The Spirits Of Equestria

Aeolus heard a soft chirping from outside. He was starting to get feeling all over. He felt the wonderfully soft silk sheets wrapped around his body. Opening his eyes scared him however, when he opened them all he saw was darkness. Am I blind? He sat up slowly and reached his hooves out trying to find something solid.

“You’re awake, good. Are you feeling ok?” It was the voice of Twilight, she stood a few feet away from the bed, to be safe in case Aeolus tried to swing at her again.

“I can’t see… what happened to me?”

“I used a sleeping spell on you, I didn’t want to take the chance you’d try and run away again, you have a bandage over your eyes to protect them from the sunlight. But I think it’ll be fine for me to remove it now, you promise you won’t hit me again?”

He nodded. There was the sound of movement, and then he felt her hooves on his face, once the bandage was lifted he slowly opened his eyes. Vision was blurry at first but it soon cleared and the purple pony stood beside him, a small bandage covering where he struck her with the stirrer before.

“I’m sorry I hit you… I sorta panicked. But last night… how did you stop that Ursa? Your horn shot out all this light and it just fell!” He had no idea how it was possible such a small pony could defeat such a large monster.

Her horn started it mystical glow once again, there was a soft humming noise and the blanket he lay under matched it in color. It started to float in the air and then was folded neatly and placed on the end of the bed.

“This? Its magic, all Unicorns can do ma—wait. You don’t know what magic is?” she asked him, her expression showed much worry. He shook his head, and affirmed her suspicions with his response.

“I have no memory… of anything at all.” He looked at his hooves, stained with dirt, mixed with a bit of red. He at first didn’t know what it was, but after taking a second realized it was blood.

She scowled at him. “I’m still not happy that you hit me and ran when all me and Zecora wanted to do was help… and I still want to help. But to do so we need to establish now that I will not tolerate you attacking me again… next time you’ll go straight to Canterlot where you’ll face the other princesses. Understood?” she raised an eyebrow at him, and kept that fierce expression.

He was hesitant at first, but figured if she wanted to hurt him she would've done so by now. He nodded his head. She smiled brightly.

“Good, now for your memory problem? I know a spell that’ll fix that. Hold very still, and try and think back as hard as you can, try and focus on anything you can possibly remember about your past.” Her horn started glowing once again. He did what he was told and shut his eyes, his mind was blank and he thought as hard as he possibly could to remember something. She leaned her head to his, and when she touched the tip of her horn against his forehead his eyes opened immediately, flashing white. He saw an image… a flashback…

He stood in a small crowd of different ponies. He looked around and spotted somepony nearby he recognized clearly. Himself. His past self was nudged by a purple Unicorn, who muttered something illegible, and pointed a hoof at the two ponies standing in front of the crowd. There was a tall white pony with a light multi-colored flowing mane, she had a very tall horn and magnificent white wings. An Alicorn is what Luna called it. Luna herself was the other, standing at nearly the height of the white pony, with just as big black wings. The white Alicorn was addressing the crowd.

“I am Celestia, and this is my sister Luna. We were given the power to stop Discord and then we saved the four spirits of nature and balance. With their help we have brought harmony back to the land, but this new threat is trying to destroy that. We wish we could’ve arrived here sooner, but we were delayed… We have very little time before that threat arrives here. All of you need to evacuate the city immediately!” The crowd began to get loud, yelling at the Alicorn sisters.

“YOU CAN’T PROTECT US!” one pony yelled.

“WE DON’T NEED YOU! WE CAN SURVIVE ON OUR OWN JUST FINE!” shouted another.

Luna’s eyes started to glow a blinding white, she flew up into the air and her voice tripled in volume. “INSOLENT FOOLS, DO YOU NOT REALIZE WE ARE TRYING OUR BEST TO PROTECT YOU? DO AS YOUR PRINCESSES COMMAND YOU AND LEAVE!!” at that last word the earth shook, scaring the crowd away, only Aeolus still remained. Celestia cried out over the panic.

“Only pack the essentials, and flee quickly!” she then looked at her sister. “That was a little extreme Luna. We need these ponies to trust and love us, not fear us. You need to learn to control your emotions, or one day that temper will consume you.” Her voice was heavy with concern.

“Sometimes sister, fear is the only way to get some ponies to react. Sometimes fear is needed to rule those who are ungrateful.” Luna responded harshly. Celestia looked shocked.

“You sound like Sombra.”

Luna turned and aggressively moved towards Celestia, but the Aeolus from the past intervened, he opened up his golden tipped wings and placed himself in between the princesses, holding Luna back with one wing, and Celestia with the other.

“Get ahold of yourselves! This isn’t the time to fight each other we need to prepare for Typ--” Cracks of lightning interrupted him. The three ponies turned and saw a massive thundercloud, it completely blocked out the sun, and covered the entire sky. Cursing the landscape with an eerie darkness. It quickly surrounded the town, almost like a hurricane, harsh winds began to pick up. Aeolus looked at embodiments of the sun and moon.

“I’ll keep him distracted, you two pull yourselves together and prepare the elements.” One mighty flap his wings carried him hundreds of feet into the air, he turned his body as he reached a certain height, and with another flap rocketed towards the storm. As he approached the cloud he shot gold lightning from the tips of his wings, only to be deflected away by red lightning. Celestia looked at Luna and nodded her head. Both of their horns began to glow. Celestia’s glowed as yellow as the sun, while Luna’s was as purple as the night. One by one, six gemstones appeared around them, each a different color. They flew into the sky together and the gemstones followed them.

The storm’s wind was blowing incredibly fast, the Alicorn Sister’s wings were powerful, keeping them in place even as the winds blew against them. But the city didn’t have much luck, All around Aeolus buildings were being torn apart. He saw a mare and a stallion running away as fast as they could but the winds whisked them like they weighed nothing, they both screamed as they were flung high into the air, never to be seen again. Other groups of ponies met similar fates, they hadn’t been able to escape in time. Being that it was a flashback he couldn’t be harmed… He looked back up and saw his old self still battling the storm, he flew with amazing precision around the lightning. the Alicorn sisters flew up until they were floating directly in front of it. Aeolus flew into the black cloud, and after many powerful claps of thunder, and flashes of lightning emerged with a Unicorn wrapped tightly in his wings.

“CELESTIA, LUNA! FIRE THE ELEMENTS!” His Pegasus version shouted over the powerful winds, a light of many colors began to glow around them both. The elements started to spin slowly, but began increasing their speed until they surrounded the princesses with a rainbow colored shield. After charging up for a moment they fired a rainbow beam towards the Aeolus and the unicorn, right as it was about to strike Aeolus let the Unicorn go, and flew upwards. When the light collided with him there was an intense flash… and then it was over.

Twilight was thrown across the room by a backfire of magic, she slammed into the wall behind her with force that rocked the small home. She rubbed a hoof against her horn, which was glowing red and steaming. “What in the name of Celestia…” She started, but she went silent as soon as she saw Aeolus. His expression was full of shock.

“Hey… are you ok? What did you see? Do you remember anything now?” She asked him. After a little struggle she managed to get herself up, and walked back over to his bed.

He didn’t know what to say. So much destruction and death and it all happened around him in an instant.

Now is not the best time for her to know the truth.

“No… I saw nothing.” He lied. She looked him over with a serious face for a moment, she didn’t believe him. Her expression changed, she softened up and smiled at him. Finally getting a good look at her in the light he realized he was wrong all this time… she wasn’t a Unicorn, but an Alicorn. Her wings were folded at her sides.

“Perhaps it might be a good idea for us to get you some fresh air… Zecora has gone out to gather supplies for her herbs and supplements. Come with me to Ponyville. You can stay with me at the library until we are able to help you get your memory back. Ok?” her offer was sincere. Aeolus waiting a moment for the voice in his head to object, but it didn’t. So he accepted her offer.

Twilight left a note for Zecora letting them know they were going to Ponyville. Before he left he found a rag and wiped the blood from his hooves… as soon as he was cleaned he looked to twilight.

“Ok, I’m ready”

They then headed out in the forest. The sun was out and mysteriously enough there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. The smell of rain on the air was still heavy but it was nice. Aeolus was still reluctant to completely trust her though. Staying about two feet behind her in case she decided to do anything tricky.

He felt deep down a dislike for her. Probably no thanks to that voice in his head, who claimed to be all that’s left of his former self before losing his memories. Aeolus was determined to get over this mistrust. He felt no reason to hate a pony he didn’t even know, especially one that forgave him for his questionable actions so quickly.

“Hey how is your head feeling?” He asked her, remembering that he had only just struck her yesterday.

She turned her head and looked him, then her eyes looked upward and looked at her wound. It was healing quickly and the bandage had been removed. Merely a small cut now.

“It is much better, it doesn’t hurt anymore. Besides you didn’t hit me THAT hard.” She winked at him. “But I forgive you… um… I guess we should come up with a name to give you till we find out your real one.” She suggested, Aeolus felt stupid that he knew his name but hadn’t shared it yet. As he was about to he received a warning.

Don’t tell her your name. If she finds out who you are she might discard you. Just like any other Alicorn would.

He ignored the warning completely and told Twilight the truth. “Well actually I do know my name… It’s Aeolus.”

Twilight stopped in her tracks and turned to face him. “You knew your name the whole time? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well I didn’t really think about it while I was being chased by a giant glowing bear!” When reminded of the Ursa Twilight was instantly saddened. She looked down at the dirt of the trail, and dug a hoof underneath it, she lifted some up and then let it fall again.

“I didn’t want to kill it… I wish it had listened.” She whispered, but Aeolus heard her clearly. He got a little closer. “But you saved me, and I’m grateful.” She looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

“But did he deserve to die… for you?” She said plainly.

He honestly didn’t think about that… did anything deserve to die because of him? Who was he anyway? A pony with no memory… Who failed to stop an unknown threat?

You’re important to this world… can’t you feel that?

“Well I sure don’t feel that way…” he responded to the voice.

“What did you say? Twilight asked him. He had almost forgot she was talking to him...

“Nothing Twilight. Since we don’t know much about me yet… I’d like to know a little about you. She smiled, wiping the tears from her eye. Aeolus trotted up right next to her.

They walked side by side on the trail, hooves crunching on the black gravel, Occasionally Twilight would use a blast of magic to clear out some vines and branches growing on the path they walked on. As they walked Twilight began to talk about Ponyville. She told him that she arrived there a few years ago from Canterlot to learn about friendship and stop an evil mare from casting Equestria, which she had to explain was the land they lived in due to his memory loss, into eternal night. She explained how she met her best friends here and together they found the Elements of Harmony and stopped the mare of darkness. She held the element of magic. The most powerful element. A mare named Applejack represented the element of honesty, Rarity was the element of generosity, Pinkie Pie was the element of laughter, Fluttershy was the element of kindness, and Rainbow Dash was the element of loyalty. Together they defeated other dangers according to Twilight, Discord the spirit of chaos and disharmony, a dark changeling queen named Chrysalis, and an evil unicorn king named Sombra. . Discord... Sombra… those names seemed very familiar to Aeolus, though he couldn't remember where from.

She stopped talking for a moment when she noticed his face, he looked confused. “Hey are you alright?” Twilight asked him

“Yeah… Those names… just sounded kind of familiar is all…” He replied. He urged Twilight to continue, not feeling comfortable in the spotlight at the moment. She was a little suspicious at first of his quick subject change, but then shrugged it off and continued.

She gladly told him of the many adventures she and her friends had. Making a sleeping dragon leave Equestria, watching Rainbow Dash do a sonic Rainboom and win the best young flier competition, and ruining the Grand Galloping Gala… she got a sparkle in her eye. It seemed she was very happy going through her memories with him.

She got to the part when she became an Alicorn… he didn’t understand how one can "become" an alicorn. But she apparently misused a spell and switched her friend’s cutie marks and changed their destinies. When she fixed everything with an original spell she created, Celestia changed her from a Unicorn to a princess.. She began to describe a time when she went to an alternate world to stop a pony named Sunset Shimmer… but she didn’t talk about it for too long.  They walked for miles, the sun slowly rose higher into the sky till it was midday. Twilight continued talking about different stories and adventures as they trekked along.

Aeolus wanted to ask what exactly a cutie mark was, but didn’t feel it right to interrupt her. He’d find the time later to ask.

The forest finally ended and the ponies were greeted by some beautiful rolling hills nearby, littered with trees, bright red apples growing all over them. Seeing the apples made Aeolus’ stomach growl.

“What the buck… was that noise?” He looked at Twilight but she wasn’t paying attention, she looked towards a cottage in the distance, further along near the edge of the forest.

It means you’re hungry you dodo.

“OH! Look now you seem to remember something. Thanks a lot.”

I can’t remember much about the past, but I can remember when it’s time to eat. Idiot.

Aeolus was about to continue his argument with himself, when Twilight turned and spoke.

“That over there is Fluttershy’s cottage. She isn’t there right now I believe she’s hanging out with Rainbow Dash and Gray Storm today in Cloudsdale.” She explained, noticing Aeolus rub his stomach with a hoof while staring at one of the apple trees.

“Hey Aeolus, you should just knock down some apples, I’m sure Applejack won’t mind” she said to him.

Aeolus trotted up to the nearest tree and stood up on his hind legs, leaning against the tree for support, trying desperately to reach an apple “I’m so close…. I can barely reach it!” He strained.

Twilight giggled “no, like this” he dropped down to all fours and stepped aside for her, she turned around and using her back legs kicked near the base of the tree. Moments later five or so apples fell down from the tree and landed on the ground near Aeolus’ hooves. He scooped one up with his hoof and offered it to Twilight, which she gratefully took and thanked him. She took a big bite out of it. Aeolus then picked one up for himself and munched on it, he wasn’t sure how he knew, but he was pretty sure he had never eaten an apple before. And it was delicious! Juicy, yet crunchy, as he swallowed his first bite his taste buds exploded with happiness. He shivered with delight due to how great it tasted.

Oh mother… it’s an apple, stop getting all excited. You’re drooling.

Aeolus wiped the drool from his face, chuckling with embarrassment. Twilight looked at him and laughed, then her eyes wandered… she glanced at his flank and instantly felt embarrassed doing so. She debated asking about him not having a cutie mark, but then decided against it. They just sat there quietly and took in the beautiful landscape. The forest while being dark and scary at night, looked very impressive during the day. Fluttershy’s cottage in the distance had a lot of various types of animals running around it. Aeolus looked towards the hills and saw there were apple trees everywhere! Going on for what seemed like forever. He squinted and discovered the strangest thing.

When he squinted his vision instantly zoomed in, like he was looking through a very powerful telescope. He noticed way off in the distance was a few brightly colored buildings. He squinted even harder and past that a little further was a small town. He saw ponies walking in the streets, a small orange Pegasus was on a little metal device, pulling a wagon with two other ponies sitting in it. He pointed in that direction and asked Twilight if that was Ponyville.

“What?” she looked where he pointed and saw nothing but the rolling hills of Sweet Apple Acres. In that direction was Ponyville… she wondered how it was possible that he could see that far. She stood up. “Aeolus, how did you…” the sound of barking in the distance pulled her attention elsewhere.

Out of a nearby bush a brown dog with a white neck and underbelly jumped out, wagging her tail excitedly. She ran over to Twilight and jumped up, licking her muzzle.

“Oh hi Winona! What are you doing out here? Are you with Applejack?” she asked the dog, who just barked towards the bush. As if on cue, an orange mare with a blond mane and tail tied near the ends and a brown hat on her head stepped out from behind the bush, she tripped on a rock small rock she didn't notice, causing her hat to cover her eyes slightly.

“Winona! Didya fin-” she pushed her hat upright and saw her dog, Twilight and Aeolus all standing together. “Twilight! Thank goodness I found ya!” she had an unusual accent to Aeolus. Applejack trotted over and gave him an interesting look, seeming to size him up for a second and then continued to talk to Twilight, she sounded very upset. “Ya have to come to Ponyville quick! There’s something goin’ on with the Pegasi! None of them can fly anymore!”

“Wait what??” Twilight asked. “Come on Applejack what do you mean they can’t fly?”

"No Pegasi are able to fly Twi! Have you tried flying today? See if you can, then come on! Something’s going on and the mayor called for an emergency meeting! She wants to see ya immediately!" Applejack added. Twilight ignored her for a moment opened her wings, trying to take flight, but she didn't move upwards at all. She leaned forward and dipped low, ran for a few seconds, jumped, flapped her wings fast, and simply fell to the ground.

“How can this be possible?! Applejack this isn't possible!” she started panicking. She groaned and took off Galloping towards Ponyville without the others. Aeolus and Applejack looked at each other and nodded, both understanding there wasn’t time for introductions yet, they both with Winona staying behind, chased after Twilight towards Ponyville. Applejack had hoped Twilight had known what was going on, and why Pegasi were unable to fly anymore. A hope that now faded.

As they ran Aeolus started thinking about his dream from the night before…the events that will follow with your disappearance will put Equestria out of balance… That’s what Luna said. He couldn't help but think somehow he was involved with the Pegasus’ flight problem. He pushed the thought aside, and continued running. Soon Ponyville came into view, the town was fairly larger then Aeolus expected. But he didn’t have any time to admire it as they caught up to Twilight, who stopped on a hill overlooking the town, the three ponies took a second to catch their breath and then Twilight took off towards the bottom. There was a huge crowd gathering around a tall building towards the middle of Ponyville, everything seemed fine and organized until out of nowhere in the middle of that crowd, there was a small pink explosion.

“What in the wide world of Equestria is goin’ on here?!” Applejack shouted out loud as they ran from the bottom of the hill towards the crowd. There was pink dust covering dozens of ponies, and none of them looked happy about it. There was also a fading pink mushroom cloud in the middle. Applejack pushed her way through the crowd, Aeolus followed close behind “pardon me, ‘scuse me, comin’ through” she muttered as they made our way to the center. They got to the middle and found Twilight standing next to an extremely pink pony, the back of her mane was very fluffy as was her tail… the front of her mane and face were completely covered in soot. Her mane flew back in many different directions.

“Pinkie! What are you doing?” Twilight asked. The way she asked sounded like she had already asked it a million times and was used to it by now.

“Well since pegasus can’t fly anymore I thought the only way to cheer them up was with a party, but no one came to my party they all came to Mayor Mare’s party out here instead, SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I thought if I brought my party cannon and shot it all over Ponyville then the WHOLE town could be decorated for the party, Improv said it wouldn’t work but I said it would and he said it wouldn’t so I decided to prove it, so I loaded my cannon will all the party stuff I own and when I fired it BOOM! It kinda blew up.” Pinkie shook her head quickly and all the black soot fell off, her mane instantly went back to what Aeolus assumed was normal. “I bet it looked funny huh Twilight, did it make you laugh? Or at least feel a little better?” she continued to ramble. All the pinkified ponies nearby were trying to dust each other off, and were grumbling angrily since nothing seemed to be working. Applejack walked over, getting onto Pinkie for being over the top, Pinkie began to argue back happily.

Aeolus looked around ignoring the argument taking place between Pinkie, Twilight, and Applejack. He started taking in Ponyville. Many of the buildings seemed pretty simple, mostly two stories, all with hay roofs. There was a shop of some sort with a sofa and a quill sign that confused him, a couple restaurants with tables outside, a small area with little kiosks set up, various foods displayed on the signs of each one, there was a huge tree not far off with many windows and a big telescope coming out of one window, off to the left a ways was a tall purple and white building, designed to look like a Carousel. He assumed that was Rarity’s dress shop that Twilight mentioned earlier. There was a fountain on the other side of Town Square, and Aeolus could swear he heard some type of machine in the distance, he thought it was a train but he wasn’t sure.

This town seems familiar… We’ve been here before.

At that point there was a massive gasp from Pinkie Pie, Aeolus turned towards where she was before and found her missing. He shrugged and turned back around only to find her standing incredibly close, her eyes practically touching his.

“Oh my goodness! Are you new here? You must be new because I’ve never seen you, and I’ve seen everypony in Ponyville! I’ve even seen a lot of ponies who DON’T live in Ponyville too, they live in Canterlot, or the Crystal Empire! (She gasped again) OOOOOOO I have an idea I should take you to those places and you can meet all my friends there and then YOULL have a lot of friends too and then you won’t be friendless and you’ll be happy and it’ll be all thanks to me!” she smiled very proudly then began to hop around him laughing, she snorted slightly while she laughed.

The ponies in this town, ARE CRAZY.

Aeolus took a huge step back, not sure what to think of the really hyper pony. He kind gave her an odd look and as he started to open his mouth to reply Twilight sharply cut him off.

“Pinkie this is Aeolus, but we’ll have more time for all this later, what’s going on? Why has the mayor gathered everypony here?” Twilight asked getting annoyed.

“I’ll tell you what’s going on” a slightly raspy voice shouted from behind them, the four ponies turned around and saw the crowd letting two Pegasi through, a cyan blue one with a rainbow colored mane and tail, and a bright yellow one with a long pink mane and tail. “Pegasi can’t fly anymore! Twilight why is this happening?” the blue pony asked sounding pretty upset.

Finally some Pegasi, now things can start making sense around here.

“Rainbow Dash! Thank goodness, I was worried you, Fluttershy, and Storm would’ve gotten trapped up on Cloudsdale.” Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.

“We didn’t even get a chance to go, when I woke up I nearly killed myself trying to get down from my house, when we realized we couldn’t fly me and Storm had to jump off my balcony using part of the walls to land safely on the ground!” Rainbow explained, making herself upset now. “Then I find out that no Pegasi can fly anymore?! What’s going on?? Is it Discord again? He didn’t take our wings but maybe he took the air? No cause then we couldn’t breathe… I don’t know! All I know is we can’t fly and that’s basically a Pegasus’ life! Not to mention that since the weather team is grounded soon the weather will be completely out of control!” Rainbow was now yelling, now everypony in the crowd was looking in her direction. Some looked nervous as if they were realizing what Rainbow Dash was saying to be true. The ponies were pretty quiet, they all muttered softly to each other.

I know what you’re about to ask, please don’t, I have a feeling it won’t end well.

But Aeolus couldn’t hold back the need to ask, he was just so damn curious “How could weather be affected because you can’t fly?”

Just about everypony heard him. Many chuckles came up from different parts of the crowd at… he was confused, he didn’t understand. Then a random voice from the crowd shouted

“Why doesn’t he have a cutie mark?” ponies began to lose it at that point, many laughing and now pointing, there were those in the crowd that didn’t laugh, whether cause they didn’t care, or because it was rude couldn’t be told for sure.

Twilight’s horn began to glow, she shot a light out above the crowd that exploded and silenced everypony. She calmly looked over at Aeolus “The Pegasi of Equestria help keep the weather in balance. With them not being able to fly the weather will soon start to do its own thing… kinda like that storm from over the Everfree last night. It wasn’t supposed to rain but it unexpectedly did.” She knew he didn’t have any memory… but she had to focus on that later. She needed to head up to the stage and find the mayor. Finding out what is wrong with herself and the other Pegasi was top priority right now. She started to walk to the stage at the front of the crowd, the ponies parted for her creating a path.

Aeolus stupidly decided it was time to ask her THAT question.

“Twilight, what’s a cutie mark?”

Some ponies snickered… Twilight’s friends didn’t however.

“Don’t none of ya’ll need to laugh at him, we have bigger problems right now.” Applejack spoke up to his defense. The sun overhead was shining in and out, being slightly blocked out by some clouds, the dark grey color of them suggested rain could be possible soon.

A tan pony with a grey mane came out from town hall and onto the stage to meet with Twilight. She raised a hoof to get the attention of the ponies. As they all went silent the tan pony looked towards Twilight

“Princess Twilight, thank goodness you’re here, I’m hoping you and the other princesses have found out what has happened to the Pegasi of Equestria and have already created plan to fix it?” she asked with confidence. The entire crowd’s spirits seemed lifted. Thunder rumbled overhead.

Aeolus’ heart dropped… PRINCESS Twilight?? His mind played the terrible image of him rotting in a dungeon for the rest of his life for assaulting a princess.

Well I told you NOT to hit her with that stirrer!

“Would you please shut up!” he said to the voice in his head. He looked back up to listen to Twilight’s answer to the Mayor.

Twilight replied with a low voice: “I have not been able to speak with the princesses yet, I only just found out of this crisis, I need to talk with Spike and have him send a letter to Celestia immediately to see if she’s learned anything. I can’t fly either, that leaves me to assume that both Celestia and Luna can’t… but I will find out an answer soon enough.

A pony from the crowd yelled at Twilight. “I think this is some kind of disease you and the other Pegasi are spreading, you should all be quarantined!”

Rainbow Dash was outraged. “EXCUSE ME?! How is this our fault? HOW DARE YOU BLAME US!” all of the other Pegasi in the crowd began to yell out their own input. The earth pony who spoke out shrunk into the crowd, realizing that his suggestion was about to get him killed. Some other ponies in the group roared in agreement with him however.

“LOCK THE PEGASI UP!” Yelled one

“TIE UP THEIR WINGS SO THEY CANT SPREAD IT!” shouted another.

In a matter of seconds the crowd was split in half. Half were Pegasi and ponies who were on their side, and the other half were ponies believing they needed to be locked up. The two crowds were getting pretty hostile.

“PLEASE EVERYPONY CALM DOWN!” The mayor tried to diffuse the situation, but she had no luck. Aeolus and the few other of Twilight friends stood with him in the center between to two groups. Twilight’s eyes glowed white, and her voice multiplied. Just as Luna’s eyes did in Aeolus’ flashback.

“ENOUGH!”

As her voiced washed over the crowd, red lightning began to flash brightly in the air. The clouds were getting thicker, now the sun was almost completely blocked out. Everypony got quiet. Looking shamelessly at the ground. Twilight’s eyes lost their glow, and her voice returned to normal.

“I am ashamed in all you ponies, this town is one of absolute diversity. All the different types of ponies are allowed to live here. To see you all fighting like this means I’m not doing my duty as princess correctly. I WILL figure out what has happened. As soon as I have an answer for you all I will call another town meeting. For now, this meeting is adjourned.” She quickly trotted off stage, and pushed her way through the crowd back to her friends.

A town where all ponies co-exist… I do remember this town.

The yellow Pegasus slowly approached Twilight as she got closer, she spoke words of confidence to Twilight. Her voice soft and sweet.

“Don’t worry Twilight, we know you’ll be able to figure this out. We believe in you” she said with a reassuring smile.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie all got closer, agreeing with her.

“Yeah Twilight, Fluttershy is right! You’ve never steered us wrong or let us down. We got your back” Rainbow added with a nod.

“Ya’ll will take care of Ponyville like ya have in the past” Applejack said.

“We love you Twilight!” Pinkie Pie yelled grabbing all of them except Aeolus and wrapping them in an extremely tight embrace.

Aeolus looked at the group of friends curiously… he wondered if somewhere he had friends just like these, searching for him. The thought depressed him. He didn’t need his memory… he felt in his heart… that he had no friends.

You don’t need them. All they do is stab you in the back eventually.

Lightning flashed brightly above Ponyville. The entire town turned red for a moment, a couple ponies screamed at the sudden light. Thunder slowly followed, shaking every building for miles. All the ponies hanging around town square ran home, the wind picked up, and began howling. Twilight needed no time to react, they needed to get indoors, and her house was the safest with its magic lightning rod sitting at the top.

“Everypony come to my house!” Twilight shouted. They all nodded without hesitation and ran alongside Twilight. Aeolus wasn’t paying too much attention and as soon as he saw them run away he bolted after them too. They quickly ran until they were directly in front of a massive treehouse, the sign outside said “Golden Oaks Library”

“Whoa…” Aeolus whispered as he came up behind them

Twilight used her magic to open the door and the six ponies ran inside the well-lit library. They all shook the water out of their manes, tails, and coats. Aeolus looked around the library pretty amazed. There were so many books! A lot of them were scattered, some on the shelves, some on the tables, most of them were on the floor though.

He noticed two others already in the library, a beautiful white pony with a curly purple mane and tail, and a small purple and green dragon. They both ran up to the others and greeted and hugged each other. The dragon looked at Aeolus puzzled.

“Uh who is that?” he asked pointing a claw at him

“Yeah Twilight, you and Applejack just kinda appeared with this guy. What gives?” Rainbow dash questioned

Twilight sighed. She went over everything, minus her killing the Ursa, she knew Fluttershy would be devastated to hear that…

“There is something special about this pony, but what it is I don’t know quite yet.” She finished. All the ponies in the room looked at him, making him blush.

“Aeolus? That’s a cool name! My name is Spike! I was wond--” the dragon didn’t get to finish, Twilight dragged spike off to a corner of the library out of ear shot. He pulled out a scroll, wrote on it for a bit, then he blew fire on it. But instead of it burning up the scroll turned into green dust and flew out the window into the rain. Magic, still not a sensitive subject for Aeolus, was quite amazing.

Each pony took a moment to introduce themselves properly, Pinkie gave him a huge hug.

“Oooo yay! Welcome to the family, I can’t wait for us to have parties and eat cakes and ice cream and drink lots and lots of sarsaparilla AND THEEEEEN we’ll do it all over again!

“Pinkie darling while Aeolus seems like a very nice pony we know very little about him… But I would like to help him learn more about his past if we can.” The white mare responded.

“Well I can already tell he’s a perfect apple bucker, he pretty fit!” Applejack punched him on the shoulder, her hoof felt like iron.

“Forget Apple bucking, we need to have a hoof race sometime! Since I can’t fly…” Rainbow Dash open her wings and flapped them sadly. Twilight couldn’t stand to see her get so sad and so quickly… she thought of a way to maybe cheer her up.

“Hey Rainbow where is Gray? I just realized he wasn’t with you earlier, is he gonna be ok during this storm?” Twilight asked

“He mentioned going to see if Improv had any good levitation spells like he used in that last play he was in… if anything I’m sure he’ll stay the night at Improv’s place. No worries he’ll be fine, and remember call him Storm, he doesn’t like being called Gray” Rainbow teased with a smile.

“Yeah Improv has really fun sleepovers! The last one he threw a bunch of really famous actors from all over equestria came! And it was funna-fun-fun!!” Pinkie chimed in excitedly bouncing all over the library.

Twilight looked outside, noticed the clouds color getting darker. “Well everypony it looks like you guys are gonna be stuck here for the night… since its late we can have a little fun tonight, when we get Celestia’s reply to the letter I sent her we can start searching for answers… and also work towards finding out more about you Aeolus! Hold on everypony I’ll be right back!” she happily bounded up the stairs.

“Oh no…” Rarity gasped.

Aeolus looked at her confused “what?”

“I would say we should leave quickly, but considering how terrible that storm outside is, and more importantly how upset Twilight must feel after today I say we all just deal with it.” Rarity said. Applejack sighed, then nodded in agreement.

“Deal with what? Rarity your being more random then Pinkie Pie” Rainbow asked annoyed, at that moment Pinkie bounced over to Aeolus, reached behind his ear and pulled a bit from out of nowhere.

“Look I can do magic too!!” she shouted, then fell over laughing.

Everypony couldn’t help but laugh, Pinkie was for sure a random pony, but Aeolus didn’t mind a little fun. Actually for the first time since he woke up yesterday… he felt like he was happy and enjoying himself. Then Twilight came down the stairs and ruined that for him.

Twilight reappeared at the bottom of the stairs with a book… Aeolus saw the title and his eyes widened, now realizing what Rarity meant by “dealing with it”.

The book was titled “’Slumber 101: All You’ve Ever Wanted to Know about Slumber Parties but Were Afraid to Ask’”

Twilight beamed and simply said “SLEEPOVER!”

Applejack whispered under her breath and only Aeolus was able to hear her “It’s goin’ be a long night.”

The night didn’t turn out as bad as they all thought, Twilight had gone over the book thoroughly, calling it her own personal reference guide. Since they weren’t fighting like they were last time, (according to Rarity) the night went off without a hitch. The girls invited Aeolus to hang out with them in Twilight’s room but as soon as he saw the mud face masks Rarity was putting on the ponies, he decided to hang out downstairs and explore the library. Spike offered to come hang out with him.

“So Aeolus you have no memory huh… I guess I kind of understand. I have no idea who my parents were, or where they might be now.” Spike grabbed a random book and pretended to read it. But truthfully thinking about his biological parents always made him sad. He had a tear stream down his face, which he wiped away with his claw quickly.

Spike always had a problem with his friends all thinking he was weak and helpless… he didn’t want Aeolus’ first impression of him to be the same way.

“But who cares right? I mean I can’t complain about the freedom I get… ha! Having parents would probably be lame anyway.” He said deepening his voice slightly. He tried to sound as cool as possible. But Aeolus’ response only made him feel bad.

“Honestly Spike. I’d love to have a parent right now to help me piece my past back together…” Aeolus responded truthfully.

Spike dropped the book with a blank face.

“I didn’t mean it like that… sorry Aeolus…”

“It’s alright.”

The awkwardness in the room was intense. Aeolus decided to try and break the silence with what he hoped wasn’t a stupid question.

“Hey spike, what kind of pony are you?”

Spike looked at him for a second… to see if he was serious, when he saw that he was he busted out laughing.

“I’m not a pony! I’m a ferocious dragon!” he tried to blow fire, but merely let out a wisp of green flame.

Aeolus smiled at the small creature. “Well I’ll make sure to never cross with you!”

“You be sure that you don’t!” he joked.

They shared a quick laugh. Spike had only known Aeolus for a moment but was already considering him a friend. “Thanks for letting me hang out with you, I kinda get tired being around mares all the time… no one really listens to me…” he looked at Aeolus who smiled at him for a moment. Spike then decided to show Aeolus a couple of his favorite books. “Hey I know you can’t remember anything but you had to have read the sleeping dragon once”

“I’ve no idea, I don’t even remember seeing books before.” Aeolus responded.

Spike began to explain to him how to read. Such a simple and easy concept, Aeolus picked up on it quickly, soon blazing through books like nothing. Spike eventually passed out on a book, his droll puddling on the page. Aeolus thought the dragon was nice, he hung out with him even though he had no reason to. He saw a blanket on the stairs and layed it out over the dragon. Who snored loudly, muttering random things about Rarity?

Aeolus continued to look around at all the different books… there were encyclopedias, fiction novels, historical accounts, just about everything you could think of! Aeolus read tons of books throughout the night, he really enjoyed reading. He read about many different things, but one thing he was curious and read about was cutie marks, the concept that finding out what made you special and unique, and then it becoming an image that imprinted on you to have forever. He wondered if he would ever get one himself.

I can’t remember what ours was… but I’m certain we had one Aeolus.

There would be random outbursts of giggling from upstairs, loud explosions of confetti and other musical instruments randomly going off. Then he heard the unmistakable sound that was Pinkie Pie’s voice yell “DARE!” they were playing truth or dare. Aeolus was kind of glad he had some time to himself to think and read. Even the annoying voice inside his head didn’t bother him all that much. Aeolus was too absorbed in the different books he was reading to pay much attention to anything else.

Hours passed.

Late into the night he was halfway through a Daring Do book, when Twilight came downstairs.

“Hey Aeolus, the girls have all mostly fallen asleep, all that’s left is Pinkie and me, since they took my extra bed I have a sleeping bag for you, you’re more than welcome to come upstairs.” She said smiling.

“That’s ok Twilight thank you… I think I’ll stay down here and read some more.” Aeolus replied

Twilight nodded and left the sleeping bag for him, she picked Spike up with her magic and carried him upstairs, as they were leaving Aeolus could hear spike talk about Rarity some more which caused Twilight to giggle. Aeolus was alone again and continued to read.

The storm outside got worse as the night went on, red lightning lit up the main area of the library, the thunder shook some books off the shelves. Aeolus got up and looked out the window and up into the clouds. He searched for the dark Unicorn, but saw nothing. An intense flash of lightning made Aeolus back away from the window… and get back to reading.

Dozing off as he finished the 4th Daring Do book, he found himself standing near train tracks, it rained all around him. He figured it was the same storm as the one he had fallen asleep too. Luna stood beside him.

“It seems Disaster has reached Ponyville now.” She said aloud.

“What do you mean Luna?”

She simply pointed a hoof down a dark path. A single bright light slowly formed from the darkness. Getting brighter as it got closer. A huge metal machine came fully into view, it roared down the tracks. It started getting closer, the storms lightning above intensified.

“This train was coming to Canterlot. It started its journey in the Crystal Empire, and now its journey ends here.” Luna closed her eyes. Aeolus was about to question her, but then the entire forest was brightened by a red light. He looked up and saw a massive ball of electricity charge up, it hummed loudly, then with a pulse of magic shot down and struck the front of the train. Its engine car exploded instantly, massive chunks of metal and wood flying in every direction.

The engine car was gone completely, the other cars were derailed due to the forced of the explosion, metal screeched as the wheels freed themselves from the tracks, a few turned over on their sides, others rolled to a stop in the mud. There were twelve cars remaining.

Aeolus ran towards the cars, the one closest to him was on its side. As he got closer he could hear screams inside, he could hear the crying of fillies.

Lightning boomed behind him, striking the first car that was behind the engine, making it explode.

11 cars left.

“Don’t worry I’m gonna get you guys out!” he yelled at the ponies in the car next to him. He searched all around the train cart for an opening, soon coming across exactly what he looked for. There was a small part of the metal roof that had a glass opening, he raised his hooves and brought them down on the glass… only for his hooves to pass through it.

“What?! NO!” He attempted to break the glass again, only to pass right through it again. Another flash of lightning. Another train car gone.

“LUNA! HELP ME!” He yelled back to the tall Alicorn who still had her eyes closed, standing in the same place as before. He wondered why she just stood there. Why she wouldn’t help him. The various voices cried out for help. The young ones continued to cry, he could hear parents shushing them, telling them they will be safe. Lying to them. Aeolus heard the voice of a stallion, praying to Luna herself.

“Please Luna, I have always prayed to you, get me out of this and I’ll never cheat on my mare again! Please Luna Ple-”

Lightning flew down and stuck the car Aeolus stood in front of, he took the explosion right in his face, but since he was dreaming it didn’t hurt him. The blaze consumed all the ponies inside. When the smoke cleared there was nothing but fire, and twisted metal. Aeolus turned and rushed at Luna.

“HOW COULD YOU JUST STAND THERE?! HOW CAN YOU STAND THERE AND DO NOTHING WHILE THOSE PONIES IN THAT CAR BEGGED YOU FOR HELP?!” He yelled up to her face. He was a tall stallion, but not as tall as the princess of the night. She looked down at him with a cold stare.

“They are all dead. All of them but two. This has already happened Aeolus. These ponies are all dead.” She looked back up at the flaming wreckage of the cars, more lightning came down. Blowing up more train cars.

“All but two? Which two?” he asked her. The final car is what answered his question. From out of the caboose wood and glass broke open from the inside, a pony clad in golden armor jumped out, followed by another. As they were about to flee the train a final bolt of lightning came down and obliterated their car. The blast sent the two ponies flying several feet. They both cried out in pain, they surely were burned by the explosion, but the golden armored pony helped the other pony, who Aeolus could not see, onto his back, he limped away from the train wreckage into the Everfree.

“This is what you meant isn’t it? This is what you meant about my disappearance putting Equestria out of balance? All this death is because of me?!"

She looked down at him and sighed. “And all the death that will soon follow. You need to remember Aeolus. Only then when you be able to fly again. Only then can he be defeated… I cannot help you. As much as I desperately want to…” She looked up and let the rain hit her directly on her muzzle. Then she disappeared completely. The world around Aeolus melted away once again, and he fell into the darkness, he jumped awake, scrambling to get up, he galloped across the room to the stairs and clumsily climbed them.

“Twilight! Twilight wake up!”

There was a desperate banging on the door of the library.

Somepony groaned loudly, and then there was a thump on the floor, like somepony fell out of their bed. Aeolus ran back down the stairs and rushed to the door. He opened it and wind nearly blew him down, he could barely see the ponies stumble into the library, falling down from exhaustion and the cold. Aeolus forced the door closed and was then able to get a good look at the two new ponies in the library… they were both in bad shape.

It was a stallion and a mare. The stallion was the same as the one he saw by the train, he wore golden armor, etched into the shoulder pads was a heart, with a spire rising behind it. His armor must’ve gleamed impressively before, but now it was caked in blood and mud. He was a Pegasus with a badly torn wing, many feathers were missing and it had cuts that bled all over. He struggled to breathe. The mare was an alicorn like Twilight, with a pink coat and a light colored pink, purple, and cream mane and tail, she had less injuries than the stallion other than her horn being badly burnt at its tip and light burns on her coat. She had a small gash on one leg that was bleeding slightly. Her cutie mark was a crystal heart, with some sort of gold branch on either side. There was a flash of light behind him, Twilight appeared at the bottom of the stairs in a burst of magic

.

“What is going on down here? Who-” she stopped talking. Taking notice of the two ponies laying in her doorway. “oh my goodness Cadence?” Twilight looked at Aeolus for explanation, he simply shrugged. Cadence opened her eyes for a moment, looked at Twilight, she tried to speak, only able to get one word out: “Typhoon” she lost every little bit of energy, and fell back into her coma. The stallion coughed harshly. His every breath was a wheeze. Twilight teleported to Aeolus’ side

“Flash Sentry? Oh my goodness what happened! Flash look at me!” she leaned over him and lifted his head towards her own. He opened his eyes, they widened when she saw him. He tried to say her name… but it came out as a groan. He stopped breathing, eyes slowing shutting. She dropped his head in shock… hooves were heard flooding down the stairs.

“What in tarnation is up with all this yelling” Applejack shouted as she hit the bottom … but when she and the others saw Cadence they gasped. Applejack instructed the others to lay Cadence and Flash on blankets, and get them pillows.  All the ponies did as they were told, Pinkie and Fluttershy moved Flash, but Fluttershy was squeamish at the sight of his blood, she started to cry, but helped move him to a pillow. She hugged Pinkie tightly and cried into her mane, which was straightening slowly. Applejack helped Twilight up and hugged her.

“Tis alright Sugarcube, they are gonna be just fine.” She whispered to her, but Twilight didn’t know what to think, Flash Sentry literally died in her hooves.

His advance against Equestria begins now.

Aeolus was frozen. All the ponies moved quickly around the room, grabbing various supplies from around Twilight’s home, but he couldn’t move. This… Cadence had muttered Typhoon… the word pounded at his brain, he felt like he was trying to remember something. Something old. Something he had known all along. He closed his eyes and thought long and hard on the word… realizing slowly that it wasn’t just a word. It was a name. Aeolus got dizzy, he couldn’t feel his hooves anymore. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, he slowly fell into darkness.

Typhoon returns.