One afternoon after Melody had come home from school, Applejack had asked the family in the living room and announced that she would be going out with her friends.
Melody had strongly objected to that, she didn’t want her mother to leave, but Applejack had told her that it would only be for a few hours.
“Sugar, don’t worry I’ll be back later this evenin’.” The cowgirl had said when her daughter threw herself at her and didn’t want to let her leave.
“But Mama, Ah don’t want you to leave, you might not come back.” Melody had cried when she felt her mother’s hoof make contact with the door.
Granny Smith hobbled over and put a gentle hoof on her great granddaughter’s back gently guiding her away to sit down on the couch next to her Uncle.
Big Macintosh gently holding his niece as she cried into his fur.
“I’ll see you all this evenin’, and Melody, you be good for daddy and Uncle Big Mac, won’t you?” Applejack had asked her daughter, who only gave a weak nod to the question.
This was the first time since Melody was born that Applejack had allowed herself some free time to spend with her friends, ever since Melody had been born Applejack hadn’t allowed herself any free time she would never let Melody out of her sight even at home.
But this was a very special occasion as Rainbow Dash had announced that this would be the last time they would be in Ponyville, as she was moving to Vanhoover with Soren that week, this announcement came after they had tied the not a few years ago and were blessed with a beautiful baby colt, they named Sky Dancer, when he was three years old, they discovered that little Sky Dancer wasn’t developing like other colts his age were, so they took him to a doctor up in Vanhoover, who diagnosed him with autism and advised Rainbow to look into special schooling for him, but the only school she could find was in Vanhoover itself.
Rainbow Dash was torn between two options. She could either stay in Vanhoover and get Sky Dancer the help that he needed or go back to Ponyville and continue life as normal.
She had talked over this with her husband, one night after they had put Sky Dancer down for the night, Soren had agreed that it would be best if she went back to Ponyville to discuss it with her friends.
The next morning, the family flew back to Ponyville, that same evening Rainbow had called a meeting at Twilight’s castle to discuss the two options with her friends.
“You wanna go to Vanhoover?” Pinkie had screeched when Rainbow Dash had said that she wanted to move there.
“I think it’s a nice idea, after all it would give Sky Dancer the schooling he needs.” Twilight had smiled at her friend.
“Oh darling, I do think it’s a wonderful idea, but won’t you come to visit us every once in a while?” Rarity had asked with tears in her eyes.
“Of course I will.” Rainbow Dash had said after giving Rarity a tight hug.
“You take care of yourself now, ya hear.” Applejack had smiled at her Pegasus friend.
“Of course I will, AJ.” Rainbow had said to the cowgirl.
Turning to her oldest friend, Rainbow gave Fluttershy a tearful hug, all at once Fluttershy burst into tears.
“Oh, Dash, I’m going to miss you.” Fluttershy cried while Rainbow held her.
The very next morning, Rainbow dropped by the farm to say goodbye to her niece, when Stevie opened the door, he smelt the familiar perfume that Rainbow always wore, usually Rainbow didn’t wear perfume, but ever since she got married to Soren, and he had given her a perfume bottle on the first anniversary as a married couple, she had never gone anywhere without wearing a bit of perfume before going out.
“Do come in, Rainbow, I assume you are here to see Melody.” Stevie said, as he let in the light blue Pegasus.
Rainbow observed Stevie going to the bottom of the stairs and shouting up them.
“MELODY, YOUR AUNTIE RAINBOW IS HERE TO SAY GOODBYE.” He shouted up stairs, in an instant an eight year old filly appeared at the top of the stairs, now wearing the same sunglasses that her father was.
The filly slowly made her way down the stairs to where her father stood.
“Auntie Rainbow, Ah didn’t know yerr were leavin’ Ponyville forever.” Melody said when she had reached out a hoof to touch Rainbow’s chest fur.
“Your parents didn’t tell you, squirt, me and Uncle Soren need to go away for a while to give your cousin the proper schooling he needs.” Rainbow gently spoke, as she ruffled the eight year old’s mane.
“It ain’t gonna be the same without you.” Stevie said, as he hugged Rainbow, his eyes filling with tears as he spoke.
“But don’t you worry, I’ll come to visit as often as possible.” Rainbow said as she headed for the door.
Once Rainbow had gone, Melody sat down on the floor, took off her glasses and cried, Stevie sat next to her as she cried, and held his daughter, they stayed like this for a while before Melody put her glasses back on, and promptly went upstairs without another word to her father.
Melody didn’t come down until it was time for dinner that evening, at dinner, she stayed silent, not talking or eating very much even though her mother had made her favorite, Shepherds Pie.
“Ah know that you miss her, Sugar, but it ain’t like you’ll never see her again.” Applejack finally broke the silence.
Melody let out a heavy sigh as she abruptly got up from the table, slamming her hooves onto it before leaving.
“What was that all about?” The cowgirl asked her husband.
“I have no idea, maybe I should go talk to her.” Stevie said, standing up from the table.
“No, give her a bit of time.” Granny Smith advised.
Upstairs, Melody ran into her room, slamming the door shut, two small waterfalls running down her face as she flopped onto her bed and cried into her pillow.
It was unfair, why did Auntie Rainbow have to leave, what was so special about her cousin that they needed to move to another city to give him proper education, couldn’t they give it to him here in Ponyville, and why the heck didn’t her parents tell her?
Melody didn’t understand why her cousin was special, what was wrong with him, was he weird or something or maybe even insane, she let out a heavy sigh as she sat up.
She desperately wanted her Auntie to come back and tell her that everything was going to be fine, but judging from how her mother had said that Rainbow wouldn’t return anytime soon there was nothing she could do.
Melody slowly got up, wiping away the remaining tears and slowly going back downstairs, just in time to hear her dad and mom laugh.
“Mama, why is my cousin special, is he weird or something?” Melody asked once she came back into the dining room.
“Well, your cousin is autistic.” Applejack answered.
“I don’t understand, is he insane or something?” Melody asked, her curiosity growing by the minute about her cousin that she had never met.
“Melody Harmony Apple, you hush with that type of talk, this instant, ya hear.” Her father scolded.
“But Papa, Ah don’t understand, how do ponies even get that type of disease?” Melody desperately asked, the tears now freely flowing.
“I don’t know, the only special school is in Vanhoover, here in Ponyville we don’t know much ‘bout autism.” Granny Smith who had been silently listening to her granddaughter rant, finally spoke up.
“But Granny, it ain’t fair, what is autism?” Melody slammed her hooves on the table.
“That’s quite enough, young lady,” Her mother shouted, making Melody flinch and run back upstairs.
Applejack and Stevie didn’t hear anything out of Melody’s room for the rest of the evening.
A few hours later, Granny Smith was helping Applejack clean up the kitchen.
Her granddaughter let out a heavy sigh as she threw down the rag she was holding.
“Why does this need to be so hard, I mean there ain’t nothin’ we can do about Rainbow, but we need to make Melody understand that her cousin is better off in Vanhoover.” Applejack’s own eyes started filling with tears.
“Sugar, it’s been a long night I think what we all need now is a good night sleep and in the mornin’ we can talk to Melody again.” Stevie said, coming up behind her and wrapping his hooves around her waist pulling her into a tight hug.
“You’re right, I’ll talk to her in the morning.” Applejack said as she turned around and planted a kiss on Stevie’s lips.
“Good night y’all.” Stevie said as he and his wife disappeared upstairs, Granny watched them go with a heavy sigh, and continued cleaning up the kitchen.
The next morning in Twilight’s castle, Melody was reading her second book that Twilight had special ordered for her.
The eight-year-old was sitting on one of the many velvet, plush cushions that could be found in the library, Twilight sitting next to her.
“Auntie Twilight, what is autism?” Melody asked suddenly.
“Well,” Twilight began. “It’s a condition that makes a pony act differently, for example they may be more sensitive to noise then other ponies would be, or they are more sensitive to touch, some autistic ponies can’t talk while others can, autism is spectrum, so there are many forms of it.”
“Ok, so kind of like me? I’m also sensitive to noise sometimes.” Melody asked.
Twilight chuckled at her niece’s eagerness to learn.
“Not quite, you see, autistic ponies are quite a bit different from blind ponies such as yourself, some autistic ponies have special talents that no pony else has, ponies with those special talents are called Savants.” Twilight explained.
“You mean like daddy?” The eight year old asked.
“Yeah, except that your daddy is not autistic, even though he may have a special talent for music.” The alicorn chuckled.
Melody let out a sigh as she went back to her book.
“Why do you ask?” The alicorn inquired.
“Mama says that my cousin Sky Dancer is autistic, auntie Rainbow moved to Vanhoover because there’s a special school, there for ponies with his condition.” Melody answered.
Twilight gave an unseen nod, and flew up to one of the higher shelves of the library to get a book.
“it’s true that the only school that exists for ponies with disabilities is in Vanhoover, now I don’t want to scare you or anything, but a long time ago, even before the princesses ruled over Equestria, ponies didn’t understand much about autism or any other disability, so they were put into dark and gloomy places, from which no pony ever spoke of, throughout history ponies became very violent towards ponies, who were different from them, they didn’t understand, and I feel that they never will, even after the princesses became rulers of Equestria, there were still tensions toward ponies with disabilities.” Twilight looked up from the book she had been holding.
“Oh.” Melody shivered. “I don’t wanna end up like that.”
“Don’t worry, all that happened a really long time ago, Now ponies are better educated in disabilities, Has anyone made fun of your eyes in school?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah.” Melody answered.
“That's called abysm, most likely the parents were never taught about how hurtful words can be to disabled ponies, and they never taught their children about not staring at the disabled, but you shouldn't worry about those ponies. They are just ignorant and don't know any better.” Twilight answered giving an unseen smile to the eight-year-old.
“Thanks, Auntie Twilight.” The filly thanked her favorite aunt.
“You’re welcome, sweetie.” Twilight replied, giving the filly a hug.
“So how are you getting along with your braille reading?” Twilight asked when she let go of her niece and sat back down next to her.
“It’s going good, thanks for ordering those books for me, they really helped me.” The filly smiled in the direction where she thought her aunt was sitting.
“If you’ve got any more questions, you know where to find me, love you sweetheart.” Twilight said with a grin.
“Love you too, Auntie Twilight.” Melody said as she hugged her.
The next day, when Melody had been dropped off at school by Applejack, Cozy was waiting for her on the playground.
“Hey, Melody, I got my cutie mark over the weekend.” Cozy shouted when she saw her friend walked toward her.
“Cool, what is it?” Melody asked, her opaque eyes moving from side to side underneath her glasses.
“It’s a..” Cozy started to say, but was interrupted by Chance laughing behind her.
“Hey, now that you got your cutie mark. Why are you still hanging out with this freak?” He asked.
“Because she’s my friend.” Cozy growled, defensively.
“OK, but isn’t her father like retarded or something?” Chance laughed in Melody’s face.
“What did you say, how dare you, I will have you know my father is a perfect angel, how dare you say something so vulgar about him?” Melody snapped, her voice growing in pitch and volume as she felt her eyes swimming with tears.
“And why do you always wear those stupid glasses, freak?” Chance asked.
“That’s it, you’re going down.” Melody screamed as she lunged for Chance, who cleverly stepped out of the way.
As he stepped out of the way, Melody fell on her face, she could hear Chance and some other ponies laughing behind her.
“What’s going on out here?” Cheerilee asked coming outside, just in time to see Melody sitting up and holding her nose, which was bleeding.
“Who did this?” The teacher asked.
“It was Chance, he…he called daddy retard.” Melody explained still holding her nose.
Cheerilee narrowed her eyes at him, and spoke in a low voice.
“Stay after class, I’m gonna have to have a talk with your parents.” Cheerilee growled as she led Melody inside and to her desk.
When school was over, Cheerilee sat at her desk, Chance glaring sideways at Melody.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Chance’s mother stomped into the classroom a moment later.
“Spoiled Rich, please sit down.” Cheerilee said, as Applejack came into the classroom.
“What happened?” The cowgirl asked, looking at Chance and Spoiled Rich out of the corner of her eye.
“Mama, Chance called me a freak and said daddy was retarded.” Melody explained.
“Say what?” Applejack asked leveling a stony gaze at Spoiled Rich.
Spoiled Rich huffed in annoyance. “My son is a perfect angel, there was no way he could’ve said those things, Miss Cheerilee.”
“Yeah, but Diamond Tiara wasn’t any better.” Applejack snapped.
“Your daughter needs to be put in an asylum, she doesn’t belong in Equestria, same as her dad.” Spoiled Rich snapped.
Applejack abruptly stood up and walked over to Spoiled Rich and slapped her across the face.
“How dare you?” The cowgirl screeched, as she pulled melody along to the door and opened it and walked out and then slammed it behind her.
Almost immediately, the tears started flowing as Applejack sat down on the ground and cried like a little child.
“Mama, what’s wrong?” Melody asked, feeling her mother’s grip on her titan.
Applejack didn’t immediately answer, as memories came flooding back of Apple Bloom coming home with a black eye from when Diamond Tiara had hit her.
“Sugar, listen to me, next time some pony is makin’ fun ‘o yerr eyes, yerr got to tell me or Miss Cheerilee, ya hear?” Applejack said looking at her daughter with a serious look in her eyes.
“Yes, mama, Ah understand.” Melody said as they started walking toward home.
Once back at home, Applejack told her husband what happened to Melody at school.
After a moment of awkward silence, Stevie, who had been listening spoke.
“I got half of mine to go down to that school, and tell that boy how I feel.” He growled, slamming a hoof down on the table he and Applejack were sitting at.
“Well, I don’t know about that I mean I don’t think he’d listen to you.” Applejack replied, putting a hoof on her husband’s shoulder.
But by this point, Stevie was no longer listening to his wife as the painful memories flooded back of him arriving in Equestria and the names he got called.
Freak.
Doesn’t belong.
Go back where you came from.
Blind as a bat.
Leave us alone, we don’t need you.
You’re not wanted here.
The fur on Stevie’s neck stood on end, as he slowly got up and made his way upstairs, once he was in his room, he let all of his emotions get the better of him as he sat down on the edge of his bed and cried.