Day one: I don’t know you
Applejack was enjoying the market in Ponyville. And for once, she wasn’t one of the vendors, even if she had had the thought to go back to the farm and catch something to sell. Just because she was used to. But it was nice being a customer for once. She could hear the shouting, the negotiations everywhere and the fillies begging their parents for some item or candies they wanted.
And she liked all those noises. It was her universe, where she felt at home.
But one noise became more and more annoying. She had heard it since more than a minute and she began to feel like it wasn’t like the rest. It was a little filly somewhere behind her calling her mother out:
“Mommy, mommy, wait for me!”
But as the little filly’s voice kept repeating herself, Applejack began to lose patience. Couldn’t the mother just take care of her child and let the rest of the ponies enjoy the market? Oh don’t get it wrong, Applejack loved fillies. But she had way enough with her little sister to not want to have to care too much about other’s foals and fillies.
But the voice kept and kept repeating.
“Mommy, I’m here.”
Worst than anything, the voice wasn’t going away, which meant that the mother and her filly must have been right behind her and following her in her journey between the stands. For some reason, Applejack couldn’t hear any more of that little filly’s voice and just decided to stop right there and let them pass. That would take care of the matter.
“Mommy? Mommy? Mommy?”
The little voice wasn’t going away. She had stopped too. They were following her. Applejack decided to face the mother to explain to what she was thinking at that very instant, but then noticed that everypony seemed to be looking at her with very strange looks on their faces. Incredibly strange and incomprehensible looks.
Applejack lowered her eyes and saw, just before her, a little pegasus filly, probably even younger than Applebloom, who was watching her with a big smile and said, with joy:
“Hello mommy.”
…
Applejack stopped breathing for a few seconds. And she was quite a smart pony, but her brain took its time to even begin to understand what was going on. And while she was striven to keep her grasp of reality, the little filly had come closer and hugged her leg with love.
At that moment, Applejack noticed Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow Dash in the crowd, looking at her with the most surprised look she had ever seen from them. Wanting to restore the truth, not even knowing what was the truth anymore, Applejack just had the instinct to say:
“This isn’t what it looks like!”
To be honest, none of her three friends knew what it looked like. But they sure had a lot a question in mind, and even more after hearing the little filly saying to Applejack:
“I love you mommy.”
A pink tornado startled the whole crowd when appearing from Applejack’s shadow and taking the little filly between her hooves, which made the little filly laugh.
“Oh Applejack, you secrety secretive, you never ever told us you had a daughter!” said Pinkie Pie, “What’s her name, how old is she? She looks like she is a grown up pegasus already, doesn’t she? I think she does, well, I could be wrong, but sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m left and sometimes I wake up on my head, you couldn’t imagine…”
She was laughing as well as the little filly, but Applejack, who just saw no reason whatsoever to find all that funny, interrupted Pinkie Pie and told her, and all the ponies that were there:
“Pinkie, stop that. She is not my daughter, I don’t have any daughter, and I’m way too young to have got one.”
But Pinkie, following only her own logic, replied:
“Well, she said you were her mother, didn’t she?”
That was a fact. And after Applejack had spoken, the little filly had ceased laughing and seemed pretty shocked. Her eyes began to look sad as it felt like she was begging Applejack to recognize her.
“She is not my daughter, I don’t have a daughter and that’s that.” said Applejack with the most convincing tone. “I don’t know what in ‘tarnation is going on here, but I’m sure she is no family of mine.”
Applejack was well known in Ponyville. Not only was she officially the element of honesty, but she had always proved it by being the most reliable of all ponies. Most of the ponies had known her since she was just a little filly and couldn’t imagine her keeping such a big secret for herself. And even more, Applejack clearly was too young to have given birth to a filly.
Her “daughter” as she claimed she was, had to be the one lying. The rest would only be a matter of why, which wasn’t, in the ponies opinion, as interesting. So the crowd began to go back to its occupations and left the five ponies take care of the matter.
Rainbow dash took the little filly from Pinkie Pie’s hooves. She wanted to ask her name, but the little pegasus was crying and asking for a mom, so it took a while to calm her. The rainbow pegasus was surprisingly good at it. She could eventually ask the little filly in her hooves what her name was. The answer wasn’t one of those she had thought she could receive:
“I don’t know.” answered the little pegasus. “My mother hasn’t given me a name yet.”
And she turned her little head in Applejack’s direction looking like she was begging for a name.
“What’s my name mommy? Do I have one?” she asked, trying to smile as she thought Applejack would take care of her, but still crying a little.
The farm pony was losing patience. For a reason she couldn’t quite understand at the moment, mostly her conscience having a hell of a hard fight inside her mind, she felt like she wanted her life back and absolutely nothing to do with the little pony that was watching her. “Her” little pony.
“You’ve got a name.” said Applejack, “Your mother gave you one, you just don’t want to tell us because you’re a liar. You know that I’m not your mother, and you should feel ashamed to rush into somepony’s life like that. I don’t need you to apology, but you should better begin to tell the truth, young missy.”
She had said that with a very normal tone, as she would have used to scold her own little sister. But it seemed like every one of her words was just like a spear thrown right through the little filly’s body and soul. She looked in a horrible pain. She had stopped crying, she wasn’t smiling or laughing, she was, even if the word feels a little weak to describe it, devastated. Her eyes looked just like if they had had all sparkle of life stolen from. And she wasn’t crying. Not one tear. Even if she clearly wanted to, but was just too broken to get even that little comfort.
Rainbow Dash, in anger, shouted to Applejack:
“Stop it! You see she isn’t ready to hear those things. You’re just being mean, you’re hurting her!”
It was too much for Applejack. Too much for one pony to handle on its own. She just told her friends:
“This is not my problem. That filly is probably just lost, there are public services to handle those things. I’ll let you bring her there.”
And she slowly fled from the difficulty of the situation, heading back to Sweetappleacres, head up but the moral down. In her heart, she felt like the biggest coward ever.
Rainbow Dash, whose passionate personality kept leading her to react began to go and stop her, but was stopped herself by Twilight and Rarity. The look in the white unicorn’s eyes convinced her to stay right where she was. Those eyes seemed to say “I agree, but this isn’t the good time and the appropriate way.” At least, it’s how Rainbow Dash translated it.
She put the little filly down on the ground and all four of them, as Pinkie Pie took part in it, tried to comfort her the best they could. And eventually succeeded.
“What shall we do now?” asked Rarity
“It’s getting late, I’ll take her to the library and we will try to find out who she is and where she comes from tomorrow in the morning.” answered Twilight.
“You hear that little filly?” told Rainbow Dash the little pegasus, “We will take care of you now.”
But the little one was still looking far away in the horizon, where Applejack had disappeared from her sight.
Day two: Who are you?
Twilight was slowly approaching her breaking point. She had tried the whole morning to get from the little filly who she was and where she came from, but all the answer she could get was that she wanted to see her mom and that she was sad because she missed her mom. And, of course, she wouldn’t say who her mother really was. The lack of cutie mark wasn’t helping either.
The most frustrating part was that the little filly seemed so innocent about it. But Twilight couldn’t just accept the idea of a deep mental trauma. It felt both too unfair and too odd at the same time. She had searched in her books, but didn’t find any psychological explanation.
By chance, she had given up before losing all patience and had sent Spike to go and seek the help of the mayor. She glanced at the little filly who was still mourning in a corner. Logic was telling Twilight that the little Pegasus was lying, but everything else was shouting that the pain she seemed to feel looked too real.
Pinkie Pie interrupted the thought when entering the library, by the door exceptionally.
“Where is she?” asked the pink pony, with a big smile on her face. “Oh there she is.” And she asked directly the little filly: “So how is Applejack’s daughter doing today? Are you fine? Did Twilight read you a story yesterday? I’m sure it was a good story, I know one myself, but I haven’t the slightest idea how it ends, so I’ve always changed it…”
The little filly, hearing Pinkie Pie calling her Applejack’s daughter, smiled at her, and it seemed like life had taken back possession of her body.
“You know that Applejack is my mom?” she asked Pinkie Pie, with hope to hear it once again.
“Well duh!” answered the pink pony. “You were the one who told me about it. Of course I know. And I’ve come to make sure you’re going to have fun today, because yesterday you looked really sad, and that made me feel terrible, so today I’ll make sure you aren’t sad, okay?”
The little filly lowered her eyes.
“I’m sorry.” she said, “You’re a very nice pony, but I don’t feel like having fun. I want my mom. I miss her.”
But Pinkie Pie wasn’t the kind of pony to give up that easily. She told her that Applejack would want her to have fun and enjoy the life that was, anyway, way too short to just mourn like that, and finally got the little filly to play with her.
Twilight saw and heard all of it. She didn’t like that Pinkie Pie was playing along with the little filly’s lie, but she felt a little better seeing her smile. She heard the door open once again, turned back and saw Spike inviting the mayor to enter the library.
“So, what seems to be the problem here?” asked the mayor, seeing only Twilight and Pinkie Pie happily playing with a little filly. “Is that nice little filly Applejack’s daughter?” she asked.
“Oh yes she sure is!” answered Pinkie Pie before Twilight could even react, “But she is letting us keep an eye on her for the moment. We are playing “make the ball bounce”, you want to play with us?”
The mayor declined with a little smile, as she, in fact, would have liked to play if she hadn’t had so much work in front of her. But Twilight began to correct what Pinkie Pie had said. She explained to the mayor all about it, that the filly wasn’t Applejack’s daughter, that she had come out of nowhere and refused to tell anypony who she was and who her real parents were.
The mayor thought about it a little moment, and then said:
“Well, we will have to take that filly to a foster’s home and begin to search for her real parents. Don’t worry, they will take good care of her in Canterlot.”
Canterlot was the only place where she was sure to find a home for the little filly, because there weren’t a lot of them that lost her parents in Equestria, so not every town had developed a social structure for those cases. And with her little size, Ponyville definitely had none.
“Wait!” shouted the little filly when she heard those words, “You can’t send me to Canterlot. I belong in here, my mother is here, she is all I have. Don’t take me away from her, please!”
The mayor, wanting to help her, told her that she wouldn’t go if she told them who her real parents were. But the little filly kept saying that her mother was Applejack, so they had no other choice but to take her, by force, out of the library and begin to bring her to the town hall for the papers before sending her to Canterlot.
The little filly tried to resist, to shout, cry and ask Pinkie Pie for help, but she was just a little filly with very little strength, so she couldn’t do much. But her screams attracted another pony who stopped the mayor and Twilight before they could make it to the town hall. A rainbow colored pony.
“What’s going on?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“We are taking the little filly to Canterlot. There she will be taken care of properly until we find out who her parents are.” answered Twilight.
But she quickly understood that it wasn’t enough for her pegasus friend.
“What? Just like that?” asked Rainbow Dash, “We haven’t even tried anything ourselves. We can’t just give her to somepony else like this isn’t our problem. We are not like that, are we? I’m not like that!”
Both the mayor and Twilight ignored that Rainbow Dash just came from Sweetappleacres where she had spoken with Applejack, mostly to ask from her that she went and apologize to the young filly for the way she had treated her the last day. But Applejack had refused, saying that it wasn’t her business, that she had done nothing wrong and had way too much to do to care about every filly with silly ideas. For some reason, Rainbow Dash had felt insulted by her friend’s behavior and left her with bitterness in her heart. So when she had seen the little filly being dragged in the middle of the street and heard her cry and scream, she had felt obligated to intervene.
Even if it wasn’t her business.
And even it the little filly hadn’t asked her anything.
She just felt that she had to do it.
And even after Twilight had explained how she had tried all morning to find out about the parents, Rainbow Dash still couldn’t accept to give up. It was that flame in her chest that was burning like an erupting volcano.
“We can still try something, something else!” she said, trying to find out what at the same time. “We could… well, we could gather all the ponies of Ponyville. Her parents are probably somewhere around here, so they will probably just recognize her. Or, at least, maybe we will find her a home here in Ponyville and not far away in Canterlot where she will be alone and totally lost!”
Even if it doesn’t look like it, what she said didn’t make much sense. Most of the ponies in town were at the market and the incident would have dragged their attention. Even more, the word had spread all around the town. There was almost no chance to find them that easily. Finally, placing her in Canterlot was way safer than placing her in Ponyville, because, at least, there were experienced ponies in Canterlot who knew how to handle such cases.
But both Twilight and the mayor saw that there would be no reasoning with Rainbow Dash and they finally agreed to gather all the ponies from Ponyville, those who would accept to come at least, in the town hall and then, if it failed, send the little filly in Canterlot.
The meeting took place. A lot of ponies came, mostly because they felt they had to show some interest in the matter. In fact, most of Ponyville came, and even Granny Smith, Big Mac and Applebloom, as well as her two friends, but not Applejack, who had stayed at the farm, waiting for it to be all over.
The mayor began to speak, explained the situation, made sure that it would be clear for everypony that the little filly wasn’t Applejack’s daughter – at which point the crowd heard a “Of course she isn’t!” that came from somewhere where the cutie mark crusaders were standing – and finally asked, with not much hope in her voice, if somepony had seen the little filly’s parents.
Nopony answered. They felt concerned. They wanted to help. But none of them had any idea of who the little filly’s parents were, so they just stayed quiet.
So the mayor thanked all the ponies to have come to the meeting, assured them the little filly would be taken good care of and then thanked all the ponies once again.
But somepony in the crowd didn’t accept to stop there.
“Wait!” shouted Rainbow Dash, attracting all the attention to her. “You didn’t ask if anypony would accept to take her home with them.”
The mayor tried to convince Rainbow Dash that the little filly would be way better in Canterlot, but the pegasus wouldn’t accept to hear it.
“Well, would anypony here accept to take care of that little filly?” she asked the crowd. “Well?”
But all the ponies were agreeing with the mayor. They had no experience in the matter and the filly would be way better in Canterlot, with experienced ponies. And somehow, they didn’t feel ready to welcome a new pony in their family just like that, without even thinking about it and discussing it.
“That doesn’t matter.” said Rainbow Dash. “If nopony want to take care of her, then I will!”
The crowd could hear somepony, once again near where the cutie mark crusaders were, shout “What !?!” in the back, but didn’t give it too much attention.
“Rainbow Dash,” began Twilight, “You can’t just take her home with you. You don’t know anything about fillies and even if you did, you would have to adopt her as your own daughter.”
“Well then I will.” said Rainbow Dash with confidence, “I’m adopting her as my daughter.”
The crowd could hear a big “WH….WHAT!?!” shouted in the back, but was too stunned to give it much attention.
Rainbow Dash took off and flew to the little filly who stepped back a little, not quite understanding all that was going on.
“What do you say, little filly?” asked her Rainbow Dash. “Would you like to come home with me and live with me?”
The little filly lowered her eyes.
“You’re very kind.” she said, “But I can’t. You’re not my mother. I want to be with her.”
Rainbow Dash came closer to the little filly.
“I know that. And I know I’m not your mother. But at least you will be able to stay here, in Ponyville.”
Rainbow Dash had said those last words with some trouble in her voice. She knew what she was meaning behind that. And she felt it wasn’t really right to use the little filly’s emotions the way she was. In fact, she thought that, maybe, she should have let the little filly go away. That it would have been the right thing to do. But another part of her wanted the little pegasus to be at her side. Another part of her wanted her to be her daughter, even if it was just on paper. And that part of her was just stronger, even stronger than her moral conscience. So strong that she was willing to cheat a little to get what she wanted.
And the look that the little filly gave her made her understand that her daughter to be was conscious of her intentions.
They exchanged a series of looks that felt like a whole and silent discussion.
“I understand.” said the little filly with a surprising seriousness in her voice. “I can’t give you what you want, I’m sorry. But I need to stay here, I need my mother. I accept to come and live with you.”
…
A long silence followed that statement, mostly because only the mayor and Rainbow Dash were near enough to hear it, as everypony else was wondering what was going on.
But, fortunately, Pinkie Pie broke it by shouting, with the reinforcements of a lot of balloons and confetti:
“Yay! Applejack’s daughter is also Rainbow Dash’s daughter now! We must celebrate that! It’s tiiiiiiime to PARTY!”
And she was so convincing when saying everything was so great they should celebrate it that the ponies began to believe her and to party with her in what they thought was a big happy end.
Rainbow Dash smiled, confident that everything would be alright from that very moment. She caressed the little filly’s head and told her:
“Now that we are going to be living together, I’ll need to know your name, you don’t think so?”
“But my mother didn’t give me any, that’s the truth…” sighed the little filly.
“Then,” told her Rainbow Dash, “It’s my duty to find you one, I guess. What do you think about Flying Wonder?”
“Flying Wonder?” asked the little filly, with what could have been taken for a point of criticism in her voice.
“Oh, you don’t like it,” realized Rainbow Dash. “Then what about… Raptor Rampage? Sounds cool, no?”
The look the little filly gave her sufficed to let her understand that “Raptor Rampage” wasn’t a name she would have liked. And when Rainbow Dash thought about it, she found out it maybe wasn’t that great of a name for a pony, even if it sure sounded cool.
“Okay, so we are going to name you…” began Rainbow Dash, searching desperately a good idea for a name.
She tried to look for something around her that would give her that idea. But all she could notice was that it was almost night, which reminded her that she was a little bit tired, and that only remained the light of the moon which reminded her of a name she had heard long before.
“What about “Moonlight”, we could call you that, couldn’t we?” tried to propose Rainbow Dash with an awkward smile that was saying “Please agree so we can go to bed, I’m tired”.
But surprisingly, the little filly seemed to like the name. She smiled.
“Moonlight? Yes, that’s, at least, a normal name for a pony.”
And so they both went back to Rainbow Dash’s home for the night, as all the other ponies continued to party under the inexhaustible lead of Pinkie Pie who had transformed the town hall in a giant disco.
Day three: So many wonders in school
The idea of Rainbow Dash taking care of a filly could sound like a real joke. And knowing Rainbow Dash, it’s very easy to understand. In fact, she had had her own doubts about that. But she proved on the very next day that she was up to the task and could behave like a great mother.
She used the whole morning to make sure everything was fine for Moonlight, as she called her like they had agreed to, and, at the same time, made sure that all would be in order for herself to adopt the little filly and for that filly to go to school the very same afternoon, as she thought it was her duty as a mother to send her there.
It was a hard job. Not only because there was a lot to do, but because Moonlight wasn’t very good at showing her gratitude. Not that she wasn’t grateful for all what Rainbow Dash was doing for her, but because she couldn’t hide that all what she wanted was to go out, head down to Sweetappleacres and find Applejack.
The little filly had understood that it would hurt Rainbow Dash to say it out loud, but still, it was very clear for both of them that they weren’t a mother and her daughter, but two ponies that happened to live together. And Rainbow Dash, seeing that it made her little Moonlight sad, told her that she would help her to bring Applejack to spend some time with her.
“Really?” asked Moonlight, with way too much joy at that simple idea.
“Well, being with Applejack will make you happy,” said Rainbow Dash, “and I just want you to be as happy as possible. Of course I’ll help you. After all, I may not be your real mother, but I have the legal duty to take care of you, haven’t I?”
She smiled, and so did Moonlight. They both found their interest in that agreement. Rainbow Dash was happy to share something with her new “daughter” and Moonlight had found herself an ally in her quest. That was more than they could both had hoped for from their relationship.
“But right now, you need to go to school.” told her Rainbow Dash, “Be nice and do everything that the teacher tells you to do, okay?”
Moonlight agreed to it with another smile. Rainbow Dash thought that she should encourage her some more, so she decided to fly with her to the school and, when they arrived there, under the very jealous eyes of some other foals and fillies, mostly one in particular, she told the little pegasus one more thing:
“I want you to do your best there, okay? Who knows, maybe your good grades could impress Applejack…”
Rainbow Dash felt a little prick behind her neck when saying that, but ignored it. She would do whatever was necessary to help the little filly be the best she could be. She just had no idea.
Cheerilee welcomed all the foals and fillies into school for the afternoon and let Moonlight present herself in front of the class. She could only say what her name was, adding that it was just a temporary name, and that she was living with Rainbow Dash.
Most of her classmates welcomed her nicely, but there were at least three fillies that didn’t seemed to be happy with her presence. Both Scootaloo and Applebloom looks felt cold and mildly threatening. And Sweetie Belle was just looking at the ground, with a very sad expression.
But with Cheerilee on guard, everything went pretty well and if seemed like it would be quite a good afternoon after all. Moonlight looked completely into everything her teacher was saying. It was clear that she wanted to do her best, that she wanted to follow Rainbow Dash’s advice and was looking for an occasion to prove herself worthy of Applejack’s intention.
And the occasion came.
Cheerilee asked all the foals and fillies to draw a picture of their home. So everypony began to work. But very soon, Cheerilee noticed how focused Moonlight seemed to be. As she didn’t know her very well, she decided to go and see how her drawing was going on.
And she saw it. But couldn’t believe her eyes.
The drawing was almost perfect except for one detail, but perfect nonetheless. It was an exact and very great picture of Sweetappleacres. The corn fields looked like they could be harvested right from the paper, the sun looked like he was really producing light and heat and even the cows that had been drawn seemed, but only seemed, to be moving when you were looking too long at them.
Cheerilee was speechless. And a little bit scared. Of course she was instinctively happy that one of her schoolfilly could draw that well, but, at the same time, that very same instinct was telling her that there was no way a filly could know how to draw that well.
“What do you think?” asked Moonlight, with an innocent smile, “I hope Applejack will like it.”
Somepony broke a crayon behind Cheerilee’s back, but she didn’t give it too much attention as she was still trying to figure out how to react to Moonlight’s drawing. She saw only one solution and asked Scootaloo to find Rainbow Dash and bring her back for an important matter. Scootaloo accepted and left.
While waiting, Cheerilee was thinking about what she was going to say to the rainbow colored pony. That she had adopted an artistic genius? That the same genius seemed really obsessed with Applejack? That she was scared?
She just realized she was scared. She was experienced enough to recognize it. She waited for Moonlight to finish her drawing and took it on her own desk to make sure the others ponies wouldn’t be able to see it any more for a little while. It was a bit late, of course, but it was better than just leaving it under their eyes. And more importantly, Cheerilee smiled, to let all of her schoolfoals and schoolfillies know that everything was alright and, in fact more than alright.
By chance, Rainbow Dash had been clearing the sky not very far away from the school and could come pretty fast. Cheerilee decided to go outside to talk with her and let the foals and fillies work inside.
She began to explain, even if there wasn’t much to explain. And at first, Rainbow Dash felt it was a good thing that Moonlight was good at drawing. But judging by Cheerilee’s expression, she understood it was way more than just a talented young filly.
“How is it bad that she is good at something? It only means that she will soon earn her cutie mark and that’s a good thing, right?” asked the rainbow colored pony.
“Rainbow Dash,” began Cheerilee, “She isn’t just talented. I’ve never seen or even heard of such a young pony drawing that well. And that fast for that matter. And even more, she just had some crayons to do it.”
But she decided it was time to show Rainbow Dash her daughter’s drawing. So they went back inside the school. And stopped.
All the foals and fillies were out of control, shouting at each other, running around the class and, for two of them, crying. Moonlight was there too, in a corner, afraid but unharmed. The drawing on Cheerilee’s desk had been torn into pieces.
Rainbow Dash didn’t help to solve the situation, as her emotions were taking the best of her. By chance, Cheerilee was a very good teacher and could be very convincing when it was necessary, so she told the mare to take Moonlight home and let her handle the rest.
At home, Rainbow Dash tried to comfort Moonlight, but she knew she couldn’t do much. Even so, the warmth of a caring pony was good for the little filly. It helped her tears to flow and take the pain with them. She wasn’t crying because of how scared she had been, or because she would have felt rejected in any way, but only because of the picture she had drawn. She told Rainbow Dash she had thought that picture could have maybe impressed Applejack. And Rainbow Dash understood and hugged her the best she could to help her surpass the pain.
It was a bad beginning in Rainbow Dash’s eyes, but at least they were together, and that’s what mattered to her.
Day four: The source of happiness
The next day, Rainbow Dash and Moonlight were woken up by the voice of a pony that both of them recognized very well. And when she heard that voice, Moonlight just sprung out of her bed and went outside to see her mother as she had wanted so badly during all that time. Rainbow Dash, having anticipated her “daughter's” behavior, was right behind her and they both landed before Applejack and Applebloom at the exact same time.
“What do you want?” asked Rainbow Dash with a little bit of harshness in her voice, which cost her a bad glance from Moonlight.
“I’ve come because of what happened yesterday.” Told her Applejack. “Applebloom?”
Applejack’s little sister slowly came before them. Her eyes were red, as she had cried during the whole night, and she couldn’t even look at Moonlight or Rainbow Dash because of the shame that was literally crushing her. She spoke with a lot of difficulty words that were conveying all of her emotions as they were traveling from her heart and soul through her lungs and mouth.
“Moonlight,” she began, “I’m really sorry, I’m just so sorry for what I did yesterday.” and she needed a pause to be able to continue saying what she felt the extreme need to say: “I don’t know why I did it. I was mad at you for no good reason. I couldn’t control myself. I just thought I had to protect… I know it doesn’t make sense, but I was wrong about that, I felt threatened, and I was afraid and… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have threatened you the way I did. I shouldn’t have threatened you at all. I shouldn’t have ripped your drawing into pieces, that was wrong of me. I’m just so sorry. I don’t know what to say, I feel ashamed, I feel… dirty and I feel sorry. I’m a bad pony, I’ve been very mean to you.”
She couldn’t find any strength to continue and Applejack, caring for her little sister, finished for her.
“Cheerilee told me what happened in school yesterday.” she began, “Applebloom was already crying when I came to take her home. She told me she wanted to come and apologize, but she just wasn’t well enough to do it right away. I scolded her anyway, because we sure do not tolerate such behavior in the Apple family. She will be grounded for the next four weeks, but I thought it would be good to give her an opportunity to apologize and that’s why we came.”
Applejack stopped for a second, and then continued, speaking a little softly.
“I don’t know what to say either. What happened was just dreadful. I can only assure you it won’t happen ever again.”
Rainbow Dash wanted to respond, mostly that it was clearly never going to happen ever again, because she would be the one to punish whoever would be foolish enough to threaten her little filly, but Moonlight was the first to react.
She went to Applebloom and hugged her, making the little earth pony cry even more warm and freeing tears.
“You don’t have to apologize” said Moonlight just for Applebloom to hear, “I’m not mad at you. I’m the one who is sorry. I know how hard and perturbing my existence is for you. Yes, I’m the one who’s sorry. Please excuse me too.”
Seeing that both fillies seemed to go along, Applejack asked Rainbow Dash to exchange a word away from them.
“Before you get all worked up,” began Applejack, “I respect the choice you made to adopt that little filly. In fact, you probably wouldn’t be the Rainbow Dash I know and respect if you hadn’t. But you see the problems it creates. That little filly…”
“… Moonlight, she has a name, I gave her one…” added Rainbow Dash quickly, not forgetting to emphasize about the fact that she was the one who had given her a name.
“…Well, Moonlight” continued Applejack, “She has some serious issues. She is obsessed with me and Sweetappleacres for what I understood from that horrible… whatever we could try and call what happened. We have to keep her away.”
Rainbow Dash replied instantly with her point of view, which was very different from Applejack’s:
“And I think that keeping her away is the biggest mistake we could make. She just wants to spend some time with you. What’s the big deal about it? She isn’t harming anypony for all I know. Just allow her to come spend would it even be just one hour one or two days in the week with you in the farm and she should be satisfied. Who knows, maybe she will get tired of being with you and she will be able to live her life without seeking the affection of some pony who doesn’t care for her the least bit.”
Rainbow Dash had said those last words expecting Applejack to feel upset or insulted and respond with violence, but the earth pony just lowered her head and began to think about all what she had said.
“One hour you said?” Applejack asked.
“Just one hour for one or two days in the week. You owe her that.” answered Rainbow Dash.
Moonlight looked like she had earned her cutie mark, saved Equestria and cured all diseases at the same time when she heard the news. And, surprisingly to Rainbow Dash and Applejack, Applebloom took it pretty well. She even said that it would be the occasion to spend sometimes together and learn to know each other better.
As there was no school that day – it was Saturday – Rainbow Dash allowed Moonlight to go with Applejack and Applebloom to SweetAppleacres and spend some time there. But she made her promise that she would do exactly as Applejack would tell her to do and to not upset her.
And it so happened that the time together wasn’t bad at all. In fact, Moonlight was just happy being there and watching both Applebloom and Applejack work. She didn’t ask any question or ask for anything at all. She was just smiling and, seemingly waiting. That behavior pleased Applejack who could then just ignore her existence and work as she would have anyway.
After some time spent harvesting Apples, the three of them went on another corner of the farm. It was a more arid ground and the Apple family had to make the water come from a long way to irrigate that part of the farm.
When she heard that, Moonlight’s eyes sparkled. She suddenly ceased to be passive and began to run everywhere around the two other ponies who were watching her, not knowing exactly how to react. After a very short period of time, Moonlight stopped her activity and came before Applejack to tell her she had found water.
“You mean the pipe we have installed?” asked Applejack, not understanding, or not wanting to understand.
But Moonlight wasn’t talking about the pipe. She pointed a spot on the ground and assured them that they just had to dig that very spot to have a new well for that part of the farm.
Applejack said it was just nonsense, but Applebloom, wanting to redeem herself and, also, wanting to do what was best for the farm, went seeking for Big Mac and some tools to dig the ground. And so they did dig the ground.
And found water.
Big Mac and Applebloom seemed very satisfied by the discovery, but Applejack reacted very oddly. She said that they had never needed a well there and began to bury it, symbolically at least because it would have taken her way too much time to completely obstruct the hole. Then, she told Moonlight that she had to go back home and began to leave.
But Moonlight stopped her and asked:
“Aren’t you happy that you found water? Doesn’t the well please you at all?”
Applejack told her to just go back home. The little filly insisted:
“I found that well just for you, because you told me that this part of the farm needed more water. Why don’t you at least keep the well?”
Applejack didn’t answer the question. But she reminded Moonlight of the promise she had made to Rainbow Dash not to upset her. So the little filly understood that she had no other choice but to leave, which she did, slowly and sadly.
“Why don’t we keep the well?” asked the voice of Applebloom behind Applejack’s back. “Is it because it was Moonlight who discovered it?”
“No, yes, maybe, it doesn’t matter.” answered her big sister.
“I don’t understand.” continued Applebloom. “Why does it matter that she was the one discovering it? It’s just a well.”
Applejack didn’t know what to answer to that question. She had her idea, but wasn’t really sure. So she decided to go look for advice from the first person that came to her mind. Her friend Twilight Sparkle.
The purple unicorn heard the whole story, felt shocked by what happened at the school and interested by the story of the well. But she didn’t have to ask any question for Applejack to give her own explanation:
“I’ve been asking myself why I was reacting like that from the very moment I’ve seen that little filly.” began Applejack. “It wasn’t like me, it wasn’t like me at all. But I think I found out that I just can’t handle one fact: I really don’t care about that filly. I mean, not more than I care about any other filly in Equestria.”
She took some time to catch her breath, and think a little, then pursued:
“I think I had realized from the very beginning how much that filly cares for me, what I mean in her eyes. But I just don’t feel the same for her, not the least bit. She is asking me to be… well, her mother whatever she is meaning by that and not only I don’t want to be anypony’s mother right now, but I don’t want to be anything for that little filly. I can’t give her what she wants. I just can’t. So I figured out I would just force her to give up on her idea and build herself a better life, without me.”
She stopped. And finally asked Twilight:
“I’m sorry, it doesn’t really make sense, does it?”
But Twilight was more than interested in what Applejack had told her.
“On the contrary” she told Applejack, “It makes a lot of sense. Well, as much as a pony can make sense at least. But you really don’t feel anything for that little filly?”
“No.” answered Applejack. “Just a little pity, but only when I see her or hear from her. The rest of the time, I just forget she even exists. Do you understand when I say I cannot give her what she wants, even if I was willing to?”
Twilight did understand. But wasn’t sure to have a complete grasp of the whole problem. She still couldn’t see why Moonlight was so obsessed with Applejack in the first place. That was just… odd. Illogical to say the least. Why would she choose a pony that she knew nothing about and that knew nothing about her, and then, even after clearly seeing that that pony wasn’t caring for her at all, still choosing that pony among all others.
There was still something there that her mind couldn’t understand, even if she felt like she had the answer somewhere inside her.
But Pinkie Pie entered into the library and stopped them in their thoughts.
“There you are.” said the pink pony, “Twilight, you haven’t forgotten about your spell for my party cannon, have you? Not that it would be such a big deal if you had, but I thought I would just check, and see if you were doing something else just as fun. Are you doing something else just as fun? Can I do it with you? Where do I stand, what do I have to do?”
But Twilight explained to her what Applejack had told her and that they were trying to find a solution to solve the problem. Applejack asked, for the better or the worse, Pinkie Pie if she had any idea about what she should do.
“Oh yes. Your daughter. She is a very nice filly, isn’t she?” began Pinkie Pie with a big smile. “Well, if I had to think about it, I guess I would come to the conclusion that thinking makes me hungry. I’m hungry, aren’t you hungry? We should go eat something. And of course drink something too, it’s important to drink. And then, we should go to bed.”
“That’s your advice?” asked Applejack, not sure if she had to be surprised or just blame herself for having asked.
“It doesn’t make any sense Pinkie! It doesn’t solve the problem at all.” added Twilight.
“That’s why you need to brush your teeth before you go to bed!” answered Pinkie Pie like she was stating the obvious. “It’s crucial that you don’t forget to brush your teeth. I promised a friend of mine I would remind every pony of that. In fact, I should brush mine right away, I’ve eaten a cupcake on my way here. Sorry, I’ve got to go…”
And she left her two friends wondering, as they often did, if Pinkie Pie was living in the same dimension as they were.
They looked at each other and came to the same conclusion. As they had no better idea, they just decided to go eat something, drink some water, brush their teeth and go to sleep.
Day five: A fire that will burn forever
It was Sunday, a very sunny day for that matter, and another market day in Ponyville. Moonlight had woken up very early. Rainbow Dash had noticed that her “daughter” felt a little more in a hurry with each day that was passing. Knowing only one good solution to calm her down and make her happy both at the same time, she went to Sweetappleacres and proposed to Applejack to go to the market together with her and Moonlight.
To her surprise, Applejack accepted without Rainbow Dash even having to insist.
And so they found themselves walking together, Rainbow Dash and Moonlight, Applejack and Applebloom, in the middle of the stands of the market. And Moonlight seemed really happy to be with Applejack. That time, she was going from stand to stand, pointing out just about everything and everypony as if was always the most interesting thing in all of Equestria. Applebloom found it to be fun and joined in the action.
But Applejack didn’t react to any of the things both the fillies were telling her. She was just walking between the stand, quietly and enjoying the ambiance. But she noticed a kind of stand she found interesting.
It wasn’t a selling stand, but an artist unicorn who was making a very strange but cute spectacle for the little ponies and the grown-up to enjoy with no puppet, but flames. He was just using little magical flames that he shaped into the character of the story and used to show everypony what was going on. It was a very good spectacle and Applejack found it really original as well as just really fascinating.
She didn’t notice that Moonlight was looking at her and at her interest in the little flames spectacle. Applebloom,, who had stopped playing and had come closer to look at the spectacle too, heard Moonlight say:
“I can do that too.”
A sound began to appear. First it was too slight to be heard in the whole market noise, but it quickly became audible for everypony. And as the sound became louder, the air became hotter. Suddenly, little flames appeared on several points on the ground and began to grow very quickly, which immediately led to a movement of panic in the crowd of ponies.
The flames became huge. They were column of flames that were bending in different direction, rolling up together or merging together as well as separating themselves in several new fire columns.
In the chaos, Applejack found Applebloom and took her away from the flames to safety. Rainbow Dash, on her side, went between the fire columns to seek for Moonlight and save her too. The air was full of smoke and the heat was barely bearable, but the pegasus couldn’t even think of letting the little filly alone with such a threat.
It’s only when she found her that she understood that Moonlight wasn’t in danger. She was glowing and smiling. When she saw Rainbow Dash, she said:
“I did it. My flame spectacle is way bigger than every other. I’m sure Applejack will notice me now!”
It was crazy. Literally craziness, madness in its purest form. But Rainbow Dash hadn’t enough time to think about that at that very moment. She went straight to Moonlight and hugged the little filly as hard as she could and shouted with despair in her voice:
“Stop that, you’re going to hurt somepony! Please stop that!”
“But” responded the little filly, “Applejack won’t notice me if I stop. I need to prove her I’m worth her attention.”
“No” answered the rainbow colored pegasus, “You don’t understand. She will hate you for that. You’ve endangered her, you’ve endangered her little sister and everypony else. You must stop now, please, just stop.”
Moonlight’s mind finally came back to reality and she saw the huge fire columns dancing in the sky. She understood what madness she had unleashed and put all of her energy to stop it.
The flames disappeared in a few seconds, as no magic was supporting their existence anymore, and the big cloud of smoke that had been produced by the fire consumed all oxygen, extinguishing any remaining fire.
Finally, a magical wind took the smoke away as fast as the flames had disappeared, leaving just the scenery of the devastated market and Rainbow Dash and Moonlight in the middle of the ruins.
Neither Rainbow Dash nor Moonlight knew that, by chance, no pony had been seriously harmed in the whole destruction. But they found out that they weren’t out of danger as they saw a whole crowd of angry and scared ponies surrounding them. Some ponies had seen Moonlight begin to glow when the sound and the flames had begun to appear and they hadn’t had any difficulty to make the link between both. But as the angry ponies just wanted to express how frustrated they were, which wasn’t dangerous as long as nopony tried to stop them or reason them, the scared ponies wanted to take action against the one who had jeopardized their safety.
And their fear had a lot of material to burn. Not only was it clear that the little filly was the cause of the market’s destruction, but Moonlight was, normally, a pegasus, which meant she shouldn’t have been able to do any magic at all. From that observation to the affirmation that she wasn’t even a pony, there was only one step that fear made them all take very quickly.
Some said she had to be a changeling.
Some others said she was some dangerous creature from the everfree forest.
All agreed that she was a threat and should be dealt with.
It was counting without Rainbow Dash. The pegasus put herself between the crowd and Moonlight at the best of her ability and prepared to fight whoever would try to harm her little protégée. One pony tried it, but finished face in the ground before he could even saw what had hit him. The others, intimidated, were just shouting and threatening.
Behind Rainbow Dash, Moonlight was curled up in fear, knowing very well she was the cause of all that hatred.
But another pony came out of the crowd. A pony that Rainbow Dash hoped she wouldn’t have to fight.
“Go home.” said Applejack.
Nopony moved, Rainbow Dash kept looking at Applejack, still not knowing how to react.
“Go home” repeated the earth pony, “Everypony just go home, right now! Let the justice handle the situation and just go home.”
Her confidence, the calm in her voice made a big part of the fear that affected all those ponies slowly disappeared. And so they began to disperse.
“You too.” Applejack told Rainbow Dash. “You should go home too.”
She heard a little voice behind Rainbow Dash. A little sad plaintive voice.
“Mother?” asked the voice.
“Shut up.” answered Applejack with more anger that she would have want to give her voice. “I’m not your mother. I don’t know what you are and I don’t care. You’re a danger. Stay away from me, my family and the farm.”
Then Applejack left.
Rainbow Dash looked at Moonlight, but the little filly was in just too much pain to even feel anything else, and certainly not notice Rainbow Dash’s presence. Was that little scared filly not a pony? Rainbow Dash couldn’t care less. She took her between her hooves and flew back to her home, where she made sure to barricade all entries and windows, just in case…
Final Day: Only a thought, an irrational and powerful thought
Rainbow Dash heard a noise that woke her up. She knew what that noise meant and got up to follow Moonlight outside the house. Celestia hadn’t raised the sun yet and the sky was still a dark carpet full of stars.
Moonlight stopped on a hill that was overhanging Ponyville. Rainbow Dash understood why she had chosen that particular hill as they could also see all of Sweetappleacres from there.
She saw the little filly lie down on the ground and look at the farm in the distance and decided to do the same a little further away.
“I screwed it up, didn’t I” told her Moonlight.
“You sure did.” answered Rainbow Dash, preferring not to think and just speak with her heart. “But to be honest, that was quite a sight. I still don’t understand how you created those flames.”
“Now my mother hates me.”
“Well, you did want her to notice you. I can at least tell you that she won’t be able to forget you if that is of any comfort for you.”
“Why did you follow me?” asked Moonlight.
“Why did you come here and why are you looking at Sweetappleacres?” responded Rainbow Dash.
“I wanted to feel like I was near my mother, even if it’s just all an illusion.”
“Well, I wanted to feel like I was near my daughter, even if I know your mind is really far away in reality.”
“I can’t give you what you desire.” said Moonlight.
“And it seems you won’t get what you desire too, at least for the moment. We share that at least.” answered Rainbow Dash. “But as you’re physically here, could you let me pretend you’re my daughter and let me warm you up with my wings? That and it’s beginning to rain…”
“I think I would be honored too.” responded the little filly. “You know that I love Applejack, don’t you?”
“I know…” sighed Rainbow Dash as she placed her wing over Moonlight to protect her. “But you know that I love you, right?”
“I do. And even if I don’t love you, I think you’re a great pony. I think we would have become great friends.”
“We will become great friends.” Rainbow Dash said. “I’m not letting you go anywhere without me.”
“I know that.” answered her daughter.
Some time passed before Moonlight asked the mare another thing:
“Rainbow Dash?”
“Yes?”
“Could I make you a gift? I can't give you what you desire, but I have the power to create about everything else. You just have to ask and you’ll have it.”
“Everything I want, right?” asked Rainbow Dash with a point of interest in her voice.
“Absolutely everything, except what you desire most. That I cannot provide, I’m sorry.”
Rainbow Dash took some times to think. And finally said:
“I’ve already got all I want. I’ve met you.”
She then added:
“But of course, you know, if you want to make me the ruler of all living things in Equestria, I won’t mind.”
A sudden thought crossed her mind and she thought necessary to tell Moonlight that it was just a joke. Just in case…
They smiled at each other and the little filly went back to her contemplation of the farm in the horizon and Rainbow Dash fell asleep looking at her.
When she woke up, the little filly wasn’t there anymore. There was no trace of her anywhere. So Rainbow Dash began to panic.
First she went to all of her friends and asked them to help her find the little filly back. And they accepted, even Applejack, but only after a lot of effort from Rainbow Dash’s side.
But as they went to seek Twilight’s assistance, they found not only their unicorn friend, but also both princess Celestia and princess Luna who were talking together in the library. Luna asked where the little filly was. But when she heard about her disappearance, she seemed quite sad.
It took a long time to explain.
As Luna didn’t want to talk that much about it, she let Celestia speak about the little filly and who she really was. Well, at least what both princesses knew about who she was.
Celestia could only say that the little filly appeared out of nowhere from time to time and always began to ask to be with her mother. They found out about her when she had decided, more than one thousand years ago, that Luna was her mother, which caused quite a ruckus.
The princess explained that the little filly couldn’t stay forever. She appeared, lived for some days, normally three or four, and then vanished.
“But who is she, what is she?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“You haven’t understood yet?” responded Celestia. “Then all I will say is that she is a magical creature with only the best intention at heart.”
“But you said she vanishes. Where is Moonlight now? How can I find her?”
Celestia didn’t answer, as it was obvious in her opinion. But she decided to give one other information to Rainbow Dash.
“It’s funny that you decided to call her Moonlight. That’s the kind of name my sister should have given her at the time. Just imagine that she had called her “Flying Wonder”, can you imagine?”
“Flying Wonder was a great name!” shouted Luna to her sister.
“I imagine.” Said Rainbow Dash, with a little smile.
They all discussed a little further and finally everypony left, Luna and Rainbow Dash leaving together as they had a lot to discuss, and only Celestia and Twilight remained.
“Princess” asked Twilight, “Who was that little filly, what was it really?”
Celestia understood the curiosity of her student.
“I don’t know for sure” she began to answer, “but I’ve got my idea on the subject. I think that little filly is no creature. I believe she is just a thought that takes a pony shape for some day and then disappears as every thought disappears with time. It is my opinion that her appearance in a pony shape is an accident that occurs from time to time. It’s very rare in fact. If what I think is correct, she is a thought that normally comes into the ponies mind. Then it’s not her, but the pony that behave like she does and after a while, she leaves the pony, and some other times she stays in him or her for the rest of the pony’s life.”
Twilight was listening, but wasn’t sure to understand the theory of her mentor. Celestia saw that and added:
“Well, I’ll let you think about it. It is, after all, only a theory.”
And she left Twilight, repeating the name of “Flying wonder” with irony and a point of nostalgy.
Final day + 1: Because life goes on…
Rainbow Dash woke up the next day, pretty tired as she had spoken for a very long time with Luna, but feeling strangely full of energy and with the will to go face the day and every other that were lying behind it.
She thought of Moonlight and how much she would have wanted her to be there with her at that very moment. But she then discovered one thing that made her happier that she could have thought such a simple thing could make her.
Moonlight had given her one gift before vanishing. A simple gift but the most precious one. Because every time Rainbow Dash tried to remember the little filly, she could clearly see her face smiling to her just as she was right in front of her.
Taking Moonlight with her in the journey and fights ahead of her, Rainbow Dash took off to go touch the sun and live among the stars where her heart was taking her.
THE END
Author's Note
*Finally found that option back.
I like this story because of the risk I've taken with it.
The story isn't about adoption, being a mother or anything like that that I don't know anything about. It's, as I try to say it in the text, about a thought, too often temporary thought, that makes people and ponies act very strangely to another person or pony and sometimes gives you a strenght you didn't think you had.
It makes you wanting to be noticed.
It makes you wanting to just be near the one.
Even if it's not possible.
