..Generosity, to pardon the expression, is a horse of a different color, a voice echoed through Tia’s sleeping mind.
What Serana had done was very generous, but why did that action seem to resonate with her so much? Through the murky dreamscape of her subconsciousness, she saw more of the fragments of what she was sure were her life’s moments. Deep sorrow encapsulated by aquamarine eyes as the two of them rushed into the stars above, away from the diminishing surface and towards the moon’s surface. A purple crystal held aloft by an old friend’s magic hovered into her eyesight. The sun, blazing blood red, burning everything, appeared to her. Her face was in its center, and it spoke, I just wanted to make everypony warm.
Tia awoke with a jolt in a cold sweat, drawing in shuddering breaths as she tried to calm herself. Momentarily disoriented, she quickly looked around the room for any familiar objects or furniture. As her mental state settled, she remembered that she had been brought to this room and this apartment by Serana the night before from the hospital. Even with this small amount of comfort in the knowledge of her immediate surroundings, her despair returned to her: she still had no real idea of who she was. A strange churning feeling suddenly rumbled through her abdomen, causing her to glance down. Hunger. She hadn’t felt truly hungry in over a thousand years. As she got up out of bed and stumbled to the door, she wondered why that obviously wrong statement had popped into her mind. It didn’t really matter she supposed, and she turned the door knob and opened it.
From the look of the sun coming into the large windows of Serana’s loft, it was around ten in the morning.
Tia began to panic, and her hands clasped the back of her brown hair; “I’ve overslept! Who’s raised the sun?”
Confused by her own hysteria, Tia lowered her arms to her sides, “What am I saying? The sun doesn’t need raising by anyone.”
She shook her head, trying to shake the unusual thoughts out, and walked to the kitchenette area. She was about to start making something for herself, when she realized that she knew literally nothing about cooking. Her eyes were quickly met by several fruits nestled next to a silver box with four slits in it; that was certainly an easy solution to her current problems! She took a particularly ripe banana from the pile, opened up the peel and took a bite out of it. It was alright, she determined, not as firm as she would have liked, but the finger’s sweet taste all but made up for its mushiness. After having finished that, she picked up an orange, and began to furtively peel it. She remembered this being much easier to accomplish in the past, but she couldn’t remember why. Perhaps this one had a particularly tough skin. Placing the many pieces of husk in a nearby trash can, she put the first of five orange slices on her tongue. The citrus certainly packed a wallop that was especially enjoyable!
The door to Serana’s room swung open and Tia’s blonde haired hostess staggered out of her room.
“Morning,” she murmured loud enough for her guest to hear.
“Good morning,” Tia said with a smile as she popped another orange slice into her mouth.
“It’ll be ‘good’ once I’ve got a cup of black with four sugars in me,” Serana grumbled. Walking to the side of the sink opposite of Tia, she pressed a button on a metallic appliance that began to whir softly, and trickle a deep brown liquid into a waiting pot below.
“You trying to fight scurvy or something?” Serana commented as she noticed that a couple of her fruits were missing.
Tia chuckled a little, “I just wasn’t sure where you kept everything.”
Serana began to point to specific cabinets in a whirl of detail, “Bowls are in the lazy susan next to the fridge. Cereal’s right next to it. Silverware’s in the drawer right in front of you. If you’re feeling really fancy, skillet’s are to the right of the oven if you want to make an omelet. Everything else is in the fridge.”
Tia decided to go with a simple bowl of oatmeal, while Serana went with a bowl of cereal. The two of them sat at the island counter where the food was usually prepared, and the first few minutes of their shared time together were silent, as Serana began to perk up with a fresh infusion of caffeine to her system.
“How’d you sleep?” Tia asked.
“Surprisingly, like a brick; haven’t had a good night like that in a while. I had this weird dream, though. There was this woman asking me questions about another woman who was missing.” Serana took another sip of her coffee, “I’d say that was my mind’s way of wondering about you. Whatever it was, it was just downright strange.”
“My sister had a knack for dreams,” Tia said as she put a spoonful of oatmeal in her mouth, and talked around it, “She always seemed to be able to understand them, no matter how unusual they were.”
Serana’s eyes lit up, and she looked directly into Tia’s face, “You remembered something!”
Tia hadn’t even been conscious of what she was saying, but when she realized what she had said, she began to grin as she exclaimed, “I have a sister! I remembered I have a sister!”
“That’s awesome!” Serana replied with joy, “Who is she? What does she do?”
“She’s younger than me,” Tia continued, “She’s strong, and caring, and she really stands up for what she believes in!”
“What about a name,” Serana asked with mounting excitement, “Can you remember her name?”
Tia could feel as if the answer was right around the corner in her mind’s eye, but it continued to outrace her. She could sense the answers slipping back into her subconscious, and she began to panic, “No no no!” The more she tried to think, the faster her mind emptied.
In frustration she slammed a balled fist down on the counter. “It’s gone,” she sighed in defeat, and her fist relaxed into an open palm.
The excited tension the two of them had been experiencing followed by their failure left them both in a disheartened state. Serana sympathetically reached over to her guest and wrapped her arm around her shoulder, “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not giving up,” Tia firmly declared as she slapped the counter once again, and she began to look around the apartment for any object that might possibly jog her memory further. Standing from her seat, she then began wandering around the conjoined rooms of the kitchen, the den area, and the small front hallway. Serana quietly watched as her guest did everything from messing with the blinds to feeling the textures of the brick walls.
“Nothing here feels familiar,” she murmured to herself "Nothing is reminding me of anything I'm used to."
“Maybe what you need is a walk,” Serana offered, “For me, walking helps me feel like I’m making progress; helps me think, y’know?”
Tia turned and looked back at Serana and smiled a little. Remaining in this apartment wasn’t going to help; there had to be something out there in the city just outside the door that might help her remember, “That’s probably what I need.”
“Glad you agree,” Serana smiled sheepishly, “Because I needed to go on a grocery run anyway; the cupboards are pretty sparse compared to a week ago. You want to get cleaned up first? I’ll try to find some clean clothes that’ll fit you while you work on that.”
“Certainly,” Tia replied as she began to make her way towards the bathroom. She then stopped and turned, “Serana?”
“Yeah?”
“I just wanted to thank you for everything,” Tia smiled softly, “It means a lot to me, all that you’re doing.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Serana waved her hand with a smile of her own on her face, “I mean I’d hope someone would do the same for me if I were like you were, and hey, what are friends for?”
As Tia started to get herself ready for the day, the word ‘Friends’ seemed to linger in her mind. That word was somehow so very important, but she couldn't place it. What was the power behind that word in relation to her? It almost felt like some kind of fantastic secret; just like magic.