Gateway

Pain. For the longest time, the only synapses that seemed to fire in His mind were complete, blinding, mind-numbing pain. His body was sore, running from His barrel, all the way down to His hooves. Opening His eyes only brought more agony- the sun was high in the sky, and seemed determined to glare down into His eyes. He weakly attempted to roll away from the blinding light, but that sent a spike of pain through His back and wings.

    None of this… none of this felt right to Him. This body, this fuzzy mind… had He always had them? What was His name? What… what was He? Blearily eyes moved down to look at Himself. White fur on a slender, quadrupedal body. Well-muscled, but sleek. His wings were stretched out, feathers glinting in the sunlight. They were… white, but blue? No, blue on the edges. He closed His eyes. Perked, expressive ears… a small muzzle… a twitching tail…  This was so strange.

    He rolled to His belly with a shaky groan; the pain was finally beginning to ebb, but the confusion, fear, and admitted stiffness certainly had not. Where was He… His eyes scanned around nervously. He was laying in a field, the light tan grasses laying back in a breeze. The field stretched on for a good mile, before flattening out into a path. And that path led to a few small, if colorful, buildings out in the distance. His ears perked up.

    More… things like Him? Would they know His name, or what He was? It was His best chance, at any rate. Maybe His only chance. With a faint grunt of exertion, He rose shakily onto His hooves. Trotting was difficult- the balance seemed off to Him, somehow- but He soldiered on. He had to know.

*******************

    “Come on, Twilight, keep up!”

    Twilight Sparkle’s right eye twitched at Rainbow Dash’s playful tease. Keep up!? Seriously?! They had been circling around Ponyville for hours, like colorful vultures! Not that the practice was bad, per se. Twilight was quite grateful that Rainbow Dash was training her in endurance flying- something that would be quite useful in her tasks for both the town and the Princesses- even though it cut into Dash’s own training regimen. It was… sweet. But still! Twilight was far too tired to be able to put up with such tiresome, childish-

    “Woah, Twilight, on the road!”

    Blinking at the interruption of her thought process, the flagging alicorn peered down at the dirt road beneath her. While her eyes were not nearly as sharp as her pegasus’ friend’s, it was hard not to see the shambling pony, with his ice-blue mane and bright white fur. A frown immediately crossed the mare’s lips; the stallion was limping quite heavily. When she glanced over at Rainbow, a suggestion to help on her tongue, her chivalrous friend was already on her way down, wings spread and tilted in a circling dive. Twilight scrambled to follow, with far less… grace.

    The stallion gave a hoarse yelp as the mares landed in front of him, golden eyes widening blearily. He scrambled back a bit, sitting on his rump with a thud.

    Skittish, Twilight noted nervously, eyes flicking back to see his cutie mark, for a clue about his natural.

    To her surprise, there wasn’t one! And judging from Dash’s small gasp, she had noticed it too. The stallion certainly was about the same age as the mares, and not having a cutie mark by then… well, it wasn’t entirely unheard of, but was definitely rare.

    “It’s alright, sir,” Twilight told him soothingly, putting on her best smile, “We want to help. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my good friend, Rainbow Dash. What’s your name?”

    The stallion blushed beneath his snowy fur, ears instantly folding back; it was all either mares could do to not cry out in shock at the massive, discolored bruise on the back of his neck and head that this showed.

    “I-I don’t… I d-don’t know…” he replied slowly, fear edging into his voice, “I just w-woke up, back there…”

    He waved a hoof back towards Golden Harvest’s wheat field.

    Rainbow Dash frowned, looking him over as she took a hesitant step forward.

    “What do you remember last, big guy?”

    The stallion merely looked down, closing his golden orbs, and Twilight and Dash exchanged worried looks.

    “Sounds like amnesia.”

    “Amnesia.”

    Twilight blinked at the united response, grinning slowly, while Rainbow Dash blushed furiously.

    “I-it’s a flier ailment, happens sometimes! A pegasus takes a really bad fall, knocks their heads… sometimes they forget things. I know Soarin’ forgot his name for like a week before.”

    The librarian pony gave a happy, proud clap- yay learning!

    “S-so um… y-you know what I am?” the stallion asked shyly, a hopeful smile stretching over his muzzle; Twilight was pleased to see a good deal of tension leaving him.

    “We’re ponies,” she explained with a practiced, patient smile, “I’m an alicorn, with my horn and wings, and you-”

    “Are one of the awesomely amazing pegasi!” Rainbow butted in, grinning proudly as she launched herself into a flexible, mid-air backflip.

    Dash’s enthusiasm was infectious, and the stallion beamed, giving an excited flap of his wings… which only served to launch him several feet into the air.

    “GAH WHA-!”

    Both mares, quick on their hooves and wings, darted in to catch the flailing pony. Twilight paled under her fur at how light he seemed for his size.

    “Easy there, big guy,” Rainbow teased, “Re-learning flying can come after you get some rest and some of Spike’s cooking in you. ...Twi, we need a name for him, and soon. The Crystal Pegasi are sending in a north wind in about ten minutes.”

    Twilight winced at the reminder. Ever since the return of the Crystal Empire, seasons had gotten bolder, with stronger winters, warmer summers, and so on. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing- Applejack was quite happy with the longer growing season- but Twilight just wasn’t a cold weather pony.

    “I-I kind of… l-like North Wind, a-as a name,” the stallion whispered shyly.

    But perhaps she could make an exception.

*****************************

    Rainbow Dash managed to get Twilight and North Wind back to Twilight’s library ahead of the cold front, but just barely. Twilight had just shut the door when the prodigious wind and rain slammed against the sturdy home; Dash sighed in relief. Cold front winds messed up her feathers something awful. Not that she would admit that fear to anypony. Ever.

    “Woah…”

    It was hard not to grin at North Wind as he slowly trotted through the tree-library, golden eyes wide in awe as he stared at… well… everything! It was like having a newborn colt running around, nudging and touching and attempting to read some books, oohing at the kitchen stove and icebox, and shyly nudging an annoyed Spike, to see if he was, in fact, quite real. Watching North Wind turn on a lamp, and instantly jump back, nearly sent the weatherpony into hysterics.

    But upon thinking about it, North Wind’s condition was also rather sobering. Some pegasi never regained their memories or old lives after a bout with amnesia. What if he had a loving family, or a large herd that needed him? ...judging from Twilight’s worried look and her rapid scribbling on her letter parchment, she had had the same thoughts Dash had. That made her grin.

    The two best friends had been… kind of-sort of-maybe courting for the past several months. A few fly-dates, lots of training together, a great many sleepovers… maybe a make-out session once… BUT! They had not exchanged flowers or feathers in an official way yet. They still needed to talk that out, and Rainbow Dash wanted to be absolutely sure she wanted to date Twilight in the long-term before giving her a promise.

    “Here North Wind, you can rest on my couch while Spike and I get some dinner going,” Twilight was saying cheerily, giving the sheepish stallion a calming nuzzle onto the comfy cushions.

    Wasn’t this the start of some trash magazine story, totally unlike the story Dash had hidden under her pillow at home? Dash cleared her throat sheepishly, blushing at the thought.

    “Th-thank you Miss Sparkle, Miss Dash,” North replied happily, snuggling into the cushions, and fluffing up his-

    “GAH!”

    Both Twilight and North Wind jumped at Dash’s outburst, staring at her in shock.

    “Dash, what’s wrong?!” Twilight managed shakily, looking around frantically for some kind of pest.

    “His wings, egghead, look at them!”

    North Wind’s wings were a proper preener’s nightmare; broken vanes, misplaced feathers, broken quills… They looked like either a foal’s, a weatherpony’s after a long day of work with a hurricane, or a pegasus who had gone through a WILD night. The amnesiac gave his wings a sheepish look and a twitch.

    “You… do know how to preen, right?” Twilight asked softly, internally wincing at the answer she knew would come.

    Nope. Of course not. Rainbow gave a faint groan, exchanging a sheepish look with Twilight. Preening was special; it was an essential part of pegasi care and upkeep, and when shared with another, it was a very intimate process. Preening each others’ wings had finished off her third sleep-over with Twilight, and that night… that night would always be special to the both of them.

    “Should we leave it till tomorrow?” Twilight asked softly, sidling up beside Dash with a blush.

    The flier quickly shook her head, sighing.

    “If we leave it, it’ll just get worse while he sleeps. And if he leaves like that, every pegasi who sees will think we took advantage of him,” she explained sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head, “Don’t you have a Preener’s Guide for Foals?”

    “Yeah, I do!” Twilight replied brightly… only to droop a moment later, “But Scootaloo has it.”

    Celestia-dangit. They had no choice then. With a sheepish, resigned smile, Rainbow Dash hopped up beside North Wind; Twilight close behind and sitting on his opposite side.

    “You explain it to him while we do this.”

    It was rather hard for Rainbow to not nuzzle against North as she carefully lifted and stretched out his right wing. It was surprisingly broad; when he was ready, Rainbow was rather sure North Wind could become a pretty great flier. Not as great as herself, of course, but hey. With a shy glance at Twilight, Rainbow buried her snout in his down feathers. He had an interesting scent; the spicy backdrop of pegasi sweat, definitely, and the earthy scent of grass and dirt from the field he said he had woken in. But there was another scent beneath that; a biting, chemical scent, much like hospitals had. She would bring that up with Twilight later.

    Twilight was in full lecture mode by then, so Dash settled back into her task, lips carefully gripping a primary feather and smoothing it over with a tongue. She repeated this slowly, grinning as North Wind quaked beneath her, and again as Twilight began to help with the other wing. A sly grin stretched over Dash’s muzzle. At least she could have a liiiittle fun with this.

*******************

    Ohmigod. North Wind was in bliss. He had not realized his wings be this sensitive! The purple pony- Twilight- was speaking to him whenever her mouth was not filled with feathers, and each soft breath had him shaking. Rainbow Dash was quiet, but her movements remained firm and practiced. Each lick, tug, and nuzzle drew a small squeak from him, and he noticed a faint crooning noise coming from the back of North’s throat. It had a calming effect, but there was still that knot of doubt eating at him.

    None of this was familiar; the tree, the flowers, even the sky! It was hard to grasp that this was all real, that this wasn’t a fever dream. And what WAS a fever dream? How did he know that phrase? How did he know what anything was, but didn’t know about other things? How did he know this language, or-

    “Hey.”

    Twilight had paused in her preening, her violet eyes meeting North’s golden orbs while she smiled.

    “You don’t have to be afraid,” she whispered softly, nuzzling his barrel, “We’ll help you as much as we possibly can. This is Ponyville, after all.”

    And while North Wind wasn’t entirely sure what that meant… it was comforting to hear from the soft, smiling mare. And beneath the pleasure of the preening and the warmth of the caring mares, the shy, shaky stallion drifted off to a much needed sleep.