> Forgotten Memories > by ShadowVoltstreaker > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Just A Normal Day > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I woke up, got out of bed, brushed my teeth, and went into the kitchen… just like every other day. Everything seems to run together now… well, except when I hang out with my buddies... there's Chris, a general a nice guy, though he has a short patience and is a little bit of a smart ass. There's Zach, my co-worker and my other half... literally, he acts like me but without restraint. And, he's also the musical dude. Then there's Issac, our smart guy. He's an inventor all the way down to the last molecule, I've actually been the, as he calls it, 'Guinea Pig' in most of his experiments, and I have the scars to prove it! Now Zeke, he may seem like a shy guy, but he's a tough smooth talker, or so he claims. Then there's Victor, youngest of the group, but you'd think he was the oldest one with how he acts. He has a sense of authority that Rivals Kyle. Speaking of Kyle, he's our Military Brony. Been in the Marine 9 years, he's earned the rank . Though he can sometimes be quiet, but as soon as a good conversation is started you can bet your sweet ass he's going to join in. And I can't forget about Jordan, this guy is tough and will usually say what's on his mind and he's just like me when it comes to how we treat friends. Whenever I'm with those dudes… there's never a dull day. I honestly can't remember how we all met… but I don't really question it since I'm pretty forgetful. But there’s no doubt that it has something to do with the fact that we're all Bronies… Big bronies… It took 10 seconds flat for us to tell each other our favorite ponies after meeting. My, Issac, and Chris' favorite pony is Rainbow Dash, Victor's is Fluttershy, Kyle's is Luna, Zach's is Vinyl, Zeke's is Twilight, Jordan's is Applejack. To be more Bronylicious, we all made our own OC's… well we made about 10 each, but yeah… I think Chris settled on an orange Unicorn colt with light blue eyes and a yellow and orange mane and a Blink-182 logo cutie mark and named him Solar. While Issac went with a jet-black Pegasus with a tail and mane as dark as its coat, with metallic gold eyes, and the Group 935 logo as its cutie mark and named him Shadow Storm… and yet the rest of us can't decide on a name or an OC just yet… Well today's Saturday so we can see the new episode of MLP, so maybe I'll get an idea from it… Opening the fridge and getting out the milk I twist off the cap and chug it. "Ahhh… this is how a man lives…" I said to no one in particular. Putting back on the cap and putting it in the fridge I shut it and run upstairs to take a shower and get dressed. Hopping out the shower I put on my usual clothes, Black baggy gothic jeans with a grey brony T-shirt with black and red Shoes, grabbed my Gamestop I.D. card, my phone, my wallet, and car keys, and sped out the door. Softly slamming the door I walk down the path and hop in my car. Turning the key and starting my 1998 Dodge Durango I drive carefully to work like I do everyday… Ok so I sped down the road to work, I love my job… nothing wrong with that is there? "I really gotta stop talking to myself…" Parking in the parking lot of Gamestop I hop out and stroll inside like a boss. Zach was already here doing a trade-in… "Hey there scruffy." I call him Scruffy since his hair looks like it got tackled by a hurricane, slapped by a Llama, and blow dried with a Kangaroo fart... but at least his clothes didn't look that way... His black and blue Vinyl Scratch shirt and dark blue jeans were something I’d kinda wanted but never really went out to buy. I quickly looked at my shoes, then his, then back to mine... "Did he steal my other pair of shoes?" . ________________________________________ Work went by pretty fast… I went in at 7:15am and clocked out at about 5:00pm. "So what's on the agenda today?" Zach asked after slapping me on the back. "Well…" I thought, rubbing my back. "We could check if the rest of the gang is free I guess." 'Buzzz Buzzz' Looking at my phone I smiled, "Speaking of the gang." Hitting the 'Talk' button I say, "Hello? This is dog." On the other end I hear Zeke say, "Dog? This is cat." Then I hear Issac say, "Dog and Cat? This is Ostrich." Then Chris says, "Dog? Cat? Ostrich? This is Walrus." Kyle then says, "Dog? Cat? Ostrich? Walrus? This is Duck." Victor then says, "Dog? Cat? Ostrich? Walrus? Duck? This is Monkey." Finally Jordan says, "Dog? Cat? Ostrich? Walrus? Duck? Monkey? This is Turkey." Out of nowhere Zach grabs the phone and says, "Everypony. This… is Sparta." I grab my phone and put it to my ear, ready to tell them who that was, but instead of silence I get a dial-tone. In the distance I hear, "We all hung up after we heard Sparta!" looking out in the parking lot I see Zeke, Issac, Jordan, Kyle, and Victor standing next to my car. Smirking I reply, "I had no control of it!" and jogged with Zach over to them. Zeke is wearing a black shirt with black pants, black and white shoes. And has a gold chain around his neck. He has spiky medium black hair and blue eyes. Chris has dark blond hair, and green eyes and he’s wearing a brown collared shirt with cargo pants. Issac is wearing a white shirt with a diagonal blue line and black jeans, he has black and shaggy hair with golden eyes. Jordan had light brown hair that was eye length, emerald green eyes, and was wearing a yellow shirt with long black sleeves, black pants, a yin-yang necklace, and white converses with yellow laces. Kyle had dark brown hair with a military buzz cut, with Forest Brown eyes and his marine uniform on. While Victor had short brown curly hair, gold eyes and was wearing a grey sweatshirt and jeans. Anyways we all piled into my and Zach's car, because it's better to carpool, and drove over to my house for some awesomeness! I parked in the drive way as Zach pulled up next to me, getting out the car I walk to my front door and unlock it. Opening it I walk inside with everyone trailing behind me. I immediately walk into the kitchen and look at my list that shows what drink they all like, because I got tired of asking, and pull out each respective drink. I went with a Root Beer, Zach and Kyle went with Mountain Dew, Issac got a Sprite, Victor got a Dr. Pepper, while Zeke and Jordan went with a Coke. Popin' the tab I take a seat and flip open my laptop while everyone else was at their respective station. ________________________________________ Allow me to explain, my living room has a large L shaped couch in the middle and surrounding it are the kitchen, bathroom, PS3 corner, XBOX corner, and the TV in front of the couch. Each corner has a fairly large TV and a small table… It's every gamers fantasy… our Final Fantasy… get off my back. ________________________________________ While they all played their games or watched TV I decided I'd do… something on my computer… "I completely forgot what I was going to do…" "You always do." Zach said, taking a quick glance at me before returning to his game. "Play some games or something, that should jog your memory." Issac told me. "Oh hey I remember now! I was about to get on FFXI." I said, finally remembering. "Just like always…" Victor replied, shaking his head then returning back to his games. Ignoring his comment and clicking on the PlayOnline icon I log into FFXI. There was little talk going on. It was actually all screaming and shouting. Zach would yell at Jordan, Jordan would yell at Zach; Issac was kinda silent besides the mumbling to himself; Kyle and Victor we’re both doing Co-op on Modern Warfare 3 and started sounding like they should be on the field; and Chris was beside me on his Laptop, occasionally looking up and laughing at the others. Going back to my game, I solo'd a few NMs in Abyssea on my Ninja and ended with a Lv. 5 Besieged on my Ranger before logging off and closing my laptop. I look at the clock on the wall and see that it's 10:00pm now. Then I realized I could've looked at the clock on my laptop and face-palmed. "Ok guys… game time is over, MLP time is now." "Roger that." They all replied and gathered on the couch. "Now then my fine gents… this is the episode we have been waiting for!" I shouted, my voice echoing throughout my house. "Yeah!" Zach shouted, mimicking Snowflake's voice. "But, as is tradition…" I pulled out a Top hat that had a lot of paper folded inside, "We shall watch any one episode of whoever's name is called out." I then stuck my hand inside and, after creating a miniature paper tornado in the hat I grabbed one and held it up. After setting down the hat I unfolded the paper and paused for dramatic effect, "….Clean the house… this… this is the wrong hat…" Everyone face-palmed and then Jordan brought me the real name hat, "Thank you… now then I'm not gonna waste any time, so I'll just pick out a name now." I again stuck my hand in and pulled out a piece of paper. I closed my eyes and opened it and then opened my eyes, "Kyle." "Sweet. I choose the Luna Eclipsed episode!" Kyle blurted out instantly. "All righty then, Luna Eclipsed it is." Turning around I brought up my recorded episodes and scrolled down to the episode. The episode starts and everyone is quiet, just silently watching. Then Pinkie says, "Enough Chit Chat! Time is candy!" and then one of us says "Whoo!" we all exchange glances before looking back to the TV. Then the opening begins… And it is inevitable at what is going to happen… All at once we sing along, My Little Pony, My Little Pony Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahhh... (My Little Pony) I used to wonder what friendship could be (My Little Pony) Until you all shared its magic with me Big adventure Tons of fun A beautiful heart Faithful and strong Sharing kindness It's an easy feat And magic makes it all complete You have my little ponies Do you know you're all my very best friends? After the song finishes we clap and wait for the episode to start. A little while later Rainbow Dash pokes her head out from around the building in her ShadowBolt uniform and goes over Pinkie and all the kids to scare them. "Always funny…" I whisper to myself. Finally she scares them and flies off, laughing. Then the part where AJ is letting ponies bob for apples comes. And I notice something… "Derpy was outside the barrel and ninja'd her way inside! Ninja Derpy memes, gogo." "Hey Slowpoke calm down." Victor says after slapping me in the back of the head. Finally the scene where Luna shows up is here and Zeke says, "And so the plot thickens…" "But I don't see Celestia and some cake anywhere." I comment, jokingly. "No more comments until the episode is finished." Victor said. "No promises." Jordan mumbles. We get through a few scenes and then the scene where Fluttershy is running away from Luna comes. Then Twilight shuts the door and she slams into it cartoon like. "Better. Right Fluttershy?" Twilight asks Fluttershy, who removes her face from the door, giggles and says "Yes." "Ha!" I shout, because it was a funny scene and that is my trademark laugh. Everyone just ignores me… then Luna says "Ha ha! The fun has been doubled!" Everyone tries to stay silent… but then Luna says, "Huzzah! How many points do I receive?" And… we all just clap and cheer… then Luna cancels Nightmare Night… and then she walks away on the bridge, looking sad… "Poor Luna…" Issac says, exactly what we were thinking. 7 minutes later the episode ends and I say, "Fantastic episode…" "Yep… now its time for the new one." Zack says. Nodding my head I brought back up the recorded episodes list and scrolled up to the new episode, Sleepless in Ponyville. 25 minutes later the episode ends and were all laughing and clapping. "Man that was a great episode, I love how badass Rainbow Dash was." "Yeah, and why did Rarity need to bring that gigantic house with her?" Issac asked us. "Does that even need to be asked? She's Rarity. Nuff said." Victor stated flatly. "Wait… I know she's the princess of the night and everything, but why would she just stroll into another pony's dream?" Jordan asked. "Do not question Luna logic!" I shouted and softly backhanded him, leaving all of us laughing again. After a few minutes we finally settle down and I decide to call it a night. "Why do you go to sleep so early?" Kyle asked one of the most obvious questions… "Because I'm a Lucid Dreamer and I had to adjust my sleep schedule so that I could Lucid Dream effectively… and I've gotten used to it." After answering that question I was even more tired than before… so I went upstairs to get some Zzz's while everyone else just started playing some video games. I went in my room and shut the door. Walking towards my bed I fall to the ground, at the foot of the bed… "I'm too tired to walk…" I then proceed to crawl under my covers, place my head on my pillow and pass out. > The Bet Is On > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Sunday… fuck it is Sunday isn’t it?” I mumbled to myself as soon as the light from my window hit my eye. “No way I’ll be able to get back to sleep now anyways…” I got out of bed and wobbled over to the bathroom to brush my teeth and comb my hair, I’d take a shower now but I’m scared that I’ll pass out. “Coffee first.. Shower later.” Exiting the bathroom I walk down the stairs and see them all passed out in some awkward position… “Scare friends, coffee, and then shower.” I smile. Walking into the kitchen I grab my air horn off the top of the fridge and go back into the living room. I then turn on my video camera and say, “Well here I am again, friends are passed out and I’m going to use this” I put the air horn in front of the camera, “To gently wake them up.” Slowly, I aim the air horn at them and press down on the button. HOOOOOONNK! Each of them screamed and either fell onto the floor, bumped into something, or both. Except Kyle, he just shot up and stood at attention… “Well then. I think we can all agree that those reactions were satisfactory. Now then, I’m going to turn off the camera before it gets broken.” I said to my future viewers and quickly shut off the camera and placed it on the kitchen counter. Turning around I see that each of them have one of the most horrifying expressions I’ve ever seen. “Give us one reason we shouldn’t shove that camera down your throat…” Issac said with a rage unlike I’ve ever seen. “Gotta calm them down somehow.. Oh hey I know!” “It was for Youtubez!” I shouted and pumped my fist in the air. “Wrong answer.” Kyle said and cracked his neck. They all then took a few steps forward, while I took one back. “Wait! If you destroy me now, it will only make me stronger!” I shouted again. “We’ll take that chance.” They all said at more or less the same time. Jordan quickly charged and grabbed my arm, then Chris came and got my left… I was trapped! “Now then… because shoving that camera in your ass would be a painful experience for us all, I vote we give you a fate equal to that of a camera up the ass, what say all of you?” Issac said with a grin. “Sounds good.” Kyle said with the same grin. “That oughta learn him.” Zeke laughed. “An eye for an eye.” Zach began. “And a tooth for a tooth.” Jordan finished. “This oughta be good.” Chris chuckled. “Well this is going to hurt you.” Victor laughed. An hour later everyone had taken a shower and was fully dressed. But not only did I not get my coffee, but now I think I’m legally deaf in my right ear… “Déjà vu…” I mumbled to myself as I rubbed my ear. “Stop worrying about your ear Tristan, we all got hit with it too.” Jordan said as he put a cup of coffee in front of me. “Thanks…” I took the coffee from him and took a quick sip. “Ahhh ya just gotta love French Vanilla…” “By the way, I finally decided on which OC I would use.” Jordan said as he walked over to the computer station, sat down, and began typing. “Oh? Which one?” I got up and stood behind him. He opened up a folder named, ‘OC’ and began scrolling before he finally stopped on one. He double clicked the image and brought it up. “This one. Named him Fortune Caster.” It was a Unicorn colt with a mane and tail that were Light brown, and had a silvery white streak through them. The mane was similar to Pony Joe’s but it was slightly longer and hung a little bit to the left. The eyes were Green with slight blue in some areas. The coat was pale yellow. And the Cutie Mark was Four white stars surrounding a dark brown shield with a silver sword behind it. And I think he photoshoped a pony sized sword in there. “Wow… that cutie mark is amazing dude! Awesome, you finally chose an OC and named him at that!” I slowly wiped a tear from my eye, “They grow up so fast…” “Thanks and screw you. Have you picked an OC yet?” “Well…” I motioned him to move out the chair and, when he did I sat down and brought up a folder named, ‘Tristan OC’ I think that I had 30 or so in here, not sure since I forgot. “It’s a decision between these two.” I closed the picture of his OC, brought up mine and placed them side by side. One was a pitch black Pegasus with a red and blue mane/tail. The mane looked similar to Vinyl Scratch’s while the tail was long and spiky. He had black eyes and no cutie mark. The other was a dark brown Pegasus with a gold and dark red mane/tail. The mane looked similar to Soarin’s besides the length, while the tail looked just like the other’s. The eyes were red and just like the last one, this one had no cutie mark… “What’s up with you not being able to find a cutie mark?” “It’s hard for me ok? My brain easily changes its mind no matter what I’m doing… So if I even finally picked a cutie mark for my OC, as soon as it’s been fully made my brain would say ‘Nah bro, you gotta redo this, that cutie mark sucks and you should be ashamed.’” “Well then stop listening to what your brain tells you and listen to what your heart tells you.” Jordan replied with a smile. “My heart eh? I haven’t listened to that sappy bastard since he cost me a girlfriend.” “What are you talking about? You haven’t had a girlfriend; if you did then you’d be bragging about her!” He’s right… But, who is it that I have this… vague memory of?... “Yeah. Whatever, look I’ll make you a bet. If I can’t come up with a cutie mark in two days, then I’ll… uhm.. go without video games for a whole month!” “Whoa that’s a pretty heavy bet, remember when your power went out and you were freaking out because you couldn’t do anything-“ “but then I remembered I could play games on my phone, yeah yeah I remember it, that’s why you already know this is a bet you can’t refuse.” “Well what happens if you do come up with a cutie mark?” “If I do, then all of you…” “Wait all of us are playing in this bet?” Jordan cut me off. “Yes. You guys can hear me right?” I shouted up the stairs and got a ‘Yep’ as a response. “Ok then, if I win this bet, then you all have to listen to a reading of ‘Sweet Apple Massacre’” “You’re a sick man! But take him on the bet Jordan!” I heard Zach shout from upstairs. “Well there you have it. Looks like you’ve got yourself a deal.” Jordan stuck out his hand for a handshake. I smirked and shook his hand, “And may the best man win.” > Giving a Name > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After making the bet with Jordan and everybody else we all took a shower, went out for something to eat, went to the movies, rode bikes, watched the sunset… Ok I lied about the last two things… Kyle went On Base to handle some business, so we all just went back to my place to play some games and watch TV. After about 2 hours of pure gaming, Kyle came back, yawned, and picked up a controller to play Halo with Chris and Zach. A while later my eyes started to get heavy, so I decided to call it a night… I didn’t have work tomorrow, everyone else did, but not me. My boss told me that I was working too hard and that I should take a rest… I could tell Zach was trying his best not to scream, “Bullshit!” It was really funny to watch… “Oh man why the hell did I make that bet?! I’ll never be able to come up with a cutie mark!” I whispered to myself as I was sitting on the edge of my bed. “Ok Tristan calm down… You can do this. Who knows, maybe you’ll think of something in your dreams.” My eyes widened, “My dreams! You’re a genius Tristan!... I mean, I’m a genius…” I quickly slapped myself and laid down in bed, waiting to fall asleep. I hopped out of bed and yawned, “Must… take… piss…” I mumbled, opening the dorr I stop and look at the ground to make sure I wasn’t going insane. “Fuck… the floor is gone… Wonder if I could piss down here.” Then it hit me, “Oh wait, I’m dreaming… I’m still very curious though… No! You are a grown man, you will not subject yourself to such childish antics!” I turned away from the bottomless trench and materialized a door, then twisted the knob and entered. Inside the room was nothing, just pure white in all directions. “now then, to test what I was thinking…” I closed my eyes and thought about the images of the ponies that I created, and opened my eyes. In front of me, were actually my two OCs, both nameless, both blank flanks… “Well then you two, we have to come up with both a name and cutie mark for yourselves.” I told both of the ponies in front of me. They scanned the room, looked at each other, then to me. The brown one got on his hind legs and shrugged, “I’m not so good at this kind of thinkin stuff.” While the pitch black one sat down and said, “Why can’t you just come up with this kind of stuff?” Both of them had my voice, this was creepy, yet awesome. “Because I suck at these kinds of things too. Now come on, just yell out random names, there are no wrong answers.” “I wish to be called Byrgandie Streak!” the brown colt shouted… (A/N: He’ll be colt 1 and the other will be colt 2, Because when I say ‘the brown one’ I feel racist towards myself xD) “then I want to be called Shadow Voltstreaker!” Colt 2 shouted. “I was wrong to say there are no wrong answers… horribly wrong… And the name Shadow has been taken by Issac.” I sighed. This went on for a good 10 minutes… Colt 1 wanted to be called: Blazing Tempest, Falling Flame, Still Comet, Slyphor, or Tysus… all of which I rejected, even though Blazing Tempest sounded amazing… it was kinda generic. Colt 2 wanted to be called: Slick, Phantom Run, Resheph, Iridium, Flamnous Chill, or Clyded Flux… not gonna lie, I kinda liked the name Clyded Flux, it was original, and it was well thought up. “Clyded Flux actually sounds pretty cool…” I said to myself. “but what will your cutie mark be?” “My cutie wha?” Colt 2 tilted his head to the side. “How will your cutie mark look?” Colt 1 nudged him in the side. “Uhm… Not sure. You coulda told us that we needed to know what our cutie marks would be when we came up with a name.” “Thought it was implied.” I shrugged as I took a sip of tea. “Well then, if we have to have a cutie mark that goes with our names…” A grin creeped over Colt 1’s mouth. “How about my name be Vague Blaze, and my cutie mark be a controller?” A controller? Well I am a heavy gamer… so why not? Just in case, I’ll test him. “What kind of controller?” He didn’t even flinch, he may have been waiting for this response, “A Nintendo 64 controller.” I felt my eyes widen, “Yes… Looks like you win. Colt 2, just so you aren’t left alone… I’m going to put you in Colt 1’s… I mean, Vague Blaze’s mind. And before you complain.” I snapped my fingers, sending… Clyde into Vague’s mind. “He says, ‘fuck you sir’.” Vague laughed. “Well he certainly has a rather colorful vocabulary.” I smiled. ~Equestria, Two days after departure~ Soulflight’s POV “Hey Soul are we there yet?” Hottrot said to me as he was bouncing ahead. “If we weren’t there the last 20 times you asked do you think we’ll be there now?” I replied to him. “Only asked cause there’s a sign right up there.” He said as he pointed his hoof at something in the distance. I narrowed my eyes and tried to see what he was pointing at, “What is it? I can’t see.” “I’ll meet you there, don’t keep me waiting!” his horn charged and then poof, he was gone. “Why didn’t you just take me with you…” I face-hoofed, spread my wings and took off in the direction he pointed. Hottrot’s POV I appeared in front of the sign that I saw before and smiled, “Now all I’ve gotta do is wait for him…” I then felt a tingle in my brain, I could tell something was coming, “My pony senses are tingling! Something must be on it’s way to greet me!” I looked into the town and saw something pink coming towards me, and fast. Before I knew it, it had zoomed straight past me. Turning around I see… it’s a pony, a pink earth pony… “Well hello there!” I shouted to her. “HimynameisPinkie!” This mare talks pretty fast… But I can do better. I took in a deep breath and said, “HimynameisHottrotnicetomeetyou!” “Nicetomeetyoutoo.” She giggled and snorted… cute. “Well Pinkie, you may have another pony to greet, but first…” I trotted up to her ear and whispered something in it, she gasped and furiously nodded her head. “This is going to be fun!” I shouted. Soulflight’s POV After flying for a good 5 minutes I finally saw what he was pointing at. Landing, I look around, “Where the buck did he go? Wonder if he went inside already…” as I saw talking to myself I heard something coming towards me from behind the sign. The hooves looked like Hottrot’s so I just smiled, “So that’s where you were dude.” When the pony came into view, it was Hottrot, but he had on a gray beard and was using a cane to move towards me, “What took you so long?” he grumbled. “What’s up with the beard there Starswirl?” I laughed. “Can you expect a pony not to grow a beard waiting for you?” he grumbled as he moved around me in a circle. “Ok jokes over, take off the beard.” I grabbed the beard and tried to pull it off, only for it to slip out of my hooves and send Hottrot rolling into the sign. “What the… did you glue that on your chin?” He stroked his beard a few times before replying, “Perhaps.” I once more, face-hoof and sigh, “You’re a Grade-A moron… let’s just go into town, buy a house, and live out our lives ok?” “I haven’t much time left…” he replied. Before I knew it, he was lying down, had a flower in his hooves, and a blank tombstone behind him… I stared at him for a while, looked around to make sure nopony was watching, and walked over to him. “But you can’t leave yet… there’s so much that you haven’t yet experienced!” I kneeled down and grinned, “Like Hay Bacon.” Hottrot’s POV “Nice work with the hay bacon thing there buddy. Guess it’s time to end this joke.” I whispered to myself from behind the sign. I fixed my facial expression and slowly trotted out into the open, “Hey Soul what took ya so long?” Soul had the most priceless look on his face! He looked from me, to Pinkie, then back to me and his mouth dropped open! The Hottrot costume that Pinkie had on exploded and left her lying there, giggling and laughing so hard. And in no time I was right beside her, dying of laughter. “O-ok… I see what you did now… but where the buck did you get the costume?” Soul said after he calmed down. “Well…” I chuckled and looked to Pinkie who shook her head and giggled. “I cannot tell you that.” He looked from me, to Pinikie, then back to me, and sighed, “Whatever… By the way, I’m-“ “Soulflight. And I’m Pinkie Pie, nice to meet you.” Pinkie finished for him and shook his hoof. “I’m guessing that Hottrot here told you my name?” “Uhh no I haven’t said anything.” I looked at Pinkie, “how’d you know that was his name?” “Sorry, but I made a Pinkie promise with Blaze to never ever tell anypony. My lips are sealed.” She did a ‘zipper’ motion across her mouth with her hoof. “Who’s Blaze?” Soul asked her. “Well he’s” before she finished she gasped really loudly and shot into the air, “My cupcakes!” and zoomed off into the town and out of sight. “Well she seems like a pretty interesting mare.” Soul laughed. “I think I’m in love…” I whispered to myself. “What?” “I said I saw a dove.” I repeated and starting trotting into town. “Sure ya did.” > Making An Appearance > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Well it looks like we’ve pretty much got everything about you down Vague.” I smiled. Me and Vague Blaze had been talking for a while about how his personality and preferences are. And I think that we’ve finally gotten everything sorted out. “Yep.” he responded. “Ok now then, just in case you forgot, tell me about yourself.” I challenged him. “We’re doing this because you forgot aren’t we?” he grinned… bastard knows me too well. “Sure are. Now begin.” I materialized a comfy sofa for me to sit in and flopped down professionally while I listened to him. “I’m Vague Blaze a 23 year old colt who enjoys video games, jokes, food, jokes, apple cider, beer, jokes, and the occasional romance.” “Is that really all we got? What the hell have we been doing all this time?” I asked, dumbfounded at how little information we got in, seemingly, hours. Vague just sighed and pointed his hoof in the direction of something. Following it with my eyes I notice a swing set and a tire swing on a tree… “I don’t even remember creating that! But… that does look like fun…” “Resist it Tristan! I believe in you!” Vague shouted at me. “Unable… to resist…” It’s like the swing set was pulling me in… I had no way to stop it! But, thankfully, and sadly, Vague charged over and tackled me. ~Earth~ I woke up with a sharp pain in my side, and a horrible ache in my back. Granted, I was on the floor, so of course I already know what happened. “Screw all of you… wasn’t blasting the air horn in my ear good enough for you?” I mumbled and slowly started to lift myself off the ground. As soon as I was in a standing position I picked up the covers off the floor and chucked them on the bed. After that half-rage I looked at the clock and noticed it was ’12:35’ “Wait… they have to get to work early in the morning… how long have I been on the floor?” I started to think about it for a while but quickly forgot about it. I took another glance at the clock and saw that it was now ’12:40’. “Welp, guess it’s time to start the day.” I stretch and yawn and make my way to the bathroom for a shower. After my shower I had a quick shave and walked out of the bathroom in mah birthday suit. “This really is how a man lives…” I do a quick pose as if I’ve just vanquished a dragon and walk into my room to get dressed. After I’m dressed I run downstairs and go into the kitchen, make myself a bowl of cereal, and begin to vegetate on the couch. ~Equestria~ Soul’s POV “This is the place she told us to meet her right?” I asked Hottrot. “Yep. The big tree in the middle of town, kinda hard to forget.” He confirmed. “Well then come on, we’ll be living here in Ponyville so we have to get to know everypony. May as well start with her.” I put a hoof up to knock on the door but Hottrot stopped me. “What is it?” “I sense something… there’s something behind this door…” “No way! I thought there would be absolutely nothing behind this door!” “Fine, don’t believe me. But I’ll be the one who’s safe behind my shield.” He replied and pulled an umbrella out of nowhere and opened it up. Rolling my eyes I knock on the door causing it to slowly open. Inside was a library, but that’s about all. There wasn’t a pony waiting for us, “Wait, did we get the wrong tree?” “How many gigantic trees with windows do you see in Ponyville?” Hottrot replied, still hiding behind his umbrella. Face hoofing I say, “Dude would you put up the umbrella already?” He peeked from behind the umbrella and said, “Give it a second.” Then hid again. “Give what a second? There’s no reason to have an umbrella out for Celestia’s sake!” I shouted, and almost as if on cue something shot at us from inside, I was hit with it while it just slid off Hottrot’s umbrella. “Told ya.” He mocked me as he threw his umbrella to the side. “what is this stuff?” I lifted my hoof up to my nose and sniffed it, “….Cake?” “did you say cake?” he bounced all around me shouting, “cake cake cake!” after a while he settled down, opened his mouth, and literally all of the cake was vacuumed off of me. “Yum yum vanilla.” He smiled and licked his mouth. Hottrot’s POV After eating that delicious cake I turned around to the inside of the library, “Well Pinkie this is quite the surprise.” I smiled. “Aww poo how’d you know I was here?” she said as she materialized from seemingly nowhere and started giggling. “I could smell you’re mane, smells like cotton candy.” “New shampoo.” She replied casually. “Anyways, I wanted to say…” she took a deep breath and shouted, “SURPRISE!” and as if on cue, so many ponies just came out of nowhere and shouted, “Welcome to Ponyville!” Soul’s POV We met with a lot of the ponies in Ponyville, like Bonbon, Lyra, Cheerilee and a few of her students, most of the apple family, Derpy Hooves, Cloudchaser and Mayor Mare. After talking with them for a while Pinkie pulled us over to another group of ponies. “These are my PFFs!” “PFFs?” I asked. “It means Pony Friends Forever darling.” A beautiful white unicorn replied to me, “By the way, I am Rarity.” “Yes you are…” I accidentally said out loud. “What was that?” she asked, thank Celestia she didn’t hear me. “Nothing.” I replied quickly, the whole time Hottrot was just snickering to himself. “Anyways, what are the rest of your names?” “I’m Rainbow Dash.” the cyan Pegasus replied. “Ah’m Applejack, nice ta meet ya’ll.” the orange earth pony said. “Twilight Sparkle, welcome to Ponyville.” the lavender unicorn responded with a smile. The only one left to answer was a yellow Pegasus who was slowly backing up, “Is it okay if I ask for your name?” I said very quietly, I could tell she was kinda shy. “F-fluttershy…” she responded in the most adorable voice. “Nice to meet you Fluttershy.” I smiled. I looked back at Rarity for a quick second before turning to Hottrot, “Well I’m Soulflight and this is-“ “Hottrot the hot spot, at your service.” He quickly said and kneeled down. “Hot spot? Really dude?” I chuckled a little. “Well I don’t see you coming up with any awesome rhymes.” He countered. “Touché.” “Anyways, because I feel like showing off, this goes out to the mare in pink!” Hottrot shouted and winked at Pinkie Pie, who just giggled. His horn glowed and made two bamboo sticks appear. Standing on his hind legs he held them in his hooves and charged another spell and set both ends of the sticks on fire. “Now comes the fun part.” He threw both bamboo sticks into the air, one was doing a vertical flame wheel, while the other was spinning horizontally. As they started falling he caught the vertical one in his mouth while letting the horizontal one spin on his hoof. “Careful, this is a wooden home with lots of flammable material around.” I cautioned him. He took a second to look around before spitting the bamboo stick into the air and letting one of the flaming ends fall into his mouth. He then somehow blew through the stick and extinguished the other flames. He took both bamboo sticks in his magic and made them disappear, “You’re right, and I should be extremely careful.” “And you say that after you do that trick…” “What you wanted me to just spit it out while it was on fire? You’re a crazy pants!” “I don’t even wear pants!” I shouted. “No wonder you’re crazy…” he mumbled and turned back to the girls, who all had their mouths wide open at what he just did. “So… awesome!” Rainbow Dash shouted/squeaked. “doitagaindoitagain!” Pinkie kept saying over and over. While the rest just erupted into an applause. “thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week.” Hottrot joked and bowed. “Longer than that hopefully.” I smiled. ~Earth~ “Almost… got it…” I grunted as I stretched my arm as far as it would go. If I didn’t get it like this, I’d be doomed to watch this deadly abomination. “Must… change… channel!” I gave one last stretch and hit the edge of the remote, pushing it farther away. “Nooo!!!!” I shouted silently to myself. “this remote reminds me of that girlfriend I never had.” I chuckled softly to myself. “Oh god… I’m forever alone… NO! I has my video games, that is all a man needs… that and a sandwich.” I looked next to the remote to see my half-eaten sandwich… “I will never be able to reach that… and the bread is probably crunchy by now…” I decided to just lay down on the couch and fall asleep, “Maybe I’ll have another ‘brilliant’ idea for my OC…” and slowly fell asleep. > Who are you? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~The Next Day~ I did my normal routine of waking up, taking a shower, brushing my teeth, and combing my hair. I then grab my phone, keys, and Gamestop I.D. I don’t have to be at work for another 40 minutes, and it usually takes me 20 minutes to get there, so I thought I’d go eat at Denny’s or something. As I’m driving down the road to Denny’s I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket, I don’t really text and drive though so I just decide to wait until I’m out of the car. ‘Buzz buzz buzz’ I don’t know how many times my phone vibrated, but it was one too many. It’s not a call though since the vibrations are too close together, so it’s nothing but texts. Ahead I see a red light so I figure I’ll wait until then to see who is texting me. As soon as I slow down the light changes to green, “Oh come on!” I shout and speed up, going the normal speed limit. I sigh as I feel another few vibrations from my phone. I quickly glance down at my pocket before looking back at the road. I look at the signs and billboards on the side of the road, one of them shows the nearest Dennys is 10 miles away. “Perfect.” I look in my rear view window and notice that the car behind me is, as a road rager would say, ‘Up my ass’ and normally, any sane person would use the most non-lethal way to get them off their ass, or just yell and scream about how close they are, but… last night I was watching some trolling videos… and I felt like this dickweed needed a lesson taught to him. So I moved over to the other lane on my left, just to see if he would take the bait. He sped up and was soon right next to me, slowly getting ahead of me. I checked behind me and saw there was nobody, the same with him. So I swerved my car near his and swerved right back in my lane, causing him to slightly swerve before straightening out. He honked his horn at me, so I just simply rolled my window down, and politely flipped the bird. That made him mad. Or at least I hope it did. I checked in the rear view mirror again to make sure nobody was behind me and started to take my foot of the gas. If I would’ve sped up he would’ve gotten a good look at my license plate, and I’d rather that not happen, so I slowed down. Only problem was, that he started slowing down more than me, by now the front of his car was behind my passenger door. I knew what he was doing, so I played along. I waited until he was behind my rear wheels. Then I hit the gas, a second ago I was going 40 mph, now I’m going 65 mph. It worked, I got far enough ahead of him, and the exit was only a short ways away. I turned on my right turn signal and converged, then went down the road and got off the highway. ‘Buzz buzz buzz’ A little down the road I found the Dennys, parked, and checked my phone for the messages. It looks like the majority were from Zach… actually, they were all from Zach. All saying the same exact thing, “Dude I’m right behind you!” I stared at the messages for a while before sighing and putting it back in my pocket, I then stand next to my car and count down, “3, 2, 1.” A few seconds after I finish the car I swerved into pulls up into the space next to me and parks. Next I hear a door shut, then I see a really big guy, and when I say big, I mean this dude is at least 7’1… and his fucking arms look like he stole them from a bear and shaved them. “Starting to slightly regret what I did…” I mumbled to myself. He walks up really close to me and says in the most intimidating voice, “You got a problem bro?” Now when I’m scared I start to make jokes, and sometimes that doesn’t go over so well. “Well you’ve got the face for it but next time all you have to do is say ‘Problem?’ all right big guy?” I laugh. That made him mad. His breathing got heavy and his hands were balled up into fists. “Look big guy, if we’re going to fight then let’s not do this next to my car, I don’t have Geico or Statefarm so my car insurance isn't what you'd call The Bee's knees.” I walked around him to the empty parking space next to my car and got ready for the worst. He turned to me and immediately charged. I sidestepped him and watched him stumble a little. “You’re a fucking dead man.” He, again, said in the most intimidating voice. “Well jokes didn’t work… how about a different approach?” I sighed, cracked my fists and neck and looked at him with a smirk, “If you don’t want to wake up tomorrow, by all means, try again.” I was really hoping that bluff would work to some extent, but it only seemed to make him angrier! Again, he charged at me, so again I sidestepped him. But this time, he stopped, turned around, and tried to hit me with a right hook. Putting up my left arm I block the punch, but WOWZA that hurts! I let my left arm drop to my side for a second to rest. “This is really pissing me off… I may have asked for this by provoking him, but I just can’t help but get pissed! I’m getting my ass handed to me for fucks sake!” Shaking the pain out of my arm I get into a fighting stance. “Come on big guy, nite nite time.” That really got to him, he charged at me again, this time however, I stood and waited. As soon as he was close enough I hit him as hard as I could in the jaw. Solid contact. He fell straight to the ground, leaving me as the victor with a hurt fist, “Man that stings.” I shook off my fist and blew on it to cool it down a little. Looking down at the guys face I saw that the place where I hit him… was actually steaming… “No way..” I kneeled down and got closer, “Dude… you’re uglier than my friends…” After eating at Denny’s I went to work, clocked out at 6pm, and went home. Walking inside I yawn and go over to the computer to get started on my OC. I gotta put the cutie mark on him, after that I’ll just derp around for a while. “Can’t wait to show them… looks like they gotta read sweet Apple Massacre, and I still get to play video games.” I said to myself as I Photoshoped in a Black N64 controller on my OC’s flank. “No longer a blank flank.” I smiled, “Hmm since I’m going to have colt 2 inside his head I’m going to have him be not only a voice… but a separate personality! Oh brain I loves you!” Saving the image as a .jpg I put it back in the folder and lean back, “Should I really have his cutie mark be a N64 controller? I mean if he went to Equestria then his talent would be totally fucking useless… maybe I can find another one… Come on brain, what item describes me?” I looked around the room, unable to find anything, I close my eyes and think about something to describe me. ~Equestria~ Soulflight’s POV Thanks to Mayor mare we found a house that was relatively cheap, but still very well maintained. It’s about 6 houses down from Rarity’s Boutique… “So much win.” I whispered to myself. “Yep, now you can be ever so closer to your lovely Rarity.” Hottrot said as he jabbed me in the side. We were walking home after the party, it was really fun… I got to talk with Rarity and Hottrot got to talk to, and prank, with Pinkie. As I was talking to Rarity I noticed Spike was staring at me from under the table, I could tell from how he was looking at me that he was jealous… I’ve had ponies give me that look many times before… and it always bothers me, so I mouth the word “sorry.” To him when Rarity looks away for a moment. After I said that he nodded slightly and receded into the darkness under the table, I could still see the green tint of his eyes, but after a while it disappeared. We finally got to our house and walked in, it was pretty standard. Living room with a couch and sofa, kitchen to the left, bathroom to the right. Upstairs were two bedrooms and two bathrooms with a shower, all standard. “All right Hottrot, I’m going to go to sleep, don’t stay up too late since we have to go out and buy some things in the morning.” “Roger-dodger.” He replied and ran back downstairs to do whatever. Yawning heavily I walk into the first room and flop down on the bed, instantly passing out. ~Earth~ I was pacing back in forth in front of Vague Blaze, trying to figure something out. “So Vague, what are we going to do about your cutie mark? We need to change it to something that can actually benefit you if you were in Equestria, or if I RP with you.” “Well… I actually like my cutie mark the way it is…” his ears drooped down and his gaze shifted to the ground. I stopped, looked at him, and sighed. “Fine… but let’s change the meaning of your cutie mark, that should be just as good.” He instantly perked back up and smiled, “Yeah! So what do you have in mind?” “Well… since your talent is gaming…” I thought about it for a while, “I got nothing.” “Oh my poor dear brother, never one for thinking.” A voice rang out from all around us, “And look at the predicament you’ve gotten yourself in… I’m very disappointed in you.” Looking around I shout, “Sally? Where are you?” I felt a tap on my shoulder and when I turned around, there she was…. Smiling. “Hello there.” “Why are you here?” I asked flatly. “Just came to see how my brother was doing, can’t I even do that?” she started pacing around me and Vague. “Well you’ve seen me, you know I’m doing well, so what else do you want?” “Oh, on the contrary, you’re doing anything but well. Your other life was… actually, I’d rather let you find out for yourself.” She smiled. “My other life? What the hell are you talking about?” I pressured her, I had to know what she meant. “And you were so happy… it’s a pity. But, maybe those two can help you out.” She pointed her finger behind me. Turning around I see two… ponies, walking towards us. “How did they even get here… wait…” looking closer at one of the ponies I noticed who it was, “No way… Princess Luna?!” I was stunned, but to calm myself I just chalked it up to all of Sally’s doing. I look behind me, but notice that Sally isn’t there… Looking back at the two ponies coming towards us I see that they both have a look of worry. “uhm, hello there, what are you two doing here?” I asked. They were looking from me, to Vague, then back to me, and it was making me dizzy watching them. “Hello? Anyone there?” They both snapped out of it and the Princess look to Vague and said, “I did not know that you could create yourself in your pony form Blaze.” “I… wait, what?” he looked confused, “yeah I’m just as confused as you are dude.” I guess he was talking to Clyded Flux. (A/N:Yes, I named him that.) “Well this is awkward.” I said to divert the ponies attention to me, “So Vague I’m guessing that you had been talking to these two?” “Uhm no, I’ve been with you ever since you created me, so how could I?” “Then how do they know your name?” “I’m a popular colt, the mares love me.” He shrugged. “but you just said-“ “Sorry to interrupt…” the green Pegasus said, “but why haven’t any of you came home yet?” Home? What’s she talking about? “Quick question… what do you mean home? I’m asleep in muy house right now… so I am home. And another question, what do you mean, any of you?” Both she and Luna looked at me with disbelief, “Your home in Equestria! You, Shadow, Fortune, Crossback, Night, and… my Solar!” the green Pegasus shouted. Equestria? But that place doesn’t exist… wait, didn’t Jordan and Issac make OCs named Fortune Caster and Shadow Storm? This is getting weird… “Ok Sally, ha ha you got me. Now come out and stop playing around.” Upon request Sally showed up in between us all, “Hate to break the news to you… but if this were my doing, then you could easily break out of it. Besides, what could I gain from doing this to you?” “But… that means…” I looked at Luna and the green Pegasus and shook my head, “No way…” “Besides, If I wanted something out of you wouldn’t I use a pony you know? So ask yourself this” a grin creeped across her face as she started to fade, “Who is that green Pegasus?” I stared at the green Pegasus and racked my brain, maybe I did see her in the show… or maybe she’s someone’s OC… “I… I don’t know who she is. And I have no idea what you guys are talking about! Another life? Come on this is just ridiculous.” I could see tears start to form in both of their eyes, “You… really don’t know who we are? Have you forgotten about everything? About Slipstream, about everypony… about your Dashie?!” the green Pegasus screamed at me. “My… dashie? This is just getting weirder and weirder… and why… why does my chest hurt?” I stared at the ponies, then looked to Vague, he had the same face of confusion that I had, but it also looked like he was… remembering something. “It’s me… Lucinda. Please Blaze you have to remember!” she started to move towards me, but Luna put a hoof on her shoulder and shook her head. “Blaze, or rather, Tristan. Do you remember the letter we gave you the night you got to Earth?” Luna asked me. “Letter? The night I got to Earth? What are you talking about?” I had so many more questions, but I had no idea how to ask them, so for now, this would do. “I see. Search your home for it, it may aid you in regaining your memory.” She put on a fake smile and turned away, “Goodbye.” Both ponies then vanished, leaving me and Vague alone to soak it all in. “Tristan.” Vague finally spoke up. “Yeah?” “Search the house…” “What? Why?” “I know it sounds crazy” he paused and looked where the two ponies were a while ago, “but I feel like we do know them… Lucinda just sounds so familiar…” I thought about it, trying to come up with some excuse to not look, but I was just as curious as him. “All right. I’ll look. Not like anything bad will happen if I do.” Materializing a mahogany door I say, “Knock on wood.” And knock on it three times before opening it. > Breaking The News > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~Equestria, 2 Days Later~ Soulflight’s POV “Come on Soul, hurry up and ask Rarity to be your Marefriend, I mean, do you see that look she gives you? She’s just waiting for you to ask!” Hottrot said as we were walking to Sugarcube Corner for some sweets. “You can’t just ‘Ask’ a mare like that… Besides, I want her to be comfortable around the real me, instead of that act I put on around her.” “Have you seen how they all act? I wouldn’t be surprised if she was putting on an act herself.” He nudged me in the side. “If she was acting… then she would remind me more of her…” “Well that was pretty much the whole reason you wanted to move away from Manehattan isn’t it? Besides I’m sure that she would want you to move on.” I looked at Hottrot and saw he had a wide smile, I knew he was trying to help, so I gave back a smile of my own. “Yeah… alright, I’ll ask her to be my marefriend tonight.” He slapped me on the back and shouted, “That’s the spirit! Now I’ll meet you there, I wanna have some alone time with Pinkie if you know what I mean.” He winked at me. “Dude I don’t need to hear that.” “What? I just have a list of pranks to show her about later, what’d you think I meant?” he asked innocently. “Oh… I thought you were talking about doing… that.” “Oh geez no!” he walked a little faster and looked back at me, “that comes later.” He winked and teleported out of sight. I could feel my eye twitch as I was bombarded with mental images, “Oh dear sweet Celestia make them stop!” I shouted as I held my hooves to my head. Later that day I asked Rarity out on a date, I didn’t want to just go any old place though… so I had an idea, one that required help from Hottrot. I didn’t tell Rarity where we were going to eat, only that she should wear something she’d like to be seen in. I threw on a black suit and tie and flew over to Rarity’s boutique. I did a quick check on my clothes and then knocked on the door. “Just a moment.” I heard Rarity say from behind the door. A while later she opened the door and I saw her, she was wearing a beautiful long violet dress with a light pink rim at the bottom and middle, inside the pink were embroidered gems of different colors but similar sizes. I just stood there, staring at her and her dress for who knows how long. She said… something, and waved her hoof in front of my face, even though I didn’t hear her I could tell what she said. Blinking a few times I say, “H-huh? Sorry, I was just…” “I take it that you like my dress?” “I like more than that…” I accidentally said out loud and I immediately put my hoof over my mouth. “S-shall we get going?” I said to change the subject. “All right.” She replied and shut the door. “So where is this place that you were taking me Soulflight?” Rarity asked me. I looked at her and smiled, “Well if we went there on hoof it would take a few days, and if we went there by train it would take a few hours. I’ll let you think about that for a while.” That riddle should hold her off long enough for us to get to where Hottrot is. “A riddle? I hope you aren’t trying to buy some time darling…” Well now she knows what I’m doing… “There is a possibility that I am trying to buy some time while we go to our ride.” “Our ride?” she asked, “Do you mean a chariot?” “Not at all. If it were a chariot then it’d take at least an hour.” I could see Hottrot in the distance waving his hoof at us, “Ah here we are.” “Now will you tell me where it is that we are going?” “Why tell you when I can show you? Hottrot, if you would do the honors.” He saluted me and said, “You got it.” his horn shone and in a quick flash we were out of Ponyville and outside of the most prestigious restaurant in Canterlot. Le Royale. Rarity instantly squeeled, “You got us a reservation here? At this restaurant that is almost always full? However did you do it?” “Let’s just say that I knew I couldn’t take you just anywhere.” “Oh but what of my mane? And my tail!” I put my wing around her and said, “Rarity, you’re beautiful, stunning even, so much so that I could barely even approach you, let alone talk to you. And from what I can see of your mane and tail… they’re in high quality condition.” She looked at me for a moment, then turned away blushing. “My my it seems somepony has a bit of a silver tongue.” “They don’t call me Soulflight the Silver Tongue for nothing. Now, shall we go inside?” “Yes. I believe we should.” Rarity said. I went and held the door open for her to enter, “And a gentlecolt as well.” As soon as she was inside I looked at Hottrot, he mouthed the words ‘Good Luck’ and teleported away. Turning back to the inside of Le Royale I say, “Thanks buddy…” and run inside to catch Rarity. Later That Night We stayed at Le Royale, ate, talked, and laughed. After eating we were both sitting there, she was admiring all the decorations on the wall while I ended up smiling and watching her, “she has such beautiful eyes… I should probably stop staring though before she notices.” I then decided it was time to tell her while the check was on the way. “Rarity?” I said to get her attention. “Yes? What is it Soul?” she replied and looked at me. I took a deep breath and said, “I’d be honored if I could call you my marefriend.” She blinked a few times before turning away. She started to shuffle a little in her seat, I thought “she might be considering leaving, afterall I did just ask that kinda out of the blue… should I have waited afterall?” I hit myself in the head a few times and mouthed the word “Idiot!” A moment later she faced me again, she was blushing, and smiling profusely. “I thought you’d never ask!” she shouted and glomped me from across the table. Outside Rarity’s Boutique/Home I forgot that Hottrot was kinda our ride back, so when she asked how we were getting back I panicked and said, “I’ll fly us there.” She was actually really light, so besides her almost strangling me, it was a wonderful end to the day. “I had a great time tonight Soulflight.” Rarity said as soon as we reached her home. “And I’d love to do this again sometime.” “So would I.” I smiled. She then quickly leaned in and planted a kiss on my cheek, I held the spot where she kissed me and stare at her, blushing. She walked towards the door and opened it with her magic. As soon as she was inside she turned her head towards me, “There’ll be more where that came from, if you play your cards correctly Soul.” She winked, and shut the door. I stood there, mouth agape, standing on three hooves. My mind was racing! But I quickly snapped out of it, put my hoof on the ground and smiled, “Well then. Looks like somepony is rather… freaky?” I chuckled and flew home, unable to wait for the next day. 2 Days later “Soul wake up!” I heard Hottrot shout in my ear, but I was really tired. So I just moved the blanket back over my face and went back to sleep, well I tried to, but the blanket was yanked off of me, and I was picked up in what I assumed to be Hottrot’s magic. “ok…” I mumbled, “What is so important that you had to wake me up this early?” by now we were well out of the house and on the path to the library if I remember correctly. “I’d say something smart but this isn’t the time! Princess Luna and Celestia are at the Libaray and they requested an audience with the girls! And Pinkie and rarity insisted that we come as well!” he explained. “Wait, the Princess Luna and Celestia?” I said with disbelief. The magic around me dropped so I quickly spread my wings and began flying. “Yes! Now hurry up, I’ll meet you there!” Hottrot said, the his horn shone, and he was gone. I flew as fast as I could and finally arrived at the Library. I slowed myself down, and landed, then ran into the library. And, true to his word, all 6 girls were here, including five more. Two of the five being both Pony Princesses, one being Hottrot who was beside Pinkie, another being a pure white Pegasus with a gold mane/tail with blue highlights, and the other being a green Pegasus with a light blue mane/tail. I shut the door and trotted up next to Rarity and kneeled to both Princesses who both told me that I may rise. Celestia then said, “I would like to thank you all for coming on such short notice.” In a soothing voice. She looked to Luna and nodded her head. Luna then looked to us and said, “We have… some rather unfortunate news.” She said in a soft yet commanding voice. “what is it?” Twilight asked worriedly. “it concerns Vague Blaze, Flutter Night, Crossback, Solar, Shadow Storm, and Fortune Caster.” Luna finally said, causing the room to go silent. If I remember correctly, those were the names of the colts that everypony is dating.. “w-what happened to them? Are they in some sort of danger?” Hottrot finally spoke, dispelling the silence. Luna simply nodded and said, “As I did the night they arrived on Earth, myself and Lucinda traveled into Blaze’s dreams. He was standing beside himself, talking back and forth to himself. Though normally this wouldn’t be strange, he was talking to his human self while in his pony form. Or so we thought.” She took a pause then began again, “It was actually the other way around. And not only was all of this occurring, when we approached him and asked what he was doing, he acted as if this was the first he’d seen of us.” She took another pause to clear her throat, “We thought he was playing a joke, but he was serious. He knew of me somehow, but had no idea who Lucinda was.” Her gaze shifted to the ground for a moment before she began speaking again, “Furthermore, when I asked him why he and the others hadn’t yet returned home he responded with, 'Home? I’m asleep in my room right now. So I am home. And what do you mean any of you?” The green Pegasus then stepped forward and said, “I’ll continue… from here.” Luna nodded and allowed her to begin. “I told him of their life here in Equestria… but he simply laughed and said “Sally, this isn’t funny anymore.” Then a woman with black hair appeared in front of Blaze. I couldn’t hear what she said, but Blaze just kept shaking his head and saying “No way” and after she pointed towards us, she vanished and Blaze continued to go on about how it’s crazy to think that he’d ever lived… in Equestria.” She paused, “Luna then told him to search for the letter that we gave him on the first night. And we left…” when she finished she began breathing heavily and Luna put a wing over her. Rainbow stepped forward, slowly, but gradually, and said between breaths, “T-they’ll be back though… right? T-they’ve got to…” her wings fell to her side and I could see tears start to build up in her eyes. Not long after, Everypony in the room, beside myself and Hottrot were crying. Even the princesses had tears flowing out their eyes. I didn’t know much about the other guys, but from what I can tell, the girls loved them very deeply, and they loved the girls. I moved over and held onto Rarity, Twilight, and Applejack while Hottrot held Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rainbow. Luna was comforting the green Pegasus while Celestia did the same to the white Pegasus. As they were crying I couldn’t help but feel anger, anger towards the guys who left all these mares here. “You all had better come back. Or I’ll find a way to drag you back here myself.” > We Found it... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~Earth~ I opened my eyes and just sat there, thinking about what Luna and Lucinda had just told me… I’m not sure how, but according to those two, me, Zach, Chris, Zeke, Kyle, Issac, Jordan, and Victor had all been living in Equestria before this... “No wait, she said me, Shadow, Fortune, Night, Crossback, and Solar had been living there… so there are two of us who weren’t mentioned, or hadn’t been there. Which one of us is it then?” I decided I had been lying in bed for too long so I threw the covers off my body, sat up, and sat on the edge of the bed, trying to think about what this means. “Well in any case” I smiled, “Equestria is actually real, and I just met with Luna! Wait, didn’t she say something about a letter that I wrote? I wonder where it is...” after a while of being lost in thought I finally snapped out of it and looked at the clock, “1 hour til I gotta head out for work eh? Guess I’d better get the day started… I’ll look for the letter when I get back home.” At that note I got up, went into the bathroom, took a shower, got dressed, and looked at the clock again. ‘6:40’ “Guess I’d better head out…” I mumbled to myself and grabbed my keys, phone, Gamestop card, the whole shebang. I hop into my car and decide not to do what I did before and drive carefully to Gamestop. Walking inside Gamestop I say, “Harro Scruffy.” “Sup.” He replies with a dead expression. “What’s wrong with you?” “Are you seriously asking that after making us watch a reading of Sweet Apple Massacre?” “Oh yeah that was a part of the deal wasn’t it?” I laughed. Business was relatively slow, so I was able to talk with Zach about what Luna had told me. He is my best friend, so I’m sure that if I ever got sent to Equestria, I’d find a way to let him know, or find a way to take him with me. “And that’s basically all that happened.” I finished. “Well that sounds made up no matter how you look at it, luckily I know that Sally isn’t the kind of person to joke around about things like this. But there’s only one way to be sure…” “And that’s to find the letter right?” “Yep. But I wonder which of us hadn’t gone… You said that Jordan and Issac made OCs named Fortune Caster and Shadow Storm, so they’re ruled out. She knew you, so you’re ruled out. That leaves me, Zeke, Kyle, Victor, and Chris.” “Yeah but how are we going to find out who’s wh-“ “Wait.” He interrupted me, “Zeke made an OC a while back and called him Flutter Night… so that could be Night, and Chris made an OC named Solar, so he’s also ruled out…” “So it’s just you Kyle and Victor then. We can ask them after work.” I said and stood up, “Break time’s over.” After work I sent a message to everyone telling them to meet me at my house after they get off work. “All right, I’ll meet you there Scruffy.” I said to Zach and hoped in my car. A while later I pulled into my driveway with Zach behind me. I get out, walk to the door, unlock it and go inside. “So, you want anything to drink while we wait for the others?” “Yeah.” He replied and shut the door, “By the way, you forgot about looking for the letter didn’t you?” I froze in place for a moment then continued walking into the kitchen, “N-no. No I did not.” I stuttered out. “You don’t have to lie, I know that you forget things easily. That’s why I’m here.” He chuckled. “Yeah okay, I forgot.” I smiled, opened the fridge, grabbed a Mountain Dew and tossed it to him, “So where should we start looking?” Slightly fumbling the soda he pops the tab and takes a sip, “Well. Where do you not think it is?” I rolled my eyes, “in the fridge.” “Stop being a smartass. Okay then, how about this: if you had to keep something somewhere that you know you’d always have access to, where would it be?” I thought about extending my arms and saying, “My house.” But decided to take this seriously for some reason. “Well…” I began, “I’d guess somewhere in my room or the guest rooms, since those places aren’t really frequented by anyone other than me.” He just stared at me, “I was expecting you to say something like, “everything you see here” but that was actually a proper response. Good for you.” “Fuck off.” I replied. “And you should fuck on.” He smiled and took another sip from the soda. Just then, we heard a few knocks at my door, “I’ll get it and fill the guys in on as much of this as I possibly can. They probably won’t believe me, so if not I’ll hand the torch over to you.” “All right. And thanks.” I said and ran upstairs while he attended to the door. As soon as I got upstairs I heard the door open and then shut. “Gotta focus.” I told myself and went into the guest room to search. I looked under the mattresses, in them, in the dressers, in the closet, and in any of the boxes I could find. “Nothing.” I sighed and sat on the ground for a quick rest, “So if it’s not in here, then that leaves the bathroom, my room, and one more guest room. “Better get started.” I got up and exited the room, I was about to go into the next guest room when I heard Zach call me from downstairs. I speed downstairs and see each of the guys sitting on the couch giving me sort of a stern look. “What is it?” I ask. “Well. I told them.” Zach replied, “At first they didn’t believe me, but as soon as I told them the names that Luna told Luna and Lucinda told you… they had no choice.” “No choice?” I repeated and looked at each of them. Victor sighed and leaned back, “Yesterday, after listening to Sweet Apple Massacre, I went to sleep, mind you it took me an hour, but I digress, in my dream I was running, I’m not sure why, but I knew that I couldn’t stop. But then I ran into a dead end. When I turned around, there was this pitch black alicorn with a black mane and tail… and blood red eyes.” He paused and took in a deep breath, “He pinned me to the ground like I was an ant… I thought it was all over for me, but he backed away and growled at me. “Why do you forget Crossback? I will not allow this… I will not allow you to be so weak!” he turned his bak to me and began walking away, “You have two days Crossback. In two days, I will take back what is mine…” after he said that, he disappeared... And I woke up.” After he was done he took in a deep breath, “When I woke up I took no mind to it, but now… after hearing that ‘Crossback’ was one of the names you were told, I’m not so sure that was nothing…” “I see… so, now we know that Crossback was Victor… and that means” I looked at Zach and Kyle, “You two are the ones that either weren’t mentioned, or weren’t with us.” “This is just way too weird and confusing.” Jordan spoke up. “Yeah I know, but things should become clearer if we find that letter, at least I hope…” I said, uncertain. “This is just a hypothesis” Issac began, “But if we were to regain these memories, then it’s possible that our original memories, and our fake memories will clash.” “What’s that mean?” Chris asked him. “I’m not entirely sure, but it won’t be good. Just be ready for it, if you aren’t, then it’s possible that you’re likely to go insane.” Zeke slapped him on the back and smiled, “Already there buddy.” “Ok guys, lets start looking for the letter. The first guest room has already been looked over, so check in the bathroom, my room, and the other guest room. It’s highly likely to be in there.” I said and went back upstairs and into my room. When I got in my room I immediately started looking in the same way I did in the guest room. A few seconds later Zach and Victor came into my room and started searching as well. “Whatcha think’ll happen when we find the letter?” Zach asked me. “If there is one…” I heard Victor mumble. “Well” I lifted my mattress to look and dropped it back down, “Hopefully something that’ll tell us about our lives when we were in Equestria. I just hope none of this is a coincidence. Knock on wood.” I joked. “That dream seemed way too real to just be a coincidence in all of this…” Victor shuddered. “Yeah, besides, we already agreed that Sally wouldn’t lie about something like this.” Zach said to reassure me. “Yeah. You’re right.” I grinned, “Besides, I’d rather want to think that this is actually real, because then there’s a chance that we can go to Equestria!” I shouted. “well, back to Equestria.” I corrected myself and checked under my bed. “Nothing in the guest room!” I heard Jordan shout. “Same with the bathroom!” I heard Zeke chime in. “This is just ridiculous!” I mumbled under my breath and got up from the floor then looked over at Victor, “Anything?” “No, nothing here.” He replied. “Nothing in here either” Zach said and came out from my closet holding a magazine, “Nothing but a shit load of porn.” “How is it a shit load if it’s only 12?” I said. “Oh so you’ve counted them have you?” he grinned and put it back in the closet. I opened my mouth to say something but decided against it and moved over to the drawer next to my bed, “If it’s not in here then it’s probably not in this house.” I slowly put my hand on the knob, close my eyes, and open it. Opening one eye I see a envelope, I then open both eyes and stare at it dumbfounded, “Well I’ll be damned… here it is.” I say and pick the envelope up in my hand. “Is that really it?” I heard Zeke say from behind me. Standing up and turning around I see Zeke, Kyle, Chris, Issac, Zach, Jordan, and Victor all looking at me with a sort of uncertainty, “Well, only one way to find out I suppose…” I said and delicately opened the envelope, I then take the letter inside of it out and let it fall to the floor. Unfolding the paper I take a deep breath and begin reading. Dear Zach, Yo. It's Tristan, well not exactly… I'm Vague Blaze now. A few months ago I got sent to Equestria somehow… I know it sounds strange but believe me man, its true. When I was on my way to work I got caught in some kind of Vortex that sent me here. Ever since then I'd been living here. And well, the princesses have found a way for me to return, however I'm staying. I'm dating Rainbow Dash and if I left I think she'd be heartbroken, and you know how much I hate to see a girl- well mare, cry. Tell my parents and everyone else about this, and tell them my mind is made up. I'm happy here in Equestria, so I hope that you can be happy for me too. Oh and just so you know this isn't fake, 12145618. Take care man, hope you have a great life. “…So, I got caught in some kind of vortex thing that sent me there?” In my head some of this started clicking together, but not enough that was worth mentioning. “Looks like it… you used the numbers, so this has to be real, which means everything else is as well.” Zach said with a smile. “But… if it is true, then how do I get back?” “You mean we, how do we get back.” Jordan corrected me. “Well… this is just a long shot” Chris began, “but you know how in Fanfictions where the human goes to Equestria then goes back to earth and still has their powers and strengths that they built up?” “Oh I see what you’re saying! We can use Unicorn magic to get back!” Issac shouted. “But wait, it’s not like we were all Unicorns, besides, how would we even use magic?” I said, stating the obvious. “You’ve been sort of a smart buzzkill lately…” Zach mumbled, “But he’s right, we have no idea how strong you guys were with your magic, nor how you can use it.” “Well, maybe if we all concentrate on moving something really hard, it’ll move!” Issac smiled. “I can’t tell if you’re serious or just fucking with us…” I shook my head, “But it’s worth a try.” “What about the pegasi?” Chris pointed out, “they don’t have magic, so what if someone is a Pegasus?” “Well… I believe that the wings on Pegasi are in an area similar to the shoulder blades, so try to move them like wings.” Victor said. “Or like a chicken.” I heard Zeke mumble. “You mean a Scootaloo.” I heard Zach chuckle. I sighed and said, “Well, who’s first?” > Coming Full Circle > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “So?” I looked at each of them, “Who’s first?” They looked eager, but I suppose what Issac said earlier must’ve made them a little bit hesitant. “Our past memories and our current memories will clash, and if we aren’t prepared, we could go insane…” I sighed and scratched my head, “Fine. I’ll go first. My OC is a Pegasus so all I gotta do is try and fly.” “How do you know that you were a Pegasus back in Equestria?” Zeke asked me. “If I wasn’t, then Luna and Lucinda would’ve been shocked when they saw I had wings.” I countered. “True… go for it.” Zach said, egging me on. I closed my eyes and focused on my shoulder blades, using my imagination to place wings in their place. I then extended them, and flapped them. I felt myself hover for a second, but I think I was just imagining it. Opening my eyes I see that each of them have a dumbfounded look, “What? Did it work?” no answer from any of them, they’re all just staring at me… “Hey guys snap out of it and tell me if it worked.” I shouted, slightly gaining their attention. Jordan slowly raised his hand and pointed at something behind me, when I turned around there was nothing there, so I turned back and raised an eyebrow, “What is it?” “Y-you…” Zach said, also pointing a finger at something behind me. Again I turn around to look and see nothing, when I look back at them they’re all pointing their fingers at me stuttering out nonsense. I sigh and walk towards the door, “Look when you can say what it is then tell me, for now I gotta take a piss.” I walk out of my room and into the bathroom, shut the door, turn on the lights, walk past the mirror and make my way to the toilet. But I see something in the mirror as I pass it, so I quickly glance behind me. Still nothing. I scratch my head and decide to just forget about it. I do my business and when I’m done wash my hands. I splash some water on my face and dry it with the hand towel and place it back, as I look in the mirror I see something behind me, it’s a sort of darkish brown color, not sure what it was, but even when I turned around there wasn’t anything there. I look back in the mirror to make sure I’m not going crazy, and as I do I see that it’s still there. But it’s on my back, and now that I look closer, there are two of them, one on the left side of my body, and one on the right. I reach a hand back to grab it but when I do I instantly take my hand off it. “What the…” I can feel it, like it’s a part of me. I then gently grab the left one and pull on it. As it starts to unfold I accidentally take something out of whatever it is and recoil at the pain. I look at whatever it is that came out of… I stare at the dark brown feather in my hands, “This… this is…” I quickly turn my body at an angle to see if the things on my back really are… On my back… are a pair of large wings! I can’t believe I only just noticed them! “It actually worked!” I cheered and ran out of the bathroom, straight into my room, I was going to say “Guys I have wings!” but instead I’m trying to hold in my laughter. Each of the guys are either trying to fly, or concentrating so hard it looks like they’re constipated. So, without saying a word, I walk away from the door and go downstairs into the living room to test out my wings. Not before almost dying of laughter on the floor though. After 5 mintues I think I’m finally done laughing… “If I keep laughing like that… I’ll have a 6-pac!” I wipe a tear away from my eye, take a deep breath, and relax myself. Prrrrr….t “Good. Now I’m ready to test these out.” I concentrate on my wings again, and try to unfold them. I feel a small gust of wind on both sides of my body, when I open my eyes and look, I see that my wings are actually extended. “Awesome…” I say after taking one of them in my hands. They’re definitely a darker shade of brown, and they look to be about the length of my legs, if not more, and about the width of probably 2 and a half class textbooks? I don’t really keep any sort of measuring things in my house, (or if I do then I have no idea where they are) so this isn’t very accurate. They actually look about the same as eagle wings. I pluck one of the feathers again, feeling as if I just pulled a leg hair, and examine it. “…It’s pretty.” I smile, never really been able to see a feather up close like this for an extended time. I walk over to the counter and place the feather down, “Now then… how to fly.” As I ask myself this, I feel a throbbing pain in my head and have to shut my eyes. I open my eyes slowly and look around, “Wh-where am I?” there’s nothing but white in all directions. I look down at my body and instead of seeing my usual clothes, I see a spectral blue color that mimics my movements exactly. “Whoa…” I lift my hand to my face and wave it around, through it I can see a wave of colors that attacks the area around me and slowly take shape and form. Lights fill the room and slowly place themselves throughout. Above me is a ceiling that… looks wooden? Looking to the sides of me I see row upon row of books neatly placed in shelves. “Am I… In a library? But how?” Without warning, talk and laugher fills the room, making me have to cover my ears for a moment. I quickly look below me to the source of the noise and see… Ponies. Not just any regular ponies though, these ponies are colorful and cartoony. Only then do I start to piece everything together. The wooden ceiling, the books, the ponies below me. This is Twilight’s Library… In Equestria. Before I can react a voice catches my attention. "Scoots here wants to learn how to fly. You see, right now she can only use her wings as a sort of propeller while she's on her scooter." That voice….? I look to the direction the voice was coming from and see Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash… and Vague Blaze, all standing around each other. I move over to them and try to get some answers from him, “Dude how the hell did you get here?” He taps his hoof to his chin, and it seems like he’s thinking about my question. Before he has time to answer, Pinkie bowls him over giggles says "Sorry" and went on her way to the food table. I stare at her shocked, but look back at Blaze, expecting a response. He gets up and trots over to Scootaloo and put one of her wings in his hoof. “hey? Can you hear me?” I ask him, but he just continues looking at her wing. He then moves over to Dash's wing and looked at it, seemingly comparing the two, I look as well and I can see that besides the overall size difference Scootaloo’s feathers were crooked and unkempt. He leans down to Scootaloo and says "I think I may have found your problem there Scoots." Her face went from one of confusion to one of happiness and excitement. "Really? You really have?" she said with a twinkle in her eye and with her wings buzzing around. I grab my chest to stop my heart from leaping out and glomping her. "Yup, one sec." Vague smiles and begins moving towards the refreshments table, he then picks up a glass of water in his wing and moves back over to where me, Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash are. Putting her wing in his hoof he poured a little water on them, then used his other hoof to straighten out her feathers. After the right side was done he moved over to the left and did the same. I begin to shake my head at him, “you moron, water makes wings heavier, using water will only make things worse.” He then backs up and tells her to move her wings slowly. Nodding she complied and began to move them. Slightly buzzing her wings she stops for a moment. “Told ya.” I smirked. Nodding his head he says "Ok, now the problem isn't that your wings are small. Its more of you not knowing how to move ‘em." "It is?" Scoots said, tilting her head to the side. "Yep. Now watch, this is how you should move your wings." He extends his wings and I’m shocked, “they look just like mine! But… cartoony and huge!” he began to slowly flap them, after a while he started to hover off the ground. I watch intently and make sure not to forget what he did to fly. Stopping, he lands on the ground and looks at her. "Now then, what did my wings do?" "They curved into a U shape when going up and flattened a little when going down." She responded after thinking a little. "Good, now I want you to try it." Nodding at him she began to slowly flap her wings, mimicking his movements precisely. For a split second she was hovering off the ground, stunned she lands back on the ground and runs over to Blaze, hugging his leg "Thank you thank you thank you Blaze!" she shouts. “Well I’ll be dammed…” I whispered. Picking her up and tussling her mane he says "Anytime." Putting her down, she runs out of sight. “Thanks. I could've taught her myself but I figured she needed to warm up a bit more to you." Rainbow Dash said after jabbing Blaze in the side. "Glad to help." he gave her a smile, followed by a peck on the cheek. That was it. My mouth has fucking dropped. My OC… just gave THE Rainbow Dash a kiss. I pick up my jaw and start thinking about what Luna and Lucinda told me, “She said ‘your’ Dashie… so he’s dating her… and I’m dating her!” I don’t know how long I sat there thinking about everything that just happened, and what will happen. I finally snap out of it after something crashes though the ceiling and lands in the middle of the room, there’s dust everywhere so I can’t really see anything besides a large silhouette of a… dog? But it’s on it hind legs and looks slightly human in its stance. “Werewolf!” I shout. A gust of wind then blows the dust away and towards some more ponies who look at me, “but they can’t see me can they?” I turn around and see Vague Blaze standing in front of a glass of apple cider and an apple fritter, with a stern look on his face. I then look back at the figure before me. Around its neck was a diamond collar and around his waist was a simple diamond belt. That wasn't what caught my eye however… His teeth were drenched in blood and he was panting, as if he had been running from something... or after something. I heard swords begin to be unsheathed, and turning around I see Jordan’s OC Fortune Caster, and what I think is Victor’s OC Crossback holding swords in their mouths. While I was deep in thought, the dog gave a loud howl and said "Which one of you… is Rarity?" He wore an ominous smile after saying her name. "Who wants to know?" Vague Blaze said, stepping forward. "Gieremund… Leader of the diamond dogs… and my grunts told me that three of my best workers were bested by a single white unicorn named Rarity…." “wait… Gieremund is a mob from FFXI, dafuq? Is this where SE got the name from?” I asked nobody, or pony, in particular. "And what exactly will you do with her?" A pony I recognized as Zeke’s OC, Flutter Night, said and took a step forward. "Isnt it obvious? I'm going to reclaim the honor that those three fools lost. And I plan to do the same thing I did to them…" he slid his finger across his neck "to her." A wide grin that sent chills down my spine slowly formed on his face. "Sorry but even if she was here, we wouldn't just hand her over." Vague told him. “yeah! You tell him Vague! Just don’t die you stupid idiot!” I cheered him on. "Oh that's too bad… I guess now all I can do is kill every little pony here until one of them tells me where she is…" Gieremund growled. "Like hay we'd let you." Vague shouted, by now Crossback, Fortune Caster, and Flutter Night were by his side, and were slowly moving towards Gieremund. "Oh no! Whatever shall I do? These ponies are trying to stop me!" Gieremund laughed. He charged at them, and they charged back, preparing to fight. But he jumped clear over them and picked up Scootaloo, holding her captive. "Come any closer and I'll have to end her life." Gieremund said, holding Scootalo by the throat. "Now… drop your weapons or else…" “You coward!” I shouted and charged after him. Before I reached him though, all the color left the room, leaving a barren white canvas in every direction. “What.. the hell?” I sat there for a while, thinking about what just happened. “Their OCs… have their voices. My OC, has my voice. So.. doesn’t that mean we are, in fact, our OCs? I guess this is what Luna and Lucinda were talking about…” Just like last time, color flooded into the room, only this time the ceiling was made of rock. Slowly, a light made an appearance, I decided to follow it. As I made my way down the hall the light began to grow in intensity. Finally, I reach where the light was coming from. In front of me, are Crossback, Fortune Caster, Flutter Night, Vague Blaze, and Gieremund. The anger I had in me from before came back and I charged forward. “I’ll kill you!” I shouted. "Alright…" I heard Vague Blaze say, followed by a blood churning chuckle. I slow down and make my way towards him and stare at him, “He seems… different.” As I move to the front of his body I see what it was. His eyes have become pitch black and filled with hatred and rage. “what… happened?” I look at each of the ponies beside him and see they look slightly calmer, though still very angry. “Is this after he grabbed Scootaloo?” "Where's Rarity at?" Crossback shouts at Gieremund. "That nuisance has already been dealt with." Gieremund said. As I turn around I see he’s sketching his finger across his throat, and then begins laughing. “W…what? He… killed.. Rarity?” I can feel my muscles tighten as I clench my teeth. "You bastard! Ill make sure to enjoy ending your life!" I hear Fortune say. "Oh really now?" Gieremund said. "Transfer complete…" I heard a voice in my head say. "Transfer? What are you talking about? And who the hell are you?” I shout. "I transferred my power into your body…. Wait… Déjà vu.” “The… fuck?” “How… am I alive? You… you killed me… I shouldn’t be here!” “What are you even talking about?” I asked the voice. ”Do you not remember? Our battle was bucking legendary for Celestia’s sake!” “We had a battle?” “… I never did like you.” “Hey fuck you too dude.” “Where is that other charming fellow?” “What charming fellow?” “The one you told me to call Vague!” “No idea what you’re talking about.” “…I really just want to strangle you right now.” “well you surely aren’t sunshine and fucking tic-tacs.” “WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!” “ONLY TIME WILL TELL!” “…” “Hey, what’s happening to Vague Blaze?” I point to him. His cutie mark, instead of a controller, were moving flames that are quickly engulfing his whole body. His mane and tail, which were once a red and gold color, have turned black and dark red while his coat turned a bright red. “Ahhh this brings back great memories…” “What do you mean?” “You’ll see soon enough.” Gieremund got up out of his chair and began charging, Vague Blaze also closed in on him. And, it looked like anytime his hoof connected with the ground it melted the area around it. “Whoa… he’s become Lava pony! Awesome!” I cheered. “My power is much greater than just that. However, at the time I could only use a small fraction of it, otherwise you’re body would’ve melted along with the ground.” “Wait, so you’re inside his head? And who the hell are you since I’m on the subject.” “You will remember in due time.” “Of course…” Letting out a growl that shook the cave Gieremund lunged at Vague Blaze, aiming for his throat. Yet, his body effortlessly dodged the attack and grabbed Gieremund's arm, setting it ablaze and causing him to howl in pain and moved back. The arm that was once in Vague Blaze’s grasp had been reduced to nothing but a pile of ash. Taking a few cautious steps back Gieremund looked around for something. “He’s going to do the same thing he did to Scootaloo!” I shouted. A wide grin crossed his lips a second before he sped off and picked up Flutter Night in his hand. “Dammit! You fucking coward! I’ll kill you!” I shouted. “Just stop and think. At this moment you are viewing something from your past, you cannot interfere with what has already happened.. besides, Gieremund will be dead soon enough…” "Stop. Or else he dies." Gieremund said, looking to Fortune, Crossback, and Blaze. Both of them complied and dropped their weapons, obviously irritated that this was the second time they had to drop their weapons. In a flash Blaze was right behind Gieremund, and his leg sweeped and connected with both of Gieremund’s legs, causing them to immediately char and disintegrate. Yelling in pain he dropped Night and Crossback caught him, bringing him back to where he and Fortune were. Gieremund was in total shock, I was glad that he got what was coming to him… but just the sight of his body in that state, almost caused me to vomit. Blaze then cackled and raised his hoof then slammed it down in Gieremund’s gut, causing his hoof to go straight through him. Gieremund was now screaming in pain. “why is Blaze doing this?... Why am I doing this? Was I really that infuriated?” “Not necessarily. You were pissed, but not this much. The Blaze you see down there is being controlled by me, but I think it was at this moment that I gave you control of your body back.” “wait, then can you still take control of my body?” “I hadn’t thought about that… would you like to give it a test?” “Hell no. It’d be cool to be shrouded in lava like that but the crap in my house is not flame retardant.” Out of nowhere Gieremund started crying, and begging for his life. “Oh geez the normal bad guy, kill everything the beg for your life and think the good guy will forgive you.” "I'd hate to think of how many things you've killed that begged you for their life as you took it away! What about Rarity huh? Did you spare her life? Did you have any mercy on her? No! So why should I have mercy on you… all you deserve is death." Blaze shouted, taking my hoof out of his gut and slamming it down next to his head, causing him to flinch. “Wait… isn’t that similar to what Goku said to Frieza when he begged for his life?” I asked myself, “yep.” "I have control of my body again?" Blaze whispered after staring at his hoof. "Where are the other two?" Blaze yelled at a horrified Fortune. Looking around I saw that Crossback and Night were gone. Snapping back to reality he looks to his right. Following his gaze I see Night and Crossback come into view. Crossback had a pony draped over his back, covered in his cloak. "Who's that?" Using his magic he moved the hood off their head and revealed… Rarity. She was asleep and unscathed, I was confused. Gieremund said that he had killed her before… yet there she is alive. Looking back to Gieremund Blaze put his hoof on his chest which caused it to burn slightly and cause him to scream in pain. "You have until the count of three to explain Gieremund." he said. “Rarity’s safe Blaze, there’s no need for this…” I sighed. “You’ve gotten a lot nicer since I last met you, could it have been the other you that caused your emotions to shift so much?” “Still have no idea what you’re talking about. As far as I know, I’m not Bipolar.” “…” "One." Blaze began counting. "Two." Gieremund was still silent. "Three. Times up." Gieremund began to laugh. "Going insane from the pain now are we? Don't worry ill put you out of your misery. Rarity may be safe but that doesn't change the fact that you almost killed Scoots and caused my Dashie to cry. That alone is reason enough for me to kill you." “And so I was a badass… now everything makes sense.” I chuckled. "No…" Gieremund choked out, "I'm laughing… because He is finally free." "He? Who is he?" Blaze said, increasing the pressure on his chest, he winced at the pain. "You already know… who he is…" Gieremund said, with a smile creeping over his face. Before anything else was said the color once again left the room and was replaced with a blank white area. "So Ill just take a guess and say the one that was set free was you." “How did you get so smart? You used to be an idiot.” “Always been smart, only thing is that I’m lazy so I never feel like thinking things through. But, since I’m watching these memories I may as well stop being lazy…” “I… see.” “Now then, what else will I be seeing? I’m tired of waiting.” “Well if you’re tired of waiting, I suppose I’ll just speed things up for you.” A voice I recognized as Sally said. Before I could react, visions and memories flooded into my mind nonstop. They were speeding by my eyes so fast, and yet I could see every individual event that occurred as if I were experiencing them at this very moment. When the memories ended the last thing I saw was Shadow holding a pen. “Whoa that was close, if you would’ve seen that flash I’d have to redo all of this for the 13th time.” “Wait… 13th time? The fuck Sally? And where the hell are you?” I shouted. “She always has been quite the charming fellow.” “Wait, how do you know her Slipstream?” “Well when she gave you your memories back she also gave me mine. Remember that voice you’ve always talked with? Yeah that was me.” “Wait.. how?” “During the time I was imprisoned, I was not alone. Your sister was also up there, she kept me company.” “Whoa whoa whoa back this fucking turtle up! How old is she?” “Didn’t mom teach you not to ask a lady her age?” Sally responded. “Yes, well… during our stay she made a pact with me. She would release me as long as I became a tool in her experiment.” “So… the experiment was the transfer or your power into a human body?” “…Actually yes. Over the course of 1000 years we’ve had a total of 981,999 failures.” “And you were the 982,000th test.” Sally’s voice again rang out. “My consciousness, power, everything, was placed into your body while you were an infant. However…” “What WAS supposed to happen was Slipstream would take over your body when you turned 10.” Sally interrupted. “But… that incident a few days after your tenth birthday where we rode down the hill with no handlebars on the bike destroyed most of my memories. I only knew a few things about you, your parents, your sister, and a few of your friends.” “So.. I’ve had a half pony half dragon in my mind… and a, well I’m not sure what the hell Sally is.” “Nor will you ever know. Just know that I am a being stronger than Celestia, Luna, Morpheus, and Goku combined. And I chose to let you be my little brother, feel honored.” “You see I would feel honored…” I began, “But the way my fucks are set up, I just can’t spare any.” “And that’s why I love you.” She appeared beside me, kissed me on the cheek and disappeared. “Talk to you later… little brother.” Another wave began coming toward me, but this time, it wasn’t one of color. It was pure darkness. > The Only Way > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- My eyes shoot open and I look around, “I-I’m still in my house…?” I take my hands off my head and place them at my side. As I do, my left arm brushes my still extended wing, startling me for a second. I smile and flex my wings, “I’ve missed you two…” I fold them against my back and chuckle, “Well Shadow was completely wrong, I haven’t gone insane.” “You so sure about that?” “Yep. Because if I was insane then that’d make everything that I’ve just experienced a lie, which would in turn make you, me, and everything that I’ve seen in this world unreal.” “…Definitely insane.” “Doesn’t matter, right now all that matters is getting everyone else their memories back, then getting back to Equestria.” “And how do you plan on doing that?” “Well…” I thought, “the way I remembered was by experiencing something that happened in Equestria that had a huge impact on my life.” “Then what had a huge impact on their lives? It’s not like you know their past.” “No, but remember how we found out what Sally did to me, Mom, and Dad?” I quizzed Slipstream. “We’re going into their dreams to look at their memories aren’t we?” “Bingo.” “All right. That’s a surprisingly good plan that you came up with, good for you.” “Screw off. Now let’s go and tell them.” I then turned around and ran upstairs, then went into my room… They were all still trying to either use their wings or cast magic… “Uhm, guys?” No response. If someone walked by this house they’d think that there was an orgy going on in here. That should give you all a visual of what I’m experiencing… “4th wall broken. It’s good to be back.” Knowing that I’d be unable to get their attention, I put my left hand in my pocket, extended my wings, and flapped them as hard as I could, making each of them cover their faces. And speaking of covers… they are now on the floor. Issac is the first to stare, followed by Zeke, Zach, Victor, Jordan, Chris, and Kyle. “Well, now that I’ve gotten your attention…” I take a deep breath, “I have great news! So, what do you guys want? Good news or bad news first?” They exchange glances and at more or less the same time reply, “Good news.” I smile, “well the good news is a few things. The first is that I’ve gotten back my memory.” Issac opens his mouth to say something but I quickly say, “Please hold all questions until the end of the presentation.” Making them all pay attention. “Now the next piece of news is that I haven’t gone insane from the memories.” “Yes you have.” “Fuck off.” I reply to myself, “Now then, the 3rd thing is that I have an idea of how to get all of your memories back.” This makes them all let out a sigh of relief. “And the rest is more about things that go on inside my head. So you guys don’t really need to know any of that.” I harden my gaze and take in a small breath, “Now for the bad news…” “There isn’t any bad news. What do you have planned?” I look at each of them and turn my back to them. I then let out a soft, silent fart that I’ve been holding in for quite some time, turn around, and use my wing to push it towards them. “You guys are going to hate this…” I can feel a smile start to come on, so I know I don’t have much time, “wait… do I smell popcorn?” Each of the guys take a whiff of the air to try and smell the imaginary popcorn, only to get a nice deep inhale of my flatulence. A few of them cough non-stop and run out the room, others just made the a hilarious disgusted face and bolted out. After being the only one in the room I turned around, left the room, and closed the door. I vault down the stairs and find everyone sprawled out on the couch gasping for air, “Now that I’ve most definitely gotten your attention I’ll tell you how I plan on getting your memories back.” Zach lifts his head up off the couch for a moment to look at me, then slams it back down and, in a voice muffled by the couch, says “One day, I will fart in your mouth while you sleep.” “Fart… in mouth…. While sleep… Ok, got all that down. I’ll just set the date to three days from today.” “Thank you Slips. Now then, the way I plan to get all of you memories back… is through each of your dreams.” “Our.. Dreams? Can you even do that?” Kyle asked and looked at me with a shocked expression. “Yes. I did it to Sally, so doing it to you guys should be no problem at all.” I said with a proud smile. I did enter the memories of a… something, so it’s not like this will be any harder. “Unless she let you see them.” “I won’t acknowledge that.” “Who are you talking to?” Issac asked with a confused expression. “Slipstream. A half pony, half dragon who was banished to the sun for the attempted murder of Luna and Celestia’s parents.” “Got any proof? You have been known for trolling, so this could just be a poor attempt at it.” Jordan asked with a grin. I was hurt, “Poor attempt at trolling? Now see here ol’ chap, I may have been known for trolling poor unsuspecting fools.. but that doesn’t mean I’d lie about something like this.” I let out a sigh, “But, if you want proof, then I guess I can activate a portion of the Veil for you…” “Veil? What’s that?” they all asked in unison. “The Ardourian Veil… I inherited it from Slipstream when he took control of my body to exact his revenge on Celestia and Luna.” “Why… are you talking to someone like that?” Chris asked me. I sighed, “Look, I’ll give you the whole run down when we’re in Equestria and back together with… Everypony, I hate explaining things twice. For now, I’ll show you the Veil so you know I’m not bullshitting.” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, I knew from before that I only needed to think about something that made me mad. I remembered when I got into a fight with that bear outside of Denny’s.. the way I was getting my ass handed to him was infuriating! And by a bear no less! I should be able to easy beat a bear with my bare hands! “Control yourself! Quickly! If you don’t channel that anger into a part of your body away from the ground, then this whole area and everything in it will be incinerated!” I quickly calmed myself and channeled the Veil into my right hand. Opening my eyes I sigh, “Been a while since I’ve used this… and I almost lost control.” I look down at my hand and almost scream in terror. The skin and meat from my hand is completely gone, leaving only black bones that are engulfed in flames. “Wh-what the hell? Is this because I’m not in my Pony form?” “Yes… This is why I told you to channel it somewhere else. A pony’s hooves are tough, easily able to trot over a pit of flames. Modifications had to be made while I was in your mind as a human, but this is the farthest I’ve gotten.” I quickly release the Veil and watch as the skin crawls over my fingers and encases them, bringing my hand back to the way it was previously… I then look up at each of the guys faces. They each have a horrified expression on their face, and it looks like they’re about to run. “Well you guys were the ones who wanted me to prove that I really got my memory back…” I flex my hand again, “though, when I was a pony the only thing that happened was my mane turned a dark red and black, and my coat turned bright red.” Still no response from any of them, “Hey, you guys still with me?” I walk over and wave my hand in each of their faces, they all give the same reply. Silence. “I… guess they passed out from the shock.” I looked over and Zach and felt my eye twitch, “Yeah, but did they have to do it with their eyes open?” “Well we're in luck, now you can enter their dreams and search through their memories.” I walk to each of them and shut their eyes closed, “Ok. You have a way to get me to sleep? Otherwise It’ll be a good hour or so before I pass out.” “Let me think.. Ok, this should work.” “What sho—“ The last thing I remember is hearing a loud ‘thump’ go off in my head, before darkness, my old friend, embraces me. ~DreamWorld~ “Owww… what the hell did you do Slips?” I asked him as I got up and surveyed the area. I was in a pure white room, the same as the one earlier. A hand is given out to me, and without thinking I take it’s offer for assistance. As soon as I’m up I realize that none of this clicks. “Wait.. who are you?” In front of me is a guy my height with medium black hair, red eyes, and… I look at my clothes, then to his, then back to mine, “Why… are your clothes an inverted version of mine?” He scratches his head and grins, “Because fuck you, that’s why.” “And why does your voice sound like Slips’?” I ask, startled. He facepalms and says, “I know you aren’t this stupid…” I stare at him a little longer, taking in his features and his voice… “Slips!” I shout and point at him. After clapping he says, “There ya go, now was that so hard you moron?” “Incredibly, why are you in human form? And why are you in everything that’s opposite of me?” I reply to him. He sighs, “Because” he pauses and takes a deep breath, “Technically after all of these years, I AM you, so I WOULD look like you, BUT after regaining my memories my features changed, and it looks like they settled on an inverted you.” he then mumbled, "Frankly, I think I look ridiculous." “Oh. That makes sense I suppose…” I look off into the distance, “So whose dream should we enter first?” “I vote on Issac’s.” he answered immediately. “Why him?” “Is it bad to want to know how he got to be so inventive? Besides… he has a pretty strong killing intent.” He grins heavily and chuckles ominously. “uhm… ok.” I think about everything that I know about Issac, in both his current life, and his past. In the distance I can see a door beginning to form, “There it is!” I point and run towards it, the closer I get the more I notice about it. First of all, it’s a metal door that looks like it can easily shield someone who decides to use it around a heavy explosion. Also, about a quarter from the top, it looks like there’s one of those weird slidey thingys that lets you see what’s inside, similar to a peep hole. I stop running as soon as I’m a few feet from it, and begin a slow walk. By now, Slips is right beside me, going the exact same speed I am, “awkward..” I mumble. Without any warning, the door begins to open inward. Behind it is a dark space with a single white light in the distance. Taking a deep breath I look at Slips and see that he’s looking at me with a serious expression. I swallow hard and nod my head, “L-let’s do this.” I stutter out. He nods and runs inside, fading into the darkness. I then run in behind him. The door behind me closes and I begin to feel wind lap at my body and flow off my back. It was only then that I realized what was happening… I was falling. > Shadow Storm > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I’m not sure how long I’ve been falling… nor am I too keen on finding out. Being alone for this long is insufferable.. I’m unable to talk anyways, so it’s not like a companion would do me any good. Actually, I’m fairly certain I can talk.. I suppose being surrounded by darkness for an extended period of time causes your thought process to shift into some inescapable oblivion. Not that it matters anyways. I’ve been with darkness for so long that it’s hard to imagine life without it. It’s been my true companion all this time… never leaving my side, always keeping me in a tender embrace. If I lost that feeling. The embrace of darkness… What would become of me? I open my eyes and look around… “Still nothing..” I quickly clamp a hand over my mouth, astonished. I spoke… Th-that voice.. it belongs to me… right? I slowly remove my hand from my mouth and look down. Then the unexpected happens. A glint of light… it’s faint, but it’s there nevertheless! I begin to make my way towards the light, but stop. I look in every direction besides the one the light is coming from. Am… am I really able to part with my companion? I’m indecisive, I don’t even know what about the light is drawing me towards it… and it could just be a trap. A trap to take me away from my protector.. my ally. “Oh will you cut it out already?” I hear Slips say across from me. A… a voice? But it’s not mine… whose is it? Who’s the owner of this voice, and why do they interfere with my and Darkness’s relationship! “I swear… if you don’t stop, I’m going to take over your body, and read every MLP creepypasta out there…” he threatens me. Th-this voice is familiar.. “Sl-Slips? So it was you who was my true companion all along.. the one who has saved me from the darkness’s grasp.” “That’s it. I’m reading Cupcakes, Sweet Apple Masacre, an—“ I cut him off, “Geez, can’t you take a joke?” I hear him sigh,“Let’s just go and get this over with. We’ve only been falling for this long because you didn’t want to land.” I smirk, “Did you say… land?” “Yes, now let—“ he smacks face first into a mattress that I placed on the floor, while I land on my feet. He growls with anger and flames overtake his body, instantly charring the mattress. He then looks at me. His flames have created a new light source, but I wish that they hadn’t. Slips’ eyes are pitch black, combined with the pure black flames that protruded from his body. Wait… pure black flames? “Slips’ hold on a second.” I activated my Veil and looked at my flames… they were dark red.. “What’s going on here? Your flames are black and mine are red…” His face grew into a shocked expression as he scanned the flames on his body, then the flames on my body. “Perhaps…” the flames were lowering, “perhaps you now fully control a half of the Veil, while I control the other.” It made sense. “But doesn’t that mean that when we’re separated our powers weaken?” He thought about it for a moment, “That is a possibility..” “Separate we are strong..” I begin. “But together we are invincible!” he finishes and holds his fist out and I give him a brofist and shout, “Yeah!” I materialize a torch and light it with my flames, providing more light. In front of us is a door with the words, “Shadow’s Life” etched into the front. “Guess that’s where we’re going.” I was about to reach out and grab the door but Slips stopped me, “what is it?” I asked him. “I feel like we’re missing something here..” “How could we be? We got a light, and we got ourselves, what else do we ne—“ then it hits me. The reason why I regained my memories was because I was there to witness them. So naturally, for Shadow to regain his memories, he needs to be here. I facepalm and sigh, “I can’t believe we forgot him!” “How do we even find him?” Slips asks me. “Well…” I think. “Hey Sally!” I shout. “Yeeess?” her voice rings out. “I’ll make a deal with you. If we can choose the correct memories to show the guys, then you give them all of their memories back. Also, you have to bring them here to witness them happen.” “Well if I do that then you get your friends back. So what’s in it for me?” she asks. I need something to bet that she really wants. I stood there thinking about it for a good 15 seconds before saying, “If I can’t get their memories correct, then you get to do anything you want with us. No matter what it is.” It’s a heavy bet, but I’m not sure if she’d want anything else. “Anything huh?” she paused, “You got yourself a deal.” She snapped her fingers, and a flash of light appeared beside me. “Just don’t regret it later.” After the light subsided I took a look and smiled, “Hey there Issac.” He looked around, then to me, then to Slips, “Am I inside my own memories?” “No you—“ I stopped and looked at him unbelievingly, “How’d you know?” He pointed his finger at the ground and calmly said, “That.” I angled the torch at the ground and took a look myself. I wish I hadn’t. All along the floor.. were blood and limbs. In the corners of the room, in the middle.. and surprisingly, even the ceiling. Blood was dripping everywhere.. I look at him in disbelief, “I knew you had a past where you killed, but this is just insane!” “I prefer the term, Mentally Unstable.” He replied with a crooked smile. “Now, if we are to get my memories back, we had best be on our way.” He walked to the door and ran his fingers from the middle, to the door knob, then paused. “Oh, and don’t throw up, I’d rather not have that inside of my mind.” He turned the knob and thrust open the door, which immediately pulled me, him, and Slips in. I opened my eyes and found I was lying on the ground. I slowly lifted myself up into a standing position and checked out my surroundings. A virtually empty room from what I can see. However, along the walls is a line of filles and colts. If I had to take a rough estimate of how many there are, I’d say about 25 or 30. I look below me and see a large amount of knives scattered along the floor. And… I think the number of knives matches the number of children.. “I-Issac? Slips? You in here?” I shout. “Yeah… We’re over here.” I hear Issac’s voice say. Looking in the direction I find him and Slips in the far corner of the room standing next to a power generator. I make my way over to him and ask, “Issac, do you know where we are?” No response.. only a single tear that that falls down his cheek. I decide to not say anything else, and just look on with them. The children are all crying, asking to see their parents. A few are even consoling each other. Then, a hole in the ceiling opens, and a black colt with a black mane and tail falls in, landing stomach first. “That’s the last of them sir.” I hear a faint voice say over an intercom. “Good. Now then!” another voice shouts, “You have all been gathered here.. for a test. You see, we want to know which of you is worthy of being our lap dog.” He chuckled for a moment before continuing, “I know you’ve all seen the knives that are scattered across the room..” the children began whispering amongst themselves, “Well. You are all to have a fight to the death! The winner shall be working for us.” I felt my teeth clench and my muscles tighten, “Bastard… you can’t just manipulate others like this!” I shouted, I knew he couldn’t hear me… but I had to say something. A few more of the kids began crying, and it seemed like this angered him, “If you don’t do as I say, then every minute that passes I shall throw one of you into the gas chambers! So I suggest that you get busy!” the intercom shuts off, leaving only the sound of a few kids crying. Shadow looked around for a moment, then lowered his head. I looked beside me at Issac and saw he had a frown on his face, “I.. hate to ask, but have you remembered anything?” I reluctantly asked him. “I don’t remember much.. but I do remember” he swallowed hard, “that Group 601 kidnapped me, and all of these kids.. It was as the guy said, we will kill each other.. whether we wanted to or not.” A tear rolled down his cheek, “Whether we wanted to or not..” A minute rolled by, and a door behind the kids was opened.. one of the fillies is gone now. One of the colts that was near the filly when she was taken moved over to a knife on the floor and hesitantly picked it up in his mouth. He then turned on a red colt.. and slit his throat. The other kids were in a full on panic, they rushed and picked up the knives in their mouths.. a few died before they could even pick one up. Shadow was running around frantically, he had a knife in his mouth.. and blood was splattered all over his coat. A grey filly then ran up to him, and sliced his right calf, causing him to shriek in pain.. nevertheless, he turned and plunged the knife into the grey filly’s skull.. He stared at her with a horrified expression.. her eyes were still open, and the blood was pouring into her eye sockets and down her face, making its home on the floor. Shadow quickly ran away, not even bothering to retrieve the knife.. He was headed towards us. I once again looked at Issac, this time, he had.. a wicked smile on his face. “This is the good part.” He chuckled. I knew he could be crazy.. but this is too much, “What part of all of these kids killing each other is classified as ‘good’?” I shouted. His response was only a cackle. Shadow ran past us and straight to the power generator, but he wasn’t alone.. a few of the kids who had banded together were right behind him. A yellow Pegasus, a green Unicorn, and an orange Pegasus, each with many cuts on their bodies, and a knife in their mouth. “No where to run now.. As soon as you and those other ponies die, then we can go free!” the Orange one said. Shadow turned and faced them for a moment, before running behind the generator. “It’s no use trying to hide!” the Green one chuckled. A few moments later, the generator started to spark, and electricity began to snake out in short bursts. “Wh-what’s happening?” the Yellow Pegasus asked, only to receive a bolt of electricity through the chest as a response. Shadow then appeared from behind the generator with, what I think was the power coil. “What the hell did you do!” the Orange Pegasus shouted. A grin crept over Shadow’s face, “I think.. I’ve just found my ticket out of this hell hole!” he then aimed the coil at the Orange Pegasus and shot him dead in the chest, killing him upon impact. The green Pegasus then began to back away slowly.. he was crying, repeating over and over.. “I don’t want to die!” He was quickly silenced. As his limp body fall to the floor, the smell of burning flesh finally hit my nose, and I recoiled. I then look over at Slips and Issac.. both are wickedly smiling. Shadow then chucked the coil into the center of the room and hid. The coil then exploded, spewing electricity in all directions, killing a few of the kids, and rendering a few immobile. I turn away from the pile of bodies, unable to stomach the sight, only to see Shadow staring at his flank in awe, and horror. He had gotten his cutie mark. The scenery around us was then sucked up, and replaced by a stale white. Issac had a blank expression on his face, while Slips looked happy. “probably because he got to witness Shadow killing others..” I thought to myself. A few seconds pass and Issac finally speaks up, “My cutie mark.. was Group 935’s logo.. and I was Group 601’s greatest asset… After killing all the remaining ponies in that place.. I was trained, then years later, was sent to the Wittenau Sanatorium.. I was there to.. to…” he shut his eyes and slammed his hands over his head, a moment later, another door appeared in front of us. It was a a red color, and it looked as though the paint was still drying. A drop fell to the floor.. and it was then that I realized that this wasn’t paint.. It was blood. The door was covered in it, from top to bottom. Looking at the door knob, I saw that it was a pony’s hoof, colored gold to be appealing to the eye. I stared at it in disgust before saying, “Yeah… I’m not opening that.” Issac looked at me with a mocking smile, “Why not? Too scared?” “Hey it’s your door, so you open it.. unless you have no balls.” I teased him. “Ok now you’re just trying to get out of opening it.” I nudged Slips in the arm and began chanting with him, “No balls! No balls! No balls!” until Issac finally sighed, and opened the door. Behind the door, as I expected, was darkness. We were quickly sucked in, and before I entered, I felt my arm brush up against the hoof, scarring me for life. The darkness of the room cleared and was replaced with.. what I assumed was cream colored hospital walls. Issac and Slips were beside me, and Issac had his sights fixed on something.. after following his gaze, I noticed it wasn’t something.. but someone. We were now all looking at Shadow, he looked to be about 16, and had on a white lab coat, stained with blood. He was slowly moving towards us, his mane covering his face, and.. was humming a tune. I didn’t know what it was, nor did I want to. He moved past us, and as he did, the smell of decaying flesh attacked the air around me, causing me to flinch. After walking for a while he stopped at a door a few steps away and went in. Issac and Slips quickly followed him, with me slowly inching my way. We all went inside the room.. the floors, ceiling, and walls were padded.. in the center of the room, was the kind of chair you’d see in a dentist’s office. The table beside it even had similar tools. However, the pony that was strapped down in the chair was frantically moving around, unable to get free. Shadow remains standing above the pony, and as soon as I move in front of him and get a peek at his face.. I have to force myself not to run. His pupils were dilated, his expression was that of a mad-man.. and his right cheek had some dried and faded blood on it. “Do I frighten you?” he asked the gold colored mare in the chair, who’s response was only a scream muffled by the leather strap over her mouth. Shadow’s expression changed, his eyes returned to normal, and he had a heartwarming smile on his face, “I apologize if I do.. It wasn’t my intention.” He then takes his hoof and wipes off the blood on his face, “Oh, and this is ketchup, not blood. I was called in here while I was enjoying a meal.” He unbound the pony in the chair, causing her to be confused. “Now, I want you to get up and get out of here, your family is waiting for you on the 2nd floor.” “B-but why? Aren’t you The Surgeon? Why would you let me go like this?” she asked in a frightened voice. “I’ve been doing this for 2 years.. killing and torturing all who the higher ups tell me, and who I please. However, if I can just let one go.. allow one pony to escape, then I believe that now would be the time.” He smiled again as he looked in her eyes, “Now hurry up and go!” he shouted. She then thanked him, and with tears in her eyes made a break for the door. It wasn’t until she placed a hoof on the door that a blade came from the walls and severed her head from her body. I look on in horror as her head falls to the ground, accompanied by blood. Shadow then lets out a maniacal laugh, “Oh it’s so much more rewarding to see them happy before death!” he then wiped a tear away from his eye, walked over, and picked up her head in his hooves. A few seconds later he said, “This one stayed alive 17 seconds after decapitation. A new record.” He dropped her head and exited the room. Before I could respond, the scenery once again was replaced by the whiteness of the previous room. “Ahh yes.. I was nicknamed ‘The Surgeon’ for all of my phenomenal tortures and dismemberments.” He smiled, “After eight months in Wittenau, myself and a team of researchers were ordered to investigate the crash sight of a large meteor in the arctic Equestrian north that was near another facility.. we discovered something there..” upon saying this, another door was materialized. This one was plain, no redeeming features. “I’ll open this one.” I said with confidence. “No you won’t. There’s no need. You won with this one. Your buddy Shadow there has all of his memories back, save for a few bits and pieces. Which I can take care of.” Issac’s eyes then shined, and I saw flashes of things that I had just witnessed, and things I hadn’t pass before his eyes. When they subsided he blinked twice and smiled. “Happy you got your memory back?” I asked him. He shook his head, “Just giving the last few smiles I can before Aurum kills me.” I chuckled and said, “I’m still curious though.. how the hell did you and Aurum meet and start dating?” “Well..” he paused, “After killing my colleagues and all of the higher ups, the Matter Transferance Device I constructed overloaded, teleporting me to the Everfree forest where I lived for a few days before Aurum found me.” He smiled, “She took care of me, and gave me a home. A while later she introduced me to the mane 6.. oh, this was about a week or two before you showed up.” I think back, I remember seeing Shadow on the first day I arrived in Equestria, he actually helped point me to the library. “Well. I’m glad that I’m not the only one who remembers everything now.” I smile. Issac’s body then starts to fade, “All right. I’ll see you all when you guys wake up.” “Just don’t destroy my house with any crazy experiments..” I remind him. “Yeah yeah.” He says, then disappears completely. I look to Slips, “So… rock paper scissors to see who’s memories we get back next?” > Crossback > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Rock paper scissors!” me and Slips chant in unison. I threw down rock, while he threw down scissors. “I win again.” I sigh, “Can I choose now?” “Best 34 out of 37!” he shouts even louder. “Dammit Slips…” I ignore him and bring up anything about Victor I can remember. And, just like with Shadow, a door began to materialize, only this time.. in front of us. There were no redeeming qualities that this door possessed, so I just simply twisted the door knob and walked inside. As soon as Slips entered in behind me the door shut, and pure darkness surrounded us. Then, 2 torches flickered to light on both sides of us. Then another set, then another… and another, until the whole room was lit by a circle of burning torches. I take a single step, and a final two torches above a door are lit. Above the door are the words ‘Crossback’s Memories’ written in faded yellow paint. I hesitated at first, but continued on, and took in every account of the door as I made my way towards it. This door was unlike Shadow’s in every way. First, instead of metal, it was made of pure, yet very worn glass, but glass all the same. Also it didn’t seem to have any sort of door knob or notch that I could see, so I’m not entirely sure how to open it. But that wasn’t all. There was a long crack down the middle, and one side was darker than the other. I didn’t know what it meant, but something wasn’t right.. I was now in front of it, trying to figure out what it was.. then I noticed. It was changing.. the left side is me, but the right is now Slips… “What the..” I say as I raise my right hand, finding it perfectly in sync with the mirror. I quickly move my body out of the range of the mirror and call Slips over to check it out. “What?” he asks and moves in front of the mirror. For a while nothing happened.. then the lighter side changed into me. “Whoa..” he whispered, and began moving his arm, finding it in perfect sync with the mirror. He then moved out of it’s range and said, “Dude that’s kinda freaky.. I mean, who the hell wants to have a half of you on their body?” “…Fuck you.” I say after a pause. “Sally!” I shout. “H-huh? What is it?” she sounded like she just woke up from a nap.. “Bring Victor here so we can get this over with!” “All right..” she mumbled. Again, a flash of light appeared beside me, and when it died down, Victor was standing next to me. “Wait.. where am I?” he asked. “Currently, nowhere. But as soon as you open that door, then we’ll be inside of your mind, then another door and we’ll be inside of your memories.” “I.. see.” He mumbles. “Confused?” Slips asked him. He stared at Slips for a moment before replying, “N-no. It seems pretty straightforward.. all I have to do is open that door right? And look at my memories?” “Yup. Remember, you trigger the doors to appear and place us into your memories.” “Seems easy enough.” A smile cracked through for a moment before fading behind a slight frown. He slowly approached the door, and the same as us, his features were reflected. But I knew what would be reflected on the darker side.. The darker side of the mirror changed his half of the body into a pitch black form with red eyes. They stared at him, and he stared back. For a while they stayed like that, neither willing to flinch. Then it happened. The dark silhouette gave a deep grin and faded away, cracking the mirror further along the line. The crack continued to advance throughout the mirror, until it could move no more.. The mirror broke, the shards of the mirror, instead of following the laws of gravity and falling to the floor, caved inwards, revealing a dark space that sucked in everything. Including us. …. I opened my eyes to find myself in… some sort of castle. The walls are black with green torches, in the far corner are two specially cut thrones and, from what I can see the ceiling is very high.. I lift myself up and look around, trying to find Slips and Victor. “Where are those two?” “Up here!” Slips and Victor shout at me from one of the higher green torches to my left. After I make my way up to them I position myself so that I have a good view of whatever’s going to happen. “Any idea where we are Victor?” I ask him. He looks around for a moment and shuts his eyes, “I think we’re—“ before he can finish two figures appear in the thrones, while six ponies appear below them. Taking a closer look, I notice that the two figures in the thrones.. are Chrysalis and Discord, but why in the same place? “What’s going on here? Why are those two down there?” “Because they’re my parents… and this is— was my home.” Victor spoke up. I stare at him in shock and disbelief, “They’re your parents?! Why the fuck had you never said anything while we were in Equestria?!” I shout. “How am I supposed to answer that now?!” he turns to me and shouts, “Who knows, maybe I did tell you and you just forgot like you always do!” My stare of shock turns into one of anger.. I wasn’t expecting that.. but he’s right. I’m never one to pay attention, or even when I do… I just forget it the second something else comes into play. Hell, I’d forget my name if it wasn’t on my driver’s license… I always blame my forgetfulness on my brain… but it’s my fault, and mine alone. I soften my glare and look away from him, “Sorry..” I mumble, “Listen, from now on I’ll stop putting the blame on others.. it’s about time I started shouldering all of the responsibility, and not just a part of it.” I feel a hand hit me in the back, “No need for that..” Victor mumbles, “If you started doing that, then what would we do?” I chuckle and look at Victor and Slips, I allow a smile to cross my face before I turn back to the scene unfolding below me. “Ahh my lovely children.. how have you all been?” Chrysalis’ voice chimes with a noticeable amount of uninterest. “Fine.” A masculine voice responds, each of the figures, besides one, remove their hoods, showing their faces. “Could be better.” two feminine voices say. “Bored…” another masculine voice says. “Fine mother.” A third feminine voice says, slightly annoyed. Chrysalis nods and looks to the final hooded figure, “And you Crossback? How are you doing?” Crossback removes his hood, revealing his golden coat, horn, and eyes, “You ask that as if you care.” “Watch your tone boy” Discord spat, “Is a simple ‘Hello mother and father I’m well’ too much to ask for? Hmm?!” Crossback sighs, “Hello mother and father, I am well!” he says mockingly and disappears from sight, and along with him, went the castle area, and then came the white room. “I take it you didn’t like your parents?” Slips says with a grin. “Like them? I despise them.. they bred us just to fuel their need for revenge on the Heroes of Harmony.” Victor responded. “Heroes of Harmony?” “It was what we called the Elements.” “I see.. So are you able to remember your siblings names’?” He closed his eyes and waited a moment before speaking, “There’s Dee Ceit.. Bag O’ Tricks..” he hit the palm of his hand on his head, “Broken Oath.. Diamond Ring.. and Hurry Cane…” “Gotta hand it to Discord, he sure can think up names.” Slips says with a slight grin. “Discord named the girls and Chrysalis named the boys.” Victor responded with his eyes still closed. “Seemed like he did a better job…” Slips mumbled. “Ok guys focus, we need something that’ll spark a memory. Victor, can you remember anything?” I asked him. He opened an eye to look at me, and then closed it. “I remember..” his teeth clenched, “How my siblings got me to unlock.. the other me.” After he said that, a door to my left appeared.. made out of the best material in the world.. “Mahogany!” I shout and run towards it, eager to open it. But Slips grabs my collar and stops me when I’m an inch from it, “Dude why!?” I shout and flail my arms. “Because I needed a little bit of entertainment.” He chuckled, the evil bastard.. Victor then runs in and opens the door, causing us all to be sucked into it, and me to be unable to experience the joy of Mahogany… The darkness of the room is replaced by a cloudy dark blue sky and a few lights below, possibly from a town. “So.. what exactly is here?” I ask anybody nearby as I look around. “This would be one of the places my siblings tried to unlock my Disharmic form..” Victor sighed. “So what did they do?” I ask to no response. Then I see something in the distance, “Hey, what’s that?” I say as I make my way towards it. As I get nearer I see that it’s.. a blimp? Very simple design, but there’s something hanging out from the bottom of it.. “That would be the blimp they hung me out of to get me mad.. they bound my legs and wings so I wouldn’t be able to escape, and used something to render my magic unusable.” In the distance color completely different from the one in front of us was beginning to appear. Below, there were bright green fields spanning as far as I could see, and above was a light blue sky with a few white clouds. That however, wasn’t what caught my eye. A flock of, as far as I could tell, ostrich were chasing someone, well, somepony. He was able to outrun them somehow, but eventually he would run out of juice. “And that.. is where my siblings broke ostrich eggs on my head so that they would chase me down.. they bound my wings and again disabled my magic.. all so I could unlock my Disharmic form.” There was a slight silence as we watched the scene below us unfold. Then Slips spoke up, “So.. what caused your Disharmic form to finally show?” Victor slapped his hand on his head and mumbled, “The ostrich one..” As soon as he said that, the pony stopped running and faced the ostriches. Black mist began to swirl around him, and eventually overtake his body. The golden coat, mane, and tail, had been changed to a pure black. He let out a loud growl, and then proceeded to.. Slaughter the ostrich. When he was done, he looked towards us.. and I saw the anger in his burning red eyes. He broke out of the bindings on his wings and charged towards us, but not before the color in the room vanished, replaced by the stale white. I look to Victor who has a slight look of terror in his eyes, “Well.. to avoid my pooping of the pants, I’m going to say that his siblings were behind us.” I say with a weak chuckle. “Ok so what happened after your Disharmic form was unlocked?” Slips asked. “For about a year we trained, making him obey their orders. One day.. after we had assisted my brother, Bag O’ Tricks in getting back his money after he was scammed out of it.. We passed by the castle courtyard and saw Princess Luna.” After he said that, a door appeared, and without us opening it, we were sucked into it. When I opened my eyes, I noticed that we were in some sort of Café. Though, it was rather incomplete. There was a door and window to the outside, but besides that there was only a booth with 5 ponies, who Victor identified as Himself, Diamond Ring, Dee Ceit, Hurry Cane, Broken Oath, and Bag O Tricks. It looked as if they were celebrating, then Diamond Ring started to speak, "You know” she began, “we have yet to make our presence known in the world." They looked confused, “What do you mean?” Broken Oath asked. Bag O’ Tricks looked as if he knew what Diamond Ring was thinking, "You noticed that we passed one of the 'High and Mighty' rulers of Equestria on our way here. Well, what if, say, she went... missing?" he said with a cruel grin. Crossback slammed his hooves on the table, "What are you talking about? You can't do something to a Princess." "Shut up, Crossback. We can do anything we put our minds to.” Diamond Ring spat, “I say, at sunrise tomorrow, we bring Disharmony back." Crossback looked shocked, he then flew up, and out the door. And like last time, with him, went the color.. which was replaced by the all too familiar white area. “They were planning to attack Luna? What happened after that?!” I shouted. “They never got the chance. Later that night, I flew to the castle and went to where Luna was, then I threw a picture of me and my siblings at her.. on the back I wrote, “You're life is in danger. Arrest them." After that.. I got my cutie mark.” “Ding ding ding! Congratulations! You’ve passed!” I hear Sally shout. Victor’s eyes then began glowing, and I could see all the previous events unfold, all leading up to now. When the glow faded he blinked his eyes, looked around and sighed, “So now you have your memory back?” I asked him. “Yeah. Well, except the part about how we lost it in the first place.” “I’ll tell you later.. I’m not sure if the memory of it will make you lose your memory.. its some freaky Men in Black stuff.” I chuckled. “All right I guess.” His body began to disappear. “See ya on the other side bud.” I smiled. “Dude don’t say that, it sounds like we’re about to die!” he laughed, then disappeared all together. I sighed, “Maybe we are.. on Earth.” I mumbled. I then slapped myself in the face, “All right then Slips, two down, two left. Who’s next, I’ll let you pick.” He thought about it a while before replying, “Flutter Night.” > Flutter Night > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “So Zeke next huh?” I say with a smile. He was the first in the group that I got to meet.. I may have seen Shadow when I first got to Equestria, but I only talked to him for a few seconds. But now that I think about it, this isn’t fair.. I know all about Shadow and Crossback’s past. Soon I’ll know Fortune’s and Night’s as well.. Yet they know nothing about mine. How did it even turn out like this? Why is it that I’m the guy that has to shoulder all of the responsibility of getting their memories back when it was Shadow’s fault.. “Because they came here for you.” Slips spoke up, getting my attention. “They came because you proposed the idea, so all of the events leading up until now, everything that’s happened.. was all caused by you.” There it is again… my stupidity got us into this, now I’m trying to pin the blame on one of my friends.. “Think about what you just called them.” Slips said, slightly confusing me, “Friends. Comrades. Family. You have given them these titles because you cherish them, and they came because they feel the same way about you.” I hadn’t done this in a long time. And I didn’t expect something so simple and so obvious to make me do it either. I cried. I stood there, letting a few tears fall as I remembered all the fun times I had with these guys, while we were in Equestria, and while we were on Earth.. Wiping my face clean of the tears I take a deep breath, and exhale, “All right I’m good now...” I chuckled, “You’re the only person who can make me feel all these emotions ya know.” “What about Rainbow Dash?” “I said person didn’t I?” Responding to the memories, a door, again with no redeeming qualities appears in the distance. “Wait, if this is a dream realm..” I then will the door to be in front of me, in an instant the door appears in front of me.. also hitting me on the nose. “Ow, brought it too close.” I mumble as I rub the place where the door hit. As I was caressing my nose, Slips walks up and opens the door, then walks inside. After I’m done tending to my nose, which I swear is broken, I follow him. After the darkness of the room subsides, we’re left speechless.. The room.. it’s the norm room compared to the rest. From the lush green fields that seemingly span for an eternity, to the warm gentle breeze that softly pats against my skin. Overhead, lies a bright blue sky with puffy white clouds and a glowing black sun overlapping the golden— “Wait, black sun?” I repeat and look back up at the sun. “Why the hell is it black?!” I shout in confusion. “Solar eclipse. Here, put these on.” A familiar voice tells me. “Oh, thanks.” I say as I take the glasses from his hand and put them on. Just as he said, a solar eclipse was occurring. “Amazing.. I’ve never seen one before!” “Nor will you ever see one again.” The voice states regretfully, “This isn’t even the real thing.. it’s just a fake created from my wish. The real one won’t be around for another 60 years…” “It may be a fake.. but the true beauty of the eclipse has been captured.” Slips says proudly. “How would you know?!” the voice yells at him. “Because I was imprisoned on the sun for a long time. So trust me kid, I know what I’m talking about. I’ve seen many eclipses in my time, and with each that pass, I feel a warmth in my heart…” he let out a low, yet cheerful grunt. “Maybe this is why my parents…” his voice trailed off. The solar eclipse had been completed, so I took off my glasses to see who it was that had so much to say about the solar— …It was Zeke.. “B-but how? How did you get here?” I look to the sky and shout, “Sally!” “He’s been here since they all fainted.” She responded, “Replaying the solar eclipse over and over.. it’s a beautiful thing, but repetition gets annoying ya know?” “But that doesn’t explain why he’s here now!” I shout, slightly agitated. “There may be a chance that I brought him and the other one to their own dream realms so that I wouldn’t have to constantly bring them in.” she paused for a moment, “And it would be better for me to just give them all their memories now and be done with it… but I’m looking forward to having you parade around a city in a pink fluffy tutu singing the Barbie girl song while carrying a small puppy and eating an ice cream cone…” “THAT’S what you’re gonna make me do?!” I shout, “You’re a monster!” Though an Ice cream cone sounds heavenly… “Hey!” her voice rebounded off the walls, “I’ve been bored all these decades, and this is the closest thing to entertainment that I’ve had! So I don’t want to hear any whining come from you!” I looked over to Zeke and saw that he had the same grin on his face that I did, I then said along with Zeke, “We are not whining! We are complaining, do you want to hear whining?!” Before we could finish, a zipper appeared over both of our mouths, changing our words and screams into muffled growls. “Good thing she got to you first.” Fire started to appear around Slips, “I would’ve just incinerated your vocal cords.“ “Now hurry up and get this over with!” Sally shouted, the shockwave sending us spiraling into a dark pit. … “Ouch..” I mumbled as I lifted my body off the ground and into a standing position. “Finally awake are we? Too bad, you missed the good part.” I heard Slips’ voice say from beside me. I faced in the direction that he was and looked at what appeared to be two young colts, one Pegasus, and one Unicorn playing together in a forest. “What’d I miss?” I said with a noticeable amount of exhaustion. There was a Pegasus with a green coat and a green and blue mane. Alongside him was a white Unicorn with a black and blue mane that had a single white line going down the center. “That Pegasus is someone— well, somepony I found in the forest near my village.. we became very close, and since he didn’t have anywhere to go my family adopted him.” Zeke said with a bright smile. “We played like this for a long time.. and everything was great. But because of my gift for magic, I was enrolled in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.” The scene before us changed, the forest now looked like a classroom.. with very very small desks. There was also a podium in the front of the class, and taking a closer look at it… I nod, “This must be a very great classroom, I mean just look!” I then point to the podium, “Mahogany! That’s all the proof I need that this is a gifted school.” I could just feel the strength that Slips put into that facepalm… Slowly, fillies and colts began to appear into the desks and talk amongst each other. Well.. all but one unicorn who was quietly levitating and reading a book in her desk away from others. Seeing the tiny smile take form on her lavender coat made me think about the smile she gave her friends… me.. many times before. Twilight Sparkle. “Ok class, settle down.” A unicorn said as he teleported into the room. As per his instructions, the class got silent and began paying attention. Even Twilight set her book on the table and began paying attention. “Today we have a new student joining us.” The class began whispering amongst themselves. The aforementioned student then slugged into the class and nervously said, “M-my name is Flutter Night, I-it’s nice to meet you all!” “wait wait wait so you knew Twilight since you were that young?!” I said with great shock. “I.. guess I did. Even though it’s happening right in front of me, I’m pretty shocked myself.” Zeke said with slight confusion. “Wait, how can you not remember? Could somethimg have happened for you to repress the memories of her?” Slips asked. “I’m… not sure.” He closed his eyes and concentrated, “But… I do remember testing out dark magic and failing..” The scene around us changed again, putting us in the school’s playground. The sun provided a blanket of warm orange light that covered as far as the eye could see.. In front of a swingset were two children.. who I could tell were Flutter Night and Twilight. Night’s cheeks were flushed with red, while Twilight was just confused, “So.. what was it that you wanted to show me?” Twilight asked. Night snapped out of his trance and took in a deep breath, “I-I learned a new spell that I wanted to show you.” He closed his eyes and began concentrating. The air around him began vibrating, a black mist started swirling around his body, and the light blue that was coming from his horn changed to black. Twilight began to slowly back away, scared of what the outcome with be. Then, something broke Night’s concentration. I’m not sure what it was, but his eyes shot open and he began panicking. The magic that he had been building up then released and was aimed towards the school. It bounded off one of the mirrors then went for Twilight. “Move out of the way!” I shout, even though I know she can’t hear me.. At the last second, Night pushes her out of the way and takes the hit. It all materialized into his body.. then a black hoof broke through his chest, it tried to get out, but was somehow kept in check by Night’s willpower alone. The hoof then slowly receded back into his body. “Th-that hoof” Zeke began, catching my attention, “It… it belongs to Night Sky.. the being that was created from my mishap with dark magic.” He put his hands on his head and held tight, “After this.. I was devastated. I’d made a fool of myself in front of Twilight, used dark magic, and created.. it. What came next.. I had no choice but to do.” The scene before us unfolded and we were thrown back into the stale white room. “What happened next?” I asked eagerly. “Isn’t it obvious?” I heard Sally’s voice. “He erased any and all memories of Twilight to stop the pain in his heart. He may not have been able to erase what he had just done, but he could at least erase his feelings for the one he loved.” Zeke’s eyes then began to glow, and memories began to flash through his eyes. When the glow faded, he looked at me with a weak smile, “I was thankful that Twilight had completely forgotten about that ever happening, but I know that sooner or later, he’ll show up again.” His body began to slowly fade. “Oh and don’t tell Twilight about what you saw.” He smirked, “I’ll do it when I feel the time is right.” After that, his body had vanished. I smiled, “Don’t worry buddy… I wouldn’t even dream of it.” “Well, indirectly you did kinda dream of it…” Slips mumbled. I felt my eye twitch, “Cool line has already been used and I don’t feel like finding another to use.” I chuckled, “Besides.. Jordan is waiting for us…” > Fortune Caster > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Jordan’s up huh? After him and Chris you get to see your Dashie.” Slips said with a slight gag. “And you go back to being my other self…” I say half-heartedly. “Wait a second.. something doesn’t add up here..” “What are you talking about?” Slips and Sally ask at the same time. “Well Slips was imprisoned on the sun right? Until you came and got him, right Sally?” “Yeah. What’s your point?” “Well if that’s true…. then while I was fighting Slipstream… who the hell was in my head?” the thought had been bothering me a little ever since I first learned about Slips. “Oh that’s all?” Slips laughs, “It doesn’t surprise me that you hadn’t figured it out though, I mean you probably haven’t even thought about it longer than 15 seconds.” “But if he really wants to know that badly, then go ahead and tell him. Just make it quick.” “All right.” Slips smirks, “While it is true that I was a part of you at that time, I had no memory. And it is also true that the Slipstream you fought was me.. but then again it wasn’t. You see, before Sally freed me from my prison I told her that I had a… condition.” I was eager to know what the condition was, “So stop stalling and tell me.” “It’s simple. She was to take half of my power and conscious and leave it on the sun so that I’d still be able to exact my revenge when I escaped.” He began laughing, “So what you defeated was nothing more than a fake!” It.. kinda makes sense. But if that’s the case, then we destroyed the other half of his power… “Wrong!” Slips shouted. “It wasn’t destroyed, the other half of my power is in Equestria. When we return, all I must do is call upon it. Though, if it will correctly respond or not all depends on you. It is your body after all.” “Well… I’ve mastered a fourth of your power, so all I have to do is master the rest. But how much will change when we get the rest of your power?” I ask with a noticeable amount of interest. “Let’s see… increased speed, strength, knowledge, charm, you can incinerate any and everything, you can breathe fire, and also—“ “Did you say breathe fire? Let’s hurry this up, I really want to be able to do that!” “All right, I’ll tell you more later. Sally, if you would be so kind.” “Sure thing.” I hear Sally say as a hole appears below us, sucking us to the dark abyss below. … As we were falling I noticed that a light was beginning to show below us and began growing in intensity. “So how do you think Jordan’s room will look?” I asked Slips to try and pass the time. “Well.. he does wander through the Everfree forest a lot, and he does have great combat ability.. So it could be anything really.” “I see… Well, we’re about to find out.” The light momentarily blinded me, so when I landed I stumbled a little. When I could see again, I wasn’t all too surprised at what I saw, but it was still amazing. A room decorated with golden tiled floors, simple white walls littered with plaques and weapon racks, and a door on the far right wall. I expected to see Jordan, but he was nowhere in sight.. “Wait, shouldn’t Jordan be here?” “Oh sorry, I’m right here.” A voice said from my left. Startled, I jump to my right and land in Slips’ arms. He then looks at me with the most irritated face ever… “Rorry Raggy.” I say with my best Scooby Doo voice. He then sighs and drops me, making me hit the ground on my side. “Wonderful comedy act there.” Jordan said with a laugh. “Thanks. Anyways I’m sure Sally has told you all about where you are and what we’re doing.” He nods, “So let’s get a move on shall we buddy?” … After walking through that door I didn’t feel like describing, we came to a wide open field with beautiful flowers.. “Did you just say beautiful flowers?” Slips asked me. “Yeah…” I hung my head in shame. “You know what you have to do now don’t you?” he grinned. “Yep.. I gotta kill and skin a deer with my bear hands to regain my manliness…” I said with a heavy sigh. “Those are the rules Tristan. But if you need you can borrow my bear hands.” Jordan commented with a smirk. “Oh hardy har har.” I replied mockingly. “No seriously I have bear hands at home if you need them.” “…Did.. did you get bear hands just for this one moment?” He looked away and let out an irritating girly giggle… “Don’t give me that!” “Hey morons.” Slips said catching our attention. He then pointed out to something in the middle of the field. Children? They’re running and playing with each other. One of them has a Light brown mane, possessing a silvery white streak, shining green eyes, and a pale yellow coat. But the others I’m not sure about… But, it’s not that I won’t describe their features.. I can’t. They have no face.. no mane.. no tail.. and no color. They look as if they’re still waiting for their features to be added. “Hey Jordan.. do you know who those kids are?” “I.. I know that they were my best friends when I was little. But, I can’t really remember their names or anything really…” he responded. He can’t remember them? That’s strange.. all of these guys’ memories weren’t destroyed, just repressed. So for him to not be able to remember their names or faces… It’s just weird. “A- All right, well if you remember..” “Yeah…” “Well well well, what have we here?” a slightly intimidating voice sounded. A gust of wind began to move towards the kids, slowly taking the form and shape of a dark green colt with a light blue and yellow mane. He towered over the kids, but it looked like he was still only about 7 years old. “I thought I told you brats not to come here anymore.” The colt then pushed down two of the fillies. “Hey leave them alone! This isn’t your area, it’s open to everyone!” Fortune shouted. The green colt then bucked Fortune in the face, “I don’t want to hear a blank flank giving me orders. Now if you knew what was good for ya, you’d leave and follow my orders next time.” His friends rushed to his side, helping him up and gasping at the sight of his bleeding muzzle. I never did like bullying… I could never stand the sight of it, no matter where it was, no matter who was doing it… The main reason I don’t like it though, would be that it angers me beyond belief. To the point that I could kill. I remember when a kid in my school named Shaun was being bullied by someone named Tyler… I told him to stop, but he wouldn’t listen. I pleaded with him, but that just made him mad. He slammed Shaun into the wall, then turned to me… The only thing I can recall after that, was waking up with bloody fists and clothes.. holding Tyler, by the throat. I shake the memory out of my thoughts and turn away from the spectacle happening in front of me. I shut my eyes and ignored any and all sounds, waiting for it to be over with. Moments later, Slips shakes me from my solitude, turns my body back around, and forces open my eyelids with his fingers. “Look.” I heard Slips say, “You have to get over that, for Jordan’s sake. Now watch closely.” He ordered. I reluctantly complied, focusing my sight on Fortune. And what I saw, brought a smile to my face, and a warmth to my heart. Fortune had defended his friends, stopped the bully without bloodshed, and gotten his cutie mark… of which he was now staring cheerfully at. I’m glad that he isn’t like me… and I’m even happier to know that that bully has received something that they all hate. Humiliation. “After I’d gotten my cuite mark, I was so happy.” Fortune began, “I knew just by how I felt, that I was a protector. So I’d asked my parents to let me join the Royal Guard…” he looked to the sky and smiled, “But.. soon after getting me enrolled in BT for the guard.. they died.” The scene before us disappeared, being replaced by that of a barracks type of area. In the bottom bunk of the bed, was Fortune, stretched out and staring at a picture frame. He sighed, got a bag from under his bunk, and gently placed the frame in it. “I’d been in the Royal Guard for many months… but it wasn’t really for me. The training was simple, as were the instructions that I was given… but it wasn’t the kind of adventure that I had in mind. So with permission from my general, I requested a permanent leave from the guard. And after a lot of convincing, he allowed it.” “So.. afterwards, what did you do?” Slips asked. He chuckled, “I fell in love.” “Wait you fell in love? I thought AJ was your first love?” me and Slips said in unison. Jordan shook his head, “This was long before I met AJ…” he sighed and directed his gaze at the ground, “I loved this mare with everything I had… and I still do. But what she did to me was unforgivable.” The white background was replaced with the outside of an apartment complex. The air was cool and the sky was dark, giving this new memory an ominous feel. At the top level of the complex was a pony, standing in front of a door. We couldn’t see much so we flew up to get a better look… but it wasn’t a pretty sight. The pony was Fortune… and he was standing with his face covered by his mane, and tears slowly streaming down his face. He then quickly turned around, and unsteadily flew away. “Inside that room, my marefriend was having sex with some guy!” Jordan shouted. I was speechless… and who wouldn’t be? He loved her to that extent and she betrayed him… “Yeah, that’s the problem nowadays.” I heard Sally’s voice chime out as the area was replaced with the boring white area. “Trust is hard to come by, and even harder to get back.” Jordan’s eyes shone, and images sped by in his eyes. When the light subsided, he looked back at the ground with a weak smile, “After seeing that I left and never went back. For a while I toured around, exploring many different areas, including the Everfree forest, and spent a little bit of time in the griffon homeland. Well” he chuckled, “that was until I saved AJ from a Manticore that got loose in her orchid. Spent some time with her and her family… and you know the rest… man I miss her.” His body began fading, “Don’t worry, you’ll see her and Everypony else soon. Promise.” I said with a smile. “Good to have you back.” He returned the smile with one of his own, “Good to be back.” And disappeared completely. “All right, Solar is all that remains.” Slips said with a sigh of relief. “May want to save that sigh of relief brotaco, after all.. Solar is still a member of the Guard.” I reminded him. “Well then that’s good, more excitement.” Suddenly, Sally began chuckling, slightly confusing me. “What’s so fun— AHHHHHH”