Chapters It was almost dusk, which was why the streets were emptying themselves as everypony was quickly seeking refuge from the darkness inside the comfort of their respective homes. The richer ponies would soon lit a few candles when the poorer would simply go to bed until the sun would eventually rise again the next morning.
Of course there were ponies who were ignoring the coming of the shadows, having their own reasons to brave the night outside, where it was cold and frightening.
One of them was a stallion, a quite normal one who was happily whistling while wandering seemingly aimlessly without a care in the world, before he laid his eyes onto a second pony who had stayed outside in spite of the harshness of the night for a reason that was both too obvious and very different form his own.
That particular stallion wasn’t one to believe in concepts like destiny or fate. Still, he couldn’t help but feel he hadn’t come there by pure accident. A small voice was whispering he should offer some help in a way or another.
“Here.” he told the second pony while giving the bit.
She didn’t react. Or to be more precise, she didn’t offer a reaction that anypony would have noticed. But the mare had in fact reacted showing surprise, gratitude, despair and shame all at the same time, each emotion neutralizing the other to result in what looked like a disinterested look.
“You’re welcome.” the stallion added, not noting how weird her reaction actually was.
But his instinct told him it wasn’t over. So he stayed and observed the mare through the twilight.
She was a white unicorn and even if she possessed an interesting beauty, she looked like so many other unicorns all around Equestria. Her pink mane attracted the stallion’s attention for a moment, but he couldn’t really find out why. He decided it was probably because it was a shame that so much dirt had come to dirty it. Then again, most beggars tended to get dirty pretty fast, so there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary there.
“You do know it’s going to be night very soon?” the stallion asked.
But she didn’t respond.
“So I take it you have the intention to just lay there all night…” he observed.
She turned her head a bit more to the right, to look even further away from him.
“Okay, that does it!” the stallion suddenly burst out with way more joy than anger. “What you need is to taste my famous super ultra secret soup! That will fix that low mood of yours.”
He had grabbed her with enthusiasm and forced her to stand.
“My name is mister Foster, but you can call me Foster and I’ll be your host tonight, how does it sound to you?” he asked with a big smile.
She hadn’t been expecting such a behavior at all and had no idea what to reply or how to even react.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Foster happily interpreted her silence. “Come on, or we will be late for dinner and the kids will wonder where I am!”
She would have protested, not because she was against a warm house to sleep in or a dinner, but because she had no idea what was suddenly happening, but the stallion suddenly stopped, which made her bump into him, then turned to her and said with a very serious look on his face:
“There is one thing however we need to settle before I can let you enter our home.”
Afraid, the mare tried to avoid his look and began to step back a little, but he followed each of her step by one of his own in her direction before she got caught against a wall.
“Tell me…” he whispered.
She swallowed her saliva.
“What’s your name?” he asked with a happy tone, suddenly wearing his big smile again.
The mare first realized she wasn’t in any danger of any kind and let out a sigh of relief. Still, the question was bugging her somehow…
“I…” she began with a deep but incredibly gentle voice. “I don’t have a name anymore.” she told him.
Foster couldn’t hide his surprise. Of course his first hypothesis should have been a case of amnesia. Or he could have imagined that the mare was hiding her name for whatever reason. It was also possible that she had had her name stolen from her out of some incredibly complicated story, the kind of which can only happen in magical land like Equestria.
“Well.” he began. “This is a problem. You see, I can’t let a pony whose name I ignore enter the home because of the children. We have to fix this right away!”
And then, to her surprise, he added:
“Let’s call you Bobby.”
A moment of silence passed.
A long, awkward moment.
And all that the mare found to reply was:
“Bobby?”
“You don’t like it!” noticed Foster. “Of course you don’t like it! What was I thinking? You are a mare, quite obviously, so a name like Bobby won’t do. Let me try again: Henry? Jean-Marc-Antoine? No, no, no… It won’t do either!”
And then, just as if struck by a lightening, he found what he had been searching for.
“Shia!” he shouted. “What do you say? Can I call you Shia?”
The mare wasn’t still certain to understand all that was happening, who that weird stallion was and why he was behaving in such a strange way. Still, even if she felt like it wasn’t the most proper of names, she kind of liked it.
“Perfect!” shouted Foster once again with energy. “Then Shia, you are more than welcome to stay with us for the night.”
The newly named Shia smiled, blushed even a bit before being caught by the hoof once again.
“No time to lose!” Foster told her. “Don’t forget your money.” he added, while giving her back the bit he had given her earlier. “Let’s go!”
And having said those last words, he rushed ahead, forcing the mare to trot behind him for a good twenty meters, around the corner, where Foster stopped and, pointing to a pretty big house, joyfully said:
“Here we are. Welcome to the orphanage!”
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.
Once the prayer was finished, every filly and foal began to eat, quickly devouring their apple including the very core of it.
“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.
“I like your dress.” said Renette who was indirectly saying she liked Shia in that indirect way children are so used to but paradoxically unaware of.
“Thank you.” Shia replied, even if she thought the thing she had on her back could hardly qualify as a dress, and even less as anything likable. In fact, she was sort of ashamed of it.
“Are you really going to tell us a bedtime story?” asked Moonlight with excitement.
“Be careful.” Toothy warned Shia. “She is the one who usually tells the story.”
“I’m not jealous!” complained Moonlight. “I’m curious.”
Shia came near Moonlight’s bed, which was the closest to the window.
“You really tell a bedtime story each evening?” she asked the filly, both surprised and amazed.
“Sure I do. All it takes is to watch the moon outside and I have a tone of stories flowing in my mind.”
“It’s true.” said Oaken Seed from deep under his sheets. “She always tells stories about the moon and the stars. She says one day she is going to go there and take a bite out of it.”
“You are going to take a bite out of the moon?” Shia asked, amused by the idea.
“Of course!” Moonlight replied. “It looks like cheese after all. I’m sure it must be delicious. Mister foster says it tastes like Raspberry, but I think he invented it.”
Shia looked at the moon outside. It was grandiose. The huge circle of pale light was dominating the black sky, like a warden surrounded by the millions of stars. A tear ran on Shia’s cheek as she contemplated the spectacle. But at the same time, it gave her an idea for the bedtime story.
“Do you want to know why princess Luna created the moon?” she asked the children.
“It’s one of her eyes she throws in the sky at night to spot the naughty children!” said Tooth Far, who recalled a rumor she had heard.
“She wanted to spot her prey more easily during the night. It’s her searchlight…” faintly said Oaked Seed.
“It’s a mirror to a world where she stocks all the nightmares!” imagined Moonlight. “This is why it looks so pale.”
Shia looked at Sampion who was clearly awaiting for her to tell the story, as they all were, each in their own way, for that matter. Shia smiled, happy to have a story to tell that only a few unicorns from Canterlot should be able to know.
“There was a time, not so long ago, when there was no moon or stars in the sky at night.” Shia told them.
“That’s impossible!” said Tooth Far.
“But it’s true.” gently replied Shia. “At that time, when the sun would disappear behind the horizon, all of Equestria was being swallowed by the darkness, true darkness, where it is impossible to see your hoof in front of your muzzle.”
“It’s scary…” complained Oaken Seed, who was easily impressed.
“Yes it was scary. And the most scared were the fillies and foals who were having nightmares almost every night.”
“That must have pleased princess Luna.” thought out loud Moonlight who was already imagining the princess of the night using the shadows to enjoy the screams of the children waking up in the middle of a bad dream and how she would have standed against her.
“On the contrary.” explained Shia. “Even though the princess does love the darkness, because it is where she feels the most comfortable and she has made many friends among the creatures that populate the shadows.”
“There are creatures in the shadows?” asked Moonlight, suddenly frightened by the perspective, letting her vivid imagination take the best of her.
“Good creatures, friendly and benevolent creatures that always help ponies.” Shia tried to comfort her. “If you are lost, or afraid, they will come and help you find your way, and make sure nothing bad will happen to you. The creatures of the night are protectors.”
It took a moment for Shia to convince each child that they shouldn’t be afraid of the darkness, but, the gentleness of her voice helping a lot, she eventually achieved to.
“But as much as the princess loved the night, she would always hear the screams of the children and she couldn’t understand why they were screaming.” she continued.
“Princess Luna is dumb!” said Oaken Seed, for whom it was clear that it was the only explanation for a princess not to understand why nightmares were scary.
“She was simply ignorant. It was all very new to her. The same way you are still learning how to count, she was learning to understand her subjects. But it wasn’t easy at all and at the time, she went to complain to her sister about all the screaming.”
At the mention of Luna’s sister, all the children’s faces lit up.
“Princess Celestia is in the story? She is so awesome!” said Moonlight.
“Yes, why can’t the story be only about her? She is the one who will control the sun. She is way more interesting.” agreed Tooth Far.
Shia smiled. The enthusiasm of the children was really heartwarming.
“You all think that princess Celestia is more interesting that her sister?” she asked them.
“Princess Celestia isn’t scary. She cares about us.” said Oaken Seed. “I like her.”
“But Princess Celestia didn’t help the children nor did she help her sister with the problem of the screaming. She too had no idea how to make it stop and thought, at the time, that it was how things had to be.” Shia explained with a smirk on her face.
“It’s not true! Princess Celestia knows everything!” responded Tooth Far.
“It is true though. And for months princess Luna kept on enjoying her night while trying to ignore all the screams she could hear, until one day, when she noticed there was a place where there were no screams at all.”
“Was it on the moon?” asked Moonlight.
“The moon didn’t exist at that time. And it wasn’t even a place you could go to. She had found the peace she was seeking into a dream, the dream of a filly just like you.” Shia said to Moonlight.
“Just like me?” the filly asked.
“Yes. And princess Luna began to come each night into the filly’s dream and never heard any scream. Intrigued, she decided to go see the filly in the real world, found her house and realized that the filly was sleeping with a lit lantern in her room. As she didn’t like the light of the lantern, she blew it and for the first time, she felt a shift into the filly’s dream. She went there and noticed a nightmare was forming. The princess escaped the dream and lit the lantern again, which made the nightmare disappear.
Shia stopped talking and a long silence followed.
“Princess Luna created the moon for us?” asked Toothy, who had some difficulties to believe it.
“Yes she did.” confirmed Shia. “And she also comes whenever you are having a nightmare to make sure you are alright, because she cares deeply about each one of you, even if you rarely remember it.”
The children stood silent once again. This was all new to them. Luna had always been the mean princess, as malicious as her big sister was benevolent. They weren’t sure they could believe Shia’s story, but somehow, they wanted to. It was feeling safer. It was feeling warmer.
“I like Luna… I think.” said Gold Renette with a yawn.
“I like her too.” said Shia while looking at the moon the princess had achieved to create for the sake of her subjects. “I wish I could be like her.”
“But if that’s why princess Luna created the moon. Why did princess Celestia created the sun?” asked Moonlight.
Shia smiled, but knew it was time for them all to sleep.
“This is another story I promise to tell you later if you go to sleep now.” she told the little filly.
Moonlight would have liked to negotiate, complain, obtain to hear the story right away, but once again Shia’s voice did miracles and she wisely closed her eyes, her mind full of stars and the moon and a nice princess Luna that was looking out for her.
Shia went to each of the children, making sure they were ready to sleep, tucking them up, and, once certain that everything was alright, she exited the room went downstairs and decided, as she hadn’t been given a room to sleep in, to simply go to sleep right where she was, expecting to be dreaming of the princess of the night too, but finding only herself surrounded by the children, which was the sweetest dream she could have hoped for.
Shia opened her eyes and discovered two things. First, it was still night. It wasn’t unusual, as the unicorns in Canterlot would often have a lot of difficulties to make the sun rise. Then, she was in a bed, which was a bit weirder, as she clearly recalled sleeping in the street, before remembering everything that had happened the last day, which still wasn’t explaining how she had ended up into that bed.
Even more problematic: what she was calling her dress had disappeared.
She couldn’t wait for the sun to rise, as there was, again, no telling when this would be, so she stepped out of the bed, put the blanket on her back at the place of her dress and decided to use her unicorn magic to create a little light spell.
She was in a room with a single bed and very minimalist furniture. Still, it wasn’t really interesting her at the moment. She went outside in the search of her dress when she heard somepony whistling outside the house in the garden.
Heading there, she found mister Foster who was hanging her dress as well as a few children’s clothes on a string.
“What did you see?” Shia asked immediately, forgetting all manners.
“Hello there!” joyfully greeted her Foster. “I saw you were sleeping on the floor, which wasn’t really tolerable, even for somepony as tolerant as I am.” he replied.
Shia slowly simmered down. Still, she wasn’t feeling at ease with only a blanket on her back.
“Your dress will be ready once the sun will have made it dry. I’m sorry, but this isn’t something I can make go any faster.” Foster explained, understanding her concern.
She wasn’t ready to wait. Calling once again her magic to the rescue, she made the air heat all around the different clothes on the string. She made an effort not to rush it too much, as she didn’t want to burn them, but she was really playing with the limit.
“Impressive.” Foster noticed with a smile. “But maybe you would want to wear a proper dress before keeping on doing your magic thing here.”
Shia stopped her spell. Enraged almost against her will, she turned to Foster who simply pointed to a very simple dress that was waiting, well folded, on a bench near the door.
“I was going to bring it to you, as a little gift, but I wanted to finish with the clothes here first.” Foster explained. “I didn’t expect you to wake up so soon.”
But as he was saying those words, the sun began to rise over the horizon.
“Well, actually, it seems you being awake is quite a chance.” he added with satisfaction. “Could you take a glance at the children? We have a rule saying that everypony must get up as soon as the sun rises.”
And having said those words, he went back to the rest of the clothes, those that still hadn’t been washed.
Shia felt a bit unsure about the whole situation, but having to take care of the children was sufficient to make her forget about everything else. So she quickly took the new dress with her, changed in a hurry and then went upstairs where she found that some children still hadn’t woken up.
Shia hesitated, but doing so came close to his bed. She saw the foal tremble a bit and said, out of instinct, a very soft: “Wake up.”
“You should tell me how you’re doing that.” said Toothy.
“Doing what?” asked Shia.
“He never behaved that way with anypony else. It’s weird.” the filly observed.
Shia was beginning to think it really was weird too, as the way the foal was looking at her was creeping her a bit.
Once the morning wash was finished, all the fillies and foals went out to play in the orphanage huge garden, following almost always the same pattern. Moonlight would propose an idea, Toothy would decide if they would follow it or not, both Renette and Oaken Seed would then follow the decision to play the game with the others.
“You shouldn’t worry too much about that.” said Foster when Shia told him she had lost one of the children. “He likes to be alone. He will be back for breakfast.”
And then Foster went back to his search for roots, as it was one of the ingredients he needed for the special soup he had promised. Roots and leaves. Mostly leaves.
Sampion indeed came back for breakfast, didn’t say a word when all the other children were talking, trying to explain to Foster the story of how the awesome princess Luna had created the moon, mixing in their own interpretation of the story, and at the end of the breakfast, Sampion disappeared once again while Foster was still listening to the very confused and contradictory explanation from four excited children under the amused look of Shia who made sure never to intervene in the conversation.
The rest of the morning went on pretty quietly. The mare, now more accustomed to the inhabitants of the orphanage, spent most of her time playing with the children, but refused to tell a new story before bedtime, which was a game in itself for the children.
And then Sampion came back with a surprise.
He had brought an apple.
At first, Shia didn’t understand, but she slowly realized that the foal wanted to offer it to her as some sort of gift. It made her blush. Still a bit suspicious, as even if apples did grow on trees, they still couldn’t appear by magic, she asked him if he had stolen it from the orphanage’s reserve.
Shia thought of going to Foster and ask him if it was true. But she realized how insulting this would feel for Sampion. She asked him again to be sure, but he confirmed that he had taken the apple from the reserve with the agreement from mister Foster. He added that it was a way to call it even after the shared apple of the last day and a way to thank her for staying with them.
Shia had little reasons to refuse the gift. Still, she asked if Sampion would be against sharing the apple amongst everypony there, which he agreed to happily, as if he hadn’t expected anything else from her. So she summoned her magic once more and cut the apple in six parts that she distributed to everypony.
But before any of them could bite his or her part, the voices of ponies shouting at the orphanage’s door interrupted them.
Instantly, Sampion ran away behind a tree and Shia understood how complicated things were suddenly going to be.
There, waiting for her, were two guards and a merchant who stopped shouting as she opened.
“Good morning miss.” said one of the guard. “We have come to arrest a food thief.”
“I know it is that little Sampion. I saw him.” said the merchant. “It isn’t the first time we had to deal with him. I warned mister Foster, but I can’t let anypony steal from me like that without reacting.”
There was a form of regret in the merchant’s voice that touched Shia. He wasn’t a bad pony. In other circumstances, he probably would have closed his eyes upon such a little incident. But those were hard times and thievery was considered with the upmost severity, even for a simple apple.
“I’m deeply sorry.” Shia told them. “I think he just wanted to have something to offer to me. I’m not sure to understand it all. But here is your apple.”
She gave back the apple’s parts and immediately understood, at the merchant’s look, that it wasn’t going to work.
“I can’t sell an apple in that condition. And even so, it doesn’t excuse what he has done. We can’t have thieves think they are above the law. It would be the beginning of chaos.”
Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy. There was always the possibility to just let the guards enter and take Sampion away, but Shia just couldn’t accept it. Not only did she feel responsible for what the foal had done, but she knew there had been no bad intention behind his act. He might have been a liar, and probably a bully, and a thief, but he was before anything else a simple foal with simple hopes and a good heart.
“Maybe I could pay for the apple!” Shia suddenly thought out loud, remembering the bit Foster had given her the last day.
She proposed the bit, that only piece of money she possessed, hoping to buy the foal’s freedom with it, but it wasn’t nearly enough to pay for an entire apple. The piece of metal in her hoof was completely useless.
“But if you really want to pay for the apple…” suddenly said the merchant.
He stopped there. He was clearly hesitating to propose the trade he was thinking of. Still he decided it was better than let a thief win or put a foal in a cell.
“… I would accept the dress you are wearing as payment.” he finished.
Shia hesitated.
Not because she wasn’t certain the dress was her to sell like that. Not because she wasn’t certain the trade was a fair one.
She took off her dress and held it to the merchant who never even tried to take it.
He was looking at her body and so were the guards.
“I’m sorry. I am so sorry!” said the merchant. “I didn’t know. Please keep the apple and your dress.”
“But that apple belongs to you.” replied Shia, who put her dress back on.
“I’m offering it to the orphanage, as a gift.” the merchant said.
“No, you have no reason to do that.”
“You don’t want me to give the apple to the orphanage?” asked the merchant, confused.
Shia of course wanted what was good for the orphanage. But at the same time, she didn’t want the gift to be made for the bad reasons. She hesitated between accepting it or refusing it, and, seeing no way out, just asked:
“Why is it the orphanage has so little food to work with to begin with? I know that there isn’t as much as everypony would hope there was, but you obviously can spare an apple or two!”
The merchant looked surprised.
“The orphanage doesn’t have enough food?” he asked. “I wasn’t aware of that. I know mister Foster always asks us to give something, but we know that the mayor already makes sure the children have all they need. This is what our taxes are for anyway!”
He was getting angry as his explanations were unfolding. And at the same time, he had a hard time believing that the orphanage could actually be in a dire situation. He was feeling both betrayed and confused.
As for Shia, she still wasn’t certain how she should react herself, when she heard the little voice of Renette asking her:
“What is going on? Is Sampion in trouble because of the apple?”
Shia understood she didn’t even have a decision to take. It was already clear she had to try everything for those children. Which meant try to have an impact once again.
But some things are worth taking the risk of failure. And the little Renette between her legs was more than worth it, as were any of the children of the orphanage, and even the trust of the merchant in front of her.
“Take me to the mayor.” Shia almost ordered.
Guided by the merchant and the two guards, the white unicorn entered the town hall and was received by the mayor, surrounded by four counselors and another bunch of guards.
“Could you explain why you interrupt our session?” asked the mayor, angered by the situation.
The merchant, the two guards and Shia stood silent for a bit.
“It’s about the orphanage…” began the merchant.
“Then it doesn’t justify interrupting our session!” sharply replied the mayor.
Shia decided to intervene, as she wasn’t ready to just wait to be received, which she felt could have taken days, days she didn’t have due to her reveal to the guards and the merchant.
“Could you explain why the orphanage doesn’t have enough food for the orphans?” she asked the mayor.
“No.” the mayor replied. “I don’t have to explain anything to you.” he said. “Everything is fine with the orphanage.”
“You lie! I was there, I saw how little they have to eat.” Shia responded.
But the mayor had decided it had gone far enough. He called upon the guards to make those four ponies exit the building by force. But before they could act, Shia’s horn lit up with a yellow magical aura and the spell took away her dress, which allowed the white alicorn to spread her wings wide, and revealed the sun on her flank.
All the guards instantly bowed down to the princess, as did the mayor and his counselors.
“Do you happen to care giving an explanation about the orphanage yet Mayor?” Celestia asked with authority.
The mayor was caring, but certainly didn’t want to give any explanation, as he didn’t have any. At least no good one, none that would prevent having to admit he had kept the tax money for himself.
It was over. But the mayor couldn’t understand why the princess had come to his little town in the middle of nowhere. Why she had suddenly taken any interest in that orphanage and why her mane wasn’t looking like he was told it should.
That was it. He wasn’t certain, but it was worth trying, so he shouted:
“This isn’t the princess of the sun!”
The guards frowned and looked hostile, as they could clearly see Celestia was an alicorn and had the royal cutie mark on her flank.
“Don’t let that impostor fool you.” the mayor kept yelling. “Ask yourself! Why would the princess of the sun come here to take care of an orphanage while there are so many more urgent matters to take care of in Canterlot!”
Some guards thought about it and agreed that it was, indeed, weird.
“Tell me why, if this mare is the real Celestia, her mane isn’t flowing? Why she has dirt on her hooves, why she would have come without any escort or any announcement!”
Now, all the guards were wondering about those questions. They had to admit it was all very strange.
“Look at the dress she was wearing!” the mayor continued. “Does it look like the dress of a princess?”
He knew he hadn’t convinced the guards. At least not completely. He had just created enough of a doubt he had to exploit. After all, Celestia was still an alicorn and that fact alone would be sufficient to overcome him overtime. At least very probably. So he took his chance and added:
“You want a real proof? Have her control the sun!” he shouted.
All the guards turned their attention to Celestia whose expression had turned from victorious to horrified.
“So, what about it? All you have to do is make the sun set and rise to clear any doubt about your identity.”
Celestia froze completely. She had lost. In a matter of seconds, she had completely lost. In a vain effort, she tried to accomplish a miracle and called upon her alicorn magic. The room filled up with energy, electrifying the manes of all the ponies there, and all looks turned to the windows and the sky behind them with the sun dominating it all. But it didn’t disappear behind the horizon. It didn’t move at all in fact. Celestia’s concentration broke and she fell on the floor, exhausted.
The mayor exulted!
“You see! She is not the princess of the sun. She isn’t a princess at all. She is nothing but an impostor!” he said in triumph.
“Please…” Celestia implored. “Don’t listen to me because I am supposed to move the sun. Listen to me because what I say is right.”
“Throw her in prison!” ordered the mayor.
The guards hesitated, still unsure, but as Celestia was on the floor, proven unable to influence the sun, and the mayor was standing up, clearly in power, they slowly began to obey.
And just at that moment, Foster entered the town hall with a bowl of water.
“Wait! Wait!” he shouted. “I’ve got it. I’ve got the soup!”
He went in front of Celestia, who achieved to sit, and put the bowl of water at her hooves.
“What is it?” the princess asked.
“My special super duber awesome soup!” replied Foster with a smile.
Celestia looked at the bowl, then at Foster, then at all the guards around who had no idea anymore how to react.
“What are you doing?” she asked the stallion.
“I’m fulfilling my promise. Here is the soup.” he replied.
“It’s just water.” she said.
“Yes, I know. I couldn’t decide what kind of soup to make and it doesn’t really matter anyway. It was only supposed to be sort of a symbolic thing, you know, to make you realize you had the strength inside of you the whole time?” Foster explained with a genuine smile.
Celestia looked at the weird stallion with both happiness and despair. Happiness because he was looking so joyful, so genuine, so simply happy that it was contagious. Despair because he was utterly useless.
“Oh, I know!” Foster said.
And he put some leaves into the bowl of water.
“Could you heat it please?” he asked Celestia.
The princess sighed and used her magic to heat the water under the eyes of all the ponies that were there, waiting to know what was going to happen.
“And now?” asked Celestia, as the water was warm enough, at least in her opinion.
“Now that tea is read, we drink it.” Foster replied. “But we might have to do it somewhere else.” he added.
Celestia understood and sighed, as the guards, having finally realized nothing was going to happen, took both the princess and the weird stallion into a cell, with a lot of respect, so much in fact that they made sure to bring the tea too.
“Here.” said Foster. “Take a cup of tea.”
Celestia took the cup with her magic and drank a sip or two before replying:
“You do realize that we are both in a cell in a dungeon, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.” said Foster, who was also enjoying the tea that Celestia was keeping warm.
Celestia looked at the steel bars that were preventing her from escaping and sighed. She didn’t care that much about her freedom, but she had hoped she could have accomplished more for the children of the orphanage. And somehow, she was feeling like blaming that weird stallion that could only think about drinking tea while he should be at the children’s side.
There was really something Celestia couldn’t understand there.
“You still owe me six questions, don’t you?” said Foster with a smile.
The princess had almost forgotten about that, but she had, in fact, said something amongst those lines.
“Then first question. And please answer honestly.” Foster said. “What do you think of the tea?”
Celestia looked at him, but he seemed very genuine and serious about wanting to know her opinion about the tea.
“You mixed two types of leaves, put way too much of them anyway and I usually like to add a bit of sugar with that kind of bitter tea. But altogether it is fine.” she responded with as much calm as she could gather.
“Great!” he replied. “Second question: what color is the sky?”
Celestia was about to ask a loud “What?”, but she found the strength to stay calm and collected. She had nothing better to do than play that weird game anyway. But at least she could play it with her own rules.
“Your question isn’t complete. You didn’t mention at what time of the day, under what perspective, from whose eyes and under which circumstances. Also, we might differ on the name of the colors depending on the culture and slight perception differences.”
And she took a sip out of her cup of tea after that response.
“That is correct. So third question: why were all those ponies acting so weirdly around you like you were some sort of deity or something?”
Celestia patiently took another sip out of her cup, as she didn’t want to show how frustrating those senseless questions were feeling.
“They acted that way because they recognized me as the princess of the sun they swore to obey.”
“That makes sense.” remarked Foster trying to understand it all. “So fourth question: why don’t they obey you anymore then?”
“Because I couldn’t move the sun.”
“Oh, yeah, that makes sens! But then... hum... Fifth question: why did you leave Canterlot?” Foster asked.
“Because I couldn’t move the sun.”
“Right…so, huh... sixth question: why is it so important that you move the sun again?”
Celestia lost it. Against her own will to her defense. But Foster’s naivety, or ignorance to such basic knowledge was just too frustrating when coupled with a subject as painful as this one:
“Because it is my purpose in life!” she shouted. “I was born to control the sun, it is the only thing that was asked from me. And I spent every single second of my life preparing for that sole duty, working as hard as I could to make sure I wouldn’t let anypony down. But I did!” she burst out of rage.
“I did let them down. When the time came, I couldn’t make the sun rise. I tried, and I tried again and again but he never came. I failed. I’m not the princess of the sun. I’m no princess at all. I’m nothing anymore.”
Crushed by the weight of her memories, Celestia went into a corner of the cell to mourn.
“I still have a question.” Foster told her.
“I answered to the six questions I owed you. Leave me alone.” the princess replied.
“I just wanted to know if you still have the bit I gave you…” Foster asked with a sad face, as he had never wanted to upset the princess. "I think I would like to have it back. I'll need it."
Celestia still had it. She took it and gave it back, hoping it would make the stallion shut up and leave her in peace.
And then she heard the sound of the cell’s door opening.
She turned back and saw Foster leaving the cell.
“Are you coming?” he asked her.
She hesitated for a second, but decided to follow him for the better or the worst. They both went through the different passages of the dungeon, passed in front of the guards’ post without much problem as they were all playing a card game and finally arrived to the front gate of the dungeon where a guard was posted.
“Excuse me.” told him Foster, startling the poor guard. “But her majesty Celestia, princess of Equestria, wishes you to open that door.”
The guard looked at the weird stallion, and at the alicorn at his side. He had heard the rumors about the fake princess, but now that she was in front of him, he felt like she wasn’t as fake as the rumors were telling.
Understanding the guard’s hesitations, Foster decided to speak once more:
“You have two ways of seeing this matter.” he said. “Either you decide that this isn’t the princess of the sun, in which case you have to admit we just passed all the bars of the dungeon and defeated the whole garrison, which would be a good reason not to oppose her majesty’s will, or you decide that this is the princess of the sun, in which case you swore to obey her will and serve her to the best of your abilities. In both cases, the best course of action is to kindly open that gate and stand aside.”
The guard hesitated a bit, but the presence of the alicorn was more than he was ready to handle. He opened the gate and let Celestia and Foster pass.
“Thank you. Here, it’s for you.” Foster said with a smile, giving the guard the bit he had obtained from Celestia.
And seeing that the princess was looking at the bit like something else was supposed to happen, he added:
“Well, any service well done deserves a good tip, don’t you think?”
It was both logical and completely absurd. Celestia sighed and, for her sanity, decided to ignore it and they both went away from the dungeon.
“So… what is your plan?” Foster asked the princess.
“My plan?” she asked back.
“Of course. How will you deal with the corrupted mayor, help the orphanage and win the day?”
That was a lot to expect from her. But at the same time, she felt a relief in knowing the weird stallion was ready to stay at her side to help her in her task. Not that this stallion alone would be sufficient.
“Your majesty?” realized the apple merchant, as he saw Celestia arrive in front of him.
“I need your help.” told him Celestia.
He agreed to help her. Not because she was the princess of the sun. Well, not only because she was the princess of the sun. But because he had realized the mayor had never answered about the orphanage and that wasn’t right.
And two hours later, almost the whole town gathered in front of the town hall, demanding for the mayor to explain himself. He tried to elude the question, but Celestia appeared once again to face him and prevented any of his rhetorical tricks to work, as all she had to do was to demand to see the accounting books.
The guards refused to intervene against the whole town and soon the mayor had to comply, but of course fled the town with his accomplices before the proof was made that he had in fact corrupted the system for his own profit.
“Do not worry, your majesty.” said the merchant, who had become the head of that little revolution. “We will find him and make him pay for what he has done.”
“A judgment in a neutral and fair tribunal would probably be just as good if not better, don’t you think?.” Celestia indirectly corrected him.
“Of course your majesty.” the merchant agreed, realizing that vengeance wasn’t going to solve anything.
Celestia let him go back to the other ponies, as he had quite a lot of work in front of him as everypony was considering him as the new mayor. Which was a good thing, as he was indeed a good pony. A bit quick to jump to conclusions, but his heart was in the right place for certain.
“So, what are you going to do now?” Foster asked. “Back to Canterlot?”
“I wish I could stay in the orphanage. I felt more at ma place there than ever in the palace.” Celestia replied.
“You would be very welcome. In fact, you could probably take my place there. The children love you!” Foster said with enthusiasm, as if it was already done.
Celestia smiled. The idea was very tempting. Taking care of little children, guiding them through life, helping them make their own journey, their own choices.
A whole year passed, during which the little town found a new peace. And at the orphanage, the children were waiting for miss Sprinkles, the new town employee, to kiss them goodnight. But this night, along miss Sprinkles, another pony came. A tall white alicorn with a stellar flowing mane and a sun shaped cutie mark.
A second later, all the children were out of their beds to properly greet the mare.
“You’re huge!” noticed Toothy.
“We missed you.” said Sampion, who had strongly hoped to see the mare again one day.
Celestia smiled and gave him an apple she had kept hidden, which made the foal blush like a filly for the hilarity of the other children. But Sampion wasn't feeling ashamed about it. He was just grateful for the sun to have given him some light in the darkness.
As for the others, they had begun to play a bit with Celestia’s mane, because it was very funny and smelled like morning dew in the forest.
The little Gold Renette grabbed one of Celestia’s front legs and asked:
“Is it okay if I still pretend you’re my mother?”
Celestia smiled.
“Of course you can.” she told her, receiving a warm smile in return.
“Why did you come back?” asked Moonlight, with more hopes in her voice than she could hide.
“I promised I would tell you how I happened to create the sun.” she told her.
And at those words, all the children gathered in front of her in a circle, sitting, waiting for the story. Celestia smiled and sat too. From all that had happened, the most important memory for her was the smiles of those little children that had brought more light in her life than the sun had ever done.
“It all began as I was travelling.” Celestia said. “I didn’t really have a goal at that time, because as far as I knew then, the world was only composed of me, my little sister Luna, the ground under my hooves, a lot of water and the huge blackness all around…”
THE END
