//------------------------------//
// Princess Twilight Sparkle 
// Story: Changeling Amnesia 
// by CrutioAstarothChaos 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight Sparkle, newly crowned princess was sitting in a small room, surrounded by parchments and tomes. She was currently working her way through a tome about the different customs of Equestria’s bigger cities, when somepony knocked on the door. She sighed, and stood up from the huge round table.
“Yes?” she asked, forcing a smile on her face. Before her stood a maid, with a worried expression on her face.
“Princess, there is somepony, who wishes to see you,” She said shyly. “He’s a doctor, and he says it’s urgent.”
“Okay, let him in. I'll go and make myself presentable,” Twilight replied, rubbing her forehead.
The alicorn wondered who might wish to see her personally, especially since it was a doctor. She thought it would be someone she already knew, but that didn’t mean she could cast formalities aside. She adjusted her clothes, and grabbed her tiara from atop the table, putting the royal symbol on her head. She looked at her reflection in a nearby display cabinet’s window, and finding everything fit for a princess, she moved behind the table, taking a seat on an antique armchair.
Not a moment later, there was another gentle knock on the door.
“You may enter.” Twilight said.
“Good morning, Princess!” the doctor was a unicorn; average height, dark brown coat, light brown mane and tail and green eyes. His cutiemark was strangely a mind. “I hope I’m not disturbing anything too important.”
“We were just in the middle of studying, nothing more,” Twilight replied casually. “We always put the needs of our subjects before our personal interests!”
“Well, that’s good to hear, but the problem I need help with, is a bit more complicated,” the stallion replied. “My name is Doctor Migraine, I am a psychologist and a psychiatrist here in Canterlot, and I have a problem with a... special patient of mine.”
“How could I, a newly crowned princess be of any help in a psychological case?” Twilight asked, surprised. “Even before, my expertise was magic and friendship, not mental problems.”
“Well, I really shouldn’t say more until... until I’m perfectly sure that whatever is said here will not leave this room,” Migraine said, looking around suspiciously. “If word gets out that I’ve talked about the secrets of any one of my patients, I could lose my reputation, and my job with it.”
“All right, I assure you, my lips are sealed,” the alicorn replied. “I promise.”
“Very well then.” Migraine relaxed a bit. “I need your help, because said problem was created by magic. My patient has a natural talent, unlike any I’ve ever seen or heard of. I usually take a keen interest in my patients, but her talent arose much more than mere curiosity in me.”
“You’re losing me doctor; who is your patient?” Twilight asked point blank.
“Well, who she is, is really up to her, but what she is I’m surely would make you suspicious.”
“And that’s because?”
“Because my patient is a changeling.”
Twilight’s jaws fell.
“A very nice changeling, to be honest.”
“You must be out of your mind!” Twilight almost yelled, losing her temper. “Why would you even –”
“Princess! You promised!” Migraine hissed, looking around nervously, expecting guards to break through the door any moment.
“How could you help a beast like that!” Twilight said less louder, but still in a furious tone. “Have you forgotten what happened in your very city?”
“No, I have not,” Migraine replied calmly. “But she contacted me a few months before that whole fiasco, and I assure you, she had no part in it.”
“How can you tell?” the princess asked. “They are liars, their very being is deception itself!”
“Like we ponies are saints ourselves,” Migraine retorted. “I know what the savage beasts that attacked Canterlot are like, and she is not one of them.”
“Then how does she survive?” Twilight asked, narrowing her eyes.
“I will tell you everything, if you come with me, and at least consider helping her.”
Twilight sat in silence for a minute, weighing her options, staring at the stallion in front of her. Maybe he was a changeling too. But that would’ve been awfully stupid from any changeling. He looked calm, yet somewhat sad and worried. Twilight suspected that he truly cared for his patients, be that pony or changeling, and considering that, she slowly nodded.
“Take me to her.”
 
Neon Lights was sitting in a bathroom. Or at least, he thought he was Neon Lights. He was unsure of it. He remembered being friends with Cloud Breaker, a pegasus from Cloudsdale. Or was that somepony else? He used to write letters to a sousaphonist mare, he remembered that much, but he hadn't written one in ages. What if she got upset because of that? And most importantly: why would somepony like himself write letters to a pony who plays classic music?
His thoughts were confused, and there was the thing in the mirror too. Why was it, that everytime he looked into the mirror, he saw the face of a changeling? He remembered being a changeling, but that was impossible, since he was Neon Lights!
Or was he?
He heard the door being opened, and saw his psychologist, Migraine enter, along with a purple alicorn. Neon remembered reading something in the papers about a coronation, but he was too preoccupied with designing the light show for Vinyl’s performance. Now he cursed himself for being so ignorant.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re back, Doc!” Neon said, surprisingly in a female voice, standing up to greet them. He ignored his voice, but noticed that the alicorn looked shocked, and she took a step back. “Doc, you really have to help me! I have a lot of work to do, and if I don’t finish it by tomorrow, Vinyl’s going to kill me!”
“Calm down, please, everything is going to be fine!” Migraine said, leading the changeling out of the bathroom, and offering her a place on the couch in the living room. “Please Neon, lay down, and relax.”
“Neon?” Twilight whispered to Migraine.
“Neon Lights, Amnesia’s latest ‘client’,” the stallion explained quietly.
“Doc, what’s happened? I don’t even remember coming here, just you saying that you’ll be back with help, and since then everything got so confusing!” Amnesia cried out.
“Please Neon, I’d like you to relax, as much as you can,” Migraine asked, and after the shifter took a few deep breaths, he continued. “Now, I would like you Amnesia, to wake up.”
“Migraine? Is that you?” the changeling’s voice became weak, and Twilight noticed she was staring at the ceiling with blank eyes. “Please help! I can’t remember! I can remember it all, but I can’t remember who I am! Oh, Migraine, it’s worse than any pain! Please help!”
“Amnesia, I have Princess Twilight Sparkle here with me; she agreed to help, but she wants to know your story first.”
“I can’t... I can’t tell it!” Amnesia whispered. “I don’t remember it all, it’s... it’s confusing! But I wrote it down! I wrote a diary, just as you said I should! I have it, in my saddlebag!”
Migraine looked at Twilight. The princess wanted to hear the story from the changeling herself, but seeing what condition she was in, Twilight doubted she could've asked the shifter to tell it, without causing her permanent harm. She slowly nodded, and Migraine turned back to Amnesia.
“She will read it, and then help you, I promise!” Migraine calmed the changeling, gently stroking her head. “Sleep now, Amnesia.”
The changeling suddenly turned her head, searching for Twilight. When Amnesia's stare fixated on Twilight, she knew the changeling couldn't have been looking at her; yet she felt something in that blank stare piercing her.
“Please help!” she whispered, and then fell asleep.
Migraine made sure she was resting, and then turned to the princess.
“You saw her condition first hoofed; she completely lost herself. Before I left, she asked me to go and see Beauty Brass; somepony Neon never even knew, but one of Amnesia’s previous clients did. Her memories are mixing up, and she can’t control it anymore.”
“I still can’t believe anypony would willingly let a changeling take their memories, along with their life,” Twilight replied. “I’ll need a better proof, before I make a decision.”
“Very well, I’ll get you her diary.”
With that Migraine left the living room, leaving Twilight alone with the sleeping shifter. The princess looked at the changeling; she was asleep, but not resting. She was moving in her sleep, and her expressions clearly showing the battle she was fighting in her dreams. A battle between the memories she stole from her clients, and her own. If her conscience would’ve let her, Twilight would’ve instantly left, saying it was poetic justice, and let the changeling deal with it. But it just wasn’t who she was. Which raised the valid question: who was the changeling that called herself Amnesia?
“Maybe this’ll help you find some answers,” Migraine said, holding a tattered notebook.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Twilight replied, grabbing the book. “Even a foal’s book is kept in a better condition.”
“A book by it’s cover? Now I know why you refuse to help her,” the stallion said sadly.
“Hey that’s not –” Twilight began, but stopped when he looked at the psychologist’s expression. “Okay, okay, I was judging a book by it’s cover. But I had a reason!”
“And reasons justify everything, don’t they?” Migraine retorted, but before Twilight could’ve replied, he held up his hoof. “We have more pressing matters at hoof; I think you should get to it.”
The princess let out a heavy sigh. Admitting defeat, she took a seat in the armchair, opened the notebook, and began reading the scribbled sentences.