//------------------------------// // The More We Change The More We Laugh About It // Story: Blossoming: Learning How To Fly // by nanashi_jones //------------------------------// Time passed. We got room service. I stayed close to Cloud. The time passed like waiting on a loved one to come out of surgery. Except, we hadn’t been warned by any doctor how long it would take. Rhea tried to distract me with TV and small talk, but my gaze kept wandering back to Cloud. And Jessica. Would they come out okay? Could they ever forgive me for going through with something that tore away not one, but two faces from them? The waiting was killing me. Rhea sighed and turned off the TV. “Are all... ‘Fusions’ like this? ‘Cause if so, Night can stay on her side of the brain,” she said. I smiled. Rhea and I found I liked frank and direct. Especially in dire times like this. It woke me out of my rut and gave me perspective. After considering my experiences, I said, “Mine wasn’t like this. I just went to sleep one night and after a dream...” I shrugged. “New pony.” “It doesn’t hurt?” I shook my head. “How’d you... You know.” “It was the right thing to do,” I replied. Rhea tilted her head at me. “Well, okay,” I said. “That sounds... Um.” I tapped my hoof on my chin. “The way the magic works- You can feel it,” I explained. “It’s trying to sort you and your pony out and find the best way that works for everyone. “My way blended January and Blossomforth so much that my cutie mark changed.” I gestured to my flank. “Other ponies I met at this mixer yesterday? All over the map. Some felt more at ease, no cutie mark change, and others maybe had a change to their eyes or a bit of their mane. One guy had fused, but still had both pony and human in his head because that worked best for him.” I shrugged. “Near as I can tell, every fusion is as different as the personalities involved.” Rhea whistled low. “Deep.” “Totally,” I said, a crooked smile growing on my lips. “Whaddaya think is going on in her?” I looked at Cloud, whose mouth had opened and was making a bit of a Jess-like snore. At least, I hoped it was a bit of a Jess-like snore. “They’re pretty different- Cloud’s definitely more of an extrovert than Jess, but they’re also both stubborn and strong willed. They’re... Working it out. I hope.” Rhea nodded. “Here’s to hoping.” “Seconded,” Night said. Rhea rolled her eyes as I laughed. “I’m gonna have a talk with you,” Rhea said to the empty air, poking at it with her hoof. “Just you wait.” “I’m up for a talk! C’mon, we can so sort this,” Night replied. Night was obviously more outgoing than Rhea and in the time we’d spent together, I was starting to see when Rhea was in charge as opposed to Night. She smiled more and had this little, flitting glint in her eye while Rhea would listen more and direct her gaze. Heh. The magic really seems to find pairs that complement one another, I thought. “You know, you can keep the conversation in your head,” I said with a soothing smile. Rhea shook her head. “Nuh-uh. This is weird enough. I wanna make sure if I’m talking to Night, it can be where I know I can hear it.” “I’m with her,” Night said, slouching back against the other bed. “It’s messed up enough in here without trying to keep up who’s talking to who.” “Are you calling me crazy?” Rhea countered, sitting up sharp. “Nah, just cray cray.” I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Watching somepony earnestly argue with herself was just... It was like Gollum from Lord of the Rings only without the scary factor. How could it be? Night Shade was pretty adorable. “Glad we’re entertaining,” Rhea grumbled. “Sorry,” I chortled, waving a hoof in added apology. “It’s just, Jess and Cloud were kind of reserved and I haven’t really gotten to see this so...” I snorted. Rhea sighed, rolling her eyes. “Okay, yeah. I guess it’d look funny from the outside.” “It definitely is,” I confirmed with a nod of my head. “And I know funny. Well, goofy really. I used to be the ‘Pinkie’ of my group of friends.” “Used to?” Rhea cocked her head. “You were pretty funny back there.” I waved a hoof dismissively. “Only when I’m not thinking about it. It’s really annoying. I like making everyone smile and such, but if I concentrate on it, all I get are these... Awkward silences.” “Zen comedy,” Night said with a sagely nod. “Just Zen,” I said, shrugging one shoulder. “Um, can we pause this here?” Rhea asked. “I gotta use the bathroom.” “Sure thing,” I said. Rhea went in and shut the door. I turned my ears away lest they give me some info I’d rather not have. I looked at the still sleeping Cloud. “Wish I could be funny for you right now,” I said, softly. I snorted. “Guess I haven’t really been funny since this whole thing started. Well, since I merged, really.” My hoof reached out and I started stroking her. From neck to rump it went, slow and with care. “Blossomforth’s better at your kind of communication, Jess, but I guess I got all January and backed off again. Trying to control everything like Cloud. From a distance.” I sighed. “And here I am, being all morose. You don’t deserve morose, you work too hard. You and Cloud. You deserve me confident, sure of myself.” I bit my lip. “Whoever that is.” A slight smile came to me as memory welled up from within. “You know, that’s one of the reasons I fell for you Cloud?” I said, the smile tickling a bit further. “The first time I laid eyes on you, well, besides thinking how great you looked. Heh.” I blushed for just myself. “Well, actually, that was part of how you looked so good. You were so... Sure and confident of yourself. Jess was the same way. She just... Knew herself so thoroughly and you both turned me inside out. All of me!” I laughed. “You weren’t content with who I tried to be, you wanted the real me.” I waved my hind legs a bit. “Now I can’t help being that. Not January nor Blossomforth, but some blend of both and I don’t know how to be anyone else.” My gaze wandered to the abstract painting hanging above the bed. I wondered absently why hotels put these in. “I guess I can write Time Lord regenerations with some authority, huh? I’m all different and the same at the same time. Wish I could show you that. Open up my chest and be- Here’s me! See! Still good! Still love you.” I sighed. “But it doesn’t work that way, does it?” I said, eyes on the pointless painting. “I don’t even know who I am yet. What kind of pony am I?” “The kind who’ll talk to a sleeping one,” said Cloud’s voice. “Cloud!” I yipped, turning to look at her. When I did, I felt my eyes get really, really big, which is saying something. As Cloud blinked at me with sleep-touched eyes, I caught a change. Just hovering around her pupil was a thin ring of gold that bled ever-so-slightly into the amethyst in a startling way. Before the change, Jess had a similar ring in her hazel eyes. I called it her “inner fire.” And there was the inner fire. In Cloud’s eyes. “Jess...?” I whispered, leaning in close. She stretched, wings and all and smiled at me. “Let’s see,” she said, pulling the sheet back and exposing her flank. Her cutie mark had changed. Instead of a cloud slightly obscuring a sun, it was now a cloud slightly obscuring a blue-purple, crescent moon with a lit candle on the bottom. Though, in this case, the candle seemed to be rising from the clouds too. She rolled over and the same adorned the other side. The moon with the candle on the bottom was Jessica’s symbol. Just as I’d done a bit of soul searching and tattooed myself, Jess had done something similar. She’d just put hers on her calf and at a younger age than me. “Guess I’ll have to find another way to get the triskel on me,” the pony next to me said in a voice I realized had some of Jess’s quiet contemplation in it. She turned back to look at me and smiled. “You did it,” I said. She nodded, her smile widening a fraction. “Are you- Is everything-” She put a hoof on my mouth, smiling sweetly. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I thought I lost you. But here... Now? I see what you mean.” She lowered her hoof and her eyes, her smile fading. “But I’m new now too. Sure you still want to date me?” She looked up, her eyes full of hope. We stared at each other for a heartbeat. Then, I tackled her in a hug. And followed it with a full-on kiss from the best of all my full-on kisses. In the background, I almost heard the toilet flush and sort-of caught the “meep” of Rhea and the re-closing of the bathroom door. The other pony ran her hoof through my mane and down my back lovingly, tenderly, caring. We parted so we could breathe. “I’m sorry,” I whispered hotly. “I should have talked with you first.” “I said I was sorry,” she responded, the little gold flecks in her eyes sparkling with delight. “I shouldn’t have been short with you. Either of me.” “I should have loved you better,” I said. “You already love me perfect.” We paused then launched at one another again. We kissed each other like it was the last good kiss on Earth. We kissed each other like we needed the other to breath. We kissed each other like the two ponies we were: in love. This went on for a good minute before I realized I was feeling... Other things starting to kick in. I remembered Rhea hiding in the bathroom, and with an effort of will that would have lifted the Golden Gate bridge, I slowed and finished kissing. Easing back and down a bit, I lay against her chest, listening to her heart race. She held me, stroking my mane. After a few seconds, she said, “So that’s a yes?” I chuckled. “Yes, you big dummy. Of course yes.” She laughed to herself. “Great way to get things started,” she said, a smile in her tone. “Is it safe yet?” Rhea called through a crack in the door. We laughed and I sat up. “Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, it’s safe.” Rhea exited, concern coloring her expression as her gold eyes darted from me to the pony by my side. “So... You did the thing?” She nodded, her gold-blond mane bobbing. I ran a hoof over it to smooth it out. “Hey. Great. So y’all are...” I took her forehoof. She squeezed mine back. We both nodded. “Cool. Congrats. So should I call you Cloud, or Jess, or what?” I looked to the pony at my side and realized I hadn’t even asked her for her name. “I’m sorry,” I said. “In all the excitement-” “You already picked my name,” she said grinning lopsidedly. “I’ll still answer to my old ones, but now I’m Jessica Cloud.” I blushed and looked at my knees. Which were fascinating. “Didn’t expect that did ya?” Cloud said. “No,” I replied. “Then expect more of this.” She reached her hoof under my chin and brought my blushing face around to look into her certain one, inner fire dancing in her eyes. “Hi,” I said, quietly. “Hey,” she said, equally as quiet. She pulled me to her and kissed me. She kissed me because she loved me.