Chapters Chapter one: A stranger in the Dark
Chapter One
A Stranger In The Dark
The sun was setting, and Aura busily scuttled around his flat.
“Oh hello Aura, it’s funny, i was just heading up to your apartment. If I remember correctly you still haven’t paid your rent.” he said with a smug smile on his face.
“I bucking hope so, you better pay me at the end of this week” the landlord said. His voice getting a little impatient.
“Yeah, sure” Aura said with a tired look on his face as he pushed his way past the landlord. The landlord only snorted as he turned to follow Aura out the door, and then went their separate ways.
“Buckhead” Aura muttered under his breath.
Aura headed towards the pub, where he was supposed to play a gig for a rather large sum of bits. Something with the pony who was supposed to play tonight had called in sick, and thus Aura was paid a bit more to play at this gig on such short notice.
As Aura walked down the street he quickly became distracted by the stars that had started to dot the sky. Aura loved the night sky; it was always so quiet and beautiful.
Aura passed a few blocks before he arrived at the pub, it was starting to get a bit cold outside and Aura could feel it.
Aura continued straight towards the stage to get ready to perform.
There was a voice on the speakers, the show was about to start. “Fillies and gentlecolts, please welcome the band of the evening, Neighvana” a few ponies in the crowd stomped lightly as the curtains drew and we started to play.
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All the meanwhile, a mysterious pony sat in the furthest darkest corner of the pub, gulping down yet another glass of whiskey without a care in the world, lost in his own thoughts.
That is, until he noticed the music that had suddenly started playing. There was something about it that caught his interest, but he couldn’t exactly tell what it was, the lyrics were nice, but that wasn’t it, “bass?” He muttered under his breath, listening closer to it, to come up with the conclusion that, that wasn’t it either. “GUITAR!” He almost yelled out loud in his drunken fit, but kept it to a minimum.
The mysterious pony hadn’t heard a guitarist like this ever before. “Who is this pony!?”
What puzzled the mysterious pony the most is how he was even able to notice the music in the noise of the crowd and drunken ponies in the pub.
“I must meet this pony!” The mysterious pony thought to himself. But the noise around him was getting so loud, that he could hardly hear himself think, or the music for that matter. It was like the ponies in the pub didn’t even pay any attention to the music at all. The mysterious pony was quite frankly annoyed at the fact that they were so ignorant of everything else but their cheap drinks and gossip.
The mysterious pony decided to show the crowd a bit of what was actually happening around them, so he attempted to turn the speakers up with his magic, but in return the crowd only got louder, so he turned it up another notch, and again the crowd got louder. As a last resort the mysterious pony tried to amplify the sound itself that the speakers were blasting. And it most definitely got amplified. *Fwoosh* “oops” suddenly the speakers were on fire.
The ponies around the bar quickly started screaming and running out of the pub, and the barcolt rushed to the stage with a fire extinguisher to put out the fires on the speakers.
Once the fire was extinguished, the barcolt stepped outside, to inform them that everything was now under control and they could come inside again however there would be no more music, as there were no more speakers.
The ponies started streaming back inside the pub again. Most of them only concerned about their drinks. Aura, who was visibly annoyed at the sudden turn of events. Packed up and left the stage. As he sat down at the bar, the barcolt walked up to him and handed him a small pouch of bits, which he then proceeded to spent at the bar. The night went on, still without a care in the world, but drinks.
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Aura sat at the bar slowly sipping at his beer, while he counted the bits he had made this evening. It wasn’t the exact amount he was promised, but the barcolt had to take some bits of the pay to be able to afford the repair of the stage and a new pair of speakers. Aura didn’t mind, it was still enough to pay the landlord, make it through the month and still have some spending money.
The mysterious pony was no longer sitting in the corner. He had decided to go up and apologize to the guitarist, eventually the other band members, maybe.
Once he reached Aura he tapped him lightly on the shoulder, and took a seat next to him, almost tipping over on the barstool. “Whoopsie there” the mysterious pony said.
“Hello there.. *hic*... What’s your name?” the mysterious pony said.
“It’s impolite to ask for somepony’s name without introducing yourself first” Aura said as he took another sip of his beer, not even looking at the mysterious pony.
“Oh yeah, my name is... *hic*... Soundflux” Soundflux said to Aura.
“Hmm yeah, nice to meet you” Aura said, obviously not interested in the unicorn.
“Name?” Soundflux said.
“What?”
“Your name, what is it? I’ve given you mine, now what’s... *hic*... yours?”
“I guess it’s only fair, name’s Aura. Now, did you want anything?”
“Yes *hic*... Lemme just, BARTENDER! Two glasses of whiskey please!”
“I don’t drink whiskey..” Aura said.
“Oh, that’s not for you. Would you like another beer?”
Aura looked at his almost empty beer bottle, and thought “why not” and gulped down the last bit of his beer.
“Sure, but you’re paying”
“Haha of course, i offered. BARTENDER! Bring him a beer on my tab!” Soundflux said while pointing at Aura.
“Could you stop yelling, everypony is looking at you.” Aura said
“Oh yeah, oops.”
The bartender came around with 2 glasses of whiskey for Soundflux and a beer for Aura.
“Yes, okay back on topic please, you wanted what exactly?” Aura said with a slightly friendlier look on his face than before.
“Oh yes, I noticed you playing up there earlier, though it seemed no one else did, I came here to ap...” Soundflux was cut off by Aura before he got to the apology at hoof.
“Yeah, I know, I’m awesome.” Aura said with a smug smile.
“No no, I mean the speakers, I...” Soundflux was cut off again.
“Yes, that totally “blowed”, get it?” Aura said, laughing a bit at his own horribly bad pun.
Soundflux sat for a moment trying to make it sink in... “Nope, not getting it”
“Okay, That drunk...” Aura thought to himself. “Just how much have you had?” He asked Soundflux.
“Oh, eh” Soundflux started to get a determined look on his face while he held a hoof to his chin, seriously thinking about it.
“Yeah, okay whatever, never mind I asked. Anyways, they said it was a technical problem that caused an overheating in the speakers, which made them blow up and catch on fire. But good thing it wasn’t sabotage, I mean, really! I would’ve bucked the feathers out of whoever did it!”
“Yes technical error! Eheheh sabotage... that’s stupid c’mon! Who would do that...” Soundflux said sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head. “Hide the guilt, hide the guilt.” he thought to himself.
“What?” Aura said with a puzzled look on his face as he turned to look at Soundflux, who was doing a bad job at looking innocent.
“Nothin’, I just... *hic*... you know, sabotage, that would be stupid.” Soundflux said, doing his best to be convincing. Ending his sentence with gulping down a glass of whiskey.
“Yeah, whatever. I think I best head home now anyways” Aura said, getting off his barstool, heading for the door.
“Oi! Wait for me!” Soundflux said, considering giving his last glass of whiskey to the pony next to him, but quickly got to his drunken senses and gulped that glass down as well. Swaying towards the door, he left a small bag of bits on a nearby table, he whistled for the bartender’s attention, while pointing at the bag, and then proceeded to catch up with Aura.
“So Aura! How far is it to your house?” Soundflux said while catching up to walk next to Aura.
“What do you mean how far, do you think you are coming with me? And I don’t live in a house, I live in a flat, a small one, definitely not space enough for two ponies anyway! Beside that I hardly even know you”
“Aaw c’mon! It could be fun!”
“No it couldn’t..”
There was a *thud* before Aura got any further in his sentence, Soundflux had tripped and fallen head first into the pavement, face grounding, and was knocked out by the impact.
“Oh no you don’t! Wake up!” Aura said with an annoyed yet worried expression on his face, while he tried to wake up the drunken pony who was lying on the pavement.
Aura sighed as he couldn’t get Soundflux back to consciousness, “OH BUCK ME!” he thought, “well I can’t just leave him here” Aura looked around to see if there was somewhere he could put him, like a dumpster or something. “You’re not giving me a choice here, are you?” Aura said as he lifted Soundflux into the air with his magic.
Chapter two: The Hangover
Chapter two
The Hangover
Aura sat in the VIP section of the finest club in all of Canterlot, wearing a tuxedo jacket with pockets overflowing with bits. Aura sat there drinking the best beer money could buy, and surrounded by beautiful mares. He was enjoying life for once.
A barmare came up to Aura with a new beer, and asked him “do you want pancakes with that?”
“wait, what?” Aura said, confused by the random question.
Suddenly the barmare was on fire, and the club was filled with the smell of burned pancakes and Aura looked around, bewildered by the change of environment.
“Whoah! WAH! wubba hold your horse shoes a second there!” Aura said. Startled out of his dream. “WHAT is going on!? Why is there smoke everywhere?”
*Crash* “Whoops that not supposed to happen.” A voice said from the kitchen.
Aura had never gotten out of bed that fast, as he galloped straight towards the kitchen of his small flat screaming “WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE...” *smack* just as Aura reached the kitchen, a door had suddenly appeared.
Aura woke up in his armchair in his living room, “oh it was all just a dream” Aura said, with a calm expression on his face. Until.
“Oh, you’re awake!” Soundflux said, his head popping out behind the same door that had knocked Aura out. “I made pancakes!”
Aura’s left eye twitched as he glared at the white unicorn that was now handing Aura a plate of burned pancakes.
“I’m still a bit hungover from last night so my focus was a bit off, so some of them got burned” Soundflux said with a smile on his stupid face. “And so was my balance, so i accidentally bumped into the door, shutting it as you ran into it, with your face, which by the way is a weird way to start the day.” To Aura’s surprise, Soundflux’s face, had just gotten a whole lot stupider than he could imagine.
“What are you doing Aura?” Soundflux said as Aura got up from his armchair, not taking his glare of Soundflux.
“COME HERE YOU LITTLE!”
“I’m taller than you” Soundflux said a little confused.
“AAARRGGGHH” Aura screamed as he charged for Soundflux.
Soundflux scuttled around the living room in a steady pace, Aura in his heels, but not quite able to catch up with him, as Soundflux’s legs were longer. After a good 10 minutes chase through the apartment, Aura had to stop to catch his breath.
“You’re not really good at this, are you?” Soundflux said, a bored expression on his face.
“What do you mean?”
“If we’re playing tag, aren’t you supposed to actually, tag me?”
As soon as Soundflux had finished his sentence, Aura picked up a book with his magick and smacked Soundflux on the back of his head.
“Auch! what’d you do that for!?” Soundflux said.
“Tag, I got you”
“That’s not how it works, that’s cheating” Soundflux claimed.
“Yeah well, so is not having a hangover, after drinking Celestia knows how much you had last night, AND ruining my morning! How did you manage to burn the pancakes this much?... Really?” Aura said as he lifted a pancake into the air, that looked like a piece of charcoal.
“I got distracted”
“EVERYTIME?”
“No!... Yeah...”
Aura launched the pancake towards Soundflux at deadly speeds. Soundflux barely dodge it as it flew straight past his head and onto the wall, where it was stuck. Aura kept bombarding Soundflux with pancakes, but he managed to dodge every single pancake. As Aura got ready to throw his last pancake, Soundflux was caught in a corner. Aura walked slowly with a murderous smile on his face as he hovered the pancake into firing position, Soundflux was stuck in a corner while a crazy unicorn approached him with killer pancakes. Without warning Aura launched the pancake.
“Bwah? How? What? Huh? You? HUUUUH!?!” Aura was so surprised that he was only able to make unintelligible sounds.
“Uh? Are you okay?” Soundflux looked at Aura, slightly worried.
“Y- You have wings? But you’re a unicorn” Aura said as he looked at Soundflux in utter disbelief.
“Well, I’m not a unicorn, I’m an alicorn” Soundflux said as if it wasn’t a very big deal.
Alicorns were royalty; Aura had just assaulted a royalty with pancakes. Deadly pancakes.
“How did i not notice? And what was a member of the royal family doing in a shoddy pub?” Aura asked, still finding it difficult to make coherent sentences.
“Oh you know, I was just out for a drink” Soundflux said.
“Just out for a drink? You were just out for A drink? You had a bit more than just A drink. Celestia knows how much you had; I mean you were pretty much GONE when i found you. Or rather you found me”
“Yeah it was a fun evening; I don’t even remember how I got here. Last thing I remember was heading out the bar” Soundflux said with a slight expression on his face as if he was trying to recall what had happened.
“You don’t remember because you tripped and banged your head into the pavement, and I had to carry you home”
“Oh so that’s what happened; though there is still one thing that bothers me. What was I doing on the floor?”
“Oh... you must have fallen off the couch” Aura said with a sheepish grin on his face, as he remembered the night before where he had just thrown him down onto the floor.
Soundflux looked around the room, and back to Aura with a dull expression “You don’t have a couch” Soundflux said with a puzzled look on his face, as he stared at Aura.
“Oh well would you look at that, it’s time for breakfast. Don’t you worry I’ll make us some more pancakes” Aura said as he dashed into the kitchen.
As soon as Aura opened the door to the kitchen he stopped dead in his tracks with a horrified look on his face.
“My beautiful kitchen” Aura whimpered as his lower lip started quivering.
The entire kitchen was trashed; there was not a single clean spot in the entire room. Everything had been burned, broken or was missing.
“Actually why don’t we just go out for breakfast, I know this really good baker nearby” Aura said as he turned to face Soundflux.
“Allons-y!”
“What?”
“Let’s just go” Soundflux said to Aura as if he was stupid or something.
“Right whatever” Aura said as he left for the door, with Soundflux following close behind him.
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Soundflux and Aura were walking down the street. Not much was said as they walked, Aura still tried to wrap his mind around the whole, Soundflux being an alicorn and stuff.
“So” started Aura “Do you live in the Canterlot castle?”
“No, or I don’t think so at least” Soundflux said as he turned to look at the castle of in the distance. “You know it’s really impressive that you can see the castle from almost everywhere in Canterlot”
“What do you mean; you don’t think that you live in the castle?” Aura asked with a puzzled look on his face.
“I don’t know” Soundflux shrugged.
“Where do you live then?”
“I...” Soundflux looked as if he was thinking deeply “I honestly don’t know”
“HOW CAN YOU FORGET WHERE YOU LIVE!?!” Aura yelled almost directly into Soundflux’s ear.
“Ouch” Soundflux said as he rubbed his ear “Well i sort of don’t remember where I live. Or anything else for that matter” Soundflux said as he turned his gaze back down to the dark grey unicorn with a concerned look in his eyes “I don’t remember anything since past one and a half month ago”
“Wait, what? So you lost your memory?”
“That’s what I just said”
“Yeah I know I was listening, but still how do you go around for one and a half month without being seen? I mean you’re an alicorn, there are not many of your kind running about these days” Aura said as he stared at Soundflux.
“I don’t know I’ve just been wandering around, trying to figure out why I can’t remember anything”
“without any progress? You are in the capital city of Equestria, and it never occurred to you that you could just have gone to the princesses?”
“I was drunk”
“For one and a half month?”
“I like whiskey”
“Really? You are unbelievable, how in the hay did you pay for the whiskey?”
“Oh you know, a pony has to make a living and even if it means that somepony is mysteriously missing a small amount of bits from their pockets”
“So you’re a pickpocketing alicorn? Well I’ve seen it all now”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know, you could have used your special talent or something to make an honest living?”
“I did”
“that makes no sense” Aura said confused.
“You don’t make any sense” Soundflux said with a flat expression.
“You little!” Aura muttered under his breath. “What exactly is your special talent then?”
“Sound”
“What do you mean “sound” that doesn’t make any sense” Aura said with a dull expression
“of course it does” Soundflux said “listen”
“I can’t hear anything” Aura said. Which was right, he couldn’t hear anything, no birds, no city noise, he couldn’t even hear his own voice anymore. Everything was just gone.
“WHAT IS GOING ON!” Aura yelled and drew a hoof to his mouth, his lips were still moving.
And in the blink of an eye, all the sound came back, ten times more powerful and for a second Aura was really deaf.
“ARE YOU CRAZY!?!” Aura yelled at Soundflux who couldn’t stop laughing.
“Oh shi-” Soundflux said as he started to run.
“IT’S TIME FOR ME TO SHOW YOU MY SPECIAL TALENT” Aura yelled at Soundflux as his horn lit up, and all of a sudden balls of green fire flew past Soundflux, barely missing him, exploding on impact with a nearby café table, instantly incinerating it like acid.
As Aura casted his last acid fireball, not intending to hit Soundflux with this one, all this running had made Aura very tired and just wanted to stop and go back to bed, Soundflux accidentally ran into its line of fire. Soundflux looked back in horror as the ball of death was about to square him the face, Soundflux closed his eyes and braced for impact, there was a green flash and a *FWOOSH* sound, and then nothing, when Soundflux opened his eyes again, he saw two royal unicorn guards holding Aura down with magical chains on the earth, and ready to haul him to the dungeon.
“I’M ALIVE! WHOOHOO! Yesh yesh yesh yesh yesh! I’M ALIVE!.... I AM INVINCIBLE!” Soundflux yelled in delight, turning his head towards the unicorn restrained on the ground.
“Hey, what gives? I was about to kill that alicorn” Aura said with a confused tone in his voice.
“Oh horseapples” Aura thought to himself “Well this one will be hard to explain”
“I know how this might have looked, but it wasn’t really my fault, he started it” Aura said to the guards who only ignored him.
The guards levitated Aura into the air and started heading for the Canterlot castle where he would be put into a nice little cell in the dungeon.
Soundflux tried to interfere by pushing one of the guards into the other hoping he would lose focus and drop Aura, but before he could even get near the guard he too was in chains and was now being hauled to the dungeon with Aura.
“Nice rescue” Aura said sarcastically.
“This would not have happened if you could control your temper” Soundflux stated without looking at Aura.
“I wouldn’t have chased you if you wouldn’t have attacked me with that weird sound magic” Aura said annoyed.
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The guards threw Aura and Soundflux into separate cells, one of the guards turned and left while the other stood guard.
“Hey could you teach me how to do that chain spell? It could come in handy the next time I want to kill my friend here” Aura asked with a smug smile on his face
“Do not, do NOT tell him that!” Soundflux stated with an important tone in his voice!
“I’m not teaching you anything, now sit there and do nothing while my colleague gets the captain” The guard scoffed, and turned his back on Aura.
“As if they could keep me in this cell, I’ll just break out” Aura thought to himself as he blasted the cell door with a large jet of green fire.
“What? How did that door not melt?” Aura asked out loud.
“Anti-magic cell” The guard said, without flinching at the giant jet of fire that was summoned behind him.
Aura tried again, this time an even bigger flame, but to no use.
“Looks like I’ll stick around for a while then” Aura said with a very unsatisfied look on his face as he sat down on the ground, front legs crossed. “I shouldn’t be here! I should be in my bed!”
“Suppose we just ended up in the “line of fire.” Soundflux chuckled from the other side of the wall between the cells.
There was the sound of something hitting a skull and an “Ouch!” From Aura’s side of the wall.
“Well, well. Look what we got here! A ruffian and a scoundrel” a powerful voice said.
Chapet three: The Journey
Chapter Three
The Journey
The warden walked up to Aura’s cell. The pony was slightly bigger than Aura, and had a chestnut brown coat and a red mane.
“Oh no, don’t tell me you’re the warden... And which one of us are you calling a ruffian and a scoundrel!?” Aura said, his voice filled with annoyance.
“You would be both” The warden answered with a mocking voice “And by the looks of it, you’ve been a bad boy Aura. What did you do? Steal candy from a filly?”
“I did no such thing; I just tried to kill my friend here. But the guards didn’t think it a good idea, so they dragged me here” Aura said pointing at the wall separating him and Soundflux.
“Murder? An alicorn? That’s a very serious crime. Things aren’t looking good for you, you know” The warden said as he looked at Soundflux.
“Hi!” Soundflux said, waving at the warden.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before, where do you come from?” the warden asked.
“I don’t know” Soundflux said flatly.
“You don’t know?”
“Yeah he doesn’t know, and he’s an idiot” Aura interrupted.
“Oi! Be nice” Soundflux said.
“This is new, you two wait here while i fetch the princesses” The warden said as he left.
“Sounded like you knew this guy, who is he?” Soundflux asked.
“That guy is the biggest featherbrain in all of Equestria, maybe the entire world even” Aura said
“Where do you know this “Featherbrain” from?”
“It was back when we were both still on school, he was one class above me. And by the looks of it, he’s still an idiot”
“What’s his name?”
“It’s” Aura stopped just before he said his name “This could be fun” He thought to himself “His name is Featherbrain” Aura said with a smug smile.
“That’s a funny name for a unicorn, he seemed a little “Light headed”
Aura couldn’t help but to snicker at Soundflux’s bad pun “I guess you could call him that”
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Moments later “Featherbrain” returned with the princess.
“This is the pony” He paused for a second before pointing at Soundflux “And the alicorn we apprehended”
“Very good warden, would you excuse us for a second?” Celestia said
“Of course your majesty” Warden Featherbrain said as he bowed to the princess and left.
“What is your name?” Celestia asked Soundflux politely.
“It isn’t polite to ask for a stranger’s name before introducing oneself” Soundflux said
The sound of something hitting the wall very hard came from Aura’s cell.
“You are right, how rude of me. My name is Princess Celestia, but you can call me Celestia”
“Soundflux, nice to meet you princ- Celestia”
“Would you mind coming with me for a second?”
“As long as i don’t have to stay in this cell” Aura said.
“I’ll get to you in a moment but first i would like to talk to Soundflux alone” Celestia said as she opened Soundflux’s cell door.
“Sweet I’m out of here” Soundflux said as he exited the cell “Lead on princess”
Celestia led Soundflux out into the castle gardens
“So was there anything in specific you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Yes and i think you should have figured that out by now” Celestia said as she turned to face Soundflux with a serious look upon her face.
“uuuuuuuuuuh... Of course, it’s five past ten”
Soundflux could have sworn he heard a small thud coming from the castle dungeon.
“Uh no, I wanted to ask you what you were doing here in Canterlot”
“Oh that. For some reason everypony keeps asking me that”
“Well that may be because you’re an alicorn walking around Canterlot”
“So do you!”
“I’m the princess”
“Well I guess that makes sense”
They arrived at a bench where Celestia motioned for Soundflux to sit next to her.
“Well, honestly I have no idea why I’m here or where I came from for that matter”
“So it’s true that you don’t remember anything. What is the first thing you remember?”
“A ditch.”
“And how long ago was that?”
“One and a half month ago.”
“So you’ve walked around in Canterlot for one and a half month without being noticed? That is quite a feat. And an even better question would be, how have you managed not to die of starvation?”
“Wearing a cloak and controlling sound can get you a long way. And as for the ways of money I... ehh... That’s not important.”
There was a few seconds of awkward silence.
“Hmm alright, I think I need to talk to your friend, would you mind waiting here for a while, while I talk to your friend?”
“I guess I can wait”
“Great, I will return with your friend in a moment” She said and got up, and walked back towards to castle.
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Aura was almost bored to death, when Celestia arrived.
“Hey princess, you here to get me out?”
“Not just yet, I need to make sure you won’t try you burn anything as soon as i open the door. I saw what you did to the city” Celestia said with a serious look.
“Yeah sorry about that, I’ll try not to kill Soundflux again, as long as he doesn’t make me deaf again”
“He actually made you deaf?” Celestia said with a surprised look.
“Yes, but he gave back my hearing... ten fold.”
“This is more important than I thought it seems.” Celestia said with a worried look.
“What do you mean important? He’s a simpleton.”
“He lost his memory, and I do not believe it just “happened” Aura; it may have been altered by someone, for a reason. According to his story, this must have happened one and half month ago, and he has already gained a great amount of magical power and strength. Recovering power much faster than most alicorns would do.” Celestia explained with a serious tone in her voice.
“yeah, well... he drinks a lot of whiskey, so.”
“What? Never mind it does not matter, I will let you out of your cell now, please don’t burn anything” Celestia said as she motioned for the guard to open the cell door.
“Well then, was there anything you wanted to ask me about?”
“Yes Aura, I have some questions for you”
“Very well princess”
“Good, let’s go see Soundflux in the gardens, we will talk on the way”
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Soundflux sat in the gardens, bored out of his mind.
“Celestia has been gone for more than five minutes now, what’s taking her so long?”
“I don’t know, usual royal business I suppose” a voice said from behind Soundflux.
Soundflux skyrocketed into the air with unbelievable speed in pure shock, and landed face first into to ground.
“mo goes twere” he mumbled in the dirt.
“The name is Luna” Luna said, and bent down to lift Soundflux up from the dirt with her front hooves. “There we go, what’s your name?” she said with a softer voice.
As Soundflux came to his hooves again, he opened his eyes and stood face to face with the most beautiful mare he had ever seen, Luna. A coat as dark blue as the night sky, and the most beautiful light blue eyes, sparkling in the sun. and the wind carrying away her ethereal mane. And that flank.
“Name’s Sou... So... Pwetty” Soundflux said with a stupid smile on his face.
“Way to make a first impression” Luna chuckled.
“Sorry, my name is Soundflux.” He said with a smile.
“Nice to meet you Soundflux” Lune said, and returned the smile.
“So now that introductions are in place, what are you doing here?” Soundflux asked, almost an interrogation.
“What I’m doing here? I live here. What are you doing here; you don’t look like one from Canterlot I’ve ever seen before.” Luna stated with curiosity in her eyes. Starting to pace around Soundflux to inspect him. “You’re random” she said returning to stare Soundflux in the eye.
“I’m random!? You’re random!” Soundflux said with a puzzled look.
Luna giggled at Soundflux and smiled. “Yes, I think I might.”
“Bwuah, huh what? What’s that supposed to mean!?” Soundflux said totally dumbfounded. “Wait a minute, you live here?”
“Welcome back to reality” Luna said with a laugh.
Soundflux just looked back at her with a dull expression. “So you’re like the Luna, THE Princess Luna, or, nightmare mooooon” Soundflux thought about what he just said. “HOLY MOLY! YOU’RE NIGHTMARE MOOOON! RUUUN!” Soundflux yelled in panic and started running in circles.
Luna pushed her front hoof into Soundflux’s circle of disaster and, “WOAH!” *thud* Soundflux got back to his hooves and was again face to face with Luna. “Deja vu” They said simultaneously.
“Calm down” Luna chuckled, “I’m no longer nightmare moon, The elements of harmony freed me a long time ago, where have you been?”
“To the mooo..” Soundflux quickly noticed the dull expression on Luna’s face, “No?” He shrugged.
“Really?” Luna said with a deadpan look.
“Sorry” Soundflux apologized and frowned a bit.
“Don’t worry about it, but where have you been though? And where are you from?”
“Oi! One question at a time, my attention span isn’t that big!” Soundflux said holding a hoof to his head, feeling a headache coming on. “Lemme think, yes, okay... I have been in Canterlot for the past one and half month as far as I remember, which is a feat. I don’t remember anything from before that, certainly not where I’m from.” Soundflux said with sadness in his voice and a frown on his face, looking down to the ground.
Luna put a hoof to his chin and lifted his head back up to hers, holding eye contact. “I’m sure you will figure it out someday” she said with a smile, she turned her head and saw Celestia and Aura approaching from the castle and looked back at Soundflux “Looks like your friend is coming back, I also better go, can’t stand here all day.” she said with a chuckle.
“Will you at least kiss me before you leave?” Soundflux thought.
“Didn’t I already answer that” Luna said with a smile moving closer to Soundflux, kissing him on the cheek.
Soundflux’s eyes were sparkling like lights on Hearth’s Warming Eve, and his head flying between the clouds.
“Will i see you aga... Wait a minute... what the!?” Soundflux said and fell to his rump. “What just happened?...”
________________________________________________________________________________
“you must never tell him this Aura, do you understand me” Celestia said very seriously.
“yes of course princess” Aura nodded.
Aura had noticed Luna and Soundflux’s little scene, and decided the first and most obvious thing to do as they greeted each other, was to mock him about it of course.
As Aura and the princess got closer, Soundflux noticed Aura was wearing a top-hat.
“Well, well, well. Looks like somepony is getting some action” Aura said with a slight grin on his face.
“Wha... I was just... Oh go buck yourself, you’re just jealous!”
“Wha? but... I’m not jea... Shut up.” Said with a deadpan look on his face.
“What is going on?” Celestia interrupted.
“Your... sister... was... in... my... MIND! Can she do that?”
“She tends to do that, I’m sorry if it caused any inconvenience.” Celestia apologized.
“Oh i am most certainly not sorry” Soundflux thought. “I suppose I will just have to tell her not to do that again then.” he said, trying to put on a more serious face. “When i see her again.” he finished, spacing out again making it all obvious.
One would not think it possible but Aura AND the princess facehoofed simultaneously.
Aura took place next to Soundflux “Soundflux, the princess has something to say”
Soundflux looked at Aura a bit confused, but then focused on the princess. The princess only nodded.
“Soundflux, you need to regain your memory. I don’t exactly know how, but I’m sure the answer is out there somewhere, and since nopony here in Canterlot seems to know you, your best guess would be to look outside Canterlot. I’ve asked Aura to accompany you on this journey”
“WHAT!?! HIM!?! He tried to kill me, remember?”
“Don’t worry about that, he has promised me not to kill you” Celestia said “Or at least try not to” she muttered under her breath.
“I’m not sure I’ll be able to feel safe with him just promising”
“I’ll try to be nice” Aura said. “She gave me top-hat, how can i say no!?”
“Really? My life, for a top-hat?”
“It was the only way I could make him accept my offer” Celestia said as she turned towards the door “Please follow me, I will show you to the front gates.”
Soundflux and Aura follow Celestia as they walked through the castle, Soundflux not able to take his eyes of that stupid top-hat.
“Don’t even think about it!” Aura said.
“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Soundflux said, trying to look innocent.
They soon reached the front gates, and Celestia stopped and asked the guards to open the gates. “Here we are. Good luck to you Soundflux and Aura, be careful.” Celestia said as she waved them off through the front gates of the castle.
“We will” Aura and Soundflux said in unison, and then looked at each other. “Stop that” They both said.
The front gates closed behind them and they started walking toward the City gates.
“So where do we begin?” Soundflux asked as they walked. The top-hat still annoying him greatly.
“Celestia told me that she had a student in ponyville with great knowledge, Twillight Sparkle I think her name was, maybe we should try and ask her if she knows anything?”
“Sounds good to me.” Soundflux said with a smile, then looked at the hat again. “What is it with that thing on your head anyways!”
“It’s a top-hat! I wear a top-hat now. Top-hat are cool!” Aura stated.
“It looks stupid!” Soundflux Said.
“Does not!”
“Does too!”
“DOES NOT!”
“Fine...” Soundflux finished and they walked for a few minutes in silence.
“May I try it?”
“YOU DO NOT! TOUCH! THE TOP-HAT!” Aura’s voice suddenly turned into something Soundflux could only call a growl.
“Okay fine! Chill!” Soundflux said. “Now will you look at all those beautiful birds... with small top-hats on!”
“WHERE!” Aura said quickly looking around for the birds realizing too late what he had just done. In the blink of an eye Soundflux had snatched the top-hat off Aura’s head and started running faster than ever before!
“I WILL END YOU! GIVE THAT BACK RIGHT NAO!” Aura yelled in anger.
In the distance Aura heard Soundflux yelling something back at him, “If you can catch me! ALLONS-Y!”
Chapter Four
The Beast
It was a normal day for the ponies in Canterlot, though rumours of a disturbance of peace in the eastern part of the city, that caused quite a bit of damage to several shops and other buildings. Something about a disagreement between a unicorn and an alicorn.
Suddenly a pony rushed through the crowd of ponies that were standing in the street; they didn’t even get time to react when another pony pushed his way through.
Soundflux tried to get away from Aura who had been chasing him tirelessly for about half an hour now, running all over Canterlot. Soundflux suddenly got a “brilliant” idea.
“What if I lure him into an alley and just as he’s about to catch me I’ll be of into the air” Soundflux thought to himself with a smug grin on his face.
Aura had to slow down to be able to make the turn into the alley.
It was a dead end, just as Soundflux had hoped. He backed up against the wall and tried to look as scared as he could.
“I got you now you, hat thief” Aura said as his horn started to glow with its usual green hue.
“Can’t we talk about this?” Soundflux said.
“It’s too late for negotiations” Aura said as he fired a small fireball at Soundflux, only to scare him.
Unfortunately Soundflux saw it at another point of view; to him it looked as if he had launched one of his usual fireballs. And without thinking he put as much as he could between him and the ball of fiery death, however, the only thing he managed to get between them was Aura’s top hat, instantly burning the entire top of it while setting fire to the rest.
Now Soundflux was staring, through the burning remains of what was once a hat, right at a unicorn, staring right back at him with anger in his eyes.
“Uh oops?” Soundflux said sheepishly.
“You... Are... Dead...”
“N-Now hold on just a minute, it wasn’t me who burned the hat”
“I DON’T CARE!!!” Aura yelled as he fired a large jet of green fire at Soundflux. “Aw shoot” Soundflux said as he bolted to the air, barely dodging it.
“You know, I’ll just meet you at the train station” Soundflux said as he looked down at the unicorn, as he flew away.
Soundflux could have sworn he heard a small explosion.
_____________________________________________________________________
Soundflux was waiting at the train platform, there weren’t many ponies there today.
Suddenly Soundflux heard the familiar sound of fire.
“This is for my hat”
Soundflux just barely dodged the fireball as it went flying past his shoulder.
“You know, I’m getting tired of this. Can we call a truce?” Soundflux said as he turned around to face Aura “I promise I’ll get you a new one”
“Promise?”
“Promise”
“Alright then, but you should know that the fireball that missed you hit the train tracks and sort of broke them” Aura said calmly.
“WHAT!?!” Soundflux said as he quickly turned to inspect the damage to the tracks.
Sure enough, a large portion of the tracks was there no longer.
“Uhm maybe we should get out of here, I think there are some guards coming this way” Soundflux said as he slowly backed away from the tracks.
“Good idea, but how will we get to Ponyville then?”
“Well i could always fly, but since you don’t have any wings”
“We’re walking. Great” Aura said with a sigh.
“Oh it should only take an hour or so”
“Yes but it may already become dark before we get there” Aura said as he pointed at the sun which was almost setting.
“We’ll set up camp for the night and walk the rest tomorrow” Soundflux suggested.
“Alright fine, but I’m blaming you for all this” Aura said pointing his hoof at Soundflux.
“ME?!? You were the one who blasted the tracks with fire!”
“Yeah but if you hadn’t dodged it, it would never have been blasted”
“You... are a mean little pony”
“Thank you, I try my best” Aura said as he bowed.
_____________________________________________________________________
Moments later Aura and Soundflux were walking towards Ponyville.
“This will be fun” Aura said sarcastically.
“See? I knew you’d like it”
“Do you know what sarcasm is, Soundflux?”
“Can you eat it?”
“Never mind”
The two ponies continued to walk in silence.
After a while of walking the two ponies could see Ponyville in the distance.
“See Aura? I told you we could make it”
“Let’s just hurry and find an inn so we can get some rest”
“Hey, what’s that?”
Further up ahead the road was an abandoned wagon filled with hay, but no trace of whoever owned the wagon.
“Why would anypony just leave a wagon filled with hay out here in the middle of nowhere? It’s getting dark soon, should we see if we can find the owner?” Soundflux asked as he turned to Aura.
“No let’s just ignore it and get to Ponyville as fast as we can, I’m tired and I want to sleep”
“Too bad, we’re checking this out” Soundflux said as he put his hoof down.
“Alright fine we’ll check it out” Aura said as he rolled his eyes in annoyance.
The two of them walked around the cart a couple of time to search for clues, the only thing they could find was a mark on the wagon, three apples forming a triangle. And a set of hoofprints, leading into an ominous looking forest.
“You know what I think happened?”
“I’d rather not know”
“I think somepony kidnapped the owner of the cart”
Aura facehoofed “Let’s look at the cart, do you see how large it is? And that it’s filled with hay? There is no way that somepony capable of pulling such large weights would get kidnapped, without leaving more distinct marks”
“Well, do you remember those hoofprints we saw? Maybe the pony pulling the cart went into the forest”
“Hmm I guess that makes sense, but now that we know what happened, let’s go” Aura started walking.
“No” Soundflux said as he put his hoof down.
“What do you mean by “No”?” Aura said as he turned around.
“Somepony might be in trouble and we have to help”
Aura sighed “You do know we don’t have time to help everypony we see right? And for all we know, the pony pulling the cart could be... you know”
“Dead?”
“Yes, that”
“We still have to try”
Soundflux started following the trail that led into the forest, Aura sighed again and reluctantly followed.
The forest was dense, not much of the light shone through the trees.
“I have a bad feeling about this place” Aura muttered to himself
“What was that Aura?”
“Nothing”
Suddenly Soundflux heard something; he stopped dead in his tracks.
“Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“Shh” Soundflux said as he bolted of further into the forest.
“HEY! Wait for me”
They came across a small clearing in the forest, in the clearing they could see a mare fighting a beast three times her size.
“Ah tried tah be nice, but ya leave me no choice”
The orange earth mare was battered and bruised, but she was still full of energy.
Suddenly she bucked the giant beast in the stomach. The beast was knocked back and lost it’s breath, but quickly recovered.
“Aw shucks” the earth pony said as she readied herself for the blow.
The beast raised its claw and was just about to strike, but just before it had the chance to end the fight, its claw was stuck mid-air.
“Okay, this is where the fun stops” Aura said as he stepped out of the bushes and looked at the orange mare.
“Ah don’t know who y’all are, but thank you” the orange mare said as she tipped her hat.
“Don’t thank me yet, the problem is still here”
Suddenly the beast broke free of Aura’s magic chain, and charged right at him. Without flinching the unicorn blasted the beast with a magic pulse powerful enough to blast all the way back to the mare.
“HEY! watch it, you almost hit me”
“Sorry”
The beast got back onto its legs, but suddenly something grabbed its tail and lifted it up into the air. Aura walked over to the beast.
“So miss mare, what should we do with this fellow?” Aura said as he studied the beast.
“Don’t hurt him too much, it’s not his fault he got into this, I shouldn’t have been out here this late to begin with”
“Well alright then” Aura said as he turned and aimed for the middle of the forest.
“Wow, you sure that won’t hurt him?”
“Uhh, he might be sore in the morning”
Suddenly Soundflux ran out of the bushes.
“Whoo, way to go Aura, you’re the best”
“An alicorn? Here?” the orange mare said as she bowed.
“Oh come on now don’t do that, he’s not royal... as far as we know”
“But he’s an alicorn, aren’t all the alicorns are royal?” she said getting back up.
“Not him, at least I don’t hope so. Anyway, what is your name?”
“Ah, where are mah manners. Name’s Applejack”
“Pleased to meet you Applejack, I’m Aura and the alicorn there is Soundflux” Aura said a she pointed his hoof at Soundflux “Watch out, he’s a hat thief”
Applejack grabbed her hat as she stared at Soundflux.
“It was once, and your hat was stupid”
“It was not”
“Was too”
“Gentlecolts, calm down” Applejack interrupted.
“Anyway is there anything we can help you with?” Aura said as he looked around at the clearing they were standing in.
“Oh don’t worry about me, ah can find back home from here” Applejack said as she took a few steps but stumbled into Aura.
“Looks like that fight with the beast wore you out, where do you live? We might be heading the same way” Aura said as he caught Applejack just before she fell.
“I live at sweet apple acres right outside Ponyville”
“That’s where we’re headed” Soundflux said as he trotted towards the way they came.
“Well ah... thank you kindly then”
“Don’t mention it, I assume you would want your wagon?”
“Oh you can just leave it, ah can get mah brother to get it in the morning”
“Don’t worry about it, I can haul it with my magic”
“WAIT!!!” Soundflux shouted.
“For the love of... What is it now Soundflux?” Aura said as he rubbed his forehead in annoyance.
“Did you really pull that giant wagon, without any help?” Soundflux said as he turned to stare at Applejack.
“Uh, yes”
“Wow, you must be really strong”
“Thanks, ah guess”
“Soundflux you amaze me, anyway let’s get going before something else decides to attack us” Aura said as he and Applejack started to walk.
Applejack who was too tired to walk on her own had to support herself against Aura.
“Ah hope you don’t mind if ah use you for some support”
“It’s no problem at all Applejack, in all honesty, I’m surprised you can still walk. What was that beast? I’ve never seen anything like it”
“It was a manticore, they normally stay in the Everfree forest, but ah guess he must have strayed”
“What were you doing in these woods anyway?” Soundflux asked as he looked at the dark trees around him.
“Ah stopped for a pause when ah saw something in the woods, thought it was somepony who was lost, so ah decided to check it out”
When the trio made it back to the wagon, Aura used his magic to lift Applejack onto the wagon and placed her on one of the bales of hay. Grabbing the cart with his magic Aura started to pull.
“This cart is heavier than I thought, Soundflux help me out”
Soundflux grabbed the wagon and it suddenly got a lot easier to pull.
_____________________________________________________________________
As they arrived at the farm, they were greeted by a small filly with a large bowtie.
“Hello, uhm who are you?” she asked curiously.
Applejack got up from the wagon.
“Applebloom get Big Mac; tell him he needs to take care of this here cart”
“Oh hey sis didn’t see you there, who are these two?”
“Just get your brother”
The little filly bolted of in direction of the barn.
“Sorry about mah little sister, she likes to ask a lot of questions”
“Oh don’t worry about it, now where do you want this wagon?” Aura asked as he turned to see the earth pony trying to climb down, Aura motioned to Soundflux to help her.
“Thank you. You can just leave the wagon here, mah brother will get it in a second, but could you just help me inside?”
“Sure thing”
Aura helped Applejack inside and sat her on a chair next to the kitchen table.
“There you go” Aura said
“Thank you for all the help, ah don’t think ah would have survived another five seconds had it not been for you”
“You’re very welcome” Soundflux said as he looked out the window he saw a large stallion pull the wagon into the barn “WHOA!!! That guy is HUGE!”
“Heheh that would be mah brother”
“Are you sure he’s a pony? He’s the biggest stallion I’ve ever seen”
“You saw Celestia and Luna” Aura said with a flat expression.
“Well yeah, but they’re alicorns, and princesses”
“Hold on a minute, you two met the princesses?”
“Yeah it’s the reason we’re here. We’re looking for a unicorn called Twilight” Aura said as he turned to Applejack.
“What do you need Twilight for?”
“You know her?”
“I’m the element of honesty”
“What?”
“Twilight's not just the princess's student, she’s also the element of magic”
“Uh-huh, is that some sort of game you made up or?” Aura said with a confused look on his face.
“No, it’s not a game. Do you know what the elements of harmony are?”
“Yeah, it’s what Celestia and Luna used to defeat Discord many years ago”
“Exactly, except with princess Luna banished on the moon the elements wouldn’t work because she was the second bearer. And when she returned, the elements had to find new bearers, which turned out to be me, Twilight and four others, we are the bearers of the elements of harmony”
“Oooh, I get it. So you do know Twilight” Soundflux said as he turned away from the window.
Applejack facehoofed “Yes i know Twilight”
“Oh sweet, could you tell us where we can find her?” Soundflux asked exitingly.
“Yeah she lives in the Ponyville library” Applejack replied.
“Why does that not surprise me” Aura said with a flat expression on his face.
“What do you mean?” Soundflux asked.
“It’s the princess’s number one student, and she lives in a library, why does that not surprise me?”
“I guess it makes sense” Soundflux said as he returned to look out the window.
“Anyway, it was nice meeting you Applejack and we really should get going” Aura said as he turned towards the door.
“Are you sure you can’t stay and get something to eat? You must be hungry” Applejack asked.
At the word “eat” Soundflux sprung away from the window and was right in front of Applejack “Did you say food?”
“Uuh not really, ah said eat”
Soundflux turned to Aura to give him the best puppy eyes he could muster.
“Maybe another time Applejack, but thank you for the offer” Aura said.
“Aww” Soundflux slowly walked towards the door, with his head hanging low.
“We need to get going, we need to catch up to lost time”
“Well don’t let me hold ya back then, but remember you’re always welcome back” Applejack said with a smile.
“Thank you Applejack” Aura bowed lightly and then went outside where Soundflux was waiting.
“Are you sure we have to leave now? Can’t we at least get one slice of pie? It looked delicious”
“Yes, we’ve already wasted enough time”
“Aww”
The two left the farm and headed into town.
After walking around town for a while, Aura stopped and facehoofed.
“I forgot to ask where the library is, or what it even looks like”
“Maybe it’s a giant tree”
“Are you stupid or something?”
“No look” Soundflux said as he pointed to a giant tree growing in the middle of the street. And sure enough it said library on the sign next to the door.
“Well... Wow” Aura was dumbfounded.
“Told you not to worry”
“Let’s just go in” Aura said as he walked slowly towards the wooden library, there was light in most of the windows, so somepony had to be in there.
Aura walked up to the door and knock lightly on the door. Moments later a small purple baby dragon opened the door.
“Sorry buddy, but the library is closed for tonight, you will have to come back tomorrow”
“SPIIIKE! Don’t be rude. Hold on I’ll be there in a minute” said a voice from inside the library.
Moments later a purple unicorn appeared.
“Aura?!”
