//------------------------------// // 05 Memory's Absence // Story: The New Beginning // by Dress72 //------------------------------// I pushed Rainbow Dash into a Sonic Rainboom. Landing 20 seconds after her, a memory surfaced, causing two things to happen. First was that I remembered my first meeting with someone. The second was me crying when I realized that the person who I met, was the one who died in front of me due to stupid rage and humiliation. I said out loud through the tears of the past, “Mr. and Mrs. Cake, Thank you for the cupcakes, they were delicious, although I ended up dropping one.” As if on cue, Pinkie Pie appeared beside me, carrying said half-eaten cupcake, unsoiled by dirt. “Thank you Pinkie Pie.” I said, still crying, while taking the cake and devouring the rest of the pastry. With me still crying, Rainbow Dash came up to me and slapped me. Or hit me. Or, well, have you ever been hit by a hoof? I think that she was trying to slap me, but it felt like a punch. Anyways, she said something that made me laugh and wipe away my tears. “You stupid pony, you shouldn’t cry over pastries, besides, I’m the one who should be crying.” I decided to play along and let the misunderstanding stand. “You’re right, let’s get going, we still have places to go, places and ponies to see.” We took off together just as the leader arrived, as well as the other two, from different directions. “So, where are we going?” I asked, causing us to stop. “To my house, duh. We were so caught up in that challenge you set out, that we didn’t even get to get you situated in my house.” “Oh, right. So where is your house?” To this, Rainbow just rolled her eyes and flew off, leaving me to follow again. When we arrived at her house, about eight kilometers up, I was shown literally four things: the entrance, the guest bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room, to which I was told I would be sleeping. “Did I do something wrong?” I asked, “Because earlier, I felt like you were eager to show me your wonderful house, but now it feels like you are doing it out of obligation because you said you would.” I think I hit the nail on the head there. Slightly because she cringed, ever so slightly, and also because she had her back turned towards me. When she turned around, I saw that she was holding back tears. “You are such an IDIOT!” she screamed, unable to hold back her tears. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t shrink back at the sudden yell, which only encouraged her to continue, “YOU THINK LOSING A CUPCAKE, OR A RACE IS SUCH A BIG DEAL THAT YOU GOT TO CRY OVER IT?! I SHOULD BE THE ONE CRYING,” although she already was, but I didn’t point it out. “YOU UPSTAGE ME IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE TOWN, AND MOST OF CLOUDSDALE. THEN YOU HELP ME ACHIEVE SOMETHING THAT I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO MYSELF! AND FINALLY, YOU THROW THE RACE! I KNOW THAT YOU WOULD HAVE WON! YOU DIDN’T EVEN TAKE THE RACE SERIOUSLY!!” Again, I cringed. This time from the memory that had resurfaced during the race, and how this was exactly the same thing that happened in it. Not only that, but also from the knowledge that the one who said the exact same thing, died in my arms. I started crying again. “AGAIN WITH THE CRYING! WHAT DO YOU HAVE THAT NEEDS TO BE CRIED ABOUT!?!” The answer that I gave in a low whisper and the actions I displayed made Rainbow Dash stop. “You wouldn’t understand, even if I told you.” With that, I walked out of her house, and disappeared. It technically wasn’t against my promise as I had not done a stunt. Rainbow Dash stood there for a few minutes from what I guessed, but she eventually came around and chased after me. But by then, I was gone from her sight. She searched for me, sure, but she didn’t find me. Mostly because I hid in a place she didn’t think to look. Above her house, about 13 kilometers up total, on a cloud that I had formed. Sure it was difficult to breath, but I made do. After all, it did stop my tears. I spent the next few days up on that cloud, not once moving, although the wind did move it quite a ways off from everything. It was then that I decided to build my house. It started out as a simple cube, about 10 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet. I made a bed with sheets, and a few items to fill the space. I could tell that a large group of ponies where looking for me, as I heard shouts from them. I think a few saw the cloud I hide in and tried to chase it, but it just gets blown away from them so that they can’t catch it. I then started to build other additions onto my cube, like a bathroom, complete with working toiletries (don’t even get me started on the complicated process of how it works and where the stuff goes), a living room, a few hallways, an patio on the back, some furniture to comfortably lounge about on, and all the while, keeping it within an ever growing cube shape that reached a maximum of 50X50X50 foot area, a nice place to fly around in at the top. After about 20 days, I decided to make my appearance back in Ponyville. Floating along for almost two weeks in an uncatchable cube cloud that keeps growing, will start some rumors about it. You also will travel to many different places, and I think I had made it to almost every place in Equestria. Anyways, I used the rumors that had quickly developed to make some money by letting a few, select people into my house. They were skeptic at first, but when they tried to chase it, they learned that it was the real deal and were quick to offer me some bit for the rare opportunity to get in. Also, I hadn’t had a single memory flashback of my past. Anyways, I decided to make my appearance back in Ponyville, disguised of course. I gathered some material and used it to die my coat and mane so that my mane was completely red, and my coat was pink. What? Don’t judge me, pink is an awesome color. I had also found a way of covering and changing my cutie mark. STICKERS AND SUPERGLUE! My new 'cutie mark' was one of a cloud by the way. As I landed in Ponyville, I saw what my disappearance had done. The town was literally a wreck, with buildings that seemed to have been eaten, food was getting low, and there were ponies everywhere, running around. Okay, fine, maybe it was from the parasprite infestation that had rolled through not more than two hours ago, but hey, first impressions and all. I decided to ask one of the town’s people what happened. The response made my original train of thought go out the window and to parasprites. “I-It was t-terrible. They- they came and started eating all the food. Then something went by and they started eating all the buildings. Thank Celestia that they left.” “Wow. Okay. Um, do know anything about a cubed cloud that no one can get close to? I’ve been tracking it, and it seems to have originated from around here. I also have heard that a pony named ‘White Wind’ disappeared from here around the same time it formed." “Do you know anything about the pony White Wind?” I turned around to see Rainbow Dash floating no more than ten feet from me, a worried look upon her face. “I may or may not know of this pony. I may or may not even chatted with this pony before, and I may or may not know how to get ahold of said pony. It all depends on who’s asking.” I offered. “His friends are asking.” Twilight appeared next to Rainbow Dash as she said this, as well as the other four from the group. “Really now? Because I heard from him that one of these ‘Friends’,” I put emphasis on the friends part, “a certain blue coated pegasus, seriously offended him. And while he did admit to doing stupid, thoughtless things, that it didn’t account for the cruel, thoughtless words that was said by this ‘Friend’. The five ponies, as well as those that have gathered around us, turned to look at Rainbow Dash. You know, I have noticed that whenever something happens, most of the ponies in the town gather. Rainbow seamed to crack under all the watching eyes and guilt, “Okay, okay. Fine. I admit that in the heat of the moment, I might have said something that might have hurt him, causing him to leave.” “Oh? And what did you say that made him leave?” “I just asked him why he was crying.” “That hardly seems a reason to just leave.” “Okay, I kind of yelled it at him accusingly, if you see him, can you tell him that I’m sorry?” Rainbow Dash looked at me, a sense of guilt stuck in her eyes, as well as shame, and a sense of pleading as well. Her body language was like that of a dog who just did something bad, knew it, and was getting punished for it as well. I just looked at her, in the eyes, with a cold expression on my face. After a good solid two minutes of this staring, Rainbow broke the eye contact first, unable to stand the pressure. “I accept your apology Rainbow Dash.” I stated simply, changing my expression from a cold one, to that of one of good mirth. “I wonder how you can make it up to me.” While everypony was slightly confused at what just happened, Twilight was quick to point out the obvious. “You aren’t White Wind. Your colors are not even close to his.” “Hair die my sweet Twilight.” “Yah, and your cutie mark is completely different as well!” Pinkie Pie added. “What, this thing?” I asked tugging slightly at the sticker to show that it wasn’t part of me. “A giant sticker, and super glue.” “Then why did you come here asking about him if you were him the whole time?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Simple. I wanted to know how you felt about the event without me being here, prompting you to do something stupid, Rainbow Dash. Now, if you all would be so kind as to follow me, I have prepared my house for a party.” “OOO, a party, what kind of party!” Pinky Pie of course. “A return / I’m sorry party. It’s also in a cloud that I have modified to allow earth ponies on.” “How did you do that?” Twilight asked. I get the feeling that she does that a lot. Note to self, don’t hang out with Twilight for too long. Might get asked a ton of questions. “You will see when you get there, now wait for a moment.” With that, I took off, going towards my cub house, which had not moved an inch since I went to Ponyville, no one had spotted it yet. I brought the cloud down to the town, surprising the town that it was the elusive cubed cloud. “ALRIGHT, EVERY PONY IN!” I yelled, but nopony moved. “Oh for Celestia’s sake, I PROMISE THAT NOPONY WILL FALL THROUGH.” Pinky Pie was the first to step up onto the cloud stairs, which lead to the main door. And with that everypony gasped, but reluctantly went onto the cloud. The pegasi present just flew in and everyone was surprised to see how well furnished, and open the place was. “How did you do this?” Twilight asked. I knew it, she is a pony with infinite questions. “Super condensed clouds and wooden planks within them. It was actually quite difficult to get the right density, too much and it turned water, too little, and the planks didn’t hold.” I walked away from Twilight, knowing she had many more question, and went to a DJ station that I had gotten. I plugged in my 128 GB Ipod that I had somehow found was on me, and started playing some good dance music, unknown to all the ponies. About halfway through the party, I realized that I hadn’t had a headache since I left. I went to my bedroom after putting the Ipod on auto play, it had been locked it since I had not properly treated it, went in, and relocked it. I sat on the bed and thought, ‘Why hadn’t I had a memory surface?’