Amnesia: Forget Your Past

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 4.5
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Ending A (Bad Ending)
Ending B (Good Ending)
Epilogue
Chapter 2
Chapter 10

Chapter 1

Forget Your Past
Chapter 1

“No! You have ruined us! ARGH!!!!!!!!!” was all Daniel had heard before his ears were drowned with the sounds of his own screaming. As the fear and pain of being consumed by a supernatural shadow overtook him, so did a rush of adrenaline. He had completed Agrippa’s task, and he was soon to be saved from death, but the Shadow was furious at him. He had not redeemed himself from his past. His greatest fear became reality. He was now trapped in the darkness for eternity.

A comforting voice suddenly filled his ears.

“There he is! Do you see him Weyer? He deserves so much more... Please, help him! I know you can... Don’t worry Daniel, it will be alright.”

His body filled with warmth and he was sure that he was on his way to the conscious world again, just not in that dreadful place anyway. He had overcome the Shadow and was being pulled out of the eternal darkness.

Daniel’s eyes shot open. He was awoken by a nearby howling and the familiar roar of a lion. He felt coldness and sorrow. He observed his surroundings after 10 minutes of lying on his back. He was surrounded by black, shrunken trees with grim etchings on them. The floor was black and burnt, rotting leaves covering the ground. ‘Must be in the forest outside Brennenburg’ he thought.

After hearing more howling and roaring, he stood up. When he did, a very worrying thought struck him. ‘There are no lions in the forests in Prussia!’ Immediately after this realisation struck him, his sceptical mind began to think up an explanation for the roaring, but none came to him. Very worried, he decided that staying around here was not in his best interests.

He looked for an opening in the thick woodland, although he was hindered by his long, brown hair. When he found an opening, he ran for it. He didn’t know what he was running from, or if anything was actually after him, but what he did learn in Brennenburg was that if there is something unfamiliar in the darkness, it usually isn’t very friendly. He never looked back. He was terrified of being stuck in the darkness forever, so naturally, the dark nature of the forest he was currently in was not a welcoming sight.

The whole world around was a blur as he ran at what could have been the speed of sound. He felt trapped as he came up to a dead end. In the distance, he heard what sounded like a young child weeping. Instantly, his mind was filled with images of when he killed that innocent little girl after she almost escaped. Filled with guilt and remorse, he ran towards the crying.

He had to squeeze in between the dense foliage, getting scraped and cut by the sharp, grabbing twigs and thorns. To his relief, he could hear the weeping getting closer and closer. Suddenly, he fell off of the edge of a steep hill and tumbled downwards, hitting his head more than once.

When he came to a stop, he tried to see where he had landed through a blurred vision. He had landed in the middle of a clearing, with steep hills surrounding him like a prison. He instantly tried to climb out, but to no avail. After at least 20 tries, he gave up and fell onto his knees, cursing himself for not properly redeeming himself and cursing this forest, of which he was sure was his place of suffering, for being so difficult and finally cursing that damned orb. He just wanted to get out.

Without warning, the hills began to shift and twist, like clay in the hands of a demented sculptor, finally stopping to resemble the rest of this sick forest. He had been in a clearing surrounded by trees the whole time. Something was toying with his mind, and enjoying it. Whatever it was, it was taking his pain and fears and putting them into physical form. While he still heard the crying, he was unsure whether it was real or not. It could just be another illusion of his past. Cautiously, he moved towards it. Walking slowly this time, he stepped in between the dense woodland once more, this time being more careful not to cut himself.

Eventually, he came upon a blackened cave from which the weeping originated. Daniel crouched down and approached the cave. When he entered the mouth of said cave, what he saw shocked him beyond belief. There was an impossibly small equine, barely 2 feet tall, weeping. In the darkness, he could make out that it had an orange coat and purple mane and tail, impossible colours for an equine to bear. More still, it bore wings!

Daniel didn’t know what to think of this. There was no way that this could be real. It was just another illusion conjured up by the tormenting forest. On the other hand, if this forest really was throwing his fears at him, this was definitely real. He never really ever remembered being scared of horses.

His train of thought was abruptly interrupted as he realised that the crying had stopped and the equine was looking up at him fearfully. He tried to look as compassionate as possible, although this was difficult considering his fresh cuts and scratches. He decided that communication was a pointless effort since horses couldn’t talk, but he decided to go with it anyway.

“Hello there. My name is Daniel. Can you... understand me?” He asked in a truly comforting tone. The equine visibly calmed at the sound of his voice but also flinched as he spoke, as if his voice carried the power of a gale behind it. It was obvious that the horse could not understand him considering that it immediately wore a confused face after he finished talking.

Scootaloo only heard grunts and coughs as the creature talked. Its dialect was too complicated with too many syllables for pony ears to decipher. She gathered that this creature was non-hostile, if it was hostile it would have killed her and been done with it, but was still sceptical as to whether it would enjoy her as an evening snack. She decided letting it out of her sight was not a good idea. She didn’t know what it had said, but it began to repeat one line of its language. ‘Ack mange ickh damgal’ was all she could understand. Its voice was very throaty. She attempted to mimic the sounds, much to the creature’s amusement. After realising that her feeble attempts were a lost cause, she approached the strange critter. She immediately hugged it tightly as she realised that the Everfree Forest was too dense for anypony to have any possibility of finding her and that this creature was her only chance of getting out of here. She had barely escaped some Timberwolves earlier. She was sure her luck wasn’t going to save her anymore. This creature was the only comfort in this forest to her right now.

Daniel was shocked by the embrace, but understood that he was probably the only hope this equine had left. The fact that physical gestures were possible in this horse meant that there was likely to be a colony of them somewhere and that they weren’t like the mindless equines from his world that were used for transportation. These ones were intelligent. This one was likely separated from the rest, trapped in this god-forsaken forest like he was. He felt obligated to help it. He needed to redeem himself by helping at least one poor soul. That isn’t much for redemption, but it would help push him on the road to salvation.

Gently and slowly, he stood up with the equine in his arms and set out towards the thick, narrow woodland again. He was not going to fail this time to redeem himself like he did in the Inner Sanctum. Not this time. The equine held tighter onto him as he entered the unforgiving darkness. He had yet to find the source of the roaring and howling, though it’s not as if he wanted to.

Onwards he trekked through the maze of trees. He had lost track of time. He wasn’t even sure what time of day it was because of the thick canopy above the forest. The equine was getting more and more hopeless by the second. Daniel got its attention and laid his head on his hand signifying he wanted it to try and go to sleep. The equine recognised this and shook its head violently.

Scootaloo recognised the gesture of ‘go to sleep’ but protested. What if she was needed or if this creature intended to devour her the second she fell asleep. She didn’t know the answer to those, but she didn’t want to find out. The creature sighed at her protests but moved on without hesitation.

Seconds later, a creature that resembled a chicken’s head atop a snake. Daniel couldn’t help but look into its blood red eyes with astonishment and curiosity mixed with fear. He had never seen such a creature in all his life! It was certainly menacing to say the least. Suddenly, he was overcome with a stinging pain in his head and screamed out.

Scootaloo was horrified at the scene unfolding in front of her. She had seen Fluttershy outdo a Cockatrice, but that was to do with her amazing ability to somewhat manipulate animals with her stare, but this creature was different. It didn’t posses the ability to defeat a Cockatrice now, she had to act. This creature was her only chance of getting out of here. She jumped in front of the creature’s eyes, cutting the line of vision to the Cockatrice.

Daniel had felt a numbing feeling run up his legs and into his hips, but all of that stopped in an instant. Immediately, he regained control of his legs after the horse cut his line of vision. He closed his eyes and, through memory alone, struck where the Cockatrice should be. Luckily, the Cockatrice was too busy being furious at losing its prey to have noticed the fist being swung at it, and said fist instantly collided with its beak. The Cockatrice fell back, stunned by the hit. Daniel, who had felt his fist collide with the abomination, allowed himself to peek out from behind his eyelids and observe where the creature was now. The Cockatrice was just getting up to try again when another fist hit hard and knocked it out cold this time. While Daniel was tired from the attack and cut from the trees, he still had enough strength to knock this creature out. He immediately remembered the time he stood up to the bully, Henry, and hit him with a stone. He also remembered his father’s reaction and began to wonder if the small horse he carried would have a similar reaction. To his surprise, the small horse wore an ecstatic expression.

Scootaloo had only seen something this awesome when Rainbow Dash was performing her tricks. The scene before her had turned from a very one sided battle, to another one sided battle only this time with her on the winning side. As she thought over the events, she filled with pride. She had helped turn the tide of the fight. She had helped the creature that was helping her, and that creature now felt even more obligated to succeed. He wished he could thank her verbally. He simply embraced the young pegasis.

Chapter 3

Forget Your Past
Chapter 3

How long has it been? 3 days? Maybe more? Daniel didn’t know. He had been wandering this damned forest for what felt like an eternity. He was beginning to lose hope of ever seeing the light of day again. The canopy of the forest meant no light got through to them whatsoever. He was surprised that there were even plants living down here. Speaking of the plants, he decided to stay away from them after eating a berry and becoming paralysed for several hours. Luckily for him no other animals attacked him while he was vulnerable. The small horse he had with him had to look away every time he got hungry as a result, because he had to find some small animal that didn’t look dangerous and kill it before eating it. While the small horse made some sort of gagging sound every time he ate, it didn’t shatter its trust in him. The small horse got along from eating rather common red berries.

Suddenly, the silence in the forest was disturbed by a nearby roar. Daniel knew this was coming, he had already found out what had been howling, but the source of the roaring was now coming for him. The sound of trees being smashed and crack followed in the wake of the roaring. Something big was coming. He picked up the pony and put it on his shoulder.

Scootaloo had heard the roaring. She only knew of one thing that roared in the Everfree forest. Manticores. The creature also heard the roar and picked her up. She waited for the creature to run, but it never did. Instead it hid inside a small hole at the base of a tree. She looked down at it, confused. She tried to urge it to move, but it looked up at her and protested. It wasn’t going anywhere.

Daniel knew that if this creature was big enough to smash aside trees, it was certainly too big to notice such small, insignificant things like Daniel and the pony. He peeked out from the hole and looked towards the creature. What he saw was terrifying. There, striding down towards them, was a Hydra from Greek myth.

Scootaloo had also looked towards the crashing trees, and began to dread this encounter more that she had in the first place. She had never seen a Hydra before, and she wished she didn’t have to, but now here it was. This was the last straw. She didn’t care if it was her saviour, if the biped wasn’t going to move, she was.

Daniel was horrified to see the little pony jump off of his shoulder and run away from the hiding spot and away from the Hydra. He always preferred to hide from the Gatherers in Brennenburg rather than run. He made a lot more progress that way. Unfortunately, this little filly hadn’t gone through the painful and stress experience of surviving the horror that is Brennenburg. While he usually put his own survival first, what was his life worth if he failed another child? He ran after the foolish equine.

How could she have been so foalish? She ran from the only thing keeping her alive and sane. She ran from the safe hiding spot that would have kept her safe from the Hydra. And worse? She was now running from said stampeding Hydra that probably hadn’t eaten in days. What was it doing in the Everfree anyway? She didn’t know and she didn’t care. All she did know is that she was dead meat and her saviour wasn’t even going to try and save her. At least she thought she knew that until she was scooped up by something other than the Hydra’s mouth.

Luckily for Daniel, the filly and been contemplating its actions and as a result had been running slightly less rapidly than it should have. He grabbed it quickly and put it under his arm, which was an admittedly vulgar place to be right now. Daniel immediately did a sharp turn when he saw a small opening in the forest. He hoped he could find a place to hide from the monster’s all seeing gaze. Instead, he saw an old rickety bridge that could barely hold a rabbit. It hung over a large, void-like gorge that probably went down for miles. What intrigued him most was the old, ruined castle on the other side. He knew the bridge wouldn’t be able to support him for long, but he had no choice. He ran straight towards the bridge.

Scootaloo couldn’t believe it. This thing had escaped Cockatrice’s, Timberwolves and now it was going to outrun a Hydra. She couldn’t believe her luck. What were the chances of this hero finding her? She instantly filled with fresh hope as she saw the bridge. If this creature could run across it in time, they might just survive this. Admittedly, not unlike the biped, she had her doubts about the chances of surviving the bridge alone. It was incredibly weak and wasn’t built to support one of his build. The weathering it had sustained over countless years wasn’t of any assistance.

The creature wasn’t showing any signs of slowing as it dashed across the rickety bridge at a speed so fast it hardly even touched the boards on the bridge. Adrenaline probably helped massively. Most of the boards held their own against the creature’s heavy weight and stayed put, but one stray board collapsed under its feet and he fell down only to stop as it grabbed the board in front of it. Scootaloo immediately grabbed its waist. Her wings were not yet strong enough to carry her, so she could not fly up to the cliff or bridge.

Daniel felt a rush of speed take him forwards as he charged over the bridge. He was moving faster than he ever had before. One loose board, one small crack and Daniel would fall. Unfortunately for him, a board with a crack along the middle split and collapsed under his feet. He instantly dropped but his hands instinctively reached out above him. While he was safe for now, he could hear the board he had grabbed creak under his weight. It would not be long until he fell. Looking down at where the filly had grabbed his waist and motioned for her to climb up. She looked into his eyes for a few seconds and finally clambered up his body and onto his head before jumping back onto the bridge and running off to the other side. At least the board now had a little less weight to carry.

Daniel could feel his grip slipping, he had to climb up and quick otherwise all his efforts had come to nothing. He looked behind him to find that the board behind him was still there. He used his other hand quickly to grab it and using the strength of both boards, which admittedly was not much, to push himself back up. As much as he tried, he was simply not strong enough to haul himself up. He struggle and struggled until suddenly, the board in front of him broke and Daniel fell down with it... until his hands found a pair of hooves.

While Scootaloo was only a filly, everypony, no matter what age, was somewhat stronger than humans. As a result, Scootaloo did what an ordinary human would struggle to do. This creature had helped her through the forest; it was time for her to return the favour. She leaned back and pulled as hard as she could, until she eventually pulled the biped up from the abyss. The biped used what strength it had left to lift itself onto the bridge and make a dash for it. There was no time for rest, the bridge was on the verge of collapse and was eerily creaking beneath them. It was only when they reached the other end that the bridge gave way and collapsed entirely. The two of them were close enough to the end that when it did collapse, they jumped from the bridge to the cliff and rolled onto their backs, gasping for air for the second time in this forest.

Meanwhile, the Hydra had stopped at the edge of the gap. The gap was too large for the Hydra to step over it. It had lost. Angered by the escape, the Hydra decided to wander off and went in search of other means of food.

Daniel regained his breath and sat up and observed the area. It was only when he did so that he realised that bridge was the only way on and off of this part of the forest. They were on an island surrounded by a deep canyon. The area was in fact like a castle surrounded by a protective mote, quite literally in fact. Perhaps that is why the castle that once stood tall and proud, now reduced to a ruin, was built here. It mattered not to Daniel at this point, all he wanted was to find a way off of it and help this filly escape back to civilisation or whatever was considered civilisation under the standards of these equines.

He began to formulate a plan, but halted as he almost stepped on a sleeping filly. He could find out how to get off of this prison later, for now he had to get this filly somewhere warm. He saw a collapsed pillar leaning on a wall. The space between the pillar and the floor should be warmer and more enclosed. It would have to do. Gently, he placed the filly under the pillar and placed his coat over her. He wouldn’t need it anyway.

He once again looked over the environment around him and tried to find something to make a bridge with. There were many pillars around him, but moving them could be difficult. Trees were a better option, and there were many near the edge of the island. They were perfect. Some of the trees in this forest were possibly taller than the Tower of London, so there was going to be no problem with determining which tree was long enough. The only thing that bothered him was how to get the tree down. While there were many sharp stones around, both big and small, the trees were surely too thick to cut down with primitive axes. It was his only choice, albeit not a very good one.

He searched for the biggest slate of stone he could find. It was very spherical, so he would have to chip it into the shape of an axe blade. Easier said than done. He then went about the task of finding a handle. A mere stick would break under the pressure of being swung at a tree and then coming to an abrupt stop. Daniel wasn’t a very good carpenter, but he would have to carve a rough handle out of a log. He would have to use a piece of sharp stone as a carving knife and start as soon as possible. Right now however, he needed some well deserved and very much necessary sleep. Whenever he awoke, that is when he would start his work.

He walked over to where the filly was sleeping and sat down next to it. His mind was troubled. What was he going to do when he got this filly away safely? Would he try and fit in with whatever community there was? Would he go insane? Would he end it... end it where he stood and be done with it? He did not know. As he thought over these possibilities, he silently fell asleep.

Chapter 4

Forget Your Past
Chapter 4

Daniel had begun work immediately. He awoke rejuvenated and alive. Like most nights, he did not dream. He simply slept and woke up again. He preferred it that way.

He grabbed the sharp stone that he had designated to be sharp enough to be a knife and grabbed a large thick log no longer than 3 feet. It had likely been smashed off of a tree by a lightning bolt, because it was charred and burnt, but it would have to do. He began to swiftly skin the bark all the while shaping the log to somewhat resemble the shape of an axe handle.
Daniel was working slowly, and all was quite on the island. The filly was still asleep under the pillar, although she was not sleeping very peacefully. Daniel glanced in her direction several times to see if she had awoken, but saw the same scene over and over. A small orange filly snoozing silently and fidgeting uncomfortably under a ruin.

Daniel looked back to his work, and screamed out before dropping the objects in his hands and crawling back. He had been cutting the skin off of a child’s head. The open wounds flayed off of the skull like leaves on a head of cabbage. Blood was searing out of the cuts and began to form a river that ran towards Daniel. The blood was dark, thick and made squelching noises as it flowed. It was more like melting jelly. Much to Daniel’s horror, the eyes of the head shot a pained look towards Daniel. The eyes were practically begging him for mercy. The tongue was flopping out of the mouth and salivating over nothing. Daniel stood up and ran, unaware of what was real and what was not. He ran towards the ruined castle in hopes of sanctuary. A low grumbling sound erupted throughout the world. Suddenly, his path was blocked by a large wall of fleshy web that appeared out of nowhere. Daniel tried to rip through it, but it was like a giant spider’s web, and he was the helpless fly.

Soon after he realised his efforts were futile, Daniel turned around to see a different scene entirely. A solid, wooden bridge was leading from the island to the mainland. The island was covered in blood red roses and was soaked through to the soil in oozing red liquid. But the mainland was covered in bright, wonderful plants that made the dark forest look comforting. Daniel looked at it for a few more seconds before running towards it in joy. He could escape this prison! As he ran across, his joy was soon cut in two and replaced by fear as he fell through the bottom of the bridge. His screams were the only noise heard in the empty abyss. His arms were flailing as he fell down, down, down....

He landed on a concrete floor practically minutes later. His legs somehow withstood the fall. A corridor, similar to any corridor in Brennenburg, began to form. Light was pouring into the usually dark rooms through the windows and dust was clearly visible in the air. The air was thick and Daniel found it hard to breath. The floor was carpeted with red mats with weird shapes and symbols all over them. A door at the end of the corridor creaked open and silently beckoned Daniel forth. Daniel reluctantly complied. He slowly crept towards the mysterious door. When he reached it, he looked out of it and observed the area past the door. The room past the door was fairly big for a place like Brennenburg. There was a large water fountain in the middle of the room with an angelic statue standing on top of a small pillar in the fountain. The walls were covered from top to bottom with the banner of the castle and pictures of the past Barons. At the end of the pictures was Daniel's face. It was after Alexander’s. Daniel froze once he heard footsteps. He heard the distinct sound of a Gatherer. He turned to try and find a place to hide from the Gatherer only to see a large wall blocking his path. He was trapped. He banged the wall with his fists and willed the wall to disappear, but it was no use. He looked around to see the silhouette of a Gatherer standing tall above him. He cowered as it brought its metallic claw down on him...

Daniel felt a small hoof tap him on the shoulder. He looked up to see the orange filly looking at him curiously. He didn’t have to look up because he was at the same height as the filly whilst cowering on the floor. Once his confusion had dissipated and he realised what had happened, he sighed out all of his tension and let himself fall on his back. He immediately sat back up after his head hit nothing, indicating how close to the edge of the cliff he really was. Whatever was giving him these dreams knew of his past and wanted him dead or so traumatised, he wouldn’t want to be alive. Daniel, realising that he had worried the small filly, patted her on the head gently which seemed to kill all thoughts in her head that he was still in a world of his own.

Satisfied that he was back in the conscious world, the filly ran back over to the pillar and snuggled under Daniel’s ragged, green coat. Daniel smiled gently at the scene and stood up. He was sure that the longer he stayed in this forest, the more hallucinations would be fed to him. This was his theory anyway. Whether it was true or not, Daniel didn’t care, it was just another motive to get him out of the forest and fast. He began work on the log again, satisfied of course that it was a log again. He began to calmly slice away the wood in order to make it resemble a handle. He didn’t know how to balance the handle, and he didn’t know how to smooth it, he just hoped that it turned out alright. He once more looked over to the pillar to see the filly sleeping again, albeit she was fidgeting every now and then. He smiled and told himself, ‘Everything is fine. We will make it out of here alive.’

Author's Note

Sorry if the music isn't quite in time with the text, I tried my best. Also, this is actually in two parts, this is the first part.

Chapter 4.5

Forget Your Past
Chapter 4.5

Chop! Chop! Chop!

Daniel, after creating a somewhat rough handle shape, had smashed the slate of rock into an axe blade by putting it in between his foot and a wall. It hardly resembled an axe blade at all, but it would be fine for his next task.

Chop! Chop! Chop!

He then fitted the blade into the handle quite forcefully and began chopping at a tree positioned near the edge of the small island.

Chop! Chop! Chop!

Slowly but surely, the hole in the side of the tree grew bigger and bigger.

Chop! Chop! Chop!

Daniel was tiring from the work of swinging the axe. The blunt blade he was using was making it hard to make any progress with the tree. The hole grew another millimetre as he hit it with the axe.

Chop! Chop! Chop!

Daniel rested from his work. He put the axe on the ground and gathered his strength for the next bout of swinging.

Chop!

‘What was that?’ Daniel thought. He wasn’t swinging any axe of any sort, but the chopping noise still resounded throughout the air.

Chop!

There it was again. Daniel began to frantically look around.

Chop!

The world around him began to morph. Daniel soon found himself in the middle of some sort of kitchen filled with pigs hanging on meat hooks. All of the kitchen utensils were spread across the floor and work surface. Blood was dripping from the open rib cages of the dead pigs and the smell of rotting corpses dominated the air.

Chop!

And the chopping had not ceased. Daniel cautiously crept past the pigs and the kitchen work surfaces to reach a door. He grabbed the handle with one hand and pulled. His vision blurred and he stumbled backwards as a loud groan came from behind the door. Fully aware of the situation, Daniel desperately looked in the kitchen for a place of hiding. His eyes fell upon an oven. In his time of despair, he opened the door of the oven and clambered clumsily inside. The sound of the door finally being swung open was heard and the low sound of frustrated grumbling followed. Daniel froze in place and held his breath. Several times the Gatherer walked past his hiding spot, each time it did, Daniel tensed up and prepared for the worst. Eventually, the Gatherer got bored of looking in the kitchen and left out of an unseen door.

Daniel, satisfied that the Gatherer had left, abandoned his hiding spot and ran out of the door in which the Gatherer had entered.

Chop!

He knew he would have to do. Find the source of that bloody chopping. He turned a corner to see a black void with invisible lights shining on an empty path. With no other way to go, Daniel followed the path.

Chop!

It took Daniel several minutes to reach the end of the path. Until then, his walk had been anything but eventful. When he reached the end, however, he was met with a wall with a strange projection on it. On the wall, Daniel could see his own silhouette chopping at something with an axe.

Chop!

But what was he chopping at?

Chop!

Was it a tree or a piece of wood?

Chop! Squelch!

Oh no! This was silhouette was not chopping at wood. When the figure brought down the axe, a spurt of blood hit the wall. The blood was real and physical. The wall became redder with each swing.

Chop! Squelch!

Daniel became more and more horrified with each swing. All those he had tortured... All those he had killed...

Chop! Squelch!

He couldn’t watch anymore. He wanted it to stop. He began to weep. He shouted at his silhouette to stop. He cursed himself for committing those sins in Brennenburg. He was now sure this was hell.

Chop! Squelch!

He couldn’t take it. Sorrow turned to rage. He ran up to the wall and smashed it repeatedly. Each hit released his pure rage onto the wall. To his surprise, he could feel it moving.

Chop! Squelch!

It was time to end this suffering. With a loud battle cry, he kicked the wall. After his brutal attack, the wall collapsed showing a way out of the darkness. Behind the wall was a large beam of sunlight. Daniel was standing in the exposed sunlight next to the hole in the wall. He smiled as the chopping stopped, but his smile faded as he heard a low moan. He turned to see a Gatherer running through the darkness towards him.

Daniel immediately ran for the hole, but it retreated away from him when he got close to it. He wasn’t about to stop and try and explain this strange occurrence, he needed to get away. He turned to see the Gatherer still chasing him. He got to the hole again, but it retreated another 20 yards away from him. Daniel was panting hard and sweating. He had to get away from the monster, but this world was betraying him. He couldn’t keep up with it. Annoyed and desperate, Daniel got within 5 feet of the hole, but instead of running, he jumped through it. To his surprise, the hole stayed put and he went through. When he landed, he looked behind him to see the Gatherer about to run through when the hole closed up behind him with piles of rocks and boulders. All Daniel could see of the Gatherer was its hands poking out of the pile.

Daniel, still shaken by the experience, shakily stood up and walked. The sunlight had disappeared and his hands were bloodied and bruised from punching the wall. He looked up at his surroundings and tried to determine where he was now. He recognised the area as the prison in Brennenburg. He was surrounded by corridors, each one lined with prison cells with people inside chained by their wrists. The sounds of people moaning and crying filled the air. Daniel walked onwards, aware that releasing these people was an impossible task without the key. Suddenly, he realised why else he might be here. He looked towards the hole he had jumped through and confirmed his suspicions. The hole behind him had morphed into the hole made by the little girl who had escaped. He needed to stop himself before he murdered her. He remembered where he had murdered her. The storage room!

Suddenly with purpose, Daniel ran to the elevator and pulled the lever. He intended to stop himself from doing something he would soon regret. When the elevator stopped, ran out and ran towards the storage room. The room he had run into had a water fountain by a group of windows with light pouring in. A flight of stair on either side of the room led to the study and guest room. He was in the right place alright.

“No! Please I’m sorry!” A young girls voice cried out in the darkness. His speed increased. “Please don’t hurt me!” She cried. He turned another corner and saw the stairs leading to the place of murder. “No! Help me!” He was not going to fail her!

He turned the final corner to see his own shadow looming over a little blonde girl. He charged at his form and slammed it to the floor. He only had to glance at the doppelganger to realise that it had no texture. Its form was built from darkness and it had black flames flaying off of it. Daniel looked besides him to see the axe it would have used. He picked it up and sliced the shadows head clean off. Daniel turned to the girl who had tears running down her cheeks. He grabbed her in an embrace.

“Don’t worry. It’s going to be alright.”

The world around him changed. He suddenly found himself in the forest with his axe lying next to him. On his other side was a dead Timberwolf. In his arms was a weeping Pegasus filly. ‘What had happened?’ he thought.

10 minutes earlier.

Scootaloo awoke from her extremely long slumber. She could hear wood being chopped and looked over to see the biped chopping at a tree with a very quickly assembled axe. She decided to let her head rest for several more minutes.
It was not long before the chopping stopped and Scootaloo looked to see why. To her horror, the biped was gone!

Panicking, she got up and began to search for it. She first looked where the biped had been. She stood at where it had been chopping and looked around at where it could be. Nothing. She decided to move on. As she passed a bunch of bushes, she heard a faint rustling noise. She swore she could see a pair of eyes trying desperately not to look at her. That was enough for her, she needed to get out of there. She was helpless without the creature to defend her. She searched down the side of the castle for it, but stop in her search once she heard a faint banging noise coming from the front area of the castle. She ran back, hopeful that the creature had returned. What she saw confused her. Standing there at the tree was the biped. What surprised her was that it was punching the tree. Slowly but surely, the tree bent lower and lower. It had managed to chop at the tree enough to make it weak. If she wanted to, she could get it down in one buck. She caught a glimpse of the creature’s face. Its face was strained, not with the amount of effort it was putting into attacking the tree, but with anger. The creature looked furious. Eventually, it kicked the tree and smashed it to the ground.

Scootaloo was ecstatic, there was finally a way off of this island. She ran up to the biped, but upon seeing her, it ran. She saw fear in its eyes, like the eyes she saw in the bushes. It was scared of her again, but why? The creature seemed unfazed by the fact it was running across a log, but that didn’t stop it from almost stumbling off of the log. She, however, was fully aware of the danger and slowly crawled across.

She could not keep up with it and soon it vanished into the forest. She now realised that she was indeed alone again in the forest. The darkness around her seemed to consume her slowly as she slowly crept into a state of sorrow again. She curled up into a ball and waited patiently for her saviour to come. After all, he never stayed in this state before. Her hopes of the biped returning in time were shattered when a low growling sound emitted in the nearby bushes. Scootaloo slowly turned her head to see a Timberwolf looming over her. She bucked it in the face as hard as she could which unfortunately wasn’t very hard. The now enraged Timberwolf grabbed the filly by the leg as she tried to run and raised a claw over her head. In a final attempt to save herself, she cried out to her saviour. “Help me!” Within seconds, the biped tackled the beast and pinned it to the ground. He raised his hastily made axe and chopped its head clean off. Luckily Scootaloo had looked away as it raised its hand. Scootaloo was crying now, but tears of joy, not of sorrow.

Daniel embraced the filly harder as she struggled to break out a hoof. The filly began to pathetically smack him with her hoof as she cried. Daniel could only imagine angry she must have been. He had left her in the dark with no one to help her and disappeared. He got there just in the nick of time. He needed to get out of this forest before these hallucinations killed the poor filly. Slowly, he stood up and began to walk in a random direction. As he walked, one thought escaped his mind. ‘Whose castle was that?’

Chapter 5

Forget Your Past
Chapter 5

Miserable, knackered, concerned and lonely. That summed up Daniel right about now. He was miserable because they were still walking around the ghastly forest. He was knackered because of the reason above. He was lonely because even this little filly wasn’t providing much company. The lack of communication and the fact that all the filly did was wrap itself around his waist and never let go since the incident at the island meant that it wasn’t very interesting to have around. He was concerned for several reasons. What was he going to do after he saved this filly? Why was he even here? If Weyer had managed to force the Shadow to release its prisoners, where was Alexander?

Suddenly, the forest ahead cleared slightly to form a corridor where the walls were trees. This was obviously not natural. Daniel looked down at his feet and instantly a spark of hope erupted in him. This was a path. A genuine dirt path created for walking on. Civilisation was near! Daniel almost jumped in the air and yelled gratuitously but he held his joy at bay.

Scootaloo had noticed the creature stop and looked down at the floor in front of them. She too filled with joy and hope as a path was clearly visible in front of them. She looked up to see a smile on the creatures face. Unlike the biped, Scootaloo bothered not to keep her joy at bay and instead chose to jump down off of the creature’s waist and run down the path. She turned to see the biped slowly following her. Even so, she beckoned it to hurry up.

Daniel shared the filly’s joy and followed her down the path. Whether it was the right way, neither of them knew. Daniel had a spring in his step as he walked. He had never felt this happy in his life. They finally had a chance of getting out!

It did not take long before light began to pour onto their path. Scootaloo was overjoyed. They had finally made their way back to Ponyville and it was still day!

Soon after light began to illuminate their path, they came to the edge of the forest. Scootaloo could clearly see Fluttershy’s cottage near the edge of the forest and ran to it immediately, excited over the idea of seeing another pony for the first time in weeks. She turned again to see the biped simply leaning on a tree.

Daniel didn’t know what to do at that point. He had been thinking about what he would do at this point and an attempt to warm up to the local community seemed like a good idea, but there was still the problem of communication. Whenever the filly tried to talk to him, she just sounded like she was making horse sounds like the horses at home. It just wasn’t going to work. Daniel considered making the forest his home, he had gotten through it just fine after all. His only other option was to try and find Alexander. He had his doubts that Alexander had tagged along with him, but it was always likely. Alexander was a slippery one after all.

Daniel had been leaning on a tree until he felt something tug at his trouser leg. He looked down to see the filly pulling him towards the cottage that lay just ahead. He silently complied and moved cautiously towards the house. He noticed that there were many birds and animals like squirrels that lived in trees as well as rabbits near the house, either eating or resting. There was also a chicken coop next the cottage with several hens inside. Whoever lived here loved animals.
Scootaloo tapped on the door several times before waiting quite impatiently on the door step. It soon opened and Fluttershy emerged.

Daniel looked down to see a slightly higher equine open the door. This one was yellow with a pink mane and also bore wings. When it saw the filly, it looked a little more than surprised at first then sighed with relief. The two embraced for a moment. The yellow horse then looked up at Daniel. Daniel swore he heard a small ‘eep’ before the yellow horse grabbed the filly and ran back inside before slamming the door on Daniel’s face. Daniel was a tad disappointed that his first impressions weren’t going so well, but another part of him said that this was perfect and he could now search for Alexander unhindered. He began to walk in the direction of the forest.

Meanwhile, Scootaloo was desperately trying to convince Fluttershy that the monster that had just appeared at her doorstep was friendly.

“Come on Fluttershy! It helped me out of the forest! Doesn’t that count for something?” She argued.

“Yes, but it was so tall and I have never seen anything like it before.” She said in a barely audible tone.

“You must have! There isn’t a creature under Celestia’s sun that you haven’t seen before! It kinda looked like a hairless monkey to me. Maybe it’s a different species?”

“I don’t know. Besides, it wore clothes. And the clothes it wore were so dirty and ragged.”

“That’s because of all the stuff we went through in the forest.”

“What sort of stuff?” She asked.

“Really cool stuff! First it beat up a Cockatrice, with my help of course. Then it outran a buncha Timberwolves and smacked one in the face with a burning stick. Then it ran across a bridge to escape a Hydra and then it kicked down a tree!” Fluttershy grew visibly smaller with each statement. This creature looked and sounded so violent to her. She wanted no part of this, but it did help Scootaloo out of the forest so maybe it wasn’t all so bad.

“What else did it do? Did it do anything other than all that violent stuff?” She asked.

“Hmm, now that you mention it, it acted kinda weird sometimes. Like, after it outran the wolves, it looked at me like it was scared of me and fainted. Then it cowered from me twice after we ran across the bridge and got stuck on an island thingy. I think that was pretty much it.”

“Why was it scared of you?” She asked.

“I dunno. Maybe it was seeing things. I don’t know how long it has been in the Everfree but I know even I was going a little crazy.” Fluttershy knew what this sounded like. It sounded like emotional or mental trauma.

“Poor thing!” She suddenly burst out. “We simply must make sure it is alright!” And with that she flung the door open to... nothing. The creature was no longer there. A part of Fluttershy was celebrating. The creature had disappeared and now she didn’t have to do anything. Another part of her told her that whatever this creature was, it obviously needed help. It seemed to be having vivid hallucinations and that was no laughing matter. She was fairly certain it had retreated into the Everfree forest so going alone with Scootaloo was out of the question. She had to get her friends and fast, there was no telling what dangers it might run into, and with its unstable mind, it was unlikely to survive.

“Scootaloo, I want you to find Rainbow and Pinkie. I will find the others.”

“Why?”

“Because we are going to find and help that poor creature immediately. It can’t have gone far.”

“Awesome!” Scootaloo was not sure whether she was more excited about the adventure that lay ahead or that she was going to spend it with her idol.

Daniel knew where he was going first. Alexander was likely holed up somewhere safe. Daniel had already come across one castle. Who is to say that Alexander didn’t come across either? Only once he knew that Alexander was either not here or he was dead would Daniel go back to the cottage and try and establish some form of communication. This was his fight, he needed his redemption and he needed it now. It was not going to be easy.

Chapter 6

Forget Your Past
Chapter 6

Daniel kept on running through the forest, fairly certain that he was on the right track. He was beginning to regret his decision. Every now and then he would stop and rest, bored out of his mind. He would make a small fire and set it alight with a bit of flint he had found and sleep. His boredom made him wish that he still had that little orange filly to keep him company. He kept on looking back at the way he just came, wishing he would have made a better impression. He hoped he could soon return to that cottage and make amends, although he wasn’t sure what he had done wrong to cause such a reaction in the equine. He had scared that poor Pegasus to death somehow but he didn’t stay to see what else happened. Maybe if he had stayed longer the filly would have convinced the older horse to see that he wasn’t a big scary monster she probably thought he was. He wasn’t even sure if they could talk detailed conversations with each other.

Daniel stopped to rest again. While he set up a small fire, he looked around the small clearing he had managed to find. He thought he saw a Gatherer running from his clearing. This confused him. It was usually him to be running. This sighting was enough to scare Daniel away from sleeping; he rested on the floor with his eyes open the whole time, waiting for something to happen.

Several days prior.

“Explain to me why we are doing this again?” Rainbow Dash complained. She didn’t mind the idea of journeying in to the Everfree with her friends, but she had much more important things to do other than searching for some creature. Napping was one of the items on her list.

“Because the creature that saved Scootaloo ran off into the Everfree. Since it saved Scootaloo, we should give it some sort of thanks. Also, from what Scootaloo told me, it is suffering from some sort of mental trauma, and I am not going to sit by and let it suffer.” Fluttershy was being more assertive than usual. She had gathered her friends together along with Scootaloo and filled them in on what they were about to do. She had to explain her reasoning several times. She obviously thought that this was very important.

“Fluttershy, we can’t just jump to conclusions. I don’t even know if animals can suffer mental instability. Besides, what thanks can we give to an animal?”

“Ooh! We can throw it a Thanks-saving-Scootaloo-from-being-eaten-by-monsters Party!” Pinkie cried out, looking very proud of her idea. Everypony simply stared. “What?” She asked. “I threw Gummy a Birthday Party and he appreciated it! Why won’t this creature appreciate a party?” Twilight shook her head before speaking again.

“What did this creature look like anyway? You said you have never seen anything like it before.”

“It was really big and scary and stood on two legs. I didn’t get a very good look because I rudely slammed the door on it, but it looked like hairless monkey to me. The strangest thing is it was wearing clothes, but they were all torn up.” Rarity’s eyes widen slightly. At that moment, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom came up to the group behind Scootaloo. Scootaloo saw this.

“Can we come to?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Sorry girls. The Everfree is too dangerous for you fillies.” Twilight said.

“Aw come on! Why not? We’ll be under your supervision!” Sweetie Belle practically screamed. The six mares seemed to consider this point for a moment.

“Yea. Plus, we promise not to mess anything up! We can go with you to till we get to Zecora’s place!” Applebloom persisted.

“But we might not be passing Zecora. I’m sorry girls but you are staying here and that is final.” Twilight stated. This caused the two excited fillies to emit an ‘Aw!’ sound simultaneously. Twilight wasn’t convinced. They never gave up this easily.

Scootaloo had expected Rainbow Dash to support her friends. She was usually more eager to go on adventures in the Everfree with them even if it was likely to be a wild goose chase. She seemed a bit more reluctant to go this time. Maybe she was practicing for the Wonderbolts again? Besides, they would be fine under supervision of the others right? She never saw fear when they went into the Everfree, in fact it had become almost a regular thing for them now.

“I’m still going as well aren’t I?” Scootaloo asked hopefully.

“Sorry sugarcube, you’re staying here to.”

“Bu- bu-!”

“No buts! You barely made it out of the Everfree in the first place.”

“Hold on one second here! Why’re ya’ll going anyway?” Applebloom queried.

“That ain’t none of your conce-” Applejack began.

“We are going to find a weird two legged creature that nopony has seen before in the Everfree because Fluttershy thinks it might be insane!” Pinkie interrupted. Applejack scowled at her.

“Ah thought we agreed not ta share that detail!” Pinkie stared at her blankly before smiling and speaking again.

“Oh yea. Oopsey.” She giggled awkwardly.

“I told you so.” Scootaloo said. The other two ignored her. Scootaloo had bumped into her friends whilst searching for Pinkie (which is easier said than done) and had told them why they were going into the Everfree. Her friends didn’t believe her.

“So like a monster hunt? Awesome!” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle jumped in the air.

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MONSTER HUNTERS!” They shouted simultaneously. When they realised that the mares were giving them a stern look, they slowly floated to the floor again.

“What’s wrong?” Asked Sweetie Belle.
“You aren’t coming with us. You will have to crusade for your Cutie Marks some other way.”

“Aw!” They both looked towards Scootaloo to see her scowling at them.

“What’s up with you?” Applebloom said.

“Don’t call him a monster! He helped me escape Timberwolves, Cockatrices and Hydras. Somepony who does that is no monster in my books.”

“Ah didn’t know ya had books.” Scootaloo merely facehoofed.

“It was a figure of speech.” Sweetie Belle helpfully pointed out.

“Anyway. So can we please come?” Scootaloo said before realising that the six mares had snuck off without them.

“Don’t worry girls, we’re gonna follow them!” Scootaloo eagerly stated.

“That’s a great idea! We just gotta make sure not to get caught. We’ll be fine!” Sweetie Belle said. “Let’s go!”
“But wait.” The other two crusaders shouted after Sweetie Belle who was already walking into the forest. “We don’t even know they’re going!”

Several days later.

Fluttershy had explained to the others that the creature had come across the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, according to what Scootaloo had told her when they were searching for them, and if it was going anywhere, that was where it would go. Twilight had remembered the route to the castle from last time they went and they began to make good process. Rainbow Dash flew above to see if she could see anything through the incredibly foggy skies. The group was completely unaware of the 3 fillies following closely behind. Each time the group rested, the fillies found a place to sleep nearby and nabbed small bits of food to keep them going. Scootaloo reminded her two friends why eating the fruits was an incredibly bad idea. They didn’t know which ones were poisonous and which weren’t. Of course Scootaloo had a faint idea of which ones were which, but she decided that she didn’t want to risk it again. She barely got lucky with only finding safe ones and ones that paralyse you when she was with the biped.

On a particularly clear day, Rainbow Dash reported that she could see small clouds of smoke arising nearby, but the thick canopy made it barely visible. It was late and they were all tired, but this might be their chance to find the creature. The plan was to try and get it back to Ponyville, but its unstable nature was going to make that slightly more difficult than usual. Unlike most rescues in the Everfree, the creature would likely try and resist, so some force might be required to get it back. Applejack had brought her lasso and Rarity and Twilight were ready with their magic. Fluttershy protested against these courses of action, but after being convinced that if it was insane, it would likely lash out at them if they got close, she reluctantly accepted that they were the only way.

They slowly approached the area in which smoke was arising from, the group of three fillies close behind. When they arrived, they saw the huge biped lying there next to a fire. The fire was in a small clearing surrounded by rocks and trees.

“Looks like it is more intelligent than we originally thought.” Twilight stated. Immediately the creature looked in their direction making them jump slightly.

Daniel heard the groan of a Gatherer very close behind him. He counted himself lucky for resisting sleep. He looked behind him to see six creatures. One of them was a Gatherer, but the other five had variations. Two of them were like grotesque forms of Angels like the statues on the sides of Cathedrals. Their skin was rotting slowly and their wings were ripped and torn. Their oral areas were rotting and teeth were evidently missing. Their eyes, like Gatherers, were bulging out like they were being squeezed out. Two more were like Gatherers, but were slightly floating. The still attached hand had a strange aura glowing around it, and the clawed hand was much more clawed. One of them was also a Gatherer but the clawed hand was instead built with a whip like attachment that extended as the Gatherer lashed out to grab at something. What Daniel did not realise at this point was that these were the grotesque visions of Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie that a very powerful entity had provided Daniel’s mind with. Without a second thought as to the actual situation, he ran as fast as he could in the direction he was sure to go. He began to pant heavily and looked behind him briefly to see the six Gatherer-like creatures running after him at full speed.

Twilight wasn’t expecting this kind of reaction from the creature. She expected it to become violent and attack them. They didn’t hesitate to run after it. Rainbow Dash decided against going up above the trees because the canopy was thicker here than anywhere else and she would not be able to see anything. She instead decided to fly low so she had a better speed advantage. This creature was a lot faster than they had anticipated, but they were slowly catching up to it.

Daniel the trees around them being replaced by rocks and boulders. Seeing his opportunity to lose these abominations by turning corners, he did a double turn so he cut line of sight of from the monsters and jumped once more behind another boulder. He heard the confused groans and moans of the Gatherers as he practically disappeared from their sight. Deciding he wasn’t going to risk another chase scene, he found a small rock and chucked it in the opposite direction of where he was going. Satisfied with hearing the creatures shuffle off in another direction, he began to move again, unaware of the six eyes watching him with excitement.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were amazed at this creature. It had barely outran six mares, including two pegasi, and tricked the same six mares into thinking it was somewhere else. They eagerly watched it march off in the direction of the castle with intent to follow it. And follow it they did.

Chapter 7

Forget Your Past
Chapter 7

“I can’t believe we lost it!” Twilight screamed whilst pacing. It was fair to say that she was not entirely ecstatic about having lost this two legged creature that was obviously a lot slower than they were. “We practically had it in our hooves! We would have it if you had caught it when I told you to!”

“Hey! Don’t go blamin’ us now sugarcube. It ain’t our fault.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry. I’m just so annoyed!” Twilight stated before pacing again.

“Hey Twilight, no offence but you might wanna stop the pacing. You’re digging into the ground.” Twilight looked to the ground in response to Rainbow to see she had indeed made a trench in the floor.

“Oops.” She clambered out and sat on her haunches to avoid making anymore holes in the ground.

“So what are we gonna do now?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

“We are going to continue towards the castle. We came across it on the way to the castle, so maybe it is still on its way there.”

“Are ya sure about this one sugarcube?”

“It’s our only choice at the moment, yes I’m pretty sure.” Twilight responded. Without hesitation, she led her friends on the path to the castle.

“Come on girls. We can’t lose it.” Scootaloo whispered in case it was near.

“Scoots, we are never gonna lose it if keeps insisting on making fires all the time. Plus, its odour would kill my sister if she got anywhere near it.” Sweetie Belle rather honestly replied. The biped obviously didn’t care that the six mares had found it through its usage of a fire and was beginning to make another as they spoke.

“It stinks ‘cause it probably hasn’t bathed in months. Now could you please stop putting it down like this.” Scootaloo had recently grown emotionally close to the biped because of what it did. Any down talk about it was immediately attacked verbally by her.

“I’m not ‘putting it down’, I am merely stating facts.” Sweetie Belle counter argued.

“Will ya’ll please just zip it! All this arguing Ah’ve heard constantly ain’t necessary!” Applebloom said sternly.
Slowly, the three fillies made their way to the nearby bushes next to the clearing the creature had chosen as its temporary abode. They were getting quite bored very quickly as all they were doing is watching an unusual biped sleep. They were also unaware that when their actions were worded, they were quite creepy to think about. After awhile, Scootaloo ran up to the biped and snuggled up besides it, clearly ignorant of them smell. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle just stood there, dumbfounded.

“Scootaloo! What are you doing!?!” Sweetie Belle half-shouted half-whispered through clenched teeth.

“What? It looked lonely. Besides, I’m cold.” She replied.

Daniel lazily placed the fire wood in the ring of stones and lit the pile with the flint. His mind was clouded by why he had seen six Gatherers earlier. It confused him as to why he kept having these hallucinations. He certainly didn’t feel like he had the symptoms of post-traumatic-stress. He silently joked that he should have another Amnesia potion to hopefully drain the hallucinations away. At least then his fears would stop popping up everywhere. After awhile of sitting next to the fire, he began to actually consider this option before realising that he was likely in a different world entirely meaning Damascus Roses were likely nonexistent. He unconsciously frowned at this realisation.

After a long while, the orange filly he had saved days earlier ran up to him and snuggled up to his side. From somewhere in the bushes, horse whinnies could be heard and the filly whinnied back. Daniel smiled to himself. Just another illusion.

As the night passed on, six mares also began to tire and decided that now was a good time to rest up for the following day. After the fire had been constructed, they began to strike up small talk between each other. Twilight began to soak up all the information that was being passed around the camp site. She was generally unsurprised by the reactions of her peers.

Fluttershy was worried about her animal friends back home, because she had forgotten to get someone to care for them. There were two reasons for this. They had been so hasty to get going that she had forgotten completely about them and that she hadn’t expected to be gone this long and for the biped to be this slippery.

Rarity was constantly complaining about how her hooves were rather unkempt and that she was running out of clothes from monster hunting. Strangely enough, she had brought a large stack of boxes which undoubtedly contained Rarity’s endless supply of stylish fashion items.

Applejack was worried about her brother and sister (although little to her knowledge, Applebloom was not far ahead) and whether Big Mac could handle the orchard on his own.

Rainbow Dash was worried that she would forget even the tiniest detail of her routines for the Wonderbolts. Other than that, she was fairly eager for another chase scene. She was gratuitously boasting about how she would definitely catch the biped next time.

Pinkie Pie was generally unfazed by any worries that she may have had. In fact, she was having a whale of a time bonding with her friends on this little adventure. Her only worry was that the biped was going to be offended by them when they dragged it back to Ponyville so they could check to see if it was insane or not. She promised to herself that she would throw the biped a Sorry-for-dragging-you-back-here-to-see-if-you-are-insane Party.

Twilight found herself worrying over Spike and the library. She had told Spike to keep good care of himself and of the library while she was gone when Fluttershy had told her that they needed to go quickly. She was also planning on her next move for when they found the biped again. She came up with a simple flanking technique that she was sure her friends would be able to carry out with ease. She looked into the distance towards their destination. She squinted her eyes to see if she could see anything through the thick foliage. Nothing. And with that, she curled up to avoid getting cold over night so she could go to sleep, but was interrupted by Pinkie.

“Twilight! Don’t go to sleep yet! We have scary stories to tell!”

Daniel shifted uncomfortably. He was still awake and hearing a loud groan in the distance was not a comforting thing to hear in the pitch black. Ignoring his temporary home and the filly he was sure was an illusion (why would she return) and ran off in the direction of the castle again.

His pace was quickened as he heard an even louder roar. He turned, expecting to see a Gatherer running after him. Instead, he was knocked off of his feet by a large paw. He turned to see his attacker before it pounced on him. What he saw resembled the Manticore or ‘man eater’ from Greek mythology. What he had read about these creatures is that ate everything of a man. Skin, clothes and bone. Nothing was left.

The Manticore bore two red wings and a Scorpion’s tail. This abomination was now on top him, about ready to tear his head off. Thinking fast, Daniel grabbed at the floor for some loose dirt. He threw it at the attacker’s face resulting in mud patches over the Manticore’s eyes. This attack was surprisingly effective as it allowed Daniel to roll away from underneath it. Without a second thought, Daniel ran a fair distance from the beast and hid behind a large boulder.

After a few minutes of silence, Daniel peeked around the side of the boulder to check if the monster was still there. He screamed out as his face met with that of the Manticore’s. Again on the floor and this time fairly certain that if he tried to run, he would be eaten, Daniel scrambled back in a desperate attempt to escape to some small, confined space in which he could hide. The Manticore stopped dead as a small horse whinny came from behind the beast. Daniel looked behind the Manticore to see a very unwelcome sight. There stood the orange filly, visibly trying to remain in place against the urge to run. The poor filly was clearly shaking at the mere sight of the Manticore.

Seizing the opportunity to strike, Daniel grabbed a quite hefty stone and swung it blindly at the Manticore’s head. Being that it was otherwise distracted, it could not react and so the stone met its temple, causing it to stagger. The filly and Daniel both stood, waiting for something to happen as the Manticore placed its paw on a nearby tree for balance like a drunken man. Eventually, it waddled over to a nearby cave and collapsed. Daniel doubted that it was dead, it was simply stunned and likely passed out. Daniel looked towards the advancing filly. It looked up happily at him, obviously ecstatic to see him.

During the little brawl they had, Daniel discovered that this was quite obviously not an illusion, but a grateful filly who has likely returned to him, worried that returning to this forest was not quite a sensible idea. As he expected, the filly beckoned him to come with it, likely back to the cottage. Daniel refused this kind and innocent offer with a dismissive hand and turned to walk in the castle’s direction, completely oblivious as to why he first abandoned his camp and completely unaware of the persistent filly marching alongside him, constantly tugging and pushing at his legs to come back.

Twilight and the others had heard roaring in the distance, quite conveniently placed as the story they were listening to had reached a point where a roar was indeed necessary. That was enough for Twilight to insist that it was time for bed, Fluttershy however insisted that the roar was a roar of pain. Instantly forgetting the fear of being in the forest, she bolted in the direction of the noise to see what had happened. When she came across the Manticore in its cave with a huge split across its temple, she instantly became the Manticore’s mother. What she failed to notice (which Twilight did notice) is that there was a trail of blood leading from the Manticore to a rather large rock. Something had attacked this animal. Twilight only knew one animal nearby that could pick up rocks and swing them about. The biped lived up to the heroic stories that Fluttershy had heard from Scootaloo. They needed to find it before it caused anymore pain and agony in the Everfree.

Chapter 8

Forget Your Past
Chapter 8

Daniel had found it! The castle he had seen on the island he resided on for a few hours. The tree he had knocked down was still there and still in place. It was perfect. Daniel confidently marched towards the edge of the cliff where the tree-bridge was and cautiously clambered across. When he crossed, he looked up to the castle and exhaled deeply. ‘I’m coming for you Alexander,’ he thought. And with that he marched onwards, unaware of the six mares looking for him inside.

Scootaloo had overslept next to the biped that night. She had been persisting on attacking his legs to get him to come back to Ponyville. It was not complying. Scootaloo was extremely disappointed to awaken and the biped not being there, only her two friends staring down at her with concern. Slowly, fighting the urges to keep on resting, she rose and shot her friends a stern look.

“What?” She asked them sharply.

“Are ya’ll okay? You seem a little down.” It was true. Scootaloo was deeply disappointed but also somewhat afraid. The biped, the same one that had gotten her out of this mess before, had abandoned her. There was no turning back now, they had to keep going. They knew where they were heading, they had overheard Twilight mention their location several times and Scootaloo knew relatively where they were going.

“I’m not ‘down’, I’m just a bit annoyed. I mean, that creature just left us here by ourselves and expects us to be able to fend for ourselves?” She began to shout, but immediately looked towards the floor in sorrow. “No, it saved me once, I can’t ask anymore from it.” She lost her interest in the floor and looked up to her friends again. “Well there is no turning back now! We have to follow it. Come on! I know the way... I think.” And with that she ran off towards the castle with her friends in tow.

“But wait! Scootaloo! I want to go home! It’s cold out here!”

“Do you expect us to be able to get back without that creature? We have to find it.”

“Ah hate ta say it Sweetie, but she ain’t wrong.”

“All right girls, we’re here. Now, if we are going to find the monster more effectively, we are going to have to separate each area so it can’t proceed without our say. Do we each know our places?” Twilight questioned them. The hall filled with “Yes,” and “I think so,” and “It’s so... dark.” Twilight nodded in satisfaction and continued. “Good, now then. If you see the creature, call out to us as loud as you can. If you hear somepony else calling out, call out as well so the rest of us can hear you. Move out!” And with that, the six mares spread out in different directions. Applejack stayed in the Entrance Hall which where they had met. Pinkie Pie went into the Storage Area connected to the Kitchen next to the Entrance Hall. Fluttershy went into the Stairwell that led to from the Entrance Hall to the storage area and other such areas. Twilight went to the Machine Room that used to open a large gate leading to the Throne Room. Rainbow Dash went to the Throne Room itself and Rarity went to the Royal Dressers Room located in the Stairwell.

Daniel silently opened the large double doors that were the entrance to the castle. Despite their old age, they hardly creaked at all. The castle looked bigger on the inside than on the outside. On the far wall of the hall were two long and narrow banners, their colours long since lost. A large podium with five small spheres branching off on stands and one large sphere on the top stood tall and proud then the end of the hall. Two corridors web off in two different directions with several rooms inside. The walls are lined with glass windows with pictures of obviously famous events stained into the glass.

Daniel walked up to the podium with interest to see a small hole in the front. ‘A key!’ Daniel thought. He began to look around for some sort of chest. There were none in sight. ‘Of course, it is never that easy’ Daniel thought, rather disappointed. He decided to explore the corridor on his left first, in some hope that one of the storage rooms contained the key. Two more doors led to two rooms in that corridor. Daniel tried the nearest one, and his eyes met a stone table with a lot of papers on it. Lining the walls were bookcases with a huge array of books likely in another language.

He walked up to the table to see a very clear drawing of some sort of lantern. Then there were instructions as to the construction of the lantern with gibberish written next to each illustration. The first drawing showed an empty lantern casing. The next illustration showed a small contraption being fitted into the lantern. The contraption was very similar to a compass, only without the needle and N, E, S and W. The contraption fitted into the base of the lantern, but Daniel was unaware of what it was for. The third and final drawing showed the lantern being lit by a particular fire in the entrance hall, one behind the podium. Daniel noticed that the top drawing showed the lantern shining on the key to the entrance. Daniel was unaware of what the meaning of this was, but he had no other choice but to construct the lantern.

He went through the next door to see piles upon piles of weird and wonderful cogs and springs as well as plates of steel and other metal pieces of machinery on the floor and on shelves. Large containers dotted the long room and likely contained an even wider variety of machinery. ‘Wonderful,’ Daniel thought, ‘The pieces are likely to be in here somewhere. Guess I better get searching.’ And get searching he did. He began to throw different bits of metal over his shoulder and he dived into piles of bits and bobs till he found a small curved metal contraption like the one in the picture. With nothing else to go with, he pocketed it and continued his search.

Suddenly, his vision blurred and he heard the groans of a Gatherer. Thinking fast, he hid behind one of the large containers in the room. He could hear the door being smashed open. When the door opened, all the metal pieces that were blocking the door poured out of the room behind the Gatherer that stood there. After a few seconds of standing there, the Gatherer walked away, satisfied that the noises that filled the room were just pieces of metal falling off of the shelves.

Daniel emerged from his hiding space at least five minutes after the Gatherer had left. Cursing himself for being so careless, he began to silently search for the lantern. After opening the containers, it did not take him long to find the lantern shown in the drawings.

Daniel cautiously walked out of the corridor into the hall. He remembered that the drawing had told him to light the lantern with a flame behind the podium. He was not entirely sure why this specific flame had to be used, but at this rate Daniel wouldn’t argue against the existence of magic. So he lit the lantern and immediately, a small aura began to glow in the direction of the other corridor Daniel had not explored. Daniel did not understand what witchcraft was going on here, but remembering the illustration, he marched onwards whilst silently hoping that the aura showed the location of the key.

The other corridor had many barrels dotted around and a door around the corner which held a storage room. When Daniel entered the corridor, the familiar sounds of a Gatherer filled his ears. He crouched down behind a barrel and waited for the Gatherer to turn the corner. After some time of waiting, he went around the corner to see the Gatherer looking at something on the wall of the far end of the corridor. It seemed rather intrigued by something there. Daniel cautiously opened the door behind the Gatherer and looked inside. The room was filled with several stacks of shelves and a cupboard which held tools of all sorts. Daniel wanted to make sure this Gatherer wasn’t going to follow him, so he picked up a hammer from one of the shelves and threw it into the hall. The result was a loud clattering sound that echoed throughout the building. This got the Gatherer’s attention and immediately it ran over to the source of the noise.

Daniel’s heart was pounding in his ears at this point; it was almost giving him a headache listening to it. He lifted the lantern again after lowering when hearing the Gatherer. He followed the glowing aura to a wall in the corner of the room. Some stone bricks were out of place in wall and Daniel carefully pulled them out without making a sound, in fear of startling the Gatherer again. Against his will, the wall crumbled making a loud smashing sound as it hit the floor. Daniel clenched his entire body as the loud noise resounded throughout the castle. When the dust cleared, Daniel rushed to the end of the narrow corridor that had appeared behind the wall. It was more of an opening in a cliff side rather than a corridor, as the walls were covered in cobwebs and the stone making up the walls was jagged like teeth.

When Daniel reached the end of the corridor, he saw the key floating above a stand made of stone, surrounded by a blue, magical aura. Daniel didn’t have time to question the laws of physics; the Gatherer must surely have heard the loud crash of brick against stone. He grabbed the key and ran to the door. As he ran into the hall out of the corridor, he rushed crouched down again and snuck up beside the larger podium in the hall. When he reached the podium, he turned to see the Gatherer walking into the corridor. Daniel didn’t want to stay for much longer, and tension was already building in the air. He hastily placed the key into the hole after missing a few times. When he turned it, the whole room made a loud roaring sound. Daniel wasn’t sure if it was machinery, but he knew the Gatherer had heard it, as it had exited the corridor and was now lashing out at him with the whip arm, trying to catch and ensnare him. Daniel managed to duck behind the podium, and began to feel the sensation of going down. Indeed the floor beneath him was shifting into a staircase. He quickly ran down and looked up to see the staircase reforming back into the ceiling. He had escaped for now...

Applejack was outraged. It had been the creature making noises throughout the Entrance Hall. It had progressed through down the staircase and taken the key with it. While Applejacks rage began to build up, fleshy webs began to form around the room. Applejack saw this and immediately felt like gagging. The smell of rotting flesh filled the room and an angry roar emitted throughout the room. A powerful entity was angry at Applejack for not catching the biped, for this entity could not yet interact fully with this world and would rather watch the biped die at the hands of these ponies. Applejack wasn’t staying in here for much longer. She ran towards the entrance and kicked it open, much to the surprise of three fillies who were about to open in.

Chapter 9

Forget Your Past
Chapter 9

The five other mares heard the stairs closing. It was a rather noisy machine after all. Of course, most assumed that Applejack was simply coming through to report something and stayed at their posts. Twilight was giddily examining the ancient machinery of the castle and how it worked. Rarity was relaxing in the Royal Dresser’s Room and Pinkie was looking for something fun to do in the storage. Fluttershy however was shaking like a leaf. She had heard the staircase opening and closing, but didn’t see Applejack walk out, nor did she see the biped. Slowly, she ascended the staircase.

Daniel quickly observed the area. The pillars that once held up an overhang over a corridor were collapsed (along with the segment of ceiling they once held) leaving rubble pilling up on the floor. There were four separate corridors leading off to different areas. Three of the corridors lead to a simple wooden door, but on larger corridor lead to a large, machine powered gate made from steel. Despite all of the light pouring in from holes in the walls and ceilings and the smashed windows, the entire room was dark and gloomy. The dark felt very unnatural as it was so thick in density, you could cut it with a knife.

Daniel began his descent just as he heard the groan of a Gatherer. Luckily for him, the Gatherer had not seen because he was crouched down behind the large pillar in the centre of the room which the staircase ran down. Unfortunately for him, however, there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. He looked down to see the Gatherer-like creature with wings climbing up the staircase. Daniel formulated a quick, but foolish plan in his mind. Lots of the side railings were wrecked, forming holes in the side of the staircase. When the Gatherer had passed beneath him, he clambered down to the side of the staircase. After swinging himself, he clumsily landed on the stairs below.

Before he could jump in joy of his success, the Gatherer came down the stairs, obviously hearing the rather loud thump of boot against stone. Full of fear suddenly, Daniel ran down the stairs, his heart in his ears as he went. His breathing became heavy as he heard the screams of the Gatherer behind him, so close it could bite him in the neck. Seeing a pillar still standing slightly nearby as he ran down, he jumped for the top of it, much to the Gatherer’s surprise. When he collided with the top of the pillar, it tumbled down into the floor, continuing on to create a game of pillar dominos. As Daniel landed on the ground with a thump, he looked up to see the Gatherer looking down at him almost sympathetic. The Gatherer was right above his face with its, and just before it could make a move, a pillar came crashing down threatening to crush both of them. Daniel scrambled away before he was crushed and the Gatherer jumped back in shock before its head was squashed. See the window of opportunity, Daniel ran as fast as he could to a random door. He opened it and tackled the air as he went through. He landed into a pile of cogs and metal components with a crash before scrambling up again to lock the door. When he heard the door successfully click as it locked, he allowed himself to catch his breath against the door. His break was quickly cut short by yet another Gatherer.

Twilight had been intriguing herself with the large machine that stood in front of her. The contraption began with a simple lever which activated a large maze of cogs leading to the steel gate in the stairwell. Unfortunately, when the mare had activated the machine to cut the Throne Room of from the stairwell, the pin holding the lever stand in place had broken. It did not matter however as Rainbow Dash could simple fly out of a window back to the stairwell. A flash appeared on a small table behind her, drawing her attention from the machine. On the table was a small note, lightly flashing in a blue aura. Curious, Twilight walked up to the note and picked it up with her magic. Suddenly, Twilight’s vision blurred and she began to lose balance. She passed out...

When she awoke not two seconds later, she found herself in a sort of playground of a school. The school building was very tall and cast a large shadow over the area. Suddenly, a young colt’s voice filled her ears.

“Twelfth of May, 1813. My friends had grown tired of seeing me constantly bullied by that boy, Henry. Silently, Thomas handed me a stone and told me to wait by the benches.” Twilight saw a young biped, not unlike the biped they were chasing, walk up to her with a stone in hand. It then handed her the stone. “After he relayed the message to me, he went up to Henry and punched him in the stomach and kicked him in the shin.” The same boy who gave her the stone followed the words exactly. “Henry fell to the floor. Thomas then walked up to me, and pushed me towards the fallen body of my enemy. He told me to attack Henry with the stone, and I silently obliged.”

Against her will, Twilight walked over to the fallen biped with the stone. She was unable to protest against her actions and was unable to speak, but inside she was trying desperately to fight her own temporary body. “I knelt down beside him, and began to viciously pound him in the stomach and head with the stone. It was not long before Henry began bleeding from his wounds and orifices.”

The scene suddenly switched from the playground to a young colt’s bedroom. She saw herself writing the words that were being spoken as they were being spoken. “I told my father of my act of revenge against the bully, expecting him to be happy that he was no longer a problem for me. Instead, he lashed out at me, called me disgrace.” The voice began to shake slightly and tears could be heard in the form of sorrowful sniffing. “I did not understand. Does my father not love me? Why is he not happy that I have overcome my greatest enemy?”

A bright light filled her vision and all of the sudden, she was no longer attached to the young biped physically. She was now looking over the boy in her own body. She could see he had stopped writing and his face was stained with tears. What horrified her most is that the biped sitting in front of her was almost an exact replica of the one they were looking for, only younger. At the same time, she felt pity and rage. She understood that this was only a young child and that it was confused, but how could any living sentient creature bear to do what it had done and expect to be praised? She had seen its true colours through this vision; it was a criminal that had to be put down. Her train of thought was interrupted by a loud crash of metal at the door...

Chapter 11

Forget Your Past
Chapter 11

Meanwhile, in the kitchens:

“Come on, Pinkie! We don’t have time for this!” Twilight screamed. She was getting very impatient; the biped could have escaped by now.

“Nu-uh! You gotta find me first!” Pinkie replied cheerily from her hiding place.

“Oh do come on darling, we don’t have time for your childish antics.” Rarity called sternly into the darkness. “Besides, this place is a rather dreadful place for one such as me to be in. The mucky floor will ruin my hooves!”

“Come on guys! I’m not movin’ till you find me!” Pinkie called out in a sort of sing-song voice.

“Hold on girls, keep her talking. I think I can find her by picking up the sound-waves produced by her voice.” The other two mares stared at her confused for a second or two. “Ugh... I can track her with magic.” They both nodded in satisfaction.

As Twilight’s horn glowed, the two mares began to ask questions regarding Pinkie’s hiding spot. Questions such as ‘Is it dark?’ and ‘Is it cramped?’ to which the answer was usually ‘Sorry but that’s too big of a clue!’ In their struggle to find Pinkie, even with the help of Twilight’s magic which seemed to glow brighter as they got closer, they didn’t realise that they had wandered very deep into the storage area which connected to the kitchen. Eventually, they came to an area which was likely used to wash dishes while also out of the way of the cooks. It was in the centre of the storage area and had several taps and basins of water with cupboards surrounding them left and right, up and down. There were several more boxes which contained once clean cutlery and china.

“Pinkie! Where are you? We are going to be late to um... to that monkey’s party.”

“What party?!?” Pinkie suddenly burst out of the plughole of a sink behind them. Realising she had been tricked, she pouted. “Oh phooey, I’ve been found. Oh well! Let’s go find ourselves a monster!” Her mood suddenly brightened up and she slid back down the plughole out of the cupboard underneath. Knowing better than to question Pinkie’s strange ways of defying physics, they continued on.

“Now then, let’s find Applejack and Rainbow and get this strange creature.” Now confident that the task could finally be carried out, the four mares jogged along to their destination. Much to their horror, they heard the machine that opened the gate power up. Their jog had become a gallop and they tried to catch up to the monster before it escaped. They were stopped as a large web of flesh appeared in their way as a loud, unnatural roar resounded throughout the castle. Very much irritated by the sudden appearance of an obstacle, Twilight tried to tear the flesh out of the way with her magic. She could feel the flesh finally giving way before she was struck by an invisible force. She recoiled at the unseen strike and looked around frantically, worrying the three mares behind her.

“What happened dear?”

“I don’t know, but I felt something very powerful nearby and it’s coming after us.” Fluttershy cowered behind Pinkie after hearing this. “We have to find another way around this. Come on, let’s...” She paused as she saw two very large figures looming over her friends and a loud screeching sound filled her ears. The three mares turned as a pair of clawed hands came down to knock them out. Suddenly filled with fear, Twilight reacted on instinct and dodged out of the way of the two grotesque monster’s strikes and ran into the darkness. She dared not look back, but she had just abandoned her friends. There was nothing she could do for them now, all she could hope is that they only meant to capture them for something bigger rather than eat them themselves.

As she ran the screeching continued and the corridors around her became a blur, so much she didn’t realise she had passed the door out of the kitchens. Instead she came across a dead end at the end of the corridor. She turned to see one of the two monsters running at her with its claw raised above its head. Just as it swiped at her, she jumped to her left leaving the monster to charge head first into the wall. Sweat was beginning to form on her and her breathing pattern was jumping from heavy to rapid every five seconds. As she ran besides work stations for cooks filled with knives, spoons, pots and pans, she saw the figure of the other monster walking towards the exit with three unconscious (or dead) mares dragging behind it all tied together in a rope. Noticing that the screeching had stopped, she sat down behind a work surface to give herself time to catch her breath. The other silhouette was wandering about behind her, rather confused regarding her location. Slowly, she shifted from behind the work surface to besides it, so as to cut line of sight from the first monster and the second.

A door opened and the second monster dragged her three friends behind it up to the stairwell. It was so close. Eventually, she peeked behind her hiding spot to see the monster on the other side of the room. Seizing the opportunity, she slowly crept towards the door and gently pulled it open. She let out a much exaggerated sigh as she successfully jumped behind the door without being attacked from the other side.

When she regained from her moment of relief, she only had to look at the stairwell to be horrified. In every corner, crack and cranny there was fleshy web. The whole room had been consumed by the fleshy web. Twilight was even further horrified when she saw that the web appeared to be breathing, like it consisted of thousands of living beings all morphed gorily together, all still living. While she would have loved to have puked right there, she needed to save her friends. She ran to the open gate and dodged a rather wide hole in her path, paying no attention to the biped that lay on a ledge not 20 yards down. She ran round the corner, fully aware of the web that was following her and screaming orders to its minions.

She reached for the big double doors that led from the patriotic hallway into the Throne Room. When she emerged, she caught sight of yet another biped standing next to the Throne with an orb in a stone holder next to him. This biped was wearing bright red clothes and his skin was turning grey from hundreds of years. She turned to see her friends floating in a magical force field... and a clawed hand that knocked her to the ground not seconds later.

Chapter 12

Forget Your Past
Chapter 12

Daniel awoke with a start. He didn’t know exactly where he was; all he remembers was falling and hitting his head on a soft yet dense floor. The momentum of the fall was all that he needed to get knocked out.

Daniel’s vision wasn’t getting any better as all he could see was a fairly blurry, green ground. Daniel spent the next few moments reflecting on his situation. He was currently on a patch of grass in... somewhere. He had yet to find Alexander, although he could almost feel his very presence in the castle. His head was pounding and his vision was still not fixed. Gatherers were probably searching high and low in the castle for him right now, he had to evade them.

Finally, Daniel found that he was recuperating his sight which allowed him to see the world around him. He could see the corridor above him that led to another part of the castle. Considering it was locked off from the rest of the castle, Daniel assumed this other part of the castle was a seat of power or another important area. He had fallen through the floor of the corridor onto a grassy ledge which seemed to have been carved into the side of the cliff through weathering. Luckily for Daniel, he had not landed on a natural prison as the ledge continued onwards, following the corridor almost.

Daniel clumsily stumbled onto his feet again and set off down the path, not having any other choice of direction. He hugged the wall as he made his way towards the other side of the ledge. The corridor seemed to lead into a large room with huge windows letting the moonlight in to illuminate the inside.

As Daniel shimmed along the narrow ledge, bits of rock began to crumble and Daniel looked besides him to see the path behind him was gone! He needed to hurry, lest he fall with it. Without a second thought, he began to speed up into a power-shimmy.

When Daniel reached the other side of the ledge, he found it was a dead end. The ledge just ended there at the cliff side. Daniel looked up to see that the castle wall was bordering with the edge of the cliff. He then looked down to see that the floor beneath him was very narrow. He didn’t favour his chances of success after jumping up and the castle wall was a long way up. He began to frantically search for holes or firm rocks to grab onto as he could practically feel the ground beneath his feet crumbling away. Feeling something solid, he quickly grabbed hold of it and pushed from the ground upwards. Daniel quickly grabbed a hole in the dirt and held on for dear life as the ledge he once stood on had fallen into the abyss.

Daniel could practically feel the hands of gravity pulling him down as he desperately held onto the wall of dirt. For a while, he too scared to move from his rather awkward position. He desperately told himself not to look down as it would likely increase his stress.

Eventually, whether out of being in an uncomfortable position or having a sudden stroke of bravery, he let his right hand, that being the lowest, release and latch onto another opening he had been eyeing for a while. Finding that he could now muster the strength to climb up to the top of the cliff, he clambered up quicker than someone climbing a wall up to heaven.

After a close call or two, he finally made it to the top and sat on the edge, regaining his breath. He finally allowed himself to look down. Although it was dark down in the canyon surrounding the castle, he could make out that at the bottom of the fall were many sharp rocks and rapid waters. Perhaps the water came from when the castle was surrounded by a river rather than a canyon, but thousands or years of erosion have deepened the river?

Without pondering on his surroundings further, he cautiously climbed up to see if there is an opening in the wall. Much to his surprise, the corridor leading to the room he was currently embracing collapsed. Dust flew everywhere as the long untouched rock shook off all of the things that had gathered on to it whilst falling. Large stones made large splashing sounds as the spectacular sight of a whole portion of a castle collapsing unfolded. Daniel thought he saw two rather pale rocks fall down as well. ‘Well that is convenient. Perhaps the ledge I was standing on added some unseen support to the very unstable corridor?’ he thought. Seizing the opportunity, Daniel walked over to the open gap now leading into the Throne Room...

Twilight awoke, now aware that she had been tied up and flung into a floating bubble barrier of magic. She began to fruitlessly throw magical attacks at the barrier, but to no effect.

“I’m afraid I have already tried that darling. While your magic undoubtedly surpasses mine, mine didn’t even scratch it.” Twilight turned her head to see her five friends still in the same bubble barrier. While she may be right, she had to keep trying. At the moment, it seemed like the only way out. She threw fire, lightning, ice, pure magical energy and ethereal-like stones at the barrier, but to no effect again.

“You really should stop that; it may exhaust your energy. We haven’t even begun the ritual yet.” Twilight turned her head to see the red clothed biped staring at her barely inches away from her. What surprised her most wasn’t the sudden appearance, but the fact that she could understand.

“I... I can understand you...” She stuttered.

“Yes, the Guardian’s presence grants that privilege you see.”

“What guardian? What ritual? What are you going to do to us?” Different mares asked each question in a worried tone.

“The Guardian of the Orb to answer the first question. It casts a Shadow over the path of the person who awakened it, and if you are not strong enough, it will consume you.”

“So this guardian was awakened? By who? Who would want to awaken such a terrible thing?” Twilight asked inquisitively.

“Why, a young man named Daniel did. The very same man you have been chasing down I believe.” He answered with a small chuckle in his voice. Twilight needed no further explanation. This biped ‘Daniel’ truly was evil. He had intentionally attacked somepony (whether that term applied or not, she didn’t care) and he had released a dark, evil, all-consuming shadow over the world.

“The ritual I mentioned is one that will bring this whole problem to a conclusion.” Twilight listened intently, content that there is a solution. It turns out it wasn’t for the problem she was expecting. “I have tried getting back to my home-world, but the meddling fool stopped me before I had the chance. I have come to the conclusion that bring my world here is a more productive solution. My world’s inhabitants shall arrive here and take this pitiful land of talking ponies by force. You shall be enslaved at the tip of a sword and you ‘immortal goddesses’ shall fall. You are welcome to resist, but it will be your undoing.” Twilight’s mouth fell further to floor with every word this biped said. This one was worse than the other.

“As of what I have planned for you. You are going to watch your harmonic land turn to chaos.” Twilight turned her head from this monster to see her friends extremely horrified (one or two on the verge of tears, knowing they were powerless here).

“You know, you kinda remind me of Discord. He was kinda funny at first be then he turned out to be a big meanie. I don’t like big meanies, and because you are like Discord, you are a big meanie. Let us outta here you meanie! Celestia will stop you!” Pinkie had finished her little rant, and the biped began to laugh.

“Do you seriously believe that your sun goddess can stop me? I have not even described the details of the ritual. For you see...”

“Alexander! You monstrous being! Let them go at once and hand me the Orb!” Daniel interrupted Alexander as he swung into the Throne Room through the opening. “Whatever you have planned, it will not happen as long as I live and breathe.”

“Well then,” Alexander said with a chuckle, “I guess we will have to cease your breathing. Minions, bring me his head!” Alexander shouted. He waited for his two Gatherers to march into the hall from their guarding posts. It took Daniel to laugh before he realised...

“I guess your ‘minions’ must have gone down with the ship it would seem. Now surrender the Orb!”

“No! I can still perform the ritual. I must sacrifice myself to let my world take over this one! You will not stop me this time!”

Was Alexander really willing to go that far? Was he really going to let the Shadow consume him so he could bring his world here? Daniel saw Alexander float up to a podium with the Orb besides it. He stood on top of the podium and waited for the Shadow to take his life. Daniel had two ideas. He was sure both of them would work, why wouldn’t they? Daniel stood ready, hesitant, like a predator waiting to leap on its prey. Now was his time to shine.

Ending A (Bad Ending)

Forget Your Past
Ending A

(Note: The two endings will be partly in first person so I am able to portray Daniel’s thoughts easier.)

Revenge. I had been through so much because of that man, and all of that suffering had come down to this one point in life where I could end it all. I had to end this man’s life.

No...

He was no man. He was a monster.

I let all the hate in me build up to a point where it could have very boiled my brain and melted all those I stared at. My fists subconsciously clenched themselves and my breathing became a low grumbling sound. I began to growl. I took a brief minute to take in the sights of the room. Behind me the six mares were looking horrified. This was either because they knew what I had done in my past, because of Alexander’s plan or because of my feral state. Maybe it was all of them at once. Alexander was looking smug, although a small hint of worry hit his face as I looked back at him with a face full of rage.

I bent over slightly as I prepared for my attack.

Eventually after a long while, the tension was knocked out of place as I charged up the steps of the podium and raised my fist above Alexander’s head. I brought my fist down on his head like a hammer. I hit him square on the forehead and knocked him to the ground. I continued to strike him in the face while standing over his limp body, screaming all the while. After all the punishment I gave him, I kicked him off of the podium. His fragile back collided with the floor beneath the podium after falling dramatically, flailing his limbs in the air. A loud thump was heard throughout the room. Confident that Alexander had perished due to the fall, I turned to walk off again.

I looked up to see the six mares now on the floor with mouths wider than the double doors that once stood behind them. The purple one spoke.

“How... how could you just do that? What did he ever do to you?”

“Many things that no one should have to go through. He was an evil man and a treacherous one at that. His end was well deserved.”

“Nopony deserves to die, even if they did do stuff that caused suffering. I mean, Discord was a big meanie, but we only turned him to stone, we didn’t really kill him.” The pink one replied sternly. I thought for a second. These equines were colourful, adorable and bubbly. They probably haven’t even considered the concept of killing. Just then, three fillies stepped out of the darkness of to the side.

“There ya’ are!” The orange one shouted before running off to a yellow filly with a red ribbon. The white mare and the rainbow mare soon followed to a different filly. When they reached them, they embraced them tightly.

After a moment or two, the orange filly looked up to me, her eyes filled with sorrow and disappointment. All it could mouth was ‘Why?’

Suddenly, a loud roar erupted from the shadows and I was snatched up by some invisible force. I was dragged to the podium where a portal had suddenly appeared next it.

“I guess I didn’t need to sacrifice myself. Well Daniel, you seem to always be in a rush to help me don’t you?” I turned to see Alexander standing next to the Throne, smiling smugly.

“I thought you dead! How have you lived?” I shouted at him in rage.

“It is going to take more than a few punches and a fall to destroy me Daniel. I am no man, I am alien to your world remember? My kind is much more advanced, biologically and technologically. And now that my world is going to arrive here, none shall stand in our way.” He replied, obviously very pleased with himself.

“Oh no you don’t!” The rainbow mare shouted before flying straight towards Alexander. Whilst Alexander was being pummelled, the other five mares ran up to me and tried to grab me away from the portal. Their efforts were fruitless as the invisible force kept repelling them away from me. Fleshy webs suddenly appeared out of nowhere and a huge pain erupted throughout my body. While I screamed, I could make out the sound of Alexander’s slightly wheezing yet triumphant laughter. I was consumed by the shadow...

“And that is the events leading up to how I got back here again.” Daniel said to Agrippa and Weyer, of which he knew were in the darkness before him. “So can you send me back again?” He asked hopefully.

“I’m afraid not. You see, I used up all the energy I could muster to send you to that world. I sensed it was the place of your redemption.” Weyer answered.

“Then how was I to redeem myself?” Daniel asked curiously.

“I do not know. Nor does it matter now. I am afraid you are stuck here forever. Fate has sealed you here.” Daniel saddened at this, although no one could see this as he was no longer in physical form.

“So what now?” Daniel asked.

“Weyer and I have been traversing the stars together. Oh what wonderful things we have seen. Would you like to join us?” Agrippa asked merrily in his early Prussian accent.

“Perhaps, although I would like to see what happens after my death on that world.” Weyer nodded (well, he would have) and summoned a small portal that allowed the three present to see the same world that Daniel had just been on.

Just after Daniel had been consumed, grey beings that were clad in strange metal armour that had intricate patterns and symbols on it came marching out of the portal and seized the nine equines there. One of them helped Alexander up and began to chat as he walked alongside him. The scene then switched to a village outside of a forest. The thatched roofs were ablaze and many equines were running, being pulled out of their houses and tossed onto the street and put into chains. Alexander could be seen laughing at the horses' despair.

The scene switched once more to show a castle stationed on a cliffside. A large army of Alexander’s brethren were marching up to the gates of the castle whilst a regiment of guard horses clad in golden armour guarded the gates. A battle began and fire was being thrown at the human-like creatures by unicorn horses that stood on the wall of the castle. It looked as if the equines were winning, but then Alexander came up bearing the Orb. Soon, the fire balls ceased and the unicorns looked at their horns as if they had malfunctioned. The tables soon turned and the humanoids managed to push through. All hope was lost.

The scene switched for the last time showing equines chained and made to work in mines, factories and in houses. Whips were willingly used to make sure discipline and obediance were dominant features in the humanoid's slaves. Workers who were too old to work or too tired to work were cast out... left to die in a rotting pit. In the distance on a hill, two spikes were planted into the ground. One had the head of a white horse with a regal crown and the other a dark purple horse with another crown. Daniel couldn't look. Tears were gushing out of his nonexistent eyes. He didn't want to see this anymore. This was worse than the torture me had performed on countless people in Brennenburg, because this time he had failed them and Alexander had won...

Alexander’s men had enslaved this world, and Daniel had failed them...

Ending B (Good Ending)

Forget Your Past
Ending B

Redemption. I needed to survive. That was what I currently had in my mind. Humans have a survival instinct and we will always find a way to prove that. Even when Jesus arrives on Earth for the second time, humans will find a way to avoid their fate. Sinners will rebel and man will destroy God. But what is the point in trying to survive without a need to?

I could just kill Alexander, kill him right here, right now. But I won’t. I resist the urge clench my fists and charge up the stairs screaming into the heavens. There must be a way to give them that awful man. The Orb. The Orb is powering that portal! I may not be able to return to Earth after this, but what was the point in going back. Oh no. There is no turning back now.

I calmly release my breath after holding it for a long while. My face had turned blue from anger and hate, and holding my breath long enough to suffocate a man due to the tension. I looked up with a rather smug look on my face. Alexander was also smug as he believed he had won. Far from it Alexander, far from it.

So what was the point in trying to survive right now? I needed to redeem myself; otherwise I could never forgive myself. These ponies were clearly unable to withstand whatever horrors Alexander hid behind the portal, back in his world. If I did this, I would save my life and countless others.

Slowly and calmly, I made my way over to the Orb. Alexander seemed ignorant of my plan at first, but his smug smile soon disappeared as the gears in his head formulated a rough idea of what I had in mind. I continued my dramatic walk, rather enjoying the spotlight I currently had over me.

“No... Don’t you do it Daniel! You will not stop me from having this victory! Not after last time!”

“Do it Daniel! He mustn’t let his world through! He plans to enslave Equestria!” The purple pony urged me on.
‘So that is what this place is called,’ I thought, ‘Quite fitting if you ask me.’

Slowly and dramatically, I strode over to the small stand with the Orb glowing violently and feeding a small line of energy into the portal. Each step I took closer to the Orb, the brighter it became. I almost stopped as I heard the load roar of the Guardian somewhere in the castle. If anything, what kept me going is that the Guardian almost sounded pleased. It was happy that this was going to happen.

As soon as I reached the Orb, I took one last haughty glance towards Alexander who was holding his breath, just as I was earlier.

“Don’t do it Daniel! The Shadow will be released and will consume us all! After all I did to protect you; you are just going to throw your life away.” I looked back to the ponies for approval. The purple one simple mouthed ‘Do it.’

“I would throw my life away if it meant protecting another, more deserving individual. I have committed many crimes against humanity, because I was brainwashed by your act of innocence. Your act of lies. This world is innocent and honest. They do not shun something that they don’t understand, but you and I try and repress the unknown and conquer it. For that, we must die.” And with that, I smashed a clenched fist down on the Orb, shattering it and its magic.

A triumphant roar from the Shadow resounded throughout the castle and Alexander’s screams joined it.

I looked up to see Alexander squirming in pain. His body was become green and the blue aura around him shone brighter. His screams became muffled by the sound of his bones snapping and distorting. His limbs began to tear off or simply disappear and the colour of blood was dominant over his skin. Eventually, his insides became present outside of his body as his skin tightened on his ribs. All of this happened whilst Alexander still lived. Eventually, Alexander’s body burst out gorily and all that was left was a bloody mess.

I waited to be consumed alongside Alexander, and suddenly, the same blue aura appeared around me. I screamed and shouted as my bones began to crush my insides mercilessly and I too exploded... or that is what should have happened. Instead, a white aura appeared around me and a feeling of warmth filled my body. The warmth was built of love and comfort, and forgiveness. Slowly, I was raised above the ground and pulled into an embrace by an invisible force. To the ponies, I disappeared in a spectacular flash, but to me, my vision darkened and I was merrily invited into the light.

“And that is the events leading up to how I got back here again, or at least, under better circumstances.” Daniel said after retelling his story. “So, why is it so light all of a sudden?” It was true. When Daniel had been consumed by the Shadow, he had been cast into an eternal darkness. Now, however, he was almost invited into the Shadow and his perspective on the place was a lot different. It was as if standing on the sun itself. He could also see Agrippa and Weyer who had also been humbly accepted into the Shadow.

“The reason you can see everything so clearly in the Guardian is because you are redeemed. Unlike Alexander, you have been brought into the Shadow out of kindness. Alexander is being punished for his crimes and must spend eternity in darkness. You, however, can do as you wish.” Weyer explained. Weyer was a rather skinny man, but he was tall and handsome. Agrippa, on the other hand, was short and stubby. Agrippa had brown hair and Weyer had blonde hair, but both men had hazel eyes. Hazel. Daniel had a tiny amount of regret for leaving Hazel, but it was soon washed away as he knew she was alright.

“So I can do anything I want? What do you mean by that?”

“Travel the stairs, talk to the dead, even return to the living. You can basically go anywhere. Agrippa and I have been travelling the stars and the things we have seen are beyond beautiful.” Weyer answered.

“So I can go back?” Daniel asked.

“Huh? Of course you can but, why would you?” Agrippa asked with concern. “You can see things beyond your wildest dreams. Why would you go back to Earth?”

“I’m not going back to Earth.” Daniel replied, slowly turning his back on his two saviours. “I am going back to Equestria. There is no major conflict in Equestria as far as I can tell. The ponies there would have been more adjusted to the terrible things Alexander and I did. Equestria is the place that I need to be.” After Daniel finished, Agrippa and Weyer had very understanding looks on their faces.

“I see.” Weyer said with a warm smile on his face. “Then go! Don’t let us keep you a second longer.” Complying without a second thought, Daniel walked off in a random direction as a portal appeared out of nowhere. Before stepping through, Daniel turned to the two Prussians.

“Thank you.”

“Well that was spectacular!” Rarity stated. Indeed the large flash Daniel had left behind was very beautiful (as long as you weren’t blinded by it) and Daniel’s silhouette made it look like an Angel had picked him up.

“That was awesome!” Scootaloo happily cheered.

“So what happens now? Is that creature, Daniel was it, is it dead or just gone?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I don’t know what happened. I haven’t seen anything like that before.” Twilight replied. The six mares and three fillies cautiously walked up to the spot Daniel had just been standing on. They looked down at it to see a large black dot where the floor had burned. Before the nine ponies could say anything else, another portal opened up at the spot and another bright flash filled their vision. Thinking that this was another attack, the five willing mare readied to fight back. What they saw when their vision cleared again was Daniel happily standing there looking quite clean. His clothes were no longer torn or ripped, his hair was straightened and his body was fresh.

“Daniel!” Scootaloo shouted before running to his leg and hugging it. Daniel smiled warmly at the filly. He looked up to see six mares looking rather cautiously at him.

“So... ya’ll released that Shadow thingy on us did ya?” Applejack asked sternly.

“Correction. I did not release it on you nor did I release it intentionally. It is a long story.”

“Well we have the time. Perhaps you would like to elaborate.” Twilight stated sternly while stepped forward so as to seem intimidating.

“Actually... if you don’t mind...”

“Certainly. You see, I was on an archaeological dig site exploring an ancient tomb. While I was in the tunnels beneath the sands, a large boulder collapsed behind me, cutting me off from the rest of my team.” The ponies’ expression softened.

“With no other way to go, I looked ahead to see a bright light in front of me. It beckoned me forth. When I reached the source, I found the Orb you see on the stand behind me.” He gestured to the smashed, powerless Orb behind him. “I touched the smooth surface of the Orb only to be nearly blinded by a flash of light. When I recovered, the Orb was broken and my team had moved the large boulder behind me. I had unknowingly released the Shadow. I noticed that the Shadow was following me when I found that everyone I had spoken to about it had died. Desperate, I complied with a letter of protection that evil man Alexander gave to me. He said he could help me with the Shadow and protect me from it. I was never prepared for the things he made me do.” Daniel looked sad all of the sudden.

“And what did he make you do?” Twilight asked curiously.

“I... I would rather not say.” Daniel managed to say through gathering tears. ‘I am going to find out one way or another. We have got to know if he is telling the truth. If he won’t tell us, a quick look at his past might help shed some light here.’ Twilight thought.

“Oh you poor thing. I knew you had something bothering you. We are always here if you need us... of course... assuming you are coming back with us... if that’s okay with you.” Fluttershy said timidly.

“Well I suppose after hearing your story we can try and start over.” Rarity stated.

“I would very much like that. So! My name is Daniel...”

Epilogue

Forget Your Past
Epilogue

So I guess it turned out alright for me. Alexander was consumed, Equestria was saved from becoming a slave country and the inhabitants were very grateful indeed. I did not tell the ponies any details of my past as that would only shatter their trust of me. For once in my life, I felt happy. Happy that I had been accepted in this little community in the town they call Ponyville. Sure I stood out a lot. I was tall; two legged and still acted as if I was a nightmare from the shadows (this angered Pinkie as she continuously tried to make me befriend the rest of the town). No matter what, my secret must be kept from the peaceful inhabitants of Equestria forever.

When we got back from the ‘Everfree Forest’, Twilight offered me the couch in the library as a bed for the night. I did not rest very well that night, even though I did not have any more dilemmas or problems. The next morning, Twilight looked very disturbed. I asked her if everything was alright and she replied very gloomily indeed. As I asked her, her face went pale, as if she had seen a ghost (how it at all changed colour I do not know).

I was also introduced to the little dragon, Spike. He was not very trusting and made sure to keep an eye on me at all times. Even to this day I believe he is still distrustful. Despite his suspicions, he seemed jolly in nature, although a little confused at times. It was not very hard to learn about his crush on Rarity and I was unaware if cross-species relationships were at all moral in this world. I honestly doubted it.

Soon after we left the library, Twilight showed me the town. As we walked, I caught many ponies casting a glance my way. The looks on their faces were not of suspicion, but of worry. Were they honestly still scared of me even though I am talking and walking amongst them peacefully? On our journeys, we came across a mint pony named Lyra. She quickly gained interest in me and was fussing all about me to her friend Bon Bon who didn’t seem too interested at all.

In Ponyville, there are many stools in the market, all selling fruits of their own produce. I quickly learned that Equestria had a one coin currency. Bits. I was majorly unfamiliar with this as England had such a complicated currency consisting of farthings, shillings, pence and pounds. Whilst it was unfamiliar, it was a much needed rest from the tiring currency in my country, although I was still uncertain whether the currency name was entirely original.

We visited Twilight’s friend’s residences (although she avoided Pinkie for a reason I would soon find out about). We first went to Applejack. She owned a large apple orchard that could feed all of London for at least a few weeks. I voiced this but she said that it only fed her family and Ponyville. Ponies must eat apples a lot.

Her family were quite accepting as well, after hearing that I saved Scootaloo and all of Equestria of course. Applebloom was especially grateful for me saving her friend and fellow ‘Cutie Mark Crusader’. I was confused at first, but after voicing this, they explained that the group of three fillies (recently four) had no Cutie Marks and were determined to find them. Once again confused, they explained that a Cutie Mark appeared on a ponies flank when they found their special talent. The entire ensemble was stunned to find that humans had no Cutie Marks. After the young filly asked how we discovered our talent, I explained, “Everyone isn’t just unique because of one a talent. There are many things that make someone who they are. Talents are just an addition to our unique features. Even so, one person may have many different talents in life.” The family seemed satisfied, although not because of my explanation but because they understood that my world was evidently different.

After the encounter with the Apple family, we visited Rarity. She seemed very generous and offered me a lot of things (many of which were new clothing). She also seemed eager to hear my story and told me that sharing it with others was a good way to lift a burden off of my shoulders. Twilight immediately told Rarity that this wasn’t such a good idea and that she probably had work to do. Rarity saw something in Twilight that obviously hadn’t and asked her to talk in private. After a while of me observing Rarity’s fine works in fashion, they returned with awkward smiles. Rarity politely shooed us off and we then continued on our journey.

We reached our final destination, Fluttershy’s cottage. This time when the door opened, it wasn’t smashed closed in front of me. When we entered, Fluttershy offered us tea and we accepted. It has been a while since I tasted tea and I missed it. Fluttershy also assaulted me with many apologies, but seeing her immediately as a timid one, I dismissed the apologies saying that I understood her fear. We instigated small talk while there which quickly built onto the subject of weather. I was surprised to find that weather did not work itself in Equestria but instead was managed by the Pegasi. I asked Fluttershy if she was part of the Pegasi controlling the clouds, but she claimed to prefer the ground. Twilight was very interested with how the weather and seasons worked without us in my world, but I told her I would tell her another day. I saw something in her that was in me, a thirst for knowledge. Fluttershy also began to talk about how telling someone else about my experiences would lift the burden off of my shoulders, but stopped when Twilight shook her head slowly with a stern look. She knew something and I knew it.

We then departed. I asked Twilight why we weren’t going to see Rainbow Dash, and she replied saying that Rainbow Dash’s house was in the sky. While we chatted casually, she fooled me into walking to Pinkie’s residence. Sugarcube Corner. When she opened the door, I was greeted like how a soldier would have been greeted by Russians. A cannon to the face and a loud shout of, “SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I was shocked to say the least.

I soon came to realise that this was what the ponies called a party, although I was unfamiliar with parties as spontaneous as these. Ponies were everywhere, conversing casually and occasionally coming up to greet me. I certainly felt welcome, if I didn’t earlier. There was light alcohol (or at least I think it was) which I happily drunk, for it helped me forget about the horrors that I had been through. Unfortunately, I may have drunk perhaps a little too much. I think Pinkie’s encouragements helped slightly. As a result, I was slightly more jolly than usual and even joined in the games of ‘Pin the Tail on the Pony’ and a game of apple bobbing. Surprisingly enough, I was enjoying myself.

After I played the party games, I began to go into a darker state of mind. Memories of my past filled my head and I was forced to relive them. I sat down in a corner, scared that I may spill the beans to a pony and disturb them for the rest of their lives. I tried to forget, but I simply couldn’t. The six mares I had met came up to me, concerned (Pinkie mostly as she thought I wasn’t enjoying the party, but I told her otherwise). I told them that my past was coming into my memories again and that it would be wise to leave me for now, as I might accidently say something we would regret. Twilight and Rarity’s faces began to tumble and the encouraged the others to leave me. And so they did. One thing was definitely strange about Twilight every time my memories were mentioned.

I soon began to forget the memories as Twilight and Rarity had stayed with me and talked with me to calm my nerves. I soon became confident enough to talk with some other ponies alone.

Once the party had ended, Twilight and I walked back to the library, and I was ‘hammered’. Twilight told me about her friendship reports to Princess Celestia (the supposed ruler of Equestria) and recommended I sent a letter to the Princess on friendship. While I found her study the most ridiculous one yet, I went along with it remembering that I was in a world where friendship was probably magic. I then in return told her of my world’s weather. She warned me that questions on my world were probably going to be flung in my direction the next day.

I asked how I could send a letter to the Princess. Twilight knowingly nodded. She told me that Spike’s fire was magic and
could send letters to the Princess. I asked for a quill and ink pot and parchment and began to write.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I am sure you have heard of me from your Student, Twilight. She recommended that I send a letter to you regarding friendship. While I am certain that this isn’t exactly how these letters are supposed to work, I will go with it anyway.

I learned that even strangers can help you in great need. Whether you are depressed, lonely or lost, complete strangers, even those from other worlds, can be your greatest friend.

Daniel.

The night before:

Twilight was too curious. Sure it was an invasion of personal space, but nopony would know right?
She silently approached the sleeping biped and lowered her horn. She lowered her head slowly and cast the spell cautiously, so as not to awaken Daniel from his slumber. She felt her mind enter his and her vision immediately merged with his.

She was in a dark, bloodied room. There was a pair of handcuffs chained to a pulley in the roof and a large metal ball with chains on them. Eventually, her vision turned involuntary as Daniel looked behind him to see a victim being dragged in. The victim was naked and barely resembled a living being anymore.

The victim was slowly lifted and chained to the pulley in an awkward position and chained to the ball with his feet. With his hands behind his back, he was lifted from the floor. Barely 4 feet in the air and a sickening crack resounded in the room and, much to Twilight’s horror, the arms of the victim snapped. The bones could not withstand the pressure of the victims body and the ball altogether. The victim screamed out in pain and Twilight felt like puking. Her body would have shuddered and she would have cradled her arms if she had control of her body.

“Excellent. We almost have enough vitae to perform the ritual Daniel. We are almost done.” Daniel turned to see Alexander and Twilight filled with hatred. It was true. Daniel had been tricked...

Twilight went on to see several more forms of torture before she had had enough. She withdrew the spell and reappeared into the waking world.

Twilight returned, sweating like mad. She had never seen such horror in her life. Daniel had reason to regret his past. She couldn’t move at all. She was so horrified at how any creature could even bare to look at those forms of torture without thinking. She could feel Daniel’s mind. He had pure hatred running through him, but not of Alexander, but of the victims. She had seen the rest of his sorrowful past. The lies Alexander fed him, his childhood, the Amnesia potion and Agrippa.

Eventually, Twilight came to her senses when Daniel shifted in his sleep. She bolted up to her bed and jumped in. Her sleep was troubled with what she had seen. She considered throwing Daniel out, but then convinced herself otherwise.

“No. I can’t throw him out. He genuinely wanted redemption. His mind was heavy with regret and sorrow. He did what he thought would save him when he was scared. I cannot blame him for that. I have to help him forget his past and all will be well.” And with that, she slept.

Chapter 2

Forget Your Past
Chapter 2

Daniel and Scootaloo had gotten lucky with the Cockatrice. If Scootaloo had been captured by its piercing gaze, they would both be in trouble. The duo was now being chased by a pack of angry Timberwolves that Daniel had disturbed. Their appearance confused Daniel, he had never heard of an animal made entirely out of wood. Maybe this was just another illusion.

Daniel was nowhere near fast enough to outrun them; he had to do something to outwit the wolves. That was his only hope. Through blurred trees, he could see the subtle shape of a pack of wolves closing in on his flank. His breathing was heavy and slow, he was very nearly exhausted. The wolves could see this and became even more enthusiastic as the promise of a meal was close to becoming reality. Daniel cursed the flatness of the forest. If there was some sort of obstacle that he could jump over and hopefully knock some loose logs down over it, he could just lose them.

Scootaloo’s heart was beating rapidly as her saviour ran through the narrow forest in an attempt to escape the vicious wolves. She might be able to outrun them if she jumped down, but then where would she go, and how would she be able to live with herself knowing that the creature that tried to help her died in vain. Oh no, she wasn’t going anywhere.
Suddenly, Scootaloo had an idea. She jumped onto the biped’s head, held on tight and flapped her wings as fast as she could. The mere adrenaline pumping through her allowed her to propel the creature enough jump out of a wolves’ biting reach.

Daniel was very grateful for the extra boost of speed. This might just get them out of this one alive. As he kept running, Daniel spotted a sudden spike in the terrain in the distance. Further ahead there were two mountains side by side. The sides of them ended in a crooked cliff side with large boulders wedged in between them. These boulders ran all the way down near the floor in between the two cliff sides. The gap was tiny. There was a narrow passage way ahead! Daniel looked back once to see the size of the wolves. They weren’t necessarily huge, but the random twigs flaying off of them would certainly get caught in between the two cliffs. Filled with hope, Daniel rushed forward.

Scootaloo had felt the creature run faster, so much that he actually was running faster than she could flap. She looked ahead and realised exactly why. The passage way ahead was too narrow for any of those wolves to get through.
Daniel was closing in on the passage and was now certain that they were going to survive this. The wolves were also getting very worried about losing their dinner. They could also see the small gap that they weren’t going to have any chance of getting through. They had to get this biped before he got to the cliffs.

Scootaloo didn’t correctly anticipate the height of the passage. So when they arrived, and the tall creature didn’t duck, Scootaloo collided with hard rock. The creature, who luckily felt the loss of weight on his head, turned to see an unconscious filly splayed on the damp ground.

Daniel had no need to duck and didn’t realise that the filly on his head was high enough to hit her head on the rocks. He instantly turned around and grabbed her leg before the wolves could get to her. After he quickly pulled the pony and practically jumped away, he fell on his back, gasping for air. The wolves finally arrived, growling and howling at him, but quickly silenced as a large boulder came crashing down in front of them. Daniel, somewhat shocked but luckily out of the way, looked up to see that the filly had indeed collided with a loose boulder that was wedged in between the two cliffs. That was enough to loosen it. Luckily the rocks above it stayed in place, otherwise they would have toppled off of the one below and on to them. He thanked his luck and picked up the small filly.

As he looked down at her, he saw that her body was cut open and bulging. Her fur was molten and her jaw was hanging low near her chest. It was a very grotesque sight indeed. Daniel dropped her instantly after seeing her. He looked at her, sweating with fear. His vision became blurred and the now horrifying equine looked up at him. Daniel could feel himself giving way in his legs. He collapsed and blacked out...

Scootaloo had awoken soon after she was dropped. The sensation of falling to the ground jolted her back into action. What she saw when she opened her eyes was surprising to say the least. There, standing in front of her, was the biped with a very fearful look in his eyes. Was he really that worried for her? No. This was a different kind of fear. The biped was scared of her, but why? She began to slowly get up, and as she did, the biped fell to the ground. She looked at it in utter shock and fear. It was her protector, and now it had fallen to the ground unconscious. As it fell, so did her heart. She had to protect it until it awoke. She sure as Tartarus couldn’t carry it.

She needed a fire to keep it warm, and her warm of course. Getting twigs was no problem, but how would she light them? Scootaloo wasn’t an expert in survival or physics, but she was sure that rubbing two things together created heat. So why couldn’t that create fire? She wasn’t entirely confident with this plan, but she had no other choice.

She went over to a nearby, dry tree to collect the twigs. She then fetched some stones to surround the fire. She didn’t know why she did this. She just saw someone else do it and thought it looked cool. She began by getting one twig and twisting it on the pile. She got a smoke going, but she couldn’t twist it fast enough to get enough heat going. She decided to use rocks against the twigs instead.

After trying at least 20 different coloured rocks to strike against the wood and set it alight, she came across a dark, shiny rock and struck it hard against the stick. After about 3 tries, the stick set alight. She beamed happily.

Suddenly, she heard a nearby growling. The Timberwolves had returned. Thinking fast, she grabbed the end of a blazing stick. If Timberwolves were made of wood, they would burn easily right? To her delight, the Timberwolves, who had just emerged from the darkness, backed off from the flame. Seeing that getting past this filly was not happening, they decided to hide in the forest outside of Scootaloo’s hastily made camp and waited for them to leave.

Scootaloo, satisfied that the wolves were not going to try and attack them, let herself sleep, albeit reluctantly. She silently hoped that the creature would return to normal when it awoke, if it awoke...

Daniel awoke from his blackout an hour after Scootaloo had gone to sleep. He was happy to see that the gruesome appearance of the little filly was just an illusion.

His joy was soon replaced with dread as he heard a nearby growling. Daniel looked around rapidly, knowing that out running the Timberwolves again was out of the question. Luckily, he saw the smouldering fire place. The filly had got a fire going.
As far as he could tell, although he didn’t see how, these wolves were made of wood, so naturally, they should burn easily. He saw the black, shiny stone next to the fire and grabbed a random twig off of the floor. He began to strike the stick hurriedly with the flint and instantly received a flame. With a grim smile, he picked up the filly, waking her, and approached the Timberwolves who had begun to slowing move towards them. He waved the flaming stick at them, backing them off.
As soon as he saw an opening, he ran for it. As he passed the snarling wolves, one bit him in the leg. He screamed out, much to the filly’s horror, and struck the Timberwolf with the burning end of the stick. This sent the Timberwolf running into the distance on fire. That was enough for the rest of the pack. This prey was too difficult to breakdown; they ran off to find a different, easier prey. Daniel and Scootaloo saw this and both simultaneous sighed and relaxed, only to be tense up again as Daniel cried out in pain.

The bite wasn’t deep enough to cause any real damage, but it definitely hurt Daniel enough to make him limp with every step. He rolled up his trouser leg and observed the wound. Where the wolf had bitten him were several red holes with dark blood pouring out of them. He grabbed a piece of cloth out of his pocket and began to press down on the bite marks. Daniel saw the filly look up at him worriedly, but he ruffled her hair in an attempt to say, ‘I fine’. The filly was not entirely convinced clearly but relaxed anyway. Daniel then prepared for another long trek into the forest. ‘I am getting too old for this,’ he thought.

Chapter 10

Forget Your Past
Chapter 10

Daniel clumsily reached for some sort of support as he clumsily made his way onto his feet again. ‘Could this day get any more hectic,’ he thought while hiding in a closet near the door. As he stood in the surprisingly empty closet, his breathing became long and heavy and beads of sweat began to form on his forehead. Eventually after a long time of tension, Daniel heard the Gatherer approach the door. The corridor he had fallen into was wide and long in length, so the distance between him and the monster was at least three metres long. Daniel noted that this was a monster with a magical aura glowing around its hands. After some time of fiddling with the door, the monster gave up and blasted it down with its magic. Daniel had seen people claim to have the power of magic, but seeing it actually performed in front of him was a very phenomenal experience for him.

Not seconds after the door was blown down, the winged Gatherer rushed in looking around frantically. Looking for him. The two Gatherers stood there for a minute or so, almost as if having a silent conversation. Daniel could definitely hear some murmurs. After their pleasant conversation, the two monsters split up again. If it wasn’t for the fact that the area the closet stood in was very dark, Daniel would have been sure that intelligent creatures (they had proven to be intelligent in the last hour or so) such as these would have suspected the closet as an excellent hiding place. The winged Gatherer continued down the corridor while the magic Gatherer floated out of the door. If he wasn’t in a situation where his life could be at risk, Daniel would have found the Gatherer floating out of the door a very funny sight.

Silently, he looked out of the closet down the corridor and out of the broken wooden door. When he was sure both ways were clear, he stepped out of closet and began to walk down the corridor in hoped of finding something useful. As far as Daniel knew, the big steel gate led to somewhere important, maybe even where Alexander was hiding. The gate was too heavy to have been lifted manually, there had to be some sort of machine to lift it. But where was it? Once glance over the railings told him immediately where. The corridor he was standing on had in fact transitioned into a balcony overlooking the rest of the balcony that went down to the bottom of the room where a machine with an innumerable amount of cogs which led to where Daniel presumed to be the gate. A lever was connected to the machine. It likely activated the many steam pipes that moved the cogs. At the end of the corridor/balcony he was currently on was another room which probably held many spare parts for the machine.

Daniel continued his walk down the balcony until he reached the end. He inspected the condition of the machine. Many of the cogs were too stiff to be of any use at all for the machine and the pin holding the lever stand in place was broken. Daniel had seen the extra room and knew what he needed. Spare cogs, oil and a new pin.

He walked up to the door and pulled on the handle. Daniel had obviously forgotten that the winged Gatherer had to have been somewhere secluded in the machine room as his lungs almost burst as he jumped at the sound of a Gatherer behind the door. With his vision blurred once more, he stumbled rapidly down to the bottom of the balcony of which was relatively dark and with many small areas which he could somewhat fit in. He hid under a stone table which stood under the balcony which cast a long shadow over it. He sat there, waiting for the Gatherer to pass.

Applejack had stood at the castle door scoulding the three fillies for their foolishness. They had followed the six mares with no consideration for their own safety when coming into an extremely dangerous area. The three fillies had been cowering in her shadow, but not because of her.

“...and tha’ is why you do not follow us...”

“Um, big sis? Behind you.” Applebloom interrupted just loud enough for Applejack to hear. With a confused expression, Applejack turned just in time to see a clawed hand knocked her to the floor. The three fillies didn’t have enough time to scream before they were next.

Twilight and Fluttershy had been majorly confused. Twilight had heard the metal crashing and Fluttershy had seen the biped walk in. It only made sense that the biped was in the machine room. The two mares didn’t know what to make of this, so Twilight told Fluttershy to search the machine room while she went to find the others. Naturally, while she still wanted to find the biped and aid it, she was rather frightened by its presence and of the dark, unnatural castle. When Fluttershy heard and saw the door creak open, she was staying put amongst piles of machinery. Reluctantly, she walked out towards the door and opened it.

“Hello? Is anypony there?” She quite hopefully yet silently asked. Silence. Fluttershy continued down towards the bottom of the room via the balcony path. It was unlikely to have gone back out the door as it was probably trying to find a place to hide away from them. Eventually, she reached the machine at the bottom of the room. Nothing had seemed to have changed. Ready to leave it at that, Fluttershy turned and caught a glimpse of a pair of eyes under the stone table. The eyes disappeared as fast as they had appeared. Fluttershy subconsciously recognised the eyes, and they had the same expression as when she looked down at it sympathetically in the stairwell. Fear. Fluttershy didn’t hesitate, however, to run out of the room and inform her friends of what she had seen.

Daniel had never seen a Gatherer run out of the area before unless it was chasing him. Not taking the opportunity for granted, Daniel slowly crept out of his hiding place and made the upwards trek back to the store room.

When he opened it, he smiled slightly at the sight. As he predicted, the room was the home to millions of spare parts. It’s as if the owner of this castle expected something to go wrong. He pocketed a pot of oil and a spare pin; he decided it was better to wait until he knew how many he needed before retrieving them. After jabbing the pin back into its place and oiling the rusty cogs, he came to the conclusion that only one cog needed replacing. After successfully replacing the cog, he activated the machine. He smiled warmly as the satisfying sound of success reached his ears. The machine jarred slightly, but it immediately kicked into action. Without a second thought, Daniel ran to the gate knowing that the Gatherers would be startled by the sudden noise of machinery (thankfully, all the Gatherers were in the kitchen at that moment in time playing ‘hide and seek’ with one of their colleagues).

As he approached the gate, the smile on his face grew even wider, but was immediately replace with shock as he fell through the ground near the gate. Daniel fell through the floor, only to emerge outside the castle at the edge of the island it stood on. Luckily for Daniel, the area beneath him was not devoid of a floor as he hit a wide ledge of grass and mud on the edge of the cliff. As he hit the floor, he blacked out.