Amnesia: Forget Your Past

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.