Last time on 'You Will Never Walk Again' Quest:
>Town meeting with most of Ponyville.
>Turns out a letter has arrived from Canterlot, signed by Luna.
>Word is most of Equestria is in crisis, much like Ponyville.
>Also mentioned to be careful of any creatures that seem to resemble humans, saying that they were dangerous.
>Tried to convince the town that you meant no harm, your pony friends standing beside you.
>Ponyville voted that you shouldn’t be put in custody.
>Later, went with Twilight to her place to help her write a reply letter.
>When you went down into her basement, she snuck up behind you and shackled your foot to one of her crazy big machines and left you there.
>Looked around, memorizing a big map of the area.
>Tried to force the lock, ended up tilting the machine and having it fall on you.
You are Rusty Shackleford, a self named human with no memory who has found himself in Equestria. For the last few days you have been helping around Ponyville, which has been having a number of monster attacks.
Oh god, it's so heavy. You try your best to shove the heavy machines off of you, using all your might to unwedge yourself. From your position, you don’t have enough leverage to lift the machines, but you are just able to squeeze yourself out from under the heavy weight. It slams down to the floor loudly from the last few inches.
Your legs hurt really bad and you're not really in a good state of mind from the pain and adrenalin. You... don’t know if you can feel your toes or feet. But you do have the presence of mind to notice that now that the machines is turned over, the other end of the chain is free. Yay.
The basement door opens.
"I heard a noise. Is everything O- Rusty! What happened?!" Twilight shrieks as sees you on the flood next to the fallen machine. She sprints over, fretting over you. "Oh no, oh no no no no no no, are you OK? What happened? Oh no, you weren’t supposed to get hurt."
"Twilight," You say quietly and slowly, doing your best not to get mad and stay lucid. "I just got crushed by heavy machinery. I don’t know if I can move my legs. I need medical attention."
"Uhh, uhh," Twilight keeps fretting, prancing back and forth on the tips of her hooves. "OK, think Twilight, think. OK, Rusty, you... stay here, I'll be back in two seconds!"
"Twilight, no wait!"
But she's already out of the room, leaving you on the floor. The room keeps spinning, making you a little queasy on top of your other problems and you're not sure how much time passed. Suddenly, Twilight is by your side again, carrying a bundle of things with her magic. From the pile, she produces a book. The cover says 'A Filly's First to First Aid' and has a bright red cross on the spine.
"OK OK, chapter five, broken bones," Twilight reads aloud. "Step one, make sure the injured pony is immobilized."
"Twilight," You say, feeling delirious.
"Shhh!" Twilight shushes you, using her magic to lift a few long wood planks and tapping them around your legs.
"Ow." is all you're strong enough to croak out.
You leave Twilight to work, not really strong enough to do anything else and you don't want to alienate her. She seems to know what shes doing, but you keep going in and out of it. It's sorta like a really, really painful slide show.
"Step two, make sure the injure pony has no other injuries," Twilight continues reading, doing everything by the book. She kneels down next you. "How are you feeling Rusty? Does anything else hurt?"
"I'm in a lot of pain," You say, trying to put your head up, but your vision starts to swim so you lay back down. "The others will be looking for me, you know?"
"I know," Twilight says, biting her lip and going back to her book. She then comes back over with a small glass of water and a rather large looking white pill. "Here, take this. It will make you feel better."
You accept the water, but hold off on the pill for now.
"Twilight, I think I should see a doctor. Am I bleeding?"
"No no no no no," Twilight ways, producing a pillow and blanket, trying to make you comfy. "You're fine. Everything fine. You just lay here and get better, yeah."
"Twilight, I don’t thi-"
"Now now, everything's fine," Twilight says, shoving her hoof in your mouth. And uses her magic and refills your water, sitting next to you. "You just relax, I'll check on you in a bit."
"Bu-"
Twilight disappears out of the room and closes the door behind her. You are left in the room on the floor.
Again.
Gently, you lift the covers off yourself and examine your legs. From what you can tell, which isn’t much, you think Twilight did a pretty good job. Each leg has two little and long planks of wood running their length and taped to each side. There’s also some kind of padding or something tapped around your shoes. You try wiggling you toe and feel them move, plus lots of throbbing pain. There doesn’t seem to be any blood.
You also take a look at the pill Twilight gave you. Its some white capsule, but its really big. You don’t think you could swallow it without water.
You decide not to take the pill and pocket it. You just lay back, trying to relax against the pillow and ignoring the pain as much as you can. You're not really sure how long you lay there. In fact, you think the pain might be making you a touch delirious, constant vivid thoughts and imaged racing around you mind. Colorful ponies, giant spiders chasing each other and changing sizes, some blue pony with a creepy smile, all of it on the back drop of Twilight's map. Then things were on fire, which was neat.
A door slams somewhere, tearing you back to painful reality. You think you can hear something above you, in Twilight's library. Talking? Yeah you think.
You try to listen in as best you can, but can't really get much of anything.
"Mphmmhpmhmh?"
"Mmphmmhpmh. Mphhhempme mpeheme mphm."
You wonder if Twilight's basement is sound proof. Or maybe a living tree isn’t the best conductor for sound.
"Hey!" You shout as best you can. Which is to say, pretty feebly. "I'm down here! Hello!"
There’s a moments pause, followed by a series of loud thumps. You wait for a bit but no one comes down to the basement and the muffled conversation continues.
Oh god, did something happen? Is Twilight OK? What was that thumping? Is it another monster? Your mind races with all sorts of horrible scenarios of terrible things are happening up stairs. You start to freak out and turn to the one thing you can.
Drugs!
You take the big pill out of your pocket and down it with the water. The horse pill was a hard swallow, but it's down. You wait there on the floor, listening.
"Mpphmhhm."
"Mphmhmhpmh"
Clop clop clop clop
"Mpmppmhm?"
"Mphmh"
Clop clop clop bang.
You think the door upstairs was just closed.
Clop clop clop clop oh god it's coming down the stairs.
The basement door opens and walks in... oh god, it's that crazy blue pony oh god oh god. It's smiling and walking towards you oh god.
As the creepy blue pony stalks over to you, grinning like a psychopath, you stoically hold you ground and remain your composure.
"Aaaaahhhhhhh!" You screech out in a high pitch squeal, flailing you arms around protectively once its on top of you. "Don’t break my legs! It's already done!"
"Rusty."
"Please, I need my brain, get out get out!"
"RUSTY!"
You snap out of your delirium and manly panic, blinking absently. Twilight is look down at you by your side, looking worried. You squint up at her.
"You," You point your finger right in the purple pony's face. "I remember you."
"You took the pill, didn’t you?"
"Mmmhmm." You say smugly.
"Good."
"Wh-what wash in that pill?"
"Oh, its just a pain reliever." Twilight says. "You're kinda big so I gave you a big dose, so you're probably a little... loopy. Are you OK?"
"Listen you," You say, lazily reaching up to Twilight and grabbing her by the horn. "I been doing lots of things, saving your friends and there was a fire and getting a con....concunc....condnco...."
"A concussion?"
"Yeah that!" You say, forcibly nodding Twilight's head up and down. "And you're locking me dowsh here like sum secret and break my legs, while you write letters. Now what you have to say bout yourself?"
"Rusty?"
"Yesh?"
"Please let go of my horn."
"Sorry." You let go of Twilight, who takes a step back, rubbing her horn.
"I'm know, Rusty. I feel terrible about this, but I don’t know what else to do. But the good news is, the letter is sent, so now I can help you some more."
"Oh yeah, by all means," You continue to slur about, laying into Twilight. "It'll be nice to walk to jail when your prinshesh comes."
"No no, Rusty," Twilight says, rubbing your head. "I'm sure that wont happen. Princess Celestia is very wise. She'll understand."
"Riiight. And how you gunna explain dish to your friends Twilight? Huh? Rarity's gunna be lookin' fur me. How you gunna explain where I am? How she gunna react if shes finds out, huh? Huh?"
"Rusty, I-"
"Thishs all your fault anyway! All de uther ponies are wokrin' and theres a fire, but your in here, writtin letter and sheeping insead of helping. And cause of you I broke my legs."
"I...I..."
"Hold on, I remebered." You reach under you covers into your pockets and pull out a handful of pinata candy from the other night. "Could you give this to Applerbloom, please? Tell her I'm shorry for getting her grounded."
Twilight is looking at you, holding out your handful of candy, stunned. her mouth is agape and her lips are kinda moving, but she's not saying anything.
"I... OK." Twilight says, taking the candy with magic.
"Thanksh," You lay back down into the soft pillow. "I have lots of pony friends. Oh but not Twilight, nope she just goes and breaks my legs. Pinkies a true friends, threw me a birthdays. Rarity says she'll make me a super cools outfit. Dash is sorta cools and stuff. Applejacks gave e place to stay and had luchses. Appleblooms niche too. I don’t knows Fluttershy all that well, but a least she didn’t break my legs!"
It suddenly occurs to you that you are talking to an empty room, the basement door closed. You sip your water.
"Theshe ponies."
"You know what YOUR prublem ish Twilight?" You continue on, to no one in particular. "You're a weenie. You hide in here an write your littles lettlers and whopity doopity uh oh now thers a problem, but you cants come cause your too busy with Spike making dumb leeters that your pwincess probly doesnt read cause shes sick of you!"
You sit up and crawl over to a wall, leaning against it. You also grab a few quills and papers and start to scribble with both hands.
"Look at me, I Twilight Sparkle! I'm a unicorn. Watch me write thesh letters! Uh oh, no one cares! What's that theres a giant spider outsside? Better take a nap! Pinkies having a party? Don't care, her parties are dumb like her! The town is on fire? You'll have to drag me out to do anythings abouts its! Oh and now I-"
You notice that the basement door is open and Spike is standing in the doorway. You're still scribbling lazily with a quill in each hand on separate pieces of paper. There’s a considerably long silence.
"Uhh, hi."
"Hi."
"Should... I give you a minute?" Spike says, taking a step back into the doorway hesitantly.
"No, waits Spike." You say, still scribbling away absently. "Come in here, Twilight broke me legs."
"Wh... huh?" Spike says, trotting over. He takes a look at your splints. "What happened now?"
"Oh, so here I was, minding my own business," You say, feeling another rant coming on. "Helping out Twilight, but then shes locking my to her machine. I tries to gets out of it and then it falls on me. BOOM! Next thing I know, I'm in pain and Twilights on me, wrapping my legs and gives me this loopy pill and now I cants shtop shluring. Then there was that crazy pony, but it was shtill Twilight. Now shes has my candy ands takin it to Appelbleem."
"Uh... huh," Spike says slowly. "So... what happened?"
"Get a doctor, please."
"OK OK," Spike says, running out of the room. He stops by the doorway, looks back, shrugs and goes up the stairs.
You keep scribbling away.
You decide to do your best to draw that crazy pony. Why not, got time to kill. You only have black ink and quills. And you're not exactly lucid and having trouble holding your head all the way up. But you do you best. It looks... terrible.
Really terrible. It looks nothing like it but it brings back the memory of... no, you don’t want to think about it. No no. You take the drawing and fling it as far as you can from you. Since it's paper, it hovers and glides in a funny way, laying only a few feet away, still face up. It gives you the chills. You wish you didn’t draw it.
You lay back against the wall, trying to steady your breathing. It's just a drawing. Why are you so worked up over a drawing? It must be the pill screwing with your head. You're fine. You just need to breath. Maybe some fresh air.
You get on your stomach and start crawling towards the door. You just need to just keep calm and steady you're breath is all. You'll be fine, everything will be OK.
You just need to keep crawling.
.......
You just need to keep crawling. If you stop, that thing will get you. It almost got you once already, but you got away. You can hear it coming down the hall, its hoofs clopping against the metal. You'll be fine, so long as you keep crawling.
"Oh no, I don’t think so," An ice cold voice taunts from behind. You're suddenly surrounded by light and feel your entire body being dragged backwards. You dig your fingers into the floor but it doesn’t help.
You're flipped over onto your back. The pony appears between the flashes of the emergency lights and sits down squat on your chest. It's deceptively heavy. There it sits, admiring its extended hoof.
No, you're not going to end up like the others! If nothing else, you're going take it with you! You ball up you fist so tight with fear and rage you hear one of the knuckles pop.
"Raaaah!" You shout wordlessly, throwing everything you have into clocking the pony. Your fist sorta... just stops in front of the pony's head. Somehow.
"No, we're not doing that." The ponies says calmly. Your arms flies back and slams into the ground. You can't move your arms at all now.
"Heeey," You say, panicking. "I think we might have gotten off on the wrong foot here. We don’t need to fight."
"Oh really?" The pony says, mocking surprise. "It's nice that you said that. One of us almost got hurt here."
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because I know your secret," The pony says smugly, with a triumphant look. "You thought you were so clever hiding down here. But I found it."
"Why... did you have to kill them?"
"Why not?" The pony giggles lightly. "None of you mean anything to me."
"Please, don't kill me. Please."
"Oh enough begging," The pony rolls their eyes. "They all beg, I'm so sick of it. Besides, I'm not going to kill you."
"Oh, thank you! Please, just let me go."
"Oh no no, I have plans for you."
"What do you..." You start to say as the pony starts leaning down to your face and presses it's horn to your forehead.
"We're going to have some fun."
There’s a flash of light. You hear someone yelling and only some remote part of your brain recognizes that it's you.
.......
You're about half way to the basement door when it opens. Spike comes in with a pony you don’t recognize. It's a yellowy brown unicorn wearing what looks like a lab coat.
"Here he is!"
"Oh my," The apparent doctor pony says, look at you sprawled on the ground, partly chained and next to big wrecked machine. "What happened here?!"
"Call me crazy, doc." You say, starting to come off your high. "But I think there’s a problem with my legs."
"Clearly," The doctor says, not at all amused. "What... exactly happened here?"
"Uhh, long story short, Twilight locked me in her basement and this machine fell on me legs. She wrapped me up some and gave me something for the pain. Then Spike found me and here we are."
"That’s not what you told me.' the doctor pony says to Spike.
"I couldn’t understand a word he was saying earlier!" Spike says shrugging. "I thought he fell or something."
"Right, well, let's get you out from this basement." The unicorn doctor's horn starts glowing and next thing you know, you're floating in their air, being sent up the stairs, the other two behind you. You're brought all the way up to the loft area and placed in Twilight's bed.
"Right, let's take a look at you," The doctor then starts examining your legs.
"Thank you Spike." You say, still a little loopy. He gives you a shrug.
"Spike. I need you to do me another favor."
"I dunno..."Spike says at your bed side, clearly reluctant.
"Please, I need you to get someone."
"I could get Twilight."
"NO!" you shout, nearly shooting up in the bed. The doctor firmly pushes you back down in you back with is hoof. "No, not Twilight. Pinkie, Applejack, anyone. Anyone but Twilight."
"Uhh... alright." Spike says and climbs down the stairs. Again he looks back you from the doorway before leaving completely, leaving you with the doctor.
"Give it to me straight," You say, looking up at the doctor pony. "How bad is it?"
"Well, keep in mind, my specialty is ponies," The brownish unicorn says slowly. "Your legs have sustained trauma."
"Oh no."
"But I think you're OK. Just keep off your hooves for a while and take it easy. You'll still be sore, but you should be able to walk fine." He starts to take off the splints.
"Oh, OK. Thanks."
"Think nothing of it." He says, heading toward the stairs. "If you'll excuse me, I have a lot of other patients to attend to since last night's fire."
"Thanks again, doc."
"You're welcome. Just take it easy." He says, leaving you alone.
From your new vantage from Twilight's bed, you not only have a good look of all of Twilight's house, which is surprisingly spacious for a tree, you now have a window and have a high tier look of Ponyville. You must have been trapped underground for a long time, cause it's getting on sunset now. A few buildings not too far away have some burn damage, but much of it is being fixed up even now. You can see a lot of ponies going about.
Including Twilight.
Who is heading straight to the library.
Oh no oh no oh no!
Quick, the bed! You roll sideways off the bed and on to the floor, the chain still attached to your ankle clattering loudly with you. You gather it all up as fast as you can and crawl under Twilight's bed. A few moments pass with your heart beating in your ears, until Twilight finally enters the house.
"Spike?" She calls out. "You home? Spike."
Seeing that there’s no one home, Twilight trots over the the big table in the middle of the ground floor. She looks around over bother her shoulders, then starts rubbing up on it by her side. She seems to be scratching an itch.
"Ooooh yeeaahhh."
These freaking ponies.
After like a minute of this, Twilight trots down to the basement stairs.