Hope Dawning

Intro

The past is not a happy place for a filly like me.

In my short life I have learned that the future holds a great number of possibilities and dreams, but the past is set and often cruel.

As I grew up, I was often advised to hold onto trinkets I was given. My first saddle, the cradle I slept in as a child, but these things hold nothing for me. They are shells of memories, reminders of things that have come and gone.

Now I dream of every possible smile of anypony I meet, but I was not always able to see the future so happily, there were times I lost sight of my dreams, and a foal knows nothing of dealing with despair.

Story

Weeks had passed.

Burning terrorized the Dawn family, as a Foal he had been a handful, but now he would drink cider all day and shout at everypony.

Hope knew the cider Burn drank was bad, she had seen Mr. Dawn drink too much before and get angry at Mrs. Dawn for no reason. It was a bad thing, and Hope thought if she got rid of it, things would get better.

The sun was out today, with almost no clouds in the sky.

Hope loved sunny days, they brought a certain shimmer to her thoughts, like everything was going great even when it wasn't.

Throughout the day, she kept up the cheerful smile and hop in her step despite knowing after school and helping out at the store, she would be heading home.

Home used to be a happy word, one that glowed like a light behind it, now it was a word that reminded Hope of being dunked under cold water.

But today was special, and she didn't want Home to be a cold place, so she was determined to make it work out so everypony would be happy.

<//\>

The first part of Hope's plan was to get Burning to stop drinking, and she figured what better way than to give him something better to drink!

The sarsaparilla she had bought with her allowance seemed to work, although Burning had asked around if anyone had seen his cider, he snapped up the fizzy drink just as quickly before retreating to his room that morning.

The second part of her plan had been to make Mr. Dawn happy, and he seemed happy when she helped out at the store, so after school she stayed for a long time, helping organize everything there and talking with the friendly clerk Mr. Dawn had hired.

The last part was to make Mrs. Dawn happy. But Hope had taken a lot of time to think about it while looking out on the apple orchards and she couldn't think of what would make her happy. Finally Hope decided to get her some flowers, she never saw any flowers around the house and thought the bright colors might help cheer the place up.

Everything was in place and Hope trotted home with a smile, carrying a few choice roses in her teeth, opening the door to a scene that shocked her and scared her more than anything else ever had.

Burning and Mr. Dawn were screaming at eachother, almost nose to nose as the furniture in the room had been torn apart.

"....It you lousy, good for nothing snob!" Burning was hollering.

"I have done no such thing, ingrate. You must be out of your mind to treat our hospitality this way." Mr. Dawn replied.

"I will tear this house apart until I find it, and you can't stop me old man!"

"I will call the sheriff on you, if you touch another single thing in this room."

Mrs. Dawn came over to the stunned Hope out of a corner, sneezing violently and her eyes watering with more than just tears as she yanked the flowers out of Hope's mouth, leaving cuts on her lip where the thorns bit.

The flowers were spit outside. "Dear, I am terribly allergic to flowers, now we need to go upstairs so Mr. Dawn and...."

Mrs. Dawn didn't have a chance to finish as Hope dashed past her, tears streaming from her eyes and a drop of blood making its way down her chin.

"Stop! why are y'all fightin?" She cried out in confusion. She had tried to make today perfect.

Mr. Dawn was about to answer when Burning turned on her.

"It was you." He said, voice shaking with rage.

Hope took a shocked step backwards as he advanced on her.

"No wonder you had that soda all of a sudden, and didn't care I took it. You took my cider, didn't you, you sniveling worm?"

Hope stammered as she kept backing up, almost to the door again.

"I jus thought...." Was all she got out before he was upon her, pinning her down.

"Where is it?!" He cried out, eyes wild.

Maybe if she told the truth, if he knew it was gone and she hadn't drank it he would calm down, maybe he was angry because he thought she drank it.

She knew she was lying to herself before she opened her mouth, but she told the truth anyway, putting her faith in everything working out in the end.

"I dun poured it down the drain." She said, barely a whisper.

His eyes froze on hers and that moment seemed to drag on forever as a gentle breeze wafted in through the open door.

Then there was pain.

Hope had brought up her right foreleg as he had brought up his, and his hoof connected with her shin with a deafening crack that sounded like a bolt of lightning hitting a tree.

<//\>

Hope woke up in the hospital, nurses talking over her in hushed tones, her whole body numb and her right foreleg immobilized in a cast.

"Poor dear. And on her birthday too, I've heard it was her brother, the Dawns always had a history with the drink, didn't they?"

Hope looked out the window next to her bed, where the moon was coming up. A great silver thing that reminded her of calm and happiness.

Then she looked down at her cast, where there was one name, written in shaky hoofwriting with a single word next to it.

"Burning Dawn" and "Sorry."

With a small smile, and one last look at the moon, she felt a funny feeling that was like drifting in a pond while sleeping, she knew everything would turn out okay, and she knew burning would get better just as her leg would.

She awoke the next morning to her cutie mark, and a brand new day, with only better things ahead.