A Break in the Clouds

It wasn’t always this way. She used to enjoy being outside; she used to leave her room more often. But things had changed recently. Now lying on the bed she had in a dark corner of her room, Daisy sighed and willed herself to get up. Today was a new day, and she had to show her face sometime. A sunbeam sparkled through the new curtains as Daisy stretched her wings and got ready to venture out into town. Sunbeam. That was the rest of her name, but Daisy didn’t want that tainting her reputation anymore. From now on she would just be Daisy. As she closed the door behind her, she tried to remember how to get to the general store she had passed when she moved in two days ago. She didn’t have much food left, and it would be good to get out and look for a job anyways. It wasn’t like anyone knew who she was.

Walking down the path to town, Daisy thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Then again, there were a lot of strange things in this forest. But this looked more like a hut, like someone else lived on the outskirts of town where she had banished herself to. In her temporary distracted state of mind, she didn’t notice the pony walking straight into her path.

*Oof *

The two ponies crashed into each other, rolling off the path into a thicket of bushes. By the time they had gotten to their feet, Daisy had a chance to look over this other pony that had interrupted her solitude. He was gray as a stormy sky, with choppy indigo hair outlining his face. Daisy caught herself blushing as he gained his composure.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I was just walking and, um, I didn’t see you, and – “

Daisy laughed a bit. “It’s alright, nopony’s hurt.”

“I’m Ashen Eclipse.”

“I’m Daisy Sun- Just Daisy.”

“Well, um, most ponies call me Ash. I was just headed to Sugarcube Corner...”

Daisy breathed a sigh of relief. “I could not for the life of me remember what it was called. I’m headed there too.”

Ash gave a small frown. “You know what, I have to, uh, go home now. See ya.”

And like that he was gone. Daisy shook her head in wonder. Ponies sure were different here than back where she came from. But now was not the time to think of that. Daisy continued on the path in search of the store the mysterious colt had mentioned.