A Filly In The Dark (Raindrops I)

Raindrops had always taken certain pride in her own youth. Octavia tried to compensate her own looks by acting as dignified as possible, or so the pegasus thought, but she? Raindrops was a pony of but the color black, which in and of itself wasn't very special where another filly had lived together with her parents. Back in the place where the nightsky was lit with a gazillion stars and the father sang songs to best the silence.

She had taken pride in her youth and wasn't afraid to show what scared her. She knew about being judged for it but as long as she had a family that cared about her, that didn't matter. She remembered herself only a week before, crying because of something, she didn't even remember what. Madame had come, calmed her down, told her soothing things. She was but a little filly, not even ready to do minor factory work. That was something she needed to remind herself of every day.

When a moment of honesty struck, Hugh would always sit down alone and just stare at the table where they always ate and the smell of muffins had long since been absorbed by the furniture. She remembered walking in and just watching him, just like the other filly had done once before with her father. Every single time she had done that and once he saw him breaking down in tears, thinking nopony else was there. She had seen it, the truth of it. He didn't have enough room or money for so many fillies in one place and even though their presence gave him happiness, he knew that it was but a short-lived dream. All dreams died eventually, all you needed to do was wake up, but he never wanted to.

Raindrops had found herself in the Dark ever since that moment. The Dark, that's how she called the world the adults lived in. A world where you had to pay taxes for everything and were mocked because your house held children that were not your own offspring, a world where a minor problem like Derpy's eyes could get a pony into lots and lots of trouble. A world, where you knew of other ponies' worries and even the sweet scent of muffins became salty with tears.

She had placed a mobile above her head and tried to sleep with a nightlight again, letting herself be told small stories by Hugh and singing herself and the others to sleep while Madame Hooves gently let her hooves stroke through her mane. The warmth of home and family was for her, not the loneliness and the pain the Dark presented. She was but a little filly, not ready to face the world before her.

But the Night Terror had appeared and had dragged the world down, stripped the truth from everypony's skin. She had heard the nightmares and looked upon the terrors they inflicted and if it hadn't been for Goldengrape and Doseydotes she would not have survived it. Now, she was trapped in blackness. A filly in the Dark.

She spread her wings, tried to break as much as she could so she wouldn't hit the ground with full speed, she heard Twilight hitting the ground first, then Trixie landing beside her. Lyra chose to use the piebald unicorn as a cushion and landed safely upon her, at least until Derpy hit the ground. At least she hadn't forgotten to use her wings, only Celestia would've know what might have happened if she had. Octavia landed head first in the sand, everything above her neckline digging itself into the ground and tried to get it unstuck. With a *plop* she managed to get out of her hole and immediately turned to the others, sand in her mane, trying to look like nothing had happened.

"Everypony alright?" She asked. In the last moment, Raindrops tried to take one more break but instead folded her wings in a panicked motion, and fell the last few centimeters right into the sand, which felt far too soft. There was only little resistance and in fact the first thing that sprung to Raindrops' mind was an old pegasi proverb.

"This is fluffy as a cloud."

The others seemed to agree, even Trixie hadn't thought of moaning about the weight of the ponies lying on her. Twilight had closed her eyes, like she was asleep. 'Adorable', an adult would have called it. The unicorn responded after a few seconds, though. "I'm better than I expected," she said, weakly. She wasn't as full of power as when that horrible, horrible crack in the sky had appeared. Even her trying to stand up appeared clumsy, and Derpy rushed immediately to her help.

"Thanks," the unicorn told the grey pegasus, who tried to give her a confident smile in return.

"That's what friends are for."

Lyra helped Trixie up, telling her that it was nice to play cushion. Trixie brushed it off, saying that the ground was softer than she would ever be.

"She's right," Raindrops piped in and a small, smug smile appeared on Trixie's face. Somehow it managed to brighten up Lyra anymore.

"You're back!"

The smile vanished and Trixie turned with a huff.

"What's up with her?" Lyra asked, Raindrops shrugged. She didn't know. She didn't want to know.

"We need to go on," she said instead. In truth she wasn't quite sure about this Lunarium business but if it got her away from Canterlot and the monsters she was fine with it. No more adults, no more looks, no more judging and no more pain. She wanted to leave the Dark now and maybe even go where the filly and her family had rested. Somewhere with clear skies and a bazillion stars. Or somewhere deep down beneath the earth, where nopony would ever look for her. She wanted to forget what she had seen but an hour ago. For that, they needed to move forward.

Everypony was standing up straight now and it was only then that they all took a look around. They stood in a large cavern, filled with white sand that felt fluffy beneath their hooves. Inspecting it closer, Raindrops noted that the sand had the faintest glow to it, as if it had absorbed the light of the moon. She didn't know why and, quite frankly, was only happy to have some light. She hadn't actually thought about sleeping without light or even walking through the tunnels. Instinctively she walked up to the nearest pony, which happened to Octavia, who seemed to be as nervous as Raindrops was or even more. Just as she had stepped close she could feel how Octy tried to get as close to her as possible, staring at what surrounded them. Was she afraid?

There were tunnels all around them, some of their entries only barely made it above the sand, others were in the walls above it, but only one had the sand going into. That was weird.

"Wait," Twilight said, "I read about this. Princess Luna once brought parts of the moon so close to our world that their dust rained down on and there it formed a pathway from Canterlot to a. . ." she seemed unsure, "place."

"Well, that tells us nothing," Octavia said with a sigh.

"Yeah, it's totally anticlimatkit-" Lyra threw in.

"Anticlimactic," Twilight corrected.

"Just what I said. If Princess Luna lost Moondust that accidentally led some ponies somewhere I guess we have to follow the bright, sparkly path."

The conclusion was so bad Raindrops wanted to honestly say that they should think this over, not that they'd take the wrong path. Yet, they needed to get away from here and as long as it led them away from Canterlot it was fine. As long as where they were going was somewhere else, she was completely fine with it.

They had all witnessed things in Canterlot, they all wanted to run away so they seemed to quietly agree with Lyra, and as the white filly started walking, they followed. Six little fillies, stumbling over the weird sand that might have once been brought down from the moon.

They went a few steps and Raindrops had Octavia close by her side but then the light left them, and they stumbled through a dark corridor without being able to see. That was when the fillies felt themselves growing smaller and smaller, she could hear sniffling, she could feel Octavia fumbling for a hoof to hold, just as she did the same. Suddenly they were surrounded by darkness and they realized what Raindrops had tried to make herself see while still managing to keep herself blinded.

They weren't meant to adventure, they all  just wanted to go home. She could say something, maybe she even should have said somethin. Maybe, yet the sniffling was broken by a weak Twilight.

"Lyra, can you do me a favor?" she asked between huffed breaths, managing to carry a faint hope in her voice.

"Y-yeah?"

"Close your eyes."

"What?"

Raindrops was just as perplexed as Lyra about that question.

"Just do it," Twilight said softly and after a pause she said: "Now think about something warm and bright, a small flicker, a little flame."

A small flicker, there in the dark.

"Now a sun. Make it bright, make it full of hopes and love."

She could hear Lyra grunt as the unexpected strain hit her body and then a small, glowing orb appeared over her head and started floating above it. Her horn glistened with green, magicky stuff.

"Let it soar above you, free. Relax," Twilight instructed, sounding absolutely dazzled by the sight, and Lyra followed suit, sitting down, relaxing her shoulders and the orb starting floating in circles around her horn. Twilight smiled confidently and nodded, "Good. I think it should work on its own now. You can open your eyes now Lyra."

So Lyra did and she looked at the orb. The unicorn laughed and shouted: "I did magic!"

She jumped up and nopony couldn't contain their smiles at the sight. The orb disappeared instantenously.

Raindrops couldn't hold it in.

"OH, COME ON!"