I trotted out of a lush forest filled with exotic creatures; tall trees guarded my trail along with tall grasses and crazy plants of all kinds. Some call this the Everfree Forest; some call it ‘‘dreadful’’ or a ‘‘monstrous place’’ still others call it strange and weird. Someponies call it home, somepony….like me. I really don’t care about the strange looks I get whenever I walk into town, which wasn’t often, and if I did, I never showed it. In my mind I pictured myself walking through with my head held high, my posture alive and not hunched over with my mane dragging on the ground accompanied with my tail, I was never able to make that image a reality though, no matter how much I tried. It’s not like I was that different, I had a baby blue coat with a wavy yellow mane on my head, my cutie mark was of three rose petals floating in the breeze and I had a pair of wings with yellow feathers scattered among the many blue ones. I sighed as I drew closer to town. Nopony bothered talking to me, well save for Ditzy and Fluttershy, and that's the reason they don't know. They don't know that my parents died in Ponyville while on a little vacation, they didn't know I couldn't bear to stay in Cloudsdale with all the questions about them made me feel sick and just strengthened the wave of sadness that washes over me every time I think of them. The most wonderful ponies in my life. They died because of some freak accident I don’t care to recall. I don’t want to remember, and if you were in my place, you wouldn’t either. I was twelve years old at the time, old enough for me to stay home alone and my parents decided to let me stay home while they went on a short vacation to a town by the name of Ponyville. Rumor had it that it was an Earth pony town so not very many pegasi had bothered going down there, preferring to live among the plush, white clouds of the majestic city in the sky. For me though it was an opportunity to escape and start over. I cringed as my childhood came back to me…
“Oh my gosh look at her, she can barely even get off the ground!”
“Dweeb! You’re so weak you make a snail look tough!”
“My baby brother can fly faster than you!”
“You don’t even deserve to be a Pegasus you chicken!”
The cruel sound of evil laughter beat against my ears as I would walk down the hallways of flight school my head bowed down and my ears flattened against my head in a vain attempt to block it out. What hurt even more was that I knew those things were true. I was a weak flyer, and a late bloomer, and a slowpoke. I would spend my lunches hiding in the bathroom, others I would escape outside onto the field where all the other real pegasi would practice their flying techniques and different stunts while I would be alone as far from everyone as I can get and try to hover more than just a few measly feet off the ground. By the end of the day I would be drowned in my own sweat, and my ears would be drowned in insults and bullets made of harsh words. I did manage to make a friend though, and for those two or three years it felt as if the sun had actually shone from behind all those dark gray clouds that always seemed to hog the skies before. For a while I was happy and I was able to smile. Not one of those fake smiles I used to fool the teachers. No. These were for real. I’ve never felt so happy, well actually I’ve never felt happy before but if anyone showed me what true happiness was it was my best friend,Nora.
We were practically inseparable. She was a plain filly with a cream coat and straight brown hair that everyone used to goggle over. My own dirty blonde hair couldn’t compete with hers if my life depended on it. But I didn’t care about all that stuff. When I wasn’t with Nora, most of my free time was spent in the library, staring at all the roses and flowers in the picture books. There was only a sentence on each page, and even though they were considered baby books I didn’t care, the only thing I cared about was the pictures. My dreams would be filled with images of the lush, green meadows with flowers of different shapes and sizes and the gentle breeze that would comb my mane with invisible hooves. And the sun, oh sweet Celestia how wonderful it would feel to lay down on the cool grass and have the sun lay a blanket of warmth on you. My joy was the only thing that pushed me onward along with my friend. That was before Nora hurt me. She hurt me so much that I have a hard time imagining any physical pain rivaling it. She went over to the other side, with all the popular fillies and colts. She left me behind among the shadows and took the sun with her too. It all happened so suddenly, she moved to a private school and became the most popular filly in the school. My heart felt as if she had taken it and broke it into a million pieces beyond repair, and threw it back to me scattering all the shredded pieces in the cold wind and walked away. I had trusted her with all my secrets, all my embarrassing moments. She held me when I cried and wove kind, soothing words into warmth that surrounded me. In turn I listened to her whenever she needed someone to talk to, I encouraged her and supported her, I even gave up my favorite sweater for her because hers had ripped and I remember it was in the middle of winter. After she left me, it seemed as if my whole world was covered by those same dark, grey clouds. The cold moved in and pushed out the warmth and sunshine. My honey colored eyes lost all the small fire inside them that I had worked so hard to maintain. And so my life continued from there, same thing every day, get up go to school, avoid everypony, go home, the same depressing cycle over and over for a long time. After the news of my parent’s death I couldn’t take it. It was the last straw, I packed all my stuff and ran away from my home. I didn’t have any siblings to worry about so I was good I grabbed a saddlebag and filled it with only the necessities: clothes, food, bits, picture of mom and dad, and the locket they gave me for an early birthday present for my thirteenth birthday. It looked like I would be spending it alone. Funny thing is I didn’t.
As soon as I left the boundaries of Cloudsdale I headed into any random direction and ended up in what I would soon learn to be called the Everfree Forest. I wandered around for a while marveling at all the different plants and animals. My jaw was hung wide open in awe at all the green around me. Trees twisted into different shapes and they formed all sorts of combinations. And the flowers, I stopped and sniffed every rose, stroked the petals on every single flower I could. I had to restrain myself from the poisonous ones though, I never appreciated spending my time learning about flowers so much as I did then. That’s when I came to a strange looking hut and curiosity won over my fear of the place, it looked creepy if you asked me. My parents had warned me about strangers a lot, but I guessed this one time, perhaps I could make an exception, boy would I be glad I did. I lifted a trembling hoof and knocked softly three times. I jumped when I heard the door open and reveal a strange looking pony. She had black and white stripes and her eyes looked…weird. They were a piecing green color and I couldn’t help but get mesmerized by them. She wore golden rings on her forehooves and golden earrings to match. I opened my mouth but no words came out, instead a small squeak escaped my mouth and caused the blood to rush to my face, and for once I cursed my light coat. I looked back up at the strange pony and managed to string together a couple words.
“H-h-hi, I was just- well you see I- …” the pony smiled at this and spoke back to me with a soothing low voice. I think she even had an accent, though I think the weirdest thing was that she spoke in rhymes.
“Come, do not fret little filly
For there is no need to be afraid of me
Step inside my hut and you shall see.” She stepped out of the doorway and off to the side to allow me to walk into her home. I kind of wished she hadn’t, freaky masks hung off walls and different plants thrived here and there. They were even hanging down from the ceiling! With a bunch of bottle with funny looking liquids in them that too hung down from the ceiling with pieces of rope. I gaped at the site before me, failing to digest it all. Who was this pony? Well I would soon find out, and I would discover that in fact she wasn’t a pony, she was a zebra named Zecora from Zebrica. I clung to her every word, every detail of the place. After a couple cups of herbal tea she insisted that I spend the night at her place and promised that we would go visit a pony by the name of Twilight Sparkle, I remember marveling at the fact that I would go meet a real live unicorn. I’ve never seen one before in Cloudsdale, I was bursting with questions about her. When I learned that she lived in Ponyville however, I became way less enthusiastic about meeting her and Zecora picked up on this and I don’t know how she did it but she did, she somehow managed to make me tell her of what was wrong. That’s when I broke down, the tears kept rushing out of my eyes and I couldn’t do anything to stop them. She held me and rocked me back and forth, just like…..Nora used to do and my wails only got louder. Zecora only tightened her grip around my trembling body, and I told her. I told her every. Last. Thing. She listened to me and rubbed a hoof on my small back. After what seemed like hours, my crying ceased and I fell asleep and that’s the last thing I remembered.
****************
The next couple of days were a blur for me, I stared blankly at everything and everyone. My eyes were dull and my mane and ears drooped, and my shoulders were hunched over. I remember meeting Twilight, and the rest of the Element bearers. Even though I was only a couple years younger than them I still felt like a little filly in front of them. The one that stood out the most to me was Fluttershy the Element of Kindness. She certainly looked the part. I spent time with her the most and found that she had had some of the same experiences as I did. We became fast friends and I think that I made it. I think this is where I belong. Even though I still preferred to live in the Everfree in a hut next to Zecora's which the mayor had so generously offered to build me I still enjoy a little trot down here from time to time, despite all the stares and the strange looks and the whispers. The ponies here were much kinder than that of Cloudsdale and if I needed anything I know I could count on them to aid me. I had found happiness again, and I was no longer alone when I searched for a friend to stick by me. In fact I had made friends with quite a lot of ponies though Zecora, Ditzy and Fluttershy were more than just friends they're best friends. They're....family. And with that I pushed on forward with renewed vigor to visit my friends...no not my friends....my family.