Other than Others

Sunburst found it hard to stop watching the dancing ponies around the crackling campfire, but his mother dragged him away from the camp.

'Gypsy ponies are not the ponies to hang out with,' she muttered.

Sunburst sighed. 'C'mon, mom,' he said. 'It's...'

'NO.' his mother said. 'You come with me now. We have grocery shoppings to do.'

Since the whole discovery of Sunburst's density towards clouds, there was an unidentified tension between him and his mother.

She had decided not to tell his father or brother, for this could cause another quarrel again. And - next to have Sunburst fillynapped by those hórrible gypsies -, that'd be the last thing she wanted.

Although her ears were filled with large rings themselves, she looked disapprovingly at the pierced ears of the dancing ponies. They wore loose clotwondered hes and she why they even wore clothes at all. Nopony did.

Okay, there were ponies around who wore pants from time to time, but only the farmers because otherwise they'd be knee-high in the mud. And yeah, she wore jewelery herself. Mostly earrings.

Still, ponies wearing clothes felt somewhat unnatural to her. Even her earrings and ear piercings had to be removed from her ears every night, otherwise she couldn't sleep.

Mostly, her husband helped her with it. With unicorn magic it was easy to click-twist-open the caps on the earrings, a thing she couldn't do with her own hooves.

Back to the clothes - she found it weird that ponies wore them. They had enough fur to cover themselves. Back in her days, everypony walked around in his birthday suit.

She shook her head. 'Don't... just stop staring, okay?'

'Don't stop staring?' Sunburst asked. 'Or just stop staring?'

His mother took a deep breath and said, 'If you do not come with me at this very moment, I'll send you to Cloudsdale to live with your grandparents.'

'Fine,' Sunburst muttered. 'Go 'head.'

His mother was taken aback for a moment but quickly recovered herself. 'Okay, I'll ask 'em then.'

Of course she wasn't being serious at all. Of course.

Bored?

Sunburst had gotten used to the voice in his head and simply shrugged.

You're just looking out of that window, his voice continued. Isn't there anything you want to do right now?

The unicorn looked up and saw Cloudsdale. From his spot, it just looked like a giant group of clouds with rainbows, but he knew better.

'I'd like to explore Cloudsdale once...' he replied.

Exactly! the voice said. Why... why won't you just sneak out of the house, look for Blue Balloon and ask her if you could... "borrow" her hot-air balloon?

'Because,' Sunburst said. 'I cannot leave the house without permission. My father's too strict, my mother's omniscient and my brother is suspicious.'

It sounded like the voice sighed in dissapointment.

'Yo, Sunny,' Redlight said.

"Sunny" frowned. 'If you call me Sunny óne more time, I'll rip your wings off,' he said.

Redlight laughed. 'Of course, little brother. You will rip MY wings off?'

'Yeah,' Sunburst replied. 'It's not like you can rip off MINE.'

Redlight thought it would be smart to end the discussion before it'd turn into something serious, but Sunburst had thrown a pillow at him already.

'Hay!' Redlight yelled. 'You'll get that back!'

He threw a giant stuffed alligator at Sunburst, but he stopped it in its flight. 'Catch!' he yelled, and threw it back.

Redlight ducked down to avoid the flying alligator plush, accompanied by beams of pure terror.

Tickly terror.

'Ahhh, stop it!' he cried, as Sunburst attacked him with his so-called "tickle-beams".

His mother wanted him to find a better name for it, but he thought tickle-beams was just fine.

He had made up the spell himself, no books, no lessons, so he decided he could name it anything he wanted.

Sunburst stopped beaming his brother. 'Mercy?' he asked.

'Mercy!' his brother said, as he pulled the alligator closer to cover him.

Sunburst took a deep breath. 'Good. Now say, who is lord and ruler of the attic?'

'I am!' his brother replied.

Sunburst's horn illuminated as he walked towards his brother. 'Who, you say?'

'Fine!' Redlight shouted. 'You are.'

Sunburst smiled. 'Thought so.'