“Wait, wait, wait. I thought his parents were dead?!”
“Yeah, you told us his story. His family died when their house collapsed on them.”
“This makes no sense. It shouldn’t be possible, not if what you told us was true.”
“Calm down. I’ve still got more to say. It all gets explained.”
“What can we do for you, your Highness?” Sable’s mother beamed at me, obviously pleased to see the Princess of Friendship at her door.
“Please, come in!” Sable’s father stepped aside, gesturing to the interior of the little cottage. I looked inside, from where I stood I could see the loom in the corner and the row of pictures of celestial objects on the wall. I didn’t know what I had expected, but it wasn’t this, and my words failed me. I glanced at Sable, as his parents looked nervously at each other. He was dumbstruck, shocked to stillness, ears flat. I had to say something.
“Yes, I am Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. I was wondering if you would answer a few questions for me?” I hoped I didn’t sound too uncertain.
“Of course, we are happy to help in any way we can.” Sable’s mother bowed again. “Would you like some tea?”
“No, that's alright.” I glanced at Sable again; he wasn’t doing any better. “Would you mind introducing yourselves first?”
“How silly of me, I do apologize. My name is Softwear. My husband here is Earl Grey.” The Unicorn put an arm around his wife’s and nodded deeply. Sable backed away, tenser than I had ever seen him. Only now did the two ponies look towards him, a blue light shining from their eyes for a brief moment.
“Oh, I didn’t see you there. And who might you be?”
“Impossible.” He whispered to himself, shaking his head. “It’s… not possible.” He stumbled backward.
“Careful there, are you alright?” The grey Unicorn reached out to stabilize Sable. The Unicorn in the black coat recoiled at his father’s touch, wings fluttering unevenly. What courage he had reclaimed failed him, and he turned and bolted away. “Your friend is a little shy, isn’t he?”
“Sable, wait!” I called after him, but he didn’t stop, and he fled up the hill towards the observatory. I turned back to face the other two ponies. They seemed concerned, but not overly so. “You don’t recognize him?”
“No, I don’t think we’ve met before.”
“The name Sable Stardust means nothing to you?”
“Sable Stardust? Why does that…” Sable’s parents glanced at each other with worry, their eyes momentarily flashed with neon blue energy. Both of them grimaced briefly, before shaking their heads to clear them and looking back at me with neutral expressions. “I’m sorry, do you need help finding somepony?”
“No, thank you. I apologize for intruding on your time.” I nodded towards them and jumped into the air, leaving the two below to stare up at her in amazement. My flight took me over the observatory as I watched the ground for Sable, I saw the observatory door for the telescope was closed. I searched for him, looking for a black coated Unicorn among the trees towards the town. But he wasn’t there, and I winged back towards the triangular structure. Only then did I spot him. He hadn’t gone far, stopping just at the top of the hill, behind the Observatory from his parent’s cottage where I couldn’t see him before. “Sable! Are you alright?” It was clear he was not, even as I landed nearby I could see him shaking. Confusion and fear written plainly on his face, eyes wide, ears flat. Glass wings clattered against each other. He was in shock, and he couldn’t even stand, his coat was splayed out on the ground around him.
“Not possible… It's not possible…” He recited it like a mantra, over and over. I’d never seen him like this, nearly catatonic.
“I’ve got you.” Gently I wrapped my arms around him, draping my wings over him like a blanket. “Shh, it's alright.” He remained unresponsive. I didn’t know what to do, what could anypony do? So I merely held him, trying just to be a soothing comfort. I don’t know how long I stayed with him like that, but that's how the others found us.
“Twilight!” A voice called my name, and I looked up to see Rainbow Dash flying in long arcs above us. “There you are!” Dust rose when Dash skidded to a halt nearby. “Whoa, what's wrong with him?” Very blunt, she wasn’t gentle at all. When Dash approached the air filled with static charge and energy crackled around Sable, a barrier flashing around us. Dash shouted in pain, snatching back her hoof, singed. “What gives with that?”
“He’s…” What could I call it? “He’s confused, hurt. I don’t know what to do!” My own voice tinged with panic.
“I’ll get the others. Don’t go anywhere.” As if I could. Rainbow Dash lived up to her name, color trailing behind her as she disappeared back towards Pinewood Village.
“Don’t worry, Sable. The others are on the way.” If he could hear me, he didn’t respond. He just kept quaking. It wasn’t terribly long before I heard more hoofbeats, and voices calling my name. Dash hovered over the observatory, pointing down at us. Moments later the rest of the group galloped up to us. Static built in the air around us. “Stay back! He’s not himself!”
“Twilight, Sable, what happened?” Starlight approached anyways. Magic flared, neon blue, an arc of energy lanced out towards the other Unicorn, scaring the ground before her. Everypony backed away at the display.
“It’s difficult to explain.” I didn’t know where to start and kept my voice low. “We found Sable’s family.” Sable and I still hadn’t told them his story.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Pinkie Pie piped up. Sable twitched at her voice, weakly kicking. I looked at the devastated pony in my arms, my promise to him still rung in my mind. But they needed to know, now more than ever.
“He thought they were dead!” Everypony gasped. “He’s gone into shock. I think he’s just working off instinct now. I don’t know what to do!”
“You’re doing the right thing.” Fluttershy spoke softly. Sable’s eyes twitched towards her, just briefly. “Just keep him warm and comfortable.” Something nearly imperceptible in Sable shifted. I realized Fluttershy’s voice seemed to calm him.
“Keep talking to him, Fluttershy, I think it’s helping.”
“What do I say?”
“I don’t know, something, anything.” Fluttershy bit her lip, looking away. It took a moment longer before she finally spoke, urged on by Applejack and Rarity.
“Mr. Stardust?” Softly. “Sable?” Gently. “Can you hear me?” She stepped closer, static built as she drew near. “It's me, Fluttershy. I want you to listen to the sound of my voice.” Magic glowed, and the Pegasus paused. “I’m here to help if you’ll let me.” Gingerly she took another step closer. The magic continued to glow, but Sable did not strike out at her. “I know it hurts. I know you’re confused.” Another step closer, the glow began to fade. “Remember what we talked about, I know you can come back to us.” His neon blue aura faded entirely, and Fluttershy slowly stepped up beside us. “Just breathe.” Then the Pegasus knelt beside him, placing a soft hoof on Sable’s side. He twitched, kicking weakly again. “Shh, you can rest now.” In my arms, I felt his shaking start to still; his wings stopped clattering. “I’ll be right here.”
Whatever instinctual strength possessing him faded, and he fell limp in my arms, I could still feel his heart beating like a racehorse. Slowly I released him, letting Fluttershy take him from me. His breaths continued to come in shallow gasps, but he rested. I mouthed the words ‘thank you’ to Fluttershy, who nodded in return. Quietly I stood, releasing my tension, and backed away from them.
“OK, OK. Everything is calm now.” I had to stop my own shaking.
“Twilight, what is going on!” Rainbow Dash was demanding but kept her voice down.
“It’s a long story. I don’t know what to make of it anymore. Did he lie to me?” Something in my voice still disturbed them.
“You need to calm down and explain.” Glimmer put her hoof on my shoulder. I took a deep breath and held it, feeling my own heart beating a drum in my ears. Exhale, and then calm.
“Alright. Before the accident, Sable told me his story.” How best to summarize that? “He grew up with very few friends, tormented by bullies because of his blank flank.” I considered how to proceed. “Eventually almost all his friends abandoned him. Do you remember the name he gave us when I gave him his silver mask back?”
“Serenity?”
“Sereina? Wasn’t it?” Rarity was the correct one. I nodded.
“She was the only one who didn’t abandon him, and I think he was in love with her.” Then I walked around the side of the Observatory, pointing to the cottage in the valley. “This was his home. According to what he told me there was a bad storm here, and he couldn’t save his family, or Sereina, as the house collapsed on top of them. He told me they died here that night.”
“I think I get it now.” Applejack took off her hat, in respect for the dead.
“But, you just said you found them? Right?” I nodded, confirming Dash’s question.
“And it wasn’t their tombstone or anything?”
“No, his parents are fine. We haven’t found Sereina yet.”
“So, he lied to you when he told you the story?” Rarity couldn’t seem to decide if she was appalled or worried. “I didn’t think him the type. What was the point?”
“To get our sympathy, obviously.” Glimmer sounded suspicious of his motives. “So he could get her away from the table.”
“I don’t think so. You weren’t there for the story before the accident. He almost broke down in tears. I think he really did believe they were dead.” I remembered the reactions of Sable’s parents to his presence. “It gets stranger. His parents didn’t recognize him.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, they didn’t even know his name, and when I told it to them, they asked who that was.”
“They didn’t even remember their own son?” Rarity continued to sound either worried or appalled.
“The townsponies didn’t know him either.”
“None of them?” I again confirmed Dash’s question with a nod.
“Wow, I know he likes to keep a low profile, but invisible? That's a neat trick.” Pinkie was clearly impressed, confused, but impressed.
“I don’t understand it; this was his hometown. Even if he was never outgoing, a pony growing up without a cutie-mark and losing their whole family all at once, that's not something you just don’t notice in a town this size.”
“I think I figured it out.” Starlight spoke. “Why his spell failed, back at the map.” We all turned to face her. “He stole my time travel spell and tried to go back to the moment his family died, right?” I nodded again, that was my theory as well. “It didn’t work because it couldn’t work. His family never died in the first place. Even the most epic magic can’t send you to a point in time which never happened.”
“And the resulting backlash nearly wiped his memory clean.” It fit the facts, as near as I could tell.
“But what about everypony here? Could that spell remove him from their memory too?” Spike was the one to spot the flaw in our theory. If it could have done that, it would have removed him from our memories as well.
“I don’t know; it shouldn’t have. Although, he was wearing the Alicorn Amulet at the time. I frankly have no idea what a spell backlash that powerful could do under its influence.”
“Oh, right, the Amulet!” Dash facehoofed. “I completely forgot! A lumberpony in town told me they saw a dark Unicorn dragging some big black rock earlier today, not even an hour ago. He said they had scars all over their face and snarled at him when he offered to help.”
“The thief! We have to go after him! Did they say which way they were going?” Dash didn’t have a chance to answer before I had already pulled out the map.
“Northwest. He said he was northwest of here when he saw them.” I reoriented myself towards north and examined the map.
“There’s nothing out there, just some hills, a lake, more hills, and the coast.”
“Doesn’t matter, we have to go after him.” Applejack was right, a quick glance at the others told me they each agreed.
“Fluttershy.” I turned to face my friend, still supporting the broken Unicorn, gently brushing his mane. “Can you watch over Sable for us? We think we know where the thief is going.”
“Um…” the Pegasus looked down at her charge, uncertainty clear in her expression. “I don’t think I can stay out here with him, alone.” I looked up; it was going to start getting dark soon.
“I’ll stay.” Spike offered first, stepping over to join Fluttershy. Then Rarity stepped forward as well.
“I’ll remain as well. I’m not as much of a fighter as the rest of you. We’ll take good care of Sable. Go get him.” I nodded and looked at each of the others. It was easy to read the determination on their faces, and even Pinkie Pie was serious now. “When you find him, give him a kick in the head for Sable’s sake, will you?”
“Yikes, that hit him like a train.”
“Of course it wrecked him. The memory of his family’s death was a central point to his life, and he just learned it was a lie. How do you think you would handle something like that?”
“Not well.”
“It was a good thing Fluttershy was there to help. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”