//------------------------------// // Riding in the rain // Story: Awakening Pink // by Masterweaver //------------------------------// "...and that's what I remember." My ears flicked idly toward Linda as she spoke with the police officer, but my gaze was focused skyward. Black clouds were rolling out of the setting sun; from atop the warehouse roof it was a quite beautiful phenomena. "Yes, I do think he is from a cartoon... no, ponies aren't at war with him, that is the changelings... but not anymore... I'm sorry, I know it's confusing...." Erishy smiled apologetically as the officer talking to her shrugged and left in annoyance. She walked over beside me, glancing at the storm in the distance. "Looks like it's gonna rain..." "I hope it does," she replied. "I love the rain." "Yes, I sent the robot about fifteen hundred miles west." Julien was being quite snippy with the officer talking to him. "I think it was easier than normal due to it being unreal like we are. Also, I used up pretty much all my energy." "Rain makes me sleepy," I commented. "Don't know what it is, I just burrow down and listen to that pitter patter on the roof..." "Well it may not make you sleepy anymore." Seeing as you're me now. Again with the moving lips... "I don't think we want to do the Gollum act in front of the cops, Pinkie. No offense." "Hey, if anypony's Gollum here, you're Gollum. This is my body. So I'm Smeagol." A sly smirk formed on my face. "So I get to say creep things and try to convince you to turn to the dark side?" I forced my voice down to a grinding gritty tone. "Bakses the cupcakes, precious, theys taste of good fishies!" "Ew!" Pinkie wrinkled up our snout in mock disgust. "Heeheehee..." Erishy giggled at our antics. "Have you seen lord of the rings enacted by ponies? I forget if I even make an appearance." She let out a sigh. "I can't wait to get home and just relax." "No, not really. I don't go too much for the custom animation... My youtube connection sucks," I explained. "I can barely get the new episodes." I pulled my hood over my head in preparation for the precipitation. "No, if I was going to send you to Nevada, I would have by now. Not like I had anything else to use my magic on, since we've been wasting time crawling at a snails pace across the states, the world will probably end by the time we get there..." Julien groused behind us. "No, what would make you think I was upset? I've answered all your questions, haven't I?" "I'm sorry sir, I only transformed this morning. I don't think I could use my magic in such a manner... Well I do feel a little tense, but that's from being cramped in a box." Linda, at least, was being more cordial. I let my mind wander as I watched the oncoming clouds. Something about Erishy's last comment, though, struck a chord with me. "By home.... which home do you mean?" She glanced away, hiding behind her mane. Silence reigned. "...are we friends Reid?" "Friend." I tilted my head, considering her question. "What an interesting word.... I had very few friends, before the pony thing. Even after most of my friends were online. But..." I nodded. "I would like to think we are friends." "No. Yes sir. No." Julien let out an aggravated sigh. "Are we done here?" "What? Oh... fine." Linda shook her head. "Julien, this nice officer wants to take a picture of us with him for his little girl." "Fine, I'm done with this one anyway." He walked over to the other side of the indicated officer, giving a somewhat strained smile as one of the policemen, rolling his eyes, pulled out a camera and snapped a photo. "You know, home's a very strange word too," I mused. "I've always felt comfortable anywhere, really. Just so long as I had a quiet nook to retreat to. I don't have a home, because... I feel the whole world is my home." "Yeah..." The pegasus nodded. "In this situation, when I say I can't wait to get home, I mean anywhere where I can be safe, with my friends." "Friends and family," I agreed amicably. "Pretty much the same thing...." I had two families now though. My mom back in Texas and my brothers and sister and my dad... and then, from the other memories, the Cakes, and the ponies back at the rock farm. Friends... I had more friends with hooves then I did with hands, and to be honest most of the human friends I had I knew via internet... I couldn't figure out which home I wanted to go to. I couldn't decide which one I needed more. "...We got to meet the Mythbusters," I finally commented, patting the pocket with Adam Savage's signature in it. "That's always fun." "Yeah..." Erishy chuckled. "They left really soon though, I probably scared them off..." "Great, now I suppose we can head to the hotel?" Julien asked tiredly. "Did the rest of the group catch up with us?" Linda rolled her eyes, taking her phone out of her purse with her magic. "We were flying, so... hold on....pick up pick up pick up...." "You? Scary?" I couldn't help but giggle uproariously at that idea, Fluttershy the monster. "Heeheehee.... hmmm. Maaaaaaaybe." "Hey Ginny. Yes, we're all right...." Linda grumbled as she adjusted her phone to her new face. "Nopony's hurt, the cops are here... no, I don't think she's traumatized.... We'll be heading for the hotel soon. No. Yes, I know that. What, really?" I sighed. "Here we go, a short conversation extends to half an hour..." "Rawr!" Erishy threw her hooves up in an aggressive gesture, just barely keeping a grin off her face. I smirked back, batting at one of the hooves with an aggressive meow. Julein's reply to our shenanigans was to roll his eyes. "Ugh. Just... just stay in the lobby, I promise we'll be right there." Lind shut her phone and glanced over at us. "Hey you two! Stop playing around, we need to get a cab back to the hotel." "Mrrow?" I folded my ears back at the rebuke. Erishy took the moment of distraction to return my attack with a boop on the nose and a roar. I scrunched up my muzzle; that had tickled. "What's up sweetieeeeaaaIIII mean Linda." "Wait, what?" Apparently Julien was just as surprised as what had come out of his mouth as Linda was, seeing as the two were staring at each other with a look of utter shock. "...Meeeerow," I finally commented with a grin. Linda glowered at me for a moment. Then she took a deep breath. "You know what, I'm just gonna... let's... let's just head downstairs." As we all trotted to the lower floors, I saw her failing to hide a small smirk on her face and managed to catch half-heard mutterings. As we got to street level, I pulled out my miraculously undamaged iPad. "Alright, nearest taxi service..." I flicked open a browser, inputting the address of the warehouse behind us into the google maps searchbar before I realized something". "Um... what was the address of our hotel again?" "No idea, but if you look up our DDR video I bet they have the name of the mall," Erishy suggested. "I'll call up Ginny... again..." Linda grumbled as she once more wrangled with a phone designed for human facial bones. "...Here's a random thought. If you're the complete fusion of Fluttershy and Erica, are you their daughter?" Erishy looked at me in complete horror, her eye even twitching a bit. "I don't have the backbone for motherhood. I mean, I have a hard enough time saying no to Angel, and he can't even speak." "So does that imply that Pinkie is going to be a parent in some twisted way?" Julien quipped. "There was a whole EPISODE devoted to me learning to be a good parent!" Pinkie snapped in an offended tone. "A good childtender," I pointed out, softening our face. "Not a good parent. There's a difference, Pinkie." "Oh come on, what's so weird about me being a mom?" "One, I'm here now. Two, a true parent ensures their child has... a future." I shrugged. "I've thought a lot about this. Three, you're more the crazy auntie then a mom." Pinkie rolled our eyes. "Look, I want to have kids SOMEDAY--" "We are not talking about this." "But--" she tried. "Nope." "Maybe--" she attempted. I tuned her out by singing nyancat. Loudly. Oh yeah, real mature, Reid. Reeeeeal mature. "Guys!" Linda snapped. "I'm on the phone!" I stopped my singing, hanging my head in shame as I realized just how childish I was being. Sorry, Pinkie.... "You are far more interesting than my internal problems." Erishy wrapped us in a warm hug. "Don't worry, I think you could make a great parent someday." "if she doesn't give it diabetes first," Julien quipped. "It's the whole... eleven months of being preggers that gets to me," I admitted. "Mostly cause, you know, I used to be a guy." "Stallions are wusses." "I've RPd birth, Pinkie, I'm just not ready for that yet. Heck I'm not ready for marriage yet." Pinkie rolled our eyes again. "Oh fine, I'll wait." "Uh huh. Okay." Linda snapped her phone off, dropping it back into her purse. "The address is 520 Minnesota Avenue." I nodded, plugging the address into the searchbar. It took me a moment, but I realized that I was still being hugged. "....I appreciate the concern, Erishy, but I think that it would be best for everypony if we just moved on from this." With an embarrassed cough, I slipped out of her grasp and began walking. "Taxi is that way." "Sorry, I like hugs." The pegasus shrugged as a cab drew near to us. Julien was glancing at Linda in what I think he thought was a surreptitious manner, but it wasn't long before Linda caught him. He chuckled a bit awkwardly and shrugged; she rolled her eyes and slipped into the cab without another word. I grinned, waving the stallion in after her. "Hey, we all like hugs. I just..." I tried to figure out what I was trying to say. "That was a rather... and... um..." I couldn't help but blush as I realized I... actually liked being hugged by Erishy. More then being hugged by other people.... No, stop. I clamped down hard on that train of thought. We're not going there, not yet. "You know what, I have no idea. Subject change.". "Rather what and what?" She slid in, giving me a confused look. "Sorry I didn't hear you." "Yeah, just...." I sat down next to her, keeping my gaze on the ground. "Forget it. It's a thing, it's past." Are you crushing on Shy? Are you Pinkie? ...Touche. "Oh, okay." The pegasus seemed to accept my explanation fairly quickly. "So we were gonna work on costumes tonight, still on you think?" I grinned, glad to be back on solid ground. "Yeppers. Can't let Dissy's shenanigans distract us, right? Otherwise he wins." The cab started rolling down the road. "That will be nice, it's been at least a few days since I had something constructive to do." "Mmmm. Doing things." I shut my eyes, leaning against the car door. "Interesting how useful it makes you feel." Julien stretched, his foreleg incidentally ending up around Linda's withers. She gave him a flat look. "That's the oldest trick in the book." "That's why it works." Linda looked into his smiling face with amusement... before suddenly and quickly pushing the hoof off her and staring out the window. "I'm sorry, I'm... still getting used to this." The unicorn was crestfallen. "Sorry." Linda sighed after a moment. "...Look, Julien. Or Shining, if you're there. I woke up this morning in a strange body, spent the entire day having a strange... impression in the back of my head, and I was just kidnapped by a mad scientist. Right now, all I want to do is relax and avoid the big questions. It's... it's not you, it's me." As if on cue, the rain began to pitter patter on the roof of the car. I grinned, perking my ears up to that relaxing deluge. Erishy leaned on my shoulder, eliciting another blush, but thankfully my hood was up and I could avoid the tangled questions in my head being accidentally revealed. "Hey, I understand, I'm just saying sorry because I don't want to make it harder on you than it already is." "Just--Look. Just don't say anything!" Linda was quiet for a moment, before taking a deep breath. "....I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap--" "Golden rule, Linda," I said calmly. "Treat others as you wish to be treated. You want quiet, be quiet." "Do you want a hug Linda?" Erishy offered gently. "...I... Ugh. Sure, why not..." I felt the pegasus release her pressure on me, presumably to wrap the pink pony princess in a comforting embrace. A smile was on my lips as I heard the swishing of the windshield wipers; the song of falling water became a lullaby, and I drifted to a black rest.