Author's Note

GOOD LORD THIS TOOK TO LONG

I'm truly sorry that this chapter took so long to get put out, especially with how short it ended up. Long story short, I'm terrible at schedules and need to work on it. As stated before, the chapters following this one will be bi-weekly to monthly on release.

10 - Regaining What's Lost

I tried to look around me, but found the task more difficult than I had imagined. The only word I could think to describe the area around me was void. Everywhere I looked, I was assaulted by complete nothingness. The sheer grand fortitude of the abyss caused me to feel very insignificant and minuscule. The only solace I had was myself, seeing my own body and knowing that I existed, gave me a focal point to center the mass abyss.

What the ever-living hell is this?

"You've thought many things coming here, but that was a first."

I froze on the spot. The voice had seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. It was as if it hadn't spoken at all, but rather had been my own mind speaking to me. Panic flooded through me as my mind desperately tried to process this onslaught of everything and nothing.

"Calm." The voice said(?) simply.

As it did, I now found that the void was filled not just by me but a small grass island with a single maple tree. Under the tree stood a familiar figure.

The alicorn from my memories! But... how?

She laughed for a moment, "It is clear you don't yet remember me, but now that the ritual symbol has been stripped from your being you will begin to remember all that I have asked you. All that you agreed to carry out for me and your people."

Can she hear my thoughts?

"Yes, in a way." She stated, clearly having understood what I was thinking.

"So... has this encounter between us happened before?" I asked her.

"It has, with many different results. Sometimes you already know everything and merely report to me on your status. Other times you could barely talk. Your body and mind has adjusted well to having it's memories stripped away however, as you seemed to keep your basic functions and are recalling your past with much ease." She answered.

"I... What is this? And what am I to you? What did I agree to do for the humans?" I asked.

She shook her head at this. "I'm afraid I can't tell you this, but this meeting does have reason behind it. I come to tell you that the mare who watches over you, Luna, is not someone you should push away any longer."

"Any longer?" I started. "What does that mean?"

"All in time my child. For now, just stay safe and do what you must to earn the trust of the threstrals who have opened their home to you."

My head started to get light, and a haze began clouding my vision.

"We'll speak again soon, and by then you will have some of the answers you seek and more than you thought to ask. Oh, and tell Frostbite I said hello!"

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"Hold your bow a little higher."

I followed the instruction of me teacher, raising my bow up at the target across the field.

"Good, now take a shot at it. We'll see how well you do on your first attempt."

I grabbed an arrow out of the quiver on my back, and hitched it onto the string. I attempted to pull and aim the same way I had seen my father done many times before. Once I was sure I had the shot lined up, I let it go. The arrow struck the target high left.

"Pretty good for having no practice. You let the bow jerk to hard when you released your shot. Otherwise that would have been a center shot. Alright, put the bow up and come with me. I'll run you through some exercises and techniques to help your aim and speed."

He spent the next hour teaching me stretches, stances, and hand placement. He explained what each one helped with, ranging from comfort of the shooter to precision of the shot, and how often I should practice to keep myself fit and ready. By the end of his lecture, he and I had begun a competition to see who could get a better score out of 50 arrows. I lost horribly.

"That's why you never challenge a master at his own class." He had chided at me.

We continued to work on shot precision for the rest of the day. By dusk, I was finally making accurate groupings on center target.
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Standing in the middle of a clearing, our instructor spoke to us.

"Now, today you will be learning how to find your way back to camp without a map, compass, or guide to help you. To narrow down your help further we will begin at noon when the sun is at it's highest. This will be a competition of sorts, you want to beat the other students to camp first. We expect you to return here before the sun gets low enough to aid you. Any questions?"

"What if we get lost?" A girl from behind me asked.

"We will have watchers following you from a distance. If you stray to far away, take too long, or go in the opposite direction, they will step in to set you on course again. Every time one of us has to do so, your score will be docked."

He waited a moment before continuing. "No more questions? Alright, you have 15 minutes to get your barrings of this area."

I began looking around. I ignored the immediate area and focused on the far landmarks that could be seen. To the direct south was the Tree of Life, large enough to be seen from almost anywhere. To the northeast was a few unmarked mountains. A tower was to my west. There was nothing else of note to be seen so I merely waited for the competition/training exercise to begin. As I was waiting, wagons and instructors began to pull up to our group.

After 15 minutes were up, the man spoke again. "Alright, you will all now be blindfolded and led away from this area. This exercise will only last for 3 hours once it begins. You will be led out in wagons to you can't retrace your steps. Remove your blindfolds once you hear the horn."

With that, a woman walked up to me with a scrap of cloth and motioned me to one of the many wagons that were to take us away. I got in and slid over the blindfold, ready to get this over with. Two others joined my wagon, and before we started to move we were told not to try and converse with one another.

The ride was rather uneventful. We stopped to let one of the others out and move on to the next area. At the second stop, I was pulled from the wagon and set on the ground before I heard the wagon start to move away. I began to think of where the landmarks I had seen were, and how the corresponded to camp.

Tree of Life South, Mountain Northeast, Tower West. Tree of Life South, Mountain Northeast, Tower West. Tree of Life South, Mountain Northeast, Tower We-

My musings were cut off by the sound of a horn blaring. I ripped the blindfold off and took a look around. Trees. I was in the middle of some forest area.

I need to get above them.

I picked a tree at random and began scaling it. Before long, my head poked out of the treeline, giving me a view of my surroundings. I immediately saw the mountains in front of me, considerably closer than before. To my right was the Tree of Life, and past that was the tower.

Simple enough, walk towards the tree.

With that in mind I made my way down the tree and followed the direction the tree had been in. I made it to camp in 30 minutes, just behind 2 others that had been in the exercise. We sat and spoke about what we had done to get back so quickly. After an hour, almost all of the kids had made it back. All but one.

"Sir! Cale didn't make it!" A female instructor yelled out.

"What? Explain!" Our first instructor demanded.

"Right when the horn sounded, he panicked and took of in a random direction. He ended up running straight into a Manticore. This is all we could recover." She stated, holding up a bloodied shirt.

"Damn. Well that's unfortunate. I'll be sure to inform the boy's parents."

This had been the third death since this training started.
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"It's that time again Frost." I said.

Frost and I were standing in the middle of a castle. A castle I quickly recognized to be the ruins I awoke in. Frost turned her head to me and whined.

"I know girl, but if everything is as it should be, this will be the last time. Unfortunately, this will also be the longest time. It'll be 500 years before we see each other again, but I know you won't forget me. And I certainly won't forget you." I finished with a small smile.

Frost nuzzled me with a sad look in her eyes. Getting a good look at her, she looked smaller than she did now. Younger even. I waved my hand, and Frost took that as her cue to leave. Once she was gone, I made my way to the throne room and up to the blue chair. I pulled out a note from my pocket and stuck it in the seat of the fabric.

"Now listen, and yes, I mean me getting these memories whenever I get them. This note has on it the location of a bunker of sorts that I've been using as a home. In it are many weapons and tools necessary to complete our job. Know that in order to unlock the door to this place, you will have to remove that mark on our hands and you will have to confront Celestia. I would recommend waiting to do so until you have some sort of bearing on your abilities so that you can escape from her once you do. You do not, do NOT, want to fight her. Best of luck, we've made it this far." I told... myself.

With that, I turned and left. I walked into the main chamber where the elements were, and passed it to the stairs into the hallway. Walking to the end of it, where I awoke, I turned to look into one of the still intact windows. In the reflection, I saw an aged man, easily reaching his hundredth year of life.

"Now here comes the "fun" part." I said as I started to glow.

Everything hurt.

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I felt wood and thatch under my back, my left wrist stung like no other.

What the hell happened?

I suspect that's exactly what Luna will ask you.

...What?

I creaked open my eyes to see that I was back in my hut. Frost and some mare I didn't recognize standing over me. Frost was staring at me intently.

Did you hear me? Can you hear me right now?

Yes... I can.

Frost immediately started barking and jumping around.

OH IT'S FINALLY BEEN LIFTED! WE CAN TALK TO EACH OTHER AGAIN OH YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES

As this was going on, I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked to see the mare staring at me with concern.

"Jon? Are you alright?"

There was only one other person who knew me by that name.

"Yes Luna. I... Think I'm alright." I told her.

She sighed in relief, giving me time to look over her strange form and recall what happened when we met. After a moment, I remembered she had come disguised, calling herself "Winter Breeze". Looking at her now, it was clear she was pissed.

"So exactly why were you so drunk you couldn't stand?" She demanded.

"I, uh, I helped out with some of the construction in the village so they treated me to a few drinks." I stammered out.

"Well... I suppose worse could have happened, or rather it did happen." She said.

"What d-" I went to ask her, but as I lifted my hand to grab her, I saw that I no longer had it. Instead I had a stump where my hand should have been. My mind began racing at a million miles per hour, and I couldn't calm my breathing.

Jon! Relax. Luna can explain. You haven't lost your hand forever.

Hearing Frost's words did little to calm me down, but I was able to stop myself from doing anything until I heard what Luna had to say.

Luna had grabbed onto me at some point and was trying to get my attention. "Jon! I can still give you a hand! I just needed you to be awake for it!" She practically screamed at me.

Taking a few deep breaths, I managed to struggle out. "How long?"

"I don't know what your referring to so I'll just answer all of it. You were unconscious for over 6 hours, the spell needs an hour to work, and you'll have your hand by tomorrow night." She stated.

"I... Wait tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yes, well... I could do it tonight, but I misread the spell before you were drunk. While you were under, I decided to look it over one last time, see if I didn't need you awake and could surprise you, when I realized I needed a "donor", if you will." She nervously said.

"A... Donor? You're gonna take someone else's hand!?" I shouted.

Luna recoiled at this. "No! Maybe donor was the wrong word. I need a replacement, a gauntlet or some form of sturdy glove that you could use."

My breathing had finally settled at this point. "So what, I just run around without a hand for the next day? I don't see myself being very useful."

"I understand." She started, "However, you now have no resistance to magic, allowing the orb to be recharged. You should start receiving memories again."

At her words, I remembered the last memory I had. The memory to myself.

I have to get back to the ruins.

Not like this you don't.

I looked over to Frost to see her giving me a level stare.

I lost you for 567 years. Before that, we lost the ability to talk to one another for nearly 800! I won't lose you on some suicide mission where you can't even defend yourself. When the time comes, I will take you back there myself. I know what you left there was important, but Damn it you are staying here!

I lowered my head, thinking about what she had said.

Fair enough. I would like to know more about how we're talking to each other anyway.

I looked back to Luna. "So I guess your taking off soon?"

"Yes. As much as I would love to stay and here about why you and Frost are having staring competitions, I'm afraid I need to get back before my lack of presence is noticed." She said.

As she made to leave, she looked back saying. "Till tomorrow Jon."

"Later Luna."