My eyes flutter open. I slowly get up and find myself in some sort of plain, with the sky completely white. Great. No clues as to where I am either.
I look around a bit, not finding anything. I start to slowly walk forward, not knowing where I’m headed, observing the environment. Or lack of environment, in this case.
Minutes pass. Nothing comes up, and nothing else can be seen for miles. I sigh in frustration.
As if on cue, something does happen. However, it’s not much of an improvement.
I see darkness in the corners of my eyes. I hear the sound of hooves hitting the ground, in a steady pace, as if it’s following me. I must be going insane. I keep going anyways.
The darkness grows and begins to gradually cover my field of vision at a slow, and ominous rate. The sounds of the hoofsteps grow in volume, as if they are coming closer and closer. Now this certainly isn’t any better … What did I do to deserve this?
I start shaking as I continue. The darkness still keeps growing, to the point where I can barely see anything now. Whatever is following me, it’s right behind me now. I start taking shallow breaths as I keep going, until I have only a sliver of my eyesight left.
Suddenly, a hoof grabs me on the shoulder and turns me around. If this thing wants to fight, it’s going to get a fight.
But today had other plans in store for me, as always. Before I even get a look at the stalker’s face, there is a bright flash of light….
I quickly wake up to find myself panting. I take a look around in various directions, and to my relief, I’m still in the hospital. It was all a dream … it looks like those never get tired of tormenting me.
Well, what a way to wake up. Some dream … If my last dream brought back one of my memories, could this be related to them in any way…? No, that’s stupid. It’s probably just a nightmare. That or I’m just going insane.
Oh, I almost forgot. Today’s the day I meet Twilight. Hopefully I can get some more of my memories back. That is of course, if my brain is willing to cooperate today….
There’s really nothing else I can do from here other than lie in this hospital bed, and I certainly don’t plan to, either. I might as well walk around. I slowly get up from the bed and start stretching my legs and wings. Now that feels a lot better. I start to make my way towards the door with slow steps, still feeling tired from yesterday’s events.
However, as soon as I make my way to the door and into the hallways, I’m immediately bowled over, landing on the smooth tile. What the hell was that all about? I dizzily get up and onto my hooves, and adopt a combat stance, ready to defend myself. Looking up to get a clear look at the perpetrator, I see that it’s just a nurse in a hurry. I return to my normal pose. That was embarrassing….
This mare has white fur, a neat, pink mane tied in a bun, and a hat with a red cross on it. She gets up, picking up her clipboard at her side. Taking notice of what just happened, her gaze turns to me.
“Oh my,” She worriedly runs to my side. “I am very sorry about this, are you alright?”
I nod. “Yeah, I’m fine, no need to worry.” What an encounter….
“I’m Nurse Redheart, and you must be Ms….” She pauses to take a look at her clipboard. “Blaze, correct?”
“That’s me.”
“Great. It says here you’ll be discharged today, so let’s take a quick look to make sure you’re good to go then.” She walks into my room, and I follow shortly after. Finally, time to get out of this place. I want to get out and fly … that is, if my memory of how to exactly that would return to me. I despise this amnesia with every fiber of my body….
The nurse proceeds to take off my bandages to take a look at my wounds, occasionally asking me to move a leg, or other small things like that. As she continues the examination, she appears to be quite surprised.
“Oh my, your wounds seem to have healed fast,” She noted. She quickly looks me over once again. “Well, you seem to be perfectly fine. No reason to keep you here any longer. You’re free to go; have a nice day.”
“Thank you,” I reply to the mare. The nurse runs out of the room and off to perform her duties. Now let’s hope she doesn’t bump into anyone again … and as she leaves, Fluttershy walks into the room. “Oh, hi Fluttershy!” I greet her. She looks to me with a smile.
“Good morning, Vermillion. Did they let you go?” I nod. “That’s good. So, um, will I be taking you to Twilight’s place?”
“Yeah, I’m good to go.”
“Twilight’s place isn’t too far from here,” She begins to walk out of the room, and I follow close behind. She leads me through the clean hallways of the hospital into the lobby, and finally, outside.
I feel the warmth of the sun’s rays on my body as I step outside taking a breath of fresh air. The sun shines brightly and there’s not a single cloud in the sky. Now that is definitely a nice change from being in that hospital.
“Feels good to be outside again?” she asks.
“Oh yeah,” I stretch my wings. “So much better. I’d like to go for a quick flight, but my amnesia took that from me as well….”
She gives me a warm smile. “Don’t worry. I know someone who can help you with that. But, I think you might want to see Twilight first, if that’s ok with you….”
“I agree. Lead the way, then.”
Fluttershy and I begin to walk into the town. From my first view of the place, I can say it looks very welcoming; like one of those small towns where everypony knows each other. We walk through a spacious marketplace with a variety of stands, which are busy tending to the various customers buying goods.
Throughout the town, I can see many groups of ponies talking within each other, laughing, having a good time. Even being a rather small town, I like this place. Everypony seems to get along nicely. In the midst of my thoughts, Fluttershy appears to have taken notice of my observation.
“So, do you like Ponyville?” Ponyville. So that’s what this place is called.
“Yeah,” I respond, before looking around some more. “Everypony seems so happy here. It’s beautiful.” Fluttershy smiles.
“I like it here too. I find the smaller towns to be a lot more pleasant,” She comments, before continuing to walk. I begin to follow her once more, but not before she’s stopped by a peculiar-looking pony. Rather quickly, too. I swear there was nopony in front of us a second ago….
She certainly looks very unique. This earth pony mare is a bright pink, with a darker pink for her mane and tail, which were very poufy. Three balloons adorn her flank. Even her appearance by itself radiates happiness and cheer. She keeps doing short hops in place. She appears to be very hyper.
“Hiya, Fluttershy!” The bubbly pony greets her. “Where are you off to today?”
“Oh, hello Pinkie. I was just taking my friend Vermillion to-“ The pony’s eyes lit up as soon as she takes notice of me, and she is in front of me in the blink of an eye. How did she get there so fast?
“Oooooh, I haven’t seen you here before! You must be new, because I know EVERYpony in Ponyville!” She exclaims energetically. “What’s your name?”
“Hi, my name’s Vermillion Blaze, I – “
She quickly cuts me off. “Nice to meet you! I’m Pinkie Pie! You know, since you’re friends with Fluttershy, we should totally be friends too! Then we can do all kinds of friend stuff like ice skating, and drawing, but most importantly, partying!”
Well, she’s pretty hyper, that’s for sure.
“So, where are you guys headed off to?” She finishes.
Fluttershy steps in. “We were just going over to Twilight’s to see if Vermillion could get some help from her.”
“Sounds great! I’ll join you guys, I don’t have to be back in Sugarcube Corner for a while! So….” She suddenly zooms over to my side. Where does she get all this speed from? Looks like I’ll never know. “How’d you guys meet?”
Now, I finally have the chance to speak again. “Well, it’s certainly a long story, but I’ll tell you, if you’d like.”
“A story? I love stories! Go ahead, tell me!” She exclaims excitedly, tagging along with us as we continue on our route.
I chuckle. “Well, the thing is, I can’t really remember anything. The first thing I remember is waking up in this field next to this creepy forest, what was it called…?” I struggle to remember the name.
“The Everfree,” Fluttershy adds.
“Right, the Everfree, thank you. There was nothing else in sight for miles, so I went into the forest.” Pinkie shudders as I finish the sentence. If even a pony as carefree as her shuddered upon the thought of that place, then it looks like it’s much more dangerous than what I went through.
“It was pretty frightening in there. I kept wandering through the forest, but I didn’t find anything. But as I kept going, I heard a scream. I followed the sound and found Fluttershy surrounded by … um …. timberwolves, right?” I turn to Fluttershy, who nods to confirm that was the correct name.
“I can’t stand innocent ponies getting hurt, so I stepped in to fend off the timberwolves –“ Pinkie cuts me off with a loud gasp.
“You fought a pack of timberwolves?” She looks at me with wide eyes. I nod to her. “Holey moley! I bet you’re really brave, Vermil!”
Vermil … it’s a nice nickname.
“It was pretty reckless of me, but I wanted to help out Fluttershy however I could. I fended them off for a while, but eventually, they had me trapped. I thought it was over, until one of the wolves’ heads had mysteriously caught fire. It wasn’t until I was in the hospital that I found out I could do this,” I raise a hoof and ignite a small flame in it. Pinkie’s eyes widen in amazement.
“So you mean you can control fire?!” She excitedly asks me, and I simply nod. “That’s awesome!” I chuckle.
“Yeah, it was a bit surprising when I rediscovered it myself. I’m trying to recover my memory, you see.”
Fluttershy joined in. “I figured that Twilight would be a good pony to start with, to see if she can explain anything about her powers…..”
Pinkie soon cut in. “Ooh, so you’re going to meet Twilight then? I’m sure she’ll help you out! She’s a super-duper smarty pants, and really good with magic!” She exclaims.
“Fluttershy told me that. She does seem pretty interesting, and I’m curious to meet her.”
Since the first time I heard her name, something had always clicked in my mind. The name sounds familiar, but that’s just about it. Maybe meeting her will help me out a bit….
“That’s her house over there.” Fluttershy points a hoof towards … a tree.
A tree that had been fashioned into a house, to be precise. So it’s a treehouse? A housetree? Ah, never mind. It looks neat, though. The tree leaves and branches decoratively grow around the windows. The tree even has a balcony at the top. This place is certainly unique. I wonder what else I could find around here…
“So her house is also a tree?” I ask out loud. “Now that’s really something.”
“Oh, yes. It’s also Ponyville’s library,” Fluttershy adds. “Twilight loves books. Let’s go and see if she’s home.” We all stop at the entrance and Fluttershy proceeds to knock. Soon, the door opens to reveal … a baby dragon?
“Oh, hey Fluttershy, Pinkie.” The dragon greets the two.
“Hello Spike. Is Twilight home?” Fluttershy asked.
“She is, but she’s busy in her study right now,” He explains. It was then that he noticed me. “Oh, hey there. Who are you?” He asks me. It takes me off guard; I’d never imagined I would be talking to a dragon today.
“Hi,” I greet the creature. “My name is Vermillion Blaze. You are?”
“The name is Spike, nice to meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you too,” I say as we step into the spacious library. There are shelves all around us, filled to the brim with books. The sheer size of this library makes my jaw drop. You could probably find literally anything you wanted here. Spike looks over to me and takes notice of my surprised reaction. He chuckles.
“As you can see, Twilight’s a total bookworm.” He simply states.
Just then, another pony enters the room. This pony is a unicorn mare, with a lavender colored coat, and purple mane and tail with violet and pink streaks. Her cutie mark appears to be some sort of star circled by several smaller ones. I’m assuming this must be Twilight Sparkle. Judging from the unhappy look on her face, she must’ve overheard Spike.
“You were saying, Spike?” She asks him. What a stroke of bad timing for him….
Spike immediately freezes for a bit before giving her an innocent look. “Oh, um … well, it was nothing.”
The mare simply rolls her eyes. “Riiight.” Over to the side, Pinkie, and even Fluttershy, surprisingly, is giggling at Spike’s misfortune there. It was then that she takes notice of them, and me.
“Oh, Pinkie, Fluttershy, I didn’t see you two there. Or you,” She says, turning to me. “Are you new to Ponyville?”
“I guess you could say that,” I respond with a chuckle. The mare gives me a confused look. “.... It’s a long story. Before I explain, I should introduce myself. I’m Vermillion Blaze. What’s your name?”
“Hello Vermillion, I’m Twilight Sparkle. Pleased to meet you.” She extends a hoof towards me, and I reach out with my own to shake hers. So this is her.
As I shake her hoof, there don’t seem to be any memories coming back to me. There’s got to be something coming to me by now … gah, this is really frustrating.
“Umm … Vermillion?” Fluttershy breaks me from my train of thought. It looks like I had been shaking Twilight’s hoof for a bit too long. I hear Pinkie giggling next to me. Well, this is awkward.
“Sorry about that,” I retract my hoof. “I was just thinking about something. Anyways, Fluttershy took me here, because she thinks that you might be able to help me. Is there somewhere that we can go where we can talk?”
“Don’t worry, just here is fine.” She replies.
“Oh, ok then. Well, you see, I can’t remember anything about who I really am, or where I came from. I had just mysteriously woken up outside the Everfree yesterday.”
“Oh dear … that sounds … frightening.” She comments. So, general consensus is that the Everfree is the most terrifying place around. Good to know.
“And it was. You see….” I explain my story in the best detail I could. She shudders as I mention walking through the Everfree, but she is especially alarmed when I mention stepping in to fight the timberwolves.
Fluttershy adds to my story, “Um … I was so scared of those timberwolves … I didn’t know what to do. I tried asking them to leave me alone, but they just wouldn’t listen….”
“Well, I was there to knock some sense into them,” I respond with a chuckle. “I was doing well against them, until they managed to trap me. I tried to get them away, but I couldn’t. “
Spike puts on an excited look. “And? Did you pull it together and beat….” Spike dwindles in his speech and suddenly sneezes, shooting out a stream of green flame. Perfect timing.
Reaching for the fire, I try to take control of it. Luckily, it turned out as I had hoped. With the small fire in my command, I bring it over into my hoof. Twilight looked around for the fire, astounded by its sudden disappearance, until I call to her.
She looks over to me, and then realizes that the fire she had been looking for is in my hoof. She puts on a bewildered look, as does Spike a few seconds later, just realizing what happened. Fluttershy, Pinkie, as well as myself can’t help but giggle at the looks on their faces.
Suddenly, Pinkie steps in. “I know right? Vermil’s super awesome! When I saw it, it was like, the most exciting thing EVER!”
Spike follows her shortly after. “That … was … awesome!”
Twilight, on the other hand, appears to be completely puzzled.
“That’s just what I was getting to,” I explain. “You see, when the timberwolves had me trapped, I had unwittingly set one of them on fire. Later, I found out that I had an ability to manipulate fire, which is my special talent,” I point to my cutie mark. “Fluttershy told me I should come to talk to you about this.”
“W-well, yes, since you’re good at magic….” Fluttershy adds.
Twilight comes closer to take a look at the flame, with wonderment in her eyes. She shortly breaks her gaze from it and begins to squeal in delight. I dispel the flame.
“Oh my gosh, I’ve never seen anything like this! A pegasus with the ability to control fire … That’s incredible! Unheard of!” She quickly turns to me and comes closer. “I simply just have to study this! This could push the knowledge of magic to new heights, and – “ She is quickly cut off by Spike.
“And help her regain her memory, right?” He questions her. Fluttershy and Pinkie giggle at her outburst. Good thing he was there to keep her on track, or we might have been here for a while.
“Of course, first priority. Now, Vermillion, like I said, I don’t think anything like this has ever been seen in Equestria … I’ll have to do some tests, and then we can see what we find. Sounds good?” She asks me.
“Sounds good.” I confirm.
“Great! Follow me.” She begins to make her way towards a door near the back of the room, when Fluttershy suddenly remembers something.
“Oh! I almost forgot! I have to go down to the post office to pick up a package. I’ll be back as soon as I can, girls.” Fluttershy heads for the door, followed by Pinkie.
“I’ll come with you, Fluttershy!” She turns back to us. “Good luck with the tests!”
“See you two later!” I say, waving a hoof. Once they leave, I turn to Twilight. “So, going to do those tests now?”
“Of course. Now, follow me.”
I follow Twilight into a door, with Spike behind me. The door leads into a short spiraling flight of stairs. But I’m in shock at what’s at the bottom; countless machines and equipment litter the floor below us. Wow … what is all of this? She must take her studies very seriously to have all of this stuff lying around….
I get to the bottom shortly after Twilight. Then, she motions for me to come with her to one of the many machines. After doing so, she quickly makes all sorts of adjustments to the machine; flipping switches, turning knobs, and I have no idea what’s going on.
Twilight quickly goes to turn the machine on. The machinery whirrs and hums as various lights flash and gauges take measurements. She then gestures for me to put my hooves in two metal braces, and I do what she says.
So far, she’s neglected to tell me anything about what’s going on. I guess she really gets into her work.
“So….” I begin. “What are you doing, exactly?”
“Oh! Sorry about that … this machine is going to measure any levels of magic within you in just a few minutes. I’m going to go get something to drink; Spike will be here to keep you company in the meantime.”
“Alright,” I reply as she heads up the stairs. Soon enough, Spike comes to my side. He seems to be pretty interested in me after that little display. Then again, so does everypony here. I guess it’s only natural.
“So, you can control fire, huh? That’s awesome! If only I could control mine….” He comments.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it soon enough. But I think that this was just one of the smaller things I can do. It would make sense, if my talent is my own power. I haven’t really experimented with it yet.”
“Either way, that’s pretty awesome! But I couldn’t help but laugh even a little bit while Twilight was gushing about it; she’s always like that when she sees something she’s never seen before.”
“She sure does look like she does a lot of studying,” I comment with a chuckle.
“Well, you guessed right!” He responds. We both laugh.
The laughter soon dies out, and I turn to Spike again. “So, you’re a dragon, right?”
“That’s right, although I’m only a baby dragon right now.”
“So, how’d you end up with Twilight, then?” I inquire.
“Well, Twilight took an entrance exam to Princess Celestia’s school, and for her exam, she had to hatch a dragon egg with her magic, and I happened to be in the egg. For the first part, Twilight couldn’t do anything. She was about to give up, and just then, her magic went berserk. She casted a whole bunch of spells in the process, and one of them hatched my egg, and turned me into a fully grown dragon in the process. Soon enough, Princess Celestia stepped in, and everything got back to normal. She was accepted as the Princess’s student, and I became Twilight’s assistant a bit later.”
“That’s quite the story,” I comment. I hear hoofsteps coming down the stairs once more.
“I’m back. How’s it going?” Twilight asks as she comes down the stairs. As soon as she asks, I’m reminded of the numbness in my hooves.
“My hooves are getting numb … how much longer should this take?” I ask her.
“It shouldn’t be too long now, just a little”- Twilight is cut off by a series of beeping sounds from the machine. “Oh, it’s done! Letmeseeletmeseeletmesee!” She excitedly exclaims as she rushes over to the machine, unlocks my braces, and reads a series of charts produced from the machine. I quickly take my hooves out of the braces and walk around to return the feeling in my hooves. Her eyes excitedly look across the page in search of results, but a few seconds later, she looks confused.
“I don’t understand…,” She begins. “According to this, you have just as much magical potential as any other pegasus … how can this be?” She starts to pace around the room.
“Maybe the machine is broken? No, that can’t be. I had maintenance done on it just yesterday….” She double-checks the chart.
“Could this be some all-new type of magic?...” She asks out loud. “Hmm … what to do?”
Wow, this one really has her stumped. I really hope she can figure this out….
Twilight simply sighs after a few more moments of pacing and awkward silence. “This is a complete mystery … luckily, there’s still one more option. Spike?”
“Yeah?” He calls out as he comes closer to her.
“Take a letter,” Twilight requests.
“No problem.” Spike quickly comes back with a quill and a scroll of parchment, ready to write. Twilight begins to read out the letter.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Wait. Princess Celestia ... just like Twilight had, her name sounds very familiar. However, I’ll have to deal with it later. I return my attention to Twilight’s letter.
Fluttershy and Pinkie came to me today with a pegasus pony that can’t seem to remember who she really is or where she came from. Her name is Vermillion Blaze, which was the only thing she could seem to remember. Fluttershy thought I would be able to help, because there’s something unusual about this pony. She can manipulate fire.
I thought that finding out more about her powers would help her recover her memory, but after running some tests, the results were peculiar. They had found no magical potential within her.
I’m not sure what else I can do. I’ve never seen anything like this, nor do I know anything about this, so I’m asking you for help. Please reply as soon as possible.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
Finishing the letter, Spike rolls up the scroll, and lights it on fire. The scroll turns into a dissipating green vapor.
“What was that?” I question him.
“Oh, that’s just the way I send letters to the Princess. Pretty cool, eh?”
“Wow … I wonder what else my flames can do, then. I should try experimenting with it sometime.”
“Just try not to burn down Ponyville,” Twilight chimes in. Right after that, the three of us laugh heartily.
“I’ll try not to,” I reply to her, wiping a tear from my eye. “So Spike, how do you get letters back then?”
“Well, when a letter comes back to me, it“- Spike is cut off as he hiccups, and then belches a small jet of green flame, which turns into a rolled up scroll, most likely from the Princess. That was fast. The scroll lands on the ground in front of his feet.
“... Oh,” I simply state. “Well, that’s interesting.”
Spike unravels the scroll and clears his throat before he begins to read.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
What you describe to me certainly does seem unusual. However, I think I might be able to find out what is happening. If you would please come to Canterlot with Vermillion and Fluttershy, I will be more than happy to assist you.
Princess Celestia
“Well, Vermillion,” Twilight turns to me. “Looks like we’re going to give the Princess a visit.”
Well, looks like my investigation has taken yet another turn. Twilight saying she hasn’t found anything already worried me there. Hopefully this Princess can help me out. If not, I’ll have to look somewhere else….
“Alright, that sounds like a plan. So when do we go?” I ask.
“Well, I would need to gather some things first, but we could leave fairly soon, in about an hour, maybe?” Twilight guesses.
“Great! Do you need any help getting your things?” I offer.
“That’s quite alright. Spike can help me with that.”
“Alright, suit yourself. But I do have one question, though.”
“What would that be?”
“Well, I’m just curious, but you just met me today, yet you’re going out of your way to help me, and even take me to Princess Celestia. Not that I don’t appreciate it, but what’s this all of a sudden?”
I had asked the same thing of Fluttershy. However, to see this behavior again from Twilight made me curious. It could be possible that most ponies here are just friendly, but I want to know Twilight’s reasoning behind this as well.
She pauses a moment before responding. “You know, before I came to Ponyville, I didn’t really have any friends. I was more interested in my studies back in Canterlot. I didn’t have any interests in making friends, either. But soon, Princess Celestia had me go to Ponyville to supervise the Summer Sun Festival. At first, I thought that this was all a waste of time. But it was on that day that I met my very best friends, and discovered the magic of friendship, and all the wonders it had to bring. Knowing all of this, Princess Celestia had me stay in Ponyville to study friendship. That day, I couldn’t have been any happier. When you came here out of nowhere, you probably felt lost, and lonely. I want to fix that, and share the magic of friendship with you.”
Wow … friendship is really important to this pony. It seems like I have something else to find out more about.
“Friendship ... it sounds like a wonderful thing. Thank you for sharing it with me. If you don’t mind, could you maybe teach me more?”
She simply smiles. “Of course. But first things first, heading out to Canterlot. I’ll let you know when I have everything ready.”
She begins to walk upstairs to start gathering some things. However, I remain in the basement to sit down, to be alone with my thoughts.
It’s good to know I have a friend like Twilight. She’s going out of her way to help me, and even going to the Princess with me. Fluttershy comes to my aid first, and now Twilight…. Suddenly I don’t feel so lonely anymore.
Another issue is that I don’t have any of my memories yet, even after meeting Twilight. She sounded very familiar, but I still don’t remember anything.
But I just now remember that the Princess’s name rang a bell as well. If meeting with her won’t bring anything back, then I don’t know what will.
And friendship. Friendship ... a foreign word to my ears. I have to find out more.
Maybe I’m looking for memories in the wrong places, or expecting them too soon. I might be closer to finding my past, even if it’s just a tiny step forward. What could friendship be?
Could it be the key to my memories?