Morning came faster than I wanted it to, sleep seem to only last seconds before a blur of images flashed across my eyes right as they opened to a ray of light coming in from the ceiling above. My body, though for once, have been resting on something that wasn't made of hard cotton, felt numb with no real feeling to my limbs.

I didn't want to get up, I just want to keep my eyes closed and pretend that I am sleeping off a bad night at the Red Rock. Just, took on one rowdy drunk more than I could handle, yeah, that's all. However, there was a feeling coming from the rays of sunlight. Like as if they were tugging at my consciousness out of bed as well keeping me awake no matter how hard I wanted to crawl back into sleep.

"Alright." I grumble, "I'm up, I'm up!" I could only open one eye though, the other felt like it had gauze over it (which it was after a moment of painful reminiscing). Even then, my favorite overnight dry eye was hard enough to blink out before I clear my vision to see my hands covering my face. Letting my hands plop outstretched on the bed, I stare up at the empty wooden ceiling, golden lines of light pierce the dusty air.

I hated mornings, everything was fuzzy at first but then that fuzziness drops like a ton of bricks that squishes your memory which in turn reminds you: hey, guess what, let me remind you that you got your ass kicked by wooden dogs, out ran mythological monsters, saved by talking ponies, tackled by talking ponies trying to escape randomly, released by talking ponies, then was later interviewed by a talking pony who had a pet talking toddler dragon and- "Gahhh, stop it brain!" I groan as I try to muffle my mind with a pillow, which of course didn't work.

Now I feel my everything coming to life as I remember how I just got home when that mare, Twilight, I think it was, came knocking to talk to me about some basic stuff. Her visit was brief, but there was quite a bit of info exchanged before she left and I had to crawl off to bed before I fell over from the sheer drowsiness of lack of sleep and the pill.

Thinking about the Pill, my side throbbed, probably my liver telling me it needs water or it will swallow itself to compensate for the painkiller. I slowly rose out of bed, joints ached, crackled and popped before my sore feet found the floorboards. My head swished with faint dizziness as I staggered onto my own two feet.

Tried really hard not to fall back over because I knew what this morning was bringing behind it. My first day in this world, Equestria.

Shaking the grogginess off, I stagger out the bedroom and down the hall. As requested by my drug dried body, I stiffly walk out of the hall, turn left, then carefully slide open the back door. The cool air of the morning greeted me, I didn’t much care for it as it reminded me that I am alive and awake in a strange new world. Staring down at the water’s surface, I could make out some details to my face, well, half face the other half bandage.

The first three drinks from the trusty ladle taste the same as last night, faintly stale from sitting in this barrel with hints of metal and earth. Gotta admit though, at least it all came from an underground well instead of some water filtration plant that smells and tastes like it came from a pool.

Hanging the utensil, on the side, I return inside. My body ached, my wounds throbbed underneath the itchy bandages. I think it’s High time that I try to do something about these.

staggering towards the bathroom, I heard the sound of my boot falls. No wonder my feet were stiff. So that also means I slept in my clothes, oh well, I don't really have a laundry machine handy so I i'll just have to deal with what I got on. At least they did scrubbed the blood out of the clothing first before giving them back to me at least. My T-shirt still had the gaping claw marks across the chest and back with tares decorating my pant legs. When I took my seat on the toilet to remove my boots, I noted the gash in the toe end of the left boot, the right had a ripped sole at the heel. I still put the blame on that forest, or the Everfree, for the damage done to me.

The laces to my right boot snapped when I start to take it off, "God damn it ponies!" I chucked my boot to the floor, "These were sixty dollar interceptors!" I flung the other boot off before my healing ribs pinched at my muscles which my body's way of saying, "Shut up and deal with it!" I grumble as I carefully remove the socks.

"Yeah, yeah I know..." I groan before stepping over to the bathtub, slowly reaching down, I turned the knob towards the hot side. At least their version of English is still legible. I hear the muffled groan of the pipes somewhere, since I figured that it'll take a minute or so for the water to come on, I might as well remove these bandages to let the skin breath and maybe the water will sooth the aches-n-pains.

I almost froze in shock-n-awe when I simply glanced at my own reflection.

My skin is pale, one eye was covered as part of a head bandage that almost covered my entire scalp; faint splotches of blood lined the bandage above my left eye and parts of my scalp. My only good, blue colored eye is sunken from either lack of sleep and/or lack of living tissue.

Upon (carefully) removing my shirt, I looked at my chest, "My god." was all that floats from my mouth out of quiet shock.

Most of my torso was covered in what must of been a whole roll of bandage gauze, again, here, there were two long splotches of blood the must of been drying for a while now. in several spots: lower parts of my torso and my arms only had some gauze wrapping on the left forearm and the right bicep. A fuzzy image of me applying these to myself is all I can remember about that.

Carefully undid my pants then step back to get a fuller look at my legs. Oh sure, the only parts of me not entirely fucked over, were my legs, just cuts from wading through the brush, some covered in now loosened band-aids while others were left alone.

The bandaids I carefully remove with a simple flick of a wrist, the sting of these bandages is nothing in contrast to what I’m still experiencing with the larger wounds. Not thinking, I crumple the used band aids together before letting the wad bounce along the floor.
Looking back at my half-dead reflection, I finally concluded one thing:

“There is no way I can take these off by myself…”

I carefully turn to see my back which too had a similar set of gauze covered stitches.

“Yup, time to make a follow up.”

My mind was printing all kinds of curses while I got dressed and shut the water off.

When it came to my boots again, I remember that one of the laces had snapped and since I didn't have any spares, so I dig into one of my pant pockets. When fingers found the thin, smashed roll of black tape, that I keep for just about any kind of small repairs, which also didn’t surprise me that it survived the trip so far; Taking it out, I set it aside before I start tying my boots up.

Once left boot is tied as much as I could, I started finishing the job with strands of black tape till the boot felt it's normal fit. Oh yeah, the flabby heel, honestly, it isn't that bad and there is no real way to tape it up unless I had the almighty silver tape of duct. God, in a world that has prosperous towns with probably many Pseudo-modern items in their stores (If they do have them) but here I am, with no real money to use; taping my boots up like a homeless man because of some magical wooden dogs. Fuck you universe, You sure gave me a good cosmic kick in the nuts here.

getting lost in my own mental grumbling while finishing getting my act back together In some painful passing of minutes, I slowly stood before walking to the kitchen. I hadn't noticed it before but I had been walking on a limp every other step or so, the healing bruise a few inches above the right knee twanged with pain during those limping steps.

Getting to the kitchen, I squared myself away with some of those veggies again to munch on while contemplating on one thing: what was I gearing up for again? Oh right, that hors-pony had extended a han-hoof in invitation to help me get a better footing in this new world. Where was this kind of help back home?!

With absent thoughts milled into the graveyard, I finish eating the greens before searching my pockets again for the pouch that I pulled from my crappy grab bag. I pray that I can score some sort of currency for the few dollars and some odd cents in my pocket would probably be of no use here, if they were there to begin with. Which reminds me, I don’t remember how my pockets ended up empty when I left the hospital. I’m sure I'll be able to at least get my wallet back so I have some form of identity in this world.

When back to the bathroom for my jacket, a M65 Field Jacket in the classic olive drab green, had taken most of the abuse during my nice little run through the woods. Wearable but sadly it won't be the same again. Carefully slipping it on, there is a sudden tense moment when I felt the fabric rip faintly when I slowly slip an arm through a damaged sleeve; A part of my hurting brain had the pull towards finding a weapon but I simply kept it on the back burner till I can get better established here.

Halfway across the house I hear a knock on the door, oh great, they're here. Getting the door, "You guys didn't waste time did ya?" I ask aloud as I opened it. I look around seeing no pony around but- "Hey," I then look down to see the little dragon toddler standing there, what is he doing here, and by himself?

"Where's your friend?" I ask looking around the empty dirt streets behind him.

"Twilight had to take care of some things," the little tyke shrugs, "However, she did ask me to come get you since she hadn't forgotten about what you two previously discussed last night."

"Riiight," I pause to think, the stiffness of the bandages reminded me of something important. "Say, before we meet up with her, think we can detour to the hospital?" I ask absently rubbing one of the chest bandages through the shirt briefly before the hand of agony swatted it away, reminding me that I had stitches there still.

"For what?"

"To change my bandages, it isn't healthy to have the same ones since day one ya know?" I recall from common sense, it is true though; it is always a good idea to try to change any kind of bandages before the healing wound starts to suck the wet bandage into the skin.

"Huh, you too?"

"What now?" I step out, closing the door behind us. As long the damn thing latched shut, it was good enough with the absence of a decent deadbolt.

"Oh, Twilight had headed off to the hospital for something about researching about you." cocking a brow, I can only wonder why she would be doing research this early in the morning?

"What a coincidence then. Either way, I need to get these itchy, pieces of crap off me!" now that I was walking again, I can feel the medical tape shifting on my skin, more likely pulling my body hair. "Maybe she'll help me out with the staff there if anything."

"What do you mean?" Spike looks up at me as we started walking. The day itself still had the morning chill but the sun had started to warm the world up. The skies were clear, a few cotton white clouds. What happened to that stormy weather days ago? Never mind that, at least I'm still alive to see the day. Something tells me I'll regret it soon thought.

"Well," I pause keeping eyes forward, "last time I was there, I was, um, being difficult." I admit, a lull of soreness brushed across my body from the thought.

"Being Difficult?"

"I was a pain in the ass to them! I didn't know where I was, what they were and so on."

"You mean-?"

"Well, instead of trying to explain to you now," I glance to the confused little dragon, "you'll have to see for yourself for I think the staff there will have a lot to tell your friend." Spike didn't reply nor asked any further on the subject for a while. which is fine because I didn't feel like explaining myself several times over.

Meanwhile, I took a moment to examine and observe the world around me while we walked through this little town, Ponyville twilight called it. Again, something dangled from the tip of my tongue but yet I can’t figure out why the name sounds familiar.

The town is small in comparison to what I'm used to, simple European style, timber framed houses rose all around and along the simple dirt pathways with few shops standing out with their swing signs with an emblem describing what the shop offered. The townsfolk, mostly comprised of ponies of course, carried on their lax but busy lives while some keeping an eye and distance from me while they walked by us.

Wouldn't blame them though, why would a random two legged creature be simply walking through their town without wanting to rob or mug anyone of them. One explanation is because I was in no condition to even think about shoplifting. at least currently, the most docile of these ponies could knock me over with a well placed hoof to the chest.

As Spike and I venture deeper into town, I took note of the diversity of the ponies: many looked like the standard horse, while some, could only explain as the children of the Pegasus, flew about on their own set of wings. There were fewer ponies in this town that had a familiar horn protruding from their foreheads like Twilight. Guess even in this world, Unicorns are rare. Above all, the huge array of colors that coated these creatures kept confusing my brain. Why is everything appearing normal but the sight of pastel mini horses just didn’t compute at the slightest.

"I can guess not everyone here is very welcoming to strangers."

"Nnnot really." Spike replies as we cross over a bridge towards the center of town, before us was that god awful place they call town hall. That is were I was taken to be crudely introduced to this town as well given small vague tidbits of information about the world.

Strangely, I'm starting to become more anxious about knowing more about this land and who rules over it. My mind can only produce an image of some large winged pony that wore a crown that ruled over this land, that maybe can use some sort of magic?

"You should have seen these ponies when Zecora comes to town." I could only wonder who this Zecora was. Let me guess, another pony?

"Let me guess, not a very welcoming feeling, was it?" I ask trying not to look behind me as I could feel glaring eyes burning holes in my back.

"Heh, Not really, you're lucky," Spike replies cheerfully, "They all would hide away in their homes leaving a ghost town feeling when she came to town."

"I’ll assume they must have confused her for some evil witch or somethin' of the sort." I guess not really caring for the details, I’m at least glad that no pony really ran for the hills when they saw ol' beaten up me. While I spoke, I took note of a few more unique buildings in this part of town. One of them looked like a gingerbread house with smoking metal chimminies.

"Almost, Pinkie Pie called her an evil enchantress." Spike corrects as we put ground between us and town hall, "She even wrote a song about it."

"At least there won't be any songs about me yet."

"Key word, YET!" an almost squeaky voice stops both of us in our tracks, "Just need to know whowhat you are!"

On a Simultaneous impulse, we both look back at the empty ground behind us, "Who the hell-?" When we look forward again, there was nopony around either, aside from nonchalantly, cautious passerbys.
"Who was that?" When I try to move forward my boot crunches lightly on something. Looking down I find a rather large size envelope on the ground that bore the words scrawled in bright pink ink on the front

Picking it up, I instantly felt the weight of the envelope, "This wasn't here before-" When I turn to look at him quizzically;

"-Just open it." he interrupts with a chuckle, he takes a few cautious steps back. Why would he-

When I tore along the top, the envelope explodes in my hands. Instead of a flash of fire and death, it was a jump-scaring explosion of confetti and party streamers. Filling my hand was a paper with the words:

printed in the same ink on the page.

With ears faintly ringing and brushing off the confetti, "The fuck is-was this?!" I ask snapping a look at Spike who only laughs at my expense.

"That didn't take her long to find you," Spike observes as he walks on ahead of me. I only stood there dumb founded before walking after him, brushing some of the confetti off my jacket. "Don't get too mad though," he spoke over a shoulder, "Pinkie does stuff like that all the time around here."

"She...does?"

"Yup!"

Oh joy, nothing like a pony that can reverse-pickpocket exploding party letters to keep me on my toes; "I guess it would be nice to thank her for the welcoming letter."

When We finally cross town with out anymore incidents and reach the hospital, I finally got a better look at the place that held me inside for the time I recovered and once tried in vain to escape.

The hospital is a two story, Victorian style building that stood out by itself in the middle of a woodland landscape. Outside the establishment is a large, stylish sign that had a large red circle with a white cross with pink hearts surrounding the cross. Despite the welcoming look, I know better than to be fooled by the innocent look of the hospital.

"Here we are!" Spike announces as we came up to the doors, "Ponyville hospital."

"It doesn't look as ominous in the day compared to at night." my only comment as we walk inside with the little dragon holding the door for me. Just like back home, the smell of sanitized floors and rooms filled my nostrils and with it came the memories of my recent stay here.

The lobby, or waiting room, is currently sparsely occupied with a few ponies with minor injuries or ailments that waited for a nurse to appear to call them back for somepony to see them. When we came up to the reception desk, one of the nurses, writing something down with a pen in her mouth, peeks up before the pen falls from her mouth, "oh dear, it's you." she grimaces, "Wh-What brings you back?" she kept a smile up but I could tell she was nervous by my return. The other two nurses also too look up to only mimic the first nurse.

"Nothing special, just need help changing my bandages from the last time I was here."

"oh?" she looks puzzled, "Didn't Doctor Horse send enough home with you so you could do it yourself?" the light blue pony's polite words sounded a little rude, but wouldn't blame her either for being blunt or being oblivious to her own words.

"Yeah, but Since, I'm still in pain, miss, I can't really maneuver my battered body around to rework the gauze," I demonstrate by trying to turn my torso one way. The damaged rib bones jabbed gently but painfully into my chest muscles, "See?" I cringe slightly.

"Hm, I'll have to see if somepony can see you, it'll be a bit since some of the staff is busy at the moment." she smiles politely, but she obviously didn't like me being back not one bit, none of them for that matter.
"please have a-" before she could dismiss me, she notices a little purple claw hand wave above the counter top.

"Hey, Nurse tender." Spike catches the mare's attention, she stood up from her chair and peers over the desk to see the little dragon, "Is Twilight still here?"

"uh, Oh, yeah, yeah she is," she then pauses to look between me and Spike, "Um, is he with you?" she asks cautiously pointing a hoof at me.

Spike Nods with a proud smile, "That is right, Now if you can tell us where she is I can get this Human out of your mane." I notice how much Spike was enjoying the brief moment of authority. Wish I had known him and his surrogate parent-friend sooner.

"Hue-man?" Tender glances at me, "Is that you?"

"yes, now, if you'll excuse us."

"Sure, Sure, just, through the doors and to Doctor Horse's office, shouldn't be that hard to miss."

Spike gave a grin with a polite nod, "Thank you very much!" he then gestures to me, probably caught up in the moment, "Come Patsy!" I’m a little perplexed at him calling me that as I followed him. If only he knew where I know that from.

Deadpanning at the little dragon, "Don't ever call me that again." I’m not sure if Spike had heard me as we push our way through the doors into the hall. Looking both ways, my mind tries to bring up a mental map of what I know of this place while following the dragon. Another nurse, who previously was looking at a chart of some sort, before peeking up to freeze in mid step before side stepping into a room. I can see her peeking from around the door frame. Without thinking, I simply wave at the peeping nurse, who only sunk into the room she hid in.

How bad was I here? my only thought, as my mind tried to replay any memory of this place, nothing but blurry static. Oh well, time will reveal all.

Further down the hall, we found the office, Nurse Tender was right about one thing, it wasn't hard to miss. it was the only door with a smoky glass pane with the white, hoof painted letters:

Another random thing crosses my mind as Spike knocks on the door: these ponies must have a strong education system to grant the best with doctorates, maybe even more so with unicorns that possess magical skills.

When the door opens, the cream caramel coated unicorn looks out, "Can I-" he takes one look at me then frowns, "-oh." He sighs, nudging his glasses with a hoof, "What is he doing back here?" he asks keeping a calm demeanor but agitation was starting to take hold of his words.

"More importantly, How did he get back here?!" He asks looking at spike.

"Well, I figured you can help him with something and since Twilight was here, didn't see any problem with it." the little dragon glances up at me then back at the doctor. The purple unicorn peeks over the doctor's shoulder, "Spike, Jeff, the hay you doing here?"

"If I may," I finally open up, "Since I wasn't really given the proper supplies to change these bandages and I can't really turn my body still, so, I thought it wouldn't murder anyone that I came back here for some help." The Doctor looks back at Twilight before looking back at me.

"I'm afraid I can't help you, maybe one of the nurses can help you with-" The Doctor raised a hoof to me then gestures down the hall were we all heard the audible racket of hooves scattering away, "-that..." He lowers his hoof, this wasn't going to make the day any easier.

"Looks like you're out of options doc." I point out, making note of the now empty halls, a door a few feet away swayed gently as if one of the sacred staff had dashed in there.

"Fine, but you shouldn't be standing here without a proper escort-" he steps out of his office, "-Security!" Within a minute, a pair of rather bulky Stallions, decked out in a security guard shirt complete with utility belts. Couldn't help but wonder how they used their flashlights, batons and-oh wait, I remembered one of the night guards brandishing their mag lights in it's mouth.

"For my safety, these gentlecolts will be accompanying us."

"What?" Twilight gasps, "I don't even think he is any kind of a threat," she comments putting her note book (or tome at this point) away. she collects her trusty bags as she watches the Doctor walk down the hall. I find the guards at my sides as they escorted me behind the doctor.

“Well, hey guys, guess you remember me?” Neither one of them even gave me a glance in reply. Eesh tough crowd.

Obviously, the doc didn't reply to the confused unicorn as she and spike follow us to one of the operating rooms, "Please Miss Sparkle ." Doctor Horse turns to her as the security guards stationed themselves at the swing doors into the O.R. while I limp over to the operating table to sit on while I could hear the ponies talk outside, "Wait outside while I tend to this creatur-"

"Human," Twilight corrects sharply, "Doctor, why are you treating him like he is one of Equestria's most dangerous?"

"Because Twilight, he has been the most troublesome patient to ever come into my Hospital!" the doctor hid his growl, "Now, If you excuse me!"

"Then, let me come in there with you!" she quickly exclaims catching the doctor before he closed the door behind him, "I can handle myself and this, uh, this will give me a chance to study him while you work." she rushes before catching the Doctor flat hoofed. Could’ve sworn I’ve seen a glint of blush in her cheeks.

"Y-You can't be serious." he blinks at her, "Very well." he sighs in agitated defeat, "come in, but please keep your distance."

As I watch the two ponies come into the O.R., or Operating Room, I couldn't tell if Twilight was being the only non-human-hating friend here or a researcher studying this alien.

"Now," the Doctor levitates a dust mask over to him, "Please remove your rags so I can see how bad it is." he tucks the mask over his muzzle while I looked at the mare who stood off to the side, pulling her tome of notes back out.

"And her?" Not sure why, even though i’m looking at animals, the natural (modernized) thought of undressing in front of a female kicked into gear from out-of-nowheresville.

"Suddenly shy for a loud mouth thrasher aren't you?" the doctor comments while he glances at Twilight, "Don't pay any attention to her, just, strip."

I shrug before I undid my jacket, followed by slowly removing my shirt; note that during this, the doc or Twilight didn't help me levitate the tattered clothing off me while I winced and grunted from pain while I struggled with the shirt. Thankfully, I remember that only the top half of me needed to be exposed.

When I did, both Ponies saw the extent of the bandages.

"Oh gosh." Twilight gasps bringing a hoof to her mouth, "What did this to you?" she asks taking note of the long bandages that stretched across my pale body. Since I’ve seen them already, I know what they are looking at. Slightly bloody bandages covering the stitches.

"Timber Wolves," The Doctor's only words while he examines the blood stained/sweat soaked bandages, "Well, most of them, there are other marks on him, that I can't really explain-"

"Car Crash," I explain interrupting the doc, who scoffed at my supposed rudeness, pointing to the head bandage.

"A what crash?" Twilight's ears perk up when I mentioned the crash.

"Long story, not to mention the other monsters I encountered." I quickly dismiss the subject, "But, like he said, those things got me really good," I add to the Doc's analysis, "I fought like hell trying to get away from those-" before I continue, the Doctor accidentally tugs on one of my back bandages, pulling on the stitches that dried into the gauze, my words fell dead with a quick “ow” came out of my teeth gritted mouth.

"Oh, sorry, trying to concentrate." he then gently pulls the old bandage off. One could hear the dirty bandage tape peel away as it came off my skin. Twilight had her tome open with a new quill buzzing at the speed of thought across the pages, I look over to see that she was starting to pale seeing the color distortion the skin around the stitches.

"Can see why you didn't want to attempt to change your own bandages," She comments while the doc removes a second bandage. Despite his renewed efforts to be careful, the pain still twinges across my back as he peels bandage afterbandage off me. After a while, I was starting to tolerate the pain because the nerves started to go numb. Soon, a fourth set of gauze and bandages was tossed into a HAZMAT bin that the Doc had previously levitated beside him.

"Yeah, not to mentioned that I might have cracked ribs that stab at my lungs when I try to twist or bend," I slightly exaggerate.

"Hold still please," Doctor Horse orders as he leans in closer to examine the stitches, "Thankfully, none of the stitches had come undone between now and a few days ago." he glances over to some cupboards. Hearing the small doors open then close, I also picked up a set of hooves coming closer. All I could do was sit still and stare at a bare white wall while the doc continued his work.

"Interesting." Twilight's voice sounded closer, I was stupid to quickly glance over to see who spoke as the action caused a flicker of pain across my ribs. "Oh, sorry!" she recoiled apologetically.

"D-Don't worry about it, my bad for moving fast."

"You don't listen, do you?" The Doctor snides as he began to open small packages of medical supplies. He starts off by dabbing fresh blood that oozed from the freshly disturbed sutures, "This is going to take a while," he notes flatly, "But I'm sure you don't have anywhere to be today, do you?" he asks aloud, probably towards me.

"Not really-" Me and Twilight reply simultaneously. Raising a brow, I looked at Twilight as she moved herself around the table to look at the rest of my bandages, she did however froze in mid step out of surprise of us saying the same thing.

"Jinx." we both say as the Doctor smirks under the mask as he tosses one cotton wad away, then starts opening up some gauze and cover bandages. I then look from the Doctor to Twilight, who was blinking away the moment away so, catching this opening-

"Pinch, poke, ya owe me a coke!" I chuckle before a sharp pain in my chest told me to shut up, "Ow..." The Doctor took his time to completely cover one set of stitches.

"Say, Don't you guys have healing magic that could have made this easier?" I ask aloud, "I mean, you both have magic, sooo-"

"Healing spells are typically taught to Medic ponies in the guard," Twilight frowns as she explains, "Even then, healing magic isn't totally perfected to be as effective as normal medical methods, or at least that’s what I was told recently.”

"Also, Mister Human," The doctor was busy cleaning the second set of stitches, "We don't know what kind of effect magic would have on you." He casually explains as he starts placing the fresh bandage on.

"So, aside from the fact that you guys are masters of using your horns, you can't cast one simple anesthesia spell or somethin' on me?" I don't mean to complain, but come on guys, pain is still pain and it likes to remind you that you're still alive; The hard way.

"Like the Doc said, we don’t know how it’ll affect you, so sorry Jeff." Twilight then looks at the length of the stitches on my chest, "Doctor, How many stitches are there?" she asks walking back around to watch the Doctor carefully use his horn to clean the third set of stitches. It was legit question, more importantly, how many damn times did they stick me with those curved needles?

"Each claw mark you see here, Miss Sparkle," the Doctor glances up from his work for a moment, "Is about fifty stitches for the longest here." he points with a hoof to one of the bandages on my back, "Thirty-five stitches there, twenty-three here," He finishes the third bandage, began the fourth, "About thirty-seven for the second longest on his front, stretching a little over his right side; Twenty for the second one." The fourth didn't need much cleaning as apparently it didn't take the doc long to put the new bandage on the wound.

"The ones on his head," he explains, "six above his left eye, nine and thirteen across the scalp."

"So, that explains the head wrap." I blurt out thinking aloud.

"Which we unfortunately had to shave your mane down to make it easier to get to the scalp." Honestly, I wasn't really worried about my hair, just glad that I didn't lose my brain through my head injuries.

"Pity, I hope I didn't dull your trimmers trying to save my life." I roll my eyes as the Doctor retrieved more supplies, Twilight hid a quick snicker as Doctor Horse came around to address my chest. He politely gestures Twilight to move out of his way who obliges by backing up and going around him to be on my right while he stood in front of me.

My comment of course was replied with a nice yank on the longest set of stitches across my chest, "Take it easy doc, might have to redo your handy work-I mean hoofy work."

"Now, Sir, You keep it up or complications could occur trying to dress your wounds."

"Jesus, sorry Doc," I shake my head as I straighten up to help him with his work.

Twilight returns to her notes as she watches the Doctor work.

I look down at my wounds, they were indeed discolored:

The skin was pale, further out you got from the stitches, however, going the other way, the skin was various shades of red while my skin was a bad painting of healing bruises.

Another twenty minutes slowly pass as the doctor works on my chest, cleaning and re-bandaging stitches till my chest was covered in plain white patches of gauze. Then it was about ten minutes or so for my back.

"Now, the head." he slowly unwraps the gauze around my head, I must of sweated a lot while sleeping because the bandage was harder to remove compared to the rest of my body. "Oh dear," Horse grimaces as his magic fades around the flap of end of the strip, "I can't risk undoing the stitching with magic, so i'll have to do it by hoof."

Couldn't he just done that in the first place?

"Let me guess, blood had glued the bandage to not only the threads but to the scalp too?" I ask using some of my first aid knowledge. To which the Doctor had looked at me with a scowl, "Sorry!" I raised my hands to him.

"Yes, it did, so I'm going to have remove it with-"

"A specialized saline solution, correct?”

"Excuse me Mr. fiend," Doctor horse snaps as he floats a pair of what looked like rubber socks and a small squeeze bottle, with a crooked nozzle, towards him, "If you like to do my job, then feel free to do it yourself!"

"Doctor, If I may." Twilight almost jumps from her concentration when the Doctor raised his voice and took the chance to speak up, "He was just extending his know-how of medicine." She got a glance from the doc before turning back to me, "And, he is also human if I may also correct."

He didn't reply at all as he slips the latex socks on his fore hooves, he then stood up on his hind legs. Mind you, that so far, the doctor had only probably stood about barely maybe four foot-ten? However, as most four legged animals, their height doubles if they stood up on their back legs. Which the doctor does the same thing to be able to tend to my damaged scalp.

He had good balance as he held the bottle in his magic while using his hooves to gently tug the bandage, his magic squeezing the solution into the old bandages to dampen the clotted blood under neath, making it easier to lift the bandage off. That would be nice if the stitches weren't still fresh!

When the strip started to give, some clotted blood pulled at the knot on one of the stitches, feeling it gave caused a quick ahow! to pop from my mouth, "Easy doc!"

"Trying to, less you want me to treat this like a band aid."

"NO SIR!"

"Good, now let me concentrate!" The doctor growls as he then continues to work around those painful stitches.

One whole bottle and nearly twenty minutes of painful tugging and pulling the head bandage was completely free from my wet scalp. As watery blood drained down my face, "Towel anyone?" I closed my eyes as I felt the cool liquid drip over them.

"Here," Twilight floats something to me, when I grab the towel, I dab my face clean and occasionally wipe water off my face.

"Thanks Twilight," I placed the towel next to me while the doc continued to work to clean around the stitch work and apply clean bandages. This time around, the Doc had left my eyes free of coverage. Instead of staring at the coat the doc is wearing I carefully shift my head enough to get a look at the mare that was coming closer.

"Eesh, what happened there?" Twilight approached and pointed towards my left eye, I haven't seen it myself since it was covered previously, so I when I reached to touch around my eye, it felt puffy, probably swollen. "Probably given to me by the guards here." I felt the eyelid, swollen. yep, been told once apparently.

The doctor examined the healing wounds on my face before nodding, "That would be about it," he removed the glove/socks before carrying on with the clean up.

As he quietly went about cleaning up the workspace and twilight, scratching away in her note book, I had a few moments to think.

First of all, the doctor didn't ask to check my legs, probably because they weren't as bad compared to my head, back and torso but that also led to another break in the silence, "Hey doc," I began, his ears perked in reply while twilight had chanced a glance from her book.

"From my experience back home, wouldn't injuries like these warrant an extended stay here at the hospital?" I asked, at first the Doctor quietly gruffed before closing some cupboards before turning to me with a rather non-surprising reply.

"Truthfully," he nudges his glasses, "We don't know how to properly treat your kind here and with the lack of long term recovery rooms here to accommodate you, we had no choice but to let you go after you were able to walk."

"Despite the fact that I can't really move any which way to keep my stitches from becoming undone." Twilight's violet eyes darted between me and Doctor Horse keeping quiet but her quill did not stop moving.

"Unfortunately, Yes, I was aware that you would not really be able to do much after being released, however-"

"No, doc, I Don't need to know anymore." I glumly start to carefully put my shirt back on.

"If there is anything else, you are free to go, again." Then the doctor turns to Twilight, "Miss Sparkle, did you wanted to continue where we left off?"

"Oh no thanks Doctor," She replies finally putting her tome of notes away, "I believe that'll be all for today, so we'll be taking our leave as well." The Doctor gave a casual glare at me before leaving the operating room.

"So much for fairness towards patients." I grumble after fighting with my ragged T-shirt to be put back on, "I don't think it was a good idea to come back here." I stood up slowly from the table before heading for the swinging doors, "I guess we'll just take off to wherever you want to go today?" I ask looking back at the purple mare as she started following after me.

"Yes, I planned on meeting you back at the Golden Oak Library after talking with the Doctor, learning more about what it was like to take care of you when you where, well-"

"-barely alive?"

"Yes..."

"Well, I'm sure you got one version of my stay here," I push the doors open back into the hall, "I take it that is what you are after right?"

"Well, yes and no." She walks past me and down the hall, only pausing to look at spike who had been seated in the hall reading some magazine, "Come on spike, we should get going." Spike had peeked up at her then looked over at me. All the while I felt the looming glares of the guards who were watching us leave.

"How bad was it?" He asks looking at his companion, "I mean, I heard something that sounded like a filly getting a shot."

"Excuse me?" I exclaim dumbfounded by the comment, "I don't think I sounded like a child getting my stitches pulled at thanks to that quack."

"Guys," Twilight shot a scolding glance at me, "Lets not do this here." before she led the way down the hall while spike caught up with her with a smug look on his face while I limped after. Soon, we exit back into the lobby, the pony at the receptionist had switched out to a different nurse while I was in the back getting patched up.

The Nurse at the desk this time was smaller compared to the others: she was short with a dark, bushy brunet mane; Beige coat and a filly face to complement the tiny posture. She looked to watch us enter the lobby, "Have a good day, Miss Sparkle ." the cheerful, innocent voice called out to us as we walked by.

"Thank you Nurse Rhyme, same to you." Twilight smiled back before we left. I didn't say anything for the invisible rain cloud had been bumming my mood with F.M.L. rain since the doctor had finished his patch work. The day had advanced some, I checked my watch to only remember that i had lost it at some point in the Everfree forest.

"What time is it?" I ask absently as we walk down the dirt road, It felt like ten or so but the sun's location read roughly eleven or so. As we went on, a couple, previously enjoying the day while walking towards the hospital had paused in their conversation to look with curious caution at the three of us (or more at me probably).

"It's about late morning by now." Twilight nonchalantly guesses as we put that dreaded place behind us. "We should probably get back, I think the girls are going to be waiting for us by now."

Wait, girls? as in more peopl-ponies?

"Wait, who else did you tell about me?" I stop in step to look at Twilight as she too stopped, "You didn't plan a party for me or nothin' did ya?"

"Nnnot really." she looks back at me a little nervous, "Just, Sent the word out to some friends who would also want to know more about you and won't freak out being so close to a human." She seems a little unsure about this change of plans herself, however, I didn't want to push the subject more just simply shook my head before limping forward.

"Let's get this over with, and maybe they'll treat me better compared to the hospital staff." I only comment as Ponyville came back into sight.

Author's Notes:

oof, finally fixed a bunch of errors here.

added a few things and tweaked the past-tense wording to more First person pre-tense wording.

even made the first damn height correction so far in this story! so no more FN confusion over this character's height.