Dear Blue,
I just got your photo and thought it was pretty good. But are you being deliberate here? You didn’t take a picture of your cutie mark and you won’t write what it is either. It is really that embarrassing? If so then I guess I’ll listen to my friend Rarity and keep my own cutie mark hidden too.
Oh yes that does remind me. My friend Rarity found me in the middle of reading your last letter. Lucky for me it was her and not one of my other friends, Rarity is mature enough not to come up with wild theories and to give advice on writing to you. So it is with her encouragement that I ask if you could come by Ponyville one of these days. I laughed when Rarity said she wanted to “Size you up” but I still think it is a good idea. We’ve been pen pals for over four years now and I’m surprised how long it’s taken to even exchange photos of each other. I’d love to grow closer to you by meeting you in pony if that is alright. Enclosed is my own photo picked out by Rarity and the next move in our little chess game, as well as my next two moves depending on what moves you make. Let’s see if you can best me with that much of a handicap now lol.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Fluttershy.
The tension in the air was maddening now. The two of you had not spoken a word after finding out the other’s true self. For your part, it was because you were awestruck and a little embarrassed about the entire thing. Good thing your coat could hide the heat in your face from it all. Before you was what many a stallion would really say was one of the most desired mares in all of Equestria, a mare who had a brief modeling career and the only reason she wasn’t a big celebrity was that the princesses had ordered no real news casting in the area and no pony was going to bad mouth them in the media. And she was your pen pal for well over eight years. A pen pal you had, due to both assuming she was likely a boy or older than you, basically been hitting on for all the time as well. You had both done it in joking manner of course, but for it to have gone on for so long and she was in fact a girl who befriended you through a dating service, it messed with your emotions.
Now you understood why you felt the need to hold on to the letters. You had originally rationalized it that you’d have a good laugh with your Ponyville friend when the time came for you both to be completely honest so you could get to know each other better and see where one was lying and whatnot. But another part of you, a part you pushed to the side, was telling you to hold on to them for some other reason. And now you can’t even talk to her.
Fluttershy had moved as far away from you as she could after this revelation which didn’t help this feeling that you had really wronged her. This still meant both your back hooves were crossing a little but other than that she could have been a mile away right now. She was covering herself and looking away, you were still unsure on why though. She had been perfectly honest outside using some other mare’s picture. While you didn’t even bring up the fact you had a different coat color and name, let alone the fact you were a walking birth defect of sorts.
The numbness in your back and wings were likely keeping you comfortable so you didn’t try to shift over to Fluttershy, not that she’d likely want you to right now. Since now you were the only one who could see well outside the hole in the tree you started looking out. Rain was starting to fall in the bog. But with all the croaking of the frogs now, you’d be hard pressed to get any weather pegasi to here you even if you could get the yellow mare across from you to help with her booming voice. It was starting to come down pretty hard. Good thing you had made your boxes air tight so that they’d still be dry for now.
It was still longer and you had decided to attempt sleep when you heard the voice that was now starting to sound a lot different in tone. It was still soft, but it had a edge to it that felt like a knife cutting into your fur. “Can you answer me something, if you want to that is?” You looked up, most of the moss had dried on the both of you and but Fluttershy’s face was still able to be just as bright only with a fake smile this time. You half wondered if you’d get to see a real smile out of her before you eventually left the tree and never spoke to her again. That idea however flew by the instant she continued with asking, “Why did you lie to me all this time? How much of what we wrote about was you lying exactly?”
Your body tensed, she was looking at you seriously and her emotions were blank as far as you could see. Lightning started to crack outside. She was no longer scared of you. Perhaps learning that you were in fact someone she knew, or thought she knew, was giving her the confidence to talk to you now.
“Well,” you answered. “I may have embellished a little bit. But it was mostly a bunch of white lies. I figured you were doing the same.” Her eyes focused on you with a fire. “But I see now that isn’t the case. But hey you lied to me too sometimes.”
That was where for a moment her stern face cracked and you noticed now how her eyes when not shrunken and set to stare you down were actually quite enchanting. But the stare soon returned and she replied, “N-no I didn’t.”
You raised an eyebrow. Was she really trying to defend herself and say she was always truthful with you? “Yes you did. You look nothing like that picture you sent of yourself. I’m not sure what else you did but you at least matched me in a complete lie there.”
“But I did send you a picture of me,” Fluttershy defended.
“Your coat isn’t pink, and your cutie mark doesn’t have balloons on them,” you countered. She was not trying to pull this on you. Being mad that you were lying was one thing, but to say she didn’t lie at all? That was just foolish even if it was true. Heck she didn’t know at first if you weren’t some guy who wanted to cut and run. Being all honest from the start would have been far naïve for anypony who was out of foalhood.
“That’s my friend Pinkie Pie, I was the one in the shot waving with only my head and one hoof,” she explained. Fluttershy then proceeded to do a mock up of what you would assume was the way she was saying she looked in the picture.
You could only deadpan. There was no way this girl was this ditzy about such simple stuff right? There wasn’t another mare in the photo. Did she really think you were a fool? But you played along. “Why in the world would I assume that was you when you were not the focus of the picture? That’s like if I wrote a paper on the frogs here for school but most of it was about the snakes out to eat them.”
“It was the best I had I don’t like the flashes pictures make. Besides Rarity said it was the perfect picture to send. Something about how you’d be able to tell who I was in the picture. She even volunteered to mail it.”
Seriously? You could certainly see that, especially with the comments you remembered your friends saying about her. And that a friend of hers mailed that particular letter. It was obvious this Rarity was far smarter about this kind of thing that Fluttershy was, or at least not a trusting. Now you felt like a big old mule. Then you felt bad for using so an old term when one of your friends was a mule. You could even imagine him just shrugging it off like it was nothing. “Well then….I guess I’m a dunderhead then. Sorry.”
“Well you do have a point about the picture. I just don’t understand why you felt the need to lie to me is all. I thought we were friends.” The disappointment in her voice was evident. You were likely killing little dreams she had with every word you said.
“I thought you were my friend too and that’s why I couldn’t tell you.” Again you had let your mouth move before your brain could reel it in. You must be more tired than you originally thought if you were suddenly saying stuff like this.
“What?” She was genuinely confused by what you just said. You could feel the concern in that one word too. That was what you didn’t want. Of all things, you didn’t need that from her of all ponies. Especially with your current situation.
You took a deep breath and elaborated. “You do care for animals right? Well my ‘extras’ are more like mutation and birth defect your animals have than an actual thing like the princesses have. Like a three legged frog or a two-headed rabbit.”
She shifted in place with a wince, “oh but you can use magic and fly perfectly fine right? With everything that just happened. I always thought you were a normal unicorn because you never said anything about it in your letters.” Which was true, you didn’t want to come off a winey or have a friend pity you so you never wrote anything. But she had said the trigger word, normal. It wasn’t normal to have a body like yours was. Your face must have shown your distaste for the word because Fluttershy immediately waves her hooves between you and saying, “Oh no, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just, outside the princesses I never actually met an Alicorn before.”
“There’s a good reason,” you state bluntly. It was time to pull this bandage off now before you have another dumb outburst. “Alicorns usually die by the time they are fully grown, at least ones that have a normal wings and horns anyway. Your body normally can only handle the one type. Earth pony’s natural physical stamina and knowledge, Unicorn’s magic, and a Pegasus flying and weather abilities. Alicorns are a combination of all three and get all three natural abilities at the cost of life longevity. I managed to luck out because I’m not really any of them. I’m too small and naturally weak to be an earth pony so I need to work out just to keep myself able to do the work any normal one can. My wings as you can see are small as well. I can barely keep myself afloat for long.”
Your explanation was relatively quick because you had said it many a time and even practiced it in case it needed to be told to your employers. Your mother had to explain this to you early on after you had passed out during recess as a foal. Though you had to admit, at least it meant you understood yourself enough to get your cutie mark first among your class.
“Oh but,” piped Fluttershy. “I know a Pegasus with wings just as small and he does things perfectly fine.”
“He’s likely got a lot of muscle all around to make up for it,” you countered. “Flying takes way more out of me that trotting so I never bothered to try working it out much. Just enough so that I could keep myself in the air for emergencies like today and the occasional help getting to high places. Heck I’d likely need so much muscle I’d look like a weight lifter to even be as good as normal pegasus.” Fluttershy seemed to cringe are the thought of that. “But finally is the most annoying part of my life. My magic, I tried developing it but it just doesn’t work, mostly because I don’t even have a full horn in here.” You tapped your skull for emphasis. “Things more like a lump and it gives me a headache every time I use it past my natural limits. Which as you saw, wasn’t much apparently. I’m so useless.
“Most ponies pity me when they find out I’m an Alicorn, I didn’t want you to think less of me if you thought I’d die on you or I told you the entire truth and that I’m physically challenged. I’ve seen it far too much from others to want to see if from you since even if you were just a pen pal I never met you are still one of my oldest friends. Heck I even let my mane grow out a little more to make sure you never saw my horn and I was just going to pretend to be a malformed pegasus since at least they can manipulate weather while I can barely stand on a cloud in the first place.”
It was quite again for some time. The sound of rain was getting harder. With your talking done you wanted to just lay back and wait out the rest of this storm now that she understood. You would be fine with her not staying quiet now and would need to cancel your plans for the job in Ponyville so it wouldn’t be awkward. But no matter what her reaction you could still see her as a friend and would respect her as such. “Can I see it?” You knew what she was talking about. No sense beating around the bush there when you needed to get some sleep anyway. Placing your hoof up to your face you lifted your mane a bit to show the area that from a distance would look like a bald spot. Fluttershy got up to get a closer look at it.
This was indeed a different approach. Before, girls would find out about this and leave you for one of two reasons. The serious girls didn’t get to know you yet and didn’t want a birth defective child if they continued to date you. The not so serious ones thought it was gross but interested, thinking it would be a decent thing to experiment with. That didn’t sit well with you at all so you would just leave, this meant you didn’t have any female friends outside ones from your sister by proxy. But what could you do?
“It’s so cute.” You blinked. She didn’t just say that did she? You must have misheard something here. There was no way she thought a deformed horn was cute. The thing barely came out enough to be seen and it was at an odd angle. No mare in their right mind would think that it was cute. Heck even your own mother and sister would tell you how the best you’d hope for is a girl who could tolerate it or think it would be a good secret to keep as a bonding thing. But cute? That reaction to your horn was never something you ever considered. Suddenly you were even more embarrassed and you magic went off on its own to push her away and you covered your horn again.
“Sorry,” you said covering your horn again. “Never heard that before, but you don’t need to humor me. I know it’s a bit odd, but I’m glad it isn’t any bigger. If it were I’d never be able to get a decent job, the entire low stamina thing is pretty common knowledge in most parts of Equestria.”
Fluttershy looked at you and stayed quite again for some time considering her words before piping up again. “Maybe you need some rest then. You did just use a lot of magic and fly me over here. You must be exhausted if what you said is true.” Even if she was a bit nicer that last word had an edge to it again that cut you again.
“Not really,” you say feeling your back start to come back to normal. “I’m used to moving around this much and I’m pretty fit now. Otherwise I’d never have risked swimming for the boxes. But up until just now my back was numb and wasn’t going to listen to me at all so even if I do have the energy I can’t move much till it’s at full capacity again. Besides in this weather and with how wet we’re getting if we went to sleep now we’d either get very sick or even die and I’m not about to let that happen. Luckily we aren’t in the bog or a snow cave so it won’t get any colder in here but it’s gonna be some time till we can leave at this rate.”
As if the emphasize your point the rain water started mixing with the wind so that you where hit even harder with the stray drops for a moment. Fluttershy didn’t say anything after that, and again you couldn’t tell what she was thinking. But on the plus side while your wings were still numb, your back was finally workable and you could now sit up and look outside. It wasn’t like getting any wetter was going to make a difference now.
That’s when it happened, she cringed again. But this time you finally noticed. She wasn’t cringing out of disgust that entire time. Her sprained wing was paining her. You had nearly forgotten all about that. While yours needed a doctor, hers was a more immediate fix and far more painful since you were used to your wings being muscle torn now and then while she obviously wasn’t used to hurting them internally. You could tell only internally because you saw a scar on one wing, likely from working with the animals she loved so much. She needed a first aid kit, which was in the important box.
You looked outside, what little light was coming through the grey clouds was getting darker. It was only going to get worse before it got better and when the clouds were completely dark you’d be unable to see anything. You needed one of your boxes, the heavier one was large enough to work if you could get to it, and the contents would help you both through the night at least. But you didn’t know how well you’d be able to work without your wings and you were not sure Fluttershy would let you leave the tree. “I got some things in one of the boxes we pulled up than can help,” you explained.
“Is that another lie just so you don’t have to talk to me?” This sentence was small, and it struck you hard. But that wasn’t something you could reply to without sounding like a lie again, you did want to just get away from her. She was just going to hate you more as she got to see who you really were anyway. She was only trying to make the best of her situation and trying to keep you from leaving since it would be best for the two of you to stay together tonight.
But if that was the case, then you could fake it too. You did have to help one of your cousins one time who was a stage hand for a major play. You at least could act enough to fool this girl. You winked at her and snorted, “Wish me luck.” Galloping down the tree and jumping to the road wasn’t too bad really. Granted you nearly slipped but it all worked out and you were soon able to get to your box soon enough.
Looking back you could see Fluttershy was watching you. Outside that you couldn’t tell anything because of all the rain. Even the faint light you were calling with your magic was only making you able to see only about another leg length forward. With that in mind you made your way to the box with resolve before a headache would start again. It really didn’t take very long at all to get to the box.
A stone paw however, was on the box as a low growl came from that same direction. Your magic illuminated slightly with its pathetic glow to give you a better look. You wish it hadn’t. The ivory teeth of the Mountain Lion gleamed back at you, its bright yellow eyes looking at you hungrily. You couldn’t help yourself now. You laughed. “Well hello there,” you found yourself saying in a scared fit with a fake smile trying to give you courage, “fancy meeting you here.”