Discovery of an Enigma
Year 990 of Luna’s Exile, Everfree Forest
Intrepid Dawn, now ten and big for his age, moved quickly through the Light Bringer fort as he approached the gate, after sneaking around the guards he moved stealthily into the forest. Once he could no longer see the camp he leapt agilely into the treetops and began to travel from tree branch to tree branch across the forest following a path that existed only in his head. After about half an hour of travel he dropped down to the ground and made his way carefully through a patch of brambles into a small glade. After reading from the books he had brought with him, the quiet day, warm sun, and peaceful atmosphere wove their enchantments upon him and his eyes slowly closed as he let out a yawn. Soon he was snoring as the day quietly wore on.
With a start he awoke as a rainbow explosion sent ripples of colors and sound across the sky. Blinking the last of the sleep out of his eyes, he looked up to the sky in wonder for a grand total of one second, just long enough for him to think “what is that hurtling towards me?” before getting hit by what felt like a small meteor. After sliding for several feet he looked to his side to see what had hit him, he saw a huddled mass of white.
Shifting carefully he nudged the quivering mass with his nose and quietly asked “Are you alright?”
The shivering mass uncurled, becoming a small alabaster filly. She blinked her brilliant blue eyes and nodded her head to answer his question. Then she carefully tried to get up but her right foreleg crumpled beneath her weight and caused her to cry out in pain and begin sniffling. Intrepid carefully got up favoring his side. He walked back to where he had been sleeping and grabbed his saddlebags. After pulling a length of cloth from the saddlebags he moved back beside the filly and began to bandage her foreleg intrigued by the shape and substance of it.
“Is that better?” He asked.
Once again the filly nodded but this time didn’t try to move.
“My name is Intrepid Dawn, what is yours?” Intrepid asked.
“I don’t know.” she quietly replied.
“How can you not know?” Intrepid asks.
“I don’t know, I just can’t remember,” the filly replied her voice shaky. “All I can remember is an explosion of color and then falling.”
“Let me see your head, your memory loss could be from hitting your head when you crashed.” Dawn stated as he approached the filly again. Looking closely at her head he quickly realized that the filly was not a pony and that her head had sustained some injuries which probably had caused her memory loss. Once he was finished with his quick analysis he said “It looks like you did hit your head pretty hard when you landed, and I am not able to treat such an injury, however I know who can and she lives close by. If you can climb on my back, we will get there quite quickly.”
“Okay,” the filly said carefully climbing onto Dawn’s back.
Dawn moved back through the brambles surrounding the glade, and once through started moving through the forest at a quick trot, careful to watch for any signs of danger. As he as he got closer to his destination his speed increased until the hut he had been looking for appeared through the foliage. He approached the hut at a gallop yelling for Zecora, when she appeared he quickly told her what happened and carefully laid the now comatose filly on a bed in Zecora’s home.
“Heat some water and get my medicine bag, also grab some bandages and a rag.” Zecora ordered. “We must reduce the swelling to start her on the path of healing.”
“Okay, Zecora,” said Dawn as he rushed to do as she asked.
Zecora examined the filly’s wounds while waiting for the water to heat. Finding only minor injuries other than the head injury and broken leg, she cleaned the minor injuries and bandaged them. When she had finished with the minor injuries, she set the broken leg. She then began on the head injury cleaning it carefully and then placing a poultice on it and wrapping a bandage around the filly’s head to keep the poultice in place. When she had finished wrapping the injury, she turned Dawn and said “Well that is all I can do until she wakes, now let me check your ribs for any breaks.” With a grimace Dawn submitted himself to Zecora’s prodding hoof letting out a hiss of pain when her hoof came in contact with the ribs the filly had hit when she crashed. Zecora carefully wrapped Dawn’s barrel and said “No breaks just a very bad bruise, take it easy for a few days and be sure to snooze.”
“Alright Zecora, I will and do you think the filly will be alright?” asked Dawn.
“Her body should heal up well, her mind only time can tell. However she is a changeling, so my predictions may mean nothing.” Zecora replied.
“A changeling! I am learning about them in training, although she seems different than the monsters described by the instructors. According to my instructors changelings are fearsome creatures covered in black chitin, able to both fly and use magic, and who feed on the emotions of ponies. Supposedly they rarely fear anything and most are part of a hive mind controlled by their queens and under-queens incapable of independent thought.” Stated Dawn.
“Your instructors are right, but they only teach what they can confirm by sight. There are strange magics at work here, and I do not know where they will lead for I am no seer.” Zecora said. “Your decision to help this changeling filly has set you on a dangerous path, for you may incur many ponies’ wrath.”
“I know but she was hurt and I couldn’t just leave her there to die!” Dawn exclaimed.
“I know you wouldn’t leave her to die, but not all ponies are as kind and helpful as you or I,” said Zecora. “Some may have even killed her outright, or left her to die at the crash site. You must be careful my friend, for there are those who will work to bring about your and her end.”
“I will be careful Zecora and thank you for taking care of her. I will be back tomorrow to check on her. Good bye,” said Dawn as he prepared to leave.
“I bid you good bye, I will guard her from any unfriendly eye,” Zecora said.
Dawn trotted off into the forest still favoring his bruised side. As he traveled through the forest back to the Light Bringer encampment he considered Zecora’s advice to be careful. By the time he had sneaked back into camp, he had decided not to tell anyone else about the changeling filly at least until he knew more about her himself. Already known as a loner and daydreamer despite his young age he was left to his thoughts as he plodded along the path through the encampment to his family’s house. As he entered the front door, he was greeted with a tackle ambush from his younger brother, Gear Box and sister, Star Song, both unicorns. He quickly faltered under their combined assault and collapsed to the ground faking his own defeat. “I am slain” he cried dramatically as he fell.
“Yay we won, Gear, we beat the monster!” shouted Star as she jumped onto Dawn’s injured side causing him to gasp in pain. “Dawn are you okay?” asked Star her voiced laced with concern for her older brother.
“It is just a bruise from earlier, I’ll be fine little sis.” said Dawn.
“From all the noise coming from in here I would guess Dawn is home,” said his mother from the kitchen, “and just in time for dinner too. Wash up my little munchkins and come sit at the table, dinner is just about ready.”
“Okay Mom,” said Dawn for himself and his siblings.
As soon as the children were done washing their hooves and faces, their father, Iron Bulwark, entered the front door and announced “I’m home!”
“Good, you’re just in time for dinner honey,” said Moonlit Eve.
“I knew I smelled something good on my way in here,” said Iron.
With the whole family at the dinner table the meal was begun with gusto. As bellies were filled, conversation started with each member of the family telling the rest about their day to greater or lesser extent. With Zecora’s words echoing in his mind, Dawn said nothing about the changeling filly that had crashed into him and explained away his injured side as a training injury.
The next day Dawn was up bright and early, anxious to see the changeling filly again, however his chores and training had to be taken care of first. Both the chores and the training seemed to take an eternity to his anxious young mind. Even the antics and companionship of his best friend Harvest Moon didn’t help the time pass more quickly. As the training ended for the day, Dawn rejected the Harvest’s request to hang out with the excuse that he had something important to do and the promise that he would tell Harvest more about it at a later date. Then he was off quickly and stealthily to Zecora’s hut.
Upon his arrival at Zecora’s hut, he found Zecora ministering to the now conscious filly’s wounds. Glad to see the changeling filly awake and apparently on the mend he waited patiently until Zecora was done. As soon as she was done he asked the changeling filly, “How are you?”
She replied “I am still sore and injured but I feel better than yesterday.”
“Do you remember anything else?” Dawn asked.
“Not yet, not with any surety,” she said with sadness in her voice.
“Well I am sure you will remember it in time, for now though maybe we can go over what I have learned about changelings and see if any of that jogs your memory.” Dawn suggested.
“Sure” she replied, her face filled with hope.
With those words the great memory recovery and research project began. As the changeling filly healed, Dawn would come by each day and check up on her project many times bringing any books he could find on changelings or on memory loss. After about a week of this he mentioned that they should come up with a name for changeling filly at least until she remembered her own. She agreed to this and together they brainstormed names until they came up with Alabaster Enigma mostly because it described her and because the filly liked it better than the others they had come up with.
Two days after Alabaster Enigma took her new name some of her memories began to come back. Many were hazy at first and most were not very helpful other than as proof that she was getting her memories back. By the beginning of the second week of her recovery and her and Dawn’s project, her memories were getting clearer and many seemed to be about day to day life for a drone in the hive. Dawn recorded these memories for future reference. Finally after about three and a half weeks they had a break-through in what had happened on the day Alabaster crashed into Dawn and the week leading up to it.