Because it is right

They had just passed the doorstep that four children, three fillies and a foal, jumped on them to greet back mister Foster. But they soon noticed the white unicorn’s presence and quickly assembled in a very formal fashion as they had been taught to do when stranger would come to the orphanage.

“Who is it?” asked one of the fillies.

“Kids, I present to you miss Shia who is going to stay with us tonight. Miss Shia, those are Moonlight, Tooth Far, Gold Renette and Oaken Seed who I have the everlasting pleasure to be taking care of. One of them is missing, but he is a bit wilder than the others. Sampion isn’t the kind of foals who get along ponies easily. In advance, please excuse his behavior.”

The filly pointed out as Tooth Far, after Foster was finished, said:

“We have prepared the table for dinner. Everything is ready.”

She was, obviously, very proud of how organized and diligent they had been.

“I got the water from the well.” said Moonlight, hoping she would also get would it only be a look of gratitude from Foster.

“Only because I told you too!” replied Tooth Far, who judged it unfair to take away from her the benefits of the good organization she had put in place. “And you took an hour to do it too.”

Gold Renette, feeling the conflict growing, had fled behind Shia’s legs where she felt she could hide due to her small size. As for Oaken Seed, he was just standing there, used to the constant fighting between the two fillies and observing from afar the newcomer, waiting to know if he could trust her or not.

“Come on now!” said Foster. “Is this a way to behave in front of our guest?”

Both Moonlight and Tooth Far immediately stopped, apologized, fought a bit about who was the most sorry and after a second intervention from Foster, they all finally stood still.

“That’s way better.” Foster told them. “Let’s go eat now. Oaken? Could you ask Sampion to join us please?”

Oaken Seed didn’t respond, but quickly rushed upstairs, happy to have a reason to avoid being under the scrutiny of the new mare.

Foster, Tooth Far and Moonlight disappeared behind another door, which was very probably that of the dinner room, and Shia was about to follow them when she heard the voice of Gold Renette call for her from behind her legs where she was still hidden.

“Excuse me miss.” the little filly said to her. “Did you come to become our mommy?”

Shia looked down. That question had to expected in such circumstances.

“I am sorry.” she replied. “I fear I am nothing more than a beggar who mister Foster offered hospitality to out of pity.”

She thought that revealing her status, or pretty much admitting how worthless she was would make the filly go away, but to her surprise, Flee Freeze hugged her leg and asked:

“Can I pretend you’re my mother anyway please?”

Shia blushed and slowly caressed the filly’s head with her hoof.

“Of course you can.” she told her, getting a warm smile in return.

“Miss?” a voice called to her from away. “Are you coming?”

It was Tooth Far, who, as always, was making sure every detail was working accordingly to plan.

Shia tried to join the others in the dining room, but she still had Renette stuck to her back leg. She thought of a way to both go where she wanted to go and make sure she wouldn’t disappoint the filly. Having found one, she carefully grabbed Gold Renette and put her on her back, on her dress, which seemingly pleased the filly and so they both went into the dining room and sat next to each other at the table.

“I don’t care that we have guest!” shouted a foal’s voice from outside the room. “Guests are stupid!”

It didn’t take much to understand that was the famous Sampion coming to eat with the others. He entered the room, ready to show the newcomer that she had penetrated onto a territory that was his and his alone to rule over, ready to make her understand she was a stranger who should better leave very soon, but once his look lay upon Shia, he froze.

Shia looked at the foal. He wasn’t very big, but looked clearly stronger than the others. Still, to her surprise, she saw way more gentleness in his eyes than she had expected to find. She could see the gold his heart was made of, she could feel all the love he was filled with and she felt a deep pity for all the sadness and feelings of abandonment that had deformed such a brave young foal.

She saw him slowly and quietly walk to the table, sit in silence and look at his plate. Then, and only then, she noticed that everypony else was looking at her, and at Sampion, in amazement.

“Well, I see we are all here now.” said Foster with his upbeat tone, as he had noticed Oaken Seed who had very discretely come to his own place at the table. “Let’s eat.”

Shia thought she would be served the famous soup Foster had talked about in the street, but they all got an apple in their plate.

“I know.” Foster told her. “But my soup takes time to prepare. I’ll take care of it tomorrow.”

Shia looked at the apple. It wasn’t much. Of course, it was more than what she had expected to eat, being in the street and all, but she felt that, even given the hard times everypony was going through, this was still very little. Even more when it came to the children.
They were all silently praying to the princesses in Canterlot to bring sun and peace to Equestria, so Shia decided to pray too, in her own way, would it only be to show respect to the tradition.

Once the prayer was finished, every filly and foal began to eat, quickly devouring their apple including the very core of it.
Shia decided that a single apple wasn’t really a meal for a child. Her horn lit up and she divided her own apple in six equal parts that she levitated to every child’s plate, keeping one for herself.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t accept it.” suddenly said Tooth Far with a serious voice. “You are our guest.” she explained. “You must be hungry too.”

The others, who were about to devour that new addition to their meal stopped too and looked at Foster to know how they should react.

“I fear I must concur with Toothy here.” he told Shia. “This is very noble of you, but you aren’t any less important than any of us.”

He was hiding how proud he was feeling towards Tooth Far for her reaction, as he had tried for years to teach the children about the dangers of selfishness and to judge what was right and wrong beyond simplistic principles, which were concepts that had always, and quite naturally, eluded all of them until that moment.

“Please.” Shia replied. “If it weren’t for you, I would still be in the street right now. You offered me a roof and some warmth. And you’re wrong. I am less important. I already had my chance and I failed. Just let me pretend I’m still capable of being useful.”

She saw that she hadn’t convinced them completely.

“I’m not even that hungry anyway!” she lied. “I couldn’t eat a whole apple even if I wanted to.”

Everypony’s eyes turned to Toothy. The filly thought about it and, after a long awkward ten seconds, finally said:

“Thank you a lot miss!”

She then began to eat the slice of apple she had been given, signaling all the other children that they could eat theirs too, which they did very fast, as if it would disappear if they didn’t hurry. Happy to see the children enjoy her apple, Shia didn’t notice that Sampion was constantly looking at her.

But then, suddenly, the five fillies and foals left the table and ran upstairs, which was actually normal as they were going to prepare their beds before the night would make moving around too risky.

“So…” said Foster to break the silence. “Tell me what brings a mare like you in our little town?”

“A mare like me?” Shia asked.

“Don’t take it the wrong way. You prove to be quite a good pony. But it isn’t everyday that you get to meet a beggar that both doesn’t care about money and is ready to share with others the few food she is given.”

Shia didn’t respond. She clearly didn’t want to explain. Even more, she wasn’t certain she had an explanation. At least not one the stallion would understand.

“It doesn’t matter!” Foster suddenly and joyfully told her. “The important thing is that you’re here now. So, where are you going anyway?”

“To the west…” Shia instinctively replied, almost regretting to have let the hint slip like that.

But Foster didn’t notice it. How could he have? To be honest, he didn’t really even care anyway.

“Is something waiting for you in the west?” he asked.

“Yes.” she replied. “No… actually, not really.”

She had suddenly understood where those questions were going. And it was surprising her that a stallion like Foster wasn’t being more direct.

“So you’re in no hurry then…?” he asked again.

“Mister Foster?” Shia suddenly asked. “Are you trying to offer me to stay here?”

Foster almost spilled the bowl of water he was drinking.

“I was supposed to ask at least six more questions before asking you to help take care of the children!” he complained.

“Well, I guess I owe you six questions then.” Shia replied, happy to have been the one surprising the other for once.

“You don’t have to reply right now. But please think about it. I don’t think you really want to go west: it’s kind of boring there. I should know, I went there myself.”

This time, it was for Shia not to understand the hint, but again, how could she have? She agreed to think about it and thanked him for the proposition.

“Mommy?” asked the faint voice of Gold Renette from the door of the dining room. “Will you come to tell us a bedtime story please?”

This was a request that could have hardly been denied. Shia smiled, nodded and, after thanking mister Foster for his hospitality one last time, took Flee on her back and went upstairs to the children’s room.