You Are What You Paint

by David Silver

6 - Together

Robert leaned back in his chair. "That's pretty messed up. Why'd you come back though?"

George raised a brow at that. "What was the alternative, just... fade away? Poof, one day I was there, the next, gone. I have a job, friends, family."

Bob seemed less than impressed. "You get to be a magical horse in magical horse land. You like Richard that much you wanted to come back for him?"

"Not all of us are irresponsible jerks." George frowned as he stuffed the last bit of tasty not-mexican snack into his mouth. "Anyway, where are you going with this?"

"Well, you said you had two figures left, so..." His features lit up with hope. "Take me with you?"

George rose to his feet. "A: I'm not sure it works that way. B: You have a life too. C: Were you even listening to my situation or were you blinded by the idea of visiting Equestria?"

"I heard it, I just don't see the issue." He rolled a hand as he rose up to match George. "Go, marry the pony, and make with the little ponies. Win/win all around. She already thinks you have amnesia, so you have the perfect excuse for not knowing a damn thing. Shoot, you even have a perfect pony body all lined up."

A few people were glancing at their genuinely strange conversation. George decided to make it a moving event and began his way back towards work. "I'm not going to lie to her like that. The next time I'm there, I'm telling her the truth, even if her friends still haven't."

"Oh, hey, your boyfriend offed himself. I'm your cheap replacement." Robert rolled his eyes as he followed along. "I doubt that will go well."

"Better than living a lie forever." George shook his head. "Maybe we can just be friends, or maybe she'll avoid me forever just to not see her boyfriend's dead face."

"Or... Look, that's your choice, so..." He rolled a hand. "Can I hitch a ride?"

"I only have two figures left. I need them." If they even worked. There was no assurance either way. "Besides, you're ditching everything just to be here. Go back to work."

"Right right, anything you say boss." Robert held up his hands and backed away. He left, giving George back his peace.

George finished his own day of work, dispensing records, vinyl and plastic, to music fans. He liked his job. He liked music. Being able to help match people up with the music they liked? He liked it. The store wasn't closed.

With the boss in, he'd do the closing, so they parted with a friendly wave. As bosses went, his was pretty nice. He'd definitely want to say bye, at least, if he left at all. "Say, man, if I wanted to move to another country, what'd you say?"

His boss looked confused at the question. "What, Canada? I mean, it's your choice, but I'd miss having you around. It's nice having a worker that takes the job seriously instead of an excuse to waste a few hours."

"But if I did, just theoretically, it wouldn't be the end of the world, right?"

He leaned in suddenly. "Y... Look, you do what you need to do, but you're always welcome here, and your work's appreciated."

On that awkward note, George left. That barely felt like an answer, but prying felt even odder, so off he went to his car and climbed in. If he went away, his boss would find someone, maybe even someone good, but it'd probably take a few tries to stick. He let out a slow breath and turned the key, getting the car in motion.

He rolled down the streets towards his house. He considered grabbing something for dinner along the way, but the mood just wasn't there. Ah, home. It was curious how 'home' was still home, pony land or not. They just shared the same place, separated by a universe or three.

Climbing out of the car, he locked up and headed up to his door. When he turned his home key, he noticed a lack of resistance in unlocking. Suddenly alert, he also saw signs that someone had forced themselves in. He shoved the door open and... everything was where it should be. His television was untouched. His stereo, fine. Computer, check.

... His figures, not so check. One of them was pulled up to where someone could access it easily while sitting and was painted, poorly, but painted. "Rob..." Had his 'friend' just broken in to get to Equestria?

That complicated things, with only one untouched figure remaining. One more visit, and he'd have to make his final decision...

He looked to the wall where he was communicating and saw new words.

Aqua? Is that you? W

It cut off there, a trail of a mark going off. What had his friend done? It looked like Twilight's writing. He couldn't imagine his friend, as a new pony, was any real threat to Twilight, though if he reacted with immediate violence when she wasn't expecting it?

George put a hand to his head. The entire situation felt out of his control, but was ultimately his responsibility. He wouldn't leave Twilight, Octavia, Vinyl, or any of the other ponies in a bind like that.

If he went to look, it would be his last trip, one way or the other.

His phone suddenly rang. It was Richard. "Hey, what's up with you ponyfags today?"

"What?"

"What do you mean, 'what?'. You call me first ranting about your horses, then Bob gets all interested and hangs up on me and hasn't picked up all day. Are you forming some kind of pony cult? Look, be hon--"

"No cult." He frowned against the phone. "Look, Richard... I might be going away for a... maybe forever. Take--"

"The hell? You being kidnapped by aliens?"

George quirked a smile at that. "That works." He hung up. He quickly typed out a text message to everyone he knew well, telling them he may be pursuing an opportunity that required he move quickly, but that he was safe and he wished them well. It likely wouldn't answer their questions, but it was better than... nothing.

With hands quaking with nervousness, he grabbed his bottles of paint, even the ones Bob must have knocked over in his haste, and got to work. He had friends to protect, even if they had four hooves.

Author's Note:

That felt like a really good break point, so I broke it there.

Thanks, Bob. You made this a lot more pressing than it otherwise would have been.

How will George/Aqua handle this typo of a situation?

Comments

[Dravkwn]

Now pans camera to show the missing friend.

[FanOfMostEverything]

"The hell? You being kidnapped by aliens?"

"No, that already happened. This is the Stockholm Syndrome kicking in."

In any case, this is quite the conundrum now. I'm really not sure what the best move is. I'm almost positive there's no definitively correct course of action. It will be interesting to see which one George chooses.

[Shadow Lance]

i would do it, any one in there right mind would do it

[Shadow Lance]

its a jerk thing that he told his best friend that he could not go evening if it was possible

[RadicalDishonesty]

Well... that made things a little different. A little worse.

And that clipped message might just be terrible.

Bob... didn't seem like the most upstanding of people. Getting violent? I doubt it. But doing something else not too savoury...

[Daremo]

but ultimately - but was ultimately

grabbed his his bottle - grabbed his his bottle

*****

I'm really enjoying this as the plot unfolds!

It seems that my initial impression of Robert's character was correct. He's the selfish type, lacking in empathy.

Robert has served one good purpose, though. He has made going to Equestria a matter of responsibility and altruism. The best kind of motivation in my opinion.

I wonder if the figures still hold power over George and Robert once they are fully painted and they are translated fully to Equestria.

On the subject of more figures, I imagine that this shady 'Silver' character can be tracked down and... persuaded... to sell more if necessary, right?

[David Silver]

7273188 All fixed! Good luck finding that Silver guy. He's really hard to track down.

George is trying to do what's right, but will it work out?

[harts fire]

ok this is good and also a last chance out of figures now.
defiantly time to decide.

[Daremo]

7273243
From what we know of George so far, he's a good person. Whatever he ends up doing, he'll give it his best shot, and in Equestria that seems to be enough more often than not.

I just hope that Robert isn't being an unbearable ass in the time it takes George to get back to Equestria and stop him.

[StormDancer]

In all honesty, I'm more worried about what's going to happen now that there's no body to fill on the other side.

I mean, we know Twilight panic-summoned transdimensionally to try and fix things... theoretically anchored to the figures, but she had been trying to pull Aqua MK2... now we have the spell for Aqua MK2, figure #1 destroyed, figure #2 used for a non-Aqua, and only figure #3 left... still with a spell only to pull Aqua.

Heck.. we might get ghost-Aqua from Robert. We might get clone Aqua from Robert. We might get Robert re-forged as a new Aqua. We might have a critical failure of all things Robert. We might even get George popping through and only having the one body to share between himself and Robert via conservation of spell/matter/Twilight-Sciencey-magic-shenanigans. Or, we might get naughty-minded Robert breaking and entering (transdimensionally) into an emotionally charged and unstable environment where everypony thinks it's George... until he's trying to hump the natives.

Or, you know... none of the above.
I'm just glad these come out so fast.

[tsaukpaetra]

Here's to hoping Bob didn't just screw himself with a terrible paint job...

[ferret]

Oh god Bob why did you use the red and black why only the red and black