Night. Night was always the hardest part of the day for Stardust. The wind battering her messy white coat, and the occasional rain, like tonight's, trying to freeze her. In many ways, the night time was a battle for survival. However, night was also Stardust favorite time of day. The stars amazed her as she watch them shine in the dark sky, and the meteor showers that sometimes appeared were beautiful to see. Lastly, she loved the dreaming. Dreaming that she had a brother or sister to love and that they loved her back.

You see, Stardust never knew her parents. She was left in the streets of Canterlot by her parents many years ago and never knew them or any other home. Her only dream in life was to have a family that loved her and that she was able to love them back. It was a dream that felt hopeless, but yet something told her that she would someday have one (maybe the plot told her?). She didn’t know how soon it would be, but awaited the day that it happened.

Tonight, however, that was the last thing on her mind. Her only thought was making it through the thunderstorm going on. Stardust absolutely hated thunder, the big noise it made sounded like a kick drum she had heard a pink pony playing one day in the center of town, but a lot less beautiful and a hundred times scarier. She shivered as she found cover underneath a bridge near the edge of the city.

As she shivered there, she suddenly her the sound of hooves coming near her. Initially, she thought that it was someone crossing over the bridge above her on their way to somewhere, but it didn’t fade away as quickly as she thought. Instead, the sound just seemed to keep getting closer and closer, meaning that whoever it was saw her under the bridge. She looked up when she heard them stop walking, her light blue eyes meeting that of someone unexpected.

“Hello there,” The voice came from the dark blue alicorn standing right in front of her. She knew who she was, or at least to an extent because despite the face being familiar, the name was a mystery to her. Seeming to get this, the dark blue alicorn continued “I’m princess Luna, who are you?”

“S-stardust,” The young pegasus replied shivering. Stardust was absolutely baffled as to why princess of the night was standing in front of her. “Why are you here?”

“I was out walking when I heard you sniffling down here,” Luna explained “Shouldn’t you be in bed right now? Your parents must be worried sick about you.”

Stardust looked down at the ground when Luna brought up the fact about her parents. The look on her face gave Luna all she needed to knowing, feeling bad about bringing up something that seemed so sensitive. Luna sat down next to Stardust who was still shivering badly. Luna had to give it to this young pegasus, she had a lot of brains if she managed to survive by herself for this long.

Luna put her left wing around Stardust, hoping to give a little comfort to the young pegasus. As she did, she felt just how unclean her fur was from living on the streets without a bath for so long. It was very sticky, her mane was even worse with dirt, mud, and who knows what else in it. Luna felt very depressed as she looked at Stardust.

“Did you come up with the name yourself?” She asked. Stardust didn’t seem like a very normal name (ironic considering some of the other names she heard) or a name parents would come up with at all.

“Yes,” Stardust replied, putting a smile on her face as she looked back up at the princess. “I thought it up from how the stars look in the night sky. Their so beautiful and the only thing I can really look to when I’m sad so I decided that it was a fitting name.”

Considering the way she just described it, Luna was surprised that she was able to keep such a wide smile (of course her teeth didn’t look the best but that was besides the point) living such a life. Luna couldn’t imagine a life without a family at any point, let alone a life without a home to live in. She looked at the smile young pegasus with a face of deep thought. She needed to do something, but needed to first show that she cared about her.

“Wait here,” Luna said confident “I’ll go get you some food,” and she took off into the night.

Even as another boom of thunder came, Stardust looked at where Luna was. She was completely shocked that someone so high class cared enough to help someone like her. In all her years living on the streets the high society ponies were probably the ones that cared about her the least. She was even more amazed when she actually saw Luna come back with a satchel strapped to her.

“Here,” Luna said as she used her magic to open the satchel and handed Stardust a loaf of bread.

Stardust has never seen such delicious look food in her life. Hearing the growling of her stomach, she eagerly started gulping down the bread as Luna stared stunned. How long has it been since this pony ate? She could only guess that it's been a few days, but didn’t really know how long someone could survive without water.

“Thanks,” Stardust replied once with an even bigger smile than before. “It’s incredible.”

Luna simply smiled, not wanting to interrupt the pony in front of her. When Stardust was done eating Luna sat back down next to her. Her mind wandered a little bit as she wondered how her sister would react to this. There was something about Stardust that gave her a feeling of joy, but wasn’t sure what it was.

Looking back out she saw that the storm was starting to get worse, and she figured that it would only be a matter of minutes until it got too bad to fly. She had no choice, she couldn’t think about the consequences or the questions that Celestia would ask about the option she was making. Looking back she saw Stardust looking at her, eyes wide with wonder. Luna motioned the pegasus to her side.

“Come with me,” Luna requested to Stardust. “No way anyone should sleep out here, it’s not safe. You can sleep in one of the spare castle rooms for tonight.”

Stardust could tell if this meant what she wanted it to or not, but she wasn’t going to pass up the option to sleep under a roof for once in her life. Without a single doubt in her mind, she happily followed the princess out into the rainy night as the head to the castle.

The walk back to the castle was an exciting one, both ponies rushing to escape the rain. When they arrived, Luna had to explain to the guards why the young pegasus was with her. Following the princess’ command to let them in, Stardust looked around at the amazing decorations inside the castle. Luna watched as the young pegasus wondered the halls on the way to a bedroom.

When they arrived at one, Luna opened the door for Stardust. The room was small, but still shocked Stardust as she has never seen anything like this before. Before Luna could say anything about give her a bath, Stardust jumped up to the comfy bed, not bothering to lay under the covers, and fell asleep. Luna left the messy white pegasus to sleep, deciding it was best not to wake her right now. It must of been a dream come true for her to sleep in something other than the hard ground of the Canterlot streets.

Luna closed the door to the room Stardust was using, and left for hers. Before she could even so much as turn around, she heard the voice of someone coming from behind her.

“I suppose you plan to take care of her,” Luna turned around to see her sister standing there.

“She was on the streets alone,” Luna said, trying to explain the best she could “How was I supposed to leave her there. She looked so scared, I wanted to do something but didn’t know if I should tell you. Please don’t make her leave, I only wanted to help her.”

Celestia let out a sighed looking at her sister with a slight smile on her face. It was obvious that her sister was intent on looking after this young pony. She didn’t know who she was, but if it meant this much to Luna than Celestia was happy to agree.

Walking up to Luna, Celestia gave her reply “If you promise to look after her then I don’t see any reason to make her leave. Just remember she’s going to be your responsibility and not mine.”

Luna put her hooves around Celestia, happy to hear her sister’s response. Honestly, Luna was actually a little scared, she knew nothing about being a mother and never thought she have to worry about it. She wasn’t going to turn her back on Stardust however, seeing someone young like her living without a home was to much to bare.

“So,” Celestia said, still wondering something “What’s her name?”

Taking one look back at the door, Luna gave her sister her answer “Stardust.”

Author's Note

I'm going to totally admit, this was much easier to write then a chapter of Our Days Are Numbered by a long shot. It may be shorter then later chapters, but I plan for that to change after this. Anyway, the next chapter of this won't be for sometime sense I'm going to be picking back up Equestrian Despair (which I can know spell correctly) and will be transitioning between the two stories for the next for weeks. That being said, I don't plan to drop Our Days Are Numbered, but simply put it on the hiatus spot for a while like Equestrian Despair. Before I go, please leave a comment, like if you enjoyed this first chapter, and check out my other two stories I'm currently writing. Until then, see you guys next time.