the forgotten one

Twilight sat at the cutie map, a pile of papers to her right, and to her left her breakfast that Spike had cooked her. The meal was nothing to special, just a few waffles soaked in fresh honey, but it had gone a long way in helping Twilight feel like she was home, and things were back to normal, stopping her mind resting on that horrible experience she had been subject to in the slaughter forest.

Unfortunately for her, she still had to write up the field report and send it to Celestia, so even though she would skip a few things, she still had to accurately describe her findings, and send the weapon she retrieved back to Canterlot for storage, seeing as it wasn't really practical for their needs.

Looking up from her writing, well simultaneously stuffing a waffle into her mouth, letting the warm syrup drip down her chin, in a most unregal manner, Twilight moved the box containing the weapon from the floor to the table. Popping the locks, she slowly opened the box the stare upon the rune studded rod, almost transfixed by its form the metal almost seeming to flow like the tides of the sea, then the door behind her burst open.

Slamming the lid shut, and spinning around, Twilight saw her favourite pupil, skidding across the floor on her back, before coming to a gentle stop in a flurry of papers at her side, clearly in a rush to tell her something.

"Good morning", said Twilight, giving a cheerful grin, quite happy her friend was joining her for breakfast, and evidently making some headway with Ratway.

" Twilight we need to talk", blurted Starlight, in a rush to get whatever was bothering her off her chest.

"What happened?", asked Twilight, now somewhat concerned about what had conspired in what was supposed to be a simple chat.

"It started quite well, he showed me this weapon he was cleaning, then it went downhill from there, as if what he was saying was true he was alive when Luna was banished", she spewed out, the words going off like a submachine gun, as it spewed out like projectile vomit.

"Wait what!”, blurted Twilight surprised at this claim

"That’s what I said, then he gave me these letters in old Ponish, that he claims proves it", Starlight continued, as she magically collected the scattered documents into one neat yellow pile.

"That doesn't make sense, he claimed he had been there for about 20 years", exclaimed Twilight, now equally as confused as Starlight.

"Let me see those", said Twilight practically taking off Starlight's horn, as she seized the documents with her magic, like an overzealous dog and a large treat.

Glancing over the papers, she quickly realised they were legitimate, her old Ponish wasn't the best but it was good enough to discern these were royal warrants for the collection of the weapon that now sat on the table in front of her.The dates on the documents backing up his story as they used and obscure calendar that hadn't been used for several generations.

"How is this possible" said Twilight aloud to herself as the creeping realisation set in that this pony may be as old as the royal alicorns.

"I don't know" answered Starlight, now starting to believe that Ratway had been telling the truth, detecting the twinge in Twilight's voice hinting that his outlandish claims might be true.

"Allow me to explain", came a now familiar gravelly voice from the open doorway behind them, as like a spectre Ratway moved silently to join the two mares in the large throne room, covering the distance quickly in his hobbley gait.

"I ave no idea" he said when he reached them giving a shrug, before pulling out a chair and taking a seat next to the princess.

"What do you mean you have no idea?", questioned Twilight.

"You don't just wake up and suddenly realise 1000 years have passed", she continued not believing it was possible to lose that much time.

"As I said I ave no idea, marked days for a while, gave up on that when I ran out of pencils, but I can prove its true", said Ratway confidently, as he pulled a lemon from one of his pouches and took a large bite out of it, not even flinching at the sour fruit.

"How, documents can be faked, and we don't know you enough to take you at your word", interjected Starlight, wanting to get to the end of this madness.

"Aye, tis true that documents can be faked, but memories cannot", he replied taking another bite of the lemon.

"What are you suggesting, a memory probe spell? that's not exactly ethical", said Starlight pondering the option.

"Ethical, it’s downright illegal", snapped Twilight, disgusted by the idea.

"Don't get all igh and mighty now princess, you were good and happy to rewrite my mind when it convenienced you", reminded Ratway, causing Twilight to blush, having glossed over that part in her story.

"That was different, I thought you were going to cause me harm" said Twilight trying to defend her actions as self-defence.

"Trust me little dove, if I wanted arm to befall you, I would have let the frog ave you", he answered, finishing off his lemon.

"Now when I am consenting to getting mind fucked, you get cold feet", Ratway continued producing another lemon, biting into it with a moist crunch.

"It would prove his story", said Starlight, tossing her opinion out there.

"And I aint got a problem with it", said Ratway, mouth filled with lemon pulp.

"But if it goes wrong it could make him a basket case", said Twilight concerned about the long-lasting ramifications that this spell could have.

"Trust me love, I have had worse", said Ratway, trying to dissuade her concern with masculine bravado.

"And from the rambling your student had outside my door this morning, I wouldn't be surprised if she has done it before", he continued, looking over to Starlight, who suddenly started to look very guilty.

"Have you done this before?", enquired ratight, also turning her gaze over to the pink pony. Deep down twilight wanted her student to say no, but from the look on her face that wasn't going to be the answer.

"Yes, I did a lot of things I am no longer proud of", said Starlight in a disconsolate tone.

"And that is why everypony forgives you, it’s because you regret what you did", said Twilight in a comforting voice, knowing how heavily the guilt weighed on Starlight's mind.

"It doesn't matter if others forgive me, if I cannot forgive myself", moped Starlight

With a loud bang, Twilight's attention was brought back to her guest, the source of the noise a metal canteen being aggressively placed on the table. The metal vessel, giving the sound of swilling liquid, as the fluid within settled, before with a brisk push, Ratway slid it over to the part of the table Starlight was standing by.

"What is that?”, asked Starlight confused as to what he had just offered her. Twilight on the other hand recognised the canteen, and was somewhat glad he had produced it, though it was a bit early for hard liquor.

"Booze that don't taste like piss", Ratway said casually, before fishing out another 2 canteens, pushing one over to Twilight and taking a long swig from the third.

"Is there anything you don't carry around in your pouches" asked Twilight, one part based on her own curiosity, the other to change this conversations direction away from Starlight's past.

"Only the important stuff", he replied vaguely.

"And that is?" enquired Twilight.

"Food, booze and knives" he responded, like it was the holy trinity.

"Knives?", questioned Starlight joining in on the conversation, and like Twilight not seeing a correlation between it and the former two. Before Starlight took a swig of the brown liquid, almost coughing it up not expecting it to be so strong.

"Never go anywhere without a knife, that's what me dad told me, and that motto has never failed me", he responded, as he

proudly produced a 9-inch blade, he had somehow concealed somewhere on his person.

"But back to the topic at hoof, are you going to mind probe me?", said Ratway bluntly, clearly set on this course of action.As he said this he sheaved his blade, in what Twilight interpreted as him attempting to make himself less intimidating, a hard feat for the shaggy pony.

"I guess we could give it a try", capitulated Twilight reluctantly. As it seemed he wasn't going to drop this, and it was the logical choice to get to the bottom of this quickly.

"Who do you want to do it with, me or Starlight?", asked Twilight, knowing the transfer of knowledge would go both ways, with some of her memory's bleeding over, as she was shown his. She hoped he would pick her, as there was the risk that what he saw from Starlight's past would taint his perception of her.

"I think it would be better if both me and Twilight do this together", chimed Starlight before he could answer.

"With two ponies spreading the load, it will put less stress on his mind so there will be less chance of negative side effects. It will also help stop one mind dominating the other one, as if this goes wrong it would mentally destroy one of you", Starlight explained, removing any doubts Twilight had that she had done this before, her words echoing with experience.

"If you think that is the best course of action”, said Twilight cautiously, still not entirely comfortable with what they were going to do.

"It’s the safest way we can do it, if were doing it we might as well reduce risk", said Starlight confidently.

"Then we ave reached a solution", said Ratway surprisingly happy about what was going to happen, clearly not understanding the experience he was about to have.

"Let’s get this over with then", grumbled Twilight, taking a swig of the whiskey to calm her nerves, the familiar woody taste returning, and just like before working a treat.