It’s been almost a year since my trial, but it feels like it was no more than a few weeks. I’ve been living with Pinkie ever since, despite a few complaints from the Cakes about the two of us staying in the same room, but it’s not like we had a choice since she has to watch over me 24/7 now(not that I’m complaining or anything).
Life in Ponyville has been far better than I had even expected. The only thing that reminds me of my old life is the cloudwalker gathering dust on a high shelf. It took quite a while for all the other ponies to get used to having a pony with wings and a horn on the town. Some of them still insist on calling me an alicorn, but considering that the heaviest thing I can lift with magic is a bag of flour, the Sun or the Moon are far from being a possibility, seeing as performing magic requires quite a lot of focus and concentration, which aren’t exactly my strongest points. But I’m getting better at it. Slowly. Very slowly.
Anyway, I got to meet some foals around town and they pretty much went crazy when they noticed I didn’t have a cutie mark. Now I seem to be an honorary member of the cutie mark crusaders. Whatever that means. Still, they’re quite fun to play around with when they’re not doing dangerous stuff. Last week we managed to blow up an oven at Sugarcube Corner and I’m still wondering how did we make oatmeal do that.
Quill is involved in some project of his, and he insists on keeping it a secret. He found an old typewriter on Pinkie’s basement and now he spends all day typing. Well, typing is not really the word since he literally possesses the typewriter and it writes by itself. It’s pretty freaky to watch.
Pinkie insisted on letting me stay at Sugarcube Corner for free, but I couldn’t just leech on her like that, so now I’m working as a baker. Pinkie’s been showing me the ropes, and it turns out I’m not half bad at it, although not even half as good as her. With the money I’m making and all I had left from my “old life” that the Princess had the generosity of letting me keep (or unawareness that I even had it in the first place) I’ll be able to buy a house for the three of us to settle down.
Yes, you got that right; the three of us. Pinkie and I are going to have a foal, probably sometime in the next month. Well, what the hay do you expect when you put two young ponies, that just happen to be in love with each other, living in the same room, which just happens to only have one bed? Nopony was really surprised, except for Mr. Cake, that tried to rip my throat off with a kitchen knife. Nopony got harmed. Much. But I just couldn’t be happier.
And the fact that I was starting my own family brought back an issue. It’s not like I had even forgotten about it in the first place, but it was like one of those things that are so uncomfortable to deal with that you just push them to the back of your mind, like a leaky pipe or a creaking plank on the floor.
“So, Ember, you haven’t said anything about that in a while but what are you going to do about your parents?” Pinkie asked one day, completely out of the blue.
“What about them?” I asked without much enthusiasm, already knowing the answer.
“It’s been a while since you told me that you wanted to see them again, and you’ve been pushing it off ever since! My parents live really far from here, and I don’t want our foal to grow up without knowing his grandparents. And they’re probably worried sick about you too!”
“I know, I know! But the thing is, I don’t think I can just trot in and say ‘hey there! Remember me? I’m your son that’s been missing for nearly ten years now. Oh, and don’t mind the wings and the horn, I grew them while I was on Ponyville, no big deal. Also I’ll be a dad soon’. They’ve probably gone on with their lives; I bet they even had another foal by now.”
Quill floated through the ceiling and backed up Pinkie “You should at least have the decency of telling them that you’re alive. I know they’ve probably given up searching by now, but they wouldn’t just forget you. You fell from Cloudsdale, it’s not like they abandoned you on somepony’s door”
“Okay, I’ll go, I promise. It’ll be the first thing I’ll do tomorrow” I turned away from them and began fiddling around with some pans to pretend to be working.
“EMBER!” The two of them screamed in unison.
“Alright, alright, I’ll go get my stuff”
“Great, I haven’t been to Cloudsdale ever since I met you, it’ll be good to see how much it’s changed.” Quill said.
“If you missed it so much, why didn’t you go there by yourself? It wouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to get there flying.” I said, remembering that Quill could fly absurdly fast since he wasn’t affected by air resistance.
“That’s because I can’t leave you alone for more than a few minutes without you getting in trouble.”
“Give me one example.”
“Three words: Charlie, candy mountain.” He said trying not to laugh.
“Oh come on! I was just a kid, and those unicorns looked responsible.”
“Oh yeah. ‘Shun the nonbeliever!’” Quill said and burst out laughing.
“What do you mean? Where is the candy mountain?” Pinkie asked enthusiastically.
“I don’t wanna talk about it.”
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It took only a few minutes for us to get ready to leave. Quill obviously wound’t be taking anything, and I didn’t plan on staying so all I needed was a pouch with a few bits, my cloak and a hat. Rarity insisted on making me a new cloak since she deliberately threw my old one away, and also made me a hat to cover my horn so I wouldn’t attract much attention.
“Are you sure you’ll be fine?” I asked Pinkie with sincere concern.
“I’m sure I’ll be okay, what could possibly happen anyway?” Pinkie looked me in the eyes and gave me a reassuring smile.
“I just don’t want anything to happen to our foal” I said while rubbing her stomach. She giggled and leaned towards me. I gave her a deep kiss and walked away, waving.
The sky was slowly gaining a light shade of orange as I took off. I didn’t have the slightest rush to get there, so I took my time flying slowly and appreciating the view. My cloak was tied to my neck while my wings burned bright red. I still wondered how did they take all that heat without warping or breaking. By the time we arrived, it was starting to get dark.
I put the cloak on and adjusted my hat. Both the cloak and the hat were dark brown, and the hat was pointy and long, like a wizard’s hat. It reminded me of an old painting of Starswirl the Bearded I had seen at a mansion I broke in once.
“So, do you still remember where your parents live?”
“The city hasn’t changed much since then, I can probably find my way around. I just hope they didn’t move.” I answered, ignoring the possibility of anypony seeing me talk to the air.
I stopped and focused on my horn. It shone for a few seconds, enveloping my head and tail in a bright red light. After it faded, I looked into a pond to see the results. My eyes, tail and mane had changed from bright red to blue.
“Why did you do that for?” Quill asked.
“I don’t want anypony to recognize me. I’m supposed to be dead you know. And to be an earth pony.”
“And why the hay do you know a spell to change the color of your mane? Seriously, that’s pretty gay.” He said mockingly.
“Just shut up. That’s the kind of stuff you learn when Rarity is your magic teacher.”
We walked (well I walked, Quill just floated after me) for nearly an hour until I found the house I was looking for. It was exactly the same, exactly like I remembered it, a simple two story house, far from the middle of the town, with four small windows on the front. Despite remodeling a house being so simple when it is made out of clouds, nopony changed a thing.
My legs were shaking as I walked up to the door. For a few minutes I just stood there, looking to the door. I lifted a hoof and prepared to knock, just holding it there. Quill floated around impatiently.
“Aren’t you going to knock?” He asked angrily. I lowered my hoof and turned to him.
“Look, I’m not really sure about this anymore. Seriously, they couldn’t possibly still live in the same place, it’s been years! I’m not going to even bother about this. Let’s just go back to Pinkie and tell her they’re not here.” I began walking away from the door.
“Oh no you don’t! We didn’t fly all the way here for you to give up right on their doorstep. If you’re so sure they moved, then just knock and see who comes out. If it’s not either of them, we just apologize and leave.”
“Why should I even bother? I’m going back home!”
“Who the hay are you and who are you talking to?” A strong feminine voice came from inside the house. I turned slowly and looked towards the source. An angry looking mare with a baseball bat in her mouth was standing by the door, right next to me. She had a light blue coat and a fire red mane and eyes, just like mine. Her cutie mark was a gray mailbox.
“Nopony in particular, just, you know, talking.”
“And who are you? What do you want here? The asylum is the other way around.” she muttered angrily and somehow managed to speak clearly despite the bat in her mouth.
“You’re a cop and want to ask some questions.” Quill said speaking fast. I looked confused at him. “Just say it. Or you have any better ideas?”
“Sorry for disturbing, I’m… Steve from the Canterlot… Police Office, I just wanted to ask you a few questions.” She glared at me and I swallowed hard, hoping she would swallow that.
“Okay, get inside. but I’m keeping the bat.”
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Just like the exterior, the inside of the house was exactly the same as it was all those years ago. Not a single piece of furniture was removed or added. I looked around and the only new thing I noticed was a single picture on a frame. It was a picture of me as a foal, with my mother and father. I took it in my hooves and smiled at it.
“Hey! Put that back!” I nearly dropped the frame and tried to put it back in place as fast as I could. I followed the mare into the living room and she pointed at a chair. I sat on it and she sat on another one in front of me.
“So, what is it that you want to ask?” she dropped the bat by her side and asked roughly.
“Could you tell me your name first?”
“So you came here without even knowing who you were looking for?”
“I think I know who you are but I just need to be sure.”
“I’m Wildfire, and in case you don’t know that too, I work at the Cloudsdale Post Office.”
“So you’re still here.” I mumbled. I didn’t even notice the goofy smile creeping on my face.
“Aren’t you forgetting about somepony?” Quill asked from above me.
“Oh yeah, right” I tried to stay as calm as I could “Didn’t you have a husband? Where is he?”
“Shouldn’t you already know all this? He’s working right now, at the hospital.” She seemed to be getting impatient “Tell me kid, why are you really here? And don’t you think it’s a bit rude to talk to somepony wearing a cloak and a hat?”
I tried to take her attention off the fact “I’m here to talk about your son” I said dryly.
“What about him?! Don’t tell me you came here to torture me with more pointless questions!? I already told you bastards all I knew! He just disappeared one day and nopony knows anything about where he went! Can’t you just leave me alone?” She spoke louder with each sentence, letting her voice die down on the last one. I took a deep breath and sighed.
“He’s alive.”
She looked to me in disbelief “Did you find him? Where is he? What happened to him?” she spoke with a mix of hope and desperation.
“It seems he fell from the edge of Cloudsdale and ended up in a small nameless orphanage.”
“So?! Where is he now?!”
“Calm down miss, I’ll tell you everything I know.” I took another deep breath. This was going to be a long night.
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I told her the whole story, only omitting a few details like the foals that pushed me down. I didn’t want to dig up old problems right now. And also, I didn’t mention the gem, only a “strange magic artifact”, or the changes that it caused on me.
By the end of it, it was already dark. Wildfire was still sitting on the chair, looking down at the ground.
“And that’s pretty much it.” I finished “What do you think?”
“What do I think? That little idiot! He didn’t have to go and become a criminal! I didn’t raise him to be like that.” She still looked down.
Just as I expected. She wouldn’t want me to come back home after finding out all the things I did. My heart sank a bit as I heard it coming from her mouth, but she was right.
“He could have sent a letter. He could have told us… we were so worried…” That got me surprised. She was sobbing hard and the ground under her head was stained with tears. She didn’t look up so I couldn’t see her face, but I knew how much she was crying. She had always been proud like that.
“So you’ve missed him?”
“Of… course I did… I’m his mother for Twilight’s sake” she said between sobs.
I dispelled the hair change, got up and walked towards her. Before she could protest I embraced her in a tight hug. She returned it even stronger.
“I missed you too” I whispered in her ear. She gasped and pushed me away.
“Ember!?”
“It’s been a while ri…” I was about to finish that sentence when a hoof came flying straight in my muzzle.
“Hey! What was that?” I asked completely disoriented.
“Do you have any bucking idea how much we were worried about you? You’ve been gone for 9 years! 9 damn years! And not a single letter! Not a single word about you! We thought… we thought…” She tried to speak but seemed to be unable to find the right words. When she threw herself against me a second time, I blocked my face preparing for another punch. But instead, I felt a strong pressure on my chest.
“I thought you were dead… we both thought…” She sobbed uncontrollably, pressing her face against my chest. I ran my hoof through her hair and returned the hug with one leg, just as she did to calm me down when I was a little foal.
“Good to see you too mom. I’m back.”
“Welcome home.”
I held her in my arms until she stopped crying, and just like that, laying on the floor on the living room, the two of us fell asleep.