Mare Tranquilitatis, Sea of Tranquility
Spring trotted alongside Lily as the two foals crept through the back alleys of Manehattan’s busy streets. The colt chatted amiably to her as they walked, raising her spirits bit by bit while they traveled around dumpsters and over discarded bags of trash that littered the narrow roads. It was still raining, but neither of the children seemed to care. The raindrops weren’t of the same harsh, abrasive nature as they had been earlier - instead, they fell lightly and slowly, misting Lily and her new friend and washing away the filth of the street that had matted their manes.
Friend...she could call him that, right? He was the nicest pony that she had met in all of Manehattan. Lily ruffled her feathers as she thought about the reason he was walking at her side instead of flying. After they had finished eating the spread he had found, he invited her to go “crusading” with him around town. Once he had finally convinced her enough, he leaped into the air and began flying ahead...but Lily couldn’t even make it off the ground with her injured wings. The pain in her limbs and the embarrassment of being a grounded pegasus forced her to bite back tears as she did her best to keep up with the talkative foal.
And that’s when a funny thing happened. Spring had actually dropped to his hooves and began to walk beside her instead.
“It’s alright,” she muttered. “I don’t mind if you’d rather fly.”
“Nah. The stupid rain’s getting my feathers all wet. I think I’ll walk.” Spring’s smile was infectious, passing from his face to Lily’s before she could notice. They crossed a final, bustling street and passed through a wrought-iron gate that marked the entrance to the city park. On either side of the gate, the Royal Sisters gazed down at them from a pair of pedestals that had been raised with the park’s grand re-opening nearly six weeks prior. Wild Chaos magic had nearly destroyed the attraction during Discord’s short-lived rule, but at the city’s request, Princesses Celestia and Luna had made a generous donation that helped restore the area’s grassy hills and quiet ponds.
In the distance, Lily could see a large jungle-gym with a trio of slides that seemed to shine in whatever moonlight slipped through the clouds. The slides spiraled down from a tower in the middle, the tallest point of the gym’s maze of rails and fun toys. Children were always playing here whenever she passed the park during the day, running around the playground and starting games of Bunnies and Manticores as their parents looked on from the sidelines. She had been down the slides once before, but a nasty-looking police pony had chased her back to the entrance. He had bellowed as she ran about making sure the “trash” stayed outside the gate.
“Thank you,” she caught herself saying. Spring stopped long enough to give her a playful nudge on the shoulder.
“For what? That awesome stash of fruit I nabbed? It was nothin’! We’re just both lucky that the guy I swiped it from wasn’t buying alfalfa for dinner or something. Blech.” He stuck his tongue out and blew a raspberry. Lily couldn’t help but giggle.
“Well, that too. But thank you for...just being here.”
Spring flicked her with a wingtip and chuckled.
“Sheesh, Lily. You don’t have to thank me for that.” Even as he smiled, his eyes darkened a bit as they paced through the fresh grass in the park lawn. “I’ve been there, too...I was all alone for years, with nopony around to share apples or oranges with. Ponies need somepony else to cheer them up when they’re sad, right? It’s not good to be alone all the time.” The jungle-gym rose ahead of their path, all ropes and planks and brightly-colored paint subdued by the night. Spring skipped ahead of his partner and took to the air, soaring above the tower on the gym’s tallest platform. With a beat of his wings, the colt alighted on the tip of the toy tower’s spire, balancing on his left forehoof.
“Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing. You’re one pony that’s not gonna have to be alone any more. Besides, I need someone to show off to all the time! Now c’mon!” He swooped back down to the playground and picked the filly off of her hooves even as she laughed, grunting in exertion as the two lifted into the air. “Jeez, I think I gave you too much fruit.” The pink pegasus fluttered her wings by force of habit as they rose, wincing softly at the pain. Even as she gritted her teeth, she was surprised to find that the pain was duller than it had been half an hour ago. It was quietly fading into the background with each breath she took. She could even fully extend her wings with some effort. Beating at the air, she helped Spring lift her to the tower as much as she could. He set her down on the tower’s spire and hovered nearby, panting heavily.
“Sorry.” She appreciated the help, but she wasn’t comfortable making the colt work so hard.
“Don’t,” he wheezed, “...sweat it.” He did his best to smile as he gulped for air a few more times. Lily watched as he flew back around the spire and landed on the other side of the roof to rest his wings. The gentle rainfall made the tiles slick with water, but a rail that encircled the structure’s tip gave the two foals something to lean on without fear of falling.
Up here, high above the rest of the park and listening to the rain’s gentle pitter-patter on the soft earth, Lily felt more comfortable than she had ever been. The nighttime shroud acted like a thick, warm blanket over Manehatten’s usually bright and hectic nightlife. It reminded her of a time when she could always go to bed safe and warm; a time that seemed impossibly far in the past.
Manehatten Memorial Park was strangely quiet, even for this time of night, and the delicate sounds of individual raindrops rolling from the tree canopy to the carefully-trimmed grass below began a simple melody. Every light breeze through the branches sang a different note in what was quickly becoming Lily’s personal lullaby.
“Hey, Lil’, hold on a sec,” Spring nudged her shoulder and momentarily broke the spell. “I wanted to show you something.” He scooted over beside her and leaned back against the roof, laying comfortably against the damp tower.
“It’s been a long time since anypony has ever seen something like this. I used to do this kind of thing all the time, back when I was a lot younger.” He stared into the cloudy sky, looking for something that Lily couldn’t understand. “I used to think that nopony cared enough to be my friend. Like there wasn’t a single pony in the world that would ever try to get to know me. And you know what? I fooled myself for a long time.”
“Spring, are you okay?” Lily flicked a tear away from her friend’s eye with a wingtip. His voice had begun to change, maintaining the same pitch of a foal but sounding somehow infinitely older. He shook his head and smiled, raising his hooves above his head towards the sky.
“I’m a lot better now than I ever was. Thanks for asking, though. Besides, I’m here for you, remember? So before we start the show, I just wanted to tell you: you’re never alone, Lily. Even when you feel like you don’t have anypony around to help you, when nopony cares about you - you’re never alone. So be brave. Go out there and look for your friends. They’re easier to find than you’d think,” he chuckled.
Rising to his hooves, Spring balanced himself with his wings and looked to the clouds. Through the darkness in the sky and the rain falling from it came a single, hazy beam of light. The bright shaft began to expand towards the north and south, splitting the curtain and pouring out across the city. As the clouds above began to spread away from the light, Lily could begin to see something massive hiding behind them.
The full moon had never looked so big.
Spring weaved his hooves through the air like a conductor lifting an orchestra to its crescendo. Wind forced the remaining clouds from the sky, dissipating them in smoky streams and spirals through the night. As she watched, captivated, Lily could hear the music again - rising from the grass and the trees and booming with the background din of the rain. The moon covered Manehattan in a pale, warm light, and the music sang about that.
Years of filth and anguish was washed from the streets and the buildings of the city, and the music sang about that.
Spring settled down beside Lily and watched the same filth and anguish trickle away from her into the night, and the music sang about that too.
“It’s a moonshower, when the clouds go away and the rain still falls under the moonlight. Manehattan hasn’t seen one in a pretty long time, I bet. What do you think?” His voice was distorted under the symphony that played around the foals.
“It’s beautiful. How did you...?”
“Don’t worry about it, Lil’. You can do all sorts of fun stuff in a dream.” The crescendo hit, the music soared, and Lily felt herself drifting off to sleep under the light of the moon.
-----
“Augh!”
The unfamiliar feeling of vertigo came to a crashing halt as Lily landed on the hardwood floor. She craned her head around to see where she had dropped from and found herself prone beside a simple wooden bed. The thick blue blanket had completely wrapped around her hindquarters as she fell from the mattress, and she quickly kicked the sheet away from her while she stumbled to her hooves.
Wherever she was, it definitely wasn’t where she remembered going to sleep. Her cardboard-and-tarp fort was nowhere to be seen. In fact, she couldn’t recognize anything about the room she was in. To her left was a row of four beds, three of them neatly made with simple wool blankets and white pillows. The walls were painted in a warm yellow that matched the sunlight beaming through a large window behind her. To her right was a door that led deeper into the building.
Lily smoothed out her feathers that had been tussled by her drop from the bed. As she ran her hooves from joint to wingtip, she noticed that the pain that had nearly crippled her last night was completely gone. Not a single part of her body was hurt, ignoring the fact that nearly every inch of her had been pummeled only hours prior. What was going on?
Before the filly could continue her investigation, the room’s door banged open to let a white-maned unicorn mare rush in and scoop her up in a cloud of magic.
“No, no, no, no. What are you doing out of bed, silly filly? I swear, you show up here this morning the sorriest sight I’ve ever seen and you’re already trying to break out of the place. Lie down, dear.” The bright-orange field surrounding Lily’s body dissipated, dropping her back into the soft bed as the mare sidled up alongside her. “Goodness. What were you thinking?”
“Please don’t hurt me, ma’am!” Lily squealed and tried to scoot off the mattress again, only to be snagged with a firm hoof and deposited right back where she started. The mare laughed as she began poking and prodding at her, testing Lily’s joints and inspecting her as thoroughly as she could.
“Hurt you? Please, dear. I’m trying to help. When we found you I didn’t think you could be hurt any worse than you were. I just need to make sure you’re alright before we let you get up. Besides - do I look like the type of pony who creeps around harming helpless little fillies?”
Pausing her frantic escape attempts, Lily took a moment to see who was actually handling her. The hooves busy spreading her wings and ruffling through her hair were a soft yellow, much like the color of the walls around her. Her white mane was styled into a series of light curls that framed the sunset hue of her eyes, and on her flank was a yellow-and-orange flower with a single dewdrop on its petals.
“It’s a daffodil, dear. That’s my favorite flower. And you can call me Morning Dew.” Dew smiled again as she caught Lily examining her cutie mark. “I can tell you how I got it sometime, if you’d like. But before we do that, can I ask your name, dear? I’m sure everypony here would like to know who the cute new filly is.”
The question startled Lily - hadn’t somepony else just asked her the same thing? Bits and pieces of her dream were floating to the forefront of her mind like bubbles breaking the surface of a pond. Among them were the memories of a young pegasus who had helped her when she needed it and learned her name in return.
“It’s Lily Breeze. Um, ma’am,” She added quickly, almost having forgotten her manners. “Thank you for helping me.”
“You’re very welcome, Lily. You’re lucky that whoever found you brought you here.”
“Um,” she rubbed softly at her wings, a nervous habit that had formed years ago. “Where exactly is ‘here,’ ma’am? You’re very nice, but I don’t really know who you are or where I am.”
“I already told you my name, dear. I’m Morning Dew! And I’m one of the caretakers here at Moonlight Gardens. We try to make a new home for little colts and fillies like yourself that need a helping hoof. Now, can I ask you what happened last night?” Morning Dew seemed to be finished in her evaluation, giving Lily a bit of space and opting to begin gathering up the blanket that had been dragged to the floor.
“I, um...I was trying to find a place to sleep last night, ma’am, and some other foals came along and took my food. They weren’t very nice about it.” She gently rubbed at her eye where a large bruise had quickly formed after the colt’s swift kick. It wasn’t sore any more.
“I see. I’m sorry, Lily. Sometimes this city can be cruel...especially to children. But why were you out in the streets all by yourself? Aren’t your mother and father worried about you?”
The filly shook her head; no.
“Do you have any family to worry about you, dear?”
Another shake. No.
“Well,” Dew climbed onto the bed and wrapped a hoof around Lily’s shoulders, drawing her close. She smelled like wet grass and fresh peaches. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that, dear. You’re welcome to join our family. There’s quite a few new brothers and sisters downstairs that are looking forward to meeting you. What do you think?”
“I think I’d like that, Miss Dew.”
-----
After declaring her (miraculously) fit as a fiddle, Morning Dew had helped Lily finish making her bed and began to show her around the building. As they trotted from room to room, Dew acted the part of the informal tour guide and explained what she knew about the home itself.
“Moonlight Gardens has been around for awhile now, dear. About twenty or so years ago, when I was a filly your age, the royal family began building new orphanages and homes all around Equestria. This particular building was dedicated by the Princess herself to the memory of her sister, who everypony at the time believed was to be forever lost inside Nightmare Moon. We know better now, don’t we?”
A wry smile slipped across her face as she led Lily down a staircase to the ground level.
“She actually found the dedication pretty silly when she began coming here herself.”
Outside the window at the end of the stairs, Lily could see the skyscrapers of Manehattan stretching high and doing their best to block out the sun. Somehow, wherever the ponies traveled throughout the building, the light still seemed to be able to find every window. In all of the hustle and bustle of the city, Moonlight Gardens always managed to remain the island in the storm.
This orphanage was a far cry from what Lily had come to associate the word with. She had been passed between a few others around the city before running away and living off the streets. As difficult as life was by herself, she still preferred it to the dark, unkempt buildings and short-tempered matrons that seemed to be the divine rule among Manehattan’s social services. She had been running from bullies and dodging horrible old social workers as long as she could remember.
Even as the filly thought about how peaceful her new home appeared compared to the rest of Manehattan itself, one question bounced around her mind like a parasprite trying to force its way out of a bag.
“Miss Dew, Princess Luna comes here?” Her pink wings started buzzing in nervousness - and eagerness. A real princess!
“She certainly does, dear; I believe she’s due for a visit today, believe it or not. The children love spending time with her. Would you like to meet the Princess?”
Did she really want to? What if she was scary, like the stories some of the older foals at her last “home” described her as? What if she chased after the children and gobbled them up, one by one? Was that Morning Dew’s plan? Did she gather up colts and fillies just to feed her mistress?
...Be brave. Go out and look for your friends.
“Yes, ma’am.” She could be brave. Besides, Miss Dew didn’t seem anything like the caretakers she had met before.
“Wonderful, dear. Now, I bet you’re hungry...”
The pair reached the dining area of the first floor, passing several paintings that looked like they had been done with a child’s hoof. Little crafts and pieces of art almost littered the shelves and bookcases that they walked by, a testament to the hobbies of the foals that had come and gone. As Lily was ushered into the dining room, a voice cried out in mock horror from the breakfast table:
“Look out!”
SPLAT
A single pancake arced high above the five foals seated at the table, landing neatly on Lily’s face. Her wings spread out in shock as syrup began to drip off of her nose.
“Children...”
“Sorry, Miss Dew!” A chorus of voices spoke up from the table as a magical haze lifted the flapjack off of Lily’s snout and deposited it on an empty plate. Morning Dew sighed and reached for a napkin, dabbing the syrup away.
“Now who, pray tell, threw it this time?” She finished wiping the syrup off of Lily as a sheepish-looking brown earth colt lifted his hoof in the air. “Of course. Doodle, apologize. You scared the poor girl.”
“...Sorry. I kinda slipped, heh-heh. Uh, do ya want some pancakes?”
Lily blushed, embarrassed not ten seconds into her first meeting with Moonlight Gardens’ resident foals.
“I’m sure she would. This is Lily Breeze, everypony. Why don’t you all introduce yourselves while I get you some juice?” Dew trotted to the kitchen, leaving Lily alone in the presence of four pairs of wide eyes and one filly who was asleep at the table. Doodle broke the silence by clearing his throat before running a hoof through his short, tan mane.
“Hi, Lily. I’m, uh...Snickerdoodle. Just call me Doodle. Please.” He coughed and bumped the pegasus filly snoozing in her chair next to him. Her green eyes shot open and she fumbled with her mane for a second, trying to get the shock of orange hair under control.
“Whuzzat? Oh, hi. My name’s Paint Petal. Sorry, I didn’t get too much sleep last night. I’m still a little tired...” She yawned loudly to confirm the fact. To her right, a slightly older unicorn with a sparkling gem on her turquoise flank balanced a young earth pony on her lap, feeding him bites of pancake in between his swipes at the levitating fork.
“I’m Sapphire Spark, Lily. This is my little brother Shale.” The grey-coated foal in her hooves squirmed and reached for the fork again as Sapphire floated it away.
“Gimme!”
“No. Eat your breakfast, squirt.” She skillfully speared another bite of pancake and guided the fork into Shale’s mouth, ignoring his attempts to break free. Sapphire gestured with the utensil towards another unicorn across the table, wrapping her hoof tighter around her brother.
“That’s Hazel. He’s pretty new, too.” The scarlet colt she pointed at shifted uncomfortably under Lily’s gaze and kept his light brown eyes firmly glued to the floor. Lily assumed he was a shy as she was. She stepped towards the table and climbed into a chair, regarding each of the children around her. She still wasn’t completely comfortable with all of the new ponies, but they seemed really nice.
“It’s nice to meet all of you. Thanks for welcoming me.” She smiled at her new...friends?
They’re easier to find than you think.
“Can we be friends?”
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And that's the new chapter. I went through quite a few drafts of it before deciding to draw out Lily's story a bit longer. Back when I started writing, her story was going to end in the first chapter! It's funny how things change as soon as you start putting pen to paper. Metaphorically, anyway.
This chapter ended up getting cut short as I was working on it, too. It was just getting too long in my opinion. Fortunately, that means that I'm already well underway with Chapter 3, and the update for it probably won't take five months. A novel idea, I know.
Thanks Sabre, for pre-reading for me. We should go hang out and drop some meticulous syntax for sicknasty kickback beats together.
Sweet new chapter. It kinda gives a little tease into what its like in Manehattan, making this much more enjoyable to read, yes?
1769671
Thanks man. I hope you like where I take it.
1769955
Haha, thank you. The story will be returning to this area pretty frequently, so I wanted to get a little world-building in.
1769984 Sweet, sounds nice! Can't wait to see this get fleshed out!
So wait, all of that before was a dream? Or is Moonlight Gardens the dream?
1770355
That is exactly the sort of question I want to hear while I'm writing this.
1770438Because of how you had her 'wake up' in MG it lends to idea that Manehattan wasn't real and that she has only been asleep so far. However in my experience, you are just as likely to wake up in a dream and think that the real world is just a dream. I've had dreams like that.
That feel when this story is supported by canon.
Luna loves all the little children.
Not my usual cup of tea in terms of fiction choice, but this is good enough that I'm going to stick with it to the resolution.
"Years of filth and anguish was washed"
"were washed"
I'll give this story a chance, but if it's another 5 months til' the next upload i'm out.
I very much like this story, I find it fascinating. The whole Luna-sponsored orphanage thing, I have seen before, what I'm really liking at the moment is the fact that you didn't put Scootaloo in here. As much as I love Scoots, she just shows up in EVERY fic involving orphans. Keep up the good work, I plan to leave regular comments per chapter!
Beautiful.
Simply. Beautiful.
Hmm. I think that this happened:
When the other colts knocked her out, that sent her to the "Dream Dimension", which allowed Luna to talk to her. She disguised herself as the blue colt, and helped heal her mind, as she was carried away into the orphanage in the middle of the night. Now, she's woken up, and she's able to begin a new life in the orphanage, which Luna is helping to serve its purpose of saving those fillies and colt's lives.
1858069
Thanks for giving it a shot.
1858425
Ah, nice catch.
1858430
Don't worry.
1858512
Thanks very much! I don't think Scoots will be making an appearance.
1858983
Thank you! Smart cookie over here.
Luna being awesome yay I love story's where she isn't portrayed as a stuck up btich.
Luna is my fav charter keep up the good work
First chapter set the scene, second captured my interest. Can't wait to see where you go with it.
Ooooo This is interesting can't wait for more
>>>She had been down the slides once before, but a nasty-looking police pony had chased her back to the entrance. He had bellowed as she ran about making sure the “trash” stayed outside the gate.>>>
*Alondro eye-narrows dangerously* I'm sure Celestia will be interested to know how the 'defenders of the law' are behaving... *Alondro is one of Celestia's secret agents, who scout about on the lookout for ponies who have let chaos and disharmony rule them! Such ponies are a risk, as they might allow Discord to escape, and thus they must be... dealt with.*
1860669There are stories like that? Wow. Most I've seen portray either as a kind, enthusiastic, and slightly ill adjusted to modern society princess or be over adjusted to modern society and have he r be relaxed, enthusiastic, fun loving, and pop culture spewing princess who loves the espresso.
1890307No hard feelings per say, just a lot of squishy, hate filled ones. I don't take kindly to being mashed to a pulp with railroad ties.
It was a dream?
img.pandawhale.com/45822-Keanu-Bill-and-Ted-whoa-gif-49A7.gif
Hmm... So... Was he a dream?
Nice transition, by the way.
~Skeeter The Lurker
I shouldn't start reading new stories before finishing my favorites list and the 60-odd stories filling it. Bleh.
Good though, past time I read it.