//------------------------------// // chapter 4. Ken and Ms. Conley rewrite // Story: Becoming Fluttershy // by Hope //------------------------------// After my extended crying session, Julien passes me his cola, which I sip from while alternating sniffles. “You going to be ok?” He asks me quietly. I’ve never heard him try to be gentle when it comes to emotions, but he really seems worried. “I’m sorry, I just... What if hes right?” I mutter. “You know thats not a good way to think. You can’t let people like him be right in your head. If we didn't have other jobs to get to, I would be fetching some gasoline and burning this wretched house to the ground.” He says with a gesture to the elaborate garage we are still parked in front of. His anger is sharp, but I can't imagine him following through with his threats. “You’re right, sorry.” I say quietly. “Stop saying sorry, you’ve done nothing wrong. Come on lets get going.” He starts the car and pulls out of the driveway, and we make our way back to the freeway to delve deeper into the forest. “I didn’t forget about us needing to have a chat. What was that about other people being ponies?” I finally ask as we turn onto the off ramp. His sheepish smile elicits an almost mewling growl from me before he starts talking. “So you’ve been really busy for the past 4 days, 5 calls every day and you barely had time to write and work on your own computers before passing out. During that time there have been some interesting developments in the outside world. At first I thought it was a joke. Turns out it wasn’t.” He explains as he pulls over in a Starbucks’ parking lot and he pulls out my laptop. “You are going to have to explain this better. Please.” I say, confused. He pulls open a webpage and plays a video that, at first, I think is a Pony Music Video but I quickly realize is an actual press conference. "If any of you find yourself to be an Element of Harmony, I need your help. You need to come to New York." Princess Celestia’s voice rings clear through the small speakers of my abused laptop. “That was Sunday. Today is Thursday. The fandom has been in a buzz, guessing that between five and eight ponies exist now, but none of them but Faust and Tara have made themselves public.” He continues. I stare at the digital image of Celestia, and lower my gaze towards the floor of the car. I now have to face the fact that, as of a few minutes ago, I don’t particularly feel like “solving” this situation. “Something wrong?” Julien asks. “Lets go to the next call.” I say quietly. He doesn’t talk as we make our way to the next house. Fairly run down, the house is single story without a garage at all. We park across the street and pick out the box without checking to see what we would have to do, and silently make our way to the door. This time Julien does the talking right off the bat. “Hi, my name is Julien. We talked on the phone this morning? We are here to repair your computer. This is Erica, she is the actual tech and I am her assistant.” His tone is forceful, outlining the rules of interaction with an iron fist. The customer raises an eyebrow but lets us in, guiding us to the laptop on a dining room table. They have dogs, and immediately upon seeing me I expect them to start barking and freaking out, but instead they sit placidly behind their little gate, panting. “Hello.” I say nervously. I am quite conscious that one of them could easily rip my wings off. One of them puts his paws up on the gate to get closer and I fly over on our way to the dining room, patting him on the head and giggling. I either inherited some mystical powers from this body’s owner, or the dogs really like yellow. I do feel a closeness to them though, my apprehension vanishing as soon as I get close enough to see the dog's eyes. We start taking apart the laptop, my hooves guiding his hands, until the customer returns with a smile on his face and two cups of water. “In case you two are thirsty.” He says in a relaxed tone, sitting on the other end of the table and flicking open a paper with Celestia’s image on the cover. I suddenly realize that I didn’t bother to remember this customers name and feel absolutely rude. As Julien removes the cracked screen, I turn to the customer. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t catch your name.” I say as I pick up the cup between my hooves. It has been wrapped in a cloth that was duct taped to the cup itself, making it easy to grip. “Kenny Crese. Don’t worry about it.” He says kindly, waving aside my apology. “Mr. Crese, thank you for the water, and wrapping the cup... By any chance have you been following what has been going on with the ponies?” I ask curiously as I take a sip. “Call me Ken, and I’m a brony, so yes. I assume you woke up like this?” He asks, amused. “I’m jealous.” I flush a bit and scratch the back of my head with one hoof. “Not to belittle what you’re going through, I’m sure.” He says, nodding to me. “I assume you are going to be heading out to New York soon?” My silence answers him as assuredly as though I had gone on a tirade about the injustices of Humanity. “Sorry, I didn’t...” He starts. “No I...” I interrupt. “I am still... thinking it over.” I explain. He nods and the rest of the repair continues in near silence. “Thank you for the water, Ken. I hope you have a great weekend.” I say as we gather our things, having made sure the computer was fixed and functioning fully. “Not a problem, here’s something for the road, if you decide to go.” He hands over a pair of glasses. I give him an odd look as I cradle them in my hooves. “I used to be a trucker for a while. Long drives and lots of time to think taught me that sometimes the brightest lights hurt to look at.” I let julien take the glasses and hover up to give Ken a hug. After a moment of hesitation, he returns it, careful not to get in the way of my buzzing wings. “Thanks Ken.” I say finally, as we return to our car and pull off towards our next destination, sunglasses now mostly covering my slightly red eyes. “That was nice of him.” Julien comments as we make our way down bumpy back roads. “Yeah.” I whisper, looking out the window at the nature around us. I wonder for a moment if hate is not necessary for us to understand kindness. On any other day, I would have responded with scorn at Ken’s generosity, berated him for being “creepy” or “out of line”. He just wanted to help, and he did. We pull up to the cabin in the woods that is home to another customer, and another computer in need of a new motherboard. This time I hover ahead and knock on the door. Hooves are impressively suited for this task and very soon the door is answered by an elderly woman. “Good afternoon Ms. Conley.” I say confidently. “My name is Erica. I’m here to fix your computer.” For a brief moment I think she is going to scream, but an entirely different noise comes from her. “Oooh dearie you are just a sight! Did you know you are a horse?” She asks, as though asking a child if they knew their shirt was on backwards. I almost fall over in surprise. “I... um... Pony, but yes.” I finally stammer from behind my sunglasses. “Oh, well do come in. This darned thing has been giving me so much trouble since....” Just like that, it becomes a normal service call. I even get in some practice using my hooves to hold a plastic scribe and pop the palmrest off since this model of laptop is a pain like that. I can’t hold a screwdriver, but I practice anyway. Ms. Conley makes small chat, and we end the appointment with goodbyes and wishes of well being. “Was she blind?” Julien finally asks. “I really don’t know, but she was able to see enough in the beginning and then she just... stopped caring,” I say, confused. “I guess she just got over it,” he says, laughing. We share a laugh and resume our day, my pose in the passenger seat much more upright and forward, for the first time today I really feel like I can do my job and get through this. Tomorrow.... I will cross that bridge when I come to it.