Light Flow, or whatever his name was, considered himself very lucky.
That was because he was currently trotting down what he remembered as the street to Ponyville's center.
That itself wasn't too exciting, but when the alternative was considered...
Yeah, he was glad to be away from Pinkie Pie. Though his method of escape hadn't been exactly what he had planned in his head. Instead of any sort of suspenseful scene of drama and intrigue wherein he broke somepony's heart and or home and or face, Pinkie just ended up leaving on her own.
Which, as his head told him, was very odd. It was apparently something quite different for her to leave him alone without his usual rude intervention. He had many memories of her persistence, but not a lot of context, weirdly enough.
From what he could gather, something had happened between the two of them? He seemed to be resistant to moving past it, but he had at least made peace with the spatial anomaly.
That was another thing, why were his thoughts of Pinkie so esoteric?
Okay, that was a rabbit hole his head told him he didn't quite want to go down. It wasn't quite a warning siren, but it was at least a big colorful warning sign.
Another time, then.
His eyes flicked about the throngs of ponies around him as he walked forward at a steady pace. They were all grouped up and chattering excitedly about the festival today, though he couldn't bring himself to feel very good about it for some reason.
Every time he thought too hard about the Summer Sun Celebration, or the Princess...
His hoof faltered in its step as he screwed his eyes shut. The stupid static in his head... It just wouldn't leave him alone, even as more of his memories came back.
Noises, white flashes, blindness- sweet stars above, why was his head so intent on keeping secrets?!
He huffed aggravatedly, and continued weaving through the relatively sparse crowds. He didn't really know where he was going, but nothing was going to stop him from wandering aimlessly.
Aimless... Pinkie Pie.
Despite his earlier vow, he found himself thinking of the pink pony again. It was somewhat hard not to think of her, especially since their last meeting had been so typically strange. His body kept its pace as his mind threw itself back to that horrible 'conversation'. It wasn't very consensual or reciprocal though, mostly just Pinkie Pie talking and talking and talking while he sat dumbly at his table.
While The Pink Menace made earnest attempts to drown him in a bottomless well of words, he had made some earnest attempts of his own. That is, to say, he tried very earnestly to knock himself unconscious as inconspicuously as possible.
His efforts hadn't bore much fruit.
Luckily, while he tried desperately and furtively to bang his head against the table hard enough to concuss, Pinkie Pie had one of her episodes, or at least that's what his mind classified it as.
The sudden relative silence had been enough for him to raise his head, which lead him to the horrifying sight of multiple parts of Pinkie's body seizing. His first instinct was to panic, because his current general knowledge at least told him that seizures weren't a good thing.
But when he stood from his chair on hooves that should have been unsteady, Pinkie just laughed him off, as if what was happening was something completely normal.
She explained in simple words, while her legs shook and her head jilted and her tail wobbled, that everything was completely fine.
To be precise, she said in a very bright tone: 'Don't worry Night-Light! It's just my Pinkie Sense!'
While the nickname lit explosives in his head that felt like old exasperation, he was mostly just confused. She had said it like he should've known what it was, but the key words weren't bringing anything back in his head aside from muted acceptance.
A tired feeling in his heart that compelled him to just sit down and ride it out. He didn't like that very much. The thought made his fur itch with sudden chills.
He had looked around desperately for somepony to help, but of course the street had taken that particular moment to empty. It had been bustling and full of life while he tried to acclimate to the feeling of living, but it cleared the moment he needed help.
It was one of the things he hadn't forgotten, but it was nice to get a reminder that life wasn't fair; especially to him.
He had nearly worked up enough desperation to run into the bakery and yell for help when Pinkie just... stopped. All of the twitching and shaking just suddenly stopped, like somepony had flipped a switch.
He had taken a moment to gape openly at the pony that was piling mysteries without answers in his head. A moment which the pony in question had taken to shout something in his face before running away.
Something about meeting somepony new.
He had been left standing fish-eyed in front of the building whose name he still didn't remember, as his head glumly gathered the pieces of his thought process. Then, because there was no way he could ever have a moment of peace, a somewhat large mare with blue fur and crazy hair had come out of the building and asked him where Pinkie Pie was.
He felt awfully like he had been left at a restaurant with the bill.
He tried his best to explain to her that Pinkie probably needed medical attention, and that she shouldn't be out by herself; but in a stunning case of deja vu, the mare had laughed in a manner very similar to-
"Ouch!"
His internal replay was rudely interrupted as head knocked against something hard, and pain exploded in his already abused mind. He let out a shocked cry as he fell hard onto his butt, and he quickly brought a hoof up to the spot where he could already feel a bruise was going to form.
He sucked in a breath through his teeth as he stupidly poked at the pain. He resisted the urge to bat his own hoof away, and instead turned his attention to what he had bumped into.
It was a mare holding her head in an insulting mimic of his own position. Well, it wasn't inherently insulting, but the fire rising in his heart told him that she was definitely making fun of him because she had obviously ran into him on purpose. It was the only logical conclusion, and he was almost entirely sure of it.
While they both took a moment to nurse similar head injuries, he took an additional moment to look over his aggressor. She had purple fur that he could tell on a glance didn't get much care. Neatly trimmed purple hair with a pink stripe that tried to bring his thoughts back around to Pinkie Pie. A sharp looking purple horn that was bigger than his, moon damnit.
A lot of purple on this mare, and already a lot of things he didn't like.
A purple eye opened cautiously while a purple hoof massaged her head. "I'm not sure whether to be upset, or just plain mad that you bumped into me. Don't ponies in this town know how to pay attention?"
A purple voice, tinged with purple irritation aimed at not-purple him. Purple no longer sounded like a word, and now he was angry at himself for overusing it, and angry at the mare for insulting him. A chain reaction of rage, and it was only made worse by the fact that she hadn't meant it at all. There was no fire behind those insults, they were just casual observations.
She wasn't asking if he was a bumbling fool, she was telling him.
High and mighty. All-knowing. Holier-than-thou. High-falutin', no good, prissy city mare.
He didn't know why his thoughts had gotten so country, or why that made him sad, but he wasn't going to let either of those things stop him from getting upset! All of those observations were still probably true, and it made his blood burn.
How dare she? How dare she come into his town, and insult his country charm?! Who did she think she was?!
He was not blowing this out of proportion, his head could stay out of this!
His face had long since grown dark and stormy, and he could nearly see his frown reflected in the mare's eyes. Her mouth was moving, but he couldn't really hear anything past the roaring in his ears and the lava in his veins and the pain in his heart.
He wanted to do... something. He didn't know what it was yet, but his body would guide him. If he just let go, and let his body take control, he would like the result. He just had to do it, and everything would be fine again. That mare had insulted him, and his pride, and he wanted to make her pay, didn't he? He should attack her, right now. He could deal with the consequences later, as long as he finished the job quickly. He just had to do it. Raise your hoof, and take it. All you have to do is take it, just take it. Just go ahead and take it, take it, just TAKE IT!
"Hey dude?"
His mind cleared in an instant. The dark fog and the pointy lights and the red in the corners of his eyes were suddenly gone, and someone was shaking him.
He blinked rapidly to clear the daydream, and looked down at whoever had disturbed him. Was still disturbing him, actually.
It was... a dragon?
He didn't scream. He felt it rise in his throat, but he very pointedly did not scream. He may have jumped into the air a small bit, but he made no noise in the process. The dragon shaking his leg may have been a little startled, but that was not because he made any sort of exclamation.
He didn't scream.
The small green-ish dragon raised his.. hands? Was that what they were called?
The dragon raised his hands in response to his total silent maneuver, probably in an attempt to placate him for some reason that had nothing to do with calming somepony who may or may not have screamed.
"Um.. You okay dude? You kinda freaked out there for a second?" His voice was light and easy and calming, even though Light Flow was easily completely calm all the time and he never freaked out about anything. That was him, a veritable bastion of emotionless steel.
He wasn't freaked out at the sight of a dragon, no sir. Nothing scary about that at all.
He opened his mouth to give a reply, before he quickly shut it. For no reason. He just decided to nod instead.
Yeah. No screaming at all.
The dragon seemed somewhat mollified at his miniscule effort, and nodded assuredly. "That's good! Twilight was kind of worried that she had hurt you, but I was pretty sure you were just zoning out."
"You had that kind of glazed look in your eyes that Twilight gets when she starts thinking too hard." He waved his hand in front of his eyes for emphasis.
Huh, so he was zoning out? Well, he could actually remember that, but whatever he was zoning out about seemed to have been flushed from his mind.
Weird, but not the weirdest thing so far. He was sitting here being talked at by a dragon, so that kind of dominated the list at the moment.
He might as well put some sort of stake in this conversation, he couldn't just sit and stare at every.. creature, that talked to him. "So... um... about this.. Twilight."
His eyes searched the space over the dragon's head, but there was nothing there. He was assuming that Twilight was the pony he had bumped into, but where had she gone?
The dragon seemed willing to answer his unspoken question, thankfully. "Oh, Twilight had to hurry ahead, but she said she was sorry for bumping into you." He took a moment to scratch at his chin thoughtfully.
"She seemed kind of shaken up about something, actually. Even besides what she was already worrying about..."
The nameless dragon let his thought fizzle into the air as he stared into the distance, before he shook his head. He fixed his friendly stare on him again, and put a hand to his chest. "My name's Spike, by the way. You from around here, or are you visiting for the celebration?"
Well, Spike seemed nice enough; for a dragon, at least. He wasn't trying to be specist, but his heart told him that dragons were a race to be feared. He couldn't quite remember any history at the moment, though; so he was kind of blindly trusting his heart to form opinions.
But his heart wasn't letting up on the suspicion. It just kept whispering and yelling and and pleading for him to forget the dragon because dragons were always trouble and they never changed and they were never to be trusted.
His heart sounded like it was biased, though; and Spike seemed very nice. Maybe he could disregard his tendency to make enemies just this once? For interspecies peace?
He forced a smile onto his face despite his deepest reservations. "It's an honest pleasure to meet you, Spike. From what I gather, my name is Light Flow; and yeah, I live here."
He held a hoof out in a universally recognized offer of a hoofbump, and waited for the possible failure. He didn't know why rejection was such a heavy thought, but it was certainly there.
It didn't seem like he normally had much luck with making friends.
Luckily, his fears were unfounded. He could actually see the light shine in Spike's big eyes as he took hold of his hoof in his hand. It was kind of a strange feeling, but not entirely unpleasant. A little claustrophobic to feel those scaly digits wrap around his hoof, but he would be fine.
Spike shook his hoof up and down enthusiastically as his smile widened. "Nice to meet you! This town's pretty swell so far, Light! I'm from out of town, myself."
His hoof slipped out of Spike's grip as he adopted a more casual pose. His tone was light with the kind of levity and joy he could feel drowning the uncertainty swimming in his own heart. "Twilight and I actually came out here from Canterlot to oversee preparations for The Summer Sun Celebration."
"You probably don't know this, but we're sort of a big deal." The little dragon lifted one of his hands to stare at the backs of his digits as he spoke. He was the perfect picture of nonchalant boasting, which really just came off as kind of dorky.
He had to fight to keep a chuckle down. He felt pretty good in general, actually. When was the last time he had actually spoken to somepony? He didn't have any memories, but it must have been a while.
Just this little bit of interaction had lifted his spirits so much. He had only just met Spike, but he already liked him quite a bit. He was nice, and his energy was bouncy and infectious, without being overwhelming like certain other ponies.
He would have to be careful with his terms. It would probably be pretty embarrassing and maybe even a bit rude to refer to Spike as a pony. Creature or dragon: that was what he had to remember.
Oh, he had to say something. Conversation was normally a two way street, and he didn't want to leave his new friend hanging.
Friend. Ooh, that sent little warm feelings through his body. He wasn't being presumptuous, was he? "You say you two are important? Pray tell, what great roles do you fill, good sir?"
The outdated phrasing may have been a bit silly, but that was the point. Being obtuse was a great way to inject humor into any scenario, and... why was Spike frowning?
Oh no, that was bad. That was very very bad, he wasn't supposed to make his friends upset! What... what had he said?
As his panic rose in his mind, Spike brought a hand up to scratch at the back of his head. His tone had turned somewhat downcast, and he could feel his own mood worsening by association. "Well.. I'm not really all that important, actually. That would be Twilight with the important responsibilities. I'm just kind of... her assistant."
He chuckled glumly, and flashed him a downtrodden smile. "As for Twilight, she's Princess Celestia's personal student. We were actually sent by the Princess Herself for this assignment, so Twilight is kind of freaking out about it."
His voice lowered to a half-hearted whisper as his hand fell away from his head, but Light could still faintly pick up his words. "Plus, there's that other thing..."
Light Flow could physically feel the joy draining from his body. He hadn't meant to upset Spike with his question, he was actually trying to be funny. Were his jokes that bad?
No.. it wasn't his jokes, he was hilarious. It was just the topic, that was all. He hadn't done anything wrong.
That made him feel a little better.
So, Twilight was the personal student of the Princess, huh? That was pretty-
dangerous she's dangerous she's danger danger danger you have to do something she's a spy a spy for the princess she's going to learn your secrets and she's going to learn what you did and she's going to tell the princess and then it will all go wrong your home will burn your friends will burn your life will burn you have to stop her before she tells you have to kill her you have to kill her I told you before you have to kill her didn't you listen to me you have to remove her before she becomes a problem you have to kill her Light Flow I'm telling you right now to just go and KILL HER LIGHT FLOW KILL HER NOW I COMMAND IT
-cool.
He shook his head slightly as a quiet buzz invaded his ears. It must have been a bug or something.
Spike was still looking kind of down, he should say something. But what? He didn't want to accidentally upset him again...
Uncertainty stabbed through him, filling him with a sluggish feeling that told him it would probably be best to leave well enough alone. Spike seemed perfectly capable of cheering himself up, so why bother? Why should he try if his best efforts were equally likely to result in disaster?
He didn't want to lose his new friend.
"Don't look so down, Spike!" There, he had gotten it out. Finding a way to push past the initial fear was always the hardest part, apparently.
Spike was looking at him with a half-quirked grin that didn't really reach his eyes. Now he was trapped in the conversation whether he liked it or not, so he had to commit. Uncertainty or bravery: neither really mattered, all he had to do was think his way through the problem.
So.. what did he say? "Um... Twilight probably reads a lot, right?" An educated guess, Spike had said he and Twilight were similar.
Spike nodded and opened his mouth to say something, but he interjected. "And... I'm guessing Twilight probably doesn't really clean, like, ever, right?" Word choice was important, he had to be casual. It was far more comforting when a comforter was separate from a lecturer.
Again, Spike nodded, and tried to open his mouth; but his efforts were in vain. "Now, stop me if I'm wrong, but Twilight probably does a lot of important studies for the Princess; at least, If she's that kind of student."
Okay, he was disregarding his own advice, but it was hard not to sound lecturing when he started having fun. His confidence was quickly rising, and he could actually feel himself begin to grow excited. "And those studies probably span a lot of different kinds of topics and materials. I don't know much about the position of Personal Student, but I'm pretty sure I heard somewhere that it is both prestigious and rewarding."
"Being taught by the Princess has many benefits, but requires in equal parts: hard work, perseverance, and incredible intelligence. Thus, her studies are likely mostly of the scholarly type."
He was pacing now, but he didn't care. He was having an incredible amount of fun, and his mouth was saying things his mind didn't even know! Memories that hadn't caught up yet were now tumbling face-first into his head, and he could feel bits of himself returning in chunks.
This was good for him. This was fantastic. "I don't want to claim to know Twilight, but these scholarly pursuits likely take up most if not all of her time due to their incredible breadth; thus, explaining her lack of attention to cleaning up after herself. Additionally, she probably doesn't have much time to take care of herself, either."
"I imagine she often forgets to eat while reading, and she wouldn't have the time to cook anyway. No, her studies are far too important for things as trivial as food and such."
A thought flickered through his head. He remembered one of his first observations on Twilight: her unbrushed and messy-looking coat.
More pieces to the puzzle. "She barely even cleans herself, am I right?" He didn't wait for a response, he knew he was right.
"No cleaning, no washing, no cooking, how does she even survive?!"
He stopped in place, and turned a sly eye towards Spike. His voice took on a smug tone as the pieces clicked together, and a smile wormed itself onto his face. "Tell me, Spike: how many parts are you her assistant, and how many parts are you her caretaker? Would Twilight Sparkle even survive if not for you?!"
It was dramatic. It was eye-catching. It was over-the-top, ostentatious, needlessly complex, stage play, drama foal, show-biz reject madness, and it was so much fun!
He wasn't quite out of breath, and there was no crowd clapping and cheering for his dual performance and analysis; but he absolutely felt like he was the center of attention in all the best ways that it normally didn't feel like.
It could only have been better if he had ended pointing at Spike's gaping visage, but he would settle for staring brightly at it instead.
He expected a lot of things from Spike. Confirmation, maybe. Clapping was unlikely, but it would have been appreciated. What he did not expect, however: was laughter.
Glorious, upheaving laughter. So hard and belly-shaking that Spike nearly fell over in the face of its intensity.
He felt a bit of his victorious edge bleed off, and his confidence quickly followed suit. "Um... I did tell you to say something if I got anything wrong..."
He felt a bit like an ass, if Spike would pardon the double entendre.
Spike's laughter filled the air, but it eventually died down. He still couldn't quite control it, but he did manage to get some words out between giggles. "Dude... you are... so much like Twilight!"
His confusion must have shown on his face, because Spike managed to expand on his statement through periodic chortles. "Sorry, sorry! That was... really good, Light. I don't really know about most of that stuff you said, but if you were trying to cheer me up, it worked!"
Spike raised a claw to swipe an errant tear away, and continued with an easy grin on his face. "Twilight likes to go on long tangents for no reason too. She likes to pretend she's in front of a lecture hall or something, but It's always just me sitting there listening. It's usually pretty boring, but the way you do it is way more entertaining. Thanks man!"
Well.. he didn't know what a 'man' was, but it seemed like his attempt to cheer him up worked? "Um... no problem.. dude? I'm glad I made you feel better, I guess?"
He was a bit miffed that Spike wasn't going to confirm his theories, but he supposed they weren't the point of the rant. It really only mattered that Spike felt better.
But was he right, though?
Spike didn't seem interested in confirming, but the persistent shaking in his chest spoke volumes about his mood. "You're a really chill guy, Light! I'll only be in town for the day, but maybe you could look me up in Canterlot sometime?"
His voice kept its canter, but he could hear the slightest edge of uncertainty behind his words. Maybe Spike didn't have much luck making friends either?
That was dumb. He had barely spent fifteen minutes with him, and he could already tell Spike was a great guy.
He let a grin grow on his face to match Spike's, and nodded in agreement. He didn't know how busy he usually was, but he didn't want his new friend to drift away. He didn't think he had many, so it was important to keep a firm grip on them.
The relief in Spike's face was evident, and his entire tiny body slouched from the released tension. "That's great to hear. I'll try and track you down before I leave to tell you more about how to get ahold of me, so don't wander off!"
The wink was pretty cute, but probably unnecessary. There was a festival going on, right? Why would he wander off in the middle of a festival? Where would he even-
go to the forest the forest the forest you have to go the forest you have to go wait for me at the forest I need you close when I arrive you have to wait for me there so I can use you so I can break you so I can mold you go to the forest the forest the forest the forest you have to
-go?
Spike's grin was infectious in more ways than one, and he felt the warmth in his heart spread. "So, where did Twilight go? It's really too bad that she's missing out on all this great socializing!"
Was that too forward? That was kind of desperate, wasn't it? Why did he say the word 'socializing'? That was like saying the word 'eating' at a restaurant it was just redundant and clunky and that metaphor didn't really work that well and- augh why was he so bad at this?!
Despite his horrible blunder and generally awkward phrasing, Spike still seemed rather fine with him. His grin had quieted down to a more conversational smile, and he quickly lowered his own to match it. "Oh, Twilight went ahead to Sweet Apple Acres. It was the first thing on the Official Overseer's checklist, so she headed off to check in there while I stayed behind to apologize for her."
Spike didn't seem to mind, but Light thought it might've been a little irresponsible to leave her apologies to somecreature else. Someone? He would work on the inclusive phrasing later.
Sweet Apple Acres... That was a really familiar name, but why...?
No... No bells ringing. Maybe if he went there, he could remember something?
His eyes met Spike's friendly green irises, and he only just noticed they were slits instead of round. That was pretty cool. Everything about him was pretty cool.
He wouldn't mind a little company to Sweet Apple Acres, would he?