The Everfree River, which originates from the similarly named forest, runs straight through the city of Canterlot before heading into the neighboring sea. There are several smaller and bigger bridges that enable traffic over the natural blockage, simultaniously creating some very beautiful scenery, both from the bridges and with the bridges. Partially because of this, the city was always trying to keep the river clean and undisturbed. And they were mostly successful, except sometimes when people lost the grip on their things. And then there were the odd little occasions, where unusual or mysterious things fell into the water.

In the midst of winter, deep down on the ground of the freezing cold river, one of these unusual oddities began to drift up again. Small fish scurried away, as little rocks and dirt were flung up from the spot they had laid down.

Up and up it drifted, carried along by the current. As it almost reached the waterline, it suddenly started to float to the right.

While the sun started to set on a cold Monday evening, a red figure was washed on one of the stone shores that lined the Everfree River.

A cold wind was blowing, whirling up the freshly fallen snow. The everpresent sounds of a city filled the air, cars driving and people making their way home from work. For them it was just a normal working-day.

On this particular spot however, near the Tumblewood park, a new sound filled the air, as slowly.

Gently.

The first breath of a new life was taken.

Thick grey smoke filled the air, joining the faint white clouds silently dissipating into the cold. Both originated from a trio of young people, who were leaning or outright lying on a deep red truck and smoking cigarettes. It was getting late, yet none of them seemed to care too much, instead they were talking about anything that came to their mind.

"Yo, Ice Rain! My brother wanted me to ask you for the number of that chick that works at your dad’s mechanic shop. Y’know, the one with the longass hair?“

Ice Rain, a young man of steel-grey skin and with ice-blue hair, lazily lifted his head from the front glass of his vehicle. "Sky, let me be real here. Even if I knew her full name, number or what-ever! My pops would most likely snap my neck when he finds out. The two have some sort of thing going on, I don’t know.“

This earned him a sulking Sky Buster, with his deep yellow pony tail and orange skin, as well as a snicker from the third of the group.

"I thought your old man was already married for forty-somewhat years? And now he’s going for someone a four-“ Ivory Gust tried to say, as a fresh windblow carried even more snow into the air, ruffling his styled orange hair that clashed horribly with his dark greyish skin.

"Gust, finish that sentence and I will throw you into the river myself! And for your information, my father never betrayed my mother! As for his friend!“ Ice Rain gave an annoyed sigh and took anothe pull of his cigarette before continuing. "I swear, there is some kind of bond between them. He talks to her with a familarity that you just don’t get with being simple co-workers or friends. He always calls her pevun’ya, and he never tells us any details when we ask him about her. Instead he leads the conversation into another direction or acts like he didn’t hear us. I don't know, it is just strange.“

"Maybe he is just getting too old to remember everything, gets her mixed up with somebody else. Or he really has a thing goin-“

"Gust, last warning!“

For the three youngsters, the sounds of the surrounding city had become distant white noise long ago, including the rushing sounds of the nearby Everfree River. And so wrapped up in their scuffle they were, their attention of the city around them had already waned significantly.

That was why they didn’t spot the figure approaching them until it was almost next to them.

Sky Buster was the first who saw it, and when the others noticed his wide eyes they turned to see what their friend was looking at. Once they did, similar expressions of disbelief and surprise adorned their faces, as they laid their eyes on it. Or rather, on her.

Before them was a young woman, of eighteen years by the looks of it. She seemed uncaring of the snow and the cold wind around her, even though she was completely naked. Her skin was of a rich cardinal red and glistened in the last rays of the sun, as little droplets of water made their way towards the ground. Her hair was a deep crimson, with a few strands of yellow running through it. It would look similar to a flame, if it wouldn't cling to her head from all the water. Her eyes were a bright cyan, although at the moment they seemed unfocused, clouded and confused. She looked like she had woken up just seconds ago, still sleepy and not fully functional.

All three boys stared at her, mouths and eyes wide open, as she made one wobbly step after another.

"U-uuuhm… e-excuse me? Where… could you t-tell me… where am I?“ Just like her body, her voice was also unfocused and shaky, not directed at anyone in particular. Still, it managed to get the youngsters out of their shock.

"What’s your name?“ came the blurted response from Ivory Gust. However, this seemed to cause the girl even more confusion.

"M-my… name? I… think… n-noo… W-where are we a-gain?“

Sky Buster shot Gust an annoyed look. „Ahm, Miss, are okay? It is literally freezing out here.“ he asked with a slightly worried expression.

The girl took another weak step foward and reached to steady herself on the truck. She looked to her hand and then towards the ground, as if she only now noticed the cold snow around her bare feet. She frowned and looked back up at Sky, even though her eyes looked right beside him.

"Uh… no? I t-think?... who... am I, again?“

This earned her a trio of worried looks, looks that were then shared with each other before Ice Rain jumped down from the hood of his car.

Taking of his coat, he hung the fabric around the girls shoulders for good measure and tried to lead her towards the backseat. "Come on, we will bring you to a warmer place, okay? Sky, open the back door!“

No resistance of any kind was put up, only a few nods as her eyes became even more distant and unfocused. Ice helped her into the right backseat and buckled her up.

He may had stolen a few looks at her while being this close, even though he had tried his hardest to NOT look, but before short it was done and he closed the door to deny the cold wind inside the car.

"Soooo, what now?“ Sky asked as soon as the door closed. Gust wanted to say something, quite possibly some bad joke, but he decided against it and remained silent.

Ice Rain scratched the back of his head. "Well, my dad’s shop is not far from here. I’d say we drive to there. My Mother knows how to deal with hypothermia, and it’s closer than the next hospital.

"Sounds good to me, I’ll sit in the back.“ Ivory Gust said, but as he laid a hand on the backseat door Sky held him back.

"No offense dude, but I think you should sit in the front.“

"Ugh… why?“

"Because I already have a girlfriend and therefore I am restricted. Neither of those qualities apply to you.“ Sky then walked to the other side of the car and entered the back. Gust just grumbled a bit before entering on the passenger seat, while Ice rain climbed into the driver seat. Once everyone was inside, Ice turned to look at their new passenger only to find that she was asleep. Despite himself, Sky Buster tentatively reached out and touched her arm with his hand, only to frown in surprise.

He turned to his friends and said: “I’m no biologist, but shouldn’t she be rather cooled after being outside, with like, nothing? ‘Cause she feels rather warm to the touch.“

Ice Rain shook his head and started the motor, whispering to himself: “Mother will know, she lived in Russiamane, she will know.“

Steel Rain gave a last wave, as his latest customer left the shop, and breathed a sigh of relief. It was not that he didn’t enjoy his work here, quite the opposite. But he was getting rather old now and every completed task, customer and ultimately every day filled him with exhaustion and satisfaction alike. Nobody else was in the store’s main front with him, so he could lean back and take in his life’s work.

Well, half of his life’s work, the other half was slowly rosting on a filled parkspace somewhere outside the city.

Nethertheless, The Red Star Mechanic was his full pride. The main room of the store was decorated to be welcoming, with benches and stools next to several cabinets for tools and other mechanical necessities. Pictures of several different vehicles, from small cars to vans to trucks and many more, lined two out of four walls. While the front was almost completely made out of glass, the back sported three different doors with one bigger than the others. In between them hung old images, almost antic automobiles in most of them. The counter had a metal monstrosity afixed to it, for everyone to see.

It was a rather big red star, its lower half covered by a thick green metal plate that had been literally bolted to it. Someone had welded the name of the shop into it, alongside a couple swirly underlines to make it look nicer.

The thing wasn‘t beautiful, but it had grown on Steel, and now it proudly adorned the counter. Of course, it was poking at his history rather unsubtly, but by now it didn’t matter that much anymore. He took it with humor, he always had, after all it hadn't been made with malicious intent.

Steel Rain quietly chuckled to himself as he got up from his chair and made his way through the big double doors on the right side of the counter, right into the actual heart of his dream. The mechanic bay.

Only one person was currently at work, even though a total of four others were under his constant employee. But it was late in the day, his workforce was at home, and there wouldn’t be anything the two of them couldn’t handle.

He had to search for a moment, but finally he made out her location, right under a deep blue SUV with only her worn combat boots peeking out. She was hard at work as usual, if the sounds were any evidence.

"Ah, pevun’ya. Still trying to fix it? That must be odin ad of a fuel leak, you’ve been at it the whole day.“

There was no real response to it, only a slightly agitated grunt. But this was pretty normal, he talked, she listened, often while working on something.

Steel Rain pulled a chair from a nearby workbench at sat down.

"My knees are not what they once were I’m afraid, don’t know how long I will still be able to run this shop.“ He sighed again, but still kept his satisfied smile on his lipps. “Got a message from my little Icebell today, she is doing great. Soon, very soon, she can take over and care for this pile of metal and memories.“ Before he could change the subject however, Steel could hear the familiar sound of his son’s own engine driving into the yard just behind the shop.

"Finally. Ah pevun’ya, he is back. Sometimes I wish lil' Rain was still this young little boy. But, time cannot be turned back, and it is not like he isn’t doing anything with his own life. He has great promise, and he is pursuing his own dreams, I guess.“

The one-sided conversation was broken as a muffled voice came out from under the SUV. “When are you finally gonna drop the title, old man?“ it asked, although amusement was clearly hearable underneath the serious tone.

Steel gave a good-hearted chuckle and stood up again. “I am afraid you’ll have to wait until I die for that, pesnya ptitsa nochi. Now then, I have to go and check up on him.“

"Da, da. I’m almost finished here.“ came the response.

Just as Steel Rain made his way towards the cortyard, he could make out the very distinct voice of his wife, talking in a rather loud manner.

When the door of the box opened and the three helped her out, she could get a nice look of a part of the surroundings.

It was some sort of yard, open to where they had come from, beset by three sides with mountains.

Three very-likely-doors like with the moving box of different size and colour let to…

…somewhere.

Hehe, three three three.

One grey and tough-looking in the middle, to the right a big-maybe-door with overlapping bars yet no stuff-to-open-it and a green door to the left.

This one was also more decorated and had see-through surfaces with things holding more white beside it.

There was also white everywhere she could stand.

It still felt so funny.

The three were talking with eachother, discussing something.

She knew that she should listen…

…but concentrating for it was too tiring. Instead she let her eyes drift again, that was easier.

Suddenly a strong voice rang across the courtyard, making everyone but her jump.

"ICE RAIN! WHAT IS GOING ON?!“

The person who likely owned the voice was an Older of light blue colouration, the hair a mix of cyan and silvery grey and very energetic.

Also the Older was talking funny, although she couldn’t think of why…

…where was she again?

"Calm down, Ma we f-“

"Why are you just standing there!“ the Older yelled at the three, waving her hands towards the pretty left door. “Get her inside! Next to the fireplace, the poor dear must be freezing!“

“That was why we came here-“

“Actually, I don’t think she is freezing at all, she-“

“Yes, ma’am! Right away ma’a-“

“DON’T TALK, DURAKS! PODVIN’ETO! PODVIN’ETO!“ All three hurriedly tried to help her to get… somewhere. She only knew what was spoken because it was so loud. And short.

They all moved and moved, then they seemed to decide on something.

Two of the three each had one of her arms over them and pretty much carried her towards the left.

She didn’t know what the third did.

The Older rushed back through the pretty door, mumbling stuff she didn’t understand.

From behind she could vagely hear a new voice saying something.

“Ahm, lyubimyy? What is going on?“

Everything was so much clearer.

She could follow their voices now, without her attention leaving after ten seconds. Also her body was now tingling like crazy. It felt like she was burning, a bit atleast. The three boys were talking to the two older persons. A man and a woman, they seemed to be the same age.

A family perhaps?

The old man had a similar skin colour to one of the boys, as well as very nice silver hair, so maybe they were related.

Their conversation was very animated, but it had toned down in intensity now. She knew it was about her, about what had transpired mere moments ago. Her own memories of it were foggy and uncertain at best, but hearing it helped somehow. She could hold on to pictures and spoken voices in her mind, without feeling them slipping away. Next to that however…

Nothing.

Just nothing.

A black void.

A… little girl?

She shook her head a bit.

No, this was real, there was a little girl peeking at her over the arm of the sofa she was currently lying on. This sudden attention made her feel self-conscious for some reason.

Weird. Literally as long as she could remember, they had all stared at her. Was it because she thought more now? Nevertheless, she tried to sit up in her roll of blankets. It kinda worked.

As she settled on the arm of her side of the sofa, tuning out the conversation coming from the white tiled room without door, she stared right back at the girl.

The girl had hair of gleaming silver, with brilliant streaks of white that were almost sparkling. Or maybe they were sparkling, she could not be sure. Underneath the mysterious hair was pink skin, and big eyes that were only the faintest of blue. Still they were sharp and clear and they held bare curiosity.

She smiled and tried to give a small wave, before being reminded that her entire body was immobilized and stuck in several layers of cloth.

The little girl gave a toothy smile still, wether she recognized the attempted gesture or not and continued to gave curious looks while voices droned on in the background.

"I’m Snowflake. What’s your name?“ the girl finally asked her.

Again, this simple question threw her mind in confusion. What was her name? Where was she from? Why was she here?

What even WAS here?

So, she could not properly respond, instead she just shrugged her shoulders and opened her mouth to speak.

"I don’t know.“ Her voice was a bit rough and hoarse, very likely because she hadn’t used it much. Not like she would know how long it had been.

Snowflake tilted her head in a question of her own, looking like she was thinking about what had been just said. Then she seemed to achieve a conclusion.

"You’re pretty.“

Now it was her turn to tilt her head in question. "P-pretty? Uhm, thank you I guess.“

The little girl nodded vehemently. "I really like your hair!“ she said with a big genuine smile.

A smile that slowly furrowed into a frown as she tried to turn her head to look at her own hair, a task that seemed to earn her little success as most of it was held back by cloth drained in warm water. This went on for a few moments before Snowflake had enough and ran upstairs, telling her that she would get a mirror.

She looked after the girl in confusion, but also in amusement that someone was so adament to explain her own point. But now she had nothing to concentrate on.

Lucky for her, the door to the courtyard opened and a new person stepped in. It was a young woman, very likely a worker of some kind since her clothes were seemed used and dirty. Also, she was currently cleaning her hands of something very dark with a towl, which was already stained by a lot of differently coloured stuff.

The newcomer let her eyes wander over the entire room, saw the descussing family and settled on the sofa containing her. One eye-brow was raised, while the hands finished their cleaning and threw the towel into the sink with perfect accuracy.

Her entrance did not go unnoticed.

„Ah! Pevun’ya, you’re finished then, I assume?“ The older man said happily, breaking away from the group and walking over to them.

"Da, it should be good now. Although I do now wonder what has happpened here, one can hear you through the entire yard.“

By now, the conversation had already entirely stopped. While the three youngsters were standing in various states of nervousness, the woman stepped to the sofa.

„Our son and his friends brought her in some ten minutes ago. Said they found her in a park and decided to bring her here.“ she said.

By now Snowflake was coming down the stairs again, a small pink mirror clutched in her hand. She quickly made her way towards her target, hopped onto the sofa and held the item right in front of her.

"See?!“ she almost sqeaked in excitement.

While she was looking at herself for the first time, atleast as she knew, Snowflake felt a hand ruffling through her silver-white hair, only now noticing that she wasn’t alone on the coach, with the wrapped up mystery. "Hey there Snowy, how’s it going? You already made friends with her?“

"Mhm!“

Meanwhile the older pair just enjoyed the exchange before them with smiles on their faces. That was until the younger woman noticed her trying to move her arms under the blankets again and swiftly moved to unwrapp her left arm. Before anything was said, her right arm was finally freed, reaching towards the mirror held by Snowflake, while exposing her bare red shoulder.

This gave the other woman a small pause. After scanning the room for idle clothing, she settled her eyes onto the trio with a very knowing and very disapproving glare. A glare that felt for them like if the room had suddenly got colder.

"I think we should give you ladies some room.“ The old man said, making a forceful gesture towards the trio, telling them to follow him outside again. And they all followed with little word of resistance, leaving only the female occupants in the room.

Yet, the older woman still hesitated and turned towards the little girl. "Snowflake, would you be a dear and get some warm clothes out of your sisters closet?“ she said.

"Okay!“ came the enthusiastic response, and soon only three people remained.

"Is something wrong here? You wouldn’t have sent Snowflake away otherwise.“ The younger one asked, her arms crossed before her chest.

In only a few words she was then filled in with everything. A girl had been found naked and without memory in the park. They had brought her here and she was warming up, yet with no knowledge about anything.

"I thoroughly checked her already, no sign of frostbite on any spot on her body, which is good. But hypothermia, that is still not out of the question for her. Like I said, she suffers from memory loss and has shown general coordination problems. Yet my son’s friends told me that she was very warm when they brought her here and that she seemed unaffected and even unaware by the cold and the snow. She also doesn’t seem to feel numb and her pulse is completely fine.“

"And what do you plan to do now?“

The woman sighed. “Bring her to a hospital and get her checked properly, after that I don’t know what we could do.“

As soon as Snowflake came back down with a stack of various clothing, they all prepared for soon depature. Dressing here was done by the newcomer, while Snowflake was brought out of the room by her mother, whose name seemed to be Blizzard Storm.

After she was finally dressed, the other woman simply carried her back into the courtyard, where the box was ready to carry them again.

She was put into the back row again, although now she could take in all the details she had missed on her first time. The old man and one of the trio were already in the front, she vaguely remembered the young one being in the same position last time. Only now she could really take in the similar colours and overall looks of the two.

Definitely family.

Then the box began to move again, out of the courtyard and to somewhere she didn’t know yet.

Sky Buster carefully made his way towards the mechanic bay, repeating his mission again and again. When he entered it, he immediately saw his target. She was prepping her bike, already wearing her helmet and a black leather jacktet. The front gate was slowly opening, clearing the way towards the streets.

Sky took another breath. This was for his brother, no matter how akward he was or how indecisive and cowardly he could be.

"H-hey… My brother saw you last week in that restaurant, and he would like-“

"No.“

"What?“

"Not interested.“

"But-“

"Trust me, no.“

"I-“

"And don’t use the ‘brother‘ excuse for this kind of shit.“

"I didn’t-“

"Don’t care. Don’t want to.“

"Please-“

"Try your luck with other girls.“

"I do-“

"Bye!“

With that, the motor engine roared loud out and the bike sped onto the streets, leaving a dumbfounded Sky Buster behind as the front gate already descended again.

"But I already have a girlfriend…“

Author's Note

Wanted to try and have a sort of proggressive writing from the perspective of the red girl. At first, everything is very short and basic, things like windows or buildings are not fully realized and so on; the goal is to kinda show how her mind slowly settles down and basic knowledge and functions return to proper capacity. So with proggressing time, paragraphs from her perspective would become more and more normal in description and choice of words.
Did it work?

Now, it is really starting. Away from sadness, for the time being, and on with the main story. Hope you enjoyed it and are interested in the next steps.

If you find any mistakes or have any adivce, please feel free the voice that down below.
Keep safe in these chaotic times.

Well, see you here in two weeks or so. Or maybe somewhere else on this side.

Toodles