Twilight smiled with joy, at least the spell was a minor success. "Great! The spell worked, a little bit anyways. Is there anything else you remember?" Twilight strolled closer to the unicorn, curious.
Lucent closed his eyes, trying to think, trying to remember. The darkness that clouded his thoughts seemed thinner now, as if he could make shapes of figures beyond it. Minor things were coming back to him; his name, his ability to use magic, common sense, speech. But the trail of memories ended there. Something still blocked him from digging deeper, from reaching those memories that felt so important to him.
"No." Lucent shook his head with a sigh.
"Well, don't worry. I'll just have to find another spell and try harder." Twilight was determined to solve this mystery. Something forcefully blocked her from awakening some of Lucent's memories, some form of magic. She knew this unicorn was tied to something bigger. For some reason or another, someone had cast a spell on him to lock away memories. And not just certain ones, all of them. Someone wanted this unicorn to be a shell of a person. Twilight was able to awaken deep rooted memories, but her spell wasn't enough for the bigger ones. She cracked her book back open, flipping through pages wildly. When she was through one book, another levitated out of her bag and she began going through it.
"I-is there anything I can get you?" Fluttershy asked.
"No thank you." Lucent said, but at that moment his stomach let out another growl which betrayed his lips.
Fluttershy giggled at the display, "Just hold on, I'll go get you some more apples." Fluttershy descended the stairs and was then out of sight.
Twilight let out a sigh as she set the second book down, she couldn't find anything on memory seals. "This will be a bit trickier then I thought." Twilight levitated a third book out of her saddlebags.
"This all really isn't necessary Miss... Twilight, was it?" Lucent spoke very elegantly.
"It's no trouble at all! Besides, the seal on your memory intrigues me. I've never seen anything like it before!"
Lucent looked troubled, "There's a seal on my memory?"
Twilight's eyes widened as she realized she said a bit too much, she sighed and slowly closed the book she was going though, "Yes. I'm afraid that somepony, or something, put a seal on your memories so you couldn't reach them."
Lucent looked down, clearly upset. What had he done to anger anypony? What did her do to deserve this?
"It's OK. Me and my friends can help you, we've dealt with worse things in the past, I'm sure." Twilight spoke with a very cheerful expression, obviously proud of the powers her and her friends held.
'Friends.' The phrase warmed Lucent a bit. He smiled for the first time since he had awoken.
"There you go." Twilight said with a sincere smile. She retrieved her book and returned to exploring it.
~
Hours seemed to pass as Twilight read, an re-read her books. Fluttershy would ask questions to Lucent and he would answer what he could; his favorite color was orange, he couldn't remember how old her was, he couldn't remember his parents, his favorite food was apples (At this the pegasus giggled), the questioning went on. Fluttershy wanted desperately to help all she could, but this seemed like something her love and caring couldn't fix, and it called for magic.
"Oh, Lucent, if it's OK may I ask another question?" Fluttershy always had a nervous look when she asked, as if she was going to get rejected.
Lucent, who had warmed up to the pegasus pony, smiled warmly "Of course not."
"Uhm, OK then, well, do you remember how you earned your cutie mark?"
Lucent looked down at his cutie mark, the image of the sun looked back at him,
"It's just, we know another pony who has a similar mark, and she's a princess."
Lucent's eyebrow raised, "A princess?"
"Yes! Princess Celestia of Equestria. She raises the sun every day over Equestria."
'Princess Celestia' Lucent said to himself in his mind. The name seemed to want to make a connection with one of the figures on the other side of the darkness in his mind, but he just couldn't make the connection. He could feel the seal grow only the slightest bit weaker at the thought though.
"That name...Sounds really familiar." Lucent said looking back up.
"It does? Oh, how wonderful!" Fluttershy was excited that she may of helped, even the tiniest bit.
"Yes, but I can't quite place why it does. To answer your question though Fluttershy, I'm afraid I don't remember how I earned my cutie mark."
"Oh..." Fluttershy said, a bit disappointed.
"Princess Celestia? That name sounds familiar to you?" Twilight asked, her curiosity peaked.
"Indeed. It's like when I think about it, it tries to make a connection with my lost memories, but something stops it. I assume it's the 'seal' that you said has been placed on me. But also, at the thought, the seal weakens ever so slightly."
Twilight's eyes lit up at the discovery. "That's it then! We just have to make enough connections to your lost memories that the seal weakens enough for me to break it!" Twilight was excited that she may be able to break the spell after all.
"What about princess Luna, do you remember her?" Fluttershy asked, trying to pick a subject that was related to Celestia.
Lucent closed his eyes, trying to match the name to a figure. The name sent connections out to several figures. "Yes, the name does seem familiar to me. It sparked many connections within my mind. Thank you Fluttershy."
"Oh, it's no problem at all." The pegasus said with a warm smile.
"What about Canterlot, the city where the Princess' live?"
Lucent closed his eyes once more, thinking hard. Something seemed wrong about that phrase, but it still made connections in his mind.
"Yes. That helped as well."
"Well, it's obvious that you still remember somethings about Equestrian history. We should go to my library, there are many books there that could get you up to speed on Equestria."
Lucent climbed out of bed, he felt stronger now. He could stand without wobbling, and walk without tilting. Lucent gave a nod to Twilight and the trio set out for the library, hoping to find some answers.
~
At Twilight's library, before the trio arrived, a rainbow pegasus was questioning a baby dragon.
"What do you mean she's not here? She's always here! Reading books is all she does!" Rainbow Dash said with a laugh.
"She's just not here. She rushed in, grabbed a few books, and then rushed out. She woke me up from my nap with all her rummaging." Spike said with an annoyed expression.
Fluttershy, Twilight, and Lucent could be seen on the horizon as they approached the library. Rainbow Dash hovered in place a bit before flying over the the trio.
"Twilight! I've been looking for you all day!" Rainbow was facing Twilight but flying backwards as the trio walked forwards.
"Me? What do you need Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow Dash looked left and right, making sure a certain somepony wasn't around. She then leaned in close and whispered "Do you know a spell that would make a pony all asleep?"
At that moment a loud, high pitched "RAINBOW DAAAASH!" Was heard in the distance. A pink pony with mane and tail of what appeared to be cotton candy bounced into view.
"Rainbow Dash, I was looking everywhere for you! I need a favor!" Pinkie Pie said.
Rainbow Dash sighed and collapsed to the ground. "I give up..." She said, defeated.
"Great! It'll only take a Pinkie Pie second!"
"Does this involve another prank?" Rainbow Dash asked with a hint of hope in her voice.
Pinkie Pie only giggled, "Maybe!" and with that the Pink pony started bouncing off with the pegasus floating behind her asking about what prank they would pull.
"As long as they stay away from me with those pranks." Twilight said, as they entered the library.
~
Twilight pulled book after book from the shelves of the library, creating a neat stack on a table.
"These should cover most of Equestrian history." Twilight settled one last book onto the pile.
"Thank you, Twilight." Lucent said as he magically levitated a book over to him. It was the first time he had used his magic since waking up, and the book wobbled a bit. He could feel himself getting the hang of it though as he flipped the pages with his magic as well.
"We should leave you to your studies. We will be upstairs if you need us." Twilight and Fluttershy ascended the stairs.
Lucent read through the first book, 'Early Beginnings of Equestira: How Equestria was Made.' The book described the early beginnings of the world. It told of four alicorns; Terra, Aqua, Ignis, and Ventus. These four alicorns were the ones who shaped the world of Equestria into what it was now. Terra crafted the ground, and Aqua cut through the ground with her mighty oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams. Ignis brought fire, and with it power to the land. Finally, Ventus brought the wind and with it, the air and skies.
They created two more alicorns who would actually interact with the subjects of the world, they created Luna and Celestia. With Celestia, came the sun. With Luna, came the moon. With that, the world was split into two, light and dark. The original four alicorns took to the heavens, watching over their creation from high above. Luna and Celestia created the first of pony kind; the unicorn. It had the horn and magic of the alicorns, but lacked the ability to roam the skies. They then created the pegasus, a pony with wings, capable of sailing the great ocean that was the sky. Finally, they created the earth pony. It lacked the magic alicorns had, or the wings that pegasi had, but it had a connection with the world, and could feel it.
The ponies they created wouldn't move though, they lacked motivation, they lacked a reason to move. Celestia and Luna gave them motives; they created kindness, loyalty, honesty, laughter, and generosity. These were known as The Elements of Harmony.
Lucent read on in the book, connections shot out left and right as he read through the chapters of the book. Parts of it seemed wrong, and other parts filled blank spaces in his head. He finished the book and moved on to 'Laws of Ponyville: Stop Right There Criminal Scum!'
~
"Are you sure this will help Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.
"...No. But it's the only lead we have."
"Who IS he anyways?" Spike asked.
"His name is Lucent, we found him collapsed in the Everfree forest, and he can't remember anything."
A knock was heard from Twilight's balcony. As they all looked over, they saw Rainbow Dash on the other side of the glass with a scowl on her face.
Twilight opened the glass door, allowing Rainbow to walk inside, it was then that they noticed she was dripping wet.
"Rainbow? What happened? It's not even raining outside." Twilight asked as she checked outside to be sure. When she did, she noticed a wall of rain heading for the tree. She quickly closed the doors and the rain began pounding on the tree house.
"Another storm?" Fluttershy asked, already starting to shake a bit.
"Rainbow? I didn't hear anything about a storm today." Twilight said.
"It was another storm that came out of nowhere. I was out helping Pinkie when the weather team found me. We tried our best to stop it, but the more we kicked the clouds, the bigger the storm got."
Twilight could feel a chill as the storm grew louder and angrier.
Fluttershy noticed Twilight tremble a bit, "Twilight, what's wrong?"
"I don't think this storm is natural. I think something causing it. I felt it with the last one, but I didn't think anything of it. This one though, I can feel a lot of magic floating around in the air."
"Oh no..." Was all Fluttershy could say.
~
Lucent closed the book on Ponyville law. Most of it seemed like common sense anyways, so he only skimmed through it. The next book was a book on the Elements of Harmony. Lucent remembered the first book he read saying something about them. He opened the book and began reading.
The book told of the Elements of Harmony and their history. It re-told the story of Luna and Celestia creating the elements. It also told of a method of harnessing the elements through stone orbs. These orbs were created when Luna suddenly turned against Celestia out of jealousy and attempted to overthrow her. Celestia had used the elements against Luna and defeated her sister, banishing her to the moon. Something about the story didn't click to Lucent, he didn't understand how jealousy or anger could take someone to such extremes. It almost saddened him to even consider it.
He closed the book, his eyes were stinging from such intense reading. Lucent approached the stairs and tapped the bottom one with his hoof, as if he was knocking.
"Miss Twilight, may I come up?" He asked.
"Oh, of course Lucent."
Lucent ascended the stairs to find himself in the presence of not two, but three ponies. The Rainbow one from earlier, and the other two ponies were sitting in a semicircle in the floor.
"I'm sorry, am I interrupting?" Lucent asked.
"Oh, of course not. We were just discussing the storm outside." Twilight said.
"So, you're the forgetful unicorn?" Rainbow Dash spoke up.
Lucent's gaze dropped to the ground and he gave a slight nod.
"Speaking of which, did you learn anything?" Twilight asked.
Lucent's gaze rose back up to Twilight, "Oh, yes. A lot actually."
"Maybe we should try breaking the seal again?" Twilight asked.
"I would like to try again, if that is OK with you Miss Twilight." Lucent said, bowing his head.
Twilight approached Lucent and closed her eyes as her horn began to glow.
Rainbow Dash looked at the two confused, with no idea what was happening.
Lucent's horn began to glow as well, along with his entire head.
Twilight examined the seal again in her minds eye, it was definitely weaker then last time. She concentrated hard, trying her bast to break the chains on his memory. She felt like she could almost put a scratch on it. Before she could though, it rejected her. Twilight was pushed back again, and she landed with a thud.
Lucent let out a small yelp of pain as well, but no new memories surfaced.
"Anything?" Twilight asked as she rose to her hooves.
Lucent simply shook his head.
"I didn't want to resort to this, but we're going to need help to make sense of things. And I think I know the only person who can help. Spike, take a letter..."