witchesreign | Manpain [Closed]

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Manpain [Closed]

[Rainbow had vowed that once she got out of the infirmary, she and Ed were going to have a long talk. And as much as Ed doubtlessly hoped she'd forget that vow... yeah, there's no way, is there.]

[Which is why Rainbow announces her newly-won freedom by popping into Ed's room.]

[Through the window.]

Hey, look who's got a clean bill of health and is out on her own again!

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[Ed tends to keep this room cleaner than people would give him credit for - he doesn't have the free time he'd need to thoroughly mess the place up - but today most of it is practically gleaming, besides the desk, the shelves, and a large suitcase conspicuously propped open in a corner. Those, however, are a tip. Haphazardly stacked books and reams of paper cover all of them; with Rainbow bursting in, one pile doesn't so much topple as gently spread across the floor.

Whatever else Ed was trying to bury himself in, it's hard to pretend he didn't notice. He leans back in his chair and jabs a thumb behind him.] Hey, look who's got a door.

[But his frown doesn't last very long.]

When did they let you out?

I'm a pegasus. Windows are doors to me.

[Honestly, she only goes through his window to get his goat just a little, and making that claim is just one step further on the path to aggravating him playfully.]

A little bit ago. I dropped by my room to check on Tank and stuff, he's doing all right.

So what does that make me, another pet? [There's no other reason she'd be here, is there?] Thanks a lot.

[He's about to settle back down before a memory belatedly flashes a lightbulb in his head. Come to think, yeah, there was one. ...Maybe more than one.]

Oh, right, your brush... [He sets his book aside and gets to his feet.] Give me a second.

Naw, I don't feed you. Well, except when I pay for dinner...

[She plops down on his bed, perfectly content to make herself comfortable while she waits.]

A stuffed animal? Even better.

[Retrieving the brush is just a matter of opening a cupboard - the inside looks pretty bare - and throwing it over to her.]

There. See ya later.

[She catches the brush in her teeth, tucks it away in her saddlebag, then just gives him a wry look to tell him that his efforts to get rid of her are going to be just as effective as he expects them to be.]

So about that weird other world thing.

Huh? [He's not looking at her as he quite nonchalantly walks back over to his desk. The nonchalance by itself might be more of a giveaway than he was hoping, though.] Oh, the weird Lunar Cry thing. What is it? Figured something out about it while you were stuck in bed?

[She shifts to lie down, dangling her hooves over the foot of his bed as she watches him play innocent.]

That was a metaphorical wound, wasn't it.

[He flops back down on the chair before bothering to face her, eyes dull.]

Felt pretty literal to me. Why?

Well yeah, AFTER all that happened and I turned into a blob of color and Fionna was casting spells from a wand, sure, it was pretty literal. Point is, it didn't just randomly come from nowhere. It's the sort of thing that was already there.

Nah.

[There's no sudden change in his demeanour, but as he quietly inclines his head, something inside him seems to slump, too.]

It happened. It's in the past. Can't get more literal than that.

[She folds her forelegs, exhaling briefly with her eyes shut before she snaps them open to look at him again.]

You gotta tell me what's happened, Ed. All these secrets... they aren't good for you.

[The laugh he lets out is brief and mostly humourless.]

Not good for what? My health?

What's worse for someone's health than dying?

Dying twice.

[Ed, Rainbow didn't used to be quite this snarky. This is your fault. You've been a bad influence on this pony.]

Seriously, Ed. Talk. Spill. I've put up with you holding it all in at times when it was obviously tearing you up, and I'm done letting it.

I just did.

[He raises his right hand in an almost mocking wave. There's a clatter somewhere. He would take a break to do a little overdue upkeep, but he certainly can't help the rude interruptions.]

You noticed that, but did you notice anything change with this when everyone went through?

Believe it or not, I was kinda distracted by you nearly dying.

[If her voice cracks just a bit on that last word, they can both ignore it, right?]

Yeah. That's what I was banking on.

[He folds his arms.]

It wasn't that same day, it was a little earlier... but I broke it in a fight, and I didn't exactly have the time to call anyone up about it. Had to rebuild it in a real hurry. Not the best-looking work I've ever seen, I gotta admit. I almost forgot...

[The matter-of-fact way he's spinning all of this might be slightly jarring, but it darkens a little here.]

For a minute there, seeing that, I really thought it meant everything worked out after all - sent me back in time, right back to that day, the way you and everybody else talked about. Pretty dumb of me, huh?

[If he stopped to think about just how far he's rushing ahead of the conversation right now, he'd balk. Still, with the time he's had to stew in this and roll it around in his head, maybe it shouldn't be a surprise.]

Wait. Wait. Wait. [She holds up a hoof swiftly.]

Are you telling me that all this time, what you've been trying to do is go back to a place and time when you HAD A GIANT BLEEDING HOLE THROUGH YOUR CHEST?!

[The way Rainbow rises, she appears to downright double in size, between her raised hackles, flared wings, and raw intensity.]

[He's a little too wrapped up in himself to act particularly fazed, but he does look at her with a lopsided smile.]

I don't have one now, do I? That should tell you something.

The important part is... [He hangs his head again. It's only one person, but admitting it out loud anywhere feels heavy to him.] I'm sorry you had to go through all of that.

Yeah, it tells me I fixed it before you could drop over dead! But if that's what you expect to happen when you go back, I WON'T BE THERE TO FIX IT! What then, Ed!? What's your plan?!

[She's so angry she's practically frothing, and his bed is going to need some attention the way she's stomping and pawing at the sheets.]

[He looks annoyed and, unlikely as it is, motions her off the bed.]

No, it's not. Not if you do snap back to the exact same moment, like in all the reports. Someone else got to it first. Sheesh.

Were you... even listening to what I just said? I said, I did that. It was me.

[She doesn't even register that hand gesture. It never makes it to her conscious mind.]

I don't know if you MEAN that or you're just SAYING it to stop me from worrying! If you were just honest with me -- if you were just open with me -- if you would just tell me --

[She chokes off there, because her anger is bleeding into anguish, and she doesn't quite have the words she wants to use.]

[Ed flinches and looks down again, uncomfortable.

After a moment, though still more than a little hesitantly, he gets up from the chair and quietly walks over to sit next to her - not quite as close as he could, given the state of the bed.]

Stop it, okay? You're making this more complicated than it has to be.

[...Not that that's anything new.]

...I'm making this more complicated?

[Well, that at least snaps her back into snark, a little. It's an improvement from where it was.]

Yeah, I'm telling you and you're not even listening long enough to nitpick. That's not like you.

[He looks at her.]

The injury I got back then, as literal as they come... it's not the kind of thing anyone could survive. But I did. That's why I figured I couldn't let it go to waste, and... went up to Tears' Point that day. I thought I had all the right reasons.

[His smile is back, after a fashion.]

I was just kidding myself. So, I'm sorry. I think you might be stuck with me for a little longer after all.

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