Chapters Intro
I was born to Mr. and Mrs. Dawn. I didn't know them as mom or dad, they said it was unprofessional. They are so good at their jobs.
I went to their job one time, the biggest store in all of Appleloosa. Not to say it was large. And it mostly carried hardware and such for building barns and such, but Mr. Dawn always said someday we would sell food if he could ever get a farmer to sell it to him cheap enough.
I didn't understand, all our customers were farmers anyway and traded with eachother, but Mr. Dawn must have known what he was doing because he was the best salesman in Appleloosa.
Mr. Dawn's first name was Dusty. Dusty Dawn, and his cutie mark was of a sun rising over the desert. He said it was his destiny to live here in Appleloosa, and noone was going to tell him otherwise.
Mrs. Dawn's first name was Rosita, or Rosy Dawn. Her cutie mark was of the colors of a sunrise behind roses.
And it did, just not the way I thought it would. I never thought getting my cutie mark would hurt so much.
Story
Hope trotted up the stairs happily, eager to be home after a long day of schoolwork and helping out at the store.
She hated when people thought she was lying or couldn't handle something, and took every opportunity to show that she could.
Today she had been allowed to restock the nails and screws, and despite dropping one box of nails, she was able to pick them all up before anypony even noticed. Everything had gone great.
She clattered to a stop mid-thought in the hallway, staring in surprise at somepony she hadn't seen in a long time.
It was a tall white stallion with a reddish mane and tail. His cutie mark was of a sun with flames rising up around it.
he took a few steps forward.
"Names Burn, I'm sure you remember." he growled with a less than pleasant grin on his face.
"Of course, Burn. Sorry. I'm sure I'll remember next time." she said, never faltering in her upbeat attitude, but still stepping back from him warily.
He raised a hoof, whether to bump hooves or something more sinister, Hope didn't have to find out.
At that moment the door opened behind her, and Mr. Dawn walked in.
"Mr. Dawn, Burn is here to see us, isn't that great?" she said, keeping herself chipper as always.
"Isn't it?" Mr. Dawn repeated, looking the younger stallion over curiously. "And to what do I owe the pleasure."
It wasn't a real question. Hope knew when Mr. Dawn was asking a real question, he would end the sentence on a high note, like a curious bird, this was something different, a demand.
"Your supposed business partner in Las Pegasus crashed a cart full of underage fillies into a!...."
Before the angry yelling could continue, Mr. Dawn motioned for Mrs. Dawn and Hope to leave the room.
The shouting continued for easily a Candlemark, if not more.
Hope didn't understand any of it, she was too busy helping Mrs. Dawn cook food.
Sometimes she wondered if Mrs. Dawn ever spoke outside of singing nursery rhymes to her at night and telling her how to set the table.
That night, she got to sleep on the couch in the main room, which made her very happy, the couch had a better view of the stars than her bed, and she loved to watch the stars as she fell asleep.
The next morning, most of her stuff had been moved out of her own room, into a closet downstairs. Some of her clothes had gotten ripped in the process, probably by Burn, but she came up with a cool idea for a dress before Mr. Dawn took the ruined clothes away.
She was sure she would have a room again later, and he probably took the clothes to fix them. Since she didn't have school today, Hope very politely asked permission from Mr. Dawn to go play with her friends. He said yes, as long as she was back before sunset.
Hope had a few good friends who lived in or around Appleloosa, but the longest lasting friend she had was Little Strongheart. Strong was always at the cliffs overlooking the shared orchards between the town and the tribe.
After making her way to the cliffs Hope found the young buffalo, who was still older than her by several years, staring out across the only green in the land.
"Heya Strong." She said happily, sitting down beside her. "What're ya doing tonight?"
Strong sighed but smiled down at the young filly.
"I'll be busy, have some Tribal business to sort out, but I suppose we could hang out tomorrow."
Hope nodded. "That'd be great."
They resumed their silent observance of the afternoon on the treetops, remembering Strongheart's stories about the ponies from a distant land who had negotiated peace and befriended everyone they met.
"Tell me th' story bout the Pink pony again." Hope pleaded.
Strongheart laughed and shook her head.
"She was called Pinkie Pie. A more energetic Pony I've yet to meet. She sang and danced even when everyone else thought she was wrong, and they wouldn't listen."
"The chief thought that she was crazy, but in the end she turned out to be right, she never gave up. She was just a bit... off key." Strong chuckled.
Hope loved that story. A complete stranger helping out even when the people she was helping ignored her, She wished that more ponies were like that.
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.
Chapter 3. Sunrise Intro
In the years following that fateful birthday, a cold distance formed between my family and I.
This was not a distance fueled by fear or anger, it was created by Mr. Dawn as a way to save face. If he was never seen in public with his wayward daughter or drunkard son, who could blame him when they made mistakes?
I left Appleloosa when I turned 16, funding my own trip to canterlot to enroll in a school there for less fortunate ponies who wanted to further their education.
Luna’s School For Gifted Ponies. Less known than her sisters school, princess Luna’s school was a night school.
I figured since my cutie mark was of the moon and stars, I was supposed to study the night. and although I enjoyed my studies, I was never especially gifted in them. Eventually I drifted into studying ponies. It seemed natural for me to study those around me, and soon I was studying psychology.
Not a popular subject, Psychology was far more simplistic, closer to Sociology than true Psychology, but I studied it best I could, learning of those around me and the interaction of the mind.
This led to meeting the greatest friend I have ever had.
Story
Hope had been studying late this night. It was almost time for the sunrise and she was still engrossed in her book; “Theories of Friendship.” By a Twilight Sparkle.
To Hope, the book seemed more a journal or biography than a textbook, but the lessons to be gleaned from its pages were still valuable.
The click and slam of a door opening then being shut shook her out of an interesting chapter on parties and how they created the perfect environment in which to study psychologically damaged ponies.
“Hello?” She called out, only silence replying.
Stopping more due to curiosity than anything else, Hope wondered if she hadn’t imagined it, but decided to take a look.
The corner the blue tail had slipped past was a hallway which led to a series of stairs. Hope followed the stairs up and up, each door she came across was locked.
Finally, at the top of the tower, the last door sat cracked open.
Hope slipped through, leaving it open since she didn’t want to get locked out.
On the edge of the roof sat a familiar pegasus, Clover Star.
Clover was the daughter of a big shot stunt flier named Soarin. Clover was a dark green pegasus with a dark blue almost inky black mane and tail.
She took great pride in her dad’s reputation, but her own prospects of flight were dashed when she had discovered as a filly that her wing muscles were too small to control her wings.
Without the bands that held them against her sides, they would drag uselessly against the ground.
So it worried Hope especially that the bands were still in place, as Clover stood on the edge of the tenth floor of the library tower.
“Hey there.” Hope said gently, moving up next to the silent mare.
“Stars sure are pretty up here.” She said, still trying to get Clover to talk.
The Pegasus didn’t look at Hope, her eyes fixed on the ground far below them.
“I wouldn’t know. I don’t like looking at the sky.” Clover finally replied.
Hope looked down at the paving stones far below.
“You know, I was looking forward to studying with you this weekend. You going to be able to make it?” Hope asked calmly, even as her heart pounded in her chest.
“I don’t think so, Hope.” Clover didn’t move her gaze from the ground below.
“Well thats a shame. You’re the only one who has ever been able to keep up with me when I get all sciency.” she said, getting a small pebble from the roof behind her and dropping it off the building, listening to it tap against the stones below and clatter to a stop several feet away from its landing point.
“If you’re here to stop me, it’s too late. I’ve made up my mind.” Clover said determinedly.
“I’m not here to stop you.” Hope said quietly. “I wouldn’t try to stop you, but if you let me, I would love to delay you for a bit. Get in one more chat with you. It’d mean alot to me Clover.”
Clover was taken aback by this approach, and turned, still sitting on the ledge but facing Hope.
“So, I’ve been reading this book, its really great.” She said, pulling out the tome and laying it down.
“It says here that parties are a great way to meet friends, sadly I don’t have any streamers but I’ve got an apple and a bottle of water.” she said as she doled out the meager food.
Clover took her portion and started eating it with a confused expression on her face.
“Also, I am hungry.” Hope said sheepishly.
Clover smiled a little. Like a door cracking open, Hope felt a warmth begin to spread between them.
They told stories and shared opinions on books, fashion, and Colts well past sunrise, Hope started nodding off, and Clover suggested they go home and get some sleep.
And just like that, the ledge was forgotten.
As Clover dropped Hope off at her dorm room, Hope put a hoof on the green mare’s shoulder. “Hey...” she said sleepily.
Clover hesitated. “Yeah?”
“I will always listen Clover. I will always be there to listen to anypony who needs to talk to somepony.” She said with a sad smile.
Clover’s smile was warmer, and they hugged before Clover left.