> Fractured Soul > by JollyRogue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Ch 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I awoke in a void. Hmm... This seemed different, I don't remember passing out in darkness. Well to be fair I don't even remember who I am. Wait don't remember. No that couldn't be true, could it? Okay just calm down. Slow breaths, in out, in out. Yes like that, just calm down. Okay brain let's take our time and think about this, who am I? ... Take your time. ... Hopeless! Maybe if I look around I could find a clue. I look out into the horizon, there was nothing! I had nothing to give me a clue to where I am nor an idea of who I am. Well I guess this is my life, better start establishing my new home. No that was a quitter's tone. Instead of just giving up I should find a way out. Without any notice, an aura of light shrouds me. There was something underneath me. Was that the ground? Was I out of the void? Hmm... Better open my eye's to make sure. Bad idea, I looked straight into the sun. Oh god that burned. I closed my eye's, shielding them from the sun. Uhh... They still burned, the pain seemed to emanate through my body. A loud *pop* traveled through the air.The pain in my body was amplified. "Ahh!" I screamed at top of my lungs. That pop had hurt. Was that a bone? What was happening to me? I muster all the strength I had, just to force my eye's to open. The light of the sun caused even more pain and my vision blurred. No not now! Just focus, look down! My vision cleared. Yes, now what was wrong with me? I looked down at the ground, there was nothing but dirt. No, wait on top of the dirt there was a beige hoof. Before I could even understand what I saw, more pops sounded from my body, and with them another wave of pain. "Ahhh!" I yelled. This new wave of pain forced me to black out. *** Time seemed to be separated from the real world and the void. Time seemed to go on for ever here in the void. This left me alone with my thoughts. "Okay so if I put a couch right here." I gesture to nothing. "And a reading chair right here." Gesturing to nothing once again. "I'll have a nice living room. Now where am I going to get the couch from?" I start to ponder who I could get a couch from, when something poked me in the shoulder. Wait how was that possible there was nothing here. Oh yeah, I passed out didn't I. I guess I can finish my decoration later. My mind wondered back to reality. My senses slowly came back. There was a noise, what was it. “Hey are you all right? Hey! Hey! Listen!” Oh no, it couldn't be. My eyes opened up. Bad idea, the sun was still as bright as when I passed out. Now my eyes were once again, in pain and out of focus. I blinked the pain away. I looked around for who had called me. Wait this can't be right, there was no one here. Someone had definitely said something to me. There had to be someone around here, voices didn't just come from nowhere, right? Right was the right solution, because out of the corner of my right eye, there was something. I turned my head to observe what was there. When my head made its full rotation around, I was blinded and I couldn't breath. Whatever I had seen was smothering me. Rule number one to panicking: Always remain calm and handle the situation smoothly. “Get off of me, your killing me!” I said, knowing fully well I had nailed rule number one. “Oh I'm so sorry.” My assailant released my head from their grip. Rule number two of panicking: Catch your breath and survey the surroundings.I allowed myself to do just that, surveying my assailant. From what I could already tell my assailant was a girl, but what caught me off guard was her appearance. Her eye's were one of the prettiest shades of blue I had ever seen. Wait no, that wasn't the problem, her eye's were fine. The real problem was her body color. She was one of the brightest shades of pink I had ever seen. Her hair was hot pink and seemed to be incredibly messy. She also appeared to have a tail that was the same as her hair. Then there was her body, not only was she covered in hair that was a lighter shade of pink, but she was a horse. Wait is this really strange? From what I could tell from myself I was also a horse. Wait what was she doing with her mouth? Oh don't tell me she was talking to me. “Umm... I'm sorry Miss but could you repeat that I kind of spaced out.” “Why sure Mr. J. I was just saying how I was just coming along down this road and then all of a sudden I saw you passed out I ran up to you and was so super worried that you were hurt so I kept shaking and yelling at you to wake up then your eyes opened and I was so super happy that I jumped on you and started giving you a hug then you told me that you couldn't breath then I let go of you and felt super sad that I might have killed you after just rescuing you!” Well that was informative. Was there even a pause to take a breath in there? “Umm... Don't worry about it. I'm perfectly alright Miss... Uhh...” I stammered, trying to think of her name. “Oh just call me Pinkie Pie, or Pinkie. All of my friends call me Pinkie. Where friends right Mr. J? Pinkie asked. “Uhh...Sure Pinkie. Why do you keep calling me Mr. J?” “Well because it's on your leg silly!” “What do you mean on my leg?” “Well not Mr. J but the letters J.R.R. See it's right there. It's carved into the bottom of your right hoof!” Carved into my right hoof, what did she mean? Wait when did she get a chance to look at the bottom of my hoof? Never mind there was more pressing matters. I lowered my head down to look at what she was talking about. I didn't get all the way before all the hairs on my body stood on edge. Where there should have been a flesh and blood leg like my left, was instead a mechanical leg. This might be a new record, because for the second time that day, I blacked out. *** And for the third time that day, I was trapped in the void. Cool maybe I could get some work done before I woke back up. “Oh my, this certainly will not do. I can't have you returning here, you might end up remembering something.” A deep rumbling voice echoed through the empty void. I started to spin around, looking for who ever had said that. There was nothing, just a feeling that someone was here. "Where are you? Who are you? Do you know me? Please can you tell me whatever you know about me." “I can see that your amnesia is worse than I had anticipated. I guess this leaves you in a worse position and me in a better one. Now run along. Oh and this may hurt, a lot!” The presence said with a chuckle. With those last word, I felt like my insides had been been grabbed and ripped out from my body. Then I was flung out into the void. “Oh and I must not forget to send someone to take care of you while your in this condition.” The presence said. > Ch 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Passing out all the time couldn't be good for my health. I mean there had to be a problem with blood flow to and from my head. Maybe I had a condition. Wait crap. This wasn't the time to think about myself. Well at least not about how screwy my head is. I should be thinking about where in the world was I. I tried to force my eye's open, but they wouldn't budge. Come on it was a matter of life and death. Okay maybe it was a lie, but eye's I promise this time there wont be any light to blind you. My eye's complied with my commands. At least when I opened my eye's this time they weren't blinded by light. Wait there wasn't any light. Where was the sun? Why the heck was it dark? No wait, there was light, where was the source? I started to flop around, moving what parts of my body I could in order to investigate the light. With a each move a *creak*. Wait a *creak*. I was in a bed. Good that means that someone had helped me, and help is good thing. It means the world wasn't out to get me, for once. Wait, for once? What did I mean by that, it's probably nothing. I need to see who my rescuer was. Wait how was I supposed to get out of this bed? Hmm... Well flopping had worked so far, might as well stick with what works. *creak* *creak* *creak*. Wait how was I supposed to catch myself? I should have thought ahead. Too late, my head rammed into the floor with a loud *thunk*. "Son of a..." Great, not only did my head hurt, but my back legs were still on the bed. This meant my rump was up in the air. This would be a terrible time for someone to walk in. It was time to go before someone stumbled in on me. How was I supposed to get up? I'm not the most "coordinated" pony, but I must be able to walk. Now I need my leg's down here, and yes my rump too. My legs hit the ground with a *thud* and I was on my stomach. Now to stand up, just a little effort, put some strength in those legs, let them bend up, and I was on the floor. I stood tall and proud. Okay that was a lie, but at least I wasn't on the ground. Now for the most difficult challenge as of yet, walking! Come on, it was just one foot in front of the other. Come on, lift, move. Lift, move. Ha! I had walking down to an art. Well maybe a crayon drawing comparatively, but art is art. Now to find that door. *** Uh... How did ponies do this. I try to open the door with my hoof, with no success. I gave in to opening the door with my mouth. I had to practice using my hoof, I really don't want too know the how many different flavors doorknobs came in. Now outside this door. What is outside? Oh! it was a hall with... More doors... Great. With fear I would become addicted to licking doorknobs, I left every door shut as I made my way down the hall. Hmm... The color of this hall was odd. It was just too... Pink!. Like that one pony.... Uhh... Pinkie! Wait, is she the one that saved me? It was possible, she seemed to be really concerned when I passed out. Now if I could find her I could... *thunk* For all that is unholy in the void, that hurt! I had stubbed my left hoof on something as I took the turn around the corner. What did I hit?... A table! That explained it, the legs mortal enemy. Wait there was something flat on the table, was it a painting? As I went around to investigate I caught the reflection of the door on the other side of the room. Reflection? Was it a mirror? Must be because as I looked in to it, I locked eyes with a pony. What I first noticed about me was my eye's. They were a deep emerald green, all attention seemed be directed at them, but this was mainly due to my coat. My coat was a light beige color completing my eye's perfectly. Around my neck there was something black and white. A tie? No, it was a scarf. Well it looked like I was a fashionista. The next thing I noticed was my mane, It was a beautiful reddish brown, a lot like the color of mahogany. One thing that was unsettling about my hair was it seemed to be very chaotic, like bed head was a permanent thing. In the tangled mess of my hair something was protruding out. It was the same color as my fur but after touching it, I realize it was hard. Was this a horn? Was I a unicorn? Hmm... Wait there was more of my body to explore. When I looked at my back I realized I have a tail. It seemed to be the same color as my mane and equally as messy. Wait, there was something near my rump, something that was a dark emerald green. I repositioned myself so I could see what it was. Probably not the brightest idea, because as soon as I started to comprehend what it was I wanted to faint. The green that I saw was a green fireball, with a black swirl inside of it. I had no idea why, but this image was made me feel terrified. Why was it there? No! Stop looking at it, I'm not supposed to faint. I needed to look at something else. What a surprise, this was also a bad idea, because I looked down at my metal leg. Well it was bound to happen. I should get it out of the way. So a metal leg, hmm... Yup there was nothing unusual about that, well except, how did it move? It seemed to be like any other non metal leg. It had what looked like joints, and it bent at these joints, like a normal leg, but the leg was a solid piece of metal. How did it bend? It seemed to bend, like taffy. Also how did I control it. It just bent to my will, like any normal appendage. *sigh* Well I guess there was no way to know the answer just yet. Besides there were still those letters Pinkie had mentioned. Where were they. Hmm... Oh yes, there they are, on the bottom of my hoof. Hmm... It looked like she was right... J.R.R... What did that mean? Was it a code, a name, a place? While I contemplated what these letters meant, something strange happened. The letter's started to emit a green light, and I could hear a voice resonate in the deepest part of my mind. "...Remember... You need to remember..." "Remember? What do you mean? I don't have the foggiest clue of who I am! Do you know who I am? I wish I knew who I was, but it's just not that simple!" "Hey who are you talking too?" "Gah!!!" I screamed as I fell to the floor. A Pink pony stood over me. "Pinkie... Is that you?" "Of course it's me silly. Now get up I want you to meet my friends." > Ch 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pinkie lead me down a set of stairs, I stumbled all the way down. What, walking was hard. I nearly fell on the last few steps, but I made it to the bottom of the stairs. I noticed that there were a ton of tables and chairs in this room. That was strange, who would need this much furniture for one house? I wonder, if they had this much furniture could they have an extra couch? I needed one. In front of us, at the bottom of the stairs, there was a counter with a gray box on it. A cash register? Was this a store? What did it sell? Wait there was something sweet in the air. Was this a candy store? "And this here is Sugar Cube Corner. It's the bestest bakery in the entire world!" Said Pinkie. "Well that explains why it smells so good down here." "Yep yep yep! Now come on, my friends are in the kitchen." Pinkie said, bouncing to the kitchen. *** She led me through a doorway, which was on the right side of the stairs. Inside of this room I noticed two ponies. One of these ponies stared right at me, her eye's were a brilliant shade of purple. Wait her eye's weren't the only thing that was purple, her coat was a dark purple. Her mane and tail were a dark violet blue, with a streak of purple and pink. Wait, there was something in her mane. A horn! Wait another unicorn, awesome! I didn't feel like such a freak. Well... Less of one. The other pony that stood next to her was trying her best to avoid my eyes. I could see that her eye's were turquoise. Her coat was a very light yellow. Now what really made her stand out was her mane, it was a light pink, and it was incredibly long, just a few inches above the ground. That couldn't be good, what about split ends? Then there was her tail. It was literally being dragged on the ground. How did she keep dirt out of it? How much shampoo and conditioner did she go through in order to maintain a clean tail? More importantly, why was this on my mind? There seemed to be something else off about her. Wait! She had wings. Was she a pegasus? That was strange. Well actually in retrospect it doesn't actually seem that strange. I mean I had a horn. I guess it wasn't that odd she had wings. Wait, how long had it been since we had entered the room. I better say something... Come on, anything. My hoof tapped rapidly on the floor. No stop it, that's an action, I needed words! Come on anything... "Umm..." Nailed it. "Oh, uhh... Hello. You must be the pony that Pinkie rescued. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is Fluttershy." Said Twilight Sparkle. "hi there..." Said Fluttershy. Wow, could Fluttershy have been any louder? I mean come on, keep a lid on it. No no no, stop it, be nice! "Uh yeah, I'm the pony Pinkie rescued, it is a pleasure to make both of your acquaintances." I said, as I extended my metal leg towards them. Something must have snapped inside Twilight, because she stood inches from my leg with a look of disbelief on her face. "What is that?" Said Twilight. "Do you... Do you mean my leg?" I brought my hoof back towards me. "Yes, whatever, that." She peered at my hoof. "It's, a metal leg..." "I've never seen anything like that before. Where did you get it from?" "I... I have no idea." "What do you mean you have no idea?!" She said bitterly. "Well when Pinkie found me... It was... It was just there. That's how it was." "What do you mean "it was just there?" Metal legs just don't appear out of nowhere." "No, I know that it didn't just grow or something like that. I've probably had it for a long time, but I don't remember how I got it. I... I can't even remember my own name." You could cut the silence .... With a knife. It seems I caught them all off guard. Maybe it was a bad idea to mention my lack of, memories. "so you are saying you have no idea who you are?" Said Fluttershy. "Right." "So you have amnesia?" Said Twilight. "Yes." "Amnesia? I've played that game before. Super scary. Lot's of monsters and stuff, I got rid of it, it was scaring the kids." Said Pinkie. "Wait what are you talking about Pinkie?" Asked Twilight. "Twilight, now is not the time to be asking a silly question. We have to help poor Mr.J." Pinkie said sternly. "Mr.J?" "Yeah she calls me "Mr.J", because the letter's J.R.R are carved into my leg." "Really, mind if I see it?" Twilight Asked. "Uh... Sure." I held out my hoof again to show Twilight. Twilight began look over my hoof. Her eye's darted back and forth. She examined every inch, even the specks of dirt I'm sure I tracked in. Until she looked at me. "Well that appears to be the only thing, except for..." "Except for what?" "Your hoof is warm." Twilight said. "Warm, what do you mean, warm?" "Well it's giving off heat, and the heat that it's giving off, is like... Body heat. It feels like... It's alive. Like it isn't made of metal at all." Twilight said with a quizzical expression on her face. Wait. Body heat? That shouldn't be right. This is a metal leg! It shouldn't be hot. It should be cold. Metal should be cold. She must be wrong. I touched my front hooves together, I realize... She wasn't wrong. The warmth was the same as my other leg. This shouldn't be right. This warmth... It was like... It was alive... *Thump* *Thump*. Wait was that... *Thump* *Thump* A heartbeat! No no no, this was all wrong. This was completely wrong. "Remember..." NO! Not this again. The voice in the back of my mind was back. "Remember!? REMEMBER WHAT!?" "You need to remember, or you will meet your end..." Said the voice. *End... Is someone trying to kill me?" “Who are you screaming at?” Twilight said, “Is someone trying to kill you?” “I dunno, but let's join him!” Pinkie said. She bounced as she repeatedly yelled. “Remember what!? Remember what!?” "I cannot tell you yet, but I will show you what you will need to defend yourself..." The voice calmly said. And without warning, I was transported to a white void. > Ch 4 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There was something different about this void. Well... Other than the fact it was white. Everything seemed... Cheerier. Like everything that was wrong with the dark void was reversed here... Instead of being scared I was... Happy. Wait there was something here, something was actually here. Floating in front of me was a gray silhouette. I try to make it out, but it moved. It continually moved, it changed its form with the slightest movements. What the crap was it? "Now we must act quickly... For our time is short..." Said the continually shifting form. Wait, that voice. It was that voice! The one that spouted that remember crap. Wait... He's the reason I'm here. "Who are you? Where am I? What did you mean I will meet my end?" "All these questions shall be answered in time, but not all right now... For where you are... This is a dimension that acts as a gateway, so we may communicate with each other... Please I must teach you what you will need to defend yourself..." "Why do I have to defend myself?" "It is because the man who caused your amnesia, is coming after you while you are still in your weakened condition... Now listen to me you foolish child..." The voice said, an angry emphasis on the last words. What should I do? Should I listen to him? Well, he seemed to be the only other one that knew about me, other than the presence I felt in dark void. Was the presence the same as what he was talking about? Well the presence did threaten me, so they could be the same. Which means it was possible that this, Blob? Meant me no harm. Well I guess I know who I should listen to. "Okay fine. What do I have to do?" "All that you need to do is, remember... For what I am about to tell you are spells you have already learned, but have forgotten..." "Wait spells! Like magic spells?" "Yes... As I understand the universe you're in is magic based. This is good... For your powers will be easier for you to control. Now for the first spell... This spell will allow you to summon fire, but be warned as fire is ever changing, making it very hard to keep within your control... Because of this, fire is probably one of the most dangerous spells to cast... Now listen and repeat after me... Cenma..." "Cenma?" "No, in order to make the magic work you must say the words with feeling..." "Cenma!" As the last letter rolled off of my tongue, I felt power. The power formed, it shifted into a shape in front of me. The shape formed into a small little letter, no not a letter, a drawing... It looked like... A fireball. "Now this is called a Rune... They are the physical manifestation of the Words of Origination... The Words of Origination are the original names of elements and action... Cenma is one of these words... As your memory starts to restore itself you will remember more of these words... As well as alternate forms of magic that you have already learned... For now the words I am about to teach you, will be sufficient enough..." "Uhh... So if this ... Rune, Is the physical manifestation of the word fire, why isn't it, you know, hot?" "Yes, that is the next part of this lesson... Runes need an action in order to activate... Either a physical one or a mental one..." "So you mean if I thought..." I didn't get a chance to finish my sentence. The rune exploded into a flash of orange light. Ah, crap. Wait this wasn't hot. I know I have amnesia but I am pretty sure, fire was supposed to be hot! "Yes just like that... Although maybe you should practice a little more.... Think less of it exploding and more of it in a stable form... But that leads me onto the next lesson... Runes that you cast... Will not hurt you..." "You could have mentioned that before!" "Yes, yes... Now stop dillydallying... Our connection is wavering so I fear there is not much time left... Now listen, for now I will teach you the two more spells. They are pronounced Volle Vantes and Contum." *** Uhh... It felt like hours had passed by. I wonder how long it had been since I passed out. Please don't tell me I was back in that bed. I didn't want to go back down those stairs. Good news, it seemed I had regained my senses. Wait, why did my back hurt? Was I still downstairs? They just left me on the floor. Wait what was that smell? It smelt ... Amazing! My stomach let loose an onslaught of gut wrenching gurgles. When was the last time I ate? Please don't let anyone notice. "Well it looks like somepony is finally waking up!" Pinkie shouted somewhere above me. "I told you Twilight, that fixing something to eat would wake him right up." Crap. They did notice. "Well I guess you were right Pinkie. Fluttershy can you make sure he gets up without falling or something. Don't want him to faint again. It can't be good for his health." Twilight exclaimed. It looked like Twilight shared the same concern as me. "yeah sure..." I heard something move over to me. "now come on sleepy head it's time to wake up." Fluttershy said. She nudged my shoulder. "I'm only getting up if I get some of that amazing smelling food." This caused Fluttershy to back off quickly, surprised at my sudden ability to talk. "Only if you tell us what you were yelling about before you fainted." Twilight said. I jumped up into a standing position. I had nearly given Fluttershy a heart attack. "It's a deal. Now what are we having." "Muffins!" Pinkie said. "Mmm... Muffins." Well it wasn't a balanced meal, but it was food. And hey who was I to pass up a free muffin. > Ch 5 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well those muffins were delicious. The perfect food, probably not the healthiest, but muffins are muffins, and muffins are delicious! We had decided to sit at a table in Sugar Cube Corner. I explained to the girls the stuff I could remember. The void, the presence, and the voice. Then I explained what happened the last time I fainted. "So you're saying that something, or someone is after you?" Twilight asked. "Correct." "And whatever this is that's after you, is what made you lose your memory." "Right." "And in order to defeat him, you have to use these magic words called, the "Words of Origination." "Yup that is exactly right." "Well that story sounds like a bunch of horse apples. No pony will ever believe you." "Don't worry Mr.J, I believe you!" Pinkie said. "Thank you Pinkie." "Pinkie I can't believe you. There was nothing in that story that seemed credible." Twilight said. "Twilight lets just say my "senses" are telling me to trust him." This caused an uneasiness to pass between Fluttershy and Twilight. They both looked around nervously. Strange. "Now Miss Sparkle, if you don't believe me, why don't I show you one of these words." "What... What do you mean?" Twilight said. "Oh... Umm..." I frantically looked around for something to test my magic on. I noticed a knife lying next to a cake. No bad idea! What if I missed the timing. It would hurt. Hmm... Oh! I got it. "See that apple on the counter. Why don't you chuck it at me." "Chuck it at you, but what if I hurt you?" "Oh I assure you this will not hurt. Now please, can you grab that apple, and on the count of three, throw it at me?" With out even getting up, Twilight looked at the apple, it was enveloped in a purple aura. Well that wasn't exactly what I meant. I think I understand what the voice meant by "magic". "Okay ready... One... Two...Three!" Without hesitation Twilight lifted the apple from the counter and flung it at me. It flew towards me... Relatively fast. What was that spell...? Uhh... Crap! What was it? Oh wait, that's right, it was... "Contum!" A small black symbol appeared in front of me. It was shaped like a shield, the apple collided with it. The shield disappeared in a small burst of light, then the apple flew off into the direction of the counter. "So, does that make me credible enough?" I said a smile plastered on my face. I looked at their stunned faces. Twilight stuttered "That... Was..." "Amazing!" Pinkie blurted out. "That was so cool! When Twilight picked up that apple and sent it towards you, and it was like a few inches in front of your face! I was like *GASP*! And then you said something, and then that cute drawing of a shield appeared, and the apple hit it, and bounced off! I was so happy that you weren't going to receive any further brain damage! How could she say so many words, on so little breaths? It seemed impossible, but then again, I had just summoned an image that protected me from an apple. So I guess there weren't that many impossibilities in this world. "umm... that was... cool!" Fluttershy said. Well that is probably the loudest I could get Fluttershy to go. So mission accomplished! No, wait! That wasn't what I wanted to "accomplish." I needed Twilight's approval. "So Twilight... Do you believe me now?" She let out a sigh "Well I guess there is a grain of truth to your story, but I have to send a letter to Princess Celestia, and ask her about these "Words of Origination." "Princess Celestia... Who's that?" "What you do you mean "who's that?" Twilight said sternly. "What I mean is I have amnesia." I replied flatly. "Oh... sorry. Well Princess Celestia is the ruler of this land, and she is also my teacher." "Hmm... The student of royalty. That is pretty impressive. I guess I miss-judged you." "Why thank you." She took a few seconds before she responded , "Hey wait, what do you mean "miss-judged you?" "Oh don't worry about it. You were about to send a letter?" "Okay I guess I'll be off." She exclaimed before going out the front door. “Think I could get a tour of the town while we wait?” "but its too early to go around town." Fluttershy said. "What time is it?" "Oh..." Pinkie said while she looked for a clock. "About 5:25 in the morning." Wait, what! Where did she find a clock? There wasn't one in this room. No wait, did she say 5:25... "You girls were up all night... For me!?" "oh no, Twilight and I didn't stay up all night, but Pinkie did." Fluttershy said. "Wait... Pinkie did what?" "yeah she went to get us, this morning. she was worried about being alone and looking after you." "Oh Fluttershy stop it your going to make me blush." Pinkie said. "But, Pinkie that means, you carried me all the way here from where you found me. Then you stayed up all night to look after me." "Don't think anything about it. It's what any friend would do." Pinkie said. Her cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink. Tear's formed in my eye's. She hasn't even known me for a day and she did all this just to save me. She was a very spectacular pony. "Oh no Mr.J, please don't cry. I didn't mean to make you sad." She said with a frown on her face. "No Pinkie, I'm not sad. I'm crying because I'm happy to have a friend like you." I wiped the tears from eye's. "Yep, it's what any friend would do!" She said with a smile on her face. "So how long before you girl's can show me around?" "about an hour." Fluttershy said somewhere behind me. "So what are we going to do for an hour?" "Ooo ooo, I have an idea!" Pinkie said. She ran behind the counter. What was she doing? Wait why did she smile at that cake? Oh no! "Contum!" With in a second a little shield had appeared in front me, then a bright light. A knife spun straight up into the air. It then fell blade down, into the floor. "Ooo, that was fun! Let's do that again." Pinkie yelled in delight. Fluttershy was in the corner. She was breathing heavily into a paper bag. I was flabbergasted. Pinkie had thrown a knife at me. "Wait... Again! No, Pinkie stop!" > Ch 6 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- That was the longest hour ever. Well the only hour I could remember. All of Sugar Cube Corner was a mess. Random items were strewn about. As if an explosion had gone off in the shop. Ruined fruit laid at my feet, forks were stuck in the ceiling, and there seemed to be a familiar shaped pegasus outline, made out of, knives! "Well Mr.J that was a fun hour, but we should probably go if you want to see Ponyville." "Umm... Shouldn't we find Fluttershy, and you know, clean up this mess." I gestured to the room. "Oh don't worry about the mess, I have my best alligator on the job! As for Fluttershy she ran outside twenty minutes ago. She said she had to feed her animals. So I guess that means it's just you and me!" Well I couldn't blame Fluttershy. Things had been crazy in that hour. It was a miracle no one had gotten hurt, and with that outline of knives, someone had gotten close. "Okay Pinkie but you have to make a promise. Never do something like that again. Fluttershy almost got hurt! What would you have done if Fluttershy got stabbed by one of those knives." I gestured to the outline in the wall. "Oh... I didn't know that she was in danger. If I had known..." Pinkie said with a sad look on her face. "It's okay Pinkie, Fluttershy didn't get hurt. Just promise me never do that again, and apologize to Fluttershy next time you see her." I say, giving her a reassuring smile. "Okay I Pinkie Promise!" She made a gesture across her chest, then stuck her hoof in her eye. "Uhh... Okay. Now I believe you were going to show me around." "Why yes I am!" She exclaimed. Bouncing over to the door. She started to open it and she said "Now welcome to Ponyville!" As the door opened up, my eye's were blinded by the intensity of the sun. Not again! I should have learned from my mistakes. Why do I never learn? I should have invested in some sunglasses. I strove through the pain. My eye's focused, I regretted allowing them to do so, because what I saw was almost as bad as staring into the sun. "Ponyville" as Pinkie had put it, was a blend of impossibly bright colors. Uhh... I think I had a headache. Each individual building was its own special color. These colors seemed like they should have clashed, but they somehow managed to blend, somehow. Even the sky was a brighter shade of blue. "So? What do you think!?" Pinkie asked. "I think the combination of staring at the sun, and these buildings, is going to make me hurl." "Ooo, I love staring at the sun, I'm the world champion! No pony can beat me." Staring at the sun? Who did that for fun? "Uhh... I'll take your word on that. Now where to first?" "Oh I know, lets go meet more of my friends." "Okay." I needed some social interaction. Besides how many friends could she have? *** That was a terrible idea. Apparently Pinkie was friends with everypony in Ponyville. The entire morning was spent having Pinkie introduce me... to Every... Pony! Uhh... so many names. I don;t know how Pinkie could remember all of those ponies names. I guess she is just an extremely exceptional friend. *sigh* Well I guess I could chalk this up on the ever expanding chalk board of Pinkie's impossibilities. Hmm... At this rate I had to get a new chalk board. I wondered where she was taking me now. We seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Just a dirt road and grass off too my side's. Hmm... Oh well, I guess had to just trust her. She seemed like she always knew where she was going. I wandered into my thoughts. I didn't even realize that I was staring at Pinkie. Pinkie seemed to bounce everywhere she went. Her legs had to be incredibly strong if she could use "bouncing" as a way of transportation. I guess this was a further thing to add to the ever expanding chalk board. As we continued our way down an undisclosed path, my eye's focused on her rump. Wait! Not in that way, I had noticed something on it. There were three little ovals on it. Two blue, one yellow. They were balloons! "Pinkie I'm curious why do you have balloons on your rump?" "Oh, are you talking about my cutie mark? Oh that's right you probably don't know. Well you see, this mark represents what everyponies special talent is. Take Fluttershy's for example. She has three butterflies as her cutie mark, and her special talent is taking care of animals!" "Okay I think I got this, so cutie mark's are a representation of your ability, so yours would mean... You're good at parties?" "Yep. Right on the mark! So Mr.J what does yours mean?" "I don't know, but it means something to me, because whenever I look at it I get this feeling of... Dread." "Hmm... Oh I know, maybe it has something to do with your eye's!" "My eye's?" "Yeah your cutie mark is the same color as your eye's! Maybe since it's a fireball you can shoot fire out of your eye's!" "I'm pretty sure that's not what it means." "Suit yourself, but don't come crying to me when you burn some pony with your eye's." "Yeah sure... So where are you taking us?" "We're going to my friend's to have some lunch. Now lets get going, eye's where I can see them." Wait, had she noticed me staring at her rump? "Uhh..." "I said eye's where I can see them. I don't want to suddenly combust!" Good, she hadn't realized the truth. Wait why was that good? *** We had reached a form of civilization, and by civilization I meant trees, trees as far as the eye can see. Well they were apple trees. But did that honestly matter? Hmm... There was a barn on what seemed to be a farm. Well it looked like we had arrived. "So is that your friend's farm?" "Yep." Pinkie then yelled at the top of her lung's "Hey Applejack come meet my new friend!" > Ch 7 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Pinkiepie is that you? What's with the big commotion?" Someone yelled off in the distance. "Applejack get over here I want you to meet my new friend!" Pinkie responded back to the pony in the distance. "Well hold your horses Pinkie. I'll be there in a minute." 40 seconds later. A new pony was stood in front of us. The first thing I noticed about her was her hat. She wore a stetson. That was cool. Stetsons are cool! I wish I had a stetson. Wait how did I know that her hat was called a stetson? Hmm... I guess my fashionista skills were emerging,back to the pony at hand. Underneath the stetson she had a blonde mane tied back in... A pony tail? Really? Okay sure, lets go with it. She had an orange coat. On her face she seemed to have freckles, weird. Then I met her eye's. They were almost the same shade of green as mine. "Well howdy there partner. My name is Applejack. It's a pleasure to meet a friend of Pinkies." Applejack said, as cheerfully offered her hoof. I grasped her hoof and started to shake it. "It is a pleasure to meet you Applejack." "Applejack this is Mr.J. He is a amnesiac pony that I found on the side of the road." "Wait, what did you say Pinkie?" "Oh I said Mr.J has amnesia." "You really should have waited to tell her that part." I said. "Well why don't you two come in for some lunch, and explain this whole situation to me." Applejack said. "Ooo I'm famished! Come on Mr.J." We walked up to the barn that I had seen from the road. We went off to the side to enter a side door of the building. Inside was a fairly simple kitchen with a table in it. On there was a glorious spread of apples. "Now I hope you brought your appetite." Applejack said. *** It felt good to have a full belly. Oh, and the apples were good to. Though they weren't my favorite food. No I could tell I preferred something a little more sour. Uhh... A new headache permeated my head. I had been close to getting a memory back, oh well. While we had munched on the apples I explained for the second time, my dilemma, to Applejack. "That's a mighty sad story partner." Applejack said. "It's not that bad, if I had never lost my memories I would never have met Pinkiepie." Where did that come from? Quickly before they noticed " Or you Applejack." Nailed it. Now they for sure didn't notice. "Yeah... Now about these magic words you were talking about." "You mean the Words of Origination?" "Yea, those ones." "Well if you don't mind I could show you." "Sure that sounds fine with me." Applejack said, she stood up from the table. "Okay, lets go back outside." As we got up, Pinkie rushed through the kitchen out the door. That left Applejack and I, alone. "Well now that we have some time alone, I'd like to talk to you sugar cube." Applejack said sternly. Uh oh. "Uhh... sure, what do you want to talk about?" "I want to talk about you and Pinkiepie." "What do you mean "me and Pinkie?" "Don't pretend sugar cube. I saw the way you looked at her throughout lunch, and the way you talked about her. You like Pinkiepie don't you?" Applejack said. A smug smile spread across her face. That couldn't true. Right? Sure Pinkie was an amazing pony, she saved my life. Not to mention she fed and put up with me. That didn't mean I liked her. Sure there had been moments where I caught myself staring at her, or I would think about her bright blue eye's. Or her smile. Or... Oh god, she was right! I was speechless. "Answer me sugar cube." "I... I didn't even realize that I liked her." "Hmm... Well let me just tell you now sugar cube, Pinkiepie is one of my best friends. So if anything you did were to hurt her, you'd better be ready to answer for what you've done." Her smile replaced by a frown and a stern set of eye's. "You wont have to worry Applejack. If I ever did something to hurt her I don't think I could live with myself." Apparently pleased with my answer, Applejack said "Well I'm glad we have an understanding." Her expression changed back to a smile "Now let's go see this magic of yours, and pray Pinkie hasn't done anything to my farm." I shivered at the horror's that Pinkie could have caused in the minute we had been talking. *** When Applejack and I had walked outside we were surprised. Everything was exactly the way it had been. Wait, where was Pinkiepie? "Applejack where's Pinkie?" "I don't know." Applejack said. "Oh don't you guy's worry I'm right here." Pinkie said behind us. I turned around and was startled to see Pinkie hanging from the second story, right above the door we had just walked out of. Why was she up there. She... She didn't here us did she? "Pinkie get down from there you might hurt yourself if you slip." "And you'll damage my barn, again!" Applejack said with a disapproving look on her face. "Okay, but you guy's better catch me." Pinkie said as she let go of the ledge she was holding on to. Now at this moment we faced a dilemma. Both Applejack and I were 20 feet away from Pinkie. Not nearly close enough to have rescued her. Come on there must have been something we could do. Oh right... Magic! "Volle Vantes!" An image appeared on Pinkie. It looked like three little gust of wind. When they had fully formed, Pinkie stopped, floating in the air. Just a few inches from the ground. I released the spell allowing Pinkie to fall the last few inches. "Pinkie why did you do that? Neither of us were close enough to save ya!" Applejack said. "Sorry I thought you were closer, but it doesn't matter because Mr.J saved me, and showed off his power!" "Pinkie!" I said. "Never do something dangerous like that again. Do you know how I would have felt if something happened to you." Tear's formed in my corner's of my eye's, my vision blurred. "I'm sorry Mr.J, I just thought you guy's could catch me." I couldn't control myself, the thought of Pinkie injured made me cry harder, I felt weak. No wait it wasn't because of the crying, well mostly. That spell had drained too much out of me. Everything was going dim. *** Great I was back in the void. "Why hello again young magician!" The presence exclaimed. "Oh great, not you again. Listen I don't give a crap who you are, just leave me alone!" "Oh, little magician I'm just here to tell you that I've sent someone to... Play with you." The presence said last part with a slight chuckle. "What do you mean?" "Oh, you will see, now be off. Oh and Jason, remember even if you defeat him, I'll be sending more after you." The presence chuckled maniacally as I was ripped from the void. *** "Mr.J! wake up!" Pinkie said. I opened my eye's. "I remember." "Remember what sugar cube?" Applejack asked. “Remember what? Remember what?” Pinkie Pie said. "I remember my name!" > Ch 8 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- While Jason was unconscious, the sun had begun to set. As the sun fell toward the ever expanding horizon, a dark shadow consumed the Ever Free Forest. The shadow seemed to spread out, it covered the forest. On the ground of the forest, a shadow darker than night covered the forest floor. The shadow looked almost like water from the dark depths of the ocean. It was dark,and brimmed with an almost primordial force. The shadow rippled, like somepony had thrown a rock into water. A single object broke the surface, a white claw. As the claw came out of the shadow the rest of it had followed. A long bone slid out, followed by more bones. As the bones slid out of the shadow, the creatures true form was revealed. The creature that had emerged was a dragon, but this dragon was only bones, no flesh, just bones. Each bone was connected to the other bone by a shadow. The same kind of shadow as the one on the ground where it had emerged from. The dragon stood nearly as tall as some of the tallest trees in the Ever Free Forest. The length of the dragon went on for a ways, before it ended in a spiked tail. Each of its legs were massive. Each ended in a set of claws the size of cleavers, equally as sharp. Upon it's back sat the skeletal remains of its wing's. The wings seemed to be in disrepair. Upon its flimsy spine sat a skull. At the top were two massive horns, each ended in a fine tip. The dragons teeth were equally as sharp as its horn's. All were the size of daggers. The worst part about the dragon was its eye's. Instead of being filled with a shadow, both of the sockets glowed a dark emerald green. With a roar the dragon started to unfurl its wing's. Each bone was connected by the smallest amount of shadow. When the wings had fully unfurled, a shadow consumed the wings. The dragons wing's were covered in a black haze, the broken wings were now a fully functional set of wings. With another roar the dragon started to beat its wing's. Slowly at first, it rose from the ground slowly, but quickly ascended to the skies. The dragon flew in the direction of a familiar farm. *Ten Minutes Earlier* Uh, this day has been so stressful. First Pinkie befriends an amnesiac, then he faints, then he tells us about a magic I've never heard of. Confound this pony, he is going to drive me crazy! "Hey Twilight! You paying attention?" Asked a voice behind me. "I'm sorry, are you talking to me?" I turned around to see Rainbow Dash and Rarity. "Yeah, I've been calling you for like two minutes." Rainbow said. "Yes darling, we were starting to get worried about you." Rarity said. "Oh I'm sorry. I was just thinking about this new pony Pinkie met." "New Pony, what are they like? Pinkie meets tons of new ponies every day it seems." Rainbow asked. "Well he... I'm not exactly sure." "Not sure? What do mean? You've met this new pony right?" Rarity asked. "Yes, but the problem is he has amnesia." "Oh my, that really is tragic!" Rarity exclaimed. "Meh, doesn't seem like that big of a deal." Rainbow said. "It wouldn't be. If he was a normal pony!" "What?" They said in unison. "Yeah, he apparently has a magical ability, one that I've never even heard of." "That sounds... Awesome!" Rainbow interjected. "Now is not the the time dear." Rarity said towards Rainbowdash. "Now Twilight please do go on. What do you mean magic you've never heard of?" "Thank you Rarity. Anyways after I'd seen his power, I left to send a letter to Princess Celestia, and she still hasn't responded." "Oh dear, maybe she's busy. See the sun is just coming down now. Maybe she will send you a letter after it sets." Rarity said. "Yeah, you're probably right. So where have you two been. I haven't seen you in a few days." "Well Rarity had a fashion show in Manehatten, and she asked me to go with her." Rainbow said. "Really, how did it go." "Oh it was just fabulous darling! I got so..." A loud roar tore through the air, Rarity was cut off, hundreds of birds to took flight from the Ever Free Forest. "What the hay was that?" Rainbow asked. "I don't know but it sounds like it's coming form the Ever free forest." We all looked over towards the forest to hear another roar before a giant white mass flew out. "What is that?" Rarity said worriedly. "I don't know but it's heading towards Applejack's farm." "Well we better get a hoof on it, and stop that thing before it wrecks her farm!" Rainbow said. Without hesitation, we ran off towards Applejack's. *Five Minutes Earlier* "Wait Mr.J, you remembered your name!?" Pinkie asked. "Yeah I guess it means you can stop calling me Mr.J." "Oh yeah..." Pinkie said, a disappointed look on her face. "Well spit it out and tell us already." Applejack said. "Oh yeah... My name is Jason." Silence. You think they would have been a little more excited. "That name isn't very..." "Pony." Pinkie interrupted. "Well I'm sorry that my name isn't something original like "Pinkiepie", but it's my name. It's one of the only things that I have... Other than these." I motioned towards my scarf with my metal leg. "Oh I'm sorry Mr.J." Pinkie said. "It's okay, but can you call me Jason." "Aw, do I have to?" "You don't have to, but I would prefer it if you did." "Hmm... I'll think about it." "Umm... I'm sorry for interrupting you two, but did you hear that?" Applejack said. Hear what? I leaned my neck to the side, as I tried to hear something. No there wasn't anything. Wait there was something, it sounded like a roar. "Umm... Sugar cube you might want to look at this." Applejack said. I turn my head in the direction of the sound. I was looking at a forest way out on the distance. There's nothing there. "Look up!" Applejack exclaimed. I still couldn't see anything, there was just an ever darkening sky. Wait there was something. A white mass flew through the sky. "What is that?" "I don't know, but it's heading this way!" Applejack said. "Do you think he's heading this way to get some apples?" Pinkie asked "No Pinkie. I think its coming here for me." > Ch 9 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The white form had more distance between us in a matter of seconds. As it got closer I could make out its actually size, and bloody hell, it was massive. It would be a miracle if I survived this without getting hurt. "Girls I want you to get as far away from here, as you can." I said, I set myself in a fighting stance. "No can do sugar cube. If you're fighting that thing, then so am I." Applejack said. A cocky grin was on her face. "Same here. Besides I don't think he'll be able to get passed my party cannon!" Pinkie said. A small cannon was at her side. "Where did you get that from?" "I never leave home without it." *sigh* I guess I could just chalk it up on the chalkboard. "Okay, but at the first sign of this battle taking a turn. I want the both of you to leave." "Can't promise a thing." Applejack said. *sigh* These ponies. "Fine, but Pinkie let me see that cannon real quick." "Okay, but why?" "I want to make sure that thing gets a good surprise." *** The creature seemed to cover those last few miles with in a matter of seconds. It circled above, it waited for a moment to strike. Now that it was close enough I could finally make it out. The white that I had seen were bones. The creature above was a giant mess of them, linked by a black shadowy haze, darker than the night sky. Not only was that creepy, but what made it truly scary was that the bones formed... A dragon! Hmm... I feel like this has already been said. What was it waiting for? I was out in the open. was it yrying to intimidate me, because that had already happened. Now it was just showing off. The dragon made a descent directly at me. Well it was now or never. "Pinkie fire the cannon!" "Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie said behind me. A bang went off behind me. A cloud of confetti rose into the air. Right into the path of the dragon. Perfect. A smile crossed my face. All the confetti was caught in its bones. Now think... A large explosion of orange flames engulfed the dragon. "It worked Mr.J!" Pinkie exclaimed. "I knew it would. I'm just glad it only took three fireballs. I don't think I would have nearly enough energy to fight it head on." "Umm... Jason I wouldn't get too high and mighty just yet." Applejack said. I turned back to face where the explosion had been. Only to find an angry looking dragon. Could bones look angry? I don't know, but they would probably look something like that. Crap! It didn't work. How could something take an explosion of that size and not be the slightest bit damaged. No there had to be something, anything! The dragon gave off a loud pop. Yes! It had worked. One of the dragons wings had snapped off, and plummeted towards the earth. The dragon panicked. It flapped its other wing frantically. It tried to keep itself afloat. Bad idea. Another pop, and the other wing fell off. The wingless dragon, began plummeted, head first, to the ground to meet its wing's. *Crunch* The sound of bones snapping permeated the air. "Oh thank god! I was getting nervous I would have to do some more work." "You should really learn to keep your mouth shut sugar cube." Applejack said. She pointed at the moving remains of the dragon. "No I think this should be enough. Volle Vantes!" I said. I looked at a rock that was floating in the air. I brought the rock down onto the dragons neck. Its head was dislodged from the rest of its body. "That should do it. Now who wants to see a dead body?" "Ooo, I do! I do!" Pinkie had said, bouncing over to me. "I think I'll wait until we know it's dead." Applejack said. "Suit yourself." Pinkie and I walked over to the remains of the dragon. It looked fairly dead to me, but it was dead before I killed it. How much more dead could it have looked? Well the shadows were gone I guess that was an indicator. "Look Mr.J I found the skull." "Careful Pinkie! Those teeth looked sharp." "Ooo, look at its eye's!" "What do you mean?" "They're green!" I positioned myself in front of the skull and looked into its sockets. Even though the shadows had dissipated, its eye socket's still glowed... A dark shade of green. "Look Mr.J Its eye's are the same color as yours." Pinkie exclaimed. She was right! I turned my head to look at my cutie mark. What I looked at was the same thing. This fireball on my rump was the same as the green in the dragons eye's. "What does it mean..?" "What does what mean Mr.J?" "What does this fireball mean? It's the same thing as the dragon's eye's! When I try remembering what they are supposed to mean, the thought just slips away. It's like I'm just out of reach of getting my memories back." Tears of frustration formed around my eye's. Pinkie wrapped her arms around me in an embrace. "It's okay Jason. You'll get your memory back eventually." Pinkie whispered into my ear. Maybe this wasn't the best place to do this, as the skull looked right at us, but this was just what I needed. Those eye's had brought back an entire wave of emotions. Pinkie was just the right pony to make me feel better. We sat there for what felt like an eternity. Everything about this seemed to be right. Her touch, her warmth, even the sound of her heart beat. Just being there with her seemed to make all the things wrong with my life just disappear. Of course I knew that moment could not last forever. "Hey, what are you two doing!?" A voice yelled behind us. "Dashie is that you?" Pinkie said, as she got up and ran to greet this Dashie character. I looked up to see where Pinkie had run off to. Pinkie stood next to a group of ponies. One of them I recognized as Twilight. The other two I had never seen before. The one that caught my eye's first did so because of how colorful she was. By this I mean her mane and tail. They were rainbows! Other than that she was a light cyan blue pegasus. Her eye's were a brilliant shade of magenta. The other pony that was there had a stunning white coat. It was a perfect complement to her violet mane and tail. Then there was her eye's, they were a brilliant shade of azure blue. She seemed like she knew what it meant to be a fashionista. Maybe we could share ideas later. "Pinkie dear, why don't you bring your well dressed friend over here." The fashionista pony said. Well I'm glad she could recognize another fashionista. At least my skills wouldn't be wasted. I walked over to the group of ponies. "Hello there ladies, my name is Jason, and it is a pleasure to meet you all." "Oh my, he is sure is gentlecolt!" The white pony said. "Wait, Jason, the last time we talked you didn't have a name." Twilight said. "Well as you can see a lot has happened since this morning." I gestured to the remains of the dragon. "Now since I have introduced myself, may I know all of your name's?" "Oh, where are my manners. My name is Rarity." "And mine is Rainbowdash, future Wonderbolt, and fastest flier in all of Equestria." Said the cyan pegasus, doing a couple flips in the air. "It is a pleasure to meet the both of you. So what brings you ponies to this part of the town?" "We were coming to stop that, whatever it is, but when we got here we found you and Pinkie hugging in its remains." Rainbowdash explained. "Yes you two looked absolutely adorable! Both of your messy manes were mixed together. You two were just precious!" Rarity exclaimed. My face felt hot. Maybe if I looked away from them and at the ground it would go away. Hmm... Nope and now I was bored. "So what was that anyways?" Twilight asked. "Oh, it was just a skeletal dragon!" Pinkie yelled. She started to explain what had transpired. Hmm... This was going to take awhile. I guess I should bring the skull around to emphasize how serious it was. I walked around the remains to get the skull. When I reached it I placed my hoof on it, but its eye's shimmered. The skull snapped at me. I fell backwards, I dodged the first strike, but in doing this I tripped over one of its bones. Crap I was wide open. "Contum! Contum! Contum!" Each little shield caused the skull to bounce back. I was not going to survive this. The skull was enveloped in an aura of light yellow. It was lifted up from where it had been attacking me, along with a few other bones. The extra bones were struck into the ground like a cage. The skull was placed into the cage for a time out. "Are you okay?" A soft voice asked from behind me. "Yes, I must thank you Miss..." "Please, call me Princess Celestia." > Ch 10 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hmm... Celestia... That sounded familiar. Oh, Celestia was the name of Twilight's teacher. Wait Princess? Crap, I was in the presence of royalty! Did I have to show some form of respect? I got up from the dragon's remains and lifted my hoof up in a salute. No I wasn't in the military, that wouldn't work. "At ease young one." Celestia said. "Umm... Yes Ma'am." I put my hoof down to my side. Since I was up right, I could make out what the Princess looked like. She had a white coat much like Rarity's. I noticed she was very tall, she stood a head taller than me. I rose my head to look at her face, our eye's met. Her eye's were a deep shade of purple, much like an amethyst. On the top of her head sat a golden crown, a purple amethyst was implanted in the middle. At the base of the crown was a white horn. Then there was her mane, it was three light shades of colors; blue, green, and pink, and it blew through the air, without any wind. Hmm... I think she could give Pinkie a run for her money. She also had a pair of wings! Wow she really could give Pinkie a run for her money. "Now by the look of you, I must assume you're the one my student was talking about." The Princess said. "Yes, my name is Jason, and it is a pleasure to meet you." I took a bow towards the Princess. "Jason who are you talking to?" Applejack yelled from her barn. "I'm talking to the Princess!" Applejack gasped, and ran out from her barn, and was next to me in a second. She then bowed down. "I'm sorry for bein' so rude Princess." Applejack said. "Do not worry Applejack, now please stand up." Celestia said. Applejack got back up, but the sound of shuffled hooves came from the other side of the dragons remains. The other four ponies came to join us. All of them bowed to the ground. "Yes thank you all, now do please get up." The Princess said, with a chuckle in her voice. "Princess Celestia I don't understand, what are you doing here?" Twilight asked. "I came here because of him." Celestia motioned with her head towards me. "In your letter you mentioned how he used the Words of Origination. These "words" are a type of old magic, long forgotten. I came here tonight to find out how he knows these words." Celestia said, her last few words spoken coldly. "No clue, a despondent voice retaught them to me." Nailed it, that was sure to clear up the questions. "Just as I feared, in your current situation, I'm afraid that we wont be able to know how you fully know these words." "So what are the Words of Origination?" Twilight asked. "They are what current magic is based off of." Celestia said. Twilight's eye's widened "What?" *sigh* "Well it is only natural you should know. Now listen closely." Celestia looked to both Twilight and I. "The Words of Origination are the true name for an object. When the object's name is spoken it summons a symbol, this symbol is used to represent the words before the object is fully summoned. Now the size and power of the object all depends on the energy that is given to the symbol upon creation. Either a physical one, or the caster's own. Then when energy is poured into the symbol, it takes but some kind of action or thought to release this energy. Now magic we use today is based off of these words, in one way or another. If you need an example, think of when you cast a spell. The source of your spell comes from your horn. Well a horn is used as a kind of amplifying rod, and the source of this spell comes from inside your mind where the spell is being cast from. Instead of saying words your mind thinks of them. The spell is then cast and amplified by your horn." The Princess looked around and saw that five of the six ponies were gobsmacked. "Well I figured that some of you wouldn't understand, many scholars go their entire lives just trying to understand this basic concept." "It sounded a lot better than the way I had to learn." I said. *sigh* "I'm just curious how you know these words." Celestia said. "You and me both Princess. Now about the pressing matters." I gestured to the skull. "Ah yes, well... I was hoping you would be able to tell me about that." It was my time to sigh. *sigh* "I don't know Princess. Someone is trying to kill me, so they sent 'that' after me." "And... Do you have an idea what that is?" Celestia asked. "It's a dragon!" Pinkie said, as she bounced up and down behind the still gobsmacked ponies. "Also it's dead." I interjected. "Okay yes, but is there anything else you know about this dragon?" Celestia asked. "There is just one thing." I said walking over to the skull. "Oh, and what is that?" Celestia asked. "Just this!" I closed my eye's, and stuck my metal hoof into the skull's eye socket. Well it wasn't an idea, just an instinct, but it proved to be right, because a warmth had spread through my hoof. It had spread to my shoulder, then towards my body. I opened my eye's and looked at myself. A green flame had spread across my body. No this wasn't supposed happen! I panicked, I tried to pull my hoof out, but it was stuck. I looked down at it. The fire from the dragon had traveled up my hoof at a rapid rate, but I noticed that the glow from the dragon's eye's were dimmer. If I continued to hold on, would the glow go out? What would happen to the skull if the glow went out? There was only one way to see. I shoved my hoof further in to its eye socket. The intensity of the flames increased. Where previously my body had felt a dull warmth, there was now a full blown heat. "Ahh!" I screamed at the top of lungs. "Jason!" Someone said. I needed to strive through the pain. I had opened my eye's again and looked at the skull. The green glow had vanished. I moved my hoof out from the socket. The fire that was on my body seemed to lessen, and started to flow towards my hoof. The flames disappeared as they touched the metal appendage. As the last of the fire disappeared, a rush of pain struck my head. "Gah!" I yelled as I fell towards the ground with a loud *thump*. "Jason!" was the last thing I heard before I passed out. > Ch 11 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Uhh... What hit me?" I mumbled as started to get up. I rubbed my metal hoof against my messy mane. "What's for breakfast?" "Jason what in the hay just happened to you?" I heard Applejack ask. "What do you mean?" I let out a yawn. "Dude you were just on fire, then you screamed and passed out." Rainbow Dash said. "Huh?" I opened my eye's to see five ponies staring at me. "Oh yeah don't worry about it." "Don't worry about it, you were just on fire! Not worrying is something we shouldn't be doing!" Twilight yelled. "Oh, well you see that fire was just a soul absorption, I was taking the raw force of a soul and channeling it into one part of my body. Me passing out was just me finishing the conversion." They all looked at me, dumb founded. "Oh right, you probably don't know about this, I remember when I first learned about it... Wait a minute, I can remember!" "Remember what exactly?" Rarity asked. "Well not everything, but I remember some of my teachings. Like what exactly that dragon is." "And what exactly was that thing?" Applejack asked. "It's an undead dragon that was brought back with Necromancy." "What's Necromancy?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Necromancy is a magic that brings something previously dead back to life." Twilight answered. At the mention of "dead" Rarity realized she was standing in the remains of a dead dragon. She let loose a loud scream before she passed out and fell backwards onto a couch. "Umm... Exactly Twilight! Normal Necromancy brings the dead back, but they are normally just there to do simple tasks. So they shouldn't be as reliable as this dragon was. No, what made this particular act of Necromancy exceptionally amazing, was a soul was used to give the dragon intelligence." "Wait, so your saying that thing had a living soul." Applejack said. "More importantly, it was my soul." "What!?" The group said in unison, except for Pinkie. Who seemed uninterested by the conversation. "Yup, hey, wait a minute, where did the Princess go?" I asked. "Something urgent came up and she had to leave while you were passed out, now what do you mean, your soul?" Twilight said. "Oh umm... Well, the green light that was in its eye's, was a portion of my soul." Silence Applejack broke the silence. "So that thing was alive thanks to your soul? How did it get your soul in the first place?" "Well you know how I lost my memory." "Yes." They said in unison. "Well it wasn't really lost as it was, stolen." Silence once again. "Hmm... Maybe I should explain this a little better. Hmm... I got it, think of my soul as an unfinished puzzle. You can still make out the image, but without the rest of the pieces it isn't fully put together. Well my personality is the unfinished puzzle, while the missing pieces of the puzzle are my memories. They don't define the soul but they do make up a part of it. So what happened was, whoever sent this after me." I motioned to the lifeless skull. "Also used some sort of magic to break my memories from soul. These parts of my soul took on a physical form, and whoever stole them put them in these dummies, probably hoping to use my soul up in the process." I looked around at the ponies that were in front of me, most were confused, except for Twilight. Who was levitating a notepad and a quill in front of her, she had taken notes on my lecture. "So any questions?" I asked. "Nope I'm content." Twilight responded, putting her quill and notepad away. "Well we're not." Rainbow Dash interjected. "Hmm... How about this. The green light that was in the dragon's skull was my stolen memory, and me putting my hoof in it retrieved a part of memories." "Oh, why didn't you just say that to begin with." Rainbow Dash said. I rolled my eye's "Well it looks like it is getting pretty late, shouldn't we head back." "Hey don't y'all leave without cleaning up your mess." Applejack motioned towards the dragon. Hmm... Oh I have an idea. "Humrra Volvape!" I yelled. Two images appeared at the ground around the dragon. One was a symbol of a rock, the other was an arrow that pointed away from the rock. I let the thought go through my mind, and the ground began to shake. A crack formed underneath the dragon. The crack grew until it had surrounded the dragon. With a final shake of the ground, the dragon fell down into the newly formed abyss. "Humrra Claudmino!" Where there had been an arrow pointing away from the rock, there was now an arrow pointing towards it. The ground once again began to shake. The crack that had appeared was getting smaller. With a loud *crack* the ground had sealed back up. "There we go, out of sight, out of mind." I said, breathing heavily. The group looked at me with open mouths, except Pinkie who appeared to find something else to stare at. Applejack shook her head and yelled "Why did you do that, now it's still here and covered by piles of dirt!" "It's because all things deserve a proper burial, even something like this. Also the bones will bring nutrients to the your soil, so it should help with your crops." Applejack stormed off back to her barn. Apparently she wasn't too happy with my response. I turned towards the three ponies "So whose going to carry Rarity back?" *** The responsibility of carrying Rarity was left to me. Great, not like I was exhausted from fighting a dragon! I couldn't even use magic to carry her I was exhausted. It had taken us awhile but we had reached a small stream that was on the edge of Ponyville. Rarity had dragged me down, so I was constantly trying to catch up with the group of silent mares. Were they still angry at me? "Can one of you carry her?" *sigh* "I guess I'll take her home." Twilight said, as she flashed her horn. The weight was lifted. "I'll see you all later." She exclaimed as she walked away with a floating Rarity. "Yeah I better go too, see you later Pinkie, see you new pony." Rainbow Dash said, as she flew off into the night. I waved my hoof at the the pegasus "I guess that just leaves you and..." I cut my sentence short as my eye's came into contact with Pinkie's. They were on the brink of tears. I walked closer to Pinkie "Pinkie is there..." Pinkie brought her hoof across my face with a loud *slap* I looked into her eye's. They were filled with tears. "Pinkie?" At the mention of her name she turned away. "Pinkie what's wrong?" She made eye contact again, she was still crying. "How can you be so reckless? When you stuck your hoof in that dragon's eye, and then you caught on fire. I was really worried that I had lost my friend. That I would never see you again." Her face was pointed towards the ground. Tears flowed down from her face. "Pinkie, please don't cry." Tears were forming in my eye's. "I'm sorry for making you worry, but nothing bad happened. In fact everything seems to be better. Now please cheer up." No response from Pinkie What could I do? An idea struck me. I wrapped my hoof around her and brought her into a hug. Her tears ran hot against my chest. "Pinkie I promise that I will not do anything that reckless again." I whispered into her ear. Silence "Okay but you've got to Pinkie promise." Pinkie said a hint of happiness in her voice. I chuckled "Sure Pinkie, what ever it takes." We held that embrace for a few minutes. Until I felt a pain in my tail. "Gah" I jumped back from Pinkie. "Jason be careful or you'll hurt him." Him? I looked at my tail. Clenched down to it was a crocodile. "Hurt him he's the one hurting me!" > Ch 12 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- While Jason grappled with the fearsome crocodile, Celestia had returned to Canterlot Castle. Celestia landed at the entrance. One of her guards approached her before she could even finish folding her wings. "My lady, your sister request your presence immediately." The guard said. "Very well, take me to her." Celestia said. What could it possibly be now. *** Celestia was escorted to her sister's room. The guard bowed to the Princess and left, as Celestia knocked on the door. "Enter." A voice said from behind the door. Celestia opened the door and she entered the room. In front of Celestia stood another alicorn. Her coat was a dark blue, much like the night sky. Her mane was a lighter shade of blue, and it seemed to twinkle, like the stars in the night sky. "Sister, what have you learned?" Luna asked Celestia. "The only thing that I have learned is that he does indeed use the Words of Origination, but he does not know how he knows them." Celestia said. "Tis a shame, but if a pony has returned that knows that magic, then some evil forces are afoot." "I know, so why did you call me here?" "We have received some, unsettling news." "Unsettling?" "Yes while you went to investigate that pony. Something came out of the Everfree Forest." "It was a dragon." Celestia said, thinking she had beat her to the chase. "No Sister! It was after the dragon came out, and it's much more than just a dragon." "What is it?" "I fear that there is an army hiding in the forest." *** With a flick of my tail, the crocodile flew into Pinkie's arm's. "Oh you poor thing!" Pinkie said, as she rocked the crocodile in her arms. "That poor thing, was trying to eat me!" "Oh that's just silly. This is only a baby crocodile. He has no teeth yet. See!" She opened the tiny crocodile's mouth. Revealing not a single tooth. "Then why did he bite me?" "The poor guy was abandoned by his family. He thought you looked like a kind and nice pony, so he wanted to ask if you would take care of him." "Wait do you understand him?" "Only bits and pieces. I don't speak crocodile, but it's close enough to alligator!" She said, as she threw the crocodile onto my back. "Now be a good father to him!" "Pinkie! I never said I would take care of him!" "But how can you say no to those eye's?" She looked at me with puppy dog eyes. I looked at the reptile on my back. His purple eye's peered deep into my own. Staring way past me, probably somewhere deep inside of me. I could think of a few ways to say no. I turned my head back towards Pinkie to see her with an even sadder look. Now those eye's I couldn't say no to. *sigh* "Fine I'll keep him." "Oh I knew you would say yes! Now what are you going to call him?" Pinkie asked. "He doesn't already have a name?" "No he says his mother abandoned him before he got a name." What a sad thing. Although, I was skeptical to Pinkie's animal translating abilities. I turned my head to look at the crocodile on my back. His purple eye's looked back at me in response. Hmm... Purple. "How about Rythian?" "Rythian?" "Yeah, those eye's bring back a memory of someone I use to know." At the mention of memory Pinke's smile grew. "Then Rythian it is! Now I need to plan out a baby crocodile party. To celebrate your adoption of this little guy!" Pinkie said excitedly. "Great." I said a little dryly. We continued our walk into Ponyville, making our way back to Sugar Cube Corner. Rythian's claw's dug into my back the entire way there. When we had made it inside of Sugar Cube Corner I let at an exhausted sigh. "Uhh... I can't deal with his claw's, they are way to sharp!" "That's why I always put Gummy in my mane." "Who's Gummy?" "This is Gummy!" Pinkie said as she motioned to a green alligator on the floor. Gummy looked like Rythian, well almost the same. There was of course the difference in species, but they were both small, green, and deep purple eye's. The little alligator made a sound, and Rythian jumped off my back. The two met each other, then they stopped for a second, and stared at each other. Then they started to shift around, both made a weird reptilian noise with each move. "Oh do you see that!" Pinkie said excitedly. "They've become brothers!" The two made more noises. "Uhh... Sure Pinkie, whatever you say." I picked Rythian off the ground and held him in my hoof. Gummy ran up Pinkie's hoof, into her mane. "So Pinkie I've got a question. How exactly am I holding Rythian?" "What do you mean?" "Well I'm holding him but my hoof isn't going around him, how am I holding him exactly." As I said that Rythian dropped from my grasp. "Oh just don't think about it or you'll lose the ability to grab stuff." "That doesn't make sense." "Sure it does, you thought about it, and now he is on the floor." She gestured to the scrambling crocodile. "What's not to understand?" *sigh* I guess I'll chalk it up. I wonder how expensive chalkboards are. I grab Rythian again. "So where should I put you?" I asked Rythian. "Ooo ooo, how about you put him in your scarf?" It was worth a shot. I brought Rythian up and dropped him in my scarf. He didn't stop falling, but he didn't fall onto the ground. "You saw that right?" I said. "Yep, and I must say that is a very cool trick. How did he fit underneath it so well? Oh look there he is again!" I looked down and Rythian had poked his head over the top of my scarf. "I don't know." I reached my hoof underneath my scarf. My hoof kept going, until I realized my entire leg was underneath my scarf. "Ooo, that's a really cool trick." "Yeah, now only if I could figure it out. I think it supposed to be like a set of pockets." "Pockets?" "Yeah I keep hitting stuff. Now if I could grab onto something..." My arm slid out revealing a small square. "What is this?' "Let me see!" Pinkie bounced over to me. She grabbed the square from my hand and looked at it. "Oh it's a lemon square!" She said as she took a large bite. "Hey don't eat all of it!" I said as I grabbed the treat from her hoof. Hmm... Lemons? Well down the hatch. I opened my mouth, I tossed the remaining square into my mouth. Dear Celestia! It was amazing, tears rolled down my face. I tried to savor every bit, but eventualy I had to swallow. That had been the best thing I had tasted in my life, of course what I could remember. "Jason?" Pinke asked worriedly. "Sorry, it was just, so good!" I said as I rubbed the tears out of my eye's. "Let me try pulling something out." Pinkie said as she reached into my scarf. She buried her face into my neck as she looked for something. Her mane enveloped my face, it smelled like a fresh baked cake, and cotton candy. That must have been some high quality shampoo. "Aha got something!" Pinkie pulled her hoof out of my scarf. In it there was a diamond. "Well that's interesting." "You must be super rich Jason!" "I guess so, hey Pinkie do you know any jeweler's in town?" "Why sure I do! You're not thinking of selling that are you?" "Well I'm going to need money, so..." "You don't need to do that." "Pinkie I don't want to be a mooch, so I'll need to get money." "Well why don't you just work here!?" "You mean baking pastries?" "Yeah!" "Well I guess." "Yay, we're going to have so much fun together Jason, but we better get to bed. We have to wake up early to do some baking!" "Hey Pinkie I just noticed, you stopped calling me Mr.J." "Well I..." Pinkie's face turned red. "Uhh..." She ran up the stairs. "Pinkie!" I yelled as I ran up the stairs to catch up to her. A smile crossed my face as I made my way up. *** We had made it up the stairs, before I said. "Pinkie where exactly am I sleeping?" "Well in my room of course!" She said nonchalantly. "Oh, okay." The gears in my mind removed the block, and started turning again. "Wait in your room?" My face was hot. "Of course, I have to make sure my patient doesn't escape in the middle of the night." Patient? "Well I wouldn't mind a little TLC, from this pony." I thought as we entered the room I had stayed the night before. "Pinkie did I sleep in your room last night?" "Well duh! I wasn't going to have you sleep in the Cake's room while they are gone." "Who are the Cake's?" "They're the couple that owns this shop." "And where are they?" "They're taking care of some business, and they left me in charge!" Maybe not the best idea on their part. "So where am I sleeping?" I said sheepishly. "Well in my bed of course." My face felt extremely hot. "Uhh..." "What's wrong, your not sick are you?" Pinkie said as she lifted my hair up,. She then touched her forehead against my own. Did she really have to check my temperature that way? I felt steam rushing out of my ears. I pulled my self away from her. "I'm perfectly fine Pinkie, and I can sleep on the floor!" I said as I tried to hide my red face from Pinkie. "Well if you say so." *Phew* My face started to cool down. "Here you'll need this." Pinkie said as a blanket covered my face. I pulled the blanket off my face when I heard her say "Oh and these!" I saw Pinkie throw a barrage of pillows at me. They all hit me in the face with a *thump*. I fell to the floor. "Oh no, Jason! I didn't hurt you did I?" "Pinkie you know what this means right?" "Huh?" She said as a pillow hit her in the face. 'War!" I yelled as I crawled under the bed. Pinkie started to giggle. "Bring it on!" She said as she jumped off the bed. I crawled out from underneath the bed to the opposite side, a pillow in my hoof. "FOR THE MOTHERLAND!" The pillow flew out of my hoof and smacked Pinkie in the face. > Ch 13 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I awoke to find myself in the carnage from the previous night. Pillows were strewn about the room, feathers falling out from the sides of a few of them. Pillow wives, and pillow children stood over there fallen husbands and fathers, and they wept. A single tear rolled down my cheek, there had been no survivors. Wow, I seemed to be pretty loopy in the morning. Hmm... The room was a real mess, it seems we left no pillow untouched. Wait where was Pinkiepie? I looked around the room, I found Pinkie on her back, lying on top of a pile pillows, a smile plastered on her face. She looked adorable in her sleep. How can I wake something that looked like this. Oh I know, I lifted a few feathers from a fallen solider, and brought them over to the sleeping mare. "Oh Pinkie." I said, as I prepared the feathers. "Wha?" She said, as she woke from her sleep. I brought the feathers down on her belly, and started to tickle her. Pinkie immediately started to laugh. "Stop it, that tickles!" Pinkie laughed. I stopped my attack on Pinkie, and allowed her to get up. "Now it's my turn!" Pinkie yelled as she jumped on me, feathers in her hooves. Pinkie tickled my sides with feathers. I laughed uncontrollably "Pinkie, please stop, or, or else!" I said while laughing. "Or what." Pinkie said, a menacing smile spread across her face. "Or, Volle Vantes!" I floated some feathers over to Pinkie's side, and started to move them. Neither of us gave up on the onslaught. We continued to tickle each other for a few seconds, before Pinkie fell off of me, and laid down next to me on the floor. I turned my head, so I could see Pinkie. She laid there, inches away from me, her belly moved up and down, as she tried to catch her breath. Our hooves where touching each other. The warmth passed between both of us.. I think I would have given anything, to stay in this moment, it was perfect. Pinkie turned fer head. Her mouth was centimeters away from my own. I could feel the air she exhaled from her nose. My face felt hot again. "Hey we should probably do it." Pinkie said. "What!?" "Yeah we need to take a shower and start baking!" She said. as she got up from where we laid. Oh, that's what she meant. "Oh, umm... Okay." *** Pinkie showed me where the bathroom was. I stepped in and walked into the tub as she closed the door. I shut the curtain and tried to pull my scarf off. It wouldn't come off. I pulled on it a few more times. Still nothing. *sigh* I guess it was staying on. "Rythian you should probably come out of there." A green claw shot out of my scarf, the small crocodile followed. Rythian tumbled out of my scarf and landed on the floor of the tub. When he got up I turned on the water. "Cold!" I yelled, as I quickly reached for the other lever. I turned it on and the cold water stopped. A rush of warm water flowed out of the faucet, warmth passed over my fur. It felt amazing. I floated a bar of soap over and started to clean my body. After a few minutes I lifted the bar away and grabbed a bottle labeled shampoo. I brought to my nose and smelt it. It smelled like lavender, I know she has it. Where does she keep that cake and cotton candy scented shampoo? *sigh* I guess I would just have to settle for lavender. *sigh* I floated the bottle up to my mane and forced a little bit out of the bottle. I brought my hoof and started to scrub my mane. After a few minutes, I rinsed my hair out and repeated the process with my tail. As I rinsed off my tail I noticed I had used my metal leg to clean out the bubbles. This again, what was it? Of the memories I had regained, this leg was not in one them. Where did it come from? What was it exactly? Why did it feel alive? Did I have to worry about rust? Another sigh escaped my lips. Oh well, I'll find out about it eventually, besides the magic I had remembered seemed like it would be more useful. "Rythian you ready to get out?" I looked down at the wet crocodile between my leg's. He shook his body and opened his mouth, a small growl came out. I guess he was kind of cute. I reached for the lever and turned the water off. I gave my body a good shake, before I opened the shower curtain. I stepped out and I made a towel float over to me. I rubbed it over my body, drying every inch. As I dried my mane off, Rythian climbed out of the tub and landed on the ground with a thump. I looked over at him. "Hey you need to dry off to." I threw the towel at him. He made his way out, giving a unamused growl as he broke free of the towel. "Yeah, yeah now come on." I said to him, as I picked him up with my hoof and plunked him down on my head. "Lets go get something to eat!" *** Rythian and I stumbled down the stairs, and into the kitchen. Pinkie was inside standing behind a counter. In her hoof she held a whisk and beat something into a bowl. "What's for breakfast?" I asked. "Scrambled eggs!" She said, as she tipped the bowl to show me the yellow mess on the inside. "Sounds good, anything I can do?" "Sure, you can put that bread into the toaster, and put the food for Gummy and Rythian out!" She said, as she gestured to two bowls and a bag labeled "Alligator Chow". I floated the bread into the toaster and turned it on. I made my way over to the bowls and floated a little bit of food into one. Gummy ran out of Pinkie's mane, and dunked his head into the bowl. "Hey Pinkie, what's Rythian going to eat? He's still a baby so he can't have solid food just yet, nor should he eat food labeled for alligators." "I guess you're right, just pour him a bowl of milk. It should be good enough for now." Pinkie said, as she stood next to a steaming frying pan. I made my way to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of milk, I floated it over to the second bowl and poured some into it. Rythian jumped off my head, and made his way over to the bowl. He dunked his head into the bowl, similar to Gummy. *sigh* He was receiving bad influences. *ding* "I'll get that!" Pinkie exclaimed. Rushing over with two plates piled with eggs in her hoof. She grabbed the toast and through them on the to the plates. "Hope you're hungry!" My stomach made a loud gurgle "I guess I could eat." *** We finished our breakfast and after a quick dish washing, we started baking. "So Pinkie, what should I do?" "Oh, well, you can try finding a recipe in this book and then try baking it!" She gingerly tossed a giant book at me. "Volle Vantes!" The book stopped in middair. "You sure? I don't know if I'm good at baking." "It wont hurt to try, now go find a recipe!" Well I needed to see if I was good at something other than being a mooch. I flipped open the book to a random page. Hmm... Sweet roll, no those things are easily stolen. Peeta bread, hmm, no that type of bread only is good when you're starving. Black forest cake, now that was a lie if I thought I could cook that. I gasped at next recipe. It was a picture of yellow squares. Lemon bars, I thought quietly. This was it I was for sure going to make this. Then I noticed the next recipe. No way, lemon cake, what would science think of next. A tear rolled down my cheek. The thought of making this incredible concoction, with my own hooves, it brought me great happiness. "I shall do the lemons proud." I blurted out. "What was that?' "Nothing..." I said, while the ingredients floated in front of me. "Now lets get cracking!" I cracked two eggs into a large bowl. *** Within an hour my master piece was done. On a platter sat a large double-decker cake. Around the middle of the cake there was a ring of light yellow frosting, gluing the two cakes together. The rest of the cake was covered in white frosting. On top, there was a ring of yellow flowers, and in the center of the cake, sat a little yellow frosting lily. "Jason that is beautiful!" Pinkie said. Her mouth hung open. I laid at the base of my creation. My breathing was unsteady, my mouth was dry, and my hooves hurt. "I'm just glad I could make the lemons proud." I looked up and saluted to the cake. "I think you might be a little dehydrated." "Depends, does the air normally have stars?" She let out a giggle "Sometimes." She walked over to the sink and turned the water on. "Now drink this." Pinkie brought a glass of water to my lips. I greedily gulped the water down. "Much better! Hey where did the stars go?" "Don't worry they'll be back, they always come back!" "Cool, so what did you do while I made that?" "Oh just these!" She gestured to a table that was filled with cakes, cookies, and other delicious treats. "Wow, way to upstage me." "Oh this was nothing, I've had years to practice, Besides your cake is really good. Now lets bring these out into the front." I nodded and grabbed a few of Pinkies baked goods, and my own from the counter. I made them float and walked out to the front of the store. When I made it through the doorway Pinkie stood with her back to me. The rest of pastries I had left behind were now under the display case. How did she leave the kitchen before me, and how did she bring out the rest of the supplies? No it's better not to ask. Just chalk it up and carry on. "Hey Jason you can just put those cakes under here," She gestured to a few glass domes sitting on top of the display case. "and the rest can go under the case. I sent the respected items to their respected containers. "Now what?" I asked. "Now I need you to deliver these orders!" She laid a hoof on a pile of boxes. "By myself?" "Of course! Somepony needs to manage the store." How could I go the day without her. "Okay," I said a little dryly. "come on Rythian lets roll!" Rythian ran out of the kitchen and without stopping, jumped into my scarf. When he had wriggled his body in, I floated the boxes onto my back. "So who do I send these to?" "Everyone's on the list, with what they ordered, and where you need to deliver the boxes to." She said as she held out a piece of paper for me. I made the paper float over to me, and scanned the list. "Seems simple enough." "You sure you can handle it?" Pinkie said a little unsure. "Sure I can. It's not like anything bad will happen to me!" I said, as I made my way out the door. > Ch 14 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I closed the door and allowed the light of the new day to hit my face. The warmth of the sun spread across my body, warming every fiber of my being. Especially my eye's, they just burned with warmth. Wait, nope that was pain! Obviously I'm an idiot, because I had stared right into the sun. I jerked my head away from the burning ball of energy, and rubbed my eyes. *sigh* This was going to be a long day. *** After my fiasco with the sun, I made my way towards the first delivery. Unfortunately, I had no idea where I was going, so I asked a few ponies for directions. Every pony that I had asked pointed me in the same direction and said, "Look for the obvious land mark." I made my way in the direction of the "obvious land mark" my guides had told me to look for. After a few minutes I had found the "land mark". The land mark in question, was a giant freaking oak tree. The tree had been remodeled so it was also a building. I stood there, completely gobsmacked. Time seemed to pass by as I stared at the tree. Maybe I had been standing there a little too long. I needed to get the packages delivered relatively soon, but that tree was so interesting! No, work first, tree later. I looked around trying to find the address. After a minute of standing in place and shaking my head back and forth I had found the address. Just to the left of the library stood a single, two story building. I made my way over to the lone building, and knocked on the door. The knock echoed throughout the house. Was no pony home? I started to back away from the door when I bumped into something. "Hey watch where you're going bro!" A deep feminine voice yelled behind me. "I'm sorry." I turned around to meet who I had bumped into. I came face to face with my reflection that was coming off of a pair of purple sunglasses. "I was just looking for the owner of this house, and was about to give up when I bumped into you." The glasses on the mare wobbled as she stepped back and I could make out her appearance. She was a unicorn with a white coat. Her mane and tail were a dark cobalt blue. "Hey don't worry about it. So what did you need from me?" The white unicorn asked. "Oh I had a delivery for," I floated the paper with the addresses on it. "a Miss Octavia." "Oh, Octavia is my roommate. You can just leave your delivery with me." “Okay," I floated the top box off of my back, and into my metal hoof. "here is "your" order." "Dude what's with your hoof?" Oh right, metal hoofs weren't a normal thing here. "No clue, lost most of memory, and that includes any information relating to this leg. Names Jason by the way." "That's cool!" She exclaimed as the box was enveloped in an aura of pink, and lifted from my hoof. "And my names Vinyl Scratch, but you can call me Vinyl cutie." A devious smile spread across her face. "Okay Vinyl, I hope Octavia enjoys her order." I said as I walked past her. "Oh before you go, take my card." I looked back and saw Vinyl float a card over to me. I grabbed it and placed it behind my ear. She lifted up her glasses, revealing a pair of scarlet irises. "Come by if you need anything." She then winked at me. I walked away from the white mare. "Will do, have a nice day!" I began to make my way to the next address. One down, two to go, I thought. Then a thought crossed my mind as I walked to the next address. Vinyl had called me "cutie". Was she hitting on me? I started to panic, I floated the card from behind my ear and looked it over. The card only had two things on it. An address, and the words Dj-Pon3. Okay, don't panic, don't panic. Maybe she was just trying to get business, and that's why she called me "cutie"! Yep totally, that was definitely the reason. I chuckled uncertainly. I broke into a sprint. "Nope, nope, nope!" I yelled while I galloped at full speed. I did not even care where I was going, just away from her. *** After some time I slowed down. I looked up, and took in my surroundings. Hmm... I was in a very unfamiliar part of town. There were buildings with signs out front. Roselucks Flowers, Heartstring's music, Rich's Barnyard Bargains. I have never seen any of these buildings before. Great, I was lost. I started my exit of the unfamiliar area, but stopped as I spotted a sign. Trottingham Jewelry: Buy, Sell, Appraise. A Jewelry shop, I know Pinkie said not to, but... I made a b-line to the shop and pushed open the door. A bell chimed as the door swung open, and I stepped inside. The inside of the shop was fairly simple. A display case, filled with jewelry, was set up in the front of the store. Behind the counter was a space where the owner did the business transactions. Then there was a door behind the counter, most likely leading to where the inventory was kept. A male voice yelled from behind the door. "Be right with you!” After a little wait, a pony walked out of the back door. He walked up to the counter and stopped. He had a light gray purple coat, and he wore a brown vest with a tie. His mane was a light blue, and there was a hat on top of it. "Hello sir my name is Karat. What can I do for you today?" "It's nice to meet you Karat. My name is Jason, and I have just two questions." "Oh?" "Could you give me some directions, and I was also wondering if I could sell this." I pulled the diamond from the previous night out from my scarf. A devious smile spread across Karat's face. "Oh I'm sure we can get rid of that." *** After ten minutes of haggling, I walked out of the store, five hundred bits richer. I probably could have gotten more, but I had no clue the exchange rate here. I didn't even know the currency was called bits. Fortunately Karat knew the location of my next delivery. It was only a block away from his store. It looked like I had to thank Vinyl. I found the shop that Karat told me about, Quills and Sofas. I made my way inside. I don't really know what I expected, with a name like Quills and Sofas, it sure did live up to its name. The front of the store was set up with fifteen couches. Each couch faced the door, inviting each potential customer to take a rest. I resisted the urge to do just that, and made my way to the back counter, where a brown stallion in a blue and white collared shirt stood. His mane was brown and combed back. As I made my way towards him he looked at me with green eyes. I think this is what I would look like if I wasn't a unicorn. I have to say, not bad. "What can I do for you sir?" My doppelganger asked. “Yes, are you..." I pulled out the paper that had sent me on a wild adventure. "Davenport?" "Yes, I am." Davenport said. "Well I have your delivery from Sugar Cube Corner." I floated one of the boxes off my back and placed it onto the counter. "Thank you very much. Now is there anything else I can do for you?" A smile crept over Davenport's face. *** An hour later I stumbled out of the sofa store. My mind was functioning at half it's normal pace, my mouth was dry, and the pile of bits I had received from Karat seemed to have shrunk. I think Davenport might have drugged me. Okay take inventory. Scarf: Check, Legs: Check, Delivery: Check, Money: Check, minus around a hundred bits, Kidneys: Check. Well the necessities were there at least. Now for the last order. I pulled out the list and looked at the last name, Fluttershy. Now where did she live? Hmm... Well running worked last time. I could try it again. I flexed my legs, and started into a gallop. *** I galloped for awhile until there was suddenly nothing under my hooves. I fell face first into some water. I brought my face out of the knee high water, and I took a deep breath. It seems I had run into a stream. Wait where was the delivery. I scoured for the box that was on my back, but to no avail. I hung my head in shame and turned around to make my way up to dry land when I realized the box was staring me in the face. Oh thank the words, the delivery was fine. I pulled myself up next to the box. The delivery was safe, but I was wet. *sigh* From one problem to the next. Then a thought crossed my mind. "Aeolemio!" Three wavy lines appeared in front of me. With another thought the lines disappeared in a flash and a breeze soon took its place. The summoned wind started to slowly dry me off, but it seemed to be taking too long. Is this as strong as you can get? Come on give me your all. Bad idea. The gentle breeze became ferocious. I tried to stand my ground but I was soon up in the air. Yup, this was definitely a bad idea. Wait, can't I stop this. Unfortunately that was another bad idea. Sure the wind stopped, but I had a ten foot free fall towards the ground. With a loud *thump* I hit the ground. "Ow." I mumbled between closed teeth. "umm... are you okay?" "Fluttershy?" I asked. "yes." I looked up to the mare standing above me "Is my hair fine?" "it's a little messy." "So it's fine?" "I guess so." "Good, also there's a package somewhere around here for you." "you mean this one." She held out a white box in her hoof. I got up from where I was laying on the ground, causing me to wince at the pain from moving after my crash landing. "Yup, and as the courier for Sugar Cube Corner, I hereby drop off your package, and I would like to formally introduce myself. I am Jason, and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." "but we met yesterday." "Yes but I didn't know my name back then." "oh, okay." "Now if you excuse me I'm heading back to town." "here I'll walk with you." "Okay." I looked towards the stream I had fallen into. "Umm... Fluttershy, can you lead the way? I have no clue how I got here." "how can you not know how you got here?" "Don't know, I just looked down and started to run." "that seems a little convenient." I gave a slight chuckle "Yeah. Now lets get going." Fluttershy lead the way across the bridge, that went over the stream, that I had fallen into. We started to follow a road that ran along side a forest. Once we had been walking for a few minutes. I noticed a green shimmer. I stopped Immediately. "Fluttershy get behind me!" "why?" "Just do it!" Without a seconds hesitation Fluttershy ran behind me. "Now what ever you do, don't leave my side!" "I don't understand, what's..." Fluttershy's words trailed off, as a twig snapped from the forest. A group of pony like figures emerged from the trees. A shadow enveloped them, the same shadow that had covered the dragon. Their eye's glowed green with the soul that kept them together. My soul. "I believe you have something that belongs to me. Would you mind giving it back?" The group didn't answer, instead they charged at me. The glow in their eye's intensifying. "I'll take that as a no then." > Ch 15 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The group of five undead ponies stood fifty yards in front of me. Plan time! Okay what could I use? Hmm... Let's see, one scarf, one metal leg, a scared pony, a baby crocodile, and a limited amount of magic. Could have been worst. Okay the plan was ready, phase one! "Rythian!" I yelled calling out to the dormant reptile in scarf. Rythian jumped out of my scarf and landed at my feet. "Now listen, I need you to watch Fluttershy. Understand?" The baby reptile gave a growl, hopefully in agreement. "Alright, and you may need these." I muttered something under my breath, and two symbols appeared on Rythian's side. A fireball and a shield. "Now stay with Fluttershy!" Rythian ran behind me, hopefully to protect Fluttershy. "Now it's just you and me!" I said to the group who were five yards in front of me, closer than I had expected. "Oh I didn't know you were that close." The one that was closer to me, charged. Well it was now or never. "Cenma!" A fireball erupted and hit the one that had charged at me. He flew backwards, and slammed into a tree. The force of the collision caused his body to fall apart, spreading bone shards all over the road and into the trees. One down four to go. The rest of the skeleton ponies charged, albeit rather slowly. This next one would have to count, I was already feeling the effects of using too much magic, having given Rythian some shields, and that fireball just now. "Humrra Volvape!" I yelled. The ground shook, and a hole appeared in the ground, roughly ten feet wide, and three of the ponies fell down with a *crash*. One managed to jump over the gap, and landed on top of me, pinning me to the ground. He glared at me with green glowing eyes. The eye's that contained my soul, my memories. Anger filled me, I tried to push the lifeless puppet off of me, but to no avail. He moved his hoof up to his face, and with a flick of his wrist, the shadow morphed and shifted into a pointed cone. The tip extended a foot past the original length of his bony appendage. The skeleton glanced at the pointed cone, then pointed the tip towards me, and without a second hesitation, he brought the shadowy spear down, towards my neck. I closed my eye's briefly, expecting the spear to penetrate my jugular, when I felt something brush past my face. I opened my eye's quickly to see what it was. Rythian was standing on top of my neck. He had jumped in the way to protect me. The spear continued it's decent, not slowing down, and Rythian was hit in the side. "No!" I started to yell. A light went off from where Rythian had been hit. The spear was sent backwards, and a stream of orange fire exploded from Rythian's side. The skeletal pony was launched backwards, and fell into the pit, his bones breaking at the bottom of it with a *crunch*. Oh yeah, I forgot he was shielded. "Well thanks Rythian." He blinked at me in response. "Is Fluttershy okay?" I asked the small crocodile. He blinked again, but this time it was just his right eye. "Good, I'm glad she's alright." I stand up and turn around to look for the canary pegasus. She was five feet behind me, laying flat on the ground, her hooves covered her face. In her hooves she held two twigs with only a couple of leafs on each branch. It gave the impression that she was a bush. "Hey Rythian do you think Fluttershy is behind this bush?" At the mention of her name, Fluttershy dropped the twigs and moved her hooves away from her eye's. "Oh there you are Fluttershy!" I said jokingly. "Are you two alright!?" A voice yelled above me. I jerked my head up, and caught sight of a rainbow blur. "Oh hey Rainbow dash!" I waved to rainbow pony that was landing next to us. "What happened here?" Rainbow asked. "Those mean looking ponies just suddenly attacked us!" Fluttershy said. "No need to worry, I took them out." "All by yourself?" Rainbow asked. "Yeah! I'm mean it's not that surprising, I took that dragon out yesterday." "A dragon!" Fluttershy interjected, a look of surprise and horror plastered on her face. "Oh yeah you weren't there, were you?" Rainbow said with a sheepish smile. Probably due to the fact she had forgotten to tell Fluttershy about the day's prior events. "Anyways, Dash mind doing me a favor?" "What?" A look of surprise spread over her face. Probably because I had called her "Dash" I turned away from the two mares and faced the pit. "Just carry me back to Sugar Cube Corner." I said, as I raised my metal hoof into the air. "Your not going to do that again, are you?" Rainbow interjected, stepping to my side with a stern face. "I have no other choice, I need my memories back." I looked at my metal hoof. The light from the setting sun had turned the normally gray appendage a reddish orange. Then it gave off a white flash. I looked towards the tree that the skeleton had collided with, the skull was at the base of a root. It slowly moved, trying to make its way towards me. The fire in it's eye's seeped out in thin strands. The skull panicked as it realized it's life force was leaving it. It thrashed about turning away from me, but the last of the green fire made it's way out of the skull, leaving a motionless bone heap, and a stream of green fire made it's way towards me. I looked to the pit to see four streams of green fire slowly making their way up the sides of the dirt walls. The first of these flames touched my leg, and it caught fire immediately. The flames slowly spread over my body, but started to spread faster as more streams touched my leg. Soon every inch of my body was on fire, every inch was in pain. I closed my eye's, and screamed out in pain. After a few seconds I reopened my eye's to see the last of the fire touching my hoof. The pain slowly began to dissipate, the fire receded from my body and returned to the hoof. Where it disappeared entirely. After the fire had disappeared, a wave of pain struck my head, like a brick wrapped in lemon. It caused me to double over, and my vision went black. *** While Jason had been fighting, a pair of golden eye's surveyed the battle from the edge of the forest. The eye's belonged to a dark gray unicorn with a greasy black mane and tail. His cutie mark was a cloud of purple mist with a pair of hollow eyes in the center. The mysterious pony moaned as he saw Jason was not killed by the last skeleton, whom he thought had Jason dead for sure. Under his breath he mumbled, "Why can't we get rid of this fool? If we had just killed him when we had gotten rid of his memories..." His voice trailed off. In front of him, Jason had just raised his hoof, and the flame from one of the skeletons trailed off, and made it's way towards Jason. No, no, no! The mysterious pony thought to himself. He broke into a gallop, and made his way deeper into the forest. "He wasn't supposed to do that. The flames weren't supposed to bend to his will like that." He said to himself. After a minute of galloping, the mysterious pony had reached a clearing. The light from the setting sun was almost non-existent this deep in the forest. He made his way to a light brown tent, that was set between two trees. Once he was in front of the tent he broke through the entrance and made his way inside. The inside was simple. In the corner, a small cot was set up. Next to it was a table, and on top of this, a map was sprawled out. The map was labeled Equestria in curvy black writing. The last object in the room was a full length mirror. He made his way towards this mirror and tapped his hoof on the reflective glass. The mirror rippled like water, then it flashed white. The normally reflective surface of the mirror had been replaced by a murky, black silhouette. The silhouette spoke. "Jolon why have you called!" "My lord, I am sorry to disturb you but it's about, Jason." Jolon said, the last part a little bitterly. "You've taken care of him, haven't you?" The silhouette asked, a tone of anger in his deep voice. "Well, it seems that, Jason can, absorb the souls that you gave me." Jolon said, sheepishly. "What!" "Well tonight, I sent out a team to test his current state. Just to see if it was a fluke with the dragon. It seems, he has regained some memories, and some of that despicable magic of his." The silhouette was speechless. Jolon rubbed his head as he hung it, feeling uncomfortable. Finally his master spoke "And you're sure he absorbed the souls?" "Yes, he took the five I had taken. Then he caught on fire, and passed out." "This shouldn't be. Normally, when someone absorbs a soul, it's because they share a connection with it. The souls I gave you, were ones I've personally harvested and tainted with my own ways. The only connection that him and I share are the colors of our soul's. Both our soul's are green, nearly identical, but this is not nearly enough for him to absorb them. Are you sure he didn't do any thing else?" "No sir, he simply lifted that damn leg of his and the souls were attracted to it." "Hmm... I guess for the time being, I would like you to use any souls of your own that you have with you." "Sir I only have a few with me." "That will do." "B-b-but sir..." Jolon stammered out. "Please tell me you haven't forgotten your greatest trick, my little necromancer." Jolon gave a malicious smile. "Oh right, I'm sure I can find one of his "friends" to use that on." *** I awoke to find myself, alone, in a white void. Wait, alone? That shouldn't have been right. Last time I was here there was an ever changing form of gray. What could have happened to it? "So you're the pony our sister has mentioned." An unfamiliar voice said from behind me. I turned my head around to find something that was nearly as black as night. A dark blue pony stood in front of me. Everything about her was blue. Her coat, her wings, her horn, even her ever blowing mane and tail were blue. Wait horn, wings, a ridiculous hairstyle. If Celestia had all that stuff, that means she most be in the same standings as her. I panicked. I brought my leg to my head, saluting the mysterious pony. "What are you doing?" She asked. "Don't know. It seems to be the right thing to do in the presence of royalty." "Well, could you please stop, it embarrasses us." "Uh, okay." I brought my hoof back down. "So, who are you, and how did you get here?" "We are Princess Luna, Princess of the Night, and sister of Celestia. As to how we have made it here, being Princess of the Night gives us certain powers. Like that to travel into the dreams of sleeping ponies." So she is Celestia's sister. I guess she came to see me like Celestia did. Wait, did she say dream? last I checked this was a different dimension. "Oh, uh, right. So, why are you here?" "We have come to see the pony, that has the talent, that has not been seen in centuries." "Do you mean the Words?" "Yes, the Words of Origination, they are something that not many ponies have been able to use, since even before our banishment." "Huh, well Princess..." "Please call us Luna." "Okay, Luna, as Celestia has probably told you, I have lost my memories. You know practically as much about where I got them as I do!" I said, a little bit of anger in my words. "Oh, I-we are sorry." "*sigh* No I'm sorry Luna. It's just so frustrating not having any way to know who I really am." I turned my gaze away from her's. "..." "Luna?" I looked back up to see Luna staring wide eyed, not at me but at something behind me. I turned my head to look for what could have had her attention. On the empty horizon a small green light floated towards us. It came to rest roughly ten feet in front of me. What was it? I thought as I got closer. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a small green sphere, no bigger than an apple. I held out my hoof to touch it, when Luna interjected. "No wait!" Too late, my hoof came into contact. At the sudden touch of my hoof the sphere shrunk, but then it started to expand, growing larger and larger. Soon the sphere was bigger than me, and it seemed to be getting closer. "Get back from it!" Luna yelled. I started to slowly back away from it, but the sphere reacted faster than I did. The only thing I could see was green. Had the sphere enveloped me? Probably, because the next thing I heard was Luna screaming. "Get out of there!" Before she broke through the sphere. "Nice of you to join me." I chuckled at Luna. "What is this?" Luna asked. "Don't know," The color of the sphere began to change, showing us shades of browns, and blacks, before it finally focused into some details. We were now standing in a room. "but this should be interesting." > Ch 16 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The room that Luna and I had landed seemed to be a jail cell. Shackles lined a stone brick wall. Reddish brown stains covered the floor. I turned around to see an iron barred door. On the other side of it was another brick wall, a torch set on it. It was the only source of light in the dungeon black. I turned back around to face Luna. "So, I think we might have been imprisoned." "Obviously." She said a slightly sarcastic tone in her voice, and a look of amusement on her face. The princess walked past me to face the door. Luna lowered her horn to the lock, a navy blue aura overtaking it. A burst of energy then shot out from it, and traveled quickly to the lock. It went right through the lock, not stopping, continuing like a bullet until it hit the other wall, and passed through that as well. "Well, that was unexpected." "Yeah, but it gives me an idea." I brought my hoof up to the lock and tried tapping it. My hoof traveled right through. Not questioning this, I stepped forward, and was able to walk right through the iron bars. "So, looks like we're not trapped after all." I said, turning back around. "So what is this place?" Luna asked, as she stepped out of the jail. "I think it's just some sort of intricate illusion. We're probably in the same spot as before, just instead of seeing that white void, we're seeing this. As if the image was pasted over it." "So why are we seeing this?" "No clue." A noise from my right caught me off guard, startling me slightly, and I looked towards it. There was nothing, just a dead end. "What was that?" Before Luna could answer, a black image appeared on the wall, and it seemed to resemble a door. The image shimmered slightly, wavering before disappearing. What was once a normal brick wall swung open, with a slight squeak, as if the bricks had turned into hinges. The wall had been covering a seemingly endless dark hallway, and from the blackness a figure slowly emerged. He walked out of the portal cautiously and on two legs. The figure wore a pair of black shoes with white laces, and a pair of dark blue jeans. He wore a light brown jacket that fell all the way to his knees. The shirt that he was wearing under the jacket was a simple black one. The most shocking part about his clothes was what was around his neck. A black and white scarf wrapped itself around him a few times. The ends of the scarf hung off his broad shoulders. Who was he? What was he doing here? Why did he have my scarf? Why did I automatically assume only one scarf like mine existed? "What is that?" Luna asked. I didn't answer. I walked towards the scarf stealer, who had stopped for some reason, and was staring above my head. I was directly in front of him, when I noticed something under his jacket. At the edge of his right sleeve, I saw a gray shine. I tilted my head and looked under his jacket. Instead of flesh like I would have assumed, there was instead metal. A metal arm. Who would have a metal arm? I scratched my head with my shiny appendage, as I thought over the perplexity of this stranger. Not allowing me to ponder the situation, the stranger walked silently down the hall, towards Luna. Luna panicked, her horn was covered in a blue aura, perhaps afraid that he was going to attack her. "Stay back from us!" Luna yelled. The figure didn't falter in the slightest and continued walking, right through Luna, as if he was some kind of ghost. "Well it seems that he, just like everything else here, is just an illusion." I said to Luna. Luna stood there, a look of pure surprise on her face. "We believe we just figured out who that was." "Really, who is he?" Luna looked at me, a look of amusement on her face. "Really? You can't figure it out?" "No, should it really be that obvious?" Luna gave a small chuckle. "Oh don't worry about it, We are sure you will figure it out eventually." Okay, I guess. If she could figure it out, it probably wont take me that long. "So should we follow him?" I asked, dropping the topic of the figures identity for the moment. "It would probably be the best choice." *** We followed behind the stranger, knowing that we made no noise in this illusionary world. He kept up the same speed, he never faltered, he never made a noise, he just kept going. He must have known exactly where he was going. Time just passed by. Luna and I kept up a good brisk pace behind the strange figure. We entered room, after hallway, after room. Each different, in their own way, but similar. After we had exited the dungeon, the architecture greatly improved. Unlike the dungeon, the rooms and the halls seemed to give a sense of power and authority. As if whoever built this place wanted to show how royally magnificent they were. The hallway floors were lined with polished black and white stone tiles. Torches lined equally shiny black stone walls. The rooms were spread seemingly randomly, with no order in their appearance. No room seemed to be the same. True, each room had the same black walls and floors, but they also looked to have a different function. Some had shelves filled with books, others seemed to be used as storage, while some just had a single pedal stool in the middle of the room. Some of these pedal stools were empty, while some had items on them. These items looked like they had no particular connections to each other. One pedal stool contained a green crystal, another had a gray rock with veins of silver in it, there was one that had a blue looking scarab on it. We continued this pattern for awhile. Until we came to a set giant wooden doors. Not even pausing for a second, the mystery man pushed open the doors, and we proceeded inwards. The room that we had entered was ginormous. The ceiling hung a hundred feet above our heads. The room itself was fairly bare. It shared the same floor and wall designs as the rest of the rooms and hallways we had seen. Except on the other side of the room, there was a single black stone throne. We made our way over towards it, and once we had made it there, our mysterious guide placed his right hand on it. The throne glowed green. It grew intenser, and once it was bright enough to burn retinas, a small ball of green fire formed in front of it. The tiny flame began to grow larger, and the thrown grew dimmer. Once the throne had gone back to it's original non glowing state, the fire had grown immensely. It was equally as large as the throne. We had stood off to the side and watched as it grew. Now that it had ceased, our guide made his way towards it. He slowly brought his right arm up to it. Green light reflected off of his arm, causing a dull green light to be reflected around the entire room. The tips of his fingers were mere inches away from the green energy. Then an image appeared on his arm. It looked like a black arrow, and it was pointing down. His arm fell towards the floor, bringing his entire body with him. Then someone started clap slowly from the doorway that we had used to enter the room. "So you thought I wouldn't notice you entering my castle. No, no my friend I always know when you are here. Not just in this castle, but this entire universe. You can't make a single move here without me even knowing." An all to familiar voice said. That voice! It was the voice of the man who had taunted me, since my first memory! The man who had sent a dragon after me! I jerked my head toward the entrance. There stood the source of any and all hatred I had felt. His appearance did not fit the deep voice that had been used to taunt me. He was very tall and skinny. His skin was stretched tightly over his body. It gave the impression of a skeleton who had stretched a skin suit, that was several sizes too small, over their own body. He had long jet black hair, with streaks of gray in random places. On his face he had an equally long black beard, that hid his prominent cheek bones. He wore a long black cloak, that was the same shade as his hair. He looked towards the man that had fallen towards the floor, the man gave grunts of pain, then towards Luna and I. He couldn't see us could he, he was just an illusion. The look in his light blue eye's told me that he was looking past us. Probably at the throne. "So Jason, what should I do with you." The black cloaked man asked. "What!" I yelled. How could he talk to me? Then our gravity challenged guide started to chuckle. "So, you think I have no way of escaping this?" That voice, it was mine! The dots slowly started to connect together in my mind. The scarf, the arm, his name, the fantastically beautiful messy, mahogany hair, that I had just realized he had. The man on the floor was me! I looked with wide eye's at the non pony version of me that laid on the ground. What happened to me? Why was I human here, but horse now? How come I knew I/he was a human? My panicking mind was interrupted by the man that stood on the other side of the room. "Oh so you think because you have been able to thwart me thus far, that you'll thwart me again?" "Well, when you put it like that, yes!" The human me gave a light chuckle. "Hmm... Yes I figured you would think like that, but I assure you, you wont get out of this one." A malicious smile spread across his face. "Right... So when ever you want to start your torture, that would be great." "Keep telling yourself you'll come out of this." "Anytime now." The cloaked man glared at the me on the floor. "Joke now, but you wont be later. Now let me give a little explanation. As you know, our souls contain a vast amount of power. This power can be used for machines, magic, even bringing back the dead..." "Yawn..." The black cloaked man pointed a long bony finger at the me on the floor, and slowly brought his finger down. Cracks started to form around the human me, and he let out a scream in pain. "Now be quiet. Now as you know souls grow stronger with age. Growing from the memories we make. These memories connect to the main source of a soul, by thin, thin, strands. Now imagine a force going in and snipping these threads. Do you know what would happen?" "The memories would be lost." "Exactly! And any extra souls you may be carrying, will also lose their connection. Now these lost connections come out as souls. Not very large, but still souls." "Sounds like a good idea on paper, but to actually find a spell that can do that. I doubt such a thing even exists!" "You are right. I could not find a spell that could do that. I did extensive research on such a spell. I found nothing. So the next logical thing was to attempt making it on my own, and you know what, it worked. You may already know this but the word fire, and the word for soul, are the same. Such a simple thing like that and adding a few of the words for breaking, add a little bit of specifics, and we can get rid of memories. To think that no one has ever considered this spell. Now, let me demonstrate." He raised his hand up and a series of images flickered over my human self. Image upon image appeared. Some were easily recognizable. Cracks, a snapped thread, a hammer. Some were unrecognizable. Then an image bigger than the rest appeared on his back, a fireball. As soon as it had appeared, all of the images lit up at once. A small stream of green fire flew out of my body. The stream flew into the green fireball that had been summoned. "I know that whatever I say to you now is pointless, but you should know, I will not kill you. At least not right now. The amount of energy still left inside of you could easily cause a devastating explosion, if you were to die. No I'll send you away, to a different place. I'll let you live a little longer, but know this, I will soon be after you, and no matter what, I will kill you." As the last word rolled of his tongue, a large dark hole appeared underneath the human me. He slowly sunk into it. > Ch 17 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the human version of me sunk into what I assumed was the dark void, the illusion of the castle around us started to disappear. Slowly, but eventually the architecture around us had faded, and we stood where we had begun, in the white void. Both Luna and I were speechless. We had just seen the specifics of how I had lost my memories, but there were still so many unanswered questions. What was I doing before I had lost my memories? What was my life like before? Why did that man hate me so much? Where did this arm come from from? How come I was now a horse? These questions had brought my mind down a dark road. Every thing around me started dimming. It felt like there was something hanging over my head. All I could do was close my eye's and hang my head down. I felt tiny, cold, pains of shock all over my body. I opened my eye's and looked up. There was a cloud hanging above me, and it was sprinkling. *sigh* I guess it really is just that bad. "Jason, stop having sad thoughts." Luna demanded. "And why should I?" "Because we wont be able to stay in this dream if you keep things unstable, and also we don't like to see any of our little ponies in such a sad state." "Like I care what you think!" I said, looking up at her, venom in my eye's. "Jason, can you honestly tell us that you are like this all the time? That there is nothing in your entire existence that makes you happy?" Luna asked with compassion, despite the fact that I had just yelled at her. Happiness. Was there really anything that made me happy? Maybe before this, but now I had no clue. Without any memory, I guess I do live a sad life. The cloud above me started to increase it's downpour and I was soaked in no time. "Jason there has to be something, a souvenir maybe, or even a pony, that made you happy!" Luna yelled, sounding distressed, yet her voice sounded distant. Pony? I guess there was Pinkie. The rain slowed down. "Yes Jason, hold onto that memory!" Pinkie had been there from the start of this. She nursed me, fed me, talked to me, helped me recover. Pinkie had always been there, although it hadn't been for long, being a friend. There had always seemed to be a little more to it though. I've seen the ways she talks to her friends. She talks to them with so much energy, but when she talks to me she seems, hesitant. Taking her time to talk to me. With her other friends she always seemed a little more carefree. With me she seemed, nervous. Why would she feel nervous with me. Could there be more behind it? "Ah so it was the pink one who makes you feel happy. I believe her name was Pinkie Pie? I opened my eye's, the rain had stopped. I raised me head but stopped. In front of me stood Pinkie. I could feel my cheek's blush. "P-P-P-Pinkie! What are you doing here?" "She is not actually here." Luna said, walking through Pinkie, which caused her form to disappear. "What do you mean, I could see her." "Remember when I said think of a happy memory? What was that memory?" "It was, uhh..." "Pinkie Pie." Luna interjected. "Uhh, yeah..." I hung my head down, blushing as I tried to avoid contact with Luna's eye's. "Well this little mare is what you thought of. She is here as part of your dream, so she is not the real Pinkie Pie. I am curious, what is she to you?" "Sh-Sh-She is a friend!" My face had gone up a few more degrees. "A friend?" Luna asked. "Yes! Just a friend!" "Ah I see." I raised my head up towards Luna. A playful smile on her face. "What exactly do you see?" "Oh, through the many years I have lived. I have seen many of ponies in love!" "Lo-Lo-Lo-Love!" "Ah yes, We have seen it upon a hundred ponies faces. The look you give now. Those flushed cheeks, the way you stammer your word's. You love Pinkie don't you?" The heat in my face had gone up tremendously. I bet you could boil a pot of water on my face at this point. I let my head fall down once again.. I know there had been times where I had experienced these emotions while around Pinkie, but was it truly love? Heck, I've even contemplated this before. There had been hours of mental debate, and there was always the same conclusion. I had feeling's for her. "Uhh, Jason you might want to stop thinking about her, maybe just for a second!" Luna said from above me. I opened my eye's again, and looked up. There were now hundreds of Pinkies. Some stood on what I could only assume as the ground in this void. While others floated through the air. "Uhh..." Was my only reaction. "Focus! We don't want any more to appear!" "Umm, well, would it really be that bad?" Luna looked at me. A look of both amusement and fury were in her eye's. "As pleasing as it is for you to admit your feelings. Please stop thinking about her!" She could be pretty scary. I closed my eye's, and thought. "Okay, so stop thinking, stop thinking, stop thinking... Done!" I reopened my eye's. Where there had been Pinkie before, there was nothing. *sigh* "Very good. Now about what we just saw." Wait, I thought she wanted me to stop thinking about Pinkie. "We still have no clue who you are," Oh she meant that memory, thing. "but we are going to keep you under constant surveillance. In order to make sure you wont harm the kingdom." "Naturally." I replied coolly. "So we must say goodnight, and we wish you luck in your quest." "Thank you." "Oh yes, one more thing. Jason, don't be embarrassed to go after her." Luna said, as she smiled and winked at me. She then seemed to fade out of existence. *** As soon as Luna left, I awoke. I found myself being tickled by some stray hairs that smelled like the air after a rain storm. I raised my head out of the mess of colors I had been using as a pillow, and took in my new bed. I was laying on Rainbow Dash's back. "oh, Jason your awake." A soft voice said from my right. I looked over and saw Fluttershy. "Oh hey Fluttershy..." I said sleepily. "If you're awake than you can get off my back!" My bed said angrily, before she shook her body, which caused me to fall off her back. "Well good morning to you too." I said as I pulled myself off the ground. "I don't want hear it. You are freaking heavy! You need to lose a few pounds. Besides, do you know how hard it is to walk with something twice as heavy as yourself!?" Dash exclaimed. "It's not like I'm fat! Besides 'Miss fastest flier in all of Equestria,' shouldn't you be able to carry heavy loads, or were you just letting out hot air?" Rainbow Dash turned around, anger in her eye's from me questioning her ability. "Listen here bub! I am the fastest flier, and don't you forget it. My body is conditioned for flying! If I was carrying you in the air, I wouldn't be a problem, but we were in a hurry, and you were passed out. It would have been unsafe to carry you sleeping, while flying. That left me with walking, something I'm not necessarily used to." "Sorry Dash, I guess I kind of just assumed." "*sigh* It's okay, and I'm sorry for snapping at you." Dash said coyly. "No, no, I'm sorry." "No really, I'm sorry." "No I'm sorry." "No I'm sorry!" "I'm more sorry!" "Will you two stop!" Fluttershy yelled, from behind me. "Uh, sorry Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash and I said in unison. "oh, umm, oh my gosh I'm so sorry." Dash and I made eye contact. Then we both started to laugh. Fluttershy looked at us with a confused look. "oh my, did I do something wrong?' Fluttershy asked. "No Fluttershy, every thing is just fine." I said as I wiped a tear away. "It's already late, so we should probably get back to Sugar Cube Corner." "Yeah we wouldn't want to keep you away from Pinkie, now would we lover boy?" Rainbow said, while she nudged my side. "No we woul... What did you say!?" I turned to Rainbow Dash immediately. "You know what I said." "B-B-But how did you find out?" "You talk in your sleep." She said with a mischievous grin on her face. "Really? Crap! What else did you hear?" "Nothing, other than you practically confessing to Pinkie." Crap! "Well I, uh, I, uh..." "Don't worry. I'm sure me and Flutters here can keep your little secret,right?" "yeah, you don't have anything to worry about." "Really, you guys don't mind that I like Pinkie?" "Well you're not the worse guy that she could have a relationship with." Dash said. “Other than her finding you on the road unconscious and you being a freeloader so far.” “Thanks Dash...” I said glumly, “Hey wait! I helped deliver cupcakes today!” “Hardly enough to constitute a night at Sugar Cube Corner.” Dash said. I just sighed. "Well I think you two would make a cute couple." Fluttershy interjected. My face got hot. Were they trying to set us up? I thought friends were supposed to stop friends from making mistakes. Did this mean they were giving me there support? Would they be okay if I tried to become something more with Pinkie? "So, when are you going to make the move?" "Uhh..." "I can't hear you!" "Uhh, well..." "Spit it out!" "Tonight!" Wait, what did I just say? The two ponies were silent. "Well it works for me." A smile formed on Dash's face. "Wait no, I didn't mean that!' "Oh so your not going to tell her tonight?" "No." "Fine." Dash said a little disappointed. "Well I guess there is only one thing to do." What did she mean? "If your not going to tell Pinkie, I guess I will." Rainbow Dash was now flying down the street. My legs started to move on their own. They tried there best to try and reach Rainbow Dash. "No wait, Dash stop!" It was no use my words did not make the mare falter one bit. At my current speed I wasn't going to catch up with her. If only I had a spell that gave me a speed boost. Well there wasn't one that I could remember. I hung my head in shame, and immediately I felt my legs quicken. Right, there was this unexplained anomaly. Maybe I can catch up to her. "Hey how are you keeping up with me?" "No clue! Now can you please stop." I said, with my head still looking at the ground. "And why should I?" "Because, I'll tell her tonight." My voice faltered. "You sure?" "Yeah." My legs slowed down. I looked up to see Dash land on the ground. "You know I wasn't actually going to tell her." Rainbow turned her head, revealing a mischievous smile. "You're evil." "And you two will make an awesome couple.” Dash said jokingly “So you are going to tell her right?" "*sigh* Yeah I guess I will." A small smile spread across my lips. "Ha, you two are ridiculous." I gave a small uncertain chuckle. "Yeah... Hey what happened to Fluttershy?" "Oh shoot! Hey I'll see you later!" Before I could respond Rainbow Dash flew off, back in the direction we had just come. "Well I guess I'll see you later then." I turned my head back in the direction I suspected Sugar Cube Corner was, when I found myself staring at a pair of beautiful eye's. Pinkie was standing mere inches away from my nose. "P-P-P-Pinkie!" "Jason! I missed you! Now come on!" Pinkie said, grabbing my front leg, pulling me along with her. > Ch 18 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There was a growing, scratchy heat that coursed throughout my body. It started soon after Pinkie started to drag me along with her. The burning feeling in question was actually caused by my body's being dragged on the ground. Pinkie had somehow managed to hog tie me with a rope. The pink mare pulled me by the coarse ropes as we made our way to our undisclosed location, and I think she purposefully made me hit every rock on the way there. "Pinkie will you stop dragging me!” I pleaded, “My side feels like they're on fire!" Pinkie stopped and said. "Okie dokie lokie!" She then released the rope. My momentum caused me to slide until I abruptly stopped next to her. "Were the ropes entirely necessary? I would have gone with you, if you just asked!" I said to Pinkie, who untied the ropes wrapped around my hooves. "My bad. Anyways looks like we're here!" I could hardly tell if she was being sarcastic or not... I sat up and winced at the pain that came from the simple action. I rubbed my metal hoof against the sore spot that was my back. After a few seconds of this, I stood up and looked around where we were. I noticed a small wooden sign and squinted to see it through the darkness. The sign said "Sugar Cube Corner" "Did you really just drag me all the way to the place I was heading?" I turned my to face Pinkie. "Yup!" Pinkie exclaimed with a wide eyed smile. My knees nearly buckled as I caught sight of her smile. It glowed in the ever growing night, and her eye's seemed to sparkle. Why did she always do this to me. I had felt relatively normal the entire day, but now, being in her presence, I felt powerless. It wasn't like I didn't enjoy it, as a matter of fact I enjoyed this. I guess this was love. "Pinkie there has been something I've been wanting to say t..." I stopped mid sentence. Something had knocked into me. I looked down and saw a child writhing on the floor. He was a chubby little gray colt. His dark brown hair seemed to be almost as messy as mine. I was about to scold him for running into me, when I noticed he was crying. "Hey are you alright?" The little colt looked at me, tears still falling. "I"m..." Before he could say another word, he forced his eye's shut and got up from the ground. Without looking, he ran in the opposite direction. "Should we go after him?" I asked, turning back towards Pinkie. "No, his sister will help him." Pinkie said, I hope she does. Whatever the problem was, he needed someone to comfort him. "Now come on let's get inside!" "Sure Pinkie." A soft smile played on my lips. Pinkie walked up and opened the door to Sugar Cube Corner. She turned and gestured me inside. I walked up to the door and crossed the threshold. The inside of the sweet shop was pitch dark. There was an ominous presence in the air. "Pinkie is there a reason I feel like I'm about to be lynched." "Oh that's silly. Why would we lynch you at..." Pinkie paused for a second as the lights came on. "your own party!" My eye's focused, the normally colorful bakery was even more colorful. Streamers and balloons of all shapes and sizes hung throughout the shop. A banner that said "Welcome to Ponyville/Crocodile adoption party!" Hung from the ceiling. Ponies that Pinkie had introduced me to the day before stood around the room. All of them smiling and saying the same thing, "Surprise!" My immediate reaction was to jump back. When I landed, I slipped on the threshold. I then fell to the side and hit my head on the door frame. My vision blurred as the pain coursed through my head. My ears rang, I felt something touch my shoulder. At the touch I try to stand up, slowly but surely. As I got up, the ringing in my ears stopped, and my vision cleared a little. I noticed that the thing that had touched my shoulder was Pinkie's hoof. I looked at her face, and saw a look of concern in her eye's. "Sorry about that." I said sheepishly. "I guess that's no way to start a party." Pinkie smiled slightly. "No it's not." She said quietly to me. She then turned her back to me, and looked at the concerned crowd. "Okay ponies! Nothing to see here. Let's just move back to the party!" At that, the music started to play, and the party goers started to walk away from the scene I had caused. Pinkie waited for the crowd to disperse before she turned back to me. "Are you sure you're okay?" Pinkie asked. "Of course I am." My neck jerked a few times to the right, involuntarily. "Okay then! I'm going to be in the kitchen making food for the party, so go have some fun!" "I was hoping I would get to spend some time with you." "We get to hang out all the time. Now go and have some fun!" Pinkie said pushing me away from her. I put up no force as Pinkie pushed me. As much as I wanted to be with her, she had thrown this party for me. I wouldn't want to waste it or anything. I scoured the different groups of ponies for a pony to talk to. After a minute of looking, I found nopony. Then after a second of comforting myself on how sad and alone I was, I made my way over to a table covered in food, and grabbed a cupcake with white frosting and red sprinkles. Once I had taken a few bites out of it, I heard a voice from behind me say, "Oh hey, it's you!" The voice sounded really familiar. I turned around and nearly dropped my cupcake. There stood the mare that had caused so much panic this afternoon, Vinyl Scratch. "Oh, uh, hi." I said "So what brings you here?" She asked. "It's, uh, my party." "Oh that's cool." God this was awkward. How could she be so nonchalant? "So why are you here?" "Pinkie hired me as the DJ!" A toothy smile was spread across her face. Figures. "That's cool." "Yeah it is. Hey you wanna check out my equipment?" "Sure why not." Not like I had that much else to do. I took the wrapper off the cupcake and threw the rest of it in my mouth. I looked for the closest trash can and threw the wrapper in it. Then I started to follow Vinyl. We made it past the snack table and walked up to a different table that had two large speakers on either side. Vinyl walked behind the speakers and made her way to the other side of the table. I followed her and noticed a laptop sitting on top of the table. "So that's your equipment?" I asked. "You bet! This baby is my pride and joy. It has a third-generation 2.5GHz core processor, GT 650M - 1.0GB DDR5 video RAM, 500GB serial ATA II 2.5" hard drive with 8MB cache, and a 48.84WH lithium-ion battery. Not to mention the most state of the art music software that a mare can dream of!" Vinyl had a huge smile, and looked like she was in a state of pure bliss. "Uhh..." "Speechless I'm sure. Not many ponies can handle how awesome my little Fidget is!" "You named your laptop?" "Yeah!" Vinyl said, an offended tone in her voice. "Oh okay then. So you play all you music out of the computer?" "Well mostly. I bring some instruments along with me just in case. You want to see what else I brought." "Sure, but what about the music for the party?" "I have my laptop set up on a play list." So Pinkie hired her to play a play list? *sigh* Maybe not the best investment. Vinyl lead me around the table and we proceeded into the back of Sugar Cube Corner. She brought me to a door that was hidden away from any prying eye's. She opened it, walked in, and put her hoof to the wall. The light in the room turned on. "Well? Come on, what are you waiting for?" Vinyl said, a sense urgency in her voice. "Hold on a second Miss needy." I proceeded to follow her into the room. I had never been in this room. It was fairly small. It looked like it was used as an extra storage or even a small office. Pinkie seemed to use it as storage. Sacks of flour and sugar leaned against one wall, a red couch sat against the other wall, instruments were strewn about the floor, a weird looking box was in the middle of the room. "So why is all of your stuff in the back of the store?" I asked. "Pinkie let me store some stuff here for the party tonight." Well that did make some sense. "So what's in the box?" I asked Vinyl, who was standing by the box in the center of the room "Nothing special, just my turn tables!" Vinyl yelled, before she brought her hoof down on the box. Which somehow caused it to open up. What I first thought were the sides of the box, unfolded, and swiveled around. After a minute of complicated flips and turns, the box transformed into a table with two large circles and an array of switches, levers, and buttons. My mouth hung open, I was gobsmacked. The once simple box was now a complicated set of tech-no gizmo's. "Umm..." "Speechless again I see. If you thought my laptop was impressive, this baby takes the cake." Vinyl said while lovingly rubbing the turn table. "I had little Gidget crafted by a friend of mine." My mind snapped to attention. "You named it Gidget?" "Yeah, isn't it a great name?" "Sure..." "So what do you want to do now?" Vinyl said, winking at me as she lifted her glasses up to her forehead with a flick of her hoof. I looked around the floor and noticed a violin. Then I gravitated towards it. "Would you mind if I tried playing this?" I said, pointing at the instrument with my metal hoof. Vinyl looked at me with a disappointed face. "Yeah, sure, I guess." I stood up on my hind legs and I nearly lost my balance. After a little will power I regained my balance, and brought the violin up to my neck. After repositioning the violin, I brought the bow up to my neck and glided it across the strings. A soft sound echoed out of the small instrument. I repositioned my hoof on the neck of the violin, and brought the bow across again. After doing this a few times I had gotten the hang of the familiar instrument. "You're not bad with that, are you?" "I guess not." A chuckle in my voice. "I think I can play a song!" "Well give it a try." I let loose a few slow notes from the violin, after getting my tempo down I started to let myself get carried away by the melody. I pulled the the bow back and forth over the strings. Before I knew it I was singing. ♪Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho,♪ ♪Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho.♪ ♪Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho,♪ ♪Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho.♪ I paused and continued with the song. I played a few notes before I started to sing again. ♪Binkusu no sake wo, todoke ni yuku yo,♪ ♪Umikaze kimakase namimakase.♪ ♪Shio no mukou de, yuuhi mo sawagu,♪ ♪Sora nya wa wo kaku, tori no uta.♪ Tears had formed in my eye's, but they did not fall. The song had brought a mixed array of emotions. I was both sad and happy. I had no idea where this song came from, but where ever it was, it was somewhere near and dear to my heart. I didn't realize it, but I had stopped playing. I looked up and saw Vinyl looking at me with concern. "Sorry about that..." "Dude that song was..." Vinyl started to walk up towards me. Was my singing bad? "Awesome!" Vinyl said hushed, awe in her voice. "Really?" "Yeah! I mean it's not like it was my kind of music, but still that song was great. You managed to show a great range of emotion, and your voice was good.”She took a pause in her display to look up at me. “In fact I think we should go make some music together." Vinyl fluttered her eye's. "Okay I guess. When do you want to get together to record?" "How about right now?" Vinyl said, stepping closer to me. "Do you have some sort of recording equipment with you?" I asked uncertainly. "Nope" Vinyl then did something I would have never expected. She wrapped a hoof around my head and brought her mouth towards mine. > Ch 19 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why were Vinyl's lip's so close to mine? Were we kissing? I mean, I think this is kissing. Amnesia seems to have made me forget a lot of the basics. If I can remember right, kissing was how you showed your passion. Did Vinyl feel passionate about me? Well it did seem like she was hitting on me when I first talked to her. She also seemed to be giving me signs throughout the night. I think the better thing to think about was, why am I doing nothing about this kiss? I opened my eye's, Vinyl's presence was in my view. I moved my head to the side, breaking the contact we had shared. I started to breath in and out really hard. Vinyl and I must have been kissing for a while, because I was incredibly out of breath. I looked over towards Vinyl, who seemed to be having the same problem as me. She looked up at me and between breaths she said. "Wow... You've really... Got some endurance... Don't you?" She then winked. I felt my face raise a few degrees at the question. "I uh, I umm..." "Oh don't worry about it stretch. I wasn't implying that, unless you want to." My face felt like fire. What did Vinyl mean by "that"? She couldn't mean... No, that couldn't be... Oh crap. "Listen Vinyl..." "Listen to what?" "I-I-I don't like you in that way!" Something in Vinyl's eye's seemed snap. "What?" Vinyl said in a hushed voice. "It's just..." "It's just what?" Vinyl asked, raising her voice, as she stepped closer to me. Her eye's looking down on my shrinking form. "I, uh..." "Tell me!" "I like Pinkie!" I finally managed to blurt out. She seemed to be caught off guard by my response, and she backed away from me. Then she lowered her glasses to cover her eye's. "Oh was that it? You should have said something before." "Wait, your fine with this?" Vinyl's voice faltered. "Yeah, totally!" She turned around and made her way back to her table. Once in front of it. she pressed a small hidden button, and the table collapsed back into a box. "Listen I have to go give that crowd a performance, so I'm going to have to say see ya later, and when your done in here shut the door. I don't want anypony coming in here and messing with my stuff." Vinyl levitated the box on to her back and walked past me. My gaze followed her, and when she got to the door I spoke up. "Are you sure your fine?" Vinyl turned her head towards me, her lip started to quiver. "Yeah, it's fine..." From the corner's of her shades I could see tears running down her face. "Vinyl?" I asked hesitantly. At the mention of her name she turned her head forward, and rushed out of the room. I know I'm normally a little slow on the uptake, but I knew I had hurt her feeling's. Why was I such a stupid fool? I have caused nothing but hurt and confusion since I arrived here. I was useless. I brought my hoof up and was about to bring it down with a lot of force, when I noticed what was laying on the ground, an acoustic guitar. I slowly brought my hoof down and plucked the thickest string. The sound was exactly what it should have sounded like, a good sign that it was in tune. I looked at the neck of the guitar and saw a capo snuggled closely on the third fret of the guitar. There was even a guitar pick stuck to it. I think the guitar wanted me to play it at that point. I picked up the round instrument, and repositioned myself on my hind legs. I pulled the pick off of the capo, and brought it down onto the strings. The sound that responded from the simple motion was perfect. I had a working guitar, now what should I do? Well music was said to be born in the heart, maybe I should listen to what the heart says. I readjusted my hoof on to the neck of the guitar an struck the strings with the pick. The note that was produced sounded good so I continued, after messing around with the notes, I closed my eye's and let my mind go with the rhythm. Moving my hoof with no thought, and before I knew it I had started to sing. ♫Hey there Pinkie, you're the best darn mare I've ever seen!♫ ♫I have always said a girl that's just like you would be my dream.♫ ♫I've been sort of lonely, and I hear you're good at singing;♫ ♫Let's make a song and end this slightly sad and lonesome feeling!♫ Wait what was I saying? Was I singing a song about Pinkie? Even after I realized what I was doing I did not falter from the guitar. I took a break from singing and started to play some chords rapidly. Changing one right after the other. Then I started to sing again. ♫You're the cheeriest and most amusing mare in town,♫ ♫so what say we take a chance and turn Equestria upside-down?♫ ♫I've wanted to tell you, you make my dreams come true,♫ ♫and the least that I can do is bring those dreams right back to you!♫ I changed the order of the notes, and started to sing a new line. ♫Can you imagine what we'd be♫ ♫If you were here right now with me?♫ I opened my eye's and noticed something that shouldn't have been there, Pinkie. She stood behind the door frame, trying her best to hide, but still visible enough to look into the room. I felt like somehow the roles had been reversed, because Pinkie was the one that was embarrassed. I felt a smile spread on my face. Well let's make this moment last a little. ♫Tell me why you shine the way you do!♫ ♫You're living proof that love at first sight is really true!♫ ♫I'd rather waste my time attempting saying this.♫ ♫Than even take a chance at giving up my only kiss from you!♫ At the mention of kiss Pinkies pupil's shrunk. I flashed a wider smile and leaned into the guitar for a short solo. Then I continued singing. ♫How can I count the ways your perfect smile has helped this boy?♫ ♫I can only say your face and bouncing mane both bring me joy!♫ ♫It's kind of funny how I can hardly speak when♫ ♫I see the lights come on and one of your great songs begins!♫ Okay, I think I was just saying random streams of stuff at this point, but it didn't seem to matter, Pinkie seemed fully enticed by the song and she even walked into the room. ♫Can you imagine what we'd be♫ ♫If you were here right now with me?♫ As I said that last sentence Pinkie leaped towards me, her front hooves ready to grab me. The only thing I could do to prepare myself was to quickly say Volle Vantes and watch as the guitar flew out of my arms. Pinkie quickly collided with me, wrapping her hooves around my torso and front hooves. "Oh Jason! Do you actually mean it?" I looked down at the mare wrapped tightly around me. The courage I felt while playing lost in an instant. "Mean what?" I asked unsure of what she meant, but I had a good feeling. "What you said in that song, did you mean every word?" "I meant every single one." I said nonchalantly. “Pinkie Promise?” Pinkie asked seriously. “ummm, I guess so...” I wondered what she meant by that, but it was probably best not to question it. “Pinkie promise.” Pinkie looked up at me, a wide smile on her face. Then she looked back down and started to hug me tighter. The air in my lung's became more and more precious, and I felt I was going to pass out. "You know Pinkie, it would probably work out better if my hooves were free so I can return the hug." She loosened her grip on me. Just enough so I could slip my hooves out. Once out, I quickly wrapped them around her, and took a deep breath. This day had felt like it had gone on for ever. Numerous accounts of pain, mostly from the sun, and I might have even been drugged. None of that mattered now. I was in the hooves of the one I cared about, and she seemed to care about me. *** Celestia sat alone in her room. Taking care of some financial reports for the Equestrian games. She had just opened up a report on the previous games, when she heard wing beats outside of her balcony. Celestia got up from where she had been sitting and walked over to the entrance of her balcony. As Celestia reached the entrance, Luna had landed on the balcony. "Sister we have returned." Luna said simply, before she walked past her sister. Celestia watched as her sister walked into her room and sat down. "How was your patrol?" Celestia asked, as she turned around and walked into the room, taking a spot across from her sister. "It was good. We learned much about this Jason character." "Like what?" "Apparently Jason was a human." "Really?" A look of shock on Celestia's face. "It would seem so. It is strange though, how could a human come into this world? Humans should be limited in their travel, but here we have one, in our world!" "It has always been conceivable that one could come through. In fact there are a few spells that a unicorn could use to travel to the human world, and bring a human safely here. But I don't think that a pony here would risk using that spell, even if they could find it." "That is just it sister. I saw the way he entered our world. His memories were taken away before he was thrown into a portal." "You saw how he got here?" "Yes..." Luna said, before she told Celestia about entering Jason's dream's, and what had happened. "What we do not understand sister, is that he was just thrown into our world at random. How did he survive entering our world? He should not have even been able to enter our world. Let alone survive being changed." "I just don't have the answers to those questions at this time, but we must continue to look for an answer. *** It felt like I had been in this embrace for awhile. I opened my eye's and moved my head back. The mare in my hooves looked back at me. "So..." I said, unsure what to really say. Pinkie giggled at me before she released her hooves from around me. I got the hint and let go of her. As my hooves hit the ground, my muscle's screamed out in pain. Pinkie and I had been hugging long enough to make my muscles sore. I lifted my metal hoof over to the other hoof, and rubbed the fatigue out of it. I looked up at Pinkie, who was smiling at me. "So..." I said once again. Pinkie started to laugh. Once she had gained control of her laughter she said. "You have such a way with words." "Yeah..." Pinkie snickered. "Okay come on, let's go see the rest of your party before it ends!" She said before bursting out of the room. I took only a moment to smile before I bounded after her. As I exited the room, I noticed there was music playing. I picked up my pace. *** "Has there been any word on the army in the forest?" Luna asked Celestia. "Yes, reports tell us that their numbers have diminished." Celestia responded. "Is there something destroying their forces?" "Not that I have been able to tell." "What are we going to do about them?" Luna asked. "I'll warn Twilight about it. I have also requested that some guards be sent into Ponyville." "When are they scheduled to move out?" "Tomorrow afternoon." "And what if they are attacked before then?" "We can only hope that doesn't happen." *** The room where the party was had gone dark. The only source of light in the room was coming off of Vinyl's turntable. It covered the room in different intensities of blue, depending on how furious Vinyl spun her records. I looked over the room and spotted Pinkie. I made my way towards her. When I was next to her she yelled at the top of her lungs, "Don't you love her music!" but it sounded like a whisper compared to the background music. I nodded my head and looked at Vinyl. I might have been crazy but the second I made eye contact with her she looked away. She must have still been sore about what happened. Then a thought occurred to me. "Hey Pinkie." I yelled at Pinkie. "Yeah!?" "I was wondering, why did come to that room I was in!?" "Oh it's because Vinyl Scratch told me you were feeling down and that I should go ask you what was wrong!" Vinyl had told Pinkie to come back to see me, why did she do that? I thought she would want us apart. As I pondered the situation the music came to a stop. I looked up and saw Vinyl lean into a microphone. "Okay everypony! I think I have enough time for one more song!" Vinyl yelled towards the audience. Who responded with an "Aww..." "Now now. It's getting late. So pipe your face and listen to the last song!" Vinyl screamed as she positioned herself. "This one goes out to Jason and PInkie!" Vinyl screamed before she pushed the microphone out of the way and started to spin her records. I turned my head to the side in confusion. Why did Vinyl say that? Did she kno... I stopped mid thought as I realized what she had done. She had told Pinkie about checking up on me, because she was trying to help us get together. I looked over at Pinkie and smiled. Thanks to her the dimming light that was my life had gotten brighter. "Thanks Vinyl." I said under my breath. *** "You don't have any back up plans? What if somepony gets hurt?" Luna asked, yelling slightly at her sister. "It's all I can do on such short notice. Are troops are already stretched thin, and sending what I could took some time. I even had to use members of the night guard." "Your right sister. I'm sorry for yelling." Luna said in a hushed voice. "It's understandable Luna. I'm worried about the citizens of Ponyville as well." *** After Vinyl wrapped up her song, the party goers slowly streamed out of the store. Until Pinkie and I were the only ones left. So we started to clean up after the party. It had taken awhile but we had picked up the trash left by the party. I was doing one final check when I noticed that the light in the room Vinyl was using was still on. I made my way in when I noticed Pinkie was in the middle of the room. "What are you doing in here?" I asked Pinkie inquisitively. Pinkie looked at me with a look of surprise. "Oh, I was just looking to see if we needed any supplies." Pinkie said, before flashing me a smile and looking back at her inventory. I looked around the room. Vinyl's equipment had been taken out, leaving the baking supplies and the red couch. "Pinkie why is there a couch back here?" I asked. "What do you mean? Davenport came over earlier today and told me you ordered it. So I left it back here until you figured what you wanted to do with it." I don't remember ordering a couch. I thought as I walked towards it. I put my hoof on the cushion and tested it's consistency. This might explain what happened to that money at least. I realized that the cushion was fine so I proceeded to sit on it. As my weight sunk into the couch I realized how nice it was. It was perfect for a living room, and if it had the reading chair it would be perfect for my dream house. I opened my eye's as I realized I was no longer sitting on the couch, but instead lying at a weird angle. Pinkie was looking at me with a smile. I responded with a, "Sup." *** "What do you think we should do with Jason?" Celestia asked her sister. "We do not think we should DO anything. He is just a fool who has suffered a major loss." Luna said. "That's not what I meant." "Oh?" "What I mean is, do we send him to deal with his mess?" "So far we do not know if that army is here because of him. Even if it was I think it should be his choice." "Why do you say that?" "We know how much he has suffered, and we also do not know all the demons he carries with him." Luna responded to her sister's question with a cold tone. *** "That sure looks comfy!" Pinkie said. "Care to join me?" I said, not even realizing the extent of what I had said. Without hesitating Pinkie crawled onto the couch next to me. We were both face to face. Our mouths separated by a few centimeters. The heat of the moment was rising, mostly in my face, but before I knew it our lips were locked. The kiss was gentle and the taste of her mouth was sweet. Like how your mouth tastes after sucking on a jawbreaker. My thoughts carried me into pure bliss. *** "How much has he suffered?" Celestia asked Luna. "With what we already know of him, I can say he has suffered a lot. With what we don't know about him, we can only assume he has suffered more than anyone should. And yet I fear there is only more suffering to come." *** After Pinkie and I had kissed, I held her in my embrace as we both slowly started to fall I sleep. Once I knew she had fallen asleep I whispered as quietly as I could and made the lights turn off. I couldn't see her anymore, but I could still feel her. Still smell the amazing scent of her mane. Still hear the soft sounds of her breathing. As I felt my eyelids close the last thought I had was that I will always be with her, even if I can not be present. > Ch 20 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over the next few hours my mind wandered from image to image. Not piecing any of the images together, or even giving me the decency to remember most of them. I guess even in my dreams my mind was screwy. After sleeping for a good while, I opened my eye's. The shadows of the night still lingered in the room, but from underneath the door I could see a faint light. A good enough indication that it was a good time to get up. I noticed that there was something laying on top of me. I moved my head and noticed Pinkie was still laying on me. Her eye's were shut, and small breaths escaped her lips. The sight of her brought nothing but warmth to my mind. This was the one I cared for, the one I confessed to, the one who had always treated me nice. Not many had treated me as nice as she did, not since Alex... Wait, who was Alex? I laid there thinking over the name that had crossed my mind. Whatever switch had been turned on, had turned itself immediately off. Whoever Alex was, he seemed relatively important. The thought of Alex fully escaped my mind as Pinkie shifted around on top of me. She nuzzled her face into my neck. This would have been a really cute motion, and my mind would have sent into utter bliss, if her mane had not smacked me in the face. Okay, it was probably a good idea to wake up. I wrapped a hoof around her and leaned down to her ear. "Pinkie, come on, it's time to get up." I said softly into her ear. The pink pony didn't react. I tried again. "Come on, it's time to get up gorgeous." This brought forth no reaction from her either. Although, I was sorta glad she didn't hear me compliment her, but she needed to wake up, we still needed to get ready for the day. With all viable action's depleted, one unlikely idea came to my mind. I knew it wouldn't hurt to at least try it, so I brought Pinkie's head out from my neck, and I slowly brought my lip's to hers. At the moment of impact it felt like the world had gotten a little brighter. Pinkie's lip's perked up and started to return my kiss. I broke the contact and looked at her. She was wearing a ridiculously happy smile. "Well good morning sleepy head." I said, a goofy grin on my face. "Good morning to you too." Pinkie said cheerfully if not slightly groggy, bringing her lips back to mine. After a moment of contact she broke the kiss. "Okay that's enough of that, let's get to work." She said whilst jumping off me, and dashing out of the room. "But I was having fun." I complained. I wiggled off the couch and got up, stretching my muscles as I made my way to the exit. Once I had reached the exit, I heard a noise and stopped immediately. I looked back over at the couch. Off to the side, two small, green reptiles were laying on the ground. "What are you two doing?" Both looked up at me and blinked before they waddled over to me. I went to grab both of them, but I stopped as I noticed something in Rythian's mouth. "What are you eating?" I asked as I moved my hoof over to the object in his mouth. I noticed it was a curved, white piece of plastic. On it were a series of colorful round buttons with a big X in the middle. When I grabbed it, Rythian refused to give it up. "Come on Rythian you can't eat that. How about this, I'll get you something else to eat, like actual food." Rythian just gave me a blank look, while Gummy kept trying to claw the controller. "Okay fine keep it. Let's just go!" I grabbed both of them and proceeded to the kitchen. The two reptiles sat quietly on my head as I walked into the kitchen. Pinkie stood by a counter whipping something together in a bowl. She turned her head to look at me when the door closed with a click. "Ooo, whats Rythian got in his mouth?" Pinkie asked, leaving the bowl on the counter. As she made her way towards me. "It's not yours?" I asked her. "No, but it looks fun!" Pinkie had somehow retrieved the controller from Rythian's mouth and was pressing random buttons on it. If it wasn't hers than whose was it? I doubt it was Vinyl's. Maybe since Rythian had it, maybe he got it from my scarf, void, pocket, thingy. "Okay, well you have fun with that, I'm going to go take a shower, then I'll come down and help you." "Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie responded enthusiastically. Her eye's lit up brightly as she watched me leave. I smiled at her as I left the room, but banged my head on the way out. This caused Pinkie to break out laughing. I guess we were getting past the point where she would worry about my injuries, and laugh at my clumsiness instead. *** After the events of last nights party I had decided to retire rather early. Sure I appreciated a Pinkie Pie party as much as the next pony, but the musical entertainment left a little to be desired. After saying my goodbyes to my friends I left the party, and promptly returned home and went to bed. There I lay now between the euphoria of sleep, and the reality of the real world. I would have stayed in that state but something was shaking me. "Twilight, hey Twilight! Come on get up!" "Spike, what do you want?" I mumbled, trying to stay in my comfortable position as much as possible. "Twilight, I just received a letter from the Princess!" My eyes shot open, and without another seconds hesitation, I jumped out of my bed and tackled Spike. "Spike! Why didn't you tell me sooner!" I yelled, inches away from my assistant's face. "Twilight I only just got the message!" Spike said, handing me the letter as best he could from the floor of my bedroom. "Oh, I'm sorry Spike." I said sheepishly, backing up off of Spike and taking the letter with my magic. I unfurled the scroll as Spike dusted himself off, and as soon as he was clean Spike asked, "So what does it say anyways Twilight?" I read the letter aloud. "My Dearest student Twilight Sparkle, I feel that you should be one of the first to know, I am sending a group of soldiers to Ponyville around noon today. Their objective is to investigate a threat found within the Ever Free Forest. They will make judgment of whether or not there is truly a threat..." "What kind of threat?" Spike asked impatiently. "I don't know I haven't finished yet." "Not much is known about the threat, other than the unfamiliar magic that has been felt building up within the forest. Both Princess Luna and I have noticed a link between this threat's appearance, and the events that have happened since this pony Jason arrived. So we ask that you relay this message to Jason, since we feel that he may be involved with this threat, we ask that he consider joining our forces as they embark into the forest. Please do notice this is not a command, and if Jason wishes he is not required to join the soldiers. Sincerely your mentor, Princess Celestia." "I can't believe she would do this." I said, my mind racing. "I can't either...” Spike paused, as if lost in thought, “So who's Jason anyways, and why is he so important?" *** Jolon stood in front of his mirror. The reflection on it was not his, but of a black, murky silhouette. The silhouette spoke with a deep voice. This was the voice of Jolon's master, the same voice that threatened Jason, and the same voice that had stolen Jason's memories. "You have not responded to me in the last day. Have the preparation's been finished?" The mirror asked coldly. "I'm sorry for the delay sir, it's much harder to work with these damn hooves, but my spell was a success, nonetheless. Although, it did take quite a few of our lower pawns to make the new ones." Jolon spoke nervously, speaking each word carefully to make sure he did not make a mistake. "How many were you able to make?" "Five sir!" "You had enough for five?" "I mean three." Jolon was trembling, as he realized his mistake. "So is it three or five?" "I'm sorry my lord, it is three." "And why would you say five then?" "I was tired, I have not slept since making the preparations. And I assure you I wont make a mistake like it again!" "Are you complaining?” The voice asked. “No sir!” Jolon was almost sweating now. “Then you were giving me excuses?” The voice asked evilly. “I apologize sir, I was not giving excuses.” Jolon was bowing his head slightly in respect, hoping to fix his mistake rather than be punished. “Then what were you doing?” The mirror snapped. “I was...” Jolon paused, realizing that this was his last chance to escape punishment. “I was only trying to give good reason as to why I made my mistake, I apologize master, it is no fault of yours.” The mirror's figure snorted, “You better be sure of it, otherwise the consequences will not be as forgiving. Now when are you planning on attacking?" "Before noon." "What is your plan?" The voice grew deep, and foreboding, ready to continue his conquest for revenge. *** After I had gotten done with my shower, I helped Pinkie with baking downstairs. Even though I was working my hoof to the bone, Pinkie still managed to make more stuff then me. I looked at my measly portion of brownies, snicker doodles, cupcakes, and fudge that I had made. Then I looked at what Pinkie had made. She had once again made loads of assortments of cupcakes, cakes, sweet breads, chocolates, and pies. I reached under my scarf and pulled out the first thing I found. It was a white flag. I waved it in the air, admitting defeat to Pinkie. "Come on Jason let's get these delicious looking treats ready for the customers!" Pinkie said. I didn't want to get up but I complied. I mumbled as I got up trying to force a few of the treats in the air so it would be easier to carry "Wow Jason, you certainly have gotten better with that levitation magic thing you do!" She exclaimed. I looked up and realized I had managed to make every sweet levitate off the counter. Each had the same small symbol on them. "I guess my memories aren't the only thing that's returning then, I guess my magic is too." "That's awesome Jason! Now let's get those out of here before you drop one!" Pinkie said, holding the door open for me. I made the treats go through first, slowly, and once they had gone through, I followed. Once behind the store counter, I sent the desserts into their proper positions. After I made sure every pastry would land safely, I broke the spell. "That took almost no time at all!" Pinkie said jumping on to my back. The added weight threw me off balance, and I fell to the side. After I toppled over I opened my eyes and made eye contact with Pinkie. For some reason she started to laugh. I couldn't control myself, so I started to laugh as well. Our laughing fit would have gone on for awhile, if not for the chiming of a bell. "Hello, Pinkie, Jason are you here?" A familiar voice asked. Both Pinkie and I looked at the source of the voice. "Twilight?" I asked "Jason?" She said in return. Pinkie got up and bounded towards where Twilight was in one motion. "Oh my gosh Twilight I missed you last night! Why did you leave the party so early!? I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye!" Pinkie said in one breath. I made my way off of the ground and I stood behind the counter looking at the two. "Sorry Pinkie, I was just getting tired last night." "Don't worry about it. So what brings you by this early?" Pinkie asked. "Well, I actually came over to talk to Jason." "You want to talk to me?" I asked. "Yes, I received a letter from the Princess this morning. She told me about a possible threat that is lurking in the Ever Free Forest." "And what does that have to do with me?" "Well the Princesses felt that there's some sort of correlation between your appearance and the threat. So she has asked if you would be willing to go in with her group of soldiers." "I'm sorry Twilight, but I fail to see my connection with the threat." "Jason the Ever Free Forest is where the dragon came from." Twilight said with a stern face. The same forest where the dragon came from! There might have been a connection between me and this "threat" after all. Wait the forest where the dragon came from? Wasn't that where Fluttershy and I got cornered last night? I sighed heavily, "Okay, I'll help." I said. "You will!?" Both Twilight and Pinkie said at once. I jumped back at the sound of there voices going up few levels. "I kind of have to." I said sheepishly, avoiding eye contact with both of them. "You don't have to. The Princess specifically said that it wasn't an order, that you don't have to do it if you don't want to." Twilight said. "It's not that, it's that I know what the threat is." I said moving my eyes to look at a speechless Twilight. "Last night after I made my last delivery to Fluttershy, she had decided to walk with me back into town. We were on our way back, and we were taking the path on the edge of that forest when we were attacked." Twilight had her mouth open. I looked over towards Pinkie and her face was emotionless. "Neither of us got hurt, I took them out with a bit of magic, Rainbowdash was also there, so she could have taken care of things if it got too out of hoof. The thing was, they were just like that dragon. Except they were dead ponies. And what ended up happening was like the dragon, I absorbed the souls that had been used to reanimate them. Also like with the dragon, I passed out, so Dash carried me back to the town.” I paused for a moment, trying to recall all the events of that encounter. “One more thing, Luna came to visit me.” "You met Princess Luna?" Twilight asked, she seemed slightly annoyed for some reason. "Yeah, she came into my mind while I was passed out. She said she wanted to meet me. Then she helped me explore a memory I just retrieved. The memory we saw showed what happened to me before I came here." I noticed Pinkie perk up at the mention of the memory. "What happened to you?" Pinkie asked hesitantly. I hesitated, what if what I was about to say would damage my relationship with Pinkie. "I found out that I'm not actually a pony." I said. The look on Pinkie's face was unchanged, but Twilight's mouth was hovering above the ground. "If your not a pony, what are you then?" Twilight asked. I took a deep breath. "I'm what's known as a human." I looked at Twilight who was looking at me with a quizzical look. "Humans are a Bipedal species, meaning they walk on two legs. And instead of having hooves, they have hands. Anyways, Luna and I went through my memory and found out how my memories were stolen, that I was flung into a random dimension. This dimension, and for some reason I turned into a pony in the process." I looked back up and Twilight was still doing her impression of a goldfish. "So you're not only a different species, but you're also from another dimension?" Twilight asked. "Yes." I said as blunt as possible. I looked over towards Pinkie, her eye's were looking down at the ground. I made my way over towards her. I placed my left hoof on her shoulder, this caused her to jump, but her eye's looked at mine. "Pinkie I'm sorry, and I understand if you don't want to be with me." Pinkie eye's watered up and she launched herself at me. She gripped my sides and rested her head on my shoulders. "NO, NO! I don't want you to go! It'll be dangerous if you go into the forest!" Pinkie pulled her head back up and looked at me. "And-And-And..." She buried her head into my neck and sobbed, "I don't want to lose you!" I immediately wrapped my hooves around her, returning her embrace, and I started to stroke her hair. I moved my head closer to her ear, and whispered, "Pinkie you wont lose me, you never will. I will always be there for when you need me, but whatever is in the forest is my fault, and I need to to take care of it." Pinkie released me, so I let her go as well. She turned away from and started walking towards the stairs. It was the quietest I had seen her since we had met. I turned around to look at Twilight who had just witnessed the entire situation unfold. "When are the soldiers going to be here?" I asked her. Twilight looked at me with a look of horror. "You're still going to go out there?" Twilight asked. “What about Pink...” "Twilight I'm afraid that if I don't stop whatever is in the forest, they'll hurt Pinkie!" I interrupted Twilight was shocked by my response. "They'll be here around noon." "Okay then. Also would you mind doing me a favor?" "What?" "Can you go comfort Pinkie." Twilight smiled at me. "You really do care for her, don't you?" Twilight asked, as she made her way towards the stairs. I stared at a stack of white boxes on the counter. "I would risk my life for her." I said to Twilight as she passed by me, making her way to the top of the stairs. I walked towards the boxes, they were the day's order's. I looked around for the list that contained the addresses. I stopped when I noticed Rythian on the other side of the boxes, the address sheet in his mouth. I smiled at the sight of the crocodile. "Hey you ready get the day started?" I asked him. He dropped the sheet on top of the boxes and jumped on my head. His claws dug sharply into my hair, until he made himself comfortable. I looked at the boxes that needed to be delivered, and took a deep breath. I moved them onto my back and proceeded towards the exit. When I got towards the door I felt something warm roll down my cheek. I placed my hoof on my cheek and found it was wet. I was crying. I felt more tears forming. I looked back at the stairs, and whispered "I'm sorry Pinkie." under my breath, before I opened the door. The sun burned it's image into my eyes immediately. > Ch 21 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I kept up a good pace as I started along my route. There were two deliveries that needed to be completed, and at a glance of the addresses, they were pretty close to each other. While I made my way towards the first address my mind pondered over numerous situations. Where were the soldiers coming from? How would I find them? Would they treat me as a hindrance? My mind raced over what was going to happen later that day, but it stopped when I passed by a familiar land mark. I turned my head to look at that awesome tree building from the previous day. Huh, the route I was taking seemed to be pretty similar to the previous day's. I guess it would be easy to find the address since there were so few houses. I lifted the paper that contained the addresses off my back and read over the first address. "So the first address is to a miss Vinyl at..." I stopped both mid sentence and mid walk. I looked up in horror at the house I had to visit. How would Vinyl react to me being there? Does she still like me? Oh dear, how awkward would this be? I took in a deep breath and mustered all my courage. I proceeded towards the front door of her house, and knocked. I heard shuffling from behind the door, and it slowly opened. A non Vinyl pony stood in front of me. She had a light gray coat, a black mane, and a set of gorgeous dark violet eyes, as well as a pink bow-tie around her neck. "Can I help you?" She asked, her voice emanated with a rich demeanor. "Ah yes, I was looking for Vinyl." I responded. "And you would be?" She asked. "My name is Jason, I work for Sugar Cube Corner, and I'm here with a delivery for Vinyl." I offered my right hoof to her. "It's a pleasure to meet you Jason. My name is Octavia. I'm Vinyl's roommate." Octavia said, grabbing my hoof with much vigor. "As for Vinyl's whereabouts I must regret to inform you she is in bed, she was out late last night at a party." "Yeah I know, she was at my party." "Oh, so you're the colt she was talking about." Octavia backed up and started to look at me up and down. Particularly at my metal hoof, and the top of my head for some reason. "My she was..." A voice cut her off. "Tavi who's at the door?" Vinyl questioned from behind Octavia. "Will you excuse me just a minute?" Octavia asked. I nodded my head. She smiled and closed the door. Not even a second after the door had shut, it was flung back open. Vinyl was standing behind the door, her hair disheveled, her glasses hanging loosely off her head, and her breathing was heavy. "Whatareyoudoinghere!?" Vinyl yelled. "I'm sorry, I was just making a delivery." I calmly said. "And, I also wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened last night." Vinyl looked surprised. She let out a sigh and moved her glasses over her eyes. "No listen I'm sorry, I should have realized you might have liked another pony." "No Vinyl, you're not the one at fault here. There was no way you could have known I liked Pinkie." "Still, I feel really bad about." "Vinyl, you told Pinkie to come back and check on me. If you hadn't I may have never confessed my feelings to her." A smile flashed across her lips. "And because of that you have my complete and utter gratitude. If there is ever anything I could do for you, just ask.” "Oh I'll let you know!" Vinyl said, a joking smile on her face. "I bet you will. Oh and before I forget, here's your order." I made her order hover off my back and placed it in her outstretched hoof. "Thanks bro!" She said. "No Vinyl thank you." I said sincerely. Her smile faltered as she closed the door. *** I clutched the box Jason had delivered close to my chest as I slumped on the ground. Tears flowed from my eyes as I held it, thuds sounded off the cardboard as my tears fell on the box. "Vinyl are you okay. He didn't hurt you did he? If he did Celestia help me!" Octavia said. I opened my eye's and looked up at her. "No Tavi, I did this to myself. I always do this to myself. I always hurt myself trying to find that special colt. But where does it get me? I'm either here being rejected, or I'm being used. When does it end?" I asked her. The streams from my eyes were flowing faster. Octavia sat herself next to me and placed a hoof on my shoulder. "Shh, shh, it's okay just let it out." She said comforting me. I dropped the box, and wrapped myself around her and plunged my head into her fur. She put her hoof against my head and started stroking it. "Vinyl, you are one of the strongest mares I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. And I know for sure you will find "him" one day. Heck I bet Jason would gladly help you find some nice fellow." I slowed my sobbing down and responded to her. "You think so?" I asked quietly. "He seemed like a nice enough colt to help you with anything. Now cheer up!" She said warmly. I released myself from around her and removed my shades. I rubbed away the last of the tears and smiled at Tavi. "You're right, thanks Tavi, you're the best." "I'm glad to hear, now let's go eat some breakfast." "I'm starving!" *** I almost knocked back on her door as I saw it shut, but I stopped myself. Me comforting her wouldn't help. She needed to do this without me. I turned away from the door as I heard a few quiet sniffles from the other side. I needed to get this order done soon, and If I remembered correctly the next address was around the corner from Vinyl's. I turned the corner and noticed a sign "Carousel Boutique, walk-ins welcome!" I pulled out the address sheet and checked to make sure it was the right address, it was. I walked up to the door and opened it. A chime of a bell sounded as I opened the door. "Welcome to Carousel Bo-What is that on your head!?" A familiar white mare yelled. I looked up and saw nothing. Then I remembered Rythian was still on my head. "Oh sorry about that Rarity, it's just my pet crocodile." I said sheepishly. I looked over to Rarity who had almost knocked over a few mannequins in her outburst. Rarity looked unsure, but she walked towards me hesitantly. "I'm sorry about that, he just... took me off guard, as it were. Now what can I do for you Jason?" Rarity asked. "I actually have an order for you." "An order?" "Yeah, I work at Sugar Cube Corner." I levitated the last order off my back and gave it to Rarity. "Thank you so much!" "It's no problem, really." I closed my eye's and chuckled. I opened them back up and I saw Rarity looking at my with mischievous smile. "Is something the matter?" I asked her. "No, no, nothing. It's just, and excuse me for assuming a little too much, but you like Pinkie don't you?" Rarity asked. I almost dropped Rythian off my head. She really had hit the nail on the head. How did she know? It's not like I blatantly said it out loud. "It's a little more than just that." I sheepishly said. "Oh?" "Well you see, We are technically dating." "You're what!?" Rarity asked loudly. I started to rub the back of my head. "Yeah, well you see, I kinda of confessed to Pinkie, and she kind of returned my feelings." Rarity stood there slacked jawed. I went up to her and tried to snap her out of it. I waved my hoof in front of her face a few times, but nothing. Finally giving up I closed her mouth so that no insects made their way in. I made my way to the exit and said, "Thank you for you business Rarity. See you when you finally snap out of it." I opened the door and stepped outside. Within the second I had fully stepped outside, I was tackled, and I fell over sideways. The force seemed to be the equivalent of four grown stallions. I picked myself up and looked at what had tackled me. Three kids and a dog laid at my feet. Okay maybe I was a little off in my guess, but those kids probably had a lot of momentum. I rubbed the top of my head, trying to alleviate some stress, when I noticed Rythian was gone. I looked frantically, but stopped when I noticed him on Rarity's doorknob, his mouth holding on tight to the knob. I let out a sigh of relief and grabbed him, and placed him back on top of my head. I looked back at my attackers, I realized I should get them up. I walked over to them and said, "Hey you kids all right?" All of them looked up at me, the dog was the first one to get up. It started barking at me and wagging it's tail. "Winona will you quit your barking!" An all to familiar voice yelled. My head moved over to the sound of the voice and recognized Applejack. "Hey Applejack!" I chimed. Applejack raced over to me. "Sweet mother of mercy, Jason I'm so sorry for what the girls did to you!" I was about to rebuttal, but stopped when Winona jumped up on me and started licking my face. I couldn't help but laugh at how much her tongue tickled. "Winona get off of him, and girls get up and apologize!" Winona hesitated, but got off of me. I stopped laughing and looked down at six puppy dog eyes. "We're sorry mister." All three said at once. I couldn't figure out which was worse, the dog slobber, or the sweetness I was feeling in my chest. "It's okay, really. I should have been looking where I was going." I said. "No it's our fault!" The red haired one said. "Yeah, you got to let us repay you!" The pink and purple haired one said. Or was it purple and pink. "No really it's fine." I said "No, we have to make it up to you!" The purple haired one said. "Girls you don't have to anything. Just introduce yourselves." Applejack said. "I'm Applebloom!" "I'm Sweetie Belle!" "And I'm Scootaloo!" Each girl said, naming themselves off. In unison they then said, "And we're,THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" Applejack had her ears covered, so she didn't experience the same pain I did. I rubbed my ears, trying to get the ringing to stop. I looked down and saw that the "crusaders" were trying to talk to me. I rubbed my ears again, and it stopped. "-and we'll do what ever it takes to get are marks. So what's your name?" Applebloom asked. "My name is..." I was about to tell them my name when I heard something. I craned my neck and heard the distinct sounds of trumpets. "Applejack what time is it?" I asked. "It's about noon." I broke into a full gallop. "Jason where are you going?" Applejack asked. I craned my neck and looked at them. "I'm sorry but I have somewhere I have to be!" I moved my head back forward and looked at where I heard the trumpets. If that had been the soldiers I had better hurry. > Ch 22 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I sped through town looking for the source of the trumpets. I made twist and turns around corners until finally I was halted by a gathering of ponies. I followed the groups gaze and looked at the small group that addressed the crowd. "-ere is no need to be worried. We are only here for a war game, and any noises you here should just be attributed to said game. Now please carry on with your day!" A gold helmeted, white stallion said to the crowd. The crowd was hesitant to leave, but soon I was the only pony left in the yard besides the group that had originally addressed the crowd. I cautiously made my way up towards them, eying and evaluating each of them. There were five ponies, all wore armor. Four sets of gold and one of silver. Two were unicorns, one was an earth pony, one was a Pegasus, and the last looked similar to a pegasus but he had bat wings. I stopped as I stood in front of the unicorn who had just addressed the crown. He was fairly old, and his eye's looked like they had experienced too much, seen too many terrible things. "And who exactly might a runt like you be!?" He asked in deep crackly voice. I brought my hoof to my head in a salute. "I am the one the Princesses asked to tag along with you, sir!" I said in a serious tone. He glanced over me, studying me with a careful eye. He let out a grunt of disapproval before he said, "Fine, just don't slow us down!" He then turned to the four behind him, "Men let's move out, we have a job to do so hustle!" He started marching, and his men followed behind. None were actually enthused in the march. The two winged cavalry members were even sluggishly flying in the air. I followed behind the group, just right under the flying cavalry. The bat winged pony in the silver armor looked down at me and smiled. "So what makes you so special that the Princesses wanted you to come along?" He asked with a mischievous smile. I looked up at him and smiled. "Good looks, amazing fashion skills, metal appendage, the usual." I said to him jokingly. My response caused him to chuckle. He lowered himself down and offered his hoof. "You're okay in my book, names Lunar Pallet." He said. I quickly shook his hoof and continued walking. "It's nice to meet you, my name's Jason." I responded. He paced himself so he was in front of me while flying backwards. "It's nice to meet you, but before we continue our conversation..." He paused as he reached under his armor. "What do you think of this!?" He had pulled out a picture and held it up to my eye's. It was a picture of an orange mare holding a small dark red bat filly in her arms. "They are my pride and joy. My lovely wife Grassy Hills, and my adorable daughter Elysium!" I looked up to the winged guardsman, who had a look of total happiness on his face. "You have a, uh, lovely family." I responded unsure. He let out a happy almost inaudible squeal, then proceeded to do a few back flips through the air. The Pegasus that had been flying beside me leaned closer to me. "Oh man, you're never going to hear the end of this. He will talk your ear off about his family. When we formed this party together he nearly bit the privates ear off talking about his family, literally." He gestured to the Earth pony who was in front of us. I gave a slight chuckle and looked up at Lunar, who had moved on to doing cartwheels. "But you can't blame the Lieutenant, he is a great guy.” I looked back down from Lunar to look at the pegasus instead, “And you are?” “Oh yeah, where are my manners?” The pegasus chuckled, “The name's Gale.” “Nice to meet you.” I shook Gale's hoof quickly as well and we continued on. I then walked up to the pony Gale had been referring to. "Hey the name's Jason. What's yours?" I asked, looking over the rather small armor clad pony before me. He jumped at my question, but kept eye contact with me, his quivering almost unnoticeable in his armor. "I'm, um, um, I'm Quake." He said in a hushed voice. His armor rattled quietly as he quivered. He certainly lived up to his name. "Hey, there's no need to be worried, I'm not going to bite you." I reassured the quaking pony. "Oh it's not you, really! It's just this is the first battle I've been in. Guess I've got stage fright." "Ah you have nothing to worry about. If things get hairy you can just hide behind me and I'll protect ya!" Quake smiled weakly at me. I smiled back at him, but something wrapped itself around my neck. "Oh you two becoming friends huh?" The voice of Lunar asked. I looked behind me and saw his hooves wrapped around Quake and I. "So tell me you two, just how adorable is my little Elysium!?" *** We spent the next hour walking into the dark forest and idly chit chatting among ourselves. I had learned that the other members of our group were called Rook, and the grumpy one from earlier was Major Valiant Light. Our little back group just laughed and joked while the two serious unicorns lead the way. It wasn't that much longer before they had stopped us. "Our intelligence suggest that in this vicinity our target is lurking. Our mission is to observe and pass whether they are dangerous or not, and if we can eliminate them. Now the Princesses told us to escort this 'civilian' with us, but I fail to see their reason." Valiant said to the group. He stared daggers at me. "I'm not just some lowly 'civilian', and besides I have information on the threat." I explained to Valiant. His face was unchanged, but he said, "Go on." I nodded and took in a deep breath. I explained what had happened the previous night. How Fluttershy and I had been attacked. I finished off explaining how the threats were reanimated by my soul. Valiant's face remained unchanged through the entire conversation. "Is that all?" I looked at him surprised and nodded my head. "Good now we must be careful past this point. If what he said was true, there could be hundreds of them out there! Now men let's march!" I looked up at the old Major and smiled. Our party slowly followed behind, somehow finding a renewed vigor. I looked to my left at Quake who had put on a brave face, but he was still shaking in his armor. I was about to say something to comfort him, when I noticed a moving shadow out of the corner of my eye. Before I could say a word, four skeletons were on top of Quake, and they were trying to drag him away. I rushed towards him, smacking any skeleton I could away from him. A slight tremble traveled up my leg and I noticed the pile of skeletons was shaking. Before I could question it the four fell apart at the joints, leaving a scared looking Quake and a piles of bones in their place. I rushed over to him and pulled him out of the remains, one of the heads was gnawing on his armor, but fell off when he stood off. I looked over at the others. Lunar and Gale were leading a group of skeletons into each other, which caused a mess of bones. Rook and Valiant were using their magic to take down one skeleton after the other. I smiled and looked at Quake. "Stay by my side, and back me up!" I said to the cowering pony. He looked at me with terrified eyes, but he weakly smiled and nodded. I looked at a group of skeletons that was trying to sneak up on us. Before they could get any closer I yelled, "Puri Aurgentus Contum Pugnus! I didn't know what this spell did but I tried it nonetheless. I felt a slight tingling on my front hooves and I looked down. Silver boots covered the bottom of my hooves. I lifted one up and felt no noticeable difference in weight. Then I noticed a single metallic chain that was attached to the front of each boot. The chain went upwards, I followed it's trail and gasped when I noticed a giant gold sheet of floating metal that attached to the chain. I looked curiously at the gold sheet, pondering what its use would be. I saw a similar one mere inches away from the first, attached with a chain that led down towards my other hoof. Then I looked over to where the group of skeletons had been. The sheet of metal seemed to follow my gaze, and it flew past me, towards the group of skeletons. It made contact with one, giving off a dull *thunk* as it hit one. I smiled at how weak these skeletons actually were, and the pure luck I had in choosing spells. I continued battering the group into submission, until all had effectively been turned into piles of bone. I brought the sheet closer towards myself, and I glanced over it. It was nearly as tall as I was, and if I held it in front of me it could guard my entire body. I looked closer and noticed that it was at least a few inches thick. Being made of gold this thing must have weighed a ton. Then I realized what this actually was, a shield. No sooner had I realized that it was a shield. I had noticed more skeletal ponies approaching Quake and I. Without hesitation I stomped towards them, shields ready to bash some skulls in. *** Not much time seemed to pass, but we took out every last skeleton. I looked at the shields that still floated above my head, then towards a slightly happy Quake. During the fight all of us were constantly beating down skeletons, even Quake got a few hits in. I smiled at him and looked to my left where Valiant and Rook stood, gasping for air. The silent moments after the battle seemed to tick away, the Major broke the silence. "How do we kill these things?" "Leave them to me!" I raised my metal hoof high in the air, the chain attached to my hoof gave a quick jingle at the motion. With out any hesitation the flames from each individual skull jumped out and bounded towards my hoof, quicker then the last few times. The fire quickly spread over my hoof. "I may be a little weak after this!" I warned. I smiled at their reactions, knowing full well how I looked at that moment. My smile faded and was replaced by a look of pain as the fire spread onto my flesh. I was about to scream, but I heard a light chuckle from farther in the woods, and a voice followed it. "Oh Jason, my Master and I were counting on you being weak. It makes it so much easier to do, this!" I held back the pain I was facing and looked forward. Three solemn ponies walked through the darkness of the forest. The only visible feature other than their outline was their eyes. They glowed with a deep purplish glow.The fire proceeded down my midsection, and I doubled over from the pain, and my vision blurred. I heard Gale say, "You think changing their eyes up will make the difference?" I looked up and saw Gale fly closer to one of the skeletons. The skeleton looked up at Gale and jumped through the air, tackling Gale out of the air and on to the ground. My vision blurred again, and I slumped onto the ground. A deep chuckle resonated from the woods. "No, these are a little stronger than those other skeletons, and they also have a unique trick up their sleeves." The mysterious voice said, its cocky tone pissing me off through my blurry vision. My vision cleared and I looked up to where Gale was laying. The skeleton had ignited itself with the purple fire that was in its eyes and it fell apart, bones still ignited. The bones fell on top of Gale, the sound of sizzling meat emanated from where the bones touched. Gale let loose a wave of blood curdling screams as the bones fell on him. The fire on the bones intensified as they made contact with Gale, making him invisible behind a veil of purple flames, but not dulling the sounds of his screams. I felt the flames around my own body dissipate, a sure sign my pain would stop. Gale stopped screaming, and the flames around him dimmed down. Gale stood up, seemingly unphased by the fire. He stepped closer and through a beam of light that had wiggled its way through the massive alcove of trees we saw what had happened. The fire had left his body alone, but the bones now rested upon his body, the skull rested upon his head. Its eye's still burned intensely. I looked at his face, his eye's were glazed over. "Gale?" Quake asked unsurely. The mysterious voice broke out into a manically laughter. "Gale is no more than a puppet for me to control!" As if on cue the other two skeletons walked up on either side of Gale. "And soon two more of you will be as well!" The other two skeletons broke into a full sprint and proceeded to split off. One went after Rook and Valiant. The other made its way towards me and Quake. I laid there helpless and in pain, the flames still receding from my body. I could only watch as the skeleton made its way towards a now terrified Quake, his eyes screamed murder, and his legs gave out. Leaving him a crumpled mess as the purple flamed villain sprinted at him. Then I wished that if my legs weren't going to work, that my eyes wouldn't work either. These skeletons didn't scare me, but the look on Quake's face. The thought of what might happen to him in only a few seconds. That filled me with terror beyond imagining.