A Second Chance

I was awakened by the soft sounds of someone nearby humming; I opened my eyes and was greeted by the sight of the white and pink creature from earlier.

The creature’s horn lit up much like before and a bright light appeared from somewhere behind me, I moved my head to see there was small window on the wall just next to my bed and the light was the sunlight streaming in from the outside.

The creature must have noticed my movement as she turned to me and smiled “Well good morning there sleeping head” - the aura surrounding her horn once again appeared and a small metal tray hovered over to her side - “I got you some breakfast in case you were feeling hungry” she said as she lowered the tray to settle on top of a small bedside table.

I found that my mind was no longer on the verge of critical failure upon seeing these creatures anymore; I reasoned I must be getting somewhat used to them. I looked at the tray of food, it contained a small plate of fruit salad and a glass of what looked to be apple juice next to it. I became suddenly aware of how hungry I felt at the time, which my stomach then made clear to both of us that this was the case by letting out a loud rumbling sound.

The creature let out a small giggle “you’re welcome” she said as she turned away and started walking towards the door. She stopped halfway and turned her head to look at me once more “I’ll come check on you in a bit but if you need anything just press that little red button next to your bed” she said pointing at the wall to the right of my bed

“Th… thank you” I muttered quietly

“Not a problem” she smiled sweetly and continued walking towards the door.

I pushed myself up into a sitting position as leaning my back against the back of the bed for support and turned my head towards the tray of food, I reached out to grab it but stopped halfway as I stared down at my arms remember that they had changed to these hooved appendages.

‘How am I supposed to grab things with these’ I wondered as I bought the offending limbs in front of my eyes again. My eyes shifted between the limbs and the tray a plan of action slowing forming in my mind, the thought process helped along by another grumble from my stomach as if to say ‘Hurry the heck up’.

I shuffled over to the edge of the bed and slid the tray to the edge of the bedside table to the point that it was partly hanging over the edge where I placed one of my arms underneath it, lifted the tray slightly and placed my second arm underneath it…. Or well at least I tried to as I placed my ‘arms’ underneath the tray I tilted it too far causing the glass of juice to topple over which I jerked out of surprise in reaction to spilling the rest of the contents of the tray on the floor. I leaned over the edge of the bed staring at the mess on the floor with complete disappointment, which coupled nicely with another loud groan from my stomach.

‘How do these creatures function without hands’ I asked myself as I continued to stare down at the mess I had made.

I pushed myself back up into a sitting position now more hungry than ever and more than slightly ticked off that I had messed up so royally. To my right I heard the familiar click from earlier and the door once again slowly slid open and the pink and white creature re-entered the room. I turned to look at her as her eyes drifted down the tray of food now splattered on the ground.

She looked back up at me with a look of query “You know if you weren't hungry you could have just said” she said with a small chuckle

My cast my vision down “S.. sorry” I muttered

“Hey no worries, I’m sure it was just an accident” I looked back up at her “You still hungry?” she asked to which my stomach responded with an even larger rumble than earlier causing me to blush slightly and nod.

“No problem, give me a second I’m sure I can sort some more food out for ya” she said and she exited the room. I sat in silence for a few minutes until she returned to my room with another tray of food similar to the last one. The tray was levitated over and came to rest on my lap “There you go” she stated with a smile.

I stared down at the tray of food in silence for about a minute my hunger was telling me to chow down to which I would have been more than happy to oblige if not for one problem.

“Is everything okay?” piped up the creature obviously noticing I hadn't touched my food yet. I looked up at her with a confused look on my face and asked her the pressing question on my mind at the time.

“How do I use these?” I asked raising one of my arms up and pointing at it with the other one. She stared at me dumbfounded into silence for a few moments before she managed to speak up

“Wh… what do you mean?” she stuttered out

I looked down at my two ‘arms’ in front of me “Well… I don’t really know how to use these… hooves?” I said semi-questioningly looking at her for confirmation.

A look of concern quickly flashed on to her face and she took a few steps closer coming to stop just short of the bed “Do you mean you don’t remember anything?” she asked staring me in the eyes

I shook my head slowly “I have no idea how I ended up here… or much of anything from recently to be honest…” I trailed off as my eyes fell from my ‘arms’ back down to the bed in front of me “Last thing I remember was waking up to a perfectly normal day…. And I certainly wasn’t…. whatever I am now…” I said gesturing towards myself with my arms

“And no one else knows about this right?” she asked that look of concern still present

I shook my head

She muttered something under her breath which I didn’t manage to catch before speaking up once again. “I have to go sort something out, will you be okay on your own for a while”

I let out a small sigh “I… I spose so”

The creature took one more step forward “Hey… it will be okay, we will do whatever we can to help you” her look of concern melting away and giving way to a caring smile

I stared into her eyes for a few seconds before managing a small nod at which point she slowing turned around and exited the room closing the door with a soft click behind her.

I sat in dead silence as my brain whirred away trying to make sense of this entire situation.

‘How the heck did this happen, one minute I'm just your average human being then next thing I know I’m waking up as…. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT I AM NOW’

I sat staring at the wall opposite me for a few minutes trying to piece together all the bits of information when I was interrupted by a loud rumbling noise causing my eyes to fall to the tray of food still sitting in front of me reminding me that I still hadn’t eaten yet. It was now my problem from earlier arose once more, I still had no idea how to eat without hands.

I mentally sighed ‘I really don’t want to have to resort to eating straight off the tray like some kind of animal’ that thought bought my mind to a halt as I looked down at my new body before letting out a small chuckle to myself

“Maybe not the best choice of words” I muttered out loud, another loud rumble from my stomach made up my mind on the matter.

‘I spose it’s not like anyone can see me’ I thought to myself as I leant forward proceeding to devour the delicious tasting food face first, or at least I tried to as what I hadn’t accounted for was that my face was a little different in shape to what it was from last time I remember. I hadn’t taken much notice of it with the other creatures I had seen but they all had muzzles which stuck a short distance out of their faces and much like them so did I so my attempt to eat face first I ended up smacking my nose into the plate causing me to recoil back in surprise and raise my ‘arms’ up to the point of impact on my face.

I moved my arm along the contours of my new face only now getting a good idea of how different my face was to what I remember it being before this whole situation. I sat there for a few moments rubbing the point of impact; it hadn’t hurt so much as just given me a bit of a shock.

I turned to look back down at the tray of food ‘Okay, let’s try this again’ I thought leaning forward for a second attempt, now a slight bit more conscious of the general shape of my new face I found I was a little more successful at my task of eating this time around. The food was absolutely delicious; I instantly felt it begin to sate the gnawing hunger in my stomach.

After a few short minutes the plate was empty and I sat leant my back against the back of the bed once again.

‘It may not have been the prettiest way of doing it, but at least I got to eat’ I thought to myself as I heard the click of the door go off to my right, turning I saw the two creatures both enter into the room and walk up to the edge of my bed.

“Evening... Uhh… Brian was it?” Spoke up the green one to which I replied with a small nod “Excellent, I was just wondering if we could talk to you about something?”

“Sure” I muttered quietly

“Thank you, now from what I hear you are having a hard time remembering what has happened recently”

I gave another nod in reply

“What can you tell me about what the last thing you remember is?” he queried

I scrunched one eye shut trying to think back “Hmm… well… I remember waking up… and that’s about it, it’s pretty much just a blur after that” I said turning back to the green creature “Next thing I know I was waking up here in a completely different body to what I had before this”

The creature looked at me with a confused look “What do you mean by that?” he asked

I pointed back at myself “This, all of this… this isn't me… or at least it wasn't before this”

The two creatures exchanged a look of absolute confusion before the white one turned back and asked “So you have no memory of being a pony?”

‘A pony? Well I suppose that kind of makes sense’

“Uh… no… before waking up here I was a human”

Dead silence fell over the room as the two creatures looked at me like I was crazy. After a few moments the silence was interrupted by the click of the door as both myself and the two creatures paused and turned to look at the door as a third creature entered the room. This creature was mostly grey in colour with hair and tail that was a slightly lighter shade of grey, I noticed something different about this creature compared to the other two in the fact that this one did not have a horn on top of his head but instead he had a set of small wings tucked onto each side of his body.

“Sorry to interrupt, just finished checking those scans you wanted me to Doc” he said as he walked over to stand in front of the other two creatures.

The green creature turned to look at the new entrant “Ah excellent timing Specs, this is here is… Brian” he said putting extra emphasis on my name which confused me “What can you tell me then?”

“Well they look perfectly fine to me, as far as I can tell there was no damage incurred before or during the operation”

The green creature turned back to look at me, a frown present on his face

“Is that not good news doc?” asked the grey creature

“Maybe not in this case” he looked up into my eyes “Brian this here is Specs, he is our brain specialist within the hospital, when you mentioned to Cross that you were having memory problems I asked Specs to have a look and see if you had incurred any brain trauma during or before the operation… luckily enough he has confirmed that this is not the case”

‘Cross’ I guessed was the white and pink creature as my eyes shifted to meet hers. My brain was whirring away trying to make sense of what I had just been told.

“But…. Why are my memories all out of whack then?” I asked looking towards Specs

“I truthfully can’t tell you, sorry” I frowned as my eyes fell from his.

“Hey, remember what I said earlier” - I heard the voice of the white creature chime in, I looked back up as she put her hoof onto the edge of the bed and her caring smile from before had returned - “We are going to do everything in our power to help you”

I nodded “Thank you” I muttered quietly

The pink creature let out a small sigh, “We gonna give you some alone time now okay, if you need anything at all just ring that little button next to your bed there” – she said pointing at a small red button to the right of my bed on the wall – “and I’ll come running” she finished with a smile

I gave a nod and all three of the creatures began filing out of the room. Shortly after the door had closed with another click I let out a large yawn which quickly bought to my attention how tired I was despite having done nothing much but sit in bed all day. I lay down on my side once more and closed my eyes as sleep caught me within minutes and I drifted off.

************

I found myself standing alone in a small room; all of the walls of the room were a stark white as well as the roof. I performed a small twirl looking for some kind of exit out of the room which I found that to the best of my knowledge no such exit existed. As I came to a stop in the position I found myself originally I looked at the wall opposite me to find that a large mirror was sitting on the wall.

‘How did I not notice that before’ I thought to myself as I proceeded to walk up to the mirror. I stood in front of the mirror in silence for a few minutes trying to make sense of what I was seeing; the reflection in the mirror was that of the dark blue pony I had recently become very familiar with. I looked down at myself confirming what I had thought that I was my original human self, but looking back at the mirror the pony was still present, staring back at me. I took a step towards the mirror and as one would expect with a mirror the reflection did the same.

‘What the heck is going on, that’s not my reflection yet it does everything I do’ I thought as I continued to slowly walk towards the mirror until I was brought to a halt right in front of the object in question. I stood there for a few moments locked eye to eye with the reflection before I felt my hand begin to extend out towards the mirror and the pony reflection repeated the action with his corresponding hoof.

My hand made contact with the mirror at the same point that the pony’s hoof did and for a moment a silence befell the room around myself as if time itself stood still before the mirror shattered into tiny pieces causing me to recoil and close my eyes in surprise.

After a few seconds I opened my eyes once again to see that the pony from the mirror was standing in the same place he was when the mirror was there.

I looked down at him in surprise “Who are you?” I asked

The pony met my gaze and replied back in a voice identical to my own “Haven't you figured it out... I’m you”

I woke up in a cold sweat, bursting into a seated position. I was back in the hospital, the room was dark and no one else was around so I guessed it must still be late at night. Information was rushing through my head at a million miles, images and memories of a different life flickered through my mind. Images and memories were flicking through my head at a million miles an hour, I put a hoof to my forehead and clenched my eyes shut as I felt an immense pain begin pulsing through my head.

The thundering in my head continued to worsen as more and more of these memories came back to me all at once, this continued for a few moments longer until I could bear it no longer and darkness closed in on me from all sides and I blacked out.

************

I felt the soft warmth of sunlight beam down across my face as I slowly began to come back to the realm of consciousness once again, letting out a small yawn I slowly began to open my eyes. Standing a short distance away from me was the familiar white and pink form of Cross, a small clipboard levitated in front of her as a feather quill scribbled away at something on the board. Her eyes left the clipboard and turned to look down at me.

“Oh Brian you're awake, thank Celestia I'm glad you’re alright” she said

“Why wouldn't….” I trailed off as a memory of what happened last night with the dream and the event afterwards came to the forefront of my mind

“The night nurse heard a bang coming from your room and rushed in to find you unconscious on the floor in a tangle of blankets”

Everything was coming back to me now, the dream….. the memories…

“What happened?” queried Cross

“I… I’m not really too certain” I muttered “but… I remember…”

“Remember? Remember what?”

I pushed myself up into a sitting position “Everything” I muttered quietly

“Do you mean your memories have returned?”

I gently closed my eyes “My name is Swift Flight, twenty one years of age, currently residing in Canterlot member of Princess Twilight’s personal guard, joined the royal guard at seventeen, hand-picked by the captain as a member of Princess Twilight’s guard…” I opened my eyes once again turned to look at Cross

“Yes… everything… but…” I trailed off once more

“But…” Cross gestured with her hoof for me to continue

“Ugh… it’s hard to explain… at the same time I still have all my memories of my human life as Brian”

Cross stared at me with a confused look

‘Yea that’s about how I feel right now’ I thought to myself. We sat in silence for a few moments before cross spoke up once more

“Do you mind if we tell Doc about this?”

I gave her a small nod “It’s probably for the best” I mumbled. Cross turned and swiftly exited the room without another word

I my eyes drifted down to the two hooves resting on my lap ‘How did this happen’ I thought to myself ‘I don’t even know who I was…. was I originally really Brian, or Swift…’ I sat in silence trying to sort out the flurry of thoughts in my head and before long the door clicked open and Cross entered once again followed closely by Doc and Specs

“But that shouldn't be possible...” spoke up the voice of Specs as they entered the room

“Well we will just have to find out wont we” replied Doc in an impatient manner before turning to face me “Evening Brian, I hear you had an interesting night”

I gave a weak smile “that’s an understatement”

“Cross tells us your memories have come back… with a little bit extra?” chimed in Specs in a questioning manner

I nodded “I remember just about everything… from both my human life and my pony life, although I still not entirely certain how I ended up in hospital”

Specs looked completely lost in thought for a few moments before speaking up again “Will you three excuse me there is something I have to look into”

Doc turned and gave him a small nod before he turned and departed back out the door once more. Turning back to me Doc’s horn lit up with a light green aura and a the small clipboard and quill from earlier flew out and came to a halt in front of him

“Now… what can you tell me about what happened last night?”

I proceeded to tell them about the dream; which strangely enough I could remember perfectly, waking up, experiencing a lifetime of memories crashing into my head at once which was followed swiftly by me fainting to wake up once more just a few moments ago. The entire time the quill which Doc held in his magic scribbled away at the clipboard making notes of just about everything I said.

“and then I woke up to the sight of Cross” I finished with a small smile in her direction

The quill came to a halt and the clipboard was lowered down and out of sight. A silence fell over the room as the two other occupants digested the information I had just fed them. After a few moments the silence was broken by Cross

“Well this is very….. Unique” she said her confused look representing how I imagine everyone in the room felt at the time

Doc gave a small nod “Quite, never have I heard of someone having two sets of memories from different lives”

“So…” – Cross looked up at me – “If you have both sets of memories… who are you… Brian or Swift?”

“I… I don't know… I guess… neither but both” I said, to which Cross replied with a deadpan look “I guess that doesn't really help… umm... it’s hard to explain, I can't just be Brian cause part of me says that’s wrong and vice versa for Swift...” I trailed off

The room around us began to darken slightly which prompted all of us to look up at the nearby window. The sun had begun to set once again I watched for a few moments as it slowly began its descent over the horizon

“Looks like we have lost track of time with all the excitement” said Doc with a small chuckle

Cross Turned to face Doc “Yea, we should probably head off before it gets late” she looked back at me “Are you gonna be okay?”

“I should be fine no…” I trailed off as I was interrupted by  loud rumble coming from my stomach “actually…”

Cross giggled “ I'll sort something out for you” she said as both her and Doc departed the room closing the door with a click

I leant my back against the backdrop of the bed and closed my eyes just to enjoy the peace and quiet for a little while and mull over everything that had happened

‘Let’s take stock, strange dream, memories of two different lives… still don’t know how I ended up here… hmm maybe I can ask Cross about it’ I thought to myself. I sat in silence for a few minutes before I heard to door open again, I turned expecting to see Cross but instead was met with the sight of a completely new pony

This pony was a light blue in colour and had a long white mane and tail, she was slightly smaller than that of any of the other ponies I had seen previously and like Doc and Cross she had a small horn on her head which was currently surrounded by a light blue aura as a tray of food was levitating behind her surrounded in a similar aura.

She looked up at me “Oh… uh… h…hello there” she said sounding more than a little nervous

“Heya” I replied offering a smile to try and relax the situation a bit

“Cr...Cross asked me to organise some food for you, an emergency c… came up which she had to attend to” she managed to stutter out as she magically delivered the tray of food to the bedside table

“Emergency?” I queried reaching over to place my hooves on each side of the tray of food “That doesn’t sound too good, is everything okay?”

“Oh… umm… I’m not sure on the details… but I’m sure the doctors can handle it” she said giving her best attempt at a reassuring smile

“I guess you’re right, well thank you for the food” I said having now managed to manoeuvre the tray of food onto my lap

“No problem, do you need anything else?” she asked sounding a little more confident than a few moments ago

“No, I think I’m fine for now”

She gave a small nod and turned to hurry out the door, closing it with a click behind her. I turned back to the task at hand… or hoof… whatever… satisfying the rumbling in my stomach. Courtesy of the memories of Swift eating was a much simpler ordeal than it had been previously and the polished off the tray in a matter of minutes.

I let out a small chuckle ‘It’s funny how much things have changed in just a day… all this pony stuff just seems natural now… but at the same time so foreign’ I thought as I placed the tray back down on the bedside table with ease ‘In less than a day I’ve gone from being almost incapable of using this body to having no problems what so ever…' I mentally trailed off as I moved a hoof up to eye level to contemplate everything that has happened recently.

I felt myself let out a small yawn as my eyes shifted to the window once more, the sun was just finishing its descent over the horizon. I lay down on my side and gently closed my eyes ‘No more crazy dreams tonight’ I mentally pleaded with myself as the clutches of sleep caught up with me and I drifted off for the night.