I've got nothing to say, so let's get to it.

Cobalt's POV

I sank like a rock to the bottom of the pit alongside my companion, Rainbow Dash. I figured that in her unconscious and injured state, she couldn't hold out for as long as I could, so with all my strength I kicked off the bottom of the pit and shoved her up through the water, watching as she vanished over the side like something had grabbed her. Maybe it was one of those marshmallows.

Thinking that thought made me giggle light-headedly, losing precious air in the process. I clapped a hoof over my mouth and desperately looked around for a way out, but after a while that started to feel like a delusional hope. How long had I been down here? A few minutes? A few days? I began to feel loopy, like I'd had too much of Applejack's hard apple cider. The darkness pressed around the edges of my vision, and I felt strangely at peace. A figure broke the surface and started to swim down toward me as my vision started to fade.

Rainbow Dash's POV

THIRTY SECONDS EARLIER

I slowly regained consciousness after pulling myself to shore, coughing up a mixture of blood and water. I remembered everything up till the point I was knocked out, and judging from the scorch marks blemishing my pelt, I'd been struck by lightning.

A few moments later I realized that my friend wasn't next to me, and when I saw the pit full of water next to me the fleeting unconscious memories after I'd been struck flooded back to me.

I choked on the water/blood I was vomiting up. Cobalt's in the water!

I heard footsteps coming from the fancy house behind me, and whipped around to see one of those marshmallows running up to me. "Are you okay?" it asked.

I was too stressed at the moment to feel any mistrust, so since I wasn't really able to talk because I was hacking on water and blood, I choked out, "Help…" and pointed at the water.

Cobalt's POV

BACK TO THE PRESENT

I smiled at the marshmallow swimming down toward me. "Don't worry, it's peaceful down here." I tried to say, but ended up making bubbles instead. Pinkie would approve. I thought, my lack of oxygen making my thoughts incoherent and silly, then blacked out as the marshmallow grabbed my foreleg and began to pull me toward the surface.

Rainbow Dash's POV

The marshmallow pulled Cobalt out of the pit and set him by the side of it.

"No." I muttered, pulling myself closer to his lifeless form. "No, no, no!" I checked his neck for a pulse, and was relieved when I felt one, but then I was horrified as it started to fade.

"C-can we help him?" the marshmallow asked worriedly. "I don't know how to–"

"I do." I interrupted, feeling steely cold determination force its way through my sorrow. "The only thing to do is mouth to mouth." So, placing my doubts aside, I slowly leaned down and placed my mouth against Cobalt's.

Oh sweet Celestia it was bliss. It wasn't an official kiss, so it didn't count for anything, and also it was for lifesaving purposes only, but nothing could describe how happy it made me feel.

I drew back and started pushing on his chest causing him to spit up water and regain consciousness. As his emerald green eyes began to flit open, I fought the urge to kiss him in joy, and instead hugged him tightly.

Cobalt's POV

Can you imagine how confused I was waking up with my crush staring down at me with mushy eyes?

No. Let's just tell it how it is. Unless you've woken up in my shoes before you can't imagine my confusion.

She pulled me in for a hug as I put two and two together. I was sitting in a puddle of water I'd spit up, and she was standing over me. Well crap, you can guess what happened. But the weirdest thing was, I didn't have a problem with it. "Um, hi."

"Hey, blue blur." She murmured.

"Um, if I'm not interrupting anything," the marshmallow began causing us to blush and for her to push me away.

"Nope. Nothing." She giggled, obviously still high from the unplanned mouth to mouth.

"Carry on." I added.

Well, since I haven't included a description of this particular marshmallow yet, I guess I will. He… I guess it was a he… was obviously still a child, evident from the differing facial structure from the others we'd seen in the road intersection. He had orange-ish hair and a tan skin tone, and was wearing what could most likely be described as pajamas.

There. That's done.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, we're good. What's your name?" I asked.

"I'm Chris. Who, and what, are you?"

"I'm Rainbow Dash, second fastest pegasus pony in Equestria!" Rainbow answered, letting her pride take lead, as usual. She seemed to try to fly, but flinched in pain and sat back down. I made a mental note to check on her later.

"I'm Cobalt Spikes." I contributed. "The first fastest pegasus pony in Equestria, and before you ask, Equestria is another dimension. Also I have amnesia."

"Uh huh." Chris nodded slowly, obviously having a little trouble taking this in. "So you're horses with wings."

"Pegasus ponies. Get it right, sheesh!" Rainbow facehooved. "Does nopony here know about ponies?"

"Um, Dashie?" I put a hoof on her shoulder. "I don't think they do."

"Okay, this is seriously against the rules, but you guys don't look dangerous, and you seem tired and half dead, so if you want to, I can let you stay the night here." Chris added.

Half of me screamed in aching and tiredness, but my other half was still filled with mistrust. After a few seconds of intense mental battle, my tired side won out. "Thank you so much!"

A few moments later, Rainbow gave a curt nod of her agreement.

LATER

Chris lent us a spare bedroom. After bidding us goodnight, he left for his chambers.

"Oh man, seriously long day." Rainbow groaned, slumping down on one of the beds.

"Night, you mean." I recalled that it had been only half a night since we'd gotten here. "So, we've got to find our friends, find our gems of power, and beat Metal Sonic." I listed. "We've got our work cut out for us, eh?"

"Yeah." As she spoke, I noticed how she kept grimacing every time she tried to move her wings.

I stepped forward. "Here, can I help–" she flinched and drew away as I tried to get a closer look. "Hey! Hooves off!"

I backed off a bit. "Sorry."

She sighed, lowering her head. "No, it's my fault. You wouldn't know too much about pegasus anatomy with your amnesia, would you? Wings are extremely sensitive to pegasi, that's why when you break or hurt them, it feels like you've been dunked in a pit of lava." She explained. "But also, our wings are linked directly to emotions. So if a male pegasus touches a female's wings, we get a bit… turned on."

"Oh." I suddenly understood, and things that had happened with my wings made a lot more sense, such as that time when Twilight was staring at me and they extended.

"Look, if you're just checking if they're all right, I can do that on my own, so don't worry." She gave a tiny smile.

I yawned. "Fair enough." I slumped down on the other bed and was out like a light instantly.

Rainbow Dash's POV

I completely understand Cobalt's motives, and it wasn't for anything else but him caring about me. It was simply like the mouth to mouth. Not aiming for anything else.

But I also can't help how I reacted. Natural reflexes just can't be beat by free will sometimes.

Smirking at how weird and awkward this night had gotten, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. It was hard for me, since I was used to sleeping on a cloud, the softest thing in existence, but eventually I managed to do it.

IN THE DREAM KINGDOM

I opened my eyes, expecting to see the same room I'd fallen asleep in. Well, that didn't exactly happen. I came into a sort of dream consciousness in Canterlot. Everything seemed frozen in time, which was creepy enough if the whole city wasn't populated with tons of ponies who had been frozen doing their daily jobs and ended up stuck in a reverse time matrix.

"Hello?" I called, getting even more freaked as… uh… no time… went on. "Anypony?" when I didn't get an answer I decided to explore a little. At mach speeds, of course.

I zipped through the streets looking for any sign of life, but everypony remained frozen. Eventually staring at nopony moving for a while got me creeped enough to flee town for a few minutes. I flew to the edges of the city and into the surrounding woods. No birdsong interrupted the seemingly perpetual silence, but I started feeling warmth on one side, and began to wonder if this had something to do why I was here. I flew toward the heat and shocked myself as I saw the collapsed figure of Cobalt lying in a clearing.

After today I was not going to let something else happen to him, and so I landed and felt for a pulse like I had done by the pool. I felt one, but that didn't help me any as he should've been frozen like everypony else. As I sat next to him, his eyes snapped open and I jumped back.

"Tails!" he gasped, his energy as intense as if he was being pursued by a horde of rabid parasprites, which shocked the hay out of me.

"Cobalt?" I asked. "What's going on? Where are we?"

He didn't seem to hear me, and his gaze passed right through me like I wasn't there. Then I came to a horrible realization. I wasn't there.

This was the first snippet of memory Cobalt had forged after he'd lost his previous memory.

"Whoa, my head feels weird." Past Cobalt muttered, putting a hoof to his head. "Well, never mind that I guess. I'd better go through my checklist. Name." he smiled for the first time I'd seen since he'd woken up. "Heh, if I can't remember this one then I'm in a lot of trouble." He held up a hoof and inhaled like he was about to answer, then gave a look most accurately described as a poker face. "Oh crap."

I blacked out, and when I came to again, I was standing beside Cobalt as he stood in front of a random Canterlot mare, now in motion again. "And then I realized that I was a horse with wings. Do you happen to know where the leader of this place lives?" he asked. The mare's expression was easily readable. Psycho killer. Gotta run. She pointed slowly at a castle to my right, and then ran off screaming.

Cobalt raised an eyebrow. "Thank you!" he called confusedly after her. "Friendly, aren't they?" he muttered under his breath, almost making me think he was addressing me, but then I realized it was to himself.

My vision went dead again, and when stuff came into my vision again, we were standing in front of the palace facing a guard.

"For the last time, I have no memory!" Cobalt argued. "All I know is that I was pretty much dumped into the middle of life in this city and for some reason I'm convinced I'm a hedgehog. I mean really! All I want is to see the pony who a guy I met said was in charge of this wacko place!"

The guard, obviously nervous, let Cobalt pass into the palace and as he disappeared from my sight time froze again.

"Thou hast seen what needs to be seen, but the question is how thou will use this information." A voice sounded from behind me and I whirled around to see Princess Luna stepping forward behind me.

"Princess Luna!" I bowed respectfully, knowing that she was in my dream because of her job.

"No need for thy over-respect, Rainbow Dash."

"Sorry." I apologized. "Um, what do you mean by what I've seen?"

"I do not know myself, but if thy dream has brought thou to this place, then it must be relevant." Luna smiled as I looked down at my hooves and saw they were fading. I must have been waking up. "Please give my regards to Cobalt, if it is convenient for you." Luna added, seemingly a little embarrassed as she said so. For a second I wondered why, but dismissing it was much easier than wondering.

I opened my eyes back in the marshmallow's guest room, yawning. Cobalt wasn't up yet, so I decided to clean myself up a little using the sink built into the wall.

Staring into the mirror, I hardly recognized the pony I saw reflected. "Do I really look like that?" I murmured. I had dark circles under my eyes, and my face was covered with scorch marks and scratches, and my whole body was covered with the same plus numerous bruises.

That wasn't going to do.

A FEW MINUTES LATER

I finished washing as I heard Cobalt stirring. He looked up and his jaw fell open when he saw me. "Whoa, you look… awesome!" he complimented. "Did you clean up already?"

"Uh huh." I confirmed with a nod, glad that he had noticed. I'd removed most of the visible dirt streaks and washed my mane and tail, improving my look somewhat.

"It was pretty nice of that marshmallow to let us stay. Do you think maybe they're not all bad?" he asked.

"Oh, sure, I never thought that originally." I answered. But I'm more curious about my dream.

Cobalt's POV

Rainbow looked absolutely stunning. That was the only way to describe it. She literally looked better than she usually did, but I guess that could've been my perception of it.

But down to business. We still had to get all the things I stated last night done, and also see if we'd be staying with the marshmallow. Either way, I got a really bad feeling that we probably wouldn't be seeing Equestria for a while.

Yep. I got plot inspiration, and realized that if I'm going to do one chapter a day this Thanksgiving Break (minus tomorrow of course), I was going to have to make this three parts instead of two. So here you go and come back for more on Friday or Saturday!