Reaching for the Sky

Passing out from physical or psychological trauma, sadly isn't new to me. One of my great comforts is that SAM is always there, hellbent on getting me back in working condition. Hearing his voice in my mind has become oddly soothing to me. You'd think having an entity invade your thoughts like that would be uncomfortable, but SAM was created from a template of my mind. We're similar in more than a few ways and if I have to right to create sentience, then I shouldn't complain when said sentience feels a bit attached to me.

Relax, you're safe, for now, his robotic voice spoke into my mind.

Where...? I hadn't even formulated the question before memories flooded into my mind's eye. Fluttershy had found me, we'd walked to Ponyville (still getting used to that name), and I'd passed out on the doorstep to what I can only assume is the hospital. Before the absurdity of the situation could make my mind reel, I suddenly felt my emotions being contained by unseen forces; the reality filter was back on. That meant no pain, either. Sweet.

I heard voices talking over me. I felt the bedsheets, careful not to stir my body, which was apparantly no longer enveloped by the Pegasus Frame. The voices were indistinct, their meaning lost to me. I guess SAM was done playing google translate for the time being. The Equestrian language has a melodic quality to it. I imagine this was what Tolkien had attempted to do when he invented a language for magical fairytale beings, but hearing a true spoken language was much more vivid. You can't sit down one afternoon and create a language; it's shaped by trends and culture through centuries of evolution.

So even if I couldn't tune in on the subject of their conversation, the point is, the language conveyed plenty of emotion and clearly, I was the topic of their conversation. Fluttershy and the Doctor were the only speakers present, but their voices sounded guarded; they were being watched by someone, and I'd only just come to. Who else was in the room?

"Samuel, you're awake," the robotic drone cut through the conversation, adressing me in english.

Both ponies froze and Fluttershy squeeked (even I find that noise adorable). So SAM was sitting somewhere in the room, staring at them. No wonder they were a bit creeped out. I managed to raise my head off my pillow and open my eyes, squinting against the glare of the setting sun as they rays shone through the small, paned windows in the wooden structure. The gharish green curtains and the obligatory potted plant on the nightstand immediately gave off a vibe of hospital.

The two ponies were standing at the foot end of my bed, my feet dangling off the end of the too-short steel frame of the hospital bed. SAM was using the Pegasus Frame without me in it, and it's always a curious sight. He can collapse the chest guard, leggings and sleeves, compacting the entire thing, giving it a slender, almost feline look. The equine hindlegs were shortened considerably to match the length of the arms and the shoulders were pulled under the frame, supporting its weight. The overall effect was a very successful quadruped body with hoof-shaped hindlegs and claw-like frontpaws. The suit also had a spine built-in to absorb the shock that would normally be put on my spine during long drops, and without my cumbersome body to stiffen up the suit, the spine could contort and lengthen at will. It was actually part of the tail and in his quadruped form, he used that tail to balance, like a cat. With the empty mask attached to the top of the spine, SAM even had a working 'head' and as mentioned, it looked more ponylike than my face ever could. He could even make those dull, eliptic optics light up like subtley glowing eyes.

Currently, SAM was sitting in the corner, coolly regarding the ponies until his attention had turned to me. Fluttershy looked like she was about ready to faint and Doctor Whooves was trying not to look too shaken, but even the good doctor had never seen anything like us. He adjusted his spectacles and wiped his brow with a foreleg, once more making my mind reel from the way their limbs seemed to double as both hands and feet as needed.

"The good Doctor was a bit alarmed with your condition, but I assured him that the nanite hives were already repairing any internal injuries you might've suffered. He was very perplexed when he sensed the absense of a certain substance in your system. Apparantly, 'magic' saturates this entire world and everything in it. We're not on Earth anymore..." his monotonous voice droned on. I could even hear the quotation markers around the word magic.

Oh, right, he mentioned nanite hives. Time for more technobabble. Nanotechnology had allowed us to create truly miniscule robotic drones and mass fabricate these, injecting them into the bloodstream where they would form a symbiosis, living off body heat and repairing damaged cells. They even managed to surgically implant a small factory or hive if you will, producing more nanites when the old ones were expelled through bloodloss or simply ceased to function. So while the Doctor might not sense any of this magic in my body, his concerns were unnecessary. I could already feel functionality returning to my body, though it wasn't like I was granted rapid regeneration. My body's ability to repair itself just peaks when I am at rest, and judging by the position of the sun in the sky, I'd been out for a few hours.

Feeling well enough to sit up, I swung my legs off the side of the bed, putting my feet on the cold floor. I guess you're eager for a description. Well, I'm as mentioned, human, so that should give you something to go off of. I'm about 6 feet tall, caucacian. Long dark-brown hair, usually tied back in a ponytail (try not to laugh), short-trimmed beard around my muzzle, complete with a goatee that I like to twirl with my fingers when I'm feeling particularly villainous. My eyes are deep brown, my brows are thick and my body is lean and athletic. As you can imagine, I have quite a few battlescars, most of them bullet holes, but a few cuts and burns, too. Nothing extremely marring though. My face, luckily, has never been uglied up by an explosion or a blade. At the time, I was wearing my flight suit, which is made to make it easier to fit inside the Pegasus Frame. Basically, it's a set of black tights and a longsleeved top, covering me from neckline down to my toes. The top had been unzipped and pulled down around my waist, revealing my upper body and the bit of curly chest hair that failed to cover my pinkish skin or nipples. I could see the dark, blackish-blue bruises on my ribcage and abdomen, but those were already mending.

From the way the two ponies were staring, I'm lucky I didn't burst into flames. I usually don't feel too self-conscious about my body, but in this case I could definately feel the burn in my cheeks. A quick glance at my right arm confirmed that they hadn't tried to remove the black glove that covered everything up to my elbow.

The Doctor was the first to regain his composure as he spoke at length in the melodic Equestrian tongue. All I had to do was to glance over his shoulder at SAM and the Pegasus Frame. The slick, blue feline creature sat more upright, turning to face me. The visor/face split down the middle, unfolding a thin plasma screen and immediately, he began scrolling translations across the screen like subtitles. He even had different color codes for the speakers.

"Well, it seems our patient has made a swift recovery. I've never seen anything quite like it."

He sounded oddly cheerful, ignoring the scrolling translations behind him.

Fluttershy seemed more than a bit creeped out by the sight of the robotic ponyhybrid splitting its face open to write cryptic glyphs everytime either of them spoke, but she did contribute to the conversation.

"Y-yes, he seems to be doing better, but he really wasn't when I found him out there all by himself on the ground..."

She lowered her gaze, scraping cutely at the floor with one front hoof, once again retreating behind her curtain of pink hair.

The Doctor once again narrowed his eyes and his horn glowed soft gold as he apparantly used magic on me. I tensed, expecting to feel just about anything from euphoria to intense agony, but it never came, and by the look of the Doctor's face, I wasn't supposed to feel anything, either. However, his findings once again seemed to trouble him and he shook his head pensively, cupping his chin with one hoof (I tell you, it still freaks me out when they do that).

"It really does seem like the tall fellow can exist without magic. Not even a little Earth Pony magic in his bones... But I have to agree, the ape is healing right before our eyes."

Really, ape? I gave him a deadpan stare and it took him a minute before he got the impression that I was mildly offended by something he said. Fluttershy was faster on the uptake.

"Oh, yes. He's a very strong looking ape though. I think he's... nice..."

She scraped some more at the floorboards with her hoof.

I sighed in exasperation. They didn't mean any harm, and for all I knew, apes were well-regarded in this place. I decided to speak my piece then, trusting SAM to run translations for them, and sure enough, his robotic drone copied me confidently, relaying every word in Equestrian.

"Yes, clearly I'm new here. My name is Samuel and the fellow behind you is SAM. I'm glad you found me when you did and I'm sorry if we gave you a bit of a scare. I represent a species called Humans, the only sapient species in our world. My arrival here happened entirely by accident and the technology that brought me here is no more."

Well, that about summed things up. Both ponies just stood there, staring for a little while, not sure if they ought to be looking at me or my translator. Well, saying it out loud did sort of take the winds out of my sails. I hadn't realised until I'd spoken just then, but it was true. The only device that could've brought me here, blew up. Even if I'd failed the mission, they would have no way of knowing where I'd ended up. I'm certain their first guess wouldn't be Equestria...

Still, I tried not to deflate too visibly in front of the ponies. After all, I had just sort of crash landed in their world and they had every right to turn me away if they found me too dangerous.

The Doctor spoke up once more, now used to the slight delay in communication. We could toss sentenses back and forth pretty easily by that time. Summarizing things, my arrival had caused a bit of a scare in Ponyville, but the residents were mostly curious and concerned for my well-being, having no reason to suspect danger. That was sweet, if a bit naïve. After all, I did just come flying straight out of the biggest nuclear scare my world had ever seen... I kept that bit of trivia to myself though, only speaking for myself whenever the Doctor or 'Shy had questions, of which there were many.

My diet was brought up. They'd both recognized the incissors and knew right away that I wasn't a herbivore, but they weren't as terrified by this prospect as I'd feared. Turns out they have regular interactions with a whole range of omnivorious and even carnivorous beasts, all of them sapient. Even the cows could speak. That just killed my longing for steak, never to be heard from again. Moo? No thanks, I'm good...

Among other topics we touched upon, obviously they were curious about my eerie companion and his sudden aptitude with their language. Equestrians had never even heard of computers, so explaining even the most basic questions proved difficult. In the end, we had established that he was an artificial being, complete with thoughts and feelings. Curiously, they didn't think this was unethical, but they both seemed to refer to their deities and defacto rulers, wishing to consult with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna on the nature of my companion. Twilight Sparkle was also named as the local go-to guru on just about anything unexplainable.

As it turns out, the Equestrians were both very trusting and very kind spirited, greeting me with only slightly subdued cheers and greetings when I first appeared, walking under my own power out the hospital doors, with the quadrupedic Pegasus Frame piloted by SAM, trailing close behind me. Most atonishing was that with every minute of observation, he learned to mimic the bearings and mannerisms of a true Equestrian pony, even using cadences and local dialect to fit in. His otherworldly nature was not nearly as off-putting in a world where the ponies kept pets and assistants that included (but were not limited to), dogs, cats, baby aligators, dragons, owls, cows, pigs, chickens, donkeys and mules. I think the latter two were considered to be sapient beings equal to ponies, but even their livestock was treated with a kind, neighbourly cheer and the animals had no desire to free themselves of their masters.

I met with the mayor, curiously only ever refered to as Mayor Mare. Hmm, maybe I ought to run for office. I could be Mayor Man. Curious, that. The words hand, man, hell and most human profanities, simply did not translate to Equestrian. They did however use terms like girl and lady, but just as often refered to such individuals as fillies and mares. They had little trouble using their Equestrian labels to describe me and I was refered to casually as that stallion, I was somepony, I was a dude according to Spike, the baby dragon, but I was not a pony. They seemed to draw the line only when it came to classifying my actual species, but in casual speech, I was no different than they.

By this time the nanites had just about repaired my most crippling injuries and the reality filter was no longer fully supressing the pain, letting it manifest as soreness in my limbs everytime I moved. I didn't really mind. I was thouroughly occupied talking to just about every pony that dared approach either myself or the Pegasus Frame. Before we knew it, the sun had set and everyone, or should I say everypony, was ready to retreat to their houses and dwellings.

I had to politely refuse several offers to put me up with lodgings for the night. Even Fluttershy was assertive enough to approach me several times, but I just had too much on my mind and sleep was the furthest from any of my desires. Looking up at the nightsky, I was stunned into silence with the way the moon and stars would literally fly into the sky, replacing the sun in mere seconds with an entire universe of constallations, none of which looked familiar. It was both aweinspiring and eerie. We weren't just displaced through space, stranded on another planet. We were in a wholly different universe, seemingly devoid of other solar systems as this world, the only world anypony knew of, was the center of their universe. The sun and moon both revolved around Equestria and the surrounding lands and these celestial bodies were controlled by the diarchs, Luna and Celestia. It completely boggled my mind. Even the weather systems were under the dominion of the Pegasi and the Unicorns would change the seasons according to schedule and tradition. As frigtening and hierachic as this was, I couldn't help but sit spellbound by Luna's night.

I wound up sitting under a tree in the outskirts of town with SAM having unfurled the great wings on the Pegasus Frame to shelter me from the wind. I'd apparantly arrived during the spring and it wasn't very cold even with my upper body exposed. If it got any colder, I'd just shrug on the flight suit and zip up the front. After all, it was designed to endure high altitudes and freezing winds.

That was another curious topic. Wingspans and the miniscule, feathery appendages of the Pegasi compared against the sheer immensity it took for someone my size to generate lift with powerful flaps of a 40-foot wingspan. I hadn't tried taking off in town yet, to the general disappointment of everypony. Rainbow Dash had been utterly thrilled to meet us both and she was more than a little flattered with the paintjob, though she seemed a bit put off by the bullet holes that had dented the surface and peeled away the paint to reveal the dull obsidian carbon structure underneath. I suspect she had some idea of what could've caused that, and she did tell me the Pegasi were once a proud tribe of fierce warriors. Looking at her in the flesh made it much easier to believe than if I'd been watching the show. Like I said, the ponies looked utterly real and their muscles were extremely powerful. Compared against a Pegasus, I was about the most squishy thing they'd ever seen as even the frail looking Pegasi were born to shrug off collisions like the one that had nearly crippled me upon arrival.

It was all a bit much to take in and the reality filter did help me cope with my fear and anxiety, preventing me from dwelling too much on the fate of the world I left behind and how slim my chances of ever returning were starting to look. Still, I wasn't getting any rest that first night. I had to figure out what my role in all of this was to be.

So there I sat, legs curled up against my chest with SAM sitting behind me, creating a semicircle with his big, dark wings. For a long time, I did nothing but stare at the nightsky.

...

I came to the next morning, having somehow nodded off where I sat. Life in Ponyville starts early and it's loud...