Beyond My Years

Most pegasi parents decide on a name for their child before they are born, unlike unicorns or earth ponies, who wait to see what the gender and coloration of the foal will be, then decide on a name suiting that child. For example, earth pony parents will see that the foal has a bright coloration and is a female, and will name her “Daisy Dewdrop” and unicorn parents will have a foal that is male and is dark colored and will name him “Night Spark” or something to that effect. Often, out of pure chance, the name is relative to the pony’s special talent. It’s that way for pegasi too.

I don’t claim to understand why this works, or how the chances are so high that the talents are relative to the names, but maybe it’s a parent thing. I have no children, so I wouldn’t know firsthand. Most parents, of all the three nations, tell me the same thing – you get a feeling, and you just know what to name them. More prominent in the mothers, though, so personally I believe that the foal growing inside the mother can somehow let the mother know who he or she is, that they can almost bring forth that feeling of certainty in the mother that helps choose the perfect name for the foal.

Perhaps it’s time I introduce my point. I am Sunshine Daydream, also called “Sunny Day” and more often simply “Sunny”. I was born in Cloudsdale to Thunderstrike, my father, and Breezy, my mother. My coat is pure white, and my mane is medium blue, with a sky blue streak. My eyes are golden yellow, like the sun itself. Of course, my name fit perfectly, and as is pegasi tradition, was chosen before I was even born. My bloodline is pure pegasi, counting back generation to generation, all the way to the time of Commander Hurricane. No, I am not related, but that is as far back as anyone can recall their genealogy in the pegasi nation. I am a wonder to most pegasi in my community. Why? Because though I am of pure pegasi blood, I was born without wings. I was given a different gift instead. I am a unicorn.

I was often looked upon as an affliction to my family; a unicorn born to a pure pegasi bloodline! Surely, there was an affair somewhere down the line! But family records do not show such things. So I became an unexplainable oddity.
I had siblings, 3 of them, Stormcloud and Lightning Wings, my two brothers, and Sea Gale, my sister. All of them were born pegasi, as they should be.

Growing up a unicorn in a world full of pegasi was hard. Since I wasn’t born with the same abilities as my brothers and sister, I had to be accompanied everywhere. A cloud home isn’t exactly suitable for someone who can’t walk on clouds. When I was just a little filly, I wandered outside my home, which was settled on a cloud yard. I had taken one step off the porch and fallen clear through the cloud beneath me. I remember my only thought – what had I done wrong? When Sea Gale, a year older than me, stepped outside to play, she never fell through the cloud! Why did I? Luckily, my older brother Stormcloud had been on his way home from school and saw me sailing downward from our home and quick as a flash had me in his arms, carrying me back home. At that point I had been sobbing. Why had I been cursed with a useless horn, instead of wings like everypony else I knew?

After that incident, my parents thought it best I was shipped off to Canterlot to learn magic and hone my own natural abilities, rather than risk falling through the sky again. I was so young… I was a scared little filly, being sent away to school far away from my family. But my parents reassured me that my place was on the ground, rather than in the sky, and that the only way to discover who I was and to gain my own cutie mark was to learn magic like the other unicorns.

To be honest, up until that point I hadn’t really considered myself a unicorn. Everywhere I looked in Cloudsdale was Pegasus ponies. Earth ponies really didn’t care for the sky and unicorns rarely ever visited, except for the safety inspectors of the weather factory. Quite often I forgot about the horn protruding from my forehead. I didn’t know how to do magic, and since there was nopony in Cloudsdale to teach me, I hadn’t really given it much thought. As for the lack of wings, well, I often forgot I didn’t have a pair, which lead to close calls, but none as life-threatening as me falling through the cloud my home rested on.

So I was on my way, a little unicorn filly born to Pegasus parents, terrified out of my mind of what was to become of me and how different the ground would be from my home in the sky.