Equestrianet

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 1
Chapter 4

Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Another World

Inkblot woke up with his head leaned against his desk. He was dead tired, and the morning sun hurt his eyes as he opened them and surveyed his desk. The first thing he saw was his favorite blue quill, which was right in front of his eyes. Underneath his head was the note that he had started to write the night before. Finally, in front of him on the desk, was the strange device he had picked up in the bushes.

The colt closed his eyes and tried to remember the night he had. He remembered the attacking Ursa Minor. He remembered Trixie coming to town. He remembered Trixie's kiss. He remembered the two ponies arguing in the bushes. He remembered picking up the laptop. They didn't take his memory.

Inkblot silenty cursed himself for falling asleep like that. If the HP guys found him, they wouldn't have had a problem erasing his memory. While he was disappointed in himself, he was also relieved that he still had his memory of the events. That meant they didn't know it was him. For now, he was in the clear.

The colt looked down at the page he had started writing before he fell asleep. After a minute of analysis, the writer concluded that it did a sufficient job summarizing the night before. It wasn't exactly lengthy, only covering half of a page, but it got its message across. He put his note underneath his bed. It wasn't a brilliant hiding spot, but it would work for the time being.

"Now, let's see if I can find out how you work," Inkblot said to the laptop. The pale pony used his magic to open the lid of the foreign device. The black screen of the laptop was dormant and unchanging, but he kept in mind that the first time he found it, it took a while to start. So he waited.

And waited.

After about a minute of waiting, the unicorn realized it was taking longer than it should. Maybe he had to push some of the buttons in order to get a response. So he brutishly and randomly pressed the buttons with his hooves, as if he was trying to squash a bucket of grapes.

The unicorn was right. The screen lit up subtly from black to a very dark grey. The top half flashed a symbol that was unmistakibly a lightning bolt. Then it returned to the unresponsive black.

Inkblot tried pressing the buttons again, but there was no response from the laptop. There wasn't even the lightning bolt from earlier. The alien device seemed dead.

The colt assessed the situation. The laptop flashed a lightning bolt, and then turned off. Maybe it needed lightning in order to work. Sure, it didn't make a lot of sense, but it was a possibility, and other possibilities weren't rearing their heads.

Now how would he get lightning? He could ask somepony on the weather team to pull up a thundercloud and give a jolt. But then that pegasus would see the laptop and would have to have his memory wiped, too. Inkblot didn't want to have anypony else's memory cleared because of him. Not to mention that pegasus would probably tell someone else about it. From there, the news would spread like the plague, when Inkblot would've preferred to deal with this problem himself. The last thing the town needed was the chaos of knowing that they were being spied on.

Maybe there was a spell that could create lightning. That was a safer idea that would involve less spreading of the news. Worst case scenario was that there wasn't a spell for creating lightning and he could try something else.

So it was settled. Some time during the day, he would drop by the library and see if there was a lightning spell. As Inkblot planned his day, his stomach churned. First thing was first. He had to get himself some breakfast. Knowing his dad, he was in for a good meal.

The black-maned unicorn closed the lid of the laptop and hid it under his bed with the note as he ran out of his door. He could already smell what his dad was making.

"Hey dad! Is that what I think it is?" Inkblot called down the stairs.

The gruff voice of his father responded with "Yep! Toasted Bermuda Grass Sandwich! Your favorite!" as Inkblot made his way down the stairs. When he arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he went immediately to the kitchen, led through the halls by his nose. The unicorn was led straight to the table where he had a seat at one of three chairs. His dad was still preparing the food in the kitchen. "You're up a little late, aren't ya?" the brown stallion said.

The unicorn closed his eyes and inhaled deeply from his nose to smell the sandwiches. "Yeah. I had a bit of a late night last night."

His father chuckled as he turned around, using his magic to bring the sandwiches with him. "Really? I'm sure I'd be up late too if I were doin' what you were doin'," he said while stroing his messy beard.

The younger unicorn was confused and worried at the same time. There was no way he could have seen the laptop. Then again, his dad's bedroom window overlooked the front door. Inkblot took the safe approach and played dumb. "What are you talking about?"

His dad saw right through him. "I saw you follow that show pony when she ran out of town. It's okay. You don't have to hide the fact you like mares. So long as you didn't...you know-"

"Dad!" Inkblot was blushing furiously. He was relieved, but it was still pretty embarassing. "We didn't, like, make out or anything!"

The unicorn flinched as his dad wiped his cheek. When he retracted his hoof, a visible blue smudge was seen on it. "Yep. You keep tellin' yourself that. Also, you might wanna check your face for lipstick next time," the old gray-maned pony said with another chuckle.

As Inkblot took the first bite of his sandwich, desperately trying to avoid the subject at hand, the sound of the door opening echoed down the hall. The call of a little filly followed. "Inkblot! Headline!"

The old stallion answered the call. "In the kitchen, Snapshot!" A couple seconds passed before a little light blue earth pony came running in the room. She took a seat at the third chair. "Hey boys! How's it going?" she said with her ever so sweet voice.

Headline went to the stove to get the drinks he had left next to it. "I thought you said somethin' about not hangin' out with us stupid boys yesterday."

Inkblot joined in on the accusation. "Yeah. You wanted to spend more time with your fillyfriends."

"Yeah, but...um," she paused mid-sentence to fix a hair out of place in her straightened white mane. "...you guys always make the best breakfasts."

Headline gave another one of his signature chuckles. "Well, you're always welcome here. And believe me, you've been here so many times, you're basically family."

The little filly let out a big smile. "Thanks, you guys. By the way, my mom said that I was allowed to give you guys my pictures for the Ponyville Post."

The pale unicorn clapped his hooves in celebration. "Wow! That's great news!"

The older pony wore a look of concern. "You can take pictures all you want, but I can't pay you for it. You're too young. In fact, why is someone as young as you workin' anyway? Aren't your parents concerned about you goin' to work?"

"Well, ever since I got my cutie mark yesterday, I've been positive that my special talent is being a photographer, which is super, cuz I LOVE taking pictures." She showed off her new cutie mark. It was a camera with its bulb flashing. "I figured that I'd use my skills to help out Ponyville, and since I'm friends with you guys, here would be a perfect place to do that. So, I told this to my mom and dad and they agreed with me."

The old stallion nodded. "Alright. You can work here, but again, I can't pay you for it. Child labor laws and all."

"Yippee!" The blue filly jumped for joy, but stopped quickly to make sure her mane wasn't messed up.

Inkblot sighed before he asked, "So, about the new cutie mark. How's it doing?"

"Oh my gosh! It is so great! Everypony I know LOVES it!! In fact, Cheerilee told me that my cutie mark represents cherishing the greatest moments of my life!"

Inkblot smiled. He loved hearing his little friend talk about the joys that came with getting a cutie mark.

"And then, yesterday after class, Sweetie Belle and I tried to guess what her cutie mark was gonna look like. By the way, what would a forgetful cutie mark look like?"

The black-maned colt's ears perked up. His father responded to the filly with a question. "That's a peculiar question. Why do you ask?"

"Because I made this joke about how her cutie mark would be something forgetful since she forgot about how I got my cutie mark, which was really weird because she was there. Anyway, I said it would be a goldfish, cuz she once told me they only had three second memories."

Inkblot almost spat out the bite of sandwich in his mouth. The voice from the night before resounded in his mind. They said one pony was losing its memory, and that pony wouldn't remember ANYTHING that happened that day.

Less than a second later, the unicorn was out of his seat and running for the front door. His alarmed parent yelled, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to the library! I'll be back soon!" the running pony called back. He had to find out what was going on, and he had to find out now.

After a few long minutes of running, Inkblot finally made it to the library. He used to go there all the time to read when he was a kid, and sometimes still went there for writing tips for his articles in the Ponyville Post. Although he goes there from time to time, he hadn't been there since the new librarian started working there. Inkblot was curious to see what he or she was like.

But that was at the back corner of the unicorn's mind. His mind was racing about what he had just heard. Apparently, the HIP or whatever guys took the memory of an innocent little filly. That was nearly intolerable. He had to find out why they were there, and the secret was in that strange device he found on the ground.

Inkblot approached the door and gave it a couple knocks between pants and gasps. Exhausted as he was, he was determined to get power to the laptop. Fortunately, the door was opened only a couple seconds after the anxious pony knocked.

The little purple dragon that opened the door looked up at the unicorn. "Welcome to the-"

"I need to find a lightning spell!" Inkblot interrupted. Despite how tired he was, he still managed to sound urgent.

The baby dragon flinched in surprise. After a brief pause, he yelled. "Hey, Twilight! Some guy looking for a book!"

A mare's voice followed, "Alright, Spike I'm on my way downstairs." Inkblot saw the lavender unicorn as she descended the staircase. She had a purple mane with a hot pink highlight, and a cutie mark with a star on it. The colt knew exactly who she was.

"You!" he said involuntarily. How dare she make herself look better than the Great and Powerful Trixie? How dare she humiliate Trixie in front of all of Ponyville?

Twilight wore a look of confusion. "Me?" she asked innocently.

Before he could let out his onslaught of accusation, the pale unicorn thought about what he was going to say. Apparently, this neighsayer was the librarian, so if he wanted to learn that lightning spell, throwing insults at her wouldn't be the best idea. Putting his priorities in order and his grudges aside, he tried to recover from his previous statement. "You... uh... must be... the new librarian! I've heard a lot of great things about you!"

Twilight blushed as the little reptile in front of her started talking. "You mean like how she's the talented unicorn in all of Ponyville!"

"Spike! I told you to stop showing me off!" The mare's cheeks were still red as she scolded the baby dragon.

But Spike continued anyway. "Oh, come on! You just defeated an Ursa Minor last night! You might be one of the greatest unicorns in all-"

"Anyway, I need to find a lightning spell." Inkblot interrupted before he followed his urge to kick the dragon in the face.

This elicited another puzzled look from the librarian. "A lightning spell? What do you need a lightning spell for?"

Inkblot suddenly felt stupid. He forgot to find an answer to this question. He had to draw an answer from out of nowhere. "Because it would be cool."

Twilight gave the colt an unimpressed stare. Spike also gave him a stare, but it was one of wonder. Twilight spoke first. "Well, lightning isn't exactly a force to be tampered with."

Her little friend cut in. "Are you kidding?! The guy is right! Shooting lightning would be so cool!"

The pale unicorn added to his fabrication. "And my friend is a pegasus. We've been fighting about who's better: unicorns or pegasi. And I thought since they had lightning clouds, we could have lightning, too."

"And just imagine shooting lightning! It'd be like a superpower!" the purple dragon added.

Twilight groaned. "Fine. But it won't be an explosive lightning bolt like you'd find from a storm cloud. It'll just be a little jolt," she said as she used her magic to retrieve a book from one of the shelves.

A little jolt would most likely be enough. A box that small probably couldn't take a lightning strike. "That'll do."

As she placed the heavy book on his back (causing him to buckle slightly), the librarian said, "I believe your spell is on page...1367. If it's not there, try the index."

Inkblot took the unneeded weight off his back using his magic. "Thank you. When should I bring this back?" he asked with a smile.

Twilight returned the friendly smile. "Whenever you're done with it."

The colt gave a neighborly wave before saying "See ya!" and trotting away. He didn't get the chance to see the cheery mare wave back. Once he was far enough from the tree house, he uttered something under his breath.

"...neighsayer..."

Inkblot was positive he was alone in his room. If anypony saw what he was doing it would mean their memory would be wiped, and he didn't want that happening. Either way, he wanted to keep this to himself until he had more information in what was going on.

He opened the goliath of a book called "Directory of Spells" in front of him. The thing must have had at least 3000 pages. After flipping through entries entitled "Teleportation", "Flower Generation", "Telepathy", "Creating Wings", and many others that he didn't even know there were spells for, he finally came across page 1367: "Electricity".

It was a very simple spell. In fact, it took the monochrome unicorn less than a minute to learn, and he was terrible at learning new spells. After only a couple minutes, he was shooting sparks like a master.

Once he was confident in his new magical ability, Inkblot opened up the laptop to see if it would respond. After mashing a couple buttons, it was evident that the device didn't even have enough power to show the mysterious lightning bolt symbol it showed earlier.

He turned the box on its side, showing him a plethora of little holes, each one having its own symbol. After spying a headphone symbol and symbols that he couldn't even guess what they meant, he found the lightning bolt symbol.

"Here goes nothing!"

He released a set up sparks into the hole, making a quiet sizzling sound. It didn't sound harmful. It sounded like it might have been working. Checking to see if the hypothesis was true, the unicorn reopened the laptop to see if it would respond. The laptop's dark screen remained dark for a moment, only to reveal the lightning bolt symbol once again. That was a good sign. It meant that the laptop got a bit of power from it. He just needed to give it more power.

Inkblot gave it five sparks this time. He figured it ought to be enough. He looked to the screen, hoping for a response other than the lightning bolt. Fortunately, he got one. Like the night before, the screen jumped to life. He was back to the white screen labeled "Gmail". It looked the same as it did when he first booted it to life, except there was a message with thick words: "To the Pony on The Laptop".

His eyes darted to the message. He needed to read that, but he didn't know how to use the laptop. So he inspected the bottom half of the device. There was the field of letters, numbers and symbols, and the small indention with two buttons that made an oval. Why was there an indent?

He put his hoof on the indention and felt around its ridges. The crater didn't feel any different from the rest of the surface, which confused him. As the unicorn continued rubbing, he checked the screen to see if there was a response. At first, he didn't notice anything, but after a couple seconds he saw a little thingy flying around. He stopped moving his hoof, and as he did, the thing stopped. It looked like a tiny, white, lopsided triangle with a stumpy little tail. He stroked his hoof downward to see how the thing would respond. As he did, the thing went down, too. Then, he got an idea.

Inkblot used his hoof to drag the thingy over to the words "To the Pony on the Laptop". He looked down to the indention again, and tried pressing the button under the crater. When he pressed the left button with his hoof, the entire line turned blue. Aside from that, nothing happened. Inkblot's deductive reasoning led him to try the right button. When he pressed that button, a box appeared next to the thingy. It said things like "Open", "Open in New Tab", "Open in New Page", "Properties", "Copy Link Address", "Save Image As...", and others that just reading them made the unicorn's mind hurt. Confused by all of the choices, he figured "Open" would be the best choice. As he moved the thingy over to the word, the "Open" turned into a blue rectangle with "Open" in white. Instinctively, the colt pressed the left button.

Suddenly, the entire screen went white. Inkblot nearly panicked, afraid he had messed it up. Fortunately for him, the screen showed the Gmail screen again. This time there was a message visible.

"Hello. If you are reading this, it means that you have a basic understanding of how the computer (what you're using) works. Not only that, but you're reading it before I have to delete it (can't let anyone else read this, or I'll be in more trouble than I'm in already). That is beyond incredible, but that isn't the reason I'm sending you this message. I'm sending you this message to let you know of some things.

First, I should introduce myself. My name is Steven Franklin. I was the one being attacked last night. I quit my job last night, and the reason he took me quitting so seriously was because of the laptop you are holding right now. I won't go into too many details since I could be found at any point in time and I want to have this sent to you. (by the way if you need to move the screen to read the rest of this move the cursot (the white thing) over to te side of the screen and drag the blue bar)

Now, one important thing you should know about us is we are not ponies. In fact, I'm not even sure if our species is known in your world. It was by sheer coincidence yours existed in ours. We are called humans.

Now I suppose you have questions:

How did I get here?

While our scientists were playing aroun in the labs, they accidentally found an odd sort of wormhole, moving objects to an alternate universe. Recently, they have sent humans through a wormhole via a remote control hologram. You're world to us is some sort of a parallel universe that is still very unknown to us. (I apologize if you don't understand some of these terms. I hope one day I can explain this to you better.)

Next you're wondering, why is the computer important?"

Inkblot, transfixed on the message, moved the cursot (now that he knew what it was called) to the blue bar on the right, and pressed the left button to drag it down, exposing the rest of the message.

"The reason that computer is so important us because it's the way to get home. Put simply, the computer locates where my hologram is and takes the hologram back to my home. If you don't understand, don't worry. It's difficult to understand.

Who was the guy strangling me?

That was my former partner, Hopkins. He works for the same company I used to work for, and we had slightly different opinions. He's gone now, don't worry. When the HPIRT came to wipe the memory of Pony 167, he went back to our world. I personally have no intention of going back yet, but either way I can't without the laptop.

Who is the HPIRT?

I know you're probably intimidated by the acronym, so I'll start with this. HPIRT stands for Human Pony-"

Suddenly, the screen went completely black. Inkblot was so focused on the message, he nearly flinched. Then the dark screen showed the lightning bolt symbol. The colt cursed the computer as he gave it another set of sparks.

The laptop reacted to the sparks immediately, showing a bright white screen. He was back at Gmail, but the screen show a message that nearly enraged him.

"[MESSAGE HAS BEEN DELETED]"

Inkblot let out an audible groan. The answer was right in front of his face, only to be yanked away immediately. Human Pony IRT. What did that IRT mean? What did it mean?! His angered spiked every time he asked himself.

After his anger died down a little, he thought about the rest of Franklin's message. One thing that hit him hard was that Franklin and Hopkins weren't ponies! They were those human thingies, or whatever. It was like an alien invasion. But wait, they weren't really invading, were they? They were just sending holograms, whatever those were. Were holograms like death robots or something? Then again, Franklin seemed friendly. Inkblot didn't dismiss the idea of an invasion, but put it in the back of his mind.

And apparently the laptop he was holding was incredibly important. Returning it wasn't even an option, since he didn't know where to find Franklin. Besides, Franklin wanted him to know about his world, so he may as well learn about it through the laptop.

Suddenly, the colt remembered something. He got his saddlebag out and packed it up with bits and snacks. He folded the laptop and put it away into a concealed pocket within the saddlebags. It was better to take it with him than to leave it at his home unguarded. When he thought about it, he didn't need that much more.

Inkblot ran down the stairs and called to his dad, "Hey! I'll be back on Sunday! Goin on a trip!"

His father gave a nonchalant, but loud response. "Alright, just be sure you have your article done when you get home."

The article! Inkblot had forgotten about that completely. "Don't worry. It'll be done!"

"Where are you goin' anyway?"

Inkblot opened the door. "Canterlot. There's a show tomorrow night. Tickets in Canterlot sell out quick and it's a long trip. See ya!" He closed the door behind him and went on his way to Canterlot.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Road to Canterlot

Before he left for Canterlot, he stopped by the Silver Stable, his favorite restaurant, and bought some hay fries. He figured he'd get some food while it was still cheap in Ponyville. He also stopped by Sugarcube Corner to pick up some sweets for his trip to the royal city.

The trip to Canterlot wasn't too long. The city was on a mountainside near Ponyville, and climbing up the mountain took only 3 hours. For a trip on foot, that wasn't long at all, but still no delight. Fortunately, he had packed snacks.

On his way up the mountain, he searched for a spot where no one would see him. He eventually found the cover of some bushes on the side of the road near the top of the mountain, which he hid behind as soon as he found it. Inkblot was determined to learn at least something about the laptop, and where else would be better than hidden away on the side of a road, and judging by the number of people he had seen, it wasn't a very busy road.

When he was surely hidden behind the bushes, he pulled the laptop out of his black saddlebag. The area behind the bushes was an enclosed space that seemed to be an air bubble in a sea of bushes. The unicorn opened the box to reveal the familiar black screen. In response, Inkblot gave it a couple shocks to bring it to life.

The screen showed Gmail again, with the same walls of text he had read before. Nothing new. No message "To the Pony on the Laptop." Just the same text he had seen earlier. While he looked at this page, he had to wonder if the laptop he held could do more than deliver a message.

Suddenly, Inkblot noticed an area of the screen he hadn't noticed before. There was a bar on the bottom containing a series of words. There was "Gmail", "Untitled-Not...", "CamSystem", and"HLRS" (another confusing acronym). Gmail was darker that the rest of them, so he assumed that meant he needed to click on another one of the bottom words to get anything different.

He started by clicking on the "Untitled- Not.." button. A box appeared on the screen that was labeled "Untitled- Notepad". The box featured another wall of words, except Inkblot could understand. It seemed to be a list of some kind, sorted into different sections. The top part of it said:

"Episode 6

Possible Episode Titles:
New Pony In Town
Boast Busters
Major Problems
The Best Around"

"Episode"? As far as Inkblot knew, an episode was like a part of a journey or something. It wasn't exactly a common word. Maybe it was some sort of slang in the human culture. He continued reading.

"Outline:"

Outline. There was a word that clicked with the pony. He knew an outline as the framework for a story or an article. His dad made him use outlines when he was making his earlier articles for the Post. Maybe an episode was like a story. As he read on, his thoughts were confirmed. Underneath it was a list of events that made a story:

"Twilight hears about Trixie via Snips/Snails
Trixie appears
Main 6 challenges her and all lose
Twilight is afraid of looking like a braggart like Trixie
Spike tries to convince Twilight to use her magic
Snips/Snails worship Trixie
Spike talks to Snips/Snails
Dummy Duo wakes up the Ursa Major
Trixie admits she couldn't vanquish the Ursa
Twilight takes out Ursa (Was a Minor all along)
Trixie flees
Letter to Celestia"

Inkblot's heart dropped when he read the outline. That was only a couple days ago. He knew that they had apparently seen what happened, but they knew about it more than he did. It was almost scary how they were making a story out of the chaotic day in Ponyville.

Anxious to learn more, he continued down the page, using the scroll bar as if he had been using the laptop for years.

"Cameras used:
TownSquare 2, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, RC1, RC3
Sky 3, 6, RC2
Windmill
Library 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, RC1
EverfreeForest 13, RC1
GeneralPonyville 3, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 16, 19, 24, 28, 45, RC3, RC5"

Inkblot's stomach dropped again. Cameras? Judging by the list here, they were everywhere, and this was only a partial list. How did he know there wasn't a camera looking at him right now? How many cameras were there and how much could they see? Considering the next buttom on the bottom bar was called "CamSystem", he had a feeling he was going to find out. Inkblot clicked on the CamSystem button.

The screen was suddenly full of rectangles. Each rectangle showed a different sort of video. He recognized every single place shown on the cameras. He saw a pair of foals talking around town square. He saw a lavender librarian reading a book. He saw a couple animals creeping around in the Everfree. He even saw Snapshot getting a cupcake from Sugarcube Corner. It was scary how much he saw, and this was only a small percentage. Each video was labeled with a name and number, like "Town Square (23)", "Sugarcube Corner (17)", and "Everfree Forest (69)", which he assumed meant the area and the number of cameras. Not to mention there was an arrow visible on the side of the screen, which he guessed opened up more group, and more cameras.

Before he could take in the camera system further, Inkblot heard a "Ping!" The Gmail button on the bottom was blinking orange. The pony moved the cursot to the icon and clicked on it, reopening the page.

Gmail hadn't changed much given the exception of a small box that appeared at the bottom right. The unicorn read what it said:

"You: Just put up the cameras in Canterlot. I don't think any of the ponies noticed."

For a second, Inkblot was confused since the message implied that he had written it. Then again, everything else was confusing him, so he decided to assume it was someone who wasn't him. Another message popped up, followed by another "Ping!"

"Thiessen: Great. How about the laptop? And Franklin?"

"Ping!"

"You: The laptop is gone. The pony apparently took it. Franklin dashed away about two hours after my last email to you."

There was a pause, giving Inkblot a while to organize the few facts he had. "You" was that Hopkins guy. Thiessen is the guy he sent the email to and his boss. If Hopkins is bad and taking orders from this guy, then Thiessen was bad.

"Ping!"

"Thiessen: Alright, well in that case, you'll have to wait it out in Equestria for a while. We'll put you on the IV."

"Ping!"

"You: Sounds good. And what about Franklin?"

"Ping!"

"Thiessen: He will be put on the IV, too. We cannot legally take him off of the IV until he returns. Murder is still illegal."

"Ping!"

"Thiessen: By the way, I've been meaning to tell you this. There's been an explosion on the internet. A bunch of older men (ages about 16 to 30) seem to adore the show."

A pause from Hopkins gave the pony another opportunity to think. The "show"? So their lives were being recorded for some sort of entertainment for humans. A little sick, but maybe that was normal for them. And as for the IV, Inkblot made the decision to not even think about it. He just added it to the melting pot of confusion.

"Ping!"

"You: Don't take it too seriously Jayson. The internet is full of jokesters who'll poke fun at anything they can get their grubby little hands on. They're probably playing it for kicks. After all, it's a girl's show. There's no way they're serious about it."

"Ping!"

"You: Wait a sec... I think the laptop is nearby."

A chill charged through the unicorn's spine. Did he know where it was?

"Ping!"

"You: I can hear it!"

Of course! It was the "Ping!" coming from the laptop! Hopkins was using the laptop as a bell of some sort to track down the pony carrying it. The chimes came from the laptop and echoed through the space, seeming to be louder than his own thoughts.

"Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!"

Constant messages were sent, each one containing gibberish, but emmiting the cursed "Ping!", which drew Hopkins closer to the laptop. Inkblot's hairs stood on end. He had to think quickly or else who knows what would happen to him. He'd lose his memory of that kiss! He'd get in Celestia knows how much trouble. He had to act quick.

When Inkblot heard a rustling through the bushes behind him, he slammed the laptop shut, put it in his bag, and immediately ran for his life. He hadn't a clue where he was going, but as long as it was away from there, he would be fine.

The unicorn galloped through the bushes, each little branch stinging his face as he sped by them. Behind him, he could hear the heavy footsteps and unsteady grunts from the pursuer. Occasionally, he heard Hopkins saying things like "Gotcha." or "You got this." to himself. Inkblot didn't dare look behind him.

The two ran through the bushes for at least a minute and not a foot of ground was gained or lost. The pony had a feeling this would last forever unless he did something. He instinctively used his magic to throw anything he could into the path behind him, hoping that it would slow the human down, but the branches and leaves didn't even seem to break Hopkins' stride.

After a few tries of mindlessly throwing derbris behind him, Inkblot threw a rock about the size of an apple behind him. He could tell it hurt based on the yelp given by the one following. Inkblot felt bad hurting him like that, but he was slowed down, and that was vital to his escape.

The pony ran out of the shrubs and found the road to Canterlot again. There was an old moss-ridden stone bridge that went over a stream coming from a waterfall only a hundred feet away. Despite his hurting haunches, he continued to dash away, knowing that a little stone wouldn't stop Hopkins.

The unicorn galloped full stop across the bridge, feeling the sensation of mist of the waterfall on his coat accompanied by the waterfall's roar. Halfway across the bridge, he finally had the courage to take a look behind him. During his glimpse, he couldn't hear the human's groans and heavy footsteps over the waterfall, but he could see the staggering figure coming out of the brush. There was a problem. They were out in the open. Inkblot would be identified in seconds if Hopkins got a good look at him. Panicking and searching for something to do, he decided to once again rely on his gut, which had done a good job of keeping him out of trouble so far.

He could feel his magic push over a huge object behind him. An object so huge that the unicorn had to stop in his tracks and clamp his eyes shut. His horn was pushing this thing so hard, Inkblot clenched his teeth. Whatever it was, it seemed stuck. Normally there would be no way he could move it, but the adrenaline seemingly multiplied his power.

Suddenly, the unicorn felt the release. He moved whatever it was he tried to move. Before surveying what he did, he searched for a spot to hide. In the twitch of an ear, he found a rock and hid behind it. When he poked his head out, he let out a gasp.

The bridge was gone! Completely gone! The only sign showing that it used to be there were two ditches on the riverbank. All it took was a look downstream to see where the bridge (or at least what was left of it) went. The bridge was in at least ten parts tumbling downhill, following the river.

The pale pony couldn't watch for long since he still had to hide. He ducked behind the rock and made sure to leave nothing exposed. He had no idea how long to stay there, since Hopkins could always still be watching. He could be waiting there for hours. At least he had some time to think.

Did he really just unearth a bridge? Granted it was an old bridge that was probably older than Celestia herself, but did he really just do that? Was he THAT powerful? It must've been the adrenaline, but either way, moving an entire bridge is impressive to say the least.

After getting over his disbelief, he started to come up with a plan for how to escape. First of all, how did he know Hopkins couldn't just swim across?

"You're lucky these holograms can't get wet, otherwise I'd turn you to glue!" Hopkins threatened over the rumbling waterfall.

Well, there was the answer to his first question. Second, he had to know how much Hopkins saw. If he knew every last detail of what Inkblot looked like, he might as well walk in front of his enemy's face and pose for pictures. Recalling all of the information he knew about the human, he inferred that Hopkins would send a report to his boss. Inkblot opened the computer.

The unicorn was back at the Gmail page, ready to continue reading the conversation between Hopkins and Thiessen. It appeared that during their chase, the boss sent a message to his employee while he was giving chase.

"Thiessen: What's going on, Hopkins?"

"Ping!"

Inkblot wasn't worried about pings anymore. Hopkins couldn't get to him. In fact, he enjoyed it considering how much they tortured his new enemy.

"You: Found the pony with the laptop. Didn't get a great look, but I know that it's a white unicorn and no cutie mark."

Inkblot's heart skipped a beat as a chill zipped down his spine. His blank flank would be a dead giveaway. Aside from that, it's still pretty vague, so the white unicorn concluded that Hopkins didn't get a good enough look to identify him.

"Ping!"

"Thiessen: No cutie mark? So that means it's just a little filly or something, right?"

"Ping!"

"You: Not a girl. It's a male. And a strong one, too. Never seen a unicorn move a bridge before."

That was a problem. At first he was given the benefit of the doubt and was considered to be younger, which would take them off the scent, but with power like that, it was obvious he was more grown, and there aren't a lot of adult blank flanks, so he'd stick out like an Ursa Major in Ponyville.

"Ping!"

"Thiessen: Holy cow! Do we know where he's going?"

"Ping!"

"You: For now, nowhere. My guess is he won't come out from behind the rock until I'm gone. I don't know where he was going in the first place, but I found him on the road to Canterlot from Ponyville. Since he's a Ponyville resident, he's probably gonna go to Canterlot."

"Ping!"

"Thiessen: Well you're gonna have to leave soon, cuz we need someone to set up some cameras on a mountain north of Ponyville. Celestia says a dragon might be staying there soon and may stir up some problems."

Inkblot nearly gasped. The princess was working with the humans? She was helping them out even though they're spying on our lives and showing it to their world for their amusement and profit? It was despicable! But he didn't have any more time to think about one of the many things on his catalog of confusing questions. Another message appeared with a "Ping!"

"You: If I do that, he'll get away. When's the latest I can leave?"

"Ping!"

"Thiessen: Have them set up by Sunday morning, so judging by the process, I'd recommend leaving tonight."

"Ping!"

"You: Judging by the process? I can take a simple shortcut that'll literally take less than an hour to get there. How long does it take to get there and set up cameras?"

"Ping!"

"Thiessen: Pretty long considering that we can only drop off the cameras at the last recorded location, which was in Ponyville. They would be dropped off where you are right now, but as you said, we don't have the laptop. Stay the night in Ponyville. It's an order."

"Ping!"

"You: Fine. I'll just stay here until then and keep an eye on the rock."

Well, it was good news for the hiding unicorn that Hopkins was going to leave before the night was over, so he didn't need an epic plan to escape unnoticed. But he needed a plan to wait behind the rock for a while, because Hopkins wasn't gonna budge for a while.

It was nighttime in Equestria. Luna's moon was up in the sky and darkness enveloped a majority of the land. There were a few lit places found in Equestria. Most of these areas were towns and cities. One of them was the fire made by Hopkins next to what used to be the bridge. He had been sitting there, watching the rock intently, waiting to identify the white unicorn behind it. The eerie part is that the human didn't move unless perturbed by the world outside his focused mind. He never ate. He never drank. He never went to the bathroom. He just sat there.

Inkblot was still hidden behind the rock, tinkering with the laptop and how the internet worked. Around him were the discarded wrappers of snacks he had used as a substitute for supper. During his prolonged wait behind the boulder, he had learned about how to type and what all of the letter keys did. He wasn't spectacular, but it was a new skill. The pony also learned about websites and the whole "www" thingy. He also found a pinball game, which he played to pass some of the time.

At around midnight, the pony realized that he was starting to feel tired. Even with the bright screen shining in his face, he still felt sleepy and had to fight to stay awake. If he were to fall asleep, then maybe Hopkins would use that opportunity somehow to take away his memory. He couldn't forget Trixie's kiss, so he had to find a way to stay awake. He figured he would try writing a journal entry on the computer using his new half-baked skills. Exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before, he wrote his half-awake ramblings in the Notepad.

"dear journal,

today was very interesting to say the least. i had a wicked encounter with the hopkins guy. i think he still might be trying to take my memory, but i put up a good fight and he still doesnt know who i am. but the weird thing is that i moved a whole bridge with my magic, which waa really cool. so long as he isnt there tomorrow ill be off for canterlot. i dont know what ill do w"

Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Losing Memories

Inkblot had been waiting next to the hospital bed for hours already. If anything, he hoped that Trixie would just wake up. It was only three o' clock, so he figured that if she woke up, then she'd still make it to her show.

In the time that it took for a diagnosis to come in, Inkblot had plenty time to think. She was there when he was running from Hopkins. She saw him as he ran across the bridge and managed to destroy it. It all fit into place. He knew there was no way he could've destroyed the bridge all by himself. Trixie did it. She must have known he was being chased. Maybe she just saw his desperate attempt to destroy it himself and helped out. Either way, it put a dent in his ego, but it gave him a sense of gratitude for Trixie.

Also, when she moved the bridge, she must have seen Hopkins. He probably saw her too. That's bad. What will Hopkins do to her?

The nurse walked into the room with a clipboard, which held the diagnosis. She noticed the visitor in the room still hadn't left, which was no surprise since he didn't leave even when she strongly recommended him to leave. "Well, the diagnosis has arrived. The issue is attributed to an overload of magic."

"That would make sense. She was doing a really big trick," Inkblot said, marking the first time he had spoken for at least an hour.

"Well, that big trick knocked her out for quite a bit," the nurse said with her eyes still fixed on the clipboard in front of her.

Inkblot looked down at the sleeping Trixie, who looked fine, but he knew that something had happened. "So is she alright?"

The nurse pony, who greatly resembled Nurse Redheart, responded kindly, "She'll be...fine."

The pause perturbed the blue eyed colt. "Why did you pause? Are you sure she's alright?"

"As far as health is, she's just fine. No major physical or mental damage except for one little thing."

"And that is..."

The nurse looked at the show pony, and then back to Inkblot. "A small amount of memory loss."

The news hit him like a train. Before, just thinking of memory loss sent a shiver down his spine, but this was devastating. They got Trixie. The HPIRT got Trixie.

"Are you alright, sir?" the nurse pony asked in a concerned tone.

Inkblot realized that he shouldn't be freaking out as much. Otherwise, ponies would get suspicious. Such as this one. "Oh, I'm fine. Just thinking about what she could have forgotten. How much memory did she lose?"

The nurse looked back down at the clipboard. "I've seen many cases of memory loss while I've worked here," Inkblot shuddered at the thought of all those ponies getting their minds erased. "and compared to most cases, this one isn't as bad. Only about three days of memory loss."

Inkblot backtracked. One day ago, Trixie was probably already there in Canterlot. She also recorded that memory for her trick, and most likely perfected it. Two days ago was the incident with the Ursa Minor. It might be better if she didn't remember that. After the incident, there was the kiss. Should he tell her about that? It would be up for debate later. Three days ago, she had just arrived in the town. It had been forever since they had seen each other, and Inkblot still had the little colt crush from when they met in the Ponyville schoolhouse.

So the last thing she would remember is arriving in Ponyville. She'd remember sleeping in her travel trailer and waking up in a Canterlot hospital. She would definitely have questions. Counting out trivial questions, she would first ask how she lost her memory in the first place. Inkblot couldn't tell her about the HPIRT, otherwise her memory would just be wiped again. So he went with the diagnosis from the nurse. He'd just tell her that when she tried the trick that pulled something from her memory, she went unconscious. Her going unconscious messed up the part of memory she was accessing with her magic.

The second question would be more difficult. The show mare would ask what she missed and expect Inkblot to give a detailed report on the last three days. The problem was that some of the things are so far from the truth, she'll think he made them up. So he decided to leave their kiss out to avoid a hoof to the cheek. He also decided to leave out any of the Ponyville residents' response to the Ursa incident to avoid the same hoof to the cheek.

The nurse pony began to leave the room, but was interrupted by Inkblot. "Do you know how long it'll be before she wakes up?"

The mare looked to the cieling as if counting in her head. "About another hour," she answered. "You're not going to stay in here with her for another hour, are you?"

Inkblot sighed as he looked down at Trixie. "I've been here for three hours already."

"Four," the nurse corrected.

"What's another hour?" He marveled at the mare he had feelings for as if it were a magical flower that cast a hypnotic spell on him, making his mind's first priority to marvel at each of the show pony's features. Her deep blue coat looked like the beautiful ocean, while her light blue mane almost shone like clustered field of stars in the sky.

The nurse noticed Inkblot's adoration and decided it would be best for her to leave, so she closed the door as she left.

The second he heard the door shut, the ink-maned pony approached the door and locked it from the inside. While he was next to the door, he pulled the laptop out of his saddlebag, and moved to the corner of the room where nopony in the halls could see him.

With any luck, he had some time before the nurses returned with the key. He used every second of this time, energizing the laptop with his magic on the way to the corner. The device lit up, indicating that it was working.

Inkblot was greeted by the journal entry he had created the night before. The first thing he did was go to CamSystem. He needed to make sure he wasn't being watched. Offered with many choices such as "Everfree", "Ponyville", and "Mountain", the pony clicked on the folder titled "Canterlot", which opened up to reveal more folders. His eyes scanned the names: "Royal Castle", "Royal Garden", "Exterior View" (he was glad he didn't read "Road to Canterlot"), "Canterlot Streets", and "Royal Library", but considering the colossal size of the city, very little was covered. No cameras in the hospital. He was safe.

Inkblot moved his cursot to the bottom where he click the Gmail icon. The page opened with a message written in bold, which the pale pony by now knew that it was a new messge. It was labelled "NOTIFICATION: MEMORY SUPPRESSANT DISPENSED"

A chill went down the colt's spine. He was right. The HPIRT got Trixie. Despite his wrenching gut, he clicked the message, opening it.

"NOTIFICATION: MEMORY SUPPRESSANT DISPENSED

AMOUNT: 24g
DATE: 9-4-10
TIME: 10:03:24
SUPPLIED TO: ID4672
TARGET: N/A

REMAINING MEMORY SUPPRESSANT AVAILABLE: 40g"

It wasn't much, but each bit told a lot. For example, it helped that Trixie hadn't been labelled by the HPIRT before the memory wipe. It also revealed something that was helpful. They were running out of the memory wiping stuff. If they only had 40 "g" left, and it took 24 to wipe out Trixie's memory, it meant that their numbers were declining. Inkblot looked up at the message. It was supplied to "ID 4672". Apparently, ID 4672 was Hopkins, so that was something to remember.

Suddenly, Inkblot heard the doorknob jiggle. Needless to say, he was surprised. He expected at least a couple minutes before the nurse returned so that he'd have more time on the laptop. The black-maned unicorn quickly, but carefully threw the laptop into his saddlebag and returned to his post next to Trixie, as if he were still admiring the showmare.

As the nurse pony eventually opened the door, she spoke apologetically. "I'm sorry, I must've forgotten that I had locked the door." Inkblot gave a sigh of relief to himself. "Anyway, I looked at the recent results, and, after getting permission from the head doctor, I decided that Trixie could be woken up."

"I thought you said it would last an hour." Not that it was a problem or anything.

"Well, that would be if she were to wake up naturally. It's always possible to wake her up manually, it's just that the mind needs rest after an incident such as memory loss. After review, I concluded that her mind has received more than enough rest. That an I didn't want to keep you in this room for much longer," she said smiling.

The unicorn smiled back at the nurse. "Thank you." He was about to give her the poite "You didn't have to," but his mind was changed when he remembered that Trixie had a show that night. If she was in good enough condition to perform magic, that is.

The nurse shook Trixie's shoulder, causing the mare to stir in her slumber. It took a second shake to cause her eyes to slowly open, as if her eyes had to adjust to the light first. She looked around with a predicted look of confusion. "Where am I?"

Inkblot answered her question just as he'd rehearsed it. "You're in the magical wing of Canterlot Hospital. Earlier today, you experienced some memory loss from trying to complete a really tough trick. You only missed about three days, which isn't that bad compared to most cases. At least, that's what the nurse said."

As the nurse left the room, Trixie let the news sink in. While she did, Inkblot saw a side of her that few others had ever seen and would ever see. It was a face that was well-hidden underneath the facade of the Great and Powerful Trixie. Gone was the show-stopping show mare whose tricks were adored by thousands, if not millions. Now, she was just a pitiful pony who couldn't remember the last three days. She sidn't know how she got there, and in order to find out, she had to be dependent. The thought itself seemed strange.

The blue unicorn released the question that Inkblot had been dreading. "So what happened over the last three days?"

Inkblot silently panicked to himself. 'Okay, it's just like you rehearsed it,' he thought. 'Wait! I never rehearsed this!' So, he went with the first thing that came to mind hoping that he wouldn't be the winner of a free hoof to the face.

"Well, what's the last thing you remember? he asked.

Trixie closed her eyes to focus her mind on remembering. With her eyes still squeezed shut, she answered. "I remember arriving in...Ponyville. It was late, and I had just set up my trailer. I went to bed, then I woke up here."

Inkblot filled in the rest of the gaps for her, leaving out the parts not meant for her to remember. "The next day, you looked around Ponyville. You know, see the rest of the town before your show the next day. While you were out, you met up with me."

"Slipknot, right?"

"Inkblot," he corrected. "Anyway, so we caught up, and now we're friends. I don't know anything else that happened that day. To you, that is. The next day, you performed an amazing show in Ponyville."

"How did it go?"

Without hesitation, the colt returned with, "It went wonderfully. The crowd was amazed. Sure, there were a couple neighsayers, but needless to say, you shut them up quickly."

Trixie gave a weak smile, slowly transitioning back into the audacious Great and Powerful Trixie. This was the hard part. She was feeling genuinely happy, so telling her about the Ursa Minor would just drag her attitude down. But then again, she was bound to find out about it sooner or later, since it was big news. But did he have to be the bearer of bad news. But wouldn't it be worse if she found out from some pretentious snob in Canterlot, and that would be accompanied with humiliation. He bit the bullet and decided to tell her.

"But, uh, after that..." Inkblot started, his optimistic tone changing to one of hesitation.

The blue mare turned her head toward her friend, detecting the shift in tone and preparing for the worst. Inkblot looked into her eyes, which spoke louder than most of her showy speeches. They told him that as much as she didn't want to hear it, she knew that bad news was coming. It might break her heart, but she was ready for anything.

"There was...an incident. Including an Ursa Major. You told two little dim-witted colts that you had slayed an Ursa Major. They went into the Everfree Forest and brought one into the town." Trixie's face was filled with horror. "Everypony expected you to take it out. But you didn't. Some local conquered it instead. You told the town you had never beaten an Ursa Major. Then, you fled," he ended with a voice filled with sorrow.

It was apparent that the news was hard for even the Great and Powerful Trixie to take. She seemed to stare into her own imagination, attempting to relive the forgotten memory. Her superinflated ego had vanished completely.

Inkblot, knowing the worst was over, continued to refresh Trixie's memory. "After the incident, the two of us caught up on a hilltop, and then you told me you were on your way to Canterlot. I had promised to see your show. Looks like there isn't really a show, though."

The show mare gave a sigh. "Using magic won't help this little issue."

Suddenly, the door opened. The nurse walked in, carrying a small, leather, book in her mouth. She placed it on the table next to them, exposing the golden letters written on the book. The letters spelled the word "DIARY".

"I apologize for interrupting, but the paramedics found this in her room while searching for things to jog her memory. I'll leave you two again." She said as she promptly left as quickly as she came.

Trixie used her memory to lift the diary in front of her face. "Um, Trixie, I don't think you should be doing ma-"

"It's okay. It's only small magic. Nothing that would hurt me," she interrupted, flipping to the most recent page as if Inkblot hadn't interjected.

As she read through the pages, the white pony could only imagine what she was reading. The question is did she write down how she saw him at the waterfall? If she did, then she'd know about humans again. Then she would get her memory taken again, making it an endless cycle. Or, less importantly, she wrote about the kiss. Either way, Inkblot noticed that every so often, she would look up from the pages and look at him with nearly a look of shock, which drove him crazy.

After a couple agonizing minutes of flipping pages and shocked looks, Trixie finally put the book down. Knowing that everything in the book was private, but still wanting to read everyrhing in the book, Inkblot chose his words carefully. "So, did that jog your memory?"

The blue unicorn paused for a minute, as if to straighten out all of the information she had just taken in. "Yes. I remember the...important things."

Inkblot spent the rest of the day in the hospital with Trixie, filling in the specific details to refresh her memory. Then they caught up and talked like two friends rather than a celebrity and an obsessed fan. It was different, but it was a good different. It seemed as if something had changed in her. Inkblot liked it.

The colt had a late dinner with Trixie in the hospital cafeteria. The mare didn't have to stay in the hospital any more, but it had surprisingly good food, and the food was cheap. After the dinner, they gave their goodbyes, planning to meet up some time later in Ponyville, since Inkblot had to go back home the next day. He never saw the diary.

By the time he was out of the hospital, it was dark and after the eventful day and the less-than-wonderful sleeping conditions of the night before, he was ready to hit the hay, so he was on his way to the Hearth Hotel. The roads were still crowded with other ponies, and the city was lit up. In an odd way, it sort of resembled pictures of Manehattan he had seen, only not as showy. It was lit up in a tame sort of way, if that made any sense.

Last time he had walked through the streets, he was driven by getting Trixie to the hospital. The time before, he was driven by his stomach. This time, he was driven by the need to sleep. The unicorn was as tired as a workhorse, so his legs moved him as quickly as they could.

As he sped across the city, drawing looks from the sophisticated cityfolk, he noticed a big sign on the doors of the Royal Theatre saying that the show was cancelled.

Before he even knew it, he was at the Hearth Hotel, ready to crash for the night. From what he could see in the lobby, the Hearth Hotel wasn't nearly as fancy as the Comfy Stable, resembling the inside of a huge log cabin. He made a beeline to the reception desk to pick up his room key.

He approached the desk, where he was suprised to see Hearth talking with the desk pony. "Inkblot! Good to see you again! How was your day?"

"Exhausting. Can I have my room key?" he responded bluntly.

The crimson pony laughed. "Of course you can, my friend. I keep my promises," he said giving him

"By the way, your meal card for the Comfy Stable expired," Inkblot added.

Hearth gave another laugh. This one was more uncomfortable. "Sorry about that. Did you get a meal?"

"Oh, don't worry. I ate breakfast just fine," he assured his acquaintance as he gave back the now useless card and turned to go to his room.

"Good to know. Your room is down the first floor hallway and to your right. Room 152," the hotel owner called to his guest.

"Got it!" Inkblot called back, already on his way down the hallway. He followed the wooden hallway for a short period of time before the lanterns lit up the number 152 on a door. He used his key to open the door.

Cozy was the best word to describe the room. Like the rest of the hotel, it was a total contrast from the rest of bustling Canterlot, with most of its light eminating from the already lit fireplace. Other available lights were old-timey lanterns, which shone dimly across the wooden floors. Even the bed seemed to be taken out of an old log cabin.

As tired as Inkblot was, before he retired for the night, he wanted to check up to see if there was anything new with the laptop. He repeated the usual process of opening and powering the device.

The laptop revealed the Gmail page as it usually does. No new messages this time, but there was a chat going on. Most likely between Hopkins and his boss again. The conversation was already in progress:

"Me: Well, I have good news!"

"Thiessen: Is it about Franklin?"

"Me: No, but it's about the laptop."

Inkblot began to feel uneasy. Good news about the laptop for them was bad news for him.

"Thiessen: Go on..."

PING!

"Me: One of the spies gave me an ID on the pony that matched my description."

The unicorn reading nearly had a heart attack. Spies?! There were spies spread out doing the humans' work? Now he couldn't trust anypony, especially with a secret such as the one he had. Now who was the spy that busted him? Before he could answer himself, the computer gave another PING!

"Thiessen: Perfect! I'll send the HPIRT bots to the pony. Can you give me an ID number?"

PING!

"Me: Pony #501"

Completely freaking out and acting on instinct, he felt his magic type using the keys. He knew it was stupid, but they got him anyway. He might as well go down in some style.

"Me: well good job you found me. just so you know i wont go down easily. youll have to work in order to find this laptop."

Inkblot marvelled at his idiotic handiwork. He was going to go down heroically. So what no one else would know? Some of the best heroes are unknown anyway.

"Thiessen: So, you're the pony with the laptop. I assure you we'll find that laptop. Then you'll have your memory erased and forget this all happened. I can assure you, it's painless."

Inkblot typed again. While he did, he felt a strange sensation well up inside of him. One that he had never felt before. It felt like some strange breed of joy and excitement.

"Me: come and get me. you wont find the laptop. ill be asleep waiting for you to take away my sacred memories."

With that, he shut the laptop and put it in his saddlebags. The saddlebags were then forced behind the bedframe. It wasn't a good hiding spot, but it would be the last place they looked.

Now that he had everything settled, he slipped into his bed and used his magic to dim the lights. As tired as he was, he couldn't sleep knowing he would wake up without his memories. He would wake up without answers he still asked himself, such as "Who is the HPIRT?" or "Why us?" or "What was in Trixie's diary?" or "Who was the spy?". So many questions unanswered, but it didn't matter. He wouldn't remember them.

As he closed his eyes, accepting the approaching sleep, Inkblot thought of Trixie's kiss to the cheek one last time, wishing he could never give it up.

The next morning was a peaceful one. The chirping birds woke up Inkblot, who was well rested and woke up without a problem.

He got out of his bed and looked around at the familiar log cabin hotel room, checking behind the bed to see if they took the laptop. They didn't.

"Wait. I remember everything?" he asked dumbly to himself. He paced in circles as everything came into his memory perfectly. He could remember the kiss as if it was yesterday. He could see himself in Trixie's room as clearly as glass. He didn't understand.

Inkblot froze in his tracks when he saw what was behind him. It seemed to be attached to his flank, and it was blue. He couldn't see it clearly, so he moved to the mirror. In the mirror, the colt saw himself the same as always with one difference. On his flank was a blue bridge. Inkblot had gotten his cutie mark. And it was a bridge?

As if his mind wasn't overloaded enough, before he could register the new cutie mark, he heard a knock at the door. Still hyped up by his new cutie mark, he sped to the door and opened it with near lightning speed. Standing at the door were two royal guards, which almost made Inkblot flinch.

The two stone-faced guards looked at the hyperactive, jumpy unicorn as the right one spoke. "When was the last time you saw a pony named Hearth?"

In front of the two statuesque guards, the colt took a couple deep breaths to calm down and get a handle on this situation. "I...saw him when I got back from the hospital. He gave me a room key, and I went to my room. Why?"

"Hearth went missing last night."

Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Trouble Back Home

The news hit Inkblot like a slap to the face. Of course, his mind first jumped to the thought that the HPIRT took him away. But why would they do it? Did they think that Hearth was him? How could they make that mistake? And either way, he thought all they were going to do was wipe the pony's memories. Not steal him away from his home. He still had to at least try to get a grip on what was going on.

"Sir, do you know where this pony could be?" the guard said, snapping the dazed pony back into reality.

"No. Not at all." Inkblot was completely honest in his answer. He had absolutely no idea where the humans were taking Hearth, but he intended to find out soon. "But be sure to let me know if any news comes up."

With that, the two guards nodded in almost perfect unison and walked away to check out the next room. Inkblot, still standing in the doorway, had to continue taking in what was going on. Not just the news about Hearth, but also his new cutie mark.

He started with his cutie mark. It was simple, like most cutie marks. It was a blue, stone bridge that was similar to the one that Trixie destroyed, but with significant differences. The most obvious one was the fact that it was blue. A more subtle difference was that it looked like it was almost holographic as if it were being projected onto his flank. Inkblot just didn't know what in the hay his cutie mark meant.

The unicorn shut the door, figuring that he should probably get something done while he was deep in thought. It was Sunday, which meant he had to head home, which meant he had to pack. Then again, he never really unpacked, so all he really had to was turn in his key. The pale colt put on his saddlebags as he left room 152, locking it on his way out.

A bridge. What could a bridge mean? Well, what did bridges do? They were mainly made for connecting two things. Did it mean he was a connection between the ponies and the HPIRT? That would make sense because it seemed like it would belong in the futuristic laptop. Was his purpose to be the bridge between his world and their world? If it was, then who were they to mess around with his fate? Was he invincible? Of course not. They were relentless. At least Hopkins was. If his grudge against him was that strong, which by now it had to be, Hearth was lucky to be alive.

By this point, Inkblot was at the front desk, turning in his key. "Thank you for your hospitality. Tell Hearth I said thanks of he ever turns up," he said to the mare at the desk.

"Thank you for staying at H-Hearth Hotel," she said with a shaken stutter. As the black-maned pony walked away, he thought of how she was probably friends with Hearth. She was scared because she had no idea what happened to him. Inkblot knew, but had a feeling that if she knew what was really going on, she wouldn't feel much better.

Following that train of thought as he left the hotel, Inkblot wondered why they took Hearth instead of him. Hopkins, aka ID 4672, sent out a description of Inkblot that wasn't even close to describing his hotel-owning friend. So it had to be somepony who didn't know his name and gave Hearth's name because apparently thought his name was Hearth. But who was the spy?

He went through the eventful day before. First thing he did was wake up and meet Hearth, who was straight out for obvious reasons. After he went into the city with him (he thought as he left Canterlot, ironically enough), he went to the Comfy Stable for breakfast. Maybe the waitress was a spy? Of course! That made perfect sense because Inkblot showed her Hearth's ID. Then she must have reported Hearth's name to the HPIRT. Well, now he knew who the spy was, and with his information, he left a mental note saying that he should avoid the Comfy Stable.

On to his last pressing order of business. How will he explain his cutie mark? It was big news, and Headline and Snapshot would definitely be talking about it. Of course, they couldn't know about the humans, so the bridge on his flank had to represent something else. Inkblot had to think up something as soon as possible, because, as effective as they were, his last minute alibis were also downright terrible.

After only a couple minutes of throwing out countless stupid ideas, he rehearsed his final draft of the story to himself. "This cutie mark? Oh yeah, I got it while I was in Canterlot. Just sorta woke up and had it. My guess is it came after I had a talk with this one citypony named Hearth. And I could actually understand all of his fancier speak. I fit in with the fancy crowd of Canterlot. And I also fit in here in Ponyville. So I figure I'm like a bridge between Ponyville life and Canterlot life." It could pass, and most importantly, it wouldn't arouse any suspiscions regarding the HPIRT.

After his rehearsal, he looked ahead to see a river blocking the path. Over the river was a new bridge. This one was much more polished than the old one, without the moss and dirt, but it was still a stone bridge, just like the one before it. He crossed it, thinking once again how Trixie had saved him from Hopkins, and how her knowing made her lose her memory.

And so, Inkblot continued down the mountain on hoof, making his way back home to Ponyville.

It seemed that nothing had changed in the small town of Ponyville. The streets were still quiet, with five ponies on the road at most. The quiet houses were nothing compared to the huge buildings Inkblot saw in Canterlot. Overall, the town was still quiet and unmoving, unlike the bustling busy city of Canterlot. Inkblot always liked that better, since he could always expect what was to happen next. Except for the occasional event that shook the whole town. Perhaps that's why he loved it. It was probably why the humans loved it too. Those events could be entertaining.

On the road, the black and white pony saw a familiar face. It was the neighsayer. The purple one that embarrassed Trixie in front of the entire town. While Inkblot kept any of his disdain to himself, the librarian was open and approached him in a friendly manner.

"Oh! Hello!" she said with a smile on her face. "You're the pony who wanted the lightning spell, right?"

"Oh yeah! That's me!" he responded. With all of the HPIRT business, Inkblot had completely forgotten about the borrowed library book. "I'll return the book soon. I managed to read up what I needed."

"Did you impress you pegasus friend?"

The colt was confused for a moment. He refreshed his memory to whatever fabrication he constructed back when the two met. Oh yeah. He wanted to learn the lightning spell so that he could prove that unicorns were cooler. "Yeah. He was impressed, but you know how pegasi are. He still thought pegasi were better."

The mare laughed. "Yeah. I have a friend just like that. She's really arrogant like that. And she's a pegasus."

Inkblot laughed along. For being a neighsayer, she wasn't really that bad. She was very friendly. The colt figured that he should be friendly back. "So, I realized that I never actually got your name a couple days back."

"Twilight Sparkle," the purple unicorn said with a friendly smile. "And yours?"

"Inkblot."

Suddenly, Twilight's face shifted to one of recognition. "Oh, you write the column in the Ponyville Post, right?"

"Well, that's one person who reads my stuff," he answered with a laugh.

Twilight returned with a laugh. "You're too hard on yourself. A lot of ponies around here read your articles. Oh, and you're Headline's son, right?"

He nodded. "I assume you know him. Does he talk about me often?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Oh, I've only met him once or twice. I just know you two are related because of what happened yesterday. Sorry about that, by the way. Is everything going alright?" she added sympathetically.

Inkblot started to panic. "What happened? I just got back in town from Canterlot. Is...is my dad dead?"

"Oh no! Not that, thank Celestia. The news was huge around town, though. Probably the worst news of the week, not counting the Ursa attack. Your house was robbed." There was a pause. "If you need someone to talk to, I-"

Before Twilight Sparkle could say anything else, the pale pony dashed away, expecting the worst back at his home.

On the outside, Inkblot's home looked exactly the same. If his house was robbed, it wasn't broken into by force. No broken windows and no holes in the wall.

When Inkblot opened the door, it was revealed that the inside had changed quite a bit. Where there were pictures hanging on the wall of Inkblot as a foal and Headline as a younger colt, there were now only the nails that held them up. Further in the house, it was obvious that the kitchen table, sofas, and a majority of the other furniture was missing as well.

"Hello Inkblot." The unicorn jumped, surprised by the voice behind him. It was Headline.

"Dad! Are you OK?" he figured was the first thing to ask.

"Yeah, I'm just fine. Don't you worry. It's the house that's a little shaken up," the gruff old stallion said as he looked around the nearly empty room.

"So what exactly happened? Did he just waltz right in and take our stuff?"

Despite the context, Headline gave a hearty laugh. "Yep. That's pretty much what happened. I messed up and didn't lock the doors. In the middle of the night while I was asleep, he apparently came in and took the furniture. Woke up this mornin' and the house looked like this."

"How about the printing press?" Inkblot asked frantically.

"Untouched. The thief didn't have the sense to go to the basement. We can still run the Post. I know how much you love writing your column."

Inkblot smiled, thinking optimistically. "Well that's good!"

Suddenly, the older pony's expression shifted to one of sorrow. "Actually, we might not be running it much longer."

The words themselves made Inkblot jump. "What?" he asked even more frantically. "Why not?"

Headline sighed. He was usually bright and optimistic, so breaking bad news was always difficult. "Everything costs money, Inkblot. We were just robbed of all of our furniture, and we need to get it back somehow. Royal Guard doesn't deal with common thieves. It's gone and the only way to get it back is to buy more."

The younger unicorn, now melancholy at what this meant, finished for his father. "And the easiest way to get money is to sell the press."

Headline patted his son on the back. "I know it's not easy to take, and I'm lookin' for other ways. I love makin' the Ponyville Post as much as you do, and givin' it up is hard for me too."

"I can live without furniture for a while."

"That was my plan. Make do until we get back up on our feet," Headline said, going into the kitchen.

"If we get back on our-"

"WHEN we get back on our feet," the bearded pony interrupted with his optimistic reassurance. It was strong, as if to say that the possibility of them going down was nonexistent. This elicited a pause which would have been silence if Headline wasn't pulling bread out of the fridge. "I got a new toaster today. Was about to test it out on some bermuda sandwiches. Want one?"

Inkblot took a second to respond. He was busy plotting to himself. "Of course I'd love one. Just gimme a minute. Need to finish something up upstairs." Without another word, he dashed up the stairs.

Fortunately for the unicorn, his room was untouched. The burgular wasn't dumb enough to go upstairs where Headline was asleep. His room was familiar territory where he could concentrate further than other places he had used the laptop.

Inkblot powered up the laptop and opened CamSystem, operating it more masterfully than the last time he had operated it. "Come on. It's gotta be around here somewhere," he said to himself as he opened the GeneralPonyville cameras. There they were. The 73 cameras that covered the streets of his town. He browsed through the camera screens, searching for one that showed the front of his home.

After a couple of scrolls, he saw Camera GeneralPonville33. It had a view down the street outside of about 6 houses. One of the houses was Inkblot's. There was a perfect view of his front door. "Perfect."

Now he just needed to find a recording from that camera from the night before. Inkblot figured that a complex system like this would be able to do that. There it was at the top. "Records". He moved the cursot over to the button labeled "Records" and clicked on it.

Suddenly, a box opened up on the screen. It said "Enter password:". Oh no! A password? How was he going to get a password? He was hoping to get the recording of the robbery and catch the foe red-hoofed. But now he had to know some password in order to get the recordings.

Let down by his first failed plan, he started to formulate another. In the middle of his plan, he smelled the aroma of toasting bermuda. He knew that his favorite meal was about to be delivered. This thought was suppressed by the sight of smoke on the computer screen. It was coming out of his house. Needless to say, this caused the pensive pony to rush downstairs.

The hallways were lightly fogged by smoke while the kitchen was completely flooded with smoke. Inkblot panicked. Last time he saw smoke, it was when the HPIRT took Trixie's memory. His newly created paranoia caused him to fear the worst.

"Dad! Are you alright?!" He heard the window open. Was Hopkins trying to sneak in or something? Inkblot's mind was racing, and hearing a thud from outside the house definitely didn't help. "Dad!" he called again.

"I'm alright, Inkblot," Headline responded calmly, but still with a raised voice.

"Dad! Are you feeling okay?" he yelled as the smoke cleared.

His dad coughed a couple times, letting the smoke leave the kitchen. "Yeah. I'm just fine."

"What happened?"

"Oh, that new toaster kinda scorched our sandwiches. Dumb toaster. I never liked it anyway" Headline used his magic to pull the two burnt crisps that used to resemble bermuda sandwiches out of the toaster, which had been thrown out the window.

After giving a sigh of relief. inkblot shrugged his shoulders. "Meh, I always liked that burnt taste." With that, he took a bite of one of the shriveled up black things and immediately gagged. He quickly spat it out in the sink. "Okay, maybe not that much."

His father laughed loudly, but it was followed by another cough since the smoke hadn't completely cleared out yet. "Oh boy, this smoke isn't helpin' me out. By the way, did you manage to write that article while you were out in Canterlot?"

Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in Inkblot's head. His plan was complete and ready for execution. Step one of his plan: Fib to his dad. "Uh. I got most of it done. About half maybe. In fact, I was finishing up upstairs."

His father gave a scoff. "I'm sure you were. Just give it to me by the end of the day so I can print it tonight. Snapshot beat you to the deadline and she's not even getting paid!"

Inkblot played along with Headline's joke as he headed upstairs. "So when should I expect my salary?" he asked with a laugh since he didn't get paid either.

The second he got to his room, he summoned a scroll and quill and got straight to work.

"Conspricacy!

I just got back in from Canterlot today, and I was hoping to find some news for the column. And, oh boy did I find some news. A day into my ventures in the big city (fantastic place, by the way), I came across a certain pony who at first sounded absolutely insane. It seemed he had conjured up a wild conspiracy theory. I was all ears, hoping for a well-done work of fiction.

He had told me of this alternate universe where humans live. They come down Equestria (specifically Ponyville) to record our everyday lives and broadcast them for the entertainment of our world. I was skeptic at first, but then I thought of how eventful our lives can be. For instance, we had the Ursa Minor attack only a few days ago. And what about when not one, but two stampedes threatened our town all in the same week? Maybe our lives could be entertaining.

Anyway, this pony talked about how these humans planted invisible cameras all over the town, which record us from almost every angle. He said there are hundreds spread around Ponyville alone. The idea intrigued me, but of course, this was so outrageous I felt like I had to prove him wrong with logic. I asked why I hadn't seen him. His response frightened me. He said that I might have. According to him, these people (he called them the HPIRT) had memory erasing chemicals that they apply on ponies who see them. It's an easy thing to do since unicorns (an other ponies, but especially unicorns) can suffer from memory loss by excessive magic or illness.

I still wasn't quite convinced. I parted with him, but as I left, this crazy pony said that he knew this thing for too long and that their memory erasers didn't go back as far, so they had to kill him instead. He had already admitted himself to the humans, but he wanted to go out with a bang, so he told me to tell everypony I knew. Still, I was skeptic.

The next day, I woke up to discover that Hearth, the owner of the hotel at which I was staying, had gone missing. I approached the insane pony once again who, clearly, was not dead. He assumed that they took the wrong pony.

I'm still unsure about the truth of this. I just figured you should know since, according to my anonymous source, we are what the HPIRT are watching. Maybe I just want to appease some crazy pony who told me to tell everypony I knew. Either way, is this a conspiracy, or is something going on in Ponyville?

-Inkblot"

Inkblot immediately took the scroll and looked over it for spelling errors. Finding none, he headed downstairs and handed it to his father, who had recovered from the smoke bomb earlier. "Done. Ready for tomorrow's paper."

Without a word, Headline picked it up and skimme over it. Most of the time he was wearing a look of confusion. "A conspiracy? Didn't think you were into that kinda stuff."

"I know it sounds strange, but can you post it? Please! I just want to tell people this," Inkblot nearly begged.

"Well...I dunno...It does seem rather shaky... Oh wait. It's your column. You do what you want," he said with a big hearty laugh to respond to his son's look of anxiety. "To the press?"

Inkblot smiled and nodded. "To the press."

Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Visitors

While the Ponyville Post was being produced on the press downstairs, the two ponies had dinner. Since their toaster was a bust, they ordered a toasted bermuda sandwich to go from the diner. During dinner, Headline asked Inkblot how Canterlot was and about his new cutie mark. Most of what Inkblot told him was technically true due to his bending of the truth, a skill he had acquired from the HPIRT business. For instance, when his dad asked if he saw the show, Inkblot answered with "The show was cancelled. Some magic accident happened." Or when asked what his cutie mark meant, instead of lying with his rehearsed story, he just said that he wasn't quite sure.

The next morning, all the papers were printed. After hearing about the robbery, Snapshot recruited one of her friends named Pipsqueak to volunteer as a paperboy. Usually it was Inkblot's job to deliver papers, but he was more than happy to give it up to the little colt.

As soon as he woke up, which was hours after Pipsqueak delivered the papers, Inkblot went straight for the laptop as if he hadn't just woken up from a 12 hour slumber. He was just too interested in what the response to his article from the HPIRT would be. With breakneck speed, the now experienced unicorn opened and powered the laptop using magic muscle memory, so to speak.

The screen showed where he had left off, CamSystem. He moved the cursot to the bottom and clicked on Gmail, which opened, revelaing a pair of new messages. He started at the bottom bolde messages, since he had learned that the newest were on top, where it said:

"NOTIFICATION: MEMORY SUPPRESSANT DISPENSED

AMOUNT: 40g
DATE:
TIME: 5:40:16
SUPPLIED TO: ID4672
TARGET: Goodbye

THE SUPPLY OF MEMORY SUPPRESSANT HAS BEEN COMPLETELY DEPLETED. PLEASE RESUPPLY."

This news was good and bad for Inkblot. The good news was that they were out of suppressant. Now nopony else would get a memory wipe after this. The bad news was Hopkins drew it, and he drew enough to make Inkblot forget everything after the Ursa attack. Including the kiss. But one thing puzzled him to no end. What was "Goodbye"? Was that his codename or sonething? Was he saying goodbye? If so, then who was he saying goodbye to? Maybe he'd get answers later. Because he seemed to always get his questions answered.

He moved on to the email before it. It was labeled "Problem", and it was from "You" to "Thiessen". So it was Hopkins. Inkblot started reading again.

"I'm currently at the HPIRT base in Equestria, and I found who the spy spotted. He goes by the name of Hearth, and he claims he has no idea what we're even talking about. He doesn't know what it is, much less where it is. Believe him. He's the wrong pony. He doesn't even match my description.

This means that there's still a pony out there with the laptop. Whoever this pony is, I didn't think he'd take a pony's identification and let some other pony take the fall. He's clever, that's for sure.

Anyway, we have another problem at hand. I was going to get some memory suppresant when I got a nice little message from the notification service. It turns out someone took the last of it! We don't have any more of it, and we don't get stocked for another week. Since the suppressant doesn't work very well, We'll have to dipose of the "Hearth" somehow. In any other instance, I'd kill him, but he appears to be the owner of a hotel in Canterlot, and who knows how much press he could have following him. We can't release him for the same reason. Do you recommend the Power Leaf mixture? The HPIRT are telling me that's an option, but they won't tell me what it is.

Just respond to me as soon as possible.

-Hopkins

PS The target on the notification about the memory suppressant was "Goodbye". What does that mean? Is someone leaving the team mid-mission?"

Great! More questions! If Hopkins wasn't ID4672, then who was? Whoever it was, he's the one who wiped Trixie's memory. And now he has enough memory suppressant to wipe his memory clean of anything HPIRT-related. What was Hopkins going to do to Hearth? Would he just kill him anyway? And if they don't get stocked for another week, would that suppressant save their lives? Finally, what's the Power Leaf mixture? If it was an alternative to death, it had to be something important.

Well, his day was open, so he could hunt for answers. Inkblot started with the Power Leaf thing. He had a feeling the Power Leaf was something found in Equestria, so it's information was probably recorded somewhere. The unicorn shut down the laptop as he headed to the library. That librarian seemed quite friendly, so she was probably willing to help.

He headed down the stairs, but was interrupted at the doorway. As he opened the door, we was almost hit in the face by somepony who was about to knock.

"Whoops! Sorry about that!" Twilight said cheerfully. The purple pony smiled at seeing Inkblot, who was surprised at her prescence.

"Oh! Hey Twilight! Funny, I was just about to head to the library. So what're you up to?"

Suddenly, Inkblot heard a voice behind him. "Well hello there. Who's this, Inkblot?" It was his dad.

"Oh, uh, dad. This is Twilight Sparkle. She's the librarian here." he said a Twilight extended a hoof.

"Pleased to meet you. You must be Headline," she said in her friendly voice.

"That's me. Pleasure to meet you, ma'am. So what brings you to our humble abode?" Headline asked after shaking the mare's hoof.

Suddenly, Twilight gave an anxious laugh. "Actually I need to talk to Inkblot. In privacy. If you don't mind."

Inkblot's father responded to her request by looking at his son with raised eyebrows. Being his son, Inkblot learned how to read Headline's looks. This one said, "Lucky colt. You must've caught yourself a nice one in Canterlot." Fortunately, while she was a librarian, Twilight couldn't read his looks. The pale colt just hoped she couldn't guess what it said from how red his cheeks were.

"Sure, you can use Inkblot's room. I'm sure he wouldn't mind it, right?" he said suggestively.

Inkblot gulped. His laptop was still out. "That sounds like a great idea. But I just got up and I really have to make my bed. You know, spruce the room up a bit."

"No you don't. You're gonna be getting back in it," Headline whispered jokingly.

"Dad!"

"What'd he say?"

"Nothing!" they both said at the same time. Inkblot picked up the conversation to avoid awkward questions. "Hey, I'm gonna go make the bed." With that, he left Twilight alone with his dad. He was unsure if that was a great idea, but his top priority was to hide the laptop.

The pony's room was messy, to say the least. It was more than likely the bed that gave this impression. He hid the laptop in a drawer as a temporary hiding spot until Twilight was gone. Then he used his magic to make his bed. Again, he wasn't one to lie. He just had a knack for stretching the truth.

Rushing to ensure that his father wasn't telling Twilight any embarassing information about him, Inkblot arrived to the bottom of the stairwell where the pair of unicorns were talking. "Hey! Made the bed!"

"Oh good, let's go!" she said anxiously running up the stairs, leaving Inkblot behind. The two colts were left surprised by the sudden dashing away.

There was a brief silence before Headline gave his son a nudge. "Go get 'er."

"Dad! You know it's-"

"I know, I know. I only tease. But be careful. When mares want privacy with a stallion, then that stallion's in for somethin'-"

"Yeah, yeah. Got it," he interrupted. He didn't want to think of that possibility. He still liked Trixie, and didn't want any drama.

Inkblot entered his room to see Twilight waiting for him. "So what'd you come over for?" he asked as he shut the door. The second the door shut, he felt his four hooves become attracted to the door. By the time he noticed that the purple unicorn's horn was glowing, he was pinned to the door. Unable to move, he merely struggled as the mare moved closer to him. He tried using magic, but her more powerful magic blocked his ability to use it. He nearly yelled the first thing that came to mind. "I have a fillyfriend!"

This made Twilight back away, blushing. "Oh! I wasn't going to, uh, you know, do THAT!"

"Oh. Well, could you, um, let me down please?" he asked, trying to break free of the awkward tension.

"Do you promise not to run away? No matter what?"

"Depends on what you're about to tell me," Inkblot answered, trying to get the information out as soon as possible.

The purple mare looked around, as if to see if anypony was watching. Then she sighed, seeming to brace herself for however Inkblot might react. "It's about your article in the paper."

Sensing where this was going, he decided to play dumb. "You did all this just for my article? What is it, some-"

"There was no anonymous source you got that from, was there?"

Inkblot tried again to move, but kept the grunts to himself. He continued to stretch the truth by simply avoiding it? "Why do you care about the source so much? Is he some sort of target for-"

"Inkblot!" she nearly shouted.

"Can you please let me down?"

"Not until you tell me where the laptop is!"

"You're part of the HPIRT! Aren't you?"

"Listen! There's no point in lying! After Hopkins chased you halfway up the mountain, he sent out a description. A description of you! And now you're posting about the HPIRT in the paper! It's obvious you're up to something and I am NOT letting you go until you tell me what you're up to!" she spilled. The mare said it herself. There's no point in lying, and she followed that credo by telling him all of this. Inkblot was worried about how he might get his memory taken, and felt dumb for telling her so much about him.

Inkblot, still pinned to the wall, gave a large sigh, hanging his head. "I'm losing my memory, aren't I?"

"Actually," Twilight suddenly released him as he fell to the ground. "You get to keep your memory. This little encounter will have never happened."

Inkblot lit up, but still held a sarcastic tone. There had to be a catch. "Let me guess. In exchange for the laptop."

"I just want to know what you're up to. I'm not a part of the HPIRT division of the show, but I do know that you'd have to be crazy to actually call them directly to you."

She just wanted to come by to see why he put out the article? It seemed suspicious, but hey! Telling her would work just fine with his plan.

"Well it's a pretty simple plan," Inkblot started humbly. "The HPIRT will read the article, and try to find out who the anonymous source is I mentioned in the article. So they'll come into my room and question me. At that point, I'll show them I'm the pony with the laptop, and exchange the laptop for something I need."

"Well, what do you need?"

"A password. A password that shows all of the recordings from the cameras. If I could see that, then I'd be able to find whoever robbed our house."

Twilight frowned, preparing to give bad news. "It only records footage necessary to make episodes. You won't find whoever robbed your house on the cameras."

Well, that did it for his plan. "Perfect," he said with a clear sarcasm. "So now I just put up a sign in the paper telling the HPIRT to come and get me?"

"Pretty much."

There was a silence. It rang through the room as the two unicorns reflected on Inkblot's failed plan. In fact, the plan backfired. He could still always trade the laptop away for something else. Maybe just to keep his memory, or as a way to save Hearth. Or both. Inkblot broke the silence. "So, you said you're not a part of the HPIRT. What do you do?"

"I'm a main actress. Basically, the show revolves around the life in Ponyville for me and my friends," she explained as she layed down on top of the bed he made. The colt thought that it was a dumb idea for a show, but he didn't have the heart to tell her.

"What friends?"

"Promise not to talk to them about this?"

"I've been keeping secrets for a good amount of time already."

"Let's see. First, there's Applejack."

"The earth pony from Sweet Apple Acres?"

"Yeah."

This surprised Inkblot. He never really saw the orange pony as the star of a show. Then again, he didn't know her that well. He just saw the pony bucking apples every so often.

"There's Rainbow Dash."

"Don't know her," the black-maned pony responded as he walked over to the bed Twilight had layed down on.

"Rarity."

"Oh! Yeah! She seems showy, like she'd be center stage." He remembered going to Carousel Boutique once to fix one of his father's suits. Calling her showy was an understatement. In fact, he felt like he should watch the show to see if she was being dramatic for the camera as she fixed the suit.

"Fluttershy is one of them."

This made Inkblot laugh out loud. Fluttershy?? The pegasus who takes care of the animals? "You're joking, right?"

Twilight joined in with the laughter. "Actually, no. I'm serious. She's a part of it."

The colt's laugh died down. "She couldn't put herself in front of a camera if she tried."

"Well, believe me, convincing her wasn't easy. We had to tell her that the people watching would never meet her, and that they would all love her."

"Do they?"

"I don't know. It's still a new show. The first episode of it just aired on television."

"Telewhat now?"

"Oh, it's like a little box that shows movies on it. The humans have it in their home."

"Ah."

Suddenly, the purple mare got up from the bed. "Well, I'm done here. I did what I need to do, and as much as I love talking to you, there are just other things to do, you know."

Inkblot followed her as she approached the door, opening it for her. "Of course. So long."

"Bye," she said, waving as she went down the hallway, toward the stairs.

Suddenly, Inkblot remembered something that he meant to ask. The reason he was about to leave for the library. "Hey! One more thing! What's a Power Leaf?"

The librarian stopped in the hall, speaking loudly to ensure the colt with the black circle around his eye heard her. "It's a magical herb put in mixtures to intensify its effects. Very very powerful."

With that, she was off, leaving Inkblot to wonder what in the hay the Power Leaf would do. It was probably for the memory thing, so it just made the memory erasers stronger. Is that what they were going to use for him? Only time would tell.

The remainder of the day was uneventful. Inkblot expected somepony in the town to maybe talk to him about his article. He assumed that everypony thought it to be a dumb conspiracy (if they actually read it), which was good. Nopony believed it so nopony would get their memory wiped.

The night was much more eventful. Mainly because he had prepared to defend himself against any HPIRT members that would have reacted to the article. His original plan was to beat up whoever came in, tie whoever came in to the bed, take away any of the memory suppressant they could be carrying, then negotiate a trade where he got the camera's password in exchange for the laptop. Now that he knew that the cameras didn't cover the robbery, his plan was the same, except less negotiating and more improvising. He predicted it would fail miserably against his favor, but if it did, it wasn't like he'd remember such a failure anyway.

The unicorn spent the first half of the night awake, listening intently for any sounds. Since just sitting there was boring business, he pulled out the laptop to get another look at its capabilities. During his couple hours of tinkering on the laptop, he found a pinball game (which he found himself playing for a majority of his time), and a game called Solitaire. It had a bunch of cards along with a set of rules. As interesting as it seemed, the rules were simply too hard to follow. He stuck with pinball.

Every so often, Inkblot would hear a sound from outside, such as the wind blowing twigs around the street, and immediately panic, hide the laptop, and snuck himself next to the window, ready to strike. After waiting five minutes and not hearing another sound, he groaned and returned to pinball.

Later in the night, he heard another sound. The thing that made this sound different was that it came from the inside of the house. It was the sound of his front door opening. This had to be the HPIRT. They could probably open the locked doors that guarded the journalist's home. As he could hear the steps ascending the stairs, the tension rose. Who was it? Was it going to be Hopkins? Was it going to be ID4672? He had to know as soon as possible, and he was ready to find out with his legs bent, ready to buck.

The second he saw something enter his room, he bucked. Eliciting a sharp "oof!", the human fell over to the ground. Inkblot's mind raced as he nearly slammed the door. Fortunately, his father was a very heavy sleeper and didn't wake up to see this.

Inkblot, whose mind was scrambling to the next part of his plan, followed instinct and tried to repeat what Twilight Sparkle did to him earler that day. Unfortunately, it proved to be harder than he expected, giving him enough power to only pin the invaders hands to the ground with magic. It would have to work. He used magic to scour his pockets for any memory suppressant. Finding none, he began questioning. "Who are you, and why are you here?"

The frail human coughed as Inkblot got a good look at him. He was a very skinny human, with a short patch of brown hair on top of his pale head. His eyes were as brown as his hair. One thing for sure was that he was very frail and weak. Pinning him to the ground was probably far from any difficulty any other human would've produced.

After a couple brief coughs, the voice spoke. "My name...Franklin. And I have a m-message for Inkblot."

Franklin! He had been helping him get used to the laptop and helped him out against other members of the HPIRT. Still suspicious that he had just snuck into his house to deliver a message, he responded. "That's me. Who's it from?"

Franklin, probably not used to being pinned down, choked out the word. "Left...front...pocket..." as he looked over to a leather bag he had walked in with. Quickly, but without releasing the human, he opened the bag and pulled out a small book. He had seen it once before, and always wondered what it said. Now, it appeared he was going to find out. The book was labeled with the word "DIARY".

It belonged to Trixie.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8: The Diary

"Trixie's diary," Inkblot said to himself. He had only seen it in the hospital, and hadn't thought of it much since, but now he had it, hand-delivered to him. Suddenly, he wanted to read it ten times as much as he had before. It was right there. Ready for him to dive into its leather bindings and read whatever was in it.

"Um...before you start reading, would you mind letting me go?" came a weak voice from behind the unicorn. He turned around to see Franklin still pinned down by his magic. Inkblot knew that he was a friend and didn't have any memory suppresant with him, so he let him go, letting him sag to the ground. "Thanks. Being held by magic sure is uncomfortable."

"Tell me about it," the pale unicorn, remembering his experience earlier that day. "So, did Trixie give you this?"

"Yeah. We're friends, but please don't ask me any questions until after you've read that diary. It'll clear a lot of things up and save me some breath."

"OK," the pony said as he opened the book. The first page was different from the other, serving as a handwritten note from Trixie. He used his magic to pull it out and read it.

"Dear Inkblot,

I figured I should give you this to explain some things. First of all, there are things you should know. I was a member of the HPIRT. Only for a short period, though. In fact, I only remember a small fragment of it, which is the part where I quit.

By the time you read this, The Great and Powerful Trixie will be no more. I plan to completely change my image and create a new life for myself. Do not try to remind me of this previous life if you ever do find me. It would defeat the purpose of what I'm doing.

Inkblot, I know about how I kissed you that night on the hill. I read it in the diary you're holding. I'm sure that you feel honored that the Great and Powerful Trixie shares the same affection you feel for me. It is but a shame I never told you until now. Especially considering the consequences.

These are the last words of the Great and Powerful Trixie. May my memory be left behind to a colt who loved me before I was famous. A colt who knows the truth. A colt like you, Inkblot. May it not be shared with any other pony. So long Equestria. I will still behold your beauty, but no longer as the Great and Powerful Trixie."

Inkblot was speechless. She was gone? What did she mean by "no longer as the Great an Powerful Trixie"? As quick as the pale unicorn's mind was racing, trying to comprehend what he had read, he knew that if he kept reading, he'd find out what was going on. Either way, Franklin said that he wouldn't give him answers.

He turned past the note to find that a majority of the pages had been ripped out, probably to secure the rest of her life with privacy. He read the first available page:

"September 1st, 2010

Today, I arrived in Ponyville, preparing to give a show tomorrow. While here, I caught up with Inkblot, an old friend from school. He's still as cute as I remember him.

But it turns out that I had a very interesting day. After lunch with Inkblot, I encountered a pair of shady creatures. They said I had to keep them secret, but this diary is more than safe.

Turns out it was a pair of humans!!!! I didn't think they existed until this point. They gave me a strange request, though. They knew I was going to do a show tomorrow, and they asked me to tell everypony that I had slayed an Ursa Major, in exchange for a show in the Royal Theatre. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, so I took it! They also warned me about a group of neighsayers that would be in the audience. It was all odd, but they told me to not tell anypony about them under any circumstances, or else they'd wipe everypony's memories. So I don't plan on telling everypony.

Tomorrow's the show, and I hope it to be successful."

Inkblot turned the page, suppressing his nearly endless stream of questions, reassuring himself that they would be answered. There were only a few answers so far, most of which just gave him more of the nagging questions.

"September 2, 2010

Well, the show was a success. I dealt with the neighsayers with great ease. They were arrogant, some were prissy, and some were downright intolerable. I assumed the humans sent them to do so. Why they did I cannot fathom, but at least they kept up their end of the bargain. On the day after tomorrow, I will be performing in the Royal Theatre. I'm very excited!

Of course, while I followed up with the humans, I asked some questions. I figured out that our life in Ponyville was being watched, recorded, and broadcasted. I say this like it's stalking all of Equestria, but it's not. It revolves around only eventful things, and it mainly shows the lives of six specific ponies. Three of which were the neighsayers. I don't know why they did it, but they said I'd find out in due time. After revealing to them that I didn't want memories to be taken, they offered me a job with them. They said it was a part of some organization called the HPIRT, which stood for Human-Pony Interaction Removal Team. I joined, knowing that I'd be protecting the memories of ponies everywhere, and more than likely get perks similar to the one I received today.

After catching up with my new co-workers, I caught up with my new fans. Inkblot did say hi, which was nice, but then these two obnoxious little colts suddenly started to treat me like a goddess (which was fine since I got a smoothie out of it). I won't lie, I was feeling a little bodacious (if that's the right word to use) during my performance, but apparently the little colts loved it.

So, a good show, a pass to perform another show in front of Royalty, and a couple new fans. Overall, this has been a great day.

I can't believe it. Those dirty humans set me up! They made me say that I conquered an Ursa Major, when I really hadn't! And guess what? They managed to get an Ursa Major(actually it was just a baby) to attack the town! Apparently, they sent the two little twerps to go get it from the Everfree Forest. Then everypony turned to me to defeat it. I clearly couldn't handle it! So I admitted defeat and, as part of my job in the HPIRT, I couldn't tell anypony the truth. So they got the main character Twilight Sparkle to save the day, instead. They used me! They played me for a fool and ruined my reputation as the Great and Powerful Trixie!!!

I ran out of town to try and find the humans to give them a piece of my mind, but following me was Inkblot. He comforted me and made me feel incredible, like I was back on top of the world. Looking back, being a fan was the nicest thing he could've done at that point. I thanked him for it with a kiss on the cheek. I could tell he really liked it, but I never bothered to tell him that my lipstick left a smudge.

With that I headed to my cart, which had been smashed by the Ursa Minor. Damage report: The folding stage is broken, along with the cart's wheels, which is a huge inconvenience. So I can't move most of my show supplies. I decided to just take the essentials (like my hat, cape, and some balls that I use in most of my acts. Swallowing my pride, I asked a local to hold onto the rest of my things for a while until I got the cart fixed, which I would have done the next day, but I had to be on my way to Canterlot for the show.

On my way out of town, who do I see but one of the humans I met yesterday. His name was Franklin. I spoke my mind about how I was humiliated just to make the main character look good. Franklin was very apologetic and claimed that he wasn't the one who wrote the script for the episode and had quit the HPIRT. He wanted to come with me to Canterlot, since he had nothing better to do. He couldn't go back home because one of the pony's ended up taking away the laptop. The laptop was their key.

So I have my hat, cape, and a bag to take to Canterlot. I'm writing this on the road and dead tired, with Franklin as a companion. Fortunately, nopony (albeit us) will be on the roads at this ungodly hour, so Franklin won't be seen by anypony. We haven't been on the road long, but Franklin and I are already friends. He's

*Note: I fell asleep in the middle of writing this."

For a brief moment, Inkblot looked up at Franklin, who was fiddling around with a pencil he had pulled from his pocket earlier while he looked at a tiny little box that resembled a miniature version of the laptop. This guy had become Trixie's friend over the last few days. While it was inappropriate for the current situation, he intended to ask what Trixie said about him. Inkblot turned the page.

"September 3, 2010

Am I glad we made it to the Comfy Stable and at least got some sleep. I had to take a room, and Franklin had to sleep outside. Of course I felt bad for kicking the new friend outside, but he explained that he can't feel discomfort in the form he was in. It was a long explanation of how his body was really in an alternate dimension and how he could go into some hibernation or something. I didn't really care.

Today, I looked around the regal city of Canterlot. Very sophisticated to say the least. Of course I've been here numerous times, but it's almost always changing. In fact, I was glad to see my friend Hearth still in business. We caught up for a while, but I couldn't stay long. I had to get work started on my new trick.

I figured that since the Royal Theatre is the biggest performance I will ever face, so I got the chance to create my own trick using my own memory. It creates a huge cloud. On that cloud, whatever is in my memories is projected onto the cloud. Franklin says it looks very realistic, so it should wow the audience.

Although, I figured that it was a good idea to make whatever was projected onto the screen, part of my performance. So I spent a good while walking around talking to myself. I'm sure anypony watching me would've gotten a laugh. So I had to be quick.

I decided to show off the high quality of my memory to the Royal Theatre, so I went to the side of a cliff where you could see all of Equestria. But while I was over looking the cliff, I saw something strange. I saw Inkblot, seemeingly running for his life. Then I saw that I was being chased by Hopkins, one of the humans I met! Inkblot had the laptop! By instinct, I used my magic to destroy the bridge behind him, cutting off Hopkins. I guess thats what he gets for ruining my reputation.

I talked to Franklin about what to do with Inkblot. He recommended to take the laptop and his memory. He said that if he had the laptop for too long, he would be killed (the idea that the HPIRT killed ponies was a shock to me). I've come up with a plan to take away his memory before it's too late. I'll write it down here.

First, I'll need to meet with Hearth. Inkblot's already asleep for the night outside, so Hearth will have the honors of waking him up. He'll offer him his hospitality, giving him a room that I'll pay for. Then Hearth will send him to the Comfy Stable Diner with his card, which is expired. He'll go to the diner, where I'll make a scene. Inkblot, who has a crush on me, will stick up for me while it's revealed to him that the card is expired. He won't have any reason to stay, so I'll invite him to my hotel room, where Franklin will leave memory suppressant. I'll slip the suppressant into his drink. Before he's rushed to the hospital, Franklin will take the laptop and get home.

When Inkblot wakes up, he'll be in the hospital wing. I'll be there with him. I'll tell him that he came to Canterlot to see my show. I'll leave out the details about him running from Hopkins and taking out the bridge. I'll tell him that he lost his memory from a spell I tried. I'll tell him I tried the memory thing, then, impressed, he asked me to try the trick on him. It messed up, and took out a bit of his memory. Easy as that. Then he'll go over to Hearth, who'll greet him as a friend and give him a nice place to rest.

Well, the plan seems simple enough. Tomorrow, I'll execute it, hoping for the best."

Even though Inkblot knew the fate of her plan, he anxiously flipped the page, ready to expose more of this mystery.

"September 4, 2010

I have no memory of what happened over the last few days, and the remnants of my memory have been saved by this diary. After reading over this at least ten times, sometimes believing it to be a practical joke, I've accepted what is going on and I am, to an extent, caught up.

Apparently, the plan mentioned before was a failure, because my memory's gone and not Inkblot's. Maybe I put the suppressant in the wrong drink, because Inkblot's story matches the plan of me taking him to my room and such. Everything else apparently went according to plan.

So I woke up today in the hospital bed in the middle of the day. I'm sure something interesting happened earler today, but I can't remember. Anyway, instead of Inkblot seeing me when he woke up, I saw him when I woke up. The doctor told me he had been waiting for a long time. Four hours! If it wasn't obvious that he liked me before, it was now. We had a really good day, talking, and eating dinner together. I always saw him as cute, but today made me feel a little different about him. Maybe something a little more...

Anyway, after Inkblot left, Franklin managed to sneak into my hospital room. I'd met him before, but I didn't remember, so it was like our first meeting, but easier for Franklin. He filled me in with any details not written in this diary, which was a help.

Well, the nurse says I have to stay here until tomorrow morning to rest, and I need to keep magic to a minimum for a while. I guess I'll have to, then. Tomorrow, I set off to wherever I need to go!"

Turning the page like a bookworm absorbed in his favorte book, Inkblot moved on, docking his questions for later and focusing entirely on the book. He did, however, notice the sound of Franklin writing on a sheet of paper.

"September 5, 2010

This will be the last entry in my diary. I've caused something so bad that I couldn't forgive myself if I tried. I guess I should start with the morning.

I woke up to learn that the HPIRT captured Hearth in the middle of the night last night. I immediately asked Franklin where he could be held. He told me about an HPIRT Canterlot Headquarters that was inside a salon (Note: The password for getting in is "Do you have a little filly/colt's room with a clean seat?" The attendant will simply laugh and press a button to open an elevator in the back. Strange password if you ask me). I visited the Headquarters to try to get him out, but to no avail. They said he would be killed soon.

I vented to Franklin about my problems at hand (Franklin didn't mind. He was understanding). Feeling bad for me, he told me of a Power Leaf Mixture that was occasionally made for worst case scenarios. The Power Leaf mixture enhances the ability of the memory suppresant, making it so strong, it gives the subject complete amnesia. Not a single memory of who they are, where they came from, and in my case, what they did. It was my way of getting out of the HPIRT mess forever.

Later that day, I got some Power Leaves, which they store conveniently in the headquarters. While I was there, I learned that tomorrow, Hopkins will come to the HQ to "pass off the captured pony, then his famous interrogation". I assume it to be as horrible as it sounds.

Turns out making the Power Leaf mixture is slightly more difficult than expected. I have to crush them into tiny pieces in order for it to be effective, so I'll get the memory wipe tomorrow. And I'm taking them out with me, too. I'll take all of their memory eraser so that they'll be crippled. And either way, if it topples them entirely, I won't know about it.

Tonight, I change my mane color and style. I will get my entire coat dyed a new color, including painting over my old cutie mark and tattooing a new one on. I'll change my name, and write myself a note, telling myself who I am. I will cease to be the Great and Powerful Trixie. After tonight, she will be gone, and I will rise from her ashes as a new pony. I will not disclose what my new name is to anypony! It would ruin the point of the memory loss itself.

So long. Tomorrow, I will sign into the computers as ID4672 one last time, and then be gone from this persona. I was greedy enough to join a murderous organization for fame, and somepony else paid the price.

Goodbye to all who read. I retire my show uniform, and send it to somepony who'll keep it religiously. I will have this diary sent to Inkblot, so he knows the truth about my experience, and my feelings about him. Do not search for me.

-The Great and Powerful Trixie"

And that was the last page. Inkblot closed the diary. He expected an endless stream of questions to drown his mind, but he was surprised to see that there were only few questions for him to ask.

"So, Franklin, it looks like you knew Tri-" Inkblot stopped talking when he saw the human wasn't there. He looked around the entire room, but there was no sign of Franklin. In his place was a short note. Tired of reading, he reluctantly picked up the note and read it aloud, struggling to read his rushed handwriting.

"'Sorry to leave on...guch short?....SUCH short notice. But there's an emergency. The IV is running low and I have to make sure Hopkins doesn't take it all. Great to meet you."

Well, the solitude was helpful. It helped make everything he learned sink in...

...but it was 2 in the morning. Despite his sleeping in that morning, he was still wiped out, and as much as this new information wanted to pester him to stay awake, Inkblot knew that he would fall asleep the second his head touched the pillow. He knew that fatigue clouded his judgement, so any conclusions made at that time would seem ridiculous the next morning. Either way, he would still have the diary the next morning.

With that, he hid away the diary in the same drawer as the laptop and quickly drifted to rest.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Escape

Inkblot woke up with a bright light shining in his face. At first, he thought it was Celestia's sun, but after further half-asleep investigation, he found out it was a bright overhanging light. He didn't have one of those in his room. The unicorn felt the white covers. They weren't blue, like his bed's covers. This wasn't his bed. This wasn't his room. Where was he?

Another question was why was he hurting so badly. Especially his head. The pony pulled of his covers to show his body covered in scratches and bruises, looking as if somepony had spilled a bag of red hair onto him and some of them stuck. Regardless of how he looked, he still ached all over, and if his head looked the way it felt, it probably wasn't a sight Inkblot wanted to see.

He was clearly in some sort of hospital. Not the Ponyville hospital. Not the Canterlot hospital. He's never seen this hospital before. It was bright, but mostly grey. For instance, the walls and furniture were in greyscale. In fact, for a while, the pony thought he had gone colorblind. The only color in the room could have been his blue eyes. He had no idea where this bland room was. But he saw a sign on a wall outside his room, and it gave him a better idea. It was labeled "HPIRT HEADQUARTERS IN CANTERLOT".

Inkblot started to freak out. They got him! He
was captured! They were going to take away his memory! Fortunately, they hadn't done it yet, and they didn't bother to restrain him. Escape was placed on the top of his list of priorities.

Lucky for the ink-maned pony, his ponynappers made escape easy for him. The door to the outside was wide open. But the hallways were bound to have some kind of surveillance. He couldn't just waltz out. They had him in a stronghold, and they were just holding him until their memory suppressant restocked. Then it was over. They were going to wipe out everything. Or worse. They were going to kill him!

He walked to the doorway as he rubbed his aching head, and searched the room for a window or something. Some way to get out except for walking out into the open. He saw his opportunity right above him. It was an air vent! Here the pony came to his first issue. The ceiling was high off the ground. Not too high, but definitely out of his reach. Inkblot's mind already had an insane plan to remedy this issue. There was a cupboard that he could climb on top of if he used the counter. Maybe if he jumped from up there, he could make it and climb into the vent.

His magic was shaky and somewhat painful since his horn was cut up, but Inkblot managed to precisely unscrew the grate to open the vent. Inkblot slowly let the unhinged grate down with the screws so that he could put it back. Suddenly, he heard a voice. "Oh! Good to see you awake, Inkblot!"

Acting on instinct and without any thought, he used the grate as a weapon, hitting whoever was behind him. A genius was he. His stroke of genious knocked out the innocent doctor who came into the room. Then again, he might not be as innocent since he probably worked for the HPIRT. The doctor had a pale coat like Inkblot, and he had a red mane. Or, at least he used to have a red mane. Now the doctor was bald and his hairpiece layed on the floor next to him. The pony was wearing a white coat, suiting his profession, and his cutie mark was a red cross, nearly identical to Nurse Redheart's.

Well, he got the grate out of the way, now Inkblot had to deal with the unconscious earth pony. He opened the cupboard that he was about to climb to see if there was enough room for the doctor. No. It was full of syringes and jars filled with unknown chemicals and materials.

Maybe he could put him in the bed. That way nopony would notice him at first glance (since he didn't have his wig), and all would seem normal. The longer it takes before they realized he was gone, the better. Inkblot removed his coat and slid the doctor into his bed with his magic, which hurt even more since it was a larger load. It wasn't long before the bald pony was resting snugly in Inkblot's bed.

Inkblot stepped back to appreciate the work he had done. In fact, without his wig, the doctor almost looked like Inkblot except as an earth pony and no black mark around his eye. Suddenly, Inkblot got an idea! The unicorn put on the doctor's coat and hairpiece. It wasn't effective, but for all he knew, everypony could know what he looked like. It would at least deflect some attention in the event that he was ever out in the open.

The room was set. The decoy was asleep in bed. The air vent was open. Inkblot was ready for his escape. He climbed up onto the counter, which was covered in scattered papers. He climbed slowly since his aching legs were slowing him down. Then the pony climbed up to the cupboard, trying to take as little time as possible.

Inkblot surveyed the scenario. Thankfully, the cupboard was fastened to the wall, so it didn't wobble. The disguised unicorn viewed his targeted hole in the ceiling. It wasn't too far away. He could make it if he jumped far enough. He was handicapped by the lightly burning scratches that peppered him. Despite his sore everything, he took the leap.

Soaring through the air, the unicorn's goal was to at least grab the rim of the air vent and climb into it. He threw his front legs into the ceiling's hole, and hoped for the best. It stung for a good while, his forelegs feeling aflame because of all of his cuts, but he bared his teeth and held on, as if for dear life. It took two stinging minutes, but Inkblot finally threw the rest of his body into the shaft. He used his magic to screw the grate back into place, and his work was done. The room looked exactly the same, only with maybe a paper or two out of place and a different pony in the bed.

The pony was in the airshaft. Part One of his improvised plan was complete. Part Two was even more difficult since it included wandering aimlessly through the airshaft hoping that he was going the right way. The air was turned off, so it gave him even less of an idea where to go. His plan would have been to go with the wind, which would hopefully lead outward, but no wind meant no direction. Following his gut was necessary.

Every so often as he walked through the dim and slightly cramped, he would find a grate for him to peek through to get at least some bearing. Through the grates, he would see hallways from the ceiling that were about as interesting as the air shaft. Similar to the hospital room, there was no color in the hallways, given the exception of the occasional pony. In most cases, he couldn't see anything to point him in the right direction, so the pony trekked on.

After about ten minutes of walking down the airshaft, he noticed that the grates were becoming less and less common. After a while, there simply weren't any more grates. The farther in he went, the darker it got. It wasn't before long he couldn't see his hoof in front of his face. Inkblot considered turning around, but then he remembered that he knew a spell that lit up his horn. His horn would hurt, no doubt, but he needed light if he was going to continue navigating the airshaft. Still walking, he closed his eyes to use the painful light spell. The light definitely made his horn burn a little, as if he were lighting his horn on fire for light. He opened his eyes and looked down to see that the floor ended, and his forelegs led him down the vertical shaft.

Inkblot gave a short scream as he fell. The fall was about six feet, so it hurt, but not too much. If anything, it only hurt because of the sores all around his body. The pony grunted as he hit the ground, but recovered quickly. He looked up to assess what happened. There was no way back up, and the path ahead was nothing but darkness. He couldn't get back up, so he figured he'd light up the path ahead. He gave a sigh to highlight the frustration of his situation, and started walking.

Going down a dark air shaft with no sense of direction gave Inkblot a decent amount of time to think about what was going on. His first question: How did he get all these cuts and bruises? Maybe on his way up, they dropped him? Then again, just dropping him wouldn't do this much to him. Maybe they accidentaly dropped him down a rocky cliff? Yeah... accidentally...if Hopkins led the capture, then odds are using the word "accidentally" was inappropriate.

Next: How did they get him up to Canterlot without him waking up? Better question, how did he get all these injurues without waking up? Maybe he was drugged. That would make sense. They knocked him out and then dropped him on the way up to Canterlot. Or they knocked him out then when they dropped him it knocked him out again. Didn't matter, Inkblot got the idea.

There was one question that bothered the captured pony the most. The memory suppressant would restock for another week according to Franklin, so why haven't they killed him. Maybe they never found the laptop and needed to find out. After all, that's what the big deal was about in the first place. Then again, he didn't exactly hide it away. He put it in a drawer. Maybe they had to run out or something since his dad woke up. Maybe they had to escape out of the window. Then they dropped Inkblot. He had no idea, and took his theories with a grain of salt.

After five minutes of walking straight in the dark, the wandering unicorn came to a cramped four way intersection. Down the left air shaft, he saw a light, which he instinctively followed. "Finally," he said to himself, breaking the silence.

The light was another grate, this one was from above him this time, not below. As he approached it, he heard two distant voices. One was definitely feminine, and one was probably a young male. He dimmed his own light and looked above into the light to attempt to get a bearing. Beyond the grate was another grey room. Apparently whoever made the Headquarters forgot paint. The room was unknown, since the vent's exit was under a table. Inkblot couldn't see much, so he listened. The mare's gentle voice was first. "Because you travelled with him for so long."

Inkblot, looking through the hole, saw whatever he could see from under the table. All that he could see was a mare's flank. His heartbeat jackhammered his chest when he saw her cutie mark. It was the sun. He was staring at the flank of Princess Celestia! Awesome!

The next voice sounded familiar. Even though he couldn't see the source, he identified the source as Spike, Twilight's friend. "Well all that time's gone, isn't it? I beg your pardon, your Majesty, but Twilight needs me back home, and i don't think that they can go without me ANOTHER episode. The HPIRT guys said they needed me for this one."

The gentle voice of Celestia began to simmer with her temper. "They can't just tell you what to do! Have they forgotten who the leader of the land is?"

"Well if you stray too far from what they ask, apparently you will. They have their memory syuff by their side and they can use it any time. In fact, they have a special reserve of the memory stuff just for you, remember?"

The princess gave a laugh, except instead of he usual calm laughs, this one seemed somewhat tense. "I'm surprised that the assistant of my greatest student would believe such a threat."

Detecting the tension, Spike spoke softly. "Well, you've seen what some of these people and ponies can do. You heard about what the guy did to find Trixie."

Inkblot's heart raced. They were looking for Trixie? Why? She quit! Did she take something with her that was important? And most importantly, was she safe? "Who didn't hear about that?" the sun princess asked, already knowing the answer. Well whatever it was, it must have been recent, otherwise Inkblot would know too.

"I might still be a baby dragon, but I know that these guys are crazy! This isn't their world! And the show yesterday shows that maybe these ponies are just as crazy."

Celestia stood up, exposing the purple dragon in front of her to the watching unicorn. The simmer in her voice was lessen, but was still present. "I know that. And I have a solution. They've been trying-"

Suddenly, Inkblot heard a loud humming from behind him. Following it seemed to be a fierce gale coming from behind him. The fan had turned on, and it was blowing hard. So hard that he couldn't hear the conversation anymore. That was a problem! He still had so many questions that they could answer! But he found out that unanswered questions were the least of his problems as the hairpiece of his disguise had blown off and slipped through the grate. Inkblot instinctively tried to grab it before it slipped through, but all he did was make a loud clang that would have gotten her attention if the hairpiece didn't.

The snooping unicorn didn't waste a second. He started running toward the fan, away from Celestia and Spike. He didn't know where he was going, but he knew he was escaping, and that was all that mattered at that point. Inkblot's whole body ached as he ran, and setting his horn aglow stung even more, but the adrenaline brushed the thoughts of pain aside, and amplified his senses to make louder the echoes of his hooves against the air vent.

Inkblot kept running, taking a random set of turns, no longer heading for the fan. Right! Left! Left! Straight! Right! Left! Straight! Left! Left! Right! It was more like a blind rush, than a formulated escape plan. One thing was for sure. There was no way anything could follow him. There was also no way he'd be able to find his way back.

After a couple minutes, he slowed down, convinced that he wasn't being followed. In fact, he wondered if he was ever being followed. Or noticed for that matter. Either way, it was better safe than sorry. He continued at normal pace down the vent, where there were grates on the ground every so often, providing enough light for the unicorn deactivate the spell that burned his horn. Underneath, he could see he was back in the hospital. It wasn't his room, since he dropped a floor after his fall. He continued his direction, trying to go the other way this time.

Now that his mind could function properly again, the pale pony proccessed the situation. So Celestia was against the HPIRT. Perfect! It's always good to have Celestia on your side. But then again, they had her treading on thin ice. If she makes one false move, they'd take her memory away. It really made him wonder what she was planning.

Next, were the HPIRT going to overthrow Celestia? It was far-fetched, but considering what he had heard it was completely plausible. They were giving demands to Spike, which is her job, and they were successfully threatening her. Could they possibly overthrow the Equestrian government? No. The Royal Guard would set 'em straight. But then again, he didn't know what weapons the humans had. He set the question aside for whenever his mind wasn't a chaotic mess like it was at that time.

Next question that would bother him endlessly, Trixie. Somepony was looking for her. Somepony did something huge to find her. Was she still safe? With the little information he had, he still couldn't have been sure. Well, if it was a big story, then that meant lots of news coverage, so odds are she got away. But then again, how would they have known if they hadn't caught Trixie?! Maybe it was confirmed but then she-

Inkblot's train of thought crashed as he crashed. He took another painful fall through an incredibly loose grate. His eyes were squeezed shut from pain, as he heard a voice behind him. "Whoa!" along with a sickly cough from somepony else. The runaway pony looked up to find himself seemingly back where he started. In a hospital room. Instead of the unconscious doctor in the bed, it was a human, with a doctor attending to him. The human was Hopkins.

Inkbloy got up to his hooves, ready for anything. "Hopkins!" he shouted to his enemy as the doctor locked up the door without the unicorn noticing. Hopkins wheezed in response to the ink-maned pony's call.

Hopkins looked terrible to say the least. Every other second he was coughing or wheezing. It was almost as if he was dying, but Inkblot didn't care for the bony human's pity. In fact, he kinda liked seeing the jerk like this. Laying in a hospital bed, feeling worse than imaginable. He felt bad about having these feelings, but it was true. He nearly smiled when he saw his hollow, painful face.

The doctor tried to hold back the angered pony, but he knew it was his chance. The human was weak. He had escaped his dreaded clutches. And now, it was time to end this once and for all.

While Inkblot tried to budge forward from the doctor's restraints only moments earlier, one sentence from Hopkins managed to stop him completely. Hopkind had to cough once or twice to ge out, but it eventually came.

"Well, it's good to see you back on the team, Inkblot."

Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Filling in the Blanks

The words echoed through his head. "Welcome back on the team." There was no way that Inkblot was a part of the HPIRT! He hated the organization more than anything he had ever known. He'd rather die than be a part of the group that stole away memories. Stole away memories...what if he joined, and didn't know it?!

"You...you took away my memory, didn't you?" Inkblot asked the suffering human.

Hopkins, attempting to speak, could only give wheezes and coughs. Had he not threatened him with his life, Inkblot would've felt bad for him. It almost seemed as if Hopkins was dying.

Due to the man's inability to speak, the doctor watching over him spoke for him, promptly, to the point, and with an accent that revealed he was from Trottingham. "Technically, no. He did not take away your memory. Your memory being lost is your own fault."

Inkblot was more than confused. Maybe the doctor meant it like "you brought this upon yourself" or "it was a punishment for doing something or another". Either way, he wanted to be sure, so asking questions about this would definitely do more help than harm. "What do you mean by that?!" Perhaps more descriptive questions would have helped more. But at this point, he was happy with any help he could get.

The doctor sighed, clearly trying to avoid telling the whole truth. "You drank two whole bottles of memory suppressant. In fact, I'm surprised you stayed conscious long enough to drink both."

The doctor's vague answer definitely didn't help. While it did reveal what Inkblot did that he couldn't remember, but the doctor seemed to purposely refrain from explaining why. How annoying. "Can you explain to me what actually happened, please? You know, explain why I chugged memory suppressant!"

The doctor's voice didn't falter. It was as if he were a machine made to withold information. "Well, I might as well explain some things." Never mind. He had no intention of withholding information.

While the doctor didn't even bat an eyelid, his patient seemed to completely freak out. He started to flail his limbs around weakly, yelling "Code! Code!" Hopkins seemed to try to attack the doctor, swinging his arms around the earth pony's neck.

The doctor shook himself away from the frail human draping himself over his back. "Fine! Fine! I'll ask him. Now rest up. You need all the rest you can get." Hopkins calmed down and laid back, but still seemed to focus on the two ponies, as if he were supervising the two.

"What's the last thing you remember?" the doctor asked the pale pony.

Inkbot was conflicted. Should he tell them about Trixie's diary? Or about Franklin's visit? Did they know about any of that? Would it put them in danger? He figured that unless it had only been a day, then they would already know about her leaving the team. "My memory goes back to the day Trixie wiped her own memory."

"So that's..." the doctor paused to count the days in his head. "...the day before you joined the HPIRT."

Impossible, Inkblot thought to himself. Maybe if he had a couple days to change his mind, but he wouldn't just change his mind overnight. Unless he had alterior motives. "Why did I join?"

"Well I might as well tell you the whole story. You had a plan. A rather clever one, might I add." the doctor said nonchalantly.

Of course! The rebellious unicorn knew that he wouldn't just join the HPIRT for bucks and giggles. "What was my clever plan then?" Inkblot asked the doctor.

The doctor began without missing a beat, suddenly turning against the part of him who held everything back. "About a month and a half or so days ago, you made your way up to Canterlot. We don't know how, but you found the HPIRT Headquarters. The first thing you did was ask to see Hopkins. But since everyone recognized you, you caused quite a scene. Almost the whole team was watching. It was quite the spectacle. They had you cornered. Everypony with memory suppressant was ready to take you out."

Something didn't add up. As much as he hated holding back the ending, Inkblot had to ask. "How did they have memory wipe? I got a message on the laptop saying it was all gone."

"We have found that we can create our own memory suppressant. The suppressant pointed at you was a prototype for it. After tests, we found that our suppressant has a range of over thirty days along with the ability to heal wounds. The healing was put in the prototype because any wounds received during a time of wiped memory, including syringe holes, can raise questions."

Inkblot looked around his sore body. "Well apparently it didn't work very well."

"I'll get to that." The doctor watched over his resting patient. "So you were in the main atrium of the headquarters. Franklin and Hopkins were in the center talking to you. You had the laptop with you."

This surprised Inkblot. "What?! I gave it back?!"

"Patience. I'll get to it," the doctor scolded. "Anyway, you struck up the outstanding deal I mentioned earlier. First, you typed in a few keystrokes into the laptop, and some strange portal appeared over him like a black hole. A beeping noise came from him, and he was sucked into the hole. We haven't seen him ever since."

Inkblot wanted to explain what he could, but not too much. He was unsure how much they knew about him. "What happened to Hopkins?"

"I'm honestly quite unsure. Hopkins gave me a breif description, though. He said that Franklin was sent back to his world. From there, he could be let off the IV, which was fleeting at that point, and get some real food. Now, Hopkins needs that."

It made sense. He must've sent Franklin back to his world, taking him off of his IV, therefore saving his life. Now Hopkins needed it so that when the IV runs out (by now it probably already has judging by his condition), he wouldn't starve. Now Hopkins life was in his hooves. Or at least it was at that moment in the story. "What happened next?"

The doctor cleared his throat and continued. "After doing that...thing, you offered to give it to him. In exchange, he would help you find Trixie."

Suddenly, thinking out loud, Inkblot interrupted the storyteller. "I wouldn't do something that stupid. He'd use the memory wipe to make me forget the deal ever happened."

The doctor broke his monotone demeanor and chuckled. "That's the brilliant part. Apparently, you put on some kind of passcode on it. If they took your memory, then you'd forget the passcode. It was a way of making sure you found Trixie."

"And it worked?"

"Yes it did. Whatever you were blocking must've been very important. So, Hopkins gathered up a team for you. They were some of our best ponies, all sent to find your Trixie. As the days went by, you travelled all around Equestria, looking for her. The team Hopkins set up gave you the little information they could. Information that you would later call 'useless'. While you searched for Trixie, you became almost reclusive, keeping everything to yourself and someyimes to your partner that Hopkins assigned you, Spike. Aside from him, you were detatched from the rest of us. Hardly spoke a word.

Inkblot was satisfied, having some of his questions answered for once. But there still more questions. For instance, how much had he forgotten? "How long did I spend looking for Trixie?"

"According to Spike, you found her after about 43 days. But we don't know where you found her or anything about her new alias. You kept it all to yourself."

At least 43 days. A lot can happen in 43 days. He could find out what he missed later, since a doctor tending to a patient 24/7 might not be updated on current events. "So how did I get these?" He asked, pointing to his many cuts and bruises.

The doctor gave another chuckle. The chuckles were already annoying Inkblot. "It took a while to shake the specifics from Spike, but we got just enough to answer that. Apparently, you were giving her a sign by firing some fireworks from the top of Castle Mountain. While setting it up, you took a nasty tumble down the mountain. Spike told us you looked worse than you do now. In fact, you were almost dead. You had fractured a few bones and had major injuries."

Inkblot felt panic just thinking about the situation he must have been in. "How did I survive?" he asked, as if he were a little colt asking his father how a story ended.

"Remember when I said that our homegrown memory suppressant healed wounds?" the doctor asked before turning back to his patient and letting the words sink in.

Well that answered two questions. Now he knew why his fractured limbs and gashing wounds were no longer apparent along with how he lost his memory. Inkblot concluded that the HPIRT must've taken him to the hospital wing. He guessed nopony else saw him in that condition, otherwise that would have raised tons of public madness when the HPIRT took him away. Suddenly, he remembered a question that he nearly forgot, but wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he did.

"What about Hearth? Did you guys do anything to him?"

"Oh, the hotel pony. Not to worry, when we found out he wasn't you, we gave him a little bit of suppressant, and he was on his way. At that point, he's more than likely curious about what had happened that we had made him forget, but that's not important. Odds are, he'll just attribute it to a memory spell backfire. Thats how we cover up most memory wipes."

The scratched unicorn was about to ask another question, but was interrupted by a loud cough. While Hopkins had been coughing for the entire conversation, this one was loud and clearly made to get the two ponies' attention. Mustering up what little strength he had, the dying human asked a question that could save his life. "Do...you...remember..." His question was interrupted with another sickly cough. "...remember...the code..."

Inkblot hadn't planned for this. Or maybe he had, but it was all taken away to save his own life. He wasn't a killer. While he couldn't stand his rival human, he couldn't kill Hopkins. But the truth was bitter. Inkblot couldn't remember. And there was nothing he could do to change that. "I hate to tell you this, but I can't remember."

Hopkins' rough looking face wore a look of shock and fear. The human was weak, but he nearly sat up in his bed and reached for the unicorn, sadly screaming the words "Remember! Remember!"

The doctor's face spoke for itself, saying that trying to get him to remember would be hopeless. But, he did try to help his patient's lost cause. "Listen. Inkblot, I believe was your name. You need to look back as far as possible. You went to bed in your home, presumably, and woke up 44 days later in a hospital as a member of the Human Pony Interaction Removal Team. Did you have any sort of dream?"

Inkblot thought back to before the day began. All he really remembered was closing his eyes one place and waking up somewhere else. His lost memories wouldn't help Hopkins in the slightest. "I don't remember anything that happened in the last 43 days. Including setting whatever passcode is on that laptop. I'm sorry." And he truly was sorry. Whatever grudge he had on Hopkins couldn't possibly be large enough for an intent to kill him.

Suddenly, to both ponies' surprise, the human leaned over his bed to look the unicorn in the face. Hopkins' dark eyes looked into Inkblot's blue eyes as if they were begging. For a hologram, he was incredibly realistic. His terrible appearance was multiplied up close. His eyes were droopy and wrinkled. It was clear he didn't have much time left. "Please..."

Well, considering the shape the man was in, it would be pure evil for the dark-maned unicorn to not make an effort. With a sigh, Inkblot turned to the doctor. "Where's the laptop?"

The doctor pulled it out of a drawer next to the patient's bed and handed it to him without a word. After 43 days of who knows what, the laptop didn't seem to take any major damage. It still looked as sleek as fever, but the "H" in the "HP" that engraved the front was partially chipped off. Inkblot used his magic to re-energize the machine, which stung a little, but nothing unbearable. The familiar light shone from the screen, but this time instead of leading to Gmail, it led to another screen that he had never seen before. It was all black, except for some white words.

"Enter Passcode to Continue: "

Here was the tricky part. He couldn't remember ever seeing a screen that looked anything like that no matter how hard he tried to remember. They must've had some strong memory wipe. So instead, he tried to put in codes that he would have put in. He started typing. "Trixie"

"[PASSCODE DENIED]"

The message was accompanied with a quiet, sharp beep. Well, there went his most obvious one. But he still had more passcode ideas fresh in his mind. "Headline"

"[PASSCODE DENIED]"

So it wasn't his dad, either. He probably chose wisely, since he knew that Hopkins would have his assistants follow the same proccess. He needed to try more personal things. "Snapshot"

"[PASSCODE DENIED]"

The beeps seemed to be a hornet stinging Hopkins right on a nerve, judging by his reaction to each one. The doctor treated them more like mosquitos that he wished to swat down.

Alright, maybe his passcodes weren't quite personal enough. Or maybe how personal it was wasn't the problem. "Ponyville Post"

"[PASSCODE DENIED]"

"ID4672"

"[PASSCODE DENIED]"

"4672"

"[PASSCODE DENIED]"

"Toasted Bermuda Grass Sandwiches"

"[PASSCODE DENIED]"

"Ursa Major"

"[PASSCODE DENIED]"

The beeps were coming in like an endless parade as Inkblot frantically put in any and every word that held the slightest bit of meaning to him. He even tried "Passcode" out of desperation. But nothing worked. He tried for what seemed like hours. Of course, the doctor didn't just sit and watch Inkblot's endeavors. Between his acts of assisting Hopkins, he caught Inkblot up, telling him what all had happened in Equestria that he had forgotten.

Only a couple days after he joined the HPIRT, Ponyville had fully cleaned itself up from the Ursa attack, just in time for the next disaster. A dragon had been sent there for a long nap. The fact that he snored smoke was a real bother for Ponyville, and Twilight and her friends went to go solve the problem. In the meantime, Fluttershy learned to be brave, which was nice. The doctor admitted that the bravery thing was pulled by the HPIRT to make a nice, healthy moral. As far as he knew, the HPIRT had absolutely nothing to do with the dragon.

As far as eventful events, the dragon was the only real event that he missed. For a good while, nothing big happened. They needed another episode, so they threw a quick one together with Twilight Sparkle, Applejack and Rarity having a sleepover and the latter two getting into fights. Spike was on "royal Canterlot business" helping Inkblot find Trixie.

Only a few days before Inkblot's accident, the HPIRT allowed a zebra to move into the Everfree Forest. The plan was for the whole town to think of her as some witch. Then by the end of the whole episode, everyone would learn the "don't judge a book by its cover" lesson. The organization that was in charge of secretly recording the lives of innocent ponies may forcibly erase the memories of anypony that interfered, but at least they shared good lessons.

And at the rate Inkblot was going, the organization was about to lose a member. Especially after one of the doctor's diagnoses, which led him to say the words that made Inkblot's heart freeze. "He hardly has any time left to live."

"How long?"

Despite the scenario, the doctor hardly broke his boring monotone voice. "I'd have to guess around five minutes. I don't know much about human anatomy, but even if you were going to get him out at this point, he wouldn't make it."

After that was a silence. Aside from the heavy breathing from Hopkins, it was completely silent.
The doctor was looking at Inkblot, who was looking at the man.Hopkins wasn't freaking out. He wasn't taking it well, either. He had just accepted his fate. Inkblot could see it in his somber eyes.

The unicorn blinked and broke the silence. "Well, I really wish I could have helped more, Hopkins. And, uh, doctor, sir? I'm not sure if I'm interested in watching him while he dies."

The doctor nodded as he walked to the door to undo the blockade he had set up to prevent Inkblot from running amok through the facility. As Inkblot left, the doctor gave him some parting words. "If you're looking for Spike, he's in Room 4906A if he hasn't left to go back to Ponyville already."

As he closed the door, Inkblot suddenly realized something, and caught the door with his front hoof. "Wait. How can I trust you?" The question should've been asked earlier. Should really put his trust in a doctor who works for the HPIRT?

For one last time, the doctor chuckled. "I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't. I'm not one to trust since I'm influenced by your mortal enemy. But then again, how much could you hate him if you tried to save his life. Everything you heard from me was either eyewitness or told to me by Hopkins on his deathbed. Whether or not you can trust that is up to you." With that, he closed the door.

So Inkblot was back in the hallway. He looked down each end of the hallway. It was similar to the airvents, except this time he knew which way he was going. He turned right and walked down the hall toward 4906A. He looked in the window to his left, into the room adjacent to Hopkins. Inside, he saw a doctor who got his hairpiece knocked off unconscious in a hospital bed.

Chapter 11

Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A Night To Remember

"So you were just giving her a chance?"

The show unicorn grinned. "Yes. A chance to fail in front of all of her friends, but of course, that didn't work out very well."

Inkblot did see how it could have been considered a flaw, but didn't consider it. "Are you kidding? She took care of it so that the magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie could be preserved."

Trixie smiled. "Of course! Why waste my raw power on a silly little Ursa Minor when there are other wonders to be performed?" As if on cue, she shot a shower of shimmering sparks out of her horn, with the other unicorn's mouth gaping in awe. The sparks were all colors of the rainbow; each color was shimmering against the hill the two were on.

"Wooooow! Amazing!" the white colt squealed. His pupils were greatly enlarged in awe of the event. They were so large, his left eye would have blended in with the black birthmark around his eye if it wasn't blue.

"Thank you. Thank you," the blue unicorn said as she gave a theatrical bow. Inkblot gave an accompanying applause.

"So, are you staying in Ponyville tonight? I know that the Ursa Minor destroyed your trailer, so maybe you could stay at my place?" the colt asked anxiously. What he wouldn't give for her to say yes...

Trixie could detect the anxiety. "I'm very sorry Inkblot, but the Great and Powerful Trixie always has places to be. I need to be in Canterlot by tomorrow to prepare for my spectacular show for the princesses."

The black and messy-maned unicorn almost stepped back in surprise. "You're doing a show in Canterlot?! That's amazing! They deserve talent like you!" He was upset that she couldn't stay, but he had a better idea. "Do you think I could come, too?"

Trixie scoffed as she started to walk away. "Please. I know you too well. You're a child at heart. You would be bored by all of the sophistication in a matter of seconds."

Inkblot followed loyally, still keeping up the conversation. "Well, I probably would be bored to tears, but that doesn't mean I won't try to make it. When's the show?"

Trixie smiled. "The Great and Powerful Trixie will be performing at the Royal Theatre at 9 PM this Saturday. Tickets are a pricy 80 bits, but it is without a doubt worth every last bit. Come and be amazed!"

Inkblot planned out his weekend. He had to turn in his article for the Ponyville Post by Sunday, which was in three days. He'd be able to turn it in beforehand and still have time to see Trixie's performance. "Alright! I'll be there!"

The show unicorn looked at her fan with a smile. Something she normally never wore in front of fans. Then again, her other big fans just let an Ursa Minor loose into Ponyville. "Well, the Great and Powerful Trixie departs from this town and makes her way to Canterlot. Next time I see you, I want to see that cutie mark, Inkblot."

The white unicorn cringed. "Please don't bring that up." It was a touchy subject that he preferred to avoid. Even though he was an almost fully grown colt, he still lacked a cutie mark. It was embarassing in most cases, but when Trixie said it, his blood seemed to freeze.

Trixie chuckled, then leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Inkblot's cheeks turned into a rosy red as he was frozen in place. His heart seemed to skip a beat as it happened. The unicorn wished he could feel this feeling for every second of his life, but after a breif moment of bliss, it was over.

Trixie gave another quiet laugh as she saw the look of complete shock, yet blissful joy on the unicorn's face. "Farewell, Inky."

Inkblot tried to say something as Trixie trotted away, but the kiss had jumbled his mind so much, he could hardly think straight, much less talk straight.

As Trixie disappeared over the hill, the dumbstruck unicorn only stood there comprehending what happened. He was just kissed by the Great and Powerful Trixie. Just the idea of it made his heart skip a beat or two. And as she left, she called him "Inky". It was like a pet name. Inkblot always thought lovey-dovey nicknames were just mooshy fake romance, but the name "Inky" just made his heart explode.

When he finally unfroze from his trance, he let out an elated holler while he bucked his back legs. For the next twenty minutes, he celebrated his kiss on the hill, partying to himself harder than Pinkie Pie could ever party.

Inkblot trotted his way home from the hill, still wearing a smile he never knew he had. He was so possessed by the joy of Trixie's kiss that he hadn't even thought about getting sleep. It was 3 in the morning, but the unicorn figured he was better going to bed late than never.

He followed the dirt path to Ponyville. Despite the recent destruction, the town was very quiet. Almost everypony seemed to be asleep in their homes, given the exception of two young moustached unicorns.

Inkblot was just about to cross the "Welcome to Ponyville" sign when he heard a voice come from behind a tall set of bushes. "Alright, and the message is sent." The voice was definitely from a stallion, but it was sort of high-pitched and weak. It shook in anxiety often like an uneven chair with springs attached to the bottoms of the legs.

Another voice responded to the first one. This one was deeper, rougher, and had a sense of authority, but it still seemed to be fun-loving and light-hearted. "Good. Now we just hope that the HPIRT comes in and takes away the problem tonight. Knowing how the NPIRT has been doing lately, they'll be more likely to deliver us a pizza than clear a pony's memory." The deep voice laughed. After listening a while, Inkblot notices that he had a slight Manehattan accent.

The weak voice answered his apparent partner's voice. "Why do we have to do that, though? I mean, memory removal seems sort of flawed. That pony won't remember ANYTHING that happened today."

The deeper voice chuckled. "Well, if you're so worried about the ponies, then be glad we caught that one when we did. If a pony knows about us for over a week, we don't have the ability to wipe that much memory, so we have to take them out instead."

There was a pause. It gave Inkblot a brief second to think about the situation. A handful of questions flew to the front of his mind. Who were these ponies? What was the message? Who did it go to? Whose memory was being wiped? Was his memory going to be wiped tonight?

The pause subsided when the one with the smaller voice spoke up softly "W-we have to kill them? Like....KILL them...?"

The deep voice behind the bushes groaned. "This again? Yes. If they know about us for too long, it'll be implanted too deep into their memories for us to erase. The erasers can only erase up to about a week long of memory."

"Can't we just ask them to not talk about it? It's a lot better than just slaying the things."

"Well, that would defeat the purpose of us being secret. Some of these ponies want to be adventurous and travel to our world. Show ponies would just hog the cameras. Pranksters would dunk the hidden cameras. If they could know, then we would've told them already."

"K-killing them is just wrong, though. If I'd known we'd be k-killing them, I wouldn't have taken the job. In fact," a thump was heard as something hit the ground, "I quit," he exclaimed with a sharp tone, but clearly little to no confidence.

Suddenly, the smaller voice let out a yelp. Inkblot couldn't see behind the bush, but judging by what he heard, the voice was being strangled. The lower voice became threatening and vile, suddenly having his voice so rough it sounded like sandpaper. It had lost all of it's fun and joy. "Listen! We came here to do our job. I have no problem with you leaving, but we're gonna finish the job before you leave. Alright? Cuz your little hissy fit isn't going to put the show at risk. Got that?"

A choked whimper responded. Inkblot knew he had to take action, but he was hesitant. He took a step, but took it back quickly considering the scenario. He didn't notice he stepped on a small pile of dead leaves, making a noticable crinkle.

The unicorn finally decided to act. As he charged into the bushes, he heard the light scampering of feet making their way into the cover of another set of shrubs. Inkblot was alone in an opening surrounded by big bushes. His heart darted from side to side to find the source of the voice, but found himself to be alone.

He turned his head right to find something else. It was the thing that the guy who quit dropped. From just looking at it, he didn't have a clue what it was. It was a sleek, black, rounded box with a crease down the center. On the top of it was a grey rounded rectangle that featured the letters "hp".

Inkblot looked at it with confusion. Using his magic, he lifted the box up and inspected the thing in full. The crease was grey, and seemed to be able to open. The bottom of it was also black, but had strange grids and textures. Under the crease on the sides, there were a large number of holes. Most of them were either rectangular and circular, each with a mysterious symbol next to it.

He used his magic to open it up. It was divided into two parts. The first part was just a simple blackness. Nothing much about it. The second part was divided into at least fifty of it's own parts. There were a ton of tiny squares neatly aligned in three rows. Some of them showed letters. Other were numbers with symbols on top of them. Under the set of squares was a rectangular pad with an oval cut in half under it.

Suddenly, the top half sprung to life. It didn't even transition from its total blackness to a bright white screen. This bright screen had words on it. On the top left was a logo that said "Gmail". The large area that took up most of the screen contained a huge bundle of words, but there was one message that was obviously the most important. It was a message that stated,

"Was the recording successful?"

Under that was another cluster of miscellaneous words, but led to another message that was an answer to the above question.

"Yes, but we were spotted by one of the ponies. Get the HPIRT to Pony #167. Aside from that, we're golden. We'll have the town clear in fifteen minutes.

-Franklin"

Inkblot took a moment to decipher what was going on. This black box must have been a communication device used by whoever those two were. Franklin was probably the one who got strangled. The HPIRT wiped memories. Somepony was getting his memory wiped tonight.

Their lives were being recorded.

That gave him a shock. How much of what they were doing was being recorded? Could they see him right now? Why were they recording the events in Equestria? What did they record?

He also asked himself another question. This one had to be decided quickly. Was he going to take the box? On a related note, was he going to turn himself in? Ironically, in order to come to a decision, he had to answer a ton of other questions. For example, did they know about him? Did they know where to find him to wipe his memory and take the box back?

Suddenly, more words popped up on the screen. Underneath it's miniature wall of text, there was another message. Inkblot read the message in hopes of finding some answers.

"This is Hopkins. Franklin decided to quit in the middle of the job. In order to ensure the completion of our mission, I had to use some force. Said force caught the attention of one of the town's locals. In order to protect our interactions, we had to flee. We didn't get a look at the pony, so we can't send the HPIRT to a second home until we do.

Also, during our retreat, Franklin accidentally left his laptop behind. Whether or not the pony who interrupted intends to keep the laptop or not is unkown to us. During the sweep in ten minutes, we can check the spot to see if it took the laptop.

At this moment, Franklin has gone completely rogue, threatening to tell all of the ponies in Ponyville of our existence if I interrupt this pony. Due to low supply of memory-erasing chemicals, that would be catastrophic. I'm left with no choice but to hope that this pony doesn't take the laptop.

-Hopkins"

Inkblot read it and read it over once again. A wave of relief swept over him. They didn't know what he looked like. Whether or not he took the laptop (that's what they called the thing), if he was found, he was going to just lose his memory anyway. If he took it and DIDN'T get caught, he would find out how this odd object worked. So, he decided to take it.

But there was a third option: Turn himself in. It seemed like the last thing they wanted was for ponies to know about them. Maybe it would just be a good idea to cooperate with them so they don't have to go through a huge ordeal. But then he remembered something Franklin had said from behind the bush.

"Memory removal seems sort of flawed. That pony won't remember ANYTHING that happened today."

Anything...

That meant his kiss with Trixie...

Losing his memory was no longer a option. For the sake of remembering the fateful kiss between the two unicorns, Inkblot had to remember every event that happened to him tonight. That would mean that he was not going to turn himself in. He was going to go back home without encountering the mysterious duo and continue to the next day as usual. And he was taking the laptop with him.

The pale unicorn's horn glowed with a dark aura. The same aura enveloped the laptop as it was lifted off of the ground. The floating device followed him as he approached the edge of the bushes.

Inkblot barely stuck his head out and looked both ways. He was looking for anything suspicious. He was looking for anything that wanted to take his memory. After a good half of a minute, he concluded that the coast was clear, so he dashed through the street as quietly as possible.

The pony was fortunate because his house was nearby, but that fortune didn't prevent him from noticing that a part of one of the destroyed roofs snapped beneath his feet. He silently cursed the pieces of wood that made noise as he galloped across them. As he sped around the nighttime town, he saw that he was the only pony awake. Every house seemed to be shut down and full of sleeping ponies. Even the mustached duo that had been forced to work were asleep.

It wasn't long at all before he arrived back at his humble abode, a simple straw house with a printing press as the basement. He owned the novelty printing press because his father ran the town newspaper, "The Ponyville Post", which Inkblot usually wrote news articles for.

Inkblot entered the building panting. He had only sprinted a short distance, but the unicorn wasn't really in shape. He carried the laptop with him as he rushed up the wooden stairs. Although he seemed to be completely out of energy, the colt managed to lock himself in his room at top speed.

When he had shut the windows and ensured that the door was locked, he released a sigh of relief as he collapsed onto his plaid bedsheet. He had made it back to his room before anything spotted him. He was in the clear.

Or was he?

Inkblot thought to himself that maybe the thing had seen him run by with the laptop. He looked outside to see the moon shining brightly. It would have been easy to spot him. What if they did spot him?

The pony did the first thing that came to his mind. Write the night down. Not only was it something he loved to do, but it was also a precaution. If he were to lose his memory, then he could reread the message he was writing and he'd remember.

Inkblot sat down at the desk in his room. It was carved out of a big tree from the Everfree Forest, making it look maroon and almost luminescent. Using his favorite blue quill, he did what he did best. He wrote. His writings were recordes in a leather journal that his father gave to him a couple years ago.

"Dear Journal,

Tonight's entry is a special one. I hope that one day, I will look back on this entry and remember tonight. Whether the HRPI whatever catch me or not, I want to remember tonight..."

And so he continued writing in his journal. He probably would have fallen asleep, but he realized that he had to stay up for as long as possible. That way, if they tried to get into his room to take his memory, then he'd at least be able to put up a fight. So Inkblot spent the entire night not getting a wink of sleep, but jotting down every last detail of the night he had, right down to the everlasting second that was Trixie's kiss.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Failed Trick

"Um…excuse me…"

Inkblot heard the voice as a light shove was sent to his undersides. Despite the light push, Inkblot woke up as if someone had pricked him with a needle. His eyes went straight to the laptop, which was wide open for anyone to see. The colt followed his first instinct and jumped on the laptop like it was a gem that nopony else but he was allowed to see.

The awoken pony looked up to the unicorn who disturbed his slumber. He was a crimson stallion with a fine-groomed gold mane. On his back was a suit folded nicely strapped delicately to his back to indicate that he had just returned from a fancy ball of some sort. His cutie mark was a fireplace. This fancy unicorn was clearly taken aback by Inkblot's outburst, and Inkblot feared for the worst of questions. "…Anyway, would you mind telling me why the bridge is out?"

The pale unicorn felt his tension slowly ease away. He dodged the bullet. This new pony apparently found it to be rude to ask about personal problems of other ponies, much to Inkblot's advantage. But now, he had to come up with an alibi. "I was…uh…hoping YOU could tell me."

The well-groomed unicorn took a step back. "What? What makes you think I would know anything about this bridge suddenly being gone?"

Okay, so it was a stupid alibi, but he bought it. Inkblot could still weasel out a story. "Oh! I'm very sorry! I thought you were the…bridge repair…pony…you know, cuz I've been sitting next to this river expecting such an amazing city like Canterlot to know the problem as soon as possible and send somepony to fix it."

The crimson pony looked offended. "Young man, I am not some 'bridge repair pony.' I am Hearth! And yes, I mean THE Hearth, as in the owner of the famous Hearth Hotel in Canterlot!" He struck a dramatic pose to match his monologue. "I wouldn't DARE get my hooves entangled with simple repair work when I could be pursuing my special talent and providing an ever-so-comfy roof over the heads of ponies. Speaking of which, why were you sleeping on the ground anyway when you could have just stayed in Hearth Hotel?"

Hearth Hotel? Inkblot had never heard of it, but after hearing how much pride this pony had put into his speech, he didn't have the heart to tell him. Either way, he had another problem at hand. He couldn't say what had happened the night before! "Well, you see-"

"No! Don't say another word! It all adds up!" Hearth interrupted. "You had spent the night outside, getting your beautiful pale coat all dirty," he cooed as he pointed at Inkblot's dirty coat, "and I have my trip to Ponyville postponed by a missing bridge. Say no more, because it takes a foal to not realize that this is a sign! You were destined to stay at the Hearth Hotel!"

Inkblot rolled his eyes at the hotel owner's eccentric performance in an attempt to get another customer. "Look, I'm sure that destiny would be certainly glad to let me stay at your hotel, but I'm a little short on cash, so destiny will have to-"

"Oh, but that is why I'm going to give you a night at the hotel free of charge!" the unicorn interrupted gleefully. "I apologize if I seem pushy, but it's just that I can't STAND to see a pony without a roof over his head."

"Pushy? Are you kidding, I'll gladly take a free night!" Inkblot refuted as he stood up on all fours, being sure to move the laptop out of his acquaintance's view and into his saddlebags as quickly and subtly as possible. He decided to start moving and avoid any discussion about the laptop. "So, let's get going so you can move me to my room. How far are we from Canterlot?" he said quickly as he started to walk away. Suddenly, his stomach rumbled silently. It was early in the morning and he was hungry.

"Only about a half-mile. Honestly, I'm surprised nopony else noticed the bridge going out since we're so close to the city. In fact, it's right up the waterfall. I'm beginning to think that it's full of short-sighted fools. All caught up in their galas and personal lives when there's so much of the world out there to experience!"

Inkblot increased his pace, hoping to get to Canterlot before he had to answer any questions he preferred not to answer. "Yeah. I always thought sophistication was overrated. I mean, this city itself to me is just full of pretentious, snobby ponies who think that anypony who doesn't have a fancy tuxedo and a heaping sum of bits is some sort of inferior." He took a peek back at his new acquaintance, who was wearing a face of slight shock. "No offense." The ranting unicorn added.

"Oh! None taken! I understand what you're talking about. The only reason the hotel is in Canterlot is because of opportunity. As much as I may have a…disliking toward them, you'll learn one day, that you need bits to be successful, my good lad," said the successful businesspony.

Inkblot gave a disgusted groan. "That's not fair!"

"Life isn't fair. I'm sure you've heard that a couple hundred times already, but it's true. And you can't change it. So, I say that if I can't change it, then I should just take advantage of it." The other pony sighed. He couldn't argue with Hearth. It made sense. "By the way, what WERE you doing sleeping outside?"

Inkblot panicked. If Hearth was right about the whole destiny thing, then destiny was shooting him in the hoof. "Well, you see I…uh…was really tired. You see, I was on my way home to Ponyville and I saw that the bridge was out. I couldn't move another step, so I sorta crashed. You know what I mean?"

Hearth looked at the younger pony understandingly, but skeptically. "Sometimes fatigue CAN get the best of us, yes. Also, what was that thing that you were-"

"Hey! Is that Canterlot?" Inkblot interrupted intentionally. He had to hijack the conversation and send it somewhere else completely.

"Why yes. Beautiful, isn't it?" the elder unicorn said pretending he had never asked the previous question. Fortunately, the city gave the two a lot to talk about. They were a good distance away, but the two could still see its beauty. Inkblot had never seen Canterlot up close before, and this was surely a sight for him to see. The castle seemed to completely envelop the whole city, its odd shapes being a goliath standing out among the other buildings, and being downhill from the city made it look even bigger.

"Beautiful? That doesn't even begin to describe it. This place is enormous compared to Ponyville."

"Ponyville?" Hearth suddenly said with a sense of surprise. "You're from Ponyville?"

Inkblot didn't look away from the city to answer the other pony's question as he started to walk through the gates and into the city. "Yeah. I'm from Ponyville. Why, have you ever been?"

"Why yes, as a matter of fact, I have family there. It's a quaint little town with very nice features. In fact, this suit was made at the Boutique there." he arched his back to lift the suit on his back, but was ignored by the starstruck colt.

Who could blame the smalltown pony for gazing at the city? Even early in the morning, it was bustling streets were nothing like the calm roads of Ponyville. And while the nice little Ponyville had a nice library, bakery, and boutique spread across the town, there seemed to be something everywhere you looked in Canterlot. After a single glance, he could already see at least four restaurants and three boutiques along with a library seemingly towering over the rest.

"Tell you what." Inkblot nearly jumped when he was patted on the back by the hotel owner. "You look distracted, so I'll leave you be until tonight. Just drop by and say that you're...erm... I don't believe I ever got your name."

"Inkblot. My name's Inkblot," the pale pony said with his eyes still wide as plates staring at the city.

"Yes. Say your name's Inkblot and I'll let the deskpony know to give you your key. In the meantime, enjoy the city of Canterlot! For breakfast, I'd recommend the Comfy Stable Hotel's complimentary breakfast bar for anypony with this card." He slipped a white card into his saddlebag. Inkblot nearly flinched, hoping he wouldn't see the laptop. "I'd invite you to the Hearth Hotel, but after a little accident in the garden a few days ago, we can't serve any food. See you later," and with that, Hearth walked away into the crowd.

As if on cue, the unicorn's stomach rumbled. In his panic to keep Hearth from asking about the laptop, he forgot about how hungry he was. His stomach led his brain to find the Comfy Stable almost instantly, despite it being farther down the road. He made a beeline to the hotel, passing through enormous crowds and tons of other buildings, such as "Joe's Donut Shop" (which he kept a mental note to visit some time later), the Royal Theatre, some boutique, and a huge fountain with dancing ponies. All of which were bypassed by order of his growling stomach.

There he was at the revolving doors leading into the red brick tower that was the Comfy Stable Hotel. As he walked through, he was immediately met by an elegant lobby. The Front Desk was labeled with gold letters and held a well-groomed red mare with a white uniform and a matching white mane. The white tile floor had a gold painted "CS" written in cursive on the center. From the inside, Inkblot could see balconies piled on top of each other, stacking up at least twenty floors. Needless to say, this was one fancy hotel.

But his mind wasn't set on seeing the beauty of the hotel. The hungry unicorn followed his nose to the breakfast bar, which was nearby. His stomach was even more ravenous than it usually was in the morning because he never ate dinner the night before.

The counter was fully stocked with grasses, flowers, sandwiches, fruits, and some sweets. Inkblot could feel his mouth watering up, trying to decide what to eat first. Maybe the bermuda grass sandwiches like his dad made. Perhaps some sweet honey-glazed daffodils. Or maybe even some pears. He couldn't wait to get started, so he didn't hesitate.

A plate was quickly pulled up in front of the unicorn and all at once at least one of each food was piled onto the plate. No more than a few seconds passed before a hastily thrown together pile of apples, bananas, daffodils, grasses, and at least twelve other foods stacked about a half-foot high was being carried away to one of the tables.

Inkblot stared at his creation with more awestruck wonder than the inside of the elegant hotel. In fact, he took a moment just to let the gorgeous sight linger in his eyes. It was beautiful in the eyes of a hungry colt. He was sure that it would taste even better.

Right as he opened his mouth to dig in, he felt a tap on his shoulder, which made him jump. He snapped his head toward the tap to see the pony who was at the front desk earlier.

"Excuse me. Would you like to leave some food for the rest of our guests? As in, the ones who are allowed at the breakfast bar."

Inkblot blushed and gave an embarassed laugh. Apparently his food rush had caughther attention. After surveying the rest of the room, he could tell that it caught everypony else's attention. "Sorry. I guess my belly got the best of me. Here, I'll get the card out of my bag," he said weakly as he took off his saddlebags. He horn glowed as the ticket floated out of the pocket and into the receptionists field of view.

After quickly inspecting the card, the mare looked up from it and skeptically lifted an eyebrow. "You're Hearth? The owner of that other hotel down the street."

Inkblot, already half-submerged in his creation, responded with a generic "Oh, yeah," without even listening to the mare's question.

Even though the response was hardly audible and nearly incomprehensible, the attendant's eyes went from the colt chowing down on breakfast and the card in front of her. Apparently, she bought it. Inkblot had accidentally, but successfully stolen Hearth's identity.

"Well Hearth, it says on this card that your membership happened to expire about a week ago."

The unicorn's muzzle kept on relentlessly ravaging its way through the pile of food. He cared about breakfast too much to even stop to listen to the pony talking to him. However, a sound rose over the sound of his chewing, and it was more effective than anything the uniformed mare could've said.

"Why is there no alfalfa here? I can't stand to eat breakfast where my favorite grass isn't even served!"

Inkblot's head popped out of the homemade concoction as the employee responded to the blue showpony. "I'm sorry ma'am, but-"

"Sorry?! I'm sorry?!" the Great and Powerful Trixie interrupted. "Not even my level of magic can produce alfalfa out of the words 'I'm sorry'. I'm sorry but I simply can not eat here."

"Hmph drph oof!" Inkblot yelled with a mouthful of various foods.

The red mare managed to ignore both unicorns' outbursts. "Now that I have your attention, Hearth, your membership expired last week, which means that you are not elgible to eat anything at the breakfast bar. Including what is currently in your mouth."

Inkblot paused for a number of reasons. One reason was fear. This was going to cost a lot of bits, and he didn't have a lot of bits. Another reason was confusion. Why was she calling him Hearth? It must've been the name on his membership card. He could have fun being Hearth for a while. The third reason he paused was because he was trying to swallow.

After successfully swallowing the heaping mass, he responded to the attendant with incredulity. "Are you serious?"

The attendant looked at the card, but before she could verify the expiration date on the card, she got a scream to the ears.

"Hey! How dare you have the NERVE to ignore the Great and Powerful Trixie? Well, counting the lack of alfalfa at your breakfast and the hard pillows, that is three strikes. I am leaving."

Inkblot got out of his seat to follow Trixie out the door of the Comfy Stable Hotel, but was pinned to the ground before he even knew what hit him. He looked up to see the white-maned mare on top of him, simply saying, "Pay up."

The colt, still pinned, responded with a quiver in his voice and a blush on his face, secretly wishing the other mare could take this one's place. "How much?"

"Fifteen bits."

"Fifteen bits?! A little pricy, don't you think?"

"Or I could report you for stealing food from the Comfy Stable breakfast bar.

He groaned as he took fifteen bits out of his saddlebag with magic and gave them to the red pony in front of him as she unpinned him. This wasn't good news. He needed money to go to Trixie's show and to feed himself. Granted he still had snacks, but he couldn't live off of the alfalfa sandwiches he brought. Alfalfa. Alfalfa! That's it!

"Trixie!" Inkblot called as he got up and ran toward his idol. Trixie noticed the call and turned around to meet the pony with a food-covered muzzle. As soon as she saw the grass ans flowers stuck to the honey around his mouth, she couldn't help but giggle to herself.

Inkblot ignored her giggling and cut to the chase. "I have some alfalfa sandwiches in my bag. Do you want one?"

Trixie smiled at what she heard. "Of course I want one. Only the best for the Great and Powerful Trixie! And it is quite obvious that alfalfa is the best species of grass available in Equestria. So let's go back to my room for our feast."

"Of course!"

Inkbot hated alfalfa.

Trixie's hotel room was scattered, to say the least. There were two beds, one of which was unmade, with the sheets thrown almost completely on the ground. Inkblot could've sworn he even saw a pillow on the windowsill. The other bed was made and looked completely neat. There was upside-down blue suitcase featuring Trixie's signature cutie mark laying on the bed which is what marked its unitidiness. The suitcase's contents were spread out across the floor, which wasn't much since the only clothes she had to wear was her show uniform, but it was still a hassle to step over alarm clocks and makeup kits and autographed pictures of herself (Inkblot was unsure if they were for handing out to fans or for Trixie's pleasure. He assumed the former.). The only thing that was organized was her cape and hat, which was hung up unnaturally neatly almost as if it were to be worshipped.

The two ate the sandwiches (along with cola that Trixie had prepared, even though they weren't thirsty) on the more unkept bed facing the window, giving them a view out the ninth story of the hotel (after they removed the pillow, of course). Despite being fifty feet above the ground, the castle and a bunch of other buildings in Canterlot still towered over them. Then again, the two of them towered over the ponies in the streets.

Inkblot figured that it was time to catch up with Trixie. "So how's life been going?" he asked after swallowing a lump of healthy, but odd tasting, alfalfa.

"My life hasn't exactly changed over the last few days, Inkblot." Even during normal conversation, Trixie maintained her overdramatic, theatrical tone.

"Well, you're about to perform at the Royal Theatre tonight. I mean, it's THE Royal Theatre," Inkbot said before he took a sip of his drink. He wanted to bring out some emotion in her. As great as her inflated ego was, seeing more than that was always nice.

"Indeed I am. As I believe I told you a couple days ago, the people here deserve talent such as myself." The colt was hoping for a sign of nervousness in her voice, but her voice was just as strong as before. She took a bite of her sandwich.

"Well, aren't you nervous about that?"

There was a pause to let Trixie swallow. "Nervous? Ha! The Great and Powerful Trixie being nervous is simply an image that can not be imagined!" she exclaimed stoutly.

"But this is arguably-"

"Just another theater," Trixie cut in to avoid thinking about the crowd. Inkblot knew that somewhere under that towering ego was a little bit of stage fright. Her reassurance was proof.

"Just hope they don't know about the Ursa incident," he said, meaning to tease.

Trixie gave a heavy sigh. "Most of them do," breaking her theatrical tone. She had transitioned to a more solemn tone, full of regret. It was almost alien. Trixie was sad.

Surely enough, her mood whiplashed back to theatrics, once again veiling her vulnerability. "But that doesn't matter, because the Great and Powerful Trixie has a new trick that will blow everypony's mind!"

"That sounds amazing!" Inkblot nearly shouted, not even trying to contain his enthusiasm. "What is it?"

Trixie got up from the bed, took a couple sips of her cola, and cleared her throat. What followed was clearly one of her rehearsals for that night. She began by striking a dramatic pose. "Fillies and gentlecolts! What you are about to see has only been attempted by few unicorns, and some say that only the immortal can pull it off." Inkblot was already entranced by the show pony's performance, and the show hadn't even started yet. "I give you, the ability to play back memories in an amazingly realistic fashion, as if you could see through my eyes."

"So it's like a video camera!"

"Yes! Exactly like a video camera. Now stand back. Replaying something this realistically requires large amounts of magic. I will play..." Pause for both dramatic effect and to think of something. "...my wonderful experience yesterday!"

"Oo! This is gonna be good!" the pale pony said to nopony in particular.

Trixie closed her eyes as her horn glowed with the familiar blue aura. A plume of blue smoke came out of the unicorn's horn. Inkblot stared in wonder as the blue smoke formed into a cloud that seemed to have a faded picture in the center. Trixie closed her eyes tighter.

The picture faded in to show outside the hotel on the clear day. She was next to a nice stream that was set closer to the boundary of the city, where the inhabitants rarely visited. One thing was for certain, she was right when she said it was realistic. Inkblot thought that he could just hop into the cloud and be at the stream.

Inkblot gave a short applause as Trixie's eyes clenched shut, focusing as hard as she could to pull off the amazing trick. Suddenly, the picture was moving, and a voice, Trixie's voice, came from the cloud. "Hello to whoever will be watching this in the future. Most likely a wonderful crowd of fillies and gentlecolts. You can see the astounding beauty of that land that you know, conjured up by magic itself. But please, hold your ravenous applause. We have more to see." Trixie bared her teeth.

The image moved down the river until it met a small cliff. The point of view looked down the waterfall, creating a realistic and breathtaking view of the land. You could see the lit cities of Manehattan and Trottingham and the dark void of the Everfree Forest. You could even see the quiet little town of Ponyville. The point of view looked down to see the spectacular roaring waterfall. At the bottom of the waterfall was another stream that flowed steadily down the mountain and a bridge. Inkblot's heart skipped a beat when he saw the bridge. That was the bridge that was destroyed the night before. This was recorded the night before. Inkblot suddenly felt uneasy.

Trixie started to sweat as she continued to play back her memory. The narration spoke on behalf of the strained mare. "Isn't this view simply beautiful? And realistic, too! Behold the grace delivered straight to you by the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

'Yes, that's wonderful now please move along before I show up,' Inkblot thought, sweating almost as much as Trixie.

"Huh, what's that?" The point of view looked down to the bridge, and surely enough, there he was, running across it from his pursuer. This meant she knew. It shook Inkblot's mind, and made him feel almost guilty for not telling her earlier.

Suddenly, the clouds all sunk to the ground. The picture of him running across the bridge was gone, and the room was covered in a ridiculously dense blue fog, which made the colt cough. After a couple coughing fits, the colt decided to try opening the windows. He used his magic to try to feel the window doors. After hearing a potted plant and a lamp fall to the ground, he finally felt himself open the window, letting the smoke billow out. After a while, the smoke subsided to reveal Trixie lying on the ground, unconscious.

"Trixie!" Inkblot called to the knocked out unicorn, but she didn't respond. He called again, expecting the same results, but hoping for different results.

Inkblot fumbled across the room to call the hospital, fearing the worst for his beloved Trixie.