Sciamachy

I shook my head. What the..? What just happened? I remember seeing Fluttershy get held against the wall, and then... I felt really angry. Enraged, actually. But...

Fluttershy! Where is she?! I turned to look, and my frantic question was quickly answered. She was sitting beside the wall that she had been pressed against, and I sighed with relief. She seemed unhurt. But she was staring at me. She seemed afraid. Did I do something wrong? Why would she be scared of me? And where's that scumbag who was going to hurt her? I swear, if I see him again, I'll...

I looked Fluttershy in the face at last, and she did the last thing I had expected. She started screaming her head off and flew away. What? Is there something behind me? I whipped around. Nothing but a solid brick wall and a little bit of garbage. What could have scared her so badly? I mean, she had been through a seriously traumatic experience, but, she looked like she was afraid of what she had been looking at. And, by all reasoning, she had been looking right at me. What had I done to scare her?

I wasn't getting anywhere by standing here asking questions, and I had no idea where Fluttershy had gone, so I ultimately decided that the best thing I could do was try to find one of the other girls, and ask them what had happened. I had managed to keep my sense of direction all the way up to this point, but I suddenly found myself unsure of which side of the alley I had entered from. That might prove an issue.

As it turned out, it didn't, because Rainbow Dash chose that exact moment to fly overhead shouting Fluttershy's name.

"HEY! RAINBOW! DOWN HERE!" I bellowed up at the (momentarily) stationary pegasus. She spotted me and flew down, faster than my eyes could follow. I jumped when she appeared in front of me.

"Yeah? What's up Dark Time?" she asked. I took a deep breath and explained what little I knew of my present situation. She listened with surprising patience for Rainbow Dash, and when I had finished, she simply said, "Oh, so Fluttershy is probably just heading to the hotel. We can find out what spooked her when we get back there. Anyway, see yah Dark!"

"Hey, wait Rainbow! Hotel? I didn't know we were staying here overnight."

"Really? Well, yeah. We're staying at this real swanky place over on Mane Street. Anyhoo, bye!"

"Wait!"

"What is it now?"

"Er... could you maybe point me in the direction of Mane Street? And maybe tell me what rooms we've rented, and in what hotel?"

"Oh, you want to head back there? Well, your loss. There's some really cool stuff around here, ya know. Like that book store. I hear they have all the Daring Do books to date, some even in first edition, and..."

"Rainbow! Focus! I just want to know where the hotel is."

"Oh, right. Mane Street is actually just out this end of the alley. If you walk maybe two blocks down, the hotel's just on the other side of the street. I think it's called "La Casa Bonifelia" or something like that. We have three rooms, 324, 323, and 322, all on the third floor. See you later Dark!" and with that, she was off. It was lucky that I didn't have any more questions, because she was gone before I could have said "wait", one last time.

*     *     *

Ten minutes later, I realized Rainbow Dash was completely wrong, at least as far as the hotel name was concerned. Not only was the hotel named "The Castle of Memorabilia", but it was not a hotel. It was a little tourist stand embedded into a wall on my side of the street. However, on the far side, there was a very nice, ten-story hotel that certainly looked in every way, "swanky". This particular place was called "The Manehattan Hotel". How did Dash forget that? Assuming this was actually the right place, of course. I decided there was no harm in checking, so I crossed the street, and went inside.

Upon entering, I noticed just how "swanky" the hotel really was. There was a large, ornate chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and many seats of varying sizes and styles standing about the room. I elected to head straight for the elevator, relying on Dash's memory of the numbers despite her mistaking the hotel name. Or perhaps she had misjudged the distance, and I was in the wrong place. Or any number of other possible things that could have been miscommunicated.

I was lucky this time, though. Upon reaching the third floor in the spacious glass elevator, I wandered through the halls until I reached room 322. I probably would have passed it by and checked the other two were it not for the audible sobbing sounds coming from within. I knocked on the door, hoping that it was Fluttershy and not some mare whose coltfriend had walked out on her. I heard the sobs choke to a halt and the distinct clip-clop clip-clop of hooves approaching the door. Much to my relief, it was a familiar yellow face, though with quite bloodshot eyes, that peeked through a sizable gap in the door.

However, my relief was not returned by Fluttershy. On the contrary, she gasped audibly and attempted to slam the door on my muzzle. Somehow, my reflexes took hold and I brought my front left hoof up just in time to stop the door. I winced visibly and audibly as the wood banged against my flesh. That would leave a mark. I then pushed the door open slowly.

Fluttershy eeped and crept away from me as if I had some horrible disease, winding her up curled into a ball in the far corner of the room. Why is she so scared of me? I kept walking, keeping my slow pace, until she stopped me with her voice, which I realized I had never heard before.

"I-I'm s-sorry. I-is you're hoof okay? I d-didn't mean..."

"Er... I'm fine. Really. I just wanted to know why you ran away from me." I said, ignoring the burning pain in my limb as I set it down to the floor again.

"R-ran a-away? O-Oh yes! I, um, ran away because..."

"Was it that pony with the knife? Was he the reason?"

"P-pony? Oh, yes. Well, no, actually. It was because, um..."

"It's funny, my memory is kinda blank there for a bit. I can't seem to remember where he went. What happened to him?"

"Oh, r-really? W-well, he..." She stopped and stared up at me, as if she expected me to interrupt again, but I did not. After a few moments, she seemed to realize that I was listening now, so she continued.

"W-well, somepony came down the alleyway, a-and he had a black horn, with black magic, and a red mane, but he had white wings and a blue tail, and he grabbed the knife from the one pony and... Oh, I thought he was going to kill him! I mean, he saved my life, but I didn't want him to hurt anypony, and he brought the knife down, but he stopped, just a hair before he stabbed the stallion who attacked me, and then, he looked like he was struggling..." She stopped again, looking at me as if she wanted me to interrupt her now. But I didn't, so she finally finished.

"The stallion ran, b-but the strange pony stayed. And then he started to change..." She looked at me again, and this time, I couldn't have interrupted even if I had wanted to. The look on her face was too horrible.

"He turned into you, Dark Time."

My mind began to reel at this sudden revelation, and I found that Mr. Crazy and Mr. Hero were shouting again, louder than ever.

I fainted dead away.

*     *     *

I regained consciousness on one of the room's two large beds, the one closest to the door. A quick scan of my surroundings told me that Fluttershy had positioned herself at the bedside, between the two beds, and, much to my surprise, was staring at me. In a remarkably delayed reaction, I jumped nearly a foot into the air and screamed, prompting Fluttershy to do the same.

"Um... Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Are you okay?" She asked, after recovering from the initial shock of my sudden awakening. I turned away from the door, attempting to calm my frantic heart and answer her. Eventually, I managed it.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just startled me, is all." I replied. Fluttershy smiled in response, but only briefly, and then she was back to her trademark look of concerned. At least that was the look that I saw most often, but who was I to judge trademark looks? I reminded myself that I had only been here for a day or two, and couldn't afford to make assumptions.

"So, uh..." I started awkwardly, "How long was I out?"

"Well, actually... about a half an hour." Fluttershy replied sheepishly. I simply nodded, as if losing a half an hour of my life was very normal. Of course, it was nothing compared to waking up inside a volcano with no prior memories whatsoever, but Fluttershy didn't know about that. Heck, nobody but me did. And Clementine, of course.

"Well," I continued, rubbing the back of my neck as I said it, "That wasn't very stoic of me, fainting like that."

"I understand. It was a lot to take in." She replied, patting my head with a hoof. Great. That doesn't make me feel like a foal at all.

We sat there for a while, trying to think of something to say to one another. Finally, I managed to break the awkward silence with, "I'm sorry, you know, for scaring you. I didn't even remember what happened." Fluttershy started and then shook her head.

"Oh no, you don't need to apologize. I'm sorry for running away from you. I should have at least found out your side of the story." I nodded once, and silence descended again. Somehow, it was less awkward now. And then Fluttershy did something completely unexpected. She leaned forward from her seat at the side of the bed and laid her head in the crook of my neck. I blushed but didn't pull away, despite every bone in my body begging me to. Something about this felt... wrong. I mean, it felt good, but wrong.

"Dark Time, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked. I didn't answer, didn't give so much as a nod, due primarily to my immense internal conflict. Fluttershy pulled away, much to my relief, but then I turned to look at her. Her hooves were to her mouth and her eyes were tearing up.

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to upset you! I just, well, we are friends, aren't we? I just thought that..."

"Fluttershy! Fluttershy. It's okay. I'm just not used to stuff like that, is all."

"Oh, all right, if you're sure."

"I'm sure, you didn't do anything wrong." And I surprised both her and myself by reaching out and hugging her, wrapping both hooves around her back.

It was at this extremely bad time that the other girls returned to the hotel, and, just my luck, Applejack waltzed right into my brief moment of tenderness, seeing me holding a Fluttershy who looked like she was crying. Of course, being Applejack, she automatically jumped to the worst possible conclusion and, before I even knew she had entered the room, her hoof came up and bashed me in the back of the head.

*     *     *

I awoke with an all-new lump on my head and six mares staring down at me, some looking concerned, others amused.

"He's awake!" Twilight exclaimed, as if they all couldn't tell when I opened my eyes. I groaned and rubbed my head.

"I'll give you this, AJ, you really know how to throw a punch." Applejack smiled in an apologetic fashion, and I found several hooves pointed at my face, each one offering to help me up. Ultimately, I simply hoisted myself to my feet, thanking them all for their trouble.

"Fluttershy explained exactly what happened, so you don't need to worry about Applejack hitting you again." Twilight said, then looked at Applejack and spoke firmly, "Right Applejack?"

"No need to worry about that, Dark. After the story we just got told, I trust you more than ever!" I suspected that Applejack had never completely trusted me to begin with, so I wasn't terribly reassured.

"Well, I suppose now that he's awake, we can finally eat a good meal and get some sleep." Rarity noted, a tad unnecessarily. I stood there for a moment, my head spinning, but managed to find my way over to one of the beds. Just as I reached it however, someone tapped me lightly on the shoulder. It was Fluttershy, hovering behind me, and she gave a subtle nod to the others, who were seated on the floor. I nodded in return, and we went to join the others.

"I ordered room service." Rarity explained. "I hope you like what we got for you, Dark Time. We really couldn't ask you what you liked due to your being..." she glanced at Applejack, "otherwise occupied."

It was at this moment that I realized I still knew virtually nothing about what was going on in the world, or even with my new friends. How much was a bit worth? Were there any non-ponies? How many kinds of ponies were there? Heck, where even was I? I chose to express my confusion to the girls, explaining that I actually knew very little about the world, likely due to my amnesia. This news came as a surprise to everyone but Twilight, and I realized just how little I had told or been told. I also suddenly remembered the original purpose for my going to Twilight's, which was to treat my apparent amnesia. I mentioned this to Twilight, and she started.

"I had completely forgotten about that!" She sat and thought for a moment, putting a hoof to her chin and gazing at the ceiling. "Well... But... Hmmm... That can't... Hmmm... Alright!" She finally said, "Your mind is very strange, Dark Time. We should have ended up in a hallway-like space, with 'doors' that led to different portions of your mind, like your memories, emotions, instincts, and magic pool. But instead, we ended up in that field, where it was almost like everything and nothing was. I think the animals were your emotions, like the white cat when you might have been surprised by my presence. But then... I have no idea what that sapling was for, and I can only assume that those huge walls of color were the manifestations of your split-personality disorder, and..." Twilight stopped at the loud slapping sound. Both her and I looked around for the source, and found four of the other ponies staring at us, or rather, at me, looking horrified, and Applejack with her hoof pressed against her face. Ah... face-hoof.

"Er... oops." Twilight said, getting down to the floor. Chaos immediately reigned.

All four of the ponies who had apparently been left out of the loop started shouting, begging for answers, wanting to know why they hadn't been told about me, or, in Pinkie's case, just shouting nonsense. Mr. Crazy and Mr. Hero decided to add their voices to the turmoil, repeating the same words over and over again.

Kill them, kill them, kill them, kill them, kill them... said Mr. Crazy maniacally.

You can't, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't... returned Mr. Hero forcefully.

Kill them, kill them, kill them, kill them, KILL THEM!!!

You can't, you can't, you can't, you can't, YOU CAN"T!!!

KILL THEM!!!

YOU CAN"T!!!

"SHUT UP!!!" I screamed, clutching at my head once again. I looked around, and every pony in the room, including the member of hotel staff who had just entered the room with our food, was staring at me.

Fudge Nutters...

I did it again...

Also...

I really need to find out what Fudge Nutters means.

*     *     *

I sat with the girls, eating our dinners in silence. The hayburger and hay fries that Rarity got me were delicious, but I found it difficult to enjoy with Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie trying to avoid looking at me, and Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash shooting glares at me between every bite.

I really wish that I had gone with Clementine.

Finally, I spoke, having just swallowed the final bit of my burger. "Okay, I'm going to explain myself, and I'm going to start at the beginning. See, I don't remember anything past two days ago, when I woke up in a volcano..." and so I recounted my tale, leaving nothing out, not even my dream on the way to Ponyville. I told them absolutely everything that I knew. I even told them about parts some of them knew, because the others might not. The only part I didn't tell them was the part about me saving Fluttershy, since Applejack said she told them everything. When I was finally finished, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were looking at me again, and even the stubborn Applejack and Rainbow Dash had lost their frowns. Only Twilight maintained any grievances.

"So you're just using your condition to excuse yourself from being rude?" She said. I scowled at the accusation, but decided to win this argument with logic.

"Twilight, I just told you the entire story of my life, as I remember it, and I didn't leave anything out, even things I would have liked to. Why would you think I was lying about the voices? Now, I don't know why you keep getting so peeved at me, I was just a little rude by mistake, but I'm willing to let bygones be bygones, if you are." And I held out my hoof to the lavender unicorn. She hesitated for a moment, and then took my hoof and shook it. I smiled.

"So, with all that cleared up, where were we?" We thought for a moment, and then Pinkie bounced into the air as she remembered.

"Oh yeah! Twilight let slip that you're crazy, Dark Time!" I winced visibly, and everypony stared at Twilight expectantly, requesting an explanation for why she had kept it a secret. She cleared her throat, it was her turn to explain.

"I'm sorry girls, I didn't want to tell you because, well, I wasn't sure."

"'Wasn't sure'? Ya'll seemed plenty sure when ya gave 'im his diagnosis, Twilight." Applejack voiced.

"Yes, well..." Twilight's ears drooped in shame, "I was just trying to hurt him. I didn't like him." Jaws dropped all around our little circle, and Pinkie asked, "Why didn't you like him? He seems like a perfectly nice stallion to me!"

"Well..." Twilight sighed, and I could have sworn her ears drooped even further. "I... Dark, do you remember when we first met? And I told you I knew a bad pony when I saw them?" I nodded once, the memory stinging worse than the actual comment had. "I... didn't actually think you were a bad pony based on my sight. It was more of a feeling." I cocked an eyebrow, and Twilight hurriedly continued. "I detected some kind of magic from you! Something that was just a little bit like the kind of magic that coursed through Sombra," A shiver seemed to run through the others at the mention of that name. "but it was also very different. Much more powerful, and I just... detected it, is all. That much dark magic... I... assumed you were bad news, so I jumped at the chance to make you look bad, and instantly regretted it. I'm sorry, Dark Time."

I looked into her eyes. She meant it. Every word. For a moment... I don't want to forgive her. I want her to suffer like she made me do. But... I know that's just Mr. Crazy talking. She just wanted to protect her friends, and she made some bad choices. I can understand that.

"It's fine." I say finally. "Think nothing of it." Twilight smiles with relief and I smile back. Somehow, while the other girls start chatting again, I start thinking about where this conversation started. That's right! I had been thinking about all the questions I had.

"Hey, now that everyone else has had their questions answered, how about we start answering some of mine?" All conversation stopped abruptly and I got several confused looks from the mares.

"Um... what questions do you have, Dark Time?" Fluttershy asked.

"Well, my memory only extends to about two days ago, as we established, so what seems like common knowledge to you is brand new to me. So, I was wondering, could somebody catch me up? Just anything that I might need to know. Stuff that everypony knows."

It was silent for a moment as the girls looked at each other, as if trying to decide who should explain. Eventually, Twilight looked at me and said, "Well, this is the region of Equestria, which is ruled over by the Royal Pony Sisters, Celestia and Luna, who are both alicorns, and..."