No Name Given

by Perpetual Lurker

Chapter 1

No Name Given

By: Perpetual Lurker

Chapter One

On the outside, Ponyville General Hospital was a cheerful looking place, the old fashioned wooden paneling giving it a comforting, rustic appearance. Even on the inside, there was plenty of happiness to go around. Proud new parents watched their new foals in the nursery. Older foals got patched up from small accidents, looking back on their experience with laughter and a lesson learned. There were some places in the hospital, however, that could never be considered happy. These were halls that were nearly empty, but always needed, a grim reminder that despite everypony’s best efforts, nothing was perfect. Bodies can be crippled. Minds can be broken. Lives can be lost. Despite all of this, those halls were where Nurse Redheart thrived.

She lived to help ponies in need, and this was where she was needed the most. Every pony she could help get back on their hooves was one more pony that didn’t have to suffer in that Celestia-forsaken place, and it made her happy knowing she had an impact on the lives of others. One afternoon, the white mare was delivering meals to patients in the rehabilitation and psychological wards.

“Now, make sure you eat all of it. You need to keep your strength up if you ever want to get back into the air.”

“Yes ma’am!” the red pegasus said before enthusiastically digging into her meal. She had ended up in rehab after a freak wind storm at the edge of the Everfree Forest blew her into the trees, severely breaking both of her wings and one of her legs. The doctors said that she would probably never fly again, but with a little encouragement she was making excellent progress towards recovery.

If I had a bit for every pegasus that made it out of here just fine after those pessimists told them their wings were ruined for good, I would be one rich mare, Redheart thought to herself with a smile as she pushed the lunch cart to its next destination. Moving into the psychological ward, the nurse delivered food to several more patients, most of which were cheery, if a bit off.

One poor unicorn had developed a crippling fear of any magic after one of her own spells had backfired. She refused to see other unicorns, severely limiting the staff that could safely work with her, as the majority of the doctors in the hospital were unicorns themselves. Luckily, she was quite kind and reasonable to earth ponies and pegasi, and she was showing signs of progress when it came to her own magic. Turns out that she was becoming increasingly frustrated with having to use her hooves and mouth for everything, having relied on telekinesis for many years to do the simplest tasks, and she kept cheating on her own magic ban when things got difficult. She denied everything when confronted about it, but progress was progress.

The last patient on her route though, was quite a bit different than the rest. He was a sandy brown coated pegasus who had only just arrived two days ago. Redheart knew absolutely nothing about him, mostly because nopony else knew anything about him either. He had been brought to the hospital after being found unconscious in the park. The pony had no visible injuries, but he never truly woke up.

“For all intents and purposes, this pony is unconscious,” the doctor on duty explained to Redheart when she arrived at the patient’s room. “He’s unresponsive to any outside stimuli, and we’re not sure what we can do for him in that condition. It’s like some sort of waking coma. We’ll just have to wait for him to snap out of it, if he ever snaps out of it.”

Once after the doctor finished writing his report on the patient’s condition, he moved on to the next one on his list, leaving Nurse Redheart to feed the pony by hoof. She didn’t enjoy this part of the job, but somepony had to do it. In the more wealthy hospitals in Canterlot, they had machines that could feed an unconscious pony through their blood, but there wasn’t enough money for a small town like Ponyville to have anything like that. They would have to transfer him there if he didn’t wake up soon. She hoped it didn’t come to that though, because if he didn’t wake up here, he probably wasn’t going to wake up at all.

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He woke up on a bed staring at a stark white ceiling. The only sounds he could hear were his own breath and heartbeat. Everything hurt, from his head, to his... his...

My what? He asked himself. He didn’t remember. Ignoring the pain for the time being, he held a limb out in front of him. It was a sandy brown color and tapered at the end in a... A hoof, he realized. This is a hoof. Everything hurts, from my head to my hoofs, or is it hooves? Kinda has a nice ring to it either way, except of course for the pain.

With a groan, he sat up in the bed and looked at his surroundings. The walls of the room were the same white color as the ceiling. The floor was white too, but it looked like it was made of something different than the walls, something much shinier that came in squares. To his right, there was a window showing a darkened night sky. In front of him there was a brown wooden door. To his left he saw... himself.

At least, I think that’s me... he thought, examining the creature in the mirror on the wall. Most of his body was the same color as his leg, with a bit of short maroon fun running down the back of his neck. His eyes were an icy blue color, taking up much more of his face than he expected.

Now, where am I? Rolling out of the bed, he stumbled onto his hooves, barely able to keep his balance. Every joint in his body was stiff and sore. I must have been out for a long time... He made his way over to the door and exited the room. Finding himself in a long hallway, he picked a direction at random and began walking. There has to be someone else around here...

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Doctor Quick Thought was alone in her office studying the day’s reports on the patients in the psych ward. She preferred working late hours, there were no ponies around to distract her or get in her way. As she shuffled through the reports with her magic one last time, she sighed in disappointment.

How am I supposed to get anywhere if there’s nothing to study! All of these ponies are simple cases: neurosis, phobias, personality disorders... Everything is well documented and easily treatable. I’ll never get out of this town at this rate. I’ll never get out of his shadow... I need to be able to make a breakthrough. I need a proper subject....

The blue coated, pale green maned unicorn began packing up her things for the night, her sharp gray eyes double checking each document as she returned it to its proper folder in the cabinet. Yawning, she opened the office door, stepped out into the hall, and found herself face to face with with a confused looking tan pegasus.

“Um... Visiting hours are over, sir, I’m afraid you’re going to have to leave.”

“Visiting... hours?” the pony replied in a hoarse voice. He cleared his throat before speaking again. “Where am I?” He seemed genuinely lost.

He’s a patient here! Quick Thought realized, wondering why she didn’t figure it out right away. He must have been the comatose pony who was brought in the other day, he certainly matches the description on file. “You’re in Ponyvile General Hospital, and I believe you just woke up from a coma. Now, if you’ll follow me Mister... I’m sorry, but what is your name?”

“My... name?” The question seemed to catch the pegasus off guard. After a few moments of thought, a look of horror appeared on his face. “I- I don’t remember...” At the sound of his words, a smile spread across the doctor’s face.

Jackpot.

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The realization that he had no idea who he was had hit him like a ton of bricks. He had spent the rest of that night trying to remember anything from his past, even the smallest detail, but nothing came to him. Nothing came to him the next day either, even after being put through a gauntlet of tests and questions by Doctor Quick Thought.

“Now, remember to answer these questions as well as you can. Even half of an answer is better than no answer at all.” The doctor peered at him over the edge the clipboard levitating in front of her, her cold gray eyes analyzing his every move. “What is your name?”

“I’ve answered these questions at least three times already. This is getting us nowhere.”

“It’s getting us everywhere, dear. I need to keep testing what you know, and what you’ve learned from the questions you’ve asked me, otherwise I won’t have enough data for research. Now, please cooperate. What is your name?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where do you live?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you have any family?”

“I. Don’t. Know.” He didn’t know how much more of this repetition he could take. It was frustrating enough that he couldn’t remember even the smallest of details. The fact that his angry response only caused Quick Thought to scribble down more notes on her clipboard didn’t help.

“Do you have any friends?” This was a new question.

Do I? He thought about the few ponies whose names he had learned that day. The other ponies in the psych ward he had seen were either anti-social or too out of it to even notice anypony else. Nurse Redheart seemed nice, and even stayed to talk for a bit after delivering a meal, but she had only been there for a minute before Quick Thought arrived and kicked her out of the room so she could resume her tests. And then there was the doctor herself...

“No.”

“Very good, now let’s go over some basic facts one more time, they we can break until after dinner. Where are you?”

“Ponyville General Hospital.”

“And why are you here?”

“I can’t remember anything.”

“Incorrect. You can remember new things quite easily from after waking from your coma, and you remember how to speak as well as reading and writing and some and some basic motor skills. You should consider yourself lucky.”

I certainly don’t feel very lucky...

The questions continued for several more minutes before Quick Thought finished her notes and left him to his own devices, though he got the feeling that their session only ended because she had simply run out of paper to write on. He paced about the room for a bit as he fruitlessly tried again to remember anything from longer than a day ago.

I will remember. I have to... Deciding that he needed to take his mind off of his memory, he wandered over to the new desk in the corner of the room. Now that he was confirmed to be a long term guest at the hospital, he had been provided with a desk and a few books to read, as well as some paper and a pencils for writing. The doctor had strongly encouraged him to record his thoughts in a journal, but he didn’t see the point, especially since she had already picked his brain enough that she might as well have already read his mind. He scanned the titles of the books, looking for something that might jog his memory. When nothing jumped out at him, he closed his eyes and picked a book at random.

The Elements of Harmony? Sounds like a fairy tale. I think I could use some fantasy right about now... After puling a chair into the light of the window, he sat down and began to read.