//------------------------------// // Backstory // Story: A Loving Bond // by GoodVibeWolf //------------------------------// The two ponies hugged for what felt like minutes. Izzy didn’t want the moment to end. This is what she had felt in Alphabittle. She had felt a daughterly connection with him. And Alphabittle had just now found what he’d been missing from his life. After the hug, Alphabittle started thinking noticeably. Izzy looked at him with wet eyes. “What are you thinking about?” She asked curiously. Alphabittle hesitated for a moment. He didn’t want to open any more wounds than he already had. However, with everything that had happened tonight, he didn’t think asking one more question could affect things much more. “It’s just that…I want to know how you got to where you are now. How did you grow up?” Izzy thought for a moment with her eyes wet once again. They appeared to sparkle in the light of the room. “Well, I guess you could say I had a…unique childhood,” She said hesitantly. She paused for a moment. “Would you mind telling me more?” Alphabittle said, careful to not make Izzy more uncomfortable than she already was. “I was going to. Um, for the first ten or so years of my life, I lived in Bridlewood Orphanage.” An older looking mare had just looked outside after hearing a noise. She was shocked when she saw a foal. Had she not heard the doorbell ring? Anyway, the foal was beautiful. It had a scruffy lilac coat, a wild, curly blue and indigo mane, a grayish-teal horn, and bright magenta eyes. The poor child appeared as if it had been crying for hours. She had been outside for an hour, shivering in the cold wind. And she was no more than a week old. The parents had probably left her there without ringing the bell or knocking. The filly also had a patched up blanket and a woven basket. Lastly, there was a tag on the basket. The name read, “Izzy Moonbow”. The mare quickly took her inside. When she placed Izzy down, Izzy looked up at her with hopeful eyes. Even at such a young age, she was open to making friends! Alphabittle had tears in his eyes. He waited for Izzy to continue her story. “A-And. When I was really little, I always felt like an outcast. The foals and caretakers there always made comments about how different I was, and I started to believe there was something wrong with me,” Izzy sighed. “Why did they think you were different?” Alphabittle asked. “My sparkle always seemed to shine brighter than all my peers’. I guess no one liked how happy I tried to be all the time,” she paused for a second and let out a sad chuckle. “It’s like nopony ever wants to be happy.” Alphabittle briefly wondered what Izzy meant by a “sparkle”, but it didn’t really matter. He did notice that everypony who came to his shop seemed nearly emotionless. After a few seconds, Izzy continued with a sigh. “I was always trying to make the ponies around me happy, but I may have been a little…..” Alphabittle finished her sentence, “Persistent?” Izzy chuckled lightly, “Maybe. So, when I turned ten, I ran away. Well, more WALKED away, or maybe jumped! I opened my window and went through, and I had to jump to reach it, so I don’t know if that counts as RUNNING away.” “And that’s how you ended up here?” Alphabittle asked. “Yeah. I didn’t have anypony to stay with, and it was too depressing living in that orphanage, so I just set up a place to stay in the woods. Alone…” Izzy’s eyes started to moisten. Alphabittle noticed her eyes and immediately walked up to her chair and hugged her. “Hey, hey! You’ve already cried once, and I don’t like seeing you sad. There will only be happy thoughts in my house, okay?” He said as he wiped a tear from Izzy’s now wet cheeks. “Okay. Thank you, Alphabittle.” “For what?” Alphabittle asked as he let go of the hug. “For..being here. For not leaving me out in the cold, for comforting me, for listening to my sob story. You mean so much to me.” Alphabittle’s eyes sparkled with sympathy for the young unicorn. They loved each other. They were family.