Creepy Crawly had never been the type to just sit around, waiting.

Which was why, after King Sombra had been defeated, she had, within one week, started going door to door. She would walk over to each house, tugging along her little red wagon, which held all of her prized possessions, including Theodora, her teddy bear, and knocked on each door in the city. When a door opened, she would repeat the same speech, every time.

"Hello, my name is Creepy Crawly. My parents were outside of the Crystal Empire when King Sombra flung the city forward in time a thousand years. I don't have anypony to look after me. Would you like to adopt me?"

The responses varied: Some said that they had their hooves full with the colts and/or fillies that they already had. Others stated that they weren't ready to be parents. A few said they could not afford to look after another little pony at this time. A few would have been willing, but were quite old. But it had always boiled down to one simple answer: No.

After three days, she had covered every house in the Crystal Empire, save one. Over the course of her trek, she had obtained, from sympathetic ponies, fifteen loaves of bread, forty seven cookies of various flavors, five slices of pie, three whole pies, twelve slices of cake, eight whole cakes, twenty four donuts, and an apple. Well, at least she wouldn't starve any time soon, although she may end up putting on a few pounds, and if she'd not gotten a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste from the local dentist, she would have had serious problems with tooth decay sooner rather than later...

But now, there was only one place left to check before she could say that she had tried everywhere in the Crystal Empire: the Crystal Palace itself. Creepy Crawly was... hesitant to go inside of that place. Not because she was afraid of the current residents, but because that was where King Sombra had lived during his reign of terror. Just looking at the place stirred up all kinds of bad memories.

After a moment, she decided that, as nice as Princess Cadance and Sir Shining Armor were, she couldn't bring herself to go asking them to adopt her, given that it would mean that she would have to live in the palace if they said yes. She had nightmares enough already just looking at the palace: she shuddered to think of what horrors would haunt her dreams if she had to live in it...

Besides, she reasoned, no doubt the princess and her hubby were quite busy right now, what with getting the Crystal Empire caught up with the modern age. It was unlikely that they would be able to give a new daughter the time she would deserve right now. And if they did give said daughter the time she deserved, it would only be at the cost of the time they should spend helping all the other ponies in the Crystal Empire. Creepy didn't want that on her conscience. But if that was the case, and there was nopony else able to take her in...

...Then she'd have to take her show on the road.

It wasn't impossible: She and her parents had attempted to flee the Crystal Empire while Sombra was distracted by the two princesses a thousand years ago. They had planned to escape the city, cross the frozen wastes, and seek aid for the Crystal Empire from other nations. Father had been high ranking guard in the Crystal Empire, and he'd had friends throughout Equestria who held rank in various military organizations: he'd planned on leading an army back to take the city from King Sombra. But while they had been fleeing, Creepy Crawly, weighed down by a heavy snow jacket, enough supplies to see her through the trip, and snow shoes, stumbled just before she had crossed the threshold that separated the city from the freezing weather beyond. She was certain that her parents, who had just crossed the threshold, would have turned back to try and retrieve her... but at that moment, King Sombra's curse threw the city a thousand years into the future... leaving Creepy Crawly minus a mother and father.

Still, she had all of the supplies needed to cross the frozen wastes, and the military-grade rations she'd had in her travel pack would last for years. Her parents had drilled her on the best route to take to make it into Equestria proper, just in case they were separated, so she wouldn't be at risk of getting lost. She'd also been taught everything she'd need to know about survival in the freezing cold, and where she might find shelter along the way. She could have taken the train, she supposed, but train tickets cost a lot of money, and she didn't trust those newfangled contraptions (well, they were new to her, anyways, since they hadn't existed a thousand years ago). But that meant crossing miles of unforgiving terrain that would be blanketed in snow and ice, and on hoof, that could take at least a week, maybe longer.

It wasn't impossible... Just really, really difficult.

Still, Creepy Crawly wasn't the type to shy away from a challenge, either. It was kind of late, though, so she decided that she'd best start in the morning, bright and early. It would be kind of silly if she made camp for the night and the warm, cozy Crystal Empire was still in sight. Tomorrow morning, she would go, in search of a family.