4 - Origins
Aqua woke to a quiet house and sat up in his bed, his lovely, unchanged, bed. The fact that it, and many other pieces of furniture, hadn't changed more since he had gone to sleep encouraged him. He still had time, and a choice. He slipped down to his hooves and slowly lifted and lowered each leg. Being a pony felt odd. Not bad, per se, but odd...
The sleep had worked well for him. He felt less in a blind panic. He had control. He could smash the figure, or paint it. There was a choice... He took a slow breath before he looked back to his end-table, spotting the container of soup and the record left for him. He discovered whatever soup it was, it was better warm. It wasn't bad cold, but definitely better when fresh. Octavia was nice to make it at all for him...
He strode towards the living room while frowning. "Hey, voice, words, whatever you are. Are you there?"
It might be.
"Good." He flicked on the television with less fumbling. Hooves really weren't built for human remotes, though he doubted it would remain a human remote if he proceeded. "I want some answers. Are you ready to talk?"
I am always here.
Aqua raised a brow. That was kind of creepy. "Alright, fine. What happened to Aqua, the real Aqua."
Are you certain you want to know?
"He's a pony. What's the worst that happened to him? Did he get lost somewhere? Am I... him? Did I take over his body?"
A knock, loud and crisp, was the reply. Aqua jumped in surprise and turned to the door, heart pounding in his chest. He glanced at the television, but it was blank of even his previous answers. With building dread he approached the door. "If this is Aqua, I'm sorry for butting in..." He fumbled with the handle, discovering that hooves were also bad at that.
Fortunately, whoever was on the other side heard him jiggling it and with a glow of magic, it turned, revealing Twilight Sparkle standing there. The world outside was a confusing mess. He could see a car go by with a pony-drawn cart just behind it. There was a sidewalk and green grass and bright flowers and someone's car parked on a lawn.
"May I come in?" Twilight looked uncertain, smiling nervously.
Aqua backed up slowly. It was the Twilight Sparkle, with wings, so princess... "Y-yeah... Come in."
She nodded as she entered, horn glowing as she pulled the door shut behind herself. "I imagine you must be terribly confused... First, allow me to both welcome you to Equestria and extend a hoof in apology for the manner in which you were brought here."
Aqua crashed down to his haunches, the confusion only growing. "Twilight, I... do you know what's going on?"
"You know me?" Twilight tilted her head faintly. "Oh, it must be the mane style. Those often survive the translation... Yes, I do. It's... It was my doing, but hear me out! It was for a good reason."
Aqua nodded slowly. He opened his mouth to argue about translations, but that was as good a reason as any. "I do know you, Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, Element of Magic." It was really the Twilight he was speaking to. It was very exciting, but... "You did this?"
Twilight took a slow breath. "You look a bit shaken, and this isn't... good news I'm bringing. Are you sure I should continue?"
Aqua thrust out a hoof. "Please! I want to know."
Twilight nodded. "Very well. Are you aware of the basic idea of multiverse?"
"The basic idea?" Aqua wobbled a hoof. "Everything that could be, is, somewhere."
"That's the basic idea." Twilight nodded. "And enough for our purposes. The Aqua in our world... He..."
Whatever she was trying to say, it wasn't coming out, and Twilight was looking more and more uncomfortable. "What happened to him?"
Twilight looked away. "He took his own life..."
Aqua went still, ice encasing his heart.
"Nopony knew he was even sad. One day he didn't show up where he should... Lyra stopped by, as a member of his musical friends, and... she found him... In a panic, she came to me..."
It was starting to make a terrible sense to Aqua, but... "Why?"
Twilight smiled sadly. "We don't know what was troubling him, and he's beyond our reach to ask. Are... I mean..." She glanced away again. "Look, you didn't ask to be here. I don't... If you want to go back, I will do so. I will send you home with the deepest of apologies."
She sounded terrified. She was worried he would be next, that all Aquas were equally ready to throw their lives away, that she would be the cause for this next one. Aqua reached out for her, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "I'm not mad." And he wasn't, not really. The teary unicorn, er, alicorn seemed impossible to really be mad at, besides... "You can really send me back?"
She bobbed her head quickly. "Oh, yes! You haven't stabilized, so the right spell should knock you one way or the other." She began to perk up. "You're not angry at me?"
"Why?" Aqua sat up. "Your friend died, but why would you go looking for a replacement like that?"
Twilight hissed out a breath. "He... had a marefriend, one who he was growing quite close to... We... I'm so sorry, this was wrong. I'll send you back." Her horn began to glow, but he put a hoof on it, snuffing out the magic.
"I want to know more, please. Was this Octavia?"
Twilight blushed faintly. "That's... that's her. Sweet Celestia, what was I thinking? I bet... you don't even know who she is, really. Some strange mare acting that way..." She brought up a hoof in a loud clop against her face. "Stupid..."
So there it was. If he stayed, he would be the replacement boyfriend, er, coltfriend of Octavia. He would be embracing his fur coat and a life on four hooves. He would be saying goodbye to everyone he knew in a way that they wouldn't ever hear, unless... "Twilight?"
"Hmm?"
"Look at this." He turned, rising to his hooves and leading the way back to his work room where the figure rested, waiting to be finished. "Do you know what that is?"
Twilight leaned off to the right. "It looked like a little statue, partially painted. Why?"
"Don't let me finish it." He grabbed the brush where it was abandoned and dipped it in some paint before touching it to an unpainted portion of the figure. Alien pleasure coursed through him as bones began to reshape like wax, bringing him closer to being a full pony.
Twilight gasped with amazement. "You're stabilizing!" She saw him touch the brush again, lost in the reverie of creation and dooming himself to ponydom. Her magic pulled his face away and, with that, the spell broke. "Fascinating. I suppose I don't need a spell... if you're staying."
He spat out the brush and glared at the figure as if it were its fault, which maybe it was. "I have a different idea."
"Oh?"
He pointed at the figure. "I have more than one of those. I don't... Am I allowed to go back, and think about this?" If he did want to come to ponyland, er Equestria, he would want to say his goodbyes, not just...
Twilight seemed to consider that. "If it means you might agree, then... yes. I'll do my best to keep the way open for you."
"Twilight?"
"Hmm?"
"You do know I'm not a pony, right?"
Twilight raised a brow. "If my calculations are correct, you're a student from Canterlot High."
Aqua frowned a little. "Your calculations are a little off..."
Twilight looked a little alarmed at that, she recoiled back, then stopped. "But you know what Canterlot High is... Wait, are you Aqua?"
Aqua quirked a grin at that. "That's a better question... Not... really?"
Twilight crashed to her haunches. "I messed up... We should get you home right away. I'm so sorry!"
Aqua shook his head as he looked around his house. His painting had caused it to slip closer to its pony form and away from his old life. "Aqua was, in my world, a story. I made him up, as my 'ponysona', the part of me that loved to create, especially music."
Twilight licked over her lips. "And now... This must be so confusing for you." She let out a thunderous sigh. "This would be confusing for anypony..." She glanced towards the door. "Octavia could stop by at any moment... Wait, did you already meet her?"
"I did..." Aqua glanced towards his bedroom where the record was still waiting. "She and her friend were good people, er, ponies."
"But you don't love her."
How could he love anyone, especially a mare, that he had literally just met? "I'd like to know her." The words came from him before he thought of them and he blushed softly. He really did want to know her, and Vinyl, and Twilight, as real people, not just two dimensional images...
Twilight misunderstood his expression. "Great! I'll just stabilize y--"
"No! I have things I need to do." A thought came to him. "What do I look like, you know, um, not stable?"
Twilight looked him up and down. "You have a fuzzy edge, like you're not quite focused in a camera? A lot of your home is the same way, but it's easy to miss if you're not looking for it. It's grown less present since you started painting the little figure." She pointed off towards it. "Why, what do you see? Dear Celestia, you must be so disoriented if we all look blurry!"
Aqua shook his head. "For me, it's different. Some things are like home, some things look like they belong to ponies, and the more I paint, the more it looks like it belongs in Equestria, myself included. Twilight... even if I agree to this, is it right to lie to Octavia like this?"
Twilight bit her bottom lip a moment. "N-no... I suppose it isn't..."
It was a bad idea, for good reasons. Aqua opened his mouth to give his opinion when the front door opened, admitting Octavia into the house with a bag slung over her shoulder. "Aqua? Are you--Oh! Princess Twilight! I didn't expect you here."
She approached the two of them even as Twilight began to look more and more nervous.
Aqua looked between the two. "Octavia?"
"Yes, Aqua? You look better today. Did you enjoy the soup?"
"I loved every drop." Aqua smiled at the musical earth pony. "I need to go away for a few days, to get my head on straight."
Octavia raised an ear at him. "Are you certain that's wise? If you would like to simply relax..."
"I'm sure. Octavia, I'll come back, promise." He'd come back and say goodbye to this new life, if he had to. On a sudden whim he leaned in and kissed her warming cheek gently.
Before she could reply, he suddenly grabbed the figure from the table and dashed it against the wall. There was no magic grabbing it that time.
It shattered on impact.
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And that is how i died, suddenly i was in a great nothingness... no sound, no no color, just a great inky black spreading on forever, some how i could see myself and i was walking like i was on an invisible platform but thats just my mind tring to make sense of the void.
a great hand started to come into view, it had no distinct shape or features and seamed to be holding a swirling mass of energy, the hand started to close and it started to become dark as the last rays of light started to fade from the hand. suddenly, when the hand closed a brilliant explosion rippled the void, i took form...
Wow. Talk about a long-distance relationship, and that's assuming this works the way the protagonist thinks it will. Even if it does, this is not at all a permanent solution. Commuting back and forth between the two worlds isn't going to work in the long run. Now it's a question of how long this guy's going to drag out his inevitable decision... again, assuming that smashing the figurine will do what he assumes it will.
Also, I found some typos in need of smashing:
It.
Stabilized.
The fact that is - The fact that it
It might be. - I might be.
life of four hooves - life on four hooves
face away and with it, the spell broke - face away and, with that, the spell broke
that he literally - that he had literally
*****
I have to side with 'Aqua' here. He's not completely resistant to being in Equestria, but the way and reason he was brought were wrong for the right reasons. If he had been given no choice I feel he would have dealt with it, but he was and he appears to be trying to do it with consideration.
What was on the record Aqua?? You forgot to listen to it before you broke the figure! And I hope the dramatic act works out for you in the way you clearly assumed it would because, if not... ouch.
I glossed over this on the first reading but on the second pass it's clear that it ties into her assumption that she pulled him from the EQG universe. That's solid writing, sir.
7266716 Typos smashed to bits. What do you think of this reveal?
7266762 Typos fixed! How did I handle the reveal? Did it come across as rushed, or properly dramatic, or...?
7266776
I have an opinion on the reveal!
It seems a little contradictory.
Like... she cast the spell but somehow didn't know about the figure causing the change? And, honestly, the screen-text acted kind of like a jerk in prior chapters. Like telling him he won't be missed and nobody would be sad. If that was Twilight, how could Twilight know that having him leave would cause no problems if she didn't even know where he actually came from, and didn't have the semi-omniscience I expected the screen-text to have? Was she just BSing, trying to keep the idea she had afloat?
I sorta like the reveal, though, and the idea that he'll have to choose... although I don't really have a good feeling for who Aqua is. I don't know what he's like, aside from being a brony and making both music and painting minis.
7266789 You're right. The words wasn't acting at all like the frantically worried Twilight that was ready to send him right home with an apology and a cookie.
...
That was not a writing error though. I never claimed they were the same person/pony/force/
7266776
Rushed? Nope.
Properly dramatic? Yes and no. We know nothing about Aqua the pony so discovering that he has died by suicide is like reading about a stranger in the newspaper. I do feel bad imagining Octavia's feelings when the truth comes out, though. She's lost someone dear to her and for a brief time she was misled by an imposter, though an unwitting one. She is going to he hurt deeply and it breaks my heart.
So overall I'd say that you moved things in the direction that they needed to go.
7266793
Neither did I!
N-not definitely anyway. That's not a cop out, right?
From my previous post:
And, to be honest, I was sorta digging the surreal mystery of Chapter 2, in which Aqua seemed confused even as to his own identity, but that mostly seemed to be gone at this point. The fact that somewhat-contradictions are intentional is good and more mysterious, though!
It also slightly reminds me of an old idea I'm trying to see if I can't adapt to ponies... Although it is more of a chain-of-associations thing that made me wonder if I shouldn't give it another go.
Replacing a friend who committed suicide with a near copy from the nearest convenient parallel universe is all the rage these days.
All the cool kids are doing it. 
7266769
Not what I expected, but not actually that surprising. Twilight's heart was in the right place, but her head didn't have time to give its say. There's definitely a friendship lesson to be had here, but that takes a backseat to the protagonist's continued sanity.
David Silver wear have you been hiding this story? this is really supper good.
7266968 Yes. This. And honestly, this sort of mistake really fits her personality ... this looks like one of her "Oh crap! I can fix this! I HAVE to fix this!" episodes, combined with her not really "getting" other people. Poor Aqua, sounds like he really buried his depression deep. And if he's dead, where's his body while all this is happening? That could cause trouble, especially if he used a messy method for his suicide.
And I'm guessing that Discord is behind the TV. And he helped Twilight on all this.
Didn't see that one coming ... wow
7292990 Too many stories assume ponies don't have issues, and that only a human would run away.
7292995
Eeyup.
Tavi would be freaked if her stallionfriend suddenly disappears in front of her.
Me likes, keep writing!
Did not see already complete 
7819170 There is a sequel :D