“Alright, little pony,” I said to Thunder “it’s time to go to bed.” She was a small filly, and she was my daughter. I chuckled as I saw her crash into her small bed. “Do you want me to tell you a story tonight?” I asked the small pony.
“Dad, do you even have to ask,” she replied innocently, playfully rolling her eyes.
“Well I figured you might be getting too old for my stories,” I replied.
“Of course not!” She said with a crack in her voice. “I’m not very sleepy. Can you tell me a long story?” she asked excitedly.
I pondered the thought for a second. She did have school tomorrow…oh what the hay. “It is a little early so I suppose I could. This story is a big girls story, Do you think you’re ready for it,” I asked the curious pony.
“Come on dad I’m ten years old! I think I can handle it,” Thunder said annoyed.
“Alright, well get settled in and I will start,” I said to her. I watched as she squirmed under her sheets and got settled in. I decided I would be acting this as if I was the person in the story. She tended to like it better when she thought I was the hero. She looked me in the eyes, and I knew she wanted me to start…
*** *** ***
What was I going to do now? I sat there in the rain in front of my father’s grave. My front legs were trembling, about to give way, so I could sob more. He had died only a few days ago. They said he had a heart attack, and that it was too late for the doctors to do anything by the time he got to the hospital. They were the doctors so who was I to say they were wrong? It didn’t stop me from blaming them. I thought about who he had been, trying to treasure the precious memories I had of him.
To me he was just a regular old pony. He was kind to all the people he talked to, and he could make friends with anyone, had they given him a chance. A lot of other ponies had kept their distance from him though. I still had no clue why no one wanted to be friends with him, but at least I got to be with him alone when I tended the grave.
“Hey dad,” I said to the grave “it’s me again, Lightning, your son.” I felt like I needed to say something even if he couldn’t hear me. I felt my throat close up and my mouth began to get dry. I just wanted him to be back. Since he left I had the whole house to myself and without him there it somehow felt smaller. I wanted to sit here forever, but I needed to eat sometime. “I know it feels like I just got here, but I need to go. It’s night and I still haven’t done my chores,” I said talking to the grave.
I sat up on all four legs, and began the trek towards my house. In all honesty it wasn’t that far away, but it felt like a million miles. It was great to be outside on rainy days like this. I could walk around all day and no one would know the difference between rain drops touching my face, or tears creeping down it. I decided not to use my wings to fly home because, one, it was really hard to in the rain, and two, I had been standing next to the grave since lunch time and had forgotten about eating which left ponies, like me, tired. It was only getting colder so I picked up the pace to a quicker trot.
*** *** ***
After my short walk I finally arrived at my house. It was just a small, rundown cottage. It was nice though, it was just far enough away from ponyville that I wouldn’t be bothered, but close enough that I could get into town quick enough. I pushed open the gate that lead to my house, and got to the doormat so I wouldn’t be standing in the rain. “Home sweet home,” I said to myself with a slight sarcastic bite. I wiped off my hooves and opened the door. I looked around at the house, nothing had changed of course, but I hoped I might here a greeting. The pile of dishes needed to be washed, the living room needed to be cleaned, and light bulbs needed changing on the fan.
I felt bad for lying to my dad earlier. To be honest I hadn’t done my chores at all since he died. I let everything pile up and sooner or later I was going to have to deal with it. Of course in my mind this was always a better job for ‘future lightning’. Even if I could make ‘future lightning’ do things ‘current lightning’ had responsibilities to. Just then I heard my stomach growl, and the whole ‘haven’t eaten lunch’ thing really got to me. I was starving!
I dashed into the kitchen, and found one last bowl that wasn’t dirty. I was going to have cereal right now. Cereal was important to me as it was the best fall back food for any mood I was in, and it was cheap. I opened the fridge and got my milk, and got the cereal out of the pantry. I loved the smell of cereal; the scent of the sugary flakes was rich and sweet. I quickly poured my milk and sugary goodness then put everything back.
Sure I liked being left alone most of the time, but I did cherish the moments when a friend was around. I had one friend, well he was my dad’s friend, that would stop by and talk with me every now and then. He never gave any warning about coming over. Kind of like Santa, if Santa were a rough, brutally honest earth pony. I didn’t see him around town often. He would either stop by my house, or my dad would go visit him. I guess he didn’t like that people always stared at his leg. He had an accident one day that made his front left leg completely useless. He hated that he couldn’t be of any use to anyone, so he scrounged up a lot of money and hired unicorns to give him an artificial leg. The leg was made out of bronze. It was amazing really, all the gears moving in unison whenever he took a step. It fascinated me every time I saw it. Not everyone shared my opinion on it, obviously. So I could see why he would get tired of people staring at him all the time.
I let out a satisfying “aaahhh” once my bowl was now empty. Now it was time to clean the house. I was determined to finally get the house in acceptable condition. I walked my way into the kitchen so I could play tackle the mountain of dishes I had so carefully put together. I felt a little unconfident when I realized I had to fly to the top of the pile. “Curse you past Lightning!” I yelled melodramatically into empty air.
There was no reason to back down though, so I quickly defeated the silverware on the counters. I opened the dishwasher and slowly let it down, and pulled out the bottom level so I could load it all. This is so freaking boring, I thought to myself as I was putting things away. Why would anyone even want to do this? I should just hire someone to do it for me. If you had the bits, I thought to myself. Yeah, yeah whatever brain. Oh well I’m sure I will be done soon enough.
*** *** ***
“Well,” I said to the now clean house “looks like I have all my chores done!” I was happy that I got something done today. I had been lying around the house and I only went out to see my father’s grave lately, so this was a step forward for me. Now that I was done though I had no idea what I was supposed to do. It was kind of early, but I figured now would be a good time to go to bed.
I went to the bathroom, and took a look in the mirror. I was just a normal pegasus with brown hair. My mane was a bit messy and hung down to my eyes. I had dyed it black with white tips a long time ago, and I never really changed the style. My tail hung down normally. Then there were my glasses. They were big and bulky, but simple and comfortable to wear. I really couldn’t see without them, but I had been leaving them off for a while now.
I looked down at my front legs, and they were still there. They were symbols on each of my front legs. They looked like tattoos, but I had no never gotten any. They were simple, a claw with three talons around my hooves, and a single talon trailing my leg back up. I didn’t know what they were exactly. They would give off a faint light in the dark so it was hard to sleep at times with that in my face, but I had been getting used to this little night light. I didn’t show anyone because I was scared of what they would do. I imagined all the ponies fleeing because I they thought I was infected with something.
I decided to put off thinking about it, yet again, this was another problem for future lightning to handle, because I was exhausted. I never thought cleaning could really take it out of me. I flicked off the light and headed to my bedroom. As I got to the top of the stairs I decided it was finally time to go inside my father’s room. I hadn’t been in there since he died, and even looking at the door made me tear up. Today had been a day that I was moving forward though so I nudged open the door carefully.
It was a simple room. The walls were still white from when we moved in and there were only a few pictures on the wall. I walked over to the one of the pictures on the nightstand next to the bed, and I couldn’t help but smile. It was the picture of when we first moved into the house. I was just a filly back then and I still had my short brown hair. I could still remember being so excited to have a new house. When I was a kid I pictured everything to be a new adventure, and with this house it was just another chapter. I was standing in front of the house with a big smile, and both parents on either side of me. My mom was a Pegasus and my dad was an earth pony.
My mother was a pretty pegasus. She had plain brown wings, and a curled mane that was purple. She had dyed her hair that way, of course, and it actually suited her. It sounded silly, but it made her look more sophisticated. This was good for her because she was a business pony, and it was always good to look your best when seeing clients.
“If I could just see one of them one more time,” I whispered to the empty room.
I heard a familiar laugh behind me that made my heart skip a beat.
