A Different Definition of Family

I'm an orphan.

There, I said it. I hate talking about it, but I couldn't very well write this memoir if I didn't.

Let's get the tough stuff out of the way and go from there. My mom, Featherwind, died in childbirth. It's a very rare occurrence, but it still happens from time to time.

My dad, Shattered Glass, well, some doctors would say that he died of a broken heart. Even all these years later, I still don't completely understand it. I mean, I could understand if he had died of grief if he lost both his wife and his foal, but he didn't. Best not to dwell on it too much, lest I start sobbing all over the page.

Every once in awhile, I even brave my emotions and go see their graves in Canterlot. Yes, I'm from Canterlot. But even if I muster up the courage, I still can't go if she doesn't come with me. It's too much.

So I have been an orphan since I was very young, since I was a little over a year old. I don't remember anything of my very early childhood. I suppose it wasn't much different than the other fillies and colts I met in the orphanage.

The orphanage was really the only home I knew. And I hated it. It wasn't that the ponies that worked there were particularly bad. I mean the place had been built by Celestia's orders, so she wasn't going to let abuse happen under her watch, it's just that I always felt alone. I suppose all of us orphans are alone, in the beginning anyway, but it hit me particularly hard.

I tried to quell the loneliness, at least a little. I tried to make friends, but friends aren't for long in an orphanage. As soon as somepony gets adopted or, more likely, they earn their Cutie Mark, they move on with life. The front door might as well have been revolving.

After a couple years, I decided I'd had enough. I made a plan to sneak out of the orphanage and get on a train to anywhere, anywhere but there. It was as foolish as it sounded, but my little colt brain didn't know any better. And so, with this in mind, I gathered up all the Bits I had saved up over the years, some from doing odd jobs, some from just finding loose change on the street, and pocketed it. For the first time in my life, I was glad I didn't have any possessions, as it would have only slowed me down.

It was pretty warm fall evening when I put my plan in motion. After the nurses had done bed checks for that night, where I pretended to be asleep, I quietly slipped over to the one window in the room. It was at this point I wished I was a pegasus and could have flown, for the room was on the second floor. Fortunately, there was a tree not too far away which I was pretty familiar with, having climbed it a number of times. I made the leap from the open window to the branch, and just like that, I was free.

But I wasn't home free.

To do that, I had to make it to the train station and get on one. The trip there was relatively easy, it being so dark and I still being a young colt, nopony saw me as I slinked down the various roads and alleyways.

When I reached the station, I looked up to the big board that was there to purvey the train schedule. Lucky for me, a train was going to be leaving in just under half an hour, the night train to Ponyville. I had really hoped to get further than that, but at the very least it was convenient, and I would have some Bits left over.

I strolled over to the ticket counter and knocked on the base of it with my hoof, getting the stallion's attention.

"One ticket to Ponyville, please," I said in as brave of a voice as I could, though I was quaking on the inside.

The stallion at the booth, who was well into middle age, looked out and at first saw nopony there. He was about to duck his head back inside when I repeated my request. This time, he correctly looked down and saw me. The curious look on his face was understandable, there stood a dark brown Earth colt, with a small bag of Bits, looking up at him with a smile.

"Aren't you out a little late, sonny," he asked.

"Not really," I responded, "Princess Luna's moon isn't even all the way up yet."

Never assume that the poor education one receives in an orphanage means that that orphan isn't intelligent.

"Your parents around?"

"Unfortunately, no," I replied, completely serious, though it hurts every time somepony mentions my parents, "Are my Bits not good here?"

"Now, I never said that," he replied, "Ponyville you said? Well, you're in luck, that train boards in 15 minutes."

My Bit bag rose up to the counter in a green aura, which caused me to realize for the first time that the stallion was a unicorn. He quickly, and correctly, counted out the proper Bits before levitating both the bag and a ticket back down to me.

"Thank you, sir."

"No problem, kid. Train 11, don't miss it."

I promptly ran along and found the train. The conductor who took my ticket didn't seem to think anything of a colt traveling alone. Or maybe he was just tied, who knows? Anyway, once I found a seat I made myself comfortable for the relatively short trip.

When the train reached Ponyville, it was the dead of night. There was literally nopony on the streets of the little town. Choosing not to sleep at the train station all night, I began to wander through the empty village.

Unfortunately, since I knew nothing of the town, I quickly found myself lost. I tried to get back to the train station, but all the houses started to look the same. Before I knew it, I found myself on the edge of what looked like an apple orchard of some kind. I decided to hide among the trees for the night, it was the best I could hope for in this situation.

After meandering for a bit, I came to something I never thought I would see: a treehouse. In one tree, which seemed to be kind of separated from the others, there stood a wooden treehouse, with a wooden gangplank and everything. I couldn't just turn down a place that actually had a roof and walls, so I went right to it. After looking around and finding it empty, I laid down against one of the walls and promptly fell asleep.

*--*--*--*--*

I awoke to the sounds of multiple ponies whispering. They seemed to be talking in a way that wouldn't wake me up, though I couldn't understand any of the actual words.

As I slowly opened my eyes, I made out the shapes of four ponies, all fillies. One was an orange pegasus with a purple mane, the second was a yellow earth pony with a red mane and matching red bow, and the other two were unicorns, one white with a pink-and-purple mane and a smaller light purple one with a blonde mane.

Eventually, the Earth pony spotted my open eyes.

"'Ey girls, he's awake." They all turned to face me, all of them sufficiently confused.

"Can I help you?" I asked, momentarily forgetting where I had spent the night.

"You can help by telling us why you're in our clubhouse!" the pegasus snapped, her wings buzzing for some odd reason.

"Your...clubhouse?" Then it dawned on me, "Oh!" I bolted right up to my feet.

"Scootaloo, cut it out," the white unicorn said, "Um...who exactly are you? You're certainly not from Ponyville."

I opened my mouth to answer, but I stopped myself. I hadn't expected to be confronted so early in the morning, nor had I thought beforehand about how I was going to explain my sudden appearance somewhere.

"Aren't ya gonna answer," the Earth pony asked, cocking her head a bit.

"M-My name is Shining Glass, and uh...I have to go!" I bolted for the door of the clubhouse, but in my haste, I tripped over my own hooves, which resulted in me sliding on my face a good foot or so before coming to rest.

"Ooh..." the four fillies reacted to my fall, quickly coming over to check on my condition.

"Are ya OK, Shining," the Earth pony asked.

"No, not really," was my reply.

"'Ere," she proceeded to pick me up off the floor and back to my four hooves.

"Thank you. Now I really must be leaving."

"What's the rush," the white unicorn asked.

"Well I need to figure out what I'm going to do next," I said this really without thinking.

"Do next?" the Earth filly was perplexed, "What d'ya mean by that?"

"Just...," I really didn't have a good answer, "I just need to keep moving."

I turned back toward the door to make my exit, but I was blocked by the pegasus.

"Keep moving? What is that supposed to mean?"

"Look, I don't want to talk about it," I punctuated the sentiment by gently pushing her to one side with a hoof, getting her out of my way.

I continued on my way, but the white unicorn and Earth pony now stood in my way.

"I think we deserve one answer since you slept in our clubhouse," the unicorn said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah," the Earth filly continued, "and one more on account of ya bein' on mah family's farm."

I facehoofed, "OK. Fine. You really want to know?" I was growing impatient, but when they nodded, I took a deep breath and continued, "I ran away from the orphanage in Canterlot and so I came to Ponyville last night and found your treehouse and fell asleep. Happy?"

The four fillies jaws were at various degrees of dropped at this point.

"You ran away...," began Earth.

"From an orphanage...," continued pegasus.

"In Canterlot!" squeaked white unicorn.

"And fell asleep in the clubhouse?" finished purple unicorn, who had been silent up to this point.

"Yes," I answered calmly, "yes, yes, and finally, yes."

"Well," started Earth, who was the first to complete compose herself, "If you want, we could help ya."

"No, thank you. I'm used to doing things on my own, this is no different."

"We could take you to go see Twilight," the white unicorn squeaked again, "she'll be able to help."

Hearing that name stopped me in my tracks.

"Twilight...as in Princess Twilight Sparkle?" all four nodded, "No, no, no, no, no! She'll just send me back. No, nopony must know I'm here. In fact, you four know too much already, goodbye."

Once again I headed for the door, only to be stopped by a hoof on each shoulder.

"Now listen 'ere," Earth, who was on my right said, "We can't just let another pony go it alone like that."

"That's right," white unicorn, on my left, continued, "It wouldn't be good on our conscience."

"Right," pegasus said from behind me, "the Cutie Mark Crusaders would never leave another pony hangin'."

"Well that's all," I began, but then stopped, "wait, what did you call yourself?"

"Oh," Earth said, "we never introduced ourselves to ya. I'm Apple Bloom."

"Sweetie Belle," said white unicorn.

"Scootaloo," said pegasus.

"And I'm Dinky Doo," said purple unicorn.

"And together we are...," Apple Bloom said before all four of them said together.

"The Cutie Mark Crusaders!"

"Well at least that explains the clubhouse," I quipped.

"Yeah," Sweetie Belle said, "we were going to initiate Dinky into our group this morning before school, but when we came up, we found you instead."

"Well I apologize for getting in the way."

"Nonsense, it's...oh shoot, we're going to be late for school!"

Scootaloo was the first one out the door, followed by Dinky. The other two glanced between the door, each other, and me.

"Well," Apple Bloom said, "what're ya waitin' for?"

"What?"

"Come to school with us," Sweetie said.

"Won't that be a little odd," I protested, "besides, the less ponies who know I'm here, the better."

"Miss Cheerilee won't mind. We'll tell her your Bloom's cousin."

"Like that would...."

"You're both Earth ponies, and the Apples have relatives all over, nopony would be the wiser."

"There's no arguing with you, is there?"

"Nope. Now come on, Scootaloo is waiting."

The three of us exited the clubhouse, and I followed the girls as they hopped into a little red wagon. The wagon was hooked onto a scooter, which was driven by Scootaloo. Soon, we were off like a rocket, across the apple orchard and toward town.

I could only hope that the next ponies I met would be as nice as the first four.