//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: The life of a blind orphan // Story: Blind Trust // by danail24 //------------------------------// Chapter 4 “The life of a blind orphan” Chapter pre-read and edited by SixRoller Kelly, Spike and the rest of the Elements of Harmony were now assembled in the Work room of Carousel Boutique. At the front door stood Pinkie Pie having just stashed a violin in the nearby umbrella holder, at the center was Twilight Sparkle, accompanied by Rainbow Dash, Kelly and Spike, on the other side of the room stood Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity. The tension in the air was palpable, but the moment was suddenly interrupted by a large gasp from the Pink earth pony, followed by a large quantity of frenzied jumping, popping all around different parts of the room, her antics becoming zanier by the second. *GASP* “Oh, my Celestia! Isn’t she just the most precious little thing! What is she? A monkey, an ape, a monkey-ape? Oh wait that’s the same thing silly! Or is it? It’s a she right? It must be a she! I mean it definitely looks like a girl! Is she from the Everfree forest? Oh, no! Better yet, an alien! What does an alien like to eat? Does she like cupcakes, or cake, or candy? This is so exciting! Are you excited because I sure am excited! This calls for a paaaartaaaa…” The out-of-control party mare was subdued by couple of violet scarves that magically wrapped themselves around her ankles and gagged her mouth. “Pinkie Pie! We appreciate your enthusiasm to throw a party for this new creature but you simply must refrain from your shenanigans dear. After all we just met her. You might frighten the poor dear. We need to be tolerant, patient and serious about this like proper ladies.” The white unicorn’s horn stopped glowing as she released the grip on her magic, bringing things back to their calm state. “Twilight! Why did you bring that ghost back here?! We dunno what she could do to us.” Said Applejack, whilst eyeing the alien creature with suspicion. “Settle down everypony! She may have pale skin but she is no ghost. She’s just a small filly, the age of six, from another world. Kelly is a human who appeared here for some reason, she does not know how she got here and she’s frightened. You’re certainly not helping by being so un-welcoming AJ!” At this point Applejack found the ground strangely appealing, maintaining eye contact with the pristine floor whilst a blush of embarrassment spread across her orange face. “By talking with her I have deduced that she is anything but a threat and she would never hurt anypony. In fact she is quite friendly. The four of us came here so we can introduce her to you, not cause a commotion!” “Yeah, what Twilight said! Besides, she’s blind and an orphan for pony’s sake!” Rainbow Dash spoke her mind out of line, covering her mouth shortly after. “Rainbow Dash!” The lavender unicorn scolded her friend for her lack of subtlety. “Blind?” the dressmaker, farm pony and animal caretaker pronounced in unison (including a muffled version from a certain tied and gagged pink mare). “Yes. I hope I won’t give you any trouble with my condition.” The little human lowered her head, feeling a bit guilty that her helpless state had provoked so many of these creatures to go out of their way to help her. “Oh, you poor dear! You must be so sad and lonely to be left unloved in the dark like that…” Fluttershy flew over to the small child wrapping her front hooves gently around her back. “It’s okay! I’ve always stood strong no matter how many times I’ve been put down. It’s good to finally meet somebo-pony who shows me actual kindness over these years. Like Twilight said, my name is Kelly!” Her small mouth broadened into a genuine smile as she said so. “Can I trouble you for your own and your 3 friends’ names?” Kelly firmly hugged the gentle equine back, feeling the gentle features of the pony’s face and caressing her back and wings. “Why, hello Kelly, m-my name is F-Fluttershy. I take care of all the cute woodland critters.” The shy Pegasus stammered despite her clear ease around the human child. “Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie, Party Mare Extraordinaire! I love fancy sweets and sugary treats but most of all I live to make my friends smile! I’m sure we’ll be the best of friends, yepeeee!” The comet of randomness hopped right up to the girl after she was done with her timid friend and excitedly spilled out every little word, with all the sugar on top. “I wonder how Pinkie escaped my…” Rarity put on a pensive expression, when she observed her hyperactive friend look back at her and pull out a pair of scissors out of her voluptuous mane, before putting them back in “Oh, of course, this is Pinkie after all…” She muttered. “Why does this lil missy touch the face of everypony she meets? Is that sum sorta alien greetin?” The country equine took another glance, her eyes still slightly suspicious. “Uuuurgh! Chill out and give the kid a chance AJ! This is the way she sees, ya see?” Rainbow was getting tired of having to explain these details over and over again. “Okay, okay, ah will!” The work pony said while slowly pacing towards the out-lander with a clear air of mild trepidation, however at the time Kelly was in the middle of a chat with the snow-white lady of sophistication and therefore didn’t notice. “You make dresses? That must be challenging. You must be real creative to make these things. I sure wish I could see them! But I can’t…” Said the girl with a hint of melancholy. “Oh, it isn’t hard at all. Though I must say, you’re already showing signs of becoming a very well behaved young lady. Even though you might not realize it, you look quite pretty for a girl of your species, and you would be just beautiful if you let me design you some clothes.” The vanilla unicorn didn’t hide her delight from having such a polite conversation with such an intelligent alien. “Applejack, there you are. As you can see, this out-landish filly is nothing like you thought she would be. Be a dear and apologize to her properly will you?” “Ummm… Ah’m mighty sorry for mistrusting you Kelly. Ah’m Applejack, but all my friends call me AJ.” The member of the Apple Family took off her hat in an apologetic way, longing for forgiveness. But of course the gesture was lost on Kelly and it appeared unnecessary as her face filled with warmth and forgiveness. Suddenly she bent down and took a couple of sniffs of AJ’s mane. *Sniff* *Sniff* “You smell of apples! That reminds me of that last pony that ran away from me…” “Yeah… That wuz me! Again, mighty sorry!” The farming filly scratched the back of her head, feeling uneasy. “It’s okay!” The tiny miss quickly brushed off the matter. “Oh, and I really like your mane!” The girl played with the pony’s mane, giggling in a warm manner. “Awww, shucks!” The orange earth pony blushed finally starting to feel that sense of trust coming in “You’re quite the looker too, sugar cube!” the Apple family member ruffled up her new chum’s hair. Turns out I was all wrong ‘bout her! She’s a really nice kid! Heck, ah bet Applebloom and her friends would love to have her as a playmate! I really should try and make up for earlier somehow… “Hey, Kelly! I think this is yours!” Pinkie Pie suddenly intervened, taking out the violin and handing it to Kelly. “My Violin! I thought I’d never see it again! It has my name engraved on its back in both English and Braille!” The pale kid showed to everypony both her own name written in letters from the alphabet and the distinctive pattern of it in Braille, the English inscription saying “Kelly Sombermayer”. “Oooooh, your last name sounds so sad! It’s so somber and downy!” The sugar queen felt her heart knotting up. “I know, why don’t you play us something? If you would like that is, I know I sure would!” Spike changed the subject. He was hopping that all this oppressive atmosphere would be lifted by some nice music. Little did he know that his hopes were about to be dashed. “Oh, okay!” The 6 year old maiden tuned her instrument and put it under her chin, softly putting the bow on the strings “When I want to express myself and my feelings, I sometimes go up in the attic and play this piece. It’s called Adagio in G-minor by Albinone. I hope you like it.” It was a multi-instrument piece really, but she filled all the blanks left by the organ by improvising. The notes came out by the bow’s gentle strokes, striking deep as the gentle melody progressed. It was as graceful as a calm a flowing stream, but with incredibly emotional value of a thundering rapid in monsoon season, it’s tragic undertone, plucking each one of the group’s heartstrings. A sound representing forlornness and pain, a person left without a purpose in this cruel world, yet this individual expressed a certain feeling of expectance as if waiting for something, even if the person had to wait for it till the end of days, a feeling of hope clearly lingering… Eventually tears started flowing down her face, profusely, like the river itself. At the end the melody became a bit violent as if to scream out from all the accumulated suffering and all the frustration that came with it. *Sniff* *Sob* I’m sorry girls… and Spike! I always get emotional when I play this. Perhaps I should’ve played something different…” The girl wiped her eyes putting on her best smile to try and compensate for the saddening impact of the song. However by the muffled sounds, the string player could tell that she had deeply upset her pony friends. “Oh, no! I’m sorry to have made you all cry! I didn’t mean to really! Please forgive me, I…” The alien child had no time to say any more as she felt every living creature in this room embrace her in a tight all encompassing group hug. “Waha-wahaaaaahaaa… why are you a sad Kelly? Who was it that hurt you so badly!” A bawling Pinkie Pie lamented with her mane now fully deflated and straight. “You don’t need to feel alone anymore! Now you have lots of friends around you! You have us!” Twilight added smiling faintly. “Yeah!” Rainbow did her best to stay strong in this moment of sensitivity. “We’ll take care of you Kelly!” Fluttershy confirmed, pulling out all the assertiveness she had. “Great! That most certainly wasn’t my best suggestion. You’re probably sad because you miss everybody at the orphanage.” The baby dragon hid his claws behind his back and shamefully turned around, kicking some dust in front of his feet, clearly moved by the scene but feeling as if he couldn’t quite engage on the level of the girls. “No, I do not!” Kelly answered quickly, like pulling the trigger of a gun. “Huh?” Exclaimed everypony in unison, baffled at this statement. “I play these songs because I didn’t like it in the orphanage! All the kids there were cruel to me!” “Through what kind of a dreadful life have you gone, dear?” The appalled white classy unicorn inquired. “Yeah, tell us your story!” The multicolored Pegasus demanded, wanting answers as well. One quick introduction about how our human became parentless and ended up for adoption later and Kelly proceeded with describing her days at the orphanage and all her most unpleasant of experiences with the other children there: “I never liked how the other kids treated me. They always made fun of my lack of sight, mocked me, played mean jokes on me like moving the stool away before I could sit down, changing the furniture around so I would hit my head everywhere I went, they stole my clothes and switched them with the most ridiculous of outfits. But that’s just the start… They called me names such as Blind Fanny, No Eye Kelly, Klutzy Kelly, Can’t see Kelly, Blind as a Bat, and Blue Eyed Freak. The caretakers punished them a couple of times but that only made them resentful and they were even more relentless, so I eventually stopped asking for help… My violin, the only thing that brought me peace, besides reading, I always kept in a locked drawer with the assistance of one of my caretakers and only took it out when the other kids went on a trip somewhere outside, so I often missed out a lot of events. I often dream of getting out of there but nobody has adopted me yet. I think it might be because they don’t want me because I’m blind.” She finished up her story, filled with gloom and discouragement. “Why those good for nothing… If me and AJ were there to knock ‘em down, they’d get some hoof- marks in their faces!” RD posed as a boxer, swinging left and right. “We understand how you feel darling. But it is because you’ve never met others to tell you what a wonderful child you are.” Rarity wrapped her hoof sympathetically around the girl’s waist. “I can’t thank you enough for all the things you’re doing for me. I…I… I dunno what to say!” Kelly wiped another tear out of her eye. “Hey, everypony! Don’t you think we should quit sulking in the puddle and cheer up our newest bestest, dearest friend Kelly?” The always bubbly mare of pink festivities prepared to announce her copyrighted lines “You know what this calls for? ... A PARTY!” Everybody cheered with shouts of glee and mirth, until they were interrupted by Twilight: “That’s a good idea as that will help clear the fear the other town ponies have for Kelly. But for now we need to decide where to stow our human friend for the night.” That lead to all the ponies to reflect on all the possibilities. Once they were done discussing amongst each other they turned back to the homeless alien child: “Well I’d love to but Sweetie Bell is staying at my place tonight and I dare not let Kelly sleep on the sofa but I’m free to take her in any other night.” The fashion diva reasoned with a clear hint of regret. “I’d take her right now to my cloud home, but I doubt she can walk on it.” Rainbow Dash said, averting her eyes from the girl she had grown surprisingly fond of. “I really, really, really, reeeeeeeeeally want to! But the Cakes wouldn’t agree, at least not for tonight.” The sugar queen apologized. “That leaves Applejack, Fluttershy and I. Now it depends with who you want to go.” The lavender unicorn inferred. “Well, I hope I won’t disappoint the other two but I’d feel most comfortable with Twilight.” The blind orphan pressed the tips of her forefingers together, feeling awkward for turning down the other offers, while trying her hardest to avoid conveying her true reasons… “S’alraght sugar cube. Me ‘n Fluttershy don’t think any less of you.” The cowpony gave a mild and tender expression, her and Shy wrapping a hoof around each other’s necks. “Okay, now that that’s settled, we should get going. It’s late and we’re all tired and hungry.” Twilight clopped her forehooves against each-other in a similar way to how a mother calls her children, gathering the two she was responsible for together. “Don’t worry Kelly! I’ll start preparing the party first thing tomorrow! And I’ll work an extra, extra bunch to convince everypony in town that you’re a really nice human.” Pinkie Pie solemnly promised, crossing her heart. “Goodnight Rainbow Dash” “Goodnight Applejack” “Goodnight Rarity” “Goodnight Pinkie Pie” “Goodnight Fluttershy” Kelly waved goodbye, being lead away on Twilight’s back with Spike in her lap, already snoring. *** It was around 8’o clock when they left. Walking slowly, the scholarly pony felt fatigued but nevertheless pleased at how well things have turned out. As the clock struck half past eight when they arrived, the intelligent mare took her baby assistant up to his little basket bed and went to the kitchen to fix up something to eat, leaving her two-legged friend back at the dining room to wait there patiently. She made sure to put everything she had on the tray so she could deduce which kind of food would her child guest like to eat. Once she reentered the dinette and put down the munchies, Kelly called out: “Twilght?” “Yes, Kelly?” “I really want to thank you for what you’re doing for me. Thank all of you. I really appreciate it. I finally feel like I have a family. The truth is… even though you might think it best for me to get back to my original world… I… I don’t want to go back. I want to stay here with you and grow up in this wonderful place so full of love. I know I shouldn’t impose myself like that but it’s just…” The small maiden’s eyes started watering uncontrollably as she reached for her friend and once she found her, wrapped herself around her tight, refusing to let go. “Oh Kelly, don’t be like that... Sure you can stay. Nopony is going to throw you out like that. Not if my friends and I have anything to say about it! I really want you to stay and I’m sure my friends want the same. We will never leave you.” The sympathetic student of magic caressed the little one’s hair, maternally reassuring her. “So, what does your kind eat?” “W-well, we do partially eat meat but I have no problem going vegetarian from now on. We eat vegetables and fruit, but we can’t digest hay, grass or flowers, or at least I don’t think so… I can’t say I’ve tried.” Said Kelly, getting a hold of her feelings surprisingly quickly, combating the heavy emotions with humor and a slight smile. “Then, here you go: some oranges, apples, pears and bananas.” The equine pushed forth some sweet gifts of Mother Nature. What is this deep bonding feeling I am feeling right now? This human girl… I only met her hours ago, yet I feel so close to her. Later on they took a bath together washed up and dried themselves off with towels. The time for bed came and the library owner and human went up the stairs to the alcove, the intelligent equine taking the role of the “seeing pony” of her visionless friend. “Why did you put your undergarments back on?” Twilight asked curiously, looking over the infant’s white attire that only covered her torso and genitalia. “Back at the orphanage, they taught me that people must wear clothes the entire time except when they took a bath or a shower. Even when we go to sleep we must wear at least our underwear. I dunno why. It’s a human thing I think.” Preferring not to dig too much into it, the purple unicorn tucked Kelly in and then got to her own bed, blowing out the candle. “Good night Kelly. Pleasant dreams.” She wished to the lass, closing her pretty violet eyes. “Good night… Mommy...” The 6-year old miss added whisperingly. Even though the human thought the mare didn’t hear her, the unicorn’s sensitive ears picked it up, her smiling under her covers at the touching words. Daaaaaw ending for all! Author: Well, you guys, I hope I did good with this chapter as well. I’m sorry I drew the violin too big but I didn’t feel like bothering with starting over. Next Chapter: Pinkie Pie throws a huge “Entire Ponyville is invited” party and everything seems to be going swimmingly until an unexpected guests arrive! Who is he/she, you will find out in the next chapter. No guessing please. Let’s not spoil it shall we.