“Hey, Perfect! Heads up!” The stallion in question didn’t have time to react as the pony that called out to him nearly threw herself into his hooves. Luckily for both of them he had caught her before she could fall. If hadn’t it would have been a rather unpleasant day for him. “I thought I’d find you around here!”
Realizing he had caught his marefriend, Picture Perfect allowed a smile to form onto his face. “Huh? Oh! Hey there cutie. Where have you been hiding I haven’t heard from you sense last week. I was starting to think you may have left me.”
The mare chuckled from within his arms. “Well keep talking like that and it just might happen.” She chuckled seeing the stallion’s eyes widen out of fear. “Oh come on! I was just joking.” The stallion visibly relaxed only letting out a cautious chuckle. “So, Perfect, what do you want to do today? I was hoping we could be together today.”
Picture Perfect stared at his marefriend with a confused expression. “Well, I wasn’t planning on doing much today besides heading over to the park and taking a few scenery pictures for Photography Club. Nothing to exciting really. Why do you ask?”
The young mare shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s just like you said, we haven’t seen each other all week. I just missed you is all. Now come on! Let’s go to the park so you can take pictures of me.” She finished her statement by getting out of the stallion’s arms and down the path a few steps.
“Wait! I said scenery pictures! You know! Pictures of scenery?! Plus, this is a school camera! I’d get in a lot of trouble if it was just full of pictures of y-!”
The stallion was silenced with a deep and passionate kiss from his marefriend. When they finally broke away from the kiss she said, “Calm down Casanova. It was just another joke. You know, haha funny?”
“Wha- Okay. What’s going on? You never were this forward with… Well with anything really. Did something happen sense last week?”
“What? No! Why would anything be wrong? I just missed you that’s all.” The mare reached out to place her hoof on her coltfriend’s chest but he took a step backwards keeping her from doing so.
“No, there’s something wrong. What is it? Do you not like me anymore?”
“What?! No! That’s not-”
“Did you find someone better? Is that it?!”
“No! It’s not I-“
“Do you regret sleeping with me?...” As soon as the words quietly left the stallions mouth all sounds stopped and the mare was left shaking unable to speak a single word… so he spoke for her. “We’re still so young, but I just didn’t care. I forced the question onto you and barely even give you a chance to say anything about it. I just kept insisting and insisting… I bet you think I’m a monster. The kind that takes advantage of young mares like you. I’m sorry. I’ll… I’ll just get out of your life.” The stallion turned to make his way out of the young mare life
The mare couldn’t believe what she was hearing. No, she DIDN’T believe what she was hearing. She reached out and grabbed his hoof before he could leave, tears running down her face. “Wait! …No… No. I-I don’t think that at all. I love you and what happened that night was a choice we both made. I don’t think of you as a monster… You’re Perfect. And I love you just for being who you are.”
The stallion kept his gaze on the ground and his head turned away from her. “Then why are you acting so strangely? If there’s nothing wrong then what are you trying to hide?” His voice was cold and emotionless as he spoke, already fearing the worst to come.
“Because… I’m… I’m… I’m pregnant!” Now it was the mare’s turn to divert her gaze. She had been hoping to wait for a better time to let him know but now she it was all out on the table and Picture Perfect knew everything.
“Y-You’re pregnant?” The mare before him weakly and silently nodded. The stallion, to say the least was very shocked. His marefriend was pregnant and knowing his marefriend he was definitely the father. At first, the thought of raising a child scared him, he was still 16. He hadn’t even made out of high school yet! But he pushed his thoughts aside. HIS marefriend was going to have HIS child and he would do everything he could to make sure that the both of them would be safe. He grabbed ahold of her hoof and gave it a reassuring squeeze causing her to look up at him.
“Listen, I promise you that I will take care of you… BOTH of you. I’ll do whatever it takes! I promise you.” The stallion’s voice was strong and reassuring, giving the mare a little more hope than before.
“But… But your dream of being a famous Photographer.”
“Forget about my dream. What matters right now is you, me and the baby. I’ll do whatever it takes. My dreams can wait.”
The mare nodded not being able to come to terms with that outcome as tears continued to stream down her face. “No! I can’t let you do that! You’ve done so much for everypony! You deserve better than that! Just please just be selfish this one time and let me take care of it. Please…”
“But I can’t just-“
“Please… Please Picture. Just trust me when I say that I know what I am doing. Please.”
“But-“
“Please…”
Defeated, Picture Perfect let out a long sigh before asking, “Are you sure?” And with a simple nod it was answered. Despite his saddened look, emotions and demeanor he was able to put on a smile and look back at his marefriend who gave a saddened smile back to him.
“Can we… Can we still go to the park? The suns about to set and… I’d like to spend just one more day with you before I have to leave.”
At that the stallion’s smile died and with a soft voice he asked, “You’re leaving?”
“Yeah. I am. I just can’t stay here. I have to go away… from everything.”
“Will I ever see you again?” The stallion asked hopefully.
The mare unfortunately shook her head. “No. I’m sorry but we might never see each other again.”
The stallion let out a sad sigh before he turned to the near setting sun. “Then let not waste a single moment.” And with that they walked to the park for one last date.
“Thank you for your kind hospitality Mr. Perfect.” Twilight was sitting down in on the couch inside of the Photographer’s apartment sipping away at a cup of tea given to her by Picture.
The stallion smiled at being able to please the Princess with that small gesture. “Think nothing of it. Anything for a Princess of Equestria.”
“Right.” Twilight was still getting used to being called royalty but now was not a time to fuss over such a small thing. She was helping Scootaloo and that is what she was determined to do the only way she knows how, “Mr. Perfect, I was wondering if you could tell us about 8 years ago?” …by being as straight and as forward as possible.
“Um… Excuse me?” The abruptness of Twilight’s question had caught him off guard as he expected something different like maybe she was going to tell him about an event where he could get exclusive photos. Oh well. A guy can dream, can’t he?
“Could you tell us anything about 8 years ago?”
He could not believe it! The newly crowned Princess came to his home just to ask a personal question… And out of nowhere! He just couldn’t help but wonder, “Just… Why?”
Twilight replied with a professional look about her, “Well we’re on the search for somepony somewhere in Equestria who disappeared about 8 years ago.”
“And you think that I might know something?”
“That is correct.”
“And what about the kid sitting next to you?”
“Oh… Scootaloo? She happens to be our biggest lead in trying to find this pony.”
For the first time ever Scootaloo was meeting her father and Twilight was introducing her! Scootaloo had to say something! Something awesome! Something memorable! But she had to play it cool like Twilight had told her to. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute thinking of all the things she could say and do when she came up with the perfect thing to say. The single most amazing thing to say at a moment like this! She lifted her hoof in a greeting manner and open her mouth- “…Hi…” only to end up immediately forgetting whatever she was going to say or do while she kept a dumbfounded look on her face.
“Uh, hi.” Picture Perfect did a quick double take on the filly before refocused on the princess. “I’m sorry to break it to you princess but I couldn’t help you even if I wanted to. You see, I am still suffering from partial amnesia from 8 years ago so I don’t remember anything about what happened in my life. I talked to a few of the guys at my orphanage and they told me that I was in some sort of relationship but none of them knew with who. I had apparently made a lot of enemies there that year… Oh well. You win some you lose some.”
“You have amnesia?”
“Partial amnesia, yes. The first thing I remember after my amnesia was waking up in front of the fireplace at the orphanage I was in and somepony throwing something into the fire before running off.”
Twilight remained with a stoic expression and kept her shocked emotions hidden for the moment. “Do you remember anything about the way the pony looked?”
“Sorry to tell you but no. My vision was a little blurry at that moment so I didn’t get a good look at them.” Twilight felt defeated, the one true lead that could help her the most doesn’t remember a single thing about anything that happened back then. It was completely futile “But-“ Or maybe not. “I was still able to save what she threw into the fire.”
Wait. What did he say? “She?”
“I’m sorry?” Picture paused when Twilight asked him the question.
“You said ‘she’. Are you sure you don’t remember anything about that day?”
“She? Why would I…?” The stallion shook his head to refocus on what he was doing. “N-No Princess. I swear, I don’t remember a thing.”
Twilight didn’t want to give up on the subject that easily but she knew better then to press on… for now. “Oh well. Just a minor detail. Please, continue.” Unlike what she said, it was not a ‘minor detail’ which is why she kept it in the background of her thoughts.
“Right. So the thing they threw in the fire was -Well, at least I think it was- a picture that I took. I still have it if you’d like to look at it.” Perfect finished off by turning slightly closer to a door on the other side of his apartment.
“Please,” was all that came out of the Princess’ mouth before the photographer went off to the room he pointed at coming out moments later with a binder clenched between his teeth.
He placed the binder down and flipped through the pages until he came to a near blank page with nothing but a burnt corner of a photograph placed in the center. He uncovered the page from its plastic covering and picked up the burnt corner, observing it as he spoke. “There was an address written of the back that luckily was not burned but for some strange reason every time I thought about going there something in my mind told me to ‘Stay away’ or just quickly find something else to focus on. It’s always bugged me.” He offered the “picture” to her highness who took it willingly. “I don’t know if this is something that’ll help but it’s probably the only thing I could give you that’s from around the same time.”
Twilight took the corner in her magic and examined it closely taking note of the address written on back along with the letter “y” which appeared to be the end of a word… or maybe a name. After observing the burnt piece of paper of a few more minutes she turned back to the stallion who had given it to her. “Thank you Mr. Perfect. This is possibly one of the most important pieces of information we may have received.” Only because without this we’d be at a dead end.
The stallion smiled at the princess. “Anything for you princess. I’m just glad I could help… potentially. I really hope you find her.”
There! He said it again! Why does he keep saying her when I haven’t told him about us actually looking for a mare? I wonder if he actually has amnesia. Or… Or maybe it’s… “Mr. Perfect, there is one last thing I’d like to ask of you, if you don’t mind.”
At that he seemed a bit confused. “Uh. Okay. I don’t think that there’s much more I can tell you but if you insist…”
“I would like to magically examine your mind Mr. Perfect. I have a sort of suspicion about something.”
Picture was taken aback to say the least. She wanted to look… INTO HIS MIND?! That was just crazy! Under normal circumstances he would flat-out just say “No!” but this was a princess he was talking to. He could trust her… Right? “Uh. O-O-Okay. I’m not sure what you’re looking for but go ahead.” He said as he leaned his head closer to the princess.
“This shouldn’t hurt or even take very long. It’s just a quick scan.” With that said the lavender alicorn light up her horn and began to search through his mind for something that could indicate that she was right. It took her nearly a minute before she found what she was looking for and she stopped her scan. “Just as I thought.”
Picture Perfect went back to his normal sitting position and looked at her majesty. “Wh-What did you find?”
Twilight looked at the stallion with slightly saddened eyes. “I’m sorry Mr. Perfect, but you don’t actually have amnesia.” The stallion only responded with a dumbfounded look. “There is a magical seal on a set of specific memories that just happen to be from 8 years ago. This type of thing can’t usually be done by a normal pony, especially at the quality used for yours. This type of work is usually done by a hypnotist. Someone skilled in mind-bending magic. I’m so sorry.”
Picture perfect was in complete and utter shock. “So…Someone… Someone just took my memories? They went into my brain and just locked it away?! But who would do something like this?”
“Well, the way hypnotism works is that the pony getting hypnotized has to be willing to do so.” Explained Twilight.
“So-So I…”
“You wanted to forget. But from what you’ve told me I have a different theory in mind. You were with someone, someone you cared for very deeply, and then something came up that. This her you keep mentioning was leaving for…” Here she took a quick look at Scootaloo and then back at Picture. “Something that was going to set you back. Possibly keep you from living the life you’re living now and she didn’t want you to have such a burden. So the both of you went to a hypnotist somewhere in…” She recalled the address on the corner. “Somewhere in Baltimare, your home town. When you were done being hypnotized you fainted and she either took you home or had help taking to there. When you got home she placed you near the fire place and took one last look at this picture,” Here she held up the corner and showed it to him. “-before throwing it into the fire as you started to wake up, causing her to panic and run out of the building before you could see her. She wanted to protect you, even if that meant leaving you. I’m so sorry Mr. Perfect. We won’t waste any more of your time now. Let’s go Scootaloo.” Twilight looked to where the filly was previously sitting down next to her only to find that she had made her way over to Picture Perfect, wrapping him in a hug.
At Twilight’s call the filly reluctantly let go of the very distraught stallion and walk out the door with Twilight. “…Bye.” Was the last thing she said before the door closed behind them leaving the shell of Picture Perfect to process what had just been said.
He sat there until long after the sun had set suddenly jerking his head upwards to look at the door muttering one single word as he recalled its significance to him, “…Scootaloo…”