The whacky adventures of Pond Water the Unicorn!

by The PatioHeater

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Slice of Life, Sad, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 38156

The story of a Unicorn and her troubles through life, thanks to her deformity.

Join Pond Water, a Unicorn all the way from Trotland, as she lives her life, starting from beginnings of hardships and great misfortune, to her adulthood, where things didn't get much better.

Published 2012-06-06 11:44:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-07-03 08:36:56 UTC

Chapter I

There is said to be another land other than Equestria on this world. One barely anypony has heard of.
And why would they? It was very small, not even half the size of Equestria. It is also an island in the middle of The Mare, the one continuous ocean of the planet.
It was barely inhabited due to the harsh nature of the environment, it was mostly swamps and moorland, thick forests where all manner of creatures lived, hundreds of Lochs and not much else. There is only one major settlement on this island, about the size of Canterlot, it was named after the island itself and sat upon the coastline, looking out over The Mare.
This place is Trotland. Land of the Unicorns.
Only unicorns lived here, as this is where they originated before those few, long forgotten adventurers among them took to the seas and spread their ways amongst the Earth Ponies and Pegasi.

This is a story that follows the life of a certain Unicorn mare. It isn’t a particularly happy story. Right from the start of her life she had problems, she was born already losing. Her name is Pond Water.

– P –

It was a dreary day, as was the norm in Trotland, it consistently looked as though it was about to rain throughout the year.
The overcast sky made the inhabitants of the city very solemn, casting a feeling of grey and dullness about the air.
But despite all this, it was the happiest day ever for two Unicorns, for their child was about to be born. These two Unicorns were Silver Mirror, the mother, a grey mare with eyes the shadow of her former beauty, and Bronze Wheel, the father, a Stallion of tan fur and a stressed heart.
The mother was in pain, naturally, screaming with anger at all those in the room with her. The father was trying to cool her anger and pain but to no avail.
“Push, dear, push!” he cheered, trying to be supportive, but this didn’t help.
After what seemed like eons to everypony, a Unicorn was born. The mother sighed and panted with relief, laughing slightly at the fact the pain was over.
“Well done, honey.” The father kissed her on her sweat soaked forehead and held her hoof, then asked the doctor the usual question.
“Well Doctor, what is it?”
The Doctor didn’t reply. The Father looked up and saw confusion in the Doctor’s face, which shot fear into his heart.
“Doctor?” he asked nervously.
Again the Doctor said nothing as the Midwife took the child away.
“Can’t we see our child?” The father asked angrily. The Doctor shook his head as he headed for the door.
Before he left, the Doctor spoke over his shoulder, very quietly, “It’s a girl.”
The door clicked shut behind the Doctor.

The father felt disappointed, he wanted a boy. The mother couldn’t care less at the moment, she was just glad the ordeal was over, but she liked the sound of having a little filly which could grow up in her image.
“Oh Bronze, it’s a girl,” Silver said happily.
“I know.” Bronze barely responded to this, he was more confused by the Doctor and why they couldn’t see their baby.
“So are we still sticking with the name we chose ages ago?” Silver asked just to make sure they were.
“I don’t see why not. Goldstar Wheel, wasn’t it?” He smiled at Silver.
Goldstar was her birth name, but it shall not remain this forever.
“Goldstar Mirror-Wheel, I’ll have you know.”
“Yeah I know, I'm just playing with you.” Bronze walked up to his wife and whispered into her ear. “You need your rest. I'm going to go and find the Doctor and see our baby.”
Silver nodded and shut her eyes, sleep came easy to her. Bronze lightly stroked her dark silver mane once before leaving the room.

Bronze walked through the corridors of the hospital and headed to the Maternity wing where the newborns were.
There was a crowd gathered around one of the rooms, all trying to get a glimpse of what was inside. The Doctor barged out and waved a hoof at Bronze, calling him over.
Bronze followed his hoof and went inside the room. There was nopony but him, the Doctor and the Midwife.
“Mr Wheel,” the Doctor said solemnly. “I'm afraid there something wrong with your daughter.” The expression on the Doctor’s face did not inspire confidence.
“What is it?” Bronze asked nervously.
The Doctor sighed and shook his head, he didn’t know how to say it, and so he stepped aside so Bronze could see.
Bronze stepped forward hesitantly, scared at what he might see. He looked over the edge of the cot.
She was a beautiful baby. Her coat was a dark, murky green, but its colour wasn’t as off-putting as it may sound, it was warm and inviting. Her eyes were a deep orange, although they were obscured from sight at the moment by her sleeping eyelids. A whip of mane was already growing on a head, a thin streak of orangey-brown hair ran from the top of her head and down the back of her neck slightly.
But Bronze didn’t notice any of this. His horrified eyes were drawn to her forehead. Pond, once known as Goldstar, was, and remains to this day, a Unicorn. But a Unicorn without a horn.

Bronze recoiled in horror and shock. Never before had he seen a Pony without a horn. In fact nopony in Trotland had.
She was the first hornless Pony in Trotland. And the first hornless Unicorn ever. It was so unusual that nopony had a name for this, so medically she was known as a “Unicorn without a horn”.
Bronze was in utter disbelief. He couldn’t talk, he couldn’t even move.
The Doctor and the Midwife exchanged nervous glances. They were concerned for the parents of the Unicorn.
“Don’t worry. She is perfectly healthy despite the lack of a horn. It just might take some getting used to,” the Midwife spoke softly.
To any other Pony her voice would have been the most comforting thing in the world, but for Bronze it only filled him with anger.
“Take some getting used to?” he said in a calm voice that oozed anger. “Take some getting used to?!” he roared angrily, flipping a table over and throwing the contents of it over the room. “She’s got no bucking horn! How am I supposed to get used to that?!” he shouted at the midwife with amazing volume.
Goldstar woke with a start and began to look around with terror in her eyes, scared of the loud noises.
The Midwife mumbled something incomprehensible.
“Besides, what do you think will happen to my reputation?! When people hear about her I will be ruined!” he shouted with a threatening point at his newborn daughter.
The Midwife raised her face level with his. Rage boiled through her body, which erupted from her. “Mr Wheel!” she roared.
This shocked everyone, even those stood outside, she was usually so soothing but to hear that come from her was unexpected to say the least.
“This is your daughter! The most precious thing in the world to you! You will not let something as meaningless as a reputation as a slave driver get in the way!”
This was the wrong thing to say to Bronze. He may have been a hard and sometimes cruel boss, but he never consented to slavery.
“That is taking this too far, you fat bimbo!”
Goldstar started crying at the noise, the Doctor tried to comfort her.
“Ssh. Don’t cry, my little Unicorn.” He took her in one of his forelegs and rocked her gently back and forth, her crying ceased momentarily.
Bronze took a pause from insulting the Midwife, his work was done as he succeeded in making her cry, and looked at the Doctor who was cradling his child, trying to get her back to sleep.
“What do you think you’re doing?! Put her down!”
The Doctor did as ordered and slowly lowered her back into the cot, Bronze glared at him as he did it. Once she was lying back in her cot, Bronze took the blanket and threw it over the cot, covering Goldstar, obscuring her from view.
Goldstar started prodding at the blanket with confusion, trying to throw it off herself.
Bronze flicked the brakes off and wheeled the cot from the room, pausing momentarily to shoot one more rage filled glare.
The Unicorns outside rapidly dispersed as they saw Bronze nearing the door, and by the time he opened it they were gone without a trace.
Bronze headed back to the room where his wife was sleeping, leaving the Doctor to try and comfort a severely, emotionally hurt Midwife.

Minutes later, Bronze returned to his wife, with the cot squeaking as the wheels turned.
Silver woke up with this little noise and opened her eyes groggily, but once she saw the cot she was wide awake.
“Is that… her?” she asked hopefully, she had been looking forward to meeting her own daughter, her own miniature version of herself, ever since she was a little filly. But then she saw that Bronze was fuming, his face red with anger.
“What’s wrong?” she asked worriedly.
Bronze said nothing. All he did at that point was whip the blanket away and reveal their child to her.
Silver reached out her hooves, “Quick. Pass her here! I want to see my little Goldstar.”
Bronze took the child in a foreleg and walked over to the mother, who had her eyes closed, wanting to keep the anticipation for longer.
Silver felt the weight of the child gradually being fed into her awaiting forelegs. She opened her eyes. Her child was every bit as beautiful as she hoped. Then she noticed the space where the horn should be.
“What?” she asked confusedly, waving a hoof through the space, Goldstar’s eyes followed it, watching intently.
“Where’s her…” she couldn’t finish the sentence, some mental block refused to let the words leave her mind. Her eye twitched, something in her mind had snapped.
Her stressful job had pushed her to the brink of a breakdown many a time. She was constantly on the verge of one, and she hoped that her child would help relieve her troubled mind, but no.
All she ever wanted was for her daughter to be normal, which she wasn’t in the slightest. And now she had no idea how to react to this situation of having an abnormal child. So she laughed. Quietly at first, but then it grew into a terrifying, maniacal laughter which scared Goldstar beyond the point of crying.
Bronze walked up to his wife and instead of stopping her, he watched her, his rage still venting out of him, being helped by the laughter.
He looked at Goldstar, his own daughter, with a look that said “You disgust me”.

– P –

Goldstar’s parents are highly regarded among the upper class of Trotland due entirely to their vast wealth and influences in industry.
Bronze Wheel owns the island’s mines, mining Iron, Copper, and a lot of other things as well, but most of all was Bronze. He made a fortune in mining and the subsequent selling and processing of the raw materials.
Silver Mirror, once a famous model, was now a fashion mogul, responsible for all the up and coming trends in Trotland with her popular fashion magazine, and she practically controlled the textiles industry. This brought in a hay of a lot of money.
The combined wealth of the two of them meant them and their family could live in comfortable richness. They could even afford a Nanny for little Goldstar.

– P –

Goldstar was now two years old. The only noticeable differences in her were her increased size and her longer mane, which was cute and curly. Yet, despite her age now, she still didn’t talk. It’s not that she couldn’t, it’s more a case of didn’t want to.
There was still no horn, and there never will be.

It was one of the few times when Bronze ever spent any time with his daughter, and this wasn’t out of choice.
Their Nanny had gone shopping for them, since she’s paid to, and Bronze didn’t like Goldstar leaving the house with the Nanny, she had a tendency to forget a hat to cover Goldstar’s hornless head.
Also Silver was at work. Bronze was therefore the only Unicorn to look after little Goldstar.
He wouldn’t play with her or anything like that, he would watch her.
He liked to keep her in the sitting room since it was at the back of the house and only overlooked their vast garden, meaning there was no change of somepony seeing her.
She would trot around happily, humming slightly, although not in any sort of tune, without a care in the world, not a clue as to what was running through her father’s mind.
He would sit there, watching her. Not moving, not talking. The only sound was his heavy breathing, or the occasional exhalation of cigar smoke. The only movement he did was raising a glass of whisky or brandy to his mouth, and slurping loudly.
All the while, his eyes were fixated on the little Unicorn without a horn.

Silver had snapped. Her daughter being different to such an extent damaged her.
Every thought of her hornless daughter made her body twitch violently. She could barely be in the same room as her for ten minutes before having to leave. And when she did, she would always do the same thing.
She would go to her bedroom, locking the door behind, she would then close the curtains to bathe herself in the darkness. She then sat in the corner of the room and rock slowly back and forth while holding her legs.
She did not cry. It had gone far past that stage. Tears were for when she worried for her daughter. Now it was just the cold, blank stare, her mind thinking the unthinkable in regards to her daughter. She had no desire to fulfil any of these dark thoughts, but just thinking of them comforted her.

The Nanny was the only person outside of the four walls of the house to know of Goldstar and her hornlessness, and she was the only one to show any kind of affection, regardless of how little.
For Goldstar’s first Birthday she knitted her a patchwork Unicorn. It was hideous. It looked as if it was made from old sofas found in a tip. Such horrible patterns all sown together with thick red thread, and a mane of red wool strands.
But Goldstar didn’t care. It was the best thing in the world to her and she took it wherever she went, the furthest it ever got from her was when she dropped it on the floor at night by accident. And that’s still true to this day.

– P –

Goldstar is now four and a half years old. She was small for her age, very small, still roughly the same size as she was when she was two.
It would be distressing to most parents, but not hers.
She still refused to talk, only a few words were muttered from her in her life, none of which to people, only to her Unicorn doll which she called Winks ever since one of the button eyes came off. But even then it was only a few words, just to make sure she hadn’t forgotten how to talk.

Goldstar had learned long ago how to get through the doors of the house without help, which was great for her, since she was never allowed in rooms with front view windows before.
One night, when she couldn’t sleep, she decided to go for a wander.
She grabbed Winks before she left her room and headed downstairs. Little did she know she wouldn’t be returning to her room ever again.
She felt hungry so she went to the kitchen in order to raid the fridge.
She silently made her way downstairs. Her small hooves barely made a sound on the extravagant, highly polished, wooden staircase.
She pushed the kitchen door open and flicked on the light, illuminating something she had not expected in the slightest.
In the corner of the room sat her mother who had been rocking back and forth until the lights came on.
Goldstar looked at her for a second, she had never been so confused in her life. The sight of her mother looking so un-composed was so strange that Goldstar froze and stared at her.
Her eyes darted around the scene quickly, she saw a knife next to her mother, stained with blood, and her grey coat had too become bloodstained on one of her legs.
Goldstar was far too young to understand what was happening but could see her mother needed comforting.
So, for the first time ever, she approached her mother with the intention of love.

As she stepped closer to her, Silver recoiled, but not far, there was no more room behind her.
Goldstar was right next to her now and she looked into her mother’s green eyes.
Silver looked back into her daughter’s, for once not noticing the lack of horn.
Tears erupted from her as she grabbed her daughter and embraced her in a tight hug.
Goldstar hugged back as tight as she could with a huge smile on her face.
This act of love and affection from her mother was the best feeling she had ever had. This was the first time she ever felt like she loved her mother, and that she loved her back.
Silver started to mumble incoherently. She believed it was the start of an apology for not showing Goldstar the attention she all too well deserves. But when no words formed she gave up, and instead settled on holding her daughter, gently rocking her back and forth.
Goldstar let out a content sigh as she nuzzled her head into her mother’s neck, drifting slowly into one of the best sleeps she ever had.
It had never felt so good, for either of them.

It was a long time before anything happened, but what did happen was undesirable.
Silver had stop crying a while ago. She felt so happy. She opened her eyes to look at her daughter, she hadn’t noticed before just how beautiful she was and how lucky she is to have her.
But then she saw the space where the horn should be.
Then it finally happened. Silver snapped for the last time.
How could I love such a hideous abomination?! It’s wrong, it’s disgusting… it won’t happen again.

She glanced down at the bloodied knife…

– P –

It was later that night, in the early hours of the morning, a long time before the sun would rise. Silver wrapped her daughter and her doll up and stuffed them in an ancient pram. She then headed out into the cold winter’s night.
They walked for a while, and it was quite pleasant, Goldstar thought, except for the cold.
The moon shone so brightly, reflecting of the sea, revealing a landscape of pure serenity and peace.
They were walking along the waterfront together, not saying a word, as usual. But this time, after the moment they shared earlier, Goldstar didn’t care.
Silver then went down the steps and onto the cold sand, the pram glided on the surface with magical ease.
They reached the sea which gently splashed around them as the tide started coming in.

Goldstar was watching her mother curiously; for once she seemed at ease. This worried her, it wasn’t a happy ease but more of a relieved ease, as if all her troubles were finally over.
Silver applied the brakes on the pram then rearranged Goldstar, making sure the blanket was tucked in snugly and that Winks was tight in her grasp within the blanket.
Then her mother said the only words she ever remembered her saying. In a relieved sigh she spoke two words, “Goodbye, Goldstar.”
She turned and walked away.

Goldstar didn’t understand. She was scared and lonely, she didn’t know if her mother was coming back or not. Although this question was answered when she could feel the water pick up the pram and float it out to sea.
This was her first memory. And she remembered every single detail, right down to the smell of the sand.
For all of her life she will never forget the night her mother gave up on her and willingly let her drift off to sea to die.

Goldstar struggled to get free of the confines of the blanket in the hope she could still jump to shore before it got too deep, since she couldn’t swim. But it was far too late.
By the time she could stand up in the pram, the lights of Trotland were already fading into the fog. She sat down and cried.

– P –

This time of year, offshore of Trotland, it was a good time to go fishing, especially at night.
It was Night Trout season. These fish are rare and sell for ridiculously high prices, so it was only natural for a poor Fisherpony to want to risk life and limb for the slim chance of catching these elusive fish.
A single fisherpony was out tonight, he was the only one brave and foolhardy enough to go out on such a cold night.
This Unicorn was called Blue Water, he had a white coat, speckled with brown dots. His mane was a dark grey and he had a matching thin stubbly beard, but his beard was a consequence of being off fishing for long periods of time and not out of choice, as most Unicorns thought.
He was freezing, regretting coming out tonight already, but he knew it was too late to turn back now so he got down to some fishing.
He switched the engines off and dropped the anchor. His boat stopped. He then deployed the nets and drew his fishing rod. And then he waited. For a long time.

Hours passed, and not a nibble.
He sighed heavily and was either about to give up or go to sleep when he felt the first bite of the night.
He pulled back on the rod as hard as he could, struggling to stay standing against the force on the other end.
“This isn’t a Night Trout,” he said out loud to himself through gritted teeth.
He then saw the spines of the hooked creature poking out of the surface of the water reflect the dim light from his lantern, creating a full spectrum of colour, so vibrant against the night sky.
“Yes!” he screamed. “A Rainbow Shark!”
These were legendary creatures no matter where you’re from. If he caught one he would be set for life.
As he carefully brought the Shark in, not wanting to damage the line, he was distracted by a small bump on the hull.
He lost all focus and dropped the rod. The Shark pulled it away with him back into the depths of The Mare.
Blue went to investigate the source of the bumping. A small black box had got caught in his netting.
He dragged it on board and was surprised to see it had wheels. He checked inside the box, there was a little filly, barely breathing and shivering violently.
His eyes went wide and his heart leapt into his throat. This sight was one of the worst he had ever seen. A filly abandoned to the sea, for what he guessed must have been hours, on the brink of death, terrified him beyond belief.
He was scared for the child’s life but he managed to control this fear.
He took the Pony out and disregarded the soaked blanket. In her mouth was a small patchwork Unicorn which she refused to let go of despite her cold induced weakness.
Blue removed his coat and wrapped her up in its warmth.
His mind was no longer on fishing and money, and was solely focused on making sure the filly survived.
So he brought in the nets, not caring about the lack of fish in them, and he weighed the anchor. The engine came on and he went full steam ahead back to the shore and then back home.

– P –

Clear Water, Blue Water’s wife, had woken up to prepare for her husband’s return by making some nice, hot food. This mare was light blue in colour, like the sky on the few days of the year it wasn’t overcast, her mane was white but with a single long streak of dark blue running through it, it was always tied behind her head but seemed to poof outwards in all directions. She looked very homely, matching her personality perfectly.
The door slammed open.
Clear called out from the kitchen. “Blue? Is that you dear?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“Oh good. I was getting worried, you know. Did you get a good haul?”
“The best!” he said proudly as he carefully kicked his boots off.
“Really?” Clear sounded very happy with this, it was if she doubted her husband’s fishing abilities. “Did you catch a lot of Night Trout?”
“None at all.” Blue loved making her guess.
“Err… a Rainbow Shark?” she said hopefully yet doubtfully.
“Nope. Better.”
“What’s better than a Rainbow Shark?” she shouted back to him with a slight contentious tone. But she stopped as he walked into the kitchen and saw the small sleeping Unicorn wrapped in his foreleg.
“Is that...?”
“Yes it is. I found her drifting out to sea in a pram.” He looked at the filly fondly, his heart already stolen by her.
“What? Really? That’s horrible,” Clear was horrified.
“I know. That’s why I stopped fishing, losing my rod and a Rainbow Shark in the process, and headed straight back home.”
“Well I'm glad you did. Right, go take her into the living room, I have a fire going in there, make sure she gets nice and warm. I’ll make some soup for her in a minute.”
“Righty-ho dear,” he said as he turned and left the kitchen, eyes focused on the cute little Unicorn he held.

– P –

Blue sat on the sofa, holding Goldstar in his hoofs, warming by the open fire. He had swapped his coat which Goldstar was wrapped in and replaced it with a much softer fleece blanket.
The little Unicorn had finished sleeping and was itching to look around, but Blue kept hold of her, wanting her to stay warm for now, he knew the long term effects of pneumonia quite well.
“You’re a very interesting child, you are,” Blue said as he inspected the child.
“Where’s your horn?” he asked but expected no reply, but he did get a little shrug and a shake of the head from her.
“So, you know what I'm saying, do you?” he asked again, thinking that it was just a coincidence the first time, but it wasn’t as she nodded her head slowly.
“Well, that’s a bit surprising, I must say. You seem far too young. You must be… two?”
Goldstar shook her head.
“You’re not two? Well you certainly can’t be one so… three?”
She shook her head again.
“Four?”
Goldstar made a face that seemed to say “almost”.
“Four and a half then?”
Goldstar shook her head excitedly.
“Four and a half, lovely. And can you talk?”
Goldstar nodded again but with a hint of pride in her eyes.
“Will you?”
Goldstar considered this for a second, and then shook her head.
“Oh well, I guess we can use gestures instead.” He looked at the doll she held in her mouth.
“Who’s this then?” he asked her as he gave it a little prod.
Goldstar thought for a second about how she would tell him without words. Then she realised she could wink, so she did.
“What? Is it a secret or something?”
Goldstar rolled her eyes and winked again.
“Oh! It’s called Wink?” He saw no acknowledgement so guessed again.“Winks?” he said, to which Goldstar nodded vigorously.
“Winks, ay… funny name.” Blue looked at the doll a bit more. What an ugly doll.
“It’s a very pretty doll. And it’s very wet still, shall we put it by the fire to dry?”
Goldstar shook her head, she didn’t want to let go of it.
“Come on now, it will be safe, I promise.” His voice was very calm and friendly, so Goldstar, although reluctantly, released her doll from her grasp, and Blue placed it on the table by the fire.
“So what’s your name then?” Blue asked hopefully, but Goldstar didn’t reply.
“Well I have to call you something now don’t I?”
Goldstar rolled her eyes in an unknowing fashion.
“I'm going to have to give you a name then, aren’t I?”
Goldstar nodded her head.
Blue sighed, although he wasn’t sure why, he was actually quite excited to give her a name.
“Alright then, where should I start? Err…”
Blue couldn’t think of anything, his mind completely blank of ideas.
“How about…” He looked at Goldstar’s green coat, “Swamp? No that’s a horrible name. Um, Sea? No, that doesn’t work. Ocean? No, that seems more of a colt’s name to me. Hmm…”

Clear Water had finished making the soup and was about to bring it through, but she paused outside the door and listened to her husband talking to the little filly.

“Lake? Yes lake, that’s a good name. A beautiful name for a beautiful little child.” Blue looked at the Unicorn child he was holding and frowned. “No, that name doesn’t suit you… Ooh, I know! How about Pond?”
She didn’t know whether it was because she liked the name or because of how the Unicorn’s deep, sea ravaged voice said it, but it made her smile.
“Aah, I see you like the name Pond then. Alright, that settles it.” He held her up in the air, “I dub thee, Pond Water.”
Goldstar giggled childishly.
Blue brought her down again and hugged her, Goldstar hugged back.
Clear walked through the door now and levitated the pan of soup lightly onto the table, with three bowls and spoons following it.
Clear served up three bowls of the warm soup and tucked in.
Blue was feeding Goldstar seeing as she had no way of manipulating a spoon.

– P –

This was her second memory, and the happiest to date. She didn’t remember the details, like the other attempts her new father had at naming her.
The only things she remembered were the smell of her father, stinking of fish and the sea; the warmth of the fire warming her inside and out, and also the sound of her father saying her new name resonating in her head. But most all was the smile on her face.

This was the moment when Goldstar Mirror-Wheel was no more. Instead she would forever be known as Pond Water.

Chapter II

Pond Water, the Unicorn without a horn, was now seven years old. Thankfully she had grown considerably and was now only a little bit smaller than average.
Her orangey-brown mane had also grown quite a bit, her curls growing out into wavy locks. This highlighted the fact she was a Unicorn, as her hair seemed to be growing around something circular. This would have been her horn, if she had one.
She still didn’t talk, no matter how much she wanted to she could not muster the courage, so she was silent, well except when practicing talking to Winks, who by the way was still stained by the salty sea from years ago.

She no longer lived in the city of Trotland. After being left for dead by her birth mother three years ago and picked up by a humble Fisherpony, she now lived in a small town many miles away known as Mareton, a seaside town dedicated to fishing mostly, as well as some traditional crafts.
Her new adopted parents were two of the best Unicorns you could ever wish to have as parents.
Her father was Blue Water, the Fisherpony who had rescued her from freezing to death out on The Mare, the sea by which the town sat.
He was a very affectionate father to Pond, vastly more so than her birth father. He actually played with her and showed her love
He treated her as his own from the very first night when he found her, from the moment he saw her.
Whenever he thought of the circumstances in which he found her, in a pram floating out to sea, it made his blood boil. How anyone could give up such a sweet, little Unicorn was an unsolvable mystery. And what made it worse was the fact that nopony had come looking for her. Not a single word for a lost child had reached them. But even if it had, Blue would not have given her up to the parents who tried to kill her.
Clear Water was Pond’s mother, a housewife by choice. She always had something delicious to eat for when Pond came home from school. Whether it was a cake or just a hot cup of tea it was always perfect.
She was so friendly to everypony and so warm and loving to Pond, despite her initial thoughts.
As soon as her husband had brought Pond home she knew what he was thinking. She first tried to reason with him about how they were scraping by as it is and couldn’t afford another mouth to feed, but Blue wasn’t hearing any of it, he persistently fought to keep Pond, and he won with very little fight.
Clear always wanted a child but was told years before Pond entered her life that she couldn’t bear children, so having Pond appear was like a gift from the God’s blessing her, so as soon as she first hugged her she always knew Pond would be hers and nopony else’s.

The Waters were not rich, not by a long shot. They scraped by on the living gained by the few fish they caught and on the baked goods Clear sometimes sold. But this didn’t matter to them, they had what they wanted already. Something which money can never buy…

– P –

School was difficult, to say the least, for Pond. Her inability to talk was frustrating to everypony and severely hindered her learning.
Also her lack of horn was another large problem. Partially because of most of the classes required magic to do anything, but this was negligible when compared to the bullying.
Her parents expected this, and so did Pond when she was old enough to notice the staring eyes around town, but this was worse than ever imaginable.

The teachers at school didn’t do anything about it, and it was a collective effort by all the students to make her feel as horrible as possible. And the fact she didn’t talk only worsened the problem, not to mention Winks coming along with her everywhere.
Many a day she would come home to her parents, and they would see her injured body or bloodshot eyes, and wish they could do something, but had no idea what.

But in saying this, at this age she did experience one of the best weeks of her childhood. And it was all down to one Unicorn.

– P –

Pond set off to school as hopeful as ever. She could always put a brave face on.
Her saddle bags were full of books and pens, with Winks sticking his head out of the top of one. Pond was happily trotting along, admiring the birds and the sea, humming a tune to herself.
She was met with the usual greetings such as “good morning”, “hello” or more often than not a cry of “freak” or similar. But Pond was never affected by this, the insults from the strangers on the streets rolled off her back like water off a duck.
She always replied to the kinder Unicorns with a smile and a friendly nod since they were nice enough not to reject her due to her hornlessness. Plus she wanted to make friends in the town.
She was followed by the usual entourage of bullies, shouting names at her, but she ignored them out here. The fresh air made it easier for her to deal with her problems, it was at school when it became a problem.

It was morning registration. Besides from the one in the afternoon, this is the one time she is with her entire class before they split up into their smaller groups for different lessons.
This was a predictable ordeal. As usual most of her class had arrived before her and had taken their seats, still talking amongst themselves. But as Pond walked in they all dropped what they were doing to look at her, and shower with paper and other rubbish, singing out a chorus of boos and chants of “freak” or “Unic”. Them being young and foolish children they didn’t know what it sounded like they were calling her, they just thought they were just taking the horn out of Unicorn.
Pond had grown used to this and liked the familiarity of it, without it would make her feel very strange on the inside.
She made it to her desk, surrounded by empty desks as nopony wanted to sit with her, with very little paper hitting her for once, her agility was improving everyday thanks to this little exercise.
She removed her bags and placed them under her desk, earning a barrage of laughter as she wasn’t using magic to do it.
She tucked Winks’ head inside so nopony saw him.
She then slumped on her chair, head resting lazily in her hooves on the desk, waiting for the teacher to come in and start another bad day of school.

The teacher walked in after a few minutes. Her name was known to Pond to be Miss Doltish. She was not the best teacher in the world to say the least. And her glasses always made Pond smile with their ridiculous pointyness. Following behind her was a very nervous looking Unicorn, hiding away his head.
Yay a new classmate to bully me, Pond thought sarcastically.
“Good morning, class,” Said Miss Doltish in her dreary monotonous voice.
“Good morning, Miss Doltish,” the class sang back, except for Pond, who just smiled politely.
“Now class, today we have a new member joining us,” her voice was irritating as she tried to provoke excitement in her pupils, which failed, all of them were just staring vacantly in her direction.
“His name is Tesla, and I want you all to make him feel as welcome as possible.”
Like they did with me, perhaps?, Pond snorted mentally.
Miss Doltish stepped aside to reveal Tesla, a tall, young Unicorn of all shades of grey and white spread over his coat, all merging nicely into each other, his mane was a similar style. He was a very attractive Unicorn.
He’s going to be popular, isn’t he?
Pond sank a little in her chair. But then he turned and lifted his head to the class.
A collective gasp of surprise was heard, which brought Pond back to this planet, who wasn’t paying attention at all.
Pond looked up, curious as to what caused her class to do this, and she too was surprised.
Above his big blue eyes, where his horn should be, there were three. Three horns closely placed together in a triangle on his forehead, so technically he was a Tricorn but people stilled called him a Unicorn.
Once he saw the reaction he was expecting , he dipped his head down and looked at his hooves before going off to sit in the corner, all alone.
Pond looked at the sad Unicorn in the corner, she felt sorry for him. Although she doubted he had as hard a life as her, she definitely felt a deep sympathy.
As Miss Doltish was calling the register and children spoke back in the usual manner, Pond took a rolled-up piece of paper that had been thrown at her, unrolled it and scribbled a note, crumpled it back up and threw it a Tesla.
She was never very good at throwing, but with a great deal of luck the paper skimmed Tesla’s cheek and landed on his desk.
Tesla looked over his shoulder and saw Pond smiling back at him. He didn’t smile back, he was too nervous.
Pond gestured to him to look at the paper ball, so he did. He unrolled it and read the note. It read:

HI! My name is Pond. Don’t worry I am in the same boat as you. I am a Unicorn without a horn. Come sit with me!

Tesla looked up again, Pond was smiling at him and waving a hoof at him to try and get him to move. Tesla looked about the room, the rest of the class were talking amongst themselves again, and Miss Doltish had finished the register and was now preparing for lessons.
The only friendly face he saw was that of Pond’s, so he thought he should accept her offer of friendship.
He stood up hesitantly, not wanting to be told off by the teacher, and slowly walked over to Pond, choosing a seat by her side.
Pond patted him on the shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile.
“Err… hi… I'm T-Tesla,” he stuttered badly with nerves.
Pond nodded with acknowledgement.
There was an awkward silence. Pond still had a hoof on his shoulder.
“Err… so you’re Pond, right?” Tesla asked to break the silence, to which Pond nodded. Tesla was puzzled, he felt rude to ask but he did anyway.
“Can you talk?” his voice was very childlike when he said this.
Pond nodded.
“Oh… err, do you… talk?”
Pond shook her head.
“Oh…” Tesla could tell that this was going to be hard. But Pond always had the ability to communicate her thoughts very well, regardless of the fact she couldn’t talk. Those that knew her could just about have a conversation with her.
Pond patted him on his shoulder again. Tesla turned to her. She moved her eyes and head around, trying to say something.
“Huh?” Tesla did not understand
Pond facehoofed, slowly dragging her hoof down her face to convey her annoyance more effectively. She resorted to finding another screwed up piece of paper that was thrown at her and quickly scribbled another note, handing it then to Tesla. It read:

If you want to hang out with me then you have to learn how to read my face!!!

Tesla read it and laughed nervously.
“Err… okay! I’ll try,” his voice did not project much confidence.

– P –

Miss Doltish had seen that Tesla was getting on well with Pond so decided to put him in the same groups as her, which both Pond and Tesla liked very much, so in the time between morning registration and lunch they had learned a lot about each other.
Tesla was from the other side of the island, from a village much smaller than Mareton that sat on the foot of one of the larger forests.
He moved to Mareton after monsters, as Tesla described them, invaded and his parents decided it was too unsafe, and Mareton was the best place they could afford.
Tesla had also had a hard life, being a Tricorn and all. Admittedly this was more common than a Unicorn not having a horn, but still very unusual. The only other multi-horn Unicorn was his father who had two. But having more horns did mean a greater ability for magic.
Tesla had also learned how to talk to Pond. It wasn’t hard, you just had to pay attention to her movements and it was pretty obvious. He learned some things about her, but not about her birth parents, she never thought of them, let alone tell anypony about them. It raised too many questions which she’d rather leave unanswered.

The two of them were eating their lunch in silence, but only because neither of them could think of anything to say. But eventually Tesla couldn’t take it anymore and asked the first thing that came to his mind.
“So… do you like ice cream?” he asked, curious as to why this came out.
Pond stopped mid-sip of her juice box and gave him a look that said “what?” in a judgemental sort of way, making him feel incredibly dumb.
“I-I don’t know. It’s just too quiet,” He said trying to redeem himself.
Oh! Well you could have just said so…, her body said.
“But I can’t just say that! That would just make it more awkward.”
Fine. Suit yourself…
Nothing was being said again, the silence was growing unbearable.
“Gah! Fine. It’s far too quiet.”
Pond laughed. That’s better. You want to go for a walk? she asked.
“Um. O-okay then.”
Tesla and Pond stood up from the bench, replacing their uneaten lunches back in their lunchboxes, placed them in their bags, and then set off for a walk for the rest of lunch.

Their walk consisted of going round the large school field, but in particular the wooded area at one end, which they called “The Wild Area”. It was full of small friendly creatures like rabbits, squirrels and things that resembled miniature dragons, but without the fire. It was a very peaceful place, good for walks and talks.
Their walk didn’t offer much conversation, but the scenery was nice enough to distract them from the silence.
“Do you like ice cream?” Tesla asked suddenly, curiosity getting the better of him.
Huh?
“Well you never told me, and I want to know now.”
Of course I like ice cream! Pond gestured. Who doesn’t?!
“Good point.” As he said this the bell rang, and both Unicorns looked round, their hearts jumping into their throats out of shock.
Race ya! Pond shouted through body language as she started to trot off, waiting for Tesla to follow before galloping.
“Last one there is a rotten egg!” Tesla shouted as he sped past her, leaving her in a cloud of dust, not giving her an edge. But this didn’t stop Pond, she was quite quick despite her size.

– P –

The rest of the school day was uneventful, nothing more than the usual boring afternoon lessons with Miss Doltish and, of course, the pleasantly consistent barrage of insults which she now shared with Tesla, but her share was still the majority of it.
The end of the day finally dragged its way through the slow passage of time that is Maths.
The bell rang out loudly through the ears of Pond, who had spent the last half an hour fast asleep and dribbling on her books.
She woke with a start, knocking the paper on the floor that she had been covered with by her class “mates” while she slept.
She stretched up into the air and fell to the floor, ready to get her stuff together. She took her time, waiting for everypony else to leave to limit the amount of post-school bullying.
Tesla, too, stayed behind and waited for her.
Pond stooped down and lifted her bag onto the chair so she could fill it easily. She opened the flap and took Winks out, giving him a hug, feeling the familiar roughness of the coarse fabric against her muzzle.
Tesla failed to stifle a laugh, making Pond stop abruptly and hide Winks back in her bag. She blushed bright red.
“No it’s okay Pond,” He giggled as he undid a flap on his bag and levitated out a soft doll of a dragon, spitting a little bit of fabric fire. “I bring my dragon with me everywhere I go.”
Pond looked at his dragon and smiled at it, this gave her the confidence to get Winks out again. What’s your dragon called? She gestured towards the dark blue dragon with the orange spines.
“I call him Embers. What do you call him?”
Pond winked at him.
“Winks?” he asked, to which Pond nodded and smiled in acknowledgement. “Cool name.”
Thanks.
They then left school and headed home.

– P –

Tesla lived considerably closer to school than Pond, so after a few minutes they parted ways, leaving Pond to walk the rest of the way home on her own. But she didn’t care; nothing could touch her on this high she was on. She had made a friend.

It was half an hour before she got home, it would have been shorter but she accidentally took a detour through the town centre.
She never went through there normally, but was glad she did, there was a musical Unicorn there on that day, playing a guitar beautifully.
At home she was met by the usual. Her mother was in the kitchen waiting for her with a cup of tea and a small cupcake.
“Hey, sweetie. You’re a bit late aren’t you?” she asked, but not angrily, she was curious.
Well… you know… Pond gestured sheepishly, screwing her hoof in the floor.
“Never mind dear. How was your day?”
Her question was replied to with a big smile, very unusual for Pond since her days varied from boring to utterly horrible.
“Really? That good?” She asked excitedly.
Pond nodded back, equally excited.
“Oh that’s brilliant Pond. Just fantastic.” She ruffled her mane lovingly. “But what made it so good? Did you make a friend finally?”
Pond nodded.
“Really? What’s their name?” She knew she was telling the truth, but Clear would have been lying if she said she didn’t doubt her daughter.
Pond screwed her face up, deep in thought. How the hay am I going to tell her? How do you say Tesla through body language?
She internally sighed angrily, why can’t I talk?!
Clear could see her struggling and waved her hoof, signalling for her to stop.
“It’s okay Pond, tell me later. Don’t strain yourself,” Clear laughed.
Pond smiled at her mother, and then tucked into her cake.
It was delicious, as always, just the right amount of frosting to get the perfect amount of sweetness, there was also a very slight hint of lemon, one of her favourite flavours.
She washed it down with the cup of tea before trotting out of the kitchen and heading up to her room.

While in her room she emptied her school bag and put everything away neatly. She always was a bit of a perfectionist.
After this ritual was done, she took a tattered old book from a shelf. This was her diary, nopony but her and Winks knew about it.
She had been writing one for a few years now, ever since she could write well enough.
At first it was about her feelings and how bad the bullying was on a specific day, but then she got fed up of writing such gloomy and depressing things so she focused more on the good, what little there was.
She hadn’t written anything for the past few months. It was all the same so she found no need. But today she had something new to write, and it was happy. She wrote:

I HAVE A FRIEND!!! It took me long enough. He is a grey Unicorn with three horns, which is probably why I like him, he was bullied a little bit today as well, so that’s what we have in common, I guess…
His name is Tesla.

This was all she wrote, she was never the best with words, especially when trying to write.
She sat pondering for a while, trying desperately to think of more to write, but quickly gave up.
She closed the diary and wrapped the string around the book and carefully out it back into its place.
While she did this, she heard the front door slam open, and the sound of her father calling out through the house.
“Hello?!” his voice boomed, ringing clear in her room.
“That’s strange, Winks,” Pond whispered, “He usually isn’t home until I go to bed.”
Pond walked out of her room and headed down stairs to greet her dad, but she paused on the top few steps as she heard her parents start talking.

“Hello dear.” Clear gave her husband a small kiss, “Did you have a good day fishing?”
Blue sighed tiredly, “Not really. I barely caught anything. Only a few salmon and a couple kilos of krill,” his tired voice masked his frustration.
“Oh well. I'm sure tomorrow will be better,” Clear said in her comforting voice while she rubbed his shoulder.
“It better. I don’t think we’re going to last much longer if the fishing doesn’t pick up in the next few weeks.”
“That’s plenty of time.”
Blue laughed slightly. “I love your optimism.” He hugged his wife. His stomach was churning as if he was about to cry.
“Come on, I’ll make you a nice, hot cup of tea.” Clear led him into the kitchen with a hoof on his back.
“Why does a cup of tea solve all of your problems?” he asked, not expecting a reply.

Pond sat on the step, thinking of what she heard her father said.
What does he mean by not lasting much longer? Pond sat for a second before shaking it off then headed down the stairs to greet her dad.
She walked slowly, taking her time. There was no rush. She heard her parents talking a bit more.
“Oh! Pond had a good day today!” Clear said gleefully, suddenly remembering what Pond had gestured to her.
Blue nearly spit out his tea. “What? Really?”
“I know. It’s amazing. She seemed properly happy as well, not just putting on a brave face.”
“That’s wonderful. But you should have let her tell me.”
“I know. But I got too excited. And be honest, you would have done the same.”
“I suppose…” Blue looked around the kitchen, smiling broadly at everything. “You know, it’s when I hear stuff like this I wish I could hear it from pond herself.”
Pond walked round the corner and became visible through the kitchen door and jumped on her father, taking him by surprise.
She hugged him for a second and kissed his cheek. She regretted this, he stank of fish.
“Hello girl.” He looked over his shoulder to get a look at her, and he had to agree with his wife, she was happy for once.
“I’ve heard you had a good day. Did those bullies leave you be, finally?”
Pond thought for a second, then shook her head.
“Oh… did you do good in a test?” Blue asked her but very puzzled as to why, she’s done good in many a test but didn’t care.
Pond shook her head again, but not after giving her father a confused look.
“She’s made a friend!” Clear said quickly and eagerly, she couldn’t bear to watch Blue try and guess anymore, they would have been there all night.
Blue stared at her daughter with love in his eyes, he couldn’t be happier for her.
“That’s fantastic! I knew it would happen eventually! What’s the lucky Unicorn’s name?”
Pond had no idea how to answer that.
Why the buck cant I speak! Oh my god. I just used the word buck in that way. Where did I hear that word? Must have been Miss Doltish. She’s the only other grown-up I know and Mum and Dad don’t swear. Well… I don’t think so, at least…
Pond rubbed her chin with thought.
“Err, Pond?” her mother asked with a slight hint of concern, “Are you okay? What are you thinking?” she smiled, now she was just curious as to why the little filly was very deep in thought. So deep that she didn’t realise she was being spoken to.

– P –

The rest of the evening was uneventful. They enjoyed their dinner, delicious, as usual. Then they did not much at all.
Blue was always incredibly tired after fishing, so he just sat on a sofa, with Clear curled up against him. She was reading a book, as was the norm.
This meant Pond was left to her own devices, so she went and played in her room.

She loved spending time by herself in her room. She felt it was the only place she could talk, although she didn’t much at all, but it was still a very comfortable place to be.
She had various posters and pictures she had drawn on display around her room, although she herself detested them. She could see how bad she was at drawing, but she’d try regardless.
There were some various toys and other things she had collected on display on shelves as well, including the wind-up things she loved so much.
They were very random, a couple had wheels but the rest stood on tall spindly legs, and when they were wound up and released they would shake and dance across the floor, before inevitably falling over.
At the moment she was playing with some building blocks, and putting a great deal of care into her placement of the bricks, making sure the colours matched and that it didn’t fall over.

It was getting late, so her mother came to send her to bed. There was a knocking at her bed room door, the sound no foal wanted to hear.
“Pond, can I come in?” Clear wasn’t sure why she asked, she knew full well Pond couldn’t reply. Hearing the silence Clear took that as a yes.
“Alright I'm coming in.”
Clear pushed the door open and saw her daughter sitting on the floor, with her tongue sticking out at an angle and a look of pure concentration on her face as she placed the final brick on the top of her tower.
“That’s very nice Pond, but it’s time for bed now.”
Pond looked at her mother with sad eyes, whimpering quietly, hoping she would be given more time to play.
“Don’t try that look on me, little mare. Your father may fall for that but you know full well I won’t.” Clear pointed a hoof at her daughter to signify her authority at this point.
Pond sighed in defeat. She stood up and started to put her toys away, being careful not to damage her tower which she planned on finishing tomorrow.
“And don’t forget to brush your teeth. I can tell if you haven’t as well so don’t get any ideas,” Clear said with a little bit of pretend anger, trying to sound a little more like a parent.
Pond pouted at her mother, but she knew it was pointless. Her mother had a thing about dental hygiene.
She finished clearing away her toys, taking her time on purpose to annoy the mother who was watching her.
She then went to the bathroom to do the normal routine: brush teeth, wash face, file hooves if it needed to be done.
Afterwards, she trotted out of the bathroom and back into her bedroom, her mother following closely.
She grabbed Winks from the floor where she had been playing and bounced into bed, pulling the quilt over her and snuggling up into a ball, more or less.
Clear turned the light off.
“Good night Pond,” she called out from the door.
Pond waved back in reply, making her mother chuckle warmly.
Clear shut the door, leaving Pond in the darkness. Only a slither of moonlight through the curtain was illuminating her room.

Pond held Winks tight and shut her eyes.

– P –

Sleep eluded her. Pond tossed and turned in her bed, not being comfortable in any position her body would allow her to take.
Something was bothering her, but whatever it was, Pond had no idea what.
She looked up at the clock on the wall, squinting through the dim moon light. It was half eleven.
She sighed angrily inside her head.
Why can’t I get to sleep?! I have been lying here for nearly two hours now! What’s keeping me up?
Pond threw the covers off her body, regretting it instantly thanks to the cold, she then rolled over to sit rather than lay on her bed.
She sat on her bed, trying her hardest to remember the previous day, what everypony had said and done.

At first her mind drifted back to school. Nope, nothing out of the ordinary there. And I'm sure it’s not about Tesla…
Next was her journey home from school. Wow… that guitarist sure was good. Her mind went off into its own dreamy world. No! Focus. What is bothering me? It can’t be anything from town, nothing happened.
Her thoughts then turned to her mother when she had returned home. No, that wasn’t it. That was… normal, I think…
Something finally clicked into place as her father and something he said suddenly sprung to mind. That’s it! That’s what’s been bothering me.
Content now that she finally figured it out, Pond grabbed the covers in her mouth, rolled onto her back still with the quilt in her mouth, and promptly shut her eyes to get to sleep.

A few minutes had passed, and she still was bothered by it.
She threw the covers off again, but more angrily this time so they fell to the floor.
Pond huffed with frustration then rolled out of bed, her hooves making a dainty clop against the hard floor.
She knew that she was never going to get to sleep without dealing with it.
She grabbed the covers and threw them back onto her bed, straightening them out so they were ready for later.

“Wish me luck Winks,” she whispered quietly before tip-hoofing to the door.
She opened it a crack, temporarily blinded by the difference in light.
She was nervous about her mother catching her, she had always been far stricter than her dad so if she knew that Pond was out of bed this late at night she would probably shout at her.
Seeing that the coast was clear she quietly made her way across the landing, carefully avoiding the floorboards she remembered to be creaky.
She treated this as a super secret spy mission and had made it to the top of the stairs without being detected.
The next part would be tricky, every single step on the staircase echoed loudly as somepony stepped on them, even the light hoof of Pond could set these traps off.
So instead of risking being sent back to base and having to start her mission again, Pond grabbed hold of the banister and scaled down, slowly sliding her hooves down as sneakily as possible, switching her hooves over carefully when it came to grab the next hoof-hold.
This was tense work, so tense that Pond had to quietly hum the theme to the best Spy film she had ever seen.
Pond had finally completed the tricky descent, now she was in the enemy’s base.
She quickly took cover behind a table with a potted plant on.
She peered round, seeing that the way was clear and so headed for the next piece of cover making it without a problem.
She was nearing the enemy control room, it was only around the corner, but she knew this would be heavily guarded and that it would take a lot of skill to sneak past them.
She risked a glance round her cover, but quickly withdrew her head.
It was worse than she thought, there were five armed Unicorns guarding the entrance to the control room.
She didn’t want it to come to this, but the situation demanded it.
She drew her small silenced pistol from her flank and took a few deep breaths.
Afterwards, she jumped through the air, firing as she flew, making the gun noises herself.
She landed on the floor, five shots and five kills.
That’s what I call efficiency, she thought to herself as she blew the smoke from the barrel of imaginary gun, span it round in her hoof and then place it back in its holster on her flank.
She heard stirring coming from the control room, obviously the sound from her imaginary silenced pistol was enough to draw unwanted attention.
It was now or never. She knew that the bad guy wouldn’t be guarded so she ran and jumped into the door way while she drew her pistol at the same time.
She landed, facing the bad guy, pistol drawn and poised to fire.
I’ve got you know…

Blue paused while preparing his pipe and looked up, investigating what had made the light tap on the floor of the living room.
It was his daughter, hoof raised up and pointing at him, and with a threatening look on her face. Well, it would have been threatening it she hadn’t been so adorable.
“Pond. What are you doing out of bed?” he asked, not really caring about the time of night and the fact she should really be in bed. He went back to preparing his pipe.
Pond frowned.
Mission failed, she thought as she turned round to head back upstairs, but she suddenly remembered, with a little jump, what she was planning to do before she got wrapped up in being the world’s best spy.
“Are you alright, Squirt?” he asked, vaguely curious as to why she jumped like that.
Pond turned round and gestured a hoof to say “one second”, she then stepped out of the living room.
“What are you up to?”
Pond poked her head around the door and gestured for her father to be quiet, she needed to take him by surprise.
She looked at him, waiting for a reply.
He mimicked zipping his mouth shut, thinking that he should probably send her back to bed rather than play along.
Pond brought her head back round the corner and took a moment to prepare herself. She took a few deep breaths, each getting progressively louder and shorter as she got her heart pumping and adrenaline flowing.
She jumped back into the living room, and the moment her hooves touched the floor she did what had to be done.
“Hi, Dad!” she shouted as loud as she dared, smiling broadly as she did.

Blue didn’t know what to do, he was lost for words.
His mouth hung open with shock and utter disbelief, he would have dropped his pipe if he had been holding it.
This was the first time his daughter had ever spoken to him. The first time ever in his mind, he didn’t know about her talking to Winks.
Some half-hearted syllables dribbled out of his mouth before he realised he didn’t have to say anything.
His expression of shock turned to one of unbridled joy as his mouth formed a huge smile. He could feel tears of joy well up in his eyes, but he didn’t wipe them away, he let them flow down his smiling cheeks.
He stood up and jumped to his daughter, picking her up and hugging her tightly.
He fell to the floor, still holding Pond, and rolled side to side with her, just because he was so happy.
“You spoke! You finally spoke,” Blue said through tears.
The odd combination of pipe smoke and fish filled Pond’s nostrils, it was strangely pleasant.
“Well… yeah. I did.”
“Oh I love your voice. I’ve been waiting so long to hear it.”
He had to choke back the tears of shear happiness he suddenly felt.
“I love you, Pond.” He accompanied his words with a big kiss on the lips.
“Eeeew,” Pond said as she wiped her mouth vigorously.
Blue just laughed, he couldn’t care less about anything in the world right now, focusing entirely on his daughter.
A voice was heard from upstairs. “What’s going on down there?” Clear shouted slightly angrily, she didn’t like it when she could hear too much unexplained noise.
Blue looked in the direction of the stairs.
“Oh no, Pond. If Mum..? Mummy?” He had no idea what Pond had been calling them for the past three years.
“Mum will do,” Pond stated.
“Alright, if Mum sees you out of bed she’ll be furious,” his voice had dropped to a harsh whisper.
“I think I can talk her out of it,” she said smugly.
Blue smiled at her, still not believing she could talk.
Clear was coming down the stairs.
“Who are you talking to?” she asked, she always could hear more than she should be able.
Blue didn’t respond.
Clear was downstairs and walked into the living room, she was met by the sight of her husband smiling like an idiot and her daughter who should be fast asleep by now. She grew angry.
“Pond. Why are you not in bed?”
Her mother’s voice was very stern, but for once it had no effect.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she said happily and with a smile, as if she had been planning this.
Clear looked at her daughter, eyes wide and mouth agape. She dropped her toothbrush which she had been levitating.
“Did you just talk?” she asked with a laugh, her mouth curling into a smile with the hope that she did.
“Yep!” Pond said proudly.
Clear couldn’t move. She was transfixed on her daughter who she thought was physically unable to talk, but it turns out she really did just not want to, until now.
Pond started laughing.

– P –

Pond didn’t go to sleep until about half two in the morning, when her body succumbed to tiredness. She had been making up for lost time and told her parents everything, from her first days at school until today, making sure it was all in the correct order.
Her Mum and Dad were saddened by her stories of the bullies at school, they had no idea what they did to her in the earlier days. But when she got to talking about her new friend Tesla, they perked up again.
Pond talked passionately about him and told them all she knew about him, which took surprisingly long, seeing as she only met him the previous morning.
When Pond finally went to sleep, her father carried her back to her room, beaming with pride at her monumental achievements today.
He placed her gently in her bed and tucked her in, making sure Winks was in her grasp. He kissed her on the forehead and then left her to sleep until sunrise.

– P –

The alarm went off. Pond awoke grudgingly, knocking the alarm clock of her bedside table, causing it to turn off.
She rolled out of bed and stumbled about in her tired yawning state.
She walked downstairs, yawning as she went.
Her parents were sat in the kitchen, waiting for her with breakfast.
“Morning, Pond,” Clear called as Pond walked through the door.
“Morning, Mum,” Pond said tiredly, the fact that she called talk to people had lost its excitement, but her parents still beamed every time they heard her voice.
“Did you have a good sleep?” Blue asked, wanting to hear her talk again.
“Yeah,” she said flatly as she sat down at the kitchen table and started eating a bowl of cereal, she was far too tired to talk.
“Are you excited for school?” Clear asked hopefully.
“No,” Pond yawned and carried on with her eating her cereal.
Blue and Clear exchanged puzzled looks for a little while.
They looked at the clock and Clear jumped at the time.
“Oh, Pond, you’d best hurry or you will be late.”
“Okay.”
Pond jumped down off the chair and headed to her room to gather her things together.

She found her books and placed them in her bags along with Winks. She bounded down the stairs.
“Bye Mum. Bye Dad!” she shouted as she ran passed the kitchen door.
“Did you brush your teeth?” Clear shouted before Pond reached the door, causing her to stop dead in her tracks and turn around with a sigh to head back up the stairs solemnly to brush her teeth.

A quick brush later and Pond walked back down the stairs. “Bye again!”
“Bye, Sweetie!” sang Clear.
“Bye, Pond. Have a good day at school,” Blue said, but by the time the final words left his mouth the door had opened and slammed shut again, signalling that Pond had left for school.

– P –

Halfway to school and Pond was joined by the usual entourage of bullies, calling her all the familiar and annoyingly unoriginal names.
“Unic! Unic! Unic!” sang the three young colts in pursuit repeatedly, laughing every so often and pointing at the same time.
“You do know Unic is a colt with his willy cut off?” Pond asked casually without looking at them.
The three colts abruptly stopped, either because Pond spoke or because of the sudden realisation of what they had been really saying.
Pond heard the sound of their hooves against the pavement behind her stop and laughed, she had been waiting to do that for so long.
She burst out laughing and galloped the rest of the way to school.

– P –

Pond arrived at school, still smiling broadly and the few left over giggles leaving her body quietly.
She walked past the rest of her class and didn’t even process what they were doing. She was still on the high of defeating the first of her bullies.
She sat at her usual table. Tesla was already waiting for her, growing excited when he saw her sit down next to him.
“Hi Pond,” he said quietly.
“Hi Tesla,” Pond whispered mischievously.
Tesla stared at Pond, not believing he just heard her talk.
“What?” he whispered with equal volume.
“I said hello, duh!” she whispered still but in a very condescending tone.
“I know what you said, but you spoke!”
“Yes, I did. Now shush, I don’t want the others to know yet.”
Pond was planning something, but what, nopony knew.
“Why not?”
Tesla was silenced by Pond’s hoof.
“Okay, I won’t say anything.”
Pond smiled at him and then went back to waiting silently for Miss Doltish to say the register.

The class started to call back to Miss Doltish as she reached their names. Tesla said he was here and in a few names Pond would be called.
“Pond Water?” Miss Doltish asked, with her head starting to lift to check if she was there, but she stopped as her face became level with Pond’s.
“Yes, Miss!” Pond spoke loudly above the noise of the class, which soon ceased with a collective gasp of everypony.
After a brief silence, a small muttering could be heard of the class asking each other quietly whether or not Pond actually spoke.
Pond laughed.
“What did you say?” Miss Doltish asked in utter disbelief.
“I said I was here. You should really listen more!” Pond smiled cheekily.
Miss Doltish couldn’t believe it. She started stuttering out half assembled words but to no avail.
Pond started laughing hard again.

– P –

Ever since she gained the ability to talk to actual people, the bullying became less severe. It was still quite bad, she was still brought to tears every so often, much less frequent than before.
She gained the ability to talk back, and managed to talk back and even counter the bullying with great skill, she had always been smarter than the others and now she could prove it.
Tesla became a stronger friend, the fact she could talk meant it was much easier for him to get along and play with her.
They became near inseparable.
Pond’s parents were over the moon.

Chapter III

“That’s a big building,” Pond said in awe as she looked at the tower looming over her. She had to physically move her head upwards to be able to see the top of the clock tower.
“I know, it’s huge,” Tesla said as he too looked at the building, standing close to his best friend for comfort.
“Gigantic.”
“Enormous.”
“Ginormous!”
“Terrifying.”
“Yeah…”
The building in question was their new school. Now they were both old enough it was time to move to secondary school, and it was huge. Neither of them had seen such a big building, Mareton’s largest building is no larger than two storeys, but this was something else. It was hidden behind a hill on the outskirts of the small fishing village so they had never seen it before.
“How can they even build this big?!” Pond asked angrily.
“I don’t know. It defies logic.”
“Yeah…”

They were approached by a tall stallion, wearing a long black gown with half-moon spectacles resting precariously on his muzzle. His coat was dark grey in colour and had a white mane, which grew down the side of his face in the form of mutton chops. He was clearly the Headmaster.
“Good morning, little Unicorns,” his voice was calm and incredibly soothing.
“M-m-m-morning,” the two terrified foals stuttered back.
“No need to be scared. Here is a brilliant school that will help you and be kind to you. There’s nothing to be worried about.”
Pond and Tesla smiled back sheepishly.
“Now tell me. What are you names?”
“I'm Tesla.”
“And I'm Pond.”
“Well then, welcome to Mareton Grammar School. I'm Mr Scrupulous, and I'm your Headmaster.” His eyes narrowed as he caught a glance at Pond’s forehead.
Pond looked away embarrassedly once she noticed he was staring.
“Please, don’t shy away. But may I ask, where’s your horn?”
“She was born without one,” Tesla stated firmly, stepping forward and trying to take control of the situation. He didn’t like it when Ponies talked about her hornlessness.
“I see. I would have said you took it!” Scrupulous jested as he pointed a hoof at the grumpy Tricorn’s forehead, where three horns resided.
“HEY!” Tesla shouted. He liked it even less when he was being mocked for his horns.
“Oh come on now, it’s just a harmless joke. I didn’t mean anything bad by it.”
The bell rang.
The two foals jumped before cowering in fear at the loud buzz of a bell, very dissimilar to the simple ding-dong of their old school.
Scrupulous laughed. “That’s just the bell, it’s time to go inside. Head to the Hall with the rest of new-comers.”
“Where is the Hall?” Pond asked nervously, she didn’t want to get lost and be late on her first day.
“Just fellow those Unicorns over there.” He pointed towards a large group of small Unicorns with larger ones, who were most likely teachers, amongst them. “They’re new as well. They will lead you the right way. And remember: there’s safety in numbers.”
“Huh?” the two little Unicorns said with confusion as the Headmaster walked off.

– P –

Pond and Tesla headed towards the group which Mr Scrupulous told them to go with. They stuck to each other’s sides as closely as possible, not wanting to get separated for sheer fear of everything. They looked as they walked at everypony else.
They were all so much taller than them, towering above them greatly, not even noticing the two terrified foals walking around there legs.
Pond didn’t even come close to being as tall of their shoulders, unlike Tesla, who was always a little taller than her. But even he only came that tall if he lifted his horns in the air.

They reached the group in a very short time; they didn’t want to dawdle among the tall Ponies and wanted to be around those of a similar height.
Pond saw one of her old bullies from primary school, but even she seemed terrified, more so than Pond. She could help but find that pleasing and had to smile maliciously.
One of the teachers loudly cleared her throat, bringing a silence from the bustling gathering on short Unicorns around her ankles.
“Alright, welcome to Mareton Grammar School and I do hope you’ll enjoy your time here and learn lots blah blah blah.”
The crowd laughed at her attitude towards school. Pond already liked her.
“We’re going inside now to the Hall, where the Headmaster will give you an enthralling speech about being here.” Her sarcastic enthusiasm was very calming, Pond already felt less nervous.
“Stick close, I don’t want to lose any of you on the short walk.”
She started moving her way to the head of the group to lead them through the corridors and hallways of the school.
Pond’s nervousness had turned to excitement.

– P –

They were all sat in the hall, every single one of the newcomers. There was a little over one hundred little Unicorns sitting there, all as terrified as each other.
It was eerily silent, only a few of them had any confidence to talk to anypony, but only to the friends they had come with. But as the headmaster stepped out onto the stage and behind the podium, what little noise there was disappeared instantly.
He cleared his throat loudly. “Good morning. I am the Headmaster, Mr Scrupulous, and I would like to welcome you all to Mareton Grammar School. I'm sure your time here will be fruitful as well as fun.
“Now, if you would look around the room.”
Everypony did so. The sound of screeching chairs was ear grating.
“You will see your new form tutors, who will be with you every morning and afternoon for registration. In a moment, you will all have your names called and you will go with your assigned teachers to your form rooms, where you will spent the first hour of the day sorting everything out. And now, over to my assistant head, Mrs Overseer.”
He trotted backwards to the side to allow his assistant head to come into the limelight. His hooves tapped repeatedly against the floor to rouse the new pupils into a round of applause for her. None did so, out of fear and embarrassment.
“Right then you lot, I am, as your Headmaster said, Mrs Overseer, and I'm in charge here. Along with Mr Scrupulous, of course,” she added quickly.
Scrupulous eyed her suspiciously as she said this. He never didn’t her and was certain she would mutiny against him one day.
“I have assigned you all form tutors and I will know begin the strenuous task of splitting you off into your tutor groups.” Mrs Overseer could not sound any less enthused. “I will announce and direct your attention to a teacher, and then I will tell you who will be going with whom. And now, let’s begin…”
Pond ignored everything she said hereafter, only focusing on the teacher names she called out and listening intently for her name, she did not want to mess up on her first day. She was on the edge of her seat with both anticipation and nervousness.
Mrs Overseer called out the name Ms Lecture. Pond looked around quickly for the mare, who waved her hoof. It was the mare who had led her into the hall.
She hoped she was going with her, she looked very nice. She was a young Unicorn, possibly teaching for only a year or two, so she still seemed very eager. She also looked very friendly, with a warm smile and excitement in her eyes.
She was a light green in colour, with a mane similar to Pond’s in colour but much neater as it was in a bun behind her head, she also wore glassed that hung on a beaded chain around her neck, and a collar and black bowtie.
Pond returned her attention to Mrs Overseer, and hoped that she would call her name. Fortunately she did, her name was last one the list, but unfortunately though, Tesla wasn’t.
Pond looked at Tesla beside her. “I’ll see ya later, Tesla!” she chirped cheerfully as she got down from her seat.
“Bye, Pond!” Tesla said back.
He was clearly upset that he wasn’t in the same form as her. He watched her bounce away happily, making him almost miss his name being called.

Pond approached her new teacher, Ms Lecture, with a great sense of happiness. Having such a friendly and pretty teacher was very calming for her, and now she was even excited to get started for school, a thought she never thought she’d have.
As Pond trotted up in front of her, Ms Lecture smiled back happily. “And you must be Pond? Right?”
Pond nodded back in response, feeling too shy to talk.
“Good… good…” she muttered out loud as she ticked off Pond’s name against her chart. “Alright, is that all of you?” she asked largely to herself, knowing full well that none of her pupils wouldn’t have the faintest idea.
She looked over their heads and started counting to herself, her mouth moving with each number.
“That’s good, you’re all here.” She removed her glasses from her face, allowing Pond to see that she had dark green eyes.
“As you probably heard, I'm Ms Lecture and I will be both your form tutor and Trottish teacher. Now, if you would like to follow me, we will head to our new form room. And in case you get separated, it’s room four. And now… we go!” she said cheerfully with a hoof pointing dramatically in the direction they would be going before setting it down again and starting to walk.

– P –

Pond and her new classmates followed Ms Lecture with a disturbing silence. Now that most of the older students had settled down in their respective classes there was very little noise, only the gentle clip-clop of their hooves on the hard floors.
“You know, girls, you can talk, it’s not against the rules,” Ms Lecture tried to persuade them, but they still didn’t talk, they were all far too scared.
Lecture tutted and rolled her eyes happily, her mind drifting away to her first days at secondary school and how shy she was.

They arrived at their new form room in a few minutes. Ms Lecture opened the door and walked in, her class following behind closely. She reached her desk at the front and let out a great sigh.
“Alright girls, find your seats!” she said excitedly. Watching her new pupils looking around confusedly brought a smile to her face.
“Just sit anywhere for now!” she said through a laugh.
The children found seats, all of them having to pair up, much to their dislike, with fillies they didn’t know.
It was at this time when Pond noticed that they had split colts and fillies from each other, as her class was entirely female, although the teacher was only coincidentally of the same gender.
“Good.” Lecture smiled sweetly at the class now that they had all sat down and were waiting patiently. “Now, what I'm about to hand you are your timetables.”
A few students looked around, terrified that they hadn’t heard of these things before. This included Pond.
“Timetables?” squeaked a nervous filly.
“Yes, timetables. And don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. You have two lessons, then break, another two lessons, then lunch, and another two lessons before you can run off home again.”
Ms Lecture levitated identical pieces of crisp white paper to each of the class, each one printed with their timetables, all of which were identical for now.
Pond looked at it, it seemed to make sense. It was all abbreviated so easy to understand: a capital M for Maths, a T for Trottish, and PE for Physical Education, obviously; but there was one thing she couldn’t quite get her head around.
Pond slowly raised her hoof into the air; it shook with nerves and embarrassment.
“Miss?” she murmured sheepishly, barely audible despite the silence of the class.
Ms Lecture looked up. “Yes? What’s up err… Pond?” she hazarded a guess at her name, which was luckily correct.
“W-w-w-what’s Mag stand for?” she asked sheepishly, only just audible but Ms Lecture still had to strain her ears.
“Mag?” she asked herself, as if not sure herself. She had to take a quick glance at her own teacher’s timetable to remind herself. “Oh yes! That’s magic!”
This was met by an excited gasp from most of the class. Obviously they didn’t have established magic lessons in their old schools, including Pond’s old one as well.
Pond didn’t gasp, instead she hung her head down in shame and tried to hide her bare forehead from everypony.
“A-are you alright?” asked the terrified little child sat next to Pond in the most friendly voice she could muster.
Pond shook her head.
“What’s wrong?”
Pond looked up at her, her eyes already starting to tear up. She felt that even at this school she would get bullied for her being a Unicorn without a horn.
The filly noticed the lack of horn instantly. “Oh,” she said in a slow, long sound of enlightenment. “You have no horn!” she said excitedly.
Pond hid her head under the table, she could feel a tear drop fall from her eye as she tried to hide the fact she was crying from everypony. She didn’t want to be known as a cry-baby as well as a Unic.
“That’s sooo cool!” said the filly in a voice full of awe.
Pond looked up again and dried her eyes on her foreleg. “Really?” she asked hopefully.
“Yeah! I’ve never met a-a-a-a Unic before!” she managed to use that old insult in a way that made it a compliment. “And I love weird things!”
Pond wasn’t insulted by any of this. This filly, this white filly with a pink mane, had accepted her. Pond was so glad to have made a friend so quickly.
“I'm pond!” she said happily.
“I'm Scribble,” she said quickly before hugging Pond a little bit. Pond would have hugged back but was taken by far too much surprise and it was a very short hug.

The entire class was distracted by a loud thud on Ms Lecture’s desk. It was caused by a large cardboard box.
“These are your school planners.” She levitated out a couple of the bound paper books.
“Planners?” said the entire class in perfect, confused synchronisation.
Ms Lecture had to laugh.
“Yes, planners. You will make a note of all your homework and anything else important down in this. Although, later on in school, you will learn that you can just remember it.”
This brought a little giggle from some of the Unicorns before her. From what Pond had seen so far, she seemed to have a very relaxed view on teaching and school.
The planners were distributed. Pond plucked hers out of the air and gave it a quick flick through. It was incredibly dull.
Scribble took hers and gave it a little flick through. “Yes!” she whispered ecstatically.
Pond gave her a puzzled look. “What?”
“More drawing paper!”
“Drawing paper?”
“Yep. I love drawing. Nothing too fancy, just a few doodles. But I'm getting better.” Scribble reached a hoof down into her bags on the floor and pulled out a small pad of paper. She quickly skimmed over the pages.
Pond caught blurs of colour and lines flash before her eyes. They looked good, even if she didn’t see them properly, but the colours were well chosen and complimented each other near perfectly.
“Here. I like this one the best.” Scribble placed the pad in front of Pond. “Good, huh?”
“Yeah…” Pond was in awe of it. For a Pony of eleven years old, to draw such a detailed drawing of a dragon was beyond belief.
“D’ya like it?”
“Yeah…” Pond still couldn’t take her eyes off it.
“Then you can have it!” Scribble ripped it carefully from her drawing pad and slammed it down on Pond’s desk.
“Really?” Pond asked as she held it up to marvel at it some more.
“Yep.”
“Thanks, Scribble.” Pond tucked the drawing carefully into the front cover of her planner, not wanting to crease it. She took a short moment to line it up exactly with the see through cover, not being able to relax until it was as precise as she could make it.
Scribble watched her curiously, but mostly her fascinated attention was on Pond’s blank forehead.

Now that her class was talking amongst themselves, making friendships likely to stand the test of time, as friendships at that age so often do, Ms Lecture decided that she should have a word with Pond.
“Pond?” she said quietly as she approached the hornless Unicorn.
“Yes, Miss?” Pond replied nervously.
Ms Lecture knelt down to get eye level with Pond, making her, if anything, somehow more intimidating.
“I was told about you.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I was told I would have a special little Unicorn in my form this year. And I was also told about your previous years in school.”
“Oh…” Pond shrank down a little.
“What happened in her previous years, Miss?” Scribble butted in rather rudely.
“Never you mind, Scribble. It’s up to Pond to tell you if she wants, not me. And you can’t force her to either.”
“Okay… sorry, Miss,” Scribble said sheepishly.
Despite her appearance and general attitude, Ms Lecture could give a stern word when needed.
“And anyway, Pond.” She refocused her attention on the matter at hoof. “If you want to talk about anything, you have but to ask, okay?”
Pond nodded.
“Good. And you don’t need to worry either, I will keep what you tell me with the strictest confidence, and nopony else will know whatsoever, okay?”
Pond nodded again.
“Good.” Ms Lecture stood up again and started to walk off before Pond drew her attention once again.
“What about magic class?”
Me Lecture turned on the spot and trotted back over to Pond. “What about it?” she asked with a smile.
“I can’t use… magic,” her voice trailed off towards the end, she was embarrassed to say it. But despite her best efforts, the Unicorns in her immediate area still heard, and so it spread around the class in mere seconds.
Everypony turned to look at her, including her old bully which she hadn’t noticed was in her class until then.
Pond slammed her head against her desk.
The class started muttering things to each other. A couple even started giggling.
“Now girls,” Ms Lecture said loudly as she gently stomped her hoof on the ground, her voice took on a very authoritative nature which commanded a lot of respect and silence.
“It’s no laughing matter. In fact, it’s no matter at all! She is a normal Unicorn, apart from the horn, so you must treat the same. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Miss Lecture,” the class sang back in unison, even Pond did due to the tone in which she spoke.
“And, Pond,” she changed her tone to her usual kind one and looked back to Pond. “Don’t worry, we have made arrangements for you to mix with another class when you have magic lessons.”
Pond smiled at her, she felt so excited now to be at this school. Her old school never seemed to think about her and often forgot that she couldn’t use magic, but this school understood so much better already and it was only the first day.
Ms Lecture smiled back at her before heading back to her desk slowly.

Pond felt happier after that. Miss Doltish had never been able to control a class with such ease, and Ms Lecture didn’t even have to resort to angered shouting, only a strict voice.
“You can’t use magic?” Scribble asked solemnly.
Pond shook her head.
Scribble snorted. “Lucky.”
Pond looked slowly towards the white Unicorn beside her. Her mouth hung open with bafflement. “Huh?”
“Magic makes everything too easy, I like the challenge.”
“You don’t have to use magic if you don’t want. It’s not compulsory.”
“But it’s so easy!”
Pond eyed her curiously. Scribble was completely contradicting herself, but she let it slide for now.

“Hey… Pond?” whispered a small voice coming from Pond’s side.
Pond looked around, it was her old bully. “Oh… hello, Gem,” she said coldly. Pond did not like her.
“I-I-I just wanted to say sorry,” Gem stuttered apologetically.
“What?” Pond couldn’t care less about what she had to say. After the bullying and the horrible few years of her life thanks almost entirely to her, Pond didn’t even want her near her. And now, thanks to this new school and her awesome new teacher, she could stay as far away from her as possible. Pond was untouchable.
“I'm sorry for all those years of bullying. I-I was just doing what everypony else was doing. I didn’t want to be left out. So I'm sorry. Do you forgive me?”
Pond looked at her for a little while, letting her sweat it out. But as she looked, she could tell that she was being sincere.
“Alright, I forgive you.” Pond didn’t really.
“Friends?” Gem asked with a hopeful smile, raising her hoof in the hopes Pond would bump it back.
“Friends.” Pond gingerly tapped the hoof.
Gem smiled at her before turning around and heading back to her chair.
“Who was that?” Scribble asked nosily.
“That’s Gem, my old bully.”
“Your bully? Really?”
“Yep.”
“And you just forgave her?” Scribble asked with a large sense of doubt and amazement.
“She seems to think so…” Pond smiled mischievously.
“Oh! Gotcha,” Scribble winked.

– P –

The bell rang signalling it was the end of the day. Pond and her class had just finished their first ever music lesson, where Pond discovered that she was particularly good at absolutely no instruments whatsoever.
The rest of her class were at least average at instruments, and could make a decent sound, but Pond couldn’t, only the piano could she use, as that is much simpler to play than any of the other stringed and percussion instruments, but she was still far too uncoordinated.
Pond wasn’t upset by this though, she was just happy at how well her first day went, and how fun this school was. And the fact she had made several friends on the first day was fantastic, and when compared to the three years it took to make just one at her first school, it is clearly visible that she had made a vast improvement.

Pond left the school with Scribble by her side, talking happily about their first day, but Pond kept an eye out for the three horned Unicorn. Fortunately for her, he saw her first.
“POND!” he shouted as he galloped over to her, skidding to a halt just in front of her.
“Hey, Tesla!” she shouted back with just as much enthusiasm.
“Did ya like it?” he asked quickly, barely being able to control his excitement, indicated by him bouncing on the spot. “Did ya make any friends?”
“Yep!” Pond shouted. “This is Scribble!” She pointed to her new friend, who jumped forward and hugged Tesla, taking him by complete surprise to the point where he couldn’t react in time before it was over.
“Err… hi! I'm Tesla!”
“And I'm Scribble!” Her eyes drifted upwards to his forehead. “Whoa…” she said loudly and slowly.
Tesla tried to hide his head behind a foreleg.
“You have three horns? That’s so weird…”
Tesla felt anger and sadness build up inside, but this subsided with her next words.
“That’s so AWESOME! So I’ve met a Unic AND a Tricorn on my first day of school! This is so COOL!” she squeaked.
“So you don’t think we’re… freaks?” Tesla asked hopefully.
“Freaks? Of course not! You’re awesome. I'm getting bored of Unicorns with just the one horn in fact, so seeing you and extra two is just the best thing ever!”
Tesla beamed at her, he already liked her.
“C’mon you two,” Pond tried to be authoritative, but failed, and so she just shouted louder, which got their attention.
“What?” the two horned Ponies said together.
“We should get going. It’s a long walk back home and I don’t like being out in the dark.”
The others nodded in agreement and they all started to walk back to their homes so they could share their day with their parents.

Pond couldn’t wait to tell her parents how brilliant a first day she had at her new school. All the teachers were friendly. All the students were nice to her. There was a little questioning about her lack of horn, but that was just general curiosity, and they all found it more fascinating rather than something to laugh at her about.
Pond could tell that this school will be good to her, and that she would have the best time of her life here.

And she couldn’t have been more wrong…

– P –

Pond loved this school. There was a lot of staring, of course, but that was all, no harsh words or bullying. Even Gem, her old bully, left her alone, and even became friends to a small degree. Pond felt normal here.
She loved her lessons as well. Every single one was engaging in some way or another, even Maths no longer sent her to sleep.
She especially loved chemistry, and so, when the rest of her class was doing their magic lessons, Pond was allowed to go take part in chemistry with another class. And to her delight, that class happened to be Tesla’s.
Tesla, even though he didn’t see much of her around school, was still a good friend to her. There was a bond there that would take something much more drastic to break. He excelled in magic, having three horns made it much easier for him, as he could channel thrice as much magic as a normal Unicorn, although it took three times the effort. But he was getting around that problem by trying to make himself fitter.
Scribble, as well, was a brilliant friend to Pond. She was always happy, and quickly became a fantastic artist. She was in fact the first of her year to gain a cutie mark. It was a pencil that resided on her flank, and she wore it with pride.

The first two years were fine. They flew by with very little hassle. It was the third that was a problem.

– P –

Tesla was a popular Unicorn. His strict exercise regime he put into practice to get him fitter and to make it easier to use magic had made him very attractive. Plus, having three horns was seen as some kind of symbol of power, among other things (you know what they say about a Unicorn with long horns). This all made him very popular with fillies around school.
This wasn’t the case for Pond. She may have been a pretty, young thing, but the lack of horn made her a sort of social outcast, and therefore didn’t hang out with the popular kids. But she still had Scribble and a few others, but mostly Scribble.

Naturally, being separated by gender and social groups, they drifted apart. They began to speak less and less, although it was still very friendly when they did. They clearly hadn’t lost the bond they had made all those years ago, even though it was stretching thin.

They lost common interests. Pond was more interested in fishing and music; listening to, not playing. Tesla was more interested in magic and friends.
They talked less, their conversations they did have were shorter and more awkward.

Tesla would ignore her if he passed her in the corridors, as if he was ashamed to be her friend. If he was on his own he would say “Hi”, but little else. If he was with a friend he would completely blank her.

“Tesla!” Pond called out as she saw her Tricorn friend down the corridor.
“Tesla!” she shouted again, breaking into a quick jog to catch up, with Scribble following closely.
“Hey, Tesla,” she said with a little pant as she stopped beside him.
Tesla ignored her. It was clear from his tense walk that it was intentional, and not because he didn’t hear her, which Pond so hoped was the case. He kept walking.
“Tesla?” Pond whimpered.
He kept walking.
Pond started to walk after him.
“Leave him, Pond,” Scribble whispered affectionately. She placed a hoof on her shoulder and turned her around.
Pond kept looking over her shoulder at her best friend walking away from her until she couldn’t anymore.
Scribble led her away.

Pond couldn’t believe it. Her best friend for years had just completely blanked her. He was even on his own, which made it worse.
She didn’t know why he did it. Her fellow freak had turned on her for absolutely no reason. She felt hurt beyond belief and alone.
That night, she cried for the first time in years.

– P –

Pond earned her cutie mark at the age of fourteen, only one month after Tesla’s abandonment.
It happened on a fishing trip with her father.
She would often go out on his boat with him on weekends to fish with him ever since she had discovered she had a knack for it. If it wasn’t for her, her father would have had to find a different vocation.
This trip was different.
Pond was still upset by Tesla, but the fishing kept her mind occupied. She had her fishing rod cast out in The Mare, waiting patiently for a bite.
It was unusual. She almost always beat her father in terms of number of fish caught, but this time she hadn’t caught a single one in the two hours she had been there.
“Chin up!” Blue said as he saw his daughter’s glum face.
Pond ignored him.
There was a gentle tug on her line, snapping her back to reality.
She tightened her grip on the rod and began to size up her target, determining its strength.
It nearly pulled her into the water.
She stood up quickly and propped herself against the edge of the boat, with her back hooves on the rim and the rod grasped tightly in the front two, so she could use her weight as she strained to fight against it.
She opened her eyes a crack to see if she could see her catch.
Its spines glistened with all the colours of the rainbow.
Her eyes widened and she tightened her grip further.
“Dad?” she asked mildly urgently.
“What?” he said as he pulled another fish on board. He looked over to his daughter. He was worried instantly as soon as he saw how she was standing. He thought she was about to be pulled into the sea.
“Dad, could you tie me down, or something?” she asked casually. “I’ve hooked a Rainbow Shark.”
His eyes widened with excitement and amazement.
He quickly levitated a belt around his daughter’s waist and fastened it with a rope to the deck.
“Thanks.” Pond now began the difficult task of bringing it in.

It was tricky to say the least. The line nearly broke several times in the long back and forth between her and the Shark.
It had been almost an hour, and the Shark was growing weary, but not as much as Pond was. She almost gave up, but a strong current beat the Shark and pushed it closer to the boat.
Pond saw her one opportunity. She reached down by her hooves and grabbed a harpoon. She launched it at the Shark.
The harpoon lodged itself in the Shark’s back, causing it to paralyze and go weak.
Pond’s mouth fell agape. She couldn’t believe it.
She quickly unfastened the belt and darted to the winch. She connected the rope attached to the harpoon to the winch and began to reel in the Shark.
The Shark came in without a fight.
It fell onto the deck with a mighty thud.
Pond and Blue stared at it, not able to believe their eyes.
They turned to each other slowly.
After a short moment, they both smiled and started jumping and cheering.
“I caught a Rainbow Shark!” Pond shouted.
“That’s amazing, Pond. Just brilliant!” Blue shouted back proudly.
“I can’t believe it! A Rainbow Shark!”
Blue grabbed his daughter and hugged her. “I am so proud of you!”
“I know, Dad,” she replied cockily.
He let her go again and started bouncing with excitement.
“We don’t need the rest of this fish thanks to you. We won’t even have to find somewhere cheaper to live anymore!”
“Yeah! Wait, what?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Blue dismissed her. “C’mon, let’s get a picture with you and your catch.”
“Okay!” Pond cheered enthusiastically and trotted off to the Rainbow Shark.
She marvelled at it. She had never seen one close up before. She didn’t even know of its sword nose. Its spines were majestic and eerily beautiful, as was the rest of it. It shined in the sun that beat down on them.
Blue stared at his daughter, as if hypnotised. He stared particularly at her flank.
“Pond?”
“Yeah?” she replied happily.
He raised a shaky hoof and pointed it at her flank.
She looked down and instantly squealed with excitement.
“My cutie mark!” she said in an awe filled voice. She started jumping around excitedly. “Look at it! It’s so awesome!”
Her cutie mark was a golden swordfish, circling in her flank.
Blue went off to the cabin and retrieved his camera. He came back excitedly.
“Okay, Pond,” he said enthusiastically. “Strike a pose, and try to get your cutie mark in as well!”
Pond nodded and stood up onto her back legs, facing the shark. She looked over her shoulder and threw her forelegs forward and pointed at the Rainbow Shark. Her cutie mark was clearly visible.
“Okay, big smile!” Blue said as he raised the camera up to his eyes.
Pond put on the biggest smile she could.
The camera went off and a photo fell out of the front, which Blue caught in some magic.
He brought it up and looked at it. “I think we might need another,” he decided. “Smile!”
Pond did as asked and smiled broader.
The camera went off again and released a second photo. “Much better,” Blue concluded. He stepped forward to show Pond.
He stooped down and kissed her forehead, and for once she didn’t rub it off.
“Right, back to shore, I guess. Let’s get bragging about how my amazing daughter caught a Rainbow Shark,” Blue said smugly.
Pond didn’t care about bragging. She was always particularly modest, most of the time. All that came into her mind was the desire to go tell Tesla.
That thought nearly made her cry.

– P –

A few weeks later, enough time for the hype of her cutie mark to disappear and also to become fifteen, Pond was on the school field, eating her lunch.
Scribble wasn’t there. She was apparently feeling ill. Although, knowing her, she was probably pretending to get out of doing a Maths test.
A colt came up to her. She recognised him as one of the popular kids but couldn’t remember his name.
“Hey, Pond,” he said quietly. All the while looking around to make sure nopony saw him.
“Hi,” she replied with a curious look. She was wondering why a popular kid was talking to her.
“I have a note for you.” He lifted a scrap of paper from his mane with a little magic and dropped it in front of her. He quickly galloped away, as if ashamed to be near her, which Pond thought was the most plausible reason.
Pond watched him run away from her with a curious look. She hated to admit it, but she liked watching him walk away. She was coming to that age, after all.
She drew her attention back to the scrap of paper. She quickly unfolded it and read it. She recognised his writing instantly. It read:

Meet me behind the bike sheds after school.

Tesla.

She was over the moon. Her heart raced at the possibilities of what he wanted.
It had been a little over two months since he started to completely ignore her, but now he wanted to make amends.
She knew her oldest friend wouldn’t abandon her/
She couldn’t wait.

If only Scribble had been there to advise her.

– P –

Pond waited behind the bike sheds, as instructed, humming a tune to keep her occupied.
Her mind was wandering all over the place as she tried to think of what they would talk about. She had never been one for starting decent conversations, but she felt that this was important for she wanted Tesla back so bad.

She heard the sound of hooves on gravel and looked up expectantly, with a wide grin. She was so glad it was him.
Her heart fluttered a little. She hadn’t noticed how attractive he was now. Obviously, his fitness scheme had paid off. He was definitely one of the more attractive colts at school.
If Pond was standing her knees would have weakened.
She laughed awkwardly, trying desperately to say something.
Tesla was also useless at starting conversations, but he was much less awkward.
He wore a devious smile. He was definitely up to something.
Pond gulped and took the first go. “Hey, Tesla,” she said with a small, shaking voice.
“Hi, Pond,” he replied with an unusual amount of confidence for what Pond knew of him.
“H-how’s it going?” she asked sheepishly.
“Good, good,” he replied with little emotion.
They remained silent for a little while longer until Pond couldn’t bear it anymore. It had been burning in her mind since lunchtime and she had to ask.
“Why did you want to talk to me?” she asked in an unintentionally stern tone.
His smile grew slighter bigger, making it look far more threatening when before it was slightly charming.
Pond suddenly felt nervous.
“Well, Pond, I fancied hanging out with you,” he said with much contempt. He stepped closer to her.
Pond recoiled slightly and started feeling a horrible feeling of dread in her stomach.
“Why?” she asked, hoping his next response would help ease her panic.
Tesla just shrugged, which made it worse for Pond. “Don’t know,” he said with little thought behind his words.
The look in his eyes filled her with fear like she hadn’t felt in years. They were filled with desire and a determination that she did not want to think about.
Pond heard more footsteps on the gravel. Part of her wanted it to be somepony to distract Tesla so she could get away.
The many hooves thundered around the corner, revealing their owners to be Tesla friends, all of which were colts.
“W-what are they doing here?” she whimpered.
Tesla didn’t reply. He looked over his shoulder and gave a small nod to his friends.
The four colts jumped at Pond and grabbed her. They pushed her back into the wall of the bike sheds.
Pond tried as hard as she could to wrestle free from them, but even with her fear induced adrenaline rush she was easily overpowered.
They slammed her viscously into the wooden wall and turned her around so her back was facing them.
She tried as hard as she could to scream, but no sound came out. She was too terrified.
The four Unicorns magically pinned each of her legs against the wall as hard as they could, hurting her.
Pond tried her hardest to break free of their magical grip, but her thoughts were no longer coordinated. She could barely move anymore. She only shivered with fear.
She broke down into hysterical crying as she felt her hind legs being spread against her will.
She knew what they were about to do. It never even crossed her mind when she got the note. Her mind doesn’t work that way.

What she felt next was the most unexpected sense of relief she would ever feel, but that only lasted not even a tenth of a second, for it was replaced near instantly with the most horrendous pain she had ever experienced.

– P –

It was two months before she could talk again.

Tesla was expelled.

Chapter IV

Pond Water, the world’s first and only Unicorn without a horn, is now 23. As expected, she grew into one beautiful mare, with her long flowing orangey-brown mane and her orange eyes, her dark murky green coat, so warm and inviting. She gained her cutie mark at the age of 14, on a fishing trip with her Dad, she had managed to catch the elusive Rainbow Shark, not only did this put her family back into money, but also she gained the Golden Swordfish that now shined on her flank.

She looked so peaceful and calm as she slept, bathed in the moonlight that shone through the gap in the curtains.
But this image of serenity didn’t stay, as much as Pond wanted it to. Nightmares tormented her almost every night, flashes of events from her childhood that haunt her, even when she didn’t even know what was happening, even when she didn’t see anything, constantly parading around in her subconscious with the knowledge that Pond would never be rid of them. Images of the ones she loved who then betrayed her, images of those she didn’t recognise, the image of her birth mother leaving her for dead when she was just a foal, drifting out on an endless sea, but never being found by her father who in real life rescued her.
Pond twisted and writhed around, always restless, muttering sounds which became gradually louder as her dreams worsened to the point when they became as long thin shards, gently sliding under her skin and cutting her deep, severing her from the few things that made her happy until the time she woke up.
Her eyes sprang wide open, her nightmares fresh in her mind. Her breaths were short and ragged. Her coat was drenched in the horribly familiar cold sweat. She sat up on the bed and emitted a harrowing, high pitched, ear piercing scream that echoed through the house.

Mid-scream, something happened which hadn’t happened before. Pond felt a hoof get lodged in her mouth that wasn’t her own. This was accompanied by a familiar yet unusually angry voice.
“Pond. You’re my best friend. I love you. I love you with all my heart, and I will always love you. But please, for the love of Celestia, shut the buck up!”
Pond couldn’t help but laugh, it was so uncharacteristic of her friend to get angry. Her eyes were still streaming with tears but she had stopped screaming, which was pleasant for all.
“Now then. Go back to sleep.”
“Okay. Just give me a minute.” Pond jumped off the bed and felt for Winks who had fallen onto the floor.
“There you are,” she said happily as she picked up her old Unicorn doll and felt the familiar roughness of the patchwork fabric against her cheek as she held it tight. It smelt of the sea, reminding her of her Fisherpony father who loved her and who she loved back, and the countless fishing trips she went on with him which led to her getting her cutie mark.
“Alright, you have your doll, now come back to bed,” her friend’s voice was dreary, as if she was already falling asleep again. Pond climbed back into bed and got into a comfortable position with Winks being squashed into her chest. Her friend instinctively pulled the covers back over the two of them and wrapped her forelegs around Pond. This had become second nature to the two of them. Pond found it hard to sleep on her own, she only ever found it comfortable to have her friend by her side when she slept, to comfort her when the nightmares became too much.

Her friend is Dove Wings, a sunny yellow mare with a two-tone blue stripy mane slicked back loosely and tied into a braid, with some straggly bits escaping and falling in front of her eyes. The two bonded initially by the fact they both were different. Dove Wings was a Pegasus without wings.
They met after a few weeks of Pond leaving Trotland and arriving in Equestria, roughly 5 years ago.

– P –

Pond was due to leave home. She had been in the care of her mother and father for 14 years and no it was time to leave the nest. Pond was sad, sure, almost as much as her parents, although her Dad seemed inconsolable.
They were stood on the harbour as the last boat was readying itself to set sail. The steam furnaces heating up, the steam gradually thickening, the crewmen were polishing the shining bronze hull, prying off the barnacles and other things that clung to the sides. It was a new thing to see, the long haul steamboats were built only a few months ago to explore the deeper seas, only to discover the land of Equestria a few months after the maiden voyage. Although she had heard nothing about it, Pond felt it right to go there and start her own life.

Blue Water held his daughter tight, crying uncontrollably, blurting out some incomprehensible words, which Pond played along with. She was crying too. Clear Water, Pond’s mother, came over and dragged Blue away before returning to Pond to talk.
“Well pond. I guess this is it,” Clear said with her voice trembling with tears.
“Oh Mum. Don’t cry. It’s bad enough Dad crying but I expected nothing else of him.” Pond tried to laugh a bit, but it didn’t do anything.
“What did you expect? You’re my only daughter, of course I'm going to cry. But I’ll try to wait until you’ve boarded.”
She looked shiftily from side to side, making sure her husband wasn’t looking. She took two heavy bags from her saddle bag.
“Here, take these. They should help. But don’t tell your Dad.”
Pond took one of the bags and opened it, inside was a large collection of coins of different values, it was a lot of money. Pond was shocked. “Oh my god. How much is in here?”
“A couple thousand Trotmarcs.”
“Oh no Mum, I can’t accept this.”
“No no, you must. I was always expecting this day would come, so I put some money aside. I just want you to get over there and… you know…”
“Mum, I’ll be fine.”
“I know but… but… oh god, here I go.” She turned away and placed a foreleg in front of her eyes so nopony could see her crying. Pond took this opportunity to place the bags in her already bulging saddle bags.
The horn of the boat sounded. “Oh Mum, I have to go.”
“Okay Pond. I love you.” Clear hugged her tightly, trying to take in as much Pond as possible before it was too late.
“I love you too, Mum.” Pond hugged back, tears now flowing freely.
Blue walked over to his daughter, although his steps were slowed by his crying. He didn’t say a word, all he did was hug her far too tightly for comfort and possibly mutter “I love you”, but Pond couldn’t quite hear.
“I love you, Dad,” Pond said through many tears. This was too much for Blue, he let go of Pond and fell to the floor, sobbing loudly and drawing the attention of many a confused Unicorn. Pond always had a stronger bond with her father, possibly because he was the one who rescued her, but the reason didn’t matter to either of them, it was still hard to have to leave regardless.
The horn sounded again.
“Okay. I really have to go now.” Pond slipped her bags onto her back, tucked her fishing rod under the strap. She gave her Mum and Dad one final kiss each, took one final breath of Trotland air, and headed up the gangplank. She immediately went to the back of the boat so she could wave at her parents when the boat departed.
The boat gave another toot of its horn and started moving. Pond was waving frantically at her parents, only her mother waved back with any emotion, her father was a quivering mess on the floor and so could only just manage to look at his departing daughter and give a small wave. All that was going through his mind was the happiest memories of her, so happy that just thinking of them made him miss her even more. The countless conversations he had with her. The time she finally spoke to him. The fishing trip when she got her cutie mark. But most of all, the thing that made his heart explode whenever he thought of it. The first time his daughter said the four words he had been waiting for her to say since he found her, the first time she said, “I love you, Daddy.”
Pond disappeared into the fog and was headed for Equestria, with a tear in her eye but excitement in her heart for the prospects of this strange new land.

– P –

Pond stepped off the boat a few weeks later. Her hooves touched the soil of Equestria, it felt strange to her, somehow more magical than Trotland. She looked around at the new surroundings, the strong sunshine gave a great sense of warmth and welcoming vibes.
Pond’s first thought of Equestria: this is… nice, I suppose, but… god that sun’s bright.

The Trotland Unicorns had been bringing supplies from their small island to start up their own city, they had already built many a simple building in the few months of being there with the materials available, they even had decent plumbing.
They wanted to claim this land as their own, but little did they know that it was occupied already. But this was brought to their attention a little after Pond disembarked, when two very tall Unicorns approached her, one white and the other dark blue, both with wings. They drew a lot of attention, they were very unusual yet wonderfully regal.
The tall white one stepped in front of Pond, leaving the blue one walking around and investigating these new Unicorns, suspiciously eyeing up the strange materials and making the Unicorns very nervous, growling childishly at them and laughing as they recoiled slightly.
“Hello. Welcome to the land of Equestria. I am Princess Celestia,” her voice was loud yet so majestic and kind. Pond stared at her, scared stiff. “Please, don’t be afraid. We are the leaders of this land and we wish to make a strong bond between our nations.”
“I'm sorry?” was all Pond could manage to say.
“We have been keeping an eye on your new settlement here, and we wanted to come and make an appearance.”
“I don’t think I'm the Unicorn you want to see. I'm just a simple Fisherpony wanting an adventure.”
“Oh… well I hope Equestria is all that you want it to be.”
“Thank you.” With this, Celestia trotted off with such splendour that Pond couldn’t help but watch. She went off to the next Unicorn that looked vaguely important and spoke the same rehearsed words that she said to Pond.
“You’re not a Unicorn.” Pond span round and saw the menacing sight of the dark blue winged Unicorn staring at her.
“I am,” Pond said defensively. “And besides, neither are you.”
“No, I'm better.” She stood on her hind legs and spread her wings. “I am an Alicorn,” she said proudly.
“A what?”
“An Alicorn. I’m a winged Unicorn basically, except much more magical.” She was being annoyingly arrogant.
“Well, good for you. But I am a Unicorn, I just don’t have a horn.”
“Oh, well I'm sorry about that. I'm Princess Luna, by the way.” She offered her hoof, which Pond took and shook.
“I'm Pond Water.”
“Funny name. That Celestia is my big sister, just to let you know. Don’t get her angry or you’ll be sent to the moooooooooooon!” Luna laughed and trotted off after her sister.
“What?” Pond stared at the disappearing Luna with great confusion. Pond shook this off and headed for her accommodation for the night.

– P –

Pond emptied her bags onto the small bed she rented. There were many things in them: the money her mother gave her, an instant Ponyroid camera, a few jumpers and other warm things, her diary, some random little things from her childhood that made her happy, and, most importantly to her, Winks. She next took her fishing rod and checked it vigorously, making sure that the line wasn’t damaged in any way, sharpening the hook, and finally checking the rod for signs of fatigue. Once she finished, she placed it gently beside the rest of her things.
Pond had now checked all her stuff and carefully packed it back in, making sure that nothing got crushed and also making sure Winks had his head poking out so he could see. Pond was now ready to set off on an adventure.
She looked at her packed belongings with a satisfied smile on her lips.
“Right… now what?”

– P –

Pond had woken up in the morning, at an incredibly early hour, the sun had barely risen above the horizon. But this was the time she deemed appropriate to go and explore this new world.
She woke grudgingly, already regretting the early alarm she set. She rolled out of bed, grabbing Winks in her mouth as she did so she could place him back in her bags. She carefully did so, ensuring Winks could see. After that, she went to make some breakfast, something simple, only a big bowl of porridge, she felt she would need the energy.
Next on her agenda was a hot shower. She stood under the water, just letting it pour over her body, taking in the warmth to wake her up, she wasn’t particularly bothered about cleaning herself at this point but she still did, her mind wouldn’t allow her not to.

An hour after waking up, as the sun was climbing its slow ascent into the sky, Pond was almost ready. She slid the strap of her bags over her back after giving them one final check, she then took her fishing rod and tucked that under the strap. She took her fishing hat, which she discovered suited her quite well, and placed it on top of her head. She walked outside into the brisk morning air, taking a deep breath to feel its refreshing coolness in her body, she stretched her legs to prepare for the inevitably long walk. She looked back at the sea and the large bronze boat that sat in the harbour. She waved at them, saying goodbye to her home across the sea. She turned and sighed deeply. She placed her first hoof down, and her journey had begun.

– P –

It was about two hours after leaving the small settlement before she came across anything. She had to cross a large green expanse with nothing of interest whatsoever, only the small incline Pond had to climb up broke the mundanity. The thing she found first was a river, only a small stream, about 10 metres across. There was also a small woodland on the opposite bank, it was very thin, you could have see straight through it if it weren’t for the curvature of the planet.
Pond decided to have a break there, the shining sun made it quite picturesque. She wasn’t used to this level of light, Trotland rarely saw any sun, even in the middle of Summer. Pond sat on the bank and slid her bags off, sighing with relief as the weight was removed from her back, she hadn’t realised how heavy they were.
She washed her hooves in the crisp, clear water, splashing some in her face to refresh her. She was thirsty, so she stooped down and took a sip to start with to make sure it was safe to drink, she then started to take big gulps. It was surprisingly refreshing and somehow really tasty, more so than normal water.
She stood back from the water’s edge and laid on the grass, the soft grass almost felt like a bed. She rolled onto her back and bathed in the sun, closing her eyes to feel its full magical warmth.
Ten minutes later Pond decided that that was enough lounging around and so rolled back onto her stomach, propping herself up on her front hooves. She looked at the river, it got quite deep in the middle, so Pond decided she would check out the fish of this land.
She prepared her rod, changing the hook for one that wouldn’t hurt the fish at all, she had no intention of keeping any she caught. She rested the rod on her shoulder as she waded into the river up to her ankles. She took the rod in her capable hooves and cast the line expertly into the water. And now she played the waiting game.
Not long after casting out the hook she felt a tug. She reeled in the catch with practised ease. On the hook was a small bulbous fish, a very ugly little thing but oddly appealing. Pond chuckled at it, took the camera from her bag to take a picture of it, and threw it back into the water afterwards. Pond cast the line out again.
It was a little bit longer this time but she felt another tug on the line, a much sharper on this time. She pulled hard on the rod, it was a strong fish, it struggled valiantly against Pond but her skills at fishing were no match for it. She reeled the fish in. she hadn’t seen anything like that before, it was a shiny sort of eel, about the length of her, with a happy expression on its face. She took a picture of it and threw it back. After swimming confusedly in circles for a moment it got its bearings straight and swam away, glistening in the sun. Pond threw the line out again.

Half an hour later and Pond decided that that was enough. She caught seven different fish, each interesting in their own strange way. She scooped the pictures up into her hoof and put them in a small tin in her bag, accompanying the few others she took of the beginning of her adventure. She packed her rod up, tucking it under the strap of her bags after she put them on. She couldn’t see a bridge so she decided she would wade across it. It wasn’t too deep, there was a point in the middle where she couldn’t touch the floor and had to swim a little bit, but she had no trouble crossing. She made it up the other bank, stopping at the water’s edge to shake the water off, and then she walked into the shadows of the trees, trotted happily through them, humming a happy tune as she marvelled at their size and beauty.

It was a very boring walk. Yes, it was lovely and all but it was six hours of walking in the same, unchanging surroundings. Pond made it out the other end just as the sun started going down, the sky darkening into a red-orange hue. All that met Pond’s gaze was another huge expanse of land, baron of anything interesting. Pond sighed and continued walking.

The moon had risen into the sky, it was huge. Stars surrounded it, casting their light onto the world. Pond had come to the top of a hill, where she could see all around her. The land was lit up in a brilliant blue light, she had never seen such a beautiful night, Trotland was always far too cloudy to let the moonlight through to such an extent.
Pond saw something irregular about the landscape, a bump in the land. She strained her eyes and managed to make out the shapes of buildings. Her eyes widened with delight, she was beginning to think she wouldn’t find another building until she walked around the world back to Trotland. She galloped towards it, closing in on it she could make out a few dim lights and some things flying around.
She made it there after not long at all, there were three buildings in total: a hotel, a shop and a train station. Pond looked around, puzzled as to why there would be three random buildings in the middle of nowhere. She heard a heavy thud behind her, she was scared to do it but she turned around. Behind her stood a large hornless and winged Unicorn, dark brown in colour and wearing a squashed hat. “Hey there Missy. Welcome to The Middle of Nowhere, one of the most pointful places on this plain.”
“What the hay are you?!” Pond shouted, slightly scared and confused.
“That’s a bit rude now then isn’t it?”
“I'm sorry but I haven’t seen any creature like you. I mean with wings like yours,” Pond said, feeling embarrassed by her previous outburst.
“What? Ya mean a Pegasus?” The Pegasus looked at Pond’s blank expression, and sighed. “Well, they’re three different types of Ponies. Unicorns, Pegasus and Earth Ponies. Unicorns have horns, Pegasus have wings and Earth Ponies have neither.”
“Oh. I thought there were just Unicorns,” Pond sounded enlightened.
“But you’re an Earth Pony, aren’t ya?”
“No, I'm a Unicorn without a horn.”
“Strange… oh well. Welcome to this little hamlet that we call ‘Lost’. Basically, if you find yourself lost, come here, eat, sleep, and then take a train back to Hooflyn. You can get anywhere from there.”
“That’s a good idea.”
Pond’s stomach rumbled violently, “God I'm hungry. Where can I get some food?”
The Pegasus was about to question just what ‘god’ was but decided against it.
“Err, the shop has a restaurant inside. It’s not the best but it hits the spot.” He pointed his hoof in the direction of one of the buildings.
“Thanks!” Pond headed towards the building. Everything was lit up better as she went further into the small hamlet of Lost. The three buildings were arranged around a central statue depicting a Pegasus sheltering a thing that Pond now knew to be an Earth Pony under its wing.
Lost was very quiet, only a small murmur of voices could be heard coming from the various buildings. A train was at the station but its next departure won’t be until the morning. It wasn’t a very imaginative place, the buildings were simply called The Shop, The Hotel and The Station.
Pond headed into The Shop, inside was a simple shop stocked with simple foods, survival equipment like tents and fire kits, and maps, Pond thought she should buy one later after getting some food. She followed the smell to the restaurant. It was like a diner, she saw big plates piled high with food, it wasn’t fine dining but it certainly looked delicious. Pond read the menu that was displayed on the wall, she was starving so chose “The Big Fry-up”. She walked up to the counter.
“Um, hi. Can I have the big fry-up please?”
“Certainly.” The Earth Pony cashier behind the counter scribbled down the order and then handed it through the window into the kitchen. “Okay, that will be 2 Bits.”
Pond was nervous, she didn’t know how much a Bit was, so she reached for a little purse filled with some spare change, took 2 Trotmarcs and placed them on the counter with a smile, hoping that Bit was just slang for Trotmarc.
The cashier looked at the unfamiliar coins in front of him.
“What this?” he said with a hint of annoyance, as if he thought this was some kind of joke.
Pond froze, she could feel her heart pound in her ears. “Err, i-its 2 Trotmarcs?” she was terrified of what the cashier would do next, thinking that she would be kicked out.
“What’s a Trotmarc?”
Pond gulped nervously. “I come from Trotland.” This was all she could think of saying.
“Never heard of it.”
“It’s out in The Mare, an island a few weeks sailing away.”
The cashier considered her words for a second. “Right. But I'm sorry, we don’t accept this currency,” he sounded very apologetic as he slid the coins back over to her.
Pond could have cried. Not only was she starving, but this meant that the money her mother had been saving for all those years was useless.
“Oh… okay,” she whispered as she turned around to head out of the shop.
The cashier watched her for a brief second before saying something. “Hang on a minute. Come back here,” he said in a soft friendly voice. Pond walked slowly back over to him.
“Look, I can see you’re hungry, so have this on me.”
Pond perked up, her eyes suddenly no longer on the brink of tears. “What? Really?”
“Yeah, why not? Here we cater for those who get lost, so we have to think of those who have no money. It’s no trouble at all.” He smiled at her.
“Thanks!” Pond shouted as she placed her front hooves on the counter and jumped up to gave the cashier a small kiss, just because she was so happy. Both of them shrank back, blushing bright red. “Sorry…” she said sheepishly.
“Err… no it’s okay. Um, thanks…” he smiled awkwardly. “W-what drink do you want with your food?” The cashier was glad to move the conversation on.
“Can I have a cup of tea? Milk and 4 sugars?” she asked quietly.
“Sure. Go and have a seat and I’ll bring your food when it’s ready,” the cashier smiled, still blushing slightly.
“Thanks.”
Pond turned and trotted away to an empty table, and moments later her cup of tea arrived, it was a huge mug, steaming hot and perfectly sweet. She took a big gulp from it, the heat warming her all over. It wasn’t long before her food arrived, a huge plate of fried eggs, beans, hash browns grilled tomatoes and fried bread. She doused it in brown sauce and tucked in, the cutlery was designed for non-magic Ponies so Pond had never found it easier to eat. And it was as good as it looked as well, she dared not think out of fear that she’d hear it but it was probably better than what her mum could do.

Half an hour later and with a full stomach, Pond had finished her food, impressed with herself that she managed to eat the whole thing. The cashier came over.
“I can see you enjoyed that,” he smiled.
“Yes, thanks. It was just what I needed.” She exhaustedly reached for a napkin to wipe the remnants of food form her face.
“I'm glad to hear that. And you should probably know, there are no trains until the morning, so you will have to stay in this Celestia-forsaken place for the night.”
“Oh,” Pond said quietly, she knew she couldn’t afford it.
“I know what you’re thinking, but don’t worry. The Hotel has a free section, it’s not private, sort of like a large dormitory, but it’s free and has a hot shower for everypony. It could be better but it could definitely be a lot worse.”
“Oh, that’s good. I was afraid I would have to sleep outside,” Pond said with an awkward laugh.
“Nah, we wouldn’t still be here if we made Ponies sleep outside in the cold.”
“I guess not. What time is it?”
The cashier looked at his watch. “It’s almost 11:30pm. First train is at 9:00. Takes you straight to Hooflyn.”
“Okay, I guess I should probably get some sleep.” Pond thought for a second about how she was going to get on the train without paying.
“And don’t worry. The train is free.”
“Really?” Pond asked doubtfully.
“Yeah, it’s a volunteer thing.”
“Oh, alright… cool! Well I'm going to go to bed now. I’ll see you later.” Pond stood from the chair and headed slowly for the exit, she felt too full to go too quickly.
“Have a good night, Miss.”
“And you!” Pond called back over her shoulder. The cashier watched her leave, making sure she left alright, before clearing the emptying tables.

The free section of The Hotel was nothing special, just like the cashier said. It was a large, long room with about 50 beds lining the walls. She had been warned by the receptionist that they were quite full and that she may have to share a bed with somepony, and unfortunately she did.
Pond found her allocated bed, they were all numbered, and she placed her bags down by the side and sat on the bed, sighing with relief. She looked around at the other Ponies in their beds, some were managing to sleep despite the noise, others were talking amongst themselves about where they had come from and where they were going. Pond was miles away when she heard a quiet voice of a colt.
“H-hi. Err, w-why are you in my bed?”
“Huh?” Pond snapped back to reality and saw a dark red colt with an even darker red mane. “Oh. Sorry but I was told I had to share with someone and they put me with you. They’re overbooked or something. I hope you don’t mind.” Pond smiled awkwardly.
“N-no, not at all. I'm Red, that’s what my friends call me anyway.”
“I'm Pond. Pleased to meetcha!” Pond offered him her hoof, which he happily shook.
Red looked down at Pond’s bags, but in particular at her fishing rod. “What’s that?” he nodded his head towards the mysterious stick.
Pond looked down at her trusty rod,.“That? That’s my fishing rod!” she beamed proudly.
“What’s one of those?”
Pond gave him a puzzled look. “A fishing rod. You know, something you use to catch fish.”
“Why would you want to catch fish?”
“To make money.”
“What?” Red looked confused, not being able to think how fish could link to money.
“I sell them. And for a lot of money.”
“Why would someone pay a lot of money for just a fish?”
“How should I know? I just sell them, what people do with them is their own business, not mine.”
“I see…” Red wasn’t buying it, but he decided not to question further. The receptionist came in at this point and announced that lights would be turned off in ten minutes, this was met by very little protest. People retreated to their beds and prepared to sleep. Pond and Red got into bed next to each other, the awkwardness reaching near unbearable levels.

– P –

Red was a very shy sleeper, he barely moved an inch… for a while.
Pond had been sleeping peacefully for hours, her dreams remaining relatively uneventful thankfully. It was very early in the morning when Pond felt a disturbance and woke up slightly. The bed started rocking slightly as Red rolled over and lay closer to Pond, making her nervous, but she was too tired to do anything. She could feel his stomach edging closer and closer to her back, and then something she didn’t expect to feel at all. Red placed his front hooves on either side of her head, and squeezed gently. He also wrapped Pond’s tail around one of his hind legs and pulled on it slightly. He did all this without waking up. Pond would have thrown him off but, along with the weariness, she found it oddly soothing, like it somehow shut her mind off. And the pulling sensation on her tail was pleasant as well. She hadn’t had such a good night’s sleep in years.

– P –

Pond woke up at half seven, wanting to get in the shower before anypony else. But she wasn’t the only Pony to think this as there was a queue of about twenty Ponies in front of her. It wasn’t long, however, until she got into one, there were eight of them, all of which were sparkling clean and flowing with hot water. Pond only had a quick shower, quite a queue had formed behind so she only spent five minutes in there, far shorter than she would have liked it to be.
Also, much to her delight, all those staying in the free section were offered a complimentary breakfast. It was only cereal and a slice of buttered toast but that’s all she needed.

Next up was the train. Pond was confused. For some reason the train wasn’t steam or magic powered, but instead it was pulled by twenty strong colts, all harnessed to the engine tightly. This raised another question as to why they needed the engine in the first place. Pond decided not to ask because if they used horsepower they probably wouldn’t know of steam engines, she thought. She boarded the train and found a seat. It was surprisingly spacious, she had an entire seat with a table to herself so she could lay down comfortably. Countless other Ponies walked further along the train, it was unbelievably big, roughly 15 carriages long, plenty of room for everypony with some to spare. Pond was later joined by Red, who sat opposite the table from her.
They sat in silence for a second, only exchanging awkward but friendly gestures as Red sat down. Red was the first to break it.
“Sorry about last night by the way,” He said nervously. “I sometimes get a bit touchy-feely in my sleep, probably should have mentioned that…”
“Nah, it’s fine. Actually I found it quite… comfortable, I guess.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“But I was crushing your head!”
“Not really, more like squeezing lightly. Trust me, I found it comfortable.”
“Okay…” Red gave Pond a curious look, but then shook this off. “Have you ever been to Hooflyn before?”
“Nope.”
“Well, don’t get your hopes up, that’s all I can say. Quite a dingy looking city, and can be dangerous if you go to the bad parts.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Hey, if you want to, you can stick with me. I come from there so I can show you the trick to surviving it.”
“Yeah, that’s sounds good.” This was the last that either of them said for a long while.
The eight hours of train journey just crawled by.

– P –

Hooflyn. A horrible city. At first glance from the train station it didn’t seem that bad, just like any other city. But then you got further in. The foul stench in the air was the first thing to hit you, the smell of pollution and depression. There was also a huge amount of Ponies living there, all of the three different types, there was also a quite a few Griffons there as well, and that took some explaining to Pond, who hadn’t seen a lion or an eagle before let alone the offspring of the two. There were far too many Ponies for comfort. The noise as well, just a constant wail of sirens and shouting filled in the gaps that weren’t filled with the hustle and bustle of city life. It wasn’t very polite either, Pond was used to the polite Ponies of Mareton-on-Sea where she grew up, passing you and saying “hello”, but here you were lucky if you didn’t get barged into the street.
“Keep close kid,” Red whispered to her as they disembarked.
“Where are we going?”
“I know a little place. Come on, keep up.” He said as he picked up speed and headed into the mass of Ponies.
Pond followed him obediently, making sure not to leave his side. She was attracting many strange looks, at first she thought it was because of her being a Unicorn without a horn, but then she realised they were staring at her fishing rod. Must have looked a bit like a weapon to them, with its small hook and coil of wire.

Red took her down many roads and alleys, somehow the city became better, somehow filled with a special character which was starting to grow on Pond. He led her to a large building, it had a red sign above the door that stretched across the front which said “Red Lounge” and had a picture of a Pegasus mare laying down on a platform to one side of the words. It was very professional looking, it was clearly a classy place, the sign had been done in bright, elegant, neon lights but they weren’t on at the moment.
Red paused on the opposite side of the road and pointed a hoof at it. “Welcome to my club,” Red said proudly.
“You own a club?” pond was shocked, he didn’t seem the club type.
“You don’t need to sound so surprised. Come on, I’ll buy you a drink. On the house, of course.” Red trotted across the street, with Pond following closely. He held the door open for her, smiling politely which, if she was honest, seemed suspicious.
Pond walked in and was bathed in a wonderful warmth and a glorious smell, a combination of magnificent perfumes and sweet drinks. She scanned the club, it seemed quite nice, it had a bit of a seedy atmosphere to it but there was nothing bad about it, it had a lot of character. The patrons seemed rather friendly, they were just talking about uninteresting business things. A few dressed-up and makeup wearing mares of various types were serving them drinks with smiles on their faces. They seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The club even had a stage with a catwalk.

Chapter V

Her stage was lit. Her time was coming. That feeling once again in the bottom of her stomach, her adoring fans cheering with anticipation didn’t help. The final few preparations were being made, final tweaks to the costume, the last few additions to her makeup, one final mouthful of tainted water to keep her refreshed and awake. Her name was called, her cue. It was time. One final tear rolled down her cheek, and she walked from backstage, blinded by the lights, only hearing the cheering and hollering from the dozens of colts in the audience and the music starting to play. As her eyes adjusted, her prop came into view. In the centre of the catwalk. The long, shining pole, glinting in the spotlights, stretching from ceiling to floor. She walked towards it, masking her true feelings with confidence in her steps. She grabbed it, bringing about another cheer of excitement from the crowd. She preformed her routine flawlessly, being showered with coins from the many approving and aroused colts. She did not want this to happen. She did not want her life to ever come to such lows.
She hated this.

– P –

She had finished her routine, many coins lying on the stage around her, the colts cheering and hollering and whistling at her. She learnt to find this flattering, it made it easier to do night after night. She walked back down the catwalk towards the backstage, stopping to give a final bow and a strange flourish of her hind legs which her audience seemed to enjoy.
The stage had been designed to magically gather all the money thrown on it, and Pond, as usual, raked in a lot of money. Pond took the bag the money was collected in and headed to her section of the backstage where her things were. She opened the bag, there seemed to be a couple hundred bits inside, as well as a few sets of hotel keys which she quickly disposed of. She tied the bag up tight and began the laborious task of removing her costume and makeup. She looked into the mirror, seeing the Unicorn looking back at her, it made her sad, to see what her life had come down to, if her parents ever found out they would be so disappointed, she thought. She sighed, and then began unclipping the straps of her costumes.
It was a good ten minutes later before she was back to her usual self. She saw her reflection again, she felt much better seeing herself like that, her normal self, although she had to admit it, she looked good in full costume. She looked down at her bags, all her possessions, her life, grouped together in two masses of fabric.
She sighed a sorrowful sigh, she once again had nowhere to call home; the hotel she had been staying in for the past month kicked her out after falling behind with the rent, and her tips wouldn’t stretch far enough until pay day when her meagre wages came through. She actually earned far more through tips than her wages. She still had the thousands of Trotmarcs her mother had given her but they were useless in Equestria. So she decided to do something which she had never done before in the six weeks of working there, and go to the bar.

It was considerably less intimidating this side of the stage, Pond thought. The crowd seemed less rowdy and even quite pleasant. Well, besides those few who recognised Pond without her costume and playfully pinched her flank, but Pond either tried to not react or give them an evil stare, both responses only made them laugh more. Pond made it to the bar and sat on a stool, burying her face in her hooves.
“What’s up, Honey?” said an unfamiliar, friendly but powerful voice.
Pond looked up from her hooves slowly. She saw the smiling face of the Bar-mare, Dove Wings, a yellow mare with a two tone blue mane tied behind her head in a plait and a kind smile. Pond looked down again with an exhausted sigh.
“C’mon now, you can tell me anythin’.”
Pond shook her head.
“Hmph. I can see you’re not one for talking. Or maybe you can’t…” Dove said as if she knew herself, raising her eyebrow as she did.
Pond looked up again but considerably quicker and with an insulted look on her face.
“What? So you can talk?”
Pond nodded her head.
“Are you gonna?”
Pond shook her head.
“Playing hard to get I see,” Dove laughed. “Maybe a drink ought a loosen up them lips.” Dove began mixing up a cocktail with practiced ease. “Here you are, Sugar.” She slid the glass onto the bar in front of Pond.
It was quite theatrical, Pond thought, with all the umbrellas and sparkly things, it was all a bit unnecessary. Pond took a sip through the straw, her eyes went wide as it hit her tongue, it was incredibly sweet but this was outweighed by the sourness of the aftertaste. Pond went back for more, but this time drank half of the glass in one go.
“Wow, that’s good. You really know your drinks!” she panted, trying to catch her breath from the large intake of drink.
“A-ha, so you can talk after all. And thanks, by the way.” Dove busied herself making a second one for herself.
“So, what’s your name, Darlin’? Or do I have to keep calling you things like that?”
Pond was taken off guard by the question and so was forced to gulp down the mouthful of drink, which she would rather not have done. “Err. I'm Pond.”
“Nice to meet ya Pond. The name’s Dove Wings.” She fired a hoof toward Pond, who recoiled slightly before realising it was meant for shaking. As she shook it Dove added quickly in an annoyed tone, “Ironic, isn’t it?”
“What?” Pond was puzzled. She tilted her head to one side and squinted with thought.
“My name. It’s pretty ironic, considering I have no wings.”
“So? I'm called Pond, it isn’t ironic that I'm not made of water is it?”
“But you see, I'm a Pegasus.”
“Ah.” Pond wasn’t sure what to say to this.
“But instead of wings I got these little bumps.” Dove pushed her back up so Pond could see them. On her back were two obvious bumps, wiggling slightly as Dove demonstrated them.
“That’s where my wings should be.” She lowered her back and stood normally, she looked at Pond who was staring at her back as if hypnotised. Dove tutted. “Go on then. I can see you want to. Just be gentle, they’re quite sensitive.”
Pond smiled childishly as she slowly reached a hoof over the bar and towards Dove’s back. She pushed one gently, feeling a strange spongy sensation under her hoof. She giggled. “That’s so weird.”
“Oh, well thanks,” Dove said mildly angrily, losing her friendly voice.
“Oh no, don’t get mad please. I thought it felt funny. Plus, I'm kind of in the same situation as you. I am, after all, a Unicorn without a horn.”
“So? You just look like an Earth Pony. Whereas I actually have a visible deformity.”
“I grew up in a land where there are only Unicorns,” Pond said smoothly.
Dove stared at her, her brow furrowed with thought and slight feelings of guilt. “Ah. I can see that might be more of a problem.”
“Yeah…” Pond clicked her tongue. “Let’s just say it wasn’t the best childhood ever.”
There was an awkward silence where the only sounds were the soft music coming from the club and the slurping of the two mares at their drinks. Dove eventually couldn’t stand it anymore.
“So, you say you come from a place where there are just Unicorns?” Dove said with surprise, possibly sarcastically but she couldn’t quite tell.
“Yep. Trotland, out in The Mare.”
“I see. Never heard of that place before,” there was a hint of doubt in her voice.
“Nopony here has. And nopony in Trotland had heard of Equestria until about a year ago.”
“Oh. So why did you come here then?”
“I just fancied it, I guess. Besides, I doubt I could live in a place where magic is a pretty important way of life when I have no way of using it.”
“Makes sense. But at least here you look perfectly normal, that must feel good.”
“It does, I used to be bullied something awful.”
“I'm sorry to hear that,” Dove said sadly. “But hey, if it makes you feel any better I was too.”
“That actually makes me feel a little worse.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I meant I know what you’ve gone through.”
“I know that, but it’s still sad knowing somepony else was in a similar situation.”
“True. I… guess.” There was a moment of awkward silence when a thought suddenly struck Dove. “So you came to Hooflyn. Lemme guess, Red found you in Lost, didn’t he?” Dove already knew the answer, as you could tell by her tone.
“Yeah.” Pond was surprised. “How did you know?”
“Listen, Honey, nopony new to this land would come here. They’d go to somewhere like Canterlot or Manehattan, but not to this place. The only reason people come here is because they’re lost. Just like me actually, Red found me at Lost and said he’d help me out here in Hooflyn.”
“That’s a bit weird, he actually goes recruiting for lost girls.”
“Well, no actually. He genuinely gets lost a lot of the time.”
“Ah…” Pond was relieved yet slightly disappointed for reasons she couldn’t explain.

The lights went down and the music changed.
“What’s happening?” Pond said nervously while looking around quickly.
Dove jumped up excitedly and leant on the bar top, her head resting in her hooves and a smile on her face. She was swinging her hind legs back and forth slightly with anticipation. “She always ends the night,” she said quickly.
“Who?”
“Her,” she sighed as she pointed one of her hooves at the stage.
Pond followed it and saw what got Dove so excited. It was a tall white Pegasus mare, wearing a wonderful costume. Pond stared at her with wide eyes and a wondrous expression.
“Whoa,” was all she could manage to say as her mind was entirely preoccupied with the mare on the stage who confused her so. Pond hadn’t seen anypony quite like her before, she had very mixed and complicated feelings at that time.
“Isn’t she dreamy?” Dove said aloud to anypony listening in an incredibly blissful voice. Pond unintentionally nodded with agreement. They were there for the whole ten minutes of her performance completely transfixed on her. Afterwards Dove sighed with relief and slid back down off the bar and onto her hooves, whereas Pond was still staring at the spot where the white Pegasus was dancing.
“I can see you enjoyed that,” Dove laughed, snapping Pond back to reality.
Pond shook her head turned around to face Dove. “Who was that?”
“I don’t know her name, all I do know for sure is that it’s Red’s wife.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Lucky guy, ain’t he? That mare is like sex on hooves!”
Pond was taken aback by this. “Are you one of those… that prefer… those of the… mare-ly persuasion?”
“What?”
“Y’know… a… filly fancier?”
“What?” Dove then clicked on. “OH! You could have just said lesbian, would have been a hay of a lot easier. But no, I assure you. I'm strictly into colts. But c’mon, would you seriously kick her out of bed?”
Pond’s silence spoke volumes.
“I thought so.” Dove leaned in closer to Pond and said quietly, “And just a side note here, Darlin’. That mare might be sexier, but she ain’t half the dancer you are.”
Pond blushed.

The crowd started to slowly leave the club, now that all the shows were over. Those still sober enough said their goodnights to the staff and left without fuss, others had to be lead out by the bouncers. But one particular colt, drunk and… obviously aroused, trotted over to Pond, swaying dangerously with each step. He stood behind her as she sat facing the bar and chatting with Dove. He grabbed her in an undesired way. Pond let out a quick shriek as she was pulled to the floor. Dove was quick to act and jumped over the bar, she kicked the colt hard in the ribs and whistled loudly at a couple of bouncers, who swiftly came over to them, grabbed him and threw him to the curb.
“Are you alright, hon?” Dove lowered herself to the floor next to Pond and helped her up.
Pond didn’t reply, her voice was lost once again.
“Don’t worry, he won’t be coming back,” Dove said menacingly as she stood back up with Pond. Dove looked at her, her top lip was quivering. She quickly hugged her before she started crying. “Hey,” she whispered, “Don’t cry. It happens to all of us mares here at some point. We won’t let anything worse happen to you. We’re your friends and will protect you like one of our own.” She pulled away again and looked at Pond, whose face was no longer looking on the brink crying but instead in deep thought. “What’s up?”
“Your voice. It’s… changed. It’s less… sassy.”
“Yeah, that’s the act I put on. Red thought it would be a good idea for his best bar-mare to talk like that. And let me tell ya, it feels so good when you don’t have to talk like that anymore.”
Pond smiled at her. Her natural voice was so much nicer, sweeter and friendlier than her pretend one, although it lacked any sort of power.
Dove let go of Pond, who instantly lost balance and almost fell over, if it weren’t for Dove catching her in time.
“Easy there,” she said as she pulled Pond back up to her hooves. “Looks like you might need help getting home. Where d’ya live?”
Pond managed to force the words out. “I don’t.”
“Huh?”
“I-I was kicked out of my hotel because I couldn’t afford to pay them their money back. But I think I got enough tip money to pay for a night at a different one.”
Dove frowned and shook her head. “No, I can’t let you do that. Look at you, ya barely stand if I let go. I can’t let you fend for yourself in a cheap hotel. I’ve heard of horrible things happening in them.”
“But what else can I do?”
“Well, if you ask Red, he will let you stay here. He’s got a couple a beds in the cellar. But I wouldn’t stay here if I were you, it’s not particularly safe. It got broken into eight times in the past three weeks. Twice in one night once! And in your state, I don’t think you could handle being by yourself.”
“And just what is that supposed to mean?” Pond asked, faking being insulted, she knew Dove was right, she didn’t want to be alone.
“I know what it feels like for that to happen, I know too well. I didn’t want to be left alone. Nowhere felt safe. Didn’t sleep for days on end.” Dove shut her eyes, her mind trying desperately to re-forget the events of two years ago. Fortunately, pushing it back was an easy and well practiced task. She took a short breath and continued talking.
“But anyway, you can stay with me if ya want.”
“Really?” Pond said happily, she was glad to finally have a friend willing to do that for her in that Celestia forsaken city.
“Of course! Why would I lie about that? C’mon now, my house is only about 45 minutes by hoof away from here. Can you walk without falling over?”
“I think so.” Pond said nervously as she cautiously pushed herself off Dove’s shoulder, her legs only shook a little bit. “There. See? I'm fine.”
“Good. Have you got any stuff with you?”
“Yeah, it’s in the back.”
“Okay, go get it. I would like to leave pretty damn soon.”
Pond trotted off the backstage and collected her belongings, all of which were still there. She came back onto the stage and jumped off with unnecessary enthusiasm. Dove was placing her white apron onto a hook behind the bar and grabbed a bag from under the counter, slinging it over her shoulder.
“You ready?” Dove called to Pond who nodded her head. “Right, let’s go then.” Dove headed towards the door slowly giving Pond a chance to catch up.
Pond picked up the pace a little, but slowed as she got behind Dove. Her wing bumps were much more obvious in the brighter light. Pond couldn’t resist. She raised a hoof and prodded one, causing Dove to stop and visibly shiver. She didn’t move for a second or two, her face completely blank.
“Do that again,” she said emotionlessly. Pond did as requested and prodded both of them this time. Dove shivered again but a little more violently. She shook her head clear.
“That was… tingly.” She stood still for a second more before jumping up slightly and started walking again.
“That’s enough dawdling. We should really get a move on.” Dove put on a faster pace which Pond struggled to keep up with.

– P –

Their pace had slowed considerably, they hadn’t made much effort to keep up any sort of speed. They just spent their time walking and talking. The city of Hooflyn was like any other city of that size, it was very grim, but had some hidden quality that you couldn’t see right away, only after a while of living there would you be able to see it. Pond still didn’t see it.

“So how long have you been a Bar-mare?” Pond asked inquisitively, she was getting bored of the sounds of sirens and alarms.
“Only a couple of months, actually,” Dove stated matter-of-factly.
“Really? You must have a knack for it.”
“I'm surprised it’s not my cutie mark.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t have a cutie mark. I'm a blank flank.”
Pond checked. She was right, she was a blank flank. “How’s that possible? You must be…” Pond gestured wildly, not wanting to insult Dove with a misjudged guess of her age.
“Twenty. And I don’t know how, but I think that’s why Red hired me.”
“Huh?”
“Red found me at Lost as well didn’t he? He brought me to his club and asked if I wanted a job, and I said yes. He told me later about how me not having a cutie mark appealed to colts.”
“What? Why?” Pond could not fathom any reason for this.
“I don’t know. You know colts, they’re a strange bunch. But Red told me it’s something to do with innocence and they must find that nice.”
“So you were a dancer?”
“Yep. And I don’t mean to brag but I was THE best!”
“Seriously?” Pond smiled in a way to say “aren’t you forgetting someone?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. You’re good and all, but I can see through you. All the colts in the audience are blind when such a pretty young thing like you is prancing around like you do, but I can see you hiding your true feelings.”
“Really? I thought I hid it really well.”
“You did, but I have a lot of time to watch, so I eventually saw through your confident steps, and I could see how you hate it. And that’s why I'm better. I loved it. If only you could have seen me dance. I was raking in thousands of bits a night in tips! My wages didn’t even compare. Also-,” Dove looked around nervously and leant in to whisper to Pond. “Don’t tell anyone but, Red told me once that-,” she quietened down further, “He once was thinking of me when… you know… with his wife.” Dove giggled girlishly and Pond blushed.
“No?” Pond didn’t believe her, “Really?”
Dove nodded excitedly.
“Why would he ever tell you that?”
“Red is… surprisingly open about that sort of stuff. Especially after a few drinks.”
“That’s… impressive. But what happened? Why did you become a Bar-mare?”
“A costume malfunction, is the simple story. But I guess you want the longer one?”
Pond nodded her head.
Dove sighed. “Alright then…

“Red, are you sure about this?” Dove asked nervously.
“What?” Red replied exhaustedly.
“It’s… this costume. It’s designed for a Pegasus.”
“And you are one, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Bu-”
“Then what’s the problem?” Red laughed.
“Ponies will see my…” Dove looked down at the floor embarrassedly as she said this, watching her hoof swing back and forth as she held it the air.
Red put his hooves on her shoulders. “Hey. Look at me.” He shook her a little bit and she looked into his scarlet eyes. “They’re nothing to be ashamed of.”
“But-.”
“Ah!” he silenced her with a raised hoof. “Listen to me. They are NOTHING to be ashamed of. You’re beautiful, okay? And don’t let anypony tell you otherwise.”
Red looked up as he heard the music come on. “That’s your cue.” Red took his hooves off her shoulders. “Are you okay to go on?”
Dove took a deep breath. “I think so.” She turned around and stepped forward tentatively.
“Good. Now-,” He slapped her flank, “Do me proud.” He smiled sweetly at her.
Dove looked over her shoulder and smiled back.

That slap to the flank strangely invigorated her and gave her a huge boost of confidence. Dove walked out into the roar of the audience and the blinding light. That night she felt much more in the mood for dancing, so her routine was much more… seductive. She had never done anything like that before, it was amazing, in her mind she couldn’t see how anypony would not be enjoying this to the fullest. She didn’t even notice the silence of the crowd, or the clicking of the door as some Ponies left, or even the lack of money raining down on the stage.
She had finished, panting to try and catch her breath. Once caught, she looked up at her adoring fans and expected a huge round of cheering and whistling. But no, instead all she got was silence and the horrified and disgusted faces of a few dozen colts staring at her, but in particular at her back.
“What gives?!” she whispered angrily as she turned and stormed off the stage.
Red was staring at the unusually calm crowd, stupefied to the spot. Dove walked up to him, her nose barely an inch away from his, with nothing but venom in her eyes.
“That… I didn’t expect.” He continued to stare through her, his face retaining an emotionless state.
“You seriously didn’t expect that? SERIOUSLY?!” Dove yelled at him, breaking his absence of attention and making him focus on her.
“What? I thought they would focus on the dancing. After all, you were on fire tonight.”
Dove nodded along to his words sarcastically. “Oh… you thought they wouldn’t notice, of course they wouldn’t, would they,” she spoke with angered sarcasm. “Of course they wouldn’t notice these two huge deformities sticking out of my back!” she shouted, on the brink of tears. “And what a bucking brilliant idea from you, saying I should where a costume which does nothing but highlight them!” She reached her head over her shoulder and ripped a shred of the costume of. “Bucking fantastic!” She continued ripping the costume.
Red had no idea what to do; all he could do was watch in silence as Dove tore angrily at the costume, with tears starting to flow freely from her eyes.

Dove finished moments later, the costume was completely destroyed and laying strewn on the floor in pieces, all apart from a belt around her waist which she couldn’t rip or take off without help. Red looked at the costume on the floor then back to Dove, her cheeks were soaked with tears, her makeup had run down as well. She was shuddering violently with the combination of sheer anger and sadness. She had begun gasping for air, hyperventilating almost. Suddenly, she bolted past Red, emitting loud sobs as she did. She galloped out of the backstage exit and into the car park behind the club.
Red was frozen on the spot. Never before had he had to deal with this kind of situation. He quickly realised however, that it would be a monumentally stupid idea not to follow her. In her state she would be considerably more vulnerable than usual.

Red galloped after her, hoping he could find her before it was too late and something horrible happened. He made it outside in no time at all and looked around frantically for any sign of Dove, but it was too dark. He heard a strange noise, something like a pained grunt mixed with tears. His mind quickly made the link and ran over to the source of the noise. It was coming from the alley around the side of the club.
As he reached the end of the alley he could make out the silhouette of a mare, she was repeatedly swinging her back against something. Red approached slowly at first, but this meant he could start to make out the something, it was glinting like glass in the orange glow of the street lights. Fear shot into his heart as he knew instantly what was happening.
He charged at her and tackled her, pinning her to the ground. His first thought was how glad he was to have tackled the right mare. But his next thought was a mystery to him, all it did was bring on a barrage of tears.
“No no no no no no no no. Please don’t do that,” he pleaded with her, tears falling from his face onto hers. He wasn’t even completely sure what she was doing, but he knew he just wanted her to stop.
“Why not? I'm hideous! I just want to cut these things right off!” Dove sobbed.
“Don’t you dare do that. You are NOT hideous. It’s not worth it.” Red nuzzled her cheek. “It’s not worth it,” he repeated in a whisper.
He looked up at Dove’s face, she wasn’t noticeably crying anymore. He looked up at the shard of glass sticking out of an old metal window frame. His eyes went wide and he paled as he saw a small bit of flesh sticking on the edge of the glass. He hesitantly placed a quivering hoof under her back. When he withdrew it he noticed it was covered in blood. Next he noticed how Dove had all but stopped breathing and her heart had slowed right down. He started shivering with fear, then his mind kicked into gear.
“Call an ambulance,” he said calmly to himself. He stood up.
“Call an ambulance,” he said again but a bit louder.
“Oh sweet Celestia call a bucking ambulance!” he roared into the night. He ran at full speed round to the front of the club, stilling pleading to anypony listening to call an ambulance. He made it to the front door within seconds and kicked it down nearly.
“CALL A BUCKNG AMBULANCE!” he shouted into the club, causing the music to halt and everypony to immediately stop what they were doing and look at him. Nopony knew whether or not he was serious, but as he shot a vicious stare at the Bar-mare she knew not to ask questions. As the Bar-mare rang for an ambulance Red ran back to the alley to keep an eye on Dove. There was a visible pool of blood now under her. Red ran to her side and tried to keep her alive to the best of his abilities. Minutes later, an ambulance arrived.

“Red didn’t leave my side for days on end,” Dove said quietly. “I was in hospital for a week and he was always there beside me. According to the doctors he hadn’t actually left. When I woke up after a few days he practically exploded, I had never seen him so happy. He jumped up on the bed and kissed me and everything. Once I recovered and came back to work, he had a chat with me and said that I should probably work behind the bar after, y’know, that humiliation. I was so glad to. I had a knack for it as well which helped.” Dove giggled to herself. “It also meant I could watch all the other dancers do their thing.”
Pond gave her a questioning look. “Are you sure you’re not…” she tilted her end to the side in the hopes Dove would get the gist, she couldn’t bring herself to say “lesbian”.
“I am sure. Dancers are supposed to entertain, so why can’t I enjoy it too?”
“I'm not saying that, it’s just that… you seem rather… passionate about it.”
“It’s my life. I do very little else.”
“I see…” Pond sighed. “You know, I must say that Red surprised me in your story. I wouldn’t expect him to care that much.”
“You better believe it. Red would never let any of his girls come to harm, we’re his family. If you ever had a problem he will help you no matter what. He is one of the most caring colts you could ever meet,” she said with an airy voice, her eyes not focusing on anything.
A smile crept to Pond’s face as she looked at Dove’s absent expression. “You have a thing for Red, don’t you?”
“What? No!” Dove’s eyes darted uneasily side to side.
“Oh Celestia. You do!” Pond laughed.
“No!”
“Yes you do!” Pond started skipping around Dove. “Dove loves Re-ed. Dove loves Re-ed,” she sang childishly.
“Stop it now. I don’t!” Dove said getting a little more irritated.
“Yes you do-o!” Pond stopped in front of Dove and poked her nose. “You luuurrrve him!”
“Shut up!” Dove pushed Pond back.
“Okay, okay. I’ll stop talking about your crush on Red.”
Dove shot a glare at Pond but she just giggled childishly, Dove couldn’t help but laugh with her. She shook her head and continued walking, nudging Pond with a hoof. They continued walking back to Dove’s house.

– P –

After narrowly escaping getting hit by a car, the two Ponies made it back to Dove’s house. It was a two storey terrace house, right smack-bang in the middle of the street, surrounded on either side by considerably run down houses, making her house look much nicer.
“There it is!” Dove shouted ecstatically as it came into view. She put on a bit more speed and ran across the road. She fumbled around with her mouth in her bag and pulled out a key. She unlocked the door and went inside, throwing her key into a pot by the door, knowing exactly where it was even in the dark. She flicked the light switch on and the dim hallway light lit up the cramped corridor. After Pond walked in Dove quickly slammed the door shut and locked the many locks and chains, securing the door tightly from intruders. She breathed a sigh of relief knowing they were in the safety of her home.
“Welcome, Pond, to my home,” she said with great pleasure.
Pond looked around. It was nothing special, the walls were a dull beige with a few pictures hanging on them. There were a few plants dotted around the place to brighten everything up. It was very cramped in the hallway, which is the one thing Pond couldn’t get over. “It’s… nice.”
“You don’t have to sound so ungrateful, Honey,” her sassy voice returned momentarily.
“No, I mean it. It’s nice. A million times better than that hotel I was staying at.”
“I should hope so. Can I get you anything? Drink? Food?” Dove asked politely.
Pond looked at her stomach, just mentioning food made it rumble. “Err… actually, I could murder a sandwich.”
“Say no more, I’ll see what I can rustle up.” Dove squeezed past her and went into the kitchen. “Go through to the living room. I’ll be there in a jiffy,” Dove called from the kitchen.
Pond walked through the other door, assuming it was the right one seeing as there weren’t any others. This room was much nicer, it was being bathed in the pale light coming from a fish tank, the walls were also a much more enticing colour, being striped with reds and blues. It even smelt nicer thanks to a vase of flowers in the corner. Pond found the light switch and twisted it, the lights grew brighter as she turned it up, but she stopped when she reached a nice mood lighting. She slid her bags off onto the floor, placing them neatly in the corner.
Her eyes caught sight of a sofa on the other side, it was the most comfortable looking sofa she ever saw. She looked around, making sure the coast was clear, it was. A mischievous grin curled to her lips as she readied to pounce on it. She took a short running start and then lunged into the air and came down onto the sofa. It was even comfier than she imagined, she could have eaten it, it was that comfortable, which she had to admit was a very strange thought to have when it comes to sofas.
Dove walked in at the very moment to see Pond land heavily on her sofa. She just had to smile.
“Grub’s up!” she called as she carried in two plates with a sandwich on each.
Pond rearranged herself to let Dove sit next to her and prepared for the sandwich she was about to eat. Dove placed the plates on the sofa and jumped up herself. She got herself in a comfortable lounging position and pulled the plate towards her. She leant on one of her hooves and in the other she held her sandwich. She moved the sandwich to bite it but stopped when she noticed how Pond was sitting.
“How do you sit like that?” She was mildly impressed.
“What? Like this? It’s easy really, all you do is first-,”
“I don’t mean how. Why is what I really meant.”
“Oh… well, it’s comfortable.”
“Really? To me it just looks like you bending your spine badly.”
“No, not at all. Also it gives you this little shelf to rest plates on,” Pond said as she gestured towards the lower half of her body supporting a plate.”
“I see…” Dove couldn’t help but look at her, she couldn’t believe her when she said it was comfortable, it wasn’t natural for a Pony to bend that way.
“You try it!”
“Nah. I'm good thanks.” Dove forced her attention back onto her sandwich and took a bite. “Oh yeah,” she said with a mouth full of food. “I don’t want to rush you but it’s pushing for two o’clock, and I should think we have both had long days. So…” She gulped down the bite of sandwich and took another huge chunk.
“Yeah that’s fine. I was planning to go to sleep after this anyway. I can never go to bed on an empty stomach.”
“I know what you mean.”

Dove demolished her sandwich by the time Pond was on the final quarter, but still she didn’t rush her, just waited patiently for her to finish.
She saw the final gulp go down her neck. “Did you like that?” she asked hopefully.
“Yeah, it was good.” Pond yawned wide and stretched her tired limbs.
“I agree. C’mon, I’ll show you to your room.” Dove rolled off the sofa and took the plates into the kitchen, giving Pond the chance to grab her bags from the corner of the room. Dove came back in and gestured for Pond to follow her. They went up the creaky stairs silently.
They reached the top.
“Okay, this is the bathroom.” She pointed a hoof at the door in front of them. “My room is that one and yours is at the end there.”
She led Pond to the room at the front of the house and opened the door. It was clearly primarily used for storage as there were a few boxes dotted around as well as a bookcase full of assorted items and books.
“It’s a bit of a mess sorry, but the bed’s comfortable and that’s all that matters really.” Dove quickly made the bed for her, although all she did was roughly spread the quilt over the bed. “There you go, hop in!” she said enthusiastically.
“Thanks,” Pond yawned.
“I’ll leave you to it then. And if you need me I'm just down the hall.” Dove walked out of the room and pulled the door closed slightly. “Good night!” she said kindly just before she closed the door gently.
“Good night,” Pond said back to her through the door, trying to stop herself yawning again.
She rummaged through her bags and took out her old reliable Unicorn doll Winks, she still couldn’t sleep without him and doubted she ever would. She climbed into the bed and pulled the quilt up to her head. It was the comfiest bed she had slept in since leaving Trotland all those months ago. She clutched Winks tight to her chest and shut her eyes, sleep came easy to her for once.

– P –

It was still dark. Roughly half four in the morning. Dove was woken by a terrifying noise, the shrill screaming of the mare in the other room. She had experience with this sort of thing and did not hesitate to act. She jumped out of bed and grasped the machete in her mouth; she always kept one unsheathed on her bedside table just for something like this. She bolted out her door and down the short hallway to Pond’s room. Adrenaline pumping she was ready for anything. She reached the door barely seconds after being woken up and kicked it open with her front legs, prepared to kill the monster who dares attack her friend.
She stood in the doorway for a split second before dropping the machete to the floor, making a soft clanking noise as it hit. Dove hadn’t expected that. Pond was sat bolt upright in the bed, screaming the house down with no apparent reason. Dove jumped onto the bed in front of Pond and hugged her, it was the only thing she could think of doing. She held her tight, stroking her hoof through her mane in the hopes to calm her down.
“Ssh,” Dove whispered, and then repeated profusely, rocking Pond gently back and forth.
Pond eventually stopped screaming and launched herself at Dove, wrapping her forelegs around her neck and burying her face into it, sobbing loudly with huge amounts of tears now soaking Dove’s neck. This went on for a good few minutes before her crying died down.
“What happened?” Dove found an appropriate time to ask.
Pond whimpered slightly.
“Ssh ssh ssh. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Dove rubbed her back, trying to calm her again before another round of tears came about. She leant her head against Pond’s and shut her eyes, trying to be as affectionate and caring as possible.
“Do you want to sleep in my bed with me tonight?” she asked, wondering whether or not it was an appropriate question giving their age.
She felt Pond nod against her neck. “Okay then. Come on, let’s go.” Dove pulled away from Pond slowly, not wanting to shock her. She could now see the extent of Pond’s nightmares, she looked a mess, somehow there was still a bit of makeup that ran down her cheek, her mane was all over the place. But her eyes were the worst affected, they were so red it was worrying.
Dove felt her neck, there was an impressive amount of liquid there, her coat had become matted in that one spot.
She slowly dropped off the bed and waited for Pond to follow, she didn’t want to rush her. Once Pond had jumped down Dove picked up the machete again, she turned and saw Pond pick up an ugly old doll between her chattering teeth. Dove was confused as to why an 18 year old mare, out in a strange new world, would have a doll, but she decided that it probably wasn’t the time to ask any more questions. She led Pond out of the room, holding her hoof. They walked incredibly slowly.

They walked into Dove’s room, Dove flicking the bedside lamp on as she passed it. She let go of Pond so she could climb into the bed. Pond lay on the edge, clutching her doll, shivering in the cold. Dove placed the machete back on the bedside table and got into bed next to her, it was just big enough to accommodate both of them without a squeeze. She turned off the lamp and pulled the covers over them. Dove felt very awkward at that moment in time, she didn’t know what to do, whether she should give Pond some room or hug her and try to make her more comfortable. She chose the latter, it only felt right to her. She slid along the bed and behind Pond, and wrapped her forelegs around Pond, holding her under her forelegs. She was awkward at first, but then she felt Pond move against her and get comfortable with Dove’s forelegs around her, letting out an erratic sigh of relief once she found the right spot and swiftly fell asleep. Dove, too, sighed with relief, and then proceeded to move closer to Pond as she no longer felt awkward. Pond was shorter than her, so she could rest her head against hers, with Pond curled up slightly it meant she slotted in nicely into Dove’s body. Dove nuzzled the back of her neck, and then shut her eyes, she couldn’t believe how comfortable Pond was; she was so soft and pleasantly warm against her tear stained coat. Sleep fell upon her in mere moments.

Chapter VI

It was late morning, about half ten, when Dove started to stir. She woke up, her eyes could barely open. She was glad to not have had another incident like that in the night, she doubt she could have handled being woken up like that again.
She looked around wearily, her vision blurry due to her un-openable eyes, but she could still make out the colour and shape of a Pony laying beside her. She wasn’t sure who it was in her tired state and began rubbing their stomach affectionately without realising it, but once the Pony next to her started to stir and emit a feminine sound she remembered it was Pond and abruptly stopped.
She removed her hoof from Pond and used it to rub her eyes open; she then gently pulled her other hoof out from under her so she could move. She sat up in bed and stretched her legs, yawning as she did, trying desperately to be quiet as to not wake Pond.
She rolled off the bed and landed quietly on the carpet. She stretched once again, her back seemed to creak slightly, and then she pulled the covers back over Pond to let her continue sleeping, after last night she thought Pond could use some proper sleep. Dove went to the bathroom to relieve the pressure caused by free drinks before heading downstairs for a hot, sugary cup of tea.

– P –

It had been some time before Pond woke up; the absence of Dove holding her was noticeable as she tossed and turned before waking. She opened her eyes slowly, the light shining through the thin curtains was painfully bright for somepony who had just woken up. Once her eyes adjusted to the light she sat up, wondering where Dove had gone, she felt rather nervous, she thought Dove could have been taken since it’s a possibility in this city. But all fear was dissipated as Pond heard a loud crash and an even louder use of profanity. Pond sighed with relief, now that she knew her friend was downstairs and just dropped a mug, by the sound of it, she could easily get up. She took Winks from the floor and placed him carefully on the nightstand before making the bed, paying close attention to detail, she never could leave a job done to anything less than an exceptional standard. Content with the bed she left and headed to the bathroom. She really needed a needed a shower, but felt far too rude to just go for one. So she leant her head over the banister.
“Can I go for a shower?” she shouted in as polite a fashion as possible.
“Yeah, sure!” Dove shouted back up. “But you don’t need to ask. Just make sure you don’t use up all the hot water!”
“Okay, thanks!” Pond, now happy that she asked, went to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her and locking it; she wasn’t sure why as it locked the door to nothing but itself due to it being broken, but it just felt wrong not to.
She turned the taps and out poured the water into the bath, it took her a moment to figure out how to get it to come out the shower but she managed it. Once at a nice warm temperature she stepped into the bath and closed the curtain.
She sat under the water for a while; just letting her body get soaked and wash away the few aches and bad feelings she had. She found water so soothing, regardless of whether she was on a boat or sitting in the shower. She slumped back against the back of the bath, the taps dripping both hot and cold water onto her back, her hind legs stretched out in the bath. She didn’t feel comfortable, she didn’t know why but there was a horrible feeling in her stomach. She was sure a good cry could get rid of it but she so badly did not want to.
She didn’t cry in the end, which relieved her, instead she settled for resting her head back to let the water hit her face and playing with her mane and tail, enjoying the feelings immensely as she drifted away from reality.
It must have been ten minutes before her mind came back from where ever it had been, her body now sufficiently wet and her mane and tail incredibly knotted. She thought she’d better not be in there for much longer as Dove might want a shower as well, so she sat up into a more natural position so she could wash herself.
She was confused, there was such an array of various bath liquids all used to some degree that she didn’t know what to use. And just to add to that, she didn’t know which ones she was allowed to use, and she felt like she couldn’t just use any without asking. After some very mild panic, she settled on a simple bar of soap, she couldn’t possible go wrong with that. She quickly washed herself and got out, finding a towel on the radiator and roughly drying herself before wrapping it around her mane.
She left the bathroom and headed downstairs, still the towel wrapped around her head.

Dove was sat at the table, idly playing with her mane, when she heard the clopping sound of hooves on the laminate flooring in the hallway behind her, coming ever closer to the kitchen.
“Morning Pond,” she called over her shoulder. “Did ya have a good sleep? Y’know, apart from the… the… bit in the middle.”
“Good morning. And yes, I did. Your bed is really comfy.” Pond took a seat opposite Dove at the breakfast table, sighing contently as she relaxed every muscle in her body, leaning her head in her hooves.
“Thanks. Can I get you anything?”
“Err… what’re you offering?”
“I have some scrambled eggs ready to go. I was waiting for you before I made any.”
“Aw, thanks. And eggs sound perfect right now.”
“Okay.” Dove hopped down from the chair and headed over to the stove where she quickly made some scrambled eggs and toast.
She placed the plate of food in front of Pond along with a large mug of tea. She got her own plate and sat opposite Pond. They ate in silence for a while until the curiosity burned inside Dove to an unbearable point.
“Hey Pond.”
“Yeah?”
“W-what did you dream about that made you… you…” awkwardness prevented her from finishing her question.
“I don’t really know.” Pond sighed.
“What?” Dove spoke with slight annoyance; she didn’t like being woken with no obvious or explainable reason.
“Those nightmares… I don’t always know what’s going on. And if I'm honest, I don’t really want to.”
“Why?” Dove was growing concerned for her.
“Well… I-I don’t really want to talk about it,” Pond said casually, as if she didn’t really care.
“Oh come on, you can tell me,” she said caringly.
“No, I can’t. Let’s just say it’s down to a rather bad childhood.”
“Heh. I’ve been there,” Dove said, thinking she knew what it was like.
“No you haven’t,” Pond said with a little derogatory laugh.
“Err, yes I have. Remember these?” Dove forced her back up to show off her wing bumps.
“I know, you must have had a bad childhood, but mine was worse, I assure you.”
“Oh yeah?” Dove was getting competitive.
“Yeah!”
“You wanna bet?” she said jokingly.
Pond walked out of the kitchen.
“Oh Pond, don’t go away, I was only kidding!”
Pond ignored her and kept walking. She went to the spare room where her belongings were and took something. She walked back to the kitchen and plonked the two heavy bags she had on the table.
“What’s that?” Dove asked with an inquisitive smile.
“I bet you 8,627 Trotmarcs that I had a worse childhood than you.” Pond folded her forelegs with a smug motion.
“Challenge accepted.” Dove put her hoof forth to shake on the bet and Pond did so confidently.
“You can start, if you want.”
Dove froze for a second. “Wait. Are you serious?” she doubted her greatly.
Pond nodded. “Yep.”
“Oh… okay…” Dove thought for a while, wondering whether or not she should play along. In the end she decided she might as well, what could possibly go wrong?
“Okay, I’ll start low, I don’t want to make either of us reveal anything unnecessary.” Dove paused for a second and began to contemplate her childhood, something she hadn’t done for years and didn’t really like doing it. “Err… I was…called… wingless.”
Pond laughed. “What? Is that it?!”
“Well… yeah, it was simple but effective. It got the point across.”
“Makes sense. Alright, my turn. I was called… Eunuch.”
“What?” Dove said with great confusion.
“That’s what it sounded like. They were actually calling me Unic, y’know, Unicorn without the horn. You know how stupid little foals are.” A reminiscent smile curled to her lips. “Ha. I remember when I started talking and caught them out on it. You should have seen the look on their faces!” Pond started to laugh.
“When you started talking? They were insulting you when you were an infant?” Dove asked in amazement.
“No. I didn’t talk until I was seven.”
“Why?”
“Just didn’t want to,” Pond said with boredom. “C’mon, your turn!” She gestured for Dove to continue.
“Alright, alright… Um… I was beaten up a lot,” she sounded oddly chipper as she said this.
“So was I.”
“Well, did you ever have to go to hospital with four broken legs?”
“No, but I did have to be off for a week to let my eyes heal. Do you know how horrible it is to have a spell cast on you to make your eyes bleed?”
“Wow that’s mean!” Dove started to rub her eyes; the thought of them bleeding was making them cringe.
“It was kinda my fault,” Pond smiled awkwardly.
“How could that possibly be your fault?”
“I distracted the guy and he messed up the spell. It was supposed to be a plant growth spell, but somehow ended up an eye-bleeding spell. He apparently was the first to discover it. We were given awards for the discovery and everything.”
Dove stared at her with her mouth agape, she couldn’t believe that one bit.
“Your turn!” Pond said eagerly.
“I don’t think I have much to better that.” She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Oh yeah… how could I have forgotten about that?”
“What?” Pond asked inquisitively.
“Look at this.” Dove walked over to Pond to show her one of her wings bumps. “See that scar?” She gestured to a long thin scar going around the base of it.
“I was invited to a sleepover once, which was nice. Unusual, but nice. It turned out to be a ruse as my bullies were there. Those little pricks tried to cut it off! And if a parent hadn’t come in they probably would have. And lemme tell ya, you haven’t known pain until you’ve had the most sensitive parts of the body being cut with a bread knife. I was in hospital for weeks, mostly in surgery, for my nerves to get repaired.”
Dove’s voice was still very casual as she went back to her seat.
“Sorry to hear that,” Pond said almost sarcastically. “My turn!” she squeaked with excitement. “I had a friend called Tesla once. A Tricorn he was, that’s the reason we were friends, both of us were freaks.”
“So?” Dove said impatiently. “What did he do?” she said while spinning a hoof, urging Pond to talk faster.
“Oh yeah.” Pond got up to show Dove something. She backed up to the wingless Pegasus and stood up on her hind legs. “Go on, feel my back. A bit less than halfway up.”
Dove did as requested and started running a hoof across her back, not quite sure what she was looking for. But then she felt something. It an obvious disruption in the smoothness that is Pond’s back, a patch of incredible roughness that made Pond wince painfully as Dove pushed her hoof harder against it.
“What’s that?” Dove asked with a smile.
“A scar. Or to be more precise an electricity burn.”
“I have no idea what you’re on about.”
“Tesla, after not talking to me for ages, said he wanted to hang out one day after school. I happily did so. Turns out he was waiting for me with his new Unicorn friends, four of them. Each of them magically pinned a leg against a wall. At first I thought it was going to be something entirely different and horrible, and who wouldn’t? How often does an old friend who’s coming of age ask to hang out with you and then gets his mates to pin you against a wall with your flank facing him and legs spread apart? I was relieved at first to not feel anything going inside me.” Pond shuddered at the thought.
“But then I realised just how much it hurts to get hit with a thousand or so Hyperwatts of magical lightning. I was off for like a month before I could go back to school, and not just because I could barely walk. I felt humiliated and lost the ability to talk for another month after that, thanks to that confidence boost,” she said sourly. “I liked talking.”

Dove took a while to let all of this sink in, in the meantime Pond returned to her seat.
“Interesting,” she finally said in a slow, thoughtful voice.
“So… have I won?” Pond asked arrogantly, already reaching out to grab the two bags of worthless foreign currency, but her hoof was swiftly stopped by Dove’s, and she pulled the bags back into the centre of the table.
“Don’t get cocky. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.”
“Go on then! Tell me!” she egged her on in with a loud voice.
“Okay, don’t rush me!” Dove thought hard about her childhood, and found something perfect, something that she thought Pond couldn’t possibly beat. “Alright. Get ready for this crushing defeat then!
“I was… fourteen? Something like that anyway. And I had just left school one day when I was bundled up with a bag over my head, but it wasn’t a thick bag so I could still make out the Ponies underneath me… just. It was the usual bullies, and a new one as well, although he didn’t stick around for long. They took me to the edge, a little place which was used as a shortcut to get from one cloud to another, as long as you could fly.”
“Wait. Clouds?”
“I lived in Cloudsdale, a city in the sky, sat upon many hundreds of clouds.”
“Really?” Pond was fascinated by the sound of this mystical place.
“Yes, really! But anyway, back to my story. I was positioned on the very edge of the cloud, my hooves only just staying on solid, err… cloud. When they removed the bag, I was terrified. I couldn’t fly, and below me was a sheer drop all the way down to the ground. I pleaded with them and tried to push my way back through them, but they had formed a strong wall around me. And then the head bully stepped forward and knocked me off the cloud.
“I thought I was going to die. I had said my goodbyes and was now struggling valiantly to suddenly sprout wings and fly to safety, but to no avail. Fortunately, this was their plan, the other Pegasus who was with them was a very strong flyer in my school, and they had bribed him a lot of money to take part in this little scheme of theirs. It was his job to swoop down and save me, and I was so glad he did, I could have done unspeakable things to him I was that happy.
“He didn’t keep his end of the deal and flew me straight to my house, and began to apologise profusely for having any part in that, and began crying as well. He felt so bad that he even gave me the money he earned from doing it. And he became a friend.”
Dove reached forward to take the bags, but was stopped by Pond.
“Not so fast, missy. I haven’t told you everything yet,” she said while waving a hoof at her.
Dove let out a laugh signifying her lack of confidence for Pond. “Ha. Like you could better that.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah!”
“Alright then, here it goes.” She took a really deep breath in. “Or you could just give up now.”
“No! I told you everything, so you have to tell me!”
“Fine. But you’ll be sorry,” she sang. She took another deep breath in and began recounting the tale of that one horrible night, at the age of four and a half, when her mother left her for dead in the endless sea.
Pond smiled as she told it, but not because she was enjoying telling it, but because of the face Dove was pulling.
Dove’s jaw had dropped with the horror, her gaping mouth slowly getting larger as Pond continued with her story; her eyes as well became large and white with horror.

Pond’s story came to an end and she sat back in her chair, folding her forelegs smugly as she did so.
“So then… did I win?”
Dove’s face was still stuck in the expression of utter disbelief and horror, and, with a single hoof, pushed both bags over to Pond, who took them politely.
“Thank you, Dove.”
“Wow, Pond, I can’t believe that.”
“What? That I won? Oh don’t beat yourself up about it. It was inevitable.”
“No, not that. About… what happened to you.”
“Oh… don’t worry about that! I'm fine! Besides, I got my Dad out of it. And my Mum.”
“What? You mean your adopted parents?”
Pond sighed angrily. “I hate that. They’re not my adopted parents, they’re my real parents. It’s my birth parents who aren’t my parents.”
“I see. Okay then, that makes sense, judging by what you told me.”
“Good.” Pond looked over her shoulder and muttered under her breath, “I really hate that.”

– P –

They sat in silence for a while. It had probably been half an hour since Pond won, making it a little before noon.
Dove was deep in thought, her brain working overtime as she tried to comprehend what they had just done.
She had just told a mare, who she had only really met the previous night, everything horrible about her childhood, only to learn that said mare had it far worse. And they had been so casual about it, that’s what was bugging her the most. It wasn’t anywhere near as painful as it should have been.
“Err… Pond?” she eventually said, although incredibly slowly. “Why… did we do that?”
“What?” Pond said as if taken by surprise.
“Why did we just tell each other everything? And so casually as well. As if it were nothing.”
Pond hadn’t thought about it. “I have no idea…”
They sat again in silence for a while, with Pond gradually picking at the stray bits of cold scrambled egg still on the plate in front of her. The only sound that either of them made was when Pond took another swig of tea, only finding it to be cold, and thus making a loud, disgusted, shuddering noise.
“Pond?” Dove said, again trying to break the silence. “I'm sorry.”
“For what?” Pond laughed a little bit, trying to think why Dove said that.
“I don’t know. I guess for your childhood.”
“Why are you sorry for that? That’s not your fault!” she said in such a way that made Dove sound like an idiot.
“I know that! It’s just that… it sounded horrible.”
“The first four and a half years were, yes. But if that stuff didn’t happen, I would never have found the best parents in the world! I told you how vivid I remember being drifted out to sea in a pram, didn’t I? Well, my second memory was nowhere near as vivid, but it didn’t have to be. It was of my Dad renaming me, all I can remember is that stench of fish and salt staining his coat and the sound of his voice saying ‘Pond’ in his deep, booming voice. That is my happiest memory to date!” Pond smiled fondly as she remembered her father.
Dove became very confused. “He… renamed you?”
“Yep!” the Unicorn said proudly.
“What were you called before?” Dove asked with the greatest curiosity.
“Goldstar Mirror-Wheel,” Pond said solemnly. She did not like this name.
“Goldstar, ey?” Dove thought about this name for a while. “It’s a pretty name.”
This was rewarded with an evil glare from Pond.
“But Pond is far better,” Dove concluded.
Pond’s glare turned to a warm smile as she heard Dove finish her thought. “I'm glad you said that.”
“Well, Pond Water is far better for you than Goldstar Mirror-Wheel. It’s much more simple and beautiful. That Goldstar thing is too long and sounds like a rundown-model-who-has-become-desperate-‘s name, if ya know what I mean.”
“Thanks, Dove. That means a lot.”
“No problem, Pond.”
“And your name is pretty too!” Pond added.
“Aww. Thanks Pond,” she said with a fake quaking voice while wiping away an imaginary tear.
The two of them laughed a little.

– P –

“Dove,” Pond started. “Do you mind if I have another cup of tea?”
“Not at all. Just let me tidy up here and I’ll make you one before I go for a shower.”
“Nah, I can make it. I don’t want to be a hassle.”
“Well, okay then. I guess you can find where everything is, can’t you?”
Pond nodded.
“Okay.”
Dove put the dirty plates and mugs into the dishwasher and headed for a shower, leaving Pond to her own devices.
Pond found the ingredients to a cup of tea with minimal fuss and combined them with the appropriate methods.
She took a sip and smiled contently. “Perfect,” she muttered quietly to herself.

Pond went into the living room with her mug of tea. The living room wasn’t too big or too small, although anymore than two Ponies would have made it a little too cosy. It was stripy with blue and red, but somehow it didn’t hurt the eyes. There were numerous pictures on the walls and sat above the fireplace. Pond placed her mug down on the table and took some time to look at all of them.
They were mostly of Dove with, who Pond guessed, were her parents. They were also chronologically organised, which pleased Pond so.
As a baby, Dove’s wing bumps were virtually unnoticeable. She could have been just a normal Earth Pony with only an unusually shaped back. And she was adorable, never before had Pond seen such a cute baby. It made her smile.
She got cuter as well, when her mane started to fill out into a longer blue mass of hair. You could tell she was going to be quite a looker, which she is. The only other thing changed were her wing bumps, they had grown considerably in size and were disproportionally large, making her rather comical in a sad way.
The next picture was from when she was about eight, possibly, and she had pigtails, that was the only thing Pond could notice.
There was another, smaller picture hidden amongst the others of two mares. One was Dove at approximately twelve years old and another mare, who was considerably taller than her, possibly in her late twenties. And she was breathtaking, orange coat and turquoise mane, tall and thin, with very tired yet somehow appealing, green eyes.
Pond took this photo from the shelf to get a better look at it. It was obviously taken in Cloudsdale, judging by the different levels of cloud in the background. The two of them looked so happy in it, with Dove sitting on the other’s back and a huge smile on her face, while the other just looked peacefully happy.
It made Pond happy.

“Hey! What ya doing?” Dove said as she walked into the living room, her mane straggled and still a bit wet.
Pond gasped and almost dropped the photo, and if it weren’t for her frenzied fumbling it would have smashed against the floor. Once she had hold of it she quickly put it back.
“Sorry,” Pond whimpered as if she had done something wrong.
“Nah. It’s fine! You can look at them if you want.”
Pond smiled and took the photo again. “Who is this?”
Dove took the photo from Pond and looked at it. There was a long pause before she replied.
“It’s my sister,” she said solemnly.
“Your sister?”
“Yes… my sister. Why did you sound so surprised by that?” She gave Pond a curious look.
“I honestly have no idea,” she laughed awkwardly.
Dove went back to looking at the photo. “I haven’t looked at this photo in a while.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. Just haven’t.” She looked at the picture longingly. “I miss her y’know.”
“Why? Where is she?” she asked, although dreaded the reply.
“I don’t know. Canterlot, I think.”
“You… think?”
“Yeah. She used to send letters quite often, but not so much anymore. Last one I got was a couple months ago, and before that many months ago.”
“Why is she in Canterlot? May I ask?”
“Well, in this picture she was… twenty six? Probably around that age anyway. She was always good at Piano, and one day we all went to Canterlot, just for the weekend, but when she played in a bar one night she was approached by some music hotshots and offered a very generous contract. She accepted it of course, and her first gig was performing for Princess Celestia herself!”
Pond still wasn’t entirely sure who this Celestia was, but Dove said her name excitedly, and so she feigned some excitement. “Really? Princess Celestia?!”
“You don’t know who she is, do you?” Dove called her on it, obviously she hadn’t done a very good job a faking it.
“Not really, no,” she said sheepishly.
“Well, basically she’s the ruler of our world and is responsible for raising the sun in the morning.”
Pond doubted this. “Isn’t the sun rising to do with the planet spinning?”
“What?” Dove spoke as if calling Pond an idiot. “Of course not! It’s magic!”
“Okay. I don’t really know what I was on about. But I guess magic does make so much more sense.” Pond went off in her own little world to contemplate the rising sun.
“But anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, my sister. She moved to Canterlot shortly afterwards. And this,” she held up the photo slightly. “This is the last photo taken of us two. I haven’t seen her since.”
“Oh… I'm sorry to hear that.”
Dove looked at the photo and sighed happily, thinking of her sister, before putting it back in its place.

“That’s my parents over there.” Dove pointed towards a picture on the end of the mantelpiece. Pond trotted over to look at it. She saw the two Ponies in the picture and was amazed. Somehow, two of the ugliest Ponies she had ever seen, had come together to create two of the most beautiful she had ever seen.
“They look… nice,” she said awkwardly.
“I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t know either. There is no chance in Equestria that those two could ever produce anything as good looking as me and my sister,” she said arrogantly. “They were accused many a time of adoption, but they had birth certificates and DNA records to prove them neigh-sayers wrong.”
Pond laughed a little.

– P –

It was some time before they spoke again; they were just sitting in the living room, watching the fish lazily swim around in their tank, listening to the buzzing created by the light.
“Dove,” Pond started in a serious tone. “I want to thank you for letting me stay here.”
“Nah! It’s fine!” Dove said while waving her off as to say “it was nothing”.
“Well, thanks anyway. And I'm sure that with tonight’s wages as well I can afford a hotel for tonight.”
Dove gave a judgemental look. “You’re kidding, right?”
“What?”
“You’re staying here! And I can’t exactly let you stay on your own after last night, can I? No, you’re staying her with me.”
“Really?”
“Yes really!”
“Aw, thanks, Dove. And don’t worry, I’ll help around the house if need be. Or help pay for stuff.”
Dove was about to retort and say there’s no need to pay, but she was nearly falling behind in her rent.
“That would be good, Pond. I am not doing so well in the whole money department. A little every now and then will be fine.” Dove looked down at the floor with embarrassment. She hated accepting money from a friend to such an extent.
Pond smiled at her. “Don’t worry, that’s sounds good. I'm sure staying here will both cost less and be less hazardous to my health.”
Dove smiled back at her.

– P –

Night came rolling on, and Pond and Dove were heading to work. They stopped outside of the club, Dove looked at it confusedly.
“Why isn’t the sign on? It’s always on at this time of night.” Dove checked her watch, it was definitely eight o’clock. She then noticed the date also displayed on the device; she quickly perked up, looking very happy all of a sudden.
“What’s got you so excited then?” Pond asked with a laugh.
“It’s Red’s birthday!”
“What?”
“Red’s birthday! How could I have forgotten?” Dove facehoofed.
“What’s so important about Red’s birthday?”
“He shuts down the club for a night and throws a party with his employees and a few others.”
“Really? That’s nice of him.”
“We get full pay and overtime as well!”
“Awesome.” Pond nodded approvingly.
Dove rushed inside with Pond following closely.

“Dove! Pond!” shouted an already tipsy Red as the two Ponies entered. “I thought you’d forgotten or something.”
“I did,” Dove confessed. “But I remembered in the end. Now let’s get this party going!” she shouted, throwing her hoof in the air. Everypony else cheered.
Pond was confused to say the least.

Dove led her to the bar and grabbed a drink a drink for the two of them. “Here Pond, get this down ya!”
“N-no, I'm alright,” Pond whimpered, she was slightly frightened, if she was honest. By the looks of the party there was going to be a lot of drinking.
“C’mon! We’re all friends here, nothing bad is gonna happen.”
Pond looked between the elaborate drink and her friend’s face. She trusted her.
“Alright then.” She took the drink gingerly from Dove and gave it a sip, and then immediately downed half of it.
Dove let out a laugh. “That’s the spirit!” she cheered before grabbing a drink for herself and caught up with Pond.

Pond could tell that it was going to be a fun night.

– P –

Pond awoke the next morning, back in Dove’s bed. She had a hangover, she hadn’t had one before, and she didn’t like it.
If the headache wasn’t bad enough, her ears felt clogged beyond the realms of physical possibility. She could hear absolutely nothing besides the humming of silence. And her forehead stung where her horn should be. Her coat was also unbearable sticky, that alone would be enough to make her sick. She also felt something on her chest.
She slowly moved her head down and saw two yellow masses wrapped around her chest; she immediately recognised them as Dove’s legs. She was so glad to be asleep with Dove and not somepony else; she could not remember anything from the night before.
She liked sleeping with Dove, she felt safe.

Something else caught her attention. It was in front of her, and unrecognisable at first, but a few minutes of relentless staring and trying to focus her blurry vision revealed what it was.
Pond recoiled as far back as she could without going through Dove. She was panic-stricken.

It was Red.