//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 - The Interrogation 
// Story: Without Twilight 
// by Ephraim Blue 
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Chapter 1 - The Interrogation


15 Minutes Earlier

Canterlot Castle September 12th 1002

Rainbow Dash had flown at top speeds toward Canterlot Castle. From Ponyville to there, she arrived in about 1 minute and 43 seconds. The castle was nothing out of the ordinary. It was certainly taller than most buildings everywhere else, but it was only used as a home for the princesses and a capital for the country. That basically made it just like every other building in Equestria.

When the cyan pegasus arrived at the castle, she was immediately greeted by none other than the royal guard.

"Halt!" one of the guards cried. "State your name and-"

"Hey guys," Rainbow said. "What's up?"

"Why, Rainbow Dash," the guard said. "What brings you to the castle?"

"I came because Princess Celestia asked me to come here about something urgent. However, I do not know where she is, and I wish to be escorted to her."

"Of course, Ms. Dash," replied the second guard. "Please, follow me."

Although Rainbow didn't like being bothered by the guards and asking them for directions on how to get to the princess, she had no other choice. The princess had left it completely vague on why she wanted Rainbow over in Canterlot so quickly. She shrugged off the feeling and continued walking down the hall with her escort.

She would find out soon enough.

The guard led her down another corridor. Why are we headed toward the dungeons? she thought to herself. There hasn't been a single crime in all of Equestria that had somepony being sent down there.

"Hey, umm," she began, "if you don't mind me asking, why are we headed toward the dungeons?"

"That is where Princess Celestia wants to talk to you," he replied. "I don't honestly know why, but that is all she told me."

"I understand."

They two of them descended the stairs that led to the dark dungeons of the castle. Once they were there, the guard pointed toward a single door and said the princess was in there. Rainbow opened the door to instantly be greeted by the princess.

"Rainbow Dash!" she exclaimed. "Thank the heavens you came."

"If you don't mind me asking, princess," Rainbow interrupted. "Why did you want me to come down here?"

"Come here, and I shall show you."

Rainbow made her way to sit next to the princess. Once she sat there, she noticed a small black window in front of them. Celestia flicked on a switch, making the window instantly brighten, and revealing a near empty room.

In the corner of the room, a purple unicorn stayed in the corner, shielding the light from her eyes. Her eyes quickly adjusted and set upon the door on the other side of the room. The unicorn ran over to the door, only to find out that it was locked. She quietly sulked back into the corner she once sat, not looking in the direction of the window.

Rainbow could tell that the unicorn was another mare, but other than that, there was nothing else she noticed about her. "Princess," she began, "why is she here? Did she do something wrong?"

"Not that I know of, my faithful student," Celestia replied. "But that is not the reason we took her here."

"Then what was your reason?"

"Look closely at her back."

Rainbow obliged, and took a closer look at the unicorn's back. She didn't notice anything at first, but the closer look allowed her to see two purple wings on her back. She was an alicorn!

"How is she an alicorn?" the cyan pegasus quickly asked. "I thought only you, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadence were the only alicorns in Equestria!"

"So did I," said the white alicorn. "She appeared in the castle right in front of me. I had never seen her before, but that wasn't what got me so interested in who she is. Seeing those wings and horn quickly got me into thinking: Who is this mare? Where did she come from? Are there more alicorns out there? and other questions like that."

"Why did you bring her here?"

"Alicorns are powerful, Rainbow. Alone, they crush all earth ponies might, outwit the smartest unicorns, and out-maneuver the most agile of the pegasus. They can do all of those things if given time, training, and necessary skills for mastering these techniques."

"But why did you bring her here? She could have explained who she was if you allowed her to wake up in the throne room."

"That may be true, Rainbow, but there is also the fact that alicorns can sense where other alicorns are. Before she appeared in front of me, she had never been on radar. She didn't exist before then. Alicorns don't just appear out of nowhere, Rainbow Dash. that is why I took her here."

"Okay, if that is why you took her here, why am I here?"

"I fear that she may not take a liking to meeting someone like me just yet. I need you to go in and interrogate her."

"Me?" Rainbow asked. "Why me? Applejack would have certainly been a better choice for this task. She is the Element of Honesty after all."

"I know, but after she awoke this morning, I feared the worst would happen. I couldn't wait for the train to pick you girls up and bring you over here. I needed somepony I could rely on to get here as quick as possible."

"Me," Rainbow stated.

"That's correct."

Rainbow sat on the couch behind them. Who is this mare? she thought to herself. Why did she come here? Where did she come from?

The thoughts buzzed in her head. She could have continued thinking of questions, but Princess Celestia interrupted her thoughts.

"Will you talk to her Rainbow Dash?" she asked.

Rainbow, after thinking for about another 30 seconds, replied: "Yes, your highness. I shall do it."

"Excellent. Please head through these doors when you are ready." She pointed a hoof at a pair of double doors. Rainbow immediately went through them, and came to another door that led to the room with the purple alicorn.

She unlocked the door, opened it and said to the mare: "Hello. My name is Rainbow Dash. I would like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind."

The Interrogation Room September 12th 1001

Twilight stared at the pegasus who opened the door. The obvious things she first noticed were her voice: telling her that she was a mare; her coat: a cyan blue color; and her wings that were folded to her side. She also noticed that her mane and tail were a variety of colors. It went from red to orange to green to every other color of the rainbow.

She thought about what she had said to her: Hello. My name is Rainbow Dash... Her name was Rainbow Dash. She repeated that several times in her head to make sure she would not forget it.

"Umm," the mare who entered the room interrupted her thoughts. "Is it all right that I ask you some questions?"

Without speaking, Twilight nodded her head to say 'yes' to her question.

"Thank you," she had replied. "Now, I would like to start off with something simple. Where are you from?"

Twilight shook her head. She didn't know where she was from.

"Okay then. What are you doing here?"

Again, she shook her head.

This pattern continued. "What are the names of your parents?" - Another shake of the head. "Who is your best friend?" -  Another shake of the head. "Do you know who rules this land?" - Another shake of the head.

"What is your name?"

This time, Twilight perked her ears up at the question she could answer. She immediately nodded her head, saying that was a question she could answer.

"Really? You'll answer that question but none of the other ones?"

Twilight nodded her head again.

"Than what is your name?"

Twilight was hesitant. She opened her mouth to speak, but croaked out a small moan instead. Coughing into her arm, she cleared her throat and once again tried to speak.

Her voice was a bit dry, due to not having that much water. "M- My n- name is Twilight Sparkle," she said.

Rainbow Dash's Point of View

Twilight Sparkle. That is what the mare said her name was. It was the only thing she had gotten her to say since she entered the room.

"That's a nice name," she complimented. "Do you remember when you got it?"

"No," she said.

"Do you know who gave it to you?

"No."

"What do you remember about your name?"

"Nothing."

This was getting nowhere. "Why did you not want to answer the other questions I asked you?"

"Its not that I don't want to. I would be happy to answer all of your questions, but I don't know the answer to them."

"How come?"

"I don't remember."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't remember."

"Why don't you remember?"

"I don't know!" she shouted. "All I remember is my name before waking up in this room. Nothing else. Just my name."

"Okay," Rainbow said cautiously. "I'm going to talk to my superiors now. Don't go anywhere."

"Very funny," she replied. "I just want to go home."

Rainbow left the room, leaving the alicorn known as Twilight to her space. She stepped back into the room with the princess standing in the center of the room, waiting for her.

"Well," Rainbow said. "What do you think of her?"

"I don't know," she confessed. "I certainly remember her name from somewhere, but I don't remember."

"It seems she doesn't either," she said, pointing a hoof through the one-way window at the purple alicorn. "She claims to have no memory of anything except her name."

"I know. I saw. I'm trying to decide what we should do now. If she doesn't remember who she is, she wouldn't remember if she was somepony who did a whole bunch of bad stuff. Same thing vice versa."

"What are you getting at?"

"I'm saying that if she was a bad mare, she wouldn't remember if she was supposed to be bad. If she was good, that would make her forget that she was ever good."

"So your saying that somepony could affect her to be a bad pony even though she used to be good?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"What should we do about it?"

"I think that she will need somepony to look after her," Celestia replied. "Even if she was bad, we could convince her to be good. If some good pony took care of her, she would be able to be a better pony entirely."

"That's a great idea! But, who should take care of her?"

"I was thinking that you could, Rainbow Dash."

"What?!" she exclaimed. "Why would you want me to take care of her? I don't know the first thing about taking care of some mentally injured pony."

"I'm sure you'll do fine, my faithful student," Celestia reassured her. "After all, you took care of Spike when he hatched alone in the middle of Canterlot."

"True," Rainbow confessed. "But a full grown pony is an entirely different! She might not like the foods I hand out to her, or Spike himself, or-"

Celestia cut him off. "As I said, I'm sure you'll do fine."

"All, right," Rainbow said, giving in to her wishes. "If you insist."

"Good," she replied. "While you are doing that, I will try to remember when I heard the name: 'Twilight Sparkle.'"

"See you later then, Princess Celestia."

"Till next time, my student."

Celestia made her way out the door immediately after the conversation. Rainbow Dash went back to the room Twilight was kept in.

Opening the door, she greeted the mare by saying: "Congratulations, Twilight! You are allowed to go to your new home!"