I'd Only Dream Of You

by Silent Whisper

Stranger

The unicorn mare in front of me was a pearly cerulean that complemented her seafoam coat. She knelt in front of me, trembling as far too many still did. I must have looked regally intimidating or, at the very least, reasonably well put together.

“Your Highness,” the mare began timidly, and I could see the anxiety in her daytime-sky-blue eyes. “I owe you an apology and an explanation.”

“I believe you do, Limerence, if that is, in fact, your true identity.” I ruffled my wings at my side. How Celestia sat at her throne for hours at a time during the day was beyond me. My hind leg was falling asleep and I’d only been there for a few minutes.

“It was, but not anymore, your Highness. Today I am Rip Tide, and I do not know who I will be tomorrow, but Rip Tide will most likely not be me.” She tilted her head up slightly and gave me a hesitant smile.

I almost returned it, but I struggled to wrap my head around the concept. “Most likely? Who is Rip Tide? Who was Limerence? How do I know you are the same pony? Why has your cutie mark shifted? Why-” I took a deep shuddering breath. When had I started shaking?

Rip Tide gingerly pulled herself out of the bow and sat down in front of the throne. “Why did I leave you last night?” She bit her lip. “I don’t know, Highness, and I’m sorry. I’d initially come to ask if you knew how to help me, but you were interesting to talk to and the night slipped away from me, and before I knew it, I was gone.”

I hummed. “You truly came to me for help?” That was rare. Usually, when ponies sought me out, it was because they felt my sister had made an irrational decision. Irritatingly enough, the issues they had with her rulings were never ones I found myself agreeing with, so it was delightfully novel to have somepony come to me for… me.

“Of course!” Rip Tide beamed at me as though we’d known each other for a long time. In a way, I suppose she - he? - knew me better than most any other pony bothered to try. “It happens shortly after moonset, though there have been nights where I do not switch at all. My cutie mark comes with me, and, there’s no good way to say this, but I inhabit somepony’s body.

“The one I was in returns to where it was before I woke up in it, with no memory of what occurred. The bodies of whomever I inhabited retain anything that I’ve done to them, though, and if something were to happen to me, I don’t know if I’d die, or… Well. I have no idea who each pony is when I become them, and I’ve been unable to discern a consistent pattern regarding who I become, though it is usually somepony in a small town’s radius of where I disappeared from.” She frowned. “Usually.”

“Fascinating. Presuming all that you’ve told me is true, your cutie mark is still…” I gestured for her to turn.

She stood up so quickly she nearly tripped over her own hooves. “Yes, my apologies! Here, it’s the hourglass you see here.”

It was, to the best of my recollection, exactly the one I had seen gracing Limerence’s flanks the night before. “It does appear to be the same mark. Has this always happened, Rip Tide, or do you prefer something else, or…”

“I don’t have a name,” she said softly, lost in recollections of thousands of lifetimes, “Or, to be more precise, I have never had a relatively consistent one. I spent a long time in my home village as different members of a family of doctors, but that’s the only instance I know of where I’ve been called similar things for a while…”

“Would Doctor do, then?” I interjected, trying to sound as kind and as understanding as Tia managed to during moments like these when she surely knew she was out of her league. “If you do disappear again, it would be simple to tell Captain Ferros that my Doctor is asking for me.”

“That fits as well as any other name,” my Doctor said, and I noted with a strange concern that the timidness had returned to her voice. “I can wake up as either gender, as you can see, but I do have a slight preference towards being male.” Ah, his voice, then.

I stretched on my throne as subtly as I could manage. “I appreciate the clarification, and, getting back to the subject at hoof, have you always had this condition, or is this a more recent development?” Curses were not my specialty, but I would gladly start reading up on them if they were all this intriguing!

The unicorn’s ears drooped slightly, and a part of me immediately regretted asking the question. “No, your Highness. It began when I was just a colt. My family and I had taken a vacation to the boroughs of Trottingham, and it was incredible, Highness. Everypony there lived a completely different life, and I realized that each pony was so unique, and it was such a beautiful thought…”

An uneasy feeling had grown in the pit of my stomach. “That was when you got your cutie mark, am I correct?”

My Doctor nodded mutely and stared at his flank for a moment. “It was the happiest day of my life, your Highness. My parents and I didn’t know what it meant, but I remember us coming up with wilder and wilder ideas late into the night. My father thought I would have some sort of time-telling talent, and my mother’s favorite theory was that I’d create new devices.” He swallowed noisily. “They were both wrong.”

“Wait.” I sat up in my chair, my back popping quietly from my previous poor posture. “Did you switch that morning? Did your parents not notice you were missing? Surely they saw that something was amiss, right?”

He shook his head. “No. I woke up as the butcher’s daughter halfway across Trottingham, and by the time I’d worked out where I was, they had already left for home. Perhaps with a different version of me along for the journey, I suppose. I wish I could say that I attempted to correct them, but I realized… that that wasn’t me. Whoever their son was when I awoke as somepony else, it wasn’t a pony I could guarantee becoming.”

“I would be more than happy to help find-”

“No.” The firmness in his voice startled me. Only my sister dared to speak to me like that, but my Doctor met my gaze with fierce borrowed eyes. “You can’t. Their descendents are unaware that I exist, and I’d prefer it remain that way. I refuse to be anypony’s burden but my own.”

My voice came out as more of a strangled whisper than I intended it to be. “Their descendents? Doctor-”

“My parents are dead,” He said simply, in a voice that made it clear he would accept no pity. “The pony I used to be passed away recently, which is why I felt comfortable enough to meet with you at last.” He gave me an understanding half-smile. “I appreciate your concern, Highness, but it is best to leave the past in the past.”

“Very well.” I was unsure about what else to say, and the silence in the room stretched on as I sat there, thinking. It didn’t sound like any sort of curse I could help fix, but I got the strange feeling that he wasn’t looking for any solution in particular. “I would like to see this strange teleportation, if you don’t mind.”

A tired smile flickered across my Doctor’s muzzle, and he picked himself up once more, stretching in a body that was never his to begin with. “I’d like that.”

Comments

[Wild-pegasus]

luna in first person is new for me. kinda interesting

[Doctor_Den]

this is probably the most cruel curse of immortality imaginable.