//------------------------------// // Discoveries, Bureaucratic Hurdles and a Swearing Wonder Woman Cosplayer // Story: Blossoming: Learning How To Fly // by nanashi_jones //------------------------------// Carlisle was a concerned friend, but he wasn’t that informed. When I messaged him to find out any places that Rhea went to relax or unwind that wasn’t her home, the best he had was one of Tulsa’s many parks. That was something I remembered from my last visit to my parents: Tulsa was big on public parks. Rhea had apparently taken a liking to the Johnson one. It was barely a few miles away by flight. We didn’t even have to leave Suzy to see she wasn’t there. One pony was walking with a person, but he had the wrong mane color. “Great,” Jess said, flopping on the cloud to stare at the sky. I frowned at the park. This was the problem with online friends. Unless the person on the other side of the keyboard was forthcoming, it was hard to get a sense of where they lived. Soul-sharing moments happened and iron clad connections could be formed, but an idea of what one region was like compared to another? Forget it. The information we needed was for the locals and even the people nearby knew Rhea mostly through IM chats. We needed a new direction. I closed my eyes. “Going into your mind palace?” Jess asked. “Just... Thinking,” I said, only a bit testily. My name’s Rhea. I’m scared, I’m a new pony and even if I know about what’s going on, I don’t have anyone I can reach out to because my hooves don’t type. So why did I leave my apartment...? “Why did she leave her apartment?” I said aloud. “Because... Hm. She was scared?” Jess said, her voice aimed skyward. “Well, yes. But that little one bed, one bath, super cramped thing, should have kept her in place. Maybe not answer the phone or barely be able to get online, but she wasn’t one to wander. Instead, she packs a some essentials, takes her laptop and phone and... Why?” “Laptop?” Jess asked. “Wireless router next to the TV is just for her phone? Doubtful. Laptop’s more likely.” Jess made a humph-ing noise. “C’mon, Rhea... Why?” What would Blossomforth and January have- Well they wouldn’t have done anything because they... “A-ha!” I said. “What’s up?” Jess asked, sitting up. “Her pony talked her into leaving. Best bet? Leaving for NY. She couldn’t get online and now she had this friend in her head cheering her on to the biggest collection of Equestria on Earth. That’d get me out of the house. “Still... She couldn’t drive in her state, so she’d have walked. Now we just have to find the nearest form of transit...” I opened up the iPad and found the park’s wifi. Everything had wifi these days. After some login shenanigans, I started Googling around for bus stops, shuttles, taxicab- “No,” I said to myself, thinking out loud. “She wouldn’t do taxi. Too expensive. Bus maybe. Plane perhaps...” Jess had risen to look over my shoulder now, to see what I was tapping out. “And we look, look, look and YES. Bus route! Nearby!” Smiling at Jess I stowed the iPad in my backpack and flapped over, securing the cloud line to Suzy. “Let’s go, Jess! The game is ON!” Hitching next to me, we winged our way to the bus stop nearby the apartment complex. “What do you think you’re going to find at the bus stop?” Jess asked. “Something. Anything!” I crowed, nerves and excitement spinning around inside me making my heart race. We came on the stop quickly, and I dove from Suzy to the ground, a white, pink and green rocket. It surprised the hell out of two teenagers milling at the stop when I landed in a whumph of dirt. “Hi, don’t mind me,” I said in a variation of January’s cheerful, I-know-what-I’m-doing voice. “Talking pony with wings on official talking pony with wings business.” They blinked warily at me and one nodded while the other simply stared. As I looked around the stop, Jess touched down next to me with significantly less force. She made a weak, chuckling noise which I guessed was an attempt at placating the guys further. “Couldn’t have hoofed it, wouldn’t have walked it, woul- Yes! Again! The day of lucky breaks is today!” Jess came over to me and I pointed at some hoofprints around the garbage can that disappeared onto the sidewalk. “And how do we know that’s her?” Jess asked. “She may not be the only pony on public transit in Tulsa.” “It fits the facts thus far, tenuous as they are and-” I blanched. “What?” Jess was good at puzzles. I was good at spotting things. Both as January and Blossomforth. I may not have been good at putting it together, but I noticed the bent cuff, the dirt on a shoe, when someone kept glancing to a certain spot. Some details just stuck out to me. Details like a travelbag with a button for Luna’s Night Guard pinned on. Most everyone would have passed the line of bushes between the QuikTrip and the bus stop and not given the shadows beneath a second glance, but I did. Rolled under the bush so it was just out of sight, was that travelbag. Rhea’s travelbag. ~ “Lucky break,” I said, back at Suzy. Rhea’s travelbag was in my lap. “Yeah,” Jess commented. “How long before someone would have gone- nice bag, wonder if I need to call the cops?” The bag had clearly been tossed, which didn’t make me feel better. Images of someone rolling up, grabbing Rhea and throwing her bag out of sight filled my mind. My stomach clenched in response. “Speaking of, I think this is police territory,” Jess said. “We have a missing pony now. Plenty of stuff to point that out.” I didn’t even realize I had been stroking the bag with my hoof. Almost as if I was trying to reassure myself that Rhea was okay. Everything was fine. She’d just dropped it and the bus had taken off before she could pick it up again. “Janu- Hrm. Blossom? Are you okay?” “I screwed up,” I said softly. Silence came for a stretch. Then, I heard a sigh from behind me and some soft hoofsteps toward me through the cloud. Jess sat down next to me. I kept looking at the bag. “I said I’d find her,” I whispered, finally. “You said you’d try.” “But I had promised myself, I’d find her. Tell Carlisle everything was okay. And now... Now it is very far from okay.” She hesitated for a half-second, but she did lean against me, covering me with a wing. “We’re doing our best here...” she murmured softly, supportive. I blinked. “No, we’re not,” I replied, straightening up. Biting down on the zipper, I pulled it open and found the bag’s contents. Thick-looking t-shirt, laptop, power adapters, toothbrush and some toiletries. The laptop was clearly bad off. Further evidence that the bag had been tossed. “Come on, come on,” I muttered looking through the contents. “Come on... I hate giving people bad news when I can help it.” “Blossom...” Jess murmured behind me. “There’s gotta be something here...” I grumbled, picking up the cracked screen laptop and turning it around in my hooves. “Blos-som...” “Something!” “BLOSSOM!” I turned. On the end of her hoof, Jess held an identification tag connected to the bag. She held back a flap and underneath that flap read: If found, please call Rhea at... And there was her phone number. Her phone number, which would likely be her cell because I hadn’t seen any hardline hookups in the apartment. Her phone number, which would be her cell in her purse. Her phone number, which would be her cell, in her purse, with her. I grinned. “Stars, I love you, Firefly,” I said. Jess’s expression clouded and she coughed, but a weak smile blossomed. We had a lead. ~ Everypony should be lucky enough to call on Wonder Woman when they were in a pinch. Even if the Wonder Woman in question was just a cosplayer and a cop, it was reassuring to be able to put in that call. “In a bush?” Diana’s voice said. “Yep,” I answered. “Laptop’s trashed, got what I’d think are some favorite clothes and toiletries in here. Plus a phone charger without a phone.” Diana swore impressively. “I like her,” I told Jess, who snorted, almost generating a smile. “Okay. Carlisle gave me a number that matches what’s on the bag. Gimme a few minutes.” The line went quiet as I was put on hold. “What do you think?” I asked. “She’ll call in support, maybe a favor,” Jess answered, her tone a little detached. “We’ll get asked questions on the back end.” “Ugh,” I said, making a face. “If only we were the Doctor. Leave the paperwork to someone else, eh?” Jess blinked at me for a few seconds before turning away, brow furrowed. I took a breath and tried to compose myself so I didn’t feel as stung by the act as I was. Stars, I felt helpless. Like I wasn’t doing enough. Not that I knew what to do. I kept trying to comfort her, but that just seemed to make her stiff or confused. I missed my instincts, which had changed from mystical force to oddly sensible part of my thought process. So, I did what I thought was sensible and lay a comforting hoof on Jess’s shoulder. She looked at it, then me and almost smiled. Almost. “Got an area,” Diana said, bringing my attention back to the phone. “Not too far. Maybe twenty, twenty five miles from where you are.” “So what do you need from us?” “You’ve done more than enough. Let me see if I can call through some channels and I’ll-” “I’ll wait on the line,” I butted in. Silence. “Really?” Diana said. “Life’s a cloud for me,” I said. “I can wait.” She exhaled a breath that could have been construed as a laugh. “Alright. Hang on. This isn’t going to be quick.” “I have the minutes, go for it.” And again the dull silence of not-a-disconnect, but no hold music. I set my phone to speaker and set it down on the fluffy cloud with a bit of pegasus magic to ensure it wouldn’t fall through. Jess had gotten out from under my hoof during the phone call to wander to one side of Suzy. She had let her wings droop while she stared out into the landscape of Oklahoma. Admittedly, it wasn’t much to stare at, but she stared. I went over to her, plopping down. “How you holding up?” I asked. “I want to lay down and cry and never get up again,” she said. She didn’t look at me, didn’t even seem to emote. Her voice sounded like how she looked: spent, hollow, like her entire being was a cave and only occasional words and emotion were being thrown out. I took a steadying breath. Licked my lips. “Can I help?” I asked, my voice softer now. “Can you bring back the woman I love?” My eyes closed and I turned slightly from her. I wished I could. I wished I could undo it, make Blossomforth and January separate again. I wished I could be that mare she needed again. I wished a lot of things as I held the tears at bay. None of them would give Jess the comfort she needed. She saw the mare she loved as dead. I could tell her all day that I was still January in many ways, but it wouldn’t be enough. She needed me as January in every way. That’s who she loved. Though the merge had intended to bring harmony to Blossomforth and January, I was starting to think the magic was bunk because it was only bringing disharmony to my relationship with Jess. “I’m here if you need me,” I said finally, opening my eyes and draping a wing. Jess pushed the wing off and went to another side of the cloud. I blinked a few times and went over to her, only to have her repeat the process and as I was about to try a third time, she shot me a glare that could have set my mane and tail on fire. “Don’t. I want to be alone.” She looked down. “Or as alone as I can get.” I backed off. Moving to the other side of the cloud, I powered up my laptop and started scrolling through Tumblr. Blind. It felt like there was a balloon in my chest. It felt like it should burst. It should burst and let me cry and bleed and vent all this pain that was backing up in me. It should have. It wasn’t. I can’t remember why I didn’t outright cry at what was going on. Maybe I wanted to stay strong for Jess, January and Blossomforth both had a history of doing that. Maybe I still held hope that she would come around and see that my love for her remained unchanged. Maybe I was too absorbed with Rhea. Maybe a lot of things. I do know that I just felt lost. So, I sniffed, and tapped at scrolling keys with able wings. Jess sat on the other side of the cloud, ignoring me. Perfect team, we were. Diana came back on the speaker swearing even more impressively than before. Knocked from my morose thoughts, I picked up the phone with a tired laugh. “I don’t think that’s physically possible, Diana,” I said, my voice a bit rough. “Doesn’t matter. They can’t move!” “Who can’t?” “There’s an incident right now, something big and they pulled all available departments. Earliest will be tomorrow! Arrgh!” She added some colorful words about budget cuts and two-faced politicians. I kind of wanted her to keep going because I was learning so much, but Rhea was priority. “So... What can we do?” I asked. “Nothing,” Diana spat. “I’ve made the file, the fact it’s getting looked at tomorrow is a big favor actually. Goddamn bureaucracy. The one time-” “So. Diana. What can Jess and I do?” The line went quiet. “Nothing,” Diana said stiffly. “You’re civilians.” “You can’t... Deputize us or anything?” “Not my jurisdiction. I couldn’t deputize you to be dog walkers right now.” I took a breath, looked at Jess who’s only indication she was listening was a swivelled ear, and closed my eyes. “Well, we’re going to stay in Tulsa, keep looking. Maybe we can get a uniform if we stumble across something.” Again, the line was quiet. “That’s diligent of you.” “She’s a fellow fan,” I said. “And now a pony. We gotta look out for each other.” I opened my eyes. “I know you can’t tell me where the phone trace is- the investigation is ongoing after all.” “Of course,” Diana said, her voice rising carefully. “I’ll be in touch with Carlisle in case anything changes on your end.” “That’s helpful.” “Thank you for all your help, Detective.” “I should be thanking you,” she said, her voice genuinely warm. We said our goodbyes and I waited, phone balanced on my hoof. It took a few minutes, but Jess turned to regard me. “What are you doing?” she asked. “Waiting for the location of-” My phone’s text alert went off and I pulled up a number that I figured was either Carlisle’s or someone who Diana just ran into. I smiled at the address. “I really owe Diana a hoofbump,” I said with a smile.