Of Corruption and Sacrifice

Chapter 2

I Give Them Almost All Their Answers

The first thing I was aware of, was pain. My back felt like it had been put through a meat grinder, and knowing some of the animals in the Everfree Forest, that may not have been far from the truth. Then I remembered what happened. I had been attacked by a reaver, and it had managed two very powerful and direct slashes along my back, which had left it in ribbons. But the fact I felt pain meant I wasn’t dead. How? If the blood loss hadn’t killed me, then some animal should have found and eaten me. In the unlikely circumstance neither of those happened, infection alone should had done me in.

How was I still alive? And more importantly, why was I still alive? I believe everything happens for a purpose, but what was the purpose in me staying alive? All I did was cause pain to others…

I gave myself a quick mental shake. No point in becoming so philosophical right now. That would only lead to depression. First things first, I thought to myself, let’s see where we are. I tried to open one eye, and my efforts were rewarded… By a burning sensation in my retina from electric light. My eyes snapped shut, and I groaned. There was only one place that would be so cruel to a person who was suffering from deathly injures.

A hospital.

So I’m in a hospital, I thought to myself, after my eye stopped burning, that must mean someone saved me… Or somepony.

I began to hear voices, but they were muted, like I had cotton in my ears. Before I could decide whether or not it was worth trying to open my eyes and see them, I began to feel very tired. Somehow, a part of me recognized the feeling, even though I couldn’t ever remember feeling it.

Sedative… They’re putting me back to sleep, I thought, annoyed, as I lost consciousness.

I awoke some time later, and the blinding light had been removed. Thank god, I thought, maybe the hospitals in Equestria aren’t as bad as the ones I know of from Earth. I managed to turn my head from side to side and study the room… And the twisting of my shoulders reopened the gashes on my upper back.

This time I managed to overcome the pain with nothing more than a grunt, and study the room. Sadly, it was less than impressive. It looked just like a normal hospital room from Earth, except the diagrams of humans and human body parts were replaced with ones of ponies and pony body parts.

A nurse pony rushed into the room, no doubt alerted to my activity by the numerous devices they had me hooked up to. She was an almost starched white, with a pink mane and a red plus on her flank. I just turned and glared at her, freezing her in her tracks. I was in no mood to be sedated again.

“Where am I?” I asked her, not really expecting a response. I got one, though.

“Y-y-you are in P-P-Ponyville H-Hospital, S-sir.” She stammered, clearly unnerved by me, but why she was unnerved I had no idea. “The unicorn Twilight Sparkle, and a few of her friends brought you in about four days ago.” She seemed to be getting her nerve back, but I wasn’t concerned about that.

I had been in the hospital for FOUR DAYS?!?! They had kept me constantly sedated for FOUR DAYS?!?! I could have DIED from simple malnutrition, as they had no idea what I, as a human, needed to stay alive.

“How did you know what to feed me?” I asked.

“A book,” Said a voice from the door. It was a sure sign of the extent of my injuries that I hadn’t heard her approach the door. Ponies weren’t exactly the stealthiest of creatures, especially unicorns, which this one happened to be. Standing a bit over four feet high, the average for ponies, with a light lavender coat, purple eyes, a dark blue mane and tail with a purple-pink highlight in both, and a purple and white star cutie mark; she was an interesting sight. As she entered, the nurse who had come in to see me decided I was in good hands (hooves?) and she could go attend to her other duties.

I wonder if purple’s her favorite color, I thought to myself sarcastically. Out loud, however, I asked, “And who are you?”

“I am Twilight Sparkle, personal student and friend of Princess Celestia, and wielder of the Element of Magic in the Elements of Harmony… And you are?” She sounded very official, almost rehearsed.

I sighed. Sometimes I wish I actually had a title, but no I was just, “Lavitz, a human,” I told her.

Her eyes widened. “So you ARE a human,” She gasped, and continued excitedly, “I thought that’s what you looked like, from the diagrams, but my book said they were all extinct CENTURIES ago,” She hung her head sadly, “That they killed themselves off in a ‘War’” She said that last word, like it was something she didn’t quite understand, but knew it was a sad thing.

Before I could ask her more on the subject, though, a nurse wheeled in a stretcher with an irate, cyan colored pegasus on it.

“Come on, I’m fine, see?” She said in a slightly hoarse, scratchy voice. She tried to move her right foreleg, which was in a sling, but it only caused her to grimace. She continued, still trying to convince the nurse she didn’t need to stay. “Well, I will be fine soon, so there’s no reason to put me in the hospital for a few days.”

“Now, Rainbow Dash,” said a doctor who had followed them in, “It’s just precautionary. You’ll just be here a couple nights, and once we know it’s healing up right, we’ll let you out. And next time you practice your ‘Buccaneer Blitz,’ maybe you’ll be more careful.” He turned to leave, but caught sight of me, up and awake, and froze.

Twilight saw this, cantered up to him, and whispered something in his ear. He nodded at her, motioned to the nurse who wheeled the blue one, Rainbow Dash, in the room, and they left.

“Twi, what are you doing here? I just got here.” Said the cyan pegasus puzzled. She obviously hadn’t seen me yet.

Twilight nodded toward my bed. “Dash, let me introduce your bunk mate, Lavitz.”

Dash’s look turned from puzzled to shocked when she saw me. This gave me time to examine her closer. She had a cyan body coat, rosy red eyes, a mane and tail that looked slightly unkempt and had all the colors of the rainbow, surprisingly in the right order, too, and cutie mark that was a cloud with a rainbow colored lightning bolt coming out of it.

This mare could be fun to hang out with, she hates hospitals as much as I do, I thought to myself. I was about to reach out a hand to shake her hoof in greeting, then I remembered my predicament. “Well,” I began, “I would shake your hoof, but seeing as how I can’t move my shoulders without opening up my cuts…” I almost shrugged, then remembered again how bad an idea that was. This was going to take a while to get used to.

“Uhh… You can talk?” She asked with wonder.

I furrowed my brow in annoyance, but before I could say anything, Twilight stepped in. “Rainbow Dash,” She said sounding affronted. “I told you he was a human and that humans could talk. They are just as intelligent as anypony. Or, they were…” She turned to me. “I was meaning to ask, where are you from? Nopony has seen a human in millions years. We assumed they were either extinct, or just an old mare’s tale.”

I chuckled. “Well, I wish I could tell you,” I said, “but it’s a bit hard to give you an answer, when I don’t even know where I’m from.” I tapped the side of my head. “Amnesia will do that to you. I could tell you anything you want to know about humans, in general, but I can’t remember my own history beyond three months ago.” I suddenly went silent remembering what I had caused in the last three months.

Twilight didn’t notice though. She was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to realize I had just went silent. About three months ago, she had been sent a letter by Celestia telling Twi that a disturbance had occurred near Ponyville, and to keep her eyes and ears open in the future. And Twi had done that for the next three weeks, and just about the time she decided it was nothing, the stories started popping up about the creatures in the Everfree Forest becoming more and more violent.

Those stories were what had led her to this moment, and this human.

It was too much to be just coincidence.

At the same time, I was wondering if they would kill me if I told them what I had been unintentionally causing… And if they would kill me, would it fix the problem?

Dash, however, was growing bored with the silence. “So Lavitz… How fast are most humans?”

I chuckled. “Most humans are quite slow, maxing out at only about a fifteen mile per hour sprint. I am not a normal human, however. If I push myself, I can get up to about forty-five miles per hour, and under certain circumstances, even higher… No idea how I can do it, though. According to normal human anatomy, that degree of self-induced speed should be physically impossible.” I shrugged, and cringed in pain as I remembered that was a bad idea.

Dash didn’t understand everything that was said there, it sounded more eggheady like something Twilight would say, but she got that I moved impossibly fast for a human, and she wanted to see how I matched up against “The Fastest Flyer In Equestria.”

“Cool, but there’s no way a two legged human like you could best ‘The Fastest Flyer In All of Equestria’” She boasted, smirking at me.

I grinned, and decided it would be worth it to rise to the bait. “All right, Dash, you’re on… As soon as we can both walk again” She looked at my back, and I looked at her broken leg. Then we both laughed, realizing it might be quite a while before that race actually happened.

Twilight watched this interaction with narrowed eyes. She knew there was some connection between me and this corruption in the Everfree Forest, but she didn’t know what that connection was. She decided she would write to the Princess, and see what she knew about humans, and what their powers might be.

She was brought out of her contemplation by the sound of her name. “I’m sorry, what was that, Dash?”

“I said,” Dash began, annoyed that she had to repeat herself, “You’ll need to tell Pinkie about him, so she can get started on planning his welcome to Ponyville party, as well as telling the others so they can come visit us.”

“You don’t need to have this… Pinkie, go through the trouble of hosting me a welcome party.” I told them, especially since you’ll all want me gone once you find out what I cause, I added to myself.

Twilight was about to say something, but Rainbow Dash cut her off without even realizing it. “Don’t worry, Pinky Pie lives off of parties. She’d be upset if you told her not to give you a welcome to Ponyville party.” Dash shrugged, “It’s kinda her thing, hosting parties.”

I sighed, already recognizing defeat. “Fine, she can give me a welcoming party, but only a few peop- uh, ponies, OK? I’m not a big ‘people person’ as we humans say. Let’s say, ten ponies at the very most.”

Dash and Twilight looked at each other. Ten ponies? This was going to be one of the smallest welcoming parties Pinky had ever hosted, but it would still be a welcoming party.

“All right,” Twilight said, knowing that pushing me might not be a good idea. “I’ll let her know about him, and she’ll get your party set up for when you get out of the hospital,” She shot me a mischievous grin as she left. “In about two weeks.”

I groaned. Two weeks? I’d die of boredom before I got out of here. I glanced over at the cyan colored mare in the next bed, who appeared to be pouting about being stuck in the hospital for a few days, instead of out practicing her flying. Well, I thought to myself, at least I have a cool roommate for a while. Since I may be here a while, might as well get to know some ponies. “So, Rainbow Dash, what do you do here in Ponyville?”