The foal sat on the yellow pegasus's back, wondering who this strange pony was. The obvious way to proceed was to, of course, pull on her ear to get her attention. "Oh, could you stop, please?" the yellow pony said quietly "that hurts, just a little bit." the little filly spoke for the first time since she came into this world "I was just wondering, what's your name?"
This question surprised the yellow pony "Oh, well...my name is Fluttershy" she hesitated "what is your name?" The foal opened her mouth to speak, but she could not remember a name. "I don't know" she said, unintentionally whispering it.
"Oh" was all Fluttershy could think to say, they flew the rest of the trip in silence.
It was only after having she had dropped the foal onto the floor (not literally of course!) and flown back with a salad did Fluttershy notice a rather critical detail about this strange filly.
"You have wings...and a horn?" said Fluttershy in what could be considered her version of a shout of surprise. The foal spread her wings a bit and touched her horn with a hoof "Well, I guess so"
"Where" Fluttershy tried to sound less frightened "where are your parents?"
"Parents? I-I don't know" the foal may not have remembered her past, but she did know that this was not normal, "I-I don't know my n-name or m-my parents or... or" the little alicorn sat down and tears started to show themselves.
"Oh, um, don't cry, please don't cry" the pegasus said in a soothing voice, "don't worry little one, I'll take care of you. Okay?"
The little alicorn wiped away a tear "O-okay, Fluttershy?"
"Yes?"
"Would... would it be okay if I picked a name for myself?" the foal said nervously
"I don't see anything wrong with that."
"Then um..." The little foal looked up at the moon and the barest fragment of a memory revealed itself, "How about Eclipse?"
"Eclipse? But those are really dark and scary" Fluttershy said quietly.
"Well, has there ever been a bright eclipse?" the foal said eagerly
"No, I don't think so."
"Then I can be the first!"
Fluttershy smiled softly "Yes I suppose you can." Bright Eclipse jumped up and down in excitement, grinning from ear to ear.
Fluttershy winced, it was late and a lot of animals were sleeping. "I-I think it's time for bed" The little alicorn stopped and yawned. "Ya, I guess so..." she walked off to the makeshift bed that Fluttershy had constructed earlier. Fluttershy blinked in surprise, however reluctantly, this was the first time she had seen a foal agree that it was bedtime.
It was early the next morning that Bright Eclipse awoke to the sound of a knock on the door, interested she climbed out of the makeshift bed and walked to the door. Just as a second knock sounded she pushed it open and looked up into the surprised face of a purple unicorn. "Hello Flutt- oh, who are you?" she said, then noticed that the foal not only had a horn, but wings as well "wait, are you a member of the royal family!? Why are you here? We need to get you back to Canterlot right now!" Just as the unicorn began to pick her up, Fluttershy walked out from her bedroom "Oh, hello Twilight" she said "but... what are you doing with Bright?" Twilight was extremely confused now. Not only did Fluttershy have a alicorn in her home, but she was aware she had a alicorn in her home!
"Fluttershy yo-" she was cut off by a tug on her mane.
"um, I don't know what the royal family is, or why your so surprised to see me," she said in the most dignified way she could while being held like a newborn foal "but could you please put me down?"
"Oh" Twilight slowly put down Bright "I'm sorry, it's just your an alicorn and the only alicorns are in the royal family and-" Twilight was cut off again
"Twilight? Could you...not tell anypony about Bright?" said Fluttershy nervously "I told her I would take care of her and..." she trailed off
"Of course Shy, your secret it safe with me." Twilight said, trustworthy and sure on the outside, nervous and unsure on the inside.
"Thank you so much Twilight!" said Fluttershy, truly grateful
As it turned out, Twilight Sparkle kept her dear friends secret, and would keep it for years to come. But here, now, Bright Eclipse was learning how to care for the many animals that called this area home. "You have to keep out of reach of the baby snakes, they like to bite and don't know how much it hurts" Fluttershy said, hovering above the snake's home "But the adult snakes know how bad it is to get bitten, so you shouldn't have to worry about them." Fluttershy looked back to see that her normally diligent student was hiding behind a bush from a rather confused spider. "Oh dear, I'm sorry Mrs. Silk, she doesn't know that your a nice spider yet." Fluttershy gently ushered the spider to her nest. "Please wait here until I come to you, okay?" Fluttershy flew over to where Bright still hid, not knowing of the spiders departure. "You can come out now little one, Mrs. Silk went back to her nest."
"I'm sorry Shy, they just seem so scary to me." said Bright as she poked her head up. "We were going to the snakes next, right?"
"That's right, lets go see them now." Fluttershy and her little alicorn walked over to the snake's home, and that was how it went for the next two months, with a general routine of: wake up, eat breakfast, brush teeth, tend to morning chores, eat lunch, free time, tend to afternoon chores, free time, eat dinner, brush teeth, bed, repeat. But on a uneventful day in early fall Bright Eclipse had something on her mind at dinner. "Shy, can I ask a question?" said Bright between bites.
"Oh, um, I guess, if you want." Fluttershy was a bit nervous, she had a pretty good idea of what this was about. Throughout the day Bright had been asking the same question, luckily she had been able to avoid answering...up until now.
"When your friend the unicorn came over, she talked about other alicorns... other ponies like me, I was wondering if..." Bright trailed off, noticing Fluttershy's sad expression, "what's wrong shy?"
"Oh, I, um..." Fluttershy struggled to put a sentence together "I-I just... if you want to go see the alicorns then I won't stop you." Not that I could anyways, she thought. If Bright was still a filly this might not have been a issue, but for some reason in the past month she had been growing at a frightening rate, both mentally and physically, and Fluttershy simply did not know why. Bright was at the age she could be considered a teenager, and was as big as Fluttershy.
"Fluttershy," said the persistent mare "is something wrong?"
"I just... don't want you to go..." said Fluttershy
"But, it's not like I'm staying there, I just want to have a look." she threw in a reassuring smile to help lift Fluttershy's mood, and on the outside it did, but on the inside it just saddened her even more.
"I know, I guess I'm just worried about you," she gave a fake smile "that's all."