Not Another Good Guy

BOOM

I jolted awake at the explosion of sound. I leaped up and looked around wildly for the sound, my mind on full alert. I could feel every heartbeat pass as I waited.

BOOM

I jumped again when this time the sound was accompanied by a powerful flash of light that disappeared just as it arrived. I cautiously edged to the window to look outside. It appeared to be early in the morning, but it was hard to tell as clouds had darkened the sky.

BOOM

I dove back onto my makeshift bed, covering my ears and shutting my eyes. My head was in agony, my heart felt like it was trying to escape from my chest, and my stomach wanted to reject whatever I last ate. On top of all this, the world outside was exploding! To make matters even worse, the sky-water was still falling! Now that I thought about it, the explosions might have something to do with the sky-water. Maybe the sound of the explosions was the sky breaking? It would explain why the water was falling everywhere.

BOOM

Rainbow Dash kicked the thundercloud again and again, lamenting the disruption of her sleep schedule. The storm had originated out in the wild everfree forest and had quickly began drifting towards Ponyville. It was her duty as weather manager to stop the rouge thunderstorm and protect the town, a duty that she took very seriously.

Once the cloud was bucked back into a normal raincloud, she moved onto another that was crackling with energy. Ears ringing from the booms, she beat cloud after cloud into submission until every last one of them was stable. Hovering above the storm, Rainbow Dash examined the results of her work.

Sure enough, she had beaten all the lightning out of the storm. The wind was still strong enough to be a problem, but there wasn't very much to be done about that without the entire weather team present. It would have to do.

Oddly enough, the sky stopped exploding after about ten minutes. The sky-water still fell at an alarming rate, but that didn't bother me as much in comparison. It was actually making a really soothing sound as it fell on the roof of the tree shack. I easily drifted off into slumber...

...Only to hear that strange voice again.

"Hey, I know you can hear me! This is important, so listen up!" I rolled my eyes.

"Hold up. I'm not listening to anything until I know exactly who you are and what is going on."

Despite my bravado, I knew I had no real grounds for demanding anything of him. I could only hope that he didn't come to that conclusion as well.

"Hmm... Fair enough. If I tell you then you agree to listen to me?"

I grinned. This is going much better than I thought it would. I may have actually outsmarted him! "Yes, I'll listen if you tell me."

"Alright. Who am I? I am a sentient being composed of millions of cells. What is going on? Right now we are having a conversation, but who knows what will happen next? As I was saying, this is important so-"

"Hey!" I gritted my teeth as I realized how easily I had fallen for the verbal trap. "That's not a fair answer!"

"Ha! If you wanted a fair answer than you should have asked for one. Now are you done interrupting?"

"Yeah, whatever. Just get on with it." I grumbled.

"You are discovering information too quickly. Stop thinking as much about things."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You remember how every time you received some new memory, your head would hurt?" I nodded. "The spell I used to bring your memory back is unfinished. It is just a prototype, never meant to be used. If you remember too much at a time then it will literally burn up your brain."

"WHAT!? You mean to tell me that you zapped me with some crazy magic without knowing if it would actually work or if it would just kill me?"

"Hmm..." He almost sounded thoughtful for a minute, then replied, "That isn't quite how I would have said it, but yes."

I didn't expect that. I was sure he would try to convince me that I would be fine and not to worry. Instead he just confirmed my fears. Not too helpful, is he?

I called out to him again. "You gave me some memories earlier, why can't you just give me more like that?"

"Like I said, I don't want to burn you up."

"Why do you care if I die? What does it matter to you?" I regretted the words as they left my mouth. I could feel his emotions for a moment, as if he had accidentally let them slip. What I felt was guilt and shame. Just as they had appeared, the feelings were gone. He continued on as if nothing had happened.

"I suppose I can give you some more very basic information without soldering your little mortal mind. Don't come crying to me if your head explodes. Actually, please do. I would love to get a photo of that! Anyway, here's your precious memory."

I suddenly felt very foolish as I remembered what was happening outside the treehouse. Scared by some rain and lightning? What am I, a baby?

He addressed me once more. "I gave you the knowledge of ordinary things that you will see on an everyday basis. Try to be careful about how much you dig into your memories though, and avoid deep and complex thoughts. Shouldn't be too hard for you."

"Hey! I'm still here you know!"

"I wouldn't have said that if you weren't here. Now get up. You have slept for long enough. There's a whole world out there just waiting for you to mess with it!"

I awoke much more gently this time, immediately noticing the bright sunlight streaming through the window as it burned my eyes. Outside I could clearly see the midday sun blazing above without a cloud in the sky. The drastic change in weather was confusing, but I didn't pay much attention to it. I was fully focused on what I had missed the night before.

Apples. Tons of them. I didn't know much about myself, but I knew that I was hungry and that apples were good.

I used the fabric, which I now recognized as a cape, to gather up a bunch of the apples. I had assumed that I would need a good amount of them to fill me up, so I was surprised to find that I could barely finish just one. Whoever grows these apples really knows what they are doing. Hopefully they won't be too mad that I took some, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Finished eating, I chose a random direction and started walking again. What really matters is finding someone. Who knows? Maybe they will even recognize me. They could just tell me who I am and I can go back to a normal life.

As time went on, I became increasingly lost in the trees and lost in my thoughts. There sure are a ton of trees here. Why apple trees though? Have they ever heard of variety? I heard a noise behind me, but attributed it to one of the many animals I had seen around already. This farm is huge, so I'm guessing that I am in the countryside or near a small town.

I heard the noise again. It sounded like wood that was under heavy strain. Curiosity got the better of me. Finding a town can wait a bit longer I guess. I turned around and headed toward the noise as it steadily got louder.

"Just a little more! Cmon, you're almost there!"

I arrived at the source of the noise to be greeted by a strange sight. There were three little horses trying to pull down a rope on a strange wooden contraption. I didn't care much about the wooden thing, those obviously intelligent horses had my full attention. At about three and half feet in height, they were multicolored with ridiculous hues on both their bodies and manes. The orange one had wings and the grey one had a horn, but the yellow horse didn't have anything strange about it. I don't think I have ever seen these kinds of creatures before, yet I cannot help but feel that they don't look right.

A crack brought my attention to the wooden device. Somehow, I knew exactly what it was. It was pure trouble in the form of a projectile launcher, the greatest weapon of the pre-gunpowder ages. It was a trebuchet.

It would have been impressive if there hadn't been a major flaw in its design. The supporting frame was not sturdy enough to support the weight being put on it and was cracking along one side.

"Look out!" I shouted at the horses as the frame shifted unnaturally and let out a loud shriek. Wait, that shriek was the orange one. It stared at me with wide eyes and screamed as it noticed me for the first time.

The frame shifted again with a crunch and the other two horses dove behind the boulder they had secured the rope to. A moment later a grey hoof pulled the still screaming orange horse behind as well. I had nowhere to hide as the frame snapped. It fell to the side and all hell broke loose. The rope snapped and the arm began its ascent as the counterweight did its job. A large piece of the base shot off directly towards my head. I dove to the dirt as it flew close enough to pull at my hair as I fell. The payload of the trebuchet was released prematurely as it was falling and soared straight up.

That's clever, clustered rocks. I noted as the rest of the wood fell and splintered. When the dust cleared, I could hardly believe my luck. I didn't have a single piece of wood lodged in me!

WHOOMP

I almost screamed in surprise when a large rock impacted the dirt directly in front of my face. I looked up again just in time to see its smaller companion falling to me. So much for good luck. I thought before everything went dark.

The three Cutie Mark Crusaders had been sure that they were going to get their cutie marks in siege warfare. Now it looked like they would get their cutie marks in murder and panic.

"Sweetie Belle, fix it with your magic or something!"

"Apple Bloom, you know that I don't know how!"

"Well what are we gonna do with it?" she retorted.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Both fillies turned to their still panicked friend and yelled, "SHUT UP, SCOOTALOO!"

Apple Bloom turned back to her only sane friend. "We can't just leave it here! Help me drag it to the house and find Applejack. Mah big sis will know what to do!"

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened in surprise. "Apple Bloom, do you know what this means? We could get our cutie marks in saving lives!"

"If ya keep running your mouth instead of helping me, we'll be getting our cutie marks in corpse disposal!" Apple Bloom looked over at Scootaloo, who was beginning to hyperventilate. "Cmon, he's just bleedin a bit," she said. Scootaloo's eyes widened even further as she stared at the blood. "Scootaloo? You ain't looking too good."

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom watched as their friend paled even further and then passed out. "Apple Bloom, I'll carry Scootaloo. You can get the... thingy."

"Fine, just hurry up." She grumbled as she gripped the 'thingy' by the straps on its strange saddlebags and began to drag it towards the barn where Applejack and Big Mac would be repairing the doors. They had been damaged in the violent storm late last night and needed fixing right away.

Sweetie Belle situated Scootaloo on her back and walked up to Apple Bloom's side as they made their way to the barn, unaware of the significance of the injured creature they dragged along the ground.