The ride to the Puppet Center was quiet and going inside was as well, though Jess took the privilege of saying, “Hey, Liz, don’t mind her, my girlfriend got turned into a pony. She’s gonna be hiding out here for today, alright?”
As she kept walking and I gave a friendly wave, the Poe Puppet Show’s Producer, Liz, just barely got around her coffee to sputter, “Sure.”
“How’d you learn to fly so fast?” Jess asked as I floated next to her down the stairs to the basement theaters.
“I’ve been up since five. Flying seemed a natural extension after walking and how to use my hooves.”
“And you picked it up, like that?”
“There were some... Initial issues,” I admitted, as we turned the corner to the black box.
“Uh-huh. How many times did you crash into a wall?”
“Enough times to start using your old scooter helmet,” I said.
She had the decency not to laugh too hard at me.
As stage manager, Jess was there ahead of all the actors and performers to set up for the morning show, so I hovered out of her way till I loosed a big old yawn.
“Been up since five, huh? Get any breakfast?” she said from her control booth.
“I had- *yaaaawn* -Pop-Tarts,” I replied flying to the door.
“Yeah, you probably have a hummingbird’s metabolism now. Don’t think that’s gonna work for you anymore, Cupcake.”
I grinned. She only called me Cupcake when she was feeling sassy. I liked it when my girlfriend was sassy.
“Well, next time I- *yaaawn* -turn into a magical creature from a kid’s cartoon show, I’ll be- *yawn* -sure to think about my stomach first.”
“You wanna crash in the green room?”
I shook my head. “Smelled funky enough as a human. Can’t imagine it now.” I floated down to the ground and walked into a corner beneath her soundboard.
“Think you can remember not to kick me down here?” I asked.
“Sure thing, love.” She watched as I settled down, getting comfortable and fluffing my wings. “My little pony, all curled up so sweet,” she cooed.
I laughed and raised up my head, inviting her. She bent down and I pecked her on the cheek. She moved to kiss me on the lips and we parted. She had the oddest look on her face.
“Keep it to cheek pecks for now?” I asked.
“No. Just... This is gonna take some adjusting.”
“Tell- *yawn* -me about it. It’s just as weird on my end, Firefly.”
She grinned at my nickname for her. “Does this mean I’ll turn into Firefly?” Jess asked.
“Uck, G1,” I muttered and nestled down into the corner, my eyelids drooping and sleep quickly claiming me.
I opened my eyes at a mailbox. The mailbox was connected to a white, weathered fence that started to fade away after about a hundred feet. The fence had a gate to a path that led to a squat, one-story house with thatched roof that looked like it fit in nicely with Friendship is Magic’s aesthetic.
Lifting my hand, I paused. I looked down and yeah, it was a hand, but something wasn’t quite right about it. I turned it over and a fine, auburn fur, the same color as my hair used to be, was running up my arm. Reaching up to my face, I could feel my nose was pushed out a bit in an almost muzzle and my ears had moved to the top of my head. Yet, I was upright on my two feet. I had a flicking, pony’s tail though.
“Neither girl, nor pony, but a mix of both...” I muttered. “What hath science wrought?”
Pushing open the gate I went up the lawn and as I reached up to knock on the door, it opened of its own accord.
Peeking around inside, I saw a spacious living room which butted against a cramped kitchen with a good view of a forest behind the house and a hallway that led off. The sound of clopping hoofsteps grew close and Blossomforth entered.
She looked over at me, my hand hovering where I was about to knock. She wore a pair of goggles on top of her head with a tool belt around where her waist would be and a cuff on her right foreleg that had some loops on it.
“Hi,” she said, blinking at me.
“Hey,” I replied.
“Why don’t you... Come in?”
“Sure,” I said, and walked in, the door closing behind me.
I don’t know why I expected to be stooping, but I wasn’t as the ceiling seemed to be just tall enough to accommodate my tall frame. Once inside, I watched as she crossed the living room floor to a machine I couldn’t even begin to describe. Yet, somehow...
“Is- Is that an instant camel?” I asked.
She nodded, fitting a screwdriver to her hoofcuff. “I found it in when I first got here. Since I had some spare time, I figured...” She shrugged and got to work.
I plopped into a spacious easy chair and realized it was thoroughly broken in. Possibly secondhand, but it felt like third.
“Well, thanks. You’re...”
“Yup,” said Blossomforth, adjusting her hoofcuff and fitting another tool in. “And you’re January.”
“More or less,” I said, looking down at my hands. I noticed my nails were thick and almost the same color as my fur.
“Are we dreaming?” I asked.
“More or less,” Blossomforth replied.
“Huh.” I stood up again, the ceiling seeming to pull away from me. I went over to a side window that showed the world fading along after only a little bit.
I frowned. That wasn’t right.
I thought about long fields and the openness of the plains on the outskirts of Ponyville and the nothingness filled in, detail present. Grass spread out into a welcoming field dotted with trees and birdsong could be heard and...
“Don’t waste too much time on that,” Blossomforth said. “You made enough room for me already and... You’re, um... You’re being very accommodating. You don’t need to go any further.”
I considered her for a moment. The nice thing about knowing nothing about Blossomforth was that I got to clean slate knowing her. She seemed a bit nervous, but that could have been the fact we were in the garden of my mind, so to speak.
“Yeah, but blank white nothing? That’s just asking for Other Mothers.”
Blossomforth shivered at that.
“Well. I wasn’t thinking about it before, but now that you are, I can’t help it.” She glanced back at me briefly and returned to her work. “You have some disturbing memories, you know that?”
I shrugged. “I don’t like thinking people can spook me or make me shut down by telling or showing me horrible things, so I kind of...”
“Yeah, yeah,” Blossomforth said. “I know. That’s a rough way to spend being a teenager.”
“Beats succumbing to being a one in four statistic,” I replied, crisply.
She looked back at me and I approached her, finding it easier to just get down on my hands than keep wondering about the ceiling. She tracked me carefully as I came up and stuck my head in the body of the machine.
After I was satisfied with what it needed, I pulled my head out and hoofed her a gear.
“That should help,” I said.
She looked at the gear. “Thanks.”
She kept turning the gear over in her hooves and I noticed she wore her hoofcuff on the same arm I’d wear my wristcuff. Hers at least had purpose, mine was... Well, it’s a bit silly, but I think of it as my “shield bracelet.” I’m not into jewelry, I have three necklaces and two pairs of earrings to my name, but I liked my little cuff. It kept me safe.
Blossomforth didn’t look like she felt safe.
“Hey...” I said. “Am I- Am I moving too fast here, because...”
She shook her head. Exhaling, she licked her lips.
“I’m just- I feel like I should remember something and tell you something, but I can’t...” She shook her head again. “I can’t think of it. So I start worrying I’m disappearing because I’m not in my own mind and I’m like a guest in here and you’re using me and I can barely see or hear anything and I’m thinking all this stuff, but it’s not me thinking it and...”
The ragged, wet noise in her throat broke and she shuddered. Taking my cue from all my time with Jess, I leaned against her and wrapped a comforting foreleg around her neck. She shook a little longer, not quite crying against my shoulder, then stilled.
Composed, she sniffed slightly. “I don’t know what’s going on,” she whispered.
“Me neither,” I replied, looking into the guts of the instant camel.
“And I’m in here with you now,” she said. “Who are you, anyway?”
“You don’t know?” I asked.
“I kind of ran here and... Hid.”
“Oh.”
My brow furrowed. After a moment of thought, I felt something warm radiate from my chest, as if Jess had just whispered that she loved me.
She blinked looking around. “What was that?”
“You should have free access, if you’re going to be here. Poke around. It’s your home. It’s your body, I’m just... You know what? Lemme see...”
A knock came from the door and I rose to gallop over. When I opened the door, the most familiar face in the whole world smiled down at me.
“Hot damn,” Nanashi said. “This is a thing.”
“Nanashi!” I squealed and leapt up to hug her around the neck. Not hard to do as I was apparently quite a tall pony now.
“Hey girl,” she said, a smile evident in her voice and her embrace. “And we thought all that inter-self writing was weird.”
I nodded, a bit teary-eyed. It was always good seeing her.
Blossomforth came up to the door and stared up at the giant of a woman. Nanashi was tall, well over six feet with long hair the color of fallen snow cut in bangs around her face and piercing blue eyes which were either the shade of the depths of glaciers or clear summer skies, depending on who you asked. She smiled down at Blossomforth and took a knee so I could disengage the hug and do pleasantries.
“Blossomforth,” I said. “May I introduce the person in my head who has known me best and longest, Nanashi Jones.”
“Well, maybe not longest, but definitely best,” Nanashi said, her face breaking into a warm grin. “Hi there.”
“I don’t understand,” Blossomforth said.
“You found the instant camel,” I said. “Which means you can clearly see stuff, but I kind of... Compartmentalize my brain a bit. Maybe that’s why you’re not thinking clearly? Nanashi knows where I keep everything and how to get to it.”
“You would’ve met me sooner if you hadn’t just dashed to this safe place and set up shop,” Nanashi commented.
“I’m trapped in my own body,” Blossomforth deadpanned. “Excuse me for not wanting to wander somepony else’s brain.”
“Polite,” Nanashi commented.
“We’ll teach her better,” I replied.
“Ugh, more Cloud Kickers,” Blossomforth said, rolling her eyes and going back to the machine.
“Cloud Kicker...?” I said.
“Yeah. She’s my best friend. A bit...” She blinked, and I felt a breeze through my brain. “Well, she’s not quite like that, but it’s not far off. She thinks I need to loosen up.”
“Read the Winningverse, did you?”
“You did,” she said. “So I have too now. Ugh. This is so weird.”
“No kidding. But it feels like you’re... Holding back. Like you could move through so much more, but you’re letting me do all the work.” I paused as I realized something. “I shouldn’t have figured out flying that fast.”
“I didn’t want you smashing me up from all of your attempts, so I... Helped. A bit.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Hey,” she said with a shrug. “What choice do I have?” She trotted back inside and stuck her hoof into the body of the machine.
I glanced at Nanashi and felt briefly light-headed.
“I think you’re headed out, boss,” Nanashi said.
“Okay.” I nodded and trotted over to Blossomforth. “I’m sorry you’re caught up in this, but, for what it’s worth, I want to help.”
She sighed. “Sure.” Looking to me, I saw a small smile. “Not like you had much choice either, huh?”
“Sure I do,” I said. “I get to decide how we go from here, just as much as you do.”
“We’re... Partners now,” Blossomforth said, her tone suggesting something had just come unbidden.
“Works for me,” I said with a nod. “Brain partners.”
I offered my hoof and after a second of consideration, she smiled and bumped it.
“You need anything, you ask Nanashi, y’hear?” I said.
She nodded, smile still in place.
“I’ll try to help too. From in here. However that works out.”
“Awesome. Love it when everypony’s on the same page.”
“Oh, um. I did want to add... Sorry.”
“What for?”
“I just remembered something about these dreams...”
When I my eyes opened a second time I discovered a half-crammed pillow in my mouth. Which tasted vaguely of butt.
Jess’s head poked down. “Sorry, love, you were making noises so I tried to get my seat cushion under your head, but you... Tried to eat it.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Sleep well?”
“Ptah. Well enough,” I said. “Peh. No more butt pillows though? I think this is going to be a pony thing.”