The tension between the two stallions grew heavy and cold, the Pegasus stallion grew wide eyed as he stood staring at the other pony. The silence was unbearable which prompted the unicorn to repeat his question.
“Captain Broadsword, what are you doing in Ponyville?”
“Captain? Who are you?” Broadsword looked at the unicorn stallion with suspicion and adopted a defensive stance out of instinct.
“What you don’t remember me? I suppose being captain of the guard leaves you no time to remember your old friends.” The other stallion said sounding a little disappointed by Broadsword’s response.
“I demand to know, Who are you? What do you know of my past?!” Broadsword became angry; somepony knew the answers to his questions and he wasn’t going to waste this chance. He pushed the stallion against the wall of his shop, pinning him down with his hoof.
“Again who are you?!” Broadsword’s eyes pierced through the unicorn stallion as he slipped into an almost berserker rage.
“Bright… my name is Bright Ideas, please let me down.” the unicorn tried to reason with Broadsword but to no avail, he was focused on only one thing; answers.
“Bright Ideas? Tell me what you know!”
“Me? I know lots of stuff like Spike the dragon has a crush on Rarity the boutique owner and Big Mac has a doll that he has tea parties with using Apple Bloom’s tea set and Lyra Heartstrings is secretly studying the mythical beasts called humans!”
“No! What do you know about me?!” Bright Ideas’ rambling only served to invoke the larger stallion’s ire, but still he let him down. “Tell me!”
“Glad you decided to let me down. Can we go into my shop? I’ll feel more comfortable talking in there.” Bright Ideas Reasoned and lead the larger, more aggressive stallion into his curiosity shop.
***
The interior of Bright Ideas’ shop was filled with strange items from all over Equestria including herbs from the Everfree forest and even amulets from Far East Neighsia; at any other time Broadsword would have been like a foal in a sweet store, but right now he couldn’t have cared less about the items that surrounded him. All he wanted was information.
“Ok, so all I know is: that you are the captain of Princess Luna’s guard or rather you were and I first met you when I was tasked with helping you and the other captain’s creating the new Canterlot shield.”
“So I was captain of a princess’ guard, so what happened to me? Why don’t I remember?” Broadsword inquired, his temper slowly subsiding as he talked to the odd unicorn.
“I don’t know; we were friends when I worked with you in Canterlot last year, but we lost touch a few months ago. I just thought you were busy, but it seems like there was something else going on.” Bright stated as he began making a drink for his companion.
“But I only remember the last week. The oldest memory I have is… is…” He struggled to remember. “Talking to a tall blue mare called Crescent Moon. Do you know anypony that can help me?” Broadsword asked as he stepped closer to the other stallion.
“Actually, I do. The former captain of your squad or so I gathered; his name’s Shining Spear he lives just outside of Ponyville in a small cottage. I’ll take you to him; it’s not a long trip. ”
With that they set off from Bright Ideas’ shop.
***
As the two passed through the market place Broadsword dropped off at Trixie’s home to give her the groceries; at first she greeted him with a smile, but his gaze was cold and she knew that whatever he was thinking about was tugging at his already strained psyche.
“Broadsword what’s wrong? The great and powerful Trixie wishes to know what’s troubling you.” She tried to mask her concern with a feigned command, but her eyes betrayed her and it became obvious to the stallion that she was worried about him.
“It’s nothing to worry about Miss Trixie, I’m just tired.” He was a terrible liar and Trixie knew that whatever he was doing was causing him pain. The azure mare stepped closer to her companion and hugged him.
“Whatever you’re doing, Trixie will be here when you want to talk about it.”
The hug lingered for several minutes before Broadsword broke the azure mare’s embrace and stepped out of the trailer, but before he began walking away he turned to the worried unicorn mare and smiled.
“Don’t worry Miss Trixie, I’ll tell you all about it when I get home… I promise.” With that he turned away from the friend he held so dear and turned to face towards his past. As Broadsword began walking away Trixie felt a great pain in her heart, like this was the last time she’d ever see him; it was a horrible feeling that sunk to the deepest pits of her heart and soul…
***
It had taken the two stallions roughly an hour to reach Shining Spear’s cottage; it was decrepit and run down with creeping vines covering most of the walls, to anypony that didn’t know the area it could have easily been mistaken for abandoned. The garden didn’t look much better, it was overgrown and unkempt; it really didn’t seem like a place anypony would ever live.
“Are you sure this is what you want captain? It looks to me like you have a good life here with Trixie, why don’t you just forget this quest and go back to her?” Bright Ideas asked as they approached the run down old cottage’s front door.
“I just have to know who I am; I can’t explain how it feels to not know anything about your own past and worse what if I have a family out there?” The Pegasus stated and knocked on the door of the former captain’s home.
The wait was intense; each second that passed started to drive Broadsword insane as he stood staring at the old wooden door, finally after what felt like forever the door creaked open and a tall white stallion with a handle bar moustache and a dark grey mane stood at the opening.
He wasn’t what Broadsword was expecting; the old warhorse was well groomed and well dressed, in truth he didn’t look anything like a pony that would live here. After explaining his situation to the white earth pony, the two stallions were invited in.
“So you’re my successor and you’ve lost all memory of everything before the start of this week, is that right?” Shining Spear inquired as he sat two cups of nettle tea in front of the stallions, of course nettle tea was an acquired taste and neither Bright Ideas nor Broadsword could stomach the taste which made the older stallion smile.
“I do recognise you now that I’ve put my spectacles on; in fact yes… yes… you were the young colt that was hoof picked by the princess herself.”
The older stallion chuckled as Broadsword tried to sip the exceptionally bitter tea. “You don’t have to drink it lads.” Shining Spear commented as the two brown stallions looked at their cups.
“I remember the day very clearly; oh yes, I had just received my honourable dismissal and the princess had asked me to gather all my potential successors in the courtyard. They were some of the finest soldiers I’d ever commanded and you stood out above all the others.”
Broadsword’s eyes widened like a young foal listening to a ponytale; he was finally going to get an answer, but suddenly a sharp pain shot through his mind and he fell from his seat. His head ached and throbbed, His body lay limp on the cottage floor and he slipped deep into unconsciousness as the other stallions tried desperately to rouse him.
***
Trixie trotted hastily through the streets of Ponyville looking for the two stallions; she didn’t know why, but she felt that Broadsword was in trouble and she had to get to him. Her perfectly groomed mane now reduced to a mess of tangled hair as she began to gallop to all the places Broadsword knew in the town, but no matter how fast she ran, no matter how far she travelled there was no sign of the stallion.
“Where are you?” She sighed as she frantically searched every alley and shop in the town, Trixie became desperate and decided to turn to the other ponies for help; going so far as trying to recruit Twilight in her effort to find the injured stallion.
Trixie had felt these urges before; first with the spider and again when Broadsword was lost in the Everfree forest, but this was infinitely stronger. Again she knocked on the library’s door and again until her hooves ached from hitting it; finally the door opened and a baby dragon stood at the door.
“Trixie? What are you doing here? If you’re still sore about the Ursa then…”
Trixie pushed past him, ignoring the baby dragon entirely and began calling out for the purple unicorn that was studying inside.
“Twilight! Where are you?”
“Spike what’s all the noise…” It was then that the unicorn in question emerged from her room at the top of the stairs. “Trixie what’s the matter?” seeing that the azure mare was hysterical she immediately asked her to sit down and explain everything.
“So you can sense when he’s in danger? That’s amazing Trixie! How did you learn such an advanced magical bonding spell?” the purple mare had completely missed the point in her excitement over the spell and Trixie was becoming both increasingly distressed and agitated. Again she explained why she needed Twilight’s help, this time it stuck and Twilight began searching for a location spell in her piles of books.
Pulling book after book from the stacks the two mares hunted for the location spells, until finally Trixie looked up and saw that the last book on Twilight’s shelves was the one they were looking for.
***
The stallions had managed to move Broadsword to Shining Spear’s sofa, but no matter how hard they tried they couldn’t wake him, it seemed like he’d gone into a comatose state. Except this was different, he was hyperventilating and even talking although none of his ramblings made any sense.
***
Broadsword looked up into the pitch darkness that surrounded him, but this darkness wasn’t like any he’d been in before; it felt empty like he was floating in nothingness or oblivion. He started to wonder if he had died in that cottage somehow and if this was the afterlife; it certainly felt like it. Suddenly, he was surrounded by white stone corridors, pillars of gold and stained glass windows. He’d been here before only once though… or was it only once he thought. The surreal white surroundings were familiar, they felt comforting almost like…. Home?
Once again the pain in his skull stabbed deeper making itself audible as he broke out in a blood curdling scream and clutched his head between his hooves, it was agony like he’d never felt before; the sudden overload of information with each new memory was becoming to great to bear. None the less he pushed on and trying to dig further into his hidden memories.
***
Screams echoed and thundered through the cottage as Broadsword’s unconscious body writhed and bucked around on the sofa until the other stallions came and held him in place as he screamed louder and thrashed around more violently. Then; as suddenly as he’d started, he stopped and once again fell limp on the cushions of Shining Spear’s sofa.
Bright Ideas had never seen anything like it and neither had Shining Spear, the furious thrashing and the mentally shattering screams were like no others; the two stallions decided to call for nurse Redheart, but the idea fell through when they realised that it took both of them and if truth be told maybe the strength of another to even stop him from falling off the sofa each time he began bucking. So the old stallion and the unicorn stallion decided to stay there until he’d calmed down.
***
The pain had subsided and Broadsword once again forced himself to his hooves, this time when he stood he was dressed in full armour with weapon and his surrounding had changed. He was now stood in the centre of what appeared to be a bedroom and his wings were working; he was flapping them, hovering above the silhouette of another pegasus. No, it had a horn as well; an alicorn? Again his mind screamed and tried to block his memories, but he forced through the pain and continued on his journey.
The tall alicorn; he knew he’d seen her before. It was Crescent Moon… No; that wasn’t her name! Her name eluded Broadsword and his mind began shrieking, almost like it was begging him to stop searching; like it didn’t want to remember, like it was a secret he wasn’t supposed to know.
Nonetheless he passed through the pain that wracked throughout his mind and strengthened his resolve, if he was to die for his memories then he would at least see them…
Again his setting changed, but this was strange it was nothing like the others; it was Trixie’s trailer. It felt warm and inviting, but this was different; this time he could see an ethereal version of the other night. He was washing the dishes and Trixie was hugging him. Broadsword smiled; maybe he didn’t need to continue his quest for his lost memories. This almost felt like a trick of his own tortured mind to make him give up and accept his new life, but no matter how wonderful his life was now; he still had to know who he was.
“It’s a beautiful scene, isn’t it?” A soft female voice came from behind him, turning swiftly Broadsword faced the unknown speaker. As he turned he was met by a tall dark blue mare with wings and a horn, the speaker was Crescent moon. No; he knew her name.
“Princess Luna…”
***
Trixie and Twilight had finally gotten the spell to work, but only one could go. The spell took too much power to cast and if Twilight passed through the portal it would close and Trixie wouldn’t be able to open it again. In truth it was too much for Twilight’s magic to sustain as it was and Trixie knew that it was her only window of opportunity. Trixie passed through the portal and landed in the room next to where the unconscious Broadsword lay.
The two stallions that were in the room holding him down during his outbursts looked at the confused and panicked azure pony, simply asking in unison “errrm… how did you get here?”
“The great and power….. Broadsword!! What are you doing to him? What happened?!” Trixie asked becoming more hysterical as she looked at the unconscious stallion and tried to rouse him from his slumber.
“You!” she said pointing at Bright Ideas. “What did you do to him?”
Bright Ideas looked almost offended by her outburst, but considering the state she was in he brushed it off. “He blacked out and began screaming, so we held him down so he wouldn’t hurt himself.” Bright tried to reason, but the azure mare was having none of it.
“Trixie demands that you go get a doctor quick! He could be in serious trouble!!” She commanded as she did her best to take the other unicorn’s place at the beginning of yet another fit.
With that Bright took his leave and ran towards Ponyville general hospital.
***
“Ah I see you broke through the memory block. You always were persistent captain.”
Luna stepped forward and looked at the scene playing out like a play on a stage. “It looks like a nice life you have in Ponyville; I’m glad.” The princess smiled at the captain who turned to face her.
“Why did you hide my memories princess? Why did you send me away for doing my job?”
He asked almost begging for her to justify throwing him away.
“If you really want to know what happened I will show you…”
Suddenly the image changed from the happy scene in Trixie’s home to a more gruesome one; a large brown Pegasus stallion in full armour fighting his fellow guards as a mixed up creature of chaos laughs in the background.
“He turned them against me…. He made them into heartless killers, I had to stop them!” the stallion began explaining, but the royal mare shook her head and revealed more.
“No, it was you who was turned.” The scene played out from the beginning, but this time it was different.
Captain Broadsword charged down the hall way, drawing his sword and holding it aloft as he called out to his troops to stand to arms; the warriors gathered in their shining armour with gleaming weapons as the stallion galloped through the doors to the courtyard. Here is where the memory changed instead of the guards circling him with intent to attack, he was the aggressor.
The captain used to be kind, friendly and merciful; never taking a life even when monsters and enemies of Equestria had been defeated, he always allowed them to live. However in this scene he was the opposite; ruthless, cruel and merciless, he was the ultimate killer.
It seemed that when Discord had changed him he’d brought all those traits to the surface and he was killing indiscriminately. The captain that was so respected was now a mad dog that Discord had to stop through fear that he would actually manage to kill him and so he dispelled his own curse as Broadsword rushed through to the princess’ chambers.
Broadsword was disgusted at what he’d done and could watch no more.
“I… I… can’t believe…” he said as he turned to look at the floor with a pain in his heart like none he’d felt before… it was indescribable.
“I’m sorry I sent you away, but I had to. What you did that day; even under the influences of Discord was still murder and Celestia would have had to punish you. So, I erased the memory and sent you away because if you ever knew the truth of what you’d done, you would have insisted on being executed for your crimes. You were always the type to fall on your sword, captain.” The royal mare explained, her eyes welling up with tears as she confessed what she had to do. “I wanted to give you a clean slate and a new life, one where you could have the happiness you deserved and so I erased everything you were even your cutie mark, I’m sorry.”
“Princess…”
Broadsword was cut off by the sobbing princess as she explained further.
“It wasn’t only because I knew you had no control over yourself… I didn’t want to lose you, it was selfish and I stole your memories, but I couldn’t have borne for you to die! Not you! Not my friend!” The princess broke down in front of the stallion and immediately felt his embrace around her as he hugged her tight.
“Princess… thank you for everything, you’ve done more for me in the last week than I could have done for you in a life time because if you hadn’t have done what you did I wouldn’t have the life I have now. So, as my last request as captain I’d like to resign from my post.” Broadsword smiled and hugged the princess one last time. The princess smiled back and began to break down the dream, leaving the two sat in the pitch darkness again.
“Broadsword I have one last question for you….” Luna asked breaking the hug and looking at the stallion in front of her.
“What’s that?”
“Do you love her?” she asked with a faint smile crossing her lips
“W... What?” Broadsword was taken aback by the forwardness of the question, but still the princess persisted and leant forward putting weight on her forelegs.
“Captain, the blue unicorn; do you love her?” She giggled; in truth she was still jealous of Trixie and she already knew what his answer would be, but she had to hear him say it for herself. Just having that closure would be enough for her to try to move on and so she persisted again.
“Broadsword, do you love her?”
“Yes, I love her.”
Luna smiled softly and lifted herself into the air with her mighty wings, then began waking him from his unconscious state.
“Then, my last command to you Captain is to love her until the day you die and let her know each and every day what she means to you… because after all she did beat a princess for your affections.”
“What?” He asked clearly confused by the statement as he stood looking at the vanishing princess…
***
The brown Pegasus stallion had stopped convulsing and was now lying limp on the sofa, Trixie had held him down throughout every spasm since she’d arrived at the cottage which left her badly fatigued and looking like she hadn’t slept in days, but she refused to rest.
It’d been several hours since Bright Ideas had left for the hospital and he still wasn’t back; to make matters worse Broadsword was now running a high fever. Laying her head on Broadsword’s chest Trixie thought about the time they’d shared since she saved him that fateful night. The memories swam through her mind with each one invading almost in sequence with the others like a beautiful film playing over and over; she remembered the first time he’d ever cooked for her, it didn’t look very appetising but it was the first thing anyone had ever made for her… nopony had ever cared enough to do it before.
Trixie’s mind began to wander once again. This time thoughts of her magic show flashed through her mind; she remembered it all so vividly, the smell of the fireworks, the smiles of each pony in the crowd, but most of all she remembered him. His smile and his eyes; the way he gazed on in astonishment as each trick unfolded and how nervous she felt just knowing that he was watching her. Her azure cheeks became a light pink as she thought about how much he loved her magic show and how he went on and on about it the next day, no matter how much of a lie she thought it was at the time it still made her smile.
Trixie closed her tired eyes as she rested her head on the large stallion’s chest. The sound of his heart beat became a rhythmic lullaby as the gentle rise and fall of each breath soothed her fatigued mind, her blue eyes fluttered and she started to slip into the comfort of her memories once again.
“Broadsword, do you remember the night we met?” The azure unicorn whispered as she rested her sore and tired eyes.
“It was a lot like tonight, the moon was full and stars were shining especially bright. You know I wasn’t supposed to be by the river that night, but on a whim I decided to sleep in the woods.” She giggled lightly at the thought that her whimsy had led her to be his saviour.
“Its strange how fate works isn’t it? How you think you don’t need anypony, but then suddenly you meet the one pony that you can’t imagine being without.” Her mind drifted back to last night; it had been a long time since she’d had anything that even came close to a family and having one, even for a night was something she treasured more than she’d ever let on.
Finally her fatigue caught up with her and the beautiful azure mare drifted off in to sleep she lay with her head rested on Broadsword’s chest.
***
Soon after Trixie had fallen asleep Bright Ideas returned followed closely by nurse Redheart; they had been galloping for quite some time and they were out of breath, but such tiredness never stopped the white medical mare and she quickly set to her job. She stepped closer to the azure unicorn that was resting her head on the brown pegasus’ chest and nudged her shoulder; Trixie felt the hooves pushing her and awoke to see the white mare asking her to stand back while she checked Broadsword over.
Each second that passed was agony for the unicorn mare as nurse Redheart examined Broadsword; Trixie felt so anxious that she began pacing back and forth with each step echoing throughout Shining Spear’s house that had fallen deafly silent as the white nurse worked. Minutes turned to hours and soon the sun had risen, streams of warming light pierced through the dirty windows of the old cottage and shone over Trixie’s muzzle as she stood gazing out of what clean areas of window there were; it was all she could do to stop herself becoming sick with worry.
Soon the white mare emerged from the living room with her head hung low from fatigue; to the other ponies her expression could have been mistaken for bad news, but this wasn’t the case. She turned to the threes ponies that were looking on expectedly.
“I need to speak with his next of kin in private.” The medical pony stated while looking upon the three ponies, but Broadsword hadn’t declared anything like a next of kin and so Trixie decided to take the role for herself. She was led into a separate room by the white mare explained his condition.
“I’m not going to lie to you, he’s been through a lot of physical trauma; in fact it’s a miracle that he’s still standing, but he’ll be fine… well at least physically. As for his current state, well… he doesn’t seem to be in much trouble, but from what I was told by the stallion who came to fetch me he may have some serious psychological damage; has he suffered a traumatic event in his past?”
This was a question to which Trixie didn’t have an answer, she knew he had no memories, but maybe he’d suffered an event so bad that he lost all his memories because of it. This thought burned in her mind for a moment as she contemplated what could have happened to him, but her train of thought was derailed when she looked at the other mare that stood before her.
“I’m sorry but I don’t know… he never mentions his past or anything like that, but will he be alright? I mean will he even wake up?” Trixie felt her overcompensating demeanour returning as concern for the stallion grew, but the white mare simply put her hoof on Trixie’s shoulder.
“I know it’s hard when a loved one is in trouble like this, but you have to be strong for him and wait. I’m sorry…” She stated and gave Trixie a reassuring smile.
Trixie looked down at her hooves as she quietly welled up with tears; her silver mane obscuring her eyes and her drooped as she stood silently begging Celestia to help Broadsword, but such requests were rarely answered. Nonetheless she let slip the question that longed to be asked.
“Can I see him?” This question was met by a small smile and a slight nod before the medical mare led Trixie into the room where the large stallion lay.