I have to say thank you all....I really can't believe that I received 20 favorites from just the first chapter. Especially considering the first chapter was barely 1000 words long. You all really surprised me, and that's a good thing. I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much. It's much longer than the last, as promised.
Please C&C if you have any criticism to give. I enjoy reading what others think, and it helps me to become a better writer. Quick disclaimer: This was finished at 1am, and as such it probably has errors that I missed in proof reading. If you find any feel free to point them out so I may fix them.
I woke with the feeling that I’d been hit by a train. In case anypony was wondering, it wasn’t the most pleasant of sensations. I could tell I was no longer outside. My back was aching, my head pounding, and my front right leg was hurting. The pain was much less noticeable than before I’d passed out, but it was still there. I was a little groggy, but my head wasn’t as plagued by the pain as it was before, so I was able to think fairly clearly. This improvement in my clarity of thought led me to notice that my leg was wrapped tightly in what felt like cloth bandages. That meant I’d been treated.
It took me a few seconds to register that there were voices in the room with me. That they were the same ones from before was obvious though.
“I wrapped his leg as w-well as I could. It’s probably broken…it seems that way at least. His head needed bandages too after I cleaned the b-blood out of his mane. I-I just hope he’ll be okay.” I heard the voice of Fluttershy tell somepony. She seemed so unsure of herself with the way she spoke, but if she had indeed done the bandaging, it felt like solid work. It wasn’t too tight, but it was tight enough to restrict movement. The fact that I had bandages on my head didn’t register when she spoke this, and it didn’t register for quite some time. This annoyed me slightly as I dislike being unable to move in a normal fashion.
“You did a great job Fluttershy. I’m sure he’ll be just fine. Why don’t you take a break and eat something. If he wakes up you’ll know.” This came from the one they called Twilight. At this point I opened my eyes. I didn’t let them shoot open as they had before, because I didn’t want to scare Fluttershy like before. As I opened my eyes I noticed that Twilight and Fluttershy were standing next to the sofa I was on and I could see the others in the next room. Twilight and Fluttershy were still talking so they didn’t notice that I’d opened my eyes. I closed my eyes again so they wouldn’t notice.
“I-I don’t know Twilight. I think I sh-should be here to help when he wakes up.” Fluttershy responded quietly. Twilight however would have none of it.
“You’ve been taking care of him for the past couple of hours. You really need a little rest and food. I’ll come get you as soon as he wakes up.” After this response I definitely wasn’t going to open my eyes. If she’d been taking care of me for that long she definitely needed to eat, and I wasn’t going to keep her from that.
“Okay…” With that I listened as Fluttershy slowly walked out of the room. As soon as she was gone Twilight turned her attention to me. Even if I couldn’t see it, it felt like her eyes were looking right through me, analyzing me, trying to figure me out.
“Who are you?” She asked quietly. It seemed like she was asking herself, and I was supposed to be asleep, so I didn’t answer. Instead I let her mull that question over in her mind. At the same time I pondered it. I thought long and hard, bits and pieces of light and sound flashed through my mind. A distinct scream from a remote corner of my conscience went through my mind, but nothing came with it. I knew my name. That was the moment I realized that my name was the only thing I could remember clearly. This bit of information made me forget all about trying to act like I was sleeping. I sat straight up on the couch I had been laying on. Twilight took a step back as I did so, but she kept her composure.
“Don’t worry. You’re safe.” She reassured me. I just stared at her. I couldn’t understand what was happening to me. Then I registered the spike of pain in my leg and I lifted it off the floor. That made it better, but I was still having trouble comprehending. “Who are you?” She repeated her question. This time it had actually been addressed to me, so I guess it was the first time she really asked the question.
“I’m Dohi Waya…it means Peaceful Wolf. You can call me Waya, or Wolf, or whatever you prefer.” I answered calmly. The translation came to me as I spoke. I couldn’t stop it from coming out. She seemed intrigued by this information, and she waited for more. When I didn’t offer anything else up I could see a bit of disappointment in her eyes. Even as I analyzed her she was doing the same to me. I searched her violet eyes with my gray ones for clues to her disposition. I had gray eyes…at least I’m remembering something, I thought with what I knew was false hope.
“Well Waya, I’m Twilight Sparkle. You can call me Twilight. We’re at Fluttershy’s house. She’s the Pegasus who treated your injuries.” I nodded as she explained all of this. I knew it all, I had remembered what they said before, but she was obviously making sure I knew about my situation. That softened me up a bit more towards her. She was trying her best to make me comfortable, even if there was no way I could be comfortable at the moment. I decided to drop a hint that I had been awake when she was talking to Fluttershy.
“You should probably let Fluttershy eat, especially with how long she’s been taking care of me.” As I spoke I saw understanding in her eyes. She now knew that I had been awake before I sat up. I continued after a few seconds of silence, “I feel bad for scaring her earlier. She seems really nice.” I simply spoke what was on my mind. I couldn’t think of much else to say other than that. Twilight nodded her head in agreement with my statement.
“She’s a sweet one, but she’s very shy. She was probably already scared of you before that happened, if only because you’re a stranger. But if there is one thing about her, it’s that she takes care of ponies and animals that need her. Like you.” Her description of Fluttershy made sense, but it also seemed slightly conflicting. It had to take an unbelievable amount of courage to help somepony you were afraid of. I nodded my head in understanding, and we sat in silence for a minute or two. The only sounds were those of animals outside and the others in the next room. Their muffled voices were almost soothing to me for some reason, but I couldn’t pin down why. At that point I noticed the bandage around my head. I don’t know why it took me that long to notice it, but it did. I obviously didn’t know very much at that moment.
Finally Twilight spoke again, “Where are you from Waya?” I knew she would ask this question, and many others to boot, but it still struck me hard when she did. I thought for a minute, trying my best to remember where I lived…to remember anything. Once again all I got was a crashing mess of light and sound, nothing jumped out into distinction. I gave up, resigned to the fact that it may be quite a while before I knew anything important about myself.
“I-I don’t know…I don’t know” I managed to say as I hung my head. This was going to be hard, and I didn’t know if I would be able to stand through it all, especially since I knew nopony at all. After a few moments of silence I looked up at Twilight again. She was still studying me, but her gaze had softened. She looked around after a moment and then spoke. Next, trying to maybe give my memory a jolt she asked about a few towns and cities.
“Well, I’ve never seen you around Ponyville, so that means you must be from out of town. Maybe Fillydelphia? Canterlot? Maybe Trotsdale…it’s a nice town like Ponyville, and they have their own ruler, Empress Aurora, she’s very benevolent.” It was a vain attempt, because nothing she said jogged my memory. I just shook my head at each one. Even the description of Trotsdale didn’t seem familiar to me. I knew all the names, but none of them struck me as home. The concern grew on Twilight’s face as I shook my head. She was obviously worried about who I was, and maybe what I was as well.
“I’m going to tell the others you’re awake. Fluttershy will have finished her meal by now, and everypony will want to see you. Is that okay?” I nodded assent even though I didn’t need to. She was being polite and she didn’t have to be. She could have just as easily told me what was going to happen and acted on her own whims. She turned and went into the other room. I watched her as she spoke to them. I couldn’t hear what she said, but I did hear the very energetic pony.
“He’s awake!” She shouted. Her voice irritated me, but I wouldn’t say that, it would have been wrong to do so.
“Pinkie!” I heard Twilight shush the other pony. Amazingly the hyper one wasn’t the first one in the room, instead it was Fluttershy. She walked into the room slowly as the others followed close behind.
“H-How are you feeling?” She asked in a barely audible voice. I smiled, trying to show I was nicer than I seemed before.
“A lot better now that you fixed me up.” I answered her. It was an honest answer, if not slightly embellished. In truth the physical pain was quite a bit better, but I still had so much racing through my mind that it was hard to say I was feeling great. Fluttershy just blushed and dropped her head to let her hair cover her face. “I’m Dohi Waya by the way. You can call me Waya. I really can’t thank you enough for taking care of me like you did.” This was an attempt to bring her out to speak a bit, but it seemed to have the opposite effect on her as she merely took a step back and mumbled something to her hooves.
Twilight stepped forward to help her, and said, “Well Waya, let’s introduce you to everypony. This is Applejack.” She gestured to the light brown Earth pony wearing the cowboy hat.
“Howdy sugarcube.” Applejack nodded to me. Her voice struck me as so familiar I almost lost focus. She was an Earth pony though, so that meant she was like me. I nodded to her to say hello. I wasn’t the most vocal pony. I had come to notice this since I had woken up. It just didn’t feel right to talk much.
“This is Pinkie Pie.” Twilight motioned to the pink pony that was bouncing up and down repeatedly. She must have been the one who yelled in the other room. This was confirmed when she spoke.
“I’m just so happy to meet you! We’re going to be great friends! What’s with your odd name? I wish I had a name like yours! No, wait…I like Pinkie Pie…I don’t want to change my name! Silly me! OH I KNOW! Let’s sing a song! My name is Pi-“ She started to sing, but was cut off by Twilight.
“Pinkie! You can sing later! He still has to meet everypony else…” She told the energetic one. Pinkie just sat down and nodded in agreement. I could tell she was busting to sing though, and I was worried about how long she’d be able to hold her excitement in.
“To answer your question Pinkie, my name means Peaceful Wolf. So I guess you can call me Wolf or any mix of my name.” I spoke to the entire group instead of just to Pinkie. It was relevant to all of them, so I thought it only right to speak to them all.
The next pony introduced was a stunning Unicorn. “This is Rarity.” Twilight said as Rarity took a step forward.
“Oh Darling, I’m so glad to see you’re doing a little better. It would have been just awful had you been hurt worse.” She seemed a little exaggerated in her manner, but still genuine despite that fact. I smiled and nodded to her.
“This Pegasus,” Twilight motioned to the light blue, rainbow maned Pegasus, “is Rainbow Dash. She was the one who flew into you…at excessive speeds.” The Pegasus pony just smiled sheepishly as she stepped forward. She didn’t seem to have a scratch on her. She must have been built like a tank to run through me and not get hurt. I was almost twice her size.
“Hey I’m sorry about that, but you just kinda appeared out of nowhere! It was probably one of the coolest crashes ever though.” She told me. I took that as the apology it was meant to be, and I responded.
“It’s okay.” My answer was to the point. I knew she was sorry, even if she didn’t exactly show it. With that Twilight turned to Fluttershy.
“You already know who I am, and you know Fluttershy too, but I’ll introduce her anyways. This is Fluttershy.” Her introduction just served to make Fluttershy shrink even more. I watched her in wonder at how such a shy pony could have been the one to patch me up.
“Fluttershy…thank you again for taking care of me.” I told her in the hopes she may say something. While I waited for a response I turned to the others and said, “Thank you all. I don’t know what to say. You all helped me, a complete stranger.”
“It’s jus what we do sugarcube.” Applejack responded first. Her voice was still nagging at the back of my mind, but I figured it would until I remembered something. The others pitched in as well, and then we sat around in silence for a minute or two.
“Well, again, I thank y’all, but I really don’t want to intrude any longer. I best be going.” I told them as I stood up, but before I could take a step I was pushed back into my seat by Applejack.
“Oh no you don’t! The only way you’re leaving here is if we take you to Nurse Redheart.” She stubbornly told me. At this comment Fluttershy jumped up.
“No!" Her sudden outburst surprised me, but she became unsure of herself in an instant, " I-I mean he can’t go. I still have to make sure he’s okay. He’s my patient and…” Her voice trailed off as she realized what was happening. She proceeded to whimper and retreat back to where she had previously been laying. I couldn’t help but feel a mix of emotions for her. Her shyness made me cringe for her, because I could relate since I didn’t know anypony at the moment. The fact that she’d helped me made me feel indebted to her and the rest of them as well.
Then there were the other ponies. They were all so kind, and doing their best to make me feel comfortable. There was Applejack who was probably more stubborn than I was, and the same seemed to go for Rainbow Dash. She seemed to want to fly outside in the worst way, but she was taking the time to sit there with the rest of us. Twilight was caring, but also analyzing. She never seemed to stop doing that. Then came Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Rarity was kind, and Pinkie was over the top energetic. She was even bouncing in her spot on the floor.
Finally though, I rounded out the group. The lone colt. The pony who remembered next to nothing. It was as if Twilight read my thoughts, and she took a big risk in offending me by asking her next question. Evidently the risk was worth the reward. I wouldn’t go off on her, and she must have sensed this. It wouldn’t be fitting, especially after she and her friends helped me(even if Rainbow Dash caused the injuries in the first place). The question rang in my ears for days to come.
“What can you remember?”
Before any of you ask in the comments, Waya's name comes from the language of the Tsalagi Nation. They are commonly known as the Cherokee Indians, but they call themselves Tsalagi, and I respect their culture in a way that I often refer to them as Tsalagi. This choice of language for his name was easy for me to make, mainly because I am a little familiar with it due to it being part of my ancestry. It will also be key to the plot later on...look for it :D