The town I grew up in was very plain. In fact, I don’t think it even had a name. It was in the middle of nowhere and all of it’s inhabitants were earth ponies.
Except for me.
As you can clearly see, I am a pegasus. My parents wanted me to fit in with all of the other fillies, so they made me wear a cloak to hide my wings. I wasn’t aloud to fly either. It was a very confusing time in my life. I was being forced to be something I wasn’t born to be.
For years I couldn’t figure out why I had wings while others around me didn’t. Then, one glorious day, I happened upon an old family picture book. I was cleaning out the attic as my father told me to when I found it. In the book I found pictures of my great great great grandpa. He was a pegasus just like me! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Not only that but he was a professional speed flyer. I took the book and showed it to my dad, asking him why he hadn’t told me about this before.
“Put that book back where you found it! Your great great great grandpa Bolt was a disgrace to this family. Ask anyone of our family members.”
Despite my father’s orders I took the book and hid it in my room. When ever I was sad or lonely I would look at the pictures and imagine myself in them. The only problem was, due to my parents no flying rule, I didn’t know how to fly. I made it a mission to teach myself how so I could show my parents they were wrong about my wings and Bolt.
After years of jumping off of the edge of my bed, I had finally learned how to fly and I was ready to show my parents. But every time I tried to show them, they would be busy or I would lose courage and back away. It was the strangest time in my young adult life. I was living two different lives. One for my parents and for my town, and another for myself locked up in my room.
Then it happened. The day my friends saw who I really was.
I don't know why, but on the morning of my twenty-second birthday I woke up feeling different. The cloak that I had worn everyday sense my filly hood no longer looked as appealing to me as before. In fact, the sight of it made me want to puke. It resembled everything I wasn't; an earth pony. So, instead of putting on my coat, I stood up from out of my bed and stretched my wings into the air. I opened my window, the sound of busy ponies filling my ears.
"Honey! Come down for your birthday breakfast!" my mother called to me.
I knew I didn't have a lot of time to do what I was going to do. So I put my front hooves on the window sill and looked down. Now, you'd think as a pegasus I wouldn't have a fear of heights. But as I said before, I was raised as an earth pony, so my instincts weren't as sharp as the normal flying pony. My heart had never beat that fast before; it scared me.
"Honey. . .?" the sound of my mother's hoofsteps echoed up the stairs. "Neon dear, it's time to get up."
I panicked, not sure if I should abondon my crazy feelings before my mother opened my door or if I should dive out of the window. Now or never, Neon. I thought to myself as I leaned forward. I spread my wings out to their full length, taking in a deep breath of fresh desert air.
I jumped just in time to hear my mother scream.
No words could describe the emotions I felt as I took flight. The sounds of gasps and yells met my ears as I flew over my town mates. The sound that pierced it's way through all the rest was my mother screeching for my father to come and look at their failure of a son. I knew at that moment that I could never go back to them. I knew that I couldn't live in that nameless city any longer. So I flew away. I flew and I didn't stop flapping my poor underused wings until I crashed from exhaustion.
My lungs burned as I found my footing on the ground. At first I was confused as to were I was. It seemed as if I was in the Everfree Forest but that was impossible. A pony couldn't to fly from my town to here in only one day. Shaking off my confusion I made my way to a nearby town, Ponyville. I remember my family visiting there back when I was only a small filly; my dad had business to take care of in the city.
"Hey! Fluttershy! Come here!" a pony said somewhere above me. "There's a pony over here and he looks pretty beat up. . ."
I was met by two beautiful mares. One with a light blue coat and hair made of rainbows. The other was yellow with smooth long pink hair. They helped me into town, where I was greeted by ponies of every different size, shape, color, and type. It made me smile. Somehow this strange town made me feel at home.
"So!" Rainbow Dash, the rainbow colored one, asked, "how did you get your cutie mark?"
"Cutie mark?" I looked at my flank and almost fainted. Their, in a space that had been blank my entire life, was my cutie mark; a neon pink star with a cyan and white lightning bolt coming out of the bottom.
"Looks like you're a speed demon like me." the mare joked.
I smiled at her. "Yeah. I guess I am." I held my head with pride as I walked with her. Somewhere deep inside of me I knew that my parents would have been proud. Maybe not today, but hopefully sometime in the future.
