that’s when the moon began to rise. It was beautiful. The aura surrounded it as it slowly rose through the night sky, streams of color flowing from it like water from a fountain. The stars shimmered as they appeared one by one in the sky. Eventually the aura and the colors faded away and the moon began its slow trip through the sky.
“That was amazing!” I say still in shock that something as simple as the moon rising could be so awesome. “It’s like that every night?” I ask.
“Ya Princess Luna always wants to make sure that every time her moon rises it’s something special for all of us.” Lightning Dash says. She gets up and stretches. “ So has anything you’ve seen brought back any memories?” she asks
“not really…” I reply I still felt as if something important was floating in front of me and every time I reached out to grab it it floated farther away.
“All right then let’s go.”
“Where?” I ask standing up quickly.
“To see that friend of mine. He should still be up.” She says as she begins trotting away.
***
Eventually we rounded a corner and came to a stop in front of a house. It looked like any other of the dozens of houses we passes, yellow panels with a hay roof and seemingly random offshoots. Standing in front of the house was a golden unicorn stallion with a shock of black hair with red highlights for his mane and a matching, medium length tail. His cutie mark was a black and white pocket watch, making me wonder if he was a clock maker or something. He was taking a letter from what I guessed was the mail pony, a grey Pegasus mare with long yellow mane and matching tail. As the Pegasus flew away the unicorn turned towards us and I was shocked to see that one of his eyes was gold, darker than his pelt, the other was light silver that seemed to shine in the moonlight.
“Hey Lightning!” the Unicorn called. “Who’s your friend?” he asked.
“Hey Arty!” Lightning Dash replied. “This is….actually now that I think about it we never came up with a name for you did we? Anyway this is Artimas; he’s the local psychic and probably one of the most powerful unicorns on this side of equestria.”
I suppressed a laugh. “Arty? Nice to meet you.” I say.
“What? It’s a nickname! Lightning and I go way back. Known her since I was a colt.”
Lightning Dash nodded. “Yup. Anyway I was hoping you could help my friend here with a little problem. The kind that you specialize in.”
Artimas nodded in understanding. “You’d better come inside. I’ll see what I can do.”
***
Inside Artimas’s house was cozy. The main door led into a kitchen. I noticed that there was a strange cabinet with a plate glass door. Inside were a bunch of strange glowing objects. From the kitchen we trotted into a cozy living room with a few couches arranged around a large fireplace. Artimas took a seat on one of the couches and beckoned us to join him. Lightning Dash and I took seats across from him.
“All right if I’m going to help you I might as well explain how. In order to do that I need to tell you how I got this.” He says pointing at his Cutie mark. “As strange as it might seem, when I was a colt I literally had no magic. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t even cast a simple levitation spell. For years I studied magic, hoping that I would find something. A spark, a flash anything that would hint that I wasn’t the most useless unicorn that ever existed. I never got one. But there was something. I could memorize spells. If I read it or tried it, it stuck with me. Even today I can still remember how to perform spells I learned as a child. Eventually I gave up trying to cast magic and just focused on learning new spells. That’s when it happened. I was walking from the school house one day when an intense light went off in my mind and I collapsed. While I was passed out I experienced a vision. It was strange, like I was watching through someone else’s eyes. The vision was clear, crisp as if I was actually there watching the events unfold. I saw six ponies posing in front of a large castle, laughing, and having a good time. The vision eventually ended and when I came to I was at Lightning’s house. She had found me passes out on the road and took me back to her place to recover. After I woke up Lightning pointed this out.” He says once again motioning to his cutie mark. “Anyway I was confused at first about what it meant, I mean a clock? What did that have to do with me passing out? That’s when I saw Lightning’s picture of the Bearers of Harmony and I realized that I had seen the past. If you’re wondering my eye also changed color after that. After that my vision became frequent. Sometimes I would see the past, sometimes the near future. But never much more then small glimpses. There was another side effect of my Cutie mark appearing that I discovered a few days later. My magic had appeared and it was extremely potent. I had gotten bored one day and tried levitating a small rock. Not only did it work but I ended up almost uprooting a tree by accident. Anyway over the years I have focused my ability to see the future and the past so that I can control when it happens…most of the time anyways. And If I focus enough I can choose whose past or future I see. So just what is this problem of yours?” he asks.
“I have amnesia…well I think it would be better if Lightning Dash explained it. She is the one who found me….” I say.
Lightning Dash sighed. “Alright then. It all started after I completed a Sonic Rainboom. I was flying over the fields when I saw her lying in the grass right on ground zero of the Rainboom, not moving. Concerned, I landed there and find her passed out. So I took her back to my place like any good pony would do. She woke up today with no memory of just about anything, not even her name. Heck we still haven’t thought of what to call her. And that’s why I brought her here. I was hoping you could use your talent to see what happened to her.”
Artimas nodded. “Alright how about mist?”
“What?” both Lightning Dash and I asked.
“You needed a name right? Well how about Mist? It kind of makes sense seeing how you appear right out of the well…mist.” He says with a grin.
“Mist huh?” I thought about it for a minute. It did have a nice ring to it. “Sure why not?” I say.
“Cool, now as I was saying a friend of Lightning’s is a friend of mine so of course I will help you. Come on over here and I’ll see what I can do.” He says in reply.
I get up and trot over to him. “Alright don’t move. And don’t worry it won’t hurt at all.” He says reassuringly. With that his horn begins to glow with a golden light. The light grew brighter and brighter until I couldn’t see anything. And then everything dropped away until everything was black. A moment later Artimas appeared before me.
“Alright I’m going to start searching for your memories. Generally I can trigger one of my visions from a certain memory or event that has to do with what my client wants to know. Hey what’s this?” he scowled in confusion. “There’s something here. It’s like a barrier inside your mind. I’m going to try to unlock it….what the…it’s fighting back!” I could see sweat breaking out on his face. “This is bad… uh oh…” And then the world exploded with light. When the light cleared the chair that Artimas had been sitting in was on its back, smoking. Artimas himself was slumped against the back wall, a trail of smoke drifting from his horn. Lightning Dash was next to him looking concerned. “You alright?” she asked
He shook his head. “Ow that hurts…” he groaned.
I jumped up and ran over. “What happened?”
“I… I’m not sure. It’s like there is some kind of magic barrier in your mind keeping me from looking any deeper then when you woke up today. It’s a pretty strong one to. Generally I could break right through it but this one literally through me out of your mind.” He said frowning “I’m sorry but I really don’t think I can help. Or at least not right now. I swear I’m going to research this and see if I can find a way around it.”
Lightning Dash sighed “Alright thanks Arty. You sure you’re ok? Do you want us to stick around to make sure nothing happens?” she asked.
“Nah I’ll be fine Lightning, I just have a headache. You girls go ahead. Why don’t you show Mist The Sweet Apple?” he suggested.
“Alright I guess. If anything happens come find us ok?” She said as he showed us out.
“Sure but seriously I will be fine. Bye Lightning, bye Mist.” He says.
“Later Artimas.” I reply as the door closes. “So what’s this sweet apple place?” I ask, not really interested. How could it that the only pony who could have figured out my past can’t do anything about it?
“Oh it’s a tavern a few blocks away from here. ‘Best Cider in Equestria’ is there motto and they sure as heck are right. The Apple family has been running it as a side job for about a hundred years now.” She replied. “Interested?”
“Eh sure why not.” I say.
***
After a while of trotting through the night we came upon the Tavern. It was a welcoming sight. It was lit up from the inside and we could hear the sound of ponies talking merrily. Just for a moment I thought I saw some pony watching us in the shadows of a nearby ally but before I pointed it out their presence, they disappeared. We walked into the Tavern and looked around. Most of the tables were full of ponies enjoying fine cider and everyone seemed to have a friend. I noticed a single, rather large pony, covered in a large black cloak sitting alone watchfully at a table in the back. I noticed he... or she was looking at us. As we went to the bar and Lightning Dash ordered us some drinks the cloaked pony got up and walked over to stand next to us. It slid a few bits across the counter and as it did left a note next to me. It then walked back to its table. I fumbled to open the note and eventually got it open. All that it said is: We Need to talk.
I showed Lightning Dash the note and she shot a look over at the mysterious pony. “Might as well go see what it wants.” She says.
We trotted over and sat at the table, the waitress brought over our drinks and we thanked her as she trotted away. I turned to the mysterious pony. “All right who are you and what do you want with us?” I demanded.
“I am…. A friend. And I want you to go on a quest for me.” The pony replied in a dark but clearly female voice.
“You’re kidding, you’re kidding right? A quest just who do you think we are?” Lightning Dash replied skeptically.
“Well I know you,” She said looking at me. “Are a pony that has no memory and is looking for answers. And you,” she says looking at Lightning Dash. “Are a Pegasus that is sick of living the boring town life and longs for adventure, a chance to prove yourself.” She said flatly
Lighting Dash stopped talking after that. “Here’s a bit of incentive for you to go on this quest then. Simply put you will both find what you seek on this quest. There is a folder waiting back at your home with information about what to expect.” With that she got up and swiftly walked out of the Tavern.
Our drinks forgotten we jumped up in pursuit of the mysterious mare.by the time we reached the doors of the tavern and stepped outside their was nopony there. “Wana just go home?” Lightning Dash asked.
“Sure.” I say. I wasn’t sure what to think. The mare had promised answers to my questions but this quest… I don’t even know why but I got chills just thinking about it. We walked home in silence. When we walked in the door we both immediately saw the tan folder sitting on the table.
This is where my story begins. It is the story of how I got here, with these ponies and how I came to be, who I am today. It is also the story of how Equestria was changed forever. If it was for better or for worse? I’ll let you figure that out yourselves. My name is Mist and this is my story.