//------------------------------// // Uh, isn't the older brother supposed to be taller? (Pinkie's perspective) // Story: The Long Road Home // by yourlocalhetheydisaster //------------------------------// I woke up to the sound of a heart monitor beeping, showing that I was still alive. I felt a sharp pain in my back legs as I sat up on the hospital bed. I looked around, trying to remember what I had forgotten. I face-palmed as I remembered, Duh, Pinkie, You're a human now. Looking around the room, you wouldn't know the difference between this hospital room, and Ponyville's. After all, they've got the chairs, the beds, the giant suit of armor and kid sitting next to it... Pinkie stopped and stared at them. Right... there isn't a giant suit of armor and a kid... That and they're new to me soooo I smiled my patented 'Giant-Pinkie-Toothy-Grinny-Smile' "Hi! You're new! My name's Pinkamena Diane Pie! Wait a second, I've never been here before, which means I am new. Oh well! What's your name?" The two stared at me for a second, as if they anticipated me to say more. "Um, I'm Ed and this is my brother Al." He said, pointing to him first, then to the guy in the armor. "Oh, so the guy in the armor is the older brother, and you're the younger?" I asked he glared at me in a way that almost made me want to laugh. "Actually, I'm the older brother. Get it older." I became confused. "But, you're so small." I said. Before I could even blink, the kid was trying to attack me, but was held back by his brother. "WHO YOU CALLING SMALL YOU LITTLE RUNT!" I looked at the kid and laughed my guts out. He glared at me, a fire in his eyes. "I'm taller than you!" I said. He tried to attack me again and I laughed. A girl in a blue uniform (probably some sort of officer) looked at me weird and slowly walked backwards out of the room. "Who was that?" I asked Ed. He looked back at the door. "That's Maria Ross, she's an officer of the military." Ed said without looking me in the eye, pouting. "Hey! Maria lady! Come back, I wanna talk to you!" She slowly walked into the room. "Why are you hanging out in a hospital? Is someone that you care about hurt, sick, or in a coma? Do you need to be cheered up? Ooh! Let me guess, you are here because Ed's a state alchemist, and there's some sort of serial killer that only targets state alchemists on the loose and he needs to be protected and some officer that is higher than you, maybe a major or a colonel, sent you here to protect him because they don't want him getting hurt, or possibly geting killed!" They stared at me. "How did you..." Ed said quietly. "Down to the correct rank." Maria said. "How did you know that?" Al asked. I shrugged. "Just a hunch." They all stared at me. "What? I just get hunches, that's all." "Well," Maria asked, "could you use that weird power, thing, to help us find the serial killer?" "I don't know, I don't even know what a state alchemist is. But, if you give me a picture or discription, I might be able to." "Um, he's got a scar on his face, and he's an Ishvalan." I stared at her confusion being the only expression on my face. Several minutes had passed in utter silence. "What?" I asked. Maria sighed. "Nevermind." "So, what's the colonel, and or, major's names?" I asked. "The colonel's name is Roy Mustang, and the major's is Alex Armstrong." Maria said. I turned my head to the door. "What's wrong?" "Someone's coming." I said. They all turned to the door for a minute. Ed sighed. "I don't think-" "Alright miss, how are you feeling today?" A nurse asked me. I waved at her. "Hiya nurse lady! I'm feeling great!" They stared at me again. I turned to them. "Staring isn't nice." They turned away. "Alright miss. Can you tell me your name?" "Yep! My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie!" The nurse gave me a weird look. "Right... What's your real name?" She asked *Sigh* I guess I'll just use my middle name. "Sorry miss! That's my street name! I'm well known amongst the kids, ya know? My real name's Diane." She smiled. "That's alright! What's your last name?" Quick! Think of something fast! "I'm an orphan. I don't know my last name." The nurse seemed to buy it. "Aw, poor thing." Success! The nurse looked over my chart. "How did you lose your legs Diane?" Of course, my legs. What a joy that would be to tell her the truth. It would be a one way ticket to insane asylum town. "Um, it was a, um, a logging accident. I was out in the woods with one of my, uh, orphanage friends. He was, um, cutting a tree with an axe and... Missed and hit my legs." "Must of been a pretty sharp axe." The nurse said, hinting some disbelief in her voice. "We sharpened it the whole day." I said. "I guess that would make it pretty sharp..." She said. "I'll be back in about thirty minutes to check up on you again." "Okay! Bye!" I said waving. I sighed as soon as she shut the door. "So," Ed leaned back on a chair, "how did you lose your legs? Really this time." I sighed. "I can never just escape that question, huh?" "Not until you tell us." I sighed."Better get started." After around five minutes, I had finished. The younger brother was staring at the floor while the older stared into space. The Maria lady sat in one of the chairs, her face sad. I clapped my hands together and shook my sadness off. "Alrighty, I answered your question, now answer this. Why do you have fake limbs and your younger brother in a suit of armor? Don't lie, because I will find out if you're lying." Ed sighed turned to me. "When we were just little kids, our father had left the rest of my family and never came back. Our mother then had to raise us by herself." "That's terrible." I replied. "Yeah, one day, while Al and I were out doing some errands, we had found her, lying unconscious on the floor. We got a doctor, and he told us that she was really sick. She died not long after. Falling into a state of depression, we decided to break alchemy's greatest taboo; human transmutation. Al had lost his entire body, and I had lost my leg. I gave up my arm to transmute his soul into that suit of armor. After that, a friend of ours had made this arm and leg to replace my real ones." I stared at them. "I'm sorry." I stared at the blankets on the hospital bed, my vision blurring. Tears were falling down my face. I thought about my parents. My dad and mom, the reason I left, the letters they send. "It's not your fault, if anything it's ours." Al said. Pinkie, get a grip. Push all of that sadness away, like you usually do, and make them happy. "On a happier note," I said, "do either of you have, *ahem* special people?" I asked with a sly smile on my face. "Well.." Al said looking at his brother. "Brother does have a crush on someone." Ed blushed. Maria left the room quickly. "Wha-what are you talking about Al? I don't have a crush on anybody." Ed replied with a shaky voice. "Really? I thought that you had a pretty big crush on Winry." Al said. Ed's face became extremely red. "No, she's just my auto-mail engineer, that's all!" I laughed. He's just like Rainbow Dash when I confronted her about having a crush on Soarin. "Don't worry Ed," I said, "no woman would want a shorty like you!" He started shouting again, and I began to laugh.