Amnesia: Forget Your Past

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.