//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Consciousness // Story: The Adventures of Fragment // by A Dark Reminder //------------------------------// One moment it was just quiet darkness, then, I felt pain throughout my body. Especially in the back of my head and left foreleg. “Ggggggguuuuuurrrrrr…” I groaned in pain as I lied on the floor. I opened my eyes and was met with painfully bright light. I shut my eyes and moved a hoof to my face in an attempt to block the light I opened my eyes again and allowed them to adjusted, after they did I began to take in my surroundings. I looked at the white floor and saw what appeared to be dried blood around me. Seeing this bothered me, so I looked further and could see bits of broken glass and wood. Some of which were stained by blood as well. Pain coursed through my body as I moved. I slowly tried to get up but failed and fell back down. Why am I in so much pain? I tried to get up again, but the pain only grew as I moved, especially in my left foreleg. “What in…?” I groaned again as I tried and failed to stand I looked around more, starting with the area around me. Before examining the room further, I began to examine myself. Maybe figure out why I'm in so much pain. I started with my left foreleg, given that it was in the most pain. I saw that my leg was pitch black and hard as bone. There were holes in the lower part of it, though they appeared to be natural. As I brought my gaze to the upper part of the leg, I saw a large crack just above my knee with a lot of dried blood around it. Oh great... I tried to stand again but I hadn't prepared myself, and when more pressure was put on my leg the pain was too much and I fell to the floor. And as a result the pain just sharpened. “OW!” I yelled as I collapsed. Okay, let's be more careful of that. I thought to myself. As I started to stand again, I saw some fresh blood flowing down my leg. Well this is getting worse. Being mindful of my leg, I continued looking around to examine my surroundings as I stood. I saw a few ponikins, mirrors, rolls of fabric, and a chest of gemstones. Where am I? A clothing store? A boutique maybe? Resuming the evaluation of my surroundings, I saw what at first looked like a spotlight shining on where I was. My eyes followed the light up to the ceiling and saw that the light was coming in through a hole. Well that explains the debris. Did I crash into this place or something? Taking yet another look around, I saw the mirrors again. Maybe I'll get a better idea as to why I'm in so much pain and overall condition. I thought as I hobbled my way to the mirrors. Stepping in front of and looking into them, I got a better idea of my physical condition. in addition to the injuries I already saw, I had cuts and scratches on most of my face, and some dried blood here and there. I saw a large amount of dried blood on the right half of my head. I turned my head to the left to try and see if there was damage, and at first it was just more blood but the more I turned my head the more blood I saw. As I continued turning my head while keeping my eyes on the mirrors, I saw a large crack in the back of my head with a lot of dried blood around it. Oh good, I have a head injury. I thought sarcastically. Looking at the mirrors again, my body appeared to be a hard black exoskeleton, with a dark blue shell on my back, there was a curved horn on my forehead, and a few holes in the lower parts of all four of my legs. I had two solid blue compound eyes, fangs, and wings; they were bug like. I slowly spread them out. They didn't look very strong and kind of damaged, but it could have been worse. Then I noticed something else in the mirror, something small and white in the background. I couldn't see all of it because it was hiding behind a ponikin, but I could see a white coat, a white horn, and a two-colored mane. Part of it was purple and the other appeared to be a different shade of purple, and its eyes were light green. A unicorn. A filly guessing from the eyelashes. But there was something else, some kind of scent coming from it. I don't know how but I knew what the smell was: fear. It was afraid of me. Slowly I turned to face it, and when my gaze had almost met hers, she quickly ducked behind the ponikin. I stopped and inhaled slowly, even though it hurt. “Um, hello?” I asked as if I didn't know. “Anyone there?” I asked trying to seem nonthreatening. No response. Not surprising. “I'm not going to hurt you.” Again, nothing. Okay, I'm tired of this. “I can see you, you know.” I said as I began to walk towards it. “What's your name? My name is…uh…” Wait a minute, why don't I know my name? I must have a name. I tried to think as hard as I could on anything that happened before I woke up and in doing so I came to the conclusion that I don't remember anything! “I…uh…my na―” My sentence was interrupted by something hitting me in the back of my head, causing me to fall to the floor in agony. “OW!” I yelled as I fell to the floor and clutched the back of my head with my forehooves. I looked up and to the right to see a white unicorn with blue eyes and a mane and tail of some shade of purple. “Why did you do that?!” I yelled, still holding the back of my head like it was going to fall off. “What are you doing here?” She asked as I then noticed the scent from her; it was anger. She's angry at me? What did I do? Well, other than crash into this building. I thought as I removed my hooves from my head, looked at them and saw fresh blood. That's a good sign… I refocused on the situation at hoof. “To answer your question, bleeding! That's what I'm doing here,” I yelled, as the object that hit me floated by. A candlestick? She hit me with a candlestick?! I thought to myself. “Why did you hit me?!” I shouted again as I stood back up without pressuring my left foreleg. “Get out!” She yelled back, the anger growing. The candlestick was now in front of and pointed at me as if it were a sword. “I won't warn you again.” “I'll get out when you tell me why you hit me,” I said not willing to go without an answer. “I don't have to tell you anything, changeling,” she said, continuing to piss me off. “Yeah? And I don't have to do anything you say,” I countered with my own anger growing. “Don't make me hit you again,” she said, moving the candlestick slightly closer to my face. “You know, you're a real… If I didn't know that a filly was here, I'd have called you something bad,” I said not thinking that one out, as I was then hit with the candlestick… again. “AH! Will you stop that?! What kind of example are you making for her?” “Don't you dare talk about my sister!” she hissed at me angrily. “Now get out!” “Not until you tell me why! You've hit me with a candlestick twice, you've yelled at me more times than I can keep track of, my leg is broken, I woke up in a pool of my own blood, and I don't even remember my own damn name! Do you really think I'm leaving without so much as a reason?” “Get out of my house! I don't have to tell you anything.” “And I don't have to leave, but if you tell me why, I will,” I said, thinking over what comes after that. But where will I go? Even if she tells me, that doesn't mean I'll have anywhere to go. I still won't know who I am, where I came from, or who I can and can't trust. This just keeps getting better and better… She paused at what I said, thinking over her options. “You want me to tell you why I want you to leave?” “Yes please,” I said with a forced smile and starting to feel a little lightheaded. Whatever. I'll deal with that later, I decided. “I don't want you or any other changeling in my house. You invade Equestria, imprison one of my best friends, and impersonate a Princess on her wedding day. You should consider yourself lucky I'm letting you leave rather than calling a guard to have you arrested.” She said with her anger coming back some, then she took a deep breath to calm herself and spoke again. “Now leave.” “What are you talking about? What wedding and what Princess?” I asked, very unsatisfied with the answer I got. “I told you why I wanted you to leave, now go like you said you would.” she said with a little anger coming back. “Fine. Maybe I'll find something that tells me where to…to…” The lightheadedness became overwhelming, everything was getting dark as I began to get dizzy. What's happening to me? I wondered just before I lost consciousness... (~Φ~) The next thing I knew, was the same as the first thing I knew, darkness, pain, and not knowing where I was. Slowly my eyes began opening again, and I noticed that the pain wasn't as strong as before but it was still bad. “Aaaarrrrgggghhhh… Fuck…” I said in both irritation and pain. “My head…” I groaned, bringing my right foreleg to my head. My eyes instantly widened as I noticed my new surroundings. For starters, I was in a bed with blankets and pillows and everything. “What the…?” I said to myself. And these were not the only differences. The room I was in was mostly pink, it had a closet and two windows and some posters of things I didn't know and other various things I didn't try to remember. My leg was even in bandages. “What…?” How did I get here? And where is here? I thought to myself in deep confusion. Okay, so first I'm injured and in the presence of somepony who tried to kill me, and now, I'm somewhere where it appears my wounds have been treated, it's relatively comfortable, and there's no pony here... So what did I miss? I wondered to myself as I then noticed voices coming from another room, I couldn't make out what they were saying but i could tell there were at least three different voices. Hmm, I wonder what they're talking about, I thought, betting that I already knew as I began to get out of the bed. At least the pain isn't so bad that it kills me to move like last time. I noted as my legs slowly reached the floor. The pain increased as I moved, but I still kept going and kept my left foreleg off the floor, just in case. Slowly and quietly I made my way to the door, but I still couldn't tell what they were saying. I opened the door and leaned my head out. “You saw it yourself. It's really hurt,” I heard and understood what one of the voices said. Wait a minute, I recognize that voice, that's the voice of the one that hit me with a candlestick! Maintaining stealth mode, I began heading for the stairs, hearing more of the conversation going on down below. “Are you crazy? It's a changeling!” another voice shouted. “We should just throw it into the Everfree.” What's the Everfree? I wondered as the conversation continued. “Rainbow Dash! That's awful,” the one who attacked responded. Slowly I began creeping down the stairs, still being mindful of my leg. “It can barely walk on its own; it needs to be taken to the hospital; it needs help.” Well no shit. Broken leg, memory loss, bleeding on everything. No, everything is fine, I thought upon hearing that. “The changelings attacked Canterlot, attacked Equestria! Why should we help one of them?” “Because we're not like them!” The attacker retorted. “Just because they attacked us doesn't mean that we should make them suffer.” Okay, I know she’s trying to defend me, but saying ‘because we’re not like them’ implies bad things about changelings. “If we're goin' t' help it we need t' be careful; we can't trust it,” a new voice said. Hmm, all the voices are female. I noted as I stopped halfway down the stairs. “AJ, you're not really thinking of helping it, are you? Am I the only sane pony here?” “Oh, Rainbow Dash, you don't really mean that, do you?” a significantly quieter voice asked. “I mean it. They almost ruined Princess Cadance and Shining Armor's wedding!” “Twilight, dear, what do you think?” the attacker asked. “I think we should tell Princess Celestia before we do anything. Spike, take a note.” Well, I got here just in time to hear nothing. I sighed mentally. I should get back to bed before someone finds me. I decided as I began to get back up. Sadly, I wasn't as prepared as when I got out of bed, as the first thing I put pressure on was my left foreleg, and as bad as the pain of putting pressure on that leg was, falling down the stars was easily more painful. I could hear parts of my body cracking on every step I hit while I fell down the stairs until I finally reached the bottom. “Fuuuuuuuk…” “It's the changeling!” somepony yelled. “Don't shoot,” I said as I tried to get back up, and not die from pain. “What are ya doin' down here?” one of them asked. “Having a really bad day… And doing my best not to cry,” I explained as I tried and failed to stand up. After trying to stand, I looked up at the ponies in front of me. There were six ponies and a dragon, the first one I saw was the one who hit me with a candlestick, but I noticed something different this time, in her scent there was a mixture of minor regret and lingering fear. Regret? The next one was a cyan pegasus with magenta eyes and a rainbow colored mane and tail. The next one was a lavender colored unicorn with purple eyes, a mane and tail with dark blue, dark purple and light purple. There was a yellow pegasus with blue eyes, and a pink mane and tail. An orange earth pony with green eyes, some freckles on her face, a blonde mane and tail, and a stetson hat. The last of the ponies, was a pink earth pony also with blue eyes and with a dark pink mane and tail. And there was a small purple dragon with green spikes and eyes. Taking a small whiff of the air I found anger, fear, suspicion and traces of confusion in the air from the ponies and dragon. I tried to think of something that I could say to ease the situation, but everything I thought of wouldn’t really help unless they believed that I wasn’t bad. So I said the only thing I could that didn’t need to be trusted. “Hello…” I said weakly as rolled off of my side and onto all fours. “Are you okay? That was quite a fall…” the yellow pegasus asked in a quiet voice. “Do I look okay to you?” I asked as I tried and failed again to stand. “It hurts to breathe, my leg is broken, I've been hit in the head with a candlestick, I fell down some stairs, I can't remember anything, and I'm starting to think my head is trying to kill me.” “Wait a minute, you don't remember anything?” the lavender unicorn asked. “What do you mean?” “What… you… I… the… THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I MEAN BY ‘I can't remember anything?!’” I shouted. I'll say it right now, I was just a little pissed off. I wasn't having a very good day. And given the fact that what I just told them was everything I knew, then in that case, I wasn't having a good life. “Did you think I meant 'I know everything that can be known, I'm just not going to tell you'? Because that is NOT what I meant.” I said as I hyperventilated with anger. “You don't need to be rude to her,” said the white unicorn. “Oh, you want to talk about rude? Then let's talk about rude,” I replied not even trying to calm myself down. “It was rude of you to hit me with a candlestick, then yell at me to get out, and threaten me with the candlestick to get out. All of which for no good reason might I add. Not one that you've told me anyway.” “I told you, the changelings attacked us. The changelings are enemies of Equestria.” “So because of something that I might have been involved with, I'm the bad guy? Please tell me how that makes even a little bit of sense. Did you forget I have amnesia? Or does the word amnesia not mean what I thought it did?” “How do we know you really have amnesia?” the cyan pegasus said. The only scent coming from her, was hate. “How do we know you're not lying to us?” “Oh, I'm sorry, is the crack in my head not good enough for you?” I said, trying not to have some kind of homicidal outburst. “Just because you got hit in the head doesn't mean you lost your memories,” she said almost pushing her face into mine. “And just because I'm a changeling, doesn't mean I'm the bad guy!” I shouted back, pushing my face into hers. I was really tired of this. “I'm starting to think maybe you're the bad guys. You and her at the least.” Pointing at the white unicorn with my left wing. “As for the rest of you, I don't know.” I said pulling back still glaring at the pegasus. “Okay, everypony needs to calm down," the purple unicorn said. The scent coming from her was calmness and distrust. But the distrust was small. She seemed to believe me, but still didn't trust me. It was a nice change of pace. "You're right, we're not being fair to you.” “Thank you. Now if we can do something other than yell at each other, that would be great,” I said with a little hope something good might come out of this. “So if I may ask, who treated me?” “Um, that was me,” the yellow pegasus said quietly. “You were in pretty bad shape when Rarity brought me here.” She turned away from me. She reeked of fear. I was surprised that she was even talking to me. “And who is ‘Rarity?’” “That would be me,” the white unicorn said. “... You're not joking are you?” She just nodded her head in response. “So you, the one who hit me with a candlestick, twice and threatened me, got me medical attention?” “Well, I might have been rude, hostile even, but I wasn't going to just watch you bleed out on my floor.” “Well, uh, for what it's worth, thanks.” I said in relative shock. No, really, what the fuck did I miss? “And sorry for, you know, bleeding on your floor. And for my attitude.” “Oh, it's alright. I wasn't exactly pleasant myself,” she said looking down slightly. It was then I noticed her scent: some regret and concern, but no anger. Another good change of pace. If I can just get all of them to cooperate with me, we might get something useful done. “Moving on. So do any of you know how I got... wherever I was?” I asked as looked at the group. “I might know,” the purple unicorn said “Rarity, you said there was a hole in your roof right?” “Yes. Why?” “I think he may have crashed into it when Shinning Armor and Princess Cadence used their spell that repelled the changelings from Canterlot, but if that's how he got there, then that means he was a part of the invasion,” she explained, giving me an odd look with the last part of her sentence. The distrust in her became more potent as well. Great. So either we do know what happened to me, and I actually was part of the invasion, and therefore I actually am the bad guy, or we just have no idea… Universe, what did I ever do to you? “Um, mister changeling, you're bleeding,” the yellow pegasus spoke up, pointing at the floor under my broken leg. There was blood seeping through my bandaged leg to the floor. “Oh dear. That probably happened when you fell down the stairs,” Rarity said, looking genuinely concerned. "Fluttershy, you should take him back to Pinkie Pie's room." “Oh, okay,” Fluttershy said slowly walking over to me. “Here, let me help you up.” With her support to lean on, I kept my left leg above the floor lest I do more damage to it. Slow and carefully, we began to make our way up the stairs. As we reached the top I decided to break the silence. “Hey, uh, thanks for treating me. I might be dead if it wasn't for you.” “Oh, it's no trouble. I still can't believe Rarity hit you like that.” “Fluttershy. That's your name right?” “Um, yes. My name is Fluttershy. What's your name? If you don't mind me asking, that is.” “I don't remember what my name is…” I said trying again to remember something, anything. “Well, what should I call you until you remember?” Fluttershy asked as we made it into the bedroom. I reviewed the events of the day to myself, both trying understand why this was happening and to think a good name for myself. Why don’t I remember anything? It must have something to do with my head injury. But what about them being so resentful of me? There isn’t a chance this is about crashing through a building. No, Rarity said something about changelings invading. There must be something bigger going on and I’m just a fragment of it at best. Hmm… Fragment… “Fragment. Call me Fragment,” I said as I prepared to get back into bed. “Well, um, Fragment, it's nice to meet you. Let me help you in bed.” I would normally argue with being helped into bed like I was a foal, but after being hit with a candlestick and falling down stairs, I've had enough for the day. As she helped me into bed I saw a calendar on the wall that had the current day circled in red. Upon seeing what today was, I found myself able to say only one last thing as I rolled onto my back in bed. “I hate Mondays.”