//------------------------------// // First Impressions of Ponyville // Story: Angel Wings // by SeasonTheWiccan //------------------------------// Angel didn't realize two things by the time she reached the center of town, 1. How far her house was from the train station and 2. How heavy the cart was getting. Two factors that she should've thought of earlier, the harness around her waist was now slipping to her flanks and it was irritating her immensely! Even worse, it was stuck on something and no matter how hard Angel pulled, it wouldn't budge. The harness then suddenly slipped off of her, causing her to tumble into the mud. The mud-stained her white coat and blonde hair, she then got up angered and cursed the cart and tried to kick it but miscalculated her kick and ended up on her back. Her eyes were vengeful towards the cart and was about to shout out every curse in the book when she heard a voice, "Oh my gosh! Are you alright?" She looked over to see a purple unicorn with a dark blue mane with pink and purple streaks in it, she told herself to just say, that she's fine and try to move on. "I'm okay," she said as she got up and shook the mud off; a little bit got on the unicorn's coat, which she just simply brushed off of herself. Angel then tried to pull on the harness with her mouth in an attempt to get the cart to budge, but try as she may, it wasn't working. "Do you...need help?" the unicorn asked. Angel sighed as she gave up, she got more mud on herself in her endeavors, her muscles were aching and she was probably going to have to put some ice on her flanks when she got to her house. 'Some help would be nice......NO! NO! You can't accept help! She's only going to keep coming back to you! No attachments remember?! But this cart IS heavy and I can't do it on my own...So? Give it all you've got! Just DON'T...ACCEPT...HELP!!' As her mind was arguing with itself, the unicorn was about to walk away from this strange new addition to Ponyville. It was then that Angel made up her mind, "Wait!" The unicorn turned around to look at her, "Do you know anypony that can help me pull this?" Angel asked shyly. The unicorn grinned, "Of course," she then looked to her left, "Big Mac! Can you lend me a hoof?" Angel looked in the same direction and saw a muscular red stallion with half an apple for a cutie mark and orange hair. She suddenly felt her face go hot, she had to admit he was handsome, but she quickly put it out of her mind. 'You're not here for romance!' Big Mac turned to them and gave a hearty, "Eeyup!" As he came closer and saw Angel Wings, his face went hot as well and the purple unicorn saw this, she then had a coy smile on her face. Big Mac personally had never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life, Rarity was pretty, but this unicorn was gorgeous! If she asked him to follow her, he'd follow her anywhere, if she beckoned him into her house he'd be her slave, he'd do anything for her just to be near her. "Ummm...can you help pull my cart to my house? It's 2 blocks away...but I don't want to overwhelm you." "Big Mac can lift anything, trust me...can't you Big Mac?" He was too mesmerized by the new unicorn to answer. "Big Mac?" He shook his head, snapping himself out of it, "Uhh...eeyup!" He then latched the harness around him and followed the two mares as they talked (namely, the purple unicorn ATTEMPTING to talk to her.) "I'm Twilight Sparkle by the way." Angel only nodded silently. Getting a little impatient, Twilight asked, "What's your name?" Angel didn't say anything at first but decided that Twilight knowing her name wouldn't hurt, "Angel Wings." Both Twilight and Big Mac were taken aback at how beautiful her name was, "It certainly fits," said Twilight. "Eeyup!" "That's what everyone says..." 'Over and over again,' she thought to herself sarcastically. They walked some more, Twilight tried to get to know this mare some more by asking questions, only to be answered by one word answers. On the way, Twilight found out that Angel's favorite color was ocean blue, her favorite flowers were roses, the fact that she came from Manehattan, her favorite music was anything with piano instrumentals and she liked to read...a LOT! Two of her bags were just filled with books. Twilight was delighted by this fact, they talked about their favorite titles and argued when they had different opinions on certain subjects in them. Angel was actually feeling comfortable talking to Twilight, she didn't like it. 'Connections Angel! Connections!' she yelled to herself in her thoughts. When they finally arrived at the house, which was a simple white cottage-like house with sky blue shutters, Big Mac unstrapped the harness and Angel thanked them. "Would you like help unpacking or are you all set?" Twilight asked. "Oh no, I'm all set." Twilight looked at her bags then back at her quizzically, "Are you sure?" "Yeah, I'm sure." Big Mac was even looking a little puzzledly at Angel, he knew that she was clearly hiding something, or else she wouldn't be in a rush to be rid of them. It was written on her face and it was very clear that she didn't want to talk about it, for what reason, it was unknown to him. Angel smiled and nodded curtly as they left and when she was absolutely sure they were gone, she began unloading her luggage. She approached the door to her new house with one of these bags, once she was on the welcome mat she used her magic to extract the antique key from her saddlebag. It unlocked with a satisfying click, once she entered, she now knew that she was completely on her own. It was painful to think that that time at the train station would be the last she saw of her parents, who were the only ones she wanted to grieve for her when the time came. The house looked like it had been sitting abandoned for a while, it was filled with dust and cobwebs and she even saw a spider scurry over her hoof. 'Looks like it's a fixer-upper.' She went back outside to retrieve the last of her bags and start cleaning the place before she unpacked. She scrubbed, washed and dusted every square inch of the place for 4 hours before it was spotless, she then began to unpack, she placed the books on the bookshelves and her pictures on the fireplace mantle. She also made lists of what she needed to buy when she went to the market next: wood for the fireplace, food (of course), linens for the bed upstairs, and other furnishings to make the place more homely since she was going to be spending a LOT of time there. Her plan may have disturbed most, but it was the only way to ensure her chances of not hurting others when she had to depart. She unpacked her bag of scrapbooks and couldn't help but flip through them, she smiled at herself as a filly, she was a normal little filly back then. She loved playing with the neighbor's puppy, playing hopscotch on Manehattan's sidewalks, playing double dutch with her old friends whom she had grown distant from since one moved away and the other turned against her. She had a normal foalhood, that is, until 2 months after she turned 12. When those memories came up, she quickly closed the scrapbook and didn't dare look in the ones filled with those dark memories. Instead, she put them on a shelf and was about to go to bed when she heard a knock on the door. She groaned and went to open it; when she did, she saw a light brown mare with grey hair and a tied scroll for a cutie mark. "May I help you?" Angel asked politely. "Ms. Angel Wings?" she asked. "Yes?" "I'm Mayor Mare, I just came to see how you were faring. I heard you had some problems with the cart today." "Yeah, it kinda got stuck on something." "I am very sorry about that, I keep telling the train staff to make sure they are properly oiled and make sure they work before hoof but it seems that they sometimes forget." Angel couldn't help but laugh. "Well, I got some help from somepony named Twilight Sparkle and somepony named Big Mac." "Oh yes, they're nice ponies, always willing to help others out. I'm glad you came across them." "Me too..." "So do you like the house?" "Yes, thank you. It's lovely!" "You're very welcome, I will tell you this is an old one. It's been around for the past 200 years." 'That explains the dust and the abandoned look it has.' "It certainly is rustic," Angel commented. "Yes it is, that's the charm in it...well, it's late, I'd better let you get some sleep...it's about 10:30...so goodnight." "Goodnight Mayor..." The Mayor turned to leave, then turned to face her again with a smile, "Oh, and Angel Wings?" "Yes?" "Welcome to Ponyville!" Angel blushed and smiled, "Thank you." Angel was almost expecting her to say, 'enjoy your time here,' just so she could say something like, 'I will try to' or 'I bet I will' while really thinking 'I'm not going to be here long.' But she didn't, she simply turned away and left toward her house. Angel couldn't help but admire the friendly atmosphere here in Ponyville, but she chose this place because it was so secluded, so far out in the country that she was expecting to spend the remainder of her time without any interactions. But, like a lot of things, she was wrong. Ponyville was a close-knit town, everypony knew who you were, who you came from, their grandparents grew up together and so on. She would have to be on her guard, she couldn't put up with the idea of making any kind of relationships, especially in her condition. She went back inside and felt something slither up her throat, she ran to the bathroom and threw up everything in her stomach along with a little bit of blood. After 5 minutes of bile and blood, it stopped, she felt a little woozy but it soon passed. She then went upstairs and went to bed with only 1 throw blanket and a flat pillow, keeping a rusted metal bucket near her just in case. As she laid there, she made the decision to go to the market tomorrow and face the town head on. 'No...personal...interactions,' her inner monologue told her. 'It's funny...I never used to be like this...' Before she found out that her heartbeats were being counted, she was a very sociable mare. Others, including her parents, used to say that if everypony else around her was in a bad mood, all Angel had to do was walk into the room with a good mood and everypony in the room would feel better! She was also a great piano player, she hadn't played for months now because she couldn't find the drive to do so, but she had composed a few pieces and had actually performed them for others. Ponies like the royal guards who have been wounded, children in the hospital, and even elder ponies were delighted by her playing and told her to go into the music business. But she politely told them that she did this for no pay and she preferred it that way. Her parents first suggested her volunteering when she was 13 and basically laying around looking miserable, hoping that interacting with other ponies like her and making their day would make her feel better. This plan worked! She was making others feel better when life has given them the worst, she found that she loved volunteering! It made her feel good that she was doing something to give somepony something when they have so little. She also read and talked to foals in the hospital, the wounded royal guards and to elder ponies, just to give them company. They were all enchanted by her kind spirit, her calm voice and her charming laugh. It was when she was 13 that she earned her cutie mark when she first started volunteering. She was keeping a 4 year old filly named Rose Red company, Her parents both had jobs so they could pay the medical expenses, Rose Red had an inherited form of lung cancer and through the chemotherapy, it was almost gone. Angel was introduced to her a month earlier and they had become close friends, Rose loved to color, talk and read and Angel was always willing to do this with her. It was when Angel had taught Rose to play piano that she got her mark. Rose herself was a fast learner, she learned everything in the course of a month and was at Angel's level of piano and during the course of that month, Angel began to feel like and older sister to Rose. Rose's mother heard the sound of the piano and thought it was Angel playing and decided to go and listen, she had heard a lot about her playing but never heard it first hoof. As she came closer to the room where the music was coming from and was surprised when she reached the room to see her daughter playing at a professional level! She knew that Rose had been taking lessons from Angel but never expected her to be playing at this level this quickly. When Rose finished, her mother applauded and both spun around to see her, "Rose...sweetheart that was beautiful!" "Thanks Mom! It's called Itsumo Nando Demo!" "Angel...I can't thank you enough!" "You're welcome...I just thought I'd pass on my wisdom to somepony since I have no siblings." "Angel, you are truly a living, breathing, real-life angel. No wonder your parents gave you that name." Angel then thought about that, she really WAS an angel, she gave aid to those in doubt, she had the look of an angel, and she had the kindness and caring spirit of an angel. Volunteering made her who she was, she was a saving grace to everypony she came into contact with. Somepony to talk to, someone who cared, and something beautiful to look at besides the ugly walls of their rooms in the hospital. She then looked at her flank and there was a winged heart with a halo! Rose made a full recovery and both her and Angel stayed in contact, Angel was especially proud of her when Rose graduated and decided to go to a music school. Angel knew that her wisdom that was passed on to Rose was being put to good use. Rose was happy, so Angel was happy. But since she found out that her time was running out two months ago, at first, she fell out of contact with Rose out of depression. Rose tried to reach out to her after a month and not receiving any letters and wrote her asking what was going on in 3 separate letters, Angel knew she couldn't keep her out of the loop because they were so close, so she wrote back after receiving Rose's letter two weeks ago and told her. Rose took a few weeks to respond; when the letter came she said that she'd quit music school and come to take care of her like how Angel took care of her. But Angel forbade it, telling her that she was not going to allow Rose give up her future over her. Angel also told her that she was going to be staying in Ponyville until the time came. Rose was saddened by this, but trusted her, it broke her heart that she would never see her before she left because Angel wouldn't be allowing any friends or family to come and visit her, write her or make any contact with her. She just wanted to be alone. Angel laid in the bed in the present and felt a tear roll down her face, she missed Rose and her parents, she missed them all! But quickly brushed it aside, 'No...I'm not going to cry, they had a good life with me, that's what I should be thinking about...' She then thought of a quote from Shakespony's Romeo and Juliet, 'These violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die like fire and powder, which as they kiss consume.' 'I hope my triumph doesn't fail...or turn into a violent end...' She thought just before sleep took her.