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// Melancholy Moments 
// Story: Reversed Realities 
// by The1975Dash 
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I had huddled up on my bed, sobbing quietly whilst Twilight held on to me. Her gentle voice was all it took to eventually calm me down, but it wasn’t enough to quell my despair. I stayed practically silent minus the sobs that seemed to echo throughout the room. It was unsettling for me because I’d never cried this much in my entire life for as long as I can remember. It was unbearable; I hated it when I cried. It showed that I could be vulnerable, and although Twilight didn’t seem to care about my weakness, I did. I couldn’t have been certain but I may have gone to sleep at some point because my eyes felt as if they were as heavy as my head. I groaned slightly as my head throbbed from a dull ache that had been sustained during my crying outburst. Twilight gripped me tighter whilst keeping her hold gentle. “Aero it’s going to be okay.” She slowly stroked my mane. “You’ve got such great potential and I just know that you’ll get through it. Just remember that you’ll only be here for two weeks. I’ll make sure of it.” She loosened her grip to look me in the eyes. I was almost lost in her eyes until I saw a little twinkle in the corner of her iris. She wiped away a lone tear from me and smiled “You’ve just gotta see the good side of things. Just think like Pinkie.” I shivered at the thought and Twilight must have noticed “I’m not saying act like Pinkie. Just think positively, whatever situation you find yourself in. Does that sound like a good idea to you?” I nodded and forced a small smile for her. I didn’t have the resilience to make Twilight upset as well as myself. Reluctantly she got up and off the bed and stood at the doorway. “I’ll come by later, but I have to get the library ready to be assessed. I also need to do some studying just in case they ask any questions. See you later Aero, stay strong.” She smiled and closed the door behind her as she walked out. 

My head was raised the whole time until I heard her hoofsteps disappear and then I buried my head in the pillow, believing that all of this heartbreak would end and it would be within the dream of me being in this world. I couldn’t work it out, I just couldn’t get to grips with how horrible I felt, but being in an orphanage was only part of it. I hated the fact I was now an orphan, but I couldn’t help it and I knew that in time I would be fine with it. I sat up and walked over to my desk and I looked into the small mirror that had been placed there. I looked at myself in the mirror. It was the first time I had seen myself for what I now was. I looked around at my body. The black fur that covered it was shining and it was thin enough to show the various muscles this body held. My red mane was kept in a neat style that kept it from falling in front of my face. That’s when I noticed the hairpin that was in my mane, and it was undoubtedly one that I had worn back on Earth. At the sight of it I felt even more memories come flooding back to me. My bottom jaw started trembling as I stared at the hairpin. It was odd how such a small item could set off the chain of emotions that it did. When I looked at my mane again it was styled exactly like my hair was as a human except it was a beautiful jet black with a deep crimson zig-zag stripe on two parts of it. Before I could observe any more I nearly fell off the desktop when the door was swung open with such force that I was startled from the noise. I cowered underneath the desk and kept my eyes shut. “Who’s there?” I stuttered. The hoofsteps of whoever opened the door were getting closer and I could just about make out the light ‘clip-clop’ sound like the pony was skipping towards me. “S-stay back or I’ll attack you.” I kept my eyes closed and waved one hoof about recklessly as if I was trying to grab something. I gritted my teeth and found a surge of courage come through. I yelled and dived into whatever had entered my room. “What are you doing here?”

I opened my eyes and saw a blue foal beneath me. I had pinned him down and he looked terrified of me. I looked at him and kept my teeth gritted even as I realised that he was likely even younger than me. “I-I’m sorry.” He whimpered “I was just looking for a place to hide and I didn’t know that you had moved in. I’m sorry.” He whimpered again. I rose and got off him. I couldn’t help but think how cute he was. Any word that had the letter ‘R’ in it, like ‘sorry’ was out of his vocal range. Instead it came across as ‘sowwy.” And his voice was so quiet and nervous it made my heart melt. How could I have been so mean to him? I heard some other giggles coming up the hallway and I quickly pushed him underneath my desk and I moved the chair sideways in front of him. I looked back at him and he seemed to notice that I was actually helping him in his game. It made me feel a little bit better about what I had done.

The group of young ponies followed the giggles until they came into view. They looked over at me and grinned as they walked up to me, looking up at me as if I was the coolest thing they had seen. “What’s your name?” a little yellow unicorn filly asked. I blushed at hearing her voice, I had no idea this orphanage was full of so many cute little foals. “My name is Aria Shine.” She perked up, waiting for my response.

“My name is Aero Crown.” I said, forcing a smile to her “I’m new here and this is my room. Now what are you all doing?” I raised an eyebrow, trying to keep as good an appearance as I could. I still felt some pain as my mind was still swimming with the thoughts of being left alone in this place.

The group all talked amongst themselves until Aria spoke up again. “We’re looking for somepony and he went this way. Did you see him? He’s blue colour and is this big.” She stretched a hoof up to her height and smiled hoping for some answer. I briefly glanced back to see the foal and he shook in anticipation. I turned back to the group and shook my head, smiling at them softly as they turned around and charged away in their group. I felt a little bit sorry for Joy after seeing just how destructive they could possibly be. 

I waited until the group was gone before turning around to get the foal out of hiding. “Come on out. They’re gone.” I called, sounding happier than I felt on the inside. I was only helping him because of how much I had scared him earlier; I owed it to him, but that time was up and as cute as he was I was still upset, so I shooed him away once he was out; not in a mean way, just being firm to him. He scampered away and looked around other rooms to see if he could hide there. I knew he would probably wander into some other pony’s room and scare them the same he did to me. However, it had occurred to me that I was actually more timid than when I was a human. Was it possible that my transformation had not only resulted in the loss of my humanity, but also in the loss of some of my confidence? There were moments where it seemed as if I had no problems with my confidence, like when I stood up to Diamond Tiara, but then other times I seemed to be a complete nervous wreck like when I was in the presence of Princess Celestia. My personality seemed so different now despite the fact I knew I was the same person, but I was trapped in a pony’s body. I thought I had got used to it earlier, but my outbreak seemed to tell me otherwise. “Why?” I snivelled and went back to my bed.

It wasn’t long before I heard the door open again, although this time it was slower and not as frantic. I turned my head to see who was there and I was greeted with the sight of a dark green Earth pony. He was clearly an adult and appeared to be kind of old. His dark blue mane was greying slightly with age and his amber eyes were starting to lose their spark for life. “You must be the newest member of our family.” He spoke softly and sat down on the bed next to me. We both stayed silent for a moment until he broke it with a content sigh “I know just how you’re feeling kid. Well at least I did know what it felt like. I remember how it felt; I thought I didn’t belong with anypony and I thought that nopony could possibly love me because that’s why I was an orphan, because there was no one left to love me.” He appeared to be smiling at the memory “I even know how to pull that frown you’ve got there.” He chuckled and mimicked my facial expression. “I think that you’re just sad because you’re not where you want to be am I right?” he looked down to me and his small specs fell underneath his eyes, exposing his eyes to me. I kept my frown, but nodded at him. “Where are my manners?” he shook his head and chuckled again “I am Earnest Grove and I am the co-founder of this here orphanage. My wife and I made it so that even orphans could feel loved. Now tell me my dear; what is your name?” he leaned in. I nearly gagged at the smell of his breath, but I held back because he actually seemed nice and he was being much softer to me than I thought the owner would be.

“Aero Crown.” I grumbled and held my breath again as I waited for him to speak. He sat up straight for a moment and muttered my name a few more times, bringing a hoof to his chin and he scratched it. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but some part of me was getting curious about what he could be thinking of. He broke out of his thoughts as he saw my form trying to peek at his facial expressions to try and judge him there and then. He simply replied by sticking his tongue out at me.

He ruffled my mane playfully, although it did very little. “Well then Aero Crown it is a pleasure to meet you.” He took the opportunity to lie down beside me, lying down casually as if he was going to fall asleep at any moment. “Perhaps you would like to share with me what has you troubled young filly?” he raised and then turned his head to face me; his mane now flopped on one side as he waited for an answer. I looked back at him for a moment before burying my head in the pillow again. I felt a hoof gently stroke my mane and back “Now come on. There will be no consequences and telling somepony can only make you feel better right?” his approach appeared similar to Twilight’s, but there was no way I was going to tell him the real reason as to why I was so upset; I wouldn’t be believed so there was almost no point. I would have had to have made really close and trustworthy friends before I could tell anypony my secret. It would surely ruin me and then it would genuinely leave me without a friend. “No? You are telling me that you don’t wish to be happy yet?” the pony sighed and got off the bed. “I will come and collect you when it is time for dinner, or if you have any visitors. Remember that you can come to me any time you need help with anything.” He said sincerely before walking out of my room. I was once again left to my own thoughts and I didn’t know whether I should be grateful for that or if I should think of it as a curse, a constant reminder of what I had become. I was a pony for nopony and that was why I ended up being in this place.

My thoughts drifted to the events earlier on. I was so happy with my newfound friends and everyone around me being so nice, not only to me, but to everypony. It was truly magical to see and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. However, thinking about the picnic with the Princess had made me shiver. I didn’t want to think about it. “Stupid laws.” I muttered as I remembered Celestia talking to Twilight about how it was law that I could not be taken in with such immediate effect. I kept my mind strong as I tried not to think of Celestia as the bad pony in all of this. She had said it herself; she was no more above the law than any other pony in the whole of Equestria. The truth was that maybe I wasn’t meant to have somepony love me. Maybe I had done something so bad on Earth that cause me to be taken away and forced to suffer a life like the one I was living. I couldn’t bare it and I started to cry again. I grit my teeth and moaned in frustration as I tried to force the tears to stop “Come on. Stop crying you big foal!” I screamed to myself, hitting my forehead with my hooves repeatedly until I was too tired to care anymore. I could only mutter in a weak tone about how stupid I was and about how it was my entire fault that Twilight couldn’t keep me straight away. It was all nonsense of course, but in my current mental state at the time anything was believable. “How could I have thought it was a good idea to stay quiet and let those two talk? I had my ideas about it too.” I moaned to myself, picturing the conversation that Twilight and the princess had shared. I wanted to say something, but I felt too nervous to even move much in the royal’s midst. There was something about her that made me feel weak and unfit for anything.

I decided I’d had enough of the bed and I outstretched my wings lazily, yawning. I flew only a couple of feet onto my desk again. I looked in the mirror and saw that the short fur on my face was soaked from all the crying I had done and the whites of my eyes were bloodshot and bleary. I looked an utter state, but through it all I couldn’t help laugh at myself. It seemed a bit out of my normal character, but I had to find something to laugh at in this place even if it was just my reflection. I stood in front of the mirror for a few minutes just waiting for my appearance to get a little bit better. My patience was rewarded and I was able to stop sniffling. I was starting to feel good again and now that I had gotten it out of my system I knew I was gong to be fine again in no time. I couldn’t help it so I started flying around the room in circles. The room itself was certainly too small for anypony to fly in, but because I was smaller and I was only flying in a circle I was able to keep going. I felt that my concentration had shifted to flying and it kept all my negative thoughts at bay. My thoughts only centred in on flying, perfecting the art of staying airborne at great speeds. I smiled as I felt myself going around in the circle quicker. Before too long I knew I was zooming around in my room and I became bold enough to try and move around a little bit more. 

“Miss Crown could you please not do that? With that kind of speed you could create your own mini tornado.” I heard Joy call out as I stopped and whacked into the narrow edge of the now open door. I fell to the floor and looked around to see if I was still awake or if it was some dream land. I groggily rose to my hooves and looked up at the twitching earth pony in an almost drunken state. “I have a visitor who has come to see you.” She stepped to the side and smiled with a small twitch. “Miss Rainbow Dash has is here to visit you.”

Rainbow walked into my room smiling cheekily at me and she slammed the door behind her right into Joy’s face. As rude as that was it made me laugh. “What’s up kid?” she raised an eyebrow to smile at me “Joy Grove is right y’know, flying that fast could cause a mini tornado.” She tutted, but I wasn’t so quick to feel like I had been told off this time. “But..” she started to form a grin on her face and it was increasing the more I watched her “It would be totally awesome if you could do that!” she began leaping about the room like I would’ve expected Pinkie Pie to. She stopped as quickly as we started and she made her way to the window; she was trying to open it, but failing quite terribly. I could hear her huffing, puffing and straining to open the window to make it budge. “What are these windows made of?” she panted. I walked over to inspect with her and I saw that these windows seemed to be extra strong juts in case of any sort of emergency. It was clear that Joy and Earnest wanted the safety of the foals to be absolute priority and they went as far as sealing the windows shut so that there was no chance of them falling out. It baffled me that they would both for my room because it was on the ground floor of the building, but I guess it was easier to get all windows done than just selecting certain ones. “Okay, stand back Aero. I’m gonna bust us outta here.” Rainbow got against the back wall and dashed at the window at speeds I couldn’t quite keep my eye on, but rather than seeing the window become unhinged I saw the cyan Pegasus lying on the floor, groaning from the impact. “That’s stronger than it looks.”

I had hopped back onto my bed at this point after realising that Rainbow had called this place exactly what I felt like it was, a prison. She trotted over to me and put her forehooves on the bed, resting her head on her forelegs and she huffed “Hey there’s no need to feel down. Twilight told me all about it and I think that it doesn’t matter if you’re an orphan.” I winced as I heard that word. I had heard it enough today and I was getting sick of it. I wasn’t an orphan, not from what I knew at least, but it wasn’t as if I could tell anypony because the idea would seem so ridiculous it just wasn’t worth the try. “Oh…that word stings huh?” I nodded “Well don’t worry about it; there’s nothing to be ashamed of. When Fluttershy was your age, she was ashamed that she couldn’t fly too well, but she learned to look past it and she’s doing just fine right now.” She smirked and whispered in my ear “No telling for the future though.” She giggled. She perked up and started hovering above me “I have a great idea that I think you’d love.” She beamed and nodded her head vigorously. She tried pulling me up by my forehooves, but I was feeling stubborn so I just flopped back down and looked up at her to see she was still smiling; showing the energy and enthusiasm of a young child, she grabbed me again and this time just lifted me into the air. Out of nothing more than a natural instinct I started flapping my wings so that I wasn’t held up. “Let’s try something shall we?” she smirked again and raised both her eyebrows before holding on to me around my chest. “If I were you I would hold on tight. This may get dizzy.” She started to fly around in a circle, and she was getting quicker than what I had achieved in seconds, making my twirls seem like a complete flop in comparison to this. I got the familiar sight of everything going blurry, only this time Rainbow and I were surrounded by what looked like a rainbow force field. “This is what a mini tornado looks like when you do it right.” We started circling higher until we were just inches from the ceiling. I don’t know how, but Rainbow was able to stop almost as quickly as she started and it only took a shake of her head to recover.

I stumbled around the room as I felt my head spinning almost like the time I had just gotten off of Dash after she took me to Fluttershy’s. I felt my face change colour to a sickly green for just a moment. “D-dash I think I’m going to…” I took in a deep breath to try and calm my stomach down from all the spinning, but that was a task when my vision was still going in circles. I fell to the floor and looked up, my head was spinning, and my stomach didn’t want to keep the food down below. “I’m going to be..” I gagged as I felt the bile rise up in my body. Rainbow executed an action roll and grabbed me by the body and head, spinning me over until we reached a bin that I actually hadn’t noticed there before. The spinning did me no good and I choked and gagged again, but I managed to swallow it back down. “P-please no more spinning.” I groaned to Rainbow dramatically and she sighed. “I’m sorry Rainbow; I’m just not really in the best of moods right now.”

“How about we go outside so I give you a flying lesson?” she smiled and prodded my side to try and get me up, but it only served to annoy. “It’ll be fun.” She tempted and got closer to me “It’ll be really fun, and I know that nopony in their right mind would want to miss out on something that’s fun, especially a filly who likes to fly and have fun.” She taunted and I could picture the smirk that was appearing on her face. However tempting it sounded wasn’t quite interesting enough to break me from my trance. She clambered next to me and looked at my face. “Come on Aero don’t be sad…actually why are you sad again?” she pulled out a look of confusion and scratched her head.

I sighed and looked back at her, both of us lying down in the same position “Well I’m sad because nopony loves me. I don’t have family or anything to love me. Then I see others with their family and then it makes me remember…r-re-emem-ember.” I started to well up again and I cursed in my head at my sensitivity. I felt Rainbow’s tail cover me in its length and make me feel a little bit warmer, cosy even. I looked back at her and for once there wasn’t a look of competitive drive in her eyes, but there was a look of sympathy and she hugged me for a second before letting go. “I know Twilight’s trying, but what if she doesn’t pass?” I whimpered before drawing out a long sigh.

Rainbow sat us both up and lifted my chin with her hoof. She had her confident smile back on and her competitive streak back in her after the brief moment of compassion. “Twilight will pass. That mare passes every single test without a doubt, although I think if she tried the Wonderbolts exam then she might struggle. You would definitely do better than her, but she doesn’t have wings so…yeah.” Rainbow laughed and nudged me again, finding something where it might have made me laugh, but again to no avail. I just wasn’t in the mood for laughter and I couldn’t see anything positive in my life. I cringed in thought as I never thought I would turn out like this, but I was wallowing in self pity. “So I take it that’s a no to the flying lesson?” she asked, her tone sounding defeated. I slowly shook my head, not wanting to say much anyway. She slowly wrapped me up in one of her wings and lifted me properly onto my bed. “Any time you need some help Aero I’ll be there. Because us pegasi need to look out for each other, and besides you’re pretty cool Aero, and I don’t wanna see you upset, so I hope you get better soon.” She weakly said before closing the door. I wiped away the remaining tears that had come after Rainbow left; just like my current life. I would meet other but they would quickly leave.

I lay on my bed for several more hours until dusk was hitting the horizon and I kept looking to the ceiling, no longer fooled by its attempt to picture a boundless sky above me when I felt trapped and alone in my room, yet I refused to move. If I did then there was a chance that a family would see me and then want to adopt me and if they adopted me then I may be taken away from Ponyville and not see anyone ever again. I’d only known them for just over a day, but I did not want to lose them before I really got to know them. The door creaked open again and I looked across to see that it was Earnest Grove. He disappeared for a moment before returning to my view, pushing a trolley with several dinner plates on it. “Usually we would expect you to join everypony at the main dinner hall, but because this is your first night and you seem upset, Joy and I thought it would be best if we brought you your dinner tonight.” He placed the food on my desk and gave me a quick, gentle peck on my forehead. “Just call for me when you’re done and I’ll take the plate away.” He walked out, pulling the trolley with him and left me in the room with the food waiting to be eaten. I looked across to see that the plate was steaming and it stood up to see what was on there. I felt a little bit under whelmed when I saw that the plate was holding a few new potatoes, some carrots and some hay. I scowled at the hay, thinking it would taste completely bland and boring.

“Well…no time like the present.” I mumbled as I sat up and looked at the food in front of me. I slowly edged my mouth towards the vegetable and carefully stuck out my tongue to make contact. Once again I was pleasantly surprised with the taste of a food that normally I wouldn’t eat and now with my new taste buds I would find any vegetable delicious…or so I hoped. I chowed down on the carrots and made my way to the potatoes; they had clearly been peeled and it gave them a bright yellow, highly saturated appearance. I bit into it without hesitation this time and I was starting to feel better, after all, what doesn’t comfort eating solve? I decided to chance it and try some hay. As I leaned down to reach for it I could only see the mental images I had of horses and ponies back on earth munching on the hay, their chins and muzzles getting a bit messy in the process, but they did seem to like the stuff. I swallowed down my last bit of reluctance and scooped some of the hay up with my tongue. I couldn’t describe its taste very easily, but it tasted starchy and chewy, but it didn’t have a taste dissimilar to toasted bread in my opinion, but then I guess I’m just weird anyway. “They don’t do this every night. It’s just because I’m new.” I assured myself, but I hoped it was all a lie. I could definitely find a positive to living here. I looked from left to right twice just to make sure all was clear and I gave a cheeky burp, causing myself to giggle a little bit. This was more than comfort food. I was feeling fine now; maybe it had just been the hot sauce from Pinkie’s cupcakes. I poked my head around the door and gave a childish smile as I looked down the hallway. “EARNEST!” I yelled, causing the low rumble of the other’s voices to go quiet from my shriek. I hid myself from view again as I heard the tell tale signs of his hooves clopping against the floor. I sat patiently on my bed and held up the plate for him as he walked in with the trolley again. “I finished.” I said quietly.

He smiled warmly and took the plate back, putting it on the bottom shelf with other finished plates. “Would you like a dessert? Joy Grove made them herself.” He winked.

Whatever it was looked delightful and as if to answer my question my stomach rumbled as I looked at it for a little bit longer. He placed it on my bed and began to trot away. As I got started I noticed that the door hadn’t quite closed and that was because another somepony was walking in, it was Twilight. I nearly tossed aside my dessert when I saw the purple mare smile at me when she entered “I can see that somepony is feeling better. Am I right?” I gave a slight nod and got back to the work in hand, namely the dish in front of me. I held a hoof up to hold up Twilight as I finished it. I still do not know what went into that dessert, but it was incredible; the crispy pastry, the sweet taste and the tangy kick at the end of it. I could’ve died right then and have been happy in my last moment. I was snapped back to reality as I saw Twilight laughing at me “You’ve got it all over your face you silly filly.” She levitated the serviette and held me in place as she wiped off the left over food from my face. However, she didn’t stop there. Instead she kept going until she threw the serviette away and used her magic to tickle me. I rolled around, giggling like an idiot as Twilight continued. I was getting short on breath and I pleaded for her to stop by pushing her with a hoof gently. She smirked and made it stop for a little bit. “I want you to promise that you’ll be good and behave yourself in front of the Groves okay? You need to help me out as much as I need to help you out. That way you’ll be out of here in no time.”

I grinned up at her and gave her a certain look whilst clearing my throat “Okay I promise.” I bit my bottom lip and continued to look up at her, making my eyes wider “Oh wait! I Pinkie promise!” I then frowned as she held me down, something was bugging me and I needed to find out. I was just glad it’s nothing bad.

“What’s wrong my little pony?” Twilight asked, turning her head slightly to get a closer look at me, only making both of us giggle a little more as I squirmed under her hold. I kept on squirming until she let me go and we were sitting side by side. I was too nervous to speak to start out with and I silently looked at the floor, swaying my legs from the top of my bed. “Come on Aero you can tell me. I think you and I already have some kind of friendship, so there wouldn’t be any harm in telling me would there?” I shook my head as she inquired “Wait is that a ‘No there’s no harm’ or ‘No I’m not telling you.” I gave a nervous whine and fell onto her shoulder.

“I just don’t understand why you’re doing this for me. The only thing I’ve ever done for you and your friends is cause a hassle and a mess in some cases. It always seems to be me who’s relying on you and the others and it must seem like I’m really incapable of anything. I hate that I can’t do anything without pleading for help or getting myself worked up and crying over it.” Just as I said it I felt tears start to rise again “Twi-ilight I’ve never cried as much as this in my entire life, and I just want to feel okay.” Twilight nuzzled me softly and put a hoof on my shoulder furthest from her as she pulled me in close “It’s just…I have nopony in this world.” I sniffled again looking back on it now I feel sorry for Twilight because the times when I cried most was when she was there and she must have felt like it was her fault at some point. It must have been hard for her not to blame herself. She pulled me closer and shook her head, chuckling softly at me. “W-what’s so funny?”

She shook her head again and poked my stomach “You have nothing to be upset about Aero. You do have somepony in this world. In fact, you have many ponies in this world that believe you mean something to them. You’ve already had that effect on them in just less than two days.” Twilight lifted me with her magic and tucked me into my bed. “Crying isn’t a bad thing Aero, embrace it because if you keep it in for too long you may just find yourself crumble away under pressure.” She nuzzled me again “Never be afraid to show your emotions.” She then gave me a stern look for a second and straightened her posture “Aero you’re just going to have to endure these two weeks and try to feel as okay as you can in that time. When the two weeks is up then you can start to lead a life that you’ll be happier in, okay?” I nodded, although I still had some doubts in the back of my mind.

I reached out for her with a hoof “But what if you aren’t allowed to adopt me? What if…what if?” she shushed me by putting a hoof over my mouth and smiling to me.

She giggled quietly “You worry more than me sometimes.” She paused “Just don’t think of that. You’ll see in two weeks time you’ll be sleeping in the library with me, Spike and Owlowicius.” She beamed gently at me and stifled a giggle as I yawned “It seems like somepony is tired from today. I think she needs her rest for tomorrow.” She gave a delicate kiss on my cheek “Good night my little pony.” She cooed as I drifted away from the waking world. My thoughts kept changing throughout one constant; I could only hope that Twilight was right and by enduring it I would see it to Twilight’s house. I had to keep reminding myself ‘The path to heaven runs through miles of clouded hell.’