//------------------------------// // Finger Envy // Story: Awakening Pink // by Masterweaver //------------------------------// Pchop! That's how my toaster sounds when the waffles pop out. I grabbed the foodstuff with my mouth and placed it on the plate I'd gotten out while I was waiting. Normally I'd go for a quick meal but... to my newfound sense of smell, something was missing. "Hmmmm. Needs syrup." Objectives determined, I pursued my new-found quest with vim and vigor! By which I mean I opened the fridge and reached out for the syrup with a hoof. A few moments of struggling to grip the thing earned the universe an exasperated sigh, and I decided to just grab the darn thing with my mouth. I placed it onto the counter next to my plate, scrambling to get into the bar-stool height chair--not easy as a waist-high quadruped, but doable--and realized, belatedly, that the syrup had a screw-on cap. It was a good thirty seconds before I did anything other then stare at the thing. "...Okay. Reid, put the frustration away for now. What tools do you have at hand?" I rolled my eyes.. "Or at hoof as the case may be." After a few moment's careful concentration, an idea formed in my head. I clamped the glass jug between my forehooves, bringing it closer to the edge of the counter, and carefully tilted it out. Then I bit down on the lid firmly. Thank the Faust for Pinkie's flexible neck, that's all I have to say... Once I had opened the jug, it was a simple matter to tilt it carefully over the plate. The viscous fluid descended onto the waffles with wondrous precision. I stopped the flow eventually, putting down the jug and grinning at my accomplishment. "I have made waffles!" Then I realized what I just said. "...I have made waffles." With a sigh, I put my head in my hooves. "This is now an accomplishment. Great. Just greeeeeat." Another thought hit me. "How in the world am I going to draw?" And then another. "How am I going to use the internet?" And then a third. "Heck, how am I going to use my wallet?" I leaned back, examining my new appendages with a bit more interest. "You guys are going to be a major problem if I don't do something soon." My stomach made a sound that, in another body, could be described as a rumble but here sounded more like a water balloon squishing around. You know with all the squeakiness and, um, sloshing. "...Eh, I think better on a full stomach anyway." The hoof thing was important, and I was already rapidly developing a number of ideas ranging from a brony hand servant to cybernetic pony hands. But for the moment, I used my newly found jaw flexibility to chow down on the syrupy waffles. This day was having its ups and downs. And it wasn't even five yet. Actually, speaking of five, that's when everybody else in the house normally started waking up. The kids--my siblings, mostly, one of them has moved out--would be shaken awake by Mom, who needed them to all get up and get ready for the ride to Church. Since today was a Sunday and all. See, usually I think to mention these details before hand, I think Pinkie's distracting me with her thoughts--ANYwho, Dad would basically just get ready and help get the kids where they needed to go. Of course, there was the whole part where I was pony now, for no as of yet adequately explained reason. Well, whoop de doo. I still had a few minutes before that happened, though, so after finishing my meal and putting my plate in the dishwasher (and, yes, putting the syrup away, I'm no heathen), I walked to the stairs. This time I was cautious, pressing myself against the outer wall for stability, and soon enough I had made it back into the comfortable mess of my bedroom. Taking off the stocking cap and shirt--"Pinkie, you have excellent taste in PJs."--I grabbed a t-shirt and, after some struggle, managed to slid into it. Normally I go neck first, arms second, but this new shape necessitated a reversal of the pattern. Right, back to the question at hand. Hooves. I giggled involuntarily at my mental pun, before running my mind through various scenarios. One particular fanfic, though, suddenly cropped up in my memory; the fic itself was about a college girl rooming with Rainbow Dash, but it had added a small detail of Rainbow getting these sort of rubber band things around her hooves to handle a world built for hands. "...Big rubber bands, of course!" Beaming at my ingenuity, I tried to remember where the big rubber bands were, but my gaze landed on the metal drawer that served as my precisely organized lego container. "Ooooor something even better, ha!" I pulled the thing open, digging through the small chambers within. "Where are they, where are they... aha!" With triumph, I removed two black rings from the pile of plastic gears. In the original Mindstorms set, they would have been used as tank tracks, essentially. But now, the rubber circles--and more importantly, the various notches on them--would serve as replacement digits. It was a bit of a tight fit, but I managed to slip them on around my hooves. Then I headed out of my room and to my computer desk.... which really was just a corner of the wall shelving that happened to be at desk level. More importantly, though, my coat was still hanging off the back of my chair, and in its pockets were a slew of pencils. Oh how I love my pencils... And today, how they would serve me. I grabbed a few of the wooden wands of wonder, sliding them gently between my skin and the rubber of the lego-made product... "And Viola! Do it yourself fingers. I am totally brilliant..." I sat down with a sigh. "...not that they can do anything besides poking." The loss of fingers hit me hard. Maybe it was a bit slow for me to realize, but... I'm a writer, an artist. It was all I did before I connected to humanity in high school. And now, now I couldn't do much more then type... was this all an exercise in futility? A felt-feeling thought cropped up then; an image of the rising sun. "...you're right, Pinkie, there still is a future. I won't let this get me down. I'll... figure out a new way to draw! Mouthdrawings! All the rage in this modern age!" I stood up, pointing dramatically with a pencil. "And I won't stop until... until the spider-kittens tell me to!" Take the problems, one at a time! That's the Reid way, and that's the Pinkie way too! Wake up as a pony? Get used to the new body! Lose your fingers? MAKE NEW ONES! Don't have a clue what's going on? TO GOOGLE! Speaking of which, I should wake up my computron. Ah, the iMac. A thing of compact beauty, and so less inexpensive then trying to keep up with the rat race of constantly updating upgrades for electronics. I'm saving for the nanobot revolution, it's totally coming. Self-upgrading computers... won't it be grand? While I was pondering the future of technology, my computer winked to life and informed me it was ready for work. Right. Log in--no I'm not telling my password--open the browser, type in Pony News to the search bar. "Huh...." Well, apparently SOMETHING happened. Flicking through the articles, I got the gist of what everybody was worried about. Lauren Faust was now Princess Celestia; the Fausticorn is become the Lifegiver. Oh, and the week had... a bunch of new days. So apparently today wasn't Sunday anymore? Oh, wait, didn't kick in till tomorrow. Which made no sense, since Saturday was the end of the week. And therefore made perfect sense, since it seemed very... Discordian. Such are the paradoxes of logic. "Heh, Discord, so contextually predictable..." Time to narrow down the search. Elements of Harmony, that's of personal interest! I flicked through the new news posts, finding that the elements had been ordered by the Fausticorn to go to New York. Apparently the world was in danger or something. One problem at a time, Reid, one problem at a time... "Okay. First, New York. How is that going to work? No driver's license, can't drive.... Airplane? Too expensive for short notice. Oh hey, this news article is about Fluttershy!" Easily distracted by my voice-sister, because EVERYPONY knows Pinkie and Flutters are voiced by the same lady, I clicked the link. Apparently, the shy one had a facebook page. Facebook. I... had bad memories. ....but, eventually, I swallowed my pride, reactivated my old account and friended her. Then I shut the tab entirely and breathed in deeply. "Wow. That was... easier then I remembered. Huh. Hahaha!" Right, back to the problem, transportation. "...Excuse me, miss, but are you a pony?" Scratch that, the problem is now explaining things to my mom.