//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - Good morning... // Story: Chaotic Memories // by Zhooves //------------------------------// I woke up, wondering where the heck I was. I couldn't see anything, and neither could I move more than a few inches. I could feel I was buried alive, and I was proven right as dirt fell into my mouth when I tried to call for help. The pressure made it feel like a house had fallen on top of me. My head ached, when I suddenly realized that I couldn't remember anything. Sure, I remember how to speak, move and other basic stuff, but I can't fathom much beyond that. Thank goodness I'm not claustrophobic, that much is clear. That could have ended badly, especially since I'm in a really tight spot right now... Panic is the last thing I need. So as I had nothing better to do, I started to try and dig my way upwards, as I thought that was the most logical way to go. The direction the dirt fell told me I were on the right way. After a few minutes of digging later, I hit something that felt like rock. Great. Thankfully, the digging had revealed a few air-pockets, meaning I could move a bit more freely. I started hitting the rock-hard surface, and surprisingly: It cracked. It wasn't thick at all! As I reached out to the surface, I noticed it was very dark. "It must be nighttime." I thought, yet there were no stars, no moon and no wind... And the ground was covered in the stone-like material. I started walking to check out the area, when I bumped into what felt like a pillar of the same stone-like material that the ground was covered in. I didn't hit it hard, but it was apparently enough to break this as well. It broke into what seemed like dust. Quite fragile. That was when I realized I were in some sort of building. The roof above me started cracking. The pillar I accidentally broke must have been supporting it. The cracks became bigger, and pieces of the ceiling started to fall. I didn't have much time to think before everything collapsed on top of me. I was searching through the ruins of a recently burnt-down house near the border of the Everfree Forest to find clues as to why it had started to burn. Celestia had given me this task for some weird reason, which is the only reason I would ever check up on this place. I didn't see much reason with it - other than discovering a fire-factor that could be avoided in the future of course -, but as the princess had asked for this personally... Then I had to do it. The only thing left here seemed to be some charcoal and the few parts of the old building that had been built in stone. Then suddenly the floor started to shake. When I noticed the stone-floor started to fall apart, I immedeately teleported to safety right outside the site. As everything collapsed in front of me, I could hear a call of help from beyond. That was when I realized: "Someone was down there!?". I quickly started moving some of the rubble away using levitation-magic. After a short while, I saw a shape at the bottom of what seemed to be a hidden basement of some sort. But the shape wasn't of a pony... It didn't look like it at least. It looked like it had something similar to claws, but it wasn't like those of a dragon, a griffon or any creature I had seen... Maybe a minotaur? Suddenly it started glowing, and a sudden flash of light forced me to look away to not be blinded. When I looked back, the creature seemed different. Now I could clearly see that it was a pegasus lying down there. It had a white, wild mane and tail, with a slightly darker, blue fur than her cyan friend, Rainbow Dash. It had a few spots here and there that was slightly brighter in color than the rest of it's fur that almost reminded her of stars in the night sky. I slid down the rubble to take a closer look. It was still breathing. I could now see that it had the features of a young stallion, as well as his cutie mark: Two deep-purple lines twisting inwards towards a small elliptic black dot. "Hello!? Are you alright!?" I shouted to try and get a reaction from him. He didn't repond at all, so I assumed he had blacked out. I checked his heart-beat and breath to make sure he was ok. Both were functioning, but they were very faint. As I almost started to panic out of fear of what would happen if I didn't do anything, I figured it was only a waste of time not to do anything. So I lifted him up using my levitation-spell and carried him with me. It was only just now that I noticed, but his wings were much bigger than the average pegasi - almost as big as Celestia's wings. Standing there, baffled of his wings, I suddenly realized that I had to get moving. But where? The hospital were closed, thanks to an emergency involving another friend of mine: Pinkie Pie. She had the sugar-rush of the century after eating a special cupcake she had made with super-compressed sugar in stead of normal sugar - using the same dose as she would with normal sugar. This caused the cupcake to have the same effect as fifty kilograms of sugar, knocking her out. When she finally woke up at the hospital, she had exploded with energy caused by the sugar, and she went on a short rampage of uncontrollable bouncing, which caused half the hospital to fall apart, and leaving the other half of it in a useless state. I felt the panic coming back now. Where should I go? I then realized that the best option was home - to the library! Everything were in chaos. Everything around me. Houses with their roofs stuck in the ground - some even floating around, a sky that shifted between every colour of the rainbow, the sun flinging back and forth in random directions, chocolate rain... And a unique dark voice singing about it echoed. I thought to myself: "What the heck have I eaten to imagine this madness?". It was then it stood before me. A large, snake-like shape, with horns and body-parts from many different creatures... I woke up again, now with an even worse headache and a déjà vu feeling. "Not again..." I thought to myself. Well, at least I wasn't buried now. Everything was still black, but that was probably because I hadn't opened my eyes yet. Nope. Still black. My vision slowly returned, at first everything was blurry, but after a short while it got better. I looked around, and quickly noticed I was on a couch, in a room full of bookcases with books of all kinds. The next thing I notice are hoofs. Did I have these earlier? And what's this? Wings? Fur? A tail? Surely my memory is bad at the moment, but I can't have missed such things earlier? What is going on!? "Oh! You're awake!". I quickly looked towards where I heard the voice. It was a purple unicorn... And is that a pile of books she's lying under? "Oh, yeah. As you see, I take studying to a completely new level... I'm Twiligh Sparkle by the way. What's your name?". "Zoron..." I replied, not knowing where I got it from. I guess a few parts of my memory was still in there somewhere. "That's an interesting name. I've never heard anything like it. Are you from around here?". "Not that I can remember...". She turned around and took a few steps towards me, knocking over a couple of stacks of books. "Oh... You've got amnesia? Was that from when that building fell on you?". I stood up, having a few problems as I still had to get used to this body. Still, it felt strangely familiar. "No, I had just woken up underground underneath that building. I guess I managed to knock down one of the supporting pillars there... I didn't remember anything at that time either". "Underground, huh? Interesting. Well at least you remembered your name... Correct?" "I guess so... I think I remebered it subconsciously.". I took a few steps away from the couch, stretching my legs, and trying to find the musculature in my wings. Somehow they moved automatically as I wanted them to, as if it was instinct. "Are you sure you're completely fine? You're lucky that there wasn't much of the building left.". She sat down on a nearby pillow, looking up into the ceiling as if she was remembering something. "I was shocked when I discovered that there were someone there. I moved most of the rubble away, and found you there. Then I carried you over here using my magic". She looked back down to me. "Anything else you remember?". I took a minute to think. "One thing I'm sure about, is that I can't remember being a pegasus... Or any kind of pony for that matter.". Twilight looked like she had just realized something: "Oh, then what I saw... Was real I guess? When I first saw you, you didn't excactly look like a pony either. Do you remember having claws, or something similar?". "Actually, I do.". I lifted up and looked at one of my hoofs. "I don't know what I was though, but it felt familiar to an extent.". I took a look around. Books were lying everywhere I took a step. I looked through one of the windows in the room. It seemed like I was located in a town of some sort. "Where am I?" I asked. She gave me a surprised look: "You don't even know that? You're in Ponyville! In the local library to be more specific.". Ponyville... The name of the town rung no bells. It didn't even set my mind in motion. After a few seconds of awkward silence I decided to ask a question that I hoped Twilight could answer: "Do you know of anything that could help recover my memories?". She suddenly got wide-eyed as she seemed to realize something: "Yes! I know a spell for returning memories! Why didn't I think of that immediately? Gah!". She knocked her hoof to her head. "Anyway, are you ready?". "Oh, sure. Um... Do what you can?". "Ok... I need you to hold still...". Her horn started to glow as she reached for my head with it. As it made contact, it felt like I had a flashback of some sort... But it was impossible to tell what everything was, as it was both very blurry and moved faster than my mind could comprehend. Twilight backed of a little, looking slightly shocked and exhausted. "Something is... wrong." She said, while trying to catch her breath. "The spell shouldn't do so, but I saw your memories... And there were so many! And they were in a huge mess - impossible to put together in a way that would let us understand! And not to forget how blurry it all was.". She sat down on an other pillow. She just said what I was about to say. "It's almost like they have been sealed by a powerful spell... I don't think I can break it either.". She seemed disappointed that she couldn't do much more. "Don't worry too much about it. I'm sure there's a meaning to it all." I said, trying to make her feel better. "Do you know any other method?". She looked up again: "Well... I guess the most common way to recover lost memories is to find clues or things you can associate with your past. For example a picture, a place, somepony you know... Even a word.". It made sense. Just like my name came out of nowhere when I was asked for it, other memories must be in my head somewhere. Maybe if I started to look around? "Maybe we should just take a walk outside, perhaps you might recognize something to awaken your memories." She said, stood up and opened the door with her magic. "Shall we go?". We went outside and closed the door behind us. Zoron seemed relieved now that he was outside in the fresh air. He flapped his wings a couple of times. I was still baffled over how big and majestic they were. I bet he could fly really fast with them. He suddenly looked at me. "Is something wrong?". I suddenly realized I had been staring at him for maybe a minute. "Oh, no. Nothing wrong. It's just that your wings are much bigger than the average pegasus.". He looked up to the sky. A few pegasi was flying up there. "I can see that." he said, looking at his own wings. "Maybe you should test them? Maybe flying could awaken a few memories?". "I could try, but I can't remember if I've ever flown before though.". He stretched out his wings and tried a couple more light flaps. He seemed to be testing every muscle of his wings. Then he did it. With a couple of powerful flaps, he shook the ground as he lifted off. And not surprisingly, he rose into the air with an incredible speed. With just a few flaps he was at least 100 feet above me. He started flying in circles above me, when he suddenly started glowing like the time when I found him. The flash of light came, and... His wings... Were gone!? He started falling, and I panicked once again. That was when he suddenly started glowing with a slightly different color, and in a slightly less blinding flash, he disappeared. "Did... Did he just teleport?" I said to myself. I recognized it as a teleportation -spell, as I have used it myself quite a few times. After about a second or two, he reappeared right next to me - seemingly exhausted. I immediately noticed a unicorn-horn on his head, but that had to wait - safety first! "Are you alright!?". "Yeah... I think so... What a rush that gave me... Where did this horn come from?". He looked very confused at what had just happened. "I don't know, but you suddenly started glowing and..." I continued with explaining what I saw, both now and earlier, with the flash of light, and the changes of his appearance. "But I really don't know how such things could happen... Unless you were a changeling of course, which I doubt...?". "You know, I think I remember a very common creature that does change between the different races..." he managed to say. "Oh, really? What?" I was really curious now. What could it be? "A background pony." He said, with a faint smile on his face. "A what?" I said, but there was no use in asking: Zoron had blacked out again!