Ch.4 So... I'm trapped here?

You awaken to a sound that you've only heard two times in your life, the rhythmic beeping of a life support monitor and the steady sound of an IV dripping fluid into a bag. Which happens to be a little unnerving on account the last thing you remember was going to sleep in your house Friday night. Slowly you open your eyes and are blinded at first at the bright ceiling lights; you never sleep with the lights on. As your eyes begin to adjust your fears are confirmed, instead of waking up in your comfortable bed you find yourself inside a foreign room with life monitoring equipment.

 

Seriously... A Hospital? Fuck. The last time you woke up in one of these you had been strapped to a table only to be informed that a good years’ worth of your memories had been obliterated. Bringing your right arm up to your face you attempt to rub your temples however instead nothing happens as you slowly begin to realize that you can't feel your right arm in the slightest.

 

Ok Anon, don't panic.... You're gonna slowly inch those eyeballs down to your right hand and it's still going to be there and hey, if it isn't you'll just have to learn how to bate with the left one. Mustering every last ounce of courage Anon takes a peek at his right arm.

 

Oh thank God. The reason it wouldn't move wasn't because it was missing, it was just being laid on by a blue pony with rainbow hair.

 

Pony.

 

Blue Fur.

 

Rainbow Hair.

 

"A dream...?" that would be impossible. There was no way this was a dream, after mastering lucid dreaming there's no way you would make an amateur mistake and wouldn't be able to differentiate between the real and dream worlds. Regardless Anon looked around the room nervously until he found it. "See? That clock isn't accurately telling the ti--"

 

Waiting a full two minutes just to be sure Anon stared at the clock counting off the seconds in real time that corresponded to the clock. Well there were other checks he could do to convince him that this was indeed the dream world. Bringing his left hand up to his face Anon reached two fingers into his eye and pinched the contact that he always neglected to take out blurring his vision momentarily before letting go. Dropping his hand back to his side Anon looked over at the blue pony.

 

Anon could feel the ponies steady breaths and see the rising and falling of its chest. Reaching out to it he placed a hand on its mane. "Warm..." sliding his hand down it's mane toward its back Anon could feel---wings? It's a Pegasus?

 

"Mmmmmaaaaahhhhh." the pony stirred a bit nuzzling his arm before opening its eyes and raising its head to face you a slight line of drool from its mouth. "Ah."

 

"Ah."

 

In a flash the pony jumps back and-- get this! Is hovering a few feet off of the ground. Anon would have asked how that was possible given the wingspan to body ratio but it disappeared in a VISIBLE rainbow trail of light. You bet you could have reached out and grabbed that trail. Pondering for a second you finally notice a stand next to your bed that had a bottle of pills on it.

 

"That explains it. They must have me on that good shit... Moreover I can't even remember why I'm in a hospital. Better not have lost another years’ worth of memories." At that moment your stomach grows and hurts like a bitch, “Wow, must be super hungry to induce pain.” Looking around you find a button that you guess is to call a nurse. However before you can press it the rainbow pony dashes back into the room. "What's up hallucination? Where'd you run off too?"

 

"What? Anon what're you talking about?" it responds.

 

"Er wait, what?" You begin but a flash of familiar light to your left grabs your attention as a-- check this; a pink mother-fucking-unicorn appears. Chaaaarrrrllliiiiieeee. It doesn't stop there though, after another moment the door to your room opens up and a whole slew of ponies trot in all of different colors and variations ranging from unicorn, pegasi, to just normal ponies.

 

“Oh wow! I’m so happy that you’re awake! We’re totally going to throw you a get well party for you and there will be games and food and cake! Oh it’ll be so much fun and everypony will be there! Oh!? We also have to throw you a welcome to Ponyville party! Oooooh I just can’t wait!” a very pink… and somewhat familiar pony jumps on your bed and begins talking a mile a minute.

 

“Now, now Pinkie. Give the fellar some space. He’s hardly done woken up and yer talkin’ bout parties.” That pony has a southern accent. You should know, since you’ve living in the south for a good five years now.

 

“Indeed, if anything the first thing that we need to discuss is getting you out of those dreadful dirty clothes and into something with a little more flair.” ended a snow white pony that for some reason unapparent to you; felt a strong urge to punch her in the stomach.

 

You look back at the stand with your medicine on it and smile warmly before pressing the button that’s still in your hand. "Uh nurse... Can you come help me please? I think the medicine you gave me is making me hallucinate. There.. There are really girly colorful talking ponies, pegasi, and unicorns in my room. Oh, and I'm really hungry too." You release the button and instantly panic. That nurse is going to think that you're a faggot. A grown man your age hallucinating about ponies? Done. Your social life is done.

 

As you hang your head in shame the purple unicorn trots up to you and puts a hoof on your right arm. "Anon, don't you remember? You fought the Eternal Dream and won."

 

"What?" you look up with a bit of confusion in your eyes and begin to respond before a searing pain shoots through your abdomen. "Twilight.... Sparkle?" you question before it all begins coming back to you. Friday night you went to sleep with the intent of having a lucid dream, which you achieved. You met Twilight, saved Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie... But you were separated. Rarity, she bucked you harder than you've ever been hit in your life. A Shade, it could transform, buying the ponies time then.... Then what? Looking down at your chest you notice that you're not wearing a shirt and can plainly see blood stained bandages wrapping around your waist. Another jolt of pain courses through your body as you try to sit up. "This... all of this is real?"

 

"Of course it is, with your help we kicked that nightmares butt!" Dash commented flying up and pumping her hoof into the sky.

 

"No. I mean this. This place, you guys, talking ponies." Anon demanded slightly raising his voice.

 

"Talking ponies, well of course why wouldn't we talk?" Twilight questioned narrowing her gaze.

 

"Because in my world, ponies don't talk." Then before any of them could protest he added, “Well talking ponies are the least of my worries at the moment.. When we first met you said that your world… Equestria? That it was in danger. That danger is over and all which is cool so why didn’t I wake up in my world instead of this one?”

 

The room grew silent with thought at that point and it wasn’t until a few seconds later that Twilight began to speak up uttering the three words you really didn’t want to hear at that moment. “I don’t know…”

 

Quickly catching herself though she added, “When I began research in my library there was only one book that even mentioned the Eternal Dream. From this book I was able to pull out a summoning spell… but.” Looking a tad bit confused herself she paused to think of how to phrase the next part. “But, that spell was only to summon you to the same dream plane that we were in, instead it seems you’ve been pulled out of the dream world and manifested in our world.

 

There were tons of questions you wanted to ask and weren’t’ even sure of the order that you wanted to ask them in but finally as your stomach growled you settled on one, “Got anything to eat around here?”

 

• • •

 

There wasn't a single piece of meat on Anon's plate. He figured as much, though it was better than he expected; he had truly expected them to bring him a plate of hay. To his surprise though the one called Applejack had brought with her a bushel of red apples while pink and crazy brought him a one way ticket to diabetes. Lastly Twilight had her mini wingless purple dragon (Purple dragon? Weak.) prepare some whole wheat bread sandwiches with all kinds of veggies in it.

 

While he ate Twilight informed him of his injures and what exactly happened. Apparently the reason he was teleported to a different location than the rest of them was due to the enemy's interference. Twilight, Dash and Pinkie were able to free Fluttershy but were locked in a losing battle with shadow versions of who she called Discord and Nightmare moon. And that's where your memory kicked in, free fall into Discord impaling him, Twilight and the others beat Nightmare Moon into submission and he plays decoy while they free Applejack. Pretty simple except it seems they too weren't able to see when or how I was wounded. Said the last time they saw me I was on the offensive against the shade of Nightmare moon. Afterwards they brought me to the hospital, patched me up and let me sleep for a good two days straight. No wonder you were so damn hungry.

 

Finally a good five apples, three sandwiches and ten assorted cakes and cupcakes later Anon sat back, "Man that hit the spot, and if I eat anymore it'll fall out of this hole in my stomach" Which was probably true seeing as he was notified that Rarity had sewn him back together. He almost reopened when the doctor came in to re-bandage him and he caught a glimpse of the cutest little double stitch shaped heart. She had even used pink thread!

 

"Right, " Anon began in a more serious tone, "there's just one thing Twilight, I'm not some kind of ancient being with magnificent powers. I'm just an ordinary human who just turned twenty one. Heck, a good portion of my race believes us to be alone in the universe, why me?

 

Taken back for a moment Twilight responds with a question of her own, "But you seemed so sure of yourself earlier inside of the dream, and you didn't seem to show that much surprise at… well anything."

 

"Sorry, that's just me being me, " Anon responded chucking. "See I'm what you would call a lucid dreamer. The only reason I wasn't really surprised at anything was because I believed that I was just having another lucid dream."

 

"Sorry but could you back up a sec? What's this lucid dreaming you're talking about?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

 

"Heh, like… You serious? Well if I had to sum it up its pretty much the ability to control your dreams. See when a person normally falls asleep he or she will sleep for a few hours before entering the R.E.M. stage of sleep. Once you get there you begin having dreams. Or at least that's how I read it. People like me with practice are able to realize that they're actually asleep and dreaming. Once that realization is hit you're able to take hold of your dream and do whatever you want with it. Anything from dreaming that you can fly to dreaming that you're somewhere on an epic adventure. It's really fun when you get the hang of it.

 

"Wow, so you can just control dreams? Can all of you humans do that?" questioned Dash.

 

"Yes, well not just humans, I'm sure any sentient being should be able to control their dreams once they realize that they're in one. With enough practice I'm sure you could too."

 

"No, that can't be possible; the only mare who is able to control dreams would be Princess--"

 

"Aw sweet, that would be totally cool!" Dash yelled interrupting Twilight, "So you're saying I could even explore the deep jungle with Daring Do?"

 

"Who? Well as I said, anything's possible in a dream." Anon laughed. "It just takes a little time and patience besides," Anon began as he turned to face Twilight, "I'm nowhere close to being the most adept lucid dreamer. So I'm guessing it was just right place and right time kind of deal? So when can you send me back?" Anon picked up another one of Pinkies diabetes express cakes and went to town. "Not that this place ain't bad, it's just a bit girly and well… Devoid of humans."

 

Twilight averted her eyes and hung her head low, "I'm sorry Anon, but my spell was only to bring you into the dream world that everypony was trapped in." Breathing out a sigh she finally brought her gaze to meet you, "I have no idea how you appeared in our world …. Let alone how to send you back."

 

"Whoa whoa whoa. Wait. Back up, start over. What do you mean you can't-- I mean it would be one thing if I woke up in a badass medieval world surrounded by a harem of hot chicks but… I… I'm.." Anon paused and lowered his voice back to normal, "You're telling me that I'm trapped in this world. A world full of brightly colored talking ponies devoid of any female of my race?"

 

Twilight didn't respond, though she didn't have to, it was written all over her face. Hundreds of thoughts passed through your head at that moment. Never seeing any of your family, friends, your dogs that you loved so much. Nothing. All of that hit you at once but one realization stung harder than the rest.

 

Unless somewhere down the line you acquire a furry fetish the chances of you ever getting laid dropped from an already abysmally low number to absolute zero. "Well… Indeed."