“The voices were cut off, all of a sudden, and I thought I felt my body again. Now, you’d think that’s a good thing, but I’m not sure about that… I had a full-burning sensation, from head to hoof, like a shiver down the spine traded for burning ring of flame. And then, something was pressing on me. Hard. All over me. Turns out, I was buried alive… and I was suffocating.”
CHAPTER ONE: LIGHT
I tried to breathe in a little, but all I got was a mouthful of dirt, which I immediately forced out, but then I was even more depleted of air. So what I did was try to move around, fast; really, it was more a result of me freaking out… thankfully, the earth that covered me was pretty soft, so I could start digging my way out by pushing on it upwards. And soon enough, the first shining ray of hope peaked through a dent in the darkness, but it was horribly blurred; I could feel a headache coming along from a lack of air, but I pushed on through, until that dent became a true window, a path for my release of my dirty prison.
I got out, and prayed to whatever gods helped me. Panting, sweating, breathing heavily and quickly, taking that fresh clean air in. And then one large inhalation through my mouth, and an exhalation through the snout. And then I passed gas. Oh don’t you give me that look, I was already suffocating, and if I dared to cut the cheese in there I would've never survived!
What happened next was that I settled down on my rear, and faced my previous prison of dirt, noticing that there was a small rock by it, with something carved into it. A closer look, and I read it aloud; “R.I.P. As Bright as Dull can be. What the… is this a grave!?”
I crawled backwards from what really looked like a grave, hurriedly, and admittedly, freaked out. I tried to figure out what happened… but other than the voices in the darkness, and the strange vision of dying, there was nothing. There was emptiness where memories once were. I was mortified; a victim of Amnesia. I didn't know who I was, I didn't know what I was, and I didn't know what to do with myself. But… I did know that I hated zombies with every last bit of my soul… and I just realized that I was one. “WHAT the BUCK!” my shout was… well I don’t know how loud I was, but I’m pretty sure I saw a couple birds storm away from their trees in freight.
It wasn't long before I calmed myself; I didn't really have much to think about. Not of how my friends would react, not of what would happen next, not of being accepted by society anymore… I didn't remember any to think of. I looked down, and saw what seemed to be two brown hooves. I… didn't know what to think about them, other than see if I could stand. Doing so, I was sitting on my haunches, now, and with my front hooves raising me upwards. I then tried lifting my back hooves as well… and then I stood, lost, alone, and confused. But somehow, standing on these four hooves felt right.
I scanned my surroundings, trying to figure out where I was; large trees in every direction, except for the clearing in which I stood, my grave being in the center. Grass so green… a few red and pink flowers scattered over the ground, but I couldn't recognize anything by name. My best assumption was that I was in a forest… “Sure are Perceptive, aren't you?” The sound of my own voice… it was nice to get some sort of conversation going, in that lonely silence, but… “Wait, am I just going to start talking to myself? OK, I’m going insane. Less boring that way, I guess. I hope. Hey tree? Is insanity boring?”
“Nah, everything’s interesting when you’re insane!” I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was definitely losing it. Taking another look at the tree, it was perfectly normal. “Right… no more talking to myself, it makes cray cray…”
I made my way around the tree, and started what I hoped wouldn't be a long trek through the forest. I kept my guard up, always expecting something to strike at me… I didn't know why, it seemed like a habit from before I… well, died. “Lancey senses activating… beep!” I chuckled slightly, closed my eyes. And in turn really opened myself up to everything around me; the thick forest, the earth, the rustling trees, the distant birds, the rustling water… the smell of dead something-“ WHOA! eww, dead smell! Dang, I really need a good bath… ugh, I hate being dead…”
And stopped there. I heard Water. I wasn't thirsty, but water was definitely somewhere I could rid myself of the horrid smell… and trust me, the scent of dead things is worse that old people smell… MUCH worse. But that’s only a bonus, because what I really wanted was to know what I looked like, and water could do just that, having reflective properties and such. Actually, now that I think of it, that wasn't the thought on my mind, at the time; the dead pony smell had me sold immediately.
I picked up my pace, and turned my direction slightly to my right, towards the sound of water, and rammed myself head-first into a tree, realizing that I forgot to open my eyes. “maaaahm, I founth a qwartar~” I’m pretty sure my eyes were looking in two directions, then. Shaking my head briskly back and forth, I found myself on my back, rolled to the side, and picked myself up, resuming my trot to the ‘echo of aqua.’
“The ‘Echo of Aqua…’ that’s just beautiful, I need to write that down!” reaching towards my front pocket, I realized that I didn't have one… but, I realized that I was supposed to have one, and I knew well enough that my strange expectations had to be references to my past life. I wasn't normally this naked… and that thought disturbed me, suddenly. But for now, I had to put that thought aside.
The sound of water became the sound of a waterfall, as I found another clearing. I could see a river flowing from my left to my right, and on the far left, a Cliffside waterfall came rushing down. But what interested me was that there was another entity, brown like my fur, with its neck bent forward towards the river. It had long, skinny hooves and two large horns in a unique formation sprouting from its head. Two characteristics I knew we shared and I assumed that this was my kin. I approached the unknowing friend and cheerfully called out “OHMYGOSH HELLO ITS NICE TO SEE A FAMILIAR FACE OUT HERE can you help me out I’m kind of lost in amnesia here and I have no idea what I’m doing or where I’m going so would you please oh you already left ok… HEY WAIT! I DON'T SMELL THAT BAD!”
It was called a “deer,” as I found out later, and it had long already fled by the time I finished saying “help me.” I was… a little devastated, but when I neared the water, I figured that it left with good reason. He didn't know me, I didn't know him, we weren't even the same race, and either one of us could prove to be an enemy. I didn't like it, but I respected it, and that thought of racial conflict was, again, all too familiar.
Those thoughts aside, I could finally see my reflection in the slowly passing hydration. Looking back at me was a being with a muzzle similar to that of the previous deer, but shorter, and rounder. I had a short cut-brown mane, darker than my coat, and my eyes were a funky shade of yellow, “no… not yellow… gamboge… gamboge?” It felt like the right word, but I had no idea why I called it that; it felt like such a far-fetched word.
I turned to my side, and saw that I had a tail, strangely large, and of the same color as my mane. “How… did I not notice my tail this whole time..? Gee, perceptive as heck, and dull as ever.” And then it hit me; ‘as bright as dull can be.’ “Oh that was insulting my intelligence! Is that what was written on my gravestone!? What the heck was I remembered by..!” and then I noticed one last detail… on my flank. It was what looked like a yellow spiral, with three bent, spiked spires. “A… cutie-mark. Dang, that sounds girly as heck… why would I call it that? Unless…” unless it was another memory from my past. “But what does it mean? It means… light. More than light, but it’s something to do with light…”
The clearing was starting to darken… and I finally noticed that the sun had set, behind a mountain. “Five more minutes before the last remaining rays cease their arrival and I’m stuck in the dark… just great… I don’t like the dark…”
I need… light.
I could see a flash from my eyes reflected in the water, dimming to a gentle glow of yellow aura emanating from my eyes, but what really caught my attention was the floating ball of light before me. I backed away from it, and it followed. I stepped towards it, and it floated away. I looked away from it, and it shined over to where I was looking. And then I knew, it was my own conjuration. A work of my own will, my own command, my own magic… “…sweet.”
I was messing around with it, floating it high, low, everywhere it can go; “I’m a natural! … I… was a natural…” bit by bit, maybe distant, but I was building up on who I was, one accident at a time. and now I knew I have a cutie mark in... light. "tch, A zombie proficient with luminous magic. Hah! that's one for the storybooks!"
I then remembered how horribly I smelled, and just popped straight into the water, splashing about, cleansing myself of the foul smell. I watched the river flow downstream, and felt a very serious grief… “… Whatever poor, poor soul winds up drinking from these cursed waters, please forgive me…” but my thoughts were then interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream, deep within the forest…