It wasn't just in Eliza's head. Renown Composition was acting weird.
It wasn't one big thing that was sounding alarm bells in her head, but instead, a bunch of little things. A weird reaction here, a funny comment there; it was like… well, Eliza didn't know. Like she was seeing a distorted, slightly inaccurate version of her best friend. It was strange and unfamiliar and Eliza didn't know what to do about it or whether or not she was just making something out of nothing.
She pretended not to notice at first, but things were definitely there even while they went bowling a couple of days later. She wasn’t sure if anyone else caught it, but it seemed like she was trying to avoid both she and Jesse, and didn’t give either a chance to be alone with her for very long. It wasn’t just that though– she also seemed like she was… Eliza didn’t know how to describe it. Less personal, maybe? It seemed like she was trying to avoid talking about herself outside of the little things, and mostly redirected conversation back to her friends when she was asked. It wasn’t something Eliza would pick up on with a lot of people, but she talked to Sheila every day. She knew her.
She tried to ignore it, but after a few weeks of this, she had to bring it up. Not to Sheila– she would probably just refute any weirdness if something strange was going on. Instead it would be to their friends. They could tell her what was up, if something was.
She didn't get the answers she expected. Both Cynthia and Drake said they didn't see what she was seeing, and Brandon, while acknowledging that she was acting weird, decided that it probably wasn't a big deal and that she would be back to normal soon.
"I can't really say for sure though," he told her. "I don't hang out with Sheila as often as I do with you and Cynthia. I'm sorry."
"It's fine," she said dejectedly. "I just feel like she's acting weird, but can't say anything about it without being weird. It's fucking stupid."
"You can ask Jesse," he offered. "I know he hangs out with her as often as you do."
"Yeah. I don't really… well, never mind. Let me call him. Hold on."
She tried a few times to get to him, but she gave up when he didn’t pick up. “He’s probably doing something with his parents,” she said. “But I’m telling you, she’s acting weird, and it’s concerning.”
“It could be anything though,” Brandon told her. “She was talking about her sense of time being faster, and said it’s been a few months for her since she saw us. That’s enough to get someone to change, right?”
“Why would Celesita do that though? If she did, that’d make it less likely that people would upload, since they’d be basically abandoning their friends. And that didn’t happen to anyone else we know.”
As far as she knew. She couldn’t say that for certain because none of them talked to her once they uploaded. They all had some NPC to spend time with now.
“I don’t know,” Brandon shrugged, finishing the conversation there. “Maybe you’re just overthinking it? You said Cynthia and Drake didn’t notice anything outside of the first day, and they hang out with her just as much as you do, right? It could just be in your head.”
Eliza let out a breath. “Maybe I am. I don’t know. I hope I am. I haven’t been able to have any one on one time with her in a while though. Maybe that’s part of it.”
Or maybe I want to avoid another friend finding someone new to spend time with. Maybe that’s what’s going on with her.
She paused for a moment, and then smiled. “Haven’t had much time alone with you either. You haven’t destroyed me in chess in a little while.”
“Wanna have a go now? I’ll go put on my headset.”
They hung out together in Composition’s shard, the place everyone in their friend group mostly stayed, until after a while, Composition herself spotted them and made her way into the library of Summer’s Edge. Sometimes Eliza wondered if either her friend or Celestia could hear their conversations when they were away from their PonyPads. She was just thinking about her.
Thankfully, the gray coated mare gave her an invitation to talk to her alone after Eliza had spent some decent time with Soft Step. “I’m not crashing anything, am I?” she asked. “I wouldn’t want to interrupt. Although I have to say, I’ve been getting pretty good at chess, I think.”
“Oh yeah? Wanna play around with me for a round or two?” Soft Step asked, wearing a smirk.
“And when the heck did you start playing chess of all things, Composition?” Eliza asked. “You didn’t seem like the nerd type like Soft Step is. You’re not slowly turning into Twilight Sparkle, are you?”
And didn’t you say you were on vacation? When would you have even played if you were doing ten million other things?
“Idunno. Maybe I am. You never know.” The three laughed at that, and she continued, “But I’ll play a couple of rounds, and then after that, I wanna hang out with Agile alone for a little while if I can. As long as I’m not stealing her away from you.”
“That’s fine,” Soft Step replied. “I understand. I’m just glad to have someone else to play with now.”
“It kinds of gets old for her when I just lose every time,” Eliza smiled. “Sometimes she just lets me take her pieces on purpose because I’m that bad, and she still beats me.”
“Yeah? Well don’t go easy on me. I got this.”
Watching the game from the sidelines, Soft Step went from confident, to concentrating hard, to suddenly surprised when she was beaten. It was just another weird thing the pegasus saw, but Soft Step didn’t seem to think much of it. Instead, she simply congratulated her before letting her go off with Eliza.
I need to talk to Jesse when I can, she said silently, making a mental note. If he was here, he would’ve thought that was weird. Or am I just going crazy? Is Brandon right?
“Wanna go to the music store?” she asked. “You’re not gonna believe it, but they have everything here. Like, everything from Elvis Presley to Slipknot. It’s crazy, and pretty gigantic. They have instruments there, too.”
“That sounds like fun.” Seeing Composition be happy set her more at ease. Maybe she was the one who was losing it. If Bright Sky and Spell Master and Soft Step hadn’t noticed anything, it could mean Eliza was overthinking it. She still needed to talk to Jesse though, something she very rarely did, and hadn’t done since Composition first returned. She might not have liked him very much, but his thoughts would be important.
She didn’t focus on that for now, and instead walked through the music store as Composition listened to her gush about anything and everything vaguely related. Her kindness and upbeat personality even while Eliza gushed and made occasional teasing jokes were a couple of the reasons why she liked the mare. Even better that she would tease Eliza back when she did.
“Wow, they even have obscure artists here,” she said. “Aphex Twin, Duncan Sheik– basically artists no one but me would know about. It’s pretty epic.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Composition smiled. “They even have Taylor Swift! Can you believe that?”
They both laughed at her little joke, and Eliza asked, “If you’re good at chess now, does that mean you’re also good at music and stuff, too? Cause I’m ready to form a garage band and tour the world if you are. After all, Cynthia used to play percussion in senior year. All we need is a bass or guitar or something.”
“Haha, if I were, you know I’d already be all over that. I bet Soft Step could learn something like that if she actually cared. But nope. I’m as tone deaf as ever.”
“Well that’s a good thing, because it means I can teach you myself some time. It’ll be fun.”
Eliza let out a breath she’d been holding in and smiled wider. Composition hadn’t just suddenly changed everything about herself like she thought. Maybe it was just the time in Equestria changing her like Soft Step suggested.
I’m probably just overthinking it, she thought. I need to chill out a bit.
“When did you learn how to play chess?” the girl asked casually. “Actually, how long have you been here now? You said it was about three months a few weeks ago. Does that mean you’re coming up on a year now?”
“Something like that, I think. I’ve… been kind of losing track,” she said, rubbing a hoof behind her head as her face went a little red. “I only started playing chess a few weeks ago. I’ve mostly been hanging around Summer’s Edge and talking to other ponies, you know?”
“Oh yeah?” Agile asked, raising an eyebrow. “Who’d you meet? Unless you’re gonna break my heart in two if you tell me.”
“It’s not important,” Composition waved a hoof dismissively. “I’ve just been hanging out, you know? There’s a whole world to experience.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Agile nodded, ignoring the weirdness. “Lots of things that can’t be done while I still exist in this mortal realm known as North Carolina, but what can you do? Equestria doesn’t have the same humanity as the real world. Only pony-manity.”
They both laughed again, and Eliza took a breath again. She was a little bit unsure about what she wanted to say next, for a whole bunch of reasons, the least of them being Composition’s recent behavior. She tried to relax and calm her nerves though. It was going to be fine.
“Speaking of things that can’t happen while I’m in North Carolina,” she started as the pegasus she controlled walked around and casually touched the keys of a nearby piano with a wing. “I was wondering if things had changed enough for us to try something.”
Eliza has a few ideas about what to expect from her. Maybe a little joke, or a sad sigh, or heck, even nervousness that Composition usually didn’t have. She couldn’t say she was expecting what she heard next.
“What do you mean, Agile? Try what?”
Eliza blinked, and her pony stepped back in surprise like she did in real life. “Uhh… try and be in a relationship?” she said slowly. “Remember?”
The mare turned around, and didn’t have any humor on her face or in her eyes. Nor was there fear or nervousness or annoyance or anything else except a confused tilt of her head and the slight raise of her eyebrow. Eliza didn’t know what to make of it.
“No? I don’t remember that conversation, if we had one. Did we?” The earth pony looked up at the ceiling as though trying to consider whether or not that happened. A long moment later, she finished, “No, I don’t remember that.”
“Uhhh, well, we definitely did talk about it. About a year ago or so? You just broke up with your ex a couple of months before, said something like, ‘I might want something like that, but right now things are just too difficult’? Remember?”
“Umm, no? I don’t remember that. At all.”
“For real?” Composition nodded, and Eliza sat down on her bed, Agile Trace sitting on her haunches to copy the human. It was her turn to look up at the ceiling and try to remember, a very easy task for her to do. It was a clear conversation that played in her head, one plain as day. There was no way she’d forget something like that, because she would’ve accepted an answer of ‘no’ if it hadn’t been phrased that way. There was no way Eliza wasn’t just completely losing it, right?.
“Um, are you okay, Agile?”
“I… I probably am. Yeah, I am. I just need to talk to someone really quick. I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Uh, okay, but you can talk to me if you need.” She tried to take a step closer, but Eliza’s pony moved back before she could get near her. She did not like what she was seeing of Composition.
“I’ll get back to you later, but I need to talk to someone else first.”
She touched a few buttons on her PonyPad, and just a second later, her pegasus was flying up through the sky and landing in the park near Soft Step. She was hanging out with Candle Light and another mare she didn’t know when she got there, but the unicorn quickly excused herself to go to Agile. She didn’t wait for her friend to ask the question.
“Composition is acting fucking weird. I’m telling you, Soft.”
“What happened back there?” the mare asked in a hushed whisper. “I didn’t see anything that was too strange.”
“She just doesn’t remember the things she should! I mean, you saw for yourself she was being weird! You’re the best chess player I know, and she stomped you. And she hates chess! How is that not weird?” Eliza’s pony extended her wings and had an exasperated look on her face. It was a look she copied in real life.
“I know, Agile,” Soft Step told her. “And yeah, that is weird, but if she’s been in here for over a year by this point, I think she’d probably act weird, right? But I also don’t hang around her as much as you guys do, so I wouldn’t know as much.”
Eliza took a deep breath as she closed her eyes and clenched her jaw. “I know. I’m sorry. I’ll go ask someone else. I didn’t mean to interrupt your time with Candle Light and that other pony. I’ll talk to you later, Soft.”
“It’s fine. I’ll see you later, Agile.”
Eliza clicked off her PonyPad and paced around her little apartment for a little while, trying her best to piece together exactly what was going on with the mare. She couldn’t fit the puzzle all together, but it was definitely strange. This was going from her friend acting weird to being downright bizarre. Unless Eliza was the one going crazy. She really needed to talk to Jesse at some point.
No, there’s no way I’m going crazy, the girl thought nervously. It’s not like Sheila at all. She wouldn’t just forget that, would she? Unless Celestia made her forget? Would she ask for something like that?
She didn’t know, but decided it was pointless to pace around and try to think about it herself. She got out her phone and called Jesse again.