War Heart, Twilight, and Cura were walking along the path towards Ponyville, all of them feeling uneasy as they thought they were being watched. They soon found themselves surrounded by four men with bestial looks in their eyes. One of them snarled at them, “What do you want here, Glows?”, he pointed at Twilight and Cura, completely ignoring War Heart for a second.

War Heart stood between the man and his companions, “Stay away from them…”, he warned. Towering over the snarling man, War Heart glared down at him.

The bestial man sniffed the air while looking at War Heart, “We will take you to the pack leader… You will take up your qualms with him…”, he snarled, motioning them to follow him as the other bestial men accompanied them. They marched through the gates of Ponyville, all the citizens of Ponyville that happened to be outside at the time stared at them as they moved along, mostly taking note of War Heart. Many did not recognize him in this form, since nobody but Twilight had the chance to see him as a human. Others saw him as familiar but couldn’t quite put their finger on who it was.

War Heart and the others were marched into the town hall where Hermit sat at his desk. He looked to the three people who were strangers to his rule. He eyed War Heart and sniffed the air, his eyes widening at the realization of who the familiar scent belonged to, “War Heart…?”, he said in disbelief, standing up from his desk.

War Heart nodded, not sure of who this man was, “I am War Heart… But… Who are you?”, he asked, honestly having no clue of his past with Hermit.

Hermit looked at War Heart quizzically, “Do you not remember me? I am the Hermit, from the Dragon Lands.”, he introduced himself to War Heart, hoping that he would remember.

War Heart had a bothered look on his face as he kept saying the name over and over in his head and then out loud, “Hermit… Hermit…”, he murmured as a blinding wave of pain pierced his head. He was brought to his knees by the agony as he saw visions of his memories with Hermit. He slowly opened his eyes to see Twilight, Hermit, and Cura all staring down at him. Twilight spoke but to him, her voice was faint and muffled. His senses sharpened back to their original states as he could now hear and see clearly.

Cura snapped her fingers towards his face, “Are you okay, War Heart.”, she asked while looking him over.

War Heart nodded, getting back up to standing position, “What happened?”, he groaned, feeling like he got hit in the head with a rock.

Cura thought for a moment before answering, “I am not quite sure, but I do know you should wipe your nose, you have a bit of blood dripping.” she commented casually.

War Heart felt under his nose to find the blood Cura mentioned, he turned to Hermit and instantly recognized him, “Hermit… I remember you now… You guided me through the Dragon Lands.”

Hermit smirked, “Nice to see you remember now.”

Cura looked at them, “It seems that there are two ways to regain your memories… To reintroduce them, in which case your brain violently reforms itself, or gradual, in which you really don’t regain memory but create new ones.”, she explained with pretty much only Twilight understanding what she was talking about.

Hermit sat down in his chair, “So what brings you here, Friends?”, he asked in a happier tone.

War Heart put his hands on Hermit’s desk, “Something happened at Canterlot…”, War Heart spoke in a serious tone which seemed to bother Hermit.

Hermit noticed how if something bothered War Heart, it must have been serious, “What happened at Canterlot…?”

War Heart explained what happened, describing the creatures he saw and the things they did to the civilians. The Hermit sat in his chair, brooding over what to do. Hermit smirked and crossed his arms while looking at War Heart and Cura, “Looks like we have another war on our hands.”, he declared before standing and walking towards the door.

Hermit whistled sharply, bringing the snarling members of the Claw to him. He ordered them to do something that the others couldn’t hear. He walked back towards them, “We just have to wait right here for a moment…”, he said as he took a seat again.

A few minutes later, Orion entered the room, “You called?”, he asked while walking over to Hermit’s desk. He stopped as he looked over to Cura, War Heart, and Twilight. He squinted at War Heart, not sure if it was the one he remembered, “War Heart?”, he said out loud.

War Heart nodded slowly, “… And you are?”, he asked, obviously not remembering who Orion is yet. He took a deep breath, knowing that he was headed for another pulsing headache most likely.

Orion was taken aback that War Heart was alive, but also by the fact that War Heart did not remember him, “It’s me, Orion. Don’t you reme-”, he stopped himself as he saw War Heart collapse to the ground, “Well I know I’m a pretty amazing person, but fainting at the mention of my name is a bit much, don’t you think?”, he jested, thinking War Heart was joking around.

War Heart was out for a few minutes, seeing many images flash through his mind as he violently gained memory of Orion back. He soon came to, feeling dizzy and light headed.

Cura forced his eye open and examined it, “I hope these rapid recoveries of memory won’t do anything…”, she said to herself as she used her magic to examine his brain.

Orion stood there and looked at them quizzically, “Did he do this when he heard your name Cura?”, he asked aloud while War Heart was staring straight at her.

War Heart’s eyes rolled back into his head as his brain shut off to reconstruct itself again.

Cura looked at Orion with an annoyed expression on her face.

Orion bit his lip, realizing what he just did, “Sorry…”, he whispered to her, knowing he just made her job take longer.

War Heart came back into consciousness. He rubbed his head as it throbbed, “Ow…”, he said in a slightly annoyed tone. He opened his eyes and looked towards Cura, “How’s it going, kid?”, he casually asked Cura.

Cura kept using her magic to examine his brain, “Oh, the usual… stitching you up, becoming the head of medicine in every field, forced out of home because of a bunch of corpses walking around, how ‘bout you?”, she casually replied while working.

War Heart sat up, still feeling light-headed, “Memories suck…”, he commented as the headaches returned.

There was a knock at the door, it opened almost immediately afterward. Scootaloo walked in with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom with her. She was walking towards Hermit but then found herself distracted by the fact that someone was sitting on the floor, and that he looked familiar. She squinted at him but failed to recognize him, she shrugged and continued on towards Hermit, “Well, that area you sent us to is empty. Nothing there but snow and trees.”, she reported to Hermit.

Hermit nodded, “Very well, I don’t have anything for you at the moment, you can go.”, he told them, waving them off.

Scootaloo nodded and signalled the other two Crusaders that they were leaving, “Lets go to Sugar Cube Corner. I’m craving something sweet.”, she said as they left the building. They walked over in the snow to sugar Cube Corner, they entered the shop to see Sweet Heart at the counter, “Hey! How are you three doing?”, she asked in a chipper tone.

Sweetie Belle was the first to reply, in a odd digital tone, “We are content, These two require sugary sustenance.”

Sweet Heart looked at Sweetie Belle quizzically, then looked to the other two.

Scoot replied next, “We just came back from out of town, I saw a really bigguy there with green and red hair, it was pretty weird. He seemed familiar but I couldn’t quite remember.”, she explained to Sweet Heart whose jaw had dropped. Scoot looked at her oddly, “Are you okay…?”, she asked.

Sweet Heart ran out of the room, “I know that description anywhere!”, she shouted in excitement. She ran upstairs and entered her room to see Arcana reading a book, “Come with me! I have a surprise!”, Sweet Heart squealed as she ran over to Arcana and threw her on her back, piggy-backing Arcana outside.

Arcana was genuinely confused by her aunt’s behaviour, “Where are you taking me, Sweet Heart?”, she asked as they were outside.

Sweet Heart kept running, “City Hall.”

They burst through the door to see War Heart sitting on the floor.

Arcana froze as she looked upon her father, her eyes were widened and her mouth agape. Sweet Heart put her on the floor. Arcana slowly walked to War Heart, feeling as if this could be a glass dream that could shatter at the lightest touch. War Heart stared at her like she was familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on who it was.

Twilight looked at Arcana with eyes wide, “Arcana?”, she asked aloud, forcing War Heart back into a memory recovery state.

Arcana gasped as her father fell backwards, running towards him with tears welling up in her eyes, the feeling that she could be losing him all over again. When she reached him, he was unconscious on the floor, seeming like he was dead. She kneeled in front of him, about to cry. Seconds later he opened his eyes, he reached out to her, putting his hand on her cheek and wiping away a tear that was running down her face, he smiled at her. She hugged him tightly, feeling like she never wanted to let go. More tears streamed down her face, “I missed you Father…”, she whispered, about to sob. She felt his arms wrap around her in an embrace, unable to find the right words he tried to speak, “I love you, Arcana…”, he whispered to her, a tear welling up in his eye, feeling terrible that he forgot his own daughter.

War Heart had a sudden realization. He turned to Twilight, “We… had a child?”, he asked Twilight.

Sweet Heart looked at War Heart, not knowing what he was talking about. She walked over to him, “War Heart, Arcana is Rainbow Dash’s child…”

War Heart looked at Sweet Heart with a confused expression on his face, “Who?”

Cura glared at Twilight, who looked back at her nervously.

Sweet Heart walked over and knelt in front him, “You really don’t remember anything from before, huh?”, she asked with a bit of sadness in her voice, pitying her little brother.

War Heart scratched his head, “I can’t remember anything from before I hit my head.”

Sweet Heart looked at him, confused about what he was talking about, “War Heart… You’ve been gone for a long while… You were dead…”

War Heart wasn’t sure if he could believe it, he turned to Twilight, “Is this true?”, he asked, a hint of anger in his voice.

Twilight backed away from him, “I… I didn’t think you could handle that explanation… So I lied… I’m sorry…”, she admitted her guilt to him.

Arcana spoke in a happy tone, “Mother will be so happy to see you… She has been suffering ever since your death…”

War Heart looked down at Arcana with a confused expression, “Who is she?”, he asked her.

Sweet Heart decided to answer, “She is beautiful, she had rainbow colour hair, and you were both so cute together.”, she said with a smile.

War Heart remembered the woman with rainbow streaks in her hair from his nightmares. He turned to Twilight in confusion, “You told me that she was dead… That she and I were friends…”

Everyone turned to Twilight with a glare that judged her. She backed away, towards the wall. Arcana in particular gave her a nasty stare that seemed to unnerve her.

Sweet Heart had a sad expression on her face, incapable of being angry, “Why would you say such a thing…?”

Twilight knew the answer, but didn’t want to admit what she did. She looked to the floor, guilt weighing heavily on her, “I don’t know…”, she whispered.

Sweet Heart walked out the door, “I’ll be right back, stay right there.”, she told them before taking off towards Cloudsdale. She flew as fast as her wings could carry her, excited to see her little sister, Dash, smile. She arrived at Cloudsdale and sprinted to Dash’s house. She burst in through the door to find Dash asleep on her couch. She went over to Dash and sat next to her, “Hey, Sis, wake up.”, she nudged Dash gently to wake her up.

Dash slowly turned to see Sweet Heart, “Oh… Hey Sweet Heart… What are you doing here?”, she asked, still half asleep and only in shorts and a tank top.

Sweet Heart smiled at her, “Get dressed, I want to show you something.”

Dash sighed, this not being the first time that she or Pinkie has tried to make her happy with some kind of surprise. She yawned and then spoke, “Alright… I’ll get some clothes on…”, she said as she moved to her dresser and put on some pants and a scarf.

Sweet Heart walked towards the door and opened it for Dash, closing it and taking flight as soon as Dash stepped outside. She flew as fast as she could, knowing Dash could easily keep up.

Dash flew alongside Sweet Heart, “Why are we going so fast?”, she asked her in mid flight.

Sweet Heart just looked at her and smiled, “It’s a surprise.”

They eventually reached Ponyville, Sweet Heart landed in front of City Hall, Dash landing next to her.

Dash had a confused look on her face, “What are we doing here?”, she asked, noticing that they were in front of the City Hall.

Sweet Heart didn’t say anything, motioning for Dash to go inside.

Dash was hesitant. She looked at the door, wondering what kind of surprise would be waiting on the other side. She stepped towards the door and slowly turned the doorknob. She stepped inside to see a man with red and green hair, spiked forward in the way War Heart’s was styled. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized that War Heart was standing before her now.

Cura sighed, “He’s going down again…”, she turned to War Heart, holding his arm to make sure he didn’t fall over when he went unconscious again.

War Heart sat there staring at Dash, “Rainbow Dash…”, he whispered, all the memories flashing into his mind all at once. He slumped over, Dash ran over to him, not sure if he was okay.

Dash looked at him, tears welling up in her eyes, “It really is you…”, she whispered.

War Heart looked up to her and smiled slightly, “Hey there, Beautiful…”

Dash hugged War Heart tightly, crying as she did so. He was gone for so long, and so suddenly he returned. He rubbed her back, attempting to comfort her. She was beyond words at this point.

Arcana was still glaring at Twilight, giving her the same look she gave Celestia when she murdered Celestia. She felt a hatred for her old mentor that she had for Celestia as well. She soon shook her head lightly and turned away from Twilight, not wanting to spoil the nice moment between her parents.

Twilight started to shuffle away nervously, knowing that Dash would indeed be wrathful towards her. As she started moving away, the silence in the room broke.

War Heart looked at Dash, “I have something to explain…”, he said to her, hoping that Dash would understand.

Cura interrupted, “I can explain this one… War Heart here started with no memory of anyone, as you may have noticed. Lately he has been rapidly gaining his memories back. However, at first he wasn’t able to retrieve these links between memories and people, so he created new memories.”, Cura explained to her, setting up the rest of what War Heart was going to say.

Dash understood what Cura was saying, however, “What does this have to do with what War Heart was going to say?”, she asked.

Cura continued, “Well, Twilight was the first person he saw, therefore he was unable to make a sudden memory recollection in his initial state, forcing him to rely on what she told him for who he was.”, Cura walked away from them, still explaining, “So she fabricated her own story to him. Details like what his name was and how he behaved was all true, but it also had some mistruths to it…”, she turned to the others, “She told him that they were intimate… very intimate… I only found out this morning about what they had done together…”, she glared at Twilight.

Dash couldn’t believe what she heard, she looked at War Heart, “Is this true…?”

War Heart looked down, feeling the guilt of what he had done.

Dash then looked to Twilight. She stood up and walked over to her, tears still welled up in her eyes, “Why… Why would you do this Twilight…?”

Twilight inhaled slowly before speaking, “I… I love him… I spent years trying to bring him back when he disappeared… I thought if I brought him back that I could admit my feelings for him, but then I choked… I couldn’t do it… Then you started spending your time with him… Then I was shut out… I’m sor-”, her speech was interrupted by Dash slapping her across the face.

Dash’s tears rolled down her face, “I thought you were my friend, Twi…”, she said as her hand and voice trembled. She turned away from Twilight, unable to look at her.

Twilight was shocked from the slap, she put her hand on the reddened mark it left behind. She tried to speak, “Dash… I-”, she was interrupted by Dash again.

Dash turned back to Twilight, “You betrayed me, Twilight… Just go…”

Twilight was about to cry, she turned to the door and walked towards it. She opened the door to the cold air and snow. She walked out on the street, feeling lost. When word got to the rest of her friends, they wouldn’t trust her anymore. She looked to the sky and realized now that she was all alone.

Cura walked over to Dash and put her hand on her shoulder, “Whatever you may be thinking, War Heart is not at fault… He couldn’t have known about you or your children… Don’t be angry at him, he has been through a lot… He’s injured in ways that even I can’t heal… He obviously already feels terrible for what he did.”, she whispered to Dash, who just nodded slowly.

Dash walked over to War Heart, who was sitting on the floor still. She held her hand out to him.

War Heart stood up, then took her hand, “I’m sorry…”, he said with sincerity.

Dash gently shook her head, “You… Didn’t do anything that you knew was wrong… It’s fine…”, she smiled at him.

War Heart hugged her again, feeling terrible for what he had done, regardless of what his mental state was.

Arcana walked over to her parents, “Perhaps we should reintroduce Air Heart to him…?”, she suggested.

Dash looked down at Arcana, realizing she was right, she turned to the door to see Sweet Heart just opening it, giving her a grin and a thumbs up before leaving. Dash smiled lightly, “Looks like Sweet Heart has it covered.”

A few minutes passed before the door opened again. In walked a young girl with dark purple wings and Sweet Heart.

Dash smiled at Sweet Heart, “Thanks, Sweet Heart.”, Dash said to her, suddenly feeling War Heart drop to the ground. The loud thud startled her as War Heart hit the ground. He woke up a few minutes later, “Should I just lay down and have people get in line?”, he asked in a joking manner.

Sweet Heart chuckled, “Well, little brother, I think you have one that wants you to remember them…”, she showed War Heart Air Heart. She looked at War Heart, “This is Air Heart.”, she spoke, knowing the repercussions of telling him Air Heart’s name.

Air Heart sat next to her father, not able to believe he was back. She looked at him for a moment before he woke.

War Heart looked at Air Heart, now remembering who she was, he smiled at her. He ruffled her hair with his hand, “How goes flight school?”, he asked.

Air Heart was hesitant but replied, “Top of my class… Figured you’d be proud if I did it…”, she replied on the verge of crying.

War Heart nodded, “I’ll always be proud…”

Air Heart burst into tears suddenly and hugged her long lost father, feeling him place a hand on her back as she clung to him.

War Heart moved Air Heart off of him. He stood up and took Dash’s hand and looked at her, smiling as he spoke, “Let’s go home…”