The Human Spirit

by Aliko

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Violence, Princess Celestia, Human, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Original Character
Length: 8338

So suddenly, my life was ripped away from me. Magic? Ponies? I don't understand. All I know is i'm not me anymore, and my memory fades. Then, just as I was becoming content, my former face appears in front of me and with it, my life changes once more

So suddenly, my life was ripped away from me. My friend and family are gone. Everything I once knew vanished before me.

Magic? Ponies? I don't understand it at all. All I know is I'm not me anymore, and my memory is fading. Then, just as I was starting to get comfortable in this new world, I find my former face staring back at me one day, and with it my life changes once more.

So much for living peacefully.

Cover art was made by the wonderfull Jesuka

Thanks to Miner and AlicornPriest Who helped with some editing!

And another big thank you to Tom117z and Skijarama for inspiring me to start writing again

Published 2019-08-04 23:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2019-11-09 23:35:14 UTC

Prologue

How long has it been? Centuries? Millenia? Floating in a seemingly endless space with nothing but his own thoughts made It entirely impossible to tell. Surrounding him was the unending feeling of emptiness. He couldn't feel anything, he couldn't see anything, he couldn't smell, not even his own voice came to his ears. He couldn't even starve, nor grow old. He felt dead, but he knew he wasn't. He couldn't die through such means, and he did not want to die. He had a duty to his people when he returned. Maybe they aren’t even there anymore? He couldn't bear to think of such things. Yet he couldn't help it.

"Haaaa..." His eyes shot open in pure astonishment. Breathing. He could hear himself breathing. He thought it was impossible to hear in this void, yet he heard it clear as day. He let out another audible breath as he stared into the darkness.

His body twitched slightly as he decided to try to move, and his body responded in kind. He felt his stiff limbs bending, and twisting as his body made many cracking noises from the long period of unuse. The pain was blissful. The feeling of life returned to him after so long, and he couldn't feel any better. He then soon realized he still saw nothing but black and began to look around for anything he could see.

Then he spotted it. A thin patch of light showed itself just below him. Could it be? Had the time he'd been waiting for finally come? He reached out towards the brightness, yet he could not bring himself closer to it. It remained still, flickering as he stood suspended in the void.

Then, as if obliging to his will, the light began to expand across the inky blackness. Further, and further, it banished the darkness surrounding it. After a few seconds of agonizing anticipation, it engulfed his entire body.

He felt an overwhelming feeling of freedom. The light was his salvation, and he knew it would bring him back.

"Freedom..." That was the last thing he said before he started to feel a blisteringly cold wind blow from within the fluorescent light before it enveloped his entire being. He started to feel his weight return to him, and soon after the familiar feeling of falling came. The smile he wore grew as the freezing air whipped all around him. He began to laugh with the greatest glee he could ever remember. He felt like a child again, anxious to get their promised gifts on their birthday.

His thoughts quickly came to an end as he felt himself come to a sudden halt. Pain shot through every inch of his body. The falling has ceased, and with it, he felt a new sensation so long forgotten. His hands meekly began to grasp at his surroundings trying to deduce this almost foreign feeling. It was soft, yet cold. It melted in his warm grasp, water trickling out from his grip.

"Snow...?" he pondered to himself out loud. He grabbed a handful of snow, struggling to lift it. He brought his buried face out from the soft white to stare at the snow he held. It somehow felt heavy to him. The muscles in his body ached at the mere lifting of such light material. He was finally free, yet the very act of moving became so much more labored then he ever could have anticipated. He dropped the snow, his arm falling with a soft thud.

Laying in the snow, he turned his focus towards the view in front of him. Nothing. Nothing but an endless span of snow, the only exception being the few mountains in view, and from what he could tell, he was on a mountain himself. He felt his heart sink. His worst nightmare has come true... it was all gone, all of it, and he knew just who to blame. He weakly spat out the name of the one responsible with as much hatred he could muster, before he faded into unconsciousness.

"Celestia..."

A "Quiet, and Mundane" Town: Part 1

Woozy was all he could feel as he began to wake from his stupor. What happened to him? The last thing he remembered was simply falling asleep. Yet waking up seemed to cause such confusion in him. He couldn't tell why everything felt so... different.

His soft bed even seemed to be replaced by something much harder. He could even feel something brushing against his body as he stirred from his slumber. His eyes slowly began to flutter open, only to be met with a brilliant glow that hurt his eyes immediately upon contact.

He winced in pain from the sudden overstimulation of his eyeballs, immediately covering them with his forearm to block the light's unforgiving glare, though doing so made him feel the unfamiliar strangeness return once again. His drowsiness slowly subsided as he tried to figure out what this feeling possibly could be. When he opened his eyes fully, he saw something he couldn't have at all expected. Orange took up the majority of his vision. The bright blue sky was behind this unknown orange mass that seemed to have done what he intended his arm to do, seemingly taking the place of his pale arm.

"Wha..." He let out a soft whisper in pure astonishment. He was at a loss for words. Never before had the color orange caused him such confusion. Looking closer at it, he saw that it was orange fur, and what he was seeing was definitely his own arm. In his panicked, yet curious state he made a move he would soon regret. He began to lift his other arm towards the fur to touch it, but as soon as his other arm came to view, he froze.

His hand was gone.

Panic slowly crept through himself as he tried to make sense of it. What? Why? How?

Sweat slowly began to form, as he quietly screamed all his questions in his mind as to how this could have happened. He felt nauseous. All thoughts that came to him repeating over, and over again. The world slowly distorting around him as he focused on this one truth. His hand wasn't there... It wasn't there! He felt his heart begin to pound harder than he could ever remember. Beat, after beat, he felt as if his own heart was trying to explode from his chest. Soon his breathing grew erratic and short. Breathing seemed almost impossible as he sunk below the depths of his own mind. Nothing around him seemed to exist except for his missing hand and the suffocating sound of his own heartbeat that drowned out everything else from the world around him. Each thump grew in intensity as his despair grew.

As the world spun around him, the faintest amount of sounds penetrated through the deafening thumps. Though the sound went unnoticed as his spiraling vision began to drag him into a world of blackness, and fear, drowning him in a terrible feeling of looming doom. And like the fallen prey of a wolf, he submitted to the all-encompassing dread, and screamed, until everything went silent once more.

"Hellooo Ponyville! This is your host of the new Ponyville Broadcast, Vocal Wave here, and to start off we have some news I'm going to cover real quickly before we get back to playing all your favorites. According to what we have here, there seems to be a large influx of ponies being arrested, for a variety of crimes. This is the largest series of crimes Equestria has seen in quite some time, and no pony can quite figure out what is causing all this. On another note, not only has crime gone up, but there have been much more missing ponies as of late. Could the two be related somehow? Who knows? This radio pony sure doesn't. Now that the news is over with, let's head on back to what y'all are here for. The musi-"

Twilight turned off the radio on her desk after she heard a knock at the door of her office. "Come in," Twilight said as she looked up from the papers she was currently working on. Assumedly she was looking at some of her students’ work to see how they did. She was rather invested in it for a while before being taken out of it by a knock on her door.

The door swung gently open making a barely audible squeak as Starlight Glimmer walked in with what seemed to be a knowing smile. "Still working hard, I see? Did Rainbow Dash dump her papers on you, again?"

Twilight nodded in affirmation. "Yup, you know how it is. She always hates it when we need to do anything with paperwork. I keep telling her even a P.E. teacher has to do some paperwork, but she never listens." Twilight was somewhat annoyed by her friend's unwillingness to do that stuff, but relented shortly. She did enjoy this type of work for the most part, and Rainbow Dash probably knew that too.

Starlight nodded in agreement before remembering exactly why she had come in the first place. "Oh, that's right! You told me to remind you of your planned tour assignment thirty minutes before the class so you could prepare what's left." Twilight's eyes widened slightly at the reminder, panic slowly beginning to rise. She dropped all of what she was doing and bolted towards the door in a rush, eager to make sure her plans wouldn't fall through and mess up her schedule. She thought that thirty minutes should be enough to prepare for this class trip, but she felt as if extra time would have been more helpful. Maybe next time she would ask to be reminded forty-five minutes before hoof, or maybe an hour. Her thoughts halted when she was about a couple feet out of the door, and she skidded to a halt, remembering the one pony she left behind without a word. Turning her head back towards Starlight Glimmer, she let out a sheepishly awkward laugh.

"Haha... uh, thank you, Starlight."

"You're welcome," Starlight replied with a nod, smiling. Twilight returned the smile and headed off to perform her more pressing duties, leaving Starlight to return to her own.

Twilight in the meantime was already going through everything she had planned through her mind. She would assign everyone in one of her classes to each individually give a tour to one of the new students. She thought of it as a good way to try to form early bonds between the new and current students so as to not have there be a large social gap between the groups. At least that was the plan. This would be the first time she would act on this idea. She had already made a lot of preparations before hoof, and had assigned everyone to their tour partners. She just needed to finish up some last-minute tasks.

Twilight opened up the door to the classroom where it would all start and walked up to the front of the large classroom. Stepping towards the board in the front, she grabbed some chalk in her magical grasp to start writing all the information she would need to convey to all the students that would soon arrive. Finishing her work with only thirty seconds left until the scheduled time, she turned away from the board and waited for the students who would come marching right in. She waited just as eagerly as she believed the new students were to begin their classes.

Fifteen seconds passed, and nothing. Thirty seconds. Forty-five seconds. Her smile started to falter at this realization as more than a minute passed. Never before had an entire class come in a minute late. Sure there were always those who came in late, but the entire class? Not to mention some students actually preferred to come in early. Two minutes, and still no one came around. Did her idea fail? Did she not give them the proper time? She deliberated on these thoughts trying to come up with a reason why not a single creature had shown up. Perhaps something was keeping them?

She felt herself getting anxious at the thought of anything bad happening to her students. Her worries ceased almost immediately after they began when she saw one of her students, Ocellus, come through the door.

"Ocellus, you made..." Twilight couldn't finish her sentence after seeing Ocellus' distraught face. Not to mention she seemed to have run here according to her heavy breathing. "Ocellus, are you...?" She was cut off again, but this time by Ocellus rather than herself.

"Something... is happening... outside... Hurry!" she said, breathing in between each panicked word.

Twilight was taken aback, her worry quickly returning after the short respite. "What? What's happening?"

"Somepony's screaming!" Ocellus stuttered out.

Twilight's mind immediately turned itself into a state of emergency after hearing that. If she could help it, she would fix this situation before it got worse. She just needed to know just what was actually happening for her to even start to do something. "Where? Show me!" Twilight urged Ocellus to show her where this is all taking place.

"This way!" Ocellus responded quickly taking off away from the door, Twilight, following close behind her.

Once Ocellus led Twilight outside to the courtyard, she could see immediately just how many others were gathered around. Panicked voices, concerned murmurs, and the scared scream Ocellus had told her about could all be heard clearly from this large gathering. The screaming was why she was here. The loud guttural scream made her heart wretch at the sheer volume as it echoed its primal fear through her mind. What could possibly cause such an immensely painful scream? Her mind could only go to the worst as she took to the sky above to see what, or who, laid ahead.

Beyond the large group of onlookers, she could see a lone stallion on his back near the fountain. He was frantic, throwing his limbs around uncontrollably, like a punctured balloon. His face contorted with every brief breath between his frantic screaming. Quickly Twilight flew straight towards the pony as fast as she could, his almost feral screaming burning into her mind as she got closer. It was unbearable, but she had to help him any way she could.

|One hour later|

Twilight sat in a pristinely white office, which almost gleamed under the bright fluorescent light that hovered overhead. Still and focused, she looked towards the doctor that lay in front of her. The doctor was deep in thought, thinking over what she had just told him before he asked her the next question he wished to ask.

"Do you have any idea what may have happened to cause this? For example, did you see him eat anything... unsavory?" the doctor asked, humming in thought between the last two words.

Twilight shook her head in response to another one of the doctor's questions. "No, I'm sorry. I don't know."

The doctor tapped the pencil he held in his magic against his lips as he thought about the facts. "So all you know is that he was laying on the ground, flailing his limbs around frantically, and screaming?"

Twilight nodded. "Yes, I used a calming spell on him to try to help, but that just ended up causing him to go unconscious."

The doctor musing to himself in a low hum began to nod to himself as he realized his previous conclusion was the most likely candidate for causing the stallion’s uncontrollable state. "Well, from what you provided me, it seems that our unfortunate friend has suffered a rather severe acute stress reaction, or shock if you would prefer. "

Twilight blinked from this news, surprised. "Shock? W-what could have caused him to panic so severely?"

"That's what I was hoping to get out of you." He sighed in exasperation. "The testing we did showed nothing physically wrong with him, and his brain scans came out with normal activity. Everything is just fine for him at the moment..." The Doctors face grew dark as he continued with his speech. "But whatever he saw or experienced to cause him to act the way you described, to the point where he would fall unconscious... I couldn't even imagine what it could have been."

"Y-Yeah, me too." To say Twilight was confused would be quite the understatement. Somepony who was on her school grounds, screaming in terror of something unknown to everypony involved. It deeply disturbed her, what if it happened again to another pony? She just couldn't stop herself from wondering what it could have been. Again and again, she mulled over it. Each time her thoughts crashed at a dead end with no other direction to go. She needed to find a direction, and there was only one way she could think of to get it.

"How is he right now? Is he awake now?" Twilight asked softly.

"He's doing fine, and no, he hasn't..." The doctor was cut off as the door to his office opened abruptly. A nurse stood on the other side looking to be in a hurry.

"Doctor. The patient is awake," she announced, getting the doctor’s attention immediately.

"Speak of the devil," he muttered to himself. He stood up from his chair pushing it quite far away from its initial point of rest. "Thank you for the information, Princess, now I have to go back to tending to the patient." He began to make his way towards the door, only to halt at the doorway when he just barely heard the Princess speak to him. "Come again?"

"I would like to speak to him when I can. I'd like to find out what he saw for myself." The doctor seemed almost shocked at the request, but then remembered just where the incident took place and relented. After all, the princess had done much for Equestria as a whole. She would, of course, want to know anything she could that may be a potential danger to others.

"Yes, o-of course, princess. When I'm done with what I have to do, you may speak to him." The doctor turned around and began to leave. "You may wait here if you wish. I'll be back." The doctor then took off towards his duties, leaving Twilight to her thoughts.

She would sit there waiting for the doctor, each moment becoming more unbearable. What could have caused the stallion to act like that? She hoped she would find out soon.

Twilight turned her head towards the click of the door. The doctor came through, looking rather concerned. Only after spotting Twilight did his features change to a more welcoming position, if only ever so slightly. "Oh, Princess! I'm sorry, I forgot you were here."

Twilight shook her head. "No, it's fine." She hesitated to ask if the stallion was able to be talked to after seeing the look from the doctor, but in the end, the doctor was already ahead of her and spoke without any prompting.

"He should be fine to talk to, at the moment." Twilight caught on to his wording almost immediately, deciding to press for more information on what he meant.

"At the moment? Did something happen when he woke up?" Twilight asked. The doctor sighed at this, as he slowly trotted back to his desk grabbing the seat that lay away from him in his magic and bringing it back to himself before sitting.

"Well, unfortunately, he had another panic attack after he woke up," he began.

"Another one?" Twilight responded in surprise.

The doctor nodded. "Yes, almost immediately after I began to try to talk to him; however, it was far less severe then what caused him to come here in the first place. He calmed down after some time but, he wouldn't answer any of my questions. Wouldn't even tell me his name. He seemed..." The doctor paused, twirling his hoof around, trying to think of the right word to describe what he saw. "He seemed scared, or confused. Almost like he didn't understand what was going on around him."

Twilight didn't know how to respond. She was astonished, to say the least. Another panic attack so soon after waking up. Was it actually something he’d seen at her school, or was he simply shocked to be at the hospital all of a sudden? The questions began to endlessly flow through her mind once again.

The doctor ended up cutting her thoughts short when he decided to speak again. "He's in room one-fifteen. Also, if you’re able to get him to talk, could you forward any answers you get from him to me? It would make my work a lot easier." Twilight blinked out of her thoughts when she heard the request. She had almost missed it entirely but managed to stitch together the bits of information she heard to understand what he meant.

"Oh, yes of course." Twilight rose from her seat and turned towards the door, which still hung slightly ajar. As she magically pulled the door open, she heard the doctor thank her, which she responded in kind as she left the office. With a newfound goal, she made her way towards the room of the mysterious stallion in hopes of getting the answers she needed.

Twilight walked down the immaculate halls of the hospital, searching for that one numbered door she was looking for. Each door she passed counted downwards towards her goal.

One-thirty four, one-thirty three. Each step she took grew louder, and every beat of her heart grew more intense.

One-twenty eight. The echoes of her hooves clashing against the floor reverberated through the empty halls stretching through its entire length.

One twenty-two. Her mind began to swirl into thoughts of how she would do this. What questions could she get out of this stallion, if he seemingly refused to answer even the doctor? Only the numbers on the doors pierced through her mind’s storm of ideas.

One-seventeen. She couldn't explain it, but she began to feel uneasy. The possibility of what could happen in this conversation was endless. Perhaps, something grave would be brought to her attention, or maybe nothing at all, just as it had gone with the doctor. Even it being nothing more than a cruel prank came to her mind. It was the possibility of anything that ate away at her, consuming every last morsel of her thoughts. It was like staring into the darkness of a forest. Was there nothing but foliage, or did a predator lurk within that darkness, waiting for its next feast? Twilight was heading into that forest to find out.

One-fifteen. She grabbed the door's handle in her magical grasp, slowly pushing it open as to not surprise the occupant.

Immediately she spotted him. He sat there in the bed with light blue blankets covering his hind legs and tail. He was sitting upright in the bed and looking directly out of the window which stood just beside his bed. The look on his face was almost unreadable. Those green eyes of his staring, unblinking, and unmoving... they made Twilight feel unsure of what to think. The way he wistfully gazed out towards the world beyond the glass barrier as the beams of light that seeped through bounced off his orange coat with almost shimmering splendor. Only for the light to be absorbed by the darkness of his raven mane, leaving only a single streak of golden sheen that stretched from the very tip of his hair to just beyond his forehead. From the lack of any horn or wings... he seemed to be a normal earth pony. Despite her uncertain feelings, she still had something she needed to do.

"Hello?" Twilight started. She looked for any sign of acknowledgment from the stallion, only to be met with an empty silence. He did not respond, just as he had with the doctor. She tried greeting him again, only to be met with the same. It was like she was just a ghost to this pony. She tried multiple times to greet him, but each attempt always ended the same. Silence. Nothing but an empty look gazing forwards. After each attempt of communication, she unknowingly began to move closer to the pony in front of her. Somehow she needed to get an answer out of him. She wanted him to speak, to tell her how he ended up like this.

Then it occurred to her. What she saw was not a blank expression. It was more akin to that of intense focus. She recognized it from the description her friends gave her whenever they found her in deep concentration. Whether it was studying over something she found an interest in, or simply reading something she grew invested in. She remembered some of the ways they got her to snap out of this entranced state and began to approach the stallion's bedside.

She reached out her hoof towards him, ever so slowly inching her way towards his shoulder. She once again attempted to greet the stallion, only this time applying a gentle touch to his shoulder.

"Hello?" Twilight waited in agonizing anticipation as she kept her hoof on his shoulder. She looked into the stallion's eyes, hoping to see a shift in focus, anything that could denote a hint of response, and there it was. They met eye to eye. Twilight had broken him free of his aimless gaze.

She took her hoof away from his shoulder and smiled warmly at him to try and show him she meant no harm. "Hello," she greeted him with a wave.

The stallion blinked for seemingly the first time since she had met him. His mouth began to open as he tried to form the correct words. The time Twilight had been looking for had come. If it all went smoothly, she could finally find out what she had wanted to know since the beginning of this whole affair. Then, he spoke his first words in a soft, trembling voice.

"H-hello..."

A "Quiet, and Mundane" Town: Part 2

Princess Celestia sat in a meeting with a few high ranking nobles. Most of the time, their topics for conversation were trivial things. Like what the current color of the park’s benches should be, or them making suggestions on how to improve the castle to be more, "regal" as they would say. However, with the rapid escalation of crimes, and the disappearances of ponies. There was no room to jabber about such things.

While a conversation was still going between some of the nobles. Another of the nobles, A cyan unicorn stallion with a blonde mane, brought out some papers from the pristine saddle bag that lay next to his seat. And interrupted them, "Princess, I don't know if you were already made aware of this, but from what I have gathered. Many of these ponies who were incarcerated or charged in this recent flux of crime. Appear to not have any notable records. It's as if they just showed up one day."

"Perhaps, they're changelings?" An elderly unicorn stallion, who had a tan coat and a large brown handlebar mustache, injected. The simple question sparked an almost violent reaction from a red pegasus mare with a purple mane.

"I knew it!” She stood from her seat suddenly and banged her hoof on the table, startling a few of the nobles who were present. “We shouldn't have trusted what was once our former enemy!"

"No, That's not it.” The cyan stallion rebuked, “Everypony who's incarcerated are already checked for that with the revealing spell, ever since the royal wedding incident." The red mare huffed angrily and flopped herself back onto her seat, looking away from the table. Her behavior always seemed to amuse or annoy some of the other nobles on occasion.

"Why even bring this up?” A white unicorn stallion with a blue mane and small mustache debated, “So what if they don't have any 'notable records' we've all ways had nomads or ponies from elsewhere visit Equestria. It's quite common nowadays, you know? 'showing up' is what they do." He replies pushing his monocle up as it loosened from its place.

"I'm aware." The cyan noble responded dryly.

"Are you implying that these ponies from outside are the main reason for this influx?" The elderly noble noted, getting an instant reply from the cyan noble.

"I'm not implying anything. I am merely stating the facts from the reports I requested."

"Princess, what do you think of this?" The White Noble asked causing all the other nobles to look towards the princess, awaiting a response. Even the grumpy red mare, stopped her sulking genuinely interested in hearing from the princess. The princess put her hoof to her chin thinking about this small bit of information. She knew there wasn't really much that could be done at the moment. As there is still very little known in the first place.

"What of medical records?" Celestia inquired about the cyan nobles report. Causing him to flip back through his papers quickly scanning them.

"Yes, there are instances of medical records"

"What were some of the medical visits?" Celestia continued.

The cyan noble flipped through the pages again. This time paying more close attention to what's on them. "Hmm..." As he looked through the papers, over time his face grew more intrigued, yet horrified at the same time. "This is.... unprecedented!" His shocking words washed over the nobles leaving them in an overwhelming sense of suspense. "A shockingly large number of these reports. Other than usual medical proceedings, There is a large commonality between them. Many of these reports are saying that these ponies suffer from varying degrees of... amnesia."

The table fell completely silent as all the nobles gawked towards the cyan stallion. Even Celestia seemed quite surprised by this revelation.

"Amnesia? " Celestia looked away from the noble and put her hoof to her chin, pondering on what this means. Celestia couldn't explain why she felt this way, but she felt like the amnesia was no mere coincidence. She was sure of it. "Hmm, those who lack any memory of who they once were, or the life they served before are usually more susceptible to manipulation." The nobles looked back over to Celestia.

"You think somepony may be manipulating them?" The red mare questioned.

Celesta was sure of at least one thing, this amnesia was a major sticking point towards the sudden surge of crime. With the crimes being mostly committed by ponies from seemingly outside Equestria, perhaps some creature was sticking ponies with magically induced amnesia. All in an effort to manipulate them. Yet she couldn't immediately think of why they would do it, to begin with. It gave her a headache just thinking about it.

"I'm not sure..." Celestia winced at the sharp pain she felt in her head. Laying her hoof on her forehead instinctively from the pain.

The monocled stallion grew concerned after seeing the Princess wince in pain. "Princess, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you." Celestia took her hoof away from her forehead, only to feel that lingering sensation of the headache remain. What she originally thought was just her thinking too hard, turned into a much more problematic and insistent pain that wouldn't go away. The pain never subsided. She tried to ignore it and continue with the meeting but each of her thoughts was halted by a twinge of pain that only ever grew each time it occurred. She couldn't continue like this.

Thinking of a quick excuse, Celestia went to suspend the meeting in an effort to wait out this sudden assault on her mind. "I need to give some thought to this, so, for now, the meeting is suspended. We will meet again tomorrow to discuss further."

"Yes, of course, Princess." The monocled noble did not protest the princess' words and stood from the table gathering his stuff. The other nobles followed suit. Celestia waited for all the nobles to clear out before making her way out as well.

A guard outside stood at attention as she walked out of the meeting room. Turning towards the guard she excused him from his current duty. With a nod and the guard's ever-present scowl, he took his spear and went on his way.

For Celestia, all she could think of afterward were to retreat to her bed. The thought of the soft covers and mattress was her only comfort through this pain. Perhaps after a good rest, it would leave her.

Her headache only ever seemed to grow in pain the closer she got to her room. The unrelenting thumping almost felt like her brain was pushing against the sides of her skull over, and over again. All the guards, and servants she passed witnessed her audible wincing. They were concerned for the princess of course, but they dare not speak in fear of aggravating whatever ailed her.

"Dear Iggdrasil, please help me," Celestia whispered to herself trying to appease the headache.

Finally, making it to her room, she opened the door while not giving so much of a glance away from the ground, or a greeting towards the stalwart guards who stood just outside. Nothing but her bed seemed to exist to her at that moment.

She flopped her back down into the bed. Sighing in content at the soft warmth of the sheets, and cloud-like mattress. She almost forgot about the splitting headache that led her here in the first place, but when it made itself known again all of that comfort she felt drained away as quickly as it came.

The pain was ever-present, never letting itself be forgotten. Thumping, and pounding. Celestia felt sick from it all. Why now? Such an intense ache couldn't have simply come from the meeting. Yet here it was causing more physical grief than she had ever experienced from a headache. It began to boil up for several minutes. The soft bed lost to her, only leaving the pain that plagued her so. She felt like her head was being pelted by several sharp rocks. She felt like she should be screaming from the intensity of it all, but then, suddenly, it dulled.

The pain vanished into memory long forgotten. It came to her like a vision. She could see the eyes of someone staring at her. Reaching out for her. She stared at those green eyes that looked back at her with familiarity, and malice. Those eyes. She knew them. They were once friendly, but now they were tinged with hatred. Celestia didn't like what she was seeing, nor what the vision made her feel. She dealt with him long ago. She hasn't thought of him for so long. Why would she all of a sudden be having such a vision? Perhaps, could it be? Has he... returned?

"Avalon...?"

Twilight wasn't surprised by the timid response. It only seemed natural after everything the stallion has been through. She made herself look as unthreatening as she could, which was mostly easy for the princess of friendship. She reached her hoof out for a hoof shake as she introduced herself

"My name's Twilight Sparkle. May I ask for your name?" Twilight waited for a reply, but all the stallion did was stare at her hoof. He just sat there glaring at her hoof as if he was scared of it. Did she go too fast with her motion, and had accidentally frightened him? She mentally chastised herself. She wasn't dealing with somepony who was just walking on the side of the street. She's going to have to be more thoughtful of her actions.

Twilight was surprised, however, to find another hoof awkwardly placed on top of hers. There was no movement up or down, The hoof just stood still on top of her own. The two of them just sat uncomfortably, and quietly for a while, before the stallion quickly took his away from Twilight's hoof, seemingly mortified.

"Sorry..." He said in that same timid voice from before.

"There's no need to be sorry. I should be sorry for acting the way I did."

"No...I thought...I..." He was struggling to find the words he was looking for.

"Hey, It's okay. You don't have to worry about it. It's fine, really. I just want to help." The stallion stopped stumbling over his words after hearing Twilight's friendly demeanor. In fact, it almost brought a strange sense of familiarity with him.

"O-okay"

Twilight smiled once more and attempted to try and speak with him again. She motioned to herself with her hoof to introduce herself again. "My name's Twilight Sparkle. Could I ask for yours if I may ask?"

"My name? It's... umm...I...I d-," Twilight was surprised to see the stallion seemingly struggle to answer; what she thought would be the simplest question for her to start with. The horrified expression he gave didn't make her feel any better about it."D-...d-..." He repeated that D sound several times as if he was trying to say something at the tip of his tongue. "D-dus-... Dusty. My name, It's Dusty."

Twilight let out a relieved sigh after hearing his name. She was starting to think he may have amnesia. Perhaps it was just a slip of the mind. He did go through something seemingly traumatic " Okay, Dusty. I know you just woke up but I have some questions I'd like to ask you. If you would let me?"

Dusty nodded. "Okay." From the tone of his voice, Twilight could tell he was starting to grow more comfortable. That was good. If he was as jumpy as he was before, then there could have been some trouble. Though ponies were in general very unpredictable, to begin with, especially strangers. She couldn't just expect a smooth conversation.

"So, Dusty, first and foremost, do you have any questions you'd like to ask?"

Dusty took awhile to come up with what to say next. He looked over the whole room as if he was looking for the answer. "Yeah. Where am I, exactly?"

"You're at The Ponyville Hospital."

"Ponyville? Hospital?" Dusty mused over those 2 words like they were foreign concepts to him. He had so many questions yet he felt only one was appropriate to ask at the moment. "Why am I at a hospital?"

Twilight cringed internally at the question. She didn't want to lie to him. She knew bringing it back to his attention may cause some more episodes, however, she knew that she would have to bring it back up to him again eventually. In the end, she decided to just tell him as calmly as she could.

"Well, To put it simply you had a... rather severe, panic attack."

"Panic attack?" Dusty whispered audibly,

Twilight nodded. "Yes, In fact, that's actually why I'm here. I don't mean to sound insensitive, but... Do you recall why you may have had such a severe panic attack? It may be something that requires my attention."

Dusty recoiled at the question. What caused it? He tried thinking back to some of his most recent memories. It all felt so fuzzy. Like a faint mist was obscuring the most important parts. All he could remember was the fear. The unbridled terror that he felt after waking up. He remembered how helpless it felt. The confusion, and pain. He only remembered how it felt.

He turned his gaze away from Twilight back to the window and looked outside. He could see all the ponies in the front. Some ponies coming and leaving. Someone in a wheelchair smiling as they watch a little one playing in a small field of flowers. All the buildings in the distance, and a bustling marketplace. It all seemed so surreal. Then he saw the reflection in the transparent glass. A pony looked back at him, confused. The golden streak, The muzzle, and the orange coat. He remembered that color. The orange which was among one of his favorites was the harbinger to what came after.

He looked down from the window and set his eyes on his hooves. Staring at them like extra limbs. He remembered now.

"I... lost something." He mumbled absentmindedly.

"You, lost something?" Twilight pondered, flabbergasted at what he said. Simply losing something couldn't cause somepony to fall unconscious in panic, could it?

Dusty looked away from his hooves, and back to Twilight when he heard her speak. He didn't mean for her to hear that.

"Wait, I didn't..." His voice halted suddenly and everything around him seemed to slow. Something was there, and it stood directly behind Twilight. A bipedal being towered over her at almost twice her height. Glowing with a golden aura, it remained still. Dusty didn't see it move or shake in the slightest. It just sat there gazing straight into him with those stern green eyes.

It was uncanny. The color was nearly identical to his own. Orange skin which matched with the color of his coat, and that short dark hair he saw as his own. It was all so familiar. It wore a brown boxing helmet that has two smooth golden studs on each side of the helmet, and a red heart emblazoned in the middle of the forehead area. A golden plate rested on its chin almost resembling a goatee. The face was the only thing Dusty actually remembered. The two golden lines that trailed from the waist to the arm like a tattoo. The gold braces around the forearms, and brown fingerless gloves with padding around the knuckles. Those dark shorts with gold outlines. Brown shoes with gold greeves that stretched to just under the knee. It was all different.

Everything but that face was unrecognizable. It was his. Whatever it was; it has his face! At least, the face he had lost. Was it a ghost? Why would something be wearing his face just to appear all of a sudden? The oddest thing was that he wasn't scared of it. Those unblinking eyes brought him an almost calming feeling. Something about it made him feel safe, but it only made him more confused than before.

"Are you okay?"

Dusty has pulled away from his thoughts and looked back down to Twilight. She had an expression of concern on her. For a second he forgot someone else was here with him. Not wasting any time he pointed towards the figure that stood behind Twilight.

"I-I see myself."

"What?" Twilight turned her head towards where he was pointing. She stared for just a couple seconds before turning back to Dusty. "That's just a mirror."

"Eh?"

She was right. Without Dusty even realizing it. The figure just vanished. No trail of smoke. No light. Nothing but the small reflection of a tabletop mirror looked back at him.

"I...I..." Dusty struggled to find the words he was looking for. No matter what he thought of it couldn't explain the reason why something would just vanish like that. Not to mention there was nothing that could even prove there was something there in the first place.

Everything that happened today was just too much for him. The panic attack. Waking up in a hospital filled with talking ponies. The figure that had his former face. It was all overflowing him with stress and anxiety.

"I... want to be left alone for a bit. Please? I'll answer whatever you want later." Dusty asked. He wanted to get his head together. And come to terms with everything that has happened to him so far.

The request didn't shock Twilight in the least. It seemed pretty reasonable to her.

"Yes. Of course. I'll come back later if that's what you would like." Twilight nodded. As she made her way to the door she stopped for a second, and thought back to the doctor she talked to before this. She should probably go back to the doctor and talk to him again.

"Excuse me?"

Twilight turned her head back towards Dusty. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry to ask, but could you open the window for me? I'd like to get some fresh air if I could?"

Twilight nodded "Oh, yes. I can do that for you." Twilight ignited her horn with her violet aura and engulfed the handle of the window with it. Dusty was perplexed to see this. He looked to the window and back to Twilight repeatedly as it slid upwards to about halfway open. It amazed him, to say the least.

"How did you-?" He stopped just short of finishing his words and noticed Twilight's perplexed look.

Seeing Dusty look back and forth between herself and the window was rather different from what she expected. That look of amazement was like a colt wandering a theme park for the first time.

"That was just magic," Twilight stated. The look on Dusty's face never faltered. Nor did any form of recollection show on his face. It was like he never saw magic before. Did he actually have some form of amnesia? "You, do know what magic is right?"

Dusty snapped out of his amazement. "What? Of course! I just didn't... no, nevermind. It doesn’t matter."

Twilight's expression grew more worried than she was before. He was already acting rather odd, and seemingly paranoid, but now this? It left an unpleasant taste in her mouth to just leave it at that. Her analytical brain wanted to know what exactly was going on. She was so close to the answer. It was like a puzzle that she thought would have been a nine tile sliding puzzle, turned into a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle with deformed pieces that wouldn't fit in properly. She couldn't fit anything she knew together. It hurt her head thinking about it.

"Alright. See you later then." Twilight turning her head back to the door engulfed it's knob in the familiar violet light and pulled it open. She glanced back at Dusty discreetly. Seeing exactly what she thought she would. He stared at her magic in awe though much more suppressed than before. Like he was trying to hide his feelings. Only to come up short on delivering.

Twilight made an exasperated sigh before leaving Dusty to his thoughts.

Meanwhile

Bustling with life, like always, the market made itself a rather effective place to meet with one's acquaintances and carry a casual conversation. Even chatting with a complete stranger wasn't all that odd. Which a certain pony ended up finding herself in a conversation of that very nature.

"I'm sorry. I don't know who you're talking about. I wish I could help more." A mint green unicorn mare answered. Standing in front of her was a large figure who was draped in a white cloak. His face was slightly darkened from the cloak making it hard to distinguish the eyes, but the grey snout that stuck out from the hood was in full view. From the shape and voice, they were male.

"Really? Nothing?" The disappointment was dripping from the stallion's mouth. He sounded almost offended with the whining tone that came from his words. "What about screaming? Did you hear anything like that? Or maybe you saw someone running around in a panic? Did you notice some sort of odd behavior from a pony around here at all?"

"I'm... I'm sorry what?" The unicorn was taken aback by the questions he was asking. Screaming? Why would he be asking about screaming?

"Screaming? Panicking? Come on! Sorry if I sound rude here, but I was pretty sure I was as clear as I could be." The stallion threw around his hoof emoting his frustration and impatience with more than just his tone, and expression. "It is rather important for me to find this guy."

"Sorry, I haven't noticed anything like that." She felt somewhat disturbed by these questions. Just who was this pony?

"Well, damn." The stallion let out a defeated sigh and turned away from the mare. "Well. What can you do, eh? Have a good day!" He threw his hoof in the air giving a casual wave as he walked away. Leaving the unicorn in awe.

The stallion walked passed the crowds of ponies in able to find the exit to the marketplace. So far everything he tried led to a dead-end. No one knew anything about what he was talking about. It was annoying to him, but what could he do?

All he wanted was to find this one guy. It was necessary. Not only was he told to, but if it led him to find what he had lost so long ago. It would all be worth the trouble in the end.

Stopping just outside the market he looked around to survey where to go next. There was a path that led to another block or so of buildings. The other path led to a hospital nearby. He sighed melodramatically before turning away from the hospital and heading off towards the many buildings that laid beyond.

As he was walking he suddenly halted in place. Like he had instantly become a stone statue. He could feel a tingle of energy flow through his spine. It was familiar. Something he swore he had experienced before. That's right. He felt this same sensation once before. It was when he first realized just what he was capable of. He was certain of it.

He whipped his body toward where it was coming from. When he saw it, he nearly slapped himself for glossing over it. The Hospital stood not too far away from him.

"That's it. That has to be it!" The excitement he felt was exhilarating. At last, his goal was near, and he wouldn't be wasting any time standing around. So with an accomplished smile, he took his first step towards the Hospital and began making his approach.