Nightshine's Incredible Journey

A young light grey bat pony filly sat underneath a lone maple tree with a gentle breeze blowing in her dark green mane and tail. Orange and red leaves fluttered around her as they danced on the wind. She was staring at the sky with her baby blue eyes when she suddenly felt something crash into her, whipping her head and body back as they both fell to the grass below. She got up to see a small dark brown earth pony colt rolling on the ground laughing. She spat the dirt from her mouth and pounced on him, shouting, “Alright, Short Stroke. You’ve earned a visit from the tickle monster!”

She tickled the young colt’s belly, making him laugh even more until he sputtered, “You win Nightshine!”

Nightshine helped Short Stroke stand up, revealing his wild black mane along with his scruffy tail. That also had the same black color as his mane. He was smiling with his  light yellow eyes gleaming in the sunlight he chirped, “Look what I got!”

He then took off a small satchel around his neck and took out a few wrapped apple fritters. Nightshine gasped, “Did you steal those?”

He chuckled as he threw one into Nightshine’s hooves. “No, I made them for you, silly.”

Nightshine unwrapped one of the treats and began to nibble on it, gently smiling at the young colt.

“Happy Birthday, Nightshine,”

She blushed as she whispered, “Thank you,Short Stroke.”

She then began to tousle his mane gently, slowly stroking it. She saw him shiver a bit then whimper a bit as he cooed, “That feels good.”

She laughed, “I bet it does.”

She stopped and let him fall into her and let him nuzzle her coat as they both laid back on the grass. They stood there for a while until he pouted and asked, “Nightshine do you love me?”

Nightshine giggled and whispered, “Of course, you're like a little brother to me.”

He turned towards her and replied, “But why me?”

She smiled at him. “Remember when we first met? I was being picked on for my wings and you stepped in and tried to fight the bullies.”

Short Stroke muttered under his breath, “I just got beat up and was grounded for a month.”

He messed around with her mane a bit more. “Besides, you have to protect me more then I need to protect you.”

Nightshine sighed. “It’s because you helped me that I've become fond of you.”

Tears started to form in Short Stack’s eyes “T-Thank you, Nightshine...”

“Everypony inside now!” A mare yelled at the top of her voice, motioning all of the fillies and colts to come inside.

“Looks like we have to cut our celebration early.” Short Stack groaned and marched towards the building.

Nightshine nuzzled his ear as she got up onto her hooves. “Thank you for the treat, by the way. You're the best.”

Short Stack pounced on her back and hugged her neck as she trotted to the building they call home.

In the darkened hall of the orphanage, the orphans were lining up from oldest to youngest.

An old grey unicorn with fierce angry blue eyes looked over to see Nightshine and Short Stroke to be the last two ponies that came though. She glared at them and shouted, “Nightshine Short Stroke come here now!”

They both trotted slowly up to her. She glared at them coldly and asked, “So when I asked you two to come, where in Celestia’s name were you?”

Short Stroke started shaking all over and looked at the ground. He didn’t really have any response to her question and thought about the punishment that he would receive.

The unicorn responded with a sneer, “Poor Short Stroke, crying like always. You’re a pathetic excuse for a colt.”

He started to tear up at the mare’s words.

“We were just playing outside Mrs. Serenity.” Nightshine ran in front of Short Stroke.

“Maybe being grounded for a few days should teach both of you to be more prudent! Now get in line!” Serenity barked, thrusting her hoof behind her towards the other children.

Nightshine went to the front while Short Stroke slowly left to the back of the line. They didn’t even let a single breath slip as they walked.

            “Now some ponies will be by to see you all today. I need you to be on your best behavior and to try to not scare them off.” Serenity ordered, treating the orphans like a drill sergeant would teach his recruits. “Remember: you are trying to get adopted.”

Yeah like i’ll ever be adopted. Nightshine hung her head in silence.

Serenity completed the inspection of all of her kids. When she allowed them to, the fillies and colts went to the main room where they just milled about or played board games with each other.

Short Stroke went up to Nightshine and asked, “Um, Nightshine can you come here?”

He then lead her to a group of younger foals around his age. He then pointed to a little dark yellow filly pegasus with a black mane and dark green eyes. “That’s Honeycomb,” he said before going off to another orphan. It was another filly who was passing a ball to a unicorn colt with a light blue coat, dark blue eyes, and a combed dark brown mane and tail. “That's Chrono”

Nightshine smiled and waved a hoof to both Honeycomb and Chrono. She sat down with them along with Short Stroke. She saw that he took something out of his satchel. “Now, we all know that we'll never be adopted, right?”

“But we will. I mean everypony gets adopted eventually… Right?” Honeycomb whispered.

”Really? Look at us. We're all different.” Short Stroke mumbled as he paced between the other ponies. “Chrono, you're smart but can't use magic; Honeycomb, you're nice but can't fly; As for me… I’m stupid; And Nightshine, you're a bat pony.” He looked over at Nightshine. “We'll never be adopted unless we find somepony to adopt us ourselves.”

“What are you saying Short Stroke?” Nightshine raised a brow at him.

“We’re getting out of this place.” He smirked and digged into his satchel again. “And I know just how to do it.”

The other ponies gasped.

“You can't be serious.” Nightshine turned to Short Stroke and whispered in his ears.

Short Stroke looked back at Nightshine. “Nightshine, if we stay here we could never be adopted. Don’t you… Don’t you want to feel the warmth of a daddy or a mommy?”

Nightshine turned her head to see the other ponies all looking down at her hooves. They all said nothing as they simply looked down.

She sighed. “Short Stroke has a point. I've been here the longest and I've seen many ponies age out. It’s horrible that they’ll never get to feel love from a mother or a father. I don't want that to happen to any of you.”

“But we can't the gate is to high and the door is always locked.” Chrono whimpered. “What’s worse is that if we get caught we’ll be grounded for months.”

Honeycomb started to tear up before two earth ponies came in. As if on cue, the rest of the children charged into the two ponies.

Short Stroke got up and readied his equipment. “So, are we doing this?”

Nightshine eyes went wide. “You mean now?”

Honeycomb was shaking all over as Chrono helped her up onto her hooves. Even when she was standing up, she found it hard to keep her balance.

Then Short Stroke whispered, “This is the perfect time. If we act now, we can get away before Serenity or anyone else notices.”

Chrono sighed, seeing the couple of ponies get ran over by the fillies and colts. ”Let’s go.” He nodded.

Honeycomb was crying a bit as Nightshine hugged her and let her play with her mane. They then snuck through the crowd of other colts and fillies, making sure not to get seen by anyone else as the ponies’ attention was fixated on the other children more.

The four orphans went down the hallway, with Short Stroke in front. They went through two big cafeteria doors and crossed through the vacant benches towards the kitchen in the back. They crept up to the doors and pushed them open, sneaking into the darkened kitchen. There was a large back door with a cart of apples sitting delicately beside it.

Nightshine smiled at the sight of Short Stroke’s plan. She watched him clamber up on the back and help his friends climb up. With her climbing onto the cart the last, the four ponies hid themselves within the piles of apples.

She took one final look back at the orphanage and looked at Short Stroke with tears welling up in her eyes. She knew that this would be a fruitless endeavour and that it would be impossible for them all to find a mother and father to look after them. She fought back against her tears and stayed perfectly still, so as not to disturb the apples and give the whole group away.

“Nightshine, I'm sorry for dragging you into this, but I couldn't just leave you behind.” Short Stroke put his hoof on Nightshine’s shoulders and looked into her eyes. “I didn’t want you having to wait for a mom or dad in there.”

“It's alright.” She gently gave him a small hug. “I don't know if this a good idea. But I couldn't just leave you alone. I told you that I'll always be with you, no matter what.”

He nuzzled her cheek and patted her on the back as she held him close. The two friends hung their heads and drifted off to sleep with Chrono and Honeycomb as the applecart began to move, taking them away from the orphanage and off on a long road to parts unknown.