Moondancer
“Why am I packing?” Cotton Cloudys voice floated down the hallway where I waited with Minuette and the others. “Am I going to another orphanage?”
Two boxes with her meager belongings sat in the hallway where we waited.
“You could say that,” Sunny Flare answered as another box wrapped in her aura levitated out. “You’re going to a new home today. A nice mare is quite interested in you.”
“Seriously? Somepony wants me? who?”
“She is waiting out in the hallway right now actually.”
I listened to the flutter of wings as the filly flew out into the hallway and hovered over the boxes, staring at me with wide eyes.
“You?” Cotton asked and pointed a hoof at me.
“Yeah me. Ready to go?” I asked as my friends waved at the filly. Cotton dropped to the ground and stared up at me.
“How far is your house? Why did nopony tell me?” Cotton barraged us with questions as Sunny held up a hoof.
“One question at a time. We usually don’t tell our fillies or colts when ponies consider adopting them in case they charge their mind. Miss Moondancer specifically requested we don’t tell you for it to be a surprise,” Sunny Flare answered as I rubbed Cottons mane with a hoof.
“Are you surprised?” I asked curiously as I held out a hoof and waved her closer.
“Yeah,” she admitted as she hesitantly stepped forward and I hugged her as my coat felt wet.
“Is she crying?” Minuette asked nervously as I nodded.
“I think so yeah,” I answered and sighed. “Let’s get out of this place. Can you girls bring her boxes?”
“You got it!” Twinkleshine nodded as she and Lemon Hearts levitated the boxes as I placed Cotton on my back.
“Bye Cotton Cloudy!” Sunny Flare waved as we started trotting away.
“Goodbye Miss Flare,” Cotton said quietly as I smiled faintly. “How far is your house?”
“Close. You can get closer to my mane if you wanna get warm.”
“Okay.”
“This is surprisingly clean,” Cotton Cloudy commented as I finished putting the last box upstairs. My friends had brought them inside and then took off to give us space apparently.
“Thanks. I think?” I said weakly as she bit open a box and pulled out some books. “Do you like your room?”
Cotton put the few books she held in her mouth on her currently empty book case and nodded.
“Yeah it’s nice,” Cotton answered as she gave her bed a few experimental jumps and I caught in my magic before she could fall off.
“Let’s go downstairs to the dining room. We have some rules to go over,” I said as I carried her out of the room and down the stairs with my magic.
I set her down at the table as I sat across from her and folded my forelegs on the table.
“So first off, I don’t want to hear any cursing come from your mouth. I understand if there are slip up because I accidentally let out a curse word myself,” I began as she nodded. “Homework must be done before you can play outside, play video games or watch TV. Deal?”
“Deal. What about flying outside?” Cotton asked as she placed her tiny hooves on the table and gave her wings a flutter.
“Ask me permission first. I want to know where you are at all times. We will alternate days we do dishes, but I will clean the knives. You have to be a bit older before I let you work with knives.”
“Fair enough.”
“I also want your room kept clean, same with you. I expect your mane, coat and hooves to be cleaned and in bed by nine pm,” I answered as she groaned. “Problem?”
“I can’t read then. Lemon Zest used to give me an hour after lights out to read even though she wasn’t supposed to. She was always my favorite employee there,” Cotton groaned again and placed her head on her hooves.
“I’m sure we can work out some sort of deal between us. I’ll give you thirty minutes top.”
“Forty.”
“Thirty five.”
“Forty.”
“Thirty five, no more.”
“Twenty!”
“Are you trying to negotiate for less time?” I raised an eyebrow slightly as she slammed her head on the table.
“I was trying to trick you. I’ll settle for Thirty five then,” Cotton grumbled as I snickered.
“I’m smarter than I look. Good effort though.”
“True. Will I still be going to school in Ponyville?” Cotton asked hesitantly and I sighed.
“Yeah. It is a bit of a ways away but if you like going there, I shouldn’t take it from you. Miss Cheerilee isn’t aware yet of your adoption so I’ll be having to talk to her. Speaking of your adoption, you don’t have to call me Mom if you aren’t comfortable. Moondancer is fine with me,” I reassured her as she let out a sigh of relief.
“Okay that’s good. I didn’t really expect you to force me to,” Cotton said as she gave me a critical look. “You don’t seem like the type to force anypony to do anything they don’t want to.”
“I’m not.”
I sat there staring at her as I tried to come up with more rules. I mean, she seems like a pretty respectful but rough around the edges filly. Pretty much a flying Lyra. I wish I could forget that thought. The idea of Lyra having a sibling or flying scares the heck out of me. Alicorn Lyra is equally terrifying.
“I’m hungry,” Cotton stated as I shook my head quickly. “I can cook.”
“You can help me cook,” I corrected after a second. “Once I see how well you can cook, we will go from there. I just got groceries last week so we should have some stuff to make together. What do you want to eat?”
“Food is food. I’m not picky unless it’s asparagus. I don’t like asparagus.”
“Plus you’re allergic,” I pointed out as we both got off our chairs and trotted to the kitchen.
“That too.”
I gave a low chuckle as I opened the fridge and levitated some vegetables out onto the counter.
“I’m surprised you were okay with me adopting you,” I admitted as I started chopping up vegetables and levitated her a bowl and footstool. “Put the vegetables in the bowl please.”
“Okay,” Cotton nodded as she started shoving them into the bowl. “In all honesty, I’m glad to be out of there. It wasn’t bad per se but there was no privacy. I’m not the greatest at talking about my feelings but well, I like you.”
“Me neither. It’s hard to express myself but my friends thankfully understand that and are patient with me.”
“I don’t have many friends. My personality usually pushes ponies away,” Cotton admitted with a sigh. “Scootaloo is great, Ruby is nice, Dinky is freaking perfect, Pipsqueak is cool and Truffle is nice. Snips and Snails are kinda weird though. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon can fall off a cliff for all I care.”
“Now now, that’s a bit aggressive Cotton,” I chided as she groaned.
“Come on, those two are awful!”
“That may be the case but we still do not wish physical harm on our fellow ponies, no matter how much we think they deserve it.”
“Fine. But I still hate their guts.”
“They may surprise you. Heck, I never thought I’d be Twilight’s friend ever after the incident that happened a few years ago but here we are,” I shrugged as I started adding some spices to her bowl. “I won’t add too many spices, don’t worry.”
“You know I hate spicy foods?”
“I know a lot about you. I read your file. Your allergies, you favorite sports and more. I did my research before I went through with my decision.”
“Bit stalkerish, but okay.”
I gave a low chuckle as I levitated a pan down and poured some oil in it as I turned the stove on.
“Learning about my daughter is not stalkerish,” I answered and rolled my eyes. If only mom and dad could see me now. “Now I’m hungry too, let’s get this done with.”
We both smiled faintly as we focused back on our work. Who knows, maybe this would be even better than I had hoped for.