The Only Truth

Chapter 1: No Longer an Orphan

I hate her, I hate her, I hate her. I hate the Mother or Father that left me on the orphanage steps that winter day. I was still a baby filly when it happened, but I still felt immense hate for whoever did it. I only remember brief glimpses of that night. A storm was pouring rain, an aura of magic surrounded my basket as I was taken down the dark, forlorn streets. I was set down on the orphanage doorsteps, the unicorn carrying me rang the doorbell, then left.

I turned in my small bed, and looked around the dark room I shared with a pegasus filly named Zoom. She named herself because she never heard her name in any memory she could remember. I knew mine, Cherish. I remembered it from some second long memories of sound, a sweet, gentle voice.

I felt my name was a misnomer. I never cherished anything, nor did I give kindness or care to anything, or anypony. I only cared about Zoom, my only friend.

The sky outside was still dark, and all the other fillies and colts would be asleep. A slight cold draft blew in through the door from the hallway. I hoped that today would bring some kind of happiness, for today was my birthday. I only knew this from a complex spell I made myself. It allowed me to get the season I was born in, but the actual date was to be guessed.

I slipped out of my bed and walked quietly over to the door. I silently unlocked the door, and opened it a crack. I looked towards the end of the dark hallway, where a window was open, bringing in the cold air I had felt chilling my fur. I turned to look at Zoom, who was sleeping peacefully in bed. Her wings twitched in her sleep as she dreamed of flying. She couldn't yet, but she was praticing here at the orphanage when she took classes. I turned back and began to close the door.

A hoof clamped over my mouth, and I jumped sky-high as I found Zoom looking at me.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "You're going to get caught!"

"I just wanted to-" I began.

"I don't care," she interrupted. "Some ponies want to sleep. If you can't, go back to bed."

Zoom walked back to bed and climbed back in. I walked back and got in bed, too. I fell asleep quickly.

I woke when the pots and pans went off. The matron was in the hallway, banging them together with complete ferocity, as if taking out her anger on them. I jumped out of bed, and went straight to the bathroom. I took a quick shower, then went straight to the mess hall. I took the breakfast, which was a dandelion sandwich, along with stale bread.

Then I went to class. The teacher, Ms.Guava, who had to be a total dead-beat if she had to work here, began to talk about something. I zoned out quickly, and began to mess around with my imagination, making tables monsters, the walls covered in spikes, and Twilight Sparkle, my idol, stand in the middle of the room.

A paper landed in front of my hooves. I came back to reality. It was a worksheet, which was about fifteen questions long. I grabbed a pen from one of the colts passing them out. I began to work. I finished in a few minutes, and turned it in. I then allowed my imagination to go wild once more.

We did a few more worksheets, then we left for dinner. It was the same as breakfast, a dandelion sandwich with stale bread. We were then allowed to do what we wanted until eight, which was lights out. I read books while Zoom launched herself out the window to see if she could catch the air.

I put up my book when it was eight, then got up and kicked my bed, which I considered my good luck charm. Maybe I'd get an after-birthday wish. Maybe tommorow I'd get adopted. I fell asleep.

A Few Years Later...

I half-heartedly kicked the bed. Another birthday had just gone by without any adoption or any notice from anyone who came to adopt a child. I was not too suprised, though. I was just a failure that those soon to be parents had to look at while they found a kid who wasn't such a failure.

My mane fell over my eyes, unwashed and greasy, and I saw a reflection on the wall from my ear piercings glittering in the light. I knew I was a failure, with my mane, my piercings, and my incredibly crappy attitude. It was not just crappy, it was beyond crappy. There was no other crappy attitude like it. Tell off everyone who told me to do something, swear violently after a small thing, and so on.

All my years here had killed my hope of adoption, any hope for another life away from this place. I was now sixteen, and was two years away from being kicked out and left to fend for my own in a world I knew nothing about. Life was a subject my books didn't want to talk about, the subject they constantly avoided, and never said a word about. I had no way to get a job, get a morgage, what investing is, hell, buying a home of any kind is a dream right now!

A knock sounded on my door.

"Somepony wants to see you," the matron said.

Me! Somepony wants to see me! As if somepony actually cared.

I left my room and walked down the stairs, past the rooms of the younger orphans, and down to the main entrance room. I looked to my right, and saw my idol, the pony I had wished I could be for years, Twilight Sparkle.

"Hello, Cherish," she said.

'She knows my name,' I thought, even though it was obvious why she did.

"Why are y- you here?" I asked.

"It's obvious, right?" she replied

I gasped. She was here to adopt... me.

"You want to adopt me?" I asked. "That uncaring, ungrateful beast?"

"Yes," Twilight said.

"Fine!" I said.

After hours of boring paperwork, I was allowed to leave, tommorow.(Don't say anything about how long it took to adopt her. It's Equestria, for God's sake!)

The Next Day...

I was packed and ready early that morning, and had hardly slept a wink that night. A new day, a new home, a new life.

We arrived at her house, a tree, early that morning. We walked in and I learned her house was also a library. There were so many books, I began to salivate (Not to eat the books, though). I set my stuff down and stared in awe.

"Come on," Twilight said.

I levitated my stuff back up and walked up a flight of stairs to a bedroom. There were two beds in the room, one neatly-made, presumably mine, and a another bed up a few more stairs that was messy and had the appearance that someone had had a nightmare in it.

I was shown to the neatly-made bed, and placed my stuff beside it.

"Thank you," I told Twilight.

"For what?" she replied.

"Getting me out of that place," I said.

"Then, your welcome," she replied.