Odyssey in "Equitis Humi"

.The same evening, I had my first touches of the pony culture, starting from food and their magic.

Yes, you heard well, magic, in that world it exists and it is a daily fact, as I learnt quite awkwardly in my hospital stay.

It was the half past nine when was time for dinner: at the moment, I was still trying to read a book without tear off the pages, it was an hard thing mostly because not totally used to use a bend hoof as well as a  hand, plus, the fact that the newer book had five years or so didn't helped at all; thus I was so concentrated that I didn't saw anyone coming for serving dinner...or earing someone, for the matter, it seemed that the food just popped from nowhere in my tray.

When I finally stopped to read, I saw of what my dinner was composed : a little pile of grain hay and parassitary grass “How in the hell I can eat this? My intestine is not totally herbivorous.... wait a minute! I'm an equine!”: that was my first thought about the food.

My second thought was more a practical one: the fork and the knife were there... but they weren't any different from the “normal” ones, and that was meaning “can't use it without fingers"! I tried at first to grab them as usual, but I failed: the fork slipped from my hand every time, not matter how I placed the piece of cutlery, if placing it directly in the hoof, using the armpit for then acrobatically take the fork in the mouth or anything else .

I heard a laugh coming from the Scotaloo's bed: I rotated my head, and saw him laughing staring at me.

She said “You are very intelligent and yet you cannot eat for yourself?”

“Yes, I can't, I mean: how I can manipulate THIS?”

“You can use magic...”

“Sorry?”

“You can use magic for manipulate the fork! Don't tell me that you don't know how to use it: you are an unicorn after all.”

“You know what? I don't know how to use magic! I never did it!”

“So you can't eat anything without a “proper fork”? And what does it mean ?”

“Yes, the fork slip in my hands, and the handles shaped like an hoof are my only way to use them! Alright, this mean that I will eat it without cutlery”

And so I simply ate the whole dish placing directly my mouth in it, but then I heard Nurse Redhearth :

“They didn't told you the manners about eating?”

“They did, but I have no idea about using this forks, because they don't have an handle!”

“You can use the magic, no?”

“Sorry nurse, but I can't use magic!”

“What ? Can you not use it? But you are an unicorn!”

And so I assumed that the magic wasn't a Scootaloo lie... but it was still rude from my part nonetheless, plus, a new problem approached: how I could tell to her that in fake 4 years of life I didn't used magic AT ALL? The cover seemed blew up, but then I found a way to exit from it

“I am sorry, but I didn't felt enough strong to use magic, thus I simply ate without cutlery.“

“Don't worry, but this should not happen anymore!”, then she left with an angry yet pleasuring look.

The same night, when the lights were off, I started to practice magic: first I tried to lift off a feather right in front of me: a mint-colored aura appeared around it, but it didn't moved of a millimeter, so I said to myself :

“Alright, try to give an order of moving: it might works”

Again I tried to move it over a book on the night table: the feather was circled by the aura again, and with my mind I gave the order of moving on the book: it trembled during the moving, but at least the feather changed position.

During the same night, I've learned to move a pen for write, take books and read them without the use of hooves and the fact that the aura is visible by everyone.

In fact, while I was trying to write some notes about the past day, a night-round nurse approached: I could not tell what was her expression, but from the rhythm of the steps, it seemed that spotted me.

I immediately stopped to write and closed my eyes, but it was too late: she arrived and said

“Sleep, you can't read while the others are sleeping”, then she went away, and when her steps were only an echo, I started to truly sleep.

The next morning, I woke up very early: even if I could not tell what time it was, the moon was still high in the sky and not even a sound arrived in my room; I started to think again about my condition, about how tell everyone that I wasn't a foal of four years but a young man of 17 years.

My final list of to-do things in this world until an opportunity arrives where:

1 Exit from there

2 Get a roof

3 Get some info about the place

4 Discover why I was there

5 Escape from the dimension.

Surely not an easy series of tasks, but they were the best case scenario, plus, they occupied enough time to almost see the sunrise, then for some reason the “Fortuna Plango Vulnera” started to play in mind, and somehow I felt the necessity of singing it at low voice.

When I finished to sing it, I rotated my head, seeing another nurse incoming, this time her fur was yellow, her mane was ligth blue and her look was the one of unexplicable hatred against everyone.

I did a forced smile on her, but she simply ignored it and said :

“So, what's your problem? I don't have all day”

“Nothing, I simply wake up quite early in my everyday life, what's the problem?”

“Here the rise is at 08:00, thus, you can stand with your torso up only in case of emergency”

Her obsession for the time and how everything should worked made me giggle in my mind, and an acid comment slip out my mouth:

“So, basically, if I feel a pain in the torso and cannot hold it up I'm doomed? A pretty flawed system... place a bell maybe?”

“So our young lad wants to fight, how about start to cool down with a punitive shot?”

“And how about getting along about the fact that I am an early bird?”

“The rules are these, and you must respect them”

“As you wish... Dame Krankenschwester ”, then I laid down again with an angry face.

An hour later, the rise arrived, and finally the yellow nurse let me have the torso up and ten minutes later she gave our medicines along with our breakfast: first I took the medications, then, using the “moving magic” learnt the night before, I ate my breakfast, who was composed by an egg and a cup of milk: not much, but better than nothing.

The rest of the morning passed uneventeful, with me taking notes and reading and Scootaloo trying to get my attention.... for some reason that I never knew.

After lunch, while I was repeating “O Fortuna” at low voice, two little fillies arrived: one was totally white and a purple-and-pink mane and was an unicorn, while the other had a yellow fur, a red mane and was a normal pony.

They headed to Scootaloo and talked to eachother: I didn't cared much about their conversation, until...

“Scootaloo, who is your roomate? He is reading a lot, and he is talking in strange languages: he seems the foal clone of Twilight Sparkle!”

“Well, so it seems, his name is Aeneas Verne, he is a four years old, but he already reads and writes”

“Does he like to talk? He seems an interesting foal, if you don't mind...”

“No problem”

The two fillies headed for my bed and said

“Hi Aeneas! I am Sweetie Belle and she is Applebloom , nice to meet you”

“Me too”

“Scootaloo told us that you can read and write even if you are 4 and you can talk in unknown languages... how you can do that?”

“Thanks to the education given by my family... until they went away and left in the hands of a mare who has abandoned me”

"So you are an orphan ?"

"Not really, I will just stay under another one's roof until they return"

"In an adult's vocabulary, "Stay until they return" means "You stay forever"

"Oh well, it isn't such a big deal..."

"Do you have brothers or sisters?... Someone that could take care of you?"

"Nope"

"So why you are so calm about it?"

"Well, why I should be worried ?"

"You are alone! And you will live with a stranger family !"

"It will be a good way to get prepared when I will live alone..."

"But that will MIGHT happen in two decades, if not more!"

"You are correct"

I forgotten that I was a foal and not an adult... but the disguise was still standing.

The discussion between me and Sweetie Belle was interrupted by the arrival of the time-obsessed nurse, who said harshly to them

"Get out from here: the visit time has ended"

I quickly answered

"Yes, it has ended.... since 2 seconds! They can finish"

"The time is up, so they must leave"

"Dame Krankenschwester, you are too much obsessed by the time, relax and let them finish"

"You are calling loud a shot"

"Well, if I need, I will take it, but for what I remember, no intermuscular medicine was needed for me"

"I will change the schedule for today and the next days"

"Alright, shut up and do your work: you make me lose my cool"

The nurse, who later discovered be called Nurse Coldhearth, grunted and gave my medicines, then she called an hospital attendant for change the blankets of my bed because she refused to do herself : a mare full of hubris, no doubt .

The rest of the day passed without incidents, until Nurse Coldhearth exited with one of her ideas:

"Dinner time, my little subjects!"

"Scusi?"

"I said that the dinner has arrived, pests!"

"Thanks for the compliment! It honors me and her so much!"

"Oh, you like so much the irony? Well, are you ready for an exemplar punishment?"

"Do your worst! After all, I'm right"

"As you wish...", then she went away, only for return with some soap and a bowl of water: I got what she was going to do, so I simply prepared my mouth for the "washing": considering that I had a similar punishment when I was 5, that didn't bothered me much.

Nurse Coldhearth said to close my eyes and open my mouth, so I did: she placed her hoof in my mouth and started to wash it with energy: I spitted soap everywhere and tried one time or two to bit her hoof, but in vain, so I simply relaxed and waited for the end.

The situation seemed bad, but I was saved few moments later by Nurse Redheart  who almost broke the door and screamed :

"YOU! AGAIN!How many time I've told you that YOU. CAN'T. PUNISH. THEM. WITH. THIS. METHOD. NOR. THREATHING. THEM ?"

"He did sarcasm about a my statement!"

"Was him gross?"

"Yes, he said "That compliment honors me and her so much" !"

"Well, you are too much proud of yourself, Coldhearth, you need to take it slow", then she watched me and said

"Don't worry: just spit it, dearie", so I did.

The night passed without incidents of any sort, thus there is nothing to note about it.