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// Reunion - Generosity 
// Story: The Mare who knew too much 
// by Cynical 
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Reunion - Generosity

I stayed with Fluttershy for another five minutes, telling her to meet at the library tomorrow. She still wasn't speaking, but at least she seemed to have a bit more life in her than she did not half an hour ago. Sadly, I needed to track down the other two ponies, and as luck would have it, opened the door to one of them. It was Rarity.

Rarity was as elegant as ever, mane expertly curled and face subtly garnished with make-up. After registering her appearance in my head, I realised something else. Rarity was still her regal-coloured self, and still possessed the colours of her mane and tail. At the sound of the door opening, she looked at me and smiled.

"Ah, hello there madam, may I enquire as to where Fluttershy is? She still lives here, correct?"
This caused me to re-evaluate her recognition of me into another explanation. Namely the one where Rarity obviously didn't recognise me as the pony from ten years ago. Mutely, I nodded to her questions, yet I did not step aside, wondering how long it would take before she'd realise who she was talking to.

As it turned out, it was going to be a long wait. No spark of recognition flashed in her eyes, nor did she lean in to get a closer look at me. There wasn't even the vaguest flash of knowing the pony in front of her at all, not that I couldn't blame her, ten years had taken their toll on my looks. But I was still basically Twilight Sparkle. Same coat colour, same cutie mark, and same tick in my eye which was now deigning to show itself.

"You- you don't recognise me?" I asked tentatively, unsure whether I was holding back sadness or anger at this and with no strong desires to find out which one. Emotional stability had a very… interesting effect on the magic of a unicorn.
"Should I? I'm afraid I've never met you before in my life darling." Came her reply. Give her credit, she didn't sound like she was lying, expressing genuine concern to my comment and probably driving through her memory reserves, searching for any instance of meeting me.

I decided there was nothing for it, I needed her to remember me. 'Soonest said leaves time for mental scarring clean-up later,' I now said. "It's me, Twilight Sparkle."
Her reaction was… interesting. It looked for a moment like she recognised me, just for an instant of an instant, but then it was gone. Leaving her with a slightly perplexed expression and a statement "Sorry, it doesn't ring any bells. Maybe you're thinking of my sister Sweetie Belle."

I think this hurt me more than anything else, that she'd completely forgotten me, that not even my name stirred a single memory of myself… except it did, there was that moment of recognition that said otherwise. I wondered just what Rarity had forced upon herself, what would cause her memory to shut out all thoughts of me save for one or two which went under the radar it seemed. That was the answer right there, she'd buried her memories of me, that seemed like the only solution to the question at hand, that Rarity had repressed all memories of me… that was worrying in itself, that I'd caused enough trauma to make the overly-dramatic unicorn skip the drama.

I was going to hate myself for this, but it was the only way. I'd have to somehow break down the barriers that Rarity had erected in her mind, my memory spell would do the trick, it would just take some time dealing with the emotional fallout afterwards… joys.

"Rarity, it's you that I mean, you know me, your memory must have been a bit jumbled. I can give you back your memories of me now though, I just need to cast my memory spell on you."
This was met with a less than enthusiastic reaction
"You want me to let you cast a spell on me, you'll excuse me dear if I treat that with more than a little amount of suspicion."
"It's the only way for you to remember" I took a step forward at this and she took a step back, I think that if I had been thinking clearly, I would have told her to come in and confirm with Fluttershy that I was a pony to be trusted, but my mental state was already questionable enough as it was, so my next move might have seemed a little… open to interpretation.

After muttering an apology to Rarity under my breath, I used my magic to bind her where she stood. This… did not go down well with her, the scream a moment later a testament to that. Panicking, I conjured a zipper that affixed itself to her mouth and shut it. After breathing a sigh of relief, I stood up straighter and said "I'm not going to hurt you, really. It's just a simple memory spell."
Her reply, muffled as it was, was less than gracious… much less so. I can't really say that I expected anything else with her current position but honestly, if I wanted to harm her, I could have done so from five streets away five minutes ago. Amazingly, when I told her so it didn't really assuage her doubts… well, from what I made out from behind the zipper it was either her politely telling me that this wasn't helping, or something a bit more… direct.

When I moved forward, my horn pointed towards her chest, I found my way blocked by an ice blue barrier, slightly translucent and shimmering slightly against the poor light of the evening. 
"Oh real mature." I muttered under my breath, I could see Rarity, a small smirk on her face but with a sheen of sweat also covering her. It wouldn't take much force to remove the barrier, in fact it would only take a small prod there to do it.
Said prod did the job, removing the barrier that had been hastily erected and also sending a very small amount of feedback magic to the sender. Size had nothing to do with it though, any magical feedback was immensely painful as I knew well enough from previous trial and errors.

Muttering yet another apology to Rarity, I quickly lit my horn and filled my mind with memories the two of us shared together, sparse as they were, they would have to do. Moving in again, this time I managed to place my horn firmly against Rarities chest and release the spell, removing all other enchantments while I was there. There was a pulse of magic, a flash of light, and a hoof to the face from an alabaster mare.

Working on instinct, I immediately recast the binding spell and stepped away again. That wasn't the reaction I'd hoped for, but it had been the one I was expecting.
"Good to see you too Rarity."
"You have the gall to come here? After ten years, you only just remember us?"
"Long story short. Been locked on the moon for a little while." I replied brightly, not missing the look of barely restrained rage coursing through Rarities eyes. Wonderful.
"A likely story. I can see just how trapped you are now, wandering around Ponyville with not a care in the world. What have you done with Fluttershy?" The change in tone halfway through boded well for me… well for the current story of my deceased whereabouts anyway.
"I simply reminded her of who I was and who she needed to be, just like I'm doing with you right now." I remained calm, if there's one thing I learned after having a friend like Rarity, it didn't matter how much I raised my voice and shouted, a pony like her would just get worse and worse.

"And what is that, Twilight Sparkle?" She spat the name at me, like it was poison on her tongue.
"An element of harmony. That's all."
"And of course you know what happened to the elements? Burnt out and gone since you left you know. Even this piece of junk here." And though it obviously cost her, she levitated a grey diamond in a golden chain from her saddlebags and threw it towards me, aiming at my face.
I caught it with my own magic in mid air, examined it for a moment, then laid it on the ground.
"So all I ask is for you to be generous enough to forgive me." I kept each word measured, each syllable rang with an identical tone, and the whole sentence, simple.
"Forgiveness? You don't deserve it. For what you did to Dash. What you did to Pinkie, and what you did to my coat!"
I briefly wondered what on earth she was talking about, but stopped as she continued.
"No. I'm going to be the bigger pony here. I may hate your guts for what you've done, what you're doing now. But I will do this, I forgive you Twilight."

This time, there was no venom in her speech, only the cold, hard facts that needed to be said. I nodded my gratitude, and became aware of a slight dripping noise, I looked back up at Rarity to notice that her mane seemed to be melting. There were drops, each as big as spikes fist and the colour of deep purple, falling from her mane to the ground, leaving great splotches of grey and colourless hair behind. At least I knew what I had done to her now… I think.

Listlessly, I glanced downwards, and did a double take. The drops and splodges of hair dye were levitating in the air, growing bigger the more dye was added and attracting the colour like a magnet from her tail too. When Rarity was completely stripped of colour, the ball of dye sloshed over a rock attached to a golden chain and filled it. That's the best description I have for it. The mixture drained out of the spherical hold and rushed down to the pendant, filling it with colour until it was the colour of the mare now standing above it, her colours restored to her just as they were the element.

I let go of the field and allowed her to step forwards and claim her element. She looked over it in wonder before clipping it around her neck and admiring the colour which had returned to her.

"One other thing Rarity."
"Yes dear?"
"I heard that you had my element, the element of magic, what did you do with it?"
"Ah, yes. I remember that I may have given it a once over and just maybe left it as a burial gift."
"Maybe…"
"Well… yes. I did leave it as a burial gift, it's the whole reason I work in Canterlot now. Because of that gem I got more business than ever before. Slightly morbid, but I'm not really picky about the whole thing.

I nodded my thanks to her, told her to meet with myself and the others tomorrow at the library, and started on my way to the Ponyville cemetery. Rarity's voice following me as I walked.
"You know though, your element never once lost its colour, it always remained the colour that it always was. I suppose that was a damn good clue if nothing else that you were alive. Good luck for when you meet Dash by the way, I doubt you'll like what you find."

Those words did more to chill me than the night air, now swirling restlessly about me, did.