A black and white filly wakes up to a world that doesn't remember her. And with a shattered memory, neither does she.
Twilight Sparkle woke up, completely unaware of the impending problem, and poured herself a cup of coffee. There were things to do- she had a meeting to attend later, several community "events" (parties) to work out before Pinkie got her hooves on the plans, and several problems to fix among the ponies around town.
She had everything planned down to the minute detail, that is, until she finds an unconscious foal down the street from her oak library. Things aren't looking so hot anymore...
(A complete rewrite of Purple Tears, with some major changes) (don't be intimidated by the hiatus, this is just until I have time to write the next few chapters and release them weekly like I did these! Might be a while, but it'll happen I promise you <3)
A cloudy sky swirled dangerously over the library. Little spurts of rain showered the land here and there, but so far no lightning had met with the ground. Some winged creatures fought against the clouds to no avail. Nature was the higher power, after all, and had decided that no one would be stopping it today.
A similar creature to those working tirelessly outside clambered out of a messy bed. They had thin purple hair covering their body, and a darker shade that fell over their eyes. They kicked off a sheet that dared cling to their back hoof as they dragged themselves over to a stool. The equine creature had a protruding horn that began to glow dimly. A nearby hairbrush lifted itself into the air and over to the animal, and began to untangle the hair. The process... Looked painful, considering the brush had to yank out several rat nests buried deep in their mane. The tail came as an easier obstacle, and by the time the brush was done the hair cascading perfectly, not a strand out of place and cut straight- though at an angle.
"Spiiiike?" the mare called out- she had an odd high pitched voice. A rough, young voice resounded from somewhere downstairs.
"Yeah?" the voice got closer, and in a few seconds a small biped reptilian wandered into the room. There were green spikes growing on his body and a small tail with a devil's style tip.
"Think you'll be up to helping me with a few errands today? I'm up and remembering how much I need coffee now..." she mumbled in response, clearly still half asleep.
"Here's your coffee!" he erupted, removing a cup of steaming black liquid from behind his small back and handing it to twilight's magical aura.
"That was... Thanks." she muttered gratefully.
"Yeah, I took at look at your list for the day and figured you'd need it right away." the small wingless dragon shrugged as he trotted alongside his mare friend. "Um, anyways Twilight," he continued, "I can help you out with some stuff, but Rarity's gonna need me to look after Opal later."
Twilight took a large swig of her coffee before replying.
"That's fine. All I need you to do is replenish some of our groceries. I think we ran out of green apples and we're low on sugar. I have the list somewhere..."
"Well, what about you? Are you really gonna do all of that stuff today? I mean, c'mon, two meetings? Three parties to plan? One of those is in like, five months! You need to lay off for a day or something Twilight. Really!" Spike complained in a slightly humorous way. Twilight held back a smile.
"Oh, I know why you want me to "lay off". You've been eyeing that new kid's place, haven't you?" she teased. Spike's face reddened.
"Hey! I'm grown up! I don't need to play with other fillies! But... I mean if you wanna go I heard they have good pizza-"
"Spike- you know it's not bad to wanna play with other kids. You're still a kid!"
"Yeah, but I'm like, almost as old as you Twilight- I'm adult in Pony years."
"Except you're not a pony. Your brain and body grow at a much different rate than us- we're changing the subject here!" Twilight's voice rose, then broke off into a subtly giggle.
"I'll take you to Frazzy's or whatever you call it later, promise." she "ruffled" his spikes with a hoof and levitated two scrolls over to her. One was placed onto a table and the notably larger one stayed with her. Spike opened his mouth to say something before she cut him off.
"I'll be back soon!" she called over her shoulder, and walked out the door.
A black creature floated in an expanse of emptiness, conscious but... Scattered.
Two white pinpricks that seemed to function as eyes glowed dimly- it was the only thing illuminating the space-less expanse that may or may not exist. There was a subtle weight pulling down on her, so she knew he must be moving, but she didn't feel like she was. Instead of falling, her body floated in the expanse of darkness in no particular direction.
This gave her time to think. Where was she before this? What was she doing? Why was she...? Who was she? She couldn't remember her own name. It was C... Car... Drat. She hadn't the slightest idea who she was. She remembered where she was though- it was blurry. She was alone. She was afraid. She was cold... And then she got colder. And then she felt nothing.
The filly remembered finding a few new friends- she didn't remember having friends before that- and she... She remembered helping them. They were cold, too. But then, like her, they felt nothing. How did she get here?
A faint spark probed her memory. She wasn't cold anymore. She had a burn. Maybe she touched a hot stove or something? No... This burn spread across her whole body. It hurt, but it didn't at the same time. She wanted to feel warm again, but she didn't want to at the same time. There were still things she had to do. Everything was scrambled- the filly brought her hooves to her face and sobbed. Nothing came out- no sounds or tears- but the action felt like a release itself. She couldn't remember having complete control over her body.
Something did strike the filly as odd as she took in a sharp inhale. She couldn't remember... The last time she had breathed.
"Alright, that's one party plan done! And then there's two more, and that one meeting... And then Rarity mentioned a delivery. If I'd told Spike about that before I left there'd be more time to assess the problem Mayor Mare brought up..." Twilight mumbled as she trotted along the narrow path and scribbled off a few lines of the long scroll.
"After that, I have to..." she took in a slow inhale and sighed, "Schedule my free time."
Scheduling free time was such a tedious task- the purple Unicorn had grown up used to working constantly, and since she no longer had stressful and hard studies to work on, that free time felt... Wrong. It was probably unhealthy- but whatever, she was productive and that was all that mattered! She fastened her pace and headed towards Ponyville. The meeting she'd just been to had been held outside and just past the outskirts of Ponyville, where she and Zecora had discussed the possibility of Poison Joke spreading past Everfree. Having it set so far away did push back her schedule a little, but at least she had time to think by herself for a few minutes, since the path she was taking now had been long abandoned in favor of a much more reasonable and modernized route.
As she pondered what to occupy her mind with, she took notice of a large black lump in the path ahead of her. It looked like some sort of rock from far away, but the way it was positioned, it couldn't be. Twilight squinted at it as she came closer, and the realization hit her- that was a foal. A foal, laying in the middle of the road, unconscious.
Her heart quickened as she dashed for the limp pony, dropping her pen and scroll carelessly.
"H-Hey, are you okay?!" she stammered as she prodded their side lightly. There weren't any visible injuries, maybe... Maybe they just passed out here? The foal was monochromatic- they had a pale white face, but a black body. Their hooves were white, oddly enough, and they had black hair pooled over their eyes. They weren't responding, so Twilight tried lifting their mane up. Their eyes were closed, but a glance at their chest signified they were breathing peacefully. Their eyes darted around behind the lids- they seemed to be dreaming, but Twilight weighed her options and opted to wake them up anyways.
"Hey, hey wake up-" she shoved them lightly, and they shifted a bit. Their eyes opened meekly, squinting against the harsh sunlight as Twilight suddenly encompassed half of her vision. She stared straight into the foal's eyes, who weakly looked back- it should have been creepy, but with how weak they seemed it only came off as pitiful. They looked like they were trying to get up for a moment, but suddenly their breath hitched, eyes widened, and they laid still again.
Twilight stepped over the foal again to get a better look at them. To be honest, not only could she not tell how injured they might be- she couldn't even discern their sex. The foal mouthed out something with heavy breathes.
"What is it? I'm gonna get help, don't worry-"
"It hurts..." they whispered in a hoarse breathe. Their eyes began to flutter and their hooves twitched- Twilight inhale sharply.
"Hey- HEY! Stay awake! You'll be okay! Hey!" she put both hooves on the convulsing foal and watched helplessly as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Was she dead? The purple unicorn wouldn't take that for an answer. As she prepared to shock the child's heart back into motion she hesitated in time to see the chest of the black and white pony rising and falling peacefully again. She stopped charging the shock in her horn and sighed. She knew she had to get to the bottom of this today before anything worse could happen to them, and that meant everything planned for today would be completely irrelevant.
Slowly, she rose her scroll and the foal off the ground with her levitation spell, closed her eyes, and in a flash she teleported away.
"Are... Are they gonna be okay, Twilight?" a rough feminine voice asked.
"I'm not sure, to be completely honest. I think they had a seizure earlier, but I'm not sure yet. They're stable for now, though." the unicorn sighed, her mood deflating as time went on. An hour, two hours, three hours passed... And the foal hadn't woken up.
"This is gonna sound rude, but- are they a guy or a girl?" the hoarse voice hesitantly wandered across the question. It belonged to an oddly and somehow more colorful pony than Twilight- but this one bore wings and a rainbow themed mane.
"Rainbow Dash I swear, I- I... I don't know!" Twilight cried. "I don't know anything about this child!"
She realized her volume had been much too high as the foal stirred. They opened their eyes weakly, blinking as they took in their surroundings. Instead of the dry road and a blinding sun to boot, they were laying on a comfortable mattress surrounded by dim lantern lights. Two ponies stood in front of them- one they remembered from before, but only hardly. Stronger than before, they managed to sit up without much difficulty. They tried to look around, but they found their vision whirling with the slightest movement of their head. Instead, they opted to ask a question, staring away from the ponies, face covered with a hoof.
"...Wh..Ere, Am... I?" it came out a lot quieter than they'd meant for it to, but Twilight still heard.
"You're at my house. It's not much, but there aren't any nearby hospitals, and it's easier to teleport home than anywhere else." she answered as quickly as possible. Her anxiety levels were increasing as she watched the tiny foal's body for any sign of a seizure.
She continued, "My name's Twilight Sparkle. This is my friend Rainbow Dash. What's," she stopped for a second. She might have to choose her words wisely so as not to disturb the child's fragile state, "what's your name?"
The black foal lowered their hoof, curly black hair shifting in front of their eyes. "I... I'm... C-Cuh, no- I'm..." they looked at the two- Twilight's eyes widened while Rainbow cringed. The blue pegasus exchanged a glance with Twilight and elbowed her, whispering "are you sure they're okay?" Twilight shook her head and pushed Rainbow's hoof away. She must not have noticed it before.
She was clearly mentioning the foal's eyes. They were completely black- the iris, or pupil itself glowed a dim white. Their face was creased in worry as they tried to mouth out their name, not taking in the two's reactions.
"I'm... Chuh... Cha... I- I don't... Remember." they looked down at the bed, crestfallen.
"H-Hey kid, it's fine," Rainbow finally spoke up to the foal, "if you don't remember, you can like, I don't know, pick a nickname or something?"
The child seemed to mull over this suggestion as she looked out the window- or tried to- their vision swam and they forced their self to stare at the bed sheets in front of them again. After a long minute they nodded, brows creasing in a subtle determination.
"O...Oh...Kay." they managed out. Another moment passed and a cup of water materialized in front of them.
"Here. Take it slow, your throat sounds dry." Twilight ordered softly as the foal took the cup between both of their hooves. They drank it, wincing, but they still seemed thankful for the refreshment.
"Like Rainbow Dash said, you can just go by something else for now if you want. Do you have any nicknames?"
The foal didn't respond, but they smiled for a split second. It wasn't a happy smile, they were implying that any name they were called wasn't sensible- probably cute things their parents called them. Twilight then took notice of their cutie mark- it was a brown X with four white lines attached to the ends. It took her a moment, but she faintly remembered they were used to hold puppets up or something of the like.
"So, your talent... You're a puppeteer?" she asked coolly, keeping the environment inviting. The foal took a look at their flank, eyes widened, and shook their head. They put the cup down beside them on a nightstand.
"N-No. I don't... Like dolls... Much." They sniffled dryly. Confusion and subtle horror both crept onto their face. Rainbow shooed Twilight away to deal with the situation.
"Ey, that's cool- I get it. They can be sooo overrated." she stole a glance at Twilight- which flickered between her and the purple unicorn's precious plush deviously. Twilight scoffed playfully.
"So... What do ya wanna be called?" she resumed the conversation.
"I... D-Don't... I don't know." was their only response.
"Hmm," Rainbow thought about how to word her question right, "you wanna cool name like mine? Or somethin' more girly?"
"Thank you, but... I don't care." the end of the statement hitched slightly- they were about to cry. No clear answer on the gender issue yet.
"Wait, hey, please don't cry- I bet you'd sound epic with any nickname you went with."
"T-That's not it." they sobbed softly.
"Well let it be 'it' for now, alright? Hey- Look at me." Rainbow demanded as she flew in front of the bed. The black foal obliged and their wet dark eyes met her (intensely staring) blazing irises.
"You're cool, everything's cool. Repeat after me, okay? Everything's. cool." she put both of her hooves on the tiny foal's. They looked at Rainbow in confusion, but still went along with it.
"Every... Th-Thing's..."
"Cool." Rainbow added, trying to be patient.
"Okay." They said instead.
"... I'll take it." she replied, shrugging. "Now, you're cool. C'mon kid, please- we can't call you 'kid' forever." she pleaded.
"I..." the foal looked at their cutie mark. She glared at it momentarily, but eventually sighed in defeat. "... String Play. Call me... That."
"String Play? Alright, cool! Sounds awesome!" Rainbow patted her on the back a bit too hard, but they accepted the sentiment all the same. Twilight stepped up beside her as the blue pegasus flew away some.
"Hey, that's great! We're making progress, see? How about I fix you lunch or something, huh?" she suggested cheerfully. String Play didn't answer immediately, but did nod slightly. The unicorn smiled and walked away, tugging at Rainbow's wing with her magic, and the two disappeared past the frame of the doorway.
"What is it?" the cyan equine asked, though about a million possibilities popped into her head.
"Look at their eyes! Wait no- just look at them!" she whispered urgently. Rainbow sighed and nodded along.
"I know. She or he, er- they look wrong! Not... In a 'dragged through the dumpster' way but... Still." she waved her hooves around sporadically. The purple unicorn continued as she poured water into a pot and put it on the stove.
"Something's troubling them, but I'm not sure how to help them."
"Twilight- I got a name out of 'em, and you're sooo much better with this kind of stuff than me- I'm too rough!" the rainbow maned pegasus sat on a wooden stool. The whole room was carved out of a giant oak tree- to Rainbow's dismay nothing interested existed in here but Spike and Twilight's pet owl. Everything else was all... Nerdy.
"I know, I know, but..." Twilight Sparkle began to murmur to herself as she plopped tea bags into the pot and let it begin to boil. She moved onto opening a can of soup.
"Maybe if you like, I don't know, play with them or something they'll open up more! There's this place that opened up down the roa-"
"Frazzy's Friendly Pizza?" Twilight asked, doubt leaking into her voice heavily.
"No- Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria! Geezus Twilight, I thought you would've took Spike to that place already!" Rainbow laughed. It sounded forced.
"Well, it only just opened, and I was really busy today. Or, I was going to be- anyways. I might try taking her over there." she pretended not to hear the strain in Rainbow's voice. Instead, she took the pot off the stove and poured it into a small pitcher along with some sugar.
"Well, you should take them. Just... I don't know, be careful okay? I've heard a few shady things about the company that runs that place." the pegasus added cautiously. Twilight stopped and gave her a raised eyebrow.
"Now why would you recommend someplace and then tell me something like that?" she asked. The soup was about done, and the tea was ready to be poured into individual cups.
"W-Well, I'm not saying I'm scared or anything! It's just, there are spooky rumors, and then there are just... Dark ones. And this place is full of the latter, aight?" Rainbow argued back immediately. "Anyways, I think it'd be a great place to take them. Maybe they'll open up more th- there..." she didn't finished her sentence. The black foal shambled into the room slowly- they were eying the two ponies warily. After a moment they closed their eyes and sighed.
Almost as if embarrassed they muttered, "I got hungry."
Twilight giggled cheerily. "Great! Cause I made tea- and the soup is almost done. You don't seem sick, but I think we're better off eating it right now anyways."
The foal nodded slightly and clambered onto the couch. Twilight levitated a stool over in front of them and placed a cup of tea there.
"Are you feeling alright?" Rainbow piped up, trying to break the stale anxiety wafting around the room.
"I think." they shrugged in response. Rainbow nodded swiftly, then began to fumble around with her hooves.
"Sooo... String Play," Twilight tried the name out, hoping they didn't mind, "where do you live? We should get you back home as soon as possible. Your parents are probably worried sick about you."
String Play didn't move, didn't look up, and almost didn't breathe. They shuddered slightly, however.
"I..." they thought for a moment. "...I didn't live."
Rainbow had already left by the time String Play was done eating the soup. They hardly acknowledged the pegasus as she left, but she didn't seem to mind. She bid Twilight good luck and was back on her way to fighting off the clouds- which without her lookout had decided to form a small shower over Sugarcube Corner.
Twilight sat down beside String Play with her own bowl of soup. It was time to initiate proper conversation- and she had a feeling they knew what the kinds of things she was going to ask. It wasn't a good idea to pressure a child into talking, but after their last sentence she figured patience could be mostly done away with and the talking could come now. Not that she thought this was a good idea, however.
"String Play, I've only enough knowledge for a minor in Psychology, but I can tell you're not okay. Please talk to me." she started the conversation about as casually as she could at that moment. She had the thought that her soup was going to go untouched.
"I'm... I'm okay. Everything's okay." they muttered.
"What happened before you passed out on the street?"
"Nothing. No, I mean, I don't- I didn't pass out on the street...I don't know." they winced, bringing a hoof up to their forehead.
"O-Oh, okay then. We'll try small, who are your parents? I know everyone in Ponyville, so I'm sure we can find them." Twilight changed the subject quickly. She didn't want to upset them before she found out something that could help.
"I didn't... Live in Ponyville... I don't remember..." they clutched their head with both hooves. A pang of guilt rushed over the purple unicorn.
"Hey hey, it's alright. If you don't remember you don't have to try to force yourself. Just tell me what you do remember."
"I... Okay. I was outside... I think." they said softly, their face contorting into a crease. "I... It was cold- no, it was wet. It was... Raining! And... It was sometime after uh... Um... Nightmare N-Night." they nodded, happy with their statement. A slow smile spread across their face as they looked at Twilight. "It was my friend's birthday party!"
Twilight had an influx of multiple emotions at once. Both proud and confusion settled into her gut, a sinking feeling weighing down her pride. String Play could remember something! But what she remembered baffled her.
"String Play... Did this happen recently?"
They nodded as hard as they could without getting a headache.
"Mmhmm... Everything after that is blurry, but... That... Sounds right." they smiled- they must be remembering the party.
"But... Nightmare Night is in a couple days."
Their smile faltered. They opened their mouth to say something but stopped, then tried again and nothing came out.
"What... Do you mean?"
"I mean, well, Nightmare Night hasn't happened yet this year." they both processed that information slowly.
"What... Year is it?" they finally asked, scared of the answer. Twilight could only imagine what horrible ideas they were getting from this. She had a few of her own- what if this foal hit their head so far they lost some of their memory?
After a few drawn out minutes of silence, Twilight answered String Play.
"It's 1987."
"..." String Play froze. Their pupils (or irises) shrunk. "But... It was 1987 then."
They began to cry almost immediately. "W-Why is this h-happening to me?!" they dug their face into their hooves, sobbing sloppy wet tears.
"It's okay- it's okay! Hey, String Play, listen to me," Twilight put both hooves on their shoulders.
"One time, a while back, I went back in time! Now," she reminded herself they probably had the year simply mixed up, "nothing bad happened. In fact, nothing happened! When I went back to the present, everything was normal. I was worried over nothing!" she explained quickly. String Play soaked this in, her child mind piecing together what she meant.
"It's just... Something's not r-right. There... There were things that happened... Afterwards." they countered eventually.
"Do you remember what kinds of things?" Twilight asked lightly. She wasn't going to pressure the foal into anything else, just in case.
"Y-Yeah, sorta? There was... I was outside, I was going to the party... And..." Twilight could tell they were thinking hard about it, "And t-then it got cold. It was raining. It got c-colder. And then... I didn't feel anything. I wasn't h-happy... Something bad happened." they looked at Twilight with a newfound pain in their eyes. "I'm sorry. I don't know wh-what happened."
"No, it's fine. You did great- we're getting somewhere, right? How about your friend's birthday party. Where was it?"
"Um- Oh! It was at that place- why can't I remember it? It was... Uh... It was fun! And colorful! And I went there a lot! There were characters that sung for us, and... My friend's... Dad did stuff for the company? Or something...?" they offered.
"So, what you're saying is your friend's father worked for the company? Hey- that's great! That means we can find your friend and your parents faster," Twilight patted them on the back. "Now, was this place perhaps Friendly Fazbeers Pizzeria?"
"Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! Yeah! W-Well, there was this other place, too, but... I don't think that was where her birthday was at, so yeah!" String Play practically glowed.
"You did great, String Play! Now, it might not be the same one, but a Freddy Fr...Fazbear's Pizza opened up just down the road. Do you wanna go and see if your friend's there?" the unicorn offered.
"Oh, yes please!" they exclaimed gleefully, a newfound energy rushing through them. They leaped off the couch, soup and tea gone, and bounded over to the door. There was a limp in their step, but they did well enough and seemed oblivious to it. Twilight gathered her satchel and stuffed a notepad in there- just in case.
The two headed out through the door- maybe, just maybe today would be productive after all.
As the two trotted down the road happily, String Play seemed to take a few unhealthy long glances at the sun.
"It's been... So long since I saw the sun... It's so warm." they said slowly.
"What do you mean? Do you live somewhere where the sun doesn't come out much?" Twilight asked, whipping out her notepad immediately.
"Not... Really? I'm not sure. It's all blurry." they responded carelessly, still enraptured by the burning light.
"Well, if you keep staring like that you're going to hurt your eyes." the unicorn stated simply. String Play looked away and immediately recoiled, scrunching up their nose.
"I'm seeing lights!" they complained.
"I told you." Twilight snickered. As they rounded the corner of a street a large brown and white building came into view. It was painted with various characters- all of them were a mix between pony and their respective animal, and a few things like balloons and cake covered the spaces between the larger murals. There was a string of lights wrapped around the building, and large tinted windows set in place so that the blaring lights inside couldn't disturb the outside. Two sliding doors were positioned at an extension in one of the walls at the corner of the street. You couldn't miss this building if you tried.
String Play bounded up to the building, forcing Twilight to rush after them. For a young and probably injured creature they seemed to sprint as fast as Rainbow Dash
"H-Hey! Wait for me!" she called out. The foal hardly caught her words, but did relax their pace a little.
"I know you're excited, but- Ack!" as the unicorn caught up to String Play, her eyes closed as she caught her breath, she collided with an incoming pony and nearly fell, stumbling back. She put a hoof over her snout, which burned after being ran into. A lavender colored stallion shuffled awkwardly in front of Twilight momentarily as he regained his balance. He had awfully dark circles under his eyes, which themselves were clouded over purple disks. He glanced at Twilight, realized who he'd ran into, but did his best to hide it as he stammered an apology and rushed past. "I-I'm sorry, please excuse me." he had a thick accent, but it was hard to recognize with how quickly he spoke at that moment.
"O-Oh it's fine, ah-" and he was gone. She'd noticed the horn on his head, and just assumed he was in such a rush that teleporting was necessary.
"That was weird." she muttered to herself. String Play came rushing back.
"M-Miss? Are you alright?" they asked. Miss? Had they already forgotten her name?
"Uh, you can just call me Twilight. And yeah, my nose hurts, but I'll be fine. Let's go in!" she changed the subject as they walked up to the door. It opened on its own to reveal an overload of lights flashing about the ceiling. There was a small area for a line with a red carpet placed down, and some poles with matching fabric between them to connect the zigzagging line. With only three or so families ahead, Twilight let herself take in the full scenery.
In front to their right was a large plastic stage with three large robots on it, all doing stiff movements and "singing" to a joyful children's song. Right ahead of them was a very large space filled with long tables and decorative balloons, banners, and posters. A hallway was located at the far end at the right of the room, and to the left was a carousel and an assortment of arcade machines. A small plastic foal stood in the middle giving out balloons. She couldn't see quite was in the wall on Twilight's side of the room (as she wasn't close enough to peak over the wall) but she did see a large group of fillies and colts rush to her left, implying there was more to see.
She wasn't gonna lie, being in a place as full of joy as this made even her rational adult outlook on things buzz giddily, like she was a little filly about to jump into a ball pit. Today- she was certain- could not be bad, despite the big disruption in her plans. Not matter what, today would be great, and she would help this foal- she would fix this problem.
"Next, please!" a chocolate mare called out. Twilight realized with a jolt she was first in line.
"O-Oh hi, uh, do I have to pay, or-"
"Not at all! We get enough with the food and arcade games." the mare stepped out of the way to let the two through.
"We just put a colored band on everyone that comes in together- so that we can make sure they leave together!" she handed both Twilight and String Play pink bands, which they put on. "Enjoy your time!" she called out, turning back around to attend to the other incoming guests.
"Alright, so, do you see your friend?" Twilight asked as they slowly made their way towards the stage. String Play looked around the crowd of kids, then shook their head.
"Uh-uh." they replied.
"You... Do remember what she looks like, right?"
"Yeah, I do! She's super pale, and- and... She's got red hair!" they emphasized the hair with a swoosh of their hooves over their head. "You can't miss her!"
"Alright- that's wonderful. Now I can look for her too," the purple mare nodded, "do you know where she likes to play? I mean, does she prefer the robots or the games?"
"Oh-uh-well, uh... Um..." String Play thought about how to say something, or maybe they were trying to remember things again. "We... Didn't use to go to a place like this. It was... There were only two actors. And then there was another place, but it was kind of... I don't... I think it just wasn't as fun. It wasn't as happy as the two actors place."
"The two actors place- you mean there were other pizzeria's than this one? With different characters?"
"I think so, sort of! B-But I think remember going here... I think. Yeah. It was here. I... Didn't go for long? Maybe I went back in time then." they responded thoughtfully, happy with their answer.
"Hmm, that would connect the lines... So do you remember going to the party? Or when it was exactly?"
"Oh, uh, I don't remember actually going... But I did go to a party, or I had a party... It's really messy. Her birthday is the second of September! But... Because of school we had it on Nightmare Night."
"You can really remember your friend's information, but not your own, huh..." Twilight rolled the incoming info around in her head as she wrote it down in the notepad. String Play seemed to have a good knowledge about their friend, but even they themselves couldn't remember their own name. Maybe they were such close friends that it just worked that way, but Twilight had a few doubts about it being as simple as that.
"Oh! What's your friend's name?" she asked, realizing she'd never gotten it.
"It's Cherry Doll! I just call her Liz though. She... I think she liked... Uh- Foxy!" they answered excitedly and bounded towards the arcade machines. To the left was an opening with open curtains that read "Foxy's Pirate Cove", and inside Twilight could see foals of all shapes and sizes surrounding something. As she and String Play got closer she observed exactly what it was- a pile of tangled wires, nuts and bolts, and distorted joints with no sensible connection. The only recognizable features was that of the hybrid dog ponies face- white with pastel pink cheeks and lips and fluttery eyelashes. One of her eyes were missing- Twilight looked over to a colt who'd gotten a hold of it and was tossing it like a ball. She winced.
"U-Uh, Liz? Liz!" String Play shouted. No one paid her any mind. Noticing how small String Play was (they were a few inches under the average height of the foals in the room), Twilight enveloped her in her magic and rose them above the children.
"See her?" she asked as she looked herself. They shook their head, "nope."
"We'll go check in the dining area. Was she here today, er, that day- you know what I mean." the unicorn attempted to explain, but she knew it would only complicate things further. String Play nodded.
"Yep. We both come to the pizza place every day!"
"Every... Single day?"
"Yep!"
"That's... Okay." Twilight jotted it down in the notepad and joined the foal in the larger room again. Cherry Doll's father did work here apparently, after all. Did String Play's...? She wrote that down, too.
The two spent a good fifteen minutes scouring the place for Cherry Doll, with no reward. She didn't seem to be anywhere- Twilight herself couldn't see any particularly pale ponies- at least not any with flashy red hair. She had the thought that she might be in the hallways, but a sign in front read 'RESERVED FOR PARTIES' so she didn't dare ask. If Cherry Doll's father worked here though, he had to be around somewhere...
"Hey'a! Wanna play?" a blue colt ran up to String Play, his curly hair bouncing as he rapidly approached them. They recoiled in surprise and turned around to look at him- he saw their eyes and skidded to a halt.
"...Wow. Guys, come here!" he waved his other friends over. Oh no. A sudden familiar fear washed over String Play- they'd been through this before. Don't mock me. Four other ponies came running up and surrounded her. Twilight got no sense of hostility from them, so she didn't intervene.
"Whoa!" the brown one, stockier and taller than the rest gaped at string Play. Why were they so suddenly engulfed in their eyes? Was their something in them?
"You look... Awesome!" a reddish oak toned one spoke up. He was the furriest, second tallest, and definitely a mix between bat and earth pony. He had a fanged smile that poked out of his mouth. The phrase shocked the black and white foal in front of them. Awesome? That was surely... An unexpected response.
"Th...Thanks?" they stuttered, rubbing a hoof on their leg shyly.
"Oh- right! We're playing a game, and you didn't look busy- wanna play with us?" the blue one continued.
"Um," they looked up at Twilight, who nodded and winked, and then back to the group, "o-okay."
"Great! Lemme explain it to ya," the youngest and smallest one piped up. She was a creamy yellow pegasus with curly golden hair. "We're pretending to be the animaltronics-"
"Animatronics" the brown one corrected.
"Hmph- the animetronics, and we've gotta catch this boy!" she wrapped a hoof around a slightly taller colt's neck. He was a pale blue unicorn with dark blue hair- similar to but not quite like the other blue colt. He smiled sheepishly, slinking back away from the filly.
"See, I'm Chica, Bronze Song is- oh wait, this is Bronze Song, Lyric Muse, Ruby Risk-"
The bat pony was Ruby Risk, the stocky chocolate colt Bronze Song, the first blue colt Lyric Muse, the pegasus filly herself was Bright Light- and the small blue foal was Badge Gleam.
"And you are...?" she prompted the black foal.
"Oh! Uh, my name's... Uh... Ch..." they stammered. They knew their name started with a C, but... "I'm String Play."
"String Play? That reminds me... Oh! You look just like the Puppet!! Guys! We have a puppet! Do you mind playing the Puppet?" Bright Light asked quickly.
"...Who?" they asked meekly. It sounded familiar, but puppets existed everywhere, so of course the word would be recognizable.
"Let me show you," the oldest one chipped in, pushing Bright Light out of the way and leading String Play across the room. There was a large doorway that Twilight and they had overlooked- it wasn't too recognizable though. Inside was a counter stocked full of plushies of the characters- including what looked like older versions (every character here had rosy cheeks, some of the plushies didn't)
A giant box sat at the end of the room, tucked into the corner the counter made as it connected into the wall. It was closed right now, but a metal pipe was protruding out of the blue and pink present. All around were posters of the other animatronics- none of the one in the box surprisingly.
"I guess it went back in. It's popular and all, but it can't give gifts to everyone. It runs out sometimes," the brown colt explained. He trotted up and tapped the box with his hoof. Nothing.
"Maybe it's just tired?" Bright Light suggested.
"C'mon now," Bronze Song replied passively, "you know it's just a puppet."
"A-And?! It might get lonely and sad- we should give it something as a gift!" the idea was in her head now, and an exasperated expression quickly spread across Bronze's face.
"No, look- it goes through these cycles where the box has to be restocked so it can give out more gifts, remember? Cher-" before he could finish his sentence, the present box lids blew open. Everyone stopped and stepped back to witness the event, forgetting about the argument.
A nearly flat mask inched out of the box smoothly, slowly. There were black holes for eyes, squinted and cunning, and the same rosy cheeks thrown onto its plastic face. A long, disturbing smile ran from cheek to cheek indefinitely. It looked around the group of ponies, and without moving its horrid mouth it spoke in an soft tone that echoed. "Do we have more children to give gifts to today? What a wonderful surprise!" it said cheerfully. It had a male voice and short fake curly black hair to match its plush flesh. String Play noticed the metal beam from the box was attached to its neck.
Then it focused on her, locking eyes with each other (or lack thereof, in the puppet's case) and tilted its head.
"My, my! You're a pretty one!" it stated, and then made a clicking sound and 'perked' up. "Oh! I'm certain I have a gift here for all of you little dearies." it fell rather messily back into the box as it 'searched' for gifts.
Bronze Song gave them all a confused reaction. String Play was simply frozen. They didn't really know what they looked like (having hardly a memory of themselves), but the puppet themselves spoke such a familiarity to them that it scared them. They remembered their cutie mark- maybe they spent a lot of time with the puppet? Maybe there was one at one of the other places they and Cherry Doll went to. Maybe... They actually liked dolls? No- they strictly remembered not being very happy about dolls in general- except one or two they got from... It went blurry again.
"Wow, String Play looks just like them!" Lyric Ruse whispered to Bright Light, who nodded. He seemed to shake a bit around the puppet however.
"Well obviously, just look at he- eh, them, uh..." she replied, happy with her observation, and then stumbled over her sentence.
"Um, String Play?" she walked up to them and asked, "You're a girl, right?"
"Uh, yeah, I think so." they responded seriously. Bright Light was going to laugh, but the tone in their voice made it seem like they weren't joking.
"Oh. Uh... Cool! You and me are the only ones then," she wrapped a wing around her for a second before taking them back as the puppet pony flashed back out of the box with a bunch of small boxes in its hooves. It struggled to hold them all in its hooves.
"My, My! I seem have a few gifts left!" it recited some piece of a long script, and awaited one of the foals. Bronze Song hesitantly walked up to it first, eyeing it cautiously the whole time. The puppet twisted its head to look down at them.
"Oh, such a pretty pony! I have just the gift for you," it nosed out one of the boxes and Bronze Song caught it as it fell.
"Oops! I suppose I'm a bit clumsy now, hehe," it laughed mechanically, and when Bright Light and Lyric Muse trotted up (the blue one hesitantly), "here's a gift for you, one for you," the boxes landed in their hooves. String Play partially knew it was fake and reading off of prerecorded dialogue, but it sounded so... Natural.
"Here's your gift, yours, and... One for you, dearie." it plopped the remaining gifts into Ruby Risk, Badge Gleam, and finally, String Play's hooves. She eyed the box warily, but ultimately decided it couldn't be harmful. She loved this place after all!
Everyone focused on opening their boxes. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, String Play- the puppet has this sort of color code it uses when picking out gifts, so don't be surprised if you get something similar to you. I got a Toy Freddy pin yesterday." Bronze Song explained. He must have noticed her silence.
"Oh cool! I got one of Chica's feathers!" Bright Light cried gleefully as she tucked it behind her ear immediately. Bronze Song sighed, probably considering explaining to her somepony would just pluck a few of their own, but decided against it. Everyone got something- Ruby Risk an eyepatch, Bronze Song a brown bow tie, Lyric Muse a little hair clip with stars on it, and Badge Gleam a little flashlight. They were all odd things- the employees probably just stuffed random junk in there, figuring the kids would be none the wiser.
String Play opened their box slowly, subtly apprehensive. They almost thought they might find a puppet inside, but when they looked in there was nothing. Nothing but a green hoof band, not unlike the pink one she wore now.
"Uh... Did I get the right gift?" she asked, half to herself. Ruby and Bronze trotted over and looked inside.
"That's uh... Weird," the red bat pony commented. The other pony agreed. "Look, you can uh, have my eyepatch if you want- I got a treasure map yesterday-"
"O-Oh, no, it's fine! I didn't really even expect to get a gift today- I'll just slip it on and we can go play!" she waved away the offer- Foxy had never been her favorite anyways. She couldn't remember who had though... But that would come later. She may have had a blotchy memory to solve, but she was still a little kid and didn't have the capacity to shove off the tease of a game.
"So, what are we playing?" she asked as she met up with the group. Badge Gleam spoke up this time.
"R-Right! So e-everyone is a- I mean- pretends to be an animatronic, right? And y-you gotta like, catch me! B-But you can't cheat," he gave a daring glance at Bright Light, who snickered, "and e-everyone is a different animatronic. Like, it's probably o-obvious but- but Bright is Toy Chica, Bronze is Freddy, and- Bright already explained this..."
"It's fine! I pretty much forgot by now, I don't think she finished anyways."
"Oh, o-okay! Well, Ruby insists on being Foxy (but he's really Mangle), and Lyric is Toy Bonnie. I-I have to be the night guard and uh, keep you guys away. Um, if I look at you- er- shine this flashlight now, I guess, then you have to go back where y-you started." he managed to stammer out the explanation. "Since you look like the puppet, y-you could, uh, yeah..." he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
String Play could sense the tension building and decided to fight it.
"Hey, that sounds cool! So... I'll just, sit here, and... I don't know, after a while just, try to get you?" she sat back on her haunches and Badge nodded nervously.
"P-Pretty much." he rubbed the back of his neck.
"You better run, Nightguard!" Lyric piped up as he, Bright, and Bronze all headed out of the prize corner and over to their respective animatronics.
"mm, good luck String Play." Ruby Risk bid her goodbye as he headed left outside the door and took his position, eye patch on and ready to go. String Play let herself be immersed in the game as much as possible. The soft melodic tune that wafted around the Prize Corner reached the black and white filly's ears for the first time and she let herself be distracted by it. This would be at least an okay day, she knew, and if she was lucky she would catch Cherry Doll here too.
String Play had resigned to sitting near the entrance to the Prize Corner for the time being. This was a game about tag, with a twist, right? She was supposed to be scary, and the scariest way she could imagine being was to bide her time wisely and leap when the boy least expected it. So she waited patiently. A red blur darted past her- most definitely Ruby Risk- and before she knew it he had galloped up to her.
He cleared his throat as she turned her attention to him, expecting a greeting. A cough and tap on his throat later, and he began to speak in the most cliche pirate accent ever achieved by a high pitched foal. "Y-Yar, matey! Still haven' lef' yet?"
String Play couldn't help herself and let out a giggle. Ruby Risk wasn't sure whether to be thankful or offended.
"Nope! I think Badge Gleam is gonna be super nervous at first, and everyone is else is probably gonna try to get him right away, right?" she explained, and Ruby Risk nodded along. "Well, he's probably gonna get so focused on them that he forgets I'm playing! Hopefully." she added with a deflating laugh. Ruby tapped his chin in thought for a second, and then brightened.
"Yeah, yeah I see what you mean! You know- I mean, ye know we ne'er explained it to ya, but we all got our quirks in the game. Badge has ta hide under a table, cause we can't go into the party hall when our friend's not 'ere, so we all agreed ta attack on differen' sides, and come after 'em different an' stuff. C'mon, I'll show ye!" his pirate impersonation as thick as he could make it, he led String Play towards the bunch of tables. Because of his excitement, she let him drag her along, his little bat wings flapping wildly.
"Oh! You said you have different ways of getting Badge Gleam, do you like... Fly or something?"
This seemed to hit a nerve in Ruby, but he tried not to show it. Irritation leaked into his voice slightly, however.
"Nah. I don' need these lil' flappers! They... They ain' any help anyways." his head hung downwards slightly, and String Play immediately regretting asking.
"O-Oh, hey, I'm sure they'll grow big one day, and then you can fly wherever you want!" she chipped optimistically.
"No, it ain't gonna happen. I... I-"
"Hey, it's fine. You don't need wings, you're cool on your own!" String Play interrupted Ruby. He gave her a crooked smile as they finally reached the set of tables. Badge immediately swiped a hoof out from underneath a table and flashed Ruby with a bright light- he ignored the colt and went on explaining the set up of the game.
"Ye see here, lass, tha' land lubber needs ta be caught!" he pointed to the colt, winked at String Play, and dashed off as he was flashed again. The black filly stayed for a moment longer before nodding and trotting back to the Prize Corner. She had been caught, after all. It seemed like an odd game to play, but... She could see the logic behind it. It was actually awfully familiar to another game(?) she was familiar with, but the name of it escaped her.
She sat in the Prize corner for a good five minutes before Twilight trotted up to her, a look of concern plastered onto her purple face.
"H-Hey, are you alright? You've just been... Standing there." she nudged the small filly, who brightened up immediately.
"Oh! Yeah, I'm playing a game of tag, but I gotta make sure Badge Gleam doesn't think I'll come! Or, something like that. Sorry I haven't found Cherry Doll yet..." they scuffed the ground with a tiny hoof. The purple unicorn simply shrugged it off.
"It's fine! No worries, really. I'm just glad you're having fun!" she smiled brightly, and then noticed the puppet. She glanced between String Play and the Puppet several times.
"So, Stringy... Are you related to this? I thought you hated puppets." she recalled, noticing the obvious similarities. Especially in the eyes, which Twilight regretted to admit she kept avoiding to look at.
"Nope! I don't remember, Liz's dad made them, so maybe this one was based off me, but... I don't think so."
Twilight jotted down more notes into her small book. "Well then, another thing to ask about when we find your friend. Oh, and hey, don't worry about looking for her, okay?" the unicorn placed a hoof onto the filly's shoulder, "she might not even be here today. And since you're with me you'll be fine, no matter what."
"Thanks, Twilight." String Play responded softly. For some unknown reason she felt the sting of tears blotting her eyesight, but she managed to keep it back. It was just a nice gesture, surely she got plenty of those all the time! Twilight seemed content with the conversation and wondered past String Play to see the puppet up close. Considering the time spent, the filly decided this had been enough of a wait and grinned at Ruby as he paced back towards his "stage", or the opening of Mangle's cove. She had this, a game like this couldn't be hard. She knew she'd never played tag like this before, yet the rules of the game seemed so... Natural.
She stayed hidden behind most ponies, and if she turned her head the white splotch on her face was invisible to Badge Gleam. He was scampering to different tables, furiously shining the light on the likes of Lyric and Bright, who squealed as they rushed away.
Good. His attention was directed completely away from String Play. That would make things easy... She wove in and out of the parents, her hooves tapping against the cool tile floor silently. She quivered with anticipation- why was she so excited? A familiar tune began to faintly flow into her ears- she recognized it as the tune from the Prize Corner. So elegant and haunting... She snapped back into reality. What was that?
Oh well- with a shrug she dropped down and crawled towards Badge Gleam slowly. Just a few more moments... Badge Gleam was so intensely focused on the incoming "Freddy" that he didn't even realize String play was already under the table, smugly grinning. She held both hooves up to scare him, but opted instead for:
"I win." it had worked, judging by the incoherent screaming erupting from the "security" colt. He scrambled back, shined the light on her, but then let out a long defeated sigh. After a few seconds he began giggling.
"Wow, y-you're really good!" he got up and put out a hoof. String Play shook it, nodding with a small bright smile.
"But if we got to play in the halls, I'm t-telling you I would have t-totally won." he shot a daring smile at her, before they both exited from underneath the table. The rest of the players slowly gathered when they realized that the game was over. Ruby dashed over to String Play immediately.
"Wow! I saw the whole thing, that was really cool! You're like, like a shadow ninja or something!" he praised her.
"Thanks! I just really like tag and hide and seek though." String replied lightly. Bronze Song was the last to join them, a look of modest surprise on his face to find their newest friend had won the game. Over the next few hours the group didn't do much more than run around some and get to know String Play better. They'd learned about her amnesia (not the time travel yet), and in return they told her more about the place and their other friend.
"Yeah, she's usually here, but when she isn't we can't go into the hallway over there." Bronze explained as he pointed to a brightly lit hall by the arcade area. The black filly nodded.
"She should be here soon, though!" Bright Light chirped, but Lyric shook his head.
"Not really. She said she'd be gone almost all day, what with Nightmare Night coming up." he explained softly.
"What does that have to do with it?" the yellow filly asked quickly.
"Well, we do need time to make our costumes, of course!" Ruby pitched in cheerily.
"Oooh, right."
"We probably won't see her today. I have to leave soon anyways, actually. My cousin is in town for a little while and I've gotta spend time with him!" Bronze replied.
"Why can't he just come here?" again, the golden haired child asked.
"Oh, c'mon Bright Light. It's not that bad. She'll be here tomorrow and we can play all day!" Lyric slung a hoof around the tiny pegasus' shoulder.
"R-Right! Well, how long do you have, Bronze Song?"
"Just a few more minutes, tops. My mo-"
"Bronze Song!"
"-oh." he deadpanned. Bright Light sighed, but still had a bounce in her step as she jumped over and reached up to tightly squeeze Bronze's neck in a hug. "See you tomorrow then, Bronzy!" she chipped happily.
"I suppose if Bronze is gone then... Maybe we should head back too?" Lyric suggested. Ruby nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, probably! I haven't eaten supper yet, and I don't think I can live off pizza my whole life." he scuffed the ground absently, but otherwise showed no signs of feeling bad about leaving. Bright Light huffed.
"Alriiiight. I could totally eat cheese pizza for the rest of my life though!"
"You can't just eat plain pizza! That's horrible!" Ruby recoiled.
"Pineapple pizza is worse!" Bright shot back with equal force. Ruby paused, thinking, but eventually shrugged.
"Touche." he grinned. String Play didn't know what that meant, but she decided to ignore it as she followed them.
"Oh! Hey, what's your guy's favorite anyways?" Bright looked over her shoulder. Lyric's face lit up at the attention, but he scrunched up his nose.
"I'm not actually a huge fan of pizza. I prefer cheese, though." he mumbled shyly. Bright nodded in fierce agreement.
"How about you, String?" her shortening of String Play's name through her off, but she didn't mind.
"I think... Uh... Maybe- oh."
The whole group stopped. Bronze was already gone, and Badge Gleam must have scampered off as well without a goodbye. String Play thought it was odd, but the rest of the kids didn't seem to pay much attention to it- maybe it was normal of them. In front of the gang now was a bright white pegasus with golden freckles and hair. She smiled down at Bright Light calmly.
"Ready to go?" she asked smoothly. Bright Light buzzed happily.
"I guess! Oh!! Mom, wait! Lemme show you my new friend!" she dragged the pony's leg as Lyric made way for her to move over to String Play. The black filly shuffled awkwardly.
"H-Hi." she muttered.
The mare gasped, but it wasn't one of surprise.
"Wow, really? That's so good sweetie! What's your name?" she held out a hoof to the small child. They gingerly shook it. Being in the presence of an adult stranger suddenly frightened them, but they weren't sure why.
"I-I'm String P-Play." she looked into the adult mare's eyes. There was no recoil or surprise. String Play didn't know what she looked like, but it was nice for someone not to react for once.
"You're such a cute little thing! I'm so glad Brighty here got to make another friend- please, feel free to come by any time! I have to work all day, so I let her hang out here a lot with her buddies." she smiled comfortingly, then added, "by the way, my name is Gold Fleece, but you can call me whatever you like. Most of Bright's friends have settled with mom, hehe. C'mon sweetie!" she turned and left, and Bright bounced after her as she waved goodbye to her friends.
All that was left was Lyric Muse, Ruby Risk, and String Play now.
"I... Have homework to do, so I should probably go..." Lyric mumbled. String Play tilted her head. Ruby took notice and looked at Lyric, something passed through their eye contact and caused Lyric to widen his eyes.
"Oh! Yeah, I'm in uh... Advanced classes. With kids like... Two or so years older than me..." he shied away awkwardly. The colt clearly wasn't very comfortable bragging, so String Play stepped up beside him and held out a hoof. She made a mental note; he likes attention, but not the spotlight. Neat.
"That's neat! I'll see you tomorrow then," he took her hoof and shook it, looking pleased to be done with with the conversation.
"R-Right! I'll see you tomorrow!" he gave her a bright, albeit nervous smile, and galloped off. Ruby and String Play trotted back towards the entrance. The crimson pony gave a wave in the air with his eyepatch as he smiled daringly.
"Well! I be needin' ta get back!" he burst into laughter, and the black filly did the same, albeit softer.
"Well, alright! I promise I'll be here tomorrow!" she hugged him, surprising the little bat pony. She let go when she could feel him squirming a bit, but he didn't let the shock show on his face.
"I'll see you tomorrow!" he rushed off, runt wings flapping uselessly. An odd feeling struck String Play- she could have swore she knew someone that acted the same way when... Oh well, the thought was gone.
Satisfied with today, String Play headed off towards the Prize Corner. Twilight Sparkle was currently inspecting the entrance to the cove with the white fox animatronic, but made no move to enter. The purple unicorn turned to go into the prize room before noticing the incoming filly and smiled.
"Hey, String Play! Have you gotten any luck yet?"
"Mm, no, not really. I'm not too worried 'cause Liz will be here sometime this week, but I'm scared my parents are worried sick." she replied, cheerfully, but the sentence tapered off with uncertainty.
Twilight patted her back. "Hey, it's alright. I'm glad you had fun though! I saw you playing," she admitted with a nervous chuckle, "I'm sure we'll see your parents soon! Missing foals isn't common at all, and with everything being the way it is we'd have better luck here- I mean, I'm sure we'll run into someone you know! By the way, I've been meaning to ask... Do you remember anything about your parents?"
String Play stopped and tilted her head. Did she? Maybe a faint color or sound, a phrase perhaps? What was her mother like? Her father? Now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember a lick of anything about her mom, but her dad was... It was a rush of everything and nothing. String Play couldn't pull apart the colors from the thoughts and shapes, the facts and memories from her imagination. She let out a frustrated sigh and shook her head.
"No, not yet." she stated simply. Twilight nodded, absently jotting down some scribbles in her notebook.
"That's fine. Are you ready to go? I hadn't thought about it, but we haven't eaten since we got here!" the violet mare chipped, changing the subject in two seconds. String Play nodded and bounced.
"Yeah!! Now that I think about it, I'm starving! What are good places around here to eat?" she asked excitedly as the two exited the prize corner and walked towards the entrance. Twilight hummed thoughtfully.
"Well, not much, but... There is this one sweets store called Sugarcube Corner." she gave the filly a smug grin, who almost returned it, had something else not caught her eye.
"Yeah, that sounds gre..." her sentence trailed off. She was staring across the room, towards the stage. On it was the expected sight- three animal themed robots performing for the foals, which were bunched together near the stage and sitting at the tables. A few parents littered the area too.
"String Play...? What is it?" Twilight asked. She didn't dare touch the filly now- she might be remembering something! But even so, the sudden stillness worried her.
"I think I know them..." she muttered. Twilight followed her line of sight as best she could, and spotted a group of ponies right by the stage's edge, nearest to the exit/entrance. There was an adult and two kids of vastly different ages. The adult was caramel, had a stocky build and glasses, while the kids were more colorful. The little one was female and a soft white with springy red hair pulled into pigtails, while the older one was a blue-violet and wore nothing but an annoyed expression on his face. The caramel stallion was waiting for somepony judging by his posture. String Play stopped, studying the trio.
They were familiar, she... She knew them! She-
"Daddy!" came an excited squeal from a little filly as she bounded up to the caramel stallion. She was brighter than he was, but looked every bit as genuinely happy that he did. Like they were two sides of the same coin. Static seemed to be taking over much of String Play's thoughts- why were they so similar?
"Have a great day, sparrow?" the caramel adult cooed as he caught the filly in his arms. Sparrow... That was a nickname. The child giggled happily in response.
"yep! It kinda sucked not being able to play with Liz today, but-"
The rest of the conversation blurred. String Play didn't comprehend anything else- her eyes grew wide, pupils shrank, and she began to shake. Twilight immediately noticed and bent down to sooth her.
"W-What happened? What's wrong? Are you okay?!" she looked the filly in the eyes. Twilight had heard the conversation too, but was too interested in String Play's state to bother listening in. Despite her earlier concern, she shook the black and white filly a little, the child rocking a little before the glaze over her eyes began to slowly disperse.
"Th...That..." she tried to make the words, but they hung in her throat. She tried to blink away the blockage.
