~Daine~
The idyllic nature of the land didn’t distract the trio much as they trotted in the direction they thought Ponyville lay. It didn’t take them long to come across a travelled path; the earth pounded flat by the hooves and wagon wheels of the travellers that employed it, and kept clear of encroaching plants by the same. Their voices carried in the air, chattering most seriously.
“Our normal names are going to attract attention we don’t want,” Daine said to them, thinking about the way things were in the show. He tried not to think too hard about his walking, since that seemed to make him prone to stumbling. “Lyra was the most normal name, and even that one is a bit odd.”
“Her name is Lyra Heartstrings,” Patrick said, skipping along, far more confident in his trot than Daine was. “And Lyra came from her lyre and cutie mark.”
“Don’t we already have names?” James said, contemplatively. “We already have some memories for here, and Patrick called us by them before.”
“I did?” Patrick said, looking back at the other two. He adopted a pensive look. “So what’s your name?”
“It’s,” Daine winced, a sudden stab of pain as the conflicting truths clashed again. Daine Steward and Silver Prose tried to assert themselves, the identities of both impacting. He stumbled slightly, shaking his head. “I hate that…”
"You're right, that is a strange name." Patrick deadpanned.
“Maybe we should sit down till we work this out,” James scowled from behind him.
Daine looked back and then started snickering again at the sight of his brother; muzzle in the dirt and his wings and legs splayed awkwardly out to the sides.
“What happened?” Patrick asked, hurrying back so he could help James get back on his hooves. “I keep telling you to be careful.”
“I tripped on a rock!” James protested, folding his wings against his sides and rubbing at his muzzle. On the bright side; he didn’t look overtly dirty from his fall. “I got distracted with the headache.”
“Fine, we can sit down and sort things out so the baby doesn’t hurt his nose again,” Daine said, rolling his eyes.
“Shut up, Silver,” James hissed, a frustrated shudder running through his wings as his ears flicked back. It didn’t last long, being replaced with a slump as soon as he realized what he had been doing. “It happened again, didn’t it?”
“By it, you mean you calling him Silver, again? Then yes,” Patrick nodded. He hit Daine on the shoulder with a hoof. “You be nice.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s my name, after all. Silver Prose. I kinda like it, to be honest,” Daine added with a shrug. His response would have been more meaningful if he hadn’t prefaced it by sticking his tongue out at Patrick, but nopony ever said he was perfect. “I mean, it’s been my name all my life anyway. All his life?” He groaned and covered his head with his forelegs. “Ponyfeathers! This makes my head hurt!”
“You’re going to have to put a bit in the jar when you get home,” Patrick commented.
“You’re not making this any easier, Proud Defender,” James remarked.
“There’s a swear jar?” Daine, Silver Prose, asked, a bit incredulous. He sighed when his memory supplied the answers. “It’s in the kitchen, right beside the onion basket.” Their father would use the swear funds to buy extra onions to make his onion casserole and his onion rings. The onion rings weren’t so bad, but Silver hated the casserole. It made for fitting punishment.
Between them, they sorted out their history. They were born in Vanhoover, part of a large and very diverse family. Their mother, Dew Glimmer, was a unicorn and nurse. Their father, Just Stand, was an earth pony accountant. Both traveled a lot because of work and sometimes away from home for days, even weeks at a time. Different family members would look after the three while they were away.
The more the three sorted through the memories, the less the headaches affected them, until it was nothing more than a little throbbing whenever a major conflict occurred. It was still on the terrifying side that the pony outlook on life came easier than their human upbringing. And upbringing that, to be fair, was supposed to have a decade or more to it than the pony side of things.
“I can’t believe we are living in Ponyville now,” James, or Blue Flare, as Daine/Silver Prose would need to start thinking of him as, commented as they started off again. “Even if we just moved here yesterday.”
Blue Flare, or just Flare, got his name from their mother, as Silver did. While you would think his red coat would be more name worthy, his hair’s resemblance to a gas flame, and the fact that he looked a lot like their uncles Dessert Blitz and Ember inspired it. Silver was named after his Great Grandfather, their mother’s mother Duchess’ sire. Proud Defender, on the other hand, was their father’s child. While yellow instead of brown, he had the same solid build the Stands, the paternal side of the family, did.
It was those little details that made things weird. Sticking to the names was unsettlingly easy. The moment they decided to go with the pony names, the human names sort of faded from prominence, like an infrequently used nickname. Just one more issue to be concerned about.
“Mom and Dad are off travelling again,” Silver (Daine) shrugged, not overly enthused about it all. “For a few months this time. Auntie Rain was the only one that….” Silver froze midstep, his voice trailing off, a chill running down his spine and making his maroon and cream, tail tremble.
“What is it this time?” Proud (Patrick) asked, wondering what his brother was going to go on about this time.
“We promised her we wouldn’t leave town when we explored today,” Silver said, near panic. “She’s going to ground us for a month if she finds out!”
They had moved to Ponyville to live with their mother’s sister Pure Rain as a result of their parent’s most recent trip. Despite her name, she wasn’t a pegasus, but rather an earth pony. Her cutie mark, however, was a blue lightning bolt, and she had a way with water that was more pegasus like than earth pony. And she was rather strict and professional in everything from work to child care.
“But… we can just tell her that we’re not really her nephews,” Proud said, though his hesitant tone conveyed the lack of confidence in his own idea. “We just remember being them. We can just tell her we’re human guys.”
“We can tell her? She’ll just think it’s another one of Silver’s stories and ground us even longer!” Flare pawed at the ground restlessly. Silver could see him visibly attempt to reign in the childish reaction. “I mean, we can’t try to get help with this if we are stuck at home grounded.”
“Come on,” Silver urged, bouncing on his hooves. “The faster we get back to town, the faster we can try and make it to the library and find Twilight!”
“Gah… Fine!” Proud fumed, stomping a bit in frustration. Silver snorted. He knew for a fact that Proud was afraid of their aunt and didn’t want to be grounded any more than the rest of them did.
----------
The three of them raced back to Ponyville, their gallop eating up the path. Natural forest slowly turned to tended land and cared orchards and wooden fences started up as they drew closer to the town. Their pace slowed a bit when Silver started to lag behind. Even Flare’s attempts at mimicking Scootaloo’s wing-assisted charge failed to match Proud’s stamina, even if he was slower than his brothers when it came to a dead sprint.
Still, they made it back before the other two were completely out of energy, what started as a gallop now a walk, having fallen from a run and trot in turn. The roads were in a better condition than the one they started on. The day was dying at this point, sunset only a handful of hours away, and many ponies were wrapping up their business and getting ready to head home.
“Come on, I’m a foal now! I’m supposed to be an endless bundle of boundless energy,” Silver complained as he panted in his position at the trailing point of the little triangle the trio fell into. He still found the energy to look around curiously though, talking in all the details that the show wasn’t able to present about the little town.
“My wings hurt,” Flare added, shifting them stiffly. “How does Scootaloo get hers to buzz like that?”
“Maybe it’s her special talent,” Proud said happily. He trotted off ahead of them and went up to a mare pulling a cart with some flowers on it, her cutie mark a flowering herb of some sort. “Hi Miss! Can you please tell me how to get to the library?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” she said cheerfully. She sat down and started listing out the directions for Proud.
Silver and Flare hung back, leaving their brother to get the information for them. Flare looked intently at something, then at himself before commenting softly to Silver. “It didn’t hit me before, but we’re still blank flanks.”
“Hey, you’re right,” Silver realized, looking at the unmarred grey pelt that was his flank. “I guess it makes sense. You can’t really fly yet, and even with mom and grandma’s help I’m not good at magic.”
“There’s a fine line between reassuring and insulting,” Flare muttered, glaring at him.
“Sorry,” Silver smiled sheepishly. He hadn’t sounded all that encouraging to himself either. “Cutie marks should be the least of our concerns right now.”
“I got directions!” Proud said, well, proudly as he rejoined them, his face red with a blush. He also had a small bundle of flowers balanced on his head. “And Miss Bluebell gave me these as a snack for being polite. She said I was handsome! ”
“You? Really?” Silver said skeptically. Proud shot him a look.
“Come off him,” Flare laughed. His stomach grumbled, reminding him that they last ate at lunch. “You’re going to share those with us?”
Proud nodded and they moved off out of the street to split the snack, though it wasn’t without some reservations, especially when Proud managed to get the bundle unwrapped so they could get a good look at the half-dozen stalks of blue flowers. “So… who wants to try it first?”
Flare snagged two and bit into it without hesitation, chewing with a happy look on his face. Silver grimaced as he watched, and expression Proud mirrored. Flare paused his chewing when he noticed the looks.
“What?” he asked, his mouth filled with half chewed flowers. “I like bluebells.”
Proud laughed and took his share. He didn’t seem to mind them either. Silver was still hesitant. He liked his fruits and vegetables just fine, but flowers didn’t count. Still, when in Equestria… He snagged them in his hoof and didn’t think too hard before tasting. Surprisingly, it was good. Not something he’d call his favourite, but it was sweeter than he thought it would be.
Those vitalized with a snack, Proud led them off on their campaign to find the library. Ten minutes, four wrong turns, three refusals to get new directions and one over turned barrel later, they were lost in the middle of Market Street, Proud still trying to find the right way as his brothers trailed him.
“Remind me again why we trusted Proud to find the way?” Silver asked, blowing his bang out of his face with a frustrated puff of air, continuing a conversation thread that had stalled after the whole incident. “He got lost when he came to spend the weekend at my house.”
Proud might have muttered something about eventually finding his way, but they never heard him.
“And he never wants to admit he’s doing something the hard way,” Flare added, yawning.
“Remember when he got lost in the Canterlot Museum for the class trip?” Silver pointed out.
“They had to send one of the security ponies to go look for him. He got confused after he hung back in the airship gallery,” Flare muttered, rolling his eyes. “Remember that time he couldn’t figure out the puzzle in Stepping Stones because he never talked to the scully mare in the fortune house?”
“That’s that expansion to that game you and him used to play online, right?” Silver questioned, tilting his head as he tried to remember.
“Uh-huh,” Flare nodded. “Even after I told him he still refused to talk to her, because he wanted to do it ‘his way’ instead.” Flare managed to make the air quotes with his wings.
Proud was getting redder and redder ahead of them, the running commentary from the two behind him had going.
“Hey, you’re getting pretty good with those!” Silver complimented Flare, not in the position to see Proud’s reaction.
“Well, yeah…” Flare said, ducking his head shyly. “If I don’t think about it much, I can run with the instincts and quirks ‘Flare’ already had without stumbling much.” He emphasised the name, seeking to distinguish between himself and the pony he was supposed to be.
“I don’t know if ‘Silver’ has any quirks really. But it’s only been a little while,” Silver shrugged. “Didn’t Proud get lost trying to find the hotel too, after the first night of the convention? Weird how he’s just as hopeless both here and back home.”
“You’re just as rude and sarcastic in both places too,” Flare pointed out blandly. “Only Silver swears more than you do. If you don’t stop you’re going to lose half your allowance every week.”
“At least I can read a map and find my way around a city,” Silver huffed, holding his nose high. “I’m just… socially challenged. Not hopeless like some ponies.”
“I’m not hopeless!” Proud snapped, making them jump as he whirled on them, cheeks puffed out in anger, his ears folded flat. “You’re just mean!”
“At least I don’t get ponies lost,” Sliver grinned back. The whole point of the peanut gallery for him was to see how long it took Proud to snap. He lasted a whole thirty seconds longer than Silver expected. As a counterpoint to the infuriated Proud, he looked cool and unconcerned, all the more irritating.
“I don’t see you doing any better!” Proud said.
“Um… guys…” Flare said softly.
“So, ready to give up and let somepony better take charge?” Silver smirked, huffing arrogantly and not paying attention to Flare.
“And what makes you think you’re any better!” Proud said, stomping a hoof. He wasn’t paying Flare any mind either.
“Guys…” Flare said, his voice shaking a little.
“Think?” Silver snorted. “I know I am. I can get us to the library no problem.”
“Can you, now?” a fourth voice commented. Silver paled, a shiver running down his spine as he turned. A pale orange mare, her hair and tail in tones of blue and cyan, loomed over the trio, her shopping poking out of the tops of her saddlebags, her face distinctly unamused.
“Hi Aunt Rain…” Silver said shakily.
“Hello Auntie Rain,” Proud said, no more brave than Silver in this.
“I tried to tell you two,” Flare said meekly.
“I am certain I told you three that while you could explore town today, you should be home by four. It’s nearing five. And you plan to go to the library?” She never raised her voice, she never lost her temper, her expression remained unamused, but it still scared them. “Worse yet; when I decided to get the shopping done, I heard that three young colts, curiously resembling my foals, managed to upset Mr Patch’s barrel…”
“Wait, no!” Silver interjected. “That one was….”
“Silver Prose, I do not appreciate being interrupted,” Pure Rain said, looking at him.
“Sorry, Auntie,” Silver said, wilting before her sea green eyes.
“So, was I not clear when I said ‘be home for four’?” She asked.
“You were, auntie,” Silver said reluctantly, looking down at his hooves.
“Yes…” Flare said, trying to look small.
“You were clear, Auntie Rain,” Proud said, nodding slowly.
“And why are you still out, despite that?” Pure Rain asked.
“Well… we aren’t your neph-,” Proud started.
“We wanted to go to the library!” Silver said quickly, cutting Proud off midsentence. Didn’t they just talk about not mentioning that less than an hour ago? “We just had an… issue that she could help us with.”
Pure Rain shook her head slowly, likely wondering why she agreed to be their caregiver. “Regardless, there will be no visits to the library today. Come, we are heading home.”
“But, Auntie…” the three foals said in sync.
“No buts,” she said firmly. “Now march before I decide to ground you after all.”
That shut them up and they meekly fell in beside her. They were silent for the journey home, each one keeping whatever thoughts they had to themselves unless directly asked something, which didn’t occur often as Pure Rain wasn’t one known for small talk. The streets became more and more residential until they finally stopped at the three story house Pure Rain, and more recently the three foals, called home.
It was a nice enough place, with a few flowers hanging from window sills and a small water feature to the left of the door. Considering her talent lay in water, it would be a crime if she didn’t have something like that. Pure Rain paused as she unlocked the door. “You should apologize, by the way.”
“For what?” Proud asked.
“Making them wait,” Pure Rain replied, turning on the lights. Instantly the room was illuminated, casting light on the decorations that filled the room, and the numerous ponies that were packed in the main room. A banner hung from the ceiling reading ‘Welcome to Ponyville.’
“SURPRISE!” they all yelled.