Hard Earned Trust

“Hey Roy! Come over here! I found the perfect spot.”

‘No.’

“Coming!” my dream self replied.

‘NO!’

“For what?” I said, knowing what would happen next.

“For this,” he said, and rammed the knife into my chest.

“NOOOO!” I screamed as I shot awake.

“Thank god, it was just a dream… Wait, if I died, and just dreamed about it, then that means…” I said as I turned my head over to see a pegasus with a white mane staring back at me.

“Great.”

***

Pearl had not been feeling alight. She just gave birth to her son, but something was different- he already had a cutie mark. As if that wasn’t enough, it had to be a bloodstained kitchen knife. Pearl Rain and Swift Heart had not been talking since the ride home. It was supposed to be happy, but now they could only wonder what it meant.

Was something wrong? Did his destiny really have something to do with his cutie mark?

After a discussion with Swift Heart, they agreed to send a letter to Celestia herself, just in case. They did not want anything terrible to happen to him.

The next morning, Pearl and Swift went over to Sky Gear’s crib and found out another oddity about her son. Even though he was just born, he seemed to be having a violent nightmare. Suddenly he bolted awake with a shout. He froze, looked over at Pearl, and murmured something.

“Swift, please watch over him until I get back from the station,” Pearl said. She needed to go to her boss and explain that for at least one week, she would be at home taking care of the baby. The boss already knew about it- everypony did- but Pearl still had to go do paperwork.

“Alright honey, I will,” Swift Heart replied, giving his wife a nuzzle as she left.

Then he looked back to his son’s crib and found that he had managed to unlock and open the gate on it. He could be seen trying to walk. At first he seemed like he would fall, but then, just as Swift was about to right him with magic, he righted himself and found his footing. Going over to the mirror, Sky Gear intently studied himself.

Swift thought it was really funny how his son was fascinated by his own wings. He flexed them around, going through all the motions it could go through. Now that he looked hard, Swift could see that his son’s wings were much bigger than those on a normal foal. They were much more proportional to his body, and could probably sustain him in flight.

Then, Swift Heart’s son looked at his flank and saw the cutie mark. He screamed, terrified, and ran backwards as fast as he could, running into Swift in the process. Right then was when Pearl came back home.

“What happened?” she asked, her voice filled with worry.

“He managed to unlock the whole crib gate and just ran away from the mirror, terrified after seeing his cutie mark. What could it mean?” Swift replied.

“I have no idea…”

***

Yesterday I got out of the crib and decided to try and walk in my new pony body. At first it was really difficult, but then something fell into place, and it was easy as breathing. Then I decided to examine myself in the mirror. I don’t know how it escaped me, but I had wings. Excited, I tried moving them. It was an amazing feeling. I stretched them to their limits, just to see what they were capable of. A surprising amount, as it happens. The wings were very dexterous.

Then I noticed something on me. On my flank, to be precise.

It was the knife that stabbed me. The bloodstained kitchen knife.

I had screamed and stumbled backwards as fast as I could. That’s when mom (my new one, really) came in. she spoke to dad, and that’s when I noticed that whatever language ponies spoke, it includes small body movements that seemed to compliment speech.

‘I need to learn this language if I’m to communicate. I wonder what they think of me? I bet I’m not the baby they expected me to be…’ I thought, as I decided to go back into my crib.

To what seemed to be their great surprise, I hopped in and closed the gate behind me, locking it before I curled up, shivering a little, wanting to sleep, but afraid of having the nightmare again.