A world of grey smears and blobs without shape, without definition. Without any cohesion.

A world of pure sounds. Faded echoes of noise with no determinable purpose. Just white noise, really. If one were to listen closely enough, they might hear the lingering shell of something that made sense. A laugh, a scream, a compliment, a curse. All blended together in an endless sea of sound.

A world of endless motion, faster than the eye can track but slower than the weakest snail. Chaotic, yet coordinated. There was a semblance of a pattern in this mass, but it was impossible to tell exactly what that pattern actually was. For all intents and purposes, it was just motion. Perhaps a silhouette or a gleam of light would show up from time to time, but they vanished just quickly enough that one wouldn't be able to process what they had seen.

Those were the only things that existed here. There was no smell, no touch, only sound, and sight. If you could even call these odd sensations 'sound' and 'sight' at all.
How long had he been here? Did time even pass in this place? If it did, did it even matter anymore? What was time, even? Just a construct of perception used to increment things. It didn't really exist. Does anything exist? Did he really exist? He couldn't remember where he was before this world of sound and smears. This was all he knew. Was he the only one here? Was he just another smear among the countless others? Was he something else? Did it even matter?

"Hello?" He tried to cry out, his voice weak and hoarse from lack of use for so long. Or maybe from being used for the first time. "Can anyone hear me?"

But there was no response. His voice was quickly among the chaotic clatter of this bleak reality. Maybe he wasn't alone, perhaps these sounds were the cries of others like him all trying to reach out for help. Or maybe these cries were his own, bleakly echoed back at him by whatever this place was.

Was this hell? Was he dead? No, he surely would know if he was dead. Right?

Right?

And then, there was light. A break in the shifting smudges, something cohesive. Something other than grey, something other than sound. And it was getting brighter, and bigger.

As it did, the endless grey and ceaseless sound began to retreat, almost as if in fear of this light. He couldn't look away from the ever-expanding glow, even as it overtook him entirely.

And just like that, everything changed. His sight was clouded by darkness, the endless notice had cut out entirely. The sensations of touch and scent came rushing back to him like an oncoming train. He felt cold, laying on something smooth and hard. Perhaps some kind of cold stone, he thought. The air around him felt cool to the touch as well and was littered with the distinct scent of rainwater. Either it was just about to rain, or the sky had just ceased pouring. But these sensations weren't the only ones returned upon exiting the nightmarish reality he had finally escaped.

Pain. Everything was in pain.

His muscles ached, his lungs and throat burned, and his head throbbed. Physically and mentally exhausted, whatever had happened had pushed his body and mind to the absolute limits. His left leg, in particular, was hurting more than the rest of him. He finally knew if he was alive or not, and currently, he was wishing he was the later. He tried to move, tried to call out again, but found only minor twitches and groans as the only things his body could manage to produce right now. He couldn't even open his eyes, leaving him trapped in darkness.

He laid there for what felt like hours, the passage of time is another sensation that had returned to him. Eventually, a small drop of liquid from the heavens landed on his nose.

And then another, and another. The pitter-patter of rain was quick to greet his ears. The light downpour was refreshing and soothing to his aching and exhausted body, slowly numbing the pain in everything but his leg. If this kept up, he might be able to actually move soon.

The royal city of Canterlot, the capital city of the nation of Equestria. Over the many years, this city has seen a great a many tragedies and fortunes. From the return of chaos to the world to the crowning of a new alicorn princess, this city had seen it all. Granted, it hadn't seen all of the major events in Equestria's recent history, but it had certainly seen its fair share.

But for every day where something historically significant or world threatening was happening, there were a countless number of mundane and average days to counterbalance them. And that's exactly what today was, just another day in the capital city of Equestria. Ponies going about their business, noble and working class alike.

This is where Twilight Sparkle comes into play. The lavender and purple alicorn princess, and her purple dragon assistant/friend Spike had been spending today catching up with her old friends from school. She had spent a good chunk of the day catching up on old times. Scratch that, she spent the entire day catching up on old times. The sun would be going down any minute now, not that you'd be able to tell through the overcast sky.

"Guess there's some rain scheduled for tonight," Twilight observed, looking up to the sky. She and Spike had been inside all day, and when they had arrived the skies were clear and sunny as per the usual. And as she looked up to the sky, she was greeted by a large blip of rain landing dead center on her snout.

"Good guess," Spike said with a laugh, watching with amusement as the alicorn princess flinched in surprise. Though karma was not the dragon's friend this day as he was hit by the second drop of rainwater. It landed right in his open mouth while he was laughing, and he choked and coughed for a second as the liquid went down the wrong tube.
One after the other, the raindrops began to fall faster and faster. Soon it was pouring down a moderate amount. Guess the weather crew missed a few rainfalls and were trying to make up for lost time.

"We should probably get out of this rain," Spike pointed out after recovering from his coughing fit.
"Yeah, mom and dad's place isn't too--" Twilight began to respond, but stopped as one of her ears twitched. She heard something over the sounds of the lightly falling rain. "... Spike, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

The alicorn was just about to answer, but she heard that sound again and her ears perked in that direction. Louder this time. This time she was able to determine what the sound was. And that had her worried.

It sounded like somepony, moaning.

"Okay, THAT time I heard it!" Spike added, turning his head towards the source of the sound. It wasn't that far, all things considered. Sounded like it was coming from the alley they were passing. Twilight didn't bother responding to Spike's comment, quickly calling for him to follow her as she dashed towards the source of the sound. She had heard that sound several times in the past, from a number of individuals. That sound was a groan of pain.

She dashed into the alleyway, baby dragon chasing close behind her. The hurt individual moaned again, coming from an offshoot in the alley that Twilight had just dashed past.

Quickly doubling around, taking care not to run into Spike, she turned into the sub alley between the two buildings and searched frantically for the hurt pony.

But what she found wasn't a pony.

Whatever this creature was, he would have been taller than Twilight was he standing up on his own two legs. The alicorn would have had to stand up on her hind legs to match his height, and even then she'd only get to about eye level with his chest if her math was right.

And her math was always right.

The individual's height wasn't the only oddity about it, however. First off, he was fully clothed, a rare sight in Equestria outside of formal events. Black shoes, faded denim pants, and a blue short-sleeved shirt covered in green and red triangles. The parts of the entity's body that weren't covered in clothing had no hair, only a tannish colored skin. There was, however, a patch of messy black hair atop his head. Twilight couldn't see his eyes, they were tightly shut from the pain.
Whatever this creature was, he was dragging himself along the ground by his back. Pushing himself up into a sitting position against the nearest wall. Every push was accompanied by a sharp huff of breath. And while Twilight didn't know what this being was, but she knew two things for sure.
One: it was obviously hurt, based on the moans and sharp breaths.
And two: the left leg had a slightly different shape than the right. It didn't take Twilight long to figure out that the limb had been broken, based on how much pain the entity was clearly in.

"Twilight, did you find them-- ?" Spike began as he caught up to the alicorn, stopping mid-question as he laid eyes on the creature. "... What is it?"

The unknown lifeform, having heard a voice, slightly turned towards the sound, eyes still closed. "Help... please... help..." It managed to wheeze out. Its voice sounded like it belonged to a male if anything.

"It can talk?!" Spike visibly flinched upon hearing the entity talk back.

Twilight didn't hesitate for a second, her horn lighting up with a pinkish ethereal glow with a magical hum. A similar aura formed around the creature's leg. "Hold still, I'm gonna try and fix your leg." The wounded individual gave a weak nod as the magic began to slowly push his broken leg back into place. But the alicorn was quick to stop the moment he started writing in pain, more so than he already had.

"Stop! Stop!" He managed to cry out, grabbing at his broken shin and trying to pry away the magenta light surrounding it. "You're making it worse!"

"Sorry!" Twilight stammered, taking a cautious step backward as she ceased her magic. This creature, whatever he may have been, let out a relieved sigh as he leaned back against the wet brick wall. Twilight's ears drooped a bit, lowering herself closer to the ground out of guilt. "I was only trying to help..."

He said nothing, only glancing back over to the two who had found him, finally opening his silver-colored eyes. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, but the confusion was clearly one of the topics on his mind. "Who are you?... What are you?"

"We could ask you the same thing," Spike retorted almost instantly, getting a momentary glare from his benefactor before she returned her attention to the creature. While she didn't approve of his bluntness, she had also been curious as to what this entity was.

"... My name's Twilight Sparkle, this is my friend Spike," Twilight explained as she slowly approached the wounded individual. "Can you tell us your name?"
Said entity looked down to himself, placing a hand at the side of his head as he pondered. Twilight waited patiently for them to answer that question. But as the moments stretched into minutes, he still gave none. And with each passing second, it was clear that it was causing him great distress. Spike and Twilight gave one another concerned glances as this went on.

Twilight finally broke the silence. "Is something wrong?" The sudden noise among that of the rain had seemingly startled the entity, he had evidently forgotten that she was waiting for him to answer the question.

"I... I'm sorry... but I can't remember," he explained with a distraught tone, slowly shaking his head. "... I can't remember..." Twilight's ears shot back up, her magenta eyes wide from the revelation. She was doing her best to try an respond to that, but she couldn't think of anything that she could say. She looked over at Spike, hoping he would have something to add. Unfortunately, the dragon was only able to give her a confused shrug. In the meantime, the apparently amnesiac individual was going into shock. Either from his broken leg or from the sudden realization that he had no idea who he even was.

"... It's going to be okay," Twilight finally blurted, reclaiming the entity's attention. He looked at her right in the eye, looking as if he might have been crying. But the steadily falling rain made it impossible to know for sure if he had been or not. "We're going to help you. We'll get your leg patched up, and we'll figure this out. All right?"
He gave no response, he only continued to stare down the alicorn as she continued staring right back. The only sounds that could be heard were the pitter-patter of falling rain on stone.

Author's Note

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make this reboot/re-imagining of my Drawing a Blank story better then the original. And I've finally come to a draft that I've decided is definitively better then my original draft. And this time, I've decided to go for a much different tone then the original.

A larger emphasis will be placed upon drama. Not entirely, mind you, but it will be here. Enough so to actually warrant the tag. I've also decided to make the initial setting Canterlot instead of Ponyville, for a number of reasons that will be made relevant later.

Don't know when the next chapter will be out, but I'm working on it. If you're reading this in the future, then it COULD be out by now.