Amnesia: Forget Your Past

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.