It was on a day like any other day, in an old-timely cabin-like shack that a newborn filly breathed her very first breath of life; in fact, five fillies were borne there. In all retrospect they weren't fillies at all (though just by looking at them you wouldn't be able to tell otherwise). They were a cross between a stallion and a female Kirin named River Flow Efengottee. Though they were half pony their mother loved them all just the same. She sprawled all five of her newborn daughters out on her chest (they were all very tiny) and gently stroked them all with tender love and care.
Suddenly, the once very silent room filled with love and tranquility was disturbed by the loud bang of the cabin door being pounded open. In marched the fillies' father, Titan, stomping, as if upset about something.
"What's wrong, Titan?" River asked softly.
"Nothing!" Titan sneered back slamming the cabin door shut behind himself; only it didn't close. Instead the old planked door fell off its very hinges and made a loud clamoring sound as it hit the floor. With all the noise, each of the fillies were awoken and started to wail loudly.
"WHAT ART YE CRYING ABOUT?" The stallion wrathfully shouted turning towards the newborn fillies. He angrily looked them all over; however his eyes were especially fixed with fury on the runt of the litter (a light cornflower blue foal with a baby-blue mane and tail, along with turquoise eyes) who was about one-third the size of her other four sisters; she was also the youngest out of the bunch.
He was snapped back into reality by River's words spoken. "They art probably crying because thee woketh them up with all this noise," she answered back with fear in her voice. "There there, wilt be alright," River calmingly lulled redirecting her attention to her daughters.
Rolling his eyes at his wife's words, Titan simply scoffed and started trampling off before River called out gently, "I also suppose thee canst guess who came into the world whilst thee wast gone." It really wasn't a question.
Turning around sharply as if anger was controlling his every movement, Titan irately made "death glares." "THEY ART ALL RUNTS! EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!" The fillies' father roared furiously making his daughters cry again, "SHUT UP! YE GOOD FOR NOTHING MONGRELS!"
"Yelling at them willeth not maketh a difference," River replied in a teary shaky-like voice.
Her husband slowly and speechlessly came closer and closer to River's face in a way that let her know he was crossed with her. Fear rose up in her the longer the bitter silence lasted. Finally, after Titan had pushed the end off his mussel up against River's, out of the inaudible room (even the fillies had stopped mewling) Titan declared in an irate whisper, "Thou listen to me! I willeth not be disrespected by scum likest thee! I am going to goeth out and dost what I wanna dost for a couple days! That smallest filly the size of a mouse, if she is not gone by the time I getteth back...wilt never see any of thine daughters ever again! Dost I makest myself clear?!"
With that Titan marched right back out of the used to be door now large opening in the wall, not even waiting for a reply. But before he left fully (just to be mean) he used one of his hind legs to kick at the fallen planks of wood. This naturally caused a racket and once again made the fillies scream.
Despite the noise everything appeared still to River, as if time had slowed down... or stopped entirely. This was not the way things were supposed to happen! River thought over and over again until it became verbal repetition.
River's eyes flowed with tears and her bottom lip quivered; she couldn't stop it; all she felt was despair. She wept where she was for a while before she finally got up and dressed herself in a dirty, coarse, tan "rope" stained with blood spots here and there.
Since River was preparing to leave with the runt, she asked a mare named Strawberry Shortcake (she was another one of Titan's wives) if she would watch her other four children while she was gone.
Strawberry originally tried to convince River to keep the filly and let her stand up against Titan; however, River's continual response while she bore a fake smile was, "No, that is okay." In truth that was simply the briefest excuse she could think of on a moment's notice. The real reason was much more complicated. First off, she feared Titan and how far he would go just to get his way. Secondly, she wished no harm on Strawberry or her family were she to stand between them. And thirdly, she felt it to be unfair on the filly to keep her in a house where she would constantly be despised by her father. Maybe... just maybe I canst giveth her a better papa than I had.
As hard as it was to deny Strawberry's persuasive words, River did so until they eventually stopped. "Fine," Strawberry finally conceded, "if thou art sure about this?" River forced herself to nod.
"Okay... dost worry not, River. I willeth takes good care of thine newborns whilest thee art gone..." Strawberry paused, taking time to gently touch her hoof to River's face and kissed her on her forehead (as was common greeting and closing in pony culture back then), "and when thee get back I willeth get thee some better clothes to wear."
River gave a subtle smile, though by now Strawberry could tell it wasn't a real one. "I willeth be back soon," River voiced trying to choke back the tears.
Taking her runt of a daughter in her arms, River wrapped her up in as many blankets as she could find in order to make her daughter easier to hold. Sure River probably could have used her horn's telekinesis but at this point it would have felt insensitive.
With her baby bundled up, River was all prepared to leave and practically out (Strawberry's) door when she was stopped. "Art thou sure thee dost not want me to accompany thee?" She gently asked in a concerned pitch.
"I willeth be alright," River partially lied. She knew it was extremely dangerous for a Kirin to walk around (even a little bit) a week following birthing young, but she just couldn't asked Strawberry to do anything else for her. So, consequently she made a big mistake.
"Okay, if thou say so?"
"I dost," responded River as she stepped out the door, closed it carefully behind herself, and began her journey. As she did so she started a one-way gentle/mournful conversation with her daughter. "I hope thee know I love thee," she announced overwhelmed by emotion, "and I am not choosing thine sisters over thee..." River was now blinded by the tears which filled her greenish-blue eyes. "And...and..." River continued so overcome by her grief that she barely spoke in words, "I...I...I...know...know...that...that...thou...dd do dost not under...understand this now...bb...bb...bu...bb...bu...but I...ww ww...wouldst nn...nn...never be able to...to forgive... mm my myself if... if I did not tell thee. I love thee my daughter... I...I...I dost...dost not want to...want to giveth thee up...bb...bu...but thee m...mm...must understand I...understand I hath no choice. Thy father's threats art something to not be taken lightly. I...I canst not let... let thee or...or thine sisters get hurt. I..I hope thee willeth one day understand, Mm...Moon...Moonshine Eclipse."
River was so caught up in her "conversation" that she arrived at destination in which seemed like no time at all. She slowly approached a very beat-up, old-looking, four-story building that had crooked windows and looked as if a couple of drunken monkeys had put it together. Above the building was a battered sign which had the words Orphanage inscribed on it.
Coming up on the door to the orphanage River spotted two pieces of parchment nailed to the dry splintering wood. One read no Unicorns accepted here and the other one read no Pegasus accepted here. She simply shrugged it off and knocked on the door.
A dirty green colored earth pony (or he could have just been dirty) with a mustard yellow mane opened the door. He only had to take one look at River before he started to shut it again.
"Wait!" River desperately exclaimed stopping the door from closing with her available forearm.
"Did thou not read the signs posted on the door, Lassi... whatever thee art?" The earth pony questioned rudely beginning to close the door once more.
For the second time River stopped it, this time via telekinesis. "She is not!" River distressfully cried incoherently.
"Excuse me?" The earth pony skeptically asked with an eyebrow raised.
"She's not a Pegasus! Nor a Unicorn!" River declared with tears in her eyes.
"We dost not accept..." the earth pony paused taking a moment to look River up and down, "whatever thou art either!" He shouted back passionately feeling like he had finally made his point. Unfortunately for him, River wouldn't be deterred, nor was she done defining her own point.
"But she does not even look likest a Kirin!" Retorted River, "in fact, she could practically pass off as an earth pony if thee keeps the tufts of hair on the back of her legs shaved off!"
By now the earth pony was very tired of arguing so he eventually gave up and gestured for River to hand him the baby. When she did he gasped as he looked down at the unbelievably small filly wrapped in layers upon layers of blankets. His mouth hung open and with wide eyes he continued staring.
"Is something wrong?" River uncertainly asked getting more than a little nervous at the staggering silence the stallion before her seemed to emit. He simply shook his head as his response until he could think of something to say.
"No, no problem," the earth pony replied unsteady finally being able to talk, "I just hath never seen such a small filly before."
"Yes, she is the runt of the littler," River shakily answered before there was a long silence between the two. Since neither seemed to have anything more to say to each other they just exchanged uncomfortable glances.
"Well..." the stallion broke the "never ending" awkwardness (he had a bit of embarrassment in the tone of his voice), "I hath to goeth back...in there."
"Oh, yeah...okay...of course," River somehow managed to squeeze out through the emotional pain, and now a worrisome physical sharpness that seemed to coat the inside of her being; River ignored it (the best she could) however and continued on in her earlier statement, "goodbye, my baby! I love thee greatly."
As the earth pony closed the door, for the third time now, River brought forth a slight smile to hide her grief, not to mention the (inevitable) immense bodily pain she was now feeling because of her earlier actions. Once the entrance had been shut however, River dropped the falsehood and her smile quickly shifted into a frown accompanied by teary-eyes. She already missed her little filly, and to be honest, the cutting sensation in her gut wasn't helping with that. Feeling defeated by the circumstances, River's emotions got the best of her and she started for home.
Earlier that day (when she first found out she would have to give up her daughter) River thought she couldn't feel any worse, yet she did now by some logic. The journey to the orphanage that took her only mere moments in her mind was now taking hours the way back. On account of all the heart-rending thoughts... and most likely the ever-increasing tearing pain River was experiencing, it made things way more difficult the way back: she tripped over rocks... and her own cloven hooves, ran into trees and bushes for seemingly no reason, and barely managed to escape the smallest of obstacles.
If River had been paying attention perhaps she would have noticed she was going the wrong way; however she was much too busy "surviving" to acknowledge a very important danger weighing against her. River had unknowingly (because the tears made it extremely hard to see and since the "stabbing" distracted her) been walking too close to a cliff. It wasn't until it was too late that River's dreadful "fate" was brought to her attention. The ground crumbled beneath her very hooves and sent her tumbling down the mountain.
On the way down River couldn't count how many rocks, bushes, and trees she hit. By the time she was at the bottom she couldn't even move because of all the pain; not to mention the pain inside of her became agonizing and overbearing. Nor could she see (and no longer just at a direct cause of her tears) no, now she also had dirt along with dust particles in her eyes.
River tried with all her might to get to her hooves, yet rocks rained down on her causing her to moan and groan. She especially shrieked in pain when she felt something large, heavy and hard fall on one of her back legs. "HEEELLLPP!!" River shouted hoping with all her being that someone would answer or at least be in earshot. "HEELLLPP!!!!" She yelled over and over again until it slowly shifted into blubbering sobs.
Even after rocks stopped burying her, River still couldn't move, and she was certainly too weak to use her horn. She instead lie helplessly under a pile of rocks knowing deep down that no one was coming.
How she wished she was a toddler again: playing out in the fields by her childhood home; with a mother close by were she or her siblings to fall and hurt themselves. However this was not then; it was not simply a bump on the head; her mother was no where around.
River and her three sisters playfully galloped and cantered in the fields/knolls that were near their family home. They laughed and tumbled in the two foot high grass in a way that were they adults they'd be considered totally mad.
"I am gonna get thee!" River remembered Sunny Blossom (one out of three of River's older sisters) squeak. She clumsily pounced on her as a lion would attempting to catch its prey. Sunny took her out immediately, she was a wild force of nature for sure, that or it was because River was one-third her size. Either way, they both went flying down the hills like a strong stallion had picked them up and thrown them.
When Sunny and herself were finally at the bottom of the mound, they were so disoriented that neither knew what to do. They had been banged and bruised in so many places that they couldn't even tell where all the extreme pain was coming from (it at least felt like a lot of discomfort since they were only four). Sure the knolls were barely hills to an adult, but to the young Kirins they towered over them as if mountains.
The two hesitated for a couple seconds before they started wailing and screaming bloody-murder. In mere moments did their mother, Willow Rose Efengottee, rush out, scared quite frankly to know what had happened. She hurried over to the "crime scene" to find her two youngest children on the ground bawling. Seeing the scrapes and black'n blue bruises, didn't need to guess what had happened to her kids.
Once sitting down, Willow picked them both up, using her horn/antler thing. She then proceeded to sit them down on her forearm that was rested against her knee and chest. Soothingly she lulled them until they were calmed enough whereas they only whimpered now and them.
"Shhh," Willow hushed, "everything willeth be alright... I promise."
It was a nostalgic memory for sure, though one that still brought tears to her eyes. Her mother was always there for her, yet now she wasn't; no one was; no one was coming.
River had almost given in to the rest that giving up and waving the white flag tantalized her with when a couple more small rocks tumbled down onto her, making her jolt awake. She thought she saw a faint light in the distance, though she could of just had a concussion. However the light got brighter and a familiar voice called out her name.
River had by now lost her own voice because of the horrible cold that was quickly rolling in; so she could not respond. Since she could not call back to the mysterious figure it was a great relief that they kept moving nearer to her. Finally the pony that the familiar voice was from came into full view: it was Strawberry. She was wearing an obviously thick shawl in order to keep herself warm, and a lantern which she held in her mouth lit her path. Other than that, the only thing River particularly noticed about her was a thick rope tied around her waist (River only imagined that was how her rescuer got down the mountain safely).
As soon as Strawberry caught sight of River she immediately dropped the lantern, ran up to her, and started unburying her. She worked her way from the tinier rocks on top, all the way down to the large rock on River's hind leg. "Thou came for me," River barely managed to say through her raspy broken voice and tears; Strawberry still managed to hear her though.
"Of course I came for thee," Strawberry warmly stated as she removed the last of the rocks on top of River. After which she brought River near to herself by pulling her from underneath her forearms. "Thou art as much of a daughter to me as any pon...umm...anyone," Strawberry finished, "and I wouldst never leave one of my children behind. Speakest of which, worry not, I left thine newborns with my daughter Sugar Bread."
"Bbbb...bbb...uuu...hhh...oowww...d...ddd...iiiii...ii...ssst...thhh...ooouuu...ffi...nndd...mmmmeee!?" River struggled between coughing and shivering. Strawberry picked up on this and took off her robe which she wore over her usual yellow jumper. She tightly wrapped it around River which seemed to ease her jittering.
"We sure hath cold autumns here dost we not?" Strawberry playfully asked, though it simply fell flat as all River could do was give a subtle nod. Strawberry had to admit that River did look quite cute wrapped up in a coat that was obviously too big for her... like she had been shrunk. "Is that better?" Strawberry kindly asked looking down at her little bundle. Shakily nodding in response, River thanked her with her eyes (even though the shawl did nothing to aid her with the ever growing pain in her gut). "Good," Strawberry tenderly stated, "and to answer thy...thou left me quite an obvious trail to follow. I am not sure if thee wast angry or what but let us just say... thee were not hard to find." River couldn't help but grin.
River winced in pain and writhed as Strawberry loaded her into a bag (that she had with her for some reason) and slung it around her back. She securely refastened the rope so it was tight around both herself and now the bag River was placed in. It was at moments like these that River really had respect for how hard simple tasks must be without a horn.
"So why did..." River coughed and instantly felt more agonizing pain because of it, "why did thou bring all of this...CCAUCCCUUCCA! Stuff? Did thou somehow know I...CCCUUACACUCCAUCA...fell down a cliff?"
Smiling back at her, Strawberry replied, "not exactly, I just canst never know what thee get thyself into nowadays. I actually brought a lot of other things that I left up on the cliff. Long story short, I did not think it was safe to scale a mountain while carrying poison darts." River gave an odd look in response. "Likest I said, long story," Strawberry repeated.
Getting down the cliff may have not been that challenging, though climbing back up it was a completely different story. While it wasn't a total drop, it was still a pretty steep cliff. River certainly commended Strawberry on the amount of strength she demonstrated. Sure River wasn't any bigger or heavier than an average twelve year old filly, but Strawberry still had to carry her and her own body's weight up a practically ninety degree angle with nothing more than a thick rope.
"We art almost there!" Strawberry called out through heavy breaths. No sooner than she said so were they on all fours again. Strawberry only took a moment to pant before she grabbed her saddlebags and cantered away from the cliffs with the rope still tied around them.
"Dost thou not needeth a break?" River concernedly queried, her voice still raspy and rough.
"Yes, I could use a breather," responded Strawberry, "but I plan to get away from this cursed cliff first... lest the unstable rocks crumble beneath us." River nodded; she now understood Strawberry's logic and planned to wait intently for them to reach a desired distance.
It didn't take long; only a moment at a steady pace for Strawberry to become satisfied. Once so she took a seat in the grass and started fiddling through her saddlebags. She pulled out a knife that she used to cut rope still fastened securely around the two. "There, now there art no ropes attached," Strawberry joked getting nothing but silence as a reply. River's throat and body were even now too sore to give as much as a pity laugh, "tough crowd," Strawberry humorously mumbled.
Strawberry (next) swung the bag River currently resided in, from her back around to her front, causing River to squirm from the sudden whiplash it gave her; not to mention the horrible discomfort that the said 'whiplash' brought forth. Once Strawberry did so, Strawberry took River out of the potato sack she was nestled in and rested her on one of her hind legs against her belly. Following this, she again searched through her bags and pulled out a few items: some olive oil, gauze, a little bit of water in a glass canister sealed with a quark, and some white cloths.
Again and again Strawberry took the cloths, wet them with the water, and used them to wipe away the dried blood from River's cuts. She utilized the olive oil she had pulled out to soothe all her injuries. Finally she bound them with the gauze. Strawberry repeated this process until all of River's wounds were mended (at least the ones she could see that was). Unfortunately, Strawberry could do nothing for River's most critical lesions: her internal mutilation.
"Thank thou," River's raspy voice rung out of the silence.
"For what?" Strawberry sweetly asked.
"For saving me," River responded.
Strawberry smiled down at River, "Thou art very welcome," she answered warmly, "but I hope that thou know there wast never another option in my mind. I willeth always come for thee."
A smile crept across River's face as her eyes welled up with tears. "Dost thou really mean that?"
"Of course."
River's grin couldn't of gotten any larger, she was smiling ear to ear, so to speak. Perhaps I dost hath a mother near by after all, River inwardly contemplated as she felt her head hit Strawberry's chest. Her grin sloped back into a content smile before she closed her eyes for the last time.