//------------------------------//
// Chapter VI 
// Story: The whacky adventures of Pond Water the Unicorn! 
// by The PatioHeater 
//------------------------------//

It was late morning, about half ten, when Dove started to stir. She woke up, her eyes could barely open. She was glad to not have had another incident like that in the night, she doubt she could have handled being woken up like that again.
She looked around wearily, her vision blurry due to her un-openable eyes, but she could still make out the colour and shape of a Pony laying beside her. She wasn’t sure who it was in her tired state and began rubbing their stomach affectionately without realising it, but once the Pony next to her started to stir and emit a feminine sound she remembered it was Pond and abruptly stopped.
She removed her hoof from Pond and used it to rub her eyes open; she then gently pulled her other hoof out from under her so she could move. She sat up in bed and stretched her legs, yawning as she did, trying desperately to be quiet as to not wake Pond.
She rolled off the bed and landed quietly on the carpet. She stretched once again, her back seemed to creak slightly, and then she pulled the covers back over Pond to let her continue sleeping, after last night she thought Pond could use some proper sleep. Dove went to the bathroom to relieve the pressure caused by free drinks before heading downstairs for a hot, sugary cup of tea.


– P –


It had been some time before Pond woke up; the absence of Dove holding her was noticeable as she tossed and turned before waking. She opened her eyes slowly, the light shining through the thin curtains was painfully bright for somepony who had just woken up. Once her eyes adjusted to the light she sat up, wondering where Dove had gone, she felt rather nervous, she thought Dove could have been taken since it’s a possibility in this city. But all fear was dissipated as Pond heard a loud crash and an even louder use of profanity. Pond sighed with relief, now that she knew her friend was downstairs and just dropped a mug, by the sound of it, she could easily get up. She took Winks from the floor and placed him carefully on the nightstand before making the bed, paying close attention to detail, she never could leave a job done to anything less than an exceptional standard. Content with the bed she left and headed to the bathroom. She really needed a needed a shower, but felt far too rude to just go for one. So she leant her head over the banister.
“Can I go for a shower?” she shouted in as polite a fashion as possible.
“Yeah, sure!” Dove shouted back up. “But you don’t need to ask. Just make sure you don’t use up all the hot water!”
“Okay, thanks!” Pond, now happy that she asked, went to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her and locking it; she wasn’t sure why as it locked the door to nothing but itself due to it being broken, but it just felt wrong not to.
She turned the taps and out poured the water into the bath, it took her a moment to figure out how to get it to come out the shower but she managed it. Once at a nice warm temperature she stepped into the bath and closed the curtain.
She sat under the water for a while; just letting her body get soaked and wash away the few aches and bad feelings she had. She found water so soothing, regardless of whether she was on a boat or sitting in the shower. She slumped back against the back of the bath, the taps dripping both hot and cold water onto her back, her hind legs stretched out in the bath. She didn’t feel comfortable, she didn’t know why but there was a horrible feeling in her stomach. She was sure a good cry could get rid of it but she so badly did not want to.
She didn’t cry in the end, which relieved her, instead she settled for resting her head back to let the water hit her face and playing with her mane and tail, enjoying the feelings immensely as she drifted away from reality.
It must have been ten minutes before her mind came back from where ever it had been, her body now sufficiently wet and her mane and tail incredibly knotted. She thought she’d better not be in there for much longer as Dove might want a shower as well, so she sat up into a more natural position so she could wash herself.
She was confused, there was such an array of various bath liquids all used to some degree that she didn’t know what to use. And just to add to that, she didn’t know which ones she was allowed to use, and she felt like she couldn’t just use any without asking. After some very mild panic, she settled on a simple bar of soap, she couldn’t possible go wrong with that.  She quickly washed herself and got out, finding a towel on the radiator and roughly drying herself before wrapping it around her mane. 
She left the bathroom and headed downstairs, still the towel wrapped around her head.

Dove was sat at the table, idly playing with her mane, when she heard the clopping sound of hooves on the laminate flooring in the hallway behind her, coming ever closer to the kitchen.
“Morning Pond,” she called over her shoulder. “Did ya have a good sleep? Y’know, apart from the… the… bit in the middle.”
“Good morning. And yes, I did. Your bed is really comfy.” Pond took a seat opposite Dove at the breakfast table, sighing contently as she relaxed every muscle in her body, leaning her head in her hooves.
“Thanks. Can I get you anything?”
“Err… what’re you offering?”
“I have some scrambled eggs ready to go. I was waiting for you before I made any.”
“Aw, thanks. And eggs sound perfect right now.”
“Okay.” Dove hopped down from the chair and headed over to the stove where she quickly made some scrambled eggs and toast.
She placed the plate of food in front of Pond along with a large mug of tea. She got her own plate and sat opposite Pond. They ate in silence for a while until the curiosity burned inside Dove to an unbearable point.
“Hey Pond.”
“Yeah?”
“W-what did you dream about that made you… you…” awkwardness prevented her from finishing her question.
“I don’t really know.” Pond sighed.
“What?” Dove spoke with slight annoyance; she didn’t like being woken with no obvious or explainable reason.
“Those nightmares… I don’t always know what’s going on. And if I'm honest, I don’t really want to.”
“Why?” Dove was growing concerned for her.
“Well… I-I don’t really want to talk about it,” Pond said casually, as if she didn’t really care.
“Oh come on, you can tell me,” she said caringly.
“No, I can’t. Let’s just say it’s down to a rather bad childhood.”
“Heh. I’ve been there,” Dove said, thinking she knew what it was like.
“No you haven’t,” Pond said with a little derogatory laugh.
“Err, yes I have. Remember these?” Dove forced her back up to show off her wing bumps.
“I know, you must have had a bad childhood, but mine was worse, I assure you.”
“Oh yeah?” Dove was getting competitive.
“Yeah!”
“You wanna bet?” she said jokingly.
Pond walked out of the kitchen.
“Oh Pond, don’t go away, I was only kidding!”
Pond ignored her and kept walking. She went to the spare room where her belongings were and took something. She walked back to the kitchen and plonked the two heavy bags she had on the table.
“What’s that?” Dove asked with an inquisitive smile.
“I bet you 8,627 Trotmarcs that I had a worse childhood than you.” Pond folded her forelegs with a smug motion.
“Challenge accepted.” Dove put her hoof forth to shake on the bet and Pond did so confidently.
“You can start, if you want.”
Dove froze for a second. “Wait. Are you serious?” she doubted her greatly.
Pond nodded. “Yep.”
“Oh… okay…” Dove thought for a while, wondering whether or not she should play along. In the end she decided she might as well, what could possibly go wrong?
“Okay, I’ll start low, I don’t want to make either of us reveal anything unnecessary.”  Dove paused for a second and began to contemplate her childhood, something she hadn’t done for years and didn’t really like doing it. “Err… I was…called… wingless.”
Pond laughed. “What? Is that it?!”
“Well… yeah, it was simple but effective. It got the point across.”
“Makes sense. Alright, my turn. I was called… Eunuch.”
“What?” Dove said with great confusion.
“That’s what it sounded like. They were actually calling me Unic, y’know, Unicorn without the horn. You know how stupid little foals are.” A reminiscent smile curled to her lips. “Ha. I remember when I started talking and caught them out on it. You should have seen the look on their faces!” Pond started to laugh.
“When you started talking? They were insulting you when you were an infant?” Dove asked in amazement.
“No. I didn’t talk until I was seven.”
“Why?”
“Just didn’t want to,” Pond said with boredom. “C’mon, your turn!” She gestured for Dove to continue.
“Alright, alright… Um… I was beaten up a lot,” she sounded oddly chipper as she said this.
“So was I.”
“Well, did you ever have to go to hospital with four broken legs?”
“No, but I did have to be off for a week to let my eyes heal. Do you know how horrible it is to have a spell cast on you to make your eyes bleed?”
“Wow that’s mean!” Dove started to rub her eyes; the thought of them bleeding was making them cringe.
“It was kinda my fault,” Pond smiled awkwardly.
“How could that possibly be your fault?”
“I distracted the guy and he messed up the spell. It was supposed to be a plant growth spell, but somehow ended up an eye-bleeding spell. He apparently was the first to discover it. We were given awards for the discovery and everything.”
Dove stared at her with her mouth agape, she couldn’t believe that one bit.
“Your turn!” Pond said eagerly.
“I don’t think I have much to better that.” She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Oh yeah… how could I have forgotten about that?”
“What?” Pond asked inquisitively.
“Look at this.” Dove walked over to Pond to show her one of her wings bumps. “See that scar?” She gestured to a long thin scar going around the base of it. 
“I was invited to a sleepover once, which was nice. Unusual, but nice. It turned out to be a ruse as my bullies were there. Those little pricks tried to cut it off! And if a parent hadn’t come in they probably would have. And lemme tell ya, you haven’t known pain until you’ve had the most sensitive parts of the body being cut with a bread knife. I was in hospital for weeks, mostly in surgery, for my nerves to get repaired.”
Dove’s voice was still very casual as she went back to her seat.
“Sorry to hear that,” Pond said almost sarcastically. “My turn!” she squeaked with excitement. “I had a friend called Tesla once. A Tricorn he was, that’s the reason we were friends, both of us were freaks.”
“So?” Dove said impatiently. “What did he do?” she said while spinning a hoof, urging Pond to talk faster.
“Oh yeah.” Pond got up to show Dove something. She backed up to the wingless Pegasus and stood up on her hind legs. “Go on, feel my back. A bit less than halfway up.”
Dove did as requested and started running a hoof across her back, not quite sure what she was looking for. But then she felt something. It an obvious disruption in the smoothness that is Pond’s back, a patch of incredible roughness that made Pond wince painfully as Dove pushed her hoof harder against it.
“What’s that?” Dove asked with a smile.
“A scar. Or to be more precise an electricity burn.”
“I have no idea what you’re on about.”
“Tesla, after not talking to me for ages, said he wanted to hang out one day after school. I happily did so. Turns out he was waiting for me with his new Unicorn friends, four of them. Each of them magically pinned a leg against a wall. At first I thought it was going to be something entirely different and horrible, and who wouldn’t? How often does an old friend who’s coming of age ask to hang out with you and then gets his mates to pin you against a wall with your flank facing him and legs spread apart? I was relieved at first to not feel anything going inside me.” Pond shuddered at the thought.
“But then I realised just how much it hurts to get hit with a thousand or so Hyperwatts of magical lightning. I was off for like a month before I could go back to school, and not just because I could barely walk. I felt humiliated and lost the ability to talk for another month after that, thanks to that confidence boost,” she said sourly. “I liked talking.”

Dove took a while to let all of this sink in, in the meantime Pond returned to her seat.
“Interesting,” she finally said in a slow, thoughtful voice.
“So… have I won?” Pond asked arrogantly, already reaching out to grab the two bags of worthless foreign currency, but her hoof was swiftly stopped by Dove’s, and she pulled the bags back into the centre of the table.
“Don’t get cocky. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.”
“Go on then! Tell me!” she egged her on in with a loud voice.
“Okay, don’t rush me!” Dove thought hard about her childhood, and found something perfect, something that she thought Pond couldn’t possibly beat. “Alright. Get ready for this crushing defeat then!
“I was… fourteen? Something like that anyway. And I had just left school one day when I was bundled up with a bag over my head, but it wasn’t a thick bag so I could still make out the Ponies underneath me… just. It was the usual bullies, and a new one as well, although he didn’t stick around for long. They took me to the edge, a little place which was used as a shortcut to get from one cloud to another, as long as you could fly.”
“Wait. Clouds?”
“I lived in Cloudsdale, a city in the sky, sat upon many hundreds of clouds.”
“Really?” Pond was fascinated by the sound of this mystical place.
“Yes, really! But anyway, back to my story. I was positioned on the very edge of the cloud, my hooves only just staying on solid, err… cloud. When they removed the bag, I was terrified. I couldn’t fly, and below me was a sheer drop all the way down to the ground. I pleaded with them and tried to push my way back through them, but they had formed a strong wall around me. And then the head bully stepped forward and knocked me off the cloud.
“I thought I was going to die. I had said my goodbyes and was now struggling valiantly to suddenly sprout wings and fly to safety, but to no avail. Fortunately, this was their plan, the other Pegasus who was with them was a very strong flyer in my school, and they had bribed him a lot of money to take part in this little scheme of theirs. It was his job to swoop down and save me, and I was so glad he did, I could have done unspeakable things to him I was that happy.
“He didn’t keep his end of the deal and flew me straight to my house, and began to apologise profusely for having any part in that, and began crying as well. He felt so bad that he even gave me the money he earned from doing it. And he became a friend.”
Dove reached forward to take the bags, but was stopped by Pond.
“Not so fast, missy. I haven’t told you everything yet,” she said while waving a hoof at her.
Dove let out a laugh signifying her lack of confidence for Pond. “Ha. Like you could better that.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah!”
“Alright then, here it goes.” She took a really deep breath in. “Or you could just give up now.”
“No! I told you everything, so you have to tell me!”
“Fine. But you’ll be sorry,” she sang. She took another deep breath in and began recounting the tale of that one horrible night, at the age of four and a half, when her mother left her for dead in the endless sea.
Pond smiled as she told it, but not because she was enjoying telling it, but because of the face Dove was pulling.
Dove’s jaw had dropped with the horror, her gaping mouth slowly getting larger as Pond continued with her story; her eyes as well became large and white with horror.

Pond’s story came to an end and she sat back in her chair, folding her forelegs smugly as she did so.
“So then… did I win?”
Dove’s face was still stuck in the expression of utter disbelief and horror, and, with a single hoof, pushed both bags over to Pond, who took them politely.
“Thank you, Dove.”
“Wow, Pond, I can’t believe that.”
“What? That I won? Oh don’t beat yourself up about it. It was inevitable.”
“No, not that. About… what happened to you.”
“Oh… don’t worry about that! I'm fine! Besides, I got my Dad out of it. And my Mum.”
“What? You mean your adopted parents?”
Pond sighed angrily. “I hate that. They’re not my adopted parents, they’re my real parents. It’s my birth parents who aren’t my parents.”
“I see. Okay then, that makes sense, judging by what you told me.”
“Good.” Pond looked over her shoulder and muttered under her breath, “I really hate that.”


– P –


They sat in silence for a while. It had probably been half an hour since Pond won, making it a little before noon.
Dove was deep in thought, her brain working overtime as she tried to comprehend what they had just done.
She had just told a mare, who she had only really met the previous night, everything horrible about her childhood, only to learn that said mare had it far worse. And they had been so casual about it, that’s what was bugging her the most. It wasn’t anywhere near as painful as it should have been.
“Err… Pond?” she eventually said, although incredibly slowly. “Why… did we do that?”
“What?” Pond said as if taken by surprise.
“Why did we just tell each other everything? And so casually as well. As if it were nothing.”
Pond hadn’t thought about it. “I have no idea…”
They sat again in silence for a while, with Pond gradually picking at the stray bits of cold scrambled egg still on the plate in front of her. The only sound that either of them made was when Pond took another swig of tea, only finding it to be cold, and thus making a loud, disgusted, shuddering noise.
“Pond?” Dove said, again trying to break the silence. “I'm sorry.”
“For what?” Pond laughed a little bit, trying to think why Dove said that.
“I don’t know. I guess for your childhood.”
“Why are you sorry for that? That’s not your fault!” she said in such a way that made Dove sound like an idiot.
“I know that! It’s just that… it sounded horrible.”
“The first four and a half years were, yes. But if that stuff didn’t happen, I would never have found the best parents in the world! I told you how vivid I remember being drifted out to sea in a pram, didn’t I? Well, my second memory was nowhere near as vivid, but it didn’t have to be. It was of my Dad renaming me, all I can remember is that stench of fish and salt staining his coat and the sound of his voice saying ‘Pond’ in his deep, booming voice. That is my happiest memory to date!” Pond smiled fondly as she remembered her father.
Dove became very confused. “He… renamed you?”
“Yep!” the Unicorn said proudly.
“What were you called before?” Dove asked with the greatest curiosity.
“Goldstar Mirror-Wheel,” Pond said solemnly. She did not like this name.
“Goldstar, ey?” Dove thought about this name for a while. “It’s a pretty name.”
This was rewarded with an evil glare from Pond.
“But Pond is far better,” Dove concluded.
Pond’s glare turned to a warm smile as she heard Dove finish her thought. “I'm glad you said that.”
“Well, Pond Water is far better for you than Goldstar Mirror-Wheel. It’s much more simple and beautiful. That Goldstar thing is too long and sounds like a rundown-model-who-has-become-desperate-‘s name, if ya know what I mean.”
“Thanks, Dove. That means a lot.”
“No problem, Pond.”
“And your name is pretty too!” Pond added.
“Aww. Thanks Pond,” she said with a fake quaking voice while wiping away an imaginary tear.
The two of them laughed a little.


– P –


“Dove,” Pond started. “Do you mind if I have another cup of tea?”
“Not at all. Just let me tidy up here and I’ll make you one before I go for a shower.”
“Nah, I can make it. I don’t want to be a hassle.”
“Well, okay then. I guess you can find where everything is, can’t you?”
Pond nodded.
“Okay.”
Dove put the dirty plates and mugs into the dishwasher and headed for a shower, leaving Pond to her own devices.
Pond found the ingredients to a cup of tea with minimal fuss and combined them with the appropriate methods.
She took a sip and smiled contently. “Perfect,” she muttered quietly to herself.

Pond went into the living room with her mug of tea. The living room wasn’t too big or too small, although anymore than two Ponies would have made it a little too cosy. It was stripy with blue and red, but somehow it didn’t hurt the eyes. There were numerous pictures on the walls and sat above the fireplace. Pond placed her mug down on the table and took some time to look at all of them.
They were mostly of Dove with, who Pond guessed, were her parents. They were also chronologically organised, which pleased Pond so.
As a baby, Dove’s wing bumps were virtually unnoticeable. She could have been just a normal Earth Pony with only an unusually shaped back. And she was adorable, never before had Pond seen such a cute baby. It made her smile.
She got cuter as well, when her mane started to fill out into a longer blue mass of hair. You could tell she was going to be quite a looker, which she is. The only other thing changed were her wing bumps, they had grown considerably in size and were disproportionally large, making her rather comical in a sad way.
The next picture was from when she was about eight, possibly, and she had pigtails, that was the only thing Pond could notice.
There was another, smaller picture hidden amongst the others of two mares. One was Dove at approximately twelve years old and another mare, who was considerably taller than her, possibly in her late twenties. And she was breathtaking, orange coat and turquoise mane, tall and thin, with very tired yet somehow appealing, green eyes.
Pond took this photo from the shelf to get a better look at it. It was obviously taken in Cloudsdale, judging by the different levels of cloud in the background. The two of them looked so happy in it, with Dove sitting on the other’s back and a huge smile on her face, while the other just looked peacefully happy.
It made Pond happy.

“Hey! What ya doing?” Dove said as she walked into the living room, her mane straggled and still a bit wet.
Pond gasped and almost dropped the photo, and if it weren’t for her frenzied fumbling it would have smashed against the floor. Once she had hold of it she quickly put it back.
“Sorry,” Pond whimpered as if she had done something wrong.
“Nah. It’s fine! You can look at them if you want.”
Pond smiled and took the photo again. “Who is this?”
Dove took the photo from Pond and looked at it. There was a long pause before she replied.
“It’s my sister,” she said solemnly.
“Your sister?”
“Yes… my sister. Why did you sound so surprised by that?” She gave Pond a curious look.
“I honestly have no idea,” she laughed awkwardly.
Dove went back to looking at the photo. “I haven’t looked at this photo in a while.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. Just haven’t.” She looked at the picture longingly. “I miss her y’know.”
“Why? Where is she?” she asked, although dreaded the reply.
“I don’t know. Canterlot, I think.”
“You… think?”
“Yeah. She used to send letters quite often, but not so much anymore. Last one I got was a couple months ago, and before that many months ago.”
“Why is she in Canterlot? May I ask?”
“Well, in this picture she was… twenty six? Probably around that age anyway. She was always good at Piano, and one day we all went to Canterlot, just for the weekend, but when she played in a bar one night she was approached by some music hotshots and offered a very generous contract. She accepted it of course, and her first gig was performing for Princess Celestia herself!”
Pond still wasn’t entirely sure who this Celestia was, but Dove said her name excitedly, and so she feigned some excitement. “Really? Princess Celestia?!”
“You don’t know who she is, do you?” Dove called her on it, obviously she hadn’t done a very good job a faking it.
“Not really, no,” she said sheepishly.
“Well, basically she’s the ruler of our world and is responsible for raising the sun in the morning.”
Pond doubted this. “Isn’t the sun rising to do with the planet spinning?”
“What?” Dove spoke as if calling Pond an idiot. “Of course not! It’s magic!”
“Okay. I don’t really know what I was on about. But I guess magic does make so much more sense.” Pond went off in her own little world to contemplate the rising sun.
“But anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, my sister. She moved to Canterlot shortly afterwards. And this,” she held up the photo slightly. “This is the last photo taken of us two. I haven’t seen her since.”
“Oh… I'm sorry to hear that.”
Dove looked at the photo and sighed happily, thinking of her sister, before putting it back in its place.

“That’s my parents over there.” Dove pointed towards a picture on the end of the mantelpiece. Pond trotted over to look at it. She saw the two Ponies in the picture and was amazed. Somehow, two of the ugliest Ponies she had ever seen, had come together to create two of the most beautiful she had ever seen.
“They look… nice,” she said awkwardly.
“I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t know either. There is no chance in Equestria that those two could ever produce anything as good looking as me and my sister,” she said arrogantly. “They were accused many a time of adoption, but they had birth certificates and DNA records to prove them neigh-sayers wrong.”
Pond laughed a little.


– P –


It was some time before they spoke again; they were just sitting in the living room, watching the fish lazily swim around in their tank, listening to the buzzing created by the light.
“Dove,” Pond started in a serious tone. “I want to thank you for letting me stay here.”
“Nah! It’s fine!” Dove said while waving her off as to say “it was nothing”.
“Well, thanks anyway. And I'm sure that with tonight’s wages as well I can afford a hotel for tonight.”
Dove gave a judgemental look. “You’re kidding, right?”
“What?”
“You’re staying here! And I can’t exactly let you stay on your own after last night, can I? No, you’re staying her with me.”
“Really?”
“Yes really!”
“Aw, thanks, Dove. And don’t worry, I’ll help around the house if need be. Or help pay for stuff.”
Dove was about to retort and say there’s no need to pay, but she was nearly falling behind in her rent.
“That would be good, Pond. I am not doing so well in the whole money department. A little every now and then will be fine.” Dove looked down at the floor with embarrassment. She hated accepting money from a friend to such an extent.
Pond smiled at her. “Don’t worry, that’s sounds good. I'm sure staying here will both cost less and be less hazardous to my health.”
Dove smiled back at her.


– P –


Night came rolling on, and Pond and Dove were heading to work. They stopped outside of the club, Dove looked at it confusedly.
“Why isn’t the sign on? It’s always on at this time of night.” Dove checked her watch, it was definitely eight o’clock. She then noticed the date also displayed on the device; she quickly perked up, looking very happy all of a sudden.
“What’s got you so excited then?” Pond asked with a laugh.
“It’s Red’s birthday!”
“What?”
“Red’s birthday! How could I have forgotten?” Dove facehoofed.
“What’s so important about Red’s birthday?”
“He shuts down the club for a night and throws a party with his employees and a few others.”
“Really? That’s nice of him.”
“We get full pay and overtime as well!”
“Awesome.” Pond nodded approvingly.
Dove rushed inside with Pond following closely.

“Dove! Pond!” shouted an already tipsy Red as the two Ponies entered. “I thought you’d forgotten or something.”
“I did,” Dove confessed. “But I remembered in the end. Now let’s get this party going!” she shouted, throwing her hoof in the air. Everypony else cheered.
Pond was confused to say the least.

Dove led her to the bar and grabbed a drink a drink for the two of them. “Here Pond, get this down ya!”
“N-no, I'm alright,” Pond whimpered, she was slightly frightened, if she was honest. By the looks of the party there was going to be a lot of drinking.
“C’mon! We’re all friends here, nothing bad is gonna happen.”
Pond looked between the elaborate drink and her friend’s face. She trusted her.
“Alright then.” She took the drink gingerly from Dove and gave it a sip, and then immediately downed half of it.
Dove let out a laugh. “That’s the spirit!” she cheered before grabbing a drink for herself and caught up with Pond.

Pond could tell that it was going to be a fun night.


– P –


Pond awoke the next morning, back in Dove’s bed. She had a hangover, she hadn’t had one before, and she didn’t like it.
If the headache wasn’t bad enough, her ears felt clogged beyond the realms of physical possibility. She could hear absolutely nothing besides the humming of silence. And her forehead stung where her horn should be. Her coat was also unbearable sticky, that alone would be enough to make her sick. She also felt something on her chest.
She slowly moved her head down and saw two yellow masses wrapped around her chest; she immediately recognised them as Dove’s legs. She was so glad to be asleep with Dove and not somepony else; she could not remember anything from the night before.
She liked sleeping with Dove, she felt safe.

Something else caught her attention. It was in front of her, and unrecognisable at first, but a few minutes of relentless staring and trying to focus her blurry vision revealed what it was.
Pond recoiled as far back as she could without going through Dove.  She was panic-stricken.

It was Red.