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// Chapter Four 
// Story: The Little Filly Who Could 
// by Boopy Doopy 
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“Whoa! Look at this place!” Emily proclaimed as she and Bright Side walked down the street to his office. “I’m living in the future! There’s so many creatures here!”
“Mhm, there are,” the stallion agreed. “Changelings and naga and kirin and dragons and every other type of creature you can imagine. Are there not that many different creatures in Cansess?”
“I only ever saw ponies in Equestria! Well, I saw other creatures, but mostly ponies! There’s so many! This is super cool!”
“I’m glad you like seeing all of them, Ama Lee,” he smiled. “You didn’t come all the way to Ponyville just to see a whole bunch of new creatures, did you?”
“Hehe, I should have! This is amazing! Everyone I know would want to be here! Oh! Since we’re in the future, do you know where the Cutie Mark Crusaders would be? And what about the School of Friendship?”
“I’m sure we can find out information about all those things later. But first, let's move along and get to my office, sweetie. I’m sure your parents miss you very much.”
“I don’t think they do. I’m pretty sure it’ll be months before someone notices I’m missing. I know my dad won’t care at all. He kicked me out like four years ago.”
“I’m sure he misses you very much and loves you a lot, sweetheart. How old were you when he kicked you out?”
“Ummmmm do you think we can get lunch? Those pancakes were good, but I’m still hungry!”
“You just ate, sweetie. Let’s wait a while before we get you something else, okay?”
“Okay!” 
Emily trotted ahead of Bright with that, looking around the town with wide, curious eyes, smiling and giggling at everything she saw. He smiled to himself as he watched her, enjoying how happy she seemed despite the circumstances. It was a bit uncanny honestly, but he would take it. Better to have happiness from her than sadness.
Before long, the two of them were walking into a building with a number of other fillies and colts who sat in a large waiting room with their parents, the two ignoring them as they moved back into Bright’s office room. It was a small but comfortable place one with a sofa and a couple of couches that Emily immediately plopped down into, running her hoof rhythmically along the fabric. The stallion went behind his desk to write a few things down before grabbing a notepad and sitting down on a couch next to her, facing her direction.
“Would you like any toys to play with, dearie?” he asked politely. “I have lots of stuff in my closet. Dolls and trains and cars and blocks if you want.”
“I’m fine,” she said just as politely. “I don’t need any toys.”
“What about coloring paper and crayons?”
“Nope. I don’t wanna be distracted while you talk to me. Everypony deserves my full attention when they have it!”
“Well what a well mannered little girl you are,” he commented, earning a giggle from him. “Do you wanna tell me why your daddy kicked you out, sweetie? That doesn’t sound very nice.”
“Because he thinks I was stealing his stuff when I wasn’t,” she said automatically. “He tells me all I do is steal and lie and blames me for everything when it’s not my fault and never ever believes me about anything.”
“What does he think you were stealing?”
“Iunno. Just stuff. He never told me. He just said I’m stealing stuff, and kicked me out because of it.”
“Awww, well that doesn’t sound very nice. Does your mommy do that, too?”
“No, she’s nice, but she doesn’t ever say anything. She doesn’t say I steal, but she doesn’t say I don’t steal either, which isn’t good.”
“Mhm, I understand. That sounds like a very confusing situation to be in. What does your daddy do after he tells you that you steal? Does he ever yell at you or hit you?” Bright had a feeling he knew where this was going, but didn’t want to make assumptions, and had to ask to be sure.
“Uh huh, but only ever on my butt with a belt. He mostly just yells, but he yells at everyone. My mom and me and strangers and everyone.”
Corporal punishment is what it sounded like. Never good to hear, even if it wasn’t strictly classified as foal abuse in Ponyville. Other places, like Canterlot or Baltimare, it might be, but Ponyvillle had very lackluster and outdated laws in his opinion. He wondered what Cansess would say it was. He’d have to read up on laws there once he started getting into locating her parents.
“Does he ever do other things you don’t like? Does he hurt you or make you go without supper if you’re bad?”
“No, but he used to like to yank the sheets off of me and pour water on my head when I wasn’t up for school on time. I used to sleep in the hallway so he couldn’t find me and would have a harder time doing that, but he always did.”
Okay, that might have constituted foal abuse. He was not liking what he was hearing about her father at all. At the very least, if her guardians were found, he’d have a serious talk about how to raise a filly correctly and force him to take a parenting course before even considering letting Emily return to them.
“What else does he do? Can you think of anything?”
“Other than cook gross food every day and put sauce on my spaghetti when I wanted to eat it plain, no. I don’t really like him though. He’s just plain mean with how he talks to people.”
“But you’re mommy’s nice, right?”
“I guess. We go out to eat all the time, but she still wasn’t very nice when I lived with her. Not mean, but she just let my dad do whatever he wanted.”
“Mhm, I understand. And you said you live on your own in Cansess? You don’t have anypony else taking care of you? Are you sure?”
“Yup, I’m all on my own. It’s nice not having to have peo– ponies tell you what to do all the time. I can just take care of myself and then do whatever I want afterward. Mostly.”
“Don’t you ever get lonely though? I’m sure it’d be nice to live in a place with lots of ponies to spend time with. Everypony needs friends. Princess Twilight Sparkle says all the time that friendship is magic.”
“I have friends, and people visit me,” she said. “Plus I go to visit them all the time.”
“Ah, I see. And what are they like, dearie?”
“They’re…” Emily trailed off, looking up at the ceiling, and then down at the floor, tapping a hoof as she tried to think of what to say. Bright Side raised an eyebrow expectantly, waiting to hear what she had to say, his pen near the paper in his hoof at the ready. It was a long minute, but eventually, the foal finally got out, “Do you have any water I can have? I’m thirsty.”
“Of course, sweetie. There’s a fountain just your size right down the hall. Do you want me to go with you?”
“I can do it!” she quickly got up and ran off with that, leaving the stallion alone.
That was about the fourth time she obfuscated and came up with a distraction when she was uncomfortable about something I asked. She’s definitely avoiding certain questions intentionally. It made him nervous that she was trying to dodge around the tough questions, although he knew better than to assume what the answers would be. A lot of times, what could seem like a bad thing without context ended up being innocuous. In fact, it was more likely than not to be the case, just based on the observations he made over the course of his career.
But still, something about this filly gave him a funny feeling that there could be more going on with her, and he didn’t like it.
She came back a few minutes later, wiping her mouth with a hoof, still walking a bit awkwardly with her tail sort of tucked against her legs. She was still smiling though, which was good, and sat back down on the couch next to Bright to continue the conversation.
“Um, they’re just my friends,” she told him, picking up right where she left off. “They’re all the same age as me, and we have lots of fun reading books and telling stories and hanging out with each other. It’s nothing bad.”
And that was even worse. He could see through her intentions and knew she was trying to phrase what she said carefully. It was easy to tell just based on how immediately she picked the conversation back up without his prompting. Did she head out into the hall to try and preplan her response to him?
“Well that certainly sounds like lots of fun in my opinion,” he smiled at her. “I wish I had more time to spend with all the little foals I talk to. Do you know where they live?”
“All over the country! I get to visit lots of new places to see them, and I love them all very much! They’re amazing!”
“Mhm, and is that why you came to Ponyville?”
“No, I just think Ponyville’s cool. Plus, I really needed to go to the doctor. Having acid reflux is bad.”
“Oh, I’m sure. It doesn’t sound like it’s any fun. Speaking of fun though, what else do you do when you visit your friends? Do you spend the night over with them? Like a sleepover?”
“Mhm, yes. I mean, I can’t go a long way to not sleep over, can I? That wouldn’t make very much sense.”
“Oh, certainly not. A smart filly like you probably plans these things out,” he said politely. “What kinds of things do you do when you stay over? What do you do when you’re all tuckered out from talking and having fun and reading stories?”
“I go to sleep, of course! It would be silly not to! Hehe!”
“And do you do anything special before you go to sleep, sweetheart?”
“Uhh…” Emily looked uncomfortable again, and Bright felt the nervousness about what she might say welling up in his chest. “Do you think I can get another drink of water?”
“Sure, but if it’s okay, do you think you can let me know first, dearie?”
“Um, well… I… don’t wanna answer that,” she decided firmly, giving a little nod as she said it. “If I do, you’re gonna take it all out of context and I really don’t like lying. So I’m gonna just not answer.”
“That’s okay. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to,” the stallion told her sweetly. She had a weird look on her face as he said it, one that looked deeply annoyed by what he said. “What is it, Ama Lee?”
“Well, it’s just that you’re already doing what I said you were gonna do, even though I haven’t said anything, and I really don’t want you to do that.” She ran a hoof along the couch armrest as she spoke, a motion that seemed automatic.
“I promise, I’m not assuming anything,” he tried to tell her. Her face only scrunched up more, clearly not falling for his assurances, so the stallion decided to just move on. “Why don’t we talk about you some?” he asked. “I’d like to get to know you. What’s your favorite kind of music? And your favorite food?”
“My favorite food is macaroni and tuna and peas and cheese,” she said enthusiastically, the annoyed look she had on disappearing in a second, “and my favorite kind of music is rock!”
“Oh yeah? You like rock and roll music?”
“My favorites are hard rock and alternative metal, but I also like to listen to grunge and experimental rock.”
“Wow, that sounds like quite the array of music, I must say. And what about your favorite stories? Do you have anything you like to do?”
“I don’t read very many books anymore, but my favorite stories are about hu– umm… magical alien creatures being turned into ponies and coming to Ponyville! And when I grow up, I wanna be a writer!”
“Very interesting. I’m sure you can be if you put all your heart and mind into it,” the stallion said with a smile.
Another thing he was noticing was her way of speaking. She talked like a typical seven year old filly, but only about half the time. The other half she slipped into something that seemed older and more mature, like they were speaking mare to stallion like adults. However, within a few seconds or a minute, she would slip back into the voice of an excitable little filly, almost as though she could sense what she was doing and was trying to correct herself. It made absolutely no sense why it came across that way, but that’s what he gathered. 
There was so much about her, and Bright Side had no idea what to make of it all. He was probably gonna have to call in somepony from out of the city to see if he could get a good read on her. Maybe that new foal psychologist, Dr. Ivory Spark, or somepony else. Having an idea of what was going through her head was already seeming like a good idea within just a couple of hours of meeting her. Some of the things she said and a couple of things she didn’t already had the stallion worried. 
But that would be something for later. For now, there were other things to attend to.
“Well, it’s very lovely to meet you, Ama Lee,” he said as he stood up, offering his hoof to her to shake. “What do you say we talk to some ponies to see where you’re gonna be staying for the night if we don’t find your parents?”
“Okay!”