Coloring Outside the Lines
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Chapter 1
love isn't easy...
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Mommy says it’s good that I like going to school because a lot of kids don’t, but I never understood why not. There’s so many good things about school! I get to see all my friends, and Careful Preparation is there. That’s our teacher, but we all call her Ms. Prep, and she’s so nice! She always makes me laugh and she makes learning a lot of fun!
Oh, wait, I forgot to say my name is Flurry Heart, and I’m five years old. I’m an alicorn, just like my mommy and my Auntie Twilight. Adults always say I’m getting really big, but I don’t feel very big yet. But that’s okay, even if I’m still little I don’t mind. Everyone is always nice to me and I like going to school and playing with my friends and… and… and I love my family very much!
Uhm, what else… Oh, school, yeah! I think story time is the best time of the day, although there are a lot of good things about school. I like story time the best, but there’s recess and snack time and nap time and learning to read and write on our own. I think writing is a little tricky because some of the letters look really the same, but Ms. Prep says I’m starting to get the hang of it!
Oh yeah, story time. Ms. Prep was reading us a story about a family that got a new baby brother. That was fun because I’m getting a new brother or sister too! They’re still a little bitty baby in my mommy’s tummy, and my parents say that there will be a lot of changes. I’m happy that I’ll have a little brother or sister, I bet they’ll be a lot of fun.
But in the story, the little filly wasn’t very happy at first. She felt like her moms didn’t love her as much because of the baby, which I thought was silly. Mommy says love doesn’t work that way, that ponies can love as many other ponies as they want to. And I know she’s right, because I love a lot of ponies! I have a big family, and I love them all! I love Mommy and Daddy, Auntie Fluttershy, Auntie Tia, Mo Glow, Missus Pinkie, Ms. Prep, even though she’s not part of my family I still love her, and my friends and, uhm, and a lot of other ponies too!
But the best thing about stories is they always have a happy ending. The little filly learned that her moms loved her and her baby brother, and it made me feel really good inside! My best friend Ocean Breeze said that the story was silly because little siblings are always the best anyway, but I think he only thinks that because he’s the youngest kid in his family.
For some reason, my other best friend Melody Charm didn’t say anything about the story, but she did go over to talk to Ms. Prep after it was done. She whispered something to our teacher that I couldn’t hear, but the really weird thing is after she did, Melody looked over at me and her face got all red. Then Ms. Prep said, “If she wants to, then of course,” and that made Melody smile.
I asked Ocean Breeze if he knew why she was looking at me like that or what she was asking Ms. Prep about, and he just shrugged. “You girls are just weird sometimes,” he said. I was going to say that boys were weird too, but I don’t know why but I decided not to.
After that, Melody came back to where I was stacking up blocks and Ocean Breeze was playing with a train. “Hi, Melody,” I said. “What did you talk to Ms. Prep about?”
Her face got all red again, and she just said, “Nothing.”
“We should play something,” Ocean said.
“Okay,” I said. “What should we play?”
“We could play pretend,” Melody said, and we all thought that was a good idea. “Let’s play house! We can be like the family in the story!”
“No, I don’t want to play house,” Ocean said, then he jumped at my tower of blocks and knocked it over. “I want to be dinosaurs! Rawr, I’m a T-rex and I’m gonna gobble you up, Flurry!”
I laughed and said, “Okay, let’s play dinosaurs! Oh no, don’t eat me!”
But then before Ocean-Rex could get me, Melody Charm stepped in between us and bowed her head at him. “Don’t worry, Flurry! I’m a tri… uhm, tricer…”
“Triceratops,” Ocean said. He’s really smart and knows every single dinosaur name ever!
“Yeah, so I have horns on my head!” Melodytops said. She headbutted Ocean-Rex, but don’t worry, because she’s actually an earth pony so she doesn’t really have a horn, it was just pretend.
“Oh no!” he said. “But T-rexes are big and bad and aren’t even afraid of horns! Rawr!”
Ocean-rex jumped at Melodytops, and I laughed. “Oh no, Melody! Don’t worry, I’m a terror dactyl, I’ll get him from above!” So I spread my wings and flew into the air, flying over Ocean-Rex.
But before I could drop on him, he flew into the air as well. Oh, I think I forgot to say, Ocean Breeze is a pegasus, so he can do that. But he shouldn’t have done that then, because it made Melody angry.
“Ocean! You’re a T-rex, and those can’t fly!”
He didn’t listen to her though, even though she was right. So she jumped into the air and grabbed onto his tail with her teeth. Ocean is a good flier, but not good enough to fly with somepony hanging onto him, so they both crashed into the floor. That scared me because they’re my best friends ever and I don’t want them to be hurt, so I landed to make sure they were okay.
Before I could say anything though, Ms. Prep came came over to check on them. “Are you two okay?” she asked.
“I’m okay,” Ocean said.
“Tell Ocean to get his big butt off me!” Melody said because Ocean had crashed on top of her.
“Here, let’s get you both up,” Ms. Prep said, and she helped them both to their hooves.
“You didn’t get hurt, did you?” I asked.
“No, I’m okay,” Melody said.
“Me too,” Ocean said.
I was happy, but Ms. Prep frowned at them. “I think that’s enough rough housing. Melody, you know better than to jump on somepony who’s flying, don’t you?”
Melody looked down at the floor. “Yes, Ms. Prep.”
“Why don’t you three do something quiet for the rest of play time?” Ms. Prep smiled again, which I think is good. She has a really nice smile and it reminds me of Aunt Fluttershy when she does. “Maybe you could read together, or play house, or play with some toys?”
“House!” Melody said, and I remembered that’s what she wanted to play from the beginning. “We should play house!”
“Okay, I’ll be the dad and Flurry can be the mom,” Ocean said.
“No, me and Flurry should both be moms!” Melody said. I looked at her and her face went red again. “Like, uhm, like in the story.”
“You can’t both be moms,” Ocean said.
“Sure they can,” Ms. Prep said. “I think Flurry knows something about that, right?”
“Uhm, you mean like how my aunts are all moms together?” I asked, and Ms. Prep nodded.
“Just like Flurry’s aunts, and like the family in the story, a family can have more than one mom.” Ms. Prep looked like she was going to say more, but then another kid started calling for her to help him get down a toy on a high shelf. “You three figure out your game nicely, okay? I don’t want any more trouble from you.”
“Yes, Ms. Prep,” I said, then she left to go help the other kid. I turned back to my friends. “We can both be moms, Melody. I think it’d be really cool to be like my aunts!”
“Well I think it sounds dumb,” Ocean said.
“Hey!” I frowned. Ocean Breeze was one of my best friends, but he wasn’t allowed to say that about my family! “My aunts are not dumb! They’re really nice ponies!”
“No, not your aunts!” Ocean said. “I just don’t want to be the baby!”
“But you’re already the baby,” Melody reminded him. “You’ve got three older siblings, you’re like the baby of your family.”
“You have an older brother too!” Ocean shot back.
I just shrugged. “I can be the baby and you two can be the mommy and daddy.”
“No!” they both said at the same time. I was confused. Why did this matter so much to them?
Melody came over and gave me a hug, which was nice of her, but I was still really confused. “Flurry would rather be mommies with me than be with a smelly old boy anyway.”
“I don’t think Ocean is smelly,” I said. “And I don’t want Ocean to have to be the baby. We should just play something else.”
“Ha! She doesn’t want to play your game!” Ocean said.
I looked between my friends and got really upset. They were supposed to be friends, but they had been fighting all day long. I felt like I was going to cry. “Why are you two being mean to each other?”
“Because…” Melody looked at Ocean, whose eyes went really wide all of a sudden. “Because he’s in love with you!”
“Melody!” Ocean said. “You weren’t supposed to tell!”
“I love him too though,” I said with a shrug, not seeing what the big deal was. “And I love you too, Melody.”
“No, he’s in love with you! He wants to grow up and marry you!”
“You do?” I asked.
Now Ocean was getting really red in the face, like Melody had earlier. “No, she’s lying! I didn’t say that!”
“Oh.” I was getting more and more confused. I didn’t know why Melody would lie about that, it seemed silly.
Melody smiled though. “Okay, if you don’t want to, I’ll grow up and marry Flurry!”
“What?” I looked between Melody and Ocean. “Now you want to marry me?”
“You’re my best friend!” Melody said. “That’s what happens when you grow up, my dad said so. When I asked why he married my mom, he said that it was because he realized she was his best friend that he wanted to be with forever. Just like you!”
“Oh.” When she put it like that, it did make a lot of sense. “Well, okay then, we can get married when we grow up.”
“But what about me?” Ocean said. “I’m your best friend too!”
I scrunched up my face and shook my head. “Wait, but you said you didn’t want to marry me!”
“Well, I changed my mind.” Since Melody was on one side of me still, Ocean walked over to the other side. He grabbed my hoof and pulled me closer. “You should marry me because I know all the better games!”
I didn’t like when he did that. It didn’t hurt, but it made me feel bad. And it felt even worse because he was pulling me away from Melody. I wasn’t even sure why he would do that anyway. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t.
But then Melody grabbed my other hoof and pulled me back to her. “No, you should marry me because I paint prettier pictures!”
“What?” I didn’t like having Melody pull on me either, and I really didn’t like my friends fighting. Maybe it did hurt. It didn’t hurt my forelegs, but it made me all hurt inside.
“Flurry wants to marry me!” Ocean said, and he was sounding really angry now, which made me not want to marry him really even though he’s usually nice.
“No, she wants to marry me!” Melody said, and she sounded angry too.
I didn’t know what was going on or why they were fighting like this, it made me really hurt inside and I didn’t like it one bit, but I didn’t know what to say. It hurt enough that I wanted to cry, but adults say I’m getting big and I don’t think big fillies should cry. So I tried to hold it in, but they kept arguing.
“Me!”
“No, me!”
Eventually the hurt got so much that I did the only thing I could think to do and yelled, “Stop!” but I yelled too loud and made Ms. Prep notice us. She came back over, so both Melody and Ocean let go of me.
“What’s going on here?” Ms. Prep asked. “I thought you three were going to play nice?”
“Sorry,” Ocean said. Me and Melody didn’t say anything.
“I think I need to separate you for the rest of the day. Why don’t each of you find somepony else to play with, and you can play together again tomorrow.”
“I don’t want to!” Ocean said.
Ms. Prep gave him a look that wasn’t very nice. “In that case, maybe you should just lie down for another nap time until your parents come to pick you up.”
Ocean grumbled about playing with another colt, and he went off.
Melody looked at me. “Can me and Flurry play something quietly?”
“No, I think all of you should go do your own thing.”
“Okay…” Melody kicked the ground and her ears folded back, so I wanted to hug her, but I didn’t because I was still mad that she tried to pull me back and forth like a tug-of-war rope. But then before I could be too mad, she said, “I’m sorry, Flurry…”
So I said, “It’s okay. We’ll play later.”
And she nodded and walked away, I think she was going to go read because she went over by the books, but I don’t know.
Then it was just me and Ms. Prep. “Well, Flurry? What are you going to do?”
I didn’t really want to play with somepony else. I like the rest of my class too, but Ocean and Melody are my best friends ever and it makes me sad when I’m not allowed to play with them. “I think I’m going to draw a picture.”
Ms. Prep nodded. “Good idea. Let’s help you get some supplies.”
So Ms. Prep brought me to the supply closet, where she got out crayons and paper for me. I said, “Thank you,” then went over to my desk to draw a nice picture.
It was easy to decide what to draw. I couldn’t play with my friends, so I would draw a picture of the three of us together. Isn’t that a good idea? That way I wouldn’t be sad anymore.
I made sure to draw my friends really good and tried my best to not color outside the lines, even if I did a little anyway. Melody Charm is red with purple and pink hair, which her dad braids for her every morning. I tried to make it look good but it was really really hard to get that part right.
And then I drew Ocean Breeze. He’s dark green with a light blue mane and little white spots. But uhm, I didn’t know how to color white spots, so I didn’t. I hope he doesn’t mind… I also almost forgot to draw his wings but then I said oh I forgot to draw his wings and I did draw them after that.
Then I drew me in between them, because it’s my favorite place to be. Well, I also love being between my parents, or with my cousin Morning, or with my aunts, or my grandparents, or, or… Well, I think I just like being with ponies that I love who are nice to me, I think that’s probably the most important thing.
But then I didn’t really stop being sad, even when I drew a smile on my face in the picture. I want everyone to be happy like in the picture, and I don’t want to pick one of my friends over the other one. Both of them are the bestest friends and I love them both! Mommy says…
Hey, wait a minute, I should ask Mommy what to do! She’s really really smart, like, even smarter than Ocean that’s how super smart she is! She always teaches me about things like this, I think she’ll know what to do.
So I finished my drawing and showed it to another one of my friends while I waited for the day to end, and I wasn’t sad any more.
I always go home with one of the guards who works at our castle. He’s really nice, and sometimes he lets me ride on his back so I can be really tall, but today I walked next to him instead. He asked about school, so I told him what happened with my friends.
“Ah, I see,” he said. “Guess you’re at that age, then.”
“What age, Flash?”
Flash smiled. “Oh, the age when you start to think about stuff like love. That is, if you don’t think other foals have cooties.”
“I’ve never seen a cootie so I don’t think Ocean or Melody have any.”
What I said must have been very smart, because Flash nodded the way adults do when they agree with something. “Good thinking. When I was your age, I thought all the fillies in my class had cooties.”
“Oh. Did they?”
Flash smiled. “No, I was just a dumb colt. But you should ask your mom about what to do with your friends. She is the Princess of Love, you know.”
“I know,” I said, but I didn’t think that mattered. I wanted to ask her just because she’s my mommy, not because she’s a princess. I don’t think being a princess matters much, because I still get in trouble when I don’t eat all my broccoli and I think that means being a princess is the same as everypony else anyway.
Well, I guess it’s not exactly the same, because we do live in a big castle. Me and my friends like to play there because there’s so many rooms, it makes hide and seek the best. I’m glad we live in a castle, so I guess it’s good being a princess, even though my friends have cool houses too.
We got to the castle and Flash said he had to go talk to Daddy, but he told me where Mommy is so I said thank you very much because I’m a good filly, and then I went to go find her.
When I went into the room, she was sitting at a desk writing on a piece of paper. She does that a lot lately and it makes her really grumpy, and she once told me that’s because the things she’s writing are making other ponies grumpy too, but that she has to write them anyway. I guess if I had to do something that made other ponies grumpy I wouldn’t like it very much either.
Oh, but yeah, I went into the room and decided to cheer her up with a hug. She looked at me and smiled. “Hi, sweetheart. How was school?”
“It was good, but uhm, it was also bad.”
“Aww, I’m sorry to hear that.” Mommy stood and scooped me up in her foreleg. She brought me over to a couch that she uses to take breaks when she’s writing grumpy things, and we laid down on it together. “Wanna tell me about it?”
“Can I listen to my baby brother first?” I asked.
“Of course,” Mommy said, then she turned so I could put my head on her belly. It was getting really big, but Mommy and Daddy said it would still get bigger before the baby was born. “But what makes you think they’re going to be a boy?”
“Because I’m a girl, and that’s how it works. You have a girl, then a boy, then a girl, then a boy. And, uhm, it’s like that forever until you don’t have more foals anymore.”
Mommy stroked my mane and smiled. “Nope, doesn’t work that way, sweetheart. Remember Pinkie Pie, Auntie Twilight’s friend? She has three sisters and no brothers at all.”
“Oh. Well, uhm, I just hope they’re nice.”
“I’m sure they will be, but you know, they’ll be a lot of work too. But it’ll be worth it.”
“Because we’ll love each other?” I asked, then I smiled, because I felt the baby move against my head.
“That’s right, sweetie. Because we love each other.”
I pulled my head up from Mommy’s tummy and looked at her hooves. I knew she would be nice, but I was still a little shy to tell her what happened. “Two of my friends say they love me. That they want to marry me when we’re all big.”
“Oh really?” Mommy didn’t sound upset. When I looked up, she was smiling. “Which two? Do I know them?”
“Ocean Breeze and Melody Charm.”
“Oh, they’re nice foals. And do you feel the same way about them?”
“I don’t know.” I hadn’t really thought about that. I just wanted everypony to be happy, I didn’t really even think about what I wanted. “I guess… I’d like to marry either of them. They’re both nice, and we have a lot of fun together. But I don’t want to marry one of them and make the other one sad.”
“Well, maybe you could marry both of them. You’d be like Auntie Twilight.”
I shook my head. “I can’t do that because Melody is a filly and Ocean is a colt.”
“Why does that matter?”
“Auntie Fluttershy and Auntie Sunset are both fillies, Mommy.” I don’t know how she forgot that, but Mommy was silly sometimes, so I guess that makes sense. “Auntie Twilight is allowed to marry them both because they’re all girls!”
Mommy laughed. “No, she’d be allowed to marry them even if one of them was a stallion. Stuff like that doesn’t matter when it comes to love.”
“Really?” I thought about Melody and Ocean, and how happy we could be if I married both of them when we were big. Then the three of us could live in a castle and we’d play games together all the time and it would be really good.
“Even if the two of them don’t want to marry each other, they can both marry you.”
“Even if they don’t get married?” That sounded confusing, but if Mommy said it was true, then that’s what was true.
“Yes, even then. But you should know they might not want to share you. Some ponies don’t want to be in a poly relationship, and that’s okay too.”
“Poly?”
“That’s what it’s called when more than two ponies are in a relationship.”
“Oh.” I looked back down at Mommy’s hooves again. That didn’t sound as good. I looked at her hooves until she used one of them to brush my mane a little bit, then I looked up at her and she had a weird sort of smile. “But if they don’t want that, then I’ll have to hurt someone’s feelings…”
Mommy scooped me up and held me tight, which made me feel all safe and warm. “Here’s what you do. You go to school tomorrow, and you tell them that you either get to be in a relationship with both of them, or the three of you are just going to keep being friends.”
“I can do that?”
“Of course you can, sweetheart. No one can make you get married, or date someone, or anything like that. You can always say ‘no’.”
That made me feel better, but then I thought about it for a bit and said, “So, uhm, can I say no next time I have to eat broccoli?”
Mommy laughed. “Nice try, but you know you have to eat your greens. And you always like Grandpa’s broccoli.”
That was true, but it wasn’t the same. “Grandpa makes it good.”
“Hmm…” Mommy put her hoof to her chin, which is what adults do when they have to think really hard about something. “I’ll tell you what. If you’re a brave filly and tell your friends how you feel, I’ll learn to make broccoli like grandpa.”
“Okay. I think that sounds good.”
Mommy gave me a squeeze. “And you know I love you so much, right?”
I giggled. “I love you too, Mommy!”
“Good. And Flurry? Thank you for telling me about this.”
That was weird, because why wouldn’t I tell Mommy about this? But then, Mommy was silly sometimes, so it made sense. “You’re welcome, Mommy. Do you have to write more grumpy letters?”
“Actually, I was writing a nice letter. How would you feel if your aunts came to visit for a while?”
“Will Morning come too?”
“For a weekend, yes. Then she’ll have to go back to school, but one of your aunts – either Sunset or Twilight – will stay behind to help me with all those grumpy letters.”
“Yay! I think that sounds good!”
“I’m glad. Here, come help me finish writing this letter. You can tell me what you want to say to them.”
“Okay!”
So Mommy lifted me up again and we started walking to the table. Then she stopped and said, “Oh.”
So I got a little worried and said, “What’s wrong, Mommy?”
But she smiled and shook her head. “Nothing, your little sibling is just being rowdy. It feels like they’re trying to beat Mommy up from inside her tummy.”
“Oh no, I thought they were nice!”
Mommy set me down on top of the table she’d been writing on. “I’m sure they will be when they’re older. But babies aren’t really nice or mean, they’re just babies. They don’t know any better, so sometimes they might do things that you don’t like, or even hurt you a little bit, although they don’t mean to.”
“Oh. I guess they really are a lot of work, aren’t they?”
“They are, but you know, love is a lot of work sometimes.”
I nodded. I never knew that until today, but now I understood what Mommy meant. “It is, but uhm, I think it’s worth it.”
Mommy kissed my head. “I think so too, sweetheart.”
Even though Mommy read me what she’d written in the letter already, I kept thinking about going back to school in the morning. Love was a lot of work, but it was worth it.