Chasing Twilight Stars

Twilight ran a brush over Star Chaser's coat and picked up a new diaper.

"Didn't I just change you, you little stinker?" Twilight cooed.

Star Chaser simply waved his hooves at her and stared.

"Who's a stinky little colt? Huh? You're so smelly, I didn't know a foal could stink so much." Twilight nuzzled the top of his head as she unstrapped the old diaper and then carefully wrapped it up and stuck it in the special container she'd bought for dirty diapers. "Is that why babies are so cute? Otherwise mama woulda ran at the first stink?"

"That's gotta be it." Spike answered through his plugged nose.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad." Twilight said with a laugh.

"It's poop, yes it's that bad." Spike groaned.

"Hey Spike, you know those papers I got last night, can you put them on the kitchen table for me? I have some stuff I need to go over." Twilight asked and grabbed a clean diaper for Star Chaser.

"Sure. I'll make us some coffee too." Spike yawned as he headed for the kitchen.

Star Chaser happily gurgled and then yawned as Twilight changed the diaper.

"Awww. Are you tired my little Shining Star?" Twilight cooed and began to rock the foal. "You didn't sleep much last night did you? Kept me up all night even. A whole two hours of sleep! But I'm still kickin'!"

The foal only babbled in response.

"Don't you take that tone with me." Twilight teased. "You know exactly what you did."

The foal let out a tiny yawn and closed his eyes while Twilight rocked him.

When she was sure the foal was asleep, Twilight gently tucked him into his bassinet and headed for the kitchen.

"Your papers are right there, and coffee already done." Spike yawned sipping on his own coffee already.

"Spike, have I mentioned I love you?" Twilight laughed as she took a large gulp of the offered coffee.

"A few times, usually when I make coffee." Spike laughed and sat with Twilight.

"Well, it never hurts to repeat, I love you, and I love your coffee." She nodded and picked up a paper.

"This one's just intake papers, the foals who have been abandoned, by whom and when, in case the foal wants to meet his or her birth parents later down the road." Twilight yawned and picked up another sheet, setting aside the first.

"Here's the donation log!" Twilight exclaimed. "Wow, they... they get a lot just from donations."

Twilight's ears went down and she frowned.

"If Scootaloo wasn't exaggerating, this is a serious serious problem." Twilight muttered, and went to sort through more of the papers.

"Taxes, basic taxes at that. Hmm, where's the actual filing information?" Twilight asked herself and began to sift through papers. "Ah, here it is!"

Twilight's eyes roamed over the paper, basic things, foal adoption processing, blankets and food, beds and sheets, laundry deter-what's that?

"Spike, shouldn't donations and expenses at an orphanage line up fairly well?" Twilight asked, reading over the papers a third time.

"What, they don't?" Spike asked trying to make sense of all the numbers on the sheets Twilight held.

"They don't, there's at least twenty-thousand bits of donations missing." Twilight frowned. "That can't be right..."

"Maybe somepony just did the math wrong." Spike answered.

"No I don't think so, the actual expenses line up fairly well with what Scootaloo said, I just didn't fully believe her because even Celestia and Luna donate to the orphanage quite often. And these numbers are way too different to just be simple miscalculation." Twilight answered.

"And that means?" Spike asked very confused.

"It means that the orphanage director, or someone at that level of power, is taking money meant for homeless foals and keeping it to themselves!" Twilight shouted and slammed her hoof on the table in anger. "What kind of pony steals from homeless foals?"

"An asshole?" Spike offered with a smirk.

"Spike! You watch your language!" Twilight scolded. "Though....I think you're right."

Twilight was silent for a long time as she read over the papers again and again.

"Spike, I'm gonna leave Star Chaser with Fluttershy, okay?" Twilight said firmly a spark of anger in her voice. "None of these numbers add up, and I am beginning to suspect fraud and embezzlement."

"Sure, you got all the formula and stuff right? I'll take everything over and help her." Spike asked.

"The instructions are on the package." Twilight answered as she stormed from the house.

"Don't kill anypony!" Spike called after her.

"No promises!" Twilight called back as she stepped out the door.

Twilight triple checked all her supplies as she headed towards her friend's cottage outside Ponyville, Spike alone couldn't handle Star Chaser she knew, so she'd have to ask Fluttershy, and introduce the two.

"You'll like Fluttershy, Star Chaser, she's quite and friendly, and she's great with foals!" Twilight smiled and approached Fluttershy's door.

Twilight knocked several times and then stepped back.

The Pegasus began to greet her and stopped, staring at the foal strapped to Twilight.

"Um... Hi Fluttershy, can we come in?"

Fluttershy nodded mutely.

"Fluttershy, this is Star Chaser, Star Chaser, this is Fluttershy! She's my best friend!" Twilight said happily.

"You had a foal?" Fluttershy finally spoke.

"No, he got abandoned on my doorstep, why do you think I've been missing for days? I've been trying to handle this little guy!" Twilight exclaimed with exasperation.

Twilight picked the foal out of his carrier and set him on the floor of Fluttershy's cottage.

"I've been watching him and taking care of him until he can find a home, Scootaloo seemed to believe the orphanage was terrible so I decided I was going to take care of him until he found a proper home, and go investigate it today. But I don't want to bring Star Chaser because I don't want him to even see an orphanage and then think I'm going to abandon him there!"

"Oh that's terrible. Of course I'll watch him!" Fluttershy said gently and nuzzled the little foal who squealed in glee at his newfound friend.

Star Chaser giggled and grabbed for Fluttershy's muzzle, who snorted at the unexpected invasion, and sent Star Chaser tumbling back.

"Are you alright Star?" Twilight asked, and the foal began to giggle."That's a yes."

"Who would just leave a foal?" Fluttershy asked.

"Well, I mean they did knock on my door and insure I was awake and going to answer the door before they ran away. They might have teleported or flew, but...I don't think so." Twilight frowned. "I'm pretty sure she was watching to make sure I'd bring him into the castle so he wouldn't die of cold."

"How could anypony just let a foal stay out in the cold?" Fluttershy asked.

"I don't think anypony can, which is why I think she watched to make sure I was home and would answer. I wish I knew who she was..." For the first time Twilight truly began to wonder about the mare that had birthed Star Chaser, what was her life like? Where did she live? What kind of pony was she?

"Oh the poor dear." Fluttershy whispered.

"Do you think... do you think you could watch him for me for a bit?" Twilight asked.

"Twilight, I Already said I'd watch him." Fluttershy smiled.

"...Right, sorry. I'm tired, alright?" Twilight defended herself.

"Perfectly understandable." Fluttershy nodded. "Now go do your investigating."

"Thank you Fluttershy, also could you um... not tell the girls? I'd rather do introductions later, personally."

Fluttershy nodded and offered Star Chaser a hoof, which he shortly began to chew on.

Twilight grumbled and hissed as she stomped towards the orphanage in Canterlot, hoping against hope that all her calculations and Scootaloo's eyewitness reports were incorrect.

"What kind of pony steals from a bucking fund meant for foals who lost their parents and homes?" Twilight growled. "One of us better just be wrong in our information. Foals exaggerate, right? Scootaloo might be remembering all of that wrong because she was so lonely. And I might have done the math wrong!"

Twilight took in a deep breath and faked a smile, then knocked on the orphanage doors.

A prim looking pink pegasus mare answered the door. Her orange mane seemed to be ironed straight and her tail had a bow in the end, a cutie mark of a feather was upon her flank.

"Pr-princess Twilight? To what do we owe the honor?" The mare bowed.

"Well I heard about the plight of the orphaned foals through a previous charge of yours and decided I would like to read to them and spend some time with them every week, if that's okay with you." Twilight smiled and held out the book she'd brought, The Very Hungry Parasprite.

"Oh! Well, today was the foals field trip day!" The mare exclaimed.

Twilight heard a babbling of foals and looked hard at the mare.

"Oh well, besides the ones who were sick or injured, or chose to stay behind. One our foals, a little pegasus, he thought he could climb the wardrobe and jump off to fly. He broke his wing. Some of his friends decided to stay back and keep him company so he wouldn't be too lonely." The mare smiled. "There's been a spat of the flu going around as well, so some of them are simply trying to sleep it off."

"Well I could read to them anyway, I won't get sick, Alicorn magic and all that." Twilight waved her hoof.

"Indeed? Well then Princess, please come in, they'll be so thrilled to have company. My name is Wind Whistle, I've been working here about six months. Mostly as a secretary, but I do spend time with the foals as well. It's so rewarding to help them with their social skills and such, though keeping them happy seems a bit of a challenge."

"I imagine, all those little foals without homes, it can't be easy." Twilight smiled.

"Princess Twilight!" A cheer went up and two foals rushed towards her.

"Hi! What are you doing here? Are you gonna adopt one of us?" A little green unicorn asked.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry, I have my own little foal to deal with right now, but, I did come to read to you! I just might start doing it every week, would you like that?" Twilight asked and felt a pang when the unicorn's face fell.

"Oh." She said sadly. "But you said you brought a book?"

"Yep, it's called The Very Hungry Parasprite have you ever heard it before?" She asked.

The two foals shook their heads.

"Well then, it'll be brand new to you! Lets go get your friends and we'll read it together!" Twilight smiled and trotted towards the filly's section of the orphanage and poked her head into the room, her face fell.

The blankets did indeed look thin and tattered, two small toys sat in the middle of the room, with two little fillies sharing them together. A pale blue one had her wing haphazardly bandaged.

"Hello there." Twilight said with a forced smile.

"Princess!" The fillies cheered and ran to Twilight.

"We got visited by a princess!" A pink unicorn cheered.

"Yep, I came to read to you little ones." She forced her voice to be cheery as a rage built in the pit of her stomach. She half wanted to start screaming at Wind Whistle, though logic told her the mare had nothing to do with the state of this place.

"Why don't you follow me and we'll get the little colts too and read the book together?" Twilight asked.

"There's only Tango left, the other colts all went to the field trip." The gray filly pouted.

"Well, lets go get him anyway. You little ones deserve a good story."

And so Twilight ended up in the dining room, with five little foals staring up at her in adoration.

"Do any of you know how to read yet?" Twilight asked.

The singular colt, and the pink unicorn filly raised their hooves.

"Would you like to help me? What are your names?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah! I'm Tango!" The colt exclaimed rushing to sit between Twilight's forelegs and help with the offered book.

"And what's your name little filly?" Twilight smiled at the unicorn who climbed into her forelegs more carefully.

"Strawbsdlkjflake" The filly mumbled.

"You'll have to speak up," Twilight smiled, gently poking the filly.

"Strawberry Snowflake." She said louder, her face flushing even pinker.

"Well, how do the rest of you feel about Tango and Strawberry Snowflake reading to you too?" Twilight asked.

The remaining three foals nodded happily.

"And what are the rest of your names?" Twilight asked.

"I'm Sugar Snow!" A white pegasus smiled.

"Silver Shine!" The silver earth filly answered.

"My name's Velvet Sparkle!" The final brown unicorn filly responded, causing Twilight to snort in laughter.

"That's adorable." Twilight laughed.

Velvet Sparkle's face fell and tears formed in her eyes.

"Velvet, are you okay?" Twilight asked worriedly.

"You think my name is funny." The filly mumbled beginning to cry.

"Oh! No I don't, I mean I do, but not like that! My mothers name is Twilight Velvet! So I thought it was kind of funny to be meeting a cute little filly that shares half my name and half my moms!" Twilight smiled and ruffed up the top of the filly's head. "Your name is wonderful."

"Really?" Velvet Sparkle asked with a wide grin.

"Really, it's a great name, you all have have great names. Now why don't we get to this book?"

A collective cheer went up.

Twilight kept her composure throughout the story time and even leaving the orphanage, promising the foals she'd return the next week.

She teleported home and flung a pillow against the wall, and then screamed loudly.

"Whoa, Twilight, you okay?" Spike asked entering the room.

"No Spike, I'm not." Twilight seethed with rage. "Scootaloo was right!"

"About what?" Spike asked in confusion.

"The orphanage! There were two bucking toys for all the foals! And the blankets looked so thin and ratty! There is no excuse for this!" She screamed. "I swear to Faust, Spike, heads will bucking roll!"

"Deep breath Twilight." Spike instructed.

Twilight took in several breaths and then looked at Spike.

"Thanks, now, why don't we go get Star Chaser, he's spent long enough with Fluttershy and I've spent long enough away from my little foal."

Spike grinned widely.

"He's not going to be adopted is he?" He asked laughing.

"Oh he is." Twilight answered. "By me."