The amnesiac stranger who knows too much

”What a lovely morning! The sun is shining, the ponies are talking... Wait, what!?”

My eyes shot open and I quickly turned my head towards the source of the noise. I also quickly regretted doing the latter, as a fresh jolt of pain almost made me scream again. I managed to bite it down, however, and only produced a loud hiss. The two ponies that were talking to each other before turned to me with concerned expressions on their faces.

My brain was quickly processing the events of this morning, from before me fainting. The machine beside my bed started beeping as I remembered that I probably was a pony like the other two in the room, and that I apparently didn’t remember much. The beeping prompted the nurse to take a syringe from the table and to start moving towards me. I took a couple deep breaths and tried to calm myself down. The beeping stopped, and so did the nurse. She slowly nodded to me and said something short in process, but did not let go of the syringe.

As I calmed down, I really noticed the other pony for the first time. She had yellow coat, long pink mane, cyan eyes, and she also had wings. I was really surprised by how little the wings surprised me. “So there are... those winged ponies too. Great! Now I really need to remember what they are called. It’s way too frustrating, knowing that there is a word, but being unable to recall it!”

That yellow pony was inching closer slowly, almost painfully so. I also noticed that she was muttering something under her breath. I think I could even hear her when I strained my ears! “Wait. My ears... Move?” That was a weird sensation. “Oh, right. I’m a pony now.” I bit down another bout of panic before it could surface. “Better leave freaking out about it for later.”

The yellow pony finally reached my bed. She stopped, hesitated for a bit, and then said something actually audible. She almost hid her face behind her mane as she did that. “Gosh, isn’t she a shy one!” For whatever reason, that thought brought a smile to my face.

The nurse said something to the yellow pony. The yellow pony turned to look at her with surprise on her face and replied. The nurse shrugged and said something else. The yellow one replied with a slightly saddened face, and turned back to me. She paused in thought, and then raised her hoof, slightly waved it at me, and said something short while doing so. Then she paused with her hoof still raised and waited, slightly smiling at me.

“Has she greeted me? Is she trying to get me to reply?” She repeated the gesture once more, and was waiting again. I thought she was getting nervous. I decided that I better do something.

“Hello!” I said to her, smiling slightly, and wiggling my front right hoof a little. Turns out it didn’t hurt all that much when I did it slowly.

Instead of looking surprised, she almost beamed at me. The nurse snorted a little. “So, they probably were discussing me not knowing their language.” The yellow one said something more to me in a gentle voice. “Hmm, maybe she can actually understand me?”

While I was thinking, the nurse excused herself, apparently, and left the room. I decided that I had nothing to loose, and asked my question.

“I do not understand any of what you say. Do you understand any of what I say?” I waited expectantly. She hesitated for a little, hid behind her mane, and shook her head. “Well, whatever she meant, she didn’t understand my speech, even if she guessed the question. Also, that was unbearably cute!” My eyes studied her for a little more before my mind caught up with the last thought. “Oh, my! What am I even thinking!” I’m pretty sure I blushed at that. “I’m not even a pony! At least I wasn’t...”

She momentarily looked at me from behind her mane, her eyes widened slightly, and she retreated back behind her pink curtain. Yep, I definitely blushed, because now she was blushing too. That was getting very awkward very quickly.

The awkwardness was completely forgotten the instant a loud boom shuddered the room. The yellow one disappeared, confetti and streamers rained everywhere, and an almost impossibly pink muzzle was right in my face, topped with huge blue eyes and framed with even pinker mane.

“PINKIE!” I shouted that in sheer panic. I have no idea where that came from, even if it was somewhat logical in hindsight.

“Surprise! And hello to you too!” I think I’ve blown a fuse somewhere in my head at hearing that. The pink abomination continued speaking excitedly, animatedly and very quickly at me, but I could not make out any more familiar words.

While my brain was rebooting and processing what just has happened, the yellow one slowly crawled out from under my bed and said something to the pink one. That slowed her chatter a little and redirected it away from me. At first it looked like the yellow one was telling the pink one off, no doubt for scaring her and making all that mess. Then she calmed down and they had a little conversation. While they were doing that, I was thinking.

“What the heck was that!? Did she appeared out of nowhere, right in front of my face? Impossible! I just was too startled by her entrance, with that boom of confetti. But why did I call her Pinkie? It was almost like... I knew she was into that kind of thing, and tried to yell angrily at her for that? Maybe I did know her before... Nah, that’s impossible. I was pretty surprised when I first realized that a sentient pony was in front of me. Then... Stop, she actually replied to me in a way I could understand!?” I dumbly looked at her, she was still chatting with the yellow one. I was completely confused.

“Maybe I’ve imagined it? Could it be possible that she knew my language? Why didn’t she use it after that initial greeting, then? Ugh. She’s making my head hurt!” I stopped thinking for a bit, and decided to find out for sure.

“Um... Pinkie?” Both ponies stopped their conversation and looked at me. I hesitated for a moment before continuing. “Pinkie, do you understand any of what I say?” Pinkie tilted her head, and said something to me with a confused expression. “Just answer the question, please,” I added, just in case. She tilted her head to the other side and added a few more confused words. The yellow one said something to her, and they exchanged a couple more phrases before the door opened.

The nurse came in. She looked angry. Very angry. She stomped towards Pinkie, while the yellow one backpedaled away and hid behind her mane, again. Did I say how unbearably cute that was, by the way?

Pinkie had decency to look ashamed, and she probably stammered a few quiet excuses, none of which seemed to persuade the nurse. She said something loudly and angrily, at which Pinkie turned turned to me.

“See ya!” She waved at me, and then she was gone in a blink of an eye. I was very confused again. Of course, I could have imagined that short phrase, again, but in any case that paled before what really confused me. Pinkie was gone in a literal blink of an eye! Eyes open, eyes closed for a brief moment, opened again, and she wasn't there any more! She disappeared, together with all the mess of confetti she created earlier!

My brain ground to a halt. It was a slight relief that I wasn’t the only one confused. Both remaining ponies stood frozen for a few long moments, after which the nurse shook her head and went towards the table. “Huh. I guess Pinkie is always like that, and everyone just accepted it. I better not question her, too, for the sake of my sanity.”

The nurse removed a food tray, which I somehow didn’t notice before, from her back and placed it on the table. I would have been surprised at how she kept it balanced on her back all that time, but seriously! Pinkie just broke the very laws of physics right before my eyes! My quota for being surprised was expended for today, if not for the next week or more.

Well, I guess it was breakfast time. I wasn’t quite thrilled to see hay on the plate, among other things, but I guess it’s normal for ponies to eat it. And I am one now, as far as I can tell. The yellow one helped me slowly raise my head, and fed me with a spoon. No matter how awkward that was, being fed nutrient solution through some tubes was definitely not an option in the long run, so I needed to get used to eating by normal means again.

After we were finished, the shy pegasus (I remembered that word, after all!) hanged around a little more. All the while, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I knew her before. Her appearance and behavior felt familiar, somehow. Soon enough, Shy left for the day. (I decided to call her that, her shyness was way too prominent.) The nurse took some blood samples from me later on, and that was it for the day. I spent most of the remaining time sleeping.