By the time Lily arrived, Limelight had calmed down enough that she seemed "normal." I was slumped in dad's armchair, unable to do anything but watch as she danced across the room. The Pink mare's hooves flew across the wall to wall shelves of vinyls, retrieving records and swapping them out to create a constant stream of music. It was bizarre. There was an almost manic energy to her actions, yet every single move in time with the beat of whatever track she was playing. For Faust's sake, she was even humming in the moments of silence before a new song started to play. Sam and I were pulled from the impromptu concert by the sound of a fist pounding on the front door.
" Sam, can you let me in? What's the deal? You call me at work, use the other names and then say I need to get here as soon as possible?" Lily called from outside, prompting me to glare at Sam. We had rules about secrecy for a reason. We didn't want to risk being arrested for a drug that literally could change your body shape. I shuddered at the idea of the government inevitably trying to weaponise Pon-E.
"Let her in, Sam, let's get this over with"
" I was gonna." Sam protested as the door's lock clunked open. The rustle of plastic bags made me wonder what the fuck Sam had actually told Lily was going on. As Lily stepped into the room, she immediately drew Limelight's attention. The pink mare snapped around and bounced over towards the newcomer, smiling happily.
" Hi!" In probably the most pony way possible, Limelight greeted Lily by attaching herself around Lily's leg in a hug. I remained seated as Lily placed her bags onto the floor and knelt to start scratching Limelight's ears. Lily hadn't taken Pon-E at our first proper get together and consequently always seemed to be able to identify right where to scratch. Seriously, hooves were fun, but a hand could make you melt in a god damn puddle.
"Uh, Fred, who is this?" She asked, yanking me out of my memories. I supposed I should just be honest with her about this whole situation. It was weird as hell, but then again, so was the entire concept of Pon-E.
"She's my dad."
" What." Lily looked at me like I was mad as Sam groaned and stood from his chair across the room. He crossed the room and pulled Limelight off Lily's leg before lifting her up to show to Lily like you would a dog.
"He took Fred's last Pon-E, and we found her in, I suppose her study, and she was listening to music. We had a conversation, then Fred tried to kill the tunes, she had some kind of panic attack, and... Well, look at her." Limelight's coat was still damp with sweat, the remains of white foam around her neck. She needed a bath at the very least. Based on the fact she'd been prancing around for nearly two hours now, she probably would also need something to eat and water to avoid being dehydrated when she turned back.
"So, let me double-check if I understand this correctly. Your dad turned into a mare?" Lily started, only for me to nod in confirmation, still trying not to think about the situation's implications. We both wordlessly elected to ignore Limelight, nuzzling Sam's chin as he put her down. "Then you found her, in here, and caused her to have a panic attack. Now she needs a bath, and we're gonna have to prepare to deal with the fallout of this shit show?"
"Pretty much hit the nail on the head." Sam helpfully added from behind us. He and Limelight were fiddling with the turntable as she changed the record for what must have been the twentieth time already.
"And you called me because of fucking rule three. Why did we write that bloody thing." Lily complained to nobody in particular. She knew full well why we'd written the rule considering she'd suggested the fucking thing. Rule 3, regardless of your human gender, pony gender takes precedent when pony. Women wash mares. Men wash stallions. Sam and I shrugged, prompting an aggravated sigh from Lily before she scooped up Limelight and disappeared upstairs.
"So...what now?" Sam voiced the question lingering at the forefront of my mind. The absence of the pink mare providing some reprieve from the rapidly moving tripping hazard she had proven to be.
"Fuck knows. When dad's back to normal, I'll ask him if he wants to come with us to our next get together. That is if he remembers this whole situation, cause I'll be honest, something seems off about Limelight." The two of us sat in silence. Seemingly we both had to digest the incoming shake-up to our groups dynamic and the fact our rules had their first real challenge. The silence grew more oppressive moments after we'd sat down as the record finished almost perfectly after we heard the door shut to the upstairs bathroom. All we could hear from upstairs was the pink mare belting out what I think was a rendition of tears for fears along with the occasional shriek from Lily.
" She's gonna be soaking wet, calling it." Sam said, breaking the silence as we both chuckled softly at the memory of Lily attempting to keep Slipstream from splashing water literally everywhere. Who'd have expected a pegasus getting given a bath would react like a dog in water, except a dog can't start flying around the room yelling profanities.
After what must have been twenty minutes, the joyful singing got louder and louder. A squeaky clean limelight trotted into the room; her ears twitched before she bolted and started another album playing. Sam and I waited for a moment before a soaking wet Lily staggered into the room. She looked like she'd been dragged into the bath at least twice.
"Do not comment. I know you both are going to." her expression made it clear she was not ready for any of our usual bullshit. So we didn't comment. We just laughed instead. Lily responded with a glare hard enough I was half expecting one of us to burst into flames. Thank Faust, she didn't have her horn right now; gotta count the small blessings. Lily's glare softened almost instantly as she looked over my shoulder.
"Look at Limelight." I turned to look and saw the pink mare sat on her flank, gently bobbing her head along to the music. As we watched, she intensified, with her ears joining in her movement as a guitar solo grew in speed and fervour. It was cute, despite the building dread about how the hell I'd handle this discussion when dad was back to normal.
"Hey, Limelight," Sam called out over the sounds of Michael Schenker giving it his all on the guitar. The mare looked at Sam, still bobbing side to side. The smile we'd first seen on her face had returned in full force.
"You wanna come to meet other ponies sometime?"
"Hay yeah! That sounds fun!"
"Well, that settles it then. Next time we get our little gang together, you can come too." Sam turned back to us and left Limelight to her music whilst I turned to my thoughts. On the bright side, we now had a DJ if we ever wanted to throw a full-on party; however, the downside was I'd have to explain a lot to my dad. Maybe Lily would like to pitch her crackpot theory about Lunanon living in Atlanta because she recognised the house in a few of Lunanon's pictures. Although, after I'd given him a crash course on Pon-E, the show might not be a bad idea now that I thought about it...