Chapter Four
Promises
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In many ways, Fluttershy had always felt unsuited for her role as Bearer of an Element of Harmony. After all, what did she have on the others? She wasn’t strong like Applejack, or talented like Twilight was. Her friends would of course disagree – in fact they had, several times, when she had been caught dismissing her importance. Every one of them was necessary, and Fluttershy played her role to perfection.
Of course, this was because she bore the Element of Kindness. She couldn’t imagine being responsible for any of the other Elements, just as she was sure none of her friends would want to be responsible for Kindness. It was just a natural part of who Fluttershy was.
For instance, it was second nature for her to notice when her wife was trying to hide she was upset. No, maybe she wasn’t hiding it exactly – Sunset might not even realize she was upset herself. She had become the kind of pony who would bury her negativity so deeply that she wasn’t even always aware of it.
But when Fluttershy woke up to find that Sunset was already out of their bed, it sent a message about what kind of state her wife was in. Sunset did not rise early. And when Fluttershy found her in the kitchen making pancakes, there was simply no other explanation.
“Sunset?” Fluttershy said as she entered the room. “What are you doing down here?”
Sunset turned and smiled. “Hey, Fluttershy. I thought I’d make breakfast for everyone.”
“How come?” Fluttershy said, stepping farther into the kitchen.
“I need a reason to do something nice for everyone?”
“No, of course not.” Fluttershy nuzzled against her wife. “It’s just that you don’t normally like to cook.”
Sunset shrugged. “I was just in a weird mood, I guess.”
That was an understatement; ‘weird’ might not be the best word to describe what kind of mood Sunset was in. Fluttershy just smiled. “Do you want some help?”
“No thanks, I think I got a handle on this.” Sunset poured some more pancake batter into a pan. “I wouldn’t say no to some company though.”
“Of course.” Fluttershy took a seat at the kitchen table. “I was surprised when I woke up and you weren’t in bed.”
“Sorry, hope I didn’t worry you.”
“No, it’s okay. Did you not sleep well?”
“No.” Sunset frowned. “I just tossed and turned all night.”
“Poor thing… Too upset about yesterday?”
Sunset sighed. “I guess it’s obvious, huh?”
“A little bit.” It wasn’t like Fluttershy and Twilight weren’t upset that Morning had decided she didn’t want to live with them, but Sunset had definitely taken it the hardest. “And are we sure that doesn’t have anything to do with making pancakes?”
“I guess maybe a little…” Sunset sighed and turned to look at Fluttershy. She looked tired, and not just because she hadn’t slept. “I learned how to make all these different kinds of pancakes so I could make breakfast when Morning came to live with us. I guess I just… thought I’d feel better if I put it to use.”
“Do you?”
“Not really, no.”
Fluttershy got up and hugged Sunset. “It’ll be okay.”
Rather than hugging her back, Sunset flipped the pancake she was cooking. “Yeah, I know. It just sucks.”
It was strange to think of Sunset as being the one of them most upset over this. Out of the three, she had been the most standoffish about adopting a foal. But something about Morning Glisten really won her over.
No, not something. Fluttershy knew why Morning had worked her way into Sunset’s heart so completely. “Did you want to get adopted when you lived at an orphanage?”
Sunset frowned. “No.”
Fluttershy nodded. She’d thought as much. “I guess Morning was just a little too much like you.”
“But that’s exactly why she needs a good home!” Sunset turned to Fluttershy with a pained expression. “I didn’t want to get adopted, but fuck, it could’ve made such a difference for me!”
Fluttershy smiled reassuringly. “I know, and I understand. But you can’t control what she does.”
“Yeah, it just…” Sunset turned back to the pancake, although Fluttershy got the impression she wasn’t really paying it much attention. “It really sucks…”
It hurt to see Sunset like this. Fluttershy had also gotten her hopes up that Morning would be living with them, but she would be okay, and she knew Twilight would too. It was just a matter of trying to get Sunset to move on from the little filly she was already growing to love in such a short time.
There wasn’t much to say that would speed that along, though. Sunset just needed time to move on, so Fluttershy just stayed by Sunset’s side while she made pancakes. She considered insisting Sunset sit down and take it easy while Fluttershy finished, but she suspected she needed to keep busy.
“You know,” Fluttershy said after a while, “no one said you have to stop caring about Morning.”
“She made it pretty clear that she wants me to,” Sunset said.
“I don’t know. I think she was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to say. It wouldn’t hurt to visit one more time and see if she’s changed her mind, you know.”
“I…” Sunset took the pancake out of the pan, adding it to the pile she already had. “I don’t know… I don’t want to try and force her.”
“What if we both go?” Fluttershy nuzzled Sunset. “We can just go and spend some time with the kids. I think Morning will at least be happy to see us, even if she doesn’t want to live with us.”
“I think… I’d like to see her one more time. We didn’t really end on a good note, and I want to say a better goodbye at least.”
Fluttershy smiled and kissed Sunset’s cheek. “We can go after breakfast. Want me to go get everyone while you finish up?”
“Sounds good.” Sunset used her magic to open up the fridge and pulled out some eggs. “I’ll make some scrambled eggs to go with the pancakes while you do that. Thanks, Fluttershy.”
“Of course.” Fluttershy gave Sunset a quick kiss, then left the kitchen to wake everyone else. She was a little worried about leaving Sunset to make eggs by herself, but she didn’t want to offend her by saying anything.
So, biting her tongue, she walked up the stairs towards the bedrooms. She stopped at Spike’s room first and knocked on the door. There was only a grumble from inside. “Spike, Sunset made pancakes. Come on down and get some breakfast.”
There was another grumble in response. She wasn’t sure if he would willingly come down for breakfast or not, but she decided to leave it at that for now. She wanted him to get a good meal in with everyone, but he was a teenager and that meant having a little extra patience.
Twilight’s parents were much easier. She knocked on the door gently and Velvet answered. “Good morning, Fluttershy.”
“Good morning, Mom.” Fluttershy smiled. “Sunset made pancakes if you and Dad want to come down and get some breakfast.”
Velvet yawned and smiled. “That sounds nice, dear. I’ll get Night Light up and we’ll head down.”
“Alright, see you in a bit then.”
That only left Twilight. Fluttershy made her way back to their bedroom, where Twilight was still sleeping peacefully. Fluttershy climbed into bed and nudged her wife. “Twily, it’s time to get up.”
“Mmm, why?” Twilight asked without opening her eyes.
“Because Sunset made pancakes. Come down and get breakfast.”
Twilight shifted positions, but she didn’t get up. “I’m not hungry. Just save some for me and I’ll eat them later.”
“Twily… Sunset’s upset.”
Twilight frowned and opened one eye. “She is? Wait, did you say Sunset made pancakes?”
Fluttershy nodded. “She said she wanted to make them for Morning once she came to live with us…”
“Oh.” Twilight sighed and rubbed her eyes, then she sat up. “Fine, I’m up.”
Fluttershy put her forelegs around her wife and they kissed. “I think Sunset and I are going to Small Steps later if you want to come.”
“Really? Are you sure Morning will want to see us?”
“I don’t know… But I think we have to try.”
Twilight nodded. “Okay. I’ll come too.”
Twilight got out of the bed and stretched, then the two of them went downstairs together. As they were passing by, Spike’s door opened and he shuffled down with them.
As they reached the bottom of the stairs, they heard Sunset call from the dining room. “In here!”
The group walked into the dining room to find Sunset setting the table. She had certainly been busy – not only were there a lot of pancakes, there were several kinds of them as well, not to mention scrambled eggs.
“Good morning, Sunset,” Twilight said with a smile. “You really went all out.”
Sunset grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, I… kinda learned how to make a lot of different kinds.”
Spike yawned. “Why couldn’t we do pancake brunch though?”
Twilight rolled her eyes and levitated some eggs and pancakes over to him, then to herself. While Sunset was serving Fluttershy, Twilight Velvet and Night Light came down. Like his son, Night Light was yawning, but he seemed to be in higher spirits.
They didn’t always eat breakfast as a family – dinner was their usual family meal while everyone got breakfast and lunch on their own. But Fluttershy liked starting the day together as a family, and she suspected that it would be good for Sunset too.
They took their seats and served themselves, then everyone took turns passing syrup and sauce around. Fluttershy had decided to start with blueberry pancakes, which she topped with blueberry syrup and whipped cream.
She took a bite and smiled. “Mmm,” she said through her mouthful. Once she chewed and swallowed, she turned to Sunset to add, “These are really good, Sunset.”
“Thanks,” Sunset said as she took a bite of her own pancakes.
“Yeah, the chocolate chip ones came out great,” Twilight said. She took a bite of the eggs and immediately frowned. She chewed slowly, and Fluttershy knew exactly what was going on.
Although she didn’t need to, she took a bite of the eggs to verify. They were tough and chewy because Sunset had cooked them too long. She swallowed with some difficulty, then forced a smile. “And the eggs are good too,” she said, hoping the others would take her lead.
“Mhmm.” Twilight nodded. “Everything is really good!”
Spike took a bite as well and shrugged. “I don’t know, they seem –” he stopped when he noticed his sister’s glare.
“What’s that?” Sunset asked.
“They’re, uh, pretty good!” Spike said.
Fluttershy let out a small sigh of relief. Sunset was really upset, and she really had done well with the pancakes. The last thing she needed was for anyone to hurt her feelings.
“Certainly much better than I could do,” Twilight Velvet said.
Sunset chuckled as she scooped up a bite of her own eggs. “I’m still a ways off from Night Light, though.”
Night Light laughed as well. “You know, we’d be happy to have you in the kitchen sometimes if you want to learn.”
Sunset didn’t answer, because she had finally taken a bite of the eggs. She frowned at everyone. “Okay, how come no one told me that the eggs taste like ass?”
“Is, er, that a human expression?” Velvet asked.
Spike, who knew that humans didn’t mean ‘donkey’ when they said ‘ass’, snickered. “Do, uh, do you have a lot of experience eating ass, Sunset?”
“Spike!” Twilight said sharply.
Sunset cracked a small grin. “You know, I should say yes just to put that image in your head.”
“Sunset, please!” Twilight said, rounding on her. Spike choked on his pancakes as he tried to keep from laughing, while Sunset adopted an innocent expression.
“Still better than Twilight’s cooking,” Spike mumbled, causing Twilight to give him another glare.
“Uhm, he is right about that, though,” Fluttershy added, then mimicked Sunset’s innocent expression.
“Oh, they’re not that bad,” Night Light said. “Just a little overdone is all. It’s an easy mistake.”
“And besides, the pancakes came out great,” Twilight Velvet added. “And making breakfast for everyone was a lovely thought.”
Sunset moved her eggs around on her plate. “I guess I was a little distracted…”
Velvet smiled sadly. They’d heard about what happened. “Still got little Morning on your mind?”
“Yeah,” Sunset said with a sigh. “Fluttershy said she would go with me to see her later.”
“You can count me in too,” Twilight said, apparently willing to let go of the swearing incident with Spike.
“I think she’ll be happy to see you,” Velvet said.
“I think so too,” Fluttershy agreed.
“I hope so…” Sunset sighed and pushed away her plate. “You didn’t see her, though. She was really angry.”
“Little kids can have big emotions,” Velvet said. “And sometimes they can swing pretty fast from one direction to the other.”
“Whatever happens, we’ll face it together,” Twilight said with a smile.
“I’ll just be happy if I get to say a proper goodbye to her…” Sunset muttered.
“You know, there’s something else you can do,” Night Light said with a smile, and everyone turned to look at him. “You could give her a journal so she could keep in touch with you. Maybe she’s not ready to be adopted, and maybe she never will be. But that way, she could keep in contact if she wants to.”
“That’s a great idea!” Twilight said. “We should have some around.”
Velvet nodded. “I agree. There’s no sense pretending like there wasn’t a connection between you four, no matter what happens. And who knows, maybe someday she’ll change her mind and use this journal as a way to tell you that.”
“What do you think, Sunset?” Fluttershy asked. She thought it sounded like a great idea, and they did have a surplus of the journals because of their work with Unity. But Sunset had spent the most time with Morning, and she knew her the best.
“I think it’s worth a shot,” Sunset said, the trace of a smile on her face. “I don’t know what’ll happen. I know when I was her age, I wouldn’t want anything to do with something like that. But it’s a good idea.”
“She may be like you, but she’s not you,” Twilight said with a smile. “I think she’ll really surprise you.”
Spike pointed across the table. “Well I think you should pass me another one of those birthday cake pancakes.”
With an eye roll, Sunset passed Spike another pancake. Overcooked eggs aside, everyone enjoyed breakfast. Most importantly, Sunset did. She was a little more reserved than usual, but she joined in with jokes and she smiled and soaked in the praise they all heaped on her for the pancakes.
Just as Fluttershy had expected, the family breakfast seemed to help Sunset quite a bit, her spirits significantly raised by the time they cleaned up the table. As they usually did when someone else did the cooking, Twilight’s parents offered to take care of the dishes, leaving the wives to get ready.
“This is it, I guess,” Sunset said as they retreated to the bedroom to freshen up before heading out.
“No,” Twilight said. “She’ll have a journal, and she can reach out to us at any time.”
“Yeah,” Sunset said with a small smile. She took a deep breath. “You’re right. Let’s do this.”
Hollow Shades wasn’t a popular destination, so there were a limited number of trains that made the route between it and Ponyville. Coupled with the fact that they hadn’t left first thing in the morning, that meant that they didn’t reach Small Steps until late afternoon. That worked out okay because Morning would be home from school, but it did also mean that they’d have limited time to spend together.
But before they could meet with Morning, they met with Ginger Snap. She smiled when she saw them. “Oh good, I was hoping you three would be coming back. Didn’t think you would make it back quite so soon, though.”
Sunset shifted in place. “I think we’re going to need a little time before we look into adopting another foal. But we did want to try to say a proper goodbye to Morning, and to give her this.”
Ginger Snap looked at the journal. “Morning does love books.”
Twilight nodded. “This isn’t a regular book. It’s a journal that can send messages to its mirror copy, which we have. This way, Morning will be able to write to us. If she wants to, of course.”
“Even better.” Ginger Snap smiled. “I think she’ll warm up to it, no matter what she thinks right away. She was really upset when you left, you know.”
“She was?” Sunset asked with a frown. “She said she didn’t want to see me anymore…”
“Little kids say things sometimes,” Ginger said with a nod. “Especially kids like Morning.”
“Is she around?” Fluttershy asked. “We’d, uhm, we’d really like to see her.”
“Oh yes, of course. She’s probably in her room. Come with me.”
They followed the caretaker to Morning’s room, even though all three of them knew the way by now. She knocked on the door and gently called through it. “Morning? You have visitors.”
There was a moment’s pause, then the door slowly opened to reveal Morning Glisten. She looked like she’d been crying, and she looked up at the others in surprise.
“Hey, Morning,” Sunset said awkwardly. “I know you said you didn’t want to see us, but –”
She was cut off when Morning ran forward and threw her forelegs around her. After looking around for some sign of what to do, Sunset reached down and did likewise as Morning started crying.
“I’m sorry!” Morning said between sobs. “I didn’t mean it! I missed you.”
Sunset scooped Morning up in one foreleg and carried her to her bed. Fluttershy and Twilight followed them inside, Fluttershy sitting on Morning’s other side while Twilight remained standing.
Sunset kept a foreleg around Morning. “Hey, I missed you too, you know.”
Fluttershy extended her wing over the small filly. “It’s true. We all did.”
“I thought… I thought I’d never see you again.”
Twilight took a seat on the floor near them. “Trust me, you’ll have to try a lot harder than that to get rid of us. And we brought you something.” She levitated the journal over to Morning.
Morning rubbed her eyes and flipped open the cover. “It’s all blank.”
“That’s because this is a magic journal,” Twilight explained. “If you write a message in this one, it’ll appear in another one we have at home, and then we can write back to you.”
“When we first met Sunset, she lived really far away,” Fluttershy explained. “This is how Twilight and I talked to her.”
Morning looked down at the journal, which didn’t seem to perk her up as much as Fluttershy would have hoped. Eventually she looked up at Sunset. “Uhm…”
“What’s up?” Sunset asked. “Don’t know how to write?”
“I know how to write!” Morning said and turned away.
Sunset chuckled. “Hey, I’m just teasing. What’s on your mind?”
When Morning didn’t answer, Fluttershy gently chided her wife. “Maybe this isn’t the best time to tease, Sunset.”
“Right, sorry…”
“I, uhm…” Morning blushed and squirmed. “I think I changed my mind.”
“You changed your mind?” Sunset asked, her eyes going a little wide. “About what?”
“Do you think you might want to come live with us after all?” Fluttershy asked.
“Maybe…”
Sunset broke into a grin. “Yes! This is gonna be so cool, just wait and see!”
“You, uhm…” Morning squirmed some more. “You promise you won’t just send me back…?”
“Of course we won’t,” Fluttershy said. “The four of us have spent a lot of time together, and we wouldn’t offer this if we weren’t sure.”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah, I know that happened with Cinnamon Twirl, but it won’t happen with us. We’re going to take care of you, Morning. I promise.”
Morning started crying and held onto Sunset some more. Fluttershy turned to Twilight. “Twily, let’s go see what we need to do about paperwork while Sunset stays with Morning.”
“I think that sounds like a good idea,” Twilight said as she got up.
Fluttershy stood up as well, and she and Twilight walked out of the room to find Ginger Snap still waiting in the hall. “I heard everything. Let’s go get things started, then.”
Fluttershy often found herself glad for Twilight’s thorough understanding of, well, everything, and this was definitely one of those times. As Ginger Snap explained the process and showed them the forms they would need to fill out, Fluttershy quickly found herself becoming overwhelmed by it all. Twilight, on the other hoof, seemed to be one step ahead of the explanation at all times.
It was perhaps not surprising that they would not be able to take Morning home with them that night. Nonetheless, it was a bit disappointing. Fluttershy understood, of course; it was better if this process was a little complicated, having foals going home with potential families before everything was in order wouldn’t help anyone, least of all the foals.
At some point, they had to take Sunset away from Morning so the filly could eat some dinner and take a bath. By that point, Morning seemed to be doing much better at least. If anything, Fluttershy thought Sunset had the tougher time separating than Morning did.
Since she wasn’t legally their wife, Sunset wasn’t going to legally be Morning’s guardian and wasn’t needed for the paperwork, but she helped fill it out anyway. Mostly she focused on helping Fluttershy, since Twilight was capable of filling out forms all on her own.
In addition to the paperwork, they’d also be subject to an inspection of their house to make sure it was suitable for a foal Morning’s age. Ginger Snap seemed apologetic about all the hoops they’d have to jump through, but they were all in agreement – they didn’t want any special treatment because they were royalty, they wanted to go through the process like anypony else.
The paperwork seemed to drag on forever, and there was more that they’d be taking home with them to fill out and return later. But they were given extra motivation when they found out if all went well, they could have Morning spend the weekend with them as a sort of trial run.
Eventually, they finished up and they were allowed to see Morning before leaving. By then, she had already had dinner and would be winding down for bed, so all in all they would be seeing her very little on this trip, but that was okay. Before too long, they would all be living together, after all.
Sunset knocked on her door, and Morning called “Come in,” through it, so they did so. She was on her bed reading, which wasn’t a surprise to any of them.
“Alright, Morning, we’ve gotta get going,” Sunset said.
“Aww… But we didn’t get to do anything…”
“Well, we do have good news,” Fluttershy said with a smile. “You can come stay with us this weekend.”
“Really!?” Morning said.
Fluttershy giggled. “Yup! And you can write to us with the journal, too.”
“And if everything goes well, you might be able to come live with us in a month,” Twilight said.
Morning’s smile faded. “But… I thought you said I could come with you this weekend?”
“Oh…” Fluttershy frowned. “No, they just said you could come for the weekend, then we’ll have to bring you back. It’s so that everypony can get to know each other a little better and you can see what it’ll be like to live with us. That way you can make sure you really want to.”
“You mean you can make sure you really want me…”
“Morning…” Sunset sat on her bed beside her. “Yes, it is designed so that both the parents and the foal can make sure they want to be together. But we know we want you. If we could take you home tonight and never look back, we would. We just have to be patient, and soon, this will all be behind us.”
“You promise?”
“Yes,” Sunset said as she hugged Morning. “We promise.”
“And you’re in for a treat when you come over,” Twilight said. “Sunset’s going to make pancakes!”
“She’s really good at it too,” Fluttershy added.
Sunset chuckled. “I’ll absolutely make pancakes for you.”
“Okay,” Morning said with a smile.
Although the door was open, someone still knocked on it. They all looked back to see Ginger Snap smiling at them. “It’s getting to be time for somepony to get to bed.”
“Aww, but I’m not tired,” Morning said.
“Maybe the princesses wouldn’t mind tucking you into bed,” Ginger Snap suggested before she left to go tell other foals it was bedtime.
“Come on, let’s get you into bed,” Sunset said.
Morning put her book on her bedside table, then she lay down on the bed as Sunset pulled the blanket back for her, then tucked it in around her once she was all comfy.
“If you want,” Twilight said, “when you’re over for the weekend, we can read you bedtime stories before bed.”
“I’d –” Morning stopped to yawn. “I’d like that.”
“Hmm, we don’t have time for a bedtime story, but maybe a song?” Fluttershy suggested.
“Okay,” Morning said, already sounding sleepy.
“What should we sing?” Sunset asked.
“How about this one.” Fluttershy stepped closer to the bed and brushed a hoof over Morning’s mane. “Once upon a time, you came into my world and made the stars align.”
Twilight picked up the next line. They were all familiar with the song; Sunset often sang it to calm Twilight down when she had anxiety attacks. “Now I can see the signs, you pick me up when I get down so I can shine.”
“Shine like rainbows,” they all sang.
They took turns singing the words in the verses, and sang together on the chorus. Fluttershy was pretty sure Morning was asleep before they finished, but they sang the song all the way through anyway.
“We shine like rainbows,” Sunset finished at the end. Morning didn’t stir, already sleeping soundly. Sunset bent down to kiss her forehead. “Goodnight, Morning.”