//------------------------------// // Paradise // Story: Finest Gold and Silver // by Quicksear //------------------------------// His eyes opened. They roved the sun-dappled timbre arches above him, taking in the soft pastel colours as his ears followed the soft sound of birdsong, but his mind was set soundly upon one question: Who am I...? He grappled with this small lapse, struggling to find a name. He didn't feel particularly worried about not remembering it; he forgot things all the time. It just took a few minutes, usually. He lazily swung his head to his left, looking across the room at the bed opposite his own. He didn't know what exactly he was expecting to see, but his heart lurched when he saw the bed empty. His eyes darted around, trying to find that which escaped his mind. He turned over, seeking, and found his face filled with golden-blond hair and a twitching grey ear. Ditzy Relief flooded through him as he relaxed, and memories rode the tide: He was Marc Warner, cosmic castaway, bona fide hero of Equestria, and she was Ditzy Doo, the mare who took him in and gave him every kindness she could offer. His best friend. What else did he need to know? He shrugged his shoulder, trying to move up so he could look about a bit more, but Ditzy was tucked so tightly against his collarbone that he couldn't help but disturb her. She mumbled incoherently and held her snout to the cotton of his shirt, trying to go back to sleep. By now, Marc's memory had all but completely reasserted itself, and he knew what to expect next. He smiled to himself as Ditzy slowly awoke. She was lying over one of his arms, her body tucked against his over the thick homespun blanket covering him. Her one wing was half spread over his chest, her legs tucked under her body as she leaned against him. Slowly, she raised her head, her mane disheveled, her nose gently scrunched up. One of her eyes cracked open, letting in the barest amount of light, but Marc was still captivated by that slim sliver of gold. Then she saw him. With an abrupt sneeze, she bounced away from him, trying to scramble to her hooves, wings clammed against her sides as she spluttered, "O-oh, good m-morning M-Marc! I was just-" Her hoof missed the edge of the bed, and she lurched over, "-Eep!" *Thunk* Marc could barely hold back a chuckle as he pulled off the blanket and rolled over to the edge of the bed. Many mornings started like this, more and more frequently. Usually, the only sign that Ditzy was ever there was a pony-shaped indentation, a golden hair, or maybe a shiny grey feather. But some mornings, Ditzy overslept. And usually those mornings found her on her back on the floor, covering her burning cheeks with her forehooves, staring up at Marc as he laughed. "S-sorry..." She mumbled, "I thought I'd wake up earlier and make breakfast and..." "Hush Ditz, don't worry about it. I don't mind sharing a bed with you." ... ...wait... Her ears perked curiously even as she flushed a little more. "Oh...?" Marc tried to get his brain in gear. This wasn't how this usually went. Make a vague joke, tease her, then go to breakfast. No odd silences. Fix it! "Well of course not, not when you've been doing it pretty much every day since winter started. And look, it's nearly spring!" he said with a somewhat forced chuckle. Ditzy smiled too, her ears folding back meekly. "Oh...right. I...I guess that's a little weird, huh?" Marc held a hand out to her, pulled her up by a hoof into a hug. "I wouldn't change it for the world, Ditzy." She snorted and returned the embrace. "You already proved that, Marc; you gave yours up just to stay." That got another chuckle from Marc as well. Considering how little he actually remembered of his old life, it hardly felt at all serious. He'd left that behind, and he never once wished to change it back. He ruffled Ditzy's mane, "So, did anypony turn up last night, or is Rosewood empty again?" “Dunno,” she shrugged, then leaned out into the room, shouting down the hall, “Hey, anypony home?!” Marc heard a stuttered groan behind the nearest arch, and familiar “Eep!” *thunk* from behind the opposite corner. A fuzzy purple mane appeared around the near arch. “Nwanhere...gobakkasleepz?” “Sure, Scootaloo,” Ditzy spoke soothingly, “just remember that your friends wanted you at the fountain in two hours, alright?” The purple fuzzball slunk back around the corner, where the agonized groan of a tortured mattress played out. Scootaloo wasn’t exactly a morning filly. On the other hand... “I’m up! I’m up sis! I’ll go check!” Dinky Doo was very much an early riser. Energetic too. The sounds of her rapid circuits of the long segmented hall that made up Rosewood Way-cottage echoed with the sounds of falling items disrupted by her whirlwind passes. She returned with a skip and a jump: “Nopony’s here, sis!” Ditzy sighed, downcast. “That counts as two weeks...and three before that...” Marc sighed as he sat up. In recent months, stories about the 'alien of Ponyville' spread, while the number of visitors to Rosewood plummeted, along with their donations. Thanks to the stories spread by a mad god, very few ponies trusted him, and by extension, Ditzy. For both of them, no word stirred up anger quite like Discord. “Hey, Ditzy, if no one’s here, how about we go to town? We could make a day of it,” Marc suggested, shaking off the memory. Some things he did wish he could forget. Ditzy excitedly agreed, dashing off to gather whatever things she deemed necessary for the day. Marc tried to ignore the crashing sounds from the kitchen, but snapped up when he heard the unmistakable and far too familiar sound of the fridge groaning as it crashed to the floor. He sighed, smiling as he hauled himself up to begin the cleanup operation. He wouldn't have it any other way. ***** One thing about life in Equestria: it made one very, very fit. Marc jogged after Ditzy as she flitted from tree to tree, perching in each to exclaim about the wonder of some or other flower, vine or insect. She held a surprisingly large knowledge of...everything, really. Even Twilight had been surprised to learn about Ditzy’s incredible general knowledge. Even so, Ditzy’s natural exuberance and energy never let her stay on one subject for long, and Marc merely tried to keep up, in more ways than one. For reprieve, Marc shouted at the twirling pegasus above him, “Hey, Ditzy, where are we going, exactly? You said you had a list?” “Oh yeah!” Ditzy snapped her wings shut and reached into her packed saddlebags, regardless of the fact that she was a dozen ponylengths above the ground. Marc froze as Ditzy crashed to the path in a cloud of dust, emerging with a muffled “Hurrthiz!” and dropping a chomped-on slip into Marc’s dumbfounded hands. “Uh, thanks,” He mumbled, opening up the page. Written in neat, tight letters across the page were the day’s planned activities. First was ‘Vinyl and Octy’ - That should be fun - followed by ‘Sgrcbe crnr’. Marc tried to figure out what business Ditzy had there, before he noticed the last item on the list: ‘Picnic’. He smiled and started jogging again, eager to get through the day, with Ditzy flittering on ahead, chattering pleasantly about everything that took her fancy. A few scant minutes saw them at the front door of their close friends’ door. Ditzy wasted no time in knocking while Marc got his breath back under control. He leaned against the doorframe, hearing the approaching hoofsteps of one of the two musicians that dwelled within. He looked at Ditzy beside him, smirking, “Vinyl or Octavia?” “Heyo!” Ditzy giggled, “Oh, definitely Vinyl.” Marc chuckled as the door swung inwards, revealing a very...indescribable unicorn. Marc raised an eyebrow. “Heya Vee...uh, have a bad night?” The bedraggled white pony puffed a stray spike of hair from her eyes and squinted up at the human on her doorstep, “No, a very, very good one, actually. C’mon in, I’ll go grab Octy, she’s still in bed.” “Oh, n-no, don’t...well, I don’t want to bother her.” Ditzy stuttered, a small blush colouring her cheeks. Marc couldn’t work out why, but took a seat in a convenient beanbag as Vinyl shrugged and levitated - shakily - two bags of crisps to her guests. Marc was unprepared for Vinyl’s poor aim, though, and just about fell over onto Ditzy, who just managed to slip out from under him, only to topple back onto his chest in the effort to catch her own. Vinyl chuckled as the pair lay entangled, and even Marc cracked a smile as Ditzy just shrugged and started eating her crisps without bothering to move. Marc settled himself and looked expectantly at Vinyl. “So, mind explaining why we’re here exactly?” “Oh yeah!” Vinyl perked up instantly. she dashed to one of her many leaning towers of speakers and whacked one into life, “I was messing around with some stuff the other day, and, I swear, it sounds like Ditzy climbed into my decks! Listen to this..." Marc nodded appreciatively. He could literally feel himself getting cheerier as the song progressed. Ditzy felt the same way, though Marc wished she’d stop tapping her hoof on his sternum. The short piece wound to a close, chased by a concussive applause from Ditzy. Marc tipped the happy pegasus onto the floor before he got a hernia, though. Standing, he brushed crumbs off his cotton shirt, grinning at Vinyl. “Wow, that really was different! I loved it. Gotta ask, though; why the new style all of a sudden? Testing a new piece of equipment, maybe?” Marc was always interested in Vinyl’s technologies, and more often than not helped install and test it. However, today he was to be disappointed. Vinyl’s lips tightened as she said, “Well, nah...my last album didn't do so well, so I was trying new things to ‘reach out’, y’know?” “What?” Ditzy asked, shocked. “W-what was wrong with your last album? I loved it. I even have a copy at Rosewood for when...nopony’s around...” Marc raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. Instead, he watched as Vinyl fished the record out of a bin and hold it up. Marc was more than a little surprised to see, on the cover, and bold picture of himself, Ditzy and Rainbow Dash at sunset. Marc looked at Vinyl around the album cover, where she was reading the song list, muttering, “I swore these were all gonna be number ones. It doesn't make sense...” Marc’s jaw locked. “Vinyl, I think I see where you went wrong here.” He pointed at the cover image. At himself, clearly embracing Ditzy and sharing in the evening’s lowering sun while Rainbow Dash looked on warmly. It was a gorgeous picture, but not, perhaps, to most ponies. “You think the average Equestrian is ready to see that after what they've heard about me?” Vinyl snorted. “Well, ponies who can’t accept you two aren’t ponies I want buying my albums anyway.” Ditzy smiled at the sentiment, but Marc just shook his head. “Okay, Vinyl, its your label, but still...I guess I don't think it will do you any good, being associated with me so much. You know what’s happened to Rosewood...?” Vinyl sighed. “Yeah, I know. I was just trying to help a little y’know? Put in a good word for ya.” Vinyl got no further as Ditzy tackle-hugged Vinyl in appreciation, And Marc felt very much like doing the same. However, a certain rumbling, growling noise was making itself heard at the top of the stairs. From certain, terrifying experience, Marc knew that Tartarus hath no fury like morning-Octavia. He cleared his throat, “Well, That's...that's really sweet Vinyl, thank you. But, uh, Ditzy and I need to go on ahead, since we need to be at Sugarcube Corner before...well, before Octavia comes down the stairs.” Ditzy chuckled and disentangled herself from an utterly bleached Vinyl. Marc would never have thought that a white unicorn could pale, but Octavia could have that effect on anyone before her coffee. Marc and Ditzy bade their farewells and escaped just in time to avoid the possible pyrotechnics. Not five minutes later, Marc was dog trotting after a fluttering Ditzy, spiraling further into what promised to be another perfect day in Ponyville. What could ever go wrong?