//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: Escape 
// Story: Mother and Child 
// by AlicornPriest 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 4 – Escape
If there was one tribe that was least happy with its lot, it was the earth ponies. The unicorn rulers never truly felt that they had control of the earth ponies, no matter what they did to appease their need for self-agency. Even the appointment of the chancellors did little to appease the earth pony nation. Had the Pony Exodus not occurred, it is possible that the earth ponies would have rebelled against their masters and reinstated earth pony independence. As it stands, we are lucky that the tension between the three tribes was destroyed by the Fire of Friendship, or the earth ponies might still be rebellious today. So too should we be grateful that the unicorns have learned the value of the other tribes and see them as equals, not inferiors. It truly would be a terrible world without the harmony we now know.
~On Tribal Relations, part 1, section 3, Pre-Equestrian Age: Earth Ponies

"Pinkie. Pinkie, wake up." When Pinkie opened her bleary eyes, she saw Platinum jostling her awake.
"Platinum? But it's..." She looked towards the walls, but without a clock... "Early o'clock! Before sunrise o'clock! Why are you getting up so early?"
"We've gotta go now if we want to escape, Pinkie!"
"Escape? Why would you want to--"
"I can't take it anymore! You don't understand how terrible everything is. Noble Blood is terrible to me. He's always going on about how I have to 'become a real princess' and 'always look the part,' and I hate it. And he said that my classes with Clover are going to end next year, that I am better than her 'as is my blood.' But I don't want to be better! I don't want to be a princess anymore. I just... want to be me!"
"If that's what you want to do, then I respect that." Pinkie was sure that Princess Platinum leaving forever would probably affect the timeline, but for the moment, she'd let Platinum do what she wanted. In the end, she could probably convince Platinum to go back if need be. "But why now?"
"Starswirl is up raising the sun, and Noble Blood is overseeing it. There's no way they'll catch me leaving!"
"But what about the guards?"
"Shoot! I forgot about them." This was starting to look less and less like a reasonable plan, Pinkie thought. "What do you think we should do?"
"Hmm... well, we could climb up and down the tapestries, hide in the shadows, use a cardboard box, whack the guards over the head to knock them out--"
"Pinkie! We can't do that!"
"Oooor, we could tie the sheets into a rope and shimmy down the wall."
"What a great idea! Let's do that." 
With Platinum tying with her magic and Pinkie passing them over, they made record time. It was... probably a little short, but they climbed down as well as they could. Platinum landed softly, but Pinkie landed with a heavy whumph, and a nearby guard's ears pricked up. Before he turned around, Pinkie whispered, "Run!" 
As Platinum rocketed to the gate, Pinkie grabbed the bedsheets and balled them up behind her. When the guard came by, she told him, "Hello, officer! Just out for a little walk, haha!"
"Stay indoors, ma'am," said the guard. He went back to his post, and Pinkie slipped away to the door.
---
Pinkie followed Platinum's laughter out beyond the castle to the path stretching out before her. There she was, frolicking in the sunlight, enjoying the cool breeze. "So," said Pinkie, "what do we do now?"
"Don't worry. I know exactly what we're going to do. We're going to Wishsong's home."
"Who is Wishsong?"
"After I got teleported to the future, I took that gem, and it took me to Wishsong's house. I don't really know why, but--"
"Wait! Is it still there?"
"Maybe," said Platinum. "I didn't stay long, and I left it there when I tried to go home. But if we go back, she'll probably let me stay. Especially with you along, Pinkie."
After a few minutes of walking, they came to the cottage. It was a small thing: uneven clay bricks, pallid thatched roof, very primitive windows. Just behind it, Pinkie could see three foals running about, each chasing the other. The tallest was a colt with a gray coat, a white mane, and a cutie mark shaped like an arrow. The other two were fillies, both about the same age, one black with a blue mane and a white circle for a cutie mark, the other white with a pink mane and a half-circle for a cutie mark. The last looked just like her mother coming out the door, who, when she saw the two of them coming down the path, fell to her knees in genuflection. "Princess Platinum! It is an honor to see you again," she said.
"No, please, no need to bow." Platinum held out a hoof, which the mare used to get back up. "Pinkie, this is Wishsong. Mrs. Wishsong, this is my new friend, Pinkie."
"Hey, Dawn, Wish, the princess is back!" The three foals from outside came around the house and ponypiled onto the little princess, and she laughed as she struggled to get them off of her. 
"These are my children, Pinkie. Quicksilver, Coming Dawn, and Silver Wish." She pointed to each in turn, and they turned and waved amid their struggles.
"Is there a Mr. Wishsong out in the fields?" Pinkie asked her.
"N-no," said Wishsong. "My husband Morning Star passed on several years ago." At this, the four fillies stopped fighting and fell awkwardly to the ground.
"I'm sorry... I didn't know..."
"No, it's all right. I'd rather you know than wonder." She turned her gaze towards the four foals next to her. "If you go inside and wash your hooves, I'll have breakfast ready in just a second." Once they'd run off, she returned to Pinkie. "So, who are you, exactly? You're not from around here."
"Short story? I'm from the future. I'm looking for a gem Platinum brought with her the first time she was here."
"Oh, yes, of course. I'm sure we can find it around here somewhere. But in the meantime, would you like to come inside?"
"Would I!" By this point in the morning, Pinkie was usually already up, baking treats for all of Ponyville to eat (and usually eating some herself in the process). She was starting to get rather hungry.
When they got to the little kitchen, Wishsong nodded towards the pot on the fire apologetically. "I'm afraid all we have is gruel for the morning. Most of our food goes up to the unicorns in the castle."
"Ooh, I've never had gruel before!" She went over and tasted a bit of it. She tried not to wrinkle her snout so as not to hurt Wishsong's feelings. "It's certainly... gruel-y."
"I'm sure you eat much better in the place where you come from."
"Not place, time! But... maybe, I guess. I mean, I'm sure this stuff is perfectly fine!"
Platinum and Wishsong's children came out of the washroom, hooves neatly clean. When Silver Wish saw the pot, she cried out, "Ooh, gruel! My favorite!" She rushed over, grabbed a bowl, and stood eagerly by the pot.
"I'm afraid, since we have some guests, we'll each have to take a little bit less to share."
"Not to worry, Mrs. Wish. I've got this." Out from her mane appeared a big bag of oats, after which came a pot, her own personal stash of brown sugar, and lastly, a little bottle of maple syrup. "I'm more of an oatmeal type, myself." When she saw the awestruck faces on the other ponies, she replied, "What? I didn't want to wake up and find out they weren't making oatmeal, so I nabbed some from the kitchen before I went to bed. Would you like some?"
Wishsong began to tear up. "Pinkie, thank you. You've done us a great kindness."
"I'm not kindness; I'm laughter! But I'm glad to share what I've got."
So all of them sat together and enjoyed Pinkie's gift. In between bites, Coming Dawn asked Pinkie, "What did you call this? 'Maple syrup?' It's very good."
"It's made from the sap of maple trees!" Pinkie replied. "Don't you have maple trees nearby?"
"No. That sounds really cool!" said Silver Wish. "How'd you come up with that?"
"Well, I didn't!" Pinkie laughed. "Some smartypants saw a maple tree and thought, 'Wow, that tree must be delicious!'"
Everypony laughed. "And the brown sugar?" Quicksilver asked.
"Not my idea. Probably somepony else thought, 'You know what this sugar needs? More sugar!'"
The other ponies were laughing so hard that they could hardly breathe. Wishsong herself was holding her chest with one forehoof and wiping tears from her eyes with the other. "Oh, Pinkie, you're so funny! It's been quite a while since I've had the opportunity to laugh."
"I'm glad!" Pinkie replied. "And if you take Platinum in as well, I have a feeling she'll bring laughter to you guys as well."
"Is that why you're here, Princess? To join our little family?" Platinum nodded. “...All right, Princess. If you really do want to live with us, then we will take care of you. But you can't go around looking like you do now!”
“What do you mean?” Platinum asked.
“If any of our neighbors saw you, they'd know you were a noble right away. Your mane is so long and pretty, and you have the purple of the royal family in it,” Wishsong said. “We'll also need to get... a hat, I suppose, to hide your horn.
"Okay." After a moment of thought, Platinum took off her tiara and handed it to Wishsong. "If you need to, you could try and sell this."
"Thank you, Princess, but we won't need that. My husband was... well-loved in the community; money won't be an issue." She then turned to Pinkie. "While I'm out, would you be willing to watch Coming Dawn, Silver Wish, and Quicksilver for me?"
"Not a problem!" She waved goodbye as Wishsong and Platinum headed out. Platinum wore one of Morning Star's old capes to keep from being seen.
Pinkie found herself alone with Wishsong's three foals. “So...” she started. “Those are some neato cutie marks. Do any of you want to tell me about yours?”
“Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me!” All three of them jumped up and down, hoof in the air. Pinkie pumped a hoof. Kids were so predictable; cutie marks were always the first thing on their minds. 
“All right. How about... Coming Dawn?”
“Thank you, Pinkie,” Dawn said, her composure returned. “My story is about a few years ago. I... guess you wouldn't remember the big pegasi storm, would you? Well, there was this big snow storm the pegasi made a couple of years after the death of King Ironcoat. Silver Wish, Quicksilver, and I were all here at home, but Mother and Father had gone out to the stores, and the storm had separated us. We couldn't even leave the house, the storm was so powerful. Quicksilver had gotten his cutie mark at that point, but Silver Wish hadn't, and she was so scared. We tried our best to console her, but nothing we could say or do would make her feel any better. But then, when the storm was at its absolute worst and the windows started to freeze over, I pointed as best as I could to the sky and told her, 'Silver Wish, do you see all those clouds?'
“'Yes,' she replied.
“'I know we can't see it right now, but the sun is right behind those clouds. No matter how hard the storm may get, no matter how cold or how scary, you must always remember that the sun is waiting to break through at any moment. No matter how bad things get, there is always hope.'
“I guess that doesn't sound like much, but it meant a lot to Silver Wish at the time. She stopped crying and simply held us close. And sometime between then and when the storm finally died down, my cutie mark had appeared. So that's what mine means, Pinkie. Mine means that, no matter what happens, there is always hope.”
“So did your parents make it back safe and sound?” Pinkie asked.
“Mother, yes. Father... no. He didn't make it through the storm like Mother did. It was hard at first to accept Father had died, but we've survived.”
“Don't talk about Father like that!” Silver Wish cried. Pinkie could see the hint of tears forming at her eyes. “Don't you miss him?”
“I do,” Coming Dawn replied, “but I know that there isn't any point in crying over him any more.”
“Do you remember when I got my cutie mark?” Silver Wish said. “You had been crying all night after we learned that Father had died, and you were so torn you wouldn't come out of your room.”
“We all thought you were too young to understand!” Quicksilver said.
“I did. You have no idea how much I did. Even worse was the fact that you had just gotten your cutie mark, Coming Dawn, and I still didn't have mine. And you were the one crying, while I had to do all your chores for you!”
“Silver Wish... were you... jealous?” Coming Dawn asked.
“I was. I felt so worthless. Mother was always by your side, and she never had time for me. At one point, I wanted nothing more than for you to just die so that Mother would notice me for a change!
“I think I had some sort of assassination plan made up, or something. Just when I was about to go into your room, I heard you sob, 'Father! I miss you!' And I realized you were suffering, same as me. I didn't want you to be sad like I was, so I decided to find something that would make you happy. I went around our entire farm, looking for things you might enjoy. At one point, I looked up into the sky, and I saw the moon, completely full, like a beautiful crystal ball. I wished that I was a pegasus, so that I could fly up and bring it to you, or a unicorn, so that I could pull it down with my magic and give it to you.
“I don't know why that in particular was so important to me, but at that very moment, I got my cutie mark. Your cutie mark means 'hope,' right? Then mine means wishes, just like my name. And what's more, it represents the love I have for you, my sister. I would give anything to make you happy, anything in the whole wide world.”
“And I would do anything to make you happy, Silver Wish, my dearest sister.”
“Aww, that's so sweet,” Pinkie said.
“Hey, Pinkie, do you want to hear about how I got my cutie mark?” Quicksilver called to her.
“Oh! Uh, sure.” Whatever had been floating in Pinkie's mind was erased as Quicksilver launched into his story, a charming tale about an exchange student at his school (whom Pinkie recognized as Smart Cookie), a running race that had ended in Smart Cookie getting hurt, and Quicksilver helping him to the finish line. By the time he was done, Wish Song had returned from her trip with Platinum. Pinkie was shocked at the effect that was created. The princess looked almost nothing like she normally did. With her mane cut, her coat dyed, and her horn hidden beneath a wide-brimmed hat, she looked like another average earth pony. She looked right at home, Pinkie thought, with Wish Song's loving family. So she decided the Child could wait, just for a little bit. They might not have a had a lot, but this felt like home.