Chapter 10 – Recovery
I woke up to find myself in a dusky room. All the windows were covered by curtains, I could see the sun shining through the edges so I knew it was day outside. It took me a few seconds to remember the attack and I shivered when I did so. It was the first time someone had done that to me – I had never even been mugged before! And here some pony was trying to kill me for real. At least he failed, judging by the fact that I had woken up in the first place.
Just as I thought that, a dull pain entered my head. I cringed and wanted to rub it with my hooves, hoping in vain that it would pass, but moving my hoof only caused additional pain. Right, the blast I had suffered had likely done some damage to me. I stopped the attempts to move it and only now noticed the cast that had been applied to it.
I guessed that I had probably been taken to a hospital after Starlight had taken care of the assailant. I visualized the fight again in my head – it was awesome. I couldn’t even do the simple task of opening the curtains with my magic so far, but seeing what Starlight could do had strengthened my resolve to study it. It had always been my dream, even though I thought magic didn’t exist when I lived among humans.
I threw off the blanket and rolled on my bed, trying to keep my injured foreleg immobilized close to my body. Getting to the floor was difficult with only three legs, but I managed somehow. I smirked at that thought – I had been using only two legs before and now even three weren’t good enough for me.
Grabbing the curtain with my teeth, I pulled it to the side, finally inviting the sunny day into my gloomy hospital chamber. I instantly regretted it though when the bright light burned my unadjusted eyes. I hissed in pain and shut them to give them some time to get used to the blinding daylight.
Before they could though, the door in my room had opened and I heard some hoofsteps approaching me from behind. I blinked rapidly to readjust faster and I turned to greet the pony who would probably be a doctor. I was happy to see Starlight instead.
The mare wore a calm expression on her face, but I saw a worry in her eyes. She glanced at my foreleg that I was keeping close to my body.
“I’m glad you woke up, Sundae,” she said with relief in her voice. “You were unconscious for a whole day. How are you feeling?”
“Pretty beat up,” I answered honestly, getting a sympathetic nod from Starlight.
Standing on just three hooves was increasingly difficult, so I went back to bed, but stumbled on the way and would have fallen down on my face if not for Starlight catching me in her magic just a mere inch from the hard surface. I let out a frightened chuckle.
“Your magic saves me once again,” I said as she levitated me directly onto the bed; my body felt tingly being embraced by her magic aura. I took a comfortable position on my back so I would avoid lying on my hurt foreleg.
Starlight just shrugged in response.
“Some ponies say that I should rely less on magic to solve my problems,” she said neutrally, watching my reaction.
“Well, I’m not the one to complain after you saved my life with it,” I said, smiling at her friendly. “In fact, I want to learn it even more now so I’d be prepared for something like that in the future.”
Starlight frowned at my words. She moved the chair close to my bed and settled on it before answering.
“Something like that just doesn’t happen in Ponyville,” she shook her head angrily. “I captured the pony who attacked you and he’s been put in jail for now. He hasn’t revealed the reason for attacking you yet, but seeing how well-prepared he was, I can tell he’s not a simple mugger. No mugger would be dumb enough to attack ponies right behind Twilight’s castle.”
“I figured as much,” I admitted. My next words were pure guesswork. “Could it be somehow connected to the Doctor that Ruby told us about? She was hellbent on claiming his involvement in my disappearance and you said that my memory loss is of magical nature.”
Starlight waved her hoof in the air, looking unsure on what to say.
“I don’t want to blame anypony without any solid proof on my hooves, but I have to admit this Doctor sounds shady,” she said thoughtfully. “But you shouldn’t worry about that for now. The doctor – our hospital doctor – said that you might have a concussion from the blast, so you have to stay in bed for a few days.”
The door opened again and a pony in a white medical gown and a stethoscope hanging from his neck came in, just like he was waiting for his cue behind it. He calmly approached my bed and made a gesture for Starlight to step aside, to which she complied without question. The doctor was the real authority in the hospital after all.
“Do you feel any pains?” he asked, skipping the introduction.
I was a little thrown off by his style, but I’d met doctors like him before. He was the kind of doctor who treated his patients without wasting time on any unnecessary pleasantries, strictly business.
“I do. My head hurts a little and I get a little dizzy when I stand up on all fours,” I answered in kind.
He took a chart from my bed and wrote something down. I watched curiously how he was using his mouth to write since he didn’t have any horn to use levitation for it. The doctor was finally done and put the chart aside, meeting my eyes.
“You have a small concussion, just like I thought,” he said without any preamble. “You can choose to stay in the hospital for a few days or go home under the condition that you’d stay in bed for at least three days to avoid any complications. You must check out in the foyer if you choose the latter.”
Having said that, he left the room without saying goodbye. I wasn’t upset – he probably had a lot of patients like me and he couldn’t just make friends with anypony he came across. It wouldn’t hurt if he was more friendly, though. At least he’d allowed me to leave if I wanted to and that was exactly what I was going to do.
***
Leaving the hospital was as easy as the doctor claimed. Walking from it to the castle was another matter entirely. Starlight supported me from the side and made sure I wouldn’t fall again if I stumbled on something. We made it to the castle just an hour later at my slow pace.
The party had long since been over and the main hall had been cleaned up after it. Everything looked cold and empty now without all the party supplies and happy ponies around, so I felt my ears slightly drooping. Maybe it was just me, but Twilight should really use some warmer design in her castle – she’s the Princess of Friendship after all.
Speaking of which, the mare herself had appeared from the side corridor to greet us. I gave her a reassuring smile to show that I was fine, but Twilight looked anxious nonetheless.
“Sundae, I’m so sorry…” she apologized as soon as she got close enough to have a proper conversation.
It took me a moment to realize what she was apologizing for, but it wasn’t really difficult to guess. In the little time I’d known Twilight personally and from all the stories I’d heard about her, I knew the Princess had a tendency to blame herself for what wasn’t really her fault. An attempt on my life in her own backyard was just one of those things.
“Don’t apologize to me, Twilight,” I said a little more harshly than I intended to, judging by the pony’s flat ears and widened eyes. “I mean, you don’t have to apologize to me. It wasn’t your fault.”
Twilight wasn’t convinced by my claim even after receiving a supportive nod from Starlight. She dismissed my words with a wave of her hoof.
“But it was,” she insisted. “If I hadn’t delayed the formation of my own branch of the guard, like Princess Celestia had suggested, they would have protected you from that criminal. Hay, they wouldn’t have even let the pony get here in the first place!”
“You don’t know this,” said Starlight, frowning in annoyance at Twilight’s self-attack.
While they tried to figure out whose fault it was, I heard Marcus approaching us. His heavy steps sounded much different from ponies’ hooves, so I knew it was him immediately. I turned around to face him with a wide smile only to get grabbed and taken into a powerful hug.
“Careful with the leg,” I hissed in pain when Marcus accidentally disturbed it.
“Sorry,” he apologized, releasing me at once and carefully putting me on the floor like I was made of ice. “I’m just glad that you’re okay…mostly.”
“Yeah…Our first week in Equestria and we’ve both already been in a hospital.” I chuckled.
Twilight and Starlight stopped their arguing after Marcus had come and I was escorted to my own room. I was interested to see it for the first time, since that would be the room I was going to spend a lot of time in. I hoped it wasn’t too luxurious though, that would just make me feel weird.
My fears proved to be baseless – the room was like you would find in a good four-star hotel, minus the electronics obviously. There was a big bed, a dresser and a few chairs, along with a table. One small window was the only source of light until Twilight tapped a panel on the wall to light up the magical lanterns under the ceiling.
“That’s going to be your room from now on. Hope you like it – I furnished it personally,” Twilight said, waving a hoof over it. “You must rest in bed for now until your full recovery. If you need food, just yell and Spike will bring it to you.”
“I’m not that injured,” I protested, standing tall on my three healthy hooves. “I could handle a walk to the kitchen on my own.”
“You sure about this?” Marcus asked with concern hiding in his voice. “Don’t try to play cool, your health is serious business.”
I didn’t want to argue with Marcus and point out his own behavior while injured, which was the opposite of his own advice, so I just shrugged, leaving my answer open. Gladly, he decided not to press the issue.
We walked into the room together and I immediately threw myself into one of the chairs. How nice it was to finally sit down; walking on three hooves turned out to be pretty tiresome. Although not as hard as it would be on one leg, I suppose. There were a lot of pros and cons about being a quadruped and I tried to be positive about this whole situation of suddenly becoming one.
I glanced around the room, trying to think of anything to do next, but found nothing that caught my eye. I sighed; with strolling around the town being out of question for a few days, I didn’t know how to spend my free time. This world didn’t even have Internet!
“Eh, Starlight?” I asked for the mare’s attention as she was about to leave with Twilight. They both turned to me. “Is it a good time to ask you to teach me some magic, as you had promised?”
“Well, I kind of had some plans for today…” began Starlight, but seeing my sullen face made her change her mind, “But they can wait.”
“No practicing magic today though,” interjected Twilight. “With her concussion it would be a bad idea. You should teach her some theory first anyway. I have some books on the matter and I would be happy to bring them to you if you wait a few minutes.”
Having said this, Twilight blinked out of existence with a flash of light. Marcus and I were dumbfounded with her sudden disappearance, gazing at the empty spot where she had just been. Starlight chuckled upon seeing our reactions and disappeared as well in the blink of an eye in a flash of light of her own.
“Not every unicorn is able to master the teleportation spell,” she said suddenly from behind our backs, making me twitch in surprise and almost fall out of my chair. “But if they do, it can be a pretty useful spell.”
Marcus shook his head in amazement. He glanced at me and I could notice maybe a tiny bit of jealousy in his expression, but it disappeared quickly.
“I can’t wait to begin studying already,” I smiled excitedly. “I hope to be one of those lucky unicorns.”
“We shall see,” Starlight said with her own smile. “I’m glad to see such an eagerness in my students.”
With another flash of purple light, Twilight materialized in the middle of the room, hugging a stack of old, heavy books in her hooves. She put them on a table with a grunt. Starlight lifted her eyebrow and Twilight smiled sheepishly.
“I think those books would be useful for Sundae, since she doesn’t remember anything about magic,” she explained. “She will have to relearn everything from the level of a foal.”
She she listed the book titles for us and gave a small review for each one. I retained little of it, but I planned to read them all anyway, so I wasn’t worried.
“You can handle things from here, Starlight,” Twilight said finally. “Celestia sent me a lot of resumes to pick my own guards from and I don’t know who to pick without meeting with them all personally, so I probably have to go to Canterlot and… And I’m rambling now. Have fun studying!”
Twilight left by the usual means this time, almost running out of the room and leaving the three of us alone. I looked at Starlight expectedly, hoping for her to begin, but she ignored my stare, being deep in thought herself. I had to cough gently to snap her out of it.
“Sorry, I was just thinking of the best way to start,” she said nervously. “It’s actually my first time teaching somepony magic and I don’t want to mess it up.”
As it turned out, I had to learn much more than just magic. We quickly discovered my lack of knowledge of the Equestrian language that was called Ponish by the ponies. Unfortunately, the books were written primarily in it, so Starlight had to explain the magical theory to me in her own words.
Marcus was looking bored the whole time right before we went from theory to practice. Despite what Twilight had said, I felt powerful enough to handle a few simple spells and I convinced Starlight to let me try.
The books proved to be useful then. After knowing the basics, it was easier for me to summon the magic to my horn and levitate one off the table. I gazed on the shaking book hovering in the air with a giddy smile. Starlight gave out a pleased smile and I lost my concentration, dropping the book back onto the table.
“Good job, Sundae,” she said, patting me on my shoulder. “You’re going to learn teleportation in no time with such enthusiasm.”
It was hard to tell if she was serious or just joking – her intonation suggested either way, but I decided to take it as a compliment.
We had to stop practicing soon after that because of the increasing headache I started to get each time I summoned magic. Starlight reassured me that it was to be expected with unexperienced users such as me and suggested to continue the practice at another time.
With the magical show over, Marcus decided to explore the castle. I was slightly saddened by his leave – I liked to show off my success to him, but he had the right to do his own things, rather than watch me all the time.
“Your ability to cast spells depends on your horn, as you probably guessed,” Starlight continued her lesson. “A unicorn casting a spell draws magic from their own body, unless you’re using something else as a source, so you must be careful not to overexhaust it – it could lead to serious health consequences. But with the right training, you could expand your inner reserves and mana recovery. I’m going to teach you some useful techniques now, so that you can practice them every day.”
We spent the next few hours mastering the theory, until finally Starlight decided to call it a day. Despite my desire to learn more, I had to agree. There was only so much I could learn at once – my head was about to explode from all the new information as it was. Besides, it was already getting dark outside and I felt hungry from missing a dinner.
Starlight helped me to reach the kitchen through the dimly lit passages of the castle. It was kind of spooky here at night; I wouldn’t want to wander here alone. Good thing Starlight’s horn glowed much more brightly than the crystals along the walls.
We found an azure mare with a green mane waiting for us in the kitchen. Perhaps waiting was the wrong word, since she hadn’t noticed me and Starlight until we were right behind her back. She was cooking something delicious if the smell was any indication. I tapped her on her flank with a devious smile and snorted, seeing as she jumped into the air with a yelp.
“Sundae!” she exclaimed accusingly, turning around to face me. “I’m the one who’s supposed to play pranks on you!”
“Times change,” I answered playfully. I knew she wasn’t really mad because she could barely contain her own smile.
Ruby chuckled and booped me on my muzzle. Then she stepped to the side to demonstrate her culinary masterpiece – a pizza! I was almost drooling from the very sight of it. Ruby was going to share it with me, for sure. She didn’t make it just for herself, did she?
“You want a piece?” she asked in a suspiciously sweet voice. I was too enthralled by the pizza to pay attention to it though.
“Of course!” I answered, holding back the desire to just bite off a piece myself already.
Ruby took a knife and reached out as to cut the pizza, but stopped at the last moment. She made a fake pout and said:
“Sorry, it’s not ready yet,” she laughed at my crestfallen expression and booped me again. “You should have seen your face! Seriously though, just wait for ten more minutes and I’ll bring it to the dining room. I made it for everyone.”
The dining room was right next to the kitchen and Starlight walked me there. I picked a chair and sat there waiting, while Starlight went out to gather the others.
Ruby was the first one to return, holding a big tray with a steaming pizza on her back. My eyes followed the pizza along, fearing that Ruby would drop it at any moment, but she set it on the table skillfully and jumped on a chair close to me.
“I’m glad to see you’re okay, Sunny,” she said seriously, embracing me in a tight hug. I carefully patted her on her back in return. “It’s the Doctor’s doing, I just know it.”
“You must tell me more about that Doctor sometime,” I offered. If somepony wanted to harm me, I had to know more about them than just a name after all.
Ruby nodded and smiled encouragingly at me.
“I most certainly will. I’m going to visit the police station tomorrow and talk with that nasty pony who attacked you myself,” she stated, wrinkling her eyebrows angrily. “He would tell me all about the Doctor…”
If the police here was anything close to the human world, the chances that they would let her interrogate their suspects were pretty slim, but she had to know it better than me, I suppose, as she was the local one in this world. I simply nodded, acknowledging her claim.
I didn’t want to talk about the bad things for now though, so I switched the topic to something more neutral. It was about time I learned something about my past – other than the Doctor’s involvement in it – and who would be a better source than my best friend?
“I was meaning to ask you, Ruby,” I began and she looked at me curiously, “Tell me what I used to be like before I disappeared.”
Her face changed to a more serious expression and we sat in silence for a few minutes while she was collecting her thoughts, deciding on the best way to answer my question.
“Well,” Ruby finally began, “We haven’t spent much time together since you returned yet, but you act pretty much the same as before. You’re still your good old self, even if you don’t remember a thing yet.”
I simply nodded, accepting her short answer. Too bad I couldn’t remember if she herself had changed in all these years. I really should find a way to restore my memories somehow…
We spent the rest of the time discussing the Princess and her friends that we’d met. Ruby missed our meeting with Rainbow and Applejack because of her fight with Rarity, so I described them to her in detail.
Ruby’s face shadowed when I mentioned Rarity, which concerned me slightly. It seemed that despite her apology, she still had some problems with her. I liked Rarity and wanted to get to know her better and it wouldn’t be nice if these two had a grudge against each other.
I decided against bringing up the issue right now, when we were about to have a delicious pizza. Rarity had offered me to visit her shop to make a dress for me and this was the perfect excuse to drag Ruby along. That was the plan for tomorrow.
The doors finally opened and a couple of ponies, a dragon and a human walked in. Spike stopped to sniff the divine smell of pizza in the air and a hungry, toothy smile appeared on his face.
“Wow, that smells delicious!” he exclaimed, grabbing a seat close to Twilight.
The Princess agreed with Spike, though she behaved more moderately.
“That does smell good. Did you bake it yourself, Ruby?” Twilight asked and got a happy nod from her in return. “I should just hire you as a cook and solve your employment problem.” She added half-jokingly.
Ruby blushed slightly at the royal praise and looked to the side.
“Let’s just eat the pizza first before making any rash decisions, Your Highness,” Ruby told her humbly, cutting a piece and laying it on Twilight’s plate.
A light frown flickered on Twilight’s face, but a smile quickly took its place. “You can call me just Twilight,” she told her and seeing the unsure look on the pony’s face she added: “Your friend Sundae does that already and you should as well. I have plenty of ponies who call me Princess as it is.”
Ruby reluctantly agreed to her proposal. After that, we switched our collective attention to the pizza. It vanished pretty quickly under the assault of six mouths and soon everypony was just sitting around the table, being content.
The pizza turned out to be even tastier than it smelled, if such a thing was possible. The others were happy too, praising Ruby’s cooking skills. Spike looked a little sour, but he joined in as well. Perhaps he was a bit jealous.
“I was serious about my job offer, Ruby,” Twilight said after a while. “With all the new guards the castle would get, Spike won’t be able to cook for everyone and still be able to help me.”
Spike crossed his arms defiantly, but remained silent. He understood that Twilight was right. Ruby appeared thoughtful by the offer, but I was surprised she was still considering it. Working for royalty was a great opportunity!
I nudged her with my elbow and nodded supportively as she looked at me. That helped Ruby to make a decision at last.
“That would be an honor, Your—” Ruby stopped mid-sentence to correct herself, “Twilight.”
I reached out with my good foreleg to give my friend a hug. I was happy for Ruby that she found a job so easily and I hoped it would make her less likely to start another fight with Rarity. I broke the hug eventually and sighed contentedly.
Despite what the doctor had said, I didn’t plan to spend my time just lying in bed and recovering. I was sure that a few trips outside wouldn’t hurt me, though I would still require some help to move around safely. Ruby wanted to visit the pony who attacked me tomorrow and I decided to go along in case she managed to convince the police to let her in. I needed to see the pony who had tried to kill me and look him in the eyes.
***
The next day started with the magic exercises Starlight had taught me. Though she recommended to start doing them after my recovery, but I didn’t let that small detail stop me. In my eyes, the sooner I learned magic, the less likely I’d get hurt again.
I didn’t even need to get out of bed to start the exercise; I could do it while being covered by a cozy blanket. The exercise consisted of three simple parts. The first part was about strength and required me to lift various objects of increasing mass, the second was dexterity training – I had to move the object in a precise manner. I had some trouble with that: the pillow that I was using for the exercise was flying randomly around the room, despite my efforts to rein it in. It ended with the pillow landing on my face. I couldn’t even get to the third part, where I should levitate as many objects as possible at the same time, since my head started to hurt, which made me decide to end the exercise for today.
It was early in the morning and the sun was just rising over the horizon. Everypony else in the castle was probably still asleep and I didn’t want to bother them just so that they could help me get out of my own bed. It was hard to do while trying not to disturb my injured foreleg, but not impossible. I tossed the pillows, along with the blanket, down onto the floor to soften my landing and rolled off the bed. Then I carefully rose up on my three hooves. Voilà! No problems at all.
The halls of the castle outside of my room were empty; not that I expected anything different, knowing that only six souls lived here at the moment. I remembered the path to the kitchen and I went there, hoping to find something to bite. I was sure Twilight wouldn’t mind – after all, she said that I should feel like home.
Moving through the dark corridor with no help was a chore for me with my recent injury. The only source of light were half-lit crystals along the walls. If there was some way to make them glow brighter, I wasn’t aware of it yet. Fortunately, the castle wasn’t very large and I soon stumbled upon the familiar door leading to the kitchen.
I slid inside, finding it empty. Now, where do these ponies store their food? I looked into the lower shelves, but found only dishes in all shapes and sizes. The high shelves with all the good stuff sadly were out of my reach – I didn’t want to suffer another injury trying to get to them.
“Hi, Sundae,” a voice behind me startled me and I quickly turned back, almost tumbling over, only to see Marcus standing at the door.
Damn, why am I always the one to be startled.
Marcus came closer to me after receiving my greeting nod and reached out to the high shelf, taking a bag of chips. He gave them to me and took another bag for himself. I murmured some thanks and tried to tear it open with my mouth, while holding it down with my healthy foreleg. Marcus watched my display in amusement while crunching one chip after another.
“So, are you getting used to being a pony again?” he asked.
I dove into the bag with my muzzle to buy me some time, while mulling over the question. I definitely felt much better in pony form now than a few days ago, after I had buried my hopes of a serious relationship with Marcus. That was the main reason I used to have problems with my new form and while I still had some issues, the pros greatly outweighed the cons for me.
Take magic, for example. I had always loved imagining myself as a wizard while reading yet another fantasy book, but I had never thought I would have the chance to become one for real. I carefully wrapped the bag of chips in my magical grip and levitated it around my head, ignoring the dull pain in my horn caused by my action.
“I’m managing,” I smiled to Marcus, finally answering his question.
***
Spike had found us having a snack in the kitchen when he got there to make a breakfast. He gently, but firmly, encouraged us to leave, since he preferred to cook alone; so we settled in the big dining room instead. Everypony joined us soon and we waited for the meal together.
Ruby wanted to lend Spike a helping hoof, but Twilight shook her head. She told her that Spike always took it badly if he thought someone was going to replace him, and with Ruby being the new official castle cook, Spike would have a hard time as it was. Ruby dropped back on her chair disappointed, but understanding.
After a delicious meal that almost rivaled Ruby’s pizza yesterday, everypony went about their own business. Twilight said that she was going to spend the whole day working on the Mirror portal with Starlight joining her, after I assured the unicorn that I would be having fun exploring the town with Ruby. I left unsaid our plans to visit the prisoner, obviously.
Marcus wasn’t in the mood to venture outside with us, preferring to stay in the castle instead. Spike had promised to show him all the cool places, so he had something to occupy himself with.
The two of us left the castle together, with Ruby close by my side, in case I happened to fall and hurt myself. I wasn’t about to do it though – I was getting used to my three-legged gait. Some ponies on the street gazed at my injuries with unconcealed curiosity, but they pretended to look the other way when I caught them in the act. It was nothing compared to the stares we were getting when Marcus was around, so I just ignored it.
Pretty soon, I discovered that Ruby didn’t know where to go. We had no clue where the police station was, since both of us were new in town, but my friend was too stubborn to admit it. I pointed it out when we found ourselves back at the same street for the fourth time and Ruby snarled at me in anger. She quickly apologized though, ashamed of her outburst.
“Sorry, Sunny,” she drooped her ears, looking at me with her big blue eyes. “You’re totally right; let’s ask somepony to help us.”
She stopped a random mare who crossed our path with a friendly hoof gesture, but couldn’t bring herself to ask anything. I had to step up and ask the mare myself. She kindly explained us how to get to the police station in detail and we parted our ways, saying our goodbyes.
Ruby trotted in the direction we had been pointed to, ignoring her little hiccup, and I limped after her, watching her in concern. That mare clearly had some issues that had to be resolved sooner rather than later. But now was not the time or the place to handle it, so I let it slide, silently following her.
The police station was finally before us; after half an hour wasted on going in circles, it was frustrating to find out the station was only in a few minutes’ trot from the castle. Ruby glanced back to make sure I was still following her and I noticed a serious expression on her face. She waited for me to catch up and helped me to get up the stairs to the station’s entrance.
The building was the same style as the surrounding houses, but much bigger. A star and a shield were displayed over the door, showing everypony the building’s purpose. There was a long phrase below it, but I couldn’t read it. It was probably some kind of fancy and profound motto, like “serve and protect” or something along those lines.
Two police officers got out of the station and trotted past us, eyes lingering on my foreleg in a cast. I could tell they were the law enforcement only by their capes and belts with various police devices fixed on it. Otherwise, they looked the same as everypony else.
I followed Ruby inside; she walked straight to the counter determinedly, with the stallion behind it silently watching her approach, and took the bull by the horns.
“I need to see that bastard,” she explained her business to the bored stallion. He didn’t look all that impressed.
“Well, you’ve certainly come to the right place, miss,” he deadpanned. “We have a lot of bastards in here.”
Ruby’s annoyed face told me she didn’t appreciate the stallion’s humor. I quickly stepped forward before Ruby could mess things up by an angry outburst and grabbed his attention myself. Ruby mumbled something under her breath but allowed me to take the lead.
“Good morning, officer!” I greeted the police pony cheerfully. “A dark-coated stallion was brought to you yesterday; we hoped to have a little chat with him.”
The officer mulled over my words for a moment while I was holding my breath, but my heart clenched in disappointment when he shook his head in refusal. Ruby exploded before I could object, however.
“But we must speak to him!” she slammed her hooves on the counter’s surface, making it shudder violently.
The officer jumped on his hooves angrily and reached for his baton, but I stopped him from making any hasty actions with a hoof wave. He paused, giving me a chance to handle the situation myself. I gently nuzzled Ruby at her foreleg and she glared at me. Her eyes met mine. The angry scowl on her face changed to an expression of shame and her ears fell flat.
“I’m…really sorry, sir,” she told the officer, looking down. “I promise to behave from now on.”
The officer slowly sat back on his chair and eyed us coldly. I could tell he wasn’t pleased by Ruby’s actions, which considerably dropped my chances of convincing him.
“Why can’t we meet with the pony?” I still inquired politely, trying to smooth his impression on us.
“It’s against our regulations to let civilians see the suspects of ongoing investigations unless you’re his family or a lawyer,” he explained to me, ignoring Ruby nervously shifting from one leg to another.
I tried to think of a way to convince him otherwise, but the only thing I came up with was a good old bribe. That plan had two big drawbacks: first, I didn’t know how corrupt the police was in Equestria and second, I had no money to pull off something like that. I dropped my smile that I had kept on my face until now and sighed.
“Problems, Split?” a dark red unicorn mare asked the counter pony, coming out of the door behind him.
He quickly glanced back at her and then returned his stare back at us.
“No, Detective,” Split assured her. “These two mares just wanted to see the pony that attacked someone at the castle yesterday, but they are leaving now.”
The mare approached us and I noticed a star with a shield as her cutie mark, which went well with her profession. She examined us quickly, paying close attention to my injuries and said:
“My name is detective Sky Seeker. You’re the mare that was attacked yesterday, aren’t you?”
I nodded silently. I sparked her interest and if I played it right, I would finally meet the prisoner. There was a slim chance he had acted on his own, but considering my history, it was close to impossible. Most likely the Doctor was behind the attack, like Ruby had claimed, but I wanted to be completely sure. I only prayed that Ruby stayed silent while I did the talking.
“I just wanted to ask him a few questions, if that’s possible,” I asked the detective, trying not to sound pleading.
“I don’t see why not,” the mare shrugged. “But I’m going to ask you a few questions first. Follow me.”
The officer at the counter looked shocked at her agreement and he even got out of his chair to block her way. She raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.
“Eh, sorry, detective, but…It’s against regulations! We can’t just allow civilians to freely chat with any suspects we have here.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Split,” the detective said dismissively. She pointed her hoof at me and continued: “She’s the victim. In fact, I wanted to look for her myself and it’s a lucky coincidence she arrived first.”
He stepped aside, dropping his ears. The officer had nothing to say now so he returned to the counter in defeat, but not before Ruby teasingly flashed her tongue at him. I didn’t catch his reaction because we had already followed the detective into her office, but I hoped Ruby wouldn’t get into any trouble for what she did. It’s never a good idea to provoke a police officer for no reason.
Before taking us to the suspect, Detective Seeker asked us a lot of questions first, as she had promised. Those were mostly the standard police questions I had expected her to ask, like whether I knew the attacker or what were my thoughts on the reason behind the attack. I answered them as honestly and openly as possible, with Ruby filling in on the Doctor’s possible involvement, since she knew him better than me.
“I honestly don’t know if I believe your story, but I won’t make any assumptions as of yet,” the Detective shared her thoughts after we had finished.
I put a calming hoof on Ruby’s shoulder just in case of another outburst, but she took it more calmly than I had expected. She still nodded to me gratefully, showing her appreciation of my efforts.
“I want to put you in the same room as your attacker and watch his reaction as you repeat all you’ve told me to him,” Seeker continued. She looked me in the eyes seriously and added: “That is, if you’re okay with that.”
“Of course she’s okay with that, Miss Seeker,” Ruby spoke sarcastically. “She came here to meet him in the first place, remember?”
The detective expressed mixed emotions, ranging from annoyance to amusement at Ruby’s words, and chose to stay somewhere in the middle. I cursed Ruby internally – it was becoming painfully obvious that diplomacy wasn’t her strongest suit. Good thing the detective wanted us to meet with the suspect herself; otherwise we would have been kicked out of the station already.
I nuzzled Ruby in her side, while the detective went forward to lead us into an interrogation room. She looked at me in surprise and I did my best to silently give her the sign to stop antagonizing the police. Ruby nodded with what I could only hope was understanding.
The red unicorn stopped at the door with a telling inscription saying Interrogation Room on it.
“You can watch through the glass, but I want only Sundae inside with me,” she said sternly.
Ruby wanted to argue and had already opened her mouth, but noticed my drooped ears and a pleading face I was making at her and stopped. She nodded silently, not trusting herself to speak, and went to the second room, sharply closing the door behind her. I sighed in relief at avoiding another possible conflict.
“Your friend has some issues,” Seeker commented neutrally and I shrugged even though I had shared these thoughts just recently.
The detective opened the door and walked inside first, inviting me to follow her. The small, dimly lit room contained the only pony inside – my assailant. I recognized him at first sight and shuddered internally. That pony had no qualms about trying to kill me, even though I did nothing to him personally. I calmed myself down – he was harmless for me now. His necklace with potions had been taken away as well as everything else. The only garment on him were a pair of tight hoofcuffs, chained to a steel table in front of him. It suited him perfectly.
“So,” the detective began, settling on a bench on the opposite side of the table, “I brought along this mare you’ve tried to kill and she has an interesting story to tell.”
The cuffed pony completely ignored me, continuing to stare at the table in front of him. I studied him for a minute in silence while collecting my thoughts; the detective waited patiently for me to start talking. And then I finally did.
“I know why you attacked me,” I said, pointing a hoof at him in accusation. “You were hired by Nightfall Shade because I know something he wouldn’t want to be revealed.”
That finally got a reaction from the pony who had nearly killed me, as he sharply rose his head to meet my eyes. His stare pierced through me, but I managed to maintain a calm expression on my face; I knew he couldn’t hurt me now no matter how evilly he stared at me. The detective leaned forward in excitement, but the pony remained silent.
“That’s right, I know everything,” I continued, bluffing shamelessly. The fact was that I didn’t have a clue, even after Ruby had told me everything she knew. “I’ve already told Princess Twilight about it.”
“Yep, you’re busted,” the detective played along with me. “You’re going in for a long time either way, so you’d better tell me all about your old masters. It’s going to make your time much easier.”
The stallion watched us both through his narrowed eyes and finally laughed. The fur on my back stood up from such a mirthless laugh. He leaned back in his chair with a cold grin, almost a scowl, that never reached his eyes. The detective lifted her eyebrows in surprise from his strange behavior.
“You’re both bluffing, silly fillies,” he told us with contempt in his voice. “If you really knew everything as you’ve claimed, I wouldn’t be talking here with you.”
Seeker was put off for a second by his apparent disrespect, but she got over it quickly. If she was expecting to get respect from criminals, she chose the wrong profession. The detective furrowed her eyebrows instead and stomped a hoof on the table.
“Don’t get too smug, scumbag!” she told him in a raised voice. “The only reason we’re having this talk is because I felt like giving you a chance to redeem yourself. But my patience is running thin already.”
The criminal in front of her just smirked, not believing a word she said. I wouldn’t either if our roles were reversed, to be honest. I heard a muffled bang from one-way mirror behind me – Ruby was probably going berserk in the observation room. I hoped she wouldn’t be so mad as to rush in here and try to beat the confession out of the assassin...
Luckily, my friend managed to get a hold of herself. We continued our pointless standoff with the criminal uninterrupted for the next ten minutes. Detective Seeker tried to fool him with a few more bluffs, but he was silent all the while, only displaying a mocking smile at her pitiful attempts. His infuriating smile was slowly driving me nuts, so I finally decided it was enough.
Thankfully, the detective was thinking along the same lines. With a final deadly stare at the incomprehensible criminal, she got up and helped me out of my chair. We were leaving the room when the pony behind us said ominously:
“You won’t get away with just a hurt leg the next time.”
I felt my heart stop for a moment as I realized the harsh truth. Even though I knew he wouldn’t be able to hurt me personally, others would come in his stead…the detective let me out first and then turned around to answer.
“I’ll add death threats to your list of crimes,” she said, slamming the door forcefully.
Ruby rushed out of the second room a moment later, trembling with fury. I was frustrated with the pony myself, but I still put a hoof on her back and patted her a few times in my clumsy attempt to calm her down. It worked though – she looked at me and in the next moment I was embraced in a tight hug.
“Don’t worry, Sunny. I won’t let him or his friends ever hurt you again,” she promised me with conviction in her voice.
I relaxed in her hug, letting the tension from meeting my attacker and being threatened by him leave my body. A polite cough from the detective reminded us of her existence and we broke up our long hug, blushing slightly. She looked at both of us for a few moments and then nodded to herself.
“Right. So, bringing you along didn’t go as well as I hoped,” she told me with disappointment. “At least I can rule out a simple robbery for certain now. Thanks for your help, though. I’ll keep you updated on any progress in my investigation.”
“Good,” Ruby said, satisfied. “Have you found out who this stallion is yet?”
Seeker shook her head. She led us to the way out, while sharing everything she knew about him, which was close to nothing.
“He’s going to be sent to Canterlot, since we don’t have a full-time prison in Ponyville. They have a big database on the known criminals there – if he’s in it, they’re going to send this information to me. But I’ve done all I could for now.”
Ruby wasn’t happy about that, but she behaved as she promised. We passed the police officer at the counter, who followed Ruby with an annoyed stare, and got out into the fresh air outside. The detective mare said her goodbyes and I thanked her for her efforts on the investigation, even though Ruby had quite a low opinion about its results so far. I silently agreed with my friend, but it wasn’t a reason to be rude. After all, the detective had truly done all she could in her position.
It was still early in the day and I was feeling energetic despite my injuries, so I felt it was a good time to pay a visit to Rarity. I hoped Ruby wouldn’t freak out when I shared my plans with her. Even though she had apologized to Rarity and there was an official peace established between them, they weren’t close to being friends. I only needed to figure out how far they were from being ones.
“Sorry for being so rotten, Sunny,” Ruby said, drooping her ears in shame. “I just don’t want to lose you again because of that nasty doctor…”
Her words made me feel a little guilty for being annoyed with her. I gave her a friendly hug, assuring her that I wasn’t mad at her and completely understood her emotions.
“So, shall we return to the castle now?” Ruby asked finally. “You’re probably tired.”
“There is actually some place I wanted to visit first,” I said with some hesitation. Ruby looked at me questioningly and I spilled the beans. “It’s Rarity. I would understand if you didn’t want to come with me.”
“Oh,” was all Ruby said. I could see it in her eyes that she wasn’t excited at all about my idea, but she went along with me anyway, promising to be at her best.
We made a quick stop to use a restroom in a small cafe on our way. Thinking of Rarity made us both very self-conscious and we spent ten whole minutes bringing our manes and tails into presentable order. Good thing Ruby had a saddlebag on her with a hairbrush that she generously shared with me. I put it in my mental checklist as a priority to get myself a saddlebag too.
After that, we found Rarity’s boutique. It didn’t take us nearly as long as finding the police station, since we both had been there before with Spike. The closed sign was still on the door, but Rarity had told me to ignore it, so I carefully knocked on it with my leg cast.
The beautiful owner answered fast, looking as great as in the last visit. Rarity let us both in, throwing a quick worried glance Ruby’s way, which thankfully went unnoticed by the mare. She didn’t express her worry in the polite and warm way she greeted both of us though, acting as if the fight between the two of them had never happened.
“I’m terribly sorry for what happened to you, darling,” Rarity told me after the greetings were out of the way. She looked at my injured leg with a compassionate frown. “I hope you’re not in too much pain.”
I assured her that I wasn’t, which was the honest truth. I was lucky Starlight had saved me before the assassin could finish his job or leave me with more serious injuries.
We proceeded deeper into the store, where Rarity showed us a few cozy chairs, along with a coffee table made of glass. She offered us some tea and I agreed, though I already imagined the trouble I would have with trying to drink it with one hoof. Ruby politely refused the beverage. I hoped it was because she genuinely didn’t want tea, not because it was an elaborate way to insult our host.
While Rarity was off preparing the drinks, I asked Ruby about her reasons. She dismissed my concerns out of hoof, claiming that everything was fine, but I decided to remain on guard nonetheless.
Rarity returned, holding two steaming cups in her blue magic aura and settled one on the table in front of me. I nodded my thanks and just stared at it, trying to come up with a way to drink it without spilling the content all over my coat.
“Did you get the letter you were waiting for?” I asked, distracting her from noticing my troubles, but regretted my decision instantly.
That very letter sparked the fight yesterday and here I was, bringing it up right off the bat…Rarity tensed up almost unnoticeably, but she answered in a casual way.
“I’m afraid not, but thanks for asking, dear,” she smiled warmly. “But let’s talk about you instead. I promised to make something for you; have you decided what kind of garment you would like?”
I checked on Ruby, who just sat with a neutral expression doing nothing, before thinking of the answer. To be honest, I hadn’t even considered that before. I guess I just thought Rarity would make something random for me, but if I got to choose…
“Can you make me a saddlebag?” I asked hopefully. It was the perfect decision. It wouldn’t be too big and expensive and it was something I really needed, unlike clothes, which were pretty much useless for me now. I knew better than to mention the last reason to Rarity, though.
She was surprised by my choice at first, but she assured me that even though she didn’t make saddlebags on a regular basis, she would be only too happy to make one for me. It would be both stylish and practical, which suited me just fine.
The dressmaker took some measurements of me, though I couldn’t imagine why she would need them for a saddlebag. But she was the professional here, so I refrained from complaining. She was done quickly anyway.
With that business taken care of, we just chatted about various things. Rarity was pleasant to talk to and I had learned a lot from her about the inhabitants of Ponyville. At some point, she finally noticed that I hadn’t touched my tea, which had gone cold already.
“Sorry,” I said, casting my eyes down. “It’s just…”
“Having trouble with your hooves?” Rarity guessed. “As I understood from Spike’s tale, you used to be just like your friend Marcus and you don’t remember anything about being a pony, is that correct?” she waited for my nod and continued. “As a unicorn, you don’t have to learn to manipulate the objects with your hooves, since we can use magic for that. Have you already tried using it?”
I decided that I was feeling good enough for a demonstration. Silently praying, I carefully gripped the cup in my magic and slowly levitated it to the same level as my mouth. Rather than risking moving it towards my lips, I leaned forward and took a sip. Then I settled the cup back on the table.
“Excellent, darling!” Rarity praised my limited success and I smiled.
“Yeah, good job, Sunny,” Ruby, sitting silently the whole time, finally said something. I nodded to both of them, grateful for the encouragement.
From now on, I decided to include Ruby in the conversation, asking her various questions. She started to open up after a while. As soon as she did that though, our talk turned to more serious matters.
Ruby shared her frustration at the local police for their inability to solve the crime committed against me. Rarity was nodding politely, not taking any sides to avoid a possible argument. I silently praised her for this wise decision.
“You know, I may actually be able to help you with this one,” Rarity said suddenly. “The Canterlot Police chief’s wife is a regular client in my boutique there. I’m sure I can arrange for a more thorough and quicker search of the assassin’s identity. Or even make an inquiry about this doctor fellow himself, if you’re sure he’s the one behind it.”
Though Twilight had already promised to find out more about the Doctor herself, I knew she was busy with the mirror portal and her royal duties, so I gratefully accepted Rarity’s offer after she assured it wouldn’t cause her any trouble.
I noted how Ruby looked much more relaxed in Rarity’s presence. I hoped whatever issue she had with her had dissipated by spending the afternoon together.
We said our goodbyes after I had finished my tea. Rarity told me that my saddlebag would be ready within a week and she would bring it to the castle personally when it was ready. Without any further delay, Ruby and I returned to the castle. I felt tired and wanted to take a nap, while Ruby promised to make something good for dinner by the time I’d wake up. I was looking forward to it.
***
The next week flew by faster than I knew it. I got better at the simplest spells and my head didn’t even hurt anymore when I levitated the objects around the room. Starlight was proud of my success, but we weren’t advancing to more serious magic yet. I should tackle the two main issues before we went there, she said.
The first one was my lack of knowledge of the written language, which stopped me from reading the books Twilight had recommended me on the subject, and the second was that my magic simply wasn’t strong enough yet – I needed more practice and training to be able to cast more demanding spells. If I tried to do such a spell now, I would fall over from exhaustion in the middle of it. I was already working on solving those two problems. Along with magical lessons, Starlight was also teaching me to read and my daily magic exercises made my magic grow stronger.
Ruby was doing well too. She took her new job to heart and was cooking delicious meals for us every day. I hoped she would keep up her good work after the ponies for Twilight’s new guard arrived. They would be staying at the castle, so Ruby would have to feed more hungry mouths than now and that could hurt the quality of her cooking.
Only Marcus hadn’t managed to find anything to do yet. He’d visited our magical lessons with Starlight, but quickly grew bored of them. I guess it wasn’t as exciting for him to look at someone else doing magic, while all he could do is watch. Instead, he spent his time with Spike and a pony named Big Mac when they were free from their own duties. They had a little “guy’s club” as they called it. When they were busy though, Marcus was just walking around town on Twilight’s advice, so that the townsponies could get used to him. He tried to find some kind of job, but with no luck. Marcus was too proud for that, but I planned to ask Twilight to help him in secret.
The princess herself was still researching the mirror without any success. Her study of it was taking up more and more of her time to the point that Spike became worried it would interfere with her other duties. To be honest, Twilight seemed kind of obsessed with it and every conversation with her eventually slipped to the topic of the mirror. Whatever she tried – she couldn’t reactivate it.
“Twilight, this mirror project is driving you crazy,” Starlight brought up the issue with her usual tact at our breakfast together. “You should take some time off to clear your head.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she dismissed her friend’s concerns out of hoof. “I’m on the verge of cracking its secrets, I can feel it.”
“The only thing that’s going to crack is your sanity,” Starlight retorted.
Twilight just snorted and returned to her meal, while Starlight and Spike exchanged worried looks. I wished Marcus had said something to support Starlight, but I knew he was conflicted on the issue. He obviously didn’t want Twilight to hurt herself trying to get him home, but at the same time he desperately wanted to go back himself.
It was hard being the only member of your species in an alien world, where everypony treated you more as an exotic wonder than as a real person. Spike was the only one who could understand how it felt and that was why he had become best friends with Marcus.
After breakfast was done, I carried on with the day as per usual, right until the evening, when Rarity’s arrival broke my daily routine. She brought me the gift she had promised – a beautiful saddlebag. It felt soft on my back and held firmly. It was sky blue, since I had mentioned to Rarity my fondness for that particular color. I trotted around with it loaded with various things to test its usability, though I didn’t risk jumping up and down to test it even further: I could already use my injured foreleg for walking, but it wasn’t fully recovered.
The gift was amazing. I expressed my gratitude by embracing Rarity in a hug, which she was only too happy to receive, even though I got some weird glances from Ruby after that.
“I wanted to embroider your cutie mark on it, but then I remembered you don’t have one yet…” Rarity mentioned after the hug. “Don’t worry, though. I’m going to do it when you get one!”
I glanced back at my empty flank. The lack of a cutie mark bothered me a little. Everypony my age already had one and I was supposed to have one too if it wasn’t for the mirror. Even Starlight, who had experience with removing cutie marks, couldn’t tell if it was possible to recover my old cutie mark or get a new one.
“Oh, I’m sorry for upsetting you,” Rarity gasped, noticing my sullen expression. “Perhaps I should introduce you to my sister Sweetie Belle. If anypony would understand your concerns, it’s her and her friends.”
We spent the rest of the evening together in town, with Ruby coming along with us. Rarity took us to a nice cafe where we got ourselves some hayburgers. Ruby wanted to pay for them herself, since she had some money from working for Twilight now, but Rarity had nothing of it, insisting it was her treat for her new friends. I appreciated her gesture, but I couldn’t say the same for my azure friend.
“I got some news for you both,” she said as we enjoyed our burgers. “The Canterlot Police figured out the identity of your attacker as well as discovering the current location of the Doctor.”
My ears perked up and moved in her direction, waiting for her to continue, and Ruby grew excited as well. She had a small frown on her face though.
“Why didn’t you mention this from the start?” Ruby asked half-accusingly.
Rarity’s ears drooped slightly as she tried to justify herself in front of Ruby.
“I just didn’t want to ruin this beautiful evening with such a dark topic…” she said with a sigh. “But seeing as it’s coming to an end, I felt like this is an appropriate time to share the news with you, don’t you agree?”
Fortunately, Ruby agreed. Or maybe she was just in a hurry to find out the news and didn’t want to delay it with arguing.
“Doctor Nightfall Shade is currently on a business trip in Manehattan. He’s running some kind of trading company now. As of our attacker, he is…” Rarity stopped mid-sentence, having a sudden craving for a glass of water, which she gulped down painfully slowly. I could swear she was enjoying every moment of our suspense. “Sorry. Your attacker’s real name is Stealth Blade and he is also from Manehattan, a wanted criminal for a whole list of crimes there, no less. What a striking coincidence, I know.”
Ruby hit the table with her hoof, almost breaking it. The eyes of the other customers shot in our direction and I smiled sheepishly at them, hoping they would return to minding their own business. Ruby ignored all of this though, staring at me with a weird grin on her face.
“I knew the Doctor was involved and now we have proof!” she exclaimed. “The authorities must do something about it immediately!”
Rarity waited until the commotion caused by Ruby’s behavior calmed down before gently bursting her bubble.
“As much as I share your excitement, darling, I just don’t see how it would be enough to convince the authorities to act. Two ponies being in the same city at the same time won’t prove anything,” Rarity explained to my friend, who fell back onto her chair in disappointment.
“Yeah…I guess you’re right,” Ruby agreed to my surprise and relief.
“And I could help you with that one too,” Rarity said with a mysterious smile. “You see, I still haven’t got the letter I was waiting for, so I plan to make a trip to Manehattan personally to see what’s wrong.”
“How would that help us in any way?” my friend asked, though I had already guessed what Rarity was implying.
“Why, you two are welcome to come with me, of course,” she said. “Once I finish my business, we can find this Doctor and find out what he’s up to firsthoof.”
It was nice of her to offer to help us, but I wasn’t sure it was such a good idea, even though Ruby looked ecstatic after hearing it. The Doctor had already proved to be dangerous and had connections with criminals. It would be wiser to let the police deal with him.
Then again, he got away after making me disappear six years ago with only a small number of ponies, like Ruby, suspecting the truth. He had a spotless reputation and was a well-respected scientist, so it was doubtful the attempt on my life would somehow be connected to him.
“I need to talk with Twilight first,” I finally shared my thoughts with friends. “Maybe she can influence the police to check on the Doctor in the light of our findings.”
“Good idea,” nodded Rarity with approval. “Twilight definitely should know about this. I’m leaving for Manehattan in three days, but I need to buy the tickets in advance, so tell me your decision as soon as possible.”
After the big news was out of the way, the rest of the evening passed with us having fun. I proudly demonstrated my improved levitation skills to Rarity by lifting all of our plates into the air and rotating them around the table. My success was short-lived and I had to apologize in embarrassment when the waiter asked me to stop. Rarity and Ruby both giggled at the finale of my performance.
We left the cafe late when it was about to close for the day. Ruby and I walked Rarity to her boutique through the dusky streets of Ponyville. I thanked Rarity for the great evening and her amazing gift – the saddlebag on my back – and we said our goodbyes to each other.
The first thing I did when we returned to the castle was to find Twilight. It wasn’t hard to do – she spent most of the time in her research lab doing Celestia knows what with the magical mirror. She was there now.
Twilight listened absent-mindedly while reading a book as I was telling her about the Doctor’s possible connection to the assassin, but she turned her full attention to me when I got to the part about us going to Manehattan to investigate him personally.
Her thoughts on the matter were exactly as my own – it was a bad idea.
“If he really is behind the attack, you going to Manehattan would be a golden opportunity for him to strike again,” Twilight told me in a serious voice. “Starlight won’t be there to save you again and as much as I love Rarity, she won’t be able to protect you against another assassin.”
“Starlight can go with us,” Ruby brushed her concerns away. “Unless you can get the police to investigate the Doctor, we must do it ourselves.”
“Well, I can ask them nicely, but I don’t have any official power over them, sorry,” Twilight said, drooping her ears. “Even I am having a hard time believing it’s really him…I’ve read a paper he wrote about Starswirl the Bearded…”
“But I’m not dismissing the possibility out of hoof,” she assured Ruby, seeing her frowny expression after her words.
“If even you have doubts, then I really see no other way than to find more proof ourselves,” I said reluctantly. “If he still holds a grudge after six years for some reason, then he won’t stop after one failed attempt. I have to risk the trip to Manehattan.” I sighed. “If only I could remember the reason why he hates me so much…”
“I thought about it, actually,” Twilight said, “But I couldn’t find any memory spells in my books, which is no surprise. This kind of magic is forbidden and for a good reason. You see, in the 6th century of Celestia’s Rule, there was—”
“Not important now,” Ruby interrupted her. “Obviously, somepony still knows those spells if they used them on Sundae. There must be something we can do.”
“Y-yes, I agree,” Twilight frowned, not happy with the interruption, but deciding not to make an issue out of it. “The only ponies I know who could help is either Celestia herself or Zecora. I’m going to send Celestia a letter right now and if she can’t help, we can visit Zecora tomorrow.”
I’d heard about Zecora before. She lived in the Everfree Forest everypony was so terrified of and knew a great deal about potions. After all I’d heard about the forest, I had no desire to venture in it, so I put my hopes on Celestia’s help.
We had to move our plans for tomorrow when Twilight had realized how late it was. Spike was already sleeping in his bedroom, with Celestia probably doing the same in Canterlot, and going to Zecora now was obviously out of the question.
I couldn’t suppress a big yawn myself thinking about the other sleeping ponies, so I called it a day and went to bed, wishing goodnight to my friends. I was nervous about tomorrow – what if I got my memories back? Would it change my impression on Equestria and myself? I still fell asleep quickly despite all my worries.