The Filly Without a Name

by Scribble Script

Prologue - Part 1

Prologue
-
Part 1

A painful tearing pain behind the forehead ripped her out of the merciful gloom of unconsciousness. Slowly, painful slowly, her mind followed up.

Where am I? This question oozed through the red mist in her head. She casted up her eyes. Longer than just for a moment, her vision was blurred and unclear, like if she had forgotten how to see sharp. Forgotten… Hold it, forgotten? Was there not something she had forgotten? Something really important?

“Who am I?” the filly whispered. This new question drilled into her head like a knife and at once ousted the question of the where. She had to press both front hoofs against her temple, else she feared her head would burst.

But her skull didn’t burst, of course. And over time, the pain even ceased a little, just enough so she could turn her attention towards other matters. At first towards herself: In the dim light she could make out that she was wearing some kind of grey gown, more a wrap actually, lashed down at both sides, and beneath the wrap she could feel her ribs poking through her fur and a hollow feeling in the stomach told her she hadn’t eaten for quite a while. Even worse, a damp cold was slowly creeping through the cloth and her fur. She shivered.

Uncertainly the filly got up. Her legs were trembling, but she believed she could around the room if she was careful. It was a small cell – an adult pony could have covered it with just two or three steps. No windows, the diffuse light fell into the room from small openings near the ceiling, where a six-point star in a circle with strange symbols was engraved. There was nothing in this cell, just a hard stone bench with an uncomfortable bed and a bordered hole in the ground one didn’t even want to imagine what it was for. There was nothing in this cell, maybe except for the heavy, locked, wooded door blocking the only way out.

That was enough to drive one into despair! She neither knew where she was nor how she was supposed to get out again. In front of this door, this adamant bulwark, she sank to the floor and left her head hanging low.

There were these questions again: Where am I? What’s going on here? Who am I?

Then suddenly, she heard something. There were hoof beats outside her booth, hoof beats and voices. And if she pressed her ear at the door really tightly she could even understand what they were saying!

A stallion, a bit nervous judging by his tone, said: “Master Nightshade I cannot quite understand why you wanted to implicitly visit the closed ward.”

“Is it not obvious, Doctor Ragstitch?” Master Nightshade replied. His voice was, even muffled by the door, impressing: Deep and mysterious, with a slight, yet uncommon accent.

“Once I have seen what I am here to see, I will no longer keep you from your work.”

“Like I mentioned before, the rerum animae are not really my specialist field. Whereas my collega Calm Mind…”

Doctor Ragstitch fell silent as Nightshade didn’t react to him: “Impressive, these doors.” Somepony knocked against a cell’s door. “Nonetheless, they remind me of a gaol, far more than of a place of healing. Is this what an asylum is? A prison?”

Asylum? the filly wondered. Rerum animae? Prison? What in tarnation are they talking about?

“This patch is for those inpatients who are a danger for themselves or others. Highest security. Five inches thick stone oak doors, with built in security locks, as far as I know, and each one is magically sealed. Absolutely spell-proof, no magic can be cast inside. Some of the cells padded so the inpatients cannot hurt themselves. Thank Celestia, most of the cells are currently empty. I hope her majesty will be content with the arrangements?”

The two stallions now stood right in front of the filly’s door.

“Number Five. Who is in there?” asked Nightshade; he still wasn’t paying the slightest attention to the Doctor’s remarks.

“Master Nightshade, are you even listening?” Ragstitch wanted know, now after all slightly angered.

“Who is in there?” the other just repeated, this time with a little vigour.

“All right, all right… Cell number five, patient A-16. Give me a moment… Strange, there are no files in this folder, I presume they’ll be on the desk in Calm Mind’s work room then.”

"Quite revealing.”

A scratching sound at the door made the filly jump back with shock. Withal, her own legs got in her way; they ravelled and the filly landed rudely on her butt. Stock-still she sat there, with her heart beating in her throat and her eyes glued to the cell’s entrance.
Suddenly, a small viewing window opened as a small panel was slid aside in the upper third of the door. Through that porthole, framed by a black mane, peeked a pair of eyes, foreign somehow and of deep violet tone. The eyes were so awe-inspiring and hypnotic at the same time, they were entrancing the filly’s glance; the fur around them was so dark it almost looked black as well. It seemed as if the look of these strange violet eyes was reaching down into the filly’s very soul and for just a moment she thought to see something else behind these eyes. Something even more alien…

Then the eyes widened with surprise. The stallion in front of the window muttered something in a foreign tongue she didn’t understand. But if she was getting the tone right, he was surprised.

He closed the slide again but though the eyes had disappeared the filly could do nothing for a while but stare at the place where they had been before. Then after half a dozen heartbeats, eventually the spell broke. The filly jumped to her feet. Then she ran up against the door, literally. She dashed against it and pounded with her front hooves against the thick wood.
“Get me out!” she cried at the two stallions on the other side of the door. “Please, get me out of here!”

As hard as she was at all capable of, she buckled the door with her hind legs, however, nothing happened. The stallions made no move whatsoever to let her out and the blasted door didn’t even have the decency to creak in its hinges…

“Please…” All strength faded from her voice and her calls for help turned into stifled sobbing. “Please… open the door… Please…”

Hot tears of despair were pouring down her cheeks and falling down to the ground, where she cuddled up like a picture of misery.

“I want out of here…” she whimpered, but with little hope left. “Please… Let me out…”

***

The sorcerer Nightshade closed his eyes and took some deep breaths, tried to shut his ears for the desperate cries of the filly in the cell. There was so much else he had to consider. With a last side glance at this particular locked door the unicorn turned away and started back.

“It sure looks like if these doors would be worth their money, does it not?” Doctor Ragstitch remarked uneasily. Meanwhile the cries of the filly had turned into muffled sobs.

Then the physician asked: “Is anything wrong with you?”

Excitedly the young physician, he was a unicorn with pale coat and watery blue eyes, brushed some colourless strands out of his face, then adjusted his eyeglasses that had almost slipped down to the peak of his muzzle again.

“I would be happy to examine you, if you are not feeling well”, the Doctor provided like casually while pacing after Nightshade, following the dark unicorn back to the more pleasant parts of the institution.

Nightshade shot a killing glance at his opposite. I bet on that, he thought. Doctor Rag Ragstitch was an ambitious pioneer on the field of physic, but Nightshade had already heard about Doctor Ragstitch’s dubious fascination for the internal structure of living beings. Scientifically this seemed to called anatomy, and Nightshade had no doubt he was starting to interest in HIS anatomy.
Nonetheless, the physician was quaint, quaint but not evil per se…

“Doctor Ragstitch, I do not require your knives, but your help.” Nightshade’s violet eyes were sparkling in the dim evening light. “There is something important I need to discuss with you…”

***

The filly was stunned, locked up in a dark room for no visible reason what so ever, with probably no prospect to see daylight again; cold, hungry and lonely. In one word she couldn’t imagine anything worse right now… In this state she could only weep freely. And after even her tears had run dry, she just lay there halfway leaned against the door, he head completely empty. She didn’t notice at all how time went by and the cell went darker and darker in the cell until it was almost pitch black.

Then impetuously she heard a metallic scratching followed by a hollow ‘thunk’. The filly raised her head. This change of circumstances, be it as tiny as it may, it at once kindled a little spark of will power. Slowly she let her eyes wander over the wood, then she searchingly pressed her shoulder against it.

The door creaked… And moved! Just one inch but clearly sensible.

Bewilderedly, the filly stared at the cell’s door. “It has inched”, she said to herself, like dreaming. “The door really has moved.”

She struggled to get up on her legs again.

I have to get out of here, she thought. Out, out, out.

With both hooves she braced against the door and pressed, inch by inch she pushed the heavy wooden door open until she eventually was squeeze herself through the gap; now suddenly she was glad she was so small and emaciated…

The hallway outside was dim and eerie, stone floor, naked, plain, stone walls and far too little oil lamps, which by far weren’t enough to light up everything. Step by step and incredibly slowly, so her hoofs made as few beats as possible, the filly snuck down the corridor.

***

“Hey, hallo! Anypony there?”

***

The voice came so unexpected the filly screamed out with shock.

“Whoa, relax! No reason to shout the whole house down!

It was a pegasus colt, maybe ten years old. His coat was light blue, but his mane was far too bleached out to divine which colour it once might have been. He was peeking through an open cell door.

“So, what’s going on here?” he then asked.

“You tell me!” the filly demanded instead of an answer.

“I wish I could. Just woke up and then I realize I’m sitting in an empty prison cell.”

She ran her hooves through her shaggy mane. “It’s almost the same for me. Tarnation, I have to get out of here, or else I’ll lose my mind!”

“Haven’t you lost it already?” the pegasus commented carelessly. But as the filly angrily flashed her eyes at him in the half-dark, he at once corrected himself. “Um, I wanted to ask, if everything’s alright with you. Just saying, you’re looking terrible!”

The filly snivelled. “Not really helping either…”

“Blasted, why can’t I ever shut it? My father always told me to watch my mouth… But you’re right. We have to get out of here! Namely, before any jailers or torturers or anything alike get here.”

The pegasus colt now stepped out in the hallway as well and tryingly flapped his wings. A white cloud was visible on his flank, the filly a little jealously noticed. She had no Cutie Mark of her own yet.

“That reminds me: What is your name, by the way?” the colt asked. Whereby he had absolutely hit a sore point.

The filly whose state wasn’t too stable in any case, squinted her eyes, raised her foreleg to her head and stumbled against the wall. Suddenly, her headache hit again, almost as fierce and unbearable than earlier. “I don’t know”, she grinded. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t…”

The blue pegasus carefully nudged her at the shoulder.

“Alright, now you’re scaring me! Is really everything right with you?” He bowed down close to her, but she at once turned her head to hide she was blushing beneath her fur.

“I’m… I’m fine”, she muttered.

“Well then, let’s start over again: My name’s Cloud. Cloud Dash”, the pegasus said and put out his hoof. “Very pleased to make thy acquaintance, maiden without name!” He made a bow in front of her.

Against her will and despite her situation, she had to smile. “Now you’re sounding like a noble of some sort.”

“Is that so?” Cloud chuckled. “Can’t imagine where that comes from. All better now?”

The filly nodded.

“Then let’s get going and finally bolt this dungeon!”

And so they explored the sombre hallway together, by the light of the oil lamps. The cells to the left and the right were all empty and black, like the gaping eye sockets of a skull or toothless jaws. Actually in this quiet part of the building, there was nothing besides the foals but darkness. Unfortunately, all foals are afraid of the dark…

The filly let her thoughts wander, just so she didn’t have to think all too much about those youwning doorways, and also to distract herself from the insidious cold. All this seemed so surreal, and made so little sense, just like a bad dream. To wake up in a dark and desolate place, knowing nothing at all… Horrible! And then how these stallions had talked to each other back then…
Then something came to her mind, something she had to tell Cloud Dash.

“You know, earlier”, she thus started in a whisper. “I overheard two stallions talking in front of my cell. One of them called this place an ‘asylum’. Sounds familiar?”

“An asylum?” Cloud cried out, before recalling that in their current situation he should’ve been quieter. “An asylum?” he repeated whispering. “Mayhaps the asylum of Hollow Shades? In the House of Healing?”

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

“I should have known it! Calm Mind, this lousy rat!”

The two of them had meanwhile almost reached the end of the corridor. There had just to pass one more cell to get to a lattice gate. Behind that gate, the corridor was far better lit by brighter oil lamps.

“Say, what is that anyway, an asyslum?” the filly asked.

***

“An asylum is a mad’ouse, lassie!”

***

It wasn’t Cloud Dash who answered. The voice sounded like it came right from a tomb. Again the filly gave a shriek.

“Um, not that I want to complain, but”, Cloud moaned in an undertone. “If you… squeeze me any harder you would be suffocating me…”

It was true, in her shock had clung firmly around Cloud Dash’s neck. She was practically hugging him. A foreign colt. Very tight…
Jumpily, she let go Cloud again, her head crimson like a tomato with embarrassment. How awkward…

The colt however now stepped forward to rally her.

“Spit it out, who are you?” he demanded to know. At that he tried to give his voice a firm tone. Unfortunately he still sound a lot like the foal he was…

“Me?” Through the prison bars of window in the door to their right reached a pair of scraggy hooves. “Me name’s Green. Herbal Green.”

“Herbal Green”, Cloud noted, wondering. “You are the healer of Hollow Shades, aren’t you?”

“I used to be. But then that devil Calm Mind ‘as locked me up in ‘ere.”

Due to his excitement, Herbal Green suffered a coughing attack. Both foals retreated a few steps more from the cell’s door.

“Air in ‘ere is poison for me lungs” the captive healer coughed. “And I can’t even use me ‘ealin’ spells. Blasted magic seals. Anyway… Eh, say, you couldn’t ‘aply get the keys for me cell, could you?”

“And why should we?” the filly asked. She was still half-hiding behind Cloud.

“Yeah, why should you?” Herbal Green said with pretended cluelessness. “Why should you?
Cause I am familiar with the House of Healing, and you ain’t. Cause I know, where the janitor ‘ides ‘is key for the main gate? That’s why.”

That sounded evident.

“And you’ll help us, if we free you?” Cloud Dash broached the subject again.

“Naturally. One good turn deserves another. I dan know, what this madpony Calm Mind is plannin’. But when we stick together ‘er plans will go up in smoke!”

“All…Right” the pegasus colt drawled. “Then tell us where to find the cell keys…”

“First you need to get through this gate next to me cell. It’s locked with a deadbolt from the other side, but that’s no problem. You’re small, you should be able to reach through the bars and open the lock.

Then you go down the corridor and up the stairs to the second floor until you reach Calm Mind’s working room. You can’t miss it ‘cause ‘er name’s on the door. She keeps the keys in a drawer of ‘er working desk.”

And with that Herbal Green let go of the prison bars and drew back into the shadows of his cell. Cloud and the filly turned to the lattice gate. The space between the entwined bars was indeed too small for the hoof of an adult pony, but the filly had no problems to reach through. Standing upright on her hind legs she tucked her complete fore leg up to her shoulder through the gap and groped for the bar.

Klick. The door swung open with a pitiful creak.

“That was convenient”, Cloud smirked. “But now carefully: I shouldn’t wonder if they had night guards on patrol here…”

***