---
Twilight Sparkle burst into Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Where is he? I need to ask him something!” she panted.
“Oh, hello Twilight. He’s upstairs resting. I was just getting him some fresh bandages.”
Without waiting for the timid yellow pegasus to lead her upstairs, Twilight ran up herself.
“Your machine!” she pointed at him accusingly with her hoof.
He was confused; he still did not know the purpose of the machine they said was his.
“What about it?” he asked. It had been several days since he woke up. His injuries were healing well, and he was healthily recovering from starvation. His amnesia however, had not improved.
“How much do you remember?” she asked frantically.
“Still nothing, why?”
She looked deflated. “I was studying your machine, and it spoke. I hoped you could tell me what the words meant.”
“If that is actually my machine, maybe its words will trigger a memory. What did it say?”
“That’s…that’s a good idea. Well, it was really fuzzy and distorted, so the only words I could hear were, ‘…the Faction has won. The United Fleet has fallen…’”
It did trigger a memory. He lay still and silent for several tense moments before Twilight asked, “Are you okay?”
“…red eyes…” he whispered, looking into nothingness.
“Red eyes? What does that mean? Did you remember something?” she asked hesitantly.
Suddenly, it looked like the stallion was desperately trying to repress something. His eyes clenched tightly shut, and he was holding onto his face with his hooves as he writhed in apparent agony.
Twilight frantically called for Fluttershy, who quickly flew upstairs.
Completely unsure of what to do, Fluttershy put a hoof on his shoulder to steady him, and he immediately locked eyes with her. He had a look of abject desperation in his eyes, as if he was fighting something within himself. Frightened into action, she gave him the Stare.
His world was once again spinning, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not fight the vision of angry red eyes staring at him. They were everywhere in an otherwise dark realm, hundreds of pairs of glowing red eyes.
There was a beautiful face too, he could not tell any details of her, but her eyes were red, and it somehow made him furious. It felt like something was trying to explode out of the depths of his forgotten mind. He tried to fight it, but it was so much stronger. He was desperate for something to help him, anything to lean on to stop this horrible force from overcoming him.
Only when Fluttershy got his attention with a gentle touch, only when he looked up into her teal eyes did he feel that unknowable malevolence within retreat. Her face was once again gentle and reassuring, but her eyes looked…commanding. His entire body locked up. He didn’t fight it, whatever it was that was trying to conquer his mind was also forced back down. He allowed whatever spell this was to do as it would, knowing he was not strong enough to fight the red eyes for long. He could relax again. Her commanding stare softened to one of sadness.
Fluttershy was unusually perceptive. “Twilight, I think there’s something horrible hiding in his mind.”
---
Hours passed. The negotiations went on. The two brothers met as equals for the first time in 44 years. The Faction Fleet held position surrounding the Deus ex Machina and her escort cruisers. It made the crew uneasy.
The Judgement was positioned bow to bow with the United Terran Fleet’s current flagship. It made for an imposing display. The Judgement was an Arbiter-class attack cruiser. It was smaller, slower, and older than most of the ships used by the United Fleet, but it could take and deliver a serious beating, and looked it. Where the Dragon-class excelled in armament, speed, size, and living conditions, the Arbiter-class excelled in being able to be hit by just about anything and simply shrug it off; it was physically designed to look intimidating. The Dragon-class was physically designed for functionality, and had a much more elegant look.
The attack cruiser had two bridges, command and tactical. Command oversaw all operations except weapons, for which there was a dedicated tactical bridge. The two twin bridges were stationed apart on the ship in such a way that they resembled two angry, savage eyes staring down anything before them.
It was quite a metaphor for the negotiations taking place. Brutish power face to face with measured force. The com officer was visibly relieved when he received the order from the conference room to open a visual channel to the entire United Terran Fleet, as well as the entire Faction fleet.
Admirals Richard and Silas appeared side by side on screen, both in the full dress uniforms of their respective sides.
“This is Admiral Richard Emrys of the United Terran Fleet ship, the Deus ex Machina. I stand today beside my long lost younger brother, Admiral Silas Emrys, who commands all of the Faction, and its flagship, the Judgement. After lengthy negotiations, we have reached a peace agreement.”
Admiral Silas continued, “Our peace treaty stipulates that all hostilities between the Faction and the United Terran Fleet will cease. The two organizations are henceforth dissolved, and now form one unified group which we will refer to as the human race. The Faction will no longer seize inhabited planets from species that may evolve intelligence, in exchange; my older brother has agreed to allow us to keep our hold on the three planets we garrisoned in that manner. I would call this a great victory for both sides, but that would imply duplicity where none exists. We are all part of humanity. This civil war ends now.”
Admiral Richard took over again. “Mass colonization will begin on the three planets now in possession of the human race effective immediately. Both fleets will be integrated as one, and will continue to explore in search of uninhabited worlds to colonize and harvest for resources. As of this moment, the war is over.”
The video channel closed. There was absolute dead silence on the bridge of the Deus ex Machina.
---
After the incident back at Fluttershy’s home, the three of them had decided it would be a good idea to bring the stranger out to his machine, where they may be able to get more information on his past, and possibly help him fight whatever it was that was hiding deep within his mind.
When they reached it, he noticed an unusual looking sparrow perched atop the machine. It regarded him with unnatural looking eyes, and watched him suspiciously.
Either something’s off about that bird or even the wildlife here doesn’t trust me...
When the stallion looked into the part of the machine that seemed to be designed for something to sit inside, the torn garments of clothing hanging from the straps caught his eye. He extricated them and held them up.
“Those don’t look like they’re shaped for any pony I’ve ever met…or even any creature I’ve ever seen for that matter.” Fluttershy observed.
“You’re right. And it kind of looks like…” Twilight paused, “It kind of looks like a military uniform.”
She stepped closer and observed the insignia on one of the shiny metal pins that adorned it.
“This pin, it says, ‘United Fleet Strategy Division.’ And earlier, it sounded like the machine said, ‘…the Faction has won, the United Fleet has fallen…’, but who’s the Faction?” Twilight mused.
He answered in a somber tone, “I don’t know, or maybe I don’t remember. But I think there was a war, and I think we lost.”
“I…I’m so sorry.” Twilight said in a sad voice. “Is any of this bringing back any of your memories?”
“Only very vague images. Nothing I can really assign meaning to, but now I know there’s a lot I’m missing. This was definitely my uniform, and if that’s true, I wasn’t always a pony.”
“If it’s a military uniform, won’t there be a nameplate on it?” Twilight asked hopefully.
He examined the front of the uniform, “It either never had one, or it’s missing.”
The sparrow continued to watch him. He was about to shoo it away when the machine’s sound system crackled to life again, grabbing their attention. It was barely audible, but scattered, individual words were discernible through the static as the signal came in and out irregularly.
“…Deus ex Machina…lost…” the voice was vaguely familiar. A different voice continued, it seemed to have taken over the transmission, “…United Terran Fleet…dissolved…the Faction will...seize inhabited planets…great victory…war ends now…”
The two mares looked to the stranger, who stared at the machine with a devastated expression.
“I remember…” he said quietly, as he touched the console of the machine, bringing up an image on the damaged display, the text was scrambled, but the image was clear enough. It was a creature they’d never seen before; it was wearing the very uniform he held.
“This is- was me. I was…I was a master strategist for the United Terran Fleet. The Faction, they were the enemy. And the Deus ex Machina, that was my ship.”
“Your ship? Like a sailing ship? Were you the captain?” Twilight inquired.
“It was a sailing ship in a sense. But I wasn’t the captain.”
“If that’s so, and your machine just said all that, then that means…” Fluttershy’s voice trailed off as the mares put two and two together, realizing what had apparently happened.
Twilight finished for her in a sad voice. “It means his ship was lost, and his side did lose the war. What were you fighting over?”
“I think we were both fighting to find a new home for our race. The Faction was willing to kill for one, we weren’t willing to let them.”
“A new home… What happened to your old one?” the unicorn asked.
“I can’t remember, I knew it once. It was something horrible, and it was our fault.” He hesitated briefly, “I’m sorry, I think I need a moment.” He climbed out of the machine, and Twilight happened to notice the tears in his eyes as he began to walk away. She and Fluttershy caught up to him.
“I think that’s enough for today, why don’t you go back with Fluttershy and rest up? Tomorrow, we’ll come back and move this thing to a safer place so we can learn more from it. Then maybe I’ll introduce you to some more ponies if you’re feeling ready. From what we’ve learned, it looks like you may be staying for a while, and you could use a few friends.”
Through his sadness, he smiled and said, “Maybe I’ll remember my name by then.”
Twilight Sparkle walked with them to about halfway, and then turned back for town, leaving the two of them to walk with each other.
“I don’t know how to fly yet, but you have wings. Why don’t you fly?” he asked her.
“Oh, um, I actually don’t very much like flying. I’d love to teach you how, but I believe my friend Rainbow Dash would be much more suited for that.”
“Why is that?”
“Her special talent is flight, so she’s a much better flyer than most pegasi. Um…don’t tell her I said that though. It would go straight to her head.” Fluttershy quietly explained.
Her description of Rainbow Dash brought forth a memory of a woman he once knew, she was very talented with flight, and compliments went straight to her head as well. The yellow pegasus picked up on it.
“Um…did you remember something?”
“Your description of this Rainbow Dash, it reminded me of someone I knew. Someone who was taken from me.”
Not wanting to get into another sad conversation, he changed the subject.
“You said her special talent is flight, do you have a special talent?”
Fluttershy’s eyes lit up, “Oh yes! Animals are my special talent. Didn’t you see my…oh right, you probably don’t know about those.”
Confused, he asked, “Know about what?”
She turned and showed him her flank as they walked. It bore a mark that resembled three butterflies.
“Every pony, when they discover what their special talent is, gets a mark that naturally appears on their flank to represent what they’re really good at.”
He tried to look at his own flank, but only ended up hurting his still healing rib. Wincing at the pain, he asked, “Do I have one?”
“Oh, come to think of it, I haven’t even looked yet.” She went around to his flank and looked, “You do have one, though I’ve never seen one like this before.”
“What does it look like?”
“It’s two crossed swords behind an open book. I wonder what that means your talent is…”
He thought for a second, and recalled what he had remembered earlier: “Well, I was a master strategist in the war, a rather good one too. Maybe that’s what that represents. Skill at tactics.”
Fluttershy looked scared for a moment and stopped walking, “So it’s true then…you were a soldier. Your job was…killing?”
“I was a soldier, but that means my job was protecting. Protecting the defenseless from the ruthless,” he said.
She looked down at the ground sadly. “You have killed before though…”
“I still don’t remember much, but what I do remember is that the place I come from is a very cruel place. Yes. I have killed before, but I killed only to protect, and I hated it every time.”
“I see,” she said quietly.
By the time they returned to Fluttershy’s cottage, it was well after sunset, and he was having a very hard time walking. His broken rib had started acting up, and Fluttershy had to support him for the last few minutes of the walk back.
Because of the pain he was in, Fluttershy insisted on bringing her bed into the guest room where he was staying. She didn’t seem like the type to frequently insist on anything, but she voiced her concerns clearly.
“If you wake up late at night, and something hurts really badly, or you can’t breathe, or if anything is wrong at all, I want to be right here to lend a hoof.” She seemed to have lost a lot of her shyness when she was around him.
“Fluttershy, I haven’t thanked you for everything you’ve done. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such kindness before.”
Her yellow face blushed, “Oh…um, you don’t have to thank me, I like being able to help, i-if you don’t mind.”
“Still. Thank you.”
She blushed again, and said, “Um, maybe when you wake up, you’ll remember your name.”
The room darkened and the two of them settled down to sleep. I hope that’s the only thing I’ll remember...
---
His hopes were crushed. When he went to sleep, he was immediately plunged into a sea of nightmares. After recalling so much from his past in one day, things came back to haunt him.
His nightmares were vague, and mostly without form. Much of it was just a feeling of horror, of hopeless tragedy. The feeling of one he loved being stolen from him. He was utterly consumed in the nightmares until he was shaken awake. His night adjusted eyes opened to look up into the face of the pegasus who had been healing his injuries.
She looked sorrowful. “You lost someone you loved, didn’t you?”
“How did you know?” He wondered why she had woken him up just to ask this.
“You were talking in your sleep. I could tell that whatever you were dreaming of, it wasn’t a nice memory.”
“What did I say?”
“You kept on saying the same thing, ‘I love you Adra, and I’m so sorry for this…’ You said it over and over again,” she touched his cheek gently with her hoof as if to wipe away tears, “and you were crying. You were crying a lot.”
He noticed how wet his eyes and cheeks felt, and the memories came flooding back.
“I...no...A-Adra...” He remembered Adra, he remembered that he loved her more than anything else, and he remembered that she had somehow been taken from him and could never be returned. The memories came back in force and washed over him like the surge of water from a broken dam.
He was glad that Fluttershy had elected to stay with him. He shuddered and heaved in sadness as the gentle yellow pegasus sat down beside him, and held onto him, stroking his mane as she did when he panicked after first seeing himself in the mirror.
“She was really important to you...” Fluttershy mused quietly.
“I loved her. She was the reason I kept going every day. She made everything worth it and I can’t even remember how I lost her. I would’ve done anything to protect her, so where did I go so wrong? How did I fail so badly that I let her die?!” he sobbed.
She looked to him with moist eyes, “You’re not a soldier.”
“What?”
With a sad smile, she said, “You’re not a soldier. You’re a knight, and I think you’re hurt worse on the inside than you are on the outside. But don’t worry, I can heal that too,” she said gently. Everything about her was kind, soft, and caring. He buried himself in her tender embrace and let the sadness flow.
Fluttershy didn’t let go until the stallion had quite literally cried himself to sleep. She suspected he might have pent up sadness, but it seemed that he hadn’t even been given the chance to mourn for those he lost. Satisfied with this first step at helping him heal, she returned to her bed and thought to herself, I’m going to find every one of his wounds, inside and out, and I’m going to heal them all.
---
By the time morning had arrived, he had woken twice again to nightmares, each time he had her help in getting through them. He felt unusually well-rested considering how many nightmares he’d had, which was good considering today was to be the day they moved his machine to a safer location.
They arrived at the crash site shortly after sunrise to find Twilight waiting with two new ponies he’d yet to meet. One was an orange colored pony with a blonde mane and a Stetson, the other a very large crimson one hitched up to a cart.
As they approached, Twilight was just finishing her explanation to the two new ponies of everything they’d learned thus far. They also spotted a crow circling low overhead, and when it met eyes with him, he could have sworn it too had an off putting glare.
“Mornin’ Fluttershy! Mornin’, uh, what did ya say yer name was?” the orange mare asked him.
“I…actually haven’t remembered my name yet. You are...?”
“Name’s Applejack, and ya gotta have somethin’ we can call ya, ‘least until ya remember yer name. Anythin’ come ta mind?”
“I have no idea,” he replied.
“Um…how about... Knight Sky?” Fluttershy timidly suggested.
“Come again, sugarcube?” Applejack asked with confusion.
“He was a knight in a great war before he came here, and he fell from the sky at night, so I thought of Knight Sky…i-if you don’t mind,” she quietly explained.
“I like it,” Twilight said.
“I can call ya that,” Applejack agreed.
The big crimson stallion hitched to the cart simply said, “Eeyup.”
“Alright, I guess until I remember my old name you can all call me Knight Sky.”
“Knight Sky, you’ve just met Applejack. That stallion is her brother, Big Macintosh. He’s probably the only one in town strong enough to pull your machine,” Twilight introduced.
“Pleased to meet you both. But I have to ask, first, how are we going to get it onto the cart, and second, where are we going to take it?” Knight Sky asked.
“Applejack agreed to let us put it in one of the storage sheds on her farm; it’ll be safe from the weather there, and from prying eyes. We’ll be able to study it safely. And as for how we’re going to get it onto the cart…” With a smirk, she pointed her horn at a broken piece of the metal wing lying in the dirt, and her horn began to glow.
Immediately reminded of his first encounter with the unicorn, Knight Sky flinched, but was shocked to see the section of wing become immersed in a similar glow, and levitated on its own into the cart.
“Nothing to be afraid of, just levitation,” Twilight assured him.
“How…how are you doing that?” Knight Sky was dumbstruck.
“Haven’t you ever seen magic before?” She said it so casually it was as if magic was as commonplace as electricity. His confused expression gave her the answer she expected.
With a chuckle, she said, “Every unicorn is able to use magic to manipulate objects, and with extensive study, they can use it for far more advanced spells.”
Lacking the energy to demand more of an explanation, Knight Sky accepted it and moved on. Twilight did all the lifting, and the rest of them worked to find a way to best fit all of the pieces of the machine into the cart. It was much lighter than they expected, and wasn’t all that large to begin with.
By late afternoon, they had loaded about half of the shattered machine onto the cart. It was then that Knight Sky finally remembered just what the machine was. Evoking looks of confusion from everyone there while loading the section that bore a wolf insignia, he suddenly said, “…Wolf-class advanced multirole space superiority fighter…”
Noticing their confusion, he explained himself. “It just came back to me what this thing is. It’s a fighter craft, designed to be fast and nimble, and to engage other fighters in air and space combat.”
“Now hold on just an apple-buckin’ minute, yer sayin’ this here pile of scrap metal can fly?” Applejack demanded.
“Well, it used to be able to fly, yes. But not just fly, it was able to fly in space from planet to planet at speeds faster than light itself.”
“That’s incredible…the technology to travel faster than light…I can’t imagine how much power that must take!” Twilight said, astonished.
“Um, it sounds like something Rainbow Dash would like to hear about,” Fluttershy mentioned.
Before he could ask about her, Twilight interjected. “Maybe we should finish loading first, it’s getting close to sunset.”
They continued loading, and no matter how they arranged it, they could not find a way to fit one of the plasma cannons on the cart. Too cumbersome to carry, they decided to leave it and come back later to retrieve it.
The trip to the storage shed was a short one. After less than an hour, the wrecked fighter was unloaded from the cart and safely in the shed. It may not have been fair to call it a storage shed, the structure was large enough to fit several fighters. The extra space meant they would have plenty of room to work.
“Applejack, Big Macintosh, thank you so much for your help and letting us use your shed for this thing. Maybe once I get all of my memories back I’ll think of a way to thank you properly.”
“It ain’t a problem, Knight Sky. We’re jus’ happy to help is all,” she replied, Big Macintosh nodding with a simple, “Eeyup.”
“I’m going to catalogue everything we have here, do you and Fluttershy think you’ll be okay getting that last piece?” Twilight asked, opening up a notebook with her levitation.
“I think we’ll be alright. Fluttershy?” Knight Sky looked over to her. She seemed a bit nervous, but agreed nonetheless, “Oh um, yes. We’ll be fine.”
The two of them walked out into the night to find a clear dark sky with a bright moon overhead.
“Is your rib alright? You did a lot of walking today,” she asked, eyeing the bruise that remained of his cracked rib.
He looked back to the area where Fluttershy was looking, “It’s still a little sore, but you really did a great job healing my injuries. I think in another day or so I’ll be fine.”
“What will you do when you’re healed?” she asked, once again making eye contact, though there was a hint of nervousness in her gaze.
He looked up to the starry sky and sighed, “I thought about that. I considered trying to fix up that ship today, and maybe return to my own society. But it’s clear that it’s far beyond any possible repair, and after hearing those messages about the war, I don’t think there’s anything for me to go back to. Not to mention, you know better than most what I lost, what I ran from.”
“I can’t imagine anypony wanting to go back to that,” she paused before continuing, nervously hiding behind her mane to conceal a faint blush, “I-if you want to you can stay with me for a while even after you’re healed, u-unless you want to find your own home that is…that’s okay too but, please consider my offer... i-if you don’t mind.”
Knight Sky couldn’t help but chuckle at her obvious discomfort. If flirting on this planet was anything like it was in his previous society, she was just as bad at it as he was. “I just may take you up on that, thank you.”
They walked another several minutes in silence until they reached the detached plasma cannon. The same crow from earlier was perched atop it, its strange eyes watching their every step. When they approached it, it looked up from them and frantically flew away as if terrified of something, the sky suddenly darkened. Clouds obscured the bright full moon, and for several seconds they were blind in the night.
“Fluttershy, did you hear something?” Knight Sky asked, but when he turned to look to her, she was gone. In her place stood a large pegasus stallion with draconic eyes and batlike wings. He wore dark purple armor and an intensely hostile expression.
“Alien, you have been determined by her majesty Princess Luna to be a threat to this country. You will be taken into custody and questioned. You have this one chance to come quietly. Comply, or we will use force.”
Knight Sky looked around at the word “we” and noticed a number of other guards holding their distance, but ready to strike. Very much against his will, memories returned in a vivid flashback.
It was the third Faction conquest. With the numbers they had at their disposal, most Faction commanders considered soldiers expendable. There was little use for a master strategist, and he was relegated to monitoring the supply chain between the bombardment fleet and the planet.
He was doing his job in the command center when a roar of cheers came from another part of the room. He looked to see the feed from a ground soldier’s helmet camera up on the screen. He watched for a moment as the soldier approached a cave, and leaped inside. There were several natives within; they looked like reptilian monkeys, small primates with scales and claws, and clear potential for bipedal evolution.
It was not their bodies that caught his eyes, but the looks of sheer terror on their alien faces as the soldier laughed maniacally, stowed his railgun assault rifle, and brought out his combat knife.
The soldier grabbed one of the smaller, younger ones, and opened its throat over what must have been its parent, eliciting a cheer from those watching. He froze at the brutality of it all, and could not look away as the soldier on the ground committed similar atrocious acts with the remaining creatures in the cave. The apparent delight the soldier’s bloodlust brought to the crew on board was nauseating, almost as much as the bloodlust itself. It was there that he made his decision.
The memory flashed forward several weeks. He had just defected from the Faction, but had not yet made it to United Terran Fleet space. He was discovered, and pursued relentlessly from planet to planet by Faction special forces. Every time he stopped to recharge the jump generator on the small fighter he’d stolen, he could feel them closing in, breathing down his neck, ready to spill his blood. And he kept running.
He snapped himself out of it to realize the guard was now shouting at him, “Comply now! Or we will use force!”
He hesitated for a second before the guard took a swing at his head with a heavy cudgel. His old training kicked in, and he ducked, rolled, and kicked the cudgel out of the guard’s grip. An instant later, all of the guards were in motion, making to attack and subdue him before he escaped. He knew he still could not run fast enough to get away from the winged guards, but they were weighted down with heavy plate armor, and he was completely unencumbered.
It’s time to see what these wings can do, he thought, and pushed hard off the ground.
His flight was very clumsy at first, but it quickly became as natural as walking. Knight Sky was just about to celebrate his first flight when he looked back and saw the guards rapidly approaching from behind.
Of course they’re trained to fly in armor…that was stupid.
Knight Sky looked ahead to see a forest in view, and dove towards it. Though they were trained to carry the weight of their armor, they could not violate physics and would be subject to Newton’s unforgiving laws when they tried to maneuver.
He flew down below the canopy of the trees as they gained on him; he counted ten guards total before he entered the forest. Knight Sky wove in and out of the trees, surprising himself with his nimble flying.
Not bad… He heard Adra in his head for the first time since being struck with amnesia.
Hearing her voice again gave him a second wind, and he flew up above the canopy. He looked back to find that his strategy was working, only three guards remained following him, four could be seen flying away in a clumsy jerking motion that clearly meant they had collided with a tree. Three more must have been injured on the forest floor.
Knight Sky felt a pang of guilt at having injured these guards, but did not have the time to consider it. He dove back into the canopy just as the three remaining guards caught up.
He heard a crash behind him, and then the rough voice of a guard, “Her majesty’s coming, she wants us to fall back!”
That couldn’t be good, though his only option was to keep flying. The moon had come out again, and he had slightly better visibility, so he flew until exhaustion.
Winded from his flight, he set down on the leafy forest floor to rest, only to experience a fierce stabbing pain in his rib. Perhaps he’d pushed himself a bit too hard. He clutched his side in pain, collapsed to the ground, and passed out.