Gari's Life

Celestia watched as Luna kept gazing out the window. Her sister's eyes, clouded with sadness, the corners of Luna's mouth turned down with worry. . .

Finally, Celestia walked up to her younger sister. "Luna," she said, "pray tell, what worries you so much?"

Luna did not answer for a long time. Then, heaving a sigh, Luna whispered, "Sister, a full decade has passed, and yet. . . look at what little progress we have made. . ."

Celestia glanced out the window. Her sister was right. Although the situation had gotten better since the defeat of Discord, she noticed how the townsponies outside the castle were living with lack of harmony. Some were crying over the miniature sizes of the harvest crops, some were bickering over the prices of goods, and some were moping around the streets mournfully, begging for bits and gems.

Celestia sighed. "You have a compassionate heart, sister. But there is nothing we can do to help them."

"But, Celestia," Luna said. "We can at least tr--"

She was cut off by a loud yowling outside. Both sisters stuck their heads out the window, alarmed. A bunch of ponies were delivering hoof blows and bites to each other.

Luna watched with fear as Celestia observed with mild anger. The latter soon turned from the window and barked out, "General Blazebeam!"

"Yes, Your Highness!" answered a voice as a white unicorn stallion, covered in golden armor, walked in. "I await your command!"

"A fight has broken out on the streets. Take a couple more guards with you and stop the fight from getting any worse," Celestia ordered. The guard saluted and boldly walked out the room that the two princesses were in. Luna watched as Blazebeam disappeared from sight. She remembered first seeing him as a defenseless stallion, ten years ago, desperately searching for saviors, pressuring her and her elder sister, declaring them as rulers of Equestria. She smiled as she looked now, at Blazebeam, a bold general, a major participant in the rebuilding of Equestria.

"I must leave, sister," Celestia said, walking away from the window. "I must finish with issuing the charter that we are to send to the pegasi ponies in order to allow them to set up their new city of Cloudsdale."

Luna did not reply as Celestia shut the door, leaving her alone. Luna kept watching as Blazebeam and his inferiors arrived to break apart the angry pony crowd.

For the first time in ten years, a tear fell out of her eye. How was the small royal city of Everfree to prosper when so much damage had been done?

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A unicorn filly, her coat in different shades of brown and a cream belly, with fluffy tan mane and sparkling fern eyes, stepped into the kitchen and eyed a burning mass of wood surrounded by a small half-dome of bricks. She crept forward to the oven. Carefully using her golden-hued magic, she took out a steel tray and snuffed in the delectable aroma of the treats that were of her specialty to bake. "Aha!" she cooed softly. Then, cautiously, she crept out of kitchen. Her heart began to beat quicker as soon as she entered the lobby of Everfree Orphanage. She would have to be as stealthy as possible, but she would have to move quickly before she got caught. No mistress in the orphanage should see her like this, or she would be strapped to the floor and lashed. The orphanage had a strict curfew, and anyone caught out of their rooms for any reason whatsoever was harshly punished.

Following the narrow hallway, she entered through the second door she passed on the right. There was a second room, with two more doors. She opened the right door and entered a room with three pairs of bunk beds, set against the wall to her right. She hissed, "Pssst! Guys!"

Instantly, five heads peeked out from under the blanket covers, and gazed at her, their faces lit up with emotions, first with fear, then with relief. Then they jumped out of their bunks. "Cookies!" they whispered with glee, rushing to grab the sweet treats, still warm on the oven tray.

"Yep! Three for each of us!" the filly said, trying to mask her heavy breaths. "Take them while they're warm and good to go!"

Each of her friends grabbed three cookies greedily, and munched on them without hesitation. The filly, too, devoured her own share. After eating fitfully, they all laid down on the floor, licking their forehooves clean.

"Chocolate chip! Ah!" sighed a pegasus filly with a coat as brown as the unicorn's hooves, darker brown ears, and eyes and mane with a equal shade of reddish brown. "Gari, you sure are the best baker in the orphanage!"

Gari blushed and dropped her mocha ears.

"Spirit, not the best in the orphanage, silly!" giggled a dark gray pegasus filly with white hooves and belly, light amber eyes, and jet black mane with a single blue streak. "The best in Everfree!"

"You doof, Magpie, that's an understatement!" snapped a reddish brown, blond-maned earth colt, shoving the pegasus playfully. "I'd reckon she'll grow up to be the best baker in all of Equestria!"

"Yeah, right, Lion Heart!" chortled another earth colt with a blue coat and purple mane curls, nudging Gari. "Best baker of Equestria! Don't deny it!"

"Mm-hmm, quite right about that, Cosmos!" piped up a lemon-colored, salmon-haired earth filly. "When Gari grows up to be a baker, nopony in Equestria will go hungry, or my name is not Citrus Rose!"

As soon as the filly said that, the six foals' stomachs set off minor growls, causing the ponies to moan with annoyance. Headmistress Callous Hex had confined them to their room without supper because they had eaten first from their plates before any member of the staff had during lunch. The Headmistress was quite furious, saying that they were behaving with improper etiquette, and sent them to their room as soon as they finished their firsts, while the other foals had gone out to spend their own afternoons outside. When they had locked themselves up, they had tried to entertain themselves with little games, gambling over fake tokens and simple dares. But their stomachs grumbled so hard during all of their activities, sometimes to the point of rolling over in pain, until Gari finally agreed to set her baking skills to use for all of their good. Still, three chocolate chip cookies were not enough to fill up half of anypony's stomachs.

"Ugh, can't we ever get to bed with a full belly?!" cried Citrus. "I'm tired and sleepy enough as is!"

"Yup, we're all. . . tired now," yawned Lion. "Best get to sleep."

"Besides," said Magpie, zooming up to her bed, the top bunk in the bed snuggled into the corner, "you have to help out Baker August with his work tomorrow, Gari. You wouldn't want to be late for that, especially when you're doing your favorite work in the forenoon!"

"Yea, and I have to help Locksmith Anemone, while Magpie has to go visit Moneylender Pollux," said Spirit, flying up to her bed at a slower pace.

Gari nodded, and levitated herself into her bunk, the upper bunk of the pair of bunk beds closest to the door. The orphanage did not have the money to buy ladders for every bunk bed, so the foals sleeping on the top bunks would either have to climb the top bunk support rails or step on their roommates' heads or use whatever other method they could in order to get to the upper beds. Luckily, Gari was able to use her magic, Magpie and Spirit were able to fly, and the earth foals all had bottom bunks.

But the beds themselves were not of good quality. The cheap mattresses were filled with prickly pigeondown, the threadbare pillows were stuffed with dried peas, and the makeshift blankets were made of thin cotton, leaving any foal sleeping on one of those beds uncomfortable and cold. So the foals would end up squirming around until their fatigue would finally decide to put them to rest.

And they all had a hard time sleeping. . . especially Gari, who woke up in half an hour unhappily, from a nightmare.

It was terrible. She could still remember bits and pieces of it. A war. Where it was, she could care less. Monsters blurred past her eyes. Timberwolves, griffons, dragons, and other creatures that she knew not how to name were raiding houses, killing ponies, kidnapping friends. She could still remember, crying, trying to save Lion, Cosmos, and Citrus from bleeding from timberwolf bites, trying to break Magpie and Spirit away from the griffons' grasps, and trying to stay alive, fighting to the death until a dragon slammed its tail on her head, almost instantly knocking her out. The last thing she saw before waking up was the orphanage in ruins.

When she had jolted awake, she had been in the midst of flailing around, her blanket thrown to the ground, her pillow soaked with sweat like wet moss. Her mane was also soggy and flat, and golden sparks burst from her horn in an uncontrollable frenzy. She trembled and looked around, to make sure her friends were still there. Sure enough, they were sleeping as soundly as they could, still alive.

Gari's eyes continued to dart around the room. The once snuggly teddy bear on the only shelf rack in the room now looked like a ferocious ursa to her, and the once comforting, understanding shadows grew hostile. Trembling, she laid down again, keeping herself awake and on guard, resisting her eyelids until they grew too heavy for her to take a stand against. This time, she fell into a dreamless sleep.

But her body kept quivering from the cold.

Author's Note:

OK, a few things I'd like to clear up for some very critical readers. . .

If you guys take a good look at the video, you'll notice that there's another pair of bunk beds on the left wall, just before Gari and Spirit and Magpie head out. Well, those beds don't have owners.

And those figures at the bottom of the screen from 1:55~1:57 are not other ponies, they are toys.

The names Lion Heart, Cosmos, and Citrus Rose were created by me, and the name August, Anemone, and Pollux were picked through random raffles. Should any of these names match up with another cartoon character's, I would like to tell you that it has happened by mere coincidence. The name Lion Heart was created as a nod to one of the Duo Cartoonist members, Lion (that's what I heard he was called, or maybe it was Leo, I don't know), because if felt wrong to have only Spirit named after a Duo Cartoonist member. (What's her name? Spirit? Spiritto? I have no idea.)

By the way, "yea" is the medieval spelling for "yes".

To see what Spirit, Magpie, and Gari look like: you can go here: http://firstnightmarenight.blogspot.kr/search?updated-max=2012-06-25T23:24:00-02:30&max-results=7&reverse-paginate=true

In the video, Lion Heart is under Gari, Cosmos is under Spirit, and Citrus Rose is under Magpie.

Also, the blog may say that the foals were actually living in old Canterlot, but that's not my canon, so put with it.

EDIT: Some of you may have noticed that this chapter has gone through some editing. I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT HAVING WORKED ON THIS DOMAIN. I'll get another chapter up some time this month.

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