//------------------------------// // Hop, Skip, And A Jump // Story: Our Little Pony // by Stratocaster //------------------------------// Chapter 9: Hop, Skip, And A Jump Present Day... "Ha ha ha ha! His whole body was sun burned?" laughed Twilight hysterically. Fluttershy chuckled as well. "Yeah, Daddy always hated the beach." "Oh boy that's great," said Twilight as she wiped a tear of laughter away. "Your parents must have been so much fun." "Yes, they certainly were." Then, the pegasus sat silent for a moment and stared downward. "Are you okay, Fluttershy?" asked Twilight. "Oh, yes, I'm fine. It's just that, well, all this time I've been telling you about all these happy memories with my parents. But I never really got around to what happened...in the end." "You mean Flight Camp?" "Yes, Flight Camp." She took a deep breath and sighed, trying to retain her composure as she prepared for the hardest part of her extremely long story. "You see, being a pegasus in a human world eventually took its toll on my mother and father. Something happened at school that changed everything; something I did. It was well into sixth grade and I was playing outside during recess..." Memories... As the kids froliced around the playground outside the school, Fluttershy and Scott found a nice corner of asphalt for themselves. Scott had drawn a hopscotch board with some chalk and his equine pal stared in curiosity. "Alright, Fluttershy," explained Scott as threw a pebble onto a square. "You just have to hop over to the pebble, one leg on a single square and two on a double square." "Um, does that work differently if I have four legs?" asked Fluttershy. Scott blinked. "Huh, I never really thought about that." Just then, the two turned around at the sound of a few of snobbish laughter. A few of their classmates, the more obnoxious ones, stood by their hopscotch game with smug grins on their faces. "Hey Fluttershy," teased one of the girls. "Why don't you just fly to the end and back?" The other brats chuckled along. "Yeah, what's wrong? Are your wings glued to your sides or something?" taunted a boy. Fluttershy only looked away embarrassed; but Scott knew better. "Hey guys, leave her alone," he said to them. "I bet you're just jealous." "Please, Scott," scoffed the first girl. "I don't know why you keep hanging around with the pony girl. You know she dosen't belong here." "Shut up, Jenny," retorted Scott. "She never did anything to you." "Hey Fluttershy," another boy teased. "If you don't belong here, then why don't you just fly back to Equestria?" "Yeah, let's see you fly, come on." The kids jeered. Scott went over to comfort his picked on friend. "Don't listen to them, Fluttershy. They don't know anything." But Fluttershy did not respond. Instead, she only wore a stern expression which was nothing like her. Without speaking, she then walked over to the jungle gym, while the bullies followed her. "Fluttershy, what are you doing?" asked Scott, concerned. But she left him with no answer and began to climb the tower of metal bars as the bullies continued to raz her. "Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly!" It was then that Scott realized to his horror what she intended to do. "Oh no. Fluttershy, don't do it!" "Quiet, Scott!" hissed one of the girls. "You used to be cool." As the kids chanted on, Fluttershy neared the top of the jungle gym, only to look down at how high she really was. "Oh my goodness!" she squeaked, but shook it off and continued to climb. At last, she reached the very top and looked down upon the crowd she had gathered below. She knew she would show them once and for all that she could fly and not be made a fool of any longer. But now that she saw the nerve-racking height above the playground, she was beginning to change her mind. "Come on, fly already!" the kids jeered. "Don't chicken out!" The pressure was becoming too much for her. Hesitant, Fluttershy realized she was in over her head and started to back away from the edge. But a few of the bullies who had climbed the jungle gym after her wouldn't have anything of it; they wanted to see the pony kid fly. There was no other choice. Fluttershy had to try. As she gazed back over the edge, she gulped and prepared to take flight. She slowly unfurled her tiny wings and bent her knees. Fluttershy shook with fear for the last few seconds, before she finally departed the jungle gym. She leaped off the edge and fluttered her wings as fast as she possibly could. Amazingly, she hovered in midair for a brief moment, but her strength could only hold for so long. Fluttershy could not keep up her wing pace and quickly began loosing altitude; before she knew it, she was hurdling straight toward the ground. She hit the gravel, landing on three hooves. "Ooh!" the kids gasped at the fall. "Fluttershy!" yelled Scott as he ran over to her aid. When he arrived, the filly was crying in pain. One of her hooves had buckled under the impact and received a large scrape from the harsh ground. Fluttershy lied there clutching her injured hoof under her good one. "Oh man," said one of the other kids. "Let's get out of here, we'll get busted!" The bullies finally ran off. "Ow!" weeped Fluttershy. "It hurts!" "Hold on, Fluttershy," said Scott. "I'll go get the nurse." ... Meanwhile, in her humble abode, Haley peacefully read a novel while resting her head on her husband's shoulder. She got up as the phone rang across the room and reached over to answer it. "Hello?...Yes, this is her...Is she alright?...What happened..." she then gasped. "Is she hurt?...Are you sure?...Yes, I'll be right over...Thank you." She hung the phone up. "What's going on?" asked Luke from the couch. "I have to run to the school." Haley answered as she grabbed her keys. "I'll be right back." After a worried drive over, Haley arrived at the school and met with the nurse. She held her daughter, who was given a bandage and an ice pack on her banged up leg, as the nurse spoke. "Your daughter took quite a scrape otu there." She said. "And she even sprained her knee. But luckily, there's no broken bones. Just give her a day with the ice pack and she'll be just fine." "Thank you." Haley replied as the nurse exited, leaving her with her poor hurt filly who sniffled from crying earlier. She sat down with her on the patient's bench. "Oh Fluttershy, what were you thinking?" she asked without raising her voice. "Why would you go jumping off like that?" At first, she didn't want to answer. But Fluttershy could not hold back from her mother. "I was...I was trying to fly." She whimpered. The response shook Haley a bit. "What?" "The other kids were making fun of me because I can't fly. So I tried to show them I could by jumping off the jungle gym." Haley hugged her daughter close and stroked her mane. "Oh sweetie, you shouldn't listen to other kids teasing you. That's reason to get yourself hurt." "I'm sorry, Mommy." Fluttershy cried softly and dug her face in her mother's side. "Please don't be mad." "I'm not mad, Fluttershy." Haley kissed her daughter. "I'm just glad you're okay." ... That night, Luke ajourned to his room after a few long hours of work on his computer. He looked forward to snuggling with his beloved wife who awaited him. But when he entered the bedroom, it was not what he expected. Haley sat on the edge of her side of the bed laying her face in her hands; her back heaved as she cried. Luke was surprised, as he rarely ever saw her so distraught, and sat on the bed to comfort her. "Babe, what is it?" he asked, putting his arm over her. Haley paused from from crying to collect herself. But she could not keep back the stream of tears. "You were right, Luke. You were right about her." "What do you mean?" "Fluttershy was trying to fly at school, and she only got herself hurt. It's our fault. We caused this to happen." "Haley, you can't mean that." "It's true, Luke!" she sobbed. "We took her away from a normal pony's life and tried to raise her as one of us." "Well, what else were supposed to do?" replied Luke. "She was abandoned on our doorstep. She needed a home." "She needed a pony's home. We could have given her away to a family in Equestria. But now the poor girl may never be able to fly. She'll never fit in that flight camp. She might not even fit in with ponies at all!" Haley leaned on her husband's shoulder and weeped more. "Oh Luke, what have we done?" Luke thought about his wife's words as he held her. He was hoping that raising Fluttershy would never have to come to this. But seeing Haley so broken up told him that things were not going as smoothly as the couple had always thought. He kissed her forehead. "We'll tell her tomorrow. She deserves to know everything. You were right, she's growing up." The couple held each other close, struggling to imagine what their little girl would think. A while later, Luke had already gone to sleep, but Haley would not get much of it. She only sat in the living room staring blankly and reflecting on the trouble of the day. But more than that, she replayed the memory of the day she and Luke had discovered their darling filly outside their door. It was the night of that day that forever stuck in her memory. Day One... "I can't believe we're really doing this." Haley said giddily as she cuddled with her husband on their bed. "Our own little girl." "It's certainly not how I expected it." Luke responded. "Aren't you excited?" "Of course I am. But I have to ask, do we really know how to raise a pony?" "It can't be that hard; they're just like us...sort of. Besides, we've been preparing everything for so long. We are so ready." Luke smiled. "You're always right." Suddenly, the two heard something from the baby moniter on their nightstand. It was a high pitched weeping, as if from a frightened mouse. Haley sat up and took action. "I'll take care of it." She told Luke and gave him a kiss before leaving. She exited the master bedroom and walked over to the new one prepared at the last minute. Inside the makeshift baby room, there was little more than a cushioned chair, a changing table, and a crib assembled haphazardly by Luke; but it was the living thing inside the crib that caught Haley's attention. The infant pony she and Luke had rescued earlier that day lied under a blanket, crying with a heart-breaking whimper. Haley looked down at the innocent creature with loving green eyes. "What's the matter, little one?" she cooed. "Did you get spooked? Hmm? Did you have a bad dream?" She scooped the weeping filly up in her arms. "Aw, you poor thing. Sh sh sh, it's okay, Mama's here. You're safe now." The tiny filly quickly calmed down in the caring human's arms. But Haley could tell she was still upset. She pondered on what she could possibly do to lull the frightened infant back to sleep. Then something crossed her mind. The very idea seemed pretty outlandish to her. It felt weird, it felt crazy, and yet, it felt right. After all, she was a doctor, and even if she was one for animals, she took an oath to help those in need. Haley knew what she had to do. Putting hesitant thoughts aside, she pulled down the left side of her sleep shirt, until she exposed her bare breast. She gently held the filly's head to her breast and sure enough, the infant pony instinctively began suckling. Haley couldn't believe it. She had just said that ponies were just like humans, and she was right. It was in that moment that she truly knew she was a mother. With her new baby at her breast, she sat down in the cushioned chair, turning on a single lamp. Haley sat there feeding the filly as she repeated softly. "It's okay, baby. Mama's here. She'll never let you go." Years later... On the day after her accident at school, Fluttershy was called into the living room. Luke and Haley sat down in front of her with sober expressions. "Fluttershy, there's something we have to tell you." Luke said. "What is it, Daddy?" asked Fluttershy, curious. Haley sighed. "Sweetie, do you know what Flight Camp is?" She thought for a moment. "No, not really." "You see," continued Haley. "When a little pegasus gets older, they become curious about flying and they begin to practice it. So, their parents send them away to Flight Camp where they stay with other foals and learn to become flyers before leaving on their own." Fluttershy felt a knot in her chest. "Mommy, what are you saying?" "We didn't want to tell you this, Fluttershy," explained Luke. "But at this point, we were supposed to send you away to Flight Camp." "But I can't fly." She whimpered. "We're so sorry, Fluttershy," replied Haley who touched her knee. "We tried to raise you like a human, but we raised you wrong. It's our fault you can't fly." "Why are you telling me this?" "We just wanted to stop keeping this from you." Luke answered. "We're so sorry, sweetheart. How can you forgive us?" All of this news hit Fluttershy hard. She came to realize the truth about her own life. All the reasons why she couldn't fit in with human society was because she was kept from being a real pegasus. And now she was being told she would not fit in with that life either. Something changed within her. A strange new feeling matured that had never cropped up before. Fluttershy sat there blankly for a minute before she finally stood up and walked away from her confused parents. "Fluttershy? Where are you going?" asked Luke. "Baby, are you alright?" added Haley. Without an answer, the filly opened the front door and cantered off outside. Luke and Haley looked at each other then got up to follow her with quickened pace. They thought maybe she was attempting to run away in sadness. But when they ran out onto the front yard, they were caught by surprise. After looking around for a moment, they finally found Fluttershy scaling the oak tree in the side of the yard. They gasped as their daughter struggled up onto a branch halfway up the tree. "Fluttershy, what are you doing?" called Luke. "I'm going to try again." She answered with strangely a bit of gusto. "Luke, do something!" panicked Haley. "Hang on, I'm getting you down from there." Luke called again preparing to climb the tree. But he would not get the chance, as his daughter already began flapping her premature wings furiously. Immediately, she sprung from the branch and let gravity take over. Luke could not reach the tree in time and Haley could only avert her eyes. They expected the worst; but the worst never came. To their shock, they saw their little girl hovering just inches above the grass. Her wings flapped with vigor as her hooves dangled from midair. Fluttershy opened her shut eyes to see her progress and smiled brightly. She hadn't fallen at all; she was staying in the air and even slowly rose another foot higher. She cried out in joy. "Mommy, Daddy, look! I'm flying! I'm flying! I'm really flying!" Luke and Haley's jaws dropped. It was true; their daughter was actually flying right before their eyes. They thought they would never see the day. Haley held Luke and could not help but smile with him as they watched their little filly float. "I'm flying! I did it! I really did it!" Haley cried tears of joy this time as she and Luke hugged each other proudly. "We did it." She said. "We really did it."