A city of pegasi
Ma packed my bag for me. She washed and hug dry my winter cap, my hoof gloves, my winter jacket, and three of my neck scarves. She packed my toothbrush, that perfume I got from Uncle Willow for Hearth’s Warming, and my bath soap.
Enough stuff for a four-night trip to Bitsburgh in the dead of winter. So it wasn’t like a choice whether I could leave or not.
Ma and Pa had an interview with the Post-Gazette newspaper about raising Cozy Glow, then a meeting with some Equestria diplomats about future world peace. After a few a more interviews, they were going to give a speech at a memorial dedication for the creatures who valiantly fought against my sister. I heard them practicing their speech in the study room. With the door shut. Their voices were kinda muffled, but I could hear everything from the living room. Ma and Pa wrote it in all in that fancy speak. You know what I mean.
“Though we understand, our paternal love cannot assuage the guilt we face for the millions of lives she put on the line…we condemn her cruel actions, and our lives remain tortured by constant regret. Wondering if we let her slip the surly bonds of youth and touch the face of Shadows…or even perhaps, we were the ones who set her loose.”
I think ponies like to talk in fancy when they don’t really believe what they’re sayin’. The fanciness covers up the reality of it.
Nopony wanted my interview. The press didn’t wanna hear me give a speech. And, Ma and Pa forbade me. Said I wasn’t old enough. Fourteen isn’t old enough to give a public speech.
But ten is old enough to destroy Equestria and get executed.
You know how I was sayin’ I used to think Ma loved my sister and hated me? Actually, I don’t think the second part’s entirely untrue. You know what I did during those five days in Bitsburgh? I sat all day in the hotel room while Ma and Pa went gettin’ all fondled by the press. (Of course, I went out and explored the town on my own, but that’s beside the point.)
So I wasn’t even sure why Ma and Pa wanted me to go with them. Ma looked so excited when she was packing my bag. “I’ll pack your purple jacket, so then we’ll be matchin’! How ‘bout that, sugarcube?”
“Matching for what? I’m gon’ be in hotel room most of the time,” I said. I rolled my eyes for Ma to see.
“What’s wrong, sugarcube? You love getting away from the bayou, don’t ya?”
Maybe part of it was that Ma wanted me to get away from Biscuit. Like they don’t trust me to stay at home by myself. I am already fourteen. Well, since I’m already fourteen I guess if I stayed home, I could break out and go to Biscuit’s house and sleep with him again, huh?
Nah, I’m joking.
Just a little.
His bits of fur were still on my riding crop. I put a few strands in a plastic bag and slipped it in while Ma was checking if my knit cap was dry or not.
“Don’t you worry about a thing, sweetie,” Ma said when she came back. “Pa and I are gonna do just fine with the press on our own. You won’t have to worry ‘bout all the stress bein’ in front of the camera. Especially at your age, sweetie.”
And Ma always tells me I’m supposed to be all humble like a fine grown mare, but to hell with that ‘cause she obviously doesn’t believe it herself. I know I could’ve given a damn better speech and what Ma and Pa could ever do. I’ve known my sister just as long as Ma and Pa have, after all.
You know who she wrote to when she was in Ponyville? Me. She wrote to me, and not Ma and Pa. She even sent it by registered post so that I could go pick it up myself and Ma and Pa wouldn’t see it. I'm not even gonna share those letters with you. They're still secret.
Well, actually my sister did write to Ma and Pa, cause she had to, but that was 10 lines of word salad and lies.
Hi Mommy and Daddy.
How are you?
I am doing fine.
I made some friends today.
They’re called the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
They’re very nice.
They taught me friendship.
I miss you Mommy oh so much. I miss you Daddy oh so much.
But don’t worry about me.
I’ll have everything under control before you know it.
After we finished packing and washed all the dishes from supper, we took the 9 o’clock evening train to Ponyville, then changed to the train to Canterlot, then took the 11:30 overnight train to Bitsburgh. We were in one of those sleeper cabins. They have double and quadruple cabins. We chose the quadruple cabin, “Built with comfort in mind, perfect for a family of four ponies.” There were four bunks. Two on each side. I took a top bunk, since I’m a pegasus. The other top bunk was empty, and we left the curtain open.
I stared at the empty bed for a while. I drank a little too much coffee at supper and I was still awake. I could hear Ma and Pa fast asleep below. So I started preening my feathers in the darkness. I get bits of fluff caught in my wings, and cause of my brown coat, it all shows.
My sister and I used to preen each other’s feathers. Ma and Pa were never invited, of course.
It was something us pegasi did. That the earth ponies or unicorns could never do.
Of course, there was my sister’s voice in the background, coming from the empty bunk. She sang me a lullaby she learned from Professor Fluttershy at the School of Friendship.
Hush now, quiet now,
It’s time to lay your sleepy heads.
Hush now, quiet now,
It’s time to go to bed.
After I finished preening all my feathers, I felt really sleepy. I rest my head on the pillow, the train was gently rocking, my sister kept singing the lullaby, the train kept rocking, my sister kept singing, the train, my sister, the train…and I fell fast asleep.
I didn’t wake up until the train arrived at 8 o’clock that morning.
I saw pegasi everywhere in Bitsburgh. At the train platform that morning, I counted at least thirty winged ponies. There’s hills everywhere. Deep river valleys, rocky cliffs. The earth ponies who first arrived here considered it uninhabitable, cause it was too steep for them to walk. So the pegasi came here instead.
My sister always wanted to go to Cloudsdale, the city of pegasi. But Ma and Pa said we were too young to visit Cloudsdale on our own, and we weren’t good enough fliers to qualify for Junior Speedsters Camp.
I’ve never been to Cloudsdale myself. But I think Bitsburgh is pretty close to what Cloudsdale would look like. I loved it. The air was fresh. And there’s so many places where you can just hover over the edge of a cliff and you feel like you’re floating somewhere high up in the sky.
As a pegasus, I loved Bitsburgh.
Ma and Pa hated it.
They couldn’t fly, so we took the incline railway up, but there was still a very long and steep walk up to our hotel. Ma and Pa kept slipping on the ice walking up the hill. After about five minutes, Ma got so tired walking and slipping, she collapsed to the ground, and she just wouldn’t budge.
“Ma, you all right?” I asked.
“I…I can’t…”
“Come on, Ma, just a bit more to go.”
“Oh, Celestia, be nice to your Ma for once!” Ma yelled. Her voice croaked a little.
“I’m sorry—”
“No, no, I’m sorry too honey, I didn’t mean to snap at ya, I’m just…” she stopped talking and started huffing. I could see Ma hadn’t slept well on the train. She had deep bags under her eyes. Pa offered a helping hoof. Ma didn’t even look at Pa. She just stared at the icy ground in a daze.
And I just remember thinkin’ how old Ma looked. How tired she looked. A feeble, decrepit, flightless mud pony.
That was how my sister used to describe Ma.
I’m not a full grown mare, so I’m still not strong enough to lift Ma or Pa up the hill. Luckily, there was a pegasus couple chatting outside. They saw us struggling, and they called to us, “Hey! You all need some help there!?” they shouted across the street.
“Yeah! Just trying to help my Ma and Pa up this hill!” I shouted back.
Pa got mad at me later that day for shouting that out loud. Something about his pride. I honestly think he a’int got no pride to lose.
Considering his younger daughter’s the most evil villain in all of Equestria.
I a’int got no pride to lose either.
The two pegasi, a stallion and a mare, came over. I lifted the luggage and the two pegasi lifted Ma and Pa up the hill. We flew up slowly.
The pegasus mare asked me my name. “I’m Spur,” I said.
“That accent—where you visiting from?”
“The bayou round Hayseed Junction.”
They didn’t know where that was.
“Between Appaloosa and Ponyville. Real flat, swampy.”
“Oh. Well, we’ve lived here in Bitsburgh all our lives,” the pegasus couple said. “Beautiful place. But pity about your parents—you’re the only one with wings? I was thinking you might be adopted or something.”
“Really?” I said.
“Yeah. You’d fit right in here.”
“She’s not,” Pa quickly cut in. “She’s our foal.”
“Of course, sir.”
“No offense.”
“My sister’s a pegasus too,” I added.
“Oh. Well I guess it’s more common than you’d think,” the pegasus stallion said to his wife.
“Well, it isn’t,” I said.
“Beg pardon?”
“We’re not. I mean…” I shouldn’t have said it. “I mean…our family’s not that common. Our family is pretty rare.”
Not many families give birth to a child villain that terrorizes all of Equestria, I wanted to say, but didn’t. It didn't seem like the right time for humor.
We were about two-thirds the way up the hill. “Thank you so much.” I should have said it sooner.
“Oh, no problem, sweetheart. This place just isn’t built for earth ponies, huh?” the pegasus mare chuckled.
“Yeah!” And I found myself chuckling along with her. Two pegasi. Laughing together. I laughed until it hurt my stomach.
With guilt.
Ma was clinging onto the pegasus mare, huffing and grunting. At first I thought Ma was just catching her breath from the walking.
“Don’t worry,” I said to her. “We’re almost at the top.”
Ma didn’t answer. That’s when I realized Ma was out of breath was sobbing. Even Pa was tryin’ to hold back a few tears. There they were, clinging onto the hooves of two pegasi helping them get up a road that’s too steep for them to climb.
And they were so sad. Even once we got into the hotel, Ma and Pa didn’t feel like going out.
“You okay, Pa?” I asked.
Pa didn’t say nothing.
“You okay, Ma?” I asked.
“…I’ll get over it,” Ma said.
We stayed in one of those fancy five-star hotels at the top of the biggest hill with panoramic views and all that. I’m pretty sure the bathroom was bigger than our living room at home. The people at the Post-Gazette paid for it. Ma and Pa liked it, even Pa admitted it was real pretty. Of course you’d think it were pretty if you didn’t have to stay in it all day.
There was a king size bed and a single sofa bed, where I slept that night.
The next morning, there was a huge breakfast buffet downstairs, with an omelet bar, made to order pancakes, and at least ten kinds of fresh cut fruit with a chocolate fountain, and twice as many kinds of coffees and teas. Ma and Pa had to rush through the buffet cause they had to leave early for all their…interviews. They took two plates to go.
“You’re leavin’ now?” I remember I said.
“Don’t worry, sugarcube,” Ma said, smiling. “You can get some more time to enjoy this lovely buffet. You won’t even know we’re gone.”
I looked at the hordes of fresh fruit on the table and the giant chocolate fountain, and I started feeling sick. I didn’t eat much.
The first day, I didn’t go out to town. I flew off the balcony a few times, but that doesn’t count. I sat in the room, read a few books, then read them again. I wrote a letter to Biscuit, but then I didn’t send it. I went to the hotel gym and I only lifted half of Ma’s weight and I couldn’t take it no more.
Ma and Pa were probably with the Post-Gazette right about now. Sitting at the chair, with some famous reporter.
What would I have said if it were me? What was it like growing up with your sister, Cozy Glow?
“She was my sister,” I spoke to the ceiling while lying in bed in the hotel room. “And she treated me very nicely.”
Why did she treat me nicely? “Well, I’m not sure why. She hurt Ma and Pa a few times. And some ponies at school. And a few wild critters. But never me.”
What’s my best guess why? “Maybe, maybe…cause I was a pegasus. There were only two other pegasi in the whole town, and, we never really met them, so…it was like it was just us two pegasi.
“Do you know what it’s like being one of only four pegasi in your whole town? Let me tell you. When I was in kindergarten and I was the only pegasus in the whole class, they used to make fun of me. My sister not as much, cause they knew that she’d snap at them faster than a cragadile jaw.”
I talked to a crystal light fixture on the ceiling. After I stared at it long enough, it kind of looked like a pony’s face.
“They called me birdbrain. Even the teacher called me birdbrain when I colored outside of the lines, but that was only because I was forced to hold crayons with my teeth like all the earth ponies in the class, even though I’m better with my wings. If I used my wings, I didn’t color out of the lines.
“I hated when they called me birdbrain. It made me feel…”
I stopped speaking out loud.
I stuck my face into the pillow, and I just started sobbing. Alone. In silence. I couldn’t hear my sister’s voice. I did hear this high-pitch squirming. A few minutes later I realized it was me making that noise. It sounded like I sounded when I was a little foal. No more than five or six.
And that moment, I kind of wished that my sister’s voice was there. To comfort me.
I called room service and ordered a large pizza and an extra-large slice of chocolate cake for lunch.
I threw up most of it.
Ma and Pa came back to the hotel quite late. They went straight to bed, so I couldn’t even ask them how the interviews went. They said, “in the morning, sweetie,” with a smile on their face that looked like they just had such a good time, but I never asked them the next morning. I didn’t feel like it.
I couldn’t sleep again that night, so I started preening my feathers again in the dark. I got white fluff caught in my feathers. From rolling around the bed all day with nothing to do.
I started to get a little hungry, so I called for room service again, and a minute later a serving pony knocked at my door.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, can I get some decaf black tea and cakes?” I said.
“For how many?”
“For two.”
I don’t know why I said that. I guess I had the memory stuck in my head of me and my sister preening each others’ feathers. But it was a nice memory. It was real nice, actually. She was real good at preening my feathers. She’d pluck out the bits of fluff in my wings, put them in a little pile on the bed. And then she’d sweep them away into the trash.
Now you’re perfect, sis.
Now, you’re even more beautiful of a pegasus.
You have every right to use your wings. I won’t let the earth ponies and unicorns hurt you like that.
I’ll protect you.
I'll kill them for you.
I wish the bad memories of my sister would leave. And let the nice ones get stuck in my head and keep me awake.
So there was another knock on the door, and I ended up with a tray of tea and cakes for two. It on the sofa bed. It on one of those fancy silver trays and everything. I ate half of the orange cakes and a couple macarons, and when I woke up the next morning the rest was gone.
Mmmm!
That was delicious, sis.
Thank you, sis.
(Ma ate it in the morning while I was still asleep.)
Thank you all for reading, and hope it was worth the wait! 
Comment on your thoughts, and hope to see y'all soon! 
To be continued!
Stats
Page generated in 0.02 seconds
Total duration
1,064 users online
2,053,543 hits today, 2,571,732 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
It seems like Spur is going down a dark road, she is going to need some help before she goes completely nuts. The problem is in the fact that equestria doesn’t have any ways to help her and her hometown also foes t help. I honestly don’t know how she is going to get the help or even if she wants it.
Overall great story so far and I look forward for more, even if it is a bit depressing.
I have a feeling, that one day instead of crying, she’ll laugh.
9946730
Socially pressured, more like. They like the attention, though, so its hard to feel bad for them.
It's me or the parents seem to be obligate to say bads things about Cosy even it seem they still love her and Spur start to be lock by her Ma and Pa want her to don't make the sames errors of Cosy or they thinks she is also evil.
Ahhhh, Shitsburgh. May Luna grant I never live there again.
This fic is far outside my usual fare but I am still enjoying it immensely. Thanks!
9946862
You love it or hate it.
I go to college in Pittsburgh, but also lived here a few months (it's a long story). The weather and the traffic is fine with me. It's a little dirty, but it almost sorta contributes to its charm in a way. I also think the food scene here is very underrated.
My home is Buffalo, which in my opinion is like a quieter, flatter, more Canadian version of Pittsburgh.
And I'm glad you enjoyed reading my story!
9946895
Shadyside has good food, yes.
The tags make me think I would hate the fic but it completely works, somehow. I'm trying to understand why...
Spur is depressed, and everything she's been able to try and help is only treating the symptoms, if at all. Without Biscuit, it's getting even worse.
Also, I understand why you did it, as another source of tension between Spur and her parents, but steep slopes should not be an issue. Case in point:
Seriously, Twilight, the out of shape nerd horse, can just casually trot up a 60 degree incline. Earth ponies should have no issue, lol.
9947083
Very true. Guess I missed that. Sorry.
In my defense, the slope is icy.
9946924
I tend to be overly cautious with warning tags. Don't wanna give anyone a nasty surprise.
Or perhaps you just haven't read any fics in this genre that you like.
9947154
Your take actually makes more sense, honestly.
Okay, that seems a bit extreme. What are they going to do, declare her mother's womb a weapon of mass destruction?
That's... concerning. And raises the question of who she's talking to.
Did I mention that I'm not a villain?
That's even more concerning. Unless Cozy included it in a letter, there's no reason why Spur would know it. She could be literally haunted by her sister.
In any case, surprise surprise, uprooting a girl still reeling from great shock, taking away her support structure, and isolating her from any social contact aren't doing her any favors. We aren't just seeing the external factors that contributed to making Cozy Glow who she was, we're seeing all the straws on Spur's back as well. And her spine can only take so much more...
9948033
Spur's referring to the letters Cozy wrote to her while she was sent away to the School of Friendship. Sorry that wasn't clear enough.
Yeah the assumption is Cozy included it in a letter to Spur.
9947083
I just figured they weren't used to walking on ice, like how Chicago and other northern cities seem to function just fine during winter but southern cities absolutely lose their shit at the first hint of sleet. Or how Los Angelinos deal with rain the same way Floridians handle hurricanes.
Revolution
Holy shit I almost choked.
>fresh air
>Pittsburgh
What in tarnation.
Omfg.
Well, obvious increasing darkness aside, this part had me laughing far more than it should have.
Casualties? What casualties.
10047645
Given how much terror Cozy Glow, Tirek, and Chrysalis caused on Equestria in the Ending of the End, there probably were some casualties or even deaths. We just didn't see any because TV-Y children's show.