//------------------------------// // Chapter 4, Embracing the Storm // Story: The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 4 -- Fury Run // by shysage //------------------------------// That same morning, both Raritys made us two nice collars, with a short rope. Everypony helped us get them on. Shysage couldn't run away now... But I was so tired from the furies though, I took Shysage home, and slept all day. Shysage slept too. We slept all night too. Shysage usually slept a lot now. But it was easier to care for him that way. I felt better after sleeping, but still... I was very sad... He was still close, but he was gone... It was just so hard... I'm not sure I had fully accepted what had happened yet. I was still recovering from batting maybe 400 furies to their doom in a little over an hour. I felt bad though, the Equestria Girls had to go back, and Equestria was hurting when they left. My Twin looked terrible, because she knew I was hurting... There was nothing I could do... I couldn't even go to the Portal to see them off... My Twin came to our house, and we just cried together... Still, I thanked her for just being there. She cried more, I don't know... They made it home, I guess... Everypony thought that Shysage still had his precious memories, they were just somehow disconnected. Maybe some event or situation would revive that connection... That next day, I think, I started to try things to see if maybe we could jog his memory. Early on, I had a lot of help with this. Princess Twilight and the girls, they were wonderful, we tried a lot of different things. They were very patient, and we tried hard to think up possibilities... Things we had all done together... Nothing seemed to make any difference... I lost track of time, but after the first week maybe, fewer and fewer came to help. I knew why... ...this was an unspeakable tragedy. It was just hard for ponies to be around us. Especially ponies that knew us both before... It was just terrible now... It hurt me, so it hurt those that visited... ..a lot... Cel and Lu came a few times, but we mostly just cried together. Well, I just cried a lot anyway... I loved him, and he was gone. He was here, but he was gone. And we were both hurting before all this... The next week maybe, I took him a lot of different places. I wanted to see if specific places might have some effect. He would only walk for a little while, then he wanted to eat then sleep. It just got frustrating. I tried to be patient, but I'm not sure how good a job I did... Cel and Lu (Princess Celestia and Princess Luna) sent an Air Coach to pick Shysage and I up one morning that week. They had found the tree they grew up in. Well they found the stump of it. They were saving it as a surprise, but instead were hoping it would jog a memory maybe. Shysage didn't like the harness in the Air Coach. Once there, I just wanted to cry with our girls. Shysage ate for a while then fell asleep. It was truly an amazing day, but with their dad remembering nothing, well... ...it was just difficult for everypony. It was like a terrible storm... ...and I couldn't stop it... I had to embrace it... I don't know how well I did... Princess Twilight suggested maybe a brief rest from being around him occasionally might help. I don't know... Dawn quickly volunteered, she's amazing. Our house is right next to her showroom. They put an anchor in her showroom, so we could move the rope to that, and I could have some time alone. I didn't want it but I probably needed it. I did that a few times... But I just felt so much at a loss without him... After maybe two weeks though, I think I lost hope. I was just spent. After everything else we had to face when we came back... I didn't know what else to do...