noitcelfeR|R3fl3ction

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
6: Swimming in the Smoke (Beneath the Surface)
7: Ink on a Page
8: Two of a Certain Kind

Chapter 1

Prologue

The night air was cool on this late-winter evening. Though it was only seven p.m. the sun had already set, and a blanket of dark had covered the town of Ponyville.

Derpy hooves hovered unsteadily down the street, both of her wings failing to maintain any practical rhythm with the other. This generally caused her to fly diagonally in either direction; she would often switch the direction at random times without precise control.

The Pegasus could in fact fly quite gracefully. For some reason she felt it necessary to do otherwise.

Woozy bats, she had once reasoned, woozy bats like bulls stubborn. Such was the sort of logic she used to contemplate most things.

In the corner of her vision she noticed movement. She looked in the direction of said movement to find a group of birds. "Ants!" She called at them. "Eggs all scrambled and gravel from sand!"

When the flock hit the center of her vision the flock seemed to dissipate. Every time she ever saw a flock of birds they always looked so separate, so scattered, especially when they hit the center of her vision. They were always scrambled, so to speak, much like her thoughts, which never seemed to make sense to her, much less to anypony who listened to her speak. It was as if her brain was encoding every message it sent it to her as a thought, making everything that came across her mind hard to comprehend.

She looked back down to where flowers where planted next to buildings. The sight simply did not make her wish to smile. Rather it made her want to go and re-organize everything, more like she usually organized her bathroom. Why anyone would want to plant flowers without any particular order or color scheme was beyond her. The beds were nothing more than jumbled messes of mismatched plants, some of which appeared deformed.

She shook her head before looking ahead of her once more and there was silence.

Suddenly there was a feeling of pain in her forehead from some unseen force. "Ah, gasping bubbles!" She cried out, shaking her head furiously. She was suddenly inside a building, heated and well lit. There were other ponies mingling around her.

"Darts on globes?" She asked aloud, but no pony paid any mind to her.

Where was she? The pony blinked a couple times, unable to remember how she ended up where she was.

"Bulldozer magic!" She said putting a hoof to her head. Why did her head hurt? Where was she earlier. Everything prior to the last minute had completely vacated her memory.

Derpy shook her head once more, deciding she should sit down. She trotted clumsily over to the counter where there were two seats. She stopped for a moment to inspect something on the wall before sitting down.

Suddenly there was another pain to her head and everything faded to black.

noitcelfeR|Reflection

1: Mare in the Mirror

"Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest mare of all?" The line was from popular pony-tale. Yet there stood Derpy Hooves staring at her own reflection, and not a single thought of her favorite bedtime story even came to mind. Her focus was on other matters; her gaze was directed at the reflection that stared back at her, analyzing her every feature, evaluating her very physical being.

Derpy glanced towards the reflection's face, the reflection returning the stare. The mare in the mirror seemed somewhat enchanted by her eyes and the way they seemed to show as such a brilliant gold in the light. It was the first time she had ever seen the yellow of her own irises so clearly. Her eyes, unlike the ones in the photographs of her, were correctly aligned.

She felt a sharp pain in her head which caused her to cringe. In an effort to douse this pain, she used her left fore-hoof to apply pressure to the upper-left section of her forehead. Once again she made a pained expression, except this time it was not the pain that ailed her; it was the sudden change in contour that had formed on her forehead from the previous night's fiasco.

The kind nurse at the Ponyville Infirmary had explained it all to her. However the more she thought about it the more absurd it seemed and more embarrassed she felt.

The nurse had mentioned her flying into a lamp post, which in itself was rather droll. The post itself was an illuminated object, a beacon of light in an otherwise dim setting. Even if she had not been looking directly at the bulb the radius of its glow would have been rather grand in the night, and it would have no doubt provided a fair warning of the lamp's presence.

The story did not end there. Apparently after colliding head-on with the lamp post she had managed to stumble her way into Sugar-Cube Corner. A witness had claimed to see her examine two available seats at the counter, and then choose the one directly under a plaque that was obviously about to fall.

Where is the common sense in that? She thought to herself. There was indeed none.

Perhaps the most painful part at this moment was the fact that she could not remember anything prior to the visit to the infirmary. Actually, that wasn't even it. The true source of this pain came from the feeling that even if she hadn't partook in these accidents she would still be without memory.

The mare in the mirror hardened her heart, and the burning flames of a caustic anger appeared in the reflections expression. Derpy found herself exchanging looks of certain hatred with her reflection. Malice flared in her eyes as her head grew hot from the malevolence in her heart that caused the blood to pump rapidly through her veins. Her breathing resembled a mixture of denial, panic, and anxiety as all started to become clear.

Derpy Hooves was her name, and it was a name that suited her all too well. At least it did, before today. Before the previous night she had been what other ponies tended to call wall-eyed. This was no longer the case. Her hooves, which now provided her stability in her stance, had once a tendency to cause her to fall. Once again the circumstances had changed.

However there was yet another change in her, and this one was perhaps the most significant one of all: her thoughts. Derpy now had no trouble thinking clearly, at least when compared to how her thoughts once were. Before the incident every idea that had the audacity to cross her mind was jumbled and difficult to comprehend.

Yes, Derpy Hooves had always been a fitting name for her. Now she understood why.

"Why are you this way?" She heard herself say, but she let herself believe that it was the mare in the mirror who was speaking. "Why are you so strange? You're different from other ponies. You're nothing more than the rest of Equestria's comic relief." The reflection gave her a look of accusation, blaming the distressed pegasus for her own existence.

Derpy tried to shrink back and away out of the glares of her reflection, which pierced her heart like arrows could pierce through cardboard. "I can't control who I am," she whispered, "or who I was."

The pony sighed as she departed from the mirror, as it was only causing her to feel more grief.

To hay with all, she thought. Why should she let this change anything about her life? But that was just it, before now she hadn't the capability to ask such questions; she was unsure if this freedom of thought was a blessing or a curse.

Derpy shook her head as if to break from a trance. A hot bath would make her feel better, or so she told herself.

She trotted slowly to the bathroom, but when she opened the door and looked inside, the wish to soak in the tub vanished. The bathroom was a total mess. Towels were randomly scattered about the floor, which was wet with the cold waters of previous baths. Bottles of body-wash were toppled in various locations, lying in puddles of their own contents.

The curtain to the shower was the only thing still in-tact, even if just barely hanging from the bent metal bar above the edge of the tub. Never before had she seen such a mess. Then again, never before had she truly seen. Were it the day before, her two eyes would have seen two separate pictures, each one looking relatively fine in its own sense. Only now when her lines of sight merged was she fully capable to make out the actual mess.

The mess was horrid enough to bring tears to her soft and tired eyes. However she did not shed a single tear, for from the chaos before her also rose another feeling. This was a feeling that was only vaguely familiar to her: a sense of purpose.

Slowly and painstakingly Derpy Hooves cleaned the bathroom.

After using the dirty towels to soak up the water and suds she put them into the hamper and hung clean ones on the wooden wall rack with the chrome hooks. She then picked up the toppled soap bottles and wiped the spillage away with a slightly dampened cloth and replaced any knocked over decorations.

After an hour she found her work completed, and she softly landed her hooves to the sparkling floor. A feeling of accomplishment overcame her for this was the first time she had ever clearly seen anything she had cleaned.

Her happiness was short-lived. When she looked down to the floor she found that in the sparkling tiles beneath her hooves she could see her own reflection a thousand times over. In the tiny squares she saw a thousand images of herself from the photos she had seen; One-thousand images of Derpy Hooves; two thousand wall-eyes.

"I have to get out of this house." She whispered putting extra emphasis on the word have.

Without uttering another word she left the bathroom, trotted past the mirror, and departed from her home. Only when she was outside did the voices in her head quiet down enough so that she could hear her stomach growling.

"I know what I need," she giggled at her craving, "a muffin."

The trip to Sugar-Cube Corner was unlike any previous one. In fact, she could honestly say it was different than any trip she had taken before. Everywhere she looked she saw a clear picture of her surroundings; it was beautiful.

As she hovered close to the ground she caught a glimpse of the simple joys that nature had to show; joys that she had always overlooked. Colorful flora grew almost everywhere; flowers like daisies and petunias sprouted gracefully from the ground while decorative-looking walls of ivy and clover crept up the trees in small amounts. A sweet and refreshing scent filled the air, and allowed Derpy to feel relaxed.

Amongst the scenery one particular event caught her eye. Before, whenever she had seen birds, they had always seemed so separate, so secluded from both her and one-another. But this was different. She saw three birds, a family of robins, in a nest. She watched as the largest one, which she inferred to be the father in the family, stood close to who she believed was the mother. The two larger birds stood side by side watching proudly as their single hatchling hobbled clumsily about the nest.

They look so peaceful, she thought.

She had a chance to see this all before when she was walking home from the infirmary. But at that time she had been unable to enjoy it due to the continuous stream of questions running through her head. Now that she was trying to clear her mind, she found it far more enjoyable.

There was a moment of tranquility, which ultimately kept her entranced she watched curiously as the little bird wobbled over to the edge of the nest, and walked off.

At first Derpy didn't react, for it was a bird after all, and birds fly. However, when the bird failed to slow its descent despite the flailing of its wings, her curiosity was replaced with worry. Almost instantly that worry turned to fear, for it was now obvious that the young robin was still unable to fly.

Without a moment to lose, she dove in the direction of the bird's predicted landing zone. Her belly hit the ground with a thump, causing her to grunt softly, and her eyes stared up as the bird approached the ground. She held her breath, and waited until that moment when she felt the feathered aviator make contact with her forelegs head first.

"Oh my goodness!" cried a soft voice.

When Derpy lifted her head to see who it was she found herself face to face with none other than Fluttershy.

"Are you okay?" The pony was talking to the bird of course.

The bird shook its ruffled feathers in a way similar to a dog shaking water from its fur. It then nodded, just before the parents of the bird came rushing to meet their child. The two birds embraced the youngling, then nodded towards Derpy before lifting their child back into the nest.

Fluttershy on the other hoof did not leave.

"Oh," she said quietly, although it seemed as if the pony thought she was yelling. "That was very brave of you, to dive and save that poor baby bird."

The look on her face was sincerely grateful, and the way in which she spoke gave Derpy yet another feeling of both accomplishment and purpose.

"Please," the yellow pegasus pleaded, "let me make you lunch, I insist."

While Derpy was not at all used to receiving personal invitations, she also wasn't one to turn down a meal. A smile appeared on her face, and question slipped from her mouth without warning. "Will there be muffins?" Her voice contained a sense of hope, as if she truly desired nothing more than a muffin in her life. She was shocked at her own words. In fact, she never intended to say anything at all, but her stomach had a mind of its own.

Fluttershy only smiled, and nodded as softly as she spoke.

"If that's what you're hungry for, I brought home a whole basket from Sugar-Cube Corner this morning."

The yellow pony looked at the other pegasus who had by now rose to her hooves and shaken off the dust from her belly.

"Is something wrong?" Fluttershy asked, noticing the troubled expression on Derpy's face.

Indeed there is, thought Derpy. Had Fluttershy been there to witness the incident? Surely, she thought, Fluttershy had not been there to witness what was probably one of the most embarrassing moments in her life. "No," she lied, "of course not."

Fluttershy smiled and turned around, leading the way to her cottage with Derpy close behind. "Oh, thank goodness!" Once again her voice was soft and gentle. "I was worried you might still be hurt from last night. Come now, this way."

Derpy was left in shock. Perhaps Fluttershy had been there after all, she thought, now knowing that her assumptions had been a reality. But Fluttershy seemed very nonchalant about the whole ordeal. In fact, instead of mocking Derpy she seemed to truly care. Now all Derpy could do was hope the rest of Ponyville would be so kind.

Better not get your hopes up, she told herself in her mind. The skepticism in her thoughts reflected in her expression, though nopony was around to see her face.

By now Fluttershy was a good twenty yards ahead of her, and was still not yet aware that Derpy had stopped. In an effort to not arouse suspicion Derpy raced to catch up with the other.

Derpy's first step inside Fluttershy's cottage was no doubt her most enchanting one. Bird houses on the walls and mouse holes too. It seemed as if the room contained a miniature zoo, or rather a habitat, for the term zoo arouses the pictures of creatures in captivity rather than living in peaceful harmony.

Fluttershy led her to a table, inviting her to sit down at it. "I made tea," she said shyly, "I hope you like it."

Derpy watched as the other pegasus poured the warm brew into two separate cups. The concoction spun around in a whirlpool as the cup was filled, and a cloud of white steam rose quickly in a large puff before thinning to a smoky stream.

Next the yellow pegasus used her nose to push the small plate on which the cup was placed over to her guest. After this was done she disappeared upstairs and returned a few seconds later with a basket. Its contents could not be seen due to being covered by a red and white checkered cloth. She set the basket on the center of the table and smiled.

For a while neither of them moved, for fear that if they were to be the first to take a muffin then they would appear rude. This all changed, however, when Derpy's stomach growled again, giving her a reminder of how hungry she was. With her front-left hoof she lifted the cloth that covered the baked goods, and then with her teeth she took one of the pastries. To her surprise the muffin was still warm, even if not steaming hot. Slowly she placed it on her plate next to her tea. After seeing that her guest had done this, Fluttershy also took a muffin from the basket.

Derpy leaned in low to take a sip of her tea before pulling her head back up to speak. "The tea is delicious; might I ask where you found it?"

Fluttershy was, at that point, just finishing a sip of her tea as well. "Oh, I'm glad you like it. I bought it at a nice little tea shop over by Sugar-Cube Corner. If you want I can write the name down for you."

Derpy smiled warmly, nodding her head once to reposition her head, which added to the influence of her expression. "Yes please, thank you!" She said sincerely before looking off to her left for a moment. "You're really quite nice; I wonder why I haven't spoken much with you before. Or at least, I don't think we have." Her voice grew a little unnerved as she admitted to her poor memory.

Fluttershy used her napkin to dab off the crumbs from her own face before answering. "Oh, well, we haven't really spoken before. Not that I didn't want to talk to you, it's just I never noticed you speaking very much so I assumed that you were shy." Her voice also showed how nervous she was.

"I didn't…" Derpy repeated. It was more statement than question as she stared at the stream of steam rising from her beverage. The white cloud in the air intrigued her. Though the steam itself was amorphous in its ascent, it still maintained form and patterns. She noted how it always rose at the same speed, and for the most part each segment of the stream maintained its shape until it disappeared. There was a long moment of silence, and Fluttershy was beginning to believe that she had insulted her guest, and was therefore relieved when the yellow-eyed pegasus spoke again. "Was there ever a time in your life when you were not sure who you were?"

The question seemed a little random to the yellow pegasus. Nevertheless, she would of course answer the question without interrogation. Fluttershy thought for a moment, her eyes staring at the roof of the cottage. "Well, there was one time in my life." Her voice was filled with thought, and Derpy's ears received the answer with interest as the story unfolded. "It was a long time ago when I was filly. I was a very weak flier. My own wings could barely keep me off of the clouds. Back then I wasn't at all sure of my identity. It wasn't until I fell from the heights of Cloudsdale to the ground that I discovered who I was."

Derpy hid her disappointment behind a pseudo smile. This was not exactly the sort of story she was looking for. If anything it sounded more like the story to discovering a cutie mark. Still, she smiled and thanked her for the story before finishing her muffin and tea. The other mare had written down the name of the shop that sold the tea and passed it to her guest, who accepted the slip of paper graciously. She thanked her for the hospitality, and left the cottage to find that her visit had lasted for over an hour. She took the piece of paper and read the name of the shop. "The Red Leaf" was what was written, and was the next stop for its bearer.
She folded the piece of paper and slipped it behind her ear before going on her way back towards town.

The Red Leaf was a small, red bricked building that had nearly no way of being recognized as a store except for a small wooden sign above the single wooden door at the front of the building. Slowly, she opened the door and stepped in. The interior design of the shop had an old-times feeling. There was hay sprinkled on the brown floor. Due to the slight tint in the windows, a reddish glow was cast about the room and its four walls, two of which had long shelves that held boxes of different styles of tea. However, the part of the store that was most overwhelming to the senses was the scent. Even when the door to the shop first opened, a wave of sweet smelling aromas made its way into Derpy's nostrils. While it was an incredibly inviting scent, it was also extremely strong.

After entering she found that the building was almost completely empty except for a pony to her immediate left. Her pink color was still easy to make out despite the tint of the lighting. Derpy did not recognize this pony. Her eyes scanned over her features. However, the pony did seem to recognize Derpy, which could be inferred by the smile on the figures face when given a good look at her. The pony walked towards her, and spoke to her with a cheerful female voice.

"Derpy, is that you?"

The mare received no answer from the befuddled pegasus.

The earth pony continued to talk. "Derpy Hooves, it's been quite some time since I last saw you. It's me, Cheerilee."

Suddenly and without warning, Derpy's vision disappeared into a white flash. She felt her eyes returning to their awkward positions as the last phrase echoed in her head. She began to see random images and scenes flash across her vision. She heard voices, similar to the one she had heard spoken only a moment earlier.

"Derpy" she heard repeated in many voices, until finally by the one she recognized vaguely, and she was sure it was her mothers.

"Derpy, Its Cheerilee…" The name once again echoed through her head as an image of a filly standing in the frame of an opened door popped into her mind. The voice echoed slightly and started sound closer. She felt her eyes return to normal position, and her vision returned to her in a burst of light accompanied by the noise of her surroundings fading in.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Cheerilee spoke, clearly not aware of what had just happened.

Derpy blinked several times, as if to be sure that this was reality, and was separate from what she had just experience. She felt as if she was about to faint; no, she was definitely going to faint.

"Derpy?" She heard. "Derpy are you oka…"

Mirror mirror on the wall…

1 retpahC dnE|End Chapter 1

*Thank you verywrony for making the awesome cover art.
*Thank you to my two main editors: scifiresx13623 and ExoThermicDistraction25
*Thank you to those who helped edit and revise: Cameo-A-Lux, TheSharp0ne, Grimm-Michael, & Azure-Spark
**Special Thanks to my Bronies, you guys make writing worth while: cragl3yman343, Grimm-Michael, TexThePony, & bpskotch, you guys are great friends and I will never give up as long as I know you.

AND THANK YOU FOR READING!

Chapter 2

noitcelfeR|Reflection

2: Fade In, Black Out

"Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight…" spoke a mare. The voice echoed slightly as it was spoken much like a voice tends to reverberate in a small, tiled bathroom in an otherwise empty house. However the tone in which the mare spoke was warm and soft; much like a mother would speak to a child.

Derpy looked around for the source of the voice, but everywhere she looked she found her vision being distorted by a dark haze. Behind the blanket of darkness, shadowy figures were seen scattered and separated into different groups; each one was seemingly oblivious of any other group besides their own.

The mysterious mare's voice continued to chant the nursery rhyme. Derpy found herself feeling somehow separated from the voice that spoke, and also from her own self. It was impossible to comprehend, but it was as if her mind and body where two separate entities. She was standing, but she could not feel the ground beneath her hooves.

The voice continued its chant, and Derpy felt as if she recognized the mare that spoke. The only way she could be sure was to take a shot in the dark.

"Mother?" She called out, her heart begging for a response. "Mother, is that you?" Derpy found that when she spoke her own voice did not have the same echo in the air like the mysterious mare's, but instead merely seemed to dissipate in the haze. In fact she felt as if she was able to literally watch he own words disappear in darkness without a trace, never to be seen again.

The voice she believed to be her own mother's didn't stop when Derpy spoke; it only continued to sing the little rhyme. This voice however seemed all too distant, as if calling from a remote position or even some separate location in time. Were those her memories? Those images, those shadowy figures, were they just silhouettes in time, just echoes of the past?

Once again Derpy heard the mare. This time however the voice did not reverberate as much; that clarity made it easier to understand.

While the mare sang, a particular scene began to materialize before her, as life and color began to cast a new light upon the previously shadow-like figures.

The first thing she saw was a mare, who happened to be the pony that Derpy heard singing. She was a unicorn with a cool-blue coat. Her mane, which was shoulder length, was colored a snowy-white that turned to magenta near the ends of each hair. The mare seemed to stand over her, looking lovingly down towards Derpy with relaxed eyes.

As the song that the mare was singing came to an end, Derpy heard yet another voice. This one however belonged to a stallion. Although he was not in her direct line of sight his reflection could be seen in a mirror behind the blue mare. A warm-green-coated pony with a silver mane and tail. Most of what he said was easy to understand, but there were parts of his speech that were distorted and sank into strange white noises in the air. "He says that nopony… her."

The unicorn slowly looked away from Derpy and locked eyes with the stallion.

He seemed worried. The way he breathed in slightly deeper breaths resembled that of a pony who had just finished speaking in a rather heated argument with another. Obviously he had been doing a great deal of yelling. His tired eyes, which resembled the sort of heaviness one acquires once a large amount of adrenaline starts to wear off, confirmed that theory.

The mare returned a frown. She spoke softly, sounding as if she was trying to hold back tears. "It isn't right."

"I know," replied the stallion, the white noises in the air making some parts harder to understand. "But we… all we can. I know that you… her, and I will… you to the end. I plan on taking this to… They will know what to do."

The mare attempted a smile which she was unable to manage. There were still traces of fear and stress in her expression. "Thank you."

Why was it that they both spoke in trembling voices?

The stallion nodded as if to give her his assurance. "If we… then let her be…" The voice cut off there.

No, no! thought Derpy desperately. It was the first thought that she had voluntarily had while in this state. "Please finish! Let her be what?"

"Derpy," she heard, but the voice was unrecognizable, and the sound of it, it sliced through air like arrows through smoke. Outbreaks of sound began to distort the scene before her and in a matter of moments, and all of a sudden all was gone.

"Derpy…" she heard again, this time more clearly, "Derpy!"

Her eyes rolled back into proper alignment before shooting open. A burst of retina-burning red light met her vision, and by mere instinct she winced. She now could make out the shape and colors of Cheerilee, who had indeed been the pony to call her name moments ago. She was standing beside an elderly mare.

Her eyes looked downward to see that an elderly stallion was waving some sort of burning incense beneath her nostrils even though it was scentless.

"I told you Ma, I knew how to wake her up!" The stallion said with a grin, his oriental accent showing in his speech as his eyes gleamed with pride at the accomplishment.

The elderly mare rolled her eyes sarcastically and leaned in closer to Derpy. Carefully she used her hoof to dab the newly awakened pony's forehead with a damp cloth.

Derpy graciously received the act of kindness and thanked her warmly. If her head hadn't hurt before it definitely hurt now.

Cheerilee spoke next. "Are you okay? You took quite a fall there." She and the elderly mare helped Derpy to her hooves.

Once standing she started to feel a little disoriented and her head began to throb some more.

Meanwhile the stallion had disappeared into the back room of the shop. A few minutes later he reappeared with a brown paper bag, tied shut with a golden ribbon, perched securely on his back. Slowly he made his way back to the other three, being careful not to drop the bag or its contents. He then picked the bag up on his hoof and set it on the countertop by the register before turning to see if Derpy was alright.

With the assistance of Cheerilee, she was able to remain standing, even though she was still a little disoriented.

Derpy looked at Cheerilee, her cheeks blushing a bright red; Cheerilee looked back at her with the warm expression that one can only receive from a school-teacher. It radiated with a certain glow that made it clear that she cared for the pegasus' well-being and it warmed Derpy's heart.

"I must have fainted from exhaustion," she said, still unsure of what had actually happened.

The stallion grunted like he was coughing, though nopony was convinced that he had a cold. "I don't think that was it."

The mare that went by Ma rolled her eyes, as if to silently say 'here we go again.'

The stallion ignored his wife's gesture and continued explaining his thoughts while Derpy listened closely to the elderly pony's words. "This room is filled with positive energy, and besides, there is caffeine in the air from all the tea."

The mare rolled her eyes once more, but this time actually did say "here we go again." Again she was ignored by the stallion, who only raised his voice so he could be more clearly heard.

"I have seen tons of ailments, and only a few of them are as interesting as getting old. On one occasion I met a pony who had come into the shop searching for some wisdom from yours truly." He pretended not to hear his wife scoff at this. "He spake of memories that were flooding to his mind. He said that whenever it happen it was at bad times, usually in front of other ponies, and he always fainted afterwards. So I tell him something important to know. I say to him sometimes there are things you will try to forget but will always remember. Then there are things that you truly need to remember but you always forget."

"He's talking about our anniversary," joked the old mare, and she and their company all laughed.

"Mock me if you must, but when that pony was in the insane asylum there was no joking."

Nopony laughed. In fact the room was now dead silent except for the ticking of an old grandfather clock in the back room. The sound of which reverberated through the building in a ghostly manner.

"That is right. He could not figure out what his visions meant and it caused him to go insane. He over-thought each situation that he thought about. The truth was that even once he remembered what it was that he had forgotten, he always expected more of it to come, and it did. He did not just need to know what he had forgotten, he needed to know why."

There was a moment of silence, each moment building tension as if the old man was telling a ghost story and suddenly stopped when something scary was about to happen.

Finally the old mare broke the silence. "Well I think we have had enough of that for one day. You'd better stop now before you scare away all the customers again."

"What customers? We are an hour past closing time!"

Derpy's eyes widened slightly as she looked to the door. When she had first entered the store it was mid-day, now the sky was vacant of the sun completely, and stars were scattered across the endless plains above. She must have been unconscious for quite some time.

"Don't mind my husband girls; he is a few nicks short of a knack if you know what I mean."

What a silly expression, thought Derpy turning her head back to the elderly mare with a wide grin on her face. She giggled as she thought of the words "nicks" and "knack."

The stallion himself also seemed to find some joy from analogy that used nicks and knacks in such a way. However he said nothing to retort. If he had learned one thing over the years it was that arguing with Ma was like convincing a rock to speak; it couldn't be done and even trying to do it would end with him looking like a fool. So instead of arguing, he turned around and went to retrieve the brown bag he had set on the counter. Once again, he perched it on his back, this time quite precariously.

When he was close enough for her to do so, Ma took the bag from his back before it could fall and gave it to Derpy. "On the house!" she said with a grin. "Compliments of my husband who found the name of the tea written on a slip of paper."

Derpy took the package in her teeth and tossed it onto her back. "Thank you!" she said, loud enough that Cheerilee jumped. The elderly ponies however did not flinch, which made Cheerilee's reaction appear even more comical.

The elderly mare looked out the window. "Are you well enough to walk home?"

Derpy shrugged. "I'm still a bit woozy."

"Well gee Derpy; I could walk you home if you wanted." Cheerilee said with a smile. She was as perky as ever, it seemed.

"You wouldn't mind?" The pegasus asked, shrinking back shyly. She still was not used to being offered favors from other ponies. "I wouldn't want to be a bother."

"Oh it's no bother! I would love to help an old friend!"

Friend? Thought Derpy.

Ma looked at them with a slight smirk. Her eyes were only half open, and her overall expression was that of a pony who had been in such situations before. "That's very friendly of you, Cheerilee. You two, come back soon now."

Cheerilee nodded, smiling as she helped Derpy out the door. "Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Tea!"

"Thank you!" Derpy called back as well.

Then the door shut behind as soon as they turned around. The old mare spent a few moments watching through the window as they slowly trotted away from the shop. Once they had disappeared around a corner she calmly made her way over to the counter. There she slowly took off her apron and hung it on a rack that looked like it was most likely meant for hats. Then she departed to the back room where her husband was.

The old earth pony sat on a fancy-looking cushion made of a royal purple-colored fabric. In front of him was a low wooden table, which supported a number of photographs, the picture frames of which were all uniquely shaped. They were surrounded by a number of candles, which when lit would provide the necessary light to clearly see the photographs.

Six of the many candles were lit around a particular photograph, which the old stallion stared at prolonging. His head was slightly tilted as if to show interest. However the dark rings around his eyes accompanied by the bags and wrinkles created the allusion of emptiness in his expression. His gaze was tired and weary, but not physically so. It was the tired look given by a pony who had lived a long time, seen a lot of things, and was looking for rest. Like a long journey for peace coming to an end, and its travelers looking for the refuge of a sanctuary.

"Ma," he said in his own soft but aged voice.

"Yes, I'm here." She replied with a voice of the same qualities.

"Ma, I fear old age has damaged my memory. Tell me Ma, was that indeed little Derpy Hooves?"

"It was."

"And her memory?"

"No better than yours. She seemed a little bit different."

The stallion frowned slightly, and there was a long moment of silence.

The mare continued, "What troubles you?" She trotted up behind him and looked over his shoulder. The picture in front of him, the one he seemed to be lost in with his vacant stare, was one of a young unicorn. She had a blue coat, and a snowy white mane, shoulder length, which turned magenta near the ends of each hair.

The stallion's frown started to change to a faint smile. "Well, she was always a little bit different. Even back then."

Ma let loose a little giggle. "Oh what do you know you old fool?"

The stallion shook his head. "I may be old, that is no lie. However a fool I am not. They called me the Wantan Pony, the Great Spring Roll, and Mista' Chopstick; but most of all they called Dr. Noodles. They called me this because I was a great thinker who knew how to use my noodle!"

"And now you eat noodles, so the name still stays. Yes?"

"You can mock me, but you can never change who I am: a retired astronomer who started a family tea business like my father, and I am the second oldest member of the Colab!"

The stallion's voice maintained a sense of importance, which even Ma could not ignore. "You forgot something."

"And what is that, Ma?"

"You're also the only one to win my heart." She hugged her husband and kissed him on his cheek. There the two earth-ponies exchanged looks of love that had lasted through the years. Then Ma broke away and began walking out. "Now come on dear, it's movie night!"

"What movie?"

"Sister-hooves of the galloping prance!"

"Bah- I don't want to watch."

"Why not?"

"For goddess sakes Ma we have rented the same two movies every week for the last ten years!"

"Bah- have it your way, I'm watching!" The mare flipped the switch on the projector and waited a moment before the credits apeared. She listened closely for something that she knew was coming. The winding of a key in a music box that her husband had in the other room; the same music box that he had listened to since they married. When it would stop playing, the old stallion would simply wind the key again and again. It seemed to be the only thing that kept him sane these days.

She listened to the melody as it played so sweetly, and after a minute she began to hum to the tune of it, and then even began singing the words to the actual melody. "Holding you, holding you, it's in you
River flows in you."

When the song hit its last note, she listened closely. Then came the sound of the cogs being twisted as her husband wound the music box up, and she started watching the movie.

Once they had turned the corner, the situation for the two mares was starting to feel awkward. Thankfully, Cheerilee tried to start some conversation.

"You had me worried there, Derpy." Her tone of voice was filled with a noticeable amount of concern for the other's well-being.

The grey pegasus gave the teacher a slight smile, which appeared to be just a little awkward, considering her headache had returned and was causing her some pain. "Sorry about that," she said in a voice that just barely gave away that she was in pain.

Cheerilee giggled. "Oh, it's fine."

There was another long pause.

"Cheerilee?"

"Yes?"

"Were we friends in the past?"

Cheerilee looked away with her eyes to the upper corner of her vision, making a coy smile in an expression that resembled a pony who was definitely up to something silly.. "You could say that."

Derpy raised a brow.

Cheerilee continued, "In fact, I guess you could say that back then we were quite close!"

The pain in Derpy's head subsided for a moment. Now was her chance to ask the question that had been on her mind recently. "Was I always so, you know…"

"Derpy?" Cheerilee finished the question for her. Derpy nodded.

For a while Cheerilee said nothing. Rather, she only stared into the distance where vision became limited. The steps that they took forward seemed to match the rhythm of a ticking clock. While this was not the actual pace at which they walked, it felt the same. Each step was prolonged, or at least it seemed so. Every second seemed long, and every step slow.

The suspense was starting to become intense. Derpy was relieved when Cheerilee finally spoke, breaking the silence of the cold night.

"No," she said, "you weren't. I can barely remember a time when you were quite normal. You were still different, but not as… you know."

The pegasus sighed, but another question formed in her mind. "What about my memory?"

There was yet another pause, but only a short one. "Your memory when I knew you a long time ago wasn't any better. At least I don't think it was any better. It was different. That's it; your memory back then was different."

Derpy's mind started to race again and before she knew it her headache was back. She stopped walking in front of her house. Subconsciously she had been leading Cheerilee to her home without really realizing it.

She turned around to look at Cheerilee. "Thank you for walking me home." she said warmly.

"Of course! You and I should really catch up some time. I'm always at the schoolhouse so if you ever need to see me you know where to find me."

The two ponies waved hooves, and exchanged a hug before the magenta-colored mare departed from the house.

Well, thought Derpy, I have a friend.

Once settled inside her house Derpy decided that she should make a cup of tea. After all, that stallion had been so very kind to give her a free bag of it.

The pony walked into the kitchen and searched around for a tea pot, which she found and filled with water. She then walked over to her fireplace, lit a few logs, and set the pot on the metal holder above the flames. Then she went back to the kitchen and opened the paper back, which in fact was still on her back, and used her teeth to retrieve some of its contents. Once she had a few tea bags in the grasp of her jaws, she pulled her snout out from the bag and made her way back to the fireplace. Steam was already starting to come from the pot.

After a few minutes more, she began to feel drowsy. She would have dosed off but the pot began to squeal. She took it off of the fire, opened the top, and began mixing the tea with the water. After doing so she used her teeth to pour some of the brew into a small cup, which she carried back to her own room.

Derpy crawled into bed, and slowly started to sip her drink. It was amazing! In fact it was so delicious that she started to take bigger and bigger drinks until the point where she was practically gulping it down.

What is this, she thought, why do I crave it?

Her throat felt scratchy, and she needed more to drink.

Why am I so thirsty?

She ran back to the pot, and poured some more. But it didn't help. She poured another cup, then another, until finally she felt like she was choking on dust.

Why am I so unbearably thirsty?

She couldn't take it anymore. She grabbed the pot and poured the liquid directly down her throat. The steaming hot brew scorched her mouth and caused her eyes to tear up. But she didn't stop. Instead she tilted it more, and poured the entire pot into her open mouth, and it began to overflow. The warm liquid surrounded her body and she was starting to feel drenched. She coughed and choked on the liquid and she came to realize she could not breathe.

I need air!

She stumbled and coughed her way around, stumbling into the bathroom. Suddenly she tripped and she fell into the tub which was filled with lukewarm water. She flailed and kicked to get out, but all attempts failed.

I'm drowning!

All the oxygen now gone from her lungs she knew she had to escape from this trap and find air. She looked up, and squirmed with all her energy.

Still she had no luck.

She felt the crushing weight of her lungs collapsing in on themselves and she panicked, now pushing against anything she could find. At the last second she pushed her head up out of the water and a burst of light met her eyes. She was on the floor in front of the fireplace, and below her was a puddle of warm water that was mixing itself with the tea bags that had been lying there. The tea-pot was toppled not too far from her.

It was only a dream?

She stood up and ran to the bathroom, to find that the tub was empty, and the bathroom was exactly the way she left it that morning. She turned to the mirror and saw herself, her own eyes were misaligned.

No!

She shook her head, and looked again. Her eyes were normal, correctly aligned.

Derpy turned on the faucet and splashed cool water on her face. What happened?

After an hour and a half of pacing back and forth, muttering to herself, Derpy came to a conclusion. She had dozed off that much was certain. But that nightmare, that awful dream, did it mean something? Why had she dreamed such an awful dream?

There was yet another fear in her heart, the fear that this would all fade from her memory soon enough. That all of what she had learned and seen that day would be nothing but a forgotten whisper of the past. She had to preserve her memories.

Derpy trotted over to her bedside dresser, and found in the bottom drawer a notepad and a pen. Holding the pen in her teeth she wrote about every single detail of the day's events, and not just that day, but also the story that the nurse had told her about the day before. She had but one goal in mind: remember.

When she finished she set the book down on her pillow where she would easily find it upon waking, and laid her head down to rest.

I will remember,she thought, and she drifted off to sleep.

In the silence of her house, she imagined a little melody playing in her head. She didn't recognize it, but it seemed like something she must have grown quite familiar to. "Holding you, holding you, it's in you
River flows in you"

Then the world faded to a blanket of sleep.

Star light, star bright, last star I see tonight…

2 retpahC dnE|End Chapter 2

Chapter 3

noitcelfeR|Reflection

3: The Reminder's Inceptive

From the late-winter period and on through the early days of spring in Ponyville, the sunlight was a sort of blessing in the otherwise cool air. Even after the sparkling snow had melted during this years Winter Wrap Up, its chill still lingered nearby. Despite this fact, Derpy Hooves remained sheltered from the rays of sunlight under a red and white parasol. The umbrella, being perched on a long metal pole that jutted through the table in front of her, was just high enough so that it hid her body from the sun. This was true of course with the exception of her wings, which she preferred to keep in the warmth of its glow.

Derpy's table was located in the outside seating section of one of her favorite restaurants: The Blossomed Daisy. This was her preferable place to relax whilst reading the journal which she had found on her pillow upon waking. Here she could sit and sip a tall glass of fresh-made lemonade as she allowed the words to flow freely back into her mind.

It was a bit of a thrill, really. Many of the events that she had written down the previous night had indeed vacated her memory. However, while she could not remember each event itself, she could remember and recognize the emotions from certain events. For example, even though she did not directly remember diving to catch a falling baby robin after it fell from its nest, she was still familiar with the sudden rush of excitement and terror that had befallen her at that moment. Because of this she had very little trouble putting two and two together and matching each event with the emotions they had derived from.

This process of course was not without flaw. Minor events, such as eating with Fluttershy, were not quick to return to her memory. In addition to that, details to any events were often scarce. If it were not written in her journal she would have never been reminded of what the robins looked like, or the way that the elderly stallion at Red Leaf tended to mispronounce words that had a strong use of the letter L.

The mare sighed, and closed the journal once she was finished reading. She relaxed her shoulders, allowing them to slouch a little, and let her wings fold neatly back to her sides. The pegasus then looked up to the parasol. Its round shape and duel colored fabric was just like all the others on the restaurant's property. Its pole, like the rest of them, rose the same three and a half feet above the table top below, which had the same circular shape as the others.

The umbrella itself radiated with a sense of common familiarity that she felt within her, and the same feeling seemed to arouse within the atmosphere of the restaurant. The waiter, whose name she knew only because of the name tag he wore on his chest, had known to prepare her a glass of lemonade before she could even order it. When he brought the beverage to her, for he knew she was left hooved. He also acknowledged her by name twice: once when greeting her, and once again five minutes later when asking if she would like anything to eat. While these were generally recognized as displays of good customer service, they were also bits of information that could have only been learned over a period of time and a number of visits to the facility.

Derpy sighed softly as her gaze was directed towards the drink. Even in the cool air, condensation had managed to form on the outside of the glass.

It then occurred to her the question of how she had ended up at the eatery. Not once did she need to ask anypony for directions. Instead she simply knew to hover down the trail from her house for six minutes, take a left at the first turn, then continue down the path for another five until she saw the charming little faded red brick structure with the black-shingled roof. She was able to make the trip in the same way that she had lead Cheerilee to her own house the night before; that is without the need to think about it.

She leaned in closely to the glass and took a sip of the sweet tasting beverage through the straw, which held the same colors as the umbrellas. As well as quenching her thirst, the taste was very satisfying. Unlike artificial lemonade which was the concoction of a diluted powder in water, this drink had the crisp tang of freshly squeezed lemons. But the tart lemon was not without the company of the blissful sweetness brought in by the real sugar. It was funny, she thought, just how much of a difference could be found between an artificial powder and the real thing.

Derpy wondered if there were any ponies that might have a greater knowledge of how memories worked. Maybe some pony in town could better explain why she was able to remember such things as the location of a restaurant when she was unable to recall what sort of muffins she had for lunch the previous day.

Her gaze panned to her journal.

Maybe, she thought, there is some pony who may know after all.

For Derpy Hooves, a visit to the local library was not a regular occurrence. She did know where it was, and that it was in fact inside a very large tree. She also knew that it was filled with books. However she never had the particular need to stop by. In fact, reading at all was something she rarely did on her own time. until recently she never truly had the need-or the proficiency, for that matter- to read at all. It was not that she was unable to read, but rather that it was difficult for her. Perhaps it was because of these things that she received such mixed reactions from Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike when she entered the library that noon.

Spike being the younger of the two was the first to allow his curiosity to be spoken in the form of words. "Isn't that Derpy Hooves?" he asked with a raised brow. He had been standing on a ladder to put a few books in their places on the top shelves when the pegasus had stepped through the doorway.

Upon hearing the question Twilight looked up from her studies. She acted as if this was the first time she noticed Derpy inside the store, when in fact she was aware from the very moment the door had opened. Actually she was more than aware, she seemed rather excited.

The purple unicorn used her magic to close the book on ancient civilizations that she had been reading and stood up. "Well hello Derpy," she said with a smile as she trotted cheerfully over to where the visitor stood. "I didn't expect to see you here. Is there a specific book you're looking for?"

Derpy scanned the room quickly. High walls were laced with bookshelves which were just as high as the walls. There had to be at least ten thousand books in the library, and she began to wonder just how they were able to find any book at all.

"I'm not sure," she answered honestly. She hadn't actually thought about what she was looking for, but maybe she could try and describe her problem. "A lot of strange things have been happening recently; some memory problems. Well, actually I think I always had memory problems. But I want to know why, and I thought maybe there would be a book that could tell me why I can remember some things and not other things. Does that make sense?" The pegasus winced.

Twilight seemed un-phased. "I am sure we have a book like that somewhere in here. What sort of things are you not having problems remembering?"

"Places."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Derpy said, looking away, "like where I live. I want to know why I don't have any trouble remembering how to get to places like home."

"Oh! Well why didn't you say so?" Twilight seemed to understand what it was that Derpy was trying to describe. "It sounds to me like you are looking for a book that talks about the subconscious."

"Sub-a-what now?" Spike said, doing a double take.

Twilight smiled. "Subconscious, Spike. It's the part of your brain that you don't control. It's what makes dreams and gives you emotions, and also what lets you remember things without thinking about them."

Derpy hadn't the slightest clue about what Twilight was speaking of. However the unicorn did seem to understand this entire situation, so she decided to listen to what the pony had to say.

A purple glow magically formed around Twilight's horn. The same glow then appeared around a thick blue book, which she lifted from its position on a shelf and placed carefully on a wooden podium not too far from where they were standing.

"Let's see here," she said as she opened the book and began magically flipping through the pages. Derpy thought it was funny the way she muttered as she searched. "No, nope, that's not it… oh I think I found… never mind, oh here it is!"

Derpy tilted her head to show interest.

"Chapter thirty-two: Subconscious Supplements Relating to Location in Space and or Time."

Derpy spaced out for a second as the unicorn read the title. It was both impressive and a bit intimidating the way that she could read such a title as if it were as simple as the title to a children's book. She shook her head as if waking from a trance before trotting over to where Twilight was. She then peeked over her host's shoulder to take a look at the title of the book, which was of course conveniently printed at the top of every even-numbered page.

Upon seeing the title her eyes widened, and she did a double take. "Wait…" she mumbled, "that's the name of a title in a book called 'Things like Remembering and Stuff?'"

Twilight must not have noticed how comical it was or how much disbelief was in the other mare's voice, for she simply continued to scan the pages offering only a slight nod as an answer to the pegasus' question.

"Ah," the unicorn said at last, "here we go. This is what you must be looking for." Twilight stepped aside as to allow the pegasus to step up and read the book for herself.

Derpy felt uncomfortable. She didn't want to make it clear that she was a poor reader, but then again it was an inevitable truth.

"You can read, can't you?" Twilight asked her, not realizing how insensitive she was being. In her mind she was only joking around. However, when Derpy blushed a bright red and bit her lip, the smile disappeared. "Oh I didn't mean to…"

"No," Derpy cut in, "I can read. Just, not very well." She looked down and kicked at the ground a little.

Twilight, who must have been feeling awful at this point because she had an expression of dread on her face, felt rather awkward. However in light of what had just happened she felt obligated to offer her assistance.

"Say no more, Derpy. I would be happy to read for you!" Her tone of voice was friendly, and it seemed as if she sincerely wanted to offer her help not only as an assistant, but as a friend too.

"Oh thank you, Twilight!" Derpy said happily. Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks and she felt a cold chill go down her spine.

How do I know her name?/ She thought to herself.

All of a sudden she felt her eyes roll, and everything faded to black. In addition to an overwhelming sense of déjà vu, she felt a sudden urge of fear. Was this really happening again?

Her mind went blank, and Twilights voice dissipated into nothingness. She felt alone, and in her subconscious she was alone.

A psychedelic array of lights and pictures flashed across her vision. Pictures of the pony flashed all around. Her first visit to Ponyville, her appearance at the Summer Sun Celebration, her part in the previous year's Winter Wrap Up; memories of all sorts were flooding before her very eyes. But there was more than that. Distant images of a young filly with a purple coat appeared before her. But it wasn't the filly herself who confused Derpy; it was the scenery around her. She did not recognize this place. The buildings all around her were unfamiliar, and the flora was different than that of which grows in Ponyville.

Then, as quickly as it had started, it was all over. Her vision and hearing returned, and she was standing in the same place she had been before.

"Did that sound right?" Twilight asked curiously. Was it possible that she was completely oblivious to what had just happened?

"Wha?" Derpy stuttered, though it was more statement than question.

Twilight turned her head and cocked a brow. "Weren't you listening? I just spent five minutes reading the chapter to you."

There was an awkward moment of silence.

What do I do now? Do I tell her? What will she think of me? She is staring at me, I have to say something. Maybe I should just tell her the truth.

Derpy sighed. She found that there was no reason to lie. Slowly, and painstakingly, she explained to the unicorn everything that she knew. She spared no detail, and mentioned every little thing she had written down in her journal and what she had learned since then. She explained how that once before at Red Leaf she had blacked out, and also how she lost consciousness soon afterwards.

"This time was different though," she explained. "I didn't faint after returning to my senses."

Twilight voiced the oh-so popular "hmm" that every pony associates with thinking, the sound of which trailed off as she turned back to the book. Her eyes began jumping from left to right, scanning the small print on the pages before her. They stopped searching, and the smile of a satisfied scholar appeared on her face. She began to read a particular passage from the book:

"Understanding dreams is not unlike reading a map. In both cases landmarks are an essential key to success. But before you can find a landmark you must first understand what makes one. Reoccurring events or locations can become such landmarks."

Derpy took a moment to digest what had been read. At first she began to wonder how that passage could relate to the issue. It seemed to only explain why she could remember where places were, such as her home. But the way Twilight spoke the word 'reoccurring' seemed to stand out. "So," she questioned, "because I have seen you more often than Cheerilee, you are landmarked in my memory?"

Hearing Derpy say it must have contradicted what Twilight had been thinking. Her smile faded to a plain expression and she displayed a small amount of disappointment. "But that doesn't seem like the answer. I hardly see you at all around Ponyville, so I doubt you see me very much."

It was true; Derpy did not see Twilight much at all. Maybe every once in a while she would catch a glimpse of the unicorn walking with Spike riding on her back, but that was only every now and then. But there was something in particular that made it difficult to separate truth from assumptions. There was a brief moment in her visions when the images of Twilight did not seem to fit in with the others. She had seen a young filly, a child version of the present unicorn in front of her, and she was in a place not like Ponyville. Had Derpy met Twilight somewhere else?

Twilight seemed to share in Derpy's confusion, but not for the same reasons. The unicorn was once again scavenging through the chapter to see if she could find more information.

Even though Derpy was disappointed that they didn't find all the answers, she was still excited that they had solved the other problem. "While that doesn't explain why I didn't faint, at least I know why I can remember."

Twilight looked up from the studies and offered the other a smile. She appeared to be happy to accept the implied "thank you."

Derpy went on. "Maybe if I learn how to make these 'landmarks,' I could keep from forgetting as much as I do."

"Maybe," Twilight replied suggestively, "and you might be able to uncover landmarks that have already been formed!"

Derpy had her doubts, but the thought of remembering anything was enough to fill her with a sort of joy that filled her heart. "That sounds great! So how do I make landmarks?"

The unicorn looked back to the book. "According to this you create landmarks through a process called 'Incepting Reminders.' Which makes sense because inception means 'the start of' or 'beginning'. You have to 'incept' some sort of unforgettable element into an otherwise easy-to-forget area. By doing this you will be able to create a mental map, and what makes it even better is that the more of these inceptions you make the better you will remember all the others!"

Inception? thought Derpy.

Twilight must have picked up on her thoughts because she went on to say: "It sounds interesting doesn't it?"

Derpy nodded. "But wait, you said I need to insert some sort of 'unforgettable element.' What does that mean?"

Twilight read a little further on in her head. "Well it doesn't say anything else on the subject other than that there are a number of different types of these elements. But we will have to just do some research of our own!"

We? Derpy wondered. "Excuse me Twilight, but did you say we?"

Twilight smiled and closed her eyes as she offered an expression that displayed her sincerity. "Of course Derpy, I would do anything to help a friend."

Friend… There was that word again. It was the second time she had heard that word used to describe her. When Derpy first left her house the day before, she never would have dreamed that she would have friends. Then again she was too upset then to think about it, and before then she probably couldn't have had any real friends anyways. It was most likely that nopony could understand her well enough to consider Derpy a friend.

"Spike!" the unicorn called.

The pitter-patter of tiny dragon feet on the wooden ground echoed lightly in the quiet library. "I'm here!" he said holding both a quill and parchment.

"Spike, make a list and title it 'The Reminder's Inceptive.'"

Spike did as told.

The unicorn turned away from the other two and started pacing. "First we will need to try and find out what sort of 'inceptives' can be used to help with her memory. We will go to the park where we have our pet play-dates tomorrow and test out a few different ideas. Then we will go visit the Cakes and the Apples to see if we can find any landmarks you may have already embedded into your memory. Then we can come back in two days to review our progress!" She turned to Derpy. "From now on we have but one objective, to help you remember!"

3 retpahC dnE|End Chapter 3

Chapter 4

noitcelfeR|Reflection

4: Dream of the Sandman

"Alright ponies," said Twilight, as she paced in the library.

Spike folded his arms and grunted in protest. "Ehem."

Twilight stopped pacing for a moment and raised a brow. "And dragon…" Upon hearing that, Spike beamed with pride. The unicorn rolled her eyes at how easy it was to appease him. "It has been three days since we made our plan; time to recap! You first Spike, what do your notes say?"

The baby dragon opened a scroll and began to read. "Applejack didn't remember Derpy ever visiting the farm, just passing it. Neither did Big Mac. Apple Bloom said that she was in the orchard a couple of times, but always left in a hurry."

Twilight nodded and looked to Derpy, who recognized that it was her turn to give a report. "My journal said that we visited the Cakes, but I can't remember anything about that. I also read about an owl that I sort of remembered. I know it kept asking me questions."

Spike snickered and rolled his eyes to where Owlowicious was sleeping. "Yeah, he does that."

Twilight giggled at the dragon's remark, and the two of them exchanged looks of a silent understanding.

Derpy noticed the expressions, and wondered what they were thinking about. The two were obviously very close friends, family even. It was so strange to her how it felt to have friends. The feeling was a warm and welcoming sensation that seemed to fill some emotional hole in her heart.

Twilight and her assistant finished their friendly exchange of memories and Spike went back to work shelving books. Twilight watched him scurry off to his duties before turning back to Derpy. "Did you remember where it was?"

Derpy shook her head causing Twilight to frown. "Sorry, I could only remember the owl. If it wasn't in my journal then I would never have known where we were that day."

There was a third pony attending the meeting as well. Pinkie Pie, who had somehow managed to incorporate herself into the quest for Derpy's memory, was just now about to speak. "Hmmm… that makes sense."

All three members of Pinkie's audience stared at her with raised brows, including Spike who was currently at the top of a tall ladder. "It does?" the trio asked in unison.

The Pink Earth-pony nodded her head excitedly. "Well duh! It's kind of obvious. You see…"

[The night before]

Tall walls surrounded Derpy, towering above her not menacingly, but rather in a way that provided her with a sense of curiosity. They were blue, sky blue to be specific. She felt safe for a moment, as if she was where she was supposed to be. Then she heard a voice, not unlike the one she had once believed to be her mother's and a tall shadow appeared on one of the walls. The shadow did not fill her with fear but instead caused the room to feel less empty. But there was still the voice, which seemed to come from nowhere. It sang to her.

"The Sandman's coming in his train of cars
With moonbeam windows and with wheels of stars
So hush you little foals and have no fear
The horse-in-the-sky, he is the engineer"

She wanted to see that face again, that unicorn. She wanted to remember.

Derpy looked up to the sky to see that it was also blue. The paint job was exceptionally well done, there were even clouds painted on the ceiling. But the clouds, there was something off about them. Why were they moving? She looked back down to see the walls again but the sky blue room had vanished and she was now outside.

Twilight also voiced the curious "hmmm" noise. "So what you're saying is that…"

Pinkie Pie leaned back and inhaled a great amount of air. At first it appeared she was having some sort of stroke, but as she inhaled impossibly deeper, it became clear that she was preparing for one of her long monologues. Twilight and Spike braced themselves for the long speech while Derpy stood there with a confused expression on her face, but sat back on her haunches next to the purple unicorn and awaited for Pinkie's explanation.

When she finally spoke; it was so quick and without pausing so while it may have been possible to understand, it would take intensive listening skills to do so. "When Derpy was talking to the Cakes, it was so boring. I mean really, who talks about such unexciting stuff for that long. All they did was talk about the weather and other pointless things like that. I mean even I don't remember what else they were talking about because it was just a bunch of boring babbling! I mean who likes it when you just go on talking about nothing? I sure don't. But when she was talking to Owlowicious it was a whole different story! He was all like 'Who?' and she was all like 'me!' It was just so funny because she kept getting mad, then sad, then confused, and then frustrated! I could barely contain my laughing it was so much fun to watch!"

I bet that pony is a fantastic singer. thought Derpy, For her to make such a speech in a single breath was an amazing feat.

The two ponies remained motionless, lost in thought with star struck expressions. They were so gone from reality in fact that neither of them noticed when the equally dazed Spike fell from the ladder. Almost instantly he recovered and looked up from the ground on which his belly lied flat on. He raised a finger and twirled it as he spoke as if following imaginary stars orbiting his head.

"So what you're saying is…" he started to say, though Pinkie cut him off.

"What I'm saying is that when she was talking to the owl it was different than when she was talking to the Cakes. Instead of all boring it was buzzing with excitement and feelings were being tossed around left and right!"

The statement seemed to spark some interest in the group, because nopony spoke a word in response

Derpy looked around for a few moments, trying to remember where she was, but with little success. It was all so blurry, all so uncertain. There were buildings around her, but none that she recognized. They had walls that seemed to reach so high as to actually touch the sky above. Below these enormous structures she suddenly felt very small. It frightened her.

Derpy looked down, as a child does to hide their face from strangers. But to her surprise she found that there was a puddle directly in front of her. The shallow water worked like a mirror, for she could see all the buildings around her by looking into the reflection. This time things looked different. Instead of being blurry she found the image to be very clear. The buildings were ivory, and some of them even had pillars supporting their structures.

No longer afraid of the buildings around her she looked up to find that she was not standing in the middle of the street, but rather staring into the distance.

The concept in fact made sense. In fact Derpy had actually considered the role that emotions might have played in her memory before. In fact, it seemed to be the only concrete clue that they had accrued in their research. Yet despite this apparent truth, it seemed that it only worked when trying to preserve a memory. That didn't explain her visions or her dreams, though.

Dreams…

That word sparked a whole new blaze of interest in her mind.

Derpy noticed that Twilight had walked away to her podium, muttering to herself all the while. "Hey, Twilight?"

Twilight stopped her quiet mumbling and looked at the pegasus. "Yes Derpy?"

"Remember that book you read to me?"

"The one about the subconscious?"

"Yeah that one."

Twilight nodded.

Derpy put on her thinking face, slightly moving her lips to the left. "What is that again?"

The unicorn perked up. "The subconscious, it's the depths of your mind. You can't control it."

This caused Derpy some discomfort. "Why not?"

"Because it is not the part of the mind you use directly. The subconscious is the rest of your mind, the part that gives you your reactions and dreams." She raised a brow. "Just where are you going with this?"

Derpy looked to Spike, who by now had gotten back to his feet and was picking up the books he had dropped upon falling. Then she turned to Pinkie, who was distracted by some lint that was floating just a few inches from her face. "The Reminder's Inceptive," she said at last, her voice trailing off curiously as if wandering throughout the library in search of some piece of knowledge. "This can't be all that there is to that idea." She looked back to Twilight.

The unicorn was looking at the enormous telescope that resided in the upper floor of the library. "I can't help but to think that you are right about that, Derpy. There isn't enough evidence to blatantly say that emotions are the key to your memory."

"That's what I am thinking about. I think that emotions are only a crutch in not forgetting, but they don't actually help me remember."

On this the two ponies agreed in unison by nodding their heads. Still, neither of them smiled for now they felt as if they knew even less about the situation.

The whole concept of the Reminder's Inceptive was that certain events, figures, or locations could serve as landmarks in time for one's memory. But the question was what exactly made a landmark? Both of the mares recognized that there was indeed a difference between something you remember and something you will never forget; a landmark and a memorable moment were not the same thing.

Derpy had taken over twenty pages of notes the last couple days, and it was well that she did so. There was a great deal of knowledge that needed to be recorded, including every detail read by Twilight.

One key thing that the pegasus had taken note of was a particular piece of information from the book that had been read to her three days prior to the present. It was mentioned that landmarks in memory did not only make it where one instance could be remembered, but they also work together. The more landmarks that were created then the better a pony could remember instances completely unrelated with any one landmark. If Derpy could locate just one of these, then perhaps things would start making more sense.

Upon further inspection of the image in front of her, she found that she was indeed staring into a mirror, but despite the fact she was standing directly in front of it, she could not see her reflection.

She found herself unable to look away from the reflection, as if her gaze was a tangible object that the image before her had a firm grasp on. In her peripheral vision however, she could make out that she was standing in front of a colorful booth that displayed a number of decorative rugs being sold for various prices.

In the mirror was the reflection of a faraway structure, or so it seemed far away. The structure itself was unlike any other she had seen before. It loomed over every other building around it, and bore a sense of grandeur that seemed to radiate the very essence of regality. It must have been truly enormous because it could be seen that there was in fact a great deal of distance between the mirror and the structure itself.

Suddenly she felt the need to see it with her own eyes. She turned around to see the structure, but the image in the mirror disappeared, replaced by a sight of the building from only a fourth of the distance that had been shown in the mirror. Quickly she turned her head back to the mirror, but it was gone, along with the shop that had been behind it. She turned back to see the grand building in front of her.

Derpy closed her eyes for a moment, much like she would when sleeping.

Sleep, she thought, yet another indirect reference to dreams, and her dreams had been so strange lately.

The pegasus opened her eyes to find that Twilight was reading the very book that they had just been speaking of.

How convenient.

She trotted up beside the unicorn, then around the podium on which the book was set and in front of both it and its user. "Twilight," she said quietly.

The mare gave a little hum in response.

"The subconscious, that involves dreams?"

"Yes it does."

There was a moment of silence.

"Then there must be something wrong with my subconscious. I had a dream a couple days ago that I lost my journal and then looked all over the world just to find it had fallen into a shadow that was a portal to another universe."

Twilight looked up, stunned by the abundance of details in her description. "Wait, you remember all of that?"

Derpy nodded.

"So your dreams, do they always stick to your memories?"

"Usually they do. I guess it just depends."

Spike chuckled as he climbed down the ladder for the fifteenth time. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I once had a nightmare that a two headed monster came into the library and ate me. I was too afraid to sleep for a week!"

"Oh oh! Me next! Me next!" shouted pinkie as she hopped in figure-eight's around derpy and Twilight. "One time I dreamed that I was at sugar cube corner, and I was eating so much cake! I mean there had to be like a kabilion of them. I was like 'nom nom nom' and then a swarm of evil veggie monsters rushed in and started stealing all the cake! So I said…"

"Does she always get like this?" whispered Derpy to Twilight.

"Every day." the unicorn replied.

"And then I woke up covered in soda!" finished Pinkie with a wide grin.

Derpy sighed. It must be nice to have so much energy, she thought.

Twilight was flipping through pages in her book again. "Actually that makes sense."

Derpy didn't even take the time to look surprised, for she had come to understand that Twilight understood Pinkie better than she did.

"I read once that when you sleep your brain never stops working. Your eyes move, your heart races, and your thoughts run freely. So I wouldn't be surprised if that is why you remember them, your emotions in your sleep are probably as various as the dreams you have."

"Oh," the pegasus said, "so that's a good thing, right?"

"Maybe," Twilight admitted, "but there is still a complication. You see, your dreams are still something you cannot control, and for this reason they often make little to no sense when you wake up."

Derpy frowned, and Twilight must have noticed her disappointment because she went on to explain that not all was lost. "But there is still an upside to this! Your subconscious works in strange ways. Your dreams may not make total sense, but at many times they involve your memories. But you have to be careful about that because your dreams can create realistic situations that never happened."

Realistic situations that never happened? Derpy wondered. So even if a dream seems real, it may or may not be?

She looked up to an upper story window, then to a balcony. It was there that something else also caught her eye. A strange figure stood on the ledge, staring out into the distance to where the hills and roads extended beyond the boundaries of the city walls. The figure, the beautiful creature, was unlike anypony she had ever seen before.

She seemed royal, but not in a way that was intimidating in the least. Rather, the very sight of her made her feel as if she was safe and in a good place. She wanted to get closer, she wanted to see the pony and meet her for the first time.

There was a splash, and suddenly she was hit by a wave of warm water from a puddle on the ground.

She flinched and looked for the pony who had stepped in the puddle, but she found herself staring at many more faces than she had expected. Upon turning back to the balcony she found that it was gone, along with the pony who had been standing on it.

She looked around frantically to try and find her again, but with no luck. Even if the building was still there it was lost, blocked by the sea of ponies that surrounded her.

Suddenly she felt separated from the security that she had felt, and there in that crowded street she felt more alone than ever.

Twilight stopped flipping through pages and made an egregious "ha" noise. "Here, I found something!" Her eyes scanned over the page while Derpy, Spike, and Pinkie all watched curiously. "Dreams are not truly memories as much as they are gateways. A dream is an alternate reality that has different logic than real life. Anything is possible in a dream, and that is often why anything happens. Like dreams are gateways to an alternate way of thinking that is free from restrictions, flashbacks are an alternate form of memories. A flashback is much like a memory, but less define. They often occur when set off by some sort key word or event. Once again this falls under landmarks."

Unknowingly the other three had been slowly leaning forward until they were on their toes. Pinkie almost fell but Spike caught her by the tail before it could happen.

Twilight closed the book. "Your visions, Derpy, I think I understand them better now. What if your visions are a combination of flashbacks and dreams?"

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Rainbow Dash, the popular pegasus with the rainbow colored mane and tail, entered along with a few other ponies. "Are you ready Twilight?"

For a moment the unicorn seemed oblivious of what was going on, but then her eyes widened.

"Dear Celestia I forgot!" she turned to Derpy. "Sorry Derpy, I forgot that today is our monthly Daring Do book club meeting."

In a matter of moments Derpy and Pinkie had been rushed out the door.

Wait, Derpy thought, what just happened?

Pinkie went home and Derpy thought that it was time she started towards her own house as well.

The evening air was crisp as the sun pushed through late afternoon. Though the walk was rather uneventful, Derpy's thoughts raced quickly.

She was alone on that road.

Why is it, Derpy wondered, that I always find myself alone.

Almost instantly she felt bad for thinking this. She remembered something that she had been told by Twilight. She had said that she was never alone, that her friends were there for her.

She stopped walking for a moment, and thought for a moment about how often she must have felt alone before the incident at Sugar Cube Corner.

Somehow being in a crowd of unfamiliar ponies made her feel even more afraid than she had felt before. All around her there were faces, but these faces did not seem to belong to anypony. The figures around her seemed to walk almost mechanically, completely oblivious to her or each other.

Nopony around her noticed that she was there. They were all so tall, and it was very frightening.

She did not know where she was or how she had ended up there, but she wanted to leave. In an effort to escape the crowd she started to push her way through the endless wave of strangers who all seemed to be going in the exact same direction.

Not a single pony even noticed her touch as she pushed through. Now she was terrified. She looked up to them and for the first time she realized that she could not even see their faces, it was too dark. It was night? How long had it been so?

The terror was rising in her.

---

Derpy continued walking, her thoughts still running rampant in her head.

She brought to her memory another thing Twilight had said, that true friends treat each other like family.

Family, the word seemed cold. It was as if the breath that muttered it was made of frost, so heavy as to fall to the ground and shatter like a thin sheet of ice. What family do I have?

She stopped walking, and took a moment to stare at the stars. As she looked up she couldn't help but to wonder if her mother was staring up at the same sky that she was. It confounded her how small the vastness of the sky could make the planet seem on a much bigger scale, compared to how large the world was compared to her.

---

Her fears were at their peak now. She was panicking as she tried to make herself known.

Why couldn't anyone see her?

Was she invisible?

Nopony noticed her, nopony talked to her; nopony told her to watch where she was going or asked what she was doing.

She was like a ghost.

She opened her mouth to yell but her own voice only echoed in her head, never actually leaving her mouth.

Tears were about to stream down her cheeks when she felt a hoof on her shoulder. She was terrified, even more so than she was without being noticed. She looked around with her eyes, not turning her head. A mare walked by and dropped something, a pocket mirror. In its reflection she saw a stallion, the one whose hoof was on her shoulder. He was different from the rest of the crowd.

---

She continued walking, once again. She knew she could not let these thoughts get the best of her.

Before she knew it she was walking through the front door of her home. Instincts lead her to duck her head as she walked through, even though she no longer had to worry about accidentally hitting her head on the roof. Her flying was no longer dangerous after all. Plus she was actually walking instead of flying.

Once inside her cozy little one story house, with its single bedroom and one bathroom, she walked over to the fireplace and sat down. She noticed that there was a large amount of ash building up at the bottom, which she could not recall being something that usually happened. But that figured, considering she probably never used the fireplace to begin with.

Carefully, taking extra caution as to be sure not to spill any of the ash on her tan-colored carpet, she used her foreleg to push the ash onto a dustpan. When she was satisfied that most of it had been removed from the fireplace, she carefully picked up the dustpan and carried it over to her garbage can located by the sink.

After all this was done she turned on the faucet and washed off her foreleg, then used the towel hanging on the rack above the sink to dry it off.

"This is cozy," she thought aloud. Her home was small but it was just what she needed. The one bed for her to sleep in with the one bathroom for her to use suited her hygienic needs quite well. Then there was her kitchen with its refrigerator against the far wall, perpendicular to which was her two-compartment cabinet that held her glasses and plates. Adjacent to the cabinet was of course the oven, on top of which was a stove that was constructed with three burners—two small ones and a large one. Next to that, of course, was the sink, which was only a single sink with a faucet with but one handle. Of course that one handle was all that she needed, and she was more or less glad that is was but one handle because it meant less complicating means of use.

Once Derpy had finished washing up she turned around and went back to her fireplace. There was a small stack of five logs next to it. She picked up just one of them and set it in the fireplace. Then she found the small flint rock that she used to start the fire and set it in front of the log. With a small, rectangular piece of metal she struck the stationary flint and sent a number of sparks flying. The sparks hit the wick under the logs, and the oil beneath the wick caught fire. For a few moments that wick burning was the only flame, then after about five minutes the log also caught fire. Five minutes was just the time Derpy needed to go find her journal and a pen. When she returned, she found that the log was burning.

---

The stallion in the mirror was smiling. She slowly turned her head to see him, standing next to his son.

The father, whose hoof still rested on her shoulder, had a brown coat and brown hair as well. His son also shared these characteristics. While the father's mane was cleaner cut, the colt had messy hair that jetted out all over the place. Beside the Stallion was another, who looked about the same age. He had a warm green coat with a silver tail and mane.

One other thing was distinctive about the three, they all wore watches. The green stallion had a watch around his neck; the other stallion also had a similar watch. The colt, who looked at her so kindly and curiously, had the most peculiar little watch of all, or rather two of them. One was a sun-dial around his wrist, and the other was an hourglass, which of course was practically as useless as the other.

---

Something that fascinated her was the way that the wick would go out when the log began burning. She had come to understand that it went out not by magic but by a simple law of nature. The larger fire would absorb a much greater amount of oxygen than the much smaller flame of the wick. Because of this, all of the air that had originally been fueling the smaller fire was instead going towards the larger flame, causing the smaller one to get none and ultimately go out.

The fire cackled, and the flame danced, causing uneven but still beautiful light to cast a warming glow around the room.

There, next to the warming fire, she opened her journal, and picked back up where she left off. It had not actually occurred to her before, but it was clear that she was writing in such great detail of each day that her journal would not last more than a single week. In addition to that, she assumed that her pen was no doubt going to be out of ink before she knew it. So, as a quick solution to her problem, she tore out a blank page and wrote on it a little reminder that read "Note to self: need paper and pen."

The pegasus tucked the note away in the pages that where already filled, leaving about a fourth of the page jutting out from the top so that it was plainly visible. Once doing so she flipped back to the page she was on and began writing of the day's events. This time however, she was not writing what had happened, but also what had been learned. There was a ton to write down, and because of this each thing she wrote was not in such good detail. However, her style of writing had improved. It seemed as if Twilight's literary caliber was rubbing off on her.

She was writing for nearly forty minutes, when the flame in the fireplace was already starting to dim.

When she finished she looked up to the light for a few moments, thinking tiredly.

Dreams… what role did they play in her memory?

She went to lay her head down on her forelegs, and in a matter of moments she had dozed off. Less than twenty minutes later, the flame had gone out completely and only a few small pieces of wood were still smoldering.

---

[That night]

They all looked at her with a certain sort of understanding, but what-of she could not comprehend. It was something special, something spectacular about them. They all had this essence of importance, but not in a political sort of way. Even the youngest of the three, the colt, seemed to possess the same aura of brotherly greatness that the two stallions possessed that made them seem in some way different from the crowd. It was the exact opposite of every other pony that she had seen on the street. They all appeared mechanical, like apparitions that somehow could not see her. These ponies in front of her where not at all like that. Instead, these ponies seemed to be in the same frame as her, and it almost appeared as if they possessed more color than everything else in the scene.

Suddenly, there was a burst of light, and she looked up to the sky to see the sun rise, and in the center of it raised the regal figure who she had seen before, almost as if she was raising the sun itself.

This time the stallion with the green coat talked, but she didn't understand what he said. The other stallion brought up that she seemed very lost. The green stallion nodded in agreement, and spoke in a voice that seemed to resemble that of a young adult. "Aye, then let her be… one of us today." for a brief moment there it sounded as if the entire spoken phrase was going to stop at the word 'be,' like a movie suddenly lagging in the middle of its showing. Instead however it did not and it continued on. The green stallion was not done speaking. "What say you, eh 'sandman?'

"Eh 'Sandman…'

'Sandman'…

The railroad track tis a moonbeam bright
That leads right up into the starry night
So put on you 'jamas and say your prayers
The sandman is coming tonight....

4 retpahC dnE|End Chapter 4

Chapter 5

noitcelfeR|Reflection

Chapter 5: Of Key Importance

His eyes were blue; his father's eyes were green. That was the only difference between the brown colt and stallion in appearance with the exception of the obvious size difference. They had the same hourglass cutie mark, the same brown hair style, and the same awkward stature. There could be no doubting that they were in fact father and son.

Derpy awoke after only a few hours of sleep. It was still dark, and could not have been any later than three in the morning. She was still tired, and had she been lying in her bed her first instinct would have been to roll over and doze off again. However when she awoke she had no pillow to fluff or covers to adjust because Derpy had instead dozed off on the carpet before her fireplace.

The mare shivered, for she was cold. The whole house was cold, cold enough to be the inside of her refrigerator in fact. Due to this fact, returning to her sleep was the last of her priorities; the first being to find warmth.

Her two yellow eyes darted around in the dark, which did not in fact appear so dark for her eyes being closed for so long had adjusted to the low light. They quickly found what they had been searching for, and without hesitation she reached out and grabbed the small blanket from its position not four feet from where she was laying. In a single motion, she tossed the large cloth object over her back and around her body to simulate some sort soft shell to hide her from the frigid air.

Once her body was securely wrapped in the blanket, she wriggled a few inches towards the small stack of logs. It was so cold that she did not even consider cleaning the ashes in the fireplace, but simply just shoved them to the side with the log before setting it on the rack. She then used the same method as before, to light the wick at the bottom of the fireplace, and ultimately start the process of warming her currently un-cozy home.

Spring, she thought, what's the point? Instead of snow we get frost and freezing rain. It's all the cold of winter with none of the charm.

Once the fire had really started to blaze, she stood up and trotted slowly over to the kitchen, still wrapped in that blanket. Once there, she found a box of matches. Using her teeth to grasp one, she struck a match and lit a candle, which was set on a brass dish with a little loop to carry it by. Once again, using her teeth she picked up the lit candle, by the loop on the dish, and turned back around. This time she did not stop at the fireplace, but rather continued to trot into her bedroom, where she found her bed still made.

Sleep later, she told herself, I have other things to do.

She looked around the room not yet exactly sure of what she was looking for. She had it in her mind only moments before, but suddenly her thoughts had vanished from her head. What bothered her about this was that she didn't know if this was common for everypony or if it was just another symptom of her poor memory.

Her gaze panned around the room, examining its features. It was a small room, truly only big enough for one pony. The queen sized bed itself took covered most of the carpet's surface area anyways. On either side of the bed was a small nightstand in a box shape. Both had three drawers separated vertically. Her first idea was to open each drawer and look for anything of use.

The stand on the left of her bed was quite uneventful. The top two drawers had nothing in them and the bottom drawer had only a sock, which was ironic because she could not think of a time when she would wear a sock. The nightstand on the right of the bed was a little more useful but still not much better. The top drawer contained a paperclip while the middle drawer held a piece of butterscotch hard-candy still in its wrapper. The bottom drawer contained a key, but nothing for it to fit into.

Derpy picked up the key to examine it more closely. It was gold in color, but was obviously not made of any real precious metal. The shape of the key was quite strange as well. The holding end was shaped like an oval with a peculiar shape in it. To Derpy it looked like a crescent moon looping through a C, creating a small loop in the middle. Then a straight line went down through that very loop, on either side of this strange shape was what looked like a diagonal little river. The stem of the key was cylindrical, but still quite thin. The very end of the key, she found to be in no particular shape that would be useful in a lock of any sorts. It was shaped like what appeared to be a curvy looking X.

The pegasus spent perhaps six minutes looking at the key and guessing at what it would open. Eventually however, she opened the middle drawer again, dropped the key in it, and then took the piece of candy.

Sugar, how delightful!

On her way back to the fireplace she popped the hard candy into her mouth and began savoring in its sweet flavor. At this point, whatever she had gone into her room for had completely vacated her memory and her mind was now on other things. Her journal, for instance, was one of them.

Despite her lack of a good night's rest she found that her memory was in fact not all there, and she took several of the following minutes reminding herself of the events that had come to pass. It was at this point that she was becoming far more familiar with the first entries she had written, and now instead of having to read them could merely skim over them and have her memory repaired to a comfortable level.

When the mare had finished reading she closed the journal and stared at the burning log in the fireplace. For a while that was all she did, and she fell into some sort of trance, just staring into those flames, thinking trivial thoughts that would depart from her memory even if hers was not so poor.

For some time she sat like that, but after maybe half an hour or so she did come to some legitimate thinking. Thoughts begin to cloud her mind, so quickly that she began to lose track of any one point she was trying to confirm in her thoughts. Soon it became impossible to focus on one idea and she was forced to stand up and find something to do. When she looked around she saw nothing, and instead decided that she should go for a walk.

The cold air of the early morning had started off as quite uncomfortable for Derpy. But soon, she grew used to the chilled air, and rather than flinching from the cold she came to embrace it. Still, in Derpy's opinion spring shouldn't start until the temperature truly started to rise, because it truthfully was as she had put it before "all the cold without the charm".

Yet there she trotted, in the cold of the early morning before the sun did rise. Though the sting of the bitter air traveled between her feathers and pinched her skin every time the wind blew, she trotted on. Though it caused her eyes to water and her spine to shiver, she still trotted on. She did not do it as if to punish herself. She did not do it because she had any place to go. While she did not know it, her only reason for being outside in the blistering cold was subconsciously to feel aware, and aware she was. All winter long she had walked in this cold, not truly feeling the cold, not truly feeling the winter air. It was as exhilarating as it was chilling.

Derpy continued to trot rather than fly, because the bite of the air was too much for flapping her wings. Eventually she found herself standing at the top of a hill, staring down into a meadow of newly budding flowers which would, in not too long of a time, bloom in the essence of spring.

It was at a time like this that she could take a deep breath and simply feel like she was where she was supposed to be. Although she had hardships to endure, she still had purpose. She still had a reason to go on.

She looked up to the sky, vacant of any sunlight and began to notice how bright the moon and the stars truly were.

The night, she thought, it's so beautiful!

She stood there, looking for something that she was sure would happen. It was something special, something that she had considered nothing less than a gift from Celestia herself to the ponies of Equestria. She could faintly remember herself having this same urge of waiting, this same feeling of excitement growing inside of her as the suspense grew so heavy in her chest.

I remember, they should be here, I know their coming…

She waited, knowing soon that the sun would rise, and then it would be all too late for it to be seen. She just had to wait. She could feel it in the air; she knew it was coming. She hoped it was coming.

It's almost time…

[One month earlier]

"Time to start any minute now." Derpy heard somepony say. She, herself was ready to get to work on Winter Wrap Up.

This year she was on the weather team, her jobs were to help clear the skies and the trees of snow.

Suddenly light began to break the horizon, and wisps of it were forming across the land. But there was some other phenomenon, something in the sky. A gift from Celestia herself to the ponies all across Equestria getting ready to wrap up winter. The Celestial lights.

Derpy watched in wonder as the spectrum of light appeared in the sky, streaming every color thinkable in the morning sky. It flowed with all the grace and beauty of the sun Goddess herself.

It was beautiful, but like all things with beauty, it could not last. As quickly as it began it ended, and the sun broke the horizon.

It was a scene she was rarely up in time to see, but there was one time every year that she did in fact get up early enough to see it, no matter what.

The first part of the day went without any problems. The clouds this year were still harder to hit than last year, for she could barely make out where any of them were.

After four tries or so she finally managed to hit a cloud, and she beamed with pride. Then she heard her name being called, and she looked down to see that there was an empty cart under a tree ready to catch the snow from the branches.

She nodded and went into a dive.

She could see the branch, and then it disappeared. She was confused but she picked up speed, and it reappeared. Then once again it was gone. She went a little faster, but then she found herself face to face with the branch.

"Wood!" she shouted as she swerved hard to the left, missing the branch by inches. She felt the branch scratch at her blue vest, and it felt like something was ripped from the fabric.

She had no time to check to see what had been pulled off for only moments after redirecting her flight path she was stopped by a branch to her stomach. The pegasus grunted and yelled as she was spun around the branch three times before being flung down to a pile of snow.

For a moment there was no movement, and then her head popped back up out of the snow with her eyes rolling in her head. Suddenly she panicked.

"Dot on map? Dot on map?" Derpy said frantically, as she scavenged through the powdery snow which she had fallen into only moments ago. Her vest had fallen off somewhere in the mound of white that had formed form in a wooden wagon after being removed from the tree.

Her arms flailed clumsily, digging through the loose water crystals in hope of finding the lost item.

"Aha!" She exclaimed as she felt her hoof touch fabric, "Needle in stack!"

Without a moment's hesitation she began whipping the vest in the air to rid the material of snow, before slipping it back on. She never once noticed the golden sun-shaped patch that had fallen off.

Derpy stood still in front of a large tree. She stared at its branches, one of which was fairly damaged. She noticed something sticking off the end of a branch, and she flew up to see it. Closer examination revealed that it was in fact the patch that had been torn from her vest at Winter Wrap Up. It had to be hers.

She tugged on the cloth once but it did not come loose. The threads had somehow managed to tangle themselves around the contour of the bark. Another tug at the cloth produced the same unsatisfying results. It took a third tug at the branch to pull the sun loose, but it was done in such a way that the cloth itself would not be damaged and the branch would not swing back to smack her in the face. Once she had the patch in her grasp she pushed back with her wings then brought herself to a slow descent.

Now that she was on the ground she thought that it was a good time to examine the patch more closely. She tried to find some sort of distinguishing features about the sun itself. There were no intricate designs or special marks; just a plain gold-colored sun. It was a shame, for she had been hoping that the sun would spark the same sort of flashback that had brought her to the patch not ten minutes ago. Instead the patch brought her no memories, no change in thought, no abnormalities to her vision or hearing.

She heard a faint laughing sound in the distance. Maybe she was having a vision after all.

Her head tilted to the left and she perked up her ear as to be more susceptible to sound. The noise grew louder, and now it sounded like there were multiple voices, all of them laughing.

It was not a menacing laughter that she heard, but rather a playful one. Yet still it grew louder and louder by the moment, and suspense still managed to grow even despite the playful tone.

Suddenly the laughs turned to shouts. "I'm going to get you!" she heard. Another voice laughed and made some witty comeback.

Then from the bushes came Apple Bloom. The red haired filly had an expression of joy and excitement with her smile stretching from ear to ear. She appeared to have been running, but she stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed Derpy standing there.

"Howdy Derpy!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

Suddenly there came another filly with an orange coat and purple mane from the bushes. This young pegasus entered the scene shouting the phrase "I gotcha now!" moments before tackling Apple Bloom to the ground. Almost immediately after she had done so, a third filly, with a purple and pink mane, contrasting her white coat, entered the scene from the exact same direction as the other two and added to the dog pile on young Apple Bloom. They all laughed and giggled away as it became very obvious that they were good friends.

Derpy smiled, and watched as they scrambled to their feet. Once standing, Apple Bloom stretched her back. The filly pegasus ruffled her own wings and cracked her neck.

The white coated filly, who was indeed a unicorn, did nothing of the sorts but instead simply stood up. Because she was not as distracted as the other two, who seemed to be somehow engaged in a competition to see who could stretch the most, was the first pony to actually notice what Derpy was holding.

"Look!" she squealed (Derpy could not think of any other way to describe the unicorn's high pitch voice, for it indeed seemed to be just that, squealing). "She was able to pull the sun out of the tree!"

The other two fillies stopped their shenanigans to see what their friend was hollering about. Suddenly, their silly faces, which had been making some sort of attempt at intimidating glares (failed attempts, as they were), had all but changed instantly into wide-eyed looks of surprise.

The young, orange-coated pegasus pumped her arm in a way that resembled victory. "Yes!" she shouted in a melodramatic tone.

Unlike her friend, however, Apple Bloom's response was more modest and better fit the circumstances. "Wait a minute, Scootaloo," she said with tone that mixed disappointment with open-mindedness, "Derpy got it out of the tree, so it's hers."

The other two frowned slightly, but nodded in understanding.

Derpy looked down at the sun in her hoof and wondered just what was so special about the sun. "Why do you girls need the patch?" she asked them curiously.

The girls looked at her with a spark of hope, as if enlightened by the idea, that perhaps Derpy would give them the object that seemed to be of their desires.

"Because," squealed the unicorn, "at school we have been working on a special project!"

"Project?" asked Derpy, her head tilting a little.

Apple Bloom took over the explanation at that point. "Yep, we are supposed to make a poster of items we find lying around outside."

"Yeah," said Scootaloo, "it's to show the importance of recycling or something like that." She rolled her eyes with an obvious lack of interest in the importance of the subject.

Derpy looked very thoughtful, and Apple Bloom must have noticed her interest in the ordeal because she made the older pegasus an offer to come see it. Derpy being fairly open-minded, and having nothing more important to do that morning, nodded her head in agreement at the friendly gesture.

"Well come on then!" Scootaloo shouted in excitement, leading the way on hoof.

Derpy smiled as Apple Bloom's two friends ran off. Apple Bloom stayed behind with Derpy. "Come on, if we don't hurry, we're gonna be late!"

Derpy looked at her kindly and nodded. "Then we better get going."

The schoolhouse was a building filled with a sort of classic grandeur. The building's design was much like a school inside of a barn. It was wooden-framed with a red finish and white trimming. But in Derpy's opinion it was decorated more like a Hearts and Hooves Day card than a place where farm animals are kept. Hearts topped every window frame, and were alternated with an elegant-looking tilde shape on the white trimming of the roof.

When they arrived there were a number of foals playing and talking outside. Scootaloo and the unicorn, who Derpy had learned was named Sweetie Belle, immediately headed for the tether ball game to the left of the school building.

Apple Bloom stayed behind for a number of reasons; the two most likely being that tetherball was a two player game and she wanted to talk to Derpy some.

"So, uh, Derpy," she started off in her deep country accent, "can ah ask a question?"

Derpy scrunched up her face in a way that resembled that she was thinking the question over, and then nodded with a smile.

"If you don't mind me askin', what happened the last time ah saw you?"

Derpy looked to the upper-left limits of her vision, this time actually thinking the question over instead of just making a thinking face. "Well," she said slowly as to consider the possibilities, "I guess that really depends on when the last time you saw me was."

Apple Bloom made a particular face that blatantly resembled 'Why didn't I think of that?'

"You know, that other night a while ago." The young filly's face hardened, which let Derpy know that she was mentally scolding herself for saying something that didn't necessarily help her know what night she was talking about. "Ah was with mah sister one night because ah got an A on a test and she wanted to take me out to celebrate."

Derpy raised a brow just slightly so that Apple Bloom wouldn't notice that she still had not said anything to help her know what night this was.

She was about to say something, but Apple Bloom beat her to it. "She said she was proud of me for doin' mah best, so she took me to Sugar Cube Corner…"

Derpy's heart suddenly sank, and a grim feeling came upon her. She had completely forgotten all about that fateful night.

"Uh Derpy?"

The pegasus came to her senses to see that Apple Bloom was standing there with a tilted head. She was about to explain what had happened that night when once again she was cut off by a familiar voice.

"Alright my little ponies, time for class."

That voice... thought Derpy.

Apple Bloom perked up. "Come on, now we can show you our poster!"

The grey mare followed the filly into to the school building. Other foals also followed the voice into the classroom. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle waited to finish their game, which only took a moment because Sweetie Belle used her unicorn magic to wrap the ball around the pole. "I win." She said before rushing to the classroom with Scootaloo close behind.

The teacher was inside to welcome the students as they walked through the door. Still that voice seemed so familiar to Derpy, but she couldn't quite put her hoof on it.

"Good morning Apple Bloom; where's your bow?"

The foal looked up wither eyes and smiled. "Why, Granny-Smith is puttin' it through the wash today."

"Well that's nice."

"Oh, miss Cheerilee,"

"Yes dear?"

"Ah brought a friend to see our poster, if that's okay."

"Why that's just fine, who is it?"

Apple Bloom signaled for Derpy to come in, but she didn't budge. Now that the teacher's name had been mentioned she was actually quite nervous. This was such the case that she would have probably never walked into the classroom were it not for Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle pushing her through the doorway on their way in.

"Oh hey there Derpy! I didn't expect to see you here." Cheerilee

Derpy had the urge to shy away, and the overjoyed expression on Cheerilee's face didn't make it any better.

She opened her mouth to reply, but once again she was interrupted. "Miss Cheerilee Derpy got the sun down!" said Sweetie Belle.

"Oh is that so?" the teacher replied. "Well why don't you go over there and show her the poster then?"

They nodded their little heads in agreement and lead Derpy to the back of the room. There were a number of posters in the back, all of which were decorated with items that they had found on the streets. It was quite neat, actually, how a foal would make a scene using only wrappers, a chip bag, and some random litter they found in the park.

The three foals stepped in front of their own poster and beamed at it with pride. When the mare saw it she couldn't help but to be rather impressed.

The fillies had recreated the schoolhouse using popsicle sticks, toothpicks, cotton balls, paperclips, wrappers, stamps, bottle caps, newspaper clippings, coupons, string, ribbon, and cardboard. There really was only one single thing missing to make the scene complete: a sun to shine down its light to the newspaper cutout ponies below.

Scootaloo looked at Derpy with a sort of awe and admiration that was hard to understand. "You see why we need the sun?"

Indeed Derpy did see now why the patch was important. Without another word she gave the sun to Scootaloo who practically squee'd at the gesture. The filly took the patch and taped it in the upper-right corner of the poster. Now it was complete, and was certainly a job well-done.

"Wow girls," praised Cheerilee as she approached from behind, "that's quite the poster you have made there. I think that deserves a big A-plus!"

The three fillies cheered and jumped around. "Thank-you!" they squealed in delight before heading off to their seats.

Cheerilee watched them with a loving smile. Once again she was showing that special care that only a teacher could have. It was the very essence of the love to help others thrive, and to give help to the foals of her community. It truly was an inspiring glow.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" she said in a moment of realization as she turned back to her desk and began trotting. "I'm actually very glad you stopped by, Derpy. I have something for you."

Derpy's expression showed much excitement and wonder. What could she possibly have for her?

"I was rummaging through my belongings looking for my poetry journal and I came across something I think you might like to have."

Poetry journal? Derpy wondered.

The magenta-colored mare reappeared with a rectangular package wrapped in brown paper and tied together with a pink ribbon. Once within range of the pegasus, she turned the package over to her and smiled warmly.

The present was graciously accepted, and Derpy stood there in awe, wondering what it was.

At this point all of the students were in their seats, waiting for class to start, and Derpy did not want to be intruding on their school day. So with a quick thank you, she turned and departed. Yet what Cheerilee had said about a poetry journal still filled her with interest. Poetry, perhaps she could find some of that in the library.

Derpy's visit to the library that day was much different than the first time she had entered. Spike welcomed her to the establishment rather than questioning her motives, and Twilight as he explained had picked up a cold from one of the people at the book club the day before. The pegasus asked him to give word of her best wishes for the unicorn, and then went on to find a place to sit comfortably as she opened the package that had been given to her at the schoolhouse.

She found a seat in the back on a nice blue cushion. As she sat down in it she found that it was actually very comfortable, and it sank slowly with her weight until it felt like she was floating just above the ground.

Once she was situated there, she placed the package in front of her. Instead of examining the shape or size of the object to guess what it was, she simply went straight to pulling ribbon. It easily came untied and the ribbon was pulled off of the package. She then went on with unwrapping the object, being careful not to tear the paper (though she was not sure why she was so careful to preserve brown paper). It was a book.

She didn't take any time observing the cover, but rather opened to the first page immediately. Inside there was scattered writings in three separate handwritings, each with its own color. One was written in magenta pen, one in grey pen, and a third in red. Just by guessing she was sure that the grey was her own writing and the magenta was Cheerilee's.

The first page seemed to be nothing more than random babble, the second page fairing no better. Then on the third page was a poem. It was a very small one, but it was very playful. She flipped through the pages, reading each poem out loud. Spike started hearing the poems and came over listen. He lied on his belly with his head in his hands, kicking his feet while he listened to the playful poems.

One particular poem they both seemed to enjoy was found on the 24th page. It read

"A mare from Manehatten met with the moon,
But the moon was a loon and seemed much like a buffoon
But the mare was unaware that the toon named the moon,
Would play a funny trick on her all too soon."

Another one on page 39 read:

"It was a nice day on the farm,
So farmer went out to the barn,
He saw a cow fly
And yelled 'Oh my!
Somepony set the alarm!'"

There were many other poems that the two enjoyed, and they spent a few hours there reading each poem and then laughing and talking about each one for a little while. Finally they came to the sixty-fifth page.

By this point Derpy had noticed that all of the other poems had some sort of title. Even if the title did not always make sense, it had become rather routine to see one at the top of each page. This poem however did not have a title, but rather a crudely drawn picture of a key at the top. Still, she paid no mind to it and went on to read it.

"From the depths of all dismay
Our brothers still will lead the day
We won't ever lose our way; we will always live to say
Still forever we will stride."

Once she finished reading it they paused. This one seemed to be less towards the playful side than the others, and more meaningful.

"H-hey wait," stammered Spike, "I have heard that before."

Derpy looked at the dragon with a tilted head. "You have?"

"Yeah!" he replied as she scurried to grab the ladder. He pushed it over to the poetry section of the library then climbed to the top shelf. He then returned with a blue-covered book title Poetry, Songs and Tunes of Inspiration. The youngling then opened the book and began scurrying through the pages. "Here!" he said after about seven minutes. He handed her the book.

Derpy looked at the book a raised brow, wondering just what she was about to read. She began to read the poem.

"Our brothers we all trot,
For the valleys which we sought
Hoof in hoof, we will go together"

Something familiar was struck inside of her, something she had not felt before. She read this unlike the other poems. She read this like a song. She started to sing it, and the lyrics seemed to match her notes perfectly as if that was the way they were supposed to be read.

"We have come from the sky; we have come from the land
And we come from the sea, forever we do stand
Hoof in hoof, we still go together"

The next paragraph of the poem was separated from the first by a picture of a distinctively drawn key, but she had not the time to look over it.

"From the depths of dismay
Our brothers lead the way, so that we may say
Together we will stride
We won't ever lose our way
For our brothers lead the day
Forever we will stride."

There's that key again, what does it go to? What does it unlock? It's sitting there, trying to show me something… but what?

"We do not hide
No we stand tall and stride against the tide
We will remember..."

Remember… I can't remember…I… can I remember…?

"For what we do not know
We will trot through rain and snow
And once we know, we will still remember…"

Remember… I must remember, I know I must…

"No longer hide behind
The chairs and tables in your mind
It is time to see the light

In the sun we do go

Through the rain and raging snow

For it is time to see the light"

The light…

"Hoof in hoof we go together

Together we will stride so we will remember

It is time to see the light, as friends

Hoof in hoof we still go together

Forever we will stride, we will still remember

For it is time to see the light, as friends."

Suddenly her eyes rolled out of place and her vision faded to white as the sounds of her own voice trailed off into the distance.

These ponies I see, who are they? What are they doing? They are speaking to each other, are they fighting? Yes they are fighting, but not with each other, they are fighting together. What are they fighting? They fight just with their voices, even though I cannot hear them. Where are they going? Are they even moving, no I am the one moving. Where are they now? A key… what does it unlock? A door? No. A window? No. Does it unlock a safe? No nothing like that. Does it unlock a box? Yes. What kind of box? It opens a special box. Turn the key to the right. The right, but that's what makes things lock, why would I turn it to the right? Am I locking the box? No. Then what? Where is the key? I have the key. Yes I have the key, it is safe. Yes I will, I promise to remember…

Vision returned and suddenly she came back to reality, her eyes back in their correct alignment and her hearing back to normal as well.

She looked around, still trying to understand what had happened. The library was completely silent, all except for the quiet snoring of Spike, who must have fallen asleep to the sound of her singing. She took one last moment to examine the picture of the key in the book, and then set it down next to Spike and walked away.

"Come on Derpy where is it?" she muttered to herself as she scavenged her room for the key. She had completely forgotten where she put it, and it was driving her crazy.

Finally she found it in the second drawer of one of her nightstands.

Her thoughts raced as she examined the key. It was the exact same key from the drawings in the poem book. Now, however, she could see more in the strange symbols than she could before. She now could see that all of the moon-like shape and the two sides of the curvy X shape were really just the letter C and its backwards counterpart.

She also noticed an engraving on the stem of the key that read "πουλάρι συνεργασία" and also another on the exact opposite side that read "Colt Collaboration." She knew not what any of this meant, but seeing as the picture of the key was also crudely drawn in the book she had been given as a gift, perhaps Cheerilee would know.

Derpy arrived at the school building after asking for directions multiple times. When she finally arrived she noticed foals were leaving the building. School must have been over for the day, and considering it was Friday that would mean there would be no school for the next two days either.

She wasted no time in walking up to the door and entering the classroom. Most of the students were gone, but a few straddlers here and there still roamed the room. Apple Bloom and her friends where among them.

Cheerilee was behind her desk looking over the papers she had assigned during class. She seemed to be happy with the results because she was smiling and giggling at what her students had written. At first the mare did not notice Derpy walk in, but it only took a few moments for her attention to be drawn to the pegasus as moved closer to the teacher's desk.

"Oh hi again, Derpy." Her voice was warm and welcoming. It was the kind of voice you would want to hear when walking into a stranger's home for the first time to make you feel comfortable.

Derpy smiled back and greeted her in a similar way. The two of them engaged in some small talk before she got to the reason she had come back.

When she showed Cheerilee the key she seemed completely lost as to what it was. She shook her head and apologized for not being able to help her with it. Still, that name lingered in her head. Colt Collaboration It seemed so familiar yet so unknown at the same time.

They talked a bit more about the key before being brought to the topic of poetry. Cheerilee explained to Derpy that she loved poetry. She loved to write it and she loved to read it. Then she invited Derpy to join her in her poetry club on Monday. Without question the pegasus agreed, and it was decided that she would come to the school after classes had ended and they would go together as friends.

They exchanged a laugh, and then Derpy left.

Cheerilee sighed happily in knowing that she and an old friend were once again becoming just that, friends. She looked back to the classroom and noticed that the Cutie Mark Crusaders, as they referred to themselves, were still in their seats. "Girls, you know you can go home now right?"

They nodded. Sweetie Belle explained the situation. "Apple Bloom's sister is taking us to go camping this weekend with one of her friends. We're trying to come up with a story to tell around the campfire."

Cheerilee thought for a moment, and then looked to the door. Then it hit her, a brilliant idea had formed in her mind. "Why don't you girls ask Derpy if she wants to go? She doesn't have many friends, and she might have fun with you all."

The three looked at each other, then without any need for rehearsal all shouted out in unison "Cutie Mark Crusaders camping with Derpy!" They then made a dash for the door, and that was the last Cheerilee would see of them until Monday.

"Wait just ah darn minute," said Apple Bloom's older sister. "Ah didn't understand a word y'all just said. Take it slower and try again."

The girls all took a deep breath before going back to explaining situation to Applejack.

"Wait, so y'all want Derpy to come along? Well why didn't ya say so? The more the merrier." she looked at Derpy, "That is, if you wanna come."

Derpy looked at Apple Bloom, who was making those signature puppy-dog eyes that all little foals tended to do so well. In the end she knew she had no choice but to accept, that became clear the moment they had caught up to her and invited her to come with them to the farm. The eyes worked then and they worked now.

The three rejoiced for a little while and Applejack shrugged.

"Hey, Derpy, come with me while they are distracted."

Derpy nodded and followed applejack into the orchard.

The orchard was such a beautiful place in the spring. The apples were growing, the trees were blooming, all of which mixed together to create a powerful yet rejuvenating fragrance.

As they walked Derpy came to realize just who her host was. Applejack was an orange pony with three apples for a cutie mark. She had blonde hair and green eyes, and she always tended to wear her cowpony hat wherever she went.

"So, do y'all like apples?"

Derpy blinked. "I like apples."

"Ah like apples too."

There was a moment of silence after the obvious had been spoken.

"Ah like this time of year…" Applejack said at last. "Ah like to see the leaves grow back, and the birds come home, and the aroma the air. It all just comes natural to me. This is mah home. These trees have been like companions to me throughout the years."

"Companions?"

Applejack bit her lip, and then chuckled. "Ah y'all know what ah mean. Right?"

Derpy didn't really know how to respond at first. "Actually, I'm not so sure I do. I don't remember home."

"Aint this home?"

"It's not where I grew up, I don't think."

Another moment of silence.

"Home is where the heart wants to be. Aint you happy here?"

The two of them stopped walking, and Derpy shrugged. "I guess. It all seems so simple—"

"Now y'all stop right there!" she scolded. Derpy nearly jumped at the sudden change in tone. "Let me tell ya a little story. When ah was just a youngin' ah thought the same thing. Ah wanted more excitement, more adventure. But have you ever stopped and just breathed in all that this place has to offer?"

Derpy didn't reply. She didn't have time to reply. Applejack started to run and insisted that she follow.

The two of them stopped on a hill that looked down over the rest of the orchard. "Now ah want y'all to just take a deep breath, and let it all in. Walk around a little if ya have to."

The pegasus sighed, and took a deep breath. The spring air filled her lungs. There to greet herw were the fragrant aromas of the grass and the apples, of the dirt and soils, of rain and trees, and of the honeysuckle and wild berries. It was intoxicating.

She closed her eyes and took another breath, holding the sweet air in her lungs, embracing it as if it were a friendly face. Maybe that's what Applejack meant when she said the trees were like companions to her.

With her eyes still closed she listened to the sounds around her. The crickets chirped as afternoon turned to evening, the birds sang their beautiful melodies from their nests, and the wind whispered as it sifted through the trees of the orchard. Oh the wind, what beautiful stories it must tell of faraway places.

Then it all became clear to her. She loved it all. She loved the air and creatures of Ponyville. She loved the sounds of parts of daily life. Sounds like the crunching of leaves beneath her hooves, or the opening of a Styrofoam take-out box when you opened or closed it. She loved the sound of the light pitter patter of rain during a light summer shower, and the first cut into a piece of construction paper. It was all wonderful. But it wasn't just the sounds of the world around her. She loved the feel of a soft bed after a long day and taste of cold sweet tea on a warm afternoon. She loved the warmth of the sunlight in the morning as the light first creeps through her window to wake her up.

These were the things that made Ponyville special to her. She had never truly understood before. But now she realized that it was these simple parts of life that made it worth the while, and it was there at that moment that she understood what had been said to her by Twilight and Applejack. This was her home. It had friendly faces that smiled when they saw her, and places that she could go to feel happy.

She felt like a warm glow was radiating from within her. Now she understood what the poem meant. It was the way she felt about her home and the ponies that lived there. It was the feeling of simplicity and security that caused her to look at the sky and feel the warmth warm her bones, and it was that same light inside that glowed even through the freezing nights. It radiated from the mid-winter snows and the summer rains; from the leaves in the fall and the flowers in the spring. It was there inside of her right then. All she had to do was close her eyes to see what she could not otherwise. To look around and see that it was everywhere in the air and the sounds all around her every day. It was this very warmth that drove her to love and to care for everypony she met, and as she felt the warmth she knew that it was what she could count on to guide her. She knew that it meant that in the light of the sun she would go, through rain or raging snow, to find what it was that had to be learned. This was what she could feel inside. This was her sense of purpose.

"So?" Applejack said at last.

Derpy was silent for a few moments, and then opened her eyes again. "I am home…"

I have a key, oh yes a key
To a world, which you've never seen
A place where the flowers
Grow in an hour
And the grass is oh so green…
I have a key, oh yes a key
Turn it and see
Turn it and See…

5 reptahC dnE|End Chapter 5

"A house is built with walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams."

6: Swimming in the Smoke (Beneath the Surface)

noitcelfeR|R3fl3ction
Chapter 6
Swimming in the Smoke
The flames of history make up the past. The smoke of those flames makes up the present that we must stumble through, in hopes that we can rise from the ashes in the future.

Dinner at 6pm, so wash up at 5:55. 6:24 help wash the dishes. 6:30 until sunset work in the fields. Dessert of apple pie when returning from the fields. This was the previous night's agenda. Derpy, having visited Sweet Apple Acres found it too tempting to get a taste of the country lifestyle to go home that night. Instead she agreed to stay for dinner and then offered to pitch in helping the others finish their chores for the night. With an extra set of hooves working that night the dishes were finished faster and more work was able to be done.

At 7:30pm Derpy was getting set to head home, when Applejack insisted that she stay the night. Derpy declined the offer saying she would need to get packed in the morning. The country mare asked where it was that she lived and of course she answered. The pegasus was then assured by the earthen pony that they would have plenty of time to stop by her house. With that in mind, she agreed to stay the night at the farm only if she could briefly borrow a pencil and a few sheets of paper. Her request was met with some curiosity but her wishes were granted without question.

Later, after Apple Bloom had gone to bed, Applejack and Derpy both stayed up late downstairs sipping on some cider, which they kept in their cellar. There they sat downstairs talking about their lives and other things of interest that they could come up with. Derpy did her very best to avoid the topic of the past as much as she could. She was having a peaceful night and she preferred to keep it flashback-free. The last thing she needed was to have an episode right there on their floor.

Despite her attempts to avoid the subject, the talk was inevitable. As the night went on, Applejack went into deeper descriptions of her own past, especially around the time when she found her cutie mark. Then at the end of her own story the orange mare asked Derpy about her own cutie mark. She most likely did so to be courteous, not knowing the awkward tension that was doomed to follow.

From then on Derpy had explained her situation of poor memory and various details of her quest to find it. In the discussion it became clear to Applejack as to why she had asked for the paper, and also why she was writing as they spoke.

The country mare had said how awful it must be to be in Derpy's position. Truly, Derpy reasoned, it is true what they say about Applejack. Her way of thinking was in fact brutally honest. But the pegasus could see plainly by the look in her eyes that she meant no harm by what she said, only support. With that observation she felt safe in sharing her own personal opinions to the mare, even more that she had shared with Fluttershy that first, awkward day.

Derpy felt safe with the information that she shared with her new friend, or at least she believed they were friends. Of course they were friends, for if they were not, the pegasus wouldn't have told the earth-mare about the way every vision filled her with a sense of fear that somehow managed to be awe-inspiring. She also wouldn't have mentioned the way that she felt every morning having to look into her book to find memories. Most importantly, she wouldn't have told her about her encounters with the mare in the mirror.

Applejack took every word that was spoken to her as if it were a treasure. She never laughed or scoffed at her guest's troubles. Instead she merely smiled kindly, nodding her head every once in awhile and uttering phrases such as, "Ah see."

From the way that her host handled the information being distributed, Derpy felt like she trusted the right pony.

After that, they both cleared off to bed.

When they got up in the morning to leave it was still dark outside. Derpy went through her normal routine of reading her notes about the previous day, she didn't have her journal with her so she could not read of other days. She was still tired, but she managed to keep up with the others. Fluttershy was also there when she went downstairs.

The large group all sat down to an early breakfast of apple-related treats after which, the girls went to check their inventory for the trip. When they were satisfied with what they had, they said goodbye to Granny-Smith and headed off through the orchard, into the wilderness behind it.

An hour after the sun had pushed from above the horizon, the group was still hiking in the direction that Applejack led them in. By now the three younger foals were all tired of walking with their 'heavy packs' on their backs, which of course in reality were not so heavy at all. They moaned and they whined, confessing to being bored. Scootaloo even went so far as to comment on how there was nothing interesting about the woods.

Applejack didn't want to hear it. "Now y'all wait just a minute. The great outdoors is one of the most excitin' places to be."

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "What could be exciting about these woods?" There was enough sarcasm in her tone to cause Fluttershy to angst.

"There's plenty of excitin' stuff out here," Applejack said looking around. Her eyes searched for something to capture the girls' interest with, the question being, what in these woods would be big enough to do so?

The orange mare started by looking at the ground then slowly shifting her gaze to other objects as they walked. They were walking on a dirt path that nature had so kindly carved out for them to walk through; of course, dirt was not all that exciting. Ahead of her she saw a large oak tree, which had to have been over a hundred years old. Despite the marvels of this ancient spectacle, she knew that a tree would not be enough to wow the three uninterested fillies. What she needed was to find something that resembled danger and excitement.

A few more steps and Applejack found just the sort of thing she was looking for. "Look at that tree up ahead to the left."

The three foals did as told, as did the two elder ponies. "Yeah," replied Scootaloo, "what about it?"

Applejack smiled a bit and motioned for them to take a closer look. "See how the branches of that tree jut away from the center?"

"Uhuh…" the three said in unison.

"See how the color of the bark changes as you look down towards the trunk?"

They all repeated their first response.

"That tree was struck by lightning durin' a thunderstorm, all the middle branches went flyin':

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened. "Wow! Really?"

"Big whoop" said Scootaloo, still not caring.

Applejack still took it as a success. One filly down, two more to go. Once again her eyes searched the surroundings in hope to find something to catch their attention.

"See that pine tree up ahead?"

The remaining two nodded.

"Look closely at the trunk. See the claw marks?"

They didn't respond, for they were both taken by surprise at how large they were.

"What left them?" her younger sister asked curiously.

"Ah ain't sure. Hey Fluttershy, do those marks look like bear claws to you?"

"Bear claws?" the three foals all said with wide eyes.

Applejack continued, knowing that she had them right where she wanted them. "Or do they look more like wolf marks to you?"

Fluttershy seemed to be catching on to Applejacks game. She quietly giggled and played along. "I'm not sure. They are really far away. They could be, uh, panther marks…" Her face was as inconsistent as her tone, and she was afraid that she might give herself away.

To her relief, the girls took it for the truth and began quaking in fear.

"Uh, sis," said Apple Bloom, "there aren't really bears or wolves or panthers out here, are there?"

Applejack shrugged.

"Oh my." said Sweetie Belle quietly.

Now the three foals were far less concerned about their own boredom and were far more involved in looking for dangerous creatures, which more than likely, were either not native to this part of the woods or were still hibernating.

Derpy smiled at the way Applejack handled the situation. She could feel that this was going to be a fun trip.

By 8:00am they had arrived at the campsite. It was marked by a number of large rocks arranged in a large circle at the top of a hill. Inside the ring of stones the grass was far less abundant due to extended use as a campsite. In the center, was another circle of stones that made a place to start a campfire, around which there were five logs for anypony to sit on if they desired to do so. There were a few trees at the hilltop but they were not as thick or randomly scattered as the trees below, rather these trees seemed to be in just the perfect places to provide a harmonic balance of shade and sunlight in the campsite.

The hill had two dirt paths leading up and down it. One of these paths, on the north side, was the one they had used to climb up the short hill. The other pathway, was located on the west side of the hill, and led to a large blue lake where they could swim and play.

Looking rather satisfied with one of her favorite campsites, Applejack used her teeth to pull the strap that held her supplies to her sides and let it all fall to the ground. "Alright," she said taking charge, "We should all set up our tents and then go gather the rest of our supplies."

Everypony agreed, and they began unpacking their tents. Applejack called over her little sister to help her set up the first tent, which was similar in color to her orange coat.

For anypony that wasn't well acquainted with unicorn magic, setting up a tent was much easier with a partner. A tent consisted of two long poles of equal length and of course the tent itself. To set up the tent, one had to run the two poles through the two tunnels that made the frame. After doing so, the poles would be arched to form the shape of the tent and give it volume, and then it would be staked to the ground.

In order to do this task, both Applejack and Apple Bloom managed one pole each, and they worked together to slide the poles through the loops and then bend and drive the poles into the ground. Then Applejack held the tent in place while her little sister found the stakes and drove them into the ground.

Only a couple yards away, Derpy and Fluttershy used the same two-pony method to set up a second tent, which was yellow with pink trimming.

While those four had devised a better plan for setting up their tents, the other two fillies had decided to try and do it themselves with little success.

Scootaloo on the one hand was starting to grow frustrated. The stupid tent wouldn't work. At that moment, all she had was two poles in the ground on the left hoof side and the tent looped around them. She was having trouble pulling down the other end of the poles and stabbing them in the ground as well. She had tried to do so using brute force, but that had resulted in falling on her back and causing her mouth to be sore. So she then tried a different approach.

The young pegasus climbed the nearest tree and leapt onto the side of the tent that was sticking up in the air. She landed, bringing the side of the tent to its proper resting place on the ground. Satisfied with handiwork, Scootaloo backed away from the tent. Then she remembered she needed to stake the poles into the ground first.

Suddenly she heard a familiar whooshing sound. Quickly her head darted back, but she was too late, the tent had been flung towards the sky. She could do nothing but watch as the tent flew through the air and landed right behind Sweetie Belle and staked itself down.

The young unicorn had just unpacked her own tent and turned to see one set up right where she had planned to set hers. She dropped the tent out of her mouth and just stared at it. She began to question the very possibility of such a thing. "How did this get here? Was it magic? Was it my magic? Can I even do that kind of magic?"

Scootaloo came galloping up, and stopped to stare exactly as Sweetie Belle had. "Uh... Sweetie Belle..."

The unicorn stopped her pacing to see the befuddled look on Scootaloo's face. It was then that she knew what was going on. "Let me guess, you were having tent trouble."

"Yeah, I was." Scootaloo answered. "Hey, wanna help me move this back to where I was?"

"Hmmm," she answered, "Why don't we just leave it here by the path to the lake. The three of us will just end up camping in the same tent anyways." They nodded in agreement and laughed.

In the end, Sweetie Belle's tent functioned as Derpy's for the trip. The three older mares set it up together at a very quick speed while the foals chased each other in circles.

Once all the tents were set up and the girls finally tripped over one-another, the group split up to do their own designated tasks. Fluttershy, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo went down to the lake to clean up any debris from the trees to "eliminate potential hazards" as Fluttershy called it, while Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Derpy all went looking for firewood.

Derpy could not remember a time where she had gone camping, nor did she remember a time when she needed to collect her own firewood. The pile by her fireplace was there when she woke up, she never had to go gather it, at least not since her memory started to come back.

Applejack led the two down the north side of the small hill towards the less thick section of the woods. This confused both of her followers very much, as they thought that they would be heading either to the east or to the south where the forest seemed to thicken.

"Hey, sis?" Apple Bloom asked with the curiosity of a young filly ready to learn. "Why aren't we goin' to the other side of the hill to find wood?"

Applejack smiled in a way that let Derpy know that she was happy to have been asked such a question. "Because this campsite actually borders the Everfree Forest. There is a lot more wood down there, but there are some trees we just shouldn't bother with."

That was all that was said on the matter as they came to a part of the woods where some of the trees still had branches that had no leaves.

This time it was Derpy's curiosity that had gotten the best of her. She wondered why there were these sections of the woods that were less developed than others. Applejack explained it in the simplest terms possible, mainly because she wasn't actually certain. She argued that it was just the way nature was. Most likely, some trees absorb more nutrients or water from the ground before other trees have a chance.

When they returned to the campsite they had collected a fair amount of wood for the fire.

The six ponies later took a breather and glanced at the surrounding area, each for their own reason. The three foals were looking for something fun to do, Applejack was noting the place to start the fire, and Fluttershy was checking to see if she could find any birds to impress the young fillies. Derpy, glad to have some time with these girls, just sat on a log and stared, taking it all in.

Fluttershy, whispering to Applejack and Derpy, said "the girls look bored already, maybe we should go bird-watching."

Derpy, being lost in thought, did not hear her at first. When she did she stumbled out a quick "Okay, sounds good" and got up to follow. She asked herself why the three hyperactive fillies would enjoy such a patience-testing activity, but decided to just sit back and watch and see how long they would before becoming bored.

Fluttershy's rattling off of bird names filtered in and out of Derpy's thought process. At one point, she thought Fluttershy called a bird a "great influence laughing fuss" but in reality she was pointing out a "Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush" which snapped Derpy back to attention. She listened more as Fluttershy showed them a "Eurneighsion Three-Toed Wood-Pecker" but zoned out afterwards.

Around noon, as the heat of the sun was reaching its peak, and was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, the six ponies decided to do something else. The three young fillies, sweat dripping off each of their faces, immediately suggested to go swimming.

"Come on, it's really hot out." Scootaloo complained. "Going for a swim would be awesome right about now."

"Ah agree," said Applejack. "A swim does sound a mighty fine idea."

Derpy didn't really want to swim, but she decided to go along with it, just for the others. "Sure, a swim sounds nice."

So they trotted over to the lake. On arrival the three foals immediately jumped in, and began to splash each other. Derpy took one look at them, and realized that distance from the fray would be best, and settled with floating in a shallow indent at the edge of the lake, where it was easy for her to stay in one place.

Fluttershy, not much of a swimmer, voiced her idea, "Um, maybe I should, uh, you know, stay out of the water. Like here at this rock, it's not so bad, and besides, the water is probably too cold for me anyway. That's okay, right?"

Applejack, sounding quite sarcastic, responded as she rose slowly out of the water and headed towards Fluttershy. "Sure Shy," She said. "We understand. But are yah certain yer not the slightest bit warm in this sun?"

"Oh, no. I'm quite comfortable." she responded. "I really don't think that a swim is necessary."

Applejack trotted right up to her, as she laid back to avoid looking at everypony else, which made her unaware that Applejack was grabbing her and tossing her into the cold, refreshing lake.

"OH MY!" Fluttershy yelled, causing Derpy to sit up. What she saw was actually quite shocking. She saw Fluttershy being splashed on by the young foals, as Applejack jumped back in. And she was laughing! The sight was so hilarious, that Derpy soon found herself laughing along with the rest of them.

Time passed quickly and the party eventually grew tired and hungry. Applejack looked at the rest of the ponies and suggested that they all go back and make some s'mores. The three foals smiled and agreed.

On their way out of the lake Apple Bloom happened to wonder aloud why they were called s'mores.

"I don't know," said Scootaloo, "maybe cause they always leave you wanting s'more?" She smiled awkwardly as she waited for a response. The other two foals just stared at her creating an unsettling moment of silence.

Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo, and slowly shook her head with open eyes. "That was just awful." Then without another word Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle walked away, leaving Scootaloo there to ponder this response.

"Oh come on," she called after them, "it wasn't that bad was i-"

"Yes it was" the other two said in unison.

So they dried off, and headed back to the campsite. Derpy and Fluttershy prepared the graham crackers and chocolate, and Applejack, who might not have been thinking correctly, showed the three young fillies how to start a fire. They all gathered around the safe, much to Scootaloo's disappointment, and small fire. They devoured the delectable and delicious s'mores. And had an all-around group connection together.

This was one of those subtle moments where a pony didn't really care about anything but enjoying the tranquil moment. Nopony was worried about school or work, nor was anypony concerned with the hour of the night. Nopony cared that the sooty smoke was sticking to their coats and that they would need baths. Nopony cared about the dirt on their hooves or the pine straw in their manes; all that mattered at that moment was relaxing and enjoying the peace and silence of the great outdoors - together.

As they progressed into the later hours of the night they found themselves exchanging a variety of different stories to entertain with. Upon repeated requests from her sister, Applejack started off with some riveting tales of her experiences in the rodeo. For what must have been half an hour they all sat and listened to her talk.

It all sounded like so much fun to Derpy, the concept of course. While she would never imagine being a part of the festivities described to her, she found the tales themselves to be quite enthralling. She could imagine it all. Applejack standing in the center of ring of dirt, cautiously sidestepping while keeping eye contact with some dangerous bull character. He would try and taunt her with a snort of his nose and a kick of his hoof, but she would not be intimidated. Applejack would wait for the bull to rush at her before whipping out her rope into a lasso and hurling it around her opponent's neck and then swinging onto his back, biting onto his horns with no intention of letting go. The bull would no doubt kick and stomp to try and throw her off, but he would have no luck, and with a sharp twist Applejack would bring the bull onto his side in victory. The crowd would burst out in excitement, and the whole undertaking would be remembered by fans in the crowd.

After Applejack was done sharing the details of her escapades with raging bulls, exhilarating races, and the suspense of friendly competition, the rest of the group was still in awe at all the exploits of the country mare. The country mare produced an all-knowing smile, almost smirking at their admiration. Beneath her pride however she was quite embarrassed by the adoring stares and it showed on her face, her orange coat unable to hide her blushing.

Unable to handle the silence any longer, Applejack looked to her sister. Her expression and tone of voice as she spoke to the filly seemed to challenge Apple Bloom in a way that siblings so often did. "So," she started off, "how about you?"

The little filly didn't immediately realize she was being spoken to, and thus waited a moment before awkwardly asking "Wha- me?"

It was final in Derpy's mind that Apple Bloom had the most adorable country accent in all of Equestria.

Applejack nodded quickly and began messing up her little sister's hair with her hoof, not caring that the enormous bow was coming loose from the filly's hair. "Come on sis'" she said, her voice still portraying a challenging tone, "Don't y'all have any stories about them crazy adventures y'all have?"

Apple Bloom shook her head, rejecting the hoof messing up her bow. She scooted back a little then hesitated. Her face then lit-up with a sort of enlightened passion which Derpy and Fluttershy found quite entertaining. Applejack must have felt the same way, because she made an attempt at an expression to try and urge her younger sister into a sort of sibling-rivalry attitude. It worked.

"Why yes we do, don't we girls?" her head snapped quickly to the other two fillies, who had been watching in silent laughter the entire time. Suddenly their faces hardened, and they rose to their feet, Scootaloo being the first of the two to verbally agree.

The next half hour seemed to fly by. Every few minutes the three foals had the entire group in an uproar of laughter. Even Fluttershy was unable to keep quiet at some points.

From their escapades in tree climbing to their utter defeat at squirrel catching the entire camp was in a riot.

After the tenth story, which was about trying to earn cutie marks in 'duck whispering', Applejack noted that the wood pile was officially depleted.

Apple Bloom, being one of the only ponies not feeling the crashing effects of the depleting adrenaline supplied by constant laughter, verbally noted how quickly the wood burned. "Y'all found it last time," she said to her older sibling, "ah can do it this time."

The elder of the sisters was still having random spells of giggling, which at this point was becoming painful to her sides. She nodded in agreement, flicking her hoof to notion for to head off. "Alraight," she said gasping for air, "just be… be careful!"

The young filly beamed and merrily made her way from the site.

Derpy, who was still shaken up from the show, decided to tag along.

"Wood," chanted Apple Bloom to herself, "gotta find wood. We need wood to burn for the fire. Wood comes from trees. Trees are wood…"

Despite this mumbling to herself she was actually being quite strict in her search for usable firewood. She wanted to make sure to get the best firewood for everypony to enjoy.

Derpy was curious as to where they would be looking for firewood, for it was dark now, and it didn't seem like they were likely to find any loose wood around in the direction they were going.

"Hey," she said after ten minutes of searching. "Maybe we should call it quits. It is just way too dark to find anything useful."

Apple Bloom sighed. "But we gotta find something to use. We can't go back empty-hoofed. Wah don't we try the swamp? There's bound to be some dead wood down there!"

Derpy shook her head in the darkness. "I think your sister told us not to go get wood from there. I think we should just head up and enjoy what's left of the fire."

Apple Bloom nodded, and agreed, but seemed a little hesitant. "Why don't you go up, ah'll be right behind ya. Ah wanna look just a little bit more."

Derpy hesitated for a moment, and then decided that the foal could handle herself. She departed from the woods and regrouped with the rest of the camp.

Apple Bloom however did not return immediately, and the rest of them started to worry. But their fears were put to rest when she showed up with three large sticks of wood with her.

"Ah found some wood!" she announced loudly.

Applejack looked at her with some suspicion. "Derpy said you couldn't fahnd anythin' in the dark."

"Oh," the filly stammered, "ah found some anyways." She smiled inconspicuously.

Applejack shrugged and took the wood, adding it to the fire. Almost instantly the flames jumped up, but nopony paid any mind to it.

A few more minutes passed and they were telling stories again. The fire however was putting off an unusual amount of smoke.

It smells so… sweet! Thought Derpy, and she took a deep breath of the smoky air, embracing the aroma as if it were a new friend. Friends; she felt so lucky to have them.

Time continued to past and Derpy began to feel dizzy, but at the same time she felt happy.

Nopony was watching her, and she felt like she needed some air. So without a word, she walked away down the east side of the hill.

Derpy Hooves was doing nothing less than prancing down the hill. Her path seemed distorted, and she felt like there was no friction when she touched the ground. Her wings flapped rather awkwardly as she skipped, until suddenly she tripped on a rock and fell to the ground, sliding a few feet with her wings still flapping as her eyes rolled back to a wall-eyed position once again.

Derpy…

She heard something call her name. It was sort of high pitched in a way that seemed to resemble the voice of a creature much smaller than her.

She rose to her hooves, and looked around. She heard her name again, and looked up to see fireflies above her.

"Oh hi" she said, her words much heavier than normal. "Where did you come from?" They didn't respond, but they seemed to trail off towards the lake. "You want me to follow? Okay." The pegasus trailed off towards the lake, tripping once again.

Suddenly she was babbling to herself.

"I'm a pony, a pegasus pony with wings. I fly. I like flying, flying is to pony as… muffins and I'm alone…"

"Why am I always alone?"

The words she spoke then seemed to be coming from some other pony, despite her having said them.

"I'm not alone." she said, smiling proudly. She pointed at herself with her hoof as she sat down and stared at the water. "I have friends."

"Then why am I alone?"

This time Derpy stopped. She could have sworn that somepony else was asking the questions to her. It was only her speaking under her breath. Yet each word felt as if it were a dagger piercing her metaphorical heart, her emotions, and her conscience.

Conscience?

What did conscience have to do with anything? She hadn't done anything wrong.

"Then why do you choose to forget?"

These thoughts were not her own and she knew it, or at least she believed they were not. No these were only echoes; the echoing voice of the mare in the mirror.

The puzzled pony leaned over the side of the water, staring into her reflection.

Nothing happened. The mare in the mirror did not speak, and neither did she. There was just silence. Unbearable, deafening silence.

She leaned downward and splashed some water on her face. "This is so painful" she muttered. "The emptiness inside."

There was a voice, this time coming from behind her that seemed to echo in the air like the ripples in the water. She turned to see who it was, but all she was met with was a silhouette of a pony.

"Appleja…?" she started to say, but stopped as the figure took a step forward. The shadowy silhouette instantly transformed in shape into another familiar face. "Cheerilee?"

The mare said nothing, gave her no message of greeting, she only stood there. If it were any consolation the mare didn't have to say anything, for her expression said it all.

Cheerilee's expression was filled with a sort of empathy. At least that's what Derpy believed it to be. The pony looked as if she was tired, the kind of tired that ponies often confuse sadness with.

No... she is staring at me with pity...

Her eyes were locked with Derpy's. The two of them exchanged equally soft glances of understanding at first, then Derpy started to cringe in anger.

Understanding… the word echoed in her head. She was suddenly filled with a feeling of insecurity. No one could possibly understand her, and it became clear to her what she was staring at.

For the first time Derpy directed her gaze to the ground around Cheerilee. It was familiar, and Derpy turned around to find that she had indeed seen it all before. Only a moment before she had been staring at Cheerilee standing in the exact place she was standing then.

It was a reflection, as if when she turned around she was staring into a mirror image of what she had been staring at moments ago. In this reflection however, there were no ponies.

Derpy turned her head back to meet the eyes of Cheerilee once more, but found herself staring into her own eyes. Even though she knew that it was a reflection, this caused a sense of confusion in her, and she turned back around to see the lake again but this time it was gone, and behind her was the direction from which she came.

She turned back around to see herself once again, still mirroring her movements. Her heart raced as she began to feel a sense of fear. Something was off here.

Get it together, she thought. It's only a reflection.

"Am I?"

Derpy's eyes widened. It was not her who spoke, but the supposed reflection of herself.

"I can't control who I am… or was." The image said.

Derpy felt more pain in her head than ever before now. She had said that very thing to the mare in the mirror the day the incident happened. It was an echo from the past.

There was a moment of strange discomfort coming over her.

She shook her head and turned around; once again she was at the pond. In a moment of confusion she turned around, but nothing was there everything was as it should be. She was alone.

Alone…

Vision left her, as she fell to the ground unconscious.

Where am I? Why am I here? How did I get here?

The world around seemed so blurry so strange.

A strange distortion floated around her, causing what seemed to be ripples of sorts in the very air.

She tried to breathe, but for some reason it didn't feel right. Something was off about this place, and she didn't know what.

She tried to move, but her motions seemed to be slowed by some unseen force. She looked down to find that she wasn't standing; rather she was floating; wafting in midair. It had to be air; she could feel no liquid around her, her pony skin was dry. Yet every move she made caused more and more ripples in the air.

I smell smoke… I can feel it stinging my sinuses and clogging my lungs. The soot is sticking to my coat, my skin, my hair… It's getting thicker…

Indeed the smoke was growing thicker, to the point to where it seemed to swallow her whole.

Where is it coming from? I have to get out of here… who are you?

A shadowy silhouette had appeared in the distance behind the smoke. It was moving, running towards her, but it didn't seem to be getting any closer. Yet still she could hear it, rather she could hear him. It was a stallion, and he was coughing, panting, gasping for air. Was he trapped like she was? Was running pointless for him too? Was also immobilized by this dark haze which had enveloped her?

"Derpy!" the figure called, but the sound was muffled. "Derpy…"

"I'm here!"

Her own voice was even more muffled than the other. Sound didn't seem to be working properly, as if her words were being trapped in bubbles, unable to break free.

It was the smoke, she was sure of it. The ash and soot in the air was so dense that she could practically wade in it. The smoke was thick enough that she could swim through it.

The voice called again and once more she responded. Her voice was once again muffled, but the call of the stallion grew even louder.

"Derpy where are you? Derpy!"

Suddenly she felt as if she was sinking, and she could feel the ground beneath her hooves. The smoke lightened, not in weight but in color, and the scene glowed a haunting red. Just moments before she had been observing the scene from above, now she appeared to be in the very center of whatever chaos had befallen this place.

I'm burning up! Somepony please help me!

Now the stallion's voice was closer, louder. There was a sense of panic in it that caused Derpy's heart to sink into a pit of despair. She suddenly felt very alone, and very afraid.

Now she was on the floor, trying to find air that had not been contaminated by the smoke. Walls and furniture surrounded her. The objects that she felt would have normally given her comfort now threatened her with fire and ash.

Now she could feel the flames upon her. They flickered and danced in a devilish manner almost as if they were celebrating her fear and pain.

Was she, going to die?

No, of course not. He wouldn't let that happen. She felt the stallion's teeth on her mane, pulling her away from a fiery grave. The motion hurt, but she didn't care, she was too afraid to care.

The stallion used his foreleg to grab hers, and with a mighty tug he pulled her to his side. Without a moment to lose, the green-coated stallion started to push through the smoky room with her at his side.

Derpy shrieked in horror as two burning planks of wood fell from the roof and blocked the doorway, missing their heads by mere inches.

The two ponies quickly jumped back, and Derpy began looking for another way out. The stallion did not. Instead, he let go of her leg and charged at the blazing blockage, smashing through the barrier with great momentum. The stallion swiftly returned to the mare's side and pulled her through the doorway.

Only a few more steps were taken before Derpy heard a sharp snapping sound. The stallion must have heard it too because he tackled her and covered her body completely. There was a loud crash followed by the sound of shattering glass. She heard the stallion let out a suppressed cringe in pain. When he got off of her it was clear what had happened: the chain to the glass chandelier had popped, sending the object to the hard, marble flooring where it shattered into thousands of pieces on impact.

Despite a few pieces of glass in his back the stallion still pulled Derpy to her feet and tugged her along through the burning building.

The smoke was starting to condense, and she could hear him wheezing. But he did not stop.

A few more moments and they found themselves at a spiral staircase, the structure of which was still intact but the metal rail used for hoof support was obviously very hot by the way heat waves surrounded its surface.

Without taking any time to think the stallion grabbed her by the mane and began running down the staircase, the roof of the floor they were departing collapsing behind them.

They were running out of time, the building was starting to fall apart. He had to have known it too, because he took no self-precautions in running down the staircase. Instead, he practically thrust himself against the hot metal of the railing in order to provide enough space for Derpy to be unscathed.

The pain must have been excruciating.

"We're almost there," he said to her between heavy breaths, "just one more floor. We'll be safe in a minute."

But they didn't have a minute, the clock was ticking.

As soon as they hit the bottom of the spiral staircase the roof began to drop heavy wooden beams upon them. He could no longer risk holding her, he had to shield her.

She felt herself being swung around to his front, her legs wrapping around his neck and beneath his forelegs. The additional weight slowed him down, but when the debris began pelting the ground around them it seemed like the only safe place to be.

"Right through that doorway over there…" he said gasping for air. "Just have to get you to the staircase…"

Time was out…

The roof above them collapsed in completely as they made it to the doorway. She let go and made it to the other side only with his strength holding the frame together. "Go through!" he yelled.

She ran and made it to the balcony but the stairs were covered with flaming debris. Below her were two other stallions waiting frantically. They called for her to jump, but it was too terrifying.

There was a loud crash behind her that was followed by the sound of stomping hooves. Suddenly she felt the snout of the green stallion lifting her off the ground and lobbing her over the edge of the balcony and into the forelegs of the other two stallions. She looked back, her heart still racing and her head weary from the effects of adrenaline.

The green stallion looked over the edge of the balcony, and without giving himself time to reconsider what he was about to do, he jumped.

The stallion hit the ground hard with a loud thud, and rolled across the floor for three yards before coming to a stop. He shook his head repeatedly to dissipate the dizziness he had accumulated from the action, and then rose to his feet. The party of four then continued the dash for safety.

They were only a few feet from the door when suddenly the green stallion stopped. When Sandman looked at him for a moment but said nothing. Then they both nodded in what seemed to be a silent agreement. Then the brown pony said to his friend "I'll see you on the other side."

The green stallion nodded, and they locked forelegs in what seemed to be some sort of special hoof-shake before letting go. Then he ran back into the smoky building.

Sandman grabbed Derpy and the remaining three of them ran out.

Another few ponies waited outside for them.

Sandman stared at the doorway, waiting for his friend to come out. They all did.

In the distance she could see a group of Pegasi pushing rain clouds towards the scene.

It was chaos… pure chaos…

One of the Pegasi was faster than the others. The pony looked at the crowd which Derpy was in, and then a shocked look appeared on his face. He looked towards the blazing building and without a moment to lose he flew through the doors of the building and into the smoke.

Not even a full minute later they heard the balcony collapse inside before a cloud of smoke burst out of the double doors. With the smoke came a single pony, a pegasus, cradling a small music box. The other stallions helped him away from the building as it started to cave in on itself.

Derpy didn't know what was happening, but she could tell there was much grief being shared by the small crowd of ponies.

The pegasus looked at the object he was holding, and then he put a key into the box and wound it up. Then she could hear music…

Music that was more beautiful than any other she had ever heard before…

She began to sing.

"Hoof in hoof together, together we will stride. Forever we will stride, and we will remember…"

We will remember…

6 retpahC dnE|3nd Chapter 6

7: Ink on a Page

noitcelfeR|R3fl3ction

Chapter 7
"Ink on a Page"

Derpy couldn't comprehend the feeling that the music always filled her with. It was a sensation unlike any other. The sound of it was palpable, tangible, a physical anomaly that seemed to surround her. It was lifting her up, protecting her from something, from everything. It may have been in the rhythm, or in the actual notes of the melody. It could even have spawned from the very words being sung, but whatever was creating the unusual sensation remained a mystery.

She was never able to see the wreckage of the burning house after the flames had died down. The group that had met her outside the building split up shortly after the fire-squad had begun their efforts to put out the blaze. The brown stallion, Sandman, remained behind with a slightly younger stallion who had a cool-grey coat and black mane, tail, and mustache. A few others from the group also stayed behind, but the faces were too blurred to determine who any others were.

Derpy walked next to a stallion with a faded violet complexion. His mane was red, but the color was starting to fade from it and thus revealed a slightly orange tint behind the primary color. This stallion was older than the rest of the ponies. She couldn't specifically tell how much older he was, but it was enough to make it visibly obvious.

Despite this age difference, he still was not the largest or tallest stallion out of the bunch, in fact he was one of the shortest. Yet in spite of this fact, Derpy still felt safe when around him. He was always calm, and portrayed an essence of wisdom by the way he listened. As the filly tried to talk to him, he didn't speak back, but he always responded somehow, and it was the way he did so that had convinced her that the stallion was not only listening to what she said, but also understood her inquiries.

The given circumstances created a great deal of questions. However, the foal's curiosity had an overbearing wish to know just where they were going, and such a question was not exactly simple to answer without speaking.

But the stallion still said nothing, and Derpy felt that it was because even he, in all his thinking, did not know either. She wondered if he was as confused as she was, and if he was also afraid.

Still they continued to travel, farther and farther away from the burning building, until they were finally far enough that they could not even see the smoke in the distance when the sun finally broke the horizon.

Derpy slowly opened her eyes to find herself in a familiar setting. She was back at Sweet Apple Acres, lying in Applejack's bed, which she recognized by the covers, which were embroidered with the country mare's cutie mark.

It was daytime, and from what she could tell, she was alone.

Slowly, she began to lift her head from the pillow and proceeded to stretch her back. Whilst doing so it popped four times, and it felt as if she was much more stiff than usual. There was talking coming from outside the room, followed by the sound of hoof steps coming up the stairs.

Derpy put her front legs in the air to stretch them; again they felt like they were incredibly stiff.

The door opened slowly at first, and then Applejack walked in once she saw that Derpy was awake.

"Oh thank heavens y'all 'er okay." The country pony said in relief, wiping a pretend sweat from her forehead.

Derpy was starting to become concerned. "Well yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

Applejack stared at her with caring eyes. Then she sighed. "Granny Smith said that you probably wouldn't remember what happened."

"Why? What happened?" The pegasus said with a voice that only grew slightly more frantic.

Applejack walked to the side of the bed and looked down at the little night table next to the head of the bed. She calmly opened the drawer and retrieved a little notebook and pencil. As she passed the two objects over to Derpy, she told her "You may want to write this down…"

"Two days?" Derpy said in shock, it was more rhetorical than not.

Applejack continued to offer her apologies and assured her it was an accident.

"What happened?"

"The wood that Apple Bloom brought back was from the area I warned her about. It's my fault for not explainin' to her why exactly she wasn't supposed to collect that wood. It's dangerous."

"How dangerous?"

"Well it depends really. Some ponies have it worse than others. The wood she cut was called Neveroak, and while it seems normal, the smoke of the wood is poisonous. Since you were sittin' downwind from the fire, you managed to get more in your body than the rest of us. Then you kind of just went swimmin' in the smoke, so to speak."

Derpy was silent. This was all just so strange. No wonder she was so stiff, she hadn't moved all weekend.

"We found you out cold down by the lake. Apple Bloom confessed about the wood and ah gave her quite a talkin' to. She was real sorry about what happened."

Derpy's frown lightened up. She sighed. "Accidents happen. Where is Apple Bloom now?"

Applejack seemed to perk up a little too. "School ended 2 hours ago, so she is probably with her friends."

"Doing something crazy no doubt."

They both laughed, and Applejack wiped a tear from her eyes. "Yeah, ah guess so."

Derpy smiled. "Tell her I'm fine. I need to go collect my thoughts."

Applejack nodded. "Ah bet you do."

The Apples offered to make Derpy lunch, but she declined. She needed to get some air, so to speak.

After leaving the farm, Derpy was at a loss of where to go next. She had just gotten over the fact that she had slept through an entire day, and she couldn't truly figure out a location that could possibly correspond to such an event.

At first she had thought that the park would be a nice place to unwind, but then she decided she didn't quite feel like being outside. Her second thought would be to go to the Blossomed Daisy, and why not? With that in mind she started off toward the little diner.

Service was a little slower than usual that day. It was strange, Derpy noted, because the diner didn't seem particularly busy at the moment. Thinking back she couldn't really remember a time when it was very busy, but then again she was used to not remembering much.

She looked over to the counter. The cashier was talking to one of the waitresses. When she turned her head towards the kitchen door, she saw the waiter who normally served her outside approaching the other two and engaging himself in their conversation. Then Derpy looked down to her glass, which was empty except for a few melting ice cubes.

While an empty drink was nothing to complain about, she found it rather odd that this was the first time she had actually had to wait for someone to come by and fill her glass again. In truth it wasn't just the empty glass, but rather the fact that the glass had been empty for nearly ten minutes.

Her usual waiter looked over to her for a moment, then back to his two companions before going back into the kitchen and returning with a pitcher of lemonade. As he approached the table, the waitress followed him.

Derpy pretended not to notice them approaching until the waiter was close enough to pour the lemonade, which he did.

"Sorry about the wait." He said sincerely.

Derpy smiled at him. "No worries."

As the grey pegasus started to sip her beverage, the waitress stepped up.

"So Derpy…" she said, trying not to sound conspicuous. "I couldn't help but to notice you came inside today."

Derpy looked up with a worried expression. "Oh, is that a bad thing?" She was starting to feel a little nervous. She didn't want to be a bother.

The other two shook their heads.

"No not at all," replied the waitress, "it's just that out of all the times you have ever come here you have never sat inside."

Derpy blinked. "Oh, really? I hadn't quite thought of that." She went back to sipping her lemonade.

The colt filled her glass to the top again before speaking. "It just came as a surprise to see you inside for once. I guess we were interested is all."

Derpy continued to smile innocently. "I'm surprised that you even noticed. I don't even get how you already know my name and order when I first walk in."

The two servers looked at each other with slightly concerned expressions.

"Well, why wouldn't we?" asked the colt.

The filly raised a brow. "Yeah, I mean like you come here more than any other customer we have."

The colt nodded. "You never say too much, and I haven't really struck much of a conversation before, but you are definitely the pony I have served the most."

Derpy stretched her face in a way that showed a bit of interest. There was also a bit of confusion portrayed in the way she tilted her head as she spoke. "I am?"

They nodded. The waitress went on to explain how Derpy was at the restaurant three or so times a week.

The colt nodded. "In fact our manager has us give you a discount because you're here so much. Sometimes we don't even ring you up."

Now this she took as a surprise. Suddenly, she felt a little bit guilty for not recognizing something like that, but the fact remained that this was all unknown to her. As far as she knew, going to the diner was like a treat, not a common visitation. But now she was being told that she was practically as common to see around the diner as they were.

Now Derpy started trying to remember some times she had eaten there. She couldn't find any recollection of it, and it was bugging her. Obviously, to know by heart where the restaurant was meant that she had been there a number of times before, and if those visits had been spread apart over time then it would make sense to not remember. But to forget something that she did nearly every other day was beyond her.

"Are you okay?" the colt asked. His eyes widened slightly and his expression seemed a bit worried.

Derpy shook her head quickly as if breaking from a trance. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine."

The two teenage ponies looked at each other with slightly guilty complexions. They seemed worried that maybe they had put too much stress on Derpy.

The colt went on to ask if there was anything else that Derpy wanted to order, and declined. Both the servers insisted that the drink was on the house before going back to work. She waited until they were both occupied with their jobs before pulling out both of her notebooks.

First she opened the original and quickly began searching through the pages.

There were in fact three entries involving the diner, three instances she failed to remember. She continued to scan through her writing until she came across the section labeled Reminders Inceptive. The section was written in a different font. The writing was also considerably neater to the extent that the pen would have had to been held with magic and not a mouth.

Without thought, she began to read. This went on until she reached the fifth paragraph where she came across a sentence that so boldly and clearly stated that "A routine action can become habitual, causing a pony's subconscious to label it as unimportant."

Derpy looked up. Did that mean that if she did something on a regular basis she would lose her memory of it? That seemed to contradict what they had been trying to do before, and thus she found it very confusing.

She closed her notebook and returned it to her saddlebag.

Maybe Twilight could elaborate further on what she had written. She was probably at the library; she did live there after all.

While walking to the library, the strangest sense of déjà vu had come over her. She had in fact walked from the diner to the library at least once before when she had previously decided to go there, and strangely enough she did in fact remember that instance. This caused her to grow a little more aggravated that she couldn't remember the three trips to the diner. But that didn't matter at the moment as she had other things to worry about.

She arrived at the library with a single goal in mind. This goal, however, was met with a much different outcome.

The second she walked through the door, Spike ran up to greet her.

"Oh there you are Derpy. Twilight has been sick the last few days, and that's why she hasn't been in contact with you."

"Sick?"

"Yeah, one of those book club members had a cold; must have given it to her."

Derpy sighed.

"But you don't have to be down, they are just about to start in the other room."

She looked at him questionably, but didn't have the time to ask who was waiting or why because Spike was already leading her there.

As he led her through the archway into the other room of the library, she was met by a bit of silence, then lots of laughs. Cheerilee trotted up to her still giggling. "Oh hey there Derpy, Apple Bloom told me what happened, I didn't expect you to come." Her voice seemed to come off in a way that was almost offensive. Her tone of voice seemed to be lacking the amount of concern that her words implied, yet the feeling was subconscious and Derpy didn't necessarily know that the feeling was there. "Come on, we are just about to start."

The mare led her over to where five other ponies were sitting. The ponies began to introduce themselves as Daisy, Rose, Lily, Clementine, and the only male, Noteworthy.

"But you can call me Blues," the stallion said, "everypony does."

Derpy was still in a bit of shock. She had forgotten all about the poetry club, but that wasn't surprising.

Clementine was the leader of the club, and thus was the one to start every discussion. Nopony complained though. She picked fun topics, and nopony seemed to have any objections. It only seemed like the club would talk about a topic, and then would share a poem or two and talk about those. Then they would repeat the process. It was because of this that Derpy felt quite secure.

About an hour into the whole meeting, they decided to try something else.

"It is simple," explained Clementine, "we take turns closing our eyes and creating a rhyme about the first thing we see."

They all nodded except for Derpy, who just kind of stared into the distance. In all honesty, she hadn't been paying much attention for the duration of the meeting. She would offer the occasional smile, nod, and chuckle, but most of the time, if not all the time, such reactions were just subconscious reflexes.

She pretended to listen as the others began pressuring Blues into going first. From the parts she had been listening to it seemed that the others liked to pick on him, most likely due to being the only male in the club. This of course did not include Spike, who, despite not actually being a member, made occasional appearances and took part in whatever activity they happened to be doing. However, such an occurrence was more due to the young dragon's boredom, rather than any real interest in the poetic field of literature.

When Blues was finished, they of course continued to their giggling and sarcastic sounding compliments which all failed to actually do any damage to his self-esteem and were all in good fun. The only difference than his reaction this time to his usual come back was that he brought it into question as to whether Derpy could do any better. The question quickly grew into an interesting proposal in the minds of the others, and it wasn't long before Clementine made the notion an actual invitation.

"Yes why don't you give it a shot Derpy?"

Hearing the use of her name in a direct statement, or question as it were, was enough to free her from daydream-like state of mind. As she abandoned her straying thoughts, she became alert. Her reaction was quite similar to that of a daydreaming student when called upon by a teacher to answer a question. Needless to say, she wasn't exactly sure what was happening right then.

"Come on now, it isn't difficult, just close your eyes and let the rhyme come to you." Clementine rested her chin on her hooves as she waited to hear Derpy's poem.

Not quite alert enough yet to put up an argument and not wanting to stick out, Derpy decided to play along.

Derpy closed her eyes and tried to think of something.

"No, no that won't do at all," said Clementine with the sort of drawn-out enunciation that made one seem, in a sense, ostentatious, or even slightly pretentious. "Dear, you are doing it wrong."

With her eyes still closed Derpy raised a brow. She proceeded to ask the unicorn in what way she was supposed to accomplish the task at hand. The tone of voice she used to do so was supposed to be mocking the way that Clementine was speaking, but nopony seemed to even notice.

"You're squinting dear, a clear sign that you're struggling to think of something. Just sit back, relax your muscles, and close your eyes; no need to try and think of something."

Derpy took a deep breath.

"You have to speak dear." Clementine said and all the others giggled. "Just make sure not to hurt yourse…"

"Burning bridges gone ablaze, all happy days left far behind, look around as if to find some peace at mind…"

Derpy paused for a moment. Clementine seemed a bit shocked. "Oh tha…"

"Now I'm home, safe and sound, but I'm alone, so I look around. She is just staring at me, she is crystal clear. Her anger is all I can see, the mare in the mirror."

Once again she paused, and Clementine tried again to speak. "Well now, tha…"

"Memories all fade away, every day a new adventure. I take the words my friends say, and I dare to venture my own way. I made mistakes, but that's okay. I can't change who I am or who I was, and she shouldn't stare like I'm a lost cause. I am not alone, I have my friends, ponies like Cheerilee on who I can depend.

I write it down, every night. Good or bad, wrong or right, it's on my pad in black and white. Whatever I do, everything said. A word unwritten is a word not read. I can't remember a lot of things, but the world is just a stage, and the acts are all written in my notebooks, it's in the ink on the page."

Derpy opened her eyes and looked around to see everypony staring at her. There was silence, until Clementine finally spoke. "Well, Derpy, that was very, uh how do I put this? Oh yes, that was amazing!" She started clapping her hooves and the others did as well. All except for Cheerilee, who stayed quiet and inconspicuously slipped away.

When she was starting to feel embarrassed from all the compliments, Derpy excused herself from the room, only to find Cheerilee walking out the door of the library. Confused, Derpy ran to meet the mare before she was more than a few yards away from the building.

"H-hey Cheerilee! Where are you going?"

The mare stopped walking but didn't turn around.

"Are you leaving already?"

Cheerilee had left wearing a green scarf that seemed to flow in the breeze. It was a nice contrast to her magenta complexion.

Slowly she turned around; there were tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Derpy asked with a great deal of concern.

Cheerilee shook her head. "Y-you shouldn't have said that about me…"

Derpy was confused and a bit shocked as well. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, you didn't. You never did. You have always been a wonderful pony." Cheerilee turned around and hastily trotted off, tears and all.

Clementine walked up behind Derpy, who was now sitting on the ground, staring off in the direction Cheerilee had left.

"Where did Cheerilee go?"

Derpy didn't answer.

The evening sunset had come and passed, but Derpy was too confused to enjoy it. She didn't return to the poetry meet, she had too much to think about.

It was a quiet night, quiet enough so that there was nothing to distract her from her thoughts. But at such a time when there were so many questions running through her mind, it was uncertain whether or not a distraction was something she needed.

What was Cheerilee so upset about? She seemed completely carefree when she first engaged Derpy that day, so why the sudden change?

A stroll in the park was a fair attempt at collecting her thoughts, but rather than finding peace she ended up pacing back and forth in front of a park bench, all the while mumbling to herself.

"What did she mean by never?" she would ask herself, and then would counter her own question by asking "did I say something to offend her?"

This went on for quite some time before she finally climbed onto the bench and rolled onto her back. There she lied still, staring at the sky. It was a cloudy night, and very few stars were actually visible.

For a while she said nothing, only waited to think of something. Anything.

Nothing came to mind. There was just silence. Total, complete silence.

She sighed as she rolled onto her stomach. Her head dropped between her forelegs and her eyes closed. She let out a sigh, if not for any other reason it was to simply break the silence. Inside she knew the sound would do little to help. The sound of her breath would only show the drastic contrast of the total silence.

But this was not the case. As the slight echo of her sigh faded into the dark another sound took its place. First she perked up her ears, and then she opened her eyes. She then brought her head up and tilted it as if trying to listen into the air more clearly.

She heard music. It was quiet enough that a slight breeze was enough to replace the sound. But there was no such wind. There were no crickets chirping either.

I need to go…

Something inside her seemed to be urging her to move towards the source of the music.

Derpy didn't resist. Without thinking it through, she dismounted the bench and held her breath. When she was sure of which direction the music was coming from, she continued breathing normally and headed down the street.

After a few moments the music grew louder, but the way it echoed in the night kept it just as hard to locate. But luckily this was a one way street.

As she trotted the empty street of Ponyville, she found herself enveloped in a sort of trance. For some reason she found herself avoiding the street lights. It was as if the closer she was to the light, the more distorted the song was.

Still something inside her seemed to push for Derpy to continue walking.

At this point she was approaching Sugar Cube Corner.

Her heart started to beat faster, and a strange feeling began to overcome her. The light started contrasting to the dark in a different way. The softer shades started to clash with the highlighted colors, distorting the way things looked. Shadows seemed to blend in with the darkness, making it almost appear as if the only source of light at all were in fact the light posts.

She had experienced a similar occurrence when staring into the campfire two days prior. Her eyes had adjusted to the light of the fire, making her practically blind in every spot that was not lit by it.

But this was not the same. The lights shouldn't have been bright enough to do this, especially when she never stared into one.

The music grew louder as she passed Sugar Cube Corner, louder and clearer. Something strange was happening within her.

Derpy's movements and vision seemed to reflect the sound of the music. She started swaying as she walked, and the lights seemed to distort to the rhythm.

But the strangest was yet to come.

"From the depths- of all dismay- we all find a way- our lives start today…"

She was singing, but she was unaware of it. She heard it like it was part of the music.

Derpy Hooves no longer knew where she was walking, nor did she care. Her mind was lost elsewhere, her body seemingly moving on its own accord. Everything was a blur, but at the same time it was all so clear. She saw only what she needed to see. She paid no mind to anything, as if she refused to acknowledge its existence.

As the melody slowed down, and the periods between each note grew longer with each one played, something began to form in front of her. It was a door, a door that seemed to form from smoky air, and that was the only thing she could see. So she did the only thing one can think to do with a door. Quietly and discretely, she opened it and took a step into it.

The trance she had been in seemed to fade away, but things still felt distorted. It seemed as if the world was a few frames behind her vision, but she continued into the doorway, walking ever so quietly forward. Just a few more steps forward were made before the song stopped playing completely.

It was then that the trance was fully broken, and Derpy became fully aware of her surroundings. Ironically by becoming more aware she felt less so, for she was in a building that she did not know what path she took to get to.

The darkness of the room was accompanied by silence, but even in the dark she could see shadows moving about. Though she was frightened, she did not speak. She only crept more and more towards the shadows until she found an archway. She walked through it into another room lit by a multitude of candles, in the center of which was a picture frame.

Derpy walked up to where the picture frame stood and had a closer look. She squinted to see clearer in the flickering light, and then her heart stopped when she saw who the picture was of. It was the same blue mare from her memories.

As shocking of a discovery as this was to find, it was not what caused her heart to stop. It was the sound of creaking floorboard, and the reflection of a stallion on the glass covering the photograph.

She quickly turned around to find herself face to face with the elderly stallion who owned The Red Leaf.

"Oh… I…I'm so sorry… I… I don't know why… I mean I…" she stuttered, trying to pull her words together. But the elderly stallion only shushed her.

He hushed her. "Quiet or you're going to wake the missus."

Derpy was stunned. She couldn't speak another word even if she wanted to.

The elderly stallion looked into her eyes. Hers were filled with confusion and terrified wonder. His were filled an old sort of wisdom, and at the same time seemed empty.

"Don't worry Derpy… I knew you would come… eventually…" The old stallion looked towards the photo of the blue mare, and Derpy's eyes followed. "It's time I told you a little story, and answered some of your questions…"

"It was some time ago. You were just a little foal at the time; I remember my first impression of you. You had this wild, rugged mane and the biggest eyes. I would have sworn your blood was made of sugar and caffeine the way you looked. But we loved you, all of us did.

I think the most memorable part of you was your eyes."

Derpy looked up from the cushion she was sitting on. "What was wrong with my eyes?"

The old stallion chuckled. "Nothing was wrong with your eyes. They were not any worse than ours, they were just… different."

"Different…" the voice of Cheerilee echoed in her head. She had said something quite similar. "Different how?"

"Well, besides pointing in different directions, they seemed to be filled with so much life." Derpy frowned. "Oh don't get me wrong, you had some problems, but it was by your choice that you did so."

This statement caused her to start looking around the room with her eyes, as if searching for a reasonable explanation for what he had just said. When her eyes returned to looking at him she asked "What does that mean?"

The old stallion's face was more serious than it had been. "You must forgive me when I tell you that, like you, my memory has also been impaired since then." Derpy's eyes were watering up, and it was breaking the old stallion's heart. "But I can try my best to help. You were different, that much was certain, but not in the way that you think. If I remember correctly, your eyes were just a small part of what was happening."

She nodded, but remained silent.

"There was this strange quality about you. You were always happy. Oh, and you asked questions," he pressed his lips into a comedic looking grimace, "lots of questions. You wanted to know things, reasons. Sometimes you would try and learn how to do things, things you had no experience in, and you would try with what I always thought was a genuine lust knowledge. You were many, many years younger than I, but I considered you to be just as wise, and you were."

Derpy looked down and to the right, not sure what to say.

The stallion continued his story. "I remember very little from the past, it is true. However, I still do remember because I made a promise that I would."

"Promise?" She questioned, looking back up.

"Many years ago, yes, when we first came to Ponyville."

"To whom?"

"To them…" he nodded over to the table with the pictures on them. There was an odd glow around the photos as the stallion began to cringe. He lifted two photos over to Derpy. He then took off his headband to reveal the remains of a broken horn.

Derpy couldn't help but to stare and wonder if such a thing was painful.

The stallion must have noticed her staring, because he went on to put the headband back on. "Do not ask, for I do not remember. I'm sure that in due time you will remember for me. But first look at what is now in front of you. The blue mare, who sadly I cannot remember, and the brown stallion, whose name was…"

"Sandman…"

This seemed to shock him. "You… remember?"

"I've been having dreams…"

"Ah, then you really are starting to remember. That is good. That means I can finally fulfill my promise from all those years ago."

Derpy looked at him with great interest as he stood up and walked into the other room where his wife was sleeping. There was the sound of a drawer opening, and then he returned with something in his teeth.

The stallion then gave her what appeared to be a letter. "This is for you, to help in your journey."

She took the envelope in her hoof and began opening it.

"Please read it quietly, I wish not to hear what was meant for your eyes only." He trotted over to a table with a music box.

Derpy nodded, and slowly opened up the letter. The paper seemed both fine and soft. It seemed rather fancy in her opinion. The writing was also very fancy looking. She sighed, and then started to read.

My dearest Derpy, if you are now reading this it means one of two things. The prior is that you have begun to remember what you had to forget, the latter being the one meant to give this to you has passed away. While I sincerely hope for prior, it sadly does not change the situation. By reading this you will be taking the first step on a path that will change everything you may have thought you were trying to learn.

I strongly urge that once the contents of this letter have been read you seek out my son, Doctor, in the hope that you two can succeed where we failed to help you. With you I have left a very important item, the Colt's key. The key to the Colab, I pray that you still have it. Take it to him, he knows what to do with it but does not know what it will do.

The remainder of this letter contains a series of events, sequences, and dialogues that may or may not have significance. Signed to your Infinity, Sandman.

Light the dark.

12123123412345

Bring the light.

C.C

The tired eyes bring the light the light the light

B.C.K

Doctor

DEARDEARDEARDEAR

Friendship, light, way, flame, forever

"She chose to forget…"

Derpy stared at the page for a bit longer. The lines that followed the signature brought nothing to mind. But then again, there was nothing on that page that stuck out more than the key.

She looked up at the old stallion. He was winding up a music box. When he finished it started to play a familiar tune, the one that brought her to the Red Leaf.

She looked back at the paper, not knowing what to think. But part of her wasn't thinking at all. The thoughts were all right there in front of her, in the ink on a page.

Good or Bad
Wrong or Right
On a Pad in Black and White
Whatever is done
What's ever been said
A word Unwritten is a word Unread
The writer's Key
To a world Unseen
Make one's own Reality

R3fl3ction
7 dn3|End 7

8: Two of a Certain Kind

noitcelfeR|R3fl3ction
Chapter 8
owT|Two of a Certain Kind

Three in the morning seemed awfully late for the amount of time it took to leave the Poetry meeting and receive the note from Sandman. She hadn’t realized that her trances could last for such a long time and seem so short. It must have happened when she heard the music. But then again, that would still mean she had either been walking incredibly slow, or she had simply lost consciousness in the street for a while. She wasn’t going to rule either one of them out. She was actually starting to think it must have been inside the Red Leaf. She may have just been standing in that dark for an eternity before moving, like a child who wants to turn on the light but is too afraid to make the dash to the light switch.

The night air was still, or was it the morning air? Derpy shook her head; she wasn’t exactly feeling up to debating such a question at this hour. She thought about how she had left so promptly. Was that rude of her? Should she have stayed a while longer? When she had tried to get Pa’s attention he seemed to be in some sort of trance. He may have just simply fallen asleep, old ponies do that sometimes.

A chill ran down her spine. It was rather chilly that night. She didn’t remember it being that chilly when she went inside. Maybe she should have brought a jacket. Maybe she did bring a jacket and she had just left it somewhere. Then again that could be true for just about anything she owned. She didn’t think that those sorts of instances really counted towards her memory loss. She was pretty sure that everypony had moments where they placed something down and then forgot they had it.

She stopped walking and simply stood there silently. The note had said that she should seek out Sandman’s son, Doctor. Or did it say his son was a doctor? She probably would have better luck seeking out an actual doctor than a pony whose name was Doctor. Unless of course that pony was a doctor named Doctor. If that was the case then there would no doubt be a great deal of hilarity to ensue. Of course she was not so much looking forward to a comedic undertaking as she was actually hoping to find some answers. However if answers happened to be accompanied by a witty series of play-on-words she wouldn’t mind in the least bit.

With a sigh she continued marching on. She wasn’t really thinking about where she was going, nor did she plan on arriving at anywhere in particular. However even despite her best efforts to not walk towards any particular location she still coincidentally ended up at one of the only places to go at 3 in the morning: an all-night diner.

The building was much smaller than the ones around it. It wasn’t the sort of restaurant where you could walk around in; instead it was more like a trailer. There were a few seats at the counter, then three booths on each side of it.

When she walked in she was instantly greeted by the strong aroma of coffee and eggs. There was one other pony sitting at the counter, sipping some coffee. Derpy sighed and went and found a seat at the end of the counter and waited for someone to come out of the back.

After a few minutes a large pony with a greasy apron and white hat on appeared from the doorway. He had a newspaper under his arm, which he promptly held out to the other pony sitting at the counter. “Here ya go, Blues.” He said in a particularly deep and graveled tone. “Of course the next one will be here in two hours.”

“How do you do it? Do you ever sleep?” the stallion asked with a raised brow. His name clearly fit him in more ways than one. His mane, tail, and coat were all blue, and his cutie mark consisted of two double eighth notes. It would be wrong to call him by any other name.

The larger pony smiled and shook his head. “I honestly don’t know anymore.” He looked over at Derpy. “How about you miss? How do you find the time these days?”

Derpy looked down at her hooves and gave a half-hearted shrug. “I don’t even really know what happened yesterday.”

“You hear that?” replied the large stallion.

“Ain’t that the truth…” added Blues immediately after.

Derpy just sort of shrugged, not really knowing what they were talking about and almost certain they didn’t know what she was talking about. Still, she might as well just go with it.

The stallion behind the counter picked up a pencil and returned. “So what’s your name doll?”

“Derpy.”

The stallion smiled. “What can I get you, Derpy?”

She thought for a moment. “Do you have lemonade?”

“Sorry, but I can offer you a cup of coffee on the house.”

The Pegasus thought for a moment, and then decided she might as well. She nodded and the stallion went to pour her a cup.

“Careful, it’s hot.” He warned as he placed the mug in front of her. He then went over to the other end of the counter and started drying some glasses with a white towel. “So what brings you here, Derpy?”

“It was cold outside.” She said bluntly and innocently.

Both stallions smirked.

“I like you. You’re funny.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, funnier than that guy.”

Blues looked up. “Bite me Patty,” he said as-a-matter-of-factly.

“Well we can’t all be named after a color now can we?” The other stallion joked. Apparently his name was Patty. That was actually quite humorous given his gruff appearance and tough sounding voice.

“Say Pat, when are you going to get a new clock?”

“I’m not. Doc ‘ll fix the one I got.”

Derpy looked up from her coffee. She hadn’t drunk any of it; she had just sort of been staring at it.

Blues looked very skeptical about Patty’s response. “It’s a cheap clock, why would you waste the money to have him work on it?”

“Didn’t cost me a bit. Doctor said he would fix it in his spare time.”

“Who?” Derpy asked suddenly.

The two stallions looked at her, and then Blues went back to reading. The working pony threw the towel over his shoulder and stretched his neck. “He’s a clock smith named Doctor. Funny looking guy, doesn’t drink much coffee but he always seems like he hasn’t slept in days.”

Blues shook his head. “Last time I heard he said he was a time turner.”

Patty shrugged. “Guess that’s just a way of saying clock smith. Same thing right.”

They were both shrugging. Derpy was starting to feel left out.

“Where can I find him?” She asked when they appeared to be finished.

“He has his shop set up down the street from Sugar Cube Corner. East road I think.”

Derpy thanked the two stallions for their help. She then stood up and walked out of the diner, heading towards Sugar Cube Corner. She didn’t really think about the fact that it was only four in the morning, not until she reached her destination of course. She also realized that she didn’t know which direction was east. Then she realized that East Road was the name of a street, not a direction. It was just a minor road that branched off of the main intersection.

She didn’t really know what else to do, so she walked down the street until she was in the middle of the length of the road. She then just sat down and waited. She took that time to write a little in her journal, which she did have with her in her bag. She spent perhaps two hours simply sitting on the side of the road writing and re-reading. When sunrise came she was sort of expecting everypony to suddenly appear and go about their lives. Of course that didn’t happen except for a few business ponies who were accustomed to reporting to work early.

By the time that it was eight in the morning she had already written two pages in her journal and read through it four times. She had counted every rock and pebble within a six foot radius and walked in six hundred circles. Needless to say she was relieved when ponies started coming out of their homes. Most likely it is also needless to say that a few of these ponies were confused as to why there was a grey Pegasus idling in the middle of the street.

Derpy was pretty sure she knew which one of the houses Doctor lived in. One of them had a metal bar that extruded from the roof horizontally, and from it hung a wooden sign with an hourglass on it. Given the fact that this pony was a clock smith of sorts, she was pretty sure that this was the right place.

Finally the door opened, and a brown Earth Pony exited the building. The stallion matched the description given by Patty. His brown hair was a complete mess, and his eyes wide open; he definitely looked as if he hadn’t slept in days.

The stallion looked at his watch, and then started making his way towards Sugar Cube Corner. He did not appear to notice Derpy’s presence.

Determined to find some answers she persisted after him from a distance. Unfortunately she did not know what to say, and she certainly didn’t want to seem crazy or creepy. So instead of confronting him there she thought she might as well follow him for a while.

The stallion made very few stops on his commute. He took a short break to smell some flowers a cart vendor was selling and another stop to give a bit to a filly in a scout’s uniform. After that he continued walking for what seemed like an hour. It was more like twenty minutes, but when following a stranger, things can feel dragged out. Finally he arrived at Sweet Apple Acre, where he knocked on the house door. Moments later Granny Smith opened the door and gave him a stereotypical country greeting.

Derpy could overhear some of the conversation without attempting to snoop.

“Glad to be of assistance Granny. So what seems to be the problem?”

“It’s mah old great grand pappy’s clock again. The dern arm stopped swingin’ again.”

“Alright then I’ll just take a look at it and see if I can get that pendulum working again.”

The stallion went inside and the door shut behind him. Derpy stood there for a moment waiting, and then she heard a small, high pitch voice coming from next to her.

“Watcha lookin at?” asked Apple Bloom. The filly was looking in the same direction as Derpy was in an attempt to find what was so interesting.

“Who is that?”

“That aint a who, that’s a house. Can you see alright?” The question seemed innocent enough.

“No I mean the stallion who just went inside. The brown one.”

The filly seemed to understand now. “Oh that’s Doctor.”

“Doctor… who?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s just his name.”

Derpy shrugged. At least she knew she had the right pony. “I need to talk to him.”

“Well let’s get goin’!” the filly said as she started pushing Derpy forward with her head. The Pegasus was reluctant to comply, but the filly was stronger than she looked. In the end Apple Bloom managed to push the dormant Derpy all the way to the steps. She then skipped up to the door and opened it. “Are ya commin’?”

Derpy sighed. She wasn’t prepared for confrontation yet, but the foal wasn’t giving her much of a choice. Reluctantly she made her way into the house and closing the door behind her. Apple Bloom then led her into the room where the stallion had his head poked behind a grandfather clock. The sound of cogs being tinkered with filled the room.

The two female ponies just stood there. Eventually Apple Bloom started nudging Derpy to say something, but received head shakes and nudges back. The two of them had that silent argument for a few minutes until the filly decided to break the silence. “Hey Mister Doctor, someone wants to talk to ya!” The scamp then scurried away leaving the two adults alone in the room.

“Yes?” Doctor asked without taking a break from his work.

Derpy put a hoof behind her head and gave an awkward smile. “Uh hi.”

“Hello,” he replied. “Who is this?”

“Oh, uh, it’s-“

“Wait, Derpy?” he suddenly exclaimed half-excitedly.

“Yes.” She was a little stunned by the recognition.

“Well what a surprise. What brings you here?”

“Well you see, I read this note.”

“That so?”

“Yes and it came with this key.”

“A key?”

“Yes and the note said that you would be able to help with that.”

There was a banging sound that came from behind the clock. “Owe, oops. Oh, there we go!” The stallion reappeared from behind the clock and opened the glass case in the front. He gave the pendulum a slight push before closing the front and checking his watch. He then set the large clock to the time displayed on his wrist before admiring his handiwork.

The stallion then walked out of the room to tell Granny Smith that he was done and she thanked him with a stereotypical country phrase. After that the stallion nodded and started his way for the door. He was about to leave when he remembered he was talking with Derpy. “I’m sorry but I can’t help you with a key. You should try a locksmith!” He then departed the house and started making his way to his next appointment.

Derpy simply stood there for a moment. Unwilling to give up she too exited the house and started following the stallion to his next destination, which happened to be a very colorful building she had could not remember visiting before. This building was none other than the Carousel Boutique.

Derpy watched as Doctor entered the building. She waited for a while so that she could admire the interesting and colorful appearance of the structure before her. Doctor was only in this building for a few minutes, he then exited wearing a black fedora on his head. It was actually quite a look for him.

He glanced Derpy’s way but didn’t seem to notice that it was her standing there. Instead he simply began walking to yet another appointment. Once again the stallion stopped to smell the flowers that the mare with the cart was selling. He seemed to want to buy one but appeared to be too busy to make the purchase. Disappointed he continued walking down the street until he stopped at Sugar Cube Corner. This time Derpy didn’t go inside, but simply spied on him through the window. She didn’t need Pinkie making things awkward. She had read in her journal that Pinkie Pie would do that.

When Doctor exited the building a little while later he could have sworn someone was watching him. He looked around but didn’t notice Derpy who was floating above him. He sighed and continued to his last appointment.

Derpy followed him to a nearby house. He greeted the pony who answered the door as Daisy. They stood there talking for a little while then she gave him a satchel, which he promptly put around his neck. They talked for a little while longer and then they said their goodbyes.

When Doctor turned around he found himself face to face with Derpy, who had landed after the door shut. “Derpy…” he said plainly, “have you been following me?”

The young mare nodded with a smile. “Yes.” She seemed innocent enough.

The stallion sighed. “Is there something I can help you with?”

Again she nodded.

“Does it have to do with that key?”

Derpy smiled.

Doctor shook his head and started walking. “I really can’t help you.”

She felt a wave of disappointment. “Are you sure? It’s really important!”

“I don’t know anything about keys, only clocks.”

“But your dad said that you would know about it!”

He stopped, but didn’t turn around. “Dad? You must be mistaken; my father left a very long time ago.”

“Not before leaving a note.”

“Can I see this note?” He sounded skeptical. Still the Pegasus had no problem with providing one. She handed it to him and he spent a few moments reading it. “To your infinity… Sandman.” After reading that last line he just simply stood there soaking it in. His eyes seemed to water a bit. “Dad…”

Derpy couldn’t help but to notice his emotional state and felt like she should chime in. “You okay?”

Doctor didn’t reply immediately. “If it isn’t a bother, would you mind explaining what any of this means?”

She nodded.

“My workshop is right around the corner. We should go there to talk.

“So that’s when you came to look for me, huh?” Doctor replied with a tired voice. They had been talking for some time now. Derpy had given him every detail from her journal that she had written thus far. It all seemed very unlikely to him, but she still had that note. Normally one could think that maybe it was a fake, but the signature at the end gave him reason to believe it was real. His father signed all of his urgent letters with ‘To your Infinity.’ The chances that anypony else would know that were very slim.

He sighed and looked back at the note which he had earlier placed on his work desk. He stared at it through the large, round magnifying glass that one might see at an orthodontist or forensics lab. It was accompanied by a lamp that appeared to be powered by the gears of a nearby clock turning. It was clear that he was a very intelligent individual, far more so than the average clock smith.

Derpy was also very tired at that point, as it was getting late and she had not slept the night before. She was seated at another desk nearby. She took a moment to look around the room. She sort of admired the way that he had turned his home into his work place. She understood that the Cakes did the same thing, but she had spent very little time at there and couldn’t remember that.

The main room was slightly rectangular in shape, the door being located at the end of the long walls. The entire room was not that big. There were two desks in the room’s back corner. The room also housed a sofa as well as some plants and general decorum. It was no bigger than her own living room, and it might have even been smaller. However his home had two floors to it, while hers only had one. Even so, they had very similar square-footage.

Doctor rubbed his eyes. “Derpy, this is all so much to take in at once… why don’t we continue this tomorrow?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“Why don’t I walk you home?”

She shrugged. She wouldn’t mind the company, it would keep her from getting into trouble. So she agreed and they went off towards Derpy’s house. They didn’t say much at all to each other. It had been a long day.

When they finally arrived at her house he asked her what time she wanted to meet up. She told him that he should just come over to get her in the morning. He agreed and they went their separate ways.

There was nothing strange about that night. It was the best night of sleep she had gotten since the accident.

The next morning Doctor returned to find Derpy still asleep. He returned again two hours later to find her just waking up. It was then ten in the morning. The two of them shared simple greetings before Derpy grabbed the bag she had put everything in before she went to sleep. She then followed Doctor to his house where he insisted she put her stuff by the desk he didn’t use. She didn’t quite understand why he had two desks, but he insisted that they had been there for as long as he had lived there.

After few moments of awkward small talk he asked if she had the key. She did.

“There is a safe in this house that I have never understood its purpose.” He had already moved it into the room the previous night. “The lock is strange, and can’t be picked. I had a locksmith come and try to open it, but he told me that the only way this would open is if I could find my key. I guess you have had the key all along.”

Derpy gave it to him. He marveled at its odd shape. He took a deep breath. Derpy could tell that this was something he had wanted to do for a very long time.

He put the key in the lock and twisted it. There was a sound unlike anything either of them had heard before. It sounded like hundreds of tumblers being activated at once with a mechanical crunch. Whoever made the safe did not want anyone without the key to open it.

When the key could turn no more there was another sound that resembled multiple bolts retreating into their sockets. With one last deep breath he opened the case.

With a safe so strong and so protected it wouldn’t have surprised either of them to see bricks of gold inside. Instead they found it to be tightly packed using blankets and separators. The only loose object seemed to be an envelope on the top. Doctor took that envelope and opened it. Inside there was a note written in ink. He took it over to his desk and started reading it out loud.

“The words detailed in this letter have been written for the eyes of two ponies. Therefore it has been sealed in a way that requires two objects to be found. These two objects are a safe and a key, and the ponies who now possess this note must be the keepers of these. Upon uniting these two can gain access to and are now the owners of the items later listed in this document. The following is a message to keepers Doctor and Derpy.

The fact that you are now reading this message is an indication that Derpy has followed my instructions and sought out my son. There is nothing that I would like more than to congratulate you myself, but circumstances in your present no doubt make this an impossibility. I am neither able or at liberty to explain to you why this is so, but I promise that you will discover everything in due time. However I will explain something to you. My son, you are soon going to discover just who we are. As for you Derpy, while you may not believe it, the future holds unbelievable secrets that you and only you are capable of discovering. Neither of you are yet prepared to face the trials set before you, and because of an imminent danger I cannot afford to explain everything to you in my notes. We have left behind a number of objects and guides to help you, but none of them will be anywhere near as helpful or as important as Derpy’s memory. In the container you found this document in we have left behind a number of things that play a vital role in your journey. The items left to you are as follows:

For Doctor:

Two watches- one an hourglass and the other a sundial
A stack of notes written by Professor that detail his observations of Derpy’s condition.
A photograph of you and myself
A box of gears and cogs
And a silver compass

For Derpy:

A silver quill that should only be used on special occasions
A book of poems written by a Canterlot noble
A black notebook with your cutie mark in silver on the front
A silver pocket mirror
And a page of phrases and sequences not unlike the one from my previous letter.

For each of you:

A platinum locket on the end of a silver chain. Inside you will find your respective cutie mark symbols engraved on the top, and a watch in the bottom. This object is extremely important, and cannot be lost. Keep them with you at all times.

Start your journey now. Good luck.”

Doctor stopped reading and looked up at Derpy. She had apparently laid out each item as it was mentioned on the appropriate desk.

“Where do we start?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I guess we can look over the notes. Maybe look over that locket. Maybe there is a reason it is so important. There is a magnifying glass on that desk too.”

With that he went to study his notes.

Derpy found herself in wonder as she examined all the different items left to her. But the most intriguing thing was in fact the locket. She started taking notes in her journal about all that had happened, then she went on to examine the locket.

The object was incredibly detailed. To make this would have been a very difficult task, especially with such a valuable metal. Equestria may have had an abundance of gems, but was not so lucky when it came to rare metals. Platinum was still an extremely expensive metal, and she had never seen it herself. It was very similar to silver, but the way it shined was just unlike any metal she had ever seen before.

Hours went by of their studying. Derpy was failing to see anything of importance. Her mind began to wander and her thoughts started to approach other topics of interest. She was really starting to wonder what was so important about the locket. She wondered if it was some sort of key to another chest. Maybe it was a device that could somehow guide her to treasure. Magic did happen after all. Then it occurred to her that perhaps it could be some sort of device used to keep her memories intact. Was that even possible? Could an object really have that sort of effect on somepony’s mind?

Derpy sat there in silence for a moment, contemplating the possibilities. “Hey,” she started. “What do you know about the brain?”

The stallion did not look up from his magnifying glass. “Very little.”

The mare frowned and mumbled under her breath. “I thought you were a doctor.”

He looked up with a raised brow. “No, my name is Doctor. I’m a time turner, remember?”

“Oh yeah…” She laid her head on the desk and stared at her key with without the magnifying glass. Why were they even doing this? There is no point in staring at the key to try and figure out what it went to. The keys probably went to other boxes anyways. She let her vision blur, tired of staring at the key.

“Hey, Derpy, where did you say you had been keeping the key?”

“Let me check…” she said, pulling her diary over to her. She flipped through the pages without lifting her head. “In a drawer in my house.”

“And you live where?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“No, I can’t remember. I just know how to get there.”

“Well how does that work?”

Derpy gave him a sarcastic look, challenging him to think of an answer himself.

He took the hint, and looked back down to where the key was. He himself was tired of staring at the key as well. “This isn’t helping at all. Do you feel like getting something to eat?”

“It’s a date.” She replied, perking up a bit.

“A what?”

“Never mind, I know a place with the best lemonade.”

“Okay an order of hay fries for you, and what will you have sir?”

“I think I will have the garden salad,” replied Doctor. He and Derpy folded their menus and handed them to the waitress. He then looked back at the mare sitting across from him and smiled. “So I’m guessing you come here often?”

Derpy shrugged. “I guess so. They know me well enough to bring me lemonade when I sit down.”

He chuckled, and then he reached into his shoulder back to see how much money he brought with him. It probably would have been smart to check before he ordered, but he had enough so it was okay. Then he looked to Derpy. “Do you have enough bits with you for your order?”

Derpy nodded and reached into her bag to pull out a few coins.

The stallion smiled some more, then his face hardened a little. A questionable look appeared in his expression. “Do you have a source of income?”

Once again Derpy shrugged. “Like a job? I don’t think so.”

Doctor made a small grunt. “Hmm, I guess you have a lot of money saved up from your old job.” He took a sip of his iced tea.

“What job?”

His eyes widened at the question. “You don’t remember being Ponyville’s mail mare?”

She blinked twice.

“You delivered the mail for Ponyville for three years before you resigned.”

“Why did I stop?”

“If I remember, things started getting quite a bit busier around that time, and they hired more ponies to help. I guess the work was getting a little bit crazy at that point.”

She sighed and took a drink of her lemonade.

“You really don’t remember that job?”

She shook her head and frowned a little.

Doctor, on the other hand, continued to smile. “Derpy, that’s probably why you can find your way around Ponyville so easily. After a while your rout would have become so routine that you wouldn’t need to think about it in order to find your way around.”

She smiled, and pulled out the journal that that Sandman had left for her. “I’m going to write this stuff down.” She picked out a pencil and started writing. When she finished their food had arrived.

“Oh thank goodness, I’m starved.” His stomach growled loudly right on cue. They both had a laugh about it then went on to eat.

Throughout their meal she asked him many questions about what he knew about her when she was a mail mare. She found out that she seemed to really love her job, and was always cheerful and smiling when she was on duty. He also told her how she was friendly to everyone else when delivering a package.

“One time you brought me a new watch that I had ordered. When I answered the door I asked you, ‘What did I get this time?’ and you said ‘I don’t know, what does this say?’”

Doctor grinned to the other, his laugh slowly fading into an awkward chuckle which eventually faded into an off-ward glance and clearing his throat. They sat there in awkward silence for what seemed like forever.

“I said that?” She asked rather abruptly.

“Yes, you did.”

There was another moment of silence. Of course Derpy sat there motionless, just staring at him with a tilted head. Doctor tapped his hoof on the ground a few times, and then scratched behind his head. As she continued the charade he made the casual motion of checking his wrist for the time despite not having a watch on.

“I don’t get it.” She said at last.

“Get what?”

“The joke.”

“I used the word time in my question…”

“Yeah?”

“And you brought me a clock and asked me what it said.”

There was another moment of silence. Derpy continued to stare blankly at the stallion.

“But you didn’t ask for the time.”

Doctor looked at her hopelessly. “Never mind.” He said, defeated.

“Oh wait I get it!”

“It’s too late now.”

“But it’s kind of funny.”

“Too bad, the moment is gone.”

Derpy slumped back, pouting. It wasn’t her fault that the joke wasn’t that good. Then again, if she made it then it actually was her fault. It made him laugh, but he probably gets a kick out of any one-liner with a clock attached to it.

Almost as if on cue the check arrived and managed to change the subject. They each paid for their food before thanking the waitress and leaving.

She may not understand comedy, but at least she left with another piece to her past. If Doctor was right about her old job being the reason she knew her way around town that would give her a whole new situation to reflect upon. Next stop: the post office!

Well, she thought, Doctor’s house is sort of like the post office. Despite her previous dedication to visiting the mentioned location Doctor had insisted that she come back to his house to review things one more time. When she had attempted to suggest that she should go to the post office he had told her that he would really prefer that she didn’t do that yet. He seemed very serious when he said so and Derpy decided to hear him out.

“I will explain everything at the house.” was his answer when she questioned his statement. While the answer was unsatisfying she decided to go with it for now, after all it couldn’t hurt.

When they returned to the house Doctor trotted back to his desk. Derpy followed him and sat down next to him. “So what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he replied, “I just think it would be unwise to go to the post office now.”

“Why?”

“Because it will probably trigger a reflection.”

“Huh?”

Doctor noticed the confusion in her expression and proceeded to explain. He slid a slip of paper over to where she could read it. “I think that these suggest Reflection to be a good name for your ‘visions.’” Derpy’s eyes ravaged the page with interest. “The author had thought to call them either inferences or exemptions; I don’t really understand how either of those terms applies to the situation.”

Derpy looked up from the page. It was filled with many large and complicated words that she personally didn’t think were good for use in any situation. Conversations would be much too difficult with the author of these notes. At least that was her opinion.

Doctor had begun pacing half way through his explanation. He was now standing by the window, and was about to make his way back across the room. “From what I read in those notes it seems to simply implying that these events are just memories and dreams. From a logical view they really are nothing more than that. However these notes don’t include anything that you say at all. When you add in your own experience into it, these events are less like memories and more like-“

“Reflections…” She cut in.

He nodded. “Essentially, yes. I have a theory, and in order to test it we will need to trigger one of these Reflections in a controlled environment.”

“A theory?”

“If I am right, then these events are far more like reflections than memories in more ways than one. It may be able to explain how you end up waking in various locations among other things.”

“Other things?” her curiosity was piqued.

Doctor walked up to face her. “Derpy, there might be a reason you went wall-eyed.”

“Really?” Her voice was somewhere between shock and skeptical.

“I just need some time to study things. I think we should go to the Post office together tomorrow.” She nodded to reply. “Oh and one more thing,” he added, “I’m not exactly sure, but is this a floor plan to your house?” He showed her another piece of paper.

Slid it in front of her and looked at it. It definitely looked like her house. It had the setup of her bedroom, kitchen, living room, and even the bathroom. There was even a crude, child-like drawing of Derpy in it.

That’s cute, she thought, I’m smiling! She looked up and confirmed that it was indeed her home.

“What are these rooms for?” He asked pointing to two different rooms. The first was about the size of Derpy’s bedroom, and it was positioned right next to it as well. The other was much smaller. It was a little bit smaller than the bathroom.

She replied that the first room was a spare bedroom. But she had never seen the second before. In fact, she was quite sure that it didn’t exist. “I might be forgetful, but I am almost certain that it isn’t there.”

Doctor rubbed his chin. There had to be something there.

“I like the picture you drew.” She said with a smile.

“I didn’t draw that.”

“Who did then?”

“I really don’t know.”

“Where did you even get this?”

“It was folded up and taped to the back of that photograph.” He continued to rub his chin. “Maybe my dad knew the person who built that house.”

“Or maybe he built it himself.”

They both sat there in silence for a moment. In the end they shrugged it off.

It was getting late and Derpy really thought she should be getting back to her home. “So we go to the post office tomorrow right?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I will meet you at the restaurant we ate at for lunch tomorrow morning. How does ten sound?”

She scribbled something in her journal, her original one, not the new one. “Sounds good! I’m going to leave all the stuff from the chest here so it is safe. I will see you tomorrow.” With that she left.

When Derpy arrived back at her house she immediately headed straight for the spare bedroom. She had to check something; she just wasn’t sure of what it was she was looking for. All she knew was that the little drawing of her on the floor plan was in that room. Surely there had to be a reason for her little effigy to be smiling whilst in that particular segment of the house, otherwise it would be pointless to draw her smiling.

The room was just big enough to contain a dresser, a mirror, a bed, a nightstand, and a wardrobe. The bed was so that the head was against the center of the wall to the left of the door. On the left side of the bed was the nightstand. The wardrobe was in the far right corner, and the dresser was on the right wall. Finally, the mirror was in the right corner closest to the door.

She started her search with by examining the bed. There was nothing really unusual about it. It had a wooden frame that held the mattress firmly in place. It was high enough off the ground to where a foal could hide under the bed if playing hide and seek. There was a comforter on the bed, one that Derpy was sure had been there since she moved in. She had no recollection of exactly when she moved in so there was no telling how long it had been there. It was dark brown with Light brown trimmings, and it was long enough to hide the entire mattress but did not go any farther than that. Because of this fact there was no difficulty in seeing under the bed. Not to any surprise there was nothing currently under the bed.

She then examined the dresser. It was identical to the one that she had in her own room, and had no contents in its drawers. The wardrobe was also empty. On the nightstand there was a glass vase with nothing in it. In the nightstand drawer there was a dull pencil and a gum wrapper.

From her investigation she had reached a conclusion: the drawing must have been excited because of something else because there was nothing in particular to smile about in the room at all.

She was turning to leave when she noticed the mirror. She had actually not noticed it until now, and decided that it wouldn’t hurt to go examine it as well.

The mirror was oval shaped, framed in a dark, polished wood. The stand that held it up was a very simple metal one that was not unlike the average hat stand in design. There was nothing on this mirror but a few scratches and some dust.

Because the mirror was tilted backwards it was possible to see the roof behind her. It also caused a slight distortion in the image that was actually a little amusing, and if it tilted more than it would have been something fun to occupy her mind for a while. Since the incline was not that steep, her interest was not captured. Instead her attention was placed on the fact that the mirror was rather dusty, so she attempted to wipe away the dust with her hoof. While doing so she could have sworn she felt grooves bumping against her hoof and she was afraid that she may have scratched the surface. Upon closer inspection of the mirror she found something strange. In order to better analyze this she needed to clear the rest of the dust away, which she did promptly.

When the dust was cleared she discovered that what she had originally believed to be scratches were actually more like carvings. She got in closer to try and make out exactly what they were. Upon closer examination they seemed to be outlining the bed frame, but with a little rectangle in the middle of it. She turned around and tried to see if she could distinguish what that meant. Perhaps there was something behind the bed. If there was she should probably wait until she saw Doctor again so he could help her move it. However after looking between the carvings and the real thing she realized that from this perspective the rectangle was not behind the bed, but behind where the nightstand would be. While the bed frame was rather bulky, the nightstand was not, and she would have no problems pulling away from the wall.

After realizing this she trotted over to where the nightstand was and took the liberty in pulling it back from the wall. She then leaned over it (accidentally knocking the vase over and onto the floor) to see what was behind. What she found was a small box about the size of a picture frame inside a rectangular hole in the wall. She removed the box, and with great curiosity, decided to open it there.

Inside the box were a number of photographs. After learning what was in the box she decided to push the nightstand back (and return the vase to its original up-right position) and go to the living room to look at the photos in the light of the fire.

Before looking at them she decided to lay each one out in front of her. There were seven in all. The first one was of her as a filly. She was smiling like most fillies’ do when they are happy. The next photo was of her house from the outside. It was nothing special, just a normal photo. The third one however was one of a stallion she had never seen before. She held it closer to her so that she could get a better view of it.

Her eyes scanned over it promptly and she was quickly able to distinguish the stallion had a green coat and silver mane. She didn’t know who this was, but for some reason it seemed unmistakably familiar.

”He said that no pony has reported a missing foal. He wants us to take her down to the station so they can put her in an orphanage for the time being so they can keep an eye on her.”

The next photo had a picture of the same stallion standing next to a blue mare. The picture caused her to feel unbearably nostalgic. She knew these ponies… and the blue one, the blue one…

“It isn’t right.”
“I know, but we can’t just take her with us. That would be like kidnapping. On the other hand we can’t just sit here and pretend nothing happened. I can see she is clearly special, we have to do all we can.”

A strange feeling was causing her a headache, so she quickly moved on to the next photo. It was the green stallion next to yet another stallion. This one seemed to be a little older than him.

“I know that you want to stay with her, and I will admit that so do I. Things like this happen for a reason, and if you don’t act upon them then they will haunt you to the end. I plan on taking this to the Brotherhood. They will know what to do."

The next photo was just a picture of a wall with a small door at the bottom. She didn’t quite understand what it was. Then she noticed that there were two pictures on the wall, the same two pictures that she had on her wall. She held the photo up in front of her and then lowered it. One picture had a fireplace, the other didn’t, and that was the only difference between them.

She rushed to the kitchen to get a bucket of water. When she returned she quickly doused the flames, sending a cloud of steam up and out the chimney. Without waiting for it to clear she pushed her hoof into the fireplace and started messing with the back wall of it. One of the bricks was very loose, and she easily pushed it back. After the first one she was able to start pulling others out. One by one she shoveled them from the fireplace until she had removed seven bricks total. Once the opening was then big enough to crawl through, she poked her head in the fireplace and tried reaching into the hole. There was a wooden door behind the bricks, one that had no knob or handle and did not budge when she tried pushing it.

There had to be some way to get it open, she thought.

Once Derpy was gone Doctor had gone to the kitchen to make a hot cup of tea before returning to his desk. After having a taste of what Derpy had bought at The Red Leaf, he simply had to have more. It was nice of Derpy to leave some behind for him when she left, he thought.

Now that he was alone he was finally able to relax. He went back to his desk and turned on the light.

What a strange two days it had been. In the blink of an eye everything had changed. Suddenly his life had become much more interesting, and it was all thanks to that spritely Pegasus. Still he found himself in a world of complications. After years of living a normal life in Ponyville, Doctor was now being forced to question his own identity.

The stallion took a sip of his steaming beverage before setting it down on the wooden surface of his desk. A sigh escaped his lips as he turned to look at the clock on the wall above the doorframe.

He thought back to his childhood. It was a very colorful one filled with many different places and ponies. He remembered traveling an awful lot with his entire family. Well his pseudo-family at least. As he had grown older he had begun to start to understand that some of the relatives he travelled with were not related to him by blood, but were still family in a sentimental way. Now this fact was clearer than ever with the notes left from his father. Derpy was mentioned as a dear childhood friend of his, and when he thought back he could remember having a cousin who he spent a great deal of time with. Of course he now understood that his cousin was not actually a cousin at all, but instead was Derpy.

Speaking of his father, he had not actually put a great deal of thought into the stallion at all. It had been a very long time since his father had left, and he didn’t know where the man had gone or why he had done so. All he remembered was being left in Ponyville with his uncle, who was most likely, not really his uncle now that he thought about it.

Despite having been apparently abandoned by his father, Doctor had never actually resented him for it. Now that he was an adult he was starting to wonder why he had not felt any malice towards his father as he grew up.

He sat there for another moment reminiscing on old times. He hadn’t realized how young he had been back then until now. He couldn’t have been older than five or six when his father had left. He had always believed that he was off in a foreign land far away, exploring the world as a great adventurer. Maybe that was the truth.

He looked down to the papers on the desk. Suddenly his attitude changed.

Why all the secrecy? He wondered as he got up and started pacing again. It was just starting to actually sink in that he had no idea what any of the events in his life had meant. His head was hurting, and doubts were clouding his thoughts.

He opened his mouth to say something, but didn’t. His eyes widened as something finally clicked in his head. He didn’t know who he was. It had just dawned on him that he had grown up without his parents there to guide him. He never received any explanation for any event that had ever happened during his childhood, and until this day he had no reason to seek out an answer.

He made his way back to the desk. He sat down frustrated for reasons he could not explain. When he thought about it he was nearly as lost as Derpy in all of this. So lost that he could not figure out just what he was supposed to be frustrated about.

He laid his head on the desk and closed his eyes, letting everything go. He needed to relax. When he opened his eyes he saw that the paper before him was the letter he had started to read that morning. It then occurred to him that he had never finished reading it. There was still a paragraph left after where he had left off.

“You probably feel confused, both of you. Before I left you in Ponyville I told you that one day you will understand everything. I lied. There will never be a time when everything is clear, but that’s the point. There are many things in life that simply don’t make sense. These things give us a chance to reflect upon life, and how we see them defines who we are. The reason you two have been left in this situation is that you two are capable of seeing more than I ever could. Whatever happens you two have to stick together. Neither of you can find the answers without the other. I don’t expect either of you to follow through with this, but I already know you will. Remember one thing, time may keep moving forward but that doesn’t mean that history is moving backwards. The past will always be in the same place we left it. It is only lost when we stop looking for it. The past isn’t something you remember, it’s something you discover. Good luck. I can’t wait to see how you both have grown.”

When he read the last word he simply sat there in silence for what seemed like hours. He didn’t know what to think, but he felt like he wasn’t supposed to. It seemed like he and Derpy really were two of a certain kind.

He sighed. Then he slid a clean sheet of paper in front of him. After picking up a pencil he began to write:

Memories left to discover:

Once that was written he took a moment to think before crumpling up the sheet of paper and tossing it into the waste bin. He felt that this was the sort of thing that would require constant updates in order to be accurate. With that in mind he started looking for a notebook instead. He found one in his desk drawer. It was had a plain white cover, and around forty pages in it. On the first sheet he began once again.

Memories left to discover:

When did Derpy move into her house?
Where did Uncle Rusty go?
Why did Derpy leave her job?
What do the symbols on the keys mean?
What are the lockets for?
What is in the room that Derpy didn’t recognize?

When he finished he read over his list to make sure he had everything. His goal was to name as many things as he could that may be related to possible memories that could be uncovered. The idea was to add and cross them off as related memories were added to Derpy’s journal. At the moment he couldn’t think of any others that were of immediate importance, but he was sure that Derpy might have more in her journal.

The clock said it was ten pm. There was a chance that Derpy was still awake, and he wanted to get this handled tonight. So without waiting any longer he found his jacket and took the notebook with him as he left his home.

Derpy continued her attempts to open the door but to avail. Determined to get it open, she pulled out of the fireplace and looked around the room for something to help her. If she was desperate she could always try using an axe or hatchet to try and break it open. However she didn’t know what was inside, and she would rather not do anything to damage it.

If a door has no knob or handle then it has to open by some other means. Maybe there was a button or a switch she needed to press somewhere. It was too dark to see anything at the moment, so she ran to the kitchen and lit a candle. When that was done she returned to the fireplace to see if she could find anything. She tried moving all the other bricks of the fireplace but nothing happened. Then she remembered that the pictures on the wall were in the photograph too, so she checked behind both of them. There was nothing there either.

This is stupid, she thought, who builds a fire place in the middle of the house anyways? That’s completely unsafe! She paused for a moment and then looked down at the picture of the house from the outside. She realized that her house didn’t have a visible chimney from the outside, and that made her start to wonder if the chimney was even supposed to be used at all. However seeing as there had never been any complications before she saw no reason to be alarmed. Still that left her to question just what was behind the door.

If the door didn’t open from the outside then there had to be some way to get inside. She wondered just what other method one could use to get into the room without breaking the door. The only thing she could think of was that there had to be another door somewhere else. Either that or the room wasn’t meant to be found at all. That would make it a safe house, but even that would require an entrance.

She glanced at the door once more to examine it more thoroughly. The door had a parabolic shape, and was made of twelve wooden planks. There were two long horizontal planks in the center of the door, and five vertical planks both above and below the two horizontal ones. Two of the vertical planks were longer in than the other eight. These two vertical planks were located in the top right and the bottom left of the door. These two planks were longer because the two horizontal planks were only four planks long. The top horizontal plank started at the left and ended on the fourth plank while the bottom one started on the second plank and ended on the fifth.

After realizing this build it then occurred to her that the door might not open like a door at all, but be removed like a false bottom. It would explain the lack of hinges, unless they were on the inside of course. Nevertheless, this would mean that the key to opening the door would be part of the door itself, and she would just have to remove it from where it stood. If she was right, then something would need to be lifted or moved in order to get past.

Derpy looked over the different parts of the door. She figured that if any of the boards would be used to lock the door in place it would have to be the long horizontal ones. If longer than the frame of the door, they could be used like deadbolts.

Taking this into consideration she once again crawled back into the fireplace. Despite the flame having been doused a few minutes earlier, the bricks around her were still warm. An image flashed through her head. An image of a green stallion in burning building flashed through her mind. She shook her head and the image disappeared.

She first started with one on the bottom. She did her best to try and slide it but it wouldn’t budge in any way. So then she moved on to the top one. She tried to slide it to the left, away from the upper fifth vertical plank that blocked it from sliding to the right. The board didn’t move, but it felt loose. It was only then that she realized there were no bolts in that board at all. That made her certain it had to be the one to move. However in order for her to slide it right she would have to move the vertical plank blocking it. Realizing this dilemma she proceeded to attempt to slide the vertical board upward. It took a bit of effort, but it did start sliding. It slid up just far enough to allow her to fit the horizontal bar under it.

This is it! She thought to herself. Another image filled her head, one of fire all around her. All this time in a fireplace must have been getting to her head, she decided.

With a deep breath she put all her effort into sliding the plank horizontally until it reached all the way across. She then pushed on the door and it fell backwards.

What she now had before her was a small opening into a very dark room. Derpy had just discovered a secret room behind her fireplace, and she was determined to find out why it was there. With a little difficulty she crawled her way farther into her fire place, and poked her head into the opening. She then squeezed her right hoof through to find that the floor was about 8 inches lower than the level she was currently on. Given the height that the brick floor of the fireplace lifted her off the ground that left the floor about 6 inches lower than the floor of her living room.

She continued to crawl through the hole until she was all the way through, and staring into complete and utter darkness. Realizing she could not see she sighed and poked the front half of her body back out of the hole so that she could reach the candle right outside the fireplace. She then receded back into the once-hidden chamber to get a better look at what was inside.

The room was rectangular in shape, with the walls on either side of her being about seven feet long and the wall parallel with the entrance being about 4 feet wide. The roof was about 6 feet from the ground. Pushed against the back wall there was a small desk with a 4 foot cabinet beside it. On the desk there were two objects, a lantern and a small, fancy-looking black box.

Her first instinct was to make the room lighter, so she lit the lantern. The lantern produced a bright light that lit up the entire room. No longer in need of the candle she blew it out. She looked around the room and saw that the walls were littered with pages of notes, old newspapers, and photographs. She then looked at the little black box.

As she stared at the object everything seemed to stop. The only sound in the room was the sound of a clock ticking. But there was no clock, only the beating of her heart.

Slowly she moved her hoof towards the object until she was touching the top of the box itself. It was cool and glossy to the touch. For some reason she felt afraid to open it. A wave of anxiety came over her, causing her to go light headed for a moment. Without wasting another moment she opened the box to reveal a little mirror. When the top was lifted there was a second of lag before music started to play a soft and nostalgic tune.

Derpy recognized this tune from somewhere, but she didn’t know when. This was not the same song as the music box at The Red Leaf, but for some reason she felt she knew the song.

As the music played in the background, she went on to take a look around the room. How mysterious this all seemed, what did it all mean. She trotted up to a newspaper clipping that was posted on the wall. Its title read ‘Local Stallion Resists Canterlot Authorities’. Derpy continued to read on to learn of how the stallion had fled the scene of a crime after being caught breaking into a book shop. There was no picture, but the stallion was said to have been wearing brown clothing that covered up everything but his grey mane and tail. There was an arrow drawn in red pencil that lead to a nearby scrap of notepaper with the words ‘empty lead, damage assessed’ written on it in black.

Derpy continued to scan across the articles and notes, growing ever more confused with each one. She also found that many of the articles had red arrows that connected them as well as multiple notes. However many of these articles seemed to have no connection whatsoever. One such instance Derpy saw was a four article chain that started with one titled ‘Robbery in Manehattan North’. A red arrow led to another article that mentioned a fire at a Canterlot bakery, which led to an article that detailed a missing person in Trottingham. The last part in the series was perhaps the most confusing of the set. The fourth article was from a Baltimare newspaper, and it was titled ‘Tracks and Trains’. The article was about a local railroad worker who had been working for a full decade as an engineer in the railroad industry. There was nothing more to the story than the details of his career. Yet despite this there was an attached note that read ‘Problem solved, move to next phase’.

The tune on the music box continued to play faster. There was something about the sound that brought back memories of something she couldn’t explain. As she approached the rooms exit she came across something that looked unlike anything that she had seen thus far: a photo of mansion in flames. There was an article nearby which spoke of it.

“Right through that doorway over there… Just have to get you to the staircase…”

She turned around to look back at the room from to exit. She felt like things were fogging up. That clock was still beating, but it was beating faster. She started to hear someone singing along with the tune of the music box. This voice was not like the others she had heard. This voice was real. She started looking around in what felt like slow motion, she could hear someone else singing, and she was close by. She kept turning her head frantically. The light in the room was flickering. She closed her eyes and opened them again to see somepony sitting at the desk.

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