>This can't be death, can it? >You cup your junk, slapping your balls a bit. >Your equipment would be gone in Heaven or Hell, for purity and torture reasons, respectively. >Right? >You aren't in constant pain. >Right foot stamps down.  Okay, that's not true. >The pain was still there, anchoring you. >No, you were very much alive. >You feel like shit.  This was the one thing that you really wanted, and it had slipped away. >Fuck this gay... >Wait. >You open up the door again and look at where you came. >It’s a damn mess; it looks like your bathroom was ripped right out of your house. >The aluminum siding still sticks on near the window and you can see pipes and wiring cut off cleanly all over the place. >You're dumbfounded.  How the fuck is that possible? >Short answer: It isn't.  Long answer: you don't really give a fuck either way. >You're in the middle of a damn field. >At least you had kept your shoes on after getting home.  You weren't a time waster. >Hobbling, you leave the bathroom behind, there's nothing there anyway.     >In fact, there's nothing here at all.  It’s just a field.  You don't recognize the flowers, and you know just about everything there is to know about flowers. >The shape and colour aren't anything you've seen before. >You pick one, and examine it absentmindedly before you stumble across a pathway. >Left or right? >You remember a game you played as a kid, and pick off the petals of the flower. >Not "she loves me", "she loves me not", just "left", "right", will do. >Pluck. "Left it is, then." >You limp one foot in front of the other, whisking your cane along with you to stabilize your right side.  Your bad leg stung, but it was a nice day.   >That lessens the pain a bit. >You hear something off in the distance. >You stop. >Sounds like chattering. >No, chatting. >You crane your neck, trying to listen. >You suspect whatever it is must be around the bend up ahead. >"And then my tail went twitchy-twitch!  And shuddering!  You remember the shuddering, right?  It was a doozy!  And the twitchiness!  A doozy must have fallen!  A biiiiiiig doozy!" >Your eyes widened.  You heard a sigh, the voice kept squeaking at a thousand miles a minute, something about twitching and shuddering and doozies. >You obviously can't run away, so instead you just lean on your cane and wait.  You were nothing if not a tough, grizzled bastard.  Fuck running away. >Then they turned the corner up ahead. >A half dozen horses round the bend, their heads comically large with huge eyes, bright coloured crayon skin, groomed manes of various Crayola colours, and a weird but unique tattoo splashes each one's flank.   >You guess they're about half your height. >You feel your eyes widen even more, they might fall out. >There's a weird rustling inside your ironclad jimmies.     >You stand stunned into silence, the group ahead similarly stunned. >The pink one reacts first, jumping straight into the air with impossible hang time, gasping theatrically. >Without even landing it shoots across the 30 or so feet separating you with blinding speed, coming to a stop right in front of you. >"Himyname'spinkiepieareyounewaroundherebecauseiknoweveryp0nyinp0nyvilleandi'veneverseenyouaroundbeforethatmeansyoumustbenewandifyou'renewthatmeansyoudon'thaveanyfrie-" >You step the fuck back. >This shit cannot be real. >Talking pastel horses. >Your mind wallows in despair realizing that your attempted suicide must have driven you into an abyss of madness.  There is truly no justice in the world. >The pink horse scoots up to you again. >"What's your name?" she asks, you can understand her this time. >You shift the grip on your cane, pondering. >You have no idea what you're looking at, how you can understand it, or even where you are. >Fuck that gay earth. >Madness is better than death. >"Weeeeeeeeeeell?" she presses, her head tilted sideways.  A fluffy mane shoots every which way. "Anonymous." >"My name's Pinkie Pie!" she shouts, turning back to the others behind her.  "Seeeeee?!  I told you we'd find something!"  This is met with mixed reactions, from cautious warnings, to similar 'I told you so's', to disbelief. "Just... what are you?" >"You silly filly, I'm a p0ny!  Buuuuuut," she pauses, poking you with a hoof, "what are you?  You look silly!" "I'm a--HHRRRRGN" she poked your bad leg next. >You nearly shit yourself from the pain shocking your system.  Of course you dropped like a sack of pussy bricks. >"Pinkie!  What did you do?!" another voice cries out.  Your vision swims as you dismiss the pain as best you can.  There's a bit of an argument, you can't make it out over the scream in your ears. >Pain, the one constant in your life.  You'd gotten good at getting rid of it.  After a few moments, you've recovered enough strength to sit up.  You wipe the exceptionally manly and not pussy at all tear from your eye. >You come face to face with another horse, a soft yellow this time.  Pink hair encapsulates her face.  You realize all these horses look female. >This one has wings. >Winged horses?  Pegasus?  Really? >She lets out an 'eep' and retreats from your stubbled face, still twisted slightly in pain. >"Uh-um, are you okay, m-mister Anonym--" "Anon, please." >"Uh-oh-okay, mister Anon.  Are you hurt?" >She's meeker than... than... you can't even think of a good metaphor. >You look down at your leg, massaging it with your hand. "Yep." >A group of dark stares descend on Pinkie Pie.  Her previous energy and positive attitude deflates, her chaotic mane literally dropping to each side of her head like a popped balloon. "Not her fault, though." >The group once again looks to you; you're roughly eye level with them now.  They're a lot more expressive than other animals you're used to.  They're clearly confused. "She obviously didn't know I was already hurt," you explain to them. "To answer your question: I'm human." >They seem to toy with the word in their respective heads.  Each one comes up empty. >"I ain't heard of no hyoo-man before," the orange one says.  You note the stetson and comic southern accent. >"Neither have I," the purple one adds, scratching her chin with a hoof thoughtfully.  This one has a horn jutting from her head. >How do hooves scratch? >Fucking unicorns? >Not the time. >"My, my, ladies! You forget your manners! Dear Anon here has introduced himself and you don't even give him your name!" a white hors--p0ny... says as she shoulders past the others.  Another unicorn. >She bows down slightly.  "I am Rarity," she tells you.  A certain air of... sophistication, elegance, and grace seems to follow her.  You smell something like a perfume emanating from her. >"This is Applejack," she says, pointing to the orange p0ny. >"Twilight Sparkle," purple. >"Rainbow Dash," cyan, also a fitting rainbow mane.  Also wings.  This one reeks of overconfidence. >"Fluttershy," yellow, she avoids your gaze like you're Medusa or something. >"And you've met Pinkie Pie," who jumps up and bounces around the group. >You suddenly feel light headed. >Oh yeah, fucking cancer. "A pleasure to meet you all, but..." you trail off.  Civility was something you figured you'd cling to even if you were dying. "I'm lost, and frankly, I don't know how I got here.  I don't even know where 'here' is."   >You walk with the group to your shithouse TARDIS; it’s still a sore thumb mess.  They explain they're from P0nyville, and that you're in Equestria. >Wherever the fuck those places are.  The names also tug on your sanity. >Twilight Sparkle examined the room for a while, but found only shampoo bottles, stray hair, and empty pill bottles. >A weird aura surrounds her unicorn horn as she concentrates on the broken down room. >"I don't know what happened," she admits, dejected.  "I haven't seen something like this before." >She's holding one of your pill bottles. >"I do have one question, what are these for?" she looks at you with an accusing face. >You look downwards, and your eyes focus on your leg. "I'm very sick," you say.  The others step back.  "Don't worry, it’s not contagious." >It wasn't exactly a lie, but admitting you're a drug addict seemed like a bad idea. >You notice a thousand questions flood Twilight Sparkle's mind. "Twilight Sparkle, not here." >"Twilight, please." >You nod slowly; they could obviously detect something very wrong with you. >You feel light headed. >Your balance begins to slip; your hand holds your cane in a vicegrip. >Your eyes widen. >Not here, please. >Your vision blurs, concerned phantom voices call out to you. >The ground is in your face.   >You're dimly aware of weightlessness, strange sounds all around you, bright colours, it’s all a haze.  You must still be stoned off your ass.  Or insane.  Or in the depraved depths of Hell. >You come to in a library with immaculate wood flooring, paneling, ceiling, shelves... everything is wood, even the stool you're sitting on. >A purple ass is bent over right next to you. >You cough. "Charming." >Twilight whips around, redness over her face. >Always the charmer, Anon. >"Oh, you're awake," she says awkwardly. >You sit with your eyes half open in silence for a few moments. >And a few moments. >A few seconds. >A book hovers up from behind Twilight, engulfed in the same weird aura as before. >Magic? >You're definitely stoned off your ass. >"Um... while you were asleep, I took the time to examine you," she explains. >You'd had a thousand examinations before; the invasion of privacy just didn't matter anymore.  You sit silently. >"I think I've found out what's wrong with you." >You are completely deadpan. "I could have told you that." >She hesitates. "First, the bullet above my knee," you point for emphasis.  "Next, the cancer in the surrounding bone," she nods, making a note of what you called it.  "And finally," you add.  "My cane is missing."  You bite the last part out. >Never separate a cripple from his cane.  It pisses him the fuck off. >"Oh, just a minute," she says.  Your cane appears from behind you and you grab it briskly. >You sigh, moving your hands over the cool, black surface. "Thank you." >She smiles, then looks at her notes.  "So this 'cancer'... how do you cure it?" she asks.  "Does it get better?" >You sigh.  Heavily. >"I'll... take that as a no." "There's no cure, Twilight, and it'll kill me," you tell her.  It’s a reality you've faced more than once.  "My favourite doctor said I had six months left, two years ago." >She recoils in shock, but looks at her notes again.  She concentrates, thinking hard. >"Spike, take a letter," she says.  A lizard thing pops into your field of vision holding a quill and parchment. >You half recognize Spike as a dragon. >What the actual fuck. >"Dear Princess Celestia..." >She tells this princess about how she and her friends had found you, that you're human, that you're sick, and that she wants to try and make you better. >You grimace. >Spike breathes fire, toasting the letter into a puff of sparkling smoke, which shoots out the nearby window. >This fucking place.  It’s like naivety and batshit crazy made into an entire plane of existence.  Your jaded interior feels sick. "It won't work." >She stops.  "Why?" "I've tried everything... there is no cure, Twilight." >She looks into your cold, jaded eyes and says matter of factly: "You haven't tried magic."