//------------------------------// // Persona XV: Over the Rainbow (part 1) // Story: Sometimes They Call Me Super // by KorenCZ11 //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash “Hey. It’s like, almost noon. Get up.” A voice said from somewhere nearby. “Ugh…” I moaned from my bed. Noon? There’s no way it’s that late… my window should… Where I was sleeping started to set in, and then it dawned on me that I didn’t have a window anymore. Further came the memories of yesterday night, and then the realization hit that today is my turn. Ah, fuck. I scratched my head and looked around my ‘new-ish’ room. The crystal walls were a bright blue hue, but up until whoever walked in woke me up, the actual lights that are seated at the floor weren’t on so it was still dark enough to sleep in, even with the walls practically glowing. Motion sensing lights. Even if they were electric, there’s no way I would’ve ever been able to afford a place with those. I got out of bed, stretched myself out a bit, moved some blood in and out of my stump, and then made my way to the bathroom. Another luxury that was new to me, my own bathroom. A sink, A full size bath, a shower, a closet, enough cabinets to act as a second closet. In a way, losing my last home ended up getting me an upgraded place. And since Scootaloo and I were basically conscripted by the crown, my expenses have gone to essentially nothing. Hell, I could afford a car now with the money I’m making. Fifteen G’s a month, and no expenses? I could even afford to go to school one of these days. Ugh. Provided I make it that far. I spit out toothpaste and then made my way into the ‘living room’ as they called it. I guess it really is one since there are so many ponies living here. It’s kinda weird to think about though. This castle, what with the size of it, it’s like it was made to house maybe, forty, fifty ponies. Yet, it apparently popped out of the ground from nowhere and Twilight lived in it alone for nearly nine years. How in the hell did that happen? It’s even got her cutiemark on it, which she didn’t even have beforehoof based on the story she told us. If she got it at the time she activated the ‘crystal relic’ or whatever, then does that mean that the relic was always meant for her? Who could’ve had the foresight to plant something like that? What even was the relic? Maybe I should have Brightness look into this… “Morning. Heh, I see you slept well.” Twilight remarked with a cup of coffee in her hooves. She also had some kinda gold thing attached to the base of her horn that ran up the ridges in it and filled in the parts she was missing. “Yeah… You already get back from the doctor with your mom?” I asked. She sighed and nodded. “I did. There doesn’t seem to be any signs of brain damage, but I destroyed a lot of my magic vessels and those are gonna take time to repair. At the moment, I have about Rarity’s capacity to do any magic thanks to this little implant, but I should be at least capable of more advanced spells by the end of the week once some of my magic vessels have repaired themselves. Even impaired, my magic vessels are ‘well beyond anything’ the doctor has ever seen, so at least that’s something. I doubt I’ll be able to contribute much once Sunday rolls around again though.” She said, losing all that snark she had earlier. “Oof. That doesn’t sound fun. Well, you’ll at least be kinda normal at the end of the week, right?” I offered. Twilight sighed again. “I suppose. I just wish the one time I get to do something useful in a fight wasn’t the last time I’ll get to do anything. I’m gonna go sulk in the library. Call me if you guys need anything. By phone I mean. I can’t actually use the brand right now because my wires are still frayed.” Twilight said as she headed past me. A thought crossed my mind and I stopped her. “Wait, wait, what? You can’t use the brand right now?” I asked. She nodded and tilted her head. “Yeah, why?” She asked. “Shit. Uh, do you know where Goose… and probably Applejack are right now? We kinda need them.” I asked. “Oh right, you guys need a ride to… Ponyville right? I guess if they’re anywhere and ‘screwing around’ as mother put it, they’d probably be at Goose’s place. The issue with that would be that we don’t know where he lives.” Twilight said. I sighed. “Well, that’s just great. I actually manage to work up my resolve and now we don’t know where they are.” I exasperated. “Hmm… I know they both have phones, but If I were them, I probably would have turned that off. Oh, you know what? This has happened before. A long time ago, when it was just me, Rarity, and Fluttershy, there was a target we needed to find and we had next to nothing to go on but a piece of clothing with the target’s blood on it. Since Fluttershy’s nose is so crazy, she actually managed to track him by scent.” Twilight said. Huh. Didn’t know the Beast was part bloodhound too. “Yeah… she said something kinda similar yesterday too. I guess I never realized just how good her senses are. Where is everypony else, anyways?” I asked. “Well she did pick up a sniper rifle after she joined us without much training at all. It usually takes years to get to where she is now, so if her eyes and reflexes are that good, then I’d assume her nose is too. Um, if you’re looking for them, Fluttershy’s room seems to be the popular gathering place. The last outburst I heard was somepony complaining about some move being ‘cheap and unfair,’ so I assume they’re playing that fighting game. She always told me I should get a projector for the living room… maybe I should? Well, good luck with whatever you’ve got going on today. I think I’m gonna go search Avalon.com for a projector and whatever game systems are popular right now. I’d love to make the living room the room we gather in for stuff other than meetings. You wouldn’t happen to know what’s current, would you?” She asked. More things I want and don’t have to pay for? Absolutely! “Ponystation 4, Cross Box One S, and the Kirifuda Click. Make sure you get a copy of Bash Bros Ultimate, God of Vengeance 4, and Holy Ring 5. Fluttershy is a freakin’ hipster with games more often than not, so she doesn’t own anything ‘new’ that isn’t one of her weeaboo RPGs. Oh, and at least a controller for everypony for the Click. The wireless ones, though. We can all play Bash Bros together, so we can make it like, a Harmony game night some time.” “We-a-what now?” Twilight asked. I rolled my eyes. “Don’t worry about it. Just get the stuff and we’ll migrate in here. You might try it sometime, video games are fun.” I said, then left before she had a chance to respond. I walked into Fluttershy’s room and immediately saw something frustrating. There Pinkie was playing one of the most underpowered characters in the game, getting beaten to death by Fluttershy’s puppet combos from literally the strongest character in the game. It helps that he’s hard to play, but goddess damn it, she always plays the complicated characters and runs train on anypony who challenges her. “KO!” “W-well, at least you got a few hits in there. I-I still think you should learn s-somepony else. I-I know you love her, but she’s j-just terrible, and desperately needs a buff.” Fluttershy said. “Ugh, but she’s so much fun! I know she’s bad, but at least she has like, one good match up right?” Pinkie half-heartedly said. Scootaloo shook her head while scrolling through her phone. “Nah, not a one. The forums say at most she has an even match up with like, two of the other twelve characters in the game, whom are also considered low tier, and everything else is slightly to heavily out of her favor. That match up in particular is supposed to be her worst at like, 8/2.” She said. Pinkie let out a sigh. “So uh, I hate to interrupt your… rousing conversation, but can we get a move on? Nopony knows where Goose is and Twilight broke herself so hard that she can’t used the brand right now.” They all turned and looked me up and down. Scootaloo fell over laughing to herself, and the other two started giggling and covering their mouths. “What? What’s so funny!?” I yelled. What in the fuck? That wasn’t even a joke! “A-are you sure you want t-to go see your parents in pajamas? I-I didn’t even know you l-liked Hello Neko.” My whole body froze. I took a very slow glance down to see the bright pink sleeve on my foreleg and immediately started to contemplate whether or not I could use my powers to kill myself. Goddess fucking damn it. “Mother fucker… J-just be ready to go when I come back!” I yelled as I bolted back to my room. Goddess damn it! The one day I forget! The one day! Perfect, just fucking perfect! Nopony is ever going to let me live this down. Strangely enough, Fluttershy picked up the trail just about immediately and lead us to Goose in like, less than twenty minutes. It was quick. She’d clearly never been there before since we made a few weird turns and ended up at a gas station at one point, but she picked the trail back up and lead us straight to him. I guess with her sense of smell she can find anypony if she’s been around ‘em for a little while. Of course, that doesn't require her mouth so it didn’t stop the teasing about my pajamas. I love cute things. I hate that I love cute things. I shouldn’t love cute things. But fuck me if I can’t sleep without my pajamas, and these guys are all shitty friends because not a damn pony has yet to make less than three remarks about it and fucking laughing at me for it! “You guys are assholes.” I pouted. “And you wear bright pink filly’s pajamas! Holy shit, I can’t believe I never figured this out before! I lived with you for four years, how did I not know? This… man, this is just hilarious.” Scootaloo half said, half laughed. “Uh-huh. And why are you here again? I thought you didn’t want to ‘meet your parents.’ Cause, ya know. They’re dead.” I shot back. Scoots just smiled back. “Wow, this really is a rough spot for you isn’t it? Don’t worry, I’m sure you can shop in the mare’s section one day♥” She responded. “You little fuck!” I nearly jumped on her to strangle her, but then Pinkie stepped in for me and popped her across the head. “Okay, that would be enough of that. So she likes cute things, whatever, right? You’ve had your fun, drop it for now, mmk?” She said. Scoots rubbed at her forehead and sighed. “Damn it, I’m gonna get a callus there! Bah, alright, fine, whatever. You get a pass for the rest of the day, but don’t you ever think I’m gonna let you live this one down. I’m still kinda bitter about the whole ‘lied to you for all the time we’ve known each other’ thing, so this might just be my way of letting off some steam now that I can poke at you. As for why I came, your parents are kinda like my parents too in a way, ya know? Even if you were lying about your life for all this time, you still kinda raised me in place of my own mom. So I think I outta at least meet them. If anything, It’ll make you look better in their eyes. From what I’ve heard about their relationship, you might actually need me around so nopony gets arrested.” She explained. I sighed and let my head fall to the side. “Yeah, that’s… that’s probably solid logic.” I admitted. Suddenly, Fluttershy stopped and turned to face the house we were standing in front of. “W-we’re here.” She noted, like she was some kinda cold killer that had locked onto a target. She was near silent the whole way, keeping her nose toward the ground and following her prey relentlessly. It reminded me more of the Beast than I’d like, but that just goes to show how much of her powers really affect her. I guess ‘Target Lock’ is something she was called and just kept it. Fitting, honestly. Makes me wonder where it actually came from now. And the real question… how does she stave off the cravings? “Is this really the place? It looks like it hasn’t been touched in years.” Pinkie questioned. And she was right.We stood in front of a typical suburban, 90’s era home with a trashy looking chain link fence that was half rusted over and an overgrown lawn that was probably mowed once a year by the city. This district wasn’t the poorest in Manehattan, but it was damn close, and even then, this house looked in bad shape compared to the rest of it. The the light purpleish-blue paint on the outside was chipped and cracking off, the shingles on the roof had seen better days, the windows looked like they were all covered in dust from years of neglect inside, and the front door… well, the front door looked fine actually. It was the only thing that looked like it’d seen use or attention in a few years. “I’ll say. Why does he own this piece of junk? Isn’t he like, Shark Tooth’s kid? Dude had some of the deepest pockets in Manehattan’s underworld, there’s no way he actually lived in a dump like this.” I remarked. “Well, I guess we’ll know when we look inside. Let’s go-” Scoots said as she started to head in, but Fluttershy held out a wing. “Stop.” She commanded. Nopony moved for a few minutes until she finally put her wing down. “O-okay, now.” She said. “Uh… what?” Scoots asked. “D-don’t worry about it, it’s not important. L-let’s go.” She said as she lead the way to the door. She knocked three times, and after a couple moments, shuffling came from behind the door. “Um… hello?” Applejack’s unmistakable voice said as she opened it. Her mane was a mess, and she was wearing a velvety looking plush red robe that had her cutiemark embroidered in it. She looked like she’d been sweating and there was a weird smell around her that I couldn’t place. “Holy shit! Oh goddess, what in the world are y’all doin’ here?” She sort of staggered after she realized it was us. “Who is it? Do I have to get up?” Goose called from deeper in the house. “It’s everypony but Rarity and Twi, so Ah bet they’re here fer you!” She called back. “Ah, son of a bitch. Okay, I’ll be right there.” With that, She very quickly stepped outside onto the slab of protruding concrete from the foundation, or ‘porch’ if you could call it that, with the rest of us and closed the door behind her. “So uh… what’s up guys?” Applejack asked, almost nervously. “Well, we came here to have Goose take us across the country, I just… So, you guys are like, officially a ‘thing’ now, yeah?” I asked. Applejack’s ears perked up and she tried very hard to kill any expression on her face. “Uh… well… yeah, sure. Ah’ve uh… Ah’ve been tellin’ my family he’s my… my… my boyfriend fer about a week now, Ah suppose.” She… admitted? She said it almost like it was a crime. “Uh-huh. So uh… what were you two doing just now?” I asked. She froze even harder and all the muscles in her body were tense. “Y-ya know… hangin’ out. A-as it turns out, he’s a classical music buff! Didn’t even know it beforehoof, we’ve uh… we’ve been listenin’ ta a lot of that lately. Did ya know that some of those pieces are over ten minutes long? Ya can really get lost in the good ones and suddenly hours go by. Never heard a lot of it before, he’s got more than just what’s been popularized by movies.” She replied, stuttering every now and again and talking quick. Oh, she totally did it. Just then, the door opened behind her and Goose came out in his own bathrobe, this one black with ‘LC’ embroidered in gold on the chest. He got up next to Applejack and the moment she turned her head to look at him, he kissed her on the lips. “Hey guys, what’s up?” He asked casually. I don’t know who was more stunned, us or Applejack. “What? Do I still have-” He started but quickly found his mouth full of Applejack’s hoof. “Why don’t y’all wait out here fer a minute, Ah need ta talk ta him real quick.” she said, unusually sweet and polite. She pushed him into the house and slammed the door shut behind her. After about a couple minutes of muffled voices, they came back outside, this time she was a little more relaxed than she was before. “Why don’t you guys come have a seat? Standing on the porch talking isn’t really a good sign in this particular neighborhood.” Goose offered. They lead the way in, and Goose grabbed a few chairs from the dinner table to the left and brought them over to what could probably pass for a small living room. The walls were painted a dark violet and covered in records and framed pictures. Oddly enough, it looked like the place had been cleaned up on the inside as opposed to the poor condition the exterior had. There was a black and white checkered carpet over the floor on this side, whereas the kitchen right next to this had a light gray imitation marble linoleum covering it’s floor. There was a long hallway between the kitchen and the living room that lead to a few rooms, and it looked like there was another room at the end of the living room. There was a big old CRT TV that was definitely not cheap when it was bought on a console against the front wall across from a bright white loveseat couch that was covered in gold accents with a polished, ornate wooden coffee table sitting in front of that. Toward the kitchen side was a big white and gold armchair that Applejack had taken residence on, and Goose found himself in one of the chairs he brought over next to her. Pinkie, Scoots and I, had squeezed ourselves into the loveseat thing thanks to our below average statures, and Fluttershy took the free chair Goose brought out. “Cozy little place you’ve got here. It’s almost like something Celestia would decorate.” Pinkie pointed out. “Yeah, Carcha and my dad’s design tastes stemmed from seeing Canterlot Castle when he was real young back in the 80’s. Black, white, gold, and violet are our colors, so it make sense. So what did you guys need?” he asked. “W-well, we’d like you to take us to Ponyville. A-as of Monday, we decided that the t-three of us are going to try and reconcile w-with our families. W-we visited my parents y-yesterday, and today we want to go see R-rainbow’s parents. M-my family lives in Manehattan though, so it was easy. R-Rainbow’s parents on the other hoof l-live in central Palomino, so it’s a bit harder. P-pinkie’s parents live in Salt Lick s-so we’ll need you tomorrow a-after training too if that’s alright.” Fluttershy explained. Goose smiled, Applejack frowned. “Hey, way to go! I’m glad you took my advice from the other day. And you’re on good terms with them now? What all did you tell them?” He asked. His advice? Is that why she agreed so easily? Goose already made the suggestion? How long ago did that happen? “W-well… everything really. E-even the parts I’d only told you before.” She said, twiddling her mane with her hooves. Goose straightened up. “Oh. I see. Well, that’s good. Yeah, that’s really good. Now we just need to get you back in school, and you might be able to fulfill that dream of yours.” Then he put one hoof on his elbow, and the other under his chin. “Ponyville, Palomino, and Salt Lick city, Neigha… I could take you to Salt Lick easy, but I think we’ll have to go to Fort Withers and then take a cab or something to get to that other place. I can’t make such a long distance jump without actually having been to that place before. There’s not like, some kinda big operation in Ponyville is there? It sounds familiar, so maybe I’ve been there and just don’t know the town.” Goose mused. Applejack sighed, rolled her eyes, and made a deep grunt. “Yeah, there sure is. Biggest orchard in Equestria is located in that little town. Might as well rename the place ta ‘Sweet Apple Acres Supply Railway’ since that’s all it’s good fer.” She spat. Goose made a face. “Oh. Right. Yeah, I uh… I’ve been there before.” He said, keeping his eyes to the ground as his catty and irritated girlfriend stared angrily at the wall. “Look, you don’t have to come. We don’t even need Goose to stick around, he can just… take us, drop us off, and pick us up when we call. I just… I finally worked up the courage to face my parents, and I really need to do this. Seeing Shy really connect with her folks again… it really hit me hard, ya know? They thought, and still think, that I’m dead right now. I kept that hidden from them for years, even though I probably could have found them if I had actually put my mind to it. Now that all the pieces are in place, I just need a ride. It’s… it’s time to grow up and stop running away from it.” I said. Applejack ground her teeth a bit, then scratched at her face till she let out a big sigh and sank into the chair. “Fine, whatever, Ah’ll come along. Ah… might have some grudges, but that shouldn’t stop me from supportin’ my friends. Besides, even Ah think it’s good y’all are tryin’ ta fix yer family ties. You’re bringin’ Scootaloo along ta meet yer parents right?” Applejack asked. I rolled my eyes. “Not… initially, but after talking about it, that’s probably a good idea.” I stated. There’s no way this is going to be fun. Maybe I won’t lose my nerve when dad inevitably goes off if somepony is with me. “Huh. Why is that?” She asked. Goose stood up out of his chair. “I detect… family drama. I need about an hour to charge enough for a jump that far, and we need to shower before we go into public, so how about I take you guys back to the castle for now and we can discuss this while we’re waiting, hmm?” Goose suggested. This guy… this guy is a bro. “Yes! Let’s do that. We should… definitely do that.” I agreed before anypony else could say anything. Nopony did say anything else, and just as quick as I said anything, we were back at the castle, sans-Applejack. “Mmk, bye!” Goose said before disappearing. Eager to leave, that’s for sure. “Is it just me, or did we just get kicked out?” Pinkie asked while most everypony was standing dumbfounded in the castle living room. “M-mommy and daddy were busy, s-so the kids were sent away. L-let’s go finish that match. I-I think I’ll do a m-mirror with you and see if I c-can’t think of any options for the other fight.” Fluttershy said as she turned back toward her room. “Are we really just gonna ignore-” Scootaloo started, but Fluttershy turned around and dead eyed her. “Not a word. Ever.” The Beast responded. And here I thought Celestia was the most intimidating pony in the castle. “So, uh… You know you’ve got a sketchy home life when you question whether or not your parents like each other as a kid.” I started. We’d all regrouped in the living room and gathered around the table like we were here for a meeting. Instead of something serious like the impending destruction of the city though, we were just here to talk about my parents. A topic I was more than glad I forgot about when I recovered from my amnesia all those years ago. “I-it was… not a normal relationship, t-that’s for sure. I-I honestly thought they might’ve l-liked arguing with each other.” Fluttershy added. “Ooh, that’s rough. So, your folks are just as crazy as you are maybe?” Goose asked. I rolled my eyes. “Yes and no. So, when I was young and still lived with them, I figured out pretty early on that they lived together on thin ice on a hot August day. I’m an only child, and between the two of them, they are extremely infertile. So much so that my mother miscarried more than once before I was born. I was their ‘Little light in the darkness’ so they named me Firefly. Because of that, they… they really had trouble sticking around each other. I know they didn’t hate each other because they were still willing to live in the same house, even sleep in the same bed but… every other discussion turned into a heated argument. See, my dad was a cop right?” I continued, but then everypony went dead silent. “He’s an officer… and you’re gonna tell him what ya told us?” Applejack asked, very concerned. “Well, yeah. But that’s not even the worst of it all. Dad isn’t a power pony. So who does he hate? Power ponies.” I added. “Whew, boy, this is going to be a fun excursion.” Goose added. I tightened my lips and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah it is. And you’re not helping my resolve to do this, so just shut up and listen!” I reprimanded. “Okay, yeah, sure, we’ll be quiet, I promise.” He said as he wrapped a hoof around her, while she reciprocated, slowly and awkwardly. Man she’s super stiff about all this. PDA is not her thing. “Anyways, dad was a cop. Dad hates power ponies. Neither of my parents have powers as far as I know, and when they were both young, all they really wanted was to have a bunch of kids. As it turned out, that wasn’t going to be possible. Around the time I was five, I remember going with them to visit a fertility doctor. Of course, I didn’t know a lot of the words that were tossed around at the time, but my parents had a lot of tech lying around because they were a wealthy double income no kids couple before me, and I was smart enough to use a search engine. When she was about my age, mom was caught up in an accident that damaged her abdominal organs real bad. She had to undergo a lot of surgeries to get her body repaired, and her ovaries suffered a lot because of it. So mom doesn’t ovulate properly, that was part one. Part two was my dad’s job. He was a cop, but he wasn’t always a cop. Bow Flare was initially a bomb technician. Around the time he was twenty-five, there was an accident on duty and he ended up losing a back leg and part of his family jewels. So when they met, ironically enough in the hospital after his injury because she was his nurse, and became Bow and Windy Flare three years later, things were already not super hopeful for the future, but they still tried. Three more years down the road after getting hitched, my parents are two miscarriages down and starting to feel their ages catch up with them. So they tried again and finally the pregnancy took and the baby made it past the first trimester. Second trimester goes by smoothly, then problems occur. They’d never made it this far in the first place, so of course they weren’t ready for it when it was noted that I had a blood disease. Mom didn’t know her dad well because he died young. As it turns out, sickle cell runs in the family, my grandfather died from it, and he passed it on to me. My body isn’t circulating enough blood because I’m barely making enough working cells of my own, and suddenly She’s basically stuck in the hospital for the next four months making sure I don’t end up number three. More complications arrive when the hospital actually starts to run out of compatible blood by the end of the pregnancy since you know, she and I are type O negative, dad isn’t and even if he was, he’s missing a leg so he couldn’t donate very much safely even if he wanted to. None of their living relatives share blood type with us, so there were two options. One, they could force the pregnancy early and then keep me in NICU while giving me transfusions so some of that precious blood doesn’t get lost in my mother, and she can give me transfusions after she recovers. Two, they could relocate to another hospital on the ground and get me better care there. Cloudsdale isn’t really known for having the best hospitals in the world, and some of the more advanced tech doesn’t get there very quick thanks to it having to be shipped via air with special magic applied to make sure it won’t fall through cloud over time. There was still a little time left, so they had a few weeks to decide. Or so they thought. Less than a week passes, and I start convulsing in the womb. My heart stops beating right and unless they operate on me, I die. One C-section later, I’m stabilized and born a month early. Keywords here being ‘month early.’ So, I’m premature, I suffer from cases of arrhythmia, and I have sickle cell to top it all off. As you can guess, I wasn’t very cheap to keep alive. In the first two years they blow through their savings, and just as soon as she’s able, mom has to go back to work. Thankfully she was a nurse and could keep tabs on me at work since I was confined to a room there more often than not, but oddly enough, it became harder for them to deal with me as I started to grow healthy. This is where home life starts to get complicated. Neither of them can take off very much, but since mom makes better money at this point, it’s up to dad to take care of me. So every now and again, dad will take a week off to spend time with me, but he’ll get depressed because he has nothing better to do since ‘playing’ isn’t something he can really do with me, and that was something I always wanted to do. I didn’t see it then, but having to tell your kid that you can’t go run around together because she’s literally not healthy enough to do it… it’s just gotta be heartbreaking. I want to play, he knows I can’t, so he sets me up in front of the TV and goes into the study to work on a case or two he brought home with him. Mom comes home to see he’s not even watching me and threw me in front of the TV and started to work again, and they get in a fight. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. It went on like this for years. They’d fight about money, they’d blame each other for being infertile, they’d yell at each other because she passed on her bad genes and he passed his, the arguments were endless. The day finally comes where I’m old enough and healthy enough to be sent off to daycare, and it just so happens to be a cheaper alternative to dad taking off whole weeks of work every month just to take care of me. You know what happens to me there, and after that, my mom loses her shit. I remember her saying something like, ‘We can’t keep doing this, somepony has to stop working. I can’t live through something like that again,’ and I’m not entirely sure whether or not that was a suicide threat. All I do know is that that conversation was way more serious than I was capable of understanding, and dad quit his job shortly after. For a while there, things are good. I’m actually old enough and healthy enough to play, and I was really good at flying. Like, I showed a lot more potential than they thought possible for somepony as frail as I was. Dad thought I could be a Wonderbolt so he made damn sure I wanted to be one. We went to performances and races, we went to meet and greets, and he signed me up for competitions. I was pretty terrible in the beginning, but as I grew, my better qualities for the sport started to shine, and even with all my conditions, it still looked like I had a future as a racer or performer. So, life is starting to get better, my parents are fighting less, I’m only going in for transfusions once a month and mom is capable of providing blood herself so it’s less costly. Fluttershy is at the house… at least some times because they still got into fights, but it wasn’t nearly as often as before the whole daycare incident. Then, when everything is looking up… I race for the last time. I… I’m honestly not sure how they managed to stick together after all this time. I was… probably the only thing that really kept them together when I was young, and the fact that they’re still married after I’ve been officially dead for seven years is just… amazing, really. When I think of the words, ‘loving family,’ mine never comes to mind. Even when the fighting started to slow down, it was never any less intense than it was in the beginning, and when I started to understand the words that were flying around, I was really scared that they were going to divorce. It’s terrifying to live in a place where you could cut the tension in the air with a knife once a week. The biggest reason I want to go home, the real reason I want to see them again is because… I want to know that they’re still okay. As crazy as I got, as easily attracted to violence as I was, as much entertainment as I enjoyed from killing ponies, I need to know that I didn’t get that from one of them. If the fear of losing me was enough to drive my mother to threaten suicide… I have to know how they’re still around after they did lose me.” “Oh, see, there it is. Found the sad backstory guys, it’s okay now, everypony has one.” Pinkie said. Everypony was dead silent, and most of us were giving her death stares. “Dude.” Goose said, appalled. “What? Come on, don’t tell me you didn’t feel the need to break the mood after that.” She shot back. “Holy shit. Common decency, Pinkie! Yeah, I was gonna try, but I was at least going to be sensitive about it! You can’t just fucking say shit like that! We’re trying to help, not make her feel worse!” He reprimanded after standing up. I reclined in my folding chair and just let myself deflate. “Nah man, it’s cool… I’m more than happy to just get it off my chest, I don’t need a pity party.” I said to try and defuse the guy. He tensed up and looked a little bit more like he was about to go punch Pinkie in the face, but Applejack put a hoof on his foreleg and stopped him. “Maybe ya should just let this one go, sugar cube. We’ve been outta the loop fer a few days, Ah think she’s a bit more intuitive than ya give her credit for. If she really thought Rainbow was gonna react negatively ta that, Ah doubt she would’ve said it.” She persuaded. He let out a breath and then relaxed and sat down. “Fine. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.” He grumbled. I think I blinked a couple times, and I know for a fact that I rubbed at my eyes. Everypony was kinda staring at them with confused looks. “Uh, can I help y’all?” Applejack asked. “When did you get so… relaxed? Did you guys just… trade personalities in the last couple days, or what?” Pinkie asked, her hooves together and pointing at Applejack. “I-I don’t think that was r-really out of character for anypony. Um… a-are we ready to go? I-I think it’s been about an h-hour.” Fluttershy said, completely turning away the topic. She knows something. And she has absolutely no plans to tell anypony else about it. “Whatever. Let me check.” He pulled a little silver ball out of his pocket and placed it on the table. “Let’s see… that’s like… 1600 miles, so that means…” he mumbled to himself, then raised his left hoof about half a meter above the ball. A strange crackling sound started to come from his hoof and then all the hair on his hoof started to stick straight up. Shortly there after, lightning ran from the tip of his hoof all the way down to the ball. As soon as that happened, he pocketed the ball. “Yeah, we can go now.” He said. “Uh… what the hell did you just do?” Scootaloo asked. He lowered his eyebrows and finally took note of all the confused looks at the table. “Oh. Have I never explained how my powers work?” He asked. “That’d be a negatory, Ghost Rider.” Pinkie said in an imitation Applejack voice. “Well, Ah know, but Ah think Ah only got that explanation once.” The real thing said. “Huh. Well, in that case… I kinda run on static electricity. The teleportation power is something I have to charge, and warping is like releasing the static. The main reason I started to wear clothes all the time is because the more static I can generate, the easier it is to warp. If I’m moving a lot, I can generate enough for small jumps almost instantly. If I’m not moving much but still need to charge, I can kinda get static from the air around me, but that often causes electrical malfunctions, and I’ve fried a phone once by doing it. Instead, I keep a piece of felt in my pocket and usually play with that to get the charge I need. The ball is for testing distance. For every two and a half centimeters of lightning I can generate, I can travel a hundred miles. Takes like ten minutes to generate that much static with just the felt though, so walking over here sped up the process a lot.” Goose explained. “So you can just… expel lighting from your hoof tips?” I asked. He shook his head. “Kinda. It’s more like getting the static to find something to be attracted to. It’s not as if I could do it in a fight, and just gathering that much takes hours. If you want to see somepony who uses electricity in a fight, then you should go visit Volt Switch. She has the real power in that category. I’m just an energy magnet that can break space with enough of it.” He clarified… kinda. I’m still not entirely sure what him discharging static has to do with breaking space, but that’s whatever. I guess if him discharging static is actually breaking atoms, then he’s kinda like a walking nuclear reactor but… space-time is weird. “Well, what are we doin’ sittin’ around here fer? Do ya know when yer parents are gonna be home?” Applejack asked. Oh. Right. “Yeah, no, we never figured that out. Celestia had their locations when we asked about it, but nopony thought to ask about scheduling. Don’t even know what they do for a living. If dad’s a cop again, we’ll probably be stuck there for a while. If mom is working, she might be home though. She usually worked evenings or nights after my body started to stabilize while I was growing up. If nothing else, I’ve got a map and a phone, so we can find their house and then ask around if need be.” I offered. Goose stood up and stretched, then everypony else followed suit. “Well, let’s go ahead and do that then. I get kinda itchy when I’ve got a lotta juice stored and I’m gonna have to hold a bunch of power while we wait for you anyways.” He held out his right foreleg for everypony to touch and I noticed his clothes start to kinda ‘float’ like he was in a pool of water. I guess he’s never used this kind of energy around us before, but there’s also never really been a reason to either. We all put a hoof on Goose, and in the blink of an eye, we warped.