Daienu

by Tatsurou

Best Friend

Best Friend

Yaazi slowly paced the lab, bored. Dad said he would only be gone for an hour while he helped someone named something Steel, and that Yaazi was big enough to be alone in the lab for that long. She apparently looked to be about eight now, whatever that meant. Since she hadn't really seen anyone beyond her Dad, her Mom, and their friends - all of whom looked much older than her - she had no idea what that meant. Of course, she had also seen Princess Celestia, but she looked older than dirt. Dad had also said that Derpy and the Doctor were upstairs, whoever they were...and whatever upstairs meant. She hadn't really gotten out much, spending nearly all of her time with Mom or Dad, either here in the lab or at Mom's house.

Another pony had come by recently, who introduced herself as Miss Cheerilee. Dad had said that since Yaazi's accelerated growth had apparently stabilized - whatever that meant - he wanted to enroll her in school, whatever that was. Miss Cheerilee had asked her some questions, showed her a few flashcards, and had asked her to take a test. Apparently, this was all a part of something called placement. The results had shocked Miss Cheerilee, and she had said that Yaazi was very far advanced for a foal her age. Dad had been both pleased and embarrassed, as the stranger pony had praised his homeschooling of his daughter.

As she thought about all this, she heard someone clattering down the stairs. She listened carefully to the sounds. Hearing four hoofsteps, she knew it was somepony, and not Mom, since she would not have made so much noise. Feeling somewhat afraid - she didn't like meeting new people, whatever the species, without at least one of her parents present - she quickly flew up to the ceiling, clinging to it with her hooves. She slid the inner membrane of her eyes closed, hiding their glow.

A grey/lilac unicorn filly walked down the stairs, a bag in her mouth. A quite pleasant aroma wafted from the bag. She set it down on the table. "Gee," she said happily, "I wonder if anypony is down here to share Mom's homemade muffins with?"

Yaazi blinked, staring at the filly sitting at the table. She didn't look much older than herself, but she was still nervous. Slowly, she walked across the ceiling to the wall, and then down the wall. She was glad she had learned her Changeling hooves could stick to smooth surfaces like this. It was really great for sneaking. Climbing down the wall, she stared at the confection that the other filly had pulled out of the bag to set on the table. It resembled the cupcakes Pinkie Pie sometimes brought over, but seemed less sugary.

The filly suddenly turned to her. "Hi! I'm Dinky! What's your name?"

"BWAH!" Yaazi shouted out, falling to the floor with a crash.

"Pleased to meet you, Bwahcrash!" Dinky said happily. "Isn't that a strange name?"

Yaazi started to glare at Dinky, but then recognized the humor she often heard in her Dad's voice. Dinky was making a joke. Yaazi smiled. "I'm Yaazi," she said, happily but hesitantly.

"I know," Dinky replied with a smile. "Twow's told me all about you."

Yaazi's eyes widened. "He has?"

Dinky nodded. "He talks about you all the time. He really loves you."

Yaazi smiled. "I know." She poked at the pastry on the table. "What's this?"

"That's a muffin!" Dinky said happily. "My Mom makes them. Haven't you ever had a muffin before?"

Yaazi shook her head. "Nope."

Dinky winced. "Oh...Mom is so gonna let your Dad have it if she hears about that..."

"Is it good?" Yaazi asked, not liking the sound of someone being angry with her Dad.

"Try it and see," Dinky said happily, taking a huge bite out of her own.

Picking up the other muffin, Yaazi took a bite. "It...it tastes like apples and...something spicy."

Dinky smiled. "Apple Cinnamon muffins! Mom loves them, and she makes them so good!"

Yaazi took another big bite. "It also tastes like love!" she said happily.

Dinky smiled. "Well, Mom does say the secret ingredient to make the best muffins is love."

They happily devoured the muffins. When they were finished, Dinky looked up. "Want to play a game?" she asked Yaazi.

"Sure! What game?"

"How about..." Dinky grinned and lightly pushed Yaazi with her hoof. "Tag! You're it!"

Yaazi looked at Dinky, hurt. "Why'd you push me? I-I'm not an 'it'. I thought you were nice!"

Dinky blinked. "Wait, wait, it's a game. It's Tag. Whoever is 'it' has to chase everyone else to tag them. Whoever's tagged becomes 'it'. It's nothing bad."

Yaazi blinked. "Oh." She looked down, feeling rather foolish.

Dinky tilted her head. "Haven't you ever played Tag before?"

Yaazi shook her head. "I've never played that with Mom or Dad before."

Dinky blinked. "Well, what kind of games do you play with your Mom?"

"Well, there's the Quiet Game. I'm not very good at that one." Both fillies giggled. "Then there's Bunny Hop, Kitty Romp, and Puppy Pile. Mom's not much for games. Generally I'm helping her with her animals when I'm over there, and when all three of us are over here we generally play board games." She grinned. "I really clean up at Monopoly."

Dinky giggled. "Well, what about when it's just you and your Dad? What games do you play then?"

"Well, most often we play Tickle Tussle. That's when we roll around tickling each other until we run out of breath." Yaazi smiled. "Then there's 'What's This', where Dad teaches me what things are and has me identify them again later. I get candy for doing well." She grinned widely. "Then there's 'Make it go KaBOOM!' That's my favorite!"

Dinky laughed. "That sounds like a Twow game, alright."

Yaazi nodded. "We can't play it now, though. Dad locked the weapons locker."

Dinky nodded. "Well, this is a big place. We could play Hide and Seek."

"How's that work?"

"One of us closes their eyes and counts to 100. Meanwhile, the other hides. Then whoever counted has to find the ones hiding."

Yaazi smiled. "Sounds like fun." She frowned. "I...I don't have to be 'it' to play, do I?"

Dinky blinked. "Well, that's the usual term...but how about we use 'Seeker' instead?"

Yaazi grinned. "Okay! I seek first." She closed and covered her eyes. "1...2...3...4..."

"...98...99...100!" Yaazi looked up. "I hope you're ready, cause here I come!" She glanced around, seeing no sign of Yaazi. Using her other senses, she smiled. Walking right to the bed, she stuck her head under the covers. "Found you!"

"Wow!" Dinky said happily. "You're good at this! How'd you find me so fast?"

Yaazi grinned. "I felt your excitement, and followed that."

"No fair!" Dinky said, playfully pushing Yaazi. "That's cheating!" She tackled Yaazi to the floor.

Laughing, they tussled playfully, alternately roughhousing and tickling. When they ran out of breath, Yaazi smiled. "I know! We can play video games!"

"Yay!" Dinky cried happily, running with Yaazi to the console. She paused. "What are these?" she asked, confused at the titles visible.

Yaazi blinked. "Oh...a lot of the games made here wound up in there-" she pointed at the large box labeled 'Insensitive' "-because they portrayed Changelings as evil monsters..." She frowned. Seeing that in so many games, and realizing that that probably reflected the opinions of a good portion of the public, had greatly discouraged her. She perked up. "So somebody named 'Lox and Bagels' or something like that gave Dad a bunch of games from somewhere called Earth that he could play with me, since there were guaranteed to be no Changelings in any of them."

Dinky smiled. "Your Dad sure has some great friends."

Yaazi nodded. "Dad hasn't sorted through them all yet, though." She pointed at another large box labeled, 'Yaazi, don't touch!'

Dinky dove in, searching through it. "Look at this one!" She pulled out a case. "Call of Duty?"

Yaazi giggled. "Maybe it's about babysitting!"

Dinky blinked. "Really?"

"Well, what else would 'Call of Doody' be about?"

Dinky giggled. "Let's put it in and find out!"

As they loaded up the game, their eyes went wide. "Coooool!" they said together.

----------

Half an hour later, Twow returned home, and was accompanied to the basement by Derpy. "Dinky went down soon after you left," she was saying, "and hasn't come back up. I'm guessing they've probably become friends now."

"That's good," Twow replied. "Yaazi starts school next week, and she'll be in Dinky's class. It'll be nice for her to have a friend there."

"How come you waited until she was so big to enroll her, anyway?"

Twow chuckled. "With how fast she was growing right at first, I didn't want to enroll her only to have to change what class she was in two weeks in."

Derpy nodded. "Is that why you kept her out of public eye during that time?"

Twow nodded. "She's going to face enough teasing as is. I didn't want her to face more unnecessarily. Wanted to wait till she stabilized growth wise before introducing her beyond our circles."

"Good idea," Derpy said, smiling. "You're a good Dad, Twow."

Twow rubbed the back of his head, somewhat embarrassed. "I really have no idea what I'm doing..."

"No one really does the first time." Derpy smiled as they came into the lab. "Aww...look at them!"

Yaazi and Dinky were curled up to each other in front of the gamestation, their forelegs wrapped around each other in a warm embrace, fast asleep with a blanket over them both. The gamestation and TV were off.

Twow walked forward. "Looks like they became fast friends," Twow said with a smile, lightly stroking Yaazi's mane.

Yaazi chuckled in her sleep. "Boom," she said quietly.

"Headshot," Dinky mumbled in reply.

Derpy's eyes narrowed as she rounded on Twow. "Explain."

Twow blinked guiltily. "Uhh..."