Blossoming: Learning How To Fly

by nanashi_jones

If I Wanted To Be Honest I Wouldn't Be Such A Good Liar

I walked up to a pair of tall, impressive doors. Various symbols and scripts were etched in them that I’d known my whole life. In the center of each door was a singular symbol that I’d created when I was about twenty. I used it as a signature.

“Crap,” I muttered.

Pushing the doors open, I found Blossomforth sitting on a cushion in a broad chair at a round table where a few other people I “knew” were relaxing.

To her immediate right was Katara of the Southern Water Tribe. A few chairs over, six to be precise, were Korra of the Southern Water Tribe, Harry Dresden and Nanashi.

Nanashi noticed me and waved casually.

Blossomforth turned and smiled, leaping from her chair to gallop over. I noticed she was wearing a familiar necklace.

“Hey Jane!” Blossomforth said.

“Hey hon. I see you’ve met the inner team,” I said, giving a friendly smile with a wary eye to the gathered fandom celebrities.

“Yeah, they’ve been really nice. Especially Harry. He says he’s actually been to Equestria.”

“That Harry has, yeah,” I said.

All the gathered characters were my perceptions of them. So since I felt the fanfic Dresden Fillies was done so well, it became headcanon and my personal perception of Harry Dresden. Just as Korra and Katara were both my perceptions of them with Korra being into Asami and Katara having elements from the comics, fanfictions and a little hero worship from me.

“That Harry?” she asked.

“Infinite weird stuff,” Harry said from the table, which he had lay his feet atop. “There’s as many me as there are you and January and...” He waved his hand. “Infinite weird.”

“Oh. Got it,” Blossom said. “Oh hey, I do.”

And I could tell she did. We were blending. The necklace with the unadorned, ceramic yin-yang pendant on the end of its chain was definitely a visual metaphor for that.

“Nice necklace,” I said.

“Yeah, it showed up recently. I like it. It kind of looks like the Equestrian flag.”

“How about that?” I said with a smirk. “Would you mind if I borrowed Nanashi for a second? Just need to check with her on a few things.”

Blossomforth’s face clouded and I could see Nanashi glance between us, then the little pegasus brightened and nodded, trotting over to Katara, who looked delighted to talk again.

Nanashi excused herself from the table and we went to just outside the doors, leaving them cracked so I could still see inside.

“Are you kidding me?” I hissed at her.

“What?” she said.

“I said show her around, not take her to... Here!” I whispered hotly.

“Ooooh,” Nanashi said. “I was supposed to give her a surface tour that she would have figured out in a minute because you two are merging after all.”

“What?” I replied.

“Please. You know. I know you know because I know. And on a level, she knows too. You’re both just too... Nervous to say anything about it. Like if you admit it, that’ll speed it up.”

“So?” I said. “Merging’s fine. I’m totally cool with merging.”

She snorted. “Yeah right. That’s why you’re showing her all the aspects and fictional characters you’ve made or use as psychological support, rather than talking with her yourself.”

“By your definition, I am talking with her by myself. I’m just... Delegating.”

“You,” Nanashi shot back, her voice hot. “Are compartmentalizing. And technically fighting with yourself.”

“Whatever,” I said, rolling my eyes.

We were both quiet for a minute, not meeting each other’s gazes.

“You didn’t let the Mane 6 in,” Nanashi said.

“They’d just confuse her,” I replied.

“Especially Pinkie.”

I nodded.

“She’d see that streak that runs through you in Pinkie and then she’d wonder if the same streak goes through her and how much she is herself.”

I nodded again.

“Or you could be completely out of your gourd.”

I turned on Nanashi, who was leaning cooly against the doorframe.

“You’ve had weather conversations and a ‘we’re cool, right?’ conversation,” Nanashi said sharply. “You have no idea who she is.”

“I have her memories-”I started.

“Non-contextual data!” Nanashi fired back.

“What are you talking about?” I retorted.

“I’m talking about what you need to do, what I was built around, what you always manage to avoid even when you champion it like hell with all your friends. I’m telling you January: Use. Your. Words!”

“With who?”

We both turned to see Blossomforth had opened the door. Beyond her, the room was empty save for the table and chairs.

My little fan-appointed, superlative support group was an extension of me- a coping mechanism to make myself feel better in dark times. I knew I needed it because I had trouble trusting people and listening to myself, so if parts of myself were dressed up a bit different, then it sank in better.

I guess.

In all honesty, I’m not really sure. They kind of showed up during a bad time. They kept me above water until Jess got home and talked with me. So if they left, that meant they knew and, by a turn, I knew that this was something I could and should be handling.

Nanashi came to the same conclusions, fading into the background to leave me pretty much alone with Blossomforth.

“Coward,” I muttered.

Turning to Blossomforth, I put on a winning smile. She didn’t appear to buy it, raising an eyebrow at me. Sighing, I let the smile go.

“How much did you hear?” I asked.

“I think I heard all of it,” she said.

I sighed again and turned to start down a dirt path. Blossomforth joined me and we entered a copse of trees, the sun shining overhead.

“We’ve... Been avoiding one another,” I said.

Blossomforth didn’t say anything, walking along beside me, her gaze straight ahead.

“Namely me,” I went on. “Those were all... Constructs? Representatives. Bits of me. I compartmentalize.”

“I figured,” Blossomforth said.

“Huh?”

“They all kind of... Talked the same. They sounded different, sure, but they had really similar words and all. Like when you read a book and even though the characters are different, they all sound similar enough that they fit in the narrative’s world.”

She blinked.

“And I have never made a simile like that.” She blinked again. “Much less properly identified a simile.”

“That... Would be me,” I replied. “I’m kind of a mechanics nut when it comes to language. I like little things.”

“I like little things in nature,” Blossomforth admitted.

“Me too!” I said.

She gave me a look. “You really don’t.”

“Okay, yeah I don’t.”

“You’re generally interested in everything, but I’m specifically interested in these things,” she said gesturing to the dream trees and grass and sky. “It’s why I work on Equestria machines as a side job- it helps me think better on what I can do at my job.”

“You really like what you do, don’t you?”

She nodded. “I’m proud of my place on the weather team. I may not be the best, but I’m glad I can help.”

“I don’t,” I responded.

She looked at me.

“My job is mostly stress management. I moved out of the customer service pool, which calmed me down a bit, but now I’m in our installation team and it’s just so... Sloppy.”

Blossomforth nodded her agreement. “Yeah, sometimes we get some slackers on the team. Especially around Winter Wrap-Up. It’s like- jeez! We’re trying to get a job done here, ponies!”

“Thank you!” I proclaimed.

Blossomforth smiled, then halted. She squinted at me. “Were those there before?”

“Were what?”

“Those... Streaks in your mane.”

I looked into a nearby pond and sure enough, I had streaks of pink in my hair. I was also a bit shorter than I had been last time I’d dreamed. Huh.

Shrugging, I turned back to Blossomforth. “Maybe. It’s been busy since I nodded off.”

As we walked along the path and the trees cleared, I said, “So, Blossomforth. Why don’t you talk about yourself?”

“Only if you listen and talk later,” she said with a smirk.

“Pony scout’s honor,” I said solemnly, raising a hoof.

“You were never in the scouts!” she accused with a wide grin.

“Well, that’s the best you get for now,” I replied haughtily.

We strolled across the meadows. Talking. Learning.

Comments

[Pinklestia]

Well, at least they are not fighting each other.

[CitrusWishes]

3647851 I swear I see you everywhere.

[Luckyfanisaac]

We both turned to see Blossomforth who had opened the door. Beyond her, the room was empty save for the table and chairs.