//------------------------------//
// Brindledale Pony 
// Story: Something Special 
// by ponymon73 
//------------------------------//

	Morning. The most dreaded time of the day.  I pulled myself out of my bed. It welcomed me back underneath my cozy sheets. "Oh why can't I just sleep in?" I said, "Just for one day. One measly day!" I fluttered my speckled wings. I trotted into the kitchen, where mom was  fixing blueberry pancakes. "Good morning, BluBerry! How are you, my muffin?" she said. Her voice as soft as cotton. I looked at her with my do-you-really-have-to-ask face. She smiled and said, "Cheer up, Blu! There's a break in the war today. Which means your father may come home!" She went back to flipping the pancakes. I slowly perked up, "Which means there's no school!" Mom nodded. "Which also means I can go back to sleep?" She nodded once more. I was in the air in a heartbeat. My wings flew me to my bed. Snuggling under the blanket my grandma made. My eyes closed and I was sound asleep. Or at least, I wanted to be. My weary body wouldn't cooperate with my now active brain. I sighed. I pulled back my blanket. The lovely blanket that kept me warm, ever since I received my cutie mark. A blueberry muffin. My mother giggled when she heard me trotting down once more. "Oh shush, you," I said. I half-fluttered into the living room.
The door to our little home opened the moment I sat down. "Dad!" I shouted. I flew into his loving hooves. "I missed you, Dad," His big greyish coat was stained with mud, and you could barely see his Army hat cutie mark. "I missed you too, Muffin!" he said. He always calls me by my other name. BluBerry Muffin, a name I basically chose. My parents couldn't think of one, until they saw my eating a blueberry. Where the Muffin part came from is beyond me. "I need to talk to your mother, okay? Then we can go play some catch!" Dad said. I nodded, my face still adorned with a grin. It could've split right then and there, it was so big. 
Dad walked  to the kitchen. His one good wing up high and proud. His right wing was lost in an in-flight combat. That tattered wing was the thing that kept me close to home. It taught me that the world is full of danger. I love my brown speckled wings to much. Dad always said they were special. "I have never seen any wings more beautiful than yours," he said. 
When Dad got back he had the flying disc. I flicked my magenta and purple tail. "Yay!" I said ecstatically. Dad threw it out the door for me to catch. I zoomed out of the house, rustling loose papers. I threw it back to him. After about five minutes, I tired. Dad did too, and we collapsed in a heap on the ground. I started giggling. Then laughing. All of a sudden, Dad and I were laughing so hard, we couldn't breathe. Then Dad looked sad. So sad it frightened me. I stopped laughing. He tried to be brave, as if he was going back to war. "Muffin, I have to tell you something," he said, his happy tone replaced with sorrow. "It's about the war. It's getting worse, and it's starting to spread to the town. King Hardburo has issued a command, that all girl Pegasus must be-,"
"Sent off to war?" I interrupted him. He shook his head, "No. They must be...sent...away. To a place called Ponyville," I gasped. "A-away? To Ponyville?" I said. I almost started to cry. Dad slowly nodded, "Yes. I'm sorry Muffin. It wasn't my doing." I knew that, being a soldier's daughter, I needed to stay strong. I accepted the terrible news. "O-okay, Dad. I'll go," Tears built up in me like water behind a dam. "That's my brave little Muffin. I'll send you letters and photos anytime I can. I promise," Dad said. "I love you, Daddy," I said. I hugged him for the last time. My shoulders heaved up and down, as I silently cried. "Good-bye, Muffin. I'll always be thinking of you. Always," He said. I stood back and gave him a sad salute. He saluted back. Then I was off.