“Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh!”
Your eyes slowly drift their way open, a deep orange veil is cast over the blurry figures in your morning vision. Warmth radiates from your outstretched wings; against your chest, you can feel the epicenter of heat as warm waves of air rush over a portion of wet, matted fur. Blinking your eyes a few times to clear your vision, you are met with the sight of your favourite ivory coated mare, who has completely retreated into the span of your wings. Her sleeping form is curled tightly into a ball with her head resting against your chest, a small line of drool drips from her partially open mouth into your fur. You can’t help but smile at the sight, and wrap your wings around the sleeping mare more tightly. Movement at the periphery of your vision brings pulls your thoughts away from the mare you’re holding. A cyan Pegasus mare is about 5 hooves away from you; the way she is bouncing up and down on the cloud causes her rainbow mane to bounce in front of her rose tinted eyes. A giant smile is plastered to her face. When the Pegasus notices that you’re looking back at her, she lets out a high pitched squeal and begins bouncing faster. Raising a forehoof to your mouth, you shush her quietly. The sleepy white mare stirs, burying her head deeply into the down feathers of your lower wing. A moment later a sneeze rings out; ruffling feathers on both of your wings.
The Pegasus’ expression quickly turns to one of disbelief. “Did your wings just sneeze?” Clearly, she didn’t understand what your shushing meant.
With that same cute little yawn from a few days ago, Nurse Redheart pokes her head slowly out from your embrace. “Is that Rainbow Dash?” she says, pulling a hoof up to wipe the sleep from her eyes.
“Nurse Redheart? How’re… Why… What?” The cyan mare nearly falls off the edge of the cloud in her confusion.
“You two know each other?” You’d noticed Ponyville was a small town by now, on second thought, this should have been expected.
“Rainbow Dash here is probably my most common patient. She’s always crashing while practicing to be—”
“SSHHHH!” the accident prone pegasus interrupts, shaking her head back and forth in a manner that you assume to be a failed attempt at being subtle.
“So, What’re you doing up here, Ms. Dash?” the white mare asked as she wriggled out from your embrace and got to her hooves.
“I work here, duh. I should be the one asking why you’re here.”
“We were up here admiring beauty of the night. We must have fallen asleep, though.” The memories of last night bring a smile to your face as you climb to your hooves.
“Ugh… A Stargazing date? Are all Wonderbolts that cliché?” The rainbow maned mare sounds a little disappointed.
“Cliché or not, it was wonderful.” Hearing that the pony of your affection enjoyed herself makes the smile on your face grow wider.
“What’s a Wonderbolt?” you inquire.
“Uhm… You.” She deadpanned. Your smile fades as confusion overtakes your mind.
“Come again?”
“You are. Nighthawk, the Wonderbolt.”
“Who, the what”?
“The blue Pegasus in front of me. The one that is a famous acrobatic flier.” Looking down at yourself, you are blue. And you do have wings, so you’re probably a Pegasus. You can’t seem to remember anything about that last part, though.
“Would you two slow down a minute?” the white mare interjects, taking a few steps closer to the brightly colored Pegasus.
“Dash, are you trying to tell us you know who he is?”
“Duh, I know all the Wonderbolts.”
Continuing to advance on the Cyan mare, Nurse Redheart did not relent from her impromptu interrogation. “You’re saying that you know him, AND that he’s a Wonderbolt?”
“Uhh. Yeah, Jes. What’s with the third degree?” Rainbow Dask paused and took a few steps back. “And how do you not know who you went on a date with?” Taking this advantage to turn the tides of this confrontation, the cyan mare advances, stopping when her face is only a few inches from the white nurse. The anger in her voice was easily noticed.
“Dash, this is the stallion that was buried under that building a week and a half ago. No one knew who he was,” Nurse Redheart said, with a sigh. “If you knew him so well, why didn’t you say something when we canvassed everypony in Ponyville with his picture?”
“I was busy at the time. I didn’t get a chance to look at the picture.”
“What could you have possibly been doing that had you so busy? It was sunny all day that day, which means you weren’t doing weather patrol duties.” The white pony’s annoyance was quite evident.
“I was gathering strength for that awesome thunderstorm we organized 3 days ago.” The cyan pegasus puffed up her chest, taking pride in her accomplishment.
“You were napping?! Dash, of all the lazy, self-centered, things…” Nurse Redheart was glaring daggers at the rainbow maned mare, causing her to deflate and adopt a pained look.
“Hey, I would have got around to it. And besides, I’ve told you who he is now. Everything worked itself out.” The cyan mare waved a dismissive hoof as she walked to the edge of the cloud, looking down over the edge.
“I don’t believe you. There’s no way that I can be a world famous wonder… whatever you said. Nopony else in town said anything.”
“That’s because you perform with a flight suit covering your entire body. No one can ever see anything but your mane and tail.” Laying down on the edge of the cloud, Rainbow Dash placed her face between her forehooves. Her voice drained of the previous passions it had held.
“Then how do you know me?”
“Because I got to spend the whole day with you and Soarin’ after I won the Best Young Flier competition in Cloudsdale last year.”
Her explanation had made sense, but the word of one pony couldn't possibly change things. Your past was gone forever, and believing in someone you just met, with nothing other than her word would just lead to more trouble. “I still don’t believe you.”
“Gahhh… I can prove it. I’ll be back.” She leaps from the edge of the cloud and begins to spiral downwards, back towards Ponyville.
“Wait a sec, Dash!” Nurse Redheart yells. The cyan mare slows to a stop, still in earshot.” We’re going to get some breakfast. Meet us at that café that Twilight’s Coltfriend runs.” Without even turning back to face you, the rainbow maned flier nods in acknowledgement and flies off in a blur of colors.
“Buck, she’s fast.” Is all you can manage to say.
***
You took the flight back to Ponyville at a leisurely pace, soaring just above the treetops.
Once again, thoughts of confusion were working their way through your mind. If Rainbow Dash was right, what would happen? Would things change from how they were? You liked how things have been over the past few days. Spending time with Nurse Redheart made you feel so happy, and that was something you never wanted to give up. So, she can't be right. She must have just been imagining things.
On the way back into town, the rumbling stomach of the mare on your back tickled your fur, and by the time you had made it to the small, unassuming café, both of your stomachs were begging for sustenance. You were seated at an outdoor table by the chef/owner whose name you did not catch; you were too busy devouring the menu with your eyes. It was a simple 1-page affair consisting of a wide variety of breakfast foods, from pastries and fruit, to all different types of oatmeal. Your stomach had settled on something else though, a simple bowl of cream of wheat and cinnamon, brown sugar toast; your dining companion had chosen a rather complex sounding fruit tart with strawberries, elderberries, mulberries, and fig. Once the Unicorn chef/owner had taken your order, he trotted quickly back into the kitchen to prepare your food. Looking around, the other tables were completely empty; you must have been his first customers of the day.
“You’ve been awfully quiet since Dash left. Are you ok?” The white mare seated across the table had a look of concern on her face.
“I don’t know. I thought things were getting better. Yesterday was so… amazing. Now I feel like that might be taken away from me again, like I might be expected to drop everything and return to a life I don’t remember.” You sigh and prop your head up on a forehoof.
“You’re still in control of your life. You always have been. Knowing who you were won’t change who you are. We’ll worry about what happens WHEN it happens. You’ll go insane if you worry about every little thing that might happen.”
“Your breakfast, sir.” The sudden voice of the proprietor of the café causes you to nearly fall over backwards; you didn’t even hear him walk up. As you try and determine if you are having a heart attack or not, the unicorn places both of your meals on the table. Nurse Redheart thanks him as he leaves. Your meal looked completely mundane. The Berry tart on the other-hoof was a plethora of sweet berries, mixed with exotic figs blended together in a bowl made of waffles. It was brightly colored and it smelled like something that Celestia herself would eat. Grabbing your bowl of what can only be described as light brown paste in your mouth, you begin to slowly pour the thick amalgamation onto a piece of toast. Thirty seconds later, the entire mass of goo splatters onto the plate, completely coating both pieces of your toast, as well as a portion of the table. Your groan of annoyance is accompanied by a fit of feminine giggling from the mare across the table from you.
“Buck it, I’ll do it the old fashioned way,” you say, burying your face into the pile of deliciously sweet gruel and toast. The feeling of being watched sneaks into your consciousness, but you ignore it. You’re sure that anypony who could see you would be trembling from your severe lack of table manners. You don't care, right now, your stomach is in control of your body anyway. A gale-force wind nearly knocks your table over entirely, leaving the small vase of flowers in the center as a vase full of stems. Rainbow Dash must have arrived.
“Wow… You’re sure you’re not related to Soarin’, right?” You pull your muzzle out of the half devoured mound of toast and off-white goo, using your napkin to make yourself presentable again. The rainbow maned pony is standing between you at the table with a pair of saddlebags on, wearing a devious smirk.
“I don’t even know who this Soarin’ is.”
“Oh, right. It’s just that’s exactly how he eats apple pie… and othertypes of pie,” the cyan mare says with a wink to Nurse Redheart. “You’re lucky.” The white pony’s face fills with a blush brighter than her mane. After some amount of hemming and hawing, the embarrassed pony tries to change the subject.
“S-so… Rainbow, you said something about proof of your theory.”
“Oh, yeah. It took me a little bit to find it, but take a look at this. Night, here,” the cyan mare says, pointing an accusatory hoof in your direction, “gave it to me last year after the Best Young Flier competition, that I won.” Her voice is muffled as she buries her head into her saddlebags, but you can still understand the whole sentence. She places a small framed picture on the table and pushes it over to Nurse Redheart, whose face has returned to its normal hue. The white mare picks it up in her hooves and looks at it carefully.
“I don’t believe it,” She says, her voice more full of surprise than disbelief.
“It’s true?” you ask.
“See for yourself.” Placing the picture onto the table Nurse Redheart slides it over to you with a hoof. When it gets close enough to see, your jaw nearly hits the floor.
The pony before you is an exact match down to the last detail, with a couple exceptions. You're wearing a blue flight suit with yellow lightning bolts all over it and you’re a member of a world famous acrobatics team. You quickly begin to back away from the table, but your hindhooves hoof gets caught on the compacted pile of hay you’ve been sitting on. Trying to use your wings to counter-balance yourself just makes the situation worse, and causes you to flip head over hooves backwards. A sharp pain wracks the back of your head, and the world around you is veiled in a constant blur. A high pitched ringing is all you can hear. When you try and get up, your hooves feel weak, but you manage to stand and slowly walk back toward your table. A few steps away you feel a warm body press up against your side and a hoof press gently, yet firmly against the back of your warm, wet feeling mane. Turning to look at the pony next to you, you see Nurse Redheart with a look of fear in her eyes. She motions to the hay you were sitting on, and says something you can’t distinguish over the ringing in your ears. You decide that sitting down would be a good idea, the ground shouldn’t be moving back and forth like it is. Walking in an earthquake this bad must be dangerous, especially since the hay pile you would like to sit on is now flying up to your face.