As the bright, pale moonlight shined down on the house of Lightning Twister and Scootaloo, The two young ponies slept peacefully in they're bed. Everything was quiet until Lightning woke up. Rubbing his eyes he sat up in the bed, and looked outside his window to view the moonlit night. He then at the clock on his wall to see what time it was. Seeing that it was only a little past midnight, Lightning pulled the covers back over him and laid back down. However before he closed his eyes, he heard his door slowly creak open looking up, he saw both the colt and the filly standing in the doorway. The filly held her teddy bear close to her and had tears streaming down her cheeks as the colt looked at her in concern.
Lightning stared at the filly worryingly for a moment, and then began to gently shake Scootaloo to wake her.
"Scootaloo, Scootaloo, wake up." he whispered to her.
Scootaloo eventually opened her eyes and sat up in the bed. She yawned and rubbed her eyes before looking at her husband with a tired look in her eyes. Lightning said nothing to his wife, instead he pointed a hoof towards the children standing in the doorway. Scootaloo saw the teary eyed filly and became as worried as everyone else was about her.
"What's the matter, little one?" She asked the filly.
The filly began to get scared and started step backwards to leave the room, but her brother stopped her before she could leave. He gave her a small nuzzle as well as a reassuring smile, letting her know she would be alright. The filly looked at Scootaloo as the young mare began motioning her hoof to her.
"Come here, sweetie, don't be afraid." She said sweetly.
The filly began taking very cautious steps towards Scootaloo while looking back at her brother who kept motioning with his head to step towards Scootaloo. Once the filly arrived at Scootaloo's side of the bed, Scootaloo gently picked her up and set her on her lap. She then looked at the tears still streaming down the young filly's cheeks.
"What's wrong, sweetheart, did you have a bad dream?" Scootaloo asked softly.
Thee filly nodded her head and began to softly cry as she squeezed her teddy bear tightly. Scootaloo then pulled the filly into a caring hug. The filly trembled a little bit but then calmed down in the orange mares embrace. After a moment of silence the filly's quiet crying reduced to soft sniffles and Scootaloo gently brushed the filly's tears away with her hoof. She then held her close as she got out of the bed.
"Come on, let's go downstairs, I'll make you a nice glass of warm milk." She said to the filly softly before flying towards the doorway.
Scootaloo stopped beside the colt and smiled at him before saying, "Would you like a glass of warm milk as well?"
The colt softly smiled and nodded his head and Scootaloo continued to smile at him before flying downstairs with the filly in her forelegs. The colt followed them downstairs leaving Lightning alone in the room.
The young stallion smiled knowing that the children were in the safe care of his wife. Deciding not to go back to sleep without Scootaloo, he left the bed and made his way downstairs to the living room. Once he arrived he laid down on the couch and watched the shadows of Scootaloo and the children move around in the light shining out of the kitchen. Smiling once more he let his head lay down on the sofa until he felt something tapping on his shoulder. Looking up, Lightning saw the colt standing in front of him.
"What's wrong, kiddo?'" Lightning asked curiously
The tried to not look Lightning in the eyes as rubbed his rubbed his foreleg with his little hoof.
"I-I'm sorry I hit you earlier." he said softly as he continued to rub his foreleg.
Lightning was a bit surprised to that the colt was finally speaking to him. He must finally be feeling more comfortable around him and Scootaloo. His voice was very soft like Lightning's was years ago and it also sounded very scared.
"It's alright." Lightning replied after a moment of silence.
He smiled at the colt before moving around on the couch making a large spot on the couch open.
"Come on up here." Lightning said with a soft smile.
The colt smiled in return and hopped up onto the couch and laid down in the spot Lightning offered him.
"My name is Blaze, and my sister's name is Melody." The colt said softly
Lightning simply continued to smile.
"It's nice to meet you Blaze." he said happily
Blaze smiled as he looked back into the kitchen where he could see his sister drinking her glass of milk and Scootaloo who was watching her. He was very thankful that these two ponies would allow both him and Melody into their house and make them feel at home.
"Um, Mr. Lightning, thank you for letting me and my sister stay with you and, Ms. Scootaloo."
Lightning chuckled at the young colt beside him.
"Your welcome, Blaze, and you don't have to call us Mr. or Ms. Lightning and Scootaloo will be just fine."
Blaze smiled and nodded his head as Lightning continued to speak.
"I couldn't just leave you and Melody out there all alone."
Blaze's smile turned into a look of sadness and Lightning was quick to notice.
"What's wrong Blaze?" he asked with concern in his voice.
Blaze felt small tears come to his eyes and he tried not to look Lightning in the eyes. He began to tremble as he closed his eyes and began to speak.
"I-It's m-my fault that we were in that ally." He said in a broken and pain filled whisper.
Lightning stared at Blaze in confusion as the little colt began to tremble even harder.
"What do you mean it's your fault?"
Blaze wanted to not say anything but now that he had said what he said he knew there was no turning back and he would have to tell Lightning what happened. Lightning could see the resistance in Blaze's eyes and he began to gently stroke his back with his hoof to try and calm him as he spoke to the little colt in the gentlest and most reassuring of a voice that he could make.
"Come on, Blaze talk to me. I promise that I will understand and I promise that I will not be mad at you. If you want me too I'll only keep this between you and me and I'll let you tell Scootaloo whenever your ready."
Blaze was about to say something until he saw Scootaloo come out of the kitchen with Melody fast asleep in her forelegs. Scootaloo saw the tears in the little colts eyes and went over to him.
"Um, did she tell you their names?" Lightning asked as he pointed at the filly being held by his wife.
Scootaloo nodded her head before replying, "yes, Blaze and Melody, but that's all she said to me."
The young mares eye's were immediately glued back onto the trembling colt and she began to worry about him.
"Blaze, what's the matter, you look like your about to be sick." She asked with concern in her voice as well.
Lightning tried to be a stallion of his word and looked at Blaze wondering if he should say anything.
Blaze nodded yes in response and Lightning let out a sigh before saying, "Blaze and I were talking and for some reason he said that it was his fault that he and Melody were out there in that ally when I found them."
Scootaloo looked at Blaze in shock.
"Blaze, why in Equestria do you think it's your fault that you and Melody were out there?" She asked with concern still in her voice
"Because it was my fault!" Blaze shouted in a whining tone, as if he was using all of his will power not to brake down and cry.
Blaze's shouting woke Melody and saw how distraught her brother was.
"B-Blaze?" she softly said as she began to tear up at the sight of her brothers tears.
Scootaloo began to rock the small filly in her forelegs from side to side to try and calm her as blaze as Lightning tried to comfort Blaze. Melody began to relax and eventually fell back asleep as she rested her head on Scootaloo's neck. Lightning sat up on the couch and Scooted over and Blaze did the same thing so Scootaloo could sit down beside him. Scootaloo sat down without waking Melody and placed a wing around Blaze.
"Blaze, sweetie, please tell us why you say it's your fault."
Blaze let out a shaky sigh as he tried to hold back his tears. He then began to speak in a very broken tone as he tried his hardest not to cry.
"W-Well, our Mom and Dad got into a carriage accident a-and they had d-d-d.."
Blaze stopped talking and continued to hold back crying, both Lightning and Scootaloo knew the word he were trying to say.
"It's alright, Blaze, we know what your trying to say, you don't have to say that word." Scootaloo said with most comforting voice that she could give him.
"Do you want to stop talking about this?" Lightning asked, feeling that this may have been to hard for Blaze to talk about.
Blaze however shook his head and continued to talk as he quickly brushed away with his hoof a lone tear.
"After that happened Melody and I were forced to go to an orphanage. It was horrible there! Most of our caretakers were very mean to us and so were the Kids. There were only a few nice people there but we never saw them and all the children that were nice to us were adopted. The rest of the kids picked on me sometimes, but most of the time, they picked on Melody, because she's very shy and doesn't talk to many ponies."
Blaze stopped talking and quickly brushed away a few that had escaped from his eyes. Lightning and Scootaloo looked at each other not realizing how rough things had been for these two innocent children. Blaze soon finished brushing away his tears and began speaking once more.
"Three weeks ago, I was going outside to find, Melody, because I couldn't find her anywhere, and I promised Mom and Dad that I would take care of her. When I got outside I heard Melody crying and saw the other other colts and fillies laughing at her and bullying her. I saw her being pushed down and I saw her teddy bear being tossed back and forth over her head. Every time she tried to grab her teddy bear she was pushed to the ground by one of the colts and fillies while everyone laughed at her and kept her bear away from her. I then heard Melody scream when one of the kids pulled her mane and I got really mad and went over there and hit one of the kids hurting her in the face. I then grabbed her bear and helped her up. The other kids tried to attack us, but we both ran away and hid from them."
Blaze began to feel sick with guilt about how he felt that he let his sister get hurt like that. He eventually felt Lightning's comforting hoof on his shoulder."
"What happened after that, Blaze?"
Blaze looked like he couldn't hold back crying much longer or tell anymore of the story but he continued speaking anyway.
"Well after we hid from them for a few minutes we ran inside grabbed the blanket from my bed and ran away from the orphanage without anypony seeing us. I then found a box big enough for both of us an the ally a few miles away and we decided to stay there where nopony would find us and make us go back to the orphanage."
Blaze stopped talking as he felt his throat began to throb in pain from holding back crying. Lightning and Scootaloo looked at him with concern now that they have heard how they wound in up in that ally.
"It was all my fault that I let Melody get hurt by those other kids and it was all my fault that we had ended up in that ally because I was the one who made us run away." Blaze said as he began to feel even more sick with guilt.
Neither Scootaloo nor Lightning could stand to see blaze hurt himself anymore. Lightning finally wrapped a foreleg around the colts tiny form and pulled him close to him.
"Come on, Blaze, it's okay to cry, go ahead and let it out." He said gently to the little colt.
Blaze couldn't hold back his tears anymore as Lightning's soothing tone and comforting embrace broke him down.He finally buried his head into the side of Lightning's chest and quietly cried out all of his guilt for putting himself and his sister in the situation that they were in.
Melody eventually woke up and saw Blaze crying.
"Blaze why are you crying?" She asked before crying as well when she saw how upset her brother was.
Both Scootaloo and Lightning did their best to comfort the child in their forelegs. Neither one of them tried to stop the Children's crying as they felt is was best to let their tears flow and let all the pain they must have built up. After a few minutes both Blaze and Melody eventually calmed down. They each then looked up to the pony that at the two ponies that held them.
"Do you both feel better?" Scootaloo asked them.
Blaze and and Melody both nodded their heads before Lightning asked them another question.
"If you both have been out in that ally for three weeks, how did you both survive, what did you both eat and drink?"
Guilt once more filled Blaze's mind as he remembered how he and Melody both survived.
"Um, I-I stole food from some of the food stands at night when they were closed and we went to town well to drink the water when nopony was looking."
Blaze saw Lightning raise an eyebrow give him a disapproving look. He shrunk under Lightning's hard gaze but his gaze eventually softened a little bit.
"I can't say that I'm happy that you stole food that didn't belong to you." Lightning said sternly.
Blaze looked down in sadness.
"And I can't say it was a good idea to put either you or Melody in danger by running away. You could have been hurt or killed out there." Lightning continued in a very stern tone of voice.
Lightning's look of disapproval finally faded away as he gave Blaze a sad smile.
"But I can say, that I understand why you did what you did." he said gently to the little colt before giving him a comforting hug.
Scootaloo put Melody down beside Blaze and the little filly hugged her big brother and blaze returned the hug with one of his own. Melody then went over to Lightning and hugged him and Lightning wrapped his forelegs around her a gave a small nuzzle. Scootaloo held out her forelegs to Blaze. Blaze ran into the mares arms and hugged her as she gently nuzzled the colt. After a moment of Silence everyone broke their hugs and the children let out a big tired yawn.
"I think we all should go back to bed. We'll talk more about this in the morning." Scootaloo said sweetly to all of the ponies beside her.
Everyone nodded and Lightning picked up Melody and Scootaloo picked up Blaze. They brought the children back into the guest room and tucked them both in as Lightning gave Melody a kiss on the forehead and then gave one to Blaze as well. Scootaloo then gave Blaze and Melody each a kiss on the cheek.
"Goodnight, you two" Lightning said to them before turning around to leave.
"Sleep Tight" Scootaloo said sweetly before following her husband to the door.
"Goodnight" Both Blaze and Melody said at the same time before quickly falling asleep.
Lightning and Scootaloo both smiled at the two children for a moment before heading back to their room and quietly closing their door.
As they both got ready to fall back asleep Lightning heard his wife voice something to him.
"Lightning, I think we should adopt, Blaze, and, Melody." She said to him
Lightning looked at her in shock
"What!?" he said, completely thrown off at what she just told him.
"I think we should adopt Blaze and Melody." Scootaloo replied.
"S-Scootaloo-" Lightning stuttered
"We've accepted them into our home, they care about us and we care about them. So I say we give them a new home and a new family that they desperately need." Scootaloo said to her husband
"It's one thing to let them stay with us for a few days, Scootaloo, but adopting them?" Lightning questioned
"They trust us, Lightning, they've been through things nopony should have to go through. They have have nowhere to go, and there's no way in Tartarus that I'm letting them go back to that orphanage." Scootaloo said.
Lightning looked out the window while he rubbed the side of his head with his hoof. Scootaloo saw that he was deep in thought and went over to him before taking his hoof in hers and giving him a loving nuzzle.
"Lightning, don't you remember us talking about having children someday?" She asked sweetly as she continue to nuzzle her husband.
"I-I don't know, Scootaloo, I need some time to think about this. Let's talk more in the morning okay?" He said as he kissed his wife's cheek.
Scootaloo softly smiled and nodded her head.
She went back to the bed as Lightning looked out to the moonlit sky. He didn't know what he should do but he knew someone that could help him. He decided to take the children with him tomorrow to go visit his mother and get some advice.
Lightning then went back to the bed, and laid down beside his beautiful wife. The two smiled at each other for a moment before sharing a loving kiss and falling asleep in each others embrace. Everyone in the house then slept peacefully through the night as Princess Luna's beautiful moon bathed everyone in the house in a warm comforting glow.