Day 60: Intercom, Morning

[damned-intercom.livejournal.com]

The intercom chimed at its usual time, with the Head Doctor sounding far more jovial than he had in his previous announcement. (Not that he wasn't jovial enough to begin with, mind you.) He hummed a tune and rustles a few papers before composing himself long enough to address his audience.

"Ah! There is nothing like a warm, home-cooked meal to accompany the quiet thrill of paperwork," he declared. "Kudos to our cafeteria workers for the wonderful meal! I wouldn't know what we would do without their beautifully crafted dishes..."

One could almost swear they heard the intercom emit a dreamy sigh.

"In any case, to gear you up for today's activities, your nurses will be escorting you to the Sun Room for some rest and relaxation! Unfortunately, we won't be holding therapy sessions today due to scheduling errors, but that doesn't mean you won't get to spend quality time with your doctors this week. We'll be resuming therapy over the weekend so look forward to that!"

The Head Doctor paused to clear his throat and then continued: "Well, then. Enjoy your morning, everyone! Be good to your nurses now! Speaking of which... Nurse? Nurse! Could you please tell me where they put the--"

The intercom clicked off.

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[rainboompow]

The ropes dug in as Rainbow Dash bucked and snarled at her so-called "friends". The five mares had just chased her out of Cloudsdale, roped her to the ground, and now they had her tied down like some kind of wild bronco pony. What kind of "friends" did that?! How had Rainbow not ditched these guys before now?

"Lemme go!" she shouted, back hooves kicking and eyes scrunched shut as she heard the sound of hooves approaching. "I don't need you guys! Lea'me alone!" The hooves kept clopping closer as Rainbow kept struggling. Her eyes opened, fiery through their grey tint. Twilight Sparkle was smiling down at her with some little self-satisfied unicorn smile. That stupid, stupid "I know something you don't know" smile. Where did that egghead get off looking so smug, just because she knew so much, huh? Seriously!

And then Twilight leaned her head down. Rainbow snorted like the cornered animal she was, nostrils flaring while the unicorn's horn glowed with magic.

There was a spark. Rainbow Dash flinched.

And then there were... memories. A flood of memories suddenly poured in through Rainbow's head. She saw herself with the girls — in times when they'd helped her, and times when she'd helped them. Times when they'd laughed, times when they'd hugged, times when they'd shared food, played games, and learned lessons. And there was a warmth, too. It started from the base of Rainbow Dash's tail, and slowly but surely spread through her whole body. As the warmth filled her body and mind, she finished on the best memory of all: being surrounded and supported by her friends on that day at the Best Young Flyer Competition. Rainbow felt her head falling, even as the memories filled her up inside. How could she have forgotten all of that? How could she have forgotten her friends...?

White spots began to appear before her eyes then, and her vision started to spin.

"Wha..." she mumbled as the world faded into white.

...

"...What happened...?"

It took Rainbow Dash a few seconds to realize the white wasn't going away, and it wasn't because something was wrong with her eyes. She wasn't on the grass anymore, and all the trees had disappeared; there was a white room around her now, and there was something soft and lumpy underneath her. Worst of all, though, she couldn't see or hear any of the girls. They were just gone.

Rainbow tensed up, eyes snapping open wide. "Where's Ponyville? Where are the Elements?! Where is everyone?!? Guys?!!!"

That was what Rainbow meant to say. Instead of that, however, the words came out in a big half-jumble. Something was wrong with her lips. They didn't move right. It was like they'd gotten puffier or something. Her jaw felt really weird too. And was that something tan between her eyes?

Rainbow Dash stopped cold as her mind caught up with her mouth. It wasn't just her lips or her nose. Nothing felt right about herself right now. Like... at all. Her mind felt better than ever thanks to whatever it was Twilight had done, but her body felt stiff and stretched out in all the wrong places. Never mind that she was on her back. What was she doing on her back? And under a blanket? And why couldn't she feel—

Gasp.

"My wings!" Rainbow wrenched herself around in bed, trying to get a look over her over her shoulder. Her head could barely get where she wanted it to go; her neck wasn't long enough. She just kept turning and churning in circles on top of the sheets, twisting the blanket ever tighter around her grey-clad body. "Grey? What?!" She felt fabric slipping in between bare fingers (!!!) at the ends of her front legs, knees bent the wrong way on her hind ones, and jiggly lumps of flesh hanging off the front of her body for Celestia knew what reason.

Her eyes narrowed and her teeth grit as her new hands dug into the sheets, palms going white from the pressure. "Discord!" she seethed, head darting around the room for any sign of the dopey draconequus. "All right, where are ya?!" she shouted, forcing herself to get used to the way her new mouth moved. "Get out here, Discord! I don't know what you did to me or where you took my friends, but you're not gonna just get away with it! You're gonna pay so hard for this! Just wait! Just you wait—!

[rainboompow]

There was a faintly frantic knock at the door to the room, followed by the entry of someone who looked sort of like Rainbow Dash did now. Same pink-ish tan skin, the creature stood on only its back two legs, and its looked just a little panicked. "Oh Corrie, dear, what's wrong? Did you have another nightmare? You did have so many on the way in last night..."

Rainbow barely even caught the wrong name in that moment. "A nightmare? Yeah, maybe on the Nightmare Moon scale! I'll show you a nightmare if Discord doesn't show himself right now!" she snapped, getting into a defensive pose on all fours. Somehow, with her back knees bent forward and her back arched awkwardly over the mattress, the pose didn't quite feel as intimidating as it normally did.

"Sweetheart, sweetheart, calm down," the monkey-like lady (she sounded female?) cooed, hurrying over to the bed and resting a comforting hand on Rainbow's shoulder. "It's okay, you're in Landel's Institute now. You're safe. There's no Discord. There are only people who want to help you here."

Much as the warm hand felt kind of nice, Rainbow refused to be swayed. She snarled instead, and shot back with "Oh yeah?! If you're so helpful, then where are all my friends, huh? You give 'em back right now if you wanna help so bad!"

"We'll find your friends, don't worry," the lady answered, moving a hand back toward her pocket (where a syringe lay in wait just in case). "Come with me, all right? Here, I even brought you a wheelchair. I know you might still be a little wobbly after your fall." The lady gestured out into the hallway, where indeed a wheelchair waited outside the door.

"Fall?" Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. Okay, now she was just getting confused, which was a feat even for Discord's world. What did falling have to do with anything? What self-respecting pegasus ever fell? (Besides Fluttershy, anyway.)

"Yes, dear, the one you had before coming here. You might just not remember it," the lady explained. "It wasn't too bad, but it did shake you up quite a bit."

Rainbow's eyes narrowed further still. Whoever this... whatever-she-was wanted, she seemed kind of genuine. Like moreso than Rainbow would've expected from someone that Discord had cooked up. And being stuck in this new body was still unbelievably creepy and wrong-feeling. Some help moving around in it would be kind of, uh, helpful, she thought. Still, Rainbow was suspicious. Could she really trust anyone in this topsy-turvy chaos world? Or maybe a better question was: did she have any choice right now?

"...Promise you'll take me to my friends?"

"If we can find them, then yes, of course," said the lady with a warm smile, hand slipping away from her pocket. "I promise."

The former pegasus gave the lady one last suspicious stare-down. "Fine. But let's go quick! And this better not be some lame trick!" Rainbow Dash had had quite enough of lame tricks and mind games for the day.

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