Winter Heat brushed wet mane from her eyes and stuck a hoof out between the shower curtain. “Loofah.”
Claire placed a loofah in her hoof, and Winter began to furiously scrub the back of her neck. “I think I got ash in my ears!”
“It happens.”
“Like, damn, we could have beaten that robot if we knew how tough it was. You think?”
“There is a limit to Pink Scorch’s power,” Claire said. “But we have yet to find that limit. You may be right.”
Winter squeezed a greedy amount of shampoo onto her mane and lathered it in. “Hey, it’s not like it matters. They stopped what they were doing. Besides, they didn’t seem all that evil, actually. Maybe misguided. I don’t know. I couldn’t understand them.”
“Nor could I.”
“It’s whatever. We run into them again, they won’t get so lucky a second time.”
“Winter.”
“Yeah?”
“Why am I waiting out here?”
“Because I’m naked and in the shower.”
“But you don’t wear any clothes.”
“Yeah, but I’m in the shower.”
“Makes sense.”
Winter shut off the water and stuck her hoof out between the curtain again. “Towel.”
Claire handed her a towel, and she began to dry off.
Coming out of the bathroom, she lazily threw the towel into the dirty clothes hamper that had been sitting next to the door for almost a month. She walked across her studio apartment, kicking aside trash, and crashed face-first into the bed.
She groaned. “I’m tired… but I want pizza.”
Claire hovered over her. “Want me to put in an online order?”
“Please. I just need a quick nap.”
Claire wrapped a tendril around the laptop on her bedside table and carried it over to the kitchen counter. Swiping aside a tower of pizza boxes with a couple of instant noodle cups on top, she placed it on the flat surface, opened it up, and went directly to the Artereats website.
Winter shuffled onto her side and allowed the sweet heaviness of sleep to take her. The sweet heaviness didn’t come, so she shifted onto her other side. Still no sweet heaviness.
Shifting onto her back—which was her least favorite position—she allowed a few more minutes of shut-eye before giving up and just staring up at the ceiling.
“Can’t sleep,” she said. “Must have stimulation.”
Grabbing her phone off the bedside table, she opened Clip-Clop and proceeded to scroll through various videos.
Immediately, a video of someone playing Blockcraft displayed on the screen, followed by text stylized in classic comic sans.
“Are Masked Matter-Horn and Zapp in a relationship?
“Fans of the Power Ponies have been asking this question for a very long time since they first started making appearances across Maretropolis. This was confirmed last month when the Power Ponies were offered the key to the city, and Masked Matter-Horn hugged Zapp.”
A still image of a very enthusiastic Masked Matter-Horn giving a very distraught Zapp a breath-reducing hug. The video went back to Blockcraft.
“Many have speculated that this was just a congratulatory hug, but personally, this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I MEAN, the other four Power Ponies are all on the same stage, and they were all left unhugged.”
Ummm, Winter thought. That’s probably because Zapp was the closest one to her?
“If you ask me, this is a strong indication that Masked Matter-Horn and Zapp are indeed in a relationship. Follow my channel for more content like this. And to my mom who watches all of my videos, yes, this is my best source of income. Please stop asking.”
She scrolled to the next video.
“I bought the haunted mansion down the street and stayed in it for a week AND YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED!”
The audio dipped, and a caller ID displayed at the top.
Mom
Her breath caught in her throat. She answered the call, putting the phone up to her ear.
“Heya, what’s up?”
“Hiii sweety, how have you been?”
“I’ve been pretty good. Work is going great. I have a big exam coming up. Little nervous, but I’m confident that I can ace it. How about you?”
“Well, your dad got promoted to assistant manager!”
She sat up in bed. “Heck yeah, that’s awesome! So he’s raking in the big bucks, I take it?”
“Oh, you have NO idea. Not only is he making so much more, but they doubled his benefits. His life insurance policy is now triple what it used to be.”
“Epic! He take you out somewhere nice with that pimp money?”
“Well, we went to a fancy restaurant where the portion sizes don’t nearly equal the check, and after a good laugh we got some ice cream and went bowling.”
“Sounds fun!”
“It was. But how about you? How’s college? Meet any cute colts?”
She laughed. “Well, it’s like I said, big exam coming up and stuff and stuff…” She began to trail off but quickly tried to save it. “No colts. I’m not interested in seeing anyone, at least not at the moment. I’m making lots of friends though!”
“Oh?”
“Yeah! There’s this one, you’d really like her. She’s really fun to hang out with and likes anime and eats like food isn’t finite.”
“She sounds fun! Well, I just wanted to call and see how you’ve been. It’s been a while since you’ve called us.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. Been crazy busy. School, work, friends, trying to not starve—it’s all been difficult to keep up with. I’ll try to call more often.”
“Call whenever you feel like. I don’t want you to feel like you have to.”
“It’s fine, you’re not! I’ll call you when I get off work tomorrow.”
“Have a good night, sweety. Good luck on the exam.”
“Good night, Mom.”
She ended the call and set the phone back on the bedside table. Plopping back into the pillow, she let out a long sigh.
Claire snaked across the room and hovered up to her side. “You still haven’t told her that you dropped out?”
“I’ll tell her eventually. Or I’ll wait until I’m back in college, and she won’t have to know. I don’t know. Future is uncertain and all that mumble jumbo. Anyways, one-v-one?”
Claire let out a dark chuckle. “Prepare to eat lead.”
“Ponies can’t eat lead, Claire.”
“Oh. Well I’ll shoot you in the face then.”