Soul waited patiently for Sweetie Belle to come downstairs with her school bags and occupied himself with his hooves.

'Hmmm....nope. They still look like marshmallows. Damn it, now I'm hungry again.' His thoughts were interrupted as something wrapped up in a towel came tumbling down the stairs. "You alright, Sweetie Belle?" Her head popped out of the towel as he approached.

"I'm okay, I just tripped." She untangled herself and her bags out from the towel.

"Uh huh!" Sweetie nodded vigorously and galloped out the front door. Soul chuckled and trotted after her, making sure to lock up after himself. He quickly caught up to Sweetie as she headed off in the direction of the school. As they walked they were greeted by the occasional pony before they rushed off towards their destinations. Soul found that small talk with the filly was difficult as she never seemed able to stay on topic. When the subject of Cutie Marks came up however she was off into her own little world, recounting the Crusader's various attempts to discover their special talents. It wasn't until she started describing less than safe situations involving the Everfree Forest did he realise that he had bitten oiff more than he could chew.

'I think it would be wise to focus on helping them get their Marks first, if only to make sure they don't do anything dangerous. Because going into a hell-hole of a forest filled with horrifying monsters with no one to protect you definetly isn't dangerous.' As Soul was listening to Sweetie he forgot to watch where he was going and walked right into a light pink mare, causing her to drop the papers she was carrying in her mouth. "Oh, excuse me, I wasn't watching where I was going." He apologised as he collected the scattered papers.

"Oh no, it was my fault, I shouldn't have been standing in the gate." She helped gather the papers before looking up at Soul and gasping. "Hey, you're the new colt everypony's talking about!"

"I am? Hmm. Survive a manticore attack without a scratch and all of a sudden I'm a celebrity." Soul deadpanned before shaking his head. "I'm sorry, who are you? I don't remember seeing you at the party yesterday."

"Oh, that was rude of me. I'm Cherilee, the local school teacher. As for the party, I'm afraid I was busy working last night. Lots of tests to grade, you know?"

"Not really, but I understand. So, you're Sweetie's teacher, huh? What's the lesson plan for today?" He asked as he gave the papers back.

"Well since they just had a test, I suppose I'll just let them chat for today, give them a break, but tommorow I'll be teaching them about how the princesses raise and lower the moon and sun." Soul just stared at her blankly.

"Oh, that's right, you lost your memory! Looks like you've got a lot to catch up on. I'll take Sweetie Belle off your hooves, class is about to start. We can talk more later. Say goodbye Sweetie." Sweetie ran up to Soul and hugged his leg.

"Bye Soul! See you after school!" Sweetie follwed Cherilee into the school yard. Soul's expression remained blank for a few moments before his head snapped up.

Twilight was rushing around the library, frantically trying to tidy up all the books that were scattered around.

"Twilight,could you calm down? I don't think he's going to care that the place is a little messy." Spike was looking down at the lavender unicorn with an indignant look on his face.

"I can't calm down! I've got to make a good impression! Would you want somepony who was unorganised to be messing around with your memories?" Spike's expression remained unchanged. "I don't want to give him a bad impression of me."

"Twilight, you saved his life, I'm pretty sure you've made the best impression possible." The lavender pony just sighed.

"I know, Spike. You're right, but I can't mess this up! There hasn't been a pony his age without a Cutie Mark in centuries and I don't want to scare him off. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!"

"Uh...maybe you should worry less about your research and figure out how to help him."

"I AM helping him! But I can't just stand by and let this phenomenon go unrecorded! Now come down here and help me clean u-" She was interrupted as knocking came from the door.

"Wait, Spike!" She called, too late as he slammed the door behind him. She sigh in frustration before resigning to her fate and went to the door. She put on a smile before she opened it, revealing the white pegasus behind it. "Hello Soul, how are you?"

The stallion smiled as he responded. "Still being confused by everything, but otherwise good. Yourself?"

"I'm great!" She replied a little faster than she meant to. "I mean, I hope you're excited for today." She stood aside allowing Soul to come inside.

"Yeah, it should be fun." He looked around the library, taking note of the books all over the floor. "Something happen here?" He asked, raising his eyebrow at Twilight, who looked down bashfully.

"I....sort of made a mess looking for an explanation for your condition." She flinched away from him, as if his reaction would bite her.

"Wow, really? All this research for someone you don't even know?" Twilight opened her eyes in shock, not having expected more than an insult.

"Well, thanks then. Now, should we get started?" He asked as he gestured towards the books.

"Okay!" She beamed as she led him to a table where a several pages of notes lay, her mood having improved dramatically. "Okay, from what I can tell, you have two problems. One; you've lost your memory. Two; you don't have a Cutie Mark. I will explain a little about the latter first, it being the more complicated. Now, as you know, a Cutie Mark is an image that appears on the flanks of ponies when they discover what their special talent is. Somepony not having a Cutie Mark isn't entirely impossible, but it's not exactly common either. There are several reasons that you might not have it, such as never finding your talent, but that seems unlikely. Another might be that something er...damaged them and they had to be removed. That is also unlikely nowadays with medical magic coming as far as it has in the past century. I couldn't figure out why you might not have your Cutie Mark, but then I remembered what you told me when you....woke up at the hospital.

"It got me thinking that maybe memory loss could affect somepony's Cutie Mark, so I began researching that, which leads me to your other problem. Unfortunately all of the records that I had where ponies forgot their talents their Cutie Mark remained, and the memory loss went away after they tried their hoof at their talent, or somepony they knew explained things to them. So it led me to the conclusion that a very powerful magical force must have stripped you of your Cutie Mark, which in turn led me to a possible answer for the reason you can't remember anything. I believe that somepony or something may have altered your memory and gotten rid of your Cutie Mark to make it more difficult for you to remember." She looked up from her notes at Soul, who appeared to be mulling it over, staring into space as he thought.

Twilight laughed lightly before clearing her throat. "Yes it does, particularly because there are very few beings in this world that would have enough magic to do that, and practically zero with the motive."

"Well, there was this incredibly powerful creature a long time ago called Discord, a draconequus. His magic was even stronger than that of the princesses. He used these powers to keep the land in a constant state of chaos, creating disharmony amongst ponies everywhere for his own amusement. It wasn't until the Princesses discovered the Elements of Harmony and used them to turn Discord into stone."

"Oh. Well if he's stuck in stone I doubt that there's much he could have done." He stated while shrugging his wings.

"I wasn't finished!" She snapped. "Now as I was saying, Discord was turned into stone by the Elements. Some time after that, Princess Luna became jealous of the attention that ponies gave to Celestia's day, and that jealousy transformed her into Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon refused to lower the moon to make way for the day, and declared that the night would reign eternal. Celestia was forced to use the Elements against her sister, trapping her in the moon for a thousand years. This year was the year that she was meant to return, but by that time everypony had forgotten about Nightmare Moon, believing it to be nothing more than an old mare's tail.

"I was the only one who saw the signs of her return and when she did I sought out the Elements of Harmony, along with my friends. We used the Elements against Nightmare Moon once again. But this time, instead of banishing her, they cured her of the jealousy in her heart, turning her back into Princess Luna. The reason for this, according to Celestia, is that in order for the Elements to work properly the bearers had to have friendship in their hearts. Since Celestia was using them by herself they did not work as she wanted them too. When that happened, the Princesses connection to the Elements was lost, until we came along and became the bearers.

"Unfortunately, when the connection with the Elements was lost, the spell containing Discord started to deteriorate slowly over time. A few months ago, he escaped. Me and my friends were tasked into stopping him, but he had stolen the Elements. Discord was a trickster, and hardly ever made sense. He made us go through a maze to get the Elements back, but along the way he somehow corrupted them into acting the opposite of themselves. Pinkie became angry, Applejack turned into a liar, Rarity became greedy, Fluttershy turned into a bully and Rainbow became disloyal. During the maze he took away our wings and magic as one of his "rules", but before we could reach the centre he tricked Rainbow into abandoning us and gave her her wings back and said that we lost the game. It turned out he didn't even have the Elements in the maze, and so we went back to Ponyville and found the Elements. Discord taunted us into using the Elements on him, but they didn't work. I don't know if it was because he had corrupted the others or because I used Spike as Rainbow Dash's replacement, but it doesn't matter. It was probably both.

"I lost hope and was about to leave Ponyville for good when I found that Celestia was sending me all the Friendship Reports I had sent her since I came here, and they motivated me to keep going. I found all of my friends and used a memory spell on them to get them to remember their friendships. Once we were all together again we faced Discord and trapped him back into stone. He didn't even really put up a fight. I guess he figured that his corruption was still in effect. But anyways, while he was here he made everything chaotic, doing things that are impossible even for the Princess. That's why I think that while he was here he erased your memory and Cutie Mark. Any questions?" She looked up from her notes at Soul who was sitting there with a confused look on his face.

"Oh. Well I could have sworn that there was since my brain feels like it's on fire. I did not understand most of what you said."

"Pretty much everything. First off, you said that the Princesses raise and lower the sun and the moon, which I suppose they MIGHT if their magic is as strong as you say. And I SUPPOSE that friendship might have certain benefits to someone's magic, what with emotions and the brain being as strange as they are. But the thing I don't understand is if Discord is as powerful as he is then why didn't he just destroy the Elements?"

"Well, Discord was the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, even his body was made up of several different animals, but the Elements were around long before draconeqi existed and were made with MUCH more powerful magic. The magic of friendship."

Soul just stared at her for a bit before speaking again. "That is incredibly cheesy." He smirked, earning himself a jab in the side from Twilight's horn.

"Oh shut up. Anyways, I thought that I might be able to use the memory spell that I used on my friends. Are you ready?"

"Erm.." Soul mumbled, still a little apprehensive about magic. "Er...sure. Just be careful. I don't want you to mess something up and give me the brain of a guppy."

Twilight giggled nervously before getting into position in front of him. "Okay, I'm going to start now. Try to be as still as possible." She started to concentrate, focusing her magic in her horn, preparing the spell as her horn started to glow, causing Soul to cringe. Suddenly a beam of light burst from Twilight's horn, hitting Soul in the centre of his forehead. Then, just as suddenly, the beam was redirected back at Twilight, blasting her across the room and into a bookcase, causing her to be buried in a pile of books.

"Twilight!" He ran over to the pile and started digging. He eventually found her hoof and pulled her out. "Are you all right?" She was not alright. She was covered in bruises and was giving Soul an annoyed glare.

"I'm fine, just a bit dizzy. What did you do? I couldn't even feel you with my magic."

"I didn't do anything, your magic just sort of...reflected off me." She tried to stand up, staggering. Soul went to her side and let her lean her weight on him.

"Well, whatever it was, I've never read about anything being able to stop magic like that."

"I-I don't know. I think I need to rest a bit, I'm feeling a little woozy. Could you take me to the couch please?"

"Yeah, sure." He walked her slowly past the books and lifted her onto the couch,causing her to grunt in pain. "Sorry."

She rested her head on a pillow as her eyes started to close. "It-it's okay. I think.."She yawned."I think I'll just take a quick nap." No sooner than she had said that she fell into a deep slumber. Soul took a look around the still messy room.

".......that sounds gross." Soul said before shaking his head and moving towards the pile of books. One caught his eye and he scooped it up in his wing. The title read "Atoms and You: The Collaborative Guide to the World Around You." and was at least a thousand pages thick. "Hell, why not. A bit of light reading never hurt anyone." He opened the cover and turned to the first chapter.

***

I cannot apologise enough for the long wait of this painfully short chapter. This whole month was filled with school stuff that I had to do, and then I graduated and got a few days in for writing, but then I got Inheritance. Read it in less than a day. It was awesome. And THEN I got Skyrim. Worst move for an author to ever make EVER. So yeah, not much else to say apart from FUS RO DAH TO YOU, WRITERS BLOCK!

See you guys later. Also, MAKE SURE TO LEAVE A COMMENT AND RATING! All I want is some feedback. And a massively swelled ego. Now to go kill dragons by luring them into a bunch of giants. I am such a pussy.

The Adventures of Soulsilver

by Soulsilver

A Strange Introduction: Part 4