A small baby is born in the hospital of Cloudsdale. The day is nearly over, as the sunset has already begun, so Cloudsdale is nearly completely darkened by the flow of time. It would be raining, but surely they were far too high in the sky to be touched by the wetness of the rain. And Cloudsdale had no need for rain to begin with. A unicorn mother, only able to stand on the clouds with a spell and slightly altered genetics, cradled her little baby pony in her hospital bed as the pains of unbearable childbirth was now over. The soft cries of the baby were soon quieted by the gentle words of her mother. The father stood over his newborn daughter,  he was a brown furred pegasus with a silver mane and large, powerful wings. His eyes were a piercing gold, and usually very cold and unloving. But today, this stallion managed to smile, even brighter than his wife. After years of unsuccessful miscarriages, the Claires had finally managed to give birth to a baby, a girl. She inherited the bluish-silver fur from her mother and silver mane from her father, and had bicolored eyes, one gold and one light blue. She inherited her father's wings, but a slight silver aura covered over her wings.

"Honey... what shall we name her?" the mother, Lacrima Claire, inquired as the father, Equetus Claire, was already considering a name for his daughter. "I know it was my job, but I was so excited that I simply couldn't bring myself to think of one..."

"Effiela," Equetus finally replied, as he stroked the mane of his wife. "Effiela Claire. Our beloved Muse of delight."

"What does the name mean?" Lacrima was fairly confused by this name, as she had never heard it before.

"From the name of Euterpe, which means 'deliverer of pleasure' and Elle, which means 'she'."

"So... 'She Who Delivers Pleasure'. Equetus! You're such a charmer! Even I couldn't have thought up a name so beautiful. How do you do it?"

The doctor and nurses watched as the lovebirds talked and acted all family-like in the presence of their child. The doctor, Dr. Cylana Mika, documented the time and date as well as the names of the parents and baby name of Effiela Claire.  She then performed tests on the baby since its parents and it itself were hybrids of pegasi and unicorns. The muscles in the wing area were very tight and restricted, which would stunt flight unless the muscles were relaxed and exercised. Also a small portion of magic ran through the baby's veins, though Dr. Cylana Mika speculated it would possibly disappear during Effiela's early childhood.

As Effiela grew up, she was pushed by her parents to become a great flier so she could become a police-mare and protect the city. Effiela was a very weak flier, and could not get herself even a mere foot off of the ground. To top it all off, she could only keep herself up for no more than several seconds, then she would have to rest. For the first couple of days her father was not pleased nor disappointed, as this was expected of a young pegasus, especially when Effiela had this stunted flight condition. For a couple of weeks, Effiela began to get lazy and groggy, and somewhat rebellious. She would begin the session, but then give up, as she knew what would happen. This behavior really upset her father, as it seemed as though she were already giving up the goal they had set for her. Effiela even said herself she would work hard at it, but now she seemed bitter and disrespectful of her father and mother. She really did not care, but surely her father would not tolerate this behavior for much longer.

"Why are you stopping? Are you really tired already, Effiela?" her father would pressure her over and over. "I will not stand to have a weak daughter! Will you become of your fallen brethren and sisters and give up on life before it even begins? Or will you mare-up and get your lazy-ass off of the damn ground?!"

Now broken by her father's harsh words, the filly could not understand why her father pressured her and tried to control her life this much, but her supportive mother would tell her that he only wanted the best for her and that she should give it her all. She didn't even go to school much. Whenever she did go to school, she would not say much, and the teachers often tried to get her to talk, but she never seemed motivated. The other fillies and colts would bully her and take her belongings away from her, since she seemed like such an easy target, but her lack of retaliation bored them, and they soon just left her alone. And then came the time when her mother began to home school her as her father taught her to fly day after day. Wing push-ups to wing curls, Effiela barely survived her father's strict regulations, and even then, whenever she would try to fly, she would give up once she started and fall to her knees, scared for her life, as if she has seen a ghost. Growing tired of this, Equetus started to whip his daughter, punishing her for her laziness and cowardly actions. This happened frequently during the sessions, and Effiela felt at least one beating per day, which made her even more terrified of flying, because she never knew how her father would react. She would run to her mother for support, as now her mother was pregnant with another baby, whose name would be decided early; Giselle Claire. Her mother tried and tried to help her daughter emotionally, but this put uncomfortable and unnecessary pressure on her during her long pregnancy, as it lasted 10 months. Soon, Lacrima just began to neglect her daughter, who now had nopony to run to besides her father.

"Nopony will listen to me... the only pony I can go to is father... I must beat this into my dumb brain! I hate myself for being so weak, for being such a bad flier..." Effiela told herself day after day, striving only to show her parents that she was not weak. That she was not a weak flier. That she could be truly independent. She pushed herself harder than ever, trying to make sure that she could exceed her father's expectations.

Finally, Effiela managed to fly four feet from the ground, and she stayed up for forty seconds. After dropping from exhaustion, she looked to her father, who looked still fairly disappointed. He only shook his head and turned away, the session was over for that day, but enraged, Effiela stayed and she pressed herself further and further that day, and did not come back in until 11 at night, far past her regular bedtime. She took the beating her father gave her.

Then came time for Giselle to be born, and Effiela was as happy as ever, though, she could not see the same zeal in her parents' eyes. She only saw a heavy burden in them, and regret. She was humbled by her parents' ungodly solemnity. Giselle was born, with a darker coat than her mother and Effiela, light blue eyes, and a whitish silver mane. She was born a unicorn.

"Hopefully this one won't complain as much," Equetus told Lacrima, who just began crying and holding Giselle as tight as she could.  Effiela still could not understand her father, as she felt as though he hated her. He never supported her abilities and pushed her far over what her limits were, she did not understand or appreciate it, but she still forced herself to love her parents, and look away from their faults. She did not want to be like them.  And she would not let them treat her little sister like that either. Sure enough, they did not. As soon as Giselle was three, Lacrima took on teaching her powerful magic. Giselle proved to be a slow starter, as she could not levitate objects, but when her mother bought her a personal laboratory when Giselle was six, it kick-started her magic capabilities through the roof, and she even got her cutie mark, something the 13 year old Effiela Claire had not even accomplished yet. Giselle's cutie mark was a microscope, due to her love for science and magic.

When Effiela was seventeen, she finally mastered flying enough to reach speeds of 200MPH and could fly for an hour now. She could see her father's pleasure with her new success, but Effiela strived for more. She entered races in Cloudsdale and in Ponyville, and soon she became a racer, not professional, but just small town racing, nothing big or loud or well known. She won first place frequently, but began to come in second place, and for her last race, she came in fifth. Her father seemed to lose hope in her, and she lost hope in herself as well. The first taste of success she ever had had been stripped from her, and now she was back to square one. Giselle, however, was truly a child prodigy. She never seemed to miscalculate anything and was always perfect, heck, she never even gave much thought to anything else than magic. She spent less time reading about magic, and more time experimenting. This gave her unrivaled prowess in magic, and Equetus was going to send her to Princess Celestia's Magic Academy, but Lacrima declined. For a month, nopony knew why, as Lacrima was a very secretive mare. She began to not be able to stand up straight, and coughed up blood frequently. As soon as Equetus saw how his wife's condition was, he immediately rushed her to the hospital and found that she had been diagnosed with a deadly combination of lung cancer and even the rare Mare-Magic Virus, which the doctors knew too little about to treat. Soon, this lead her to show stages of early dementia. The doctors speculated she only had a couple of weeks to live.

Even in death, Lacrima paid little attention to Effiela, and more attention to Giselle, who she gave her blessing to. Effiela left before her mother died, and took the beating later. She soon felt herself about to lose her mind. She could not even feel pain of her mother's death, just how her mother neglected her and paid more attention to Giselle than her. It wasn't fair, and Effiela could stand for it no more. Effiela's mood upset Giselle even more, as Giselle truly felt sorry for her older sister, but she felt as though it was out of her league to help others with their feelings.  

Effiela prepared to pack her bags to leave, until the distraught Giselle went missing. Searching all over Cloudsdale, Effiela could not find her, until she came back to Giselle's room and spotted a note saying she would go live with the dragons down on the land of the hellish fires. Wondering why her sister would do something so stupid, Effiela spared no time and quickly went after her, catching her before she entered the land of the dragons. Soon, Equetus came as well, and Giselle ran to her father, who held her in his hooves lovingly. Still Effiela was ignored. She now could not hold back anymore, and she struck her father right in his muzzle.

"Nothing I do matters to you, does it?! I spend all of my time trying to impress you! And you push me aside like I'm some worthless bug! I can't take it anymore, and I can't believe that you would actually believe that this is the way to treat your own daughter!" Effiela barked at him, pushing him down and striking him again and again. "All those years, I have been giving my best, and all you did was give me your worst! Do you even love me? Did mother even love me?!"

Equetus spit blood in Effiela's face. "How low of it to strike your own father and mock him when he's only trying to help," he muttered, looking to Giselle, who was watching in terror. "I am only showing you the struggle of being a police-mare. You will perform wonderful feats to ponies who do not even care enough about you do remember your name. To them, you are nothing more than a mare in blue. I was only--"

Nothing could hold Effiela back now, she wailed at her father again and again, finally driving him up into the air and crashing back down with the force of a speeding train, killing him. "I hate you father," she told his crushed body as she wiped his blood from her face. She turned to Giselle and slowly approached her, and the filly tried to step back, but she tumbled over her own hooves and fell down, now under the mercy of Effiela. She braced herself from what she thought was certain death, shaking uncontrollably, and crying loudly, pleading for her life, begging for forgiveness from something which was not even her fault. As she felt as Effiela's hooves touched her, she screamed for help, but Effiela only cradled her little sister in her legs.

"We can start again, and forget everything about Cloudsdale! We can get on the train and leave Equestria if you want," Effiela choked as her tears nearly drowned Giselle,  who was sobbing just as hard. "Just please, if you had a choice, Giselle, please come with me. We can do much better than this! We can make it out here, sister and sister! I could take you flying with me, and we could fly forever! We can laugh and play as much as you want, I'll even let you draw on me with markers if you want! Just please, don't leave me like mother and father did. You're all I have left, and I will never let you go... as long as you let me...."

"No." An answer so sudden, and blunt as it was, coming from a little filly like Giselle. She said nothing else, she just broke out of Effiela's hold and walked away slowly, leaving the pony in shock. Giselle never even thought to hesitate, but Effiela wanted an answer, and she gave her one. As simple as that. However, an answer was all she wanted.

Quickly cleaning herself up and hiding the dead body of her father nearby the dragons' land, as not to raise suspicion on herself, Effiela went back to Cloudsdale and slept in her house one last time. (At this time, Luna was still trapped within the moon, so her conscience was not invaded) She left early in the morning and went flying, this time, higher than she ever flew before. She watched the sun peak above the ocean and through the clouds, showing her how the golden sky turned crystal clear and blue as the sea. It was the first time she ever fealt significant, the first time in forever that she felt free. She began to wonder if there was a heaven after death, but if she were to go to heaven, how could she really? She did not trust in herself enough to depend on faith of the existence of a place like heaven. She wanted solid evidence of a place like that.

Going over her life, she found none, as she fealt as though maybe ponies were already born in heaven and hell. She believed she was in hell, but she contradicted her own belief, as now she felt free. So maybe, ponies can escape hell? Then ponies can escape heaven? She did not understand it now, but maybe, she felt, she could learn. Giselle knew alot, and she was only seven. At this moment, Effiela was eighteen, and she still did not know what to believe in. Pitiful, she thought, I guess mother and father were right to be disappointed in me. I am nothing but a failure, who knows nothing...

but she got a look at the sun again. At the ocean below. At the clouds beside her. She knew this, at least. And that gave her hope. The pony came to the conclusion that heavenly beauty belonged to everypony, but there was no true god to govern over the world to guide them, and Effiela hated Celestia more than she did her parents. There was no god,  but Effiela now wanted to be that god. That God to rule over all, to be all-powerful, all-knowing, and eternal. This thought gave her joy, so much joy that it gave birth to her cutie mark; a star with wings of a dove.

Finally free, she thought, but still a slave to time.

"I couldn't laugh harder."