Zapped to Equestriaby skywardfunChaptersEverything starts at the begginingA Complicated SystemFirst battle commenceEverything starts at the begginingWhen I woke up I was in an uncomfortable bed. I had something over my head that stopped me from seeing which kind of felt like gauze. Feeling around, I realized that I had no feeling in my hands and after a minute or two I remembered what happened. 'It was raining outside and, lets face it, I loved the rain. So as always I grabbed my raincoat and said a quick "I'm going outside" to my mother. She was used to me going out when it rained plus there wasn't any thunder or lightning so she just let me go. I opened the door and all I could see was a bunch of rushing water drops falling from the heavens which in turn became water pools all over the ground. Which was odd seeing as how it had only started raining a few minutes ago, but i didn't care and went out anyway.' 'Once outside I got to the middle of the yard and sat down on the bench we have out there. It was a little cold sitting in it but I could manage.”Nice day to have a little rain” I said as I sat there starting to think of random events. Which I usually do when it rained.' 'I sat there for maybe twenty minutes staring at a triangular prism that my mom had gotten when I was young. It was about four to five inches tall and wide at its base. As I sat there deep in thought I didn't realize that I was starting to hear thunder. Then it happened again about as quiet as the first time but this time it had gotten my attention. I looked up to see if there was any lightning but couldn't so I got up to go inside.' 'As I did a bolt of the stuff came from the sky directly above me. Which hit right in front of me right on the prism that I was just looking at. The last thing I remember was a bright rainbow-like bolt of some sort that went straight for me.' At that moment a door opened somewhere to my right as someone walked in. Which I didn’t get to see from the....well I guess it's a bandage. At the sound of this I tried to sit up on the bed. At the moment the nurse heard the movement and moved to his side. “Don't try to get up, you're still injured." Said the nurse, who was female. “I’ll call the doctor in and have him see to your bandages." At that she walked out of the door and closed it leaving me to my thoughts. ‘ OK so I'm at a hospital... Somewhere I don’t know after being hit with lightning I guess’. I thought moving a little bit to try and get more comfortable. After shifting I felt that most of my muscles were stiff and tired so I tried to move and loosen them. As I did, I noticed that something was VERY wrong as I didn’t feel the same movements that i was use to. Before I could do any more examining, someone came in with a small squeak from the door. “Hello there Sir, I am Doctor Needles and I've been taking care of you since you arrived here." He paused to give me a time to speak. “Uh, thank you for that." Not really thinking thinking what I was saying because of his strange name, ‘I mean Needles really’? “Would it be okay if i were to take off the bandages to see if the injuries have gotten any better?" Needles asked. I thought about this for a bit and moved my head from side to side to see if I felt and pain. When I didn’t I answered him. “Yes, I think it should be okay." At this the doctor walked to my side as I felt a hard kinda rubbery object on my head as the bandages were unwound and fell off. All I could do is gape at what I saw in front of me because smack dab in full view of my stricken eyes was Nurse Redheart in the flesh and fur. "Is there something wrong sir you seem to be staring?" She asked as I quickly looked away. "N-nothing at all uh I'm just caught a little off guard." I said now trying to look anywhere but at the techno-colored equine standing several feet ahead of me. "Well it seems that over the course of the last day and a half that you have healed far past our expectations." Doctor Needles said "are you skilled in healing magic?" "Wait healing 'magic'?" I asked. "Yes well you are a unicorn so I thought you might have had some practice in it. "Wait I'm a unicorn?" I asked almost screaming frantically looking around for any kind of reflective surface to see if it was true. But instead I saw hooves, my hooves. "Yes you are Sir, but i’m sure you should know that.” Nurse Redheart said turning to the doctor and whispering, “ He may have brain damage or amnesia if he can't even remember what race he is.” I could hear them, but only slightly. “Yes we might want to get him into get a scan and see if he has suffered an unforeseen head trauma.” He whispered back and looked to see me staring at my grey hooves. “We should ask how much he remembers anything to see how bad this could be.” At this they looked back at me with almost forced smiles as she asked me, “excuse me sir but do you know what your name is, or how you got yourself hurt? I peeled my eyes away from my hooves to look at them and thought about this for a second and came up with nothing. “I-I don't remember what my name is but I remember getting hit with lightning.” I said which got a worried look from them. “I don't even know what I look like.” It felt like my eye’s were as small as pinpricks at that point from the fear of not remembering or even knowing who I was. “Well that's... unnerving.” He said as the nurse started to walk out of the room. “Do think you might want to see yourself, maybe see if you could remember?” “Sure, I would like that.” I said. At this he walked over to one of the walls that was to my left and somehow picked up a small double sided mirror with his hooves. As he got to my side I looked at what I guess was now my reflection. I was, of course, a male unicorn with (what was a surprise to me) a rainbow mane ‘wow that's going to be hard to get used to’ and a grey coat. I couldn't see my tail or flank from being under the covers of the bed. But The strangest thing by far was my eyes.They were kind of like a cloud of gray-ish white and for some reason had a little image of me looking at myself in them for a couple of seconds until they hazed over till it looked almost like a cloud of gray. After a while Nurse Redheart came in. Needles coughed to get me attention “Sir do you think you can remember anything?” A thought came to mind when he asked me this. “Well I think that my name is Spectrum, something.” I told him and after I did he looked a little less concerned. “Spectrum um, Swirl ya that's it, my name is Spectrum Swirl.” "Well then Swirl, is it alright if I call you that?" He asked and I nodded in return. "Well then Swirl, Nurse Redheart here has called for somepony to come in and take a scan of your head to see just how badly you got hurt." I started in a laughing fit at this. Which got both of them to stare at me for a long second before the she asked me "and why would that be funny?" "S-somepony" is all I could get out between my laughter. 'I guess the writers got it right after all', is all I could think. After maybe a minute or two I could finally stop. "Well then anyway as I was saying we have a pony coming to help us with this and after that your visitor can come in." He said specifically not saying somepony again on purpose. “Fine but who is the visiter? I don't know any (stifled giggle here) pony here." I said. "Well we already knew that because she couldn't give us any information on who you are or even how you got yourself hurt." The nurse said. "OK that makes sense but that didn't answer my question of who she is. Could I get a name or something?” “Her name is Rainbow Dash, rank sixty-two and she was excited and frantic when she brought you in after finding you.”Said the nurse and then saying under her breath. “Something like somepony she can finally talk to, or something.” Before I could even think about what she had just said a new unicorn mare walked into the room.She had a nice orange coat with a blue mane and tail and dark-pink eyes. She then proceeded to talk to the doctor directly like we weren't even in the room. “Well hello there and who is this unlucky chap with amnesia?” she asked. The doctor pointed a hoof in my direction. “Ah good now where you able to get his name or or rank or anything out of him?” “Yes.” He said “He said it was Spectrum Swirl so he might not have had it that bad.” “Okay good with that I should be able to get some information from him.” She said now turning to me. “Hello Mr. Swirl i'm going to need to ask you several questions and I will need you to sign this sheet with your signature.” “Um... well okay fine but can i read it first, you know for fine print and all that?” I questioned. “Well that would be fine.” She said handing me the paper to read to read somehow with her right hoof. As I tried to grab it, it fell to the bed so I just maneuvered it from there. I read through it and it mostly said ‘this document permits the access to my thoughts to be reacted and searched by the given unicorn I permit to do so. I _______ hereby agree to this contract and allow this of my own free will. With a lot of mumbo-jumbo, laws and back laws and whatever. After reading this I asked for something to write with and tried to write my name on the line in the middle and bottom of the page. Of course it wasn't that easy. I first tried to grab the pen with my right hoof and that failed, so I grabbed it with my mouth and made a small scribble that kind of looked like my name. “Ah, good now would you follow me to a more private room please?” The mare asked before I tried to get out of bed and fell on my face. ‘Yeah let me tell you, if you think it hurt to fall on your head as a human than you would ball like a child if you did it as a unicorn.’ First off I now know that a unicorn's horn is very and I mean Super-Very sensitive. It felt like I had jumped off a cliff and into a huge pile of needles, and I mean like the huge needles that you think you would get at a doctors (not that you actually do) added with sewing needles and any others you can think of. Plus the new muscle didn’t help because it was longer and hit the floor first. Well after all that I had to almost peel my head off the floor and to a laying position. Here was the fun part, telling them that I can’t even walk on my own two-- I mean four, legs. “Mr. Swirl are you going to lay there all day?” she asked in a somewhat worried tone. I looked over at them for a moment before finally replying "Well uh-OK here it is... I-i don'tknowhowtowalk." I said looking down at the floor again. There was a long pause as they all stared at me on the floor. "Excuse me mister Swirl but did you just say that you can't walk?" Redheart asked. "That is exactly what i am saying." I said with another long pause to follow before I tried to get up again. Only to fall back on my stomach. After several attempts to stand I finaly was standing on my hooves. "Well that was... interesting to say the least." Needles said before asking. Well if you can take him from here I will take my leave." With that he walked out the white hospital rooms door. The new mare turned to me after he left and asked, "Can you follow me please." I nod my head and she turns to start walking and I start to follow her and fell right on to my face. I got up again and tried to take another stop forward and didn't fall this time.'Fortunately.' A Complicated SystemAfter several uneasy steps, I was starting to got the hang of it. 'Right-front with back=left after left-front with back-right and repeat'. Unfortunately after getting down the hall there was a right turn. The nurse and other mare turned and where walking down it with ease, I had to stop, turn (without falling over) and catch up with them. After several more turns and hallways we arrived at our destination. The door said 'Dr. C. Cortex' as I walked in to the room and I found a bed, a couch, several bright colored pillows around the floor varying from slightly larger than a pin cushion to the size of bean bag chairs, and a desk. "Please would you either sit on the bed or the couch and get comfortable because you will be staying still for some time for this to work properly". Dr. Cortex said to me. So I trotted over to the couch and sat down on it. I tried to get comfortable for a moment or two before I remembered 'oh yeah, i'm now a pony and shouldn't sit like Lyra.' I shifted to a laying position and got comfortable in seconds. The Doctor, who had been watching the whole time looked at me after I had gotten situated and finally saying, "Very good sir. Now you should feel a slight tingle and then, if all goes to plan, start to remember some things." She said as I nodded and lay my head on the couch. She than started to move energy to her horn with a hazelnut aura. Several moments later she started panting. Another five minutes went by and I still was sitting there waiting for the 'tingly feeling', but nothing happened. Doctor C. finally stopped but was panting hard as she turned to look at me. "Sir do you have any residual energy from a spell of any sort? Because I cannot get through to your thoughts." She looked at me expectantly so I answered. "Not as far as I know, but I don't think with my missing memory that I would remember if I did." I said to her. "Well i'm unable to access your thoughts as of yet so I'll have to go and talk to somepony about this setback." I laughed after she said somepony and she walked out of the room's door. After a couple seconds I heard her start saying. "Do you know how highly ranked this stallion must be for me to not be able to use normal magic on him? I mean I am quit highly ranked but I can barely even touch this guy with my magic." She must have been talking with someon- pony else, but what is this rank stuff she is talking about."Hold on why don't I just ask him what rank he is I mean if he is that high than he wont be able to guess anyway, right?" There was a pause for several seconds as i'm guessing she walked back to the door. "Mr. Swirl would you be so kind as to tell me your rank?" She asked and I looked at her in confusion. "Uh, I'm sorry but what is this 'rank' stuff your talking about? I mean I just don't get what your saying." She stared at me for several moments before asking. "Do you really not even remember what the ranking system is?" She asked and I nodded so she sighed and continued. "Okay first off we ponies each have a certain strength that pertains to how powerful we are, and then we are ranked from most powerful to least powerful." She paused to look at me to see if I was getting all of it so I nodded again. "As of now and so as for as long as anypony (a chuckle escaped my lips) has known, our princess, Princess Celestia has been ranked number one and a short while ago Princess Luna has been ranked two. It goes on from that but they are the princesses so the next couple aren't as well known." She moved a hoof back and fourth to get her point across. "Is there any way to just find every...pony's rank. Like a list or something?" I asked."Also how do you get ranks is it like you go do a text or something?" "First off yes there is a list, it is a simple to get book from almost any store and you rank up by winning battles with others of only higher rank than you. It was done this way so that you couldn't rank up by defeating weaker ponies." She stopped for a moment so I asked. "Well that is, well... odd. I thought this place was against violence?" "Well where ever did you hear that? It's just so ridiculous to say the least." Dr. Cortex said to me. She than looked at me up and down like I've been in the nut house. We stood there for a several awkward moments until I finally asked. "So... about this ranking book or whatever it is?" "It's called 'The Compact Ranking System' and it is very good at what it does." "Yes this 'Compact Ranking System' thing, do you have one around here or something so I can see what mine is than?" I gestured around the room while asking. "Ah yes just one moment than." She walked over to the desk while mumbling, "why didn't I just use this first." She than opened the desk with her teeth and proceeded to shift through whatever was in it with her hazelnut aura. After a few seconds passed, she walked back over to me. "So let us see, your full name is Spectrum Swirl right, no middle name or anything?" I nod to her and she starts to shuffle through the pages. I hear her say "S" after a second and she starts to shuffle through the pages again. She ends up a minute later and looks at me with a questioning look on her face. "Mr.Swirl are you positive you cannot use magic or anything of the sort?" I nod again and she looks at me for a moment. "Okay well Spectrum in here it says that you are N/A, and well, that's impossible." I nod slowly and ask "Is that good or something?" Before she backs up a step. She shakes her head and her mane starts to look disheveled. "That is impossible to not have a rank while being in the ranking system. It just would not work." She turned away from me and started to talk loudly to herself. "It just would not work, there aren't any loopholes or anything, which means he would have to be magically strong enough to change the book, and if he now cannot use his magic than I could easily win against him." She points a hoof half at me before saying. "I'll more than likely move up from my rank of three hundred and four to probably in to the two hundreds or lower." She exclaims. She than turns to look straight at me with a blaze in her eyes and a frighteningly serious expression. She than proceeds to say in the same tone as the look on her face , "Spectrum Swirl, do you accept my request for a duel?" First battle commenceI looked at her like she was crazy. I glanced around for something to focus on other than her and after failing at that, I focused on her again. I knew that if I accepted, I would most definitely end up injured. Or worse. And who wants that!?! After a second in thought, a strange feeling overtook my body. One that seemed to be saying,'Go ahead, you can do it! You'll be fine!' So I steeled up my nerves and stared with a burning excitement at her.. "Doctor Cortex I will accept that challenge, but only under a special condition. If I win, I don't owe this hospital any fee's for the services performed for me ." She smirked. As soon as she answered with "I accept" the floor twisted and rumbled frighteningly before I saw that we where now in a large circular arena, with hundreds of ponies filling the seats and, as I looked on in utter awe, right in plain sight was Celestia with Luna to her right. They where both sitting on lustrous and quite comfortable looking seats with five of the main six sitting next to them, all except Pinkie for some reason. I turned my head back and fourth trying to regain my bearings from what had just happened before Celestia finally spoke. "Competitors please state your name and rank so we can officially start this duel." She started by saying, "Doctor Cerebral Cortex, rank three hundred and four." She said it loud and clear so that the crowd could hear her. The crowd was cheering with a deafening volume and looking at me expectantly. After the initial shock of what just happened I finally said in a small voice, "My name is Spectrum Swirl and... well" I looked around trying to think of something to tell them "I have a rank of... well I don't know." I was trying to hide my face at the end of the simple sentence. All the ponies in the the stands started to look around grinning like it was some kind of joke. Celestia spoke after a moment saying, "This is a highly unconventional way to start a duel Mr. Swirl." Her eyes were boring into me the entire time she spoke. "Sorry" was all I can say to her. She lightly shook her head but didn't say anymore, probably so not to bore the crowd. "Everypony here should know the rules," I snickered at Celestia saying everypony, but not loud enough to be heard ,"but I must remind you all of them. First, you can use any spell or tactic you would like to to win. Remember that after the duel all damage to anypony involved will be undone." I thought about this for a second before she continued. "Second, cheap shots and dirty tactics are frowned upon here and will not be tolerated. Third is to remain inside the arena or you will be disqualified. Any inability to comply will result as an automatic disqualification, understand?" We both nod and a bell rings. She rushes straight at me with her horn glowing. What a horrible strategy to charge at me like that! I simply side stepped and she fell over after trying to turn to hit me. She then proceeded to get up and gather energy in her horn in what I thought was some kind of missile/projectile attack, how I knew that was beyond me. I was sure that I wouldn't be able to dodge the attack so I put up one of my grey hooves. The attack instead hit my foreleg right above the hoof. it then turned a dark black before dissipating. It hurt, A LOT, but not as bad as I expected. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was faring, specifically sense I had no idea what I was doing. I looked at her again while she was charging another spell in which I stood and watched. She let the spell go and I was suddenly encased in a cube of chestnut magic. Looking around I saw no way through so I walked up to the wall I thought was facing her, and stepped towards it. I was thinking of how the last spell of hers just evaporated. The wall first darkened to the same dark black as the bolt that hit me before I simply stepped through it and it shattered. I looked over to see her panting in fatigue. "You okay, you seem tired?" She just looked at me crossly. "Okay, you are either really stupid, or really lucky." she said between pants. I shrugged and looked around, "Do you wanna just end this, you seem like you can't go on much longer?" I asked her. "No, I don't want to quit, I want to beat you!" She said before quickly charging up her horn again for what i'm guessing was going to be another attack. Again thinking back to her spells like before I thought that this might work. I touched her horn with my hoof and it slowly darkened to black and dissipated like her other spells. She tried to put more magic in to the attack and my hoof really started to hurt before all the energy from her horn vanished and she lay unconscious on the floor. "And we have a winner, Spectrum Swirl!" Celestia announced to the crowd. "Now remember only lower ranks can move up by defeating higher ranked opponents so there you go crowd, the duel is over!" At that everything shifted again and I found myself and Doctor Cortex back in the office we were in before. "What, just, happened...." I asked her. I wasn't looking at her to begin with since my vision was swimming. "That was a duel, Spectrum, and a good one at that." She said with a sigh, before seeming to remember something. "Ah, and as promised, the bill will be paid in full out of my pocket." I continued to look at her, still confused. "But no, seriously, what was that?" She puts one of her hooves up to her face in what looks like annoyance before answering your question. "That was a duel where you either rank up or down by either winning, or losing the fight.. Of course, since I am such a low rank, you didn't go up but it's good that I didn't go down either." She returned her hoof to the floor to look at me like I was the biggest idiot on Equis. "Seriously how did you even perform magic if you didn't know what was going on. It seems like you where right on top of your game?" "Wait that was magic? I was actually doing magic?" She face hoofed and looked at the floor. "Seriously!?" She almost screamed at me, her face as red as a Beet. I nod and, just when it seemed she was going to explode, there was a knock at the door to her office. A faint, "Hello, may we enter?" made it's way through. Doctor Cortex proceeds to do some sort of breathing exercise and finally seems to calm down. When her pallor returned to it's previous, non-explosive hue, she walks over to the door and opens it. Out in the hall is none other than the doctor from before, Doctor Needles if you remember correctly, and Nurse Redheart.
Everything starts at the begginingWhen I woke up I was in an uncomfortable bed. I had something over my head that stopped me from seeing which kind of felt like gauze. Feeling around, I realized that I had no feeling in my hands and after a minute or two I remembered what happened. 'It was raining outside and, lets face it, I loved the rain. So as always I grabbed my raincoat and said a quick "I'm going outside" to my mother. She was used to me going out when it rained plus there wasn't any thunder or lightning so she just let me go. I opened the door and all I could see was a bunch of rushing water drops falling from the heavens which in turn became water pools all over the ground. Which was odd seeing as how it had only started raining a few minutes ago, but i didn't care and went out anyway.' 'Once outside I got to the middle of the yard and sat down on the bench we have out there. It was a little cold sitting in it but I could manage.”Nice day to have a little rain” I said as I sat there starting to think of random events. Which I usually do when it rained.' 'I sat there for maybe twenty minutes staring at a triangular prism that my mom had gotten when I was young. It was about four to five inches tall and wide at its base. As I sat there deep in thought I didn't realize that I was starting to hear thunder. Then it happened again about as quiet as the first time but this time it had gotten my attention. I looked up to see if there was any lightning but couldn't so I got up to go inside.' 'As I did a bolt of the stuff came from the sky directly above me. Which hit right in front of me right on the prism that I was just looking at. The last thing I remember was a bright rainbow-like bolt of some sort that went straight for me.' At that moment a door opened somewhere to my right as someone walked in. Which I didn’t get to see from the....well I guess it's a bandage. At the sound of this I tried to sit up on the bed. At the moment the nurse heard the movement and moved to his side. “Don't try to get up, you're still injured." Said the nurse, who was female. “I’ll call the doctor in and have him see to your bandages." At that she walked out of the door and closed it leaving me to my thoughts. ‘ OK so I'm at a hospital... Somewhere I don’t know after being hit with lightning I guess’. I thought moving a little bit to try and get more comfortable. After shifting I felt that most of my muscles were stiff and tired so I tried to move and loosen them. As I did, I noticed that something was VERY wrong as I didn’t feel the same movements that i was use to. Before I could do any more examining, someone came in with a small squeak from the door. “Hello there Sir, I am Doctor Needles and I've been taking care of you since you arrived here." He paused to give me a time to speak. “Uh, thank you for that." Not really thinking thinking what I was saying because of his strange name, ‘I mean Needles really’? “Would it be okay if i were to take off the bandages to see if the injuries have gotten any better?" Needles asked. I thought about this for a bit and moved my head from side to side to see if I felt and pain. When I didn’t I answered him. “Yes, I think it should be okay." At this the doctor walked to my side as I felt a hard kinda rubbery object on my head as the bandages were unwound and fell off. All I could do is gape at what I saw in front of me because smack dab in full view of my stricken eyes was Nurse Redheart in the flesh and fur. "Is there something wrong sir you seem to be staring?" She asked as I quickly looked away. "N-nothing at all uh I'm just caught a little off guard." I said now trying to look anywhere but at the techno-colored equine standing several feet ahead of me. "Well it seems that over the course of the last day and a half that you have healed far past our expectations." Doctor Needles said "are you skilled in healing magic?" "Wait healing 'magic'?" I asked. "Yes well you are a unicorn so I thought you might have had some practice in it. "Wait I'm a unicorn?" I asked almost screaming frantically looking around for any kind of reflective surface to see if it was true. But instead I saw hooves, my hooves. "Yes you are Sir, but i’m sure you should know that.” Nurse Redheart said turning to the doctor and whispering, “ He may have brain damage or amnesia if he can't even remember what race he is.” I could hear them, but only slightly. “Yes we might want to get him into get a scan and see if he has suffered an unforeseen head trauma.” He whispered back and looked to see me staring at my grey hooves. “We should ask how much he remembers anything to see how bad this could be.” At this they looked back at me with almost forced smiles as she asked me, “excuse me sir but do you know what your name is, or how you got yourself hurt? I peeled my eyes away from my hooves to look at them and thought about this for a second and came up with nothing. “I-I don't remember what my name is but I remember getting hit with lightning.” I said which got a worried look from them. “I don't even know what I look like.” It felt like my eye’s were as small as pinpricks at that point from the fear of not remembering or even knowing who I was. “Well that's... unnerving.” He said as the nurse started to walk out of the room. “Do think you might want to see yourself, maybe see if you could remember?” “Sure, I would like that.” I said. At this he walked over to one of the walls that was to my left and somehow picked up a small double sided mirror with his hooves. As he got to my side I looked at what I guess was now my reflection. I was, of course, a male unicorn with (what was a surprise to me) a rainbow mane ‘wow that's going to be hard to get used to’ and a grey coat. I couldn't see my tail or flank from being under the covers of the bed. But The strangest thing by far was my eyes.They were kind of like a cloud of gray-ish white and for some reason had a little image of me looking at myself in them for a couple of seconds until they hazed over till it looked almost like a cloud of gray. After a while Nurse Redheart came in. Needles coughed to get me attention “Sir do you think you can remember anything?” A thought came to mind when he asked me this. “Well I think that my name is Spectrum, something.” I told him and after I did he looked a little less concerned. “Spectrum um, Swirl ya that's it, my name is Spectrum Swirl.” "Well then Swirl, is it alright if I call you that?" He asked and I nodded in return. "Well then Swirl, Nurse Redheart here has called for somepony to come in and take a scan of your head to see just how badly you got hurt." I started in a laughing fit at this. Which got both of them to stare at me for a long second before the she asked me "and why would that be funny?" "S-somepony" is all I could get out between my laughter. 'I guess the writers got it right after all', is all I could think. After maybe a minute or two I could finally stop. "Well then anyway as I was saying we have a pony coming to help us with this and after that your visitor can come in." He said specifically not saying somepony again on purpose. “Fine but who is the visiter? I don't know any (stifled giggle here) pony here." I said. "Well we already knew that because she couldn't give us any information on who you are or even how you got yourself hurt." The nurse said. "OK that makes sense but that didn't answer my question of who she is. Could I get a name or something?” “Her name is Rainbow Dash, rank sixty-two and she was excited and frantic when she brought you in after finding you.”Said the nurse and then saying under her breath. “Something like somepony she can finally talk to, or something.” Before I could even think about what she had just said a new unicorn mare walked into the room.She had a nice orange coat with a blue mane and tail and dark-pink eyes. She then proceeded to talk to the doctor directly like we weren't even in the room. “Well hello there and who is this unlucky chap with amnesia?” she asked. The doctor pointed a hoof in my direction. “Ah good now where you able to get his name or or rank or anything out of him?” “Yes.” He said “He said it was Spectrum Swirl so he might not have had it that bad.” “Okay good with that I should be able to get some information from him.” She said now turning to me. “Hello Mr. Swirl i'm going to need to ask you several questions and I will need you to sign this sheet with your signature.” “Um... well okay fine but can i read it first, you know for fine print and all that?” I questioned. “Well that would be fine.” She said handing me the paper to read to read somehow with her right hoof. As I tried to grab it, it fell to the bed so I just maneuvered it from there. I read through it and it mostly said ‘this document permits the access to my thoughts to be reacted and searched by the given unicorn I permit to do so. I _______ hereby agree to this contract and allow this of my own free will. With a lot of mumbo-jumbo, laws and back laws and whatever. After reading this I asked for something to write with and tried to write my name on the line in the middle and bottom of the page. Of course it wasn't that easy. I first tried to grab the pen with my right hoof and that failed, so I grabbed it with my mouth and made a small scribble that kind of looked like my name. “Ah, good now would you follow me to a more private room please?” The mare asked before I tried to get out of bed and fell on my face. ‘Yeah let me tell you, if you think it hurt to fall on your head as a human than you would ball like a child if you did it as a unicorn.’ First off I now know that a unicorn's horn is very and I mean Super-Very sensitive. It felt like I had jumped off a cliff and into a huge pile of needles, and I mean like the huge needles that you think you would get at a doctors (not that you actually do) added with sewing needles and any others you can think of. Plus the new muscle didn’t help because it was longer and hit the floor first. Well after all that I had to almost peel my head off the floor and to a laying position. Here was the fun part, telling them that I can’t even walk on my own two-- I mean four, legs. “Mr. Swirl are you going to lay there all day?” she asked in a somewhat worried tone. I looked over at them for a moment before finally replying "Well uh-OK here it is... I-i don'tknowhowtowalk." I said looking down at the floor again. There was a long pause as they all stared at me on the floor. "Excuse me mister Swirl but did you just say that you can't walk?" Redheart asked. "That is exactly what i am saying." I said with another long pause to follow before I tried to get up again. Only to fall back on my stomach. After several attempts to stand I finaly was standing on my hooves. "Well that was... interesting to say the least." Needles said before asking. Well if you can take him from here I will take my leave." With that he walked out the white hospital rooms door. The new mare turned to me after he left and asked, "Can you follow me please." I nod my head and she turns to start walking and I start to follow her and fell right on to my face. I got up again and tried to take another stop forward and didn't fall this time.'Fortunately.'
A Complicated SystemAfter several uneasy steps, I was starting to got the hang of it. 'Right-front with back=left after left-front with back-right and repeat'. Unfortunately after getting down the hall there was a right turn. The nurse and other mare turned and where walking down it with ease, I had to stop, turn (without falling over) and catch up with them. After several more turns and hallways we arrived at our destination. The door said 'Dr. C. Cortex' as I walked in to the room and I found a bed, a couch, several bright colored pillows around the floor varying from slightly larger than a pin cushion to the size of bean bag chairs, and a desk. "Please would you either sit on the bed or the couch and get comfortable because you will be staying still for some time for this to work properly". Dr. Cortex said to me. So I trotted over to the couch and sat down on it. I tried to get comfortable for a moment or two before I remembered 'oh yeah, i'm now a pony and shouldn't sit like Lyra.' I shifted to a laying position and got comfortable in seconds. The Doctor, who had been watching the whole time looked at me after I had gotten situated and finally saying, "Very good sir. Now you should feel a slight tingle and then, if all goes to plan, start to remember some things." She said as I nodded and lay my head on the couch. She than started to move energy to her horn with a hazelnut aura. Several moments later she started panting. Another five minutes went by and I still was sitting there waiting for the 'tingly feeling', but nothing happened. Doctor C. finally stopped but was panting hard as she turned to look at me. "Sir do you have any residual energy from a spell of any sort? Because I cannot get through to your thoughts." She looked at me expectantly so I answered. "Not as far as I know, but I don't think with my missing memory that I would remember if I did." I said to her. "Well i'm unable to access your thoughts as of yet so I'll have to go and talk to somepony about this setback." I laughed after she said somepony and she walked out of the room's door. After a couple seconds I heard her start saying. "Do you know how highly ranked this stallion must be for me to not be able to use normal magic on him? I mean I am quit highly ranked but I can barely even touch this guy with my magic." She must have been talking with someon- pony else, but what is this rank stuff she is talking about."Hold on why don't I just ask him what rank he is I mean if he is that high than he wont be able to guess anyway, right?" There was a pause for several seconds as i'm guessing she walked back to the door. "Mr. Swirl would you be so kind as to tell me your rank?" She asked and I looked at her in confusion. "Uh, I'm sorry but what is this 'rank' stuff your talking about? I mean I just don't get what your saying." She stared at me for several moments before asking. "Do you really not even remember what the ranking system is?" She asked and I nodded so she sighed and continued. "Okay first off we ponies each have a certain strength that pertains to how powerful we are, and then we are ranked from most powerful to least powerful." She paused to look at me to see if I was getting all of it so I nodded again. "As of now and so as for as long as anypony (a chuckle escaped my lips) has known, our princess, Princess Celestia has been ranked number one and a short while ago Princess Luna has been ranked two. It goes on from that but they are the princesses so the next couple aren't as well known." She moved a hoof back and fourth to get her point across. "Is there any way to just find every...pony's rank. Like a list or something?" I asked."Also how do you get ranks is it like you go do a text or something?" "First off yes there is a list, it is a simple to get book from almost any store and you rank up by winning battles with others of only higher rank than you. It was done this way so that you couldn't rank up by defeating weaker ponies." She stopped for a moment so I asked. "Well that is, well... odd. I thought this place was against violence?" "Well where ever did you hear that? It's just so ridiculous to say the least." Dr. Cortex said to me. She than looked at me up and down like I've been in the nut house. We stood there for a several awkward moments until I finally asked. "So... about this ranking book or whatever it is?" "It's called 'The Compact Ranking System' and it is very good at what it does." "Yes this 'Compact Ranking System' thing, do you have one around here or something so I can see what mine is than?" I gestured around the room while asking. "Ah yes just one moment than." She walked over to the desk while mumbling, "why didn't I just use this first." She than opened the desk with her teeth and proceeded to shift through whatever was in it with her hazelnut aura. After a few seconds passed, she walked back over to me. "So let us see, your full name is Spectrum Swirl right, no middle name or anything?" I nod to her and she starts to shuffle through the pages. I hear her say "S" after a second and she starts to shuffle through the pages again. She ends up a minute later and looks at me with a questioning look on her face. "Mr.Swirl are you positive you cannot use magic or anything of the sort?" I nod again and she looks at me for a moment. "Okay well Spectrum in here it says that you are N/A, and well, that's impossible." I nod slowly and ask "Is that good or something?" Before she backs up a step. She shakes her head and her mane starts to look disheveled. "That is impossible to not have a rank while being in the ranking system. It just would not work." She turned away from me and started to talk loudly to herself. "It just would not work, there aren't any loopholes or anything, which means he would have to be magically strong enough to change the book, and if he now cannot use his magic than I could easily win against him." She points a hoof half at me before saying. "I'll more than likely move up from my rank of three hundred and four to probably in to the two hundreds or lower." She exclaims. She than turns to look straight at me with a blaze in her eyes and a frighteningly serious expression. She than proceeds to say in the same tone as the look on her face , "Spectrum Swirl, do you accept my request for a duel?"
First battle commenceI looked at her like she was crazy. I glanced around for something to focus on other than her and after failing at that, I focused on her again. I knew that if I accepted, I would most definitely end up injured. Or worse. And who wants that!?! After a second in thought, a strange feeling overtook my body. One that seemed to be saying,'Go ahead, you can do it! You'll be fine!' So I steeled up my nerves and stared with a burning excitement at her.. "Doctor Cortex I will accept that challenge, but only under a special condition. If I win, I don't owe this hospital any fee's for the services performed for me ." She smirked. As soon as she answered with "I accept" the floor twisted and rumbled frighteningly before I saw that we where now in a large circular arena, with hundreds of ponies filling the seats and, as I looked on in utter awe, right in plain sight was Celestia with Luna to her right. They where both sitting on lustrous and quite comfortable looking seats with five of the main six sitting next to them, all except Pinkie for some reason. I turned my head back and fourth trying to regain my bearings from what had just happened before Celestia finally spoke. "Competitors please state your name and rank so we can officially start this duel." She started by saying, "Doctor Cerebral Cortex, rank three hundred and four." She said it loud and clear so that the crowd could hear her. The crowd was cheering with a deafening volume and looking at me expectantly. After the initial shock of what just happened I finally said in a small voice, "My name is Spectrum Swirl and... well" I looked around trying to think of something to tell them "I have a rank of... well I don't know." I was trying to hide my face at the end of the simple sentence. All the ponies in the the stands started to look around grinning like it was some kind of joke. Celestia spoke after a moment saying, "This is a highly unconventional way to start a duel Mr. Swirl." Her eyes were boring into me the entire time she spoke. "Sorry" was all I can say to her. She lightly shook her head but didn't say anymore, probably so not to bore the crowd. "Everypony here should know the rules," I snickered at Celestia saying everypony, but not loud enough to be heard ,"but I must remind you all of them. First, you can use any spell or tactic you would like to to win. Remember that after the duel all damage to anypony involved will be undone." I thought about this for a second before she continued. "Second, cheap shots and dirty tactics are frowned upon here and will not be tolerated. Third is to remain inside the arena or you will be disqualified. Any inability to comply will result as an automatic disqualification, understand?" We both nod and a bell rings. She rushes straight at me with her horn glowing. What a horrible strategy to charge at me like that! I simply side stepped and she fell over after trying to turn to hit me. She then proceeded to get up and gather energy in her horn in what I thought was some kind of missile/projectile attack, how I knew that was beyond me. I was sure that I wouldn't be able to dodge the attack so I put up one of my grey hooves. The attack instead hit my foreleg right above the hoof. it then turned a dark black before dissipating. It hurt, A LOT, but not as bad as I expected. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was faring, specifically sense I had no idea what I was doing. I looked at her again while she was charging another spell in which I stood and watched. She let the spell go and I was suddenly encased in a cube of chestnut magic. Looking around I saw no way through so I walked up to the wall I thought was facing her, and stepped towards it. I was thinking of how the last spell of hers just evaporated. The wall first darkened to the same dark black as the bolt that hit me before I simply stepped through it and it shattered. I looked over to see her panting in fatigue. "You okay, you seem tired?" She just looked at me crossly. "Okay, you are either really stupid, or really lucky." she said between pants. I shrugged and looked around, "Do you wanna just end this, you seem like you can't go on much longer?" I asked her. "No, I don't want to quit, I want to beat you!" She said before quickly charging up her horn again for what i'm guessing was going to be another attack. Again thinking back to her spells like before I thought that this might work. I touched her horn with my hoof and it slowly darkened to black and dissipated like her other spells. She tried to put more magic in to the attack and my hoof really started to hurt before all the energy from her horn vanished and she lay unconscious on the floor. "And we have a winner, Spectrum Swirl!" Celestia announced to the crowd. "Now remember only lower ranks can move up by defeating higher ranked opponents so there you go crowd, the duel is over!" At that everything shifted again and I found myself and Doctor Cortex back in the office we were in before. "What, just, happened...." I asked her. I wasn't looking at her to begin with since my vision was swimming. "That was a duel, Spectrum, and a good one at that." She said with a sigh, before seeming to remember something. "Ah, and as promised, the bill will be paid in full out of my pocket." I continued to look at her, still confused. "But no, seriously, what was that?" She puts one of her hooves up to her face in what looks like annoyance before answering your question. "That was a duel where you either rank up or down by either winning, or losing the fight.. Of course, since I am such a low rank, you didn't go up but it's good that I didn't go down either." She returned her hoof to the floor to look at me like I was the biggest idiot on Equis. "Seriously how did you even perform magic if you didn't know what was going on. It seems like you where right on top of your game?" "Wait that was magic? I was actually doing magic?" She face hoofed and looked at the floor. "Seriously!?" She almost screamed at me, her face as red as a Beet. I nod and, just when it seemed she was going to explode, there was a knock at the door to her office. A faint, "Hello, may we enter?" made it's way through. Doctor Cortex proceeds to do some sort of breathing exercise and finally seems to calm down. When her pallor returned to it's previous, non-explosive hue, she walks over to the door and opens it. Out in the hall is none other than the doctor from before, Doctor Needles if you remember correctly, and Nurse Redheart.
