Lost Memoriesby Aros356ChaptersIntroductionsThe MemoryRealisationLong time, no seeConfessionsWe Meet AgainThat fateful dayIntroductionsSolitude. Nothing but the pain of solitude. Forcing my body to carry me further, I try and try to remember and forget. My hooves fail me, I fall to the ground. My head pulsing with what others would call pain. Me, I call it memories. I try to survey my surroundings, but in the position I’m in, collapsed on the floor, I can’t see much. Everything starts to fade, my sight blackens. Where am I? What am I doing here? I look around, nothing but darkness. Not like that makes much change to how I have been feeling lately. I hate that place! I hate that single pony! That one pony who killed my mind, my personality, my emotions. I need a place to start new, somewhere I can be happy, if I can remember how to be happy. I want to scream. “Can I …scream? Please …let me scream!” I mutter to myself. “Of course, if it makes you feel better,” I hear a voice say. I scream for what seems like an eternity only to open my eyes to two others. It shocks me to see two bright eyes looking straight into mine. “Who …who are you?” I question. “And where …am I?” “You’re in bed, in my house in Ponyville, my friend found you collapsed on the road to someplace called Redleaf,” The voice replies. I slammed my eyes shut at the sound of the name of that place. “Please let me introduce myself. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I know you need rest to recover from those injuries, but I want to know more about you, you look like an interesting stallion. What’s your name?” Twilight requests. “My …name? …what is …my name?” I manage to mutter. I let my head flop sideways.my sight blackened again… Twilight Sparkle, what a nice name. She wants to know my name, what is my name? I need to know, I must know… “Oh you’re awake. Um… are you ok?” I hear another voice, much softer, much kinder than Twilight’s. “Careful, he needs rest, but I’m glad you’re awake,” another voice says, it sounds like Twilight. “No, I don’t want to rest anymore, I want to get up and… Ah!” I exclaim as I try to get up but reach to my side and notice a big gash across my chest. I fall back at the sight of it. “How did I get that?” “I don’t know” Twilight says. “We were hoping you could tell us.” This time I'm not greeted by two eyes, but by two figures. One was a lavender colour unicorn with a purple mane with pink highlights, while the other was a yellowy-beige colour Pegasus with a gorgeous pink mane. “Who are …you two?” I ask, my voice starting to fade as my sight is clasped to the beige pony. “I’m Twilight,” the lavender unicorn says “And this is Fluttershy,” She gestures to the Pegasus beside her. “Nice …nice name,” is all my mind manages to string together. My sight darkened yet again, why this happens I don’t know … Wow. She’s wonderful, who knew there were nice mares in this world. I certainly didn’t! All the mares I know are harsh and horrible. My eyes open. Only to be greeted by nopony this time. “Hello?” I call “hello? Anypony here?” After a few seconds a voice sounds. But I can’t understand it, so I decide to get up. As I get up and look down at the gash I remember how it got there. The Memory“Dive! Duck! Roll!” The commander yelled “Come on! You can do it!” I look over my shoulder as I finish the routine to find the commander smiling and winking at me. That was his sign that he wants to speak to me, he often did after I decided to put my all into this training. I trotted over to him and saluted; he saluted back and pinned a badge on me. I looked at it, and then stared at the commander. He was promoting me! This could only mean that a test was to be ready for tomorrow. He said nothing, just gestured to go to my quarters and rest for tomorrow, what awaited me I have no idea. The next day I took my care when walking into the test arena, armour on and ready to fight whatever was going to test me today. “Hello private, or should I say, stealth!” The announcer said through his megaphone. I couldn’t believe it! He called me by talent, something that only happens when a pony was to graduate from Redleaf Fighting Academy… that could only mean… I was going to graduate and serve the Royal Alicorns of Canterlot! “Stealth! You are to face the Supreme Commander of the academy! If you win, you graduate, if you lose, you go to hospital and recover only to train more and more! Are you ready?” the announcer asked “Yes sir, always ready sir!” I yelled to the announcer! The announcer nodded and the iron doors opened, there now standing before me was the Supreme Commander of the academy ready to kill me! I thought in my head ‘camo, on’ and with that single thought I disappeared into thin air. The commander drew his blade, and with a hit of the gong the battle started. The Supreme commander started to survey the arena; certainly he would be able to sense me with his ‘Spartan’ armour. He locked his gaze onto a single spot where he thought I was standing. He charged in a head long sprint with his blade at his side, what he did wrong is that I wasn’t there at all, I was on the other side analysing his every move, his every step. He charged for longer than he expected to without hitting a stallion, and he rammed the wall with a heavy thud! He tried the same tactic many times and after the announcer looked bored at the sight of no action but also surprised that I wasn’t dead already. But then the commander tried something new, he started to swing his blade in every direction possible. This made things very difficult for me at first, but I kept studying his every movement; eventually I saw a hitch, every time he used his left shoulder it would clunk back for a little extra swing. I took this opportunity when he got too close to me for comfort it dived under his left shoulder when it hitched, hooking his leg in the process tripping him up. For a dramatic effect I took of the camouflage with a simple thought ‘camo, off’. The entire crowd gasped in the sheer surprise that I managed to trip the Supreme Commander and crack his helmet. I didn’t notice that I cracked his helmet until he got back up and looked me in the eye, sending shivers down my spine. We stared at each other for a few minutes trying to intimidate each other, I was failing but he was just downright scary at this point. He started to charge again so I activated camouflage and dived out of the way of the Commander’s head long charge. The same thing happened again and again, I would dive under his shoulder whenever he would swing with his left foreleg and trip him in the process, but this time it went wrong, he anticipated that I would try to do that again and twisted his wrist up a little so when I dived the sword gashed across my chest. After that he decided to try something new, while I was still in camo he threw what looked like a bomb high into the air, I dived to try and get away but when it landed it sent out a shockwave. This shockwave looked a lot like an electrical pulse, which could only mean one thing …an EMP! As the wave hit me my camo started to flicker and he could vaguely see me. He tried something experimental, so that’s what I did. As he charged at me, sword in hoof, I didn’t move, which startled him, but he kept going. When he was a few metres in front of me all you could hear was BANG! At my side I held a gun, a gun specially designed for heavy armour penetration. I called it: the Big Bang. The Supreme Commander fell only a few inches away from me, still breathing he held up his hoof to yield, and as a nice stallion I grabbed his hoof and pulled him up. The fight was over! “Well done” the Commander said “very well done indeed, I am proud to say that you have graduated from this academy, may you serve the Alicorns with grace!” I mind went blank after that, I must have passed out over the excitement on graduating. RealisationWhat I’m not aware of is that when I am thinking of that day I am actually saying it loud enough for someone to hear. I look behind me and see Fluttershy at the door to the room I seem to be staying in. she tries to hide before I see her but she isn’t quick enough. I go to the door, and I don’t see anything. I walk in a little more and I hear the door close behind me, the yellow Pegasus shyly greets me while trying to hide herself in her mane. “Please, don’t be shy” I say to her as I brush her mane out of the way. “You … seem so, strong…” the Pegasus started to say “are you really …um, a soldier?” “Yes” I answered. “Wow… um…” that is all she said before running up to me and giving me a quick hug. Only for a moment or two do I feel …happy. Nopony has ever hugged me before, it felt strange at first but then there was a small bliss. The door opened and Twilight was on the other side. “You ok?” the unicorn asks “Is there a reason you two are in a closed room.” “Not that I’m aware of…” I was stopped by the Pegasus. “Twilight can I …uh, speak to you? In private?” The yellow Pegasus asks “Ok” The lavender unicorn replies. The two of them walk out of the room, the door closing behind them. I just wander around the room and notice that this is a library… Does Twilight live in a library? I will ask her when she returns. I walk over to the door and place my ear against the wood to try and listen in on their conversation, all I could hear was. “I know you do, you just told me, but I think you should wait a little longer, he just got here yesterday, and he is still recovering.” I hear Twilight say. “Ok, but… um…” the Pegasus was stopped by the pony. “Just let him rest. A day or two more and he should be fine.” The unicorn interrupted. The door opened, and Twilight walked in saying she would take me downstairs to get some breakfast. As if to emphasise that fact, my belly let out a deep rumble. We walked downstairs and I clearly noticed that this is a library. “Twilight, do you live here, in the library?” I ask. “Yes, with my companion Spike. Fluttershy doesn’t normally stay here, but she wants to know how you are recovering, so she is staying for a while.” she replies. I let out a growl when the small harmless dragon comes close, I never like dragons. “Wow! Calm down. Twi’ what would you like? And who’s you friend?” the green dragon asks. “The normal breakfast please. And we don’t know his name, not even he does.” The unicorn replies. I scream a little, not loud, just enough so everypony in the house or library could hear, I’m not sure why I do, it just feels right at this moment. My head falls to the table. My legs go limp. I see the door open and a pony walked, or more like hopped in. “HELLO! Who’s this? Is he hurt? Oh my, that wouldn’t be very good now would it,” the pony says. I look up a little and see the pink pony, I recognise her, but where from and who is she. The realisation hits me like a ton of bricks. “PINKIE!!!!” I yell. “Please… please can I have some …peace” I start to cry at this point when all the painful memories of her flood back into my mind. “How do you know my name? You just got here, right...?” the pink party pony started to say, before she interrupted herself. “Aros! Aros Blade!!!” she yelled. And at that exact moment I remembered how I got that name, I don’t want to remember though. “PLEASE!” I yell. “Please pinkie…” I’m sobbing at this point. Fluttershy is running down the stairs now. Her voice not being able to be heard thanks to Pinkie launching apologies this way and that. “Shut up, shut up, shut up” I say to myself. I scream at the top of my voice “SHUT UP!!!” there was a long pause, I am starting to breath heavily now. Pinkie dived behind the chair beside her. “Your name’s Aros…” Twilight started, she let out a little squeak. “The same Aros that challenged Celestia’s elite guards, and won?” “Yes, I am. You must be connected to her royal highness to know about that this far away” I say. “Yes, I am her faithful student” she replies. “Ah yes, Twilight Sparkle I remember you know, Celestia told me a LOT about you, some stuff you even thought that only you and her knew about, but I won’t go into those.” Twilight looked surprised that I knew about her and Celestia’s private life. “Yes, Twilight, I know all about it, and all about you, and her royal highness. Nothing was kept secret from me, but that isn’t the case now, Celestia thinks I’m dead, she went into mourning a few weeks ago, that is why Luna took over the court for a while.” “Well, if you know about that, promise not to tell anypony?” The lavender unicorn asks. “Of course, after all I have been keeping it a secret for 3 months now, and that is when it started isn’t it?” “…yes” “So, um, your name’s Aros…” I turned to see the yellow Pegasus speaking. “And you know about Twilight’s secrets, um, the ones she shared with Celestia…” “Shh, before you ask, yes. I do know, I did read my mail back at the castle.” I interrupted with slight chuckle in my voice. “And it’s ok, I was going to reply but I was called to action.” Fluttershy lets out a little shy yelp. Clearly she doesn’t want the others to know about her secret. “I need to go for a walk, can someone accompany me, heh, I need a bit of fresh air.” I request. “I will” The yellow Pegasus replies with a louder than normal voice. “Great” I reply, “let’s go” and with that the two of us walk out the door. Fluttershy and I walk for a bit around the town, Ponyville seems like a wonderful place to live. We walk and we talk, she seems to live a nice and peaceful life when Twilight doesn’t drag her into things. “Fluttershy, earlier when Pinkie hopped into the room, and I announced that I worked for the royal guard…” I start “I did read whatever mail I got in the palace, I always looked forward for reading letters from you.” “So, you know about…” the Pegasus says. “Yes, don’t be afraid, I only wish you could have read the letter I was going to send. I always wondered what you looked like, and only after Pinkie came in did I remember what happened in my time at the castle. And now that I have met you face to face, it was worth the wait.” “really?” Fluttershy let out a squee noise; I don’t know what that means. I’m not thinking about what I’m doing right now. I step a little closer to her and kiss her on the cheek. She lets out a little yelp and blushed, and clearly not trying to fall over and hide, due to her shy nature. We keep walking for a little bit, until I start to feel a pain in my right foreleg. I don’t think much of it, as Fluttershy and I keep walking, she goes on to tell me about her adventures with her friends. I’m so interested in her stories that I don’t feel my leg collapse underneath me and I fall to the ground with a thud. “Ah, bugger!” I yell as my leg goes into agony. “Hey Fluttershy!” a voice sounds in the distance “Who’s your friend?” The yellow Pegasus ducked until she realised who it was. “Oh, hi Rainbow Dash. This is Aros Blade” “He looks a little hurt…” The new voice continued. “You don’t say! AH! Oh Celestia this hurts!” I exclaim. “Fluttershy, help me get him to my house,” the new voice says. I must have gone blank after that, I don’t remember anything. I awoke on a cloud, a cloud shaped as a couch. “Where …where am I? Whose house is this now?” I ask. “I’m Rainbow Dash, the most awesome pony in Ponyville! And this is my home.” I heard a voice say. I open my eyes and see a cyan coloured Pegasus standing before me. I have one thing to say but my throat is in agony and it comes out as a jumble of sound. “well I have to say, I am the most awesome pony in Ponyville, but you don’t come from Ponyville do you?” “No. I don’t…” before I know it, the cyan Pegasus is bowing down to me. “Why… why do you bow?” The yellow Pegasus moves towards me and whispers in my ear, “Rainbow and I talked while we brought you over here. Is it true… that day when Princess Luna wanted to talk to you in her private quarters?” She asks. I couldn’t do much but nod reluctantly. I let my head flop down and the cyan Pegasus went to get some drinks, when she leaves Fluttershy sits down next to me. We sit there staring into each other’s eyes for a few minutes; she leans down and returns the kiss from earlier. “Rest now.” Long time, no seeI wake up in the library again; the pain in my leg has stopped but I have a killer headache. “Ah, you’re awake” I heard a voice say. I opened my eyes to Twilight, her horn glowing a shade of pink. “Now, this shouldn’t hurt too much.” I wander what she means by that, but only when it felt like my insides were being beaten by a club did I realise what she means. The pain lasted a few seconds before subsiding, “I feel nothing…” “Don’t worry, you will gain feeling again in a minute or two,” she reassures me. “So, have you spoken to Celestia lately?” I ask “No, she won’t reply. I’m not sure why. I’m rather worried about her.” The unicorn replies. “Oh, I think I know why, try telling her to come to this library, say, that you have a surprise for her.” “What surprise?” “That would ruin the surprise, now, wouldn’t it?” “Fine, Spike take a note please: Dear Princess Celestia, I hope that you are in good health. I would like you to come and pay a visit to Ponyville sometime soon, I have a surprise for you that can’t wait. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle." “I don’t see what this is all about…” The unicorn continues “You’ll see, where’s everypony else?” I ask, while getting up. “I’m not allowed to tell, it would ruin the surprise.” she tries to imitate my voice as she says it, failing, but she didn’t care, she just giggled. I look down at the floor without me realising it, and start to lose myself in deep thought. “What’s wrong?” The unicorn starts to move closer to me, I move back. I can’t formulate a reply, I just stand there in silence without noticing the lavender unicorn move so close our bodies are touching side by side. She nudges me a little, I don’t notice though, it’s surprising how lost in thought I can get myself. She tries to get my attention again by nudging me again I notice it this time, and step to the side. I prepare myself quickly and bash Twilight in the side, she falls to the floor. “Wow, that was… impressive,” she started “I didn’t know you were that strong… Ow.” “I should have warned you, I’m sorry” I feel rather bad about knocking her over. “I was just… thinking…” “Thinking? About what?” I shake my head lightly to give a hint that she shouldn’t know. She looks a little confused so I try to reassure her by smiling, while doing so Spike walks in. “A letter from Princess Celestia!” he started to read it aloud, “Dear Twilight, I am sorry but I am in great mourning, I should have told you but I don’t want you to feel the same sadness I do. I will not be able to leave the palace until a few weeks have gone by. Princess Celestia.” “Oh” is all that the unicorn could say. “Spike, write a letter to the Princess,” I request “Dear Princess Celestia, I know who you are mourning, but there is no need, I am well, your student Twilight Sparkle took me into her home so I can recover. I have already met a few of her friends in the last day. I wish to speak to you in private, so I kindly request that you make your way over to Ponyville and see me, we have much to discuss. Your most loyal soldier: Aros Blade.” “So you’re Aros Blade…” Spike started “anyway, I’ll get some drinks and food, you look hungry.” “That would be nice” I reply. “Do you have a school here in Ponyville?” “Yes, but it isn’t open now, today is Sunday.” Twilight replies with a hint of sarcasm. “Do you have a metal worker in this village?” “Nope, what do you mean by a metal worker anyway?” “… Seriously!” I sigh, “A metal worker is someone who creates metal objects, like armour for …Redleaf Fighting Academy…” “Oh, then no, we don-” she is interrupted by a knock on the door. The lavender unicorn looks at me in surprise. She opens the door to Rainbow Dash “Hey! What’s up? Is Aros in here?” she asks “Oh, yeah Aros is right behind me, he just woke up about ten minutes ago,” the unicorn starts, but I interrupt as I move past her. “Why do you need me?” I ask, “Is something wrong” I ready my body as if to say ‘I am ready for a fight’. “I have a note from the Princess: Aros, I can’t believe it is you, you are to report to the Supreme Commander from Redleaf Fighting Academy at the town hall; he will show you to me. Bring anyone you want.” The cyan coloured Pegasus is smiling as she made gestures to take her with me. “No, Rainbow Dash, I will see her alone. But can you escort me to the town hall?” I ask. “Sure thing” she replies. I head out the door and the Pegasus flies about a metre above my head as she directs me to the town hall. As we approach the town hall I see the bulky figure of the Supreme Commander from Redleaf, man I hated that place! “Thanks Rainbow Dash, that will be all I need. You better head home now.” “Ok, If you need me you know where to find me!” she flew off into the distance punching a few clouds as she goes. “Stealth, long time no see.” The Supreme Commander started “You were reported KIA a week ago, what happened?” “I …I don’t know, I don’t want to know.” I start. “The Princess told me that you would take me to her… And, do I still have the power I used to have, the same priority…?” “Well you didn’t when you were reported KIA, but since you still alive, I guess so. You will need to ask Celestia though.” “Where is she?” I ask starting to become impatient. “Over here” he leads me into the town hall, but he waits at the entrance saying he is not allowed in. I walk in cautiously only to find Princess Celestia looking rather excited about something. The alicorn lets out a yelp of joy as she sees me enter the hall “AH! You’re alive! I thought you were dead.” She runs up to me and gives me a hug, something I was not expecting. She starts crying with what I hoped were tears of joy. “It’s ok, I’m here, I’m safe, and you have Twilight to thank for that.” I try to stop her crying, but she just hugs me tighter and tighter until I find it hard to breath. She pulls back from the hug and places a gentle kiss on my cheek. “Twilight has been very worried about…” I was interrupted by Celestia repeating the phrase ‘I thought you were dead!’ several times. “Shh, I know you did. Don’t worry, I’m fine.” I put one of my hooves on her shoulder. “Oh, it’s terrible, it’s just terrible over in Canterlot now with you not there. Please return,” she says with a great solemn tone in her voice. I think for a moment, “I don’t think I can just yet…” I trail of a bit, “It’s just that… there’s this mare here in Ponyville…” “That you like a little more than a friend?” the alicorn interrupts, “I know, I felt the same way a few months ago, but I’m sure I told you this when you served me at the castle.” “Wait, I don’t serve you anymore… oh…” “Well it was just because you were reported dead, I didn’t want to believe it at first, but then I guess I had to.” “I’m here now, and willing to serve,” I reassured. “Well then, you can’t really serve in that state, you don’t have your armour!” she moved to the side to reveal a guard holding my spare armour set… It was a grassland camouflage design, so it fitted in quite well in the fields of this quiet town. “Do the voice commands still work?” I ask. “Why don’t you try it out?” she replies. “Ok then” I think for a moment and try a simple activation command, that should if done correctly open the suit up and allow a pony to step inside, “Stealth, open!” The suit opens up as the guard holding it is startled and drops it. I step closer and closer until I am right in front of the suit. I cautiously step inside… “Stealth, close!” the suit closes around me, the visor covering my eyes with an advance HUD. “Oh, how I missed this…” I start to test how it moves. I start with a simple walk and gradually increase it into a jog and then a sprint. I try some more advance athletic movements; I have to admit in my mind that this spare may actually be better than the original… I try out how strong the suit is by asking a guard to attack me, and quite frankly the guards aren’t all that scary. “I think this one may be better than the original…” I trail off. “When will you return to the guards post at the palace?” the Princess asks. I think for a few minutes “I don’t know… there’s things here I need to do and things I need to make clear before I leave,” I reply, “I’m sorry Celestia but I need to go, now. I will return to the palace when I can or send you a letter with my return date.” The alicorn takes in what I just said and runs up to me and gives me a small hug before agreeing to the statement. “Before you go… can you tell me who this lucky mare is?” I remove the visor form the helmet and it slides off to the right before I speak, “Fluttershy…” “Oh! One of Twilight’s friends, please do tell them I’m fine, I don’t want them worrying anymore.” “Ok, I will. Don’t worry.” I turn around and walk out the door. I see Rainbow Dash up flying around in the sky, and decide to join her. I think in my head ‘wings, out’ as a pair of metal shafts and to propellers surrounded by the same design of metal slide out of the top of the suit. “Ok, let’s see if these still work…” I jump a little and think about flying up in a straight line upward, to my surprise the wings actually work, being only an experimental part of the suit. I fly upwards until I think of a different direction to fly; I’m surprised that the mind control actually works. I keep gaining speed until I’m going faster than Rainbow Dash and I catch up with her. “Hey! Rainbow Dash!” I call. “Huh? AH! What’s that!?” she yelled almost falling out of the sky with surprise to see a flying pony shaped piece of metal. “Rainbow, it’s me, Aros Blade. The Princess found my spare armour set. I can fly just like you now.” I say as I remove my visor “That’s pretty cool. How did your chat with the Princess go?” she asks “It was, unexpected to say the least…” I start to lower the volume of my voice, soon the sound of my propeller engines were louder than me so the cyan Pegasus can’t hear me. “You ok?” she asks. I can’t manage to raise my voice above my engines anymore. Rainbow Dash looks down to where I’m looking and see the pink party pony hopping around near the forest. “Wait… Do you… Like what you see down there?” she asks with a serious voice. I look up at the Pegasus and show a dead serious face. “I’m going to kill her! I’m going to KILL HER!” I yell. I close my visor and pull out a small sword, I start to swoop down but the cyan Pegasus is faster than I imagined. “Whoa! Whoa whoa whoa! What are you doing!?” she pulls me up a little and tries her best to restrain me around the propellers. I sheath the blade and close the wings; I would have fallen if Rainbow Dash wasn’t holding me. “I… I don’t know…” The Pegasus struggles to keep the weight of the suit up so starts to descend and place me on the ground. “I need to get some things straight; can I be alone for a bit?” “Something’s wrong… I know that, but I want to know what” the Pegasus starts to say, as she lands next to me. “You will know, in time…” I say in a annoyed voice as I push her away, “I just need to be alone…” and with that my wings came out and the fans started spinning and before Rainbow Dash could say anything I shot off into the air faster that she was expecting from a ‘piece of metal’ she called it under her breath. I need to sort some things out. I need to find Twilight, and Fluttershy. I know where to find the library thanks to Fluttershy giving me a tour of the town. I fly above the library and call for Twilight. “Hey! Twilight! You in?” I don’t get an answer. I fly a little lower and hear somepony screaming. As I look down I see a flock of birds fly away and a mass of other animals scatter into all different directions. I fly down and close my wings as I reach the floor. “Hello? Is anypony here?” I open my armour and step out, I hear another scream, and this one seems more like a frightened gasp. I look behind me and see some pink hair. I step closer and realise Fluttershy is trying to hide. “Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t notice you down here. Are you ok? I’m so sorry.” “It’s fine, really. I didn’t know it was you…” she trails off a little. “Look, there’s um… something I want to tell you.” “I know, I told you, I did read my mail back at the castle.” “So, you know how I, uh… feel?” “Yes… I do know… if only you read the letter I was going to send before… this happened.” The Pegasus looks at me rather confused. “What do you mean?” “…A lot of different things happened in that week…” I don’t want to say what I say next, but she needs to know. “Pinkie happened.” She jumped back at the sound of that combination of two words. “WHAT!?” she yells in a rather loud voice considering how shy she can be. “What do you mean, Pinkie happened?” “Well,” this is getting rather awkward for me now. “I will explain everything if you can get Twilight, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash together in the library in an hour. ConfessionsI stand in the library looking at the vast amount of books on each shelf, oh Celestia I’m nervous about what I’m going to do next. This is going to be very awkward I think to myself. I turn my gaze at the opening door and the first pony to walk in, thank the lord it’s only Twilight, this conversation shouldn’t be too awkward before everypony else gets here. “Hi Twilight.” “Oh, hi Aros. Fluttershy said that you wanted us to come here.” She says. “Yes, I need to get some things clear. You need to know something about me.” “Oh, Ok. The others should be here in a few minutes.” That means I have a few minutes to clear the huge nervous pain in my mind. A minute or two go by and I’m no closer to a calm mind than I was before Twilight entered. A knock on the door, I hold my breath hoping it isn’t her. To my luck it isn’t, it’s Rainbow Dash, “Hi Rainbow, how are you?” “I’m fine, why did you want us to come over here anyway?” “I need to tell you guys some things.” “Hm, all right,” she says “Fluttershy and Pinkie should be here any second now.” As she says that the two of them walk in greeting us as they enter. “Hey Dashie! I didn’t know you were coming to this party!” Pinkie exclaims as she notices the cyan Pegasus. “Yep, I’m not quite sure why I’m here but I am.” The Pegasus replies. “Well, now that we are all here can you all take a seat?” Everypony except me sits down at the table. I’m standing at the end of it trying to think of what to say first. “Good, now I would like to start by saying thank you for coming, I know I haven’t known you all for very long now, well actually that’s a little lie.” There was a little gasp of surprise in my rather small crowd of ponies. “I have known one of you for quite some time now, bringing back memories I would rather forget.” “Really, I would rather keep them.” the party pony says, then realising that she shouldn’t have said that so she puts her hooves over her mouth. Everypony in the room looks between me and Pinkie. I sigh, “Yes, I have known Pinkie for years now. There are few things you need to know about me, Pinkie and I… we used to… date.” “What!?” the ponies say in sync with each other, that is of coarse without Pinkie who is just nodding. “We met in Canterlot, I was on patrol when she came past, and she caught my eye at first. Back then I was young; I didn’t know what I wanted out of a mare, so I tried talking to her to see what she was like. She seemed nice at first, until I got to know her very well did I realise that I wasn’t as happy as I could be.” “When you say ‘very well’ how well do you mean?” the lavender unicorn asks. “That was the best night I EVER had, I never knew how good a stallion could be in those areas!” Pinkie answers for me. I cover my entire face with my hoof trying not to remember those days and to avoid seeing the reaction on the faces of my new-found friends. “Oh, I wasn’t expecting that as a reply!” the unicorn replies to Pinkies sudden outburst. “But I found out quite recently that she has found a new friend to ‘play’ with.” “Who?” I hear from two of the ponies in my tiny crowd. “Rainbow Dash… You really should be more careful when talking to an elite soldier.” I reply to the question. “It’s true, Pinkie and I are going out, we were planning on telling you, honest!” the cyan Pegasus gives up trying to hide it, and hugs Pinkie after saying it. “You know Rainbow, we don’t like it when our friends keep secrets from each other.” The unicorn says, still trying to take in what I said only moments ago. “Care to tell your friends your secret then?” I ask trying to sound polite. “That’s different!” she pleas. “Sure it is… just because it involves royalty, it makes it so important that your closest friends can’t know about it?” I say exaggerating some of the words. “I… I guess you’re right.” She replies. “I’m in love with… with Princess Celestia,” she said reluctantly. There were gasps all around the room after she said it. “And there is one more relationship I would like to revea- AHH!” I scream as I fall to the ground. My head pumping, my neck in agony, everything seems to go in slow motion… everypony is panicking franticly running around the room before crowding around me… my sight blackens. AH crap! I hate it when this happens. Just floating in nothingness, but this time there’s an image in the distance. I can just make it out, Fluttershy. So, it is true, I do… I open my eyes to find that I have woken up in what looks like Twilight’s bed. I look to my right and see a yellow Pegasus sitting beside me on the edge of the bed, head in hooves, crying. “Uhh… I feel terrible…” I mutter hoping she hears me. She gasps as she looks around and sees me, limp in the bed but, alive and awake. “Yay! You’re awake! Twilight said you might never wake, you don’t know how happy I am to see you awake. You were hit in the neck with some sort of dart… with a powerful poison, Twilight did all she could to save you.” she says in voice that sounds loud when your close but inaudible when a few metres away. We stare at each other for a few minutes before she continues, “and there’s something I want to, uh… tell you…” I stop her mid-sentence; I place my hoof on her shoulder and pull her down, onto the bed so she’s lying next to me.”Wha-” I stop her again as I put my hoof on her mouth to gesture not to say anything. “I… I don’t want you to say… anything” I start, but my currently weak mind making it hard to say that. “I just want… to be with… you.” Just as I finish that sentence she flings her fore-leg around me and brings me in for a hug. I move my free fore-leg over her should and around the back of her neck. I don’t want this moment to end, ever. She leans her head in for a kiss, to her surprise, I meet her halfway for a long passionate kiss. “No point hiding it now, I guess.” The Pegasus starts, in between breaths, “I, um… I love you…” “I know. I can see it in your smile.” I say whenever I can get a word out. She pulls back, looking surprised. “How long have you known?” “Yesterday…” “You were unconscious yesterday.” “Wait, what? How long have I been out?” “3 days… I never left your side.” she looks into my eyes and giggles a little bit. I pull her back in for another kiss, she does nothing to resist. We lay there for a few minutes, kissing when she pulls back. I look surprised as she starts to sing, her voice is incredibly soft and caring. “Those three words… have said too much, but not enough…” “These three words?” I ask, “I love you.” She blushes at the sound of that and stops singing. “Yes…” is all she could say. “I mean it too” after I say that she cuddles up to me, we rest for about ten to fifteen minutes before the lavender unicorn enters the room. “Err… what’s going on here?” she asks with a twitching eye. The only reply she got was Fluttershy pulling me in for a hug. “Wait! Fluttershy… you don’t… you know… do you?” the unicorns voice getting more and more confused. “Yep,” is the one word needed to make the lavender unicorn start to back out of the room, and it is even worse for her that Fluttershy says it. Twilight starts to back out of the room but bumps into her love. Standing behind her right now is Princess Celestia. “Twilight, is it right to awkwardly back out of a room with two of your friends showing how much they care for each other?” the alicorn asks. “I have never seen him this happy, it warms my heart, it really does.” The lavender unicorn turns around and hugs the Princess, “I was so worried about you!” I look down the bed, and see the two of them hugging, not particularly awkward, I have seen them do much more ‘dangerous’ things, Twilight didn’t notice who I was back then, I have changed so much in these months. I kiss Fluttershy on the cheek, cuddle up nice and close to her and try to get to sleep, before I manage to enter the realm of dreams it is returned to my lips in a long, passionate kiss, needing no words to explain it. We Meet AgainI am broken from the trance of my memory by the sound of hoofsteps coming down the stairs. “Aros, oh, you are down here,” the pegasus says while coming down. “Yeah, I am. It’s just… no, never mind.” I reply “You’re worried, aren’t you?” the unicorn said across the room. “Yes, I am.” I start to walk around the room. The place seems different somehow, I don’t know why. Maybe spike re-sorted the books while I was asleep, I don’t know. I freeze when a knock sounds from the front door. Twilight trots over to the door and opens it; I jump back at who is standing in the doorframe. Pinkie. I wasn’t expecting her to come here. She looks at me and winks while lifting a hoof and gesturing me to go over to her. I hesitantly walk over to her while I say my quick goodbyes to everypony in the room and state I shouldn’t be too long. She leads me over to a dark green forest; she says it’s called the everfree forest. It is a very strange looking forest, as we enter I notice just how dark and secluded it is, somepony could do anything here without anypony knowing… OH GOD! What does she want from me? She fearlessly leads the way through the forest and I trail behind her, we walk in silence for quite a long time before I decide to break this awkward silence. “Where are you taking me?” I ask. “Do you remember that night, the night at the club in Canterlot?” she replies with a tone I wish I never heard before. “Oh no… you want me to…” I stutter on each word as I think of what she might want me to do. “Oh, now I can’t play the game now you know what I want, but you know me too well.” “Erm, yeah, sure…” I make my voice slightly louder to try and hide the fact that I’m backing away, it wouldn’t do much good anyway, I don’t know my way out of this forest. “HEY! Where are you going?” she quickly notices me backing away and charges at me. I fall back. “Erm, nowhere.” I raise an eyebrow as I say it, making a poor attempt at hiding the truth. “What exactly do you want from me?” “You know, that night. I want to recreate that night.” We looked at each other for some time, me with an incredibly worried face, her with an excited and impatient look. I couldn’t do anything but let out a little whimper. She pushes me onto my back, I struggle to fight back but my body disobeys me. I fall back, and let Pinkie look over me. “Mmmm…” she licks her lips, “you look wonderful!” she continues to look over me for a few minutes. And as she starts to lower her head closer to mine, a voice sounds from a nearby tree, which one I have no idea. “Well well well. Who do we have here?” she pulls her head away, thank the lord, she looks behind her and to her surprise sees nothing. “Well look who we have, Aros Blade. What looks like making out with another pony… never thought I’d see the day.” I recover some of my strength, enough to throw pinkie off of me and onto the floor. I survey the trees around me. And find a Pegasus looking at me from a tree branch. I couldn’t see any of his fur because of his robes. A mixture of different greys and a streak of red down the sides. His head was covered in shadows as the grey hood when completely over his head, the back carefully crafted not to tamper with the Pegasus’ wings. “Who’s that Aros?” the Pegasus asks. “She’s Pinkie Pie,” I drop to a whisper “Get me out of here, she’s crazy.” “Hmm, that’s no way to treat a mare.” “Look, she is crazy, can you please hel- No way! Swift! You look so different!” “Well done, it has been 5 years. How have you been, rookie?” “Good thanks, and I’ll have you know I graduated and served the royal guards. Let me guess, you made your dream a reality?” “You served the royal guard!?” the Pegasus replies what a vast amount of surprise, “Before I left you were dug deep into the ground… and yes my dream is now the bad-ass reality!” “Well, I bet you’re confused about what you just saw…” “Damn right, I never thought I would see you with a mare, you always seemed like the stallion type.” “What!” I launch a punch at his face, he was telling the truth, he has made his dream a reality, and he dodged out of the way at lightning speed. “Huh, I guess you’re right, you are the Assassin.” “Indeed” he looks to his side, and then back at me, “I want a bloody coffee, get me a bloody coffee.” “Um, no. I’m not your slave anymore… and I never will be.” “Hmpf, fine.” The Pegasus and I had some small talk after that, only a little though. It was, unfortunately, too long by Pinkie’s standards. She charged at me, eyes flaring. “I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!” she yelled, rather loud too. She smashes me onto the floor and stands over me. I look over at ‘The Assassin’ pleading for help. He just shakes his head and quickly explains that this is going to get interesting. I look back in front of me and see the pink mare staring at me, but it felt like she was staring into my soul, eyes full of lust. Before I had time to try to resist or say something I had a mouth full Pinkie. Yuck, get me out of here! I tried to yell and get her of off me but to no success, she just groaned as she finally managed to get her tongue past my lips. She only just got through when a familiar voice sounds from the sky. “PINKIE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” the pink pony draws back and looks up a little, I can’t see who she is looking at, but I can tell who it is by the look on her face. I throw her off, “WHY Pinkie? I thought we settled this!” I yell at her. I look at her, anger visible in my eyes. I stand up and turn around to see Rainbow Dash, looking really confused. “Sorry, about any confusion here Rainbow Dash, but can you do something for me?” “Yeah, sure” “Keep your marefriend under control!” The cyan pegasus nods and gives Pinkie a dead serious stare. She then picks up Pinkie and flies of back what I believe to be Ponyville. “Well, that certainly was interesting…” “You shut up! That was assault to my position!” “Your position?” “Yes, I served the Princesses directly, I know everything about them, but we won’t go into detail.” “Hm, your choice, shall we head back to Canterlot?” “Canterlot? Why there?” “Well you live there don’t you?” a confused look spread across the Pegasus’ face. “No, I’ve recently taken up accommodation at the local library in Ponyville.” “You currently stay at the… library?” “Yes, problem?” “No, no. So where is this town?” “Erm, That way…” I point over to an area covered with rainbow trails, I hoped that’s Rainbow Dash flying around. “Um… are you completely sure we should go that way?” the pegasus queried. “Yes, of course. Let’s go.” We start walking in the direction I pointed in earlier. We have been walking for quite a while now. I’m surprised that ‘The Assassin’ Swift hasn’t started to tire yet, but he keeps walking on next to me. We reach the town soon enough. “Is that it? That’s the town you’re staying in…” “Yes swift, it is. It’s a nice place to stay actually, it’s nice and calm.” I almost regret saying that, after all these past events haven’t been too pleasant for me. I look at the town hall and see a figure, quite a large figure to. “Who’s that?” “Who, the large figure at the town hall?” “Yes.” “I don’t know.” We walk on a little more. The figure becomes more recognisable every second, but only when we enter the plaza do I recognise who it is… “Aros!” the figure runs up to me, I recognise it as Princess Celestia, how did I not realise that at first. “Hello, Princess Celestia.” I bow slightly. “Oh, no need for that, stand up.” I do as she says and stand up. Swift moves slightly behind me, whispering in my ear, “Um, Aros buddy, you know that I’m an assassin… I don’t think that I should be shown to the Princess…” “Ok,” I whisper back. “Princess, can I ask you something?” “Yes, what is it?” “Erm, it’s just: why are you here, and not in Canterlot?” “Good question, I am here to see you, and you know who…” “Oh, ok, do you need something from me then?” “Yes, I do… you have a let’s say… friend here, don’t you?” “Yes… who do you mean?” “Fluttershy.” “Oh, yes. Is she ok?” I step forward a little, with a slight concern. “yes, she’s fine. But I just heard about the woods…” “Oh no… look it wasn’t me, I had no idea that she was going to attack me in such a way.” “What? What did she do…?” “she tried to make out with me… yuck!” “But you and her… were…” “That was 3 years ago…” “Oh right, well the problem was actually that while you were gone, one of your old friends dropped by, in the name of ‘The Assassin’…” “WHAT!?” I turn around at stare angrily at Swift. “What did you do?” “I er… dropped by…” he starts to back away, but Princess Celestia holds him to the spot with some magic. “I should check on Fluttershy.” I say. “That would be a good idea Aros.” I start to run as fast as I can across the town hall. To my luck Twilight was running up to me. “Aros, quickly come to the library!” I nod and run with her to the library, we quickly reach the building, but before we open the door twilight stops and stares at the door, clearly terrified, “You said you wouldn’t drag us into this, but we got dragged in…” I turned to her, shocked as I began to open the door. That fateful dayI force my eyes open, my heart pumping franticly, my breath heavy. I hope that was just a dream. I tilt my head and see the yellow Pegasus looking at me, dreary eyed. “What’s wrong?” she asks with a quiet voice as so not to wake Twilight in the other room. I have been thinking and dreaming all night, but the dreams feel so real it’s only when she asks that I remember that they were real, they were memories I have long since forgotten. “I… I was thinking… erm… do you know who fired that dart?” I look at the Pegasus in the rather poor light of the night. “No, nopony does.” “I do…” She looks surprised when I whispered it to her face. “What, who?” “A unicorn from Canterlot. His name is Zakoraig.” I look right at where I believe her eyes are, I can’t really see in this light. “I just worked it out, he was at the Redleaf Fighting Academy. He is a very dangerous pony, capable of killing anyone within a matter of seconds. After all Fluttershy, his talent is killing…” The Pegasus has a frightened look on her face. “I thought I got rid of him, but clearly not. We will talk more in the morning, I need some sleep.” It took me ages to get to sleep that night; I couldn’t stop thinking about how he can possibly be back, after all the pain he caused me all those years ago. I wake up in the morning with Fluttershy cuddling up to me; I need to ask Twilight if I can read some of those books she has downstairs. I get up out of bed and head for the bathroom; I get ready for the day by having a quick wash. When I get downstairs I am greeted with a cheery “Good morning” from the lavender unicorn. “Twilight, do you know somepony called Zakoraig?” Twilight’s cheery expression fades, quickly replaced by a serious look. “Why… Why do you want to know about him?” she asks. “He was here, he shot the dart, and he wants me dead! Now he knows I’m alive, he wants to kill me!” “Calm down, calm down…” she is getting a little worked up already. “Ok, ok. Erm… I do know him. He is on the royal guards ‘most wanted’ list, for numerous murders and attempted murders…” “I know who he is! He used to my friend… back at Redleaf Fighting Academy we used to everything together… that’s what pains me the most.” “Oh, I’m so sorry.” She tries to reassure me by stepping closer, I don’t react. “I thought I got rid of him back at Canterlot when he tried to kill Princess Luna…” “But now he’s back. Don’t worry, we can catch him, what do you want to do with him when we get him?” “Wait! I can’t get you and your friends tangled up in this business, you’ll probably get killed!” The lavender unicorn frowns, “I guess your right…” The way she says that reminds me of that fateful day at the castle… “Princess Luna! Are you alright?” I yell through the locked doors to the Princess’ private chambers. “AAHHHH!” is the only reply I got. And it was enough of a reply to try and get in. I step back a few feet and ready my ‘Rogue’ armour and charge at the door, it swung open and when it hit the walls on the other side the doors fell of their hinges. Inside the room the Princess is lying on the floor, limp. I look at the window and see him. Zakoraig! “Ok, This has gone on far enough Zakoraig. The petty murders you commit on the streets of this fair city are enough to give you the death penalty! But trying to kill a Princess, it’s just outrageous!” I bark as I marched over to him. We are now face to face with each other. He just smirks a bit and jumps back pulling out what looked like a machine gun, I brace for heavy fire! He loads a new clip of ammo, does he not realise the strength of the armour I wear? Clearly not, he pulls the trigger and empties the entire clip onto my helmet, not leaving a single scratch, the bullets fall to the floor with a ting. He stares at me for a bit before loading a new clip, surely he wasn’t going to try and shoot me again, was he? “I’m not that stupid Blade,” he says, clearly noticing my cocky smile “I know your weakness.” He points the gun at the Princess. “NO!” “You have to save everypony, don’t you? Well you failed with all the others I killed, and you’re going to fail now…” he smiles one of smiles that make you feel uncomfortable in any situation. “If you have anything to say to Luna, I would say it now. And don’t try any of that camouflage crap! You disappear, and so does Luna’s life!” I think for a moment. “Let’s not get hasty! Let’s have a clean fair fight, you use your weapons and I use mine.” I unsheathe my sword and hold it next to my neck. Luna gasps at what I do next. I swing the sword into the neck of the suit. The suit starts to send sparks everywhere as the armour just falls apart. “No armour, that just makes it unfair.” I chuckle slightly after I say that, and ready my body for the fight of my life… Zakoraig was the first to make a move, he charges at me holding the nozzle of the gun as if he is going to use it as a club. And that is exactly what he does, he swings this way and that way, hoping to hit me, those swings aren’t particularly hard to dodge, when he jumps back after failing to hit me, it’s my turn. I launch my body at his, blade at my side. I slash at his head, only missing his skull by a few centimetres causing me to cut off some of his shaggy mane. I turn the blade around and hit him with the handle square on his forehead, he falls back. We keep exchanging blows like that before he starts to tire and jumps behind Luna. “I grow tired of these games Blade!” he holds the gun the right way now, resting it on Luna’s terrified body he starts to shoot, I dive, duck and roll out of the way of all 30 bullets in his clip before he has to reload. After he reloads things just got harder, he slams the gun into the top of Luna’s back creating a small indentation and causing the Princess to scream loud enough to nearly deafen anypony near. Now that he rests the gun in the small indentation on Luna’s back he now has much better accuracy with his gun. He starts to fire again, I try my best to dodge them, and to my surprise I manage to evade them all! We go on like this for about 5 minutes, how much ammo did he bring with him? I think to myself. Only after I start to tire do I change my tactic, when he reloads I dive over his head, frightening Luna to hell and back, I turn to face him, and with my sword swing it diagonally upwards to the right, cutting his gun in half. What I didn’t realise is that this created a rather sharp edge on the newly shortened gun barrel. I dive back over Luna’s body again, and Zakoraig follows. He swings his newly sharpened gun in every direction he could think of, he chases me around the room for a few minutes, and he tires quickly. As I regain my breath he launches himself at me and his gun slices at my right fore-leg across the knee. “AHH! Oh damn that hurts!” “Hahaha! Aww, hurts does it?” he mocks. “not as much as my eyes when I see your face!” This close-quarters battle was turning into more of a lair fight at this point, none of his were any part insulting; mine clearly had an effect on him. At this point I was laying on the floor, my knee cut open and blood covered most of the floor. Then to my luck a patrol of guards charged into the room, one of which decided to surprise Zakoraig by jumping on top of him, knocking him onto the floor. I was laying on the floor helpless to anypony now. They arrest Zakoraig and instantly sentence him to the rest of his life rotting in the castle dungeon. “you haven’t seen the last of me Aros! I will return, and I WILL KILL YOU!” Two of the guards notice me, heaped on the floor. “Sergeant! You, help me get the Sergeant to the hospital!” I must have blacked out at that point until I was woken by the nurse. “Right, you’re awake, that’s a good start, so Aros Blade, we never thought you would need to use the hospital, anyway your knee was cut into two pieces during that fight with Zakoraig. There are two options you can take to fix this, one: take an experimental internal bionic knee replacement, that may cause sudden agony on the rare occasion, or you can take option two: a full amputation of the leg, and I don’t need to go through the pros and cons for that option, do I?” Her voice was rather sharp compared to her gentle touch. “Bionic knee…” I couldn’t finish the sentence, but she knew what I meant. I was rushed into a sterile white room; they gave me a powerful anaesthetic, to make me go to sleep and not feel a thing…
IntroductionsSolitude. Nothing but the pain of solitude. Forcing my body to carry me further, I try and try to remember and forget. My hooves fail me, I fall to the ground. My head pulsing with what others would call pain. Me, I call it memories. I try to survey my surroundings, but in the position I’m in, collapsed on the floor, I can’t see much. Everything starts to fade, my sight blackens. Where am I? What am I doing here? I look around, nothing but darkness. Not like that makes much change to how I have been feeling lately. I hate that place! I hate that single pony! That one pony who killed my mind, my personality, my emotions. I need a place to start new, somewhere I can be happy, if I can remember how to be happy. I want to scream. “Can I …scream? Please …let me scream!” I mutter to myself. “Of course, if it makes you feel better,” I hear a voice say. I scream for what seems like an eternity only to open my eyes to two others. It shocks me to see two bright eyes looking straight into mine. “Who …who are you?” I question. “And where …am I?” “You’re in bed, in my house in Ponyville, my friend found you collapsed on the road to someplace called Redleaf,” The voice replies. I slammed my eyes shut at the sound of the name of that place. “Please let me introduce myself. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I know you need rest to recover from those injuries, but I want to know more about you, you look like an interesting stallion. What’s your name?” Twilight requests. “My …name? …what is …my name?” I manage to mutter. I let my head flop sideways.my sight blackened again… Twilight Sparkle, what a nice name. She wants to know my name, what is my name? I need to know, I must know… “Oh you’re awake. Um… are you ok?” I hear another voice, much softer, much kinder than Twilight’s. “Careful, he needs rest, but I’m glad you’re awake,” another voice says, it sounds like Twilight. “No, I don’t want to rest anymore, I want to get up and… Ah!” I exclaim as I try to get up but reach to my side and notice a big gash across my chest. I fall back at the sight of it. “How did I get that?” “I don’t know” Twilight says. “We were hoping you could tell us.” This time I'm not greeted by two eyes, but by two figures. One was a lavender colour unicorn with a purple mane with pink highlights, while the other was a yellowy-beige colour Pegasus with a gorgeous pink mane. “Who are …you two?” I ask, my voice starting to fade as my sight is clasped to the beige pony. “I’m Twilight,” the lavender unicorn says “And this is Fluttershy,” She gestures to the Pegasus beside her. “Nice …nice name,” is all my mind manages to string together. My sight darkened yet again, why this happens I don’t know … Wow. She’s wonderful, who knew there were nice mares in this world. I certainly didn’t! All the mares I know are harsh and horrible. My eyes open. Only to be greeted by nopony this time. “Hello?” I call “hello? Anypony here?” After a few seconds a voice sounds. But I can’t understand it, so I decide to get up. As I get up and look down at the gash I remember how it got there.
The Memory“Dive! Duck! Roll!” The commander yelled “Come on! You can do it!” I look over my shoulder as I finish the routine to find the commander smiling and winking at me. That was his sign that he wants to speak to me, he often did after I decided to put my all into this training. I trotted over to him and saluted; he saluted back and pinned a badge on me. I looked at it, and then stared at the commander. He was promoting me! This could only mean that a test was to be ready for tomorrow. He said nothing, just gestured to go to my quarters and rest for tomorrow, what awaited me I have no idea. The next day I took my care when walking into the test arena, armour on and ready to fight whatever was going to test me today. “Hello private, or should I say, stealth!” The announcer said through his megaphone. I couldn’t believe it! He called me by talent, something that only happens when a pony was to graduate from Redleaf Fighting Academy… that could only mean… I was going to graduate and serve the Royal Alicorns of Canterlot! “Stealth! You are to face the Supreme Commander of the academy! If you win, you graduate, if you lose, you go to hospital and recover only to train more and more! Are you ready?” the announcer asked “Yes sir, always ready sir!” I yelled to the announcer! The announcer nodded and the iron doors opened, there now standing before me was the Supreme Commander of the academy ready to kill me! I thought in my head ‘camo, on’ and with that single thought I disappeared into thin air. The commander drew his blade, and with a hit of the gong the battle started. The Supreme commander started to survey the arena; certainly he would be able to sense me with his ‘Spartan’ armour. He locked his gaze onto a single spot where he thought I was standing. He charged in a head long sprint with his blade at his side, what he did wrong is that I wasn’t there at all, I was on the other side analysing his every move, his every step. He charged for longer than he expected to without hitting a stallion, and he rammed the wall with a heavy thud! He tried the same tactic many times and after the announcer looked bored at the sight of no action but also surprised that I wasn’t dead already. But then the commander tried something new, he started to swing his blade in every direction possible. This made things very difficult for me at first, but I kept studying his every movement; eventually I saw a hitch, every time he used his left shoulder it would clunk back for a little extra swing. I took this opportunity when he got too close to me for comfort it dived under his left shoulder when it hitched, hooking his leg in the process tripping him up. For a dramatic effect I took of the camouflage with a simple thought ‘camo, off’. The entire crowd gasped in the sheer surprise that I managed to trip the Supreme Commander and crack his helmet. I didn’t notice that I cracked his helmet until he got back up and looked me in the eye, sending shivers down my spine. We stared at each other for a few minutes trying to intimidate each other, I was failing but he was just downright scary at this point. He started to charge again so I activated camouflage and dived out of the way of the Commander’s head long charge. The same thing happened again and again, I would dive under his shoulder whenever he would swing with his left foreleg and trip him in the process, but this time it went wrong, he anticipated that I would try to do that again and twisted his wrist up a little so when I dived the sword gashed across my chest. After that he decided to try something new, while I was still in camo he threw what looked like a bomb high into the air, I dived to try and get away but when it landed it sent out a shockwave. This shockwave looked a lot like an electrical pulse, which could only mean one thing …an EMP! As the wave hit me my camo started to flicker and he could vaguely see me. He tried something experimental, so that’s what I did. As he charged at me, sword in hoof, I didn’t move, which startled him, but he kept going. When he was a few metres in front of me all you could hear was BANG! At my side I held a gun, a gun specially designed for heavy armour penetration. I called it: the Big Bang. The Supreme Commander fell only a few inches away from me, still breathing he held up his hoof to yield, and as a nice stallion I grabbed his hoof and pulled him up. The fight was over! “Well done” the Commander said “very well done indeed, I am proud to say that you have graduated from this academy, may you serve the Alicorns with grace!” I mind went blank after that, I must have passed out over the excitement on graduating.
RealisationWhat I’m not aware of is that when I am thinking of that day I am actually saying it loud enough for someone to hear. I look behind me and see Fluttershy at the door to the room I seem to be staying in. she tries to hide before I see her but she isn’t quick enough. I go to the door, and I don’t see anything. I walk in a little more and I hear the door close behind me, the yellow Pegasus shyly greets me while trying to hide herself in her mane. “Please, don’t be shy” I say to her as I brush her mane out of the way. “You … seem so, strong…” the Pegasus started to say “are you really …um, a soldier?” “Yes” I answered. “Wow… um…” that is all she said before running up to me and giving me a quick hug. Only for a moment or two do I feel …happy. Nopony has ever hugged me before, it felt strange at first but then there was a small bliss. The door opened and Twilight was on the other side. “You ok?” the unicorn asks “Is there a reason you two are in a closed room.” “Not that I’m aware of…” I was stopped by the Pegasus. “Twilight can I …uh, speak to you? In private?” The yellow Pegasus asks “Ok” The lavender unicorn replies. The two of them walk out of the room, the door closing behind them. I just wander around the room and notice that this is a library… Does Twilight live in a library? I will ask her when she returns. I walk over to the door and place my ear against the wood to try and listen in on their conversation, all I could hear was. “I know you do, you just told me, but I think you should wait a little longer, he just got here yesterday, and he is still recovering.” I hear Twilight say. “Ok, but… um…” the Pegasus was stopped by the pony. “Just let him rest. A day or two more and he should be fine.” The unicorn interrupted. The door opened, and Twilight walked in saying she would take me downstairs to get some breakfast. As if to emphasise that fact, my belly let out a deep rumble. We walked downstairs and I clearly noticed that this is a library. “Twilight, do you live here, in the library?” I ask. “Yes, with my companion Spike. Fluttershy doesn’t normally stay here, but she wants to know how you are recovering, so she is staying for a while.” she replies. I let out a growl when the small harmless dragon comes close, I never like dragons. “Wow! Calm down. Twi’ what would you like? And who’s you friend?” the green dragon asks. “The normal breakfast please. And we don’t know his name, not even he does.” The unicorn replies. I scream a little, not loud, just enough so everypony in the house or library could hear, I’m not sure why I do, it just feels right at this moment. My head falls to the table. My legs go limp. I see the door open and a pony walked, or more like hopped in. “HELLO! Who’s this? Is he hurt? Oh my, that wouldn’t be very good now would it,” the pony says. I look up a little and see the pink pony, I recognise her, but where from and who is she. The realisation hits me like a ton of bricks. “PINKIE!!!!” I yell. “Please… please can I have some …peace” I start to cry at this point when all the painful memories of her flood back into my mind. “How do you know my name? You just got here, right...?” the pink party pony started to say, before she interrupted herself. “Aros! Aros Blade!!!” she yelled. And at that exact moment I remembered how I got that name, I don’t want to remember though. “PLEASE!” I yell. “Please pinkie…” I’m sobbing at this point. Fluttershy is running down the stairs now. Her voice not being able to be heard thanks to Pinkie launching apologies this way and that. “Shut up, shut up, shut up” I say to myself. I scream at the top of my voice “SHUT UP!!!” there was a long pause, I am starting to breath heavily now. Pinkie dived behind the chair beside her. “Your name’s Aros…” Twilight started, she let out a little squeak. “The same Aros that challenged Celestia’s elite guards, and won?” “Yes, I am. You must be connected to her royal highness to know about that this far away” I say. “Yes, I am her faithful student” she replies. “Ah yes, Twilight Sparkle I remember you know, Celestia told me a LOT about you, some stuff you even thought that only you and her knew about, but I won’t go into those.” Twilight looked surprised that I knew about her and Celestia’s private life. “Yes, Twilight, I know all about it, and all about you, and her royal highness. Nothing was kept secret from me, but that isn’t the case now, Celestia thinks I’m dead, she went into mourning a few weeks ago, that is why Luna took over the court for a while.” “Well, if you know about that, promise not to tell anypony?” The lavender unicorn asks. “Of course, after all I have been keeping it a secret for 3 months now, and that is when it started isn’t it?” “…yes” “So, um, your name’s Aros…” I turned to see the yellow Pegasus speaking. “And you know about Twilight’s secrets, um, the ones she shared with Celestia…” “Shh, before you ask, yes. I do know, I did read my mail back at the castle.” I interrupted with slight chuckle in my voice. “And it’s ok, I was going to reply but I was called to action.” Fluttershy lets out a little shy yelp. Clearly she doesn’t want the others to know about her secret. “I need to go for a walk, can someone accompany me, heh, I need a bit of fresh air.” I request. “I will” The yellow Pegasus replies with a louder than normal voice. “Great” I reply, “let’s go” and with that the two of us walk out the door. Fluttershy and I walk for a bit around the town, Ponyville seems like a wonderful place to live. We walk and we talk, she seems to live a nice and peaceful life when Twilight doesn’t drag her into things. “Fluttershy, earlier when Pinkie hopped into the room, and I announced that I worked for the royal guard…” I start “I did read whatever mail I got in the palace, I always looked forward for reading letters from you.” “So, you know about…” the Pegasus says. “Yes, don’t be afraid, I only wish you could have read the letter I was going to send. I always wondered what you looked like, and only after Pinkie came in did I remember what happened in my time at the castle. And now that I have met you face to face, it was worth the wait.” “really?” Fluttershy let out a squee noise; I don’t know what that means. I’m not thinking about what I’m doing right now. I step a little closer to her and kiss her on the cheek. She lets out a little yelp and blushed, and clearly not trying to fall over and hide, due to her shy nature. We keep walking for a little bit, until I start to feel a pain in my right foreleg. I don’t think much of it, as Fluttershy and I keep walking, she goes on to tell me about her adventures with her friends. I’m so interested in her stories that I don’t feel my leg collapse underneath me and I fall to the ground with a thud. “Ah, bugger!” I yell as my leg goes into agony. “Hey Fluttershy!” a voice sounds in the distance “Who’s your friend?” The yellow Pegasus ducked until she realised who it was. “Oh, hi Rainbow Dash. This is Aros Blade” “He looks a little hurt…” The new voice continued. “You don’t say! AH! Oh Celestia this hurts!” I exclaim. “Fluttershy, help me get him to my house,” the new voice says. I must have gone blank after that, I don’t remember anything. I awoke on a cloud, a cloud shaped as a couch. “Where …where am I? Whose house is this now?” I ask. “I’m Rainbow Dash, the most awesome pony in Ponyville! And this is my home.” I heard a voice say. I open my eyes and see a cyan coloured Pegasus standing before me. I have one thing to say but my throat is in agony and it comes out as a jumble of sound. “well I have to say, I am the most awesome pony in Ponyville, but you don’t come from Ponyville do you?” “No. I don’t…” before I know it, the cyan Pegasus is bowing down to me. “Why… why do you bow?” The yellow Pegasus moves towards me and whispers in my ear, “Rainbow and I talked while we brought you over here. Is it true… that day when Princess Luna wanted to talk to you in her private quarters?” She asks. I couldn’t do much but nod reluctantly. I let my head flop down and the cyan Pegasus went to get some drinks, when she leaves Fluttershy sits down next to me. We sit there staring into each other’s eyes for a few minutes; she leans down and returns the kiss from earlier. “Rest now.”
Long time, no seeI wake up in the library again; the pain in my leg has stopped but I have a killer headache. “Ah, you’re awake” I heard a voice say. I opened my eyes to Twilight, her horn glowing a shade of pink. “Now, this shouldn’t hurt too much.” I wander what she means by that, but only when it felt like my insides were being beaten by a club did I realise what she means. The pain lasted a few seconds before subsiding, “I feel nothing…” “Don’t worry, you will gain feeling again in a minute or two,” she reassures me. “So, have you spoken to Celestia lately?” I ask “No, she won’t reply. I’m not sure why. I’m rather worried about her.” The unicorn replies. “Oh, I think I know why, try telling her to come to this library, say, that you have a surprise for her.” “What surprise?” “That would ruin the surprise, now, wouldn’t it?” “Fine, Spike take a note please: Dear Princess Celestia, I hope that you are in good health. I would like you to come and pay a visit to Ponyville sometime soon, I have a surprise for you that can’t wait. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle." “I don’t see what this is all about…” The unicorn continues “You’ll see, where’s everypony else?” I ask, while getting up. “I’m not allowed to tell, it would ruin the surprise.” she tries to imitate my voice as she says it, failing, but she didn’t care, she just giggled. I look down at the floor without me realising it, and start to lose myself in deep thought. “What’s wrong?” The unicorn starts to move closer to me, I move back. I can’t formulate a reply, I just stand there in silence without noticing the lavender unicorn move so close our bodies are touching side by side. She nudges me a little, I don’t notice though, it’s surprising how lost in thought I can get myself. She tries to get my attention again by nudging me again I notice it this time, and step to the side. I prepare myself quickly and bash Twilight in the side, she falls to the floor. “Wow, that was… impressive,” she started “I didn’t know you were that strong… Ow.” “I should have warned you, I’m sorry” I feel rather bad about knocking her over. “I was just… thinking…” “Thinking? About what?” I shake my head lightly to give a hint that she shouldn’t know. She looks a little confused so I try to reassure her by smiling, while doing so Spike walks in. “A letter from Princess Celestia!” he started to read it aloud, “Dear Twilight, I am sorry but I am in great mourning, I should have told you but I don’t want you to feel the same sadness I do. I will not be able to leave the palace until a few weeks have gone by. Princess Celestia.” “Oh” is all that the unicorn could say. “Spike, write a letter to the Princess,” I request “Dear Princess Celestia, I know who you are mourning, but there is no need, I am well, your student Twilight Sparkle took me into her home so I can recover. I have already met a few of her friends in the last day. I wish to speak to you in private, so I kindly request that you make your way over to Ponyville and see me, we have much to discuss. Your most loyal soldier: Aros Blade.” “So you’re Aros Blade…” Spike started “anyway, I’ll get some drinks and food, you look hungry.” “That would be nice” I reply. “Do you have a school here in Ponyville?” “Yes, but it isn’t open now, today is Sunday.” Twilight replies with a hint of sarcasm. “Do you have a metal worker in this village?” “Nope, what do you mean by a metal worker anyway?” “… Seriously!” I sigh, “A metal worker is someone who creates metal objects, like armour for …Redleaf Fighting Academy…” “Oh, then no, we don-” she is interrupted by a knock on the door. The lavender unicorn looks at me in surprise. She opens the door to Rainbow Dash “Hey! What’s up? Is Aros in here?” she asks “Oh, yeah Aros is right behind me, he just woke up about ten minutes ago,” the unicorn starts, but I interrupt as I move past her. “Why do you need me?” I ask, “Is something wrong” I ready my body as if to say ‘I am ready for a fight’. “I have a note from the Princess: Aros, I can’t believe it is you, you are to report to the Supreme Commander from Redleaf Fighting Academy at the town hall; he will show you to me. Bring anyone you want.” The cyan coloured Pegasus is smiling as she made gestures to take her with me. “No, Rainbow Dash, I will see her alone. But can you escort me to the town hall?” I ask. “Sure thing” she replies. I head out the door and the Pegasus flies about a metre above my head as she directs me to the town hall. As we approach the town hall I see the bulky figure of the Supreme Commander from Redleaf, man I hated that place! “Thanks Rainbow Dash, that will be all I need. You better head home now.” “Ok, If you need me you know where to find me!” she flew off into the distance punching a few clouds as she goes. “Stealth, long time no see.” The Supreme Commander started “You were reported KIA a week ago, what happened?” “I …I don’t know, I don’t want to know.” I start. “The Princess told me that you would take me to her… And, do I still have the power I used to have, the same priority…?” “Well you didn’t when you were reported KIA, but since you still alive, I guess so. You will need to ask Celestia though.” “Where is she?” I ask starting to become impatient. “Over here” he leads me into the town hall, but he waits at the entrance saying he is not allowed in. I walk in cautiously only to find Princess Celestia looking rather excited about something. The alicorn lets out a yelp of joy as she sees me enter the hall “AH! You’re alive! I thought you were dead.” She runs up to me and gives me a hug, something I was not expecting. She starts crying with what I hoped were tears of joy. “It’s ok, I’m here, I’m safe, and you have Twilight to thank for that.” I try to stop her crying, but she just hugs me tighter and tighter until I find it hard to breath. She pulls back from the hug and places a gentle kiss on my cheek. “Twilight has been very worried about…” I was interrupted by Celestia repeating the phrase ‘I thought you were dead!’ several times. “Shh, I know you did. Don’t worry, I’m fine.” I put one of my hooves on her shoulder. “Oh, it’s terrible, it’s just terrible over in Canterlot now with you not there. Please return,” she says with a great solemn tone in her voice. I think for a moment, “I don’t think I can just yet…” I trail of a bit, “It’s just that… there’s this mare here in Ponyville…” “That you like a little more than a friend?” the alicorn interrupts, “I know, I felt the same way a few months ago, but I’m sure I told you this when you served me at the castle.” “Wait, I don’t serve you anymore… oh…” “Well it was just because you were reported dead, I didn’t want to believe it at first, but then I guess I had to.” “I’m here now, and willing to serve,” I reassured. “Well then, you can’t really serve in that state, you don’t have your armour!” she moved to the side to reveal a guard holding my spare armour set… It was a grassland camouflage design, so it fitted in quite well in the fields of this quiet town. “Do the voice commands still work?” I ask. “Why don’t you try it out?” she replies. “Ok then” I think for a moment and try a simple activation command, that should if done correctly open the suit up and allow a pony to step inside, “Stealth, open!” The suit opens up as the guard holding it is startled and drops it. I step closer and closer until I am right in front of the suit. I cautiously step inside… “Stealth, close!” the suit closes around me, the visor covering my eyes with an advance HUD. “Oh, how I missed this…” I start to test how it moves. I start with a simple walk and gradually increase it into a jog and then a sprint. I try some more advance athletic movements; I have to admit in my mind that this spare may actually be better than the original… I try out how strong the suit is by asking a guard to attack me, and quite frankly the guards aren’t all that scary. “I think this one may be better than the original…” I trail off. “When will you return to the guards post at the palace?” the Princess asks. I think for a few minutes “I don’t know… there’s things here I need to do and things I need to make clear before I leave,” I reply, “I’m sorry Celestia but I need to go, now. I will return to the palace when I can or send you a letter with my return date.” The alicorn takes in what I just said and runs up to me and gives me a small hug before agreeing to the statement. “Before you go… can you tell me who this lucky mare is?” I remove the visor form the helmet and it slides off to the right before I speak, “Fluttershy…” “Oh! One of Twilight’s friends, please do tell them I’m fine, I don’t want them worrying anymore.” “Ok, I will. Don’t worry.” I turn around and walk out the door. I see Rainbow Dash up flying around in the sky, and decide to join her. I think in my head ‘wings, out’ as a pair of metal shafts and to propellers surrounded by the same design of metal slide out of the top of the suit. “Ok, let’s see if these still work…” I jump a little and think about flying up in a straight line upward, to my surprise the wings actually work, being only an experimental part of the suit. I fly upwards until I think of a different direction to fly; I’m surprised that the mind control actually works. I keep gaining speed until I’m going faster than Rainbow Dash and I catch up with her. “Hey! Rainbow Dash!” I call. “Huh? AH! What’s that!?” she yelled almost falling out of the sky with surprise to see a flying pony shaped piece of metal. “Rainbow, it’s me, Aros Blade. The Princess found my spare armour set. I can fly just like you now.” I say as I remove my visor “That’s pretty cool. How did your chat with the Princess go?” she asks “It was, unexpected to say the least…” I start to lower the volume of my voice, soon the sound of my propeller engines were louder than me so the cyan Pegasus can’t hear me. “You ok?” she asks. I can’t manage to raise my voice above my engines anymore. Rainbow Dash looks down to where I’m looking and see the pink party pony hopping around near the forest. “Wait… Do you… Like what you see down there?” she asks with a serious voice. I look up at the Pegasus and show a dead serious face. “I’m going to kill her! I’m going to KILL HER!” I yell. I close my visor and pull out a small sword, I start to swoop down but the cyan Pegasus is faster than I imagined. “Whoa! Whoa whoa whoa! What are you doing!?” she pulls me up a little and tries her best to restrain me around the propellers. I sheath the blade and close the wings; I would have fallen if Rainbow Dash wasn’t holding me. “I… I don’t know…” The Pegasus struggles to keep the weight of the suit up so starts to descend and place me on the ground. “I need to get some things straight; can I be alone for a bit?” “Something’s wrong… I know that, but I want to know what” the Pegasus starts to say, as she lands next to me. “You will know, in time…” I say in a annoyed voice as I push her away, “I just need to be alone…” and with that my wings came out and the fans started spinning and before Rainbow Dash could say anything I shot off into the air faster that she was expecting from a ‘piece of metal’ she called it under her breath. I need to sort some things out. I need to find Twilight, and Fluttershy. I know where to find the library thanks to Fluttershy giving me a tour of the town. I fly above the library and call for Twilight. “Hey! Twilight! You in?” I don’t get an answer. I fly a little lower and hear somepony screaming. As I look down I see a flock of birds fly away and a mass of other animals scatter into all different directions. I fly down and close my wings as I reach the floor. “Hello? Is anypony here?” I open my armour and step out, I hear another scream, and this one seems more like a frightened gasp. I look behind me and see some pink hair. I step closer and realise Fluttershy is trying to hide. “Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t notice you down here. Are you ok? I’m so sorry.” “It’s fine, really. I didn’t know it was you…” she trails off a little. “Look, there’s um… something I want to tell you.” “I know, I told you, I did read my mail back at the castle.” “So, you know how I, uh… feel?” “Yes… I do know… if only you read the letter I was going to send before… this happened.” The Pegasus looks at me rather confused. “What do you mean?” “…A lot of different things happened in that week…” I don’t want to say what I say next, but she needs to know. “Pinkie happened.” She jumped back at the sound of that combination of two words. “WHAT!?” she yells in a rather loud voice considering how shy she can be. “What do you mean, Pinkie happened?” “Well,” this is getting rather awkward for me now. “I will explain everything if you can get Twilight, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash together in the library in an hour.
ConfessionsI stand in the library looking at the vast amount of books on each shelf, oh Celestia I’m nervous about what I’m going to do next. This is going to be very awkward I think to myself. I turn my gaze at the opening door and the first pony to walk in, thank the lord it’s only Twilight, this conversation shouldn’t be too awkward before everypony else gets here. “Hi Twilight.” “Oh, hi Aros. Fluttershy said that you wanted us to come here.” She says. “Yes, I need to get some things clear. You need to know something about me.” “Oh, Ok. The others should be here in a few minutes.” That means I have a few minutes to clear the huge nervous pain in my mind. A minute or two go by and I’m no closer to a calm mind than I was before Twilight entered. A knock on the door, I hold my breath hoping it isn’t her. To my luck it isn’t, it’s Rainbow Dash, “Hi Rainbow, how are you?” “I’m fine, why did you want us to come over here anyway?” “I need to tell you guys some things.” “Hm, all right,” she says “Fluttershy and Pinkie should be here any second now.” As she says that the two of them walk in greeting us as they enter. “Hey Dashie! I didn’t know you were coming to this party!” Pinkie exclaims as she notices the cyan Pegasus. “Yep, I’m not quite sure why I’m here but I am.” The Pegasus replies. “Well, now that we are all here can you all take a seat?” Everypony except me sits down at the table. I’m standing at the end of it trying to think of what to say first. “Good, now I would like to start by saying thank you for coming, I know I haven’t known you all for very long now, well actually that’s a little lie.” There was a little gasp of surprise in my rather small crowd of ponies. “I have known one of you for quite some time now, bringing back memories I would rather forget.” “Really, I would rather keep them.” the party pony says, then realising that she shouldn’t have said that so she puts her hooves over her mouth. Everypony in the room looks between me and Pinkie. I sigh, “Yes, I have known Pinkie for years now. There are few things you need to know about me, Pinkie and I… we used to… date.” “What!?” the ponies say in sync with each other, that is of coarse without Pinkie who is just nodding. “We met in Canterlot, I was on patrol when she came past, and she caught my eye at first. Back then I was young; I didn’t know what I wanted out of a mare, so I tried talking to her to see what she was like. She seemed nice at first, until I got to know her very well did I realise that I wasn’t as happy as I could be.” “When you say ‘very well’ how well do you mean?” the lavender unicorn asks. “That was the best night I EVER had, I never knew how good a stallion could be in those areas!” Pinkie answers for me. I cover my entire face with my hoof trying not to remember those days and to avoid seeing the reaction on the faces of my new-found friends. “Oh, I wasn’t expecting that as a reply!” the unicorn replies to Pinkies sudden outburst. “But I found out quite recently that she has found a new friend to ‘play’ with.” “Who?” I hear from two of the ponies in my tiny crowd. “Rainbow Dash… You really should be more careful when talking to an elite soldier.” I reply to the question. “It’s true, Pinkie and I are going out, we were planning on telling you, honest!” the cyan Pegasus gives up trying to hide it, and hugs Pinkie after saying it. “You know Rainbow, we don’t like it when our friends keep secrets from each other.” The unicorn says, still trying to take in what I said only moments ago. “Care to tell your friends your secret then?” I ask trying to sound polite. “That’s different!” she pleas. “Sure it is… just because it involves royalty, it makes it so important that your closest friends can’t know about it?” I say exaggerating some of the words. “I… I guess you’re right.” She replies. “I’m in love with… with Princess Celestia,” she said reluctantly. There were gasps all around the room after she said it. “And there is one more relationship I would like to revea- AHH!” I scream as I fall to the ground. My head pumping, my neck in agony, everything seems to go in slow motion… everypony is panicking franticly running around the room before crowding around me… my sight blackens. AH crap! I hate it when this happens. Just floating in nothingness, but this time there’s an image in the distance. I can just make it out, Fluttershy. So, it is true, I do… I open my eyes to find that I have woken up in what looks like Twilight’s bed. I look to my right and see a yellow Pegasus sitting beside me on the edge of the bed, head in hooves, crying. “Uhh… I feel terrible…” I mutter hoping she hears me. She gasps as she looks around and sees me, limp in the bed but, alive and awake. “Yay! You’re awake! Twilight said you might never wake, you don’t know how happy I am to see you awake. You were hit in the neck with some sort of dart… with a powerful poison, Twilight did all she could to save you.” she says in voice that sounds loud when your close but inaudible when a few metres away. We stare at each other for a few minutes before she continues, “and there’s something I want to, uh… tell you…” I stop her mid-sentence; I place my hoof on her shoulder and pull her down, onto the bed so she’s lying next to me.”Wha-” I stop her again as I put my hoof on her mouth to gesture not to say anything. “I… I don’t want you to say… anything” I start, but my currently weak mind making it hard to say that. “I just want… to be with… you.” Just as I finish that sentence she flings her fore-leg around me and brings me in for a hug. I move my free fore-leg over her should and around the back of her neck. I don’t want this moment to end, ever. She leans her head in for a kiss, to her surprise, I meet her halfway for a long passionate kiss. “No point hiding it now, I guess.” The Pegasus starts, in between breaths, “I, um… I love you…” “I know. I can see it in your smile.” I say whenever I can get a word out. She pulls back, looking surprised. “How long have you known?” “Yesterday…” “You were unconscious yesterday.” “Wait, what? How long have I been out?” “3 days… I never left your side.” she looks into my eyes and giggles a little bit. I pull her back in for another kiss, she does nothing to resist. We lay there for a few minutes, kissing when she pulls back. I look surprised as she starts to sing, her voice is incredibly soft and caring. “Those three words… have said too much, but not enough…” “These three words?” I ask, “I love you.” She blushes at the sound of that and stops singing. “Yes…” is all she could say. “I mean it too” after I say that she cuddles up to me, we rest for about ten to fifteen minutes before the lavender unicorn enters the room. “Err… what’s going on here?” she asks with a twitching eye. The only reply she got was Fluttershy pulling me in for a hug. “Wait! Fluttershy… you don’t… you know… do you?” the unicorns voice getting more and more confused. “Yep,” is the one word needed to make the lavender unicorn start to back out of the room, and it is even worse for her that Fluttershy says it. Twilight starts to back out of the room but bumps into her love. Standing behind her right now is Princess Celestia. “Twilight, is it right to awkwardly back out of a room with two of your friends showing how much they care for each other?” the alicorn asks. “I have never seen him this happy, it warms my heart, it really does.” The lavender unicorn turns around and hugs the Princess, “I was so worried about you!” I look down the bed, and see the two of them hugging, not particularly awkward, I have seen them do much more ‘dangerous’ things, Twilight didn’t notice who I was back then, I have changed so much in these months. I kiss Fluttershy on the cheek, cuddle up nice and close to her and try to get to sleep, before I manage to enter the realm of dreams it is returned to my lips in a long, passionate kiss, needing no words to explain it.
We Meet AgainI am broken from the trance of my memory by the sound of hoofsteps coming down the stairs. “Aros, oh, you are down here,” the pegasus says while coming down. “Yeah, I am. It’s just… no, never mind.” I reply “You’re worried, aren’t you?” the unicorn said across the room. “Yes, I am.” I start to walk around the room. The place seems different somehow, I don’t know why. Maybe spike re-sorted the books while I was asleep, I don’t know. I freeze when a knock sounds from the front door. Twilight trots over to the door and opens it; I jump back at who is standing in the doorframe. Pinkie. I wasn’t expecting her to come here. She looks at me and winks while lifting a hoof and gesturing me to go over to her. I hesitantly walk over to her while I say my quick goodbyes to everypony in the room and state I shouldn’t be too long. She leads me over to a dark green forest; she says it’s called the everfree forest. It is a very strange looking forest, as we enter I notice just how dark and secluded it is, somepony could do anything here without anypony knowing… OH GOD! What does she want from me? She fearlessly leads the way through the forest and I trail behind her, we walk in silence for quite a long time before I decide to break this awkward silence. “Where are you taking me?” I ask. “Do you remember that night, the night at the club in Canterlot?” she replies with a tone I wish I never heard before. “Oh no… you want me to…” I stutter on each word as I think of what she might want me to do. “Oh, now I can’t play the game now you know what I want, but you know me too well.” “Erm, yeah, sure…” I make my voice slightly louder to try and hide the fact that I’m backing away, it wouldn’t do much good anyway, I don’t know my way out of this forest. “HEY! Where are you going?” she quickly notices me backing away and charges at me. I fall back. “Erm, nowhere.” I raise an eyebrow as I say it, making a poor attempt at hiding the truth. “What exactly do you want from me?” “You know, that night. I want to recreate that night.” We looked at each other for some time, me with an incredibly worried face, her with an excited and impatient look. I couldn’t do anything but let out a little whimper. She pushes me onto my back, I struggle to fight back but my body disobeys me. I fall back, and let Pinkie look over me. “Mmmm…” she licks her lips, “you look wonderful!” she continues to look over me for a few minutes. And as she starts to lower her head closer to mine, a voice sounds from a nearby tree, which one I have no idea. “Well well well. Who do we have here?” she pulls her head away, thank the lord, she looks behind her and to her surprise sees nothing. “Well look who we have, Aros Blade. What looks like making out with another pony… never thought I’d see the day.” I recover some of my strength, enough to throw pinkie off of me and onto the floor. I survey the trees around me. And find a Pegasus looking at me from a tree branch. I couldn’t see any of his fur because of his robes. A mixture of different greys and a streak of red down the sides. His head was covered in shadows as the grey hood when completely over his head, the back carefully crafted not to tamper with the Pegasus’ wings. “Who’s that Aros?” the Pegasus asks. “She’s Pinkie Pie,” I drop to a whisper “Get me out of here, she’s crazy.” “Hmm, that’s no way to treat a mare.” “Look, she is crazy, can you please hel- No way! Swift! You look so different!” “Well done, it has been 5 years. How have you been, rookie?” “Good thanks, and I’ll have you know I graduated and served the royal guards. Let me guess, you made your dream a reality?” “You served the royal guard!?” the Pegasus replies what a vast amount of surprise, “Before I left you were dug deep into the ground… and yes my dream is now the bad-ass reality!” “Well, I bet you’re confused about what you just saw…” “Damn right, I never thought I would see you with a mare, you always seemed like the stallion type.” “What!” I launch a punch at his face, he was telling the truth, he has made his dream a reality, and he dodged out of the way at lightning speed. “Huh, I guess you’re right, you are the Assassin.” “Indeed” he looks to his side, and then back at me, “I want a bloody coffee, get me a bloody coffee.” “Um, no. I’m not your slave anymore… and I never will be.” “Hmpf, fine.” The Pegasus and I had some small talk after that, only a little though. It was, unfortunately, too long by Pinkie’s standards. She charged at me, eyes flaring. “I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!” she yelled, rather loud too. She smashes me onto the floor and stands over me. I look over at ‘The Assassin’ pleading for help. He just shakes his head and quickly explains that this is going to get interesting. I look back in front of me and see the pink mare staring at me, but it felt like she was staring into my soul, eyes full of lust. Before I had time to try to resist or say something I had a mouth full Pinkie. Yuck, get me out of here! I tried to yell and get her of off me but to no success, she just groaned as she finally managed to get her tongue past my lips. She only just got through when a familiar voice sounds from the sky. “PINKIE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” the pink pony draws back and looks up a little, I can’t see who she is looking at, but I can tell who it is by the look on her face. I throw her off, “WHY Pinkie? I thought we settled this!” I yell at her. I look at her, anger visible in my eyes. I stand up and turn around to see Rainbow Dash, looking really confused. “Sorry, about any confusion here Rainbow Dash, but can you do something for me?” “Yeah, sure” “Keep your marefriend under control!” The cyan pegasus nods and gives Pinkie a dead serious stare. She then picks up Pinkie and flies of back what I believe to be Ponyville. “Well, that certainly was interesting…” “You shut up! That was assault to my position!” “Your position?” “Yes, I served the Princesses directly, I know everything about them, but we won’t go into detail.” “Hm, your choice, shall we head back to Canterlot?” “Canterlot? Why there?” “Well you live there don’t you?” a confused look spread across the Pegasus’ face. “No, I’ve recently taken up accommodation at the local library in Ponyville.” “You currently stay at the… library?” “Yes, problem?” “No, no. So where is this town?” “Erm, That way…” I point over to an area covered with rainbow trails, I hoped that’s Rainbow Dash flying around. “Um… are you completely sure we should go that way?” the pegasus queried. “Yes, of course. Let’s go.” We start walking in the direction I pointed in earlier. We have been walking for quite a while now. I’m surprised that ‘The Assassin’ Swift hasn’t started to tire yet, but he keeps walking on next to me. We reach the town soon enough. “Is that it? That’s the town you’re staying in…” “Yes swift, it is. It’s a nice place to stay actually, it’s nice and calm.” I almost regret saying that, after all these past events haven’t been too pleasant for me. I look at the town hall and see a figure, quite a large figure to. “Who’s that?” “Who, the large figure at the town hall?” “Yes.” “I don’t know.” We walk on a little more. The figure becomes more recognisable every second, but only when we enter the plaza do I recognise who it is… “Aros!” the figure runs up to me, I recognise it as Princess Celestia, how did I not realise that at first. “Hello, Princess Celestia.” I bow slightly. “Oh, no need for that, stand up.” I do as she says and stand up. Swift moves slightly behind me, whispering in my ear, “Um, Aros buddy, you know that I’m an assassin… I don’t think that I should be shown to the Princess…” “Ok,” I whisper back. “Princess, can I ask you something?” “Yes, what is it?” “Erm, it’s just: why are you here, and not in Canterlot?” “Good question, I am here to see you, and you know who…” “Oh, ok, do you need something from me then?” “Yes, I do… you have a let’s say… friend here, don’t you?” “Yes… who do you mean?” “Fluttershy.” “Oh, yes. Is she ok?” I step forward a little, with a slight concern. “yes, she’s fine. But I just heard about the woods…” “Oh no… look it wasn’t me, I had no idea that she was going to attack me in such a way.” “What? What did she do…?” “she tried to make out with me… yuck!” “But you and her… were…” “That was 3 years ago…” “Oh right, well the problem was actually that while you were gone, one of your old friends dropped by, in the name of ‘The Assassin’…” “WHAT!?” I turn around at stare angrily at Swift. “What did you do?” “I er… dropped by…” he starts to back away, but Princess Celestia holds him to the spot with some magic. “I should check on Fluttershy.” I say. “That would be a good idea Aros.” I start to run as fast as I can across the town hall. To my luck Twilight was running up to me. “Aros, quickly come to the library!” I nod and run with her to the library, we quickly reach the building, but before we open the door twilight stops and stares at the door, clearly terrified, “You said you wouldn’t drag us into this, but we got dragged in…” I turned to her, shocked as I began to open the door.
That fateful dayI force my eyes open, my heart pumping franticly, my breath heavy. I hope that was just a dream. I tilt my head and see the yellow Pegasus looking at me, dreary eyed. “What’s wrong?” she asks with a quiet voice as so not to wake Twilight in the other room. I have been thinking and dreaming all night, but the dreams feel so real it’s only when she asks that I remember that they were real, they were memories I have long since forgotten. “I… I was thinking… erm… do you know who fired that dart?” I look at the Pegasus in the rather poor light of the night. “No, nopony does.” “I do…” She looks surprised when I whispered it to her face. “What, who?” “A unicorn from Canterlot. His name is Zakoraig.” I look right at where I believe her eyes are, I can’t really see in this light. “I just worked it out, he was at the Redleaf Fighting Academy. He is a very dangerous pony, capable of killing anyone within a matter of seconds. After all Fluttershy, his talent is killing…” The Pegasus has a frightened look on her face. “I thought I got rid of him, but clearly not. We will talk more in the morning, I need some sleep.” It took me ages to get to sleep that night; I couldn’t stop thinking about how he can possibly be back, after all the pain he caused me all those years ago. I wake up in the morning with Fluttershy cuddling up to me; I need to ask Twilight if I can read some of those books she has downstairs. I get up out of bed and head for the bathroom; I get ready for the day by having a quick wash. When I get downstairs I am greeted with a cheery “Good morning” from the lavender unicorn. “Twilight, do you know somepony called Zakoraig?” Twilight’s cheery expression fades, quickly replaced by a serious look. “Why… Why do you want to know about him?” she asks. “He was here, he shot the dart, and he wants me dead! Now he knows I’m alive, he wants to kill me!” “Calm down, calm down…” she is getting a little worked up already. “Ok, ok. Erm… I do know him. He is on the royal guards ‘most wanted’ list, for numerous murders and attempted murders…” “I know who he is! He used to my friend… back at Redleaf Fighting Academy we used to everything together… that’s what pains me the most.” “Oh, I’m so sorry.” She tries to reassure me by stepping closer, I don’t react. “I thought I got rid of him back at Canterlot when he tried to kill Princess Luna…” “But now he’s back. Don’t worry, we can catch him, what do you want to do with him when we get him?” “Wait! I can’t get you and your friends tangled up in this business, you’ll probably get killed!” The lavender unicorn frowns, “I guess your right…” The way she says that reminds me of that fateful day at the castle… “Princess Luna! Are you alright?” I yell through the locked doors to the Princess’ private chambers. “AAHHHH!” is the only reply I got. And it was enough of a reply to try and get in. I step back a few feet and ready my ‘Rogue’ armour and charge at the door, it swung open and when it hit the walls on the other side the doors fell of their hinges. Inside the room the Princess is lying on the floor, limp. I look at the window and see him. Zakoraig! “Ok, This has gone on far enough Zakoraig. The petty murders you commit on the streets of this fair city are enough to give you the death penalty! But trying to kill a Princess, it’s just outrageous!” I bark as I marched over to him. We are now face to face with each other. He just smirks a bit and jumps back pulling out what looked like a machine gun, I brace for heavy fire! He loads a new clip of ammo, does he not realise the strength of the armour I wear? Clearly not, he pulls the trigger and empties the entire clip onto my helmet, not leaving a single scratch, the bullets fall to the floor with a ting. He stares at me for a bit before loading a new clip, surely he wasn’t going to try and shoot me again, was he? “I’m not that stupid Blade,” he says, clearly noticing my cocky smile “I know your weakness.” He points the gun at the Princess. “NO!” “You have to save everypony, don’t you? Well you failed with all the others I killed, and you’re going to fail now…” he smiles one of smiles that make you feel uncomfortable in any situation. “If you have anything to say to Luna, I would say it now. And don’t try any of that camouflage crap! You disappear, and so does Luna’s life!” I think for a moment. “Let’s not get hasty! Let’s have a clean fair fight, you use your weapons and I use mine.” I unsheathe my sword and hold it next to my neck. Luna gasps at what I do next. I swing the sword into the neck of the suit. The suit starts to send sparks everywhere as the armour just falls apart. “No armour, that just makes it unfair.” I chuckle slightly after I say that, and ready my body for the fight of my life… Zakoraig was the first to make a move, he charges at me holding the nozzle of the gun as if he is going to use it as a club. And that is exactly what he does, he swings this way and that way, hoping to hit me, those swings aren’t particularly hard to dodge, when he jumps back after failing to hit me, it’s my turn. I launch my body at his, blade at my side. I slash at his head, only missing his skull by a few centimetres causing me to cut off some of his shaggy mane. I turn the blade around and hit him with the handle square on his forehead, he falls back. We keep exchanging blows like that before he starts to tire and jumps behind Luna. “I grow tired of these games Blade!” he holds the gun the right way now, resting it on Luna’s terrified body he starts to shoot, I dive, duck and roll out of the way of all 30 bullets in his clip before he has to reload. After he reloads things just got harder, he slams the gun into the top of Luna’s back creating a small indentation and causing the Princess to scream loud enough to nearly deafen anypony near. Now that he rests the gun in the small indentation on Luna’s back he now has much better accuracy with his gun. He starts to fire again, I try my best to dodge them, and to my surprise I manage to evade them all! We go on like this for about 5 minutes, how much ammo did he bring with him? I think to myself. Only after I start to tire do I change my tactic, when he reloads I dive over his head, frightening Luna to hell and back, I turn to face him, and with my sword swing it diagonally upwards to the right, cutting his gun in half. What I didn’t realise is that this created a rather sharp edge on the newly shortened gun barrel. I dive back over Luna’s body again, and Zakoraig follows. He swings his newly sharpened gun in every direction he could think of, he chases me around the room for a few minutes, and he tires quickly. As I regain my breath he launches himself at me and his gun slices at my right fore-leg across the knee. “AHH! Oh damn that hurts!” “Hahaha! Aww, hurts does it?” he mocks. “not as much as my eyes when I see your face!” This close-quarters battle was turning into more of a lair fight at this point, none of his were any part insulting; mine clearly had an effect on him. At this point I was laying on the floor, my knee cut open and blood covered most of the floor. Then to my luck a patrol of guards charged into the room, one of which decided to surprise Zakoraig by jumping on top of him, knocking him onto the floor. I was laying on the floor helpless to anypony now. They arrest Zakoraig and instantly sentence him to the rest of his life rotting in the castle dungeon. “you haven’t seen the last of me Aros! I will return, and I WILL KILL YOU!” Two of the guards notice me, heaped on the floor. “Sergeant! You, help me get the Sergeant to the hospital!” I must have blacked out at that point until I was woken by the nurse. “Right, you’re awake, that’s a good start, so Aros Blade, we never thought you would need to use the hospital, anyway your knee was cut into two pieces during that fight with Zakoraig. There are two options you can take to fix this, one: take an experimental internal bionic knee replacement, that may cause sudden agony on the rare occasion, or you can take option two: a full amputation of the leg, and I don’t need to go through the pros and cons for that option, do I?” Her voice was rather sharp compared to her gentle touch. “Bionic knee…” I couldn’t finish the sentence, but she knew what I meant. I was rushed into a sterile white room; they gave me a powerful anaesthetic, to make me go to sleep and not feel a thing…
