Chapter two

                                                                                                Chapter two !Currently being rewritten.!

      Three days later, I found myself lying on the bed and staring mindlessly at the data pad which was playing a clip on the more “exotic” things in Equestria(I.E : Telekinesis) before I got bored and switched it to a twenty page guide on how to fly. However, I found it amusing that the robot operators were able to gather all this information. I mean seriously, why do they even need a scout when they could just do all the research themselves?

      However, my train of thoughts ended abruptly when someone knocked on the door. When I opened the door, I was greeted by my head of research and worst enemy of all time, Simmons Grey, holding a cake. “Here you go!” he said cheerfully, shoving the cake into my hands. “I baked you a cake. It’s your favorite kind!” then, he ran off.

     “That was weird.” I mumbled to myself. “Normally, he isn’t that nice. Never mind him. I’ll eat the cake.” Even better, it was a black forest cake! My favorite kind! However, to my annoyance, when I started to cut the cake, it blew up. “AHH!” I screamed as I was assaulted by flying cake. Now, I really, really hate that guy. Not just regular hate though. It was like those worst enemy hatred. In fact, when I get back from Equestria, I’ll probably start a hate list and his name would be on the top. I thought to myself as I started to clean up the living room table before going to the bathroom to wash up.

                                                                             ~~~

     On the day of the operation, I was shaking all over. The reason was pretty simple. Last night, I had finally finished reading the section on exactly what they were going to insert into my body and man, it was freaky. Basically, they might decide to implant some kind of A.I system into my head “to give me advice”. And even worse, they are going to implant some drug injector thing and some other stuff, straight from a sci-fi movie. “Calm down. It’s going to be okay. You’re going to a word full of equines and there’s a possibility of you getting stuck there forever.” I told myself and it backfired badly, (No big surprise) and it just made me even more nervous. Good thing one of my friends, John Doe (That’s his real name), was going to accompany me to the Medical wing. Otherwise, I would have gone into panic mode with no one to comfort me. By the time one of the nurses gave me some sedatives, I was literally, pulling out my hair. Ten minutes later, I was dozing off in the waiting room.

      When I woke up again, I felt…horrible. It felt as if someone ripped my body apart and then stitched them back together with a hot needle. For some reason, I couldn’t feel my legs and it was made worse by a throbbing headache. Also, the lights were too bright and there were those irritating beeps made by some ECG machine. Oddly enough, there was none of those hospital smells, which for some reason, I enjoyed but I didn’t care. I was lying on a bed, in a what? Recovery room? Room room? My mind’s too fogged up to think properly. There was a nurse changing some dressings on some place I couldn’t see without moving my head. “Oh good. You’re awake! I’ll turn off the sedative drip so when you wake up again, you’ll be able to get up and walk around.” She said. Having nothing better to do, I tried to tell her that I couldn’t feel my legs but it came out as mumbling. So in the end, I just gave up trying to communicate with the nurse and I dozed off again.

      After I had finally regained consciousness, I realized that I wasn’t in the medical wing anymore. Instead, I was in the facility’s waste processing plant. “That’s weird.” I muttered to myself as I began exploring this place. That was until I saw a horribly mutilated child with a missing arm, holding a hacksaw and chopping up some of the research staff’s body. Seems like the Biology Labs people screwed up big time. Then, Mr. Franken-child began stuffing the body’s legs into his mouth. I resisted the urge to scream upon seeing this but unfortunately I stepped on some person’s bones and it made this loud cracking sound. That attracted the Franken-child’s attention. He turned its head around and gave me this weird grin with what’s left of his face. Aww crap!” I screamed as the child pounced on me and everything went dark.

                                                                                ~~~

      That was when I woke up (for real) and I came face to face with a bunch of doctors in gowns and wearing face masks. For some reason however, I couldn’t move my body. “Unstrap me!” I hollered, after realizing that I was strapped to the bed as I was dying to get out of this place. I should have known that whatever I said sounded like gibberish, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to go and find Simmons and kick him in the groin for pulling the cake-bomb thing on me (Yes. I’m still mad at him). “Relax Ms. Jones. We’re just going to do some checks on you first.” A red haired doctor told me, in a smooth and calm voice. After they finished undoing the last of the straps, I got up and tried to get on the floor. However, they prevented me from getting out of the bed. I reluctantly obeyed them as they were insistent on it.

      What they had me to do was pretty easy. Look up, look down-you get the idea. The interesting bit came when they got me to try moving my legs and my new appendages. It was pretty weird actually, with me being able to wave and do other stuff that I could do as a human. However, when they gave me a pen and told me to try and write with it, I couldn’t even get the cap off with my hooves. In the end, I got frustrated and I simply held the pen with my mouth and pinned the cap between my hooves and the darn thing finally came off. The writing part was pretty tricky as I had to write with my mouth.  After that came the wings. It was strange that I could open my wings and tuck them back in again without having to learn how to do it in the first place. (Must be some kind of muscle memory argumentation they did). After completing all these, they left the room, (not before warning me not to get off the bed and walk around for fear of injuries.)

    Just as I was about to fall asleep again out of boredom, Mr. Olsen and some other guy I had never met before entered the room, with Simmons following behind them. “Hello Aqua. I’m Doctor Miller, head of Medical Sciences Research.” the guy-whom-I-never-met told me.

      “Now, I must apologize for the restraints we had to place on you just now but you were trashing around in your sleep so much, we got worried that you might break something or injure yourself. You’re quite strong for your size you know.”  He continued, with a grin on his face. Simmons looked pretty uncomfortable upon hearing that comment. I couldn’t help but giggle at him. “So doc, can I get out of bed now? Your guys told me not to get off the bed until they said it was okay.” I inquired. After getting the thumbs-up, I began to get out of the bed, which was way harder than I thought. I couldn’t figure out how to get the blanket off me with my hooves and when I did manage to, my wings gets stuck in the darn piece of fabric. So in the end, I ended up getting tangled up in the bed sheet.

      After some help from Dr. Miller though, I finally managed to stand on the ground but not without difficulty as the bed was way higher from the floor than I had excepted and my center of gravity had completely changed. However, I remembered a tactic I read from a book. I simply closed my eyes and let my body take over. When I opened my eyes again, I noticed to my dismay that my eyes were at about the height of the other’s waists. That would take some time to get used to as my height was above average when I was a human. Actually, I realized that it would take a long time. Height differences aside, the next thing I had to learn was walking. Flying would have to come later. “So… you’re not worried that you’re naked?” Simmons teased me. That made me pissed. “You’re not worried that I’m going to buck you after all this? I’m still mad at the exploding cake.” I shot back. If you’re wondering if I’m worried though, the answer was no. I mean come on. I’m going into a land full of talking ponies. Being naked was the least of my concerns now. Besides, I was covered in fur so technically, I wasn’t naked.

      “Simmons, I’ll like to talk to you.” Mr. Olsen said, opening a door leading to a hallway. Simmons followed with an I’m-going to-die look on his face.

      “So anyway, just to let you know, we didn’t implant the A.I system, because of Mr. Olsen highlighting something about moral issues. But we got the sensors, the automated medical system and the internal radio implanted. Also, we did some modifications to your digestive tract so that you can survive on any kind of organic material even if it is poisonous, should you ever need that. Any questions?” he asked.

      “A few.” I replied while sitting down on the floor.

      “Alright feel free to ask.”

      “Firstly, how long was I in the bed and secondly, why the heck do I seem to know how to move my wings without learning?” I asked, gesturing to them.

      “Well, we managed to wire your brain into something like the winged ponies there in Equestria so you wouldn’t need much training on that. Although you still need to do some practice on walking and you know-” he said, gesturing to my now out- stretched wings. “-Flying. How long did you stay in the bed, let’s say about one month.” I was pretty sure that I didn’t hear that part right. “Say that again.” I requested.

      “You were in the bed for about a month.” He repeated calmly.

      “Why? Was there something wrong?” I inquired, worried that they might have damaged my brain or something. Last thing I wanted to know was that I got permanent brain damage.

       “Actually, we had to grow new muscles for your wings as we couldn’t get enough muscles from your body. Then, we had to make sure everything was growing correctly so, well you had to stay in bed for that time period. And as I mentioned earlier, we gave you some training on how to walk and fly with your new body.”

      I continued messing around with my wings while he was saying all this, that was until my stomach started growling in hunger. “Oh! I forgot! You must be quite hungry aren’t you? Lying weeks in a bed with no proper nourishment will make one quite hungry,” he said “let’s go to the cafeteria and get something to eat.”

     “Wait. Shouldn’t I be top secret or something like that?” I asked. “I mean, didn’t Mr. Olsen say that whatever was discussed in the presentation in the auditorium secret?”

      “Actually, no. That was just complying with the protocol of some government thing that I can’t remember now. I briefed them about you but I’m pretty sure that you will still get some stares though.” He replied. Just as he finished, someone knocked on the door. “Come in please!”

     A woman’s head poked into the room. “Anna!” I exclaimed, beaming. Anna was a close friend of mine. We were friends since we were kids so we were kind of like sisters. Unfortunately, when we managed to get into Transtech, she got assigned to the physics department so we rarely have the chance to talk.

    “Hi Aqua! I heard about the project thing so I decided to check on you. You look cute by the way.” She replied. I blushed upon hearing this.

      “Anyway, I’m pretty hungry now so, could we please go to the cafeteria now?” I begged. My stomach was growling like crazy by now. Dr. Miller opened the door for me. However, when I tried to walk, I ended up stumbling out of it, right into some kind of trolley. Thank goodness it’s empty. I thought to myself as I got up again.

“Aqua, one of my ex-boyfriends used to own horses and they walk like this: front left, back left, front right, back right. Try labeling them as one, two, three and four respectively or, A, B, C and D.” Anna said.

      I nodded as I began counting them under my breath. I screwed up in the first few attempts but I managed to get a steady pace in the end. I managed to get about fifteen meters away from the room until I caught my reflection in a sheet of glass. “Wow.” I muttered as I stopped to inspect myself closer for the first time. My fur was a slightly darker shade of Maya blue, and my mane and tail were Azure with a stripe matching my fur colour. For some reason, my eye colour had completely changed when I was a human, it used to be brown but now, they were a light shade of green. The picture things on my flanks were three clouds, which I had chosen myself. The reason that I had chosen that was because since young, I liked clouds. One time, I even built a cloud making machine that unfortunately, blew up when I tried to use it last year. Overall, I thought I looked quite nice. However, I had never expected that none of my original features had made it so I was pretty disappointed. The only part that I was not happy was my mane, as it was too messy. It looked like some fuzzy monster from a kids show and there were feathers in it.  I made a mental note to get it brushed and cleaned up when I get the chance.

      “Ahem.” Someone said, causing me to jolt in surprise. I had totally forgotten about the others.

      “How do you think?” Dr. Miller asked.

      “I look great!” I exclaimed, continuing to walk towards the cafeteria.

      “Aqua! Watch where you’re going!” Anna warned me just as I was about to go down a flight of stairs. Too late. I tumbled down, before finally landing in a heap at the bottom of the flight of stairs.

      “GAH!” I spluttered as I picked myself up again. Anna tried to help me up but I rejected her help.

      “Are you okay?” Dr. Miller asked me.I nodded.

      I seriously need to learn how to fly. I thought as I continued my way towards the cafeteria. By the time I had reached the cafeteria, I had stopped counting and was walking like I knew how to for years. That was until I noticed that all the eyes in the area were locked on me. I tried to make myself as small as possible, which didn’t work. In fact, it just made me feel more vulnerable.

     “Erm… Ignore me?” I managed to say when the whole room burst into applause. It was a bit embarresing but in the end, I managed to blot out all the noise and I managed to find a rather quiet spot in the room with benches instead of chairs. I climbed up and managed to get seated comfortably. Dr. Miller was shouting something but I couldn’t hear him clearly.

      “I’m going to get you something to eat if that’s okay with you.” Anna said. I nodded my head, ignoring the occasional glance from some of the staff. A few minutes later, she returned, with a tray full of carrots, apples some raw vegetables, a sandwich, a Klondike bar and a bottle of water. I looked at the bottle warily, not sure how to drink from it. Just in time too, as I was about to go crazy from all the attention I was receiving.

      “I hope you like the foods I bought. I know you can eat meat but some people might go crazy if they saw you eating a hamburger or steak.” She said. That gave me an idea on how to get back on Simmons. I’ll get a hamburger and eat it in front of him. I’m pretty sure I laughed at this as there were quite a lot of eyes looking at my direction. Embarrassed, I buried my face in my hooves

      After ensuring that no one was looking in my direction again, I concentrated on eating. The carrots, a vegetable which I detested when I was a human, tasted surprisingly good. So were the celery and the lettuce. The apples were a bit difficult as I haven’t mastered eating with my hooves yet, so I held one tightly between my hooves and bit into it. It was crunchy and tasted sweet, unlike the ones I used to have at home, which was sour. After finishing the fruits and vegetables, I decided to eat the Klondike bar as I loved those things. Unwrapping it was a bit troublesome, but eating it was pretty simple. I took small bites of it to prevent getting brain-freeze and soon, I was finished with it. I sandwich was pretty good, except I was disappointed that it didn’t contain cheese. After I was satisfied, I realized that I was quite thirsty so I decided to go for the bottle of water. Getting the cap off it was pretty hard without hands and when I did manage to, I accidently spilled some of its contents all over the place. Drinking from it was pretty simple. I clamped the mouth of the bottle with my mouth and used my hooves to tilt it. The cool liquid flowed into my mouth. After finishing the whole thing, I set it back onto the table.

      “Do you need anything else?” Anna asked me.

      “Actually, what I really need now is a nice warm bath. I mean look at me! I look horrible and I probably smell like crap. I’m pretty sure those ponies in Equestria don’t look or even smell as bad as me!” I said.

      At this moment, Mr. Olsen and Dr. Miller appeared.

       “That’s a good idea. Anna, would you would be nice enough to escort Aqua back to her room?” Mr. Olsen suggested.

“Of course! Anything else?”

     “Well, according to Simmons, the next available portal stable enough to get to Equestria is about a month away, so we’ll have to accelerate your training program if that’s okay with Aqua.” Mr. Olsen said.

      “Yeah. That’s fine.” I replied. As I made my way back to my room with Anna.

                                                                     ~~~

      “GAH! Stupid comb!” I exclaimed as I fumbled with a comb stuck in my mane. No matter how I tried to get it out of the tangled mess, it just refused to budge. “Fine. Stay in my mane you damm thing.” I cursed, after being unable to get it out. I sighed to myself. I never realized that a simple task like combing my hair when I was a human seemed so far-fetched now that I was a pony. Drying myself with a towel, I stepped out of the bathroom.

      “Oh hi Aqua!” Anna greeted me as I came out of the room, with the comb still stuck in my mane. “Do you need help with the comb?” she asked me. I nodded and I let her comb my mane. “It’s weird how they still let you use your old come isn’t it?”

   “What do you mean?” I asked.

     “I mean, shouldn’t you have something that would be easier to handle with hooves? Like having a strap on it so it’ll be easier to handle?”

    “Actually, the ponies in Equestria use combs just like these. It’s in one of the videos I watched although they seem to handle them perfectly.” I replied, just as she tugged on a stubborn snarl. “Ow!” I exclaimed.

     “Anyway, I’m here to inform you about what they are going to put you through for the next three weeks. They’ll get you to go through an obstacle course, train you on how to fly and get you to know better on how to use your more enhanced hearing and eyesight. Also, they did a run down on your recording systems, which are running perfectly.” She said, after finishing combing my mane and proceeding to comb my tail.

    “Okay. Oh yeah! I remember one thing though. I requested for a standby mode for the recording systems before I went for the operation. Did they install it?” I inquired.

     “Yes. They did. You simply need to say system off and the recording devices will automatically shut down. By the way, I managed to convince my supervisor to let me take the month off to accompany you.”

     Good. I thought to myself. At least I’ll have some privacy. When Anna finished helping me comb my tail, I decided to try and preen my wings. It was much easier than combing. I simply had to run my teeth through my wings and they will get rid of the old feathers. After that, I requested Anna to help me play some of the newest videos about Equestria. I laid down on my bed as I watched some colts and fillies, running around in a fashion similar to the human version of tag.

     I smiled. Equestria seemed pretty idyllic without all the monsters and stuff like that. I couldn’t wait to get there, but at the same time, I was scared as hell.

                                                                                         ~~~

      Training was pretty hard at first, with all the lessons on trotting, cantering and galloping. Writing was a total failure for me as I still couldn’t use a pen. Flying was quite scary for the first few times as some fool thought I could learn better “in the most natural way” which was chucking me off a plane from a height of thirty kilometers above sea level. (When I find out who that person is, I am so bucking the daylights out of him or her.) Thank goodness that there was a parachute thing provided for me or I would have hit the ground and went “splat” in the first lesson. After a few of those jumps however, I could not only fly but hover and do barrel rolls and other wacky things (On one such occasion, I managed to do a sonic boom. It was pretty funny to see the shocked looks on the instructors). The only thing that I enjoyed during those lessons was the fact that I could walk on clouds, so whenever I decided to have a break or something, I’ll just take a nap on one of them. (Mostly, I do it to see them trying to get me off the cloud. It’s kind of funny to see them waving and shooting flares into the air to get me to complete my training, until some person plays rock into the radio. Now that was effective.) After all those, I had to pass an obstacle course, which was used to train the facility’s security team.  That put all of my efforts back onto square one. I would end up in a heap on the floor or land face first and they didn’t allow me to fly in there, so it was really frustrating. I did manage to finish it in record time after some practice though.

     They also showed me some more videos from Equestria, with some ponies in a market exchanging goods and even money that looked like gold coins for fruits and a bunch of other odds and ends. I heard that Simmons got a team of Chemists and some designers to mint coins that looked like them, from the data that they had collected so technically speaking, we were forging money. However, I didn’t want to find out how their justice system worked so I decided to use them in an absolute emergency or, when I got the actual coins and compared them side-by-side.

    As the days went by, I finally managed to write with my hooves and comb my hair without getting the comb stuck in it again. The lab people did manage to mint what they called a “perfect replica” of the Equestrian currency which the locals called them as “bits”. Basically, the bits looked like gold coins but in terms of weight, they were as light as Styrofoam. I did request for some of them to be made from gold as I could probably find a jeweler or something and trade them for more bits

                                                                                 ~~~

     Finally, it was the day where the portal was scheduled to open. So there I was, standing in the Lambda portal’s room, in front of the giant metal monstrosity, wishing that I could take a nap. I had saddlebags filled with a comb and various brushes for my tail and mane, some vegetables, a bottle of water, a toothbrush and a small bag with fifty or so bits. Anna had insisted that I go through some sterilization process where they removed or killed all the various viruses, bacteria and insects that could bring some contagious disease. I shuddered slightly as I remembered one part where I had to swallow some kind of pills that made my stomach feel as if it was burning. Anyway, sitting in a room for hours and doing nothing was starting to get on my nerves. I had asked the operators if it was okay that I ate an apple but they said no.

     “It’s due to safety issues. There’s quite a lot of poisonous substances being handled here so no eating, drinking and smoking is allowed here at all times.”  Some guy told me. Ha! As if I could smoke. But still, it’s frustrating. To pass the time, I decided to do something meaningless – counting the feathers on my wings.

     When I reached feather No. 1000, someone’s voice came up on the intercom, causing me to jump up in fright. “This is it people! We’re opening the portal! Three… two… one. Alright the portal is op - wait. That’s NOT SUPPOPSED TO HAPPEN!” the voice yelled as the power supply suddenly started blowing up. “SHUT IT OFF! PRESS THE BUTTO-” the intercom went silent as it got hit by a falling steel grinder.

That was when the Automated Emergency Broadcast System (A.E.B.S) came on from a separate speaker. “Warning! Catastrophic failure imminent in Sector Lambda. All personnel please follow Facility Emergency protocol and head towards the nearest bunker. Possible wipe out of all life forms within one hundred meters. Nuclear generator meltdown imminent. Portal stability at 90 percent. Please follow the instructions of the facility’s Disaster Control Team and remain calm at all times.”

    “Not helping!” I exclaimed to the A.E.B.S as I made my may for the exit, which to my dismay, was sealed off by blast doors. Even worse, the override button was blocked by a portion of the celling. Ha. Keep calm. Why do they always say such stupid things? “I’m doomed” I muttered as I began to resign to my fate.

     “Aqua! Do you hear me?” John’s voice came through the implanted communications system. Well, at least I have someone to tell them my will, I thought to myself darkly.

    “Yes! Now get me out of here! I’m too young to die!” I yelled. The portal generator started to blow up. (Actually, I have no idea what was blowing up by now. There were explosions all over the place.)

     “Listen! You have to go through the portal! That’s your only chance to live! If you don’t, the whole place is going to blow up with you in it!” he shouted. More explosions followed.

      So, there I was, having to decide where to go. The portal or remain in the place and get blown up into a million pieces?? I chose my answer in a heartbeat. I’m going through. At least when I die, I know that I tried to save my flank than wait and die. Avoiding the falling debris and more exploding stuff, I galloped to the entrance and after closing my eyes, leaped into the portal…