Legend of Silva's Gate

Twilight was sitting on a stool, in her kitchen, slowly tapping her hoof on the table in an irritated fashion as she waited for Leo to return to the library. As her mind drifted to the sneer had had in the hospital room when they left it the first time, and his smug look when he called her on the mess that had been left in the library, since cleaned up with the help of her friends, she snapped.

"Gosh, that stallion is such a smartdonkey!" Twilight suddenly shouted in frustration, causing an avalanche of dishes to shatter on the floor. Whipping her head to the source of the noise, she noticed Spike panting as he held a claw to his chest, and saw a mess of broken ceramic littering the floor.

"I-I'm sorry Twilight, but you scared me! I didn't even notice you sitting there!" Spike exclaimed, as he began to grab the broom to sweep the dishes up.

"Oh, no, don't worry about it Spike. Anypony would probably have been startled by that, here, let me mend those." Twilight suddenly told Spike excitedly, who looked down at the dishes for a moment, and then back to Twilight. Shrugging, he tossed the broom back next to the back kitchen door, as who was he to refuse an escape from potential scolding? As a purple light enveloped her horn, Twilight projected it so that the ceramic remains on the kitchen floor were suddenly enveloped in the same purple light. After a moment of nothing occurring, Spike was about to query Twilight as to what she was trying to do with them, when he gasped as the pieces began vibrating violently, and then they suddenly reformed into intact dishes.

"Wow, Twilight, you actually did it! You pulled off the Mend spell!" Spike shouted happily as he beamed at her.

"Yeah, I did, but...THAT," Twilight had motioned with a hoof to the dishes, now stacked neatly on the floor, "was an extremely simple job. I don't know why, but if I try it on anything more complicated then glass, it tends to become broken even worse." Twilight downplayed her actions, to which Spike shrugged again.

"I know, Twilight. I was there for those test, remember? Anyways, look at the bright side: We don't have to head into town this late to get spare dishes." Spike pointed out, to which Twilight nodded in agreement as she levitated the dishes into their appropriate cupboards. "Say, when did you want to eat? I'm getting kind of hungry early tonight." Spike asked, as he grabbed his cookbook, looking for something interesting to make for the two of them to eat for dinner. Just as Twilight was about to reply, the two of them heard to door open in the main room of the library.

"Oi, Twilight, I'm here! Let get this started, the sooner we do, the sooner we're finished!" a stallion's voice, causing Spike to raise an eyebrow at Twilight, who sighed.

"Spike, why don't you help him out? He needs books on common knowledge taken for granted by ponies. I'll cook dinner tonight, instead." Twilight offered, giving him a strained smile. He nodded slowly, and put his cookbook on the table. Before he left the kitchen, Spike turned back to her.

"So, would 'Taken for Granted: A Book of Common Knowledge in Equestria by B. Ronee' be a good start?" Spike queried, shaking his head when she nodded. "What I don't get, is why so many ponies seem to NEED that book." he said aloud, mostly to himself, as he exited the kitchen. As Twilight began to peruse the cookbook for appetizing meals, she suddenly heard a startled shout from the main room.

"What the heck ARE YOU?!" Twilight had heard Leo yell at Spike, causing her to valiantly fight off fits of laughter. If, Twilight decided, it was going to be this fun to bring Leo up to speed about Equestria, then it might just be worth putting up with him.

'Maybe he'll become a little more civilized after he learns everything again...' she thought to herself, hoping that she was right. She figured that she might be able to put up with him, but seeing as the rest of the girls were also asked to watch over him...she worried about how he might fare with Applejack, or even Rainbow Dash. 'Lassoed and chucked away, or left on a random cloud somewhere.' Twilight imagined the scenarios, giggling a bit as she levitated out the ingredients to a recipe she had chosen mindlessly.

As she thought about Rarity, she figured that out of any of them, she might have a small chance at making Leo feel foolish over being so rude to them. 'Maybe...perhaps I'm just day dreaming too much.' she thought to herself.

Her mind shifted then to Fluttershy. She frowned as she imagined Fluttershy being her normally shy self. She found that she couldn't tell if that would annoy Leo, or if he'd enjoy the silence. Of course, if he stepped out of line, really, REALLY out of line, Fluttershy could probably hold her own against him with The Stare. 'Not that I really expect her to ever have to use it on him. Interesting scenario, nonetheless.' Twilight pondered the outcome. Catching herself getting sidetracked, she giggled again and shook her head. She had to focus on dinner. Suddenly unaware of what she was actually making for dinner, she did a double-take at what her 'autopilot' had chosen for her when she glanced at the cookbook.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"I'm sorry, but...you made spiced catfood? For dinner?" Spike asked Twilight for the forth time, as he rode on her back while she made her way into town towards the local Mc FlimFlam's fast food joint.

"Spike? Would you like to eat dinner tonight?" Twilight asked him grumpily. "Besides, it's not MY fault your weird cookbook has a recipe for catfood."

"Haha, alright, okay. I'm sorry. It's just that...it's actually kind of funny." Spike explained, chuckling some more as he sat on Twilight's back. As they walked into the building, he took a glance at the menu and instantly picked out his meal for the night.

"Oh, hello again, Miss Sparkle. Dinner disaster again?" The familiar cashier stallion asked jokingly. Twilight simply snorted and lowered her head in annoyance, as Spike laughed. "Little Spike! Same as usual, I take it?" the cashier asked Spike.

"You know it, Speed!" Spike replied, snapping his claws for emphasis. Finding the action a little cute, Twilight stepped out of her little funk as the cashier shouted to the back for an order of Deep Fried Battered Rubies. The cashier, Speed, looked towards Twilight for her order.

"Uhm, I guess I'll get the Grass and..." Twilight trailed off as she happened to eye the Roasted  Dandelion and Apple Sandwich, and her stomach let loose a growl. "Oh, what the hay, get me a Roasted Dandelion and Apple Sandwich, with a side order of hay fries." Twilight said to Speed, who shouted the order to the back again. He handed them two order tickets after Twilight handed over the appropriate amount of bits, and the pair of them went of to the side.

"Hey Twilight, can I ask you why you left through the kitchen door instead of the front door?" Spike suddenly inquired her. Twilight thought for a moment how to best approach the subject, before she replied.

"Well...Leo and I don't exactly get along all that well. To be honest, he is kind of rude. The only reason I let him use the library, and even left him there while we came out here, is because Princess Celestia pretty much ordered me to let him in. She obviously finds it important enough to get him informed quickly. She wouldn't explain why, though." Twilight explained, to which Spike listened with interest.

"Really, you think hes rude?" Spike asked.

"Oh, definitely. You should have seen how arrogant he was acting back in his hospital room, and just outside of the library earlier today." Twilight recalled, regaling Spike in the events of that day. Once she finished, he looked confused.

"I don't get it though. Once he calmed down after he saw me, he was actually really nice to me. In fact, when I went and got him some more books, it looked like he was actually kind of..." Spike thought about what he had seen, pausing for a moment. Unable to come up with a more effective word, he settled with what he had found. "He looked kind of sad. So I asked him if he was okay, and he said he was alright, but he missed his friends."

"He missed his friends? But I thought Princess Celestia said he had memory loss..." Twilight trailed off, recalling what the Princess had said to her and her friends. She quickly realized that Celestia had omitted what Leo had actually forgotten, save for 'General Knowledge'.

"Maybe he forgot where they were? Where his home is? I mean, if he has friends, he obviously has a home." Spike suggested, but Twilight shook her head.

"No, he hasn't forgotten that, either. In fact, he was complaining in the Hospital earlier about how he didn't HAVE a home to return to." Twilight told Spike, as he turned their tickets in and snagged their food. They were silent as Twilight critiqued a number of tables to choose to eat at, and upon the third inspection, she decided the table was clean enough and levitated spike and their food onto one side, as she took the other.

"Well, I dunno then. Who has friends but no home? Maybe he has a good reason to hide the location of where he lives. Or, at least a reason, doesn't really have to be a good one." Spike suggested again, finishing with an audible *crunch* as he took a bite out of a Deep Fried Ruby. Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin as she thought about Leo's behavior. The more she thought, the more she began to wonder about something that Rainbow Dash had mentioned in passing, earlier in the day when they had galloped to the Hospital. Becoming a little nervous, she looked towards her assistant again.

"Spike, while you were helping Leo, were any of his mannerisms...did any of them strike you as odd?" Twilight asked, not wanting to outright ask him what her mind screamed at her to.

"Uhm...not really. He just had some occasional questions about a few things the books sorta glossed over. Nothing big." Spike replied, finishing his current Ruby by tossing it in the air and catching it with his mouth. Just as Twilight's mind began to slip into a number of thought processes, she was caught off-guard by Spike's shout. "Oh wow, I can't believe I forgot! When he shifted his position once, I think I noticed him having a blank flank! I really wanted to see, so I asked him if he wanted me to take his cloak, and he looked at me like I was nuts as he told me 'No thanks, I prefer having a little bit of privacy and decency'."

"Wanting 'Privacy'? 'Decency'? But almost everypony usually doesn't wear anything. I mean, sure, Rarity likes to dress up once in a while, but she doesn't mind forgoing clothes most of the time." Twilight replied, a look of confusion etched onto her face. Finally grabbing her sandwich with her magic and taking a bite out of it, she pressed her mind on, wanting to figure out the mysterious Leo Silva's secrets. When she could think if nothing, she became annoyed and decided to run through the event's since Leo's discovery.

'Okay, so Leo was found in Everfree Forest. He was badly hurt, and was going to die. Rainbow Dash and Rarity found him, and he was brought to Ponyville General Hospital. Rainbow Dash elected to stay behind at the Hospital in case he awoke. After an ill-fated venturing into his mind with the Princesses, she slept in the bed next to Leo's.' Twilight recalled. Hesitant to voice the next part, she pushed on with a gulp.

'Rainbow Dash awoke when Leo began beating on his bed in the middle of the night. She startled him, and he began shouting and screaming at her, making her think he was insane. After the Princesses calmed him somehow, the two of them went back to sleep, after Rainbow Dash promised the Princesses she'd look after Leo. When she woke up, she found that Leo had left the library, and had lied about being invited to my library. After sneaking his way around town, having gotten himself a cloak somehow...' Twilight was surprised at the last thought, and then became annoyed. If he had stolen a cloak from somepony...

'He made his way to the cafe. After what sounds like he flirted with Spitfire and her cousin, whoever she is, that creepy robot showed up. He instructed Spitfire on how to defeat it, and distracted it while she swung around the town block, to face it's rear. When the attack failed, the robot knocked Spitfire out, and turned onto Leo again, when Princess Celestia showed up and defeated it.' Twilight recalled, smiling as she thought about how the Princess would deal with anything that wanted to hurt anypony.

'After he slept in the Hospital for a few days, he woke up, and we got the first taste of his personality.' Twilight thought sourly, before she continued. 'After a rant about how things were sucking for him, we got three pieces of information: The monster was called a 'Robot', He either came from a place called 'Earth' or he angered somepony with that name, and that he was, indeed, badly hurt from an attack in the woods. Afterwards, we learned from Princess Celestia that he had extensive memory loss, which sounds like it's only affected certain things.' Twilight concluded her knowledge recall of what she knew about Leo. Taking one hoof and dropping it onto the either in a determined fashion, she decided what she needed to research.

'I need to look for any information about a place called Earth. It may prove fruitless if it's a pony, but it's a start. I also need to check and see if these Robots have been in Equestria before, because that might explain Leo's knowledge somehow. As a secondary objective...it might be worthwhile to see if Leo can remember anything about what attacked him, assuming he is cooperative. If he has any answers, I might be able to calm the girls a bit about that idea that a Human attacked him. Goodness knows Fluttershy is already terrified of that forest enough...' Twilight had decided on an action plan. Just as she took a large bite out of her sandwich, what felt like the mental equivalent of a bucking in the head shot through her mind, along with what she recognized as an excerpt from her Esoteric Creatures Guidebook.

'HUMANS WERE RUMORED TO BE VERY SELF CONSCIOUS CREATURES, PREFERRING TO COVER THEIR GENITALIA WITH CLOTH OR FABRIC IN THE PURSUIT OF DIGNITY. HUMANS WERE SAID TO HAVE GROWN TO FIND THE BARE HUMAN BODY OFFENSIVE IN ALL SITUATIONS, SAVE FOR CLEANING THEMSELVES OR MATING.' Twilight felt another's mind shout at her, the two sentences feeling like they were ricocheting around the inside of her skull. She fought to keep control of her consciousness, and it was only after a moment that she noticed she was on the floor, and a sizable bump was rearing it's ugly face on the side of her head. She glanced up from the floor to see Spike holding one of her hooves in his claws, and was staring at her with concern.

"Twilight, are you alright? You just...collapsed onto the floor, holding your head. Do you wanna go home and rest?" Spike asked her. Feeling like she was out of breath, she nodded gingerly, silent as she picked herself up from the floor, panting as she did so.

'What in all of Equestria was that?!' Twilight thought to herself, fighting a massive migraine that was adding to the pain of her bump, as it was proudly displaying it's bruising. 'Pursuit of Dignity. Dignity. Spike mentioned Leo wanted to retain his own Dignity by keeping his cloak on.' she thought to herself, not sure what to make of the connection her mind was pointing at. 'But I told Rainbow Dash before, there isn't enough real evidence that Leo was the Human we saw! This is just another piece of circumstantial evidence! What if he simply hates being without clothes? I mean, he WAS wearing a large white cloak that covered him completely when he was found in the forest!' Twilight screamed at the portion of her mind that, despite her assurances it was wrong, insisted on continuing to point at the correlation. Shaking her head as Spike opened the Library's door for her, she expected to see a mess of books on the floor and Leo giving her some sort of snarl. But all she and Spike noticed was a clean library, and a poorly scrawled note on the desk.

"Wow, this is...really hard to read. lets see...'Thanks for the info...sorry about the attitude...was getting late, so I cleaned up and left. I'll come back around tomorrow to see if your open...thanks again. Leo.'. Wow, I got most of it, but MAN, is his writing bad!" Spike exclaimed. Twilight simply shook her head, which aggravated the migraine, and headed up to her room to sleep early. She glanced at the weather scheduled that the weather team handed out to everypony at the beginning of every month, and sighed.

"Well, I sure hope that he has a place to stay tonight. It's supposed to storm tonight, and it's going to be a heavy rain."

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"I hate this place..." Leo complained to himself quietly, as a rumble of thunder boomed overhead. Initially, when the storm had begun, he had contemplated making a run for the bridge he had come across earlier in the day, but before he had gotten halfway there, he was thoroughly drenched, deciding that he may as well lay on the grass for the night. He had been pleasantly surprised to find out that the cloak Trixie had left at the bridge was waterproof, and proceeded to pull it's hood up onto his head. Unfortunately, even with it's ability to repel water, it did nothing to protect him from the cold.

"I could really go for a Cream Soda right about now..." Leo pined, recalling the sensation of pleasure he felt on his tongue whenever he drank it, and had begun to call it 'liquid gold' because of that. As he lay there, he had also become intensely aware of his hunger, having not eaten anything during the day, and likely the previous three as well. As interesting as it was to again experience the pangs of hunger, he found it mostly to be a hindrance, bringing himself to reiterate what he had said earlier with a sigh.

"I hate this place...so much."

"Well, why not come to sugarcube corner then, huh? It's LOOOAAADS better than staying out in the rain!" an energetic voice suddenly shot out from behind him, startling Leo into a jump. As he stared at the familiar pink mare from before, he began to grumble as he glanced around to see where the cloak landed. She wandered up behind him, her umbrella hat  and rain jacket catching the falling rain with a distinct 'pitter-patter', and was silent for a moment as she listened to him grumbling. "Sorry, I didn't quite catch that, what did you say?" The mare had asked loudly, causing Leo to cringe and hold his head. He had come to gain himself another headache since he had finished in the library, and this mare's excited and loud voice wasn't helping to improve it. Sighing, he grabbed his cloak and swung it over his back, then turned to the mare, deciding to put aside his unexplainable disdain for her, temporarily at least.

"I asked you what your name was. I never actually got yours." Leo asked her, hoping she'd at least calm down slightly. He cringed again as his head pounded, due to her demonstrating how extremely far off the mark Leo was.

"My name is Pinkamina Diane Pie, but all my friends call me Pinkie Pie, so you can call me that too, cause we're friends, right? Oh no! I completely forgot about throwing you a welcome party to get to know you, because I know everypony, and I mean EVERYPONY, in Ponyville! Hey, do you think it's too late to organize a party?" Pinkie had exploded in a flurry of speech, causing Leo to reel.

"Err...what time is it, exactly?" Leo had asked in a daze, and was mercifully granted with a small response.

"10:00 PM!" Pinkie replied happily. Leo sat down on his rump due to a rush of queazyness, and then replied.

"Yeah, it's a little late now. Don't worry, though, I can get to know you a bit better now if you'd like, at your sugarcube place." Leo offered the pink earth pony, who hugged him happily as he sat on the ground.

"Wheee! Don't dilly dally, Mr. Leo! Follow me to Sugarcube corner, I can get you some snacks to fill your empty little tummy!" Pinkie Pie shouted to Leo as motivation, as she bounced along beside him down the street. Just as Leo was about to ask her to calm down a bit, as it was late, he suddenly found himself shielding himself from a splash of water coming up from a puddle in the road. When he looked up, he felt what he could only describe as his heart jumping up into his throat.

"Angel!" Leo hissed, before he crouched lower to the ground as if he was about to pounce Angel. As Leo was preparing to fight, he noticed Pinkie beginning to move closer out of curiosity, and threw a leg out in front of her, startling her.

"Don't worry, Leo, I have no intention of harming these...things. I just wanted to see what you were up to. But, my, you move fast. A late night stroll with a beautiful girl, only days after you lost another." Angel teased with a sneer, causing an enraged shouted to escape from Leo, and with that, Leo jumped at him with the intention of inflicting as much pain as possible. Yet, even with the speed Leo had presented in his strike, Angel effortlessly backhanded Leo right from the air, sending him sprawling onto the ground in front of Angel and a gasp to escape Pinkie Pie, who tried to get Leo up.

"I seriously expected you to think ahead and realize how outmatched you are now. She isn't even with me at this time, that was just my original strength." Angel growled at Leo with a frown, who was struggling to get up, scrapes presenting themselves from his fall. "Honestly, it's simply too bad that organic beings simply can't process things as efficiently as robots." Angel contemplated with a light tone.

"Careful, Angel, you almost sounded like the Hive there for a moment." Leo spat at Angel, which infuriated him. He kicked Leo in his right side twice, before he found himself on his back in a puddle. Confused, Angel glanced up to find Pinkie Pie facing him, still rearing slightly after having pushed him over with her forelegs, a determined look on her face.

"Nopony! Hurts! My friends!" Pinkie Pie shouted at Angel. He sat on the ground for a moment, staring at her with a look of curiosity as the rain continued to fall around them, almost seeming to intensify. With a chuckle, Angel picked himself up off the ground.

"Well well, I see you've found yourselves some brave ponys, Leo. Hopefully they can help you with the altars in the coming months, because the Hive approaches. Seeing as I'm otherwise concerned with a number of small issues of my own, I can't exactly intervene in this planet's coming cataclysm." Angel explained with a smirk.

"Angel, you really are a sick fuck." Leo mumbled at Angel, after he nursed his stitches, which had begun to bleed again from the kicks.

"Oh, really Leo, we already knew that!" Angel laughed, as he brushed his wet hair from his eyes using his fingers. "Piece of advice, if you'll listen. Be careful what you say, if you are going to try and convince others to help you destroy me. We share our past, and our fate, so anything you say might incriminate you, too." Angel offered. With a nod to Pinkie Pie, who still stood her ground, he jumped up into the air and flew away, his rocket thrusters leaving a faint red trail of energy behind them.

"Oh, Mr. Leo! Mr. Leo, are you okay? Oh no, you're bleeding!" Pinkie began to panic as she tried to lift Leo up. He batted her away as he groaned, lifting himself off the ground gingerly. "Who was that? How did he know you, and what did he mean about your past? And why does the Hive, whoever they are want to hurt us?" Pinkie Pie asked Leo in a sequence of rapid fire questions.

"Pinkie, please, I'll explain some of this to you and you alone, as long as you can promise me two things. First condition is, keep everything about the conversation you just heard, and everything I tell you to yourself unless I say it's okay, everypony else finds out on their own, or if the lack of knowledge places anypony in danger." Leo asked her, as he panted while he watched her.

"Sure, anything you say. What else?" Pinkie asked, with a slight tremble in her body and voice. She really wanted to know, because if the Hive was anything like the human she just saw...she was really scared. She didn't normally understand what was going on, but those situations usually never got anypony hurt. This time, though, Leo had almost died twice in the span of five days, and was just hurt tonight before her own eyes.

"The second condition is...if you can get me...somewhere warm and dry, cause...I'm about to pass out." Leo asked her, prompting her to cock her head on confusion. That is, until Leo blacked out and crumpled into a heap in front of her, causing Pinkie Pie to panic and run to find help.

/*----------------------------------------------*//n

"Wait, did ya'll just say he protected Pinkie?" a distinctive female, southern accented voice whispered near Leo. To him, it sounded quite distant, but Leo figured they had to be close, if not right next to him. He was vaguely aware that someone was fiddling with a weird appendage that he could only surmise as his wing, when he felt himself begin to float back into total unconsciousness. Another familiar voice roused him slightly again, however.

"Well, yeah. That's what Pinkie Pie told me, anyway, after she got me down from the clouds." another female voice, without an accent, explained. Leo remembered this voice, and recalled that it belonged to the cyan mare with the rainbow mane. When he realized he didn't know her name, he found it interesting.

Actually, out of all six of the mares tasked by Celestia to look after him, he only knew Pinkie Pie's and Twilight Sparkle's names. And only because he had asked for Pinkie's, and because Twilight's was blurted out loud by Nurse Dawn. He tried to think hard about the other mare's names, maybe having heard them previously but forgetting. He gave up when he realized that he'd have to ask. Leo heard a door swing open and a set of hooves clicking on a wooden floor, and then the voice of Twilight herself.

"I just finished talking to Pinkie, who gave me a really weird story involving somepony pelting Leo with a rubber ducky." Twilight explained, her voice alone indicating she hadn't believed a word of it, as she magicked a glass of water and a pair of pills to a table next to Leo. Unable to contain himself, Leo snorted and began to laugh, causing all the girls to jump in surprise, Twilight nearly losing control of the glass. His humor was short-lived, however, as he quickly clutched his skull with his forehooves, finding it pounding away and feeling like an inferno.

"Uhhh, how long have you been awake?" the cyan mare asked, a slight glow on her cheeks as Leo noticed her hastily shoving his wing back to his side.

"Not...long. Wait, were you just massaging my wings?" Leo asked, as he only just began to notice that his wings somehow felt wonderful, unlike the rest of his body, which felt extremely sore and weak.

"Well, yeah, uhh...you haven't exactly used your wings for a few days, so I figured they ached a bit from unuse." she explained, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof as she looked away.

"'Disuse', unuse isn't a real word. But thanks, at least they don't feel like hell." Leo thanked her, expecting her to become more embarrassed, but was surprised when she apparently wasn't.

"Well, soooorry! I'm not a walking dictionary, unlike Twilight, or you apparently!" the mare replied aggressively, causing Leo to frown slightly. When he didn't reply, she growled and left the room quickly. Twilight simply shook her head with a sigh, and walked up to Leo, who glanced down to see yet another bed beneath him. He was pleased to notice that it wasn't a hospital bed, however, but he still wanted to be wandering around. As he made a move to exit the bed, the orange mare pushed him back into the bed.

"Wow there, nelly! Where do you think yer goin'? You ain't getting out of bed until yer clear of anymore Ponfluenza!" the orange mare told him. Strangely, even though he found himself at odds with her the other day, he wasn't in any mood to disagree with her, so he slid back into bed.

"Ponfluenza? Is that another name for Influenzavirus A?" Leo asked Twilight on the other mare. The orange one looked at Twilight, confused, who shared her expression. "You know, Influenzavirus A? A genus of the Orthomyxoviridae virus family? Can be used to classify either H7N7 or H3N8, respectively known as equine-1 or equine-2?" Leo asked in a haze, momentarily forgetting that he was talking to beings of an entirely different planet. As seconds of awkward silence went by, and Leo remembered that he wasn't talking to humans, he spoke up. "Uhm, I mean..." Leo paused for a moment, thinking over the name that Twilight had just used. When he thought about how a great number of words use 'Pony' as a prefix or affix, he decided to give it a try. "Do I have Ponyflu?"

"Oh, yeah, you do. Short lived case, Healing Dawn had told me, but it's going to afflict you for around a week." Twilight explain, which elicited a groan from Leo. "I hate to say this, but if you hadn't tried to sleep outside in the middle of a huge downpour, you wouldn't have gotten sick." Twilight lectured Leo, causing Leo to 'harrumph' and turn over after he waved a hoof at her in annoyance.

"Where am I anyways?" Leo asked, still facing his back to Twilight and the orange mare.

"Yer at Sugarcube corner. Pinkie had Mr. Cake help bring ya back here, before she fetched Dash." the orange mare answered. Leo gave a silent nod, the remained still for a moment before he turned over in the bed and looked at her.

"So, I never got your name. Or any of the others, except for Twilight here and Pinkie Pie. If you girls are being forced to babysit me for a while, I suppose we'd better get acquainted." Leo suggested.

"Oh, ah, mah name is Applejack. Tha other mare that was just in here, her name is Rainbow Dash. Then ya have Fluttershy, tha yellow gal with a pink mane an' tail, and Rarity, white with a purple mane an' tail." Applejack explained. Leo simply grunted in response and mentally filed the information away. As silence filled the room again, Applejack became slightly annoyed with Leo. "Aren't ya goin' to tell me yur name? Would be tha polite thing to do."

"Oh? I was under the assumption you knew who I was. After all, even Pinkie Pie knows my name...even though she uses honorifics, which I find irritating." Leo explained, putting a hoof to his head in a vain effort to ease his headache. "Name is Leonard Yves Silva, but just call me Leo. Please."

"Well, we both got off to a bad start Leo, but hopefully we get along better in the future." Applejack offered with a small smile and a nod, then left Twilight alone in the room with Leo. Leo turned his attention to Twilight, who appeared to have something she wanted to talk about, but didn't know how to broach the subject.

"What's on your mind, Twilight Sparkle? I might be able to get you an answer." Leo asked, taking the glass and pills, automatically knowing what to do. Admittedly, he struggled with drinking some of the water, as he hadn't perfected the art of grabbing things without fingers, but it at least gave Twilight some time to organize her mind, he figured. Her silence was mostly caused by her surprise of how polite he was being to everypony today, considering he was, for all intents and purposes, an outright jerk to them all yesterday. Shaking her head, she focused on the now.

"Uhm, just a bunch of small questions. Things have been pretty weird lately, so bear with me if you can." She explained, to which Leo carefully nodded his head. "So uhm, lets start with something easy...the note you left yesterday, you actually...apologized for your behavior. Combine that with how nice you're being today, and compare it to the majority of your attitude from yesterday, and that's grounds for being extremely confused. Why were you so aggressive yesterday?" Twilight asked him, as he finished downing the water in what Leo would consider a herculean effort. After inhaling a large amount of air to make up for the loss caused by him drinking, Leo began his best to explain.

"If you're looking for a specific explanation...I hate to say it, but I have none for you. Honestly, I have no exact idea as to why I acted like someone shoved a stick up somewhere unpleasant." Leo paused for a moment, before giving an awkward smirk. "Well, I guess my past few days haven't been all sunshine and smiles. The forest, the cafe, and last night. I'm not used to having a can of whoop-ass opened on me, usually its the other way around. So...that would definitely influence it, I guess." Leo smiled, before placing a foreleg to his forehead and laid himself back down completely. Twilight was silent for a moment, and was about to ask another question, but Leo interrupted her. "No, while that had a role, normally I only blame myself for failures, I don't take it out on others. Twilight Sparkle, yesterday when I saw any of you girls, my head began to feel like it was out at sea, in the middle of a fog. Something kept prodding my mind, like...a memory or something. Like I had forgotten something, or something in my head was locked away, but it still managed to feed me an emotion that made me feel on thing for you girls: disdain. I can't explain it, but it seems to come and go. I'm sorry I can't explain it better." Leo explained, glancing over at Twilight, who seemed to be mulling over the information as she had a hoof under her chin, occasionally tapping it. Left to his own self for a little bit, Leo searched for an explanation. The only easy one coming to him made him cringe in worry.

'What if, before I was ...cursed, I suffered from a bit of Memory corruption?' Leo thought to himself. It might explain the odd sensations that made no sense to him, along with the inexplicable emotions. Sure, before Earth was crippled, Mrs. Wakeman had taken measures to reduce his recollection system's sub-processor's inadvertent tendency ('see: buggy code') to throw his memories wherever it felt like on his tertiary SSD, and occasionally into other robot's memory storage if close contact was made. But that didn't mean that it made his storage routine any less fragile, not that it was easily disrupted. But maybe, just maybe...and what else was corrupted or missing altogether? Would he be able to notice anything was truly wrong while he was a pony, and if something was up, would it continue to degrade while he was a pony? While he was contemplating the implications this could bring up, he suddenly became aware that Twilight had asked him another question.

"No, don't apologize, I do that a lot too. I just asked you where you found that cloak. If you took it from somepony...it'd be best for you to return it, before Applejack gets wise and decides to ask you." Twilight asked, explaining herself. Leo raised an eyebrow in curiosity, and Twilight expanded upon her explanation. "Trust me, you REALLY don't want to ever try lying to her. She'd be able to call you out for lying even before you finished giving her an excuse. So I suggest, again, that if you took it on somepony, it would be smart to return it." Twilight urged.

"Well, I didn't exactly steal it, per say. In fact, I watched it get left behind by a mare, purposely." Leo offered. When he noticed it was Twilight's turn to raise an eyebrow, he gave her more detail. "When I snuck away from that guard, I slipped under a bridge to try and remove my bandages in private. I guess I had interrupted the sulking of a mare named Trixie, because when I noticed her, she had hidden around some barrels. She bolted when she noticed I saw her, and got the cloak snagged on the bridge. She took it off and galloped away like a bat outta hell." Leo explained, making sure to give Twilight every detail.

"Are- are you sure it was Trixie? For certain?" Twilight asked Leo, her tone and expression telling him that she was astonished.

"Well, yeah. I ended up running across her again at the cafe, when I went in for water. She was sitting with Spitfire, apparently they are cousins." Leo finished explaining. An annoyed look flashed across his face right afterwards, and he continued to talk. "And seriously, I swear I wasn't hitting on either of them! They approached ME. Well, more like Spitfire approached me. Trixie looked more like she was dragged over, and was very embarrassed." Leo preemptively defended himself. Twilight, however, was more surprised to hear that Trixie had even set foot in Ponyville. She shook her head again to get herself on track, but was derailed again when Pinkie Pie suddenly burst into the room and began hugging Leo tightly, much to his dismay.

"Oh, Mr. Leo! Thank Celestia you're okay! I was so worried when that human attacked you, when you passed out I thought you were really hurt! I'm so happy to hear that you're sick instead!" Pinkie Pie shouted at Leo as he struggled to breath. Pushing her off him slightly, Leo gave her a glare.

"You're happy I'm sick?" Leo asked, unamused. Pinkie Pie froze for a second, and then unceremoniously dropped Leo back onto the bed, blushing as she wore an embarrassed smile.

"No no! Not, well, not exactly! I mean, of course it's really sad that you're sick with PonyFlu, but it beats dying anyday! I mean, if you died, I couldn't throw you a 'Sorry-for-not-throwing-you-a-welcome-party-so-here-is-a-replacment-party-so-you-feel-better-instead' party!" Pinkie Pie explained in her strange logic, of which Leo had difficulty debunking anyways. Mostly, he was surprised he had managed to follow her reply at all, as was about to ask her if she was always weird, when Twilight gave a small shout.

"Hang on, Pinkie! You told me somepony had attacked him with a rubber ducky! You're telling me a HUMAN attacked him?!" Twilight exclaimed loudly. Leo was frozen in shock, having completely forgotten for a moment that Twilight was even there. Pinkie simply looked miserable, fearing that she had broken the first of Leo's promises before she even got his story. Both of them groaned in misery when a series of hooves pounded their way upstairs and burst through the door.

"A...a human...attacked you...in ponyville?" Fluttershy asked Leo quietly, peering  nervously from behind the door as her voice shook. Leo simply sighed and nodded silently, prompting Fluttershy to dive under his bed, shaking. "Oh, oh, girls! I told you! Oh, no, I was right! Oh, I don't want to go back to my cottage now!" Fluttershy shouted in an amazingly quiet manner, as Applejack crawled under the bed with her, attempting to calm the frightened mare.

"Uhm...what...?" Leo asked the rest of the girls.

"The poor dear lives in a cottage right next to the edge of the Everfree forest, where you were found. She initially suggested that you were assaulted by the human we saw running into the forest. Appears she was right afterall..." Rarity trailed off. concern visible on her face over hearing the news that a long suspected extinct creature, almost written off as mythological, was residing in the forest and attacking ponies. Leo was silent as he again came to respect the impressive grasp of logic that these ponies kept displaying, but his astonishment was decreased slightly when he realized that they thought that, somehow, he managed to warp time and space to attack himself.

'Mind, I suppose in an abstract way I DID attack myself.' Leo thought humorously, bringing a smirk to his face. He frowned, however, when Rainbow Dash got up in his face.

"So! You sure don't seem surprised that you were attacked by a human, twice no less! Whats your story, huh? How do you know about humans being here?!" Rainbow Dash asked him aggressively, narrowing her eyes at him. Before Leo could respond, Rainbow Dash gasped as a blue energy enveloped her and slid her back away from him next to Rarity, who's horn shared the same glow.

"Rainbow Dash, really! The poor stallion is sick, and all you can think about is pestering him with questions in an attempt to further your case?" Rarity shouted at her, glaring with an impressive ferocity. As she and Rainbow Dash, and Applejack (who had decided to try and stop the shouting with some of her own) began to bicker, Leo was silently attempting to find a way to cover for the huge gaff that Pinkie Pie initiated, and that he had let fester. Thinking back to the mare at the astrology shop, he decided to use the same lie.

"I saw them fall from the sky, with a telescope that I lost in the forest. Afterwards, I found some information on them in one of Twilight's books." Leo decided to give the girls. Mostly so that the shouting would stop. Applejack simply looked at him for a moment, before she raised and eyebrow at him.

"You sure that's tha truth, Partner?" Applejack asked, her tone of voice signifying that she wasn't buying into it at all. Gulping, Leo suddenly realized just what Twilight had meant by it not being wise to lie to Applejack.

"Yes. You want proof? Go ask the mare that runs the Astrology shop in-town. Heck, when I was talking to her about it, checking if she knew anything about them, she gave me a picture of the whole event last week. It's inside the cloak." Leo motioned to the cloak he spied hung up on the far wall. With one last suspicious glance at Leo, Applejack pulled the cloak off the wall. Sure enough, the picture was still there, including the poster Leo had taken down a few days ago. As she studied the image from the floor, Leo sighed. "I was attacked by one of them. But it was the one that flew overhead into the forest, not the one that was on the ground. Him, I haven't seen. The one from overhead also was the one who attacked me last night. Seriously, if something weird attacked you, wouldn't YOU want to figure out what it was?" Leo asked all the mares, expressing confidence in his statement, as it wasn't exactly off the mark. It wasn't just Angel that attacked him...

Applejack spied the image one last time before she looked up at Leo. "Alright, ah believe yeh. Don't look so worried, next tahme! I get suspicious when ponies look worried after explaining somethin'." Applejack said aloud, as way of explaining her initial disbelief. Leo gave an internal sigh of relief, and with that the girls decided to leave him be, but not before Twilight got him to promise that he would answer more of her questions later. Once all the girls but Pinkie Pie left, she turned to him and hugged him, and then let go of him.

"I'm so, so sorry! I broke your promise, can you forgive me?" Pinkie Pie begged him quietly.

"Pinkie, you didn't break your promise at all. Sure, you blurted out that Angel attacked me, and I figured that not mentioning him was an unspoken part of the promise, which it seems you realized in the beginning...but the spoken portion, the part you verbally agreed to. You didn't break that. Either parts of it, infact. You got me help, and you didn't say that I even talked to him. So no worries, you have nothing to have need to be forgiven for." Leo explained, as Pinkie Pie stared at him for a moment, and then grabbed him into a vice-grip-like hug, to which he decided he might as well return.

"Thank you, thank you! Oh! You never got to eat anything before that meany-pants showed up!" Pinkie suddenly remembered, reminding Leo and his angry stomach about the lack of sustenance. Just as Leo was about to wave her off, as he doubted he could stomach any food at the moment anyways, Rarity swung the door open, frowning at Pinkie Pie.

"I thought we decided to leave the poor boy alone, Pinkie? Come along now, let him rest!" Rarity said, her tone implying it was simply an idea, but the magic she used to levitate Pinkie Pie with suggested it wasn't and idea to be turned down.

"I'll bring you some fresh muffins in a little while, okay!" Pinkie Pie shouted from the hallway, causing Leo to chuckle. As Rarity closed the door, it made an audible 'click!', and left Leo to the buzzing silence of the room, save for the occasional jingle he heard from the store's front door signifying customer. As he covered himself up with a soft blanket, his thoughts turned to his most pressing issues.

'What's wrong with this missing memory? Was my memory retention function damaged? What exactly happened to me? Urgh, and why is the Hive here?!' Leo thought to himself. Grumbling, he threw the blanket over his head with a hoof in anger. 'And why the heck does this crap always happen to me?!'