“Hello?”
It was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard. The world to her was of sound first and sight second. Milky shapes and muted colors. The sounds of other ponies talking, the world going by, music and nature. She savored the sounds like a delicacy. And this one word was more wonderful than the singing of Celestia herself. Not that she had ever heard the Princess singing, but she had imagined it as nothing less than the soul of creation itself.
It had begun innocently. As so many things do, and as many of her activities were. She had been lounging in a field of flowers behind Ms. Cherilee's schoolhouse. It was her favorite spot in town. Quiet, simple, and it was where she had met “T”. Her dearest friend and the kindest soul she had ever met, aside from her Mother. A light wind blew, gentle and cool; pregnant with the rich scent of trees and flowers. A small pink dot drifted into her field of view, she felt tiny gentle legs tickle her nose and knew instantly what it was. A butterfly. A pink one, no less. Her mothers cutie mark. Its gossamer wings teased her face and it took to the air once again. The small pink pony rose to her hooves and stepped after it; watching it dance through the air, and gently swiping at it playfully with her hoof.
Before she knew it, or before she even realized, she had followed it across the field and into the trees nearby. She couldn't have been more happy, in this simple moment of peace. Then, on the wings of the tiny butterfly, the moment was gone. Simply flitting away, high into the trees and disappearing. The filly smiled to herself; silently thanking the butterfly for showing her such fun by simply going about its day. She turned to start home, and then like an itch, a tiny jolt of fear appeared in her mind. She didn't know where she was. Still, it was only the Ponyville Forrest. There weren't many places she could end up then back home. Dismissing her fear, she approximated the way she had come and started walking. Being out of the sun was nice, and the wild grass crunched pleasantly underneath her.
The funny thing about an itch is, if you can't scratch it it gets worse. The poor little thing, unsure of where she was and where she was going. Maybe she was over thinking it. Maybe it had taken a few more minutes than she thought it would to leave the trees. Then again, it HAD been late in the day. Maybe it wasn't just that the sun had gone behind the trees. Maybe it wasn't just wind rustling the nearby bushes but Timberwolves. Maybe it wasn't just the Ponyville Forest, but the EVERFREE Forest. Home of the nightmares of every filly and colt who had ever set foot in Ponyville.
With each thought, she had begun to go a little faster, her heart rate quickened, her breaths grew faster. Uncontrollably, her thoughts turned against her and she found herself running as fast as she dared through the trees that had become her tormentors. The once numerous blurs and blobs ran together like wet paint from the speed of her running and the tears forming in her eyes. Then, there was only pain.
The world had stopped, her eyes pinched shut and a warm trickle of blood ran from her nose. This was it, this was her end. All the hundreds of nightmares she had ever dreamed of were upon her now and were going to take her away. Then she head it.
“Hello?”
She heard some noises that were vaguely familiar. Like leather again metal, and the tingling of magic. Leaves crunched and hooves clopped towards her. She forced her eyes to open. Through the mist of pain tears, and her naturally poor eyesight she saw a pony. No monster, or horror. Just a large white form she recognized as a fellow pony.
“Oh child!” she heard the stranger say, “You're hurt”
She flinched away, still reeling from her fear, as he reached for her.
“Easy now, little one.” He said, reaching for her again. His voice was much like the feel of his hoof and lower leg as it wiped the tears and blood from her cheek. Soft, and well worn. “Good. Seems the blood has already stopped. Now, where did you come from and why,” he said with a slight and friendly laugh, “did you run into the side of my cart?”
Confused and frightened, unable to speak. She did the only thing she could think to do. She leaped at this new Pony, wrapped her forelegs around his neck, buried her face in his soft and somewhat smelly fur and began to sob. He tensed in surprise at first, then he hugged back. He held her as tight as she held him, using his magic to gently stroke her long green hair. His long, messy braid fell down the back of her neck.
It lasted a few minutes. It may have even been longer than she had been running. He couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the situation and how innocent he found this poor young pony. Holding so tightly to someone she had never met. The sound was enough to nearly clear away her sorrow and she gingerly released his neck and stared at the ground.
“I'm sorry.” She whispered to him.
He chuckled again at how sweet she was and softly said. “Hold still.”
She heard a sound she recognized as magic, but it was somehow different. Like the soft ringing of tiny bells. Suddenly she was weightless, and floating through the air.
“AH!” she yipped in surprise. Just as quickly, she felt wood under her hooves as she was set down again in the back of the cart she had so recently run into.
“Get comfortable.” He said. “We should be back in Ponyville in a few minutes.”
“Ponyville?” She asked. She could hear him stop and almost feel him stare.
“You... that is where you live. Right? That's really the only place around here you could live. Unless...” he seemed to examine her for a moment. “No.” he trailed off.
“What?” she asked, confused and curious.
“Neither you or your Cutie Mark look like an Apple.”
She smiled, reminded of her friend Golden Delicious and his legendarily friendly family, the Apples.
“You're from Ponyville?” She asked.
“I used to be.” He replied gently, almost mournfully. “My name's Curtain Call. Please, call me Curt.”
“I'm... I'm Anthea.” She returned.
“That's a very pretty...”
“Call me Annie” she said, cutting him off. Accidentally.
“That's a lovely name too.” He said.
She heard his magic again and the sound of leather on metal as he harnessed himself to his cart once again. Then, smoothly, they were moving.
“So, did my cart make a mean face at you or something.” Curt said, sociably.
“I was lost. I got scared.”
“Didn't you have someone with you? You're a bit young to be wandering around by yourself.”
“I didn't mean to go into the woods. I was... playing and just wandered in.”
“Hmmmm... I'm sure next time... no.” He shook his head. “You look like a smart young pony. You don't need some stranger telling you what to do.”
“No, your right.” Annie said “I should know better.”
“Easy girl. It's not like you broke the law or anything.”
“I'm blind.” She said flatly.
“What?” Curt said. Very surprised.
“Not totally, but people tell me I don't see as well as I should.”
“I see. Well, if they say it like THAT, they don't sound like pony's you should be...” Curt shook his head again. “I'm sorry. I keep talking to you like I'm your Dad or something.”
“I don't...” Annie hesitated, “have one. A Father.”
Curt slowed his pace. His stomach sank and his face flushed with shame. “I'm so sorry.” He said, admonishing himself.
“It's okay.” She said with a practiced smile. “It's like it is with my eyes. I've never known anything else, so I don't miss it. Besides, I have a wonderful mother.”
“Well, his losses both times I guess.”
“Oh, well...” She hesitated.
“What's wrong?” Curt asked automatically.
“I'm adopted.”
Mentally, Curt kicked himself repeatedly. First with admonishing her, now prying into this young girls life. He rushed to fix what he saw as a mistake.
“Well. She must be wonderful. She picked a kind young girl like you, and it sounds like you both love each other very much. What's her name? Maybe I know her.”
“Fluttershy.”
Annie almost banged her head against the rim of the cart as Curt missed a step, nearly stopped dead, then galloped for a step and a half trying to catch himself from falling. He resumed walking normally an instant later, but even through her foggy eyesight Annie could tell his head was lowered.
“So, you said you were…” Anthea began.
“We’ll we in town soon.” Curt said above her timid voice.
She thought for a moment, then made up her mind.
“Could you take me to my home?” she asked.
Curt paused a moment, hesitating.
“Please?” she squeaked.
After a few more seconds, Curt resumed walking. Silently.
“How long have you been gone?” she asked. Again, she could almost feel his emotions changing. He raised his head once again.
“A few years, I guess.” He replied. His voice was normal again. As it had been when they first began talking.
“Where did you go?”
He “Hrrrmm’ed” again. Somehow cheerfully. “Anywhere and everywhere.” He offered.
“Are you homeless?”
He grunted as he caught a laugh before it left his snout. “Well, I suppose technically, yes. I am. But, I’ve got my cart and the road. That’s home.”
“It sounds wonderful” Annie replied, smiling.
“It is, for the most part.” He replied with a smile of his own. “It’s not easy, though. I had a much better cart when I began. A collapsible stage that was tuned to my Magic that could work like clockwork. A gift from a skilled friend in Fillydelphia.” He gave her a kind glance over her shoulder. “Much better than this old wreck you so obviously hate.”
Annie giggled a little. “What happened to it.”
“Some red haired pony brothers tricked me into giving it to them some time back.”
“How did they do that?” She asked.
“I don’t really know. Even now.” Annie could again, feel the surge of his frustration. “It was really heavy anyway.”
“So what are you doing now?” Annie continued to pry. He wasn’t saying something, something he both did and didn’t want to say and the gentle filly was determined to discover what it was.
“I’ve lost 2 dreams so far in my life. With this, I’m trying to get one back.”
“What dream is that?”
He seemed to stop and think again.
“I don’t know if you can tell, but my Cutie Mark is two masks, one happy and one sad, backed by a red ribbon. It’s the symbol of acting, entertainment. I came close, REALLY close to… well. Simply, first I couldn’t sleep, then I slept too much; and missed my chance. Since then, I’ve been looking for another, well… chance.”
“I’m sorry.” Anthea said, gently.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“But what does my Mother have to do with all that?” She finished.
The cart shuddered a little as Curt turned to look at her again.
“What?”
“The way you reacted when you heard her name. I can feel, actually feel your love for her. I don’t know how, but I just KNOW you care about her. Besides, you already knew where she lived.”
Curt stopped yet again as he realised he had automatically started walking to Fluttershy’s home when Anthea had asked. ‘Outsmarted by a child he had just met’ Curtain Call thought to himself.
“My dad used to say ponies could convince me to not drink water in the desert.”
Annie waited. Curt began walking again. Thinking.
“Your mother…” he began, “She can understand animals, without really trying. She just knows. Right?”
Annie nodded, and added an “Uh huh.” When she realized he wasn’t looking.
“With me… around me. Emotions become feelings that can be shared, felt, known. You’ve felt it already. Like reading someone's mind… or their...”
“Their heart?” Annie offered.
Curt cracked a sad smile. “Exactly. It gets confusing sometimes. I can lose track of who’s feeling what. Or how I really feel about something. But Flutter… um… your mother. It was never a problem with her. She, just, always knew who I was.”
“That’s beautiful.” Annie said with a wide smile and moistening eyes.
“I thought is was too.” He breathed a heavy sigh. “I thought she was too. Her unending kindness, her sweet gentle voice. The way her hair smelled like, how the air smells after the rain.”
“Petrichor.” Annie said, matter-of-factly.
“Sounds like Cheerilee is really teaching you well.”
Annie started to speak, but again they came to a full stop.
“We’re here.” Curt announced softly. He turned in his harness again. “Can I give you a hand?”
Annie remained sitting. “But we’re still talking.”
Just as suddenly as the first time, Annie felt herself lifted out of the cart and placed onto the ground.
“Tell her I said Hi.” Curt said with a wave as he began to turn his cart around.
Annie only hesitated because she needed to be sure where he was. His white coat blended in well with everything else, but the dark wood of his cart sat in her field of view like an emptiness in space. She ran around the cart as quickly as she dared and tried to stop in front of him. She prayed that it was his face she was staring at. She screwed up what little courage she could find in herself and forced the words out.
“Why did you leave?”
Curt stared blankly at this little green and pink filly who, while obviously terrified, was willing to stare daggers into his shoulder. He moved to walk past her. She jumped in front of him again.
“What happened?” she pleaded, tears of frustration formed in her eyes.
Curtain Call reached forward, gently placing his hoof against her chest before shoving her aside as gently as he could. “You happened, little one. You happened.”
Confused and unsure. Anthea did the only thing she could think to do and dove for his rear leg determined to stop him. She missed, and in the fall her long green hair caught in the spokes of his cart and pulled her down, hard. She let out a small cry of pain, and again, Curt stopped dead.
“Anthea!” he gasped in concern as he hurriedly. unstrapped himself from the cart and swung around to see if she was hurt.
Her cheek was pulled tightly against the wheel, and her head was forced down into the ground. It had also smeared her face and hair with mud, dirt and grease. The main of her mane was pulled tight as a bowstring as half of it twisted into the wheel well and into the axle of his cart.
Curt was fit from his travels, but had always been physically below average and his cart was his life's blood. Yet he didn’t hesitate the instant he thought she was hurt. He wedged himself underneath the front axle and pushed up with all of his limited strength. It lifted an inch, then 2 more, and that was it. That was all he could muster. He shut his eyes and focused, removing the fasteners from the right front cart wheel, slid it off the mount and tossed it aside; allowing annie to stand and freeing half her hair. His legs began to shake.
“Annie, back up.” He grunted.
Slowly, Anthea took a step backward. At the same time, Curt turned the axle with his magic. It caught again and Anthea squeaked in surprise. Curt groaned as the last of what could almost be called his strength was about to leave him. He focused his magic more intensely than ever before and sliced through the last two or three inches of Anthea’s hair. Already clear of the cart, Annie watched as his legs gave out and the cart dropped on him with a thud.
“CURT!” she screamed.
“I’m fine!” he yelled back immediately.
Annie slowly stepped around the cart. The removal of the wheel and the sudden drop had sent the cart spilling over onto its forward right corner and there was more than enough room underneath for anypony to be safe. He jumped a bit as he moved out from underneath the fallen cart, only to have a few hairs of his already shortly cropped tail pulled out by the root. Pinned to the ground by the corner of the cart. He stretched and shook himself once he was out from under it.
Annie gently placed her cheek against his foreleg.
“I’m sorry.”
Curt looked down at her.
“If you’re apologizing for the cart, you’re forgiven. If it’s about what I said, you have nothing to apologize for.”
Annie looked up at him. Trying to look into his eyes and managing to look at his hair. In her defense, they were the same deep dark brown. “What did you mean?”
Curt sat down on his hind legs and focused. As he spoke, he began to shift the items in his cart and piece everything back together. “I could always feel that she was missing something in her life. I assumed she was lonely, somehow. I wanted, more than anything, to be the one who got rid of that loneliness. I tried so hard for so long, but I could never really tell if I was getting anywhere. She has always so...” he grinned “ shy, that I just couldn’t tell. I’m not sure if I couldn’t read her heart, or if I was stopping myself, lying to myself, or just… whatever.” He reached out and stroked her hair, gently and slowly; like when they had first met less than an hour before. “One day, I came to see her and...”
“I was there.” Anthea finished.
“Yep.”
She could feel his turbulent emotions. Could feel him fighting some down, and trying to force others up. She wrapped her foreleg around his and hugged herself to it, trying to help him calm down.
“She and you were so happy. So naturally happy together. You even called her ‘Mommy’. You couldn’t have been with her for more than a few days and you had already become what I had wanted to be for so long. I’m ashamed to say that I think I hated you for that.” Curt stopped petting her hair and hugged her back. “That was the second dream I gave up. I said my goodbye’s packed what little I had and set out on the road. Honestly, I’ve loved it; and it helped that I knew she was so happy with you. But I’ve never stopped wishing it could have been me. So, I guess I should apologize too.”
She smiled up at him. “You have nothing to apologize for.”
Curt smiled and mussed her dirty hair as he stood. “Okay, for real this time.”
Annie held his leg tight as he tried to walk.
“You’re still leaving?”
“Annie. Your mother doesn't need me. She has you.”
“That’s… just selfish.” She replied.
“Selfish?”
“Making her choose between me or you? That’s not just selfish, it’s cruel. Leaving her because she was lonely? That’s stupid.”
“But… I...” Curtain Call was floored. He couldn’t speak, he could barely think.
“When she brought me to her home, it was the happiest day of my life. She has been a wonderful mom, and I couldn’t ask for more. No, maybe she doesn't NEED you, but that doesn't mean she ever stopped WANTING you in her life.”
It was Curt’s turn to start to cry. Remembering the shock and sorrow of seeing Fluttershy with a filly of her own. The confusion, the fear of losing her affection. All the questions he had forced down for so long. He tried to close it off, to spare Annie the same pain. But he could feel it slipping out all the same.
She bit back the pain and held him closer. “I don’t know for sure if she’ll want you back, or if she even thought of you like that at all. But she loves all her friends dearly, and I know she’ll want to see you again.” She wiped her eyes on his fur and took a deep breath. “Besides, she’ll want to thank you for saving me twice. And I don’t need to be able to read someones heart to know she’s still looking for that special somepony.”
Curt continued to sob quietly with his eyes shut tight. Annie reached up, following the line of his neck until her hoof found his chin. She lightly brushed a tear from HIS face for a change. “She still smells like petrichor.” She said gently.
Curt smiled in surprise, and nodded. Annie smiled back and hugged his leg again.
Suddenly they heard the sound of gentle hoofsteps, and a soft, timid voice call to them.
“Annie?”
“Mommy?!” She called back.
“ANTHEA” Fluttershy cried out, seeing how dirty she had become, her mussed and un-evenly cut hair, the tears she had been crying, and the tiny bit of dried blood under her nose. She ran to her daughter and scooped her up and held her tightly. “By Celestia, are you alright?! What have you been doing!?”
Annie hugged her mother back. “Just making friends.” she said with a reassuring smile. “I invited him to dinner!”
Fluttershy noticed Curt for the first time, then looked again. Disbelieving. “Oh my!” she exclaimed. “Curt?!”
He smiled back at her. Unsure of what to say. Annie spoke for him.
“Please Mom, can he stay?”