Recap

Luna walked over to the stallion and looked him in the face, " Forgive our sister, she tends to act like this round figures like yourself whom contain such power, and forgive us for making you shed those tears of sorrow, thou art truly a noble soul", she gives him a light kiss on the cheek before stepping back leaving Axel speechless, " We must hurry, Tia will want to talk as soon as Twilight sparkle and her friends arrive". Axel gave a hasty nod and places his hoof on her shoulder, and in a flash the two are gone.

Unbeknownst to them, A dark figure was watching the whole ordeal from the shadows, " So Celestia has gotten to the stallion before I" it says in a distorted voice, several hisses are heard around it, " Do not fret my children, soon we will have enough power to rule all of Equestria and more!!" the figure starts to cackle maniacally before being joined by other wild cackles and hisses.

Upon arriving, Axel was amazed at the size of the palace, never once would he have imagined something so large, Luna turned to him and gave slight smile at his stare of awe, " What seems to be the matter, hast thou never stepped hoof inside a palace before", he remained silent for a few moments before speaking up.

"Truth be told I'm not sure, from what Twilight says, I've got a thing called amnesia, I can't remember much of anything, except of course what few memories come to my head every now and then", Axel explained, Luna nodded taking in everything he was telling her, " The good news is the more I remember, the closer I get to finding out who i was".

The princess of the night felt sympathetic for the stallion, the fact that he is living without a clue of who he really is must pain him greatly, " Tis a shame, I'm sure thou hast many tales of wonder to speak of, what with the abilities demonstrated against the wooden giant", he chuckled at the thought, Luna however was thinking of something else, " Perhaps our sister has a way or removing that which curses your mind". His chuckle came to a stop as he took in the words one at a time, " We are sure there is a spell that can remove your affliction" Luna added.

A smile formed on his face at the thought of there actually being a chance at restoring what hes lost, " So there is a chance, but why help me?". It was a question that cycled throughout his head from the very minute he stepped hoof inside the palace, in fact his whole scenario confused him, first it was a group of six ponies who he had never met before, now it was two princesses who are the rulers of the land he currently resides in.

He could tell her answer would not be exact due to her being silent for a short moment, " Since the night before, Sister has felt something peculiar coming from Ponyville, at first she hadn't the slightest idea what to expect, we thought it was a dark force from the kind of magic that sister described, once we had come to a conclusion we set off, that is where we came across thou, a dark aura covered the entirety of your being, at first we hadn't a clue what you were doing in a peaceful such as Ponyville, until thou told us your intentions, as for why we would help thou, think of it as a reward for saving Twilight Sparkle's friends". It took the colt a minute to process everything the lunar princess was telling him before he fully understood it all, when all the information settled in his head he gave a big nod showing the princess he fully understood what she was telling him. The continued to chat as they walked the halls of the palace, most of the conversation was commentary on the size of the castle, or what life as royalty was like, Luna smiled inwardly at how innocently clueless the colt seemed, " Despite having the body of a ruthless warrior, he seems to just be a kind soul" Luna thought to herself.

Sooner than they thought, they had arrived at doors leading to the throne room, where Celestia was awaiting the two of them, " It seems you decided to take the scenic route sister", Celestia said, while holding in a small giggle, " Not need to worry, I expected this much, It's only right that our guest is shown around", she kept a welcoming smile on her face when looking at Axel, " There is some disappointing news concerning the meeting we were to have with the elements of harmony, the train that leads to Canterlot is running slowly, so Twilight Sparkle and her friends will not be here until tomorrow, so I hope you do not mind staying the night in the palace".

He quickly shook his head no, " That sounds perfectly fine your highness", he stood firmly with casual look on his face, he wanted to ask her if she could fix his memory so badly, but something inside him not to, Princess Luna could see the inner dispute going on through his eyes, so she decided to speak of for him.

"Dearest sister, this stallion has a request he wishes to ask, yet he seems to be too nervous to speak it himself, so i shall for him", at first Axel was surprised by Luna, but quick nodded, going along with what the princess was saying, " It would see he has been afflicted with amnesia, and has been stripped of his memories, he wishes to know if there is a way to regain what he has lost". Luna watched her sisters face carefully for an answer, the fact that it was taking Celestia longer than anticipated to answer worried her, "Sister, what is thou thinking of" Luna said in her thoughts.

Celestia had finished thinking then turned her attention towards her sister, " Very well, besides I myself am curious as to what secrets your mind hides, whether they be good or bad", she stated, still keeping her gentle smile and kind demeanor. Her horn began to glow as she prepared the spell, " One last thing, if you do not wish to keep your memories once you have them, i can gladly return them to how they are now and you can simply start over," Axel nodded in agreement, " Then if everything is in order, we shall proceed," she then blasted the spell at him, where it made contact with his horn and swirled around him rapidly.

Images sped through his mind, flashing quickly throughout his mind. Even though he attempted to process the information, it was too much for him to handle, he stumbled in place before falling over and passing out before he hit the floor.

" The memories finally finished flooding into his mind once they had settled on one single image, A small scrap made home in the middle of a desert, a pond nestled cozily in the small back yard, the front yard littered with dying grass which surrounded a single healthy tree, and laying underneath the tree, a soccer ball made for young fillies and foals. Inside the house a tall unicorn mare with coal colored fur, A black mane, and light red eyes, her name, Psyin. She was attempting to cook her child's favorite meal, desert stew, which consisted of various desert fruits, fish from their pond, and sand hawk eggs, " It's days like this I actually enjoy spending hours over the stove," she said while stirring the stew. She stared at the sky through one of the holes in the scrap metal ceiling, " Things just aren't as easy as they use to be...the summer is going to be harsher than it's ever been, and we're low on funds," she sighs before looking at a picture of her and a small foal who resembles Axel down to the last hair on his head, " I won't even have enough bits to pay for his doctors visit, that eye of his won't regrow on his own until he fully understands what he is, Damn all those responsible for trapping our kind here," she felt a strong stinging sensation in her heart at the thought of having her son live here for the rest of his life, she was pulled from her thoughts by a high pitched voice.

" Mommy, mommy!,"the foal from the photograph in the kitchen said, he had a bandage over his left eye, having lost it in a tragic accident. The excited foal ran up to his mother, one hoof behind his back, " I found something pretty for you," he said, he proceeded to pull a golden cross out from behind his back, " I don't know what it is mommy but it's pretty," he said while admiring the object.

A slight smile formed on Psyin's face as she kept her eyes on her innocent son, " So innocent, he doesn't deserve to be here, Axel is not a normal demon like the rest of us," she said inside her head, she shook her head forcing herself out of thought, " Axel you've just found a crucifix, they were used to keep us away from the ponies of the outside world," she regretted telling him this the second she uttered the words.

Axel stared at the object in his hoof, " How can anything so pretty be bad though," it was easy to tell that sadness was in his voice.

He was about to start crying, but a gentle hoof wrapped around him and pulled him into a warm hug, " You didn't let me finish, they are no longer used, because the outside world no longer believes in demons, its the sad truth but they are still kept around anyway". She looked carefully at her sons face, she could easily tell he was stuck in thought. She decided to speak to break him form his thoughts, " Even though the outside world no longer believes in our kind anymore we keep them for other uses, such as inverting the cross, it's a sign that one day we might be able to share a world with them instead of being stuck in Tartarus our entire lives," she let out a sigh of relief upon seeing her son's eye dry up. " Son do you want to help me with dinner, I could use my special helper," A large smile grew on his face as he nodded and bounced around with excitement, and with that they cooked the meal they would be eating for the next few days.

The night went by as it usually did, the bandages on Axel's eye were changed, he was bathed outside, fed and then laid down for bed. Of all the things to elude the young foal, sleep was one of them, rarely did he ever get a good night's sleep, he was frightened by the very world he lived in, Tartarus was such a forgiving place, not many fillies or foals lasted in the region of which he resided in. As he stares out his window he notices something in the normally blank night sky, A glimmer in the sky, something that hasn't been seen in Tartarus for years upon years. A star. Stars were rare in Tartarus do to it being it's own pocket world, whenever A star were to pop up it was said that if you grant a wish upon that star, your wish will come true, " I...I wish i could be like them...like the ponies outside of this place....where there's no war, no suffering, where everypony can grow up with a chance of seeing their adult years," A single tear shed from his eye as he made his wish, as if by the magic of an alicorn, the star began to glow brightly after he spoke his wish. It glowed for An entire minute before dying out, and as it died out, It seemed that even the star felt sorry for the dying world, it was as if it was crying when it faded, as if it didn't want to leave this world the way it was, " Even the sky cries upon this place," he said before slowly drifting off to sleep."

Whilst Axel was unconscious, other events were going on, Celestia and Luna sat in the throne room discussing what to do with their guest. " But sister, what if the spell had some serious effect on him, though he is a mighty warrior, one's mind can only handle so much, who knows what laid in his mind," Luna said.

" Calm yourself Luna, he will be fine...though when i unlocked his memories, I was able to see some of them unfold they...they disturbed me to be honest, the colt has been through much more than most could even imagine, and what worries me more, he said many times the name of his home," the expression on Celestia's face became a very worried one, " He said his homeland was Tartarus".

A long silence filled the throne room before Luna spoke up, " Thou must surely be jesting, sister we thought that Tartarus was no more than a barren realm made into a prison for the worst of beings, how can such a noble warrior be from that retched place, in fact how can anything call that prison their home, it would be unable to sustain life".

The look on Celestia's expression quickly turned from a worried one that that of a remorseful one, " That my sister, is A very....A very dark subject...one that not even I myself would like to look back upon," She looked at her sisters face, knowing one way or another she would have to relive what she witnessed in her head, whether it be by choice or by nightmare. " Very well sister, I shall tell you what I witnessed," she took a deep breath to regain her composure and began to speak, " Long ago in the time when our mother and father still called Equestria their kingdom, when I myself was nothing more than a filly and you were an infant, there lived a race of ponies far different than any other, though their appearance was generally the same as that of any other pony, they held powers, some of which would make that of most alicorn magic seem like nothing more than mere fillies play, they were dubbed as Demons, a war-born race, birthed from dark magic in the oldest days, although most wanted nothing more than to burn the world, there were those who just wanted to co-exist with the ponies of our world, mother and father saw this, but what they saw more than that was the demon's constant thirst for blood and war, to them, no amount of wanting peace was enough to want to spare the lives of those who wanted nothing to do with the conflict," she shuddered as she went on. " Mother and Father saw a war over the horizon, A war that would leave Equestria weakened and scarred, or perhaps worse, so they devised a plan, pull as much magic from the alicorn council and themselves as possible and attempt to create a rift and send the demons to a place where they can do no harm to anypony except themselves, I begged and pleaded them to spare the peaceful ones, but my pleas fell on deaf ears, they had planned to execute the plan at sunrie the next day, when the demonic armies would be at their doorsteps, they didn't know that they had non warriors with them, oh how i cried out for them to stop and find some other way, but my cries too were ignored," she turned away from her sister, trying to keep herself from crying. " When the demon armies camped that night the council and our parents were setting up for their plan, they crafted a crystal, made to amplify their magic, yes they could have easily fought the armies, but even they knew that demons never stopped till their bodies could no longer move, the warriors were relentless, they had admirable determination, even if it was for the wrong cause, when they were in position, they charged their magic to their limits, aimed at the crystal, and fired, the resulting wave of combined magic ripped open the dawning sky, and creating our first encounter to the world we know as Tartarus, each and every demon was sucked into the rift, every Stallion, mare,filly,foal, nopony was spared the tragic fate, I felt my heart shatter as i watched them forcefully pulled into the rift, I could hear their pleas for help as they tried to hold on for dear life, I turned my head to our parents only to see them turned away from the sight, even they themselves were shamed by their actions, myself.....I was left heartbroken, in the time i had gotten to learn about the demons, I....I met a sensible foal". Now she couldn't help it, tears streamed from her eyes as she spoke in a broken voice, " His..his name was Cloud, A name I chose myself, he was orphaned as an infant....he believed that violence was useless, he believed that we could all live in harmony if we tried, he was such a free spirit...that's how i came up with his name, Cloud, as free willed and spirited as the clouds in the sky, he.....he too met his fate on that day," she collapsed onto the floor, her words turned into sobs.

Luna was shocked, only once had she ever seen her sister break down into tears like this, she quickly trotted over to her sister, placed her hoof on her back and softly rubbed it, " Do not cry dearest sister, perhaps..perhaps if what his memories show is true, then maybe, maybe there is a chance that you can find this, Cloud, once more, we can go to Tartatus ourselves and see if there is a way to find these demons you spoke of," Luna said.

Celestia slowly shook her head in response, " It's impossible Luna, I have tried on multiple occasions, their are great barriers that not even I can pas through, that block their part of Tartarus from the rest, so it confuses me, how was this colt able to make it through on his own, yes he may have great power, yet it does not explain how he got through, not even my strongest spell would work," she stood thinking for a moment, " Is it possible, can this colt really be from the same place as him, he seemed so calm so caring, just like...," she was taken from her thoughts by a tap on he back from her sister.

" We know what thou are thinking about sister, can this colt really be from a place as terrible as Tartarus, the way you described these demons, it makes them sound like the vilest of creatures, yet he in no way acts this way," she looks at Axel's limp form and cast a spell so that she may see into his dreams.

"The first thing Luna sees in his dream is a large field of flowers, they are in bloom, with a single tree in the center of the field. Everything seems normal, until she looks at the scenery around the field, what she sees sends her into utter shock, the fields surrounding the flowers were littered with corpse after corpse. The corpses looked similar to the native life of Equestria, except hey had more hellish shapes, Pegasi had skeletal and bat like wings, only a few looked normal, Unicorns had horns of different shapes and sizes, the most recognizable horn shape being the same shape as Axel's horn, griffons were more beast like, the Minotaurs were noticeably bigger in muscle mass than their Equestrian counter parts, and lastly, creatures of undefinable terror, their shapes and sizes varied from creature to creature, most had equestrian bodies, but their features were all wrong, they had claws, fangs, multiple eyes, some even wore armor, hiding their gruesome features underneath. As she scanned the gruesome landscape that was Axel's dream, she heard what sounded like sobbing, as she followed the sound, she found red flowers, the flowers were not the odd part, it was the color of the flowers, unlike the rest of the flowers that were white, these were red, unnaturally red. Her jaw slowly fell agape as she followed the red flowers, which led to the tree in he center, laying there was the fresh corpse of a mare, her fur, white as snow, her mane, black as the night sky, she lay limply, A sword embedded in her chest, with her blood pouring throughout the flower field, staining the once white wonders of nature, and by her side, A familiar colt, Axel.

He sat there, holding the corpse to his bloodied and battered body, sobbing into her, but something was different about him, it was a small difference, buts till noticeable, his tail was lacking the red stripe that he dawns now, her questions were soon answered as she witnessed him lay his tail in the puddle, whether it have been on accident or on purpose, and watched as some of the blood soaked into it, forming a long streak down his tail. He made pleas to a deity of sorts, but they only came out as inaudible sobs, yet Luna could decipher exactly what he was saying, " Dear god above if there is one, please don't take her from me, she is all I have, if you see fit then take me instead, just leave her here," yet there was no reply, no answer, just silence. The scene she was witnessing stayed the same for some time until something caught her eye, warriors dawned in similar attire to Axel, minus the coat he wears, walked closer, some mumbling things, others just staring at the ground.

A pegasus colt with a hood over his head, and a scythe on his back, walked over to Axel, " You couldn't have just kept an eye on her, you had to play the hero, well i hope your happy, cause of you shes dead!," others soon joined in accusing him of their comrades death before the hooded colt spoke up again, " Nia didn't have to die, but you couldn't just keep your eyes on the prize, those villagers didn't matter, what mattered was keeping your allies alive," he grabbed Axel by the collar of his coat and shook him violently, " Then tell me you coward why did you do it!".

A long silence rang through the air until suddenly Axel spoke up, " Because she asked me too, because she asked me to be the hero that she couldn't, because it's what we do!! we fight to protect everypony not just ourselves," he raised his hoof slowly, it trembled with rage and sadness, he lifted his head to look his ally in the face, " Because its who we are!!!!," he slammed the hoof into his allies face knocking him over, sending the crowd, who just seconds ago, were shunning him and blaming him. He turned to look at his beloved's corpse, picked up his sword, and walked off into the sunset, the streak of blood in his tail slowly staining to be that color permanently. He walked, facing away from the direction he had just left, his pace of walking soon became quick trotting, and soon the trotting become a full on sprint, a heavy stream of tears ran from his eyes as he sprinted away from everything he knew, " I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, please forgive me," he sprinted into the sunset and out of view.

It was at this moment that Luna found out that this was no mere dream, she had just witnessed one of his lost memories, she had just witnessed the last memory he held onto before coming to Equestria."

When Luna had awoken from her daze that the spell put her in, she found herself no longer in the throne room, but in her wing of the palace, in her room, she turned her head to see another bed in her room, in it laid the unconscious form of Axel. A strong look of sadness and pity took form on her face, the stallion before her had overcome the hardships of war, but he also faced the pain that is regret, he was shunned by those who once respected him and called him a friend, and in the process, he lost everything he once cared about, " Thou may have an exterior of steel, but thou heart are as fragile as my own," she softly petted his head, as she did, she couldn't help but notice he had tears running down his face, " Sleep now, let all thy pains go,". She was about to enter his dreamscape again, in attempts to calm his mind, when suddenly one of her night guard walked into her room.

" Your highness your sister requires you in the throne room, Twilight Sparkle and the elements of Harmony have arrived,".

Luna sighed as she turned towards the guard, " Very well let us go at once, we should not keep sister waiting," she turned one last time to look at Axel before walking to the throne room with the guard, she lowered her head as she thought of something, "Rest easy now child of Tartarus, let thy pains leave thy mind while thou rest,". She used her magic to project an image of her in the room to look at him one last time before she entered the throne room. As she stood next to him she couldn't help but feel a strong sense of remorse, she lowered her head, pressed her muzzle against the side of his, and kissed him on the cheek, " Rest well warrior, let thy heart be at ease," he projection disappeared as she arrived at the throne room doors, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened her eyes, then opened the doors.

Author's Note

Hey bronies and pegasisters, it's been too long and i am so sorry this chapter took forever to get published. It's not that it was hard to write, it's just that its hard to write when your as sick as a dog, so i hope you guys and gals can forgive me, I hope you enjoy the chapter, leave a comment of what you think, And if you see any errors I will fix them. I'm still getting over my stomach bug so I know i made some, until next time everyone, later!