Pinkamena?

Chapter 2

The Bookworm

I hurried to keep up with the hyperactive pink mare, simultaneously trying not to draw too much attention to myself. “Wait up!” I called, hoping that she would slow down and stop drawing attention to us. I could feel the eyes of all the ponies nearby staring at us, all because of her antics.

I shook my head, clearing those thoughts from my mind. It’s just your paranoia speaking, Pinkamena, I silently thought, betraying no emotion past a rock solid exterior, not even bothering to wonder why I had retained memories of my mental status, No one is staring at you. Just stay calm.

“Come on silly! We need to meet all of my close friends, and they live all over town! After that I’m gonna need to introduce you to the Cakes!” she cried in her absurdly cheerful manner. I just went along with it, feeling more helpless than I could remember ever being. Despite the fact that my memory only went back a couple of hours, feeling more helpless than knowing you’re going to die, and being unable to do anything about, it is quite an achievement.

“First, we’re gonna go see Twilight! If anypony knows how to cure your amnesia, it’ll be her!” she proclaimed happily, bouncing along out of sheer happiness. I failed to understand how one could remain happy for so long, yet remain in touch with the rest of the world. She was just impossible to understand.

I sighed and followed her at a much more subdued pace, keeping my head down. I wasn’t happy about this situation, sure. I mean, who would be? I lost all of my personal memories, I had no home, no friends, no one to turn to, and I was in a strange place with a strange mare who looked nearly exactly like me! However, this same strange mare is helping me, a random pony she had never met before, to regain my lost memories. It was, odd, to be sure.

A thought suddenly struck me. What if she was actually trying to get me to lower my guard? What if she just wanted to kill me? I blinked and mentally scolded myself, That isn’t going to happen. What grudge would a pony like her have against a pony like me? And besides, even before she had found out I lost my memory, she had never looked at me with recognition. And she seems far too ...innocent, yes innocent, not stupid, to pull this kind of thing.

I looked up to see how much farther we had to go and gasped. Before me was one of the largest trees I had ever seen. Inside was carved a building, with doors and windows poking out in a seemingly unstable pattern. In fact, the whole thing looked about ready to fall over. A sign over the entrance proclaimed the building to be the “Golden Oaks Library”.

It sure didn’t look like any library I had seen before. Then again, what libraries had I seen before. None within memory, of course.

Pinkie gestured rapidly with her hoof, “Come on! This is Twilight’s place! I bet a super smart smartypants like her is sure to know the cure!”

I couldn’t help but smile at her excitement. It induced a feeling of pure euphoria. Almost as if it were her ...special talent. My eyes widened in shock as I realized that must be exactly what her cutie mark means! To make ponies happy!

Thinking quickly, I imagined an entire conversation that was probably never going to happen about Pinkie’s cutie mark, which ended with her agreeing with me. Smiling, I walked up to the library, stopping a few feet away from Pinkie as she knocked on the door. One can never be too careful. Unless you’re so careful that you’re paranoid, in which case …Wait I’m getting off topic.

The door opened, revealing a lavender unicorn with a bluish purple mane striped with pink and purple. Yes, that’s right, more purple. Although, I suppose I can’t complain, seeing as I’m all pink. This must be Twilight. Pinkie and Twilight had a nice long conversation that I paid absolutely no attention to. I was too busy staring at the tree.

Twilight turned to me and asked, “Do you mind if I take a look at you? Pinkie mentioned your condition, and I want to see if there’s anything I can do to help. It’ll only take a second.”

Thinking for a few seconds, carefully weighing the benefits against the disadvantages my brain made up. Formulating a response, I replied. “Alright, I don’t mind.” I mumbled.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Twilight questioned, confused.

“I said, it’s okay with me.” I said, speaking just within the ranges of hearing this time.

“Okay, let’s get started! Oh, I’m so excited! I’ll finally get to use one of those memory spells I could never test!” the overexcited unicorn squealed, “No one has ever lost their memory before, so I could never test it.”

Backing away from the library, being just a little creeped out by Twilight’s display of extreme joy. Pinkie noticed this and said, “Twilight! You’re scaring her!” After meeting me, Pinkie seems to have become a bit more somber than her hyperactive demeanor hinted at. This was a worrying development, as that might mean that my cutie mark was wrong. No, that’s ridiculous. It’s just the fact that you lost your memory that is changing her.

Twilight hurriedly calmed down, then quickly pushed me into the library, a grin a pure delight on her face. See? The fact that I lost my memory is making this mare happy. Wait, why am I even arguing this?

I was set down on a table, as Twilight looked through her entire library looking for the books she needed. Ending up with a stack of four or five books, she triumphantly returned to me. She began an examination, checking various magicky things that I couldn’t understand. Opening a book, she began reading. The title was The Art of the Mind and the author’s name was obscured by the edge of the table.

After a few moments, the unicorn looked back up at me and stated, “I’m going to need to look into your mind, just to see what is wrong with your memories.”

I just nodded and forced myself to relax. These are nice ponies. They are not going to knock you out and kill you. Pinkie was looking through various cookbooks. See, murderers don’t look through cookbooks, they … Oh wait, that wouldn’t be good.

Looking back up at Twilight, I noticed her horn was glowing and her eyes screwed up in concentration. Lowering her head, she touched her horn to my forehead. I felt a jolt go through my body and fell unconscious.

A dark figure watched from a distance, noting the magical glow surrounding the library that only one with enhanced senses could see. Another, smaller figure walked up to it.

The smaller one began to speak, its voice seemingly echoing through dimensions, “This one, my lady, is adapting quickly to the memory changes. Perhaps, when it returns, it will retain these memories.”

The larger figure grunted in annoyance, “Of course its adapting, that’s why we chose it. Soon, our plan will come to fruition, and this world will …But I digress. There is much for us to do, and so little time to accomplish it in.”

“Yes, my lady.” the smaller creature acknowledged.

The two walked off, slowly fading as though the wind was blowing them away. In seconds, they were gone.

I opened my eyes. The library was the same as when I had left it, with one notable exception. Pinkie was sitting in a corner, nervously eating cupcakes. When she saw us get up, she immediately cheered up, bouncing over to us. “Ohmygosh, I was sooo worried! You were like FLASH and then you were both like,” she slumped to the floor, making a thumping noise as she did so, “and then you didn’t move, and then I got worried, because you weren’t moving, and your eyes were close-mmph!” she ranted, only to end up having Twilight shove her hoof in Pinkie’s mouth.

I glanced at Twilight curiously, as the bookworm was wearing a worried expression on her face. She sighed, obviously hating to be the bearer of bad news. She looked at me and swallowed, “I’m sorry, but it appears that, instead of merely losing your memories, they were locked away by something more powerful than me, maybe even more powerful than the princess! I can’t imagine what, though.”

Disappointed, I looked at the ground, then smiled weakly, “Well at least you tried. And its not like I miss anything.” They both smiled at my comment, pleased that I could maintain at least some sense of humor in this situation.

“It doesn’t look like we can do anything, so why don’t we get started on getting you settled in. You might be here for a long time.” Twilight thought out loud, “And you don’t have anywhere to go, so we might as well.”

Pinkie turned to me, “Ooo, ooo! We can introduce her to all of our friends, and she can stay with me! I don’t mind sharing!” she offered.

“Well, if that’s okay with Pinkamena.” Turning to me, Twilight asked, “Is that alright with you?”

“Sounds nice.” I mumbled, just within the extreme range for equine hearing. Luckily, Twilight seemed to hear me.

“Well, let’s go!” Pinkie shouted, “We need to hurry if we’re gonna get Pinkamena’s party set up on time! Look, the day’s almost over!” And it was true, most of the day had gone by while Twilight had probed my mind.

Me and Twilight shared a glance and chuckled, the pink party pony’s antics getting a laugh out of us. Twilight shook her head and followed Pinkie, with me trailing behind.

Perhaps this place isn’t as bad as I thought.

Author's Note

Yay, next chapter. I finally thought out how the story is going to end! Huzzah!

Also, would someone want me to switch stories to a couple of others I have on the backburner?

I have one about the post-apocalypse, being narrated in third person limited for a robot, one about some guys who get trapped in a underground laboratory filled with zombies and other crazy stuff, and one about a robot who falls into Equestria through a rift in time and space.

Has anyone noticed that I seem to really like robots?