Twilight drifted through the darkness of the mad pony’s mind, seeing fragments of memories drifting by, all broken and spread out. “This can’t be his mind,” she said. “Everything’s…”

“Gone?” Discord finished for her. “Not entirely. He could be fixed, but that would require magic beyond my own understanding.”

Twilight turned back to face Discord. “Even you can’t fix him? You’re literally a spirit that can alter reality. You drink glass!”

“Twilight, if I can do anything I want, then how come you beat me?” asked Discord. “Even I have my limits. I just run on magic that’s simply too complex for you to understand.”

“Okay, well, what can you do?” asked Twilight, annoyed at this new fact.

Discord couldn’t help but smirk. “I can help you look at what’s what, and my intuition’s telling me that we need to go… there.”

Discord pointed to a floating wisp of moving images, and Twilight hovered herself over to it. “I’ve never gone directly into a memory before,” she said.

“I’ll help,” said Discord, suddenly pushing her into the wisp.

The first thing Twilight noticed was that she was falling, the wind rushing upwards as she sped towards the ground. Panicking, she had almost forgotten she could fly. Flapping her wings, she caught as much of the air as she could, eventually slowing her descent and allowing her to land safely in a city.

Looking around, she could tell that she was in Fillydelphia, and walking past her was a familiar pair of ponies. It was the stallion whose mind she had gone into, and next to him was Oak, both of them walking along the sidewalk.

“So, I’m gonna have to ask you to let me do the talking,” said Oak. “Don’t say a word until he asks you a question, got it?”

“Yeah, got it,” affirmed David. “I gotta admit, I’m a little nervous.”

“Don’t be,” said Oak. “We’ve got this.”

Twilight followed them from behind, stepping around ponies as best she could. This city was crowded, and although it was a memory, it still felt very real, because whenever she’d bump into a pony, they’d grumble or shout an insult.

Discord flashed into existence behind Twilight. “Don’t let David interact with you,” said Discord. “If you do, you could alter his memories and it could do some serious damage.”

“You’ve done this before?” asked Twilight.

“It’s just common sense,” said Discord. “The mind is very fragile, and I’ll admit, I’ve messed up a few times while traveling through the mindscape.”

“So, if he sees me, that’s it?” assumed Twilight. “Alright, I’ll be careful.”

Following the two stallions into a tall building, she saw a pony that she recognized to be Quick Stacks’. However, upon getting a bit closer, she realized that this wasn’t Quick Stacks at all, but an older pony. He did look similar, though. He was the same color of coat and mane, but his figure was frail.

“I’ve been having a bit of trouble with another company trying to sneak up on my business,” said the stallion. “Now, if you really want to rise through the ranks, I suppose I could pull a few strings. I just need a favor…”

Oak and David looked at each other before looking back to the older stallion. “A favor?” queried Oak. “This ain’t what I think it is, is it?”

The older stallion looked Oak straight in the eyes and said, “Now, you listen here. You’re a smart stallion, right? And every smart stallion knows that there’s always gonna be somepony else trying to one-up ya. It’s just survival of the fittest, and if this company falls, well, then I can’t survive, and neither can you two.”

“I’m not comfortable with this,” muttered David.

Oak replied, “Look, can’t we just do something less… fatal? Something to at least keep them from botherin’ ya?”

The older stallion rubbed his chin, a spark in his eyes that indicated an idea forming. “I guess if somepony could, I don’t know, have an accident with a few shipments, that would help me get ahead.”

“That don’t sound too bad,” agreed Oak. “So, just sabotage?”

“As long as those apple shipments aren’t gettin’ to their destinations in time, I’ll have enough time to resupply my own carts,” said the older stallion. “The Apple family’s been stubborn lately. That darn Bright Mac seems to be a bit too willing to listen to ol’ Granny Smith. Got the first shipment just fine, but when Granny found out, she was ornery.”

“Who’s this Apple family?” asked Oak.

“To many, just some other family. To me, a goldmine,” said the old stallion. “Now, no more questions. I’m gonna give you instructions tonight, and you’re gonna follow them to the letter, got it?”

“Got it,” agreed Oak, and as he said that, things began to fade into black around Twilight, the mare, being flung back into the vastness of the mental void.

“Woah!” she shouted, finding herself spinning. She could feel herself twirling in the vastness, but then she was stopped when she bumped into a familiar figure.

“Did you have fun with the first memory?” asked Discord.

Twilight looked behind her to see the wisp of moving images she had just come from. “So, Oak and David were doing dirty work for…”

“Fullstacks, or rather, Quick Stacks, or rather, Dimitris,” confirmed Discord.

Twilight sighed. “Well, that memory’s been looked at, and it seems to be cut off pretty early. I don’t know what happens after.”

“We might not be able to find all of them, but we can still try to piece them together,” said Discord. “His mind is shattered, but it’s not completely broken. It’s more like mine.”

“Excuse me?” asked Twilight.

“Long story short, I’m a mess, and I can appreciate other messes,” explained Discord.

“Where to next…?” Twilight mumbled, looking around until she found another floating wisp. Without Discord’s help, she dove right in, finding herself falling yet again, this time keeping herself upright and catching the air much more efficiently.

Beneath her, she was surprised to find that she was right over Sweet Apple Acres. This… didn’t seem right. How far ahead was she? How many memories had been wiped out? Landing on top of the barn, she could see a pale, yellow-coated stallion with an apple-red mane. He was pulling a cart full of apples out of the orchard.

Applejack had told Twilight about Bright Mac and Pear Butter being Applejack's parents. Twilight could only assume this was Bright Mac from the way they spoke and the way they interacted.

A younger-looking Granny walked over, telling him, “Big Mac’s been havin’ those nightmares again.”

“The haycart crash?” assumed Bright Mac.

Granny nodded. “Said he was tryin’ to find you, but couldn’t. Woke up cryin’.”

“Dagnabbit,” said Bright. “I really wish I could figure out how to keep him from havin’ those kinds o’ dreams. Didn’t you have a remedy for them?”

“I did, but I lost the book for it. Had all the ingredients listed and everythin’,” said Granny, looking a bit down. “Applejack woke up cryin’ too, so I’m wonderin’ if she’s havin’ bad dreams as well.”

“Well, there’s not much we can do except to be there whenever they have those dreams,” said Bright Mac. “From what I remember, there used to be some kinda dream guardian?”

“Yeah, the old tale of the Two Sisters,” said Granny. “I don’t really think she exists if you ask me. It’s an old myth.”

Twilight wanted to get a little closer, but she remembered that Discord had said these ponies could see her, which led her to wonder exactly who’s memories she was in. This couldn’t be David’s. She couldn’t see him at all. Something was wrong.

But, to put away her suspicions, she heard Bright Mac shout, “H-Hey, hey!!! I thought I told you to git!”

Looking over to where the orchard was, she could see David, holding a cloth bag in his teeth. Seeing Bright Mac run after him, he skedaddled, doing everything he could to outrun the big guy. Twilight could see that the area around her was fading more and more the further David ran away. She took it as a hint to follow him, seeing new parts of the area fading into view.

Wherever David was, she had to follow. Otherwise, she wasn’t sure what would happen to her if she was left behind.

She flew overhead, Following David and Bright Mac into Ponyville, where David began darting in between houses, trying to lose Bright Mac. The big guy wasn’t easy to shake, though, his determination keeping him on David’s tail.

This was pretty intense, Twilight thought. How did it get to this?

As David kept running, Twilight noticed a few things out of place. Sugarcube Corner was a little too close to the Town Hall, and it looked like the spaces between the houses were a little… wavy, warped, twisted? It was difficult to describe them.

Twilight could only conclude that David’s memories of Ponyville weren’t exact, that either his mind was too broken or that it’d been too long since he’d last been in there. Now she wasn’t so sure she could fix him. However, she’d try anyway.

Catching up, she saw Bright Mac, running and getting closer to David. It wasn’t long before he caught up to David and tackled him to the ground in an alleyway.

“What do you think yer doin?!” shouted Bright Mac.

“Not my fault! I was just doin’ as told!” said David.

“Doin’ what?” asked Bright.

“Distractin’ you,” said David, a big grin on his face.

Bright Mac’s eyes went wide in astonishment. “What? What’s goin’ on?!”

“Just my brother,” said David. “If we didn’t do it, we’d probably be out on the streets.”

“Do what?” asked Bright Mac. “You still haven’t told me what.”

“Sabatogin’,” answered David. “D-Don’t expect to get yer apples shipped anywhere anytime soo---”

Bright Mac didn’t seem like the type to be rough, but Twilight was surprised when he had suddenly headbutted David. “Darn it,” muttered Bright, picking up David onto his back. He then ran back to Sweet Apple Acres, where Twilight followed.

It turned out that David and Oak weren’t so successful. Granny had already caught Oak, the stallion tied up in a lasso. Standing next to the home with him, Granny looked over to Bright Mac and said, “These colts ain’t too bright.”

“Damn it,” said Oak under his breath.

“Yer in a lot of trouble,” said Bright. “Don’t know why yer sabotaging’ anything ‘round here, but there ain’t no excuses!”

Oak stared Bright in the eyes, the two stallions not moving a mental inch. “I did what I did,” said Oak. “I don’t need no excuse. There is an excuse, but… I ain’t usin’ it.”

“You don’t make a lick of sense,” said Granny. “Don’t matter. We’re puttin’ you two to work for a while until you’ve fully paid for the damage.”

Bright blinked his eyes. “He already--?”

Granny nodded. “He busted the cart’s wheels.”

Bright lightly tossed David off his back, asking, “Who sent ya?”

“I ain’t tellin’,” said Oak, his accent getting a little thicker.

“Then we report ya,” said Bright. “I’m sure Celestia’s court don’t take too kindly to troubled youths like yerself.”

Oak’s expression was one of stressful worry, the stallion gritting his teeth. “...It’s a stallion named Fullstacks,” he said. “He don’t like how you’ve already got a business sellin’ here with Filthy Rich.”

Bright and Granny exchanged glances.

“Now, hold up. Fullstacks approached us last week,” said Bright Mac. “Granny, didn’t you tell ‘em to shove off?”

“I did,” answered Granny. “Shoulda known he was up to no good.”

As Twilight watched all this going down, she suddenly realized… David was unconscious. There was no way he would’ve remembered this. It was then that she felt another presence with her, and it certainly wasn’t Discord.

She didn’t see anypony with her, but there was still that eerie feeling that somepony was watching her. Twilight couldn’t do anything, though. She was stuck in a memory, and wasn’t sure how to leave it.

“They were quite the troublemakers back then,” said a mare’s voice.

Twilight turned around, expecting to see somepony, but nopony was there. “Hello?” she whispered, not wanting the ponies within the memory to hear her. She then caught a glimpse of somepony in the orchard, and although she didn’t want to risk ruining the memory, she needed to know if this was a pony from David’s memory or if it was somepony from the outside.

She walked into the orchard, and was surprised at how far she could go without the memory fading. “Hello?” she greeted, looking around. “Is somepony here?”

Just then, a wisp went right past her, a blurry, white spectre. She had almost cast a spell in surprise, the alicorn still a little jumpy. “Do you think it could ever be the same way it was back then?” the voice asked.

“Who are you?” asked Twilight. “Where are you? What are you talking about?”

An equine figure in white appeared in front of her, featureless and without a mane or tail. Blank, white eyes stared into Twilight’s as the ghostly pony responded, “I’m nopony important. Just somepony who misses the old days.”

Twilight was having trouble comprehending why there was a spirit here, out of all places. “Are you… part of David’s subconscious?” she asked.

The ghost shook her head. “Don’t ask too many questions,” she responded. “I’m just keeping the memory going for you. I’m simply filling in the pieces that David can’t show you.”

“If you’re doing that, then you must be someone who witnessed this event, right?” questioned Twilight.

The ghost nodded. “I was watching from afar, hidden here in the orchard. Oak told me what he had planned to do, and I came here to try to stop him, but when I got here, he had already been caught.”

Twilight looked around. “Where are you? Where’s the other you? The memory you, I mean.”

The ghost smiled. “I can’t tell you. You’d need to figure that out on your own. I shouldn’t even be talking to you.”

“Why?” asked Twilight.

“The passed ones have rules,” the ghost answered. “We’re not supposed to interact with the living. We’re supposed to remain in the Ether. But I’m drawn here. I have an attachment, and I can’t move on.”

“And so you broke a rule to speak with me?” assumed Twilight.

“Yes,” said the ghost. “I can’t break too many, or he will show up.”

“He?” queried Twilight.

“No more questions,” said the ghost. “Just watch the memory. Use what I give you to fix David.”

The ghostly mare vanished, leaving Twilight to watch the rest of the memory on her own. Going back to the scene, she could see Bright Mac and Granny discussing things.

“What do you think? A few months?” questioned Bright Mac. “A year?”

“A year sounds good,” affirmed Granny. “I remember when your grandfather put to work a few troublemakers when they was caught terrorizin’ the animals. He had them work for almost two years.”

“Vandalizin’ is a pretty serious offense,” said Bright. “It could’ve put us outta business fer a while. We work hard out here, and if these two wanna treat our work like it was nuthin’ then I’mma make ‘em do the same work I do.”

“So, it’s settled, then,” said Granny. “A year.”

The memory soon faded away, but Twilight was able to light up her horn in time to embed it into David’s mind so it didn’t fade away completely. As she was spat out into the void, she saw Discord, holding up a fancy pair of binoculars in one hand and a tub of popcorn in the other.

“I’ve gotta say,” said Discord. “You’re digging up some secrets today, aren’t you?”

“Did you see that mare?” asked Twilight.

“Indeed, I did,” replied Discord. “And she seems to have left us more to work with. I saw a few more memories being restored, but… why don’t we, uh, snoop around them to check if there are any inaccuracies?”

Twilight was a little curious. There was a lot she didn’t know here, and going through these newly-recovered memories could help her piece things together. “You might be right,” said Twilight. “It won’t hurt anything.”

Discord grinned. “Oh, goodie, more entertainment! Juicy stuff!”

Twilight approached a floating wisp, then dove in, appearing over a wintery Ponyville. Ponies all over were talking to each other and enjoying each other’s company. There were a few carolers, and there were quite a few merchants as well, selling Hearth’s Warming items. Twilight landed atop one of the buildings, looking down at the streets, eventually spotting David and Oak, shivering in the cold as they stood at a food stand.

“I feel like Bright Mac knew we weren’t gonna sell anythin’ today,” said Oak. “Who’s gonna buy these caramel apples during Hearth’s Warmin’ when we’re seein’ other ponies sellin’ hot chocolate, wreaths, and trees? How do apples relate to Hearth’s Warmin’?”

“We did sell a few,” said David, looking at the money jar. It wasn’t even half full, with only a few bits inside. “M-Maybe more ponies’ll buy ‘em.”

“And maybe I’ll become King of Equestria,” said Oak with sarcasm. “We’ve been here for more than half the day.”

“Yeah, but it’ll be alright,” said David. “At least Granny’s makin’ pie tonight.”

“Don’t even like pie all that much,” muttered Oak.

“I like it,” said David in a timid manner.

Then, a voice rang out. “Hey, Oak!”

David and Oak looked to their left to see a familiar pony. It was Autumn, and she was bundled up in a jacket and a scarf.

“Haven’t seen you in a while,” said Oak. “Been what, a month since we left Fillydelphia?”

“Mhm. Thought I’d pop by to see how you boys were doin’,” said Autumn, smiling. “You alright?”

“Hardly,” said Oak. “Bright Mac put us out here to sell these damned things, but ain’t no one gonna come by to buy these when they’ve got better options.”

Autumn seemed to have a thoughtful expression before she pulled out a few bits from her jacket’s pocket. She placed them on the wooden surface of the stand and declared, “Well, I’ll take one!”

“Aw, Autumn, you don’t gotta do that,” said Oak. “You’ve got a lot of better things to spend those bits on.”

“I don’t mind it one bit! Besides, caramel apples were always one of my favorite treats when I was growin’ up,” said Autumn. “Ain’t nuthin’ better than the sweetness of candy and fruit bein’ combined into one.”

David and Oak looked at each other with unsure expressions then looked back at Autumn with soft smiles.

“Hey, uh… would you like to come back to Sweet Apple Acres with us when we’re done? Maybe Granny won’t mind,” Oak offered. “There’s gonna be, uh, pie there.”

David leered at Oak. “You said you didn’t li--”

Oak shushed David, then smiled nervously at Autumn. “What do you say?” he asked.

Autumn seemed to be indecisive. “I dunno, boys. My daddy’s waitin’ for me to get back home to Fillydelphia by tomorrow.”

“Well, I can get ya back in time,” offered Oak.

“How ya gonna do that?” asked David.

Oak grinned proudly. “Well, while you was still in the orphanage, I was able to make friends with a pegasus who deals in very fancy transportation. He usually charges ponies an arm and a leg.”

“An arm?” questioned Autumn, a puzzled expression on her face.

“Just an old sayin’,” said Oak. “Regardless, I can get him to give you a ride for free, cuz he pretty much owes me a favor for fixin’ his cart.”

“You’d really do that?” asked Autumn.

“Well, hell yes!” replied Oak.

“Well, alright, then!” said Autumn.

Before the memory faded, Twilight could see the expression on David’s face. It seemed to be one of uncertainty, possibly even sadness. She wondered if it was jealousy or not. Oak did seem to be in charge of the conversations.

Looking at David’s memories, Twilight was able to piece together that he was almost like Dylan, usually quiet and often taking the backseat. She then began to worry. What if Dylan were to end up like David one day?

How many times had Twilight met Dylan? She had to admit, she didn’t know much about him or his backstory, only what Applejack had told her. According to Applejack, Dylan wasn’t usually the one to take charge of anything.

In fact, the only time Dylan had taken charge of anything in his life had been during the fight from earlier. And when that had happened, Dylan had gone a little overboard. How had David become as abusive as he was now?

What had happened back then to change him?

Author's Note

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