We stand together

The pony suddenly sat bolt upright in his bed, he had no idea where he was. Come to think of it... he had no idea who he was. He lay back down, whatever was happening he seemed to be in a safe place. A white pony with a strange red cross on her flank poked her head through the curtains surrounding his bed, saw that he was awake and squeaked in surprise.

‘Princess! Princess!’ she squealed, ‘It’s alive! It’s awake!’

He heard a clatter of hooves and a tall, regal looking pony came through the curtain, obviously not as scared of his presence as the other.

‘Who are you?’ She said in a voice that made him relax for some reason.

‘I-’ he began, but stopped. What was his name? He rolled the thought over in his head for a while and a single word came into his mind.

‘Yes?’ asked the tall pony inquisitively.

‘My name’s Bowdler’ he said, clearly unsure of what he’d just stated.

‘Hm? OK then, hello Bowdler’ said the pony apprehensively, ‘I’m Princess Celestia, I am the ruler of this kingdom, well, joint with my sister. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions about yourself?’

Having nothing better to do, Bowdler replied ‘Sure, ask away!’

‘Good.’ the Princess stated, obviously intending to have asked him even if he did mind, ‘First of all, have you got any idea how you got here?’

That, thought Bowdler, was a very, very good question.

‘No’ he said, completely honestly, ‘In fact, I don’t remember much about anything’

‘Oh, really?’ she said, sounding disappointed.

‘Yeah, all I can remember is that I woke up here, not knowing anything other than my name, and how to talk and function, of course’ he went on.

‘That’s, odd’ said the Princess, ‘I would have thought you’d remember the fashion you arrived in’

‘What? How did I get here? Do you know?’ he asked quickly, the more he could find out about himself the better, but the Princess just smiled.

‘Nurse Redheart?’ she called and the white pony walked back in, cowering before Bowdler, ‘Don’t worry, he’s perfectly sane,’ she assured her, ‘If a little amnesiac, I need you to nurse him back to health so that he can begin his new life down in ponyville’

‘Yes Princess,’ said the nurse, ‘but, and I know I’m not really one to question your judgement, are you sure you trust this strange pony?’

‘Nurse’ the Princess chuckled, ‘I’d trust him to the end of the world’

And so, she left.

‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ muttered the nurse and she turned to Bowdler, ‘well, you’d better get some peace and quiet hadn’t you? I’ll just leave you alone for a while’ and she began to back out of the curtain.

‘Thank you!’ said Bowdler just before her head disappeared from sight, ‘I don’t know where I’d be without you’

‘Oh that’s fine dearie,’ she whimpered, ‘just fine!’. Bowdler was now alone.

~

He decided to use this time to study his form, he looked himself over in the mirror beside his bed. He appeared to be a Purple pony with bloodstain-like markings all over his body and a dark red mane, styled over his head. He had wings that were large and spiky looking.

‘That,’ he thought, ‘makes me a Pegasus doesn’t it?’ He continued checking himself out, noting that he had purple eyes and strangely battered ears, as though he had been in a fight. On his flank, there was the shape of a golden helmet, with two daggers emerging from underneath it, he had no idea what it meant. He could see something poking out of his hair though, he fumbled at it with his hooves but suddenly stopped when he saw what was under his mane. There was a jagged stump, which looked like it once had something attached to it. His forehead suddenly burned with pain as his body registered the existence of the broken part. He sat down heavily on the floor.

‘What is this?’ he muttered to himself quietly. He suddenly felt a wave of tiredness overcome him, as if he’d not slept for days, and he slumped back into the bed. He wondered what Ponyville was like, he wondered what his life was going to be like, he wondered what his life was like before this, he wondered whether he even had a life before this. These thoughts occupied his head until he drifted off to sleep.