> Ready for Responsibility > by FictionFreek > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Ponyville orphanage, a place where fillies and colts without a family to call their own gather. It’s here that they can find strength in one another, where they can know that they aren’t alone. And sometimes, if they’re lucky, this is the place where they are found by a whole new family, one that would give them the love they had never experience before. Outside of this very building stood Amber, who just today had exited the orphanage for what she felt was going to be the last time. She stared at the front door, she lost count at the number of times she casually walked through them. But this time it was different than, a feeling swelling up inside of her that she had never felt before. But while the butterflies in her stomach were new to her, she knew exactly what the cause was. She didn’t know how long she stared at the door, could have been hours for all she knew. It wasn’t until she felt the gentle touch of a hoof on her shoulder that she finally managed to pull herself out of her own mind. “Amber?” Looking over to her side, Amber saw one of her closes friends, Hot Head, giving her a worried look. “Are you alright?” Amber looked back at Hot Head for a moment, taking not of the nervous look on his face, and returned a gentle smile. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said “Just mentally preparing myself I guess” “You know you don’t have to do this.” Turning over she saw Lucy standing to the other side of her, sharing the same look as Hot Head. “I know, but I’m not doing this because I have to,” said Amber as she rubbed a hoof on Lucky’s head “I’m doing this because I want to.” Lucky opened his mouth to reply, but the look on Ambers face stopped him, the look of total dedication. Amber then turned back to the door, taking another moment to prepare herself for what she was about to do. “Alright,” said Amber as she took in a deep breath “Here I go.” Finally she began to move forward towards the door, not hesitating to turn the knob and open it. Amber had entered this building many times in her life, but this time, it seemed as though she was seeing it from a different perspective. And being completely honest with herself, she knew that she was. She was no longer walking through these halls as another orphan, no, this time she was somepony different entirely. “Never thought I’d be standing on the other side.” Amber thought to herself as she walked down the hall. Every step through the familiar territory brought back a wave of old memories from her past, of the days when she was still young. The moment they passed the entrance to the library, something caught the side of her eye. Looking over she saw a filly and colt sitting at one of the small tables, one standing over the other as he looked down at a small chalkboard with letters on it. But they weren’t just any filly and colt, one of them happened to be Amber herself, when she was younger, and the other was Lucky. “Now what do you get when I put A and T together?” said the young Amber as she place two magnetic letters on the board. Lucky looked down at the two letters for a moment, butting his hoof as he thought it over for a moment. “At?” said Lucky as he looked up at Amber. “Bingo!” said Amber as he booped Lucky on the nose “And if I add a C in front of the?” she asked placing another letter. “Cat!” Lucky said proudly. “Well aren’t you a fast learner.” Amber said with a chuckle. Lucky looked down at the letters with a smile on his face. All of his other friends were already reading now, but he was having a hard time keeping up with it. “Hey Amber,” said Lucky as he looked back up at her “Thanks for helping me.” Amber let out a small chuckle as she wrapped a foreleg around Lucky and pulled him in for a hug. “Anytime.” The memory faded as quickly as it surfaced, the image of the two young ponies disappearing as she moved past the library. A warm smile spread across her lips from thinking back to that day, “Hey lucky,” said Amber as she looked back at him. “Yeah?” “What was the last book you read?” she asked him. “War and Peace.” He said, Amber simply chuckled at the response, much to Lucky’s confusion. “Hard to believe he ever needed anyponies help learning how to read.” Amber thought to herself as she pressed on. However she didn’t make it very far before something caught her attention yet again. This time, however, it was the sound of a young filly’s voice coming from a distant room. “He did what!?” said the young voice. “I-it’s nothing, really, I’ll get a new one!” said another young voice, this time from a colt. “Just forget it ever happened!” the voice added. “Like hay I will!” a moment later filly amber ran out of one of the door, the look on her face making it clear that she was furious. Following close behind her was a younger Hot Head with clear signs of having been crying on his face. The two continued to run until they disappeared in another room, but the memory did not end well. “Get back here, Brute!” said the young Amber which was followed by the sound of a tussle. “Give back Hot Heads pin, he worked hard to earn that!” the young amber demanded. “Okay, okay!” said another voice “It’s in my bag, just let go of my ear!” the voice complained. Seconds later Amber and Hot Head walked out of the room, inside of the Pegasus mouth he held a Wonderbolts pin he won in a contest. “T-thanks Amber.” Said Hot Head. “And you!” Amber said turning back at Hot Head “I can’t fight your battles for you, you have to learn to defend yourself.” She said as she poked him on the chest. “B-but he was bigger than me…” “It’s not about who’s the biggest, it’s all about heart, and I know you’ve got plenty of it.” Said Amber as she poked Hot Head on the chest again. Hot Head looked back at Amber for another moment before whipping off the tears from his face. And with a confident look, he nodded. Just as the memory before it, this one faded away, just as Amber walked up to it. “Hey Hot Head, you and Brute still sparing partners?” she asked him. “Yup, he still can’t beat me.” Said Hot Head as he rubbed a hoof on his chest. “And you were so meek in your younger days.” Amber thought to herself, allowing Hot Head to gloat to himself. Looking down the hall, Amber saw that they were nearing their destination, the time was coming close. But before she could get any closer, another memory decided to surface before her. This time she could see both Lucky and Hot Head, both in their room, lying on separate beds, sniffling. Neither seemed to acknowledge anything else, not even each other, and they gave no response to the knock on the door frame. “You guys alright?” asked Amber as she stood by the door, casting a sympathetic look on both of the colts. But all she was given back was total silence from the two. With a sigh Amber walked into the room, making her way to Lucky’s bed, who was the closest to the door. As she climbed on to his bed she saw that he shifted slightly, turning his face so that she couldn’t see it. “Is this about what happened earlier?” she asked them, this time hearing a notable groan from Hot Head. “Come on guys, I know that must had stung but-“ “They said that we were too old, Amber!” said Hot Head as he shot up from his lying position on his bed. “They didn’t say that, they just said they were looking for somepony younger.” Amber tried to clarify, but it didn’t help. “What’s the difference…” said Hot Head “Every pony who comes here looking for someone to adopt are always looking for someone young. Lucky and I are almost ten now…every year we just keep getting older, and because of that we get overlooked.” Tears began to stream down Hot Heads cheeks with each word he said. The room fell silent again, neither Hot Head nor Lucky making a sound other than their attempts to suppress their sobbing. Amber could only watch them at first, it broke her heart to see them like this. Without saying a word, Amber hopped off of Lucky’s bed and made her way towards Hot Heads. When she climbed on she grabbed on to the colt and carried him off, much to his complaints. After reaching Lucky’s bed again, Amber tossed Hot Head on top of it and climbed on herself. She wanted them both to be close to her when next she spoke. “Listen, I know what it feels like, trust me,” Said Amber. “To be overlooked because you’re older than some of the others. It’s something that’ll sting badly, and it’s not something that you can forget.” “But you can’t let it bring you down,” said Amber as she placed a hoof on Hot Head and Lucky’s shoulders. “And you can’t give up, one day somepony will adopt the both of you.” She assured him. “How do you know…?” asked Lucky, finally looking up at her. “I just do.” As the memory faded away, Amber came to a full stop, Lucky and Hot Head nearly bumping into her as a result. “Amber?” asked Lucky as he wondered why she’s stopped walking. “I need you two to wait here.” Said Amber as she turned around to face them “I can handle this.” She told them. Luky and Hot Head share a short glance at one another before looking back, giving Amber a nod of their heads. “Good luck,” both colts said with a smile, Amber couldn’t resist smiling back before she continued her way down the hall. It wasn’t long until she reached the door she was aiming for, the office of the pony who ran the orphanage. With one final breath to prepare herself, Amber raised a hoof, and knocked on the door. “Come in!” Amber heard from inside, and she did just that. As the door opened allowing her to see the inside, she saw a mare standing behind the desk. Her name was Mrs. Green Bow, the pony who not only owned the orphanage, but was Amber’s foster mother up until the day when she finally turned eighteen. Green Bow hadn’t noticed Amber yet, her face locked on some paper work on her desk. “Mrs. Green?” said Amber as she walked inside. Green Bow recognized the voice immediately and turned her attention towards the door. “Amber?” she said as she looked up from her desk. She smiled when she realized that it was Amber, but then she looked confused. “It is you, but what are you doing here?” she asked “I thought you left for Canterlot?” “I almost did, Green, but when I got to the train station, I realized I couldn’t leave, not yet.” Said Amber as she walked up to the desk. Amber fell silent after that, rubbing her foreleg with her hoof as she tried to figure out how to say what she came to say. “Please, have a seat.” Green Bow said as she motioned to the chair on the other side of the desk. “What changed your mind about leaving?” she asked her. “The thing is, I still intend to go,” said Amber “This was a dream of mine that I’ve had for as long as I can remember. And now that it’s going to become a reality, I’m not going to pass it up.” She explained, but this only seemed to confuse Green Bow. “Then why did you come back?” she asked. Amber looked down for a moment as she tried to collect her thoughts, for some reason she felt that she needed to choose her words carefully. This wasn’t just some casual conversation, it was more than that, and she wanted Green Bow to know that. “This morning, when I was packing my bags, I tried to make sure I didn’t leave behind anything important. Even after I left and made my way to the train station I still made sure to double check all my bags.” Amber paused for a moment, letting out a small sigh “But when I reached the train station, and was almost about to board…I stopped. Because if knew that the moment I stepped inside that train, I would be leaving behind the two most important things in my life.” Green Bow stared at Amber confusedly at first, but as the meaning of what she was saying sunk in, it caused a light bulb to go off in her mind. “You don’t mean?” “Yeah,” Amber said with a nod of her head “I’m talking about Lucky and Hot Head.” And with that, it was finally out, her reason for coming back. A part of Green Bow wanted to be happy, she was always happy when something like this happened, but this time she couldn’t be, not right away. “You realize what you’re asking for, right?” asked Green Bow. “I do.” Amber said without hesitation. “This won’t be easy, Amber, you yourself are just starting to support yourself, can you really add to that?” Green asked. Amber knew why Green Bow was asking these questions, she’d heard her ask them before, she was ready to answer them. “I’ll make plenty in my new job, and there is enough space in my home for the two of them.” Said Amber. Green Bow already know about how much Ambers job paid, and the rent of her home was modest, even for Canterlot standards. In the years Green Bow has run the orphanage, she had seen many hopefuls sitting in that chair. But no matter how old or young, or how sure they were, she had never seen a look of confidence at the one Amber had now. But seeing it wasn’t enough, Green Bow wanted to hear it, straight from the mare’s mouth. “Amber, are you sure you’re ready for this kind of responsibility?” Amber paused for a moment after being asked. Her eyes darting to and fro as she pondered the question. Finally she looked directly at Green Bow, making sure their eyes met. “If you’d asked me that before, I would have said I didn’t know.” She began “But while I made my way here, I started to think back to when we were younger, and took a hard look at myself. I was always there for them, Mrs. Green, from teaching them how to read, to making sure they didn’t get into trouble, I always made sure to look out for them.” Amber paused again, but just to take in a breath. “They’re they only family I’ve ever known, and I know that they feel the same. And after so many years, after seeing them grow into who they are now, I’m not ready or willing to walk away from that, to leave them behind. Maybe it’s selfish of me, but I want to make this last for however many years as I can.” Green Bow couldn’t help but smile as she heard Ambers resolve with her own ears. She could feel her pride for the mare growing inside of her: “You’ve really grown, Amber.” Green Bow thought to herself. “Well then, we’ve got a lot of paper work to sort through.” Said Green Bow, causing Amber to smile in delight. “Shall we get started?” she asked. Amber had a hard time containing her glee, happily she nodded her head in agreement. “I’m ready.”