Fay's Tale: Family

by Lil Sunny

Family and New Friends

The next morning the three ponies woke up together and they proceeded downstairs for breakfast.

“So Fay, what do you want for breakfast? We’ve got toast, pancakes, hay bacon, eggs, ooh wait. You might like this.”

“If mommy thinks Fay likes it, then Fay will love it.”

Trixie giggled. “Not quite. It should be said If mommy thinks I’ll like it, then I’ll love it. You don’t need to call yourself your own name every time.”

“Cut her some slack honey, she’s still young and barely educated.” Starlight said while pouring a bowl of Fruity Unicorn-Os for Fay.

Trixie brought her a spoon. “Now remember Fay, nobody’s going to take this food from you, so take your time and enjoy it.”

Fay slowly hooked her hoof around the spoon and took a spoonful of cereal. Her eyes lit up and she shone a massive grin.

“Wow, this is yummy yummy. Thank you mommies.”

Fay slowly ate her cereal as Starlight and Trixie had some toast and coffee. After breakfast Fay had milk all over her muzzle.

“Oh Fay, you’re still a little messy, here let me get that for you.” Starlight grabbed a cloth and gently wiped her muzzle clean.

“Thanks Mommy. I’m not good at eating clean. Miss Silver always scolded me for it.” She frowned.

Trixie placed a hoof on her shoulder. “You’re not there anymore dear, you’re here with us and here to stay. We don’t judge you for how you are now, we just want to help you become a better pony in the future.”

Fay smiled and hugged the blue pony beside her. “Thank you mommy Trix and mommy Star”

They all proceeded down the road to Twilight’s castle after they were finished and Starlight turned to Fay.

“Fay, I want you to stay behind us when we go in, so we can surprise Twilight. Is that OK?”

Fay nodded and kept hidden behind the two adult mares.

As they proceeded through the castle they found the library where predictably, Twilight was reading a book.

“Oh, Starlight and Trixie, this is a wonderful surprise. What brings you here?”

“What? Can’t a former student say hi to her former teacher and friend?”

“Yeah, you humbled me twice before I learned to be a better pony. Is it so bad that I call you friend now Twilight?”

“Ok, you two are hiding something. Spit it out.”

They parted to reveal Fay beside them.

“A filly? But you two can’t have conceived and birthed a child since we last spoke, especially not one as old as she looks to be.”

“We found her on the streets. And we took her in. The adoption isn’t finalised yet but I want to speak to you about that privately, say hi Fay.”

Fay smiled. “Hi Fay!”

Twilight laughed as Starlight facehoofed.

“She got you good Starlight. It’s very nice to meet you Fay, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, Equestria’s Princess of Friendship.”

“Tuh w eye light? You’re the pony from mommy’s story!”

Twilight looked towards Starlight with a look of slight confusion.

“She wanted a bedtime story so I told an abridged version of how you came to Ponyville and beat nightmare moon. I’m sorry I couldn’t think of anything else.”

“It’s fine, I’m glad our tale was one that can inspire and entertain at the very least.”

“Fay, why don’t we go find Spike and introduce you? I’m sure he’ll be happy to meet a new friend.”

“Ok Mommy Trix.” Fay followed Trixie back out to the hallway and Twilight closed the doors.

“Alright Starlight, what did you need to talk about?”

Starlight sighed. “I know we adult ponies don’t often listen to children’s opinions and stories. But I think this is too serious not to look into. Fay said she basically escaped the Orphanage in Canterlot, she hopped on the train to Ponyville and lived off the streets for a while. She doesn’t know how old she is, when her birthday is. She had nothing with her and she said the conditions were terrible, they sold off new donations for money and fed them grey slop and gave them cold baths. She said the pony who ran the place is called Miss Silver. I was hoping you could look into it.”

“Silver you say? I did hear some rumours last time I was up in Canterlot about a Miss Silver Tongue bribing her way into the pockets of a well known political figure. Not the Princesses of course, they’d never let that happen. But if she’s trying to extort money and buy her way into power, she can’t be a good pony and there’s every chance it’s the same mare. I’ll ask Princess Celestia to take a look. Thank you for bringing that to my attention Starlight…so how is Fay anyway? Can she read and write?”

“She’s honestly not too bad but no, she can’t read or write, she makes some speech mistakes now and then and she’s a messy eater. But I’m going to enrol her with Cheerilee. Hopefully with a little make up work she can learn to read and write properly. Trixie and I wanted a filly but I wasn’t willing to do some kind of body changing spell just for a chance at conception on our own, not yet anyway. So when we found Fay on the street we could help a poor orphaned pony and get the kid we wanted. She’s a sweetheart, she had a nightmare last night and slept in our bed.”

“That’s great that she’s doing well, Cheerilee will teach her well I’m sure. And I’ll speak to Princess Luna about watching her dreams for a little while.”

The two chatted for a while until Fay ran into the library with a comic book in her mouth being chased by a small purple dragon.

“Give it back!”

Fay kept running just out of his reach and giggled muffledly.

“Fay!” Starlight said, her voice slightly raised.
“Give him back the comic book, it’s not nice to take things from other creatures. You should know that young lady.”
Fay pouted and gave him the comic back. “I’m sorry, I was just having fun.”

“Hey, if you wanted to play tag you didn’t need to take my comic book you know.” Spike said before poking her nose with a claw. “Tag you’re it!” He exclaimed while running back into the hallway with Fay in hot pursuit.

Trixie sat down with Starlight and Twilight.

“You sure those two will be OK in the castle alone?”

Twilight smiled. “Don’t worry, Spike can be responsible when he wants to, and I don’t think he’d let anything happen to Fay.”

The trio chatted for a while longer about Fay and how they plan to teach and raise her. Soon after Fay came back to the library.

“Mommy. I’m hungry.”
Starlight got up and walked over to her, Fay instinctively crouched away and covered her head, crying. This caused Starlight to recoil and gently hug her.

“Fay! Are you OK? I’d never hurt you. Did Miss Silver hit you?”

Fay silently nodded.

Twilight walked over and gently picked her up with magic and rocked her till she calmed down.

“You poor thing. No one should be afraid of asking for food. How dare that pony hurt such a sweet little filly. That’s it, Spike. Send a letter to the Princess right now! We need to let Celestia know just what’s going on at that place.”

Spike quickly wrote a letter and sent it off.

“In the meantime. I was thinking about going out for lunch. Why don’t we go to McHayburger? Fay could get a silly filly meal.”

Fay giggled. “Yummy!” Before giving Twilight a hug. “Thank you Miss Twi.”

Twilight chuckled. “You’re welcome. Starlight and Trixie are my friends, and if you’re their filly then Auntie Twilight won’t let anything happen to you.”

Starlight joined the hug followed by Trixie. Spike looked at the four and pretended to be sick before Twilight dragged him into the group hug.

The 5 of them walked into Ponyville town and many of the local ponies gave audible awws and smiled at the little Filly with the group. When they made it to McHayburger they got a booth together and Twilight ordered the food. She returned with some hayburger meals, a large fries and a Filly Meal inside a cartoonish pink box with crudely drawn pictures of the Princesses on its side.

Starlight looked at it. “Princess Filly Meal, special princess toy inside. Collect all 4. I wonder what you’ll get.”

Fay looked confused. “Huh? Toy? Where?”

“In the box, silly. You get a little toy with your Filly Meal.”

Fay opened the box and inside was a small bag, she opened it and out came a tiny plastic figure of Twilight.

Twilight blushed with embarrassment. “Oh, you got me. Well I knew I was part of this campaign but I was sorta hoping you’d get one of the others.”

Trixie chuckled. “Twilight, You’ve saved the world more times than I can count. You have no need to be embarrassed about your title and status. Do you have any idea how many selfish unicorns and pegasi would kill to become an Alicorn? But you were chosen because you were worthy of wielding such power. You’re a great mare Twilight, never forget that.”

“Thank you Trixie. Well Fay, do you like your toy Twilight?”

“Mhm, I’m going to keep it forever. Fay never had any toys to play with besides the old broken toys at the Oar Fan Age.”

“Orphanage Fay, I know it’s a difficult word but you can practise. Cheerilee will make sure you learn well too, we’ll take you to see her after lunch.”

“Ok mommy, thank you.” Fay took a big bite out of her burger. “Yummy!” before she struggled to swallow her food.

“Chew it better Fay, and take a drink of your juice box.”

She did as she was told and took smaller bites until her burger was finished, she enjoyed her fries and juice while everyone else ate their food too.

“Well, this was fun. But I have to go back home now. I was reading a fascinating book and Celestia could send a reply anytime now so I need to be ready, I’ll let you know what I find out. Have a good day. I’ll see you again soon Fay.”

“Next time you won’t catch me so easy.” Spike gloated before reluctantly giving the small filly a hug.

“Bye bye Miss Twi, bye bye Spike.” Fay waved as they left the burger joint.

“Well Fay, let’s get you over to the schoolhouse and introduce you. School should be just about finished for the day. The ponies at the school are all sorts of ages. There’ll be some older than you but some will be your age too…well once we know your age we can confirm that but they’ll treat you kindly I’m sure.” Starlight got up and led the way out towards the School.

As she had said, School had just finished. The bell rang as they got there and the students were running out of the place towards the town, their parents and everywhere in between. The trio knocked on the door of the School before Cheerilee opened it.

“Oh Starlight. And you must be Trixie, I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you before. Please come in.”

They followed her to a small side room that could be considered an office of sorts.

“So what can I do for you?”

“This is Fay, say hello Fay.”

“Hello Fay!”

Cheerilee chuckled. “Spirited isn’t she?”

“Surprisingly yes, we found her on the streets of Ponyville, she pretty much escaped from Canterlot Orphanage and we took her in. We’ve heard horrible things that are being investigated as we speak. But what’s important right now is that our little filly needs a good education, and you’re the best teacher in this town.”

Cheerilee blushed. “Really? Oh do go on. Of course she’s more than welcome at this school. What kind of level is she at right now?”

“Well that’s the problem. She has some speech issues, and she can’t read or write. We were hoping you could help her with some kind of make-up work to learn.”

Cheerilee thought for a moment. “Well, I do know of someone who could help her to speak properly. He’s a Kirin, started visiting the town about a year ago but now I think he’s settled into a cottage near the everfree forest. Stallion by the name of Sunshine Flare, though he prefers Sunny. As for reading and writing, that’s something I can easily do for her.”

Cheerilee gave them some pages of very basic reading comprehension and writing practice.
“Try her with those tonight, and bring her in first thing tomorrow morning. I may also send her extra homework if that’s ok, to catch up on her general education. Maybe I could even find one of my students to be a tutor. I know Sweetie Belle was looking to help out.”

“That would be great. We’ll try her with this stuff and see how she does with it. Thank you so much Cheerilee.”

“If I didn’t teach these kids then who would?” She smiled. “I’ll see you tomorrow for your first day of school, little lady.”

“You’re nice. I like nice ponies. Bye bye miss Cheery.”

The three of them returned home where the rest of the evening went off without a hitch. That night a letter materialised in front of Starlight.

“Twilight must have found something.”

“Well what does it say, Starry?”

“Dear Starlight, upon investigation, on the surface the orphanage is clean. No real signs of anything wrong according to the undercover ponies Celestia sent to view it. However this could easily be a cover up and several ponies in Canterlot reportedly were unable to adopt any of the children there. Celestia wants you to take Fay back and adopt her legally, if Miss Silver refuses, then leave and notify The Princesses. Sincerely - Twilight Sparkle.”

“We can’t do it tomorrow. It’s Fay’s first day of school and she’s so excited.”

“Then we’ll wait till the day after. Be ready to use force if we have to. We don’t know what this pony is doing to those poor kids.”

Starlight began to tremble.

“That witch! How can anyone be so heartless! These are orphaned ponies! With no parents or knowledge of who they really are! And she won’t treat them kindly? Or give other ponies a chance to home them? She’s a monster!”

Trixie slid over and hugged her tight.
“Easy Starry, breathe. Calm down. We’ll get Fay one way or another, and if what she told us is true. That place will be shut down and she'll rot behind bars.”

Starlight seethed for another moment before exhaling deeply.
“You’re right. I’m sorry, what would I ever do without you?”

“So you have a temper. So what? I have an ego a mile long and you keep that in check for me. That’s why we’re together, my love. We complete each other.”

Starlight smiled. “You’re right. We really do. I love you so much Trixie Lulamoon.”

“And I love you Starlight Glimmer. Now come on, we have to get up early to help Fay get to school so we should really get to bed now. You did remember to tell Twilight you needed some time off right?”

“Of course I did, she’s got some Kirin covering for me. Sunny I think his name was?”

“Isn’t that the same guy Cheerilee said could help Fay learn to speak better?”

“I guess it must be. Multi talented pony. It’ll be nice to meet him.”

“In the meantime, stop stalling Starry, bed time.”

Starlight giggled. “Alright Mom.”

Trixie playfully hoofed her flank, both teasing her and encouraging her up the stairs to bed. They fell asleep in each other’s hooves and unlike the previous night, Fay slept right through till morning.