Adventures Are No Fun.

Screech looked out the windshield of the sky bus she was riding. She took off her sunglasses to get a better look. She could not see Cloudsdale yet. One of the stallion pulling the bus was chewing gum and kept touching his hoof to his lips. Another was coughing and wheezing.

"They should not let smokers pull a sky buss," muttered Screech to herself.

Glitter looked at the stallions pulling the bus. "None of them are smoking." She turned her attention back to a shopping catalog.

Screech rolled her eyes.

"Which one do you think is a smoker?" asked Candle.

Screech looked at the elderly mare. "The one miming putting a cigarette in his mouth at least. I am more worried about the one who is coughing up a lung. All of them if I had to guess."

Candle reached into her big pink purse and took out a little pleather book of photos. She opened it to a picture of a stallion who looked very similar to the miming pony. "My husband." She pointed a shaky hoof to the miming pony. "My son. Neither of them smoked before they started pulling the bus. 'It is the culture' they said. 'Every pony there does it'. Boys. You know how they are." She started searching for another photo. "It is impressive you knew just from looking at him."

Screech shrugged. "Bat ponies are predators. We notice things."

Candle showed screech another photo and started a story about her son's first day on the job.

Cloudsdale came into view half way through Candle's third tangent. Screech was a little disappointed only a select few buildings were made of clouds. Most of the buildings were made of stone and wood. They could be dropped into Dodge Junction or Canterlot and, aside from a few architectural flares, they would look like the other buildings.

The sky bus landed with a thud. The landing wheels did not deploy and every pony jostled and jerked as the bus grinded across the cracked and bumpy runway.

Screech reluctantly stepped off the bus.

An earth pony who did not put on his cloud boots fell through the ground. Two pegasi in orange vests lifted him back through the clouds and placed him back on the bus. One of the vested pegasi flexed his wings and chanted "Who is the best? Who-is-the-best?"

Glitter stuffed her shopping catalog into her saddle bag. "Come on," she said as she flew away from the filthy bus terminal.

Screech spun in a circle thee times and jumped one hoof off the ground before dropping and spinning in ten circles so quickly some ponies thought she was trying to bite her own tail. She flapped her wings and resumed running in circles.

Glitter hovered above Screech. She looked down on her with distance. "Stop that right now and follow me!"

Screech did not stop spinning. She stumbled every other step from being dizzy, but she did not stop. "I can't. I have OCD."

Glitter sighed. "I went through all the trouble of adopting you and now you refuse to follow me home. You are lucky I can't leave you here." She grabbed Screeche's for leg and yanked her two trots away from the bus. Her for leg was completely covered in a large burn scar that partially covered her chest.

Screech barded her fangs. Her wings flared. She did not hiss. Her mouth hung open. Her teeth were so close to Glitter's shoulder her heavy breaths wet her pink coat.

Glitter let Screech go and slowly stepped away.

Screech took a deep breath and slowly spun in a circle. "Sorry about that," she mumbled. Her face burned red with embarrassment. "I can usually control my anger better than that."

No matter how many times she walked in a circle Screech did not feel safe.

Outside the tourist traps made specifically for draining bits from earth ponies the roads were few and narrow. Over five percent of pegasi could not fly. Screech could not fly for three month after she lost her wing. She could not fly now. She walked around long rows of buildings Glitter flew over.

The sky was full of pegasi quickly flying around each other. Watching them from the ground, Screech thought of fish in a tank. Blue, green, pink and yellow feathers mixed in the early morning's orange sky. It felt like a busy day in ponyville. They all wore gold and blue scarves and hats.

Screech suddenly noticed her hooves were cold. Logically she should have been able to predict Cloudsdale would be cold. The town was higher than mountain tops. She breathed hot air onto her hooves.

"Quit wasting time!" Glitter scolded from the safety of the sky. "If you are not going to fly you can at least canter. I have colts that need me to take them to school."

Screech shrugged. "Not my problem. If you adopted me a year ago, or better yet, not at all I would be at home right now. Why did you wait so long to adopt me?"

Glitter sighed. She was clearly tired of hearing the question. "Just because. Now get moving or I am not making you breakfast."

Glitter opened the door to her home in Clouds Dale. It was a large door matching the rest of the house.

Screeche's new home had pictures of her new family. Of her father. Pictures of him smiling. A smile she had never seen. A smile she was never supposed to see. One or two pictures hung on every wall. Pictures without Dual had his sons in them. His eyes. His way of cocking his head slightly to the left in every photo. His smile. His love and joy.

"Who is that," asked a pegasus with a bright gold mane and a light grey coat. "That is not her?" asked Second Dual.

Screech fought the urge to bear her fangs at her half brother. He was too close to her in age. Only one year younger.

Glitter Stormchaser smiled at her son. "This is her."

Second rolled his shimmering blue eyes. "I hate it here. I am moving out the minute I turn sixteen."

Glitter shrugged. "I will always have my memories of you in this house." She was right. There were foals drawings on the walls. Hight milestones carved into door frames. A broken lamp held together by duck tape. The house contained a lifetime of memories Screech had no context for. Standing in the middle of another family's life was overwhelming.

Second glared at Screech. "Stay out of my life and I will stay out of yours."

Screech could have stepped on her little brother. He was small even for a pegasus. She glared at Second's clock cutie mark. It was different than her own clock cutie mark. Her wings twitched with the urge to cut something. "You have a deal."

Screech decided to explored her new temporary house. She didn't have anything else she could do other than sit on the floor and think about her friends.

Throw pillows sat on every chair, sofa, love seat and parts of the floor. Pillows filled the rooms like dust filled Luna's. Every pillow unique. Special in some way. Some old and torn. Pillows appeared in the background of family vacation photos. They had satin pillows on the beach. Hairy pillows in a light house. Body pillows at a war memorial. Screech was afraid to touch the pillows. She didn't even know why.

Every room smelled slightly different but very much the same. Second's room smelled like Scoops without the perfume. Boys and sex.

Glitter's bed was so covered in pillows the mattress was useable. Carver's parent's unwillingness to throw away broken glass or rotten food seemed normal compared to the number of pillows in Glitter's room. One was half burned. Boys and sex.

Only one room was not full of pillows. It contained more pillows than most houses, but the floor was visible in the gaps between them. It smelled like boys but not sex or mold. One corner of the room was clean enough to have a set up pirate ship playset.

The pillows in the kitchen were the worst. The kitchen was over run. Crumbs, bites of food, mold and winged ants covered the pillows. The kitchen smelled like mold and felt itchy.

The house felt like it was missing something.

Screech marched up to Glitter. "Glitter, where am I supposed to sleep?"

Glitter gave Screech a quizzical look. "You will sleep... in the guest room." She pointed at a faded red door beside the kitchen door.

Screech shook her head. "No. I can smell the mold from here. One night in there will kill me."

Glitter smiled. "You sound just like your father. Maybe having you around will be nice."

Screech hissed. She would have to make do with her new living situation until she could get home. She opened the faded red door. Pillows tumbled out. Her new room, 'the guest room', was a closet. It was a big closet. It could have, in theory, fit a bed. Mold, boys and sex.

Glitter placed a plate of toast on the kitchen table and yelled, "Screech, breakfast!"

Screech dumped the last leg full of musty pillows on Glitter's bed. She took off her rubber gloves and looked at the empty closet she had to sleep in. There was mold on the walls.

Screech jumped and glided over the kitchen floor as best she could. She landed in the pillows half way across the room. Ticks and lice could have been in the filthy pillows for all she knew. She kicked a pillow off an expensive hoof carved chair. She sat at a scratched glass table with a rusted metal frame. Dry toast sat on a chipped antique plate that still had flecks of intricately painted flowers not yet scrubbed off by a sponge.

"We are not eating in the dining hall?" asked Screech.

Glitter rolled her eyes. "I am not walking all the way to the other side of the house to eat at a giant table in an empty room."

"Yeah empty," said Screech. Apparently the table full of pillows and twenty chairs were not in the room.

Screech looked at the empty chair and the toast in front of it. "Where is your other son?"

Glitter sighed. "How would I know. I was in Ponyville getting you."

Screech looked at Second. "Where is your brother?"

Second picked up his toast. "He lives down the street."

Glitter banged her hoof on the table. "I am not putting up with your attitude today! I go on two seven hour bus rides for my family and you imply I neglect you."

Screech picked up her toast. "Thanks for cooking." She was not grateful for the food. She could have had a better breakfast in Vinyets with all of her friends (except Carver and Hazard who lived too far away), but she decided making Glitter feel bad would not help her get home.

Glitter smiled at screech. "At least some pony has manners."

"You raised me," retorted Second.

"What was papa like?" asked Screech before Glitter could shout at her son.

Second cocked his head. "Papa?"

Screech nodded. "I called our dad papa. What was he like?"

Second crossed his fore legs over his chest. "What was 'papa' like around you?"

Screech though for a moment. "He was cold. Distant. Mean. He was never happy unless mama was sad. He was a jerk. I hated him most of my life. I miss him. He was my papa. He was far from perfect, but he did love me and mama. I love him too. He taught me how to hiss. He taught me how to fly. He was no better than any other pony. As far as pappas go he could have been worse."

"How can you talk about him like that!" Second spat half way across the table. His eyes bulged and his teeth grinded.

Screech bit her toast. "I went through a lot of therapy."

"He was great!" Second exploded. "He was smart and brave! He flew around Equestria saving lives! He- he- he!" Second took a deep breath.

Glitter rolled her eyes. "He kept a roof over our heads. Screech, tell me about yourself."

Screech took off her sunglasses and looked Glitter in her eyes. "I was born by chance and may or may not grow berries."

"That is it?" asked Glitter?

Screech put her sun glasses back on. "No. I am going back home."

Glitter shook her head. "Don't listen to her. She has to stay." She lifted a coffee cup to her lips. She mumbled, "My lawyer made that very clear."

Second burst out, "He was my dad not yours! You don't know what he was like because he liked being with me mort than being with you!"

The table top shattered as Screeche's hoof grinded through the glass. She did not lunge across the table. She pulled the glass out of her leg with her teeth and bit herself.

Shards of glass embedded themselves in the floor of pillows.

Glitter took a six pack of chocolate pudding cups out of her refrigerator. "Go to school!"

Second jumped out of his chair. He left a trail of tears right out the front door.

Glitter sat on her bed and ate pudding.

Screech sat at the broken table for a moment. She picked up all of the toast avoiding touching any of the pillows or broken glass as much as possible and threw it away. She made herself toast and ate it alone in her closet.

Screech sat in her closet and hummed the new Feather Bangs song. She didn't know why Scoops and Hazard liked him so much. He could sing, but they seemed to think he was the only pony who ever sang. She was able to find a few crayons in drawers around the house along with a few sheets of paper. She drew Rove and Bird Food dressed as knights sword fighting an evil dragon. She was sure the cats would have been best friends.

Glitter looked down on Screech. She had pudding on her snout, lips and chest. "Aren't you too old for crayons?"

Not that all dragons are evil.

Screech kept drawing. "I don't know. How old am I?"

Glitter sighed. "Why are you still here?"

Screech glared at Glitter. "Where would I go?"

"School," said Glitter.

"My school is a seven hour flight away. Unless you enrolled me in a Cloudsdale school."

Glitter groaned. "I am heading out."

Screech scooped up her crayons and paper. She followed Glitter.

Glitter did not bother flying the two houses up her street. She walked through the front door like she owned the place and took a forty ounce beer out of the fridge. She took two big swigs and sat on a sofa beside two other mares with beers. There were six mares in total. Five of them middle aged. One of them was eighty at the youngest. None of them spoke.

The radio belted out a drama. Screech covered her ears. Two stallions were arguing over who would marry a mare. The rich and handsome Mr. Blake or the rich and handsome Sir. Drake. In the ten minutes Screech heard the mare say two words. "I do." After the show ended all of the mares talked about how lucky the nameless mare on the radio was. They lived in the wealthiest part of Cloudsdale and had nothing to do at ten AM on a Tuesday.

One mare pointed her beer bottle at Screech. "Is that the bastard child?"

Screech pressed her teeth together. She understood why Glitter would lie. She took a deep breath and forced a smile.

Glitter ignored the mare.

"She is a big one," said Cover. "Bigger than her older brother."

"She is a bat pony," pointed out Glitter. "Second is a pegasus."

"Could you turn the radio down?" asked Screech.

Shade put a hoof to her lips. "Hush. Children are only to speak when spoken too." She did turn the radio down a little.

A talk show started and the conversation ended.

Screech sat behind the radio and drew. After a few hours The oldest mare noticed her and made her a sandwich.

Screech spent most of the day laying on the floor and listening to the radio. She heard five soap operas, two talk shows, a hoof full of convoluted mysteries where middle aged stallions have 'romances' with fillies straight out of high school (she lost interest in them after she noticed the pattern of the killer always being the filly the detective was sleeping with), a few comedy shows (they were full of topical jokes she didn't understand and made fun of earth ponies for no reason) and a marathon of an adventure show. She enjoyed the radio plays about Lone Silver and his buffalo companion the best.

Glitter put her half empty beer on the table and walked toward the door. "See you all tomorrow," she called out as she left.

Screech learned something. It was not that school fillies who are seduced by middle aged stallions will become murderers. She already knew that. She learned something else. She could not put her hoof on what.

Second Dual was in his room when Screech returned to Glitter's house. She heard two voices coming through his door.

Screech smelled hay burgers. She followed the scent to the kitchen where she found A bag of hay burgers on the floor under the broken table.

A small brown pegasus sat at the table. Success Stormchaser smiled at Screech. His front teeth were pointed but not quite fangs. "Who are you?"

Screech looked at her youngest brother. He was about half her age. "Just a house guest. I will be gone before you know it." She sat down to eat dinner. "Is there a post office near here? I have to send a letter to my friends."

Success nodded. Hay sauce dripped off his chin. "I can show you around tomorrow."
Glitter sat at the table and ate with the children.

Screeche's first day in Cloudsdale was not a complete waste of her life.

Screech sat on the floor of her closet. She could not help but notice both of her brothers were small. She had to wonder if it was her grand mother's doing. If Papa's DNA was changed after Screech was born. She was bread to be a weapon. Her mother's side of the family was bread to assassinate Princess Celestia. Her father's was not. What was she thinking? Of course it was. It would be silly to assume her grand mother didn't have backup plans and side projects. Maybe she was not her grand mother's greatest success. That thought made her sad and she had mixed emotions about being sad over her family.