A Creative Spark
By Werewolf Nate
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Chapter one:
A World Found
“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.”
― Frank Herbert
The work after a time became second nature. A symbol here, a key frame here, It was how one Marnin Kinnet spent his afternoons of free time in his small apartment when not occupied by the various assignments from work or college. Sitting, alone in an office like setting, working on moving objects across the screen like the new age puppet master he was.he was an animation man by trade with the heart of a storyteller working to get the next shot done. If you asked exactly what he was animating he would quickly hide away the page and give the oh so classic phrase of “nothing...”
The truth of the matter was that Marnin was a brony, but definitely not the most overt with his interest in prismatic ponies. He wasn’t one to buy paraphernalia or anything; in fact the story of how he became one was somewhat interesting.As it he wouldn’t have become one unless a certain series of events had occured. He was already an animator before he found the show, but at the time found the entire concept of fanatically liking a little girls show especially My Little Pony positively profound. But while in college to perfect his profession by freak accident led him to catch word of a certain fan project in the works. On a random whim he chose to go to the interest meeting, and was immediately enamored with the project less because of the show and more as seeing it as a chance to learn and he liked the people involved. Before he could animate he of course had to watch the show; and that's simply how it started as mere reference material. But even after the first two episodes were done and he had all the reference sketches that were needed, he kept on watching. And that’s how it began his fascination only growing as he discovered the fanbase behind it, the creative team and so on. He couldn’t really describe why he enjoyed it, in fact the show still made him cringe with it’s sugary sweetness, there was just... something about it. He enjoyed the characters found the situations they got into entertaining. Heck he even read fan fiction and in the process learning about all the fan characters interpretations the ponies and their world he had read it almost nonstop.
Which brings us to one afternoon within his second floor apartment animating shots for fan animations of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. The original project had ended a while back becoming very popular among the fandom, but he had continued support of other projects , some of them were even his own. He worked feverishly to complete pony animation in front of him. He was only hours away from completion and he couldn’t wait to post it online.
As he continued to work he had failed to notice something. Noises had begun to accompany the usual background noise of the hum of the ventilation, and the random songs playing from his computer. His attention was brought to it only as it grew, passing the threshold of his hearing. He recognized that they were voices that were heavily muffled, like they had several walls between him and them. He didn’t recognize the voices and he wasn’t expecting anyone to be arriving. Wait thought Marnin as the voices grew in volume ‘one of these sounds a little... familiar. He searched his brain for exactly where he’d heard the the specific male voice of the mass of male and female voices, but then he noticed the voices were getting louder. At first he thought they were simply getting closer but the voices seemed to have no origin, reverberating from seemingly every angle of the room.
‘Have I gone nuts? I’m pretty sure hearing voices are a sign of schizophrenia but then agai-. Wait I recognize that voice but...no?!’
This thought process was broken as most of the voices died down save for a few, the newly placed voice among them. This did not help his sense of unease this slight drop of volume allowed a new sound to come to his attention. A deep growing rumble.
Marnin felt a pit form in his stomach as he assumed it was the beginning of an earthquake. Though that thought quickly hit the back burner, thanks to a loud crackling noise that echoed far more than it should have in the small office room and a sight that caused his rational mind to play dead for a few seconds. He saw a crack; a white, glowing crack that had most definitely not been stretched across his desk a few moments before. From the crack branched several hairline fractures that were actually spreading across a surface that had no business having cracks, glowing or otherwise. He was quickly distracted as another tremor shook his house not necessarily because of the tremor itself, and more from the sharp pain in his head that came at the exact same time as the tremor. After the pain subsided enough for him to be on thinking terms he noticed the voices were coming in much louder than before; and along with that the fracture along his desk had grown in size. But now the bright crevasse had some friends, but their location was even more baffling; since there was now one was across his lamp, his computer screen, and most shocking of all...one had found a way to creep across the glass of soda on the desk. And the cracks only continued to spread, and as they grew so did the pain in his head. The earth didn’t cease it’s motion almost knocking Marnin off his feet, he had abandoned retreating downstairs; his headache and the growing spider web of ethereal fractures which at this point had enveloped his desk had forced any thoughts of retreat from his mind. More cracks had grown across the walls and the ceiling. The voices and the rumble of the earth rose, reaching a deafening crescendo.
Marnin through the pain finally managed to conceive that it might be time to run away, but that notion was shot down as the cracks had reached the door crossing from wall to the exit as if they were one continuous object. The cracks had finally encompassed the room with every surface now glowing bright with blindingly pure light. Suddenly the light peeking through the cracks dimmed, voices were muted, and the trembling of the world stopped completely. Silence dominated the small room with only Marnin’s harsh breaths filling the void. The room was sparsely illuminated, the only light being emitted from the cracks surrounding him; he hadn’t noticed in the chaos that had ensued to notice that all other lights in the room had died out. Even the sun outside had gone dark not helping the panic attack Marnin was having. From closer inspection... he wasn’t even sure there was an outside anymore. As the seconds grew to minutes Marnin’s began to calm only slightly; his breathing, and heart rate decreasing to only slightly above the norm. His mind at this point had finally caught up to analyze what he was witnessing.
“Well I’ve obviously lost it.” thought Marnin
“I should have seen it coming, really should've!”
He took a chance to move his foot from it’s planted spot on the ground failing to notice how the cracks hadn’t covered the ground where his feet had been, only to be quickly added territory of the glowing network.
Not soon after that first nervous step, anything resembling intelligent thought quickly ended as that voice echoed in a commanding tone It sounded like “Open it!” the horrid sharp pain returned, quickly bringing Marnin to his knees in debilitating agony; feeling like his brain was being taken through a taffy puller. The world once again lurched, and the fractures burned with renewed light, accompanied by a gut wrenching CRACK!!!. The room around him began to be literally torn asunder going along the pre-made paths. Marnin barely noticed as his feet left the floor; gravity finally breaking like the world around him as he steadily began to drift not that he noticed. The last shreds finally giving way to the blinding light.
He was now floating in a white void, Cracks beginning to traverse up his arms and legs.
Soon the light consumed his very body, and the noise finally ended.
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An immense burning in his lungs was what brought Marnin to awareness again. He urgently coughed to clear his lungs feeling copious amounts of some vicious and bitter tasting fluid exit his mouth, pooling at the side of his face. After several urgent breaths and the burning in his lungs subsided his mind began to thinks of other things. On the forefront was the remains of the splitting headache from before. Next was that he was laying on his side; his body completely numb with any attempt at movement bringing no response. He managed to pry open his eyes, a feat that proved to be more difficult than it should have. Only for him to rapidly shut them again as bright light burned his unprepared retinas, this didn’t help with his headache at all. ‘Well at least all that noise stopped’ Marnin noted seeking some positive to...whatever the hell was going on. After a few quick blinks he becomes used to the light in the room but finds the image to be incredibly blurry; his eyes unable to focus on anything in his limited line of sight. Suddenly muffled sounds reached his ears, the sound of...hooves?
The...Hoof-steps seemed to be getting closer, Marnin tried his best to look towards the source and his eye singled on a blob of color quickly entering his vision. The shape is unclear but the blob was dominantly white, with an outcropping of what seemed to be blue and teal. The amalgamation of purple and gold at the middle of the object painted an all too clear picture of what he was witnessing his mind once again did backflips. In his shock he missed out on the blob speaking something to him. Ignoring this he could only speak out in a weak voice “S-Shining Armor?”. Before he could say anything further a magic light appeared atop the blob with Marnin could now place that the unicorn was casting magic
‘WHAT'S GOING ON? WHAT THE FU- w-what the f- wa.’
Marnin lost his train of thought as a fog formed in his head, his eyelids drooping and quickly he lost consciousness.
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It’s safe to say that Marnin’s second awakening that day was softer than the last.This time he woke up on his own accord, allowing the haze of unconsciousness to naturally give way to more rational thought.
‘Phew that’s the weirdest dream I’ve had in awhile’
He reflected letting out a deep sigh, feeling the soft bed underneath him He noticed that the oppressive numbness in his dream had subsided though his headache had not.
‘Guess it’s time to get back to work.’
As Marnin motioned to get out of bed, many things were brought to his attention.Firstly he felt... off, he couldn’t quite place what he meant by that, just off. While most of the numbness had left his body it remained ignorant of his commands. His orders of wiggling his fingers or toes producing only an involuntary twitch to course through the limb. Secondly, he was not in his own room, the sterile smell in the air and his increased awareness of the minimally padded mattress beneath him differed greatly from the normal odors and memory foam bedding he had grown accustomed to greeting him. His heart rate began to increase, what had happened? Why was he in a hospital bed barely able to move?
‘Was I drugged? That would explain the dream I had, I’ve never had a dream that vivid.’
Now filled with worry he opened his heavy eyes only to rapidly shut them again at the rapid influx of light. After a few more tentative blinks his eyes became accustomed to the levels of light in the room. Though he still couldn’t make out fine details, his eyes annoyingly refused to focus. He realized he wasn’t going to get any further information other than that he was in a white room, so he chose to close his eyes again to try and regain control of his body.
‘Alright Marnin, first things first...move your big toe’ marnin managed a weak giggle at his forced mental reference and then set to work trying his hardest to get information to his legs to make fists with his feet.
After a few twitches, he made progress with his left leg gaining more feeling of the limb in the process. He noticed his foot felt like it laid flat on the bed as he curled up his foot. He was annoyed that he still couldn’t articulate his toes but progress was progress. He continued this process, moving up to his waist and torso noting the odd feeling as he regained command. When he got to his hands he noted he couldn’t articulate his fingers either. He let out another weak chuckle
‘This is starting to sound like the setup for a mediocre human in Equestria fic I gotta stop reading those thi- oh what now?’
In his experimental movements of his left arm he felt something metal impede his movement his eyes shot open to observe further straining to move his head to get a better view of his arm
‘The hell happened why am I so stiff?’ He lifted his head and arm respectively...
and froze.
‘no’
‘no’
‘no’
‘no’
‘no’
‘no’
‘no’
‘no’
‘no’
‘no’
‘NO!!!’
He did not see a pink, fleshy arm handcuffed to the bed, what met his blurry gaze was far par the course.
What he could make out was a cylindrical gray mass with what he could guess was the handcuff forming a silvery band across the gray surface
'okay okay don't jump to conclusions now maybe...it's just a cast yeah maybe I'm in an all body cast that would explain the whole numbness, and no fingers thing. I’m simply bandaged up, doped up and in a hospital bed somewhere definitely not... you know.’
Now that he had quieted that thought for the time being, more rational thoughts could be brought to the forefront. Primarily why he was in this situation, not only did he appear to be gravely injured but must have done something to be handcuffed by the authorities. The last part troubled him more that being currently out of commision. He wasn’t a drinker by any stretch of the imagination, less out of practice and more because he couldn’t stand the stuff. So this confused him with what he could have possibly done to warrant handcuffs and have no memory of the illegal preceding events.
He brought his head back down onto the pillow re-shutting his eyes in rest, letting these thoughts stew in his mind. periodically moving parts of his body, hoping to shake off that weird feeling he pegged as simply being casted up and drugged up to all kinds of hell. That was until he received information from a sense that he had up until now ignored.
He heard a muffled *click*.
While that was interesting enough info it was what went with the sound.His ear had reflexively moved to hear it better, his ear had moved
‘Marnin stop it! Thats not funny! You’re drugged, and possibly on detox for all you know. Try to keep some focus...how about the noise huh why don’t you focus on that?
Slowly, he reopened his eyes. There were now two new shapes in the white murky mess he now called his field of vision; one a tannish brown the other a deep blue. Their color was pretty much all he could make out dismissing the odd coloring as simply scrubs they were wearing. The click he had heard must have been them opening and shutting the door. He drew the conclusion that they were now speaking to one another, and by conclusion meaning he couldn’t make out what they were saying their voices simply melding together. Not helping with the headache he had still reeking havoc through his skull.
‘I can’t hear... great just great can’t something work for me today... or tonight, I can’t be sure. I guess I should try to get their attention.’
Marnin’s attempts at speech reaped much less rewards than his bodily exploits (may re-write that one). Only managing a weak groan to exit his mouth. Even though the groan was small and gargled you would have thought a bomb had gone off in the room based off how the hospital blobs reacted. The brown shape (whose voice came off as male though the wail he heard claimed otherwise) said something to the blue shape who in reaction left the room.
‘And then there was two. Maybe I should try again- WHAT THE!!!?'
At that moment a familiar light appeared near the top of the light brown shape. Before he could connect the dots the haze of sleep returned and he slumped back into slumber in mere moments. An extra pair of eyes were not breaking their stare as he slept.
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“---------he just reacted sir-----”
“---------from the notes he-----”
Voices greeted him as he awoke a third time.
‘Seriously again with this?’
He came to his senses much quicker this time. Apparently while he was out his hearing had improved, as he was now able to at least make out fragments of what two people were saying. He recognized the female voice as the blue scrubbed nurse from before, while the other seemed familiar...then it clicked.
‘YOU!!’ Marnin screamed in his head.
He shot up his head as quickly as he could to the direction of the voices, quickly opened his eyes, and immediately wished that he hadn’t. Because he was not ready for what he saw.
Well...at least his eyesight had cleared up a bit.
The the blur of his vision had lessened. The colors and shapes gaining an uncertain edge, so he could make out finer details. Said details in question would be the two shapes that stood at the foot of the bed. Two shapes that were definitely not human, but were definitely creatures he recognized. How could he not, he’d been working with them for the past six months. Creatures he had drawn, animated and studied. One of which he could state his name, relations, and occupation. Two creatures that had stopped their conversation and were now staring at him, one with their mouth open wide as they could make it.
No one in the room dared to say a word.
For what felt like hours the trio remained silent. This silence was broken by Marnin’s weak dry laughter.
“he he he he he he he he.’
The laughter only grew in strength, transforming into a full blown giggling fit. The absolute absurdity of what he was seeing was finally reaching the deepest recesses of his mind. The gray arm, no fingers/toes, the ear, and now what he saw before him.
Shining Armor and a blue earth pony mare staring directly at him.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA” cried marnin; his laughter turning manic. not noticing the echo his voice caused.
He didn’t know if what he was seeing was another drug induced dream, the real deal, or simply the final sign that his sanity had gone bye bye . Whatever this was, he decided that he would ride this out till it’s conclusion, until reality ensued.
“Well goooooood morning Shining Armor how are you today I’m fine myself. The names Marnin!”
The rooms other inhabitants remained silent.
‘ only one thing left to check’. He thought between giggles. He raised his right forelimb to confirm what he already suspected, seeing the charcoal mass that reacted in the place of his arm articulating what could be only be considered his one and only finger. He then moved his free hand... hoof up to his face. When his hoof relayed the info that he now had a muzzle and longer ears he reacted accordingly.
“JEEPERS I’M A FURRY!!!” Marnin exclaimed with faux surprise; smile not leaving his face.
After some more insane giggles a opened his eyes to further gauge the room. When he opened he found that the... ponies had been moved back several feet the mare’s mane suddenly slicked back as if blown back by some force.
‘Oh neat, I guess I have the royal Canterlot voice, interesting. Not exactly the best way to handle this I suppose, it might be best try to keep it under control at least for the dream ponies/ delusional hallucinations / honest to OH MY GOD real, actual ponies sake.’
“Heh sorry” spoke marnin in a significantly hushed tone it felt like he was whispering but he could tell his voice had only reached an indoor voice.
After everyone...everypony had regained their composure (and reset their manes) silence had fallen the hospital room yet again. He had tried to let them say the first word, but he saw that he had thoroughly stunned them into silence.
‘Hmmmm nice going Marnin though this would support this whole thing being real; a realistic response to being shouted at with a voice meant to address nations by a dark gray pony that knows your name and spent several minutes feeling himself. What exactly would you say to that? In a dream any response would have been valid like ‘Gappa Gah’ or ‘Fargle Bargle’.’
Marnin desperately wanted to try and ease the tension in the room so he began to speak again, remembering to hush his voice.
“Look I know I just shouted like a mental patient and you’re probably a touch disturbed right now. I have no doubt that we are all very confused, so let’s start over, hello my name’s Marnin” He slowly raised his right hoof; still a straining feat in a motion to signal Shining Armor to state his name.
“Shining Armor, captain of the royal guard.” he responded his expression remaining as stern as expected for a captain.
Marnin then motioned towards the significantly more stunned mare.
“And you?”
“N-Nurse T-Tender Care.” The nurse responded after a few moments of trying to make her mouth find the right words.
‘Should have guessed’ thought Marnin ‘Good to see the naming convention where your name can sometimes effectively sum you up. If I’m going insane at least I’m being consistent.’
“Good.” replied marnin practically feeling some of the tension dissipate from the room. “Now I’m guessing you have quite a few questions; I do myself but those can wait until a little later. So go ahead, fire away Mr. Armor.
That bothersome silence came about the room again. Shining Armor’s was the one that came through this time.
“Do you know where you are right now?”
‘An excellent ice breaker Shining well done’ Marnin thought.
“Well to be honest I’m not really certain, I can obviously see I’m in a hospital but other than that I can’t be sure.”
It seemed that Tender Care had chosen to speak up at last.
“Well you’re currently being held within urgent care wing of the royal palace in Canterlot.”
“I wanted to speak with you once the sleeping spell had worn off. It’s meant to last 6 hours, but one of our doctors overreacted and hit you with another. So you’ve been out for at least twelve.” Shining Armor added.
Marnin raised an eyebrow at this ‘So I’m in Canterlot I could have concluded since Shining armor’s here and all. But wait... I’m being held? The handcuff!!
“Being held?” he punctuated this by raising his handcuffed or... hoofcuffed left forelimb. “What for?
“We’ll get to that.” Shining Armor said dismissively “But first there’s one thing I need to ask you.” He took a long pause, whatever he was going to ask must of had to be worded carefully. “Do you... know what you are.”
Marnin was quickly and thoroughly confused by that. What a strange question to ask; don’t they already know? Isn’t it obvious? wasn’t he a pony? He was so thoroughly confused that he stated what he truthfully knew. His control on his voice wavering though never getting as window breakingly loud as it had.
“It’s commonly called a human; Homo Sapien if you want the more scientific designation. Native to the planet earth, now I know that may sound strange but...”
Marnin stopped tried his best to take stock of the expressions of the blurry ponies, he saw the expected expression of deep confusion on the face of Tender Care. However the look on Shining’s face was harder to gauge. Either his expression was too subtle for Marnin to make out with his limited vision, or It didn’t change at all. Incredibly odd considering that what had exited his mouth should have initially been thought as utter nonsense; you’d expect some reaction. This was definitely a point towards this being a dream he knew something.
“Okay now I’m confused. Please enlighten me on what the heck you meant by asking that question.”
From what marnin could tell Shining’s expression turned stern. He turned his head for a moment his horn lighting to magic in a thick manilla folder and began to shuffle through it searching for his place, and then after taking in a deep breath he spoke.
“It seems you’ll need a debriefing.”
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Author's Note
Well how was that? The next chapter will hopefully explain a lot. please don’t forget to comment
this chapter was mostly set up therefore will be more cliched than what I hope the rest will be like. Please just stick with it.
