Chapter 6: By Any Other Name
Chapter 6: By Any Other Name
Hawk Tail sighed as he leaned back in his seat, letting the warmth of a breakfast freshly devoured fill him. Patting a hoof across his stomach, he smiled lightly and let loose a yawn. It was early enough in the morning that he could still see the dew clinging to the window panes opposite the kitchen table. The sunlight rose through these, scattering golden rays that danced across Hawk Tail’s face and mirrored the crisp, yellow color of the egg yolk remains on his plate.
Opposite him, his father slowly worked on his morning meal, idly balancing a fork in the crook of one hoof and turning the page of the paper with the other. To Red Tail, eating, just like the rest of his personality, was slow and methodical. By the time Hawk Tail pushed himself away from the table to deposit his dishes into the sink, his father was only half done with breakfast.
In the kitchen itself, Lanner plunged her hooves into the soapy water filling the sink and began to wash off the plates with a sponge. Her brow was still covered in a sheen of sweat from flying with the young hawks all morning, and a few red scratches covered her face and forelegs. Despite this, she was singing a popular song from Mymis as she worked, letting her clear and remarkable voice fill the house with music.
Fine knacks for fillies, cheap, choice, brave and new,
Good pennyworths but money cannot move,
I keep a fair but for the fair to view,
A beggar may be liberal of love.
Though all my wares be trash, the heart is true.
“I’m surprised you didn’t run off and become a singer with a voice like that,” Hawk Tail complimented as he deposited his plate on the edge of the sink. “You’d make a good fortune in Mymis.”
Lanner blushed, and flicked a wing through the water at Hawk Tail’s face to divert his attention long enough to hide it. “Nah, I prefer working with intelligent company like falcons rather than singing to fat nobles in Mymis.”
Picking up a rag, Hawk Tail chuckled and moved to help Lanner with drying off the silverware. “You mean like Lord Heartburn when he came through town a few months ago?”
Lanner shuddered at the memory. “So fat…” she muttered to herself. “What any of those mistresses find in stallions like that is beyond me.”
“Money’s what they find,” Red Tail commented from the table. “It doesn’t matter who you are, what you did, or what sort of glandular problems you have so long as you’ve got the coin to buy a new golden chamber pot every time you take a shit.”
Hawk Tail rolled his eyes, although he couldn’t really deny the truth in his father’s statement. “Anyway, thanks for breakfast, Sis. It was good as always.”
“Somepony’s gotta cook for you guys, although I’m not sure why Dad doesn’t do it,” Lanner challenged.
“You know I still cooked for you children not even five years ago,” Red Tail responded. “I only stopped once I was sure you two wouldn’t burn the house down if I wasn’t there to supervise.”
“You mean once I was old enough to cook for you,” Lanner grumbled. When Hawk Tail laughed, she frowned and pointed a hoof at him. “Hey! If you were a mare then you’d have to do it as well!”
“One of the many reasons I’m glad I’m not,” Hawk quipped. His lighthearted chuckle turned into a silent gasp of pain when Lanner stomped on his hind leg. Hissing, he managed to suppress a shout and limp away, leaving Lanner smirking in his wake.
Red Tail sighed from behind his paper. “Kids…” he warned, using his paternal voice to full and immediate effect.
“Sorry,” they answered in unison. Both glared at each other quickly before continuing on with what they were doing.
“I’m going to go check on our guest,” Hawk Tail said to his father, who nodded. “See if she needs more food or anything.”
“Ask her if she can cook!” Lanner called out. “If she can do that then I can spend more time with the birds and less time feeding your faces!”
“Will do,” Hawk lied as he rounded the corner. He already knew what the answer was going to be, and he’d heard enough of it for the time being. Reaching the bedroom door, he found it slightly ajar. With a gentle knock, he let himself in.
“Hello, Miss,” he said as he walked over to the bed. The mare turned and nodded, abruptly cutting off the tune she was humming to herself. Hawk Tail’s eyebrows lowered an inch as he tried to recognize the unfamiliar song, but eventually he gave up. “That song you were humming… do you know what it is?”
The mare shrugged her shoulders. “Beats me. I was just humming the first thing that came to my head, hoping something would come back.”
Hawk Tail paused for a moment, raising an eyebrow. “Well?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. But it feels so familiar…” Looking off into the distance, she whispered quietly to herself, “I’ve been dreaming, I’ve been waiting…”
Leaving the mare alone to her thoughts for a minute, Hawk located the plates with her breakfast on them—or rather, what should have had her breakfast on them. Picking them up, he looked them over, and was surprised to see nothing but pearly white porcelain. “Uh,” he began, furrowing his brow, “did Lanner give you empty plates or something?”
“No, there was food on it. I was just really hungry.” She blushed slightly, turning away.
“Do you want some more?” Hawk Tail asked her, tucking the plates under a wing. “We’ve got some more in the kitchen for you.”
The mare fidgeted with her hooves for a brief moment. “No, it’s okay. I’m good.”
“Yeah. Right,” Hawk Tail scoffed. Offering his hoof towards the mare, he lowered his gaze towards her. “You’re not a very good liar, you know. Come on; it’ll do you some good to get out of the bed.”
Looking between him and his hoof, the colorful pegasus sighed and gingerly took it. With a few nervous shuffles, she slid out of the bed and let her hooves touch the floor. Her legs trembled as she stood up on them, letting them take her full weight after resting for so long. Hawk Tail noticed her wing creeping open in anxiety, and he touched her shoulder with a hoof to steady her. She jumped slightly and stepped away, eyes wide.
“It’s alright.” Hawk Tail assured her. Moving towards the door, he held it open for her. “Kitchen’s right around the corner. I’m sure you can smell it.”
Even if the mare was going to hide her response, her stomach sure wasn’t. With a loud rumble that nearly shook the room, it made its demands all too clear. Chuckling nervously, the rainbow mare sheepishly smiled and stepped past Hawk Tail, making her way to the kitchen.
They were timid little steps, and the mare lowered her head as she peered nervously around the room. Everything was new and fresh to her; other than to change chamber pots, she hadn’t left her bed since she woke up, much less the bedroom. What little she had seen outside the bedroom came from the narrow portal of the open door—when it was open, that is. Her nose led her on, however, and she managed to reach the corner to the kitchen and cautiously glance around it.
She immediately flopped backwards when she found herself face to face with Red Tail.
Hawk Tail cantered over to her side and reached out with a hoof. “You alright?”
The mare shakily nodded. “Y-yeah…” Turning to Red Tail, she nervously smiled. “Sorry…”
“No need to apologize,” he said, taking a step back. “It is good to see you finally up and about for once. We’ve all had our shifts taking care of you; I hope everything has been good enough for your liking.”
His flat and authoritative tone made the mare draw back slightly as she stood up. “Oh. Yeah, it’s, uh... it’s been fine. Good—great, I mean. Thank you so much, mister…?”
“Red Tail,” the stallion deadpanned. “And you are?”
“…dunno…” she mumbled.
“An odd name for a pony,” Red Tail said as he stepped aside. Gesturing with a wing, he led the mare into the kitchen, where she glanced nervously at the table before settling into a seat. Hawk Tail followed shortly behind, but stopped to give a few choice words to his father.
“I told you she doesn’t remember any of that stuff, Dad!” he hissed.
Red Tail shrugged. “How else is she going to remember if we don’t make her?”
“Ugh!” Hawk Tail groaned. He was about to debate the point with his father when he noticed the mare staring directly at him. He faked a smile and trotted away, moving to enter the kitchen and bring some food back for her, when a gray blur slammed into his chin and flipped him onto his back.
“You’re up!” Lanner shouted as she deposited a very large plate of scrambled eggs and alfalfa seeds in front of the colorful mare. “How’re you feeling?!”
“Good,” she began as she reached for the food. “Chest hurts a little, and my wing…”
Lanner waved a hoof. “Don’t worry about that, it’ll get better in no time. Just so long as you keep the bandage on and let me change it, your wing won’t end up as bent up as our father’s over there.”
Red Tail’s ears perked from his favorite seat, and he glared at Lanner for just a moment before returning his attention to the paper.
Rubbing a hoof to his head, Hawk Tail stood up from the floor. His eyes were momentarily misaligned before he shook his head and reset them. Once he could see clearly again, he immediately scowled at Lanner. “Thanks for that, by the way.”
“You’re welcome!” Lanner chirped, proudly smiling back at him.
Hawk Tail moved around the table and took a seat, as the mare had inadvertently sat in his usual place. “How you haven’t hurt more ponies and birds is beyond me, Sis.”
“Aww, does Hawk Tail need somepony to look at his booboo?” Lanner asked in the most condescending tone she could muster. Hawk Tail grumbled and looked away, resting his chin on a hoof and watching the birdfeeder outside. He had no idea why his family still bothered to keep the seed in it fresh; with all the raptors about, the songbirds had learned a long time ago that to fly anywhere remotely near the house was certain death.
The mare giggled and took up a fork. She immediately dived into the food, with only the slightest restraint allowing her to eat with some dignity and keep from making a mess. After she had curbed her hunger, she finally slowed down her consumption to a more civilized speed.
“So,” Hawk Tail began, after watching her eat for a little while. The mare immediately stopped eating and looked up at him, paralyzed. “Lanner and I were talking, and I think we know somepony who might be able to help you with your memories.”
Swallowing the food in her mouth, the mare gingerly set down her fork. “…Really?” she squeaked. “That’s…”
“Fantastic!” Lanner exclaimed for her. “Dawn’s only the greatest unicorn in town! She knows everything there is about magic. If she can’t help you, then nopony—!”
Hawk Tail coughed into his hoof, cutting Lanner off. “Ahem. That’s right. If there’s anypony who can help you with this, it’s Dawn. She’s incredibly gifted with magic. She might seem a little eccentric at first, but she has a good heart.”
“Okay,” the mare said. “I s-suppose that could work.”
Lanner frowned and grabbed the mare by the shoulders. “Hey! Chin up a little, will ya? We’re gonna get you fixed up, you hear? There’s no need to be so glum.” Then, backing away, she raised an accusatory eyebrow. “Unless you don’t want your memories back.”
“No!” the colorful mare exclaimed. “I mean, yes, or—I don’t know!” She recoiled slightly and turned back to her plate. “I want to remember. I really do. But I’m scared.”
“You won’t learn anything unless you’re willing to take a few risks,” Hawk Tail observed. He stood up and walked around the table, placing a hoof on the mare’s shoulder. “I know you’re scared, but I’ll be right by you every step of the way. You’re with friends here; you don’t have to worry about anypony trying to hurt you.”
“…O-okay,” she ultimately whispered. “Where is this… Dawn mare?” she asked, turning to Hawk Tail. Her eyes widened as a thought hit her. “She’s not in town, is she?”
Hawk Tail shook his head. “No, she hasn’t been in town since The Fire eight years ago. She claims there are too many bad memories in Fire District, too many ghosts keeping her up at night…” Noting the look on the mare’s face, Hawk Tail cleared his throat and smiled. “But that’s a story for another time. Dawn lives just to the west of here, on the edge of the forest. We won’t have to go into town at all.”
The mare’s shoulders relaxed, and her unbound wing slackened in relief. “Good. That’s… good.”
“As soon as you’re done with your meal, we’ll head out and see her,” Hawk Tail said, stepping away from the table. Turning toward the kitchen, he saw Lanner trying to balance a wooden spoon on her nose and frowned. “Lanner, that’s nice and all, but put the spoon down before you break something.”
“What do you mean, ‘break something’?” Lanner countered. She quickly dropped her neck down and leaned to the side to keep the spoon from falling, flaring her wings for balance. “It’s only a wooden sp—!”
Hawk Tail and the rainbow mare both winced as Lanner’s wing knocked several china plates onto the floor. With a resounding crash, they exploded into hundreds of fragments, covering every inch of the kitchen tile. Lanner stood stock-still, and the spoon fell from her nose with a simple thud. “Uh…” she said, slowly looking around. “…Oops?”
From his chair, Red Tail sighed and lowered the paper. Lanner couldn’t see him around the corner to the kitchen, but she felt his burning stare on her coat all the same. “I’m going to get out of my chair, go use the outhouse, and come back. If that mess isn’t cleaned up in that time, Lanner, I’m going to end you.”
Both Hawk Tail and the mare managed to stifle their laughter until Red Tail had left and the door shut behind him. Lanner’s face was a bright crimson, and she remained paralyzed in the center of the kitchen.
“You might want to get moving,” Hawk Tail said as he stood up and kicked a few pieces back towards Lanner. “Unless you want to get stuck helping dad around the house for a few solid months. You know he always keeps a few projects at the back of his mind for situations like this.” Glancing towards the giggling mare, he gestured towards the patio door and opened it, closing his eyes as he felt the summer sun wash across his forehead.
The mare’s laughter abruptly cut off, and she glanced around quickly before slinking out after him, leaving Lanner to scramble for a dustpan and broom. She squinted and shielded her eyes with her good wing as the sun beat down upon her. Hawk Tail paused where he stood at the patio gate and watched. Her rainbow mane and cerulean coat were beautiful under the summer sun, looking like they belonged outside, like they were part of the sky itself. The very air around her seemed to glitter with prismatic light as it bounced off of her colors, and she shivered as she felt the gentle caress of open skies and warm breezes.
“Feels good, doesn’t it?” Hawk Tail commented from the side.
The mare blinked and weakly smiled. “Yeah,” she answered, slowly trotting over to Hawk Tail. “It feels... right. Like outside in the sun is my home, not stuck indoors.” Her gaze wandered to the clouds, and the corners of her mouth sadly turned down. “The skies are calling me. I can feel it in my feathers. It’s where I belong.”
Hawk glanced at her bound wing again, noting the small ridges in the fractured bones being held in place by the bandage.
“I feel your pain,” he said as he walked away from the house. The rainbow mare followed him, walking at his side and slightly behind. “I broke my wing once when I was a colt. It sucked, big time. I couldn’t fly for a month.”
The mare paled and glanced at her own bound wing. “Uh... err...”
Hawk Tail stopped and glanced back at the mare, realizing his mistake. “Hey, don’t worry; your wing is only fractured. Mine was completely broken. A week, maybe two, and you’ll be good as new.”
“I sure hope so,” the mare muttered. “I don’t think I could take being grounded for so long.”
Nodding, Hawk Tail continued to lead their walk down the hillside. Behind the house, with the forest just to their right, they made their way towards the western fringes of River’s Reach. The forest slowly thinned out, devolving into scraggly and tangled swampland along its edges. Keeping parallel to the edge, the two pegasi soon found a light path cut into the heath and stuck to it. After a few minutes of walking, they came across a wooden shack nestled between two abnormally thick trees and surrounded by roughshod fencing.
The shack looked like it had been put together in a hurry. The planks making its roof were poorly fitted and of different lengths, and the two windows in the front were askew. Logs that didn’t fit together were jammed with old papers and tree boughs to keep out drafts. Uncut grass filled the front yard on both sides of a dirt path only somewhat spruced up with slate pavers along the edges. A misshapen bush that had long since outgrown whatever cut it was once trimmed to stood next to a dilapidated porch, upon which rested a makeshift chair. About the only thing that didn’t look sloppy or dirty was the perfectly clean ‘welcome’ floor mat in front of the door.
The mare paused by the gate. “Looks a little... you know...”
Hawk sighed. “Dawn used to live better than this, but The Fire... messed with her. When the smoke cleared, she wasn’t the same pony anymore. It’s a real shame; she’s nice as could be. Lanner and I have been trying to convince her to come back to town, but she’s comfortable here.”
“What happened with this ‘Fire’ you keep talking about?” the mare asked.
Hawk pursed his lips and rested his hooves on the edge of the fence. “Eight years ago, Dawn lived in the center of River’s Reach, in Fire District, along with a good portion of the unicorn population. At the time it was called Magic District because of the number of wizards, alchemists, and apothecaries who lived there. Dawn was one of them, and even though she was only thirteen, she was one of the best there was.”
The mare nodded, finding a clean spot of grass to sit down and rest her limbs awhile.
“She was a very studious mare,” Hawk continued, his eyes wandering back towards the happier days of youth. “If there was a book on spells or magic, you can bet she had read it. Always trying new spells, always impressing us kids. When you’re young, unicorn magic is... well, magical.
“Anyway, there was this one spell Dawn was trying to master. I think it was some sort of ever-burning torch spell. Making a torch run purely by magic so the flame never dies or something like that.” He scratched the back of his head with a hoof before shaking it. “She was up late many nights working on it; the apothecary was awfully fond of her, and let her stay at his place. She didn’t really have anypony else to go to.”
“So she’s an orphan?” the mare asked from where she sat.
“Right. Her parents up and disappeared shortly after she was born. Far as I know, nopony knows who her parents are or where they went. She was just passed around from family to family before she finally stuck with the apothecary.”
“Hmm.”
Hawk tapped his hoof against the fence as memories began to come back to him. “She was working on the spell late one night. The apothecary had gone to bed; Dawn was supposed to be in bed too, but the prospect of working on magic was simply too exciting for her. So, once she was sure that the apothecary was asleep, she gathered supplies and snuck to a little desk in the shop she used as her own personal space, for homework and the like. There, she tried working on the spell again, but to no success.
“It was something like three or four in the morning, and she still hadn’t gotten it right, but was really close. In the middle of one attempt, however, she nodded off—just barely a few seconds, but it was enough. When she snapped out of it, her desk was on fire. Rather than wake up the apothecary and suffer his punishment, she did what any rational teenager would do and tried to fix it herself.”
The mare cringed, knowing where the story was going. “How bad was it?”
“It was a living nightmare,” Hawk Tail recalled. “I remember my dad sprinting down the hall and slamming the door open. It was his hoofsteps that woke me up. I looked out the window and saw huge flames rising into the sky and the flitting black shapes of pegasi trying to bring rainclouds down to put it out. I woke Lanner up, and we watched from the window as the volunteer firefighters—which my dad was one of—tried to control the flames.
“It looked like they were about to get it under control, too. Dawn says she remembers the ponies who pulled her out of the building telling her everything was going to be fine, how it wasn’t her fault and that they were just about finished with it. Then...” he shuddered. “I remember seeing a huge flash of light and a resounding boom that shook the house. Fire and smoke went everywhere. When Lanner and I got the strength to look again, it looked like the entire town was burning.”
“Wow...” the mare whispered. “Just... wow...”
Hawk Tail nodded. “It was a chain reaction once the fire got to the potion stores. Nopony was expecting the building to explode like that. It sent the firefighters reeling, and the survivors had to get the rest of the town to help put out the new fires.”
The mare’s ears perked up. “Wait... sur...survivors?”
Gulping, Hawk Tail shakily nodded. “Yeah... yeah, survivors. The firefighters were close to the building when it blew up. There’s not a pony in River’s Reach who didn’t know somepony who... who died.” Looking off to the sky, his wings drooped slightly. “My friend, Wrangler, lost her mother, and my other friend, Flurry... well, she lost both her parents. They were both firefighters, and both were at ground zero when it happened.”
“Gosh... that’s terrible.”
“It is. It truly is.”
“And what about Dawn?”
“She hurt her head pretty badly from the force of the explosion,” Hawk Tail said. “When all was said and done, she could hardly string words together, and she was confused and bewildered. She stayed long enough for the doctors to take a look at her, but then she left town and moved out here.” Raising a hoof, he pointed to the shack and the gnarled trees around it for emphasis. “She felt responsible for what happened, and she felt—still feels—that the rest of the town blames her for getting so many killed.”
“Haven’t you tried getting her to talk to ponies? To know that they don’t blame her for what happened?”
Hawk shook his head. “We’ve all tried to get her to come back. Me, Lanner, even Wrangler and Flurry, we’ve all tried to tell her that nopony blames her for what happened. But...”
The mare raised an eyebrow. “But what?”
“But some do,” Hawk Tail finished. “And she’s scared of them, so she lives out here. Eventually, we all realized that it was probably for the best and gave up. I still take time to check in on her regularly and make sure she’s doing alright. She refuses to come to the town market and get supplies for herself, so I usually buy some for her and drop them off every Sunday.” He rubbed the base of a wing as another thought came to him. “With everything that’s been going on the past few days, I didn’t have time to get things for her yesterday...”
“I’m sure she’s... okay. That’s very kind of you, anyway,” the mare said. “Not to mention generous.”
Hawk shrugged. “Eh, I don’t think much of it.” Then, looking to the house, he motioned with his head. “Come on, we’ve waited long enough. We should see if she can do anything about your memory. Just don’t mention anything about The Fire to her, and you’ll be fine.”
The rainbow pegasus nodded and, taking a tense breath, followed Hawk through the gates as he approached the door.
Hawk Tail trotted up to the door and knocked on it with a hoof. “Dawn? You home? It’s me, Hawk Tail!”
The mare could see a slight shuffling behind the windows, which was immediately followed by a muffled mare’s voice. “Hawk Tail? Was expecting you to visit yesterday. Not today. Busy with experiments. Is this important?”
The voice spoke surprisingly fast, nearly stringing all her sentences together into one long breath. It caught the mare off guard, but Hawk Tail was used to it. “Yes, Dawn, it’s important. I’ve got somepony who could use your help.”
“Help?” Dawn accused from behind the door. “Help for what? Ponies don’t come to me for help. Too busy anyway. Come back later.”
Hawk sighed. “Dawn, it’s important. Do this for me... please.”
There was silence from behind the door. As the seconds dragged by, the pegasus mare shifted on her hooves and glanced about uneasily. “Maybe we should go...”
The solid clack of a bolt being slid open made its way to the mare’s ears, and the door opened. Hawk Tail stood back a step as a unicorn mare walked onto the porch and narrowed her orange eyes at the rainbow pegasus. Her coat was a brilliantly golden shade of yellow, and her mane was streaked with orange and yellow hairs parted around a prominent horn. A scar from long ago ran across her right ear and down her cheek, and that side of her face appeared slightly more bound than the left, as if her jaw was broken and reset somewhat improperly. Her eyes were piercing and held the mare in place, studying her face and her body, especially her fractured wing.
“Never seen her before,” Dawn stated to Hawk without taking her eyes off the mare. “Traveller from the capital? Lost artisan or bard—met plenty of them before, hate it when they stumble across my house; invasion of privacy and what have you—or maybe noble looking to tour the countryside? No, not noble, lack of fine jewelry, robes, or arrogant arrogance. Most nobles unicorns anyway, except in few cases involving Diamond Wing’s line, although tend to be hemophiliac and rarely venture outside of Mymis—”
“She’s none of those,” Hawk interrupted, much to the mare’s relief. “Lanner and I found her to the north of here, unconscious. We’re hoping you can help heal her—”
“Told you before, unicorn Arcana incapable of curing bodily wounds,” Dawn cut in, frowning at Hawk Tail. “Broken—no, fractured wing, yes. Wing will need time to heal on its own. Nothing I can do about it. Except make new cast? I would have thought that Lanner would have that covered. Intelligent mare, if a little too wild and eccentric. Does she need medication? Would be able to prepare something for her in such a case. Lanner, that is, not the rainbow.”
“Uh... what?” the mare asked, cocking her head to the side.
“Athletic voice, strong baseline confidence,” Dawn observed, snapping her attention back to the mare. “Although missing something. Resolve? Legs trembling, wings arched at fifteen degree angle from the shoulder parallel and slowly increasing, primary feathers spread, subconscious ear twitch. Nervous? Yes. Unsure of situation. Scared, confused.” She paused, thinking over the symptoms in her mind, before abruptly asking, “Your name?”
“Uh...” the mare responded.
“Thought so. Amnesiac. Likely blunt force trauma to lower side of skull, which seems likely, coupled with fractured wing and bruising... fell out of sky, but genetic pegasus falling mechanism failed to open wings and slow fall. Curious...” she looked away and tapped at her chin. “Most curious indeed.”
Hawk Tail rubbed a hoof across his brow. “Yeah... hey, Dawn, do you happen to know any spells for memory loss?”
“Know many spells for memory loss,” Dawn replied. “Know many potions too. Usually very effective at removing memories from subjects. Helpful on swamp rats for repeated experiments. Don’t want them to ‘cheat the system’ as it were. Highly intelligent creatures when they put their minds to it.”
“No, I meant for restoring memory,” Hawk Tail clarified. “We figured you’d know some way to help her.”
Dawn put a hoof to her chin. “Hmmm. Interesting. Never really tried restoring memory to ponies before; rats simple enough, small brain, small amount of magic required, although pony brains much larger, more complicated, more difficult, need to...” Her voice trailed off into mumbling as she thought aloud before spinning back towards the shack and trotting inside. “Come, might be something I can do.”
Looking at each other, the pegasi slowly followed the unicorn into her house, Hawk waving the rainbow mare in before him with a wing. The mare nodded and hopped across the threshold, taking a good look at her surroundings.
If the outside was a dilapidated mess of a shelter, the inside most certainly was not. Neatly aligned tables ringed the outside of the single-room shack, their contents stacked and orderly. Several leather bindings kept countless sheets of paper organized, and each one had a label printed on it in impressively clean and flowery writing. The bare wooden floor was smooth, splinterless, and polished, and the walls all had perfectly fitted paneling covering their lower halves. A few small pictures hung near the windows, and an alcove for a bed fitted with bookshelves and a nightstand was nestled into the far wall of the room.
“This is... surprisingly nice,” the mare said as she looked around. She slowly walked farther into the room, studying the amazing cleanliness and order of the shack’s interior. “I would never have thought—”
“STOP!” Dawn shouted from the other end of the room, freezing the mare in place. Setting down her equipment, the unicorn trotted over and lowered her head so she could look the shorter pegasus at eye level. They stood locked in tense eye contact for several uncomfortable seconds, before Dawn took a deep breath and backed up. “Please, do wipe your hooves before you come in.”
Then she turned back to her notes and materials, leaving the stunned amnesiac to awkwardly wipe her hooves on the floor mat before continuing. Behind her, Hawk Tail chuckled and did the same.
“Eh... Erm, sorry,” the mare apologized.
“Apology accepted. Please do keep the floor clean, though. Hate working in filthy and unorganized conditions.”
“Then how come your house looks all...?”
Dawn huffed as she browsed through some books and journals. “Necessary precaution. Keeps away undesirables, vagabonds, thieves. Poor craftsponyship usually social cue of poor financial standing. Also, intimidating to faint of heart.” She took a deep breath through her nose before pulling out a few books. “The privacy is nice.”
The mare mouthed a quiet ‘oh’ and stood off to the side as Dawn made her way through. Pulling over a table with her magic, she spread her notes and books across it in a seemingly haphazard fashion. She then firmly planted her hooves on the edge of the table and hummed as she levitated notes in front of her nose and read them.
Meanwhile, Hawk Tail busied himself with examining the various objects in the room. Odd sculptures, ancient runes, and unfamiliar artifacts sat on little shelves between bookcases and tables. He reached out a hoof to examine a small totem of a timberwolf.
“Please don’t touch,” Dawn said from across the room without even looking at Hawk. “Unless you want to summon a live timberwolf, that is. In that case, feel free to touch. Just be ready to run.”
Hawk Tail gulped and withdrew from that side of the room, eyeing the totem warily. He made his way back to the rainbow mare’s side and waited while Dawn finished organizing her notes.
“Here we are,” Dawn said as she quickly grabbed a stick of charcoal and began drawing lines on the floor, muttering to herself all the while. The rainbow mare glanced at Hawk Tail, confused. She found no answers in his likewise puzzled expression.
In a matter of seconds, Dawn had drawn a summoning circle inscribed with two dozen different runes along the edge, connected with a starburst formation of lines across the center. With another glow of her horn, Dawn scattered rose petals and a cloud of white powder over the circle, turning away to reference her notes before it had even settled across the floor.
“Uh... what’s this all about?” the mare asked.
“Simple arcane circle,” Dawn matter-of-factly replied. “Boosts a unicorn’s Arcana and steadies complicated spells when in use. Not one of the demonic cult circles depicted too often in Mymis theatres. Divine magic makes an interesting concept, although implausible.”
“You don’t believe in gods?”
“Of course I do!” Dawn snapped back, causing the mare to recoil. “Magic not a trademark of science, hence the term magic, as in unable to be explained by traditional scientific means, thereby only instilled in the world by the gods themselves. However,” she continued as she roughly grabbed and dropped the mare in the circle with her magic, causing the pegasus to squeak, “magic as a form of divine favor absurd. The gods are impartial to who attempts to contact them, hence why they are gods and are above our mere mortal praises. Now, hold still.”
“Uh...” the mare responded, put off balance by Dawn’s rapid fire speech. “Okay?”
“Good.” With that, Dawn’s horn charged and launched a blinding beam of light straight into the mare’s skull.
Hawk Tail jumped at the shriek the mare produced, his wings snapping fully open in alarm. Despite the obvious pain, the mare seemed unable to move. Her eyes were squeezed shut even as more screams forced their way out of her wide open jaw. Across from her, Dawn held her eyes closed in concentration, and a sheen of sweat poured down her face. The beam of magic connecting the two mares flickered and pulsated different colors, and Dawn’s face began to grow more and more frustrated. Eventually the beam became a deep and solid crimson, and Hawk Tail skirted around the edge of the room, worried.
“Uh... Dawn?” he called out over the rainbow mare’s screeching. “Dawn, what’s going on? Is everything alright?”
Dawn didn’t respond, and her brow only grew more creased. She leaned into the spell, as if putting more of her weight behind it would actually do something. By now, the limbs of the mare across from her were fully extended and locked in place, and Hawk could see the bound wing struggling to open against its bandage.
“Dawn, you’re hurting her!” Hawk Tail called out. He galloped closer to the unicorn and touched her shoulder with a hoof, only to yelp and recoil as several sparks of Arcana jolted through his limb like electricity. “Seriously, cut it out!”
Suddenly Dawn opened her eyes, and Hawk Tail was shocked to see nothing of her pupils behind the wall of white energy bursting forth through them. Then, with one last shout, the shack shook and the magic dissipated into the environment, charging Hawk’s feathers with static as it passed. Dawn blinked once or twice and stood up on shaky hooves, her orange eyes now returned to normal. Across from her, the mare collapsed, groaning.
“What the buck did you do?” Hawk Tail shouted nervously from where he leaned against the wall. “It sounded like you were killing her!”
Dawn panted and collapsed into a chair next to her. “Very... peculiar. Very peculiar indeed.”
Hawk raised an eyebrow and, cradling his foreleg, shuffled over to the mare. “What do you mean peculiar? What happened?”
“I... I don’t know,” Dawn answered, incredulous. “There’s more than just amnesia going on in there. Dark energy. Bad energy. Fought me every turn I made.”
“Fought... you?”
Dawn nodded. “Memory loss not an accident. This mare’s been cursed.”
Again, Hawk Tail could only repeat her. “...Cursed?”
“No doubt. Something stole her memories. It was all I could do to uncover what I did.”
Hawk Tail turned worriedly to the mare again. “And what did you uncover?”
“Her name.”
“That’s it?” he asked, skeptical. “Just her name?”
“Name and birthdate, although years likely skewed from our own count. Otherwise, she’d be eighty-five.”
Hawk Tail sighed and stood up. “Then what’s her name at least? It’d be a step in the right direction.”
“Rainbow... Dash...” came the mare’s voice behind him. Hawk Tail jumped and turned around. The mare was beginning to stand up, although she struggled to find the strength to rise on her own hooves. Hawk Tail quickly bent down and placed his hooves under her armpits and helped lift her up until she could stand again.
“What did you say?” he asked, noticing for the first time the joyous spark in the mare’s eyes.
“Rainbow Dash,” she said, smiling now. “My name’s Rainbow Dash.”
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Well, at least that's a start.
Hawk Tails Father is behind the curse.
Plot Twist
I was going to ask why Rainbow hadn't made a connection to the many, many similarities between this place and Ponyville...
Then you said cursed and I was like... Oh. Ok.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Based on the description of that fire, this Dawn pony feels a bit like an improperly mentored Twilight.
Wow, and now that we've met her she really feels like that.
The lack of medical magic is an interesting difference between "normal" Equestria and wherever Dash ended up.
I like Dawn already.
I hope Dawn makes some more appearances.
I like her.
So awesome sauce :D
'My name is Rainbow Dash.'
Finally! 
May the story continue please! 
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, that's a good first step.
Looking forwards to your next installment, 24th! 
Pega-ace
So... Mordin with some streak of Holmes... Marvellous.
221B Broken Shack.
So damn awesome! I dont want to wait till next friday for more
...
It' nearly saturday, wheres our next chapter
?
3333615
Maybe Saturday for you, but I've got another 6 hours left
Don't worry, it'll come. I'm just riding home from college for the weekend. I'll post it when I get home.
24
Oho, the plot thickens! And huzzah! The Dash is back, even if its just her name for now. This is reminding me slightly of Harmony Theory (another awesome story you should check out if you haven't already) with the whole Rainbow Dash being transported through time and/or space due to some malevolent shenanigans thing going on. I'm guessing that's what's going on here, anyway. Hmmm...
Well, I got a few more to go before I'm all caught up. Onward!
Aaawwww rainbow ur so cute
Oh God. It's Mordin in pony form. I couldn't help but read all of Dawn's dialogue in his voice. :)
4813983 you're right!
This story is well thought out. I like the links to music to set moods. It might take too many words to describe what a few bars of music explain perfectly.
Uh....then how come RD wings go from broken to fully healed in 3 days in the show?
Cursed by dark magic? That's an interesting plot twist. I wonder how that's going to play out.
6673829 Umm... magic doctors, maybe? Perhaps while RD was growing up, doctors stumbled on some cool healing spells? Or, perhaps as a filly, RD failed to give her wings the time they needed to heal, causing them to re-break, which meant more healing. That sounds very Rainbow-Dash-like to me.
6698234 Very interesting.
Well.. that's a twist...
Dawn is giving me extreme Mordin (mass effect) vibes
She remembers her name!
Oh god it’s Mordin the salarian.
She is exactly Mordin.
THE LINK IS A LIE!