//------------------------------// // Introduction // Story: Survivors // by Greavey //------------------------------// Introduction I awoke, dazed and confused from the night before, a feeling that was beginning to get very familiar to me. “Another late night…” I told myself as I tossed over to view the clock mounted above the table in the corner, the great Princess Celestia would soon be bringing up the sun to greet another simplistic Equestrian day. Groaning I swivelled back around so the tip of my muzzle could say hello the softness of my pillow, it was much earlier than a stallion of my age should wake up and I decided that a little more rest was in order. I had just started to drift off again when a small filly burst into my room. “Paint, Paint, Paint!” I lifted up to face the pale brown filly who decided it would be the best idea to shout in her brother’s face, “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” she stated in her small squeaky voice. The look of excitement across her face was clearly difficult to hide. Groaning lightly I spoke, “And just what is it you have got?” My voice deterring from its usual deep tone at the end to give a small squeak amused my sister. It looks like life was already putting its hoof up to me today. She couldn’t contain the bubble of excitement in her head any longer. “I got my cutie mark!” She yelped. I immediately shot up in astonishment, the warm patchwork blankets tumbling down revealing my pale yellow coat. How did she get her cutie mark two years before the age I got mine? I smiled trying to look happy for her, I knew it was wrong to think that but clearly everypony would understand how unfair this was, wouldn’t they? “Clow!, that is… amazing” I stuttered, watching as she tapped her hooves against the wooden floor of my room. “What is it?, when did you get it?, how did you get it?” “It’s a book!, last night and…” “And?” “I was… secretly reading the whole of the new story you got me for my birthday.” Her ears fell and she looked guilty, and so she should, her birthday wasn’t until next week. She had been looking at her presents early. Looks like I will have to fit the role of somepony she never really had, her father. My father. “You shouldn’t have done that” I started, giving her a hurt and painful look, I enjoyed making my sister feel guilty, it made me feel like I had total power over somepony...“Bu…” She began. “But!” I interrupted “You have gotten your cutie mark… And I think that makes up for it” She beamed at me with her sky blue watery eyes, it was clear she was expecting more of a negative response from me, with me it normally is the negative response, after all it’s all my father gave me when I was her age... “Now… Get out of my room so I can get ready!” I commanded sternly. Clow yelped and clearly not wanting another one of our ‘family debates’ departed swiftly from my room. Once again, I was submerged into blissful silence. I looked around the entirety of my bedroom then swivelled my head to meet my Celestia and Luna portrait… I looked up to it and spoke softly so I wouldn’t be heard “Please let today be a good day, not just for me but for Clow as well… She needs today to be a good day.” I sighed, maybe one day they would be able to hear me… My hooves tapped against the floor as I slowly pushed myself out of the bed leaving the covers in a mess by the far wall… Lurching towards the window I pushed aside the curtains and embraced the warmth of the slowly ascending orb in the sky, Celestia had already begun her job of giving the ponies of Equestria their light. I turned towards the mirror seeing a pale stallion staring blankly back at me if he was appearing to say ‘oh you again’. His gaze lowered from my lengthy brown mane followed by the ruffled feathers from my wings to the mark imprinted onto my flank; four splodges of vibrant colours, red, green, yellow and blue. “How did she get her mark so quickly” I muttered under my breath. I felt cheated; she was two years younger than the age I got my mark... Downstairs mum was awake and busy cooking food ready for our lunch at school, “Well well, Mr Splodge, did you fall out of bed?, or did you actually wake up for once?” She turned around from the large stove and smiled at me as I reached the bottom of the wooden staircase, I knew that most of the things my mother says are jokes and I enjoyed playing along, the aging mare always tried her best to keep me happy. I smiled back “Well Hazel, today I didn’t fall out of my bed” I never really fell out of bed, it was mainly just my mother’s way of annoying me in the mornings. She giggled once more “Don’t call me Hazel, you know I don’t like being called that”. I sat down at the table as my mother turned on her new radio… We will be right back with some more music brought to you by the one and only DJ Bird Song after the Galapagos local news… Clow came charging into the room. She sneezed and turned to our startled mother “I don’t feel so good” she complained “My head really hurts…” My mother frowned, “Yes your grandmother and I have been having the same problem… I’m sure taking a day off couldn’t harm anypony, could it?” I sighed and looked down at the table. Great, now she gets the day off too? This was really unfair… And that is all for the early morning news today. Back to the breakfast show with your host! The one and only DJ Song Bird! The whole family loved Song Birds’ radio broadcast. The sweet mare at the other end of the radio had the smoothest calmest voice on the airwaves… Except for perhaps DJ PON-3, but she only played in the big cities like Manehattan and Fillydelphia. Song Bird was charismatic, funny and always touched on topics that everypony was interested in. “Okay Paint, you need to head off to school… I don’t want to see you told off again for not arriving on time” “Okay…” I replied to my mother who had just finished putting my food into my saddlebags. Being the only Pegasus in the house I would normally have to walk to keep my sister safe but today I was able to spread my wings a little. I gazed back into the small kitchen as I trotted through the front door, “Stay safe and I will see you soon” I smiled as a waved my hoof back at my mother standing next to the sneezing brown filly, I wish I could stay home to… ---------- o ---------- I landed close the school gates… I was not proud of being a Pegasus, after all I lived in an earth pony town and it was rare for Pegasus’ to leave the clouds before ‘maturity’. I trotted slowly past the school gates not wanting to attract any unwanted attention before my classes but it would seem that Celestia decided to shine upon me as most of the Ponies in my class hadn’t arrived at school yet. Smiling joyfully to myself I trotted through the school doors and began to head towards the stairwell, *SPLOOSH* I was sat for most of the morning in the bathroom stall, why would I want to leave here when I would just be laughed at out there. I stared down at the grimy floor that was slowly becoming stained with thick green dye, tears were forming in my eyes and they were starting to roll down the side of my now lime green muzzle, the other ponies did things like this most days. Most of the time I could just ignore what they did and carry on as if nothing happened but this… this was far too much. I sat alone and weeping for another few minutes until I heard the restroom door open, two stallions trotted in… “Glue and green dye?” one of them asked hardly containing his laughter. The other pony was laughing along with him, “Yeah, you should have seen the look on that featherbrains face!” I recognised the Stallions voice from a few days ago; he had been one of the ponies who had locked me in the art classroom at the end of the day. “I never get tired of seeing that pony make an ass of himself”. “That should take him a few hours to get that out of his mane and ‘precious’ feathers” the familiar voice commented. After a few more minutes of slandering me they trotted back out of the door, unaware that I heard the entire conversation. Wiping the tears from my muzzle I left the stall and turned on the rusted tap on the sink closest to the window, I stared into the cracked mirror at my green bloodshot eyes. I looked exactly how I felt at that moment in time; tired, humiliated and lonely. I dipped my hooves under the tap and started rubbing away at my green mane and coat, trying to restore it to its original yellow and brown, the water felt cool under my coat and I was soon enjoying getting all the small patches of green out. The door lurched open and one of the Stallions from before trotted slowly in, I looked away after recognising his face. It was Trigger, the blue maned pony stopped a few feet away from where I was cleaning myself. Sighing I turned my head to face him; his white coat was glowing from the light caste upon him. He could see that I had been crying and turned to see the green puddle on the floor in the stall... “Um.. Paint?... D-Did you hear what we said?” He asked. Looking into his sea blue eyes I could see that he felt guilty. “Yes” I replied tears forming in my eyes, “I did…”. He took one step closer and looked down at the floor. “We’re…. I… I’m sorry for what happened… I tried to stop them! I really did… But…” He was stuttering and I could genuinely see he looked sorry for me, the pony he not five minutes ago had slandered. “I just wanted you to know… that we… I… don’t mean any of it”. He continued to look down at the floor. Strangely I smiled at the suddenly apologetic stallion; this is something I would never have expected anypony in this school to say to a Pegasus. He looked up and saw my smile “It’s okay” I stated, I was still hurt but the apology had eased the pain. He looked up like he was going to say something and sighed. With that Trigger galloped out of the bathroom and left me to continue scrubbing myself. It was lunchtime when I had finally finished getting all the dye off… Some of the places it had gotten were… well I don’t need to mention that. The lunch hall was a large open space that was populated by an assortment of tables and chairs; today however the room was strangely void of ponies. Normally the hall would be full of ponies collecting and eating different flowers and grass, turning to one of the teachers I asked “Where is everypony?” “Most of them have gone home because of sickness” She replied, “I think the school is closing early because of it”. The mare trotted off and left me in the middle of the nearly empty hall. I was upset that school had finished early; our last two lessons were art and chemistry and they were the only lessons I found even remotely interesting as well as them being the only lessons I was good at. I faced towards the door and trotted towards it heading towards my locker in the hallway, at least we got to go home early today… It wasn’t the first time today that I thought that Galapagos was devoid of life, Mane Street heavily reflected the atmosphere of the lunch hall, it was almost empty apart from the few ponies heading home from a morning shift at work. Most of the shops littering the sides of the streets were locked closed for the day, obviously something big had happened because the shops never normally closed this early. Perhaps the Princesses had come to visit out humble little town? I glided down towards the Mane Street fountain where I usually visited at the weekends; school being closed gave me some time to go to some of the places I enjoyed before going home. I stared up and peered through the slender pine trees. It was late spring and the air was soothing and warm, it rustled the leaves of the bushes by the fountain lightly, the fine spray from it was dampening my saddlebags and my mane. I started looking around slowly hoping to see some other ponies enjoying the beautiful day Celestia had brought us, there were none. It was starting to get dark by the time I had flown to the end of my street, the temperature was lowering quicker than the sun and I was starting to feel a chill descending down my spine towards my tail. Ruffling my feathers in mid-flight I slowed to a halt and hovered silently in front of the smallest house in view, I tapped my hooves against the mat lying by the cottage door and went inside expecting to see my Mother and Clow. Peering around the kitchen I spotted a note on the counter next to a small pile of tasty looking dandelions. Had to take Clow to see Dr. Marrow, the wait will be a long time and I don’t want you waiting up for us all night like last time. I have left you a plate of dandelions for your dinner, after you have eaten those I want you to do your homework and head to bed. I’ve got a special surprise for you tomorrow, Love you lots and will hopefully see you soon, Mum. I stared at the note a little while longer making sure to take in every word. Eat, homework, then bed. It really wasn’t an interesting night. After finishing my homework I looked out the kitchen window to see that Luna had placed the moon already far higher in the sky than I had predicted. Quickly closing all the curtains I rushed upstairs and into my room, I looked into my sister’s room, a single pink balloon was centred in the room, I think mum brought it for her because of her cutie mark. Humph… If she knew how she got that mark I’m sure that balloon wouldn’t be there, I trotted into my room and took a look at my flank… “How did she get her mark so quickly?”.