By the river

It was a quiet night in Ponyville. Only few clouds were spread across the skies to keep the warmth to the ground. The bright moon still shone through though, lighting up the sleeping village. Nothing disturbed the peaceful and quiet night... except for the quiet sobbing near the river.

A young, gray pegasus sat near the river shedding light tears, while watching the moonlight. He had just lost both his parents in an accident about two weeks ago and hadn’t been able to sleep more than a few hours at night, if at all. He used to come to the river with his father to look at the fish swimming in the stream and it somehow calmed him a little sitting here.

He’d been sitting there for almost two hours, when he started to feel a little cold. He probably wouldn’t stay much longer. Also his crying had turned into sobbing and that had almost stopped. He might be able to get a little sleep.

After a little while of sitting, he raised himself and was about to turn away, when something caught his eyes. In the river was a small box floating along with the stream. It was closed and had small holes in the top.

Cloud Feather’s eyes followed the little box sailing downstream. Then his ears caught a sound. A quiet sobbing from the box. “Was something alive inside?” he thought, “why would anypony leave a living creature inside a box in a river?”

He decided to have look, so he flew over the river and hovered over the box to pick it up. It was heavier than expected, but he managed to get it to the shore. He studied the box a little before trying to open it.

He opened the box and Cloud’s eyes grew wide, his mouth falling agape. Inside was a little, brown unicorn baby. Almost newly born by the looks of it. “Who would ever leave a baby out in the cold in a river?” He saw the little thing curled up to keep its warmth and heard its quiet sobbing.

When the little unicorn noticed that the box had opened, he opened one eye to look up at this giant, compared to him, standing over him and he curled up yet more and closed his eye again shaking of fright.

Cloud noticed the little baby’s behaviour and talked to it in a sweet tone: “Ah now little fellow. You don’t have to be scared. Let’s get you inside, so you don’t get a cold.”

Cloud slowly picked up the little unicorn. At first the little fellow struggled against it, but he soon felt the warmth emanating from the larger pegasi and he fell silent and still, almost drifting into sleep in Cloud’s grasp.

Cloud let out a little sigh and smiled, because the little unicorn was so cute as the little thing cuddled up against him. He took flight, flying in a slow pace, trying not to scare the little baby, who had almost fallen asleep in his forelegs.

Arriving at Cloud’s cloud home, he had taken over after his parents, he ran into a problem. How was he going to find a place for the unicorn to sleep, which wasn’t on a cloud, since he would fall through. Also the place was a mess, since he hadn’t done anything really, since his parents’ demise.

He looked around the place for something useful and finally found it: a few pieces of cloth, which didn’t fall through clouds. If he formed a little bed of cloud and then stuffed it with the cloth, the unicorn could sleep safely.

He quickly made up a little bed and filled it with the cloth, all the while still holding the baby. He gently slipped the little guy onto the bed and took a blanket to cover him. He seemed so at peace, when asleep.

Cloud walked around the room. It looked like there had been an explosion: everything was spread all across the floors. He had been so angry and sad upon hearing about his parents that he had flown all around the house smashing with the doors and throwing things to the floor. Luckily the cloud floor was soft, so nothing was ruined, but it still looked like a mess and Cloud hadn’t wanted to clean up yet. But now he had a new little visitor, he decided to clean up a little.

He started by picking up all the family pictures, which had been thrown onto the floor, and setting them nicely on the picture stand in the corner of the room. He shed some quiet tears upon looking at the photos. There were photos of him as a little colt with his parents. On one of them he had gotten himself tangled in dough during baking, getting it stuck on his wings, head, legs and all over the kitchen too. And another one where he was at the river with his father and he had fallen into the water, because he stretched too far out to look at a fish. A small smile cracked on Cloud’s face as the memories filled him.

He looked back at the little sleeping guy and smiled. It was at that moment that he decided that he would keep the little fellow and raise him. If nopony else would have him, he would give him a future and a life as good as possible. He knew it would be a challenge, but one he would gladly accept... for this little unicorn’s sake.

After cleaning up most of the room, Cloud went to the little unicorn’s bed and snuggled in together with the little guy, falling asleep almost immediately holding a foreleg around the little thing.

Lying there together, everything seemed so perfect. Cloud thought about himself, when he was just as small, cuddling up against his parents. He was happier than he had ever been since the news about his parents, and he knew that things would only get better.

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