Meeting
The next day I got ready to meet Dan and Justin. I wondered how the two would be and more importantly if even venturing out of the safety of my apartment was a wise choice. Something in the back of my mind told me not to go out, not because of meeting the two but some unknown danger waiting out there. Yet I just thought it was my nerves getting the best of me so I suppressed them as best as I could as I headed out with Michelle.
“Just stay close to me and try not to draw much attention,” Michelle said as we walked down the hall towards the door.
Yeah, the fact that I was a living breathing cartoon unicorn pony was attention enough. We got about halfway when a man left the apartment. I quickly darted behind Michelle, hoping that he didn’t see me but immediately doubting it. To my surprise, the man walked right past us without saying a word.
“Phew, that was a close one,” Michelle said.
“Yeah, how come he didn’t see me?
“That’s Mr. Wallace. He’s as blind as a bat. To him you probably looked like a dog or a basket of laundry.”
Normally I’d be upset being called these things, but in this case I was thankful being seen as something I was not. We then hurried to the car as I leapt in to the backseat and hid on the floor. With the car started up we were on our way to being ever closer to meeting Dan and Justin. I couldn’t really say how long the ride took or even where in the city the apartment was compared to mine. All I knew is that we arrived when the car rolled to a halt. Michelle got out first to survey the area before opening the door for me.
“Ok, the coast is clear,” she said as I hopped out.
As I looked around where we were, I knew this was the old industrial area. There were many factories and warehouses here, many of them long abandoned and decaying. Some, like the brick building which I followed Michelle to were refurbished into something new like businesses or shops or in this case an apartment complex. As I walked up to the door, I felt that same intuition, like something was not right about the area. Looking around there didn’t seem to be anyone around except for Michelle and I and those cars and trucks that were there looked empty. I guessed it was just the fact that the place was so fallen apart and not somewhere you’d want to be at 2 AM without a car that sparked my fear. But little did I know as I entered the apartment building that someone in a white van about fifty feet down the road was watching and had seen the two of us exit our car. He, as I would soon find out, would be a big problem for me and Brush Stroke.
We proceeded up the stairs to the top floor, passing by some people who were painting the walls, paying no heed to our presence. Finally we reached the door of the apartment and Michelle knocked lightly.
“Who’s there,” a voice said from behind the door.
“It’s me, Michelle. I brought over Julie.”
“Ok, just give me a second.”
I could hear the sound of several locks unlocking and latches being undone. Either this Dan was concerned about the area he lived in or he was worried about his brother. Finally the door opened as we stepped in. Dan stared down the hallway for a while as if to check for anyone following us before closing and locking the door.
“Sorry about the added security,” he said as he returned to meet us, “but I just don’t want my brother getting noticed that’s all. Anyway, I’m Dan. You must be Julie, right?”
“Yeah, but you can call me Quill Flourish too if you want. That’s my new pony name.”
“Ok, well, let me get my brother for you. He’s really been excited that you’ve come. Please, make yourself at home.”
Dan disappeared around a partition as we stepped into the main room of the apartment. The place was a loft, divided into a few rooms with thin walls. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it looked like Dan and Justin tried to make the best of it. Dan had only been gone for a few minutes before he came back. There alongside of him was a white pony with a black mane and tail. When he saw me his eyes went wide in amazement as did mine. I guess we never expected to see another pony like us, just like we never expected becoming one in the first place.
“Well, I think we’ll leave you two alone while I talk to Dan,” Michelle said as he motioned to the older brother to give us space.
“Hi, I’m Julie or Quill Flourish, whatever you want to call me.”
“Hi, Quill. I’m Justin, but you probably already knew that from my blog. It’s nice to meet another pony.”
“Yeah, it’s nice meeting you too. So, how long have you, you know, been a pony?”
“I’ve been one for about a month,” Justin said, “and you?”
“Just for about a week,” I replied, “I was hard getting used to it at first, but I think I’m getting a hang of this new body.”
“Have you figured out your magic yet?”
“Yeah, I can move objects around and learned my talent with being to write with magic. How about you?”
“Wow, you’re a fast learner. I only got the hang of it a few days ago.”
As we continued to talk about what we liked and our lives both as humans and now as ponies, I could feel the start of something great forming in our lives, one that would only grow as time passed. It wasn’t like I fell in love with Brush at first sight, but at least now I had a friend to share my thoughts with who went through the same thing. Soon our friendship would be tested and we would learn that it would evolve into something more.