//------------------------------// // 10 - Familiar Faces // Story: Return to Equestria // by David Silver //------------------------------// "We practically have this place to ourselves." Rather than going straight to their room, Joypad was wandering down the hall towards what looked to be a common area. "So small. I didn't think they'd have any places like this in the heights." “Alphabittle is such a cheap-skate!”  A gruff male voice proclaimed from around the corner.  “This place is tiny!”  To the surprise of both human and earth pony the voice was preceded by a lithe young unicorn mare with gray fur, a deep blue mane and tale, and a bright pink horn, dressed in a red scarf and barrett, with a dirty earth pony ragdoll sitting on her head propped up on her horn as she entered the common area with a vaguely bored expression. David casually inclined his head at the other pony. "We're not alone. Thought we would be at first. What are we looking for?" "I don't know… to be honest. This is a new place. May as well be a whole new world!" Joypad had her energy restored, looking around curiously. "Oh, cute doll." She wandered right up to it. "Look at you, keeping watch over your mare." And it clicked. "Who is a unicorn!" “Gloomy Sonnet,” the mare replied in a listless feminine voice.  Her eyes rolled upward to the doll sitting on her head.  “And that’s Charlie.  Huh?  Is that a human, like in Evermarsh?”  Her voice had all the surprise and curiosity of somepony noticing ranch dressing at the salad bar. David laughed despite that. "Even unicorns know Evermarsh? Pegasoft really gets around with their games." It was perhaps odd that he, a complete outsider, was less surprised at a unicorn than another pony. Joypad pointed at herself. "Joypad! Wow, never met a unicorn. Um, sorry." She turned the pointing hoof on David. "That's David, and he's a human. We're here to visit Pegasoft actually. They wanted to put eyes on him." “Heh, small world, ain’t it,” the gruff male voice returned, seemingly coming from the young mare’s head, though her lips weren’t moving.  “We’re here to meet with Pegasoft too.  They want our boss to start running their game machines at his tea house.  Gets us a couple of days on the road, change of scenery on the boss’s bit.  You know how it is.” David raised a brow only a moment. "Well, they're the ones that'd have that. Joy, did you get your computers from them?" "Nah." She waved the idea away. "Another setup, just came by offering them, and I couldn't say no, skip a few steps and here we are." As if buying computers at all logically led to her current situation. "We're both fish out of water, aren't we?" She waved a hoof between herself and Gloomy. "I mean, not-pegasi in pegasi-town, away from home." “Electronics are not so much a thing in bridlewood.” Gloomy nodded absently.  “Mr. Bittle debated to even take the machines, but Charlie was very insistent.” “Trust me, Gloomy,” the male voice broke in, as the mares lips stilled, “Pinball and pichinko are great, but you have not lived until you played a real assed vidja game!” That voice… It was becoming impossible to ignore. "You sound… like a friend of mine." But who is you? "Uh, the guy voice? Is that you?" He was looking at the unicorn, from whom all the voices flowed. "Sorry, probably sounds a bit odd." “Oh.. yeah…” The doll waved.  It’s button eyes and stitch smile as constant as ever.  “Sorry.  Everypony in bridle wood is pretty used to me.  I forget I need to flail like a muppet when I talk to strangers.” The doll put a velvetine hoof to it’s chin.  “You look familiar… and you're a human, so definitely maybe?  Sorry, it’s been a LONG time since I got here…” "Huh?" His eyes went to the doll perched on the unicorn. "So… Huh… The unicorn and the doll are separate, but the voice comes out of one place." "Seems so," echoed Joypad. "Sorry, we're not trying to be rude. Funny coincidence though, that we're  headed to the same place!" She pointed to where she thought Pegasoft was, even if it was likely entirely the wrong direction. "Oh! You get a phone yet? Did you… get two?" “We are separate and individual entities since the return of magic.”  The unicorn explained as if it were a casual domestic issue, addressing David.  “For the twenty years prior to that point Charlie’s visual, auditory, and mobile capacity relied on contact with me.  He still prefers to ride on my head, but his voice comes from his own body.  The confusion is understandable, seeing as he likes to ride on my head.” “Yeah I passed on the phone” Ragdoll Charlie waggled his head to let those present know he was speaking. “Ever try to text and play Twister at the same time?  That goes on the nope train.” Joypad inclined her head. "Is that a unicorn game?" But it hit her. "Ha, wow… We're both mares with odd 'pets'." She waved between Gloomy and herself. "Yours is a little doll that sounds like he's an older guy, and mine is a strange alien from a videogame." She leaned against David with a giggle. "Couldn't really say which of us won for strange points." “You don’t understand at all!  He’s not a pet, and he’s not a doll!”  Gloomy snapped, then caught herself.  “I’m sorry Miss Joypad.  That was out of line.  I found Charlie when I was very young.  Bridlewood is very… well Bridlewood.  Unicorns are all crazy backwoods bumkins, don’t you know.  And I stuck out.  I liked to poke around the old places looking for things…” "Oh, sorry…" Joypad rubbed behind her neck, looking appropriately shamed. "Sorry, I got used to having an odd pet being a… good thing." "You can stop calling me a pet." David did not sound that upset at the title. "So did you have a safer trip here than we did? We almost Oregon Trailed an ending before we even got here." “Have you ever seen a critter panic like when a scare-crow actually screams at it?” Charlie somehow managed to waggle his head in a smirk. Joypad extended her tongue at that. "Mine can't do that. He just sleeps like a log. Critters took most of our stuff…" A sudden thought. "Shoot, we have to resupply, but we can do that after Pegasoft. When are you two headed there?" “I’m guessin’ sometime tomorrow.” The ragdoll contemplated.  “Soon as they figure out we’re in town.  So just before or after you.” “That seems likely.” Gloomy nodded smartly, throwing Charlie off as he grabbed at her horn with a hoof stitched hoof. David shrugged at that. "Huh, guess we're on a similar schedule. We're headed over there after we get sleep on an actual bed." "Actual bed," sighed out Joypad as if it were a fond memory she had forgotten. "That is sounding way more appealing than it… Oh wow, they probably have a shower too! Or a bath?" Her mind was quite a bit away from the conversation. “And yes you are getting a bath tonight!”  Gloomy cast her head slightly upwards to make it clear who she was talking to. “So, yeah… nice to meet you…”  The doll seemed to waggle a hoof in David's direction,  “Meet up tomorrow and compare notes?  Meh?”  Already Gloomy was walking presumably in the direction of their room.  Ragdoll pleaded, “Just don't set me on the radiator to dry!  You know that’s uncomfortable!” David tapped at his equine friend. "Turning in sounds like a good idea." And off they went to find their room, with a full day ahead of them. "That voice though…" It was hard to place a random voice coming from a magical doll, but he was sure he knew it, from somewhere? He was perfectly happy to just crash into the provided bed, but after Joypay had her shower, she came out and got to prodding him. "What?" "Your turn." She pointed back at the shower. "Tired." Basically asleep was a more accurate measurement of things. "And stinky." Joypad grabbed his shoulder in her mouth and dragged him right out of bed with a squawk from him, though that woke him up. "Go clean up, then sleep." -=-=-=-=- “He’s a text”  The doll noted as the unicorn mare worked the lather into his fluff with her hooves.  “He knows who I used to be.” “He knows more about you than I do then?” Gloomy stated as if she was referring to an errant cloud in the sky.. “Don’t be like that girl.” Ragdoll furrowed his brow.  “I’ve been around for a long time.  You weren’t my first best friend.” “I know,” the mare sighed with the first hint of real emotion, “But you were mine…” -=-=-=-=- The next day, they were navigating as per phone instructions. David had the phone up to his ear. "Hey. Yeah, we got in town last night. I'm the human you wanted to see?" A brief pause. "That's what we wanted to ask. When… Now is mostly fine…" Joypad burst into snickers. "That's the answer I was expecting." -=-=-=-=- I keep my mouth shut and you do the talking.”  The doll had a plan.  “We sign the deal and we walk out.” “All cool and casual, like we were acquiring a new pachinko machine for the one you broke.” the mare countered. “That was not my fault.”  Somehow the doll managed to smirk. -=-=-=-=- It was a wild coincidence, or simply a twist of fate from some upper agent that thought it was convenient, but the two groups ran into each other just outside of Pegasoft. David's hand had been reaching for the handle when a gasp made him look back to Joypad, who was looking at Gloom and her doll. "Oh, hey there," he got out, releasing the door for the moment. "Here for this place?" Pegasoft, it should be mentioned, was a big building, a skyscraper by any measurement, with about 5 double doors leading into the front. The other four had pegasi coming and going busily despite the obstruction at the fifth. “Yeah,” the doll nodded bonelessly as he spoke, “I’ll admit I’m curious about this whole ‘Evermarsh’ thing.  Videogames are still kinda a rare thing in Bridlewood, so I just know the basics from the ad-rags they sent our boss.  The name strikes me as familiar for some reason, which is odd because I’m sure it isn’t from Old Equestria.  That was ‘HumanWay’, as I remember… weird I remember Old Equestria better than my own home world.” "Ponyfinder." David provided no other context, perhaps none required. He opened the door to the inside. "We won't get what we want out here. After you." He waved Joypad inside, content to stand there until all of his combined party was inside. "Thanks." Joypad trotted through the threshold, looking around a little awestruck. The inside of Pegasoft was even more amazing than the outside, with a lobby with a roof far too high, several receptionists desks and a low roar of activity. “Pegasi like their big open vertical spaces,”  Gloomy stated flatly. “Eye’s on the prize, girl.” The dolls head darted around. “We could walk up to one of those reception desks… or, hear me out here:  We could all stand around and gawk ‘till they notice the human they obviously sent for and send someone to us.  Assuming y’all don’t mind merging our parties?” After a moment of pantomimed gawking, Ragdoll Charlie turned towards David. “Wait, you mentioned something called ‘Ponyfinder’?  That… was a game, I vaguely remember that being a game… I had something to do with…” "Ponies. Are you a, or were you a player?" David allowed the door to close, though it was taken up by other pegasi on their journey to or from the building. That Charlie knew… "And are you Kai? I can't think of much else with that kind of voice that'd even have a dream of knowing about it." Joypad peeked over her shoulder. "What's the holdup?" “That’s a name I ain’t used in a long time.” Ragdoll Charlie looked down thoughtfully.