Finding Your Place With the Outcasts

by TikiBat

Chapter 4: Justified Anger

Sine Wave angrily stormed down the walkway and towards the small single story abode that served as both Ink Rose’s home, and her tattoo parlor. Like many other pony homes in the Oasis, hers was decorated in bright colors that made the place a little more personal. Unlike most however, Ink Rose’s was clearly still a work in progress and was notably darker than her neighbors’. The walls had been given a base coat of dark red, reflecting her coat color, with little black trim accents that reflected her mane running across the second floor, but dotted along the walls were outlines of art that was still to be painted, and in a weird way, seeing the personalized touches helped clear Sine’s head a little bit. The last few days had been full of her burying herself in her work to distract from the frustration and anger that was building up inside of her, but that kind of offloading could only do so much. As much as she didn’t want to be, Sine was still very much angry about what had happened with her garden, and it would take a lot more than some cute personal touches to a house to break her out of this. She would have normally made the effort to not look as mad as she was, but what Zipper had done personally struck a nerve with her— and it wasn’t like anyone who’d get scared off by an angry night pony was out and about right now anyways.

As calm and non-comparative as the Oasis night ponies were, openly expressing such anger was still accepted as just another norm. Sure they didn’t get into as many physical fights and jabs as you’d see in other larger night pony communities, but night ponies were still naturally more aggressive, so no one who’s as around would bat an eye if Sine was grumpier than usual. However, there was one night pony that Sine didn’t want to show off this side of herself to, and that was Ink Rose— the pony who had quickly grown into one of her closest friends. Granted, Sine didn’t have a ton of close friends, but that didn’t mean she was incapable of it.

Taking a very deep breath, Sine gently knocked on the door and did her best to put on a cheerful face.

“So who pissed you off today?” was what she was immediately greeted with.

Sine dropped her forced smile and followed Ink Rose inside. “Who said I was pissed off?”

“You did.” She commented. “Err, your body language did at least.”

“You’re that good at figuring that stuff out?” Sine asked in a surprised tone.

“Sure am. When you spend time doing the kind of work I do it isn’t hard.” She patted the usual low couch that she did her inking at. “Come on, take a seat and tell me all about what’s got you up in a rage today.”

Sine slid her saddle bags off and let them drop to the floor unceremoniously, hopping up onto the soft couch. “You just want to get started or do you actually want to hear about my day?”

Ink rose hesitated for a moment, looking away from Sine with an almost regretful look on her face. “I…”

Sine furrowed her brow and reached a hoof out towards her friend. “What’s up Ink? Everything okay?”

The mare weakly nodded but kept her gaze averted. “Yeah, I’m just…” she let out a deep sigh and looked back at Sine. “I just…”

“Just what?” Sine asked in concern, involuntarily flexing her sore wing.

“It’s that…” Ink Rose pointed to the wing. “I’ve been thinking a lot about that.”

“Oh…” Sine closed it tightly. “You have?”

The other mare nodded. “I know I said I was going to just have to live with it… but I just can’t stop thinking about what my family and friends would think or do if they found out.”

“Hey, it’s alright,” Sine tried to console her, “You didn’t do anything wrong though, I was the stupid one that didn’t think about what breaking some norm from your hometown would mean.”

“It’s not alright,” Ink Rose replied. “I’ve had stress dreams and had to awkwardly navigate that with the wardens and even my mother.”

Sine’s eyes widened. “Your mother figured it out?”

Ink shook her head. “She popped in after the dream ended, but pressed me why I was so uneasy. I had to just dodge the subject and make something else up.”

“I…” Sine froze, a few tears starting to well up in her eyes. Without thinking, she pulled Ink Rose into a hug and shook her head. “I’m so sorry! I made such a stupid decision and now it’s just ruining everything.”

Ink leaned into the hug and sniffled a little. “I feel so stupid for getting so worked up about this, but it’s been eating me up.”

Sine relaxed her grip and nodded. “It’s not stupid, you’re the one that has to deal with my stupid mistake, and it’s been bothering me too if I’m going to be completely honest.”

“It has?” Ink Rose looked up at her.

Sine nodded. “I don’t have very many friends here, and I felt that I just ruined ours before it even really got started. I can’t tell you how late it’s kept me up and how much it just left a pit in my stomach. I don’t ever share this side of myself with others, but you’re different than most others, and I wish I could make things up to you somehow.”

Ink weakly nodded again and took a deep breath. “So what does this mean? Where does this put us?”

Sine raised an eyebrow. “In terms of what?”

“Our friendship I guess,” Ink replied. “I don’t really want to let one thing torpedo it all. Ponies forgive right?”

Sine shrugged. “Ponies forgive when it’s not something that can completely ruin their lives.”

“It’d be different if you weren’t so remorseful about it,” Ink pointed out. “Truth be told, I didn’t think you’d be as shaken by it either, and I didn’t know if you really understood why it was such a big deal…”

“Believe me, I did,” Sine Wave sniffled.

Ink Rose looked at Sine’s running makeup and offered her a nearby tissue box. “Why don’t we try and work past this? I know you weren’t trying to be malicious, and well, you even said it’s been getting to you too.”

“You really still want to be friends after what I did? After putting your whole life in jeopardy?”

“I think it’d be best for both of us. Otherwise, we’ll never move past this and it’ll keep eating us up forever,” Ink responded as she started getting her tools out. “You need to relax a bit and I need to get my mind off of things too.”

Sine Wave smiled, pulling Ink into another tight hug. “I think we can do that. But I’m not going to ask or let you tattoo my wings again.”

“That’s fine by me,” Ink agreed. “But maybe I could tattoo something else?”

Sine raised an eyebrow. “Like?”

“Well, you’ve got four more limbs, so take your pick.”

Sine looked down at her right hoof and offered it up. “I guess I could go with this.”

“Mhmm,” Ink nodded. “So what’ll it be then? Some more retro ideas?”

“I could go with that,” Sine agreed. “Maybe you could surprise me?”

Ink Rose cocked her head “What do you me?”

“You said you had a passing fascination with old retro games, right? Why don’t you run with whatever your favorite stuff was? I think it’s only fair that you just give me something unexpected and permanent, consider it some free practice I pay you for, and another mark of my sins.”

Ink shook her head, “You’re a nerd, you know that?”

Sine shrugged. “I guess you could say that. But I still owe you a ton, so consider this part one out of… I don’t know, I guess if you ever need a canvas to practice on I’ll be it.”

“That’s fair. Let’s just talk things through and figure out what happens next. For starters, why don’t you tell me what’s been bugging you, outside of the tattoo stuff? I can tell when something’s bugging a friend, and I like to hear about their days, even if they evidently weren’t the best.”

Sine let out a sigh, relaxing her muscles as best as she could in the process. “It was that dumb bird brain.”

“Zipper?” Ink asked. “Guess I can’t be surprised. So what’d he do this time?”

“You wanna take a guess or do you want me to just spell it out?”

“I probably have an idea,” Ink gave a sly smirk. “But just for kicks, why don’t you spell it out for me. Just get all that anger out and all that.”

Sine rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. “Well, he was doing some dumb trick or something and basically ruined my roses and put a nice dent in my wall.”

“And that’s what’s got you in such a fury?” Ink asked as she pulled more of her supplies out. “Doesn’t seem like it’s so bad.”

“Oh it’s not the end of the world, but what really pissed me off was his half hearted oops I’m sorry that he dished out before he flew off. Plus those roses were a gift from my mom and those aren’t cheap to replace.”

“No kidding? Did he at least explain himself or something?”

“What do you think?”

“Gonna guess he didn’t,” she cocked her head to the side. “How long ago was this again?”

Sine raised an eyebrow. “Couple of days. Why?”

“Well, that bird brain apparently had some big epiphany the other day. That probably happened after I’m guessing.”

The mare let out another sigh, “An epiphany over what? For ruining other people’s stuff or something?”

“Wouldn’t that be something, eh?” Ink shrugged. “Maybe he felt bad and wanted to own up to it.”

“So are we just going to congratulate him or something? I mean good for him if he finally figured out that he can’t just goof off all the time, but he still broke my shit and didn’t bother asking if he could help fix it or help repay it,” she dropped her voice into a low growl and tensed up. “And you better bet that if I see him again I’m going to tear him apart.”

Ink Rose let out a few snickers and shook her head.

Sine sat up and scowled, “What’s so funny, Rose?”

“Oh, this is just ironic,” the mare let out some snickers.

Sine seemed a little more agitated, “You wanna tell me or what?”

Ink let out a few more snickers and shook her head again, “You’re the mare that said you guys don’t get all aggressive and angry out in public here, but here you are threatening to rip apart a pegasus for ruining your flowers.”

“Yeah? Well I’m mad because he ruined my flowers and scuttled off like some dumb bird brain, if he had offered to help fix what he broke then it’d be a different story. ‘Sides, we’re not in public so your comparison doesn’t make sense.”

“Fair enough I guess,” she shrugged. “But hear me out, maybe finding what he’s good at gave him a sense of purpose? I know he didn’t earn his mark, but I guess it tied into his talent or something. Didn’t you feel that when you figured out why you got your mark?”

Sine was about to argue back that that didn’t really change anything about the situation, but she hesitated. Ink Rose had a fair enough observation, because earning her cutie mark had at least given her some sense of her place in the world, even if it wasn’t anything she could do a whole lot with right now. Still though, having that idea of what she was meant to be had been the thing that changed her from the snarky and sarcastic mare she had once been and into the less snarky and sarcastic mare who had a clear idea of what she wanted to do that she was today.

What that was? Well, it was complicated, to say the least. But if Sine had her way, someday she’d bring the whole world together with her games.

“I guess. But I’m still not convinced, I’ll believe it when I see him actually own up to what he did.”

“Guess we’ll have to wait and see then.” Ink Rose gently laid a hoof on Sine’s forehoof. “Okay deep breath, this is gonna sting again.”

Sine took a deep breath and winced back in pain as the needle made contact. This should have been routine by now, but having a sharp metal instrument jabbed into a very sensitive part of your body still never ceased to earn a few muttered curses.

---

Sine gently flexed her sore forehoof and held back a few gasps of pain. As much as she wished she’d be used to this by now, having an experience that she could best describe as feeling like a cat scratching sunburned skin made it hard to ignore the pain. What she needed right now was a nice strong drink and a night alone with her games. It wouldn’t dull the pain entirely, but it’d certainly distract her well enough.

“So got anything planned for tonight?” Ink Rose asked.

Sine couldn’t help but let out a mental groan, not because her friend was seemingly asking to spend time with her, but because it meant she’d have to put on her best I’m not exhausted from talking to people today act. As personable and playfully sarcastic as Sine could get at times, the truth was that nowadays she felt like an introvert playing the part of an extrovert. She could hold long conversations and loved spending time with her few close friends, but she was most comfortable on her own in a nice quiet place.

Unsure of what to say, and not wanting to let her friend down, Sine shook her head. “Honestly, no. I was just gonna head home and probably get drunk and play a few games or something.” She smiled. “What about you?”

Ink Rose seemed to tense up for a moment. “Oh not much. Probably just go home and relax for a bit, maybe watch something on tv or something…”

“Wanna come over to my place?” Sine asked in an upbeat tone.

She didn’t want to jump to conclusions or anything, but it didn’t seem like Ink Rose had very many friends around here, and as someone who knew how crushing loneliness could be, Sine was willing to put aside her desire for a quiet evening to herself if it meant that a good friend wouldn’t have to feel alone.

“Huh?” Ink asked. “You don’t mind?”

Sine shrugged. “Truth be told? I could go for a long nap after this, but I know what it’s like to be alone all the time, and it isn’t fun. So I'm down for hanging out with an awesome friend if you are too.”

Ink smiled. “As long as I’m not a bother or anything.”

“Trust me, you’d never be a bother.” Sine waved her along. “C’mon, I don’t live too far from here.”

Ink Rose trotted alongside Sine as they walked down the lakeside path. There wasn’t an amazing amount of activity, which was surprising enough for this time of night, but there were still other night ponies and even the odd human or two walking around. This particular part of the Oasis had become one of the only hubs of nighttime activity since the Great Storm, so it was unsurprising that it’s where most of the night owls spent their time. Surprisingly enough, despite living in an experimental pony and human centered city there were still very few things that catered to night ponies.

It’s not to say that those types of businesses didn’t exist, but it was hard to find any that’d stay open at night with any regularity. You basically had the makeshift theater that occasionally ran late-night movie marathons when there was a night pony or human to run it, the saloon which was open on weekend nights, and the caverns, which as the name would imply, were the large underground grottos beneath the Oasis. As the first settlers had been told, they were mostly remnants of the old mining operations in town along with natural cave systems, but others, like the large central grotto where most of the night ponies that visited it spent their time, were more recent excavations that had happened after the storm. Nowadays they mostly served as another hotspot for night pony activity, and had became especially popular once the population had grown as large as it had. As it turned out, big underground caves were just right for night ponies, and more than a few dozen had even elected to live down there rather than in traditional homes.

That’s where most would go after work, but Sine wasn’t the biggest fan of that kind of thing. As fun as the sparring matches that took place down there were to watch, the experiences could get boring over time, especially when you weren’t interested in fighting or betting on who would win each week. Sine preferred to keep to herself and entertain herself with her own hobbies, hobbies that she admittedly wished she could share more, but inviting people into her home on the regular was just a little too far out of her comfort zone.

As the two neared a block of small colorful houses, it became plainly obvious which one was Sine’s. Her neighbors had opted for bright cheery pastel colors for the walls, and nice complimentary color for the railings that ran along the flat roof’s landing area, but Sine on the other hand had gone for a different color scheme. Deep purple walls that matched her coat were accented with a bright neon pink line that broke up the flat color. A bright neon railing circled the top, and dark shade structures broke up the small park-like landing area that she seldom used. It wasn’t visible to either from their position, but if they had taken a walk around the side that faced the lake then they’d see the still wrecked garden that Zipper had still avoided responsibility for.

“Let me guess,” Ink Rose started to chuckle. “It’s the dark moody neon house?”

“How could you guess?” Sine snickered.

“Call it intuition maybe? Or maybe it’s just so plainly obvious. I mean would any other house be yours?”

Sine raised an eyebrow. “I dunno, don’t be so quick to judge a book by its cover. What if mine’s one of the bright pastel homes?”

The other mare let out a loud guffaw, “Sine, you’re like one of the only night ponies I’ve actually befriended since moving here, I think I can tell what your tastes are, and just by the way you looked away from the bright pastel ones… I’m pretty sure I know it’s not them.” She smiled proudly.

“I should just do what my neighbors suggested,” Sine started with a smirk.

“Which was?”

“Which was paint it bright pinks and blues to fit in better with their homes.”

“Not a fan of that idea? I think it’d be cute… but maybe I’m biased.”

“Oh it’d be a cute combination, but it wouldn’t be my colors. Wouldn’t feel like my home as much anymore.”

Ink Rose shrugged. “That’s fair enough.”

Sine pushed open the door and led Ink Rose into her small home. She trotted towards the small kitchen and left Ink alone in the den area. Normally Ink would follow or make herself comfortable somewhere but right now she was just enamored with how Sine had chosen to decorate her home. It was decorated about the same as any pony home was, but with less family photos on the wall and with the trademark night pony lack of lights being used. Surprisingly enough for a night pony though, Sine did have a few dim lights illuminating some of her vintage movie posters and other wall decorations. They weren’t bright enough to hurt her eyes, but still illuminated the posters enough for her to see them clearly.

The walls themselves were painted in a lighter lavender, and the space on the walls in between her posters were crammed full of memorabilia that ranged from old video games stored in shadow boxes to vintage records that she had collected over the years. The small section above her fireplace was clearly where the bulk of Sine’s sentimental belongings were. Ink Rose stepped forward and stole a glance at the family photos and other small belongings before turning back towards her friend.

“You’re really into the retro stuff, eh?”

“Surprised?” Sine asked from the kitchen.

“No, not at all. It’s cool though, I don’t think I’ve ever met another pony that’s been into this stuff like you are.”

“It seems a little more rare, but there’s at least one or two others out here that are into that stuff. They’re all day ponies though.”

“No night ponies around that are into retro hobbies then?” She asked with a hint of disappointment.

Sine shrugged. “There’s a few, but they’re all into retro movies or music or theme parks… not so much into retro games though.”

“I guess it’s lucky for you that I am into that stuff.” She glanced around, noticing a few discarded arcade boards stacked near an older looking computer and a second surprisingly modern looking computer. “What’s up with the motherboards?”

Sine peeked over and smirked, “Oh those. Call it a special project of mine. A little home brewed experiment if you will.”

“You’re making games?” She guessed.

“Kinda. Guess I’m learning how some of the oldies worked in the process too.”

“Uh huh… got anything playable then? Or is it all just a big work in progress.”

“Big work in progress.” Sine answered back. “So you’re into this kind of stuff? Like not just as a casual conversation starter but as an actual interest?”

“Well I haven’t played in years,” she admitted. “But yeah, I used to seriously dig this stuff back before ETS. Have you actually figured out how to play it as a pony?”

Sine trotted over to Ink and smiled. “You could say that.”

The dark purple mare set down the glass of water and a bowl of snacks she had thrown together and flipped on the old CRT TV that sat in her living room. Slowly the television flickered to life and cast the room in a bright glow that hurt Ink’s eyes. Reaching around the side of the TV stand, Sine produced an old Japanese famicom system and carefully set a cartridge into it before offering Ink one of the controllers.

“Huh?” Ink questioned Sine as she awkwardly grabbed the offered controller in her hooves. “What’s up?”

“I need a player two.”

“I haven’t played in years though,” Ink explained again.

“Guess it’s time to dive back into it then,” Sine replied with a laugh. She tapped the side of her gauntlet with her free hoof and a set of little fingers popped out.

Ink had seen a few other ponies sporting gauntlets with this ability, but as far as she knew those couldn’t actually move much on their own. “What’s up with the claws?”

“Makes it easier to hit the buttons,” Sine replied, sliding Ink a spare gauntlet.

The mare picked up the unfamiliar piece of technology and stared at it for a few moments. “I uhh… dumb question but how does this work?”

“You never wear one of these before?”

“No,” Ink shook her head. “I just always used a pony strap or my modded tattoo gun…”

“Well today’s your lucky day then. That there is a prototype Mark Five utility gauntlet, which is the first that has these little built in fingers. Now, Tinker’s grouchy assistant wasn’t very happy that I made off with two, but at the same time, I helped design them so I don’t care if he’s grumpy about it.”

“What do you mean it’s my lucky day?” She asked in confusion.

“Well you didn’t get a gauntlet yet so now you have one. It’s a real special six of a kind one too so take good care of it, because now you’re one of the only other ponies here who has one like that.”

Ink seemed enamored at the gift for a moment, but shook her head. “I can’t accept this, that’s too much.”

“Sure you can! In fact, I insist.” Sine grabbed the gauntlet and helped slide it onto Ink’s foreleg. She quickly tapped a sequence onto a few of the buttons on the side and the gauntlet started to hum to life.

System reset complete, new user registration initialized, Came a mechanical voice.

“What did you just do?” Ink asked while looking down at the dimly lot screen on the device.

“Entered the master factory reset sequence which booted up the new user registration interface.”

“Which means?”

“Which means that I wiped my info from that particular gauntlet, unlocking it from me, and now you can enter your info in. So no givebacks now,” She smirked.

Ink blinked a few times and shook her head, “I’m gonna pay you back for this sometime, I hope you know that.”

“Uh huh, well you can do that after we play. If you want to just skip registration for now we can set that up later. Just hit the little button on the side there and it’ll open the fingers.”

Ink nodded and did exactly what Sine had instructed, and sure enough, her own set of little spring loaded fingers popped out of the sides. She looked over to Sine only to see that she had already started up a game of balloon fight and was quickly navigating through the menus with a well practiced ease.

“We’re actually gonna just jump right into one versus one?”

“What else would we do?” Sine countered as she tossed her the second controller. “I always found that the best way to get into something was to just dive right in. You said you used to play this stuff back in the day right?”

Ink fiddled around with the controller. “Uh huh… but that was years ago when I was still human.”

“So?” She laughed. “It’s like riding a bike. Trust me.”

Ink Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head, but as she picked up the controller and awkwardly pressed a few buttons she realized exactly what Sine was saying. The game wasn’t complicated by any means— in reality, you just pressed a few buttons and barely even had to think about moving around the screen, and even despite the fact she had hadn’t played in years, she felt that she was able to fall into a slight rhythm… as clunky of one as it was.

“Okay, maybe you’re right…”

“See? Don’t doubt me, I’ve been doing this for years now.”

“Probably a good way to blow off some steam then, eh?”

Sine laughed as she dodged around the screen. “Oh you don’t even know the half of it. A lot of night ponies out here go to the fight clubs in the grotto, but I don’t personally get into all that stuff. I prefer venting stuff this way.”

“That’s totally fair.” She briefly lost focus as her little character lost its second balloon. “You’re too good at this.”

The mare shrugged. “You’re just out of practice. If you really like this stuff then I wouldn’t be against playing again some more if you’re down for that.”

“Oh I’d love to. I just wish this was a bigger thing around here, seems like the kind of thing that’d bring ponies together, you know?”

“Oh believe me, if I had my way that’s exactly how things would be out here.”

“Yeah? You’ve got a big plan or something?”

“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t.” Sine laughed. “Let’s just say I don’t want to just play games, and maybe somewhere I’ll be able to bring people together with them.”

“Well whatever happens, I can’t wait to see what you do!”

Comments

[ProgAltRocker]

Nice to see Sine making a new friend