A Story Never Told

DAY 243

That night, I had a nightmare where my mind was torn asunder, and I forgot who I was.

DAY 244

I woke up in my bed. For a moment, I had an intense sensation of wrongness, as if I were not where I was supposed to be, but it passed. I got out of bed.

"The approximate value of Pi is 3.1415926353."

For some reason, I relished speaking more than I should have. I pushed the thought aside, and started getting ready for the day. After eating breakfast, and tidying my room, I decided to get back to studying. However, I quickly realized that I was unable to remember what I had been studying.

"Spike, do you remember what I was studying last night?"

Spike wandered into the room, "Not really. You usually don't tell me about that sort of thing. I vaguely remember you doing something with the Elements"

"You're usually a good deal more helpful than that. Are you sure that's all you remember?"

"You don't forget stuff like this, Recumen. Something's going on"

I thought about that for a while, "Something is going on. If there's some sort of memory dampening thing going on, I'm going to have to interview more people. Spike, run the library while I'm gone."

"Yes sir!"

As I went down the stairs to the library proper, I saw the Elements, all seven of them, in a display case. I must have placed them there last night in order to run some sort of experiment on them. The idea that it may have caused the memory problems crossed my mind, but it had affected spike, so that theory was obviously incomplete. When I looked at them, I again had an intense feeling of wrongness, as if something were not right. After a few moments, the idea that I should take the Elements with me entered my mind, and I decided that would be a good idea.

As I left the library, I decided to visit Twilight first, even though she lived farthest away.

***

As I approached Twilight's house, a large black square in the middle of the Everfree forest, I hear a ruckus. The automated door let me in, and as I entered the house, I saw the lab was on fire.

"Twilight! Are you okay?"

Twilight exited the lab, and looked in my direction, "Oh, thank goodness you're here! One of the CEMS tanks caught fire!"

"How did you get one of the Compact Energy and Magic Storage tanks to catch fire?"

Twilight had the decency to look embarrassed, "I forgot what I had been working on lately, so I started tinkering with one of the pieces of equipment, which released a large thermal charge. I tried to direct it away from me, but it hit the tank, and..."

"Alright, let's go."

As we began to fix the problem, I got a sense of rightness, directly contrasting the sense of wrongness I'd had in the library. As we sealed the damaged tank, I found the device that had cause the problem. It had been my experimental wormhole generator. I immediately reconciled the thought; it wasn't mine, it was Twilight's.

After putting out the fire, and repairing the tank, I began to organize the lab. As I did so, the sense of rightness continued to grow. When I had finished organizing the lab, something inside of my mind started acting. I quickly realized that it was using my telepathic abilities on Twilight. I was paralyzed, the thing in my mind holding enough control to keep me from doing anything, but not enough to move anything itself.

After a few moments, Twilight took her own Element, and placed in around my neck. When she did so, the person I had been only  a moment before dissolved, and the real me took control once again.

"That was weird, " After hearing myself talk, I came to a startling  conclusion, "I can talk!"

Twilight looked confused, "Of course you can talk. And why do you have my cutie mark?"

The image on my flank is called a 'cutie mark'. Each mature pony in Equestria has one, but they are mostly of cultural and personal importance, although they tend to display the ambitions and talents of an individual. In this case, I had just recovered from having my memory altered, and apparently it had something to do with me and Twilight swapping cutie marks.

"Twilight. Write a letter to the princess."

She looked confused, "Why would I do that?"

"Just do it. You'll see."

Twilight took a piece of parchment, and began writing. Her expression changed from anxiety, to confusion, and finally to confidence. After she displayed the last emotion, I placed the Element of Magic on her head.

After a few seconds, Twilight became lucid again, "What just happened?"

"I'm not quite sure."

"Wait... You can talk, I remember remembering being you, and you have an Element?"

"Now that I can talk, you know what I want to do right now?"

"Uh, no."

"I want a piano. Ever since I got telekinesis, I've wanted to play some songs. With some other assorted instruments, I could play almost anything!"

"You're a weird pony, Recumen."

"Just the way I like it. Anyway, now that I can talk, are there any burning questions you want to ask me?"

"When I talked to Luna about you, she mentioned six-dimensional-chess, but couldn't explain the rules. She said she'd become somewhat proficient at it."

As I responded, we began to walk out of  the house and toward Ponyville, "She has. But the point of the game is that your brain cannot comprehend either the rules or the board of the game. The point is to become proficient at acting in situations you do not fully understand or know about, but still picking the best course."

"That's interesting. I suppose we should get to curing everypony else then?"

"Certainly"

The strange affliction had been caused by Twilight tampering with the Elements, as I had predicted, although the rest of the bearers didn't directly switch, rather 'rotated' cutie marks in the pattern Fluttershy ---> Rainbow Dash ---> Rarity ---> Applejack ---> Pinkie Pie ---> Fluttershy. We repeatedly got each to do things they didn't remember they were good at, and then exposed them to their Elements. Most of the conversations were fairly similar to that with Twilight, although, ironically, Pinkie Pie (who we got last) had the most constructive questions.

"Wow. That was weird. Rekie, what's your Element? Also, you can talk! Cool!"

I didn't quite know how to respond to that, "I'm not actually sure. Twilight, do you know?"

Twilight thought for a moment, "The spell on the Elements seems to have affected the past. That's why your curse was cured. The magical protection of the Elements was retroactively granted to you. It still leaves a lot of questions as to exactly how the Elements and time work, but back on topic, " She teleported The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide in front of her, and flipped it open, " Let's see. There are seven Elements: Generosity, Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Loyalty, Magic, and Responsibility. Looks like you, Recumen, are now the honorary Element of Responsibility. Congratulations!"

After a moment, Twilight spoke again, "Oh! I just had an idea!"

She ran into the library, and picked up a black and silver tome I didn't recognize, and began writing in it.

After finishing she spoke, "From one to another, another to one. A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled, but from all of us together, together we're friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end!"

I can't claim to understand what that spell did, or why it did what it did, but the Elements began to glow. After a second, a blast of energy shot out of each Element, including mine, towards twilight. After a moment, the blast of energy vanished along with Twilight, leaving a six-pointed star engraved on the library floor.

It was several seconds before Rarity spoke, "Did we... Kill her?"

I spoke next, "It looks like whatever happened was fueled by the matter in Twilight's body. I think we did."

Several minutes passed before Applejack spoke, "Ah'm gonna go home to process what just happened. I need just a little bit of normal right now."

We began filing out of the library, but, before we could get far, a bright light appeared, which coalesed into Twilight, except she was several centimeters taller, and... had two large wings.

"You have wings?!?"

"You're an Alicorn? How is that possible?"

"You look like a princess!"

"She is a princess." That last comment hadn't been from any of my friends, but from Princess Celestia.

A few present hastily tried to bow to Celestia, but most just listened

"A... Princess? How could I be a princess?" Twilight said.

"Of course you are. What do you think I've been preparing you for, Twilight?"

"I kind of thought you were preparing me to use the Elements of Harmony."

"That too. But there were always meant to be more than two princesses ruling in Equestira, and Cadence was always destined for the Crystal Empire. You've learned a lot about being a friend and a leader Twilight, and you are an inspiration to us all."

Celestia bowed to Twilight, as did everyone else present. I bowed a little less than even Celestia did, "Eh, I have problems with authority. Has to do with my childhood. You'll always be an equal to me, Twilight."

After a quick chuckle from several ponies present, including both Twilight and Celsetia, Twilight spoke, "Anyway, weren't you going to do some big concert or something tonight?"

As we began getting things organized, Pinkie Pie approached me, "Rekie. You promise you'd tell us. Who are you?"

I shrugged, "I'm an alien."

"Cool."