I woke up long after Midnight this morning. I put on the razor bracelet before I left my room, for some reason, it just felt natural having the weapon on me. As I took the last step off the stairs, I realized that Midnight was making a dish for breakfast.
"Morning." she called to me. "How are you?"
I shrugged. "I'm good I guess, I see that you're making breakfast."
"Yeah, I'm not sure what to call it, but I've made it quite often and it's personally my favorite."
"What's in it?" I asked.
She giggled to herself. "Oh, a bit of this and a bit of that." She took out two plates and set them on the bar counter.
"Come on, tell me."
Midnight shook her head with a devious grin. "Try it for yourself." She extended her pristine wing and somehow slid it under a colander filled with various plants. She took it over to the plates and dumped a significant amount on each plate. Then she grabbed a spice bottle in her mouth and sprinkled some of the tiny red flakes on both meals, using significantly more on one than the other. "Just be careful, it's kinda spicy." She pushed the plate with less spice towards me. "I didn't put much on though in case you don't like spiciness."
I looked down at the mess of veggies. "So I can eat it now right?"
"Yup, dig in." Midnight said as she bit into her meal.
I bit into the first chunk of the meal that Midnight served me. It was surprisingly good, assuming she used every single spice that she had out set out on the table behind her. There were about twenty bottles, each of different colors. I had wolfed down almost the entire plate before I even realized it.
"You must be hungry." Midnight said.
I looked down, and there were maybe two bites left. "Yeah, must be." I smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of my head. "Hey, can I try some more of that last spice you added?"
"Uhh, sure." The pegasus grabbed the bottle and then she sprinkled some more of the flakes on the remaining scraps. "There, that should be half of what I'm eating." She turned to her fridge and started looking for something. I didn't wait and took a bite.
"AHHH, OW, WAH, MUH, BUH, HELP!" I shouted, tears almost instantly streaming down my face.
Midnight shook her head and poured some milk into a glass then pushed it to me before replacing the jug and shutting the fridge. "Drink it."
I chugged down the drink before I flopped onto the floor. "Oh my gosh, that feels so much better." I took a few deep breaths as I enjoyed the feeling of my mouth not melting. "Sweet relief." I wondered how any pony could possibly eat that. "And you said that's only half of your spice?"
"Yeah."
"How do you handle it?"
Midnight offered only a shrug. "Experience I guess."
"Are you sure it wasn't half of your entire meal in one bite?"
"Yup." to make a point, she dumped on significantly more of the red spice and took the last bite of my breakfast, a lot more than double. "See? easy."
I gawked at her, still lying on the floor. "That, that is so awesome."
"Thanks." she said before she finished her own plate. "So, anything you want to do today?"
"I was thinking that you'd pull another surprise."
She thought for a second. "Well, there is a spa in town, and I feel like a visit is long overdue."
"Oh, any idea for what I could do?"
Midnight was deep in thought when I asked, but the question snapped her back into reality. "Oh, umm. I don't know." She went over to her closet and took out two single saddle bags. She put one on and took the other over to me. "In here is eighty bits, go explore the town, do what you want."
I was astonished at her suggestion. "R-really? You're trusting me with that much money?"
"Psh, this town has a good economy, I'd be amazed if you spent more than twenty bits in a day." She helped me fasten the belt as she spoke.
"But, what if I get attacked again?"
She laughed. "Dude, I saw the way you fight, you'd win easily, especially now that you're armed with that razor claw thing. You're awesome!"
I blushed a bit at the compliments. "Aw, thanks."
"Now scram, I'll meet you back here at about four o' clock. There's a house key in the bag too in case you come in early."
"Ok, I guess I'll see you later then."
Midnight opened the door. "If you get hungry, most restaurants and cafes are that way a ways." she pointed down the street towards the fountain area. "See ya." she said before she began trotting the other way down. I stepped outside and made sure to lock the door, assuming Midnight wanted it locked as she mentioned the key.
I sat on the edge of the fountain, thinking about what to do. To help distract myself, I pulled a razor out of the bracelet and played with it to see how exactly they worked. I really could not explain it at all, and it made me wonder how much I really have forgotten. It took me about ten minutes to decide that I would look for a library and read about amnesia, and maybe check out the next book in the Daring Do series. Yup, I'll go find a library. I hopped off the fountain and headed down a random path, if I don't find one this way, at least I'll have explored more of the town. I had traveled for about four minutes by the time I reached the end of the road with no results, so I decided to turn around, and almost instantly ran into a pony.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you." I apologized quickly.
It was a lavender mare with both wings and a horn. "It's alright, I wasn't paying attention. I had my nose buried in a book." She laughed at herself awkwardly.
I shook my head. "No, no, it was my fault miss."
"Uh uh, it was completely my fault."
"Ok, I see what's happening, so let's just pretend it didn't happen, to avoid the infinite blame game." I suggested.
The mare nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me. By the way, my name is Twilight Sparkle." She held out a hoof for me to shake.
"I'm Cinder Blade." I responded as I took the shake. "Nice to meet you."
"The pleasure is mine."
I noticed that there was a book lying on the ground, probably the one she had mentioned reading. "I see you're reading a Daring Do book."
Twilight picked up the bundle of papers with her magic. "Oh, no, it's a fan fiction that my friend Rainbow Dash wrote that she wanted me to read. It's actually quite good considering how little time she has to actually write stuff."
"Oh, neat. You know, I met her the other day, only for a moment though, long story."
"I understand, I also assume you met Pinkie Pie, she works at Sugarcube Corner."
I looked at her quizzically. "Is she the really pink one that bolted the second she saw me?"
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Yeah, she has to tell every pony she knows whenever there's a new pony in town. Just a warning, there may or may not be a surprise party in your honor tomorrow night at Sugarcube Corner thrown by her."
"Thanks for the warning. Are they like, crazy parties?" I asked. "PInkie's I mean?"
"Ehh, not really, just a bunch of us standing around, talking."
"Riveting."
"Yeah."
There was a moment of awkward silence. "Well, you have a nice day. I need to explore the town and find a library."
"Wait!" she exclaimed. "That is such a coincidence! I own a library!"
"Really? That's awesome! Could you show me the way?"
"Of course. I'm always happy to let a new pony into the world of literary arts. Follow me." The alicorn lead me down a side road and took a few turns, eventually leading me to a giant tree house, but, the house was the tree, not hanging in the tree.
I stood in front of the door and looked up. "Awesome library."
"Thanks." she opened the door with her magic and lead me inside. "All the books you see are categorized by genre, fiction to the left, nonfiction to the right. Inside each section, they are sorted again alphabetically by story name. Normally it's author's second name then first, but I'm experimenting in order to find the easiest way to find any particular book. Feel free to read and borrow any book that you want, I just ask that you return any that you borrow within a month."
I nodded to her. "Thank you." I decided quickly to read up on amnesia and then take the next Daring Do book home. I wandered over to the nonfiction side then to the medical genre, mental health subgenre, and began looking in the A's. I found three books that seemed promising and pulled them off the shelf. I put them in the saddlebag to take them over to a nearby table to read them at, then read them one by one. There wasn't much info on it at all in all three books combined. They repeated each other and offered very minimal information. They only really listed different illnesses that had amnesia as a symptom, or medication that may cause it as a side effect. Although, I did find something I hadn't expected. One major cause is extreme and instantaneous pressure on the skull, such as a concussion, or whiplash. I figured that it could have been very likely that I was an athlete prior to my memory loss. No, I'm nowhere near fit enough for that. The last book, however, mentioned that it was not too rare that ponies with malicious intent would drug others to make them forget whatever they just did. I was confident that didn't happen to me, as besides my epic fighting skills, I'm not impressive in any way.
"Amnesia eh?" Twilight asked. She looked down at the page I was on as she set a glass of water down in front of me. "Any reason why?"
"Yeah. See, I lost my memory and I just wanted to see how I could have lost it."
Twilight gave me a concerned look. "Huh, you know, lately there have been more reports of amnesia all around Equestria." she grabbed a file folder off the top of the shelf, far out of reach of a non magical pony. It floated over to my table and opened itself to a news report from two weeks ago. "No pony knows why, but a large group of ponies just appeared with seemingly no memory of their past lives. Most of them have files showing their life, but they showed up in towns nowhere near their homes. The Equestrian military has worked endlessly since then, trying to find the answers, and they even got immense help from the Griffon military."
I quickly skimmed the article. "Weird. You think that I'm part of that group?"
"I dunno, maybe, but one thing is known, almost every single one of them showed extreme prowess in battle."
I slammed my hooves on the table. "Tell me everything known about the origin of this group!" Her last statement was the nail in the coffin, I was definitely part of this group.
"We know literally nothing besides the fact that they were scattered around the world, as far away from each other as they could be, why?"
"I am one of those ponies!"
"No way! Do you remember anything at all about your past, and where did you wake up?"
I shook my head. "I don't remember anything, but I did wake up in the fields just outside Ponyville."
"Interesting, then if I remember correctly, there are two more ponies in the same boat that we have no clue about." Twilight said. "You see, the ponies were, for the most part, dropped in a circular pattern around the outside of Equestria, and judging by the pattern, the military concluded that three more were unaccounted for."
"Weird." I took a sip from the glass of water Twilight gave me to wet my throat. "So uhh, do you know where Midnight snow lives?"
"Who?"
"Midnight Snow, she's a white pegasus with a light green mane and tail."
"Never heard of her."
"Well, she lives down the road by the fountain opposite Sugarcube Corner's. It's the first house with a window in the door."
Twilight nodded. "I see. Why are you telling me this now?"
"Just in case you got more information on the amnesia ponies, I'd greatly appreciate it if you told me right away. You see, I'm living with her for a while until I get my memory back, or some pony finds me and takes me back to my old life." I explained.
"Oh, so I assume that means you're leaving then right?"
"Yeah. I told Midnight I'd meet her back at her house in two hours, and I still want to get some town exploration in."
Twilight nodded understanding. "You want a book for the road?"
"Sure, do you have any of the Daring Do books?"
The alicorn laughed. "Of course I do, Rainbow Dash wouldn't let me run this library without all of them."
"Great." I ran over to the fiction side of the library and immediately looked for the books. There were a lot of books in the series sitting on the shelves. They didn't really have an order, so I picked up the first one that I haven't read. Daring Do and the Cult of Crystals. I put it into my saddlebag then went back to the table, Twilight had already put away the news file and all of the books. I drank the rest of my water before I left. "Thanks again Twilight." I called back to her as I left.
Twilight gave a friendly smile. "Bye Cinder!"
Truth be told, I didn't do much exploration of the town at all. I, more or less, just wandered straight back to Midnight's house to think about what I heard at Twiight's library. Could I really be one of those ponies, and why did this happen? No, no way, I couldn't be one of those ponies. The more I thought about it, the less sense it made. Twilight is probably just full of crap, or some conspiracy theorist. How would so many ponies just be spread around the world and lost most of their memories about their lives? It just isn't plausible. I needed to take my mind off this, so I took out my Daring Do book and opened it to the second chapter. I would go to the first chapter, but it's mainly a recap of what she does and Daring's recent adventures, boring stuff I already know. I'm really interested in what this book has in store. I got through about half of the book by the time Midnight returned.
"Oooh boy, that felt nice!" she exclaimed. "Nothing beats a good ol' spa day." She looked over at me, slumped on her couch with a book clutched in my hooves. "Hey Cinder, how was your day?" She asked as she dropped her saddlebag
I dropped the book onto my chest. "Really, really," I paused for emphasis. "REALLY, weird. I take it your spa trip was lovely."
"You know it! I feel so much better, all the stress, gone, it's like I'm a young mare again, well, younger." she said with a wink.
"I see." I picked up the book again and dogeared the page I was on. "So now what? It's only four after all."
Midnight shrugged. "I dunno. We could go out again."
"Two nights in a row?"
"Yeah, why not?"
"Come on, don't you think that's a bit, you know, much?"
This made her think a moment. "Maybe. But hey, what else are we supposed to do?"
"I dunno, get some take out, talk, whatever."
"Might as well go to bed early too. Come on, you're boring."
I acted truly offended. "Me? Boring? How dare you!"
"Hah, no but seriously, I'd be okay with that."
I got up and refastened the saddlebag, I never took it off, it just got a little loose. "Good, because I was going to do it anyways." I said, walking towards the door, pushing her out of my way. I opened the door and started walking towards the fountain.
I got about halfway there when Midnight fully realized it. "Wait!" she shouted as she ran to catch up to me. "You don't know any places for food!"
I held my response for her to get to me. "I'm sure I could find a place."
"Come on, you are not that good."
"Harsh."
Midnight rolled her eyes. "You know I'm right."
"I found the library without help, how hard could finding a take out place possibly be?"
"There's a library here in Ponyville?"
I looked at her, confused. "Uhh, yeah? It's like some giant tree library, most likely privately owned because I did see a kitchen through a doorway, but still. It's there, and you can't miss it."
"Guess I just haven't looked. Anyways, I'm assuming that you want to try some more exotic foods, right?"
I hadn't really thought about it, but that did sound neat. "Yeah, try some new things."
"Well," she pointed a hoof to the brick building that the mare from the other day smashed into. "Just on the other side of that place is a little stand with rare and uncommon fruits."
I took a moment to appreciate how fast the wall was repaired, and how well too. "Yeah, that sounds cool."
"Alright! I've always wanted to go there, but I never really got around to it." She led me around the building and up to the stand. There was a large array of foods that I have never heard nor seen before in my life, well, in my memory, but judging by Midnight's reaction, she hadn't either.
"Woah." Each fruit was labeled, but I couldn't help but ask the stallion behind the stand what a 'lingonberry' was.
The brown Earth pony pony pointed at the holly-like berries. "These," he began in a voice similar to mine. "are exotic berries found only in Peganavia. They are extremely similar to blackberries, except much more sweet, and their flavor can really only be described as red."
"Red flavor?"
He nodded his head. "It really is a unique flavor, and I just assume that if colors had a flavor, red would taste like lingonberry."
"Cool." I looked at the price. The berries were ten bits per pound. Decent price for exotic berries. I took a plastic bag and shoveled in some berries. Then I set the bag on a scale, there were four bits of berries in the bag. I payed the stallion before placing the small bag into my saddlebag. "Hey Midnight, what are you finding?" I asked her as she shook a fruit next to her ear.
"I don't know. But this says it's a carambola."
The stallion running the stand walked over to her. "Most ponies just call it a star fruit. It comes from the South Eastern end of the continent, far from any civilization, so they are extremely rare. It's taste is also pretty unique, though it can be described as a cross between an orange, eggplant, and papaya. I know they're pretty expensive, but they are really good."
Midnight glanced down at the sign. "No kidding, twelve bits per fruit." She paused for a moment, deep in thought. "Why the heck not?" She looked over at me. "Get over here."
"Uggh." I obeyed her command. She took out the satchel of bits and counted out 24 of them, then gave them to the stallion and put two fruit in my saddlebag before replacing the money.
"Just a word of advice," the stallion chimed in, "The entire fruit is edible, core, skin, all of it, but I suggest avoiding the skin, it's extremely waxy."
"Thanks for the warning." I said.
He nodded. "Anything to help my customers enjoy their fruit."
Although we had already racked up a significant bill, Midnight and I bought several more types of fruit, completely filling up my saddle bag, and nearly using up our entire bit reserve.
"Thank you sir." Midnight said to the stallion.
"Yeah, thanks." I said.
He shook is head. "No, thank you both. Best customers in at least a month!" He waved us goodbye as we started the short trek back to Midnight's house.
"How do you even prepare these?" Midnight asked me from the kitchen, where she had all of the fruit cut up or laid out on the freshly cleaned bar. "This was a bad idea."
I looked at her, eagerly awaiting her permission to eat. "Just serve them like this, you don't need to add spices or anything."
She gave me a funny look, like it was completely against all she stood for to serve plain fruit. "But that's boring!"
"Whatever you say." I snuck my nose over to a lingonberry and pulled it into my mouth with my tongue while Midnight was distracted. "Mmm, yeah. They're good the way they are."
The mare turned around instantly, her hoof in the air, clutching a spatula. "Did you steal a bite?" She asked, giving me an evil look.
"Maybe."
She dropped the spatula. "Well, I guess that's that then. I can't make a meal without knowing exactly how much of each ingredient I have."
"Well, I know I took one lingonberry, so, there."
"Oh, well, all of the recipes I had were reliant on having all of those."
"Dang. Well, guess we'll have to eat naked fruits!"
Midnight pouted her lips. "Yup, untouched, not spiced, regular, plain, fruit."
"Fruits." I corrected her.
"Fruit." she insisted.
"Fruits."
"Fruit."
"Fruits!"
"Fruit!"
"Fruits!"
"Fruit!"
"Whatever!" I took a slice of dragon fruit and popped it into my mouth. "Justh thar eathing." I said with a mouthful.
Midnight took a piece of skinless star fruit and took a bite out of it. "That IS good."
"Yeah." I ate a few slices of cantaloupe. "So, I'm not sure I asked yet, but how was the spa."
"It was nice, felt really good." She finished her star fruit before shooting me a question. "How was your trip to the library."
I rolled my eyes. "The librarian I swear is a nutcase."
"Why do you say that?"
I explained to Midnight everything I had read about amnesia and then about the whole stupid news article that Twilight told me about. She listened to every word of the story. We both managed to find good spots to eat some more fruit throughout the entirety of the retelling. When all was said and done, we ate all of the fruit and I had killed several hours. I didn't check exactly, but I assume it was around 5:15 when we got back, and it's 8:47 now, so at least three hours.
"So, you think that the news thing she read to you was wrong? Or some sort of conspiracy or something?" Midnight asked.
I shrugged. "Something like that, it's just too far fetched to be real."
"I dunno, I never met her, but I heard that she's a respectable scholar and one of the smartest ponies in all of Equestria, she wouldn't believe anything like that without some strong evidence."
"I just think she's full of it."
"But, it would certainly explain your fighting skills, and memory loss."
"Come on, don't tell me you're falling for it too."
Midnight gave me a concerned look. "If Twilight would tell you about it, she has a reason, and I'm going to stick to that."
"Whatever, I need to go to bed." I went up to my room and flopped down on the bed. "Could it be real?" I asked myself. "No, there's just so many things that make no sense." I pulled off the bracelet and tossed it onto the dresser before I rolled onto my back. "Ugggh." Maybe I just need some sleep? That would probably be a good way to clear my head. I shut my eyes and let out a long sigh. It took me a while to fall asleep with all of the thoughts bouncing around my head, but when I finally did, I had a very realistic dream that I only wish I could forget...