When she finally awoke, she found that she was no longer in the care of the one who had rescued her. She was in a bed, and she was bound up. Opening her eyes, she looked around, her mind racing. her eyes weren’t quite synced, making it difficult to focus clearly on anything, but she still managed to make out her surroundings.

She was lying on a completely white bed, which matched the color of the sheets, walls and ceiling. The only color came from the pile of cards on a small table just to her right. She wanted to jump off the bed but found she was too fatigued to do so. Her head was wrapped in bandages, as were her wings, and her upper chest. There was a thin tube running from her right foreleg to a bag of liquid that hung from a pole next to her bed. A metal box, just to the other side of the pole, emitted a short beep every second in a rhythmic fashion.

The door opened and a white earth pony wearing a white coat entered. She had a red cross symbol on her flank and wore a small white cap on her head. The earth pony walked over to the little beeping box on the right side of the bed and examined it, then looked up at the bag hanging from the pole.
“Ww” She struggled to speak; her throat was very dry. The earth pony looked down suddenly, upon hearing the noise.

“Oh, well look who’s awake.” The earth pony said, eyes wide and smiling.
“W-where am I?” she asked, barely able to hear her own voice.
“You’re in the hospital dear, we’re taking care of you.” The white pony replied.
“Oh, well that’s good.” she said, slowly.
“Well, we can take this out now,” the earth pony said, pulling the tube that ran from the bag of liquid out of her foreleg. “Would you like something to drink, perhaps some juice?”
“Yes please... my throat is kinda dry.” she replied.

The white pony left the room and closed the door. So she was in a hospital; she’d never been in a hospital before. Why was she in the hospital? What had happened to her? She found that she was too tired to think very much, and simply relaxed and went to sleep. Several minutes later the same white pony from earlier returned and handed her a juice box with a straw already inserted.

“Well here’s your juice, and we’ve contacted your legal guardian. He’s on his way to come see you.”
“Who?” She asked. She had no idea who or what the pony standing over her was talking about.
“Oh, you must just be tired, get some rest, he’ll be here soon.” The earth pony left again and closed the door.

That was weird; she didn’t know anypony. Who was that pony talking about? She took a sip of her juice. It tasted so sweet, just like cherries, and it felt so cool and refreshing as it ran down her throat, soothing the dry soreness she’d felt earlier. Before long, the door opened again and a rather large pegasus filed in behind the white earth pony. When he looked at her, his breathing stopped. He stared at her like she was some long lost treasure he’d been searching for his entire life, and now he’d found her. A few tears dripped from his eyes as he stood there, his mouth slightly open.

“Oh, Ditzy Doo thank Celestia you’re alright!” He ran over to her and leaned in to try to hug her. She pulled away from his embrace.
“I’m sorry, who are you?” she asked, eyeing him suspiciously. His facial expression stiffened, as if he’d just been hit across the face.
“I... It’s me Alphonse... Alphie?” he said, looking at her hopefully. She shook her head.
“Doesn’t ring a bell, sorry”

He suddenly looked as if he’d just been stabbed in the chest.
“F-from the post office. I’ve raised you your whole life. You like helping me deliver mail to Ponyville.” She stared at him blankly.
“No I’m sorry, you must have me confused with someone else.”
“Don’t... don’t you remember me, Ditzy Doo?” he asked. A very worried expression hung on his face.
“Who?”

A river of tears began pouring down his cheeks.
“no, no no no NO! You’ve got to remember! You’ve got to be alright you’ve just got to!” He grabbed her by her shoulders and began shaking her lightly.
“Come on please remember! You’re Ditzy Doo! You’re the closest thing I’ve ever had to a daughter! I’ve raised you since you were a little filly, come one please just remember me!” The pony behind him put her hooves around his chest and pulled him away.

“I’m sorry sir, but for the safety of the patient I’m going to have to ask you to leave now.”
“No please don’t take me away from her! She just needs to remember me, please!.” He stared at her as he pulled against the earth pony, tears dripping from his chin.
“Please, you’ve just got to remember.” he pleaded, softly this time. She gazed back at him, wanting to ease his pain, but finding no recollection of anything he was trying to tell her.
“I’m sorry” she said.

He appeared once again to have just been stabbed, but was able to stay calm this time. The white earth pony led him out the door. He looked back at her longingly one time, before allowing the door to close behind him. She could hear loud sobs of anguish coming from the hallway. Just who was that big Pegasus? And why for all her efforts could she not remember who he was?

---

A few weeks went by; the pegasus never showed up again, but she kept receiving get well cards from a certain pony named Alphie. She had trouble remembering, but she thought that had been the pegasus’s name. The bandages were taken off her wings, and she could eat solid food, and the bruises on her body had long since healed, but she still couldn’t remember how they had gotten there.

She had gotten used to the split vision she seemed to have obtained. Her right eye would always focus on what she wanted it to but her left eye seemed to have a mind of its own. The two never seemed to want to cooperate, and it was often difficult to focus on anything, but she managed.

Her memory had also been getting better recently. She could now remember up to a day into the past. The doctors told her she was showing great signs of progress, whatever that meant. She could retain some information at the very least, but she still had no idea who that big pegasus was. It was a surprise she could remember him at all; it had been weeks and he was well outside of her short term memory.

“You have a visitor, Miss Doo,” came the sweet voice of the nurse pony. The door opened and a small pink filly walked in. She had brilliant pink hair, which was all puffed up and curly. On her flank were printed three balloons. The middle one was yellow and the other two were blue.

“Hiya filly, how you been?” The pink pony piped up. That voice... something about that voice seemed... almost familiar, like she’d heard it somewhere before.
“Um, I'm fine I guess, but I can’t seem to remember much.”
“Ooh, that’s not good, did you hit your head?” the little pony asked. She thought about it for a moment.
“Well... I’m not sure, I don’t remember.”
“Hmm that sure is a pickle, maybe somepony stole your brain!”

Her face grew sorrowful; the foal’s words seemed all too possible. Perhaps somepony had taken away her brain, or her memories at least. The little pony left, seeing that she was now feeling troubled. Why couldn’t she remember anypony? Who was that little filly? Who was the big pegasus who had visited her a few weeks ago?

After puzzling over it all day, she got a massive headache. Rolling over, she went to sleep, too exhausted to do anything. When she woke up, she noticed a small round bottle had been placed at the foot of her bed. Picking it up, she examined it and found that there were some words printed on it, but she couldn’t read them.

She fiddled with it for a bit, trying to figure out some way to open it. Finally she managed to twist off the cap, but it slipped out of her hooves and fell onto the floor. A clear liquid began spilling out all over the floor so she rolled off the bed to examine it. Upon hitting the floor she lost her grip on the slippery gooey stuff, and fell flat on her face.

‘Derpy Hooves!’

The name rang out clear in her head, in a kind of sneer she didn’t recognize at all. What was that? The door opened and a light blue nurse pony walked in.
“Oh dear are you alright!” She looked up and nodded
“Oh, come on, we’ll get you all cleaned up.” She was led out the door and down the hallway to the restroom. Using the sink, they washed off the sticky stuff and got her all dried off.
“There now, all better?” She nodded again.

As they were walking back to her room, she turned to the nurse pony.
“Who’s Derpy Hooves?”
The nurse pony stopped walking for a second, and then continued.
“I don’t know honey. Maybe you could tell me?” She shook her head.
“I don’t know who it is, but I heard it when I fell,” she said. The nurse pony looked concerned.
“Well, I’ll think about it, and I’ll let you know if I remember anything okay?”
“Okay,” she replied. The blue pony’s eye had seemed to close right on the word remember. Was that just a coincidence?

The nurse pony trotted off down the hallway, leaving her to re-enter the room herself. The gooey liquid had been cleaned up off the floor, and the now mostly empty bottle had been placed next to one of the legs of the bed. It wasn’t long before she got another visitor at her door. It was the pegasus.

Upon hearing the knock on the door, she looked over to see him standing in the doorway, clear as daylight, with a sad expression on his face. He walked in slowly, looking around the room as he moved over to the side of her bed.
“Hey there kiddo,” he said finally, taking a seat in the chair next to her bed.
“Hello again,” she replied. She felt so surreal, almost like looking into a dream. His eyes widened.

“You remember me?” he said, looking hopeful.
“Only that you were here a few weeks ago,” she answered. His expression fell.
“Oh” he said, sitting back. “I had hoped you might have finally remembered.” He fell silent, looking down at his hooves. After a long awkward silence, he let out a sigh, and began speaking.

“Listen um, I know it’s probably hard for you to understand, and I know you don’t remember, but I’m your adopted father. Your mother died when you were born and nopony really knows what happened to your real father. So I’ve been taking care of you ever since you were born. The reason you’re in here, as I’m sure you’ve been wondering, is because about three months ago, while you were coming back from Pinkie Pie’s house, you fell down into a ravine. It took me three days to find you. I was so worried when you didn’t come home that day. I searched everywhere.

Finally somepony thought to search near that ledge and I went to check. When I got there, you were... well, pretty beat up. I took you to the hospital and they ran a few tests. The reason you don’t remember me is because you suffered a really bad head injury, and it wiped out all of your long term memory. You were in a coma until a few weeks ago. They came to tell me you were awake, but when I got here you didn’t remember me at all.” The words felt like stones in his throat, each one as difficult to force out as the last. He sniffed as a few tears rolled down his cheeks.

“They, tell me you’re getting better at remembering things now. I came here hoping you might have regained some small memory of me. It took a lot; I almost didn’t come, but I just had to see you. You’re my little angel you know that?” He leaned over to hug her, smiling, as tears streamed down his face. She let him hug her, but didn’t hug back.
“I’m sorry, but I still have no idea who you are,” she said flatly.
“That’s ok kid,” he said, pulling her tighter into his embrace “That’s ok.”

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