“Good morning, Cherry Blossom!” said a voice I was not familiar with at all. This fact, immediately woke me up as I stared at what seemed to be a blue cat with a rather large grin. Naturally, I was so surprised I shrieked and scooted myself out of my bed so fast that I fell off. “Goodness, are you alright?” I look at the cat widely and noticed that it isn’t even on my bed. It was floating slightly above it.

“Does losing one’s sanity count as being ‘alright’?” I respond. “I mean, it isn’t often a pony finds themselves woken up by a… well, a TALKING FLOATING CAT!”

“Cheshire Cat,” it replies. “I’m a Cheshire cat, and before you ask, yes, the very same species as the one from that one story of the filly that fell down the rabbit hole. Though, admittedly, that one was male, while I am female.” As it said this I couldn’t help but feel a strange queasiness in my stomach. With that I rushed to the bathroom. I really wish I didn’t have that extra salad.

“So, you’re a Cheshire cat?” I ask coming back into the room, “I have so many questions, but I suppose my main questions are why are you in my house, and how do you know my name?” These were the questions at the very top of my list to ask the now semitransparent, talking, floating cat sitting just above my bed.

“I have no reason to lie about what I am,” said the Cheshire cat, “as to the answer of those other two questions; I suppose the only answer that will get the least important part of our conversation out of the way is ‘I am your familiar’.”

“Pardon me?” I ask while staring blankly, “you just said that you’re my ‘familiar’? Just what is a familiar?”

“A familiar is like a pet, a servant, and a partner all rolled up into a neat package,” she said, as she took her head off and rolled it around for a demonstration. Admittedly, I found this not only humorous, but also a bit disturbing. “We familiars are created when a being of large magical potential is born, but we are not created if a being develops the power through means outside of just being born with it,” she paused before continuing, “Now there are other causes that affect what the color or gender we have, but for the most part, what you get is completely random.”

“I still don’t get it, but for now, what’s your name?” I ask.

“The thing is…” she paused as her tail suddenly detached and randomly hopped around, “I don’t have one. Familiars must be named by those who we are bound to.” She stared at me as her eyes suddenly began to literally grow in anticipation. “I, being bound to a certain pink filly in the room, am required to wait for said filly to name me,” she finally stated with eyes as large as the room.

“I can name you anything, anything at all?” I asked. She simply nodded. “How do you know I won’t give you a silly name, or just simply decide that you shouldn’t have one at all?”

“How do I know?” she restates the question, “well, to be honest, I don’t, but I know that you are a very kind filly, and I also know that you would never try to be horrible on purpose.” To this I simply give her a blank stare, and silently exit the room. As I go down I see my parents’ letter that arrived yesterday. I decide to ignore it, and go make breakfast. After all deciding the name of a being magically bound to you is not easy to make on an especially empty stomach. I, however, opt to make sure I don’t eat anything green right now.

After breakfast, I turn to see my guest sitting above the clock in the kitchen. Seeing her smaller than before, made her much less unnerving to look at. “Do you want to eat anything? I don’t have much, but I can go out and buy something. We have a day off from school today, and I still have some bits my parents left me.” The last statement made her look at me in a quizzical manner.

“No, thank you,” she replied, “I already had my breakfast this morning.” This statement was followed by her pulling out the bones of a fish from her mouth; which I found less disgusting that the vision would entail.

“We still need a name for you,” those words perked the tiny feline’s ears right up, “so how about we have you sit on the table in the living room. Note that I said on the table, and not above it.” She shrugs and disappears. Assuming that she’ll reappear on the table, I clean up my dishes and put them away, before I relocate myself into the next room.

There sitting on the table as I had requested, was the blue Cheshire cat. “I’m going to examine you, so I can decide what the best name for you would be.” She shrugs and then stands on her hind legs. Taking that as a ‘yes,’ I begin circling around her, examining how she looks. Her blue coat is fine with many dark blue stripes, and her tail seems to be the full length of her body. Her snout was small, but her whiskers were quite slender, and that wide smile of hers had very healthy white teeth shining through. Her eyes were blue, no, they were sapphire blue. Actually, they were just sapphires. I scrunch my muzzle into a smirk, “No shape-shifting. Not even shape-shifting your eyes.” We both laughed.

“Cherry Blossom,” she said, “Is there really a reason to look me over?” As she said this she began to sit down on the air and float up. “With just looking at me, I can’t imagine you giving me a name nicer than ‘Blue Fur’.”

“Keep this up and I may just name you that,” I retort, “but you are right. So, how about I just give you the options for names and you can decide which you want?”

“You want me to have the final word?” she asked, suddenly enlarging her eyes even larger than when she did in my bedroom. “You mean it truly?”

“Well I can’t mean it falsely,” I reply, “so your options are, Azurinne, Chelsey the Cheshire Cat, and before you ask, yes, ‘the Cheshire Cat’ would be officially part of the name, and finally we have Sky Sapphire.” She went into deep thought about the three names.

“Azurinne,” she said, “I want my name to be Azurinne.”

“Azurinne it is then,” I reply, “Now that all that is settled…” I begin to think about part of the conversation Azurinne and I had while in my bedroom. “Azurinne…” I call, and she turns to me, “you said that the whole being a familiar part, and I assume your name is being included, was the ‘least important part of our conversation.’ What did you mean by that?”

“Before I say…” she pauses with a serious expression, “you may want to read the letter sent by your… ‘parents.’”

Author's Note

And here's chapter 2. I always loved 'Alice in Wonderland.' Being able to include even a tiny bit of that with my own take on a staple in magic is really nice. Hope your all enjoying the story.