Cloudsdale was a large city, but that didn’t stop word from getting around swiftly when something strange happened. Talk of the odd pony unconscious behind a trash can spread around like a swarm of parasprites.

Within an hour after it was taken to the hospital, everypony out on the streets had at least overheard something about it. Three hours after that, ponies were telling and hearing rumours and theories about how it might be some sort of earth pony royalty, or a being from another world, or just somepony with a weird mane and no tail. (Well, it’s not like all the rumours were insanely unlikely.)

Almost twenty hours after it was first found, it still had not woken up. It lay in a white hospital bed, hooked up to a heart rate monitor that showed a perfectly normal pulse. Every now and again, doctors would come in and out to examine it with unicorn magic or some device, high or low tech.

Every thermometer they put in the pony’s mouth registered at no higher than two degrees. Attempts to get a blood sample resulted in the needle melting within seconds. Forcing open its eyelids to get a better look just left them with more questions, as all they saw were blank white eyes. None of their direct tests were successful, but any scanning with unicorn magic showed that the pony was perfectly healthy beyond not waking up.

Thirty hours after being admitted to the hospital, that changed with a loud thump.

“...the carpet’s white...it’s supposed to be green.”

A doctor walked into the room and saw the patient disconnected from the monitor, lying facedown on the hard cloud floor. It was struggling to stand up, seeming to want onto its hind legs only, but giving up after two attempts and plopping down onto its rump on the floor as it turned to face the doctor.

The doctor blinked. The pony blinked. After a moment, the doctor made his way to the door and opened it, poking his head through it to call out a simple “It’s awake”. The room was almost instantly swarmed by two more doctors and three nurses.

“Um...g-good morning?” a light green unicorn nurse greeted, sounding worried.

“Morning!” the pony replied with a smile.

The nurse relaxed, feeling a bit more comfortable since this pony seemed friendly enough. She brushed some of her white mane out of her eyes. “How are you feeling?”

“A little dizzy and tired,” it replied. “And shorter.”

One of the doctors scribbled down notes as the nurse continued talking, having apparently been silently voted to take care of interaction with this pony. “That’s nice...do you remember what happened to you?”

“A woman talked to me in my sleep and touched me on the head.”

The doctor stopped writing to raise an eyebrow, but resumed after a nudge from the nurse beside him. The nurse in front seemed confused as well, so she turned the conversation away from that topic. “Er...who are you? Or rather...um…what are you?”

The pony tilted its head, then looked over itself for a moment. It examined its hooves. It glanced at its sides. It tried unsuccessfully to look at its forehead. “...I think I’m the same thing you all are.”

“A pony?”

“Yeah! A pony!”

The doctor nudged the speaking nurse and mumbled in her ear. “Definitely a stallion. You can tell by the voice. I have my doubts about him being a pony, though.”

The nurse nodded subtly and went back to the conversation, sitting down to get comfy. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Jake!”

She smiled. “A...pleasure to meet you, Jake. I’m Nurse Teal Sea.”

As the two continued their conversation, the rest of the doctors in the room backed out slowly, giving them their space. Teal seemed to have everything under control, after all.

One doctor, however, had other intentions. As soon as he was out of the room, he headed off to look for something.

---

“He finally let you go?”

Teal looked to the left and saw a pegasus doctor leaning against the wall, a book tucked under one wing. Whether he was just leaning there for the sake of leaning or was actually trying to eavesdrop on the conversation she had been having with Jake, she couldn’t tell.

She knew this doctor a little too well. Defibrillator was one of the best doctors in the hospital, but he had a tendency to let that fact go to his head. He was older than the others, as evident by the gray streaks throughout his brown coat and red hair, but he had as much attitude as a rebellious teenager. And, judging from the way he was looking at her, that attitude was coming full force.

“More like I’m just going to get him something,” she replied simply as she continued walking. To her annoyance, Defibrillator began walking alongside her. “What do you want?”

“I did a little research,” he began, pulling the book out from under his wing. “I decided that ‘Jake’ friend of yours didn’t look enough like a pony, so I decided to see if there was anything else he could be.”

Teal rolled her eyes. “Of course you’d be the one judging ponies by appearance...”

“Aha, but look at this!” He flipped to a specific page and pointed to a picture of a creature Teal somewhat recognized from legends. It looked like a giant light blue pony. “That’s a Windigo. Feared creatures from the past that were chased away by the uniting of the earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus tribes. They still live in Equestria, but direct interactions with them are extremely rare.”

“What are you getting at?”

“Doesn’t ‘Jake’ look like one of these things?”

She sighed and nodded. She had noticed a while ago. “So what?”

“So what?!” Defibrillator glared at her. “Windigoes are fearsome beasts! They destroy civilizations! They feed on hatred! They cause endless blizzards that have frozen hundreds, if not thousands, of ponies to death in the past century alone!” He dramatically pointed a hoof back in the direction they had come from, obviously referring to Jake’s room. “And he is one of them.”

Teal giggled, much to Defibrillator’s surprise. “Fearsome beast? Yeah right. He asked me to get him a teddy bear.”

“...what?”

She didn’t bother repeating herself. She knew he heard her. Instead, she continued. “I don’t know where you get off treating ponies like this just because they’re not really ponies, but I believe in judging an individual by their own actions rather than those of their whole species’. If Jake starts trying to freeze us or eat our hatred or whatever, then I’ll admit you were right. But until then...” She jabbed him in the chest with her hoof. “You treat him just like any other patient. Got it?”

He huffed and turned to walk away, tucking the book back under his wing. “You don’t get to boss me around. But fine. I’ll leave him alone until he’s fit to leave.”

“Good.”

They went their separate ways, both all too happy to no longer be in one another’s presence.