//------------------------------//
// Loss 
// Story: Disappear 
// by ShimmeringStallion 
//------------------------------//


Loss





Applejack snarled at the stallion and ran in first, surprised to see Soarin’ right behind her as they dashed towards Vanish in tandem. The unicorn responded quickly, kicking the door that he had his tail to in order to startle Applejack, before launching himself at Soarin’. “If you can’t beat me, then you won’t beat my client! And if he won’t fight fair…” Vanish used his magic to fling his hat over Soarin’s eyes, blinding him in order to get a clean landing in front of the Pegasus pony. Vanish swung around and hit Soarin’ with his flank, causing Soarin’ to lose his balance while charging, accidentally colliding with Applejack. Tossing the fedora from his eyes, Soarin' and Applejack collapsed together behind Vanish, before the dark blue stallion continued his statement, smirking. “Then neither shall I!”

The light blue Pegasus mare growled in anger. “I can’t believe you’re so cheap! What’s the matter with you!?” Rainbow Dash was clearly furious with how Vanish used such tactics to take down two of the ponies in the cart, though he easily explained himself. “You still don’t get it, do you? I-Uuah!?” The unicorn stallion could feel himself being lifted into the air, and saw Spitfire running at him, brandishing her wings. Twilight could be seen focusing on her horn’s magic, as could Rarity, who seemed to be moving the fedora away from Vanish's field of vision so that he could not use it against them again. “Hmm! Close, but not quite!” Noticing a saddlebag that one of the ponies placed off to the side, the gray-maned unicorn used his own magic to pick up and throw the saddlebag at Twilight’s horn as well as Rarity’s, breaking their magic's hold on him and making him fall back to the floor of the train car before he cloaked himself with his magic. Spitfire saw the floor that was below Vanish shuffle slightly, prompting her to charge at the space where she thought he was.

She launched herself head-first at the spot, but flapped her wings to stop herself from colliding with the rear of the train car. Vanish uncloaked, showing that he had rolled to avoid the charge by mere inches, though Twilight noticed that he also leaving a strangely familiar peach-colored dirt on the carpet in the process; dirt that appeared to come from his saddlebag. Standing back up, he appeared to ignore Spitfire, before bucking his hind legs in her direction several times, trying to stop her from being a threat to him. Spitfire flew over him, confident that her wings could help, but the stallion had other plans. Opening up his saddlebag swiftly, he appeared to reach in for something, as Twilight wondered what he had planned. He produced some peach-colored powder, and tossed it into the air above him where it hit Spitfire in the face, blinding her briefly and causing her to land in order to wipe it from her exposed muzzle and flight suit, before suddenly looking dazed, and collapsing.

Twilight thought she recognized what Vanish had produced; it was powder that Gather blew in the stallion’s face, in order to cause him to fall asleep back in the Cloudosseum. Spitfire was out cold, as Rainbow Dash ran over and quickly discovered while Pinkie Pie shrieked in fear. “What did you do to her!?” The pink party pony started galloping forward with a look of intensity in her eyes, clearly under the impression that Vanish had severely hurt Spitfire somehow. Rainbow and Twilight knew that Pinkie couldn’t have known about the powder, but were too late to stop her, as Vanish struggled with some excess powder in the air in front of him before noticing how close the Earth pony had gotten. Pinkie Pie just barely missed him with a head-first charge, but Vanish lowered his stance and kicked his back hoof straight into the air, hitting Pinkie on the bottom of her chin and causing her to bite her tongue harshly as the stallion mocked her efforts. “HAH! A bit too slow!”

“GAK! MAH TUNG!” Pinkie lay down, trying to tend to the pain reverberating in her mouth. It hurt to even talk in this manner, but Vanish didn’t feel a need to keep her awake, and scooped out a significantly smaller amount of powder from his saddlebag as he jumped back, sprinkling it on the pained mare’s face and leaving her on the ground, asleep with her tongue still sticking out. He nudged her off to the side of the train cart so that she wasn’t in the way as Rainbow Dash did the same with Spitfire. As the stallion moved the unconscious mare, he kept his eyes on the other ponies in front of him, carefully making sure they wouldn’t attack while he moved the incapacitated pony.

Upon reaching the side of the train, he heard a sound behind him, and promptly tried reaching into his saddlebag, having his hoof get stuck in the powder by something else and keeping it in. Soarin’ had grabbed Vanish to immobilize him, causing the gray-maned unicorn to see what was holding him back. Applejack hopped over Soarin’, charging into and colliding with the dark blue stallion and causing him to stagger, as Rainbow Dash hit Vanish from his other side at full force with a swift charge. “AGH!” The impact sent the stallion barreling side-first into the train car’s rear wall, where he collapsed next to the door. The other ponies ran in, helping to check on Spitfire and Pinkie Pie before surrounding Vanish, as Rainbow Dash looked down at the fallen stallion. “It’s over, Vanish. We got you.”

Vanish paused for a moment, before smirking. “A shame… if I was my client, you would have lost, even with the same results.” He stood up, pointing at the pink pony that laid sleeping on her stomach. “Enlighten me: How could you use your precious Elements of Harmony to fix things, if you don’t even have her awake?” Twilight stopped to consider the question, but the answer was obvious: They needed all six of the Elements to focus in order to be able to return harmony to Equestria, and without Pinkie Pie, they couldn’t do it.

Vanish delivered a coy smirk to the ponies surrounding him. “Your silence tells me more than any book, my dear.” He looked at the two ponies on the cart who didn’t walk over to him, nor had they tried to fight him. “… Miss Derpy Hooves, Fluttershy, why didn’t you do anything?” Fluttershy tried speaking, but was forced to stand in place, muffling; her bandages disabled her ability to speak, and hindered her movement significantly, but she still looked at Derpy expectantly, who nodded in response as she turned to speak to Vanish. “Well, I didn’t think you… wanted to really fight.” Vanish’s eyes lost their intensity, as he smiled with a genuinely kind look in his eyes. “Correct. I’m glad you saw that.” His look of kindness turned to disappointment as he looked at the other ponies that had surrounded him. “Considering how many of the other ponies let their emotions get the better of them.”

Twilight looked at the floor, rubbing her leg with her front hoof in embarrassment. “Vanish… I’m sor-” “No. Don’t be.” Vanish cut her off. “At least you have the determination to avenge those who have been harmed, and that was what I was testing you for. My apologies for what I did to your friend, but I could not allow him to send that letter.” Twilight suddenly realized something about Vanish, and by looking at her friends, she could tell that some of them had noticed it as well. “Vanish, can I ask you a personal question?”

Vanish used his magic to bring the fedora back to his head, where it had laid discarded by Rarity after she levitated it away. “I don’t see a reason why you shouldn’t. We’re all ponies, and train passengers, but keep in mind that I have the right to refrain from responding, especially with regards to my client or-…” Twilight raised her hoof, pointing at Vanish and interrupting him in the process. “There. You pretty much answered it for me. You keep referring to Gather as your ‘client’. Why is that? Is it really out of respect, or something else?” Twilight stepped forward, using her magic to tip the fedora up, looking straight into the stallion's uncovered, light brown eyes. “Something a bit simpler, perhaps?”

Vanish looked away, showing something he hadn’t shown since he met the ponies at Ponyville Hospital: Shame. “… If you have a real question, then ask it.” Twilight knew that the fedora-sporting stallion wasn’t going to just admit his flaws without definitive provokation; he was too proud to do that, but she knew what to ask. “Very well, I’ll make this simple: Can you remember any of our names?”

Vanish breathed in deeply, and sighed. Twilight had nailed it: She knew why he would call them by either what he saw them as, or various ‘titles’ as opposed to their names. Vanish knew what Twilight's next question was going to be, so he cut right to answering it before she could ask it. “… Short-Term Memory Loss.”