Chapter 1
“Space?”
“Yeah. I have to send it!”
Inspira Flash balanced the rolled-up piece of paper on his nose, using his magic to keep it there as he talked to his mother. She adjusted the camera strapped to her neck and looked at him fondly. “Spear, honey,” she said, using his nickname. “I told you before, we may be able to fly at high altitudes, but no Pegasus can fly as far as space. I can’t send that drawing to whatever aliens you were thinking of.”
Inspira finally let the paper drop. As it hit the floor, it unrolled to show a simple drawing of three creatures that stood on two legs, the two bigger ones holding hands. They were smiling in front of a simple house with a tree, with a ring of some sort attached to one of the tree’s branches by a rope, and a red object that seemed to move on a set of wheels like a wagon. His large blue-gray eyes watched it drift down. “But… Blinding said you could,” he said dejectedly.
His mother sighed softly. “Oh, sweetie, you know your sister likes to tease you. But I’ll talk with her later; she shouldn’t be saying those things about aliens and all that.”
“No, not the aliens,” he broke his attention from the paper to look at her pleadingly. “They were my idea. She just said stuff about how high you could fly.”
Suddenly, the door to the house burst open, and a heavyset dark-purple Pegasus barged in. As soon as she caught Inspira in her sights, she galloped over at full speed, most likely with the intend to bowl him over. As he turned to face her, he lowered his head, leveling out his unusually-sharp blue horn. The young Pegasus skidded across the floor trying to brake, stopping just before getting impaled. Not that he would have let it get that far, but as long as she didn’t know that, he didn’t have to employ more complex schemes to get even. It was a fun game to play, however, and he invited the opportunity to present itself. While they enjoyed playing payback games, in the end he still loved her. For now, he simply greeted her.
“Hey, Blinding, what’s going on?” he asked, smiling his sweetest, most adorable smile. He loved her, but he would forever mess with her.
Blinding Flash saw through his false grin and scoffed at him, despite a disapproving glare from their mother. “What’s it matter to you? It’s not like you can—Ow! What is your problem?!” Inspira had playfully grabbed her pink braid with his magic, keeping his grin up. Their mother decided to finally break them up.
“Alright, enough. If you don’t want to talk civilly, you two… Inspira, go to your room.”
Blinding turned to follow. “Not you, young mare. Plant your hooves right there and wait for your father.” Blinding halted and stamped a hoof on the floor huffily. Their mother turned around to resumer her work, and from the stairs, Inspira stuck out his tongue and pulled down one of his eyelids at his sister. “Nyeeeeh!”
“Inspira! What did your mother just tell you?” He jumped and looked up to see his father standing over him. He was shorter than their mom by a little bit, but was more sturdily built, his gray coat catching some of the late-afternoon sunlight from a window to reveal an unusual luminescence. How long had he been there to hear Mom say that? Inspira wondered.
“Oh, Silver, come down and talk to this filly. She lied to her brother again.” Their mom called up to him.
Silver sighed and trotted down the stairs. “I’m on my way, Hallie.” Hallie was a shortening of her full name, Halcyon.
Soon, both parents were standing in front of Blinding, giving her a lecture. Probably something she had heard before about the difference between teasing and being downright mean. Inspira could tell by her posture that this was most likely the case.
He had been born a Unicorn in a family of Pegasi. Because of this, they had to move from their nice house in Cloudsdale to raise him on the ground. His sister was quite a bit older than he was, so he assumed she was a little angry at him for taking away the home she could have had. That was probably why, despite the mean behavior she often exhibited, he could never truly hate her. After all, it was his existence that caused her to act this way. He entered his room and shut the door, levitating some pencils and paper to his desk, to draw more pictures as he waited for dinner.