Odyssey in "Equitis Humi"

The subseguent day, my awaking was welcomed by the first rays of the sun: seeing it as an opportiunity, I started to appoint the new things found the day before on my notebook, and meanwhile I murmured some parts of the song “Itaca” while doing so :

“Capitano.. che hai trovato principesse in ogni porto

E tu che hai visto il mondo

Pensi mai al rematore

che sua moglie crede morto....

Itaca, Itaca, Itacaaa

La mia casa ce l' ho sopra il mare

Itacaaa, Itacaa, Itacaa

La mia casa ce l'ho sotto il mare

E dal mare ci voglio tornare

Dal maree

Dal mareee.

Capitano, tu che il tuo gran peccato

fa sorridere gli dei.

Se tu muori, sei un re che muore

e qualcuno ti succederà nella casa .

Quando io non torno a casa

entran dentro fame e sete....

[...]

Capitano, tu hai visto il mondo

ma noi non l' abbiam mai visto.

Dici che abbiamo esplorato tutto

e vogliamo casa nostra,

ma se ci fosse ancora mondo...

sono pronto..

Dove andiamo?”

The murmur attracted Nurse Redhearth, who came near me and said

“All ok?”

“Yes, nurse, I'm just an early bird, I hope do not disturb anyone while writing and murmuring”

“Well, your murmur might disturb, but after all it's the half past seven, so they will wake up soon anyway.”, she watched around her, then she asked

“What you were singing ? The text looks familiar to me...”

“ I was singing “Itaca”, a song that talks about the nostalgia of our homes, and the desire of adventure and knowledge of many”

“And why you were singing it?”

“Because I maybe will never return home, but, at the same time, I will know more things than what I could study on the books...”

Nurse Redhearth smiled “You are such a curious foal”

I became red from the embarrassment.

After I took my medicines, I started to read and sing at low voice again, however, I was interrupted by the arrival of a stallion : his fur was gray and the mane was white, cannot rember his name, but I rember that he was psychiatrist who was going to write my personal report that was given then to the people in charge to choose the candidates families.

He asked many questions, but because I don't want to bore you, I will tell you the final part of the conversation :

“So, Aeneas, if I got correctly, your family taught you to write and read before you could walk?”

“Yes, it's true”, you know, it was a blatant lie for the most part, but it was true that I could read before speak: my brothers wanted me silent and thought that taught to me to read would be a great idea.

“ Not a big surprise that you have a messed up relationship with everypony then : generally force the learn of something when you are barely more than a newborn causes damages to the mind, but I'm certain that isn't nothing of too much serious. Now, my next question is: did they taught you even all that things you know about so early? You sing in Ancient Equestrian, and that isn't an everyday thing”

“Well no, my parents paid a private teacher just two months ago for teaching me all this stuffs : theoretically speaking, now I should be studying the political organization of Equestira ”, I swear, I tried a lucky guess about the name of the country because no books wrote by ponies were available.

“Wow, a fast learner! Your knowledge is better than any other pony under the age of 30 that I met!”

“If I may say so myself....”

“A last thing: in this life of continued study, did ever met anypony that you could call “friend” ? I mean, all this study must occupy a lot of time...”

I said with a voice between the scared and the sarcasm “No sir, I never met anyone that could call friend: the destiny set by my parents was of knowledge and discovery: they wanted to create a great magician that could change the world with a word, and this will mean that the friends are out of question”, after told it, the psychiatrist looked at me with a look between pity and surprise

“So... you are saying that you never did what normally a foal do?”

“Yes: no games, no light of the sun if not justified, no moving: just the light of a candle, a world map and piles and piles of books. I never missed that things until now”

“I saw many kinds of cases, some more serious, some simpler, but this is off the record: a family that indoctrinate his son to be what they desire, and see him fulfill a destiny not chosen by him, this renters in foal abuse.

I'm sorry to say that your parents cannot take you with them anymore: you will live with a foster family.”

I could not care less, rather, I was excited, but I still acted

“No! They didn't do anything of wrong! They thought that they could shape a great pony by just teaching to the “wanna-be” great one to be so”

“But they broke the Foal's Rights : they broke the one of having a healthy ambient of living; the one of letting you play; the one of be an independent personality.

Somepony breaks this rights because they are bad in many ways, but others just did it because they were enough intelligent to desire an higher condition, but still fool enough to want to choose the way for their son.”, then he went away

When the doctor finished, it was time for the lunch, thus our dishes were already placed on my tray, while I was eating, Scootalo asked

“What he say?”

“He asked to me some info about my past life, like what I did during the day, what was my routine, traumas etcetera .”

“I was that you were lightly crying: why ?”

“I won't see my parents anymore: they are accused of foal abuse”

“Oh, excuse me about that question”

“No problem: talking about your problems helps a lot”.

The afternoon and the night passed straight, thus, not much to tell.

However, the next day was more interesting.

After I woke up and I had my breakfast, I received a folder, containg the profiles of one family and two mares: Nurse Redhearth told that I needed to chose one of them.

First profile :

Family name : Apple

Work: Farmers

I didn't bothered to keep reading: “farmer” was, especially in that moment, spelling “doom”

Second Profile:

Pony name: Fluttershy

Work : None (formerly) / Veterinary ( De facto)

Desires adoption because : needs help in running her Animal Care Center and company.

No way.

Third Profile

Pony name: Rarity

Work : Cloth Designer

Desire adoption because : wants someone to talk who has some culture.

I took her: after all, my only other option was working with a Veterinary, not propely something of pleasuring for me.

Few days after, it was the moment for the check x-ray : it was planned for after lunch, and before the procedure could be done, few pamplets explaining the way of work of the machine arrived to me, but I didn't read them.

When the moment arrived, it was asked to me if I wanted to help in moving out the bed : even if I was unsure if really trying to walk on three legs, I felt enought sure to want to try.

I slowly rolled into the bed's border, then I took a near cane and carefully stepped with the left foot on the floor, for then quickly place the above said cane on my wounded leg: it took a long time, but I was finally down.

I clumsly moved to the waiting room, accompained by Nurse Redhearth who was trying to do not laugh, now, in a normal situation that will cause at least an indignation from my part, but at the time I thought that, after all, I was quite funny to see, considering how much I slipped.

When we arrived to the room, the radiologist welcomed me and started to explain:

"Now, we will took the pictures of your right leg and the chest while wearing this: don't worry, you won't feel anything", then I wore my lead apron and laid down on the bed in the middle of the room, but strangely enough nothing was over it, I wondered then HOW it could work, until I saw that, actually, the machine was just hidden in the ceiling.

After the pictures were taken, I went down the bed and headed for the waiting room: all seemed normal, until... a scream of surprise arrived from the room.

Caught by the curiosity, I went near the door and heard a conversation happening :

"This. Is just incredible."

"I've saw before fast healers, but were all grizzled athlets! This is just a foal who migth had his first bone injury in his life and it all healed in a week!".

"I wonder what caused such a fast heal: maybe the diet? The genetic?" , then the door opened, and saw the Nurse Redhearth with a surprised face: she asked me to enter and did some questions about what I ate beforehand and stuffs like that.

What I said shocked them:

"Rice wine? What? Are you serious?"

"Of course!"

"Well, that's weird, I mean, they did allowed you to drink alchol?"

"A little glass or so"

"I don't know why but it seems that the wine coming from the rice has healing properties..."

"Nah, it was just a big comsumption of cheese, nothing more, nothing less".

An hour later, I was dismissed from the hospital and sent with a taxi to my new home.