Erishy drove the car out of the parking lot, slowly heading down the street towards the old lady's house. "So... how are you both doing?"
"Me and Pinkie? Or me and Reid?" I giggled a bit at the joke, before taking a moment to prod at my own thoughts and assemble a proper answer. "We're... well, I dunno, we're okay. If you're asking how our mind is... I don't know how to put it. We're syncing but separate, I guess?" My eyes darted toward the cosplayer van behind us. "Do you think Cadance and Linda will... are they going to be alright, do you think?"
"I think they need to learn to respect each other, but I also think that Linda needs a guiding force, someone that can take charge, to make her feel secure." Erishy nodded, keeping her eyes on the road as we drove along. "Cadance can do that, I'm sure." She glanced at me cautiously. "Are you worried about Ian?"
I shrugged. "He moved out of the house before I did, he's got a console, and he reigns over a small empire of cats. With a roommate, true, but he was doing fine before this. If he'd been caught up early I'd be worried but as is... I think he'll handle himself and Apple Bloom pretty well. I don't...."
I couldn't help but sigh as I realized how callous that sounded.
"I don't usually worry... about people or things. Is that bad?"
"Well, you could learn how to," she assured me as we pulled into the old lady's driveway. "You just have to find a reason to care."
"Oh it's not that I don't care," I clarified. "It's just... I don't worry."
Erishy leaned back in her seat, contemplating my odd statement as she relaxed and waited for the others to pull up. "Ever been homeless?"
"No and yes," Pinkie replied, grinning mischievously. "Guess which is which."
Eirshy turned to us with a half smile. "Pinkie has been, I'm pretty sure. Right?"
"...good guess," Pinkie admitted.
I sighed, taking over my speech again. "Look... I want to make this clear. I don't actually worry about things I can't change... usually. I worry sometimes but it's... not something I control you know?"
"I know," Erishy said, smiling gently as she put a reassuring hoof on my own. "It's okay. I need to stop worrying in general."
I considered her words, carefully plucking over my own reply. "I think it's less you need to stop worrying and more you need to stop... being chained by your worries."
She glanced down to where our hooves meet, swiftly pulling hers away. "Y... yeah."
We sat there in silence for a while. I wasn't exactly sure what was taking the others too long, traffic maybe.
After a moment, I cleared my throat. "....sooooooo. Um. We're all going to sleep here tonight... right?"
Erishy looked at my awkward smile and sighed. "I don't think so. With everything packed, I think we will fly out tonight, and you all will drive to the next city." She shrugged, her feathers shifting subtly. "Time is of the essence, you know?"
I fidgeted a bit, glancing away. "Well... if you think that's best... You'll e-mail me when you land, right?" I added, not entirely sure why.
She smiled. "Sure." We traded contact details.
Then we sat quietly for a bit.
This time, it was Erishy that broke the silence. "So... Gilda is probably learning to drive."
I shrugged. "Or remembering. I... like I said, me and vehicles don't talk."
"Well... cars don't talk," Erishy pointed out, giggling. "Not yet, at least."
I stared at her. "Sure they do! I mean, a lot of people say animals don't talk but you can talk to animals, right? Same thing here!" My hoof gave a few empathatic pats to the armrest.
At this point the cosplayer careened into the driveway, parking with a jolt. I winced as... Cadance? Or possibly Linda opened the door and stumbled out of the car. Gilda hopped out, giving her a look and saying something I couldn't quite hear. I rolled down the window and waved as the Pinkiemobile pulled up. Soon enough we were all gathered, exchanging some joking conversation.
"Right, so as I understand it the plan is you and... you?"
My hoof moved from Shining Julian Armor to Cadance questioningly. The alicorn sighed. "No, Linda's not back yet."
"Right, well." I nodded, shrugging. "Those two will go on a date while the rest of us set up a sleepover and hash out tomorrow with the old lady. Am I wrong?"
Ginny gave me an odd look. "No.... I thought that we all knew the plan?"
"I like confirming things," I explained casually. My brother/sister rolled her/his eyes
Julian Armor of the Shining walked off with his date for the night, taking over the modified car and driving off for a night of presumably steamy shenanigans and action sequences that would become a best seller at the box office. The rest of us wandered up to the house, ready to talk with our elderly patron. Ess. Person.
At my polite knock, the door opened and the grandmortherly woman smiled upon our multicolored collection. "Please, come inside, it's so nice to see you all." She stepped aside, leading us to the main room covered in pillows and sofas and taking a seat by the fireplace.
Ian, recognizing that he/she was kind of the reason the old lady was taking us in at all, stepped in after her. "Thank ya kindly fer setting us up on tha plane. Um... would it be okay if we stayed tha night?"
"Gilda, don't make me push you in there," I whispered quietly. "I will do it, and it will be embarrassing for you." The griffon snarled at me as she entered, probably to establish some sort of dominance. I rolled my eyes and walked in after her.
"Well dear, I had thought that time would be important, so I figured we could fly out tonight." The old lady chuckled, shaking her head as Erishy attempted to subtly locate a seat. "Oh my, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Samantha Grent."
Ian shook her proffered hand politely. "Ah'm Ian. And... well, apparently there's been some planning complications..."
"Yeah, some members of our crew have legitimate Hoplophobia and can't stand to be in the terminal for very long," I explained as the cosplayers joined us, Harold shutting the door after him. "So, we decided to split the party, which is something I thought I'd never say."
Ginny giggled at that. Jackie just rolled her eyes.
Gilda began to walk away from the gathered collection, her tail swishing back and forth. Mrs. Grent raised an eyebrow. "Dearie, if you want something to do while we talk, my son's room is back there, feel free to use his computer. The password is axemurder, no spaces."
Ian got up and walked over to Gilda. "Come on let me show ya what many humans think is tha pinnacle of technology." The two of them wandered into the back of the house.
Mrs. Grent smiled and turned back to the rest of us, relaxing into her green velvet chair. "I think that we could still make it out tonight, even if we wait for your friends to be ready to leave. I could even give them the house keys so that they could stay here when we leave."
"That's... actually pretty reasonable," Jackie replied with a nod.
"The Key thing or the Axemurder thing?"
She gave me a look, despite the fact that it was Pinkie who had said that. "The keys. I'm sure Nathan had his reasons."
Ginny nodded. "Yeah, Harold should be able to hold onto the keys and keep the house safe till they return. He's one of my best students."
The elderly lady rolled over a wheeled dinner tray with a laptop on top, squinting at the screen."I'm packed, but it looks like the soonest I can get enough tickets would be for a ten pm flight, so we would have a while to wait. But we could sleep on the plane. I already have a hotel in new York City, booked, near that place all the ponies were told to go to." She looked over her glasses at the group. "How does that sound?"
Me and Erishy shared a signifigant look. This was it. This was the point where the music would be faced.
I steeled myself, taking a deep breath as I turned back to Mrs. Grent. "...Listen. We really do appreciate this. And that's why some of us are going with you... But... there are scared people out there, and I kind of promised to hold a... sort of press conference interview thing, I don't know the real term in this case. So, only the ladies here and the yellow ponies will be joining you on the plane. It's not because we don't appreciate this--we really do--it's just... as tragic as your son's death is, I've been forced into a sort of leadership role here and I've got to think of everyone. So... yeah. I'm... going to be staying behind...." I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly. "And... that's pretty much it, actually. Um."
"Don't sweat it, dear." The old lady smiled as her fingers clickclacked across the keyboard. "I'll go ahead and purchase the tickets for those of us who will be flying, the house key is on a hook in the kitchen."
I let out a breath, feeling my Element settle back into place as I mentally put Samantha Grent on my Cool Old Lady list. My eyes drifted toward Erishy; we shared another look, glad things were working out.
"You sure Ian will be okay without you?" she whispered.
"He lives on his own, he'll be..." I considered my words. "Okay, the filly thing might get to him, but I'm sure he'll be okay. I'm more worried about you, actually... although that's probably..."
I trailed off, realizing what I had been about to say. Once again, my pink coat hit my blush.
"So!" Pinkie suddenly said, sitting us up. "Anyway. Um. Miss Grent, just... what do you do, I mean, usually? I mean, it's hard to believe you're just a philanthropist." She giggled slightly. "Or would that be philequinest? Is it the target or the giver that counts here?" We ignored the strange look Ginny was giving us, trying to pretend we hadn't been that obvious.
Harold shrugged. "You're the pony, you should know."
"Well, I was a school teacher, and later on I became a professor of philosophy." The old lady smiled nostalgically. "What do you do in your pony world, dear? I do remember my son saying something about sweets."
"Well, I... do work at a bakery, confectionery shop," Pinkie allowed with a smile. My primary 'job' is actually more setting up parties for everypony. It's actually a lot more intensive then it sounds, you have to be ready to celebrate anything at the drop of a hat. Even a drop of a hat! But you also have to judge when a party is needed and when you just need to say something encouraging."
Ginny nodded at her words. "Judgment can be hard. I mean, I teach martial arts and for the longest time I couldn't figure out who was developing at what rate, I just put up monthly tests for each level. Harold here helped me with that."
"I used to be a green belt, but I thought I could jump the ranks." Harold shrugged casually. "So I took the test early, a test a week. Now I have a black belt in karate."
"I have a black belt in closet."
Everyone stared at Pinkie and me after I said that.
"You... what?" Jackie finally managed.
"...In my closet! That's... I have a black belt in my closet." My pink coat only did so much to hide our blush. "That is what I said. It's a belt and it's black."
Wow, you're terrible at innuendo.
I didn't even realize I said that Pinkie!
Erishy giggled, giving me a saucy look. "Black belt in closet, hmm?"
"So what's the dinner plan?" I asked, smoothly shifting the conversation.
"Well, we will have to leave for the airport very soon, in order to deal with the security issues we will have to face." Samantha stood, leaning on her cane cane and pulling a large suitcase from behind her chair. "We can get our food in the airport."
Erishy nodded. "My things are in the pinkie car, or Priddy car, um anyway I think we are ready to go."
"I'll go get Ian," Ginny offered, walking towards the mysterious computer room.
"That sounds good for you guys, but..." I rubbed the back of my head. "Me and Harold and Gilda are staying behind. Should I just raid your fridge or...?
"Oh of course, wouldn't want any of it to go bad while we are gone." Mrs. Grent chucklec, moving her luggage to the door, before turning to a coat rack to put on a coat. "Take anything you need, my dear. It's the least I can do."
The yellow pegasus turned to me, opening her mouth for a moment. Then she shut it, sighing and walking out the door. I took a breath, nervously staring at the doorway as I considered whether I should see what she had tried to say.
Jackie rolled her eyes. "Just go, it's obvious to everyone."
"Aheh heh... um..." My blush returned with a vengeance. I'm... just going to make sure she's okay, buddy system..."