//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 - Lost and Forgotten // Story: Without Twilight // by Ephraim Blue //------------------------------// Chapter 8 - Lost and Forgotten Upstairs Ponyville Library September 14th 1002 "What do you mean she can't recover her memories?" Rainbow asked in a fury. "We're doing all this to help her regain her memories, and you just come up and say she can't regain them?!" "Rainbow, I never said that she can't regain her memories, weren't you listening? I said she can't recover her memories." "Oh, really?" "Yes, really! If you would let me explain it-" "Then start explaining bub!" Rainbow interrupted. Blue sighed. "Rainbow, 'regain' and 'recover' are two different things. Recover is retrieving something that is lost, or healing from an injury. Regain is just retrieving what is lost. When I used the word 'recover', I meant 'heal'. He memories can't be healed." "And why not?" "Because you can't heal what isn't there!" Blue snapped, making Rainbow flinch. "If this was a normal case of amnesia, then she could recover her memories, as in heal. Since her memories weren't lost, but stolen, they cannot be healed. Only retrieved, regained, ect." Rainbow, who was still shocked by Blue's sudden shouting, spoke up. "But what about-" "There's nothing more about it, Rainbow," Blue interrupted. "With her memories stolen, the only thing we can do is hope we find them. And there are four problems we face while doing that." "And... those are...?" "One, we need to find the memories. That wouldn't be so hard, because we can find them with a tracking spell. Two, we need to find out who took her memories. That one can be difficult or easy, depending on who took them. Three, this pony that took her memories is experienced in memory spells, allowing them to take another's memories. This suggests that they are a unicorn who is very skilled in magic." Rainbow was listening carefully. "But what about the fourth reason?" "That's the one I'm afraid of," Blue stated. "You have to remember, the Twilight in your library downstairs is from another dimension. This means that the pony who did this is either from another dimension, and somehow pushed Twilight into this dimension, or they are from this dimension nada pulled her in. Either way, that is dimension hopping. There are currently only two ponies I know who can do that. One of them is me, and the other is a good friend of mine. Neither of us would do this to Twilight, so we are out if suspects for any type of reason I can think of." Rainbow sighed and looked back at the door. "So if we don't have any idea who did this, how they did it, or anything... What do we do?" Blue walked over to the bedroom door. "I don't know," he said. "And there are more things that I'm afraid of then just who took her memories and how her memories were taken." "What then?" Blue glanced back at her. "I'm worried of what they plan to do with them." Downstairs Twilight could hear them yelling upstairs, yelling about her. Blue was saying something about 'regain' and 'recover', but neither of those words made any sense to her. She trotted around the room. "This sucks," she said. "I can't do anything." But you can. Twilight perked her ears up. "W- Who said that? Who are you?" She looked around, but saw none to answer her question. Please, listen to me! "Why should I listen to you?" Because I'm the only one who can help you get your memories back! Twilight quietly gasped, and her eyes widened. "Who are you?" My name is ________. The voice paused. M- My name is ________. "What?" Twilight pressed on. "What is your name?" I... I can't say... But that's not important! We don't have much time to talk! "Why? What's the matter?" I don't have time to explain! "Why don't you?" RRGHH! Look... Just hear me out, okay? "Okay." Good. Now, I need you to come into the- URK! "Huh? Come into the 'irk'?" No response. "Hello? Little voice in my head, are you there?" "You talking to someone Twilight?" Spike spoke up from beside her, making her jump. She turned to the purple dragon, small fear in her eyes. She calmed down after a second. "No," she lied. "I wasn't talking to anyone." ??? "URK!" the voice went suddenly. Though there was no visible neck, it felt like something was choking on one, and it caused that sound to come from the voice. "Now now..." another voice spoke. This one sounded calm, but sinister at the same time. "We can't have you ruining our surprise." The first voice gasped for air when the choking stopped. "You... you're a monster." "I'm a monster?" the second voice asked. "I- I'm a monster? You don't get it, do you? Your life was perfect. Better than perfect, even!" "Get what?" "Ah... There you go, admitting that you don't know, even though I've told you many times before." "You never once said this! You said that you're life was perfectly planned out; that you were happy with the way you were living!" The second voice laughed at the first's statement. "No... I was happy with the way you were living. And that goes to say, that I was happy with the way I was living. We are, after all-" "I would never consider you anything close to that!" "But why deny it, my dear? It's the truth, isn't it? And didn't one of your friends tell the truth even when you didn't believe it?" "I... I- How do you know that? I never told you anything about that time!" The second voice laughed once again. "Oh, even you know the answer to that. You think that being the state of somepony's mind just protects you from all the dangers of the world around you? I've seen what you are... I've seen everything about you. You can ask me any question about yourself, and I will be able to answer without a second's delay." The first voice remained quiet for some time. "What is my name?" The second voice didn't answer. "Congratulations. You've found the one question that cannot be answered to you." "Why?! What is my name?! Tell me! Why is that the only thing I cannot remember?" The second voice laughed once again, more menacing and longer this time. "And why should I tell you? You're no threat to me. The only one who could stop me now has nearly no memories of her past! She wouldn't be able to stop me now if she tried." "You really are a monster..." "Oh, I would highly doubt that. You see everypony out there? They're the monsters, not me. They took everything I would have had, and changed it all around! I was just as impressive as that rainbow-maned pegasus all those years ago! She reason I've been living in a heap o for over fifteen years!" The second voice seemed to spit words, but almost immediately calmed down. "And then you found me." The first voice remained silent. "You and that curious mind of yours got the better of you. I should really thank you for you've done. You haven't just improved my life. You've changed it entirely. Thanks to you, I finally know how I can get the life I was meant to have back. The life you practically earned." "Don't do this..." the first voice spoke again. "Please, there's another way to go about this. Let me help you." "There is nothing anypony like yourself can do to help me!" the second voice spat once more. "This Equestria had me bow down to it for far too long! But now, it will bow down to me... like it once did to you."