Sleep came easily, and while some of my injuries had healed as I slept, the pain was still there to greet me when I awoke and a tax on my body. Sunlight was shining through the curtains as my eyes opened.
“Gggggrrrrrruuuu…” Was all I had to say on that matter for the time being.
What sick mind created pain? I hope it's happy, because I'm not― My train of thought was interrupted when my eyes opened to see a small alligator both laying on me and staring into my eyes, though it felt like it was staring into my soul.
“Uh… please get off of me?” I said as it stared mindlessly. To this day, nothing has disturbed me more than that stare; that empty, soul piercing stare. “Please… get… off…”
I said slowly, hoping it would understand me, which It didn't. Time for plan B… Time to make a plan B… Got it!
Slowly bringing my right leg out from under the covers, I poked its side. “Go. Away. Please.”
It didn’t react, then, as if the reptile staring into my soul wasn't enough, out of nowhere came two huge light-blue eyes attached to a massive smile that shouted “HELLO!”
“Whoa!” I yelled in surprise as I tried to jump back from the pony in front of me, which only served to hurt my leg. Once the pony took a step back from me and wasn’t right against my face I recognized her as the pink pony from yesterday.
“You don't need to yell, silly. I'm right in front of you.” She had an unsettling smile on her face.
“Who… are you…?” I asked in between gasps.
“I'm Pinkie Pie. What's your name?” Her scent was happiness and syrup. I felt a strange feeling at one of those scents.
“Okay, a few things. First, I'm going with Fragment, for now. Second, you're the one whose room I'm staying in?” I turned away from Pinkie Pie and looked around the room again, examining it more closely. On the nightstand to my right was a pink lamp and a framed picture of Pinkie Pie and the other ponies from the day before. In said picture, the six of them were smiling and seemed to be having a picnic and a good time together.
“Yup, that's me,” she said as I turned my attention back to her.
“Okay. So what are you doing up here?” I raised a brow at Pinkie Pie.
“I heard you talking to Gummy, so I knew you were awake and to give you breakfast!”
“Gummy? Is that the alligator thing?” I asked as I looked back to the lizard who was just standing at the foot of the bed doing nothing.
“Yup! I named him Gummy 'cause he doesn't have any teeth. See?” She picked up Gummy and held him half an inch away from my face while holding his mouth open. Reluctantly, I looked inside, and sure enough, he had no teeth.
“That's… interesting?” So… what happened to his teeth? “So anyway, you said something about breakfast and why you came up here?”
“Because I wanted to check on you and give you breakfast!” she answered excitedly. Thank goodness someone thought of food! I'm starving. The emptiness in my gut was a strong and was made more potent by the thought of eating.
“Well that's nice to hear, but where's the―” Before I had time to finish my question, there was a tray with pancakes, silverware and a cup filled with what I assumed was orange juice sitting on my lap ready to be eaten. My mouth was watering already. “Thank you… so much…”
My stomach growled as I drooled. To this Pinkie merely giggled.
“You must be hungry,” she said.
“Well I haven't eaten since… I'm not sure how long ago I last ate,” I said as I took my first mouthful of pancakes. The mixture of perfectly baked pancakes with melted butter and hot syrup created an incredible flavor that I craved more of.
“I hope you like them. I made them myself!” she said as Gummy crawled from the bed to her back.
“If it's not too much to ask… can you not… let him stare at me? He was just staring at me when I woke up, and it kind of… creeped me out,” I said in between bites of pancake. Gummy’s head slowly turned to me when I made that request.
“Okay! He does that sometimes. How do you like my pancakes?”
“They… are… delicious,” I said still engulfing the pancakes, stopping once in awhile for a drink of juice which, as I thought, was orange juice. My answer made Pinkie Pie’s smile grow tenfold.
“Thank you!” she said as I swallowed my mouthful of pancakes.
“Hey, can I ask you some questions?” I asked as I started to finish the O.J. which also tasted excellent. “I really feel like I'm being left in the dark about something.”
“Sure! What do you want to know?”
“Well for starters, yesterday Fluttershy said that I was in bad shape when she got here, but how did I get here?” I asked hoping I could start getting some real answers.
“Well Rarity said that after you passed out Applejack came in because she heard all the shouting coming from Rarity's, so Rarity told her to bring you here while she got Fluttershy,” she said, taping her chin in thought. “After that she brought Twilight and the others here to talk about what we should do with you.”
Who’s Applejack? I wondered as I asked my next question. “What are you going to do with me? I heard someone from yesterday say something about a Princess, but not much else."
“I don't know. Twilight said she'd write to Princess Celestia after she talks to the ponies at the hospital about getting you checked out by a doctor.”
“Speaking of medicine, do you know how long it will be until I recover?” I looked at my bandaged leg, remembering how I bled through it.
"No, Fluttershy might know though; she knows more about medical stuff than me. You could ask her when she comes over later."
“She's coming over later?”
“Uh-huh! She needs to check all of your bandages and stuff,” Pinkie Pie explained. Noted.
“Next question: what are those symbols on you and the others?”
“That's my cutie mark!” she grinned brightly with happiness.
“Your what?”
“My cutie mark! A cutie mark represents a pony's special talent and personality. Everypony gets one at some point!”
“Okay…” I didn’t really understand the concept, so I decided to move on rather than ask more about it. “Anyway, here's a stupid sounding question coming from me, but what exactly can you tell me about changelings?”
“Well, we really don’t know anything about changelings, other than that they can fly and use magic like an alicorn, but changelings can shapeshift and they feed off of love,” she explained.
"Feed off of love? What the does that mean?"
“They need to feed off love to survive the same way we need to eat normal food,” said a new voice. Pinkie Pie and I looked to the door and saw the purple unicorn from the day before. This time she was wearing white saddlebags that had a six-pointed star on each side. “From what I’ve seen, love also strengthens their magic.”
“Hi, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie greeted as Twilight entered the room.
"Good morning, Pinkie," Twilight said, walking to the other side of the bed across from Pinkie Pie and removed her bags with magic.
What? I don't get a good morning? I thought, but kept quiet.
“What are you doing here? Did you write a letter to the Princess yet?”
“No I haven’t yet, I'm actually here to talk to him,” she replied as she turned to face me.
Oh joy, I thought as she stared.
“Would you mind leaving us to talk, Pinkie? I'm sure the Cakes need you downstairs anyway.”
“You're probably right. See ya later, Twilight. Bye, Fragment,” Pinkie Pie said as she turned around and began leaving.
“Hey, bring me some more pancakes, will you? I'm still hungry,” I quickly requested.
“Okay!” she called back as she left the room. “Hi, Spike,” I heard her say from the hallway.
“‘Fragment?’ I thought you didn't remember anything,” Twilight stated with a raised brow.
“And I still don't, but I thought Fragment was a better name than ‘changeling,’” I said as I took a small sniff of the air to get a sense of her emotions. Calmness and distrust… That seems familiar. “So what do you want to talk about?”
I questioned with my own distrust.
“I want to talk about your memories and how you feel.”
“Oh, you mean those things I lack? I'm pretty sure I told you I don't remember anything.”
“You did, I just want to make sure―”
“That I'm not lying to you?” I cut her off. “I don't think you'll admit it, but I know that this is because you don't trust me. But I'll tell you what, I'll answer your questions if you'll answer some of mine, deal?”
“That's not what this is about,” she told me. She seemed offended that I was distrusting her. “Your brain damage could be a lot more severe than memory loss.”
Twilight explained in a tone as serious as her scent implied. “I need to know how you feel; if your headache is worse, if you feel lightheaded, if it’s hard to concentrate or anything else.”
“You want to know how I feel? I feel annoyed and untrusted. And if you need to know if I'm okay, then why aren't I in a hospital? Surely the doctors there have the equipment to see if I was and a hospital is a much better place for someone in my condition, don't you think?” My eyes narrowed as I finished my sentence.
“I tried to, but they won't take you unless the Princess herself tells them to."
“Then why haven't you written that letter to the Princess, then? You started writing one before I fell down the stairs, so what happened to that? Did you just forget about it or did it just not matter enough? Do you remember when you said ‘we're not being fair to you?’ Well I’m getting the feeling that you’re still not and I know that you don’t trust me even though you have no proof that I’ve done anything wrong. Tell me why you don't trust me." Frustration grew within me, displayed by my eye twitching and my teeth being bared. I glared into Twilight's eyes as I smelled her emotions change to minor regret as she began to talk.
“Well,” she began with a sigh, “It all started when my brother was getting married…”
Twilight then told me the story of how her brother invited her and her friends to his wedding in the capital of Equestria known as Canterlot. That the mare he was engaged to, Princess Cadance, who was also Twilight's foal sitter years ago, got replaced by the changeling Queen who used her magic to brain-wash Shining Armor so he couldn't use a protection spell he had been using when Canterlot had been anonymously threatened.
After Twilight herself was captured by Chrysalis, she found the real Princess Cadance and they escaped the underground cavern where they were being held, but by the time they got back it was too late and almost right after they got to Chrysalis, the invasion began. Only when Shinning Armor and Princess Cadance used their combined power did they overpower the Queen. Then Twilight told me that the day I was found was just two days after all of this had happened.
The reason they weren't back until then was because there was a huge party to celebrate their victory along with repairs to Canterlot. Knowing all of this made it pretty easy to see why they didn't trust me and how I was likely part of the invasion. When Twilight told me about the invasion, my headache grew with every other word and I began to faintly hear something in the back of my head.
“Well… that explains a lot.,” I said as her story finally ended. “Do you know why they invaded?”
“Chrysalis said that Equestria has more love than any other land she's seen and that the changelings would gain more power than ever before,” Twilight told me as I rubbed my right temple with my hoof.
“If the invasion was what it sounded like and therefore was a conquest for power than you had every reason not to trust me.”
“But we still shouldn't have treated you like we knew you had anything to do with that. You might be from a different hive for all we know.”
“If I am, then how did I get here? But I think we can save that conversation for another time; we have more important things to deal with if story time is over. I believe you have some questions for me and I have some for you,” I said trying to get us back on track.
“Okay, we'll take turns asking. Ready?”
“As ready as I’ll be. You ask first.”
“Do you feel lightheaded at all?”
“No, but it does feel like my brain is trying to crawl its way out of the crack in the back of my head.” There’s a mental image neither of us needed.
“Okay, your turn.” The way she said that makes this sound like a game.
“Who is this Princess I keep hearing about?”
“Her name is Princess Celestia.”
“Princess is part of her name?" I joked, which surprisingly got a chuckle out of Twilight.
“It's just Celestia. She rules Equestria with her sister, Luna. Princess Celestia raises the Sun and Princess Luna raises the Moon, thus changing night and day.” They move the Sun and Moon? Note to self: do not piss them off.
“What's the last thing you remember?”
I tried to think of anything that happened before I woke up the first time, but the only result I got from that was slightly worsening my headache. So instead of just focusing on a general past I thought about the details of the invasion that Twilight had given me, and while at first I didn’t get anything out of it, the pain spiked dramatically as I saw the face of a pony with white fur. I grunted from the pain as Twilight leaned close to me with a concerned expression.
“I don’t remember anything from before I woke up where I crashed.” I tried to ignore the pain and carry on with the questions, but it wasn’t easy. "Why haven't you sent a letter to the Princess regarding me yet?"
“Before it was because I wasn't sure if we should help you at all…” she said looking to the floor out of shame. "But now it's because I'm not sure what she'll do; what if you had nothing to do with this but get in trouble anyway? At one point Princess Celestia had a short duel with Chrysalis and Chrysalis won, and what if the Princess takes it on you. I don’t think she’d actually do something like that, but the thought of it bothers me."
“Well I don’t think we have much of a choice; being a princess I’m sure she’ll find out about me sooner or later, I think it’d be better if you told her about the situation. And you should know there's a small purple dragon by the door, who is both afraid and curious of me,” I said staring at the dragon who hid slightly at me pointing him out.
“It's okay, Spike. Come in.” Twilight motioned for Spike to enter. Slowly, he came out from behind the door frame. As I thought, it was the same purple scaled green spiked dragon from before. He slowly and nervously walked into the room. He doesn't have wings?
“Uh… hi,” he said staring at me like I was going to eat him as he walked over to Twilight.
“Hello.” I used a calm and smooth voice similar to the one I tried with the filly from before, but it didn't seem to work. Just like before. “I'm Fragment. What's your name?”
“Wait, didn’t you say you didn't remem―”
“Yes, I know what I said. No, I didn't get my memories back. No, I didn't lie about having amnesia, I made up the name yesterday,” I completely cut him off and answered his question before he even finished it. “But anyway, when do you plan on writing that letter, Twilight?”
“I could do it right now if you really want me to,” she said as her horn began to glow purple while she levitated a quill, scroll, and inkwell from her saddlebag over to Spike.
“If you want to do it later, that's fine, but the sooner we get this over with the better.”
"Then let's do it. Spike, take a note." Spike picked up the quill and scroll, dipping the quill into the ink as he prepared to write.
“Dear Princess Celestia, yesterday Rarity found a changeling in her home and we don't know what to do with him. He has a broken leg and we think he has amnesia along with lesser injuries. For now we're keeping him at Pinkie's, but he needs professional medical treatment. I've talked to the Ponyville Hospital, but they won't take him unless you tell them to. I want to know what you think we should do and to ask the hospital to help him. Sincerely your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Done.” Spike set the quill down next to the inkwell then rolled up the scroll.
“So how long will it take for that to reach the Princess?” Spike then blew green fire on the scroll and in puff smoke―which then flew out a window next to me that I didn't know was open―the scroll was gone. “What just happened?”
“Spike used magic to send the letter directly to princess,” Twilight answered knowingly.
“Okay… So how long until―” My sentence was cut off by Spike burping up green fire. As the fire dissipated, a rolled up scroll with a gold seal fell to the floor, which Spike then picked up and began to open. “Magic?”
“Magic,” Twilight confirmed. “What does it say, Spike?”
“That reply showed up really quickly. Is she just up the street and is a fast writer or something?” Spike opened the scroll and cleared his throat.
“Dearest Twilight, you did the right thing by helping this changeling. I've sent a message to the hospital telling them to give him proper medical treatment. In addition, I'm sending a guard to Ponyville to watch this changeling. When he feels that he is able, please bring him to Canterlot so that I may speak with him personally. Your mentor, Princess Celestia.”
“She wants to talk to me? After everything that's happened? Why don't I feel like that's a good thing?”
“She told the hospital to help you; what’re you worried about?” Twilight asked with a raised brow.
“The changelings attacked Canterlot, her niece got captured and replaced by the changeling queen and she's helping me? That seems odd, don't you think? And she's sending a guard to watch me, because you know, I just might go on a killing spree with a broken leg,” I said unhappily.
“I'm sure it's just to keep everypony from worrying that you'll do something,” she said in an attempt to ease my mind. It failed.
“Do what? My leg’s broken! And in that case I don’t think one guard being there will stop them from worrying. Hey, how am I getting to the hospital anyway?”
“I guess we could bring you there.”
“Yeah, no. I mean are you going to carry me there, am I going to limp there, what are we going to do?”
"Do you think you could walk the way there with help?”
“I don't think it's a good idea, but if I made it up those stairs with Fluttershy's help then I bet I can get to the hospital with more help.”
“Then you can probably make the trip from here to the hospital. It would be best if we took you there sooner rather than later. Spike and I will get the others; it might be better if we go in a group," she said getting up and heading for the door.
“Yes, have more ponies travel at once; that's so inconspicuous,” I said rolling my eyes. Hmm, I didn't know you could roll compound eyes.
“I'll get Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack. Spike, you get Pinkie Pie and Rarity.”
“Okay!” Spike said excitedly as they left. I smelled something just before Spike left. It wasn't like any other emotion I had smelled; I was drawn to it, it smelled very flavorful and was what I’d almost call intoxicating. It was undoubtedly love. I didn't know who it was for, but Spike is in love with somepony. But that wasn't what caught my attention, something inside me hungered for it.
Is this that 'need to feed off love' thing Twilight was talking about? If I can’t find someone to feed off of then there won't be a doctor in this world that can really help me… Just then, Pinkie Pie walked into the room with a tray of pancakes on her back.
“Spike told me we're taking you to the hospital today!” The scent of happiness was flowing off of her like the smoke from a flame, and my hunger was drawn to it.
I can't stand this hunger! I need to feed. But I thought about the consequences of feeding if someone gets hurt. But then again, if I do and something goes wrong, I won't need a doctor. I'll need a eulogy…