Brush and Face the Mane

by Kaas

Did you see this coming?

1. Did you see this coming?

The person who came with the idea to have a strict deadline in the same week as someone’s birthday had to be the most evil person ever. I was sitting at the computer working on an assignment in a dark room only lighted by a single desk lamp. In just a few minutes it would be the third of May and I would turn twenty-five, but most of tomorrow I would be busy with writing a report. Not a day to get really excited about. All thanks to my habit to procrastinate everything school related. If only I had started earlier then I could take tomorrow off from work. Don’t get me wrong, I liked my classes in history. I was good at it and I enjoyed it, but I just had the feeling it was not my true potential. Since I was young I had always dreamed of becoming a dentist. There was a problem however: I failed at exact sciences. I didn’t understand any of it; it was like magic for me. I had followed math and chemistry classes but those went horrible and after a year it became clear that I had to change to another direction I liked.

I looked at the wall my desk was facing to. “Always follow your dreams!” was written on a poster of Spitfire.

“Unfortunately you can’t always do that, Spitz,” I said as a reply to the poster. My room was stuffed with Spitfire stuff. I had three posters, a sculpture, some custom toys and much other miscellaneous stuff of the Wonderbolt. The only thing that was missing was a good plushie, but those things had always been so expensive. They were when the brony community was active five years ago and they were still nowadays because they were barely found on the internet. Being a poor student, it was a choice between an awesome plushie and four weeks of food. I admit it was a hard one, but I was rational enough to choose the latter. Sure, there were cheaper – official – ones, but they didn’t look quite as nice as some fan-made ones. But needless to say, Spitfire is my best pony. The series ended at the end of season five and after that the community shrank rapidly, but I still enjoyed watching an episode now and then. I just evaded the series finale because of the terrible ending. The last scene was Discord attacking a background pony after he had defeated Celestia and the mane six. After that the credits would just roll over, leaving the fans clueless what happened next. However, I had to watch the finale again soon. It gave me goose bumps that I had dreams about it. Maybe if I watched it again my subconscious would come to rest.

I sighed deeply, “That ‘soon’ has to wait for a long time. Where do I find the time to watch an episode?”

Well there was at least one thing to look forward to tomorrow. In the evening a friend would visit. She had the same birthday as me. Or to be more accurate, there was only a quarter of an hour between us. We always celebrated it together since we knew each other. Last year was great: we wanted to make it something special as it was also fifteen years since we had met each other. No deadline could break this tradition. Maybe she would agree to watch the finale. She was not a brony, but she had seen some episodes and she didn’t hate it.

It was only ten minutes after midnight when my phone rang. I knew immediately who it was without looking at the phone. I picked up, but didn’t say anything. Just keeping my phone a little further from my ear than normal.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” was shouted really loud from the other end of the line.

I kept quiet, trying to quickly come up with a joke. “Um, sorry who’s this?” I said with a different voice than my normal one.
Now loud laughter came through, “Dude, Nate, if you want to prank me, try at least to do your best.”

“Awh,” I chuckled, “But if you tried to startle me with your shouting then I can tell you also failed, Lucy. A happy birthday to you too!”

“What gave it away?”

“Maybe the fact that you also tried it last year?”

“Really? Darn, I’m getting unoriginal. Anyway, were you already trying to sleep?”

“Nah, normally I would, but this report keeps me from going to bed. Fortunately, I’m almost finished for this night, so I can take tomorrow evening off. You know, I envy you. You don’t have any of those weeks anymore where you can’t even find the time to cook a proper dinner. My microwave probably hates me for abusing him…” I noticed that I was talking too long and it was quiet on the other side of the line.

“Uhm, Lucy? Are you still there?” but no answer came. “Must be a bad connection,” I hung up and tried to call her, but hung up again when I got her voice-mail after a short while. “Strange, must have something to do with the signal.”

I resumed work only to be distracted again by my phone after a couple of minutes. This time it was just a text message from Lucy.

“Sorry Nate that I suddenly dropped out of our conversation. My mind went blank for a few minutes. Guess I must be really tired from work and sport today. I see you tomorrow at 5pm right? Greetz Lucy”

I smiled. It was not really something for Lucy to be this clumsy. Normally she was a really energetic girl, but even she could be tired. It wouldn’t be long before I would hit the bed as well. Working the whole day on this project in front of my screen made me some kind of mindless zombie. I just needed to finish this paragraph. I looked in the corner of the screen; the clock said it was 0:25. If I hurried then I could be under the shower in five minutes. I quickly started typing…

“For five square, both for this pair”

I blinked multiple times. “Eh, what was I doing? Oh right, finishing up.” The clock was saying 0:30, but I hadn’t typed a word. “What happened?” I said with much confuse. “Wow, brain. I know you want it to call it a day, but don’t leave me hanging like that; you scare me!” I quickly wrapped up my work for today and went for a shower. It really creeped me out that I was not on this planet – mentally seen – for several minutes. Nothing alike had ever happened. Hopefully a shower would clear my mind. However, as soon as I started undressing I knew that would not be the case.

“What. The. Fuck!” I said out loud with a mixture of panic and frustration. “Great, first my brain doesn’t feel like to function anymore and now my body creates tattoos out of nowhere!” A big hourglass was pinned on both my thighs. It was really creepy how well done it was. Immediately I went under the shower, trying to wash it off, but that was false hope. Although I scrubbed fiercely, the only result was a red skin around the mark. A few options came through my mind as how this was possible, but just one was at least slightly likely. Lucy had to be behind this. I didn’t know yet how she managed, but she was the only person cheeky enough to make such a prank. It seemed that my mind was satisfied with this explanation as I felt that my panic was draining.

I did the other basic routines – brushing my teeth was a big part of it – and put my pajamas on; looking one more time at the hourglasses on my thighs. It looked really well, not like any tattoo I had ever seen. The colors were not like regular tattoos, they were really bright and vivid. A history student with an hourglass tattoo, that was coincidently fitting.

I prepared for a restless night. Knowing me, I would worry the whole night about the events that just happened. I would probably think the whole night how Lucy managed to pull this trick. The stress of the assignment was not contributing to process these thoughts.

***

Surprisingly I slept very well. The next morning I felt fully recharged. I didn’t remember that I waked up in the middle of the night. The only thing I remembered was that I had that stupid reoccurring dream of the finale again. More had happened this time, but I couldn’t recall what it actually was. It was all so vague.

I quickly made some light breakfast but without my standard cup of coffee. Normally I wouldn’t be any productive for the rest of the morning without coffee, but I felt really full of energy. I walked with my breakfast to my desktop and booted it to look whether there was some pony stuff uploaded before resuming yesterday’s work. After these five years it was rare to see something new but sometimes an artist would post some ponies.

“Wait… ponies?” Luckily I just swallowed my sip of milk otherwise I probably had to buy a new monitor because of the best spit-take ever. I felt really dumb for not recognizing the mark. I ran to the mirror in the bathroom to look at the hourglasses. It was an exact replica of a cutie mark.

“Very funny, Lucy,” I sighed. Though I didn’t understand why she had chosen Dr. Whooves. The cutie mark of Spitfire would have made more sense. Didn’t she know the cutie mark of her because of the Wonderbolt costume? But why hadn’t she used the logo on those costumes then? Though, the biggest question still was how she had done this. I had not seen her in a week and I was sure that this thing had appeared last night. Anyway, this confirmed that Lucy was behind it. She often joked that I was a brony. She didn’t mean it, but she loved to bring up the cliché that I shouldn’t be interested in a show that my little sister should like.

I tried to wash it of one more time, but this time with some stronger stuff. I poured some rubbing alcohol on a cloth and rubbed it fiercely against the hourglass, but it got the same result as yesterday: the cutie mark intact and red skin around it.
“Darn Lucy, you used some strong stuff for this,” I was out of ideas to clean my legs. The only thing left was mineral spirits, but I wasn’t sure whether my skin would like to get that irritating stuff on it. Besides, I didn’t have it at the moment.

I put my pants back on and walked back to the computer. I searched up an image of the Doctor to confirm it was indeed his cutie mark stuck on my leg. I finished my breakfast and brushed my teeth and my hair. It had gotten quite long since it got cut last time. I usually let it get cut very short so it could grow for five a six months before I went again for a haircut. It was a great way to save some money. It was odd that it already had gotten this long. It was ‘only’ four months since I went to a hairdresser.

Without any reluctance I started working on the report. I felt great after this night and even the cutie mark couldn’t bother me anymore. Luckily I didn’t have to worry about any organization for tonight. Lucy would take care of everything. I only had eight hours to work today and the clock was ticking.

***

Out of nowhere the doorbell rang. I nearly jumped out of my skin as I was fully concentrated on my work. That thing was way too noisy. I walked to the door in the living room but saw that my roommate was about to open the door.
“For you?” he asked.

“Yeah, Lucy is coming to visit. Traditional birthday party. I hope we won’t be a nuisance”

“Nah, don’t worry. Speaking of, I have something small for you,” as he walked back to his room.

“Really? Thanks Ben, that’s nice of you,” I didn’t normally talk much to Ben. We were on good terms but we both spent most of our time in our own rooms. We only shared a small kitchen and a small attached living room. On an ordinary day we would only see each other during dinner.

The bell rang again deafening my ears. “Yeah yeah, I can hear you,” as I opened the door and met a hug.

“NATE! Happy birthday!” the small, red-haired girl literally jumped at me.

“You too,” I said with a smile. She let me go and grabbed the bag that was still in the hallway.

“Bought some stuff as promised.” She moved towards the kitchen and put some drinks in the refrigerator. Meanwhile Ben came back with a package in his hand.

“It’s not much, but I hope you like it. Happy birthday, Nate.” He handed me the gift over. It was quite heavy considering the size but it was a good indicator of what was inside.

“Thanks dude, I really appreciate it,” as a bottle of apple cider was revealed. I didn’t like alcoholic beverages much, but apple cider was the exception. I could drink it like it was water.

“No problem. Sorry, Lucy I forget to bring something for you, but that’s the advantage of a drink: you can share it.”
“It’s okay” she shrugged as she just finished unpacking her stuff.

“Who’s saying that I’m going to share this?” I grinned. “By the way, do you wanna hang out with us tonight?”
“Nope can’t. I planned an evening with some friends in our favorite pub.”

“Typically you. Try not to get too drunk. I’m not picking you up,” I said with a smile, but it was actually true. He had a bad habit of getting wasted once he was in a pub.

“We will see,” as he returned to his room.

I put the cider in the small refrigerator. Cider tasted the best if it was cooled. I had to puzzle somewhat because Lucy had bought a lot of stuff. “Gee, Lucy, how long do you think this party will last?”

“At least until sun dawn” she grinned.

“If you want to party alone. I have to get up early tomorrow for that report. I can barely even miss these hours. But let’s go to my room.”

We walked to my room while Lucy was still carrying a small bag. I was really curious what would be inside. She had said she had something big for today.

“Are you letting you hair grow?” she asked me as we entered my room. “It’s getting real long. But it fits you well.”

“Yeah, I need to get it cut sometime. Didn’t expect it to grow this fast,” I could say that her hair was also longer than usual, but she always had long hair. The difference was barely noticeable. The only strange thing was that it was more orange than her normal red. It was probably because of the limited light.

“By the way, do you know that store ‘Farm & Fleet’ in my town? You never guess what I saw there today.” She plunged onto my bed and grabbed her phone and gave it to me. “Here take a look.”

What I saw must be the best pony cosplay ever. It was a photo of a girl wearing a wig in rainbow colors that perfectly matched Rainbow Dash’ mane. Furthermore she had cyan ears that looked as if the girl had role-played Pinkie and had cut Dash’s ears. “That’s really awesome, but isn’t it illegal to take randomly pictures of people?” I was really excited about it but only Lucy would be such reckless to just take pictures of someone.

“Well, if you are wearing that then you’re asking for it.”

I couldn’t object to that, especially as it was in a place where you wouldn’t expect cosplayers. I stared a while at the photo. This had fascinated me about the brony community. There were many talented people that made awesome stuff. I had decided to give the show a chance after I had seen some beautiful drawings on deviantart seven years ago. It was also the reason why I stayed in the community after the finale.

This girl on the photo looked like the human version of Dash. It looked like it was her real hair and ears, but that was impossible. You couldn’t dye your hair that perfect in six colors and then I wasn’t even talking about the ears. But still, if she had a perfect tail too, I would have believed that Dash had come to earth in human form. “What were you doing there anyway? As far I know, you don’t have a farm.”

“Just buying your gift.”

I frowned at that answer. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted from that shop, as well as that it was not a big thing that she had talked about. Now I really was curious what was inside that bag.

“You should see your face!” She burst out laughing. “You’re getting spoiled, Nate. Don’t worry, I only had to buy some stuff for my parakeet. Well I won’t let you wait any longer so here you go. I know for sure you’re going to like it!”

I grabbed the bag and opened it. I stared in disbelief for a moment. In my hands was the thing I wanted for more than five years: the perfect Spitfire plushie. Fifteen inches tall and with goggles. I didn’t know what to say. I mumbled something, but it was rubbish.

“Mission accomplished,” I heard Lucy saying, “I got the idea after last year’s party. You told me you always wanted a plushie of that pony. After that I absolutely wanted to make one for you. Turned out it was a lot harder than I expected, especially because artists don’t put their patterns online. But practice makes perfect. Last month I finally was happy with the result you’re holding in your hands now.”

“Wow, I can’t find the words to thank you but this a new level of awesomeness. But that does mean you can make all kinds of pony plushies. You can earn some good money with this!”

“Nah, this one has to be special. I don’t want to earn money because of a present for you.”

Now I was speechless again. This was the most special and nicest thing someone had ever done for me. Lucy was already the most awesome person ever, but now there was a huge gap between her and the second person on that imaginary list. We had met each other sixteen years ago in elementary school. She had moved from North Dakota because her parents had found work in Des Moines. There was a great click between us and it was like we complemented each other. She was already confident by then while I was timid, but she was also rather reckless while I was more responsible for my age. She wasn’t the type that could fit with many people because she could be social awkward because of her overconfidence.
However, I liked that about her. We went both to the University of Iowa after high school but she stopped after four years. She moved to Muscatine where she found a temporary job in a sport goods store.

“Great, and here I thought I had an awesome gift for you, but this is nothing compared to this plushie,” I walked to my desk and picked up a small case. It looked a bit dull from the outside, but I knew she would like what was inside. I bought a pair of classy flight goggles for her, because she loved speed. Lucy was into fast sports, especially road cycling, but she also liked to push the speed of her car beyond the speed limit. She often described the feeling of wind flowing through her hair. I couldn’t understand it, but if she enjoyed it then it was fine by me. Although she didn’t do anything related to flying, I knew she would like these flight goggles. They weren’t an expensive steampunk version, but they still looked nice. I handed the box to her which she grabbed enthusiastically.

“Well, lets see what’s inside.” She opened the case. “Oh my god, these look great!” She immediately putted the glasses on. It was a strange sight to see her with those big glasses but it fitted her really well. “Wow, I can’t wait to wear these during my bike trip tomorrow. Thanks!”

I was glad she liked it. Beforehand I was sure this was the perfect present, but when I got the Spitfire plushie I started to doubt. It didn’t seem to be a fair exchange. I only paid forty bucks for it, but she made something that was easily worth two hundred dollars.

She looked around, probably searching something where she could see her reflection in. She picked up her phone, “Can you take a picture?”

“Sure.” I took her phone and went to the camera app. When I looked her in the eyes on the screen I noticed her eye color was off. “Didn’t know you had those yellow colored contacts, since when do you have these?” I asked her while I took the picture.

“Uhm, what do you mean? I don’t have any of those. My eye color is brown.” She gazed at me with a confused look. “It must be the effect of these goggles” she said as she put the glasses back in the case. “You see, chestnut brown, like they’ve always been.”

“No, actually they are still yellow. You should take a look in the mirror. It’s in the bathroom.”

She walked to the bathroom where the only mirror was, “What, how is this possible?” she muttered with anxiety in her voice. “Nate, is this your doing?”

“No of course not, since when do I have the power to just change someone’s eye color.”

“Look, that joke with that lightning bolt and stars on my thigh was funny, but it is getting creepy now. How do you those things? And what do they mean?”

“Lightning bolt? Stars? Thigh? You are not going to say that you also have a cutie mark tattoo right?” I had totally forgotten about the cutie mark on my thighs. I was getting worried. If she had the thing I think it was then I had no idea how this was possible. Lucy loved pranks, but she wouldn’t prank herself.

“Take a look for yourself”

Before I could say she didn’t need to strip here in my room she unzipped her pants and let the side slide down a little; just enough to see the bolt. When I saw the lightning bolt and the stars appearing a rush of panic went through my head. Why would she prank herself, how was this possible, who was behind this and most important why did we have cutie marks on our butts? Nothing did make sense.

“Th- That’s Li-li-lightning Dust’s cutie mark.” The panic prevented me for speaking clear.

“Who…?”

Comments

[Dementia20]

more, please

[Kaas]

2565533
Next week probably.

[Dementia20]

2566254 Okay
Good luck!

[salmanlalmas]

i1312.photobucket.com/albums/t534/unclebabe2010/37765340_zpsa5cd813f.jpg

[Kaas]

2568497
I don't see a sign that you have to read this when you see it.
If you don't like the universe of five score then it's fine by me. However, saying that the amount is too high is not really useful feedback to improve my story.

[Buckshot2825]

2568497 It's almost sad that somebody had to create this...

How can there be too much of a story?
I prefer there to be too much but so far i haven't found that amount yet :/

[Buckshot2825]

yay i just got done reading your 3000 word chapter....

Wait why am i celebrating FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!

Anyways, good luck, good start and hello.
Wait i said that backwards... oh well

[Cantankerous]

This fic seems alright, so I'll follow along for the moment.

One thing is bugging me though, why does Colgate have an hourglass cutie mark? I've never noticed Colgate in the show before, so I don't know.

Also, you might want to fix this:

After tha,t I absolutely

[Kaas]

2573869
Thanks. Funny that a typo can slip through, no matter how many times I have read it. I always appreciate when readers pick out the grammar/punctuation/typo issues.

I don't know why Colgate/Minuette has an hourglass as her cutiemark as little is known about her canon character. Just one of the many background ponies. But I like the fanon Colgate.

2570926
Thanks. Actually it is a almost 4000 word chapter.
Glad you like it.

[Buckshot2825]

2575658 Derp,
Probably doesnt matter anyways, XD

Wow you were 9 words off from 4k XDDDDDDDD nicely done

[Nightshade Dawn]

not bad, liking.

[Rosie Quill]

For five square, both for this pair

Lolz