Nightshine's Incredible Journey

Nightshine woke with a jolt and looked up to see a giant red earth pony stallion looking down at him. She shrieked as the the giant red stallion stumbled backwards against a nearby tree.

“Nightshine what's wrong?!” Short Stroke looked all around him trying to find her in the apples.

Chrono and Honeycomb both woke up and poked through the apples as they looked at the stallion with wide eyes. It was then that they saw another pony with a wavy brown mane and tail. The pony was a stallion who wore a blue plaid shirt. He approached the stallion and held out his hoof.

”Big Mac? What’s going on here?” The stallion asked, looking back and forth between him and the four children.

Big Mac said nothing as he climbed to his hooves and pointed at the orphans. “Now, what are you four doing in my applecart?”

“I’m sorry, sir. We’re all orphans and we were just trying to find a new home.” Nightshine climbed out of the cart and landed delicately on her hooves.

Short Stroke jumped out and fought back against the tears in his eyes. “Please don't give us back to the orphanage! We’ll be adopted long before they ever figure out were gone!”

“So you four are from an orphanage?” The brown stallion walked up to the children as Chrono and Honeycomb climbed out as well.

Honeycomb nodded and whimpered, “Yeah. We came here because we'll never be adopted.”

Chrono looked at the stallions with tears forming in his eyes. “Will you help us get adopted, mister?”

The pony turned to Big Mac and asked, “You think we should help them?”

Big Mac shrugged. He wasn’t good with adoption scenarios and decided to remain silent. Then the other pony turned to the four who were all pouting and whimpering. “Alright, you four.  Come with me and I'll help figure something out.”

They all yipped in glee and bounced on the spot before following the pony through the town. They watched ponies trotting back and forth through the streets with its vibrant colours and energy. To see such life, such tranquility, and such peace seemed alien to the four. All that they did for the journey was watch in awe.

“Is this place Ponyville?” Chrono asked.

“Yeah it is, what gave it away?” The stallion nodded.

Chrono pointed to the statue of Celestia and chirped with a grin on her face. “Ponyville is the only town with a statue of Princess Celestia.”

“Ponyville…” Nightshine whispered to herself. “I've heard of this place. This is where Princess Twilight lives.”

“A princess…” Short Stroke looked at the ground and saw his hooves begin to shake. He had never encountered a princess in his life.

The pony turned his head and saw that they were still a bit dirty from the ride over. He turned his head back and gave them a gentle smile. “Let's get to know each other more. My name is Filthy Rich.”

“My name is Short Stroke,” the brown earth pony colt replied.

             “I’m Nightshine,” the bat pony filly added.

             “Honeycomb. That’s my name,” the yellow filly squeaked quietly.

          “My name is Chrono.”

          ”Alright. Short Stroke, Nightshine, Honeycomb, and Chrono. It’s nice to meet all of you.” Filthy Rich nodded.

          He looked back ahead and heard the four orphans gasp together as they saw another building. It was three stories tall with purple-coloured double doors. He opened them up and walked in with the children close behind him.

Nightshine’s eyes grew wide as she looked around and saw that the place was very well-furnished. Chrono was already at a nearby bookshelf picking between the different titles on the spines. Short Stroke was bouncing on the couch with Honeycomb. Together, the four orphans were having a lot of fun together.

“So Nightshine? How old are you?” Filthy asked as he walked up to her.

           She looked up at him and said. “Ten years old.”

“Well, I'm going to be frank with you.” His tone of voice lowered. “I know that you and your friends want to be adopted but I'm sure it'll be against the law for me or anyone else to keep you.”

            “I know, I know.” She let out a sigh. “This whole thing was Short Stroke’s idea and I just played along. I never had the heart to tell him that this wouldn't work.”

             Filthy replied, “Well it's not all bad. I can take you all to Princess Twilight and see what we can do.”

              “You’re friends with Princess Twilight?” The children all pricked up their ears, turned to Filthy, and spoke in perfect sync with each other.

              ”Yep. Her and all of her friends.” Filthy Rich nodded. “Heck, she saved all of Equestria many times over. She’s very accepting of making new friends. And if she kind find some loophole and I can find you food homes, I’ll do all that I can to get you little ones to some nice new mommies and daddies.” He tousled the manes of all four orphans. “And let’s be honest here. None of you deserve to go back to the orphanage.”

    Nightshine began to shed tears and ran right into Filthy’s chest and hugged him. She was shortly joined by her other friends who all looked up to him with smiles in their eyes. They had never seen such an act of kindness before and were very grateful to him for all that he was doing for them. They would not forget this for a long time.

          Twilight flew towards Filthy’s house with Spike sitting delicately on her back. She landed at the doors and opened them up to see him on the floor laughing with the four orphans crawling over him and cuddling into his clothes.

“Uh… What’s going on here?” Twilight raised a brow at Filthy and the children.

The four little ponies looked up and gasped, seeing Princess Twilight standing at the door. They all gasped and quickly got off of Filthy and bowed to her.

“It’s alright.” She chuckled and blushed at each cheek. “Who are you?”

They all exchanged glances with each other and gulped before Nightshine bravely stepped forward.

“Princess Twilight, We’re orphans who… kinda ran away from the orphanage.” She rubbed the back of her neck.

“I understand. You were tired of waiting for someone to adopt you, so out of curiosity, ou broke away from the orphanage and wanted to find parents yourselves.” Twilight cracked a small smile. “It’s very brave of all of you.”

“Thank you, Twilight.” Short Stroke smiled himself. “Can I call you that?”

“Sure. Everyone else calls me that, even the other princesses.” She nodded and walked up to Filthy Rich. “Well, we have some big pony stuff to talk about, so Spike would love to play with you upstairs.”

“Wait, what?!” Spike jumped back. “Why me?

    “Please, Spike. It shouldn’t be for too long.” She gave him a caring smile and pushed him towards the fillies.

    “Alright, alright.” Spike grunted and walked off with the ponies close behind him.

Twilight waited for the orphans to be out of earshot before she turned to Filthy. “So what happened? How did they leave the orphanage?”

“Big Mac usually delivers apples to the orphanage and was coming back from a trip,” he said. “They must’ve snuck into his carriage and hitched a ride here. I only saw them because I was coming to collect some of those apples for my store. I didn’t realise that he’d brought back four orphan foals as well.”

Twilight nodded and slipped into a deep train of thought for a few moments. She wondered about the future for the four children. Where they would go. Who would adopt them. And what their orphanage would think about them escaping in the first place.

“So, you do know that they have to go back to the orphanage, right?” Twilight asked.

    “Twilight, those four were really desperate to find parents.” Filthy pleaded to Twilight. “Can’t we help adopt them instead?”

    “I could help them get adopted, but I’m going to have to inform the orphanage immediately about what's going on.” Twilight nodded and pulled out a quill from the nearby ink pot and accompanied it with a scroll of paper. “Though, I can’t imagine the repercussions of the children’s actions.”

    “I know. That gives us maybe a few hours to find homes for them.” Filthy nodded and looked out of the window. “I just hope that everything works out fine on your end.”

    “I’m sure it will, Filthy.” Twilight walked up to him and laid her hoof on his shoulder. “I wouldn’t want to send orphans back to an orphanage, but they did escape and despite their good intentions, I have no choice. No-one, not even me or Celestia is safe from the law.”

    “Twilight, it’s fine. You don't have to be so defensive about the situation.” Filthy looked back at her. “The four of them are children in need and I already said that we’d help them out. If they want to get angry and involve the cops, then I’ll stand by and risk my store just to keep them safe.”

    “Thank you.” Twilight smiled and gave him a gentle nuzzle. “I apologize for getting carried away.”

“Hey. It’s nothing you can’t handle, right?” Filthy smirked. “You faced such monsters like Nightmare Moon, Discord, Lord Tirek, and more. I’m sure you can handle four children.”

Twilight laughed at that remark and sighed gently. “You’re right. We can do this.” She took the quill and paper. “I’ll go write a letter to the caretaker now.”