//------------------------------// // Flutter Night // Story: Forgotten Memories // by ShadowVoltstreaker //------------------------------// “So Zeke next huh?” I say with a smile. He was the first in the group that I got to meet.. I may have seen Shadow when I first got to Equestria, but I only talked to him for a few seconds. But now that I think about it, this isn’t fair.. I know all about Shadow and Crossback’s past. Soon I’ll know Fortune’s and Night’s as well.. Yet they know nothing about mine. How did it even turn out like this? Why is it that I’m the guy that has to shoulder all of the responsibility of getting their memories back when it was Shadow’s fault.. “Because they came here for you.” Slips spoke up, getting my attention. “They came because you proposed the idea, so all of the events leading up until now, everything that’s happened.. was all caused by you.” There it is again… my stupidity got us into this, now I’m trying to pin the blame on one of my friends.. “Think about what you just called them.” Slips said, slightly confusing me, “Friends. Comrades. Family. You have given them these titles because you cherish them, and they came because they feel the same way about you.” I hadn’t done this in a long time. And I didn’t expect something so simple and so obvious to make me do it either. I cried. I stood there, letting a few tears fall as I remembered all the fun times I had with these guys, while we were in Equestria, and while we were on Earth.. Wiping my face clean of the tears I take a deep breath, and exhale, “All right I’m good now...” I chuckled, “You’re the only person who can make me feel all these emotions ya know.” “What about Rainbow Dash?” “I said person didn’t I?” Responding to the memories, a door, again with no redeeming qualities appears in the distance. “Wait, if this is a dream realm..” I then will the door to be in front of me, in an instant the door appears in front of me.. also hitting me on the nose. “Ow, brought it too close.” I mumble as I rub the place where the door hit. As I was caressing my nose, Slips walks up and opens the door, then walks inside. After I’m done tending to my nose, which I swear is broken, I follow him. After the darkness of the room subsides, we’re left speechless.. The room.. it’s the norm room compared to the rest. From the lush green fields that seemingly span for an eternity, to the warm gentle breeze that softly pats against my skin. Overhead, lies a bright blue sky with puffy white clouds and a glowing black sun overlapping the golden— “Wait, black sun?” I repeat and look back up at the sun. “Why the hell is it black?!” I shout in confusion. “Solar eclipse. Here, put these on.” A familiar voice tells me. “Oh, thanks.” I say as I take the glasses from his hand and put them on. Just as he said, a solar eclipse was occurring. “Amazing.. I’ve never seen one before!” “Nor will you ever see one again.” The voice states regretfully, “This isn’t even the real thing.. it’s just a fake created from my wish. The real one won’t be around for another 60 years…” “It may be a fake.. but the true beauty of the eclipse has been captured.” Slips says proudly. “How would you know?!” the voice yells at him. “Because I was imprisoned on the sun for a long time. So trust me kid, I know what I’m talking about. I’ve seen many eclipses in my time, and with each that pass, I feel a warmth in my heart…” he let out a low, yet cheerful grunt. “Maybe this is why my parents…” his voice trailed off. The solar eclipse had been completed, so I took off my glasses to see who it was that had so much to say about the solar— …It was Zeke.. “B-but how? How did you get here?” I look to the sky and shout, “Sally!” “He’s been here since they all fainted.” She responded, “Replaying the solar eclipse over and over.. it’s a beautiful thing, but repetition gets annoying ya know?” “But that doesn’t explain why he’s here now!” I shout, slightly agitated. “There may be a chance that I brought him and the other one to their own dream realms so that I wouldn’t have to constantly bring them in.” she paused for a moment, “And it would be better for me to just give them all their memories now and be done with it… but I’m looking forward to having you parade around a city in a pink fluffy tutu singing the Barbie girl song while carrying a small puppy and eating an ice cream cone…” “THAT’S what you’re gonna make me do?!” I shout, “You’re a monster!” Though an Ice cream cone sounds heavenly… “Hey!” her voice rebounded off the walls, “I’ve been bored all these decades, and this is the closest thing to entertainment that I’ve had! So I don’t want to hear any whining come from you!” I looked over to Zeke and saw that he had the same grin on his face that I did, I then said along with Zeke, “We are not whining! We are complaining, do you want to hear whining?!” Before we could finish, a zipper appeared over both of our mouths, changing our words and screams into muffled growls. “Good thing she got to you first.” Fire started to appear around Slips, “I would’ve just incinerated your vocal cords.“ “Now hurry up and get this over with!” Sally shouted, the shockwave sending us spiraling into a dark pit. … “Ouch..” I mumbled as I lifted my body off the ground and into a standing position. “Finally awake are we? Too bad, you missed the good part.” I heard Slips’ voice say from beside me. I faced in the direction that he was and looked at what appeared to be two young colts, one Pegasus, and one Unicorn playing together in a forest. “What’d I miss?” I said with a noticeable amount of exhaustion. There was a Pegasus with a green coat and a green and blue mane. Alongside him was a white Unicorn with a black and blue mane that had a single white line going down the center. “That Pegasus is someone— well, somepony I found in the forest near my village.. we became very close, and since he didn’t have anywhere to go my family adopted him.” Zeke said with a bright smile. “We played like this for a long time.. and everything was great. But because of my gift for magic, I was enrolled in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.” The scene before us changed, the forest now looked like a classroom.. with very very small desks. There was also a podium in the front of the class, and taking a closer look at it… I nod, “This must be a very great classroom, I mean just look!” I then point to the podium, “Mahogany! That’s all the proof I need that this is a gifted school.” I could just feel the strength that Slips put into that facepalm… Slowly, fillies and colts began to appear into the desks and talk amongst each other. Well.. all but one unicorn who was quietly levitating and reading a book in her desk away from others. Seeing the tiny smile take form on her lavender coat made me think about the smile she gave her friends… me.. many times before. Twilight Sparkle. “Ok class, settle down.” A unicorn said as he teleported into the room. As per his instructions, the class got silent and began paying attention. Even Twilight set her book on the table and began paying attention. “Today we have a new student joining us.” The class began whispering amongst themselves. The aforementioned student then slugged into the class and nervously said, “M-my name is Flutter Night, I-it’s nice to meet you all!” “wait wait wait so you knew Twilight since you were that young?!” I said with great shock. “I.. guess I did. Even though it’s happening right in front of me, I’m pretty shocked myself.” Zeke said with slight confusion. “Wait, how can you not remember? Could somethimg have happened for you to repress the memories of her?” Slips asked. “I’m… not sure.” He closed his eyes and concentrated, “But… I do remember testing out dark magic and failing..” The scene around us changed again, putting us in the school’s playground. The sun provided a blanket of warm orange light that covered as far as the eye could see.. In front of a swingset were two children.. who I could tell were Flutter Night and Twilight. Night’s cheeks were flushed with red, while Twilight was just confused, “So.. what was it that you wanted to show me?” Twilight asked. Night snapped out of his trance and took in a deep breath, “I-I learned a new spell that I wanted to show you.” He closed his eyes and began concentrating. The air around him began vibrating, a black mist started swirling around his body, and the light blue that was coming from his horn changed to black. Twilight began to slowly back away, scared of what the outcome with be. Then, something broke Night’s concentration. I’m not sure what it was, but his eyes shot open and he began panicking. The magic that he had been building up then released and was aimed towards the school. It bounded off one of the mirrors then went for Twilight. “Move out of the way!” I shout, even though I know she can’t hear me.. At the last second, Night pushes her out of the way and takes the hit. It all materialized into his body.. then a black hoof broke through his chest, it tried to get out, but was somehow kept in check by Night’s willpower alone. The hoof then slowly receded back into his body. “Th-that hoof” Zeke began, catching my attention, “It… it belongs to Night Sky.. the being that was created from my mishap with dark magic.” He put his hands on his head and held tight, “After this.. I was devastated. I’d made a fool of myself in front of Twilight, used dark magic, and created.. it. What came next.. I had no choice but to do.” The scene before us unfolded and we were thrown back into the stale white room. “What happened next?” I asked eagerly. “Isn’t it obvious?” I heard Sally’s voice. “He erased any and all memories of Twilight to stop the pain in his heart. He may not have been able to erase what he had just done, but he could at least erase his feelings for the one he loved.” Zeke’s eyes then began to glow, and memories began to flash through his eyes. When the glow faded, he looked at me with a weak smile, “I was thankful that Twilight had completely forgotten about that ever happening, but I know that sooner or later, he’ll show up again.” His body began to slowly fade. “Oh and don’t tell Twilight about what you saw.” He smirked, “I’ll do it when I feel the time is right.” After that, his body had vanished. I smiled, “Don’t worry buddy… I wouldn’t even dream of it.” “Well, indirectly you did kinda dream of it…” Slips mumbled. I felt my eye twitch, “Cool line has already been used and I don’t feel like finding another to use.” I chuckled, “Besides.. Jordan is waiting for us…”