> Cheshire
>  by PoniesLoveMe
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> Chapter 1
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	"All colts older than eight years of age will be shipped off to Canterlot".
A young, pale yellow colt gasped from his hiding spot. Earlier that evening, when he was getting into bed, he heard a knock on the door. Slowly and carefully, so as not to wake his snoring room mate, he had crept out of his room and into the hall, where he had heard voices just behind a door. And here he hid, frozen with fear. 'What do they want with us?' the colt wondered, horrified. He had just turned eight that passed Saturday, and it had been a happy time, but now he wished with all his heart that he hadn't. 'Is it because we haven't been adopted yet? Do they think nopony will want us?' the little colt's ears drooped and his heart twisted in sadness at the thought. It had been five years since the accident that had killed his parents, but he stilled lived in the same orphanage he had been taken to when a passerby had found him, but the large rooms and tall ceilings were very intimidating to the colt and instead of feeling happy and grateful that he had been taken to such a kind place, he felt even more lonely and unwanted than ever.
"B-but you can't!" The young colt was snatched from his thoughts by the pleading voice of the old mare who ran the orphanage. He shuddered. He liked the mare, she was always so kind to the orphans and never yelled. Her voice was always quiet and calm and good for telling stories on rainy nights, so to hear her so frightened and upset made the colt scared. Something bad must be happening for her to be so distraught. 
"You just can't!" the mare repeated, her plead turned into a wail, ringing through the entrance hall and into the room the little colt was hiding in. She sounded simply devastated and the loud pitch her voice had reached made the colt recoil a bit. "The colts, they still have a chance to find a family, grow up and be happy! Just give me a chance, I can find them all lovely homes! Don't take them away!"
"I have no doubt that you could find them nice homes" came a soothing new mare's voice, and the curious colt poke his muzzle back out of the door he was hiding behind to see who the newcomer was. She was a tall, white pony with a flowing pink, blue, and green mane. She wore fancy, golden boots and a regal necklace that was implanted with a shiny, purple gem. And on top of her head sat a pointy golden crown, another purple gem sitting snugly in the center of it. She had a unicorn horn, but also pegasus wings and, although she was thin, her body looked very strong.
The little colt's nose scrunched up as he struggled to understand this. 'How can that be?' He had heard of the two princess' who lived in Canterlot. He heard that those two mares had wings of a pegasus, a magical unicorn horn, and the strength of an earth pony like him: alicorns, said to be created to represent all the species of ponies in Equestria. Could this mare in his orphanage home be one of the princess'? 
"But, Princess Celestia," the orphanage owner squeaked, obviously as surprised to see the princess as the colt was, with a clumsy bow. "I-I don't understand. Why do you need these colts?"
The princess sighed a long, dejected sigh, as if it was too terrible to speak of. Then she lowered her head to whisper to the orphanage mare "I am so sorry, but we need your colts to be trained as guards to fight for Equestria." she straightened up and looked around as if half-expected to see all the colts of the orphanage staring wide-eyed at her in fear. "There is a war coming, and we need to be prepared." Celestia closed her eyes solemnly. "I'm sorry" she repeated "but these colts will never get adopted, they must fight for Equestria."
The colt didn't want to hear anymore. His eyes were full of tears. 'Why does everything bad have to happen to me!' he thought as he bounded back through the halls to his room. He climbed into bed and covered his head in his bed sheets, as if they would protect him from his fate, and cried himself to sleep.
> Chapter 2
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	"Cheshire, Totter Hooves, SkyFall, Oceanspray, Half Sliced, Cloud Beak".
He could barely hear his name being called over the thunder of the lightning storm over head and the pounding sound of rain on the roof of the orphanage, but the pale yellow colt stepped forward and boarded the cart that would take him to Canterlot. As he walked, his hooves dragged through puddles of rainwater and his ears drooped. His head was hung and he barely noticed the screams of protest from the other colts who would be making the dreaded trip to Canterlot with him. 
"I don't want to go with them" came a cry the colt recognized as his room mate, SkyFall.
"Where are they taking us?" whimpered Totter Hooves.
"I want to stay!"
"What did we do wrong?"
But as they cried to, and were hushed by, the orphanage owner, the young colt just sat down in a corner of the cart and cried to himself. He hadn't told anypony of that night; when the Princess had come to the orphanage while his friends were all tucked into their beds, dreaming happy dreams of the flapjacks and daisies that the orphanage cook always made for them; but the memory of it had seared through his mind like a flash of lightning every time he had started to feel hope again. The lump of sadness had grown in his throat over the past week and he had found it hard to talk to any of the orphan ponies without tears welling in his eyes. His heart heavy with sorrow in his chest that nopony that young should feel, yet there the feeling was, seemingly weighing a hundred tons as he sat patiently for them to leave.
The cart dipped a little and made a tiny creaking sound as the orphanage mare gathered up the other colts and guided them into the cart, then she jumped out and the door closed behind her, locking them in.
Cheshire watched her trot slowly back to the fillies and colts who had been too young to go out the barred window of the cart. He saw her turn towards the cart and saw grief in her old, grey eyes as she met his gaze, and then a spark between them happened, and he knew: without saying a word, her gaze had told him that she had known. She had known all along that he was there the night the princess came to the orphanage but, the colt realized in shock, she hadn't said a word. She hadn't said anything, hadn't told him off in front of the princess, hadn't punished him because she had realized that leaving to go to Canterlot would be punishment enough.
As though she had read his thoughts, the orphanage mare nodded slightly and began to trot towards him. She lifted her hooves onto the bars of the cart window and spoke softly to him through the bars.
"I am so sorry you had to know before it was time" she whispered, pausing to let the apology sink in. But the colt found it hard to concentrate because, although the little colt could hear sorrow in her voice as she whispered to him, the steady, kind sound of her voice and the sweet smell of the honey shampoo she liked to use on her mane calmed him and he felt his heart beat slow. "It was unfair for you, to have your last days here ruined by that news" she continued "but I'm glad one of you knew, so you could help guide your friends. I'm relying on you, you must remain strong for them-" she said this with a gentle nod of her head towards the other colts were huddled together on the other side of the cart. "They will be counting on you, too. Please, promise me that you will keep them safe".
The colt was silent for a heartbeat. How did she expect him to protect the other colts when he was shaking in his own coat?
"I know you are as scared as they are, maybe even more," admitted the orphanage mare "but I want you to take this and remember us" and, ever so discretely , she slipped a tiny black-and-white photograph of the fillies and colts of the orphanage. With a pang of sadness, he remembered when it was taken: on the sunniest day of the previous summer, the orphanage mare had said she wanted a picture of all the fillies and colts of the orphanage hung in the entrance hall for her to see. So she had hired a photographer and hung the picture proudly. 
"I sent the photographer a letter, asking for this" she explained, pointing a hoof at the picture as the colt stared at it in awe. "She charged me ten bits for it, but it was worth it". The mare watched the little yellow colt carefully as he delicately turned over the paper to find the phone number and address of the orphanage written in emerald ink on the back, along with the name of the orphanage mare. "I-If you all survive the oncoming war, w-would you call me?" 
The colt nodded, his eyes wide. He realized that this mare loved the ponies in her orphanage like they were her own sons and daughters, all she wanted was for them to grow up and live a happy life. But, now, five of her colts would never get that chance, and the little colt felt sympathy towards the devastated mare.
"Thank you" she said with a sigh, clearly relieved, and started to back away from the cart window. 
The little colt's heart twisted to see her go, but as she trotted away he called out the window to her. "I will try my best." he promised "I wont let you down!"
The cart jerked back as the earth ponies who were driving the cart saddled into position and the colt was thrown down from the window, he climbed back onto his hooves just in time to hear the orphanage mare whinny back.
"I know you wont. Be strong little one, and always remember who you really are! Don't forget." And as the cart began to steadily move forward, away from the orphanage, she called one last farewell over her shoulder "Goodbye, Cheshire!" before her voice was drown out by the roaring thunder.
As the cart pulled farther and farther away from the orphanage, and the fillies and colts standing out in the rain were reduced to tiny specs in the distance, Cheshire suddenly had a sinking feeling that he would never return.
"Good bye."
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Cheshire awoke with a jolt as the cart bumped over a ditch in the road. For a minute, he couldn't place where he was and he sat bolt upright, eyes wide and spine tingling, before remembering and slouching down again. Oh, yeah. He was on his way to Canterlot to train in the Canterlot army to fight for Equestria. 
'I must have dozed off' he thought, opening his snout in a wide yawn as memories of the previous day came flooding back to him. The thunderstorm, the mare's goodbye, the photograph. The photograph! Cheshire searched the floor around him frantically, searching for the little piece of paper that promised him a safe place to return to when this was all over. Last night, as the thunderstorm had raged overhead, one-by-one his colt companions had fallen into a deep sleep, exhausted from the days excitement. But the little, pale yellow colt had been unable to fall into the subconscious of sleep, unable to let go of the day as easy as his companions. He had sat by the window, staring at the photograph in the pale moonlight that had peeked out of the clouds after the rainstorm ceased. 
He kept repeating the same words over and over in his mind:
'I am Cheshire. I live in the orphanage, I belong there. I will always belong there. The princess ruined my life, but I will return. And after each time he had gazed at the picture he named every filly and colt in the picture, vowing never to forget any of them. 'Penny, Moon Glow, Sparkler. I will never forget, never. Fenn, Molly, Quick Quill...
But he had grown drowsy as the night pulled on, and the faint snoring of his fellow colts was soothing and had lulled him into a restless sleep.
Cheshire let out a long, thankful sigh as he moved aside a small mound of hay, revealing the slightly-bent picture of his home. He hugged the picture to his chest, bringing the only thing that made him feel safe closer. Once his companions, who were still snoring peacefully, awoke he knew he would have to put the picture away, act strong even when he longed to race back to the only maternal figure in his life and hide. Although he did not think he would ever return to the orphanage he had once called home, he clutched the photograph even tighter as his mind wandered into the possibility, the one tiny shred of hope, that he might someday return. Would they be happy to see him? He would be beside himself to be reunited with his orphan family. But what if he failed the task the orphanage mare had asked of him? Her one last request. How would he be able to face the grief-stricken orphanage mare again, knowing he had let her down?
The minutes ticked by, and the cart continued its cheerless journey to Canterlot. As the day passed, Cheshire's colt companions started to wake, each one waking with a yawn and rubbing sleepily at their eyes. They huddled together in a corner of the cart, silent and unmoving. There was an uneasy silence creeping over the young colts, but none of them dared to break it.
As the minutes turned to hours, and the sun was starting to set, the cart gradually slowed to a stop. A couple of colts raised their heads eagerly or angled their ears towards the cart door. Did they think they had returned to the orphanage? That it had been a mistake that they were taken? 'Well they're wrong!' Cheshire thought dejectedly. He neither jumped to his hooves in excitement when he heard one of the driver ponies trot around to the back of the cart nor gazed happily at the stallion who unlocked and opened the cart door. He did not rush out of the cart, eager to see where the drive had taken them, like the other colts. Rather, he got begrudgingly to his hooves, shot a reproachful look at the stallion who had released him from his prison, and stepped out to stand next to the other colts. 
The sun shone gloriously down from the sky as he stood in front the stairs leading up to a large, majestic castle. The brightness of both caused Cheshire to recoil.  'How could something so bright and cheerful appear when my heart is so heavy?' he wondered solemnly. But as he cowered beside his colt companions, a mare's voice rang out through his head.
'but I'm glad one of you knew, so you could help guide your friends. I'm relying on you, you must remain strong for them'.
The little yellow colt stood taller, no longer cowering beside his friends, but standing bravely ahead of them. He couldn't let them, or the orphanage mare down. He just couldn't! 
Not a minute passed before a large, dark grey unicorn dressed in golden armor stepped out of the castle doors and elegantly descended the stairs towards the line of young colts.
"Princess Celestia has brought you here to train in the Canterlot army" the stallion spoke in a deep voice, "you will spend the night in the guest room, for I am sure you are all very tired from your journey." he said with a sweeping glance over the colts. Then he turned. "Come" the command came harshly as the stallion climbed the stairs towards the castle doors, but none of the colts behind Cheshire moved. 
With a puff of surprise, Cheshire realized something 'They're all waiting for me to make the first move!' He could feel five tiny pairs of eyes burning into the back of his head while his companions watched him with interest. 
Cheshire swallowed the anxiousness bubbling up in his throat and took a tentative step forward. 'For the mare' he reminded himself as he gained confidence and bounded up the stairs. He got to the top and stared up at the grey unicorn, who gave him an approving nod and led the way into the castle. Cheshire, with an encouraging glance back at his companions, followed.
'Don't show fear. Be brave.'