Home is Where Your Heart Is

The first thing my mind became aware of as my brain began to stir was a dull ache that was spread throughout most of my body. The second thing my sluggish mind processed was that I could feel something soft wrapped around my body. The last thing my mind, or rather my body, noticed was the hollow feeling in my stomach.

I kept my eyes closed for only a few more moments before slowly opening my eyes. At first all I could see were blurs of bright color that made my eyes sting and my head ache. I closed my eyes until the pain in my head had subsided.

Trying again I very slowly opened my eyes and was relieved when solid objects came into view instead of colorful blobs. Looking around, I saw that I was in a small plain bedroom. Looking up I noticed a large hole in the ceiling which gave me an excellent view of the cloudless sky.

Looking away from the sky I tried to take a look at myself but saw that my entire body was covered in a large red blanket. Knowing that I probably shouldn't move, I tried to use my magic to lift away the blanket. This quickly proved to be a mistake as a lightning bolt of pain shot through my entire body causing me to cry out.

Almost immediately I heard a loud commotion come from outside the door but found myself quickly drifting away as the pain pushed all thoughts of staying awake away.

My eyes closed just as I heard the door to the room open.

The next time I woke up was much less uneventful. I opened my eyes and once again found everything to be a mass of colorful blobs as lines blurred into each other. Dozens of colors slid across my field of vision but the most noticible was a large spot of soft yellow and an equally large spot of pink. After a moment my head started throbbing again and I closed my eyes quickly drifting back into sleep.

I woke one more time in a daze as something sweet hit my tongue. Something very gooey and so sugary it borderlined on excess was pooled on the tip of my tongue. A small groan of pleasure escaped me as the strange liquid slid onto my tongue and down my throat. Noises began to quietly hit my ears but my brain was slow to process them.

Somewhere in the corner of my mind I knew that someone was talking but I couldn't bring myself to focus on the words. After a moment, more of the sugary liquid hit my tongue and I very quickly felt myself drifting out of consciousness again with the taste of sugar on my tongue.

I skipped through a bright green field underneath a crystal clear blue sky. Feeling uncharacteristically joyful I skipped straight through the field only stopping when I came to a strange yellow river.

Looking at it for a moment I noticed that it was much thicker than water should have been. Cautiously I stuck a hoof into it and found the liquid sticking to my hoof and I licked a small amount of the yellow goo off it. It tasted much sweeter than any honey that I had ever had.

Quickly I licked the rest off my hoof and stuck my entire face into the river quickly devouring as much of it as I could. I didn't move until I forced to breathe and pulled my head out of the yellow river. My stomach growled as I sat back and I looked at my stomach in confusion. How was my stomach still growling when I had just ate so much-

My eyes snapped open as my stomach started growling angrily. Unlike the previous times that I had come to, there was almost no pain and, while my body didn't feel quite right, I felt I had to strength to at least move around a bit.

Hesitantly I threw off the blanket and looked down at myself. I immediately regretted this decision when I saw all of the scrapes and bruises that covered my body. Certain areas of my body had been carefully bandaged and although the unbandaged parts of my body looked ghastly I noticed signs of healing as many of the bruises were faded and most of the small scrapes were simply scabs that hadn't fallen off. Overall, it looked much worse than it was as my light gray coat simply made every injury stand out.

Very slowly I climbed out of the bed and, despite a small wave of nausea hitting me, I found myself standing with very little trouble. I felt incredibly stiff and slowly I started to stretch out my legs. The soreness vanished after a few moments and I unfurled my wings to give them some freedom.

Or at least I tried to. My wings unfolded about half way before pain shot through my left wing. I bit my lip to keep from crying out and quickly refolded my wings. With tears swimming in my eyes, I looked back at my wings and saw my left one was very tightly bandaged. I silently cursed at my poor luck and wiped the tears out of my eyes.

Sighing I scanned the walls of the bedroom until I found what I was looking for. The door. I calmly walked over to the door and was about to reach for the door knob when a thought dawned on me. I had no idea where I was or who could be waiting behind that door.

Come to think of it, how did I even get here? What happened to me after I helped that pegasus? I know I fell asleep after making that storm but what happened then? Did that rainbow maned pegasus do this? Looking up I had no doubt that I had something to do with that hole in the ceiling, but did I fall through it or did I maybe smash that hole with my magic?

All of these questions buzzed around in my skull so quickly that I didn't even notice the door starting to open. Before I knew what was happening the door was wide open and I was looking directly into a pair of very startled looking cyan eyes.

For a moment nothing happened as we stood there unsure of what to do. After a few more awkward seconds I felt that I would explode if the silence wasn't broken. I opened my mouth to say something but found my voice trapped somewhere in my chest as I found myself frozen in place by the sight of those beautiful eyes.

"H-hello..." I heard the owner of those eyes say in a quiet voice. I quickly snapped out of my trance but still found my voice trapped. "I...I thought you were still asleep..." She said timidly with each word becoming softer and harder to hear. Still I said nothing and she kept talking each word getting quieter. "Y-you woke up a few times but..." At this point I couldn't even hope to hear her words so I simply let her continue speaking while I looked at her purposely avoiding her eyes to avoid becoming ensnared in them again.

She was a very light yellow color that could best be compared to the soft down of a baby chick and her mane was such a beautiful soft pink that I couldn't remember seeing such a color anywhere else. I noticed that with each whispered word that left her mouth she retreated farther behind the veil of pink hair that now obscurred her face.

Without even relizing what I was doing I reached a hoof out and gently brushed the hair out of her face. She abruptly stopped with her whispered words and quickly recoiled from me as if my touch would burn her. Silently I cursed myself and opened my mouth to apologize but the only thing that escaped my lips was a hoarse noise.

I hadn't noticed how dry my throat was and I quickly regretted opening my mouth. That is until I noticed her silently push something towards me. Looking down I saw a small bottle with an apple on it and a straw sticking out of it.

"I-I thought you might be thirsty..." She said in a very quiet, squeaky voice. I almost laughed at the way she said it but instead simply smiled not wanting to hurt her feelings.

I reached a hoof out and grabbed the bottle, being very careful not to touch her hoof, and pulled it towards me. I carefully lifted the bottle and took a hesitant sip. Very quickly that hesitant sip turned into a greedy slurp as I sucked all of the juice out of the bottle. I let out a heavy sigh that was half relief as my stomach began to calm down and half sorrow as I knew that there was nothing left in the bottle.

I looked at the bottle sadly for a moment until I heard a quiet giggle come from the pony in front of me. Looking up at her, she quickly turned the giggle into a cough. This simply made me smile.

"So..." I said hesitantly testing out my voice. "What is your name?" My voice still sounded very hoarse but it still sounded much better than it had a few moments ago.

After a few moments she answered quietly, "Fluttershy..." Only for some reason I heard Shutterfly.

"Ok then Shutterfly," I began. "Can you tell-"

She quickly cut me off with a quiet laugh. "No. My name is Fluttershy not Shutterfly." She giggled again but quickly stopped. "S-sorry..." She said once again acting shy but at least she wasn't hiding behind her mane anymore.

With a smile I started over. "So Fluttershy, can you tell me how I got here and why I'm like this." I said gesturing at myself.

"Well..." She began slowly. "About a week ago, during the scheduled storm, you kinda crashed through my roof." She pointed behind me at the hole in the ceiling then pointed at a similar hole in the floor.

"I fell through two floors..." My jaw literally hit the floor. Well that would explain the injuries, I thought.

She continued with her story slowly. "I found you on the floor and had to patch you up myself since it was too dangerous to take you to the hospital." With that she looked at the floor for a moment before looking back up at me. "I hope I did alright..."

I simply smiled at her shyness. A very well suiting name Fluttershy was for a pony like her. "Well obviously I'm still alive." I meant it to sound sweet but instead it sounded rude to my ears.

Despite what she thought of my response, she simply smiled. "Well the doctor definately did more than I did. After the rain stopped I ran to the hospital and practically dragged a doctor out here." She was obviously selling herself short but I decided it was best to not say so.

We stood there for a moment in a comfortable silence before she suddenly blurted out. "What is your name!?" She asked very quickly, almost stumbling over her words.

This question caught me off guard. It was not an unusual question to ask but the way she said it made me feel awkward for a moment. Acting casual I said in a cool voice, "My name is-"

I was quickly cut off by a loud knocking coming from somewhere behind Fluttershy. "Someone must be at the door..." She mumbled to no one in particular before looking back at me expectantly.

I tried again. "My name-" I was once again cut off by the knocking. I sighed in frustration as Fluttershy turned away and started walking towards the stairs.

"Sorry, but I just can't make them wait." She frowned slightly before descending the stairs. After a moment I followed her and heard a familiar voice come from down the stairs.

"Hey Fluttershy. Have you seen this pony anywhere?" I heard from down the stairs. In my mind I quickly brought up the image of the owner of the voice. A bright blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. She probably knows what happened to me, I thought before silently descending the stairs.