Life as a pegasus isn't all it's cracked up to be you know. We have to make sure the weather is done right so everypony else can have food. We have to make the rain, the snow, the sleet, (which is super messy by the way) and an abundance of other weather related stuff. Its really not easy. Learning to fly i would say is the hardest thing of all really; timing your flaps, where to position your wings to bank, but learning how to stop is a big one. I’ve always had troubles with that last bit - stopping. It truly is hard. It makes things worse when everypony stares at you already because your coat is the colour of the horizon on a clear winters day and your mane is super long and is the colour of a flame. Being those colours makes everypony do a double take in the first place. So when you come to a crashing stop, often injuring yourself and sometimes others, everypony is already looking at you.
I guess youre wondering whose prattling on and on about how hard it is to be a pegasus aren't you? Well, my name is Icy Leaf, Princess Icy Leaf, and i will be telling my half of this story.
I know what you’re thinking, “thats a really weird name for a princess”, and yeah you’re right. See, when my mother was just older than a filly but not quite a mare, she went to visit the Earth and Unicorn ponies one winter’s day. She was so bemused by the way the snow and ice shimmered in the sunlight that she slipped on a patch of ice. When she looked to see what had befallen her, and there was a bright green leaf, that looked like it was plucked right off the tree at it’s peak freshness, stuck on the ground in the ice. My mother was so mesmerized that she vowed to name her first born girl Icy Leaf, which is how i got my name.
I guess i should also warn you that most of the names in here will probably sound really weird to you because my story is from about five thousand years ago. Long before the rulers you now know Celestia and Luna were ever even thought could exist. In my time, all races of ponies lived separate from each other, having little to no interaction other than to sell any goods. It actually wasn’t as bad as most ponies would think though. You wouldn't be mocked for being the only of one race in a village or stuff like that. Although there was a different system of classes i guess. The King and Queen were obviously at the top, then the guards and such, next were the rich and fancy ponies and last were the ones who had to make all of the weather patterns, really the ponies who actually did something.
I used to love sneaking out and going to visit the ponies in their work places. Watching them concentrate so hard on making sure no two snowflakes are alike, or the rain is the perfect temperature so its not a warm pee-like feeling but also not freezing cold either. Just the hard work and dedication put in by the working class ponies made me so happy. I would often go down and give the workers a week’s worth of muffins from the castle to share with them when things got a little slow. I made lots of friends there, especially this one old mare named Starry Night.
She was the pony I went to when the stress of being a princess became too much at times. I went to her cottage when i could hide from my fathers workers and sneak away. I loved helping her with her knitting or cooking, or just sitting by her fireplace and talking for hours. She also helped me practice my flying. Her house was the perfect place to do it because no pony could ever see me, for she lived far away from the town but close enough to trot back and forth to work, and there was enough open space for me to be able to practice properly, whereas at the castle I only had a tiny little courtyard to practice in.
I never really liked flying either. Both my parents were amazing flyers. They could do the most daring maneuvers in the air and when they would do it together, they looked like they were doing a very complex dance. That’s what actually caught my fathers attention when he first saw my mother. She was challenged by her sisters to do an obstacle course they made for her, and in the middle of it my father was looking out his bedroom window and saw a bright pink pony with a mane that shone like the sun flying around in the sky. He demanded the guards to find out exactly who that pony was and had them bring her to his castle immediately.
My mother always said that once she set hoof in front of my father she could tell he was hooked. Sometimes she would giggle so much that my father would blush and walk out of the room saying that he had something to attend to. It was actually much the same for my mother. Once she saw how handsome he was she instantly fell for him. It was love at first sight.
I’ve always wondered if I will ever find love in this desolate, boring cloud kingdom. But alas, I digress.
My inept ability to fly was what caused my life to completely change one day. Even with all the practice I had with Starry and my personal trainer at the castle I was never able to master the slow-down-and-turn-at-the-same-time thing. This is where our story finally begins and you meet the pony who is going to tell you the other half of this story.
If you think living as a Pegasus is hard, then you haven’t had to live as an Earth pony. We don’t have magic to help us grow our crop, nor do we have wings to help us lift any heavy loads from our crop. It’s a real challenge being an Earth pony, but I’ve always loved a challenge. My ma, rest her soul, would testify to that. Instead of helping pa with the yardwork I would always be running off on a new ‘adventure’. What can I say, being a boy you’re bound to go on an adventure or two. Eventually though I did end up learning that I had to stay home and help out. Being the only brother out of 4 sisters I was the only one who was really allowed to help, but that didn’t stop pa from getting them to help from time to time when there was just too much work to be done by just our eight hooves.
It’s a good thing I learnt when I did because the year I turned 13, pa fell sick with the flu bug that came around our land every winter. Usually it doesn’t bother our family too much; each of us get it, usually one at a time, and we get over it then go about our business. That winter though, the flu didn’t go away for pa. For weeks he was bed ridden, so finally ma sent my elder sister to the doctor to see if they had time to come and check on pa.
Took that poor doctor another week to finally make it to our house because of that dang flu. By then, pa was pretty much gone. The doc kept trying to apologize for not making it on time to help, but ma wouldn’t hear a word of it. The next night pa passed. The girls cried for weeks on end, but ma didn’t shed a single tear. To prove I was worthy of being the man of the house I went straight to work on whatever pa was working on at the time. Ma kept telling me to let myself grieve, but I wouldn’t allow myself to show weakness in front of girls.
Leaf is giving me a look right now so I should probably get on with telling the story now.
It was a summer where the crops were being quite prissy and they just refused to grow for some unknown reason. The weather was perfect for crop growing so maybe it was Mother Nature telling me that something big was gonna happen that summer.
It was about mid-summer when i was tending to the corn crop, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground being crushed by something. Once the unknown object was off of me I tried to get up, coughing and wheezing. Clearing the dirt and crud from my eyes, I finally got a good look at what fell on me.
The most dazzling pegasus pony I had ever seen. I hadn't seen many in my time so it wasn't a huge compliment, but still, she was just…
I have no words for the first time i saw her. Just, wow. It probably took me longer than it should have to say something, but when I did it wasn’t too bright, “Um, where, h-how, why…”
Oh very clever Skie.
Giggling she replied “Hello my name is Icy Leaf, and as you can see I’m a Pegasus pony and I am truly sorry for landing on you like that. I’m not actually very good at flying.”
“No no it’s all right. I’m perfectly fine, but it seems that you didn’t fare so well.” Her wing was bent at a little bit of a weird angle.
“Oh, yes. Well I’ve sustained much worse and have been fine, but I do think that I won’t be able to fly home like this.” With a frown appearing on her face, I felt myself sadden at the fact that such a beautiful mare could ever be sad at all.
“If you would like, I could send a carrier to the Pegasus mail pony we have in town and they could get a letter to someone to pick you up?” I asked hoping that maybe I could do something to cheer her up.
That almost seemed to make her frown deepen, but I must have imagined it because the next minute she smiled and said, “That would be very much appreciated, thank-you.”
I took her into our little two bedroom cottage so she could write to her family. On our way there I noticed her cutie mark was very peculiar. It was a heart, like the one fillies and colts give out on Hearts and Hooves day, with wings curling behind it and an arrow piercing the wings. It was honestly the strangest cutie mark I have ever seen. I just blurted out the question “So what is your cutie mark supposed to mean?”
“I’m honestly not 100% sure. I know the arrow through the wings is something to do with my inability to fly, but I’m not sure why it’s a heart. I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon.”
I was surprised that she actually didn’t get upset or anything when I asked her. She willingly gave me the answer right away, not caring of the consequences.
“What does yours represent?” She asked me. Mine was fairly obvious, and I’m pretty sure she already knew, but was just asking out of politeness.
“Uh, I’m pretty sure mine has to do with farming, since I’ve been looking after the house since my pa passed away.” My cutie mark was a patch of dirt with some crop growing in it. Pretty basic and boring, but farming is what I’m good at, so it doesn't surprise me that my cutie mark is of farming.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Not that your cutie mark is of farmland of course, but that your father passed away!” She seemed that I would get offended that she thought that my cutie mark was of farmland. I turned my head so she wouldn’t see me smile and let out a little laugh.
That’s when I saw my youngest sister, Daisy, running to us in the field having seen something come crashing down. Once she looked over me doing her usual checklist of possible injuries, she finally looked at who was with me and was surprised to say the least. I explained to her that Icy Leaf had fallen out of the sky assuming she must have slipped or something (if you could do that while flying I didn’t know). I think that Daisy was more confused than she let on about why there was a Pegasus walking with me seeing on how our leaders were fighting at the moment, but once I told her that I thought Leaf could have dislocated her wing, my sister went right into nurse-mode. She has been working with the doctor since he came to help out with pa when he got sick, and ever since, she’s been nurse for our family. That’s even how she got her cutie mark; one of the herbs that is in almost all of our medicines.
Daisy walked with us the rest of the way back to the house, constantly asking Leaf medical type questions so I just tuned out. Just as we got to the house Daisy asked, “So what is a Pegasus pony doing down on the earth with the rest of us non-flying folk?” Very blunt to say the least.
“Well, I often fly below the clouds so no pony can watch me fly. It makes me quite nervous, and as I’ve already told this gentleman here I’m not very good at flying. Never have been and probably never will be, but I also fly below the clouds because I love looking at all the beautiful scenery you have down here. So many different colours in one place.” While explaining there was a glint in her eyes that said she actually loved what she looked at. I have never seen such happiness on one pony’s face before. I hoped it would never leave.
“But don’t you have lots of colours up there too? I mean you guys make rainbows for crying out loud!” My sister has always been one to speak before she thought, so before things could get out of hand I interrupted.
“Daisy, im sure our guest could use some help in getting her wing put back in place and to get a letter to her parents so they can come get her.”
“Oh, yes, my apologies. I will go get my medical kit and some paper and a quill.”
Trying not to seem like a rude pony, I struck up conversation while we waited. “So how is it you managed to fall out of the sky? I thought Pegasi were masters at flying and balance and that sort of stuff.” Looking in her eyes I noticed they were the colour of freshly watered, lush grass. I couldn’t help but stare.
She was the one to break eye contact first, blush creeping across her face and down her neck. “Um, actually most pegasi are, well, all except me, like I said before. I’ve never been good at it, even though I’ve been practicing my whole life. Ever since I first was able to lift myself off the ground my father had me put in lessons, and as you can see it was a big waste.”
“I wouldn’t say that. If he hadn’t put you in lessons, you probably would have landed a lot harder and done more than just dislocated your wing.” I said with a slight laugh in my voice.
She did nothing but nod and smile. It was a beautiful smile, creating dimples in her cheeks. Before anything else could be said, Daisy came back into the room with her medical kit and went to work, doing her best not to put the Pegasus in too much pain.
Once everything was set and bandaged Daisy asked to talk to me privately while Leaf wrote her parents. “Skie, I don’t think she should stay with us. We should send her to town and get her to stay in one of the inns. The Pegasus already don't like us earth ponies, so if we send back one of their own with a dislocated wing, they might get the wrong ideas about us.”
I had already thought of this while Daisy was asking all her medical questions on the walk here, so I already had an answer ready for her, “We can’t, even if the Pegasus ponies think we did something to hurt her, I believe that Leaf will do her best to defend us and say we helped her.”
She stomped a hoof. “You don’t even know her Skie! For all we know she could have purposely fallen out of the sky and hurt herself to try and make us seem even worse to the Pegasus king than we already are. Although our stupid leader is doing a great job screwing the peace up himself.”
“Be careful what you say Dais! You get caught saying stuff like that and you could be imprisoned for treason. Either way, we aren't cruel enough to just send away an injured pony without making sure they get home alright. Even you, being as stubborn as you are, can’t let her go and in your soul you know it. We will be alright, I promise.”
I could tell that she was still upset but she was trusted me so she tried to lighten the mood, “Fine, but if guards come to our house breaking down the door I’m telling them it was all you.”
“Wouldn't have it any other way Dais.” Patting her on the head, we went back to the kitchen where Leaf was waiting.
