The night passed by, and I did my best to remain calm and quiet, as instructed by ‘longhorn’. I really needed to ask her name, when I regain the ability to speak. I tried several things to pass the time, from tapping the uncasted half of a rear hoof against what must have been the frame at the end of the bed, to waving a forehoof up and down, in and out of my range of vision. In, and out. In, and out. I even tried moving my eyes back and forth to the rhythm of my heart rate. Left-right, left-right, left-right.
In the end, though, nothing could entertain me for long. As an act of saving grace, though, another equine came in, supposedly to check on me, just as I gave up with any sort of self-occupation.
“How is our patient today? Enjoying your stay?” It was the same nurse that sedated me. “I hope you don’t plan to struggle against your cast again, I had to pull four nurses to hold you down last time.”
“N-no struggling.” I managed. It was a little easier than last time, but it still hurt to talk,and the different voice was throwing me off. “I pro-mueoow- promise. Just bored.”
“That’s good,” ‘white face’ replied, “Just keep the talking to a minimum, until you can talk without pain. Your throat was so raw you were bleeding into your stomach from when you, you know.”
“R-Right.” I answered, opting to keep to the advice that was given to me by two of them by now. “Name?”
“Oh, right, I do need to introduce myself, I suppose.” she concluded, “My name is Fresh Bandage, and I’m one of the nurses here at the Canterlot Medical Facility. Pleasure to meet you, Sunset Shimmer. I never thought I’d get to be the caretaker for the princess’s personal student, but here I am, heh, helping you with your…recovery.” She trailed off, probably embarrased from rambling, if my knowledge of social cues is up to date.
“Well, Since introductions are over, I’ll finish up here, and move on to the next patient. Got to do my job, you know. Eheh…” That sounded painfully embarrasing. I heard her move a few things around, and do something, before scurrying out of the room at what sounded like a rapid pace.
That conversation was very one sided, and ended with Nurse Fresh Bandage leaving the room flustered at herself, but either way I got a lot of information from her rambling. My body’s full name was Sunset Shimmer, the original Sunset Shimmer was some sort of Protege, being privately tutored by an heir to this country’s throne, probably the only heir considering she used “the” to describe the Princess, the city I am in was probably called Canterlot, and that the intelligent equines here have very odd names.
I mean, Fresh Bandage? Who names their child Fresh Bandage?
As if on some kind of cue, light began showing through the window, softly radiating onto the ceiling and prompting the artificial lights to turn off, signifying that they were automatic, similar to an outdoor flood lamp. I admired the idea for a second before bringing my thoughts back to the situation at hand.
If I’m that important, then how can I play off probably not knowing anything about whatever it is I’m being tutored over? Amnesia doesn’t work that deeply, as far as I know.Do I just tell the truth? Do I dig for all the information I can and try to play off learning everything the original Sunset Shimmer knew as rehashing over past lessons?
I’m not sure how far I can get with it, but the best option I saw, was to figure out and learn everything the original Sunset Shimmer knew, and pass it off as rehashing, but if they suspect me, I’ll admit to not knowing anything, enough to where I can safely be assumed an amnesiac.
I gained a soft smirk, as I was satisfied with the final game plan.With that out of the way, I decided to try to pass the time with idle tapping with my hind hoof again.
Tap
Tap
Tap
Barely three taps, and the door opened again, and someone came in.
“Hello, my faithful student, I thought I would drop by and see how you were doing before I started Day Court. Did I come at a bad time?” It was ‘longhorn’, and ‘longhorn’ must be the princess? That actually makes sense. I saw her towering head enter my peripheral before hearing her position herself. “Okay, you’re awake. Have you given the nurses any more trouble?”
“Does it look like it?” I responded naturally, only momentarily realizing that it was much easier to speak than before. “Hmm, I can talk now, at least. Still hurts though.”
“That’s good news, I suppose.” ‘longhorn’ responded, “I guess since you can speak now, I can ask you a question.” her face turned darker, and her voice gained a sharp edge to it. “Why did you attempt to pass through the mirror, Sunset Shimmer?”
She must be talking about the one from my vision. I don’t know why Sunset entered it, so I’ll just say what I know. “I-I ‘m not sure, curiosity, maybe? I don’t remember.” I started to think back,”I remember some of it. I tested it before I ran in. I’m not sure what happened, but… I can remember pain, and the mirror was red. Like blood, I think. Princess, am I gonna be okay?”
Her gaze softened, before taking on the worried look that she carried last time. “It took a few blood transfusions, and enough painkillers to down a whale, but I think you’ll be fine, Sunset. You’ll probably have to go through full body rehab when the cast comes off, the doctors said there were a lot of broken bones, and several breaks in your spine. You’re lucky to not have any nerve damage, though you did get a concussion.”
My eyes widened. ”That’s… what I get for blind curiosity, I guess. What was that mirror, anyway? Feels like a gateway to immeasurable pain or something to me.” I tried to play off the seriousness, “It really left me speechless.” She knocked me on the forehead, just hard enough to hurt. “Owww, what was that for?”
“If you’re well enough to make self deprecating jokes like that, you’re well enough for me to punish you for them.” She answered, though I can see the amusement in her eyes. Nailed it. “But what that mirror is, is something I’m not going to tell you.” She shifted back into the dark gaze, staring me in the eye, “Because you pulled that little stunt, and got yourself very hurt in the process, I forbid you from returning to the Artifact Vault. Any future study of an item within the vault will go through me, and I shall retrieve it personally.”
“After that I don’t want to go back there anyway.” I said truthfully. “I know you have Day Court soon, but before you go, I have one more question, just out of curiosity. Whose blood was transfused into me, or was it just general blood drive stuff?”
“Mine.” She answered. I was about to protest, before she held my jaw with a hoof. “I know you don’t like it, but you know we’re the same blood type, and the magical properties of my blood will help you heal faster. Don’t forget that you also get a permanent boost to your magic, so shush, and consider it a win for both of us, okay?”
“At least tell me how much, so I know how much I need to adjust my magic when I heal, as well as how much of my life I owe to you.” Please say please say please.
“You were bleeding faster than they could transfuse with one tube.” She took on a grim look, that was very unsettling from my perspective. “They had to have multiple tubes led from me into you, and they kept it going until my blood was strong enough in you to reduce the bleeding to a controllable level.”
“But that means…” I trailed off. Her blood gave me a permanent magical boost, on top of whatever sort of magic this body already had, and she gave me enough to accelerate healing enough to reduce bleeding on the spot…
“I had to magically accelerate my bone marrow to keep up, I know. You took enough blood that you have about three quarters the size of my mana pool.” With the way she’s talking, that probably means I’m pretty magical now. “You’ll also be out of the cast by tomorrow, because of the accelerated healing.”
“W-why did you…?” I began to tear up. Obviously Celestia cared deeply about this pony that I’ve somehow replaced.
Celestia. Where did that come from? Is that the Princess’s name? Princess Celestia sounds better than Princess Longhorn, I think I’ll use that from now on. Who knows, maybe that’s actually her name.
“Because there was no other way.” With those words, I knew. I knew that I had just replaced someone dear to this powerful equine creature, and she doesn’t even realize it.
As I felt like the world was falling apart around me, Princess Celestia left, silently. If there is anything I know for certain right now, it’s that if I fuck up, I’m dead.
I think I’ll just fall back onto the amnesiac plan before it’s too late, perhaps hint at it next time she visits. But for now, I’m finally getting tired. My eyes close, before I once again drift away from the land of wakefulness.