With the events of the previous day in mind, I knew I was leaving the hospital any time soon. Even if I thought the opposite just a day ago. Funny how that works.

Now that I could move freely on my own, the nurse apparently decided that I could eat my breakfast without extra help.

“Such a shame, I was getting used to how things were! Not.” Even thinking about the awkwardness of being fed like that made me cringe a little. I was more than happy to finally dig in on my own! I took the spoon in my hoof...

“Um... And how exactly do I do that?” I poked the spoon a few times, but nothing happened. “I could pick it up with two hooves, but then I won’t be able to eat with it. And they used only one hoof to feed me before.” I looked at the spoon for a few moments more. “So... Magic. Not only it’s convenient, they cannot even eat their breakfast without it, apparently.” I thought for a moment, put my hoof on the spoon, and tried to concentrate and wish it to stick to my hoof. Then I lifted it.

I’m not sure if I was surprised when the spoon stayed exactly where it was on the table, but I sure was disappointed. “Well, that didn’t work.” I tried once more, imagining some force to push the spoon towards my hoof. “Maybe my horn will do the job?” I stared at the spoon for a good half a minute, but it didn’t budge.

“Either my magic is too weak after whatever put me here, or I’m not doing it right. Or both.” I turned to look at the nurse. Her face looked sad and... Apologetic? I raised a brow at that. She smiled a little and shook her head. I turned back to my plate.

“Well, that’s a bummer. Looks like I have no choice.” I dipped my muzzle into the plate and started eating. The nurse snorted.

The breakfast experience put a little damper on my mood. I was pretty sure I’d be able to use magic eventually, but not being able to do it now wasn’t very encouraging, especially since it turned out that without it I can only grab things with my mouth.

Still, I needed to stay positive! And I had other things to do, like learning the local language.

Later in the day, the nurse came to remove my bandages. As she started uncovering my body, I was in for quire a shock.

“Oh sweet heavens!” My eyes probably were as big as dinner plates, and I could hardly think any more. My whole body was covered in huge scars. One especially scary looking was running through my whole left side, almost from neck to hind leg!

As the initial shock wore off slightly, I added, “Those ponies are resilient lot.” I stood there in silence, and my brain started working again after a little bit.

“I guess most of those healed while I was still out. These bandages hardly have anything on them, and I was wearing them since the moment I first woke up. How did I even get all those scars?” I quickly decided not to dwell on the subject, lest it gave me nightmares.

Soon enough, the unicorn doctor arrived, and ran a few more tingling scanning spells through my body. He took some notes, exchanged a few words with the nurse, and then turned to me.

He sat down on the floor, and gestured to me, to do the same I suppose. Though some worry crept into my mind, I did as instructed. He closed his eyes and concentrated, his horn started glowing. I felt tingling again, mostly inside my head, and especially at my horn. A headache quickly started forming, and I shut my eyes. It was getting stronger by the moment. When I was almost ready to scream, though, the torment stopped, and only weak echoes of the headache were bouncing around my scull. I opened my eyes one by one to see the doctor, who was still sitting beside me. He was visibly panting and pressing a hoof into his forehead. The worried nurse was looking between us.

“Whatever he was trying to do, it gave him even worse headache than it did me. I wonder, what was he trying to do? Maybe he was trying to make my memory return?” I tried to remember what I was before becoming a pony... Blank. How did I get all the scars? Blank. “Well, it didn’t work if that’s the case.” Now that my headache was completely gone, I didn’t feel any different than before.

The doctor finally seemed to recover from his own headache, looked at me, and his horn started glowing again. I shut my eyes in preparation for another painful experience, but it never came. I cracked one eye open. The doctor was still sitting at the same spot, and now he was frowning. He turned towards the nurse, who asked him something. He shook his head, paused, and said a single word. Then he stood up and was taking notes again. The nurse sighed, but said nothing.

“I wonder what this was all about.” I sat there for a moment more. “In any case, it didn’t seem to work. No point in thinking about it now.”

When the doctor and the nurse were about to leave, I came after them. The nurse looked at me when the door refused to close behind her, and then continued on her way. I left the room and closed the door. No one tried to stop me when I went downstairs and left the building.

“I guess they cannot help me any more, and thus have no reason to hold me inside. Or maybe they just don’t expect me to get too far, they know that I don’t exactly have anywhere to go.” I stopped just outside the doors. “Well, I’m pretty sure Shy won’t mind me staying for a wile, but I’d have to find her place first. She comes in mornings, so I’d probably have to spend the night at the hospital and wait for her.”

It was a nice summer day outside. The sun was almost in zenith, bathing everything in its warm and bright glow. Feeling a fresh breeze and warmth of direct sunlight was a very welcome change from the hospital room, not that it was too bad back there.

I took a look around. The hospital, it seems, was on the edge of a small-ish town. It gave me an impression of a village, with its thatched roofs and mostly single- or two-story buildings, but it was far too large to call it a village. I started walking around the hospital building to see what was on the other side. As soon as I rounded the corner, my jaw threatened to fall off.

“Wow!” I’ve never seen anything like it. I think. “A giant castle built on a side of a mountain. It looks like something from a fairy tale!” I paused. “Not that magic felt particularly ‘realistic’ at first, or the ponies for that matter. Chances are, I live in a fairy tale now.” I stared at the castle some more while continuing to think. “Why am I so sure that things around me aren’t realistic? I don’t even remember anything to compare to!” Trying to figure it out started to make my head hurt, so I dropped that trail of thought.

I finished my lap around the hospital and sat down on the grass, thinking on what I should do next. In all likelihood, I had nothing to do till the night, so I could as well take a look around the town. With that settled, I enjoyed sitting in the sun for a bit more, picked a round slanted roof poking out from somewhere in the middle of the town as my destination, and started walking.

Very soon I came across the first ponies, who were going about their day. They were a friendly bunch, it seems. Most greeted me as I trotted by, waving their hooves and saying something with a smile, even though, I was pretty sure, none of them knew me. I smiled and waved my hoof in reply. One peculiar thing I noticed was that some of them seemed quite a bit more reluctant to greet me, maybe even scared a little. It probably was due to my scars, since those ponies seen my left side, where the big and scary scars were, while my right side was almost untouched in comparison.

It is worth a note how colorful these ponies are. I’d say unnaturally so, but hey, a few days ago I thought that speaking was unnatural for ponies. Many of them had multi-color manes and tails, stallions included. “I wonder if their hair grows like that, or if all of them are obsessed with dying it? I’d probably feel very uncomfortable if I was that colorful.” I turned my head back to look at my tail, which was plain black. “Good thing that my colors are tame like they are.”

I kept trotting along the street, greeting everyone and observing ponies around me. “Hmm. I think every single pony I’ve seen so far, from young to old, has some kind of mark on their flank. No wonder they are following me with such curious glances, I would stand out without one. I’m even tempted to think that they appear naturally. Everyone has them on the same spot, and they are simple enough designs, I cannot imagine that all of them are trying to show these off for their artistic value.”

Some sightseeing later, I’ve heard a shout from behind. I thought it was getting closer, and fast. “What the!” was all I blurted out as I turned and received a faceful of orange filly. We both were on the ground, and my head hurt. “Ow.” The filly recovered first. She hopped back on her scooter as I was still watching her from the ground. She said something, I hope it was an apology, and rode off, her little wings quickly propelling her forward.

“That was so un-fairy-tale-y it felt completely out of place. I’d even say it felt normal to me, if not for the fact that none of us got hurt from such a high speed collision. Those ponies must be half invincible or something.” As I got up, a thought finally caught up with me. “That orange filly had a blank flank, like me. Maybe some ponies don’t have those marks, after all. Or maybe it’s just little kids who don’t have them, wouldn’t that be funny!” I snorted at the idea. “I wonder if they see me as an overgrown kid?”

I continued my trek towards that tall round building I choose as my destination before, which now was fully visible at the end of the street. As I reached it, I found myself in a rather large square. The square was surrounded by a small brook on one side and houses on the others. There was a fountain with a rearing pony statue standing on top of it, which for some reason was pink. “I don’t think there is a viable statue material that is naturally that color. Why would they paint it, let alone pink?”

I came closer to the massive round building. “Huh, it looks impressive from up close. And it’s alone in the middle of the square. Must be the town hall.” I looked up. “It has a walkway around its roof. Maybe I could get up there and take a better look at the town from above.”

That plan was cut short when I noticed a blob of yellow and pink in my periphery vision. After I looked directly at it, I was sure it was Shy, who entered the square from the other side and was heading for one of the bridges across the brook. “Maybe later, I have more important things to do right now.”

Author's Note

Fun fact: As I was writing this chapter, I spent more time trying to figure out a semi-coherent layout of Ponyville, or at least of its main landmarks. And you know what? Screw the map!

The railroad is at different sides of town according to different people. There isn't Sugarcube Corner at all in the aerial shots from the intro. Hospital is never shown together with anything else. And what in Equestria could make somepony build the clock tower at the edge of the Everfree, almost next to Shy's cottage!?