This morning was nothing special, I woke up around eleven and Breeze made us both brunch. We talked for a little while and she mentioned that she would come with me to the Sunny Side Cafe to see me play.
Soon after, I finished eating and thanked Breeze before deciding to make my way back to Cloudsdale park so I could just sit and relax for a while as well as do my meditation and stretches. I grabbed some of their currency, I still need to figure out what it's called, and left just before Breeze. She said she was going to be out most of the day doing some shopping. After saying bye, I was on my way. I poked around some of the areas I missed yesterday on my way and found a killer food stand that sold what was quite possibly the best tofu I had ever eaten, and I hate tofu! I explored a few other places, most of them being strange little shops behind all the major ones. But I soon arrived at the park and began to perform my meditation and stretching routine for about an hour.
After meditating and finishing my stretches, I felt amazing. But I soon realized I had no idea what to do once again. I just decided to sit under the tree and try to think of something to do other than just walk around and explore. It didn’t take long for me to spot what appeared to be a couple flying through the sky together, this reminded me that I also had wings that I had no idea how to use. I couldn't help but chuckle a little as I remembered the Red Bull commercials.
"I don't need any Red Bull now..." I said, laughing a little at my own dry humor.
I then decided to give flying a shot, and to put it simply, I couldn’t fly. Heck, I could barely move my wings even just a little. I got up, determined to make them at least move, and tried everything I could think of. However, nothing I tried seemed to work, from pretending to have an extra pair of arms on my back to just jumping up and down, nothing would get the feathery appendages on my back to move.
After nearly an hour of unsuccessfully jumping up and down, I was frustrated and drenched in sweat. I stomped my foot in frustration and nearly screamed as both my wings flared out in anger. I stood there huffing for a few moments before I realized what I just did. I looked back to see my white wings pointing nearly straight up, I was about to celebrate that I had at least gotten them to move before I saw that they were starting to fold themselves again. I quickly tried to feel what was making them move and was a little surprised to feel something around my ribs rather than my back. I was expecting most of the feeling to come from my back muscles, rather it felt like I had arms sprouting from my ribcage, it was a very strange feeling.
After my wings fully folded themselves, I thought back to the weird sensation they created and pretended they were an extra pair of arms except on my ribs, and what do you know it worked. While I could only move them very slowly and unsteadily, it was a start. As I continued to stare with concentration at my wings, I occasionally noticed the ponies above me sending some questioning glances when I took a break. I thought nothing of it, I could fly! Well… not yet, but maybe soon! That thought alone was unimaginable and definitely enough to excite me. While I never really flying in a plane delightful, flying on my own willpower, though, intrigued me.
I quickly lost track of time practicing my wing movement and before I even realized it, I had been practicing for close to four hours. I was alerted of how long I had been there by the grumbling of my stomach snapping me out of my little wing world. Feeling my hunger, I just decided to just head back to Breeze's place and see if she had any food there since I needed a shower and didn’t have much money on me, or to my name in general.
I began my journey back to Breeze’s place, which was sped up by the fact that I wasn't looking in the window of every store I passed. And after walking for about half an hour and taking a small stop at a cool little shop I found in Cloudsdale’s center, I was basically right back at where I started this morning.
I greeted the doorma- doorpony? Before making my way onto the rickety elevator and going up to the 8th-floor. Soon I was at the proper door where I slipped off the key and with my ever-improving dexterity that should be impossible before sliding it into the lock and unlocking the door before pushing it open and going inside before locking it behind me.
“Breeze, you here?” I asked, walking into the apartment and looking around for any sign of Breeze. After a moment I concluded that she must be out doing her own thing.
I decided to hop into the shower before I made something to eat so I didn’t accidentally stink up her apartment.
Even though it was only my second shower in this new body I was surprisingly good at cleaning it considering my overall shape and general lack of hands. I constantly questioned how I could pick up the shampoo bottle with flat hooves the entire time I was in the shower, it nearly made me forget about washing my tail. While I was getting decently good at cleaning myself, getting dry was another story. I was reminded once again of how difficult it is to dry my tail and my back, but considering I could only use one arm instead of two I think I was doing pretty good. I soon realized I had the best idea when I dropped the towel on the ground. Just lay down and roll around, amazing right?!
After getting up off the ground and hanging my towel back on the rack, I looked into the mirror and stared back at myself. While my hair didn’t look so bad, my wings were a whole different story. Turning my body, I was able to get a better look at one of my wings. It was a rat's nest of feathers. Many of them pointing every which way and others completely broken. I didn’t take much to assume that they weren’t supposed to look like that.
While I knew they looked horrible and unsure whether it was actually bad for me somehow, I had no idea how to fix them. I wasn’t really sure how my feathers didn’t get messed up when I took a shower two days ago either. While I really wanted them to look good, whatever that was supposed to look like, I just plain and simply didn’t know how to do it. With a shrug, I turned around and headed out of the bathroom intending to just ask Breeze later.
While making my way towards the kitchen, I looked at the clock in the living room and saw that it was already four-thirty. I was pretty sure Sunny said to be there at six, but I decided to get there around twenty to thirty minutes early just to be safe.
Once I entered the kitchen, I immediately went for the fridge and opened it to see that there wasn’t much inside. Half a head of lettuce, some various fruit, a few tomatoes, onions, carrots, and a half-filled jug of lemonade. I decided that a nice salad would be enough to hold me over long enough until I could have a better dinner at the café. Come to think of it, what kind of cafe has dinner? I thought all those places had was breakfast, oh well. I shrugged the thought off as I got the lettuce and a few other assorted vegetables out of the fridge.
After searching for the cutting board, chopping all the vegetables, and putting them in a nice big bowl, but not before getting a glass of lemonade, I was sitting down and eating my early dinner.
Nothing really happened other than me contemplating life for a little while as I ate my salad. But right after I forked the last piece of lettuce into my mouth, I heard the lock turn, and not a moment later it swung open to reveal Breeze with two bags on her side packed with groceries.
“Hey Winter! How was your day so far?” She greeted as she closed the door and made her way into the kitchen.
“It’s been pretty good so far,” I replied while getting up myself and bringing the bowl to the kitchen, “I just had a little salad before I head down to the café. I want to get there a little early.”
“Ok, just let me put these groceries away and I’ll come with you!” She said as the two bags fell off her back and plopped onto the ground.
“I hope you didn’t get any eggs.” I said with a laugh, really hoping she didn’t.
“Of course I didn’t, if I did they would be all over the ground right now.” She giggled as she started picking up the foods and placing them in their respective places.
After washing my bowl and setting it out to dry, I proceeded to help put the rest of the food away.
"Let me go tidy up a bit, then I'll be ready to go!" She stated as she made her way towards her bedroom. I heard the door click a moment after she disappeared.
I decided to sit down in the living room, really hoping that she doesn't take as long as women from Earth to get ready.
I was pleasantly surprised when only a few minutes later she reemerged with her hair clearly brushed and what looked like a little bit of make on.
"You're all set?" I said, getting up and walking over to her.
She opened her mouth, but stopped halfway and gasped with a hoof over her mouth. “Oh my, Winter, you know your wings are a mess! Aren’t you going to preen them?” Breeze said pointing at my very unkempt wings.
“Oh yea, about that, I don’t know how to uh, what was it you said, preen my wings.” I said with a shrug and a worried smile hoping that what I just said wasn't outlandish or something without me realizing it.
“You don’t know how to preen your wings?” she asked, a little stunned, “But every- oh, you must not remember after those meanies did whatever they did to you!”
“Yea, I don’t remember how.” I breathed a sigh of relief to myself that she came up with that conclusion herself. Actually, I’m quite surprised she still hasn’t asked me if I remember anything about what happened.
“Okay Winter," she began, "all you really have to do is sit down and pull the broken ones out with your mouth and straighten the rest.” She then proceeds to open her how wings and show me, moving very slowly and exaggerating each movement. While I had no idea how I was supposed to preen wings, I didn't really like how she was showing me like I was a little kid, though the kids here are probably better at preening wings than me.
“Why don’t you give it a try?” She said, standing back up and walking over to me.
“Alright, I’ll give it a shot.” I said as I sat down and slowly opened one of my wings. Unlike how Breeze’s were nice and straight with no broken feathers insight, mine was the complete opposite. Every other feather was seemingly either broken or completely out of place. Carefully, I did my best to replicate what Breeze did, reach over with my mouth, grab a feather, and twist it back into place.
After doing so, I pulled my head back and was pleased to see that it looked like it was a little better, not perfect, but better.
"Hey Breeze, do you think you could help me?" I asked because at this rate it would take me all night to preen both of my wings.
"Umm, you w-want me to what?" She stuttered after gasping causing me to look up and see her staring at me wide-eyed and with her face now a few shades redder.
"Umm, did I just say something?" I asked, really hoping I didn't just accidentally say something that would get me kicked out onto the streets. Though the blush on her face made me realize I may have said something that hinted towards a topic I would rather avoid at all costs considering that I was now on the other side of the spectrum.
"Well, I could... it's just preening is usually done between parents and couples..." She said while rubbing her hoof on the ground and taking a very keen interest in it.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean anything by it, I had no idea!" I frantically responded trying and save myself from my already sunken ship.
"It's ok, you didn't know." She responded, finally glancing back up at me though still with a little red on her cheeks.
I decided to leave it at that and opened my wing to continue preening. For the next ten minutes, I focused on nothing but getting each feather either as straight as possible or out of my wing.
But finally, after going over every single feather on both my wings, I had finished and we were out of the building and on our way to the café.
After getting out onto the sidewalk, Breeze unfurled her wings and took to the sky. This, however, left me stranded on the sidewalk. It didn't take long for her to notice that I wasn't flying beside her and she promptly turned back around and asked me what I was doing.
"What are doing? It'll be a lot quicker if we fly there." She said as she landed on the sidewalk next to me.
"I forgot to tell you but I can't fly." I said with another awkward smile.
"How can you not fly?” She asked in a quizzical manner.
“Um, I guess when my head got all messed up.” I said, having decided to resort to that excuse once again.
“Ok… I guess we can just walk there then.” And with that, we began our walk to the Sunny Side Cafe… at dinner time. Seriously, I've never heard of a cafe opened for dinner, at that point, it's just a restaurant.
We walked for a few minutes with me contemplating what a cafe that serves dinner is called before Breeze broke the silence with a question.
“So, I’m assuming you’ve never seen a Wonderbolt’s show right?”
“Nope, I never even heard of them before I got here.” I responded truthfully.
“Do you even know what they do?”
“I’m assuming they fly because all the Wonderbolts I’ve seen have wings.” Plus, what else could they really do…
“Well, at least you know that much, I’m just so excited! I might even get to meet a Wonderbolt tomorrow!”
I stopped looking at the passing ponies and turned my attention to Breeze to see her with a huge smile plastered across her face. I also noticed that she seemed to also have a little hop in her step, it reminded me of all the little kids I would see going to my hockey games. The thought saddened me a little, but Breeze soon continued.
“I’ve only ever gotten to meet a Wonderbolt once, and it was Surprise. I’ve just been in love with the Wonderbolts since I was a little filly.” her tone quickly became more nostalgic, “I would spend all of my allowance money on all the new Wonderbolts merchandise. I had so much that it started to spill out of my room and into the rest of the house.”
I looked over after a moment and saw her figure starting to deflate a little.
“But after attending my third or fourth flight camp, I realized that I wasn’t as good as I thought I was. Another mare… Rainbow Dash I think… was what good looked like. She blew me and every other colt and filly out of the sky with how fast and agile she was.” her mood quickly began to brighten once again, “But never the less, I soon found my love for the weather. I stayed a huge Wonderbolts fan and I still am, all my stuff is still in my old room at my parent’s house. I just wish I could go to more of their shows, but work takes up most of my time.”
“They sure seem pretty cool, it sure would be an experience if I got to meet a Wonderbolt at my first show.” I smiled at the thought, but my sadness lingered. I remembered how I used to be on the other end, meeting all the young fans who adored their local team, but I pushed those feelings away as I looked up and saw that we were almost at the cafe.
“Well, I’m just going to sit down at a table and order some food, if you want to join me you can unless you have to get ready.” Breeze said as we walked up to the door of the cafe.
“Yea, I think I should get ready. I have a few songs in mind, just gotta make sure I remember them.” And with a wave, she entered the cafe and headed for the seating.
I followed a few steps behind and was surprised by what I saw. It looked just like it had in the morning, only there were about thirty ponies packed into a restaurant made to fit about twenty at most.
What the heck… are there really that many people- ponies here to see me? All I did was play one song like two days ago… I continued to say to myself as I walked up to the stage on the opposite side of the small restaurant. I went to the side and walked up the few steps onto the slightly elevated stage with the same piano and microphone I had seen the day before.
I sat down on the small bench and began thinking of the songs I wanted to play. After a few moments, I got a few in my head I began to lightly tap the oversized keys while humming the lyrics to make sure I remembered them.
After I got a few songs in my head that I remembered and didn’t have anything that would seem out of the ordinary in it, I looked out into the restaurant and saw Breeze standing towards the back right of the room. She waved when she saw me looking at her, a wave which I returned.
I continued to look around, and it wasn’t long before I spotted Fleetfoot and her friends sitting at a table. They seemed to be conversing with another group of ponies sitting at the table next to them, though they seemed to be talking primarily to the one with the rainbow hair.
I brought my attention back to the piano in front of me and took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves. I still could not believe that after only playing one song in some little cafe that I had somehow gotten an audience of around thirty ponies to show up to my next little performance. I wasn’t really even expecting that many ponies to show up to a cafe for dinner!
I took a few more deep breaths and pushed all the thoughts of how absurd this is out of my mind as I began to play. And as I began singing the first few words, everyone's attention immediately shifted to me, all their voices dying down into the background.
I continued to play, the words flowing out of me as I steadily played the piano to another one of my favorite songs by Owl City. The notes, each one played to perfection, sounded amazing to me as I relived another one of my favorite childhood songs.
“Oh, darling I wish you were here…” I sang the final words as the piano continued on.
A few moments later the piano stopped and I looked out into the audience with a smile. I was more than a little surprised to see a few kissing in the crowd as they applauded.
I basked in the attention, my confidence growing, as I turned back to the piano and soon began to play the next song.
“Hey Winter, that was really good!” Breeze said as I walked up to her table. The place was only beginning to clear out, but she must have snagged a table when someone got up.
“Thanks, those are some of my favorites.” I said while looking around, I was hoping to see Fleetfoot somewhere so I could introduce her to Breeze, but I was unable to see her or her friends through all the ponies walking around the place.
“What are you looking for?” Breeze asked, looking around too.
“Oh, just some friends I met here the other day, but I don’t see them.”
“Oh ok, well I have to go to the little fillies room, I’ll just be a minute.” She said as she got out of her seat and walked towards the two doors on the opposite side of the restaurant.
After she disappeared into the crowd, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and smiled when I saw who it was.
“Hey, Fleetfoot!” I said as I gave her a fist bump… hoof bump?
“Heya Winter! That was a really good performance, Spitfire and Soarin really seemed to enjoy it!” She said as she began making out with herself in a comical fashion.
“Well, I’m glad they enjoyed it.” I said with a laugh, who knew that Owl City was that romantic.
“I enjoyed it too, I’m just sick of all the classical music that I constantly have to listen to in Canterlot.” She said with obvious disdain.
“Is there only classical music here?”
“No, there’s some other stuff, it’s just not that good, and classical is by far the most popular in Equestria.”
“Well, I’m glad you guys like mine. Oh, do you know about the Wonderbolt show tomorrow?”
“Yea, I know about them,” she said, a little smirk appearing on her face, “why?”
“Well, my roommate, Breeze, got some tickets to the show tomorrow and she’s taking me!” I said with excitement, Breeze’s attitude towards them was rubbing off on me very quickly, “It’s gonna be my first show!”
“Really? Well, I’m going to be there too!” Her smirk seemed to grow a little.
“Really? We should meet up before the show!”
“That sounds like a good idea, I can introduce you to some of my other friends, they’re going to be there as well.” At this point, her smile was rivaling that of the Cheshire cat... how strange.
“Cool, oh and if you wanna wait a minute I can introduce you to my friend, Breeze.”
“I’d love to meet them, but I should really get going, Spitfire and Soaring are waiting for me outside.” She motioned to the group of ponies outside and laughed a little. I looked over and was barely able to make out a piece of Spitfire’s fiery yellow hair right in the center of the crowd.
“Oh, alright, where do you want to meet?”
She tapped her hoof to her chin for a moment, “Do you know where the main entrance is?”
“I think so, yea.” I said, expecting her to say in front of the building or something.
“Alright, meet me on the opposite side of the building, you should see a back entrance that says 'No Entry'.”
“Ok… why there?”
“Oh, no reason.” Her smile seemed to grow once again to an impossible size, “Just meet me there an hour before the show, alright? You'll see.”
“Sure, I guess we can do that.” I responded, thinking about why she would want to meet us behind the building.
“Well, I better get going. See you tomorrow Winter!” And with a wave of her hoof, she headed towards the entrance where the mob of ponies still seemed to be mobbing something.
About a minute after she left, Breeze returned and sat down opposite of me.
“Did you see your friend?” She asked as she took a sip from her cup I didn’t know she had.
“Yea, she said she is going to be at the show tomorrow too! I thought it would be a good idea to meet up with her.”
“Yea, that would be fun, and I could get to meet her.”
We talked for a while while I got my food and ate dinner. It was pretty good, a bean and rice bowl with tofu and guacamole. It reminded me heavily of Chipotle in terms of how it tasted.
But after I ate, we talked for a little longer and the manager came and gave me my bits, I guess that’s what the currency is called. Apparently, there was a tip jar somewhere on the stage I missed, I really am oblivious to the environment around me when I get in the zone.
I counted all the bits, some with a five written on them, but most of them had a one with the rare ten. And after counting all of them including the bits guaranteed, I had a total of eighty bits. It felt like a lot but I had no idea how much eighty bits was worth.
I asked Breeze, and she tried to explain it without much success. Though I eventually guessed that eighty bits must be pretty close to about eighty USD. My bowl, which they gave to me for free, cost eight bits, and something of similar size from Chipotle seemed like would cost about the same. So it seemed like the conversion ratio of about one to one must be pretty close. But it nonetheless surprised me that I earned essentially eighty dollars for playing for only about two hours.
After collecting all my bits and leaving a tip, we began our journey back. It was filled with various small talk about Breeze’s job and a few events that had happened the last few days. But for the majority of the walk, I just observed the night sky. I always enjoyed the stars, but seeing them from here was something I had never experienced before. The stars seemed as if they were dancing across the sky, the shapes they formed were also unlike any constellations I had ever seen on earth. It was beautiful in my opinion, and I made a mental note to go stargazing if I’m still here.
But the walk back soon came to an end as we arrived at the apartment building. We made our way up, and upon arrival did our own separate things. Me, I was tired so I just decided to take a shower, brush my teeth, and head to bed.
I was soon snuggled under the covers of what was now my bed, for the time being, getting nice and comfortable. I glanced to my right and saw that the clock read nine o’clock p.m. before I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. My previous exhaustion, however, was seemingly forgotten.
I just laid there and continued to stare at the ceiling, noticing every crack and mark on it. I just couldn’t fall asleep. I just laid there, eyes glued to the ceiling, occasionally being drawn to an errant sound coming from the street below. But no matter how hard I seemed to try, my mind just wouldn’t shut off. Due to my inability to sleep, my mind started doing the one thing I feared, it began wandering into the past.
I started thinking about my home, how this may be my new home, how could I fix this. I wanted to go home, but this place held so many new things. I began to think of all the new things here that I could do, all the ponies I could meet. I felt a little excited, but my excitement quickly came to an end, because along with those thoughts came some I didn’t want. The homesickness quickly began setting in as everything of my past life started coming to mind. My thoughts, with nothing else to think about, instantly started throwing every scenario of what happened to me, what happened to my family, what happened to Brock, and everything else in between into my mind.
I tried to think of anything but what I had lost, but the tears slowly started filling my eyes. I tried thinking of the feeling of the bed sheets against my fur, but all that did was remind me that I had fur now. I tried to think of the Wonderbolt show, but it just reminded me of my former career. I tried thinking of my new friends, but that only reminded me of all the friends I lost.
At this point the tears started to flow freely, dampening my pillow as I rolled over and buried my face into it. Though nothing hit me harder than remembering I didn’t have one of my favorite possession, a stuffed dog I had since I was a kid, was not with me. I slept with him every single night and used him to help me calm down when I had my midnight breakdowns. His presence was greatly missed as I felt like I had something missing from my grasp that I desperately needed. How I wished I could just have something familiar to me at this moment.
I just laid there, my face buried in my pillow, as I curled up into the fetal position and kept crying. It felt like I just cried for hours, but slowly the tears started to run out. I continued to lay there, covered in a cold sweat, as I continued to take shaky breaths, begging that I could just go back a few days and everything would return to normal.
After what felt like all night, I finally fell asleep, tears staining the fur around my eyes, with the same song lyrics repeating over and over in my head, doing nothing but to taunt me and remind me of my unfortunate situation.
“I tried so hard, and got so far.
But in the end, it doesn’t even matter.”