My, Daughter, Maree

As soon as the whistle blew, Rainbow Dash took off, her movements a blur to the other competitors. There was

hardly a race to be had at all. Just a 200 yard dash, and well they don't call here Rainbow Dash for nothing.

She blew the race away, leading the 2nd place pegasus by almost a third of the track. Even by her standards,

she had done pretty well that race. In the distance, she could see her friends, Apple Jack, Twilight Sparkle,

Pinkie Pie, and Rarity,  being carried in a hot air balloon, watching the race. All except for Fluttershy, of course, who watched from a nearby cloud. They all expressed excitement over her victory, but no genuine surprise. They'd seen an unusually steady stream of victories in Dash's favor in the last little while. She was starting to make a pretty good living off of it. Of course, the prize money was pretty inconsequential to her, she just liked taking a chance to show off. Dash accepted yet another medal, and was told another 200 yard dash would be held in 3 weeks, of which she was already aware. She'd scope out all of the major races and flight competitions months in advance. She made her way back down to Ponyville, where she and her friends could celebrate together.

"That was some fancy flyin', suguarcube!" said Apple Jack.

Pinkie Pie followed up, "Yeah, no kidding, I mean like, wow, I've seen you go before, but that was amazing! You took off, like, 'woosh!' and then the guy next to you was all, 'oh no' and you were like, 'weeee', and.."

She continued on like this for several seconds, describing every one of the 4 and a half seconds seconds of the race in detail.

"yeah yeah, I'm awesome I know, thank you, thank you." Dash bowed slightly to her friends.

"You cleared that course in under 5 seconds, you must have been moving at a remarkable speed!" Rarity chimed in now, just fascinated by it all. She typically had no taste for sports, but like to come out and watch Dash in her little events.

"Yeah, I guess so... let's see, that was a 200 yard track, I cleared it in 4.5 seconds, so that means..."

Dash's face appeared to think, but her mind came up blank. She subtly looked over at Twilight, looking for a clue, and she responded on cue.

"You averaged about 93 miles per hour." She said, very matter-of-factually. "Faster than most ponies can move,

through the land or sky."

"Dang, girl, I can't even get up to that! you been workin' out!" Apple Jack exclaimed.

"Well you gotta, to be a pro like me!" Dash struck a pose, to show off her strong, limber body, from her muzzle to her hoof. She was very proud of her achievements, and in-hesitantly expressed this pride with anyone who cared enough to listen. Sure, she was a bit of a braggart at times, but she could back up anything she said, and wasn't in any danger of losing if the last race, or the last half a dozen races for that matter, were of any indication.

"So whatever will you do with this match's prize?" Rarity asked, starting off a new subject fresh.

"Eh, I dunno, a nice meal or something." Dash replied lamely. "The real prize here is that as long as I keep this streak up, I'll qualify for the Equestrian Pegalympic Games in Cloudsdale!" She smiled gleefully, thinking about her chance. "They say that only those who perform well in all 3 events- agility, precision, and speed flying- can get picked to try out for the Wonderbolts, the greatest fliers in Equestria!" No longer able to contain her excitement, she hopped up and down a few times.

"Oh boy, here we go.." Apple Jack rolled her eyes knowingly, preparing herself for another session of gushing and fawning over the 'Wonderful Wonderbolts.'

"This'll be my big shot! My chance to fulfill my life long dream of joining the Wonderbolts! I just can't wait!" Dash took off and flew a few quick, very excited circles around her friends a few feet over their

heads.

"Hey I don't mean to burst your bubble, but what if they ain't hirin' right now?" Apple Jack interjected.

"Yeah, what if they're happy with the group they've got now?" Twilight added on.

"Hey when they see my skills, will they have any choice?" Dash paused in the air, a look of confidence on her

face. Perhaps even a little overconfidence. She decided to make a spectacle of herself, like she always did, and flew up a little higher, doing a series of impressive flips, twirls and spirals before eventually settling back on the ground. Her friends cheered her on, and Dash bowed again, playing up the moment as much as possible.

"Well, I think I outta get movin'. Got some work to do back on the ranch, and it ain't gonna get itself done in any decent time, I tell ya!" Apple Jack turned from the crowd, waving a goodbye to her friends.

"I've got letters to write, and some books to catch up on." Twilight announced, preping her horn for a quick teleportation spell.

"And I've a shop to upkeep!" Rarity too, was leaving, and at just that time Twilight poofed back into her home. Only Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy remained, and the inexplicable silence that fell on the three became too awkward for Dash to bear, so she broke it.

"Um, don't you have something to do, Pinkie?" She asked.

"Mmm, not really!" Pinkie shrugged. "Ooh! wait, now I remember! there was a pony in town having a birthday- I forget his name- I need to get ready!" And with that she hopped off. Dash, just assuming that Fluttershy would continue to not talk, started off in her own direction.

"Um, g-good race... Dash..." Fluttershy suddenly said, prompting Rainbow Dash to turn back around.

"Hm? didn't quite hear that." Dash took a step closer, and turned one ear directly toward Fluttershy.

"I said, 'good race,' Dash." She repeated, with marginally more clarity.

"Oh, thanks!" Dash smiled again. "What took you so long to notice?" She mused, poking Fluttershy on the shoulder.

"I.. I just didn't want to, you know.. interrupt anyone... you were all so excited.." She was hanging her

head, but she often did this. She had a history of bad eye contact in conversation.

"Well, thanks anyway. I'll see ya later!" Dash turned again to head home.

"Yeah, um, you too, I guess.."

Rainbow Dash was about halfway home, walking down the same old neighborhood she always did after a race. She didn't like talking about it, but she often took time by herself like this to reflect. She had a lot of fun racing, and of course she was ecstatic about her upcoming chance to join the Wonderbolts, but she couldn't help shake the feeling that something wasn't right. There was something she needed, that she didn't

have, and no matter what she couldn't feel completely satisfied without it. parents, maybe. She thought to herself quietly. She stopped walking briefly. That thought always came into her head right on cue, whenever she felt this way. She hated thinking about it. It was so unlike her to think such things. What she did know for certain though, is that she wanted something; someone close to her who she could show off her accomplishments to. Someone who could take pride in being related to her.

She shook the thought, and kept walking. She tried to turn her mind back over to the Wonderbolts, and how cool they were. How cool she'd look in one of their uniforms. How cool people would think she was seeing her flying with them. Thinking about people thinking she was cool made her think again about her parents. She hesitated once more, realizing her train of thought was just going around in a big circle. She needed to get her mind off of the subject altogether. She needed a physical thing to look at to distract her. She looked around for such a distraction. House. No. Tree. Nope. Box. Box? Sure, box. That'll do. Boxes are... nice. Simple, but smart. 6 sides of mystery that can contain anything imaginable; or at least, anything imaginable that could fit inside the box. You can fix lots of things in this box. Medals, trophies, ribbons, books, goggles, weights, maybe a foal... a foal? Dash stopped in mid-step, and realized she could see into the box. Within this box, she could indeed see what was unmistakably a newborn foal, laying sprawled in the box, its blank, oblivious stare scanning the area around it, trying to comprehend what was incomprehensible to it so early in its life. Dash considered this to be an outrageously strange thing to put in a box, especially to just leave it laying around. Something could have happened to it, and then they'd certainly feel terrible! She looked around to see if anyone was tending to the infant, but there wasn't anyone who was clearly taking charge of this foal. One or two people passed by idly, supposedly assuming Dash was the parent, but none claimed the kid in the time Dash bothered to wait. Rainbow Dash noticed after a few minutes that the foal had begun to stare at her constantly. It was cute at first, but it bugged her how the foal's gaze never let up. It seemed only mildly concerned with blinking.

"Stop staring at me." She requested, but it fell on deaf ears. The foal's coat was bright yellow, the color of gold, with a red-orange mane only visible from the very top of its head. Through it's mane poked out a little, dull horn just 2 inches long, making it a unicorn pony. It's eyes were granny-smith green, and continued to stare at Dash, who was now visibly put off by this child's persistence eye contact. She decided to get away from it before it started creeping her out, and continued walking.

"I dunno much about parenting, but I think this kid's parents are doing it wrong..." She observed, taking a final glance back at the box over her shoulder. The foal was still watching her. For a moment, Dash thought she saw something on the foal; something that didn't make sense, but she couldn't figure out what, and didn't stick around long enough to figure it out. Finally, the foal was out of her sight, and she felt relieved. She figured, somehow, that whatever problem it was a part of would somehow resolve itself while she wasn't around.

She finally got home, and started to unwind, but throughout the evening she couldn't stop thinking about that unicorn. It bothered her that no one was there, and how it kept watching her, as if it was expecting something from her. What was she going to do? It was silly to think about it really. It wasn't her problem. She tried her best to keep it out of her mind, but one thing still bothered her: what was it she saw on that pony that was so weird? She remembered something odd about it; something other than its attention span; but couldn't put her hoof on it. When Dash finally got to sleep that evening, it didn't last. Her night was riddled with images of terrible things happening to that lonely foal; kidnapping, injury, starvation... She couldn't stand it. She awoke at 4:30am, and decided that she could only forget about it if she went back to the same spot and found out the foal was gone, safe, or, preferably, both. What is wrong with me? she thought to herself, as she flew herself back over to where she found the foal. When she had finally returned, it was a worst case scenario. It was still there. So many hours after first meeting it, the foal hadn't so much as moved. After laying there for nearly 12 hours, that foal wasn't likely to go anywhere anytime soon. In other words, it was alone. Abandoned. The weight of this realization sunk into Dash slowly, as she began to comprehend that she was the only one who could do something about this. If she didn't help it, who would? she couldn't leave it; there was no way of telling for certain how long it had been since the foal was fed, she might need help right away. Maybe that's why it was staring at her. She'd never be able to get anyone to take her at this hour, and so it fell on her, at least for now, to find out how to help this baby. She sighed a little, and hovered over to the box. The foal squirmed a little when she approached it. Dash didn't know if it did so out of excitement or fear, but she figured it really didn't matter. As she reached out to pick up the box, she froze. She suddenly realized what was different about this foal, and what she had seen that wasn't quite right. This unicorn had wings. Dash thought, for a moment, she might have still been dreaming. The very thing she was about to pick up, the creature not one whole foot from her arms, was an Alicorn Foal. She was face to face with a living legend. The only Alicorns she'd ever met before were Luna and Celestia, and both were royalty in Equestria, and each of them was a semi-godly being capable of such marvelous feats as creating night and day, and living for thousands of years. Was this foal also capable of such things? Could she somehow be a scion of the royal family tree? Now it was definitely worth finding out what was going on with this foal. She had to take it to a doctor to find out what she could. Maybe then this day would start to make sense.

And so the story starts to unfold. Dash has stumbled upon something of great interest, but what can she do about it? Who is this foal? Find out in following chapters!

End of Chapter 1