Applejack
By Mice

-Prologue-

I can't remember when I began to have a perfect memory. This is one of the many contradictions I have. Nobody would have suspected; I wasn't a good student and I never had my shit together. I wasn't a nerd, I was a jock in high school. And even with a perfect memory, there are memories I can't access. I try, but they feel too hot - as if to warn me about going to close.

I refer to these memories as "the sun". Memories that I know comprise the sun include my trip to New York City when I was seven, a night with Dr. Hank McCoy, the night I tried to kill myself, and the day my heart broke. I remember how these begin. What I don't remember is how they end. I don't want to remember how they end. They must be terrible.

There may be more. There's a thought.

These thoughts are why I choose to stay in what I call "the moon". Facts. Data. Events. Trivia. Folderol. I can list every ingredient in a Twinkie (Hostess, Bimbo Bakeries, and forty-seven homemade recipes in order of best reviewed) and name every ruler of every kingdom in any known galaxy by date.

But never the emotions. Those stay on the sun. Where I can't touch. Where I don't want to touch.

Three men and one boy are in my head via a telepathic bridge, each one in the form of my choosing. All are knights.

I have chosen my ex-boyfriend in this reality, Bobby Drake, and my husband from another dimension, Drake'son (who is also Bobby Drake) to head towards the sun. Bobby is a silver knight who carries a sheild with a Pegasus symbol. Drake'son is the golden knight whose sheild has a unicorn. This means something to me.

Coming towards the moon is Hank. He will not like the fact that he is a centaur, but will comment on the irony of it.

Bert Bass, the boy and cousin of the Bobby's, is headed in what I can only imagine is the dark ocean. I don't even go there, not even in my sleep. A hippocamp. He is disappointed he is not furry, but happy that he is blue.

We are not alone in here. Aside from the mental demons that everyone has, my mother is here. This is who these men and one boy were sent to retrieve. I look forward to her removal.

It would have taken too long that Dr. Emily Clay-Poole is also here. It was an accident. After trying to repair her techno-organic body, my body began to absorb her. I had no idea until I woke up with a metal tip to my tongue - the tip that she caused me to bite off during a fight.

At first, I kept cutting it off, repulsed by how my body was not my own. But I was so tired of lisping...and it provided a clue to me about the true nature of my powers. I'm not just a perfect memory.

I absorb information. I can do this through any of my senses.

I've absorbed another woman's DNA. I am not sure how I have done this. I am hoping I have not absorbed her personality. (I hope I'm more exciting than oatmeal...) I do enjoy the use of my tongue and something else she took from me years ago - having a unique repair function has come in handy. Sean Cassidy ran my head through a wall a few months back. From where it was to what I showed Hank was a miracle in healing. I have no scar currently.

My body is not my own and neither is my mind.

I hope the Bobby's can retrieve my mother and that Bert will be okay.

I am lying on the moon, Waiting for Hank, wondering if Sean knows...

I was a waitress, I am an engineer, I will be married. I am in need of saving once again and I couldn't do it myself. I don't deserve the kindness of these men.

I'm just Annie Peckenpaugh.

Just a horse.