Awakening

The first thing I noticed when I came to was a periodic beeping. Must be in a hospital. I thought as I attempted to open my eyes, immediately regretting the decision as they were assaulted by a garish white. As I eased open my eyes I saw the room was completely white with the exception of the bed's sheets, which were a pale blue. Definitely a hospital. At this point I remembered I had been shot and reached for my throat and felt ... a small scar where the bullet had entered. How long was I out? I questioned myself as I looked down on my body. My shirt was gone but strangely my pants were still on. Why I was not in a hospital gown was beyond me. I saw that I was now notably thinner, and I figured that I had been in a coma. I got up, not connected to anything but an IV marked as water. I pulled the needle out as I looked to the wall.

On the wall hung a grey vest, I swung my feet over the edge and began applying pressure on them, my legs quivered a bit as I stood up, but held. I proceeded to hobble over the the vest and picked it off the wall hook from which it was suspended.  I slipped it on and immediately noticed the strange shape, the chest was much to big once I secured some buttons and the shoulders were on the tight side, but it protected my modesty, that was sufficient.

Looking around the room I noticed there were no other hospital beds, I was in a private room, strange. I looked over to the wall opposite of the bed and noticed a large mirror. A one way mirror? I thought, Why would I be put in an observation room? I walked to mirror and examined myself, the grey vest matched my black pants and tan shoes. I noted that I now had a respectable beard protruding from my face. I could take some of the cheeks, maybe get a goatee started? I laughed, my voice hoarse as I realized I likely hadn't drank any water in weeks.

"Hello? Anyone there? I'm awake." I croaked at the one-way mirror, hoping some staff were active on the other side. It was at this moment when a door to my right opened and I saw ... a unicorn. Yes, a unicorn, yes I thought I had gone insane. The unicorn was a fluorescent teal with sapphire blue eyes with a white lab coat hanging about his shoulders. As it stepped into the room I garnered a sense of his, assuming it was a he, full dimensions. At the head he would have reached up to my waist, putting him at about three feet tall, his body was about four feet long. That was the extent of my observations when his mouth opened and ...

"Can you ... understand me?" His voice was definitely male, but timid.

Dumbfounded I said yes, not wanting to ask why I perceived the doctor in front of me as a unicorn.

"I would like you to come with me." He said as he opened the door behind him fully with a hind leg, revealing a pegasus adorned in armour. I obliged, figuring it was best not to mention the fact that everyone I saw was a creature of myth. If I was insane, then surely I would get to see a psychologist eventually.

"Princess Celestia asked to have an audience with you." The unicorn stated as we entered the hallway, and I saw several more pegusai, all adorned with Identical armour, and possessing the same coat colour of a pure white, like on rice and a glass of milk on a paper plate in a snowstorm white. I was going to see a princess? Maybe my mind was altering what others were saying as well as there image, provided any of what I saw was rooted in reality.

I then saw a water fountain and asked, "May I have a drink of water?" under normal circumstance I would have simply walked to the fountain and had my fill, but given the eight guards, I figured it prudent to have permission.

The group stopped as a whole as the unicorn turned to me after giving a quick glance at the water fountain and nodded, "You may." I walked over, had a drink, a long drink, and then returned to the group. We proceeded down the hall.

"So, I'm going to be seeing a princess? Who is the queen then?"

The unicorn replied. "We don't have a queen, Princess Celestia is our ruler, along with her sister, and the two are our gods as well." Okay, so there was no reaction to my saying princess, I began to feel as though I might not be hallucinating. If that was the case then wherever I was in was a principality, given the head of state being a female ... something. Wait, gods?     I could not think of any place that still had royalty that people genuinely believed were gods. I was developing more questions when we turned to a grand hall, vaulted ceilings reaching at least a hundred feet hight. Stained glass windows lined the hall with images of ponies, winged, horned, and neither. At the end of the hall I noticed a midnight blue pony, with wings and horn sitting atop a throne, silver regalia adorning her hooves and chest, and a crown reaching to her main.

By God, her mane was an ethereal rendition of the the night sky, yet unfettered by the torchlight from the sconces lining the hall. If I truly had been sent to another world, I began to feel at that moment that the forces that had aligned to bring me here should have sent a poet, so sublime was the view. My own experience of the night sky was always polluted with the light of cities that knew not slumber.

Remembering I was now presumably in the presence of royalty, I dropped to one knee, causing the unicorn doctor to flinch, and the guards tense, as I said. "Greetings Princess Celestia." The mare arose and walked towards me.

"Rise." She said as she reached me. I did so, and noticed that standing at full height, her eyes came up to my throat, but her horn rose to just above my head. "I am not Princess Celestia, I am her sister, Princess Luna. We appreciate your manners, but We would have your name and race creature."

Ouch, screwed that introduction up something fierce. I replied to her command. "I am Edmund Ross, a human."

As Luna's mouth opened to reply I hear a voice from the entrance of the hall. "I am glad to see that everything has remained civil dear sister." Turning, I saw a white coated pony, with wings and horn as well, and adornments of gold upon her. Her mane was like Luna's blowing in a non-existent breeze, with pinks and greens mixed like the northern lights I had seen as a child. As she passed by to stand by her sister I noticed her rear was adorned with a tattoo of the sun. Looking to Luna I noticed she too had a mark, but of the moon, emblazoned on her rump. "I am Princess Celestia, and I welcome you, Edmund Ross of the humans, to Equestria."

"Thank you your highness, I am honoured, but I must ask. How did I get here?" I knew it was rude to ask questions of royalty, but manners be damned, I needed to get myself situated, and to do that I needed information.

"My student and pupil, Twilight Sparkle, with my assistance, summoned you to our realm."

"Why?"

"For your benefit and ours, now I am sure you have a great deal of questions, but I have some of my own to ask of you."