(Human’s POV)

It has been about five minutes since our run in with the large snake like creature, or Basilisk, as Trixie called it. She stayed silent for the most part, her head leaning against my chest, her eyes closed and a small smile on her face. I was a bit curious as to what made her change her mind about believing me to be a human, but she said nothing on the matter, either remaining silent or asking me a little about myself. I answered as best as I could, which wasn’t much considering I couldn’t remember much myself. I decided to do the same thing with her, just to have her stay awake as we continued walking to this Ponyville.

To my surprise, she had been to Ponyville before, as a traveling magician. When she was there, she did all sorts of magic tricks to amaze the crowd, telling all sorts of stories about her accomplishments. After a minute though, she suddenly became quiet, a look of deep thought on her face. I was once again curious, but when I asked what happened afterwards, she said nothing; just shaking her head and saying that she had to go somewhere else once she left. I was about to ask her what she meant by that, but I suddenly felt…well, nothing. One second there was this burning pain in my shoulder and left arm that seemed like it was being roasted alive; the next second I felt a slight cooling sensation followed by numbing.

“Um, Trixie…We almost there yet?” I asked, slight panic in my voice.

She gave me a curious look as I asked her. “Well, about another minute and we should reach the outskirts of the town, why?”

“Well…my arm just went numb.” I stated.

She was silent for a second, staring at me with wide eyes, a shocked and frightened look on her face. “Oh no…we need to hurry, now!”

“Um, why? I mean, it’s not like it’s poison or anything, right?” I said, giving a small chuckle to lighten the mood. The azure pony just gave me a blank stare as I continued to walk, and when I noticed that she wasn’t laughing with me, I could feel my face pale a bit. “Oh…uh, is it?”

“Yes, now hurry! I don’t know what Basilisk poison can do to a…human, but to a pony it can be fatal.” She said, the worry starting to show in her voice.

“Um…h-how fatal are we talking about here?” I asked, increasing my pace.

“About twenty minutes I think, but they can get paralyzed within four.” She replied.

I was silent once I heard this, and then looking down at her, I said “Well, time to book it then. Hold on tight” Before she could respond, I quickly broke into a run, streaking through the trees as fast as I could while I made sure to hold onto the unicorn.

I could already feel the paralyzing effect getting stronger, and by now my right hand was starting to feel sore from carrying the pony. I could feel the numbness spreading, and I was worried what would happen when it reached my chest. At the moment my chest gave off a small sharp pain with every intake that I took, indicating that I was right that I broke at least one rib. Hopefully it wouldn’t stop my heart right away to give me more time to get us a cure, or it might just happen in the next second.

I really hope that it was the former.

Thankfully, about ten seconds later, we seemed to reach the edge of the forest. As I broke through the foliage, I was faced with a rather sizable town that I assumed was this Ponyville that Trixie told me about. It didn’t seem to be that far, which was a small relief to me, since the numbness just reached my chest.

“Ok, I think we’re almost the-” I said before the words were suddenly stuck in my throat. I tried to speak, but I couldn’t say anything. I then coughed and felt something come out of my mouth, splattering on Trixie a bit.

“The buck? Why did you spit on me, you…you…” She started to say, before she fell silent. Curious, I looked down to see what the problem was, and I saw the pony was staring up at me wide eyed. I was a bit confused for a second before I noticed an important detail. I saw that she had a few specks of red liquid on her face.

Before I could say anything, I coughed some more, causing some more liquid to flow out of my mouth. This time I felt it splatter on my chest, but I knew what it was this time.

It was my blood. The rib that I broke earlier punctured my lung.

I started to panic, which was the last thing that I should have done, but I was in too much shock and pain to keep a leveled head on my shoulders. I slowly fell to my knees, just staring at Trixie’s blood speckled face as she stared back at me, her eyes still wide with surprise. When I tried to breathe, it felt like I was breathing underwater.

As I tried to breathe again, I tried to place Trixie back onto the ground carefully, but I instead dropped her onto the snow, causing her to give a small cry of pain. The fall shocked her out of her trance, causing her to quickly get up, wincing as she did so.

“Oh no…oh no oh no oh no this isn’t good. Come on get up. Please, just…just get up.” Trixie said, a tone of what seemed to be worry in her voice. I was a bit surprised that she was worried for me, since I am a completely unknown species to her, and I did try to use her as a mount.

Whatever the case, I tried to respond, but instead I just ended up coughing up some more blood, hacking it onto the snow, melting a small pool right under my head. I placed a hand on the ground as I leaned forward, trying to speak…trying to breathe, but it was hopeless. Slowly, I fell face first onto the snow again, my vision dimming and the sounds getting muddier. It sounded like the pony was shouting through a thick fog.

I felt the last of my senses leave me as I finally fell unconscious.

My last thoughts before I was completely out were: ‘Well…this sucks.’

(Trixie’s POV)

I stared in horror as the supposed human fell unconscious before me, a small pool of his blood right in front of his head. I could feel myself starting to panic as I continued to try and wake him up.

“Come on, damn it wake up! Don’t fall asleep on me now; we’re almost there! Come on, you…you…” After a few moments I just ran out of things to say. I gave a sigh of frustration, which wasn’t a smart move on my part, as I felt the pain in my chest skyrocket, causing me to give a yelp in pain. I held a hoof to my chest as I stared at the…human, unsure what I should do.

“Ok, think Trixie, think. We’re right outside of the Everfree Forest, near Ponyville. The hospital should be close by…I think. I never went there in the first place. AGH, why must I feel so damn useless! All I’m good for is getting others hurt, and now I have this…human just laying there, bleeding to death, and all I’m doing is just talking to myself. I just don’t know what else-”

“Trixie? Is that you?” My ears perked up at the familiar voice, and turning around, I see a purple unicorn pony that I know all too well.

“Oh…you.” I give out a defeated sigh, lowering my head to the ground. “Can this day get any worse!” I shouted to myself, before the last of my strength left me, making me fall down to the snow face first.

I heard some shuffling nearby, and the next thing that I know; I was being lifted a little by the unicorn’s magic. “Trixie, what in Equestria happened to you? And who…or, what is that lying on the ground? ”I slowly raised my head and came face to face with the last pony that I wanted to see.

“How…how did you find me?” I asked.

“Well, I was about to do some more studying before I went to bed, but I heard a commotion coming from outside.” She said, pointing to the large tree that I didn’t even notice was next to us. “Now, what exactly happened to injure you like this?”

"I…we were attacked by a…a Basilisk.” I said in a low tone, not making eye contact with her.

Twilight’s eyes went wide with shock from hearing this. “A Basilisk, this close to the edge of the forest? But…but there haven’t been any this close to Ponyville in decades.” She exclaimed.

“Well one of them decided to move closer, most likely looking for new territory.”

The purple unicorn’s breathing began to speed up a little, trying to think of a solution to the problem. “Oh, this isn’t good. If there is a Basilisk this close, then we are going to need to message Celestia about it, and then she will have to bring out a platoon of troops to deal with it, and then that will leave Canterlot defenseless for another invasion, and then maybe one of the nearby nations would invade, maybe even with some help from the Changelings, and then-”

I quickly shoved my hoof into her mouth, feeling a small bit of satisfaction in doing so. “First, that would never happen, and second, it’s already dead.”

Twilight’s eyes once again went wide, and I carefully removed my hoof once I deemed that it was safe to do so. “Dead? You…you killed it?”

I felt a sudden urge to tell her that I did. To tell her how bravely I fought off the reptilian beast that was going to kill the defenseless new creature, saving it’s life and having it in my debt, but flashes of what happened the first time I came here appeared in my head, and I quickly got rid of the offending idea, deciding that it would be better to tell her the truth. I looked over to where the human was lying down, not seeing any change from him. “No I didn’t kill it. This…well, he did.”

Twilight followed my gaze to the prone figure, and then she gave a gasp almost as large as Pinkie’s. She gently placed me back to the ground before running up to the human, looking all over his body in curiosity and worry. “What…what in Equestria is this? I’ve never seen anything like it. Is it some sort of new species? Or a deformed one of an already known race? Maybe a Minotaur or a diamond-” She then froze in mid speech once she noticed the rather large pool of blood he was laying in, causing her eyes to go even wider. “It’s hurt! Trixie, why didn’t you bring it to the hospital?”

I simply stared at the purple pony as I struggled to get back to my hooves. “Well, w-we were, but…well, he was carrying me before he began to cough some blood. I…I don’t know where it is, and…and I…” I then took a deep breath to help prepare myself for what I was about to say. “Twilight Sparkle…I need your help.”

To my surprise and disappointment, she simply nodded her head, still staring at the human. “Of course, of course, just that…well, you’re going to have to help me carry it.”

“What? Do you have any idea what kind of day Trixie is having? She just survived an attack from a Basilisk along with an encounter with a new species and now you’re expecting me to help carry-” I began to rant before a simple stare from Twilight stopped me.

“In case you forgot, you did ask me for help, and I can’t really carry it in my magic alone, or I might risk damaging it some more. And since I can’t carry it by myself, you are going to need to help.” She remained silent after that, waiting for me to respond. All I did was cast my eyes downward, a bit ashamed that I didn’t think that. After a few moments of silence, I feel the purple unicorn gently place her hoof on my shoulder, causing me to look back at her. “Hey, you won’t have to do much, just keep it stable with your magic, and I-”

“He.” I interrupted, getting a bit annoyed with her calling him it. “It’s…it’s a male. At least…that’s as much as I can tell, and as much as he knows.”

Twilight stared at me for a few seconds, and then with a shrug, she continued. “Alright, well just make sure he stays stabilized, and I’ll let you lean on me as we walk to the hospital, ok?”

Too tired to argue, and just wanting to rest, I simply nod my head. With the planning taken care of, Twilight and I carefully lifted the human onto the purple pony’s back, and once he was on, I kept him stable with my own magic, making sure that he wouldn’t fall off. Satisfied, I give a small nod, and then lean onto Twilight, wanting to get out of the cold soon. “Let’s…let’s just get out of the cold, ok?”

“Of…course Trixie. Celestia, he’s a bit…heavy.” She said, already panting as we started walking.

I roll my eyes at my past adversary. “You just need to work out more. Now please, Tri…I mean, I…I just want to stay quiet for now.” I said, trying to hide the yawn that escapes my lips. Twilight gave a small nod and we continued our way to the Ponyville Hospital.

(Human POV)

Darkness. All I saw was darkness, like the infinite void had swallowed me up. I couldn’t feel anything, see anything…do anything. The only thing that I could even do was to think and that wasn’t much, since I didn’t even know what to think of. The only thing that I could even remember was the struggle to survive that large snake like Basilisk. I remembered that I was struggling to bring a unicorn and then I to this town called Ponyville before everything started to black out. Not having anything else to go by, I started to think about anything else that I could remember about myself, but nothing came to me…I didn’t even get a headache for my troubles.

I continued to try and remember about myself when I noticed a sound. It sounded familiar to me, for some reason, but when I tried to focus on it, it seemed to start to fade away. When it disappeared, I gave a mental groan and went back to thinking, only to have it come back. This time I quickly focused on it, and I was able to get some sort of name from the sound before it disappeared from me again, making me even more frustrated. I was about to go back to my thinking when I heard it for a third time. Determined to hear what it was saying, I strained as much as I could on the voice, imagining that I was right next to the source, that I was hearing it as clearly as if it was shouting at me. A few seconds later, I was able to get a clear name from the voice, and to my surprise, it indeed was shouting at me…rather loudly as well.

It was the voice that I heard in the forest, that much I was certain. It was definitely a female, that much was certain, and I had the strangest feeling that…that I knew who it was. The word that I heard, however, confused me and as I heard it call out, I saw this strange bright light appear in front of me. As I was looking, I noticed that I could move again, though I still couldn’t feel my limbs. Not having much of a choice, I started to drift into the light, that one name still echoing in my head.

“Drakalian!”

Next Chapter: Chapter 3: Stranger Among Ponies Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 13 Minutes