It was dark. Very dark.

Ditty could not see or hear anything. He wasn't even sure if he was really there. The nothingness was a part of him and he was a part of it.

From in the bleakness Ditty saw a faint glow. The kind of glow that could blend itself with darkness but if you willed your eyes to not strain too hard you faintly could make it out.

Ditty moved towards it. It got a little brighter. He increased his speed, the brightness increased as well.

Ditty pushed himself hard and ran as fast he could. He was even closer to the light, but now it was too bright. He was blinded by it, he lost his balanced and tripped.

The moment he fell the light went out. He was in darkness again.

"Wait!" He called out. But the voice he heard echo back in the darkness wasn't his own. It was small, it sounded like a little colt's. He had heard it before along time ago. It took him a moment but he realized it was his own voice when he was a child.

He heard a noise, it sounded like the flapping of wings. He looked up in the direction it came from, the darkness was gone.

Ditty was now standing on the playground of Ponyville Elementary. The school building looked massive. Ditty looked down at the grass and saw two little colt hooves where his normal hooves should be.

He heard the flapping wing sound again followed by the sound of hooves landing next to him.

"Chin up sweetheart, we want to make a good impression for the teacher."

Ditty looked up and saw the living face of his mother. He had not seen her in over twenty years, but here she was alive looking back at him.

Sandy Hooves stood over him with her rosewood color fur and wings, her auburn windswept hair and her dark brown eyes the same as Ditty’s.

Ditty felt an urge to throw his fore legs around her but he realized that he was not in control of his little colt body. He was only a passenger watching these old events unfold.

"I'm scared of you leaving me here Mommy." He felt his little colt voice say.

"Sweetheart we talked about this. You’re a big pony now. Big ponies go to school."

Ditty slumped his head down sadly.

"Look over there. There's your Cheerilee friend from across the street."

Ditty looked up and saw the filly Cheerilee with braids in her mane standing next to the door to the school just thrilled to be starting classes. She look up at Ditty and his mother and waved.

"Hi Ditty! Hi Ms. Hooves!" Cheerilee called out.

"See you know somepony here. She looks happy to be here, you'll like it. You'll see."

"OK." Ditty said uneasily.

"Wait, give mommy a Ditty kiss?" Sandy said down to her young foal.

Ditty reached his horn up and touched it to his mother's forehead. A tiny spark lit up between them and Ditty felt a little braver sensing his mother's feelings of how proud of him she was starting his first day of school appear briefly appear in his thoughts.

The playground faded to back.

Ditty was once again standing within the darkness. His thoughts raced remembering the sensation of the spark he shared with his mother.

"Mom?" He cried out, still in his colt voice.

He heard a couple of fillies nickering to the left of him. He turned to face the noise. He was back on the playground, but it was now later in the school day. The nickering belonged to two fillies, both who looked like Cheerilee.

"What's so funny Cheerilee?" He asked one of them.

"I'm not Cheerilee, she is." The filly said briskly. "I’m Berry Punch and mind your own business." The two fillies walked off still laughing. Ditty turned around in the direction the two of them were facing and saw a little grey pegasus walking across the field.

The pegasus was cantering across the grass with a stupid look on her face. One of her eyes were looking up while the other was looking down. She walked up to a flower, looked at it with both eyes and gave it sniff.

The playground went dark again.

"Wait who was that? Show me it again." Ditty shouted to the darkness. "Ditzy was that you? Ditzy?"

"Derpy!" A young colt's voice called behind him. "Yeah Derpy!"

Ditty turned around and saw two colts with cruel grins on their faces.

"Not you horn head! Turn around!" One said rudely to Ditty.

Ditty turned back around and saw he was still a colt sitting in his student desk in his elementary classroom. Ditzy was sitting in the desk next to his. She had a pencil in her mouth and was coping the instructions on the black board in the front.

"Pssst! Derpy, what's wrong with your face? You eat some spoiled apples as a baby?"

One of the boys nickered.

"Yeah your mom drop you out of Cloudsdale face first?"

The two of them nickered together.

Ditzy stopped briefly as if she heard them but then went back to writing.

"You deaf also Derpy? Didn’t you hear me?"

Ditty turned around and glared at them.

"Ditty have you copied the entire writing exercise?" The teacher called out from the opposite side of the room.

"No Mrs. Sharpener."

"Then face forward and leave the other students alone."

"Yes Ma'am." He said embarrassed.

Ditty went back to his work. The boys behind him relished in their nickering of getting him in trouble. Ditty glanced over at Ditzy, the little filly met his glace both eyes were looking at him. Ditty saw the edges of her mouth slightly twitch. Ditzy’s eyes rolled back in to her walleyed expression and she went back to her work.

The classroom faded to blackness.

"I remember that now! But I’ve forgotten it. Was that important?" Ditty said out loud realizing that his voice had returned to its normal adult sound.

"They had no right saying those things. It was just cruel." He heard his own voice shout back somewhere in the darkness.

"That's me." Ditty shouted back to the darkness. "Did I say that? When did I say that? I can't remember."

"I shouldn't had just scowled! I wish I said something, wish I did something. I wish.." The darkness shouted back.

"When did I say that? I know it's important! It... It just feels that way. Please for the love of Celestia, Show me!"

The darkness erupted with light. Ditty knew it was the same light he was chasing before. This time the light had become even more brighter. Ditty panicked, he turned around and galloped away from it.

"No sweetheart, don't give up now!"

His mother landed in front of him. Ditty stopped. The light went out again.

Ditty lit his horn, his mother still stood in front of him.

"The longer you stay here the harder it will become for you to leave."

Ditty felt helpless and confused.

"Mom." He wept. "I'm so lost, I think I get the picture and something happens and I get lost again."

"You need to put it together yourself."

"I don't understand, help me." He pleaded.

"I can give you a hint, but you need to stay focused. No distractions, time is running out. Find out what you need to know and move on."

"OK." Ditty said gathering his composure a little more focused with a goal in mind.

"When was the last time you sang Let it Snow?"

"That song?" Ditty almost gave a chuckle. "I haven't sang any holiday songs since my time as a lounge singer."

His mother and the darkness faded away as he saw the lounge of Hotel Fillydelphia form around him.

Ditty felt himself standing on the stage singing Let it Snow to a room full of ponies who looked the least bit interested in him.

Ditty was a passenger again in his old body again, this time it was a much older Ditty.

He started feeling embarrassed as he heard himself singing.

‘I can't believe I did this and thought people appreciated me for it.’ He thought to himself.

Ditty felt himself transition in to a lounge version of Goddess Rest Ye Merry Pegasus, and turned to face another end of the room.

Ditty noticed a mare in nice evening dress had walked in to the room and sat down at the bar. Before he could good look at her his lounge singer self turned to Benny his pianist.

‘Who walked in?’ Ditty asked himself. ‘Come on. turn back!’

After another verse lounge singer Ditty turned to face to the back putting the bar completely within range of sight.

If Ditty was able to give a cheer he would have. Looking up at him from the bar was Ditzy Doo sipping a drink with a cute little smirk on her face.

Ditty continued watching through the eyes of himself as he sang melancholy songs. He didn't remember the songs being so bad when he sang them but now that he was forced to hear them again, he felt like he was enduring some kind of ironic torture.

He passed the time by trying to catch glimpses of Ditzy at the bar. He didn’t know why by something inside felt that she was the purpose of this vision. With the exception of his first vision of his mother, Ditzy had been present in all the other visions. Also this was not how he remembered it, Ditzy sitting at the bar was new to him.

Soon Ditzy was joined by Cheerilee, Berry Punch and eventually Rarity. The four of them all seemed to be talking though Ditty could only hear himself singing the lyrics of Santa Clops. Ditty also noticed his lounge singer self had started paying closer attention to the fillies at the bar, Cheerilee in particular.

Finally Ditty had finished his set and took a bow. Very few ponies gave applause.

He and Benny quickly divvied up the tip jar and Ditty made a b-line for the bar. He heard one of mares mention Ponyville and Winter Wrap Up.

"Oh come on girls. It's Hearth's Warming Eve! Let's drop the biology lesson and get out there and cut loose." The flushed faced mare at the end of the bar shouted.

"Now there's a mare who knows how to celebrate the holidays!" Ditty the lounge singer said joyously breaking in to their conversation.

"I couldn't help but over hear, are you ladies from Ponyville by any chance?" He felt himself say. He then ordered a gin and tonic.

The voice in the back of Ditty's head screamed in panic. He was going to relive himself drinking alcohol, the very thing that had taken his family and his memories. Here he was back at the last night he had touched the stuff about to witness himself fall down that spiral again.

'I don't want to see that!' He felt himself say.

The ponies at the bar froze in place, the ground started to shake and the walls of the room started to crack. Ditty could feel the darkness starting to seep back inside of him. It felt cold and empty.

"No!" He shouted.

The shaking stopped and rest of the room froze in place. Ditty now found himself standing next to his lounge singer self in the bar, the drink just about to touch his lips, the memory still frozen.

"I won't be a prisoner to alcohol! Not even in my memories." He said out loud to the room around him.

"These are your memories Ditty." His lounge singer self said turning his head to him with hoof still not moving. "You leave now and you'll never get a chance to learn the rest."

"I'm not leaving!" He shouted. "But I know the alcohol only makes me forget, I wont let it."

"You have to experience the whole thing or fail." His doppelganger said back to him with a impious smile. His voice now sounded harsh, wicked, and distinctly like his drunken father’s.

"Why?" Another voice asked.

Ditzy Doo at the bar had become unfrozen and was glaring back at the lounge singer Ditty.

"What!?" The doppelganger said back at her. "How are you-"

"Answer the question." Ditzy cut him off still glaring at him. "You said these are his memories, right? Why can't choose what he wants to see and how?"

Ditty suddenly felt even more clear headed from Ditzy's words. He could feel her presence, it felt like she was right beside him cheering him on. It made him feel braver.

"Yeah!" Ditty said with even more strength in his voice. "I do remember this, Rarity blows me off and I stay here and drink. I don't need experience that first hand all over again! It would be just a waist of time. I know it already."

Almost like he had said a magic word, doppelganger Ditty and the others at the bar vanished leaving Ditty and Ditzy standing facing each other.

"You’re a part of this, you’re the key to this." Ditty said taking a step towards her. "I don't know how or why but I can just feel it. It feels right."

Ditzy gave a smile back at him.

"I'm right here." She said gently to him. Her words came out of her mouth and also they echoed as if she was calling to him from far away. "Fight! You can pull through this. I know you can."

She reached up and touched him on the cheek. Ditty felt a wave of recollection surface in his mind.

"All of you did leave me at the bar. But later you came back. Just you, by yourself."

Ditzy smiled and nodded as their surroundings changed back in the bar. The two of the stood side by side as they watch the memory play out.

It was much later that evening, Ditty saw his lounge singer self stooped over the bar obviously drunk. While another Ditzy trotted in to the bar. She looked a bit frazzled, like she had a bad night out. She sat down next to him.

"I thought you said you had a party to go to with your band mates?" Ditzy asked the drunken Ditty startling him out of his inebriated torpor.

"Huh?" He looked up at her blinking. "Do I know you?"

"Ponyville. Cheerilee's friend." She said looking at him.

"Yeah the quiet one. Never got your name."

"Ditzy Doo."

"Pleased to see you again. I'm sorry if I was rude earlier.”

"Oh no you weren't. Honestly I thought my friends were being rude. They just stood up and walked out after we all had been talking about you while you were singing."

"Really?" Ditty gave a smile at her. "And here I thought my ears were burning up there because of those stage lights."

Ditzy laughed and gave a sigh, her eyes rolled up in her typical fashion. Ditzy turned her head away embarrassed.

"Hey I remember you now. You looked that way first day of school." The drunk Ditty said to her.

Ditzy turned around ready to walk out.

"They were horrible to you."

She stopped.

"Those boys sitting behind us, back in school, they called you names. I even heard Berry Punch and Cheerilee giggle about you once. The things they said, the boys, I hated them for it. They intentionally whispered loud enough so you could hear when the teacher was on the other side of the room."

The frazzled Ditzy turned around and looked straight at him with both eyes this time. The drunk Ditty was looking down at the bar regretful.

"They did that, and not once did you cry or shout at them." He said.

"You never said those bad things to me." Ditzy said back to him. "That's why I remember you. You were never mean to me. One time you even looked back and scowled at them."

Drunk Ditty hit a hoof against the bar.

"They had no right saying those things. It was just cruel." He said in a rush of empathy. "I shouldn't had just scowled! I wish I said something, wish I did something. I wish.."

He stopped in the middle of his sentence. Ditzy, touched by his words, had leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

The Ditty who was watching the memory was so focused on watching other two ponies that it took him a moment to realize that the Ditzy beside him was also kissing him on the cheek in the same fashion.

"Please come back." She said sadly to him, her voice still coming from her and echoing. "Do you remember what we drank that night? The name you called me when it was just the two of us in the hotel room?"

The room changed instantaneously around them. They were both in his hotel room now.

Ditty found himself laying in bed with Ditzy next to him. She took a drink of the bottle of red wine in her hoof.

Ditty felt another wave of recollection cross his mind.

Ditzy beamed at him, reached and brushed his mane away from of his face.

"We made love.” Ditty said shocked and at the same time enraptured by Ditzy’s smile.”How could I forgotten this!" He said to Ditzy who just laid next to him with her golden eyes looking back at him. "You had just finished telling me how you admired me in school, I called you my first fan. And then I did this.”

Ditty reached over and placed his horn on Ditzy's forehead.

There was a snap as the room surrounding them shattered in to pieces like a broken mirror. Ditzy had vanished and in her place was a glowing light that was being siphoned up by Ditty's horn. The sensation felt painful and strangely familiar, but he knew that he had -no he needed to endure it.

Ditty saw the bright light from earlier again, but this time the light on his horn seemed to out shine it.

Ditty no longer felt any pain or was afraid this time. His horn felt drawn to the light, Ditty walked up to the it and placed his horn over it. The two sources of light joined as one, it started morphing and changing shape. It eventually grew in to the size and shape of a little unicorn.

The brightness dimmed, at first he thought he was looking at himself when he was a colt, but then the little unicorn gave a familiar high pitch squeal of laughter. The unicorn was Dinky.

The whole picture became perfectly clear now. Ditty had reawakened a forgotten deep love he held for Ditzy and he knew, beyond any reason of doubt, Dinky was their child.

"See Daddy I told you!" Dinky laughed at him. But her laughter started to fade.

Suddenly Ditty felt a sense of alarm. The light surrounding Dinky was fading and she was slowly starting to vanish.

Sandy Hooves stepped out of the shadows and stood next her granddaughter.

"What's happening?" Ditty asked his mother as he saw his daughter slipping away.

"She's not really here. She's out there, alone, and in need of her parents."

Ditty reached out to touch Dinky's face but she completely vanished.

"Ditty time is up, you need to leave now!" His mother said to him. "Wake up!"

Ditty looked up at his mother. She towered above him. She was no longer the kind mare from his memory of the first day at school. She was now angry and had the look on her face that she had been drinking heavily. It was another memory of her, one he had forgotten for good reason.

Ditty felt a sense of absolute terror

"Wake up!" His mother shouted again. She looked like she was going to hit him.

Ditty fell down and covered his eyes with his hooves, just as he did when he was a child. Everything was dark.

"Open your eyes!" His mother shouted again.

Ditty couldn’t he was too scared.

"Open your eyes!"

"Open your eyes!"

"Open your eyes." The voice had changed it wasn’t his mother’s. This one was softer, almost a whimper. It was pleading to him.

Ditty felt like he was crawling up a long tunnel towards the soft voice calling to him.

"Open your eyes please."

Ditty finally opened his eyes and saw two familiar golden eyes with tears in them looking back at him.

"Please come back." The voice of Ditzy said to him.

Ditty blinked twice and saw the golden eyes belonged to her. He quietly whispered the first thing that came to his mind.

"My first fan."

Ditzy gave him a look of disbelief then erupted with joyous sob.

"YES!"

Ditzy threw her fore hooves over his neck and buried her face in his mane and sobbed.

"YES! YES! Oh Ditty! I’m sorry I hid from you. I was so foalish. I tried to pretend nothing happened, that I could just move on. But I could never forget you, even it you forgot me I just couldn't let go." She sobbed in to him.

Ditty realized he was laying partially on his side on the floor in the school house. Somepony had put a pillow under his face, and he had a blood pressure cuff around his forearm.

Ditzy was laying beside him, with their noses almost touching. She had her wing stretched out covering him like a blanket.

Ditty reached around and hugged her back feeling a sense of fullness he has realized he had only felt once briefly in his life.

"It was someplace dark and I was scared. But somehow you showed up and helped me remember." Ditty said feeling his own eyes tearing up.

"I thought I was too late. I felt so helpless." Ditzy sobbed back in to him. "I couldn't do anything by be beside you and call to you."

She must have been the echoing voice he heard in his dreams calling to him while he laid unconscious.

"I could hear you. I had just about given up, but then I felt you were close, I just couldn't give up."

The two laid in an embrace until Ditty felt something prod his forearm.

Ditty looked up and saw a Nurse was taking his pulse.

"You are a very lucky stallion Mr. Hooves," the Nurse said. "Pulling yourself this quickly out of a magical shock like this something short of a miracle. It sounds like Miss Doo's presence played an important part in it."

Ditzy had let go of his neck and gave the side of his face and affectionate nuzzle. Ditty took a moment to remember the whole ordeal. His thoughts focused on what the last few things the image of his mother said.

BOOM!!

A loud crack of thunder echoed in the large school room.

"Dinky!" He said urgently.

Ditzy pulled back to face him, her expression and panic matched his.

"Where is she? Is she OK?"

Ditzy folded her wing up and she looked up at the ponies who where standing around them.

Ditty looked up too. The room was mostly empty with the exception of the nurse who was shuffling around in her medical bag, Twilight was standing beside her, and Cheerilee had just walked in to the room wearing a rain coat.

"We’re looking for her. She didn't run home, I just checked there myself." Cheerilee told Ditzy pulling her soggy hood back and shaking out her mane.

Ditty planted his hooves in the floor and gradually stood up.

"How long has she been missing?" Ditty asked feeling adrenaline coarse through his muscles. He took off the blood pressure cuff with his magic. His horn felt a little sore when he did it, but he ignored it.

"You've been out cold for just over a half an hour." Twilight said to him. "All the rest of the students have gone home, every parent agreed to keep an eye out for Dinky on their way home."

The nurse looked up at Ditty on his hooves and using his magic in a slight panic.

"No, lay back down, you should not strain yourself till I run some tests."

Ditzy stood up bracing herself against him to act as a support.

"I'm all right." Ditty said to both of them. "The tests can wait. My daughter is out there alone and scared."

Cheerilee's eyebrows shot up when Ditty said the word daughter. She held a look of excitement when she realized that Ditty and Ditzy was were standing close together side by side.

Ditzy did a double take as well realizing that Ditty referred to Dinky as his daughter and his concern for her was not as a teacher, but as a parent.

Ditty felt this was not the time to hear apologies and questions on how he figured it out. Dinky was no where to be found, and possibly in danger. She was more important.

"Does anypony know if Sweetie Bell and her Crusader friends have a special meeting place or a home they like to play?" Ditty asked focusing the group back to the more urgent matter.

"They have a club house on the Apple farm. On the south side their property, in the wood adjacent to the creek." Ditzy said quickly realizing what he was thinking.

"I haven't gotten word out to the Apple family on Dinky's disappearance yet." Cheerilee said. “An none of the parents live out that far of town to even think of checking there.”

"She has to be there. If she's too afraid to go home, where else would she go in the rain?" Ditzy said looking at Ditty with a serious look on her face.

"Fly." He said to her. "I'll follow behind on hoof."

Before the nurse could give a second protest, Ditzy had already flown out the door at full speed. Ditty, magic-ing on his overcoat and hat in one quick gesture, followed after her.