Blossoming: Learning How To Fly

by nanashi_jones

Differing Perspectives On The State of Us

Day 12

I was always an early riser. Or, at least, I was an early riser compared to Jess. Cloud usually got up before me. Or me?

Blinking, I realized how... Awake I was. Not just physically, but mentally. I hadn’t felt this sharp since the Third Day of Medication.

Turning to the east, I saw dull purples and oranges on the horizon and they looked like the most intense colors I had ever seen. A faint smile grew on my face, taking roots.

“Look at that,”I said softly.

And I realized I was talking to myself.

Not talking to Blossom or January, but me. Myself.

Whoa. Wild.

Jess had rolled against me in the night, but her wings were tucked close to her body, so it wasn’t much for me to roll away slightly and stretch, pushing my hooves out in front. I looked at them. Since this started, I knew they were my hooves, at least for the time being, but now they really felt like mine. I flexed them as if grasping something invisible. My hooves. Mine. Me.

I chuckled, which led to a laugh which rose to something altogether different as I just loosed this wide, joyous sound as I leapt to the rise of the sun, my wings spread open.

“Wooooo-hoooooooooo!” I crowed, somersaulting in the air.

I drifted back down to the cloud bed as Jess made a noise and rolled a little away from me to cover her head with more fluffy cloud stuff. I smiled, stroked her mane and felt my love for her swell in my chest. Good. That’s how it was supposed to be.

I flapped over to Suzy to get out the iPad. Jess needed her sleep. Today was going to be a big day after all.
~
Jess woke to the smell of pancakes. I know this because my right wing was idly fanning the aroma of the to-go order I got from the Waffle House I stopped in earlier.

“Mornin’ Firefly,” I said, my hoof flicking across the iPad.

“Morning,” she said with a yawn. A cute yawn. A very, very cute yawn.

I grinned as I flicked about the information on Facebook.

“How’d you sleep?” I asked.

“Like I was on a cloud,” she answered with a snicker. She noticed the food I was fanning at her and smiled a little wider though it was tinged with sleep.

“Aw, love you didn’t have to.”

“I felt like it. Because today, John...” I said in my best impression of Benedict Cumberbatch. “The game, is on!”

She laughed, shaking her head. Kicking the bed cloud into water vapor and thus proving her body’s name, she flapped to Suzy and sniffed at the pancakes.

“Mmm. Good. Any particular reason you’re in a Sherlock mood?” she asked, getting open the syrup packet and pouring its contents liberally.

I tilt my head at her, smiling lopsidedly, which I hoped offset the head tilt. She giggled at me and licked the last bit of syrup from the packet.

“Because I just slept next to the most beautiful pony in all Earth and Equestria,” I said, leaning over to kiss her on the lips.

Syrup trailed away and she gave me a quirked eyebrow.

“Mmm, tasty,” I said, licking up the syrup.

“You are in a very silly mood this morning,” Jess said through a laugh.

“Good mood, Jess. Good mood.”

“That’s a change from last night,” she replied, munching down on her pancakes.

I turned to get the iPad. “Lots of things change in a night,” I said, chipperly. “Like, I did some thinking and I’m sure we can make it to Rhea’s apartment before the morning is up. Depending on its state, we get in and see if we can find any turned pony evidence and you’re looking at me funny is everything okay?”

Jess’s eyes were wide and her face seemed to be having trouble deciding on itself.

“Your- Blossom- Cutie- What?” she pointed a twitching hoof at my flank.

While I wasn’t one-hundred-percent certain, I was fairly sure that I’d just seen two personalities talking over one another at the same time. It wasn’t scary; just fascinating watching Jess and Cloud wrestle for control.

In an effort to ease things by, I went with the gestured hoof and looked at my flank.

“Oh,” I said. “Would you look at that...”

My cutie mark had changed.

Blossomforth had gotten her cutie mark when she’d built a cloud generator at a young age and saw all the possibilities therein. Two flowers had appeared in the shades of her hair on her formerly blank flank and they looked impressively like two interlocking gears or overlapping flowers. Blossom loved seeing how nature worked and opportunities blossomed from that.

Now, though, several of the petal gears were gone and in the center of her pink flower was an oversimplified, black eye against a yellow background. Additionally, rather than meshing gears the green swooped into the pink like a brush that had shifted colors along the way. Most interestingly, the green flower now only had three petals on the bottom of it while the pink flower had four petals on the top, over the eye.

I checked my other side and it was the same story. My cutie mark was a blend of my old cutie mark and my own little tattooed symbol. How about that.

I looked back up and could tell that both Jess and Cloud were looking at me.

“Um,” I said. “Ta-da?”

“Blossom what happened to your- January why is your tattoo- I was speaking- SHUT UP YOU- Gimme the mouth you feathering-”

“Girls! Girls!” I shouted, waving my hooves and they stopped, which was comforting. Remember what I said about two faces being intriguing? Not so much when they were both trying to take over the same mouth. It looked like Cloud was having a grand mal seizure.

“Okay,” I said. “Just... One at a time. Jess, we’re actually dating, so you first.”

A spasm went through Cloud’s expression.

“Cloud. C’mon. She’s my true love. Respect that, please.”

The face settled and Jess reached a hoof to her face to confirm she was in charge.

“What... Happened? Cloud started freaking out the second I saw your cutie mark.”

I looked over at my new cutie mark again, trying to figure out how to say this.

“January... Is everything alright? Blossom didn’t do anything, did she?”

“No... Blossom definitely wasn’t the only one involved,” I replied with a weak grin.

“January...” Jess reached a hoof out and I saw tears in her eyes.

“Hey, hey now. I’m still here, sort of.” I got in close, took her hoof and pressed it against my cheek. “See, really here. It’s just... different. I’m not just January anymore.”

I couldn’t have hurt her more if I’d actually slugged her.

She clutched inward and I moved to keep her from curling up, letting her fall across my shoulder and I wrapped her in my wings.

The tears came.

I stroked her back, whispering soothing things while I worried. I hadn’t really thought this through. I’d been all high on post-merging excitement. Damn. Well, no time to mope. My marefriend needed me.

“She’s gone... Oh Lady, she’s gone...” Jess choked.

“No, I’m so not gone,” I said in a soft voice, pushing her back so she could look at me.

Her long equine neck sagged and I brought up a hoof to get her eyes on mine.

“Hey there,” I said soothingly. “D’you- D’you remember when you asked me to be your girlfriend? I do. I was wired for sound with all that caffeine I’d drank. Not to mention the booze.”

She blinked, sniffling and sagging.

“And we were just sitting there in our Hogwarts robes, the convention going on around us and you were putting the questions to me that I really didn’t want to answer because I was so sure, I was so freaking sure that I’d just hurt you in the end. Remember what I said?”

Jess gulped snot and shuddered.

“‘You’re going to be bad for business, I can tell,’” she quoted. She looked like I’d just asked her to poke the dead body of her mother for fun.

I nodded, panic rising in my gorge, so I brought her close again to embrace her.

“And I told you that I had to think on it because we needed sleep and you just lay there and I went into the bathroom to do a roadie bath and when I came back to bed to get those two hours of sleep, I told you, "Yes." And you thought it was a dream and I had to assure you I meant it.”

“January...?” Jess gulped, stroking my face with her hoof. She looked so sad.

This was so good though. My head felt so clear. Why did she still look so sad?

“New and improved,” I smiled, though I threatened tears myself. “Just... Just think of it like regeneration. You started with Eccleston and you got Tennant.”

“I'd prefer Eccleston,” she choked, her expression as desperate as the laugh.

I tried to laugh with her. “Yeah, yeah, but I’m still me. It’s all still here, I still love you. With all my pony heart.” I leaned against her and rocked with her.

Her voice changed when Cloud took over. “Where’s Blossomforth?”

Jess used Cloud’s voice like her own- mischievous, playing when she was light, sharp and forward when she had to be in charge, open and wide when she was vulnerable. I knew her voice even through a different pony’s mouth. Cloud used her voice as her own and the effect was chilling as it struck an entirely different set of memories in me.

I pushed back from the hug, aware I was dealing with a new pony.

“Hi Cloud, she’s still here, just like January,” I said, dashing at my eyes.

“Feather that. Where’s my friend? What did you do to her you feathering monkey?!”

“Right here,” I said, pulling on my memories with Cloud to reinforce it. “January and I merged, Cloud. It’s not bad. I’m still here.”

Cloud glared at me.

“Liar,” she spat.

I rolled my eyes, my cheeks heating up as I tried to keep my temper. “Real mature Cloud. Look, I’m sorry this has thrown a wrench into your plans, whatever they were, because this is the longest we’ve talked since this went down and what’s up with that, huh? Jessica’s nice. If you just shared with her and let her-”

“Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut! Up!” she screamed, backing to the edge of the cloud, her wings wrapping protectively around her.

I went across the soft, white expanse to the pony before me and her wings drooped. Instead of Cloud, I found Jessica behind them. Shaking slightly.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” she said weakly.

“How’s your co-pilot?”

Jess looked down. She sighed, looked back up to me.

“Not talking to me. She’s sparring with... She’s sparring with Sorcha to burn off some steam.”

I nodded appreciatively, offering my hoof to help her up.

“Good call. If anyone can keep up with Cloud, it’d be Sorcha.”

Jess sighed, looked away from me, then took my hoof to rise up. She looked me in the eye, turning her head a little, then the other way.

“Hi,” I said.

“You... Merged?”

I nodded.

“And you... Do you still love me?”

“With all my little pony heart,” I said, grinning from ear to ear.

A breath escaped her and I caught her before her knees buckled.

“I’m still me,” I said softly. “Just a bit different now.”

Jess indicated she was fine, or at least, fine enough, and sat down. I moved over to sit next to her.

She was quiet for what felt like longer than it should. I leaned my shoulder against her, reassuring contact.

“Who are you?” she asked, finally.

“Good question,” I replied, struggling to keep this as light as possible. “Well. January doesn’t sing in my heart like it used to. I certainly don’t feel like just Blossomforth anymore.”

I shrugged.

“Januforth?” I said to the sky, and immediately shook my head. “Ugh, no. That’s wretched. Hmmm...” I tapped my hoof to my chin.

“Maybe... January... Blossom?” Jess offered. She gulped a bit. Not as extreme as she had, but I caught the shudder.

“Ooo, closer,” I said. “Something, something. Name something... Blossom Jones?”

Jess snorted.

“Yeah. Blossom Jones, I’m on the case,” I said with a wink. “No, we’ll save that for Facebook and other things.”

Then, swirling the names around me I found it. Soft and ready and as clear as when my mom first said my name on a beach in South Carolina.

“Blossom Jane,” I said. “It’s a bit Hunger Games, I know, but... It fits. I’ll still answer to the other names, but I’m Blossom Jane now.”

I smiled at her. “That okay?”

Jess looked at me, blinked slowly, sighed. She leaned against me.

“Sounds good,” she said softly. She was quiet. I draped my wing around her. “Is a name that important?”

“Hey,” I retorted. “Names are totally important. We’ll probably have to do this with you if Cloud ever gets over herself.”

“Yeah. Probably,” Jess said, still soft. She nuzzled beneath me and sighed. I felt her shudder again and twisted to hold me with her hooves.

I tightened my wing about her and she started to cry again.

She wasn’t sobbing anymore. These were desperate tears. Quiet tears. Tears that make anyone holding that person, or pony, start to cry by proxy. I felt my own eyes well up and spill over and I couldn’t help but feel like I was comforting a loved one who just lost someone important to them.

Through my haze of support and giddy rush over my merging experience, it hit me. She had lost January.

Yes, I was still January, but I was Blossom too. Like, my brother had elements of me since we grew up together after all, but she didn’t date him. Didn’t love him. Nor Blossom. She had been in love with January.

I’d merged because it had seemed inevitable. I hadn’t thought Jess would think I was... Gone. Forever. I was so busy being elated at feeling even more balanced than before I lost sight of how this would affect who I loved. My heart sank.

I closed my eyes and brought her in to let her cry more of those quiet, desperate tears. Cry for the loss of the woman she loved. Tears fell down my cheeks as I realized I’d lost too. I lost Blossom. I lost January. I was this new mare now. Who did that make me?

Running my muzzle along Jess’s cheek, I said into her ear, “I may not be January, but I love you Jessica. I love you very, very much and I’m here for you if you need me.”

She nodded, sniffing, coughing.

Eventually, she cried herself out and just lay against me. Spent. We sat in silence, watching the sun move across the morning sky.

“Y’know, I just realized what I named myself...” I said in a soft voice. “I’m vetoing BJ as a nickname.”

Jess laughed, hacking up phlegm in the process.

“I shouldn’t have said anything, should I?” I said.

“No. Thank you for being honest. .... BJ.”

“Aaargh,” I groaned. After a second’s hesitation, I kissed her on the top of her head.

The day was still going. We had so much to do.

Comments

[Thibi]

How can a pony open those syrup packets with the implied ease?
I have enough of an issue with stickiness ending up everywhere as it is...

Granted, the tub style that was implied is far easier than the squeeze sachet, but I still can't help but imagine that the initially opened corner would have some issues of content pressure.

---

Poor Jessica... This certainly can't be an easy change for her to go through...

[house932]

Yeah, very subtle.

[kingtiger666]

Blossom Jones: Hippie Detective
and
The Case of Jimi's Guitar

Coming to a bookstore near you! January 1st, 1968!

[Pinklestia]

Well, this is gonna be a tad complicated...

[BronyCrystal]

awww poor jess and Bj now. wish i colld give them hug now lol

loving the story soo far lol now on to the next chapter!!!