Author's Notations: I apologize for the long wait, school has been a pain, but yet again, it's just another excuse that my mind makes to explain why I have not been writing.
My Little Pony is a creation of Hasbro, All Rights Reserved.
I awoke with a faint beeping echoing around me, a bright light making me squint and hold a hoof over my eyes. It took a second for my mind to process the fact that something was different.
Sitting up on the cold metal table, I looked at my hooves finding them back to their original state. The turquoise color and amber hooves giving me a sense of relief, but my mind was screaming inside my head that something was wrong.
Looking up I noticed that my surroundings had changed as well. The room around me was almost pure white, save a few multicolored blinking lights on a console across the room. A small pinprick of pain from my hoof made me look down at it only to find what looked to be an IV of a cloudy yellow liquid on a stand with what looked to be a heart monitor attached to the metal pole.
I felt my stomach turn at the thought of taking it out and looked around for something to stop the bleeding if I did. The solemn bleeps from the monitor quickened as I scanned the room, only to find nothing more than unidentifiable machines littering the room, along with the almost unrecognizable door on the left wall.
Looking back at IV stand, I noted it was on wheels. Figuring I might as well see what was going on, I gently lowered myself from the table. Cringing as the cold surface of the tile floor made contact with my hoof, I attempted to put some weight on it only for a loud crack to emanate through the room as my knee popped almost making me collapse to the floor. Putting my weight on my other hooves had the same effect, other than my back right leg which proceeded to pop when I took my teetering first step.
'Dang... How long was I asleep?' I questioned in my head looking down at my legs. "Where the hay am I anyways?" I asked quietly, receiving no answer as expected. Hooking an unstable hoof around the IV stand, I started wandering around the odd room.
The heart monitor gave it's solemn beeps every second or so, as I wheeled the device over to a machine that looked oddly like a device that had been in the human world, 'What was the name of those stupid things... copier? Whatever...' I thought looking over the flashing console debating whether or not to press one of the buttons or not. Using my better judgment, I turned away from the machine, walking instead to the door.
The IV stand made small hops and jumps as it went over the edges of the tiles. When I stopped at the door, I tried the nob only to find it locked, and the locking mechanism looked almost like the old card key locks from back home.
'Well the only thing trying to break this would accomplish is make an alarm sound, if anything' I thought, starting to turn back around to go look at another on of the machines.
Before I could really turn around though, the sound of the lock mechanism unhinging and had to step back as the door opened to reveal a bright orange pony with a lab coat on. A look of shock encompassed the young mare's face. Her mouth fell open, her small glasses slipping lower down her face, "Y-y-you sh-sh-shouldn't be out of bed yet!" She stuttered, obviously surprised.
My eyes widened as my mind processed what she had just told me. "What do you mean by that?" I asked in a worried tone, a slight tightness in my chest growing as the mare regained her composure.
Clearing her throat the mare adjusted her glasses and looked back at me. "Well I suppose it would be easier to do the tests now" she said before pushing past me and walking towards one of the machines.
My heart rate went through the roof making the beeps more erratic and unnatural, "What're you talking about? What tests?" I attempted to question the mare again only to receive nothing more than the beeping of the heart monitor, and the noise of the mare tapping away at the machine's console.
"Please go sit down on the table, against the wall there" The mare said, pointing towards the table I had woken up on.
My initial thought was to ignore her demand and continue to question her, but I did what the mare asked, in hopes she would answer my questions.
Not too long after, I settled myself on the table, the mare trotted over with a small tool in her mouth which she stuck to my arm only for a sharp jab of pain to jump from the place where she had put the device. As blood started to drip from the small wound, the small device collected it and stored it into a small vial on the back before she removed it and stuck a bandage onto the wound.
"Well to answer your question" She said, trying to remove the large rubber front of the device. "I'm doing tests with my colleagues to see if you're safe enough to let back out into the world... Uhg, could you help me with this?" she asked giving me the device.
"Just pull this end off" she said pointing towards the large red nub on the end. A small pop came from the piece of equipment as it came off revealing what looked to be the nozzle to a vacuum with a light suction.
Giving the item back to the mare I eyed the piece of rubber in my hoof before placing it in her waiting hoof. "Thank you" she said before walking back to the machine, not before putting the rubber nub in a nearby hazardous waste disposal unit.
After a few seconds, she walked back with a similar nub on the end of the device. "Please open your mouth" she said before sticking the device to my tongue for a few seconds. After which she again walked back to the machine and it started to make a light whirring noise.
"Alright, please step off of the table" she instructed before grabbing a small gauze pad and some medical tape. "I'm going to remove your drip, you might feel a bit of a scratch or itch" she said before gently removing the needle from my leg.
I gave an involuntary twitch before shaking my head and looking back at her only to see her holding the bandage over the wound for a few seconds before asking me to apply pressure as she taped it to my leg.
"Thank you, now, probably you're wondering where you are, and all that junk. To be honest I'm surprised you were so quiet through this" She said looking back up at me interest sparkling in her eyes. "You're actually still in Canterlot, well technically a little ways outside the town limits. The Princess had you moved here. Oh! Where are my manners, I'm Orange Meadows. Usually my partner Cloud Surfer is here, but today he was called to a meeting so I had to come in alone"
I was a bit shocked at her sudden talkativeness, but accepted it. "It's nice to meet you Miss Meadows, but my mind is more on what happened? Why have I reverted back to normal?" I asked.
Orange scratched at he back of her neck for a moment, "Well, it's rather hard to explain, but after years of research, we managed to find what the thing causing ponies to turn into, well what we call them is Nightmares like from the old stories, but yours was the only one we were able to separate the pony from the creature. We have yet to really give a name to the creature, but it has definitely given us some valuable information through study" she said lowering her hoof back to the floor. "It has yet to awaken yet"
I grabbed the mare by the shoulders and shook her, my eyes wide with fear. "Kill her before she does! If you don't... I don't even want to think of the consequences..." I said putting the mare down before sitting on the floor with my hooves up to my head.
After many more different tests involving the different machinery around the lab, all of which Orange Meadows marked down on a small clipboard.
"Alright, the last one is a test to see if your original resistance to the sun has returned" Orange said looking down at the clipboard. "Please follow me"
'Finally something easy and not straining on my body...' I thought letting out a relieved sigh and following the mare.
Leading me through a long corridor, Orange stopped in front of the large door at the end and punching in the code with her snout before grabbing the large wheel. "You may want to close your eyes for a moment" She said before giving the wheel a strong tug and opening the door.
Heat wafted into the air conditioned labs blowing my mane back, as the bright sunlight shined in from the large door. After the initial blinding brightness from under my eyelids, I slowly opened them revealing a bright field. Small patches of flowers were spread out over the entirety of what I could see.
An odd content feeling filled my heart as I looked over the scene, the flowers waving in the light breeze, the almost inaudible sounds of birds chirping, just set my heart at ease.
'What in the world? It wasn't that long since I've been outside, what's wrong with me?' I questioned mentally, furrowing my brow. Orange must've taken my hesitance for fear as she attempted to encourage me to leave. "Don't worry! You've passed all the other tests so far, there's no doubt you'll be able to walk out there without any problems!" she said with an uncertain, but sincere smile on her face.
I released a chuckle before shooting her a smile of my own and stepping outside of the labs. The warmth of the sun reflecting off my coat, besides making me a tad bit warmer, had no effect on me. The sound of Orange's pen scratching on her clipboard was echoing from inside the long closed space of the labs, the sound quickly dying in the long expanse of the open field.
"Alright, you can come back in now" Orange's voice rang out, breaking through my thoughts. I turned back to her with a questioning look on my face, but she looked away, guilt showing on her face. Following the mare's request, I walked back in only for her to press a small button on the wall closing the door and locking it again. "Please come with me" she said walking down the corridor again.
I could only shoot her another odd look before starting to follow her.
Ending Notations: I apologize again, this time for the rather short chapter.