes closer and raises a hoof. Had your body been just in a tad better shape, you would have cringed preparing for the strike, now however you can only sit and watch the hoof.

The hoof starts to descend and you close your eyes, the only action you can muster against the coming strike. “Here it comes.”

The strike doesn’t come; instead you feel it gently stroke your head, as if to calm you. Your lack of hair reveals the texture of the hoof for you as it trails along your head. The outer shell is not as one would expect rock hard, it feels lighter somehow and more flexible. The center is also softer then you thought it would be. It feels almost like a cat’s paw having the couture off several muscles. This would explain the hoofs added flexibility, and the reason why she can hold a spoon in it.

You open your eyes and look at Fluttershy, the sight you see is one of almost angelic proportions. The expression on her face is one of caring, gentleness and empathy. You are at a loss; you expected a raging volcano and a degree of hostility that surpassed what you presented to vet Goodall. Instead you are met by something you’ve rarely seen outside the world of TV, literature and art; kindness.

“I’ll go down and make some lunch for us, but I want you to think about what I said… okay?” Fluttershy stops her stroking of your head and looks at you, still having that kind look in her eyes as she waits for your reply.

The only reply you can think about is to nod your head, while averting your eyes so you wouldn’t start to blush over your emotional overreaction. You hear Fluttershy walking down the stairs and hear her start rummaging in the kitchen. Left drained from your fears, you do what she asked and try to think things through.

What had gotten you to act out in such extremes? The first action was somewhat easy to figure out. Vet Goodall had offended you; she might have done it with the best of intentions, but together with the other personal defeats you had during your time here it had been too much. The other reaction towards Fluttershy however is harder to get to terms with. Was it because you’ve seen her react somewhat harshly towards you before? Well yes, but was that really the only reason? When had you had these feelings before? In your mind you went back into time trying to find the answer. When you finally reach it you are back in your childhood.

As most modern families, your parents never struck you or your siblings. There were one or two episodes in your childhood where you were struck, but that usually was a culmination of many things that made your parents strike out in desperation rather than anger. This, however, didn’t help when you got into trouble, as all children do. Whenever that happened, you would be afraid that they would beat you. Not only that, your mind would, just like today, make up one scenario after the other, each one more extreme than the next. Seen from a purely statistical point of view, the chances of any of them coming true were slim to none. The Cleveland Browns winning the Super Bowl against the Detroit Lions would be more likely, but the fear remained. It wasn’t until you reached adulthood that you figured out why. It all came from the simple fact that you were powerless to stop them from doing it, if they decided to do it. Well that and maybe the stories you heard about how child disciplining was in your grandparents’ childhood, exaggeratedthough they might be in your imagination.

A child is powerless against an adult, and so are you at this point. This could very well be the reason that your reactions have been through the roof since you came here. The thought is not a nice one. Fluttershy taking the blame makes you feel like a child, and now you’re acting like one. Have you really changed so much since you woke up in the snow covered forest in, what seems, an eternity ago.

Your reaction towards vet Goodall also comes more into perspective, you acted like a child having a temper tantrum because her words made you feel inferior. The normal you would be able to shrug the feeling of inferiority off if someone talked down to you. Most of the time you would even be able to laugh at it, and the person doing it, but in this instance you immediately went to aggression. Granted the aggression had not been overly violent, but it had been there. Worst of all your actions had brought Fluttershy to once again throw herself on the altar of blame taking. No… she hadn’t as much thrown herself as you had pushed her with your actions.

Your thought stream is brought to a halt when Fluttershy comes up the stairs with a small bowl in her mouth. She places it on the nightstand and blows on the steaming soup.

You cast her a short glance before you turn your eyes towards the blanket. “No matter what, she is still the one that saved my life. For that I owe her. Owe her more than I can properly ever repay.”

Fluttershy stops blowing on the soup and takes a small taste with a teaspoon she had tucked behind her ear. After she tasted it to make sure it wasn’t too hot, she turns towards you with the soup in her hooves. “I hope you’ll like it. It’s a carrot soup with parsley and…” seeing you are looking down at the blanket, she puts the bowl back on the nightstand. “Are you okay? I-I’m sorry if I was too strict with you. It’s just…just.” She starts to hang her head, and her ears are lying down. Her voice is sounding unsure of herself as it turns into a mumble.

Her change in voice makes you turn your head towards her, with a surprised expression on your face. “What? No. Strict?”

You look down at Fluttershy as she continues to unravel in front of you. The assertive Fluttershy filled you with fright because of your body’s weakness, but this dissolving Fluttershy fills you with something else, empathy. You slowly turn your body and extend your left hand. As gently as you can muster you lay it atop her head, as you slowly start to stroke her pink mane. You don’t know if its socially acceptable among ponies, but she did it to you, and it’s the best you can come up with at such short notice.

As you stroke her head you notice how incredibly soft her mane is. Each hair feels like a strand of silk; or at least what you think a strand of silk would feel like. Taking your mind of the texture of her mane, you look down at her to see a teal eye looking out from under the pink mane. You stop stroking her head and try to give her a reassuring smile. Pulling the muscles around your vocal cord together, you try to force it to utter the words you have been wanting to say. Your lips move trying to form the words, but what comes out of your throat sounds more like sandpaper being run slowly over rocks than any sort of words.

Fluttershy raises her head and looks at you; it seems like she’s going to try to stop you, afraid that you’re straining yourself trying to talk. You quickly take your hand to your throat to give it added stability and say the words before she can stop you.

“II’…mmmm… Sooo…RRr…y.” you manage to wheeze before you vocal cords break down from the stress.

Fluttershy looks at you for a moment seemingly surprised over your words. A timid smile, looking like it barely dares to shows itself, forms on her lips. While you look at her it slowly grows until it stretches across her entire face.

“I’m sorry to.”

You and Fluttershy look at each other both smiling, the two apologizes having cleared the possible bad feelings between you. You have no idea how long you two look at each other, but at about the same time you both remember that it’s probably been longer than is normally considered good manners. With a precision that looks like it had been rehearsed, you turn your heads away at the same time, averting your eyes. Both of you had a hint of blush on your cheeks.

“So… are you hungry?” Fluttershy asks as she turns her eyes back to you.

You nod your head as you also look back at Fluttershy.

“Good say ah.” Fluttershy has already put the bowl on the bed and holds a spoonful of soup towards you.

Your first reaction is to shake your head to say no and try to get some soup yourself, but on the other hand there is no reason to fan any lingering flames. Besides you doubt that your handling of a spoon has gotten any better since yesterday. You open your mouth and accept the soup, which is as delightful as yesterday’s. You never imagined that you could make soup out of carrots, but then again, if your grandmothers were anything to go by, you can probably make soup out of anything.

The bowl is soon empty since it’s rather small, but you feel full. It looks like Dr. Cardio was right about your stomach needing to adapt to handling any volume of food again. While Fluttershy takes the bowl downstairs, you sit and once again enjoy the feeling of a full stomach, and you begin to get sleepy. Your head starts to tilt forward before you can stop it. Your chin hits your chest and you bring it up. As you try to focus it starts to fall again. When your head stays down on your chest rather than jerk up and sleep starts to come to you, you feel someone gently tucking you in. You feel something furry rub against your cheek, as the last bit of consciousness you have leaves you, and the darkness of sleep takes you.

The next couple of weeks sees you slowly but steadily begin to regain your health. In small steps you are starting to regain control over your body. The list of defeats is still long, but there are also some victories. One of them being that you can finally traverse the few meters to the bathroom unassisted. Being able to use the bathroom by yourself, and getting rid of the diapers, is a wonderful feeling. However, at this moment, none of that matters, as you are facing a most strenuous endeavor.

“Come on, just three more steps, you can do it.” Fluttershy is hovering a few inches over the floor and a yard or so in front of you, her forelegs extended to catch you should you fall.

You would have been annoyed with the overly motherly tone in her voice, if you weren’t using all of your concentration to keep your balance. In the two weeks since your accident your health has improved slightly. You can now sit up almost like you used to do, and your arms and hands can do simple tasks without shaking like a leaf. All in all, you should be happy, but the feeling of worthlessness still hangs over your mind. Like black clouds in spring, it spoils the joy of seeing the world being woken anew, and only leaves you with the feeling that the death of winter is still here. You take a couple of deep breaths as you focus. Holding your breath, you move your right foot forward. Feeling your foot finding its balance on the floor as the leg steadies under your weight, you exhale and take a few more breaths in.

The two of you have been at this close to an hour now. Dr. Cardio gave Fluttershy a training routine to put you through until your muscles reach their former strength. As far as you can see it’s originally made for unicorns. From what you know about the three different pony races, it makes sense. If you had magic why would you use your physical abilities? The training however has been hard. After each session, you feel like you’ve been through Hell Week with the Navy Seals, even though you’ve only moved slowly around the bedroom for under an hour.

You feel a tickle under your chin but choose to ignore it; it comes from a necessary evil that you have to endure. You don’t have any clothes since they had got ripped to shreds and soaked in blood, and other bodily fluids by the wooden wolf attack which almost killed you in the forest. You still needed something to cover your body to retain your body heat and modesty, so you had to borrow some clothes from Fluttershy. Seeing that ponies don’t usually wear clothes the choices minimal to say the least. Most of her wardrobe consisted of what looked like gala dresses, dresses designed for ponies, so it was more of a cape. In short, not something you could wear. In the end you had to use her bathrobe. The bathrobe is what you would describe as frou-frou. Its white cotton with a purple plush velour rim, the only thing that could make it more frou-frou was if it was colored pink.

“Good, you are doing so well, now just two more steps.” Fluttershy is waving her forelegs towards herself as if to lure you towards her.

“Does she think I’m a timid deer or something?” You choose to ignore your inclination to shoot back at her.

You steady the rest of your body, readying yourself to take the next step, when a bead of sweat starts to glide down your forehead. This is one of the worst things about being bald. Normally your eyebrows and hair would stop it or at least slow it down so it won’t reach your eyes. Now however, it has a free run of your head. It reaches your eyes and begins to sting. You blink and turn your head in surprise, losing your focus and balance as you fall forward. You close your eyes and turn your head preparing for the collision with the floor.

There's a collision, but not with the hardwood floor. This collision is with a frame, but the frame is draped in a something soft and furry. As you try to figure out what you collided with, you feel something going under your shoulders holding you up. The side of your face that should have collided with the floor is now lying against the frame. You hear something in the ear pressed against whatever you collided with. It sounds like a low drum beat, it sounds like something you heard before, but where? You feel the floor slowly coming up under your knees, and continue rising until you are sitting on the floor. Your legs fold naturally out to one side, leaving you sitting like a mermaid giving you a staple sitting position. Feeling that you are not going to fall anymore you slowly move your head away from the frame and open your eyes. Your view is met by a field of yellow, and as you look up you see a two large teal eyes looking down at you filled with caring.

“Don’t worry I won’t let you fall,” Fluttershy says as she slowly releases her hold under your shoulders. She stops beating her wings and sits down in front of you.

Again she has taken care of you, something you have been unable to do by yourself since you arrived here. The feeling of total dependency on someone else is still as intimidating as ever. You turn your head to the left and look down at the floor to avoid her eyes.

“Thanks… Fluttershy.” The words come as if they are vinegar on your tongue. You know that this isn’t exactly good manners, but it’s the best you can muster in your current state of mind.

“Oh don’t be sad you’re making such great progress.” Fluttershy gently uses a hoof to turns you head towards her and give you one of her kind smiles. “You almost went a whole hour without falling, a few weeks more and you’ll be as good as new.”

You look at her not knowing if it something she says this to make you feel better or if she really means it. Deep down you know that she most likely is right, but your close encounter with death has made one point stand out; you are mortal. It’s something we all know. It’s an essential part of being human, but as essential to humanity is the feeling of immortality is in our younger years. Death is seen every day in media, and sometimes in our real life, but it never happens to us directly. It’s not until humans reach a certain age that we see it. Our body starts to show more and more signs of weakness and people close to us start to die at an increasing rate. It’s then that we learn the true meaning of death. This is something we normally learn over a long time and we get used to it. You however have been shown this as directly as possible, over a very short period of time, and it’s shaken you to your core. And now each fall you take is a reminder of it.

Fluttershy keeps eye contact with you as while you try to decipher her words. Seeing that you are not taking to her words of encouragement she gives you a brave smile. “Let’s stop for today, you look tired, but you are really making progress. Oh that reminds me”

Fluttershy quickly walks into the bathroom and you can hear the sound of water running, as it slowly fills the tub. When she comes back, she moves behind you and gently places her hooves under your arms.

“Okay are you ready?” When you nod she carefully starts to beat her wings using them to give her the height she needs to support you so you can stand.

On all fours she’s about 4 feet tall, this brings the top of her head a little over your solar plexus. Standing on two legs she’s about the same height as you, but the longer neck means that her shoulder are still lower than yours. She needs to hover above the ground to support you, so you don’t need to bend your knees for her to support you. In the two weeks you been conscious you seem to have gain weight. She can no longer lift you with the same ease, as she could when you first awoke. Now she can support you and maybe lift you if she really puts in an effort.

“Now gently now, towards the bathroom please.” She says and slowly you move in unison towards the bathroom.

You feel the gusts of wind that comes every time she beats her wings and the raising and lowering of her chest when she breaths. Her support means you arrive in the bathroom fairly easy with only a modicum of physical stress.

“And one, two three.”

On her count you relax your knees, as she slowly lands and lowers you gently, until you are sitting on the bathroom floor next to the bathtub.

“Thank you Fluttershy, I’ll take it from here.” You words coming easier than your previous fall. You take in some deep breaths to give your muscles all the oxygen they can take, before the next maneuver.

Fluttershy walks around you and sits down in front of you. “Are you sure I shouldn’t help you… so you don’t have an accident?” She asks looking worried.

“No! ... No I can do this. I did it the last time right?” You look at her with your best attempt of a confident smile.

She sits and looks at you, clearly not knowing if you can handle the next step yourself or not. “Well I guess you did, but only just.” She says still looking doubtful and like she wants to help you.

“Fluttershy… please I need to know I can do this,” Your attempt at a confident smile turns into a pleading look.

Fluttershy looks almost taken aback by the look in your eyes. “W-Well okay if you think you can handle it, but I’ll be right outside that door if you need any help, okay?”

“Thank you Fluttershy.” You say, you confidence returning gradually.

Your eyes follow Fluttershy as she turns off the water and leaves the room, giving you a few glances to make sure you’re alright. As she closes the door leaving it slightly ajar you breathe a sigh of relief.

While you were unconscious, Fluttershy had bathed you with washcloths dipped in a wash bowl with soap water. You were unconscious and didn’t know of this, but now you’re awake, you don’t wish for her to see you naked. You don’t like someone seeing you naked, and now that you are back in in control, you want to keep it to an absolute minimum. You devised a system for when you take a bath as long as you need Fluttershy’s help. She leaves you on the floor, and you get undressed and climb into the tub unaided. Granted it’s no easy task, and it takes quite a while, but you can do it and it keeps your nakedness from the view of others.

Fluttershy maintains that you are not allowed to take a bath by yourself. She’s afraid that the hot water will make you lose consciousness because of your low blood count, and you’d drown. After negotiating with her, the two of you came to a compromise. She’ll sit outside the door and you’ll talk to each other, so she knows that you aren’t losing consciousness. When you are done you’ll pull out the plug let the water run out and then crawl out the bathtub. Finally you’ll put on the bathrobe and one of the underpants that Rarity has made for you. They look almost like boxers, only with a string you tie rather than a rubber band to keep them up. Not knowing when or if you’d wake up, and having other projects, she’s only made three pair of boxers at this point, but you’re not complaining.

You take off your clothes and look at the edge of the bathtub. It only goes up to your shoulder when you’re sitting down, but it will still be quite a challenge with the exercise routine you just been through. You breathe in and take hold of the edge of the bathtub with your right hand; you then slowly raise your right leg and hook it on the edge. You feel the warm water in the tub; not as warm as you would like, but Fluttershy takes her precautions. Using the push and the pull of your arms and legs you slowly raise yourself until your sternum is resting the top of edge on the tub. You slide down into the soap foam covered water on your stomach. Finally in the water you turn around so you are lying on your back.

“Are you okay?!” Fluttershy asks from the other side of the door.

“I’m super okay Fluttershy thanks for asking.” You bend your legs so your entire body is under water, your knees and head the only part of you over the water’s surface. As you lightly blow on your knee a bubble breaks free, and floats through the air right in front of your eyes. “So what did your friends do about that Trixie pony?”

You pick up the bath conversation from where she left off at the last bath. One of the good things about the bath-talk agreement, is it gives you a chance to talk with Fluttershy, without her being in nursing mode. It had taken the better part of a week for you to get her to talk about more personal things. At first you talked about the weather, Equestria in general and the rest of the world. Fluttershy’s knowledge on most of the topics had been somewhat limited, but this could also be you being cautious. You believe that if you push her too much, she might feel that you are interrogating her. The general knowledge however soon became repetitive and boring, so you turned the conversations over on her.

She told you about her animal friends, she had done this in such detail that you believe you almost know them by heart. You discovered that the reason you haven’t seen any of them is because those of them that haven’t migrated south for the winter are hibernating. She also told you about her friends and being the elements of harmony, and their adventures. You listen to the adventure of the Trixie and the Ursa Minor when she finishes the story, you sit up and start to rub your arms and chest with a soaped loofah.

“So Twilight not only levitated the ursa minor to sleep. She also levitated a water tower turned into a baby bottle, and milked an entire barn with cows to fill it?!” You’re amazed. You knew Twilight, being a unicorn, could do magic, and from your personal experience she’s quite good at sleep spells, but all of that at one time. “Dumbledore, you noob.”

“Oh yes Twilight is very gifted at magic, it’s her special talent; and she is the element of magic after all.” Fluttershy replies from the other side of the door, she sounds almost proud of her friend’s abilities.

“And you’re sure that’s exactly what happened?” Fluttershy hasn’t lied to you yet, as far as you know, but this story just sounds too incredible to be true.

“Well, I wasn’t there when the ursa minor came, but Applejack told me what happened when I returned to Ponyville, and she‘s always tells the truth and-.” Before Fluttershy can continue you both hear a knock on the door. “Um… is it ok if I just answer the door really quick?”

“Absolutely, Fluttershy,” You reply as you take a hand full liquid soap and start to rub it over your face. After you soaped in your face you move on to your neck and the rest of your head.

A few handfuls of water rinses the soap away, and you keep your head at a 45 degrees angle so the water doesn’t run into your eyes. You can hear Fluttershy’s and the visitor’s voices from downstairs.

“Must be someone she knows,” you think as you run your hands over the top of your head to remove any excess water, so it wouldn’t get into your eyes when you return your head to its normal position.

You remember the five days last week. The googly eyed mail pegasus that usually delivers the mail was sick, and someone else had covered her route. The replacement had been a young earth pony with a brown coat and mane, a stallion if his voice was anything to go by. He had been wearing a blue mail uniform with a matching cap, and had for all intent and purpose seemed like a nice young fellow. This however had not made it easier for him to talk to Fluttershy. He had tried to talk about the weather and other topics you usually talk about when you meet someone new at work. Fluttershy had replied with mumbles, squeaks and other things that made her live up to the shy in her name. this had continued until the replacement had chosen to just say good morning, deliver his mail and then continued on his route.

You find it strange, that the pony that often penetrates your personal space bubble has such a hard time just talking to another pony. You remembered looking out of the window when he came to deliver the mail. He looked a bit tall, but slender in build.

“Clearly not someone Fluttershy needs to fear. Oh well, people are different towards different people. The same is probably true for ponies.” You think as you finish cleaning yourself and pull the plug so the water can run out of the tub.

Sitting crossed-legged, you watch the water slowly drain from the tub. You haven’t done this since you were a child, but seeing the water level slowly falling gives you a sense of peace. When the tub is finally empty, you reach for the towel that Fluttershy had places on the floor next to the tub.

As your hand closes around the towel the door to the bathroom suddenly springs open. “Oh, you are going to love this, Rarity just been by and look what she ma...!” Fluttershy flies into the room with what appears to be clothes in her hooves. She stops mid sentence looking surprised. As the two of you look into each other’s eyes the ‘surprise seconds’ appear.

You experienced the ‘surprise seconds’ before. It’s the seconds where two or more people are surprised, and there’s a few very long seconds were both try to surmise, what the situation they are in now.

“Did Fluttershy barged in out of euphoria to show me the new clothes and forgot that I’m naked or is she sneaking a peek.” The thought runs through your head. “None of this matters right now anyway, there is a much more pressing matter. I’m naked and Fluttershy is in the same room as me!!!”

As time and your thought pattern finally reaches normal you feel the heat on your cheeks, that tells you that you face probably is as red as a tomato by now. You grab the towel with your hand, as you straighten and close your legs. As fast as you can, you bring the towel in front of you to shield your body from Fluttershy’s eyes.

“Jesus Christ! Fluttershy!!!” You shout as you try to cover as much of your body as you can.

Your outburst brings Fluttershy out of her ‘surprise seconds’ trance, her cheeks also at a blush as she also reacts. “I’M SO SORRY!!!” She drops the clothes on the floor and backs out of the bathroom at an impressive pace and slams the door shut.

You sit watching the door, as your heart rate finally coming back to normal. The blush on your cheeks dissipates as you take look at the clothes. It seems to be four matching sets of trousers t-shirts, shirts, socks and a pair of shoes.

“Wow this isn’t half bad.” You think as you hold out one of the shirts for closer inspection. “The colors are maybe a bit bright, but not bad at all.”

“I’m Sorry.”

The small voice from the other side of the closed door brings you back from you inspection of the clothes. “Um it’s okay Fluttershy, it was an accident.” You say as you feel the blush in your cheeks coming back.

“So… you’re not mad at me?” Her voice sounds like it’s getting a little louder, and with a little more confidence in it.

“No just surprised that’s all… I’m sorry I shouted at you.”

“I’m sorry that I barged in like that.” Fluttershy voice comes back to normal volume with only the closed door making it sound a bit muffled.

“It’s okay Fluttershy. Um… I’ll just try on one of these outfits and then I’ll help you cook dinner, okay?” You lay the shirt down on the floor and pick up the towel again, while you look at the door waiting for her reply.

“Okay… I mean if that’s alright with you.” It sounds like Fluttershy is fully back to normal now.

You smile as you finish drying yourself and slowly climb out of the tub. You try on the clothes and discover that they seem to be a good fit. A bit large maybe, but you will put on a bit more bulk as you recover so all in all a good fit. You end up wearing a pair of blue trousers, a white t-shirt and a red shirt. As you put on the socks a thought comes to you. This is the first set of clothes you’ve worn other than Fluttershy’s bathrobe since you woke up. It’s funny, but the feeling of being dressed in your own clothes makes you feel better. You feel like a fully restored human being again. Sure there is the problem of your lack of strength, stamina and balance, but that can be retrained. This, however, shows the world that you are indeed a person.

After you get dressed, Fluttershy helps you downstairs, and you help her prepare dinner as best you can. Dinner is a vegetarian stew. While Fluttershy takes care of preparing the different ingredients, you help by cutting vegetables. All the while you talk, being able to have a genuine conversation with another person is a wonderful thing. Thinking back to your time in semi-coma state it was probably the thing you missed the most. With Fluttershy you have to sometime egg her on, but once she starts talking she can keep her own against most.

She tells you more about her friends and hers adventures, how they thought they had been cursed by a zebra called Zecora, only to discover that it was a magical plant call poison joke. How Zecora had helped them and how they had become friends. How some kind of insect called a Parasprite had almost devoured the whole of Ponyville, and had only been stopped by Pinkie Pie, the one mare band. Finally during dinner she tells you how they had convinced a dragon to move his lair so his smoke wouldn’t cover all of Equestria.

The story about the dragon especially catches your attention. Convince a fire breathing lizard the size of half a city block to leave because you ask him to? The innocence and naiveté of the whole story makes you smile. If something like that happen on earth, the response you expect would at least involve the army and air force, leaving the mountain a smoking pile of rubble.

“And he just packed his bags and left after you asked him to?” Again this story just somehow doesn’t sound logical. You have to have it confirmed.

“Well I had to get a little insistent with him, but he was a very nice dragon. And after we told him of the problems his smoke would cause, he was more than happy to do as we asked.” Fluttershy smiles bashfully as she takes a sip of her water.

You notices something about Fluttershy as the two of you talk; she can easily talk about her friends. In fact she seems very proud of them as she tells you about their exploits. However every time the talk turns to her and her exploits, the way she tells the story changes. When she talks about her friends, she really goes into details; but when she is the focus of the story the details vanish. The clearest evidence of this is the story of the dragon.

“She must have done more than be a little insistent to make the dragon leave.” You look at Fluttershy as she takes the last mouthful of stew. “Is she really so shy that she won’t raise herself over the ponies next to her out of fear of failing?”

As you think these thoughts you notice that Fluttershy has stopped chewing her food, and is looking at you. You notice the nervous look in her eyes, a look that has been there for the last half hour or so. “Oh… I’m making her nervous better change subject.”

“So… um… I really want to thank Rarity for the clothes and the shoes.” You change subject to the first thing other than Fluttershy you can think of, hoping to ease her mood. “Do you think you could tell her how grateful I am?”

Fluttershy look even more nervous at you. “Of course… um… I have been meaning to ask you something.” She diverts her eyes and look down at the table where she starts to run her right hoof in small circles.

You wait for her to ask, but when she doesn’t, you ask her. “Well go ahead Fluttershy.”

“W-Well Twilight is coming by tomorrow, you remember my friend Twilight right.” Fluttershy stops drawing circles on the table with her hoof and looks up at you again.

“Yeah I remember her. She’s the purple unicorn that helped save my life, the Ponyville librarian and vanquisher of the ursa minor.” You try to look Fluttershy in the eyes, but it’s hard seeing as she’s chosen this of all times to clear the dinner table. “But what did you want to ask me?”

You hear her putting the plates in the sink and rummaging around after something in the kitchen. When she returns she is clearly holding something behind the back with one of her wings.

“What could she be hiding behind her back?”

“W-W-Well it’s just… if you don’t mind… um… could you put this on please?” As she asks you the question, she pull out her wing and drop its contents into her hooves, holding it out towards you.

It’s a collar. From what you can tell by the look of it it’s a dog collar. A dog collar made of black leather, inscriptions can be seen running down the sides of it in strange patterns, and in the front, the head of some unknown animal holding a metal ring in it jaws.

“…What…?” Is the only word you can come up with.

A sentence you had forgotten Fluttershy said when you first woke up comes to mind. “Don’t worry my sweet little pet; I’ll take good care of you.” As you sit stunned by the sudden turn of events, the sentence repeats itself in your head. You look at the table top as the sentence repeats itself again and again, until a conclusion comes to you. “She only sees me as a dumb animal!”

“Is that all I am in your eyes?” The words leave your mouth as you look up at Fluttershy. You feel anger starting to build inside of you, but this time it’s not turned at you, it’s turned at Fluttershy “An animal that you can keep as a pet?”

Fluttershy looks taken aback by the sudden coldness of anger in your voice. “N-N-No I… i-i-it’s just that… w-w-well you see.” She takes a couple of steps away from you a fearful look in her eyes.

“I’m not an animal.” The sentence is low almost as if you are saying them to yourself rather than to her. Your eyes leave Fluttershy and start to frantically look about the living room. They move in quick, sudden, sporadic moves, as you try to get a hold of your anger and a growing feeling of betrayal. “I’M NOT AN ANIMAL!!!”

You stand up as the anger takes hold, giving you strength you didn’t know you had and move towards the front door. Your steps are lethargic and unsteady. Your newfound strength hasn’t given you better balance, and this day’s training session has taken a lot out of you, but there is a determination in your steps that you haven’t had for a long time.

“W-Where are you going?” You can hear Fluttershy asking nervously somewhere behind you, as you lay your hand on the doorknob.

“ANYWHERE, BUT HERE!!!” You almost scream as you open the front door.

You stop in the doorway, leaning against the door frame for support. The cold from the winter night feels like a solid wall as you stand there. The moon is hidden behind a thick cloud making the night as dark as coal, but one thing can be seen in the dark. A single glowing yellow orb is shining in the dark like a fire seen at a distance. As the full moon glides out from behind its cloud its light reflects of the snow and seems to turn night into day, then you see it. Standing a hundred yards away just beyond the edge between the crooked trees of the forest stands the wooden wolf that almost killed you.

“Oh… my… god!” Is the only thing you can on your mind, as the anger starts to slowly drain from your body, being replaced with a new feeling; fear.

You don’t know if this is a coincidence, if it’s looking for revenge for the loss of it eye, or if it liked the taste of you so much that it’s looking for a chance to get one more. None of that matter anyway. It’s here, it knows where you are and it’s looking straight at you. It’s one yellow eye burrowing into the very heart of your soul.

The feeling of fear in your body overpowers the feeling of anger. It spreads throughout your body. It starts as a chill that feels like ice water slowly moving down your spine along your spinal cord. It branches out through your chest making it hard to breath. Your arms suddenly feel heavy, like they are holding lead weights and slumps down your side. It continues to your abdomen making your intestines cringe while you abdominal muscles and diaphragm contracts, making breathing all but impossible. Finally, it hits your legs, sapping them of what little actual strength they had.

You fight the inevitable fall as much as you can as you feel your knees begin the shaking that means that they will soon give out. You fall sliding down the door frame, still staring into the yellow orb in the dark as the slick wood runs up the side of your head. Just before your fall comes to an end, you feel something steading you softening your fall and keeping you from falling backwards. Your skin cold from the night wind and the fear that runs through your veins feels warmth pressing against your back. It spreads through your body loosening your diaphragm finally making you able to breathe. The mixture of the ice cold night air and the warm air from the house fills your lungs. You press backwards towards the warmth behind you seeking the warmth and the safety that it offers.

“A-Are you alright.” You hear a soft voice next to your ear.

As you look over your shoulder, you see Fluttershy holding you. It’s from her body pressing against yours the warmth emanates from. The warmth that is slowly driving the cold, and some of the fear, out of your body. As you turn your gaze towards the night again, the eye has disappeared, but you know that it is still out there waiting.

“F-F-Fluttershy, I’ll put on the collar. J-Just p-please don’t put me outside.” Your voice is weak signaling your total defeat. You survival being more important to you than your subjugation.

“Oh… no, you don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to.” Fluttershy starts to gently move you away from the door. “Let’s get you warm, otherwise you could get a nasty cold.”

She carries you to her bedroom and puts you in bed. She talks to you and tries to comfort you, until you finally fall asleep dreaming troubled dreams.

Dreams of a dark forest and the eyes that lurk in its shadows.

Author's Note

Okay, up it goes and I hope you like it.

As always, critique will be well-received since it helps me to improve.

Okay been proofread and edited a bit more hopefully more gentle on the eyes.