witchesreign | A Song in the Heart and Paint on the Canvas [Action/Open/AU!]

[The pegasus pony that cheerfully flies across the lobby to the quad, this morning? There's a few odd things about her.]

[For one, she's flying about walking speed, just a couple feet over the ground. In fact, she may only be flying because of the easel and art supplies case she's got gathered in her hooves.]

[Second, she's singing. Not with words, but she's just in such a good mood that she's cheerfully using her voice as an instrument. (Yes, it's the theme song, if you were wondering.)]

[Third, her mane is noticeably longer than ever, brushed to a sleek shining flow of color that streams around and behind her like a waterfall.]

[Rainbow nods and smiles happily to those she passes as she makes her relaxed way to the quad. Once there, she spends a moment surveying the scene, one hoof to her chin appraisingly, before dropping lightly into place by the stage. With a casual motion of hoof and head, she nudges the easel upright and open, then opens up the art supplies case to pull out her palette and paints.]

[A few quick strokes of a pencil on canvas later, just to set basic scene and proportions, and the pegasus pony is happily mixing paints, still humming as if everything is right with the world.]

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Yeah. [He says this in the least reassuring way imaginable, and then lapses into thoughtful silence for a while.]

...I know what it took last time, when it happened to me. [Absently, almost subconsciously, he clenches his right fist.] But that wasn't a fix. I wouldn't try it here.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't use alchemy on me to turn me into some other pony you want me to be!

[Rainbow has completely ignored the 'I wouldn't try it here' and jumped to a horrible assumption. Some things never change...]

'Course not. Don't be stupid. Didn't the other me tell you anything about equivalent exchange?

Isn't giving up one pony to get a different pony equivalent?

[He leaves that question hanging, but does speed up fairly suddenly.]

Do you really need to haul all of your art things along with you? I'd kind of like to get back before the end of the year.

[That lack of answer is answer enough. She clutches at her easel a little, nervously.]

...I'm afraid they'll disappear again. I spent everything I had left to replace my old ones. Thank goodness I already bought Hearth's Warming presents for everypony...

[Without looking back at her, he frowns. And so the rest starts to fall into place... possibly.]

You sure they disappeared to begin with?

I don't want to think someone STOLE them. That would be horrible. And even you wouldn't do that to me as a prank.

[He rolls his eyes.] Okay, I'll rephrase that. Are you sure they were there to begin with? In this Garden?

Oh. I see. This is part of your "You're from somewhere else" argument. Well, how would we know? If everything else is the same to me...

If, yeah. I can't prove it. Can't even argue it, to be honest. I've got better things to do than sit down with you and list every single thing we both remember until we figure out what changed. [His expression hardens.] But even if the whole world disagrees, I know what's real.

So that's it, then?

[Her voice drops lower with each word, till it's barely a wrung-out whisper.]

You don't remember me right, so you're done with me? I'm not real, and I'm not your friend any more?

[Unnecessarily sharply:] Do you normally try to act like you're best friends with people you only just met?

If they're my friends, then yes.

[...as the reverse situations proved at least initially, though neither of them know that.]

Even if they just look like your friends? [He spreads his hands.] I told you, we're starting from scratch. Where you want to go from there is up to you.

But...

[She doesn't know what to say. She can't imagine any time, any way, that she could lose a friend like this -- that somehow he didn't know, on some gut level, that they were friends.]

...maybe you've been Discorded.

...What's that supposed to mean?

[Vaguely rings a bell, but if she - no, if actual Dash ever mentioned it, he was sick and half-asleep at the time...]

Discord turned all my friends, everypony, into weird versions of themselves. Twilight told me about it... but one thing that was always true is that they were cold and terrible to their friends...

[A wordless, frustrated noise.] Don't start with that! I'm getting you a palette and I didn't even know your name until just now, what more do you want? Am I supposed to pretend to know you just to make you feel better? 'Cause I'm telling you, that's the best you'd get. There's no way I could pretend you're her.

You broke my palette for no good reason.

[There's a little familiar 'well, duh' tone of voice creeping into that sentence.]

Wait a minute! Twilight knows a memory-restoring spell! That was how she fixed everypony last time!

How many times do I have to tell you my memory's fine?

How would you know? You wouldn't know you should remember things differently because you wouldn't remember!

[That's a couple too many "remember"s for him to take seriously. He can't quite suppress a snort of unkind laughter.] If you want to argue that, the same goes for you, you know.

But I remember you perfectly.

[Obviously, the problem is that his memory is flawed and hers isn't, of course.]

You sure about that? About who and what you remember? Because even if you do remember someone perfectly, that doesn't have to imply it's specifically me. Not by a long shot.

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