A Tale of Magic

Where everypony knows your name

It was late at night and everypony was asleep in the little town of Ponyville. All tucked in their warm beds, comfortably awaiting the first sight of Celestia’s sun. Everypony was asleep, except one… OK, perhaps two… quite a few really.

‘Why the buck can’t I sleep?’ Bright thought. Usually he slept like a rock; a very heavy and tired rock. But not tonight… his mind was racing with thoughts. It hadn’t by any means been the first time he had these specific thoughts.

Once more his head was filled with questions about who he was, where he came from, and all of those other cliché amnesia thoughts. It might have sounded like a cheesy story for anypony else, but to Bright, it couldn’t be more serious and pressing. What he hated the most wasn’t the fact that he couldn’t remember anything, but more if… if he really wanted to know. Sure, he was a nice pony right now, but… ‘No!’ he quickly pushed those thoughts away. He wanted to know.

He had, despite the short time he had been in Ponyville, countless times found himself thinking of those he might have left behind. Friends, family… Was he married? It was when he had heard about Dash that those thoughts truly had surfaced. The trip to Fluttershy’s cottage had been unusually quiet. Not just because of Fluttershy’s normal quiet personality, but because of Bright’s thinking. It had followed him to bed, and now here he was; wondering too much, sleeping too little.

Rest didn’t come easy tonight, and he knew it. Too many thoughts doesn’t equal a good rest.

‘Might as well go for a small walk,’ he thought as he slowly arose from his bed. Walking carefully down the hallway and past Fluttershy's bedroom to not wake her, he made his way outside.

The night was one of Luna’s better ones. The moon illuminated the nature around him, making everything radiate in a soft glow. A nice breeze carried the smell of the newly fallen dewdrops to Bright’s nose. This was just a few of the reasons he preferred the night over the day… not to mention that, that blasted sun was on the other side of the planet right now.

The quiet streets of Ponyville were lit up by the lampposts, and were only occasionally disturbed by the shadow of a passerby. Ponyville, being the little town it was, didn’t have much in the sense of nightly entertainment. At the most there would be ponies at Vinyl Scratch’s club 'Vinyl's Cage Coral' or one of the few bars in Ponyville. Others might just be out for a nightly walk, this being exactly what Bright was doing at the moment.

Bright was walking on the cobblestone-streets; his hoof steps being the only sound in the area… or so he thought. It was a faint sound, seemingly coming from somewhere nearby. Bright stopped and perked his ears. It sounded like it came from the park just on the other side of the street.

With a peaked interest, he made his way into the park. The roads weren’t covered with cobblestone as the rest of the town, and were instead kept bare to preserve the natural look of the park, it also served to soften his hoofsteps. This is the one reason he now stood and looked at the source of the sound, as the source hadn’t heard him arrive. It had been apparent just what the sound was for a little while now, but seeing who it came from, made Bright stop up and take the scene in.

Under a tree and atop a small hill, sat the subject of Bright’s interest. From the sounds, her slight shaking and the glistering drop that fell from her cheeks, it wasn’t hard to figure out what Rainbow Dash was doing.

She was crying.

The moonlight made her coat seem almost unreal. The cyan color was radiating and was in pure harmony with the spectrum of her mane. Even the tears made her seem pretty… No, nothing as simple as 'pretty'. She was beautiful. It wasn’t hard to see why she had been proposed to. Not that Bright had any interest in her in that regard, age difference and all. But right now she was troubled.

Bright made his way slowly to the tree and sat down beside her. If she had heard him approach, she was hiding it pretty well or just didn’t care. He had a slight suspicion of why she was in the state she was in right now. He kept quiet though; letting her have the first word when she wanted to.

This went on for a bit over 10 minutes. Bright used his time to stare at the moon, thinking about how he should approach all of this. In the end, he didn’t find a good way to do it. Finally the silence was broken by Dash speaking up.

“Why are you here?” She asked Bright, not looking up at him. A mixture of sadness and irritation were present in her voice.

Honestly Bright didn’t have much of an answer, except, “Well, you seemed like you needed somepony to talk to.” He didn’t get an answer. Not that he had expected one.

“Listen Dash, I know the story,” he said, resulting in Dash flinching. “I can’t really say that I know exactly what you’re going through, but-“

“NO! YOU DON’T KNOW! SO WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?!” She yelled at Bright. He was taken aback by her sudden outburst. “Nopony knows what I’m going through, so why won’t you just lea-“

Her outburst was put on hold when she looked at Bright. Was he… was he crying? Why? What reason did he have to be sad?

Bright was looking at the moon with tears coming down his cheeks. “What I meant to say is that I don’t know exactly how you feel Dash, but the fact is…” he had a solemn smile on his face. “I’m in a somewhat similar situation.”

Dash was utterly confused by this point. She had heard about Bright and his amnesia, but how did he have a similar… A small light went up inside Dash’s head. ‘Oh…’

“What I mean by it is that I, just like you, have lost somepony precious to me. Perhaps not in a physical sense as death or disappearance, but rather the pony itself. With my memory gone, I really have nothing left from my former life… that including memories of friends and family.” He looked at Dash. “We’ve both lost somepony special to us in different ways, but there’s one thing we can’t forget about Rainbow; even with them gone from our lives, we still have friends to help us. Tell me, what would your husband say if he saw you right now?”

This brought forth a small chuckle from Dash, as she wiped away her tears. “He would be crying just like me and apologizing, somehow believing it to be his fault.” Bright couldn’t help but laugh a bit as well.

“Oh, so he’s that kind of guy, huh?”

“Oh you have no idea; I remember so many times where he would apologize for things that weren’t his fault at all,” she said a smile came onto her face. “Somehow he thought that it would make me feel better in those situations… funny thing is that it did. I guess he just knew me better than anypony else.”

“That right there Dash, that’s what important,” Bright said softly, earning a confused look from Dash. “It’s those memories of him that you need to hold onto. Never forget what made him the one you loved, and keep clinging onto those memories. Don’t think about what could have been, but instead what was.”

“Yeah… And someday he’ll come back home. He wouldn’t dare anything else, seeing a smoking hot wife such as me waiting for him!” She puffed up her chest as she said it. “Hehe, are you sure you’re not some Gary-Stu who just comes along and fixes all of my problems?”

“Oh no, not by any means,” he assured as he couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “I believe a Gary-Stu is supposed to be perfect in every which way, and if I were that, I wouldn’t be awake right now, 'and probably a bit younger and good-looking'. I think I can go back to sleep now since we’ve had this chat.”

Bright was about to leave when he was yanked back by Dash pulling his tail. “Oh no you don’t! You tried to lecture me tonight. Sure, it might have worked, but now you owe me; big time!” Bright had a hard time seeing the logic in her words… that is, if there were any. “Which is why you’ll be keeping me company tonight!”

You all know about the story of Santa Colt and his reindeer Rudolf, right? Let’s just say that Bright could have rivaled his nose with the blush he was sprouting at the moment. “Why- wha- whos- Da- mgh- I…” Was all Bright could say, perfectly displaying his abilities with the equestrian language.

“Which is why you’re going drinking with me!” Dash declared, not noticing Bright’s newfound coat-color.

“Dash, I… Drinking?! Oh… Yeah, sure! Let’s go, like, right now!” Bright had already taken the lead, no way was Dash gonna see his face right now. ‘Get your head out of the gutter, man!’

“Oh sompony is eager for a drink, huh? Follow me, I know the perfect place,” she said, trying to gain the lead. Bright noticed her increased pace and started going faster himself. In turn, Dash would speed up herself, and this went on all the way to the bar.

---Outside the bar---

A few minutes later

The bar looked… well, for lack of a better word, “plain”. It had an Appaloosan feel to it, yet didn’t stand out so that customers would flood to it. Apparently this was meant for thirsty ponies, owned by somepony who didn’t care about bits, but instead stood at the ready to help said ponies with their thirsts. This, however, didn’t register in Bright’s brain, as he was busy trying to catch his breath. His blush had long since gone away and made way for the redness symbolizing somepony who was clearly tired of running. He would have stopped trying to gain the lead when his blush had disappeared, but his pride simply wouldn’t let him. And now he was paying for it.

‘How *pant* does *pant* Dash *pant* do this?’ He thought. How his panting was interrupting his thinking just showed how exhausted he was. ‘I may have a few years on my back… OK, a lot! But I shouldn’t be beaten this easily.’

“Here we are! The best bar in Ponyville: ‘The Tipsy Pegasus’” Dash said in an overly dramatic theater-voice. Bright swore he saw a cape and a hat on Dash as she spread her forelegs, as to reveal the place. “No better place in Ponyville to get wasted or just have a drink.”

If the outside had something resembling an Appaloosan style, then the inside WAS Appaloosa! Everything from the chairs in front of the counter with the big mirror behind it, to the tables and card-playing ponies around them, simply screamed western. The music in the place kinda betrayed the western feel of it, but oddly enough it fit the mood for a quiet night. For a second Bright thought of doing a dramatic entrance by throwing the doors open and scowl at the other patrons, but a single look at the bartender of the place made him change his mind.

He had briefly meet Applejack’s brother, Big Macintosh, who was fairly big, but compared to this stallion even Big Mac would have to look up a bit. According to Bright, there are 5 levels of 'big': foal, small, medium, big and 'DAMN!'. The bartender would be in the last category. If his size didn’t stop you from messing with him, then his looks sure as buck did. His coat was grey and his mane and tail was spilt into white and black. A pair of dangerous red eyes, which seemed to bore into everything he looked at, completed the set. This was a pony you did NOT want to piss off.

“Hey there big guy! How’s it hanging?” Dash shouted to the bartender while strolling up to the bar. Bright’s jaw figuratively hit the floor; how was she so calm!? Did she not realize the danger she was in? That guy looked like a demon! “How’s the wing?”

Now, Bright had expected a lot when the bartender spoke; somepony in the room falling over dead, voices of a thousand angry souls or perhaps even a demon-calling speech coming from his lips. But what did come from him was nothing like what he had expected. The words that came from him were not filled with any malice or death intent, but with that of joy of seeing an old friend. Sure his voice was a bit gruff, but it was oddly soothing. ‘Can’t judge a book by its cover I guess…’

“Oh well, if it’s isn’t Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in Equestria. That being when you run from your tabs,” he said, wearing a good hearted smile. He continued cleaning the cup with a cloth, as you’d expect from a bartender, as Dash and Bright sat down at the counter. “Oh, did you take your dad with you tonight, Rainbow?”

*Tick*

You have never seen a pony truly laughing before you’ve seen Rainbow Dash fall off her chair and clutching her stomach while laughing like a maniac. Bright had now seen a pony truly laughing. “Bahahahaha no, no I didn’t. This is Bright Eyes, a friend of mine,” she said between intakes of breath.

“Oh, my mistake,” the bartender chuckled, as he put out his hoof for a hoofshake. “Well, welcome to The Tipsy Pegasus, my name is Sartarus, Sar for short.”

“Bright Eyes,” Bright said shaking his hoof.

“So what do you guys want?”

Bright didn’t have much experience with spirits, of which he remembered, but he was pretty sure that what Dash ordered wasn’t gonna end well. “The hardest stuff you have!” She demanded.

Sartarus’s expression went from calm to surprise to somewhere along the lines of frightened. “Are you sure Rainbow? You really want to go through 'that' again?” A nod and a big toothy grin was the only answer he got… and of course a confused expression from Bright. “*sigh* So like you Rainbow. Always taking things to the extreme.”

Sar shook his head, before turning to his employee. “Hey Berry, go out back and retrieve 'it' from the vault.” He said loud enough for her to hear.

“Sure thing boss,” she answered. Was that fear Bright saw in her eyes? She turned towards the door behind the counter.

As Sar turned, Bright noticed his left wing being tucked to his body by a cloth on his midsection. Sar must have noticed this, as he asked, “Staring at the wing, huh?”

Bright quickly tried to come up with an excuse, but before he could do so Sar began speaking again. “It happened when I was working on the weather factory in Cloudsdale. An accident occurred and one of my co-workers got stuck. I tried to get him out of the wreck, but in doing so I damaged my wing. The doctors told me I most likely would never be able to fly again, and that’s why I moved to Ponyville. A pegasus who can’t fly, has a tough time living in the clouds. At least I’ve got my own business now!” He laughed as he said that last line, as if the rest of the story didn’t bother him in the least.

“Well, you seem to be doing pretty well for yourself regardless. At least you still have a wing left, not that that is going to help you flying much, if you don’t mind me saying,” Bright replied, trying to keep up the mood of the conversation, if not for Sar, then for himself. How could this guy just laugh off something like that?

“Yeah, I getcha. Really it’s quite lucky that I still have this big boy.” Sar said as he flexed his remaining wing. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to use it for all these glasses and bottles. Earth ponies and pegasi usually aren’t doing these kinds of things, seeing as a lot of small things are involved. We usually leave that to the unicorns. And if both of my wings had been damaged, I wouldn’t be much different from an earth pony, no offense to any of those of course.”

Sar, Dash and Bright all sat in silence while waiting for Berry. A series of gear noises, steam and clanking sounds came from out back, before beginning again. These noises went on for a few minutes with nopony speaking. Finally Berry came back out, wearing some kind of protection suit and a bottle in her mouth wrapped in… was that steel foil? She placed the bottle on the counter with the utmost care, before turning around and ran for her dear life.

“It’s fine; you can take the rest of the night off Berry!” Sar yelled in the general direction of Berry retreating. He took one last look at the bottle before turning a pleading eye towards Rainbow. She frowned, and Sar looked back at the bottle. Sar let out a sigh before finally admitting defeat, “I’m gonna regret this later on.”

Sar unwrapped the foil and from underneath came a bottle with more Xs than Bright had ever seen, the name 'Pan-Equestrian Gargle Blaster' was written on it. Sar filled up two VERY small glasses and pushed them towards Dash and Bright. Bright looked at the black substance in fear, while Dash looked at it with wide eyes and a huge grin on her face. “And now; bottoms up Bright!” Dash declared.

He was kinda hesitant to let the liquid anywhere near his mouth, but somehow it ended up in it. Dash had taken the shot at the same time and both now sat staring out in thin air. Neither of their facial expressions had changed; Bright still looked confused and Dash still had her trademark grin on her face.

Bright couldn’t really feel anything happening. “Well this wasn’t so ba-“Time stood still for no time. Nothing happened all the time, yet everything went too fast for his taste. “I can see the rainbow!”

“Your head is in my mane silly!” Dash giggled. She was traveling the borders of Equestria together with her idol Daring Do and their packmule Zephyr at the moment. She was so happy when they finally found the medallion of light… or shadows, whatever.  “Bright, grab my tail!”

“I for once welcome my new overlord!” he said as he did his master’s bidding.

“And now; TO ADVENTURE!” she shouted as she flew off with Bright hanging on her tail.

(Stop the music here)

Sartarus could only look on in horror as Rainbow and Bright flew about the room, effectively knocking over a few tables and possibly a few patrons. Before long, everything had escalated into the biggest barfight he had ever seen. Sar had only a single thing he had to protect; the mirror. The mirror was every bartenders pride and joy. It was the single most important-*CRASH*…

Sar didn’t turn around to look at the damage. Instead he looked down, shadows hiding his raging eyes, and his coat seemed to turn a few tones darker. The white part of his mane and tail were now grey as he made his way slowly through the chaos in his bar, towards the jukebox on the other side of the room.

He stopped in front of it and an insane grin spread across his face. “This party's gettin' crazy! Let’s rock!” he pressed a button and waited for the music to start playing… it didn’t. Frowning he raised his hoof and gave the machine a huge punch completely destroying it. Surprisingly enough, it started playing.

He turned around, still wearing his huge grin and crazed eyes. Raising his head, he let out a battlecry and charged into the pile of soon-to-be victims of his wrath.  The battle was… no, 'battle' is not the word to describe it; 'massacre' would be more fitting, was indeed in Sar’s favor. “I don’t like your name-“ he punched a guy and made him fly several feet away. “I don’t like your face-“ he head-butted a poor stallion. “And I don’t like your personality!” he said as he hit another pony with a chair.

Suddenly he got a bottle to the head. Of course it didn’t faze him at all due to his thick skull, and he turned around slowly. Behind him stood the poor sod who thought he could defeat Sar, with the remaining piece of the bottle. The stallion swallowed nervously as Sar put his foreleg around his neck in a seemingly friendly manner.

“Have you always been this stupid, or did you take lessons?” Sar asked in a calm tone.

Shivering with fear, the stallion replied “I took lessons?” He was obviously trying to be funny and possibly get out of this situation with his life somewhat intact.

Sar let out a small laugh, “I like you and for that I’ll let you live-“

The stallion began furiously thanking him, until he was interrupted. “Just, you know, you’re not 'walking' out of here…”

“Meep!”

---Outside the bar---

The quiet night was brutally shattered as a stallion was sent flying through the front window of “The Tipsy Pegasus”, screaming his lungs out.

(Stop the music here if you wish)

---Inside the bar---

30 minutes later

After a major beating of just about every single customer, the situation in the bar had finally settled. Sar sat on a pile of beaten ponies, Rainbow stood on the counter somewhat sober while Bright was snoozing on the ceiling-fan. How he ended up there was anypony’s guess.

“Let’s get the two of you home, shall we?” Sar asked surprisingly calm considering what he had been doing for the last 30 minutes.

---Rainbow Dash’s house---

20 minutes later

What a night! Dash was thankfully completely sober right now… ok, mostly. Walking into her home was a welcome thing right now. She was tired as buck!

Before walking up the stairs, she took a last look up on the shelf, specifically at her engagement earrings.

“I’ll see you again someday. Until then, I hope that you’ll stay safe. So until then; see you later… Kyle.”

----Outside Fluttershy’s cottage----

This was certainly not a situation Sar had imagined himself being in tonight. He was standing outside Fluttershy’s front door, with Bright sleeping on his back. His hoof was still trying to determine if he was gonna knock the door or stay planted on the ground. Sar had no problem beating an entire bar filled with drunken ponies; when it came to staring danger in the face he was always victorious. But this little yellow pegasus was the only one who could defeat him.

Whenever he looked at her, his legs began to wobble, he would begin sweating profoundly and his ability to speak became no better than a foal’s.  He could never admit it to anypony else, but… he liked Fluttershy. Not just 'liked', but 'like-liked'. She had been one of the few to not be afraid of him when he had arrived in Ponyville, which had been quite surprising considering her usual shyness.

Finally, after what seemed like two eternities, he knocked on the door. After a little while he could hear sounds from inside. When the door opened, he could almost feel twenty years of his life slip away from the 'cute' in front of him. Fluttershy was yawning and rubbing her eyes. She looked at Sar and gave a timid smile. Apparently she had not been quite aware of what was going on, as her expression suddenly into clear surprise.

“Oh Sartarus, what are you doing here?“ She asked surprised at suddenly, having Sar standing on her doorstep in the middle of the night.

‘Is he going to-‘ was all she could think before looking at his back.

“Oh my, what’s wrong with Bright!? Oh please tell me he’s not hurt or…” She stopped talking and sniffed the air. “Ah… You gave him the same thing as Dash a few months back?”

“Yeah,” Sar said with a chuckle. “I figured that it would be best to help him get home.

Fluttershy stepped aside for Sar to enter and led them to her guestroom, where Sar put Bright onto his bed. They went back outside and said goodbye, but as he was about to leave, Fluttershy called out to him.

“Oh, ehm… I really… I mean, what I want to say’s…” she started, before shaking her head. “Never mind… Goodnight Sartarus.”

Sar turned around and began his way back to his bar. He would have a lot to clean up when he got there… but that could wait for tomorrow, he mused.

‘Why can’t I just say I like him?’ Fluttershy thought as she closed the door. As she made her way to her bedroom to get the last few hours of sleep she needed, she stopped outside Bright’s room. Bright was stirring in his sleep. ‘Aww, look at that; he’s dreaming.’ She couldn’t help but let out a small giggle.

“Sweet dreams Bright Eyes,” she said in a quiet voice.

----Bright’s dream----

“Ehm, Pinkie Pie? Why am I strapped to a table?” Bright asked in a nervous tone.

“Oh, it’s nothing you silly.” Pinkie giggled as she said that. “I made you a pie.”

Now that was a nice turn of events. “Oh, what flavor?”

Pinkie’s expression turned dark. “Applejack-flavor!” A guitar-riff sounded as a miniature Applejack jumped out of the pie.

“AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!”

This chapter took a bit to write. Easter came along, as did a minor writers block and Kiroberos had stuff to do. Very sorry for the wait people. Now just to make something very clear to you guys: NO! I'm not gonna ship Bright and Dash. I know it sounded very much like it in this chapter, but no. Age difference and future plotpoints makes it impossible. But worry not, there might be some form of shipping later on... But it might not be Bright Eyes.

I also wanted to do a Cupcakes-reference in this chapter, but decided that it was too manestream, so I mixed it up with some ASDFpony

References: How Did I get Here?, Allegrezza, Whip and Wing, Leap of Faith: A Octavia Vs. Rave and Cupcakes

Cameo: Sartarus

Special thanks to my editor Kiroberos and the shout-out he gave me. I've gotten lots of new trackers since then. Welcome people!