The Adventures of Soulsilver

Chapters

A Strange Introduction: Part 1
A Strange Introduction: Part 2
A Strange Introduction: Part 3
A Strange Introduction: Part 4
A Strange Introduction: Part 6
A Strange Introduction: Part 7
A Strange Introduction: Part 5

A Strange Introduction: Part 1

A Strange Introduction: Part One

It was a beautiful Spring morning in Equestria, and flowers were coming into bloom all over. Everypony was just getting out of bed, getting ready for the day. Well, almost everypony. One certain lavender unicorn was already up, and walking towards the dark woods known as the Everfree Forest. On her flank she was carrying a pair of saddlebags, one packed with books and provisions, the other empty. On her back she carried a very disgruntled purple dragon.

“But Twilight,” complained the dragon. “Why do we have to collect these flowers so early in the morning?”

“Because Spike,” replied Twilight the unicorn. “These flowers are only in bloom for a few hours. We would already have them if you had woken up when I asked.”

“Well, fine, I understand that. But why do we have to go into the forest to get them? Who knows what lurks around there this early in morning?”

“Spike, I explained this already, they only grow in the Everfree. Besides, they aren’t too far in, I doubt we’ll run into anything. I hope.” She whispered the last part to herself, remembering an encounter with a Cockatrice. She shivered lightly. “Okay, let’s get going,” she said, shaking her fear away slightly with her head. She continued on, walking in between the large trees that made up the borderline of the forest.

***

After a half-hour of searching they came across a clearing filled with various colours of many flowers. It was a huge difference between the dark woods they had just walked out of, Twilight almost thought that they had walked in a circle and out of the forest, as there was no canopy covering the clearing, allowing in the sun. Twilight’s assumption of not running into any monsters had been correct.

“Spike, we found it!” Twilight exclaimed happily. When she didn’t hear a response she quickly turned around worried that Spike was gone. What she saw instead, was the dragon sleeping on her back. She smiled lightly, and nudged him awake.

“Spike, wake up, we’re here,” she whispered.

“Huh, wah?” Spike awoke, rubbing his eyes. “What you say, Twilight?” When he open his eyes, they widened in amazement. “Whoa! This is beautiful! Who’d expect that this was in the Everfree Forest?”

“Yes, Spike, it’s very surprising,” she giggled. “Come on now, we have to collect these up while they’re still in bloom.”

“Sure thing, Twilight,” he said as he opened her saddlebag. “So, uh, can you tell me why we’re getting these flowers?”

“I need them for an experiment, Spike,” she replied. “I’m testing to see if different aromas have different affects on chemicals. These are the most aromatic in the area, from what I’ve read, and that means that they are crucial in the tests.”

“Huh. You know, you could of just asked Zecora if she had any. I’m sure she would have.”

“…..shush you and help me collect these flowers. If you’re a good boy, I’ll buy you a gem from Rarity when we get back.”

“Yes Ma’am!” Spike replied enthusiastically, for more than one reason. He hopped down off her back and started to pick some flowers. After a couple of minutes Spike had collected more than enough and hopped back on top of her, putting the flowers in the saddlebags and closing them.

“Okay, now that that’s taken care of, let’s get going back to tow-“

“HEY! IS ANYBODY THERE! I NEED HELP!” somepony suddenly yelled from the trees behind Twilight. She jumped a foot in the air screaming and ran behind a tree. “PLEASE, SOMEONE HELP! I’M BADLY HURT!” the voice said. Twilight then heard violent coughing. She felt apprehensive, but was still worried for whoever it might be, as they did sound like they were in a considerable amount of pain. She cautiously stepped out from behind the tree, horn glowing and Spike clutching her mane, terrified.

“Wh-Who’s there? Sh-Show yourself!” she yelled back in the direction the voice had come from. After several moments a shape moved out from the shadows towards her. Twilight instantly stopped worrying as a pegasus pony stepped out from behind some trees. She held her ground but as the pony walked out from under the trees she saw that he was limping and hurt. Very badly. He had deep scratches and gashes all over his body, as well as many bruises and what appeared to be several puncture wounds in his side. As he limped over he started to collapse into the ground. Twilight, abandoning all fear and replacing it with concern, ran to his side. He was barely conscious.

“Are you alright?!” she asked. He looked up at her and, through his pain, she saw an expression that clearly said ‘Do I look alright?!’ He held that look for a moment before passing out.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no, no, no, no, no!” Twilight said frantically. “Hold on Spike, I need to teleport us to the hospital!” Not giving Spike a chance to prepare himself, her horn began to glow, and in a flash of light all three were gone.

***

…..

He came to. He was in a grey void, unable to move more than his eyes. Then, all of a sudden he heard a voice.

“Soulsilver.”

He looked around frantically with his eyes, searching for the source of the voice.

“Soulsilver.”

It sounded closer. He started to worry, but then realised that the voice sounded familiar, which for some reason filled him with more dread.

“Soulsilver.”

Completely terrified he tried to move, despite not having control of his body.

“Soulsilver. I’m going to kill you. It’s more than you deserve.”

Completely gripped by fright, he found himself losing consciousness, until he blacked out.

***

Two hours later Twilight was at the hospital in the hallway outside of the strange pony’s room. With her were their five friends Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, Spike having been taken back to the library. They waited for the nurse to come back from collecting the diagnosis papers. They were all worried, both for the strange stallion in the room next to them and for Twilight, who seemed to have been quite shaken from the experience. Fluttershy was next to her with her wing around the unicorn's body, comforting her.

Rainbow Dash was looking at the door to the room, wondering what was taking the nurse so long. She was anxious to find out what had happened to the pony to require so much attention. Applejack was occupying herself by pacing back and forth along the hallway thinking to herself.

Rarity was silently fretting over several things, Twilight’s mental well being, the safety of the stallion, and, of course, the state of Twilight’s coat. ‘Just look at her, she’s covered in blood. I suppose that she had tried to stop the bleeding and was too weak from the teleport to use magic. The poor girl, I think I’ll take her for a trip to the spa once all this is over with.’

Pinkie’s reaction, however, was shocking to all her friends. The usually happy-go-lucky Pinkie Pie was just sitting there on a seat, frowning, being silent and looking sad. It was at everyponies relief when Nurse Redheart came around the corner and walked towards them.

“Nurse, thank goodness you’re here,” said Fluttershy, a little louder than her usual timid voice. Twilight looked up at the nurse.

“How bad is it?” asked Twilight, with worry in her eyes.

“It’s not looking good, I’m afraid,” replied Redheart solemnly. “He appears to have gotten into a fight with a manticore. The scratches and gashes on his back and torso were from its claws, and the puncture wounds on his abdomen were from its tail. We had to remove quite a bit of venom from him. And it also seems that both his wings are broken.” She sighed, “I We don’t think he’s going to make it. The venom was in his body for too long, and he’s lost a lot of blood. I’m surprised that he was still alive when he found you.” Twilight looked down at the ground, trembling.

“Can-can we see him?” asked Pinkie quietly while stepping forward slowly.

“You can if you want, but he won’t be awake,” answered Redheart. “ I’ll just go and change his bandages, and then you can come in.” She opened the door and walked inside, closing it behind her. They all just sat there for a moment before hearing a loud gasp from behind the door. Looking up they saw Redheart burst out of it.

“Twilight!” gasped Redheart. “You’re going to want to look at this! The rest of you come as well!” She went back in the room and was quickly followed by the others. Twilight gasped at what she saw. The bloodied and beaten form that was the stallion an hour ago looked as though he had been in a fight with a house cat rather than a manticore, and the wounds that were still visible were slowly fading.

“Don’t ask me how it happened, but his wounds have almost completely healed!” Redheart said with joy. “His condition is stabilizing and the bleeding has stopped completely! And if the rest of him is an example, then his wings must be healing as well! He’s going to be fine!” Twilight sighed with relief, and, for the first time since teleporting out of meadow, she relaxed.

“Well, I don’t think he needs any more help, I’ll leave you all with him and report this to the doctor. Hopefully he isn’t busy,” Redheart said cheerfully as she turned to the open door. “I’ll see you all later.”

After she closed the door Twilight looked back at the mystery stallion. Not having time to examine his appearance beforehand, she looked him over. He was a pegasus, and his coat was completely white, but stained with red from his blood. Almost all of his bruises were gone except for a large one on his cheek. She remembered that his eyes were blue from when he gave her that look. Just thinking about it made her giggle under her breath and she allowed a small smile onto her lips. Then she looked at his mane. It was peculiar.

It was pitch black on the right side of his head, but pure white on the left side, the colours split seamlessly. It reminded her of Rainbow Dash’s mane, and figured that multicoloured manes and tails weren’t all that uncommon, herself having partially pink hair. Her eyes lowered to the sheets that were covering his flank and realised that she didn’t get a good look at his Cutie Mark.

“I wonder if he would mind if I check to see what it is.” She shook she head slightly, dismissing the idea. “No, that would be rude AND inappropriate. Besides, he’ll be better soon, I’ll be able to ask him about it then.” As soon as she finished the thought she noticed that his leg was twitching slightly.

As she leaned forward for a better look, he suddenly shot his eyes open and sat upright, gasping sharply, causing everypony to jump backwards in fright and Fluttershy to hide behind Rainbow Dash.

“Where am I?” he asked, looking around the room frantically. “How did I get here?”

“It’s okay, you’re in the hospital, you’re safe now,” Twilight said while slowly stepping forward. “As for how you got here, I teleported us here from the forest.”

"Teleported?” he asked quizzically while looking at Twilight before shaking his head. “I’m sorry who are you again?”

“Oh, I’m Twilight Sparkle.” She said having regained composure. “And these are my friends, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy.” She introduced her friends one by one, motioning at them with her hoof, each of them weakly waving their hooves at him.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” he said before turning back to Twilight. “Particularly you, Miss Sparkle. I fear that if I hadn’t come across you in the meadow I’d be in a lot of trouble.”

“Oh, it’s alright,” she replied, waving a hoof, but blushing lightly all the same. “I’m just glad that I was able to get you here in time. And…I’m sorry, but I don’t know your name.” She looked at the stallion smiling awkwardly.

“Oh right, my name! How rude of me, my name……I can’t remember it,” he said, looking down.

“What?! You can’t remember your own name? That’s horrible! If I couldn’t remember my name I would be going crazy, because that would mean that somepony has stolen my name and that would not be very nice of them, but I guess that if they stole my name that means that they don’t like their own name, which is super-duper sad, so I’d throw them a party to celebrate them getting a new name, and then I’d come up with an absolutely magnifical name for myself! And then celebrate THAT with another party!” exclaimed Pinkie, all in one breath.

The stallion just looked at her, puzzled.

“….Um, what?” he asked, trying to figure out exactly what the pink Earth-pony had said.

“Oh don’t worry about Pinkie, she’s always like that,” said Twilight. “Anyways, about you not being able to remember your name?”

“…yes, I can’t remember my name,” he said, slowly taking his eyes off Pinkie. “I can remember something, it might be my name, but I’m not sure. I might have dreamt it.”

“Well, sugarcube, in my opinion a name from a dream is a darn sight better than no name at all.“ stated Applejack.

“Erm…I suppose your right. I think it was Soulsilver?” he said, while trying to remember the dream he had earlier.

“Well, Soulsilver, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance!” said Rarity, stepping forward. “Now that you are feeling better it would be my pleasure to take you and dear Twilight to the spa to get you cleaned up and get you a massage! Goodness only knows how tense your back is.”

“Massage?” asked Soul, his ears perking up a little.

“Rarity, he just woke up, he shouldn’t be going to a spa!” scolded Twilight.

“Yeah, not before he tells us how he managed to survive in the forest!” Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaimed, hovering above his bed. “How long were you in there? How did you escape the manticore?”

“Well, I THINK I was in there for around three days, but it was hard to tell without sunlight. That forest was DARK,” he answered.

“W-What about the manticore?” asked Fluttershy quietly. Soul turned to look at the shy pegasus. “EEP!” she yelped crouching down further. “I-I mean, you didn’t HURT it, did you?’

“Is that what it was?,” replied Soul, while rubbing his face with his hoof. “I’d never seen anything quite like it. And no, I didn’t hurt it, I just punched a nerve cluster in its neck. You know, to paralyse it, and whatnot. And, now that I think about it, aren’t manticores supposed to be mythical?” Rainbow gave him a look like he was slow.

“Oh, no, they aren’t myths, but that doesn’t matter, I’m just glad you didn’t have to hurt it,” replied Fluttershy, a little brighter than before.

“Oh yeah, that reminds me,” started Soul, while turning back to Twilight. “Why aren’t I dead? Last I remember I was bleeding. A lot.”

“Er, well, we aren’t entirely sure,” explained Twilight quite nervously. “The doctors managed to get the venom out of your system, but they said that it was too late, and that your wounds had bled out too much. But when we came in your wounds had almost completely healed and your life signs had stabilized. The nurse couldn’t explain it, so she went to tell the doctor.”

“That is quite strange. Wonderful, as it means I’m not dying anytime soon, but strange,” said Soul, his brow furrowing in thought.

“So Souly-wouly, how did you end up in the forest? Did you crash there or something? Oh I know, maybe someone teleported you there by accident!” Pinkie said, while jumping all around the room, confusing Soul more and more as she continued to defy physics.

“Er…I don’t know,” he answered while watching her. “All I remember is waking up on the forest floor. I couldn’t remember how to do much. I just had my common sense and logical reasoning. I could talk and move, but when I tried walking I just fell onto my face. I didn’t even know that I had wings until I saw them, and it felt strange to move them, like I hadn’t used them in a long time,”

“Well then, if you can’t remember anything then you surely mustn't have anywhere to stay!” stated Rarity. “I’d be more than willing to let you stay at my boutique.” She moved closer to the bed, fluttering her eye-lashes.

“Really? Are you sure? You don’t even know me. I don’t even know me.”

“Oh I am quite sure. And since it’s in town you’ll be close to everything! Though I’d be happy providing you with anything you’d need,” she replied, her eyes sliding half way closed. “And besides, I’m sure Sweetie Belle would simply love to have someone around the house to keep her company while I’m working,” she continued, regaining her normal expression.

“Now just hang on a second! Who says he wants to stay with you?” complained Rainbow Dash, who was clearly fixated on learning as much as possible about the strange quick healing pegasus.

“Well, darling, it’s a matter of practicality!” retorted Rarity. “We simply can't allow him to stay at a hotel, not in his state, so he'd obviously stay with one of us, but Applejack’s farm is too far from town, Fluttershy has her animals to take care of, Pinkie Pie works for her room in Sugarcube Corner, Twilight doesn’t have enough room; what with all the studying she does, and as for your house,” she said, turning back to Rainbow. “Is in the sky! The poor dear couldn’t even walk without teaching himself how, what makes you think he’d be able to fly?”

“I could teach him! I’m an awesome coach!”

“In less than a day? I doubt even Celestia herself could manage that!”

Soul just watched the two argue for a little bit before turning to Twilight, and expression of confusion and pleading on his face. She giggled to herself lightly. “Alright girls, that’s enough,” she said, dispelling the argument. “I’m sure you all have questions for Soul, but that can wait for tomorrow, as can any plans for accommodation. For now, I think he just needs some rest.”

“Yes, rest definitely sounds good,” said Soul, thankful that Twilight had disarmed the situation, and was finding himself slowly becoming drowsy.

“In that case, we’ll get out of your mane,” said Twilight turning to the door, but suddenly stopping and turning back to him. “Oh, right I almost forgot. Can you show me what your Cutie Mark is? I’d like to get an accurate description of you for my letter to the Princess.” Soul just sat there looking completely clueless.

“I would show you my Cutie Mark, if I happened to know what that was,” he said confused. “What, is it, like a birth mark, or something?” His question was met by six appalled and horrified expressions. “What?” he asked, worried and even more confused.

“Soul…would you mind showing us your flank please?” asked Twilight.

“My wha?” he said, clearly not focusing on anything in his worry. Rarity lifted up the bed covers with her magic to reveal his lower body, and they all gasped. His flank was Cutie Mark free. “What?! What is it?! What’s wrong?!” Soul asked frantically, trying to figure out what everyone was worked up about.

“You don’t have your Cutie Mark!” Twilight pointed out.

“What the hell is a Cutie Mark?! I don’t understand any of this!”

“Uh..um..” stuttered Twilight, who had obviously never been in this situation before. “A Cutie Mark is a symbol that appears on the flank of everypony when they discover their special talent, and is brought about by the strongest and mysterious magic known to pony-kind,” she explained, while turning around to show him her flank. "See? My special talent is magic, so I have stars, which are usually associated with magic."

“Wait, so your saying that the mere knowledge of what my special talent is triggers a reaction deep in my subconscious that causes magical powers that, I didn’t even know existed a moment ago, to suddenly activate and make a mark appear, permanently, onto my flank?” he asked quite dramatically.

“Uh, yeah, that’s pretty much it.”

“Oh, well then, that’s nothing to worry about.”

“Huh?!” they all gasped, more confused than Soul had been. “What do you mean it’s ‘Nothing much to worry about’?” Twilight asked.

“Well, if Cutie Marks work the way I think they do, then that means that a Cutie Mark’s appearance is affected by a person’s psychological mind. And since I don’t remember what my special talent is, it makes perfect sense for my Cutie Mark to disappear. I’ll just have to wait until I remember what it is, and I’ll be right as rain.”

“Huh,” Twilight said, thinking. “I had never thought of it like that before.”

“Uh, ‘scuse me,” said Applejack, breaking Twilight from her train-of-thought. “but ah didn’t understand a word of that sciency mumbo-jumbo. Anypony care ta explain?”

“Duh, isn’t it obvious?” asked Pinkie, her usual chipper attitude having returned. “It MEANS that Soul-Sprinkles here lost his Cutie Mark because he forgot what his special talent was!” As she was talking she had pulled Soul’s head to her and hugged it.

“……Soul-Sprinkles?” Soul asked, his confusion taking over again.

“Don’t worry, she’ll grow on you,” Twilight reassured him. “But now we really need to go. You guys have to get back to work, and I need to write a letter to the Princess. And YOU need to get some rest,” she said to Soul while walking towards the door, using her magic to open it. “Don’t worry, we’ll be back tomorrow to discharge you. Pinkie, down!” At those words Pinkie let go of Soul’s head and bounced out of the room. After he had waved them all goodbye and the door closed, he practically passed out the second his head hit the pillow, his brain unable to process all the new information that had been giving to him in the past few minutes, and slipped into a dreamless sleep.

To be continued…

********

AUTHOR’S NOTES

Heya everyone, I hoped you enjoyed this fanfic as much as I did writing it. This was my first ever fanfic of anything, so I’m not sure how it’ll go, and I’d greatly appreciate any advice or criticisms that you may have regarding it.

(God, did you over-write or what? This was supposed to be 1500 words. It’s over 3700. No-one is that bad at math! Not even my dog!) Also, please make sure to leave a rating and a comment! Feedback REALLY helps!

A Strange Introduction: Part 2

A Strange Introduction: Part Two

Soul awoke some time after having passed out the previous day. The first thing that he noticed was that he had a massive headache that made him feel as if he had charged an oncoming train; all of the information he had gathered about his situation coming back at once. The second thing he noticed was that someone had removed all his bandages and could move freely. He decided that it was a good idea to have a shower to clear his head. He got up and steadily made his way to the bathroom through a side door in the hospital room and locked the door behind him. He quickly showered, more for relaxation than cleaning, and only got out after his headache had subsided. He dried himself off before deciding to go to the lobby and try to get them to contact Twilight. He set off towards the elevator, but shortly discovered that the hospital was smaller than he thought hospitals should be, at only two stories high. He shrugged it off; from what he could see out the windows Ponyville was a small town, which he saw bordered a familiar forest.

‘I still don’t know how I survived all that.’ he thought to himself as he walked down the stairs. ‘It’s probably something to do with that magic Twilight used. Speaking of which, I think I’d better do a little research about that when I get the chance. I think I heard one of them mention a library. I’ll have to visit it sometime,’ As he walked into the lobby he saw that Twilight was already at the counter talking with the receptionist, along with Rarity and a purple lizard, which Soul recognised as the one Twilight had been with when he first found her.

“Oh, looks like you have perfect timing, here he comes now!” said the receptionist to the trio, and they twirled around on the spot to meet him.

“Oh, hi Soul, I wasn’t expecting you to come down so early ,” Twilight said merrily. “We were just filling out the release papers and then we were going to come up to see you.”

“How are you feeling, darling?” Rarity asked. “I’m pleased to say that you look in a better state than we left you in.”

“Well, I had a headache when I woke up, but it’s gone now, and I feel one hundred percent healthy! Apart from the memory loss that is.”

“I was actually meaning to talk to you about that.” Twilight interjected. “I think I may have found a spell that could help you get your memories back.”

Soul perked right up. “Really? That’s amazing! I’ll have to come over as soon as possible to try i-“ “AHEM.”He was interrupted by a loud coughing that brought Soul’s attention back to the lizard on Twilight’s back. “Oh right. I keep forgetting my manners. Who might you be, little….,” he paused looking the reptile over for several seconds, before giving up. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what species you are either.”

“Soul, I’d like you to meet Spike. He’s a baby dragon and my number one assistant!” Twilight introduced, beaming, while Spike just looked Soul over, eyes narrowed, obviously still nervous about the pony he had seen covered in blood a day earlier.

Soul’s eyes, however, widened to twice their original size.“A baby WHAT now?” he asked, completely shocked, before turning to Spike. “OK, now no offense Spike, but from what I know, dragons don’t exist, apart from in fiction.”

“Well, obviously you’re wrong,” Spike rebutted flatly, more than a little irritated. “Besides, I thought you couldn’t remember anything!” he said pointing at him accusingly.

“Well, I can’t remember any personal information, or experiences, bar the last few days, but I find can remember general information. You know, like the sky is blue and stuff. Though I’m finding a lot of what I remember seems to be false. I’m going to have to do a little more research to see just how much of what I remember is correct.”

Twilight’s ears perked up at the mention of research and was about to say something when Rarity interrupted her.“Right, well, you can work on that later,” she said quickly. “For now, it’ll be our delight to show you around the town! Where shall we go first?” As if to answer, Soul’s stomach growled very loudly.

“Oh, pardon me. Though you can’t blame me, I didn’t exactly feel safe eating anything in the forest. Where’s the closest food outlet? I feel like I could eat an elephant’s weight of food right now.“ This was punctuated by another loud rumble, causing Twilight to giggle.

“Well, the closest place that sells food wouldn’t be open this early, but I suppose we could head to Sweet Apple Acres first and get you something to eat,” she said turning back towards the counter. “We just need to finish this paper work and then we’ll be off.”

***

Half an hour later and they arrived at a kind of farm house in the centre of a large apple orchard that had various other small buildings, and a large barn, surrounding it. Soul took a moment to look around before Rarity called in. “Hello! Applejack darling! We’re here to show Soulsilver around the farm!” After a moments silence the front door burst open and Applejack came flying out and grabbed Soul’s right forehoof with both of hers and started to violently shake it.

“Well howdy, partner! Ah’m sorry ah couldn’t give ya’ll a proper Apple family greeting yesterday, but that just means we’ll hafta greet ya twice as hard today!” Applejack said quickly while still shaking his hoof.

“H-hand…f-falling…o-off,” Soul managed to stutter through the vibrations Applejack was coursing throughout his body, before she pulled him into the house. Twilight just sighed and walked up to the house.

Soul stopped suddenly in front of a large red pony, and was still slightly dazed from the sudden movement. “This here’s mah big brother, Big Macintosh! He’s th’ strongest and hardest workin’ pony this side of Manehatten!” Applejack said proudly as she motioned towards the draft pony, who simply stood there and nodded. while smiling with a wheat sprig in his mouth. Soul noted that his name was appropriate; he towered a head above him. Soul didn’t have a chance to take much more than that before he was pulled away again and stopped in front of an elderly pony asleep in a rocking chair, thankfully a little more prepared than last time. “This here’s Granny Smith! She makes the best darn apple treats you can get yer hooves on!” Soul made sure to make note of the older mare’s apple pie Cutie Mark before being whisked away into what seemed to be the sitting room, which was empty. “Oh gosh darn it, where’s Applebloom gone to? I told ‘er to stay put so we could greet you properly!” Applejack asked looking around the room.

“Jus’ a sec, Applejack, Ah’m comin’!” answered a small voice from upstairs. “I was jus’ getting’ cleaned up!” A second later Soul heard footsteps coming down the stairs and a little filly rounded the corner. She had a yellow coat, a red mane with a large pink bow in it, and most notably, no Cutie Mark. “Howdy, mister!” She said brightly, before her eyes slid down to his flank. “Wow! It’s true! You don’t have your Cutie Mark! And is it true that you can’t remember nothin’?” she asked eagerly walking up to him.

“Well, I can remember a few things, but not much,” Soul answered, eyeing the curious filly. “I certainly can’t remember anybody being so hospitable to me! Well, maybe the hospital. But where are my manners? My name’s Soulsilver,” he said extending a hoof towards Applebloom, who shook it. “And I take it that you’re Applebloom, right?”

“Yep! Ah thought ah was the oldest pony to not have mah Cutie Mark! Ah can’t wait to introduce you to the rest of the Crusaders!” she said happily. “So what do you remember? Do ya know why ya woke up in th’ forest? Was it scary fightin’ a manticore all alone?” she continued to get closer with every question.

“Okay, now Applebloom, that’s enough badgerin’ the guest. Now ya’ll run along and get ready for school.” Applejack said, shooing the filly out the door. “Awww! But-“ “No buts. Now get!” As Applebloom left the room Twilight, Spike and Rarity walked in through the other door.

“Thanks for inviting us in, Applejack.” Spike said, the sarcasm practically dripping from his voice.

“Well, ‘scuse me for wanting ta introduce Soul ta everypony.” She replied defensively, while Spike just grumbled. “And now that the formalities are outta the way, do ya’ll mind me asking what brings ya’ll here?” Once again, Soul’s stomach seemed to answer for him, grumbling loudly. Applejack just chuckled lightly. “Now Ah don’t suppose it has anything to do with that, now does it?” she said smirking. “Follow me to th’ kitchen, ah’ll fix ya’ll up some grub.” She walked out the door she had shooed Applebloom out of earlier, who had apparently gone to find something else to do.

“Ugh, Applejack, must you really call it ‘grub’? It reminds me of those awful baked bads you made,” Rarity retched while following her.

“What are ya’ll complaining about? You didn’t even eat any!” Applejack snapped back.

“Baked bads?” Soul asked Twilight.

“Oh, it’s a long story. Let’s just say a lot of ponies got sick. Even Pinkie Pie, and nothing makes HER sick!”

“ I liked them,” Spike muttered to himself, crossing his arms. Soul and Twilight followed the others into the kitchen, and their nostrils were instantly filled with the smell of several types of apple dishes. In response Soul’s stomach rumbled louder than all the other times, with a force that made him feel as if there was a small earthquake inside of his belly. He looked at it irritated while taking a seat at the table.

“Quiet, you.” He muttered to his gut, which just made Applejack chuckle more.

“Sounds like you need somthin’ in there pronto,” she said smiling. She grabbed something from the bench and slid it across the table, it stopping in front of Soul. “Here, eat these. They’re leftovers from breakfast.”

In front of him was a very large helping of apple pancakes. He was about to dig in when he realized something. “Um, I’d like to, but I don’t have any money, and I wouldn’t want to take advantage of your hospitality,” he explained while looking at the ground sheepishly. “Aw shoot! You think I’d let ya’ll pay for a meal after what you’ve been through? Naw, anything you get from Sweet Apple Acres is on the house! And I’m not takin’ no fer an answer. Now, eat.” Applejack punctuated the last sentence by stomping her hoof down slightly. Not wanting to make her angry he exclaimed his thanks and grabbed the cutlery carefully with his wings. He fumbled with them looking for a good way to hold them, and once found he quickly started cutting off several large chunks and placing them in his mouth. He moaned in delight as his tastebuds were tickled with flavours he could faintly remember. He continued eating like this for a good half a minute before he realized that everyone in the room was giving him a strange look.

“What? What is it? Am I eating sloppily?” he quickly asked before examining himself for any food crumbs that may have been on him.

“Err, no, it’s nothing,” Twilight reassured. “It’s just the way you’re eating is kind of strange to us. We didn’t know that pegasai could use their wings like that.”

“Oh. Well, I had troubles with holding things in my hooves, so I learned to use my wings instead. Much easier than trying to balance on my rear hooves, and definitely better than carrying things in my mouth. It wasn’t fun carrying sticks in my mouth for fire. They do not taste good,” he explained before grabbing another mouthful of pancakes.

“Uh, okay, if that’s what you’re comfortable with, it’s fine by me,” she said, smiling awkwardly, before turning towards Applejack. “Anyways, we were planning on showing Soul around the town, and I was wondering if you’d like to join us.”

“Well, shoot, Twi’, ah’d love ta, but ah’ve got an awful lot of applebuckin’ to do ta make up fer missing out yesterday.”

“Oh no, was that because of me?” Soul asked after swallowing his mouthful. “I’d be glad to help out any way I can.”

“Well, Ah’d appreciate that, but ya’ll have got more important things to worry about, like actually being able to find your way aroun’ town. So ya’ll come back here when you’ve gotten yourself sorted out.”

“Well, I’d like to learn more about this ‘applebucking’, but I suppose it can wait.” Soul continued his breakfast as the others departed into the sitting room.

“Oh, isn’t he just a gentlecolt? Offering to repay you right away!” Rarity quietly gushed, bringing a scowl to Spikes face. “And you, Applejack! That was the most generous offering I’ve seen you make to anypony! Free produce for life?”

“Well, it’s the least ah could do. I don’t suppose he’s got a bit to his name. And not havin’ any memories or a Cutie Mark’ll make it hard to find a job.”

“That’s what I figured, but the princess told me to just try to find a way to bring his memories back, and to contact her if nothing works. So I’m sure we’ll have him fixed up in a couple of days.”

“Where do you think he comes from? His accent is quite splendid, but I can’t think of anywhere that doesn’t know about dragons.”

“Say what now?” Asked Applejack taken aback giving Rarity a confused. “Ev’ry foal and his mama knows about dragons. They live all over the world.”

“He thought that dragons were mythical,” explained Twilight. “You remember what he said about the manticore? Though those are native to Equestria, so he might not have heard about them. But anyways, where he’s from isn’t important right now, what we ought to be focusing on is how he lost his memory in the first place. I’ve come up with several theories, ranging from a variety of medical conditions to several magical memory loss spells.”

“Memory tampering?!” Rarity asked scandalized. “Who would want to do something like that to such a kind stallion?”

“What I want to know is why you’re all trusting him so much!” said Spike, who was getting angrier by the minute. “How do we even know if he’s telling the truth?! For all we know he’s just saying those things to get attention! Or he could just be a madcolt!”

“Spike!” Twilight gasped. “How can you say that? He was almost dead when he found us!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Spike said before getting off Twilight’s back and walking towards the front door. “If you need me I’ll be cleaning the library.”

“Spike!” Twilight called, and was about to run after him when Applejack held her hoof out in front of her.

“Now, hold on there, Twi’. I don’t know what’s got his scales in a twist, but it sounds like he needs to cool off. Ya’ll should just give him some space.”

Twilight sighed, defeated. “Okay, let’s get Soul. He should be finished his pancakes by now,” she said, turning back towards the kitchen door. When she opened the door she reviled Soul staring at her while nonchalantly holding an apple pie in his wings close to his open mouth. “Uh, Soul, you weren’t about to eat that whole apple pie, were you?”

“…nooo,” he quietly said, while looking away. Twilight just cocked an eyebrow at him.

“What else did you eat?” she asked suspiciously.

“Just the pancakes!” he said a little too quickly, causing Twilight to give him a half-lidded stare. “And some apples. And maybe a fritter or two. I stayed away from the muffins though,” he defended, giving an awkward smile while slowly putting the pie on the table. “And besides, I got them from that fridge over there with a note saying ‘Leftover produce; give away.’” Twilight was about to give him a lecture on asking for things before taking them, and possibly the dangers of eating so much food in one sitting, when Applejack interrupted her.

“It’s okay, Twi’. Really. Ah usually just give that stuff ta Pinkie Pie at the end o’ the week, anyways. Ah’m shure that she won’t mind sharing with Soul here,” she said before chuckling. “Ah recon they’ll be best friends, considerin’ how much she eats.”

“Yes yes, we can discuss eating habits later,” said Rarity impatiently drawing everyone’s gaze to her. “But for now we really must be going if we are to show Soulsilver around the town.

Twilight sighed before turning back to Soul. “Alright, you’re right. Come on, Soul let’s get going. We’ve still got a lot of place to show you.”

“Okay then, let’s head off then,” he said getting up before looking around. “Hey, where’d Spike go?”

“Um, he had some errands to do! At the library! So he had to run off.” Twilight explained hastily, giving him an overly large false grin. Soul cocked his eyebrow at her.

“Really? Well, they must have been important if he couldn’t say goodbye. Oh well, I guess we’ll catch up to him later. Let’s go,” he said before turning to Applejack. “And thank you for your hospitality, Miss Applejack. You’re apples are delicious.”

“Why thank ya kindly, Soul,” she replied before they walked back out the door. “Just remember to come back now, ya hear?” she called out after him. When they were gone she walked back into the kitchen to put the pie away only to find that it was gone. Chuckling to herself, she went to start her daily chores.

***

Several hours later Twilight and Rarity had show Soul around town and introduced him to several ponies. These included a mint green unicorn called Lyra whose Cutie Mark was coincidentally a lyre, and a cream coloured Earth pony called Bon-Bon who, also coincidentally, had three bon-bons on her flank.

The next pony Soul met was a strange blond maned grey pegasus mare whose eyes didn’t seem to want to co-operate. When he asked her what her name was she said “Derpy Hooves! I’m late for muffin pick-up!” before flying off, leaving Soul to give his companions a confused look.

They just giggled at his expression before Twilight explained. “Her name is Ditzy Doo. She calls herself…that name because apparently it was an old nickname she had gotten accustomed to. She may seem a little out of it, what with her wonky eye and speech impediment, but she’s actually quite intelligent. She is never late with the mail, though she does have trouble with heavy deliveries.” As she said the last sentence she rubbed her head and frowned.

“What about those muffins she mentioned? She seemed kind of enthusiastic about them,” he asked.

“Oh, she calls lots of things muffin. Considering how it’s almost midday she’s probably picking up her daughter from school,” Twilight explained.

“That’s a bit early for school to be over.”

“The classes are split into two lessons, a morning one finishing at midday and an afternoon one, finishing at three. Oh, that reminds me!” she exclaimed turning to Rarity. “Rarity, isn’t Sweetie Belle in the morning class?”

“Oh, that’s a wonderful idea, Twilight!” responded Rarity getting Twilight’s point. “We should head over to the school and pick her up and introduce Soul to her! How does that sound, Soul darling?” she said turning to him, eyes fluttering, causing Twilight to roll her eyes.

Soul just smiled. “That’s fine with me, I just wonder if she’ll be as overwhelmed as Applebloom was. Let’s head off,” he said as he nodded towards the road.

Twilight nodded in response. “Yeah, I’m sure her and her friends are excited to meet you,” she said smiling before trotting off down the road, Soul and Rarity in tow.

***

Soul, Twilight and Rarity found their way to the school gate to find three small fillies waiting for them. The first of them was a white unicorn filly with a light pink and purple mane, the second was a orange pegasus filly with a purple mane, and the third was Applebloom, who came running up to the three older ponies.

“Soul, Soul! I want you t’ meet mah friends!” she exclaimed before tugging him over to the other fillies. “Soul, this is Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo,” she said, gesturing to the unicorn and pegasus respectively. “They’re mah two best friends in the whole world and fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Soul raised his eyebrow at this, his interest peaked by the mention of Cutie Marks, but held his tongue.

“So, this is your sister Rarity?” he asked eyeing the small unicorn before turning to the fashionista, who simply nodded. He turned back to Sweetie Belle who shrank back a little at his gaze. “Well, her name certainly fits, she’s the sweetest thing I’ve seen since those apple pancakes,” he said smiling, bringing a blush to the unicorn filly’s cheeks. He silently chuckled at that before turning to Scootaloo, who seemed to be getting impatient with being ignored. “And let me guess, this one is Rainbow Dash’s sister,” he said chuckling. This brought a shocked expression to her face.

“Really? You think I’m cool enough to be Dash’s sister?” she asked, looking up at Soul with a large grin on her face.

“Oh definitely. You look like her, you sound like her. Heck, if you were the same age as Dash the only way I’d be able to tell the difference between the two of you is your coat and mane!”

As he said this Scootaloo’s grin got wider, before she turned to her friends. “I like this guy!”

“See, Scootaloo?” asked Applebloom. “Ah told you he was cool!”

“Hey! He doesn’t have his Cutie Mark!” exclaimed Sweetie Belle, who was pointing at Soul’s flank. “You weren’t lying!”

“Woah, that’s awesome!” said Scootaloo, wide eyed. “OH! I’ve got an idea! Crusaders, huddle!” The three young fillies huddled in a circle and started whispering to each other. After a moment they pulled apart yelling “CRUSADERS, BREAK!”

“What was that about?” asked Twilight.

“We can’t tell you, it’s a secret!” Said Sweetie in a sing-song voice.

Twilight just giggled. “Okay girls, I won’t pry. Besides, I’m not the best at keeping secrets.”

“I’ll say,” said a voice from behind them. This caused both Rarity and Twilight step back, startled. Soul, however, fell straight back flailing around yelling.

“My word, Soul, are you all right?” asked a concerned Rarity who rushed to his side to help him up.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just startled is all,” he said as he got to his hooves.

“Heh, I wouldn’t have expected somepony who spent more than three days stranded in the forest to be scared by Pinkie Pie,” said a familiar tomboyish voice from above. Soul looked up and saw Rainbow Dash resting on a low cloud overhead. Soul would have been taken aback by this had Twilight not already explained about how the weather works.

“Well, you spend a bunch of time lost in a place filled with dangerous monsters and we’ll see how paranoid and jumpy you are,” he replied sarcastically.

“Yeah, yeah, I guess that’s true,” she said admittedly flying down to meet them.

“I’m sorry I scared you Soul,” Pinkie said, face drooping into a sad expression, which Soul swore pulled his heartstrings to near breaking point, before Pinkie instantly brightened up again. “But I promise I’ll make it up to you! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” she said, going through the motions that were familiar to all but Soul.

“Uh, what was that you just did?” he asked, eyeing her inquisitively.

“That was a Pinkie Pie Promise, silly!” she replied while bouncing around, only adding to Soul’s perplexity. “It’s a super-duper-special kind of promise between friends, that you have to keep FOREVER!” She emphasised the last word by pulling her face close to his, making him jump back a little, before Pinkie continued bouncing around.

“Okay then. That’s good. Nice to know you keep your promises,” Soul said nervously watching her as if she was going to bite him, which actually wouldn’t surprise him at all.

Pinkie suddenly stopped bouncing and just hung in mid-air and gasped before falling to the ground again.. “OH! That reminds me! Dashie, we need to go!”

“What? Why do we need t-“ she started to ask before her eyes widened in realisation. “OH! Yeah! That’s right! Okay guys, we’ll see you later, me and Pinkie have stuff we gotta do,” Rainbow said before dashing off, Pinkie somehow keeping up with her while waving goodbye.

“Where do you think they’re going?” asked Scootaloo.

“I don’t know, probably going to plan a prank to pull.” Twilight said, causing Soul to cringe. He did not want to think of the kinds of pranks those two might be able to spring on him. “Anyways, let’s get going to Rarity’s.”

“I’m sure you’ll find the living conditions to be superb!” Rarity said beaming. “Only the best can be expected for my guests.” She turned towards the road that led to the town square that the Carousal Boutique bordered. As they walked Soul noticed that there were considerably less ponies out, despite the morning classes just being out.

These thoughts were pushed aside as the group of ponies came up to a two story building that Soul realised had been named for the exterior design, which made it look as if it were a large carousel ride. He probably would have thought that it was, were it not for the windows and door. Rarity opened the door and led them inside. What Soul saw was what he would have expected of a boutique; behind several half-draw curtains were pony shaped mannequins , makeup stations were lined up along the left wall, there was a stand with three mirrors surrounding it, designed to allow a pony to look at their sides as well as their fronts. On the far wall was a flight of stairs past an archway.

As Soul finished looking around Rarity stepped in front of him “Well? What do you think?” she asked, seeming a little afraid of his answer.

“It’s very nice, Rarity,” he said smiling. “A bit girly, but nice.”

“Oh, I just knew you’d love it!” she said, apprehension leaving her voice before turning towards the stairs. “Come, follow me, I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.” Soul followed her upstairs into a small hallway lined with a few doors and windows. They reached the door at the end of the hallway before Rarity turned around. “This is your room,” she said while opening the door with her magic. The room wasn’t large, but it wasn’t small either. There was a decent sized bed on the right side of the room, and a built in wardrobe on the left. Why he would need a wardrobe was beyond him, but he didn’t complain. Rarity did however. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make this room a little more fashionable, but I didn’t have enough time.”

Soul smiled at Rarity, shaking his head. “No, don’t worry Rarity it’s fine.”

Rarity just groaned. “If you say so,” she said dolefully walking back out the door. “But come on now. We need to head to town hall and get you citizenship.” Soul complied and followed her back downstairs.

“Where are you guys going?” asked Scootaloo, rushing to their side.

“Rarity, Twilight and I are going to town hall for a bit,” Soul answered. “You guys want to come?”

“Nah, we need to plan some crusades today. We’ll catch up with you guys later,” she said walking back to her friends.

“I’m not sure I trust you girls here on your own,” said Rarity with a worried look. “You get into enough trouble while I’m supervising.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine, Rarity,” Twilight assured her fellow unicorn. “How much trouble can they get into while planning?”

“Oh, well,” she paused, biting her lip. The three young fillies gave their most pleading faces, and Soul felt as if he were going into cardiac arrest due to adorableness. “Oh, okay. But if anything is broken or on fire when we return then it will mean no crusading for a week!”

“Okay!” the three fillies yelled simultaneously grinning before running up the stairs and into Sweetie Belle’s room. Rarity sighed shaking her head before turning to Soul and smiling.

“We really should be off,” she said as she walked towards the door. “Come along, darlings.” Twilight and Soul followed her out the door and across the bridge that led to the town square, in which a large building lied in the centre. The trio went inside to find the inside to be pitch black.

“What the hell,” Soul said as he walked forward, looked around, unable to see anything. “Where are all the lights?”

“Oh no,” Twilight said worried. “Soul I think this might be a-“

She was cut off by the lights suddenly being turned on, momentarily blinding them, and a large “SURPRISE!” being rung out from all directions. Soul spun around in shock, looking around the large, now illuminated room. He stopped panicking quickly as he realised he wasn’t being attacked. It was promptly replaced by confusion as he noticed that the number of ponies had somehow managed to surround him without his knowing. He shook that thought from his head as Pinkie bounced up to him.

“Hiya Soul! Did ya like your surprise? Did ya? Did ya did ya did ya? Because you sure looked surprised!”

“Uh Pinkie, what’s going on?” he asked perplexed.

“I’m throwing you a “Welcome to Ponyville” surprise party! I invited everypony in Ponyville, because they’re all so super-duper excited to meet you! Have you ever been to a party before? Oh wait, you can’t remember anything,” she said before gasping loudly. “That means that you don’t know how fun parties are! That’s so sad! OH! I know! I’ll just have to show you how fun they can be!” She grinned unnaturally wide and grabbed Soul’s hoof pulling him over to the side of the room. She quickly introduced him to the world of party games and dancing. Soul was glad that the attention had fallen off of him and everyone was partying of their own accord. Pinkie pulled him once again towards the snack table, which was covered with various types of sweets and baked goods. Pinkie grabbed a cupcake and poured what seemed to be sauce all over it.

“Pinkie, why are you drowning that cupcake in sauce?” he asked.

“Oh silly, this isn’t any kind of sauce, this is hot sauce!” she answered. “I love hot sauce covered cupcakes! Though no one else seems to like them.” She pouted, a little sad that she couldn’t share her favourite treat with anypony. Naturally seeing Pinkie sad would be enough for most ponies to do anything to make her feel better, and Soul was not exempt from this.

“I’ll try one,” he said smiling warmly. She looked up at him grinning madly.

“YAY!” she yelled before shoving the cupcake into Soul’s mouth. Soul almost started screaming out in panic until he managed to actually taste what was in his mouth. He chewed slowly savouring the taste before swallowing.

“That was delicious!” he exclaimed, his grin only around half the size of Pinkie’s, which is still pretty large. “How can anybody not like that?”

“That’s what I said! But they were all like ‘Pinkie I’m breathing fire!’ and “Oh Celestia, did I just eat lava?’ But it isn’t even that spicy. Now rainbows, THEY are spicy.”

Soul just nodded, not understanding at all. “Well, maybe you should make a spicy rainbow cupcake and I’ll see just how spicy it is,” he said smirking.

Pinkie giggled. “Okay, but if I couldn’t take it then you might explode! Twice!” she said before bouncing around. “I’m gonna go see if I can get some rainbow from Dashie. Help yourself to the snacks, but don’t eat them all!” she said in a voice that was somehow singsong and knowing at the same time. Soul chuckled before turning back to the snack table to find Twilight standing there.

“Why does everybody find it necessary to sneak up on me?” he asked sarcastically.

Twilight giggled. “Need some water?” she asked bringing a glass to them.

“Nah, I’m fine. Apparently I’m immune to hot sauce,” he said flatly, bring another giggle from the librarian.

“I should have figured that, with how much you can eat,” she said, cocking her eyebrow while putting down the glass. “So I’m guessing you aren’t scared of Pinkie anymore?”

“I wasn’t scared of her!” he said defensively. “I was just extremely frightened at the fact that she seems to be able to defy the laws of physics. But she’s nice, if not a little random, so I’ll try my best to ignore it.”

“That’s everyponies reaction to meeting Pinkie Pie,” she said laughing before looking at the rest of the party-goers.

“I suppose we won’t be able to go to the library today, will we?” said Soul, following her gaze.

“Ha, we’ll be lucky if we get any sleep tonight. Pinkie’s parties tend to be a little crazy.”

“Does she throw parties for every new pony in Ponyville?”

“Yep, even those who are only passing by. But she usually throws parties for no good reason. I’m not saying that they aren’t fun, I love her parties. It’s that she throws a lot of them. I don’t mind going to them, but sometimes it’s not a good time. Like last year, we were avoiding her because we were planning a surprise birthday party for her and she thought that we didn’t like her parties and didn’t want to be her friends anymore. Rainbow had to drag her to the party and we had to explain that it wasn’t a going-away party. It was scary, her hair was all straight and she was really angry. But we explained that it was a birthday party and she got all cheery again, and her hair inflated like a balloon.”

Soul just stood and listened with a blank expression. When Twilight finished talking he looked over at Pinkie bouncing around the room having fun. “I’d hate to see her sad or angry. I don’t think I can even imagine it.”

“Yeah, it was really weird, Though not as weird as her Pinkie Sense.” Soul just stared at her.

“I’m not even going to ask,” he said as he shook his head, enticing another giggle from Twilight. “But anyways, I suppose I’ll have to come to the library sometime tomorrow then. Figure out what I might be good at.”

“Yeah, that’d be nice.” Twilight said happily. “But for now, let’s go party.” She turned and walked towards the crowd with Soul in tow.

***

Soul and Rarity left after it got dark, not wanting to leave the girls alone by themselves at night. When they got there the house was quiet and dark. They went upstairs to check on the girls to find that they weren’t there. Rarity started panicking and frantically searched for the girls around the room in places they literally couldn’t be. Soul however took the logical path and checked the other rooms. He opened the door to his room to be greeted by a loud “SURPRISE!” The three young fillies were sitting on Soul’s bed wearing capes, a gift wrapped box in the middle of them. Rarity came rushing into the room with a look of worry on her face.

“Girls! I was looking all over for you!” Rarity exclaimed, causing Soul to roll his eyes and chuckle.

“We’re sorry Rarity, but we wanted to surprise Soul!” said Sweetie Belle with a smile. “We made him a present!” This stopped Rarity from ranting at look suspiciously at the gift as if it were going to explode.

“You did? What is it?”

“Well Soul has ta open it ta find out.” Applebloom said as she nudged the box forward. Soul opened the box to find what appeared to be a larger version of the capes that the girls were wearing.

“We’re making you an official member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Scootaloo said. Soul just stood gawking at them for a moment before pulling the three fillies in for a hug.

“Thanks you guys. I’ll take good care of it,” he said as they broke free of the hug.

“Come on girls, Soul needs his rest.” Rarity said as she levitated the cape into the wardrobe. After a round of goodnights and the door closed behind them Soul shut off the light and got into bed, which was surprisingly comfy. He looked out of the window at the night sky before drifting off to sleep.

***

Soul’s eyes shot open. He was in the void again. A quick test showed that he could move his head and neck, but nothing else, and still couldn’t speak.

“She never loved you.”

Soul’s head snapped to face forward in shock and confusion.

“She could never love you, you were always too focused in your work.”

Soul’s head whipped around in a futile effort to find the source of the voice.

“That’s why I killed her.”

Soul froze out of shock.

“She was holding you back, so I arranged for her to die.”

Soul felt his consciousness slipping again due to the overpowering emotions gripping him.

“It’s a good thing you can’t die, or it would have never worked. So, in a way, it was your fault.”

This pushed Soul over the edge, and he blacked out.

AUTHORS NOTES

Heya everybody, I apologise that this took so long, but between doing assignments and pretending to study for exams I didn’t have much time to focus on this. I am also sorry for the lack of exciting material in this chapter. Well, it might be exciting, but I can’t judge my own work.

A Strange Introduction: Part 3

Soul awoke in a cold sweat, panting heavily. A quick panicked glance told him that he was in Rarity's guest room. Somewhat calmed, he rolled out of bed moving towards the window. He drew the shades and a ray of light hit him in the eye, making him wince. Rubbing the pain from his eyes, he saw that the sun was just coming up over the horizon. He smiled at the sight before walking out into the hallway and, deciding to skip his morning shower until later, quietly made his way downstairs and into a large back room that held the kitchen, dining table and living area. It was a mess. The Crusaders had somehow managed to turn it inside out and back to front, with various items from both the kitchen and Rarity's shop strewn around the place, in their quest to make Soul's cape.

'Why the hell did they need a spatula?' He thought as he noticed said object sticking out of a pile of fabric. Shaking his head he went to the pantry in search of a most important item. After a few moments of rummaging, he found it. 'Ah, the single greatest invention known to all intelligent life; coffee!' He thought as he beamed at the coffee tin between his wings. He filled the kettle with water and looked over the room once again as he waited for it to boil.

'How is it even possible to make this much mess making a cape? Wait, I'm responsible for this mess! Kind of. I should clean it up for Rarity, it's the least I can do. I wonder if there are planets made completly out of bees. Wait what? Okay Soul, time to stop talking to yourself and get some caffeine into you before you start thinking about Pinkie Pie and how she seems to be able to defy physics, darken an entire room and brighten it again wihout electricity and can keep up with a pegasus known for being the fastest flier in Equestriohgodjustshutupbrainandletmedrink!' Soul shook himself out of his thoughts and found that the kettle had boiled and was he had begun pouring it's contents into a mug without his noticing.

"Crap I spaced out. That could have been dangerous," he muttered before taking a sip of the beverage. "Aaahh," he sighed blissfully. "That tastes awful." He said before taking another sip.

***

An hour later Rarity groggily awoke to the wonderful smell of eggs. Rubbing the exaustion from her eyes, she made her way downstairs and grudgingly slipped into the back room, preparing herself for the worst. Instead of the disaster area she was expecting, however, she found everything spick and span, with all the fabrics rolled up and stacked neatly in a corner and the kitchen utensils washed, dried and arranged on the kitchen bench. On the dining table were three plates, each holding what appeared to be several pieces of yellow toast, as well as glasses of orange juice to the side. Rarity was so stunned that she almost didn't hear the door creak open behind her.

"Oh, Rarity, there you are. I was wondering where you were," said Soul as Rarity turned around, mouth agape. "I went upstairs to wake you and Sweetie Belle up for breakfast. I must of just missed you." He stepped into the room and was soon followed by a still sleepy filly. Sweetie took a quick sniff of the air.

"Mmn! What's that smell?" She asked eyeing the table hungrily. Rarity just looked around the room, at the breakfast, and back to Soul.

"Soul, is that-" Rarity began to ask.

"French toast? Yep!" Interrupted Soul.

"And did you-"

"Clean up Ground Zero? Sure did."

"Did you do all this for me?" She asked, eyes wide.

"Of course I did. I don't like it when people give and don't receive in turn." Rarity had to bite her lip to keep herself from drifting into fantasy, while failing to decrease her heart rate.

"Well that is most kind of you, darling. There ought to be more ponies as thoughtful as you."

"It was nothing," he said, waving off the compliment with a hoof. "You'd do as much for me."

'I would be willing to do far more for you,' she thought, blushing lightly as her thoughts turned more perverse. "Indeed I would. Now, let's eat before it becomes cold." She turned around to find that Sweetie Belle had already started to dig in, not bothering with cutlery. Rarity shook her head and sighed before taking a seat next to Soul.

"Mmn! This is good! What is it?" Sweetie Belle asked as she lifted her head from her plate.

"It's toast dipped in an egg and milk mixture and then cooked in a pan, kind of like a pancake." Answered Soul, taking a bite out of his toast.

"Yes, it is a dish that originated in a country all the way on the other side of the planet. Soul, however did you learn how to make it? I didn't think I had any cookbooks lying around."

"I dunno," he said after swallowing a mouthful of juice. "I think I might have remembered it from...before." He struggled to find a more appropriate word before being broken from his train of thought.

"Well, in any case, I extend my compliments to the chef. This is simply superb!"

"Why thank you, milady." Soul said as he lowered his head in a bow, eliciting a giggle from Rarity. Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and went back to eating. When they were all finished Soul went to collect the dishes before Rarity levitated them out of reach.

"Ah ah ah! No you don't! I wouldn't dream of making you wash up after making such a delightful meal!" She said as she moved to the kitchen.

"No, it's okay. After all, I've got to do something to repay you for letting me stay here."

'I can think of a few things you could do for me.' She thought as she placed the dishes in the sink. "Thank you for the offer, but I'm afraid I have to refuse. I simply couldn't allow a guest of mine to do house work."

"Well is there anything else I could do?"

"OOH! I KNOW! You could cook for us!" Yelled Sweetie Belle as she jumped down from her chair.

"Why of course! That is a marvellous idea, Sweetie Belle! Why Soul, you could make us all kinds of delicacies! Not to mention that you'd look rather dashing in a chefs hat."

"Hmm..." Soul tapped his chin with his hoof as he mulled it over. "I suppose it'll be fun. I'll do it!"

"Oh wonderful!" Said Rarity as she clopped her hooves together in excitement. "It'll be like going to a gourmet restaurant every evening!"

"Well, I doubt I'll be that good." He said, bashfully rubbing his hoof behind his head.

"Oh, you'll do fine. There's no need to impress me." 'Not that I need much more impressing," she didn't add. "Anywho, what is on your agenda for today, darling?"

"Well I was going to meet Twilight at the library to do some research. You know, try to figure out what I'm good at, why I can't remember anything, and why I'm not dead. That sort of thing."

"Ah yes Twilight has always been a bit of a bookworm, so to speak. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but that mare can get so caught up in her studies."

"Can I go with him?" Sweetie excitedly asked from the living room couch."I could find what my special talent is too!"

"No, Sweetie Belle, it's a week day. You can crusade with him after school."

"Awww, please?" She implored while turning on the puppy dog eyes and pout combination that Applebloom had taught her. Rarity turned her head away, not answering. Sweetie had anticipated this and instead set her sights on Soul.

Soul, unlike Rarity who had trained herself for these situations, caught the full blast of adorable. "Aww, come on, Rarity. Don't be such a sourpuss. At least let me walk her to school. If only to get her to stop with the face before my brain shuts down from all the cute." Rarity looked at Soul, who seemed to have an expression of genuine pain on his face, and back to Sweetie, who wasn't relenting in her attack.

"Oh fine." She finally sighed. Sweetie started to cheer before being interrupted. "BUT! Only if you go and get yourself ready now. You can play in your room after you're done." Sweetie went out the door and running up the stairs in an instant, leaving a small dust cloud behind.

Soul sighed and lowered his head. 'I miss physics,' he thought to himself. He lifted his head to find Rarity approaching him with a sultry look in her eyes. She walked behind him and slid her fore-hooves around his neck. She withdrew after a moment and started rhythmically sliding her hooves around his withers. "Uh...Rarity? What're you doing?"

"I've noticed that you've been carrying a lot of tension in your muscles. It would be very unkind of me to let you walk around in pain after you've been such a gentlecolt."

"You don't have to do that, Rarity. It's fine." He said as he tried to get up, but Rarity just gently pushed him down onto his stomach and moved her muzzle up to his ear and whispered.

"I insist." She nibbled slightly on the tip of his ear while slowly kneading her hooves into his worn-out muscles, eliciting a small moan of pleasure from the stallion.

"Th-that feels really nice, Rarity. Coul-could you go lower, please?" She complied and lowered her hooves to his lower back, working out any kinks and knots along the way, all while lowering her mouth to his right cheek and placed a series of light kisses on it.

"It's funny. You thought I wouldn't notice how you were acting around me? Trying to get my attention with the little things that you do? Not that I mind giving you my attention." She gave his cheek a little lick, causing him to shudder

"W-well you're just so well refined. I didn't think that somepony as fabulous and beautiful as yourself would ever even consider wanting to be with some mysterious stallion from the forest that you've barely known for more than two days." She continued giving his cheek small licks, but continued down his muzzle, ending at his snout with a small peck. This caused him to open his eyes, and was immediately captured by those dazzling blue orbs, as clear as the gems on her flanks. He glanced down and noticed that their lips were barely an inch apart. "Rarity, I-"

"Hush." She whispered before closing the gap between them, planting her lips on his. They both moaned into the kiss as the warmth of both of them was shared between their lips and they

"Mmn...Rarity..." Soul murmured into her lips.

"Soul..."

Rarity.

"Soul.."

RARITY!

***

Rarity shook her head, tearing herself from her thoughts. "Huh? Wha?" She mumbled confusedly before she noticed Soul standing in front of her, wearing a look of concern and confusion on his face.

"You alright, Rarity?" He asked, tilting his head to the side. Rarity stumbled back, blushing fiercely.

"Yes yes, I'm quite fine, thank you." She turned away from him, trying to hide her reddening cheeks.

"Are you sure? You just kind of spaced out after Sweetie went upstairs."

"I did?" She asked facing him again, appalled at the mental image of her just standing there drooling like a fountain. "For how long?"

"A few minutes. You kept mumbling some stuff under your breath as well. Are you sure you're okay?" He asked once more while placing the side of his hoof on her forehead, causing her to blush further."You feel a little flushed."

"Well, I was...you see, um I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night, and sometimes I just drift right off into a daydream, hehe."

"Oh. Well in that case you'd better go get some rest then."

"Yes, yes. I'll um...I'll send Sweetie down and then you can go when you're ready." She said as she left the room.

"Alrighty then, Rarity. Have a good sleep." He called out to her.

When she was upstairs Rarity let go of the breath she was holding and felt her red cheek with her hoof. 'Goodness. I think I may have fallen for him.'

***

AUTHORS NOTES

Right this is a shorter chapter this time, because I realised that I won't be able to be very consistent, because I was gonna stop the chapters whenever Soul went to bed as you might have seen, but I've decided against that. Also, if you could rate and comment with your opinions it would be very appreciated. And once again, I am EXTREMELY super sorry for the SIX WEEK DELAY, but I've been busy/lazy, what with school and girl problems, but after I upload this I'll take a nap (because I spent all night writing this because I promised Remsaman that I'd finish it by morning) and then I'll write a couple more chapters. But I won't release them right away. ;P Another also: if there are any mistakes whatsoever, PLEASE tell me. I re-read the previous chapters and there were grammar mistakes everywhere. Not big ones, they were just small enough to slip under the radar. So read it once for enjoyment, and another for critique. One last also: the romance part right there isn't meant to be taken very seriously. I grabbed bits and pieces from cheesy romance fics that I read. (What? Rarity reads those, so I imagine that that is what she would fantasize)

Alright, until next time,

Soulsilver.

A Strange Introduction: Part 4

Soul waited patiently for Sweetie Belle to come downstairs with her school bags and occupied himself with his hooves.

'Hmmm....nope. They still look like marshmallows. Damn it, now I'm hungry again.' His thoughts were interrupted as something wrapped up in a towel came tumbling down the stairs. "You alright, Sweetie Belle?" Her head popped out of the towel as he approached.

"I'm okay, I just tripped." She untangled herself and her bags out from the towel.

"So you ready to go?" He asked, gesturing towards the door with his head.

"Uh huh!" Sweetie nodded vigorously and galloped out the front door. Soul chuckled and trotted after her, making sure to lock up after himself. He quickly caught up to Sweetie as she headed off in the direction of the school. As they walked they were greeted by the occasional pony before they rushed off towards their destinations. Soul found that small talk with the filly was difficult as she never seemed able to stay on topic. When the subject of Cutie Marks came up however she was off into her own little world, recounting the Crusader's various attempts to discover their special talents. It wasn't until she started describing less than safe situations involving the Everfree Forest did he realise that he had bitten oiff more than he could chew.

'I think it would be wise to focus on helping them get their Marks first, if only to make sure they don't do anything dangerous. Because going into a hell-hole of a forest filled with horrifying monsters with no one to protect you definetly isn't dangerous.' As Soul was listening to Sweetie he forgot to watch where he was going and walked right into a light pink mare, causing her to drop the papers she was carrying in her mouth. "Oh, excuse me, I wasn't watching where I was going." He apologised as he collected the scattered papers.

"Oh no, it was my fault, I shouldn't have been standing in the gate." She helped gather the papers before looking up at Soul and gasping. "Hey, you're the new colt everypony's talking about!"

"I am? Hmm. Survive a manticore attack without a scratch and all of a sudden I'm a celebrity." Soul deadpanned before shaking his head. "I'm sorry, who are you? I don't remember seeing you at the party yesterday."

"Oh, that was rude of me. I'm Cherilee, the local school teacher. As for the party, I'm afraid I was busy working last night. Lots of tests to grade, you know?"

"Not really, but I understand. So, you're Sweetie's teacher, huh? What's the lesson plan for today?" He asked as he gave the papers back.

"Well since they just had a test, I suppose I'll just let them chat for today, give them a break, but tommorow I'll be teaching them about how the princesses raise and lower the moon and sun." Soul just stared at her blankly.

"What."

"Oh, that's right, you lost your memory! Looks like you've got a lot to catch up on. I'll take Sweetie Belle off your hooves, class is about to start. We can talk more later. Say goodbye Sweetie." Sweetie ran up to Soul and hugged his leg.

"Bye Soul! See you after school!" Sweetie follwed Cherilee into the school yard. Soul's expression remained blank for a few moments before his head snapped up.

"When did we get to the school?"

***

Twilight was rushing around the library, frantically trying to tidy up all the books that were scattered around.

"Twilight,could you calm down? I don't think he's going to care that the place is a little messy." Spike was looking down at the lavender unicorn with an indignant look on his face.

"I can't calm down! I've got to make a good impression! Would you want somepony who was unorganised to be messing around with your memories?" Spike's expression remained unchanged. "I don't want to give him a bad impression of me."

"Twilight, you saved his life, I'm pretty sure you've made the best impression possible." The lavender pony just sighed.

"I know, Spike. You're right, but I can't mess this up! There hasn't been a pony his age without a Cutie Mark in centuries and I don't want to scare him off. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!"

"Uh...maybe you should worry less about your research and figure out how to help him."

"I AM helping him! But I can't just stand by and let this phenomenon go unrecorded! Now come down here and help me clean u-" She was interrupted as knocking came from the door.

"If you need me I'll be in the bedroom," Spike said as he turned around.

"Wait, Spike!" She called, too late as he slammed the door behind him. She sigh in frustration before resigning to her fate and went to the door. She put on a smile before she opened it, revealing the white pegasus behind it. "Hello Soul, how are you?"

The stallion smiled as he responded. "Still being confused by everything, but otherwise good. Yourself?"

"I'm great!" She replied a little faster than she meant to. "I mean, I hope you're excited for today." She stood aside allowing Soul to come inside.

"Yeah, it should be fun." He looked around the library, taking note of the books all over the floor. "Something happen here?" He asked, raising his eyebrow at Twilight, who looked down bashfully.

"I....sort of made a mess looking for an explanation for your condition." She flinched away from him, as if his reaction would bite her.

"Wow, really? All this research for someone you don't even know?" Twilight opened her eyes in shock, not having expected more than an insult.

"Uh....yeah. I mean, yes. Yes I did!"

"Well, thanks then. Now, should we get started?" He asked as he gestured towards the books.

"Okay!" She beamed as she led him to a table where a several pages of notes lay, her mood having improved dramatically. "Okay, from what I can tell, you have two problems. One; you've lost your memory. Two; you don't have a Cutie Mark. I will explain a little about the latter first, it being the more complicated. Now, as you know, a Cutie Mark is an image that appears on the flanks of ponies when they discover what their special talent is. Somepony not having a Cutie Mark isn't entirely impossible, but it's not exactly common either. There are several reasons that you might not have it, such as never finding your talent, but that seems unlikely. Another might be that something er...damaged them and they had to be removed. That is also unlikely nowadays with medical magic coming as far as it has in the past century. I couldn't figure out why you might not have your Cutie Mark, but then I remembered what you told me when you....woke up at the hospital.

"It got me thinking that maybe memory loss could affect somepony's Cutie Mark, so I began researching that, which leads me to your other problem. Unfortunately all of the records that I had where ponies forgot their talents their Cutie Mark remained, and the memory loss went away after they tried their hoof at their talent, or somepony they knew explained things to them. So it led me to the conclusion that a very powerful magical force must have stripped you of your Cutie Mark, which in turn led me to a possible answer for the reason you can't remember anything. I believe that somepony or something may have altered your memory and gotten rid of your Cutie Mark to make it more difficult for you to remember." She looked up from her notes at Soul, who appeared to be mulling it over, staring into space as he thought.

"Well," He said after a moments silence. "That sucks."

Twilight laughed lightly before clearing her throat. "Yes it does, particularly because there are very few beings in this world that would have enough magic to do that, and practically zero with the motive."

"Practically zero? What do you mean by that?" He look at her quizzically.

"Well, there was this incredibly powerful creature a long time ago called Discord, a draconequus. His magic was even stronger than that of the princesses. He used these powers to keep the land in a constant state of chaos, creating disharmony amongst ponies everywhere for his own amusement. It wasn't until the Princesses discovered the Elements of Harmony and used them to turn Discord into stone."

"Oh. Well if he's stuck in stone I doubt that there's much he could have done." He stated while shrugging his wings.

"I wasn't finished!" She snapped. "Now as I was saying, Discord was turned into stone by the Elements. Some time after that, Princess Luna became jealous of the attention that ponies gave to Celestia's day, and that jealousy transformed her into Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon refused to lower the moon to make way for the day, and declared that the night would reign eternal. Celestia was forced to use the Elements against her sister, trapping her in the moon for a thousand years. This year was the year that she was meant to return, but by that time everypony had forgotten about Nightmare Moon, believing it to be nothing more than an old mare's tail.

"I was the only one who saw the signs of her return and when she did I sought out the Elements of Harmony, along with my friends. We used the Elements against Nightmare Moon once again. But this time, instead of banishing her, they cured her of the jealousy in her heart, turning her back into Princess Luna. The reason for this, according to Celestia, is that in order for the Elements to work properly the bearers had to have friendship in their hearts. Since Celestia was using them by herself they did not work as she wanted them too. When that happened, the Princesses connection to the Elements was lost, until we came along and became the bearers.

"Unfortunately, when the connection with the Elements was lost, the spell containing Discord started to deteriorate slowly over time. A few months ago, he escaped. Me and my friends were tasked into stopping him, but he had stolen the Elements. Discord was a trickster, and hardly ever made sense. He made us go through a maze to get the Elements back, but along the way he somehow corrupted them into acting the opposite of themselves. Pinkie became angry, Applejack turned into a liar, Rarity became greedy, Fluttershy turned into a bully and Rainbow became disloyal. During the maze he took away our wings and magic as one of his "rules", but before we could reach the centre he tricked Rainbow into abandoning us and gave her her wings back and said that we lost the game. It turned out he didn't even have the Elements in the maze, and so we went back to Ponyville and found the Elements. Discord taunted us into using the Elements on him, but they didn't work. I don't know if it was because he had corrupted the others or because I used Spike as Rainbow Dash's replacement, but it doesn't matter. It was probably both.

"I lost hope and was about to leave Ponyville for good when I found that Celestia was sending me all the Friendship Reports I had sent her since I came here, and they motivated me to keep going. I found all of my friends and used a memory spell on them to get them to remember their friendships. Once we were all together again we faced Discord and trapped him back into stone. He didn't even really put up a fight. I guess he figured that his corruption was still in effect. But anyways, while he was here he made everything chaotic, doing things that are impossible even for the Princess. That's why I think that while he was here he erased your memory and Cutie Mark. Any questions?" She looked up from her notes at Soul who was sitting there with a confused look on his face.

"Just one." He said as he stood up. "Is there smoke coming from my ears?"

Twilight gave him a puzzled look. "Um...no?"

"Oh. Well I could have sworn that there was since my brain feels like it's on fire. I did not understand most of what you said."

"Huh? What didn't you understand?"

"Pretty much everything. First off, you said that the Princesses raise and lower the sun and the moon, which I suppose they MIGHT if their magic is as strong as you say. And I SUPPOSE that friendship might have certain benefits to someone's magic, what with emotions and the brain being as strange as they are. But the thing I don't understand is if Discord is as powerful as he is then why didn't he just destroy the Elements?"

"Well, Discord was the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, even his body was made up of several different animals, but the Elements were around long before draconeqi existed and were made with MUCH more powerful magic. The magic of friendship."

Soul just stared at her for a bit before speaking again. "That is incredibly cheesy." He smirked, earning himself a jab in the side from Twilight's horn.

"Oh shut up. Anyways, I thought that I might be able to use the memory spell that I used on my friends. Are you ready?"

"Erm.." Soul mumbled, still a little apprehensive about magic. "Er...sure. Just be careful. I don't want you to mess something up and give me the brain of a guppy."

Twilight giggled nervously before getting into position in front of him. "Okay, I'm going to start now. Try to be as still as possible." She started to concentrate, focusing her magic in her horn, preparing the spell as her horn started to glow, causing Soul to cringe. Suddenly a beam of light burst from Twilight's horn, hitting Soul in the centre of his forehead. Then, just as suddenly, the beam was redirected back at Twilight, blasting her across the room and into a bookcase, causing her to be buried in a pile of books.

"Twilight!" He ran over to the pile and started digging. He eventually found her hoof and pulled her out. "Are you all right?" She was not alright. She was covered in bruises and was giving Soul an annoyed glare.

"I'm fine, just a bit dizzy. What did you do? I couldn't even feel you with my magic."

"I didn't do anything, your magic just sort of...reflected off me." She tried to stand up, staggering. Soul went to her side and let her lean her weight on him.

"Well, whatever it was, I've never read about anything being able to stop magic like that."

"Do you think it has something to do with Discord?"

"I-I don't know. I think I need to rest a bit, I'm feeling a little woozy. Could you take me to the couch please?"

"Yeah, sure." He walked her slowly past the books and lifted her onto the couch,causing her to grunt in pain. "Sorry."

She rested her head on a pillow as her eyes started to close. "It-it's okay. I think.."She yawned."I think I'll just take a quick nap." No sooner than she had said that she fell into a deep slumber. Soul took a look around the still messy room.

"I think I'll just clean up the library to kill some time."

"I'd like a daffodil sandwich, please Spike." Twilight mumbled in her sleep.

".......that sounds gross." Soul said before shaking his head and moving towards the pile of books. One caught his eye and he scooped it up in his wing. The title read "Atoms and You: The Collaborative Guide to the World Around You." and was at least a thousand pages thick. "Hell, why not. A bit of light reading never hurt anyone." He opened the cover and turned to the first chapter.

***

I cannot apologise enough for the long wait of this painfully short chapter. This whole month was filled with school stuff that I had to do, and then I graduated and got a few days in for writing, but then I got Inheritance. Read it in less than a day. It was awesome. And THEN I got Skyrim. Worst move for an author to ever make EVER. So yeah, not much else to say apart from FUS RO DAH TO YOU, WRITERS BLOCK!

See you guys later. Also, MAKE SURE TO LEAVE A COMMENT AND RATING! All I want is some feedback. And a massively swelled ego. Now to go kill dragons by luring them into a bunch of giants. I am such a pussy.

A Strange Introduction: Part 6

Soul slept for what seemed like hours to him. Resting peacefully, not a care in the world. Unfortunately, this did not last. He got the feeling that something was staring at him, and awoke with a start. He was back in the void.

"Damn it." He exclaimed, before recoiling in shock. He could actually talk. And move. And fall onto his face on the 'ground'. "Ow." Soul grunted as he pushed himself up. "URG, what, now you're just letting me walk and talk? Well good, 'cause I have more than a few questions for you. First off, where are you? Or are you so ugly that you're afraid my eyes'll explode as soon as I look at yMMMMNNN!" He was silenced as he felt something cover his mouth. He grabbed at his muzzle, trying to remove the obstruction, before realizing that his mouth had disappeared.

'Great,' he thought. 'It's gone all Matrix on me.' He blinked. 'Wait, what's a "Matrix"?' His train of thought was interrupted as the voice started talking.

"It's amazing. Even with amnesia you still manage to annoy me." Soul looked around for the voice. "Yes, look around for the invisible sound waves. In the mean time I'm going to give you your mouth back, and you are going to listen." Soul felt his mouth open and he gasped for air. "I am going to answer your questions, but only if I want to. I don't want to make this too easy for you. And try not to speak more than you have to. Got it?"

Soul nodded. "Alright. First question. Who, or what, are you?"

The voice chuckled. "A good first question. Nice to see you still prioritize others before yourself. Unfortunately, that is one that you will have to figure out on your own. Or I'll tell you. Just depends on how quickly you can figure it out."

Soul thought for a moment before speaking again. "Alright then, where am I?"

"Isn't it obvious? Wait, I forget who I'm talking to. Just look around. Tell me what you see."

Soul did as instructed, seeing nothing but blankness. "It's nothing but an empty void."

"Exactly. What can you imagine can be so terribly empty as thi-"

"We're in my brain, aren't we?" Soul dead panned.

The voice chuckled again. "Quick on the uptake, aren't you? Yes, we are in your brain. And, though I WAS going to insult you, it's actually quite sad. It's usually bursting with random nonsense in here. Enough to keep me amused, at least. But what with your amnesia it's all surrounded by an impossibly thick fog, keeping it just out of reach so you can't remember what they are but still allowing you to access them."

"So THAT'S why I keep saying things and never have a clue what they mean."

"Exactly. Heh, despite all the annoyances you cause me, you are always amusing, one way or the other. Any other questions?"

"Oh, yes actually. You probably won't tell me how I lost my memory, so could you tell me what my Cutie Mark is supposed to be?"

"Well I WOULD, if I knew what that was. I don't remember anything about a Cutie Whatsit. Maybe whatever affected your memory is tampering with mine, but I can't seem to recollect anything. But I suppose if you want to know what you're best at, well, you've always had a bit of a thing for scien-"

"SCIENCE! Of course, why didn't I know that? I love science! But what would a scientific Cutie Mark look like?"

The voice sighed in annoyance. Soul could almost see it rubbing it's temple. "I don't know, but you've started to annoy me again so if that's all..."

"Wait! I do actually have one more question! An important one!"

"Alright, fine. What is it?"

"The last two times I fell asleep I had a nightmare that I was here, but I could hardly more. And this voice, a genderless voice, told me that it killed someone, and said something about me not dying and some other confusing things. Can you tell me what that means?"

The voice was quite for a moment, before answering. "Oh. Dear. That, is not good at all."

Soul started to say something before he felt himself fall out of consciousness.

***

Twilight had cleared the pile of books away, and had placed the sleeping stallion on the same couch which she had been on earlier, and was now poking him with her hoof in an attempt to wake him up. "Soul." She whispered. "Get up. Spike wants to apologize." Soul remained asleep, and Twilight was starting to get impatient when she heard Spike's voice call out from the kitchen.

"Hey Twi', d'you think Soul'd like banana pancakes?" No sooner than he had finished his question Soul sat up straight quickly, scaring Twilight out of her coat in the process.

"Somebody mentioned banana pancakes." He said as he looked around fanatically.

"I'll take that as a yes, then!" Spike said as he chuckled. Twilight, no longer startled, approached Soul.

"Hey there. Are you feeling any better? Spike hit you pretty hard."

Soul managed to snap himself out of his food-rabid state and answered her with a small grin. "Yeah I'm fine. Just concerned for Spike. I mean, how much manual labor must you put him through for him to get an arm that strong?"

"Too much!" Spike called out again, promting laughs from the two ponies. Soul looked at Twilight and noticed that her bruises had gone.

"Hey, where are your bruises?"

Twilight looked herself over before grinning sheepishly. "I may have used the last of the healing tonic that I had gotten from Zecora on myself. Sorry I didn't have enough for you too."

Soul waved her away dismissivly. "Nah, I'm fine, you saw how fast I healed from the manticore. Besides, I love having hallucination enducing concussions involving an omnipresent voice talking to me inside my head." Twilight wasn't sure whether or not to laugh at this. But before she could find out more Spike walked in carrying three plates stacked with delicious looking pancakes. They ate in silence, Soul finishing before the others.

"Wow," Spike said. "You sure can pack it away."

Soul grinned. "It's an art, I know." He said pompously, getting a chuckle from the others.

"Now, you said something about hallucinations?" Twilight asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Well," he started, as Twilight leaned forward, pancakes forgotten. "It was more of a dream, only more livid than that. Remember when I told you that I got my name from a dream?" She nodded. "Well that was similar to this. It started out with me suspended in a void. In my previous dream I could barely move, let alone speak, as a genderless voice talked to me. But this time was different. I could move around and talk, but then a different voice, definitely male, started to talk to me. He let me ask questions, but only answered if he thought it wouldn't make me remember too much. Seemed to be getting a kick out of my struggles. He did tell me what he thought my special talent was, though he seemed to have no recollection of what Cutie Marks were. But the strangest thing is that when I mentioned the other voice, he seemed to be scared. And that is when Spike mentioned pancakes. Way to go, Spike. You and your delicious pancakes may have doomed us all." Spike just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Twilight slumped down on her chair. "Well. That's certainly a lot to take in. And he didn't say who he was? Or where you were?"

Soul chuckled. "He said we were in my mind. At first I thought he was insulting me as usual, but he said that my mind had become a blank void due to the amnesia, only able to access a little information. He didn't tell me who he was, though. Said it would be more fun if I could figure it out."

Twilight sat in thought before she realised something. "Oh! What did he say your special talent was?"

Soul grinned. "Well, he wasn't very specific, but it's quite clear that I was some kind of scientist."

Twilight perked up at this. "A scientist? I haven't met many scientists outside of my college professors. Maybe if you come over and help me with some experiments you could find what you're best at!" She practically leaped for joy.

Soul smirked. "You're a little too excited about this. Not that I'm complaining. Science is fun."

Twilight chuckled nervously. "Well it's not often that I meet a pony who actually likes science, let alone somepony who wants to help me with my experiments."

"Yeah, and," Spike spoke up, chuckling. "With you around she won't have to experiment all her spells and stuff on me."

"Sooo, I'm a test subject?" He asked Twilight, who responded with a sheepish grin. Soul brightened. "Good idea! We could test how well I can heal different wounds. This is going to be great!"

Twilight smiled warmly. "Well, when did you want to get started then?"

Soul stopped and thought. "Hmm, well I told the Crusaders I'd pick them up from school and help them find their Cutie Marks, so why not now?"

Twilight clopped her hooves together. "Great! Let's go down to the basement, all my equipment is there." She stopped half way to the door and turned to Spike. "You want to join us Spike, or would you like some time off?"

Spike chuckled. "You know I love helping you, Twilight, but I need a break, so I'll be at Sugarcube Corner if you need me." They bode him farewell before heading down into the library's basement.

***

Alrighty, that's another chapter down. It's a little shorter than the others, but at least it didn't take three months like the last one. As always, rate, comment, and for some reason my S key just randomly stopped working for the beginning of this sentence. And for god's sake, please tell me the things you like and dislike about it! It helps me make it better. Till next time, Soulsilver.

A Strange Introduction: Part 7

A Strange Introduction

Rarity sighed. It was a slow day, with few customers and no orders to fill. Usually this would be a welcome moment of relaxation for the unicorn, but her thoughts plagued her, filling her with anxiety, worry and longing for her stallion house guest. She looked up at the clock. It was half past 2. She thought for a moment. "Hmm...well Soul will be picking up the girls from school soon...I don't think he'd mind if I accompanied him. Besides, he could use a little help making sure they don't get into trouble." She stood up and walked out the door, flipping the "Open" sign to "Closed" on the way.

***

Rarity arrived at the library five minutes later, subconsciously trotting faster than normal. She opened the front doorand poked her head in, calling out. "Twilight~! I'm here to accompany your guest to the school!" When she looked around, however, she found the main room of the library to be empty. She walked inside and searched all of the main floor. She was starting to get worried before a thought occurred to her. "Oh, they're probably doing some experiments in the basement." She scolded herself before going to the basement door. She went to turn the doorknob, but stopped as she heard voices.

"Soul, you're brilliant! I've never even thought of doing this!"

"Heh, it was nothing."

Rarity smiled behind the door. 'So modest,' she thought.

"I'm serious, you were amazing! I'm surprised you don't have your Cutie Mark now!"

"Well, it's not that impressive You did most of the work, I just told you what to do."

"You're kidding, right? Just look at it! Its huge! I'm just glad Spike isn't here, he'd be really angry if he found out."

Rarity's eyes widened. "No," she whispered.

"Well, I'd be glad to help you do it again anytime. Though you're so smart you probably don't even need me to help."

"Well, I don't know about that. Besides, I'd prefer it if you came around every once in a while. It gets lonely here sometimes, and like-minded company is always fun."

"Well sure. I enjoyed it too, so I'll make sure to come around again to do this again. Maybe we could even do other things. I have a lot of ideas we could try."

"That'd be great."

Rarity didn't hear anymore; she ran out of the library with tears in her eyes and a pain in her chest.

***

Soul's ears pricked up. "Did you hear a for close just now?" He asked Twilight, who shook her head. "Hmm. Oh well."

"What should we do with this gem?" She gestured towards the massive gem on a table by the wall. "Spike will be really mad that we used his stash for our experiments."

"Well, we increases it to seven times it's original size. Just break it into smaller pieces so he can eat them."

"Yeah I suppose. But really Soul, this is amazing. This could end the gem shortage in Draconia! If they start to run low on them again they can just get some Unicorns to grow them again."

"I know. I'm just glad I managed to fix it so it doesn't put strain on the atoms. It would be very bad if they used the spell too many times and accidentally split the atoms and made a black hole." Twilight just started blankly at him as he looked up at the clock. "I should probably get going. I'm going to help the Crusaders figure out what their special talents are." Twilight giggled at this, confusing Soul. "What?" He asked, agitated.

"We all know what their talents are." She said smiling.

Soul cocked his head. "What." It wasn't a question this time.

She nodded her head. "Uh huh. In fact, I think the only ponies who don't know what their talents are are themselves."

"Then why doesn't someone just tell them?"

"Discovering your special talent is an important part in every ponies lives, and should only come to them when the time is right."

"Oh." Soul blinked."Wait, what about me, then? You're helping me find my special talent!" He said accusingly.

"Well, you're different. You had your Cutie Mark, but lost it and your memory."

Soul shook his head and tutted. "Hypocrisy." Twilight just laughed.

"Come on, Neighstein. Go play with the Crusaders. Just make sure they don't do anything too destructive or destructive, okay?"

"Sure thing. And I'll make sure not to tell them their special talents if I happen to find out what they are." With that he trotted back up the staircase as Twilight materialised a sledgehammer and turned to face the massive gem.

***

Soul arrived at the school house just as the bell rung for class to end for the day. "Maybe uncanny timing is my special talent," he muttered to himself. As soon as he walked in the gate he got tackled to the ground by something small and fuzzy.

"Soul! You're here! See, you guys, I told you he'd be here!" Soul looked up from the ground and saw that the ball of fuzz that had knocked him to the ground was Sweetie Belle, and Applebloom and Scootaloo weren't far behind her and joined in with the dog pile. The rest of the class flowed out of the classroom to see what was happening. Soul looked at Cheerilee and smirked.

"Hello again, Cheerilee. I'd give you a proper greeting, but I seem to have been commandeered by adorable pirates." The teacher smiled before clearing her throat.

"Girls, could you let Soul stand up please?" The Crusaders did as they were told and moved off of Soul who stood up. "Class, I'd like you to meet Soulsilver. He recently lost his memory and will be staying in Ponyville for a while." Soul frowned.

"What do you mean? This place is great! Why would I want to leave?" Cheerilee chuckled at this before turning back to the class.

"You're dismissed, children. And remember, tomorrow is a student free day!" Most of the class all filed out of the gate, discussing what they were going to do with their day off, leaving only Soul, Cheerilee and the Cursaders in front of the school house as two young fillies walked up to Soul and stuck their noses up at him.

"This is the stallion everypony's been talking about?" said the one with glasses and a spoon Cutie Mark. "Not very impressive."

"Looks like they weren't lying about him being a Blank Flank." Said the one with a Cutie Mark of a diamond encrusted tiara, and was wearing a matching actual tiara on her head. "He's a total loser. Come on, Silver Spoon, let's get out of here. For all we know he's got some Blank Flank disease." She walked out the gate.

"You said it, Diamond Tiara." Silver Spoon followed her friend. Soul stood there for a moment before whistling.

"Those two were about as sweet as lemons." He said, bringing a laugh out of the others. "So, what did you girls want to do?"

Scootaloo perked up. "I was thinking of all the cool stunts that Rainbow Dash does! So I want to see if being a stunt pony is my special talent!"

Soul stared at her. "That...actually sounds safer than most of the things I've heard about you girls. Well, as long as no explosives are involved and you have the proper safety equipment, that is."

The orange pegasus started jumping around excitedly. "ALRIGHT! LET'S GO!" All three grabbed his forelegs and started dragging him out the gate. Soul looked back at the bemused teacher.

"I suppose I'll talk to you later, then, Cheerilee." The magenta mare waved goodbye and went back into the school house.

***

"I take back everything I said." Soul and the Crusaders had made their way to the lake near town, where they found a catapult waiting for them, making Soul wonder if the girls had planned this. He was currently having a helmet and goggles slapped onto his head as they shoved him into the end of the arm of the machine, facing out towards the lake.

"It'll be fine, don't worry." Scootaloo said as she tried to guess how far the stallion would go.

"Ah don't know, Scootaloo." Said Applebloom, rubbing the back of her head. "This doesn't seem like somethin' that a pony should be doing th' day after they get out of hospital."

"He'll be fine! He's a pegasus, if anything goes wrong he can just use his wings to straighten himself out."

"Wait what?!" Sweetie Belle gasped. "But he-"

"Less talk and more action!" Scootaloo interrupted and pulled the lever, sending Soul flying into the air.

As Soul rushed through the air, he found that it felt amazing it was to be airborne. The wind blowing past his ears and through his mane relaxed him. He looked down and that feeling was shattered as he saw how far up he was, and that he had gone right over the lake and was heading straight for the trees on the opposite side of the lake. He clenched his eyes shut and braced for impact, but it never came. He opened his eyes and saw that he was hovering above the trees, having stopped just short of them. He looked back and saw that he was flying, using his wings to keep himself afloat. As he was about to celebrate, he stopped flapping his wings and fell into the tree, hitting several branches on his way to the ground.

"That was...something." He mumbled as he got up. He had already healed the bruises he had sustained and started to make his way back to the Crusaders. When he got back to the catapult he found the girls arguing.

"It would have worked, if you had it set up properly!" Scootaloo accused Applebloom.

"Ah would've been able ta if you hadn't pulled the lever!" Applebloom shot back.

"Oh, this is bad! Rarity is going to be so mad at me!" Sweetie Belle was just rocking back and forth with her head in her hooves.

"What did I miss?" He called out to them, snapping them out of their worry. They all rushed over to him and started to speak at once.

"SoulI'msosorryIshouldn'thavepulledthelever-"

"Ahshouldhavemadesureitwasworkingbeforeputtingyouin-"

"Iwassoworriedthatyouwerehurtareyouhurt-"

"Girls, I'm fine! Just a couple of scratches." He said, trying to calm them down. "Besides, I managed to fly a little. Kind of. So it was worth it." This made them, particularly Scootaloo, perk up in excitement.

"REALLY? What was it like? How fast did you go? Did you do any tricks?" She asked excitedly.

Soul chucked. "Well, if you count stopping myself from crashing head first into a tree as a trick, then yes. Though I still need some teaching before I can fly properly."

"Then why don't you get Rainbow Dash ta teach ya?" Applebloom asked. "She's a good flier."

"A GOOD flier?" Scootaloo questioned. "You mean the BEST flier in ALL of Equestria! She will have Soul flying like a pro in no time."

"Not a bad idea. I'll talk with her about it tomorrow. For now, maybe we aught to take the catapult to Sweet Apple Acres then head home. I've had my fill of Crusading for today." The three fillies agreed, nodding slowly. "I should probably get some ingredients for dinner tonight."

Sweetie gasped. "I forgot about that! What are you going to make us?"

"If I tell you then it's it's not going to be much of a surprise, is it?" He asked, smirking.

***

Rarity headed home as fast as she could after leaving the library, and ran upstairs and into her bedroom to cry into her pillow. "I should have seen this coming. Of course he loves Twilight, she saved his life. Oh, why do I always set myself up for disappointment? He was only playing with my heart!" She rolled over onto her back, clutching the pillow to her chest. "Why do I even feel this way about him? He's just a smelly no good heart breaker who thinks he can just play with others!" She got up and walked angrily to the bathroom to look at herself in the mirror.

"Well," she said after a moment. "He didn't exactly know how I felt...and he is allowed to be with anyone he wants...maybe I just ought to accept it. It is not worth it to lose a friendship over something as petty as this. In fact, I shall do everything I can to help their relationship along! Though they do seem to be quite...acquainted with each other already, they simply must go on a date! I'll even set the whole thing up for them, as a surprise, as Pinkie would say." Her monologue was interrupted as she heard the door downstairs open.

"Hey Rarity, we're back! I'm gonna start dinner!" She heard Soul call out. Rarity smiled softly.

'That doesn't mean that I can't enjoy him being a gentlecolt, however,' she thought.

***

Alrighty, I finally got this one done. And I don't like it one bit. It just feels really rushed to me, but I can't think of anything to do to improve it. Well, at least it didn't take 3 months to come out again, so that's a plus. Anyways, you all know the drill. Rate, comment, tell me what the heck I can do to improve it and all that.

A Strange Introduction: Part 5

Rarity was pacing her room nervously, trying to come up with a solution to her problem. "What AM I going to do? I feel like I'm in love with Soul, but we only just met a few days ago! Oh, though he IS such a marvelous gentlecolt, I couldn't possibly take advantage of him like that! He's lost his memory, he probably has some other mare worrying about him somewhere, and once he's done at Twilight's he'll leave and I'll never see him again. Or worse, he might just want to be friends! In fact, Twilight saved his life, and is currently helping him regain his memory! He has every reason to have....affections towards her. I've heard several colts talking about how adorable and smart she is, and Soul is several leagues above even Macintosh! They're probably in the throughs of passion right now!" She sighed, frustrated.

"Then again, I suppose it wouldn't be that bad if he does likes her. Celestia knows she could use a good coltfriend." She giggled. "Not that Twilight would let Celestia know, of course. Oh this isn't helping, no matter what I do I can't make myself any less anxious!" She shook her head to try to clear her thoughts before the calendar on the wall caught her attention. She gasped sharply, eyes twinkling with realization. "It's Thursday! Oh HOW could I have forgotten! It's my weekly spa day with Fluttershy! THAT should settle my nerves a little. Yes, in fact I might just go over there right now and see if we can do it early." She was about to leave when she caught sight of herself in the mirror and flinched. " First though I simply MUST reapply my makeup...and re-do my mane. And tail. And coat." She rambled as she walked to the bathroom.

***

Half an hour later Rarity had gotten herself fixed up and headed to Fluttershy's cottage. By the time she had gotten there the fresh morning air had already calmed her down some, and made her think rationally about her situation. "Maybe I should talk to Fluttershy about it. She'll probably be a little embarrassed, but it will feel good to get this off my chest." She went to knock at the door, but was surprised when it opened by itself, revealing Applejack standing behind it.

"Woah!" Applejack jumped back slightly in shock before quickly recovering. "Y'all almost gave me a heart attack there, sugar cube."

"I do apologize, Applejack. I was just coming to have a little chat with Fluttershy before our weekly spa visit. Why are you here?" She asked in curiosity.

"Oh, she was just picking up some medicine for Winona." Fluttershy said timidly as she stepped out from behind her orange barricade. "She's been having a bit of a tummy ache lately. Oh, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

Rarity glanced nervously at Applejack before answering. "Well I was hoping to speak with you in private, but I suppose it'll come out sooner or later, and it is good to have more than one pony's opinion about these things." She stepped past the two confused ponies and sat herself down in Fluttershy's living room, gesturing for the others to join her. Once they were all settled Applejack spoke up.

"All right, Rarity, what's all this about? Ah've got to get back to the farm pretty soon."

"All right, all right. But before I begin, may I ask you girls something?" After getting a quick nod from them she continued. "Okay, what do you girls think of Soulsilver?" She got confused glances from both of them, before Fluttershy spoke up.

"Um...well...I haven't really spent much time with him but he seems...nice." She blushed and hid behind her mane a little before brightening up. "Oh, but he did tell me that he likes animals, just, um, not when they're trying to eat him. And he offered to help me out with rounding up the critters in a few days when a big storm is due to hit." She realized that she was being more talkative that usual and hid behind her mane with a small "Eeep!"

Smiling, Rarity turned to Applejack. "And what about you, darling?"

Applejack tapped her hoof on her chin for a moment in thought before answering. "Well, like Fluttershy said, he's nice, and polite too. Mighty helpful as well, always willin' to lend a helping hoof to ponies. In fact tomorrow he said he'd come to the farm ta work off the 'debt' he says he has. Wouldn't take no for an answer. Why? What he got to do with this here meeting?"

Rarity looked nervously between the two. "Well.. you see, the thing is.....IthinkI'minlovewithhim!" She blurted out quickly before clamping her eyes shut. The two ponies opposite her sat blinking in shock for a moment, then, surprisingly, Fluttershy was the first to react.

"Oh, Rarity, that's wonderful!" She exclaimed, wearing a small smile on her muzzle. Applejack, however, was not as excited.

"Woah, woah, hold on there now, sugar cube, you've known him for less than three days! When did you figure this out?"

"Well, when we first met him I was interested by his mysteriousness,and was hoping something might come of it, but when I got to know him I found that he was the most perfect gentlecolt I could have imagined!"

"Rarity...."

""He cleaned up the mess that the Crusaders made last night..."

"Rarity."

"...and then this morning I woke to find that he had made us all breakfast all without being aske-"

"RARITY!" Applejack's shout finally snapped Rarity out of her fawning.

"Oh, I'm sorry Applejack. You probably don't want to hear me rattle on about my love life."

Applejack shook her head. "That's not it, sugar cube. What I'm trying ta say, is that I think you might be over-reactin' a little. You say you're in love with the feller, and that's great. If it's true."

Rarity just stared at her incredulously. "If it's true?! Of course it's true! Why on Equestria would I lie about this?"

"That's not what Ah meant. You say that you love 'im, but do you really feel that way?" This question was answered by a look of confusion. "I know that you're still a might sore about that Blueblood colt." Rarity looked down in embarrassment at this. "And Ah think you might just be making up for your loneliness by replacing your dream stallion with another one."

Rarity continued looking at the floorboards for a while before sighing. "Oh, you're right, Applejack, who am I kidding. When did you become better at interpreting emotions than I am?" She pouted a little before talking again. "But what am I supposed to do? I can't just stop having these feelings."

"Ah know you can't, sugar cube, I'm just saying that you should wait a while. Get ta know him and such. After all, you don't even know if he feels the same way. Heck, nice feller like him probably already has a sweet filly waitin' for him."

Rarity looked back down at the increasingly interesting floorboards, feeling dejected. "I know, Applejack. I told myself the same. It's just not often that I meet a stallion that actually cares for me."

"Well, I can't tell you not to like him, but just get to know him a little more first. Ah know it's hard, but everything will work out in the end."

Rarity sighed before looking up at Applejack with a smile on her face. "Thank you Applejack." She got a smile in return as she turned to Fluttershy, who was blushing lightly. "Fluttershy, you've been awfully quite, dear. Do you have something to say?"

The yellow pegasi's head shot up in shock. "Oh, no, I was just...thinking."

"About what dear?"

"Oh...nothing."

Rarity thought about objecting for a moment, but decided to drop it. "Well if you're sure, I won't push the issue."

Fluttershy nodded slowly as Applejack shot her a knowing smile. "Well, I'd love to stick around, but I've got to get this medicine back to Winona. It's been nice catchin' up, Rarity." She said as she nodded at the unicorn, before turning and smiling softly at Fluttershy. "And I'll be sure to pass along your message, sugar cube." She winked, causing the timid pegasus to blush and hide behind her mane, before taking her leave. Rarity, who was too preoccupied to pay any mind to what just occurred, sighed as she got up as well.

"Well, this has been a nice chat, Fluttershy, but I'm afraid I have to go. I can't leave the Boutique closed for too long."

Fluttershy nodded slowly. "Okay, Rarity. I hope you figure something out."

"Thank you, darling." She replied with a smile before leaving the cottage, closing the door behind her.

***

"Hey Twilight!" Spike called from behind the bedroom door. "You've got a letter from Celestia!" When he didn't hear an answer, he decided to go downstairs, letter in claw, to investigate. He still didn't fully trust Soul, and wanted to make sure that he hadn't done anything to hurt Twilight. While they weren't related, He still looked up to Twilight like a big sister and felt as if he had to protect her. He quietly made his way down the stairs and snuck his way into the main room and past Soul, who had his nose in a book, but as soon as he saw Twilight lying battered and bruised on the couch he lost all notions of stealth and quickly made his way to her side.

"Oh my gosh! Twilight! What has he done to you?!" he yelled out, causing Soul to look up from his book.

"Oh! Hello, you must be Spike. You're a little bigger than I remember you to be-OOPH!" Soul was inturrupted as a large book collided with his face.

"Stay back! I won't let you hurt Twilight anymore than you have!" Spike puffed himself out, trying to make himself as threatening as possible, while brandishing an entire pile of thousand paged hard backed novels.

"What?! I didn't hurt her! Something happened when she tried to-OUCH!"

"You can't fool me! You're some kind of evil pony!" Spike shouted before continuing his onslaught of literature.

"No I'm not, I don't even-URG! Look could you jus-ARGH! THOSE ARE SENSITI-HURG! CAN I GET A WORD IN EDGEWIS-NYEH! FINE I'LL KEEP MY MOUTH SHU-OOOOH GOD THAT HURT!" Luckily for Soul, all the ruckas managed to wake Twilight up.

"Ugh, Soul, why are you making so muc-OH MY GOSH, SPIKE WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" As soon as she opened her eyes she was greeted to the image of Spike throwing book after book at Soul, who was slowly getting buried.

"Don't worry, Twilight! I'm holding him off! You get out of here and get help!" But Spike's warning was shunned as Twilight lifted him up by the tail with her magic. "Woah! Twilight, what are you doing, he's gonna get you!"

"Spike you will tell me why you're throwing books at Soul right this instant, young dragon!"

"He hurt you! I was making sure he couldn't finish the job!"

"He didn't hurt me! If anypony hurt me, it was me!"

Spike just stared at her, confused and still upside down. "Huh?"

"A spell I cast backfired and hurled me into a bookcase!" She shook her head as she set Spike down on his feet before going over to the book fort that was Soul. "Did you even try asking him what happened?"

"N-no, but I thought he was trying to trick me! I just saw you passed out on the couch covered in bruises, and I panicked!" Twilight just sighed.

"I can't be mad at you, Spike. Not when you thought you were protecting me. But I am disappointed that you didn't think to ask what happened before you acted." Spike looked down at his feet in shame.

"I'm sorry, Twilight."

"Don't apologise to me, apologise to Soul he's the one you..." She stopped as she saw Soul passed out in the pile of books. "...knocked out with books. Great. Why did you come down, anyways? I thought you wanted to avoid him." Spikes head shot up in hock, surprised that he had forgotten, and picked up the scroll from beside him.

"OH! Right, you've got a letter from Celestia!" The scroll was snatched out of his claw almost instantly, and Twilight began reading it out loud.

"To my faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle.

I apologise for the lateness of this response, but court has been particularly hectic of late. This stallion that you described seems to be undetectable with magic, and Luna has been too busy to even inform her. I would suggest bringing him up to Canterlot with you next Tuesday so we may examine him. In the meantime, get him acquainted with the town, and try to see if you and your friends can help recover his memory. I have never heard of memory loss quite as extensive as his, and if he remembers anything useful I would like to know of it as quickly as possible.

Your loving mentor,

Princess Celestia."

Twilight looked up from the letter with a look of disappointment on her face. "Wow," Spike gushed. "Not even the Princess knows what's wrong with him. And what do you think she means by 'undetectable with magic'?"

"Well, you know the spell doctor ponies use to check on the vitals of their patients?" Spike nodded. "Well the Princess can do pretty much the same thing, except across any distance, and even read thoughts." Spike blushed at this and his claws covered his head, as if protecting himself.

"THE PRINCESSES ARE READING MY THOUGHTS?!" Twilight looked at him confused before he realised what he was worried about and giggled.

"Don't worry, Spike, they only do that in emergencies. And even then, I doubt you'd be thinking of anything they need." Spike wiped his brow and sighed in relief. "Well, unless of course they want a never-ending storage of dreams about Rarity."

"TWILIGHT!"

***

Right. So. That was the longest time between chapters yet. Though I did go away for the holidays. And of course now that I am starting my TAFE course literally tomorrow I get back into writing. I'm only good at it when I have something more important to do, I guess. And now, to publish the chapter and have the massive guilt that has been eating away at me disappear! *remembers he still has to write a bunch more chapters* *passes out*