Hard Life Growing Up

by Artistic Fox

Teen

Three more years later and the little filly had grown. Not quite an adult yet, but a teen of sorts. Her legs had gotten longer thus her speed had increased but still on the short side, barely taller than a filly.

She trudged through the snow. It was too thick to run and her weight kept making her sink if she stood still for too long. Her nose lowered to the ground, sniffing for what she sought. With a lick of her lips, she pounced, diving face first into the snow.

Her tail swung wildly above the surface as only her flank and hind legs remained with it. Bracing on her sides with her back legs, she pulled herself back out, pulling a mouse out by the tail wit her. With a flick of her head, she pulled the mouse into her maw and swallowed it whole.

Since the incident three years ago, she grew an affinity for swallowing her smaller prey whole. It gave her a feeling she couldn’t recreate any other way. Unfortunately, with the disappearance of that colt, it didn’t take long for a search party to comb the forest. She overheard some of the other fillies and colts telling the search party that he had chased after a strange filly with black markings.

It didn’t take much to work out that being found would be trouble for her so she ran. Unsure of how far they would go, she kept running from forest to field to desert to snow. She had seen quite a few things in her travels, towns full of ponies, new wildlife and prey to hunt down.

She still didn’t know what it was that caused that colt to become so small, but across her travels; she saw others with a similar lump on their heads, much like her own. They did amazing things with them, lifting stuff, doing tricks, stuff that got her excited. But alas, she didn’t know how to work it. Once in a while it would go off, but only when she was cornered by a larger predator that decided she would be their next meal.

It did excite her to have predators such as wolves and bears on her diet, but still unaware of how it worked, she preferred to run rather than hope it would go off when she needed it to.

The hardest part was what the colt said to her. As much as she hated everything about him, except his flavour, she felt different to everyone else. A part of her wanted to fit in but she couldn’t show herself to random ponies, always fearing, what if they attacked her too?

She was no idiot though, once in a while, she’d have no choice but to ask someone something, some were hesitant, some ran, some where plain rude. She liked to be just as rude back but that usually ended with her being chased off again.

Full from her hunt, she moved on from the field, circling around the outskirts of a town she had been living nearby for the past few days. She had made a temporary burrow by some metal lines that ran in parallel with each other. Every now and then, this big, loud thing would run along them. It used to scare her, but she found it also scares all the other animals, making it a safe place to be.

“I wish I could go to Canterlot. I heard its where some of the best ponies live.”

“Oh I know. I swear everyone wants to be a Canterlot pony.”

Her ears swerved in the direction of the conversation. Two elder mares stood on a platform right next to the metal lines. ‘Everyone wants to be a Canterlot pony? Perhaps if I too was one, I would no longer be so strange like everyone thinks.’

“Hey! How do I become a Canterlot pony?”

She leapt up onto the platform, startling the two mares.

“Excuse me? You want to know how to get to Canterlot?”

One of them responded to her, but they both slowly stepped back, seemingly trying to keep their distance.

“Yeah, that!”

“Just hop on the train, it’s the last stop.”

She turned and ran towards the big, loud thing they had pointed at. ‘A train they said it was.’ Running up beside the train, she leapt up, barely catching the roof before pulling herself on top.

“Hey! Get down from there!”

Looking back over to the platform, she saw a disgruntled stallion, waving his hoof in the air.

“You have to buy a ticket! No free rides!”

He pointed towards a booth nearby, a single window with a hole at the base of it. She sighed and hopped down from the train, running off to the booth where another stallion sat inside.

“Ticket?”

“Where to?”

“Canterlot.”

“12 bits.”

“Bits of what?”

The stallion looked at her, unsure where to go with that.

“Bits of coin…?”

“Oh… what’s a coin?”

“Listen kid, I don’t have time to spend playing games with you. If you want a ticket to Canterlot, it’ll be 12 bits.”

He grunted before sitting back in his chair and pulling up a newspaper. Looking around, she saw the two elderly mares starting to leave. She charged towards them, circling them and stopping them in their tracks.

“Do you have bits of coin?”

“Ha, I knew it was some beggar filly. I thought she looked way to dirty.”

The two scoffed and pushed past her, holding their noses up high.

“Cunts…”

She turned her sights down the street. She had never really gone into town before, but she had to find some bits. Down the street, there was a crowd of ponies and many small buildings, full of items and food. She walked past one in particular that had barrels full of apples.

“Two bits for three Apples.”

The mare behind the stand shouted. Grabbing three apples, she put them on the counter in front of the mare standing behind it.

“Two bits please!”

“What are you trying to be funny? Get out of here before I call the guards.”

She backed off immediately, poking her tongue out at the mare before running off into the crowd. Standing beside another one of the small buildings and observed.

“Five bits for a Watermelon.”

She watched closely as a pony approached. She grabbed a watermelon from the barrel and dropped five small, gold circles on the counter before walking away.

‘So those are coins, but how do I get them?’ She looked around and noticed a stallion, dropping many coins into a large pouch before hanging it off his flank. Lowering herself to the ground, she crawled towards him. He didn’t seem to notice her as she slowly lifted her hoof up towards the pouch.

“Theif!”

Her ears perked up as a mare had called her out. Everyone turned towards her direction while whistles began screeching through the air. A couple of ponies in armoured uniform charged towards her.

“Oh fuck me!”

She got up and ran in the opposite direction, leaping between the crowds of ponies. One daring stallion decided to try and tackle her but she easily jumped above his lunge and kicked off from the back of his head. She had cleared the crowd easily enough while the guards were still trying to push past them.

Running down the end of the street, she took a sharp turn, breaking the line of sight before ducking into a nearby building, shutting the door quickly and bracing her back against it. Her hear was racing as she heard the clops of the guards getting closer. Any second, she was expecting the door to vibrate as they attempted to get in, but the clops began to fade as they ran past, trying to find where she might have been hiding.

Once she could no longer ear a sound, she sighed a breath of relief before walking away from the door. Before her stood multiple columns, running down as far as the building stretched. On each of these objects was an assortment of rectangular objects. She grabbed one and it flipped open. Thin, white sheets flipped open with it, each sheet having squiggly lines and sometimes pictures on them.

“Can I help you?”

She jumped, dropping the object and turning around. An old mare with a cane hobbled towards her.

“Looking for a particular book?”

Looking down at the book she dropped, she picked it back up and flipped it open.

“What do you do with these?”

The old mare laughed.

“You read them of course. You do know how to read, don’t you?”

“That depends, what is reading?”

The old mare’s laughter quickly stopped, turning to a face of seriousness.

“Open a book, tell me, what does it say?”

She looked at the open book she had and stared at the lines on the pages. She brought the book closer and waited.

“Well?”

“I don’t know, it didn’t tell me anything.”

“No, no, no. The books don’t speak; you read the words on the pages.”

“These squiggly lines? These are words?”

The mare had a concerned look on her face.

“How old are you?”

“I don’t fucking know.”

“Watch your language! Another outburst like that and I may just not help you.”

“You… want to help me?”

The mare turned around and beckoned her to follow. Walking as slow as the mare in front of her, she followed her around the shelves to a desk in the corner. Opening a nearby cabinet, the mare shuffled through the pages, pulling out a thin book.

“Why aren’t you scared of me?”

“Why would I be scared of a little filly?”

“Most others don’t like how I look…”

“Well lucky for you, I can’t see what you look like then.”

Her head tilted, confused before she waved her black hoof in front of the mare. She didn’t even flinch.

“Blind as a bat. Now, if you want to learn to read, you have to start with the basics.”

She opened the book to the first page. A picture of an apple with a pointed, black marking next to it.

“This is the alphabet; it starts with the letter ‘A’.”

Across the next hour, the old mare showed the filly each of the letters of the alphabet and even had her memorize them. Before either of them had noticed, it was dark outside.

“I guess we should call it a night. Will you be alright going home this late?”

“Oh yeah, I could probably catch dinner on the way home.”

She hopped down and began to leave when she noticed a huge stack of books, pilled up across four desks.

“Did you read all those?”

“Ha ha, no. Those were returned books just after I lost my sight. I can’t find where to place them and ponies can’t find the books they’re looking for since I haven’t put them back on the shelves. So no one comes by anymore.”

“Why doesn’t someone help you?”

“Because I can’t pay them. At best, I can offer three bits a week, but that’s not enough for any one.”

“Bits? If I put these books away, you’ll give me bits?”

“Gladly, but if you’ve only now learnt the alphabet, how much do you not know about numbers or the Dewey Decimal System?”

The blank expression and silence was enough for her to know she didn’t understand, even if she couldn’t see the blank expression.

“Well, I guess numbers are easier to learn than reading and the system isn’t all that complicated. Tomorrow, I can teach you how it all works and then we can go back to reading. You can come in, help put away some books in the morning and I can teach you in the afternoon.”

With a smile, something she had not done in a long while, the filly agreed to the lectures before departing the library, running off home whilst still keeping to the shadows.

Across the next few weeks, the filly quickly learned to count and began working on the books while reading was a bit more complicated. Day by day, she learned a bit more and cleared away stacks of books in the process. Three weeks in, she was reading on her own, starting off with filly grade books but slowly working her way up.

Each week, the librarian gave her three bits and every time, she would run back to her burrow, dig a little deeper and bury them for safety. Five weeks in, she had finally fully comprehended the basics of reading. She wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to get by on. All the books that were stacked on the desks were completely cleared and she had a hefty pouch of coins now. She had found an old chip bag to carry her coins in.

“So what’s next for…? Oh! Dear, I never even asked your name.”

“I don’t have one.”

“You don’t have a name? Well why don’t you make one for yourself. You can have others call you whatever you want.”

“Maybe, one day I’ll make a name for myself.”

Searching through a couple of books, she opened one to find there were no words in it, only pictures.

“Is this a filly book as well?”

“Why? Whats the title of the book?”

“Art of the ages.”

“Oh no, that isn’t a filly book. That’s art. I’m no artist myself, but some say art is a representation of one’s life. What is created is formed by circumstance and events. Most artists paint based on personal events in their life, it gives them motivation. Their art looks the way they envision, the way they want it.”

“Am… I art?”

“I can’t answer that. Art is subjective; multiple ponies could all have different opinions about the same piece of art. Tell me, do you shape things the way you want it to be? If so, you might just become a talented artist one day.”

Memories ran through her mind, thinking back to her younger days. Did she shape her own life? Everything she’s done has been her own ideas, she survived all this time on her own and she handled any threats, on her own. Perhaps she was an artist.

“Here, I thought you might like this, as a thank you gift for helping me around the library.”

The mare handed her a brown book, it was quite thick, much thicker than she had ever read before. She looked at the title and read it aloud.

“A beginners to advanced book of magic.”

“Just because I’m blind, don’t think I didn’t notice you have a horn.”

She reached up and rubbed the lump that had grown from her forehead. A horn, that’s what it was.

“A filly of your age should be doing at least some magic by now. Who knows, it might help you with whatever goals you have.”

The doors swung open as a small group of ponies entered. With the library now stocked properly, other were coming to use it once again. The old mare whispered to the filly.

“Good luck with your magic.”

She then turned and slowly headed back to the counter to help the customers check out some books.

“Goodbye and thank you!”

She yelled back, startling everyone in the library as she ran out, holding the book in one hoof and galloping on the remaining three. After a quick stop by her den to pick up her coin pouch, she was off to the station, excitedly holding the pouch between her teeth as she stood in front of the stallion in the booth.

“Where to?”

“Canterlot!”

“12 bits.”

She placed the book down on the counter before tipping out 12 coins from her chip bag. They were covered in dirt from when she buried them and also with remnants of food from the bag. The stallion sighed as he grabbed the coins and slid them across the counter, into a register drawer that pulled out from beneath.

He pulled out a small ticket from under the counter and pushed it through the small hole. Excitedly, she grabbed the ticket between her teeth and left before quickly returning and tucking her coin pouch under her chin.

Now, finally with a ticket, she boarded the train, taking a seat on a near empty cart. With so much space to herself, she spread out her possessions of which she had accumulated across the last month.

A book, an old chip bag with three coins and a ticket, slightly drooled on; she was so excited. A couple of pegesi a few seats ahead of her began whispering to each other. Her highly attunded ears easily picked up the conversation.

“Look at that filly. She’s weird looking.”

“Yeah, let’s move to another cart.”

The two got up and started moving to the other side of the train.

“Fuck off I didn’t want to look at you shit heads the whole time anyway!”

The couple quickened their pace, sliding open the door and disappearing into the next cart. All alone with silence, she pulled open the book she was gifted and began to read as the train slowly took off from the station.

A door behind her swung open as a bearded pony entered. He looked around to find it near empty apart from the one unicorn filly. As he approached her, he outstretched his hoof.

“Ticket please.”

“What?”

“Your ticket, may I have it.”

“Piss off and get your own!”

He was taken aback. He looked ready to respond before he stifled himself.

“I need to see your ticket to ensure you paid for this trip.”

“Oh… Ok, but I want it back.”

She picked up the ticket between her lips and dropped it onto the stallion’s hoof. With a quick glance at the details on the ticket, he pulled out a hole puncher and popped a hole in the ticket.

“What the fuck did you do that for?”

He grunted as he dropped the ticket onto the seat beside her and walked off into the next cart.

“I know where you work!”

Opening the book, she found a notice on the first page.

‘Disclaimer: Unicorn magic is generally reserved towards one pony’s special talent. Although any pony can cast any spell instructed in this book, some will find much more difficulty than others.’

The trip was quite a long one. She didn’t realize how far Canterlot was it did give her time to get through the book and even learn some of the basic spells near the beginning. Levitation for one was very helpful, making it much easier to carry her possessions. She did attempt some of the advanced spells, but apart from a few sparks of her horn, nothing seemed to happen.

“We’ll be arriving at Canterlot in five minutes.”

A voice rang out of the speakers in the cart. Her heart was beating faster. She had been waiting and working hard for the past month for this moment. She was going to be a pony that everyone else wanted to be.

With a few minutes to kill, she flicked through some of the other advanced spells, out of curiosity. That’s when she saw one that really grabbed her attention. The page was titled, ‘Shrinking Spell.’ Much like she had cast accidentally as a younger filly, this spell gave the same effect.

Although an advanced spell, she had cast it once without even knowing what magic was. Would she not be able to do it again with instructions? Following them carefully, she focused her attention on the only thing in the cart that she could. The seat in front of her was the only thing on her mind. Slowly, she continued on to each step until she felt a tingling sensation in her horn. A small headache formed as she shut her eyes to help herself concentrate.

A bursting relief fell on her when her headache suddenly disappeared, followed by a screeching sound of metal on metal. She opened her eyes to find the seat in front, missing. She looked down and saw the seat was now tiny, smaller than her hoof. Several bolts were snapped in two, apparently from when the seat shrunk and pulled away from its bolted position.

“Last stop! Canterlot!”

The speaker went off again as the train screeched to a halt at the station. She jumped up onto the window and looked outside, but it was too hard to see through all the steam the train had set off. Grabbing her belongings she jumped off her seat and bounded full speed towards the door.

As she left, the bearded pony from before entered from the other side of the cart, looking around before noticing the empty space a seat should have been. The shrunken seat and broken bolts easily caught his attention as he leaned down for a closer inspection.

“Aww really? The conductor is gonna have my hind…”

The filly leapt off the train, standing on the platform as steam still surrounded her. Slowly it cleared and she finally got a full glimpse of Canterlot. It was beautiful. The buildings were tall and fancy, the streets were clean, the ponies all walked past in dresses and suits and not too far in the distance, she saw the castle.

She let out a giggle as she ran through the station, entering the streets and looking around at the shops and sites. As she ran through town, she passed many different buildings, but one caught her attention, one with a large window on the front and behind it, a fancy, red dress. She stood on her hind legs as she placed her fore hooves on the window to get a better look.

“Hey! Get off my window!”

Her attention was brought to a sophisticated looking unicorn on the other side of the window. She grabbed a broom and headed for the door. Dropping down on all four, she turned and ran as the unicorn burst out the door, brandishing the broom.

“Filthy tourist!”

She wasn’t aware if the unicorn was chasing her or not, she just kept running. As she ran, she noticed all the stares from the ponies around her. Each one of them turned their noses up as her, whispering insults towards her look. She ran around a corner into an alley and stopped to breath. It dawned on her, being here wasn’t enough, she was still the odd one wherever she went. She needed to change or no one would ever accept her.

Catching her breath back, she peeked around the corner. Ponies still walked past, sending glares her way. She looked up at the sky and saw it was dusk, it would be dark soon. Shelter was her first priority so she set off down the street, keeping to herself as she looked around for some place she could stay.

She happened across a park that was slowly emptying as ponies left to head home for the night. A small pond rested near the middle and a mound grew beside it. Finding a position that suited her, she began digging into the mound, tunnelling out her new den.

‘FWEET!’

The filly jumped at the sudden noise as her attention was brought to the pair of guards that began running towards her.

“Fuck me! Not again…”

She abandoned the unfinished den and ran for the streets again as the guards pursued her.

“Hey! Stop right there!”

“You must be as stupid as you look if you think I’m gonna stop!”

Her longer, teen legs made her speed much faster than some heavily armoured guards could handle as she easily escaped through the streets, losing them in moments. She hid in another alley and watched carefully as the guards ran past the alley, still in pursuit of her.

“Looks like I need to find another place to stay.”

Searching the alley, she found several bins, stacks of discarded boxes and piles of old newspapers. With a lot of help from her magic book, she was able to use levitation and create a decent shelter of boxes with the newspaper for something to lie on.

‘It’s not much…’ She thought as she crawled into the boxes, laying on the newspapers and pulling a couple of pages over her back. ‘…but its something.’