It's... it's so dark. So cold, the stallion was thinking. He wasn't sure of where he was or how he got there, or even who he was. His memories had deserted him and left him all alone, with no idea what to do, where to go, or anything else. Why is it so dark? Why isn't anypony helping me? Am I dead?
"Hello? Anypony?" He called out, subconsciously hoping for a response, though not expecting one. But to the stallion's surprise, he heard a reply.
"Hello? Are you okay?" A girl's voice asked.
"Twilight, how can he still be alive?" A boy's voice, but not a pony's voice.
"I don't know, but he just mumbled something."
"Are you sure you're not hearing things? You've been imagining other things all day..."
"I know he said something." The stallion felt a nudge on his shoulder, and then a few taps, and then the sense came flooding back to him. He opened his eyes to find himself starring at the most beautiful mare he had ever seen. Of course, he didn't remember seeing any other mares, but still. Her coat was a beautiful light purple, and her mane was a lovely dark purple with a highlight of a pinkish color. Her face looked gentle, and her eyes had a depth and softness that seemed to make them sparkle. He must have been gaping or gawking, because the mare started to look uncomfortable and toss glances side to side. He gave his head a little shake to refocus. The mare had a hoof on his shoulder, and he realize she had been the one to shake him awake. He looked a little farther and saw a purple baby dragon, and figured he was a friend of the mares. She was the first one to speak.
"Are you all right? You took a really big fall."
"I'm fine." The stallion responded. A big fall? He thought. What exactly happened? But the mare didn't explain.
"Well, that's good. So, what's your name?" She asked. The dreaded question. But yet hearing this mare ask for his name somehow sent a spark through his shattered memory.
"I'm not sure, but I think it's Starlight Shimmer." He replied.
"Not sure? You mean you don't remember your own name?" The purple dragon asked. The mare nudged the dragon in a kind of scolding action. The stallion felt a bit of joy that the mare stood up for him, but it didn't really make up for the fact that he couldn't remember anything.
"Actually, I don't remember much of anything. I'm just going with a gut instinct for my name." The mare studied him quizzically, like he was a complex book, and she was trying to read deeply into him.
"He has amnesia," she said, mostly to the dragon. Then she returned her focus to him. "Anyway, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is Spike."
"Hi," was the dragon's acknowledgment.
"Uh...well, it's nice to meet you." He said. "So... where are we, exactly?"
"Welcome to Equestria." Twilight replied. "You ended up near my home, Ponyville."
"Ponyville and Equestria. Ringing a bell, but it's not coming to me." Amnesia, huh? Then where am I from? Is this it, or do I live somewhere else? He thought.
"Well, you may as well come back to Ponyville with us, in the mean time. Maybe you'll remember something when you see some different scenery." Starlight wasn't sure that would help, but at the very least he would get to spend some with Twilight and maybe make a new friend or two, so he decided to go along with them.
...
Twilight observed Starlight during the walk back. He was a well-built unicorn stallion, not too muscular, but still strong-looking. His coat was a grayish blue, gentle on the eyes, and hi mane was a rich, creamy yellowish white, a similar shade to the glow of the starts. his cutie mark seemed to be a star with a blazing trail after it, a shooting star (Twilight cracked a bittersweet smile at the irony), and the image of a shield was within the star. His eyes were ocean blue, deep and mysterious. And he was handsome. Twilight didn't want to admit that last part. He appeared to be around the same age as her, and his face wore an expression of gentleness. As far as his personality, he seemed infinitely curious, gazing all around the forest with wide eyes and a jaw partially dropped in awe, as if every new sight was a valuable treasure.
"Enjoying the scenery?" Twilight asked, wondering why everything seemed so mysterious to him. Sure, he had lost his memory, but surely he'd seen a forest before?
"It's... it's... it's.... amazing!" Starlight stuttered, "I've never seen anything like it!"
"Really? It's just a forest." Spike said.
"A forest, huh? Nope, I've never seen one before. Though now that I think about it, I might have read something about them once. These are trees, right?" Twilight smiled at the comment about reading; she was starting to like Starlight more and more.
"Yeah, they're trees. The smaller plants on the ground are flowers, and the green stuff we're walking on is grass."
"It's so... lush and green. I feel like wherever I'm from wasn't like this."
"So some of your memory is already returning?" Twilight asked.
"Not really, at least nothing helpful." By then they had gotten out of the Everfree Forest and were almost back in Ponyville. Starlight continued to wear his expression of awe and commented on how peaceful Ponyville looked.
"Yeah, it's quiet most of the time." Twilight responded, realizing that she had been thinking similarly yesterday, though she had called it "boring" instead of peaceful. Then she remembered her wish on the shooting star the night before and realized that today had indeed been more interesting. Unicorns falling from the sky was definitely not a normal thing. She refocused when Starlight responded.
"Well, it seems like a nice place, if first glances are any indicator."
"Anyway, I need to get back home so I can finish my mission. If you want to come you can, or you can explore town a little first." Starlight didn't want to leave Twilight and Spike so soon, but the air just seemed so fresh and inviting that he felt drawn to the town.
"I think I'm gonna explore a little."
"All right. Spike?" The baby dragon understood and spat out fire. At first, Starlight was startled, but the flames quickly gave way and a scroll remained in Spike's hands. He gave Starlight the scroll, who opened it up with his magic. His horn lit up that starish color as the scroll unfolded to show a map of Ponyville.
"We live in the library at the center of town; you can come there when you're done. Good luck."
"Thanks," he responded, and with that Twilight and Spike left him to decide where he should go first.
...
Ponyville was such a nice place. Everypony was friendly, and the atmosphere itself seemed to welcome Starlight to the herd. The land was green and lush and the air fresh, which helped Starlight relax. He still didn't remember exactly where he was from, but he got the feeling it was no where near as nice as Ponyville. Starlight put the map away inside his saddlebag. Where did he get the saddlebag? He had made it. Ever since he was a foal he had been able to use his magic to create objects. Nothing large, but completely solid. The magic object would remain as long as he needed it, whether he continued to use magic on it or not, and then shimmer back into nothingness when he was finished with whatever task the object had been made for. With the map tucked safely away if he needed it, Starlight to walk through town. He preferred this random approach to see where aimlessly strolling would get him, but he would have the map ready for when he needed to get to the library. Walking through town, he exchanged greetings with many of the town's folk and walked past several interesting places. But nothing jarred any specifics about his memory. The next group of ponies he saw were in a group of three. One had a white coat and a purple mane, with three diamonds for her cutie mark. The second was a pink pony, who's mane was also pink, and had balloons as her cutie mark. The pink pony was bouncing all over with seemingly endless energy while the white pony looked on in annoyance at her cheery companion. The third, a sweet shade of yellow with a light pink mane and butterflies for her cutie mark, quietly followed behind the other two, but still seemed to be enjoying herself. As Starlight walked passed, he said hello, and was about to keep walking when the pink pony gasped.
"Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh!" She exclaimed, then ran over to Starlight and bounced around, saying "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie, nice to meet you! You must be new here, because I know ALLL the ponies in Ponyville, but I've never seen you before, and if I don't know, you must be new!" The white pony rolled her eyes.
"Please don't mind Pinkie Pie; she gets a little excited whenever she meets somepony new. I am Rarity, and this is Fluttershy." The yellow pony put her head down and mumbled something that might have been hello. The pink pony was still bouncing around, clearly excited to have made a new friend. Starlight wasn't sure why, but Pinkie's prancing filled him with energy, and he started jumping around, too. Rarity's jaw dropped.
"I see it, but I cannot believe it." She said. Fluttershy giggled. It felt good to Starlight to just get all the pressure off his chest by bouncing around.
"Hah-hah! And you need to meet all my other friends. First there's Applejack, then Rainbow Dash, and then Twilight!" Pinkie kept dancing around, but Starlight stopped.
"You girls now Twilight?" He asked.
"We sure do," Pinkie responded, "we're her bestest friends!"
"You know her, too?" Rarity asked.
"Yeah," Starlight responded, "we met this morning in a forest. I think it was called.... Everfree, maybe?" Rarity's eyes widened.
"You met in the Everfree Forest? Wait, where are you from?" Starlight looked down.
"I... I don't know. I met Twilight this morning. She found me unconcious in the forest. She woke me up, but I don't remember much. I have no idea who I am or where I'm from. Twilight said I might figure something out if I saw some different sights here in Ponyville, but so far I haven't recalled very much; only small details that don't help very much."
"I see..."
"Twilight told me to meet her at the library when I finished having a look around." Rarity giggled, though she made sure to hide it. After all, it was highly possible that Twilight had just found her first crush.
"Ooh, ooh! We could take you to the library!" Pinkie vouched. "A friend of Twilight's is a friend of mine!"
"Oh, sorry everypony," Fluttershy stepped in quietly, "but I need to get home and start preparing the winter animals' dinners." And with that she flew off after a soft good-bye. Starlight looked up at the sky. It was late afternoon, the sun still in the sky but starting to get low. Starlight decided it would be a good idea to have a guide that knew the town well, especially as it got darker.
"Sounds good. I appreciate it."
"Oh, it's no big deal," Rarity interjected, "friends help each other out." Starlight smiled. It seemed Ponyville really was a nice place, he was thinking as the saddlebag shimmered away.
...
Twilight finished her studying a little before sundown. When she had gotten back, she had Spike prepare to send the herbs to the Princess, and it was sent off quickly. After that, she spent the rest of the day studying amnesia. She had found various causes. Sometimes, traumatic events can cause a pony to forget things; or they could just not want to remember them. Or the most troublesome cause she had found: it seemed dark magic was also capable of blocking memories, possibly similar to King Sombra's control on the Crystal Ponies. She hadn't really learned learned much about a cure or counterspell, but there would be more time for that later. Now, it was time for dinner. She was setting up when there was a knock on the door. She went to answer it, thinking maybe Starlight had found something after being out for awhile. When she opened the door, she found out that he did find something.
"Hey Twilight! Hey Twilight! Lookie who we found!" Was the first thing Pinkie Pie had to say. Starlight gave a smile, and Rarity wore an expression that seemed to ask where does this pony get all her energy?
"Hey girls," Twilight said to her two friends, "I guess you've already met Starlight? Anyway, come on in, I was just getting ready for dinner."
"Actually," Rarity said, "we've already eaten. We took Starlight to meet Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and we had a lovely, if somewhat overly apple-based, dinner. And now I need to get home and finish a dress I was working on."
"And I need to plan a surprise party to officially welcome Starlight to Ponyville. ... Oh shoot, now it won't be a surprise! Erghh." Starlight's face shifted up into a smile in the fading light. He seemed much more relaxed than when Twilight had met him this morning.
"Oh, well... goodnight then girls. Starlight, I can go ahead and show you the guest room." Pinkie and Rarity walked off, with the latter turning her head back to give Twilight a wink, but the receiver wasn't sure of the intended message. Starlight gave a last glance after them, then followed Twilight inside.
"I'm jealous Twilight. You sure do have some great friends. They're so kind and easy-going."
"I'm glad you like them. What are your friends like?" She asked, and then regretted the question as soon as it came out of her mouth. "Oh... sorry."
"It's all right." Though he seemed to falter in his statement.
"Did anything come back to you while exploring?"
"Small things, childhood lessons, some likes and dislikes. A start, but nothing major." Twilight nodded, but wasn't going to press the subject any farther. Besides, she was really hungry by now. So she took Starlight to the guest room, and called Spike to help him settle in. The rest of the night passed quietly. They talked at one point, but she could tell Starlight was having a hard time keeping the conversation going, so she said goodnight and went off to bed.