Having two hungover ponies around the house was surprisingly less trouble than Firefall had thought it might be, oddly enough. He had expected more complaining and perhaps high maintenance...but that, fortunately, wasn't the case.
While it was true that Tempora had come down that morning with a massive headache and thirst, she had departed upstairs for the rest of the morning and most of the rest of the afternoon after convincing the pegasus to stay, so she was no trouble. The aforementioned Walker was even less maintenance--he'd stayed under the covers on the couch and didn't get up for breakfast or lunch.
While Firefall was slightly concerned about neither of them having eaten, he was ultimately satisfied. It gave him time to study. Time he probably needed.
At around four-thirty in the afternoon, he was checking the living room to see if anything different had transpired. Approaching the couch slightly let him know that Walker was still asleep under that mass of blankets, and Firefall nodded to himself and turned to leave.
Out of nowhere, there came a shout of joy from somewhere upstairs. Firefall spun toward the sound in surprise and Walker stirred slightly, rolling over.
"What in the world?" Firefall muttered, taking a step forward.
The orange flash of light and bang that came with teleportation filled his senses, and as soon as it cleared, he saw Tempora standing in front of him and staring straight at him with a massive grin on her face. "I did it!" she crowed.
"...Did what?" Firefall couldn't help but ask. "Banished your hangover?"
"No, that went away as I was sleeping," she dismissed. "No, it's something much better! I figured out how to fix your memory problem!"
"Tempora," said Firefall in a more hushed voice, "first of all, our guest is still sleeping." He gestured to the motionless pegasus on the couch.
"Whoops," said Tempora more quietly, blushing. "But still, just sit down and I'll fix it for you~"
"Tempora," interrupted Firefall, shoving a hoof in her muzzle, "I promise there's nothing wrong w--are you licking my hoof?!" He withdrew it with a disgusted look on his face.
"Yeah, I was afraid you were gonna say that," said Tempora causally, shifting her hat back so her horn was exposed. "You just haven't been listening, no matter how many Celestia-damn times I tell you! I keep telling you and you never listen, you stubborn pony! I'm offering you something completely painless and with no risk of memory loss or anything!"
As she spoke, her voice increased in pitch in volume, and her eyes narrowed until she looked angry enough to have an aneurysm.
"You keep refusing, even though you of all ponies should know it's not gonna be a bad thing!" Then, like a switch had been flipped inside of her, she snapped back to being calm. "So that's why, for your own good, bro, I'm gonna force you," she concluded in the same casual tone of voice she had just been using.
"What?!" Firefall cried in alarm, stepping back and lighting his horn beneath his hat. "Are you crazy--"
Tempora's horn flashed and in the span of less than a second, her hoof, damp with saliva, was pressed against his suddenly-exposed horn, dispelling any spell he was about to cast. Oh, Celestia...of course, she can cast that spell, some part of his mind thought, resigned.
"Now we can do this the easy way," Tempora said through a false smile, "or we can do this the hard way. And the hard way is...well, you know how it is. You're not gonna get far...like, at all, really."
Normally, Firefall would have just sat down and accepted it, considering he knew exactly what his sister was capable of, but something inside of him made him lash out, kicking her back and starting to run to the door.
Of course, she had been right about how far he'd get. Almost before he knew what had been happening, he found himself lying on the floor by the couch, tied from head to hoof in ropes, his hat lying on the floor within hoof-reaching distance...if he wasn't tied up.
Tempora stepped in front of him and bent down to look him in the eyes. "Yeah, don't worry...it'll be over real soon..." she said, giving a small smile in earnest.
Firefall started to charge up his horn, but the spell was immediately dispersed by another damp hoof. He didn't even have time to properly struggle as his sister's glowing horn touched his forehead--
project project special project Princess Celestia specifically chosen project ape thing intelligent old so old but healthy Polaris frozen millions another ape poisoning alphabet dying need to save both protection Celestia...
Tempora stood up and watched apprehensively as her brother twitched a couple of times on the floor, eyes screwed tightly shut. Aw, crap, did I do the spell right? Damn it, I better have! I looked over it a billion times!
Soon, though, Firefall's eyes opened and he looked toward her. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally decided on something to say. "Um...I'm back..."
Not daring to untie him just yet, Tempora leaned in. "What do you remember?"
"I...I remember...everything," Firefall breathed. "Patrick Stanford Walker the human. He was the human the miners discovered...and we found another one, too, later--Katherine Franklin. I started teaching them the Equestrian alphabet and they were doing very well...but they were dying of the ambient magic. There were not a lot of options as to how to combat that..."
Tempora grinned widely, overjoyed. "So it worked?!"
Firefall shrugged uncomfortably. "Er, I suppose it did."
Tempora grinned even more widely and untied Firefall hastily, throwing the ropes aside. There we go! she thought as Firefall stood, and as soon as he was up, she threw her forelegs around him in a hug. "Oh Celestia, I'm glad you're completely back!"
Firefall awkwardly patted her on the back--he had never been much of a hugger--and Tempora let go. "What do you mean, completely back?" he wondered.
Tempora frowned and raised an eyebrow, prompting Firefall to elaborate. "No, I mean, I've got those memories again," he amended, levitating his hat back on, "but...I was still Firefall, right? I was still...who I am?"
Tempora looked to the ceiling in thought. "Uh, technically, yeah...but you had your memory of the past few days...I dunno, blocked, and from what you said, it sounded like it was messed with."
"Messed with...? I don't remember anypony casting a spell on me like that..."
Oh, buck. "Did I miscast? Did I do it wrong?" Tempora asked, internally starting to panic. "Oh Celestia, should I do it again? Or is it something else--"
"No!" Firefall interrupted hastily, shoving his hoof in her mouth again. "No, I remember everything. I certainly would have remembered something like that. Perhaps it happened while I was sleeping..."
"I dunno, I guess," said Tempora after removing his hoof from her mouth, visibly calmer. "But still, who could've done that?"
"I'm not sure," Firefall admitted, "and trust me, I want to know." He frowned angrily for a moment. "I'm not sure memory alteration is ethically permissible and even if it was, I don't appreciate it happening to me--"
"I wouldn't appreciate it either."
The unicorns turned in surprise to see their pegasus guest lying face up on the couch with open eyes and ears pricked up to listen intently. "You're awake?!" Firefall shouted in surprise before mentally hitting himself. "Sorry," he continued more quietly, "I forgot--"
"No, I'm fine," Walker interrupted, sitting up. "Hangover's gone." He winced and shrunk back. "Actually, I should leave now--"
"How much did you hear?" Firefall asked.
"Uh...I woke up just before you--" he waved a hoof at Tempora-- "teleported in. I wasn't sure if I should listen but god, what you did seemed important, and looks like you got your memories back again. Congrats...I think I should leave, though." And he started to slide off the couch.
"Wait," Tempora said, holding up a hoof. "Do you feel like you forgot something?"
Walker hesitated and squinted as if he wasn't sure whether this was a trick question. "Uh...yes? I keep saying 'god' but I don't know why. I think I thought about a phone or something but I don't know what that is..."
"You got memory loss?" Tempora asked, not even trying to be subtle.
"Tempora!" hissed Firefall.
"I don't know," Walker said dully. "Why do you care?"
Tempora looked at him as if he was stupid. "Walker, we don't go get drunk together and then just not care about each other to at least some level. You liked hanging out with me, right?" At his nod, she pressed on. "And I liked hanging out with you. That makes us at least acquaintances, and if I can fix something that's wrong with you and I don't, what kind of pony does that make me?"
"A pony who's got more important things to do than help some random pony she barely even knows?"
Tempora slapped a hoof to her face. "Oh, Celestia, why don't you get it?" She let the hoof trail down her face and land on the floor again. "Okay, look, if I don't help you, it's gonna be on my mind until I die, but more importantly, you're not gonna have help done to you when you could have it right now, free of charge, where some other ponies might wanna charge you! I'm trying to help you because it's the right thing to do!"
"Yeah, but how do you know for sure I need this help?"
"Uh..." Tempora said eloquently, not having expected this.
"All right, then," Firefall jumped in, noticing his sister's pause. "Does the name 'Pennsylvania' ring a bell?"
"Pennsylvania?" Walker rested his head on the couch and stared at the ceiling. "I think so...it's a road, and it's also a territory of some kind...I think."
"Do you remember any details?"
"...No?"
"Well then, I'm inclined to believe my sister. I think you have memory loss...oh. Oh."
"What?" prompted both Walker and Tempora as Firefall started pacing.
Firefall moved to a window and stared outside to see the small backyard. He stood there for a moment, unmoving, before turning back. "You're the human. You're Patrick Stanford Walker, and you've had your body changed and your memories affected. It all makes sense. Patrick said 'god' a lot, for example, and he knew about the kinds of things you said when you were drunk last night. The alcohol must have affected your memory somehow."
Walker snorted. "Yeah, no. That's crazy. I was probably just brought up in a weird situation."
"Okay, then who are your parents and where did you grow up?"
"Um..." Walker looked up at the ceiling in thought again. "My dad was called Storm Chaser...I forget about my mom, though...but I grew up in Cloudsdale."
Firefall's eyebrows shot up. "Really? Then can you tell me what's special about Cloudsdale that no other city in the world is known for?"
"Uh...um..." Walker muttered, visibly struggling. "It's...cloudy there?"
Tempora and Firefall exchanged uneasy glances. "Can you fly?" asked the latter.
"...No..."
"Every pegasus who grew up in Cloudsdale should know how to fly," said Firefall matter-of-factly, "because it's a city in the sky. Your memories have been affected."
"...No they haven't..."
"Tempora," said Firefall, ignoring Walker's feeble protest, "are you going to do the spell again?"
Tempora pursed her lips. "Uh, no, I can't. I was only able to do it to you because you were only missing memories from a few days and I knew the basics of what I was looking for. This guy, though--" she gestured with a hoof-- "is missing pretty much his whole life, and I don't know it. There's no way I could do it. Besides, I never even met him as a human." She saw Firefall open his mouth and shook her head. "We couldn't even do it together, I'll bet. We'd need some other spell."
Firefall looked down. "Of course."
"So...can I go?" Walker quietly asked, halfway off the couch.
"No," Tempora said quickly. "We're gonna fix you somehow. I know another spell exists somewhere."
Walker hesitated, then slid off the couch anyway, grabbed his saddlebag, and headed out of the living room toward the front door. As soon as his back was turned, Firefall muttered, "Are you going to let him leave?"
"...No," Tempora said thoughtfully. "I can't just let him go without some real important memories, especially if he's one of the humans you spoke of. We have to help him."
They looked between each other and then toward the foyer. "Should I do it or do you wanna?" she asked.
"You should," Firefall gently encouraged. "With what you can do, it's good practice."
Tempora smirked. "Like I need practice at this point." She gathered some of her magic and let it pour out like she was letting air out of a balloon in a well-practiced move. By the time she was done releasing the magic, everything was moving so slowly one would have to stare unblinkingly to notice movement.
She glanced at her nearly-frozen brother and chuckled, wasting no time and moving to the front door. She passed Walker, who was striding extremely slowly toward the door, and made it to the door first and locked it.
"And they said I wouldn't find a good use for this," she said to herself, smirking and glancing at Walker, who had barely moved.
Grinning, she moved on to the back door, the windows on the ground floor, the windows upstairs, and hers and Firefall's bedroom doors. Once finished, she returned to the living room, sat down on the couch, and sped everything up to its normal speed.
Firefall looked over and noticed her broad grin. "That never gets old for you, does it?" he muttered rhetorically.
Seconds later, a voice sounded from the foyer. "The door's locked. Can someone please unlock it?"
"Nope!" Tempora called out cheerfully.
"Wh--wh--wha--no?" Walker sputtered. "Why not?"
"'Cause we're not letting you leave 'til you get your memory back!"
"What the hell is wrong with you ponies?!"
The twins listened as Walker ran from room to room, trying to find a means of escape. "Did you get the windows?" Firefall muttered.
"You think I'm stupid or something?" Tempora asked dryly, but with a grin. "Of course I got the windows."
It only took about a minute for Walker to return to the living room, and once he did, he was fuming. "You bastards! What the hell is up with you?"
"Bastard?" Tempora echoed uncomprehendingly.
"Um, we're not bastards; we know who our parents were," said Firefall, equally confused.
"No, no, it means--rrgh!" Walker spun around and slammed himself onto the couch, accidentally whipping Tempora in the face with his tail, who gave a cry of surprise and pain. "Sorry--oh wait, maybe you deserve that..."
"Celestia damnit, I'm trying to help!" yelled Tempora, standing and glaring at the pegasus. "But you're being more stubborn than Fire was! Why are you so sure your memory's okay?"
"Because it is, and I'm not sure I want you poking around in there!"
"Ugh!" Tempora huffed through gritted teeth. "You may hate this now, but trust me, you'll be thanking me later! I'm going upstairs!"
And I know there's another spell for this kind of thing! she thought furiously as she stormed upstairs. But what about the other human...?
Walker stared at Tempora as she retreated upstairs, and then turned back and looked down dully at the couch. Thanks for that...
"Walker..." said Firefall gently. When Walker looked up, Firefall pressed on. "I know you think it's...well, horseapples, but...trust me, Tempora and I know what we're talking about."
"You locked me in your house," Walker pointed out. "Look, that doesn't exactly make me want to trust you."
"We want you to know what's going on," Firefall said. "I got my memory back and even I don't fully know why this happened. Actually, I don't know at all...but we cannot in good conscience just let you stumble your way through Equestria without knowing anything about anything."
Walker didn't answer and turned his gaze up to the ceiling. As soon as I find a way out of here, I swear I'm going to report you two to the authorities.
"Are you hungry?"
"Nope," Walker lied. If they kidnapped me, what's to say they won't poison me either?
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Firefall sighed and rubbed his muzzle. "Okay, I'll leave you alone. Just think about this, all right?"
It wasn't until the unicorn had left the living room when Walker let a small hiss out of his muzzle form the words, "I have thought about it, and you won't convince me."