"Speech"
'Thought'
‘Middle seat, middle seat, aisle taken up by backpack,’ I grumbled, following a wall of human legs through the train searching for a pair of seats. A cheap itchy blanket to protect the seat from my hooves was draped over my back and it was a monumental effort to resist the urge to throw the cheap itchy blanket off my light blue furred body with my wings. Stopping suddenly again caused my friend Will to bump into my saddlebag on my right before he could stop. Without caring that a lot of others were trying to get on the train, a human woman took her time removing her oversized crossbody bag before she took over a set of seats just for herself.
“We wouldn’t have had this problem if you hadn’t stopped to take twenty pictures of the station.” Will decided to complain when we started moving again, “I never had this much trouble finding seats before. Being-- short sucks,” the light brown pegasus remarked, even though he was easily a few inches taller than me with his long legs.
“I couldn’t not, I promised pictures for everypony back home. And you’re right, being bipedal would make finding a seat easier,” I agreed, this train did not take a pony’s low field of view into account. “But when’s the last time you banged your knee?”
“What a worthwhile trade-- and where are our knees even?” he asked.
“Right here,” I answered seriously, pointing to the pony equivalent of the human knee. Like the others who changed early on, I spent an uncomfortably long amount of time watching my hindlegs slowly drift into their final configuration. Will had said he finished shortly before the Equestrians had cast the counter spell and it was impolite to ask him for details. So maybe he hadn’t witnessed that with how the transformation had drastically sped up around that time?
“It was a joke,” he clarified in a flat tone.
“Oh-- right yea-- a joke,” I turned away quickly and pushed some of my long silver mane out of my eyes.
“One day you’ll learn how to say yeah like a civilized person.”
“And how does a civilized-- person say it?” I asked, copying his incorrect word usage.
“As a civilized person you do not curtail the H off the end or have that drawly little expression on your face when you do it.”
“Drawly? Pssh, it’s a good thing I am not a civilized person,” I exclaimed trying to add as much haughtiness to the final word. A few rows ahead, the handle on the bench glowed yellow and the seat reversed direction to face backwards. ‘Ooh a unicorn.’
“You’re going to the height of culture, significance and civilization you know. Don’t be a bumpkin.” He finished in a mock overly serious tone.
“Are you trying to sell me on it or warn me away?” I asked jokingly, not even when I was a human did I feel like New York City was anything close to that important.
Reaching the seats where the magic had come from, a unicorn stallion with a grey coat and blond mane and tail grinned good naturedly at me from the aisle seat. Sitting next to him in the middle seat was another unicorn stallion with a yellow coat and pale orange mane and tail. “I knew I heard the clippity clop of hooves, you two need a place to sit?” He asked.
“Yes, thank you,” I gratefully exclaimed, happy to find some friendly equine faces in this sea of humanity. Stepping out of the aisle into the space between seats, I pulled the monstrously itchy blanket off my back, and threw it to lay haphazardly across the seat so that my hooves couldn’t possibly damage the seat material. “Good enough,” I snorted and jumped up to take a seat.
Moving the blanket from his back with a flick of one of his wings, revealing his cutie mark of a set of three gears, Will placed the blanket across part of the seat and moved it across with a quick bite of his teeth. “Blech. It tastes worse then it feels, gotta thank the Governor for his quality spending.” He said before hopping up in the seat before giving the two ponies in the seats across the very small aisle even for ponies a polite nod. “Hi.” He said to both before turning to me and adding, “You realize we’re going to be riding backwards now right?”
“And?” I asked, not seeing why that was more important than having more company to talk to.
“Nothing. It just feels weird sometimes. Try and brace yourself on stops and starts.”
“First time riding the train again as ponies?” the yellow coated unicorn asked.
“My first time on a train, ever,” I answered, my gaze drifting out the window that was just barely low enough to see out of, while absently fluffing my wings. It was going to be a beautiful day for flying even with the lack of pegasi moderating the weather patterns.
“I don’t go down to the city often and not since I was this either,” Will gestured with a hoof up and down the front of himself. “So first time since needing to put down this disgusting blanket.”
“As soon the humans let us use the train again with that rule, I made us our own,” the yellow unicorn briefly glanced down at the homemade blanket stretching nicely over all three spots. “I’m Lewis Domenick, this is my husband Martin,” he then gestured to Will with a forehoof.
“Will Monte.”
“Sapphire Sky,” I answered.
“You went for a pony name?” Lewis remarked glancing at the other unicorn.
“We’re not brave enough to change our own. It’s hard enough to be taken seriously by humans around here without copying the Equestrians,” Martin added.
“Obviously when you’re among-- us-- you can get away with it, but you may want to stick to your original name with humans.”
An announcement over the speaker system interrupted me before I could say how humans found the strangest things weird. “234 Southbound train to Grand Central Terminal, next stop Beacon,” a man’s voice spoke and the train started to move with a brief jerk that immediately became smooth acceleration.
I wasn’t sure on how to respond to the two stallions verbally about their suggestion so I let the matter drop.
A woman almost dragging a little girl quickly took the empty two seat bench across the aisle. “Sit down, the train is already moving,” she gruffly ordered, almost throwing the child into the outermost seat before she sat down at the window.
The little brown haired girl shuffled back on her far too large seat, eyes immediately being drawn across to where I was sitting quietly. “Mommy look! Ponies! Can I pet one?” she exclaimed excitedly.
“No, those aren’t real ponies, they are people dear. Like your Uncle in Nevada is now, remember?”
“Aww,” the little girl whined with an angry pout and crossing her arms.
“See,” Martin rolled his eyes, speaking in a very quiet voice that would be hard for the humans to notice with the increasing rumble of the train picking up speed. “Can’t even take the train,” he added horn lighting up as he summoned a smartphone and stylus out of a satchel sitting on the seat next to him.
“Get your ticket ready for the conductor,” Will instructed, digging into the small leather crossbody bag with his mouth.
“Right,” I nodded and did the same into my left cloth saddlebag, quickly pulling it out in my teeth, and dropping it into an upturned hoof.
“So where are you actually from?” Lewis casually asked in my direction. “Never been on a train, an accent I can’t quite place, while your coltfriend is obviously a local with how he complains about the Governor.”
“We’re friends from before but not close like that,” I hastily corrected, watching as a human efficiently made his way down the aisle, punching holes in tickets are checking out virtual tickets on smartphones. “As weird as it sounds, since it’s only been about five months now, but I finally have the stability to actually come visit for the first time.”
“She’s from Northern Michigan. She’s basically Canadian.” Will added helpfully.
“It’s Upper Michigan,” I clarified. “If you say Northern Michigan everypony thinks Northern LOWER Michigan because geography is too hard for someponies.”
“Is that anywhere near Ann Arbor?” Martin asked in confusion.
“I’m about seven hours north of that on a completely different peninsula,” I answered but from the blank looks I could tell neither had a clue where I actually was from. Will just looked amused like he had every time this had come up.
The conductor finally reached our little section and while he looked more or less human I sensed the slight aura of magic coming from him. Glancing to the side I could see Will noticed it as well. Rehumanization was not as perfect of a process as the government advertised. There simply was no way to remove every last bit of magic so while humans often couldn’t tell the difference, ponies could usually notice that something was off depending on their lingering magic strength.
“And how are my two favorite travelers today?” he asked cheerfully, quickly scanning the pairs tickets.
“Another wonderful morning, Hank. How’s Melanie?” Lewis returned the former ponies cheer.
“Starting to get morning sickness so she’s a little upset when I get home,” he answered, marking one of the little paper slips with punch, and placing it on the seat corner. “Can’t wait though. Already going to start getting the baby's room ready this weekend.”
“You going to take more tickets today or do I need to call and complain to your supervisor again!?” some man yelled further towards the front of the car.
“Duty calls or I would talk more,” he said to me and Will, quickly punching our tickets as he moved on.
“It really is a shame about him,” Lewis tisked. “He caught ETS but his wife didn’t. Pressured him to go human or else she would get a divorce and take everything.”
“Humans you know.” Martin said with a sigh. “Such a shame; he made a wonderful unicorn.”
“Excuse me,” the little girl who had been sitting across the aisle interrupted, having got up to come over and lean on the armrest.
“Hey is everything ok?” Will asked the girl as I peeked around him, seeing the girl’s mother too engrossed in her phone to see what her daughter was up to. “You need any help?”
“It’s-- eats right? Can I get it and be a pony too?”
“Are you really sure you’d want that?” Will asked. “Don’t you like to play on your phone or tablet? You’d have to do that with your mouth if you didn’t have a horn. And you’d have to completely relearn how to live too and that isn’t easy. Do you think that is worth it?”
“I think that’s enough, Will,” I jumped down to the floor, finding myself equal in height to the child. “ETS is gone so there is no more changing into a pony anymore.”
“It’ll happen again,” the brown pegasus mumbled under his breath.
The two unicorns nodding approvingly but I couldn’t be sure by the timing if it was to his statement or mine about it being gone.
“Oh,” the girl scrunched up her face in a frown. “Could I still pet you?”
“It’s impolite to ask that of a pony you don’t know,” I explained patiently. “Why don’t you head back to your seat so your mother doesn’t worry?”
“Alright,” she huffed.
“See Will, you didn’t have to fill her head with notions of ETS coming back,” I started before feeling the sharp pain of a feather being ripped from my left wing. “Ouch!” I jumped up to hover between the seats glaring at the little girl who had ripped out one of my feathers and was beaming at her mother showing off my freshly stolen feather.
‘Why you little--.’ The train chose that moment to start braking suddenly throwing me back into my seat. Will and the two stallions were laughing at me as I fumed laying down on the bench.
“Beacon stop! Beacon! Mind the gap when exiting the train!” the man over the speakers announced helpfully.
After sitting or laying down for almost two hours with nothing to do, I could only come to one conclusion, I hated trains.
I didn’t even know it was still possible for me to loathe something with as much passion as I hated being on this train. Stuck in this little metal box, surrounded by all these loud humans, and having absolutely nothing to do to burn off all my excess energy but try to be friendly with two stallions who turned out to be Shimmerists. Subtle ones, who didn’t publicly take pony names, but they were definitely hitting all the right rhetorical check boxes. They had even asked if I had an account on a pony only social media app.
I wasn’t going to be picking a fight or be rude to them, especially not when in close quarters to so many humans. The last thing I wanted to do was as the humans say, air out our dirty laundry. East coast ponies seemed to approach things differently and I needed to not disrupt what harmony they had created with humans over a couple innocent Shimmerists. Much like how those in the South had figured out a way to make it work underneath the blatant Shimmerist, Sunset Blessing. Or out West where ponies far outnumbered humans there were rumors of a Council forming.
My limited view outside the window suddenly went dark as we entered into a tunnel making me feel even more claustrophobic. “Hey Will, how hard is it to refund that return ticket?”
“Huh? Um there’s a form you have to fill out and send in by mail. They tack on a ten dollar service fee so it’s not really worth it. Also-- why?”
“Cause there’s no way I’m getting back into this box to sit for this long again,” I stated with a deep breath.
“You OK?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” I answered, upset that I was failing such a simple task as tempering my instincts for such an insignificant amount of time. “And how are you so calm about this?”
“I spend nearly fifty hours inside at school during the week. Not all of us get to spend our days in the clouds.”
I couldn’t stop from tapping my front hooves repeatedly. ‘If I didn’t see his wings, I wouldn’t even know he was a pegasus. That’s a little bit of harmony I wouldn’t mind disrupting. Seeing him realize human means of getting around were no longer a requirement for pegasi like us.’
Martin moved the tablet he had been holding magically in front of him to the side to give me a sympathetic look. “It’s only another ten minutes or so.”
“How much coffee did you drink this morning?” Lewis asked.
“I wasn’t going to get addicted to caffeine again or stain my nice new teeth,” I answered, happy to have something to talk about. “Even though I do love the smell of it.”
The two unicorns shared a horrified look. “We would die without our grande iced, sugar-free, sustainably and ethically sourced vanilla lattes with almond soy milk.”
“That seems oddly specific, I only ever went for the cheapest possible single serve at home from Dollar General with a little international delight creamer.”
Both of them gasped scandalously, recoiling back into their seats.
“What? It’s better than how I used to rot my teeth out with a cup of sugar with each one.”
“I’ll stick to orange juice. It’s cheaper. And comes in gallons.” Will rolled his eyes.
“Last and final stop Grand Central Station. Please remember all your belongings. Grand Central.”
“Finally,” I sighed, hearing a digital click next to me. “What are you doing?” I asked Will who had his phone held up between his hooves taking a picture of me.
“Just helping to chronicle your first trip to the big city,” he answered with a grin, shifting the phone around in his hooves so he could activate the voice recognition. “And now for the perfect caption. Here we have Sapphire, having survived her first train ride, intact with no injuries other than a stolen feather, while the rest of us had to survive the far more torturous ordeal of two straight hours of her fidgeting uncomfortably and whining. I don’t believe our ears shall ever recover. And-- sent.”
I slapped him over the nose with a wingtip harder than intended.
“Ouch!” Will hissed, clutching his nose. “Why did it have to be the pony who flies all day to be the first one to do that?”
“Thank you for your company, gentlecolts, but I’m going to go wait by the door,” I said to the two stallions as I struggled to pull the blanket out from under me, finally using my teeth to drape it over Will. “You can carry this, smart ass.”
“You’re so mean,” he pushed the itchy material off.
“It was our pleasure to have some good company for a change,” Martin answered my goodbye.
“Hopefully you have a wonderful day here in the city,” Lewis added.
“Thanks,” I repeated, happy to leave on good terms with the couple, and trotted towards the nearest doorway just ahead of a few of the humans preparing to leave themselves. In my saddlebag I could hear my phone starting to buzz every so often with notifications but no calls came.
When the train came to a stop and the doors opened I was out onto the underground platform, immediately staking a claim on space next to a newspaper recycling bin and smaller one for the new pony blankets, to wait for Will. A large number of mostly male humans in suits and a smattering of ponies who must have gotten on during one of the stops on the way, hurried from my train. Many of the humans deposited newspapers in the bin next to me as they made their way down the platform towards the station. Most ponies gave a quick greeting as they passed but were clearly in just as much of a hurry as the humans and didn’t linger.
“Any phone calls yet?” Will asked smugly, dumping the two blankets in their bin, and shaking himself out.
“No, I heard a few notifications but I haven’t looked.”
“My dastardly plan has failed,” his ears wilted before he pointed towards the far end of the platform. “You were complaining, so let’s get going,” he suggested, and began heading towards the exit.
“Any good places to get something to eat? Or shops worth visiting?” I asked, falling into step next to him. “Surely this height of culture must have some of those that aren’t the Nintendo store.”
“You’re in Midtown, look in any direction and you’ll find a place to shop. Fifth Avenue is just over that way once we get out of here. Though unless you want to go bankrupt-- choose wisely.”
“So it’s definitely the height of human culture,” I remarked sarcastically at how greedy humans could be, following the platform as it ramped upwards to an area that began to branch into different directions.
“You’re totally the kind of pony that wants a three thousand dollar Coach or Louis Vuitton or pretty much any other brand you can imagine saddlebags right?” He said with a smirk knowing I wasn’t. “Though if we run over to Chinatown probably can get something that looks like them or that fell out of the truck for fifty bucks or so.”
“My mom made me these because she likes to sew, she’d clip my flight feathers if I came home with some cheap replacement,” I explained in mock indignation.
“There is THE Macy’s too. That everypon--” He began before coughing. “Everybody watches the Thanksgiving Parade end at, the prices aren’t awful. But all that stuff? You can find it anywhere.”
“Not everypony watches that parade, probably a whole lot less this year,” I replied, feeling bad that he felt so pressured to purposely use the human words. “I care more about seeing places I can’t anywhere else. Not just displays of products I could have gotten shipped to me in a couple weeks at home.”
I slowed to a crawl as we entered into Grand Central Station, marveling at the all the stone work with the curved bluish-green ceiling high overhead depicting constellations in gold stretching across the ceiling in an arch.
Will continued on, not noticing that I had stopped. “I know a place we can get a really good bagel. If that sounds good. Unless they went out of business after everything, but it’s right across the street from the Nintendo store. Or there’s this kinda mixed buffet place that’s pretty cheap where you can pick what you want from some really fresh fruits and stuff.”
“Now that’s a place I need to get a picture from,” I quickly dug out my phone and stylus, unlocking it enough to get to the camera set on a five second timer, wings stretching and flapping lightly in excitement.
With a few purposeful wingbeats, I was up in the air rising up to the image of a pegasus. Activating the timer and holding the phone as far as I could away from me in my hooves, I gave the lens a big cheesy grin before it clicked, the screen showing a preview that looked good. The shutter speed even good enough that my wings didn’t blur. Shooting over to be more in the middle of the ceiling with the rest of the hall stretched out below me, I snapped another.
“What the buck are you doing?!” Will shot up behind me and started to push down on my back with his hooves. “Get down! You can’t fly over people!”
“What are you so upset about?” I asked irritably, dropping the multiple stories with him continuing to push, and landing in an open spot lightly.
“There’s no flying in here!” he pointed at a sign declaring no flying and showing a pegasus in flight surrounded by a red crossed out circle.
“You two, stay right there!” an athletically built pegasus stallion ordered, landing heavily on the stone nearby and wearing a camouflage jacket. Two human men in full uniform approaching from the right carried pistols strapped to their thighs, and rifles across their backs.
“Yup, staying right here,” Will quickly answered as we were surrounded by the armed men. “Just trying to get my friend down.”
“Sorry, I didn’t--,” I began nervously.
“Didn’t see the signs?” the pegasus asked sarcastically, reaching up with a hoof to touch a radio hooked to his shoulder. “Ten twenty-two. Code four. Just another pegasus with literacy problems.”
Another man tapped his foot impatiently. “What are your names?”
“Sapphire Sky,” I answered.
“Crimson Cirrus” Will answered and I turned to stare at him with my mouth hanging open before he lightly slapped me with a wing.
“Either of you got IDs?” one of the human soldiers asked.
“Forget the IDs,” the stallion snorted. “I don’t want to have to process all that paperwork by hoof over some ditzy tourists. Just keep those hooves on the ground and wings at your side while here.”
“Yes, Sir,” Will or should I say Crimson Cirrus replied.
“Thank you, I won’t fly in here again,” I nodded to the pegasus, unable to keep a stupid little smile from spreading across my muzzle.
“Better not, or it’s a three hundred dollar fine to start,” he added noticing my insincere appearing look.
“Right, right,” I nodded practically bouncing with excitement, pushing the other pegasus towards what looked like the exit to the outside. “Come on-- Cirrus, let’s get going,” I insisted, ears swiveling backwards to hear the human soldiers start to good naturedly tease the stallion.
“You always go easy on the mares you got the hots for,” one of the human men teased.
“I do not, and you’re one to talk, always hitting on every blonde human you see, it’s disgusting.”
“Would you two give it a rest?” the other human groaned.
Will suddenly bumped my shoulder with an outstretched wing. “Ponyfeathers, can’t you read anything? It’s this way,” he indicated another door.
“Ponyfeathers is it? Going to stop hiding your ponyisms?” I giggled.
He sighed, watching me prance excitedly as we escaped the national guard. “Can you please just shut up till we’re away from the nice men who almost shot us?” He grumbled. “At least that stallion thought you were hot so we didn’t get a fine. I REALLY don't need another flight violation on my record.”
“I’m sure he was just being nice because it was an innocent mistake. And they didn’t even have their guns pointed at us. I actually got shot at when trying to visit a shelter so this doesn’t count as almost being shot,” I ignored the nearby humans shooting me dirty looks to bounce around him. “So when did you come up with your name? Is it cause of your red feathers? And I never took you for a weather pony, you any good at it? Probably can’t get much practice around here though.”
“Some friends--” He began before cutting himself off and seemingly reconsidering. Body growing visibly more rigid. “Yes red tips on my primaries and tertials. Curly mane like the clouds. Oh so very original.” He said deadpan, roughly shoving through the door leading outside.
This immediately required us to be more wary as the sidewalk was nearly filled with humans waiting to cross the street I could barely make out through their legs. I gave off a soft whinny as my senses were immediately overwhelmed. The harsh pungent scent of all the vehicle exhaust hit my nose first, but that could be quickly categorized and partially ignored before the scent of food, fake rich artificial odors, and literally thousands of other scents came across. Adding to that my ears pinned back with the noise of so many cars, people, and other things I was too overwhelmed to identify. It was so awful that I nearly ran back inside. Will looked similarly uncomfortable but was pushing on, clearly wanting to act like it was no big deal. Being stopped, I had a brief amount of time to gaze upwards in awe at the buildings stretching up into the sky and in both directions for as far as I could see. I had never been around so many tall buildings before.
Following him as he crossed a small street, he kept glancing back to make sure I was still there. Traveling at a slower pace than the bipeds, led to some open space developing between us and the crowd. Having a small amount of privacy I decided to start up our conversation again. “Nopony cares if your name is original only that it’s descriptive. Ever since we were able to contact each other again, you’ve just seemed so-- I guess-- please don’t take this the wrong way, but like you wanted to live like a human again?” I asked hesitantly.
“I do!” He snapped angrily with a quick swish of his tail before sighing and shaking his head his tone switching to something more apologetic. “Sorry would you just drop it? My name is Will, I just used that so they would think we were dumb tourists who didn’t know any better.”
“If that’s what you want,” I conceded, he had his reasons and I respected that. Even if I thought holding onto so much baggage was unhealthy, and very odd for a pony. Letting go of our old selves had been so easy that many like myself had changed drastically, and just as many had discarded their previous lives entirely to become completely different.
“Come on, since you’re such a shutterbug, I’ll help you get a really good one with the lions at the Public Library to send back home before we head up to Rockefeller Plaza.”
Balancing a thick paper plate clutched gently in my teeth, I set it down carefully at a short square table before sittings on the uncomfortably hard slap of stone of the dining area outside of Bryant Park. Will was doing the same to my left, both of our plates loaded with ‘wafels’ covered in fruits and whipped cream for me and chocolate for him.
“Ya know the lion statues were a nice place for a photo, even with you mentioning Ghostbusters nonstop,” I remarked, dipping my head into my bag to pull out my cellphone to place on the table nearby planning to post the recent pictures after eating.
“It’s the defining movie of our foal...when we were little. And that was where they had the opening shot, not the stuff with the library basement itself though, that was filmed in California.” he began, “Besides, they’re in more then just one movie.”
“Not defining for me, that was Transformers.”
“Ponies.” He began, “Humans in disguise!” He tried to sing song robotically failing outrageously.
I groaned at the awful and honestly insensitive joke, but it did spark a memory of my father driving me to preschool. I was four years old, just a little filly playing with her brothers intricate seeming toy that would turn from a red airplane into a robot. Lost in my own little world, fingers moving with the ease of having done the motions countless times. Up until my dad playfully tried to imitate the transformation sound effect from the TV show making me laugh at how bad it was.
“What? Impressed by my talented tongue?”
“No, that was just terrible and the joke too, just awful and offensive. Was just remembering something.”
“Sounds like it was something nice?” he asked with a little uncertainty.
“Yea, it was.”
“You wanna tell me?” ears perking up and shuffling his wings in curiosity.
“No-- this is for me.”
“Tease. Well I never saw the original animated Transformers movie. Still haven’t.” He finished with a baited smirk, ruffling his wings before letting them settle against his sides before ripping a piece of his ice cream and chocolate syrup covered waffle off.
“Lying.” I accused, leaning in to start carefully taking a bite of the mix of strawberries, bananas, and whipped cream off my little waffle. ‘I don’t even remember the last time I’ve had bananas,’ I sighed dreamily, not even caring that they were clearly not produced by ponies, too caught up in the luxury of exotic food.
“Am not. Was more of a He-Man fan and Ghostbusters of course.” he said, eagerly devouring his waffle, getting chocolate all over his muzzle.
We both seemed to let the conversation drop since we were both ear deep in fancy overpriced waffles. I also wanted to have a moment to consider what we were talking about. Pop culture, foalhoods, and since I arrived on my visit a host of things that felt like unimportant human baggage I hadn’t indulged in for months. It felt like we had hit a pause button before ETS and were now picking things up where we left off, ignoring the drastic changes in our lives for the comfortable and safe.
“You going to eat that or pick at it all day?” Will joked, having finished faster than me. “Or are you having more happy secret memories?”
“Memories, I s’pose,” I answered absently, going back to enjoying that last few mouthfuls of my meal. “Feels like eating cake for breakfast.”
“Pancakes?”
“I don’t know what kind of pancakes you’ve been having, but ours were always butter and syrup. Rarely some chocolate chips. Maybe a little powdered sugar if we made waffles, just a little, and real actual maple syrup.”
“You still get to do that?”
“Syrup? It’s even better now. Stallion who lives just a bit west of town is so busy he had to hire help.”
“I bet. We love our sugary goodness don’t we?” He asked twitching a wing unconsciously. “And I don’t mean the syrup. I mean being closer to your family. Before you always said that was really hard at times. I’m really happy you’ve said it’s a lot smoother now.”
“Smooth is a relative term when we’re stuck supporting an unemployed human brother,” I replied, trying to hide my frustration.
“Huh? Didn’t you get him a job with the human ground staff?”
“Eh-- well-- most of the people he knew now have hooves, and he feels very isolated because they don’t really relate to him anymore. Anger, little bit of drinking, and he quit for the last time,” I answered with finality.
“He quit, again? After he came back to you begging for a second chance? With how hard it can be for a human to get a job where you live?” Will questioned with increasing disbelief.
“In the end, couldn’t take having a pony for a boss.”
“But you’re the boss.”
“And that was an issue too,” I sighed. “He’s never stopped being an asshole.”
“Sometimes you have to accept that you can’t solve everyponies problems,” he said with a quick glance back to his cutie marked flank. “I’ve been caught up in trying to do that too.” He began, eyes crossing as he finally noticed the amount of chocolate sauce covering his muzzle. “How covered in chocolate am I?” He asked, staring at me accusingly.
“Pretty covered,” I answered with a smug grin.
“And you didn’t tell me? Forget I ever said anything. You’re a horrible, mean, evil mare. I’m gonna go find a bathroom so I can wash this off.”
‘I better visit one before we get going to try and get on the Today show too, even if giant human sized bathrooms are annoying to use.’ Watching him leave briefly, a passing moment of insecurity passed over me at the reminder that I was still a blank flank.
“So you saw me alright?” I asked into my phone set to speaker and positioned on a bench between me and Will sitting on the ground. An unintelligible mix of excited voices all trying to speak over each other answered me. “One at a time please.”
There was a scuffling noise and then my Mom’s voice spoke up. “That’s a yes,” she answered before her voice dropped off like she was holding the phone far away. “Girls, we talked about this, you can’t all just yell all at once.”
“Hey girls, I’m taking lots of pictures just like I promised for you,” I said as soon as my Mom stopped talking to a quick duet of yays. “We got a little caught up when Will made a mess of himself eating like a pig.” I continued, favoring him with a quick smirk, while he shrugged before smiling sharkishly. “And they don’t let us fly around here, some dumb laws about not flying above cars or people. We had to go the entire way on hoof.”
“That’s not true, we were late because she caused a scene at Grand Central just so she could get a date with a handsome stallion soldier,” Will teasingly added and there were soft gasps over the line.
“Oh this does not end well for you,” I breathed out in a whisper, feeling my cheeks heat up in embarrassment while Will struggled to keep his laughter contained. “He was handsome but I had to turn him down, unfortunately I already had plans to spend the day with a-- lesser stallion.”
“Ouch-- mean-- right in my feels,”
“Aunty! Aunty!”
“Yes Reece?” I asked.
“I was able to fly for a whole ten seconds this morning!”
“That’s great Pieces, keep practicing, and I bet by the time I get home you’ll be able to follow me up to the clouds.”
“I’m going to practice right now!” the little filly exclaimed before there was the rapid buzzing of tiny wings.
“Reece no tiring yourself out trying to fly, we need to head into town!” my younger sister cried out in the background. “Anna don’t use your magic to help your sister!”
“Sorry sis,” I winced, hearing something smash in the background. “I’ll call again later Mom, don’t want to use up all my battery before noon, and Will wants to show me what thinks he good pizza tastes like.”
“He can have Congress whenever he’s able to come visit. You two have fun,” my Mom replied before I used my stylus to end the call.
“It’s an objective fact that the farther outside of New York or Chicago you go, the worse the pizza is,” Will affirmed as I put my phone back in my saddlebag.
“We’ll see later, won’t we? Central Park is to the North-East right?”
“It’s that way!” He proclaimed. Standing up and pointing confidently in a direction. “We’re going uptown. But not really out of midtown. Not supposed to use North and South in the City. Makes you sound like a tourist.”
“I am a tourist. I just need some place I can stretch my wings properly. For such a big city, everything sure feels cramped.”
“It’s at least a fifteen minute walk,” Will said apologetically. “Could always call an Uber or take a bus. But that isn’t going to cut down much time. Traffic.” He grumbled.
“Well--” I started, flicking a wing at him before shrugging.
“You want to fly? In the middle of Manhattan? We’d get at least a week in jail for sure with all the charges they’d tack on,” he asked incredulously.
“Then we have to walk,” I grumbled, my hooves already beginning to get sore from all the walking we’d already done today. I was much more used to flying from place to place, and certainly not walking on all this hard concrete.
“Though the police do only have a few pegasi trying to patrol the whole city. And not like we’ve got little license plates over our tails if we’re caught on camera.” He said with serious consideration, wings fidgeting with nervous energy. “Let’s go find a place away from all these people with a clear view of the sky.” He whispered. “Just keep the phone in your bags. Never document your felonies.”
“Your cutie mark is as much a license plate as my blank flank is,” I remarked, eyes quickly scanning the garden area.
There were only a few decorative trees and a good amount of humans visiting the shops around the outside. Other ponies were all busy with their own conversations and were likewise being inattentive to the world around them. “We just gotta go fast,” I explained trotting over to the only cover of the small trees.
“With all these people around? Someone is going to see, we should find a better spot.”
“May as well walk if you’re just going to hem and haw over what a good spot to break the law is. This was your idea, you can keep up, can’t you?” I challenged, giving my wings a few quick warm up flaps. “You said you were fast.”
“You don’t know where you’re going.”
“Go up, head North-East, look for big green park. Easy,” I scoffed.
“Uptown, you are going uptown.”
“Sorry, too tourist to use that word,” I smirked, giving a quick glance to make sure no one was directly watching, before launching myself vertically up into the air. My wings pumping furiously to shoot upwards at a speed only another pegasus could see as more than a blue and silver blur. Easily clearing the roof line of the two buildings surrounding the garden, before continuing to rise towards the much taller one in the direction I needed to go.
“Thought you said you were fast,” Will teased as he caught up. “Why aren’t you there yet?” he called back, slowing abruptly as he neared the roof like he was worried about running into it.
“Don’t fly into the giant immovable object,” I taunted as I blew past him as close as possible without slowing in the slightest, and generating enough wake that he floundered briefly from the sudden turbulence. “It’s a race then, see you there!”
“Cheater!”
“You— beat me,” I admitted reluctantly, still floating above the pavement, watching Will pant between drinks from a water fountain. I was never the quickest pegasus in a sprint, I needed time to get going. “Need to work on your stamina though, gotta stretch those wings more, city colt.”
“Still won though,” he gasped one last time before getting his breathing under control. “And as the winner you have to wear whatever I buy you.”
“When did I agree to that?” I asked at the odd request. What kind of pony wore clothing? In this heat?
“You didn't. It’s your penalty for cheating at the start. I had to really pour it on once I got over the buildings to catch up and pass you. But then when we got here you were like a pony pinball zooming through the trees. How do you change directions so quickly?”
“Practice? Tag might seem like a kiddy game but it’s great for building up your agility,” I puffed up briefly in pride.
“Really? Tag? You sure that’s not just going to end up being your cutie mark? A ball bouncing between clouds?”
“Misty Way, Firefly, and Garrett are much better than me, I’m good but I can’t keep up with them at all. It’s definitely not my special talent,” I explained, bumping him out of the way so I could use the drinking fountain. The water had the usual contaminated taste human produced water always had but it was getting hot out so I was grateful to have something.
“Better than how you were just flying? Seems like you’re pulling my primaries-- so then you’re better at feeling out the weather or planning it out then?”
“I think I’d know if I had a special talent for any of that by now,” I sighed, hating how incomplete I felt without knowing what my special talent was. “You done being tired? I want to go fly around and see what the ponies were up to in the field next to us.”
“I just needed to catch my breath. Asthma remember?”
“The asthma that you haven’t had for months?”
“I’m still getting used to being able to breathe through my nose OK? It’s weird, I forget sometimes. But you stay here, I have the perfect idea for what I’m going to make you wear.”
“Yuck, clothes, but I guess since I did lose, even though I never agreed to anything.”
“Don’t worry, it’ll totally help you look like less of a tourist,” Will waved a hoof dismissively, smiling in a way that wasn’t very reassuring. “Think I saw the perfect place a block back. Be right back!” He proclaimed before flying off.
‘He seems way too excited about that.’
Taking one last drink of water, I flew back above the trees bordering a large open field, and began to fly over it at a slow speed. Central Park allowed for free flying over most of the area as a semi-compromise for the no flying laws covering the rest of the city. Which as we had just abused, couldn’t really be enforced with the limited number of pegasi cops.
Unlike the rest of the city up until this point, the mix of humans to ponies in the park seemed closer to even. And in the big field below it skewed even more towards the equine side and I felt far more at home. Spread out over the grass were groups of young colts and fillies of various tribes while up in the air the eldest teen pegasi circled and played. There were only a few adults mixed in with the elementary aged foals, and I chose the nearest to find out what was going on.
“Hello,” I greeted, landing on the enjoyably soft grass next to a unicorn stallion with a cutie mark of a small leafy tree. He was sitting a short distance away watching a roughly even mix of twenty-three young foals from four to seven years old along with a pair of earth ponies mares. Considering the ages of the foals, the trio must have found a way to tire them out with how they were quietly sitting or laying around a rock pushing up through the grass being read to by the mares, and enjoying the morning sun.
“Hi there,” he answered my greeting pleasantly. “I’m John Frisk, you here to help out with the daycare?” he asked, extending a hoof for me to bump my own against.
“Sapphire Sky,” I returned. “Sorry, I was just curious on what was going on. I’m from out of town on vacation.”
“No need to be sorry, but if you find that you’re going to be sticking around, we’d love to have another pegasus to help watch the older foals. It’s not the easiest to keep track of them from the ground, ya know.”
“I can imagine,” I smiled, glancing at where the older pegasi were making a rather crude attempt at forming a cloud maybe thirty feet off the ground. The five weren’t doing a very good job, spinning and criss crossing each other in the air, as they were equal parts wanting to create a cloud, and compete with each other. “So it’s a community daycare?”
He nodded. “It’s not easy with our restrictions in the city but everypony pitches in.”
“This can’t be all the foals in the city,” I glanced around trying to take a more accurate count but couldn’t see how there were more than a hundred in this area.
The adolescent pegasi had finally created a little cloud and were buzzing around it, using the increasingly defined weather construct as a barrier for their play.
“Of course not, we’re spread out around the other parks too, and it’s a small group today,” he laughed. “The city lets us use this space in the morning so we can rotate groups and let them have some time out in nature. If you’re up by 86th street, we have an actual earth pony farm by the police station. Humans aren’t allowed to buy from it directly but we can, rest sells to restaurants. It’s really helped soften the hit we all took from lost jobs when PONY negotiated it with the city.”
“PONY?” I asked.
“Pony Opportunities of New York, they’re an advocacy and charity organization.”
“Ah, I’ll have to stop by and see it,” I was definitely interested in seeing more of the actual pony culture of this area. And it’d be nice to be able to get some food that didn’t taste funny.
A soft gust of wind made my feathers puff up and I paid more attention to what the young pegasi were doing. Their innocent little cloud was growing as they wove around it, occasionally bouncing on it with enough force to begin changing it into a rain cloud that grew in size. As they chased and played around it, they fell into a pattern of going around in the same direction, a spiral of air beginning to form underneath their cloud, and the colts being thrown away by the increasing wind.
“Looks like I’ll be helping out after all,” I told the unicorn who didn’t realize what was being summoned, and set off across the field to where the young pegasi had inadvertently created a tornado. I arrived just as they passed a threshold and an invisible funnel began to spin and tear at the grass below.
“That’s enough!” I shouted grabbing their attention.
Flapping hard, I flew in tight circle the opposite direction of the small stationary tornado’s rotation as fast as I could until I felt the air slowed, and the funnel construct fall apart. A little dizzy from such quick spinning, I shot out and away from the cloud in a tight arc. Legs stretched out in front and behind, I created as much disturbance in my wake as possible. Coming to a sudden teeth rattling stop on the far side of the cloud, I gathered my hind legs in close, and gave a powerful buck to the cloud just as my wake turbulence reached it. The rain cloud burst instead of beginning to downpour, as the conflicting magical forces tore it apart returning the water vapor harmlessly to the air in a fine mist.
“You colts alright? I don’t think you’re really old enough to be making tornadoes yet,” I said to the gawking teens, giving a quick shake of my head to clear some of the fine mist clinging to my long mane. I wasn’t expecting them to surrounded me and begin animatedly begging me to teach them.
“How’d you make all that wind?”
“What’d you do to buck the cloud away like that? You kicked and it just went POOF!”
“You just stopped in the air, that was crazy!”
“What are you, an Equestrian? Is that why you can do that stuff?”
“Ya, you from that other world?”
“She doesn’t have no cutie mark, she can’t be from there.”
“What is your special talent lady?”
“We weren’t trying to make nothin’ like that.”
“You’re not gonna get us in trouble are ya?”
“We were just playing.”
“Slow down,” I held up my front hooves and back away slightly from the group. “I’m from Earth just like all of you, and no I’m not going to get you in trouble. Especially after I just got you out of it,” I answered, all these colts were far too young for me to tell them how to use their magic in a way that could be dangerous to them and others.
“But you really need to be careful and think about what you’re doing if you’re playing with weather in a group. It’s very easy to stop thinking and let your magic lead you to a place you’re not capable of dealing with. I’ll show you how I did that stop if you promise not to try something like that again?” I asked and received a quick chorus of agreement.
“Um-- excuse me Ma'am!?” A voice called up from below.
‘Oh dear,’ I gulped, realizing that I was now the center of attention for all the foals in the park, and they had congregated beneath me. Standing out was a single human man wearing khaki pants and a white short sleeved collared shirt with a ‘4 WNBC’ logo embroidered on the front. He didn’t look like he wanted to yell at me or the colts for doing weather magic in the park so I wasn’t sure what he wanted.
A slate grey unicorn stallion with a green mane and tail stood next to him levitating a hefty digital video camera and wireless boom microphone. On his flank an old style hand cranked camera stood out as his cutie mark. A sizable navy saddlebag for the camera and other electronics was wrapped around him with a big ‘4 WNBC’ logo embroidered across the side.
“Lemme see what he wants and then I’ll show you, alright?” I asked the five, several kicking at the air in childish frustration at the lack of immediate reward. Dropping down, I hovered without settling onto the grass, and ignored the murmuring discussion about me going on. “Yes?”
“Hi, I’m Mark Blair and I work for WNBC,” he stopped talking to motion towards a photo ID badge hanging from his neck, before gesturing at the unicorn next to him. “This is Joel. We caught your-- thing with the weather on video and I was wondering if you would be willing to be interviewed and answer a few questions.”
“Eh? For what?” I asked, slightly suspicious but definitely willing to go along with it.
“We’re trying to highlight the magical abilities ponies have in a positive light.”
“I’d love to,” I answered without hesitation, slowly beginning to rise back up. “But first I need to give some flight pointers.”
“Great, would you mind being recorded? And please don’t leave until we get some forms signed.”
“Sure, if you want,” I answered with a shrug, it was a public park after all. “Okay gentlecolts, have any of you figured out how to manipulate air pressure yet?” I asked the five before noticing that there were six. “Oh, hey Will,” I greeted, a black shopping bag held in his mouth which he casually dropped to hook a hoof through the handle loop.
“Sapphire?” he asked before his eyes narrowed seeing the camera filming me below and the damage to the park. “What did you do? Why are you always the center of so much attention?”
“Back off old man!” One of the pegasi teens shouted flying between the two of us after which the others flew to his side to neatly separate us. “She’s gonna show us how to do this weather stuff right!”
“Is she?” He asked calming down and sighing. “Sorry. I didn’t realize.”
“Buck yeah! I can’t wait to learn how to make a bigger one!”
“Hold up! No, no I am not teaching you to make a bigger one,” I shook my head to which the colts all looked briefly disappointed. “And you are not going to be making bigger ones till you’re older and more mature. What I am going to teach you is how to actively use those wings, it’ll make you some of the best fliers in the city.”
“She’s a pro weather pony from Michigan. You better listen to her, she knows more than anypony in the state I bet,” Will volunteered helpfully with an encouraging smile.
“Detroit? I’ve got family there.”
“No-- I’m from a place a lot farther North,” I tiredly corrected. “But I do have family from there,” I admitted and began describing the use and manipulation of air pressure zones.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had that big of an audience to watch me try to teach before,” I remarked, holding position some twenty feet above the field, waving with a big smile on my face towards the five colts who were reluctantly joining the rest of the foals leaving the park in smaller groups.
“Next time you should make your lesson plan a bit less ambitious. But I think they had a great time.”
“Just didn’t have enough time,” I snorted, unhappy with the limited amount of time the foals had to express such a fundamental part of themselves as flight. As soon as they were back out into the actual city they would be expected to abide by the oppressive rules keeping them grounded.
“You never have enough time when you’re teaching on a tight schedule. Come on, you still have to talk to the news guy, Miss Popular,” Will nudged me with a hoof in the shoulder before flying down to where the two were waiting.
“Shutter is the one who loves to hear himself talk,” I quickly mentioned and landed next to him. “So you wanted an interview?” I asked, looking up at the human.
“We’re not trying to fill a lot of time and we already have a ton of great footage of you teaching the kids to work with. So don’t need your life story, this is completely informal, just looking to know who you are, where you from, and a little bit of background on how you figured out that weather trick.”
“Let’s start with who I am, Sapphire Sky,” I greeted cordially and moved to within a few paces before extending my hoof towards the pair. “Sorry for being rude earlier.”
“Compared to a lot of responses that we get, it was very polite,” the human, Mark replied, reaching out to grasp my pastern awkwardly and shake it instead of the proper greeting of touching his palm against the bottom of my hoof. A minor gaffe a lot of humans made. I really didn’t remember what it was about hands that made humans want to grab at things so incessantly.
“Joel,” the unicorn added and briefly touched his hoof to mine, camera never faltering from its place floating perfectly still in air pointed directly at me, his microphone floating just slightly overhead and out of frame.
“And your friend?” Mark asked, looking to Will.
“Sorry, not interested in talking to NBC thanks,” he responded curtly.
“Ah-- that’s alright, so now that we know who you are, do you mind telling us how you decided on that particular pony name?”
“My friend Jasper suggested it. A few of us were-- challenging each other, taking turns to see who could clear the most clouds. It might not be my special talent but I cleared such a big section of the sky that when she saw me against it, some ice formed by the water vapor clinging to my coat, she said it was like I was a sapphire in the sky.”
“Poetic. If you feel comfortable may I ask what your name was before you transformed, for the record?” Mark asked, his unicorn camerapony remaining aloof and professional but I caught him briefly shuffling his hooves.
“I am not comfortable, sorry,” I answered. Post ETS legal name changes had been nearly impossible until recently in Michigan, but we had been able to successfully get many of the now absurd requirements removed.
“Just so you’re aware the release does require your legal name,” Mark mentioned quickly. “So where are you from?”
“Marquette, Michigan. That’s in the center of the Upper Peninsula. I’m here for the first time on vacation. As for understanding weather-- I’m a pegasus, it’s part of me. But I also have a lot of specialized practice because it’s my job. I work for the State on a pilot project to moderate and improve weather conditions on a large scale.”
“You’re kidding right? That’s a violation of the federal weather manipulation laws.”
“We have federal oversight through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. So it's not in violation, we haven’t really advertised it so I understand why you haven’t heard about it,” I started, the man opened his mouth to ask something else, but my enthusiasm for the program kept me talking. “Keeping winter storms under control will be our first real test but so far we’ve beaten their expectations and the state is pressuring the feds to let us go statewide as soon as possible.”
“We might have to do some fact checking on that,” Mark muttered quietly to himself, sounding skeptical of my claim. “So since this is your first time in New York, what do you think of our lovely city?”
“It’s beautiful, I just wish I could enjoy it without needing to keep all my hooves on the ground. I’m not used to being told I can’t fly where I want. Just getting here from midtown we--,” I started to bring up how long it took to walk with all the ground traffic but Will almost shoved a wing into my mouth.
“So you had some papers she needed to sign?” he interrupted to ask, giving me a desperate wide eyed smile before folding his wing back against his side. “Sorry, but we’re going to be late to an appointment.”
“Right-- probably should get that taken care of if you two need to go,” Mark agreed with a suspicious glance at Will before turning to dig around in one of the saddlebags attached to Joel. “Do you have your own pen?”
“Of course,” I answered, giving Will a quick glare before pulling it out of my own saddlebag. The human placed a clipboard with a form on it for me to sign on the ground in front of me. Skimming the simple form quickly and finding nothing untoward, I filled out the required information.
“Thank you,” Mark picked up the clipboard and I could see him looking over the information. “And that’s really your legal name?”
“Yes, Sapphire Sky is my legal name,” I responded with a roll of my eyes. “Do I need to show you my ID?”
“Ponies don’t lie so brazenly, Mark,” Joel chastised his coworker, taking the clipboard with his magic to settle it back in his WNBC branded saddlebag. His camera and microphone casually sliding into their own positions in the bag. “Thank you for taking the time to talk to us and for all the great footage, Miss Sapphire.”
“Thank you,” Mark said, checking his phone quickly. “We should have something put together for the news at four. Have a nice day,” he gave a little wave and started to text something rapidly as he walked away.
“Hope you enjoy your vacation,” Joel waved a forehoof before trotting after his human coworker.
“I really should start doing more of those back home,” I remarked absently. “Shutter makes it seem so easy.”
“Shut up. You were fine,” Will snorted and flicked his tail. Dipping his head into the shopping bag he had been keeping on him to pull out a black shirt that he threw at me covering my head.
“What was so important that you had to go spend money on just to torment me?” I asked, sitting back on my haunches and manipulating the garment with my hooves to see what it said. “Really?” I asked dismissively.
“And some glasses,” he added with a big grin, gaudy black frame sunglasses dangling by one of the arms from his mouth.
“You are not kind,” I sighed, holding the I heart NY t-shirt, my muzzle scrunching up in disgust. But at least some clever human had made it with slots in the back so that it wouldn’t bind my wings.