To Save Equestria

by KalaAWild

Chapter 1: Hope in the Darkest Times

Chapter 1: Hope in the Darkest of Times

Abandoned by society, lost after running away from a home he can’t even remember, hungry from a meal lost in time, Silvershot wanders the Everfree Forest in search of a sign of life that he didn’t have to fight against. The dirt beneath him stabs him with pain as he hasn’t stopped walking for over a hundred days and nights. Every turn, a new danger comes. He can’t remember anything from his past. The beating sun of the day beats his skin with hot rays. His mind slowly becomes uncooperative with his body. Silvershot’s power to even stay awake crumbles with each passing second. His hoof slips under him and he falls face first into the mud of the Everfree forest.

His eyes slowly closed, and he feels the cold touch of death reaching him. His muscles no longer tensed up from aching so much, his stomach ceased to growl with hunger, and his mouth stopped aching with thirst. Silvershot had given up on living until a glimpse of hope saved him. His hope wasn't what he expected, but it was a sure sign.

A screaming filly, the sound of help, told Silvershot to stay alive just a little longer. Silvershot couldn’t die with the thought in his head that he couldn’t save a life. He mustered the last of his strength and used it to gallop towards the screaming filly.

Silvershot stopped himself when he found the filly in distress. An angry bear was confronting the innocent and scared filly, who had a vibrant red mane and tail and a pink bow. The filly’s body was frozen in fear of the bear. She was so scared, all she could do was scream into the empty sky. Silvershot stood in front of the scared filly and planted his hooves into the ground.

“Get out of here!” he said to the filly. “I’ll distract the bear so you can escape."

“How can you fight that bear, sir?” the filly asked Silvershot.

“It doesn’t matter how, as long as you are okay. Now run home!”

The filly took a step, but the frightening bear’s roar made her legs go stiff. The bear, now more furious than ever since Silvershot stepped in to protect the filly, used his deadly claws to attack. Silvershot used his own foreleg to defend himself and the filly. The claws made three even gashes across Silvershot’s leg. He kept his injured leg from touching the ground, trying to keep his balance.

“Go, now!” Silvershot commanded the filly.

The filly’s fear washed away as she witnessed his bravery, and she galloped away as fast as her little legs could. Silvershot kept his eyes on the filly to make sure she got away safely. He suddenly learned that it wasn’t the wisest choice to look away from a battle, as he turned back to the bear to find a very sharp claw coming at him. His hind leg was cut, and he fell to the ground from his inability to stand.

Silvershot saw the bear looming over him and he braces for the coup de grâce to happen. He opened his eyes to see that help had arrived. A pony with an orange coat and a beautiful blonde mane had come to his rescue. The savior bucked the bear in the stomach, and it only took one kick to convince the bear to leave. Silvershot could finally rest in peace; at least long enough to sleep.

His slumber was the most peaceful he had ever had in his whole pony life. His pain washed away, his earthly needs were filled, and his mind recovered to a stable mental state. As time passed, he found out that everypony has to wake up from a blissful sleep. He blinked his eyes open and woke up from a sleep well worth paying his weight back in bits. He pulled himself upright and looked around. The same pony that saved him and the filly he protected stood at the foot of the bed that he lay upon. Hoping he was not dead, they stayed at the food of the bed for hours to make sure he was okay. The ponies were happy that their hero would live another day.

“Hmmm…,” Silvershot moaned in pain. “Thanks for the help.”

“It was not a problem,” the pony said to Silvershot. She had one mighty accent. “I should be thanking you. You protected ma sister with your life. You could've died. This here is Applebloom.”

Silvershot looked at the filly and acknowledged her name. It was a cute name that he liked.

“It is a very nice name. My name is Silvershot,” he greeted Applebloom. He turned back to the older pony. “Don’t mind me asking, but, what is your name?”

“You may ask. Ma name is Applejack and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Silvershot.”

“Can I ask you something?” Applebloom asked Silvershot as she hopped onto his bed.

“What is it?”

“Where did you come from? Where do you live?”

Those questions Applebloom asked him had been the same questions that had eluded him for days. He couldn’t remember where he came from, who his family and friends were, and ultimately his own self. During his travels in the Everfree forest, the only thing he could clearly remember was his name. If he ever lost his name, it would be like dropping his soul. The grey maned Silvershot admitted to Applejack and Applebloom that he couldn’t remember anything about himself. He was just happy that some ponies came to his rescue before he almost died.

He discovered a tight sensation around his legs that had been annoying him the entire time he had been awake. When he looked down at his legs, he saw that they were wrapped in medical bandages in a professional fashion. The bandages had been stained with blood; his own blood. He hid his legs shyly under the covers of the bed.

“What's got you riled up?” Applejack asked

“You patched my legs up,” Silvershot muttered. “You didn't have to do that.”

“Of course I do. I owe you for saving ma sister. I want to help you remember your past, it's the least I can do. If you'd like, we can look at your cutie mark. Maybe that would help.”

Silvershot had forgotten what a cutie mark was. The sound of a “cutie mark” sounded ridiculous to him. Applebloom, being a Cutie Mark Crusader, explained to him what a cutie mark was. A cutie mark was a marking on a pony’s flank that told what his or her special talent was. This special talent set the pony apart from any other alive. Having the cutie mark as a possible identity card for him, he pulled the covers off. Silvershot got off the soft chicken feathered bed to look at his cutie mark. He thought that nothing would be there because he did not even know that a cutie mark exists. He didn’t even care what was on his flank until Applebloom explained the details to him. He turned his neck to see his flank and saw a silver star. His head hurt with a minor pain but it vanished just as fast as it appeared. He looked at his flank again to see the cutie mark. The silver star had four points in it and a hollowed out hole in its center.

“I wonder what a silver star means?” Silvershot said out loud.

“I don’t have the slightest idea, but I know a special pony who can help,” Applejack said, coming up with an idea. “Can you walk?”

He thought he couldn’t even walk since his legs were bandaged up so tightly. His knees soared with pain whenever he walked, but he said that he was going to be okay. Applejack told Applebloom to stay home, as she left with Silvershot. The two stepped down a flight of stairs and left Applejack's house. He saw the majestic and enormous Sweet Apple Acres as he stepped through the front door. The apple farm is huge for a farm and delectable apples hung from trees. Silvershot couldn’t help but stare at the scenery. Applejack told him that the Apple family had been selling apples all over Equestria. She, along with her brother Big Macintosh, had been picking apples for the majority of their lives.

Silvershot didn’t remember if he had ever worked as hard as she does. All he could do was stare in awe at the apple farm. The two walked down a dirt road to the Sweet Apple Acres sign and down another road into town.

“So, where are we again?” his curiosity speaking for him.

“We are in Ponyville, one of the nicest towns in all of Equestria. If you lived here, you would love it too,” she replied. She smiled at him when she complimented her hometown. “My friend, Twilight Sparkle, is a unicorn. She can help you.”

“A unicorn? Really?”

“Yes, sir! Don’t you know that there are three types of ponies? There are us Earth ponies, Pegasus, and unicorns.”

“I never knew that.”

“You amnesia is worse than I thought, sugar-cube. Let’s hurry to Twilight’s place.”

In the back of his mind, he believed it. He couldn’t understand basic terms that even fillies knew. If it were up to him, he would ask Princess Celestia to change him back into a filly to relive his life again. Silvershot knew he couldn’t turn back time, but his future was dependent on his past. They got into Ponyville a couple of minutes later and tried their best to get to Twilight Sparkle’s abode. Silvershot’s heavy and injured legs made it difficult to accelerate his pace any faster. Along with that, the town was experiencing heavy traffic with ponies returning to their homes from work.

Each time he looked at a store, it looked like he was going to do some window shopping. He admired the nicely crafted merchandise in the windows of shops he passed by. Applejack told him the story behind the shop and how she knew the story. Her grandmother, Granny Smith, founded Ponyville when she was a young filly with her family. The stories she told him raised his spirits high. He became more hopeful that he would regain his memories with each story he heard from her.

“There it is.”

She pointed a hoof at the Golden Oaks library where Twilight Sparkle lived. Twilight Sparkle was Ponyville’s librarian, probably Equestria's smartest pony ever, and one of Applejack's closest friends. Applejack walked over to the library and knocked on the door with her hoof. The door came to life before Silvershot and opened without a pony opening it from the other side.

Inside the library, Twilight Sparkle, a unicorn with a purple mane with pink highlights and an even lighter purple coat, was studying from her book. Owlowiscious, her pet owl, sat perched on a branch sticking out from a tree trunk. Much like her owl, Twilight looked like she could fall asleep at any time. Applejack shook her awake to make sure she didn't do so. Twilight’s eyes went all dizzy, but returned to normal when she shook her head vigorously.

“Thanks for that, Applejack,” Twilight Sparkle said. “What can I help you with?”

“My new friend here, Silvershot, lost his memory, and I was wondering if you could fix him,” Applejack requested.

“Aw, I feel awful. I think I know a spell that can help you, but let’s see his cutie mark first.”

Twilight’s unicorn horn glowed with a bright light that frightened Silvershot. He had never seen magic before; at least he did not remember any magic. Another light glowed on the bookshelf behind him. He turned to the bookshelf and saw a book coming off of the shelf. The book was titled, “How to Identify Cutie Marks for Ponies”. It floated over to Twilight and she opened the book. She began to recite the information that she discovered.

“An edged marking on a pony’s flank indicates that the pony is brave and courageous beyond his age. Four edges mean he has a prowess unmatched by any pony since an edge represents a skill. A star means he is a very handy-pony with tools,” Twilight Sparkle read out loud. “This is a breakthrough! I am glad I got this book in Canterlot when I did.”

“His bravery is sure true. He risked his own life to save my kin,” Applejack yelped.

“Could we try that memory spell?” Silvershot asked. “I think now that I know that much about my cutie mark, I could remember something better.”

“Okay, um, you are going to need this.” Twilight gives him a small rag. “Bite that. Applejack, please stand back.”

Applejack did as she was told and stood back a couple of hooves away. Twilight assumed a spell casting position across from Silvershot and prepared a spell. Her horn glowed with light and then another level of light appeared on top of that. A light glowed on Silvershot and the two mares in the room went into shock. A unicorn horn popped out of his head when Twilight starts the spell. Silvershot touched the horn with his unscathed hoof; it was real, and it was hard as bone. Applejack jumped when the horn just popped up. Could Silvershot be a unicorn, not an Earth pony? With his horn glowing a gray, translucent light and Twilight’s horn glowing a purple light, Silvershot’s head pinged with pain again as the spell made him remember his past.

Silvershot closed his eyes and watched his memories unfold. He was watching the memory from the sky but he could interact with it. He forced himself to a solid piece of ground. The first part of the memory was sound; the sound of screaming ponies creeped into his head like a thief in the night. The screaming was unbearable to hear. No sane pony could stand listening to it. It was almost like the memory intended to torture him that way. The next thing in the memory was the feeling of touch. Under his hooves, he could no longer feel the hard wooden floor of Twilight's library. He could feel dirt beneath him, and it felt loose.

“Ash?” Silvershot muttered as he felt the ground with his hooves.

Suddenly, his body was burning in the air around him. The feeling was worse than the time when he wandered into the desert on the west side of the Everfree forest. The feeling of sound and touch didn’t compare when sight and smell came next. When he could finally see, he saw cottages burning in blazing fires, smoke filling his lungs, and ash falling down to the ground like snow in winter. A ghost image of himself breaks off from his ‘body’ and ran away from the fire. Silvershot was slightly scared when he saw himself moving without him actually moving. He understood that he was in his memory. The ghost fell into a pile of ash when he could no longer see it.

A pony with a yellow golden mane, light red coat, an orange tail, and white eyes came galloping to the ghost image's aid. The pony held a hoof out to Silvershot for him to take. Silvershot coughed a cloud of ash from his mouth and took the pony’s hoof.

“Silvershot, my friend,” the pony yelled to Silvershot. “I can’t control the fires. We have to go!”

Silvershot remembered the pony’s name. “Ember Burst,” he said to the pony. “I can save my village. Just go on without me!”

She didn’t deny Silvershot’s command once she was given it. She galloped away toward the mountains and didn’t stop. Silvershot could see Ember Burst until a cottage fell in front of his sight. He lifted his hoof and his unicorn horn appeared. The unicorn magic within him created his tool of trade that Twilight tried to discover. A metal edged star appeared in Silvershot’s hoof.

His memory began to fade away from him before it could continue. His senses wore away in a certain order. First, he couldn’t hear what was going on in the memory. The screaming, at least, stopped; but he would never forget it again. Then, the smell of the burning wood of the cottages dissipated. His touch disappeared next. His sight didn’t disappear until the memory finished. Silvershot saw a silhouette of a Pegasus in the fire, and the ghost gets spooked.

“Why am I scared? Is this how I felt, whenever this happened?” he asked the mirror image of himself. The memory could not respond back, or it did not want to expose the secrets within.

The doppelganger ran away into the Everfree forest, and the memory ended.

Silvershot was out of breath when he opened his eyes to the real world. He looked down at his hooves and massaged his legs, since he could still remember the burns of the fires. Every sense was accurate and every emotion that he was immersed in felt real. Applejack walked up to him and raised his chin. She could see a frown growing ever so slowly on his face.

“My home…,” Silvershot said to her and Twilight Sparkle. “My home was destroyed and it was my fault.”