It was a beautiful morning in the capital city of Canterlot. The sun had just emerged from it's nightly hiding after a long evening of rainfall, the remaining dew causing the city to sparkle and glow more than it already did in the morning light. The smell of fresh rainfall wafted through the air as the citizens and local fauna began waking up to greet the day with gusto.

... All except for it's newest resident. The currently nameless human who had been found in an alleyway the previous night was still lightly snoring away, even as the morning sun somehow snuck into the room through the small gap in the curtains and assaulted his closed eyes. Yet despite this, he remained in an absolutely peaceful state of sleep... well, peaceful aside from the act of pulling the blanket over his head to shield himself from the sun's attempt at a wake-up call. Maybe it was the rather busy night he had after he was found, maybe it was whatever he had been doing before he was found, or maybe it had something to do with the medication that had been injected directly into his blood stream last night. Regardless of the reason, the amnesiac was out like a candle. And he clearly had no intention of waking up anytime soon.

And that's exactly what he did, for at least an hour or so after the sun had risen. After that, his body had decided that he had slept enough and forcefully ejected him from the land of sleep. His eyes slowly creaked open, and the human quickly poked his head out of his makeshift sun shield.

The nameless human let out a groggy yawn followed by a tired sounding groan as he sat up, scooting back to lean his spine against the headboard. "What happened last night?" He asked himself, beginning to stretch his various limbs and muscles. He was shocked to find extreme physical resistance in his left leg, virtually impossible to move in any meaningful way. Red flags shot up in his head, and he instantly threw the blanket over the side of the bed to see what was restricting his appendage.

He was greeted to what could only be described as a big, bright pink boot looking thing tightly wrapped around his leg up to just bellow his knee. Upon laying eyes on the cast holding his broken shin in place, memories from the previous night came rushing back to him. As well as a lack of memories from before last night. A look of sober realization came over him, his shoulders slumping downward slightly.

"So... not a dream... fantastic," He muttered to himself, running a hand over the slightly rough texture of the cast. If he had become sober to his situation earlier, the full consequences of what this scenario meant for him had just arrived alongside it. What was he going to do now? He had no memories, no way of getting back to... wherever it is he came from, and he was surrounded by people who had no idea what in the world he even was. He wasn't even entirely sure about what they were. An overwhelming sense of dread and fear suddenly came over him. What was he supposed to do now? Hell, what even could he do now? He couldn't get out of here, not with this broken leg anyway. And since they can apparently teleport, he doubted he'd be able to get very far regardless of his physical well being. The amnesiac was utterly helpless and at their mercy.

His train of thought was abruptly interrupted by three sharp knocks at his door. The sudden sound startled the human, and he jolted a bit as his attention was drawn towards the door. Regaining his composure, he leaned over and reclaimed his discarded blanket from the ground. "Come in," he called back as he recovered himself from the waist down. The door was quickly opened, and a familiar looking purple dragon stepped inside.

"Hey... you," he greeted with a nervous smile. Obviously, he wasn't used to giving "good mornings" out to people who didn't have names. "So... how'd you sleep?"

"... Pretty good, all things considered," the amnesiac scratched at the back of his neck, doing his best to avoid direct eye contact. He wasn't expecting Spike of all pon—

Wait. What is he again? The human asked himself, remaining entirely silent as he scratched harder at the back of his neck. Did anyone bring that up? He's not a unicorn... Iguana, maybe? Iguana sounds right. I'll go with that.

"That's good to hear..." Spike sauntered up to the bed, and with a quick hop the short figure hoisted himself up and hung his short legs over the side. He sat there in silence for a moment, eyes occasionally darting around the room as if looking for something. His claws interlocked with each other and began to fidget among themselves. Even the amnesiac could tell that this kid was nervous. Yet he was still sitting here of his own volition, so he had to have some reason for staying.

"... You look like you really don't wanna be here right now," the human broke the silence as he crossed his arms. "... You can leave if you want." In reality, what Spike wanted was the least of his worries at the moment. Despite having no memories, he had enough sense to know it would be a bad idea to stew in his own thoughts for the entire day. Not to mention the fact he might be able to trick some information out of the purple reptile, figure out why they brought him here. Assuming they had some ulterior motive in the first place, that is.

"No, no, it's fine..." Spike lied, finally looking back to the odd creature he and Twilight had found less than a day ago. "I just... uhh... don't really know what to talk about?"

"... How about why you're here?" The human responded with an understanding nod of his head. And then we'll get to whatever you people are planning for me.

"Twilight sent me. To keep you company. She would have come too, but she's a little... side tracked at the moment."

That triggered a few red flags in the amnesiac's relatively empty head. The way Spike said that made it seem like something bad was going to happen whenever Twilight finished what she was doing. He did his best to keep his concerns to himself. "... With what?"

"She's in the library looking up... whatever she can to help you out," Spiked gave a waving gesture as he explained. "Amnesia, memory spells, seeing if anypony's ever heard of a hooman—"

"Human."

"— Human before," Spike corrected the mistake without missing a beat, "that kind of stuff. And when she gets in 'the zone,' she tends to stay there for awhile."

That added up with what the human had been told the previous night, that she would be doing all she could to help him figure things out apparently. But as he pondered over Twilight's words from the previous night, and his doubts from earlier, a question kept popping up in his head. A question that demanded an answer that the amnesiac couldn't provide. It kept getting louder and louder until it finally managed to push its way out of his mouth. "Why?"

The dragon looked over with a cocked eyebrow... or whatever the dragon equivalent to an eyebrow is. "Huh?"

"Why are you going out of your way to help me?" The human asked, a knot tying in his stomach. Their eagerness to help without any request of his own almost tripled the number of red flags that had been raised in his head. The fact that he was clearly something that none of them had any knowledge about didn't help with that. It didn't add up. Nothing about this added up. "You don't know me. You don't know what I am. Why help me? What do you get out of it?"

"... True, but helping pon— err, people in need is kind of our thing," Spike retorted. "And it isn't like you have anypony else to turn to."

Well, that was certainly a blunt way of putting it. An accurate one, but it stung quite a bit. The human looked down to an open palm, quivering ever so slightly in the morning light. "... This is true," he managed to mutter in response, choking on the words ever so slightly. His calm facade was beginning to weaken, unbeknownst to him, and his true emotional state was beginning to shine through.

Good going, you made it worse, Spike thought, wincing as he watched the amnesiac slip further and further into the state of dread he was currently in. You were supposed to keep him company, not make him feel worse! He began to nervously chew on a claw as he thought of what to do to try and remedy the situation before it got any worse. You could almost hear the pieces click into place in his head as the idea came to him, accompanied by a wide grin and equally wide eyes.

"Hey... uhh, you're not the only oddball around here," Spike began with a sympathetic tone, waiting for the human to focus on him before going on. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not exactly like everypony else either."

The human's earlier curiosity about what Spike was returned to him. "... Yeah, I was... actually just wondering about that, now that you mention it."

"Well, long story short, I'm still kind of new to pony society, too... not that new, but pretty new. Nopony knows where I came from, not even me." Spike chuckled as he brought up the comparison. "I was given to Twilight as an egg, then I hatched, now I'm here... and it took some time for some ponies to get used to me being around.

"And... you're kind of going through the same thing right now, I guess. Nopony knows where you came from either. Not even you," Spike gave a smile to the amnesiac as he made the comparisons in your head. He was noticeably more relaxed then he had been when he first entered the room. "So... uhh, I guess don't worry too much about not fitting in?... You'll fit in eventually?... It gets easier?" As the dragon continued, he sounded less and less sure of himself. Like he was just spitting out random thoughts in what might have been an attempt to cheer the human up. Spike chuckled nervously as the human just stared at him.

There was a silence in the room after that. For Spike, time slowed to a crawl. The moment could have lasted for seconds, it could have lasted for decades. The baby dragon currently had no way of knowing. In reality, this silence only lasted for about a minuet. A minuet consisting of one of the two contemplating the other's words, while the second spent the time hoping his little pep talk had some positive effect.

For the first time in recent memory, which was currently his only memory, the human found himself chuckling. Weather if it was a sympathetic chuckle at not being the first to be in this scenario, or if he was just laughing at how awkward Spike had gotten towards the end was something known only to the amnesiac. "Thanks, kid..." He chuckled again, a bit louder this time. "... If an iguana can fit in around here, pretty sure I can just fine." The sound of shattering glass could practically be heard as the dragon glared down the amnesiac, a look of utter bafflement strewn upon his face.

"I'm sorry. Iguana?" And just like that, it was the amnesiac's turn to be the nervous one.

"... Yeah?... Y-you're an iguana, right?"

"Dragon. I'm a dragon." Spike's voice was practically bursting with held back rage. Seems this was a sore spot for him.

The human met this pent-up fury with a deadpan glance. There was no way this was a dragon. "Are you... sure about that?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"... If you say so." The human leaned back against the headboard, resting his arms behind his head as he for being turned his attention away from Spike.

Spike growled under his breath ever so slightly, it was obvious he wasn't convincing the human of his draconic ancestry, and it was equally obvious that it was ticking Spike off quite a bit. Passing through his head at this very moment were various different ideas on how to prove to the human that he was, in fact, a dragon. And then, it hit him. His scowl transformed into an ecstatic grin, pushing himself back onto the floor and taking center stage in the middle of the room.

"Alright, I'm gonna prove it!" Spike beamed, stretching and popping various joints as if to prepare for an intensive workout. "Ready to get your mind blown?"

The only part of the amnesiac that moved in response were his eyes, looking down to the dragon with what looked to be utter disinterest. "Well, it isn't like I've got anything better to do. Hit me with your best shot," he almost taunted, almost statue-like in posture.

With a smirk, the dragon cracked his knuckles and turned his face to the sky. Pursing his lips and puffing up his cheeks, the dragon began to blow. A pillar of lashing green flames erupted from Spike's mouth with a "fwoosh," almost reaching the ceiling as the room instantly increased in temperature from the sudden open flame. Spike kept this up for about a minuet or so until his lungs screamed at him that he still needed to breathe. And so, he ended the display and the green light show vanished just as quickly as he ha summoned it. Once finished, he looked back to the human with a sly grin. "Dragon," he simply said, raising a claw into the air and snapping it for good measure.

The amnesiac's reaction, however, wasn't the one Spike was aiming for. His eyes were wide, his breath was held, and a bead of sweat could be seen trailing down the center of his face and down his nose. Spike winced as he recognized the expression, despite the alien features. He wasn't aiming to frighten the human, but he just did a very good job at doing just that. A sharp twinge of guilt and regret pulsed through him in that instance.

Aaaaand I over did it, he silently realized. Twilight's gonna maim me...

"I have one question," the nameless human murmured after a seemingly eternal silence. "Was it supposed to be green?"

"Uhh... yeah?" Spike's head tilted at the question. That certainly wasn't the reaction he was expecting.

"Oh... okay then... that's good," the human's posture began to normalize. He was still a bit frazzled, but not entirely frightened as he had been. This certainly wasn't how he had pictured his morning going. Granted, he didn't expect to wake up with a broken leg in some alley way either. But you know, life happens.

--- Earlier that Morning... ---

The Canterlot Royal Library. One of the largest collections of books, scrolls, tomes, novels, anthologies, texts, manuals, cruise ship brochures, and dictionaries in all of Equestria. Actually, it probably was the largest, come to think of it. Not many other cities had a real reason to have a library this big, as the crown jewel of Equestria wasn't just known for its high standard (and cost) of living. It was also known for the almost entirely noble or otherwise rich population (due to that high cost of living). The city was also renowned for the various universities and schools littered about. Celestia's school for Gifted Unicorns being just one of many top-rated learning centers. As such, access to a large number of books was a necessity. And that's where this library came into play.

The Princess of Friendship was no stranger to this sanctuary of studying. She spent a major chunk of her childhood within these walls. And all of her adolescence. And a good few years of her adult life. She really likes reading, is the point being made here. And coming here was always a good stress reliever, and time killer, for the young mare. And as soon as the sun rose this morning, she and her draconic assistant were quick to make their way over to try and find anything that could be of use to their current situation.

Books about amnesia and other psychological issues, a few scrolls and spell books that may contain spells for restoring lost memories, and just about every book about strange and exotic creatures from beyond Equestria that she could get her hooves on. With their combined efforts, the two of them managed to get a pretty decent sized stack of books onto the table they had managed to claim.

"That should be everything..." Spike said with a groan, placing the last of the books into Twilight's horde of knowledge. "This... might take awhile."

"Then we better get started," Twilight beamed as her magic claimed the first book on the stack. Starswirl's Guide to Strange and Exotic Creatures from Equestria and Beyond Volume 1. "Besides, it isn't like we have to get through every last book today."

With an unamused smirk, the dragon simply crossed his arms and started at Twilight with narrowed eyes. "I know you better than anypony else. I know how you get." The alicorn's eyes drifted away into the open pages of the book, innocently whistling a simple tune as she ignored Spike's accusation. "Twi."

"Okay, I'm going to read every book and scroll we found today... or try to, anyway," Twilight snapped back to look at Spike with a groan. "What's the big deal? We're helping out somepo— ... somebody in need."

Spike crossed his arms and loosely narrowed his eyes. "Did I say that was a bad thing?"

"... Noooo." Twilight dragged the word out needlessly long as she slowly turned her face back into the book.

"Then there you go," Spike said nothing else, sitting down contently as he grabbed the book nearest to him. Starswirl's Guide to Strange and Exotic Creatures from Equestria and Beyond Volume 52. "There are fifty-two volumes of this stuff?!"

"Sixty-five, actually," Twilight replied in her encyclopedia-esque way after taking a peak at the book Spike had claimed. "Legend says that he was working on volume sixty-six. But then, you know, the whole limbo thing with the Pony of Shadows happened. So he had to put the series on hold for obvious reasons."

Spike wasn't listening at this point. He was to busy staring at the cover of the encyclopedia, simply amazed that there were enough strange and wondrous creatures in the world to fill sixty-five, possibly sixty-six, encyclopedias on the subject. Honestly, he shouldn't have been surprised by this fact. In Ponyville alone he had seen more than his fair share of creatures and beasts, magical or otherwise. But still, sixty five volumes was a bit absurd. Almost comically so. Almost as if some higher power just chose a random number that was just high enough to be considered excessive, but just low enough to be within the realms of reason.

How many pages were dedicated to a single creature? Were they organized alphabetically, or in the order they were discovered? All these questions and more were passing through Spike's head at this very moment. Questions that could have been very easily answered by just simply opening up the book held in his claws, but the dragon had apparently reached his limit for coping.

After all, he had been through with Twilight Sparkle and their friends, after all the problems they've solved, monsters they've faced, and world ending calamities they've prevented: this was what broke him. Finding an entirely unknown creature with amnesia, and then discovering that there was sixty-five volumes worth of creatures in the world. Out of everything that he had been through, why was this of all things too much for him to cope with?! Why? Why in the world was THIS too much?!

"Spike? You okay?" Twilight suddenly snapped him out of his trance-like state. "Helloooo? You still with us?" She tapped him on the forehead with a hoof, further knocking the dragon back into reality.

Spike shook his head for a moment to reorient himself. "Huh? Wassup, Twi?" Looking at the alicorn's face, an expression of worry could be clearly seen by anyone in the room. And currently, that look was aimed directly at Spike.

"You've been staring at the cover of that book for ten minutes straight, I got worried," Twilight's face visibly shifted from worry to contentment as she explained, pulling the book from Spike's claws with a magical glow. "You feeling alright?"

There's no way I've been staring at that book for ten minuets, Spike monologued, watching as Twilight added the book back to the mound. He had to shake himself back out of that thought before he answered. "I'm fine... maybe a bit overwhelmed?"

"I know the feeling," Twilight chuckled, placing her own book down for the moment. "No matter how many times we get thrust into crazy scenarios, it never gets any easier. Huh?"

"Guess not," the dragon chuckled back. He looked over to the large clock mounted high above the floor, revealing to him that it was almost eight in the morning. He was supersized it was still so early, considering how long it took to gather Twilight's book horde. Or rather, how long it felt to gather the book horde.

"Hey, you wanna do me a favor, Spike?" Twilight's sudden question reclaimed the dragon's attention. "I don't think our new friend back at the castle is going anywhere anytime soon, not with that leg of his anyway." Spike nodded in agreement, silently imploring the alicorn to continue her statement. "Do you think you could go give him some company while I take care of all this? Just so he isn't bored out of his mind." She lifted her book back up with a bit of a grin.

Spike simply looked back to the princess with an unamused glare. The answer he was thinking about giving was obvious. But, being a good friend, he decided to humor her. "Why can't we both do that? I'm sure you have a lot of questions for him, anyway."

"Spike, he has amnesia. Bombarding him with questions like that would be really insensitive," Twilight explained in a lecturing tone. "The first and most important thing to do right now is to figure out where he came from, and how we can help him get back. And since he can't remember, we have to try external sources." She shook the book back and forth a bit for emphasis. "And if I can't find anything about these 'humans,' then I'll have to hope there's a spell for memory restoration somewhere in here," she gestured to the rest of the mound.

"You really are in a hurry with all of this," Spike retorted with crossed arms and a cocked eyebrow. "Any reason for that?... You don't think that he's dangerous, do you?!" His sudden concern was obvious to all outside eyes.

"No, I don't think that. But I do think that this qualifies as a friendship problem," Twilight's attention turned back to the book in her magical grasp. "For all we know, his friends and family could be worried sick looking for him right now, even as we speak. As the Princess of Friendship, I can't let that stand."

Spike couldn't argue with his lifelong friend's reasoning, he couldn't even come up with a counter to it even if he wanted to. "Alright, Twi. Good luck with the study session." He gave a small wave as he wondered away from Twilight's table. A nervous gulp could be heard from the dragon's throat as he made his way out of the library, unsure of how exactly to keep an amnesiac alien company. He knew that the human could talk, so there was that, but the hardest part was figuring out what to talk about.

I'm sure I'll figure it out, how hard could it be? Spike hoped as he left the building, headed back for Canterlot Castle.

With a content sigh, Twilight returned her full attention to the collection of books she had acquired for the day. The first thing on her hastily made agenda was trying to see if anypony had ever heard of humans before. And the Starswirl anthology series of creatures from Equestria and beyond was a good place to start. True, she had read this series before, but that was a good number of years ago. And even she couldn't memorize every single detail from every single book she's ever read. She wished she could, it would be an insanely useful skill to have, but nobody's perfect. Thankfully, her amnesiac friend was at least able to remember what his species was called: Human. meaning that she only had to look in each book's H section if she wanted any luck in finding any possible leads.

Let's see what we've got to work with here, Twilight internalized as she opened up the first volume of the series to the table of contents, running a hoof along the page as she skimmed for the word "human."

—Habrok
—Hadhayosh
—Haetae
—Hag
—Haietlik
—Hai-uri
—Hakutaku
—Hākuturi
—Haltija
—Hamadryad
—Hamingja
—Hamsa
—Hanau epe
—Hantu Air
—Hantu Raya
—Harionago
—Harpy
—Haugbui
—Havsrå
—Headless Horseman
—Headless Mule
—Hecatonchires
—Heikegani
—Heinzelmännchen
—Helead
—Heracles
—Hercinia
—Herensuge
—Hesperides
—Hidebehind
—Hiderigami
—Hieracosphinx
—Hihi
—Hiisi

"... No human entry," Twilight muttered, dragging out each word very slowly as she skimmed over the table of contents once more just to make sure she hadn't missed it. "It sounds like it starts with an h... maybe it has a different spelling?" As she overlooked this particular segment of the list again, it suddenly occurred to her that just because the amnesiac refereed to himself as being "human," that didn't mean that Starswirl the Bearded did when he wrote this book.

Not to mention the fact that this series of books had been translated/re-translated a number of times over the years as Old Ponish developed into the language used today. The original name could have been lost to history. The only pony who knew for sure was Starswirl himself. And he could be literally anywhere in the world right now.

That meant that any of these creatures could have been what she was looking for. Or any of the creatures that weren't listed under the h section. Or any of the creatures listed in any of the other sixty four volumes of this series. As the realization came over the alicorn, a wide-eyed stare overcame her expression. A very similar one to the grimace Spike had during his little space-out session.

"... This might be harder then I thought..."

--- Back in the Present ---

The morning had been kind to Princess Celestia. Despite the less then normal circumstances that ended the previous day, the current one was going as well as they normally had. The raising of the sun, a nice breakfast with her sleep-deprived sister before seeing her off to bed, and then proceeding to the day court. The new day's kindness came clear when she had reached this portion of her day, however, as there were very few issues brought up in said court. Slow days such as this were nothing new to the Princess of the Sun, they were bound to happen from time to time, and they were always a welcome treat. A chance for the white alicorn to catch her breath and relax a bit before moving onto her next activity.

But today was a bit different. Today, there was a guest in her home that she had not properly greeted. A guest who, according to the statements of both Twilight and Doctor Scribe from the previous night, was injured and amnesiac. And the princess couldn't simply ignore that fact in good conscious. And thus, she had decided to take the opportunity the day had given her to check up on this interesting guest.

As she walked through the ever-impressive halls of Canterlot Castle, the princess was accompanied by two other ponies. The first was her ever faithful assistant, Raven Inkwell, currently occupied by whatever was on her clipboard. Likely Celestia's schedule for the rest of the day. The second was one of the many gold-garbed guards that could be found around the castle and the city. Not one of her elites, just your typical run of the mill pegasus guard.

Said pegasus guard, while externally calm and collected save for her wide amber eyes that were staring off into space, internally she was freaking out more than a claustrophobic in a coffin. It wasn't every day that Princess Celestia herself comes down to the barracks, asks for you by name, and says that you've been hoof-picked for a special assignment. Especially if you're just a corporal like this guard was. So needless to say, she was a tiny bit nervous.

As the trio continued down the hallway towards the amnesiac's current residence, two voices could be heard conversing with one another. And as the three continued to approach, the conversation became audible.

"It is!"

"No it isn't, you just made that up!"

"No, I didn't!"

"A likely story, do you have any proof?!"

"Ask anypony! They'll tell you!"

What could be going on in there? Celestia asked herself, her smile wavering ever so slightly. She recognized the louder of the two voices as Spike's, the second voice likely belonged to the human.

Not even one day, and he's already started trouble. Raven sneered, not bothering to look up from her clipboard. There better be a good explanation for this.

What am I being dragged into? The pegasus guard asked herself, trembling ever so slightly as she listened to the argument. The three ponies got to the door soon after that, standing just outside the still open door to see just what was going on before intervening.

They were greeted to the sight of Spike standing at the edge of the bed, arms tensed and fists clenched. His back was to them, but all three could tell he was pretty flustered. The human, meanwhile, was sitting at the other end of the bed. His arms were crossed, and he looked almost as if he were trying to suppress his own laughter.

"Grrr... What's it going to take to convince you?" Spike's tone was half angered and half defeated. "This is starting to get old."

The amnesiac leaned forward slightly, his eyes narrowing the smallest amount as he peered into the dragon's very soul. "Just admit you made it up, and it'll end."

"But I didn't!"

"But you did!"

And with that, Princess Celestia had seen enough. With a quick set of knocks on the open door, she stepped into the room and instantly claimed the attention of Spike and the human. "What in the world are you two fighting about?"

"Oh thank goodness you're here," Spike let out a relieved sigh at the sight of the alicorn princess, hopping off of the bed and approaching her. "Maybe you could talk some sense into this guy." He glared back over to the human, who in turn glared right back.

"And why, pray tell, does he need sense talked into him?" Celestia tilted her head ever so slightly.

"Yeah, Spike, pray tell?" The amnesiac's comment earned him a glare from Raven as she entered the room in turn, but he was far to busy staring down Spike to care.

Ignoring the obvious jab at him, Spike turned back to the princess with a much calmer expression. "He think's alicorns don't exist."

"Because you just made that word up!" The human threw his arms over his head in frustration, his sudden outburst utterly ignored by Celestia and Spike. "Just admit you were trying to say 'unicorn,' and you messed up! It's no big deal!"

Celestia couldn't help but lightly chuckle at this new development. She knew that the amnesiac knew what unicorns were, Doctor Scribe had said that much in her statement, but not knowing what an alicorn was?... Well, perhaps it wasn't that far fetched. They didn't know he was called a "human" until he told them, so him not knowing what an alicorn was seemed reasonable enough. Regardless of this, she had never encountered an individual who hadn't at least heard of the regal pony subspecies. And that revelation tickled her fancy a bit.

"I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm afraid Spike is right about this," the solar princess began, extending one wing out and gesturing to it for emphasis. "In fact, I'm an alicorn myself."

The human's attention turned to the alicorn with a deadpan stare, his arms slowly lowering back to his sides. The two of them stared at each other for a moment. The amnesiac's face still one of confusion, un-amusement, among other emotions. Celestia looked back at him, a sincerely warm grin painted on her face. The other three watched in silence as the two stared each other down, unwavering and unmoving. Spike's look was one of concern, unsure of his decision to involve the princess in this debate. Raven Inkwell simply rolled her eyes, knowing full well that the solar princess wasn't above antics such as this. But it was obvious that the unicorn wanted the ruler to get back to her schedule as quickly as possible, but as a good assistant was willing to wait for her boss to conclude her business.

As for the pegasus guard that Princess Celestia had dragged up here, who was still standing just outside the door. Peering in ever so slightly, the corporal watched wide-eyed at the events unfolding before her. Seriously, what am I being dragged into? She wanted to ask allowed, but her sheer confusion at the scenario was silencing her. And what in the world is that... bald monkey?

"... So you're a unicorn with wings," the human droned on, the sudden sound shattering the deafening silence that had formed. "So wouldn't 'wingacorn' make more sense?"

Did he really just say that?! That was the thought that Spike, Raven, and the corporal shared at that moment. Though the tones in which these words were internalized were different. For Spike, it was one of utter surprise. For Raven, the words were drenched in a bitter dissatisfied anger. And for the pegasus guard, it was that of surprise and fear.

Princess Celestia, on the other side of the coin, simply giggled once more as she returned her wing to her side. "It is a bit more complicated than that, my friend." There was another silence, this one not anywhere near as long as the previous though. It was occupied by the human simply sitting there, pondering the princess's words, mulling them over in deep contemplation.

"... Oh. I get it. A pegacorn then. Because the winged ones are pegasuses... pegasi?... pegopities, maybe? The winged ones. You know what I mean." He had to be messing with them at this point. Either that, or he was really dense. They were all convinced of one or the other explanation at this point. There was no possible way he was being serious right now.

"I think you'll find that alicorn rolls of the tongue better," Celestia's smile grew a bit. "And the word you're looking for was in fact 'pegasi,' if you were still curious."

"But that's a made up word!"

"Those alternate names you just spouted out were also made up." Celestia let out another small laugh, this wasn't how she was expecting the conversation to go, and it was a pleasant surprise. "And if we're being pedantic, aren't all words made up?"

The amnesiac went to say something with a raised index finger but found the words would not come out. The digit slowly curled as he lowered the hand back down to his side. He attempted to retort again, this time a tiny gasp was able to escape from his lungs, but again no words. This time he raised a hand to his face and bit down upon a knuckle. It was clear that the princess's own rebuttal had thrown a few things into perspective for him. He couldn't cope with the evidence he had been presented with. His eyes darted back and forth, he was obviously attempting to come up with some counter-argument, some way to come out on top. But it was equally obvious to all he had been bested.

Celestia lightly laughed once more as her attention returned to the baby dragon. "I think I've talked some sense into him, wouldn't you agree?"

"... I think you broke him," Spike droned, watching with concern as the human chewed on his own hand. "... Way to easily." Ironic, considering what happened to him earlier this morning.

"Ahem, princess?" Raven finally interjected, stepping further into the room in order to obtain the alicorn's attention. "I hate to interrupt this... riveting conversation, but it would be best to wrap this up. Just because day court concluded early, doesn't mean you still don't have a busy schedule."

"Thank you, Raven, we won't be much longer," Celestia said as she stepped closer to the bed, waving a hoof in front of the human. As if being snapped out of a hypnotic trance he jolted a bit, looking back to the solar princess as his finger fell from his mouth. "How are you holding up? I can only imagine how... stressful this whole situation must be for you."

There was a look of confusion for a split second from the amnesiac as if he didn't know what she was talking about. And then it suddenly came back to him, and his mood visibly dropped like an anvil. "I'm... still getting used to it... thankfully, this Spike guy is really distracting."

"I'm going to choose to take that as a compliment," Spike added under his breath.

"I see... well if there is anything I can do to help just let me know. Speaking of," Princess Celestia turned to the room's door, surprised to see that the guard had yet to actually enter. "Corporal Dare? Could you please come here?" Without hesitation, the gold-clad guard was almost instantly at Celestia's side with a hoof raised in salute.

And this caught Spike's attention. Namely, why would Celestia be bringing a royal guard up here?... Aside from the obvious "this is a castle, she is a princess, she has guards" thing. And he was quick to make his concerns known to the public. Celestia's logic wasn't that absurd actually. After a joking comment about how Twilight Sparkle had beat her to the idea, but the plan was for Corporal Dare to keep the human company during his incapacitated state... and to keep him from getting into trouble in the event he ran into somepony... less understanding of his circumstances.

The princess's explanation was actually a rather calming one... to Corporal Dare. Over the course of the silent stroll up to this very room, she had assumed the worst. But this? This was EASY.

All I gotta do is keep this... guy company? Corporal Dare asked herself, looking over the amnesiac while his attention was still on the princess. I can do that.

Before the question could be answered, however, Raven was quick to interject that the princess needed to get back to her schedule. And thus, wishing the three of them a good day, the princess and her assistant were gone. Once the sounds of departing hoof steps had faded away, the nameless human decided it would be best to change the subject of conversation. And luckily for him, he had the perfect topic to bring up. Or rather, the perfect question.

"So... anybody wanna tell me who that was?"

Author's Note

I've decided Spike is going to be a bit of a bigger player in this story. Not sure how much so, so I won't edit the tags yet, but he's gonna be here. I also decided that I was going to challenge myself: and put Spike in every scene of this chapter. Which wasn't easy, but I managed to get it done.