Equestria's Time

“Well, from the looks of it, there is a spell that could help recover your memory, George.” Twilight explained, “However, there’s a thirty percent chance it won’t recover your memories. It’s a very complicated spell, you’d need someone with stronger magic to guarantee you’ll get your memory back. And if that’s the case…You might have to start a new life.”

“I think I’ve already been working on that for the past three weeks, Twilight.” George chuckled, “I think I can manage without my memories now. But it’d be nice to have them back, y’know...If it’s even possible.”

“Alright…Here goes…” Twilight replied, focusing all of her energy onto her horn as it began to glow with an purple aura. Walking towards George as she pointed her horn towards him.

“I still don’t see why you don’t just call Princess Celestia to do the spell if it’s so complicated…” Spike complained.

“Let’s not question her logic, Spike.” George commented, just before being poked in the forehead with Twilight’s horn, “Ow.”

Twilight slowly realized nothing was happening, so she quickly took action. She began to strengthen the spell, while not even being close to reaching her limit.

“Ow…” George managed to say, feeling the magic pierce through his head, until the pain intensified. “Ow...okay, ow...that hurts, Twilight…”

Twilight didn’t listen, all she cared about was helping him getting his memory back, eventually, she reached her limit, putting everything she had into the spell. Her aura around her horn grew larger and larger, until it began to wrap around George’s head.

“Owowowow!” George hissed, “Twilight stop! Please! it’s not working! You’re hurting my head!”

Twilight still didn’t listen, leaving George to take drastic measures, he slowly lifted his hoof, and pushed Twilight’s head away from his head. Causing a surge of magic to pulse through his head, as if it were eletricity.

And then, he fainted.

________________________

“George…”

“Ugh…” He mumbled, “I don’t wanna get up…”

“Well, at least he’s alive.”

“Well, yeah. But we need to get him awake.”

George slowly opened his eyes, groaning as he sat up in pain, he began rubbing his head as he slowly started to remember what happened.

“That...that was insane…” George groaned, “The heck did you do, Twilight?”

“Me?!” Twilight queried furiously, “You were the one who decided to push me out of the way!”

“You were practically trying to kill me!” George shouted, “What was I supposed to do!?”

Once George had said that, Twilight stopped, her face going completely blank.

“...Twi?” George muttered, tilting his head to the side. “You...you alright?”

“...”

“Twi…”

“...”

“Twilight? You… You alri—”

“So...Let me get this straight.” Twilight interrupted, “You’re telling me, that the spell was hurting you?”

George nodded in response, causing Twilight suddenly grew a worried expression.

“Then...You might have just made it worse.”

“How so?” George wondered.

“I said there was a thirty percent chance of the spell failing. Well, it mostly depends on the unicorn casting the spell. If the spell were to fail, it would cause pain to the one being ‘healed’. And wouldn’t actually do anything to your memory, as long as the spell was successfully finished properly.” Twilight explained, “But now that I never finished the spell, it’s possible a surge of magic might have shot you. Which explains why you fainted.”

“And this makes it worse, how?” George thought aloud.

Twilight walked toward her book. She began to read a page, then levitated her book close to her as she walked back to George.

“Well, if the spell completed, your memories would’ve been left untouched. You could simply go back to how you were living, and hope that one day, you find something that strikes your memory back into place.” Twilight paused, taking another quick glance at her book. “Since you pushed me away while I was trying to cast the spell, that surge of magic I mentioned earlier might become unstable...”

George nodded, signaling her to continue.

“And that unstable surge of magic can cause severe damage to your head. If you hear or see anything from or similar to your lost memories, the spell will try to help. But only make things even worse.” Twilight’s book suddenly clapped together, and floated back into her desk. “Though, what will actually happen, I can’t say that I know.”

George only stood and listen, his face now going completely blank like Twilight’s was, moments ago.

“So, it’s possible that you would never be able to remember your family, your home, or anything even remotely similar.” Twilight’s ears slowly flopped to the back of her head. She frowned at her friend, whom was already starting to well up with tears. “I’m...I’m sorry, George.”

“...”

Twilight looked at him, his emotionless face hiding all the emotions he now carried.

He screwed up. His only chance of possibly recovering his memory, and he screwed it up. “How could I be so stupid?!” He thought. He was angry at himself, saddened for his family, worried about what else could go wrong now, it was a race of emotions flying around him. All hidden behind a blank face.

“George…”

Twilight’s ear twitched, hearing a drip of liquid splashing on the floor.

“Uh...Twi, I think we should give him some time alone…”

“Is there any way to fix this?” George questioned suddenly, using any remaining willpower he had to hold back his tears. He appeared almost frightened, his words even shaking as he spoke. “I mean...magic caused this, magic can fix it, right?”

“You’d need someone like Princess Celestia or Princess Luna to be able to use that kind of magic, and even then, they’d still have to use a lot of magic to fix what we’ve done.” Twilight softly replies.

“But there’s still a chance, right!?” George asked, ignoring any tears that fell from his eyes.

“I’m not entirely sure, George. I mean, we did kinda mess it up pretty bad. I don’t think even they could help at this point.” Twilight glumly stated, she frowned with her friend. She could only imagine what it feels to forget her own family and friends. She’d shiver at the very thought of herself losing every memory of her friends and family. She knew if just the thought made her shiver, having George actually live through it must’ve been ten times as worse.

“So…That’s it, then.”

And with that, George finally snapped. His legs completely lost all ability to support his own weight, and thus, he fell stomach-first into the floor. Upon landing, he immediately slammed his head down onto the floor, wrapping his forelegs around his face, crying and sobbing softly into them.

“That’s it. It’s over. I blew it. There’s no way of getting my memory back, now. S-seeing my family. Knowing I have a safe place to live... A-all gone.” George sniffled, “I-I’ve lost hope… It...i-it’s over…”

He knew he could live perfectly fine without his memories, he wouldn’t be crying right now if that was the case. But now, he’d have to deal with suffering without his memories, all because of a spell that was improperly used. It’s practically torture, now.

Twilight was on the verge of crying herself. Her ears flopped down to the side, and her frown grew larger the more she watched her friend. She slowly walked to his side, sat down, and patted him on the back.

“It’s not over.” Twilight reassured, “Tell you what... I’ll let you stay at my place for a while, until you get adjusted to being here in Ponyville, then you can find a job, and then slowly get back on your hooves. And we’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you, even with that unstable magic in your head.”

George simply stares at Twilight, not believing her at first. He looked at her for what felt like a minute, until he realized she was being completely honest. Then, he slowly opened his mouth.

“You’d really do that...for me?”

“What are friends for?” Twilight warmly smiled. Suddenly, she finds herself in the embrace of her friend. Eventually, she smiles, and hugs him back. She hears a faint “Thank you.”, and the embrace around her tighten slightly.

“Maybe…There’s still some hope left, after all…”