The Alternate Life of Sparkler No-Last-Name

by Cillerenda

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Sparkler, Sad, Original Character, Slice of Life
Length: 23391

For Winningverse's Alternate Month: What would have happened if Sparkler had never been adopted by Derpy?

The deck of cards that life have dealt Sparkler have not foretold anything great, and spending her life in several foster homes and under-budgeted orphanages seems to be backing that theory up. After being kicked from the orphanage because of her age, Sparkler’s living her life as best as she can in the cold city of Canterlot.

For the Winningverse AU Month!

A HUGE thank you to my fabulous prereaders: devas, Chopsuey, Luminary, ChengarQordath, and last, but definitely not least,Swiftest Shadow!

Wow, featured? Awesome! Thank you everyone! Featured on January 3, 2014. :)

Published 2014-01-03 17:10:05 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-11 20:15:31 UTC

The Teenager Who Thinks Too Much

Celestia, I loved rain. Rain was the only thing, at least to my knowledge, that could make you shiver and sweat at the same time. The rain could have made you nervous, or it could have chilled you off. To some, rain was a blessing. To others it was a nuisance.

To me, it was a mobile hiding spot. Ever since I’d gotten kicked from the orphanage, I hadn't exactly had cash rolling in. Actually, I had no cash rolling in. I needed money to get into college, I needed college to get a job, and I needed a job to get money to pay for college so I could get a job and get money. Whoever created this system better be on some sort of medication after how badly they screwed it up.

Anyway, the point is that I needed money, and the way things were going I didn’t see myself getting a job any time soon. I was too inexperienced, too clumsy, and too teenager-y. So, I used nature to my advantage. Rain meant dark clouds, and dark clouds meant limited sight. And it was the perfect time for my... less-than-acceptable "job", if you will.

I walked around Canterlot casually, observing each fancy building as if I were a tourist. Canterlot was, and still is, a prosperous city, which means that instead of having stands built up on every corner, they had stores with bright lights and high-alert security guards. That’s not to say that there weren’t stands around. You’d find the occasional out-of-town salespony with a shop open and goofy smile plastered on their face. With the lack of stalls around with rain and whatnot, I took to the sidewalks. No matter what time it was, however, there would always be plenty of ponies wandering the streets trying to get home or trying to get away from home.

I tugged my cloak tighter around my mane, taking extra care to hide my horn, as I swayed between oncoming ponies. I kept my head low and my eyes up. These ponies were certainly well-dressed, but not the ponies I was looking for.

Then I spotted him. A handsome grey Unicorn stallion with a black tux, top hat and monocle with a large umbrella levitated over his head. He was heading straight for me. I took a deep breath as he neared. This was the part I hated most. I hated being deceitful. I hated—

“Oh!” I said as I tripped into the stallion. Keeping my head down, I lit up my horn and telekinetically searched his pockets in seconds. “I-I’m sorry.” I stuttered. I almost blew my cover as I stifled a squeal of happiness. My magic had found what it was searching for.

“You'd better be!” the stallion snorted haughtily and raised a hoof in disgust. “Gutter-trash like you have no right to wander this city.”

While the retort had stung, it did make me feel a better about taking his wallet right out from under his snobby nose. I kept an apologetic grin on my face. “Really, I’m terribly sorry, sir.”

With a grunt, the stallion whipped his head back around and continued at a quicker pace. Not wanting to give him a chance to turn around and find me, I quickly turned into an alleyway and trotted to the end of it, stopping only when I’d reached the dumpster that was pressed against the wall. I stood between the end of the alley and the dumpster and slowly slid down the concrete, hitting the ground with a wet slap. I took a deep breath and levitated what I’d taken from under my cloak: a small, velvet wallet with red silk lining.

I take back what I said earlier. This was the part I hated the most. I could have run up to the stallion, given it back and begged for forgiveness, I could have turned it in saying that I'd found the wallet lying on the ground.

But I hadn't.

I opened the wallet and took out the money that was inside, which added up to about sixty bits. I frowned and leaned my head against the wall with my eyes closed, listening to the sound of the few raindrops that slipped passed the awnings that stretched over the alley. It was a good sum of money, it was more than I’d ever gotten in a single swipe before. I should have been thankful, but inside I felt vile and wretched. I hated stealing, I hated lying, I hated being "gutter-trash". I hated that my first caretaker had had a stroke, I hated that my last foster-parent had been such a… an…

I also hated swearing.

I took another deep breath and slowly blew it out, mentally preparing myself. I got to my hooves and peered over the edge of the dumpster. I recoiled slightly from the stench and levitated a few trash bags out of the way before stashing the wallet to the metal bottom and replaced the bags. I dropped back onto all four hooves and gave the money another quick count before making toward the open end of the alley. I waited until a large swarm of Canterlot’s not-so-elite passed by so that I could at least try to blend in. Seeing a young cloaked pony with her head low mixed in with a bunch of preps wouldn’t exactly look very natural.

Since I had all the money I’d need for the day, I loosened up my cloak. My mane was still slicked back and tied, and my tail was tucked so tightly to my rump that not a single strand could have be seen. At least, I hoped it still was. There was no easy way to hide my coat colour, but as long as I kept my gaze low to hide my eyes and my mane out of sight, it would be nearly impossible to pick me out of a line up. Do you know how many pink mares are in Canterlot alone? Not to mention the entirety of Equestria?

I looked out from under my hood and scanned the lines of stores until my gaze finally rested on an uppity food market. Okay, I guess that in Canterlot, all of the stores could be considered “uppity”, so I guess I could just call it a food market. I made my way to it quickly, separating myself from my herd, and slipped inside. I shivered as soon as my hooves touched the tile floor. The bright lights overhead reflected off of the white floor, causing me to wince and raise my head. While the atmosphere outside had been warm with the lovely smell of rain, the store was cold with the strong odor of lemon floor polish. I could hear the light clopping of hooves from elsewhere in the store. I shivered again and made my way down the first aisle, grabbing a small basket on the way.

I trotted wearily past an older Unicorn mare, her yellow mane in a tight bun and her blue coat sleek and shiny. It almost looked greasy, as if she had just a tad too much product, and knowing Canterlot, that was probably the case. She cast me a sideways glance along with a tiny nod of acknowledgement. I returned the nod with wide eyes and turned around, looking at the shelves.

“You’re a bit jumpy, aren't you?” I proved her point by nearly jumping out of my skin at her voice, despite how soft it was. She gave me a small grin as I looked at her.

“Er, yeah. Yeah, I guess,” I replied with a small grin of my own.

She turned back to the shelves as she spoke, “Are you in any of the universities here in Canterlot?”

“Um, no,” I said uneasily. The mare raised an eyebrow, but gave no other reaction as I continued, “I’m just trying to settle into being on my own first.”

The mare nodded. “I see. Are you not from around here?”

I swallowed. “Nope.”

“Where are you from?”

I didn’t know how to answer that. The only place I'd ever really known was the orphanage, which was a place where being cute was what got you adopted. As time went on I got older, too old to stay there. Nopony wants to raise a teenager. Although the only place that came to my mind was the orphanage, it wasn't where I was from. I came from somepony, somepony I couldn't even remember. Somepony who had a story, and for some reason I was no longer involved in it. I looked into the mare's lavender gaze and held it steadily as I whispered, “I don’t know.”

The mare stared at me for a moment that could have lasted a single second or an entire lifetime. She levitated a small can from the shelves and examined it closely as she replied, “Oh. Well,” She cleared her throat and put the can into her basket. She gave me a gentle smile. “It doesn’t matter where you come from, dear. Only where you end up.” While I let that sink in, she winked at me and made her way down the aisle and to the counter near the entrance. I watched, mouth agape, as she paid and left without a single glance back.

I exited the store as quietly as one could with two bags of tin cans banging against each other. I was pretty proud of myself for only spending fifteen bits. I wanted to grab as much as I could've afforded, but Celestia knows that would have been a moronic thing to do. I just knew that the rest of the money would help sooner or later.

The rain had stopped and the reaction was almost instantaneous. Ponies practically poured from apartment buildings and offices. There were still dark clouds in the sky, but it didn’t seem to dampen the moods of anypony. I made my way down the sidewalk at a steady pace, being sure not to look too suspicious– not an easy feat given the cloak. Heck, just the place I was going was a bit odd. Any sane pony would wonder why a living creature would go near a building so… unappealing.

The little place I called “home” was an abandoned apartment building on the outside of town. It looked exactly as you’d expect an abandoned building to look. Doors and window panes were either missing or hanging by a thread, paint was chipping, critters were nesting. The building was actually much like an actual apartment, except that ponies didn’t pay to live there. Well, they sort of did. The building was home to other ponies without places to go, three ponies (excluding myself) to be exact. The only payment that was required for living there was to share your food with the others at night. We had a bit of a camp thing going. We all ate dinner together, we cooked together, and we each played a part. Almost like a family.

It was certainly the closest I'd ever come to having one, anyway.

I squeezed past the debris that was partially blocking the entrance, tugging hard at the bags of food. I grunted when they finally came free, only to get a hard pain in my chest as physics did its job and the cans banged into me. I groaned and stumbled into what used to be a lobby. I set my cans beside the old front desk and sighed as I looked around. It was still kind of early, the others would have still been out getting money.

The others didn’t get money the way I did. They were honourable. They would never cheat and steal from others. They sat on the sidelines, asking for money. I had done that at first, but it was when I realized that I was only making about four bits a day that I resorted to stealing. The others didn’t, to my knowledge, know about my money method, but I think that they would have been grateful either way. There was a mother and a foal living with me, and neither of them were getting by with four bits a day.

I pricked my ears when I heard thumps coming from upstairs. I almost began to panic when I realized that it must have been Lilac, the little pegasus filly, trying to fly. I could hear the muffled words of her mother, Jade. I smiled as I quickly made my way upstairs, stopping at the entrance to their room. I stood there silently for a long moment, just watching Lilac. The small purple filly reared up on her hind legs and fluttered her tiny wings as hard as she could, but to no avail.

Jade smiled at her daughter before she finally noticed me and waved me over. “Hi, Sparkler.”

“Hey, Jade,” I greeted her. I looked down at Lilac and mussed her pink mane. “Hey, squirt.”

“Hi, Spark-a-ler!” She dropped back onto her hooves and giggled up at me.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Jade began as she stood up and slowly walked over to me. The white pegasus' eyes were wide with concern. “I haven’t been able to go out yet, and I was waiting for somepony to get back.” She glanced at Lilac, who’d turned her attention to a piece of fuzz attached the shag rug. Jade’s green eyes glistened as she gazed at her daughter and turned back to me. “I can’t leave her here alone.”

I gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, she’ll be safe with me.” I hadn’t known Jade for too long. She’d just gotten here about a month before, and while she seemed really sweet, she didn’t seem all that trusting. I also realized that she’d never let our only stallion resident look after Lilac. I don’t know what had happened to Lilac’s father, but it couldn’t have been anything good. Why she had left her daughter in the hooves of a homeless teenager, I never understood.

Jade gave me a grateful smile and a quick hug. “Thank you.” She looked at me for a short second before going back to her daughter and leaning down to her eye level. “Sweetie, I have to go for awhile, okay?” Just as her daughter was about to protest, she went on, “Don’t worry, Sparkler’s gonna be here with you.” She gestured to me.

That seemed to have worked, because Lilac’s blue eyes brightened up. Jade grinned. “That’s my girl.” She gave her filly a quick peck on the forehead before standing up and heading for the door. Lilac and I waved to her as she paused at the doorway, staring at us intensely, before finally heading down the stairs.

I turned to Lilac with a smile. “So, what have you and your mom been doing all day?”

“Waiting for the rain to go ‘way.” She shuffled her hooves on the carpet and glanced at them with a sigh. “Mommy wouldn’t let me go outside.”

I frowned at that. “That’s because she loves you and doesn’t want you to get sick. Do you want to be sick?” I waited silently for the filly to answer and continued when I saw her slowly shake her head. “Nopony likes being sick.” I paused and booped her on the nose with my hoof. “Especially cute little fillies.”

To my relief, Lilac brightened up at that. I could understand Jade’s wariness on letting her daughter out in the rain. Sure, playing out in the rain was fun if you didn’t stay out too long and had medicine on hoof, but not for a homeless filly. With winter on its way, Lilac getting a cold would be inevitable, and we didn’t exactly have the money to run out and buy medicine every time somepony got the sniffles.

The positive effect my little speech had on the bite-size pegasus didn't last long as she glanced out of the window. The rain had stopped, but I could still see the remaining storm clouds hanging around the outskirts of the city. It was weird. It almost felt as if they were hunting us.

"I wanna go outside, Sparky!" Lilac stomped her tiny hooves and fluttered her wings. "I wanna fly!"

"I know you wanna fly, squirt," I began. I sat down next to her. "You're a bit too weak for that right now." Lilac gave me a worried glance. I nuzzled her and smirked. "Hey, you'll grow." I looked back out the window and heaved a sigh. "Everypony does eventually," I added, half to myself.

Lilac never took her eyes from the window as she answered. "I can't wait! I'm gon' be the fastest flyer ever! And I'll zoom around everywhere!" As soon as she finished, she sprang to her hooves and looked at me defiantly. "Outside!"

I stared at her for a long moment, trying to decide what to do. What was the protocol for taking a filly outside of her home? This wasn't the orphanage. There were no fences, no walls. Nothing to keep her confined or make her feel small. I narrowed my eyes and grinned. "Fine." I laughed as I heard Lilac's squeal of surprise and joy.

"C'mon," I said as I got to my hooves. I gave my head a quick shake as I started down the stairs, listening to the tiny hoofsteps of the filly following close behind. I once again squeezed past the blockage before reaching my hoof in and holding back as much of it as I could for Lilac. It turned out that I didn't need to do that; Lilac was just tiny enough to get through without a single hair on her coat bothered.

I stood there for a moment, just listening. On my right I could hear the peaceful sounds of nature. I heard birds chirping to each other and the scuttling of burrowing mice. On my left, however, I heard chaos. I heard yelling and obnoxious music that I didn't understand. If I had to choose, I'd go to the right in a heartbeat.

My thoughts were interrupted by Lilac tugging on my tail. I looked back at her with an amused smile and hoisted her onto my back with a grunt before beginning a steady trot into the trees. I shivered as I stepped into the shade of the forest. Celestia's Sun didn't shine here, at least not often. There weren't exactly a lot of forests in or around Canterlot, but the forests that were there, I assure you, were some of the thickest. They didn't have the eerie atmosphere that you hear about in stories of places like Everfree Forest. Despite the chaotic nature of the nearby city, Canterlot's forests were the finest and calmest around, and when somepony emerged from one you could still smell the faint scent of evergreen and lavender on their mane.

I glanced back at Lilac to see her looking wildly around her, practically shaking with excitement. Her blue eyes swept every tree, her mind trying to take in and understand everything around her. "Pretty," she whispered.

"Very pretty." I agreed.

The majority of our journey was spent in silence. Lilac had never been known for being quiet, at least not in the time I had known her. She was always full of energy, her blue eyes wide and wings outstretched. While normally I could hardly ever get a word in edgewise around the exuberant pegasus, listening to nothing but the sounds of nature and our own breathing was strangely calming. Every once in a while I would hear her let out a tiny gasp as she watched a bird flutter from tree to tree, or a whimper of uneasiness at the sight of a spider web.

Finally, we got to the point where the forest was starting to get thick, too thick for my liking. Lilac groaned and pressed into my back with her hooves as I turned around. "Nooo!"

"Sorry, kid." I said, trotting back the way I'd come. “We gotta get home. We've been in here a while." I said as I raised my eyes to the sky. The stormy grey evening that had been there earlier was now fading into what would be a beautiful cloudy night. Lilac groaned again, but said nothing as we made our way through the trees. "Besides," I continued. "Aren’t you hungry?" A tiny rumble behind my ear answered me.

"Maybe a little..."

"That's what I thought."

"Nice, Sparkler." I heard a gruff voice say as Lilac and I squeezed into the lobby. As Lilac hopped off of my back, I looked to see a large brown Earth stallion nudging my groceries with a hoof. He stared at me with a suspicious gaze. "How do you manage to get a good haul in every day?"

He'd asked me the question so many times that the lie easily rolled off my tongue. "Dunno, Auto. If you saw a pretty teenage mare on the street, wouldn't you help her out?"

Auto grunted. "I can think of a few things that other stallions would do in that situation."

I flicked my tail uncomfortably.

"Lucky for you, I'm not one of those stallions." He opened one of the bags and took out a few cans. "I'd wondered where the two of you had run off to. I knew there was no way Jade was gonna take Lilac into Canterlot."

I glanced at Lilac, who was examining the other bag, before answering. "She was with me."

"I figured."

"So Jade isn't back yet?"

Auto shook his head. "Nah, but she should be back soon." He looked out the window with a frown before looking back at me. "S'not safe for a young mare like herself to be wandering around Canterlot at night."

I shivered at the thought as I nodded in agreement.

As if on cue, Jade grunted as she pushed her way into the lobby. Lilac's head shot up and eyes sparkled as she bounded over to her mother. "Mommy!"

Jade patted Lilac on the head, but didn't speak on the account of her mouth holding a bag. She put it down next to my two bags, and my heart twinged with sympathy when I heard the clanking of what sounded like just two cans.

"Hi, honey." She said as she kissed her daughter's forehead. She looked at me with a tiny smile. "How was she?"

"She was perfect." I assured her.

"Yeah, yeah!" Lilac jumped up and down. "We went into the forest!"

Jade's eyes shot open and her wings flared. "For-forest?"

I put up a hoof as Jade opened her mouth to begin panicking. "Don't worry, Jade. She stayed on my back the whole time."

"It was fun!" Lilac added.

Jade swallowed and blinked at me. "Yes, well..." she cleared her throat and grinned. "Good."

"Y'all ready for dinner?" We all looked at Auto, who had three cans of beans opened up.

Lilac jumped up, wings buzzing, waving a tiny hoof frantically. "Oh, me! Me! I am!"

I tried to ignore the gurgling in my stomach as I shook my head. "N-no. I'll wait."

As Lilac ran to receive her can, Jade gave me a look. "Sparkler..."

"Really, Jade. I won't eat until you and Lilac have."

Jade sighed as Auto handed her a can. "You always do this, Sparkler."

"Because I want to make sure that you get some." I lowered my voice as I added, “Lilac needs her strength, Jade. Especially with winter coming in.”

Auto flopped down with his own can and tore into it, using one of our old plastic spoons. He waved his spoon at me as he spoke to Jade. "Let her do what she pleases." He stuck a spoon full of beans into his mouth and shrugged. "No skin off my nose."

I frowned and sat down.

Jade frowned too, as she swept a wing over Lilac, who was too busy enjoying her dinner to notice the tension in her mother’s voice. "Auto–" I put up a hoof, cutting her off. I shook my head slowly. Jade closed her mouth and settled for a sigh before finally beginning to eat.

As the two pegasi finished their food, it was finally my turn to eat. I levitated a can of beans and a spoon to myself and set them down in front of me. I watched with growing fury as Auto nonchalantly grabbed a second can and began to dig in. I pressed my hooves into the floorboards, thankful that Jade nor Lilac had seen the stallion's action. That wasn't fair! We all needed the food, why would he take seconds? I lit up my horn to snatch the can away from him, but decided otherwise. The last thing we needed was a fight. I instead picked up my spoon and opened my can.

I ate my dinner quietly, with nothing to listen to but Jade's soft words to her sleepy filly.

Cold.

I shivered myself awake for what could have been the fifth time that night. Winter was definitely drawing closer with each passing day, and the ragged blanket I had over my body wasn't doing much of anything. I sat up and leaned my head against the wall behind me, keeping my gaze straight ahead and watching my breath billow out into the room. The moon was full, and its light spilled into the room, illuminating even the darkest corners. It was nice.

But that wasn't stopping me from shivering. If anything, it made it worse. I could only imagine how Princess Luna had felt for all of those centuries. Sitting completely alone on a cold rock with nopony around to comfort her or keep her warm. All she'd had was her own thoughts. At least now she was safe at home with her sister.

In a bed.

With a blanket.

In a castle.

I shivered again and flopped back down onto the sheet beneath me, yanking the blanket over me using my magic. This would be my first homeless winter, the first of many more to come. I was gonna have to get used to it. I sighed as I felt my eyelids begin to droop once more, and as they met, sleep crashed over me like the ocean's darkest wave.

Author's Note

A huge thanks to Luminary,Chopsuey, and Chengar Qordath for prereading. You guys rock! :)

The Teenager Who Needs Beauty Sleep

I blinked open my eyes and instantly regretted it. The sun had normally passed the window when I woke up, but I must have come to earlier than usual since it was perfectly aligned with the window and my face. I groaned and flipped over, but I nearly hit the roof when my muzzle smacked against something. I opened my eyes to see nothing but a mess of pink and blue covering my vision. I huffed and sat up, eyeing the pegasus attached to the multi-coloured mass.

Jade’s eyes were still closed and her breathing was deep with slumber. I rubbed my forehead with a hoof and sighed. I’d forgotten that Jade had crashed with me the night before, though it did explain why I felt warmer than normal while I’d slept. I examined her for a long moment. A tiny tail of pink was splashed onto Jade’s hindquarters, but it wasn’t a piece of her’s. The pink wasn’t nearly as pale and deep, it was more dark. A little peek under Jade’s outstretched wing confirmed my thoughts. It wasn’t Jade’s tail, but it was close enough. Lilac was snuggled deep into her mother’s feathers. I guess she’d snuck in while we were sleeping.

That made me feel a little bad. I probably should have made Jade go back to her and Lilac’s room before she’d fallen asleep, but we were both too exhausted that late into the night. Or was it that early in the morning?

Anyway, Jade had been especially exhausted, and really the whole day had been really weird. She’d spilled her guts out to me, then she’d shown up in my room with a skip in her step, and then got all philosophical and started thinking about life. Sure, I didn’t get a lot of sleep, what with discussing theories and books and other soul-search-y stuff, but what surprised me is that I didn’t care about that as much as I probably should have. It was fun, and it really made me use my brain in ways I never had. I wasn’t trying to figure out how many swipes it would take to buy a couple cans of food, I wasn’t trying to figure out anything, really. I—we were just thinking. It was nice.

I just wished she had picked a night where getting sleep wasn’t a huge factor for the next day. I had a lot of physical labor ahead of me, and doing it by stumbling around the place wouldn’t be very useful.

Reluctantly, I slipped out from under my blanket and exposed myself to the cold air of the room. I rolled my head a few times, sighing as my neck snapped in all the right places. After a luxurious stretch, I stood up straight and looked at the doorway when I heard a loud banging noise. After a few seconds of silence and doubting my sanity, I heard it again.

As a tiny bit of unease shot up my spine, I contemplated on waking Jade and telling her to grab Lilac and hide. When you’re homeless, you can never be too sure if your “home” will be there in the morning. Before I’d found the apartment building, I’d lived (for a short time) in an alleyway under an awning that sprouted out from one of the buildings overhead; I actually had a cool little house-type thing going on. One box was my kitchen, another box had been my bedroom. I’d left to get money and came back to find everything engulfed in flames. My clothes, my blankets, my food, everything. To this day, I haven’t a clue of how it happened or why, but it was easily the worst day of my life.

So far, anyway.

But then I told myself to stop being so paranoid. It was probably just Auto starting to tear up the floor downstairs. I glanced down at Jade once more before making my way to the door the stairs.

The closer I got to the lobby, the louder the banging got. I groaned as I reached the bottom of the staircase and peeked around the doorway that led into the lobby. Sure enough, there was Auto, hard at work.

Not bothering to plan my entrance, I simply strode through the doorway and cleared my throat loudly. Auto looked up and over his shoulder at me, a chunk of wood in his teeth. He grunted and carried the wood to the window, where he promptly dropped it onto the ground outside. He huffed and looked back at me through a condescending gaze. “‘Bout time.”

I shrugged. “Whatever, I’m here aren’t I?” I made my way to him and surveyed the room. Pieces of jagged wood were stacked against the wall, the floor was pure concrete in some places, and when I looked forward, I swear I could see every dust particle in Canterlot. I shooed the dust away with a hoof. “I see you’ve made some progress.”

“Yeah,” he answered with a smirk. “Been waitin’ on you, mostly. I can do the hard stuff, like ripping the wood up, but the process is gonna go a lot smoother and faster with your—”

“My magic, yeah.” I cut him off.

“Mhm.”

I sighed and looked at the stack of wood. “Do you want me to move it now?”

Auto followed my gaze toward the wood and shook his head. “Nah, later. We need to wait for Jade to leave for her collecting before we get any real stuff done.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “‘Real stuff’?” I asked, gesturing toward the bare spots of concrete on the floor.

“Don’t change the subject.”

“I’m not cha—”

“This whole place is fallin’ apart, Sparkler. Doubt she’ll bat an eye at a couple spots of concrete. ‘Sides, with all the talking you two were doing last night, she’ll be too out of it to care.” While I flicked my tail awkwardly, Auto shot me a glance. “I half expected you to come stumblin’ down those stairs.”

“I’m used to staying up late,” I replied simply. It was true enough; wondering why nobody wanted to adopt you can make you restless. I shook my head to clear the thoughts. “Anyway, you heard us?”

“I didn’t hear anything particular, I just heard some muffled voices is all. Don’t worry, no eavesdropping was done.” He looked at the ground for half a second before turning back to the stacked woodpile. “Look, I’m not one to go messin’ in other ponies’ business, but can I offer some advice?”

I took a tiny step back and narrowed my eyes. “As long as I don’t have to promise that I’ll take it.”

Auto ignored the remark and continued. “Caring is what gets you hurt. Remember that.”

I looked at the floor, thinking back to the years I spent in the orphanage, watching my friends get adopted while I stayed. Thinking back on all the times I cried because my friends weren’t coming back, and finally, thinking back on how losing so many ponies over the years had partially numbed me. Caring can indeed hurt you, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it anyway.

Before I could say anything to Auto, he changed the subject. “As soon as Jade heads out of here, we can get started for real.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but decided against it; there was no need to keep it going. I sighed and sat down on one of the concrete patches. “Why do we need to wait for her to leave?”

“Because, if she sees what we’re doing, she’ll either stay to help or take Lilac with her so she won’t get hurt.” He looked back at me. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a sleep-deprived mother under my hooves, and I also don’t want one out in Canterlot with her little girl. Besides,” he said. “We need Lilac.”

“That just brings up more questions, Auto.”

“Lilac is a young filly,” Auto said condescendingly. “Correct?

I rolled my eyes right back at him. “Yeah…”

Auto smirked. “And what do fillies have that we don’t?”

“Bad table manners.”

“Right, they have enthusiasm, which is something we do not have.” He gazed at me and snickered. “Just look at your face, Sparkler.”

I winced. “What’s wrong with my face?” Seriously, what was wrong with my face? I mean… sure, I hadn’t showered in a while, or brushed my mane, or my...teeth… Oh Celestia, no wonder I never saw any other teenagers in the city, they were all hiding from the monstrosity that was my face.

I didn’t notice it right away, but while I’d been thinking about my appearance, Auto had been looking at me with sympathy in his eyes. “Looks like you’ve answered your own question. Sorry, I shouldn’t have pointed it out. I know how teenage mares are about their looks.”

I sighed and shrugged it off. It’s not like I had the means to do anything about my looks at the moment, but then again, even when I was living in the orphanage, looks hadn’t been a big deal for me. I did the basics, ya know, combed my mane and bathed, but I didn’t care for all that other stuff like make up or perfume. My only care right then was surviving my first homeless winter.

“Forget it, Auto.” I dismissed his apology with a wave of my hoof. “Anyway, I still don’t understand why we need Lilac, or what she has to do with my face.”

“Your face is extremely lacking in enthusiasm, Sparkler. We’re gonna get tired sooner or later, so we need motivation. Attitudes are contagious, and that little filly’s is worth catching.”

Maybe it was just my sleep-deprived mind giving up on thinking, but Auto was actually making sense to me. I nodded. “Okay.”

At that moment, a white blur flew down the stairs. Jade stood at the base, her mane wild and her eyes wide. “Sparkler! Why didn’t you wake me?”

I grit my teeth. “You were tired last night, I thought—”

“I appreciate your consideration, Sparkler, but the sooner I wake up, the sooner I get back here with food.” She made her way to the door and looked back at me, and in her eyes I could see the same frantic look she had the day Lilac and I had ventured into the forest. “Take care of Lilac.”

I gave her salute. “Yes, ma’am.”

Jade’s eyes bore into me for a moment longer before she squeezed through the debris and out of the lobby, not even flinching as she walked over a bare spot of concrete. It looked as if Auto had been right about her being out of it.

Auto and I sat in silence for a moment that could have lasted a second or a thousand lifetimes before the brown stallion heaved himself to his hooves once again. He turned and gave me a grin of mock enthusiasm. “You go wake up our little cheerleader. I’ll yank up a few more boards.”

Manual labor sucks. Seriously, I understand now why teenagers are known for being lazy, because doing this stuff is just… it’s monotonous and horrible, that’s what it is. Lilac’s constant encouragement was helping a lot, but even with the purple filly’s bright eyes and smile, I still felt my energy fading with every telekinetic movement. My head was killing me by noon, so I settled for picking up the boards with my mouth. I’d noticed Auto giving me a couple of irritated glances, but as far as I’m concerned, he could take that board in his mouth and shoved it up his—

“Sparky, look! Look!”

I turned slowly toward the squeaky voice, board in mouth. Lilac was balanced precariously on one of the taller wood stacks we had scattered around the room, her wings outstretched. My mouth fell open and the board fell. I lit up my horn and snatched her up in my aura, groaning as a hot needle of pain stabbed into my head. I lifted her off the wood and placed her in front of me. I gasped as I released my hold on her and stumbled, putting a hoof to my temple and closing my eyes.

“Sparky! Are you okay?”

I opened my eyes and snapped at her. “Lilac, don’t you ever do that again, do you hear me?” I bent down until I was eye-level with her. “You are not allowed to play on the wood, okay? You could have gotten very hurt and we can’t take you the doctor!”
The little pegasus whimpered and took a tiny step back with her ears flattened. “I-I’m sorry.”

As my anger and fear faded, I took a look at the shock in her eyes and straightened back up immediately. Shame poured hot into my cheeks and I took a deep breath and lowered my voice. I could feel Auto’s scalding gaze from my left, and I bent down once again. Lilac looked so horrified, so shocked at the fact I’d raised my voice at her; I was probably the last pony she would have ever expected to do that.

“I’m sorry, Lilac.” I put my hoof on her shoulder and sighed. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you. But the only reason I did was because I didn’t want you to get hurt. You understand that, right?” Lilac hesitated before giving me a nervous nod. I smiled at her and held out my right hoof. “I’m sorry, Li. Can I have a hug?”

She seemed to brighten at that as she met my embrace with a strong grip around my neck. I wrapped my hoof around her and squeezed gently. “Thank you.” We let go of each other and I winked at her. “C’mon, I need my cheerleader to help me with that stack over there,” I said, pointing to the stack beside the window.

Lilac squealed happily and raced over to the wood, picking up one of the smaller pieces that lay on top. I made my way over more slowly, trying to ignore Auto’s rigid stance further away.

I was gonna get crap for this later.

“Where’s Mommy?”

I frowned at Lilac and glanced toward the window, or more particularly, the dark night sky.

“I don’t know, Li.”

“She’s coming back, right?”

I opened my mouth to assure her, but I was interrupted by Auto.

“She better.”

I glared at Auto, who was bringing over three cans of corn. He set them down and nudged them toward us. “We’re...” He trailed off and lowered his orange gaze. “...running low, on food.”

I picked up Lilac’s can with my magic and pulled off the top before setting it back down in front of her. I glanced at my can and crossed my hooves. “I think I’ll wait until Jade comes back and eats her share.”

“You don’t wanna do that.”

I looked up at Auto with a raised eyebrow. “Why is that?”

“Well… we only have enough for the three of us.”

An icy chill crept up my spine and I pressed my ears flat to my head. I glanced down at Lilac to make sure she wasn’t paying too much attention to us, but thankfully she was too busy with her dinner. I looked back up at Auto and swallowed. In the four months I’d been in the apartment building, we had never run out of food. How could we? It was all about teamwork, everypony helped each other, but… wait. The day I took Lilac into the forest, during dinner I’d seen Auto take that can...

“Y-you…” I pointed a hoof at him while I stuttered.

Auto stared at me with a look of mock innocence. “Hm?”

I slowly lowered my hoof and scooted closer to Lilac. “You’ve been taking seconds.”

Before Auto could rise to defend himself, Jade crashed through the entrance. The fur on the back of my neck stood alert as I shielded Lilac from Jade. It wasn’t the ungraceful entrance that scared me, though. It was Jade’s appearance.

The moon was shining through the window, and the pale light spilled onto Jade, turning her white fur to silver, and illuminating the eerie splash of red on her coat. The pegasus’ eyes were wide and bloodshot, her stance was wobbly. Her mane seemed to be ripped in several places, as if she had to rip out of something’s grasp.

Or somepony’s grasp.

Auto was at his hooves in a second. “Jade!” he bellowed. “What happened?”

Jade shook her head, causing blood from some unseen wound to scatter through the air. Before Jade could answer, Lilac struggled out of my grip. Her blue eyes changed from joy to horror in a heartbeat as she gazed at her mother. “Mommy!”

Lilac raced away from me as I lurched toward her, fumbling around trying to get my hooves on her. “Lilac, wait!”

“Mommy!” Lilac cried again, clinging to Jade, who didn’t seem to notice.

As I made the quick trot over to pry Lilac off of Jade’s leg, Auto asked his question again. “What happened?”

“So-some punks saw me begging,” she said as she shifted her weight to her left. She lifted her right hind leg off the ground, and it hung there, twisted awkwardly. “They said I was a disgrace to pony kind, said the world would be better off without mmme.” Her speech began to slur as she spoke.

I held Lilac close to me as I sat in front of Jade. The lavender filly whimpered with tears streaming down her cheeks, but she didn’t dare look away from her trembling mother. I gulped, trying to get the gears in my mind turning again. Everything was going so wrong so fast. Auto stealing food, being out of food, and now Jade being hurt. Everything was going to Tartarus!

“We need to take you to a hospital!” I said. Lilac tensed up at the H-word, and I hugged her tighter.

“No!” Auto stomped his hoof.

While Jade slid onto the floor with a sigh of exhaustion, I gaped at Auto. “W-what?!”

“We can’t take her to the hospital, Sparkler!”

“Why?”

Auto shook his head feverishly. “We need money for that, you idiot!”

I grit my teeth and narrowed my eyes. I was a lot of things, but I was no idiot. “Auto,” I began, trying to keep my voice calm. “Jade is hurt, we need to get her some help!”

“Money is what is keeping us alive, Sparkler!”

“It’s metal, Auto! Jade is not only a pony, but a mother,” I said as I hugged Lilac tighter.

“So what! We’ll take care of her here, and if she lives, she lives. If she dies—”

“AUTO!” I lost my temper as I heard Lilac’s tiny squeak of despair. “No, we’re taking her to the hospital now!” I glanced at Jade curiously, trying to figure out why she wasn’t backing me up. The white pegasus was slumped in a blood-stained heap. I could see her body rise and fall with her breathing, and her eyes were open, but they appeared to be staring at nothing. Something told me that if she did have something say, she wouldn’t have been able to say it.

Auto took a deep breath and glared at me. “Look, Sparkler! Either we keep her here and take care of her,” he paused and took another deep breath as he glanced to the far left. “Or we end it now. There is no third option, no hospital visit, nothin’ to do with Canterlot.”

I followed his gaze to the left and went rigid. To the left, practically glowing in the pale light of Luna’s moon, was a stray, jagged piece of wood. My breath caught in my throat as I stared at the blunt object. Surely he wasn’t implying that we… with a piece of wood? No, that was…

Unthinkable. I glanced down at Lilac to see that she was looking at the wood, too, with eyes that told me more than words could ever say. Like I said before, Lilac was smart, smart enough to figure it all out, unfortunately.

“If we go to Canterlot,” Auto continued, “we risk not only having this happen to us, but losing this place. Doctors may not be detectives, but if they think something went down here, then I can guarantee we’ll have cops poking around. If they find out where we are, this building will be torn down and we’ll be put in the system!”

“Auto, we have to try! Don’t you see? If we take Jade to the hospital, she’ll live! Surely that’s worth more than this building? Lilac should not lose her mom over something we have control over!”

“You idiot, don’t you see?” He pointed a hoof at the purple filly in my grasp. “That girl is gonna lose her mom either way!”

Lilac cowered closer to me and grit her teeth. “No! Y-you’re wrong, I’m staying with Mommy!”

If Auto had heard Lilac’s declaration, he gave no sign of it. The burly brown stallion kept his gaze fixed on me the entire time. “If those cops find out she’s homeless, she’ll be taken away from Jade either way!”

I dropped my gaze down to the floor, and then over to Lilac. If she looked terrified when I was yelling at her earlier, then there were no words to describe how she looked just then. Jade was either going to live here and keep her daughter, die here and lose her daughter, or live in Canterlot and lose her daughter. There was no way I could let Lilac be alone, I couldn’t let them take her away to some horrible foster home with a “father” who would beat her mercilessly. I looked up from Lilac’s wide blue eyes and faced Auto once more. “I’ll take care of her, then.”

Auto was silent for a long moment, a perplexed look in his orange eyes, before he let out a dry, humorless guffaw. “Ha! You? Take care of a child?”

I didn’t answer, but I kept my gaze locked on Auto and my grip tight around Lilac.

Auto laughed again. “I already said this, Sparkler,” he said, narrowing his eyes menacingly. “There is no third option.”

I gave Lilac a final squeeze as I got to my hooves and stalked up to Auto. There was no way I was letting Lilac grow up alone, whether Jade made it or not. I wasn’t going to let her grow up in the system, so I made my stand. This might have been a bit stupid of me, considering Auto was at least two heads taller than me, but I didn’t care at that point. He may have towered over me, and he could have done away with me if he wanted to, but there was no way he was gonna hurt me.

Celestia forbid, anyway.

Author's Note

Yay for another chapter! Once again, a huge thanks to my prereaders devas, Chopsuey, Luminary, ChengarQordath, and Swiftest Shadow!

The Teenager Who is Emotionaly (Un)attached

Despite the fact that I was standing up to him, Auto’s orange eyes still gleamed with confidence; understandable, considering who he was up against: a lanky teenage unicorn that didn’t have much control over her magic. The odds weren’t exactly in my favor.

“It’s your choice, Sparkler,” Auto growled. “We either take care of her here or we end it.”

“Auto, listen to what you’re saying!” The room went silent, save for Jade’s raspy breathing. “We can worry about money after Jade gets well. The hospital isn’t going to turn away a bleeding mare.”

Auto glared at me. “If we take her to a hospital, she’ll lose her daughter. She’ll hardly thank you for saving her life then.”

“Like you care about Lilac! You only care for yourself, Auto.” I flattened my ears to my head. “If it hadn’t been for my persuading you, you wouldn’t have let them live here at all.”

Auto’s glare didn’t waver. “Celestia knows why I even let you live here.”

I glowered at Auto for a moment longer before glancing at Lilac, who was now crouched over her mother. I think my heart might have skipped a beat when I saw the look of fresh shock and terror in her blue eyes. I was practically watching her lose her innocence.

I gave a sigh of defeat as I turned back to the brown stallion. “Fine, Auto. We keep her here.” As much as I hated letting him win, there was no other option. What else could I have done? Fight him and subject Lilac to seeing my blood and entrails decorate the walls? Allow him to pick up that stick and bash her mother’s head in? No, this was the only option.

For now, anyway.

Auto looked shocked, as if he couldn’t believe what I said. After a moment, he gave a cruel smirk and held his head triumphantly. “Looks like you’re not so stupid after all!” he exclaimed as he reached out and booped me on the nose.

I snapped my head out of his reach and stepped back toward Lilac and Jade. “Don’t,” I warned him with an upraised hoof. “Just… don’t.”

Auto held his gaze for another heartbeat before he snorted and made his way toward his open can of beans. I scoffed and watched him go, mouth agape. “What happened to taking care of her?”

Auto waved a hoof at me absentmindedly. “You’re the mare here. Not my problem.”

“It’ll become your problem if I take her to the hospital.”

“Ha!” Auto glanced back at me. “And just how do you think you’ll get her there without me seeing you, huh? Do you plan on levitating her out of here at night?” Auto chuckled and plopped down in front of his food. “Fat chance. You can barely lift a board without giving yourself an aneurysm! How’re you gonna lift a full grown pony?”

Once again, he had a point. I sighed and slapped myself inwardly. My limited magic was putting me into some tough spots lately. I was gonna have to do something about that, and soon.

As I watched Auto scarf down the food, my stomach soon reminded me of my own hunger. I grimaced as I stared at the untouched can. While my stomach urged me to go for it, my head refused to let me listen. I turned away from the can to tend to Jade.

Lilac had her nose pushed into her mother’s fur, her eyes only half open. She didn’t move as I approached, and I almost wondered if she even knew I was in the room. “Lilac..” I began quietly.

Lilac glanced up at me and I could see tears begin brimming up again. A tiny dollop of her mother's blood was smeared into the fur on her nose. She raised her head and her lip quivered. “She’s asleep.”

Las Pegasus could have probably heard my heart plummet to my stomach. I looked over Jade’s still body and was relieved to see the faint rise and fall of her chest.

I swallowed and held out my hooves toward Lilac. The little filly wasted no time as she raced over to me, not even caring about the smeared blood on her nose. As soon as we collided, her little dam broke and I swear every ounce of grief, anger, and confusion could be heard in her sobs. I wrapped her in a tight embrace and rested my chin on her head, keeping my eyes locked on Jade. Whatever happened, this little filly wasn’t gonna be leaving my sight anytime soon.

As I let Lilac cry herself out, I focussed on the other sounds. I could hear birds, wind, and Auto, who had finished his food and was now lugging himself up the stairs to sleep. As I listened to his hoofsteps fade away, I hugged Lilac tighter and turned my attention back to her. Her sobs had quieted down and now she was taking long, shaky breaths. I leaned back a bit so I could get a good look at her. She was a mess. Her mane was all over the place, the fur under her eyes were stained with tears and Celestia-knows-what. I glanced over at Jade and grimaced. The invisible wound on her head seemed to have stopped bleeding and it was caked on her fur in long streaks. Sweet Celestia, this was bad. Very bad.

How long had it taken her to get back to the building, considering how injured she was? It could have happened hours ago as far I as I knew. Had nopony seen her?

Lilac looked at Jade and flinched. “Gross.”

“Yeah,” I sighed, “very gross.” I needed to clean her off. Whatever scratches she had would get infected by all of the muck and blood she was caked in if she didn’t get clean soon. But how could I clean her off? We didn’t have any clean water on hoof, and there hadn’t been any rain in about a week, so no puddles nearby. There was the stream, but… gosh, it was at least half a mile away. There was no way I could I could carry water back and forth fast enough. Lilac could help, but what if she fell in, or got sick? Jade would kill me if Lilac got sick over trying to help her. Then again, I would have to take Lilac with me anyway. There was no way in Tartarus I was leaving her alone with Auto. I also couldn’t carry her there using magic; Auto had pointed that out already. I couldn't carry her physically, either. I mean, I could, probably, but my mind told me it was a bad idea, considering what kind of shape she was in.

So, walking back and forth from here to the stream seemed to be my only option. The fresh air and sore legs would be good for me though, right? Doesn’t it, like, build up… something? And plus, who knows, I may get bitten by a spider and gain some sort of immunity from it.

Yep, listen closely, kids. Medical science, coming straight to you out of the impeccable plot of Sparkler the Orphan.

Lilac detached herself from me and made her way to a spot of wood that was a few feet away from Jade. I looked between the two and sighed before making my way over to her and plopping down beside her. Tonight was gonna be rough.

I don’t remember falling asleep, but it must have happened because my eyes were heavy as anvils when I opened them. Either that or I performed a time spell on accident and just had no recollection of doing so.
Lilac was crashed out on top of me. I groaned as I craned my neck to look at her. We’d slept downstairs to keep an eye on—

Wait.

Jade.

Careful not to disturb Lilac, I wiggled to change my position so I could get a good look at her. She was in the exact same position she’d been in last night and she was still breathing. With a sigh of relief, I turned my head forward and stared at the ceiling. I concentrated on the sound of Lilac’s snores as I thought of everything that had happened.

Auto and I had begun to tear up the floor. That stuck out to me especially because there were hardly any patches of wood anymore and I currently had my back pressed against the cold concrete. Then we’d sat down to eat, then Jade had come stumbling in and everything went to Tartarus in the blink of an eye. Everything yesterday had happened so fast. To be honest, the life of being homeless had gotten a bit routine and boring, and as much as I wanted a bit of excitement, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.

The shifting of weight on my abdomen brought me back to reality. I looked down to see a purple head with bright blue eyes staring at me drowsily. I smiled at her. “Hey, kiddo.”

Lilac yawned before answering me with a mumble. “Hey.” She rubbed her eyes for a moment before she stopped dead and her eyes flew open. “Mommy!” She scrambled off of me hastily and made her way to Jade. I clenched my hooves to my stomach with a gasp of pain. I think she may have rearranged my intestines.

“Lilac,” I said once I sat up, “don’t bother her.”

If Lilac heard me, or cared, she gave no sign of it. She sat in front of Jade as still as a statue, which bothered me. I stood and made my way over. I sat behind her and wrapped my tail around her body. She was silent. She wasn’t silent like she’d been in the forest; stricken with awe to the point of speechlessness. She wasn’t silent like when Jade put her in time out, or even silent like when I’d yelled at her yesterday. She was the kind of silent that could make your ears ring and your head spin.

And it hurt.

Jade was barely breathing. I could see her chest rise gently and her breaths were slow and ragged. Sweet Celestia, what had she been hit with? I bit my lip at the thought of her attackers being unicorns. Magic could do all sorts of unseeable things to a pony. The wound on her head may have stopped bleeding, but what about the blood that was caked onto her fur? Where had that come from? Did they make the wound invisible? Did she have any internal bleeding?

I grit my teeth in anger. Stupid Auto. Stupid horn! Stupid everything! Why did these things happen to good ponies? Why couldn’t it have been Auto who got beaten up, or even me? At least I didn’t have a kid, but… Jade? She had a little girl who needed her. The longer I stared at Jade, the more worried I got. What if she… what if she died? I thought back to Auto’s taunts of the previous night.

You? Take care of a child?

He was right, I could barely take care of myself. Jade would make it. She had to.

“Careful now, Li.”

Lilac looked up from Jade’s pelt, a bloodied cloth in hoof. She glanced at it and let out a tiny sigh. “I think we need to go back to the stream,” she said with a grimace.

I looked at my own rag and sighed in defeat. “Yeah,” I sighed. “You’re right.”

I really shouldn’t have waited to clean Jade up for as long as I had. The
caked blood on her fur was getting near impossible to get off with the gentle dabbing Lilac and I had been doing, but I didn’t dare scrub any harder for fear of opening some wound I couldn’t see. All of that blood had to have come from somewhere.

And her leg… sweet Luna, her leg. Legs weren’t supposed to bend that way. Crap.

I got to my hooves and beckoned for Lilac to do the same. Auto had gone out to collect about an hour ago, so there wasn’t really a reason for bringing her along except for keeping me company. But honestly, I don’t think going alone would have been much different. I’d tried talking to her but it just wasn’t happening. I thought she’d jump at the chance to be near the forest again, but all it got me was a tiny grin. Not that I could blame her, though. The poor thing’s mind was probably going in a hundred different directions. She knew her mommy was hurt, and she didn’t like it. Kinda messed up, though, how she was helping me clean dried blood off of her mom; no kid should ever have to do that. Believe it or not, she volunteered and powered through it faster than I thought she would.

“Sparkler?”

I looked down at Lilac as we trotted to the stream for the third time. “Yeah?”

Lilac was quiet for a moment before she spoke, “How old are you?”

“Um,” I hadn’t expected that question. “W-why do you ask?”

“Well, s’just that I used to see ponies like you still with their mommies.”

Oh boy. “I’m, uh, I’m seventeen.”

“Oh,” Lilac murmured. “Do seventeen ponies still live with their mommies?”

I swallowed. “Yeah, some do.”

“Why don’t you?”

I bit my lip. Was Lilac ready for a conversation like this? Just hours ago she’d seen her mother stumbling and incoherent, for Celestia’s sake. Having a conversation about orphanages and dead parents didn’t seem like the right thing to do, considering what had just happened and what we were in the process of doing. Not only that, but I didn’t know how to answer her question. I knew that I wasn’t living with my parents and I didn’t know why. I didn’t know if they were dead, or if they just gave me up because they couldn’t support me. Or they didn’t want me.

The gurgling of water interrupted that joyous train of thought. Glad to have something else to turn my attention to, I sped up my walking. “C’mon.”

Lilac bounded after me, trying to keep up. We reached the water quickly. I levitated mine and Lilac’s rags up and into the water, where I wrung them out. I frowned as I watched the water cloud with blood. I wasn’t sure if I felt more sorry for the river or the fish. Lilac plopped down next to me, watching quietly as I washed out the rags. “Sparky?”
That was the first time she’d called me that since Jade’s accident. “Hm?” I was a little scared that she’d bring up the parent thing again, but fortunately all she did was point out that the rags looked a little… ragged.

I’m so sorry.

“Yeah, they don’t look too good do they?”

Lilac frowned. “Do you think we can still get mommy clean with them?”

“Sure,” I said, “they’ll do. Besides, we only have the rest of her rump to wash off.” I scrunched up my nose. “And her hair.”

“Ew.” Lilac scrunched too and, despite our grim conversation topic, I couldn’t stifle a laugh at how cute she looked. Maybe it was the blue eyes. “I hate having my mane and tail brushed.”

I knew that all too well. Cute or not, Lilac was still seven, and seven year old fillies hated any kind of beauty treatment. Living at an orphanage for seventeen years, filled with screaming fillies running from brush-wielding staff had drilled that into my head pretty well. Not to mention I used to be one.

I let out a light chuckle. “Yeah, don’t we all.”

A few more moments of awkward silence passed as I continued rinsing out the rags. I watched, relieved, as the blood came out of them slowly but surely. The adulterated water was carried downstream, and I watched it travel along the streambed until it was out of sight. A small frown took place on my mouth as I watched a fish swim after it through the rippling water. What I would have given to be a fish at that moment. Swimming all day, no responsibilities other than to keep myself alive, three seconds of memory, wall-eyed…. vision…

Scratch that. Being a fish probably sucks. Nonetheless, it’s still better than being in the position I was in. But until my magic was strong enough to friggin’ levitate a broom without going into a coma, I wasn’t gonna be giving myself fins and gills in the foreseeable future. I would just have to deal with living in an abandoned building, living swipe to swipe, with an untrustworthy stallion and a bipolar pegasus with her kinda-sorta-mature-for-her-age daughter.

When I was content with how the rags looked, I raised them out of the water and nudged Lilac to her hooves. We had to hurry back to the apartment before all the water drained from the rags. We made it down the path faster than we had previously. After three trips to the stream, the path was pretty well mapped out in my head. The trees were no longer identical and the sun didn’t look the same from different angles.

“Sparky!” Lilac whispered.

“Wha--”

“Sh.”

I cocked my head and looked at her quizzically. Lilac didn’t look at me when she raised her hoof and pointed out from the trees. I snapped my head up and slapped a hoof over my mouth to stifle a gasp of panic. Four armored guards and a medical wagon stood outside of our building. Two of the guards were looking at a red patch in the grass. I couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but I caught enough to know what they were looking at: “...blood trail leads into the building…”

“Celestia, no…” I whispered. I wrapped my hoof around Lilac and backed away deeper into the trees. I sat her down at the base of a huge oak and put a hoof to my lips. “Shhh.” Lilac gave a frantic nod. I looked up from her and pressed myself against the trunk, watching from what I hoped was safe distance. I could barely see the moving pelts of the guards among the branches. I squinted hard and bit my lip when I saw a stretcher being lifted onto the wagon with a beat up pegasus secured to it. I breathed out a sigh of relief as the back of the wagon was shut and the two drivers raced away with it in the direction of the city. Whether Auto liked it or not, Jade was getting help now.

“What’s happening?”

I looked back at Lilac with a frown. “Guards and doctors.”

Lilac ears perked up. “Doctors?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Your mom is on her way to the hospital.” The happiness in Lilac’s eyes broke my heart.

“Li… I don’t think we’ll be able to go see her.”

Lilac frowned. “W-why?”

“Because you’ll probably get taken away and you’ll end up with strangers.”

“But she’s my mommy!”

“I know, kiddo, but--”

“I have to see her!” Lilac leapt at me, putting her forehooves into my gut and knocking me to the leafy ground.

“Lilac!” I rolled over and bound toward her, narrowly catching her tail in my teeth.

Lilac struggled and bucked, struggling to free herself. I grunted as I dragged her back to the tree. I glanced at the guards. Their tails were twitching and their ears were alert. Their gazes swept the area. They must have heard Lilac.

In a panic, I pinned the filly to the ground and sat on her with a hoof over her mouth. "Lilac," I whispered through gritted teeth. "You have to shut up! We can't go see Jade yet because you'll get taken away and you'll have nopony left, understand?"

Lilac's eyes went wide and her breaths started to slow down as she calmed down. I took a deep breath and peeked around the tree. The guards had stopped listening for whatever had spooked them and were heading into the apartment. I sighed and looked back at the pegasus filly under me. I cautiously raised my hoof from her mouth and let it drop heavily to my side. Everything was going wrong. They'd found Jade's unconscious body in the apartment building; it wouldn't be long before it got taped up and perhaps even torn down. Lilac was being separated from her mother. I'd lost my home, again, and Auto was probably gonna hunt me down when he saw the building swarming with guards.

Two drops of rain spattered onto Lilac's fur, staining it to a dark purple. "Great, rain," I mumbled. I waited for the storm to engulf me, but it never did. Then I realized, it wasn't rain. I was crying.

I wiped my cheek with a hoof in disbelief. I hadn't cried since my best friend at the orphanage had gotten adopted when I was little, and for me to do it now was... unexpected.

It took two seconds of seeing me cry for Lilac to break down herself. She took two shaky breaths and broke out into sobs, the tears streaming down and dampening her fur. I frowned and took a deep breath as I got off of Lilac. I leaned against the trunk of the tree and held her close to me, and we sat there together.

Crying.

Author's Note

According to Lum, this was a rather heart-wrenching chapter. I must say that I agree. This chapter was both fun, not fun, and difficult to write. Despite these obstacles, here it is! And it wouldn't be here without the help of my prereaders!

devas
Chopsuey
Luminary, who I am very happy for. He had a bit of a problem back with chapter three, but I am very glad and thankful that he's feeling better!
ChengarQordath
Swiftest Shadow!

The Teenager Who Has Lots of Experience in Having None at All

The guards were still in the building. Lilac and I had been here for at least two hours, sitting beneath the shade of the tree. I knew that there was no way we were gonna be able to live there again, but I couldn't leave just yet. I needed to get something.

The hallway leading from the staircase had a small hole in it, but you couldn't tell unless you were the one who'd made it. Magic may be difficult for me, but I knew enough to get by in an orphanage filled with selfish little kids who wouldn't leave your stuff alone. The only spell I knew: a camouflage spell. I was too scared to try it on myself or another pony, but when it came to hiding my possessions, I was pretty good. It was little clunky, and it gave me headaches, but it was worth it.

Anyway, when Auto had first let me live in the apartment, I didn't trust him enough to just leave my bits lying around, so I made a hole in the upstairs hallway. It was small, about two inches wide and three inches high. I stuck my money in there and cast the camouflage spell on it to disguise it with the rest of the wall. I was pretty proud of myself for thinking of it and I hadn't regretted it.

Until now. All of my money from the past few weeks, adding up to almost 90 bits, was still in the hole, and I needed them. I wasn't gonna get them with guards swarming the area, so I had no choice but to wait them out.

I sighed and plopped down next to Lilac and leaned my head up against the trunk. Lilac silently curled up in my lap and tucked her nose under her tail, trying her best to wrap her tiny wings around herself for warmth. I frowned and shifted myself to where she rested on a soft patch of moss. I laid down beside her, shielding her from the worst of the icy wind that was cutting through our fur. Guilt clawed at me like Canterlot's fussiest feline. I'd seen Jade wrap her wings around Lilac hundreds of times, and it always seemed to keep the pink filly warm. Hay, I knew first hoof that wings were well insulated. A couple of the staff at the orphanage had been pegasi and they would wrap us in their wings during story time. It was cozy and warm, and I wished I had the anatomy to give it to Lilac.

The best I could do was wrap my fore hooves around her midsection and hold her to my stomach, my lower body curled around her, and my back to the wind.

Lilac rested her hooves on mine and let out a tiny sigh. "I miss my mommy."

I let out a slow breath before replying. "I miss your mommy, too."

"You think she misses us?"

I doubted she was even awake, but Lilac had been worried enough for one day. "I'm sure she does."
It was getting really dark. I could only see a sliver of the moon beneath the trees, and the fact that leaves were shielding the small amount of light didn't help. I couldn't light up my horn because the guards, who were still patrolling the building, would see it. I didn't like the thought of Lilac and I in the forest at night.

I really needed that friggin’ money.

Could I sneak in? I chewed on my lip as I thought about this. The money was upstairs in the hole, and the hole was about two feet away from the stairs. The stairs were about eight feet from the main entrance into the lobby.

Shut up, I had a lot of free time.

Could I really sneak in? I was pretty agile, so I didn't really have to worry about stomping around everywhere and alerting the guards. Then again, with my clumsiness…

There was also that tree that stood tall beside the building. It had long, thick branches that stretched directly over to the window in the hallway. That would save me from having to sneak through two floors.

Wait, what about Lilac? What could she do? I couldn't just leave her in the forest, or anywhere alone, for that matter. It was night time, so Auto must've stopped by at some point. I was actually surprised he hadn't found and maimed me, to be honest. He might've been lurking around in the shadows, waiting for his chance to pounce.

Or maybe the thugs who beat up Jade were the ones lurking.

I raised my head and looked around frantically. Sweet Celestia, whether it was by Auto or by thugs, I was gonna get killed. Canterlot wasn't safe anymore. I was gonna have to leave.

Where I would go, I didn't know, but I could worry about later. Right now I had a bag of bits waiting for me.

I rolled away from Lilac and looked toward the apartment again. Lilac groaned and I quickly shushed her. I could see the faint glow of unicorn magic coming from the door way and the muscled shadows of guards moving about in the windows. I looked back at Lilac.

"You ready for a mission, Li?"

I must be insane. The desperation to get the money had driven me up a tree. And no, I didn’t mess up that phrase; I was literally up a tree. Lilac was balanced carefully on the end of the thick branch above mine. We were about ten feet off the ground, which was pretty much the height of Celestia with me standing on her head.

The window that lead to the hallway was right in front of us, a short rabbit-hop away from Lilac’s branch. I stood slowly and scrambled my way to Lilac, who was staring at the window with scared, blue eyes. The shivers passing through her body made the branch tremble, but something told me that the shivers weren’t from the chill of winter.

“You sure you wanna do this, Li? You can wait at the base of the tree, or…”

Lilac shook her head. “I wanna.”

I frowned and leaned close to her while glancing down at the guard that had wandered directly below us. I whispered, “Remember the plan?”

Lilac took a deep breath and nodded. “Mhm. I peek and tell you if ‘s’clear. Then you come in, do magic, I grab the money and we climb back out the window.”

I smiled, feeling pride swell in my chest. “Right.” I carefully stepped around her and got a firm foothold on the branch beneath me. I reached out my left hoof first and tentatively placed it on the edge of the window, my right following just as cautiously. I planted my back hooves firmly into the bark and looked down. My head spun as I looked at the ground, and the armored guard, under me. I raised my head back up and faced the building. I took a deep breath. “Okay, c’mon.”

I stiffened when I felt Lilac step onto my hindquarters and begin to slowly, oh so slowly, make her way across my body. I couldn’t imagine the thoughts that would be swimming through the mind of anypony who witnessed this. A teenage mare stretched across from a tree to a window with a filly using her as a bridge. Also, when I say “stretched”, I mean it. I’d misjudged the length big time, and the only parts of me that weren’t hanging off of something were my hooves and my tail.

I sucked in my stomach, trying to use my core to steady myself. Lilac looked tiny but she was friggin’ heavy! She was finally at my shoulder blades and I could feel her wobble a bit. “C’mon, sweetie. You can do it,” I encouraged her. I flinched when I realized how much I sounded like Jade.

Lilac crouched, gathered as much strength into her legs as she could, and jumped. Time seemed to slow down as the little filly made the small jump, and my heart nearly stopped. She landed squarely on the sill of the window. I could have laughed hysterically when I saw her land, but I held my tongue.

Lilac poked her head inside and looked around. I groaned; my legs were starting to burn. “Clear?”

Lilac said nothing for a moment before giving a tiny nod. “Yep.” I smiled and got ready for my own jump, but stopped dead.

The thing about being stretched to your limits is that you have no momentum if you were wanting to move in any direction. The tips of my front hooves were barely attached to the window sill, and my back hooves were in a similar kerfuffle. I had no base to crouch and build up momentum.

All in all: I was screwed.

“Sparky?”

I sighed and hung my head. I looked down at the guard, still casually walking around the tree. I looked back up at Lilac and sucked my gut in some more. I raised my head up to peer into the window. I lit up my horn and closed my eyes, trying to pinpoint the source of the spell. In my mind’s eye, I saw the wall of the hallway, and somewhere I saw… there! The hole! I opened my eyes and looked at the small pink glow that came from the very right of the window. “There! Get the money, hurry!” I hissed through gritted teeth. Lilac jumped into the hallway quickly.

My legs were on fire, and my spine felt as if a million fire ants were biting down at once. My eyes watered, and my head hurt. I silently encouraged Lilac and prayed that she’d find the money soon.

Fortunately, her head soon popped up again, a tiny jangling pouch in her teeth. I smiled and stopped the glow of my horn. “Hurry, climb back over to the tree!”

Lilac jumped onto my shoulder and scampered over my body once more. “Sparky!”

“Don’t worry, kid.” I chuckled. I was terrified. There was no way for me to get back to the tree. Unless…

I looked down again. The guard was nowhere in sight. I squinted into the darkness and eyed the branch directly below me, which was about three feet away. Ok, it was more the very tip of a branch, but a branch nonetheless. The impact would hurt, no doubt, but it’d help me get back to the ground in one piece, more or less. Aiming for the branch below me, I let go.

And missed, promptly crashing into the ground, on my right shoulder. The impact was… I don’t know how to describe it. It reminded me of how my leg had felt when my foster dad had pushed me down the stairs, only a little worse. My leg had been broken then, but I heard that dislocations hurt worse. Then again, I’m no doctor.

I rolled over and bit down on my other hoof to stop myself from screaming. Tears blurred my vision. I heard Lilac scrambling down the trunk of the tree and bounding over to me.

“Sparkler! Are you okay?” She stood on her back legs and hooked her forelegs around the hoof I was biting on. She fluttered her wings and pulled, grunting. “C’mon, Sparky! Ya gotta get up! I can’t lose you, too!”

That got me up on my hooves. Sorta. My back hooves were a bit sore, my left foreleg was okay, but my right foreleg was twisted a little awkwardly; it looked as if the joint was out of the socket. Great.

Lilac glanced at my shoulder with a disgusted look on her face. “You okay?”

I gave her a pained grin. “Don’t worry, I will be.” If my shoulder was out of the socket, it meant it was dislocated, and considering the fact that no other part of my leg hurt, that was the only thing wrong with it. It was dislocated, which meant I could put it back, like the brave hero does in books. Maybe not exactly how the hero did it, but it could be done.

I’d had a dislocation before, from when I fell out of a tree back at the orphanage. When the staff took me to the hospital to get it put back in place, I’d made sure to watch the doctor carefully, despite how doped up I was on the pain meds. I’d watched every eye movement and I’d memorized his hoof placements, and when he shoved my limb back into its rightful place, I’d taken note of how much force he’d put in. I guess they thought I was pretty zonked out since I wasn’t talking, but in truth I was zonked out and concentrating. Granted, it’d probably be a much different story since I was older, but I was grabbing at whatever I could.

But before I could try to think of a way to put it back myself, I realized that the guards were still around. From what I could overhear, the plan went like this: two guards would stay and guard the “crime scene” while the others filed in reports and all that jazz.

I glanced at Lilac. “Got the money?”

“Mhm.” Lilac opened her wing, and the pouch fell to the ground.

“I would hug you if my shoulder wasn’t messed up,” I chuckled painfully. That little movement had caused my shoulder to bounce. With a grimace, I levitated the money up and took a deep breath. I looked back at the apartment building, the building that had been my home for the past few months. The same place where Jade had spilled out her deepest secret to me, the same place where Lilac had heard Auto cuss and said nothing but that one word for the rest of the day, the same place where Jade and I had a deep talk about life.

And I was leaving it behind.

I looked down at Lilac to see that she was looking at the building, too. She looked up at me and frowned. "Where're we gonna go now?"

“No idea,” I told her bluntly. “We can figure that out later, though. We gotta go, it’s not safe here.” I took my eyes off of the building and began a slow limp toward the deeper parts of the forest. We’d have to go quite a ways through before it’d be safe to go out into the open. On one side of the apartment was the forest, and then on the other side of it was an open meadow that lead steadily downhill and into town, which was about a mile away. To be safe, I wanted to go a long way away from the apartment before heading for the meadow. After walking pretty deep into the forest, I’d turn right, walk that way for a bit, and then turn right again. If I walked that way long enough, I’d be in the meadow. Travelling through the forest in the dead of night probably isn’t the safest thing an injured teenager and a small filly can do, but it was the most doable one I had at my disposal. If I followed my plan exactly, I’d end up in the meadow and make my way into the city. Or maybe I’d stumble onto some tracks and get hit by an oncoming train.

Lilac caught up with me pretty quickly. Her run slowly fell into a casual trot, and for a while, the only sound that could be heard was our hooves crunching on the leaves. The deeper we went into the forest, the thicker the trees, and less moonlight was able to get through the leaves.

Lilac shivered. “Can you turn on your horn?”

I frowned. “Not yet, we’re still too close to the apartment.” Lilac eyes shone worriedly through the darkness. “Just stay close.”

My shoulder was killing me. The more it bounced as I limped, the more I felt as if I was about to scream from the pain. I needed to put it back. I glanced behind me and squinted my eyes. I could barely make out the apartment’s sillouhette in the dark. “Stop,” I told Lilac. She stopped and turned to look at me.

“What?”

“I need to fix my shoulder.”

Lilac looked confused for a moment before nodding slowly. “Okay.”

Glad for her helpful comprehension, I lit up my horn to the permit the tiniest circle of light I possibly could. I looked around for something to help me put my shoulder back. I found my assistance in a huge boulder that was lying on its side.

I limped heavily to the boulder and positioned myself beside it. I hadn’t thought this through. When I’d watched the doctor all those years ago, I never thought to ask what I should do if I needed to fix my own shoulder. I bit my lip and sighed. The boulder wasn’t gonna work.

Could I stretch it back into place? I gave my shoulder and a glance and flinched. Only one way to find out. I reared up and planted my left hoof on the boulder. I took a deep breath and looked at Lilac, who was staring at me with a mixture of worry and puzzlement in her eyes.

I looked back at the boulder and slowly raised my right leg. I grit my teeth as the pain started, but kept going. My hoof was almost above my head, now, and I could feel the joint begin to slip back into the socket and my muscles stretching. "Gah! C'mon you stupid--" my insult was cut off by a low groan as the joint finally went back into place.

I dropped my leg and put my forehead to my left leg, taking long, shaky breaths. I'd fixed my shoulder, I think, but it was still killing me. After a long moment of silence, I opened my eyes and tentatively put my hoof to the ground. The second I put pressure on it, a hot shot of agony spread up my leg. I snatched it off the ground with a hiss.

"Sparky?"

"I'm okay, Lilac."

“Sure?”

I looked at her. “I’m fine.”

Lilac didn’t respond. She frowned and walked up to me slowly before throwing her forehooves over my midsection in a hug and squeezing tightly. “We’re both gonna be okay, right?”

I dropped from the boulder, being sure to keep my right one off the ground, and nuzzled her cheek. “Of course,” I murmured.

“Good. We have to be, if we’re gonna go see mommy.”

I frowned. Would we be able to see Jade? Was she even alive, still? She’d been pretty messed up when I’d seen her last, and something told me that if she was alive, it would be a miracle.

“C’mon, let’s keep going.” I nudged her forward and followed slowly. We still had a long walk ahead before we could turn right, and even longer before we'd reach the meadow. The length of the walk may have been a bit of an overkill, but I couldn't take any chances.

What would I even do once I got to the city, anyway? I needed a plan. "Li, we need a plan," I announced.

Lilac looked up. "For what?"

"For when we get into the city. We need to know what we're gonna do when we get there and how we’ll do it."

Lilac was quiet for a heartbeat before whispering, "I wanna see mommy."

I'd been trying to find a way to worm my way out of doing just that, but it looked as if it was inevitable. It's not that I minded Lilac seeing Jade, it wasn't that at all. I just didn't want to get to the front desk of the hospital just to hear that Jade had died.

I chewed my lip in thought as we continued our walk. Of course Lilac would wanna see Jade; she was her mother and she was hurt. Who was I to keep a filly from her mom?

"Okay, Lilac. We'll go see Jade."

Lilac's eyes lit up with joy and my heart hurt. I really hoped our trip to the hospital wouldn't lead us to a dead end.

No pun intended.

Author's Note

Hm, what do you think will happen to Sparky next? She just can't catch a break, hm?
As always, this chapter wouldn't be here right now iof not for my wonderful prereaders!

devas
Chopsuey
Luminary,
ChengarQordath
Swiftest Shadow!

The Teenager Who Must Face the Music at Some Point

I opened my eyes to nothing but pitch black. The moon had been there when Lilac and I had gone to sleep, but it wasn’t here now, nor were the stars. I rose slowly to my hooves and peered into the darkness, hoping to see something, anything. I put my hoof in front of my face and was appalled that I could just barely make out the silhouette of it. I dropped my hoof and felt around slowly with narrowed eyes. “Lilac?”

I couldn’t feel her anywhere. I frowned worriedly. “Li? You there?” I shut my mouth and strained my ears forward, trying desperately to hear an answer, but there was none. I walked forward a bit. “Did you need to pee?” I called out the question. I sighed. I wished I could see.

Wait. Unicorn. Right.

With a roll of my eyes, I sparked my horn into a light pink aura. “What the--”

This wasn’t the place I’d fallen asleep. There were no trees, no grass, not even a sky! The floor was pitch black and cold; it felt like concrete. There were no walls, just… open space.

“Where am I?” I whispered to myself.

I walked forward slowly, calling out Lilac’s name now and again but receiving no answer. Where could she be? “Lilac?” I called out again.

I brightened my aura a little to make the light stretch further, and the view was the same. Black on the floor, fading black around me. Weird.

My steady trot continued for a little bit before turning into a jog, then into a full blown gallop as the unease crawled quicker up my spine. “Li! Lilac, where are you?”

“Sparky?”

“Li?” I skidded to a halt and pricked my ears. I held my breath as I waited for a reply.

“Sparkler, help!” a tiny voice finally cracked.

“I’m comin’, Li!” I shouted. I doubled my speed as I continued running. I didn’t like the tone in her voice. She’d sounded scared, stressed, and panicked; three adjectives I would never want to associate with a filly.

“Li-- oof!” The light of my horn faded as ran face-first into something solid and fell to the ground, landing squarely on my back and smacking the back of my head on the ground. I groaned in agony and lay there for a moment, trying to get it into my head what had just happened. I kept my eyes open and gritted my teeth, staring at the yawning blackness above me. “What was that…?”

I stood shakily and lit my horn again. Like before, there was nothing ahead but void. “Hm,” I hummed as I stuck out a hoof. It wasn’t even fully extended before it hit something solid. I stepped back, mouth agape. It was a wall, a wall that was indistinguishable from the rest of the open area around me. I squinted into the darkness, trying to see some sort of silhouette that might suggest an edge. I didn’t find one, which was a bit of a relief. I would have been really friggin’ embarrassed if I’d managed to run into a small object such as a piece of ceiling hanging down or something

“For Luna’s sake,” I sighed with a grimace. Trying to ignore the throbbing in my head, I turned and began a quick trot, keeping the wall to my left. “Lilac!”

“We’re over here, Sparky,” a taunting, gruff voice called.

I froze, a cold sweat breaking out on my neck. That wasn’t Lilac.

A brown shape emerged from the blackness and stepped into the light of my aura. It was Auto, and wrapped in his grasp was a wriggling, pastel-colored filly.

"Au-auto," I stuttered. I stared at the stallion, my eyes never leaving the hoof he had around Lilac's neck.

"Spark-egh!" Lilac's plea was cut off by the hoof tightening around her. "He's hurting me!"

"Let her go!" I screamed.

Auto laughed. "Or what?"

I didn't respond. Lilac stared at me through a horrified gaze. Her tiny wings fluttered helplessly and her tail whipped the air. Her back hooves were barely touching the ground.

"You're weak," Auto taunted. His orange eyes gleamed. I stepped back when I saw something move behind him: two shadowed figures emerged and stood on either side of Auto and Lilac. Their blue eyes were like chips of ice and the bloodlust practically crackled in the air around us.

My eyes darted between them before shooting back to Auto as he raised Lilac off the ground.

"Help!"

I didn't think. I just leapt. I flew between the two thugs and bared my teeth, my horn glowing furiously. Time seemed to slow down as I neared him. He was so close…

And just like that, they were gone. Auto and Lilac had vanished into thin air. I landed in the spot they'd been in and stared, mouth agape, down at the ground with my eyes growing misty. "No..."

At that, the wind was knocked out of me. I rolled to the ground with a grunt and lay there, tears streaming and incomprehensible sounds spewing from my lips. I could feel the two thugs standing over me and I could smell the rank odor of their coats, but I wasn’t looking at them. I was looking past them at the transparent, white figure with sad green eyes and a brilliant cotton candy mane.

“I’m sorry…”

“Sparkler? Sparkler, wake up!”

I jolted awake with a start, my cheeks damp and my throat sore. Sunlight spilled in from the leaves above me, blocked only by Lilac’s face. Her eyes were full of concern and confusion. “Sparky, you okay? You were talking in your sleep.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes again. “I’m fine, Li. Just… a bad dream, ya know?”

Lilac didn’t look convinced when I opened my eyes again, but she didn’t say anything else about it. “Well, it’s morning,” she said as she got off of me. She glanced back at me with uncertainty in her blue eyes. “We should probably start going now, right?”

I sat up on my haunches and gazed at the sky with a frown. “Ye-yeah,” I stuttered, wiping the leftover tears from my dream off of my face. As I stood, Lilac grimaced.

“How’s your leg?”

I looked at it. “Dunno.” After taking a deep breath, I hesitantly put weight on it, flinching as the pain came. It had gotten stiff overnight in the cold.

Lilac noticed my pained expression. “Not good?”

“It’ll be better once we get moving. It’s just stiff.”

“Oh, okay.”

Awkward silence.

I picked my hoof back off the ground and gave her a small grin. “C’mon, Lilac. The sooner we get to Canterlot, the sooner we can see Jade.”

Lilac beamed at me, swinging her hoof in the air with a squeal of delight. “Yes!”

As much as I was worried about what would happen once we got to the hospital, I couldn’t bring myself to bring it up and pop Lilac’s bubble. I swung my head in the direction of the meadow. “Let’s go.”

Lilac fluttered her wings and gave a nod. “Yes, ma’am!”

I chuckled as I began limping forward. “I’m not old enough to be called ‘ma’am’ just yet.”

Lilac frowned. “Mommy says that I should respect everypony who talks to me.” She wrinkled her nose. “Except stallions.”

My fur prickled. “Why not stallions?”

Lilac shrugged. “I dunno. Mommy says they can be scary.”

Well crap. If Jade had been teaching Lilac that stallions were bad for seven years, then we had a problem. No foal should be brainwashed like that. Then again, Lilac’s experience with Auto probably hadn’t helped her think otherwise.

“Li,” I began reluctantly, “not all stallions are scary. Some are really nice. Others...” I frowned, thinking back. “...not so much. But that goes for everypony. Mares can be pretty scary too.”

Lilac frowned. “But you’re really nice, and Mommy’s really nice. Auto’s not nice.”

“Well, yeah… but Auto’s just one stallion, just like Jade and I are two mares.”

“So, mares are the scary ones?”

“Ye-no! No!” I’d have facehoofed had my other hoof not been off the ground. “What I’m saying is that everypony has their faults and strengths. You can’t build an opinion on a whole… group of ponies on just one experience.” I looked down at her as we continued our trek, watching her take in everything I’d said. “Is any of this making sense to you?”

“Sorta. Can I have an example?”

“Yeah, okay. Um, like one that I’ve actually…?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Hm…” I bit my lip, not knowing if Lilac was ready for this. “I had a… dad. A few years back who was… pretty mean to me.”

Lilac glanced down at her hooves. “Oh. Mean how?”

“That doesn’t matter,” I said quickly. “What does matter is that, even though he was a huge jerk, I still don’t treat other stallions as if they would be the same as him. Because nopony is exactly the same.”

“You’ve met nice stallions?”

“Sure,” I said, smiling at her. “I knew quite a few nice ones, when I was younger. One of them was a staff member. He used to sneak us extra cookies after dinner.” I chuckled.

“‘Us’? ‘Staff member’?” Lilac looked up at me with a cocked eyebrow.

“Well… yeah…” Crap. “Do you know what an orphanage is?”

“Nope, but I used to hear Mommy whispering about it all the time to her friends in the city. They yelled a lot,” she said, oblivious.

Ouch.

“Well, an orphanage is a place where foals without parents go. And, most of the time, new ponies come in and adopt them.”

“Adopt?”

I sighed. “Yeah, like… they took the foals in and raised them.”

“Oh, I get it now.”

“Do you?”

“...yes?”

I smirked at her, and she gave me an embarrassed grin. “Anyway, I lived in one, and there were grown ponies who would take care of us. One of them was a really nice stallion.” I shook my head. “The point is that not all stallions are the same. My ‘dad’ was a butt, yeah, but the stallion at the orphanage wasn’t.”

“Wait, if you had a daddy, then why’d you live at the or… the orph- the thingie?”

I frowned and looked straight ahead, at the path we were walking along. “It’s complicated,” I murmured. I could practically feel curiosity radiating off of the filly, but she remained silent.

As did I.

“I’m hungry.”

I sighed. “I know! You’ve only said it about a hundred times since we got out of the forest!”

“But I aaaaaaam!”

Sweet Celestia I don’t know how Jade put up with seven years of this torment. I’d barely survived a day alone with the squirt and it was finally hitting me that she was a kid. Something tells me that Jade’s bipolarism might have been hereditary and instead of skipping generations, it travelled in a straight line. One minute Lilac is acting like Celestia herself, the next minute she’s acting like a child her age should. Honestly, I’m not sure which one I preferred.

“Lilac, we’re more than halfway through the meadow. Can you please, for me, hold on just a little longer? I know you haven’t eaten in… like, forever, but please,” I sighed, “just wait. Unless you’d like the bitter taste of grass stuck on your taste buds forever.” I shivered at the thought. I wasn’t that desperate just yet.

Lilac gave an exaggerated sigh, but didn’t argue, fortunately. I frowned and took a deep breath. “Look, why don’t we play a game?”

The filly pricked her ears. “What kind of game?”

“Like… okay. If you were given 10,000 bits, once a week for an entire year, but you had to sleep on a bed of worms in order to get the money, would you do it?”

The tiny pegasus grimaced. “Ew!”

I chuckled and looked down at her. “Well?”

“Hmm,” she hummed thoughtfully. “Would I have to sleep on it every night?”

“Um… yeah. You would.”

“Ooh.” Lilac bit her lip for a moment before nodding. “Ten thousand bits a week is a lot of money. Yeah, I’d do it.”

I looked at her, surprised. “Really?”

“Yup!”

Clever girl. “Okay, now you ask me one.”

“Okay!” Lilac squeaked. She was silent for a long moment before grinning and looking up at me. “Let’s say that you’re in a room with no doors or windows--”

“Then how did I get in?”

“Shh! Okay, you’re in the room, no way out, and there’s a button on a table in front of you.”

“Okay…”

“If you push the button you’ll get, like, a bajillion bits.”

“Sounds good, but what’s the catch?”

“When you push it, you’ll get the bits, a door will open, and you can get out. But you aren’t allowed to spend the money on yourself. Would you?”

“Hm… is pushing the button the only way to get out?”

“Yeah.”

Wasn’t exactly a difficult question, but I humored her by exaggerating. “Hm… that’s a tough one.”

Lilac snickered. “Choose!”

“I guess… I’d push the button.” It’d be a lot better than rotting away in a room that I couldn’t escape. And plus, I’d be helping other ponies, so that was big plus.

Lilac nodded. “Yeah, me too. Being in that room would be so boring!”

I chuckled. “Yeah, it’d be pretty boring.”

Lilac giggled again and looked ahead for the first time since our game had started. She gasped and her eyes lit up as she took off into a full-blown gallop. “Sparky! Sparkler, c’mon! We’re here!”

I sighed/chuckled as I increased my limping speed. “Wait up, squirt!” Lilac halted at the edge of the city, her tiny body practically shaking with excitement. I finally made my way to stand beside her and we looked over the city together. “Welcome to Canterlot, Lilac.”

Lilac gave a tiny squeal of joy and latched her right hoof over my left and began tugging. “C’mon, c’mon! We gotta go see Mommy!”

And, just like that, the feeling I’d had just a few seconds ago evaporated. “Yeah… let’s go see your mommy.”

The walk from the meadow to the hospital hadn’t been a long one; in fact we’d hardly had to walk at all. From the chatter I’d heard back at the orphanage, the reason the hospital was on the edge of the city was so any major illnesses or injuries could be dealt with in time if they weren’t inside the city itself. There was another hospital in Canterlot, up near where the Princesses resided, but this one was our best bet to find Jade, since she’d been found battered up in the old apartment. Now that were here though, and as much as I needed to know that Jade was okay, our first stop was the cafeteria.

“Eat up,” I said as I dropped the sandwich in front of Lilac.

“Watercress!” she exclaimed before biting into it. I couldn’t blame her for being excited; we’d had nothing but canned beans for the last few months. If I never ate another bean in my life, it’d be too soon.

The hospital cafeteria was large and spacious. There weren’t many ponies in here, aside from a couple of nurses on lunch break, just chatting away. I let out a slow breath and sat down, levitating my own sandwich to my mouth and taking a bite.

I still had no idea what I would tell the nurses at the front. I mean, only family was allowed in, right? Lilac was family, but they wouldn’t let her go in by herself. What could I pass for? I could say that I was Jade’s sister but, for the sake of keeping her out of the system, that would make Lilac my daughter. Ehh.

I could say that I was Jade’s adopted daughter. I shuddered at the thought of using the word “adopted” in a lie. It felt really wrong. Not that it would work though, anyway. Jade was far too young to have a teenage daughter, adopted or not.

A loud burp jolted me out of my thoughts. I looked up to see Lilac grinning at me, an empty, crumb-crusted plate in front of her. I smirked and took another bite of my sandwich. “Better?” I asked through a mouthful.

Lilac nodded and patted her stomach. “Better!” Her smile slowly faded as she gave the cafeteria door an apprehensive glance. Her blue eyes dimmed as she turned back to me.

I glanced at the door and sighed, putting down the sandwich. I suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore. “C’mon, Li,” I said as I wiped my mouth. I telekinetically gathered our trash and chucked it into the garbage can that was a few feet away from our table while stuffing the remains of my sandwich into the wrapper it’d come out of. Never hurts to save the food. I led the way out of the cafeteria with fear crawling up my spine. This wasn’t gonna be good, I could feel it. We swung open the door and made our way down the maze of hallways at a slow walk. Despite her eagerness from before, Lilac didn’t seem all that optimistic about seeing Jade now.

We reached the front desk near the entrance we’d come in from. I whispered to Lilac to sit on the couch. Once she did that, I swallowed and made my way to the desk.

Behind the desk sat a pretty unicorn mare with a cotton-candy blue coat and a magenta mane that was packed into a sophisticated bun. Between her ear and her shoulder was magically-engineered phone and grasped in her pale green magic was a pen. She mumbled to herself as she jotted down whatever was being said to her. Her name tag, written in a graceful fashion, was the name “Spring Breeze”.

I stood at the desk awkwardly, not wanting to interrupt her work. She glared impatiently at her desk before looking up at me. She gave me an apologetic grin before mouthing the word “sorry”. I gave her a nod and she resumed her writing. I peered at the form she was filling out to see that her name tag, was in fact, her doing.

I heard a tiny sigh from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to Lilac sitting on the couch, her hind legs swinging as if they were caught in a windstorm. A magazine lay haphazardly beside her.

“Ma’am?”

I swung my head back around to look at the mare. “Hi! Hey, uh hi, yes?” I stuttered like an idiot.

If Miss Breeze had been put off by my clever answer, she didn’t show it. She put her forehooves on the counter and leaned forward. “Can I help you?”

“Um… yes. M-my name is Sparkler, and I’m here to see my, uh, sister.”

“Ah,” Miss Breeze said as she nodded. “What’s her name?”

“Jade.”

Miss Breeze looked at me. “And?”

“Just Jade.”

“Yes, well… this hospital is very big, do you have any other information?”

“Oh.” Celestia, I’m stupid. “She’s about 25 years old, pegasus. She has a briefcase cutie mark, green eyes, blue and pink mane…?”

Miss Breeze’s eyes grew as my description went on. “Oh,” she murmured. “Yes… her.” She searched through the mountain of papers on her desk until she found the one she was looking for.

I swallowed. “She’s… okay, right?”

“Last I heard, honey.” She gave me an assuring smile as she lifted up the paper. “Here we are! Room 321, on the third floor.”

“321, third floor, got it.” I beamed at her. “Thank you.” I turned to walk away, but was stopped by her urgent voice.

“Ma’am! Wait.”

I turned around and flattened my ears. “Yes?”

She peered over the desk. “Are… you okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re limping.”

“Oh,” I glanced at my shoulder and chuckled. “Had an accident yesterday. I’m fine, though.”

“You sure?”

“Yup.”

Miss Breeze was quiet for a moment before nodding. “Okay. Just, make sure you keep it on ice, okay?”

I nodded. “Yes ma’am,” I responded automatically. I looked at Lilac, who met my gaze impatiently. “Let’s go, kiddo.”

Lilac practically leapt off the couch to stand beside me. “Finally!”

I could hear Spring Breeze give a breathy chuckle as we exited the lobby, making our way toward the lifts. She and I stepped in. I pressed the number that indicated the third floor and we rose up almost instantly.

The doors opened slowly and Lilac and I stepped out. She looked a little shaken. “You okay?”

Lilac nodded and gave a nervous laugh. “Never been on that thing before.”

I had a feeling it was more than that, but I didn’t press. I instead led the way down the hall, glancing at the room numbers. 318… 319… 320...

This was it. Lilac and I stood at the door, neither of us willing to open it. I glanced down at her to see that she was staring at the door with wide eyes, and that concerned me. If Lilac had a good feeling about what we were about to see, wouldn't she be busting down the door to get in?

I turned my gaze from the filly and back to the wooden door before taking a deep breath.

Let’s do this.

Author's Note

Left ya hangin', didn't I? Worry not, you'll get the next chapter whenever I decide to stop procrastinating. There's also a Roosterteeth reference in here! Can you find it?

As always, a huge thanks to my fabulous prereaders!
devas
Chopsuey
Luminary,
ChengarQordath
Swiftest Shadow!

The Teenager Who Is Not a Clean-freak

“What’cha drawing?”

I looked up from my paper and at the little filly next to me. Her eyes were wide with curiosity. I looked from her, to the paper, and back at her before answering. “I’m, uh. I’m drawing some ponies I used to know.” Lilac giggled and put a hoof to her mouth. I let out an uneasy chuckle. “What’s so funny?”

“Those are ponies?” She asked from behind her hoof.

“Yeah…”

“Oooh.” Lilac giggled again as she stared down at the drawing.

I propped my head up on my right hoof and looked at her crossly. “And just what is that supposed to mean?”

Lilac looked at me with wide, innocent eyes. They were cute, but not convincing. “What?”

“You know what.” I tapped the paper with my other hoof. “What’s wrong with my ponies?”

Lilac looked down at the paper and snorted as she tried to hold in her laughter. “They look like clouds.”

I rolled my eyes. “Everypony’s a critic.” Seriously though, Lilac had gotten really sharp since I’d met her. Sure, she was only seven years old, but still. I guess what I’m saying is that, compared to some of the other foals I’d seen in the orphanage, Lilac was a genius. Or maybe I’m just biased.

Or maybe I just suck at art.

I looked out the window of my room. “Isn’t it a little early for you to be up?” I turned back to look at her. “It can’t be past eight.”

Lilac shrugged. “I guess. Mommy said she wanted to go outside, but she wouldn’t lemme go with her.”

I sighed and looked back at Lilac. “You haven’t been bugging her about going into the forest again, have you?”

“Only a little!”

“Lilac, you really shouldn’t do that.” I put my hoof over her and pulled her under my blanket, where it was warm. Okay, it was no fire, but it was certainly warmer than just standing in the middle of the cold room. “I know it was fun going into the forest and all, Lilac, but you have to understand that I shouldn’t have taken you out there. Besides, it was like three weeks ago, aren’t you even a tiny bit disinterested?”

Lilac raised an eyebrow while I resisted the urge to face-hoof. “What I mean is, doesn’t the forest seem a little boring to you now?”

Lilac’s eyes went even wider. “No way! The forest was cool!” She tilted her head. “And why was it bad for us to go? It was jus’ trees!” She wrinkled her nose. “And the spider wets.”

Curse her for being so cute.

“I think you mean ‘webs’, squirt.” I sighed. “And the reason it was bad is because your mom loves you and doesn’t want you to get hurt. The forest may look like just a bunch of trees, but it’s dangerous, Li.”

Lilac looked thoughtful as she pronounced the word as best as she could. “D-dangerous”

“That’s right. Lots of bad stuff in the forest.”

Lilac was silent for a moment before looking back at me, her blue eyes filled with defiance. “I’m not scared of the bad forest stuff!”

Oh, for Celestia’s sake. This filly wasn’t gonna give up. Not like I could blame her or anything, if anything I was on her side. It really had been more than three weeks since our little venture into the forest and Jade hadn’t even let Lilac step outside for more than a minute, if that. I could understand Jade’s side of it, I really could, but Lilac had to grow up some time.

I levitated my pencil and pointed it at her. “Here, let’s see you do better.”

Lilac giggled and snatched the pencil in her mouth. “Fine, I will!”, I think is what she meant to say, but with a piece of wood in her mouth, it sounded more like “Fnn, ah wul.”

While the filly doodled on the back of my drawing, I figured it was finally time to get up. I slid out from under the blanket and stood slowly, wincing at all the pops and cracks I heard. Sleeping on a wooden floor can really mess up your back, it turns out. Fortunately, and unfortunately, the cots in the orphanage were not unlike the floor of the apartment building, so I was used to it. Seriously, the beds in the orphanage sucked. They were bunk beds made for little kids. If you think that might not sound so bad, try growing up in the same bed. Being a couple of heads taller than the ones those beds were made for really made for some epic back problems that will probably decide to show up when I'm in my forties.

That’s not to say that the staff hadn’t been trying to make us comfortable, they really were. It was hard being outnumbered by children. Trust me. From age three to seventeen, I remained while others left with their new families. I was almost like the axis. In the ever-changing environment, I was the only thing that stayed the same. I watched a lot of foals grow up and leave, I watched a lot come in one day and be gone the next. I think that by the time I was too old to be there, I was the only one above the age of nine. Weird, huh? It’s almost like it was my territory. I never left, never saw a reason to. Where would I go? Home? Home didn’t exist.
Anyway, the point is that the staff tried their hardest to help us. You would think, in a rich city like Canterlot, that buildings filled with kids would be pretty cool, right? Like a luxury hotel? Nope. I’m not at all familiar or interested in politics, but the basic understanding I have is that the government can only fund so many places, and unfortunately orphanages weren’t a top priority.

“Lilac?” I looked up at a panicked voice coming from the hallway, just in time to see a white blur fly past my room, only to backtrack. “Sparkler, have you seen— Lilac!”

I rolled my eyes as Jade hurriedly made her way to Lilac, who was still nuzzled under the blanket and sketching away.

“She’s fine, Jade.” I watched as Jade scooped up the filly in her hooves and hugged her to her body tightly.

I heard a muffled cry for help as Lilac was shoved into her mother’s pink-and-blue mane. “Mommy, stop!”

Jade sighed and held Lilac back, watching unamused as her daughter spat out strands of hair. “Sorry, honey. It’s just I didn’t know where you’d gone, and I got scared.”

“She’s been in here with me, Jade,” I said as I blew a stray piece of mane away from my eyes.

Jade narrowed her eyes. “Good. Better than being in the forest, I suppose.” The fire in her eyes lingered for a small moment before disappearing completely as she put Lilac down. “I’m sorry—”

I put up a hoof. “It’s fine,” I said cooly. Jade’s remark had stung a bit, I’ll admit. Did she really think that I would ever let something happen to her little girl?

Jade glanced away from me and back down at Lilac, who had gone back to drawing. “Oh!” She said as she picked up the paper. She examined it closely before turning it over. “Did you draw this one too, honey? I love the little clouds.”

Lilac stifled a giggle while I groaned inwardly. “Mommy, that’s Spark-a-ler’s drawing.”

Jade looked at me and blinked slowly before looking back at the paper with a grin. “Oh?” She snickered. “Well, your clouds are lovely, Sparkler.”

“They’re ponies.” I deadpanned.

And then they lost it.

“I’m glad today is Auto’s day to go out.” Jade said as she stretched out on the floor. I smiled and stretched out beside her. Warm sunlight had been filtering in through the window all day, and the spot on the floor felt absolutely marvelous.

The amount of joy in Jade’s voice as she’d spoke bothered me, though. I glanced at Jade. “So, you don’t like Auto then?” I’ll admit, I was a bit wary of Auto when I first arrived too. An inexperienced teenager up against a tough earth stallion? Yeah, I can just imagine how that would have turned out had Auto posed a real threat.
Jade frowned and rolled onto her back, crossing her forelegs and resting them on her stomach. I shuffled my hooves nervously. “Sorry. It’s just that you’ve been here with us for a while now, and… You know what? Nevermind, I shouldn’t have asked,” I stuttered

“No, it’s okay.” She looked at me with a small smile and sighed as she looked back toward the wall. “It’s not Auto in particular, it’s… well… stallions.”

So my first impression of her was right. Jade didn’t trust stallions. “Why?”

The white Pegasus was quiet for a long moment, her emerald eyes filled with memories and dread. “I was seventeen,” she began, looking over at me. “About your age. I had a huge test to study for the next day, so my best friend invited me over to her house to study.” She giggled and shrugged with a blush. “Okay, I kind of invited myself over. I guess you could say I had quite the crush on her.”

I smiled, encouraging her to go on. “Anyway,” she continued. “After we finished studying, her dad offered to walk me home. I declined,” her smile faded, along with mine, and she swallowed. “I guess I really shouldn’t have. I was about halfway home when I was grabbed.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “This gross, disgusting stallion wrapped his hoof around my mouth and told me that if I screamed, it’d be the end of me.” Jade let out a dry, humorless laugh. “I can still remember the stench of his breath and how cold his eyes were.” Her gaze turned misty. “I was so weak, so stupid. I didn’t fight back, of course. He dragged me into an alleyway, and…” Jade’s voice faded into a quiet, shaky breath.

I put a hoof on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Jade. You don’t have to tell me about that.”

Jade stared at me for a few seconds before swallowing and nodding her head slowly. “Well, he threatened to kill my family if I told anypony.” She laughed again. “How naive of me to believe him. A stranger knew my family? Knew where I lived, knew who I was? The ridiculous mind of a sheltered teenager, I suppose.

“About two months later, I noticed I was gaining weight, my hoofsteps were getting slower, I was sick all the time. I honestly thought it was just depression. My parents took me to the doctor and, lo and behold…” She gestured to the left. I looked over her to see Lilac curled up, her nose tucked under tail, fast asleep.

I looked back at Jade. “No…”

Jade sighed and nodded. “My parents were furious. I told them I was raped, but they wouldn’t hear a word of it. They kicked me out, saying that their family had no room for mares who couldn’t keep their tail down.” Her green eyes were suddenly filled with fiery rage. “I went to my best friend’s house, but she sent me away too. She said she wanted to take me in, but her parents decided otherwise; they told me that having me in their house would ‘influence her’. I tried to see her again, but there was just no way. Every time I got close she would send me away after just a few minutes, for fear of her parents catching us.”

I winced at that. I’d never fallen in love before, never had a crush, but just the heartbreak in Jade’s eyes made me glad I hadn’t.

“I didn’t even bother with my parents again. They were high-class, known through Equestria. Having a teen mother in the family would have ruined their reputation. We wouldn’t have wanted that now, would we? I had originally planned to abort the baby, but I just couldn’t. I didn’t want to be responsible for the death of an innocent foal.

“I got a job and an apartment, and for awhile things were good. I thought I would be okay. Until Lilac came along.” She put a hoof to her forehead and slid it down her face slowly. “Such a terrible thing for a mother to say. I was gonna give her up for adoption, but just one look at that face and I just couldn’t. I know that sounds selfish of me, if I had done that, Lilac would have an actual home right now.”

“I don’t blame you, Jade.” I glanced back at Lilac. “And I’m sure she doesn’t either. And besides,” I swallowed. “There’s no guarantee of adoption.”

Jade raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing of it. Instead, she continued. “Money kept getting tighter and tighter, and my boss was out of sympathy. It was impossible for me to pay rent, buy food, and pay the daycare center to watch Lilac, having no friends who would do it for free. It was too much. I lost the apartment and my job. By then, nearly everypony I’d known knew about Lilac and wouldn’t let me stay with them for more than a night. And after what happened, there was no way I was living with strangers.”

I nodded. “That’s why you didn’t go to a shelter.” I frowned and blinked slowly. “And why you don’t trust stallions.”

Jade nodded solemnly. “I know it’s wretched of me to think that way. Not all stallions are so horrible, I know. It’s just, I can’t look at one without… without seeing—” I reached a hoof forward and laid it gently on her shoulder to stop her from continuing down that path. She put her hoof over mine with an appreciative grin.

“It’s okay, Jade,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

Jade’s grin faded as she stared at the ceiling once more. “I was tired, Sparkler.” she said slowly. “I just wanted something stable. I even thought about robbing a store so I could get put in jail. At least they have beds. But… that would have meant losing Lilac. I might have actually done it, though, if I hadn’t found this place.” A tiny tear trickled down Jade’s cheek and she laughed, turning her head to look at me. “From anypony else’s perspective, this place is a piece of crap. And while it most certainly is that, it’s also more.”

I looked around the room, at the chipping paint and at the loose floorboards I lay upon. I smiled and rested my head on my hooves, looking at Jade again, who seemed to be lost in memories. Whether they were good or bad ones, I couldn’t tell.
Maybe Jade was right. Maybe home did exist.

One of the worst things about being broke is the lack of stuff to do. Lilac had a couple of old toys, and let me tell you, if I had to endure any more days of boredom, I probably would have stolen them from her. Don’t get me wrong, venturing out into the forest was fun, but there was a certain little filly who was just cunning and cute enough to convince me to take her along. I would have gone into the city, but… I’m not the most sociable of ponies, and honestly I would rather be bored than looked down upon by a bunch of snooty ponies with their noses in the clouds. Plus, with my money-method, it was probably best that I didn’t stick around the city. Crime is kind of illegal.

Anyway, with the lack of entertainment, I found myself doing something every other teenager despises: cleaning. I’m not saying I’m a clean-freak or anything, but there’s only so much that even I can handle. That’s one of the things I hated most about the orphanage. It was always so cluttered and messy. The staff tried to keep it clean and, even with my help, it just never worked out. Try letting loose thirty seven-year-olds in a house and keeping it clean. It’s just not possible.

Anyway, it’s not like there was much I could do. Sure, the place was a piece of crap, like Jade has said, but I didn’t have money to waste on cleaning supplies. So, I did what I could with my hooves and magic.

I didn’t know much about magic. I only knew the basics that the older unicorn staff at the orphanage had taught me. I knew how to levitate, and that was about it. Magic was tricky. Even though I was older, levitating objects still gave me a headache. When you don’t have the proper tutors, magic can be dangerous, both mentally and physically. Trust me, you don’t want to know about how many unicorn foals I’ve seen make themselves schizophrenic with a little pop of their horn. Okay, so it was only a couple of foals, but still, that’s a couple too many. So I stuck to the simple stuff.

Some say I’m paranoid, but I say I’m careful. The difference between the two may seem blurred, but it’s there.

I looked up from the corner I was clearing out at the sound of a pony squeezing into the lobby. Auto stumbled in carrying a bag that held what looked like three cans. I frowned as I approached him. “It’s almost sundown, and that’s all you could get?”

Auto spat the bag out of his mouth and glared at me. “Sorry, princess, but if you think you can do better, why didn’t you go out today?”

“Because I went out yesterday.” I retorted. I rolled my eyes. “We agreed to split the weekends. I go out on Fridays, you go Saturdays and Jade goes Sundays.” Auto turned his back on me as I spoke. I sighed, trying to calm myself down. “Sorry, I—”

“It’s fine, Sparkler.” He turned and looked at me. “We’re all a bit on edge lately.” He grabbed the bags in his mouth and continued toward the old lobby desk and set the bags down. “Won’t be long ‘til we have to start makin’ fires.”

I winced. “Isn’t it a little dangerous to have fires in a place full of hardwood floors?”

Auto shrugged. “That’s why we’re gonna rip up the floor.”

“What?”

Auto turned and gave me a look that made me rethink my intelligence. “Yes. Under the floorboards, there’s a concrete foundation. We’ll pull up all the wood in this room and use it as firewood.” Auto smirked at me. “Unless you’d like to subject poor little Lilac to the cold?”

I growled inwardly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What it means is that the two of you are becoming more and more alike everyday. Yesterday she said something so sarcastic it nearly blew my fur off!”

“Okay, and?”

“And, she’s never been sarcastic until she decided to spend most of her time with you. If it weren’t for your anatomical differences and current understanding, I’d say the two of you were sisters.”

Now that Auto had pointed it out, I was starting to see it. Lilac had been following me around quite a bit. Not only that, but her defiant nature from earlier was starting to make sense. Crap, I hope Lilac didn’t become like me in the future. I wouldn’t wish that on anypony.

No matter how much I hoped Auto would drop the subject, he continued on anyway. “Look, what I’m trying to say is this: don’t get too attached. Caring is what gets you hurt. No feelings, no worries. And in your situation, the last thing you need is to get attached.”

I sighed and shook my head. “Okay, okay. When can we start tearing up the floor?”

Auto grinned. “I reckon we can start tomorrow, if your fancy unicorn powers are up for it. You hardly ever use that thing,” he said, gesturing to my horn.

I glanced away with a frown. “I just don’t like using it that much.”

“Why?”

“It's more complicated than you think, Auto.”

“Either way, it’ll be easier to do with you around. You’ll be able rip it up faster than Jade or I will.”

Although I could see the logic in that, I still didn’t like it. Like I said before, using magic gave me headaches, and if I was gonna be using it all day tomorrow, then it looked like I was gonna be in a bit of pain. But, whatever.

“Where is Jade, anyway?” Auto asked, pulling me back to reality.

I glanced upstairs. “She went up to teach Lilac a few wing exercises.”

Auto grunted. “They ain’t gonna help her none. Little filly’s too young to be worryin’ about flyin’ just yet.”

Ignoring Auto’s helpful observation, I turned back to the corner and swept out what remnants of trash I could with my hoof and into the little pile I had going. I lit up my horn and levitated the pile out the window behind to my left.

Auto grunted, but said nothing as I stood up. I looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. “Care to elaborate on that, Auto?”

The brown stallion shrugged with a smirk. “Just never thought I’d see a teenager cleaning.”

I rolled my eyes as I approached him. “Yeah? Well, you won’t be seeing it again until we remodel this room tomor—” I stopped as a thought struck me. Tomorrow was Sunday. Starting a project on a Sunday was really weird. I mean, Sunday was Jade’s day to buy, yeah, but why start tomorrow when we all had to go out and do our own thing the next day? If we had started sooner, like on Friday, we could have been pretty far along with it, if not completely finished, by now.

“Why tomorrow?” I asked.

Auto shrugged.

Oh.

Sleeping is hard. I tossed and turned on the thin sheet beneath me, but all my thrashing did was give me a headache from banging my head into the floor. As I lay on my back, waiting for my head to stop throbbing, I thought about tomorrow. Just Auto and I, playing carpenter. Well, I’d be playing carpenter, Auto actually was one. Whatever, it would be awkward nonetheless. And I didn’t handle awkward situations well. Oh well. We’ll be working the entire time, it’s not like we’d have much time to chat. What would a teenager even say to someone like Auto? Sure, talking came easily when we were talking about topics that were already set in stone, like food or schedules. But the whole day, working together? Something tells me that the my go-to conversation topics would be pretty stale after the first hour. Maybe he wouldn’t even talk to me at all. I hope he’ll just direct me places and tell me what to do.

Please don’t take that out of context.

I blew out a slow breath, watching it billow out into the pale moonlight that filtered in through the window. The moon was just a barely-seen sliver in the sky, it wouldn’t be long before the room would be pitch black with the barest hint of stars.

I jumped at a loud thud and propped myself up on my hooves. I squinted into the darkness of the doorway, the fur on the back of my neck stood straight up. I swallowed and sucked in a breath. “He-hello?”

I breathed out a sigh of relief as a familiar pegasus shape floated slowly into view. “Celestia, Jade. You scared the poo out of me.”

Jade giggled as she stood at the doorway, her left forehoof crossed over her right. “You know, I’m not one to encourage teen swearing, but really, Sparkler? ‘Poo’?”

I flattened my ears against my head, feeling heat rush to my cheeks. “I just prefer not to curse.”

Jade smiled. “Could I come in?”

I sat, staring at her for a short moment, before gesturing for her to come in. “Yeah, why not? You look like an icicle over there.” I levitated the blanket off myself and draped it over her shoulders as she sat next to me. The pegasus' green eyes flashed for a heartbeat as she positioned the blanket to wrap around both of us. Having Jade’s warm body against mine plus the blanket almost made me forget how cold it was.

“Can’t sleep?” Jade whispered.

I grunted. “No, I was sleeping fabulously.”

Jade grinned. “Yeah, me neither.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “You’re in a peppy mood tonight.”

Jade looked at me, puzzled. “What’s wrong with peppy?”

“Nothing, it’s just that after earlier, I didn’t expect you to be so… y’know.”

Jade shook her head, her smile slowly fading. “Yeah, I guess I can see that. Sometimes I just get so happy for no reason. Like I feel invincible.” She shrugged and gave me a smirk. “I’m weird, huh?”

“Nah.” I waved the suggestion away with a lazy hoof. “In this world, you’re no weirder than I am.”

Jade chuckled. “You’re right. Maybe we’re not the weird ones, Sparkler.” Her green eyes glinted in the dim light of the room. “Maybe we’re the normal ones, surrounded by weirdos. Maybe we’re the ones living lives of luxury while the rest of the world suffers in their houses.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, Jade,” I said flatly. “Whoever decided that pillows were more comfortable than cinder blocks must have been out of their mind.”

Jade shrugged. “You never know, Sparkler. Everypony’s opinion differs. I recall a quote that I heard long ago...”

I leaned forward with a small grin. “Oh? And just what is this quote?”

Jade turned towards me. “‘I ain’t never met a fool who didn’t think himself as wise.’” Jade sighed and chuckled again. “We’re all fools, Sparkler. Every single one of us.”

Author's Note

Yup, I decided to go for chapter two. Sorry it was shorter than the last.

Once again, and big thanks to my ever-fabulous prereaders: Luminary and Chopsuey!