The Broken Compass

Reality seemed to sort of pass in and out of being recognizable to Jase. Every now and then a flash of cognizance would come to him. Most of the things early on were easy enough to see or hear…

… That pink haired angel, still terrified and standing over him, screaming for help…

… The same angel trying to carry and drag him…

… A couple of nurses lifting him onto a stretcher and carrying him inside…

…  A few doctors standing over him in a surgery room operating on him…

After that the world started to become completely a blur. The next thing he consciously felt was searing, constant pain all around him. If it weren’t for the previous numbness, it would have elicited a bloodcurdling scream. His vision turned from absolute darkness to a deep red and began to grow lighter.

As the light came in, he started to see blocky, fuzzy images. He realized then the images were a headboard directly above him, followed by some balloons, an IV stand, and the ceiling. In his foggy state, it took a moment to recognize the room he was in, but when he did, a calm feeling started to overtake him.

It was a hospital room.

The calming allowed Jase’s mind to process at a normal rate again. He began to look around and saw a redheaded nurse walk over to a patient next to him. “Ma’am…” he meekly whispered.

She turned and gave a surprised look. “Hey. You gave us quite the scare. We weren’t sure you were going to make it when you first got in here.” She scanned some monitors near Jase and made quick notes on the clipboard she carried. She drifted from the machines over to Jase’s side, evaluating his condition.

“How… How did I get here?” Jase asked.

She continued checking, taking his pulse as they conversed. “Well, you had an angel looking out for you.” She smiled at him and for the first time since he woke up, Jase smiled.

“You have no idea, ma’am. I saw her. Imagine that! I saw an angel, but of course they don’t exist, so I guess I was just seeing things.” The nurse just stared at him for a while, a confused expression at first. Then she smiled again, but this was more of a motherly, concerned smile.

“Oh, dear… The doctor did say your head was pretty banged up… Well, I would say get some rest, but five days of sleep is probably as much as you could take, right?” She jotted down more notes and was about to exit.

“Wait, ma’am. Where is this hospital: Alabama or Georgia?” She gave him another confused stare before smiling again in the same way.

“Honey, I don’t know where you are talking about, but you’re safe and sound in Ponyville now,” she said as she walked out of the room.

Jase sat stunned. What did she just say? Ponyville? He knew that thing- whatever it was that happened in the woods- had landed him somewhere else. But how far had it taken him? He had never heard of Ponyville before.

Jase tried to push the thought out of his head and began inspecting the surroundings. The hospital room seemed rather standard. He began examining himself and saw that the small cuts and bruises had been thoroughly treated and bandaged by the look of it. Even his injured thumb felt almost normal again. There was an IV stuck into his right forearm and connected to a bag hanging from the stand above him.

Satisfied that he was well patched up, Jase looked at the balloons that were colored light blue and yellow. A card was tied to the cord the balloons were fastened to. Jase picked it up and opened it, shocked by the note.

Make your day worthwhile!

Remember to smile!

Get well soon!

-Pinkie Pie

Jase reread the card, utterly stunned. Who the hell was Pinkie Pie? How did she know him? This was all so confusing. Suddenly it hit him. The nurse’s hair was pink. Maybe it was her attempt at being kind to him. He smiled now, relieved that some stalker hadn’t left those. He let his eyes close and some time passed before they opened again.

When he did reopen them, he was startled to find a girl staring at him with an exaggerated smile plastered on her face. She wore a knee length, light blue skirt with a bright pink tee shirt that matched the tone of her frizzy hair in the same way the skirt was similar to her eye color. “Ah!” Was the first thing Jase managed to get out before flailing his legs in surprise. His momentary panic halted and he looked at the stranger, still a little confused.

“Can I help you?” he asked. Her smile somehow grew wider as she gasped.

“Oh my gosh! You can talk! The doctor said you hit your head pretty bad, so I was all sad, but then Nurse Redheart said you were waking up and about and I thought I’d drop by and say HI!” She shouted the last word. Jase’s already sizable headache was not helping his patience with the ringing in his ear.

“Umm… Ok. Who are you?” Jase inquired. She giggled, not losing that exaggerated smile of hers.

“Well, I’m Pinkie Pie, silly willy.” Jase’s eyes widened as he groaned in understanding.

“Oh! So you’re… Pinkie Pie?” The sentence began as a statement, but became less certain as it went on. What was her real name? Was Pinkie Pie a nickname? She shook her head vigorously.

“Yep yep yep! I came to say hello and smile. So, what’s your name, what’s your favorite color, Where you from, what do you like, and what’s favorite cupcake?” She spat out the words faster than a turret.

“Ok. Slow down a bit. I’m Jase Foster. I like Green. I’m from Fortson. I like anything chocolate flavored…” He counted on his fingers. “I think that was all of your questions.”

She cocked her head to the side with a blank expression. “Fort Son? I’ve never heard of it. Where is it?”

“Well, it’s about 25 miles North of Fort Benning.” She started to laugh heartily “What’s so funny?” Jase asked.

“Well,” she said, “that’s just silly! Who would put two forts next to each other?” Jase tried to say something, but his mouth simply hung open. This pink haired, bouncing ADHD diagnosis had just rendered him utterly speechless. He only managed a one syllable response.

“Huh?”

She laughed some more. Jase collected his thoughts again after a moment. “Well, at any rate, thank you for the card.” He smiled at her. She returned the favor.

“Pinkie? Can… Can I come in now?” a small voice asked from outside of the room.

Jase stared at the doorway confused. “A friend of yours?” he asked. Pinkie shook her head yes.

“Come here, Flutters. He’s awake.”

“Flutters? Who are you talking about?” Jase looked with her and his heart skipped a beat when he realized he was looking right at the angel that saved him. He screamed, soon followed by the terrified squeal of the angel as she ducked almost completely back into cover. Pinkie joined in, screaming out of excitement rather than terror. After a moment, Jase caught his breath again, looking at pinkie surprised.

“She has wings!”

“She has wings,” pinkie repeated.

“She has wings!”

“She has wings!”

“No, Pinkie Pie, you’re not getting it. She. Has. Wings!” Jase punctuated each word with a gesture at the cowering angel. Pinkie Pie cocked her head again.

“Well, duh. She’s an angel.” Jase was utterly dumbfounded. What was she on about now? What insanities were left for her to say? What did she mean angel? Then it hit him and his eyes went wide.

“Holy shit I’m dead.” He gripped his temples as he fell back onto the pillow, leaving the two girls to exchange puzzled stares. Pinkie shrugged as Fluttershy came closer, no longer startled by this eccentric stranger.

“Umm… No, you’re not dead. You did get hurt really bad, but I got help from the nurses and you healed up…” said the surprisingly timid angel. Jase was still too lost in his own thoughts to hear her. Maybe he died when he felt that falling sensation. Yeah, that kind of made since, and it would explain why he was here, wherever this was, when he landed. But that also would make no sense. How had he fallen to his death in the first place? There wasn’t a drop off there.

“So… If I’m not dead, where am I?” He asked, genuinely confused.

The angel smiled for the first time since he spotted her near the treeline. “Well, you’re in Ponyville.”

“Right, but where is that?” Jase inquired, halting the urge to facepalm from the answer’s redundancy.

Her smile faded ever so slightly. “It’s in Equestria.” Jase showed no sign of recognition of the name. “You know, it’s a country on Equis.”

Jase suddenly lit up. “Wait, this Equis… Is that the name of this planet?” Both of the girls exchanged looks again and then shook their heads up and down.

Jase’s eyes grew wide with understanding as he sat back up. “I’m not on Earth… I’m on another planet.”

“Earth?” Pinkie interjected, breaking his train of thought. “You are on Earth. There’s dirt two feet below you.”

“No, you don’t understand, Pinkie,” Jase started, wondering how exactly he would explain this. He was about to start fumbling through an explanation of his home, when he heard a familiar voice from the doorway.

“So this is the welcome I get?” Jase turned his head to see Jude walk through the door in a hospital gown, an IV stand connected to him and rolling behind him.

“Jude!” Jase bolted up. “Damn, I missed you, buddy. I thought we wouldn’t make it.” The two girls exchanged a look yet again, starting to question the sanity of their guest. Pinkie, finally intent on getting some answers, was the first to speak up.

“Who are you talking to?” She asked quite matter-of-factly.

“I’m talking to Jude.” He said, glancing in her direction with a smile.

Pinkie looked around the room and then the ceiling and out the window before cocking her head. Jase raised an eyebrow at the hyperactive girl. “I don’t see anyone here…” she said, utterly confounded. Again, Jase realized something and began to chuckle lightly. “What is it?” Pinkie questioned perplexed.

“Of course you can’t see him,” Jase said through his laughter.

“Why?” Both exasperated girls asked, completely puzzled by the stranger’s cryptic answers. Then he gave an even more enigmatic response.

“Simple: he’s in my head.”