//------------------------------// // The Creature-Crazed Kid // Story: The Snippet Series Season 1 Finale // by Casketbase77 //------------------------------// Flurry Heart’s hoofguard regalia lay discarded to her side as she manically dug through the dirt beneath the bleachers. Dad had suggested she attend a Wonderbolt performance to unwind, but how could she possibly do that when she just witnessed an Earth Pony cheerleader vanish in midair? Okay, technically she scrunched her eyes shut at the last second before the Earth Pony slammed into her, but that just made the experience make even less sense. She’d missed the most important part and since she was at the show alone she had no one to ask about it. Bringing her button nose as close to the dirty ground as she dared, Flurry strained to smell any of that smokey dusty glitter that teleportation spells always left behind. Nothing. She sat on her haunches and examined her shoeless forehooves for magic debris trapped under her nails. Barring some grass stains, they looked no different than normal.  It didn’t make sense. Nothing outside of the Crystal Empire made any sense! Flurry’s growl of frustration was so pitiful it didn’t even reach the ears of other showgoers trotting obliviously by. It reached her own though, and the sound made her slump in dejection. Flurry hated sports. She didn’t want to be out here in Ponyville; she wanted to be back in the castle nursery where she could spend all day coloring in puzzle books or building block towers with her trusty telekinesis or pestering Dad to read her new novels that Miss Scootaloo snuck in for her. Just yesterday they finished The Nirik Who Stole Hearth's Warming and the day before that they spent all afternoon on the first few chapters of The Invisible Mare. Flurry really wanted them to hurry and get further in The Tale Of Maredusa which was the one that started her obsession with monster stories, because after that they could move on to Frankenstallion and then Draftcula and then Stallion King’s Bit and then- Flurry Heart felt herself deflate.  She was acting like Aunt Twilight did at this age, wasn’t she? Supposed to be enjoying the sunshine and making nice with ponies she’d someday rule over, but instead she was rooting around under some stadium seats like a little madmare hooked on the exciting idea that monsters were real. This wasn’t how a Princess should act. If her parents saw her like this, they’d definitely stop reading those books to her. And Flurry wasn’t going to let that happen. Not until she worked her way up to The Headless Horse Of Sleepy Hollow, a book so scary Miss Scootaloo herself got all nervous whenever it was brought it up.  Flurry wiped her nose and slipped her hoofguards back on. Her books and the characters in them were all at home on the other side of Equus. As exciting as it was to imagine she’d find a monster mare in real life, she had to stop pretending that would happen. What she needed to do instead was make a friend at this event. She knew if she did that, Dad would be happy. Miss Scootaloo would be happy. Flurry wondered if she herself would be happy too. Only way to find out was to try. Sufficiently psyched up, she stooped down and shuffled out from under the stands. As she did, her muzzle collided with the legs of a passing pegasus. Lightning Dust hit the ground in a heap, but sprung up fierce and alert for whoever the disrespectful chump was that had ambushed her. A few other ponies eyed her as they trotted by, but one (a pink filly with cartoonishly oversized wings) was sprawled on the grass with a hoof to her nose and tears in her eyes. “Whisht!” Vitty exclaimed as she knelt next to the newcomer. “You sprung from those depths like a bat outta Tartarus! Are ya roughed up there, dearie-doll?” Lightning Dust swallowed her indignation and patted the dazed filly stiffly on the shoulder. Her heart wasn’t in the empty gesture of comfort, but thankfully Vitty was being sympathetic enough for the both of them. “I’m… I’m  fine,” the filly insisted in an accent that Lightning hadn’t heard this side of the arctic circle. “Sorry I troubled you both. I’ll go find friends now.” “You’re here with friends?” Lightning Dust flared her wings defensively and surveyed the area for any other reckless yearlings running around. She wasn’t getting knocked over again if she could help it. As she did, she heard the filly gasp. Lightning didn’t have to turn around to know it was from seeing Vitty for the first time. “Faust above, you’re…” “Colorless,” Vitty firmly finished for her. “Twas born like this, but I promise my pelt ‘n eyes belong to a meaner creature than mysel-” “You’re an Umbrum! That is so way beyond cool!” The filly had apparently completely forgotten her injury, given her giddy circling of the surprised half-breed. “Hey, do you know your kind almost wiped out my mom and dad’s kingdom? That’s what the stories say. Were you one of them who smashed down the city gates? Or part of the horde that chased Crystal Ponies around afterwards? Or were you like me and not born yet when that happened?” “Holy buck,” Lightning Dust breathed. “You’re Princess Flurry Heart.” “I mean yeah, I guess I am, but who cares? Your friend is a real life monster mare! And she said hi to me!” Vitty’s normally porcelain face was a flushed shade of flattered pink. “Alright tyke, I do admit I got some eldritch blood mixed in me, but it’s more useless ‘n sour than a spoonful o’ borax stirred into cider. I’m no nasty.” Flurry was undeterred. “So you’re like… opposite of me then! I got all these alicorn parts, but Miss Scootaloo says I still need a lot of growing to fit into ‘em.” She flared her wings and waved her horn, as if either of her most prominent features had somehow escaped anyone’s notice. “Ponies are staring at us,” Lightning Dust grunted, just threateningly enough to persuade a few paused passersbys to pick up their pace and move on. “Pipe down.” Suddenly self-conscious at having disappointed an adult, Flurry tucked her wings back and shrank behind Vitty for security. “M-my bad,” she said meekly. “I got excited cuz I thought we were all friends now was all.” As an athlete, Lightning Dust was no stranger to sweating. In her line of work, sweating meant she was on top of things. But she wasn’t at work right now, and the fact she was currently sweating under Vitty’s disapproving glare meant she was not on top of things. She’d been off her game all day, and upsetting a royal foal was her lowest point so far. Still, having the condition she had was no excuse for her behavior. It was high time she made an effort to course correct. “We… we can totally be friends, kid. We’ll start with introductions. That’s Vitty whose leg you’re clinging to, and I’m-” “You’re Lightning Dust. Miss Scootaloo talks about you sometimes.” Lightning Dust and Vitty exchanged knowing, worried glances. Fortunately, Flurry was back to chittering obliviously. “She says you’re hard core intense, and she’s gotta be right if you hang out with Umbrums on your days off. How’d you two meet up, anyway? Is it an action-packed story??” Vitty giggled mirthfully. “No action to be had, m’afraid. Ma mum is ‘er therapist, so Li an’ me hit it off after a few weeks o’ seeing one another during her sessions.” Lightning Dust cocked her head. “Zecora isn’t your mom though.” “Twas another joke, Li. She feeds and homes my shifty self, which is more motherly than anypony else has ever been.” “Oh.” Flurry’s short attention span compelled her to preen one of her wings while the grown ups talked about boring stuff. She scrambled to her hooves after she noticed them trotting away though. “Wait up! Where’re we going?” Lightning Dust looked like she was about to say something boorish again, so Vitty gently piped up. “Ya shouldn’t follow strangers you just met, Flurry Heart. Didn’t you say you had friends to catch up to?” “Nuh, I don’t. I’m here alone.” She puffed out her chest fluff, proudly kempt despite being tipped with baby fur. “I’m a toughie with enough magic to defend myself. Ask anypony who was there for my Crystalling.” Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. “Well, toughie you may be,” Vitty reasoned slowly, “but you wouldn’t want to come with us. We’re on our way to talk to a scary ghost.” Flurry’s fisheyed expression of shocked excitement let Vitty know that she’d just done the opposite of scare off the clingy kid. “You're talking about the head cheerleader right?? She’s a ghost?! That makes so much sense! I knew nopony regular was able to do that divey trick she did!” “We uh… were actually going to hit the concession stand first...” Lightning Dust was still trying to contrive a way to get Flurry to buzz off, but the Princess had clambered up onto Vitty’s back like it was the most natural place in the world for her to be right now. And up close, Flurry positively radiated foalish excitement. Lightning Dust looked back and forth between Vitty’s bashful grin at being a conscripted mount and Flurry’s joyful expectation that her afternoon journey had just begun, knowing she was outvoted. The mature thing to do would be to forget about the popcorn and just accompany the others to the cheerleader meet and greet. Unfortunately, Lightning Dust was a clinically immature pony. “I’m going to the concession stand regardless,” she declared hotly. “Don’t wait up for me.” Vitty looked like she wanted to say something, but Flurry eclipsed her with a smile and wave. “You have fun doing your thing, Lightning Dust! See ya again in a few minutes!” ‘Softie’ was not a label with which Lightning Dust identified, but she did catch herself waving as Vitty cantered away with rider in tow. It still felt like she was grouchily floundering from one weird encounter to another today, but maybe she was doing better than she thought she was. Emphasis on maybe. She smoothed out the feathers on her left wing before heading in the opposite direction of her friends. She knew there was plenty of daylight left for her to either mess things up or rise to whatever the next occasion was. Being separated from Vitty, even if it was only for a few minutes, was definitely going to be a sink or swim experience. “Temper temper,” the rehabilitating narcissist whispered to herself. Then she picked up her pace towards the concession stand.