//------------------------------//
// That fateful day 
// Story: Lost Memories 
// by Aros356 
//------------------------------//

I force my eyes open, my heart pumping franticly, my breath heavy. I hope that was just a dream. I tilt my head and see the yellow Pegasus looking at me, dreary eyed.
“What’s wrong?” she asks with a quiet voice as so not to wake Twilight in the other room. I have been thinking and dreaming all night, but the dreams feel so real it’s only when she asks that I  remember that they were real, they were memories I have long since forgotten.

“I… I was thinking… erm… do you know who fired that dart?” I look at the Pegasus in the rather poor light of the night.
“No, nopony does.”
“I do…” She looks surprised when I whispered it to her face.
“What, who?”
“A unicorn from Canterlot. His name is Zakoraig.” I look right at where I believe her eyes are, I can’t really see in this light. “I just worked it out, he was at the Redleaf Fighting Academy. He is a very dangerous pony, capable of killing anyone within a matter of seconds. After all Fluttershy, his talent is killing…” The Pegasus has a frightened look on her face. “I thought I got rid of him, but clearly not. We will talk more in the morning, I need some sleep.”

It took me ages to get to sleep that night; I couldn’t stop thinking about how he can possibly be back, after all the pain he caused me all those years ago. I wake up in the morning with Fluttershy cuddling up to me; I need to ask Twilight if I can read some of those books she has downstairs. I get up out of bed and head for the bathroom; I get ready for the day by having a quick wash.

When I get downstairs I am greeted with a cheery “Good morning” from the lavender unicorn.
“Twilight, do you know somepony called Zakoraig?” Twilight’s cheery expression fades, quickly replaced by a serious look.
“Why… Why do you want to know about him?” she asks.
“He was here, he shot the dart, and he wants me dead! Now he knows I’m alive, he wants to kill me!”
“Calm down, calm down…” she is getting a little worked up already. “Ok, ok. Erm… I do know him. He is on the royal guards ‘most wanted’ list, for numerous murders and attempted murders…”
“I know who he is! He used to my friend… back at Redleaf Fighting Academy we used to everything together… that’s what pains me the most.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” She tries to reassure me by stepping closer, I don’t react.
“I thought I got rid of him back at Canterlot when he tried to kill Princess Luna…”
“But now he’s back. Don’t worry, we can catch him, what do you want to do with him when we get him?”
“Wait! I can’t get you and your friends tangled up in this business, you’ll probably get killed!”
The lavender unicorn frowns, “I guess your right…” The way she says that reminds me of that fateful day at the castle…


“Princess Luna! Are you alright?” I yell through the locked doors to the Princess’ private chambers.
“AAHHHH!” is the only reply I got. And it was enough of a reply to try and get in. I step back a few feet and ready my ‘Rogue’ armour and charge at the door, it swung open and when it hit the walls on the other side the doors fell of their hinges. Inside the room the Princess is lying on the floor, limp. I look at the window and see him. Zakoraig!
“Ok, This has gone on far enough Zakoraig. The petty murders you commit on the streets of this fair city are enough to give you the death penalty! But trying to kill a Princess, it’s just outrageous!” I bark as I marched over to him. We are now face to face with each other. He just smirks a bit and jumps back pulling out what looked like a machine gun, I brace for heavy fire! He loads a new clip of ammo, does he not realise the strength of the armour I wear? Clearly not, he pulls the trigger and empties the entire clip onto my helmet, not leaving a single scratch, the bullets fall to the floor with a ting.

He stares at me for a bit before loading a new clip, surely he wasn’t going to try and shoot me again, was he? “I’m not that stupid Blade,” he says, clearly noticing my cocky smile “I know your weakness.” He points the gun at the Princess.
“NO!”
“You have to save everypony, don’t you? Well you failed with all the others I killed, and you’re going to fail now…” he smiles one of smiles that make you feel uncomfortable in any situation. “If you have anything to say to Luna, I would say it now. And don’t try any of that camouflage crap! You disappear, and so does Luna’s life!” I think for a moment.
“Let’s not get hasty! Let’s have a clean fair fight, you use your weapons and I use mine.” I unsheathe my sword and hold it next to my neck. Luna gasps at what I do next. I swing the sword into the neck of the suit. The suit starts to send sparks everywhere as the armour just falls apart. “No armour, that just makes it unfair.” I chuckle slightly after I say that, and ready my body for the fight of my life…

Zakoraig was the first to make a move, he charges at me holding the nozzle of the gun as if he is going to use it as a club. And that is exactly what he does, he swings this way and that way, hoping to hit me, those swings aren’t particularly hard to dodge, when he jumps back after failing to hit me, it’s my turn. I launch my body at his, blade at my side. I slash at his head, only missing his skull by a few centimetres causing me to cut off some of his shaggy mane. I turn the blade around and hit him with the handle square on his forehead, he falls back. We keep exchanging blows like that before he starts to tire and jumps behind Luna.
“I grow tired of these games Blade!” he holds the gun the right way now, resting it on Luna’s terrified body he starts to shoot, I dive, duck and roll out of the way of all 30 bullets in his clip before he has to reload.

After he reloads things just got harder, he slams the gun into the top of Luna’s back creating a small indentation and causing the Princess to scream loud enough to nearly deafen anypony near. Now that he rests the gun in the small indentation on Luna’s back he now has much better accuracy with his gun. He starts to fire again, I try my best to dodge them, and to my surprise I manage to evade them all! We go on like this for about 5 minutes, how much ammo did he bring with him? I think to myself. Only after I start to tire do I change my tactic, when he reloads I dive over his head, frightening Luna to hell and back, I turn to face him, and with my sword swing it diagonally upwards to the right, cutting his gun in half. What I didn’t realise is that this created a rather sharp edge on the newly shortened gun barrel.

I dive back over Luna’s body again, and Zakoraig follows. He swings his newly sharpened gun in every direction he could think of, he chases me around the room for a few minutes, and he tires quickly. As I regain my breath he launches himself at me and his gun slices at my right fore-leg across the knee.
“AHH! Oh damn that hurts!”
“Hahaha! Aww, hurts does it?” he mocks.
“not as much as my eyes when I see your face!” This close-quarters battle was turning into more of a lair fight at this point, none of his were any part insulting; mine clearly had an effect on him.

At this point I was laying on the floor, my knee cut open and blood covered most of the floor. Then to my luck a patrol of guards charged into the room, one of which decided to surprise Zakoraig by jumping on top of him, knocking him onto the floor. I was laying on the floor helpless to anypony now. They arrest Zakoraig and instantly sentence him to the rest of his life rotting in the castle dungeon. “you haven’t seen the last of me Aros! I will return, and I WILL KILL YOU!”

Two of the guards notice me, heaped on the floor. “Sergeant! You, help me get the Sergeant to the hospital!” I must have blacked out at that point until I was woken by the nurse.
“Right, you’re awake, that’s a good start, so Aros Blade, we never thought you would need to use the hospital, anyway your knee was cut into two pieces during that fight with Zakoraig. There are two options you can take to fix this, one: take an experimental internal bionic knee replacement, that may cause sudden agony on the rare occasion, or you can take option two: a full amputation of the leg, and I don’t need to go through the pros and cons for that option, do I?” Her voice was rather sharp compared to her gentle touch.
“Bionic knee…” I couldn’t finish the sentence, but she knew what I meant.

I was rushed into a sterile white room; they gave me a powerful anaesthetic, to make me go to sleep and not feel a thing…