I was bitterly stewing when a pair of ponies came to visit me. I had just sent a letter to Zephyr Heights to order a new pair of glasses. I still had to figure out what the hay I was doing in Bridlewood Forest. My notebook was probably stolen, but hopefully I had brought my journal, which would have something useful. If I could figure out where I was supposed to be staying. “Hey, Peace!” one of the ponies, a pink mare with a blue mane, said cheerily.
I squinted to see her better. I managed to spot the horn on her forehead. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember you,” I said. “Remind me your name?”
“The nurse explained it all,” the mare said. “But we were friends once, so I’m sure we can be friends again. My name is Izzy Moonbow.”
“And I’m Sunny Starscout,” the other pony said, a mare with an orange coat and a magenta mane.
“So how did we meet?” I said.
“You helped me find some roses for some flower crowns I was making,” Izzy said. “Later I introduced you to Sunny, who’s been my friend for a while now.”
“You and I also saw each other in the library,” Sunny said. Squinting, I didn’t see a horn on her head. At her sides… were those saddlebags? Were there wings underneath? I couldn’t tell, but she certainly wasn’t a unicorn.
“So, what did we do as friends?” I said. “Raid the library for books about flowers?”
“Well… we didn’t do a lot of ‘hanging out,’ exactly,” Izzy said. “More of just we kept bumping into each other. You were always too busy.”
“I see,” I said. Were they really friends, or more of acquaintances? “Well, I appreciate the visit, but I kind of want to be alone right now.”
“Oh,” Izzy said. She deflated a little bit.
“If it helps, I kind of know what it feels like to lose everything all at once,” Sunny said. “My home was wrecked by a childhood friend of mine in a fit of rage. Most of my memories of my dad were in there. I wanted to be left alone, at first. But being alone makes it worse. I found that doing some of your favorite activities with a friend helps.” I wordlessly gestured to my burned wing. Sunny winced. “Having somepony around to just listen as you talk out your problems helps, too.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said. “But I still want to be left alone for now.”
“Alright,” Sunny said. “We’ll come back later, though.” She turned to leave, and she nudged Izzy, who turned to follow her.
“Oh, wait!” Izzy said, stopping. “Is there anything we can get you, Peace? A book, or a sandwich, or something?”
“Well, I’m vegan,” I said. “So the sandwich might be hard. As for books, the book I really want right now is my church’s scriptures. But I doubt they’d have them in the Bridlewood library.”
“Would you have brought a copy with you?” Izzy said.
“Undoubtedly,” I said.
“Do you know where you were staying?”
I shook my head. “My hippocampus is thoroughly fried.”
“Well, let’s see…” Izzy said. “I can ask around and find out where you were staying. I bet Alphabittle knows. Now, the crooks probably took any keys you had, but I’d gladly pay for another copy. What do those scriptures look like?”
“Hang on,” I said. “You can’t just… go through my stuff. I don’t remember what I had, so I wouldn’t know if you took anything.”
“Oh, I… see,” Izzy said, looking down. Once again it seemed she deflated, but worse this time. I winced. She came here as a friend, and I just implied that she could rob me. But I didn’t know her at all, and I didn’t know what she could do with that horn. I had lost enough already.
“If you manage to figure out where I was staying, please come back and tell me,” I said. “I do need to know. But I’ll get my own stuff from there once I’ve healed.”
“Okay,” Izzy said glumly. “Get better soon.”
“Thank you,” I said. The two ponies disappeared behind the curtains.
* * *
Later I was praying, and I felt bad for how I had reacted to Sunny and particularly Izzy. Ministering to the sick was a commandment of paramount importance, and that was exactly what they had tried to do. When I heard hooves coming towards my bed, I thought I might have the chance to apologize. But it wasn’t Sunny or Izzy. It was a pony with a bay coat and a gray mane. “Do you remember me?” she said. I didn’t recognize her voice, and I squinted to see the horn on her head. In my memory, I didn’t know any unicorns.
“No,” I said. “Sorry.”
“Why apologize?” the unicorn said. “Whose fault was it?”
“The police suspect it was unicorn criminals,” I said.
“Did you do anything wrong, then?”
“No,” I said. “Remind me your name?”
“How about you call me Dust?” she said.
“Hello, Dust,” I said. “Nice to meet you, again.”
“Do you remember what you were doing in Bridlewood?” Dust asked.
“Not at all,” I said.
“Would you like some help?”
I sat up straighter in the bed. “What do you mean?”
Dust reached into her saddlebag and started placing book after book on the side table. “Can you read without your glasses?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m nearsighted.”
“Could you see yourself reading any of these?” Dust said. I glanced at the title of the first one. Identifying Edible Plants of the Forest. “Would you believe you were taking notes from these to compile a book cataloguing the unique species of Bridlewood Forest in pegasus botany terms?”
“That certainly sounds like something I would do,” I said.
“And what if I said you spent a lot of time in the herbarium under the library?” Dust said. “You didn’t explain everything to me, but would this help you get started at least?”
“Absolutely!” I said, getting excited. “Thank you! Now I don’t have to start from scratch in figuring out what the hay I’m doing here. Tell me, how did we know each other? What did I do to deserve your help?”
“Deserve?” Dust said. “Doesn’t everypony who needs help deserve it?”
“I suppose you’re right,” I said.
“What’s a librarian’s job, if not to distribute knowledge?” Dust said. “You were asking important scientific questions, so how could I not help?”
“How did you even know I needed help?” I said.
“Do you know who Izzy Moonbow is?” Dust said.
“She told you?” I said. I sighed heavily.
“What’s wrong?”
“She came to visit me earlier, and I… didn’t treat her well,” I said. “I was feeling angry about what happened.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Dust said. “Is there anything else you need from me?”
“A blank spiral-bound notebook?” I said. “I might as well start… relearning what I’ve unlearned.”
“Do you mind if I come back with that tomorrow?” Dust said.
“You’re under no obligation to run my errands,” I said. “So if you bring me that tomorrow, I can be nothing but grateful.”
“Can you get a notebook yourself?” Dust said.
“Um… not really,” I said, pointing to my wrapped-up wing. “I’m not supposed to leave until the risk of infection is down.”
“So how could I not help?” Dust said. “Isn’t it a moral obligation?” Something about the way this pony talked was strange, but I couldn’t place my hoof on what. “Anyway, good luck in your research.”
“Thank you so much!” I said as Dust departed behind the curtain.
* * *
Izzy came back the next day bouncy and bubbly. Sunny was behind her. “Hey, Izzy,” I said. “Hey, Sunny.”
“So, good news,” Izzy said. “I found the hotel you were staying at and got the room number.” She placed a folded paper on the side table.
“Thank you,” I said.
“I also made… Da-da-da-nah!” She retrieved something from her saddlebag with magic. “A dove plushie! Just like your cutie mark.” With levitation, she placed the dove next to me on the bed. It was small, about the size of my hoof.
“You made this… for me?” I said. “It’s so cute. Thank you.” My earlier mistreatment of her could not go uncorrected. She was too sweet not to like. “I’m sorry for not trusting you earlier. You’re clearly a dependable friend. If you’re still willing to go through my stuff to find my scriptures, you’re welcome to do so.”
“No problem,” Izzy said. “What do they look like?”
“It’s just one, really thick book,” I said. “It’s black, and it reads ‘Holy Scriptures’ on the spine.”
“Got it,” Izzy said. “I’ll go to the hotel and find them first thing after here.”
“You are an amazing friend,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Is there anything else we can do for you?” Sunny said.
I remembered what Sunny had said about talking through your problems with somepony else. But I still kind of wanted to be left alone. Social interaction was always draining to me, and I had nothing left to drain. “No, thanks,” I said. “You’ve done plenty.”
“Alright, then,” Sunny said. “Come on, Izzy.”
“We’ll be back soon with those scriptures,” Izzy said. She trotted out of the room humming a tune. Sunny turned to follow her. No, I needed to talk to her.
“Uh, Sunny,” I said quietly. She stopped. “I could use somepony to talk to. Somepony who would just listen and understand.”
I heard Izzy’s hoofsteps stop ahead. “You go ahead, Izzy,” Sunny said. “I’ll catch up.” Sunny closed the curtain and came near my bed. “I’m listening.” Now that she was closer, I could see clearly that she did not have wings. An earth pony, then. I had never met one before, in my memory. Unless… was Strawberry Sunrise an earth pony? I didn’t remember seeing a horn or wings. Either way, I certainly didn’t expect to see an earth pony in Bridlewood of all places.
I sighed. “I’m so frustrated,” I said. “If I was found in the forest with nothing on me, I was certainly robbed. I don’t go out without my glasses, my saddlebag, my notebook, and a scarf. Those are all going to be difficult to replace, obviously the notebook in particular. Also the scarf, if I had the pink scarf that matches my eyes. I spent a lot of time looking for a scarf that was the right shade of pink. I might have had some money on me. I don’t know.”
“That’s a lot to lose,” Sunny said. “And worth more to you than them.”
“The injury is irritating, too,” I said. “Fortunately, whatever balm the hospital is putting on my skin is really working. I don’t feel the burn unless I move. But I want to move! I want to go outside. I want to visit my hotel room and see what I left there. I want to go around Bridlewood and see the places and the plants. I want to breath outdoors air! I want to fly! Instead I’m stuck here.”
“Yeah, that’s rough,” Sunny said.
“The memory wipe is worse!” I said, getting heated. “There are all these ponies who know who I am, and I don’t know them. I don’t even remember arriving in Bridlewood. Everything since I got here is gone. I don’t know what I’m doing here! I remember I was applying for funding to do plant taxonomy in Bridlewood, so I guess I must have been funded. Whatever I learned in the time I’ve been here, it’s all gone! I have a really sharp memory, so for some unicorn to prance around and just take it all with magic is painful. What was I researching? How far did I get along? What did I learn? Did I write any of it down? Was it all in the notebook that got stolen? Basically, all the time I’ve been here is probably wasted.”
“I can’t even imagine what that’s like,” Sunny said.
“At least a pony named Dust helped me out,” I said. “She told me what books I was reading and taking notes from. But without my notes, I don’t really know what I’m trying to learn from these books. My proposal that I sent for funding was centered around field work, not library research.”
“Maybe you left something useful in your hotel,” Sunny said.
“And you know, that’s not even the worst part,” I said. “Everything else makes me frustrated, but this makes me angry.” I felt my face growing hot as I spoke. “The police officer said there was one other attack like this last week, and the victim was another pegasus. Whoever did this did it just because I’m a pegasus! I didn’t choose to be born with wings! You know, when the royals started talking with unicorn leaders, I was excited and happy. I chose to come to Bridlewood. It wasn’t just because I thought there would be a lot of new plant species here—okay, maybe it was mostly that. But I wanted to visit the unicorns. I was tired of all the fear-driven nonsense ponies in Zephyr Heights say about unicorns. I wanted to show that pegasi and unicorns could learn to be friends and get along. And then some unicorn had to sling a memory spell at me and prove me wrong.”
Sunny gasped softly at that last one. “I wouldn’t say that…”
“Isn’t your job to listen while I rant?” I said.
“Well, yes, but… Please, don’t let a few unicorns’ actions define your perception of every unicorn. All you’d do by saying that pegasi and unicorns can’t get along is prove your attacker right.”
I growled in frustration. “You’re right, of course,” I said. “Izzy is a unicorn, and she’s been practically a ministering angel. Dust has helped, too. I just want somewhere to direct my anger, and I don’t even know who attacked me.”
“I know what it’s like to hold anger for somepony,” Sunny said. “The pony who demolished my house, well… I’m still trying to avoid him. I know I should go talk to him, forgive him. But it just isn’t that easy.”
“Well, nopony’s perfect,” I said. “But I should be better. I know what God has said about forgiving: ‘Of you it is required to forgive all ponies.’ I can’t keep on being angry knowing that it’s wrong to do so. The unicorns I’ve met that I actually remember have all been pretty nice. And, you know… the earth ponies I’ve met aren’t so bad either.”
“Thanks,” Sunny said.
“Thank you for listening,” I said. “You should go catch up with Izzy.”
“Alright,” Sunny said. “Izzy and I will be visiting you at least until you’re out of the hospital. So let me know if you ever want to talk again.”
“I will,” I said.
“I hope you figure out what research you were doing,” Sunny said. “Good luck.” She disappeared behind the curtain.