• Published 7th Oct 2014
  • 11,759 Views, 418 Comments

Starting Over - Twilight Nightmare



After feeling unwanted and abandoned during the Canterlot Wedding, Twilight leaves to try and make a new start for her only to fall prey to a gang. Now Twilight tries to rebuild a life with no memories of her past until circumstances guide her home.

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Lost Memories (Rewrite posted on 11/10/2014)

Something was wrong, Cadence could feel it deep in her very soul. She tried to push the feeling down as being just stress from her imprisonment under Canterlot, the changeling invasion and her wedding…but she just couldn’t deny that something was…off. She may not know Twilight’s friends very well, but they didn’t seem like the same mares that was spoken so fondly of in the young unicorn’s friendship reports. It wasn’t that they weren’t doing their job in regards to the wedding, in fact they were doing far better than expected. The food was wonderful, the entertainment seemed to be coming along wonderfully, and the clothes were absolutely stunning. Twilight’s friends was shattering any and all expectations.

No, it wasn’t the girls exactly…it was something else. Cadence would have believed that Twilight would have been with at least one of them, or at least cadence herself, but she wasn’t. Everytime she brought it up with one of the girls they brushed it off wich was beginning to get really worrisome. She began to question just how much these girls cared for her little sister in everything except blood.

“There you are darling, are you ready to try on your dress?” The white mare that Cadence knew was Rarity asked as she seemed to be finishing up with the dress on the dummy mare. The others had escorted Cadence as she asked them to after going to each and every one of them a second time telling them that they needed to talk after seeing how their preparations were coming along.

“Actually, I want to know something.” Cadence asked as Fluttershy closed the door behind her being the last mare in the room. Four of the mares now in the room looked nervous as they looked everywhere except to Cadence herself or Rarity. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all seemed to be hiding a secret and Cadence was going to get to the bottom of it. If these mares didn’t really care about Twilight then she would not be returning to Ponyville with them.

“Of course darling, but we don’t have very much time. I was just informed that everything will be ready to start soon.” Rarity asked as she used her magic to float her glasses off and gently set them on a small table nearby. The unicorn looked at Cadence, but she wore an expression that seemed to scream that she was guilty of something.

“Why is Twilight Sparkle not with any of you? Surely it didn’t take her more than five minutes to set some chairs back up.” Cadence said as her eyes narrowed at the group of mares who looked down in shame, their ears flattening.

“She probably doesn’t want anything to do with us, sugarcube.” Applejack said with her normal accent, her voice subdued as the princess’s expression turned to one of anger as her glare locked onto the element bearer of honesty.

“And why is that? From what I understood you six are supposed to be very close.” Cadence said, her voice sounding frosty as her glare switched from one mare to another.

“It wasn’t our fault that that freak tricked us!” Rainbow Dash spat out angrily.

“We didn’t mean to hurt Twilight, we love her.” Fluttershy said, her body shaking as tears dripped to the floor as Rainbow moved beside her and hugged her with a wing.

“What happened?” Cadence asked, though her tone of voice clearly said it was a demand that would not be ignored.

“How were we supposed to know that when Twilight came bursting into the rehearsal freaking out like she did that she was right. Everything that she had said and done screamed that she was jealous.” Rainbow said softly as she tried to comfort the other pegasus.

“When we saw you upset, well the other you that wasn’t quite you, you know? When we saw how hurt she was we followed her to make sure she was okay and left…” Pinkie sighed, her coat darkening and hair flattening out.

“We left her darling. We left her to attend a fraud while our friend was probably devastated over what her brother said.” Rarity explained, though she wished she kept her mouth shut when she saw fire flash in the alicorn’s eyes momentarily.

“We WILL get back to Shinning Armor in a moment…” Cadence all but growled out at the group gathered around her. “First…how dare you abandon a friend for someone you just met? If I couldn’t feel your love for Twilight and your regret at this moment I would swear that you just used her to get near royalty. It wouldn’t be the first time!”

“We messed up, we know that!” Fluttershy sobbed out.

“Everything will be okay though when we get back to Ponyville for Twilight’s huge surprise party!” Pinkie said brightening up a little. “No pony can stay sad at a party, right?”

“Party?” Cadence asked taking a step back.

“We’ve been planning a surprise party for Twilight for weeks for her birthday. We’ve even gotten Princess Celestia to help by sending letter back and forth to twilight’s parents.” Rarity said, “We wanted to show her how much we love her.”

“You…I have no idea what to say to any of you right now.” Cadence said taking deep breaths while trying to calm her anger. They meant well it seemed, but leaving Twilight to chose a pony they just met over a distraught friend didn’t sit well with the princess of love. “Now tell me what you meant by what her brother said.”

“He…he old her not to bother coming to the wedding. It sounded almost like he didn’t want anything else to do with her.” Rainbow Dash said.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it, they’re family.” Applejack said, though by the time she finished Cadence was gone with the door slamming shut.

~~~

Luna sat next to the baby dragon in the royal gardens soaking in everything he had just told her. While she was worried about her sister after an invasion she had apparently slept through, Luna knew every pony was okay after what the dragon said. Every pony except Twilight and a baby dragon that was anyways. She wasn’t sure just what to say to Spike as she was still trying to get used to the new world around her and wasn’t sure how to express herself fully yet. She was always afraid of saying or doing something that would offend any pony because she was basically from a different time with much different customs.

“I don’t deserve her!” Spike sobbed out as Luna hugged the baby dragon with her wings and nuzzled him.

“I’m sure she will forgive you, we have seen firsthand just how much love she holds in her heart for you.” Luna said softly. It was a mess, the whole entire thing. Everything from the planned surprise party for Twilight up to this invasion. The dragon was too young to really blame for his choices other than letting his hormones get the better of him. He had it bad for the white mare known as Rarity and the roller coaster that was his emotions and hormones left the poor dragon confused and Twilight never even saw it. How could she? From what Luna understood Twilight Sparkle was very sheltered in many ways and had no personal experience with what the baby dragon was feeling.

“How can I even face her after this?” Spike sobbed from within the alicorn’s embrace. “First I messed up and destroyed those books that got us in trouble and now I followed the others too afraid to face her after what I did!”

“My little…dragon…it isn’t your fault that you are a growing dragon with no one to teach you about your species. Dragons and ponies are much different from each other.” Luna explained softly, “While you did make mistakes, so did twilight Sparkle…however unintentional.”

“Twilight didn’t do anything wrong!” Spike protested, puffing his chest out in an obvious attempt to defend Twilight making Luna giggle a little at his antics while being glad that he seemed to feel a little better.

“Of course she didn’t it, we are not saying she did anything wrong really. She just didn’t know and my sister should have talked to her. She doesn’t know, no matter how many books she may study up on the subject, how a dragon truly matures. I believe once we get this straightened out that I will introduce the two of you to an old friend of minr who will help teach you what you need to know.”

“If Twilight even forgives me.” Spike sighed, “I’m afraid to talk to her, I let her down so badly back in Ponyville before we came here and I’ve been to afraid to talk to her about it.”

“If it helps any, we will speak with Twilight Sparkle together.” Luna suggested, a supportive smile on her face.

“I’d like that, thank you Princess Luna.” Spike replied shyly.

“Think nothing of it, young friend. It is what friends do for each other.

~~~

It probably wasn’t the best idea to use her magic to slam open the doors to Shining Armor’s room where he was getting ready as the unicorn had been in the process of getting ready to leave only for the door to smack him in the head sending him to the floor. A part of Cadence felt a small bit of satisfaction over it because of what Shining did. She wouldn’t deny that she still loved him despite being on the verge of tearing him a new one. No matter what happened between the two though Twilight would always be her little sister in Cadence’s heart and no one said things like Shining did to the unicorn without facing her wrath.

“Uggghhh…Cadence…” Shining groaned from his place on the floor as he looked up at his soon to be wife.

“Don’t you dare Cadence me! How dare you say those things to Twilight!?” Cadence fumed, her anger close to boiling over as she looked into the confused eyes of her beloved.

“What are you talking about honey?” Shining asked as he slowly climbed to his feet earning a momentarily look of sympathy from Cadence before her anger returned full force.

“I’m talking about the rehearsal!” Cadence snapped.

“I…I don’t remember anything about the rehearsal, the last thing I remember before waking up with you is the fake you saying she was healing my headache.” Shining mumbled as he shook his head as if trying to clear away the confusion. Cadence wanted to deny that he was telling the truth, but she knew him. As her anger began draining away she realized that she knew him much better than that. He would never say those cruel things to Twilight of his own free will, and the look on his face supported that. Shining had the worse poker face in history, and Cadence always knew when he was hiding something or lying.

“You told Twilight that she shouldn’t even come to the wedding. I don’t know exactly what you said, but you basically threw her out of your life.” Cadence said softly as she watched Shining’s eyes grow in horror. He tried denying it, but the more he thought about it he more he started remembering some of it. It was like he lost all control of his body during the time with him only seeing snippets of what was going on. He couldn’t remember what he said exactly, but he could see an image. He could see the utterly devastated look in his little sister’s eyes as he glared down her.

“C-Cadence…wh-wat have I done?” Shining asked as his eyes began to tear up.

“Right now, you are going to your sister and making things right.” Cadence said as she steeled her resolve. “You will fix this, bring my little sister back to be my mare of honor, or there will be no wedding.”

“I’m going to find Twilight!” Shining cried out as he rushed from the room. If the situation wasn’t so messed up Cadence would have laughed at her beloved’s antics.

~~~

She had never felt so much pain in her life, her entire body feeling as if it was on fire from whatever had happened to her. Even her head was throbbing as she cracked open her eyes slowly, wincing at the harsh white light filtering through her eye lids. Her surroundings did not look familiar in the least, though she felt as if they should. Everything just seemed so…white?

Gasping she leaned up as she realized that she must be dead…yet if she was then she wouldn’t hurt like this would she? As her eyes adjusted, though her head still felt like little ponies was using her skull as a drum, she realized why the room should have looked familiar. She was in a hospital room, but she couldn’t remember why she was there. Was she in some kind of accident.

As she tried her best to recall what happened, she realized something else…she couldn’t remember her name. She couldn’t even remember where she was from r where she was at. She had a slight image of fighthing some pony, or maybe a couple ponies, but she just couldn’t get a clear memory of it no matter how hard she tried.

“Dr. Redheart, a word please!” A mare’s voice called just outside the door to her room. Even though she couldn’t see the mare that the voice belonged to, the ice lacing it sent shivers down the wounded mare’s back. There was just a cold, callousness evident in the voice that would scare fillies without even having to try very hard.

“Yes, what is it Lady Creed.” A stallion’s voice replied, a wary tone in his voice as if the mare was a bother to him. Then again, the wounded mare thought that she would sound the same if she had to deal with someone like that all of the time.

“Has she woken up yet?” The mare asked coldly, impatience now filling her voice.

“No, Lady Creed, but I was on my way to check up on her again.” The stallion explained.

“As soon as she waked up get her out of here. This is a hospital, not a charity case for street rats.” The mare’s voice growled out making the wounded mare’s jaw drop. Wasn’t a hospital there to help any pony in need no matter who they were? Actually…was she a pony off the streets? Did she have anyone who cared that she was in here? Anyone that cared about her at all?

“Actually…” The stallion began only to be interrupted by the mare.

“She’s a little whore and you know it. They are a bit a dozen here, just like every other piece of filth on the streets.” The mare said, the sneer almost evident in her voice. “Personally I think my husband should just round them all up and put them to work as slave labor. That or just kill them all.”

What kind of mare talked like that? What kind of sane pony talked like that? Was that pony insane or mentally off or something? This was crazy!

“She needs to stay for observations.” The stallion explained.

“Either you get that piece of filth out of my hospital or you can leave. I don’t care which, but if it’s you I will personally throw that filth out myself.” The mare snapped before she must have turned and stomped off if the loud hoof falls was any indication.

“So, how are you doing today?” The stallion asked pushing his way through the door, a chart floating next to him wrapped in an auro of power.

“What happened to me?” the wounded mare asked as she looked at the light brown stallion with a green mane.

“Oh good, your awake.” The stallion said giving her a soft smile. “My name is Doctor Redheart. We were actually kind of hoping you can tell us what happened to you. You were found severely beaten in a trash pile in an alley.”

“I…I don’t remember anything.” The mare sighed.

“Can you tell me your name?” Doctor Redheart asked hopefully.

“No…I…I can’t remember.” The mare said, her voice cracking a little. A part of her mind wanted to do nothing but curl up and cry, but she felt emotionally numb right then. She had to wonder if it was from shock or something, but she couldn’t remember being a doctor or anything so really couldn’t say.

“Can you tell me anything? If you aren’t able to pay for the room I have to let you go.” Doctor Redheart sighed, little hope in his voice. The mare could tell that he was torn up over this choice and decided not to punish him for it as he did try to stand up for her.

“It’s okay, I kind of heard that. It isn’t your fault.” The mare said, “I…I have no idea who I am or where I came from. I can remember things…like reading and magic, but I can’t remember where I learned them from.”

“From the test that we took you were stabbed a few times and beaten very badly. You have a few hairline fractures, but you should be okay other than a little pain. We also found evidence that you…were…raped. We took DNA evidence, but if you don’t remember anything then there really isn’t much we can do here. Not with the people we have in charge here…” Doctor Redheart explained regretfully.

“I…was…are you sure…how…”The mare whispered, tears forming in her eyes as she shuddered. She couldn’t say the word, much less put too much thought in it. Maybe it was best that she didn’t remember because she really did not want to think about it.

“Sadly, I’m sure. We may not be able to do much here, but I can give you directions to a halfway house who may be able to help.” Doctor Redheart explained. “I can also give you a cloak to help keep you warm for now. I just wish there was more I could do for you.”

“I don’t want you to lose your job Doctor, but I would appreciate the directions and cloak.” The mare sighed.

“Of course…I’ll also see what I can do about some pain killers, just don’t show them to any pony on the street.” Doctor Redheart said.

“I won’t, I don’t want you to get in trouble for giving them to me.” The mare said as she tried to sit up.

“Let us get the IV out of you first. Also, I’m not worried about getting in trouble over the pills, I’m worried about someone attacking you to get the pain killers,” Doctor Redheart explained as he went about removing the IV and adding a new bandage to the mare’s body which she realized for the first time had a lot of bandages. What shocked her more was the bare patches in her coat where she was stitched up.

“I…I look like Frankenpony.” The mare said sadly from what little she could see of her body.

“You look fine, very pretty in fact dear. Your injuries will heal up fine and once your coat grows back no pony will ever know you ever had stitches.” Doctor Redheart explained as he tossed the used needle and tubing from her IV into the bio hazard container. “Just try to relax and I’ll be right back.”

The mare wasn’t so sure though she was flattered by the doctor’s words. It was kind of him to say that and help her what little he was since it seemed that his boss wasn’t exactly the easiest to deal with. For a moment the mare wondered if perhaps there was some pony she could contact about the way the cold hearted mare seemed to act, but decided against it. From what little the mare overheard, this…Lady Creed was an important pony that may actually own the hospital. And if she caused trouble she may cost the nice doctor his career.

It didn’t take too long for the pony to return after she slowly climbed to her feet, almost falling at first as the pain in her side flared badly. She gritted her teeth though and pushed through the pain as she paced back and forth a few times as the pain dulled to some extent as she got used to it. She wasn’t too sure what she was going to do though, she was being tossed out of the hospital with no knowledge of who she is or where to go.

“Here, put this on my dear.” The doctor said startling the mare as she had no idea he had returned. A somewhat heavy cloak covered her body, the magic guiding the clasp around her neck leaving the hood pulled back. It covered most of her body except for her hooves and at the moment her head. If she pulled the hood it would most likely even hide her face as it seemed big enough to cast shadows over what it didn’t cover.

“Thank you doctor.” The mare said softly as a bottle of pills was floated over and stuffed into an inside pocket of the cloak.

“Your very welcome my dear. I am terribly sorry for this…I really want to keep you here and try to help you.” The Doctor explained sorrowfully as he floated a piece f paper and a business card to her. “This is directions to the place I told you about. They may have a bed for you to sleep in and the therapist there will be able to help you with what happened. She may even be able to help you with your memories.”

“Thank you again doctor…I…I better get going before she comes back. I don’t want you to get in trouble.” The mare sighed heavily. The doctor started to say something as she walked through the door, but quickly shut up. It wasn’t hard to find her way out as as soon as she left the room she saw the arrow on the wall pointing to the exit. After a few short turns she was outside under what appeared to be late afternoon if she was right according to the sun.

For some reason she could remember a lot of things, how to do stuff she wasn’t even sure how she could have learned how to do. Yet she still couldn’t remember who she was or what happened beyond a few blurry flashes of memory. She hated it…hated not knowing who she was but had a feeling if she remembered what happened to her she wouldn’t be able to do anything but curl up and cry.

Taking out the directions and business card from the pocket in her cloak she studied them, unable to make out the directions really. The handwriting was just that bad, but she could make out a little of it. Seeing a couple fillies walking down the other side of the street from her, she trotted over to ask them if they knew where Trottingham Street was at.

“Stay back monster!” One of the fillies cried out in alarm, both of the young fillies backing up away from her.

“Get away from us you freak!” The second cried out, probably a little older than the first as she got between the mare and the younger filly as if defending the little pony.

The mare’s jaw dropped as she watched the two fillies back away slowly before turning tail and running as fast as they could away from her. The mare could feel wetness slowly traveling down her cheeks. They…they called her monster…she knew that she had some bandages and stitches, maybe looking a little like Frankenpony…but the doctor said she was pretty.

Seeing her reflection in the window nearby she moved to it wearily afraid of what she was going to see. What she saw was a monster looking back at her as patches of her coat was missing with stitches crisscrossing her face. She…she was a freak! The doctor lied to her and if he did…could he be lying about the place on the card? Would they even truly help her…or would there even really be a place waiting for her when she found the location.

She cried out in pain as she realized that the window she was looking in was actually a door and that door just smacked into her knocking her over. The stallion that was standing there had a light blue coat with grey hair and a stern look on his face. It looked like he was going to start yelling at her until he got a good look at her and his eyes went wide almost comically. Following his gaze she turned to see that her cloak fell off her side and her cutie mark was showing a little bit from around a few of the bandages.

“You know me, don’t you?” The mare asked hopefully, tears flowing much more freely as she climbed back to her feet and got into the face of the stallion. “Please…please tell me who I am!”

“You…don’t know who you are?” The stallion asked softly, almost hesitantly.

“I…I was attacked and lost my memories. I can’t remember who I am.” The mare sobbed out, gasping as the stallion moved to be next to her and awkwardly hug her.

“Oh you poor dear…I warned you about traveling on your own like your sister.” The stallion said shaking his head. “It looks like you both had to learn the hard way. Come in daughter, your sister is also here and she’ll make us some tea.”

“Who am I?” The mare whimpered as she let the stallion guide her inside.

“You, my dear, are my darling daughter Midnight Rose.” The stallion said, “I’m Nomad Runner…your father…Trixie! Put some tea on!”

~~~

“Trixie, put on some tea.” Trixie mocked the voice of her father, the one pony she hated more than Twilight Sparkle. Okay, maybe Twilight didn’t deserve her hate as much as her father, but Trixie couldn’t help placing a lot of the blame for her current predicament on the infuriating mare despite it being the two young colts that lured the ursa into Ponyville that destroyed everything she had including her reputation.

Sighing she went to heat some water for tea wondering if maybe living on the streets would be better. Nomad had never struck her, but he still intimidated her and scared her very much. He threatened her almost daily since she was forced to come back that if she did run away again to run around Equestria doing her magic act then he would get violent. A part of her didn’t want to believe it, but she could see how serious he was. She had a feeling that if he did get violent then she wouldn’t survive it…especially knowing the connections he had.

Not for the first time she found herself wishing that she had a normal father that didn’t have connections in the underworld of Equestria. She wished that she had a father that had loved her unconditionally and not demean her and put her down at every possible chance.

“Trixie, we have a guest.” Nomad said appearing in the small kitchen, as stern look on his face as he glared at her. “You are to treat her as if she is your sister and call her Midnight Rose, Rose for short. Do you understand me?”

“Father, what are you planning?” Trixie asked suspiciously, knowing very well that this had to be one of his plans and there was going to be no way of worming her way out of it like she normally would. He looked too serious to upset and was afraid if she didn’t go along with this then she would face the consequences.

“All you need to know is that she is your sister and if you tell her anything different then you will regret it.” Nomad snarled pushing his muzzle against hers glaring daggers.

“Y-Yes Father.” Trixie stammered nervously.

“Good, bring three cups and the tea when it is finished and don’t you dare mess this up. If you do, you will end up in worse shape than her.” Nomad snapped quietly as he spun around and walked back out to the main floor of the small shop. It was a used bookstore that supplied music lessons and supplies for instruments. Trixie slept in a small apartment in the back while her father slept in the larger apartment over the shop.

Confusion filling her, Trixie gathered the cups and tea pot as well as some tea bags and made her way out into the store to see the curtain drawn and the closed sign up on the door. Her father was sitting at the register across from a mare who had clearly seen better days as the hood on the cloak she was wearing was pulled back with tears falling from her eyes. The poor thing did look like a mess and it was probably because one of the small gangs that roamed the streets. She must have been from a wealthy family or something for her father to do this and no matter how much Trixie didn’t want to go along with this, she was too afraid not to.

Trixie slowed the closer she got, the mane of the mare looking so familiar. Anger and worry filled her over the mare as she realized just who it was, Twilight Sparkle. She wasn’t sure what to do as she almost froze in place. She didn’t want to follow along with what her father wanted, but at the same time…she was afraid not to. She prayed that whatever happened to the poor mare that her father didn’t have anything to do with it. Seeing the glare from her father she pushed all worries from her mind as she carried the tea over to the counter.

“R-Rose…sis…wh-what happened?” Trixie asked, genuinely a little worried yet scared at the same time feeling her father’s glare on her the whole time.

“I…I don’t really know.” The mare sighed shaking her head. “I…I woke up in the hospital and they kicked me.”

“Trixie will help you best she can.” Trixie said nuzzling the mare, most of her anger and hatred draining away seeing Twilight in this condition. No one deserved this, not even her worst enemy.