Pilot's Story

Pilot's Story

Chapter 11: Turn the Page

Eva sighed and looked at her blushing purple friend. "Look Twi, I don't understand why you're still so embarrassed!" she pleaded, loudly.

Twilight facehoofed, "I'm not embarrassed, I'm just shocked! You're a grown mare and you needed help bathing! I could understand a foal but..." she trailed off.

"Okay, yeah that makes sense but you know, I kind of am like a foal, up until a few days ago I had, you know, hands, and, you know didn't have a tail or... other horse--"

"Pony." Twilight interrupted.

"--pony parts." Eva finished. "Do you really have to correct me every time?"

"What are you talking about?" The lavender mare asked with a cocked eyebrow, somewhat jarred by the sudden change in topic.

"You really don't notice?" Eva asked incredulously as she rubbed the towel through her wet mane. "Alright, watch, and pay very close attention."

"Hey Dashie!" Eva called out to the other pegasus, who was... somewhere in the library still, though Eva wasn't sure. "Where can I get some horse clothes made?"

"Pony clothes!" She heard echo back through the library in Dash's raspy voice, "Rarity should be able to make some, we can go see her later!"

"Thanks Dashie!" Eva yelled out again, then turned to face Twilight, "See? as soon as I said horse she corrected me, you all do it."

Twilight blinked as the gears in her head started to turn, 'How didn't I notice that before?' she thought. "Well, you are a pony, not a horse, she has a point, Eva."

"And what is a horse, Twi?" Eva pressed, as she rubbed the towel through her tail.

"Well it's... a horse is..." Twilight started, "I don't know." she concluded. Eva could see... something in her eyes, something she wasn't sure she liked.

"Well, anyway, How about those clothes? Naked might work for you guys but It makes me a little uncomfortable." Eva said after a pregnant pause hung in the air. 'Maybe I shouldn't press this so hard, I may not like what I find out...' she thought as she smiled at Twi.

"I'd forgotten about Rarity..." Twilight said under her breath, with all the excitement the last few days she'd forgotten that Eva hadn't met the rest of her close friends yet. 'And there's Fluttershy too... that should be interesting.'

"Mes amis, allons-y!" Eva yelled suddenly as she slung her duffel on her back and headed for the door.

~~

"So where's your friend, uh Bourbon? no that's not right... Scotch? Gin? Vodk-no that one's just stupid, oh, wait Jersey Lightning! Haven't seen her in a while, figured she could have drank with me and Dash." Eva commented as the trio walked down the cobblestone streets of ponyville.

"Who?" Twilight asked in confusion.

"Uh, orange fur, blonde hair, adorable white freckles, cowboy hat?" Eva explained, tapping her right fore-hoof with her left as if she were counting off fingers.

"You mean Applejack?" Dash offered with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, right Applejack, well, distilled hard cider either way right?" Eva said with a laugh, which faded as she realized her companions weren't laughing along. "Alright fine, bad joke, anyway... I still don't have any money yet and I burned out all of my fuel yesterday..." Eva started, wincing a little as she was reminded of the pain of her burns.

"Are you asking to borrow money?" Dash asked, shooting Eva an amused look.

"That is... possibly what I'm doing, yes." Eva admitted as they resumed walking.

"How much money?" Dash asked.

"Oh... four hundred bits?"

Dash flinched at the number, "Oh, well, if that's all..."

~~

"I'm just saying, if you loan me the money, Twilight can work up some fuel, and I can pay you back after a single cargo run!" Eva exclaimed as she stepped through the threshold of the aptly named 'Carousel Boutique' which looked just like a carousel, she noted with amusement.

"Welcome to Carouse- Oh hello Twilight, Rainbow Dash. Who is your friend?" The elegant white unicorn asked in a friendly tone.

"Eva, pleased to meet you." Eva said, stepping forward quickly and extending her hoof. 'And suddenly I find myself thinking about Katharine Hepburn.' she thought with some amusement.

Rarity raised an eyebrow slightly as she took the hoof, "Rarity, it's a pleasure." Hmm, i wonder if that vocal inflection is a pegasus thing or...' "Are you related to Rainbow Dash by chance?" she asked.

Eva turned her head slowly to the side and remembered her wings, flipping them a little bit before she turned back to the white unicorn, "Right, pegasus... No, I'm actually new in town and Twilight and Dashie were helping me get settled in." She half-lied.

"She was the one flying that machine that flew over the town the other day." Twilight interjected, to Eva's great disappointment.

"That too." Eva admitted sheepishly, "Dash was with me, I was showing her how the plane works and... stuff." she added, spreading the blame out a little bit.

Rarity cocked an eyebrow under her well groomed mane, "Really? I'd heard the awful racket but I never actually saw it. You sure do know how to make an entrance don't you Miss Eva?"

Eva rubbed a fetlock on the back of her head, "Well, I mean... Dash was there... and I may have been showing off a little, you'll forgive an old woman her vanity won't you?" she asked sheepishly. "Anyway, I was hoping you could make something like this..." she said as she stuck her mouth into a pouch on the side of her bag and pulled out a picture.

Rairty laughed softly, "Well everypony will forgive you after what you did yesterday."

Eva blushed in embarrassment and slid her hoof behind her head, "Well I, uh, I was just doing what anybody would have done..."

Rarity smiled as she lifted her tape measure off a nearby table, "Dear you're far too modest, Now, let's get your measurements and I'll see what I can..." she trailed off for a moment as she looked over the picture, "do with this!"

Eva was stunned still as her bag and rifle were suddenly enveloped in Rarity's magic, lifted off of her, and deposited to parts unknown. "You... don't mess around." She said in a stunned voice.

"Oh of course, fashion is serious business after all! Although, I have to ask, what or who is that in the picture? I've never seen anypony who looks like that." She asked conversationally as she stretched her tape measure along Eva's torso.

"That's ah, me, actually, about... twenty years ago, I wasn't always a pegasus, that's... actually a pretty recent change." Eva explained, mentally bracing herself for the inevitable reaction. She caught Dash and Twilight looking at the picture out of the corner of her eye.

"So you really were telling the truth." Twilight said finally.

"Well, yeah... I mean if I was born a pegasus I wouldn't need that airplane would I?" She asked the unicorn.

"I like the jacket." Dash interjected into the conversation as she examined the photo, having relieved Rarity of it.

"Yeah it's called a bomb--" Eva flinched as the tape measure brushed against her wings. "--er jacket. So you guys are not freaking out, what gives?"

"It's not the strangest thing we've ever seen." Rarity commented distractedly while she measured across Eva's chest.

"I'm not sure that I want to know." Eva said hesitantly. "By the way ah... I don't actually have any money right now, which just occurred to me." she said suddenly.

Rarity smiled, "Well, just this once I think I can let it slide, you seem honest enough, I'll just extend you a line of credit until you're on your hooves, so to speak."

Eva smiled, "Thank you, so much, I'll... figure something out soon I'm sure!"

~~

"Well that was really nice of her." Eva commented as the trio walked through the town, "I mean, she doesn't know me from Adam."

"Who's Adam?" Twilight asked with a lifted brow.

"It's an expression." Eva explained, "She doesn't know me from anyone else."

"Well, you did help all those ponies at the train, that's kind of a big deal." Dash offered.

"It was just the right thing to do, I couldn't have not done it, you'd have done the same thing, you even helped!" Eva deflected.

"Well yeah but I'm pretty awesome so it goes without saying." Dash joked. "So what are you going to do for money?"

"Well, that I'm not sure about..." She trailed off as her ears twitched over towards her left, she could hear... music? She turned her head and squinted, a mint green unicorn was playing a harp as passing ponies threw bits into an instrument case. 'No, not a harp, too small... Lyre?' she thought.

"Then again, I think I've got an idea."

~~

Eva grunted as she dragged the case up the last step, the handle clasped tightly in her teeth. The heavy case thumped onto the floor of the library as she finally let it drop. "There we go. Thank you for letting me keep all of my stuff down in your basement, Twi." she said as she started flipping the latches open.

"It's no problem at all, there's a lot of space down there that I'm not even using so it would have been silly not to use it!" Twilight replied with a smile, "Besides, I'm sure there are worse ponies to share space with."

"You sure about that?" Eva joked as she lifted the beat up acoustic guitar out of the case. She leaned back against a bookshelf and set it down in her lap, strumming experimentally. She was rewarded with a crisp clean sound, "It's still in tune, small favors, eh?" she asked rhetorically, "This is my dad's old Gibson J-45, this thing is even older than I am, if you can believe it."

"Are you going to play something or just talk about it?" Dash asked with a smirk, "come on, play something."

"Calm yourself, mare." Eva teased before cracking her neck, "alright let's see if I've still got it."

She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, clearing her mind. Then, she began to strum; a soft, deep melody started to fill the room.

"On a long and lonesome highway, east of Omaha, you can listen to the engine moanin' out its one note song. You can think about the woman or the girl you knew the night before.

But your thoughts will soon be wandering, the way they always do, when you're ridin' sixteen hours and there's nothing much to do, and you don't feel much like ridin' you just wish the trip was through."

Dash and Twilight leaned in closer, both finding themselves enraptured by the song, the emotion the gray pegasus was putting into her words, it wasn't the very best singing they had ever heard, but the feeling in those words was undeniable.

"Here I am, on the road again.

There I am, up on the stage.

Here I go, playin' star again.

There I go, turn the page."

Eva took in a breath, her eyes still closed as her hooves deftly plucked at the guitar, her mind far away, in a time and place long forgotten...

"Well you walk into a restaurant, strung out from the road and you feel the eyes upon you, as you're shakin' off the cold. You pretend it doesn't bother you but you just want to explode.

Most times you can't hear 'em talk, other times you can. All the same old cliches; 'Is that a woman or a man?' And you always seem outnumbered, you don't dare make a stand."

She opened her eyes, blinking away the wetness as she continued her song, taking a soft breath before she continued.

"Here I am, on the road again.

There I am, up on the stage.

Here I go, playin' star again.

There I go, turn the page."

"Out there in the spotlight, you're a million miles away. Every ounce of energy you try to give away. As the sweat pours out your body, like the music that you play...

Later in the evening, as you lie awake in bed with the echoes from the amplifiers ringin' in your head. You smoke the day's last cigarette, rememberin' what she said."

She slid her eyes closed again and fell back into her memories, a smile found its way onto her lips as she began to finish the song.

"Here I am, on the road again!

There I am, up on the stage!

Here I go, playin' star again!

There I go......

Turn the page."

As her hooves stopped on the guitar strings she let out a sigh and set the guitar against the bookshelf, "Well, there you go, how was it? I haven't really tried singing in a whi--"

She found herself cut off as Twilight wrapped her in a hug, which she hesitantly returned. "Usually people clap when they like the song." Eva joked.

"Right... sorry..." Twilight said nervously as she let the elder mare go. "It's just that you seemed so sad..."

"Well, yeah a little bit, there's a lot I left behind, even before I came here." She said sadly, "Don't worry about it though, those are old wounds, just picked at the scars a little bit. I'll be alright."

"Well, if you ever need a friend to talk to, I'll be here." Twilight offered, smiling. Eva couldn't help but smile too.

"I'd like that."