Shysage woke up after a good night's sleep. The Sun was up, it was early, and it looked like a nice day.
"Good, no nightmares last night" he said to himself.
The nightmares were always the same... No sights or scenes, just pitch black... And a lone mare calling out to him "Shysage, please come back..." And it wasn't just once either. Sometimes this went on for hours.
Well, he knew he was Shysage, and it did bother him that he and everypony else he had talked to, could only remember the last two weeks. But he couldn't remember the mare in his dreams...
The signs he kept seeing said 'Manehatten', so he decided that's where he was right now.
And one mare did literally 'throw herself' at him a few days ago, but Shysage didn't have a mare that he could remember, and decided this mare was probably somepony else's mare, so he just walked away. Well, he had to run away.
Shysage climbed out of his 'niche', a shed on the back of some other large building. The niche was small, and that seemed familiar for some reason. But it wasn't too uncomfortable, and it was sheltered. It worked.
Shysage's niche was on the edge of town, so he wandered out into the fields for some breakfast.
He wasn't alone out in the field, and each day, he had to walk further from town to find anything to eat. He knew there were a lot of ponies in Manehatten, and they were all hungry. He didn't know how they survived before two weeks ago. They didn't know either.
Shysage found a few Oats though, and took a drink from the river close by. Then he wandered back into town, and got to 'work'.
His job was looking for stuff in the broad roadways, and then simply kicking it off to the side, out of everyponies' way.
A lot of the ponies he met didn't do anything except wander around. Shysage couldn't just do nothing, for some reason, so he did this. It wasn't much, but he was helping the city, if only in a small way.
Each day, Shysage wandered further from his niche, and he was slowly getting to know the layout of this city better.
Today he headed to a part of the city he hadn't worked in yet. This was good, maybe he would actually find stuff to clear from the road.
He did. He found quite a bit actually. Maybe nopony was doing this down here. Shysage got to work.
He kicked stuff out of the road for two hours maybe.
He found a big stick, then started kicking it over to the side. It was pretty big, more like a log, and took a while. It actually hurt his legs. Shysage tried turning around to back-kick--
...
Shysage froze...
...
Shysage remembered...
...
Shysage remembered everything...
...
Shysage ran...
...
He was quickly flying...
...
He headed back to his niche...
...
He quickly landed...
...
But just as quickly realized how dumb that was...
Summer...
Shysage was in the air again, and flew quickly away from Manehatten, in the direction he thought would take him past Canterlot. Shysage was soon very high, flying as quickly as he could.
Nothing made sense... But while flying, he started putting some pieces together.
...
Two weeks ago, Equestria had simply forgotten their past. Ponies remembered their name, and how to talk, and eat, basic things like that. But their past, everything that was important to them, they had no memory of that.
...
And if everypony had 'forgot', that could only mean that Equestria had been taken over...
...
The mare in his dreams... ...was His Mare...
She was calling out to him as she always had...
Now he was hurting... He HAD to find Summer...
Shysage was in Manehatten, and had no idea how he got there. Summer could be ANYWHERE...
...
Shysage realized that his only hope of finding his Mare was with her Equestria Girls 'Twin', and the 'Twin Link'...
Shysage realized that he needed to get to the Portal... Fast...
...
Shysage's instincts had been correct, in maybe an hour, he was flying past Canterlot.
Shysage realized that he had seen no other ponies flying...
He also realized that if Equestria was taken over, then Canterlot was probably a bad place to visit...
Shysage flew around the back of the 'stepped mountain' that Canterlot was built on.
But he knew how to get to the Crystal Empire, and to the Portal, from Canterlot.
...
It took a little less than an hour for that part of the trip.
Shysage decided to land behind the Train Station, and then walk up the broad avenue to the Crystal Palace. This would draw the least attention.
...
That's what he did.
Shysage was soon walking up the broad avenue towards the Crystal Palace.
Shysage tried to act clueless like everypony else, but he was walking very fast... He had to...
The ponies here acted just like the ones in Manehatten. They were all wandering around aimlessly, not really knowing what to do, or what they used to do... They had forgotten all that...
Shysage was quickly walking up under the Crystal Palace.
A voice pierced his soul, out of the blue...
"Wow, you are one handsome stallion. Do you need a hug?"
Shysage spun around immediately... The voice was Summer's...
...
It was Summer's Twin, Equestria Girls Summer Rain...
...
Summer's Twin is the only one who could help Shysage find his Mare...
...
Summer's Twin had already come through the Portal...
...and forgotten everything...
...
The Portal was broken too...
...
But he still needed Summer's Twin to help him find his Mare...
...
Shysage walked up to Summer's Twin, and hugged her tightly...
...then was quickly crying on her shoulder...
...he didn't know what to do...
Summer's Twin hugged him back, and said "Wow stallion, I need you too!"
...
After crying while hugging for a minute or two, Shysage had an idea, but he needed Summer's Twin to stay put. And he certainly didn't want her throwing herself at anypony else... He needed some time...
Shysage pulled himself away, and said as calmly as he could "Summer, I really want you, but I need to take care of something first, then I will come and get you. Can you stay here and wait for me?"
Summer's Twin sat quickly down, then said "Stallion, I'm waiting for you! Hurry up though, if you can."
Shysage hated himself for this... But he rubbed Summer's Twins nose, very briefly... He had too... He had to make sure Summer's Twin waited...
Summer's Twin just said "mmmm... I'll be here!"
Shysage walked quickly around behind the Palace, then flew up to the balcony of the Portal room.
It looked like there was a guard in the Portal room, but Shysage just ignored him.
Shysage changed himself to his 'people' form, then ran up to the Portal. Next, he grabbed the frame of the Portal, right where he had seen Summer hold it, when they left the past.
It was a long shot... Shysage asked true friend for help, then squeezed.
There was a brief flash, and he was gone...