“Dashie, you need to start packing your stuff!”
“I already have it all packed, Pinkie.”
“What about your Wonderbolt posters and figurines?”
The rainbow maned filly’s eyes flashed open in realization. From her usual perch on the beams of the orphanage’s ceiling rafters, she dropped down, flaring her wings out to slow her descent enough that she wouldn’t break her hooves upon landing. “I forgot.”
Applejack looked over at the scene, curiosity and questioning coloring her features. She looked over to Rarity, who was currently packing her many sewing items and cloths, and asked, “Ya wouldn’t think she’d forget about that stuff, would you?”
“AJ, I’ve come to expect many strange things from this family. Between Twilight’s obsession with books, Dash’s laziness, and Pinkie being Pinkie, it doesn’t surprise me anymore.” Rarity continued to pack her items, not paying attention to Rainbow Dash in a massive hurry, trying desperately to pack all of her Wonderbolt paraphernalia, or Pinkie Pie leaving the room. “Besides, have you seen a family of six orphans try to pack for being adopted by Princess Celestia herself?” She regarded her rustic earth pony sister with a satirical look.
AJ smirked at Rarity’s sarcasm, knowing it was simply banter between family. “I can’t say I have, Rarity. I suppose some things might be forgotten in the rush.”
The group continued with the packing, silence reigning over for a moment. Until, that is, Twilight opened the door, a list in purple magic. “Fluttershy’s packed, Pinkie’s packed, who else here is done packing?”
Rarity placed a final sewing needle in a case before closing it and softly zipping closed the pocket which held it. “I’m finished, Twilight.”
The lavender unicorn ticked a box on the sheet, before repeating, “Who else has finished?”
The earth pony in the room placed a small journal in her suitcase, answering, “I’m almost done, sugarcube! Just a few more things and I should be all good.”
“Alright then, AJ. Is Rainbow done?”
“No!” They all heard a scratchy, tomboyish voice from down the hall.
Twilight deadpanned. “She forgot her Wonderbolt stuff, didn’t she?”
Rarity chuckled. “You’d think that as much as she goes on and on about them, she would take better care of her things.”
Twilight returned the chuckle. “Tell that to the journal I got her for Hearth’s Warming.”
Applejack smiled, amused at her sisters’ antics. “We all have some bad habits.” She casually walked up to Twilight, throwing a hoof around her neck. “We keep each other in check, that’s what makes us family, ain’t it?”
“That and we have enough dirt on each other to bury us together eighteen times over,” Twilight casually added.
“That too,” Rarity observed.
Princess Celestia, with her small entourage of guards, numbering only two, approached Better Days Orphanage, established in Canterlot. Despite having known of it since the founding, she rarely took notice of the orphanage, as there were several factors that simply prevented her from having a closer look.
One such thing was that it was established near the edge of town, away from the palace. Not far enough that it would take an obscene amount of walking to arrive there, but far enough that one had to be rather high in the castle before they could see it. A simple building, it was brown with some tan stripes along its walls, but down near the foundation was a pure whitewash, having been painted on by many foals, fillies, and colts. Several designs were on there, from childish drawings of Sunny Days and the other foals, to simple scenery paintings and even some more professional looking pieces along it. The sheer amount of them made Celestia ponder how many children had been here.
Refocusing her objectives, the Princess of the Sun continued on her path, resolve coloring her features. She approached the door, noticing once again the paintings done by the many surely wonderful colts and fillies to have been here. The white alicorn knocked, ordering her guards to stay outside. Being the faithful, if pointless, guards they were, both took positions beside the door, forming a sort of restriction by presence. Restraining a few giggles, Celestia turned to the opening door and the bright smile of Sunny Days, caretaker of the orphanage.
“Hello Princess! The girls are almost ready.”
“I would hope so. How are they?”
“They’re doing good. A little… forlorn to be leaving, but they’re happy.” The mare waved the Princess inside, saying, “Come in, come in! I’m certain they’ll be happy to see you.”
The alicorn calmly walked inside, marvelling once again at the many portraits of colts and fillies decorating the walls. Both enjoyed some small talk, going along the halls until it opened into a large foyer. Inside of it were a small pile of packed bags and suitcases that evidently belonged to the six Celestia had come for, while said six were entertaining and saying their goodbyes to some of the other orphans that came to say farewell.
All except Twilight Sparkle. She sat near the pile of belongings, reading what appeared to be a journal, smiling and wiping away a few tears. Sunny Days walked over to her, sitting beside her and wrapping a hoof around the filly. In response, she turned and tightly gripped the mare, hugging her warmly. “Mother Sunny,” Said the tearing filly, “Thank you for everything. I promise I’ll never forget you.”
“And I won’t forget you either, Twilight. I’ll always have your smiling picture to come to and look at.” The lavender unicorn let go, holding onto the journal thoughtfully. Then without warning, pressed it into her caretaker’s hooves. “Twilight, I can’t take this,” Said Sunny. “I know what it is, it’s the diary you’ve kept ever since I got you it. You’ve written in it everyday, and it holds many precious memories. Memories you should keep.”
Twilight took the diary back when the mare offered it. Setting it on top of the pile of items from her sisters and herself, she turned back around and hugged the caretaker again. Voice shaking and tears flowing freely, she said, “I love you Mother Sunny.”
Sunny Days couldn’t hold back the tear that came with the phrase. And while she had prepared for a hard goodbye, what the mare didn’t prepare for was the rest of the sisters coming into the hug. In almost perfect unison, she could hear, “I love you Mother Sunny,” from each of the fillies. Unable to hold back the tears, she expanded the hug to wrap around each of them,
“I love each of you so, so much. I promise, if you ever need me again, just send me a letter. I’ll be there as quick as I can.”
The group hug lasted several heart-shattering moments, enough for Celestia to bear witness to a few of her own tears. Soon enough, it broke up, each of the mares wiping away their tears. Wordlessly, the fillies started getting their items, gearing up for their adoption. They each passed through to the other orphans, saying goodbyes, sharing hoof bumps, and giving hugs. Soon enough, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were lined up in front of Celestia, tears still gracing their eyes but smiles and hope reigning their expressions.
The Princess of the Sun had to fight back her own objections to separating them but had to say something, lest her own heart start to fight her. “I know that I may never measure up to what Mother Sunny has given you all,” She said, trying to maintain a stable voice, “But if you truly wish to stay here with her, I will not force any of you to come with me. I will do the best I can to provide for each of you, and I would love you like any mother would. It would hurt me more to see you sad than it would make me happy to call each of you my own children.”
The sisters looked to one another for a moment, looking for assurance, when they all had the same thought. Each of them nodded before putting down their bags, readying into a pouncing position, and jumping onto Princess Celestia, pinning her to the floor while being cuddled by six fillies. Sunny Days came up to her, smiling. “I think that should answer that.”
Princess Celestia, flanked by her newly adopted fillies and her two guards, led the way towards Canterlot Castle. Upon reaching the gates, the guards stationed in front bowed to her before opening the wrought iron fence. Nodding her head, the alicorn continued onwards to the castle, going at a slow enough so as for the children to marvel at the scenery. Many “Oohs!” and “Ahs!” were heard behind her, bringing yet another smile to her face.
Eventually, the group reached large double doors carved with many designs of previous battles and wars, enough to be a story in and of itself. Celestia stepped to the side of the group, allowing the six a fair chance to marvel at it before encasing the massive wooden constructions in her golden glow, slowly opening them for dramatic effect. “Welcome to Castle Canterlot.”
Beyond the door was a large entrance hall, opening up enough for even a pegasus to fly around comfortably. Many grand marble pillars lined the entrance and the walls, along with several large stained glass windows. Guards, their golden armor glinting in the light, were stationed throughout the room, some patrolling through the air, others walking behind the pillars. A golden-amber light flowed through the windows, creating an air of royalty and wealth.
Celestia stepped in front of the fillies, seeing the shared expression of a dropped jaw and wide eyes. She smirked lightly, asking, “Impressed? We have quite a bit more to go through, my little ponies.”
The tour of the castle went smoothly, the six adopted sisters seeing the throne room, the kitchens, the guard barracks, the gardens, and even the royal quarters.
“And this is my room,” Celestia said, opening the door. Inside was a sparsely decorated room, a desk sitting near the front with a large, queen size canopy bed at the back. A few bookshelves sat opposite of the desk, farther from the door. Many different sized tomes and scrolls alike were held in the shelves, some as dusty as if they came from ruins. Twilight gasped in joy at the sight of the bookshelves and immediately ran to them, grabbing three at random and opening them, flipping through the pages with both delicacy and speed.
“She’s a bit of a book enthusiast,” Rarity supplemented.
“Yep. You set a book in front of that filly, she’ll read it,” Applejack added.
Celestia hummed in thought for a moment. “That might be useful to know.”
Twilight kept flipping through them, an expression of utter glee and excitement upon her muzzle, until a golden capped hoof bumped her on the withers. Blushing, the lavender unicorn turned around, seeing the amused grin of her new foster mother. “Sorry…” The embarrassed filly said.
Celestia only smiled more. “Just wait until you see the royal library.”
“There’s a library here?!” The ecstatic filly asked, bouncing.
“Yes, and we’ll go there next. But first,” She said, motioning for the others to gather closely, “Let’s lay a few rules down. I’m not sure how Mother Sunny let you act, but here you will behave. Firstly,” The alicorn said, looking directly at Twilight, “You will ask for anything you wish to play with or look at. If I’m not around, look for a responsible grownup to ask. Secondly, before entering any room that is closed, knock first. You will respect the privacy of any and all who are here.”
“Yes ma’am,” The fillies said in unison.
“Thirdly,” Celestia said, wearing a warm smile, “As I'm certain you all know, I am the princess. While I will make as much time as possible for all you, I will be busy throughout the day. I promise, I won't neglect any of you, and please tell me if you feel like I am, but I am very busy during the day. Unless it's an emergency or if you feel unsafe, please don't come to me for every little thing. The staff can more than take care of anything small, like a snack or if you want to go somewhere.” The alicorn layed down, resting head height with the fillies. “I will be more than available everyday after court and before bed. I will try to spend as much time as I can with each of you.”
“Pinkie Promise?”
Celestia turned to the source of the noise, coming from a stern faced Pinkie Pie. “Excuse me?”
“If you’re really serious, Pinkie Promise!”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what a Pinkie Promise is.”
Twilight supplemented the answer. “Pinkie made it to, as she says, ‘prove you’re really a friend.’”
“Yeah!” The pink mare added. “Nopony ever breaks a Pinkie Promise!”
Celestia rose from her lying position on the floor, sitting on her haunches and flicking her ear. “And how exactly does one make a ‘Pinkie Promise,’ Pinkie?”
Pinkie Pie rose up on her haunches exactly like her foster mother did, mimicking that actions as she said them. “Cross my heart,” She slashed over her barrel in the area where her heart would be, “Hope to fly,” She rapidly moved her hooves up and down to the sides of her, almost like wings, “Stick a cupcake in my eye!” From somewhere, she pulled out a cupcake and smashed it into her left eye, soon licking it up with an extraordinarily long tongue. “Mmm, blueberry!”
“Don’t worry, you don’t actually have to use a cupcake, just do the motions,” Rainbow Dash added.
Growing a smile, Celestia did as Pinkie had. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Instead of using a cupcake, she softly placed a hoof against a closed eye, removing it soon after.
Each of the girls smiled wide at the Pinkie Promise, happy to be able to trust their princessly mother.
“Now, shall we move to the library?”
“And here is where we will all gather each day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
“Woah.”
“What she said.”
Each of the six fillies looked past the wide double door entrance, seeing a very ornate table and plush cushions set around it. A white table cloth with a pattern of the sun and moon lay atop it, set with flowers in a small vase on top of it. Large stained-glass windows sat near the entrance and at the back of the room, providing some well themed light, seeming like sunset at almost any time of day.
“Again, this is simply astounding!” Rarity said, transfixed by the decor. “Ooh, I can think of so many wonderful ideas to use in my designs!”
“Yeah, Rares, it’ll be named ‘Ode to lunch,’” Rainbow teasingly said.
“No, I will name it, ‘The Rainbow for lunch,’” Rarity snarkily returned.
“Pfft, yeah, like you’d eat me.”
The white unicorn airily waved a hoof around, saying, “No, you would be much too bitter for my tastes. Too gamey.”
“Speaking of gamey,” Celestia input, attempting to stop the inevitable fight before it again, “It is about time for dinner. What would each of you say to having a professionally cooked meal?”
Rainbow Dash was about to refuse when a loud rumbling come from her stomach. “Yeah, I’m pretty hungry. We haven’t eaten since lunch, right?” She asked sheepishly.
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed, “We all had a light lunch, since we couldn’t stay still and didn’t want to lose it on the way here.”
“Well,” The Princess said, grasping a small bell on a table near a door set in the back of the room, “Let’s eat.”
She shook the bell, to which a unicorn maid and an earth pony chef wearing stereotypical attire came out, the maid holding a small notebook and pen in her magic. “What would you like, Your Highness?” The chef asked. Celestia looked to the fillies at the question, smiling warmly, yet curiously.
Rainbow Dash flapped up to the chef, wearing the biggest grin she ever had. “I'll take a Double Triple Bossy Deluxe on a raft, four by four, animal-style, extra shingles with a shimmy and a squeeze, light axle grease, make it cry, burn it, and let it swim.”
Stunned silence floated around the room until Celestia said, smirking lightly, “Just so you all know, it is a very large rule here to not waste your food.” She turned towards the chef in his attire, still smirking. “Chef Ramsay, you have my express permission that if anypony does not finish their meal, you may lock the doors until such time as they have.”
Rainbow Dash dropped from her hovering, shyly saying, “I’ll just have a regular hayburger with no tomatoes please. And a Cola.”
Celestia, Mother of Equestria and Princess of the Sun, walked through the halls of Canterlot Castle, humming a small lullaby. Upon her back were six small fillies, cuddled up with one another, holding full tummies and sleeping very contently. Soon after dinner, despite most of them offering up refusals of growing weary, after a short ride from their adoptive mother’s back they had all fallen asleep.
With the hour’s change and the bell’s ringing from across town, Celestia decided it was finally time for the sisters to be put to bed. Fortunate that she had wandered close to it with the time growing ever later, the princess opened up six doors along a hallway, slowly, one-by-one, placing fillies into their beds, laying a blanket across them, and giving each a goodnight kiss. A couple of them were a little reluctant in their sleep to be parted with their new mom, holding onto her despite her own need of sleep. Instead of simply placing them into bed and more forcefully extricating herself, Celestia would hold the filly in question until they had let go, where with a warming spell upon their blankets, she would place them into bed and leave.
It was along this hall that she wandered deep into the night after some restless hours of sleep, gained fitfully and with worry. Worry for herself and how she would now cope with six little bundles of joy, worry for the six sisters and their relative safety along with their coping of coming to a new home, and finally worry for her own sister, and her thousand year stay on the moon.
Worrying herself into a small tizzy, Celestia stopped herself, breathing deeply and with control as she studied her surroundings. She saw six doors, along with some suspicious coloring to each of them. Ah, I’m in the fillies’ hallway. I suppose making sure they’re sleeping fine won’t do any harm, to them or I, She reasoned. With a tentative grip, assuring the door wouldn’t squeak, she opened it to reveal was supposed to be Twilight Sparkle’s room. Only, nopony was inside.
Finding it odd, but looking for a reasonable answer, she opened the next to find the same instance. One of her filly’s room, but with the filly in question gone. Opening the next, Celestia only saw the same. And the next. And the next.
Now in a truly alarmed worry, the princess practically slammed open the final door, Fluttershy’s room, to a most curious sight. A large pile of oddly shaped bumps and appendages was under the covers of the yellow pegasus’ bed, moving only slightly and irregularly at times while what sounded like snoring came from it. Moving quickly yet quietly, Celestia gently peeled off the blanket of the unknown monstrosity to reveal six multicolored fillies, all in a mish-mash pile of wings, horns, hooves, and cuddling.
Gasping loudly at the discovery, Celestia wrapped her own large, voluminous wings around the large pile, feeling her wings’ warmth be pulled into the almost hot pile of fillies, insulating them from the cold. Taking several moments to calm her frantic heart and slow her manic breathing, the motherly alicorn slowly realized what had happened. The girls had grew up together in the orphanage and were always so used to being close to one another. At some point in the night, they had each gotten up and walked to Fluttershy’s room where they all piled up for sleep.
Her heart rate and breathing much more steady, Celestia slowly lifted herself and her wings off of the fillies, looking at the large pile first with relief, then with adoration at the cute display. Until, that is, a few of them started to try taking the others’ tails and wrap them over their body, trying to stay warm. Feeling her heart melting at the sight, the princess decided to do away with the awkwardness and climbed into the bed with them, wrapping her long body and legs around the pile whilst simultaneously placing a large wing over the pile, effectively protecting them from the cold of the night.
Under her wing and against her left foreleg, Celestia felt one of the fillies squirming about, eventually managing to escape the fluffy and winged prison. Yawning widely, Fluttershy looked at her previous place, noticing the large white alicorn forming the barrier. With a wide, dopey smile on her face, and looking so tired, the butter pegasus crawled up to her adoptive mother’s face and hugged it tightly. A very shy, very quiet, and very tired voice met Celestia’s ears then, speaking with the most conviction she had heard from her.
Fluttershy said, “I love you, mommy.”