Twilight had fussed over how to get me to the hospital, which had gone completely unnoticed by me as I inspected the damage in the bathroom. I hobbled down the stairs of my behind to see that an orange pony wearing a cowboy hat was talking excitedly with Twilight. Twilight glanced over to me, which caught her attention as she turned around to see me halfway down the stairs.

"Woah nelly! What kind of critter is that?" she drolled in a southern accent. Which left me wondering, why exactly did this place have so many similarities with Earth? Was I actually in the pony equivalent of the deep south? Or was the orange one just an exception? Either way I didn't have much time to ponder these problems, as Twilight helped me down the stairs with her levitation.

"He's not a critter Applejack, he's perfectly intelligent. His name is Gerry."

"Hi Applejack."

Applejack's pupils widen in surprise, "Well how about that! Where'd you find him?"

"He kind of appeared while we were doing a test behind the tree."

"What? So you know how I got here?" I asked with sudden outrage at the suggestion. Twilight frowned and backed away slightly.

She hesitated for a moment before speaking, "My teacher, Celestia, had asked me to take a look at a magical artefact for her. While we were doing some magic reaction tests, you popped out of nowhere with a bang! I'd like to take another look at it soon, maybe we can find a away to get you home."

"Uh, Twilight, shouldn't we be worrying about the whole, hospital thing?" Applejack asked. I didn't want to drop the subject so quickly, but I knew she was right, there'd be time to grill Twilight later if I was still alive. For the time being I relented.

"Oh, of course. We can take a look at that later, we need to be Gerry to the hospital as soon as possible."

"He looks fine to me," Applejack said with squinted eyes, she circled me for a moment before stepping back. For a pony that had never seen a human before, it was odd that she acted as if she knew exactly what I should have looked like.

"I couldn't get out of bed this morning and it looks like my left foot is about to drop off," I contested, holding it up for her to see.

"It ain't meant to look like that?"

"No? It's meant to be kind of... skin coloured like the rest of me. The skin is peeling off now." I winced slightly as some more of the skin fell away, dried and white, revealing more of the black surface underneath. Damn, it looked nasty. Maybe it was some kind of infection? But why would it change the colour of my hair and eyes if that was the case?

Twilight clapped her hooves together. "Applejack was kind enough to let us borrow her cart so we can get there without a problem!"

"Thanks," I nodded to her.

"Ah'm happy to help," she responded with a tip of her hat.

Twilight helped me hobble out of the door and into the town for the first time, it was nice to be out of that damn room finally. There weren't many ponies around, so we avoided any questions about who I was or what we were doing. The cart wasn't too large, evidently scaled to be pulled by the ponies. It was a little bit uncomfortable, being made out of wood, but I wasn't about to complain considering the circumstances. "How are you going to pull me all the way to the hospital?" I asked as I tried to settle in.

"Applejack is an experienced farmer, plus her earth pony magic should make it a breeze."

"He is a mite big Twilight," Applejack noted, "But I ain't about to quit without tryin'," she boasted, hooking herself into a harness. A few ponies glanced over with curiosity, their multi-coloured eyes focused mainly on me. I must have looked like an idiot sat in that damn cart.

"What the hay is that thing?" one mare asked to another from across the road, just in earshot. "It looks like Twilight is handling it, it's a good thing I insured my house last week."

I rolled my eyes, "Can we hurry this up? I think we'll get swarmed if we stick around for too long."

"Alright sugar cube, let's get moving," she tugged the cart once, twice, before finally getting enough momentum to move on the third. From there she settled into a comfortable rhythm as we moved away from the town centre and towards the outskirts. The hospital was in a strange location, I had expected it to be closer to the town. Twilight didn't have much to say on the way there, but AJ bombarded me with questions about myself and where I came from. I answered most of them, somewhat reluctantly.

"You got any family?" she asked as I admired the scenery. It really was a beautiful place, untouched fields, trees and river for miles around; in the distance you could see the imposing profile of a mountain range, and what seemed to be a castle among the clouds on it's side. Straight out of a fantasy novel.

"Not really, both my parents passed away about the time I left university, I was an only child so I didn't have many people around me. I had a girlfriend..."

"Sore subject?" she asked.

"Yeah, she ditched me for being too involved in my job."

"What did you do for a living?"

"I worked on a farm."

This gave Applejack pause for a moment, "Well ain't that a crazy little coincidence! I'm from a farming family too." Because of course the southern talking, cowboy hat wearing pony was a farmer, why not?

"And I suppose it's an apple focused farm then."

"Darn right! The Apples are the worlds largest and most renowned apple making family."

It was nice to know somebody could take pride in their work. The conversation sizzled out, as I didn't particularly feel like talking about myself all that much. Instead I tried to quiz Applejack about herself in return. "So it's a family business then? Who do you work with?"

"Well it's mainly just me and my brother, Big Mac, my little sis Applebloom is still going to school after all. Granny Smith is too old to work these days." I immediately noted the absence of any parents from the description she gave me, maybe we had something in common after all. "I'll introduce you to them if you have the time."

"Sounds good," it didn't, but I humoured her anyway. "You have any family Twilight?"

Twilight snapped out of a daze and nodded, "Parents, and a big brother. My mother is a novelist, my dad an astrologist, and my brother is the captain of the guard in Canterlot."

"And you?"

"Me? I'm studying to be a mage, a great one like Starswirl the Bearded."

I had no idea who that was, "Who?"

Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes, as if scolding a child. "Starswirl the Bearded was one of the greatest unicorns to ever live! He innovated nearly every field of modern magic with his studies and work with the Princesses."

"Well, don't expect me to be blown away, I've never been here before this week."

"I suppose that's true. I should keep that in mind in the future."

The hospital was one of the largest buildings I had seen yet. Two stories high, with a third floor in the attic. I briefly wondered about what kind of technology these ponies lived with, from the style of building it was like I'd been transported to Tudor England, but the lobby was ripped straight out of a modern hospital, with sterile white walls and lights embedded in the ceiling. Perhaps the presence of magic could explain some of these oddities.

The ponies sat in the lobby stared, with wide, colourful eyes as I was carted to the front desk. The mare sat there seemed afraid, but upon noticing Twilight calmed herself. Twilight must have done things like this fairly often. It certainly put the house insurance quote in context, she must have destroyed the town thrice over.

They checked me in, with the mare asking us to take a seat and wait to be seen. I pulled my sore ass out of the cart and onto one of the much too small plastic seats, my knees halfway to my face. The other ponies moved away, leaving gaps between us and them. I didn't blame them to be fair, I must have been a terrifying sight.

An awkward silence had settled upon my little entourage. The oil that burned during our previous conversation having burned out, now I was left with a sense of exclusion. I didn't belong here, in this crazy new world full of magic and mystery, I was just some pessimistic farmer who in the grand scheme of things, had done nothing to justify his own existence.

The call of my name broke the silence, we left the cart, Twilight helping me along with her magic instead. We were herded into a small office, one the left was a bed, and on the right was a desk manned by a brown pony with a pair of glasses. "Hm, I've never seen anybody like you before."

"Well it should be easy enough to see what's wrong with me."

"Thanks for seeing us on such short notice Doctor Stable, I believe this is a very urgent issue," Twilight said, filling him in on the details.

"Well, let's take a look at the problem."

I sat down on the bed and showed him the bottom of my foot. He nodded and hummed to himself, "That indeed looks like an urgent issue, I don't suppose it's meant to look like that?"

"No, it's meant to be the same colour as the rest of my skin, but it's falling off and revealing this stuff."

"You don't mind if I get a closer look do you?"

"Go ahead."

He pulled out of tray of tools from his desk and approached the bed. He adjusted his glasses and closed in, feeling it with his hoof. "Do you still feel any sensation when I touch the affected area?"

"A little bit."

He pulled out one of his tools and scraped away some of the dead skin, carefully placing it into a plastic bag. "I'm going to take a few samples of this area here, from both of your appendages and send them to our lab, maybe we can shed some light on what this is." He pulled out a scalpel like tool and did the same to the hardened area. "Hm, this is very tough. Like the bottom of a hoof."

"I'm also getting discolouration in my hair and eyes," I added as he packed them away.

"I can send you down to the optician folks and they can have a look for you. I can't make an assessment in good faith without knowing what this matter on your appendage is. Even then it might be something we haven't seen before, you're the first..."

"Human."

"...the first human I've ever seen. I'm taking your word that this is not normal."

I nodded, "I'm just thankful that I'm able to get some help."

"No worries. I'll get this send off to the lab, head back to the lobby and I'll get this back to you as soon as possible."

Author's Notes:

I've re-written the last half of this chapter like three times, sorry if it's a bit odd.