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

Pond Water, the Unicorn without a horn, was now seven years old. Thankfully she had grown considerably and was now only a little bit smaller than average.
Her orangey-brown mane had also grown quite a bit, her curls growing out into wavy locks. This highlighted the fact she was a Unicorn, as her hair seemed to be growing around something circular. This would have been her horn, if she had one.
She still didn’t talk, no matter how much she wanted to she could not muster the courage, so she was silent, well except when practicing talking to Winks, who by the way was still stained by the salty sea from years ago.

She no longer lived in the city of Trotland. After being left for dead by her birth mother three years ago and picked up by a humble Fisherpony, she now lived in a small town many miles away known as Mareton, a seaside town dedicated to fishing mostly, as well as some traditional crafts.
Her new adopted parents were two of the best Unicorns you could ever wish to have as parents.
Her father was Blue Water, the Fisherpony who had rescued her from freezing to death out on The Mare, the sea by which the town sat.
He was a very affectionate father to Pond, vastly more so than her birth father. He actually played with her and showed her love
He treated her as his own from the very first night when he found her, from the moment he saw her.
Whenever he thought of the circumstances in which he found her, in a pram floating out to sea, it made his blood boil. How anyone could give up such a sweet, little Unicorn was an unsolvable mystery. And what made it worse was the fact that nopony had come looking for her. Not a single word for a lost child had reached them. But even if it had, Blue would not have given her up to the parents who tried to kill her.
Clear Water was Pond’s mother, a housewife by choice. She always had something delicious to eat for when Pond came home from school. Whether it was a cake or just a hot cup of tea it was always perfect.
She was so friendly to everypony and so warm and loving to Pond, despite her initial thoughts.
As soon as her husband had brought Pond home she knew what he was thinking. She first tried to reason with him about how they were scraping by as it is and couldn’t afford another mouth to feed, but Blue wasn’t hearing any of it, he persistently fought to keep Pond, and he won with very little fight.
Clear always wanted a child but was told years before Pond entered her life that she couldn’t bear children, so having Pond appear was like a gift from the God’s blessing her, so as soon as she first hugged her she always knew Pond would be hers and nopony else’s.

The Waters were not rich, not by a long shot. They scraped by on the living gained by the few fish they caught and on the baked goods Clear sometimes sold. But this didn’t matter to them, they had what they wanted already. Something which money can never buy…



– P –



School was difficult, to say the least, for Pond. Her inability to talk was frustrating to everypony and severely hindered her learning.
Also her lack of horn was another large problem. Partially because of most of the classes required magic to do anything, but this was negligible when compared to the bullying.
Her parents expected this, and so did Pond when she was old enough to notice the staring eyes around town, but this was worse than ever imaginable.

The teachers at school didn’t do anything about it, and it was a collective effort by all the students to make her feel as horrible as possible. And the fact she didn’t talk only worsened the problem, not to mention Winks coming along with her everywhere.
Many a day she would come home to her parents, and they would see her injured body or bloodshot eyes, and wish they could do something, but had no idea what.

But in saying this, at this age she did experience one of the best weeks of her childhood. And it was all down to one Unicorn.



– P –



Pond set off to school as hopeful as ever. She could always put a brave face on.
Her saddle bags were full of books and pens, with Winks sticking his head out of the top of one. Pond was happily trotting along, admiring the birds and the sea, humming a tune to herself.
She was met with the usual greetings such as “good morning”, “hello” or more often than not a cry of “freak” or similar. But Pond was never affected by this, the insults from the strangers on the streets rolled off her back like water off a duck.
She always replied to the kinder Unicorns with a smile and a friendly nod since they were nice enough not to reject her due to her hornlessness. Plus she wanted to make friends in the town.
She was followed by the usual entourage of bullies, shouting names at her, but she ignored them out here. The fresh air made it easier for her to deal with her problems, it was at school when it became a problem.

It was morning registration. Besides from the one in the afternoon, this is the one time she is with her entire class before they split up into their smaller groups for different lessons.
This was a predictable ordeal. As usual most of her class had arrived before her and had taken their seats, still talking amongst themselves. But as Pond walked in they all dropped what they were doing to look at her, and shower with paper and other rubbish, singing out a chorus of boos and chants of “freak” or “Unic”. Them being young and foolish children they didn’t know what it sounded like they were calling her, they just thought they were just taking the horn out of Unicorn.
Pond had grown used to this and liked the familiarity of it, without it would make her feel very strange on the inside.
She made it to her desk, surrounded by empty desks as nopony wanted to sit with her, with very little paper hitting her for once, her agility was improving everyday thanks to this little exercise.
She removed her bags and placed them under her desk, earning a barrage of laughter as she wasn’t using magic to do it.
She tucked Winks’ head inside so nopony saw him.
She then slumped on her chair, head resting lazily in her hooves on the desk, waiting for the teacher to come in and start another bad day of school.

The teacher walked in after a few minutes. Her name was known to Pond to be Miss Doltish. She was not the best teacher in the world to say the least. And her glasses always made Pond smile with their ridiculous pointyness. Following behind her was a very nervous looking Unicorn, hiding away his head.
Yay a new classmate to bully me, Pond thought sarcastically.
“Good morning, class,” Said Miss Doltish in her dreary monotonous voice.
“Good morning, Miss Doltish,” the class sang back, except for Pond, who just smiled politely.
“Now class, today we have a new member joining us,” her voice was irritating as she tried to provoke excitement in her pupils, which failed, all of them were just staring vacantly in her direction.
“His name is Tesla, and I want you all to make him feel as welcome as possible.”
Like they did with me, perhaps?, Pond snorted mentally.
Miss Doltish stepped aside to reveal Tesla, a tall, young Unicorn of all shades of grey and white spread over his coat, all merging nicely into each other, his mane was a similar style. He was a very attractive Unicorn.
He’s going to be popular, isn’t he?
Pond sank a little in her chair. But then he turned and lifted his head to the class.
A collective gasp of surprise was heard, which brought Pond back to this planet, who wasn’t paying attention at all.
Pond looked up, curious as to what caused her class to do this, and she too was surprised.
Above his big blue eyes, where his horn should be, there were three. Three horns closely placed together in a triangle on his forehead, so technically he was a Tricorn but people stilled called him a Unicorn.
Once he saw the reaction he was expecting , he dipped his head down and looked at his hooves before going off to sit in the corner, all alone.
Pond looked at the sad Unicorn in the corner, she felt sorry for him. Although she doubted he had as hard a life as her, she definitely felt a deep sympathy.
As Miss Doltish was calling the register and children spoke back in the usual manner, Pond took a rolled-up piece of paper that had been thrown at her, unrolled it and scribbled a note, crumpled it back up and threw it a Tesla.
She was never very good at throwing, but with a great deal of luck the paper skimmed Tesla’s cheek and landed on his desk.
Tesla looked over his shoulder and saw Pond smiling back at him. He didn’t smile back, he was too nervous.
Pond gestured to him to look at the paper ball, so he did. He unrolled it and read the note. It read: 

HI! My name is Pond. Don’t worry I am in the same boat as you. I am a Unicorn without a horn. Come sit with me!

Tesla looked up again, Pond was smiling at him and waving a hoof at him to try and get him to move. Tesla looked about the room, the rest of the class were talking amongst themselves again, and Miss Doltish had finished the register and was now preparing for lessons.
The only friendly face he saw was that of Pond’s, so he thought he should accept her offer of friendship.
He stood up hesitantly, not wanting to be told off by the teacher, and slowly walked over to Pond, choosing a seat by her side.
Pond patted him on the shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile.
“Err… hi… I'm T-Tesla,” he stuttered badly with nerves.
Pond nodded with acknowledgement.
There was an awkward silence. Pond still had a hoof on his shoulder.
“Err… so you’re Pond, right?” Tesla asked to break the silence, to which Pond nodded. Tesla was puzzled, he felt rude to ask but he did anyway.
“Can you talk?” his voice was very childlike when he said this.
Pond nodded.
“Oh… err, do you… talk?”
Pond shook her head.
“Oh…” Tesla could tell that this was going to be hard. But Pond always had the ability to communicate her thoughts very well, regardless of the fact she couldn’t talk. Those that knew her could just about have a conversation with her.
Pond patted him on his shoulder again. Tesla turned to her. She moved her eyes and head around, trying to say something.
“Huh?” Tesla did not understand
Pond facehoofed, slowly dragging her hoof down her face to convey her annoyance more effectively. She resorted to finding another screwed up piece of paper that was thrown at her and quickly scribbled another note, handing it then to Tesla. It read:

If you want to hang out with me then you have to learn how to read my face!!!

Tesla read it and laughed nervously.
“Err… okay! I’ll try,” his voice did not project much confidence.



– P –


Miss Doltish had seen that Tesla was getting on well with Pond so decided to put him in the same groups as her, which both Pond and Tesla liked very much, so in the time between morning registration and lunch they had learned a lot about each other.
Tesla was from the other side of the island, from a village much smaller than Mareton that sat on the foot of one of the larger forests.
He moved to Mareton after monsters, as Tesla described them, invaded and his parents decided it was too unsafe, and Mareton was the best place they could afford.
Tesla had also had a hard life, being a Tricorn and all. Admittedly this was more common than a Unicorn not having a horn, but still very unusual. The only other multi-horn Unicorn was his father who had two. But having more horns did mean a greater ability for magic.
Tesla had also learned how to talk to Pond. It wasn’t hard, you just had to pay attention to her movements and it was pretty obvious. He learned some things about her, but not about her birth parents, she never thought of them, let alone tell anypony about them. It raised too many questions which she’d rather leave unanswered.

The two of them were eating their lunch in silence, but only because neither of them could think of anything to say. But eventually Tesla couldn’t take it anymore and asked the first thing that came to his mind.
“So… do you like ice cream?” he asked, curious as to why this came out.
Pond stopped mid-sip of her juice box and gave him a look that said “what?” in a judgemental sort of way, making him feel incredibly dumb.
“I-I don’t know. It’s just too quiet,” He said trying to redeem himself.
Oh! Well you could have just said so…, her body said.
“But I can’t just say that! That would just make it more awkward.”
Fine. Suit yourself…
Nothing was being said again, the silence was growing unbearable.
“Gah! Fine. It’s far too quiet.”
Pond laughed. That’s better. You want to go for a walk? she asked.
“Um. O-okay then.”
Tesla and Pond stood up from the bench, replacing their uneaten lunches back in their lunchboxes, placed them in their bags, and then set off for a walk for the rest of lunch.

Their walk consisted of going round the large school field, but in particular the wooded area at one end, which they called “The Wild Area”. It was full of small friendly creatures like rabbits, squirrels and things that resembled miniature dragons, but without the fire. It was a very peaceful place, good for walks and talks.
Their walk didn’t offer much conversation, but the scenery was nice enough to distract them from the silence.
“Do you like ice cream?” Tesla asked suddenly, curiosity getting the better of him.
Huh?
“Well you never told me, and I want to know now.”
Of course I like ice cream! Pond gestured. Who doesn’t?!
“Good point.” As he said this the bell rang, and both Unicorns looked round, their hearts jumping into their throats out of shock.
Race ya! Pond shouted through body language as she started to trot off, waiting for Tesla to follow before galloping.
“Last one there is a rotten egg!” Tesla shouted as he sped past her, leaving her in a cloud of dust, not giving her an edge. But this didn’t stop Pond, she was quite quick despite her size.



– P –



The rest of the school day was uneventful, nothing more than the usual boring afternoon lessons with Miss Doltish and, of course, the pleasantly consistent barrage of insults which she now shared with Tesla, but her share was still the majority of it.
The end of the day finally dragged its way through the slow passage of time that is Maths.
The bell rang out loudly through the ears of Pond, who had spent the last half an hour fast asleep and dribbling on her books.
She woke with a start, knocking the paper on the floor that she had been covered with by her class “mates” while she slept.
She stretched up into the air and fell to the floor, ready to get her stuff together. She took her time, waiting for everypony else to leave to limit the amount of post-school bullying.
Tesla, too, stayed behind and waited for her.
Pond stooped down and lifted her bag onto the chair so she could fill it easily. She opened the flap and took Winks out, giving him a hug, feeling the familiar roughness of the coarse fabric against her muzzle.
Tesla failed to stifle a laugh, making Pond stop abruptly and hide Winks back in her bag. She blushed bright red.
“No it’s okay Pond,” He giggled as he undid a flap on his bag and levitated out a soft doll of a dragon, spitting a little bit of fabric fire. “I bring my dragon with me everywhere I go.”
Pond looked at his dragon and smiled at it, this gave her the confidence to get Winks out again. What’s your dragon called?  She gestured towards the dark blue dragon with the orange spines.
“I call him Embers. What do you call him?”
Pond winked at him.
“Winks?” he asked, to which Pond nodded and smiled in acknowledgement. “Cool name.”
Thanks.
They then left school and headed home.



– P –



Tesla lived considerably closer to school than Pond, so after a few minutes they parted ways, leaving Pond to walk the rest of the way home on her own. But she didn’t care; nothing could touch her on this high she was on. She had made a friend.

It was half an hour before she got home, it would have been shorter but she accidentally took a detour through the town centre.
She never went through there normally, but was glad she did, there was a musical Unicorn there on that day, playing a guitar beautifully.
At home she was met by the usual. Her mother was in the kitchen waiting for her with a cup of tea and a small cupcake.
“Hey, sweetie. You’re a bit late aren’t you?” she asked, but not angrily, she was curious.
Well… you know… Pond gestured sheepishly, screwing her hoof in the floor.
“Never mind dear. How was your day?”
Her question was replied to with a big smile, very unusual for Pond since her days varied from boring to utterly horrible.
“Really? That good?” She asked excitedly.
Pond nodded back, equally excited.
“Oh that’s brilliant Pond. Just fantastic.” She ruffled her mane lovingly. “But what made it so good? Did you make a friend finally?”
Pond nodded.
“Really? What’s their name?” She knew she was telling the truth, but Clear would have been lying if she said she didn’t doubt her daughter.
Pond screwed her face up, deep in thought. How the hay am I going to tell her? How do you say Tesla through body language?
She internally sighed angrily, why can’t I talk?!
Clear could see her struggling and waved her hoof, signalling for her to stop.
“It’s okay Pond, tell me later. Don’t strain yourself,” Clear laughed.
Pond smiled at her mother, and then tucked into her cake.
It was delicious, as always, just the right amount of frosting to get the perfect amount of sweetness, there was also a very slight hint of lemon, one of her favourite flavours.
She washed it down with the cup of tea before trotting out of the kitchen and heading up to her room.

While in her room she emptied her school bag and put everything away neatly. She always was a bit of a perfectionist.
After this ritual was done, she took a tattered old book from a shelf. This was her diary, nopony but her and Winks knew about it.
She had been writing one for a few years now, ever since she could write well enough.
At first it was about her feelings and how bad the bullying was on a specific day, but then she got fed up of writing such gloomy and depressing things so she focused more on the good, what little there was.
She hadn’t written anything for the past few months. It was all the same so she found no need. But today she had something new to write, and it was happy. She wrote:

I HAVE A FRIEND!!! It took me long enough. He is a grey Unicorn with three horns, which is probably why I like him, he was bullied a little bit today as well, so that’s what we have in common, I guess…
His name is Tesla.


This was all she wrote, she was never the best with words, especially when trying to write.
She sat pondering for a while, trying desperately to think of more to write, but quickly gave up.
She closed the diary and wrapped the string around the book and carefully out it back into its place.
While she did this, she heard the front door slam open, and the sound of her father calling out through the house.
“Hello?!” his voice boomed, ringing clear in her room.
“That’s strange, Winks,” Pond whispered, “He usually isn’t home until I go to bed.”
Pond walked out of her room and headed down stairs to greet her dad, but she paused on the top few steps as she heard her parents start talking.

“Hello dear.” Clear gave her husband a small kiss, “Did you have a good day fishing?”
Blue sighed tiredly, “Not really. I barely caught anything. Only a few salmon and a couple kilos of krill,” his tired voice masked his frustration.
“Oh well. I'm sure tomorrow will be better,” Clear said in her comforting voice while she rubbed his shoulder.
“It better. I don’t think we’re going to last much longer if the fishing doesn’t pick up in the next few weeks.”
“That’s plenty of time.”
Blue laughed slightly. “I love your optimism.” He hugged his wife. His stomach was churning as if he was about to cry.
“Come on, I’ll make you a nice, hot cup of tea.” Clear led him into the kitchen with a hoof on his back.
“Why does a cup of tea solve all of your problems?” he asked, not expecting a reply.

Pond sat on the step, thinking of what she heard her father said.
What does he mean by not lasting much longer? Pond sat for a second before shaking it off then headed down the stairs to greet her dad.
She walked slowly, taking her time. There was no rush. She heard her parents talking a bit more.
“Oh! Pond had a good day today!” Clear said gleefully, suddenly remembering what Pond had gestured to her.
Blue nearly spit out his tea. “What? Really?”
“I know. It’s amazing. She seemed properly happy as well, not just putting on a brave face.”
“That’s wonderful. But you should have let her tell me.”
“I know. But I got too excited. And be honest, you would have done the same.”
“I suppose…” Blue looked around the kitchen, smiling broadly at everything. “You know, it’s when I hear stuff like this I wish I could hear it from pond herself.”
Pond walked round the corner and became visible through the kitchen door and jumped on her father, taking him by surprise.
She hugged him for a second and kissed his cheek. She regretted this, he stank of fish.
“Hello girl.” He looked over his shoulder to get a look at her, and he had to agree with his wife, she was happy for once.
“I’ve heard you had a good day. Did those bullies leave you be, finally?”
Pond thought for a second, then shook her head.
“Oh… did you do good in a test?” Blue asked her but very puzzled as to why, she’s done good in many a test but didn’t care.
Pond shook her head again, but not after giving her father a confused look.
“She’s made a friend!” Clear said quickly and eagerly, she couldn’t bear to watch Blue try and guess anymore, they would have been there all night.
Blue stared at her daughter with love in his eyes, he couldn’t be happier for her.
“That’s fantastic! I knew it would happen eventually! What’s the lucky Unicorn’s name?”
Pond had no idea how to answer that.
Why the buck cant I speak! Oh my god. I just used the word buck in that way. Where did I hear that word? Must have been Miss Doltish. She’s the only other grown-up I know and Mum and Dad don’t swear. Well… I don’t think so, at least…
Pond rubbed her chin with thought.
“Err, Pond?” her mother asked with a slight hint of concern, “Are you okay? What are you thinking?” she smiled, now she was just curious as to why the little filly was very deep in thought. So deep that she didn’t realise she was being spoken to.



– P –



The rest of the evening was uneventful. They enjoyed their dinner, delicious, as usual. Then they did not much at all.
Blue was always incredibly tired after fishing, so he just sat on a sofa, with Clear curled up against him. She was reading a book, as was the norm.
This meant Pond was left to her own devices, so she went and played in her room.

She loved spending time by herself in her room. She felt it was the only place she could talk, although she didn’t much at all, but it was still a very comfortable place to be.
She had various posters and pictures she had drawn on display around her room, although she herself detested them. She could see how bad she was at drawing, but she’d try regardless.
There were some various toys and other things she had collected on display on shelves as well, including the wind-up things she loved so much.
They were very random, a couple had wheels but the rest stood on tall spindly legs, and when they were wound up and released they would shake and dance across the floor, before inevitably falling over.
At the moment she was playing with some building blocks, and putting a great deal of care into her placement of the bricks, making sure the colours matched and that it didn’t fall over.

It was getting late, so her mother came to send her to bed. There was a knocking at her bed room door, the sound no foal wanted to hear.
“Pond, can I come in?” Clear wasn’t sure why she asked, she knew full well Pond couldn’t reply. Hearing the silence Clear took that as a yes.
“Alright I'm coming in.”
Clear pushed the door open and saw her daughter sitting on the floor, with her tongue sticking out at an angle and a look of pure concentration on her face as she placed the final brick on the top of her tower.
“That’s very nice Pond, but it’s time for bed now.”
Pond looked at her mother with sad eyes, whimpering quietly, hoping she would be given more time to play.
“Don’t try that look on me, little mare. Your father may fall for that but you know full well I won’t.” Clear pointed a hoof at her daughter to signify her authority at this point.
Pond sighed in defeat. She stood up and started to put her toys away, being careful not to damage her tower which she planned on finishing tomorrow.
“And don’t forget to brush your teeth. I can tell if you haven’t as well so don’t get any ideas,” Clear said with a little bit of pretend anger, trying to sound a little more like a parent.
Pond pouted at her mother, but she knew it was pointless. Her mother had a thing about dental hygiene.
She finished clearing away her toys, taking her time on purpose to annoy the mother who was watching her.
She then went to the bathroom to do the normal routine: brush teeth, wash face, file hooves if it needed to be done.
Afterwards, she trotted out of the bathroom and back into her bedroom, her mother following closely.
She grabbed Winks from the floor where she had been playing and bounced into bed, pulling the quilt over her and snuggling up into a ball, more or less.
Clear turned the light off.
“Good night Pond,” she called out from the door.
Pond waved back in reply, making her mother chuckle warmly.
Clear shut the door, leaving Pond in the darkness. Only a slither of moonlight through the curtain was illuminating her room.

Pond held Winks tight and shut her eyes.



– P –



Sleep eluded her. Pond tossed and turned in her bed, not being comfortable in any position her body would allow her to take.
Something was bothering her, but whatever it was, Pond had no idea what.
She looked up at the clock on the wall, squinting through the dim moon light. It was half eleven. 
She sighed angrily inside her head.
Why can’t I get to sleep?! I have been lying here for nearly two hours now! What’s keeping me up? 
Pond threw the covers off her body, regretting it instantly thanks to the cold, she then rolled over to sit rather than lay on her bed.
She sat on her bed, trying her hardest to remember the previous day, what everypony had said and done.

At first her mind drifted back to school. Nope, nothing out of the ordinary there. And I'm sure it’s not about Tesla…
Next was her journey home from school. Wow… that guitarist sure was good. Her mind went off into its own dreamy world. No! Focus. What is bothering me? It can’t be anything from town, nothing happened.
Her thoughts then turned to her mother when she had returned home. No, that wasn’t it. That was… normal, I think…
Something finally clicked into place as her father and something he said suddenly sprung to mind. That’s it! That’s what’s been bothering me.
Content now that she finally figured it out, Pond grabbed the covers in her mouth, rolled onto her back still with the quilt in her mouth, and promptly shut her eyes to get to sleep.

A few minutes had passed, and she still was bothered by it.
She threw the covers off again, but more angrily this time so they fell to the floor.
Pond huffed with frustration then rolled out of bed, her hooves making a dainty clop against the hard floor.
She knew that she was never going to get to sleep without dealing with it.
She grabbed the covers and threw them back onto her bed, straightening them out so they were ready for later.

“Wish me luck Winks,” she whispered quietly before tip-hoofing to the door.
She opened it a crack, temporarily blinded by the difference in light.
She was nervous about her mother catching her, she had always been far stricter than her dad so if she knew that Pond was out of bed this late at night she would probably shout at her.
Seeing that the coast was clear she quietly made her way across the landing, carefully avoiding the floorboards she remembered to be creaky.
She treated this as a super secret spy mission and had made it to the top of the stairs without being detected.
The next part would be tricky, every single step on the staircase echoed loudly as somepony stepped on them, even the light hoof of Pond could set these traps off.
So instead of risking being sent back to base and having to start her mission again, Pond grabbed hold of the banister and scaled down, slowly sliding her hooves down as sneakily as possible, switching her hooves over carefully when it came to grab the next hoof-hold.
This was tense work, so tense that Pond had to quietly hum the theme to the best Spy film she had ever seen.
Pond had finally completed the tricky descent, now she was in the enemy’s base.
She quickly took cover behind a table with a potted plant on.
She peered round, seeing that the way was clear and so headed for the next piece of cover making it without a problem.
She was nearing the enemy control room, it was only around the corner, but she knew this would be heavily guarded and that it would take a lot of skill to sneak past them.
She risked a glance round her cover, but quickly withdrew her head.
It was worse than she thought, there were five armed Unicorns guarding the entrance to the control room.
She didn’t want it to come to this, but the situation demanded it.
She drew her small silenced pistol from her flank and took a few deep breaths.
Afterwards, she jumped through the air, firing as she flew, making the gun noises herself.
She landed on the floor, five shots and five kills.
That’s what I call efficiency, she thought to herself as she blew the smoke from the barrel of imaginary gun, span it round in her hoof and then place it back in its holster on her flank.
She heard stirring coming from the control room, obviously the sound from her imaginary silenced pistol was enough to draw unwanted attention.
It was now or never. She knew that the bad guy wouldn’t be guarded so she ran and jumped into the door way while she drew her pistol at the same time.
She landed, facing the bad guy, pistol drawn and poised to fire.
I’ve got you know…

Blue paused while preparing his pipe and looked up, investigating what had made the light tap on the floor of the living room.
It was his daughter, hoof raised up and pointing at him, and with a threatening look on her face. Well, it would have been threatening it she hadn’t been so adorable.
“Pond. What are you doing out of bed?” he asked, not really caring about the time of night and the fact she should really be in bed. He went back to preparing his pipe.
Pond frowned.
Mission failed, she thought as she turned round to head back upstairs, but she suddenly remembered, with a little jump, what she was planning to do before she got wrapped up in being the world’s best spy.
“Are you alright, Squirt?” he asked, vaguely curious as to why she jumped like that.
Pond turned round and gestured a hoof to say “one second”, she then stepped out of the living room.
“What are you up to?”
Pond poked her head around the door and gestured for her father to be quiet, she needed to take him by surprise.
She looked at him, waiting for a reply.
He mimicked zipping his mouth shut, thinking that he should probably send her back to bed rather than play along.
Pond brought her head back round the corner and took a moment to prepare herself. She took a few deep breaths, each getting progressively louder and shorter as she got her heart pumping and adrenaline flowing.
She jumped back into the living room, and the moment her hooves touched the floor she did what had to be done.
“Hi, Dad!” she shouted as loud as she dared, smiling broadly as she did.

Blue didn’t know what to do, he was lost for words.
His mouth hung open with shock and utter disbelief, he would have dropped his pipe if he had been holding it.
This was the first time his daughter had ever spoken to him. The first time ever in his mind, he didn’t know about her talking to Winks.
Some half-hearted syllables dribbled out of his mouth before he realised he didn’t have to say anything.
His expression of shock turned to one of unbridled joy as his mouth formed a huge smile. He could feel tears of joy well up in his eyes, but he didn’t wipe them away, he let them flow down his smiling cheeks.
He stood up and jumped to his daughter, picking her up and hugging her tightly.
He fell to the floor, still holding Pond, and rolled side to side with her, just because he was so happy.
“You spoke! You finally spoke,” Blue said through tears.
The odd combination of pipe smoke and fish filled Pond’s nostrils, it was strangely pleasant.
“Well… yeah. I did.”
“Oh I love your voice. I’ve been waiting so long to hear it.”
He had to choke back the tears of shear happiness he suddenly felt.
“I love you, Pond.” He accompanied his words with a big kiss on the lips.
“Eeeew,” Pond said as she wiped her mouth vigorously.
Blue just laughed, he couldn’t care less about anything in the world right now, focusing entirely on his daughter.
A voice was heard from upstairs. “What’s going on down there?” Clear shouted slightly angrily, she didn’t like it when she could hear too much unexplained noise.
Blue looked in the direction of the stairs.
“Oh no, Pond. If Mum..? Mummy?” He had no idea what Pond had been calling them for the past three years.
“Mum will do,” Pond stated.
“Alright, if Mum sees you out of bed she’ll be furious,” his voice had dropped to a harsh whisper.
“I think I can talk her out of it,” she said smugly.
Blue smiled at her, still not believing she could talk.
Clear was coming down the stairs.
“Who are you talking to?” she asked, she always could hear more than she should be able.
Blue didn’t respond.
Clear was downstairs and walked into the living room, she was met by the sight of her husband smiling like an idiot and her daughter who should be fast asleep by now. She grew angry.
“Pond. Why are you not in bed?”
Her mother’s voice was very stern, but for once it had no effect.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she said happily and with a smile, as if she had been planning this.
Clear looked at her daughter, eyes wide and mouth agape. She dropped her toothbrush which she had been levitating.
“Did you just talk?” she asked with a laugh, her mouth curling into a smile with the hope that she did.
“Yep!” Pond said proudly.
Clear couldn’t move. She was transfixed on her daughter who she thought was physically unable to talk, but it turns out she really did just not want to, until now.
Pond started laughing.



– P –



Pond didn’t go to sleep until about half two in the morning, when her body succumbed to tiredness. She had been making up for lost time and told her parents everything, from her first days at school until today, making sure it was all in the correct order.
Her Mum and Dad were saddened by her stories of the bullies at school, they had no idea what they did to her in the earlier days. But when she got to talking about her new friend Tesla, they perked up again.
Pond talked passionately about him and told them all she knew about him, which took surprisingly long, seeing as she only met him the previous morning.
When Pond finally went to sleep, her father carried her back to her room, beaming with pride at her monumental achievements today.
He placed her gently in her bed and tucked her in, making sure Winks was in her grasp. He kissed her on the forehead and then left her to sleep until sunrise.



– P –



The alarm went off. Pond awoke grudgingly, knocking the alarm clock of her bedside table, causing it to turn off.
She rolled out of bed and stumbled about in her tired yawning state.
She walked downstairs, yawning as she went.
Her parents were sat in the kitchen, waiting for her with breakfast.
“Morning, Pond,” Clear called as Pond walked through the door.
“Morning, Mum,” Pond said tiredly, the fact that she called talk to people had lost its excitement, but her parents still beamed every time they heard her voice.
“Did you have a good sleep?” Blue asked, wanting to hear her talk again.
“Yeah,” she said flatly as she sat down at the kitchen table and started eating a bowl of cereal, she was far too tired to talk.
“Are you excited for school?” Clear asked hopefully.
“No,” Pond yawned and carried on with her eating her cereal.
Blue and Clear exchanged puzzled looks for a little while.
They looked at the clock and Clear jumped at the time.
“Oh, Pond, you’d best hurry or you will be late.”
“Okay.”
Pond jumped down off the chair and headed to her room to gather her things together.

She found her books and placed them in her bags along with Winks. She bounded down the stairs.
“Bye Mum. Bye Dad!” she shouted as she ran passed the kitchen door.
“Did you brush your teeth?” Clear shouted before Pond reached the door, causing her to stop dead in her tracks and turn around with a sigh to head back up the stairs solemnly to brush her teeth.

A quick brush later and Pond walked back down the stairs. “Bye again!”
“Bye, Sweetie!” sang Clear.
“Bye, Pond. Have a good day at school,” Blue said, but by the time the final words left his mouth the door had opened and slammed shut again, signalling that Pond had left for school.



– P –



Halfway to school and Pond was joined by the usual entourage of bullies, calling her all the familiar and annoyingly unoriginal names.
“Unic! Unic! Unic!” sang the three young colts in pursuit repeatedly, laughing every so often and pointing at the same time.
“You do know Unic is a colt with his willy cut off?” Pond asked casually without looking at them.
The three colts abruptly stopped, either because Pond spoke or because of the sudden realisation of what they had been really saying.
Pond heard the sound of their hooves against the pavement behind her stop and laughed, she had been waiting to do that for so long.
She burst out laughing and galloped the rest of the way to school.



– P –



Pond arrived at school, still smiling broadly and the few left over giggles leaving her body quietly.
She walked past the rest of her class and didn’t even process what they were doing. She was still on the high of defeating the first of her bullies.
She sat at her usual table. Tesla was already waiting for her, growing excited when he saw her sit down next to him.
“Hi Pond,” he said quietly.
“Hi Tesla,” Pond whispered mischievously.
Tesla stared at Pond, not believing he just heard her talk.
“What?” he whispered with equal volume.
“I said hello, duh!” she whispered still but in a very condescending tone. 
“I know what you said, but you spoke!”
“Yes, I did. Now shush, I don’t want the others to know yet.”
Pond was planning something, but what, nopony knew.
“Why not?”
Tesla was silenced by Pond’s hoof.
“Okay, I won’t say anything.”
Pond smiled at him and then went back to waiting silently for Miss Doltish to say the register.

The class started to call back to Miss Doltish as she reached their names. Tesla said he was here and in a few names Pond would be called.
“Pond Water?” Miss Doltish asked, with her head starting to lift to check if she was there, but she stopped as her face became level with Pond’s.
“Yes, Miss!” Pond spoke loudly above the noise of the class, which soon ceased with a collective gasp of everypony.
After a brief silence, a small muttering could be heard of the class asking each other quietly whether or not Pond actually spoke.
Pond laughed.
“What did you say?” Miss Doltish asked in utter disbelief.
“I said I was here. You should really listen more!” Pond smiled cheekily.
Miss Doltish couldn’t believe it. She started stuttering out half assembled words but to no avail.
Pond started laughing hard again.



– P –



Ever since she gained the ability to talk to actual people, the bullying became less severe. It was still quite bad, she was still brought to tears every so often, much less frequent than before.
She gained the ability to talk back, and managed to talk back and even counter the bullying with great skill, she had always been smarter than the others and now she could prove it.
Tesla became a stronger friend, the fact she could talk meant it was much easier for him to get along and play with her.
They became near inseparable.
Pond’s parents were over the moon.