//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The Awakened // Story: Of Loyalty and Chaos // by PxDnNinja //------------------------------// Twilight stood outside of the room speaking with the doctor, explaining what all the shouting had been and what they had found out about the patient after he had awoken and...calmed down. Things had started rough, but once they calmed the panicked pony they were finally able to get some answers. Sort of.... ------------------------------- *Earlier* "AHHHH!" the pony shouted in the bed at the sight of Rainbow Dash and Twilight in his room. "AHHHH!" Rainbow Dash emulated his scream as she leaped back. The pony in the bed had his eyes wide open clearly in a flight or fight mentality. 'What's going on! Where am I! Who are these....ponies?' The pony in the bed tried to think back to anything prior to waking up and was hit with massive pains in his head. "Ouch!" Grabbing at his head he closed his eyes fighting back the pain. "Calm down, we aren't here to hurt you. You fell pretty far and are at the clinic." Twilight explained in a calm voice, approaching the pony slowly. The last thing she wanted to do was spook him further into either injuring himself, or worse. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and that is Rainbow Dash. We are here to help. What's your name?" She asked as friendly as possible. A name could at least help find out where this pegasus came from. A moment passed before the pegasus in question opened his eyes and lowered his front legs from his face to look at Twilight. There was still a panic in his eyes, but not at them like before. Something else was panicking him. "My name?" He tried to remember, but again the pain came. Twilight could tell the moment he was put in pain. She raised her hoof and was about to console him when he spoke up again. "I can't remember. I can't remember anything, just pain." He comments, somewhat to himself. Looked down at his front hooves, then over to his bandaged wing, a bit of shock registered on his face. "What am I?" He asked, genuinely confused. He looked up at his visitors, if that's what you could call them, and noticed the purple one had a horn. Slowly, he reached up and felt his own head. He was smooth where she wasn't. His attention shifted to the cyan pony and saw she had no horn, but wings like his. During his moment of self discovery, Twilight and Dash glanced at each other. The both heard him clearly. Not only did he not know his name, but not even that he was a pegasus? Dash noticed him look to the two of them then to himself and realized she might be the better one to answer. "You don't know? You're a pegasus like me." She said stepping forward. Twilight eased back, hoping Dash could pull this pony out of his shell a bit for more information. "A pegasus?" He repeated. The word didn't sound familiar, but also sounded right. The cyan pegasus, Dash if he recalled from what the other one said, looked very similar to him aside from color, so he didn't seem to have anything wrong, other than bandages. "It sounds right, but why am I here? How did I get hurt, Dash was it?" He asked, verifying her name. She smiled and moved the rest of the way beside his bed. "Yep, Rainbow Dash. Best young flier in all of Equestria. And judging by your injuries, you fell from a HUGE height. I bet trying to do some stunt you saw me do at some point!" She explained, clearly excited to be on a topic she was very familiar with. Unfortunately the mystery pony just looked at her. "Sorry, never heard of you." He said, a bit more bluntly than even he had intended. Dash's ears drooped a bit at his comment, but before anything else he quickly added, "But to be fair, I can't remember anything. So perhaps you are right. I assume we can fly, and stunts sound like fun to me." He added, and it was true. The idea of flying around performing stunts excited him a bit. It was the first thing he had thought after waking that wasn't panic invoking or just plain confusing. Dash grinned at his comment, realizing his lack of knowing about her had a logical reason. She would just have to teach him who she was later. "It sounds to me like you have some severe case of amnesia. I have never heard of it hitting somepony this hard or completely. But it does explain why you can move and speak at least." Twilight spoke again. Amnesia was the only thing she could think of explaining his memory loss. Why he didn't know he was a pegasus was a bit extreme, but she assumed not impossible. "Amnesia huh? I guess that makes sense. Will it wear off?" He asked, his voice finally leveling off from the panic that it had before. He had a surprisingly deep voice. It wasn't purely bass, but he clearly could project his voice if needed, perhaps with the Royal Canterlot Voice being quite easy. "Sadly there is no telling. You could remember everything tomorrow, or...." Twilight faded off, not wanting to say the rest, but the pony understood. "Or it might be gone forever. Who I was and all that." He stated. It wasn't even a question. He knew immediately what she was avoiding saying. 'My history could be gone forever. Who I was, what I have learned. Everything...' He thought, considering everything it meant. His instinct was to panic. Everything gone forever was a terrifying thought, but as quickly as panic tried to take hold he realized it didn't bother him as much as it should. 'I can't miss what I can't remember.' He had nothing at the edge of his mind teasing him with memories no longer there, it was just blank. Blank and pain when he thought about it. Twilight was ready to calm him when the panic hit again, but was surprised that he simply laid back in be once again and looked out towards the window on the wall behind Dash. The room was quite for a moment while all three thought about it. "Well, I guess until then I might as well make the best of it." He finally said. His acceptance of the situation surprised Twilight, but Dash just grinned. "Heck yeah. That's the spirit. Don't let it get you down. Besides, you are starting out strong. Got the best flier and magic user in Equestria as friends, so don't even worry about it! Gotta get a name for you though. What do you want to be called? All we know is you crashed and have amnesia." Dash said, no worry in her voice about bringing up basically every bad thing in this pony's life as far as he could remember. He just grinned a bit as well though clearly taking it in stride. 'Oh great. It's good he doesn't seem to be down about this, but that look strikes of Rainbow. Just what we need, another Dash flying around' Twilight thought before he answered Dash. "True, and Crash nor Amnesia sound like good names." He looked around the room but nothing sparked his memories. Dash was doing the same, the duo of pegasi wearing similar expressions of thought. Twilight thought back to the dual Dash scenario, but grinned a bit as well. "Well, IF you were trying a stunt, you would have had some good speed built up, so perhaps a speed based name." Dash offered. The pony glanced at her and after a moment nodded. "Sure. That make sense. Speed won't work though, and you already are Dash." He said, grinning. Dash grinned as well, partly because of the joke, and partly because this pegasus was clearly getting over his quietness from earlier. She had been worried it was going to turn out to another Fluttershy. Not that she had issue with her dear friend, but two ultra shy ponies might just drive Dash crazy. "Well, how about Swift? It's a synonym for Speed." Twilight offered, digging into her thesaurus-like knowledge. Dash and the pony glanced at her, then to each other. "Swift. I like it." Dash said, offering up her opinion. Moments later, the pony nodded in agreement. "Agreed. We will go with that. Hopefully I can live up to the name." The pony, now Swift, stated. This helped him feel much better than he expected. He had a name. An identity. It might not be much yet, but it was better than just being "that pony". "Oh don't worry. We get you out of here and I'll make sure you live up to that name. Can't have a pegasus named Swift in our town that can't fly almost as good as the great Rainbow Dash!" Dash said, part yelling at the end and striking her Wonderbolts pose. Swift joined her in her exuberance as Twilight walked to the door. "Well, you two can discuss flying, or whatever. I need to go report to the doctor. I'm sure he will have several questions now that you are awake." She explained as she opened the door. "Thank you, Twilight." Swift said, his voice dropping to a very serious tone. He had only just met these ponies, but they had helped him so much he didn't want them to think he wasn't appreciative. Twilight picked up on this as well and smiled back to him. "You're very welcome. Now hurry and get better. I'm sure Pinky Pie will be excited for yet another reason to party." She said as she walked out of the office leaving the two pegasi alone. ----------------------------- "So his name is Swift?" The doctor asked after Twilight explained what had happened after Swift had awoken. "For now. Like I said, he seems to have severe case of Amnesia. Your paperwork said he had a light concussion, but that shouldn't be enough for such severe memory loss." Twilight explained. She was far from a doctor, but she had read a few books on such things, moreso after meeting Rainbow Dash with her tendency to crash, and felt she had a solid grasp of this area. "Very true. That concussion has already gone down slightly. By tomorrow he should be fine, aside from the injured wing. That will take a few days to heal up." The doctor explained, glancing down the hall. Twilight noticed the clinic seemed to be a bit busy and the doctor clearly had places he needed to be. "So you will release him tomorrow then?" Twilight asked. "Most likely. Amnesia isn't something we can treat, so unless he has pressing medical issues we will release him as soon as possible to make room. I don't foresee any complications though." The doctor explained, bringing his attention back to Twilight. She nodded in understanding before the doctor continued. "I'll send a nurse to check up on the patient..." he started. "Swift." Twilight interrupted the doctor, who gave her an odd look. "He brightened up once he had a name for himself. I think it keeps him from feeling lost." She explained, feeling bad for interrupting the doctor. He smiled warmly, showing he understood what she meant. "...to check up on Swift soon. Unfortunately I need to go see to an earth pony foal that seems to think he was a pegasus as well and climbed a tree. Ponyville is raining ponies today it seems." He said as a joke before turning to walk off. Twilight grinned and hoped the young pony was ok, but she had more pressing matters. She had been out here for a while talking to the doctor, leaving Swift along with Rainbow Dash and a brain blank of memories. "Uh oh...." Twilight didn't want to think of what Dash was convincing him of, or worse, talking him into. The thought of two Rainbow Dashes crossed her mind again. "I better go make sure everything is ok, and bring Swift the news." ------------------------------------------ AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok, sorry for the slow build up. Really want to show Swifts predicament and mindset clearly, so hopefully you are enjoying it so far. Coming Soon: What HAS Dash been saying while Twilight was gone, and how does Swift deal outside of the Clinic. Stay tuned. :)