//------------------------------// // Ch.4, Missing Memories // Story: Guardian Of Darkness // by giantpepsi44 //------------------------------// My eyes slowly opened and I found myself back in the barn with the same blue blanket which covered me when I woke up yesterday. A wet cloth like object was wrapped around my head and some of the hay in my makeshift bed had been replaced for some colder bundles. Even with all this and the fact that I was slightly shivering my whole body was filled with a warm fever. I got out of my bed slowly and lowered my head to attempt to be rid of the dizziness that was swarming my mind. After a few more minutes, I started to see straight once more and looked out the window. I couldn't see any life in the big house and the sun had only just started rising so I guessed no one would be up for a few more hours. I walked down the steps and decided to go into town for a while to say thanks to Pinkie for last night. Arriving in town, I saw a couple of shops beginning to open, and luckily, I saw the lights on in Sugar Cube Corner and a grey pony enter. I followed the mare into the shop and saw pinkie exit a set of swing doors with a box of muffins. "Here you go Derpy, Twelve freshly baked muffins for your mail run," Pinkie stated excitedly. She let go of the handle and the basket collapsed onto the front desk. Derpy fished for some coins from her pouch and produced five golden pieces. "Thanks Pinkie," she said. She then grabbed the basket in her mouth and turned to face me and once she laid her eyes open me, she smiled. Her eyes were a deep shade of yellow and one seemed to wonder around on its own which made it very hard to concentrate. "I'm sorry, let me get out of your way," I said. I stepped to the side but when she looked at me, her eyes straightened and she concentrated much harder. She looked like she was trying to decide something, and then her eyes widened and she moved away from me slightly. She gulped a little and she turned back to Pinkie as her face returned to normal. "See you tomorrow Pinkie," Derpy said before charging out the door and flying off into the distance. She had acted the same way that Spike had yesterday. What is going on? "Oh hey Kalacos," Pinkie said with a smile. She walked past the counter and approached me. I returned the smile and then looked around the room to see no trace of the party last night. "You cleaned up pretty well. Sorry I left with helping," I replied. She giggled and shook her head. "Think nothing of it, you were pretty ill last night anyway. You feeling better now?" Pinkie asked me. I nodded in reply. "Yeah, just a bit light headed but that's about it. I don't know what happened, I was just exhausted," I lied. I didn't feel like I should tell any of them about my visions just yet, I didn't want to seem crazy. "You probably just needed a little sleep after yesterday. Why are you here anyway Kalacos?" She questioned me. "Oh, I just wanted to thank you again for the party. It gave me a chance to get to know the people around here and make some new friends," I replied. "Well that was the idea," She said with a smile. "Well, most ponies will be getting up soon so that means it is about to get pretty busy. And if you don't need to head back to the farm straight away, I think Twilight wanted to talk to you when you were better," she explained. My heart sank, Spike told her something about what happened last night and now she was going to ask him questions I didn't know the answers to. "Well, where is her house?" I asked with a sigh. "Oh you cant miss it, its the library of the town. Just look for a tree with windows," she told me. I thought she was joking but her town was obviously serious. I nodded in reply and thanked her one last time before exiting and making my way into the main allotment of the town. Walking through the town, I thought I was lost. A couple of minutes passed when I saw a giant tree with windows dotted around it like Pinkie described. I couldn't believe that anyone would live in a place like that, but I approached and knocked on the door anyway. "Who is it?" Twilights voice sounded from inside. "Its Kalacos, Pinkie said you wanted to talk to me about something?" I replied. "Oh Kalacos, come in," she said. I pushed open the door and the interior of the house was amazing. Books lined the walls of the tree and the roof had different correlations on them making it seem like a sky watching tower. A set of stairs led up to the top of the tree where a telescope was placed peering out of a larger window on the side. It was cosy, and seemed like a very suitable cottage for someone like Twilight. "So... is Spike here?" I asked her trying to get the touchy subject started early. "No he has gone to help Rarity at her boutique for a while but he will be back soon," Twilight explained. She was fiddling around in one of the shelves trying to find something. Is it possible Spike hadn't said anything, or maybe that wasn't what she anted to talk about. "What are you doing?" I asked her. "Just looking for... AHA," she said. She emerged holding a large hard back book with the title of "The History of Equestria'. She opened it up to one of the marked pages and presented it to me. "What am I looking at?" I asked. She sighed and suddenly the book was surrounded by a purple aura and she brought it towards her face. "It says here that something like your memory loss can easily be treated by getting rid of whatever is blacking them. They will slowly break through after a while but I may of found something that could speed the process," Twilight explained. My head popped up when hearing this. "Really, you think you can help ?" I asked and she shrugged. "I might be able to but I have never tried this spell before so I am not sure how well it will work," She explained. "Well I mean... its worth a shot isn't it," I replied. She thought for a second but then she nodded and put the book down on the stand with an owl perched over it. "Ok Kalacos, close your eyes and try to focus on some of the memories you have, anything that you can remember," she explained. I closed my eyes and thought back to the dream I had the other night. I still wasn't certain if it was a memory, but it was the closest thing that I had to one. I heard twilight begin to groan a little whilst concentrating and the vision in my head began to glow a strong shade of purple. It flicked through some different scenes: I saw the women in golden and white armour standing in beside me smiling lightly as we approached the royals in front of us. I saw myself walking through the town with a pure white stallion to my right and the women to my left. But then, it swapped to visions much darker. It showed me standing in a desolate field surrounded by dead flowers whilst darkness erupted from my flank. It then switched to me standing alone in some sort of destroyed castle in front of a table with six seats whilst my eyes glowed red . But suddenly, the visions went a pitch black and two sickly green eyes opened with narrow pupils. BANG!! Twilight screeched as she was launched across the room with a dark etch surrounding her horn. I was a bit light headed but I approached Twilight who was no dazed on the floor. "Are you ok?" I asked in worry. She started to get back to full height and shook. "Yeah I'm fine, but I am starting to doubt if you are!" She stated. "Why, did you see my memories?" I asked beginning to panic. "No I couldn't see anything that you could, I had to concentrate, but I think you have something that I didn't want to believe you did," she explained. She walked over to the book once more and opened it to a different page. "And if that's true, well, you have a long road ahead of you." "What do you mean?" I questioned her and approached her to observe the book. "Well, near to peak of Equestria, there was a special type of flower called 'Blue Leethe'. Now, these plants used to be very dangerous when you would walk through them because if you got stung, it would not only erase your memory, it would also cause you to forget who you are," she explained. "So, you're saying I may of walked through some Leethe plants?" I asked her. She thought for a second. "You could have, but judging by what happened when I tried to relieve your memory, i think its something much worse." She said. She concentrated on another part of the page near the bottom. " Ah yes. Well, apparently an unknown enemy that is not even named in this book learned how to control the Leethe plants and use them to, oh what's the word... steal someone's memory. So basically, if you want your memory back, you need to find the one who took it in the first place so that you will be able to get it back," she explained. "Well, how am I meant to get my memory back if I don't even know who took it?" I asked, but as I said it, I realised I had a sneaking suspicion on who it would be. "Well, if anyone knows it would be Princess Celestia, but she has been busy the past few weeks with the eclipse tomorrow," she said. Wait, Tomorrow? 'It will all be clear in 2 days' The voice had said, could what she said have something to do with the eclipse. "I need to go then," I pleaded. She simply laughed. "Its an open event Kalacos, everyone in Equestria is invited. Since Princess Luna is back,. its the first one that they have been able to have in a century," she explained. I started smiling and felt a sense of hope swell inside of me. I looked out the window and the sun was high in the sky. I realised that Applejack would probably be wondering where I am. "Thanks Twilight. I'll see you tomorrow because I have got to get back to Applejack so I can help around the farm" I explained. Twilight obviously understood and she issued me off before turning and grabbing some more books and running off up the steps. I exited the door and charged through the town towards the farm . Arriving, I saw Applejack just leaving my barn when she saw me and issued towards the big house. She mouthed 'breakfast' and I felt my stomach begin to rumble when I attempted to catch up with Applejack before she disappeared through the door. After a delightful breakfast, I once again followed Big mac. Although, this time he led me towards the apple tree fields whilst he carried two buckets which were stretched across his back. We arrived at a tree filled with red, ripe apples and he stood next to it, turned around and prepared to kick the tree. When he lashed out, the apples fell perfectly into the buckets at the side and I looked at him very impressed. "How did you..." I stammered. He turned around and smiled at me until he started moving towards the Apple tree that was next to it. He stood in front of it, put the buckets down and looked at me, waiting for my go. I took in a deep breath and approached the tree and sized up my opponent. I turned around and lined myself perfectly in the centre like Big Mac had done. I smashed the tree with a powerful but I did not here any apples hit the floor until an ear splitting noise sounded from the distance. I opened my eyes and turned in surprise to see the tree had flown into a rock behind it. The most surprising part was the fact that there was now a huge crack in the boulder. I slowly turned my gaze towards Big Mac who was looking at me in shock. "Sorry," I said out of embarrassment. "How did you do that?" Big Mac asked. I didn't know and I just looked down in shame. "Ok, no more Tree bucking for you, lets see how you do moving some hay to the storage centre," he explained. I looked up expecting him to be annoyed but he was grinning and trying to hold back a laugh. I smiled back and followed him across the farm. After hours of tough work, I ended the day filled with pride at what I had accomplished. I headed towards the big house and delivered the wheel barrow to Applejack who smiled at me respectfully. "Good work today Kalacos, you have the day off tomorrow though because I am heading to Canterlot with the others to watch the eclipse," she explained. I nodded in return. "I know, I am going also. Twilight thinks she may be able to get advice from Celestia about what is happening," I replied. She yawned and nodded in reply. "That's good. I'm sorry Kalacos, we are going to have to get up early tomorrow to catch the train, and I am already tired so I will see you tomorrow," she stated to which I smiled and nodded in reply. We said are good nights and I headed back to the barn, collapsing in my bed and wondered what will happen tomorrow.