Chapter 1- A Knock in the Night
“Pinks, you sure this was the stealthiest way to move around?” Rainbow Dash said in a low voice, biting her lower lip and grimacing as cool gusts of air blew on her fingers and face, and went through her two layers of clothes.
“Didn’t say it was super-duper stealthy, just not as noisy as a car!” Pinkie said seemingly unaffected by the night’s cold weather and by the effort she put in doing her part in pedaling for the tandem.
“Uh, yeah, true, but...” Dash shook her head and did a little cycle sprint “yeah, it’s very silent, but maybe not the best at night around these parts, I guess.”
“Oh, you afraid of catching a cold?” Pinkie turned her head on the left and stuck out her tongue, then went back to look at the street.
“No, not really, I'm pretty strong and, even then, I can always use some time off.” Dash said as she rhytmically squeezed on her handles to fight the cold “I’m just worried that she might get sick, though."
Almost like on command, Wallflower Blush let out a gentle warble. Dash looked behind her: she still was in a basked secured to the tandem bike's rear baggage older, under the cover a bunch of beach towels, discarded clothes and old bedsheets, but, instead of sleeping, she was now using her little hands to clumsily rub her eyes.
"Oh for the love of..." she murmured and turned back to look in front of her "We have to go faster, she's waking up."
"Gotcha!" Pinkie said in almost-tooo-shrill way as she immediately increased her pace along with Dash's.
After a few minutes worth of sprinting in a straight line, Pinkie abruptly turned left, almost unsaddling Dash and causing the basket to jump up udner the restraint.
"We're close!"
"Pinkie! Be careful!" Dash said as she quickly went back to her previous position "A bit more abruptly and Wallflower would've been a splatter on the curb!"
"Sorry!" Pinkie answered while slowing down, apparently not even paying attention to Dash.
Dash took a deep breath of the cold air, using her tracksuit's sleeve to wipe the sweat off her forehed and panting a little bit as she synchronized her pace with Pinkie's. As they both slowed down, Wallflower started gurgling softly in her basket, almost as if she knew where she was.
Pinkie braked and brought the tandem to a stop, then she hopped off. Dash did the same soonafter and, after she kicked the bike stand down with a well-placed kick, she looked to her right towards Wallflower's house: it was a building that, while similar in architecture to all other houses in the neighbourhood, still managed to stand out somewhat, thanks to the lime green and pink color scheme (which was visible mostly thanks to the streetlamps' light), a pagoda-like concave roof with pike-shaped decorations at the corners, and two flagpoles on the porch, with one having the national flag high up on it and another one with a striped yellow and red pattern issued at half-mast.
"No light's on." Dash muttered "Do you think we should knock? Or should we leave her on the doorstep movie-style?"
Pinkie gasped.
"Of course not! We haven't written any message ofr the parents! Not even a 'to a good home' thingie! nothing!" she said with one hand on her mouth and the other gripping the basket's handle "No! We have to knock and tell that to their faces!"
She sighed and, after crossing her fingers, she walked up to the door. The doorbell had a single tag, written in a strangely fanciful style and full of odd squiggles all over the letters, that read "Mrs. Sen Đẹp & Mr. Iron Lip".
Hesitantly, she pushed the bell. A low mechanical ringing signaled that it worked, and a bike bell echoing from the inside confirmed that.
She was still mildly sweating, causing the clothes in the internal layer to feel uncomfortably damp and cold on her skin, even if she had stopped pedaling: she wasn't sure whether it was just the cold and the dampness, or if it was also the tension that ringing the doorbell of what amounted to a house of strangers could bring. As for Pinkie, she still held on the basket, holding it next to the striped flag to let a babbling Wallflower try to reach it with her pudgy little hands, and making silly noises at a low voice to keep her busy.
Soon Dash heard some soft thuds coming from inside the house. Bracing herself, she joined her hands in a ball and squeezed them together to keep a semblance of composure.
"Bạn muốn cái quái gì vào giờ này?" a female voice voice, one that reminded Dash of a broken accordion, spoke from behidn the door, soon followed by a series of gargling sounds and a coughing fit "Ack, I mean, who are you and what do you want from me at this accursed hour?"
Dash coughed a little and took a deep breath.
"Mrs. Sen, we are your daughter's friends..." she said.
"What friends?"
"Uh... the ones from school, I guess?" Dash shrugged.
"Whatever you're trying to do, I'm not falling for it. Go away, I need to sleep." Sen coarsely said.
"Wait, lady, don't go to bed yet!" Pinkie interjected, running to the doorstep and almost shoving Dash aside on the lawn's muddy ground "We've got let you see your daughter!"
There was an eletrical silence. Dash felt her sweat run even colder and dribble away from her body, which made her unsure whether she was dribbling something else as well, given the situation. Even Wallflower had turned utterly silent, perhaps sensing just how electrical the air had gotten all of the sudden. Yet Pinkie was still showing a small toothy grin.
"Really? Let me see. Now."
"Sure, just open the door!"
With two clicks in rapid succession, the door was opened, revealing a light pink-ish woman, wearing a light green baggy nightrobe and ochre and brown-ish white hair that resembled Medusa's serpent hair. She was short and hunched forward, leaving her shorter than Pinkie, yet her sheer presence in that moment gave to Dash the impression she was as tall as he doorframe, and her elmerald eyes were throwing daggers all over the place.
Realizing the situation in short succession, Pinkie's smile faded and her hair straightenedo ut a little as she moved the basket forward in front of the woman.
"Mrs. Sen... this is how Wallflower looks like now."
Wallflower slowly pushed away two towels and sat up, looking with wide eyes at Sen.
"Mẹ?" she whispered in an almost fearful away.
Sen froze and her eyes bugged out at the sight. However, she immediately shook her head, blabbering rapidly, and then looked straight into Pinkie's eyes.
"Okay, little hussy, I don't know what's your plan here, but I'm not an orphanage, and I have no intention of having a new daughter." she angrily said "Go back to your boyfriend or whatever and let me sleep."
Dash felt a surge of anger as she lunged forward menacingly as she hissed and closed her hands into fists; Pinkie recoiled and gasped in shock, almost stumbling backwards.
"B-but... it's not my baby, it's yours!" Pinkie said as she put the basket forward, where Wallflower was looking at Sen pleadingly "Look at her, does she look in any way like me?"
"I don't care, she clearly isn't my daughter, my real daughter is out at a beach hostel getting drunk like a sailor before she gets back here to study for her admission exam for university." Sen roared "Go away now, you nutcracker!"
"Stop talking to my friend like that!" Dash pushed Pinkie aside.
"Make me mãi d- argh!" Sen said "No, forget it, go away, or I'll call the police!"
"I dare you, you won't be ab-" Dash pushed her face against Sen's, but she was yanked away strongly.
"Enough, let's get going." Pinkie said after forcing Dash to look at her "No point arguing with this old witch, and Wallflower's getting really upset at all this shouting and so I am."
"It'd be weird if she didn't." Dash grumbled as Sen violently slammed the door shut "It's literally the only memory left in her tiny little brain, probably, after the stone exploded like a firecracker, of course she's upset!"
Pinkie nodded and wordlessly tied the basket to the tandem, as a wailing Wallflower struggled udner the covers and jerked her little limbs around in despair. Dash bellowed for several seconds, calming down from her previous ire and rage, her fists shaking.
"Still, that was uncalled for. Oh so, so, so, SO much." Dash's left eyes twitched, as she mounted on her bike seat and strongly gripped against the handles as if she was trying to tear them off "I swear I'll make her eat her words."
Pinkie just sadly nodded as she mounted on the bike seat and steered the tandem all the way back around where they stopped.
Dash took tow deep breaths, then focused her anger on pedaling as soon as they were on the long straight road. All the while, Wallflower's wails worked a some sort of impromptu siren that echoed in the night, one that slowly stopped as the ride went on, her small lungs unable to keep up the racket and her mind already set on sleep.
"Okay, the obvious solution didn't work. What now?"
"I can try to see if the Cakes would be fine in trying to keep her around the twins for a bit," Pinkie said with a sigh, "but it's not enough. Who knows how long is Twi going to take in figuring out a way to get her back to normal, they can't keep her for super long."
"If you can't, nobody of us six can do it alone..." Dash sighed, bitterness filling her chest and her voice.
"Yeah..." she said dejectendly, her head hanging low and her hair mostly straight.
After three minutes of silence, however, her previous compsure got back to normal.
"But we can do it together!" she exclaimed triumphantly "We'll just have to switch around. One week each, sounds decent? Or maybe a day each! Or maybe..."
