Awakening Pink

by Masterweaver


Kindness and Laughter

When I sleep in a car, it's not a very deep sleep. Every few stops my eyes flicker open briefly, and I sometimes force myself awake. I have to give credit to that cabbie, though, he got us where we were going... fairly quickly anyway.

As I jolted awake one last time, I realized that the hotel had come into view. I could vaguely hear Erishy asking something, and shook my head to catch it; by the time my ears were awake, however, Linda was already answering.

"...but they couldn't do anything but call the cops. They've been waiting for us ever since then."

I grinned, shaking off the last of my sleep and hopping out into a veritable monsoon. "Well then, let's head in." Erishy hopped out after me, giggling a little as she let the rain run through her feathers before scrambling to my side. And... leaning in a bit. Thankfully my hood was up, so she didn't see me blushing...

Pinkie, this is your body! Tell it Fluttershy--Erishy I mean, tell it she's just a friend!

Are you sure she is?

...You'd have to like her too!

You know you're being silly, and not in a haha way like I am but in a 'who's a silly pony you is' kind of way. If you like her then you like her, no ifs ands or buts! Well maybe a few butts but that's further down the line. Anyway, I'm okay with you dating her if you want to and--

By that point we'd managed to get in the building, and I decided to squash the matter entirely by giving a vigorous shake. Practically every droplet of water left my body... and clung to Erishy's mane and tail, making the whole situation EVEN WORSE.

See? Even when she's drenched she's cute.

Pinkie, it's just an emotional extension of meeting somebody who brought me out of my shell a bit. I've had this sort of thing before, and last time... I gave a mental sigh. Last time, I didn't make a move and she went on happy enough without me. I'm not going to push myself on Erishy either.

Reid and Erica, Sit-ting in a tree... K I S S I N G!

I decided to ignore the shipper in my head, instead walking over to the group waiting in the lobby. "Hey guys, you miss me?"

Apparently that was too casual. Jacqueline looked at me, practically in hysterics. "That's it? You were just kidnapped by who knows who and, and, and--"

"And it happened, and it's past, and we're all together again." Pinkie walked over and patted her reassuringly on the shoulder. It was still a bit odd, but I think I was getting used to switching out control at this point.

"Anyone want hugs? Hugs help when facing the scary and inexplicable." Erishy smiled gently at the gathered cosplayers.

Almost instantly the two ladies wrapped all us colorful horses up in their arms--even Julien, who had been standing a polite distance from Linda. I returned the hug with a reassuring smile as they both cried their hearts out--hey, I can't help it if everybody loves me--and Linda managed to awkwardly wrap her own limbs around her friends.

"Yay!" Erishy struggled a bit, accidentally immobilized by her wet mane being entangled in the embrace. "So now we can all go to the rooms and relax right? I like the idea of relaxing."

Jackie sniffed, releasing us. "O-Of course, darling, it's just... We were all so worried about you..."

"He didn't hurt you, did he?" Ginny backed off and cracked her knuckles. "If he did, I swear I'll--"

"Just my pride," I admitted with a sigh as I hung my head. "I don't know if it'll ever recover though..." I didn't know if anypony could ever... really respect me. Appreciate, tolerate, love... but respect... I didn't know about.

"We are fine," Erishy added with a giggle, oblivious to my own musing. "I kinda feel bad for the poor guy..."

"What?" Ginny gave her a look of confusion. "Why?"

"It was Doofenshmirtz," I explained with a snort.

"Who?"

Ian rose an eybrow. "You're kidding."

"He was... basically a cartoon mad scientist, called himself evil and had a giant machine for throwing ponies at people." Linda shrugged helplessly.

Her Fluttershy-obsessed friend crossed her arms. "You're fucking me."

Said yellow pegasus waved a conciliatory hoof. "He was nice, I mean besides the evil scientist thing, he was okay...."

"Well he probably died from the fall," Julien commented with a shrug. "Or bounced, I dunno."

I glowered at him. "Not. Funny." Taking death so lightly was just not something you DID in my books.

"He probably had a jetpack..." Erishy offered, trying to neutralize the situation.

"He's probably alive, anyway," I grumbled. "Don't joke about his death."

"Well! Ahem." Jackie brought her hands together. "I have the costuming cloth station up for anybody who would like to help me with it. I already carved out your Midna helmet, the paint just needs to dry."

Instantly, Pinkie took control, smiling and bouncing eagerly over to the cosplayer. "Wow! Can I see it?"

"Anything I can wingstitch?" Erishy asked, unfurling her feathers for show.

"I... don't know."

I rolled my eyes at her blank stare. "Let her see what you have, she can decide if she can do it."

"Right." Jackie smiled, gesturing to us and walking towards the stairs. We followed her to a room filled with bolts of cloth, a few outfits already on the mannequins and some designs laied out for servicing. The bearer of Kindness immediatel flew over to one, grabbing a needle and thread in her feathers and taking up a work position in the corner. I on the other hand/hoof was drawn to the large gray object resting on a plastic head.

"Eeeeeeeeee!"

Jackie smiled as I bounced up and down in front of the helm I would wear come the morrow. "Glad you like it."

"Gamecube version too!" It was Midna's helmet! It was the first fused shadow, RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF MY EYES! "YesYesYesYes--!"

I took a moment to force myself into stillness. No need to accidentally break the thing in my eagerness.

"Ahem. I don't want to get in your way, so I'll just head over to where Figment is." With a grin, I stepped out of that magical room, leaving the two wizards to do what they did while I checked on my old buddy and my own brand of magic.

The dragon had faithfully guarded my sketches and saddlebags, waiting patiently for my return. I rubbed his head, giving him a bright grin before I plunked myself on the edge of my bed. My iPad was pulled out again, and as I opened the browser my hooves danced across the modified digital keyboard.

Hey mom! I'm in Kansas city, and I'm all right. Apparently Discord (think Q as an evil chimera) managed to get Doctor Doofenshmirtz into this reality to try to attack us... being Doof, nothing really came of it. Anyway, I'm winding down now.... tomorrow me and the other ponies are going to go trick or treating! Happy Halloween!

With that taken care of, I decided it might be a good time to check the news for pony related articles. I smirked as I plugged the words into the search bar, only able to wonder what crazy shenanigans Rarity and Applejack might have gotten into, or whether the CMC had done anything wild.

My smile faded, however, as the first news article popped up.

Unicorn Hospitalized, Princesses Missing

There was an image of Twilight.... stable, but hooked up to so many machines that I couldn't even begin to guess what had happened to her.

Pinkie began crying, the tears squirting out in waterfalls, but I kept a firm grip on our throat and muted our sobs. As we read further and further down the article, I could feel our mane straightening. I won't... I won't lie. I wasn't reading just to find out what happened, but because some... cold, logical part of me wanted to know exactly how it happened, to catalog the data away in a file labeled 'Obscure Medical Knowledge'.

Reid... please. Pinkie pulled the device to our chest. Just stop reading.

I didn't resist. Even though I was curious... the pain and disgust I felt outweighed that.

We sat there, silently releasing rivers of tears in cartoonishly exaggerated arcs, until at last there were no more tears to use.

...Sh....Should we tell the others?

I didn't answer immediately. My thoughts went down to that hug I had engaged in down in the lobby; to the honestly upset faces of Jackie and Ginny. To my own, unintentionally callous reaction.

"Hey, Erishy," I eventually called out. "Could you come here for a second?" I took a moment to flick my hood up and wrap a blanket around my waist, hiding my mane and tail.

The hooves of the yellow pegasus clicked in behind me. "Yes.... Reid?"

"Could you, maybe, shut the door?"

"Y... yes?" I heard the latch click closed. "Are you okay?"

No. I didn't answer the question verbally... not yet. I was trying to think how to approach the conversation... and I eventually settled for a sideways angle. "So, you’re the element of Kindness, right?"

"Well... yes, I gained it again so I suppose I am..." Erishy glided over the bed, sitting next to me. "Are you okay? Did you get hurt?" The worry in her voice was painful for me to hear

"Well, you know how oblivious Pinkie can be, sometimes, and.... as an aspie, I often quipped that I lacked the natural empathy others had. So, you know, kindness is something that.... it’s very easy for me to be unintentionally unkind. Can I get some advice?"

She scooted a bit closer to me. "Well... Being blunt or being oblivious isn’t unkind. I mean, Pinkie didn’t mean to make Cranky upset, she just wanted to help him. A mistake like that isn’t mean, but if she had simply started breaking things on purpose, that would be. You... Um... You blame yourself a lot, don’t you?"

"I blame myself for what is my fault. I’m intelligent enough to recognize what isn’t. But... this isn’t about that." I finally managed to look at her, only then realizing she was hiding behind her mane. "If.... If you discovered something horrible, learned about a terrible event just after coming out of something else that was pretty bad, and your friends didn’t know... should you tell them? Compound their worries? Or just keep it close to heart?"

I guess I should have expected the hug I received. After all, it was Fluttershy. "Oh Reid... You can’t be alone. There are six of us for a reason. Nopony, noone should ever be alone, especially when dealing with something terrible..." She gazed into me face with those sympathetic mossgreen eyes of hers. "What happened?"

I seriously considered telling her it was nothing. I seriously considered just hiding the truth from her... but eventually, I realized that would be dishonest, and even if honesty wasn't my element it was an element

Involuntarily I chuckled as the appropriate term came to mind. "Yamato Nadeshiko."

"....Gazuntight?"

"It’s Japanese." I rolled my eyes. "You know parts of the fandom have declared you honorarily Japanese? It would explain the eyes, i can never draw your eyes... Anyway, I learned about the term from TVTropes. Yamato Nadeshiko, japanese wildflower. A cultural ideal of womanhood: Softspoken, elegant, but with a core of iron."

Erishy leaned back, frowning at the description. "I am not elegant. You know why I decline going to dinners? I can’t hold utensils." She produced an invisible spoon for emphasis. "No idea. I try really really hard but I’m always afraid I’m going to drop them."

"Mmmmhmmm, and you were a model and pretty much everybrony thinks making you cry is a federal crime. But..." I sighed. "It’s not the elegance I was referring to. It’s the iron core." The iPad traveled from my hooves into hers. "Because you’re going to need that."

As her eyes darted across the article, the pegasus began to hyperventilate. "T...Twilight? We need to get to New York.... I..." Her hooves wrapped around me tightly. "We can’t let her be alone either. We need to leave Reid.... We need to leave now."

I should have said yes. My heart was screaming for me to say yes, Pinkie was desperate to agree, but...

"Why?"

I listened to my head.

"If we leave now... we look like we’re panicking. We look like we’re panicking, and the world panics. I hate it, Erishy, I hate being stuck here, but right now..." Tears began to fall down my cheek as I forced the next words out. "Right now, things are dark, and the world needs a little laughter. I think we should... still go trick or treating tomorrow, just so everybody knows we still have hope."

I felt sick for suggesting it. Literally sick. And as we hugged each other in that hotel bedroom... I wondered why I did.