A Crystal Shines

by SeasonTheWiccan

Chapter 2: Heart's Desire

Chapter 2: Heart’s Desire

It was a bright, sunny day in Ponyville. The citizens had just finished Winter Wrap Up the previous day and were happy to be out of the cold. As they proceeded with their activities, trying to pick up from where they left off because of yesterday, a mare and a young filly walked through the town. The mare was a unicorn with a light, baby pink coat with a golden mane and grey streaks running through it. Her eyes an aging light violet and her cutie mark was two square fabric patches sewn with grey thread. The filly trailing behind her was a unicorn with the same gold colored mane without the grey streaks and the same eye color, the only differences between them were that the filly’s coat was a light, butter yellow, her eyes were framed by a pair of round grey black glasses, and had freckles on her cheeks. Her spirit was obviously full of utmost depression, a set of pink saddlebags rested on her back as her head was hanging low and walked with tears in her eyes. The mare, named Patchwork Quilt turned to see the filly lagging behind and finally stop.

“Sweetheart, come on, it won’t be so bad,” the mare said with a smile and a voice that was trying to be sweet and gentle, but was masking the sadness she was really feeling.

The filly dried her eyes and lifted her head, just yesterday she had been told by this mare that she was being sent away. This mare had taken care of her for as long as she could remember, for this mare leading her to the orphanage was her mother.

“I’m coming Mom...just-just give me a minute,” the filly responded, close to crying.

Patchwork Quilt furrowed her eyebrows sadly, she didn’t want to do this. But for her only daughter’s well being, she had to do this. She wasn’t giving her up because she didn’t care for her, it was because she couldn’t care for her. Patchwork Quilt walked back to her and lifted her chin with her hoof, "Heart's Desire...sweetheart...you know why I have to do this. I've just been laid off from my last job, I don't have the means to care for you and....you deserve better than this. You deserve to go to school, make friends, have a family adopt you that will care for you and most importantly - live the life you are supposed to. I just want the best for you, you know that right?"

Heart's Desire nodded, "Yeah."

Patchwork Quilt nuzzled her, "Alright, now come on, we're almost there."

Heart's Desire took her mother's hoof as they walked to the other side of town to the Ponyville Orphanage.

---

Once there, Heart's Desire was stunned by how it looked! She had been expecting a doom and gloom looking grey and black building with little to no happiness on it. The building before her was a bubblegum pink and sky blue, 7 story building with a playground and the foals actually looking surprisingly happy considering their situation. Heart's Desire looked up at her mother who smiled at her reassuringly as they continued forward to the entrance. As they came closer and closer, Heart's stomach began tying itself in a knot, she had no idea how her life would pan out now and to be honest, she was scared to know that it was going to be without her mother. Patchwork Quilt was about to knock on the door when a friendly faced, middle aged unicorn mare with a light lavender coat, pink hair with purple streaks and who was armed with a silver whistle around her neck, came out and looked surprised that there was somepony on her step.

"Whoops! I'm so sorry, can you give me a minute? I have to call them back in," she explained.

"Of course ma'am," Patchwork Quilt responded.

The mare nodded thankfully then walked down the stairs, she then blew her whistle and the fillies and colts came to her like dogs to their food. They lined up at the steps in 4 separate single file lines and looked at Heart's Desire curiously, the mare then opened the doors with her magic and they went inside with small whispers of small chit chat. When they were all inside the lavender mare gestured for them to follow. Heart looked around the inside and it was just as cheerful as the outside, everywhere she looked she saw murals made by the children there there were also bulletin boards that contained pictures of the children residented there. She was too busy looking around at the flowers, rainbows, volcanoes, stars and other objects on the walls to notice that her mother and the lavender mare were walking down the hall without her. When she saw this, she ran to catch up to them and she heard them talking.

"I can assure you Ms. Quilt, that's young Heart's Desire will be in the best care until we can find her a family. We'll just take her to her living quarters and you and me can settle things over."

"Alright."

"So...you must be Heart's Desire! I am Mrs. Serenity, I am the head matron here at the Ponyville Orphanage and don't let all those stories of all Orphanage matrons being mean, I can assure you that I will not lay a hoof on you. I can promise you that. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?"

Heart stayed silent, was there anything she liked to do? All she ever did in her childhood was talk to her pink sock monkey Fuzzy Hearts, she would make up games where her and Fuzzy Hearts would go off to new lands in search of some way to find money to give to her Mom so that they might be able to stay in one place. But, Heart learned early on that she couldn't really do that, after their houses being foreclosed over and over, her Mom being laid off over and over and having to start a new life in a new town over and over, Heart's Desire thought this was normal. Until one day while going through town in Appleloosa with her mother, she saw fillies and colts playing on a playground. One of the colts came up to the fence and asked if she wanted to play, Heart asked her mother who then explained to the colt that she didn't go to school there.

"Oh, okay, maybe you can go to this school sometime."

Heart then looked excitedly at her Mom, "Can I go to this school Mommy?"

Patchwork Quilt looked at her troubled and said, "Maybe."

Heart looked very excitedly at her as they continued walking and Heart said goodbye to the little colt and Patch's heart sank, her life shouldn't be like this, she wouldn't trade having Heart's Desire for anything. If only she hadn't made such a stupid mistake.

When Heart's Desire didn't respond to Mrs. Serenity's question, she giggled and said, "Seems that somepony's a tad shy! Well, that'll probably go away sooner or later."

They were then led up two flights of stairs and down a hallway to a dorm room, Mrs. Serenity knocked on the door and waited. The door opened to reveal a filly with a coat the same shade as the outside of the building, blue eyes and a curly pink and magenta mane and tail.

"Sugar Song, this is Heart's Desire, you're new roommate."

Sugar Song's eyes lit up with excitement, "New ponies! Come on in Heart, I'll show you around!"

Heart was about to enter, but looked up at her Mom, she gestured her head towards the room, "Go ahead sweetheart, I'll be back up soon."

She then entered and the door was closed behind her, as she realized that she only had hours before her mother left her for good, her heart beat faster.

The filly in front of her held out her hoof, "Hi! I'm Sugar Song!"

Heart looked at it nervously at first but then took it and shook hooves with this new filly.

"So, that's your bed..." Sugar said heading towards the only available bed in the room. The woodwork on it was a faded blue and had a plush pink quilt with a set of soft, baby pink, pillows. Heart walked over to it and set her saddlebags on it. The headboard was against the wall and pointed to Sugar's bed in the same position and in the middle of the wall next to them was a window with opaque pastel pink drapes. Heart sat on her bed looking out the window and seeing the small buildings of Ponyville below them. She opened her saddlebags and took out Fuzzy Hearts; clinging to him like a security blanket. Both Sugar and Heart sat across from each other on their beds in silence, Sugar hadn't dealt with ponies this shy before. As for Heart, she didn't know what to say in this situation, she'd always thought that socializing with other ponies was easy; that all you had to do was talk. The problem was that she'd never had practice and never had somepony who wanted to be her friend. Thus, she was completely new to this.

Meanwhile, down in Mrs. Serenity's office on the first floor, Patchwork Quilt was finalizing everything. During this entire time, she felt so cruel, she wanted so badly to say, 'Never mind, I can't do this,' take Heart's Desire back with her, hold her all night, cry in her mane at the thought of what she almost did and everything would be better. Except everything wouldn't be better, she would still be out of a job, with no money for food or a house or apartment, she had to do this. It was for her daughter's future, she deserved a whole lot more than the the measly bit that Patch was able to give her. She didn't deserve a lack of education or to move from town to town nor did she deserve the lack of meals for two straight days every week. Patch signed her name on the document that now gave Heart's Desire to the Equestrian government system. Mrs. Serenity then brought out another document and explained, "Since your record is clean, you do have a chance to make this less painful for you. If you sign this document, you will get visitation rights, the family will be required to send you photos and updates on how she's doing."

Patch's eyes lit up, she'd be able to see her daughter? But she forced back her excitement, she had failed as a mother and was now giving her up. As tears came to the poor mother's eyes she cried, "No, I can't...I don't deserve her after I've failed her..."

Mrs. Serenity looked legitimately sympathetic and with her magic, gave Patchwork Quilt a tissue. As she dried her eyes, Mrs. Serenity said assuringly, "I promise you Ms. Quilt, Heart's Desire will be in the best care until we find her a good family."

"Please, make sure they are at least kind to her..."

"You have my word."

Patchwork Quilt smiled as Mrs. Serenity put the visiting rights documents away.

"May I...see her...one last time?"

"Of course."

Patch was then led back up to Heart's Desire's shared room, she saw her sitting on her bed; looking around the room as if she didn't fit in there. Mrs. Serenity asked Sugar Song to go down to dinner, which she did obediently, Patch entered and once the door was closed she took a deep breath and approached Heart's Desire.

"How much longer do we have Mommy?" Heart asked.

"She told me that visitations are over in 5 minutes."

Heart sniffed as tears came to her eyes, Patch lifted her chin, "Hey now, none of that..." she said gently.

"But...I don't want you to go!"

Patch hugged her tightly and cried, "Neither do I sweetheart, neither do I."

Patch then released her from the hug, and pushing a piece of hair away from her face, she continued,"But listen, I need you to be a big, brave filly...can you do that for me?"

Heart lifted her glasses with her hoof and dried her eye with a sniff, "Mm-hm..."

"That's my big girl."

Patch then kissed Heart's forehead and looked at her with sad eyes, "Goodbye sweetheart..."

"Goodbye Mommy..."

Patch then turned and walked to the door, Heart frozen on the bed, waiting until her mother left to start crying again. Before Patch closed the door, she looked one more time at her precious filly with a smile to mask the worst unhappiness she had ever felt before closing the door behind her.

Heart sat there for another 5 minutes to make sure she was gone to lie down on her bed with her face in the pillow to start crying. It hurt to cry, it hurt not to cry, it felt right, she was now letting it out. Her mother was gone from her life forever.

Comments

[Mr mustash]

The feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeels

[Rose Quartz]

So sad :*(

[Storm-Chaser]

Oh my god! That's so sad!!! Poor Patchwork! Poor Heart's Desire!!!

Patch then released her from the hug, and pushing a piece of hair away from her face, she continued,"But listen, I need you to be a big, brave filly...can you do that for me?"

Heart lifted her glasses with her hoof and dried her eye with a sniff, "Mm-hm..."

"That's my big girl."

Patch then kissed Heart's forehead and looked at her with sad eyes,

That scene sounds really familiar.

[ChasityArcherkiller]

I literally cried... THATS SO SAD...

[Tiger Lover]

SO SAD!

[Deathclaw2014]

Here's hoping that Sombra finds a way to bring them back together.