Adopted

Blue… the sky was a thick blue like any other day on a sweep.

“Snow, do you read me?” A voice spoke into Snowflakes intercom. She immediately answered back, putting a hoof to her ear.

“I copy.”

“We’ve searched everything we could for the day. The brass has ordered all units to return back to base.”

“Copy that. Finishing my last sweep now, out.”

Snowflake flew above the ruined city known as New York. She frowned at the sight. It was a grand city once upon a time for human beings. Now it’s nothing but collapsed skyscrapers and empty streets and mysterious machines that look like deformed rectangles. The hoof bombs from the fleet had done its work well. New York was one of the first cities to be destroyed by the Equestrian fleet.

Snowflake felt neutral in this, she didn’t love nor hate humans. When she was still a cadet in training she heard about the human race and how it may have been possible for peace. It turned out to be a terrible mistake. Word spread that the ambassador Princesses Luna sent down to the human planet was captured and was being experimented.

In just a week Princesses Luna declared unofficial war against the humans. Luna sent the fleet over to greet the enemies of Equestria and in the end, humanity was no match for such firepower. Four months of endless hoof bombs rained throughout the human planet. It was only stopped when Princesses Celestia begged her oldest sister to end the brutality.

Snowflake looked down at herself flying over a river bed. She could see her white coat, light blue mane, and silver chest plate reflect off the water. She was no longer the cadet she once knew. After coming to this planet, everything changed for her. She gained speed and lifted herself up higher. Her sweep was done; it was time to head home.

Then… something caught her ear. A sound.

Snowflake came to a halt for she heard a cry in the distance, a cry that sounded for help. She flew lower into the city streets to get a better angle of where it was coming from. She listened closely and the cry seemed to come from the left. She kept her eyes peeled at the ground not bothering to look up. Humans couldn’t fly she knew that, and she never seen a human walk on clouds.

As she flew, the cries were becoming louder. It was coming from a train station, with only half remaining, the rest was rubble. Snowflake slowed her speed, and hovered over the station. The cries were certainly coming from there.

She put her hoof to the intercom. “Snowflake here, I’m getting cries from an old train station, permission to investigate, over?”

“Torch here, granted. Make it fast the brass wants everyone back by nightfall.”

“Copy.” Snowflake said when touching the ground.

She took a peek inside. It was dark and debris lay all over the station. Snowflake frowned at the sight. It looked very lonely. She wondered what this station used to be like in its hay day. She could only guess it was grand, considering how big it looks on the inside.

The crying continued, Snowflake cautioned herself around the area. She didn’t want to trip and fall; she didn’t know what hid in this station. Anything is possible, it could be a trap. Some humans still resist even if they lost everything. There are even rumors they fight each other.

In New York, humans took to these underground stairways. No pony has ever been ordered to enter one of them. The brass has always ordered ponies like her to only call it in so a demo squad can seal it off. Snowflake had always wondered if there was another city like this one, but only underground.

She focused back to the task at hoof. In the center was a huge clock tower. The minute hand was on the twelve and the hour hand was on the four. Snowflake guessed that was the day when New York was hit. Hoof bombs are meant to harm the enemy in a cruel way. One of her friends told her it was a kind of flash that stops anyone; another said it’s a kind of gas that makes everyone vanish into thin air. Snowflake never knew what its real purpose was. It’s just only to be feared.

Then she saw something. Behind the clock tower she could see it. It lay limp against the main support, motionless, probably dead. Snowflake proceeded with extra caution now checking every corner possible if this was a trap. Humans have ways of using their dead as bait. It’s cruel but is effective. She remembered a time on the intercom that two of her good friends got ambushed because they wanted to check out a body of a dog, it turned out to be rigged with a grenade. They weren’t killed but were badly wounded and had to be sent up to the fleet.

As she continued to approach her eyes started to form a body in front of her. It was human looking, to her knowledge. Humans were strange figures, yet they came in all sizes even in width. Some were small, large, tall, short, or sometimes all of the above. Another thing that was strange is they didn’t have hooves. Instead they had these five small appendages on the very end of each leg. Yet they only used two legs to stand with and the other two for... she didn’t know. Snowflake could never understand human behavior.

Snowflake was right on top of all the crying. It had to be a human she guessed. No ponies lived on this planet. It had to just be human and nothing else. She looked around the clock tower and in her luck… there it was. A human, small very small around filly size back on her home planet. It was curled up, wrapped in rags. It had to be a toddler just by looking at it, perhaps around the age of two.

Snowflake’s eyes widened and she quickly snatched the human child away from something. A rat, black as night was creeping closer to the child. Snowflake was just lucky enough to notice. She held the child firmly in both her forelegs as the rat hissed and scurried off.

The child was now crying in her forelegs and she felt cold wet tears running down her shoulder. She was confused on what to do at first. How do you calm a human child? She looked about the dark station and couldn’t see anyone else. Just a body and a little human in her hooves. She thought hard on how to calm the poor child. Then she tried to do what her mother would do for her when she was a young filly. Snowflake hummed softly too the little human, hoping it would calm down.

“Snow, come in.” sounded like Torch on her intercom. She held the child in one foreleg and used the other to contact.

“Snow here, I got something.”

“Report.”

“Human, small, a child to my best guess.”

“Understood, I suppose that’s the crying I’m here over the com? Bring the child back to base, we’ll see what we can do.”

“Copy, coming home.” Snow placed her foreleg back on the child and started to hum softly to him again.

She slowly started to sing, an old song that was made centuries ago.

Hush now quiet now it now…
Time to lay your sleepy head… ummm
Hmmmmm it’s time to go to bed…

Snowflake forgot the rest but it appeared the child was calming down, and was snuggling up against her shoulder. She smiled and thought for a minute. She uncoiled some of the rags to reveal the child’s face. It was a boy with light brown hair, and pale white skin. The child shivered a little and Snowflake recoiled up the rags.

Snowflake felt something special with the boy. She didn’t understand what it was but, she felt happy. Happy to hold him, happy to see his cute face, happy to know that… it reminded her of a little brother back home.

“You’re safe now little one, I have you.” She started to flap her wings getting ready to leave the station for good and head back to base. Snowflake wondered what they would do with such a young human. They’ve never had a small child like this before, only some much older and rebellious. Maybe she herself could look after him.

As she gained altitude something caught her eye. The sun was setting which was normal on the human planet. Nobody controlled them; they went their own separate ways. Even the seasons themselves cannot be controlled. It was how the sun shined in through the station is what got her attention. What she saw.

Her eyes went wide and she gasped. In the background she saw something she wished she didn’t have to see. She now knew why the child was crying and why it was so young and all alone.

She flapped as fast as she could to escape the scene she just saw. She held the child tightly in her forelegs keeping him close so she wouldn’t lose her grasp. Snowflake headed back to base swiftly.

While she flew she heard something from the child. It was very quiet, it may have been the wind but she could have sworn she just heard the little human say. “Mamma”