//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Taking Care of Animals // by Nicknack //------------------------------// Boy, Celestia weren’t kiddin’ when she said the whole hospitality of Equestria was gonna be given to Dash and me. For nearly the whole week, I didn’t have to cook, clean, or tidy up after myself for anythin’. Heck, the first mornin’, I went to the bathroom after I woke up, and when I went back into my mansion of a bedroom, the bed were made and a cart of breakfast was waitin’ for me. I thought it was all a bit much at first, but I shrugged and figured it weren’t permanent. I wasn’t no prissy city gal, after all. Detective Rainbow Dash spent some time showin’ me around the mystical city, but for a few hours or so at a time, she’d have to buzz on back to EBI headquarters to deal with some things. I didn’t mind too terribly much; Canterlot was reasonably safe to explore alone, and heck, if it weren’t? Not like I wasn’t the only pony in Equestria to survive bein’ strangled by the Ribbon Murderer. Still, the unplanned vacation did wonders in lettin’ me relax a little. Dash mostly kept me in the dark over what she thought Celestia was investigatin’—she wasn’t sure herself, and didn’t want to give me any biases towards her theories. But the way I figured it, Celestia’d been hit with the same thing that made me and all my friends lose their memories, and she was lookin’ for a cure. As for that whole thing… I’d learned long ago, after gettin’ kicked off a farm ’cause of my girlfriend at the time, that there’s some fights you pick, and some you avoid. It bugged me, course, that my head wasn’t all rightly mine. But Celestia was the strongest livin’ magic-user in Equestria, and if she couldn’t put me back to normal, there weren’t nothin’ good that’d come from worryin’ about it. I might end up puttin’ tables against walls in a basement. Friday mornin’, a guard came and woke me up. He was one of the gray unicorn ones, a higher-up fellow, and he spoke softly to tell us Celestia was ready for round two of an audience with us. After a quick trip through the bathroom, I brushed my mane and headed back to the Princess’ study. I met Dash outside, but that time, somepony else was waitin’ in front of Celestia’s desk. She was a light yellow pegasus, and I recognized her pink hair immediately from Twilight’s picture. Still, it struck me as somethin’ eerie, thinkin’ we used to know one another, like friends. Rainbow Dash had a blunter method of dealin’ with that: “So, Fluttershy, right? Didn’t we go to school together? I thought we went to school together.” Fluttershy flinched at the question, but as Dash and I walked closer to take our seats, I realized the poor thing was a nervous wreck. I understood. Lookin’ back at the summons Celestia had sent Dash and me, I figured that sort of letter would be somethin’ else to just receive out of the blue. Finally, she muttered a quick, “Yes… we had math together.” Rainbow and I looked at her for a few more moments, then at each other, and then we sat down. Speakin’ of school, Celestia was sittin’ patiently at her desk; after a quick silence, she told us all, “Good Morning.” After we all said it back, Dash jumped right in again. “So, what’d you find out? Was it a spell? Did everypony get hit, or just us?” Celestia smiled. “I see there is no point in small talk with Equestria’s premier detective.” She levitated a stone box up on to her desk and continued explainin’, “As you have surmised, there is indeed a deeper truth behind what you have come to know as reality. I know not how widespread the effects were, but certainly, you have an idea?” “The murders,” Dash said plainly. “At first, I thought they were everypony who’d forgotten. But that didn’t make sense, since Twilight was on the list, and if Pinkie liked throwing parties, more than seventy-five ponies would remember her. So… I guess, just us, and anyone who ever remembered us before… whatever it was?” Celestia nodded. “Although I have reason to believe it goes deeper than that, that is the basic truth.” She opened the box and pulled out a picture. Soon as I saw it, I knew it was the exact same one from Twilight’s library—only now, it was life-sized, instead of a speck in a photograph. She held it out to Dash and asked, “Do you notice anything different?” “Yeah, I’ve got w…” Dash paused, and took the photo from Celestia. “I’ve… I’ve got Rarity’s cutie mark.” I took a gander at it. Apples on my flank would’ve done me better at home, but after seein’ who else had worn them, I noted it the other way, “And… Rarity’s got mine, in that picture.” Fluttershy didn’t say anythin’. “I originally considered that a powerful spell had been cast,” Celestia went on. “After more investigation, it seems that I failed my most loyal student.” Her voice hung heavy, and I felt a familiar lump in my throat. She didn’t start cryin’, though; instead, she looked back up and spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. “I gave her a task: to finish an ancient spell. Given her expertise and affinity for the arcane, it was only natural to give her that assignment. “I don’t know at what part of her spellcrafting it happened. For those of us it affected, indeed, the changes were sudden and absolute. In one instant, Twilight rewrote the destinies of her friends, and the memories of anyone who knew otherwise.” “That don’t sound like Twili…” I paused. She wasn’t the sort of mare to do that sort of thing intentionally, but heck, I remembered seein’ her flub a few spells, back when I was workin’ the clothes shop. She was an expert, but that took practice, and that took mistakes. The princess nodded at me. “I have no doubt she did it unintentionally. And although she went to great lengths to hide this from me, I cannot say I would bestow any guilt on her—posthumously or not. It was only when she sent me her letter that I finally understood that her perfectionism and shame had consumed her, and that she blamed herself for her adopted brother’s murder.” Rainbow let out a sigh; Fluttershy and I sat by in silence as it all sank in. It was all a lot to take in—havin’ used to have different friends, and lives. That led me back to the question I’d held all week, even if it felt dumb. Then again, I remembered from school—if I even went to school—my teacher said there was no such thing as a dumb question. “Can you fix it?” Celestia’s horn lit up, and she lifted three fancy-lookin’ pieces of jewelry. “By and large, no,” she answered. “Not yet. The spell’s effects make it nearly impossible to tell who has or has not been affected. I was able to re-learn my own past through revisiting the very forces that created me…” For a moment, I thought I saw her shudder. “However, that will not work for mortal ponies. Instead, I will spend as long as is necessary researching the spells required to return individual ponies’ memories to their original state, should any of them discover the truth.” She levitated the three necklaces towards Dash, Fluttershy, and me. I leaned forward; the one in front of me seemed right familiar. I’d never seen the giant topaz that’d been done up to look like a jeweled apple; heck, if I’d ever owned somethin’ so nice, it’d probably’ve got sold before I’d let Carousel Boutique go under. “In the cases of the Element Bearers, I believe may be a way to reverse the process. Nearly seven years ago, the six of you—not myself, as I remembered—wielded the Elements of Harmony in the service of the defense of Equestria.” Celestia smiled, and tears formed at the edges of her eyes. “Although my sister and I have long since parted ways, we owe the six of you so much… yet here you are only three, now, before me.” Grief sunk like a stone in my belly, and Fluttershy made the first sound I’d heard from her in a while—a little sob. All my thoughts of Rarity came back, and Twilight, and even Pinkie. It hit me in the same instant that we’d all used to be friends, but now, we were never gonna see each other again. The whole situation was a right mess, that’s for sure.   Celestia got her wits back about her and pressed on. “In order to have wielded these, each of you must have embodied this element. Perhaps, then, an imprint remains of your past selves? Your true selves?” The word “true” struck a chord inside me. I looked over at Rainbow; she was lookin’ up at her gem. Compared to my apple and Fluttershy’s butterfly, her lightning bolt seemed a little duller, almost like it’d been spent up. I remembered her rainbow wings, at the end of the chase with Pinkie, and suddenly, it made a whole lot of sense. Whatever lightning bolt she stood for, she stood for it well, enough to let her fly without wings. Rainbow Dash looked up at Celestia with an odd, severe expression. “So, we put these on, and we might get our memories back from before Twilight messed up her spell?” “Perhaps.” “And we’ll remember everyone, everything we’d done before then?” Celestia nodded again and raised an eyebrow. “I cannot speak with certainty, but…” The necklaces floated down right in front of us. “If you wish to try, the choice is yours.” My hoof was the first one to grab a necklace. I didn’t like the idea of havin’ a whole fake past behind me. Fluttershy must’ve felt the same way; she took hers next and asked, “Will it hurt?” “Don’t most truths?” Celestia smiled warmly. “I can’t speak for what you are about to use them for, but the Elements were not created with the intent of causing pain.” Rainbow finally reached out and grabbed her necklace. She looked at it a moment, then stood up and set it on Celestia’s desk before sittin’ back down. I looked at her, kinda surprised; she gave a weak grin and tapped her shoulder. “I remember what it was like losing my wings, Applejack. I don’t want even more awesome memories of awesomery to make me miss flying.” I frowned. “But all your friends—” “Are either in this room with me now, in the EBI, or dead.” After Rainbow’s bluntness, for a moment, I swore my necklace grew warmer in my hoof. “Besides, Applejack—you saw what happened to Pinkie when she knew something was up with her memories. I don’t want to be one of the like five ponies who remembers what things used to be like.” I pointed a hoof at Celestia. “She just got done sayin’ how you used to be a hero—” Rainbow turned on the princess. “Oh yeah? And what else, Celly? You remember, so tell me: Was being a ‘hero’ my full-time job?” Celestia must not’ve been used to getting addressed like that; I felt my own stomach flop when her eyes went wide. Then, under Dash’s gaze, the ruler of all Equestria and commander of the sun turned to the side and admitted, “You were a weather pony, and a Wonderbolt.” Rainbow’s ears drooped back as her mouth hung open. Quietly, she whispered, “I… I was a Wonderbolt?” After a moment, she shook her head, flipped her ears up, and turned to me. “But see? Stuff I can’t do anymore. And stuff that doesn’t really help anypony.” “The weather is a backbone of Equestrian society…” Fluttershy mumbled. After turning around to glare at her, Rainbow turned back to me. “Anyway, I… I know I’ve got an old life. But now, I’ve got a new life, with new friends. I help ponies, by investigating crimes and stuff. What’s it matter if I had a flick with some chick at summer camp or something? It’s not like she’d remember.” I took a breath and pondered her reasoning. She was right, for the most part; it was knowledge that came with a price, and it wasn’t like I’d get to go around braggin’ to everypony about how there was a secret world that only Fluttershy and I remembered. It’d be ostracizin’, that’s for sure. But at the same time… “I gotta know…” Rainbow raised an eyebrow and smiled like a goof. “So do it, Applejack. No one’s stopping you just because I don’t want to do the same thing.” I looked down at the necklace. “We’ll still be friends, right?” I craned my neck around Rainbow to ask Fluttershy: “You, too. I know we just met, but if we go way back, I don’t want to lose you.” Fluttershy nodded, and Rainbow smiled. “Canterlot’s only a few hours away from Ponyville anyway; it’s not like any of us is dying or something.” My mouth hung open as soon as her eyes shot open with realization of what she’d said. Despite it all, I found myself chucklin’. “Pretty poor choice of words, sugarcube.” “Tell me about it,” she muttered. In the weirdest way, sharin’ an awkward moment woke somethin’ up deep inside me, almost like it’d been asleep for a long time. I looked at Rainbow, and my heart moved; it felt like a long-lost connection with her. I put out my hoof and asked, “So, we’ll still keep in touch, no matter what?” She nodded and gripped my hoof. “No matter what.” I shifted around to let Fluttershy join in our hoof-grip. She nodded, grabbed, and said, “No matter what.” I smiled at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, both my old and my new friends. In a sense, it almost didn’t matter at that point, but with everythin’ said and done, the only thing left to do was put on my necklace and see what happened. The important thing was, we’d find out together.