Chapter 2 getting to know myself
“perhaps you could answer some questions for us then?” twilight asked.
“I… uh don’t know if ill be able to.” I stated. “Go ahead though might as well.” I faked a smile trying, unsuccessfully, to lighten my mood.
“well first off can we have a name. as your probably well aware pinky over there called you john, as in john dough. We really have no idea who you are, care to tell us.” Twilight asked. That was a hard question in one way but easy in another. For one my name was Cameron but let’s be honest no pony is named ‘john’ or ‘Cameron’ I had to think of something fast.
“Could you please give me some time to myself? I had… a long journey and I need to get things together first.” Maybe this will give me some time I thought.
“Of course you can have a moment.” Twilight gestured to the door and they all left, Fluttershy first. One by one they left until the room was empty. Then the door closed and I hurried to find it.
Each pony was named after their special talent, to an extent. That was my best bet for a name. I hurriedly scrambled to take a look at…my flank. On it was a depiction of a carpenter square. So my special talent was wood working. That helped to lighten my load a bit. At least I had a special talent. Now I just needed to come up with a name.
I pondered for a moment and came up with something: hardwood. That ought to do it, now I just need a reason for why I was in the Everfree forest in the midst of a rain storm. Now that is a hard answer. Oh that’s it! I was out looking for rare trees when I got lost and…fell off a cliff! No that wouldn’t work I was in a clearing of sorts. That’s it! I was on a tree when a branch snapped and I fell to the ground. That should do it I thought. Soon enough they all returned to the room and graciously awaited my response.
“So my name is Hardwood. I was out in the forest looking for a rare tree to fulfill a special order. I found the tree but the only way to tell if it was good was to climb it and test it from the top. Anyway that’s when the rain started, I slipped and the branch broke and I fell to the ground.” They all seemed to believe it.
“Hardwood…hmm, for a Pegasus that’s an odd name.” Rainbowdash replied. Stunned I looked to my side, sure enough I had wings. Granted they were broken but I was still caught off guard by this.
“Hey I didn’t choose my name that’s just what I got.” I replied. That seemed to work on Rainbowdash but the look on pinky pie was an inquisitive one.
“Wait just a minute here.” Pinky jumped in. “where exactly do you live anyways. I mean it can’t be Ponyville because if it were I would have seen you or more likely had known you.”
“Um…well actually I just moved into Ponyville just yesterday actually. Just my luck that I ended up unconscious in the Everfree forest.” I explained. Truth is that statement was about right because it was pretty obvious I would be here a while.
“Wait so you’re new here then! Oh great now I need to make set up a party for you. Oo oo oo! Where do you live ill get it set up and everything! All you need to do is get better it will be great! There will be streamers and music and cake! Oh what kind of cake do you like anyway.” Pinky ranted.
“Um…strawberry would be nice, but you really don’t need to do this for me.” I responded.
“Are you kidding me I have to do this? After all you’re new here so you just gotta have a warm welcome right. So where do you live then.” She asked. Now that, I didn’t have an answer for. Of all my knowledge, likely simple as it is, I had no idea of where I could live.
“As it turns out I just showed up last night I really don’t have a place to stay yet.” I figured this would bring on a storm of questions but to my surprise it didn’t.
“Aww well that’s too bad I’m sure you’ll find a place though and when you do ill throw you the most super awesome party ever.” Pinky responded “oh by the way I’m pinky pie, thought you might want to know.” Now that was irony considering I already knew that.
“Nice to meet you pinky.” I smiled and nodded. “So wait how bad were my injuries then.” Twilight stepped forward to answer that.
“Well the injuries were pretty bad but the doctor was able to fix you up quite well. That is except for your wing.” Twilight gestured to it. I was reluctant to acknowledge I had one or two for that matter. “When you passed out I was afraid we were going to lose you, thanks to Rainbowdash though we got you here in time.” I looked over to Rainbowdash.
“Yep that’s right hardwood I saved your flank there.” I didn’t know how to respond.
“Well thank you rainbow dash I owe you my life I suppose then.” I added. Then it struck me, in my dream I was with other people. Could they be here too? “I don’t suppose anyone else was with me when you found me right.” they looked slightly confused at what I said; I asked a stupid question again didn’t me.
“Well no, no one was with you. Did anyone accompany you to the forest?” twilight asked.
“Apparently not.” I responded in a depressed tone. For a while the room was fairly quiet and I was left thinking about what was going on. They saw this and began to leave one by one out the door. Eventually it was just me in my room left to think.
So I was a Pegasus now, with a tail, wings the whole shebang. I still couldn’t believe what was going on then I realized something that disturbed me deeply. They were all naked and so was I. almost instantly I began to feel really dizzy at the thought. That’s going to take some getting used to. I thought.
Getting my mind off it though I began to contemplate what I should do next. If I told anyone, or anypony as it goes now, the truth they’d think I was crazy. I have to keep it a secret, for now at least, until I learn more. My best bet would be to find one of the people who were in the accident with me. Maybe they knew something.
With I sigh I laid back into the bed and tried to calm down. I still couldn’t get over the tail thing. Also I apparently had wings, which I had to learn to use. I don’t know how I’m going to learn to fly. Wait… I can learn to fly! If anything were to cheer me up it was that thought. Now I at least had something to look forward to.
It wasn’t enough though to quell the sadness in my heart. I was a pony; I didn’t really know anypony out there. In retrospect I was alone. That was a depressing thought, and because of it all I wanted to do was go to sleep. So I closed my eyes and waited for the darkness to take me.
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The dream was in a word slow. I was sitting in a sea of people all dressed in the same kind of robes as me. To my left and right everyone bore a large smile on their face. I was at my graduation. We were listening to someone give a speech. My instincts told me it was my friend Kyle.
As I remembered that name a large chunk of my memory returned to me. He majored in physics and was regarded by his teacher to be the most mathematically inclined individual he had ever seen. He was a good friend of mine, which was obvious. My diploma was in my lap, it read ‘professorship in engineering.’ So that was where my talent came from I was an engineer.
For a long time people came up and gave speeches. I was bored out of my mind, but I was in my mind? Anyway eventually they were all finished up and all the graduates stood up and threw their caps into the air. As I watched mine go up the feeling of happiness that I was gripped in began to change. It changed to dread and terror.
The cap suddenly grew two headlights and the sky above me was replaced by that of a giant metal body. It was coming straight for me and directly before it hit me it let out the loudest scariest honk I had ever heard. My body was thrown back against the seat with tremendous force only to roll around like mad.
I was in a car with two others one was Kyle the other was unidentifiable. We screamed as the car flipped over and began to spin uncontrollably. The glass shattered and cut me like a million razors then everything began to fall.
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In a cold sweat I threw myself from the bed panting at what I just saw. I was in a car crash. That explains the damage to my body but why on earth was I in equestrian. The question rolled around in my head for a while but I still couldn’t come up with a solution.
Diverting my attention I looked outside my window to find it was night time. By now everypony would be asleep. I looked to my other side to find a small side table with a get well soon card laying on it. I reached over for it but soon realized I HAD NO HANDS. I looked back and forth between the card and my hoof trying to understand how to pick it up.
Eventually I just started trying to grab it. It took me a lot of trial and error but I eventually got ahold of the not. Holding something with hooves was a lot different that with hands. By the way I was thinking about it I shouldn’t have been able to in the first place. I chose not to think about it much and instead opened it and began reading.
Each of the ponies from earlier had signed it. Twilight, Rainbowdash, rarity, pinky, applejack and Fluttershy. I didn’t expect to see her name after I scared her so badly. I closed the card and sat up in the bed. Slowly I rose up my hoof to examine it. For what felt like an hour I simply stared at it still unable to accept what had happened to me.
The bandages around my side were covering up my wings fairly well so I couldn’t get an idea as to what they looked like. I threw back the covers to take a look at myself. Before I could see though I smelt. How long was I out for anyway? I smelt as if I hadn’t taken a bath in weeks, and considering my injuries that may well have been the case.
I began to wonder what if would be like to stand up and walk in this way. I turned my body away from the bed to find I could feel my wings, in a bad way. Rolling over onto the broken wing hurt bad but it didn’t stop me. Working through the pain I was able to step down from the bed and get my footing.
My legs felt like Jell-O as I attempted to move forward. If that wasn’t hard enough it became obviously clear, rather fast that, that it was nothing like how I knew how to walk. So I thought about it for a minute and began to take a few steps forward. To my discontent it was a lot harder than I made it out to be. This time I didn’t think about it. I simply started walking forward and didn’t think about it, and surprisingly it worked.
That made me feel better, at least now I could move around like a semi average pony. Again though from behind me my tail twitched, I turned and looked at it. That was going to take some getting used to. From that view I was able to spot a mirror directly behind me on the opposite side of the room.
Reluctantly I walked towards it not sure of what to expect. As I approached it my reflection was of a light brown Pegasus with a kind of reddish hint. My…mane which disturbed me deeply to see was a darker shade of brown that fell over my head in a dirty fashion. Most of my features were gone but something about the reflection reminded me of myself.
I sat down in front of it and looked deeply at the mirror. With a sigh I began to repeat to myself. This is who I am now. Over and over again I repeated those six words trying to find meaning in them. For the longest time I sat there and thought about what happened. Right now though all I wanted to know for sure was if any of the people…err I suppose by now ponies that were with me were here. I hoped for my sake they were but I hoped for theirs they weren’t.