Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Equish, everything else is in English.
Mike pushed open the door to the house. "Mum, we're home!" He felt more than a little worn out, having spent most of the day helping out on the rock farm. There was a palpable aura throughout the house, and Mike looked down to Misty. "This doesn't seem good…"
"Home, dear?" Joyce was plopped on the couch, sipping a can of beer. "How was your day?" She tilted her head up from the television.
"Mum, what happened?" Mike started to sit on the couch, but froze at a glare from his mother.
"You're both filthy. Go and get cleaned up and then come and ask me about my day." Joyce took another pull from the can and gave a sigh.
The sound of flapping wings got Mike's attention away from his mother, and he turned just in time to have Tufts glide past and dive onto his mother's shoulder. "Yeah… I'll be back after a shower." Mike headed down the hall, taking notice that Robin's door was closed. "You first or me, Misty?"
"I'll be quick if you promise to help me brush my fur out after it dries." Misty gave her wings a little rustle, and shook loose some of the dust in them.
Mike pulled the door shut behind the filly, leaving her to the bathroom. Trudging down to his room, he slipped inside and closed the door behind him. Putting his backpack down, he unzipped it. "You need a name." Mike reached into his backpack and lifted out a rock. "If it gets to Monday, and I haven't got you a good name, Maud will never speak to me again." Holding the rock, Mike looked over it, tried to work out what was its best qualities.
"Well, you're hard—of course—but you feel a bit lighter than a rock your size should be. Slight? Feather? Slim?" Mike really didn't care how silly it might look. Everything in Equestria had magic in it, even the rocks. "Fine." He smiled at the word, tasted it in his mouth. "Fine the rock."
The name seemed to fit the rock, and Mike set it up on his dressing table. Pulling off his shirt and shoes, Mike tossed his clothes one by one onto a pile. Each garment shed dust around him until he was only wearing his underwear. "I just don't understand it." He huffed out a breath and closed his eyes. "Friends." The word conjured the Pie sisters, Rose, even Ball, Kelly, and Limestone were there in his head. "Family." His lips pulled up into a smile as his mom and sister appeared, but then Misty and Candela were there too.
Grabbing his bathrobe he slumped down on the floor and leaned against his bed. "They're just friends. Besides, you can't ask a pony out on a date." But with the words said, Mike blushed and hid his head in his arms. "Rose. I just need to get out of this…" Examining his hands, Mike tried to find ways to finish the thought. "I'll focus on school, and then go visit Canterlot on the holidays. Until then, I'm going to do my best to be nice to Rose."
Mike lost his focus and tried to think of things other than his growing awkward situation with girls. Focusing on thinking of his school work, he was startled from his musings by a gentle clopping on the door. "Yeah?"
"<Bathroom's free>!" Misty's voice had some notes of relief in it.
"<Thanks>." Shoving up to his feet, Mike made his way to the door and opened it. Misty was just turning to her own room. "<In the living room, once I am out. Bring your own brush>." Mike grinned when the filly bolted into her room.
~~~~~+++++~~~~~
Mike stepped out of the bathroom with his hair still damp, only to be confronted by an adorable pegasus filly with a brush in her mouth. "<In the living room. I want to hear all about this>."
"<Okay>!" Misty couldn't use her wings in the tight hallway, but her hooves carried her into the living room ahead of Mike.
"You know what?" Mike walked into the living room and marveled at the sight that confronted him. Joyce was reclining in a chair, a beer in one hand, passing cut slices of banana to Tufts (who was hanging by his legs from the shoulder of Joyce's shirt). Misty was sitting on the floor, with her back to the empty couch-chair. "Ponies and bats and bananas. Oh my!"
Joyce rolled her eyes at her son's joke. "Laugh it up, but remember, you made sure I could see everything for who and what it is." She waved a piece of banana at Mike, before passing it to Tufts.
"Life is more interesting, yeah." Mike took his assigned seat, and the brush provided. His fingers worked without thinking, gently teasing out Misty's mane and brushing each little section. "So, why is Robin locked in her room, and why the beer?"
As leaned back as she could get, Joyce took another swig of her beer, and fed Tufts another bit of banana at the same time. "The day was going well. I was chatting with Candy, and Robin was playing as usual." She managed to catch the ground up fruit Tufts was done with in an empty can. "Lunch time rolled around, and I went looking for her."
"Where did she end up?" Mike gave a deep sigh. Misty's mane was smooth as silk, and he wasn't sure it even needed brushing, but he had promised.
"I searched for nearly half an hour, but I couldn't leave the game. Candy is the best ever." Joyce rubbed Tufts' chin with her hand. "She took off, literally. Started flying all over town, reporting in when she wasn't zooming around." Stretching out one of Tufts' wings carefully, Joyce's voice turned thoughtful. "Flying like that would be pretty cool."
Mike waited. He had given up trying to prod his mother along to give the story faster. His hands worked, and slowly Misty's mane was brushed to perfection.
"She was at the mine. One of your friends from school, Rosetta, got her busy getting dirty. Why wouldn't she come and tell someone?" Joyce was interrupted in her stroking of Tufts' chin, by the bat giving a soft squeak.
"Rose?" The name got Mike's full attention. "I'll ask her on Monday." He gently poked at Misty, getting the filly to adjust her position so he could better reach the rest of her mane.
"Whatever. Candy brought my little Robin home." Joyce smiled and closed her eyes. "She's grounded until next term."
"Candela?" Mike blinked in confusion, only barely piecing together his mother's shortening of his teacher's name. "Why would you ground her?"
Joyce just smiled at the joke from her son. "Careful, or I might ground you as… pun—ishment." She didn't even see the cushion that flew towards her, but the wind of it passing her ear made her turn and look at Mike. "If I wasn't a little batty, I might throw that back at you."
"Well, ding ding ding." Mike checked over Misty's mane. "Okay, tail now."
"What's with the dinging?" Joyce watched her son taking care of Misty's long hair.
"It was no charge." When Joyce looked more confused, Mike smiled wider. "Bell… free…" He dodged the pillow thrown at him, giggling with laughter as Tufts gave a loud screech at the rough movement. Working the brush through Misty's blue-white tail, Mike spotted an odd darker hair here and there, but thought nothing of it.