Snowflake Frostby Dagan4d2ChaptersChapter 1 - ChildhoodChapter 2 - Growing UpChapter 3 - The BeginningChapter 1 - Childhood“We will not have our bloodline defiled by the likes of that… thing.” “Dew, calm yourself, that’s our son, like it or not. You can’t just leave him!” “That’s exactly what we are going to do! You never had this child. Understand!” “But-” “DO YOU UNDERSTAND!” “... Yes Dew.” “Good. Leave it here.” The talking stopped as suddenly as it has started. The room moved about as I was sat down. Wrapped in what I assumed was some sort of blanket, I couldn't move much more than my head. I looked into white fur and huge blue eyes, streaked red from the tears they were holding back. My mother's face was all I could see for a moment. Her head vanished from my view, and that was the last I saw of her. I looked up at the white ceiling, then over to the wall on my side. I was alone. Immediately I began to wail, making as much noise as I could, screaming, crying, shouting, sobbing. This carried on for a little while, me screaming followed by nothing happening followed by me screaming some more. I was shocked by the sudden appearance of an great yellow eyes staring down over a short white snout. I stopped crying immediately. I felt safe, and also tired, my eyes fell shut. I awoke with a start. It was the same dream again, the one with my parents. I remembered a little more this time, my mother's face, the image was stuck in my mind. I held on to it, I held on to the dream. It was foolish, of course, I knew my story well enough, it had been told to me enough times that I was tired of hearing it. I was born 12 years ago, to the Frost family, a line of pure unicorns who never mated with any but another unicorn. I was different, I was a Pegasus, all wings, no horn. They left me alone in a hospital room. Everypony knew what they did, but no pony could prove it. They claimed that I wasn't their child, and who could disagree, I was clearly a pegasus, and they were the purest of unicorns. It was simply impossible for them to have a pegasus child. I was adopted by my new parents, my father Tin Alloy and mother Copper Alloy. They were hardworking earth pony miners. My mother, Copper Alloy, had a deep orange coat, a curly brown mane and brown eyes and my father, Tin Alloy was an off white, with a darker mane, and silver eyes. They took me to my new home, in Iron Valley. Iron Valley was a small town, with only a simple school, a few local buildings, restaurants, hospital, library, that sort of thing. And the mine, of course, the city only existed because of the mine. Including the housing, the city probably consisted of less than one hundred buildings. It was just a short ways north east of Canterlot, but fairly isolated in the Foal Mountains. My family was nice enough. It was just my parents, my brother and I. My brother's name was Bronze. He looks like his father, but with his mother's brown eyes. He is younger than me, but only by a few weeks, I was adopted about the time that my mother gave birth. My name is Snowflake Frost. I keep my light blue mane cut short, it's almost white, but blue when compared to my pure white coat. My blue eyes complete the picture, and that plus my wings make me stick out in our old family photo on the wall. I feel right at home, at least usually. My name is from my biological family, they may have abandoned me, but they chose a name for me before I was born. While they can deny that I am their child, the abandoned baby in the room was still officially Snowflake Frost, whether or not he was a Frost child by blood. The laws were stupid, and I didn't really understand, but I thought it was fitting. They left me, but at least I got to keep my name. You see, my last name, I don't know. Sometimes it makes me feel like I'm not part of the family, the Alloys that is. Every time I feel that way, mom says that names and blood don't make family, It's who you care for, and who you love that counts. I shook off my thoughts and climbed out of bed, no reason to try and get back to sleep. It was early morning, but it was still morning and that meant I had to get to school. I squirmed out of bed and stretched my wings a bit. My room was small, but it wasn't a mess, I kept telling myself it was tidy, but the real word for it was sparse. All that occupied my room was my bead, a simple desk, the single textbook "Standardized Learning", a stack of parchment reserved for schoolwork, a single quill and a single inkwell. My family wasn't poor, but Iron Valley was. I never worried much about it. I had time to kill and, unlike everypony else my age, I was not allergic to getting wet. I stepped into the shower I shared with my brother and soaked in the warm water. One of the advantages of Iron Valley is that hot springs were everywhere, and hot water was not a problem. I let my thoughts wander as I slowly woke up. After drying myself, I flew out my window and down to the front door. I knocked, and my mother opened the door. "Snowflake, you can use the stairs." "But mom, this is so much faster." I whined as I walked past her and into the kitchen. Breakfast was quick and before I knew it I was walking out with Bronze at my side. We both ignored whatever warning our mother was giving us as we shut the door, the day had just begun. "Alright class" Miss Happilee cooed "That's enough for now, go ahead and enjoy your recess." The class rushed out onto the school grounds, and I with them. "Don't get hurt!" she shouted after us. The class dispersed out on the grey chalky playground, and my brother and I found ourselves alone, as usual. We knew enough ponies that we could join in on most of the groups, but no one else really hung out with us. We decided to see what was going on the closest little circle. We started to walk over when we saw little red sparks of magic, excitement spread on our faces. Our walk turned to a run as we hurried to see what was going on. When we shoved through the circle, we saw Silver Stone. Silver stone was grey unicorn filly with red eyes and a dark black mane. I knew her well enough, and she could be nice at times, but she had a furious temper. She had her eyes clamped shut and was obviously very focused. She was apparently trying telekinesis, but her horn was sparking violently, and glowing more than anyone would have expected. Suddenly the magic shot off and hit the little colt right in front of her. Red arcs coursed through his body and he tensed up like he had been electrocuted. "Ah-ah-ah OW!" He fell to the ground and panted for breath. "What was..." He wheezed and sucked in more air "What was that for?" His voice sounded weak. "I didn't mean to Florescence! I promise. It was an accident." She looked sincerely mortified by what she had done. "Yea, a really cool accident." somepony else chimed in, "how'd you do that?" "Show us again, show us again!" Silver Stone turned to the new speakers, "Oh, it was cool! Let me try it again." She practically squeaked with enthusiasm. They bounced off, leaving Bronze and I alone with Florescence, who had been forgotten in the temporary rush of excitement. Florescence was one of the many ponies we knew by name. He was aptly named- the little earth pony actually glowed in the dark. His coat was a light green, and his mane and eyes were the same, though his eyes were darker and his mane was lighter. "Hay, you okay?" Bronze asked. "Ugh, I think so." He tried to get up, but ended up falling on his face. I went and got Miss Happilee, who was not happy to learn that Silver Stone had just left him like this. She got Florescence to his feet, then asked "Would one of you two kindly take him to the school nurse, while I have a chat with Silver" Bronze beat me to it. "I'll go Miss Happilee" he volunteered, and just like that they were off. I watched him go, then turned my attention back to Miss Happilee, who had walked away and was now speaking to Silver a little ways off. They kept talking for a moment before Silver Stone hung her head low. Happilee seemed satisfied that she had learned her lesson, so she turned away and left. The instant Silver was free of Miss Happilee, her glare of death was upon me. I knew that SIlver was about to have an angry outburst, and looked for a way to get away. I tuned tail and ran around the corner of the schoolhouse, hoping beyond hope that Silver would just go away. Silver had different plans, she walked around the corner and shouted at me. "What was that! You told Hapilee on me! Why would you do that!" "I'm sorry Silver, I didn't mean to." I cowered backwards a few steps. "You're sorry? You're sorry! I can't believe you! What if she tells my father? I'll be in so much trouble." Silver's rage was building "Flo was hurt. We just got him help-" "I don't want to hear it. He was fine, he would have been fine!" She was getting really angry, and her horn was starting to spark. "Silver don't." I stepped back again and braced myself, wings coming up to cover my face. "Or what? You'll tell Miss Happilee? You won't tattle anymore after this!" She shot her new favorite spell at me. Five feet away, I cringed and closed my wings over my face protectively, slamming my eyes shut. The pain I expected never came. I opened my eyes slowly, peeking through my primaries, only to see a comically exaggerated expression of shock on Silver's face. I noticed her horn wasn't glowing, which made me feel better, but then I noticed that she was glowing blue. I thought that was pretty weird, so I lowered my wings to get a closer look, but the blueness disappeared. It wasn't just her that became less blue though, it was everything: the side of the building, the ground behind her, everything. While I was pondering this, Silver recovered from her silent shock. "You... You... That's not possible!" She seemed mixed between confusion, anger, and fear. I was fairly confused at the moment "What are you talki-" I was interrupted by another bolt of magic. My wing shot up to block it, surprising even me. More surprising still was the blue field of... magic? Her spell fizzled harmlessly off of the wall of light that had appeared in front of me. We both stared in awe, unsure of what to make of the situation. She glared at me. "This. Never. Happened." She turned and walked away. I noticed that my primary feathers were all glowing blue, like a unicorn horn, but it was a feather. I was too shocked at what was happening to say anything. Suddenly my wing felt exhausted in a whole new sort of way. I'd been sore before, but this wasn't like that, it was more like an emptiness, like a rumbling stomach. As I lowered my wing, the wall vanished, as did the glow from my feathers. The reality of what just happened hit me. I, a pegasus, had just cast a spell. A single thought resonated in my mind "What the hell?" Chapter 2 - Growing UpI got home that evening practically beaming. I had snagged one of the books about magic at school and started learning magic the way that unicorns do, but using the tip of my wing in place of the much referenced horn. By the end of the day I could perform both telekinesis and the shield of magic that I had used earlier. I actually never found a guide to telekinesis, but as soon as I figured out how to channel magic through my wing it just sort of came to me. So naturally the instant I got home I wanted to show my parents. I did, and they were as shocked as I had been. Ponykind puts up a façade of acceptance, but in reality anything strange tends to get shunned. A pegasus with magic would probably find itself less welcome in Iron Valley than a zebra. Everypony would get spooked if they knew what I could do, so we decided it would be best if we kept it a secret. Of course Silver Stone had already seen, but my parents were pretty close to the Stones, my father and Ms. Gem Stone had grown up as friends. Mr. Jade Stone was a mine manager, he and his wife looked almost identical, dark grey coat with that black hair that their whole family had. In fact, they all almost looked identical. They were all some shade of grey with black hair and red eyes, and only the tiny details set them apart. For example, their pegasus daughter, Soft Stone, had a wavy mane, Gem had a curly mane, and both Jade and Silver's manes were unusually straight. Soft was several years older than Bronze and I, but Silver was in our same year at school. Our whole family had them visit for dinner that evening, and after a load of explaining, everypony in both families swore to keep my gift a secret. Silver even apologized to me, and by the end of the evening we were dangerously close to being friends. The end of the school year was the last year of public schooling, and both Bronze and Silver ended up working in the mines. Of course, there wasn't much of another option in Iron Valley, you get out of school and into the mines. I, however, ended up working as a weather pony. Iron Valley had little use for weather ponies, but a few years ago the mayor had found enough to hire Soft Stone, and when she offered me a job, I just couldn't refuse. Soft and I were the only pegasi in town, and pegasi just don't do well in the mines. We generally just kept the ground wet enough to stop dust storms, not that they were much of a problem, and provided cloud cover for the exposed portions of the mines. I gave most of the money to my parents, so did Bronze, life isn't cheap and every bit helped. The little money I kept for myself started to add up over time. There wasn't much to buy in Iron Valley though, so I just kept the money. One day, Silver and I were out exploring. There wasn't much else to do in Iron Valley, and the difficult mountain terrain meant that the area outside of town was mostly unmapped. I had seen a hiding place when I flew over before, and as we crested the final hill it came into view: an old strip mine, only twenty or so feet deep, was perfectly hidden under a huge overhanging cliff. "This. Is. Perfect!" Silver practically exploded with joy. "I still don't know what you're up to Silver. Ya' mind telling me why we spent weeks looking for a hiding spot" I emphasized hiding spot with a hint of sarcasm. I figured she had something else in mind, but she wouldn't tell. "Well, now that we're here, I'll tell you. You remember that fight we had?" I remembered it perfectly. "See, I figured that sense you have to keep your magic a secret, you don't get a lot of practice, and you can't get good at magic without practice. So you have to practice, because it's no good for you to have magic if you don't use it." She kept going "I figured that if we found a place where no pony would find us, then we could, you know, practice magic" "You mean, like, fighting magic, right?" It wasn't a question of what she meant, but rather if she was serious. "Uh-huh, and 'cause we're this far away from town, no pony should hear us. It's brilliant!" She was practically gushing with enthusiasm. I knew that arguing with Silver was out of the question, I'd given up arguing with her about a half a year ago. We'd gotten to know each other pretty well recently. I trusted her, maybe not with my life, but more than I trusted most anypony else "Okay, when do we start?" "Right now!" She shouted, and the games began. For years, we'd come up to the strip mine to practice. We did it every day after her shift. She used what she'd learned in the library's books, but I found it was easier to just channel magic and make it up on the fly. At first she was way better than me, but I quickly caught up, and from then on we just got better and better. She learned how to teleport, so did I, I learned to turn invisible, if only for a short while, and so did she. Our magical skills just kept growing, far surpassing anypony else in town. It was great fun for both of us. Neither of us got our cutie marks though, which was a little disappointing. "Getting tired?" "Maybe..." I drew a struggling breath "a bit..." "C'mon hornless wonder, get up and hit me!" "Aww come on. Cut me some slack. It's my birthday!" "Did you let up on me when I turned nineteen?" I hadn't, and she saw fit to return the favor. "I give." I conceded "You win." "Damn right I do!" She broke into a fit of laughter. "Okay, well lets go, I don't want to miss my own surprise party." My family had been preparing it for a little while now, but I caught on pretty quick. I still had to pretend to act shocked, what's the fun in spoiling the surprise? Silver had faked not knowing what was going on, but I knew all of her tells. After all of our time together, we'd gotten fairly close. We didn't argue (she was always right anyways) we didn't fight (except at the strip mine, of course) and we didn't often lie, because we could both read each other far too easily. So when she tried to pretend that there was no surprise party, her face only confirmed that there was, in fact, a surprise party. The walk back to my family's house was uneventful. We talked about magic, and about what surprises definitely did not await me at my house, but most of the way we just walked in a friendly silence. It was dark by the time we arrived at the door, and I opened it to reveal Bronze. "Surprise!" he shouted. "It's your birthday." "Aww, thanks guys, you didn't have to." It was one of those things that you just say, but it was my birthday, so yes, they did have to. Bronze looked like he was going to say something, but Soft interrupted from the kitchen "So, you two together yet?" Soft and Bronze had taken to pretending that Silver and I were an item, and I suppose I couldn't blame them. From there perspective, we worked the same hours, and when we got off of work we both disappeared off into the countryside. Neither of us returned until late in the evening, when we would walk in sweaty and tired. So I was unsurprised by Soft's question, I worked with her, I got an earful of this every day. Silver decided that a real surprise was in order. "Yep! We had an absolutely romantic evening. Snowflake is just such a gentlecolt." "WHA?!" I was beyond shocked. She kept on going "Oh don't pretend, my little snow angel, it was a fabulous evening. We don't need to hide anymore." Bronze was cracking up. He just would not stop laughing. "She" he tried to speak but just laughed some more. "She even has a pet name for him! This is too rich." He fell over, and just kept laughing. My face must've been blood red by now, a white coat does nothing to hide a blush. The teasing did not relent, and for the rest of the night Silver glued herself to my side. When I was blew out my birthday candles (I did complain that I was far too old, but mother insisted), and the room went dark, she made an outrageous kissing noise. I gave up trying to defend myself after that. It only stopped when the Stones saw themselves home. With the party over I happily climbed into bed, shut off the lights, and closed my eyes. I was interrupted, however, by a noise. It almost sounded like somepony teleporting, but that was, well it was impossible I told myself. The only pony in town I knew who could teleport was... "Silver?" In a hushed voice replied "Yea, sorry." "What are you-" She shushed me "Quiet, your family would think the wrong thing if they heard us" "That's your fault. So what is this about anyways?" I turned to look at her, but I couldn't see too well. I lit my feathers, and her face came into view. "I..." She drifted off into silence "What is it Silver?" The silence persisted. I began to worry, this was all so strange. Silver usually just said what she thought, she was never at a loss for words. She was just staring at me, we were just staring into each other's eyes. I was about to say something when she spoke again. "I'm sorry Snowflake." I was going to tell her that It was no big deal, that it was still a fun party, that it was all okay. I opened my mouth to speak and then she kissed me. It wasn't long, but it didn't matter, it got the message across. "I'm sorry. I'll just go." And before I could say a thing she disappeared. "No, wait!" I spoke too late. I panicked, she was sad and it was my fault. I teleported as far up as I could, straight out of bed, through the roof, and into the air above. I spread my wings and quickly scanned the ground, hoping to spot her. I noticed her sitting on top of my roof. She hadn't noticed me yet. I had to do something, so after a moment of indecision I flew down as quietly as I could and landed right behind her. I was greeted by the sound of soft sobbing. I had no idea quite what to do, but I knew I had to do something. I walked up next to her and sat down. "Silver..." I didn't quite know what to say, so I just stopped with her name. I didn't know if I loved her, I always thought of her as, well, forbidden. She was my sparring partner, and my friend, maybe my best friend, and she was crying. I had to do something, she was crying and it was my fault. I draped my wing over her back and scooted up next to her. She stopped crying, and looked at me. Her face was so close. "Do you?" she paused. "I don’t know" a moment of silence passed. "but I... I could try." "You mean it?" I answered with a kiss. This time not brief and cautious, but long and passionate. We finally broke from each other, and a long drawn out "Aww" broke the silence. The source of the noise was above us, and as we looked up only to see Soft was hanging over the side of a cloud. "That was just adorable." she cooed Silver's happiness was not to be spoiled "Shove off Soft, his brother doesn't spy on his love life, you should take the example." "Actually" Bronze spoke from the window, his head just peaking over the edge of the roof "you see, I took her example" "Bronze Alloy I swear to mother bucking Celestia, I will grab you by the head, pull you from that window, and let you drop." I threatened. I didn't mean it, but if you weren't my brother you wouldn't know it. "Soft'd catch me" He said simply. "Maybe, maybe not." Soft taunted from her cloud. "Now if you two don't mind, we were having a moment here" I said. "We don't mind" They replied in unison. Neither of them budged. "Could you, you know, leave?" Silver pleaded. They looked to each other, then, in unison again, "No." I decided to break it all up. "Okay, it's late, we should all be in bed anyways." I said. "I'll see you at the place tomorrow Silver." We just stared at each other for a moment. It's amazing that I'd never noticed just how pretty she really was. "Goodnight." I stood up, flew off the roof and through my window. Bronze, Soft, and Silver all went their separate ways, but Silver made a point of hanging her head over the edge of the roof to say her farewell in privacy. When everyone was gone, and I had gotten back to bed, Bronze opened my door just the slightest bit and whispered "Goodnight, little snow angel." I didn't even care. I went to sleep that night feeling a bit happier than usual. Chapter 3 - The BeginningIt had been about two months since my birthday. Silver and I were at strip mine, but neither of us felt like practicing. The silence that had fallen was ruptured only occasionally by a bird or a gust of wind. We sat back to back, looking at nothing in particular, we were quietly thinking. After a long while, Silver spoke. "There's nothing here for us, Snowflake." she paused for a moment. "Iron Valley is dying, and there's nothing here for us." "Silver, we have our friends, our families." "That's just it. All that's here is our families. You don't see what it's like in the mines, they're drying up." She waited for me to speak, but I had nothing to say. She was right, and I knew, the town was dying. "There is something out there, out of this town, out of these mountains. Snowflake, we have our lives ahead of us." "Silver..." I wanted her to stop, I wanted her to be wrong. "We can't live with our parents forever, Snow." Silver was right, I knew she was, but I didn't want to leave my family to die with the town. With reluctance, I spoke "Okay, so say we do leave: what do we do? Where do we go? We can't just run away." I needed a plan. "Well, you'll never be able to use magic publically in Equestria, right? And you might never find your cutie mark without it. So what if-" I knew exactly where she was going with this. "Silver, we can't just leave Equestria" "Sure we can!" She said "Listen, in the east there are the Griffin Kingdoms, just full of opportunity. They have all sorts of species, not just griffins, but ponies, wolves, zebras, catfolk, even wyverns. Everything imaginable lives out there. If we went there, you could actually live up to your real potential. You might raise eyebrows, but no pony would shun you for being a magic pegasus." It would be dangerous, I knew, but it was the only way I could use my magic without fear of persecution. Then an idea occurred to me. "Why don't we pay my birth family a visit before we go?" I shouldn't have cared about them, but I still felt a mixture of curiosity and anger. I'd never seen them before. Why had they had abandoned me? Why was I born a pegasus? Why not at least find a family to adopt me? I had plenty of questions to ask them. "Are you sure you want to do that? They left you, why not just leave them?" Silver meant well but I really needed to do this. I deserved some answers. "Look, it's only a two day flight from Canterlot to Baltimare, why don't you go and get us a ship to the Griffon Kingdoms? I'll fly to Canterlot, pay the Frosts a visit, and meet you in Baltimare. It'll get us out of Equestria a bit faster than if we both went to Canterlot." "You serious?" She stood up. Without her to hold me up I fell over backwards. "We can go? I honestly never thought I'd get you to leave!" She was ecstatic, bouncing up and down around my prone form and smiling all the while. "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Let's go." Suddenly I was hoisted upright and into the air by a familiar red magic. Silver had decided to drag me along. "Silver, put me down!" I was promptly dropped, and only my wings saved my face from an imminent collision with the ground. "I still have to tell my family. I want to convince them to move out." I probably couldn't get my parents, but maybe Bronze would leave. We walked back to town, finalizing our plans. It would take me most of a day to fly to Canterlot, and so I'd have to spend the night. I'd have the next day to find my birth parents, Dew Frost my father, and Night Frost my mother. The Frost family was nobility, so records of their names were not hard to come by, but getting to talk to them might be difficult. After that, I'd fly for two days to Baltimare, where Silver and I would get a ship out of Equestria. She would leave Iron Valley the same time as I, Baltimare was a good three day hike, two at a hurried pace. She'd get there first, but only by a day or so. We decided that we should meet outside the train station, simply because we knew there was a train station. If we had a hard time finding each other, we'd just launch magic fireworks. Duh. By the time that town was in sight, we had agreed that we would leave tomorrow. I would only have this evening to convince my family to leave. Silver and I parted ways and I returned home. Our family house was in a state of disrepair. As I walked up, I noticed a new patch where some of the sun dried paint had flaked off. The fence around what served as a yard was falling apart. I'd always known that the house was this bad, it just never seemed to matter until now. I opened the creaky door and walked into the kitchen. The clop-clop-clop of my hooves was overshadowed by the creaking of the floor. I walked up to my room and retrieved my stash of bits. 7 years of savings in this town equated to no more than a thousand five hundred bits. I would need saddlebags, but all I had were those old school bags. I hadn't worn them in forever, and when I tried them on, it became clear that the straps would just not fit. I would have to take a trip to the general store. I turned to leave, only to have my path blocked by Bronze. "What were you doing?" he asked. "Bronze, there you are. Look, I'm leaving, and you should too. This town has no future, and you have a life to live." I hoped that would be enough, but in retrospect, I should have taken things a little slower. "You're doing what now?" He looked at me like I was crazy. "I'm leaving." I repeated, pausing a little in the middle. "I thought I'd misheard you." He sighed "You can't just take off and leave mom and dad here." "They're miners, that's all they know, they won't leave. I hope you will though, hell, maybe you can get them to go with you. I want you to find a place, find some town where you don't have to live like this. Live your life Bronze." He looked torn. I think he knew I was right, and just didn't want to give up. "I... I can't. Mom and dad-" "Can make their own decisions." I interrupted. "You're nineteen Bronze, you should be going places, doing things, moving forward. You don't belong here." He looked unmoved "If you need proof, look at your flank." Almost everypony in Iron Valley had a mining related cutie mark, mom and dad had pickaxes for theirs. Bronze, like Silver and I, had no cutie mark. It might have been a low blow, calling him a blankflank, but if it got him moving than it was worth it. I picked up my bit bag in my mouth and flew out my window. When I touched down, I stowed the bits under my wing. The coins pressed up against my fur and made me feel a little more confident. I strolled along with a bounce in my step, I was finally doing something. I felt all giddy, like a child with a new toy. I had an adventure to get to. At the town store I purchased some tough looking brown saddle bags. I was about to leave when I realized that every adventure calls for some adventure gear. I ended up buying the bags, 50 feet of tough rope, a black cloak with a hood and wing holes, and a simple water skin. I also bought a nice knife. "Just in case." I told myself. I was about to pay when a sleeping bag tempted me. I knew I'd be sleeping on clouds, but what about after we left Equestria? I bought it too. I stopped by the market stalls to see what food I could get. I needed something that would last a while, I didn't want to be starving on my way to Canterlot, perhaps I'd even get something for the trip to Baltimare. I ended up with some oats, nothing tasty but they'd keep me alive. All in all it cost me one hundred and thirty five bits, leaving me with one thousand three hundred and sixty five. I told myself that I needed to keep track of money carefully, at least until I had a steady supply of income. I had no idea how difficult getting money in the east would be, so conserving my money could be important. I walked back to the house with my new gear. I wore the cloak, I don't really know why but I liked it. When I walked in my mother was in the kitchen. She was most likely preparing some sort of dinner, but I didn't ask. I knew that I'd never change her mind, so I simply asked "Mom, would you ever leave this town." She turned to me, and saw my cloak and bags. Her eyes grew larger, surprised, but she didn't comment. I think she knew this was coming. "No, never" came her reply. I understood her, I expected that answer. I only tried once more. "Dad wouldn't either huh?" This time, just "No." I knew I could never change them, so I didn't try. When my dad got back I just told them that I was leaving, that I loved them, but that I might never see them again. I told them everything, and they were surprisingly accepting of it. We had dinner that night in peace, Bronze said nothing about if he was leaving or not, and I didn't ask. I knew that my parents couldn't have taken it if they thought that they'd lose their other son as well. The next morning I awoke at dawn. My parents cried when I left, but we all knew it was for the best. I double checked my gear, then left as I often did, through my window. I would miss my family and my brother, but only one part of that house would I miss: my window. As I flew over the town I knew I had made the right choice. The grey ground, the pathetic houses, everything screamed poverty. As soon as I spotted Silver, waiting on the trailhead to the path down the mountain, I swooped down next to her. She greeted me with a simple "Took you long enough, hornless." "Yea yea, did you tell your family?" I didn't doubt her but I had to be sure. "Yes, yes I did." It was good enough for me. I'd miss her for the next few days, but at least I knew I'd see her again. With a hug, a kiss, and a promise to meet up in Baltimare, we parted ways. I only had one thing left to do. I took to the skies. It was late enough that Soft'd be working, and it didn't take me long to find the only other pegasus in the sky. "Soft!" I shouted, and she stopped shoving her cloud around. "Silver told me you were leaving, why are you here?" Her question made sense, but Soft was the only other friend I had. I couldn't leave without saying goodbye. "I'm here to formally resign," I paused for a moment "and to say goodbye, of course." I offered my hoof for a hoofbump, but Soft decided that a hug was better. "I'll miss you, dork." she whispered as we hugged. "You too" I said, and with that I left for Canterlot.
Chapter 1 - Childhood“We will not have our bloodline defiled by the likes of that… thing.” “Dew, calm yourself, that’s our son, like it or not. You can’t just leave him!” “That’s exactly what we are going to do! You never had this child. Understand!” “But-” “DO YOU UNDERSTAND!” “... Yes Dew.” “Good. Leave it here.” The talking stopped as suddenly as it has started. The room moved about as I was sat down. Wrapped in what I assumed was some sort of blanket, I couldn't move much more than my head. I looked into white fur and huge blue eyes, streaked red from the tears they were holding back. My mother's face was all I could see for a moment. Her head vanished from my view, and that was the last I saw of her. I looked up at the white ceiling, then over to the wall on my side. I was alone. Immediately I began to wail, making as much noise as I could, screaming, crying, shouting, sobbing. This carried on for a little while, me screaming followed by nothing happening followed by me screaming some more. I was shocked by the sudden appearance of an great yellow eyes staring down over a short white snout. I stopped crying immediately. I felt safe, and also tired, my eyes fell shut. I awoke with a start. It was the same dream again, the one with my parents. I remembered a little more this time, my mother's face, the image was stuck in my mind. I held on to it, I held on to the dream. It was foolish, of course, I knew my story well enough, it had been told to me enough times that I was tired of hearing it. I was born 12 years ago, to the Frost family, a line of pure unicorns who never mated with any but another unicorn. I was different, I was a Pegasus, all wings, no horn. They left me alone in a hospital room. Everypony knew what they did, but no pony could prove it. They claimed that I wasn't their child, and who could disagree, I was clearly a pegasus, and they were the purest of unicorns. It was simply impossible for them to have a pegasus child. I was adopted by my new parents, my father Tin Alloy and mother Copper Alloy. They were hardworking earth pony miners. My mother, Copper Alloy, had a deep orange coat, a curly brown mane and brown eyes and my father, Tin Alloy was an off white, with a darker mane, and silver eyes. They took me to my new home, in Iron Valley. Iron Valley was a small town, with only a simple school, a few local buildings, restaurants, hospital, library, that sort of thing. And the mine, of course, the city only existed because of the mine. Including the housing, the city probably consisted of less than one hundred buildings. It was just a short ways north east of Canterlot, but fairly isolated in the Foal Mountains. My family was nice enough. It was just my parents, my brother and I. My brother's name was Bronze. He looks like his father, but with his mother's brown eyes. He is younger than me, but only by a few weeks, I was adopted about the time that my mother gave birth. My name is Snowflake Frost. I keep my light blue mane cut short, it's almost white, but blue when compared to my pure white coat. My blue eyes complete the picture, and that plus my wings make me stick out in our old family photo on the wall. I feel right at home, at least usually. My name is from my biological family, they may have abandoned me, but they chose a name for me before I was born. While they can deny that I am their child, the abandoned baby in the room was still officially Snowflake Frost, whether or not he was a Frost child by blood. The laws were stupid, and I didn't really understand, but I thought it was fitting. They left me, but at least I got to keep my name. You see, my last name, I don't know. Sometimes it makes me feel like I'm not part of the family, the Alloys that is. Every time I feel that way, mom says that names and blood don't make family, It's who you care for, and who you love that counts. I shook off my thoughts and climbed out of bed, no reason to try and get back to sleep. It was early morning, but it was still morning and that meant I had to get to school. I squirmed out of bed and stretched my wings a bit. My room was small, but it wasn't a mess, I kept telling myself it was tidy, but the real word for it was sparse. All that occupied my room was my bead, a simple desk, the single textbook "Standardized Learning", a stack of parchment reserved for schoolwork, a single quill and a single inkwell. My family wasn't poor, but Iron Valley was. I never worried much about it. I had time to kill and, unlike everypony else my age, I was not allergic to getting wet. I stepped into the shower I shared with my brother and soaked in the warm water. One of the advantages of Iron Valley is that hot springs were everywhere, and hot water was not a problem. I let my thoughts wander as I slowly woke up. After drying myself, I flew out my window and down to the front door. I knocked, and my mother opened the door. "Snowflake, you can use the stairs." "But mom, this is so much faster." I whined as I walked past her and into the kitchen. Breakfast was quick and before I knew it I was walking out with Bronze at my side. We both ignored whatever warning our mother was giving us as we shut the door, the day had just begun. "Alright class" Miss Happilee cooed "That's enough for now, go ahead and enjoy your recess." The class rushed out onto the school grounds, and I with them. "Don't get hurt!" she shouted after us. The class dispersed out on the grey chalky playground, and my brother and I found ourselves alone, as usual. We knew enough ponies that we could join in on most of the groups, but no one else really hung out with us. We decided to see what was going on the closest little circle. We started to walk over when we saw little red sparks of magic, excitement spread on our faces. Our walk turned to a run as we hurried to see what was going on. When we shoved through the circle, we saw Silver Stone. Silver stone was grey unicorn filly with red eyes and a dark black mane. I knew her well enough, and she could be nice at times, but she had a furious temper. She had her eyes clamped shut and was obviously very focused. She was apparently trying telekinesis, but her horn was sparking violently, and glowing more than anyone would have expected. Suddenly the magic shot off and hit the little colt right in front of her. Red arcs coursed through his body and he tensed up like he had been electrocuted. "Ah-ah-ah OW!" He fell to the ground and panted for breath. "What was..." He wheezed and sucked in more air "What was that for?" His voice sounded weak. "I didn't mean to Florescence! I promise. It was an accident." She looked sincerely mortified by what she had done. "Yea, a really cool accident." somepony else chimed in, "how'd you do that?" "Show us again, show us again!" Silver Stone turned to the new speakers, "Oh, it was cool! Let me try it again." She practically squeaked with enthusiasm. They bounced off, leaving Bronze and I alone with Florescence, who had been forgotten in the temporary rush of excitement. Florescence was one of the many ponies we knew by name. He was aptly named- the little earth pony actually glowed in the dark. His coat was a light green, and his mane and eyes were the same, though his eyes were darker and his mane was lighter. "Hay, you okay?" Bronze asked. "Ugh, I think so." He tried to get up, but ended up falling on his face. I went and got Miss Happilee, who was not happy to learn that Silver Stone had just left him like this. She got Florescence to his feet, then asked "Would one of you two kindly take him to the school nurse, while I have a chat with Silver" Bronze beat me to it. "I'll go Miss Happilee" he volunteered, and just like that they were off. I watched him go, then turned my attention back to Miss Happilee, who had walked away and was now speaking to Silver a little ways off. They kept talking for a moment before Silver Stone hung her head low. Happilee seemed satisfied that she had learned her lesson, so she turned away and left. The instant Silver was free of Miss Happilee, her glare of death was upon me. I knew that SIlver was about to have an angry outburst, and looked for a way to get away. I tuned tail and ran around the corner of the schoolhouse, hoping beyond hope that Silver would just go away. Silver had different plans, she walked around the corner and shouted at me. "What was that! You told Hapilee on me! Why would you do that!" "I'm sorry Silver, I didn't mean to." I cowered backwards a few steps. "You're sorry? You're sorry! I can't believe you! What if she tells my father? I'll be in so much trouble." Silver's rage was building "Flo was hurt. We just got him help-" "I don't want to hear it. He was fine, he would have been fine!" She was getting really angry, and her horn was starting to spark. "Silver don't." I stepped back again and braced myself, wings coming up to cover my face. "Or what? You'll tell Miss Happilee? You won't tattle anymore after this!" She shot her new favorite spell at me. Five feet away, I cringed and closed my wings over my face protectively, slamming my eyes shut. The pain I expected never came. I opened my eyes slowly, peeking through my primaries, only to see a comically exaggerated expression of shock on Silver's face. I noticed her horn wasn't glowing, which made me feel better, but then I noticed that she was glowing blue. I thought that was pretty weird, so I lowered my wings to get a closer look, but the blueness disappeared. It wasn't just her that became less blue though, it was everything: the side of the building, the ground behind her, everything. While I was pondering this, Silver recovered from her silent shock. "You... You... That's not possible!" She seemed mixed between confusion, anger, and fear. I was fairly confused at the moment "What are you talki-" I was interrupted by another bolt of magic. My wing shot up to block it, surprising even me. More surprising still was the blue field of... magic? Her spell fizzled harmlessly off of the wall of light that had appeared in front of me. We both stared in awe, unsure of what to make of the situation. She glared at me. "This. Never. Happened." She turned and walked away. I noticed that my primary feathers were all glowing blue, like a unicorn horn, but it was a feather. I was too shocked at what was happening to say anything. Suddenly my wing felt exhausted in a whole new sort of way. I'd been sore before, but this wasn't like that, it was more like an emptiness, like a rumbling stomach. As I lowered my wing, the wall vanished, as did the glow from my feathers. The reality of what just happened hit me. I, a pegasus, had just cast a spell. A single thought resonated in my mind "What the hell?"
Chapter 2 - Growing UpI got home that evening practically beaming. I had snagged one of the books about magic at school and started learning magic the way that unicorns do, but using the tip of my wing in place of the much referenced horn. By the end of the day I could perform both telekinesis and the shield of magic that I had used earlier. I actually never found a guide to telekinesis, but as soon as I figured out how to channel magic through my wing it just sort of came to me. So naturally the instant I got home I wanted to show my parents. I did, and they were as shocked as I had been. Ponykind puts up a façade of acceptance, but in reality anything strange tends to get shunned. A pegasus with magic would probably find itself less welcome in Iron Valley than a zebra. Everypony would get spooked if they knew what I could do, so we decided it would be best if we kept it a secret. Of course Silver Stone had already seen, but my parents were pretty close to the Stones, my father and Ms. Gem Stone had grown up as friends. Mr. Jade Stone was a mine manager, he and his wife looked almost identical, dark grey coat with that black hair that their whole family had. In fact, they all almost looked identical. They were all some shade of grey with black hair and red eyes, and only the tiny details set them apart. For example, their pegasus daughter, Soft Stone, had a wavy mane, Gem had a curly mane, and both Jade and Silver's manes were unusually straight. Soft was several years older than Bronze and I, but Silver was in our same year at school. Our whole family had them visit for dinner that evening, and after a load of explaining, everypony in both families swore to keep my gift a secret. Silver even apologized to me, and by the end of the evening we were dangerously close to being friends. The end of the school year was the last year of public schooling, and both Bronze and Silver ended up working in the mines. Of course, there wasn't much of another option in Iron Valley, you get out of school and into the mines. I, however, ended up working as a weather pony. Iron Valley had little use for weather ponies, but a few years ago the mayor had found enough to hire Soft Stone, and when she offered me a job, I just couldn't refuse. Soft and I were the only pegasi in town, and pegasi just don't do well in the mines. We generally just kept the ground wet enough to stop dust storms, not that they were much of a problem, and provided cloud cover for the exposed portions of the mines. I gave most of the money to my parents, so did Bronze, life isn't cheap and every bit helped. The little money I kept for myself started to add up over time. There wasn't much to buy in Iron Valley though, so I just kept the money. One day, Silver and I were out exploring. There wasn't much else to do in Iron Valley, and the difficult mountain terrain meant that the area outside of town was mostly unmapped. I had seen a hiding place when I flew over before, and as we crested the final hill it came into view: an old strip mine, only twenty or so feet deep, was perfectly hidden under a huge overhanging cliff. "This. Is. Perfect!" Silver practically exploded with joy. "I still don't know what you're up to Silver. Ya' mind telling me why we spent weeks looking for a hiding spot" I emphasized hiding spot with a hint of sarcasm. I figured she had something else in mind, but she wouldn't tell. "Well, now that we're here, I'll tell you. You remember that fight we had?" I remembered it perfectly. "See, I figured that sense you have to keep your magic a secret, you don't get a lot of practice, and you can't get good at magic without practice. So you have to practice, because it's no good for you to have magic if you don't use it." She kept going "I figured that if we found a place where no pony would find us, then we could, you know, practice magic" "You mean, like, fighting magic, right?" It wasn't a question of what she meant, but rather if she was serious. "Uh-huh, and 'cause we're this far away from town, no pony should hear us. It's brilliant!" She was practically gushing with enthusiasm. I knew that arguing with Silver was out of the question, I'd given up arguing with her about a half a year ago. We'd gotten to know each other pretty well recently. I trusted her, maybe not with my life, but more than I trusted most anypony else "Okay, when do we start?" "Right now!" She shouted, and the games began. For years, we'd come up to the strip mine to practice. We did it every day after her shift. She used what she'd learned in the library's books, but I found it was easier to just channel magic and make it up on the fly. At first she was way better than me, but I quickly caught up, and from then on we just got better and better. She learned how to teleport, so did I, I learned to turn invisible, if only for a short while, and so did she. Our magical skills just kept growing, far surpassing anypony else in town. It was great fun for both of us. Neither of us got our cutie marks though, which was a little disappointing. "Getting tired?" "Maybe..." I drew a struggling breath "a bit..." "C'mon hornless wonder, get up and hit me!" "Aww come on. Cut me some slack. It's my birthday!" "Did you let up on me when I turned nineteen?" I hadn't, and she saw fit to return the favor. "I give." I conceded "You win." "Damn right I do!" She broke into a fit of laughter. "Okay, well lets go, I don't want to miss my own surprise party." My family had been preparing it for a little while now, but I caught on pretty quick. I still had to pretend to act shocked, what's the fun in spoiling the surprise? Silver had faked not knowing what was going on, but I knew all of her tells. After all of our time together, we'd gotten fairly close. We didn't argue (she was always right anyways) we didn't fight (except at the strip mine, of course) and we didn't often lie, because we could both read each other far too easily. So when she tried to pretend that there was no surprise party, her face only confirmed that there was, in fact, a surprise party. The walk back to my family's house was uneventful. We talked about magic, and about what surprises definitely did not await me at my house, but most of the way we just walked in a friendly silence. It was dark by the time we arrived at the door, and I opened it to reveal Bronze. "Surprise!" he shouted. "It's your birthday." "Aww, thanks guys, you didn't have to." It was one of those things that you just say, but it was my birthday, so yes, they did have to. Bronze looked like he was going to say something, but Soft interrupted from the kitchen "So, you two together yet?" Soft and Bronze had taken to pretending that Silver and I were an item, and I suppose I couldn't blame them. From there perspective, we worked the same hours, and when we got off of work we both disappeared off into the countryside. Neither of us returned until late in the evening, when we would walk in sweaty and tired. So I was unsurprised by Soft's question, I worked with her, I got an earful of this every day. Silver decided that a real surprise was in order. "Yep! We had an absolutely romantic evening. Snowflake is just such a gentlecolt." "WHA?!" I was beyond shocked. She kept on going "Oh don't pretend, my little snow angel, it was a fabulous evening. We don't need to hide anymore." Bronze was cracking up. He just would not stop laughing. "She" he tried to speak but just laughed some more. "She even has a pet name for him! This is too rich." He fell over, and just kept laughing. My face must've been blood red by now, a white coat does nothing to hide a blush. The teasing did not relent, and for the rest of the night Silver glued herself to my side. When I was blew out my birthday candles (I did complain that I was far too old, but mother insisted), and the room went dark, she made an outrageous kissing noise. I gave up trying to defend myself after that. It only stopped when the Stones saw themselves home. With the party over I happily climbed into bed, shut off the lights, and closed my eyes. I was interrupted, however, by a noise. It almost sounded like somepony teleporting, but that was, well it was impossible I told myself. The only pony in town I knew who could teleport was... "Silver?" In a hushed voice replied "Yea, sorry." "What are you-" She shushed me "Quiet, your family would think the wrong thing if they heard us" "That's your fault. So what is this about anyways?" I turned to look at her, but I couldn't see too well. I lit my feathers, and her face came into view. "I..." She drifted off into silence "What is it Silver?" The silence persisted. I began to worry, this was all so strange. Silver usually just said what she thought, she was never at a loss for words. She was just staring at me, we were just staring into each other's eyes. I was about to say something when she spoke again. "I'm sorry Snowflake." I was going to tell her that It was no big deal, that it was still a fun party, that it was all okay. I opened my mouth to speak and then she kissed me. It wasn't long, but it didn't matter, it got the message across. "I'm sorry. I'll just go." And before I could say a thing she disappeared. "No, wait!" I spoke too late. I panicked, she was sad and it was my fault. I teleported as far up as I could, straight out of bed, through the roof, and into the air above. I spread my wings and quickly scanned the ground, hoping to spot her. I noticed her sitting on top of my roof. She hadn't noticed me yet. I had to do something, so after a moment of indecision I flew down as quietly as I could and landed right behind her. I was greeted by the sound of soft sobbing. I had no idea quite what to do, but I knew I had to do something. I walked up next to her and sat down. "Silver..." I didn't quite know what to say, so I just stopped with her name. I didn't know if I loved her, I always thought of her as, well, forbidden. She was my sparring partner, and my friend, maybe my best friend, and she was crying. I had to do something, she was crying and it was my fault. I draped my wing over her back and scooted up next to her. She stopped crying, and looked at me. Her face was so close. "Do you?" she paused. "I don’t know" a moment of silence passed. "but I... I could try." "You mean it?" I answered with a kiss. This time not brief and cautious, but long and passionate. We finally broke from each other, and a long drawn out "Aww" broke the silence. The source of the noise was above us, and as we looked up only to see Soft was hanging over the side of a cloud. "That was just adorable." she cooed Silver's happiness was not to be spoiled "Shove off Soft, his brother doesn't spy on his love life, you should take the example." "Actually" Bronze spoke from the window, his head just peaking over the edge of the roof "you see, I took her example" "Bronze Alloy I swear to mother bucking Celestia, I will grab you by the head, pull you from that window, and let you drop." I threatened. I didn't mean it, but if you weren't my brother you wouldn't know it. "Soft'd catch me" He said simply. "Maybe, maybe not." Soft taunted from her cloud. "Now if you two don't mind, we were having a moment here" I said. "We don't mind" They replied in unison. Neither of them budged. "Could you, you know, leave?" Silver pleaded. They looked to each other, then, in unison again, "No." I decided to break it all up. "Okay, it's late, we should all be in bed anyways." I said. "I'll see you at the place tomorrow Silver." We just stared at each other for a moment. It's amazing that I'd never noticed just how pretty she really was. "Goodnight." I stood up, flew off the roof and through my window. Bronze, Soft, and Silver all went their separate ways, but Silver made a point of hanging her head over the edge of the roof to say her farewell in privacy. When everyone was gone, and I had gotten back to bed, Bronze opened my door just the slightest bit and whispered "Goodnight, little snow angel." I didn't even care. I went to sleep that night feeling a bit happier than usual.
Chapter 3 - The BeginningIt had been about two months since my birthday. Silver and I were at strip mine, but neither of us felt like practicing. The silence that had fallen was ruptured only occasionally by a bird or a gust of wind. We sat back to back, looking at nothing in particular, we were quietly thinking. After a long while, Silver spoke. "There's nothing here for us, Snowflake." she paused for a moment. "Iron Valley is dying, and there's nothing here for us." "Silver, we have our friends, our families." "That's just it. All that's here is our families. You don't see what it's like in the mines, they're drying up." She waited for me to speak, but I had nothing to say. She was right, and I knew, the town was dying. "There is something out there, out of this town, out of these mountains. Snowflake, we have our lives ahead of us." "Silver..." I wanted her to stop, I wanted her to be wrong. "We can't live with our parents forever, Snow." Silver was right, I knew she was, but I didn't want to leave my family to die with the town. With reluctance, I spoke "Okay, so say we do leave: what do we do? Where do we go? We can't just run away." I needed a plan. "Well, you'll never be able to use magic publically in Equestria, right? And you might never find your cutie mark without it. So what if-" I knew exactly where she was going with this. "Silver, we can't just leave Equestria" "Sure we can!" She said "Listen, in the east there are the Griffin Kingdoms, just full of opportunity. They have all sorts of species, not just griffins, but ponies, wolves, zebras, catfolk, even wyverns. Everything imaginable lives out there. If we went there, you could actually live up to your real potential. You might raise eyebrows, but no pony would shun you for being a magic pegasus." It would be dangerous, I knew, but it was the only way I could use my magic without fear of persecution. Then an idea occurred to me. "Why don't we pay my birth family a visit before we go?" I shouldn't have cared about them, but I still felt a mixture of curiosity and anger. I'd never seen them before. Why had they had abandoned me? Why was I born a pegasus? Why not at least find a family to adopt me? I had plenty of questions to ask them. "Are you sure you want to do that? They left you, why not just leave them?" Silver meant well but I really needed to do this. I deserved some answers. "Look, it's only a two day flight from Canterlot to Baltimare, why don't you go and get us a ship to the Griffon Kingdoms? I'll fly to Canterlot, pay the Frosts a visit, and meet you in Baltimare. It'll get us out of Equestria a bit faster than if we both went to Canterlot." "You serious?" She stood up. Without her to hold me up I fell over backwards. "We can go? I honestly never thought I'd get you to leave!" She was ecstatic, bouncing up and down around my prone form and smiling all the while. "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Let's go." Suddenly I was hoisted upright and into the air by a familiar red magic. Silver had decided to drag me along. "Silver, put me down!" I was promptly dropped, and only my wings saved my face from an imminent collision with the ground. "I still have to tell my family. I want to convince them to move out." I probably couldn't get my parents, but maybe Bronze would leave. We walked back to town, finalizing our plans. It would take me most of a day to fly to Canterlot, and so I'd have to spend the night. I'd have the next day to find my birth parents, Dew Frost my father, and Night Frost my mother. The Frost family was nobility, so records of their names were not hard to come by, but getting to talk to them might be difficult. After that, I'd fly for two days to Baltimare, where Silver and I would get a ship out of Equestria. She would leave Iron Valley the same time as I, Baltimare was a good three day hike, two at a hurried pace. She'd get there first, but only by a day or so. We decided that we should meet outside the train station, simply because we knew there was a train station. If we had a hard time finding each other, we'd just launch magic fireworks. Duh. By the time that town was in sight, we had agreed that we would leave tomorrow. I would only have this evening to convince my family to leave. Silver and I parted ways and I returned home. Our family house was in a state of disrepair. As I walked up, I noticed a new patch where some of the sun dried paint had flaked off. The fence around what served as a yard was falling apart. I'd always known that the house was this bad, it just never seemed to matter until now. I opened the creaky door and walked into the kitchen. The clop-clop-clop of my hooves was overshadowed by the creaking of the floor. I walked up to my room and retrieved my stash of bits. 7 years of savings in this town equated to no more than a thousand five hundred bits. I would need saddlebags, but all I had were those old school bags. I hadn't worn them in forever, and when I tried them on, it became clear that the straps would just not fit. I would have to take a trip to the general store. I turned to leave, only to have my path blocked by Bronze. "What were you doing?" he asked. "Bronze, there you are. Look, I'm leaving, and you should too. This town has no future, and you have a life to live." I hoped that would be enough, but in retrospect, I should have taken things a little slower. "You're doing what now?" He looked at me like I was crazy. "I'm leaving." I repeated, pausing a little in the middle. "I thought I'd misheard you." He sighed "You can't just take off and leave mom and dad here." "They're miners, that's all they know, they won't leave. I hope you will though, hell, maybe you can get them to go with you. I want you to find a place, find some town where you don't have to live like this. Live your life Bronze." He looked torn. I think he knew I was right, and just didn't want to give up. "I... I can't. Mom and dad-" "Can make their own decisions." I interrupted. "You're nineteen Bronze, you should be going places, doing things, moving forward. You don't belong here." He looked unmoved "If you need proof, look at your flank." Almost everypony in Iron Valley had a mining related cutie mark, mom and dad had pickaxes for theirs. Bronze, like Silver and I, had no cutie mark. It might have been a low blow, calling him a blankflank, but if it got him moving than it was worth it. I picked up my bit bag in my mouth and flew out my window. When I touched down, I stowed the bits under my wing. The coins pressed up against my fur and made me feel a little more confident. I strolled along with a bounce in my step, I was finally doing something. I felt all giddy, like a child with a new toy. I had an adventure to get to. At the town store I purchased some tough looking brown saddle bags. I was about to leave when I realized that every adventure calls for some adventure gear. I ended up buying the bags, 50 feet of tough rope, a black cloak with a hood and wing holes, and a simple water skin. I also bought a nice knife. "Just in case." I told myself. I was about to pay when a sleeping bag tempted me. I knew I'd be sleeping on clouds, but what about after we left Equestria? I bought it too. I stopped by the market stalls to see what food I could get. I needed something that would last a while, I didn't want to be starving on my way to Canterlot, perhaps I'd even get something for the trip to Baltimare. I ended up with some oats, nothing tasty but they'd keep me alive. All in all it cost me one hundred and thirty five bits, leaving me with one thousand three hundred and sixty five. I told myself that I needed to keep track of money carefully, at least until I had a steady supply of income. I had no idea how difficult getting money in the east would be, so conserving my money could be important. I walked back to the house with my new gear. I wore the cloak, I don't really know why but I liked it. When I walked in my mother was in the kitchen. She was most likely preparing some sort of dinner, but I didn't ask. I knew that I'd never change her mind, so I simply asked "Mom, would you ever leave this town." She turned to me, and saw my cloak and bags. Her eyes grew larger, surprised, but she didn't comment. I think she knew this was coming. "No, never" came her reply. I understood her, I expected that answer. I only tried once more. "Dad wouldn't either huh?" This time, just "No." I knew I could never change them, so I didn't try. When my dad got back I just told them that I was leaving, that I loved them, but that I might never see them again. I told them everything, and they were surprisingly accepting of it. We had dinner that night in peace, Bronze said nothing about if he was leaving or not, and I didn't ask. I knew that my parents couldn't have taken it if they thought that they'd lose their other son as well. The next morning I awoke at dawn. My parents cried when I left, but we all knew it was for the best. I double checked my gear, then left as I often did, through my window. I would miss my family and my brother, but only one part of that house would I miss: my window. As I flew over the town I knew I had made the right choice. The grey ground, the pathetic houses, everything screamed poverty. As soon as I spotted Silver, waiting on the trailhead to the path down the mountain, I swooped down next to her. She greeted me with a simple "Took you long enough, hornless." "Yea yea, did you tell your family?" I didn't doubt her but I had to be sure. "Yes, yes I did." It was good enough for me. I'd miss her for the next few days, but at least I knew I'd see her again. With a hug, a kiss, and a promise to meet up in Baltimare, we parted ways. I only had one thing left to do. I took to the skies. It was late enough that Soft'd be working, and it didn't take me long to find the only other pegasus in the sky. "Soft!" I shouted, and she stopped shoving her cloud around. "Silver told me you were leaving, why are you here?" Her question made sense, but Soft was the only other friend I had. I couldn't leave without saying goodbye. "I'm here to formally resign," I paused for a moment "and to say goodbye, of course." I offered my hoof for a hoofbump, but Soft decided that a hug was better. "I'll miss you, dork." she whispered as we hugged. "You too" I said, and with that I left for Canterlot.
