I woke up, sleeping on my back. The cast on my arm and the framework to keep me from moving it around kind of forced that. I turned and examined the soft cast carefully, spotting the slight pink and red, so I knew it had been bleeding a little, but that might not be such a bad thing. It hurt, that on the other hand was a terrible thing. Lifting my right hand to reach for the nurse call, a soft voice halted me.

“Ah got it, Shane, you in pain?” as I turned my head to see Applejack sitting there in a chair near my side. She reached across and pressed the nurse call button. I took that moment to glance out the window. A sliver of light crested the horizon, the sun just beginning to peak the distant hilltops.

“Yeah... Applejack? What are you doing here?”

She had her stetson off, her mane down, she looked exhausted, and... again, I almost thought she had been crying.

“Ah couldn’t sleep none, and ah didn’t want ya wakin' up alone.”

I was just about to question her why, but the door opening gave me reason to turn my head away. A white mare walked in with a nurse's hat on, the emblem on it matching her cutie mark.

“Good morning, Nurse Redheart,” I heard AJ say.

“Good morning, Applejack, and good morning. Shane. How are you feeling?”

I let off a small breath and gave a little nod. “A bit of pain, and a bit hungry, ma’am.”

She nodded and produced a syringe from a small bag on her side. “Doctor Mercy figured the sedative would have worn off. Now we don’t know for sure any long term effects of this, so... by our best reasoning, we are only giving you a foal's level of pain killers. We can up the amount by a little at a time if you need. Does that sound agreeable?”

I gave her a nod, then watched her push the needle into the IV line and send it into my veins. I paused. It never dawned on me before now, but the similarities between Earth and this place... whoaaa! Okay, yeah, that works!

Morphine, or something close to it, an opiate for sure. I blinked a few times as I looked up at the nurse, who returned a smile.

“Seems like we got just the perfect dosage.”

All I did was nod and roll so I faced up at the ceiling. I heard her check a few things then step back out. Applejack came into my view as she placed her front hooves up on the bed edge and looked down at me.

“Y’all okay, Shane?”

A bit of a chuckle escaped my lips, and I rolled my head so I could look at her properly. See, the problem with opiates is they don’t block the pain. No, they just make you not care at all. The pain is there, but you look at it from a distance—like it belongs to someone else, so to speak. The other problem is it tends to do the same for other things, like the connection from the brain to the mouth.

“Anyone ever tell you that you have beautiful eyes?”

She lit up with a blush, and just stared down at me. Of course the guy inside my brain was screaming to shut up, but the other running my mouth was just not paying any attention.

“Shane, ah would say the drugs are workin' pretty well, ain’t they?”

I nodded my head like a fool. Again, that voice in my brain was trying to order the rest of my body that perhaps we had enough and we should take a nap, but mouth-boy kept going.

“Ooohh, yeah...”

I watched her give an amused grin and her hoof patted my good arm. “You go on and sleep, ah need to get back to the farm. Ah will make sure somepony comes and stays with ya other than tha' guard outside the door.”

I gave a little nod. At least, I think I did.

---

All right, note to self: what ever they use as a painkiller here works way too well on humans. Turns out I was out another twelve hours that time. I slowly crawled my way out of a hazy darkness to find Cort in the corner of the room, sleeping, and it was dark outside the window.

I licked my lips to wet them down, then glanced at my arm. It continued to ache, though not nearly as awful as prior, taking note of the fact that the bandage softcast was of a blue shade now, so someone—or somepony—had changed it while I was out. I stuck it out a good half hour before the pain was creeping back in. I reached up and pressed the nurse call button again.

The door opening had Cortland up, alert, his horn ignited and looking ready for a fight. He relaxed as he saw it was the night nurse. I didn’t catch her name, but her cutie mark was a red cross with wings on it. She was a pegasus, too, so that kind of figured. She smiled and asked me a few questions, same old, same old, then reached up to inject the meds into the IV line.

“C-could you only go half? That last one knocked me out for a long while.”

She paused, then shook her head. “No, but if you can wait, I can get the doctor on duty to give his permission.”

I nodded and she spun, heading out.

“How you feeling, Shane?”

I exhaled and looked up at my friend drowsily. “I have been better, Cort.”

He gave a nod. “Golden and I have been switching off. Anypony even tell you what day it is?”

I blinked at that and shook my head.

“Shane, buddy, you were out for three days. It is Saturday now.”

That I had to really focus on before I managed to grunt out. “But, it was Monday afternoon when—”

He set his hoof gently on my good arm. “You took a hell of a hit, man. The princesses want to talk to you about what went on. I have been strictly ordered not to discuss it with you or anypony else,” laying his ears down.

I shook my head lightly. “Orders are orders, buddy.”

He smiled just as the nurse walked back in. She smiled a bit, too. “Mr. McDonald, the doctor agreed with you, and adjusted things down to a newborn foal level. It’s hard to believe that little bit will do anything for you.”

I exhaled once more, long and slow as she pushed the tiny amount of milky fluid into the IV line. “I guess human bodies are not so much like pony bodies when it comes to pain.”

She nodded and left, as I lay my head back down to nap again.

---

This time I woke to someone gently touching my arm. I opened my eyes to find a doctor and a nurse working to unwrap my arm gently. It no longer hurt, so I spoke softly. “How does it look, Doc?”

The stallion blinked and looked at me, then back to his work. A mint green aura slowly tugged the bandage off.

“It looks good so far, Mr. McDonald," as he managed to yank the wrap off. The nurse took it and wrapped it up into a bag for disposal.

I could see deep scars and plenty of stitches. A few spots were left open to drain, but oddly, it looked like the wound was weeks old, not just a few days.

“Don’t try to move it or your fingers please. The muscles are still healing, and you risk ripping a stitch or two. As you can see, the drains are only weeping a light pink now. I don’t see any signs of infection, just the inflammation we would normally expect. I think, at this rate, you should be able to go home in another day or two.”

He lifted up a new bandage, this one yellowish and began to wrap it as I spoke up.

“You think there will be any nerve damage? I mean, I think I can feel my fingers fine.”

He glanced at the nurse, then back to me. “I... am sworn by the crown not to talk about your treatment even with you, Mr. McDonald. The princesses wish to talk with you about it. “

All right, that set off bells, and I glanced at him, then to the earth pony mare helping him. I turned to find Golden watching on.

“Someone needs to talk to me here, I don’t like this one bit.”

The earth pony mare shook her head. “Shane, orders have been given, Pinkie promises made. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Twilight want to be the ones to speak with you.” I watched the stern look her face grow softer. “I am sorry.”

I ground my teeth together and huffed. “Then get them here,” looking to the doctor and nurse again. “Can we cut the painkillers down even more? Even that small amount made me tired.”

The unicorn stallion lifted a chart up and flipped a few pages. He tilted his head a bit, then nodded slowly. “I can cut it down to ten CCs. That is as low as I can leave it and still have any hope of it having an effect,” looking back at me. “It seems your body handles medications far different than ours do. We noted it in the antibiotics we gave you when you first came in. We had to quickly cut them down to a foal's level.”

He flipped a few more pages. “Something for you to keep in mind. I suspect as long as you go with foal medications, you should be alright. I believe an adult pony's level of any medication, or even aspirin may be too much for your system.”

I nodded at that as I saw out of the corner of my eye Golden stick her head out the door and speak to someone. “I will keep that in mind, Doc, thank you.”

---

I took another nap. There really was not a whole lot else to do when healing from the kind of wounds I took. Having learned some of my needs, the doctors had seen to having a gryphon menu specially brought in for me. The red meat I couldn’t place, but, again I was assured it was taken in the strictest of rules and ethics. It was nice to have a little red meat, though I also knew I needed it to replace lost iron from the major blood loss.

When I woke it was, I had to guess, around noonish. Twilight had a hoof on my leg and was shaking it gently. I had guests. Big ones, at that.

Celestia and Luna both gave me a warm smile as I struggled to sit up some. “Sorry, I ain’t—”

The solar princess lifted her hoof. “Do not stress yourself, Shane, you are still very much recovering,” her smile was soft. “Quite the month you have had, isn’t it?”

I chuckled at that. “Yeah, you could say that, your highness.”

Each took a spot around me, sitting so I would not have to look up so high from my position. Twilight moved over and gently cranked the bed back up some, so I was more sitting up but still comfortable and my arm was held in place.

“Shane,” Luna spoke. “First, we all wish to thank you. You risked your very life for our ponies, and we shall not forget that.”

It felt kind of warming, hearing the words come from someone so powerful—a ruler—and yet being genuine.

“Again, Princess Luna,” using her honorific as I had no clue who was listening in. “I just did what was right. I was raised that… well, there is a quote that explains it best. It comes from the Bible, John fifteen-thirteen.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Twilight whip out a quill and paper from, where-the-hell-ever she kept them.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

I saw Celestia tilt her head a bit, then nod it gently. “You have spoken of this before, this 'bible', and what it is. With words like that, I can understand why it is important to your faith.”

I shrugged some. “I am not sure I have so much faith anymore, but the words are just as valid no matter who you are.”

Luna nodded. “Very true, now I am sure thou has questions for us.”

I looked around at them, then back to the alabaster sun goddess sternly. “You know me, Princess, let's not play word games, just lay it out. Why are ponies not allowed to tell me what is going on?”

She closed her eyes then turned her head and opened them, looking across the bed at Twilight. “I believe this is something you should cover, Twilight Sparkle.”

She smiled and looked at me. “Shane, how much do you understand about radiation, such as the sun gives off, light waves, and so on?”

I hid my reaction to the word. Well, at least I thought I had. Again, I was sorely mistaken and would find out later just how much so. Perhaps at some point I would learn I couldn’t hide a lot from the ponies in the room right now with me.

“I-I know some. What does that have to do with all this?”

She flicked an ear and continued in thorough, nerdy explanation. “All things absorb radiation from the environment around them. Magic, as we have, is a form of it, ponies create it in a gland inside our bodies. Many creatures do the same. However, all of it has one thing in common. It all has the same wavelength—a signature, if you will.”

I was fully silent as I listened.

“Shane, you and things from your world have a different signature, one that is almost entirely counter to the wavelength of ours. So, much like what happens when you throw a rock into water, then throw another one a few feet away. Items from your world, including you, sort of—” she waved her hoof around. “—cancel out with our world's signature.”

Okay, that kind of made a little bit of sense, the whole rock in the water thing. I got that, so I asked a question.

“So, if that is the case, how come I can touch any of you? I can interact with things and not cause them problems?”

Twilight looked down, away from my eyes. “Shane, the truth is, I am just starting to understand things. The best I have is a theory so far, that because you breath our air, eat our food, and drink our water. Your... signature is changing slowly.”

I blinked a few times and looked around, then focusing back on the smaller purple alicorn. “Will... this cause me health issues?”

She shook her head. “No, heavens, no. Or, at least, I don’t believe so so. In fact, I think quite the opposite is going on. This event,” she paused and looked directly into my eyes. “Shane, had Sergeant Cortland not been there, had his magic not worked on you, you would have bled out before anypony could reach to you to help. It was only his special talent the ability to seal up wounds with his magic... that saved you.”

I froze at that, not only had magic worked on me, but Cort had saved my butt! I owed him big time, and that would not be something I forget.

“So, this... would be why Luna can see my dreams, and why things don’t break when I touch them?”

She returned a nod to me in answer.

“W-what does this mean for finding me a way home?”

Even a blind man would have felt the change of tone in the air, seen the look from princess to princess. Having grown up around horses all my life, and having seen ponies react somewhat the same. I knew that flattened-ears look. I felt my gut fall out inside me.

“Shane, first... let me explain where and why I believe you and objects originating from your world came to be here, then I will answer that question, okay?”

She looked me in the eyes. I could tell she was upset. Hell, it was written on her face just as clear as day. I gave her a soft nod. “O-okay.”

She sighed deeply and shook her head. “I know you and I have talked about a few things. I will skip some of the details just to keep this on track. Think of all the possibilities of time and space as already having happened. Every decision you make, somepony else makes, shifts the universe some, and another one is created. So, think of them like bubbles in the air,” her horn lit up.

I watched as in the air above me hundreds of little purple bubbles started to float around, glowing circular reflections off of the walls.

“Once in a while, one bumps into another one. As best as my theory can explain, sometimes a little bit of one bubble joins the other. A thought, an idea, perhaps a dream, even a creature," she gestured as two bubbles bumped, but I saw one had a little sliver inside it now, floating around.

“The crack, that little piece of another bubble, floats around and anything it touches changes to be more like where the leftover bit came from. In this case.”

She looked back at me as I looked into her eyes.

“I think a sliver of our universe broke off into yours, and anything it touches or passes through, gets transported here, like a one-way portal.”

I let that bounce around in my head, turning to look at Celestia and Luna before looking back at Twilight. I had not missed the looks of sorrow on the two almost goddesses faces.

“So, the satellite, the cabin, the meteors... me. We were touched by this... sliver. Transported through it like someone shoved us through a door. Can’t you just shove me back the way I came?”

Celestia spoke up with a tone soft and filled with compassion. I turned my head to look at her eyes.

“Shane, there is no... sliver... on this side. There is only the one in the world you came from.”

I again looked around, that sinking feeling was going full tilt now.

“So, I am here... for the rest of my life?”

Three heads nodded in response as I looked at each one individually. There was to be no doubt they had exhausted themselves to find a way to get me back, but it was not to be. What slipped out of my lips was not very gentlemanly nor was it something that should be said in mixed company. though it really was about the only thing that could be said at that moment justifiably.

“Well, fuck.”