The afternoon sun beat down on the dirt road leading to Manehattan, surrounded by green fields. Spring Flower, an earth pony mare with white fur and a pink mane, whose cutie mark was a sunlit daisy, was sitting by the side of the road as she moved her tail nervously across the ground, gazing at the distant train tracks, for those that one of those steam vehicles passed in the direction of the city. The mare pursed her lips as she gazed at the distant buildings, half a day's journey away, but at this rate, they would not arrive.
They had started this journey from Smallcolt at the request of Charity Kindheart, an old friend of Spring Flower, as she was putting on her signature Summer Theatrical Show, and was hoping that she and her husband would bring back some of their produce and farm foods. The mare frowned as she saw another train, this time leaving Manehattan and heading in the opposite direction, but it was enough to make her growl slightly.
Her gaze focused on her husband, an earth pony named Field Sickle, with a yellow coat and a chestnut mane, with a cutie mark representing a sickle cutting through the wheat. He was busy trying to repair the race where they had brought all the food they had prepared for the event, which now waited patiently on the ground, protected in travel boxes, for the stallion to put the broken wheel back in place.
"I told you to take the train, but no, we had to go by car" Spring growled, a little irritated.
"Where's your sense of adventure?" Field said from his position, smiling at his wife with a wink.
Spring Flower wanted to be angry with him, but it was impossible, not when he was giving her that look. Still, she refused to smile at him and kept her brow furrowed, which wasn't too difficult because if they were still there, they would have to spend the night outdoors and, on top of that, they would be late for her friend's event. Field Sickle managed to place the wheel in its place with a cry of triumph, regarding his wife with pride.
"I told you I'd fix it!"
"Hooray, now that race can take us a few more meters before it breaks again," Spring said sarcastically.
"Hey, this race has accompanied three generations of my family, a little more faith."
"You said the same thing when you promised me it wouldn't break in the middle of the trip" replied the mare with narrowed eyes.
Field opened his mouth to answer but closed it, putting on a nervous smile, one that had always seemed endearing to his wife, making her laugh slightly. Spring, with a small smile on her lips, got up and approached her husband, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
"Come on, let's go now, if not, we won't get to..."
Spring stopped looking at the horizon, there was something... strange, and it was getting closer and closer. Field looked at his wife strangely and followed her gaze, also seeing that strange object.
"What's that?"
"I don't know" Spring said with a frown.
The object came even closer, revealing that it was engulfed in flames, and in a swift way, it passed over their heads and crashed several meters away. Both ponies looked at each other confused, observing the object had fallen. Spring started walking in its direction, being stopped by Field.
"What are you doing?! We don't know what that is!"
"There may be somepony there who needs help."
"What if it's something dangerous?"
"Like what?" Spring asked with a raised eyebrow, and seeing that her husband was thinking, she gave a smile and advanced to his side. "Also, where's your sense of adventure?"
Field frowned as he watched his wife walk over to the fallen object, and with a resigned sigh, walked to her side. As they got closer, a familiar sound was heard, one that made them both look at each other in confusion, it was the cry of a baby. Alarmed, the mare ran over, reaching the crashed ship, seeing the small open glass dome. With some difficulty, Spring managed to climb up to the cabin, seeing a small earth pony filly lying on her back, crying loudly, though every breath she took seemed to take monumental effort.
"What is it?!" Filed yelled as he ran to catch up with her.
"It's a filly!"
Spring grabbed the little filly between her hooves and went down carefully, feeling the filly cry loudly. When she went down, she took a good look at her, making sure she didn't have any injuries. Due to her size, the mare didn't think she was more than a day or two old. Field walked over and studied the baby, looking at the ship in confusion.
"What was a filly doing there?"
"I don't know, but the poor thing is scared," Spring said, rocking the filly between her hooves.
Little by little, she stopped crying, calmed by the calming presence, but her breathing was still a great effort for her, Spring feared that she had some respiratory problem. Field looked at the filly as well, noting the necklace she hung around her neck, glowing in shades of blue.
"What's that?" he asked as he grabbed the object, also being watched by Spring curiously.
Upon being taken, the rope detached and took on a more liquid form, joining the rest of the structure. Field dropped the object in surprise, worried that it was dangerous, but after it didn't pass, he went back to picking it up cautiously. At the top was a stylized 'S', with a background glowing blue.
Prim Hemline looked at the designs in front of her with a critical eye, she always did, especially with new designers, even if they were recommended by an element of harmony and one of the rising designers from all over the country. The designs that she had of her, 10 in total, were decent, as were the others that the same mare had presented to her other times, but like the previous times, there was something that she did not add up to. She looked up to see the earth pony in front of her, Coco Pommel, who was looking at her with a nervous smile, yes... but not the one others in her situation normally had.
"Well, Miss Pommel," Prim Hemline said as she surveyed her designs on her desk. "I like the first seven designs, but... the other three need more work."
"I understand" Coco said, keeping her cool, and once again, it wasn't the answer Prim expected.
"They are somewhat repetitive and even boring, you should think about them better" she said as she extended the mentioned designs.
Coco walked over and, instead of poring over them as she had seen many before her do, she shoved them quickly into her saddlebag with a quick 'I will, Mrs. Hemline.'
"There's something else I want to talk to you about your... performance on your designs."
"What's wrong with them?"
"Do you like fashion? I don't mean just if you like designing dresses, anypony can like that" Prim leaned in her chair to stare at Coco. "What I'm asking is if you're passionate about it."
"Of course, Mrs. Hemline, that is my special talent, after all."
She watched Coco carefully for a while, before sighing and leaning back in her chair. Ever since Coco started working for her a few months ago, she had always encountered this problem. Her designs, while pretty good, lacked the passion of somepony whose talent was fashion design, but she... sometimes wondered if her cutie mark didn't represent something else and the poor mare didn't know and wasted her life in something that was not her destiny, or she was hiding something from her. She was lately starting to believe the latter.
"You may retire, Miss Pommel. I hope to have those dresses after Hearth's Warming."
Coco nodded and walked away from her, taking the designs with her to prepare for the festive break. The mare left Prim Hemline's office and headed down the hall toward the exit. Her ears twitched, detecting the sound of one of her oldest friends, something that made her smile. After going down to the first floor and walking to the lobby, she saw her, a unicorn mare with golden fur and a night black mane, a cutie mark of a notepad and a camera, Ink Tale, the best journalist of the Daily Planet and her best friend for a few years. She was talking to the receptionist until she saw the earth pony, smiling before walking over.
"Finally, you was starting to worry me."
"Hey Ink, what are you doing here?" Coco said with a smile.
"What? Can't I come see how my best friend did?" Ink answered as she approached with a smile on her face.
Both mares hugged each other and headed for the exit, saying goodbye to the receptionist and heading out into the street.
"How did that witch like your designs?"
"Ink, Mrs. Hemline is not a witch, she's just a demanding mare" Coco said with a small laugh, making her friend roll her eyes.
"Coco, you always see the bright side of ponies, even if they're ponies like Prim Hemline or Suri."
Coco kept her smile, though she was a little hurt that her friend kept mentioning Suri. She had already received enough scolding from her mother for that, she didn't need her friend to participate as well.
"I has done well for me, although the last three designs she wants me to review. According to her they are a bit boring."
"Exactly, according to her. I keep saying you should go with another fashion company, hell, even Rarity would be so much better."
Coco rolled her eyes, allowing Ink to ramble on about the many possible job options. Both walked through the streets of Manehattan until they reached one of their favorite coffee shops, where they entered for their lunch. While the star journalist ordered a lettuce, tomato and cheese sandwich, the earth pony ordered a double hay burger with fries, something that always surprised her friend, since she did not understand as a mare as kind as her, and sometimes even shy, could be so gluttonous. When the waitress left their food, the unicorn looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow.
"Seriously, you should watch that diet, aren't designers supposed to try not to get fat at all costs?"
Coco took a big bite out of her hay burger, and after swallowing, she responded.
"First, that's for the models. That thing about designers keeping to a diet only applies to Rarity" she said with a small giggle, remembering her more educated friend. "And second, you know I have a fast metabolism."
"Thanks for reminding me why I hate you sometimes" Ink commented as she rolled her eyes.
Both mares laughed together for a few seconds before going back to their food. 'I doubt obesity is a feasible problem for me anyway,' Coco thought to herself. In fact, neither obesity nor any other disease had been a problem for her.
"Please dad! Just one?"
Coco's ears instantly moved in the direction of that sound, and when she turned her head slightly, the mare saw, across the street, a filly standing next to her dad, pointing to a traveling candy stand. Her eyes adjusted automatically, zooming in and taking in their faces, and she could see that the stallion wasn't too happy.
"Honey, I already told you no. We just got out of the dentist, do you want to go again?"
The pout that the filly made made Coco laugh slightly, drawing the attention of her friend.
"Something happens?"
"Nothing, I just...remembered something from my foalhood."
"The fact that?" asked Ink with that curiosity of hers that characterized her so much.
"When I was 6 years old, I pestered my mother to buy me candy at a town celebration" said Coco with a smile, remembering those times... when she was still relatively normal. "I spent hours trying, in the end I got it, but she grounded me for a week without going out for throwing a tantrum in public."
"By Celestia, I'd pay to see that" Ink said with a barely suppressed laugh. "You sure were the cutest thing possible."
Coco nodded, smiling as she remembered that time, the time when she was still normal. After her 7th birthday, everything started to change.
Coco walked through the halls of her school, accompanied by the rest of her classmates, the headache she had been suffering from all morning getting stronger. She entered the class and sat at her table, moaning slightly at her pain as she brought a hoof to her forehead. Her teacher, a pegasus mare, started to take roll, but her words made her headache worse. Her ears moved in several directions at once, detecting the conversations of the other foals in the class, the little hoofbeats on the tables...
"Coco?"
The little filly opened her eyes and looked at her teacher, who was looking doubtfully at her paper with the list on her right wing.
"Are you okay Coco?"
Coco tried to speak, but a new headache prevented her, and the pain came with more noises. She could hear the tapping of a pencil on a table in a different classroom, the song of a bird from the schoolyard, and from farther and farther away.
"8-bit an apple cider? That's a steal!"
"A round of beers over here!"
"Do you still have Vanilla Cream Pies left?"
Coco brought both hooves to her head, trying to block out the noises, the assault on her ears, her eyes squeezed shut.
"Coco, do you need help?"
The filly looked at her teacher, and that was much worse. Her vision zoomed in on her face, showing her every detail, before her skin began to fade. In horror, Coco looked down at her, watching as skin gave way to muscle and then to bone, revealing her organs, before reversing the process. A slightly white aura covered her body, shining more brightly on her wings, and as she turned to look at her companions, she saw that the aura shone with equal intensity on the hooves of earth ponies and the horns of unicorns. Overwhelmed, she got up from her desk and left the class, ignoring the teacher's yelling at her.
Coco ran down the hall, all those noises drilling into her brain, the walls disappearing and appearing at irregular intervals. All she wanted was a place to hide, to be safe. Her suddenly enhanced vision beyond known limits focused on a small service store, which the filly hurriedly approached, opening the door and blocking it as she entered, then dropped to the ground, pressing herself against the corner and covering her ears, in a vain attempt to block his senses. Several knocks shook the door and her brain, making her groan in pain.
"Coco, please open the door."
"Leave me alone!" Coco yelled, realizing with a jolt of pain that it was a very bad idea.
"Please Coco, I just want to help you."
Groaning in pain, Coco opened her eyes and stared at the door, which disappeared to reveal the ponies outside it, her teacher and the foals. She wanted them to go away from her, to leave her alone. Her eyes began to sting, then burn. Her pupils turned red, and as the color covered her bluish iris, the doorknob began to heat up and turn red hot. The little filly could see and hear her teacher scream in pain as she stepped away from it, and moments later, two bolts of concentrated heat shot out and hit the metal knob.
Coco cried out in pain, looking through a red window as the metal heated up. Before the temperature rose any further, the filly closed her eyes, feeling the rays of heat trying to escape from her eyelids. She stayed there, huddled in the corner, her ears being assaulted by multitudes of voices and noises, and her eyes burning.
"She's a freak" said the voice of one of her classmates.
"Yesterday I invited her to play hide and seek, but she said her parents didn't allow her to play with other foals."
The little filly felt tears well up from the corner of her eyes, despite the burning she was feeling at the moment, she didn't know how, but she didn't care either. The minutes passed slowly, and the foals were led away while a teacher stayed with her, trying to get her out of it without success. After a while, somepony knocked on the door, and Coco pressed closer.
"Honey, it's me... it's mom..."
Coco sobbed at the soothing voice of her mother, standing out from the storm of noise like a beacon in the dark.
"It hurts... there's too much noise, mom... it hurts..."
Her mother was silent for a few moments before speaking again.
"Focus only on what you want to hear, honey... Focus on my voice, can you do it my little angel?"
Coco tried, concentrating only on the soft voice of her mother, who continued to encourage her. Little by little, the noises farthest from her began to disappear, until she could only hear the closest ones. The burning in her eyes was still present, but concentrating, she faded as well. The little filly opened her eyelids slowly, afraid to release those rays of heat again, but it didn't happen. Her gaze focused on the door, seeing through it to her mother, her muscles, her bones.
Closing her eyes, she breathed several times before opening them again. Concentrating, the muscles in her mother began to hide her organs and bones, followed by her skin, illuminated by that white aura, which it also managed to make disappear, seeing her mother as she had always seen her, quickly ducking out the door. A little calmer, Coco got up on trembling legs and walked over to the door, opening it. The mare on the other side smiled and opened her arms, into which her daughter threw herself for a hug, sobbing into her chest.
"That's it, honey, it's over..."
"What's wrong with me?... Why am I such a freak?"
"Oh honey…" Spring pulled her daughter away to look at her face, wiping a tear from her cheek and smiling. "You are not a freak, you are special."
Coco sobbed again and hugged her mother, who hugged her back, sighing to herself. What she feared so much had happened... her daughter was not exactly like the ponies in absolutely everything.