//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Family is Who You Love // by Kind of Brony //------------------------------// Anon entered his small apartment like a zombie and plopped onto the couch. Another date, another runner. It'd been going pretty well he had thought, the blind date mail service he had joined having supposedly matched him up with a mare he was compatible with, and she seemed nice. They talked about books and literary styles over a nice dinner, and as it neared it's end, he invited her over for coffee. Of course, he mentioned that they'd have to be quiet so as to not wake his daughter. Then he saw it, the familiar maelstrom of emotions flashing behind her eyes as she said dully, "You have a foal?" Yes, yes he did. He had a wonderful eight year old daughter named Jane Doe Mous. She was from a one night stand when he was eighteen. It had been a graduation party that the whole class attended, and he ended up sleeping with a goth girl that usually kept to herself. They had been drunk and stupid, and when she found out she was pregnant, they tried to make it work. One month after the baby had been born, however, she was gone and Anon was a single father. Luckily his parents were supportive and helped care for their granddaughter, and little Jane Doe had a pretty stable life until she was six. Then the portal to Equestria sucked them up and their life was uprooted. Two years since, and Anon had managed to get their new life on track, getting a book published after hundreds of edits. Finally off of welfare and able to support himself, Anon tackled the next issue in his life. The loneliness. Sure, his daughter was a bright light in his life, and both his editor and agent were good friends, but he was still a man, and a man had an almost instinctual need for a woman. Or a mare in this case. He was an open-minded fellow. Only problem was, he couldn't find one willing to settle down with a single father, and like tonight, many got up to use the bathroom and never returned. "Dad, you alright?" "Jane? Why aren't you sleeping?" "I was waiting for you," the little girl responded, standing in the entryway in her too-small PowerPuff pajamas she refused to throw away. "You shouldn't have. Tomorrow's a school day." "School's easy and I wanted to know how your date went." Anon sighed, running a hand over his forehead. "Not... Not so good." "Oh..." "It's fine, you should go to bed." Instead, the little girl walked closer to her father, stopping in front of him. "Was... was it because of me?" Anon looked up, words of denial dying on his lips as soon as he saw her sad, knowing eyes. There was no point in lying. "Yeah..." "... I'm sorry," she whispered, leaning in to hug him. He wrapped his arms around her, rubbing small circles into her back. "I'm not," he said. "She was a bitch anyway." The girl smacked a palm weakly against her father's chest and mumbled, "Bad word," into the crook of his neck. Anon smirked. "Sorry, baby girl. Come on, let's tuck you in." "Will you read me a bedtime story?" "Sure, which one?" "Lord of the Ring?" "We'll be up for hours." "So?" "You'll sleep through your classes." "They're easy," was the glib response. Anon sighed. "Fine." "Told you you'd be tired," Anon said to the daughter slung over his shoulders as they walked home, her head resting next to his and her eyes closed. "Maybe you should start listening to your old man." "Mm'not that tired," Jane muttered, failing to suppress a yawn. "I'm wide awake." "Leave the story telling to your dad, kiddo, you're horrible at it," teased Anon with a smile. "Your teacher was pretty upset about you snoozing, too." "She's just mad 'cause I answered all her questions even when I slept through the lecture," Jane retorted. "Her class is easy." "Hey, ease up on the mare, she just wants you to do well." "She should teach us harder stuff then." "Well, pony academics aren't the same as back on Earth-" "It's easier," Interrupted the girl. Well, Anon couldn't exactly argue with that, schoolwork here was lower by a notch or two. Ponies learned in third grade what he remembered from second, so his daughter was basically repeating a year when she first enrolled. Even after being moved up a grade, she was still having an easy time with the schoolwork, but that was more due to her naturally sharp wit. He'd actually discussed moving her up another grade with her teachers, but they weren't sure yet. "You're just too smart," Anon finally decided on saying. "Is the class easy for the other students?" "Kinda..." she answered uncertainly. "I guess Sheet Iron got a D on her last math test." "See? Had the teacher made things harder, Sheet would have got an F. Don't expect everyone to be able to do what you can do, we all have our strengths and weaknesses." "Like how Sheet can bend iron bars with her hooves." "Uhh, exactly... You're nice to Sheet Iron, right?" "Yeah, she's my friend. Why?" "Nothing, just glad you're getting along with her. Make sure you stay on her good side, though." Anon really didn't want to get a call that his daughter got bent into a pretzel by one of the foals for picking fights. Jane perked up and pointed sideways. "Can we stop at the library?" Anon turned his head to see the Canterlot library and hummed. "We could, but you sure you don't want to go home and take a nap? We could come back later." "Na-uh, let's go now," was the stubborn response. Anon can't help but chuckle and give a little shake of his head. His daughter had really taken after him when it came to her love of reading, and add onto that Equestria's lack of cable television, and all Jane ever wanted to do was bury herself in books. "If you really want to, I guess we can make a quick stop," Anon concedes easily, secretly wanting to go inside himself. "Just try not to fall asleep in one of the beanbag chairs again, okay?" The girl blushed slightly. "No promises." This time, Anon's laugh is loud and he gets more than a few strange looks from the ponies walking the streets around them. "That's fair. Those beanbags are pretty comfy. Come on." With that, the two humans enter through the large- by pony-standards, anyway- doors and into the larger library. Lowering the little girl to the floor, she took off between the shelves as if she were not just about to fall asleep on her father's back a second ago. "Hey! No running in the library!" Anon yelled, only to flinch at the echo of his own voice. He flinched again when he heard another voice clear besides him. Whipping around, the man was greeted by the sight of an old blue-grey mare with a light purplish mane and thick, gold-rimmed glasses. "Er, sorry Miss Scroll," he mumbled to the old librarian. In truth, he was pretty sure she didn't like him, but he couldn't imagine why. Sure, his daughter could get a little over rambunctious at times while in her library, but she was always good about putting books back in their proper places and being quiet. "Stallions," the mare mumbled after a moment, walking past the human. "Runnin' around without a herd. Yellin' in libraries. Filly ain't gonna turn out right..." As she continued her borderline insane mutterings, Anon released his held breath. Whatever, if the old mare didn't like him, then oh well. As long as she didn't do anything to hurt his daughter or kick them out, she could think what she wanted. Anon wandered towards the fiction section, intent on reading some of the more popular stories he could find. It was more for research than entertainment as it helped him understand what themes and styles sold and which didn't. His first few attempts at getting a book published fell flat because he had written them as he would for a human audience back home. But this wasn't home, and these weren't humans. Equestria was significantly more peaceful than just about anywhere on Earth, and ponies were far more sheltered as a result. Before he fully grasped that fact, he traumatized a few agents with his more... gritty manuscripts. The book he did finally get published read like what you'd find in a middle schooler's backpack, and yet was still marketed towards adults as it was apparently too mature for younger audiences. For his next story he would try to write for young adults to help maximize sales, which is why he found the most popular story he could through some asking around of other library goers. Eventually he sat down with the first installment of Daring Do. A classic, all the ponies assured him. Judging by the thickness of the book and size of the print, this would take maybe two hours to finish, plenty of time for his daughter to enjoy herself and get tuckered out. Jane wandered between the shelves, head looking this way and that for any titles that sounded interesting. Her exhaustion was temporarily chased away by the prospect of new books to read. Most that she'd read since arriving in this strange world had been kind of predictable, but they were also so happy and uplifting that she always felt her spirits rise after reading them. Being as focused on her task as she was, Jane didn't notice the pony in front of her until she bumped into the mare's rump. "Eep!" The pony whipped around to look at the little girl through dark rimmed glasses. "Ah! What- who-?!" "Sorry," Jane blurted, taking a nervous step back. "I- I wasn't watching where I was going." The beige mare seemed to have calmed down some, looking around for a second before letting her eyes settle on the girl. "It's, um, it's alright, no harm done. You just spooked me a little, is all. You're very quiet." Jane tilted her head. "Thanks? I guess it helps when you only have two feet and they aren't hooves." The mare giggled some at that. "Huh, maybe...." The following silence was awkward, even in a library, and the girl quickly tried to fill it. "I'm Jane Doe, a human." "Oh, well, I'm Moondancer... a unicorn." "Yeah, I could tell," Jane commented, tapping her own forehead where a horn would be. "It's kinda hard to miss when it's glowing." Moondancer's eyes moved upward as if to spot her own horn past her bushy eyebrows. Sure enough, it was alight with a pale aura, the same that coated the floating book next to it. "Right..." she muttered, cheeks going pink. Jane pointed at the book. "What'cha reading?" "This?" the mare began, blush remaining. "It's just a book I liked when I was a filly. I saw it on the shelve and was... reminiscing, I guess." "Is it good?" "W-well, I think so." "Can I read it?" Moondancer blinked, levitating the book down into the girl's waiting hands. "Sure..." "Thanks," Jane said, scanning the cover for a few seconds before looking back up. "Wanna read it with me?" "E-excuse me?" "Books are best when you're reading them with someone, that's why I like story time with my dad so much." "Oh, I see," Moondancer replied, not really seeing. "So do ya?" "I don't know. I came here to pick up some research mat-" "Please?" Moondancer didn't know how she ended up with a hooman filly pleading for her to read a book, but one look into those shimmering green eyes, and she couldn't find it in herself to refuse. "Okay." Anon yawned, finally closing the cover of Daring Do after an hour and ten minutes of straight reading. The final verdict... it was okay. It felt like what Indiana Jones would have been had it been an actual PG movie and not what led to the creation of the PG-13 rating after the Temple of Doom. The adventure was sweeping, the violence brisk and contained to only a few pages total, and the good guy, or girl in this case, triumphed over the comically villainous Ahuizotl. At least the bad guy was more unique than Nazis and was a pretty cool creature. Anon wondered briefly if such a being actually existed here or if it was a mere work of fiction. As much as the logical part of his brain said it was the latter, the part that had been living in magic pony land for the last two years was a bit more permissive of the idea. Regardless, he was feeling a little tired himself now and figured that his daughter was probably passed out somewhere and ready to be tucked into bed. Returning the book to its proper place so as not to bother the grumpy librarian, Anon set out in search of his daughter. It wasn't long, nor surprising to find her on a bean bag, eyes barely open. It was, however, surprising to see a pony he did not know sharing the bean bag, curled around his daughter as the girl leaned back against the mare's side. Out in front of them was a book floating in a pale pink aura that the unicorn was reading. "-And so the little lost filly left the woods, tired but safe, never knowing that the forest spirit, Puck was watching over her the whole time. With his ward on her way back home, the little sprite nodded his head, releasing another chime of bells the very same he used to guide the filly, and flew back into the forest, ready to tell all of the woodland creatures of his most recent adventure. "He giggled silently to himself, imagining the look on BunBun's face as he regaled her with his harrowing tale. She always said he got up to the strangest things." With that, the mare closed the book with pleased smile, and asked, "So, what did you think?" "Eh, wasn't the worst ending I've heard," commented Anon, leaning against a bookshelf and crossing his arms. "Kind of curious about the filly, though. It didn't even say if she actually made it home, but maybe that's just my inner parent fretting." "Daddy?" his daughter breathed, sitting up to rub her eyes. Anon smiled. "Yep. You okay, Jane?" "Yeah," she said, yawning. "Miss Moondancer was reading me a story." "I can see that. The two of you seem pretty comfy, snuggled up on that beanbag together." That was enough to finally get a reaction from Moondancer, who had frozen up and was gaping until then at the tall human who walked in on her story telling. "Ah, oh! Um, this- this isn't what it looks like, I swear! W-we were just reading, sir! I didn't- I wasn't-!" While she spewed assurances, Moondancer tried to scramble out from the bean bag while not jostling the girl practically sitting on her, eventually face planting off of the squishy seat. Both humans simply stared as the mare righted herself to reveal her glasses askew and face beet red. "... You're not going to call the guards, on me, are you?" She whimpered, staring up at the father who's child she'd just been snuggled with. Anon raised a brow. "Guess that'll depend. First, who are you, and why were you sitting with my daughter?" "I already told you, Dad. She's Miss Moondancer," Jane commented, moving to pick up the book the mare had dropped to begin inspecting it for damage. "And we were sitting together because the red bean bag chair is, like, a hundred times better than the blue one. Plus Miss Moondancer's sweater is super soft and warm to lay on." Anon turned his eyes back to the mare who had straightened her glasses and was now in the process of tugging on the hem of the aforementioned sweater. She looked up and gave a nervous smile. Anon sighed. "Did you ask her to read to you?" "Um, kinda?" "So that's a yes," Anon said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Okay, from now on, add 'don't ask strangers to read to you,' to the list of things you shouldn't do." "Ahh, but why?" Jane groaned, crossing her arms with a huff. "First no candy from strangers, and now this?" Ignoring her, Anon turned to Moondancer, who was looking at the little girl with a smile and barely contained giggle. "Listen, Moondancer, right? I'm sorry if my daughter was bothering you. She can be a little... unaware of others, if that makes sense." Which was to say, she had trouble taking into consideration the wants and needs of those around her sometimes, but it was never malicious. Luckily, Moondancer seemed to get what Anon meant, or at least wasn't upset, as she smiled. "It's fine, I didn't really mind. If anything, it was nice to read Puck and the Fae Woods again. It was one of my favorites when I was your daughter's age." "See, Dad, she liked it," Jane stated triumphantly. "And I had a lot of fun, too. Miss Moondancer did a whole bunch of silly voices for all the characters. You could learn something from her." At this, Anon actually looked offended. "Hey, I do voices every time I read you a story." Jane simply rolled her eyes. "Yeah, like, the same five voices over and over. You even use the same voice for a bunch of character in the same book. That's just confusing." "Well, excuse me for not being Mel Blanc." "Who even is that?" "A legend, that's who!" Before Anon could start informing his daughter of the auditory talent that was the Looney Toons voice actor, an important part of her human heritage, Moondancer interrupted with a giggle. "What's so funny?" Jane asked with a tilt of her head. "Did you remember a good joke?" "No," the mare answered around the hoof held up to her mouth. "I'm sorry, it's nothing." Clearing her throat, Moondancer stood up and tried to look composed, but by the way her lips kept twitching, it was a struggle. "It was really nice meeting you both, but if you aren't going to call the guards on me, then I should probably let you be on your way. Wouldn't want to keep your herd waiting. They could worry." "Herd?" Jane questioned curiously while Anon scratched the back of his neck. "Uh, I don't have one of those actually. Heh, ideas still kind of weird to me honestly." Moondaner blinked. "Oh, sorry, um, your wife, then-" Anon hissed through his teeth and hunched his shoulders, feeling embarrassed despite himself. "Ah, don't have one of those either." At this, the mare's mouth falls open slightly as she gawks. "You're... single?" "Yeah..." "But you're a dad." "I am." "... Oh," Moondancer finally managed. Then her mouth snapped shut, her eyes went wide, and she blabbered, "Oh wow, look at the time! I should get going! It was nice to meet you! I had fun, Jane! Bye!" With that, the mare turned tail and ran, getting Anon's shoulders to drop dejectedly and Jane to tilt her head. "... But what about your book?" the little girl asked the now empty space. "I thought maybe you'd check it out and read it at home since it's one of your favorites." "Don't worry, Jane. I'm sure if she wants to read it again, she'll come back and check it out." Anon said, placing a hand on his daughter's shoulder and getting her to look up at his tired smile. "How about we go put it back on the shelf so she'll be able to find it easier?" "Okay," she agreed, hugging the book to her chest. Once she looked away and they began to walk, Anon let his smile drop. Another mare ran for the hills after finding out he's a single father. It's not just dates affected by whatever stigma these ponies have against single parents, it would seem. Suppressing an exhausted sigh, the father and daughter returned Puck and the Fae Woods to its proper place before leaving the library. Meanwhile, a beige mare with her back pressed up against a shelf is cradling her head in her hooves, muttering to herself. "Stupid, stupid. Why are you so stupid, Moondancer? While you were at it, maybe you should have used some of Minuette's pick up lines, really made sure he'd never want to see you again. Couldn't have been much worse than bringing up an absent mother, right?" With a groan, she threw her head back, thumping it on the wood behind her. "How'd that even happen? That stallion was so sweet, so kind, there's no way a mare could be stupid enough to leave a stallion like that, let alone such a wonderful little filly. She must have- have died, or something even worse. That poor stallion, he's probably so broken up inside, but he's still staying strong for his filly, and then I have to go and drudge up past trauma." Letting her head drop, Moondancer slowly got to her hooves. "I really am the worst," she said, trudging towards the exit. She no longer had the desire to do research after having just made a complete fool of herself, as well as ruining a stallions day. She was going to go home, thump her head off a wall for fifteen minutes while berating herself, then wallow under the sheets in her dark bedroom for the rest of the day. it's what she deserved. Later that night, Anon was tucking his daughter into bed, running a hand over her head as she looked up at him. "Hey, Dad?" "Yeah, sweetie?" "Do you think we can see Miss Moondancer again?" Anon's hand slowed. He was afraid something like this would happen. Ever since she had woken from her nap, Jane had been talking about the book and the mare who read it to her from the library. Apparently, Jane had stopped the pony multiple times to ask questions, like if all the strange animals Puck and the filly encountered were real, and wanted to tell her Dad all about it. This Moondancer was a well of knowledge, it would seem, never once getting annoyed and always willing to give detailed answers to every question. The more his daughter talked, the more Anon could tell how taken his little girl was with the pony. And the more he feared she'd have her feelings crushed when she learned Moondancer wanted nothing to do with them. "I... don't know, sweetie. We didn't exactly exchange information," Anon tried, hoping to guise the mare's avoidance as mere bad luck. "Oh... Maybe we can go to the library tomorrow and look for her," the girl suggested, getting Anon to wince minutely. "Yeah... maybe," Anon agreed noncommittally. "That's tomorrow though, and I doubt a half hour nap is going to be enough rest to get you there. How about you focus on getting a good nights sleep, huh? Besides, you still have school in the morning." Jane frowned. "Moondancer taught me more than school. She's super smart." Anon chuckled despite himself, ruffling the girls hair before finally getting up. "I'm sure she is," he said. "But even smart people need to go to school. I'm sure even Moondancer did, and you will, too, so go to sleep." Jane grunted, but shut her eyes, signaling the end of their conversation. Anon's smile became the slightest bit sad as he moved to the door, taking one last glance at his daughter before flipping off the lights. Though Anon wished he could protect his little girl from all the hardships of life, it was times like this that he truly felt how impossible the task really was. All he could hope was that Moondancer never returned to the library, or more realistically, Jane could handle the rejection when the mare did.