A Charred Stone Ch2

A Charred Stone Ch2
My Friends…

                “Hurry up and get this room cleaned up! Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will be here any minute!”
Mr. and Mrs. Myer seemed worked up today, I understand why since both princesses of Equestria are going from orphanage to orphanage searching for information. On what? I don’t know and I don’t care. Ponies that are raised to be princesses don’t understand what it’s like to have nothing. They don’t understand what we orphans feel. I can only wonder, why should we care what they think? They are nothing but pampered princesses. If anything we should show them what we have to live in. Then maybe they will do something about the misery we have to endure. Then the ponies around me can finally stop acting as if everything is ok.

                Mrs. Myer trotted into the main room and announced, “Alright my little ponies, I want you all to be on your best behavior when Princess Celestia and Princess Luna arrive. It’s a great honor to meet them both like this, so I don’t want you to be rude to them.”
“Why? What’s so special about them?”
For the past week, I’ve gotten used to that unamused stare that she gives me when I say something I'm not supposed to, but in the end I just don’t care anymore. Ever since I put this white bandanna on my mane, I’ve felt nothing but misery and hopelessness for this place and these ponies. So, it didn’t bother me one bit when Mrs. Myer gave me that look and replied, “That goes double for you Gem… I don’t want you to offend the princesses while they are here.”
Before I could say anything else, I heard a knock on the front door.

                Mrs. Myer didn’t miss a beat, “Quickly, quickly everypony go about your day as you normally would and if the princesses speak to you, be as polite as possible. Give them the proper respect.”
As Mrs. Myer rushed to the front door, I just decided to go sit in my little designated corner where I'm out of the way… so in other words I was doing what Mrs. Myer said and going about my day as I normally would. As I sat there, I started to think about what a normal day at home would be. I thought about how mommy would go about tending to the flowers in the front garden or she would read one of her special books inside. While I would go out and play in the yard, or attempt to fly while both mommy and daddy watched so I wouldn’t get hurt. Nevertheless, thinking about these things only made me a little sadder about being in this terrible place.

                 In the hall, I could hear Mr. and Mrs. Myer sucking up to the princesses as if they would actually benefit from it. While they talked, I couldn’t help but hear their conversation, as Mrs. Myer started, “It’s such an honor for you and your younger sister to visit our establishment… though I understand you’re searching for something?”
As they stood in the hall I couldn’t see them but I could hear them as one replied, “Yes Mrs. Myer, I'm wondering if anypony has come here looking for a young foal, or if any reports of a missing colt have come across your desk. It would seem that this colt here is suffering from a severe case of amnesia and we are hoping to find his parents.”
Mr. Myer replied, “None recently your majesty… but if you can come with me I can search our records for a colt matching his description.”
The princess replied, “Of course Mr. Myer and thank you for your assistance.”

                As Mr. and Mrs. Myer trotted past the doorway leading into the room I was sitting in, I got a glance at the two Princesses. They were both very beautiful Alicorns, one dark blue and the other a bright whitish color. Then the darker princess turned and spoke behind her, “You stay here Star… sister and I will be back when we’re finished.”
I didn’t see the colt at first but I heard his voice reply, “Uh… Yes Princess Luna, erm… ma’am… um your majesty…”
The Princess smiled as she continued by the doorway and out of my sight, and with that, the hallway became silent. Part of me was curious of the colt that I assumed was still in the hallway, but the rest of me just didn’t care.

                As I looked back down at my hooves while sitting in my corner, I just sighed and started feeling sorry for myself. Even on a day like today, when something completely new was happening, this place still seemed miserable and dull. As I looked back up, I noticed the colt as he trotted into the doorway and looked into the room. He didn’t seem any different from the rest of us… other than the fact that he already had his cutie mark while the rest of us didn’t. A black Star with lightning spreading to each tip from a dark cloud, and it seemed to match his color pretty well too. He had a dark pelt with a black and yellow mane, and dark reddish brown eyes that seemed really deep. The colt stood there for a few seconds looking through the room until he looked directly at me and smiled. Part of me wanted to ask very rudely, “What are you smiling at?”
But something stopped me; his smile seemed very calm and soothing. As if he was smiling to make me feel better about my troubles, but how could he know what they were.

                I continued staring back at him… but for some reason, I had to smile. Here I was, miserable, unhappy, and alone… but this colt. This foal with no memory of his family, smiled as if he had no problems in the world to face. It was an inspirational sight… but before I could say anything to him, the two princesses came back down the hall as one spoke, “Well if you receive any word about what we are looking for then please notify us immediately. We would like to find this foal’s parents as soon as possible.”
Mrs. Myer replied, “Understood your majesty, We will keep an eye out for any leads. Thank you for visiting us.”
The dark princess looked at the colt and spoke, “Alright Star, it’s time for us to go.”
The colt nodded his head and replied, “Yes ma’am.”
The colt followed the princess back into the hall and out the front door. And then just like that… he was gone.

                Sure, he never said anything directly to me… but for some reason, I was disappointed he left. So far… out of everypony I’ve met since my parents died, He was the only one that smiled at me with such a gentle and friendly smile. You know… maybe that’s all I needed to feel better in this place. Just somepony friendly to talk to, but everypony here doesn’t get me. None of them in my book are considered friendly. Mr. and Mrs. Myer are… but that’s only their job. As I sat there depressed that my only chance to make a friend just trotted out the door, I started to scrape my hoof against the ground. Then I realized when I did, I left a mark on the wooden surface. So I did it again, and again, and before I knew it, I drew a pony on the ground. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. I started to draw another, this time a filly, then a unicorn. But to finish it all off… there was one that I absolutely had to draw. I drew a young colt that looked as close to the colt I saw today as it could… this one was my favorite.

                As I looked at the markings, I started to speak to them, “H-hello… my name is Gem Stone… “
Of course the markings didn’t reply… but I decided to continue, this time I spoke to the unicorn, “I bet magic is really hard to do, but if I could use it, I’d make this whole place disappear, then I might feel better.”
Like before the floor didn’t reply so I continued, “You know… when I was little I always wanted to have a friend… not many foals ever came around Dragon Mountain… and sometimes the dragons seemed scary so I never made any friends with the baby ones. I remember one night when mommy invited them to dinner to meet us for the first time, of course it was outside, we couldn’t fit big dragons in the house… that’s just plain silly.”
Still no reaction came from the images on the floor, but I didn’t care, I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of a large dragon trying to fit himself into our tiny dining room, “Isn’t that funny… um… what was your name again… oh Star?”
With continued silence from the images on the floor, I just continued smiling. This was the first time since the accident that I felt content about my company… and even if it wasn’t at any of the orphans around me… it felt good. Not great… but good.

                Now that I had these simple drawings, I had somepony to talk to… somepony to call friend. Despite all the judgmental stares that the other orphans would give me, this was the only way for me to keep myself somewhat content. They didn’t reply, move, or even have real names, other than Star, but I gave each a personality that I enjoyed in friends. The first one I drew, was a stallion who was nice but a little slow. I often had to explain things to him that he couldn’t understand. The second was a filly who I could share my secrets with. The third was a unicorn who liked doing things that were dangerous so I told him all my exciting stories, and as for the last. He was Star, the one I would talk to about my deepest problems, he would always say it’s okay and make me feel better… or at least in my mind he would. After all, in this place, they didn’t judge me, make fun of me, or even look at me with pity. To these drawings… I was the same as everypony else, and I was a good friend.

                Soon I found the time in this place was going by faster. The days turned to weeks, to months and slowly into years. New orphans came, as old orphans left, the bully was long gone and his little group of followers were replaced by new bullies and new followers. As many orphans found new homes and new parents, I refused to let myself become adopted. I will never call anypony mommy or daddy, I already had a mother and father. And it wasn’t some complete stranger who felt crummy enough about their own life, to go out and take pity on some parentless orphan and tell them that everything will be better now. Just because thing are better than this place doesn’t mean that the world will be any kinder to us less fortunate. The world turned it’s back on us… the only pony I can rely on now is myself… but if I had to bring anypony with me… it would be these simple markings I made on the floor. Though faded and worn by the sweeping and moping that has been done over the years. These ponies were the only ones I trusted now… they were my only friends, at least until I leave this miserable place, but I guarantee when I do leave… it won’t be with foster parents.

                Countless orphans, uninterested foster parents, and boring months later, I found myself nearing my eighteenth birthday… the day I can finally leave this place. I feel I have worn this white bandanna for too long. Now it’s time to change it into something better… though I won’t do that until I actually leave this place. While standing at the edge of the backyard, I looked out into the world below Cloudsdale… I wondered what became of my parents old cabin, and the dragon clan. I knew that going back would be a bad idea since the dragon who killed my parents will probably try to kill me too. Then Mr. Myer trotted up beside me and spoke as he looked upon the world below, “I can see you’re ready to face what’s out there, aren’t you Ms. Stone?”
I was a little surprised to see him since he usually keeps himself locked away in his office dealing with the business side of running this place while his wife did the care taking. But I was also irritated that he would give such a stupidly obvious statement. I sighed as I replied, “What do you want?”

                Mr. Myer just smiled as he replied, “I only wanted to check up on you… I know you’re not the type to tell others how you feel about certain things… in fact you’re not the type to talk to others at all.
Growing impatient, I scowled at him, “Just get on with it!”
The old stallion chuckled as he continued, “Well what I'm trying to ask is, do you think you can handle it? You’re not very fond of making friends, and the best words that I have been given regarding your first impressions with the foster parents would be vulgar. So I just wanted to know if you’re confident in surviving on your own out there?”
I could only shake my head, “Are you blind or just plain stupid? I hate this place… I don’t know what could be worse than living under this roof with these foals. I wanna go out there and make something of this miserable thing that others try to call a life.”
Then he asked me yet another stupid question, “Was this place really that bad?”
I couldn’t even dignify that question with a response. All I could do was turn around and trot away, leaving the old coot in a state of confusion.

                I couldn’t believe the nerve of that pony, I'm almost eighteen years old, and he still wants to talk to me like a foal. I don’t need his pity, and I don’t need any help from anypony here. I would much rather see this place burn to the ground before I would even consider taking any help from any of them. The sooner he gets that through his head, the better. That evening as I sat in my little spot in the corner of the room, I looked at my friends and spoke, “You know… I think the only thing I'll miss about this place is you four… Mr. Myer tried to ask if I needed help after I left here. Big surprise, he doesn’t think I can handle it… as usual nopony understands me. I can handle the world out there, I'm not afraid of what’s outside that fence. All I need, is to leave this place. Then I'll be fine.”
Like always, the little images of ponies didn’t reply, and even though I wasn’t a foal anymore. That didn’t stop me from continuing my conversation with the pictures. I looked at the image of the pony named Star and continued; “When I leave here I'll finally be free… then… I can smile a lot more, won’t that be great? I think so.”
As I looked up and out a window at the setting sun, I asked myself, “Will things really get better… and if so, will I ever truly be happy?”
With that thought in mind, and the sunset fading into a moonrise, I told my friends goodnight, trotted over to my bed, and went to sleep.

                The next morning seemed very strange from the moment I woke up. Usually when I wake up the sun is already up, but this time… it wasn’t. As I opened my eyes to a dark room, I looked around in confusion. It was morning, of that I was certain, but the sunlight wasn’t shining through the window like it usually did. I climbed out of bed and trotted over to the window to investigate, but when I did, I was surprised to find that the sun had been eclipsed by the moon. An eclipse didn’t seem like anything to worry about, Most of the time they were done to celebrate a specific time of year. However, the Royal Sisters would put out a notice weeks in advance so we would expect them, and every time that happened they were only minutes long… while this one seemed like it had been going on for hours, filling the sky with a reddish hue that gave the impression that the sky was on fire. I cautiously trotted out the back door and into the yard where most of the other orphans Including both Mr. and Mrs. Myer were observing the strange phenomenon. I approached Mr. Myer and asked, “What’s going on?... why is there an eclipse today?”
Mr. Myer replied, “I don’t know… but it isn’t good. This morning I heard some rather disquieting rumors. Ponies in Cloudsdale are talking about an act of treason brought on by Princess Luna and her leading commander. They say that the two left Canterlot with a large number of supporting solders and vanished into the Everfree Forest. Now there’s talk of war.”

                I couldn’t believe it, there hasn’t been a war in Equestria in centuries, and the closest thing to one, was a civil war that broke out in the griffin kingdoms that nearly sparked a war between them and Equestria… but I just had to ask, “War? Against whom?”
Mr. Myer looked back at me and replied, “From the way things look… The sun and the moon.”
“Does anypony know why?”
“No… but there was something else they said… something about a tornado in Canterlot last night that transformed Princess Luna into another mare entirely… a mare who calls herself, Nightmare Moon. For this reason, many are saying that she has turned evil somehow… but nopony knows why… or how. It could have something to do with her commander… I heard rumors that he knows a special ability that is very powerful. Maybe he has the ability to corrupt a mind.”
As I looked at the small glimpse of Canterlot from where we were standing, I could see formations of soldiers lining up around the city, both on the ground and in the sky. I can only assume that with the way they looked, a war was about to start. The eclipse in the sky, wasn’t going to end any time soon. I just felt a little disappointed that the sunset I watched the night before, could very well be my last.