Bloodlines

by SleepIsforTheWeak


First Year (13)

He is thirteen and the house is unnaturally quiet without him. The empty place at the dinner table makes everything just that much more painful, because while Dash can distract herself during most of the day, she can't just ignore it when they sit down to eat.

She looks around the table. They all miss him, she can tell.

Sue is picking at her food, glancing at his place. She lowers her eyes to her plate dejectedly and folds her ears after seeing it empty.

Diane has a contemplative little frown on her face as she eats slower than usual.

Skylar is not touching his food at all, staring blankly at the empty place mat. Over the last few years he has grown really close to his brother, and his absence has hit their youngest son the hardest.

Stormee, their youngest, is flapping her wings slowly with nervous energy, picking up on the mood of the table, unsure about what she should do.

Dash meets Pinkie's eyes across the table and sees that she also observes their children's moods, and really wants to cheer them up but doesn't know how.

She looks away from Pinkie, not knowing what to do either.


He is thirteen and the school is really big compared to the one in Ponyville. He doesn't know anypony and has never been too good at just going up to ponies and starting friendships. He is alone, and no pony really likes him because he looks like his mother and everypony knows his mother so they think he will be a show off.

The mess hall is huge and has seven long tables because there are seven grade levels. The seventh year table is considerably smaller than the rest, and the first year table is the largest. He guesses that this is because through the years ponies are eliminated from the class until a class his size, well over a hundred, is reduced down to a class like the seventh year's, twenty five.

Seventh years are gods. They travel in one pack, all twenty five of them, and everypony gets out of the way for them. The leader of the pack's name is Tornado Blast and he is always at the front. The seventh years look like robots, unemotional and walking in sync with each other.

He wonders if he will make it to seventh year. He wonders if he will be the leader of the pack, someday. The thought sends a shiver through his wings.

His classes are all flight related. He tries to pay attention, he really does, but most of the things they teach him are all things his mother already taught him. He falls asleep and is sent to detention.

At the end of the first week he writes a letter, and fills it with lies about how much fun he is having, and all the friends he is making. He hates lying to his family, but Celestia knows his mother would fly to the school and raise hell if she knew everything he suffers. So he lies. Because it's better that way.