Fausticorn looks over her pool of dreams, staring at a small girl. There she cries. Bullied in school, riddled with health problems, but with no way to pay for them, and even slipping grades, she can only be pitied by the goddess. The alicorn knows it is not her place to interfere with that world though. That world that her own human counterpart will one day use to recreate her own.
The two filly alicorns in the rafters though, do not know this.
Luna frowned as she leaned down and saw the young… thing. “It looks weird.”
Celestia smacked the back of her little sister’s head before both froze, the clap of the hit echoing in the chamber. Fortunately, if their mother had heard, she showed no signs of such knowledge. In a bare whisper, Celestia started telling her sister off. “Mommy has told me about this place. It’s where she looks upon other worlds, because mommy is amazing. And of course, she told me and not you, because I’m a good filly.”
Luna looked at her sister with a deadpan gaze. “A good filly who showed her ‘troublemaker’ sister here?”
Celestia sucked her lips in and looked away. “We were going to ask for cookies, and two sets of puppy dog eyes are stronger than one.”
Luna gasped. “Oh yeah! Mommy has those wonderful double chocolate ones. We should go beg now, while she seems all mopey.”
The solar princess stood on her hooves and turned with her sister before another sob echoed through the room. She looked back down at the pool and saw the small thing put her arms over her middle, continuing to try to choke back tears. Celestia frowned. Even so young, she could feel empathy for the thing she knew nothing about.
“Tia, are you comAii!” Luna watched as her older sister jumped from the rafters and a splash rang back. A bright light emanated from the area below and a strong wind sent the shutters on the window that the two fillies had come in through crashing back. Luna panicked as she felt herself get pushed back. “Tia!”
When no response came, she set her jaw and galloped forward with all of her might.
The door almost closed back into Fausticorn’s face as she threw it open, and she only barely had it open once more when the small, blue alicorn fell into the pool. “No!” She galloped forward, but by the time she reached the portal, the light was gone, and so were her children.
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The blond haired girl jumped as two loud thumps came from her closet. She could hear the voices on the other side, already sharp, but trying to be quiet.
“Tia, your hoof is in my stomach.”
“So? I didn’t ask you to come with me. Besides,you’ll probably mess something up now.”
“Will not!”
“Will too!”
“Will-”
The girl pulled the door open, a finger to her mouth as she blew. “Shhh.”
The two fillies looked at the short girl and blinked a few times. The girl looked back at the two, tangled up in a pile with Celestia on top of Luna. She swallowed hard and stepped back. “Yo-you’ll wake up my mom, and she really needs her sleep.”
Luna leaned over towards Celestia. “Didn’t we get lucky. I expected her to scream or something.”
Celestia took in a deep breath, trying to calm her own nerves. Now that she was facing the odd being, she was almost terrified. It could have sharp, hidden claws, extending fangs, or even, magical, tickle feathers. She watched as the thing lifted a blanket around itself, shaking as her long hair got into her eyes, and the worries melted away, with the empathy coming back. Celestia stepped forward and smiled. “My name is Celestia Solaire Harmous. I am a princess of Equestria, and it is my pleasure to meet you.”
The creature took another step back, and Luna now saw the frail frame, and heard the gurgle of hunger. The moment she saw the creature’s legs buckle, she dismissed the thought that she knew the things pain, and so Luna too learned empathy. And with that lesson, stepped close to the poor thing. “And my name is Luna Harmous Moon, the second Princess of Equestria, and I too, am pleased to meet you.”
The girl looked between the two, a faint warmth filling her as they smiled. She had her doubts though as the memories and pain brought on by the other kids floated back. Times when smiles had stayed, even for years, only to break into cruel sneers. She stepped back and snuggled deeper into her blanket as she shook more from a cold that only she could feel. “Pl-please, just leave me be.”
Celestia frowned and her horn glowed. As a golden aura came over her, the girl felt warmth run into her. She spent a moment in confusion before realizing the aura around her mirrored the aura around the white pony’s horn. “H-how?”
Luna floated up a doll next to the creature’s bed and started to make the thing dance. “It’s magic, silly. Do you not have it here?”
She looked down and rubbed at her eyes. “I am not so lucky, especially if that is how you got here.”
Celestia grabbed one of the pillows from the creature’s bed and threw it at Luna, causing her sister to crash to the ground. “That is okay. It looks like you have good claws to grip with, so that gets rid of almost half of what we use ours for.”
The girl unfolded her hand, staring at it, while trying not to look at her wrist. “Claws?” The white pony’s hoof almost hit her hand as Celestia pointed, and she jumped slightly before realizing what the gesture meant. “This is a hand, not a claw.”
A blue hoof came up from behind the dresser within the room. “Ha! I’m not the only one making mistakes tonight, sister!” Luna was quickly rewarded for this with another bashing by the pillow.
A small giggle escaped the creature and Celestia’s whole form straightened and turned to her with a large smile. “That’s more like it!”
This time, the girl looked into those eyes, and for once in so long, didn’t think back to the bullies. Didn’t think about the tests that kept coming up as failures, or the ones that couldn’t be done because of her limited insurance. She only saw a happy gleam. An honesty from something trying to be kind. She tentatively held out her hand and gave Celestia a small smile. “M-my name is Madison.”
Celestia looked down at the hand for a moment, before hoping it was like the pony custom and put her hoof into the creature’s appendage. The two awkwardly shook before stepping away from each other. Luna finally crawled out from behind the dresser, wary of any more pillows. “Are we friends yet?”
Madison looked over to the starlit mane and swallowed hard, the pony blending far more in with the shadows. Once more though, it was the eyes that gave Luna away. Eyes that Madison knew all too well from the mirror that showed a want for one person outside of her family to be her friend. She steeled her nerves and walked over to the princess of the night before wrapping her arms around Luna’s neck. “I.. I hope we are.”
Luna stood still in shock for a moment before wrapping her hoof around the larger body. Celestia soon joined the hug, and both alicorns whispered, “Of course we are.”
Madison blinked as tears came to her eyes and she stepped back. “S-so, can you actually fly? Could we go somewhere? Maybe play with your magic? Or can I go to this Equestria place?”
Luna and Celestia smiled at each other before Luna’s smile turned into a cocky grin. “By the time tonight is over, I promise you will have had enough fun to last three whole moons, and we will have only scratched the surface of what we can do!”
A loud clop filled the room as rainbow streaks of magic ran along the walls. “Now, now Luna. Her first request was for you not to wake her mom. Now, apologize.”
Luna paled and then puffed out her small chest, her wings spread out as Fausticorn entered the room proper. “I didn’t wake her, so I have nothing to apologize for.”
Their mother shook her head with a sigh. “That is not what I am asking for you to apologize for. I’ve told both of you not to make promises you can’t keep, and what you say cannot be done.”
Celestia now was the one to pale as she realized that her mother hadn’t smiled once since she had come in, and wouldn’t meet any of their eyes. “But mom, it needs us. We’re its friends.”
Faust shook her head. “You don’t even know it’s a her, or a human. You know nothing about her other than the fact that she is sad. That is not enough to base a friendship, especially since you will never be coming back to this plane.”
“But mom!”
“No buts fillies. You are princesses, and sometimes you simply must accept that no matter how hard you try, some will suffer. Now,” Faust said as a rainbow portal opened in the middle of the room, “to your rooms.”
Luna and Celestia looked at each other, but neither knew what to do. Their mom was wrong, they knew that, but they didn’t know how. Didn’t know how to fix what was happening. It was not to be the last time in their long lives that they would feel like this, but it was the first. They mouthed, ‘Sorry,’ to Madison, and began to trot towards the portal.
Madison for her part, had mostly been in shock, but now she had to watch her two new friends, more people she had put trust into, no matter how small, leaving her. She took a step forward, but a long, white hoof stopped her. Looking up, she saw the beautiful face of the two fillies’ mother, with a red mane that almost reached Madison.
“I...I’m not supposed to do this. As a goddess, I am supposed to be neutral, stay out of others lives. Here though, my foals made it their errand to make you happy, and so, since they cannot, I… I suppose I can break the rules, just this once, so as to finish their job.”
Faust ran a hoof along Madison’s face and made sure they were looking at each other. “We will come back. Not like this, but we will, and when you see us, grab a hold of us. Make sure to sink yourself deep into Equestria, for there, just like tonight, you will find friends and happiness, I assure you.”
Madison gripped into the tender hoof. “Why can’t I just go? Why do I have to suffer first?”
Faust opened her mouth, and at first, nothing came out. She steeled herself though. While her foals had not learned it, she knew she could not simply make everything right. “It’s simply how it must be. I wish I could tell you more, promise you riches and good health, but that is not my privilege. But I can promise you one thing.”
“Within Equestria and My Little Ponies, you will find friends, good ones. Ones who lean on you, and when you hit hard times like now, will leap to your aid. That… that I can promise.”
And with that, Madison had to watch as Faust left. The portal closed, and she was alone again, but now, no tears came. She didn’t smile either, for what she had gotten was not entirely good. Something told her that was okay though. Sometimes one didn’t need only good, especially when what one really needed, was hope.