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 Hooves" came the sweet voice of the nurse pony who frequently attended her. They had taken to calling her that recently; she wasn't quite sure why. The door opened and a small pink filly walked in. She had brilliant pink hair and it 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 obtained 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 cerulean colored 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 and left 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 solemn 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 for the past twelve and a half years. the reason you're in here, as I'm sure you've been wondering, is because about three months ago, while you were out delivering mail, you were abducted by a very bad pony, who kept you imprisoned for four days. That was how long it took me to find you. I was so worried when you didn't come home that day. I searched everywhere. Finally somepony mentioned you'd been up to that house a lot and I went to check inside. 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. whoever did this to you erased your short term memory partly through magic and also with drugs." 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"

The next day rolled around, and there was another knock on the door.
"Another filly is here to see you" said the nurse excitedly, moving aside to reveal a small pink filly standing in the doorway. She held a brown paper bag in her mouth that carried with it the sweet scent of baked goods.

"Hey there filly, how you hangin' out?" the little pony squeaked, tossing the bag up onto the bed and then climbing up. Something about this pony seemed oddly familiar
"You, seem familiar. Were you here before?" she asked, scratching her head with her hoof.
"Well yeah silly filly, I gave you the bubbles remember? I thought you'd enjoy watching them float around. My name's Pinkie Pie. Mrs. Cake said I should bring you this muffin. She said you always used to love these." Pinkie Pie; that name also sounded familiar.

Tearing open the bag, Pinkie Pie pulled out a nice warm freshly baked muffin, and passed it to her. As she took it in her hooves, the sweet aroma wafted up to her snout and she breathed in the enticing smell of blueberries. Blueberries. She took a bite of the muffin; it was amazing! from the soft chewy inside to the crisp outer crust, to the juicy berries within, the dazzling flavors danced across her tongue, illuminating her taste buds.

Her eyes widened as she bit into the delicious dessert; something about this struck a sort of sensual deja vu. she reached over to the bag, and placed it over her head. she giggled as she recalled doing this before, under a tree in a park. Pinkie Pie giggled too.
"haha you look silly like that." She and Pinkie Pie laughed for a while, until she suddenly had a thought.

"Pinkie, do you know who Derpy Hooves is?" she asked. Pinkie stopped laughing immediately and looked back at her, a very worried expression on her face.
"Well yeah, it's you. or at least, it's what those mean fillies called you" Me. Pinkie reached down and grabbed the bottle that she had found by her bed. pulling out the little wand inside, she blew into it, causing a few bubbles to come flying off.

she watched as they floated around the room, almost entranced by the way they hovered so freely. this caused a spark of emotions to hit her, and she suddenly felt very elated.
"Derpy Hooves" she said, "So that's my name. I like it." Pinkie Pie blinked.
"well, actually your name is Ditzy Doo. Derpy is just what some mean fillies started calling you when you fell as you walked into the classroom on your first day at school."

Derpy looked at her.
"Pinkie, I don't remember any of that. I'm not Ditzy Doo anymore. I'm going to call myself Derpy."
Pinkie looked like she was about to cry, but instead just hugged her.
"Well I'm not going to call you Derpy, you'll always be Ditzy Doo to me."
"It's okay Pinkie, I don't mind. Really" she replied. This time Pinkie Pie did cry. She reached over and hugged Pinkie Pie, as the tears rolled off her face.

"so, when are you getting out of here?" Pinkie asked when they broke out of their embrace.
"I don't know" Derpy replied, "but we could ask the nurse." She got off the bed and they trotted off down the hallway. Derpy stopped after just a few meters and turned to Pinkie Pie.
"um, I've never been down this way before. do you know where you're going?" Pinkie just smiled
"yup, come on it's this way." she beckoned with her hoof and turned left down the new hallway they had reached.

when they arrived in the main waiting room, the pony at the desk looked up at them.
"Checking out?" she asked gesturing to Derpy with her head.
"Actually, we were just coming to ask about that, when is she getting out of here?" pinkie pie piped up. she light brown earth pony at the desk looked down at her papers for a moment before looking back at them.
"you're good to go it seems. you were scheduled to be out of here today anyway. your body is fully healed and your memory's been improving enough that the doctors have determined that you can go."

"Oh wow that's so great, now we can go celebrate, come on Ditzy Doo!" Pinkie Pie bounced up and down in place a few times from pure excitement, before hopping toward the door. Derpy sighed.
"Pinkie, I don't want you to call me that." she said dejectedly. her pink friend stopped bouncing. she turned and walked back over to Derpy, eyes watery
"But... you've always been Ditzy Doo to me. that's what you told me your name was back when we first met. remember? we threw a party and blew bubbles, and that's when that cutie mark appeared on your flank." she said lachrymosely.

"That's just it, I don't remember." Derpy replied solemnly. "I can't remember anything before I woke up three weeks ago, and It's a miracle I remember the doctors and nurses around here. I couldn't even remember my own name for three weeks. I'm just going to forget you Pinkie. You've been a great friend to me, but I just need some time to figure out who I am."

It was bound to happen eventually. Pinkie Pie's lower lip had been trembling ever since she had first opened her mouth, and now her hair had begun to deflate as well. Derpy watched as Pinkie Pie's rather fluffy mane, sank lower and lower, and got longer and straighter. it only took a few seconds upon her mane reaching its full length, for her to burst into tears. Derpy was assaulted by an attack hug from Pinkie Pie and staggered back.
"I'll never forget you." her friend choked out between sobs. She took a step backward, gazing deeply into Derpy's eyes, as though looking for something. Then after a second she turned and ran from the hospital, without a second glance.

Derpy's throat knotted up; she swallowed hard, before stepping forward toward the door. she barely got a few steps before she was stopped by the pony at the front desk.
"Hold up just a moment miss, the pony who was here yesterday left this for you." she turned around to see the pony holding out a yellow envelope for her. "He said to give it to you when you left, silly me I almost forgot." she took it walked over to the bench on the opposite wall. sitting down, she opened the envelope and emptied the contents onto the space beside her.

Inside was a letter, and a small pouch. she couldn't read the letter, but one of the nurse ponies who had been attending her for the past few weeks, happened to walk by at that moment, turned to her.
"would you like me to read that to you dear?" she asked, indicating the letter. Derpy pondered it for a moment, and then nodded. The white pony sat down next to her, picked up the letter and began to read.

"Dear Ditzy Doo,
I don't know whether or not you'll be able to read this, but if not hopefully one of the kind nurses will help you. I know you don't remember me, but you'll always be my little angel, I'll always want to be there for you, even if you don't recognize me. I've enclosed a pouch with some bits in it so you can at least survive until you figure something out. If you're ever in a jam, just stop by the local post office, and ask for Al. Always remember that you're special, and you can be anything you want to be. Be strong and never give up hope, and never forget to smile, even on a cloudy day. I hope one day you might remember me, and decide to come back home. I'll always be right here waiting with open arms. Good luck out there kid, I'll be watching over you, like always.
Love Daddy

Derpy could hardly hold back her tears. By the time the nurse pony had finished, they were dripping off of her chin and onto the floor. She glanced up at the white pony beside her, who smiled back with glossy eyes.
"Sounds like somepony loves you very much." she said. Derpy nodded, sniffling. she leaned over and hugged the nurse pony, before carefully tucking the letter back into the envelope, gathering up the pouch, and heading out the door.