The amnesiac stranger who knows too much

My stay at the hospital wasn’t going to end any time soon, if my still bandaged and aching body was any indication. Shy kept coming to me in the mornings, the nurse kept poking me to get blood samples, and I kept sleeping most of the remaining time, out of boredom if not exhaustion.

A couple days later, a horned pony arrived to my room together with the nurse. I don’t think I really was surprised to see his kind. “Horned pony sounds wrong. A hornhead? Horn... Horn... A ha! Unicorn. That sounds just about right. I wonder if he can do magic?” The last thought made me snort. “If I settle for some more traditional definition of magic than ‘things evading explanation’, there’s no way he could do levitation or anything like that.”

The unicorn himself was dark gray, with much lighter hair. Or maybe he was just getting old? He was wearing a white lab coat, square glasses, and a serious face. He came closer to me and asked something. The nurse answered for me. The unicorn looked at her and furrowed his brows. Then he turned back to me, and levitated a pencil and a notepad out of his coat pocket.

“Oh.” That did surprise me, though not as much as I thought it would. “Oh well, so much for common sense. Now I live in a magical land, surrounded by magical ponies. This unicorn can levitate stuff. The pegasi probably need magic to fly, their wings are too small if Shy is a good reference. That nurse... She probably has some kind of magic, too, she makes doing things with her hooves look way too easy. And the less is said about Pinkie, the better.”

As I finished thinking that, I felt a weird tingling move through my body. That was a little scary. The unicorn stood beside me, eyes closed and horn glowing with yellowish light. “Calm down, it’s all right. The unicorn won’t hurt me, the nurse is here. He’s probably a doctor anyway.” The last thought actually made me calm down. “He’s probably just checking my health with some kind of diagnostic spell.”

When he has finished scanning me, he opened his eyes, thought for a bit, and then shook his head. I think he was somewhere between sad and confused, if anything, and that did nothing to boost my spirits. He turned to the nurse and said a single word.

The nurse’s face acquired a confused expression, and she gave an even shorter reply, probably asking him to elaborate. The doctor gave a longer reply, and her face changed to utter horror. She sputtered a few short words, and then seemed to stammer a semi-coherent reply, turning to look at me towards the end.

I guess she realized what she’s done when our eyes met, for she quickly pulled a fake looking smile, weak and apologetic. I wasn’t quite hyperventilating yet, but I was close.

The doctor interrupted our exchange by covering his face with a hoof and grunting. He said something to the nurse, and her expression changed to confused and curious. He added some more, and she looked like realization hit her. Then I had an impression that she asked him something like “How is it even possible?”, and her face was nothing but confirmation.

The doctor simply shrugged, and continued to take notes. The nurse asked him one more question, and his reply made her relax quite a bit. The fact that she was no longer scared to death was a good sign, so I started to calm down myself. When he finished taking notes, they both left.

“So... The magic is real here. Levitation, scanning spells, and I’m pretty sure there is much more. Also, I wonder...” I slowly moved my right foreleg up, towards my forehead. I felt my hoof touch something. “Ow yeah. This is gonna be fun!”

Later that day, they disconnected me from that machine next to my bed. That meant that I was moving towards recovery, and I could not be happier at the moment.

When Shy arrived the next morning, she looked really sad at first. When I gave her a questioning look, she immediately brightened up and said something that was supposed to be reassuring, I felt.

“Was she sad on my behalf? Does it have something to do with how the nurse was scared to death yesterday? But she wasn’t any more in the end, so I have nothing to worry about, right?” Any further pondering was cut short when the door opened.

The nurse came in, she and Shy greeted each other. Then the nurse said something that caused Shy to make that face, like she just realized something obvious. A moment later she nodded, turned to me and said something. Of course I didn’t understand it, but I bet she knew that.

Shy thought for a bit. Then she laid down on the floor, stood back up, and pointed a hoof at me.

“What is she... Is she trying to tell me to get up? I could hardly move without fainting just a few days ago!” I gave her an incredulous look. She beckoned me with her hoof. The nurse nodded at that.

“Well, I might as well try. What’s the worst that can happen?” I stopped at that. “Well, I wouldn’t disintegrate at least, otherwise the nurse would not be approving the idea.”

I nodded and started slowly inching towards the edge of my bed. Moving that much wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable now as I expected it to be based on how it was a couple days ago. I removed my right foreleg from the bed and placed my hoof onto the floor. “Hmm, feels like I could actually stand on it!” I did the same with my right hind leg. Then my left foreleg, at which point I lost balance and tumbled to the floor.

Shy almost rushed to me, but I raised my hoof to stop her. “Surprisingly, that didn’t hurt all that much. I might get out of here much earlier than I expected!” I rolled onto my belly, pulled my forelegs under myself, then hind legs, and one push up later I was standing! “Yeah, I’ll be out in no time!” I smiled widely and took a step forward, and faceplanted. “OUCH! That hurt!”

Shy scrunched up her face like she felt my pain, and the nurse simply snorted. I glared daggers at her.

Nurse said something to Shy, to which she nodded. They came to stand at my sides and were looking at me. “Oh, I guess they are going to support me as I walk for now. Good.” I pulled my legs under myself again and stood up, and they put their forelegs under me. I made a few steps forward to test my footing, after which we headed out of the room.

A surprise was awaiting me outside. The hospital was really small. I’m not sure what I was comparing it against, but it just felt so small! We were on the second floor, and it was just nine rooms long! I’ve seen the reception desk and the exit through the ladder down, and the ladder up definitely led to the attic, because I could see the inside of the roof.

The other part of the surprise was how empty it was there. Most of the rooms were open, and they were empty. I’ve only seen a single old stallion sit next to a window at the end of the corridor, and he looked pretty healthy to me, probably here for a regular checkup. With that few patients, I expected there to be little medical personnel. I didn’t see many, either.

“There aren’t many ponies in need of medical assistance, are there?” I mused to myself as we were making yet another lap across the floor. I already felt steady on my hooves, but the two mares still stuck to my sides just in case. “Maybe that’s why it took me only a few days to heal almost completely? I am a pony now, after all...”

The idea no longer made me freak out, but instead it made me think. “Yes, I am a pony now. And even though I feel like I wasn’t before... Maybe I really was?” I furrowed in concentration. “I cannot remember what I was before I became a pony. Even though some things here seem to surprise me, the magnitude of surprise isn’t really that big. Even some ponies feel familiar to me! And this Pinkie...” My head started to throb. “Ugh. Never mind. Still, could my... condition be that weird? Forgetting things that were, yet remembering things that weren’t? Maybe...”

My thought process was interrupted by sounds of protest coming from downstairs. They seemed to interest Shy. She said something to nurse, who nodded, and went quickly to the stairs and then down. I heard a conversation between her and the voice that was protesting before. As we reached the stairs too, I looked down.

Near the reception desk, there stood a light blue pegasus with a vibrant multi-color mane. I think it sported all colors of the rainbow. “That’s a lot of colors. I’ll eat my shoes if her name isn’t Rainbow. Only I don’t have shoes... do I?” I lifted my forehoof to check for a horseshoe. “No I don’t. Anyway, I’ll definitely call her Rainbow until I find out her actual name. And probably after that.”

Rainbow’s right wing was outstretched and held in the yellowish aura of the unicorn doctor who visited me the previous day. Utter annoyance and boredom filled her face, and I would not be surprised if it was even worse before she started talking to Shy. She definitely hated doctors. Her face became less and less annoyed as she chatted to Shy, her friend I must assume. Still, she cheered and did a flip in the air as soon as the doctor released her.

After shrugging off what must have been the doctor’s reprimand for performing aerobatics inside hospital building, she asked Shy something. Shy turned, looked upstairs, and pointed her hoof at us. Rainbow was at my face in a burst of speed. She gave me a few inquisitive glances, then smiled, said something happily and raised her hoof.

“Does she want us to shake hooves? Is she really a ‘she’, by the way?” Her smile faltered a little. I finally gave her a smile of my own and raised my hoof to shake hers. “Shaking another pony’s hoof feels difficult and awkward. Maybe they do something else? Wherever did I even get the idea?” I didn’t say anything, of course, language barrier and all.

Rainbow’s smile fell completely and was replaced by a slightly annoyed frown. She asked something in an annoyed raised voice. When I didn’t reply immediately, she seemed to even become a bit angry. Luckily, the nurse finally replied for me, probably saying that I didn’t understand the language. Rainbow’s expression suddenly switched to surprised, and then to an apologetic smile. She stammered something meekly and raised her hoof again.

“Maybe I’m supposed to bump it instead of shaking?” I tried to do that, and Rainbow seemed to be happy with the result. “Huh, that actually worked.”

Rainbow exchanged a few more phrases with Shy, who by then finished walking up the stairs and was standing with us. After that, she turned, waved us goodbye, spread her wings and left the building through an open window.

As she was doing that, I took notice of a picture on her flank. It was a simple enough design, a tricolor lightning bolt striking out of a white cloud. Now, I’m not the kind of person who stares at someone else’s hindquarters without a really good reason! I don’t think I am, at least. No, I’ve just noticed something peculiar.

“Huh, she has a picture on her flank. The multi-color bolt definitely resembles her mane coloring. Shy also has one, three pink butterflies if I remember correctly. The nurse has a red cross with hearts in corners, just like on her cap. That unicorn doctor and the old stallion I’ve seen before also have theirs, though I don’t remember what they are. Every pony I’ve seen so far has a mark on their flank that is likely related to who they are somehow!” I stopped in thought, and then turned my head to look at my own flank.

It was blank. “Well, maybe not everyone wears such mark?” I moved my head as close as I could and studied my flank some more. There was not a single dull speck of color there. “I don’t think I was out for long enough for it to wash out so completely, not if it was meant to be worn all the time. Or maybe I wasn’t a pony after all...” I turned my head back and looked at the two ponies accompanying me. Shy was holding a hoof to her mouth, horror on her face, and the nurse just looked sad. “Welp, I guess they realized I don’t remember anything! I would have remembered what my mark was, and if there was one in the first place.”

Suddenly, Shy hugged me and wrapped her wings around me. She muttered something, and I realized she was crying.

I patted her back lightly. “Shh, It will be all right. Everything will be all right. I’ll manage, I promise.” She didn’t understand the words, of course, but she could not miss my intonation. She broke the hug after a while and smiled at me weakly, rubbing away tears with her foreleg. I put my right hoof on her chest and donned the most reassuring smile I could muster. “It will be all right, I promise.” She nodded lightly.

After we went back to my room, Shy stayed with me longer than before. I kept my smile as wide and genuine as I could, lest she started crying again. Truth to be told, my... condition sucked, a lot. I could not even remember what it was called, for god’s sake! Yet, I wasn’t too worried by it somehow. Hell, just the prospect of doing magic with my horn seemed to outweigh all the immediate problems I had, even before my pony nature seemed to erase half of them.

Still, I had to start fixing my language situation, and my memory if possible, as soon as I could. “I need to do it, for both our sakes. What if we actually knew each other before whatever incident put me here?” I pondered that thought for a while, and came to a realization. “No, it cannot be. She knew that I didn’t know her language from the very morning when I first woke up, and she definitely does not know my language. She would not have only now reacted like she did if we ever talked before, she’d do it right away.” I smiled a bit wider. “It would probably be easier that way, for everyone. The old me might really be dead by now, a stranger in his place for everyone who ever knew me. There won’t be an impostor to remind them of their grief if I just disappeared, and I can start a new life here, not weighted down by whatever past I had.” I looked at Shy sitting beside my bed. “And I have a kind soul beside me who is willing to help. Whether there is a deeper reason for her caring about me that much, or if that's just the way she is, I’m grateful for that.”