*Skyla*
It’s Friday. It’s been almost a week since Inova left us. Dad and I have been at the hospital with mom more often than we’ve been at home, and none of us like it. The doctors say mom should be ready to deliver the newest member of our family any day now, so that’s good, at least.
Speaking of mom, she’s doing a bit better. She seems to be mostly over Inova leaving, but we all miss her. We were planning on making her the one to cook after our little sister was born, since mom would be too busy with the foal, I can’t cook anything without eating sampling the whole meal to make sure every part is good, and nopony but me can eat dad’s cooking.
Today at school, Inova found me after classes let out and gave me an envelope, which she told me not to open or read until I was back with mom and dad. She was very serious about it.
I saw her leave with Diamond as she has for a long time, and I went towards home as usual. Dad’s asked me to pick up the mail from home and bring it to the hospital. He’s been working from there as well, refusing to leave mom’s room. I’ve been staying there as well since I don’t want to be home alone.
I kept Inova’s envelope in my saddlebag as I got the mail and newspaper. I sorted it out into things for dad, things for mom, and the well-wishing cards. The cards made up more than half of today’s mail again. I’d probably be going through them tonight.
On the way to the hospital, I got myself a snack bouquet. I always ate those from the bottom up, saving the sweet and savory flowers for last. I also brought Inova’s envelope out of my bag with my magic. I knew looking it over from every direction wouldn’t reveal anything, but I did it anyways.
I finished my bouquet right as I reached the hospital. It was good, as usual. I passed by various ponies as I made my way up to mom’s room. Almost all of them were hospital staff.
“Hi mom, hi dad” I said as I entered the room, numbered 555. “I got something from Inova today.”
“Hm?” mom asked. “How is she?”
“She seemed upset about something. She didn’t want me to open this until I was here with you.”
“Then it’s probably something for all of us to hear” dad said as he closed the door for some family privacy. What he said made sense. “Open it up and read it.”
I opened the envelope and unfolded the letter inside before reading it out loud. “Dear family: I want you to know first and foremost that I still love all of you. Even my new little sister. I can’t find it in my heart, soul, mind, or anywhere to not still love you.
“Skyla may have mentioned how I was kind of on edge when she saw me. There is a very simple reason for that: nobody has asked me what my side of the story is for why I left. Everyone except Diamond Heart is giving me extra space, and even though I know why they are, it still unnerves me.
“I will state here why I left, so that you may know my reasons and have a document to back any press releases you may make on the matter. The first reason I left goes back to when Skyla and I were still in diapers.” I blushed a bit at that before continuing. “I remember the first time dad put his soundproof shields in my ears. Before then, whenever I cried, I would always cry until I ran out of energy and fell asleep. I was the reason I cried for so long so many times. I still have no idea why that was.
“My second reason goes with my first: I am a very light sleeper. Whenever Skyla’s woken up at the smell of breakfast or gone on a midnight pantry pillage, she always went over me. Her leaving and walking over me always woke me up. Mom, dad, I’m sure you don’t have to imagine what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night because of a crying foal. I think Skyla’s the only one who has to imagine it, since she can sleep through anything, like that one time she was sleeping on mom’s back at the train station and the train whistle blew right next to us. I was jolted awake. I couldn’t sleep for that whole train ride.
“Now take that and spread it out over days, weeks, months, even past a year. If I were to stay with you, I would lose a lot of sleep. I’m imagining that the lost sleep would make me a little crazy. General irritability would be the result, and I can’t help but imagine myself destroying things around the house and being a pain in the plot. My imagination continued down the dark side and I could see me taking a. . . more direct method to quieting my little sister. A method that normal ponies would not exactly get back up from.”
I paused in my reading to drink some water before continuing. “I also imagined that I would no longer be the stellar student that I am at Pristine Pearl. I saw my academic scores going down, my flight taking a nosedive, and my magic progress fizzling out.
“What I do not want known in any kind of press release, should you do one, is that I’m staying with Diamond and her family. I do not want them to have the potential of the media hounding them over their heads, even if my very presence makes that impossible already.
“To sum up, I’m leaving home to preserve my sanity and keep everyone safe. I still love all of you, but please don’t try to talk me into visiting for a while. Not until my new sister can control herself.
“Sincerely, Inova.”
All three of us were quiet as we thought about the letter.
“I. . .” mom started. “I’m not sure where to start.”
“I don’t know either” dad admitted.
“How about the beginning?” I suggested as I reread the letter to myself before giving it to mom.
Mom looked it over. “It’s good to know she still loves us. That really puts my mind at ease.”
“She also made a good point about her side of the story not being known” dad said. “I’ve been scouring the newspaper everyday and haven’t seen any articles on her opinion.”
“I think most ponies are just afraid to ask her” I said. “Especially after this long. She was rather upset when she gave me the letter.”
“Maybe it’s like when she cried when she was younger.” All eyes turned to dad. “Think about it: she would cry herself to exhaustion because her crying made her cry more. It took outside interference from me to end and discover that cycle. Now, because she left us, ponies are giving her extra distance, nopony’s asking her about it, she’s becoming more irritable, which causes ponies to keep their distance, and nopony’s asking her about it.”
“And knowing her, she’s not going to look for the help she needs herself” mom finished before sighing. “What if we have Diamond Heart help her?”
“Inova would notice that” I pointed out. “I think one of you should announce why she left.”
“Why would you think us announcing why Inova left would help her?”
“Inova was the one to bring up the idea.”
“Maybe I could just take it straight to the newspaper?” dad suggested. I thought it sounded good. “There wouldn’t be as much fanfare, but the message would still get out.”
“Go for it” mom encouraged.
“What about how Inova imagined herself reacting?” I brought up. “I can’t imagine her doing those kinds of things.”
“I can’t either. Destroying things around the house and being mean just aren’t her.”
“What did she mean by a direct method normal ponies wouldn’t get up from?”
Mom and dad looked at each other before quietly agreeing that he would be the better one to explain, as tough as it would be. “When you or Inova cried, we figured out what your problem was and took care of it. By Inova’s phrasing, that would be the indirect method of quieting a crying foal.
“Have you read any of Inova’s comics?”
“I’ve seen some of them.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Cadance asked.
“Inova likes action comic books” Shining stated. “In those comics, the characters have various fighting techniques. Her favorite is The Hopper, and he fights cyborgs from the Lightning Organization. When Hopper finishes them with a powered kick, the cyborgs are never heard from again.”
“They go boom, I think” I said as I thought it over. “Wait, does that mean Inova would kick our little sister?”
“Hopper uses more than just kicks to finish his opponents. He can use any weapon he can get his hooves on. I think Inova, at her worst, would do things like that to her. A normal pony. . .” Shining took a deep breath. “A normal pony would die from things like that.”
The words hung in the air for a while. “Oh.” I said. “That’s not good at all.”
“No. Honestly, if she could imagine herself doing that, I think she probably took the better course of action.”
“I suppose” Cadance said. “It still hurts that she just left like she did, but I think what she imagined herself doing is far worse.”
“I think I’ll get started on writing out the article for the papers” dad said as he gathered up some paper, ink, and quills with his magic. “You know, I’ve heard that bottling up stress isn’t good, but what I think Inova’s done is prevent the stress from getting into that bottle in the first place.”
“Huh” mom and I said at the same time.
“I think I’ll write that down and give it to Inova on Monday” I said. “She loves it when anypony points out her creative solutions and ideas.”
“Kind of makes you wonder what your cutie marks will be” mom said.
“Yeah. It does.” Neither I or Inova have gotten our marks yet. More ponies in our grade have them than those that don’t. Our royal status keeps us from being teased, but I’ve seen it happen to others. “She seems to take it in stride though.”
“Maybe it’s her human part? Twilight’s told me that humans don’t get cutie marks.”
“Yeah. Why does she have that in her anyways?”
“Nopony seems to know. Now, Skyla, get started on your homework. You and Inova’s little sister wants me to rest.” Mom relaxed and closed her eyes. She looked more peaceful than she has over the past week.
I used my magic to take off my saddlebags and pull out my Culture Studies folder. It was a reading assignment on griffons. I held back a shudder at the memory of the meat that made me sick and Inova ate with no problem as I got started on it.