The hospital room was quiet.
At some point during the night, the nurses had disconnected Sunset Shimmer from whatever machines she had been hooked up to. She knew very little of the trappings of hospital rooms, having only been in the hospital once herself as a small filly. She could only assume that was a good sign.
It was dark. Dim starlight filtered through a window with closed blinds; the light wasn't enough for her to see anything by. She thought about sitting up and trying to move around, but a dull ache permeated her being, and even shifting around caused her head to throb.
Worse, now that the adrenaline rush from her escape had worn off, Sunset realized how alien her own body was. With a heavy sigh, she lay her head against the soft pillow underneath it, staring up at the dark ceiling.
She had to admit her countless hours of illicit research had not prepared her for the reality of her current situation. She had unearthed tomes of Starswirl the Bearded's research into parallel worlds, alternate realities where the familiar and the alien collided in a surreal landscape. Nowhere had any of her research mentioned physically transforming into...whatever she was now.
"Whatever," she said into the darkness. "I showed up that old nag Celestia, that's all that matters."
Celestia...
She'd followed Sunset through the portal.
It had closed behind her.
Sunset worried at her lip. A pang of remorse and regret washed over her. She knew all too well what Princess Celestia's presence in this world meant for Equestria.
In all likelihood, it meant in thirty moons, there wouldn't be an Equestria to return to.
Her jaw tightened. "I guess...I'll just have to learn everything I can about this world," she said. "If she's stuck here with me, I'll have to prove I'm her superior here, or...or this was all for nothing."
She slipped into a fitful slumber fraught with restless nightmares.
* * * * *
Bright sunlight spilled through the blinds, glowing against the crisp white linens. Sunset winced as she opened her eyes, which felt puffy and swollen. Gingerly, she sat up, a slight wave of queasiness washing through her at the strangeness of the motion. "Ugh..."
Now that there was light to see by, she looked down at herself. Her arms no longer ended in hooves, but rather minotaur-like hands, hairless with slender fingers. She wiggled them experimentally, raising an eyebrow. The motion caused a slight jolt of pain in her left hand; she quickly traced that to a thick needle which pierced the skin of that hand, held in place by tape and connected to a flexible tube. The tube, in turn, was connected to a half-empty bag of fluid that hung from a metal pole by the bed.
The sheet fell away from her chest, and she stared down at two prominent lumps that shifted around beneath the thin hospital gown she wore. She frowned in confusion. "The hay?"
She lifted the sheet and took a look at her legs. They were long, broad, and ended not in hooves, but in soft feet with short, blunt digits. *Toes,* she told herself. *I've seen animals with toes, I know what toes are.* She wiggled them. *This is so weird.* She let the sheet fall back into place and let out a sigh. "Well, Sunset, you're a...whatever this thing is now." She reached up and felt her forehead. "No horn. I guess that means no magic."
The door opened, and a shortish woman with curly hair wearing magenta scrubs, who Sunset assumed to be a nurse, walked in. "Good morning!" she said. "How are we feeling today?"
"Sore," Sunset said. "Tired. Confused."
"Mm, well, that's to be expected," the nurse said as she busied herself with taking Sunset's blood pressure and checking her other vitals using devices she didn't recognize, then writing it all down on a thin, flat clipboard that didn't seem to have any paper on it—in fact, it seemed to be lit up from within somehow. As the nurse worked, Sunset became aware of an uncomfortable pressure in her bladder. She grimaced, squirming a bit. The nurse looked up. "Something wrong, sweetie?"
"I, umm...need to pee," Sunset said with a grimace.
The nurse nodded. "You'll need me to help you," she said. "You need to get out of bed slowly so you don't aggravate those ribs, alright?"
Sunset nodded. She pulled back the sheet and shifted around, slowly swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. She hissed in pain as the side where the carriage struck her burned intensely. She sucked in a breath through gritted teeth, screwing her eyes shut.
"Yeah, it's gonna hurt," the nurse said sympathetically. "When we're done I'll bring you an ice pack, okay? By the way, they'll be bringing breakfast in about fifteen or twenty minutes."
Sunset slowly stood up, wobbling; the nurse steadied her. Taking one slow step at a time, with the nurse guiding her all the way while tugging the IV stand, Sunset made her way to the small bathroom attached to her hospital room.
Once inside, she faced what had to be the toilet with a blank look. *Okay, now how do I do this...*
* * * * *
Desert Sunrise found his wife in Sunset's room, changing the bedsheets. He frowned. "Honey? You know she's not...not coming home for a few days yet."
Sunset Satin turned and faced him. Her eyes were bloodshot and her movements were jerky. "I know," she said, wringing her hands. "It's just...I couldn't sleep, so I've...I've been in here all night cleaning up her room, getting it ready for her." She frowned. "I'm going to need to get her measurements so we can buy her some new clothes and have them ready for her when she gets home. She's grown so much!" She looked down at herself, then blushed. "I don't know where she got those...breasts from, they sure didn't come from my side of the family."
Sunrise coughed, a blush rising to his chest. "Dear? You're making me a bit uncomfortable," he said.
Satin rolled her eyes. "Oh, behave," she chided. She yawned. "What time is it?"
"Almost seven," Sunrise said. "I think we'll go out for breakfast this morning, alright?"
Satin nodded. "A-alright. But we'll go to the hospital straight after, right?"
"Of course we will."
Satin blinked back fresh tears. "Our baby came home, Des."
Sunrise smiled. "I know, dear. I know."
* * * * *
By the time an orderly brought Sunset's breakfast, her face was still burning with humiliation from her bathroom incident. The nurse had had to help her clean herself up, and seemed rather disconcerted by how...poorly the whole thing had gone.
*I get the feeling my injuries aren't going to cover for the fact that I don't even know how to pee right,* Sunset thought as the orderly set the tray on a high, wheeled table that slid over the bed. He adjusted its height, then lifted the cover off for her and set it on the bed by her leg before leaving the room.
A bowl of oatmeal, two small pancakes, a lump of scrambled eggs, and two grey-brown puck-like discs of something Sunset couldn't identify were arranged on her plate. The tray also held a small carton of milk, a little plastic tub of orange juice, a small tub of pancake syrup, a pat of butter sandwiched between two slivers of waxed paper, and packets of sugar, salt, and pepper. Finally, there was a wrapped drinking straw, a plastic knife, fork, and spoon, and a paper napkin.
Sunset studied the various condiments and utensils with trepidation. She had not used her hooves to handle food or utensils since she was a small filly, relying solely on her magic for everything at the dinner table. She examined her hands, flexing the fingers, observing how each joint moved. So far, she'd had little difficulty moving larger objects—sheets, her gown, the paper towels in the bathroom—with her new hands, but this...
Haltingly, Sunset picked up the little pat of butter with her right thumb and forefinger. Screwing up her face in concentration, she made an effort to peel the wax paper off, succeeding on her third try. Elated, she picked her plastic knife up in a clumsy, full-fisted grip and scraped the butter off the other piece of wax paper, then smeared it on the top pancake. Feeling emboldened, she tried to peel the foil top off the little tub of syrup. After almost a full minute of struggling, she gave up and used her teeth to peel it off, then poured it over the pancakes.
Tearing the paper packets of condiments in half with her fingers was easier than peeling the top off the syrup, but very messy; she got about half the sugar into her oatmeal, and the salt and pepper were clumped and uneven on her eggs. Still, it got the job done. She grabbed her fork in a fist and stabbed the pancakes, trying to cut through them with the edge.
"Sorry it took so long," the nurse said as she walked through the door. "Some idiot didn't refill the ice chest, I had to go to the other station and—" She trailed off. "Umm, you know, it'd be easier to eat if you held your fork the right way."
Sunset blinked, staring at her. "Umm..." She looked down at her fork. "I..." She faked a sheepish laugh. "You're right. I just...guess I'm not all here today."
"Yeah, I noticed," the nurse said dryly. "I've never seen a girl your age miss the toilet before." She shook her head and walked over, taking the fork from Sunset's hand and turning it a different way, reshaping Sunset's hold on the fork so that the handle rested between the first two fingers, with her thumb laid atop the handle. Sunset studied the fork and its new placement, then experimented by cutting into the pancakes. To her surprise, it was much easier now. As she took her first syrupy bite, the nurse lifted her gown and applied a freezing cold icepack to her ribs. She let out a gasp, but quickly relaxed as the cold numbed and soothed the sharp pain. The nurse then applied some ointment to Sunset's side. "Looking good, no sign of infection," she said. "Is there anything you like to watch on TV?"
*What's TV...?* "Not really?" Sunset offered.
The nurse picked up a bulky, button-covered object which hung from a thick cord at the edge of the bed. "Well, I'm sure you know how to work the remote," she said. "Just press the call button if you need anything, okay?"
"Okay," Sunset said. The nurse patted her on the shoulder and gave her an encouraging smile, then left. Shaking her head, Sunset turned her attention back to her breakfast.
The pancakes were a little flat and flavorless, but not terrible. The eggs tasted off, and the oatmeal was a lumpy, bland, tasteless mess. The little brown puck things, on the other hand, had a nice, mildly spicy flavor to them and were by far the most interesting thing on her plate. She washed down the bland oatmeal and disappointing eggs with the cold, delicious milk; when she finished her breakfast, she peeled open the orange juice and gulped it down greedily.
Once Sunset finished her breakfast, she pushed the tray table away and, for lack of anything better to do, turned her attention to the little button machine the nurse had placed within arm's reach. She examined it; there were buttons for raising and lowering the head and foot ends of the bed, a nurse call button, ten numbered buttons from zero to nine, and buttons marked 'TV on/off', 'Channel +/-', and 'Volume +/-'.
She pressed the button marked 'TV on/off', and something mounted on the wall across from her bed beeped twice before showing a picture of a man sitting at a desk, talking. She blinked. "Is this a movie?" She craned her neck around, looking for a projector. "Where's it coming from?"
If it was a movie, it was a boring one. The man at the desk was talking about unemployment rates, stock prices, and fears of a coming economic recession. At some point, a woman's face appeared in a little floating box next to him, and she said the man's recession talk was unfounded and that the economy was stable and getting better. Sunset shook her head, tuning it all out, and looked at the button device again. She tried pressing the number two. In the corner of the screen, a green number 2 appeared, and the picture changed. Now it showed a different man and woman at a different desk.
"Now we turn to Fluffy Clouds for your first look at today's weather," the man said. The picture changed, showing a blue-skinned man in a light grey suit with an orange bowtie and a huge, curly pile of white hair atop his head. He stood in front of a map that looked vaguely like the eastern half of Equestria; Sunset sat up, paying closer attention.
"Well, we're looking forward to a beautiful summer day in Canterlot," Fluffy Clouds said. "That high pressure system isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so once again we're going to see a hot, dry, sunny day, with temperatures warming into the mid-seventies by noon, and an afternoon high of about eighty-three for most of Canterlot. If you've got outdoor plans, this is a good day for it. For tonight, we should have lows in the upper fifties with light breezes from the west-northwest. For the next five days, our forecast looks pretty much the same..."
*Canterlot. So this is a parallel Equestria. That's interesting.*
The picture cut back to the two people at the desk, who started talking about "identity theft". Sunset listened with curiosity as they rattled off a list of advice, accompanied by words printed in place of the picture of the two people. Sunset couldn't understand a single thing they were saying. *It appears I have a lot to learn about this world.*
There was a knock on the door, which opened after a moment. A doctor walked in; it wasn't the same doctor from the night before. He was younger, shorter, and wasn't wearing a white coat. He was studying a flat, glowing clipboard similar to the one the nurse had carried. "Well, good morning," he said distractedly. He looked up at the TV, then back at Sunset. "Oh, come on. A pretty teenage girl like you can't find anything less boring to watch than the news?"
Sunset shrugged.
"Oh well. So, how's your pain this morning? On a scale from one to ten, ten being the worst pain ever."
Sunset thought about it. "About an eight when I move," she said. "About a four when I don't."
The doctor nodded. "It's going to be like that for a while," he said. "Ice packs on your ribs for a couple of weeks, at least two times a day. We're going to keep you on an IV while you're here, but when you go home, we'll have to prescribe some pain pills." He scrawled something on that strange clipboard. "Your parents will have to manage your pain medicine. Is that okay with you?"
*No.* "Of course."
"That's just the law," the doctor said. "Since there've been problems with kids abusing prescription medication lately. At least it's summer, so you don't have to go to school with your ribs like that." He made another mark on his clipboard. "Now, the bruising to your breast...I wouldn't worry about that too much. It should heal quickly. If it doesn't fade within, oh, four or five days, make sure to let somebody know. It'll probably be tender for a while."
"Okay."
"We're keeping you here for a couple of days for observation," the doctor said. After a moment, he asked, "So why'd you run away from home?"
Sunset thought about that for a minute. "I don't remember," she said.
"Hmm." The doctor frowned. "You know, I'm not much older than you. I've only been here two years. I know what it's like. I had fights with my parents when I was your age." He chuckled. "One time, they caught me smoking a joint. I just wanted to try it, you know, everyone was. They got so mad." He shook his head.
"I don't even remember the last time I saw them," Sunset said listlessly. And it was true—ever since she became Princess Celestia's student, she'd become so distant from her family she honestly didn't remember the last time she'd made time for them. She vaguely recalled her mother showing up at the castle on her last birthday. Or was it the one before?
Traitorous tears glistened in her eyes. The doctor looked at her and frowned. "Touchy subject, okay. I'll just...let you work that out with your folks and the psychiatrist." He made another note on his clipboard, then glanced up at the TV. "A little advice, though? Find something more cheerful to watch than the news." He picked up the little button machine and punched two numbers; the picture changed to what looked like a fairly shabby living room, with two women talking back and forth at each other. Obnoxious laughter rang out from the screen practically every time one of them said anything. The doctor gave her an encouraging smile, then turned and left.
For the next hour, Sunset played with the little button box. She raised her bed some, then figured out that the 'Channel +/-' button made the picture change without the numbers. Sometimes it showed more people sitting at a desk talking about news, while other times it showed more people in living rooms or other places talking, with laughter accompanying them. Once, there was an older man in a white suit marching around in a courtroom, berating a witness. Another time, there were what looked like this world's version of zebras, dancing and rhyming to strange, mostly rhythmic music. Eventually, it cycled back around to that first set of people talking about news and current events in Canterlot. She turned the volume down and flicked the button box off the side of the bed, reclining against her pillow and closing her eyes.
"Sunset?"
She opened her eyes. Desert Sunrise and Sunset Satin were standing by the bed. She offered them a weak smile. "Hey."
"How are you feeling?" Satin asked, pulling a chair up to the bed and sitting down right beside her. She ran a hand through Sunset's hair fondly.
"Sore," Sunset said.
"Can we get you anything?" Satin asked. "Are you thirsty? Go get her something to drink, Des."
"Yeah, something to drink sounds good," Sunset said. "Anything."
Desert Sunrise nodded and left the room.
Satin looked up at the screen on the wall. "So, what're you watching?" she asked.
"I have no idea," Sunset said. "I just left it on and kinda drifted off."
An awkward silence fell.
"Sweetie...where have you been?" Satin asked softly.
Sunset took a deep breath. "I don't know," she said, a quaver in her voice.
"What do you mean, you don't know?" Satin asked, tilting her head.
"I mean I don't know where I've been," Sunset said, looking at her with as much sincerity as she could muster.
Desert Sunrise walked back in, holding a bottle of cola. He walked over and handed it to Sunset, then sat down.
"Thanks," Sunset said. She studied the cap on the bottle with a frown. "Actually, Mom, can you pour this in a cup for me? Maybe with some ice? I think they gave me some ice a little bit ago."
Satin smiled. "Of course," she said. She located Sunset's ice pitcher and the plastic tumbler they'd given her, filling the cup with ice before pouring half the soda into it and setting the bottle on the overbed table. Sunset watched her hands the entire time, observing the way she twisted the cap.
"Thanks," Sunset said, reaching for the cup and bringing it to her lips. She tipped it back and gulped down some of the sweet, bubbly cola, giving an appreciative murmur as she smacked her lips. She looked at her "parents". "So, umm...how are things?"
They looked at each other awkwardly. "Good," Sunrise said. "They're...they're good. Work's going fine, we're both...fine." He looked at her, searching her face. "Things were...kind of rough for a while after you, you know. We...had some rough times."
"Oh. I'm sorry," Sunset said. *I wonder what really happened...*
She'd spent much of the night before thinking. She wasn't entirely convinced the people she saw were really her parents, or if she was having some sort of trauma-induced delirium. It did stand to reason, however, based on some of Starswirl's notes she'd found and read, that if parallel worlds existed, and there were alternate versions of ponies from Equestria there...
These were her parents, and there was another Sunset Shimmer in this world. And she had run away from home.
Sunset didn't need to know anything about this world to know the odds of their Sunset ever coming home were slim to none...if she was even still alive.
*Which works out just fine for me, if I can bluff my way through these first few days...*
"Sunset was just telling me she doesn't know where she's been all this time," Satin said in a light tone that nevertheless carried an edge of doubt and disappointment.
Sunrise frowned, gazing intently at Sunset. "How can you not know where you've been?" he asked.
Sunset shrugged. "I don't," she said with a hitch in her voice. "I don't even remember...leaving. Or why." She looked at them with what she hoped was an expression of utter helplessness. "I don't...really remember anything."
They shared a significant glance. Sunrise frowned. "You know, young lady...you don't have any head injury from last night. If you're...if you're trying to fake amnesia to get out of explaining yourself..."
*Wow, their Sunset must've been a real twat!* Sunset shook her head. "I'm not...I mean..." She took another sip of cola. "I really don't remember." She shrugged. "All I remember is...is running. I don't know where from, or where to, or why. I just...I just remember running." She looked at Sunrise. "Then I got hit, and then you were there. That's really all I can remember." She frowned down at her lap. "I don't remember home. I don't...I don't remember anything."
Satin gasped. "Oh my god," she breathed.
Sunrise's jaw clenched. "Alright," he said. "Let's start with the night you disappeared." He leaned forward, folding his hands in his lap. "Three times, Sunset. Three times we caught you sneaking out at night to see that thug we told you we didn't want you getting mixed up with. You were thirteen, he was sixteen, and he came around stinking of alcohol. He was rude, he was disrespectful, and we found out two months after you left that he tried to kill his own mother. He's in prison now. Adult prison."
Sunset grimaced. "Wow, he sounds like a charmer," she said.
"You certainly thought so," Sunrise continued. "Because we told you we didn't want to catch you with him, but you kept disobeying us and sneaking out of the house to meet him. We grounded you and you snuck out anyway. Do you remember any of this?"
Sunset shook her head. "I really don't," she said. "I don't even know who you're talking about, and I'm pretty sure that's a good thing."
"And how about getting suspended from school for bad behavior and keying your history teacher's car, do you remember that?"
Sunset shrugged helplessly. "Sorry." *That sounds like some kind of vandalism. I know I can be pretty defiant—that's how I ended up in this mess in the first place—but this other me sounds like a major jerk.*
Sunrise took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. "Look," he said. "We're just happy to have you home and that you're safe and alive. We want to put everything behind us. Wherever you went, whatever you did, it doesn't matter anymore, so long as we can start over. But we need to know we can trust you, young lady. We need to know it won't be the same all over again. We can't...we can't go through that again."
Sunset allowed tears to well up in her eyes. "Dad," she choked out, "I...whatever I did, I'm sorry. I wish I could remember, but...I can't. I don't...I don't remember anything." She sniffled.
"Nothing at all? You really have no idea where you've been for the last two years?"
"I don't even know where I am right now," Sunset said. "I mean, I'm assuming this is Canterlot because I heard that guy talking about the weather earlier," she continued, gesturing at the screen on the wall, "and because you're here, so...I mean, if you're here, this must be Canterlot, right? Canterlot is home, right?"
Sunrise and Satin blinked and exchanged a nervous glance. "Sunset?" Satin said hesitantly. "We...we moved here six months ago." She swallowed heavily. "I mean, we hoped maybe...and I made up a bedroom for you and put everything exactly where you had it except for those nasty magazines, just in case, but..." She shook her head. "When...when we had to leave Fillydelphia, we honestly...gave up."
Sunset looked down at her lap. "Oh," she said. *STUPID! Overplayed it.*
The door opened, and the white-haired doctor from the night before walked in, examining one of those glowing clipboards. He looked up and nodded at Sunset's parents briefly, then walked over to her with a gentle smile. "Good morning," he said. "We didn't exactly meet last night, I'm Dr. Swab, I was the attending on call when you were admitted last night, so I'll be your doctor. How are you feeling?"
"Sore, tired, confused," Sunset said.
"Well, you were just reunited with your parents after being hit by car," Dr. Swab said with a chuckle. "That's bound to rattle anyone." He looked at Sunrise and Satin. "I know you want to spend as much time with her as possible, but we have some tests to run and she needs to have a session with the psychiatrist. We have a lot to do if we want to get her out of here, and the sooner we get to it, the better."
"Of course," Sunrise said, putting his glasses back on and adjusting them. "She's going to be fine though, right?"
"Everything looks good from what I see," Dr. Swab said. "We just need to run some more tests."
Satin frowned. "Doctor, there's something you should know. Sunset...claims to be having memory problems."
Dr. Swab frowned, then looked at Sunset. "Memory problems, you say? You know, faking amnesia is one thing, but—"
"I don't remember anything about my life," Sunset said. "At all."
"Hmm." Dr. Swab looked at her for a long moment, then looked to her parents. He scratched his head. "It's possible she suffered some head trauma during the last two years, I guess. Or it might be purely psychological. People have been known to forget their entire lives for one reason or another. You usually see it in the homeless." He sighed. "I can order a CT scan just to be on the safe side."
Satin let out a relieved sigh. "Thank you, Doctor." She looked from Sunrise to Sunset, an encouraging smile on her face. "I'm...going to do some shopping," she said. "Do you...do you mind if I get your sizes from the clothes you were wearing last night? I'd like to get you a few things...for when you come home."
"Go right ahead," Sunset said.
While Satin went through Sunset's clothes and took notes, Sunrise frowned. "Well...I don't want to leave the hospital, and I wasn't planning on going in to the office today, but..." He sighed. "I guess I do need to do something about my car. And there are a couple of other things I should probably take care of." He sighed. "How long...?"
Dr. Swab shrugged. "I'd say come back around...four, maybe? We should be done by then."
"Alright." Satin took Sunset's hand and squeezed it gently, smiling at her. "Be strong, honey. We'll see you this afternoon, okay?"
Sunset nodded. "I...I will, Mom."
Her parents left, leaving Sunset alone with Dr. Swab, who was writing furiously on his clipboard. "Alright, Sunset, here's what we're going to do. I'm sending you down to radiology for a CT scan, then I'm going to have two very skilled, very capable nurses give you a more thorough looking-over than what you got last night. They're both women, so you don't need to feel embarrassed. After that, I'm going to see if I can get an OB/GYN to examine you, that's standard procedure when we're dealing with a teenage runaway such as yourself. That should keep you busy up through about lunch. After lunch, you'll be seeing Dr. Slate, he's our psychiatrist. Any questions?"
Sunset shook her head.
"Good." Dr. Swab smiled. "They'll be in to get you for your CT scan in a minute." He turned and left the room, leaving Sunset to think. She eyed the bottle of cola her mother had left on the table. She picked it up and, carefully and deliberately, twisted off the top, then drank the rest of it. A minute later, she let out a loud belch. Putting the empty bottle back on the table, she folded her hands behind her head and waited.
* * * * *
At fifteen minutes to four, Desert Sunrise and Sunset Satin returned to the hospital. After they spoke with the receptionist, she paged Dr. Swab, who rushed into the waiting room five minutes later, a bit breathless. "Good, you're here," he said. "We have a lot to talk about."
"Is something wrong, Doctor?" Satin asked fretfully. "Is...is there something wrong with our little girl?"
Dr. Swab sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "Quite frankly, the only thing wrong is that there is nothing wrong," he said. He looked at them with troubled eyes. "Aside from the injuries sustained in the accident, Sunset is in completely perfect health, which, I have to be honest, is next to impossible for a runaway who's been missing for two years. Runaways always have something that needs attention. Malnutrition, scratches, scrapes, infections, STIs, signs of drug abuse..." He shrugged. "Runaways that come home never come home clean. Yours, well, did."
"But that's a good thing, right?" Sunrise asked hopefully.
"Well...yes and no," Dr. Swab said, shaking his head. "I mean, yes, as a doctor, I'm pleasantly surprised to see a girl in her situation in amazing health. I've never seen a healthier teenager, other than the cracked ribs and the bruising and internal bleeding, all of which she sustained within the last twenty-four hours. The X-rays we took last night look good. Her CT scan from this morning looks good. The drug screening came back negative. Her blood oxygen level is perfect. I had two female nurses and an OB/GYN look her over while you were out, and there isn't a mark or a scar on her body that didn't come from you hitting her with your car. Her hymen isn't even torn."
Satin put a hand to her chest. "Then she's fine," she said.
"She's too fine for a runaway who's been missing for two years," Dr. Swab said. "That's not the only thing, though. The clothes she was wearing? Brand new. She had no identification or money or anything in her pockets. She literally had nothing with her but a brand new set of clothes." He folded his arms. "I've treated a lot of runaways, Mrs. Satin. They show up in worn-out old clothes that are covered in dirt and dust. They have infected sores. They have scrapes and scratches. They have bruises. They're malnourished. They usually have traces of drugs in their system. They don't show up out of nowhere looking like a fashion model that just got off work." He cast his eyes down the hall toward Sunset's room. "This whole situation is wrong."
"What did the psychiatrist say?" Satin asked. "About her memory?"
Dr. Swab shook his head. "He's not a hundred percent. His initial diagnosis based on their first session is disassociative amnesia, but he put a possible malingering flag on his diagnosis. You'll have to speak with Dr. Slate directly tomorrow while we're running an MRI on Sunset to see if we missed anything in the CT scan."
Sunrise sighed, adjusting his glasses. "Look, Doctor," he said tiredly, "with all due respect, we don't care anymore. We just want her back. If she's healthy enough to go home and ready to go home, we want her home. If she wants to tell us where she's been and what she's been doing these last two years, she will. If she doesn't..." He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. We have our daughter back. We have our family back. We just want to put this long nightmare behind us."
Dr. Swab frowned. "I understand how you feel," he said. "It's just that...you need to be aware that this situation doesn't make sense." He paused, then added, "I don't want to step on Dr. Slate's toes and I am not a psychiatrist, but just between us, there are other things. Behavioral things the nurses and interns have picked up on just since this morning. You know how she insists she has no idea where she's been for the last two years?" At Sunrise's nod, he continued, "Well...this morning, she seemed to have trouble using the bathroom. The nurse said it was as though she'd forgotten how. Later, the same nurse observed her having trouble using a fork."
Satin's brow furrowed. "You know, it's strange," she said slowly. "She asked me to pour that drink in a cup for her. The cup was right there. The ice wasn't too far away. But she didn't just ask me to hand her the ice, she specifically asked me to pour it for her."
Sunrise groaned. "Now you've got her doing it," he grumbled.
"Look, all I'm saying is I want to do an MRI just to be sure," Dr. Swab said stiffly. "Also, until she's had at least three sessions with Dr. Slate, I'm not signing her discharge."
Sunrise stood there for a long moment, staring down the doctor. Finally, he sighed. "Fine," he said. "I...I know you're just looking out for her. It's just..."
"Honey," Satin said, touching his arm gently. "We've waited this long. We can wait a few more days. Besides, she is still healing. This might be better for her."
"Absolutely," Dr. Swab said. "Cracked ribs and the kind of bruises she has aren't difficult to treat at home by any means, but it'll be a little easier to manage here and it'll give the interns something to do." He offered a reassuring smile. "I just want to make sure when she does go home, you'll really be a family again and there aren't any..." He shrugged. "Surprises." He gestured with a shoulder towards Sunset's room. "Now, you should go visit your daughter. I'd prefer you not discuss any of what I said with her. Besides, you've got more important things to talk about, I'm sure."
"We certainly do," Sunrise said. "We've even got a little present for her."
"That's good, anything to cheer her up, get her talking." Dr. Swab shook his head. "She's just sitting there channel-surfing." He clapped Sunrise on the shoulder, then walked off.
Sunrise and Satin exchanged a worried, heavy glance, then squared their shoulders and headed for their daughter's room.
* * * * *
Sunset pressed the channel button again. Watched a few seconds of something inexplicably weird. Pressed it again. Watched a few seconds of something inexplicably stupid. Pressed it again. Watched a few seconds of something inexplicably mind-numbing.
Really, it was all there was to do now that they were finished cramming her into machines or poking her with things or looking at parts of her body she hadn't even seen yet or sticking freezing cold things up said parts or asking her a lot of questions that she had to convincingly shrug her way out of. Any second, she half-expected them to burst in, announce they had seen through her deception, and haul her off to whatever dungeons this world had.
The door opened, and Sunset turned down the volume as her parents walked in. "Hey, Mom and Dad!" she called cheerfully.
Satin smiled. "Hello, sweetheart," she said. "How are you feeling?"
"Still sore," Sunset said. "Tired. Kinda bored."
"Well, we have something that'll help with that," Satin said. She reached into the paper shopping bag she'd brought in with her and pulled out...something. It was bound in some firm magenta fabric, whatever it was. She opened a flap on one side of it and pulled out what looked like one of the strange clipboards the doctors and nurses all carried, except slightly larger and a different color. "You used to want one of these," she said. "But back then, we couldn't afford it, and frankly, your attitude wasn't..." She trailed off, grimacing. "A-anyway, I got it set up for you before we headed over here, but it still needs to charge..." She looked around the room for a minute, then spotted something just behind Sunset and to her right. She smiled and pulled a little plastic box out of the bag which had a long, thin cord wrapped around it. She unwrapped the cord and plugged the end of it into the clipboard, then mounted the box thing on the other end into two slots on the wall. A glowing amber light appeared on the edge of the clipboard.
Smiling and scooting closer, Satin touched something, and the thing lit up like the screen Sunset had been watching all day. Except instead of showing little movies, it showed a pattern of blue waves and a lot of little pictures with words under them, words like 'Tweetbook' and 'Messages' and 'Internet' and 'Games' and 'Photos' and 'Music'. At the top, it said '4:08pm'. Satin slipped a fingernail into a little groove on the edge and popped out a small plastic pen. "Let me just make sure we're connected to the hospital wi-fi..." She tapped the pen against the picture that said 'Internet', and the screen turned white, with a little rectangle box in the middle. She tapped something else, and a black box with all the letters of the alphabet in it appeared underneath that. "You know how to use this, right?" Satin asked.
"I, uhh...I think I can figure it out," Sunset said.
"Well, here's the instruction manual, just in case," Sunrise said, pulling a thin, flappy book out of the bag and tossing it over to Sunset. "Now, be careful with that. I don't think we can afford a replacement if you break it."
"I'll be careful," Sunset promised.
"And be sure to unplug it when it finishes charging," Satin said. "You know what they say can happen if you leave these things plugged in too long."
"Okay." Sunset sat the thing—which she learned from glancing at the instruction manual was called a 'tablet computer'—on her lap, and began reading the instructions very intently.
"If...if there's anything else you need," Satin said, "Don't hesitate to ask."
"I, umm...could actually, maybe, really use some...books?" Sunset said hopefully.
"Books?" Satin asked, blinking.
"Yeah. About...about anything, really."
"That's not a problem," Sunrise said, picking up the tablet from Sunset's lap and messing around with it for a few minutes. "I'll just add you to my account and you can use the digital library. It doesn't have every single book, but I think it's got enough books to keep you busy." After a minute, he handed it back, and Sunset looked at the screen.
The little rectangle box and the letter box had been replaced by a black screen with a red banner across the top, and a long list of categories: Romance, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, Horror, Thriller, Novelizations, Crime, Inspirational...on and on it went. She scrolled down the list and saw History, Culture, Self-Help, and more. *Interesting...* She smiled gratefully at her parents.
"Thank you," she said sincerely. "Really. Thank you." *You've just given me exactly what I need.*
Sunset divided her attention between talking to her "parents" and reading the instructions for the tablet. Just the instruction book was informative in ways the writers probably never intended, as she learned that it ran on electricity and emitted and received radio waves, carried a risk of electrical shock if mishandled, and that the thing it was plugged into at the wall was called an AC outlet. As she learned more from the instructions, she tested little things out on the tablet itself; she learned how to open the calendar, and discovered that the date was 'July 7'. Further exploration of the calendar showed her a total of twelve months, as opposed to Equestria's eight, and a year number that just made no sense whatsoever. *It was Summermoon in Equestria...the weather here feels about the same, at least.*
At half past four, Satin asked Sunset if she wouldn't mind turning the TV to a certain channel. She did so, and was treated to a scene of a courtroom with a woman and a man appearing before an elderly female judge who seemed to be fairly angry and impatient. The man was suing the woman over a loan of money and some items he purchased for her, and the woman was contending that the items and money were all gifts. Apparently, they had been engaged to be married, but then she had broken it off. Sunset watched with interest as the judge berated them for not having documents they were supposed to have and for generally being stupid people.
*I kinda like this judge.*
When the show broke for an advertisement for some sort of diarrhea medication (Sunset had observed that the things shown on TV all carried advertisements every eight to ten minutes or so), Sunrise left the room to get them all something to drink. When he brought the drinks back, Satin moved to get Sunset's ice bucket, but she waved her off and twisted the cap off her own drink, which was quite cold enough on its own. Satin seemed nonplussed by that, and exchanged a significant glance with Sunrise, whose brow furrowed in thought.
Sunrise and Satin stayed with Sunset, watching TV and talking with her as she absorbed all the information in the tablet's instruction booklet, then began browsing the list of books she could read in the digital library. Evidently, this world had a technology called the 'Internet', which made massive amounts of information available anywhere at any time.
The prospect made Sunset giddy.
A while after they arrived (and long after the tablet had finished charging), an orderly brought Sunset's dinner, which consisted of what appeared to be a hayburger, except with something similar to the tasty little grey pucks from Sunset's breakfast, as well as fries, a small salad, and a gelatin cup.
"Well," Sunrise said with a grimace, "it's been a long day, and I think we'll get out of here and let you enjoy your dinner and get some rest." He stood up; beside him, Satin did the same.
"We'll see you again tomorrow, okay sweetie?" Satin said.
Sunset smiled. "Sure thing, Mom. Dad."
After a round of hugging and a promise to bring her a 'cell phone' the next day, they left. Sunset opened her ketchup packets and squirted them over the fries, then crammed three in her mouth, picked her tablet up, went back to the Internet search page, and searched for 'cell phone'. After filtering through a lot of useless links to places selling them, she found actual information on what one was, and mentally filed it away as a Useful Thing To Have. She then searched the same site (which conveniently had its own internal search feature) for 'TV', and spent the rest of dinner learning exactly what the screen she'd spent all day staring at was.
From there, she spent most of the evening tapping one link after another from the first article, opening a deep well of information from which she drank greedily.
The tablet's battery was at 7% by the time she was too exhausted and too bleary-eyed to learn any more; she powered it off, plugged it in to charge, and lowered her bed so she could sleep comfortably. A nurse came in and turned off the room lights; the sun was setting outside.
Sunset closed her tired eyes and smiled as she snuggled into the pillow.
*Human. Homo sapiens sapiens. The only extant member of the Hominina clade, belonging to the family of great apes. That's what I am now. I wonder if the old nag has even figured that much out yet?*