The air here was different than in Manehattan. It was… clean, and sweet. It’s like there was the smell of apples all around, mixed with a few other sweet fragrances like pears, and oranges. There was grass in a few places, dry orange colored sandy dirt in others, and the roads were all paved with bricks. The houses around all had an aesthetic to them, almost like they were Rossian cottages. White washed walls, big wooden frames that stuck out and formed shapes in the walls, some of them even having thatch roofing while others had shingles like Goose’s house. The air was warm here, almost hot even. If we were home, we’d all be needing jackets this time of year.
There weren’t any tall buildings anywhere, nothing that broke through the sky and obscured the clouds, nothing but open land for miles if you looked down the right road. Every other sidewalk had an apple tree chock full of apples with skin of every color under the sun, some even looking like my mane. There’s no way that’s natural. All the medians in the road had apple trees, all the store fronts had apple trees, there were apples everywhere here.
The leaves on everything were anywhere from bright green to dark amber and it looked like the trees were quickly preparing for the cold months ahead. Today is October first after all. I guess I can see why Applejack is so bitter about having been kicked out of this place. It’s warm, but it’s beautiful, it smells nice, and there’s none of the garbage that the big city has. No trash on the street, no rush of cars everywhere, no blaring subway horns, no air rails whooshing by, no mob noise permanently outside your window. It’s clean, quaint, and peaceful. I wonder if the ponies here even worry about the threat of monsters? I bet it all seems so far away for them… Little do they know, even here there’s probably a virus emitter just waiting for the right signal to set it off and wreak havoc. Every major city, every little town. If we can’t stop him, then nopony will be spared…
“Right. It’s the middle of harvest season now. A solid kick right here and…” Applejack sighed and planted a firm kick against one of the nearby trees. Every single apple on it dropped to the ground in a neat little pile, almost as if she’d just asked them to fall. She picked one up, rubbed it with her elbow and then took a huge bite. “A cutiemark sure can be cruel, cain’t it?” She finished the rest of the apple and tossed the core away in a nearby trash can. “Get yerselves a taste of the pride of Ponyville y’all. Ain’t get fresher than straight off the tree.” She offered, sorrow in her voice.
The five of us each took an apple for ourselves, the damn thing barely fitting in both my hooves it was so massive, and took a bite. It was sweet, it was crisp, it was warm, it was juicy. A single bite and my hooves were sticky just from touching the peel. I’d never had an apple so delicious, I just wanted to grab the rest of them and just gorge myself on them. I scarfed down the rest of the one I had and picked up another. Before I knew it, I’d eaten four of the things and I was starting to feel sick to my stomach. Oh goddess, I ate too much… but… I want… more. I could feel my stomach churning, and at the same time I started reaching for another apple. Applejack kept me from it though.
“Yeah, that’ll be enough of that. Y’all are gonna make yerselves sick like that. Two is enough ta feed a full grown stallion. Ah shouldn’t have let ya have the last one.” She said, forcing me to stop.
“Those… urp. Those are addictive.” Goose said, having eaten a good chunk of the pile himself. The tree was large and by the time we’d all eaten ourselves sick, there were still apples on the ground. Not many, but all the same, we all ate no less than two a piece.
“G-gees, there are still some left. J-just how many were on this tree?” Fluttershy asked. Pretty sure she ate the most, some not even using her normal mouth.
“Twenty five. Can’t believe y’all managed ta put nineteen away on yer own.” Applejack said with certainty.
“You counted how many apples you kicked down?” Scoots asked.
“Sure. Hell, Ah could tell ya how many are on every tree in the vicinity. Fifteen, thirty, twenty three, fourteen, eighteen, twenty nine, twenty six. And that’s just what’s around us. Fer what they go fer in Manehattan, not even those of the SAA brand, y’all just ate a little under five silver’s worth of product. And the city just… lets ya have ‘em. Anythin’ that grows on public property is free ta tourists and residents. Of course, it’s not like a tourist without a harvestin’ cutiemark and or years of practice could do what Ah just did. Even unicorns have ta take a few minutes ta figure out where all the apples hidden in the leaves are and pull ‘em out without damagin’ the apples or the tree. Nopony can do what we do better than we do it and it’s all… It’s all just so fuckin’ frustratin’! An average of forty five bits a tree, thousands upon thousands of trees in the orchard, harvest a hundred of ‘em alone a day and have ‘em shipped across the world under a brand name that was established by my granny!” Applejack nearly yelled as she stomped a hoof into the concrete. She took a deep breath and sighed some of her anger away as she ripped her hoof free from the sidewalk she’d destroyed.
“This place makes me fuckin’ sick. Let’s find yer parents and get outta this goddess forsaken town as fast as we can.” She said as she started to walk away. Scoots swiped the last four apples and threw them in her bag, then repaired the damage Applejack caused and caught up to her. The rest of us followed suit and we started walking through this maze of a town.
As it turns out, only some of the roads are brick, and the ones further from the center of town were regular blacktop. And these roads were… not in the greatest condition. Better than half of Manehattan to be sure, but I likely couldn’t count the number of potholes we passed on my wing.
“So uh… it’s been about half an hour since we got here, and it is sooooo hot. Are we like, anywhere near close?” Pinkie complained. Since she knew the place better than anypony else, Applejack was following the map on her phone and leading us to my parents house. This town however, is deceptively large. The four major roads cut straight through Ponyville going north, south, east, and west, and you can see the edges of town when you stand in the middle of them. That however, is a trick. Town hall and the center of town are actually on a hill, and the elevation is about twenty meters above the edge of town. It doesn’t look like much of a rise since the slope is so gradual, but the further down you go, the wider this place gets. My parents live deep in the south western part of town, and none of the major roads are anywhere near their place.
Oh, and did I mention it’s hot here? It’s usually in the mid sixties around now back home, but Applejack said it was typical for it to be in the upper eighties here this time of year, and that was cool to her. Summers here are almost always over one hundred Fahrenheit consecutively for months on end. How do ponies live in this heat all the time? I was lagging behind and my head was spinning. It doesn’t help that I’m nearing the time for my quarterly transfusion, so I might be lower on good blood than usual too.
“Should be. Town wasn’t this big last Ah was here though, so most of this part is new ta me. Must’ve been built in the last ten years. Still kinda surprised the roads are as bad as they are. Used ta be real well kept. Expansion’s a bitch, ain’t it?” She said through a chuckle.
“Maybe tone down the joyous spite there, huh?” Goose said. Applejack rolled her eyes.
“Sugarcube, Ah couldn’t do it if Ah tried. Call me a spiteful bitch, but Ah cain’t help but relish in seein’ this place suffer.” She said with laughter in her voice. Note to self, do not do anything to make Applejack hold a grudge against me. Goose wrapped a hoof around her neck.
“Oh, come on. It’s been like, eleven years since you’ve been here. Just because your family did you dirty doesn’t mean you have to hate the town right? Surely good ponies don’t deserve suffering wished upon them?” He argued in that smooth talker voice of his. She lowered her eyes and looked him back in his.
“Maybe. But you’re a piece of garbage, so maybe you should keep yer mouth shut.” She said then went in for a kiss.
“Pfft. So much for being shy about it.” Scoots remarked. Applejack pulled her lips away from his, then stared Scoots down. Then she got a dark, Celestia-like, evil smile on her face, but quickly her eyes shifted to me… or behind me? I felt a hoof run between my shoulders, and just like a cat, I jumped. I flung myself around, my blood already starting to form a weapon and stared my assaulter down. The moment my eyes met hers, I froze.
“Fire… fly?” She looked older than I remembered her. There were silver streaks beginning to poke into that two tone orange mane of hers, bags and crow’s feet at her eyes. Her freckles showing real well in the sun, her coat a little bit more dull than it was last I saw her, but nearly identical to mine. She was wearing a bright pastel yellow set of scrubs and carrying a bag of groceries with her and she must’ve just gotten off of work. Her eyes, nearly identical to mine but with the purity of somepony who’s never killed still there, laser focused on me like I was some kind of ghost that’s walked out of a dream. I knew it was going to be hard to see them again, but this was well more intense than I’d imagined. What do I say? How do I act here? She called my name, I came here to find them, but she found me first. I thought I would have more time! Well, don’t just stare at her idiot! Say hello!
“H-hi mo- blegh.” The moment I started speaking, all the apples in my stomach started to exit my mouth at rapid speed. I felt it quick enough to turn away from my mom, but it added to my dizziness and the heat and I did not feel good.
“Firefly!”
“Rainbow!”
I hear a bunch of voices called out my names, but my head just kept spinning faster and faster, and the edges of my vision started going dark. I felt my head land on something hard, and suddenly, everything went dark.
“Is she gonna be alright?” One voice said. It sounded familiar, but distant.
“She should be fine now. That would happen more often than not back when she was little. Her anemia makes it so most of her functions are a bit slower than normal because her body simply runs on blood that isn’t quite oxygenated enough. When she overeats, she has a tendency to not be able to process it all and then half of it just comes right back up. I remember one day so many years back we went to an amusement park and she just unloaded on her father because she got too hot. Hehehe… he was so mad and I just couldn’t keep myself from laughing at it. Of course, I got my fair share of vomit in the mane back then too. I’m sure you remember some of those days, don’t you Flutter?” Is that… is that mom? I was still a little woozy, but my vision was starting to come back to me.
“O-oh yes. The easiest w-way to ruin a roller coaster is to s-sit next to Fire.” Fluttershy replied. Yeah, and you’re an asshole for making me go on them, knowing that I get sick! I was awake now and about to go give Fluttershy a piece of my mind when I noticed a tube stuck in my foreleg. I read the tag and I was confused.
“September 24th, 2030? Why does she have a week old bag of her own blood?” Following the crimson plastic lead me to an IV and a nearly empty bag. Oh, that doesn’t bode well. How long have I been out? Where even am I? I finally looked around the room I was in and found it eerily similar to the one I used to stay in. There were even Hello Neko pillows on the bed with me and a few plushies on shelves in the room. The walls were painted pink, and everything that wasn’t pink looked like it was some kind of stuffed toy or could be a stuffed toy. A lot of these toys were mine, actually. Old trophies, my very first last place ribbon, my very first first place ribbon and all the ones that came after on a board. Wonderbolts posters, old cop movie posters, the ones I used to watch with dad. Wait a minute… this looks exactly like the room I left in Cloudsdale. Why is this here? Have they… been waiting for me to come home all this time? There’s no way…
The IV was just about empty, my dry veins just eager to suck in any drop of blood it can. I was feeling back to normal again, so I pulled the tube out and headed for the door. Once I was through it, it was like walking out of a time capsule or something. This living room looked exactly like the one I used to know, save the walls being less perfect and clearly made out of a rougher material than hardened cloud. Everypony was sitting on various pieces of furniture that were similar but not the same as the ones I remember, and the only real difference were the ponies on it. Framed pictures in a wood and glass cabinet of the family, most of them with me, a few without me. Plates and paintings on the walls, mom’s degree, dad’s degree, an empty spot for a similar frame to fit. The one thing I noticed the most was that everywhere I looked, there was a spot that was missing something. Oh my goddess. They really have been waiting for me…
“Ha! Funny ya mention that, we went on a roller coaster together during the Caballo day fair last month. Ah thought she was gonna lose her lunch, but somehow that never happened.” Applejack said.
“Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that! I mean, it’s hard to remember considering I saw you smash that punching machine the same day. Rainbow getting sick on a roller coaster is pretty mundane by comparison. Oh, speak of the devil… How ya feelin’ buddy?” Scoots said with a big smile on her face. I scowled in return.
“Fine, no thanks to you, Freeloader.” She stuck her tongue out, and before I could retort, I found myself in my mom’s embrace.
“Oh thank the goddess. You had me worried back there! I thought you were really sick! I was just about ready to fly back to the hospital with you when your little friend here told me that was normal. Thank goodness they were here. Oh, I’m so glad to see you! I always knew…” she sniffed. “I always knew my baby girl would come back to me one day! Oh Windy, you promised you wouldn’t cry. My baby girl…” She broke into tears and hugged me tighter. ‘I always knew…’ That’s why she had the blood. She’s been drawing her own blood and keeping it here just in case I need it. I could feel myself starting to choke up. Damn it. You’re almost nineteen, you’re not supposed to get emotional like this! I was hesitant at first, but then I gave in to the hug and reciprocated the tears. How could I have forgotten you for whole years of my life? I’m so sorry mom…After a while, I noticed another leg wrap around my neck and immediately paused the waterworks.
“Uh… can I help you?” I asked after mom also noticed Scootaloo join the hug.
“What? It’s a family hug right? Can’t I hug mom too?” Scoots asked like it was the most normal thing. I popped her I the forehead.
“Way to ruin the moment, jackass!” I reprimanded. Immediately following that, I got popped in the forehead myself.
“Firefly Flare! We raised you better than that! And um… did you just call me ‘mom?’” She questioned after turning to Scootaloo. We finished rubbing the new sore spot, and of course Scoots nodded.
“Well, yeah. Rainbow raised me for the last four years, so I kinda feel like I belong, ya know?” Scoots explained. It took everything in my body not to strangle her right now.
“I’m sorry? Raised you? Rainbow? Firefly, what is she talking about? Did you take in a child at fourteen? And why does everypony keep referring to you as ‘Rainbow?’ Honey, what happened?” She asked in rapid fire question mode. I took a moment to think since I wasn’t prepared for this yet, even though I should’ve been ready for Scoots to ruin things at a moment’s notice.
“Uh… yes, that’s my legal name, and… a lot. Like, seven years worth of stuff. Is dad home?” I answered, then asked. Her face contorted and she tilted her head.
“Legal name…? Well, it’s nearly two, so he won’t be home for another few hours… should I call him? I’m sure he would rush home knowing that you’re here. Well, provided he doesn’t have a heart attack when he hears about it. The old fart refuses to eat healthier, so of course he’s back on cholesterol medication again.” Mom said, concern heavy in her voice, which then quickly turned… spiteful? when she started to talk about dad. Good to know that their relationship is still the same. Sigh. I nodded.
“Yeah, do that. He is definitely gonna want to hear this and… neither of you are gonna like what I have to say so uh… be ready for that. Oh and I am technically Scootaloo’s legal guardian so you can think of her as like… and adopted daughter or whatever. Or not. I don’t care. Celestia owns us both now, so it’s whatever.” I said rambling through whatever came to mind. Should I say that? Eh, that’s a common enough expression for active military units, though I guess most ponies don’t use her name so casually. Mom tilted her head at me. “Yeah, just go call dad. It’s… a long story.” She looked like she was trying really hard not to ask more questions, but she managed to not.
“Um… sure honey.” She said, then quickly disappeared further into the house. If this one was the same as the old one, then their room would be at the back left of the house with the kitchen to the back right, and the office across from my room at the front. They made plenty of money, but more than half of it went to my medical expenses, especially when I was little. If they’re both working now, then they could probably afford a better place than this. I wonder… if they moved away for the same reason Shy’s parents moved… why does the house still look the same?
“Bow, do you really think I would joke about something like this?” Well, that was quick. “No shit, Sherlock! Let’s go! Move that robotic ass! If I don’t see a rainbow colored vapor trail outside my door in the next ten minutes, I’ll tell her you’re too busy to come.” I wonder if she realizes that everypony can hear her? “Ten seconds flat my ass. Maybe last night.” I’m sorry? “Challenge. Accepted♥ I’ll see you when you get here. Bye honey.” Challenge accepted!? What does that mean? Does that mean what I think it means? Oh sweet Celestia, where is that blissful childhood ignorance I used to have? She knows we can hear her, right? Right!? I took a look at my friends faces, and I think they were all just as concerned as I was. I very wearily took a seat next to Scoots on the eerily familiar striped loveseat and tried to stave away the oncoming headache by rubbing at my temples.
“That was the same mare right?” Scoots asked. I nodded slowly.
“Yeah, that’s… that’s my mom.” I said as I let my head drop into my hooves. Scoots started to crack up.
“Oh my goddess, your mom is awesome.” She said through muted laughter. Goose sort of recovered from his own shock and tried to recollect himself
“I’m sorry, your parents are nearly in their fifties right?” He asked. I did some math and shook my head.
“No, she’s actually a couple years older than my dad so she’s like… fifty four and he turns fifty later this year. Dad’s birthday is a day and thirty one years ahead of mine, and hers is in February.” I’m honestly kind of surprised that I remembered all that. Oh. Oh no. I was supposed to be born in early January, so that means I was conceived…
“Can we be that fun in thirty years?” Goose asked Applejack. She wrapped her hoof around him and brought him a little closer.
“Gotta make it there first sugarcube. And preferably without raisin’ a Rainbow Dash in the process. Her mom’s a nurse makin’ the same kinda money we do, and y’all still had financial problems tryin’ ta keep ya alive? Ah’d really rather not have ta go through that.” She joked.
“Well, it wasn’t all bad. Her body started to become more reliable when she was about four, so the costs started to go down and she didn’t need as much assistance to stay alive. She even started flying around the same time, so we were fairly happy with that. But yes, I really don’t recommend passing on a blood disease to your daughter, try and avoid that if you can.” Mom added as she came back into the living room. She took a seat in her recliner right next to the love seat and across from the couch everypony else was on and returned to ‘model parent mode’ like she always was in a public setting. “So, Firefly, why don’t you introduce me to your friends here?” Mom asked. Yeah, I’m just gonna ignore it. It’s for the best.
“Oh, sure. Well, next to me is Scootaloo. I uh… took her in during 2026, and we’ve lived together since.” I said.
“You are just, so good at not saying things. It’s like, you tell half the truth and just act like the rest of the story doesn’t exist.” Scoots said. I rolled my eyes.
“And you said you were her legal guardian? The government just… let you take in a child at fourteen?” Mom asked. I mulled the question around to think of what to say here. In all technicality, Brightness was the one who signed all that paperwork, I was just the one in the photos. We got away with it because of her powers, but I’m the only one who knows that.
“Well, yeah. I mean, CPS hasn’t come knocking on my door yet so I figure it’s fine. I mean, she’s well fed, half way through high school, and appreciates nothing I do for her. Rainbow Dash is also legally twenty one right now. Firefly Flare has been dead for seven years, so when I had new papers made, we didn’t actually know how old I was. We ended up making a guess based on my maturity. Who knew I acted like a teen at eleven, right?” I said, letting myself ramble on. Mom kept a hoof squarely over her mouth.
“But… didn’t you know your name? Wouldn’t that have-” She started. I let out some air and cut her off.
“No, actually, I didn’t. It’s kind of part of the story, but I had retrograde amnesia for a few years, so… I didn’t really know much of anything… back then…” I said through a false laugh, trying very hard to avoid eye contact with the ever saddening face of my mother. I should probably wait for dad to show off my powers. “Uh, the lovely couple over here is Applejack and…” Goose Fang is kind of a well known mob boss name isn’t it? Should I…
“Lamnidae Carcharodon. My name is a little difficult to pronounce, so most ponies just call me Lamni. Pleasure to meet you.” Oh. That’s what ‘LC’ stands for. Huh. Today I learned. Goose saved me and held out a hoof to shake. Fucking smooth, dude. Mom shook it and then Applejack’s after she followed suit.
“Oh, I see. You wouldn’t happen to be related to the Carcha stores would you? That’s not a very common name, after all.” She said, a bit of excitement in her voice. He nodded slowly.
“Yes ma’am, I happen to be the owner since my dad passed a few years ago. I’m surprised you’ve heard of us though, I didn’t think there was one around here.” Goose said.
“Oh, well, there isn’t, but it was always a dream to buy things from there back when we lived in Cloudsdale. My husband bought my wedding pendant from the one near the center of the city. He’d saved up a whole month of his disability payments just to get it, and I couldn’t have been happier to see it. Every now and again he’ll go behind my back and come home with some Carcha brand accessory to surprise me, the old coot.” She said, letting her eyes drift down to the coffee table with a warm smile on her face. Never thought I’d see the day she talks about dad like that.
“Well, I’m proud to hear words like that from a happy customer. Ponyville seems to have grown a lot since I last visited with my father so many years ago, maybe I should start thinking about opening a store around here? I’d hate to have to make you drive all the way out to Fort Withers just to get our high quality goods.” Goose said. Applejack turned and raised an eyebrow at him. Ah yes, the look of ‘you better not’ in the wild.
“Oh, and your name is Applejack, isn’t it? You aren’t related to-” Mom started.
“Nope! No affiliation, sorry, it’s just a nickname on account of the apples on my butt. Ah can see the family resemblance between y’all, if Rainbow didn’t have that scar on her face, she’d probably be just as pretty as y’all are.” Applejack deflected immediately. I scowled at her, but that didn’t stop mom from falling for the trick.
“Oh my goodness, I didn’t even notice! Firefly, what happened to your face? A-and your wing, it’s just… gone! How long have you been like this?” She asked, suddenly very concerned about it.
“Oh you know, old sword wounds. Uh, the pink pony next to him is Pinkie, and you know Fluttershy already, so yeah, these are my co-workers and ‘friends,’ I guess.” I said, putting air quotes around friends to make sure they all got the picture. Well, Scoots and Applejack really. Goose is being a bro and the other two haven’t said much, which is weird for Pinkie. She stuck her hoof out and mom tentatively shook it, trying very hard not to immediately bring her focus back to me.
“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie. Rainbow and I are good buddies even though we really haven’t known each other that long.” She said as she shook my mom’s hoof way too quick. Goddess damn it Pinkie, stop using your powers! Be normal! Mom got a confused look as she started to take her hoof away, and just before she asked a question, the front door flung open and Dad stood there out of breath.
“Time!” He yelled. Mom pulled her left sleeve back and clicked a button on the freaking smart watch she’d been hiding and read the face with this uppity look on her face.
“Hmph. Nine fifty four. You’re getting slower. A surprise, considering you used to make similar times with the metal one.” She said. Dad had basically fallen over trying to catch his breath. His face was untrimmed, a small coating of dull gray stubble covering the lower half of his mouth, his short rainbow mane with a few silver streaks in it. He was wearing a collared button up shirt and a bright red tie and he was carrying a briefcase in his left front hoof. The old peg leg seemed to have been upgraded to a plastic looking prosthetic leg that must’ve actually functioned pretty well since it almost moved like the real thing would. When dad was a bomb technician for the infantry, he lost a whole thigh in an explosion. He’d been walking on what might as well been a long stick my whole life, so to see something that actually resembled a real leg was a little weird to me. He pulled his own sleeve back to reveal his own watch and then held it out for mom to see.
“Bullshit! You… started your timer… during the call! If I got… Nine fifty two, there’s no way you didn’t… ha… holy shit. You… you really are home… My little girl!” He stopped focusing on mom when he caught my eyes, and in a matter of seconds he just about pounced on me, knocking over the whole loveseat and Scootaloo and I with it. He was fast, he was big, he was heavy, and he smelled like a dog that’d been laying in the sun all day. “Oh sweet goddess, you’ve come to give me back my little miracle! I take it all back, I can’t believe it! My little Firefly is home, alive and well…” I felt like I was being constricted by some kind of snake.
“Dad.” I said, trying to push him off. “Dad!” I yelled. He finally loosened his grip and looked at my face.
“What is it honey?” Then he noticed my scar and lack of wing. “Oh my goddess, what the hell happened to you? Did you see this? Where did your wing go? Does that thing need to be treated?” I managed to push him off and got off the loveseat.
“A lot, yeah, lost it, no. I’m happy to see you too, but you need to chill out. You of all ponies should know how brittle I am. That kinda hurt.” I said rubbing at my shoulders.
“Oh gosh, I was just so excited, ya know? Geez Firefly, I’m sorry. Man, it sure has been a while since this house had so many ponies in it. I always told her she was crazy, but she wanted to keep this place the same in case you brought friends home one day. Who’d a thought you’d actually do it six years later? Or ya know, that you were alive at all. I’m just so… happy to see ya, ya know? Oh, my baby’s home!” He started to choke up and then enveloped me in another strangling bear hug. He’s old, but damn it if he isn’t still strong. I sighed and made an attempt to hug him back. I couldn’t help but smile. I haven’t had a big, smelly hug like this since the last time I won a race almost eight years ago.
It was a huge wave of nostalgia, and when it all came back that I was gonna break his heart, I just… I hugged him tighter. I love my mom, but dad was always there. We used to do everything together, there was hardly a day we didn’t watch a movie or go out to the park and fly together to practice for the next race. All those late nights we would wait up for mom to come home so that she could help with my homework since she was better at it than he was, or he’d get in trouble because we both forgot and I didn’t do it. There aren’t a lot of memories of home that don’t have him in them. And then I felt another leg around me, and I had the sudden urge to bitch slap a minor.
“Really? Again?” I dead eyed Scoots. She backed away very quickly and sat down in a bashful, but defensive position.
“Oh, you know… I just couldn’t help myself. I mean, I was on the couch when your dad knocked it over, so…” I sighed and rolled my eyes. How can I blame her? She’s never had a father figure before, and I basically raised her. Why would she not look up to my dad like her own? It probably doesn’t help that he’s about two shades of blue deeper than mom and I and our manes are exactly the same. That many colors in the mane isn’t exactly common after all.
“Well? Who is this and why does she want my hugs? Go on, introduce me. You brought a damn herd of friends here after all.” Dad said, finally releasing me. Come on, don’t smile at me like that. Why did things… have to happen the way they did?
“Apparently, this is Scootaloo, our adopted daughter.” Mom said, getting up from her chair to put the couch back. I was kind of surprised at how easily she did it, but thinking back on it, mom has always been stronger than she looks.
“What? That doesn’t make any sense.” Dad replied.
“Uh… actually, she’s technically mine… but we just treat each other as sisters. It’s uh… kind of a long story.” I explained. Dad was even more confused, but mom quickly lead the old pegasus back to his chair. The rest of the gang gave their introductions, and dad finally took notice of Fluttershy, making a remark about how last he heard she was missing.
“W-well, I was actually just at my parents house y-yesterday, but I moved out on my own n-not too long ago.” Shy explained. She’s always kind of been afraid of dad since he likes to play rough and she always worried he would trigger her powers. Of course, dad probably isn’t going to tackle a nineteen year old, but I guess her perception of him hasn’t changed. He’s also a cop and we’re a pair of Equestria’s most wanted, so I guess there’s reason to be nervous.
“Huh, well I suppose it has been a while since I talked to my old drinking buddy. How’s ol’ Cirrus doing these days anyways? I haven’t seen the guy in a few years.” Dad said. Shy scratched at her face.
“Um, h-he’s fine I suppose. H-he works for Manehattan Water and Electric now, s-so he’s been dealing with the f-fallout of that first monster attack…” And with that, the mood of the room changed entirely.
“Oh, shit, I totally forgot. There was a notice the other day for free officers who could to make it out to Manehattan to help with the traffic issue. I couldn’t believe it with the first one, but when the second one was televised, I was just in shock. Monsters in Manehattan… it was all just so surreal. One minute ya think that power ponies are the biggest problem with the country, and then the next that crazy bastard shows up on screen sayin’ he’s gonna destroy a whole damn city with a couple million ponies in it. Have they really been gettin’ the whole place evacuated before those things show up? I was more surprised to hear that there weren’t any casualties because of the attacks. Just plain insanity…” He said. And there’s that bias.
“Somepony triggered the city’s emergency alarm system before the first attack, and with the hurricane tragedy a few decades back, Manehattan doesn’t take that stuff lightly. Since that Persona guy announced he would attack at noon every Sunday from then on, the city has been pretty adamant about evacuating before hoof. But that harmony group seems to have taken care of the monsters with minimal damage so far. With ponies like them around, surely you can’t think that power ponies are all bad, right?” Goose offered. Dad shrugged.
“Eh, so there’s a couple good ones in a box of rotten eggs, what about it? We hit Y2K and instead of the world endin’ like everypony expects, the whole country suddenly starts havin’ these freaks show up all over. Sure, there’s maybe a hoof full of ‘em that are actually good natured ponies, but more often than not it makes the jobs of officers like me harder. So a couple of em are doin’ good things, that doesn’t make the other 80% of ‘em worth carin’ about. I’ve lost friends to some of those freaks, good mares and stallions tryin’ to uphold the law, just to get killed by some freakin’ teen who thinks he’s a god cause he can do somethin’ special.
At least megalomaniac unicorns had to actually have the power to cast high level spells, and you could stop that with a magic suppressor, but what about the guy who can just set shit on fire because he thinks about it? That ain’t magic like we know it, so what the hell do we do? Those of us that are still normal can’t hardly compete, so we have to use tools to try and stop the crazies. You kids will never know what it was like twenty years ago when there wasn’t a damn pony on the force with the same freaky powers as those cretins we fought against.
Now a days, there are even crazier freaks that run around in spandex callin’ themselves heroes, tryin’ to do my job, just to get killed for not knowin’ better. But we all know what they really are. Glorified bounty hunters lookin’ to make a quick bit. Everypony has to be special in this new huggy-feely world we live in, and those of us who aren’t can just die in the line of fire. We can solve our own problems, we don’t need some freak in costume to come play hero for us.” Dad ranted. I had my eyes on Applejack and I was desperately hoping she would keep her mouth shut. But to my surprise, she wasn’t the one who went off.
“O-oh, is that so? Y-you think you could go out there and fight t-those things? Y-yeah, sure, you could go be a s-stain on the wall in the face of a kaiju. H-how many ponies have to die for you b-before you decide that just maybe y-you need powers to fight powers? O-officers don’t take down monsters, monsters do. P-ponies like you are the type that are better off d-dying out as the next generation comes in! T-the world is changing to l-let the more superior breed of p-pony in, and here’s a news flash, y-you aren’t it!
I-if it weren’t for the heroes, it would b-be up to the Princesses to stop t-those monsters, so make a choice. L-lose millions of homes, or l-let the freaks take care of it! O-one day, you’ll be the o-one who isn’t normal. W-with every new generation of p-ponies comes another surge of p-powers and another p-push from the normals to try and s-suppress them. Y-you don’t think of how u-useful they could be to the world, you t-think of how afraid you are to deal w-with them. S-so have fun sitting in your box w-while the rest of the world moves on w-without you.” Fluttershy shot. Oh, shit. Dad didn’t quite look angry, but he shifted forward in his chair and hunched over while staring at Fluttershy with his elbows on his knees and his hooves under his chin.
“So lemme ask you this little Flutter, what are you gonna do with this ‘new wave’ of powers, huh? You gonna put ‘em in school and try and help ‘em with their powers? How are you gonna control some kid who doesn’t know how to control himself? Or are they just tools now? Are they soldiers to you? You just gonna say, ‘go out and destroy my enemies?’ Are they still ponies, or are they weapons? You said monsters take down monsters right? Nah, that’s the misguided teachings of a child. A good stallion takes out a bad stallion, that’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it will always be, powers or not.
When the last generation of good stallions die out and you’re left with all these monsters and ponies with powers, are you gonna be the one who comes around and tells them what’s right and wrong? Cause let me tell ya, it ain’t that easy to set a kid straight. They think that the older generation has nothin’ to say to them that they don’t know and go off on their own to play hero for somepony else, but where does that get ‘em, huh!? Their naïeveté gets them killed! Again, and again, and again. You remember that guy who got out there and started makin’ headlines about how he was the symbol of good in the world, runnin’ around like he was some kinda god among ponies. What happens next, huh?
Other ponies start comin’ outta the woodwork to follow in his hoof steps thinkin’ that they’re just like him, and they can make a difference in the world. But what happens to them? They all get killed by the next monster that comes along, and then the guy realizes his mistake. When you create a hero, you create a villain, and villains will kill more ponies than a hero could even dream of savin’. There are more heroes in the country right now than there ever were, then just as the light becomes overwhelmin’, the dark shadow that always follows it shows up even bigger than the last one. Before it was that mirror freak that killed half a million ponies by droppin’ the largest buildin’ in Manehattan on your so called ‘hero.’ Now it’s that bastard in the mask throwin’ giant monsters at that city cause your heroes started gettin’ too big for their britches.
When there were no heroes, at the very least the darkness was manageable. But the more of them that show up, the more out of control the villains get and the arms race between the two just gets bigger and bigger until somethin’ so dark comes along that the light gets snuffed out and things go back to normal. Once upon a time, I believed that heroes were a force for good. When that guy showed up, I thought maybe things would take a turn for the better. But then I started seein’ kids die. And then I started seein’ kids die for me. And when he disappeared, all those kids who were runnin’ around tryin’ to play hero with him got snuffed out by the shadow he left behind, only for him to get consumed by it himself.
So maybe you’re right, and I’m the one behind the times. Maybe it’s me who has the wrong idea of how monsters get dealt with. But when your little wave of superior breed comes along and dies in the name of misguided ideals in their teens, what do you do then? If your little brother turned out to be this ‘superior breed’ of yours and decided to follow those ideals of justice and heroism, just to die in a month takin’ on somethin’ he can’t handle, are you gonna sit there and act like it’s survival of the fittest? Or are you gonna be the one who said it was fine for him to just take the law into his own hooves like that while your parents mourn over the death of their baby?
Here’s a newsflash for ya. Your superior breed ain’t gonna last long if things keep on like this. So while the world moves on and we’re sittin’ in our boxes, I want you to let me know if it changes for the better.” Well. That shut everypony up. When dad finished talking, Fluttershy had nothing to say back, and all the angry looks that my friends had started to form got wiped away real quick. Whether or not we liked it, dad had a point. I think we sat in silence for a good while, but finally, I had to break it.
“So… what makes a good stallion appear? I know you’ve complained about the law getting in the way of good ponies stopping bad ponies before, so if there’s always going to be bad ponies, how do good ponies show up? Isn’t it those misguided ideals that make good ponies?” I asked. Dad shook his head.
“An unfortunate truth about this world is that only good ponies can make good ponies show up. And unless you raise a good pony, then a good pony may never show up, and the bad ponies will get away every time. The biggest problem with good ponies tryin’ to stop bad ponies is that bad ponies are usually a little wiser than good ponies, since they’ve already realized that the world isn’t actually filled with good ponies. That’s why we organize and try to promote being trained to be a good pony, and not make stupid laws that give desperate ponies and misguided kids the right to go out and do shitty jobs tryin’ to be good ponies.” Dad said.
“So what do those desperate kids do, if not that? What do I do, dad? How does an anemic, amnesiac eleven year old filly go about getting the money to keep herself fed and alive? A good pony showed up for me, a teen with misguided ideals about being a hero, but she was just as bad off as I was, so we barely made it through the first year. I lost my wing when I fell in that race that day. And you know what saved me? My powers.” I started to let the blood flow out of my back and reform into my left wing. “I would be dead without them. I would also be dead if some kid with misguided ideals didn’t come along and take me in. She found me with her powers, and she did everything she could to keep me alive. She was the only good pony in my life for years, and by your logic, that makes me the very bad pony she was supposed to stop!
I saved us from bad ponies once upon a time and almost lost and eye, you can see the damn scar on my face. But then something changed in me. I killed every last one of those ponies that came after us and I followed those misguided ideals down to a dark place, so where were you? Aren’t you supposed to be the good pony that comes along to stop me? Do you know who I became after I fell? I am The Bloody Crow.” I let my blood cover myself in my costume, even going so far as to form a replica of my sword in my wing.
“I was the bad guy! I was the bad pony who needed to be stopped, but there wasn’t a damn pony around who could do it. I was your dark shadow, I was the villain that killed ponies, hell I did it just to get off as I got hit with puberty around the same time! It was fun for me, I took lives like I was stealing candy from a convenience store! You were nowhere around, and there wasn’t a hero to come save me or stop me. It took the words of the very pony who picked me up dying off the ground to make me realize I’d twisted those ideals and done the opposite of what I wanted to. And now that time has passed and I met other desperate, misguided teens with those same ideals that get ponies killed, I’m no longer just a murderer, so what does that make me, huh? For the last whole year I’ve been out there risking my life to make sure yours never has to change. So where do I fit in your box?
Am I the wise villain, or the misguided hero? Or is it possible that things aren’t just as simple as you want them to be, and maybe there are ideals out there that you’ve forgotten, ideals that are worth dying for. When I was little, my dad was my hero. He was the military veteran who was thanked and discharged for his service because he did something stupid and saved the lives of his unit by stopping a bomb with his body. But that never stopped him. He carried those ideals on, even after losing a whole leg, and tried to continue being a hero by signing his life away to the police and coming home with bullet wounds for his daughter to see at the age of four. Those stupid, misguided ideals running his life and making him fight with his wife.
So who is this old cynical stallion sitting in front of me now? And where did my dad go? Where was he when I needed to be saved? When I needed those misguided ideals to lead me down a better path, when I needed somepony to help me with my powers, when I needed somepony to give me a warm meal and a bed to sleep in without the worry of getting caught and sold as a sex slave in the depths of Manehattan?” I argued back. In a strange sense of calm, my dad didn’t react, he didn’t even move. He let out a deep sigh and covered his eyes with his hooves.
“Ya know, I always had this sinkin’ suspicion that I knew the Crow. She and the other creatures of Manehattan, the big monsters that lurked in the big cities, that’s all we would ever hear about on the force here in this little town. But the Crow… somethin’ was special about that one. The way she moved on video, her particular pattern of slaughter, the way she laughed… It always felt so familiar to me. But now that I see you here, there’s no way that my daughter survived on the day she fell from Cloudsdale.
When we never found the body at the crash site, we held out hope for so long, but after a year of it, I gave up. My baby died in a tragedy and I mourned her for years on end. I couldn’t handle livin’ in that place that let somethin’ like this happen and we moved to the opposite side of the country just to get away from it all. You… you committed atrocities in Manehattan. You killed families! You’re a monster, and you ain’t goin’ nowhere until justice is served!” In the blink of an eye, Dad had pulled a gun out of some kind of hidden slot in his prosthetic leg and had the sight pointed directly at me.
“Everypony get down! On your knees, Crow! As a detective under the province of Palomino Equestria, you…” He sniffed heavily and tears started to roll down his cheeks. “You are under arrest.”