//------------------------------// // Meet the Family // Story: Her Brother, Her Angel, Her Depression // by Kustom95 //------------------------------// Big Mac pointed out the rooms that were empty, and the foals each claimed one. Spring found the bed to be a little too big for her taste, but she wasn’t about to complain. It was a very comfy bed, one that you could sink into, and she had a window that looked out of the side of the hill. Cloud on the other hand, got a room that was nice and dark, the way he preferred it, with a bed that was firm, and plenty of room on the walls. Each had a small nightstand and a few shelves. ”I should get unpacked real quick” He thought to himself ”Big Mac said that we had a little while before dinner”. Cloud moved about, sorting out his collection of belongings, and a small selection of clothing. He accomplished this rather quickly, and with his remaining time, he was scribbling in an artist’s notebook. That’s what he was, an Artist, and a rather good one, but he didn’t care to show everything he drew. A lot of it was for his own devices. Those drawings would be revealed in time, because this year would be different; he had a plan for this room, and his sister would probably hate him for it. Cloud heard a large number of voices suddenly enter the house, which he took to mean that the other orphans had arrived for dinner. He used his magic to place the notebook on the dresser in the room. As he started towards the door, his legs buckled beneath him, and he was lucky his head didn’t slam into the floor. His body had locked up. The only thing under his control was his mouth and his eyes. He wasn’t seizing, thank Celestia, but he couldn’t move. His whole body hurt as if he was given to Cerberus as a chew toy, every muscle burning as if it was being stretched to its limit. He had an affliction, and he had had it since he was little. The doctors had said it would kill him eventually, and this knowledge had forced him to grow up more quickly than he should have. Figuratively, that is. He had been forced to take more responsibility, he had matured much faster, and he had despaired over one of the harshest things anypony and everypony had to face. Death He had seen it in his dreams. A pony with no mane, and a coat as white as bone; a pony that was shrouded in the black cloak of his waking dreams. Almost every night he went through the silent horror of watching the pony walk closer, without a sound to be heard. He had been dreaming of the pony for two years now, at first it had been cloudy and distorted, but now, the thing had covered half the distance it had started from. He had come to accept this recurring dream as his timer, a countdown before he passed. It wasn’t every dream he’d had, but it was most of them. He didn’t know how long he would be there, but it was long enough for Spring to knock on his door and ask if he was coming to dinner. He managed to tell her that he would be out in a minute, and she brushed it off as him being in his drawing mood. She was somewhat reluctant to go ahead of her brother, but after meeting Big Mac she was sure the rest of the family would be nice. Family. It was such a strong word for an orphan. It was full of hope, but it was also filled with doubt and sometimes, fear. She shook her head to clear her thoughts for a moment; she didn’t need those worries in her head. She started down the hall to the stairs ready to meet the others, and her belly was filling up with both nervousness and giddiness. She had been wondering about the other Spring in the house, Springdarling. She would meet her upstairs, hopefully with Zecora, she really wanted to meet a new kind of pony. ********************************************************** The pain had started to fade. His muscles loosened and he allowed himself to tip over and lay on the floor. He hadn’t locked up in months. Cloud lay on there on the floor, breathing heavily, and when he found the strength to move again, he stood up on shaky legs. ”They’ve been getting worse. I’ve got to tell somepony” Cloud was sweating. The attacks were getting worse all the time, and they ranged from panic attacks to full body lock ups, and sometimes seizures. Those were the ones that really scared him. He had only had three that he could remember, and he was lucky to have somepony around to keep him from hurting himself. He needed an adult to confide in, somepony who would help where they could and give him advice. ”Big Mac is obviously an option, but I need to know him better first. Wait… He said that Zecora was some kind of doctor, right” Cloud thought to himself “We’ll see what happens, but for now I have to wash up for dinner”. He made his way out of his room and up the stairs, ducking into the bathroom at the top of the stairs to wash up. He ran some water and splashed it over his face, holding his face close to the bowl of the sink. As he dried off, he noticed his eyes in the mirror. The amber irises had a sad light in them, something that had been present for years now. He would change that, by the end of the year he would change that. He left the bathroom and caught a brief glimpse of khaki, blue and pink being chased by a zigzag of dark blue. He also heard a giggle from his sister, a real giggle that he hadn’t heard in a long time. She was obviously enjoying herself; she had been up here for about five or six minutes, plenty of time to make a friend. Lights were on in the rooms they had passed earlier and he could hear a number of voices coming from the dining room where they had seen Poundcake. “Um, Bluebolt, could you sit down and eat? Please?” A soft voice called out, clearly accustomed to talking quietly. The blue streak stopped in the middle of the hall and turned into the form of a young colt with spiky brown hair, who called into the dining room “But I’m having fun, Mom”. This got a reply from another female voice, this one much more social than the first, “Do I have to chase you again?” Bluebolt nodded vigorously before turning into a streak of color once more. Dark cloud had reached the doorway to the room and looked in before snapping his head out of the way as a purple mare flew out of the room and landed in the living room across the hall. She stood still while she watched Bluebolt flying in random patterns around the room, albeit close to the ground. Cloud watched as she smiled, snapped her wings out to the side, clipped Bluebolt on the cheek and then pounced on the startled colt, wrapping him in her forehooves as they both fell into laughter. Cloud turned and began his trek into the dining room, which was currently home to a large table and enough ponies for a small party. He spotted his sister sitting around the table next to a yellow mare with a pink mane. Cloud could tell from her body language that she was talking about animals. Actually, the mare looked as excited as Spring was. Big Mac watched Cloud enter the room and pointed with his hoof to an empty chair next to Poundcake; Cloud nodded and moved over to his seat. He could feel a few sets eyes on him, not judging eyes, but eyes all the same. After he sat down, Poundcake turned to him and ran him through the names of everypony at the table. Pointing to a yellow mare sitting next to Big Mac, Poundcake started “Alrighty then, starting at Big Mac’s left, that’s Fluttershy with the pink mane. We call her Mom for short. To her left and traveling around the table is Dia-” He was cut off by the white filly he was pointing at. “Why don’t you let us introduce ourselves, Poundcake? I’m Diamondroot, and the colt to my left currently drowning himself in soup is Greenhoof”. On closer inspection, she had a speckled white and grey coat and a purple mane held back with a black headband. The colt she was referring to had a dark green coat with a vibrant yellow mane and, ironically, light yellow hooves. “Hey! I’m not drowning, I’m inhaling” Greenhoof replied with mock indignity, glaring playfully with violet eyes and wiping some soup off of his face. “And how is that any different?” Diamondroot retorted, returning the glare with her own olive-green eyes. “Moving on!” Poundcake said with unnecessary flair, pointing to the next mare. She had a pink coat with a ruffled blue mane, and she was currently snoozing with her head on a placemat. “Well, that’s Firefly” Poundcake introduced her, “She sleeps a lot, but she’s always running errands when she’s up and moving”. Both the purple mare and Bluebolt had returned from the other room and started eating just before Poundcake pointed at them. The mare took notice of this and smiled “I’m Springdarling, and this is my little brother, Bluebolt.” Holding a hoof to the side of her mouth, she said “He’s an ornery o- Hey!” Bluebolt had decided to try and swipe his sister’s glasses while she was talking, which was funny because Springdarling was four times his size. This time, an orange-ish stallion far larger than the other kids reached over and clamped his teeth on the back of Bluebolt’s neck, making him curl up and effectively holding him as if he were a kitten. Springdarling retrieved her glasses and thanked the other orphan as he released Bluebolt and ruffled his hair. Poundcake spoke up to give his name “That’s Applesprout. He’s Big Mac and Fluttershy’s kid, but he’s like a big brother to all of us. Oh, and don’t worry about Bluebolt. He and Sprout are really close; he wouldn’t hurt him on purpose.” Cloud took a moment to look at Applesprout. He could see the features of his parents by comparison; he had Big Mac’s frame and build, Fluttershy’s hair color, a coat colored somewhere between crimson and yellow, and lastly, he had kind and gentle eyes the color of emeralds. But no matter how kind or how much of a big brother he was, Cloud would be envious of him. He didn't like judging others, but being an orphan made you begin to loathe those who hadn’t felt the loss, hadn’t been abandoned like you were. It was an unconscious thing, and Cloud hated that. Both he and Spring had been abandoned, and it was something that had developed, and couldn’t be shaken easily. He would have to watch his tongue when he spoke to Sprout. Deep in his reverie, he almost missed the last introduction. He tuned back into reality as Poundcake finished “- my little sister, Pumpkincake”. With that last part, the yellow and orange mare gave Pound a friendly wallop on the shoulder, accidentally knocking him out of his chair. To add to the moment, she added “Only by a few minutes!” This got everyone at the table to erupt in giggles, with more nervous and reserved chuckles coming from Fluttershy and Big Mac, respectively. Still chuckling, Pound climbed back into his chair and addressed Cloud once more, this time he leaned in and whispered. “You met Starcatcher downstairs, right?” Cloud nodded “Actually, we saw him more than met him, and Big Mac said he was a thestral.”. Poundcake asked, “Did he say he was going hunting?”. When Cloud nodded in response, Poundcake said “It’s about time he did.” When he noticed the question pop up in Cloud’s eyes, he added “I’ll tell you later, but keep quiet around the others”. Dinner carried on for a while, and everyone found a conversation partner across the table. Big Mac watched over everything with a lazy look on his face, Fluttershy and Springsong talked about animals the whole time, and when Bluebolt started dozing off, Applesprout picked him up and deposited him on his back, then moved to let the others load Firefly on his back. “I don’t wanna go to bed yet” the blue colt objected “We didn’t get dessert” Pumpkin trotted over and told him that they didn’t make dessert that night, but tomorrow they would make Granny Smith’s apple pie. That made the colt’s eyes go wide with excitement, and in the next moment he fell asleep on Sprout’s back, muttering about apple crumbles. Fire fly’s ears twitched at the mention of apple pie, but other than that, there was no reaction. With a goodnight from everyone at the table, Applesprout set off to put his brother and sister away for the night. Cloud noticed that his sister was getting drowsy, probably from playing with Bluebolt earlier. Cloud suggested that she get to bed, and she insisted he walk her down. Cloud excused himself from the table and guided his sister back to her room, using his magic to move her when she almost collapsed. Inside her room, Cloud moved her to her bed and tucked her in, and as he turned away, Spring grabbed his hoof and muttered “I like it here Cloud, it’s nice”. The lights were out, so she couldn’t see the grin Cloud was wearing, but he replied “I saw, and I like it too. ‘Night sis.” “Goodnight Clo-“ She was interrupted by a yawn as she curled up and hugged her pillow. Cloud smiled and closed the door, and then he turned and moved through the now dimly lit hall to go upstairs again. When he reached the bottom of the staircase, he noticed something moving outside. It was Starcatcher, dropping in for a landing in the backyard. Cloud waited as he walked to the porch just outside, opened the door and entered the house. When he was inside, Starcatcher noticed Cloud watching him, but more than that, he saw a shadow hanging over him. He had seen Darkcloud just before hunting, but he hadn’t introduced himself. That was rude of him, he wasn’t the most social pony, but he wasn’t going to be rude. “I’m sure Big Mac told you already, but my name is Starcatcher” He said. Cloud nodded and said “My name is Darkcloud”. The thestral asked, “Are you going upstairs? If so, then please, you can use the stairs ahead of me” Starcatcher said. Cloud gave nod and began to climb slowly. He really wanted to ask the thestral behind him some questions, and he would get more accurate answers from Starcatcher than Poundcake. “Um..” He began “Can I ask you what you meant earlier when you said hunt?” Starcatcher stopped and looked at the colt “You can, but I’d rather you keep quiet about it. As of now only you, Big Mac, and Poundcake know”. “I can keep a secret” Darkcloud replied, leaning over the banister and looking at where he thought Starcatcher was. The Thestral, equipped with eyes that could see in shadow, saw the look, and chuckled inwardly. “You can’t tell anyone, especially not Fluttershy” the deep and raspy voice reponded. “Every time the moon reaches its peak, what you know as the full moon, thestrals are overcome by bloodlust. We hunt small creatures to rid ourselves of this possession; we only need a small amount to do so. I go under the guise that I am searching for herbs or plants that the twins, Poundcake and Pumpkincake, can use, and I leave during the twilight so as to distance myself from others. A thestral with bloodlust is not a pleasant sight, and we are known to attack anything near us.” With that explanation, Darkcloud had sated his curiosity for the moment, and they had reached the top of the stairs. Back in the light, Cloud turned to get a better look at Starcatcher and noticed a bit of blood above his lip. “Hey, you’ve some blood right there” he whispered, indicating the area with his hoof. “Thank you” the thestral replied as he wiped the blood from his face “Say, are you going to help us make cider?” “I wouldn’t know how” Cloud said. “It’s actually very simple, but it requires a large amount of work” the thestral said “you can talk to Big Mac and Poundcake about helping tomorrow night.” Starcatcher tried to give a friendly grin, but Thestrals and grins don’t often mix well, so Cloud thought he was scrunching his face to get rid of a fly. The colt wasn't sure how to reply. He was new, and he had really met Starcatcher only a few moments ago; but here they were, with Starcatcher asking him to help with “A stallion’s job” as it was called. “I,..um, I’ll ask” he said nervously; he wasn’t used to being treated like this. Maybe it was something in the way Starcatcher spoke, but he was comfortable around the strange colt. He pondered this as he traveled down the hall to talk to the others who were still awake.