A Tale of Magic

by Glassed

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, Comedy, Adventure
Length: 25109

Regaining memory can be hard... and not to mention strange!

When you get old, you tend to forget things. If that's the case here, Bright Eyes must be older than he first thought.
Waking up without a name, past or blanket, Bright tries to find out who he is. But his personal history might just be the least important thing at the moment, as a great danger looms over Equestria.
And with Bright to save us, nothing can go wrong, right? Right?…

All characters and references belongs to their respective authors. They'll be given a mention at the end of the chapter they're in.
If anyone has a reference or a cameo in this and want me to delete it, go ahead and send me a PM. It's not to steal your material, it's not to get people to read my fic (I could care less about views), but it's a small tribute to your story.
Tags and characters will be added as they get introduced.
Artwork by inoeitall

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-04 09:44:50 UTC

Chapter 1: A Strange Morning

You find yourself standing in a room. You’re completely aware that you couldn’t possibly be here, but you have a sense of calmness about it all.

The room is lit up by the roaring fireplace, as well as the numerous candles placed about with no obvious pattern in mind. Countless bookcases are lined up along the walls. If you didn’t know better, you’d say that the bookcases WERE the walls. Whoever lives here must really love reading.

“Why hello there,” a voice from your left utters. Turning your head you see a young man. His calm face and gentle eyes seems almost unreal in the flickering light of the fireplace.

“By all means, sit down and have a cup of tea.” You suddenly find yourself sitting in front of the fire in a comfy chair, holding a cup filled with delicious Earl Grey. You don’t know how you got seated but frankly, you don’t care.

“Allow me to introduce myself. They call me by many names; ‘Man’, ‘The Author’, ‘Writer’, ‘Kasper’, ‘Son of Søren’ and ‘Friend’. You may call me ‘Glassed’.”

“Please, as my guest, let me entertain you for a while. But before anything else, I must ask you a question: Do you love a good story?” You nod.

“Splendid! I myself am a great lover of good stories. In fact; I have the most peculiar story for you this fine evening. If you are ready, I shall begin this strange story, this tale of mystery and ponies. This tale of magic…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 1: A Strange Morning

“Just 5 more minutes,” he groaned. He hated mornings; hated them with a passion. Why would he need to leave the comfort of his bed and greet the morning sunlight? Why do mornings exist at all?

‘Well the day’s got to start somewhere,’ the logical part of his brain said.

‘But why not at noon then? Noon is a nice time,’ that would be the lazy part of his mind speaking, the one that would very much like to stay under the covers.

But something didn’t feel quite right with this despicable morning. His covers felt weird, like they weren’t even there. His mattress had an odd 'grassy' feel to it.

Oh yeah! And he wasn’t breathing. That would most likely be at the top of the list of weird things at the time.

I should probably fix that, he thought, addressing his lungs. They surely couldn’t still be asleep. He and they had an agreement; when he woke, they had to get up as well. Granted he wasn’t completely awake yet, but it would be nice if they were a bit ahead of him. Oh, there they were.

As the fresh air reached his lungs, he couldn’t help but cough. The sudden change had taken him completely off guard and he felt his legs collapse under him… This was an odd feeling, considering that he was lying down. He was hyperventilating.

His vision was blurry, unable to see what was happening in front of him. As his breathing became more and more stable, he was able to take in some of his surroundings.

From the flora around him, he would presume that he was in some kind of forest. While he had little to no clue of what he was doing there, he had to address his list of priorities again.

Giving his lungs the heavenly gift of air: Check.

Checking the status of his mattress. Status: Grassy, as the feel. Otherwise not-existent. Check.

Checking the status of his blanket. Status: Not there… (He could live without his mattress, but this was just sad!) Check.

Diverting his attention and possibly identifying the cloaked figure in front of him. Status: Not complete, but he’d get right on that.

His vision, still blurry, made him unable to see anything other than the general color of the cloak. A deep violet color was the last thing he saw, before the cloaked pony disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

He tried to get up, yet found himself horribly unable to do so.

“I could really use a nap right now,” was the last thought that went through his head, (With the noticeably exception of a witty comment to himself, consisting of “Hello ground”) before everything around him plunged into darkness.

---Same Place---

Unknown amount of time later

What felt like only a few seconds for him, had been several hours of him lying on the soft grass.

As he opened his eyes, he found himself somewhat able to stand, though not before greeting the dirt below him quite a few times. As he rose, he found that his vision hadn’t changed. Yet he felt fine, or as fine as you can be when you don’t know where you are… or who you are.

“Where am I?” he asked out loud, as if expecting somepony to suddenly come out from under a rock and explain everything.

Yet no such thing happened. He was alone… confused and alone.

Taking a look, blurry but nonetheless a look, he found himself wearing, what he presumed, had at one point in time been some form of blue clothing. He had a small medallion in the shape of star around his neck and… something in his pocket, which was just as battered as the rest of his attire.

He took the object up from his pocket and noticed to his relief that it was glasses.

He took off the 'presumable clothing', left the medallion on and put on his eyewear.

As his surroundings became clear he saw that he really was in a forest. A small lake, some feet from his location, gave him a clearer look at his person.

Even without him looking at his reflection he knew; he was old. He could feel it in his bones. Not 'retirements-home-old' but old as in 'filled with experience'. His coat was white and his mane slightly greyish, his horn being white as well. What he took the most notice of, however, was the medium sized beard that he had.

“I look like someone’s grandpa,” he muttered to himself, wearing a wondering look on his face. “Maybe I am?” He quite enjoyed the thought of sitting on a front porch, waving his hoof (and possibly shouting a bit) at the foals running on his lawn. He liked children, though the thought was amusing nonetheless.

“OK, first thing’s first: Before thinking anymore about this, I should find someplace to set up camp,” he said. “The sun is going down and I have a bad feeling that I won’t like the wildlife in this forest…” he gulped “and I have a slight suspicion that they won’t like me either…”

“AND WHY AM I TALKING TO MYSELF!?”

A few hours later

After having wandered for a little while, there were a few things that he now knew better.

One thing he knew better was the dirt. Glorious dirt! More than once had his face meet the ground, in an almost flirtatious way. Had it been a date, he would be at the point where he was about to propose to it. Only to be turned down, the dirt saying how it would never work out.

Another thing was that this forest apparently had SOMETHING against him! Thankfully, he had managed to stay out of the way of the particular part of the wildlife that would enjoy munching on his face. But the flora… ugh…

Though, an upturn of the day (being one of the few there had been), was the discovery of a small cave.

Seeing as the cave was dry and a better alternative than sleeping outside, he decided to set up camp for the night. The last visitors that had used the cave before him had left various items and supplies.

After scavenging the cave for a few minutes, he had himself a blanket, a few carrots, that arguably had seen better days, and a book entitled 'The Legends of Equestria'.

As the night began to take hold of the forest, he had himself a small fire going and had begun reading the book.

Skimming over a few pages, he read up on the entity known as 'Nightmare Moon'. He found it interesting, though not very enjoyable. What he read on the next page, however, couldn’t help but amuse him.

“The legendary thief, known as 'Silk D’Rouge', the thief who stole the moon,” he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. He loved the way old writers made up these ridiculous stories. “Stole the moon, yeah right”.

He turned the page and found something that fascinated him greatly. “The conjurer 'Starswirl the Bearded'… his most powerful spell… to unite the magic of Equestria for the greater good of all ponies in the world… failed… died while attempting...” he said, mumbling.

At this point, his mind and eyelids was fighting an epic battle of dominance. His mind wanting to continue reading and his eyelids wanting to go to sleep. In the end, the lids stood victorious. He was tired from everything that had happened today.

As he pulled his blanket over him, he thought of the long day ahead of him tomorrow. As he closed his eyes, he felt at peace, more than he had felt in a long time.

---Elsewhere---

The man stood, looking out of the window, completely aware of the cloaked figure standing behind him. He hadn’t made his presence known, but they both knew that, that wasn’t necessary.

“I trust everything went well?” he said.

“Yes my lord. It has been done,” the cloaked man said, with much respect in his voice. He wasn’t one to disappoint his master.

Without even turning toward his student, he said in a voice that would make other ponies freeze with fear, “Good! Then everything is going according to plan,” his smile turning into a menacing, borderline insane, grin.

---Back at the cave---

Next morning

As the tiny strips of sunlight made their way into the cave, his eyes slowly opened.

As he stood and popped his back, he felt better than ever. Sure he still didn’t know who he was and this was another morning where the sun apparently found it hilarious to torture him, but at least he wasn’t tired anymore… “Which leads me to yet another problem,” he thought. “What am I going to introduce myself as, were I to find anypony?”

After a while of thinking, he came to the conclusion that he should have a name based of his appearance, as he had nothing else to go after. “Let’s see; white, glasses, a beard, gray hair (I really do look old, don’t I?), no Cutie mark (that’s a bit odd…) and a horn. Not much to go after.”

“What about 'Greymane'… Nah, a bit too old-sounding… 'Silvermane'? No, I want something a bit more normal…

"Jeez the sun is bright... bright… bright… eyes… 'Bright Eyes'! That sounds good, and slightly ironic considering my horrid vision.”

As he made his way to the entrance of the cave, having gathered what he could from it, he took a look at the sky.

“Not a cloud in sight, this will be a good day for traveling, I can feel it!” He said, his voice filled with excitement.

Yet there was a single thought that hadn’t occurred to him before now. Why had the last travelers just left their things in the cave?

Sudden realizations made him slowly turn around, staring into the deep cave.

What followed, would to anypony standing outside the cave, have been a sight to behold. An elderly pony, screaming his lungs out while running away from an equally loud roaring bear, followed by, what could only be described as total hysteria, would have been amusement to anypony.

---A few miles away---

30 minutes later

“Oh at least I got away from the bear,” he panted. He wasn’t made for things like this.

After having survived his encounter with the angry bear, and gotten past a field filled with equally angry squirrels, he couldn’t help but feel relieved.

“OK, a quick break but then I’ll keep walking,” he panted.

Looking around the area, he found it quite pleasing; breathtaking even. The flora was in full bloom and he couldn’t remember ever seeing trees being greener… stupid amnesia…

“Time to get going I guess,” Bright gave a mock-command to himself, “places to go, places to see, ponies to meet and the hooves won’t move themselves!”

At least the weather was nice. Clear sky and a warm, if not a little humid, breeze.

“There’s a road, calling you to stray. Step by step, pulling you away~

Under moon and star, take the road, no matter how far~

Where is leads, no one ever knows. Don’t look back, follow where it goes~

Far beyond the sun, take the road wherever it runs~

The road goes on, ever ever on…” he sang as he walked.

However, had he taken a look from above the trees, he would have noticed the dark clouds approaching.

There was a storm coming… and it was going to be a big one.

Hey people, what's up? Glassed here with the first rewritten chapter for you. It been well underway and I felt like the time to give it to you was now.

References: Legacy

Song: Lord of the Rings - The Road Goes On

Special thanks to my pre-reader Kiroberos

Chapter 2: A Comfy Bed

Hey there everypony! Now I don't know if you've noticed, but these chapter are rewritten. This means that if you didn't read chapter 1 a week ago, chances are you won't understand what's going on... I suggest you take the time to read it again, unless you read the rewritten chapter. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Chapter 2: A Comfy Bed

Sometimes, things don’t work out quite as one could have hoped for. Today, this was the case for a certain purple unicorn.

“I’m sorry Miss Sparkle, but even with your resume and my personal experience with your magic, I can’t give you the position,” Moon Shade explained while fumbling with a pencil, occasionally taking a sip of his now lukewarm and somewhat stale coffee. “It’s not that you’re not qualified enough; far from it in fact, but with our budget, we simply don’t have the funds to expand our personnel. I hope you understand.”

“I see. Sorry to waste your time Mr. Shade,” Twilight said apologetically. “I understand your situation.”

Seeing Moon Shade give her a nod and go back to his pile of papers and other forms, high enough to make even Twilight a bit weary, she walked out of his office, closing the door behind her.

As she closed the door, she couldn’t help but feel a bit down. This had been her second time applying for a job as a teacher at Celestia’s School for the Magically Gifted.

Twilight loved her job as Ponyville’s librarian, but she had always wanted to pass on the knowledge she had. And seeing how much she had loved being in school herself, hearing about the wonders of magic from her teachers, a job as a teacher sounded like the best way to do so.

To get a job at the school, you of course had to be extremely gifted in the arcane arts, as well as getting a letter of recommendation from Celestia herself.

While Twilight was in possession of both, she would normally have had a good chance of getting the position. However, after talking with Moon Shade, the principal of the school, she had learned that there were no positions for a teacher open. ‘Damn the education system! Surely they can always use a few extra teachers!’

“I should just be happy with what I have, I guess,” she said. Trying to keep her spirit high, she forced a smile on her face. “Spike wouldn’t want to be alone in the library all day until I got home anyway.”

The trip back to Ponyville wouldn’t be too long, seeing as the school was located between Canterlot and Ponyville as to encourage anypony from both places to apply for the school. This had also been where Twilight herself had studied before being taken on as Celestia’s personal student.

“Twilight Sparkle!” She snapped out of her state of mind when hearing the all too familiar voice calling out to her.

Turning around, she was met by the sight of her old teacher, Ancient Tome. One word came to mind: ‘Ugh.’

“I’ve heard about you applying for a teacher job? I take it from your expression that it didn’t go too well?”

“Sadly no. It seems like there aren’t any positions open at this time,” Twilight said, seriously trying not to get a conversation going.

She had always felt weird around Tome. Sure he was a nice pony, but there was something about him that Twilight just didn’t like. He was nice, sure. But everything he said sounded… rehearsed, forced... wrong. Yet you never felt the need to question him. A dangerous personality to be sure.

“Oh well, I’m sure you will find something else if you look hard enough. This isn’t the only school for magic, you know? Just because this school is for the gifted and the Princess’ personal establishment, doesn’t mean we have unlimited funds. But surely other schools might have a position open.”

“I am well aware of that, but this school was the one I had set my eyes on. I’m sorry but I must go now; I have an appointment to make.”

“Oh, well then I shan’t hold you here any longer. It was nice talking to you again Miss Sparkle.”

“As to you, Mister Tome.”

In reality, Twilight didn’t have any appointment. In fact, she was free for the rest of the day, but she just couldn’t stand being on the school anymore after her rejection from the principal… And most certainly not if Ancient Tome was going to converse with her.

Sure he had been her teacher once and she had the utmost respect for him. She just didn’t like him, is all… not at all.

As she got on the carriage she had borrowed from the Princess. She sighed as she looked back at the school.

“Oh well,” she said in a low voice before turning to the two ponies in front of the carriage, requesting for them to get going. The trip back wouldn’t take long, but she felt like it would feel like an eternity.

---The Everfree forest---

The dark forest inhabited by only a single pony… ehm, zebra. A place no one would go willingly without a good reason, which was just what a certain pegasus had.

Everyone in Ponyville knew her; the timid pegasus with a heart of gold.

“OK Fluttershy, be brave…” she said, shivering. She didn’t like the forest at all. The only reason she lived so close to it was for the animals’ sake. Most of them lived in the forest and so she had to stay close to it, to take care of them.

After having stayed inside yesterday because of a terrible storm, she had to go into the forest to check up on the little family of badgers living just beyond the forest’s border. The trails were filled with puddles and twigs from the storm yesterday. Everything as sappy as the books on Rarity’s shelf, and not in the romancy way.

Having seen that the badgers were fine, she had turned towards the exit of the forest, not wanting to spend a second more in here, could she help it.

As she found the trail leading out of the forest, she saw another pony. He looked old, he looked worn out and he looked like he was about to fall over… which he then proceeded to do.

Panicking, she raced to his side. He was out cold, seemingly hurt. His coat messy and his glasses cracked.

Thankfully, he didn’t seem to be hurt too badly. “He must have been in the forest for quite some time,” Fluttershy thought. “Doesn’t look too bad; not any worse than most critters I deal with.”

Nursing animals back to health was pretty much Fluttershy’s everyday life. But on a few occasions, she would have to treat a few fellow ponies. A regular of hers, was a cyan pegasus with a rainbow colored mane, who usually got hurt while practicing.

Realizing that she had been standing, reminiscing about her past sessions with Rainbow, each time with weirder and weirder injuries, (seriously, how can anypony get their mane and tail caught up in each other, crash and come out with a broken ear? Can ears even break?) for several minutes over the hurt stallion, she hurried him onto her back and set off towards her cottage.

---Fluttershy's cottage---

Hours later

The sun shined through the curtains in the dimly lit room. Its rays slowly made their way towards the face of a certain pony it loved messing with.

Wasn’t it enough to torture him in the morning? Did he have to suffer in the… well whenever it was? Not if Bright had anything to say about it! In a daring attempt of escaping the rays, he made the move that ponies through generations had perfected in these kinds of situations. That one legendary move that could save your precious comfort in bed: he rolled his head… What, expecting something else?

The last thing he remembered was moving along the trail in the forest, just about to finish his 3256th (or something along those lines, he had stopped counting halfway) song of 'The Road Goes On', and then promptly greeting the ground a final time before passing out. In retrospect, traveling through the storm had been one of his less than successful ideas.

Looking at the side of his bed, he found a yellow pony with a pink mane, sleeping soundly in a chair. That was pretty much all he could make out without his glasses, but from the quiet breathing and the fact that she wasn’t moving, he could guess that she was sleeping. Looking around, he couldn’t find his glasses on that side, which meant much to his dread that he would have to face the horrors of the sunlight again to look on the other side of the bed.

Slowly turning around, prepared to face his lifetime nemesis, he felt confident. Confident enough to defeat it; to end this conflict. He turned… and found nothing. A white ‘blob’ was in front of him, making a living barrier between him and the reign of the sun. That was at least the observation he could make, his vision wasn’t the best. ‘Oh, glasses!’ He put them on and noticed that, the aforementioned “blob”, was in fact a bunny.

‘Well, this is new…’ he crooked his head to the side, the bunny following his movement with his own head. First a bit to the left… then a bit right… and assume starting position, thank you class, that’s it for today.

After his little 'dance' with the white wonder, it gave him a small nod, either thanking him for the dance or simply acknowledge him as an equal. Bright had a small feeling that what he had just gotten was a symbol of great honor. Though why he would think so was beyond him, it was just a bunny… right?

Jumping off the window sill, hereby allowing a bit of sunlight to give Bright a final sucker punch before he turned away, the bunny jumped to the yellow pony (which was now identified as a pegasus), and with a bit of pointing and hand gestures, some with origins Bright didn’t want to know about, Bright figured he wanted him to put his blanket over the pegasus.

Bright felt torn for a second. His manners as a gentleman told him that he should definitively give the blanket to the mare, but on the other hand… it was soooo warm. But in the end, he didn’t want to disappoint the furry little guy. He had an odd form of respect for him, not even 5 minutes after meeting.

In the end, his manners won. Now no longer in the comfort of the blanket, he stepped out of the bed. Wobbling a little, he slowly made his way to the door. Outside was a small hallway with stairs at the end, leading down. Bright figured that he was on the first floor or something like that, and following the bunny seemed to be a good idea at the time.

It was almost like it was in a hurry or something. Heck it even pulled out a small pocket watch at some point, from Luna knows where! Regardless, it wanted him down the stairs. Which went well if you can believe it! Even Bright was a bit surprised by that. He had completely expected to fall down or something. This was turning into a good day fast.

The room he now found himself in was… well in lack of a better word: cozy. The light brown walls went well with the surprising amount of birdhouses and small animal homes. Furniture was sparse, but the essentials were present; like a couch, a small table, a most comfy-looking chair and a few shelves.

The bunny jumped in front of him, pointing to the couch. It told him to sit, and Bright obeyed with military-like commitment. Seeing that he had been understood, the bunny quickly ran into a small house on one end of the room, promptly discarding his watch, before running into an adjacent room.

Looking at the orange light coming from the windows, Bright determined that it was about 4pm. The clock, however, told him 5pm. ‘Meh, close enough’. Taking a look at the house the bunny had used, he noticed the word 'Angel' over the opening. 'So my new-found friend finally has a name,' Bright thought.

Bright sat on the couch for a few minutes, simply enjoying the sounds of the birds outside and the orange rays coming in from the windows. As one would normally do when having lost his memory, he began to think; 'Where had he come from? Who was he? Why was he here?' He felt a bit sullen about it. The only thing he had on him when he awoke was his clothing and the medallion, one of which he threw away. He looked at the star shaped necklace, its shiny surface reflecting the light perfectly. He didn’t know if the medallion itself meant anything, but if there was even a small chance that he could find out who he was, he’d take it.

A few minutes later, Angel came jumping into the room again, this time carrying a small bowl of soup. Bright was amazed, how did it know? Food! He loved food! It took Bright a full two seconds to come out of a state of true bliss, now slightly embarrassed about his fascination of food of all things, and another 10 seconds to finish his bowl of what he presumed was carrot soup. It was only then he realized just how hungry he had been. He hadn’t eaten since back at the cave, not after those blasted squirrels had stolen his last few spoiled carrots.

He ate seconds, thirds and fourths. Damn this was good food! Finally feeling that his belly would burst if a single pear would find his way to his mouth, he sat back and relaxed. He felt a bit bad for having Angel bring him all of this, but Angel didn’t seem to mind too much. He felt sleepy from eating and the comfort of the couch didn’t help. He needed a distraction from his drowsiness. This distraction came from a purple unicorn that opened the door. She looked at Bright a bit surprised, but gave a smile when she came over the initial confusion.

“I see you’re finally up. My name is Twilight Sparkle, may I ask what yours is?” she asked, smiling.

“Ah, of course, I mean, ehm…” Bright felt a bit besides himself, this would be first time to introduce himself. “My name is Bright Eyes, or that’s at least what I’m calling myself.”

Bright wanted to smack himself from saying that. She had to find him a bit suspicious from him saying that. He settled for a mental smack though, as smacking himself, would make him seem even more like a lunatic. At least he didn’t start talking about him getting inducted into a breeding program/forced enslavement. Now isn’t that a thought? Where the heck did that come from? Oh great, she was giving him an odd look. Thankfully not a look of suspicion, but more along the lines of confusion. She seemed just about to ask him a question, before he held up a hoof, signaling her to give him a second.

“Well you see it’s actually a strange story. You might want to sit down, this could take a little while…”

Later that day

It was well into the evening when Bright finished the story. Twilight had, for the most part, quietly listened; only giving the occasional question. Thankfully Twilight seemed very understanding and was genuinely concerned about him. Bright told her that she shouldn’t worry and that he felt fine, which to some extent calmed Twilight down. Twilight had told him about how the pegasus upstairs, who was apparently named Fluttershy, had found him in the forest and nursed him back to health. Twilight had fixed his glasses, as they have had a small crack in them.

“Oh that reminds me,” Twilight stood up. “Shouldn’t she be awake by now? It’s been a while since you came down, right?” He nodded. A sudden sound from the stairs made both Bright and Twilight look up in surprise; in front of the stairs stood Fluttershy.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t… I mean… I didn’t mean to eavesdrop… ehm… I’m sorry…” she spoke in a timid voice, almost as if she was afraid to be heard. This didn’t make much sense in Bright’s mind, conversations usually involved being able to talk to each other. He decided not to question his savior though.

“Oh no, not at all! In fact this just means that I won’t have to tell my story twice,” Bright reassured her, trying to cheer her up a bit. “But you could have just joined us here, instead of sitting on the stairs.”

“Oh, ehm… yes…”

An awkward silence insured. It’s hard to keep a conversation going if it’s only one side that gives input. It was at this point he noticed just how cute Fluttershy was; heck it was borderline adorable, no screw that; she WAS adorable! He couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle. He was going to enjoy his stay… his stay? All Bright could think of at that moment was how much he was actually imposing on Fluttershy. Yeah he was hurt, but that didn’t mean he could just linger around and do nothing. She had saved his life for crying out loud. The awkward silence was still lingering in the room until Twilight, bless her, decided to break it.

“In any case you should come by the library sometime tomorrow. Maybe we can find something for your amnesia.”

“Sure, I… wait, what? The library? Do you think there’s a book that can help us? I’m no expert on the mind, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t that simple,” Bright was confused to say the least. Yes books were useful and you can learn a lot from them, but a way to cure amnesia probably wasn’t amongst it. “Unless there’s an edition of my biography in the register.”

Twilight simply shook her head. “No, that wasn’t what I meant. I know that there’s no real cure for amnesia, except waiting for the memories to return. What I meant was a way to ease the process and make them come back faster. The reason why you should come to the library is because I live there.”

Living in a library? Now Bright didn’t have much against books, in fact he loved a good book, but to live with them might be a bit much. If he had to take a wild guess, he presumed that Twilight had already read all of the books at least twice. She sure seemed like someone who would do that. There was a word Bright didn’t like using, but for once he found himself sitting in front of a living specimen of this race; a true nerd.

The rest of the evening was spent getting to know each other better. More than once, Bright noticed Twilight and Fluttershy giving each other a look. It was almost like they were having a conversation with their eyes. It seemed like they were worried about something, but Bright just minded his own business.

Little did Bright know what horrors awaited him the following day…

OK, so if you're watching me and/or read my blog post, you'll know that I was supposed to send Bright into Ponyville in this chapter... This didn't happen, simply because I didn't think it made sense to have him there after so much stuff at Fluttershy's... It'll happen next chapter, no worries ;)

References: Memory Pending and Human

Special thanks to my pre-reader Kiroberos

Chapter 3: Mission Im-Ponyville

Hi there, I'm back. I'm gonna attempt to do these weekly from now on, keyword being "try". These's a lot of stuff going on right now, as I'm currently plowing through my school-work, the fanfic, being a writer for GamersHavenNews and of course the whole My Little Pony RPG that we're making. Seriously, if you're an artist and want to help us out, go send a PM to inoeitall.

Chapter 3: Mission Im-Ponyville

The sun was high over the town of Ponyville. The town’s inhabitants were busy doing their own things; buying groceries at the market, going to and from appointments or simply just strolling around, talking to their friends.

The sky was clear, the sun shined, the grass was green and the bushes had eyes… wait…

“Now, I’m grateful that you want to help me Miss Sparkle, but I must ask you again; Why are we hiding?”

“And I’ll ask you once more to just call me Twilight! ‘Miss’ makes me sound old,” Twilight said with a bit of annoyance in her voice. “And to answer your question; there’s a certain earth pony that I want to avoid.”

“Are you supposed to keep me a secret? We’ve been on the run all morning.” Bright had absolutely no idea why Twilight wanted to avoid somepony, and because of him no less. Thinking back, even Fluttershy had been acting strange when Twilight came to fetch him that morning.

---FLASHBACK---

Waking up was for once, great. On this glorious day, Bright had finally come out on top after his fight with the horrible rays from the big ball of flames. ‘By the power of curtains, I’ll defeat you anytime, ya darn sun!’

He made his way downstairs, smelling the nice smell of Fluttershy’s cooking. Yesterday, Angel had been kind enough to satisfy his hunger, and he was immensely grateful for that, but nothing beats the smell of haybacon and eggs in the morning. He wished he could have some coffee… What he wouldn’t give for a mug of black Joe right now. But unfortunately, Fluttershy was more of a tea pony and therefore coffee wasn’t present in the house. ‘Darn shame!’

Yes, Fluttershy was indeed a nice mare and he was happy that she would let him stay… Scratch that; “demanded” him to stay at her cottage until he was feeling better. He had voiced his opinion about him lying around doing nothing, the night before, and mentioned that he should probably find somewhere else. Thinking back, that had been a stupid idea. Not only wouldn’t he have been able to heal properly, but Fluttershy had actually gotten angry! He shuddered a bit, thinking about it.

But that’s what retrospect is there for; to show you how much of a moron you are.

“Good morning,” he heard Fluttershy say from the kitchen. “Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes; I just need to feed Angel.”

Breakfast went peacefully. He and Fluttershy talked about nothing in general, just having a good time. But that’s where the peace and quiet stopped, as a knock on the door sounded. Fluttershy’s facial expression went from normal to a face filled with determination.

“Hey Fluttershy, it’s me, Twilight,” they heard from outside the door. Twilight was almost whispering and it made Bright feel all kinds of uncomfortable from the sudden change of mood. Was something wrong?

Fluttershy, now talking to Twilight at the doorstep, was whispering as well. “Is everything ready?”

“Yes, but we have to move quickly if we have to make it. There’s a long way to the library,” Twilight whispered just audible enough for Bright to hear it. The next thing he knew, he was dragged out of the door by Twilight with Fluttershy staying back, waving at them.

---FLASHFORWARD---

And that’s how they got to where they were now; sitting in the bush on the main road of ponyville.

“But why would you want to avoid this pony?”

Twilight seemed to think about this for a few second while looking around. “OK, I might as well explain it to you. Here in Ponyville, we have a… well to be frank, a “super-extreme-hyper-active-party-pony” named Pinkie Pie. Her parties are nice enough, but for once I think having one right now may be too much for us to handle, with you not being completely rested yet.”

“Couldn’t we just explain that to her?”

“Well Bright, I think you’ll understand when you meet her.”

For a few minutes, they stayed in the bush, planning their next move. Twilight’s mind was filled with thoughts and calculations about their progress. Where to go next, where to hide and countless ways for it to go wrong, was just a tiny part of the things that went through her head. Bright on the other hand, was only thinking of a small little tune that would fit this occasion perfectly. It was a nice and calm little tune, but came across as something that showed the intensity of the situation… Bright wasn’t really feeling it though. Why couldn’t music just start playing out of nowhere?

“Are you ready? On 3, we run for that alley over there.”

Bright Eyes nodded and prepared himself.

Twilight started counting. “1”… “2”… She never got any further before she was disturbed by a sudden voice behind them.

“Excuse me sugar cube, but what’s going on?” Both Twilight and Bright jumped when hearing the voice behind them. Turning around, Bright found himself looking at the most beautiful thing he had ever seen; the shape, the color… the curves, oh the curves. He almost shed a small tear at the sight. He was looking at a Stetson… oh yeah, and there was an orange earth pony under it as well he noticed.

“Applejack! Don’t scare me like that!” Twilight almost shouted, before remembering that they were supposed to stay hidden, and adjusted her volume thereafter.

“Hehe, sorry Twi, Ah couldn’t help myself,” Applejack retorted chuckling. “Oh, who’s ya friend here?”

“Applejack, this is Bright Eyes, Bright Eyes, Applejack” Twilight quickly introduced them, before taking another look at the street.

“Howdy Grandpa, nice ta met cha!” She shook his hoof with the force of a small landslide.

*Tick*

“Grandpa!? I may be old, but…” was all he could say before getting shut up by Twilight. “She’s here” she whispered.

Around the corner came a pink earth pony. Normally this wouldn’t be strange, but for one: she was bouncing… downwards… and two: she was humming. Not just any song, but the very same tune that Bright had been thinking about less than 2 minutes ago.

As if defying physics themselves, she stopped in midair and slowly descended to the ground. Hereafter she performed, what to Bright, looked like a prench ballet-routine… with some improvisation of course. No prench ballet has a kickflip in midair. Had he been a judge he would give her an 8/10 for performance and a 10/10 for the element of surprise.

The look of wonder on Bright’s face was in pure contrast to the one on Applejack and Twilight’s. Sprouting looks of horror and determination, they started blurting out words that might as well have been prench for all Bright knew (Which was quite strange as they weren't anywhere near Prance).

Seeing as he couldn’t understand half of what was being said anyways, he decided to look around. Nothing new really... He had been in this bush for the last hour or so. Same lovely houses, same gardens, same vendors on the street and finally the same… Well, everything. It was a nice place, but after 1 hour of being in the same place, it was getting a bit boring.

Oh now something’s happening! A purple unicorn just stopped to talk to Pinkie Pie… Wait… TWILIGHT!?

“Come on gramps, no time tah lose! Twi can’t hold Pinkie forever ya know!” Applejack had a strange look of equal parts excitement and fear.

*Tick*

“And what is that mysterious ticking noise?” She said as she dragged Bright out of the bush and down the street faster than Pinkie on a sugar high. “We have to get to Rarity’s place quickly!”

Bright didn’t really have any choice in the matter and decided to just lay back and enjoy the ride.

---Other part of town---

About 15 minutes later

This was getting ridiculous! For every corner AJ and Bright (or mostly AJ, Bright didn’t have much to say in the matter), Pinkie would somehow be just down that street! Finally after somehow losing her, AJ and Bright took a stop in an alleyway.

Gasping for air, Bright couldn’t help but find this whole situation somewhat amusing. Here they were; running from a pink mare with hair looking like cotton candy and not once had they been able to escape her. The peace was however quickly disturbed by a loud shout overhead.

“ZEPHYR! YOU GET BACK HERE, RIGHT NOW!” was the only thing they heard before a loud crash was made just outside the alley. Peeking around the corner, Bright was meet by the sight of a tan-colored pegasus with a royal-blue mane, being held down by a cyan pegasus with a mane consisting of so many colors, that Bright’s eyes (get it? *Badum tish*… No? Well, worth a shot) almost started hurting.

“I don’t care what you say, Rainbow Dash. I’m not clearing all those clouds on my own!” the tan pegasus yelled, with his muzzle in the dirt.

“Oh yes you are, Zephyr. I’m the captain of the weather team so you have to listen to my orders!” the pegasus, now identified as Rainbow Dash, said with a smile on her face. The smile grew even bigger when she saw Applejack standing next to her. “Oh hi AJ. What are you doing here?”

“Just passing by right now. How’re ya doing Zephyr?”

“Oh I’ve been better. Just work you know?” he grunted, trying to wrestle his way out of Rainbow’s grip.

“Ah can see that,” Applejack looked amused by the whole scene. She motioned over to Bright, “Ah’m just getting mah new friend away from Pinkie.”

“Who, the old geezer?” Rainbow tilted her head as she said it.

*Tick* *Crack*

AJ and Rainbow both looked at Bright and then at each other. “What the…”

---On a bit of an unrelated note---

It was a warm day in Canterlot. Everypony who was somepony (or felt like being somepony) was out enjoying the company of other ponies “who were someponies”. Two such ponies were currently sitting in a high class café on the main street.

“What a spectacular day, isn’t it Fleur darling?”

“Yes…” said Fleur. Fleur de Lis was a pony of grace and beauty. Only the finest quality food and wine was good enough for her… and she was horribly bored! She had to admit that while most ponies in Canterlot wanted her, she only had eyes for her companion, Fancypants. But today not even he could make her amused.

Suddenly the ground shook and a roar, which sounded something like “AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!” could be heard. Everypony in the street stopped for a second and looked around. Nothing out of place, oh well, back to business. As quickly as it came, the excitement Fleur felt disappeared, leaving her utterly bored once more.

---On an almost unrelated note---

In a galaxy far, far away

Sky Walker stopped for a second. His mission on Celestia 5 had been strange to say the least. His fight with the Grosh had been tiring, but right now he felt something. Like something far away was horribly wrong.

“I feel a disturbance in the force…”

---On a completely unrelated note---

It was that time of the day. It was time for Mobius’s daily muffin intake.

He and Hovermic had been spending the day trying to figure out which was better: muffins or donuts.

This had led to some rather strange competitions. One of these had been trying to figure out which made for the best armor, and if any of them could be used as phones. Surprisingly, Mobius had actually managed to connect to a guy in Manehatten, while Hovermic got a dead signal, something about the shape of the donut not making for a good receiver. At one point they even broke the 4th wall.

In the end they had to stop the competitions though. Everyone was getting tired. Just as Mobius was about to bite into the wonderful muffin in his paw, it split in half. The same thing happened with Hovermic’s donut.

“What just happened?” they both looked at each other, shrugged, and went back to eating.

---Where the heck are we?---

Alkaios, Fang Hua, Annabeth Edgeworth and J. Isaac Noe all looked at each other…

Confusion was ever so present, as none of them could figure out why someone had been yelling what sounded like “argh” from a distance.

---A few universes, a galaxy and a town back---

“*Pant* *pant* I’M NOT OLD!” Bright felt his vocal cords burning. AJ and Rainbow was just looking at him with blank faces. It was at this moment Zephyr saw his chance to escape. He quickly stood up, making Rainbow fall over in the process and zipped away.

“I don’t care what you say Rainbow, I’m not clearing the sky alone! You’re just trying to put all the work on me so you can take a nap!” Zephyr shouted from his ascended position.

“Yes!” Rainbow barked back at him.

“What!? You actually admit it? What kind of boss are you?” Zephyr yelled as he flew away.

“Yours! Now get back here!” she shouted, but as she was about to fly off she turned to Bright. “Nice to meet you Bright.”

Bright stood back, looking in the direction they had flown off in with a 1000 yard stare, not fully comprehending what had just happened. AJ on the other hand, seemed completely fine with the whole ordeal, and simply began dragging the still staring Bright towards their destination.

---Outside Rarity's boutique---

20 minutes later

AJ poked out from the bush she and Bright were currently occupying. She look around and went through a mental checklist (Twilight have had some influence since she came to Ponyville).

Skies clear? Check. No movement? Check. Planets aligned? ‘Why’s that important?’

She took a last look down the street, and made a mad dash towards the front door. Halfway, she kicked a small pebble and it hit the door handle, successfully opening the door. Still sprinting, she jumped inside, made a roll before standing straight up. The scene would have been a perfect display of action, had Bright not chosen this moment to casually stroll in through the door.

Applejack was actually a bit disappointed. Normally she was very modest, but the total lack of interest from Bright was a bit upsetting. Couldn't he at least act a bit impressed?

To his credit, Bright hadn’t actually experienced the show. When Applejack had taken off, he had gotten his leg caught in a stray root from the bush, promptly faceplanting. In a last attempt of upholding his dignity, he chose to casually trot towards the shop, his face not showing his embarrassment.

So now there were two ponies, standing in Carousel Boutique, both trying not to show their true feelings. One slightly disappointed, another embarrassed.

After a little while with none of them saying a word to each other, the silence was broken by a white unicorn entering the room, suddenly gasping loudly at the sight of Bright.

“Oh darling! What has happened to your mane!?” had Bright not already been completely out of it from today’s events, he would probably be a bit surprised by now. But no, this was what he had come to expect from this town by now. “And your beautiful coat as well! This is. The. Worst. Possible. Thing! It is a crime against fashion is what it is!”

She slowly crept towards Bright wearing a crazy look on her face.

“Is everypony in this town completely insane, AJ?” Bright asked turning his head towards Applejack.

“Oh trust me; this is an especially crazy day. Ah gotta say this is probably gonna go in the record books.”

Rarity was now getting dangerously close to Bright. Bright felt frozen to the floor. He couldn’t figure out if it was ice or glue, but figured it didn’t really matter. The only thing that mattered right now was the fact that he was bucked.

“Now let Rarity take care of this...” Bright went wide eyed and his throat slowly prepared for another outcry. This time a cry of fright.

---Back at 'Where the heck are we?'---

Isaac stopped once more. Where were these cries coming from?

---Carousel Boutique---

1 hour later

Have you ever gotten into a shower and the hot water was turned up to max and someone else had just gotten out of it? Then gotten said water on you, but instead of feeling hot, the water actually feels cold for a few seconds? This was kinda what Bright felt like right now. But instead of feeling hot or cold, he was so clean that it felt dirty... Yes, THAT clean! What he had just been through... he never wanted to speak of it again! At least his beard had been trimmed and now it didn’t look like he had been living as a cavepony for the last few years.

Rarity was apologizing furiously. “I’m so, so, sorry. I simply don’t know what went over me! It was just... the dirt! I couldn’t stand it!” she exclaimed, falling onto a couch that she suddenly summoned from Luna knows where.

“It’s… ehm… alright? I mean, it was kinda scary at first (or all throughout actually), but at least I came out… what did you call it?” Bright struggled to come up with the right word. “Fabulous?”

At this word, Rarity seemed to do a complete 180 in mood! Bright was surprised that she didn’t get mental whiplashes from it, but she seemed to come out just fine... or she was just already damaged beyond repair. “Why yes! Your mane looks absolutely stunning! And the way your coat seems to radiate in the light. Simply beautiful!” Bright couldn’t help but blush a little at her comment. Was she getting onto him? Nah, he was way too old for her, and this seemed more like she was proud of herself than anything else. “Oh! I do believe I’ve forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Rarity, ponyville’s prime fashionista. And what might yours be?”

“Ehm… Bright Eyes…” was all he could say before Twilight burst into the boutique looking slightly frantic. She instantly looked at Bright, ran over to him, and without a word, she grabbed him. A moment later, Bright was once more surrounded by the familiar streets. The most notable differences from last time, was that instead of having AJ pull him along, it was Twilight. The other difference was the speed they were going at. Instead of hiding in the bushes like before, Twilight had sacrificed all manners of stealth for speed.

In the distance, Bright thought he saw a pink spot come towards them. Next thing he knew was the pink spot turning into a pony and ran past them as Twilight skidded to a halt, and shifted direction. They were now running through a park. You know, one of those parks where foals are running around playing hoof-ball and the elderly are playing chess. The stealth was again present when they stopped and hid in a bush, just beside the chess-playing ponies. Surprisingly none of them noticed them jumping in there. Bright couldn’t help but think if he was going to end up like them before his time at this rate…

“Why are we running again?”

“Pinkie Pie,” was Twilights simple, yet perfect answer; short and to the point.

The very next moment, Twilight was on her way again. Dangling behind her was a tired elderly pony, who didn’t much care for the sudden takeoff and simply chose to keep his mouth shut. Bright just stared at the sky as she ran.

10 minutes of frantic running later

They had finally reached the library. Twilight didn’t waste any time and simply bolted in through the door.

“OK, we’re safe now… why is everything so dark?” In the dark, no one could see her eyes widen at the realization. “Oh no…”

Suddenly the light was turned on, and a massive “SURPRISE!” was heard. The entire library was filled with ponies and in front of them stood Pinkie Pie.

“Hi! Were you surprised, were you, were you, were you? I heard that there was somepony new in town, and I always throw a party when there’s someone new here and…” Pinkie’s usual ramble was cut short, as confusion took over. Behind her stood 4 other ponies; Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and finally Fluttershy, all wearing confused looks on their faces. The confusion was mainly because no one knew how they had arrived at the library. Suddenly they just found themselves in the dark waiting for Bright and Twilight to arrive. However, that confusion suddenly got redirected as they looked at the newly arrived.

“Ehm… Twilight?” Rainbow said, clearly thinking that she might have missed something. “Who’s that?”

“Why it’s Bri…” Twilight looked back at the pony she was carrying. The silence in the room was thick. Can a silence even be thick? It could now! “Old Bones!? Why are you here?”

The old stallion stood up. “Where am I?”

“But if you brought Old Bones here, where’s Bright Eyes?”

---The park---

“Checkmate sonny,” All Wrinkle said in a raspy voice, smacking his lips. “You’re not very good at this are ye?”

Bright had just lost his 4th game of chess to this guy. And how come he was calling him ‘sonny’? Why was he either too old or too young for everypony? How had he ended up in this situation? Why had Twilight just left him? How come, he was always ending up in these kinds of situations?

And why did he want to win so badly? “Best out of nine!”

First off, I wanna give an apology to my pre-reader Kiroberos, whose brain I might have fried in this chapter. Sorry mate :pinkiesmile:

Secondly, I felt kinda stupid while writing this, so if it shows, that's why :derpytongue2:

References: Memory Pending, Not the Afterlife I Signed Up For and A Rising Light

Cameo: Zephyr

Special thanks to my pre-reader Kiroberos

Chapter 4: Let's do Magic!

I know I said Monday guys! I know, I know! Had a small writers block and lets not forget that Kiroberos actually has a life on his own (shocking isn't it?) So after me and uT.TerAbsurdity successfully saved this chapter from a smaller catastrophe caused by a certain two ponies, here it is: a new chapter, just for you... no just you, you over there stop reading!

Chapter 4: Let's do Magic!

After a rather interesting party yesterday and an equally interesting afternoon, this including Bright’s 32 consecutive losses at chess to All Wrinkle, after which Bright had sent a few swears of vengeance towards Wrinkle, Bright and Twilight were finally able to get to the matter of his amnesia.

Twilight had impressed Bright immensely by reading no less than 4 books at once. Just a few of these titles included 'Memories: The Basics of the Mind', 'Amnesia and You' and one of the funnier ones in Bright’s opinion, 'Memories of an Amnesiac'.

'Oh the irony,' he thought, looking at Twilights ever growing pile of books related to lost memories and back at his own pathetic little pile of books. The one he was currently reading didn’t help much either. ''Amnesia'… Why would I need a lantern? This seems more like a work of fiction!'

Bright let out a frustrated sigh before starting to complain, “Listen Twilight, this is leading nowhere. I mean…” He was cut short by a knock on the door.

“Would you mind, Bright?” Twilight requested, not even bothering to look up from her reading.

Bright grumbled something under his breath about being lazy, but did as told nevertheless. When he got to the door, his actions were interrupted by a *thud* from outside. A million thoughts sped through Bright’s head. For a second, he thought he had gotten part of his memory back, but no. Right now, his mind was filled with worries that somepony had either: A) Collapsed on the doorstep, B) Gotten killed on the doorstep or C) Tripped on the doorstep… Before his mind could come up with a “D)”, he began chanting in his head. 'Not B, not B, not B, not B, not B, please for the love of all that is good, not B!'

His fear was at its peak when his hoof made contact with the door handle. He slowly opened the door, his left eye tightly shut to prevent… well, there’s no real reason for just shutting one of your eyes. It really doesn’t prevent you from seeing anything, just obscures your view a bit.

When his single eye laid its sight outside, he saw to his great relief, that it was indeed option 'C'. The grey pegasus that sat in front of the door seemed dizzy, and with the scratches on the door, that Bright was sure weren’t there earlier, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened.

“What happened?” he asked. (Somewhere out there, an author slammed his head hard against a wall.)

“Oh nothing, I just wasn’t paying attention, so when I tried to knock again, I accidently tripped,” the pegasus said. “And then I fell towards the door and hit my head. No worries; it doesn’t really hurt.”

Bright suddenly had a flashback to his relationship with the ground and briefly wondered if she had a similar thing going with the door. “Ehm, anything I can help you with miss…?”

“Ditzy Doo, or as my friends call me 'Derpy', I’m sorry I couldn’t be at the party yesterday Mr…”

From inside the library, Twilight was wondering what was going on outside. “Bright Eyes?” she called.

Both Derpy and Bright let out a simultaneous “Yes?”

A silence followed. Both ponies simply kept their mouths shut and proceeded to look each other in the eyes. The 4 eyes locked on each other... Eh no, only 3 eyes, as Derpy’s left eye had taken a sudden interest in the wardrobes that was visible from the front door. Who knew what could be hidden inside? A whole world filled with mythical creatures. Kings and queens, lions and witches! Or it could just be filled with books and dust, something quite common in the library.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, the silence!

“Oh, I’m sorry. ‘Bright Eyes' is just something Graze, my coltfriend, calls me sometimes,” she explained. “Guess that I just reacted to it being used to it and all.”

“Oh no worries, it could happen to anypony,” or well, anypony named or somehow related to the name 'Bright Eyes', which Bright sincerely hoped wasn’t too many. “I assume you’re here for a reason?”

“Oh yes, I’m the town’s mailmare. I’m here to deliver a shipment of books for the library. Mind giving these to Twilight?” she said handing (hoofing… No screw that, I’m not gonna have that discussion! I’m sticking with “handing”) Bright a box filled with books. “Have a nice day Bright Eyes.”

“As to you Derpy,” he said as she flew off. He winced as she hit a nearby tree, deciding it wasn’t hard to figure out why her nickname was 'Derpy'.

Bright picked up the package with his teeth and closed the door. He quickly explained what had happened outside, which brought a small giggle from Twilight as he told the name issue. He decided to pick up the conversation that had so abruptly been interrupted.

“As I said; this isn’t as easy as just taking a book from the shelf and then just start reading the summary on the back!” Bright said while shaking his head. He cleared his throat as he picked a random book from the shelf containing the biographies. “Starswirl the Bearded, born in the year 73 B.C (Before Celestia). The conjurer of…” Bright briefly stopped, just staring at the book. Never had his name been truer. “That’s a lot of spells…”

Twilight let out another giggle before getting a thoughtful expression on her face. “Yes it is, isn’t it? By the way Bright, when you brought in the package, you had it in your mouth. How are your abilities with magic?” she said as she tilted her head.

Bright gulped and remembered a somewhat embarrassing moment from the party, the night before. How was he supposed to know that Bon Bon was standing right there? It wasn’t his fault that he had dropped that punchbowl on her! How had he even gotten in said position? He would probably never know…

“So not very good huh?” Twilight was looking almost smug right now. “How about a simple levitation spell? That’s the easiest spell to perform and one that comes almost natural to unicorns.”

“Ehm, actually I’ve somehow managed to be able to relate a few painful experiences to that spell, and I’ve only been here for a few days.”

“Really? It might be your amnesia doing all of that. On a side note, that might also have something to do with your cutie mark. Some forms of amnesia can even make you forget your special talent, and thereby removing your cutie mark.”

“So what do you suggest?” he said, kinda scared of where this was going.

“Oh, I’m glad you asked Bright~!” Twilight said, while levitating a pair of red glasses and a blackboard, filled with countless graphs and formulas on it, most of which Bright was sure didn’t mean anything, to her.

“The first thing you need to understand about magic is that it is really just a unicorn’s natural ability to exert their will over other objects. The way this works is quite simple really. Everything that exists has a counterpart that cannot be observed. Dark matter, if you will. To those who are unable to use magic, dark matter may as well not exist.”

“However, a unicorn’s horn allows us to channel energy into our dark matter, and use it to affect other objects. By affecting the object’s dark matter, we affect the object itself. Though when this happens, the amounts of energy is shown as a glowing aura around the object and the horn, with the intensity thereof representing the amount of energy expended in order to achieve the desired effect. By learning how to influence objects in various ways, we can achieve nearly any desired effect. “

“Now one thing that is quite curious though is that all ponies have magic. Unicorns are the only ones who can actively channel it, though. Unicorns are able to influence nearly any solid object, while Pegasi can interact with gaseous substances like clouds. Earth ponies can transfer their energy through their hooves, but at a terribly slow pace. This is what allows them to grow crops so well, and that excess energy stored in them keeps them strong and hardy.”

“Back to my earlier topic of the various ways our energy can be expended though. These techniques are usually referred to as spells. Simple changes in how you visualize the way the energy can create radically different results. Most ponies can only master a few spells in certain areas, which is in line with their cutie mark. However, seeing as how my cutie mark represents magic itself, I seem to be able to master any and all spells. Now then, since you don’t seem to be able to remember what your special talent is, we’ll just start with a few basic spells to see if we can’t deduce your specialty. Let’s try... Bright? Are you OK?”

Bright was, in fact, not OK. Somewhere in the depths of Twilight’s magicbabble, his mind had simply said “No! I’m not gonna listen to this!” His mind and body had somehow become separate beings, and what was before Twilight at the moment, was no more than an empty shell. With steam coming out of his ears…

“Perhaps we should try it out instead?” A small nod from the mindless pony in front of her was the only answer she got.

---A field just outside Ponyville---

3 hours later

Twilight was pacing back and forth wearing a bemused facial expression, in front of Bright. Bright on the other hoof, stood completely still, staring straight ahead, as to not agitate Twilight any further.

Twilight stopped, turned and stood now face to face with Bright.

“OK, what have we learned?” Twilight asked.

“Lots of control,” he said. Twilight nodded, “And?”

“Screaming and hollering.”

“NO! Focus and meditation!” He flinched a bit at her outburst. “And finally?”

“Don’t envision fire when casting a spell!”

“Actually it’s 'balance', but that too.” Twilight sat down, completely exhausted from the magic-session she just had with Bright. She still had a few embers in her mane, and the surrounding grass and trees would grow back with time… hopefully.

“Well, let’s look at the bright side; I finally figured out how to do the levitation spell,” he countered.

“Yeah, but not before completely destroying most of my dinner plates.”

“Why did it have to be plates anyways? Couldn’t we just stick with small rocks?”

“We tried that, remember?” Twilight mused. “Those windows over at Bon Bon’s sweets shop won’t be cheap you know?”

“I said I was sorry! How was I supposed to know that there would be so much power behind a small throw?” Bright could almost feel the anger from Bon Bon across the town. He hadn’t exactly made a good first impression… or second impression for that matter.

“I guess that’s all we have time for today then,” Twilight said while trotting away.

“Wait, why?” Bright was honestly a bit confused by this. He could easily go on for a bit longer… provided that Twilight still had some plates left. “Do we have to be somewhere?”

“Well yeah, Pinkie’s holding a surprise party for Rainbow Dash. It’s her birthday today.” Twilight stated as if it was common knowledge, without ever stopping.

Bright stared at Twilight as she trotted away. “Nopony ever tells me anything around here,” Bright grumbled under his breath, before quickly running after her.

---Rainbow's House---

30 minutes later

Bright was helping the rest of the guests decorating the house. Twilight was simply lying on the couch to rest for a while. Using the cloud-walking spell on every non-pegasus at the party had taken quite a toll on her, and the hours spend practicing with Bright hadn’t helped either.

Decorating the house had been going fairly well. Sure they had been spending too much time actually cleaning the place. 'Rainbow must be the messiest pony in Equestria,' Bright thought to himself. Dirty plates in the sink, dust EVERYWHERE and even a sock on the ceiling fan… which didn’t make any sense, as Rainbow never wore clothes.

Rainbow’s cloudhouse wasn’t necessarily filled with unnecessary trinkets and furniture but there was, however, several shelves filled with prizes from contests she had been in. 'The fastest in Equestria might not have been a complete boasting then, she might just… oh what’s this?' Bright suddenly noticed a rather unusual item on the shelf. Those who didn’t know Rainbow probably wouldn’t give it a second look even though it stood out from the prizes on the shelf. But to Bright, it didn’t make sense. He didn’t know everything about Rainbow Dash, but he could easily make out her general personality and lifestyle from what he had seen so far.

On the shelf, between all the prizes, stood a small stand with a pair of earrings. They had golden hinges and looked like two small ruby raindrops. Dash didn’t seem like the type to wear jewelry, or even have some. Bright stared at them for several minutes before he was interrupted by a voice beside him.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Rarity asked. By now Bright had become used to ponies sneaking up on him so he wasn’t really surprised… much. “It’s hard to believe that those represent her greatest joy and yet also her biggest sorrow.”

“I don’t mean to pry any, but what do you mean by that? I don’t know Rainbow that closely, but she doesn’t seem like somepony who would wear such things,” Bright was trying to be polite as he felt like this was somewhat of a sensitive subject.

“Well no, Rainbow isn’t at all somepony who cares about her looks, and jewelry is most likely the last thing she would buy,” she said. “But these are special to her. These are the ones that were used to propose to her a few years ago, by her special someone. I still remember her smile on her wedding day; I guess it was the only time, with the exception of the gala, that I could get her into a dress.”

If Bright hadn’t been so surprised to hear that Rainbow was married, he would probably have noticed the small grammatical difference Rarity had made, but as of now he didn’t think anything of it. “Married!? So how come I don’t see any pictures or signs of others living here? Did she get divorced?”

“Oh no, not at all. But…” Rarity trailed off for a second, a tear was forming in her eye; she wiped it away before continuing. “A few years ago, her husband simply disappeared. Or perhaps 'disappeared' is the wrong word to use. We know what happened to him, but we can’t get him back.”

She gave Bright a look that he couldn’t quite place. “She might look fine and act like nothing is wrong, but… inside she is hurting quite badly. Thankfully she’s got her friends to help her. Zephyr, who she considers to be one of her closest friends, is thankfully always there for her.” She shook her head. “Oh listen to me, telling you all of this even though you barely know her. I guess… I’m sorry for dumping all of this on you, Bright.”

“No it’s fine; it was me who wanted to know what happened,” he said dismissively. “I guess it’s better that you told me what happened, rather than I started asking her what was with the earrings, and accidently hit a nerve. Let’s… let’s just get back to the preparations, shall we?”

The rest of the day went mostly quiet, with no words between Rarity and Bright with the exception of the most necessary interactions. For the most part, Rarity seemed fine with Bright understanding the gravity of the matter. Finally the whole house was filled with decorations and everypony was in hiding, waiting for Zephyr to bring Rainbow back from work.

Finally Rainbow’s voice was heard outside the door. “Seriously Zeph, how could you mess up those clouds so badly? It took us way too long to fix everything! I swear…” She opened the door.

“SURPRISE!”

Rainbow was shocked, not because she didn’t expect to get some form of surprise party, but because it was being held in her house. Made out of clouds! She looked around before looking back at Zephyr who had the biggest grin on his face. “You did it on purpose, didn’t you?” she asked as she narrowed her eyes and gave a small smile in his direction, before grabbing him and give him a friendly nuggie.

To others it seemed like just another friendly interaction, but right now Bright could see what Rarity meant. She needed her friends, more than anything else.

'If that’s how it is…' he thought. 'Then I’ll give a helping hoof.'

He put on his best smile and yelled, “Hey Rainbow! Congratulations ‘Miss fastest flier in Equestria’”

Apparently she heard him over the crowd of ponies congratulating her, as she grinned and stood proudly. “Haha, you know it!” she called back.

“Mind showing off a few moves later?”

“Later? How about right now?” she gave her signature grin and walked out the door.

Bright followed her outside and saw her take off. “I call this 'The Buckaneer Blaze'!”

Bright was looking as yet another voice came up behind him. “I guess you heard the story then?” Zephyr asked. Bright was seriously starting to believe that the whole deal with ponies sneaking up on him was the universe messing with him.

“Is it that apparent?”

“When you’ve been around Dash for as long as I have, yes.” He looked at Bright. “I don’t think I’ve properly introduced myself, my name is Zephyr Verve.” He held out his hoof.

“I’m Bright Eyes, nice to meet you Zephyr.” He shook his hoof.

“Call me Zeph. Oh well, I leave her to you then. Hope you can handle quite some boasting,” he said as he turned back inside.

Sure enough; the rest of the day was spend watching Rainbow fly and boast… yet he felt content. He had gotten a new friend today.

This one was certainly a different chapter. I actually stopped being funny for a bit, and went over to being sad. I'll just have you know that, the next chapter is gonna start out as sad, if not more (but quickly go back to comedy again). But fret not, this story will mainly focus on comedy... though it'll have some quite... dare I say it? "Dark" moments...

References: How Did I get Here? and Three of Me: School Society

Special thanks to my pre-reader Kiroberos and inoeitall for his theory on the science behind magic, as well as providing me with the magicbabble.

Chapter 5: Where Everypony Knows Your Name

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 :twilightsmile:

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! :pinkiehappy:

Chapter 6: The Good, the Bad and the Unemployed

Chapter 6: The Good, the Bad and the Unemployed

Bright opened his eyes to the quiet sound of birds outside his window. The morning had arrived and he had slowly risen from his slumber WITH THE BIGGEST SPLITTING HEADACHE EVER!

“Aw~ Don’t. Even. Think,” he thought to himself, each word bringing him pain. “Never. Again. Drinking. Aw.”

He slowly got out of bed (slow being the keyword in this sentence), and made his way to the kitchen. Each step he took brought him pain. Was it the floorboards squeaking, or was it his head? Nonetheless, the pain was there, and it was intense.

“Giving birth? Try being me right now,” Bright thought, he couldn’t help but feel a bit grumpy. “I blame the hangover…”

“Oh, good morning Bright.” Bright instantly froze in his movement. Fluttershy simply watched him, what was he doing? “Ehm… Bright?”

“ARGH! The pain!” Even Fluttershy’s normal timid voice was agonizingly loud at the moment. Wait…did he just shout? “ARGH! ARGH! ARGH! IT’S A VICIOUS CIRCLE! ARGH! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP! ARGH!”

Despite Bright’s current state, Fluttershy couldn’t help but smile. This was exactly how Rainbow Dash had acted a while back when she had had that drink from ‘The Tipsy Pegasus’. Last time, Fluttershy had freaked out, but this time she knew exactly what to do.

“Here you go, Bright Eyes, drink this,” she said as pushed a tray with a cup on it.

Bright didn’t waste a second before he took the cup and drank the content in two big gulps. This ended up like most of Bright’s ideas: badly.

“Aw aw aw aw, hothothothothothot!” But despite the hot feeling in his mouth, Bright felt relived. The pain was gone-“Auch!” OK, mostly anyways. “What did I drink?” He asked, smacking his tongue.

“It’s a special mixture I got from Zecora a while back when Dash was in your situation.” Fluttershy let out a small giggle. “You’re actually lucky; Dash had to wait for the mixture to brew. Since then, I’ve always made sure to have some stored.”

Bright lowered his head and closed his eyes. “Rainbow Dash, you have my sympathy.”

Fluttershy let out a small giggle. “So do you have any plans for today Bright?” She asked.

Plans? Well for the last few days that he had been in Ponyville he hadn’t actually had a single plan. It seemed like the day would just give him something to do, whether he liked it or not. “Well, no. But considering that I don’t own a single bit, I guess looking for a job should be prioritized.”

“There’s a board in town just outside the mayor’s office where you should be able to find a job,” Fluttershy mentioned, trying to be as helpful as she could. “Do you have anything in mind?”

“No, I guess I’ll just check out the board and see if there’s anything that I’m good at.” He stopped to think for a moment. “This is one of the times where a cutie mark could be really nice to have!”

“Don’t worry Bright, I’m sure you will find your special talent soon,” Fluttershy said with a sad smile on her face.

“Yeah I guess.” Bright couldn’t help but think that there was something he was missing… Oh yeah! “Ehm, Fluttershy? You know… I wasn’t the only one drinking last night. Rainbow Dash did too…”

Fluttershy looked at Bright confused for mere fragments of a second, before jumping into the air. “Oh my! Hold on Rainbow Dash, I’m coming!” She exclaimed before flying out of the door.

Bright chuckled a bit while shaking his head. “Every day a new adventure I guess,” he said to himself, as he began his trip into Ponyville.

----Ponyville Bulletin Board----

A few hours later

“OK! A job as an assistant on Ponyville’s bee farm wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had!” Bright said as the last remaining bee flew out of his beard. ‘Oh my god, not the bees!’ He shuddered as he remembered those flying demons.

Not only didn’t the board have anything which sounded like something Bright could do in the slightest, but those that did was usually looking for-*he frowned*-'young' ponies. “Come on! I’m still full of energy! Not like some of those lazy whippersnappers nowa-“  His eyes widen. “By Luna… I AM old!”

No. His age would be the last thing that would stop his job-hunting. He needed a job. He couldn’t keep living off of Fluttershy’s kindness. He took another look at the board. “Isn’t there anything that I could do?”

His eyes fell (figuratively) on a small poster.

“Assistant needed. Must be willing to do various tasks.  Decent pay.” Bright’s smile grew as he read the next part. “Age and/or gender not important. Please contact 'Yorozuya' at Ponysquare 34, first floor.”

Bright (literarily) tore the poster down and galloped towards the address on the paper.

---Outside Yorozuya---

5 minutes later

Bright was nodding, or that’s at least what it looked like. In truth he was looking at two very interesting things. One was the Yorozuya, ‘What the buck does that even mean?’, and the other was the bar at the first floor of the address.

“The place is above The Tipsy Pegasus? How did I not see that place last night?” Bright wondered.  Even though he hadn’t exactly been looking for it last night, he should have been able to see the large sign just above the bar’s own sign.

’Yorozuya – House of 10.000 business.’ ”Well that didn’t make it any less cryptic!” He noticed a set of stairs on the side of the building and began ascending them. “Oh well, a job’s a job.”

When he made it to the door, he gave it a few knocks. A moment passed in silence. He knocked again; still nothing.

‘I wonder if he’s out?’ Bright thought to himself. After a few more second, Bright was just about to leave when he finally heard noises from inside. *crash**boom**screech**The Wilhelm yell* “…What in Luna’s name is going on in there?”

“The door is open,” he heard somepony yell from the inside. The noises, however, didn’t stop. With a nervous hoof, Bright opened the door.

Somepony had gotten killed… Or that’s at least what the entrance looked like. Garbage everywhere. Bright couldn’t help but think that the owner was related to Dash or something. Immediately to his right was a small kitchen, looking equally as terrible as the entrance.

Down a small hallway was a bigger room. In the middle stood a coffee table with a couch on both sides. At the end of the room was a desk with a spinny-chair, with a window overlooking a good part of Ponyville behind it. The rest of the room didn’t have anything interesting to share (the greedy bastard!), except what looked like a sword on a stand opposite the room of the desk. *Sling* ‘OK, what are those noises?’ Bright thought to himself.

“Oh come on! You cannot seriously say that I missed that one! I still have an extra life!” He heard somepony shout from the adjacent room. Before Bright could investigate, the door opened and a pony walked through it. The earth pony had a cyan coat and a very light, almost white, mane and tail. A soft-looking flame adored his flank as his cutie mark. He trotted to his desk and jumped into his spinny-chair, spinning twice for good measure, and began his well-rehearsed speech. “Yes hello, welcome to Yorozuya, what can I help you with?” Well-rehearsed didn’t necessarily mean he couldn’t have a very bored expression while making it…was he picking his nose?

“Hi, my name if Bright Eyes. I’m here for the job,” he said.

Immediately the earth pony’s eyes lit up. “Oh! Why… er, welcome!” He rushed (very slowly Bright added) around the desk and shook Bright’s hoof. ”Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gin Toki.”

The confusion in Brights face must have been very apparent, as Gin added, “I am Neighponese.” This resulting in Bright making an 'o' shape with his mouth. “Well with the job comes lodging if you want to-“

Bright interrupted him. “Wait! Lodging? For free?” Gin nodded. “There’s a ‘but’ in there somewhere, isn’t there?”

“No there is not Bright Eyes, and if you’re done wondering about conspiracies, come with me. We have got a job to do,” Gin said as he began walking towards the door.

Bright suddenly realized something. “Oh wait!” Gin stopped and looked back at Bright. “What… IS our job really?”

Gin seemed slightly confused for a second, before smiling wide. “Why, we are the amazing oddjobs! Come on Oji-San!”

Why did Bright feel like he was just called something he didn’t like being called?

----Town Square----

2 hours later

“These hard-hats are extremely uncomfortable,” Bright whined. Not just some big boy-whining, but proper lady-whining. To his defense, his hat wasn’t actually made with a unicorn in mind, but apparently the workers couldn’t find one for a unicorn of Bright’s size.

Gin groaned. “Oh stop your whining, Oji-san! You have been going on about that hat for an hour now!”

“I am not whining, I am…” Bright stopped for a second and though that one through. “OK yeah, I’m whining. But let me shove a horn on YOUR head and put this hat on you, and let’s see who’s whining!”

The workers, Sawdust and Ball-Peen, couldn’t help but laugh at the duo. Currently, Bright and Gin were helping them repair the roof of the newly built archive. Apparently it had burned down a few weeks ago, when one of the residents had been making muffins. How that had happened was an entirely different story however.

“Not to mention that you’ve been taking breaks every five minutes to drink that, what did you call it?” Bright looked at the small mountain of cartons. “Strawberry milk… Seriously, too many sweet things will only lead to diabetes!”

Gin frowned and began a true speech from the heart. “Now you listen up! Let us say you drink too much strawberry milk, and have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. But it is cold outside your bed. You do not want to get up, but the urge to urinate is just too strong! You make up your mind to go! You run to the bathroom, stand in front of the toilet, and let loose! You think that all your life has led to this moment!” he spoke with much enthusiasm. Bright raised an eyebrow, wondering where this was going.

Gin continued. “But then you realize! It is not the bathroom, you are still in bed! That feeling of lukewarm wetness spreads like wildfire! But you do not stop! You cannot stop! That’s what I am talking about! THAT IS THE TRUTH OF THE STRAWBERRY MILK! DO YOU GET IT!?”

Bright took a moment. “No… No I don’t. I haven’t the faintest clue what you’re talking about. Let’s just finish this roof for now, and you can tell me all about the wonders of this milk of yours later.”

“Oh, we’re already done.” Sawdust said from beneath them. Damn, grand speeches sure make the time fly by, doesn’t it?

Bright could finally take off the helmet of hurt. Oh the freedom! He flicked his ears a few times, a habit he had instead of simply scratching them. Gin did the same, not to copy Bright, but because it looked funny.

In retort, Bright flicked a few more times.

His opponent did too.

And we’ve got Bright giving a brilliant example of ear-flicking! No wonder he’s the undefeated champion around these parts! Sure looks to be a great match today Teddie!

Oh, but what’s this?! Gin has taken it up a notch. He’s doing his signature move: The hummingbird! Look at that flicking! What skill! What power! What utter amazingness are we witnessing today Bob?

Yeah, it seems like Bright Eyes might finally lose his champion-title toda- No wait! I can’t believe it! He’s doing it! The Punisher! It’s the Punisher! Bright is taking this to the extreme. He’s showing the crowd that he has no intention of losing today! This is what makes a champ! Power, speed and most of all: guts! Bright has it all, and he’s not afraid to show it! This is what I call a fight! Don’t you agree Ted?

I couldn’t agree more Bob. I think we might be seeing an end to this fight very soon. This display reminds me of this one time in Fillydelphia, where I had a chat with the pro ear-flicker called Ear Wiggle. He said that if you have to win a fight, you need to be brave. Look your enemy in the eye, and don’t look away. Show him your resolve and your guts. And for Celestia’s sake; flick those ears!

Well Ted, I believe I can honestly say that if he was here tonight, he would NOT be disappointed! He might have just joined in the fight!

Haha, he might just have Bob. He might just.

Bright was feeling great! He was winning this. ‘Winning?’ He was completely in the zone and the commentary was really helping. ‘Wait… Commentary?’ Bright stopped his flicking for a second to look to his right. Just a few meters from them stood Zephyr and Sar with silly grins on their faces just about to break into a fit of laughter.

A low laugh from Zephyr and a small flick from Gin made everypony laugh loudly at the situation. Soon the ear flicking started again, this time with two new contestants. The laughing was still going on and was at this point slowly turning into a very fake and overdramatic roar of laughter. Sar was doing the deep villain laugh and Gin was doing his best at an arrogant high-class pony laughter. Zephyr tried to do a Nightmare Moon-impression, yet failed as he didn’t possess the royal Canterlot voice. Bright himself settled for a female snob-laugh, complete with a hoof covering his mouth.

A few minutes went on with the guys doing numerous styles of laughter, complete with the flicking, before they were so rudely interrupted.

“Ehm guys? What are you doing?” A very confused Twilight Sparkle asked from the sidelines. Silence took place around the group. None of the guys answered. Bright put on his widest grin and tried a few flicks while looking at Twilight. Twilight said with a bemused expression, “No! That won’t work on me Bright. I have no interest in what you stallions are doing right now.”

“Awww come on Twilight, you have to loosen up a bit sometimes,” Zephyr said in a chipper tone. “Don’t be such a killjoy.”

“I don’t need to 'loosen up' Zeph, I am completely relaxed!”

“You’re not.”

“Are so.”

“Are not.”

“Are so.

“Are not.”

“Are so.”

“Are not.”

“Are so- Oh… You’re good Twilight…”

“So who needs to 'loosen up' now Zeph?” Twilight said with a smirk on her face.

“HI BRIGHTIE!” Pinkie. Out. Of. Freaking. Nowhere!  “No time to explain! Come with me, my people need me!”

Not fully comprehending how he had arrived at Sugar Cube Corner, Bright has standing in the kitchen wearing an apron. Bright’s mind was going into overdrive. 'Must. Not. Question. Pinkie’s. Logic...' (AN: I think I just killed a reader…)

“I need some help baking cupcakes!” Pinkie said in her usual happy-go-lucky tone.

“And why did you think I was the perfect choice to help you bake?”

“Why not?” She asked without her happy expression.

“Well first off…” And that’s where Bright had to stop. He didn’t have a good reason why he should, yet nor did he have a proper reason for not helping her… damn Pinkie-logic… “*sigh* Fine! So how do we do this?”

“Oh I have a song about that!” Bright cringed at this. Currently he was not in the mood for a song. "All you have to do is take a cup of flour, add it to the mix!~"

Bright looked around for an escape from the improv-musical performance. His gaze fell upon a few earplug-shaped cookies. His first though was 'Yes!'; the second, 'Wait, what the buck?!'; and the third, 'Ah, screw it!'.

Bright took the cookies and plugged them in. All he could see was Pinkie bouncing around the room and her mouth moving. ‘Ah… sweet blissful silence~’. After getting slightly more comfortable by the stove (not realizing that his tail had gotten a bit too close to the open fire), he simply settled for looking at Pinkie making cupcakes. Yeah, she didn’t really need his help. Her usual energy-levels were as always off the chart.

Pinkie suddenly came to a halt. She made a “gasp” motion with her mouth and began saying something. Not that Bright could figure out what it was though. ‘Time for some improv from me as well I guess’.

“Take it easy, Pinkie, I won’t let the cupcakes get burnt,” he said with a smile on his face. Pinkie tilted her head and began saying something again. “Relax Pinkie, I got this.”

It took approximately 4 seconds before Pinkie shrugged and went back to making more batter.

---3 minutes later---

‘Ahhh, the wonders of silence. I do hope that it wasn’t anything important that Pinkie was going on about…’ Bright opened his eyes and sniffed the air a bit. ‘How odd, the cupcakes are doing fine, but I’m still smelling smoke'.

Bright looked back at his tail which was currently burning. ‘Oh, I guess that explains that’. He sat down with a 'This-is-just- typical'-expression on his face. ‘It’s one of these days isn’t it? Oh well, guess I have to start screaming and running in circles now'.

And so he did.

---Elsewhere---

“How goes the plan?”

“He has successfully found his way to Ponyville and is currently residing there. It doesn’t seem like he has any suspicions.”

“Good. In that case, prepare for stage 2 of the plan.”

“As a matter of fact my lord, it seems like he has already infiltrated the elements.”

“Is that so?” He let out a deep chuckle. “It seems like my plan is proceeding easier than I expected it to do.”

“If I may my lord,” he said hesitantly. “It seems like something is bugging you.”

“Hehe, I honestly expected a bit more resistance.” He turned to look at a chess plate with various figures on it. “At this rate the game will be over way too soon.”

He used his magic to move a white piece towards a group of six other figures. He looked at a slightly bigger, white piece.

“Your move, Princess…”

This damn chapter... Wow. I took my sweet time writing it, which meant that I had to write it over several times (thereby the quality's a bit up and down in places). Both mine and my editor's internet connection have been wonky, which led to some confusion. And don't get me stated on exams. This is the reasons that this chapter was quite late. Sorry about that.

Hopefully, at least someone will know who Gin Toki is based off on :raritywink:

And hope I didn't give anyone mental whiplashes with the whole "suddenly at Sugarcube Corner" thing... I might have killed Kiroberos though...

References:Name's Ellis

Special thanks to my editor Kiroberos

Chapter 7: Of insomnia, radio dramas, foalsitting and that weird feeling you get when your blood-flow is blocked for a while.

Chapter 7: Of insomnia, radio dramas, foalsitting and that weird feeling you get when your blood-flow is blocked for a while.

(Aka 'What the hell took you so long?!')

(Aka 'The big Cameo chapter!')

It was a quiet night, as they usually were in the home of our friends. In his bed, Gin slept peacefully and quiet, awaiting a new day. Bright was relaxed, sleeping peacefully as we- “I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep at all. Can’t sleep a wink. ” His bloodshot eyes opened wide. “The harder I try to fall asleep, the more awake I feel. I don’t feel like sleeping at all.”

Once more Bright found himself unable to sleep. It didn’t happen all that often, but it had already become apparent to him that there were two kinds of insomniacs: The ones that just didn’t want to sleep and thes one that wouldn’t want anything else. At the moment, Bright was the latter.

Sadly, Bright that didn’t get his sleep wasn’t… pleasant. And Gin Toki was the one that was gonna pay the price. Bright got up and walked out of his room and across the living room/office, to Gin’s bedroom. He knocked on the door.

“…*yawn* What?” He heard from inside. He cracked open the door and looked at Gin, who lay in his bed with a look of a dead colt’s eyes.

“I can’t sleep.”

“Oh, really… Do not stay up too late. Tomorrow is a day off, but sleep helps the child grow…” Gin laid his head back onto the pillow. Bright knocked the door again to gain attention. *knock**knock**knock* “What is it?”

“I can’t sleep.”

“You already said that. If you cannot fall asleep, stay up until you are sleepy. You are so annoying…” *knock**knock**knock* “Let me sleep, okay?”

“I can’t sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep!” He whined as he began shaking Gin’s bed.

“HEY! What are you doing?!” Gin sat up with an irritated look on his face.

Bright got close to Gin’s face. “I can’t sleep a wink at all.”

“Like I care! Stop bugging me!” he shouted in Bright’s face, extremely annoyed at Bright’s childish behavior.

“I can’t sleep… Put me to sleep,” he said, still in a trance-like state, earning a ‘huh?’ from Gin. “Use everything in your power to put me to sleep.”

“JUST GO TO SLEEP BY YOURSELF! IS THAT HOW YOU ASK SOMEPONY FOR A FAVOR?! Man… I cannot put up with this…” he said as he lay down his head yet again, trying to get a little sleep.

…Bright just got disturbingly quiet, didn’t he?

“That bed looks more comfortable to sleep on. Switch with me. I’m gonna sleep there. You sleep on the floor,” Bright said with his short sentences.

“What do you mean? Our beds are the exact same model, size and-“

“Whatever, just get out.” Gin got rolled out of the bed and Bright lay down on it. “Ah, I think I can fall asleep like this. This bed might put me to sleep.”

“Never wake up again, Ossan!” Gin mumbled; his backside still turned from the bed. He got the spare futon from the closet, a last resort in case his bed would break again…

Ponies had learned not to ask.

Only answer they got? ‘Nothing sexual’.

“What is with this? I had managed to fall asleep. I do not want to sleep on a cold mattress.” he grumbled as he lay on the futon, trying to get a few hours of sleep.

2 minutes later

“I can’t sleep,” Bright said as he sat up.

“SO NOTHING CHANGED?!” Gin yelled as he got in a similar position.

“This is no use. I don’t feel sleepy at all. I can’t fall asleep ‘cause the pillow smells like old man.”

“Who are you calling ‘old’, Oji-san? And remember; it was you who wanted to switch with me in the first place.”

“That mattress looks more comfortable to sleep on. Switch with me.”

“This will never end!” Gin rested his head on the pillow again, this time refusing to give up his sleeping arrangement. Bright did the same.

Bright Eyes began talking, seeing as sleep was eluding him. “I can’t fall asleep so I’ve been thinking of ways to fall asleep.  And now, I’m no longer sure how I used to fall asleep. I’ve forgotten how to fall asleep. How do I fall asleep? How do I make my way into slumberland?”

Gin was just barely keeping in his frustrations at this point. “Start by shutting up. Then close your eyes and stay still. You will eventually fall asleep.”

“But Gin, when you stop and think about it; what is sleep? When we close our eyes, we’re just shutting our eyelids.  Our eyeballs are still darting around. It’s completely dark, but that’s because we’re looking at the inside of our eyelids. It doesn’t mean that we’re asleep. To prove it, if you close your eyes during the day, it’s completely red. What do I do with my eyeballs if I want to fall asleep? Should I just stare at the inside of my eyelids? Or should I look up? What do I do to-“

“CUT IT OUT!” Gin jumped up from his futon with a look of desperation in his eyes. “Now I cannot fall asleep! What are you going to do about this?! Now you have got me thinking about it, I cannot fall asleep either. Did I look up? Did I look down? I do not know what to do with my eyeballs!” He started pacing back and forth, while shaking his head.

“And do we breathe with our mouths when we sleep? Or with our noses? Or do we breathe in through our mouths and out through our noses? Or do we breathe in through our noses and out through our mouths?”

“Cut it out!” He put his hooves on his head, trying to control his breathing, meanwhile.

“Should I cross my forelegs? Should I leave them at my sides? Outside the covers? Inside the covers? How should the pillow be placed? Face-up? Face-down?

“Cut it out.” Gin was, at this point, sobbing.

“Where do we come from? Where are we going? What’s beyond the edge of the universe? Why don’t fanfic-writers make lots of money?”

“Cut it out!” Gin lay down on the floor, hooves covering his eyes. “I cannot sleep! I do not feel like sleeping at all! Was it this hard to fall asleep?! Did we go through this ordeal every night?!”

“What is sleep again?”

Gin got up and pointed an accusing hoof at the older stallion. “Shut up! You will never fall asleep if you make everything so complicated! How much of a failure are you?!”

“I feel more and more awake. What do I do? At this rate, I’ll never fall asleep for the rest of my life.”

Gin finally gave in and dropped onto his futon. “Give me a break.  I am tired and I want to sleep. It is 2:30 in the morning. I do not want to sleep in too late.”

…

“Can I turn on the radio until I get tired?” Bright asked.

“*sigh*Sure, just do not turn it up too loud.”

Bright reached out for the radio at the bedside table, turning it on. The uplifting voices of the two usual hosts, White Noise and Grey Byte, came out of the speakers. One could never turn on the radio and not hear those two, but no one complained, they were doing a great job at it. It almost made you wonder when those two were actually sleeping…

The static emanating from the radio's speakers slowly faded into the sound of a deep yet comical sounding voice.  ”-so I told him, ’then you shouldn’t have swam in it!’ His reaction was priceless.” The voice of Grey Byte spoke through the small bit of interference on the radio speakers.

A laugh was heard from his co-host, White Noise. “Dude, that’s disgusting!" he declared.

A responsive chuckle was heard from Grey. “Hey, it was funny at the time, man,” he reasoned.

“So you say, but enough of that! It’s time!”

“It’s time?” Grey said in an overly dramatic voice, somewhat resembling that of a dramatic movie trailer overdub.

“It’s time. Would you mind telling the listeners what time it is?”

“Of course, White! It’s ‘Dramatic Reading with White Noise and Grey Byte Time’! Yes, and today we’ve got a sad story to read for you all,” he announced excitedly.

The background music as well as a good portion of the static faded and the host’s voices became soft. “It all started with a little filly called Kind Heart-“ White began.

For the next 10 minutes, the radio-hosts read aloud the sweetest of stories about Kind Heart and her dog, Merry. Near the end of the story, Merry was dying and Kind Heart was by its side, crying her eyes out.

'Her father came to her. “Don’t worry, little Kind Heart; Merry will always be with you. No matter what.”

Kind Heart looked up at her father’s face and asked between her sobs, “Whatever do you mean daddy? Where’s Merry?”

Her father put a hoof on her shoulder *and suddenly his head turned into THE FACE OF THE DEAD ZOMBIE-DOG MERRY IT’S JAWS SINKING INTO THE SOFT FLESH OF KIND HE-“***

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Gin jumped up from his futon and bucked the radio out of existence. “Who makes such a sweet and sad story into a horror filled mess of a narrative in an instant?! What is the matter with people? Are you hearing this Bri-“ Gin looked at the now sleeping Bright Eyes.

“Huh… At least something good came of it. Maybe I can get some sleep as well now.” Gin said to himself. He couldn’t help but feel a presence behind him. He turned around, and for a second he swore he could see a pair of red glowing eyes in the darkness. “Eh he he he he he he, it is just my imagination… It is just your head messing with you Gin Toki…” He sat still for a few minutes. Then he began poking Bright and whispered. “Bright… Oi… Bright Eyes… Do not leave me here alone… Wake up… Oji-san… Oi~”

It was the longest night in Gin’s life.

---Living room/office---

The next morning

It was a normal morning in the Yorozuya-household. Or as normal it could be with Gin scowling at Bright every chance he had. Bright, for his part, had no memory of last night’s endeavor, and simply assumed from the bags under Gin’s eyes, that Gin had trouble sleeping for whatever reason.

At the moment, Bright was enjoying the silence. Gin was reading his comics (a very normal thing for him), the sky outside was clear and Bright Eyes calmly sipped his coffee, sitting in the spinny chair, looking out the window.

He let out a small sigh of relaxation. The weather was nice. Not loud noises to shatter the tranquility. He was well rested and felt like he was atop of the world.

Something is gonna go horribly wrong today, isn’t it?

Not 5 seconds after Bright’s doomsday anticipations, there sounded a frantic knocking on the front door.

Called it.

“I will get it,” Gin said in a tired voice. He disappeared out into the hallway, and opened the door. Faintly, Bright could hear the voice of Twilight Sparkle. “Oh thank Celestia you’re here Gi-“ Bright heard the door being slammed. A few moments later, a frazzled Gin Toki came into the living room again and said in a high-pitched voice, “It is for you.” And gestured towards the hallway.

Wondering what in Luna’s name was going on, Bright got up and went for the door. He opened it and found himself looking at a frantic (and slightly confused) Twilight, standing with a small cyan foal with a rainbow colored ma-

“Oh, Bright! You gotta he-“ *SLAM*

…Nah. There’s no way it could be her. He opened the door again. The foal had magenta eyes- *SLAM* IT IS!

He opened and closed the door a few extra times for good measure, each time rewarded with the sight of a gradually more annoyed Twilight. Finally, it seemed like the mare had had enough, and held the door open with her magic, preventing Bright from closing it.

“Bright, now is not the time for joking around!”

“Whatever are you taking about Twilight? If that foal is who I think it is, it’s a perfect time for jokes! Here’s one: Why’d the chicken cross the road?” He began breathing faster, not able to understand the situation he found himself in. Why’s she a foal? What’s Twilight doing here? Oh no… what if that’s her foal? Why is Twilight here? What if the foal’s mi- Bright stopped himself right there. No, that didn’t make any sense. Perhaps an explanation would be in order? As a matter of fact, Twilight seemed to be talking right now.

How convenient.

…What did she say?

“…and then Trixie suddenly arrived…”

Dammit Bright! Stop thinking and listen to the explanation!

“…Rainbow Dash flew towards…”

You can’t tell me what to do!

“…but Trixie ran off before…

Why am I arguing with myself? Wait… it seems like she’s done… Oh great, I didn’t hear any of that.

“So, will you?”

What do they say about mares? ‘Tartarus has no fury like a mare scorned’? Yeah. How do you avoid instant death by Twilight? By saying what she wants to hear of course!

“Sure I will Twilight, you’re my bestest of best friends!” Bright said with a smile, a little too big to be genuine.

Twilight corked an eyebrow at him, but disregarded the edgy smile. “OK, then… It will just be until we’ve caught Trixie and made her spill the beans about the age-reversal spell. We should be back around the evening.” She ran off without another word, though leaving a little thing back in front of the still smiling stallion.

And this was what led Bright Eyes to be standing at his front door threshold, staring at the Pumpkin/Pound Cake-aged version of one of his friends, sucking her hoof.

“…Hello Rainbow Dash. How’s life?”

5 minutes later

”YOU DID WHAT?!” Gin roared, effectively making the floor shake a little.

Bright rubbed his ear a bit, trying to stop the ringing in them before answering. “Listen, I couldn’t just let a foal, Rainbow for that matter, stay outside, now could I?” He shot a glare at the frowning earth pony. “Besides, it’s just until tonight. We should be able to foalsit for a few hours, right?”

Gin let out a sigh before finally agreeing. “OK, yeah. You are right. It should not be that hard to take care of one little- Where did she go?!”

Bright looked over at Rainbow… or, the couch that used to house the foal. Buck. Me. He looked around the room. No trace of her, wait… A quiet sound of flapping wings caught Bright’s ears and he looked up. Aha!

Before he could reach out and grab her, Rainbow made a mad dash (pun not intended) for the opposite end of the room. Bright walked over, resulting in Dash flying to the other side of the room.

The motion repeated a few times, Bright going faster and faster in his attempt of catching the foal.

A series of knocks came from the door. Bright didn’t notice and was otherwise pre-occupied. Gin answered the door. “G’Morning Gin, I heard some commotion. Is everything OK up here?”

Not intimidated by his scary-looking landlord/friend, Gin took the casual approach. “Oh please, for the love every noodle I have ever made, help us Sartarus!” He all but kissed the big pegasus’s hooves.

If Sar was surprised by Gin behavior, he didn’t show it and began walking into the apartment with a determined expression. “It never gets boring with you guys around, does it? OK, let’s see what you have here, it can’t be that bad.”

30 seconds later

“Fan him quicker Gin!” Bright shouted from the bedroom. “I’ve almost got her!”

Gin Toki was fanning Sar to provide a small amount of fresh air. Good thing he had brought a few items, the fan included, from back home. Home…

Sar may have had a strong air around him when he entered, but it didn’t take him more than 3 seconds of seeing Rainbow Dash as a foal, flying around the room, Bright close behind her, before fainting.

Slowly, Sar’s eyes opened. “What happened? I had the weirdest dream. Bright Eyes was chasing after Rainbow Dash. But Dash wasn’t-“ His eyes shot open when he saw Bright in front of him, holding a foal. His only answer to this situation was an incomprehensible series of sounds that could, universally, only be described as the ponified version of John Scatman.

Gin began slapping the broken stallion. “Get to your senses man! We have got big problems!”

“Uh-wha-OK! Ahem, yes I’m back.” He looked back at Bright and the struggling foal. “Do I want to know?”

“I couldn’t tell you even if you would.” Bright said with a deadpanned expression. He didn’t even notice Dash starting to flap her wings again. It was then that Bright Eyes found out that he really didn’t like flying around attached to a foal.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” He cried as Dash flew around the room with him holding on tight. Making a sharp turn in front of the bathroom door, Dash went for the kitchen… Bright Eyes didn’t.

Unable to hold onto the foal any longer, he went straight into the bathroom. A loud racket sounded from the room.

“Are you OK in there Bright?” Gin asked from the opening to the kitchen, trying to keep Dash contained in the room. Bright came out of the bathroom covered in bandages and gaze. He had landed under the medical cabinet, making lots of equipment fall onto him.

“I feel defeated, yet strangely rejuvenated!” He shook his head, trying to get some of the gaze out of his eyes, not bothering getting the medical gear off of himself.

Gin hadn’t had much luck in the kitchen either. Dash had dropped a bag of flour on him, when she flew past him giggling all the way, making his coat the same color as his mane. “..You look ridiculous Bright.”

“You’re one to talk flour-head.”

Gin raised an eyebrow. “Really? ‘Flour-head’? Is that the best you can come up with?”

Bright scowled a bit, before taking assessments of the situation. Currently Sar had backed Dash into a corner. Sar was just about to lunge at her, when the door opened and Zephyr stood in the door-opening. “Hey guys, what’s going on?” He shouted through the apartment merrily.

A small smirk appeared on Rainbow’s face and she ran through Sar’s legs as he was distracted by the new arrival. When she got behind him, she reared up and did the hardest buck she could… Right in the ‘Please-don’t-hit-this-area-on-boys’-place on Sar, making him fall over for the second time in a few minutes.

Rainbow made a mad dash towards the front door. Bright saw it coming and shouted to Zeph. “Catch her! Don’t let her get outside!” Apparently Zephyr had seen his share of crazy shit and didn’t question the current situation, and got in position.

Just as Rainbow was about to fly through the door, Zephyr got in her way and grabbed her. “Ha! Got ya!” He yelled triumphantly. Bright let out a small sigh of relief. Finally she was caught… Wait… Oh no.

“Ehm, Zeph?” Bright asked.

“Yes?”

“You knew Rainbow Dash when she was small, right?” Zephyr nodded. “You remember how she was always a strong flyer, correct?” Zephyr nodded again, and a look of realization flashed over his face when he heard the sound of flapping wings.

---Café Chill Mists, down the road---

It had been quite the day for Midnight Raider. Going all the way from Canterlot to Ponyville to check up on his store, had taken a few hours more than he had thought it would. Not to mention that he had been up way too early for his taste didn’t help either. Heck, if it hadn’t been for his roommate Trail Blazer, who had been kind enough to accompany him on the trip, he wouldn’t even have gotten up this morning.

At the moment they were sitting at a café, enjoying a light meal.

“You know what Blazer? I’m sad we don’t live in Ponyville.”

Trail Blazer didn’t look up from his book, but answered anyways. “Oh, why not though? I thought you loved the city life?”

Raider shrugged. “Well yeah, but it’s always so busy. No one is enjoying the peace and quiet like they do here. Just… listen.” He put his hoof to ear, trying to listen. “That’s the sound of silence. You wouldn’t find that in Canterlot.”

A tan pegasus soared by screaming, while holding onto a foal.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

A few seconds later an old unicorn, levitating a butterfly-net at his side ran by.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Just behind him, a white earth pony came running with a rope in his mouth.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

And finally, a bit behind them, came a humping pegasus, clutching his crotch.

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“…You know what Blazer?”

Trail Blazer finally looked up from his book. “Hm?”

“I’m glad we live in Canterlot. I wouldn’t be able to keep up with things here in Ponyville…”

---Drift’s Soda Stream, even further down the road---

Drift Whitemane, proud owner of the best soda bar in Ponyville, loved his shop. It was successful, clean and orderly. Everything he loved. Today was a slow day all things considered. Sure it wasn’t’ all that late yet and he honestly didn’t expect too many customers before noon. Though, that brown earth pony with the goatee was here. If he had to name a loyal customer, it’d be him.

Seeing as he had run out of ice at the store-front, he retreated out back to gather more, leaving the single customer alone.

The stallion outside the café was deeply concentrated in the newspaper in front of him. So concentrated that he didn’t notice the pegasus that hit every single table in the courtyard, effectively making them fall over, and finally just barely hitting his glass, making it tip over, spilling his soda, and then disappear as fast as it got there.

After a moment, he reached out for his soda, not looking up from his paper. He fumbled a bit, searching for it. Finally he felt something wet on the table. He looked over and saw the table soaked in soda. He could feel tears in his eyes. He loved his soda.

“Ye Gods and Goddesses, why does this always happen to me?” Omnius whimpered to himself.

Drift dropped the ice on the ground when he saw the battlefield that had been his café.

We leave this scene with the image of two sobbing stallions.

---End of the road---

Zephyr was heavily weighing the pros and cons of holding onto Rainbow Dash any longer. At this moment, his screaming was purely instinct, not that he was really scared… much.

It’s not really worth it… he thought and let go, flying into the alleyway in front of him. His yell slowly became stifled as his face drew down in the road.

AAAAAAAAAAAAA[size=9]A[/size][size=8]A[/size][size=7]A[/size][size=7]A[/size][size=7]A[/size][size=7]A[/size]

Zephyr lay down for a second, thinking about his life. It was such times, where he literally ate the dust (which, when he thought about it, was a regular thing for him by now) that he found time for thinking. Not only had he no idea of how Rainbow was a foal again, or why this had resulted in him lying face-down in the dirt way down the road, and finally, why that gray, 30 pound cat with no tail, was looking at him like that. He squinted at the nametag on the collar.

“Hi, ehm… ‘Mister’.” He whispered. The cat hissed, making Zephyr gulp. “Hehe, nice kitty, sweet kitty. Say was your father perhaps a lynx? Wild cat, or something? Damn you’re big…” The cat seemed to smirk and drew its claws.

“…Buck my life with a rusted spoon.”

Later that day

Twilight Sparkle was making her way to Gin and Bright’s apartment. The chase for Trixie had been pretty exhausting and taken them all the way to Canterlot. Thankfully, when Trixie heard what had happened after she ran off, she was quick to help with a solution (after a massive amount of boasting of course), and the only thing remaining was picking up Rainbow from the guys.

I hope everything went well. I figure Rainbow might have been a hoof full to foal-sit. She shook her head giggling a little. Nah, nothing could have happened. We were only gone for a few hours and surely the guys are able to look after *one** foal for that time.* She walked up the outside stairs leading to the apartment. She knocked a few times and heard somepony shout that the door was open.

When she opened she had to muster up all of her willpower to not let her jaw drop to the floor.

In the living room was Gin, white as snow, cleaning a well-scratched Zephyr with alcohol. Sartarus was currently sitting in a bucket filled with ice (oddly enough letting a small amount of steam coming up from it). And finally Bright Eyes was sitting in the couch, medical gaze covering most of him, with a sleeping Rainbow Dash.

She let out a single quiet giggle.

If looks could kill, Ponyville would be the host for Twilight Sparkle’s funeral.

She promptly shut up.

“As much as I’d love to hear the story about all of this,” Twilight made a vague gesture to the guys. “I think I should get Rainbow to the library. I’ve set up the equipment to undo the spell there.”

Bright got up without a word and handed Twilight the foal. She nodded in appreciation and turned to leave. Just as she was about to go, she stopped, having remembered something important.

“Oh that reminds me.” She turned to Bright. “Do you mind if I could take a look at your necklace Bright Eyes? I may be able to find something on it, maybe give us a clue to your identity.”

Again, without a word, Bright Eyes took of his necklace and handed it to the mare. She walked to the door, Bright following her out. When she was gone, he walked back into the living room and sat down on the couch.

A few minutes of silence filled the room.

And everypony let out a sigh of relief.

“Some days it’s just not worth it to get out of bed.” Zephyr exclaimed before wincing at the alcohol on the scratches.

---Gin’s bedroom---

1am in the morning

Gin opened his eyes for the umpteenth time that night. Bright’s words still floated around in his head. How did he usually fall asleep? Did he look up? Did he sleep with his forelegs outside or inside the blanket? He let out a quiet groan.

“And now I have to go to the toilet as well, of course! I am never going to get any sleep, am I?” He said to himself. He moved to throw off his blanket, but found himself unable to do so.

“What the…” He tried to move his limbs, but nothing responded. “It seems that my body is disagreeing with my mind and has gone to sleep by itself.”

Never mind, he could probably hold out till tomorrow morning… the pressure in his bladder seemed to increase as if mocking him. “No… I can’t... I should not have drunk that much strawberry milk before bed time!”

“Bright… oi~ *Tasuke~”

*Ossan: ‘Old man’, generally used as an insult or less formal.

*Oji-san: ‘Old man’, a honorific used for elderly men.

*Tasuke: ‘Help’

So, you may be asking me 'What the hell took you so long?' And I COULD mention all the things that took most of my time in the last few weeks, but I'd need to make the chapter twice as long if I did that, so I won't.

There's no real reference in this chapter, but a lot of cameos to make up for it!

And I tried to get my 'Tick, Tick, Tick, Crack' in there as well, but I couldn't make it fit all that well, so I scrapped it.

Cameos:

Midnight Raider - RaiderRy4n

Trail Blazer - inoeitall

Omnius - Nathan Traveler

Drift Whitemane - Gyrofest96

White Noise - White Noise

Grey Byte - Grey Byte

Special thanks to my editor Kiroberos and everyone who pre-read this.

April Fool's Chapter

April Fools!

You seriously didn't expect me not to do this, right? :pinkiehappy:

"April 1. This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four." ~ Mark Twain

New chapter tomorrow! At least, that's when I finish writing it, but then it have to go through my editor, so... yeah...

Glassed~