A Change of Plans

by astro gazer

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Character
Length: 1557

a story about how little things can have big impacts in the path of our lives

explores how tiny decisions can hugely change someone / somepony's life while following the life of a Pegasus known as Star Chaser as he grows up and finds his place in society.

inspired by a decision to talk to someone I didn't know very well culminated in me joining this fandom and becoming obsessed with ponies.

Published 2012-04-03 06:54:03 UTC
Last updated 2012-04-03 06:54:03 UTC

Prolog

Hello everypony, this is my first fic so I want you all to tell me what you think. I’ve never written anything for fun before so I have no idea how this will turn out.

Also, every time I introduce a main character I will include the code for General Zoi’s pony creator at the beginning of the chapter so you can see what they look like. you can find the pony creator here:
http://generalzoi.deviantart.com/art/Pony-Creator-Full-Version-254295904
just go to the create tab and under advanced, copy paste the code into the white box and click “Generate pony from code”
speaking of which...

Cog‘n’Gear:
2S2S004100FEFEFEFFC49D00000723700UN183700800000000000000FF7FFF00107F3FCC004CB2

Cloud Builder:
2S2S00001000E1FEFFC49D000010091FEUN1837000000000A0FEFF7AFF7FFF03107F3FCC004CB2

Star Chaser (grown up):
2P2S00502009082B00000000010FEC400UH173800100000250000000FF7FFF0T107F3FCC004CB2

and now, on with the story...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Prolog: Happy 0th Birthday to Me

It was a very bright night over Cloudsdale on the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration. Celestia never could get the night sky to be quite as dim as her little sister could. But Luna was locked away on the moon right now for trying to usurp the throne. It would be 5 years until she would return to Equestria as Night Mare Moon and attempt another coup. But for now, Celestia could make it dark enough. The Moon hung silently over the floating city as pegasi slept peacefully in their cloud beds and dreamt dreams of flying and soaring over Equestria. The city was silent, all except for Cloudsdale urgent care.

The waiting room was sparsely furnished, just some simple cloud chairs and benches for ponies to sit while they awaited medical care, and a desk at the far end of the room opposite from the doors leading into the night. 2 tiny thunder clouds embedded in the ceiling arced a constant stream of lightning between each other to provide illumination along with an unsettling buzz. The desk held a disinterested looking secretary who had the unfortunate luck of getting the night shift. With nothing better to do, she watched the room’s only other occupant, a snow white unicorn stallion with a black mane, a short tail, and an interlocking pair of gears for a cutie mark. He paced back and forth on enchanted hooves in front of a door on the side of the room. His name was Cog ‘n’ Gears and he was pumping out nearly enough sweat to be classified as weather pony. He had cast the cloud walking spell himself and wouldn't trust anypony else to do it, but that did nothing to reduce his nervousness.

‘Celestia curse these pegasi. Not only do they have to build everything out of clouds, then they had to have an opening for a unicorn specialist at the weather factory when I was looking for work, and then on top of all that I had to go ahead and marry one of them.’

Despite his misgivings about cloud walking, he still felt it was all worth it for the mare in the next room over. Her name was Cloud Builder and she designed and built... well... cloud buildings. One day she came to the cloud factory to get some heat resistant clouds for a special cloud mansion she has working on, and Cog was assigned to make them for her. They worked together to build the mansion (which was situated near a volcano, hence the special heat resistant clouds. Cog always wondered if the pony who requested that house had fantasies of being a supervillain), one thing lead to another, they got married, and now she’s in labor in the next room.

‘Yet another thing to be nervous about, we just had to be in Cloudsdale visiting her family when she went into labor.’

Cog stared at the door to the room that held his wife along with several doctors and nurses.

‘Will I be a good father? Do I even know how? Cloud got us all those parenting books, but I don’t know if they really prepared me for...’

The door creaked open and a doctor entered the room, interrupting his thoughts. He was a lime green pegasus with a cyan mane and green eyes, he wore a lab coat with holes in the sides for his wings and was staring intensely at a clipboard in his mouth. He placed the clipboard on a table and turned to look at Cog.

“Are you Cog ‘n’ Gear?” he asked, his eyes flicking back to the clipboard.

“Y-yes thats me.” Cog managed to stammer out

‘Look at me, so nervous I can’t even talk right.’

“Come with me Mr. Gear, we’re ready to begin.” the doctor said, picking up his clipboard and exiting the room.

Cog gulped and shakily made his way to the room his wife was in.

‘Here I go...’

He pushed open the door with his nose and looked around the room. A crowd of medical staff surrounded a chair in the center of the room. Sitting in said chair was the love of his life. she had light blue fur, blue eyes, a blonde mane cut just above her eyes in the front and long in the back. She had a small picture of a castle made from clouds on her flank. She was the most beautiful creature Cog had ever seen, and she was pissed.

“WHERE THE BUCK HAVE YOU BEEN!?!”

Cog remembered something about how hormones really act up during the final stages of pregnancy.

“I was just outside calming my nerves.” nervousness gone now that he was in the room

“YOUR NERVES!? YOUR NERVES!? YOU THINK YOUR BUCKING NERVES ARE BAD RIGHT NOW!?!”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry but I’m here now and I’m staying with you ‘til the end, OK?” he said, moving over to the chair and taking her hoof in his.

Cog looked down and noticed her wings were tied down to the chair.

“Why are her wings tied down?”

“YEAH WHY THE BUCK DID YOU DO THAT!?!”

One of the nurses looked up at Cog.

“Pegasus wings are strong, you want to get smacked in the face by one from a mother in the depths of a hormonal rage?”

A smile played across Cog’s face

“Good point.” he said

Cloud Builder stared death at him.

“When I get out of here I will murder you.” she whispered

“I love you too honey.” Cog said sweetly

If looks could kill...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Mr. Gear, Mrs. Builder, congratulations, you’re now the parents of a brand new pegasus colt.”

The midwife handed the bundle of cloth over to Cog. Looking down at it, he saw a small, deep blue, almost black head with tuft of a jet black mane. The foal’s eyes were screwed tightly shut, as if it felt the light would burn its eyes.

“Coggy?” came a whisper from Cog’s side. “Can I see him?”

“Sure honey.” he passed the newborn over to Cloud Builder, who uttered a small gasp upon seeing their baby for the first time

“He’s beautiful...” she said softly

“So what are you calling him?” a nurse asked.

Cog froze and looked at Cloud

‘Oh horse apples, a name! how can we forget a name!’

Cloud just looked out the window at the unusaly bright night sky. Her expression suggested she was deep in thought.

“How about... Star Chaser.” she suggested.

Cog thought about it for a moment and could find nothing wrong with it.

“Its a great name honey, Star Chaser it is. How about it little guy, you like it?”

Cog leaned over to address their new foal. As he did, he passed in between the newly christened Star Chaser and the overhead lighting. When his shadow passed over Star Chaser’s face, the young colt decided it was dark enough and opened his eyes for the first time, eliciting a gasp from everypony in the room.

“Now that I haven’t seen before.” one of the doctors stated.

The colt’s irises were not the light blue of Cloud’s eyes nor the dark brown of Cog’s, they were a bright yellow. But that wasn’t the most surprising thing about them. What was surprising was the shape of the pupil. They weren't round like a normal pony’s, they were slits, much like a dragon’s, and they were contracted to the point where they almost weren’t there.

“That doesn't look right,” Cloud said, panic evident in her voice ”is that a problem? Can he see? IS HE BLIND!?!”

“Calm down, calm down,” one of the doctors reassured her. “let's take a look... hmm... the contraction of the pupils suggest he is abnormally sensitive to light... but the way the eyes move about indicates that everything else is fine... yep, just the sensitivity thing. He may need to wear sunglasses more often then most ponies but otherwise he is just fine.”

“Oh good,” Cloud Builder was visibly relieved. “I was worried there for a second.”

“Crisis averted then,” Cog said. “ what now?”

“Now you go home.” the lime green pegasus replied “Bring him back every month for awhile so we can keep an eye on him.”

“Will do.” Cog said, his thoughts already drifting off into the future.

‘This is the beginning of a lot of things for me and Cloud.’ Cog thought to himself

It was the beginning of a lot of things for me too. But being born has a tendency to do that to a foal.