“So this is Ponyville.”, she whispered to herself. “Looks nice.”
Standing on the small hill, just outside of the town, her eyes wandered and she looked at what lay before her. It was a beautiful day. The sun stood high in the cloudless sky and a warm breeze was blowing through the trees and over the green grass. She closed her eyes and lifted her head, letting the gentle wind flow through her mane. The silver hair with dark purple strands formed a mild contrast to her dark blue fur. If anyone would have seen her standing there, they would have said that she looked like any other Pegasus. Even her cutie mark, a simple cloud, silver colored like her hair, was pretty common among pegasi. The only unusual thing about her appearance was the silver bracelet around the ankle of her right front leg.
After standing there for a while, enjoying the view and weather, she stretched her wings. “Let’s take a closer look.”
She started flapping her wings slowly, lifting only a few inches from the ground. For her staying this low was always better to explore a new city. Other ponies would say, that the view from above is more natural for a pegasus, but she didn’t care about that. Getting a good impression of what the town and its inhabitants are like was all that counted for her.
She came to the first house and stopped. It was a simple timber-framed building, with flower boxes before each window. So she stood there, gazing at the crafted walls and the colorful flowers. As if they had hypnotized her, she simply could not look away. Every frame, every flower, every small ornament reminded her of home. The home left so long ago.
One of the windows opened and a pegasus with a light green coat stepped into the light, waving at her. She could not see the face, but she knew that the pony standing there was her mother. But because of what happened that faithful day, the day she left her old life, this was not possible. Since that day she had no one left. She had no home. She was alone, always alone. Shaking her head, to cast away this shadow of the past, she looked again to see that the window was still closed.
She scolded herself.
“Come on. You cannot change the past, so there is no sense dwelling in memories.”
With a sigh she forced herself to look away and proceed to hover towards the town square.
This time of the day the square was filled with ponies. Some were doing their daily work, like cleaning the road or caring for the flowers at the sides of it. Others just stood there, chatting, laughing or simply fooling around. There were also a few market stands, with ponies selling all types of things, including all sorts of vegetables and fruits. Her stomach growled heavy as her eyes wandered over the food. But as usual it was ignored, since she could not afford to buy something.
And then there were these thoughts again.
‘Maybe you can snatch a carrot when nobody looks.’
‘Nobody will notice if there is one celery stock missing.’
‘You know you need something to eat!’
‘Come on. Only a small apple, I know you want it.’
She shook her head to banish the voices.
“No, I will not steal anything again!”
Her hoof covered her mouth before she could realize that she said that aloud. Luckily nobody heard her. But she could not deny it, she needed something to eat, and without money, in a town she just arrived, it would not be easy to get something. But to steal it was not the answer. She knew that. Although the hunger seemed to gain control of parts of her body as her wings slowly moved her near the apple stand.
The owner of the stand, which in fact was nothing more than a simple cart, was an orange earth pony with blond hair and a cowboy hat. Currently she was talking to what seemed to be her last customer, a mint colored unicorn. Slowly and barely making a sound her wings brought her nearer to the cart. Every second the gap between her and one of these delicious apples reduced. The other ponies still did not notice her.
“No, I will not do that again!” she shouted, forcing her traitorous wings to fold on her flanks.
“Can Ah help ya’?” the orange pony, now aware of her new customer, asked.
“Oh… I… ehm…”
Before she could get a sentence together her stomach growled.
“Ah see. Well ya’re lucky ‘cause Ah’m Applejack an’ Ah sell the best apples in all of Ponyville. An’ who’re you? Ah’ve never seen you around here before.”
Snapping out her paralysis, she looked at Applejack. There was only honest curiosity and nothing that would lead to believe she knew she just caught someone who almost stole an apple.
“Well, if ya’ don’t want t’ tell that’s okay. Ah won’t force ya’.”
“Oh… I…” shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she tried to start again.
“I’m sorry, I just arrived in Ponyville and …” her sentence stopped as her stomach interrupted her once more. She felt ashamed, but decided to just ignore it this time.
“A-anyway, my name is Silver … and I’m sorry, but I have no money and just came to … well … I don’t know. My wings brought me here.” She lowered her head, trying to hide the guilt she felt.
Applejack looked at her quiet, stared into her silver colored eyes, at her silver and purple colored mane and her strange silver bracelet. The silence was awkward and Silver felt like she should just leave, but her wings won’t move from their place at the side of her flank. Then the other pony smiled.
“Silver, eh? Nice t’ make ya’ acquaintance.”
“Oh … ehm … nice to meet you too, but I should really go now, sorry.” and with that she turned to the side, determined to go, before her hunger could take control again. An orange leg stopped her.
“Well, always nice t’ meet new ponies…”
A loud, vicious growl interrupted her.
“…an’ it sounds like ya’re really hungry.” the earth pony said cheerfully.
Silver blushed and opened her mouth to disagree, but Applejack already scrabbled around in the pile of apples, until she found a big, red one.
“Here, have’ an apple, free of charge.”
Rainbow Dash sat on the roof of Sugarcube Corner, carefully aiming at the cloud before her. It was the only cloud that got spared today, all because it was destined to serve a higher purpose. And this purpose was being the canvas for Rainbow’s newest trick. In her mind she could see it already, the Wonderbolts, stunned by her awesome performance, inviting her to be their leader because of her awesome new stunt. But before that could happen, she needed to perfect it. Unlike all of her previous tricks, which tended to not work the first or the second or the third time she tried them, if they even worked at all, this one could not fail.
Dash held her hooves before her face, using them to measure the size of the cloud. The size was perfect and there were no wind which could move it out of its position. Licking her lips in anticipation, she focused on the task ahead. In her head she went through it all again. Every move was planned, though this was actually pretty strange, since Rainbow Dash was more known for rushing ahead, without thinking at all. But this time, she thought to herself, everything will be different.
With closed eyes she took a deep breath and then jumped into the air, racing to the cloud. Faster and faster she flew circles around it, getting nearer with every round. And then she started to tear out bits. At first Rainbow ripped out big junks of the cloud, seemingly aimless. But every time she hit her canvas, her moves got more precise. Slowly the cloud began changing its shape, to what Dash had desired for it.
After ten minutes of circling and cloud ripping Rainbow returned to the roof of Sugarcube Corner. She folded her wings and wiped the sweat out of her face.
“Phew, that was harder than I thought. Now, let’s take a look at my super awesome cloud statue.”
As her “awesome statue” came into sight her jaw dropped. According to her plans there should be a portrait of herself, in a heroic pose, of course. But instead there was a horrible, malformed monstrosity of a cloud. Somehow it reminded her of Fluttershy’s table after being “repaired” by the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“Hi Rainbow Dash! What are you doing?”
Surprised by the sudden noise, Dash jumped a few steps to the side, tilting her head in the direction of the pony who spoke to her.
“Pinkie Pie? What are you doing up here? And how did you get up here?”
“Oh I saw you up here and thought you might practice a new trick and I love your tricks you know like the one where you go whoosh and then fast into the air and then even faster down again you know what I mean this is the most awesome trick ever of course all your tricks are awesome but come on that one was so super duper mega cool and I thought when your preparing a new trick up here it must be super cool too so I came to see it.”
Rainbow gave Pinkie a confused look, trying to sort out what she just said.
“Yeah… right.”
“Sooo, what is your new trick or is it a secret?”
Annoyed by Pinkies way of talking way too fast, Dash rolled her eyes and pointed towards the “statue” she worked on.
“Oh oh, I know this game! I have to guess what it is, right? Okey dokey lokey! Is it a tree? An apple? A cupcake? A statue of you in heroic pose? Gummy? A table?”
“Yeah whatever… wait, what?”
“Hooray I won.” Pinkie jumped around cheerfully, until she slipped and nearly fell. She turned to Dash with a big smile. “And as reward I want you to perform your trick that I like the most. You know which one I mean, do you, do you?”
Dash looked at her confused again, until she realized what Pinkie wanted from her. “Oh you wanna see an awesome stunt? All right!” And with that she lifted off again. Higher and higher she flew into the sky, until she finally stopped and turned around. From up here she could rarely make out anything in Ponyville, besides the buildings. Folding her wings Dash raced back to the ground, gathering more speed each second. She got faster and faster as the ground came near. Pinkie jumped up and down in anticipation of what would come next. In the last possible second Rainbow unfolded her wings and changed her direction, only a few inches of air were left between her and the earth.
She looked back to see Pinkie jump and cheer until she nearly fell again. Closing her eyes she muttered to herself. “Pinkie Pie, you are so random.”
She didn’t notice that she was still at full speed, racing through town only a few inches above the ground. Opening her eyes Dash could see two ponies before her, one orange and familiar, the other one dark blue and unknown, standing in front of an apple cart. Her view got filled with apples as she crashed into them, burying all three under a mountain of fruits.
Applejack lifted her head, shoving apples aside. “Everypony okay?” she asked and rubbed her head while taking a look at the mess, laying before her. The cart had fallen over and there were apples rolling away in all directions. In the middle of the scene, sticking out of a large pile of fruits, she could see a familiar rainbow colored tail.
“Rainbow Dash! Look at what mess ya’ made!”
The cyan pegasus erupted from the mass of apples, shaking her head to clear off the daze caused by the collision.
“Ugh, sorry AJ, your cart stood in the way.”
“Ain’t the problem that ya’ hit the cart but… wait, where’s Silver?”
“Who?”, Rainbow gave her a puzzled look.
A sudden groan from beneath the cart caught their attention. Applejack immediately ran over to it. Without hesitation she hit it with her hind legs, as if it were an apple tree. The cart fell over to the other side, revealing the dark blue pegasus that was trapped beneath it.
“Are ya’ all right sugarcube?” she said, offering one of her legs to help her stand up. Silver grabbed it and pulled herself up, slowly. Dash joined them on the ground, eyeing the unknown pony, searching for signs of injuries.
“Your right wing doesn’t look so good.” she said.
“My wing? What’s wrong with it?”
Silver tried to stretch her wings to see if there’s something wrong with them. The left one felt normal, but trying to move the right one cramped her muscles and sent a wave of pain through her body. Looking behind, she could see her wing standing to the side, unable to move, with a few bruises and a small trail of blood dripping from one of the feathers.
“Gosh darn it, seems like tha’ rusty ol’ cart fell directly on it. Let me take a closer look.” Applejack stepped at her side, inspecting the wound with a worried expression on her face.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a scratch.” Silver put on a smile, trying to ease them, but the others could see that it was forced.
“Well, it doesn’t seem like it’s broken, but better not take any unnecessary risks. Rainbow, take her t’ the nurses, Ah will take care of mah apples.”
“You can count on me, AJ!” Rainbow rushed to Silver’s side, stabilizing her wounded wing with her own. “This will make sure it doesn’t get any worse.”
“But I just have a muscle cramp … “, she tried to protest, her voice being unsteady. But it was too late. Dash had already decided to take her to the hospital and she was not known for stepping back, once she had decided on something. Realizing that there was no way out of it, she sighed. “Fine.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be there in no time.”
Silver nodded, concentrating to suppress and hide the pain originating from her wing. Slowly, watching every step, the two pegasi headed towards the local hospital, leaving the scene of the accident behind. Applejack, assisted by a few other ponies, had already flipped the cart and started to collect the apples that where scattered all over the ground.
Rainbow opened her mouth and tilted her head towards Silver, trying to say something, but decided against it after seeing her stressed face. Her teeth ground on each other and her eyes twitched whenever her wing moved even the slightest bit.
“I’m sorry” was all she said.
Silver sat on one of the hospitals beds, grinding her teeth again, while nurse Redhearth tended to her injured wing. Luckily her wing was not broken but had cramped up due to a cut right in the middle of it. A sharp metal edge of the carts axis must have caused it, though the nurse said it wouldn’t be much of a problem. Sadly this knowledge didn’t make it hurt less. She struggled not to scream as the nurse stretched her wing, trying to get the tension out of the muscles. As she was finally able to fold it, she started putting it in tight bandages.
Trying not to think too much about what the nurse was doing to her wing, Silver looked around the hospital. She was in a big clean room, the main part of the hospice, with beds aligned at its walls. It seemed empty, considering there were only 2 other patients. One of them, a sleeping earth pony with one of its legs fixated in a sling above the bed, was not really interesting. But the other patient caught her attention. It was a little filly. Two Elder ponies, probably the parents of the little one, stood there, talking with one of the nurses. Silver really didn’t want to spy on them, but nonetheless she picked up parts of their conversation.
“… and that’s why your filly needs to stay here for a few days. I’m sorry but it would be too dangerous to travel with his fever.”
“Are you sure you can’t do anything about this? We really need to go and it would be a shame to leave her behind.”
“I’m sorry but like I said…”
“*cough* mom, dad, you want to leave me behind?”
“We’ve got no choice sweetie, you know that. But don’t worry, we’ll come back for you in…”
Nurse Redheart laid a hoof on her shoulder, which forced her to turn her ears away and focus back towards her own injury.
“I’m sorry, but this will hurt a bit.”
She grabbed the end of the bandage with her teeth and pulled it in order to get it tight. Despite of the pain rushing through her body, Silver tried to concentrate and listen to the family. But all she could hear were the quiet sobs of the filly, while its parents and the nurse argued with each other.
“And remember, do not use your wing for a while and if you feel it cramping up again come back immediately.”
“Understood. Thank you, nurse Redheart.”
Silver left the hospital, her wounded wing folded on her side, wrapped in tight bandages. Though it still hurt, she insisted on leaving. It was only a minor injury and her legs were fine so she could walk around and explore the town, at least that’s what she said to the nurse. Rainbow Dash stood outside, waiting for her to finally come out.
“How’s your wing? Does it still hurt?”
“No, it’s fine now. I won’t be able to fly for a while, but its okay.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t stay at your side during the treatment. It’s just so boring in there and I needed to stretch my Wings.”
It took a minute of silence till Rainbow realized what she just said. Her head turned red, but before she could say anything Silver sighed.
“It’s okay. I don’t mind being grounded for a few days.”
Dash breathed out heavily. The color of her face normalized itself again.
“Well, if you need something just call for me, I never leave anypony hanging!”
Silver smiled, hoping that Rainbow didn’t notice how forced it was. It was not her fault though. In fact Silver was so deep in thoughts that she didn’t pay attention at what the cyan pegasus said or did.
“Well I gotta go and take care of some weather business. Remember to call me when you need help, okay?”
“I will.”
“Okay, see you later!” and having said that, Rainbow rushed away into the sky.
Silver sighed and stood there for a while, thinking about what she had seen and experienced in the last hours. Something bothered her greatly and she just could not let it go. So she stood there, ignoring her surroundings and not caring for anything but her thoughts, until she finally made a decision. Stomping on the ground she broke out of her statue like posture, sighing and muttering to herself again.
“Why is it always like that?” she sighed once more. “It would have been really nice to finally have a home. But there’s no helping it. What needs to be done, needs to be done.”
With a last sigh, she stomped on the earth again.
The bracelet around her ankle started to glow.