> Maria's Box > by MegaCheesy > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maria Anderson has had a more or less uneventful life so far. Shitty parents, okay childhood, school, going and graduating from college, and living in a wood cabin. She has a stable job as a waitress, which gives a more than average pay. She doesn’t even know how to spend half of her money. Maria was watching TV, not really paying attention to anything else. Well, she was, before she heard several loud knocks at her door. Interested in who could be knocking at the door (how could anyone find her house? It’s in the middle of a forest…) she opened the door to find no one in sight. Her eyes shifted to a large box with small breathing holes. She picked up the box, finding a withering sticky-note saying “Please give them a good life,” Maria was intrigued. Finding a small knife and carefully cutting the tape, her eyes felt like they rolled out of her head. Maria found eight multi-colored tiny fillies staring at her with freakishly large eyes. A yellow pegasus stared at her in fear, causing her to start crying. Another pegasus with a rainbow mane glared daggers at Maria, but she just found it cute. Picking up the yellow pegasus, she held her in her arms. She stopped crying, burying her face into Maria’s chest. Maria thought her heart was going to stop working. She glanced at the box, finding almost every filly missing. There was still one. The unicorn filly had an orange coat and a red mane. Her mane looked like bacon, no thanks to the yellow highlights in her mane. The unicorn held her hooves up, expecting the same comfort her pegasus friend was having. Maria obliged, scooping the unicorn into her arms. Oh, no! I still have to find the others! They could be breaking everything! Blowing some of her brown hair out her face, she started speed walking around the house trying to find everyone (or should it be everypony?). The brunette put the two fillies she had been cradling onto the living room couch. They had somehow fallen asleep in her arms, so they napped on the couch. Maria checked under the couch but found nothing. She searched the kitchen, thinking no one was going to be there. Then, she heard a sound from her cookie jar. Lifting up the lid, she found a pink pony munching on her cookies. She gently picked up the tiny pony, cleaning off any cookie crumbs she could find. Where did these strange ponies come from? They’re all too strange to be regular animals. They act more or less like toddlers. The fillies all seem like something out of a weird dream. Yet, she hadn’t questioned a single thing yet. She couldn’t hear them speak, only hearing childish gibberish. The sounds filled her ears from different places. Although, the loudest came from the pink pony squirming in her arms. She was laughing so much that Maria was slightly losing her grip on the tiny pony. Maria finally put the pink pony on the couch, finding two other unicorns next to the now-awakened orange unicorn. I’m going to name them soon, I can’t just call them ‘Unicorn 1’ or some stupid shit like that. The trio of unicorns read a book together, which almost melted Maria’s heart for the second time that day. Maria turned to the pink pony, “Hun, can you stay here for a bit? I’m trying to round up the others.” the pony seemed to react and understand, nodding and laughing as a response. Wow, my life got flipped upside-down in a single afternoon… Groovy. --🌟-- It had been about a week since the mysterious box full of ponies. Maria and three of her fillies went with her at the grocery store. The rest were at home, being babysat by her best friend, Amanda. All of the fillies could talk too, which freaked Maria the hell out. For some reason, they couldn’t talk for a good couple of days before making (almost) complete sentences. “We need to pick out our things for school next,” Twilight Sparkle said, levitating her checklist of things to buy. Maria was on a slightly-tight budget because of all the mouths she had to feed, but Maria had always found a way to make it work. “I’m excited to see what bags are there.” Sunset Shimmer smiled, sitting in the seat part of the cart. Twilight shared a seat with Sunset, but there was another filly that refused to sit with them. Rainbow Dash lazily flew and circled around Maria’s head. Maria could tell she was bored, but what did she expect coming to a grocery store? “There better be some cool ones. I’d never go to school without a awesome backpack.” Rainbow dash boasted. Sunset and Twilight rolled their eyes at the incorrect grammar usage, turning their heads to the nearing school supplies. Maria had seen the weird glances from other people in the store, but they hadn’t been bothered by some strangers so far. It’s almost like no one really cared about Maria and her… children? It’s kinda too early to be considered parent. Maria can’t really picture herself being a ‘mom’. Although seeing how she’s taking care of eight pony-children, she doesn’t really have a say in the matter. She’s not complaining, they’re all really behaved. Twilight, Starlight Glimmer, and Sunset all huddle up in the living room usually reading a book together. Rarity is all about fashion and arts & crafts (Just the other day, she made some clip-on earrings for everyone). Maria can go on and on about everyone’s personality traits, but she had to focus on her shopping. She’s going to need a lot of bunch of bunk-beds and some school supplies. This is going to take awhile. Maria scooted over to the Back To School! section. She’s happy it’s only August right now. Hopefully, the school program doesn’t mind eight fillies joining. The schools around here don’t get many students, so there shouldn’t be any problems. They weren’t going to need very much, pre-K doesn’t exactly call for a lot of school supplies. They were probably going to need some pencils and a small packet of crayons for all eight of them. “Do you kids want anything else besides bags, pencils, and crayons?” Maria asked. They all shook their heads. Okay, now I just need to get the beds and backpacks. Jeez, so much for my budget.