Six years ago, Anon woke up in Equestria as a foal. Nowadays, he turned she is just trying to live her life one day at a time while trying to fit in.
It's been six years since Anon woke up in Cloudsdale as a foal, taken in by a pegasus couple. After a bit of time to acclimate herself to the fact she was no longer a male college student, the family moved down to Fillydelphia where they still live to this day.
Anon, now going by the given name Bluebelle, deals with some of the issues facing regular children on top of having to struggle to maintain her own sense of self, usually through dry comedy and vulgar internal commentary on the goings on around her.
"Okay, make a wish and blow out your candles!" Inhaling deeply with an exaggerated motion, you follow up with an even more exaggerated blow to the candles on top of the cake before you. As the smoke washes over your face you can barely make out the number written in frosting on the cake, 6. Six years you've been living here, in Equestria. You briefly recalled in one of your psychology classes back on Earth that children hit a moment where they forgot everything before that point, called infantile amnesia. For the first couple of years you dreaded to think that you might end up forgetting that it was even called infantile amnesia, not to mention your entire life before you woke up in a giant bed in Cloudsdale, thinking you were just drunk, but nowadays you were fairly certain that wouldn't affect you. Thank Go- wait shit Celestia. Luckily even six years of this shit hasn't been enough to kill your... you, even if you have to avoid dropping fuck bombs in speech still.
"So what did you wish for, Blue?" Dad asked, butting into your internal monologue.
Before you can reply with a witty remark, Mom shoves him, "Stop it honey, you know she's not supposed to say, otherwise it won't come true!" Gotta love the fact that pony society took the same routes as human societies, somehow.
Your friend, Star Light, giggled from next to you, reminding you that it wasn't just the three of you every day anymore. Since moving to Fillydelphia the two of you had become the 'absolute best' of friends. It was even more annoying when she picked up talking sooner than you did and you had sooooooo much fun with her foalsitting you. Of course once you finally mastered that strange horse tongue in your mouth, you set the record straight. You were the Cobra Commander and she could occasionally hang around... If occasionally meant every fucking day. The joys of being neighbors with a single mother, and Mom just loved the prospect of you having a friend over every fucking day while Night Hook was out at work with Dad. It kind of always surprised you that she wasn't a hooker, given that name, but hey pegasi gotta be weather ponies here in the land of the mud horse.
At least it was fun messing with her when you could, without getting in trouble. Mom and Dad were staunch proponents of the soap treatment for cursing and you didn't look forward to it now anymore than you did as a kid back on Earth.
As you let out a mournful sigh for the days when you didn't have chores, you received a bump in your side from Star, "Come on Blue, it's time to open your presents!"
"Right, yeah, presents!" Ugh, presents. Mom pulled the cake away from the center of the table to start cutting it while Dad plopped the first of your presents on the table, wrapped with childish wrapping paper and a comically large bow. At least unwrapping the presents was always fun, almost moreso than the presents themselves. As you tear open the wrapping, you find inside.... Dun dun dun, a cardboard box! Though a pretty light weighing one given the si- Oh. That's what it is. They're doing the large box for a small package trick. Ha. Ha. Ha. As you look quizically at the box and shake it, you hear snickers around as your gathered party seems to all know what's inside. Eugh. Opening up the box you stick your head inside and, aha! A ticket to go see the Wonderbolts! The unveiling of your annual ticket to see them this year was better than last year's where it was stuffed inside a card, and of course you had to put on a cheerful show, had to be nice to the breadwinners of the household.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" you said as you hopped up to hug the two tightly. Sure, they treated you like you were only six, but hey, they were your parents for the time being. And sure while you might have been able to pick up on their annual Wonderbolts tickets, it might end up being a surprise for an actual six year old, and otherwise it was a nice tradition to have. Even if you basically knew the entire playlist of events, it was nice getting posters so you could have at least a little bit of blue in your bedroom.
Eventually Star decided to break the family hug by piping up with "Mine next, mine next!"
With some help from Night Hook, Star was able to get herself and her present for you up onto the table and into your face. As she held it out for you, it was painfully obvious that she wrapped it herself, it being a a dragon plush almost mummified with random strips of wrapping paper. Again, playing the game for the adults in the room, you have to make a big show of wondering what it is before unwrapping it with all of the restraint of a starved hyena in a pen filled with mice.
Once unwrapped you let out a squee and hugged it to yourself before hugging Star, "Thank you so much, it's just what I wanted!" It wasn't just what you wanted. You'd seen Star's room and it was almost completely covered in stuffed animals, specifically dragons, and she seemed intent on doing the same to your room, you already had to stack them ontop of each other to be able to sleep on your own bed. Still, at least dragons were cooler than ponies.
As you broke the embrace, Mom had begun distributing slices of cake to everyone, vanilla with frosting, not the worst cake. Part of you wanted to try asking for an ice cream cake one year but you weren't sure if they even had that in Equestria and even if they did you didn't want to try explaining how you knew about it, especially with Star the goody two shoes... Four shoes you correct yourself, always being present to explain that 'Oh no, there weren't any surprise birthday parties in school, nobody had anything called ice cream cake.' Still the concept was simple enough, maybe they'd chalk it up to you just being an imaginative kid or just looking to get a head start on diabetes.
Speaking of that was one of the great things about starting over, you hate to admit it but back on Earth you were outside of puberty and your metabolism stopped being quite as good as it once was, but now that you were a filly you got to enjoy all of the treats you ever wanted!... Y'know, if your parents would let you. One of the many annoyances, especially as a filly and not a colt. You've gotten more than a few questionable looks from the adults after some free coloring time, apparently the reaction images were wrong and ponies had not, somehow, created the M1 Abrams tank, nor any others that you could tell, which was really confusing considering Rainbow Dash had a turtle named Tank... Maybe she meant like a storage tank or something? Ah whatever, tomorrow you got to return to see the Wonderbolts again! And of course, that meant going back to Cloudsdale which honestly was more of a treat than the Wonderbolts since it's fucking Cloudsdale. A literal city built on literal clouds. Like that is by far the coolest fucking shit imaginable, even in a world where dragons are an actual thing. As you looked around at what basically amounted to your family here in Equestria, you had to smile to yourself. Despite everything you've lost... including your dignity, you still feel like you've managed to come out on top. Of course, you were only six years old now, so who knows what sort of adventures you might end up in!
The one thing college will always have over school is that you got to pick when your classes were, and generally if you were smart you could avoid having to go to class five days a week. Now that you were a filly, however, you had to wake up at eight in the morning every day so that you could be in class come nine thirty. That is, unless it was a day in which dad and Night Hook had work... making the weather happen... You know, that thing that happens every day. In which case you got woken up around six by Night coming to drop off Star since the two of you were in the same class. It was very rare for her to not immediately jump onto your bed and wake you up, and today was no different.
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" she chanted while hopping on your bed, you replying with a groan and some muttered words that would probably earn you a bar of soap in your mouth had Mom been present. As the hopping continued, you pulled the blanket down just enough to uncover your one eye and instantly your view was blocked by the smiling lavender filly, "Hi Blue!"
"... Sup," you sleepily managed to get out before trying to pull the blanket back over your head. Your attempt was thwarted, however, when Star grabbed the blanket from you and flew up with it, completely exposing you. "AHH! The light, it buuuuuuurns!" you cried out in agony, some of it faked some of it you just not wanting to be awake this early.
"Come oooonnnn why aren't you ever awake when I come over!" Star whined, still holding the blanket out of reach of your clutching hooves.
"Because the sun is evil!" you exclaimed as you curled up on the barren bed. Almost on cue, Star's strength seemed to give out as she dropped down onto the bed, inadvertently covering herself in the pink blanket.
Instantly recovering she poked her head out of the mess of blanket and filly, "What, you can't say that, you'll make Celestia cry!" Oh right, you seem to have a habit of forgetting that this place has a literal sun god, and even worse it's actually an actual being.
As you sat up to pull the blanket back over yourself, you replied, "Eh, Luna's best princess anyway."
"WHAT! You're just saying that because she's blue too!"
Now that you had your blanket, you once again consumed yourself in the darkness underneath of it, "Aaaaaand she has a cooler mane. It's all stars and stuff. Better than a pastel rainbow."
You waited several moments for Star's reply, and eventually you got what you wished for as she scuttled under the covers with you and poked her face right up against yours, "You've met Princesses Celestia and Luna!?"
Your first response was letting out a yelp, and then after you processed the information, "... How did you get under here so quick?"
Butting her head against yours, Star Light pursued the question, "Come on, did you meet them or not?"
It took you a minute to come up with a lie since you couldn't just go ahead and tell Star that you saw them in a TV show from before you were born, but finally you came up with "Uhhh, no, I just saw them once on a poster for a play."
Seeing the disappointment in Star's eyes made you feel kind of bad for upsetting the poor filly, so finally you decided to get up and looked down at her, "Did you already get a bath before coming here?" She shook her head negatively, still a bit down, and so you had to offer, "... Do you want to get a bath together?"
The very next instant you were tackled onto the ground, your ears being filled with "Yes yes yes!" and immediately after that she grabbed you by your tail and trotted out to the kitchen, dragging you along the floor.
You could smell the coffee before you spotted the orange coat of Mom from your position on the ground but once you did you had to raise a hoof, "Hey mom, uhhh, Star wants a bath before school too."
Finally releasing your tail, Star piped up, "Yeah, Blue and I can have bath time together!"
Mom chuckled as she tilted her head to finally see you eye to eye without the table blocking your views any longer, "Well I see she's woken you up for me, so I guess I have to return the favor."
"Yay!" Star exclaimed before hugging you and causing the two of you to roll along the floor.
"Shhhh, not everyone is awake this early Star," Mom chimed in as she made her way past the two of you and to the bathroom.
"Oh, sorry Mrs. Belle."
Mom had a chuckle as she continued on and you groaned, "Just because my name is Bluebelle doesn't mean her last name is Belle."
Star looked at you confusingly, "Last name?"
"... Family name," Damn pony naming conventions.
"Is this more of your Earth story stuff?"
"Yeeeeah..." You had given up any chance of being firmly rooted in Equestrian culture for several years, and so whenever you introduced something to ponies that had no idea what the thing you were talking about was, you just said you were writing stories of a fictional land called Earth, and luckily it worked.
"When am I going to get to reeeaaaaad it?" Star pleaded.
"Maybe when I actually finish it," or y'know, actually write it.
Getting off of you with a huff, Star started making her way to the bathroom, "That's what you always say!"
"Well I don't want to show it to anypony unfinished!" you replied as you followed her.
When the two of you entered the bathroom, you found the full tub waiting along with a towel on the floor, the same rubber duck from your first days in Equestria floating in the water, and Mom looking at you two expectantly, "Well, come on, enough cleaning the floor with your manes and into the water you two."
"Hey, it was Star's faul-" you were quickly cut off by the other filly cannon balling into the tub and you getting a face full of water. Probably a good thing Mom always put the towel down before either of you could get in the tub. At least the water was warm.
Fluttering up as high as your weak wing muscles could get you, you made your way over the tub and gently settled down in the water, "I swear, any day now and you two are gonna be flying all across Equestria."
You dunked your head down under the water and raised it back up to the sight of the rubber duck being squeaked in your face by Star, which you returned with a deadpan look, "I think first I'm going to have to be able to fly across the living room without landing on my face."
Not dismayed with your failure to react, Star squeaked the duck a couple more times, "Oh hush, if you just keep at it you'll finally get the hang of it, just look at Star!" As if to rub in the fact that you still had issues with flying, Star lifted herself above the tub with a giddy grin on her face before dropping and causing another big splash, this time combined with her laughter.
"See? In no time you'll both be a couple of parasprites and I'll have to offer you food to get you back onto the ground. Speaking of, what does everyone want for breakfast?"
In unison both you and Star shouted, "Pancakes!"
Smiling to herself, mom turned her back and made her way out, "All right then, my little parasprites, pancakes coming up! Just make sure you two don't spend all morning playing and actually clean yourselves up." Turning your attention back to the other filly in the tub with you, you saw her slowly approaching you with only the top half of her head poking out of the water.
Oh God, she's doing the shark routine, not again... "H-Hey Star, you wanna... Actually get cleaned up for once? Then we can get pancakes sooner!" As you saw her continuing to 'swim' at you, you knew there was no hope. Backing up away from her, you found yourself at the edge of the tub and in prime pouncing position, and so Star did what she always did and made a loud rawring sound as she pounced you, causing another large splash of water. As you raised yourself from the splash, again with a deadpan face, you wondered if your face would actually freeze like this.
"Did you have any dreams last night?" Star said completely ignoring her being a shark a second ago.
As you grabbed the bottle of mane shampoo and began lathering up your own mane, you replied, "I don't think so, if I did I certainly didn't remember them."
With a smirk, Star filled your face with her pastel yellow tail, "Maybe because your Princess Luna isn't as good as Celestia."
With a sigh you stopped working on your own mane and began lathering the other filly's tail, "Listen, Luna has a lot of responsibilities. Celestia is responsible for just a single star, whereas Luna has to keep track of all of the rest of them."
Judging by the look on her face, you definitely gave her some food for thought before she changed the topic back, "Yeah well I had a dream last night. Mommy got me a pet dragon and I named him Fossils!"
Finishing up with her tail you went back to your mane only to have her put her mane in your face next, and with a sigh of defeat you once again put your own mane on hold in order to wash Star's, "Well, how'd you fit a whole dragon in your apartment?"
"Pfft, it wasn't a whole dragon silly filly! It was a baby dragon!"
"Wait, are baby dragons common pets?"
"Well noooooo but it was a dream so I got a baby dragon pet!"
Finishing up her mane you finally were able to go back to your own, "Sounds fun. Did you do your homework last night?"
She grabbed the bottle of fur shampoo and held it out to you, "Yup! And no you can't copy off of me again!"
You paused for a moment and decided to continue lathering up your own mane, not taking the bottle, "Well fine then, I guess you'll just need to clean yourself up." You could see the internal debate in Star's eyes as she looked at you with disbelief, shock even, before finally she settled on a pout and started washing herself in silence. "Yeah yeah, go ahead and pout, if you aren't scratching my back then I ain't gonna scratch yours."
Her "Hmmph!" made you laugh to yourself a bit as you went about cleaning yourself up and within no time the two of you were all dried up and entering the kitchen.
Almost literally smacking you in the face as you entered through the doorway was the rich smell of pancakes and damn oh damn, if one thing could motivate you to actually fly more than, y'know, actually fucking flying, it was mutha. fuckin. pancakes. You lifted yourself up in the air and darted for a chair, hoping to land on it... Well, A for effort I guess.
As you looked up from your spot on the floor, you saw Mom staring down at you with a sigh, "You do know that you just got out of the tub, right?" You cracked an awkward smile before your rear end submitted to gravity and toppled over your head and landed with you on your stomach facing the cabinets. Before you could regain your balance and stand up on your own, you felt Mom grab you by the back of your neck with her mouth and then set you down at the table, where Star had already taken her seat and started digging in.
Reaching for the fork, you found your hoof stopped by Mom's and turning to look at her, she had her super serious mom face on. "Bluebelle. No more rough housing or you're going back into the bath." You nodded silently, fucking parents. Once your hoof is freed you finally grab the fork and begin chomping down, the buttery and syrupy cakes filling you with all them feel good feelings. As you continued munching, you suddenly found your mouth being wiped with a napkin by Mom, sighing to herself, "No, seriously Blue, you literally just got out of the tub before coming to breakfast."
This elicited a giggle from Star as you fussed, "I can just wash my face up afterwards, Mom..."
"Uh huh, suuure you can... So how did you sleep?"
Fussing some more so that you could speak without a napkin being shoved in your mouth, "A lot better than I'm currently eating, apparently."
"Well that isn't too high of an accomplishment, now is it?" After deciding it's too much effort to both talk and eat at the same time, you resumed eating in silence and took pauses whenever Mom decided to pat your face with her napkin.
Breakfast ended with Star finishing before you because she didn't have a mare make her stop after each mouthful to wipe her mouth for nonexistent syrup, and from there all that was left was for you to finally do your homework. Surprisingly, the homework was actually some level of difficult as a filly, but that was more due to you working to understand the hoof based alphabet more than any issues with the conceptual parts of the content. Star was happy to help, especially with the math homework, while Mom cleaned up the kitchen and started making lunch for the two of you. By the time it was nine, however, you had finished your homework even if you couldn't quite grasp the difference between what would be a T and a X still, and the two of you were off to school with your backpacks and lunches packed.
Ugh... Sometimes you thought Star might have been a literal puppy in a previous lifetime. At least once you two got to class she'd be a bit more quiet than usual. While teachers may always tell students to be quiet and good students always listen to teachers, it's kind of hard for kids to actually be quiet for longer than five minutes. Walking along the sidewalk, the morning was just as busy as it usually was, with carriages going along the streets, crossing guards shepherding fillies and colts towards the school. You could spy a couple of your classmates up ahead and glanced back at Star to make sure she was still going on about the difference in quality of your sandwiches so that you'd have just the slight delay before having to deal with the class. Luckily she was still at how much of the crust was cut off from your sandwiches compared to hers so it'd likely be just the two of you until you got to the school proper.
Looking across the street, you spotted the trio of ponies that you absolutely dreaded from lunch. They were all unicorns and they all thought themselves as above everyone else in the school because they were unicorns. It took a lot of restraint to not buck their teeth in sometimes, but you managed with just witty banter. They weren't even the only unicorns in the school, fuck not even the only unicorns in their own class. They were just a bunch of uptight little shits for the sake of being uptight little shits.
"Hey there little fillies," said Sunshine Mist, the crossing guard.
"Hi Miss Mist!" Star basically shouted at her usual speaking volume and you paused as you finally realized it. She was the lead singer of the Talking Heads. It wasn't Billy Mays volume of speaking in caps lock but it was definitely shout speaking.
"Is Blue trapped inside her head again?" Mist asked, bringing you back from singing Once In A Lifetime to yourself.
"Yup yup, she always is!"
Mist ruffled your mane with her hoof, "I know you're a pegasus, but you gotta keep your head outta the clouds there Blue."
You had to groan and roll your eyes, "Always a master of puns, Miss Mist."
She smiled, "Hey you're one of the few ponies who actually gets them. Now get on to school, don't wanna be late!"
She held the stop sign up allowing the two of you to cross without worry from any of the carriages while Star had to ask, "Puns?"
"Yeah, don't worry about it."
"That's your answer for everything!" Star groaned.
You had a snicker as you replied, "Yeah, don't worry about it." With a furrowed brow, Star bumped your flank with hers, making you laugh as you crossed the street. She wasn't having any of it though and gave you a second, harder bump, as you reached the school.
Still laughing, you made your way up the stairs and as you pushed the door open for her, you found it wasn't her but the grey unicorn from the trio heading in after cutting her off.
"About time you started treating us properly," he said with a scoff. Furrowing your brow you stepped out, and with no one holding the door it started to close in on him until he jumped out of the way.
With a gasp the other two, still outside, looked at you as though you'd just personally insulted their children... you know, if they had children that is, "What is wrong with you?"
With a quick glance back at Star who had taken cover behind you, you replied back, "Hey, I'm not the one who's pushing ponies out of the way."
"Well, maybe if she wasn't in the way he wouldn't have needed to push her."
Grinding your teeth, you dropped your head and stamped a hoof, adopting an aggressive stance, "Yeah well maybe next time I'll push back."
The white unicorn scoffed, "Figures you'd want to fight. Just proving that unicorns are the best ponies." With that, she made a show of opening the door with her horn and stepped inside followed by the last member of the trio, the pink filly, both with their heads held high.
As they left, you called after them, "Yeah, run away, I'll show you who the best ponies are..." As the door swung closed, you turned back to Star, "Hey, are you okay?"
She nodded her head as she slunk out from behind you, "Y-Yeah, but I think I might have smushed my lunch..." You weren't sure if she'd planned it or not, but you had to relent...
With a sigh, you had to ask, "... Wanna trade lunches?" It seemed to work as she smiled and the two of you went inside, making your way to class.
Upon arrival, you two took your seats, which luckily had some distance from one another, and while Star was a social butterfly, you mostly kept to yourself, working on your hand... well hoofwriting. All of these other kids seemed to have it down better than you, but that was probably because they weren't also unlearning twenty plus years of experience using fingers to do this shit. So in order to close the gap between them and you, you had to put in the extra time writing whenever you could manage, and doing your best to avoid talking to kids meant you were killing two birds with one stone. Of course, once you finally mastered the new alphabet, you'd have to really start downplaying your intelligence every so often, you wouldn't want to raise any red flags as a filly that can do scientific notation, if that's a thing in Equestria. As you continued writing, you eventually realized the room had gotten quiet, and by the time you realized it, you also noticed the shadow from the lights on your desk.
Looking up at the mare, you cracked a smile, "Hiya Miss Dreams."
She seemed to look past you and at the paper you were writing on, "I appreciate you practicing, but I would rather you pay attention to me when class starts," she said.
The class made a collective "Ooooooh" noise as she returned to the front of the room.
"Right right, sorry Miss Dreams." That was your teacher, you'd overheard some of the teachers talking and learned her full name was Autumn Dreams, and she was nice enough. Honestly pretty... Well, pretty, as far as ponies go, with an autumn orange coat and autumn brown mane.
"Today class, we'll start by working on our vocabulary words and then move to math, so take out your homework and we'll start with Amber Jewel..."
There are moments in time where the tension in the air could almost quite literally be cut with a knife. When everyone present is ready to act but is waiting for whatever the signal for it could be. This could be anything from a sergeant giving the order to charge, to someone sneezing, or in this case the ringing of a bell. Just as it started to ring you could already see ponies leaping out of their seats for the door, hoping desperately to be the first out of the room so that they could navigate the gauntlet that was the hallway at the end of the day. While most of the rest of the school turned into a mosh pit, you instead opted to continue sitting at your desk and put your things away. You assumed it condemned you to permanently being a book nerd for the rest of the year but on some level it annoyed you seeing how easy these kids had grasped what were literal basics that were also giving you issues. Damn ESL status.... Wait holy shit you actually were an ESL student, an Equestrian Second Language student... god just kill me now.
By the time you got your books away, the rest of the class had filed out leaving just you and Ms. Dreams who was buried into a book of her own.
Still, you offered her a wave and a "See you tomorrow," which grabbed her attention.
"Actually, Blue, if you have a moment, I'd like to ask you some things."
Pausing in your exit, you turned back to her and shrugged your saddlebag off before hopping back up into your seat, "Sure thing."
Since you decided to instantly sit down and presumably because she didn't want to shout back and forth across the room, Ms. Dreams came over to your desk, "I've been noticing you lagging behind for some parts of class, while excelling in other parts..." Damn, was she onto you? "Do you have anything specific that you feel you need more help with?"
You shook your head negatively in response before clarifying, "There's a couple of letters I'm still having trouble with but I'm working on it. It's just taking a bit for it to 'click,' I guess."
She looked at you with some concern on her face and you recognized the look all too well, you were talking like a college student more than an elementary student. "Right, well, if you do need any help, feel free to see me after class and we can work on it together."
Hoping to leave with a better perception in her mind, you thought for a moment before channeling your inner Pinkie Pie and hopped off the chair, "Okie dokie, Loki. See ya tomorrow Miss Dreams." She seemed more at ease after that, so you scooped up your saddlebags and trotted out the door, through the school version of the white phosphorus scene from Spec Ops: The Line, and out the front doors to find Star Light waiting for you impatiently at the base of the stairs.
"What took you so long, we gotta get home or else our parents are gonna be worried!"
You had to roll your eyes as you made your way down, "Please, I was only in there for like a minute longer than usual."
She moved right up into your face, her eyes mere inches from yours, "That's one, whole, minute longer before we're home!" You were pretty sure she was joking... But it was Star... So you honestly had no idea.
Deciding to go middle of the line, you made a show of clearing your throat before replying, "Actually it's one minute and thirty seconds thanks to this conversation we're having."
She gasped and covered her mouth with her hooves, glancing around paranoid. You had a chuckle at that. "Anyway, let's head home before we waste even more time," you said, making the last three words sound more like a threat than an off handed comment.
Star nodded and gave another glance around before hopping after you, and for the most part your trip back home was as usual. By the time the two of you crossed the first street Star was back to talking your head off about all of the things that happened in school, you know all of those things that you were present for, as well as trying to make plans on things to do after she'd finished her homework. Some of the other students were getting together to play games in the park and Star wanted to join in, you didn't really want to but you couldn't come up with any excuses so that was ultimately what was decided upon. Who knows, maybe you could convince them to play Jailbreak, though you'd probably not be as good at hiding as you were in middle school now that you were blue. But hey, come next round of middle school you'll probably be able to actually fly and can then just hide on top of a tree! Take that, mudhorses.
Once you two had made it to your floor of the apartment building, you each went to your respective apartments to see your respective parents. Walking through your door, you tried to call out "Mom, Dad, I'm home!" but before you could even finish the word Mom you were quickly scooped up into a hug by Dad which turned the 'Dad, I'm home' part into a shriek.
"Blue!" he shouted
"AAAAAAAH" you replied in the most dignified way possible.
"AAAAAAAH" he responded in turn.
Finally Mom had enough and walked into what one could call the foyer, "Jeez, do you two need to do that every day? I'm surprised the neighbors haven't called the police on us yet."
Dad gently landed back onto the floor, setting you down, and looked off to the side, a bit embarrassed while you just giggled. It was a strange tradition you two had and you honestly weren't sure how it started, but every day you came home from school, dad would always find some way to startle you.
"I swear, some days I feel like I've got two fillies to look after," Mom muttered aloud as she walked back to the living room.
With it just being the two of you again, he looked down at you, "So, how was school?"
"School," you both said in unison.
"One of these days you're going to have something different to say about your day and when it finally comes, I will be waiting to pounce."
"So how was work?"
"Oh, the usual." He said, making his way to the kitchen and you following, "We had to move some rain clouds over to Ponyville so they can grow their crops and we'll probably end up with rain here by the end of the week."
"Aaaand why exactly do we need rain again?" you asked for about the thousandth time as dad grabbed an apple and bit into it.
"It helps keep the sewer systems working and let's us get rid of the rain clouds without drowning any crops," he replied for about the thousandth time in between bites.
"Right, I'll be sure to forget that and ask again once it's actually raining here."
For once it was dad's turn to groan and roll his eyes, "Don't you have homework you could be doing?"
"Yeah, but, now bear with me dad... I could do it now, ooooor, I could do it tomorrow after Star wakes me up."
"Hmm, true... Or you could do it now," he said after taking a moment to think it over.
"Hey wait, I thought mom was supposed to be the bossy one around here!"
"Nah, she's on her vacation time so now I have to be bossy."
"Ah ffffar fig newton." Nice save there.
"Yeah yeah, you can get a snack once you're done your homework. Now get to it, missy."
Grumbling, you shrugged off your saddlebag then tossed it up onto the kitchen table and pulled out your books and started cracking down on your homework. Dad made sure to enjoy his apple to the fullest until you had actually started doing homework at which point he left to join mom in the living room, and while you had the idea of just stopping after he left, you always had a hard time of actually getting motivated enough to start doing homework so it was probably for the best that you continued it now that you had already started it. Of course, before starting the homework proper, you first focused in on those damned hoof print characters.
"Daaaaaad, can you come check my homework?" That was something kids did, right? The last time you were actually in school was college and generally parents either weren't around to 'check your homework' or they just straight up didn't understand the content, so being able to have people willingly check your work without the promise of greasy fast food was a point in favor of still being a horse. You know, not that you had any choice in the matter for the past six years. By the time you snapped back to alertness, the sheet in front of you had been snatched up and looking up you saw it was Mom.
"I thought you were on vacation time?"
"Yeah but if daddy comes in here and checks it he'll probably give you another Whatchamacallit and spoil your appetite." Damn, she's good. Whatchamacallits were the first thing you saw in Equestria that you actually recognized as a direct placement from Earth, and to be honest the only brand named thing that didn't change to some horse pun, and so since your first day here in Equestria they served the role of both an appetizing snack and something to remember your old life by.
"Anyway, right here you put 'Hay Den stood a sad song?' And over here put 'Berry White sang still for the picture?" You had a chuckle at that pony's name when you first read it and had to have another one now which was met with some confusion before mom continued on, "There's a few others, but otherwise you seem to be doing okay, even if I can see somepony changed their answers on the math sheet. Are you still having issues with your alphabet?"
"Yeah, Miss Dreams offered to help with some after school time, but I think I'm getting the hang of it!"
Mom turned her attention back to the sheets, looking them over again, "You know, we could see if Star could help you, she-"
"Nonono thanks!" You had to nip that in the bud before you had to relive the days of Star foalsitting you... Some nights you still shudder thinking about those months, seriously that filly goes mad with power whenever she gets it, and not even in the fun way like Caligula! Of course, mom was now looking at you fairly awkwardly and you had to come up with an excuse quick.
"I mean, uhhh, I.... Don't want her to know I'm having issues... It's embarrassing, especially since some of the other ponies are really good readers..." That worked, right? Riiiiight? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight?
"Oh sweetie, there's nothing wrong with admitting you need help," she replied while extending a wing around your back, "And I'm sure Star would love to help!" Shit she's doing the excited mom face that she does whenever she confirms an idea of her own to herself. It's okay though, it's okay... You like a challenge, you've fought uphill battles before!... You didn't really quite win very many of them, though.
"Well yeah, but uhhh, she might not want to since it could cut into time spent playing. You know how much Star loves to play games!"
She started tutting and you know you'd lost, "Sweetie, I'm positive Star would much rather spend time helping you than playing games. And who knows maybe you two could even make games out of your study sessions!" Fuck. Fuck. Shit. "How about after dinner you can ask her at the park?"
With a sigh of defeat, you had to relent, "Okay, mom. I'll ask her after dinner."
"Good! And maybe I'll even get you a Whatchamacallit for being mommy's brave little filly."
Even mom nuzzling you couldn't stop your cheeks from flushing and your face turning into a pout as you groaned out "Mooom..." With a plan set in motion that you had very little input into, you lounged around in the living room listening to the radio while mom and dad made dinner. It didn't take long for you to get the call to stop trying to channel One by Metallica to somehow play out of the radio instead of the talk show your parents kept permanently on and come to dinner. Once you had all eaten your fill and finished your talks about how everyone's day was, what everyone had planned for tomorrow, and some weekend plans with Flying Fish and Cotton which makes you cringe a bit... You weren't sure you'd ever be able to forget your first playdate with Cotton but at least now you could actually scream "I need an adult" and be understood. So you had that on your side.
With dinner finished, dad had set about cleaning up the kitchen and washing the dishes while mom threw on her saddlebag a scarf and asked if you wanted one as well. You took up her offer since it could get a bit chilly in the evening and so the two of you left both in matching pink scarves... God, fuck being a filly. Of course, before leaving, you two had to pick up Star Light, and so you knocked on her apartment door and had to do the kid thing of asking Night Hook if Star could come out to play. Some part of you hoped against all hope that she wouldn't be allowed to for one reason or another but there she was, ready as always.
Finally on your way to the park, Star began talking about her homework and how you shouldn't have a problem with it when you do it in the morning, prompting a sly smirk from Mom as she bumped your flank with hers.
With a groan you rubbed the back of your head, "So uhh, actually Star... I kind of had some issues with the homework and was wondering if..." You paused hoping you could somehow back out, but Mom kept giving you the Mom stare so you knew you had to finish the sentence, "Would you be able to help me out sometime? Like, with the whole reading thing?" Star didn't instantly reply and as you looked at her you saw why. You're sure you had seen a reaction image of this face at some point, she was staring at you with eyes almost as wide as her grin and you could almost see stars replacing her pupils.
"Do you mean like... Study buddies?" she managed to eek out somehow without breaking that grin.
Glancing between the approving nod of Mom and the slightly creepy grin of Star you had to force the word from your throat, "Uhhh... S-Sure?" The instant you replied, you were pounced to the ground in a hug by Star who was surprisingly strong for a filly, a pegasus at that.
Once you went to try to claw your way out, she released you and started hopping up and down on you, her wings fluttering in joy as she kept chanting "Study buddies, study buddies, study buddies" over and over again and god damn you had to beat yourself up for thinking you were going to be a nerd earlier when you were in a class with this filly.
Luckily Mom came to the rescue and set a hoof on Star, "Okay now, Star Light. I'm sure Blue is just as excited as you are, but if we don't hurry you two will be late to the park!" Based on Star's reaction, she must have forgotten that the three of you were actually going somewhere, as she just froze for an instant of realization on top of you.
Once the instant was over she hopped off and started pushing against you with her snout, "Oh. My. Celestia. You're right, come on Blue, we're gonna be late! Then we can't be on the same team!"
With a roll of your eyes you stood back and looked over to her, "You don't even know what we're going to be playing, there might not be teams."
"Well yeah but we're study buddies so we're gonna be on the same team anyway."
You tried to come up with a response but words failed you as you sunk your head down a bit, "All right, well let's get there anyway so we can at least pick something to play."
"Okie doke!"
Once the three of you got there, Mom took a seat on a bench and started reading a book, you tried to read the title but Star dragged you by the scarf to go play with the kids and to introduce you to everyone you already knew as her study buddy. With introductions completed the debate began on what exactly everyone would play and despite making a strong case for Jailbreak that essentially boiled down to "It's every other game you want to play but better," they decided on freeze tag. So for the next couple of hours you and the rest of the fillies and colts burnt off all of that extra energy kids always manage to have. You made a couple of nice plays, doing the old football juke a couple of times, and also some not nice ones like running alongside another one of the pegasi in the class and them fluttering up onto the jungle gym to avoid getting tagged and you managing to get yourself stuck in the bars when you tried the same maneuver. You then had to have a negotiation with the "It" pony to allow you to move so you didn't puke from staying in that position with a bar pushing up on your gut. It ended with you frozen on the other side of the bars and with that little shit getting your snack at lunch tomorrow. As the shadows of the surrounding buildings started stretching into the large sandbox you had all been running around, Mom called out for you and Star to head back home and along the way took a detour for you to get your Whatchamacallit, and also one for Star for being so generous. So that was good.
Arriving back at home, Star went to her apartment and you and Mom to yours. She went to run a bath for you while you and Dad fought over who got to eat the rest of the Whatchamacallit (you technically won by virtue of cramming it all into your mouth at the start of the fight but he scored a moral victory by tickling you the rest of the time for punishment) and after your bath it was finally time for bed. Mom and Dad followed you into your bedroom, a room that was still mostly pink despite plastering five years worth of Wonderbolt posters all over the walls and having an entire corner dedicated just to stuffed animals. Once tucked in, Mom and Dad took turns reading a story to you, each playing different characters in the Daring Do story. Yeah that's right, the same series that Rainbow Dash got into, fuck off it's fucking Indiana Jones as a pegasus in book form. Once the chapter was finished, you were left to drift off to sleep alone, at a pitiful time of 8:30. God how much longer would it be until you didn't have to deal with this bedtime shit.
Tuesday night, you had asked Star Light to be, how she put it, study buddies. Which means that since then you'd had three mornings and two evenings staring at homemade learning references in bright pastel colors and subjected to listening to countless songs and other mnemonic devices. So, you know, like you were in kindergarten again. For the second, wait no third, time. And god fucking damnit, while you felt like you were being treated even younger than you were as a horse, it was fucking working. You honestly weren't sure if you could be upset with how it was going and that ultimately made you more upset, like dying to the Hellkite Dragon in Dark Souls. Yeah, sure, that was a pretty cheap death but at the same time, you'd seen it earlier and there were all of those scorch marks on the bridge.
Fast forward to now, where you were honest to god wishing you were a mudhorse as Star clutched your hind hooves, trying to keep you from leaving.
"But- but we need to study! We could study together all weekend!" You didn't care how good she was at teaching, you've never done school before on the weekends and you weren't about to start now. It didn't help that your parents were actually on your side on this matter, after all they were the ones taking you away for the weekend.
"I'm sorry, Star, but I have to go on this camping trip. Miss Fish wants to spend some time with me since she couldn't make the birthday party." Looking back at her, she almost looked like she was on the verge of tears. She wasn't, thankfully, but it still looked a bit close for comfort. "Listen, I'll be home Sunday night and if I'm back before my bedtime, maybe we can do some studying then."
While that might be enough for most people, it wasn't enough for Star and so she had to push for more. "And have a slumber party?" Oh jeez, you weren't sure you could handle that. Having to study on a weekend AND have a sleepover?
Deciding to bet against the odds you put on your best half smile and nodded, "Yeah, sure. I can ask Mom and Dad about it, but we probably won't know until Sunday night."
That half a promise to see about asking for permission seemed more than enough for her as that frown quite literally turned upside down and your legs were freed as she started hopping around the hallway, "Slumber party, slumber party, slumber party!" You glanced down both ends of the hallway, wondering just how many others were seeing this but it seemed to just be the two of you.
"Well, anyway, I had better get packed so I guess I'll see you Monday."
"Or Sunday!"
"Yeah! Or Sunday..." You slowly backed up towards your door, watching her display as she went back to chanting slumber party, and once you bumped into the door you quickly spun around and opened it, blurting out "Okay bye!"
Once the door was closed you could still hear the chanting on some level and briefly wondered just how long she would be there. You figured she should hopefully be done by the time you actually left and turned around, half expecting Dad to surprise you again but instead found him plainly visible moving from the kitchen to the living room, carrying a couple of brown paper bags in his muzzle.
"Hey Mom, hey Dad, I'm home from school," you called as you made your way to the living room. Turning the corner you were met with the living room in a rather different state than what it usually was. Three larger than usual saddlebags lay at one end of the floor, each with a sleeping mat unrolled between the bags and yourself. The three sleeping mats themselves were covered with all sorts of necessities one might need for camping, including such things as a fire striker, rope, tarps, and tent poles.
"Oh, wow. We're going all out this weekend huh?"
"Yupperee," replied Dad as he divvied out the bags to each mat.
"I'm surprised we aren't going to be doing any fishing while we're there."
"Nope, that's what Flying Fish does, it's how she got her cutiemark y'know," Mom piped in as she looked between the two books in her hooves in front of her, ultimately focused in on which one she's going to bring. At least that strange cutiemark of a floundering fish finally makes sense.
"Is there anything I can do to help with packing?"
After finally deciding who he wanted to get each lunch, Dad made his way back over to you, "No no no, it's fine sweetie, we've got it all covered. Why don't you grab a snack and by the time you're done we should be all ready to go."
"Wait, we're leaving already?"
"Yup! Celestia can't keep the sun up forever, y'know," he said, giving you a nuzzle on the top of your head before moving past to the hallway closet. Looking back in the living room you saw Mom set one book down on the mat and the other away... And then an instant later swapped them and fluttered above the congested floor to begin packing the bags. Despite six years of being a filly, you still hadn't gotten used to other people doing everything around the house for you, on some level it made you feel kind of useless. Not wanting to be in the way, you made your way to the kitchen, grabbed an apple, and sat at the table just biting into it. Having some time to yourself was nice, but you couldn't shake that feeling, and to be honest you weren't exactly looking forward to seeing Cotton again.
The only real good thing about Cotton was that he was another person from Earth that had woken up here on Equestria as a foal, so at the very least you had someone to confide in about the day to day dealings of trying to not out yourself. On the other hand, he was... Well, let's just say the two of you would have never been friends on Earth, even before he tried to make you his girlfriend while you were both still in diapers... Eugh. Hopefully he'd gotten better since the last birthday party he'd attended, he was getting a bit too close for comfort then and you could only assume he was still striking out with any actual ponies he knew. At least you'd be sleeping in tents presumably, so you could just say you didn't want to sleep away from Mom and Dad if he was still super creepy.
Between eating and getting caught up in your thoughts, you'd managed to kill enough time for Mom and Dad to get the bags all packed together and upon entering the living room again saw that it had been restored to its nice and clean status, the bags now sitting on both Mom and Dad's flanks with the sleeping mats rolled up and on their backs, and just your back which seemed only slightly larger than your school saddlebag sitting on the floor.
"We only packed what you'd need, so if you've got anything else you want to bring, you'd better go get it before we leave," Dad said as he double checked the strap of his saddlebag.
Shaking your head negatively, you trotted on over to your bags and set them on your flank, "Nope, I'm ready to go now." They both smiled down at you and you found yourself smiling right back at them, sure you might have to deal with Cotton again, but it had been forever since you'd been camping. You could even remember the exact weekend, it was after you had gotten accepted into college.
Your dad had decided to reward you by taking you and some friends out to a local forest and after spending all day Friday hiking out you had found the perfect campsite along a stream. After setting up camp the four of you were so tired you didn't even bother with making a fire or roasting any marshmallows, opting to instead go right to bed. The next morning you and dad woke up at the crack of dawn and got some fishing done so when the other two woke up breakfast was ready. Much of the day was dedicated to just hanging out, collecting firewood for that night, some more fishing. That night was actually the night dad showed you how to start a fire just by rubbing sticks together... You weren't too sure you'd be able to do that with hooves...
You let out a sigh of despair as you thought back to then. You sometimes wondered what you would say to your parents if you had a chance to before all of this happened. What they had been doing ever since you left. Had they given up hope of ever seeing you again? Had you? If you were given the chance to go back home, right at this instant, to go back to being a college student, be able to see your family and friends again, would you? Could you do that to your new family? Dare you say, your new friends? Every day you spent here it got harder and harder to make that decision. And yet every so often, the same questions would come filling your mind. Perhaps, would you have been better off if you had somehow experienced infantile amnesia and lost your... you?
Trying to put those thoughts behind you, you found that your gaze had drifted to the floor and upon looking back up found your new parents, your new Mom and Dad, looking down at with worry all over their faces. It ultimately didn't help your own mood, but you had a role to play for the time being.
These two had been nothing but loving of you ever since you arrived here, and so you put on a smile and piped up, "So, let's get going, we don't wanna be late!" It didn't completely eliminate the worry in their faces, but the relief was clear. There was no reason to bog them down with your inner conflicts, especially not right before a family vacation of sorts, so when they didn't immediately start moving you started a trot to the door and called out, "Last one outside is a rotten egg!" That seemed to work as you quickly heard Dad start galloping after you and so the race was on.
Luckily you had enough of a lead on him so you were able to get out the door first, and in the deepest depths of your mind you noted that Star had indeed finally left, but while in the hallway Dad started to catch up and past you. Deciding you couldn't win a physical match against him, you instead went for the brains over brawn approach and merely grabbed onto his tail and fluttered your wings to keep from hitting the ground. It took a moment for him to notice the extra weight, but when he did he grinned back at you and started leaping his way around, causing you to fly both up and down, until finally you saw the goal line in sight. At this point you realized the failure in your planning, if he's faster than you and in front of you there's no way you can overtake him. With the door of the building getting closer and closer, your window to not be a rotten egg became smaller and smaller, until finally you had an idea. Channeling your inner-Nathan Drake, you pulled yourself up his tail, over the sleeping mat, and along Dad's back until finally you were right behind his neck. Getting closer still, you made your way around so that you were in front of his neck and at the last possible moment you pushed yourself off and glided through the double doors, proving for now and forever that you are indeed not a rotten egg.
And then you tumbled across the sidewalk as you crash landed and tried to make the world stop spinning. Trying to focus your eyes, you saw about twenty different 'phantoms' of Dad approach you and sit down in front of you.
As the twenty became ten which became five and so on, they all reached forward and gave you a boop on the snout, "You may have won, but that just makes Mom the rotten egg." ... Right, shit. But at least you were still first! You even tried to voice this fact, but all that came out was some gurgling noises.
Once Dad was finally a single figure and no longer multiple phantoms of himself, he leaned in close putting one eye to your vision and looked inside your own eyes for a moment before smiling, "Eeeeh, you'll be fine."
You shook your head out, trying to reset horse.exe and finally blinked yourself back to alertness. "Aha, I was first!"
You received a pat on the head from Dad who reassured you, "You were indeed first, but I'm still not a rotten egg," and then followed it up with sticking his tongue out at you. Not one to be one upped, you stuck yours back at him and so began a great contest of who could make the silliest looking face.
Said competition of titans was interrupted once Mom finally exited the building, "I swear, I can't leave you two alone for a minute. You didn't even bother trying to close the door to our apartment."
You were quick to call out that it was "Dad's fault!" but she continued, "Now if you two are done fooling around, we need to catch our train."
With the party reassembled and any downer topics removed from the front of your mind, your trio carried on to the train station and caught the southbound rail towards Baltimare. Getting on board went without a hitch and with minutes to spare you were all seated and ready to go. That was when realtalk started...
"Bluebelle, what's wrong?" asked Dad, and turning your gaze from out the window to your parents, you saw they had the worried looks on their faces again.
Adopting your most innocent looking poker face, you glanced between them, "What do you mean? We're gonna go see Aunt Fishie!"
They both shared a look of 'not accepting this shit' before turning back to you, this time Mom speaking up, "Whatever it is, you can tell us. We'll understand."
You sorely doubted that and doubled down, "I don't know what you're talking about."
Dad reached out with his wing and wrapped it around you before pulling you close to him, "If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. But we both saw you back in the apartment, and we want to be able to help you Bluebelle." God damn it, they weren't going to let up. You tried flipping through your Cliff Notes version of soap opera plot lines but it was failing you, and looking between the two you were starting to seriously consider telling them. Just opening up right then and there, that you weren't actually six years old, in fact you were closer to thirty six years old. That you may very well be older than them. You bit your tongue to try and prevent it from spilling the beans, to maintain the illusion that you were in fact their daughter and not a human who had woken up in their bed one day.
As you felt your will failing, Mom cut you off, "We'll let it go for now, Bluebelle, but please... Whenever you're ready to talk, we'll both be here to listen." She topped it off with a reassuring smile and looking at Dad you could see that this probably wasn't a spur of the moment thing. It took you a moment to swallow the words you were so close to belting out and followed it up with a nod before turning your gaze back out the window to watch the train move along, and yet you could still feel them looking down at you.
Swallowing again, you turned back to look at the two and put on perhaps the weakest smile you had since waking up as a foal, even if you didn't mean to, "Thanks... I will..." You know, as soon as you came up with a lie that works. For the meantime, it was train time.
It was a long hour on the train. While usually these sorts of trips were filled with happy conversations and thoughts of the trip ahead or behind, today it was mere silence. As though the entire train car was watching, waiting for you to spill the beans. It got so bad once you were out of the city limits that you had to force yourself to be able to hear the rattle of the train as it made its way along the tracks. Continuing past the suburbs outside of the city , you soon found yourself looking up at the Foal Mountain range, its intimidating peak piercing the clouds as they made their slow migration ever further East. You briefly remembered Dad mentioning it raining in Fillydelphia a few days ago and hoped that these weren't the clouds he'd placed over Ponyville, otherwise you might end up needing those tarps for more than just making tents.
You turned around, hoping to find Mom and Dad speculating about the same topic or reading a book or anything, but instead found them still silent. When Dad idly brushed his hoof along the seat, you had to turn back to the window to hide just how miserable you were for already dampening the weekend... At least maybe Cotton had gotten better since you last saw him, but that seemed a bit ambitious. As you let out a disheartened sigh, you noted it was the first thing you had actually heard since your conversation.
The brakes squealed with all of the finesse of an Old West steam locomotive as the train came to a stop at the station, and at the sound of the passenger conductor calling out "Hayton station," the three of you sat up and made your way out along with some of the other ponies in your car. You had only ever heard of this town in relation to Flying Fish and apparently it had some good hiking trails... Looking around, you could tell that was probably all they had. Calling it a town was a bit of a stretch, you believed the term village would better suit the sparse buildings plopped down with little concern for layout. You were honestly a bit worried that you might get stabbed for a cigarette or something here and so moved closer to your parents, but when looking up at them you saw them happy as can be. Following their gaze, you found why they were so happy, and heard it.
"Bluebelle!" called out the pink pegasus, her salmon mane tied up into a ponytail. Ha, ponies wearing ponytails. Haha.
As you ran over to Flying Fish, you called out "Aunt Fishy!" and took note of just how much more she had packed than your family had. You jumped up to hug her neck and as she wrapped a foreleg around your back to return the gesture, you noted the older black and white colt behind her, avoiding your gaze.
"Oh you've gotten so big since I last saw you, Blue! You need to visit me in Cloudsdale more often, little filly," Fishy continued on as you studied Cotton. Usually he was overjoyed to see you... For reasons you staunchly disagreed with but now he seemed, sad? Flying Fish turned back towards him and called him over, "Cotton, come say hi to everypony!"
As you were set down by the pink mare, Cotton made his way up to the group and gave a hollow greeting to the assembled party. Looking concerned, Mom spoke up, "What's wrong, sweetie?"
Cotton's trap buttoned up as he looked away again and Flying dropped her voice a bit, going to that hushed but still clearly audible to anyone who actually cares tone saying, "Another pony in his class got their cutiemark and he still hasn't gotten his."
Trotting up to nuzzle the colt, Mom tried reassuring him with the "Oh, don't you worry Cotton, everypony gets their cutiemarks at different times. I remember Blue's dad was the last pony in our class at the Junior Speedsters flight camp to get his cutiemark, and look at him now!" For his part, Dad had assumed the natural position of sitting down, rubbing his stomach, and let out a belch for all to giggle at, it even helped lift Cotton's spirits a bit.
Rolling her eyes after giggling herself, Mom went on, "Just think of it this way, Cotton. While all of those ponies know their destinies, you still have the joy ahead of you of that special day when you finally get your cutiemark." You're pretty sure that was an exact quote from the show and after seeing the slight smirk on his face you're positive it was. Seeing her job as unofficial aunt done, Mom turned to Flying and gave her a hug, "It's so good to see you again too."
Mom and Flying Fish devolved into catching up with each other while Dad fluttered up and started surveying the area leaving you and Cotton relatively alone. You had to ponder whether he was actually upset about not getting his cutiemark or if he was just putting on a show to live out different episodes of the show and found yourself interrupted by him actually starting the conversation, "Hey Blue."
"Sup Cotton," you replied, making sure to keep some level of distance.
He offered a bit of a shrug, "I started flight camp last year and I guess it's going okay. I still can't find anypony to be my special somepony, though."
You were pretty sure you saw him try to close the gap between you two even the slightest bit and took a step back yourself, "Dude, you're eleven. I think you're supposed to wait until high school before you start actually wanting to date people," a quick glance to the two mares nearby confirmed they weren't listening in, "or at least middle school."
He cleared his throat a bit, coughing into his foreleg before grinning at you, "I think you'd better check your math, silly filly."
Spacing out a bit as you did the math, you found that he was, in fact, actually likely in middle school. "Oh my God you're actually in middle school."
"Eeyup," he replied with a snicker before carrying on, "So how's my little pony been doing?"
"Eugh, could you not?... Anyway, it's been going pretty good, though uhh... Maybe we can talk more about it later," you replied as you cast another glance at the adults, not wanting to bring up your problems with them right there no matter how distracted they were.
Before Cotton could follow up, Dad broke both of the conversations as he landed, "Well, we should be good with weather for the weekend. Are you lazy bums ready to go?"
Before anyone could call out the hypocrisy of Dad calling anyone a lazy bum, Flying Fish piped up, "Yeah we'd better hurry, it's a pretty long hike to the campsite."
With everyone caught up with one another, you all set off with Flying Fish, Mom, and Cotton all humming a song you assume had something to do with hiking. With those three all up in front, you and Dad brought up the rear and kept relatively quiet which gave you some time to reflect. Cotton wasn't quite as bad as he'd been, fuck, leaps and bounds above how he was when the two of you first met. He seemed to have somehow imprinted on you from then or something though, or maybe you were just paranoid... Nah had to be that he imprinted on you.
Looking around to take in the sights, you were in a pretty dense forest, so much so you almost couldn't see the ominous peak of Foal Mountain through the canopy above. While you were glad for the nice trail not having too many branching paths, seeing just how much foliage was down here made you aware that you were the only one who couldn't fly in this group. So if anyone got lost, they'd be able to just fly their way out, except for you. While you and Dad were quite the loudmouths with one another, you kinda hoped your life wouldn't be determined by how loud you could shout in a crisis situation. At least you would have the mountain as a point of reference for which way the village was, right?... R-Right? Looking up again those odds seemed to be rapidly fading as you got deeper into the forest.
The sun was setting by the time Dad decided to distract you from just how limited you were for surviving here... Or you know, to fuck with you more. "So, what do you think lives out in those trees, Blue?" he almost threatened as he put on a spooky voice.
"Hopefully not anything that can smell your desserts," you replied as you tried to push the fears out of your mind and put Dad on the defensive.
After a moment passed without a response, you turned to see Dad looking around worried now and after he caught your gaze replied, "L-Listen, let's not talk about that here." You let out a giggle at his antics and turned back to face forward, having conquered your fears. At least until a moment later when you heard a howl from somewhere off to your right.
As your heart began beating faster than a dubstep remix, you found yourself clutching Dad's leg sputtering out, "I-Is that a timber wolf?"
"No, timber wolves don't tend to be this far away from the Everfree Forest usually. Might be a regular wolf, though!" Flying replied, chipper as ever. You know, about casually mentioning that 'Nah it's not a supernatural wolf, just a regular wolf.'
"S-So, what do we do with a r-regular wolf attack?" You're not entirely sure you'll be able to hear her over how loud your heart is in your chest, but from what you notice of everyone else in your panicked glances around, you seem to be the only one having an issue with the fact that you're ponies and there's fucking wolves around. You weren't so terrified of the possibility as a human since you had those cool opposable thumb things and knives and shit, but you doubted any living creature would be intimidated by pastel marshmallow horses.
"Just fly out of reach, silly," the reply came back.
"I can't do that!" You were at your limit at how nobody else had considered the thought that they brought a defenseless child to go camping with fucking wolves. Agh! When you felt something touching the top of your head you jolted your gaze upwards, wondering if perhaps somehow the wolves had snuck up and were coming for you, only to find it was Dad nuzzling you.
"Don't worry, sweetie. Daddy's not gonna let no wolves get his favorite filly."
Almost snapping out of the panic attack you had to simply state, "Dad, I'm your only filly."
Pushing you even further out of any tension, he ruffled your mane, "Which means it's an easy list to climb to the top of."
You let out a deep breath as you contemplated just how exactly to respond before finally settling with, "Dad... I hate you."
With a loud Mwuah, he kissed your head and smiled warmly, "I hate you too."
"Okay okay, enough with all of the hating each other, we're here!" Fish called out and no longer stuck in your anxiety, you found that you well and truly were there. You got lost in your mind again as you stood straight and looked at the spot before you. A clearing right alongside the stream. The large rocks along the bank. The perfect place for a hammock. The exact spot for a bonfire to illuminate the whole clearing.
Your dad walked up and set his hand on your shoulder, "So, whadya think?"
You started getting hot as your heart swelled and almost considered taking your coat off, "It's perfect, dad." You turned to look at him. To see his face again, for the first time in six long years. Where on Earth could you even begin? But when he turned to face you, his face was gone... Melting away like a burning candle. You cried out and embraced him tight, "Dad, no! No!" You looked at where his eyes should be, trying desperately to piece together how his face should look, and yet all you could get was dripping candle wax. You turned to shout at your friends, to tell them to get help, but found them staring at you blankly as their faces too started to dissolve.
You cried out, tears rolling down your cheeks as you tried to prop the wax that was formerly your dad's face back up and into position. Tried to reform him in your memory. Despite all of your trying, however, you could do nothing to stop the constant melting. As your vision blurred from tears, you stopped trying to fix him and instead pulled him into a hug again, "Dad, please... I-I don't want to lose you..." you sputtered out, "I miss you..."
A crackling fire and hushed whispers are all that greeted you as you returned to the world of the living. Opening your eyes to see the stars, you were pretty sure you were still Bluebelle. Not Anon. Were you happy with this fate? You weren't too sure...
"Hey, she's waking up!" You couldn't identify the voice. You weren't sure what had just happened. You recalled hearing a howl, getting scared... You were vulnerable, and then... You let out a short gasp of pain as you thought back. You knew what had happened, and yet you didn't... Probably a hallucination, right? Or maybe a nightmare. Seeing the shadow obscured face of a pony above you, you closed your eyes. You could hear them speaking, but you didn't want to listen to what was being said. You just wanted to block the world out.
A cocoon of warmth you hadn't previously noticed was pulled off of you and you were scooped up into someone's hooves. You had to chuckle at yourself, as you considered paying attention to them only because it was rude to ignore them. Letting the rest of the world back in, you heard Mom let out an awkward chuckle in response to your own and as you opened your eyes you found everyone but Mom looking worried at you, and a short glance to the side confirmed that she was the one holding you.
After a moment of being held next to her, she held you out in front of her, "Blue, are you okay?" You nodded your head as you hung limply in the air.
Mom spun around so that she was facing everyone else and set you down in between her forehooves and then wrapped the both of you in her wings, "Are you sure you're okay? If there's anything, anything, we can do, let us know now sweetie."
As you tried to reply, you found that your throat was dry and so you rasped out the word "Water." With your vision dominated by Mom, you weren't sure who got you the water but a moment later there was a cup in your peripheral vision and without thinking you took hold of it and poured the water onto your mouth with most of it going down and some running off to the sides. You didn't quite have the energy to wipe that some away.
"What happened?" you asked, now that you had some level of hydration.
"We came up to the campsite and after a moment, you called it perfect and then... Well, you collapsed." You felt a gnawing on your head as you thought back to your hallucination. Wincing as you thought of the vague memories you had of it.
"Did I say anything else?"
Mom shook her head negatively, "No, you just collapsed... We were worried sick so we tried everything we could... That was a couple hours ago."
You weren't quite sure what to say... What to do... Finally you had to giggle as it dawned on you, "So does that mean no bed time tonight?" That seemed to relieve the tension a bit based on Mom's reaction, and so she released you from both her wings and her hooves, allowing you to turn around and see everyone else. You also got to see that they had already set up camp, two tents, a bonfire, even some flat topped stones turned into seats around the fire.
Still smiling, you looked up and saw Mom in a mix of happiness and worry as she replied, "Maybe not no bed time, but definitely a later one." You huffed and pouted, getting a nice laugh out of everyone else and so it seemed the trip was back on.
Dad, of course, busted out the marshmallows to start roasting, Flying went off into the woods to gather a bit more firewood, Mom refused to leave your side until she was pretty sure Dad was about to catch on fire, and so you and Cotton ended up together.
"What's going on with you?"
"I dunno, I guess a panic attack?"
"A panic attack, over some wolves?" Cotton asked incredulously.
"Hey, fuck you, I'm six. Siiiiix. I think I'm allowed to be worried about my own wellbeing as a six year old."
"It wasn't just that and you know it. You were getting over the wolves when you fell. What happened?"
"I don't know, we came up to the campsite and then... I dunno, my head started to hurt and I passed out..."
"And nothing else?"
"Well... I had a strange dream... Maybe more than a dream. I don't know, but it was a memory of my dad..."
"And... He didn't have a face?" Cotton asked, what little color he had in his white face fading.
"Wait wait wait, do you have these vision things too!?" you shouted, catching some looks from Dad and Mom who was batting out a flame. You chuckled nervously and waved over at them, "We're uhh, playing pretend! Yeah!"... There's no way they bought that. But seeing smoke rising from behind Dad, they seem to have more urgent issues on their hands. Hooves. Limbs. Whatever.
"I mean, I've had them... I don't think I ever passed out from one before, though. Usually just dreams."
"Okay, dreams... Explain dreams to me, are we talking just things you see in your sleep in general, or only ones that are too incoherent to have emotional value?" You hated to say it, but even you could tell you were getting pretty frantic with this. You were almost certain Cotton would cut the conversation off right there and call you crazy because in your mind's eye you could tell you definitely looked it.
However, very much for his credit, he remained put and the conversation continued, albeit he seemed a bit confused. "I guess it would be, uhh, the second one?"
Raising a suspicious eyebrow at him you leaned in, "So seeing your parents with no faces lacks emotional value for you?"
"I-I guess... I mean... Listen, can we stop talking about this?" Fuck, you were pushing him too hard. God what did Bioware have for dealing with this in KOTOR... Hmmm no restart button and no save scumming.
Okay Carth, let's see how this works, "Did you have a good relationship with them?"
That set him off and you were promptly pushed to the ground by the colt nearly twice your age with him shouting, "I said I didn't want to talk about it!"
As your parents started to hurry over about ready to organize a lynch mob for the other pegasus, you quickly sat up and called back, "No no no, it's fine! We're playing detective!"
Okay you got them to stop but you need to sell the pitch, "I found out he's guilty and now he's mad!"
You weren't sure Cotton was totally on board with what you were doing, but he probably wanted to avoid trouble as much as you wanted him to not be in trouble, "Y-Yeah! She thinks I stole Rarity's cake but I didn't!" Ugh, seriously? Rarity? This guy really needed to learn who best pony was.
They weren't entirely convinced but you leaning to the side and saying "The marshmallows are burning!" got at least Dad to move away and Mom didn't seem willing to handle both of you by herself and so followed after him.
"You mind explaining what all of that was for, dick?"
"Oh my God you're actually talking like an adult. Did I break something in that head of yours?" You couldn't help it. You'd cracked the case, or at least found the next thread of it. Of course, Cotton still looked like he was going to do more than push you down if you kept up so you followed up, "I think I was more attached to my family, and so I'm suffering more severe effects of not having them." You could see Cotton rearing up a punch so you quickly covered your nose, "Wait wait wait let me continue!" He decided to give you at least a bit more time.
"So when I saw the campsite it reminded me of something I did with my dad, and that's when I passed out. That seems to be what triggers these nightmares or whatever they are. So if you weren't as attached to your parents as I was to mine, you're not going to be as distressed about forgetting them... Eh? Eeeeeeeeh? Come on, it's a sound theory!" You weren't sure if you were trying to convince him or yourself, but either way it worked for the time being... You would not be getting punched at this exact instant by Cotton.
"Yeah, well... It still doesn't explain why we can't remember their faces..." he responded as he crossed his hooves as though you had an answer for that as well.
"Doesn't matter! I'm six years old still, I have plenty of time to crack that part of the mystery!"
With a scoff, he turned back to the fire, "Well I'm going to go get some marshmallows."
"Nope, we're making S'mores!" called out Dad giddily and you had to giggle before following suit, "I think a congratulatory S'more is deserved for a job well done."
"Oh, did you find out who the actual cake thief was?" Mom asked as you approached the fire.
It took you a moment before you remembered just what the fuck she was talking about, "Uhh, yeah, the cake ate itself!" ...That works, right? It didn't, you could see it, but she was deciding to leave well enough alone for now which meant you had more time to come up with a lie.
Shortly after, Flying Fish arrived with what would hopefully be enough firewood for the rest of the night. As everyone munched down the S'mores you could feel the energy of the night livening, but every so often you'd catch Mom watching you out of the corner of your eye. She certainly had her own suspicions about what was wrong and while you were sure she was nowhere near the truth, you didn't want to give her any additional ammo. Part of doing so included eagerly participating in the campfire songs despite not knowing any of the ones they were singing, and getting super surprised by just what exactly it was that Dad saw in the sky while stargazing. You also had to ignore the AK-74 you saw in the stars even if it definitely was an AK-74 and there was literally no other possible alternative.
Finally, the time came for bed. You could have stayed up longer, especially after getting jacked up on all of the sugar in those S'mores but even back on Earth you probably would be going to sleep at this point. Best part of camping was the morning by far, getting to see the natural sunrise. Not wanting to burden you at all, Dad brought your sleeping mat and blanket into the tent from its previous position outside. Following him inside the tent you found your arrangements between Mom and Dad and briefly thought back to the days as a foal before they got you a crib. Once you'd gotten yourself settled and looked between the two, Mom spoke up.
"Are you going to be okay tonight, Blue?"
"Yeah, I think I'll be okay... And if not I've got you two right here!"
She nosed you and quirked her head a bit, "Are you sure? Sometimes talking through things can help..."
You shook your head negatively, "No... I think I was just really scared about the wolves..."
That was when Dad grabbed you from behind and pulled you into a hug, "Like I said before, Daddy'll never let anypony hurt his favorite filly."
You smiled and reached up to nuzzle his chin, "Your only filly," you said while sticking your tongue out. In response to this he hugged you tighter and you looked over at Mom, "Uhhh, Mom I think Dad might be foalnapping me so I guess it was nice knowing you." You expected Dad to let you go so you could actually get to sleep but that release never came. You blinked after a few moments and looked back up to find that Dad had miraculously fallen asleep already.
Looking back at Mom she grinned and gave you a peck on the snout, "G'night Bluebelle."
You struggled a bit to see if you could get free and found that it only made Dad tighten his grip more. With a sigh of defeat, you resign yourself to go to sleep like this. On the whole, it isn't that bad going to sleep while being snuggled. It was something you'd actually come to miss way back when your parents got you your crib, and being stuck here reminded you of the main reason why. Turning your head to the side, your ear was right against Dad's heart and god it made your wings flutter to be back in this position. To hear the calming, regular beat of his heart. You were pretty sure you would have good dreams tonight.
It was dark and you were alone, and yet you knew you were safe. So long as you heard the steady beating of that heart you knew you were invincible. You opened your eyes and saw the blue of your mane blocking your vision, briefly reminding you of your roommate. Looking to either side, you found you were in a bed, in their bed. As you looked down and saw your blue hoof, you heard only the heart beat, thundering all around you.
Raising your head, you found the familiar orange pegasus barging in through the door. She quickly hopped up onto the bed with you and rubbed the tip of her snout against yours, trying to shush your crying. But you weren't crying this time, instead you're just happy to see her as she continues to try calming you down. You glance down to see your darker blue coat and fall backwards. As she looks at you worried, you smile again and break the sound of the heart beat.
"It's okay," you assure her as your vision starts to fade, "It was just a bad dream is all." Your eyes close again and you are enveloped entirely by the heart beat again. Daddy will never let anyone hurt his favorite filly.
Enveloped in the warm embrace, you suddenly start to feel a chill at the base of your spine, and slowly it makes its way up to the back of your neck and dissipates through your skull. The heart beat slows its pace, becomes less regular. The warmth that protected you failing, you're one again vulnerable to the cold, and the distant howl turns your spine into an icicle. Cold replaces warmth, fear replaces comfort.
You open your eyes suddenly and find yourself in the tent, alone. The orange mare is no longer in front of you and behind you the blue stallion is also absent. You sit up and look towards the flap of the tent, they must be stretching out after a long night's sleep, and to be honest you'd like to as well. As you exit through the illuminated gap between the flaps, you find that it's still night out, and there's no one in sight. You call out, wondering on some level if they felt 'the call of the wild,' and didn't want to disturb you. The only response you get is the hooting of an owl overhead.
Poking your head into Fish's and Cotton's tent finds them gone as well, and desperately you call out, "Is anyone here?"
The answer you get is an unwelcome one, a wolf's howl. Closer than the one in your dream. Much closer. You do your best to quietly slip into the closer of the two tents and shortly after hear the heavy breathing of the canine outside. While you're sure the predator can't hear you over the sound of its own breathing, you still do your best to steady your breathing, to keep yourself from panicking. The slow deliberate padding of its paws against the dirt has you inching to the opposite end of your tarp fortress. It turns a corner and, with the moon behind it, casts its shadow against the tent and as much as you may have liked shadow puppets of dogs before, you certainly didn't anymore. As the shadow freezes, you find that you're sobbing, quietly but still sobbing. You didn't understand, Dad had said he'd never let anyone hurt you and yet, they abandoned you. They had all abandoned you.
The cold turned to freezing, the fear turned to terror. The shadow lowered and a snarl sounded. You were pretty sure you could see the shadows of the slobber dripping from its open mouth which only helped you fill in the blanks of its jaws. Backed into a corner, you had nowhere to run, all you could do was curl up, pray that someone, anyone, would come save you... That, or at the very least hope for a quick death.
With your eyes closed tight, you didn't see it, but you heard the wolf pounce. Heard the tearing of the tarp, and as time slowed you knew this would be it. The end of Anon, the end of Bluebelle. And yet, despite waiting for what felt like an eternity, death never came. The freezing became cold and the cold became warm, the terror became fear and the fear became comfort.
You opened your eyes and found yourself back in the tent. The heart beat had returned and behind you, still holding you to himself, lay Dad. There was no more thunderous heart beating echoing out, and the dull orange glow peering in through the flaps of the tent had you guessing it was morning. It took you a minute, but eventually you were able to worm out of Dad's grip and finally thought to look over at Mom, to make sure she was still there and there she was sound asleep. For once, you were relieved to be up before your parents, and decided to make the best of it by heading outside to watch the sunrise. Outside of the tent, you found Flying Fish dunking herself under the water every so often and fluttering her wings when she breached.
"Oh, uhh, hey Aunt Fishie," you offered in greeting as you made your way to her. "You're up early."
She paused in her routine and looked back over at you with some surprise, "Oh, Blue! I guess I could say the same for you."
You had to agree with her as you made your way over to the stream and sat down, "Yeah, I guess I didn't sleep so well..." you trailed off.
Flying bobbed her way over to you and rested her head in her hooves as she rested them on the bank, "Did it have something to do with what happened last night?"
With a well practiced shake of the head, you mumbled out, "I don't know... I was really looking forward to camping but I don't know if I like it." You had to sigh for yourself there. You honestly loved camping, but it seemed like old memories were rearing their ugly, deformed faces in the way of new ones.
"Well, do you want to go home?" she asked with concern on her face. "If so it isn't a problem, Cotton and I come out here all the time so it's no feathers off our wings about cancelling a trip early."
You turned your head back to the tent, where Mom and Dad were still sleeping, with a pang of guilt. They hadn't necessarily talked about loving camping, but you could tell they had at least some level of experience with it considering how organized they were with packing, Mom's knowledge of hiking songs, and how well the entire camp was set up. Flying Fish might be good at camping, but it wasn't her cutiemark so she had to have had some help with this. You returned your attention to Fishy and shook your head negatively again, "No, I'll be fine."
"Well, is there anything I can do to help you have a better time?" she asked, almost desperate to cheer you up.
Turning back again, but this time up towards the sun, you squinted your eyes a bit as a few rogue rays of light made their way through the branches and trunks of the trees. "Do you think we could go up there?" you asked, pointing your hoof up towards the trees as you looked back at Fish. "I wanna see the sunrise."
With a smile, she turned around in the water and stretched her wings out, "Sure thing, hop on."
Doing as you were told, you hopped onto Flying Fish's back and held on to her neck, and true to her namesake she lifted out of the water and brought the both of you up to the treetops. After testing several branches, she eventually found one that was high enough but sturdy enough to support the weight of both of you, and while you had to stay horseback up here you were still able to get that view you'd always wanted. As the beams of light shone onto your face, warming you up, you thought back to your dream... to the good part at least. Alas, there was no heart beating in the background still, so you were pretty sure you were awake... Pretty sure.
The two of you stayed up there for a while with little chatter, just taking in the fresh air and the breathtaking sight. All across the horizon before you and to the right were trees, trees, and trees, and to your left stood the everpresent Foal Mountain. While Celestia did bring up the Sun for special occasions, you had to assume she didn't do it every day of the year with how slow it moved to its position in the sky... Then again, it's the sun, it's probably really fucking heavy and that's a lot more than you can move at all. Eventually, however, Cotton had woken up and so the two of you had to head back down. You made a strong case for just her going down to the campsite and you staying up in the trees, mainly consisting of such arguments as "If I fall you can catch me," and "The branches would break my fall long before I hit the ground," but Flying Fish wasn't going to let you stay there by yourself, especially not after the previous night.
Once back on the ground, you and Cotton hopped into the stream for a nature bath while Flying Fish played the lifeguard role until Mom and Dad woke up about an hour after Cotton. Then it was 'Everypony out of the water,' while Flying Fish showed off her fishing skills and you proved that fishing is all about setting up your line and then promptly ignoring it until something bites. It's a lot easier with alcohol but alas, ponies aren't civilized enough to give 6 year olds alcohol... okay that's actually probably for the best. Mom opted in to fish, but only so long as she could read her book which Flying Fish didn't mind since that meant there'd be less noise to spook the fish, and Dad decided he was too cool to fish and so worked on his tan which also pleased Fish except for when you'd leave your pole unattended in order to put random objects you found on him, mostly leaves and rocks but one time you even put a fish on him. Not even Flying could be upset about that as everyone had a hearty laugh.
Morning turned to noon and noon to evening and, while the camping trip had had a rocky start, you felt like you were finally going to be able to relax this weekend. After Flying Fish had determined she had fished the stream dry for the day, she busted out a couple of hoops and bean bags and you all played a game that felt like a child friendly version of horeseshoes, for actual horses. Did ponies play horseshoes? Humans didn't throw people shoes at anything for a game, but- ah forget it. It was easier to throw the bean bags anyway, especially since you didn't have those mudhorse muscles, but you still had wings!... Even if you couldn't fly yet. Baby steps, Blue. Baby steps. Or foal steps. Whatever. The teams started with Cotton and Flying Fish vs Mom and you while Dad played referee, and after that match with you and Mom winning, Mom and Dad swapped roles and ended up falling short by a couple of throws. You blamed Dad for that, he didn't have the fire in his heart and soul to do what it took to win.
With the sun starting to set, it came time to collect firewood, and since there was still some sunlight out, the adults decided that it would be nice for you and Cotton to go fetch some while they used what was left over to cook the fish mostly caught by Flying Fish.
"But wait, why are we gathering the firewood?" you asked, becoming aware of just how fast the sun was setting compared to how slow it rose this morning.
"Because I caught the fish," spoke up Fishy.
"I know how to prepare the fish," said Mom with a small, sharp knife that casually reminded you of your fillet knife on Earth but was slightly different.
"I'm just good at knowing when food is done cooking," Dad admitted as he sat by the fire.
"Well I can tell when food is done cooking!"
With a roll of her eyes, Mom started cutting open the fish in her hooves, "Blue, I don't think you've ever had fish before. It's not exactly like hayburgers or anything like that."
You stumbled a bit as you were bumped by Cotton, "Relax, Blue. It'll be easy, trust me. We just gotta grab some sticks is all."
Looking up at him, you weren't sure if it was the unreliable lighting of the campfire or if he actually had, but it looked like Cotton was grinning. You turned back to the adults who were all waiting for either your next protest or your agreement to go, and it wasn't like you could tell them you'd prepared fish before, so with a groan you had to relent, "Fine, we'll go get the firewood."
"Great! Just grab what you can find and I'm sure it'll be enough," Fishy replied before going back to helping Mom prepare the fish for cooking.
Cotton and you set off and once you were out of the light of the campfire and through the bushes, he asked smugly, "So, is my little pony afraid of the dark?"
With a scoff, you retorted, "Please, I was out of diapers by the time I was three."
Despite the low light, you could tell Cotton was furrowing his brow, and the annoyance in his voice all but confirmed it, "Listen, I'm not like that anymore. Besides, I overheard our moms today while you were trying to bury your Dad in sand." You were actually trying to give him a mermaid body but the sand wouldn't stay steady. "Your mom was saying your dad was covered in sweat when he woke up, and my mom said you looked scared when you woke up. Probably just a little filly having another nightmare," he teased.
Now it was your turn to get worked up, your tried and true method of venting was grinding your teeth which unfortunately kept you from coming up with a witty remark.
Emboldened by your silence, he continued on, "Don't worry, though. If you get scared, just stick with me and I'll keep you safe. It's what special someponies do for one another." The way he ended that had you wishing he wasn't almost twice your size, but those were the facts of the matter.
Regardless, you weren't going to take that shit. The previous night you were beginning to think he might have been finally coming to understand that you were both dudes and at best you just wanted to be acquaintances with him, but after a day of successfully playing your roles in the world, he seemed to revert back to the creep who imprinted on you while you were still coming to grips with being a pony. "Listen, fuckface," you started, "I am not now nor will I ever be your 'special somepony.' I don't know how you haven't come to grasp that over the past six years we've known each other, but here it is out in the open. We will never be a 'thing,' if our mothers weren't such good friends I would literally never talk to you. Do you get it? We. Are. Not. Friends." Staring at him as he looked on in shock only further soured your mood and so you turned around and set off, calling back to him, "We're splitting up. That way we'll find more wood and maybe you'll come to accept that we have nothing in common, Nothing."
It had to be at least ten minutes before you had finally calmed your breathing back down and were no longer on a cruise control course away from him. It was only then that you paused and looked back, to see nothing but the brush of the forest. Biting your lip, you fluttered your wings to lift yourself off the ground a bit, but even from your slightly heightened vantage point you couldn't see any sort of landmarks to navigate back with. Unceremoniously plopping back down onto the ground, you tried looking up and while you were able to spot some moonlight through the canopy, it wasn't enough to find where the moon actually was... Nor were you sure you could actually navigate by the moon's position the same way you could the sun's. Going for the second option you tried to remember which way Foal Mountain was, but still the canopy of the trees got in the way. You could try to find the stream and then follow that until you got to the campsite... But was that in front of you or behind you? The possibility of screaming for help was briefly considered until you remembered your nightmare. There may have been no howl this time, but you still felt the chill rising up your spine.
"Okay Anon... This is no time to be afraid," you said aloud to no one but yourself, "Fear is the mind killer." You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, "... So let's just call this intimidation." You opened your eyes and looked around again, "That's different than fear, right? I'm not afraid of the forest, I'm just intimidated by it... Yeah, that makes sense." Thinking back to a nonexistent lesson in the nonexistent school of 'The Streets,' you looked around for a stick and upon finding one, tossed it up in the air. "Whichever way it points, I'm going," you promise yourself. When it ends up landing, however, you forget which side was supposed to be the head of the arrow and which the tail. "Errr.... This way!" you said, deciding to go to your right. If it's right, it can't be wrong. Checking the canopy above every so often, you were pretty sure you remained sort of straight from where your stick pointed. At the very least you hadn't gotten completely turned around yet and that was a plus, that meant zero time wasted backtracking.
The sound of a monstrous roar quickly broke your concentration, causing you to let out a shriek, before realizing it was your stomach. "Right, shit. We were supposed to eat after we got back... Okay, okay, uhhh, a-ha!" They were cooking fish! Horses have better smell than humans, right? Who knows, one way to find out! You lifted your snout towards the sky and closed your eyes, trying to cut off as many senses as you could while sniffing the air, hoping to be some sort of Daredevil rip off. And somehow... It works! Holy mother of Jesus you can actually smell the fish! You turn your head every which way trying to determine where the smell is coming from and mentally kick yourself when you find it's strongest from behind you. Lead by your nose, you dash off in the direction, keeping your snout high but still low enough to see oncoming trees. You couldn't believe it, you were actually going to get out of these damned woods, even without the use of your wings! Take that literally everyone else!
God, you couldn't wait to see that campfire again. To actually taste a fresh cooked fish for the first time in... Well, years! Galloping along, your mind was filled with the sweet taste, you wondered if they used any spices here in Equestria with their fish, probably salt at the latest. As your mouth started to drool, your ears finally forced themselves into your brain. There was some running water, and it was close. How close? Well, your hooves weren't touching the ground anymore...
Gut instinct taking over what little logic you were using before, you flailed your limbs and cried out, "Shit!" You were only able to manage the short yelp before all of your senses were dulled with a splash. Where you had set camp, you could occasionally feel your hooves kicking the bottom of the stream as you did your best doggy paddle to stay afloat. Here, however, you were completely submerged and with nothing solid to actually touch. Hesitating for a moment, you steeled your nerves enough to open your eyes while still underwater, something that had taken you a bit of an embarrassing amount of time to feel confident to do as a human and yet you were already doing it at 6 as a pony... Now was probably a bad time to be looking for how much faster things were going as a pony.
Speaking of faster, as you looked around you were certain this was moving a lot faster than the simple stream you had made camp at. That could either be a good thing in that you wouldn't have to stay in the river as long to reach the camp, or a bad thing in that you were moving that much faster away from the camp. You were hoping it was the former and not the latter... Continuing to use what little sight you had, you tried to find something to grab onto. The root of a tree? A generally welcoming looking rock? No such luck, all you could see were blurry shadows. Okay, okay, what exactly were you supposed to do when falling in a river, dad had gone over that at some point, right? Thinking back you were pretty sure you were supposed to be wearing a life jacket when you fell in, fucking thanks Equestria. Or whoever didn't account for a filly running off on her own and falling into a river. Or your stomach. But not you! You were faultless!
Fuck, your lungs were screaming at you now. Okay, so, if you didn't have a flotation device... Go spread eagle! You could float for days with hardly any effort as a human in the pool, perhaps the same principle applied? Channelling your inner 2009, you made yourself as stiff and straight as a board as you could, and shortly after found yourself bobbing upwards. You gasped for air and quickly bobbed back under the water before replanking and bobbing up again. Taking the breathing thing slow this time, you looked glanced around to try to get a bearing on your surroundings. To each side was a pretty steep wall so your hopes of being able to just drift to shore and walk it off had been crushed. You risked lifting your head slightly to see what was ahead and could only see the river you were in and the walls. Luckily this wasn't going too fast... For now. As you tried to look behind you, you started to flail a bit and suddenly remembered, D'oh, you've got wings stupid! Stretching them both out, you found you had a bit more buoyancy and so felt safer with looking around more.
Unfortunately there wasn't much else to see from here and stargazing was getting kind of boring. "Hey wait a second. I'm a fucking kid," you said aloud before calling out, "Heeeelp! Anypony? I'm in the river!" You paused and waited for your savior to suddenly show up atop one of the walls as though they were standing right there waiting for your call to save you, but none showed. Okay well, there was no reason to kill your throat all at once, just give it a bit and call out again. It seemed like a decent plan, eventually you would either arrive at camp or somewhere out of the woods... Okay maybe arriving out of the woods alone as a filly might not be the best idea, especially since your best reference point for getting back to where you were was "The woods around Hayton," and fuck going back to that place. You also started wondering about another possibility, if the river could slow down, couldn't it also speed up?
Fuck fuck shit fear is the mind-killer fear is the mind-killer fear is the min- okay your mind is officially the killdest. Your concentration broken, you start flailing a bit, and while you're fortunate in that the river seems to be keeping you above water for the time being, you frantically start screaming, "Help! Help! Please, somebody, anybody, help! Help! Heeeeeeeelp!" Your panic betrays you and you find yourself submerged once again, and somehow your flailing gets your head back above the water just long enough to fill your lungs before you go down again. Still you continue to flail, trying desperately to make your way back up to the top, and as you do you find your breath is lasting nowhere near as long as it did earlier. This doesn't help your state of affairs as you double down on trying to make your way back up, if you could just get another gasp of air you might be okay, you might be fine, and yet you're finding yourself fall short of the surface with each and every kick you give. Unable to breach the water, you close your eyes tight, despite being completely surrounded by water you can still feel the tears as you lament your own demise. Despite having a second chance at life, you'd managed to throw it away faster than you did the first. Did ponies have a Heaven or Hell? You weren't sure, but as you began to think on your life, you weren't too sure which you would end up in. Does God or Celestia or whoever look at your life as a whole, or do they instead look at the person you were at the moment of your demise? You never considered yourself a Christian before, but you still followed the rules generally, and you hadn't exactly been 'loving loving thy neighbor as thyself' the past couple of hours...
You distantly heard a crash in the water and thought perhaps maybe you would be crushed against some rocks, saved the shitty death of drowning. Would you be worthy of at least that mercy? You weren't sure, and before you could truly find out for yourself, you felt yourself being lifted. As you breached the water, you felt as though this was like what being born was. You struggled to actually draw air into your lungs as you spat up some water that had somehow made its way into your throat. As you looked up at the night sky, you had to wonder if you were in fact seeing the world through your own eyes, or those of another. Maybe you had died and were instantly born again. You hoped it wasn't in the Middle East.
After a moment, the sky started to get more distant until finally you felt yourself on solid ground, cushioned by a thick layer of grass. It was fairly comfortable and almost made you forget that you were pretty close to drowning a minute ago... Wait, shit, even more important, that you weren't drowning right now! You quickly sat up and were rewarded with coughing up some more water which you spat off to the side, and looking up to thank your rescuer, you found... "Cotton!?"
Cotton didn't seem to have time for your shit right now, however, as he was staring at his flank for some reason that you couldn't quite make out from this angle.
"Cotton, what are you doing here... What are you looking at?" you asked, perplexed. He wasn't exactly the last pony you expected to see right now, but he was pretty low on the list.
As though finally noticing you were there, he turned his attention to you with a grin on his face and when he turned his body to the side, you saw it. He had a cutiemark! Right there on his white flank was cross in a seashell with wings coming out the side of it!... You didn't quite understand what the fuck it meant.
"Errr, Cotton. It's great you got your cutiemark and all, but uhhh, what is it?"
"I got it for saving you!" he blurted out, not exactly answering your question before squeeing and hopping around.
You tilted your head a bit as you tried to study it with him constantly moving, the more you looked at it the more familiar it looked. It sort of looked like a medal they'd give someone in the Air Force. You adopted a face of intense thought as you continued thinking before finally a lightbulb went off in your head, "The Guardian!"
Now it was Cotton's turn to look confused, "Huh?"
"Cotton, you're a rescue diver!" you blurted out, and at his continued confusion you rolled your eyes, "Coast Guard people, the ones who hop out of helicopters to save people from sinking ships and shit."
"Oooooooh," was his only response as you could tell he still wasn't using his brain and desperately wanted to go back to jumping around with glee.
Rolling your eyes, you decided "Okay, finish your celebration." After another five circles he finally stopped, sat in front of you, and picked you up in a hug, "Whoa now horesie! Still a filly here, okay?!"
His eyes went wide with horror as he quickly sat you down and scooted back, then averted his gaze, "S-Sorry, Blue..."
With a groan and a pout, you stared off to the side, "No, it's fine. You've earned yourself a hug." He squeed again and instantly shot over to hug you again, and you actually found yourself hugging him back, "So, why'd you come back for me? I gotta admit, I was kind of a dick to you."
Not letting you go, he bit his lip before responding, "Well, you only did that because I was teasing you, and, well... You were right last night. I didn't quite have the best history with my family growing up, and I was kind of jealous that you actually cared so much for yours that I, well... Kind of held a grudge."
"You hit on people you don't like?"
"Well, I mean, if the offer is op-"
"No."
He sighed and shrugged, finally releasing you from the hug, "I dunno, I'm not sure if I have it in me to actually fit in enough with the other ponies and actually find true love here... Lord knows I wasn't going to do it back on Earth." Turning away from you, his form sagged as he let out a second sigh of despair.
Moving closer to him, you rested a hoof on his shoulder, or well tried to he was still larger than you, "Hey man, listen. Think what all of them mares are gonna say when they see that you're a fucking rescue diver. Kevin fucking Costner was a rescue diver dude!"
"Who?"
"Kevin Costner?" you ask, and when failing to see any recognition on his face, "Dances with Wolves dude? God, you really missed out on Earth. Either way, rescue divers were balls to the wall insane, please tell me you remember that show Deadliest Catch?"
Not quite seeing where you were going with this, Cotton nodded his head a bit cautiously.
"When those ships on Deadliest Catch sank or the crew got knocked off, rescue divers would jump into the water and save those dudes, in that fucking weather." Seeing the awe come in to his expression, you knew he finally came to understand just what you were getting at. "The ladies love a man who's willing to put his life on the line, just you watch you're gonna be able to get a line of 'em all wanting to spend time with you." You felt like maybe you were laying it on a bit thick, but fuck it that's what you gotta do when a bro saves your life. You always gotta respect the bro code. Even when you're a girl horse.
A hooting sound broke the moment between you two however, as glancing upwards you realized just how late it was. When you looked to him, you saw him make the same conclusion as you. "We'd better get some woo-" he started before you could cut him off.
"Forget the wood, I'm sure they'll understand, let's just get back to the camp!"
Cotton fluttered up above the tree line, looking around before finally pouting upstream and calling down to you, "I see 'em!"
"Cool, let's go!" you called back and off the two of you went, you galloping along the ground and not getting distracted by fish, him flying with the resolve of a man who'd found his destiny.
"Oh my Celestia, what happened!" cried out Mom as the two of you came running up the bank.
Despite running the whole way there, you were still dripping wet and even with the fur it was really starting to get cold. You slowed your pace down trying to save the last bit of your energy so you could get close to the fire, your body gave out just within the ring of light it cast against the ground and Mom dragged you the rest of the way. She gave you a quick once over before grabbing a stick, lighting the tip of it, and flying up. You were a combination of too cold and too tired to see what exactly she was doing but within a couple of minutes all three of the adults were huddled around you and Cotton.
"Bluebelle, tell me, what happened!" Mom seemed a bit more demanding now that the whole party was here.
You sat up and pulled the blanket she'd given closer, "Well, we split up to get more firewood and, I uhhh, fell in the river."
"Wait, you split up?!" asked Fishie, and you could see a fire behind those eyes.
"Well, y-yeah?" you said, mentally preparing for an ass whooping. Looking over at Cotton, you could see him trying to put some distance between Flying and himself.
She instantly snapped her attention towards your gaze, "Cotton, was this your idea?"
"N-No!" he stammered out.
You quickly jumped in, "Yeah, no, it was my idea! Cotton saved me after I fell in though!"
Mom was the next to put her nose in your face, "Why did you want to split up?"
You stuttered as you tried to come up with an excuse beyond Cotton being jealous of your past life being better than his past life. With Mom inching closer and closer, eventually Cotton spoke up, "Because I told her she was adopted!" All eyes shot to Cotton, yours included, as he continued, "I saw her spending time with Mom and after seeing all of the attention she got the past two days, I felt a bit jealous. So I told her..."
As the gazes came back to you, you took a moment to appreciate the fact that you both seemed to be taking turns falling on each other's sword before speaking up, "And then I didn't want to believe it anymore so I ran off and got lost, and then well, I fell in the river and Cotton saved me."
The adults all shared a look before turning back to you two and Dad spoke up, "The two of you stay here while we go sort this out." With that they moved towards the tents, leaving the two of you to warm up by the fire.
"So where exactly did you get the adoption thing from?"
"Well, it's true, isn't it?"
You had to give him that, "You're lucky they didn't tell me already, otherwise there's no way this would work."
His response was a shrug, "Gotta do what you can."
You paused a moment and thought back a bit, "Hey, uhhh, Cotton... Would you mind if we expanded on this a bit?"
"Huh?" he responded with a raised eyebrow.
"Say that you've been telling me this for a while. Could excuse some previous hostilities and might help me with some other problems."
"Errr, sure?"
"Great, thanks. I'll owe you one."
"A letter to Celestia," he immediately shot back with a grin on his face.
"A what?"
"You owe Celestia a letter on what you learned about friendship this weekend."
"Oh my God no can you just let me go drown in the river again."
"Nope, it's either a letter to Celestia or I'm not admitting to having said this before."
Gritting your teeth, you looked back over at the parents who were now on their way back to you two. It would be really nice to not have Mom trying to interrogate you on the train ride home, but at the same time... Eugh, "God, fine!"
He smiled proudly at himself and you wondered if you could beat the adults to the river for a moment before finally Fishing spoke up, "Well, we've talked about it... Bluebelle, you're going to the doctor's Monday, and Cotton you're grounded for a week."
"Aww man!" he whined, kicking at the ground with a hoof before lying down.
"Wait a second, Cotton," Fishy started as she walked up to her adopted son, "Is that...?"
He looked up at her confused for a moment before following her gaze to his flank, "Oh, yeah, I got my cutiemark saving Blue from the river!"
Fishy lifted up Cotton in her hooves and hugged him close, "Oh my goodness I'm so proud of you!... You're still grounded, though."
Cotton harumphed and you all had a laugh at his expense. With everything cleared up, moods started to rise again and you all dug into the fish. You were pretty surprised by how well prepared it was considering everyone had hooves, almost as surprised by the fact you could eat fish! Unfortunately you weren't allowed to get up from around the fire, your parents not wanting you to risk getting sicker than you likely already were. When you assured them you felt fine, which now that the adrenaline had died down you really didn't, they said to consider it a punishment for running off rather than coming back. Your night came to a close during spooky story telling when you fell asleep by the fire in the middle of some story about a shadow pony or some such.
With barely any effort whatsoever, you gave your wings a couple of flaps before gliding along with the wind. With a glance to your five and seven o'clocks you spotted the rest of the pegasi in your formation, all wearing the blue and yellow uniforms of the Wonderbolts. And you were the pointmare, head of the pack. With the rest of your team in a narrow wedge, you curved off to the side, spiralling downwards towards the ground, and like a well oiled machine the rest of your formation followed you while maintaining the formation. While the result may not have been something extraordinary to look at, you and each of your wingmates knew just how much time and effort went into keeping the distances correct while executing the maneuver, and the cheers from below confirmed that at least some ponies knew that as well.
Sparing a quick glance, you were easily able to spot Mom and Dad among the gathered crowd down below, they always managed to get to the same exact spot at every one of your shows. Dad was waving a flag with your face on it and Mom held up a poster reading "Good luck Bluebelle," and you were glad for the distance between you and the observers as you felt your cheeks redden. As you started to look ahead again, you suddenly stopped, your formation passing you by. When you looked back down at the sign, you noticed it was written in English. Not Equestrian. Looking back at your formation, they continued without you, not even filling in the gap, as you wondered aloud "What the fuck?"
Not understanding what was going on, you began scanning the clouds for something. There had to be something wrong, there was no way Mom would know that alphabet, much less know that you knew it. You hadn't told anyone about being a human and yet, there was the sign proving that someone knew. Wait, what was that? Something moved in the cloud in front of you and you dashed over to it, intent on finding out just who or what was watching you.
After using your wings to soften your landing onto the cloud, you pulled your goggles down past your muzzle, "Hey, who's there!" With no response, you kept walking forward until you rounded the raised part of the cloud saw a bright white light ahead of you. While you were quick in squinting your eyes and blocking it with a hoof, you weren't quick enough and found yourself temporarily blinded, but when your vision returned you found yourself standing on a flat cloud that expanded infinitely in every direction with a clear blue sky above you.
"H-Hello?" you called out to the void, your own echo being the only response you received. "Mom...? Dad? Anypony?" Scanning the infinite horizon, you could see nothing else here besides you and the cloud you were on. You lifted yourself off the ground with a couple wing flaps and then sped into the cloud surface, hoping to break through it but it was just too dense. Confusion lead to frustration as you tried digging through the cloud but every bit you scooped up instantly fell back to its previous position. Frustration lead to worry.
As you began desperately glancing around, hoping against hope to find somebody, anybody, you were quickly startled when you did just that. Twisting your head expecting to see more clear blue sky, your vision was quickly filled by a tall midnight blue pony with a flowing mane of stars and a horn that could pierce the Titanic head on. To say you stumbled back might be an understatement, so let's call it what it truly was, you jumped backwards with a yelp.
"Bluebelle," the tall mare spoke, her voice booming and echoing out just as your own did, "it is I-"
"Princess Luna!" you cut her off, obviously recognizing literally the best princess ever and you were more than willing to knock a bitch out to prove it.
She let out a soft giggle and smirked, "It appears that I have a fan."
"Oh hell ye- Shi- Errr, sorry. I should watch my tongue around royalty." Uh huh, nice save. It was bad and you should feel bad, and you kind of do as you turn your gaze away, seeking some form of mercy. When you turned your attention back to her, it seemed as though she had grown even taller.
With a quirked head and a confused look, she started slowly, "My, what an.... eloquent vocabulary you have for one of your size." A quick glance at yourself explained why she was suddenly taller, it was actually you were shorter, no longer a fully grown mare and pointmare of the Wonderbolts, but back to the filly who had nearly drowned in a river.
"Oh, so I'm in a dream, but... I wasn't having a nightmare," you stated more as a question than a statement as you looked back up at her, "I thought you helped ponies with their nightmares."
She smiled as you began connecting the pieces and lowered her head so that she was on somewhat more equal footing on you, "Indeed I do, little one, and despite you having pleasant dreams tonight, I saw the rest of your weekend was not quite so serene."
You rubbed the back of your head with an awkward chuckle, "Heheh, yeah... Did you see the part where I got distracted by food and fell in the river?" As her look started to go back to confused, you quickly clarified, "Oh, that wasn't a dream that was, uhh, let's just forget that."
"My, you are quite the unusual filly," she mused, "but that is not why I am here. I was unable to attend to you during your previous nightmares, and while tonight you do not have need of my services, I sense an unresolved fear in you young one." Her horn began to shimmer for a moment, "A great fear at that."
"Errr, yeah, it's a... bit complicated," was all that you were able to really say. You weren't entirely sure about whether or not she could read your mind or if she knew your history before coming here, and until proven otherwise you were going to do your best to keep her in the dark. Especially her and Celestia, you weren't entirely sure just how exactly the princesses would react to the knowledge that their world was a TV show for kids... And young adults but let's forget about that.
Princess Luna got down onto her knees and laid down in front of you, putting a warm inviting smile on, "Please, I am here to listen should you need any assistance."
It took a bit of resisting to not run over and snuggle with best princess, but somehow you managed to keep your emotional dukes up, "I know I should stand up and face my fears directly, that the only way I can overcome them is by taking them head on, but... I don't know what'll happen if I do." With a sigh, you sat yourself down on the clouds and found yourself enjoying the cushioning.
"If you are not willing to tell me your fear directly, I am sorry to say there is very little I can do to help you, Bluebelle." She wasn't actually physically beckoning you over, but some part of you felt like she was inviting you and again you had to resist the urge. Some part of you knew that if you got physically close to her in this dream, you'd end up spilling the beans. "However, I must say, you seem a bit more wise than the other fillies and colts I need to console. You know what you must do, and I am sure you know how it must be done, but something is holding you back..."
You cracked a smile as you raised your gaze from the cloud beneath you back to her, "Hey, uhh, off topic a bit, but would you mind telling my teacher you said that?"
She rolled her eyes, "I believe my schedule may not allow for such a meeting." Oh well, you gave it your best shot. "But that does not excuse the matter at hand, what is it that you are afraid of Bluebelle?"
All previous attempts at maintaining some level of distance from her were for naught as she seemed to grow tired of waiting and, with a glow of her horn, you found yourself pulled over by a similar glow so that you were leaning against her. "Hey now, that's cheating! I did my best to stay put, you aren't allowed to bring magic into this."
Another roll of the eyes was quickly followed with a nuzzle, "Allow us to get back to what causes you your nightmares, little one."
With how warm and comforting it was next to her, you realized just how cold and alone you previously were. Being this close, you could see each individual star in her mane as it flowed in place and you could almost swear there were some constellations you remembered in there. Her horn wasn't glowing so you knew she wasn't doing any sort of magic, but just by being here, you found your mouth starting to open up on its own. "W-Well..." It wouldn't do to lie here but you also couldn't tell the truth, "the truth is..." fuck fuck shit fuck what were you going to say, "I-I'm afraid of spiders." YES! You did it! Fuck all of the warm feelings on both Earth and Equestria and even in your own fucking dreams, you still had that impeccable talent of never saying what people wanted without lying to them.
To Luna's credit, it took a moment before her warm expression broke into a stunned one. "W-Wait, spiders?"
You emphatically shook your head, "Mmhmm, spiders. I know they're mostly relatively harmless, but I just can't get over them. Sometimes, the very thought of them will keep me awake all night."
At first, the princess of the night looked flabbergasted by your answer, though watching her expression you could see her eventually work her way through the emotions to the not-at-all-buying-this-shit face. Still, you weren't exactly being dishonest and that seemed to ruin throw a bit of a wrench into her plans, "Well then... I greatly suspect this may have to do with more than just... spiders," you could see the annoyance on her face and had to stop yourself from laughing, "However if that is all you wish to say I will leave you be to your dreams, young one."
Riding on the good feelings of getting away with shit, all you managed to do was just wave as she got up and started walking off into the distance, "Okay, see ya Princess Luna!" As she seemed to fade out of the reality of your dream, the rest of the landscape began to turn back into what your dream previously was, with you once again standing on the cloud as a mare and your formation flying off without you. When you looked back down to Mom, the sign was still written in English, but at least you knew your secret was safe, for now. With that ease of mind, you lifted yourself up off the cloud and darted back to your position in the formation, eager to get back to being a Wonderbolt.
Morning came with you waking up early again, once again sandwiched between your parents though Dad apparently decided not to hold you this time. You wriggled your snout as you sat up, sniffling some which brought about a groan. Yup, you were sick. You made your way outside to find Flying Fish washing up in the stream again and a quick survey had you assuming Cotton was still asleep again.
"Good morning!" you called out to her as you made your way over, causing her to look over.
"Oh hey Blue, you sleep good?" she replied, coming out of the water to meet you halfway.
After a sniffle, "Yeah, though I don't think I'm gonna sleep very well tonight."
"Aww, I'm sorry to hear that," she said with a frown, "Still, it's good you were able to get lots of sleep last night. Unfortunately we're gonna have to hike back today but hopefully your dad will be able to carry you."
You quirked your head a bit, "What do you mean carry me?"
"Well, you need your rest, sweetie. You can't go hiking around mountains when you're sick."
"Yeah but I'm not that sick, it's just a bit of a cold!" you piped up mere moments before sneezing hard enough to knock yourself onto the ground.
"Uh huh, sure you aren't, sweetie," she said sarcastically. "Either way it'll be up to your parents, and I think you're going to have to improve your performance if you're going to trick your mother."
From the ground you groaned, deciding not to bother getting up, "Can I at least help pack up camp since I didn't get to help set it up?"
Appearing upside down in your view as she looked down at you worriedly, Flying replied "I'd have to say no, but like I said, it's your mother's decision."
You let out another groan, still remaining sprawled out on the ground. The prospect of having to sit around contributing nothing irked you even more nowadays than it had when you were a foal. At least then you were still new to the idea of getting to be lazy all day and not have to work, but as you became more independent the idea of having to just sit around became more of a curse than a blessing.
"Well, is there anything I can do to help?"
For her credit, it seemed Flying Fish actually put some thought into the answer before shrugging, "Sorry, sweetie. You'll have to ask your mother and in the meantime I don't have anything I'd want you doing. If you want, I can read you a story."
You rolled your eyes with an exhale before admitting defeat, "Sure, I guess I can listen to a story."
Flying Fish lifted you up and then set you down so that you were sitting by the fire pit they'd made, then flew over to her tent and emerged a moment or two later with a large in the height and width department but small in the depth department book. "I'm sure Cotton won't mind if I read you one of his favorite stories."
You were able to downplay the laugh to just a quick sound in the back of your throat at the thought of him still reading from something like that, let alone it being his favorite story. Then your memories caught up and you were pretty sure he just liked it because he was into foal shit. Eugh. Aunt Fish either didn't notice or didn't react to the noise, and with all of the sniffling you were doing you hoped she assumed it was just you being sick, as she took a seat next to you and showed you the pastel cover of the book.
"So, can you read the title?"
Oh God no. You pray to Best Princess that she doesn't do this with him and is just doing it because you're young... And y'know, you actually have to work a bit to try to read the title, "Uhhh.... Good Night Canterlot?"
"Very good!" With your success in reading a three word sentence, she opens up the book to some colorful illustrations and more words you were sure you could probably piece together but decided to instead just listen. You might have wanted to actually do something, but reading a kid's book wasn't it. Luckily, Flying Fish took over for the rest of the book and by the end of it you had almost fallen asleep and everyone else had woken up.
As Mom and Dad came over, you darted away from Fishie and quickly blocked Mom's path, "Mom can I help pack up camp?"
It took a moment or two for Mom to remove the sleep from her eyes before responding, "Sorry, what?"
Prefacing your request with a sniffle, you repeated, "Mom can I help pack up camp?"
"Errr," she looked over at Dad who gave a shrug, "I guess so?" Turning back to you, she seemed confused, "Why exactly are you so excited to pack up camp? I mean, we don't have to leave just yet."
"Oh, I know, I was just making sure I could help pack up! I wanna know how to do it next time we go camping!" That and, y'know, you didn't feel like being bored as shit waiting on them to do it without you.
This also seemed to take all of the adults by surprise as they all glanced at one another before Mom spoke up again, "Wait, you want to go camping again? Even after, well... Everything that happened this weekend?"
You quickly nodded your head, "Yeah! I had lots of fun and Cotton got his cutiemark!"
This left everyone surprised and for the next few minutes they basically recounted the entire weekend's events, as though to make sure you remembered them even though they mostly happened to you. Of course, you were sure to bring up the few good things you could actually talk about whenever you could to justify wanting to go camping again. You know, besides the fact that you didn't want to spend all of your weekends studying with Star.
Oh God, you forgot about Star. If you were sick when you got home and she found out, eeeeeuuuuuuugh. You generally hated being cared for and her basically trying to play the role of doctor with every stereotype she could think of. The last time you had the flu, she spent damn near every waking minute she wasn't in school putting ice packs on your head, constantly checking a thermometer, and at one point she tried using a spatula as a stethoscope. You didn't get a lot of rest that week despite Mom and Dad insisting that you would be fine if Star went out to play for a bit. Every day after school she would come trotting to your room to check up on her 'patient,' and this only fed into your theory that Star was actually an evil entity sent to torment you for all of your affronts to God as a human.
Snapping back to the present, you found that everyone else had set about enjoying the trip for at least another couple of hours and you decided to join them, getting some fishing in. If by fishing you meant setting up your line and then sneezing all of the fish away from your line and into Flying Fish's. Though since you were leaving soon this was a catch and release day, which while still fun meant there would be no more fish for eating which was a bit of a downer.
Finally, the arbitrary departure time came and everyone went about packing up, your contribution to it was mostly just packing your own bag which felt kind of cheap since you had the lightest bags of everyone present but you actually found yourself pretty tired by the end of just that. Maybe Flying Fish was onto something earlier when she said you should just rest. With everything mostly packed by everyone else, it was time to set sail and luckily Dad was more than willing to let you just sprawl out on his back after finding that exhausted fillies don't keep up with the pack very well.
About halfway down the mountain, you mostly tuned the world out and only noticed that time had actually passed when the train whistle sounded and you were in Hayton. Looking around, you found Cotton smiling at you, "Yup, she's awake."
Your throat felt dry and trying to moisten it with some saliva only made you start coughing. Once the short fit was done, you spotted Mom buying the train tickets. "Huh, I didn't realize I fell asleep."
"Neither did I for the first hour or so," replied Dad before giving you a nuzzle. "I just assumed you were being quiet like you were on the way up."
"Hey, at least I didn't pass out just as we got to the train station," you joked and got a few chuckles from Dad and Cotton.
"What's so funny?" Mom asked as her and Flying Fish approached.
"Oh, nothing, are we all ready to go?" Dad asked, a bit of excitement in his voice.
"Mmhmm, just gotta say goodbye and we'll be on our way." With that, Mom turned to her side and hugged Flying, "It was so good to see you again, we'll definitely have to get together again soon."
"Oh, of course, any time dear! Just let me know and I'm sure we'll be able to put something together."
With the mares saying their farewells, Cotton bumped his head against you as you remained mounted on your noble steed, "Well, I guess this is so long for now Blue."
"Yeah, I guess so. It was actually nice seeing you again, I'm actually looking forward to our next time hanging out."
"Well, don't forget our deal," he said with a smirk.
"Err, right... Our deal, uhhh. How exactly am I supposed to send that?"
"Just send it to me, silly filly, and I'll see to it that it gets to its final destination."
"What exactly are you sending?" asked Dad who, by virtue of you being on his back, was right there.
"Oh, uhh, just a letter, Dad."
Dad leaned in with his one eye bulging at you to show just how intense his interest was, "What kind of letter?"
"We're gonna be pen pals!" chipped in Cotton
"Oh okay, that's understandable then. I'm sure I can drop it off on my way to work for you."
"Yeah, that'd be good," you replied.
"Okay, Cotton, time to go!" Fish called out
"All right, see ya Blue!" said Cotton before heading over to Flying and after a quick check of their saddlebags, they both started flapping their wings and made their way West.
"Wait, they're gonna fly the whole way back to Cloudsdale?"
"I mean, it's not that far when you can fly. You'll see one day, Blue," Dad smiled reassuringly. "Anyway let's get on that train and get home, I think I left a Whatchamacallit in the fridge and I'm gonna eat it up."
That woke you up enough to get you hopping off his back and dashing for the train, Dad quickly catching up behind you, and Mom just laughing at your antics.
Of course, once the three of you were on the train you realized racing to get on the train didn't matter much since it wasn't leaving until everyone was on, so you ended up sitting across from Dad, a bit on edge for a moment, before finally you flopped along the seat. As the last few ponies got on, the ticket collector shouted out a call of "All aboard!" and a moment later the train began its chugging back to Fillydelphia. Looking upside down at the window, you could only make out the tops of trees piercing up at the clear sky above before sniffling some and wiping at your snout with the back of your hoof.
"Are you feeling any better from this morning after your nap?" Mom asked.
"Eh, a bit worse actually... You think the doctor is gonna give me any medicine?"
"Probably," Dad replied butting in, "you didn't look so good in your sleep last night."
"Bleh, can I just not take it and focus on relaxing instead?" Despite pony culture and technology doing a fairly decent job of keeping up with mankind, at some point they decided not to add any decent flavors to the medicine so all of it ended up tasting like shit.
Mom tutted, "Nope, sorry, but sick fillies have to follow their doctor's orders."
Your groan turned into a sigh as you closed your eyes. When you opened them you looked over at your parents sitting across from you and wondered if they had remembered the conversation that dominated your mind for the past weekend. They had assured you they'd be ready for you to speak to them whenever you were, and you had to wonder. Were you ready to bring it up with them? You were both physically and mentally exhausted from the sickness, but what better time than now would you have to ease their worries?
After a quick mental pump up, you sat yourself up on the seat and looked across at the two ponies you now called Mom and Dad. To get their attention, you cleared your throat, and then began, "Mom, Dad... Is now a good time to talk?"
They both looked at each other for a moment before turning to you and nodding, "Go ahead, Blue," said Mom.
"Well... You remember on the way here, we were talking about me at home?" God you really botched that sentence. Maybe that'd help sell it.
"Mmhmm," was the only reply you got from Dad. That was good, it meant they were taking it seriously, especially Dad not saying something stupid.
"Well... Last night wasn't the first time Cotton had told me I was adopted, last night was just the first time I got upset about it..." you started, trying your best to keep it believable and secretly were glad you had a chance to practice on Luna in your dream. You know, not that it exactly worked there, but even failure can be a learning experience.
Mom leaned in with her head quirked and her face covered with worry, "When did he start telling you that? And why didn't you tell anypony?"
"Well, the truth is, I didn't really believe him at first... But as we got closer to seeing him again, I started thinking and was wondering... Do my real parents miss me?" The tears were a nice touch but you honestly couldn't take credit for them. The benefit to lying with a truth was that you weren't actually lying, the problem with it was that you were actually telling the truth. You missed your parents, your friends, your entire former life, but you knew if you were to somehow go back you'd feel the same sadness for the life you've made here. Fuck even Cotton was starting to get to you!
You were broken out of your downward spiral by the warm embrace of the two pegasi, Mom taking the reins here. "Bluebelle, I am positive that they miss you, but... Well, I'd like to think that you consider us your real parents." Mom and Dad both smiled warmly, both hopeful that you'd follow their logic. "I don't know if you know, but we've actually been searching for your parents ever since we found you and unfortunately they just haven't turned up at all. We don't know what happened to them or why you were left alone, but from the day we found you we've done everything we could to give you the life we know they would have wanted for you."
Your tears had become contagious and all three of you now had leaky faucets for eyes and to be honest, you didn't even want to bother wiping away the tears. At the same time, you weren't entirely sure you could consider them your real parents. They literally weren't, you had real parents, they just, weren't here... You were left alone by someone or something and these two came to fill the void in your life. Not knowing which was the right answer only caused you to cry more, your leaky faucets turning into wild garden hoses. "I-I don't know if I can... I mean, what if they're still out there, looking for me? I don't know if I would want to be given up on..."
Dad looked disheartened at your response, "Well, if you see it that way, we understand. Just know that we've always considered you to be our daughter since you entered our lives."
God, why was this so hard, your heart was aching. It felt like a dagger was being driven through your chest and you couldn't remove it. You couldn't do it to them. Just seeing their faces now, you couldn't. After just six years here, it would be impossible for you to go back. You might potentially relieve your human family's woes, but you'd be causing more worry for your new family. Ack, it killed you to say it, but, with your lip wobbling, "I-I can... You two are my real parents... I still want to know if they miss me, but, well... You two are the ones who've raised me." Even as you said it, you felt one knife removed from your chest and another stabbed in. And yet, the second knife didn't quite hurt as much as the first. The three of you were still a mess of tears be they sad or happy the rest of the train ride home.
