----------- Melody’s Tale: Memories Lost -----------

Gale and Hurricane blinked at Twilight, their avian expressions clearly confused by the sudden admonition.

“I told you, I don’t have any children. What are you talking about?” Twilight repeated, stepping forward. Lily was at her side, her own brow drawn downwards in confusion.

”This… Is exactly what I feared.” Gale mumbled, dipping his head so it was on-level with Twilight. His massive eyes pierced into hers, lending to the seriousness of the situation. ”Ephemira, Twilight, your memory is flawed.” His voice sent a chill up Twilight’s spine, not unlike his presence did. The god of the northern and eastern winds continued. ”And ours is as well. I suggest you call a conference, of every god you can, so we can discuss this further.” Over his back, Hurricane turned his gaze West, towards the Shadowlands. He spoke next, his voice just as concerned as his brother’s.

”Dark tidings on cold winds, my friends… Something is happening in the Shadowlands. Something important.”

----------

“Three months and sixteen days.” Melody rubbed her eyes with her free hand, the magic that cast light out into the darkness wavering just a little. “How much longer?”

”I do not know, Melody… They come from all over, and some of them are weak after so long. The Elements of Disharmony have long been forgotten or dormant, save for myself and Greed. As soon as the others arrive, we can return home.”

“The sooner the better.” Verse spoke quietly from off to her left, walking into the circle of light she offered them. “I hate going out there.”

“What’d you find?” Melody went to greet him, sitting down to survey his pack. Ever since they had arrived in this shadowy recess in the forest, their company had discouraged them from leaving. They’d discovered the loss of memory between the two elements that had been reunited; how Greed and Generosity were gone from the world now, and the fact that what once had been six were now five had irreparable consequences for the other elements.

Uniting Lily and Chrysalis’ souls had started a chain reaction, not just in the gods and goddesses of the Elements of Harmony, but in all of them. This shadowy valley, where light struggled to pierce, was a safe haven from the dangers of the Shadowlands. Here, they were waiting for the arrival of the other elements – the parallels to the Elements of Harmony – so they could reunite them all, and hopefully resolve the dissonance between them all.

After all, chaos amidst the Elements of Harmony was a disastrous thing that had nearly cost Equestria and the world before. Their mother, Lily, was unwittingly a conduit for something major.

“Nothing much,” Verse sighed, lighting his own hand up with a healthy orb of light. He set his pack down and emptied a dozen apples, some dirty roots, and a few handfuls of berries. “At least, nothing we haven’t eaten already… The one tree is almost depleted, though. How much longer do you suspect we’ll have to wait?” He directed his question to no-one in particular, but the mysterious element of anti-magic, the shadowy father of the Changeling Primes, materialized out of the darkness beside them.

”Not much longer. They are very close.”

He was an intimidating figure, especially since Lily knew the primes could do terrifying things, but his voice was soothing and she knew him to be a friendly soul. His countenance notwithstanding, he had a wonderful sense of humor and could sing quite nicely. Inside this shadowy valley, though, Melody felt as if she were going mad. The darkness that rested here protected the two of them from the magic-seeking plants and monsters of the Shadowlands, but outside where the food was that had been keeping them fed, he had to suppress their power to keep them safe. In here, Melody could use her magic - and had been - but out there, to do so would spell immediate death.

She and Verse had been foraging for food and supplies out among the woods of the Shadowlands for over three months now, taking turns leaving the shadowy valley and having their magic suppressed. That was three months of sleeping in utter darkness, only seeing the bleak, uninteresting landscape whenever she shed light with her magic, and occasionally locking away her power for a few hours to collect enough food to live. She had tried to summon food from Canterlot as they had in the past, but it appeared this shadowy valley was separated from that energy. She couldn’t access Canterlot’s vast stores of food and supplies at ll. In short, this was miserable.

And yet, she found herself wondering which she would rather be doing: running to and fro all over the world to revive these elements separately, or waiting patiently for them to arrive here. All the while, knowing both of her mothers and all their surrogate aunts were slowly losing their memories.

She wondered how much longer they could last.

----------

“So you’re telling me,” Twilight stood among a gathering of gods, having called as many as she could from the far corners of the world at the behest of the two massive roc. “… That we’re slowly losing our memories?”

”That’s the short and thick of it, yes…” Gale rumbled, sharing a quick look at the congregation of power. Among their ranks were all of the Elements of Harmony, Gale and Hurricane themselves, the Wendigo, Judicia and Discord, and the child Death. ”Reuniting the elements of Generosity and Greed have nullified them both. Neither have need of the other as long as their souls are together. But that’s one portion of a six-tiered power… Laughter, Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness and yes, even Magic, all have their own counterparts. Reuniting them all would, hopefully, resolve this dissonance.”

“But… What of magic, as a whole?” Twilight’s brow furrowed. “Without Ephemira, would magic itself fade away?”

“Hardly.” Death spoke up, his young voice sounding markedly out-of-place among such tall and imposing gods and goddesses. And yet, his presence seemed to be one of the most pronounced, even more noticeable and intimidating than the two gigantic roc. “Magic still exists all over the world. You may be privy to it all, Ephemira, but you are not its master, nor its mother. You are merely a product of it.”

“I see.” Twilight furrowed her brow, though it was Fluttershy who spoke next.

“What of the others? The Elements of Harmony are a soul within themselves. We all know it, they’ve lived in us for a long while now. They even took over our bodies for a short time.” Twilight shuddered in remembrance of seeing Melody and Verse’s bodies hanging from the ramparts in Canterlot, of fleeing inside of her own mind, her own soul, to allow Ephemira to take over. All of the others had done the same at that time. “What of them?” Fluttershy continued, “What happens then?”

“Well,” Death turned to Lily, who stood among them despite no longer having the Element of Generosity inside of her. “When the two souls met, the one you know as Chrysalis and Liliana, their energies – the parts of their souls that made them who they were – no longer had any need of the other. Greed and generosity still exist in the world as a whole, but their stewards had no need to shepherd it. Thus…” He grinned, crossing his arms. Behind him, a Mord rose from his own shadow, the curved scythe gleaming in the mid-day sun.

“I took them.”

A silence descended over them all, Death’s words bringing to light a haunting realization… They all realized that when these Elements of Disharmony were reunited with their counterparts, the inherent souls would meet their end.

’Fear not for us, Twilight.’ Ephemira’s voice came to her from within, an echo in her mind that Twilight knew. ’We know the unification of Greed and Generosity needed to happen in order for the changelings to find their peace. In a way, it was the catalyst for a change the rest of the world needs right now. If my counterpart truly exists, and if the others’ do as well, then maybe it’s what needs to happen; especially if it’s going to rob you of the memory of your children.’

‘So I do have children, then.’ Twilight thought within herself. Ephemira’s soul glowed for a moment, as if chuckling.

’I’ll admit that I had forgotten of them, even though I owe my awakening to them… The Children of Love are indeed real, and I can see the shadow of their faces when I try to think of their names. It seems this problem of losing memories affects us at random. Gale and Hurricane know of the Children of Love well. Death surely remembers them, too. But if I am able to forget, so is just about anybody else. And they may not be the only one we have forgotten…’

Twilight blinked. There was a sudden rush of realization. Her brother, Shining Armor… Who was he married to? She remembered the wedding, the changeling fight, and even the magic of love doing a wondrous thing… But who was that woman he was marrying? Where was she now? What was her name?

“Twilight?” Pinkie Pie laid a hand on her forearm, shocking her out of her reverie. “What’s on your mind?”

“I… I’m trying to remember… Who did my brother marry?”

“You mean Cadance?” Rainbow Dash piped in. “She and Shining Armor fled into Hearth when the war began. Something about fighting and how it didn’t fit well with Love.” Twilight stared at Rainbow Dash blankly, not connecting the dots. Rainbow Dash’s brow furrowed. “You know? Your sister-in-law? Princess of Love? Well, I guess Goddess of Love, but still.” Twilight couldn’t make the connection still. “Oh come on! We went to her wedding and fought a bunch of changelings!”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.” Applejack interjected. “But I know Shining Armor had a wedding… I remember the changelings.”

”You see, it’s begun.” Gale cut them all off. ”You’ve forgotten the name of the Goddess of Love, though some of you still remember. The memory degradation is worsening among us. I know, because I had forgotten of the Wendigo, but Hurricane had not. He had forgotten Rainbow Dash, but I had not. The same is true for a handful of others…”

“Then it’s worse than we imagined.” Twilight surmised, looking around at the gathered gods and goddesses. “We’re slowly poisoning everyone’s memories. And not just we gods and goddesses,”

“But I don’t remember them either.” Lily took over. “I’m just the changeling queen now – no other soul within me, though I remember her. Rarity, that is.”

“She’s in a better place.” Death cut her off. “Chrysalis, however… Not so much.”

“Right. Well, thank you for that.” Lily shuddered. “But I’m no longer a goddess… haven’t been for a few months now. But I don’t know who these ‘Children of Love’ are, or that they were my own children.”

“In order to solve this, you’re saying we need to reunite the other five of us with our counterparts; the Elements of Disharmony.”

”Right.” Gale nodded in affirmation.

“So where are they?” Rainbow Dash asked, her fists tightening. “As much as I don’t think I wanna give up on being a goddess, we can’t just… forget everything and everyone. Today, it’s Cadance and these ‘Children of Love.’ Tomorrow, it might just be the harpies, or the chimera. Next week, it might just be each other.” She looked around the circle, smiling warmly. “I don’t want to forget any of you.”

”The last I knew, the Elements of Disharmony were in slumber scattered across the world. They had been separated long, long ago, sent to sleep by the Elements of Harmony well before Equestria had been founded. They were moving, which roused our curiosity. But just two days ago, when we first returned to speak with you, Twilight…” Gale shook his head slowly.

”They disappeared into the Shadowlands. Even I cannot see down into the forest, so I know not where they hide, or where they are going ultimately.”

“The Children of Love were last seen going into the Shadowlands.” Death stepped forward. “Just over three months ago; shortly before Liliana returned from Hive.”

“So they may just be working at solving this issue.”

“Maybe.” Death nodded. “Even I don’t step into the Shadowlands.”

“So… what?” Rainbow Dash asked, shuffling her magnificent wings. “We just… trust in them?”

“You all might not remember,” Fluttershy smiled warmly. “But if anybody could be trusted to solve this issue, it’s Melody and Verse.”

“He is a persistent bastard, that Verse.” The Wendigo hissed. “He and his sister put me in my place. I’m sure they can resolve this issue.”

“So that’s it, then.” Pinkie Pie lifted her hands and dropped them. “We just… wait for them to fix it?”

“Well, I don’t know about you all,” Twilight sighed. “But I don’t feel like letting our memories degrade any further. I think we should work together, trying to help each other remember what we’ve forgotten.”

“A noble cause.” Judicia spoke up, nodding faintly. The first time she had spoken since her and Discord’s arrival. “Even between my brother and I, there are things we’ve forgotten.”

“Some important things, too…” Lily turned to Twilight, a grin on her face.

“What’s that look for?” Twilight stepped back.

“C’mon, Twi… you heard them. We have kids.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Babymaking.”

Even the roc groaned.

----------

”At long last.” The dark figure materialized from the shadow around them, breaking Melody from her reverie. She had been munching on an apple, listening to Verse hum a simple tune. As the element of anti-magic stepped into the circle of light they cast, they both stood. ”My brothers and sisters return.”

“Huh?” Melody looked out into the shadow, squinting faintly. “I don’t see or hear anything…”

”Oh, they aren’t what you’d expect… Remember, they were scattered to the far ends of the world long, long ago after a fight with their counterparts. While Greed and I may have found a corporeal form to occupy, they…”

Melody gasped as she saw them then. Four bobbing lights, floating into the circle of light from the darkness.

They were only souls. The same essence she had seen her mother pull from within herself, the same they had torn from Chrysalis to give to Lily. Four of them, each a dingy grey in color, bobbed across the bleak terrain towards them, coming to a stop in a line. As she watched, two of them began to flicker in and out of existence, their essences struggling to remain.

”Their bodies were broken, so they rested, dormant, as just a soul… They couldn’t be taken by Death, not without their counterparts to follow, so they remained as they are. I call them Wanderers. Humans call them by a few names. Souls, Will O’ The Wisp, Ghosts… They are just the spirits of those who have no physical body, but have yet to be taken to the other side by Death.”

“They’re beautiful.” Verse said quietly, moving towards one of them. They flickered here and there, looking as if they might fade away at any moment.

’Thank you, Child.’ The voice wafted past Melody’s ears, weak and tired. It sounded feminine, but she couldn’t quite hear it. It was a child’s voice, timid and faint, full of doubt and fear. ’We’ve come a long way, and the loss of our sister is wearing on us.’

“It is.” The changeling prime creature that was Ephemira’s counterpart grumbled. He slunk up next to them, the four souls and two Children of Love. ”Not just us, but them as well… If we do not hurry back to Canterlot, we very well may forget who we are or what to do. We may even forget how to breathe, or walk, or any number of things.”

“What do you suggest? Do we just walk out of here? It took us a week to find this place, and you said you were suppressing our magic the entire way in… Can we even walk out of here now? The seven of us?” Verse asked, putting words to the fear in Melody’s own mind. At that, their company fell sighed.

”If I step out of this valley, the creatures here will devour us instantly. I may be the element of anti-magic, but I still have the touch of it on me. These shadows around us kept me safe all these years, and I can extend my influence beyond them, but it took many, many centuries to make this much… I cannot surround us with it, nor can I leave the valley.”

“Well, shit.” Verse sighed. Melody shared his sentiment, feeling a sensation of hopelessness descend on her. She’d felt this sensation before, when she couldn’t heal the soldiers in Hearth, when they had to betray their friends and family to hand Canterlot over to Chrysalis, and a few other times over the course of her life.

If anything had been drilled into her head, it was that nothing was ever hopeless.

“You said you suppressed our magic, and you can extend your influence elsewhere. Can you reach out of the Shadowlands?”

”I can… I do fairly often, as well.”

“To do what?” Melody asked, turning to their host with a serious look. “How does your anti-magic work? Do you steal energy? Destroy it? Absorb it?”

”It’s difficult to explain. One could almost say what I do is a different form of magic entirely. But I take the energy from any given spell, any spell at all, and dissipate it. One could say I reduce it to its basest form, draw it away from the symbols and words, and release it back into the world.”

“That’s it, then. Verse, you thinking what I’m thinking?” Melody turned to her brother, who was grinning himself.

“Eeyup. I know how we can get home now.”

----------

“Hmm…” Twilight floated up into consciousness blissfully, rising from her pleasant dreams on a natural tide of waking. She stretched her arms over her head and groaned inwardly, feeling rested and relaxed.

And not alone.

“WOAH!” Scrambling, Twilight ripped herself out of her bed, her chest heaving as she looked down at the confused red-headed woman sleeping roused awake beside her.

“Wha? Twilight, what’s up?” The woman moaned, slowly waking from her own rest.

“Who are you?!” Twilight panted, torn between averting her eyes away from the woman in bed, and staring at her incredulously. “How did you get into my room?!”

“What? Twilight, calm down, I-“

“WHO ARE YOU?!” Twilight roared, her hands glowing densely. Suddenly, the strange woman was very awake, and also nude. She clutched the blanket to her chest, her eyes wide as Twilight began summoning her magic.

“Twilight, I’m… It’s me. Lily. Your wife.”

“What?” That managed to stun Twilight. She balked, her hands flickering; the energy still at the ready, but wavering.

“I’m your wife, Twilight. Listen to me, there’s a problem with the Elements of Harmony. It’s making you forget things. Do you know Rainbow Dash? Applejack? Pinkie Pie? Fluttershy? There’s something wrong with the elements, you’re forgetting things more and more.”

“Liar!” Twilight roared, her magic flaring to life once more. “You’re a Changeling; I can feel it! You’re gonna steal all my love and hurt my friends!” She threw her hands towards the woman, intent on gripping her, to keep her from running. Just as she cast the spell, though, it vanished. The energy was gone in an instant, and the red-haired woman looked equally as stunned as Twilight.

’Stop this, Twilight!’ A voice ripped through her head, making Twilight flinch.

“What? Who said that?!”

’It’s me, Ephemira. Relax, Twil-‘

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” Twilight screamed, clutching her temples. The woman abandoned the blankets, sprinting over to her. She shied away, swiping a hand at the woman in panic.

’I don’t know why that spell you just cast failed. I can-‘

“MAKE IT STOP.” Twilight screamed, panic setting in. She felt sick. Hearing voices in her head wasn’t normal. She needed help. She needed Celestia! “Celestia, call her, I’m-“

The whole world went dark. The last thing she heard was the strange woman screaming for help, rushing to her side as she fell.

----------

”Oh, I don’t know what Twilight’s trying to do, but that was a lot of magic just then.” The anti-element grinned as, all around them, magic began to fill the air. Verse and Melody stood back-to-back, painting arcane symbols in the air with their hands, weaving intricate spells over and over again.

“Just keep it up, take what you can.” Melody’s hands glowed ever-denser as she began pulling more and more tendrils of magic out of the air around them. Now that she and Verse knew what Ephemira’s counterpart did, stealing magic from spells and freeing it back into its natural habitat, they were taking that discharge and funneling it into their own spells. He was reaching into the world, cancelling spells and taking their energy. Where Melody would have been worried about using her own energy to cast a massive teleportation out of this shadowy mist, she no longer had any concerns. The glowing residue all around them was tinged with a thousand different magi’s flavors. She recognized her mother’s well, and a few others that seemed vaguely familiar.

“You’re sure about this, then?” Verse asked, still painting a myriad of spell-forms behind her. “We can take ourselves and the four souls all the way to Canterlot?”

”Absolutely. I know I have a soul myself, so you should be able to target me as well, as long as I don’t actively negate the spell.” The intimidating figure chuckled ominously. ”It’ll be the first time I’ve ever had magic cast on me. I’m actually rather excited.”

“Teleportation isn’t my first choice for ‘things I’ve never had done to me, but sure, let’s do them anyways.’” Melody grinned at the creature, and got a toothy smile in return. She focused her attention on the spell-forms, writing them as fast as she could.

“Hang on, everyone. We’re coming home.”