> I'm no Mother, right?
>  by Sense of Humor
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Discovery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------







Chapter 1: DISCOVERY


"But it's a seriously good book, I promise! " Twilight said between giggles and strengthened the opposing look of skepticism. "Drama, Action, Character building- All of it! Even a few hints of romance!"

Starlight smirked her most sarcastic smirk just for her teacher. "Was romance reeeeeally your last resort to make me read 'The Hobbit'?"

"Maybe?"

"Ha! The last thing I'd like to read about is romance, Sparkle. And I just can't get past the title anyways...The Hobbit...It's so weird." She quirked one of her eyebrows. "Just what IS a Hobbit anyways? Some kind of theif warlock...?"

"No! It's a mythical dwarfish pony!" Twilight responded defensively, as if the question had insulted her, and snorted. "What kind of theif would be named a Hobbit, anyways?! That's silly."

"That book is silly."

"Oh shut it, you." Huffing out a brief sigh, The Alicorn's ear flicked away a random gnat. "I'll bet Fluttershy's read the book."

"I'll be sure to ask her about that once I'm there. " Starlight sidestepped a few fillies chasing after a huge ball. She watched them with a small smile of interest before turning her attention back to the lavender princess beside her. "...Fillies are so energetic these days. I could barely walk to the carnival without feeling tuckered out afterwards."

Twilight nodded in agreement. "You're telling me! I was a blur when I was a filly, maybe faster than Rainbow Dash. Just a little ball of excitement and pigtails!"

"No kidding? I had pigtails as a kid myself...although, you probably knew that already."

"Yeah...Those were the days. Just a little mare having her own reading adventures with her best friends." Twilight looked as if she were reviewing memories, and good ones too. "My brother AND my mom."

"Your mom? What's she like? You never told me much abo-"

"Twilight, Dear!"

The two of them turned around at the sudden voice and spotted an older mare trotting over to them. The mare had a coat that was the lightest shade of grey imaginable, topped with a mane of white and purple that was styled similarly to Twilight's. Sky blue eyes joyfully focused in on the princess as she drew near and Twilight apparently recognized her.

"MOM!"

"Mom?" Starlight questioned, but by that point her question fell on deaf ears. She watched her teacher embrace the other mare in a tight hug, before pulling apart with eager grins sent at one another. The unicorn suddenly blinked, smiled and blushed. "Oh...this is your mom?"

"Yes! This is my mother!" Twilight sounded pretty excited to see her, not to mentioned looked excited. "What are you doing here by the way? Where's Dad? Did something happen to him?!"

"He's at home, peeling the paint off the walls in his sleep." The unicorn grinned in a friendly manner towards her daughter's student. "Oh, and this must be the Starlight you were telling me about, dear!"

"Yes, Mrs Sparkle?" Starlight nodded to confirm the theory. "That's me. I'm a little surpsied that she hasn't told me much about you."

Mrs Sparkle narrowed her eyes at Twilight, causing the lavender pony to cringe. "Mooom! I was gonna!"

"I'm certain you were, dear...Oh! I almost forgot! I wanted to give you something I bought for you just yesterday!"

She suddenly levitated a book in front of herself, presenting it proudly in front of the two in a flash. Starlight didn't recognize it by the title: 'Brazen Bronco', but she could tell from a side glance that the Alicorn recognized it by that alone. Her teacher dramatically gasped as her eyes teared up. "This was my favorite fillyhood book...I thought I lost it!"

"You did lose it!" Mrs Sparkle agreed as a matter o' factly. "This a new, updated version from the bookstore that's signed by the author himself! And it has a fee membership card that'll mail the other books of the series to you! It's the first of twelve!"

While Twilight burst into a frantic, gleeful thank you essay straight from the deepest parts of her mind, Starlight offered them a thoughtful smile. It was heartwarming to see the two family members interact so peacefully and wonderfully, as they didn't have a grudge against each other at all (which they probably didn't). The huge smiles they both gave one another slowly sparked a bit of envy within Glimmer's heart; envy that manifested from this familial relationship and it's peek at it's benefits. Without even meaning to, she compared them to her own past.

Just like with her father, her relationship with her mother had been limited towards only a few meager words exchanged from time to time. She often wondered as a foal if she really existed to them; all those times she came in with scratches and her mother would never bandage her up or console her when she cried- they were so distant from her that it was a wonder how she ate or had a bed in the first place. They were the ones that influenced her social life and caused Sunburst to be her only friend. In the end, it was her family that orchestrated her running away, right?

"Starlight?"

"Huh?!" She blinked rapidly at a worried looking Twilight and her worried looking mother.

"Are you alright, dear?" Mrs Sparkle tilted her head. "She was offering to buy you a snack before you left for your friend's house, but you were staring at the ground...a little gloomily, I might add."

Starlight weakly smiled and shook her head, turning to begin walking away from the two. "I-Im fine, Ma'am! Just caught up in my thoughts is all. Thanks Twilight, but I better get over there quickly. I'll see you later, I guess?"

"...yeah." Twilight sounded confused and concerned even as she walked off. "I'll see you later."



She was barely keeping herself from getting wet, even with the magic field she'd cast above her body to keep herself from being wet. The mare had to shake her head every four minutes or so just to clear her mane hair from her eyes, so that alone told her that her hairstyle would be done for a few more hours. Which was a shame, since she loved the hairstyle she had, parted on one side of her horn and curved a little.

The walk from Fluttershy's house was supposed to be fine, since it hardly ever rained there! Why was the weather terrible on the way back to Twilight's? The pony could catch a cold because of this dumb weather put together by a few Pegasi and she couldn't be angry at them about it. Starlight hissed through her teeth when her hoof thudded into a puddle of mud, and she tried scraping off the brown stuff as she went along to no avail. The stuff was like thick, melted chocolate for crying out loud.

"What rotten luck..." Starlight muttered under her breath and her walk slowed a little despite the obvious storm howling overhead. She was tired; too much so continue her quick pace home at least. The unicorn barely heard her hooves slap on the wet pavement thanks to the downpour masking the sounds and any other sounds that tried to reach her.



Starlight began to find herself walking out of the Everfree forest, down a dirt road cutting through the middle of a grassy field and approaching a crooked old tree on the side of the road. On the right side of the road, a wall of stones about as high as her back stood, swashed with each little droplet from the sky. She wished could just stop and stay under the leafy umbrella of the tree, where it looked all dry and comfortable. The pony suddenly paused her walk, staring under the tree intensely at some sort of small shape there. A timid step towards it was taken.

It was the body of a foal, curled up into a little ball.

The unicorn gasped audibly. From what she could tell, it was a turquoise coated infant pony somewhere just under the age of Applejack's little sister, and somehow a bit smaller. What was he or she doing out here in this type of weather?! Where was the foal's parents?! Such questions and many others raced through her mind frantically, leading a face contorted into pure panic.

She had to get it somewhere, maybe...no. She couldn't move out in a storm like this and was probably already freezing to death. She had to check and see if the poor thing was okay at least.

Starlight trotted under the tree's canopy until she stopped right before the clearly shivering body of the foal. She hesitated only for a moment or two, then crept over to the side of the infant. It looked like it didn't have any scratches on it, and turned out to be a Pegasus as well..a very cold Pegasus at that. There was no doubt that the cold was getting to it, but she didn't exactly have a blanket she could magically whip up. So, she settled for the next best idea: she flattened herself next to the foal and scooted closer, eventually pushing her warmer against the side of The foal.

The pegasus foal flicked it's head up at her instantly, peridot eyes widening in exhausted fear and it's small ears flattening against it's head. Starlight could tell from similarities in the foal's face and other foals that this was a female.

"Hey, Hey! It's okay!" Starlight cringed at the fearful look sent her way, but didn't move an inch. She didn't want to scare her off into the rain and kill her by accident, which was an outcome that seemed more and more likely as time passed. "I-I'm not going to hurt you! I'm not!"

The foal shuddered against the older pony. She was too afraid to move away, but also too afraid to be calm about the predicament. Starlight nervously looked down on her, and the pegasus looked up at her just as nervously. "I...uh...W-whats your name?"

There was no response, unless you counted a curious tilt of the head as a response.

"...Do..." Raising an eyebrow, Glimmer relaxed her shoulders. Even if she didn't look too much younger than Applebloom, perhaps she didn't know how to talk yet. "...c-can you understand m-me...?"

At first, she didn't get a reaction. But after several silent seconds, the foal nodded timidly.

"Okay. Good...Um...I-I'm gonna stay here with you...u-until the storm passes...is that alright with you?"

The foal's eyes widened at her statement; she was clearly surprised by Starlight. It was another half minute of silence until...was she smiling? Starlight narrowed her eyes and noticed the cautiously optimistic, grateful little curve in her lips. It was a start for her calming down at least, especially the shy nods.

The unicorn glanced up at the downpour and thought of something. "Do you have name you could...I don't know...somehow tell me?"

The foal frowned.

"I'll take that as a no."

The pony sighed, allowing the conversation to trail off into comfortable silence. She didn't look down for quite some time as she was preoccupied about judging when the storm would end and when it would be safe to head back again. The light weight of the little pony suddenly slackened against Starlight's ribs, causing her to look down in surprise. This unnamed infant was...somehow alseep.

That was a bit funny; with all this thunder and rain hitting the ground, you'd think that a little thing like her would be afraid. Instead she was quietly snoring in the midst of the storm, not shivering anymore and looking less afraid. Was it because of Starlight? The unicorn wasn't so sure. Still, If she HAD comforted the foal this much, then things were going off to a good start and it would be easier to take her to a hospital after the storm.



The unicorn had to carry the little pegasus on her back when the rains died away, because she was still deep in sleep. Perhaps it was a sign that she'd slept so little before being found under that tree, for who knows how long. She didn't weigh very much either, which had Starlight worrying that she hadn't eaten very much either. The walk to the hospital didn't take very long and soon she was explaining what had happened and the foal on her back as well.

They scooped the small thing up gently and assured the unicorn that they would do some health tests and examinations to see if she was alright. They told her that it would take a day to complete, and she nodded tiredly to acknowledge that news. Starlight was never aware of her worried stare at the foal during the whole talk, and no one else seemed to notice either. It was several minutes after they'd left that she finally departed from the hospital and made her way back to Twilight's castle.

The moment she opened the doors, Spike was standing there with a grin. "Hey! You're back!"

"Yep." Starlight agreed, stepping inside politely. From above, Twilight floated down.

"Hey! Are you okay? That storm was a real doozy!" The Alicorn exclaimed. "You're soaked, I see. "

"I'll get ya a towel!" Spike offered and ran off before anything else could be said.

"I'm okay. Just been a crazy afternoon is all." Starlight shrugged, and sat down to avoid tracking water spots all over the lobby. "You see, I was going past this huge tree on a dirt road, and there was this filly all alone under the tree, keeping dry I guess..."

Twilight's eyes widened. "Seriously?! What was she doing under there?"

"I dunno. She looked a little younger than Applebloom, so it was pretty confusing to not see any parents." Starlight shrugged. "I stayed with her and made sure that she got to a hospital after the storm. She didn't seem alright when I saw her, hence why I took her."

"Well, thank goodness you did that! Who's knows what would have happened to her if you hadn't!" Twilight smiled gratefully at her. "Maybe you describe her to me? I know a lot of the fillies around here, so it wouldn't be too hard to at least recognize a filly from Chererilee's school."

"Well, she's got this greenish blue...I mean, turquoise coat and light green eyes. "

"...ooookay...Hmm...uuuuuh...I don't recall there being any turquoise colored ponies around here." She responded with a shrug and a frown.

"Maybe you just forgot?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"I'm baaaack!" Spike scooted to a halt in front of Starlight and allowed her to take the warm fluffy towel of his claws. He turned excitedly towards Twilight. "Now we can continue making the cookies!"

"Oh! Right! " The Alicorn grinned towards her student again and gestured to the kitchen just behind the spiral staircase. "Spike and I were making a few batches of sugar cookies for the night! Did you wanna come?"

Starlight thoughtfully smiled. "You know what? That sounds like a buffet waiting to happen."

"I'm going to take that as a yes! Come on!"
> Page 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


-2-


Starlight was there the next day, almost the exact same time as yesterday. She felt that she should check on the progress of the filly, to make sure that she'd made it through okay. She was probably suffering the cold for hours before the older pony arrived. Maybe she had pneumonia that the doctors discovered, or frostbite? That last one was a stretch, but she was too nervous to consider it as such. The mare patiently circled the waiting room in silence, just until the doctor she'd seen yesterday entered with a clipboard in hoof. That wasn't good; clipboards were needed to write down more than one thing...

"Good afternoon Starlight! It was very nice to come and check up on your little friend since yesterday!" The doctor exclaimed, and she nodded in response. He looked down at the clipboard for a nanosecond. "How have you been?"

"Oh, I've been alright. H-How is she?"

"Quite fine. Although we were lucky you brought her in when you did: she was on the brink of developing pneumonia, poor thing. We reduced the chance of that greatly of course, and she woke up a few minutes after. "

"N-No other sicknesses?"

"not technically..."

Glimmer raised an eyebrow, happy with the information but eager to know more. "That's great..uh, did you find out who's filly she was, by any chance?"

The doctor shook his head. "Nope. There weren't any blood type matches to be found here, so she doesn't belong to anyone in ponyville. We're waiting on word from other hospitals in Canterlot and Manehatten and other towns."

"She didn't mention any family or anyone else she might have...been with?"

"She didn't mention anything. After an examination on her was complete, we realized that she's... Mute. She can't speak at all." Starlight gasped and he grimly nodded. "Yes, it's unfortunate. On the bright side, she's not completely mute. Natural sounds, such as laughing or groans can be produced."

"It's still terrible." She muttered quietly and almost guiltily, as if she had something to do with it. She didn't, but it didn't make things better. "That explains why she didn't say anything when I asked for her name."

"It's ironic; she asked for you."

"...I thought you said she couldn't talk?"

"She can't. But she is quite the artist. She drew several pictures of you and gestured to them, Ms Glimmer. I believe she wanted to see you again."

That was a bit touching even if they didn't really know each other. Then again, if she had her life saved by a mysterious pony, she'd want to see them again too. "Oh. I see...Where is she now?"

The Doctor smiled and turned to lead her through the doors. "In her room for the moment, occupied with her new drawing pad. Follow me."

She followed quietly, curiously and anxious to see what the little filly looked like now. She and the Doctor passed by several other doors on the way there, and most of them were filled with cranky looking old ponies with a lot of missing teeth. They came to a door in the middle of a hallway, which was soon opened for them to walk inside. Sitting up on a bed that pretty much dwarfed her was the little filly, turquoise coat and all. She looked up from her drawing pad as soon as they neared and offered the unicorn the largest grin known to Ponyville.

"Hi to you too." Starlight smiled good naturedly, but her smile fell apart when the filly unexpectedly leaned out of bed and hugged her tightly. A faint tint of red glowed in the mare's cheeks. "W-Woah! Uh...thanks?"

The foal managed to pick up the drawing pad with her tiny little mouth and present a picture of Starlight herself, competely drawn in crayon. Large blue words in the corner of the page spelled out: 'Thank You'!

"She's been working on it for a while now, in case you ever came back." The Doctor added from behind. "Which, by the way, you did."

Glimmer didn't know what to say to the kind gestures from the foal, and actually felt that she didn't deserve them some reason. She didn't believe herself to be this important... Even so, she wasn't going to turn down the kindness from a sweet little thing like her. She raised a hoof with a blushing smile and patted the filly on the head. "Aw, thanks you! You're a really sweet kid!"

Before much more time could pass with the happy smiles, the Doctor coughed to get her attention and gestured towards the door with his head. She offered one last, shy grin at the filly and followed him out of the door slowly. He waited for the door to close behind him for some reason, and looked at her seriously. "She could have died out there, alone by herself."

The statement slightly surprised her a little. "I'm...aware of that."

"Good...She's still a filly, and you know as well as I do that she's not fit to take care of herself here or anywhere else." The Doctor began. "Which is why...I'm asking you to consider taking care of her."

THAT statement surprised her enough to draw an uneasy laugh from her. "You...You're asking me to adopt her?"

"No! Not if you don't want to. But she does need a caretaker at the moment."

"...I...F-Forgive me if I sound blunt, but do you have any idea who I am?"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle's student."

"Exactly." Starlight frowned, passing to swallow. "I'm not saying I don't want to help her, but a job like mine is a very busy job. I have many things to do in a day and many different ponies to..to meet the expectations of."

"And yet..." He pointed out casually. "You took time to visit her. Why is that?"

Starlight, despite not wanting to, looked through the door's windows. The little foal was drawing again, still bearing that grin from before on her face. "...I just wanted to check on her...she seems like a nice filly. I'd hate to know that anything bad happened to her."

"You care about her well being. The main reason I'd like you to consider caretaking."

"B-But...there's an orphanage here! I've passed by it several times." Glimmer pointed out desperately to him. "She can't stay there? Until someone else takes her in?"

He sighed. "The adoption rate for the orphanage has dropped to numbers you wouldn't believe. They're packed with foals from everywhere and still dealing with new arrivals. It could be months and maybe even several years of juggling with different orphanages, when the problem could be solved much more quickly here."

She opened her mouth to protest, but knew that his argument held a lot of truth. She didn't want to take on such a large responsibility, but realized that it would have consequences if she didn't take action. That filly had obviously been abandoned beforehand, somewhat like Starlight's own past. She didn't want the filly to grow up the way she did, or be abandoned twice.

"Not to mention, she already seems to like you." Starlight realized that he was still talking to her. " And you with her."

"Right, right..." The unicorn rubbed her forehead tiredly and sighed her quietest. "I...I-I think I can try...?"

He smiled and nodded at her. "Four days! You can see how things go within that time. If you know that you don't or do like it, you can tell me before the end of the four days. Okay?"

"...Yeah. Okay."

"Alright. If you want, I can give you a list of names that you can give her?"



"Are you ready, 'Aqua Sprinkle'?"

The little pegasus waddled after her excitedly, holding the drawing pad tightly in her tiny mouth as they both exited the hospital. It was odd to Starlight for a pony to be called Sprinkle at all, but it was the only name the filly liked. And she did look like a sprinkle of aqua anyways, right? Best to be named after what you look like.

This afternoon kinda counted as the first day of her caretaking, and just as she feared: she didn't know what to do with her now that she had her. She didn't know if they should read a book, or if she should buy her a toy or play a game or anything else. It frustrated her to no end; if only her mother had actually given Starlight an experience, then maybe things wouldn't be so difficult now. Maybe she'd have a single, stinkin' clue as to what anypony remotely close to a mother would do here. Perhap-

"Mmmmph!"

Starlight turned around and noticed that Sprinkle had fallen face first into the ground and was flailing her hind legs in an attempt to get back up. "Oh dear. Here, let me help you up."

She used her snout to push her back onto her tiny little legs again. Aqua immediately resumed her speedy waddling after the unicorn, but her focus suddenly turned to something to the right. She made a few squealing sounds and gestured with her hoof to a familiar building not too far away: Sugarcube Corner.

"...er...you w-want to go to that cool looking place over there? I think they have ice cream!" Starlight offered helplessly. Sprinkle blinked in pure, adorable confusion. "You don't know what Ice cream is...? Huh. Well, you're about to know now. Come on!"

Starlight used her magic to levitate the filly up onto her back, and her tiny little wings flailed a little during this. Content with her seat, Sprinkle waved her hooves in the air. "...Um, Hang on tight! We're, uh, a-about to take off!"

Aqua only grinned brightly while her caretaker began to trot at an even pace down to the front doors of Sugarcube Corner, home of one her friends and the best sweets in Ponyville. She would undoubtedly take Starlight's news in an interesting manner and provide ice cream with no hesitation.

"OH MY GOSH! Starliiiight!" She heard Pinkie's voice about two seconds before the door was even opened fully, which was greatly confusing. The pink earth pony was standing there before her with one of her signature grins. "Wasn't expecting you at all! Come on in! How ya been?"

"I've been pretty good actually! " Glimmer grinned slightly. "How have you been?"

"I've been as happy as a cat at a sardine convention! Oooooh!" She took notice of Aqua Sprinkle on her back, who was hiding behind the unicorn's mane shyly. "Is this the itty bitty, teeny meeny, itsy bitsy filly you saved yesterday?"

"...yes. How did you know...?"

"Oh pfft! Twilight told me all about it! That was soooo nice of you, Starry!" Pinkie patted Sprinkle on her head, baring down on her with a cheesy grin. "I hope you feel happy, cutie! Because you've got Glimmer watching your back! And you're ON her back! Ha Ha!"

Aqua giggled a few times at the little joke, and Starlight smirked while shaking her head. "Very funny. I was going to ask for two ice cream cones? One regular sized for me and a baby sized for my little friend here. She's never tasted ice cream before."

"GASP! You've never tasted Icecream before?! I gotta fix this pronto!" The pony bounced off the ground and behind the counter harmlessly, before rummaging in a separate toom for half a minute. Soon, she came back out balancing two icecream cones in the 'palm' of her hoof like she'd practiced or something. "Here! Two ice cream cones on the house!"

"Oh Pinkie, you didn't have to! I would've paid for them!"

"Noooo need! Her first day here is free!" Pinkie somehow stretched her head over the counter to nuzzle the filly's nose, much to Sprinkle's amusement." So whatcha gonna do now?"

"Not too sure...Hmm." Starlight looked as if had an idea. Not an awful idea, just another idea. It might benefit her by the end of it too. "I think I'm going to head back to Twilight's now, actually. Get her accustomed to her temporary home."

"Temporary home?" Pinkie frowned.

"Oops...uh...Did I say Temporary?" Starlight nervously glanced at the confused face of the foal. "No, I meant just a home. Nothing else...I'll have to explain later, Pinkie."

Pinkie saluted her seriously...at least as seriously as she could. "Understood, ma'am! You two have a nice rest -of-your-daaaay!"



"So, my friend is...She's a very important pony here!" Starlight explained, and practically all of Sprinkle's attention was placed on her. "She's actually The Princess, so yeah. Big deal."

"Ooooooh!" She voiced with deep interest and a tilt of her head.

"Yep. This is where I live." Starlight pushed open the doors with a hoof and stalked inside the lobby. She heard Aqua's sounds of amazement from how big the place was, and smirked a little. The unicorn detected sounds coming from the meeting room and trotted inside after a few turns to find out what was going on. "Hey, Twilight I...WOAH!"

She had to duck to avoid being smacked in the head by a flying spike and the soaked mop in his claws. It didn't take her long to notice Twilight using her magic to Carey him around the room, watching as he swiped at the crystal walls with the mop. The way Spike was smiling, he apparently enjoyed flying around.

Eventually he was set down near Twilight and the two finally met Starlight at the room's entrance. "Hi Starlight! And hi to you too, little cutie!"

Aqua giggled nervously under the friendly gaze of the Alicorn princess and waved once or twice. Glimmer shrugged at her teacher. "Well, this is Aqua Sprinkle! I'll be taking care of her for the next four days at least."

"That's GREAT!" Twilight squealed excitedly, much to Starlight's surprise. The Princess coughed to cover it up. "I mean, yeah! That's amazing. Good for both of you."

"Hey! She's a pegasus!" Spike pointed out jokingly. "Ya gonna teach her to fly?"

The unicorn rolled her eyes while smirking. "Sounds like a nice idea, but I think I'll pass on it."

"It's nice she'll be staying for a few days. I think I can have a room arranged for her, what with all the space in this castle." Twilight offered politely, then gasped. "Saaay. Maybe she could visit Applebloom or Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle! Play with them a little?"

"Maybe..." Starlight placed Sprinkle on the floor in front Spike and grinned cheesily. "Why don't you get to know Spike a little bit more, hmm?"

She raced to another corner of the room and gestured for her teacher to join her. Twilight sent her a quizzical look the whole seven trots over. "Uh, are things going alright for you today? Why do you want to talk to me over here?"

"I just didn't want her overhearing." Starlight glanced behind the Alicorn. Spike was doing some sort of disappearing claw trick to entertain Aqua Sprinkle. "See, there's a problem here with this whole caretaking thing...I don't have a clue how to do any caretaking! No idea, I tell you!"

"Um, Okay? You don't have any experience taking care of fillies? You don't remember your mom...oh...uh, sorry about that. I forgot for a moment that you..."

"Yes, I understand...Anyways, I'm too inexperienced for a job like this. What am I supposed to do with her?" She frowned in an exhausted manner. "It's the question like that...that makes me wonder if you have a book or two on caretaking? Even babysitting books would be nice!"

A lavender hoof tapped a lavender chin in thought. "Well, I know I've got a few books in the library under those kinds of titles. Maybe we can pick out a small number of them for you to look through?"

"*sigh*...Yes...That'd be nice."

She felt Twilight place a hoof on her shoulder, and she looked up to see an encouraging smile. "It's okay! You'll find out soon that this isn't as hard as it looks and it's really fun too! Trust me, if you think this'll be tough then you haven't been told about Spike and I."

"I heard that!"

The two ponies held in soft giggles. Well, almost.



Starlight finally pulled the small blanket over the foal's shoulders, watching as she snuggled into the fluffy blanket without hesitation. The moon illuminated the dark room with a calm blue glow  and cast nonthreatening shadows from the bed that Aqua Sprinkle was nestled in. Ironically, her room was right next to Starlight's in case the unicorn would be needed. She wasn't sure if she would knock on the wall to get her attention or just walk into Starlight's room, but she pushed those questions out of her head. She wouldn't need anything; she looked almost asleep as it was.

"Well, I can see you're snuggled in pretty nicely!" She offered as warmly as she could, stroking the dark blue mane of her 'child'. "And pretty soon I'm gonna do the same! "

Sleepily, Aqua smiled.

"...okay then! Um, Goodnight. I hope you have pleasant dreams." Starlight stated before turning to walk off. A tiny hoof on her shoulder stopped her and directed her back to the filly. She waved in a timid manner while yawning loudly; Glimmer had a pretty good feeling that her all too adorable gestures wished her a good night too. 

Her heart felt warm again, like when the filly had slept against her just yesterday. Starlight wasn't very sure what this warm feeling in her heart was or why she was experiencing it so much with Aqua Sprinkle, but she knew one thing for certain: she liked the feeling. It made her feel pretty good about herself, as If she were important.

She also knew that Aqua was starting to grow on her.
> Page 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


-3-


Morning came fast and with it, sunlight rays that somehow managed to blast through her window drapes and onto her eyelid. She blinked and groaned in protest of the stupid light, trying in vain to go back to sleep after covering her eyes with an arm. Once a good ten minutes had passed, she slowly let her arm fall and blinked blearily. As evidenced, last night hadn't brought her much sleep.

It wasn't because of Aqua so much, but more of a random headache that had pressed on for much of her night. It one point it was pounding pain that had her wincing and turning about under her covers. Now it was mysteriously gone and all that was left was a sleep  deprived mare. She reluctantly got out of bed and stood in front of her dresser to view herself in front of the mirror.

Her hair looked something akin to a mishappen porcupine with severe mange, tufts and strands going I'm every direction of Equestrian and then some. Bags hung limply under her tired eyes and her mouth was drawn into a grim looking line. The word 'Natural beauty' could sum it all up of course, but Starlight wouldn't be satisfied with it. She levitated a brush and decided to get to work on her hair at least, since it was the worst.

After that bit of fun, she trotted out her room and immediately turned the nextdoor room's door to open it...only, it was already open. She peeked inside and gasped: there was no filly in the unmade bed. Swallowing, the unicorn turned and trotted a little faster towards the stairs.

"Aqua? Aaaaqua?" Starlight coughed slightly; it was a weird name to be saying just after waking up. "Hey! Where are you? Aqua?"

It didn't take very long for her to get to the bottom of the stairs and Aqua revealed herself in a friendly, calm greeting just as she was about to pass under the second floor.


"RAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

In the middle of making a soprano mouse impression, Starlight fell onto her back from the sudden leap in her chest. A small, familiar body lept from the balcony railing and within seconds landed softly enough on the unicorn's belly. Aqua sat up in an instant and presented a practiced grin filled with pearly teeth.

"That," Starlight's eyes narrowed. "Was not funny."

"Teeheehee!" Sprinkle snickered into her hoof and caused her caretaker to roll her eyes sarcastically. Then she hugged the bigger pony tightly for a few moments, obviously giving a physical greeting.

Starlight sat up slowly, allowing the filly to slide off harmlessly. "Good morning to you too. I was just about to make breakfast, but you went and scared me! That was mean."

Aqua shook her head.

"Yuh-huh."

She shook her head again.

"Yuh-huh." Starlight finished playfully and began to lead her into the kitchen. "But lucky for you, I'm forgiving!"

Once Aqua giggled again, it sparked a small smile from Starlight. Perhaps things weren't going to be as hard as she originally thought between them? In any case, she had three more days to decide on that one. Speaking of decisions, a note on the oven described that some decisions had been made for her previously:

Dear Starlight,

Hope you have a great day with little Aqua! Spike and I are gonna be handling your problems for the day! You should visit the other girls or parts of ponyville to show her around!

One your best Pals, Twilight Sparkle

P.S., that book on the counter made my mouth water. I hope Aqua Sprinkle likes what's in it!

Starlight raised an eyebrow as she finished reading the note, noticing a slightly thin hardcover book sitting on the counter not far away. It read: 'Breakfast meals that your young ones will love'.

"A bad, cliche title maybe..." She shrugged and briefly glanced at Aqua waddling up to her. "I guess you'll be eating whatever's in this book. I just hope we have the ingredients for anything in here."

And I hope everything tastes like Ice Cream!

The sentence was exclaimed within her head somehow, she felt the light vibration in her brain and the slight echo that came with the strange voice. She shrieked in surprise and lept around to find the source of the voice but aside from Sprinkle, there was nopony there to have made that statement. But that was impossible: someone would have to be really close for it sound like they were talking in her head.

Starlight frowned, confused and a little worried during her second glance at the confused filly. "You heard that voice, right? Did you see anypony in the room?"

Aqua Sprinkle blinked a few times. Noooo, I've been here with you the whole time. Remember?

"AAAAAAAUGH!" Starlight schreeched again, flinging herself away from the filly thanks to reflexes. She didn't have much experience with suddenly strange things happening (especially this) but whenever something sudden did happen, she was quick to get out of the way. " YOU'RE TALKING IN MY HEAD!"

Wow, really? That's cool! Auqa started to walked forward towards her. Can you hear my thoughts too? What kind of animal am I thinking about right now?

"NO!" She grabbed the nearest object and held in front of herself with both hooves, scooting back as quick as a frantic flash. "YOU KEEP AWAY FROM ME, YOU...uh...YOU!"

The filly sent her an unimpressed look. Or else you'll attack me with a napkin?

Starlight stared pitifully at her weapon of choice, before returning her attention to the pegasus."Stop doing that, it's weird!"

Sorry! Sorry! I didn't mean to!

"You're still doing it!"



I'm not trying to!

Starlight half groaned and half sighed. "How are you doing that, anyway?! You're not supposed to be able to talk up here!"


I dunno... Aqua Sprinkle fiddled with her hoof nervously. I've been thinking all kinds a'stuff 'fore I got here...so I don't know why you can hear me now instead of 'fore.

"That makes two of us..." The unicorn agreed and got up carefully, eyeing the filly along the way. She wasn't very used to this new development, but she'd seen weirder things...most of which she had caused. " How long have you...done this?"


I dunno...I'm only nine. I don't remember anything weird like this happening before...

Starlight eventually managed to stand near the oven again, looking down on her. "Do you remember how you got under that tree?"

Sprinkle's shoulders sank in disappointment. No...All I remember was waking up and seeing you.

"Then...How do you know what words to say? Grammar and all that?"

She shrugged pitifully as a response. The gesture came just before Starlight hesitantly sat next to the smaller pony and sighed aloud. She felt that she'd asked too many questions and was probably embarrassing Aqua in some way. "...I'm sorry about the reaction I had to...you know. It's just...very unusual to have someone talking in your head. Sure, I've had a few strange adventures and all, but this a new kind of strange. You do understand, right?"

She nodded slowly to confirm it.

"And I didn't make you sad by accident? You're alright?"

Yes, Mommy...

"That's great! I,uh, guess I'll get back to..." Starlight's cheeks glowed a bit red. "Wait, did you just call me 'Mommy'?"

Uhuh! Cuz yur my Mommy! Aqua exclaimed through an innocently adorable grin.

"Oh no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no noooo...I am not your Mother. Nuh uh. No way."

But yur taking care of me! I heard so! And yur a girl!

"Well, that's all true...but I haven't ado...I haven't taken you here in an official way, so I'm not your actual mother!" Starlight nervously smirked. " Just a caretaker, okay?"

Okay Mommy!



"...You know what? I think I'm gonna make you some blueberry pancakes."



The Applefarm stood high up even as the distance was growing shorter with each step. The two of them had decided to visit Applejack and her family after Starlight suggested it, mostly after she realized that new guests to the Applefarm got free food samplings. Not to mention Applebloom would most likely be there for the weekend and they might be good friends...if they got past the speech issue. In fact, Starlight was currently discussing things with the filly now. "So yeah, don't do any head-talking if it's possible for them to hear it. "

She furrowed her brow adorably. Why?

"Because if we give Applejack a heart attack, then it wouldn't be very nice. I'll explain that you, er, can't talk. Like the Doctor said and maybe later, when all my friends are around I'll explain your unique ability."

Why can't I talk? Aqua Sprinkle questioned and stopped walking, causing Starlight turn and hesitantly sit in front of her. I try to a lot...but nothing comes out. It's like it's trapped. But why?

"...Life's just like that sometimes. You can't explain why something happens," Starlight offered in the most sympathetic way she could manage. "It just does. Maybe you'll get better when you're older...or maybe really soon."

The child shrugged and began to walk again, which signaled her to do the same thing . I really hope I can talk someday...

"Me and you both." Starlight smirked softly. "I think I'd like you better moving your mouth than your mind...No offense."

"Teeheehee!" Sprinkle's laugh trailed off into silence that wasn't awkward, the best kind, just as they walked under the sign holding the title of the many acres. Who better to coincidentally be waiting for them in front of the barn than Applejack herself, leather hat and all. Almost as usual, she had a straw between her teeth just like those old western movie characters.

"Howdy y'all! Ain't you a sight for sore eyes!" Applejack beamed proudly. "And ya brought a lil somepony new!"

Aqua was surprisingly not shy in greeting Applejack, and showed this by waving enthusiastically at her. The country mare still grinned, but was obviously a bit confused about her not speaking. When she looked up at Starlight, the unicorn briefly stated: "I-I'll explain later."

Applejack shrugged it off. "Well, y'all have good timin'- comin' over here when ya did! There's a few hay bales I need to get up on the indoor balcony as fast as possible, an' I could use her help!"

Before any response could even be thought up, a small yellow filly with red hair screeched to a halt next to the orange earth pony. "I finished picking up th' leaves, Sis! Now let's go!"

"Not yet, Applebloom!" She explained. "I still gotta pick up the hay bales! But it won't take long...You remember Starlight Glimmer, raght?"

"Howdy Ma'am!" Applebloom greeted.

"Hello!"

"She's taking care of this here filly for now, until things get sorted out an' all!" Applejack finished by gesturing to the opposite filly majestically. "Name's Aqua Sprinkle, I think."

"Howdy, Aqua! Nice ta meet you!" Her little sister introduced herself happily. "I'm Applebloom!"

Starlight cringed from the awkward silence and hoofshakes that followed. "Actually, she's...got a condition, Applebloom. She can't really talk. It's something she'll most likely grow out of, though."

"Oh. Okay!" Applebloom didn't look deterred by this news in the slightest. If she really didn't judge ponies this way, then Starlight was even more thankful that these two fillies met. "That's alright!"

Applejack looked as if she remembered something important and looked down st her sister. "I just remembered! Since she's new to ponyville, she gets the free food sampling! Why don't you take her down 'Edible Lane'?"

"I still think we should have called it 'Appleville'." Applebloom muttered under her breath and gestured for her new friend to follow her. "Come on! It's inside the house!"

With one last look back at her caretaker, Aqua Sprinkle galloped after her towards the Apple home. Pretty soon, Starlight was effortlessly stacking the hay bales around the top of the inner barn as requested and Applejack 'supervised' the whole thing. "Sooo, I think it's pretty nice that yer adopting that cute little kid."

"I'm not really adopting her. I'm still sorting things out right now, so...I'm just taking care of her."

"Sure ya are."

Starlight paused to look at her friends confident smirk and rolled her eyes. "I'm going to ignore that and ask a few questions while I'm here...How was handling Applebloom like?"

The orange grin fell. "Beg yer pardon?"

"Y'know, How was raising up Applebloom like? Was of difficult, was it easy? Did things go wrong?" She questioned carefully, since a hay bale had come close to falling off. "I'd like to hear from personally. It might help me out here."

"Well...I'm not gonna say it was easy. There was a lot of work put into making sure she never got sick, or being taught right from wrong and all that." Applejack shrugged. "But it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. For every argument that eventually stirs between us, there's more moments where we both have a good laugh. She was always interested in learning, so teaching her was easy. All me or Big Mac needed was patience."

"Is that what it takes to be a...Mother?"

"Well, I'm no Mother of Applebloom. Let her tell ya, and maybe I am. Though in truth, I suppose I'm closest thing to a mother right about now. So yeah. Patience, I'd say!"

"Huh." Starlight considered asking about Applejack's mother and if she remembered anything vital that could help her. But she slowly refused the idea: she always had a feeling that something awful had happened in the Apple past, and digging up those memories would be bad. "Patience..."

"...I know yer stressing about this 'caretaking' thing and if you're actually going to do things right or not, cuz you don't know a thing about mothers." Applejack placed a gentle hoof on the unicorn's shoulder. "But don't worry! It's not as hard as you reckon it is."

"*sigh*...If you say so." She plopped the last bale on the last space left available to her and turned to Applejack. "How is BigMac anyways? Has he forgiven me for the whole 'Motormouth issue'?"

"He says the next time he sees you he's going to pour liquid rubber on yer horn."

"...I'll take that as a maybe!" Starlight grinned hopefully and started towards the barn's entrance. "Whatcha gonna do now?"

"Applebloom really wants me ta take her to this fancy carnival in Ponyville hosted near the theater. Supposed to be all kinda food and games and rides and entertainment stuff. " The earth pony explained, aloof in her sentences.

"That was today?!Oh, I feel simply awful!" Starlight asked in mock horror. "Must've slipped my mind, what with everything I've been thinking about!"

"You wanted to go too?"

"Uh-YES! I haven't been to a carnival in years! This one has some totally cool animal attractions and this new thing called funnel cake! I heard that the theater's involved in it too, and is playing this new movie called 'Frozen'."

"Oh yeeeeah, that one with Adele Nazeem?" Applejack trick questioned. "Rarity told me it wuz a pretty good movie. Y'know, y'all can come along if ya want! It won't cost us too many bits."

"Are you sure?"

"Positively!"



The carnival was about as lively and action packed as one would expect, right down to the last random clown on a huge unicycle. Thanks to the big open space in downtown ponyville, the creators of the carnival had more than enough space for the elephant rides and the mechanical ones that circled a radius of twelve feet. They had entire aisles of popcorn carts, cotton candy makers and grills for hayburgers or oatdogs. It was a day of fun just ready for the taking.

And they started it out with a line-long wait to get face painting.

Starlight wouldn't have had a problem with it if it weren't for the fact that it was an hour long and her legs were aching. Things would be great if she could at least sit down for a minute or two, instead of break her leg bones. She glanced at Applejack beside her, and then at the two fillies just in front of her. "You girls sure you don't want to try something else? The ride lines are smaller..."

"No thanks! "

Yeah! We're almost near the front anyways!

"Okay then." Starlight relented reluctantly, and waited another thirty minutes to finally get to the front of the line. It took five minutes, but Applebloom eventually got a raccoon styled face and Aqua got a giant butterfly on her face. "You girls look amazing with those styles!"

While Applebloom beamed, Aqua responded with: Thanks, Mommy! Do you want one?

"No thanks. I'll be fine looking the way I usually do." Starlight told her politely, much to the confusion of the earth ponies. She coughed to cover it up. "Um, what are we going to do next?"

"Well, I wanted to take Aqua on a few of the rides and maybe try a few of those oatdogs!" Applebloom explained, then turned to her sister worriedly. "They're not made of real dogs, right?"

"Heh heh! Nope!"

"Phew!" She wiped imaginary sweat from her forehead. "Winona would never forgive me!"

"Be careful, please." Starlight instructed cautiously, to the both of them before they could scamper off. "Once you're finished, just meet us at the Theater. We'll watch a movie for a while. Applejack and I can see what it's like riding an elephant."

"Like a big bloated leather seat, maybe!" Applejack snickered to herself.

"We'll be careful, ma'am! And have fun at the same time!" Applebloom reassured her and led Aqua Sprinkle away to a ride involving a loop. Starlight would have found the time to look after them in a worried way if weren't for her orange pal shoving her in the side with an elbow.

"What happened to me saying 'no stressing'? They'll be fine."

"Hmmph. Well I won't. You could've broken my rib there!" Starlight groaned and turned to face her, her peripheral vision catching something dodging behind the corner of a building. She peered in that direction a bit more closely, but she didn't spot anypony there. Maybe it was a trick of the light? "If I have to go to the hospital..."

"I didn't shove ya that hard ya sissy! And don't try ta change the' subject either. Today is a day for you ta relax! And yer gunna do it!" Applejack smirked and pointed her hoof at the grey skinned pachyderms in a nearby pen. "Now get yer keister on wonna those, so I kin laugh when ya fall off!"

Starlight smiled right back, but reluctantly began her trip towards the short line. "Best Friend Ever."



"...HERE I STAAAAAAAAAND!" Everypony watched the screen in awe. The fictional Alicorn's wings gradually came to her sides as the music around her bellowed in time with her well sung declaration. "IN THE LIII~IIGHT OF DAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!"

Elsa took one final step, feeling as proud, confident and more free than ever before.

"Let the storm RAGE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~OOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!"The pony quieted down to the last verse of the song. " The cold never bothered me anyway."

Applejack blinked a few times, turning to look at Starlight. "Woah."

"Yeah..." She didn't look away for quite some time. "Adele Nazeem is really good."

The slackjawed, wide eyed faces of Applebloom and Aqua Sprinkle seemed to agree with that. Two hours had passed since everyone had their introduction to the carnival; which was spent to the fullest. Rides that went as fast as lightning were enjoyed(and a bit feared), animal shows were watched eagerly and food had been eaten...Applejack unfortunately ate one too many funnel cakes before a ride and suffered the consequences much later. Now they were thirty or so minutes through the surprisingly good movie, munching on the popcorn box that was passed around and becoming entranced by the screen. Well, almost entranced.

Starlight had felt a little strange since before riding the elephant, specifically when she saw that figure hide behind the wall. Ever since that, she'd received a strange sense of uneasiness; she felt that eyes were always watching her from afar and coldly calculating some plan. But every time she looked around to find those eyes, she was met with empty space or too many suspects. Starlight couldn't ignore the feeling either because it made her heart race too much for her to be calm about it.

Starlight looked at the seat in front of her, where Aqua was and reviewed a theory she'd been thinking over for some time. The unicorn swallowed and thought a sentence within her mind. Can you hear me Aqua...?

The filly's ear twitched, but noting happened for a long time. ...Mommy? Am I hearing your thoughts too? That's so cool!


Um yes, yes it is. Starlight agreed hastily. I need to ask you something...Did you see anything unusual before we came in here?

Uh...No...Wait! Maybe. I thought I saw someone watching me a few times earlier, but I didn't see anyone after the...fourth time that I spotted them. Did you see somepony?

Once before, Yes...

I hope they aren't mean. The filly's ears drooped a little.

Hmm? Starlight frowned.

Whoever's been watching us. I hope they aren't mean.

A frown settled with Starlight as Aqua refocused her attention on the screen. She didn't like that the little thing had been worried thanks to this mysterious figure one bit. She was determined to make sure that her 'child' regained her sense of security because her personality thus far had been very enjoyable, in some ways adorable too. So whoever had sucessfuly dampened her spirit the tiniest bit had now earned the tiniest bit of her anger. She was the one who volunteered, more or less, to take care of Aqua and protect her. This figure was possibly more interested in Aqua due to her having spotted them more than once. 

But if they wanted her, they would have to go through Starlight Glimmer to do it.

> Page 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------





"You're back!" Starlight exclaimed when she spotted Twilight and Spike in the library. The darkness of the closing night and rain clouds made the alicorn and dragon use candles to illuminate the room. She neared the two and actually noticed that Spike was sitting against Twilight with his eyes shut.

"Shh. " The princess politely shushed with a smile, her eyes never leaving the book in front of her. "He's all tuckered out from work today."

Starlight swallowed in guilt; that was mainly her fault. "Oh. Right..."

"How was your day?" She whispered. The book closed slowly and Spike was gently levitated onto her back, snoring aloud the whole time. Once her student assured her that it was great, she nodded. "Did you visit that new carnival in town?"

"Yes we did. I liked it a lot, and I think Aqua did too." Was the response. "I let her walk up the stairs...she was half asleep by the time we got here. "

"She and Spike have something in common...Speaking of common, did any bonding happen?"

"...I-It didn't feel too much like it. Maybe for her." Starlight half heartedly shrugged and sat down. Twilight offered a sympathetic smile, but nothing else. Could she even think of anything to help with her doubts? "But we weren't exactly around each other all the time of course...Anyways, are you off to bed?"

"Yep. After I tuck in Spike. I hope you have a good night's sleep." Twilight declared and soon trotted out of the library, making distinct sounds as she traveled up the stairs too. Starlight followed slowly, her thoughts slowing down her hoof movements.

Where did the bonding come in? She pushed aside the question of she wanted to bond or not because she feared that it would take an eternity to figure out the answer to such a question. She just wanted to know how it worked; Did it come during sad times instead of rimes of fun? Was it earned with toys or with love? Did it feel good or did it feel bad?

The pony barely registered the vibrating boom of thunder from the rainclouds, or the random sounds of raindrops hitting the castle at it's great speeds. The temperature of the entire place soon dropped, and that's when she noticed the change in weather. Another cold night, or so it looked like to her.

Starlight was just about to walk past Aqua's door when a crackling boom of thunder made her heart leap in her chest. The door muffled a sound that was distinctly whimpering, and the unicorn immediately turned to look at it. She didn't need to hear the heart wrenching sound to know who made it; her hoof managed to twist the doorknob and allow her to enter the room.

Looking straight at the bed, she didn't see a filly, but instead a hump under the thick blankets. The hump shuddered occasionally in confused fright, and shrieked when another blast of thunder shook the room.

Starlight pouted deeply, her eyes sadly gazing down at the bulge before using a hoof to peel back the blanket. The bulge stiffened at the movement until it was revealed to be an embarrassed, wide eyed filly. "Aqua...Are you okay?"

She swallowed and pretended to look around. Who, me? Of course! Did that thunder wake you up by accident?

"I was thinking that you were woken up." Starlight told her.

Huh? N-No way! I was sleeping just fine.

The room rattled with a louder clap of thunder and the next thing Starlight felt was a small body clinging helplessly to her foreleg. Aqua sighed and didn't meet her gaze for quite some time, instead choosing to try and calm her breaths.

"Hey...It's okay..." Starlight reassured her and slowly nudged the filly's head with her nose. The little girl reluctantly blinked up at her with liquid eyes and a small frown. "...there's no need to be afraid of a thunder storm.

Aqua sniffled as quiet as whisper. I know...but I can't...help it...

When she eventually relinquished the hold on her leg, the unicorn decided to act on a small idea that she had. She began to walk out of her room, gesturing with her head for the filly to follow her. They both wound in Starlight's room, whom of which slowly climbed into her bed and onto only one side of it. She smiled encouragingly and patted the empty side. "I don't know if it'll help...but you can sleep here for tonight if you want."

Aqua's features lit up with a bit of happiness; she scrambled onto the bed like a kitten trying to climb up to a higher platform and slowly rested her body on the bigger mattress. The unicorn pulled the covers over them just as another jolt of thunder made the filly squeak and snuggle into her caretaker's body swiftly. Starlight gasped from the sudden contact because the bed was ice cold, and yet her child was radiating warmth like a fire. It wasn't bad at all, but it was a little odd.

"Don't worry...Thunder can't hurt you at all..." The older pony explained after a while. "It's just sound and...well, sound. It won't hurt you though..."

Aqua's peridot orbs trustingly stared up at her. ...P-Promise?

"I promise. " Starlight nodded, agreeing to the promise almost instantly. Aqua didn't smile at the relieving statement but she did calm down completely. The tenseness in her body noticeably fell and relaxed, although the rumbles occasionally made her flinch. They stayed like that for a while, quietly relaxed and listening to the sound of rain. The room was almost completely pitch black with a hint of blue in it.

I can't wait till I'm big like you...Sprinkle yawned adorably, and Starlight bit back a small smile. Then I won't be afraid of anything.

"Being big doesn't always make you brave. "She shifted a little, making out the filly's face in the darkness. "...I'm not Brave."

Of course you are! You never look scared...What are you scared of?

Starlight huffed out a laugh; a tired and ashamed laugh. "...this. Me mostly...I-I don't know if I'm the best pony to be taking care of you. There's probably hundreds of...of other ponies who are better than I could ever be..."

There was silence, and she thought that the filly had fallen asleep. Slowly, Aqua's head pressed lightly against the mare's beating heart. Starlight could feel the smile the filly had radiating off of her. But they'd never be like you...

The unicorn didn't know what to say to that, but she knew that she couldn't argue against her. Her voice had the tone of those who couldn't ever change their minds; in her mind she was best of them all. Nothing would apparently change such thoughts.

Aqua Sprinkle tiredly sighed, evidencing that sleep was taking her. I love you, Mommy...

Starlight choked for the briefest of moments when those words echoed in her mind. Even though she couldn't really see her, the mare peered down at the sleeping filly with a depressed frown. She would have questioned internally if she deserved this filly's love or if she deserved for her to look up to Starlight; She would have questioned just how much she was impacting Aqua's life. But she was too tired to question herself any more, too drowsy to think about it.

Starlight's eyelids drifted shut. "...I...love you t...too..."
> Chapter 2- Darkness whispers in your ear
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------





Chapter 2- Dark Memories you don't Recall


The absence of Aqua Sprinkle eventually woke her up.

The unicorn had shifted her arm slightly and noticed that it didn't bump into any small bodies, rather her other arm. She blinked groggily from under the blankets, but managed to look towards the door. It was partially open. She'd left again? What kind of filly would love getting up so early? Even a rooster would be confused.

She hadn't moved too much sit up when the filly in question suddenly waddled into the room wordlessly, giant liquid eyes brightening at the sight of her surrogate. A big blue tray was just barely held up in her tiny lips, and her neck was straining to balance the contents of the tray: eggs, toast, buttermilk pancakes with fresh syrup and Applesauce. The filly managed to scoot the tray onto the bed carefully, allowing Starlight to see the adorable smile Aqua had for her.

Good Morning, Mommy. Starlight encountered a smile this time, rather than the usual feeling of Awkwardness. A good sign for the day. I've made you toast and pancakes and cheesy eggs and uh, that's it...Well, I didn't really make all this. Auntie Twilight helped me!

"Auntie Twilight?" She stifled a small giggle at her words because it was just ironic. Her teacher turned into her sister all of a sudden, by the way the filly had called her. "I see. I also see that you two make quite the cooks! This looks absolutely delicious!"

Aqua Sprinkle looked as if she couldn't be anymore happy about that statement. Starlight mulled over the absolute kindness of the filly that she'd seen in the last few days. She honestly expected nothing but mischief when she was given the notion of caretaking the filly, but there'd been very little mischief from her at all. It could have been because Aqua had decided that she'd been abandoned under that tree by parents she didn't even remember, and that those parents did that because she was mean to them.

Her brow furrowed at the thought. Even if that were true, what kind of ponies would be heartless enough to drop their child under a tree in the middle of a storm no matter what she'd done? She didn't want such a sweet, innocent filly to feel guilty over something that potentially wasn't her fault. Not someone as special as her.

Is something wrong? Aqua's ears were starting to lower against her head in worry. You're kinda getting that pouty look you make when you're sad...

"I'm not sad, I've just been thinking too much. Way too much to be honest...You remember what I said to you last night? Right?"

Aqua slightly shrugged, and the unicorn remembered that she'd fallen asleep just before she could hear the words.

"Well...I said that...I-I love you. And I do love you, very much so! What pony couldn't love an adorable little thing like you?" Starlight asked rhetorically, while the filly blushed a little. "I've been hesitant in the past because...b-because my mother wasn't exactly there for me..."

Her eyes widened as if it were the most shocking thing in the world, and her gasp could've been heard downstairs if anypony was there to hear it.

"Yes, she wasn't. She wasn't there for me when I was your age and...I was worrying that without any experience with my mother, I'd end up making you like me." Starlight explained whilst gesturing to herself with a hoof. She swallowed and continued. "And I've got a seriously bad past and...th-the point is, I see now that if I keep up this hesitation then it'll end up...l-lets just say you wouldn't like it."

The filly's face was expressionless now, which worried Starlight as usual. This didn't stop her from finishing. "So...What I'm saying is...I've decided to a-adopt you. Officially."

It would have been an incredible sight were it not for the fact that this is a story and not a movie. In one moment, Aqua Sprinkle was processing the news far faster than normal and in the next moment Starlight was being strangled by the arms of a very small pony. She fell back against the wall, but the filly didn't let up in her assault.

Your'ereallygoingtoadoptmeohmygoshthisisoawesomeandcoolandawesomeipromiseillbegoodandillneverfightwithyouandwellhavefundrawingandmakingcoolmasksandauntietwilightwillbesohappytohearthis...Mommy?

Starlight gasped for air when the filly let go, wheezing as she neared normal lung capacity. "I'm..happy that you're... Excited."

Aqua nodded as if her life depended on it. Wow! And I get to live here with you?!

"Of course! I'm not gonna have my daughter sleep too far away from me."

Daughter?! I like it! I'm a daughter! I'm a daughter! I'm a daughter!

Starlight smiled warmly at her new (and currently only) daughter, while the funky new dance 'I'm a daughter' was born on that bed...

And promptly spilled evey breakfast item on her blankets.



Sorry about your bed, Mommy.

"No, you were excited. You couldn't help yourself." Starlight smirked. The bed was a mess now, but she needed a change of sheets anyways. Just purple? Really? It simply had to have some periwinkle in it. "And you didn't get hurt at least."

Aqua trailed off into silent agreement, but the silence was short-lived. Where're we going again?

"You're going to Sweet Apple Acres again, so you can play with Applebloom for a while. Her family is going to watch you while I do some paperwork that'll officially make you my new family member." Starlight playfully poked her daughter's neck, and the filly giggled loudly. "It won't take long, believe me."

The pegasus filly eventually looked up in wonder at the sight of other, fully grown Pegasi that did cloud movements far above their heads. She looked down at her comparatively puny wings and flapped them wildly for a second. She got off the ground for a few seconds at a time, but not too long.

"I see somepony's trying to learn how to fly."

Yeah, I'll get the hang of it eventually. Maybe I'll be as great as those other...uh...flyers?

"Pegasus, Sweetie." Starlight grinned down upon her, and the smile pretty much bounced back upwards. "And I'm sure you'll be better than all of them….Oh! We're here."

The two of them reluctantly said goodbye soon after talking things over with Applejack(the cutie mark crusaders were ironically there), and Starlight left to make her way down to the hospital. Oddly, the feeling of being watched wasn't there as she trotted down the dirt roads...maybe whoever was doing this was leaving them alone? It was a wishful thought.

The wait for the same doctor she'd met before wasn't very long, and within a few minutes they both greeted each other. Once she explained her decision to adopt Aqua, the doctor seemed pretty excited for her. Heck, she was excited for herself. "This is excellent! I was hoping you'd agree to this! Although I must admit, you were reluctant about trying this before...Any reason for the change of heart?"

"It's hard to explain...Aqua and I...we connected. She's shown that she really likes me a lot." The unicorn told him with a shrug. "And I guess I do to. If I can really have this kind of good influence on somepony like her...If I can make her life much better than it is now, then I'm going to do it. It probably won't be easy but...I'm a reformed villain! What could be harder to accomplish?"

"Dealing with the shopping wants of fillies. Trust me, it'll hardly be fun." The doctor chuckled.

Starlight smirked and waved her hoof dismissively. "Hey, don't change my mind now!"

"Ha! If you wait right here, I'll get those papers for you!"

"Thank you, Doctor!" She smiled as he left, and helped herself to leaning against the wall nonchalantly. For a while, she just inspected her hooves...that is until an all too familiar feeling crept back into her heart. Starlight slowly turned to look behind herself and eventually spotted a pony far down the hallway.

At least...it looked like a pony. The figure was cloaked and definitely hidden in it's own shadows; from it's frontward position it was difficult to tell if it was a pony or something else crouching. She frowned as a chill ran down her spine, but before anything else could be done-

"Here are the papers-"

"AUGH!" Starlight turned back around in a snap and winced, rubbing her neck with a hoof. The figure wasn't there when she turned around again, which sent another chill down her spine. "Oh...uh, hi again. Thank you. I'll get these signed."

"Are you okay?" The doctor looked behind her and then back at her.

"Oh, I-I'm fine! I just...was thinking is all." Starlight exclaimed nervously and walked backwards with the papers in her magical grasp. She didn't exactly give him time to respond to her question because of this, so she just awkwardly exited the doors as fast as she could and went down the dirt road...while looking around every 3 seconds. Anypony who walked past her would stare at the strangely twitching pony as if she were crazy, almost all the way to Sweet Apple Acres.

A pair of sinister eyes stared at her like a hungry animal.
> Page 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

And four cups of mayonnaise.


Starlight whirled on the small ladder and narrowed her eyes at her daughter, who had her nose buried within a cookbook. "It does NOT say that! "

Just kiddiiing! Auqa giggled innocently at the mare. It actually says two...sticks of butter. I don't think we have any sticks made of butter, do we?

The unicorn pointed her hoof at the yellow bars sitting on the counter in front of her, smiling a little at the misunderstanding. "They're not literally sticks. They're more like 3D rectangles, yknow? Blocks of butter."

Aqua grimaced visibly while her gaze focused on the sticks...er, bars of butter. Then why won't this book say 'Blocks of Butter'?! They're clearly not sticks.


"Maybe it just means the book isn't as smart as you are." Starlight smirked at her.

Wow! Y'really think so?! I'm really smarter than a book?! Coool!


It was impossible not smile at her cute little outburst, so she didn't even try to fight the grin that came to her face. She did roll her eyes however, before they fell on the huge white bowl in front of her. It already had the result of mixed sugar, eggs, baking powder, milk and flour which looked like a giant lump of cookie dough. "Alright, smarty-pants. Let's finish this thing! What's after the butter?"

Aqua scanned the page as Starlight dropped in the butter sticks and used her magic to mix it all together evenly. The filly eventually came up with an answer. Now we need ¼ teaspoon of fine salt...where's that teaspoon at?


"I don't think we have teaspoons…" Starlight blushed as she said this, as it reminded her of the reason they didn't have teaspoons anymore. In short, it was her fault and resulted in an incident best left forgotten. "We'll just add a pinch of salt to it and leave it at that. Anything else, Captain Sprinkle?"

Uuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmm...two teaspoons of… What's pure vanilla extract?


"...something we're lacking." Starlight explained, for she had already looked through the pantry for vanilla extract. All they had were chocolate bits, and Aqua had expressed a horrific dislike for chocolate. She assumed that Applebloom might've offered her a chocolate apple earlier in the day. "I've got an idea. Why don't we walk down to town and buy ourselves some vanilla extract?"

Heehehee…

"What?"

Down to town. It ryhmes!





Down in town, things were bustling as normal and producing crowds around particular carts. The two passed through the narrow clear space; Starlight walking on one side and Aqua waddling on the other. It wasn't long before the taller of the two guided them over to a clear cart and began to search for the vanilla extract amongst the piles of other ingredients. Aqua patiently sat below her mother for a moment, but became distracted by a cart right next to theits and it's plush contents. Mooom, can I have one of thoooose?

Starlight turned away from her search and looked at the random stuffed animals and toys sitting on the top of the cart. "Erm...no. not today, sweetheart. I don't have that many bits."

But I really want one!

Starlight looked down again and saw that Aqua was...glaring at her? What caused that reaction? "...I know, Sweetie, but I don't have any more bits for it. I can buy you one later."

I don't want one later...

"...Well, that's too bad. You can't touch anything in that cart, understand?" Starlight frowned under the confused stare of the ingredients pony, before nervously laughing. "Uh...I can tell when she...wants something. Heh heh..."

After several more minutes of deciding what other ingredients she could squeeze in, Starlight finally decided to get the vanilla extract only. She paid for it calmly and used her magic to levitate it into one of her pouches, then turned to look down on at Aqua. The filly was holding something small in her hooves and playing with it, making the unicorn assume that she had gotten a small animal. "Aqua! What did I just say to you, young mare?!"

You said I couldn't touch anything in that cart! Aqua answered, barely looking up. So I found something next to the wheel.


Starlight was just about to respond to this when she looked closer at the object in her daughter's hooves and noticed that the stuffed animal cart was missing. Well,not missing exactly, just rolling farther and farther away from them at the moment. Starlight gasped dramatically and began to race after it, but not before barking at Aqua. "Stay right there, you hear me?"

Ponies left and right were leaping out of the way of the massive cart, roughly landing just out of it's reach. The mare sent out swift apologies during her chase but found that the steeper the hill became the more distance was created between them. She did manage to warn a few ponies ahead of time by yelling at the top of her lungs and exhausting herself during the run. Once the ground became horizontal again, she was able to run alongside the massive cart as it neared it's final stop...a cliff. She swallowed nervously; if this cart was broken in any way the owner would be simply furious with her, and her 'Twilight card' wouldn't help at all either.

The unicorn sped up a little more until she was galloping in front of the cart, about to test something that Applejack mentioned doing a long time ago. She suddenly stopped running and held her hind legs out behind her, where the cart soon connected with her hooves. Her forelegs burrowed through the grassy ground and threw up tons of dirt into the air. She was pushed slowly towards the edge of the cliff, but actually managed to stop with her her hooves just a centimeter before the cliff edge. She sighed in relief.

Then the ground gave away and she tumbled all the way down into a pool of mud.

When her screams became choked with mud, she reemerged and coughed the stuff up as fast as she could to breathe. Pigs romped and snorted in the mud near the pony, somehow reminding her that her hair was completely done for and so was her coat. She looked up halfheartedly to see that practically all of ponyville had gathered on the cliff to stare down at her. One of those ponies just so happened to be Aqua.

Wow! That looks like fun!

Aqua promptly lept over the cliff and made a giant mud splash just seconds later, drenching her mother in anot her layer of the substsnce. While the filly smiled up at her, Starlight could only scrunchave her eyebrows horizontally as one solitary pig got the bright idea of licking her cheek.





Starlight closed the door behind her and stared down at Aqua, a towel wrapped around her hair and another wrapped from her chest to her hind legs. The filly still looked like a ball of mud, and the unicorn was certain that her own hair still had flecks of mud in it. She inhaled and finally unloaded her edited lecture on her. "Aqua, why did you touch that woodblock?"


I already told you! You said I couldn't touch--

"I know what I said." Starlight spoke between gritted teeth, and Aqua shrank a little under her glare. "You still shouldn't have touched anything near the cart. Ponies could have been hurt by that cart today, Aqua. All because you pulled that wood block out."

The filly shrank even more, a huge frown evident on her tiny muzzle. I...I'm sorry, Mom.

"*sigh*...I know you are, Sweetie. But you have to be more careful when you do things." Starlight's glare eventually softened on her. "I don't want you or anypony else getting hurt...Now, why don't you take a bath?"

Aqua tilted her head adorably, and then trotted into the bathroom. What's a bath?

After a few seconds of silence, Starlight suddenly smiled. "Oh, you've never had a bath before? Well, you should've. It's fun...It's just like what you did in the mud pool but with water this time."

That doesn't sound very fun. Aqua voiced her opinion and stood on the toilet seat to peer into the bathtub. And wasn't the mud pool bigger than this?

"Yes, but that doesn't matter! This one has bubbles! Here..." Starlight turned the water on to lukewarm with her magic and levitated a tiny bit of body wash into the rushing flow of water. A small hill of bubbles began to rise and fill the tub with small fields of bubbles, much to Aqua's delight. "See? Bubbles!"

Wow! It's so clean!

"That's the point, Sweetheart...Feel free to make as many bubbles as you like! I'll finish our cupcakes in the meantime." Starlight recieved a few nods, and she politely closed the door. Her smile crumbled immediately. "*sigh*..."

While she prepared the cupcakes, Starlight couldn't help but notice that she was still slightly upset with her daughter. She couldn't fathom why she'd taken something from the cart against her orders, wether above or below it. Now Starlight would be well known for the rest of the week, for being pushed into a pool of mud by a cart. It was pure luck that the cart owner wasn't at all mad when she brought it back up the hill to him, although it was probably because they'd made his cart popular by now. The unicorn eventually reminded herself as she placed the cupcakes in the oven, that Aqua was still a filly. Fillies did things they couldn't help, because they were young. She trotted back up the stairs to check on Aqua, immediately noticed that the crystal floor was...damp. Starlight frowned but didn't think much of it...at least until she knocked on the door to the restroom. "Hey! Mind if I come in?"

Yes! I mean no! Come in!

Starlight shrieked when she opened the door.

A giant wall of bubbles stood there waiting just for her, some tiny and some almost as large as her own head. The floor was like the lowest level of a swimming pool or the ground when it rained just slightly. The bubble wall seemed to be growing all the more as she stared in shock at it, so she started to walk through it blindly, her eyes closed to keep from having any bubbles pop in them. Once one of her forelegs collided with the rim of the bathtub, she used her magic to levitate to the ceiling. Somehow defying certain laws, Aqua Sprinkle was sitting on top of the bubble wall, holding her signature smile and all.

Hi mom! I liked it at first, but I don't like baths at all now. Aqua shrugged apologetically. I guess you can take this bath for me...how are those cupcakes by the way? 

Starlight inhaled.




> Page 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aqua wouldn't deny being cross with her mother.

The filly was pouty-glaring up at the ceiling, which was barely bathed in moonlight and crossed her forearms under the blankets. Her distantly rumbling stomach only made her glare more; how was she supposed to know that she'd made too many bubbles in the bath? It didn't look likeep a lot to her...and even if it was a lot, it was no excuse for depriving her of any cupcakes for the night! That just wasn't fair, and she knew it.

The filly lamented that her mother had been a bit cranky with her today altogether, over things that counted as rules. She touched something that wasn't in the cart and was scolded for, and tonight the same had happened in the bathroom. Was Aqua not understanding the rules that Starlight gave? Was Starlight actually unfair? Should she get a cupcake anyways? She obviously answered that last one in her mind.

Maybe I could sneak one from the Kitchen? She asked herself, before recalling that her mom hadn't gone into the next door room after sending her to bed. She was probably patrolling the halls right now, waiting to catch Aqua in the act.

Cupcakes aren't exactly the best midnight snack anyways.

Aqua agreed with this statement halfheartedly, only to jolt upright in bed when she realized that someone had said that. She looked around the room but didn't make out any shapes in the darkness. The young pony didn't seem to notice that the room was much darker than before.  W-Who said that? Who's there?

Silence filled her ears for a moment or four, before she heard the voice again. A friend, of course. No need to be afraid, Aqua. It was hard to describe the voice; it was obviously male and yet not so baritone as other ponies. 

I'm not scared. Aqua puffed out her chest a little more, wings bristling softly to try and intimidate the source of the voice. I'm not scared of anything. I'm just...uh...curious. How do you know my name?

The voice chuckled, sending a strange feeling into the filly. She didn't know what it was, but it caused her to shudder even though it wasn't cold. I may or may not have been watching you and your...mother for some time. Overheard your name.

Auqa frowned a bit deeper, a bit more suspiciously. Are you the pony that's been watching me and mommy?

 I'll admit that I am that pony, you might say. But I assure you that I'm not trying to be mean to you. I'd never try that against someone who looks as strong as you do.

Aqua, unfortunately, did not understand sarcasm and didn't detect the hint of hidden in his sentence...or the strange tone of interest it had. The filly believed she had actually intimidated the voice, and proudly pretended to inspect her hoof in the darkness.Yep. You'd better not try a thing...uh...what's your name?

The voice laughed again. You may call me Mast, little one. I must say that's nice to meet you in person...to help you.

Help me? Aqua inquired curiously, softly smiling at random places, even though she gave up on trying to find who was talking to her. That's...nice of you, but help me with what, Mast?

Well, he began with a cough. Your dearest mother has been quite the punisher lately, hasn't she?


Yeah...I don't why though. I do what she asks me to and I still got in trouble. 

Perhaps you're looking at this all wrong, hmm? Perhaps she doesn't really want you to follow her orders.


Aqua raised an eyebrow at his words. What do you mean?


Allow me to explain...
> Page 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"She just had to extensively use the bubble bath, didn't she?" Starlight somehow said to the empty chair in front of her,  her cheeks bulging with rather scrumptious cupcakes. Her expression didn't seem all that happy with this, though. "I said make as many as you like but NOT literally. Is that too hard to understand...?"

Her had been sent to bed ten minutes earlier, without a single cupcake to sleep on. Starlight didn't like the idea of punishing her by taking away something she helped to make, but she didn't have much other choice. The unicorn cringed when she remembered how long it took to clean up the bubbles. Aqua was lucky she didn't have to clean it up, right? Even so, Starlight worried she was being too harsh towards her daughter about what happened today. She had to remind herself that while fillies made mistakes, they also had to learn from them.

"*sigh*..." 

She groaned after swallowing the cupcake and let her head fall onto the table, smashing her snout in the crystal surface. Her head only shot up again when she heard a brief knock on the door of the castle, her mane slightly undone due to the swift movement. The unicorn eagerly trotted over to the main door in anticipation of seeing of her teacher arrive home, and swung open the giant doors to reveal someone else there.  It was somewhat like a pony, but his black shell that worked as his body nearly camouflaged him in the night and his leathery aqua colored wings glinted. Her eyes peered into his entirely blue eyeballs, until she actually recognized him. " Thorax?"

"Heh heh...In the Flesh." The introduced Changeling waved nervously at her, a forked red tongue flickered past his visible fangs briefly. She remembered seeing him while she was with Twilight in he crystal empire, and never officially spoke with guy. Partly because he was being hunted most of the time, and was only accepted near the end of her stay. To be honest, he was the first changeling she'd ever seen in her life. " You're, er...Nightlight Shimmer?"

Starlight snorted on a laugh, biting her bottom lip for a moment. "No...thankfully. I'm Starlight Glimmer. It's great to actually be talking with you. We didn't get to do much of that in Canterlot, did we?"

"Unfortunately not. Sorry to arrive here at such a weird time of night, but my train was kinda weird and I didn't want to cause trouble by flying into ponyville, y'know? I don't know if everypony actually knows I'm not..." He trailed off and made something akin to a coughing sound. "...gonna suck their love out or anything like that." After a bit of silence, he politely added: "Bet ya wanna know why I'm here."

Starlight sidestepped to allow him entry, and he hesitantly walked inside. Maybe he was touched by her...minimal kindness or something.  "kinda, yeah. Come inside while you're explaining it all. I don't know if you feel coldness or not, but it definitely bothers me." 

"You've never really heard or seen of changelings, have you?" Thorax asked.

"heard, yes. Seen...not so much. Am I missing something?"

He checked his hooves for signs of any mud he might accidentally have gotten in the castle, speaking all the while. "Well, my kind are a little like...snakes! Yeah. We're pretty good when we have a source of warmth for a while, especially when traveling. But almost like a snake, we would eventually need a source of warm blood to heat our cold blood  and sustain us a while longer...Not that you would have anything to worry about, cuz I'm learning to make my own love and all that to keep from doing anything snakey." He finished with a simple shrug and another flicker of his tongue. Starlight eyed him for a moment.

"Are you gonna randomnly do that all the time?"

"Do what?" Another flicker.

"That...that tongue thing. Do you always do that?"

"Yeah...It's kinda like when a pony flicks his or her ear to swat a fly. A natural thing I do...I-I can try toning down on it if you want?"

"No! You don't have to change anything about yourself! It's just new to me..." Starlight gasped and blushed visibly. "D'oh! Here I am talking too much! Distracting you and all."

"Uh, that's okay! I like hearing you talk!"  Thorax smiled abruptly, commencing the fourteen second long silence between them. "...But, on another note, I came here because of another weird changeling quirk of mine. See, if we're born and our queen isn't immediately there we have this sense that detects strange entities of dark potential...which is usually our Queen."

She raised an eyebrow, as he expected. "That has to do with this castle because..?"

"I came here mostly because Ponyville is the friendliest place, or so I've been told. I might stay here for a week to test that." Thorax looked around the gloomy castle with an equally gloomy frown. "There's another reason, though... either I'm dying, or there's another changeling Queen in this castle."

"What?"

"I know it sounds crazy...but I don't feel fatally ill, and there's definitely a weird entity of...bad stuff in this place. But it has to be a changeling queen, because nothing can be bleeding that much negativity!"

"Thorax,Buddy, Pal..." Starlight placed a hoof on his shoulder, much to his confusion. "I may be stupid, but I'm pretty sure I would know if there was a Queen changeling in this castle. But, you're welcome to check."

"Great! I can actually track it down easily now that I know you won't kick me out." Thorax let his tongue flicker out longer than before, his head turning towards the stairs before starting to walk up it. Starlight curiously followed her non-pony friend as if he were a bloodhound following a trail, even if he held his head up instead of down. She frowned deeply when he stopped before an all too familiar door. "Looks like it's in here."

There was no way that Thorax could have known where Aqua's room was ahead of coming here, so the unicorn's heart began to hammer in her chest. Could there be a changeling queen inside with her daughter? "I...Uh.." She hesitated worriedly and pushed open the door to the room. From the glow of the moonlight, she could see that Her daughter was sleeping soundlessly in her bed...partially obscured by blankets. "Oh...Oh thank goodness...."

"That's weird! The entity is gone now." Thorax whispered to keep from awakening the unknown filly. "But who's that?"

Starlight gently closed the door so they could talk louder, but not before giving a soft smile to her sleeping baby...well, Aqua was a baby to her. " That is my daughter, Aqua Sprinkle. I sent her to bed earlier after a little...problem she caused... She's also adopted."

"Oh, so you're not married? I assumed you were for some reason." Thorax muttered more to himself than her. "So...I'm sorry about making such a fuss. Maybe I really am dying and I just don't know it."

"Or you could just be having a bad senses day? Ever think of that?"

"Meh...That's a happier thought."

Starlight giggled a little, starting to lead him back down the stairs on instinct. "Where are you living by the way? Some motel I bet."

"I'll have to earn bits first." Thorax explained to her, his odd hooves clunking on the stair steps like old wood stilts. " Get a job somewhere and get the bits that way. then I'll have a place to live. For now, I can deal with the outside."

The unicorn stared at him incredulously and stopped to stand in front of him. The changeling swallowed at such an odd stare being placed on him. " No, you will NOT be dealing with the outside!"

"Really, I can-"

"You can't and you won't! We have a thousand rooms in this castle." She commanded with a sneer. "And you're gonna stay in one until you get enough bits! And that's final."

When she smiled jokingly with him at last, Thorax rolled his eyes...not that she could see it. "Fine. Why not?"
> Chapter 3- Confrontation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starlight watched as her daughter sat in the chair across from her, a spark of nervousness igniting in her heart. She had no idea what she would expect from Aqua thanks to last night's bubble punishment. Would she be angry with her--refusing to even say anything? Would she be sad--gloomily staring up at her with those extremely adorable eyes and whimpering? Aqua was busy bending her head down to eat her pancakes, so there was no way of telling what expression she had this morning. 

The unicorn mother coughed a little into her hoof. "Um, Aqua? " The filly lifted her head up and flashed a syrup drenched smile. " Erm...G-Good Morning, Sweetie. You feeling okay today? You're not...mad at me, are you?"

Nope! Why would I be? It was pretty handy to be able to speak without actually moving your mouth. I feel like,uh...seizing the day?

"Where'd you hear that from?" Starlight asked curiously. 

Some pony said it from down the hall.

Twilight's self pep talks are starting to get louder, I see. I wonder if Thorax could hear her....  Starlight fell into her mind a moment longer. And note to self: Tell Twilight about Thorax and Aqua's mind powers.  She looked back at the filly with a grin. "Well! Today we're going to do a few things together! And..."

Ironically, Thorax walked into the kitchen absentmindedly, blinking away a shade of tiredness from his eyes. The unicorn blinked twice, then suddenly gestured towards the friend that Aqua seemed deeply interested in. "I forgot to introduce you two...Well, you were sleeping actually. This is Thorax!"

"Nice to meet you!" The changeling exclaimed. oddly, his tone and smile seemed to suggest that this was a practiced greeting.

Aqua's head swiveled to face Thorax, then her and then him again with a bright smile. OH I get it! He's my daddy! I knew I had one.



Starlight stared at them both, eyes shifting as if her daughter had just told a joke. "Uh...actually no, he's not your dad. Just a friend."  She suddenly remembered something and added to the changeling: "She,uh...She can talk in my head."

Thorax shrugged. "She just talked in my head too." 

"Really? Well, that saves me a few explanations. Heh." She focused on the filly again. "So, I was thinking that you and I could do a go see some of the exotic creatures they're showing today, and then run a really cool errand. Sound fun?"

Super! Aqua paused as if she suddenly remembered something, and her face suddenly looked disinterested. I mean....eh, whatever.

She blinked a few times. "....so, if you'd like-- you can come Thorax?"

"Eh, I'd hate to be a bother." He nervously told her. "Or to get in the way of any mother-daughter time..."

Starlight nodded in understanding. "well, if you change your mind, you know where to find us!"





"Maybe he wouldn't find us in this crowd after all...." She murmured under her breath, crammed in the crowd of random ponies all trying to get to different areas of the town's booths. The smell of grassdogs and hayburgers filled the air despite there still being ten minutes of morning left. They worked their way around pretty much everything in sight, but Starlight noticed that her daughter had been stepping on her hoof multiple times. She cast a concerned look down at her. "Uh, Sweetie can you stop doing that? It kinda hurts."

It's not my fault ponies keep bumping into me.  Aqua rolled her eyes halfheartedly.  Maybe you should move faster. 

Starlight was about to retort on that snobbish remark when a loud voice announced that he was giving away free balloon animals, a thought that distracted her from the tiny hooves stepping on hers. The two walked over to the lone stallion creating the figures, who immediately greeted them with a nod. "Hi! What can I get ya today?"

Starlight looked down at the pegasus filly, inviting her to look at the assortment of pictures. "Go ahead, Sweetie. Choose one."

Uuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmm...How about that grey one?  She finally decided on the elephants and her mother replayed the message. They both watched as he blew up the long grey balloon and began to twist it into all kinds of shapes that squeaked a lot. The familiar shapes were soon complete, and Starlight handed her the small rubber elephant. To her surprise, Aqua almost immediately placed her hooves on it and applied pressure enough it to pop completely. oops. Guess I need another one. 

Starlight glared at her small, smug smile in disbelief but soon gave an apologetic frown to the stallion. "I'm very sorry about my daughter's behavior towards your work! I was certain  that I'd taught her to behave herself a lot better than that."

He barely payed them any attention after Aqua smashed his elephant. "Sometimes they just get it from the mother,hmm?"

She opened her mouth to protest against that statement, only to enter another realm of thought. Her punishment was resulting as a bad influence for Aqua; that had to be the case, right? And after that entire night of misery thinking over why she had deserved it.  Maybe she should never have sent her to her room! She knew would start making mistakes as a mother, but not as large as this!

"Well...maybe." She turned to walk away from the stallion. "Good day. Let's go, Aqua...Aqua?"

The unicorn's eyes and head swiveled to and fro, but there was no sign of Aqua to be found anywhere in the sea of bodies. Starlight began a frantic search around the entire town square, practically sniffing the dirt ground for the slightest bit of her daughter. Clearly her disappearance was a mistake on her part! What kind of parent wouldn't be careful enough to watch their kid closely?!  Apparently that parent was her. "Come on, Aqua! I-If you're playing, this isn't funny!" Starlight bellowed at random, only to cower sheepishly under the scrutinizing stares of other ponies and dash away to boot. After searching for about fourteen minutes she resorted to tiredly asking mothers and their children if they'd seen her around., eventually passing by a stallion standing next to one of those 'strength-testing' towers you hit with a hammer.

"Hey there, Missy!" The stallion caught her attention with an accent Applejack would roll her eyes at. "How's about you try your magic strength out? Might wipe that frown off yer face!"

Starlight was already explaining earnestly, barely giving him any eye contact as she spoke. "No thanks. I'm looking for my daughter...have you seen her at all? Blue coat? She's a pegasus?" 

The stallion hummed for a long time and scratched the back of his head. he looked upwards absentmindedly to think a bit deeper, then his eyes suddenly widened in shock. "uh...does she have a slightly braided mane?"

"Yes...How did you--..." Starlight inhaled the largest breath of air in history when she followed his gaze upwards. Twenty Fives hooves into the air was where the strength test tower ended, and also where the all too familiar body of Aqua sat. Her open mouth didn't stay open for long. "AQUA?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE?!"

Oh there you are! I was about to start calling for you!
  The pegasus filly grinned brightly to Starlight's dismay and bunched her leg muscles up.  catch me!  

Hero little body fell before her mother had a chance to stop her, plummeting fast as giggles filled the air. The unicorn couldn't conjure up a spell as quick as simply jumping to the bottom of the tower and stretching her arms out, where they were quickly filled with a squirming body soon after. The giggles had attracted a small crowd to the scene, and everypony gasped at seeing Aqua's sudden  rescue.  That was so fun! Again! I'll try flapping my wings next! 

Starlight began glaring. "Aqua! You're not supposed to give Mommy a heart attack, or jump off of--"

"That's your child?!" A mare spoke up from the crowd with a tone of indignation suddenly. "Well I've never seen anypony with such recclesiastical parenting in my life! You let your daughter leap off that thing?!"

Her ears flattened against her head miserably. "Um...I..."

"That could have seriously hurt her!" A stallion said, followed by several grunts of agreement from the crowd. "I wouldn't let my little girl do that!"

Starlight swallowed a lump in her throat and shrank under the scornful stares of mothers clearly better than she was. The mare didn't want to be here any longer; the embarrassmental was too much to handle...she had to go home. "Aqua, we're leaving now."

 I'm not going anywhere!  Aqua said definitively, much to her own surprise.  I'm trying to have fun! 

The crowd and condensed to deafening whispers in the air, talking to one another with scornful glares placed at Starlight. The unicorn glanced at them, then down at her daughter in a back and forth manner...but each time something changed in her expression. At first Starlight was beet red with embarrassment, but it was clear that a lot of frustration was building up from this public scene and Aqua's rebellious statement. Quite Frankly, she'd had enough of both for one day. Wordlessly seething, the unicorn roughly scooped up Aqua by the scruff of her neck and began trotting off in the familiar direction of the house.

 Hey! Put me down! I don't wanna leave! I wanna stay here! Aqua struggled as much as she could while dangling, flailing her small wings in an attempt to fly away and occasionally slapping her mother's muzzle by accident.  Did you hear me?! I said--

Starlight dropped her to the ground roughly, her eyes never leaving the filly and seemingly to grow brighter with anger. "Stop it,okay?! Just STOP IT. I've had it with your rude, smart alec behavior today, Aqua! You could hurt yourself on that tower back there, and there wouldn't be anypony else to blame but myself! You embarrassed me in front of everypony, and now everypony will think I'm a bad...." She trailed off with a growl of fury, never noticing Aqua's cringe.

B-But...  The filly reached out with a small hoof slowly.  Mommy, I'm sor--

"Don't!" Starlight flinched away from the filly and roughly stomped past her to continue the journey to Twilight's castle. The mare didn't cast a single glance backwards as she went away, but a few choice words were spoken. "Don't call me that right now! I don't care if you want to go back into town or what but don't call me Mommy."

Aqua whimpered at her statement, but did give the town a sidelong stare as if considering going back. But she looked at Starlight with a sniffle, and slowly shuffled after the unicorn. Silence hung over them the whole way home, but it was nervously broken by Aqua when they were both in the lobby of the castle. Do...Do you want me to go to my room...? 

Starlight didn't answer right away, but it wasn't a long time before she began to tread up the stairs slowly. "J-Just leave me alone."

Aqua watched pitifully as her mom walked up the stairs without another tearful word, her own large eyes watering a little at the sound. This wasn't supposed to happen; she wasn't supposed to be sad about this! Her friend Mast said she would be happy...what had gone wrong? And more importantly, how could she fix it?

Aqua gasped and grinned. She knew the perfect way to make up for this!





> Page 10*read notes*
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally! She finished it!

Aqua had taken her time to carefully plan out how it would look, and used any and all materials she could to create it. Things were a little rocky at first, but she got the hang of the colors that she wished to include in the picture. If she ever started to get tired of drawing, or if her jaws started to ache, she would think back on the sad face of her mother after what she'd done. It would give her new energy, and that energy would funnel into passion. It wasn't until she was just beginning to finish that the strange voice in her head spoke up.

Just what are you doing?

He sounded somewhat unhappy with her. Well, two could play at that game. I don't want to talk you. You made mom angry at me.

He huffed, a cross between a laugh and a snort. What makes you think it's my fault. Maybe she just hates you. Did you ever think of that?

That statement made Aqua's fur bristle slightly. She gave her own snort of frustration and focused even more on her artwork. Go away. Leave me alone.

The voice didn't respond, save for a soft growl, and she speedily finished her work before it could get another chance. Sweating and yet happy, the filly picked up the paper in her mouth and began to march down the hallway from her room. She would prove the voice wrong right jow; her mother did love uer, no matter what happened! Aqua would give her the gift and apologize and never do anything bad again!

She began to march downstairs, but cringed into a halt when she heard the voice of Starlight speaking. "I had to stop the cart myself! I even fell in the mud! With PIGS!"

Wary and a bit guilty, Aqua continued down more slowly.





"Okay..." Thorax cringed slightly, a tad bit nervously considering her student's current mood. "I'll admit that's a little rude."

"And then she has the gall to jump off that stupid magic test game and embarrass me in front of every pony in ponyville! " Starlight made her fiftieth pace around the room and stopped again to cast another glare at Twilight. "If only you'd heard some of the things they'd said about me! I've never looked like more of a fool than when I destroyed Equestria!"

Twilight sighed softly. "This was warned to you, you know. Fillies can be slightly irritable, but they mean well."

"...And I suppose I mean well, too?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh face it, Twilight-- I'm a terrible parent!" Starlight barked, turning on her heel and growling through her teeth. " All of the things she was able to do, and all of the messes she caused!  Its no wonder its all been done! Any self respecting guardian would have kept an eye on that...that...UGH!"

Thorax approached his friend, noting the hunch in her shoulders and the clearly stressed muscles showing. "I-I bet lots of ponies think they're terrible parents at first, and they do perfectly later!" The changeling frowned when he earned a scoff for his words. "I'm serious! You just need some time to adjust to--"

"There won't be any time!" Starlight snapped back, rolling her eyes while doing so. "I'm gonna have a lot of friendship lessons anyways, right?! I can't juggle that and raise a filly, right? When will I be able to make time for any of that?"

Thorax sighed. "Many ponies are busier than you and still have time for those they love."

"Well, good for them! They actually know if they love their kid." Starlight pitifully said and leaned tiredly against the table. "I,on the other hand, have the luxury of regretting this whole adoption thing and all this responsibility."

Narrowing her eyes at a slow speed, Twilight inhaled. "I lied, you know. When I said that parenting would be fun and filled with very little problems. It can be stressful to the max, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth it, Starlight!" Her student pouted as she continued. "It was worth you getting her to a hospital and it was worth taking her in. What if this all turns about for the better in time? What if this is your first friendship problem?"

Starlight brought her eyes up from the floor at that statement. "...What?"

"It might be just that! Fillies don't just appear under trees with no memory! Maybe it was meant to be that you adopt her. "The Princess offered her explanation. "Maybe you were meant to be her mom."

"...I don't know. I just don't know." She responded with a depressed look sent at her friends. "I know she has no one else, but--"

SLAM!

The three of them all flinched at the sound of the front door slamming shut, and curiously trotted out into the lobby to see who had caused it. No one appeared to be there and the only sign of an exit was in the the form of water droplets at the door. Clearly the rain was still going strong. Twilight noticed a small sheet of paper on the floor near the doors to the library and she gasped when she saw it. Starlight hesitantly looked down upon the paper and instantly regretted it.

It was a picture, a small crudely drawn one. In thick crayon, shapes made out the form of Aqua sprinkle sitting next to Starlight, the both of them hugging each other. In bold green words above them, one could read: Sorry, Mommy with a line underneath it. The most noticeable thing about the paper was the clear of evidence of tears falling down upon the paper, smearing it.

Starlight felt as though a gaping hole had been torn in her heart, her distant gaze remaining glued to the drawing. Aqua must've come downstairs to apologize, with this drawing in her mouth. She must've stopped at the library doors, overhearing the painful things Starlight had said about her. She must've... The hole in her heart became bigger, destroying it completely and clouding her vision with tears.

"I...I..." The unicorn reeled back as if she'd been slapped, starting towards the door slowly and shakily. "She's...She's gone...I... She was cruel; she'd broken her own daughter's heart so calllously! Perhaps the stress was getting to her, but therect was no reason for her to hear those things. If the poor thing got hurt, she'd never be able to forgive herself. Starlight looked back down at the paper. "...I hurt her. I-I hurt her--"

"We can find her. You were venting out things you'd kept bottled up. We can still find her and we can talk to her." Twilight offered sympathetically. "She couldn't have gone far, so--"

"N-No." Starlight herself seemed surprised with the interruption she made. "I...I want to talk to her. I'm the one who said those things, so I should be the one to take it back."

Twilight and Thorax wordlessly and worriedly followed behind, each of them taking their own paths to try and find where Aqua had run off to.