From the journal of Gloomy August—
The wind went still. I remember that day, waking up and feeling as though I should stay put. There was no great pressing need to go anywhere. Up to this point, the wind had pushed me, and pushed me, and any place I stayed for any length of time, I would feel the wind calling me, or maybe beckoning me if I wanted to talk all flowery.
It is a strange feeling for a pegasus to have the wind go still. The very wind that had driven me from my home in Ponyville was now gone, and I was a guest in the Crystal Empire. I think that maybe I was too exhausted to really appreciate that I had just met Princess Cadance, and when I met Prince Shining Armor in the morning, well, I might have treated him as though he was just another pony. But everything worked out! I’m still close friends with both of them and we stay in touch.
The wind might have deserted me, but other parts of my pegasus nature woke up. A powerful need to nest came over me, which was new for me. I mean, I can remember being a foal and making nests, but it never consumed me like it did when I had my egg. The need to make a nest was a frantic, almost uncomfortable thing, and to be honest, I’m not sure what I might have done had Princess Cadance not told me that it was perfectly natural.
She helped me through my awakening as I rediscovered parts of myself that had gone to sleep. And so much of me had gone to sleep. I was living day to day, going to work, paying my bills, all that stuff that us modern ponies have to do. At some point, some parts of me got bored and just went to sleepy town. About a year after my visit to the Crystal Empire, Princess Cadance told me that I was heading for a self-destructive implosion. A breakdown.
I guess it happens to a lot of ponies, but I wouldn’t know. I can only really write about what happened to me when I had a bad case of post-modern burnout. It was very, very hard to rediscover what it meant to be a pony again, and it was really unpleasant, like having to clean out the bathtub or shower drain of all the hair that gets stuck in there. And being ponies, we have a whole lotta hair. So much hair that many modern homes have a teensy-weensy little garbage disposal in the bath and shower drain.
Even now as I look back on it all, I can still remember that morning when I met one of my best friends, but I didn’t know it at the time. I was a little snippy because he was too close to my egg, and I was grumpy, and I was sore… but he was still so nice to me. Shining Armor is a class act.
Muzzy, not yet awake, Gloomy heard somepony in her room. Too many feelings to keep track of hit her all at once, panic, worry, aggression, the need to protect her egg, her nest, her space, plus all of the disorientation that comes with just waking up. With too many things going on upstairs, Gloomy’s instincts took over and she let the invader know how she felt with a feral, spine-tingling growl that reverberated deep within her barrel.
“Good morning to you as well,” a masculine baritone replied and there was the clink of glass on metal. “Cadance used to be a pegasus before her ascension, so I am used to ferocious sounds coming from beneath the blankets. I’ve brought you breakfast and a few gifts.”
Blinking, her vision blurry and her mouth oh so very dry, Gloomy’s head popped out from beneath the covers and she looked at the pony in her room. About a dozen blinks or so was all it took for her to realise that Prince Shining Armor was in her room, and he was wearing a pink, frilly apron. These things did not add up, and it took many more blinks to process this information.
“With certain guests, Cadance and I try for a more hooves on approach. Those with fragile conditions and the like. Cadance has you marked as high priority. I’ve brought you breakfast, there is a little bit of everything, there is some salve and an applicator for your sore wings, and there is a griffon egg sling-shawl-thingy so you can walk around and keep your egg with you. It has to stay warm, but you already know that.”
The smell of food caused Gloomy to begin drooling as she tried to get her eyes to focus on Shining Armor. She lifted her head, causing the blankets to slide down her neck, which tickled her and made her shiver. The egg had a reassuring weight to it as she cradled it between her forelegs.
“When you’re done eating and you’ve sorted yourself out, come to the throne room. The guards and servants will show you the way. It’s almost eleven in the morning and Cadance would like to speak with you before lunch, which we try to serve at one.” Shining Armor paused and rearranged a few flowers he had placed in a glass vase on the bedside table. “Everything you could ever want or need will be provided for you. Anything. You have but to ask. There are others here, also with fragile conditions, and I ask that you be mindful of them.”
“You have an apron. It’s pink.” Gloomy’s eyes narrowed and she watched as Shining Armor turned to face her.
“I didn’t want to splash anything on me. It’s not easy being a white pony. You have no idea how hard it is to keep clean. I envy you your colour.” Shining Armor lifted his head, smiled, and gestured at Gloomy’s breakfast. “If you tell me what you like, I’ll make certain that you get it tomorrow.”
And then, without further ado, Shining Armor departed while smoothing out his apron and whistling to himself, unconcerned by Gloomy’s grumpy frown and furrowed brows. When the door shut behind him, Gloomy relaxed a little and began to examine her tray, which was loaded down with just about every conceivable breakfast item one could imagine.
Ravenous, the grumpy, out of sorts pegasus tucked her egg beneath the warm, downy pillow she had rested her head on, and then she attacked her breakfast with the sort of savagery that only a hungry pegasus pony guarding her nest could have, taking out her feelings of aggression upon the food beside her bed. Much juice was spilt when she assaulted the fresh fruit, the innards of pastries squirted out their back ends, and many cereals met their ends by drowning, then devouring.
There were no survivors.
The egg sling was comfortable around her neck, and Gloomy was fond of the sunny yellow colour. The sling was insulated, padded, and did a good job of protecting her egg. Feeling out of sorts, but not knowing why, she made her way to the throne room, as requested. In no hurry, she stopped to look at everything around her, this crystal palace was a place of amazing beauty and after a night of rest, she was in a position to truly appreciate it.
“Throne room?” she asked as she looked at the pegasus pony guard with an orange pelt that stood out from the others. He also had a pleasant looking blue mane. For a guard, he seemed friendly and approachable. The other guards were too stern looking, as if they didn’t wish to be bothered while doing their statue impressions.
“This way, Ma’am,” the guard replied. “Straight down this corridor and through the double doors that will open as you approach. If they don’t open, just stomp your hoof a few times, they’re kind of old.”
“Thank you.” Gloomy smiled and moved on.
“Don’t mention it.”
Shuffling down the hall, still in no hurry, Gloomy passed a statue of Spike the Dragon, Hero of the Crystal Empire. She stopped to have a better look at it, and she admired the well made likeness of Spike, which was made entirely of different kinds of gemstones and crystals. Knowing Spike only as an acquaintance, Gloomy knew that the little dragon would eat this statue if given a chance.
Pausing, Gloomy watched as a guard led two small foals through the double doors into the throne room, and filled with curiousity, she hustled along so that she could see what might happen next. The doors opened as she approached and she caught sight of Princess Cadance sitting upon her throne, looking majestic and glorious. The guard marched the two foals, one a pegasus, the other a tiny unicorn, right up to the dias where Cadance’s throne was located.
In silence, Gloomy stood near the wall, by the double doors, watching and waiting as Cadance looked down at the two foals before her. Her face, patient, wise, and sad, was one of the most beautiful things that Gloomy had ever seen. It was obvious to anypony looking that Cadance loved.
“Tell me, brave little pegasus, what brings you to me?” Cadance asked.
“My sister’s heart is broken,” the little pegasus colt replied. “She won’t eat and she keeps crying.”
Leaning forward on her throne, Cadance looked down at the little unicorn filly. “Tell me what happened.”
“Our little brother was taken from us. The marm in the orphanage… she locked us away in a closet while he was being adopted and he was stolen away from us. He’s less than a year old… I couldn’t keep us together.” The little pegasus colt’s wings fluttered at his sides.
“I am sorry,” Cadance responded. “Tell me, what happened to your parents?”
“There was a fire,” the little unicorn filly replied as she began to sniffle and shudder.
“Our apartment caught on fire.” The pegasus colt sat down, wrapped a foreleg around his much smaller sister, and pulled her close. “My father wrapped my little sister and my little brother in a blanket and he gave them to me. I flew out the window… I wasn’t able to fly very far, they were too heavy, but I made it to the roof across the street.” As he spoke, the little unicorn filly’s body began hitching and the soft sounds of her sobbing filled the throne room.
Anger and sadness could be seen upon Cadance’s face now, and she eased herself from her throne. “Tell me, my brave little rescuer, how did you come to be here?”
“I sprung my sister and myself from the orphanage. We snuck onto a train and hid inside of a car full of wheat. I’ve heard stories about how you help ponies with broken hearts and I promised my sister that I would get her here and ask you to help us. We came a very long way, all the way from Fillydelphia.” The little colt scrubbed his eyes with his foreleg and the muscles in his jaw clenched.
“It is very difficult for me to make promises in cases such as this,” Cadance said, her voice soft, almost velvet, and she descended down the stairs from her throne to be with the two foals sitting on the floor. “I will, of course, do everything in my power to help you.”
“I’ll be your guard,” the colt offered, his voice cracking as he begged. “I’ll work for you. I’ll be a page colt. I’ll do anything you ask if you can fix my sister’s broken heart… I’ll give all of my life to you… just get my little brother back… I promised to look after them both and I broke my promise and I’m so ashamed and I—”
“Hush,” Cadance whispered as she sat down on the floor with the two foals. Wings unfurling, she wrapped them around the foals, pulled them closer, and embraced them. “I will do what I can, but keep in mind, new parents that just adopted have tender hearts. Perhaps an arrangement can be reached. The marm was very, very wrong to do what she did. I shall have to send my agents to have a word with her.”
With a gasp, the brave little colt broke down and began sobbing, hidden from view behind Cadance’s wings. Gloomy, who had watched all of this happen, stood there in shock, her eyes watering, and she thought about what Shining Armor had said about guests with fragile conditions. Wrapping her own wings around her egg, Gloomy felt her already wounded heart breaking yet again, a tear that she knew would never heal. She had trouble believing that her own kind was capable of such callousness, yet the evidence was before her.
“Here you go, Ma’am.”
Astonished, blinking, Gloomy stared at a cushion that had been brought for her to sit on. She looked at the orange guard with the blight blue mane and saw kindness in his eyes. Right after hearing a story about heartlessness, Gloomy had a reminder that the fires of kindness still burned bright.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it, Ma’am.” The pegasus paused for a moment, then added, “Do you need anything else, Ma’am? A drink perhaps?”
“No, I’m fine, thank you.”
Bowing his head, the pegasus guard stepped out the door and returned to his rounds.
Sitting down upon the cushion, Gloomy watched as Cadance did her best to comfort the two little foals, humming to them, caressing them, and even going as far as kissing the wailing filly on the head. Clutching her own egg, Gloomy tried to sort out her own feelings, and found that she couldn’t. Everything was just too horrible and she too, began to cry.