Chapter 1: Awakening

Chapter 1

Awakening

In a groggy haze I begin to awake. My sight is greeted only with the blackness behind my eyelids. My body is completely numb, and it is impossible for me to move . It feels as if I was asleep underwater in an icy lake, and I am just now surfacing. The muffled sounds of voices bounce off my eardrums as I try to clear my head. One of the two voices was lower pitched and raspy, belonging to a boy I guess. The other wasn’t nearly as deep and had a soft melodic tone and was almost heard barely as a whisper.

Behind the voices there was a prominent ringing in my ear that I found very high pitched and obnoxious further increasing my splitting headache.

Noticing the pain that I didn’t feel a moment ago I force my eyes to open, and slowly but surely they oblige. I feel that I am lying on what feels like a hard cobblestone walkway. I am too weak to make any sound come from my lips so I twist my neck against the pain to look around. The talking stops, the ones involved in their conversation clearly noting my sudden movement.

My vision is very blurry and I am only able to see a few shapes. A bright blue sky and brilliant yellow sun loom overhead. the houses that lined the streets seemed very quaint and small. I now notice the four figures that were surrounding me; their shocked eyes were clearly visible due to the fact that their eyes took up the majority of their heads. The figures standing around me to my surprise were small and strangely colored, one being a light yellow and pink, another orange with blonde hair, and lastly a small figure that was purple and green.

I look down towards my feet to find the smallest white figure, no bigger than a rat, standing a few feet away poking at my hand. Now finding some feeling in my fingers, I wiggle and stretch each of my fingers.  Apparently my appendages startled the creature, causing it to jump and bolt behind the yellow figure. Also frightened, my sudden movement forced the yellow and purple ones to flee.

But, unlike the other three, the orange one reels back and brings down a hard orange “fist” down on my nose and I black out once again after hearing the unsettling sound of breaking bone. But, before I go completely unconscious, I hear the soft “clip clop” of hooves and feel myself being pulled off the cold ground by a force that could not be felt, but only experienced. The last thing I remember is the metallic and salty taste of blood.

When I wake up again I find that I’m sitting upright and my headache was much dimmer than before. I am able to efficiently use all of my senses, but the room is much too dark for me to see anything but a dim light coming from an extremely small window in the wall. Outside the window I can see a stone wall with the soft glow of torchlight. The sound of the burning torch was the only source of sound except for a light breathing coming from the other side of the door.

The smell of fresh blood still lingered in the room. But, even without the strange smells, the air was thick and musky, making each breath seem labored. I look down and feel my hands are bound behind my back and my feet are tied together. I try to wiggle my way out of the tightly tied rope but I only am able to fall over and make a loud dull thud on the cold stone floor. Apparently someone outside was asleep because I hear a soft snort from the other side of the door and the soft sound of footfalls accompanied by the rustling of what I guess is chain mail or keys, followed by the opening and closing of a large metal door.

“Psst, hey, anypony there?”

It takes me a moment to find my voice but when I speak my words come out soft and hoarse.

“Yea where are you, or where am I would be a better question”

“Canterlot Dungeon” The voice replied in a hushed southern accent, a bit of sorrow in his voice. “I didn’t see you when you came in, must have dozed off. What’s your name feller?”

I was about to respond to the man in the next cell over, but the realization of what he said hits me.

“Wait waitwaitwaitwait. Dungeon?”

“Geez you’d think some pony would know a dungeon when he’s in one just with common sense, especially when this prison is the most ‘prestigious’ jail in all of Equestria.” My new friend answers with a hint of annoyance in his voice. “But you still havn’ answered my question feller, what do they call you?”

Since the jailor is out of the earshot i see no harm in formal introductions,

“I’m… I…” I stammer.

I search my memory for the answer to a question I should have been able to answer subconsciously.

“Spit it out friend,” the southerner demands. ”Doesn’ matter with the guard gone no pony can hear us now with the guard gone”

“I… I can’t remember.”

My friend’s voice rises to a heightened whisper.

“What! What pony doesn’t know his own name?”

“No, I should be asking you why the hell you keep saying ‘pony’”

My question came out angrily and a bit sarcastic towards the end, but his lingo has had me confused from the get go. The last time I checked I was anything but a four legged horse, but then I realized. He used the names of places I have never heard of: Equestria, Canterlot, places that I know for a fact was never shown on any atlas, map, or anything I had ever seen.

But then I think deeper and I realize something else, I have no idea where I’m from, or where I have seen a map or atlas. I have no idea where I live, where my family is. I start to panic. My eyes start darting around the room, and I begin thrashing about knocking over a small table in the room and accidently smashing it. I raised my voice to a shout.

“DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? WHERE IN GOD’S NAME AM I!?!?”

The question and my sudden unrest startled my neighbor as hear him jump to his feet. The loud clanging of chains echo off the walls of the hallway, surely alerting the guards if my thrashing about has not.

“WHO AM I?!”

“Calm down now feller” my prison mate’s voice sounds incredibly terrified by my sudden outburst.

As he says this I hear the thundering sound of footsteps coming from the hallway and in a few moments the door to My cell flies open revealing three relatively short figures all wearing a gilded armor that gleamed in the darkness of the cell. All three of the creatures were relatively muscular, but the one in the middle was more so than the others. The two on the sides looked as if they were twins both with a dull orange skin and darker hair. The only difference between the two was that one had a small shadow protruding from his forehead, while the other had a pair of wings outstretched to his sides, increasing his physical presence. The one in the middle was an ebony black shadow with a large prominent scar and lightning blue hair, a stark contrast to the blackness of his body.

“WHO AM… AH!-“

My words were cut short by a sharp pain in my head. My vision began to blur and the ringing in my ear returned, but see the one of the figure’s forehead glow a vibrant blue. I shrank away from my attackers. The blue haired shadow in the middle looks over to the other figure with outstretched wings, and through gritted teeth I hear him whisper something.

“Sedate it”

The dark figure with outstretched wings simply nods in understanding. I quickly tried to squirm away but before I could get more than a few feet, the shadow of the creature is already on top of me, foot (or should I say hoof) on my chest. I am flattened to the ground staring up at the relatively low ceiling as a syringe with a deep purple liquid plunged into a vein on my neck. Next thing I knew I was slipping back into another dreamless sleep.

I slowly come back to my senses, emerging from darkness so cold that it seemed to last for ages. Dear god I hope the nightmare is over. My eyes open for a third time, staring up at a stone ceiling, but unlike the other instances I find myself lying under the bright light of a dull blue orb. To my dismay my dream has not ended.

I try to scream but an unseen force keeps my mouth shut. I try to reach up to my forehead to soothe my splitting headache, but my arms are bound down, stretched to my side. The wooden table I was lying on had shackles that kept me from getting up or moving about. I hear footsteps, or hoof steps, and soon the head of a horse slowly moves over and stares down at me.

I can see its small build and long eyelashes making it appear female. But what seems the strangest features were a dull tipped horn protruding from her forehead, and her strangely colored coat, mane, and tail. Her coat was a pure, immaculate white which proved to only to accent her long dark blue mane that wrapped around itself by her upper foreleg.

Her impossibly large eyes stare down upon me with curiosity, her blue irises penetrating into my soul. The horse… No… The features of her face to seemed much smaller than a normal horse, but I digress.  This young mare looked as if she was incredibly curious, if not concerned. Still her presence in the room was quite frightening, especially her eyes that, behind the concerned look, seemed stern and was waiting for me to make the first move.

After a few moments in an intense and awkward staring contest that i didn't even know i was participating in, I win, and with a blink she looks down at me with a smile and laughs in a soft feminine tone. The giggle catches me off guard. I have never heard that sound come from a creature like her. Her beautifully large eyes soothe my panic and I feel my heart rate return to normal as I calm myself down. With a flash of blue from her horn, I feel the pressure keeping my mouth shut release itself.

With a gasp of relief i cracked my sore jaw so that it felt loose in my mouth.

“You must have many questions” The mare states. “But I have a few that I would like you to answer first.”

I remain silent for a moment. To hear her actually talk was astonishing, incredible even.

“You look like you want to say something. I know you can talk. Don’t worry, we’re all herbivores, none of us will bite, much.” With this she smirks at her own attempt at false intimidation.

I lift my head to get a look at her as she trotted over to a small wooden chair. The mare couldn't be much taller than four feet, and she seemed strangely calm. I wiggle my fingers to get some feeling back into them, but instead of shying away from them, the mare seemed even more curious and trotted back to investigate my hands.

“Why are you all so interested, or should I say afraid, of my hands? It’s like you've never seen anything like them.” I ask laughing a little.

“It’s because we have never seen a creature like you before.” The mare states never taking her eyes off my fingers. “Where are you from anyway?”

The questions I can’t answer flood my mind once again. Hell I can’t even remember my own name! What in god’s name happened that is making me go insane just by giving me more unanswered questions.

“I don’t know” I say more to myself than to her. “I can’t remember a damn thing!”

I slammed my fist down as hard as I could as I say this. The mare got her face out of the way quick enough to avoid my hand hitting her in the eye. My heart rate soared. I was angrier than anything else. I was pissed off that instead of getting answers, all I’ve been getting is more and more questions.

“So, how far back can you remember?” The white mare asks. She moves closer to my face and places a supposed comforting hoof on my shoulder. I barely know this mare, but her eyes soften my defenses. This calms my outrage some and I search my mind for the oldest memory I can think of.

“I was lying on a stone road” I begin telling my short story. “I woke up to what I thought were voices of others like me, but they must have looked a lot more like you, you all have fairly large eyes. I wiggled my fingers and I was greeted with a fist to the face.” I say this with a small scowl on my face. “Or should I say ‘hoof’”. The mare nods, confirming that she understands.

“You must have given those ponies quite a fright.” she says thinking to herself. “So, nothing prior to that? How you got here? Anything?”

I delve deeper into my mind, searching for an older memory, but I come up empty.

“I got nothing, sorry”

“You have no idea where you are, where you’re from, who you are, or even how you got here.” the mare states addressing me directly with a soft smile. “The spell around you tells that you are being completely truthful. You have nothing to be sorry about. But knowing this, we will have no way of finding out who you are by ourselves. When the guards brought you to me, you were unconscious. They told me you had an outburst of rage, but now I see it was more out of confusion than anger.”

The blue magic, that I decided must belong to the white mare, enveloped my bonds forcing them to release. I slowly sit upright and end up bumping my head against the ceiling that was much lower than it seemed when lying down.

"Damn” I say rubbing my forehead. The mare next to me tries to stifle a laugh, but ends up falling onto her back laughing uncontrollably. It takes her a few moments and a glance at my stern face for her to regain her composure. As she wipes away her tears from laughing so hard, I stand up to find that my knees are weak from being in one too many comas. My legs buckled underneath my weight and I slowly started to fall to the ground as I struggle to regain my balance. In a final attempt to catch myself I reach for the wall, but instead I end up tripping over my own feet. Before I hit the ground however, I land on something relatively soft and white.

“Celestia you are heavy” The mare exhales under my weight.

She leads me back over to the table where I was laying before and bucks me off her back.

“Thanks.”

The white unicorn mare blushes, her cheeks turning a bright pink. She looks away knowing that she probably looks ridiculous.

“Star Charmer” the mare whispers.

“Excuse me?

“My name is Star Charmer” the mare repeats, a bit more confidence in her tone now.

“Introductions seem a bit pointless don’t you think.” I say half smiling “You know, since I can’t remember anything, even my name.”

“True,” Star Charmer says “but if you would like I could call you…” she ponders different names for a moment, looking me over. She looks into my eyes. “How about Emerald?”

“Emerald?” I say questioningly with a tad bit of sarcasm.

“Hey!” she exclaims a bit flustered, “there are plenty worse names than that! Besides, you don’t belong here, and we have no idea what you’re talent’s are. Besides, the name suits your eyes." Star blushes when she says this, turning away slightly. Star Charmer, with a blue aura, conjurers up a mirror.

My reflection stares back at me like i would expect. Compared to the mare, my eyes were much smaller, and my skin was very pale without fur. But what caught me off guard were my iridescent green eyes. Their color imitated the way I pictured the sun shining off of a blade of thick grass on a hot summer day. The name seems strange to me, as do my eyes. It doesn't seem like a name I normally would have heard. But with names like “Star Charmer” what could you expect.

“Emerald…” I say to myself, a small smile on my face. Star charmer looks down at me with a smile.

“It’s truly a pleasure 'Em', we’ll see each other again soon.”

“Pet names already?” I say laughing a little at my imminent joke. “Shouldn’t you at least take me to dinner first?”

At this, star charmer giggles, and throws a pillow cloaked in her blue aura at me, hitting me lightly in the face with a soft poof.

“I know it’s not terribly comfortable sleeping on the table” Star Charmer says. “But that should help. For now, you should try and get some rest. Tomorrow, I’ll see about getting you a proper bed.”

“Before you go, where exactly am I?” I ask, trying to get comfortable.

With a smile trying to hide her sad eyes, Star Charmer simply replies…

“Somewhere safe”