Fleeting Memories

by Kaidan

I. Amnesia

A terrified teal Pegasus tore off his armor before leaping into the sky. When he joined the Equestrian guard he had expected to guard the borders and earn a decent living. He had just been sent into a mine to rescue some miners with his squad. They couldn’t find the miners, but they did find something in the dark. It started with screams and at first he thought it was the miners. His sergeant turned and ordered him to warn Celestia at once and stop for nopony.

As the Pegasus flew above the scattered clouds he had a sense of dread and fear unlike any he had ever known. Rubbing sweat out of his eyes he pushed faster and faster. His muscles burned as the cold night air cut through his feathers. He could feel something gaining on him so he angled down and dove through the clouds. He was already nearing the sound barrier and still felt the entity getting closer.

As he pondered if it was wise to attempt to break the sound barrier, he felt a hot searing pain hit the back of his head. He tumbled out of control towards the town below, and his last thought was of the screaming.

~*~

The world was pain, darkness… and beeping? Where was that infernal beeping coming from? Slowly I opened my eyes to see where I was. The ceiling was white and blurry, so I rubbed my eyes before sitting up. My head felt like it was split down the middle and aching furiously. There were hideous grey curtains, white walls, a bed and a dresser. A sickly smell of cleaning products was in the air.

“Hello?” I called out with a coarse dry voice. I kicked the bed sheet off and examined my limbs. My wings were bandaged, my legs were sore, and there was the headache, but I appeared unharmed otherwise. Now if I could just figure out what was going on...

Two ponies pushed the curtain aside and walked in “Hello I’m Doctor Stable and this is Nurse Readheart. Do you know where you are?”

“No, I was about to ask you that. Why am I here and why is my head hurting so much?” I replied, eager for my own answers.

“I see—we found you in the town Library after a nasty crash landing. You’ve been here for a week while we healed your injuries. Nopony in town knows you; do you remember how you got here?”

Now it was my turn to be at a loss. I couldn’t remember what had happened, or how I had ended up crashing into a library. I could feel something itching at the back of my mind, but try as I might, the last thing I remembered was waking up in this hospital. “Sorry Doc, but the last thing I remember is waking up here.”

“Well, the good news is that we’ve healed your wings and the swelling in your head is down. When we found you, you had a nasty concussion, and you spent a week in a coma. The town librarian offered to come by once you woke up and try some memory spells on you.” Stable looked down as his chart and jotted some notes.

“Uh Doc, I’m not sure I want some librarian poking around in my head. Aren’t you trained to do that sort of stuff?” I wondered.

“We’ve already tried, and the librarian I’m speaking of is Twilight Sparkle.” The Doctor grinned.

“Is that somepony I’m supposed to know?” I asked and was rewarded with the Nurse nudging the Doctor.

“You know he has amnesia Doc, so why don’t you explain things for him while I get some water,” Redheart stated.

“Right, so we’ve established that you’ve crashed and have amnesia. The good news is your memories should return with time, the bad news is it’s a poorly understood field of medicine. The brain is as fragile as it is complex, and when dealing with physical trauma there is no guaranteed way to heal the damage. Our attempts to magically heal and recover your memories have failed, and you’ve spent your time here in a coma.” The Doctor was taking a few more notes on his chart when a lavender pony walked into the room. “Speaking of Twilight, that’s her now. She is the element of magic so you’re in good hooves.”

“Hi, I’m Twilight—" started the lavender pony,

“Wait, what’s an element of magic?” I interrupted.

This seemed to surprise the other unicorn. “I’m one of the elements of harmony, protégé of Princess Celestia,” she said with a slight look of confusion.

“Twilight, he is suffering from complete amnesia and doesn’t remember anything before the crash. I was hoping you would be able to help him out, as I just explained to him” the Doctor stated.

“I see. If it’s okay with you I’ll see what I can find out?” Twilight asked.

“Sure, fire away.” I replied. The lavender horn began to glow as she approached, emitting a purple aura that was soothing to watch. As her horn touched my head my headache seemed to improve notably, but at the same time I could feel something tugging and tingling in my brain. I could almost feel a point of energy bounce around in my head, like a rat lost in a maze looking for an exit and not knowing where to start.

“Hmm, this is interesting. I’ve been studying memory spells while you were in a coma in case there wasn’t any brain damage. Now if your amnesia was caused by brain damage, then no amount of memory spells could restore it. I’m not sensing any brain damage; however I am also not detecting any trace of a memory spell. So if the memory loss isn’t physical or magical…” Twilight looked to be deep in thought.

“So I hit my head hard enough to forget everything, but not hard enough to cause brain damage?” I asked, perturbed by the odd circumstances. “Something doesn’t add up, perhaps I could jog his memory by showing him my memory of his crash landing?” Twilight looked over at the Doctor for approval.

“Sure thing Twilight, how about you—uh—" The Doctor was glancing through several pages of the chart. “What are we going to call you if you can’t remember your name?”

I glanced around unsure how to reply to that. Looking down I could see the mark on my flank, a white streak resembling a Comet. “I don’t know, how about Comet for now? At least until I can remember my real name which I’m hoping is a little better…” I trailed off, starting to feel upset that such a large part of my life could be taken away from me so easily. Who was I? Did I have family?

“Ok Comet, what I’d like to do is use a spell I used when Discord-- I mean, a while back to restore memories to my friends. So I will show you a shared memory of us, and with luck you will be able to trace it back to how you crash landed.” Twilight didn’t look the least bit concerned, so I nodded my head in agreement and she approached again.

~*~

“So Fluttershy, what brings you by the library so late at night?” Twilight asked.

“I wanted to return this book on mammalogy and check something out on herpetology” Fluttershy replied. The mare with yellow skin and a flowing pink mane closed the door gently behind her.

“Oh sure thing, I was just having tea with Pinkie, care to join us?” the lavender pony gestured to a pink pony sitting at a table.

“Oh that’d be lovely, thanks” Fluttershy gently replied.

“So Fluttershy, what’s with all the ologies? Eulogies? Such funny words! I think I’ll add mammalogy to my list above kumquat but below sarsaparilla,” the pink pony giggled.

“Oh Pinkie, I’m always studying to learn more about animals and mammalogy is the study of mammals.” The mare joined the other two at the table and helped herself to one of the cupcakes. The pink pony’s tail began twitching

“Twilight, are you expecting Rainbow Dash?” she asked.

Noticing Pinkie’s tail, Twilight quickly shouted to her assistant “Spike! Open the windows!”

Twilight and Fluttershy looked a little concerned, while Pinkie Pie looked quite excited. “Oh a combo, it’s definitely Rainbow going to crash into the library again! I love this—" Twilight put a hoof in her mouth.

“Pinkie! Why don’t you try and get a mattress or something to soften her fall.”

Pinkie went over to an open window as if she could tell which one their guest would fall through. Sure enough, a teal Pegasus colt with a blue mane slammed into the mattress and bounced across the room. “That’s not Rainbow Dash… and that means—" Pinkie gasped and darted out of the library.

“PINKIE!” Twilight shouted after the mare “ugh… this is no time for a party--Fluttershy go get Nurse Redheart.”

~*~

“I remember now, the falling that is. I had started to spin out of control and aimed towards the village before…” I felt that itching at the back of my mind as if I was about to remember something, but instead it was replaced by dread and vanished. “I’m sorry I can’t remember more, and thanks for bringing me to the hospital after I crashed Twilight. So Doc, how much longer do I need to stay here?”

“Well, you are healthy enough to leave the hospital. Just check back weekly so we can see if any of the memories have returned. We’ll schedule you with a therapist and ask you to write down anything you remember, however small, in a journal. Let’s discharge you tomorrow morning and see if we can find you a place to stay.” The Doctor took a few final notes and trotted out of the room.

“Comet was it? That’s not such a bad name. I know it can be hard for a new pony to find a place to stay in town, but I have plenty of friends. If you need a hand finding a room stop by the Library, it’s the only tree house in town, and I’ll see what I can do.” Twilight smiled and followed the doctor out of the room.

I sighed and looked around. The sun was starting to set so at least I wouldn’t be here too long. I smiled as I saw Nurse Redheart come back in with water and dinner. I might not be able to remember how I got here, wherever here is, but it looked like things wouldn’t be so bad.

Author's Note:

Thanks to Nharctic for proofreading.
All chapters are in the process of being updated.