I woke up in the middle of the night, to find that I had once again been moved. I sighed.
'I really am a fricken infant, aren't I?' I internally grumbled. I looked around the room through the bars of my crib. 'Great, great, great-y great. Great. At least this room is less ugly.' The walls were still the stupid fluffy whatever material, but the floor was hardwood, there was a bookshelf on the far side, near the door, and a mobile was strung up overhead. I stared at that last object with disinterest.
'Don't they know that the only reason a mobile calms down babies is because it simulates birds of prey, and activities the baby's survival instincts, causing it to quiet down? Wait, that's for humans, I'm a horse now, a winged one at that, who knows why this stupid thing is here?'
I rolled my eyes, and caught sight of the window, with nothing better to do – I wasn't about to cry and get my so-called-parents attention – I stood up on my hind legs and pulled myself over the edge of the baby cage, with a flap or two to make up for my lack of upper – forward? – body strength. I thumped against the solid wood floor, stood up shakily, and walked over to the window with an oddly sure stride.
'Yup, whatever my brain did earlier really showed me how to work my new shape. Cool.'
I looked up at the night sky, my eyes darting over the strange constellations, and familiar ones. Then I noticed the most obvious detail, the moon.
'Woah, that thing is huge! I don't have to worry about that thing dropping out of orbit, do I? It has to be really close. Hang on...'
I squinted at the moon's surface, like the moon back on earth, it had craters, and while the craters were rumored to look like "The man in the moon" – I couldn’t make it out, but my memories aren't the most reliable – these dark impressions made out a far more recognizable shape. The silhouette of a unicorn was stamped onto the moon's surface, and it looked strangely familiar…
'Hold the phone… is that the Mare in the Moon? Like from that cartoon, MLP? Am I in a cartoon?! Crap, that means I can't swear anymore… Nah, I can still swear, what are the chances that this is actually a cartoon, and there are a bunch of humans sitting around, watching my life? Psh, ridiculous.' I chuckled, although my chuckle was extremely high pitched, and sounded suspiciously like giggling.
'Besides, it's not like I've seen anyone with a cutie mark, yeah, this is something else.'
Reassured that my life was not made for the entertainment of equine enthusiasts, I went back over to the crib.
'Aw, I don't wanna sleep in some stupid toddler trap! I'm a grown… mare mentally, and I can sleep in something more respectable! Hmm, but I don't know this house, I don't really want to sleep in the same bed as Cobalt and his wife… there was a couch in the living room.'
I nodded and started walking over to the door, when I noticed a huge obstacle in the way; the door.
"Ah..." 'I forgot, I'm small… shit.'
I tapped my left forehoof to my right as I thought, then looked over my shoulder and gave my wings a test flap.
'These things… are not made to catch air at the moment. I'm as fluffy as a baby owl. What are the chances I'll molt flightworthy feathers before dawn?'
I decided that my chances weren't all that good, and just leapt at the handle, I was only a foot or so to low to hit it, and three more attempts told me that was as high as I could jump.
'Fack… now what?'
I slowly turned my head, looking back at the crib.
'But it's a baby cage!' I groaned, but my eyelids were once again gaining weight. A yawn forced it's way out of my mouth. 'No!' I snapped back to full wakefulness, for two seconds. I'll sleep on the floor before I sleep in there!'[i/] I plopped down onto the hardwood floor, but no matter what position I contorted my weirdly flexible body into, I couldn't get comfortable, and even with my growing drowsiness, sleep eluded me. The crib was getting worryingly better by the second.
'Ugh... fuck it. Fine, I'll sleep in your stupid crib! But only this once!'
I grumpily tromped over to the edge of the crib, and hunkered down, my wings automatically tensing in preparation for the jump. I shot up like a rocket, my wings expanding to their limits to attempt to carry me higher, but I already knew that wasn't going to work. As I flapped my wings for the precious centimeters they would give me, I reached my forelegs for the bars of the crib, and latched onto them like a leech would a blood bag. I then carefully shimmied my way up and over the edge, and fell into the plushness of the foal sized mattress, the late hour hit me like a freight train, and I fell over from the sudden, complete lack of energy.
'Curse you, tiny horse body and your infantile energy reserves!' I shouted to myself, but was already slipping off to unconsciousness before the final syllable.
Gum Drops couldn't sleep a wink. After her brother in law fixed up the new baby room and left, they put her to bed, and she left to check on her shop. She would have to be coming back to work now, her husband's job as a royal guard couldn't support a family of three forever, and as much as she wanted to spend every waking moment with her foal, she had to bring home bits to keep her bundle of joy happy.
She restocked the shelves and ordered ingredients for a fresh batch of chocolates for next week.
But now she was home, lying in bed next to her sleeping husband, waiting for something to happen. Her mother always went on and on about how much of a hoof-ful foals were, and how she and her sisters were nothing but trouble when they were too small to remember, but so far, Glitter had hardly made a peep! She growled at her father back at Saint Good Heart's, and it was adorable, but beyond that she had been an angel!
It was worrying. Her little filly had already nearly given her a heart attack when the doctors said she would never wake up, but she was better now. So why was she so calm? Why does she sleep so much? Why didn't she react to any attention she or Cobalt gave her! Was this normal?
Gum Drops refused to believe anything could be wrong with her foal, so she would wait. Her mother always talked about how parents with a young foal can never get a good night's rest, because the little feather balls would wake up at the oddest hours of the night, usually for food.
The worrying mother rolled over onto her back, and looked down, since her daughter had "woken up", she still hadn't shown any interest in nursing, and it was starting to get uncomfortable.
"The doctors said, she’s fine now,” she whispered to herself. “So maybe she’ll start crying any minute now… any minute…"
"Calm down hun," her husband said, stretching a wing over her barrel for comfort. "She's fine. She's just asleep. When she wakes up in the morning she'll be running around, jumping on everything, and giving you a headache, just like your mum said she would, but for now, get some sleep.” He chuckled and kissed her cheek, and settled back into the covers.”We're gonna need it."
'He's right, of course he is.' She sighed, smiling. 'But staying up for just one more minute can't hurt.
I woke up groggily, something was nagging at me, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to ignore it. Breathing a heavy sigh, I stretched like a cat, and then opened my wings. Letting my instincts take over, I looked over row after row of feathers in my left wing, all fuzzy and acceptable. Next I checked my right wing.
'M'kay, looks like I don't have to learn preening today, so that's nice. My ears stood straight up and directed my attention to the door, and the cream coloured face watching me go through my new morning routine.
'She's not moving… is she expecting me to do something? I am supposed to be her kid after all. Hmm, what would a kid who's excited to see their mother do? Do I want to even do that?'
I looked between the crib I was in, and the mare not so stealthily watching me from the doorway.
'Ehh, I reserve the right of final judgment for later. For now though, I want out of this Damned Baby Cage!'
I put on a broad smile and lept at the bars of my prison, jumping excitedly while making eye contact with the mare. She let out a sigh of relief, why I'm not certain, and made her way into the room. "Notice me did ya?"
I nodded enthusiastically, jumping a few more times with my forelegs raised into the air as if to praise the sun.
'Did I even play that game? I have almost no info on it.'
"Well, good morning Glitter~" the mare cooed, nuzzling me. To sell the bit, I nuzzled her back, just a little bit. "Who's hungry?"
My stomach growled at the mention of food, answering her question and telling me what woke me up.
'I could go for a bowl of cereal, maybe a bagel.'
I jumped three more times, and she finally picked me up out of the crib, then set me on her back. I nestled down into her fur, amazed by how friggin comfy it was, I idly ran a forhoof through her silky mane. 'Dang, she takes good care of this. So soft!'
"You like how that feels?" I nodded, still busy with the strands my limb was engulfed in. "Well, after breakfast, how about we take a bath?" I pushed my face into her hair, and took a few quick sniffs.
'Smells like, fruit and candy… wait, what am I doing?'
She giggled in response and started walking out the door. "I'll take that as a yes." I thought about pulling my head out of her sweet smelling hair, but it was soooo comforting, and it just felt right for some reason. I opted to take a few more minutes in the green mass, and come out when whatever she made for food was ready.
"Well, I'm off for my shift, you two enjoy some mother daughter bonding time," I heard Cobalt say. He must not have seen us just yet, because a loud snirk was heard the following moment. "Nevermind, looks like you already are."
"Have a safe shift honey!" The mare said, followed my a loud smack, presumably a kiss.
'I really need to figure out her name, just calling her "The mare" is not going to work for long.'
"See you when I get back, Gummy~" Cobalt said affectionately.
'...How convenient? I'ma Stick with the mare for now, Gummy Rain just sounds odd.
"Now then, let's get something in that tummy of yours," she said, surprising me by nosing my midsection. I let out a dignified squeak, which made her laugh.
She set me down on a throw pillow, and then left for the kitchen, coming back moments later with a plated bagel, blueberry, with strawberry cream cheese.
'Damn that looks good! Gimme!'[/]
I poked her repeatedly until she looked at me, then pointed at the bagel. "Silly filly, you’re a bit young for this," she giggled. "don't worry, my little Glitter, mommie’s got you breakfast right here."
'I don't get the bagel? Come on! But it looks soo… wait, she does? but she only brought out one plate, where is miiiiiiiii-crap, how young am I?'
My answer came in the form of her laying down in front of me, and pulling my pillow closer with her wings.
'Too young, frick, ah frick, ah frick, ah frick, ah frick, ah frick, ah frick, ah frick, ah-!' ran over and over again through my mind as I looked at the offered "meal." she shifted backwards and offered some encouraging words, I'm not sure what happened after that, but when my mind started working again, I had a far preferable bottle in my mouth.
'Oh thank god! She gave me bottled milk! for a second there I was worried, but if I have to drink this stuff for a while, till I can handle more solid stuff, I can deal with this, no offense, but I just don't think I could bring myself to drink the milk from another person… intelligent being, Gummy.
'What did I do wrong? I did exactly as mother told me to, and it all felt natural and right, but she just wouldn't nurse! Did I do it wrong? Why does she nurse a bottle just fine, but freezes up when I offered? Do we need to go see someone?'
Gum Drops was panicking internally as she watched her daughter drain the milk bottle, it was some older milk they had in the fridge from when she was unresponsive and had to... relieve the pressure.
'It's the same stuff! Why did she refuse to drink? I-'
Further thoughts were cut short when the doorbell went off, startling Gum Drops and her daughter. Glitter's downy feathers puffed up and she looked at the door angrily, before returning to her drink.
'Who could that be?'
'God damn instincts, turns out you're not all good for me, are ya?' I grumbled finishing off my bottle as the mare went over to the door. There, meal consumed, I should be good for a few hours. Now I should actually have some time to think.'
I circled on my pillow for a more comfortable position and set to planning.
'For whatever reason, I can't remember my old life, anything that had any emotional value was scrubbed out of my consciousness before I even woke up, yet I still have memories, tons of information that could make growing up again easy, so there is a plus. It's not like I can miss my old life, whatever it was, coulda been a wanted criminal, coulda been the richest person on the planet, who knows? It doesn't matter. So what's the plan, brain?'
...
'Still on my own then, okay, step one, grow up. I'm gonna get sick of it after a few seconds, but at least I wasn't dumped here in my thirties without half of my memories, this way I at least get a full life.'
'Step two, research. Find out everything I can about the world, and myself. I have no idea what my personality is, or how it will change over the years, I don't know if I will grow up to be a thrill seeker, but it's still better to have all the knowledge I can so I can avoid dumb mistakes.'
Step three... hmm, I guess this should actually be step one. okay, step one, come to terms with my new existence, shouldn't take too long.'
'The second step would be to accept my new family, and since I can't really remember the old one, this hopefully won't be too hard. Since we're horses, or something like them, I believe I will develop the herd mentality, and that means family is important, I can probably fight the dumber parts of it, but if I push against it to hard I'll just wind up depressed.'
'Okay, so step one, come to terms with my new life, step two, accept family, step three grow up, step four, research... wait, I should switch those around...'
'Step one, accept being a pegasus baby, or just a pegasus in general. Step two accept my new family. Step three become a bookworm. Step four grow up... I should get a piece of paper and write this down...'
I nodded to myself, and got up to do just that. The mare, or my mother, I guess, was talking to another mare. The new arrival was cherry red, had an orange mane, and green eyes. She had wings twice the size of those on the other pegasi I'd seen thus far, but stood shorter than the mare next to her by a couple inches. The two of them were finishing up their talk at the doorway, and the red mare had been invited in, apparently, so as they made their way back into the living room, I stretched my tiny body, and got into position. When a set of cream hooves rounded the couch, I pounced.
"I dunno Bubble Gum, she seems plenty playful to me." The new mare chuckled.
'Bubble Gum' had reared back in surprise, bringing me with her since I had latched onto her right foreleg, it took her two seconds of still shock to realize what had happened, and when she did, her face turned to a big smile. She shifted me around in her forelimbs and held me to her barrel, giving me a nuzzle. "Oh, now you miss me~?"
"Looks like it. I remember when you did the same thing to your father, except he actually jumped so hard we had to pull him out of the ceiling." She laughed at the memory, while the mare I was being smothered by blushed at the reminder. Evidence pointed to this red mare being her mother.
It helped affirm this assumption when my mother screamed "Mom!" pitifully, holding her hooves over my ears, as if to keep me from hearing her embarrassing past.
'What's the standard age of comprehension here? I would like to start actually contributing to conversations.'
"Oh please, it's a grandmother's privilege to embarrass her child in front of her own children," she laughed. "Now come here and introduce me to my new grand-foal." She patted the cushion of the couch beside her. My mother… it still feels weird… flapped her wings, bringing us to sit on the couch as indicated, I was then snagged out of her hooves and brought to the face of the older mare. "Hello there young one, I'm your new grandma, but you can call me Granny Red Strings."
'Will do.'
I nodded, Granny Red Strings smiled, and tousled my hair. "Smart little foal ain'tcha? Good color too, the pink ones are always a happy, rambunctious bunch." I got a mirthfull nuzzle, and then she went back to conversing with her daughter.
"So, mom, what do you think?" She asked, waving a hoof at me, which I placed poth of my forehooves on, spur of the moment.
"I think she is a perfectly normal little foal." Red Strings giggled, pushing me back into her daughter's arms. "From what I've seen, she's playful, smart, inquisitive, and happy."
"But what about-"
"Not all foals like drinking from their mothers, it's perfectly normal for her to prefer bottles."
"But she's so-"
"If you're complaining about her being better behaved than the average filly her age, I might just have to take her for myself." Red Strings giggled at her daughter's immediate response. Crushing the life out of me. "I'm kidding, she's still pretty young, give her a few months, she'll give you a few headaches to love her for."
'She wants her child to be a terror? That's ridiculous. Oh well, if she wants me to be a little shit... I'm not going to do this all the time, just enough to... assuage her fears.'
I snagged the flowing silky mane of the ma-My mother, in my forehooves and jaws. 'Peh! Don't bite hair, it's nasty. I then climbed up her locks onto her shoulders. She was releasing tiny "ow"s during the climb, while red Strings was laughing her ass off.
"Hah! Well, there ya go! Feel the love yet?" She snickered. I crawled up her neck, using her hair as hoof holds, all the way up onto her head, where I unfurled my wings and took on a proud stance, staring with determination at a nondescript location in the distance. "Oh my! Gum Drops, dear, where do you keep your camera, your hubby will want to see this!"
The mare I was standing on looked up at me with slightly teary eyes, and an unsure look on her face.
'And that's enough of that.'
I settled into a much more comfortable position for the both of us, still atop her head, leaned forward, and nuzzled her right between the eyes. I was rewarded for my efforts when her smile widened and she looked at me with no small amount of joy in her eyes. I wrapped my wings around her skull in a semi awkward hug. Red Strings took this moment to glide back into the room, a camera supported on metal arms strapped to her. "Aww~, this one's good too, but I want her to strike that pose from before after this." There was a flash, a click, and momentary Blindness, but the moment was immortalized, and my new family would likely cherish this new photograph, as it was the first one ever taken of me.
The second one came in short order, as I did just as Red Strings requested.
"Now then, let us three pegasi make our way to the kitchen yeah? Grammy here could use a snack." My stomach rumbled once more.
'But I just ate! Stupid metabolism!'
Thus we made our way to the kitchen, with me still atop my mother's head. It was nothing fancy, cabinets, a stove, a fridge, countertop, dumb fluff carpeting - seriously who carpets a kitchen? - and a wooden table, I jumped to that when we were near enough.
"So mom, what would you like?" My mother asked, opening the fridge, pouring another bottle of milk for me.
"Just some tea, and some meat if you have it."
the colour of her face turned a sickly colour of green. "Ugh. Mom, you know we don't keep that stuff here, we barely even ever have fish, just when Rainy's brother drops by."
"Fine, but you should probably start at least keeping fish in the house, you've got an Imperial living with you now."
"What?!" She whipped around, her wings puffed up slightly in surprise. "What do you mean?"
"Glitter Drops." Red Strings said, nodding to me.
'I'm a what now?'
"H-h-how, why do you think she's an Imperial?" My mother asked nervously, looking between me and her mother with worry.
"You mean you haven't noticed?" Granny opened one of her wings, letting it extend to full length, it was longer than the table. I looked at her, then at my own wings, and held one out for comparison. Red Strings smiled at me before turning back to her daughter. "Don't her wings seem just a little bit big for her size?"
"W-we thought she just had bigger wings," the cream mare stated uneasily, setting down our respective drinks, I was too busy listening to the conversation to worry about mine for the moment.
"Trust me, I know what a baby pegasus' wings look like, and your daughter's are nearly three times bigger than yours were when you were her age." She took a sip from her tea and smile before continuing. "Only an imperial has wings that big."
'So I'm some kind of special winged horse? Neat. Wait, if she's also an imperial, and she likes meat dishes, does that mean I'm an omnivore? That's Awesome! I was worried that I was gonna have to go vegetarian, and only know what meat tasted like through my memories, but now I get to experience it? Great!'
"B-b-but, she can't be an imperial! Her father and I are normal pegasi!"
"If you need more confirmation, then check her teeth dear, you'll find she has a slightly different set than your own, that's actually something the good doctors are supposed to check, so that they have her proper tribe down on her medical record, but I suppose it's something that could go overlooked here in a city made almost entirely of you magic flappers." Red Strings took another sip of her drink, then pushed me to her daughter with her wing. "Go on then."
"b-but-!"
I rolled my eyes at her apprehension, and slid my tongue over my teeth, satisfied with what I found, I pulled my lips back and gave the now pale mare a toothy grin. "See, those four teeth there? they're for ripping apart meat, that's the mouth of an omnivore there." To prove her point red strings bared her teeth as well, and I was doubly pleased to know I would get to have eggs and bacon for the first time, the second time around.
I hopped into the air, fluttering my wings, I didn't get any lift out of the action, but seeing the other two's reactions was worth the gesture.
"I had no idea..."
"It's fine dear, it doesn't mean anything, especially, it just means she can try a few more foods than you. She won't grow up to be some meat craving monster."
"I don't know how to take care of an imperial! What if she gets sick with an imperial-only disease and nopony in Cloudsdale knows how to treat it?!"
"One, there is no such thing, anything you can catch, I can catch, and vice versa, two if you run into any imperial problems with her, well, you've always got me to call on, don't you? Besides, Cobalt grew up in a house with three meat loving Thestrals, I'm sure he knows how to fix your daughter a proper predatory plate." Red Strings wrapped a wing around her daughter and held her in a hug, I lept off the table and joined in the embrace, wrapping my forelegs around their necks, along with my wings since my legs couldn't quite reach far enough to actually hold me in place.
The distressed mare sighed. "I suppose you're right, she'll be fine." She wrapped a foreleg around me, and I was able to relax a bit, wings are not made to hold you like that, or maybe it was because I was a baby?
"Of course I am. Now then, let's get back to the table, I know someone here hasn't touched their milk," Red Strings said as she glared at me non-threateningly.
I rolled my eyes and disengaged from the embrace. I hopped off my mother's outstretched hoof back to the table. The two mares began discussing the difference between an Imperial Pegasus, and a regular Pegasus. I, unfortunately, missed these details as I began draining the bottle I was given. Apparently, kids go into a kind of trance when they do this, or maybe that's just me. After all, I highly doubted I was supposed to be fully conscious at this age anyway.
I started thinking again when we were on the couch, the two mares were laying on it directly, while I was curled up in my mother's wing, she was on her back at the time. I got up and stretched.
'I've been doing that a lot lately.'
The two halted their conversation to look at me. "Ah, welcome back sleepyhead, you wanna get down and play?" my mother asked. I didn't have any particular reason to get down on the ground, but I nodded anyway, just to keep the two of them happy. I was picked up in the younger mare's forelegs as she sat up, and she put me down.
' Maybe while these two are talking I can find a newspaper or something, if I'm lucky, everything will be in english... or Chinese? why would I know Chinese?'
Why do you know how to skin an elk? Or how to make a cat sit anywhere you want by making a spot a slightly different colour than everywhere else? You just do.
'Brain? You're back now huh? why do you sound like that? What happened to the whole computer bit?'
Things change, young padawan.
'Why am I a padawan? Better yet how is it relev-' My question would have to wait, because my hooves just touched the carpet, and when I was released from my mother's grip onto the floor, I didn't stop moving. There was about forty five seconds of white, and a whooshing noise one would associate with falling. Then there was open air, and a forest down below me. I looked around in a panic, above me there was nothing, except for the massive cloud I just fell through, I could even see the hole.
'What the FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU-'
My wings shot out, and started flapping wildly, my descent didn't slow even a modicum. I looked around, spying a river, I angled my wings to glide over, just like the feeling in my gut told me, and my trajectory changed, by inches. Problem was that the ground was coming up too quickly, and my wings didn't catch enough air to change my landing point.
'Fuck Oh Fuck Oh Fuck Oh Fuck Oh Fuck Oh Fuck Oh Fuck Oh Fuck O-'
Hey, I see you’re trying to fly. Want me to help?
'Fuck you! Hurry up before I'm a meaty squish mark on the forest floor!'
Here, watch this twenty minute video on how a bird flaps its wings, followed by a thirty minute video on how this one YouTuber think a pegasus would be able to fly.
'Double Fuck You!! Triple Screw You with A Goddamn Handful of Cherries and Buckshot!'
Fortunately I did not find out what it feels like to be a pancake, as something grabbed me long before I was even eye level with the canopy.
"Igotcha,Igotcha,Igotcha!!" my mother screamed over the whipping winds. The descent leveled out and shot back up into the sky. In short order, we climbed right back up through the hole in the floor, it sealing behind as we went, somehow. Next thing I knew, we were back in the living room, Red Strings was still on the couch, staring at the spot I fell through, apparently too stunned to move.
Mom did not stop flying, even as she moved over the wooden coffee table she did not stop flying. She also hadn't stopped chanting "I gotcha," but she had slowed down to the point you could tell it was two words. Barely. I had joined Red Strings in stunned silence.
Said mare soon came to her senses and began trying to console her daughter. "Gum." the mare didn't respond. "Gummy." Red Strings attempted again, no response. "Bubble Gum." She said, slightly sterner, still no change in her daughter.
"Bubble Gum Drops!" she shouted. Mom froze, dropping out of the air and onto the coffee table, three loud clacks responded through the room, her fourth leg was Still gluing me to her barrel, not that it was necessary, as I'm fairly certain all six of my limbs would never detach from her chest, ever again.
"M-mom?" She began. "Mom! What just happened?! I set her down to play and she just sank through the floor! Why didn't she stop?! She just kept falling until she left the city!? How is that possible!? It Shouldn-" Her rant was cut short by Red String inserting a hoof in her daughter's gob.
"Bubble Gums, listen to me," she commanded. "What just happened was very dangerous, yes, but I need you to hear what I have to say. She just fell through the clouds, that's all. It's highly likely that she just doesn't know how to walk on them, so she passed right through."
Red Strings hoof was ejected from her daughter's mouth by sheer air pressure. "But She is a Pegasus! Every Single Known Variety of Pegasus can Walk on Clouds! It's ingrained into us! It's part of What We Are! How can she Not Know How to-Mff mm fmrphif mmfifph!" The slobbery hoof was reinstated in the mouth of the younger mare.
"Its possible she just doesn't have that instinct." Red String Shrugged with her wings.
Mom pushed her away. "We live in a Cloud House! in Cloudsdale! She could literally fall through the ground anywhere! She can just walk right on through the walls of her room and fall!"
'Oh shit! I coulda died last night!'
I had already been shivering since my impromptu trial by fire, and now it just got worse.
'Why the Fucking Fuck Would Anyone, Ever Build Shit out of CLOUDS!? Even if it's Possible, shit like what I just went through can't have been the first time it's happened! The hell were these idiots thinking?!'
Probably because it hasn't happened yet, it wouldn't ever happen.
'That's insane! And so ridiculously Stupid!'
"It's a simple fix dear, just teach her how to walk on clouds."
"How do you teach somepony how to do something every single other pegasus knows how to do from birth?!"
"You figure it out! There is twelve, Twelve unicorns up here that did it!" Red Strings Countered. "If you can't do it, then you take her to somepony who can." She pulled her daughter into a hug, gently stroking her mane to calm her down. "You're a big mare, Bubble Gums, you can figure this out, now hug your foal and calm her down."
Instantly, mom's other foreleg wrapped around me, and she mimicked what her mother had just done for her, to me. It was at this moment I noticed the lines of tears streaming down my face, which I immediately tried to suppress. "I'm going to make a special trip to Canterlot,” Red Strings stated quietly. “Somepony needs to inform the princess about the potential dangers this brings up. I'll also pay to have the whole house renovated, we can't have her falling through any room." She kissed her daughter on the forehead, and hugged her tightly. "I'll be back tomorrow morning, well figure all this out then, okay?"
Mom nodded and whimpered pitifully, still hugging me tight, I had yet to stop crying, and I was starting to worry about dehydration at this point.
Red Strings left, but neither of the other two moved from their spot on the table. Eventually Glitter reeled in the waterworks, but they still stayed there for hours. Cobalt Rain came back home to find his wife sitting on her haunches, her wings held out protectively around them, with his daughter pressed desperately into his wife's chest, who would look at the house around them every once in a while and shiver.
He was then told the story, and joined them in the comforting embrace. It wasn't until midnight that the three of them would leave, Glitter slept with them that night, snuggled in on the layered wings of her parents, who didn't fall asleep for another three hours.