Our Mom Princess Luna
Part 2: B is for Boys

Princess Luna looked out over the little herd. They were in various states of fear, revere, and curiousity. She’d found a rather staggering thirty of them after a flight over Canterlot. THIRTY abandoned foals sleeping in dark alleys, in boxes and in abandoned buildings in the middle of the cold season. The poor things, she couldn’t stand it! Scowling for a moment, she saw the ripple of fear in the group and quickly wiped her face. “Er,” she said, cocking her head. “We art Princess Luna.” She announced to them. “I have decided to adopt thee.” She told them officially. “Thou shalt all live with me in the palace, be fed and cared for, and kept from the cruel elements. I shalt provide for thee.” She gave them the short and simple version. The herd of foals, none of them more than twelve, looked at each other. A hoof went up. “Yes, little one?” Luna leaned.

“You talk funny!” said the little colt, blinking at her. “What’d you say?”

“Child!” Luna said, taken aback. “Mine dialect is merely… merely…” she frowned a bit. It was true, she was a little out of touch with the modern lexicon. “Er, forgive me. I’m not very good at the modern tongue.” She mumbled.

“Are you really gonna take care of us?” said another little colt, peering up at her in awe. Luna nodded some, her expression softening. “Wow!” he said, his face lighting up. “Wow! The Princess is gonna be our momma!” he scampered back into the gaggle of foals, who cheered and chattered amongst themselves.

Luna smiled more genuinely, cocking her head and watching them all talk amongst themselves. She did very suddenly notice something odd, though. Among the thirty of them, they were all colts, save one filly. She was orange with a magenta mane, and was looking around the room with a silent, thoughtful expression. The goddess did note that her ribs were showing a bit from malnutrition. Her heart ached a little. She would need to assemble a staff of ponies to feed, bath, and give medical attention to all her new… foals. Her foals. She liked the sound of it to be honest.

Closing her wings in a slow, nonthreatening way, Luna settled onto her belly so she could see some of them closer. The brave ones peered at her, came a little closer, and the more cowardly ones hung back in the middle of the herd. Most of them looked like they recognized each other—though they’d all come from the cruel streets of homelessness, so it wasn’t a stretch. “My children!” Luna called out over the crowd after a time. There was hush. “My children! You must first learn the face of your caregivers! Are you ready?” she told them. There was a smattering of nodding and some curious looks.

Luna stomped a hoof twice. Her double-doors sprang open and a pair of guards came in. Both stallions looked started at the assembly of foals. They’d not come in the bedroom door, how did they get in?! Surely not the balcony!? Both armored ponies came quickly forward. “Er, don’t worry Princess! We’ll get these little rapscallions out of here for you!” The pair began to herd them all in a pressed-together group.

“Neigh.” The Princess commanded, raising a hoof. “They are here by my hoof. They stay.” She told both her guards. They stared at her in confusion. “Lion Heart. Shield Breaker—these are my children.” She gestured grandly. Both stallions went slack-jawed, staring at the huge group. The foals stared back at them with a mix of fear and curiosity.

“A-all of them, your majesty?” Lion Heart said, pulling off his helm and staring at her in confusion. “But there’s… there’s at least two dozen of them!”

“A proper thirty, my charge.” Luna said, nodding with a regal frown. “And you shalt learn of them, for they are your responsibilities now too.” She saw the golden-maned stallion go pale with nervous revulsion, looking down at the tiny herd. They stared at him with big eyes, eyeing his shiny armor and big muscles. He was kind’a scary! “My children! This is Lion Heart, and Shield Breaker!” she gestured to one, then the other. “You may rely on them for safety if something bad happens. They are calm, gelded, powerful stallions and they—”

A little hoof went up like a shot. “What’s ‘gelded’?” a voice piped.

“Er, well…” Luna kicked herself mentally for describing her soldiers in such an adult manner. Foals didn’t need to know of such things, but she’d still used a protocol version of their description. “That is… eh…” she tried to find a foal-friendly way of putting it for them all. The group stared at her intently.

“It means he doesn’t have a peepee!” A foal in the back squealed. There was a massive GASP of horror. No peepee!? How could he not have a peepee!? Lion Heart and Shield Breaker both fidgeted uncomfortably as the mass of colts rushed to have a curious look at them. They pawed at their armor, pushed on their muscled legs and reared up to see if they could be pushed over. Both stallions peered back and forth as they were used as jungle gyms. Luna stared, a little slack-jawed. They were like a massive herd of puppies, not ponies. They crawled all over everything like a great mass, taking security in the size of the group. A ripple of ‘no peepee!’ passed repeatedly back and forth between them all, laced with concern and fearfulness. Would they lose their peepee’s too if they stayed with Princess Luna?!

“Enough!” Luna scolded the group, stamping an authoritative hoof. “There will be no more talk of peepee’s tonight!” she couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth, and she saw Shield Breaker trying very hard not to burst into laughter. The colts all giggled aloud, but were glared into submission when they saw her face. Some of them wilted down to their bellies, sinking down. The two stallions bowed to their Princess, carefully stepping out of the herd and to safety. “Ahem… we shalt have lessons on what is or is not appropriate in our new home, yes?” she tried to be more pleasant.

“Peepee envy.” Somecolt stage-whispered. There was giggling. The words rippled through the herd and there was louder laughter.

“It is NOT peepee envy!” Luna snapped. Then she caught herself and facehoof’d. Louder giggling. They’d been there all of five minutes and THIS was how they treated their new mother figure? “Alright boys.” She took a deep breath to steady herself. Her royal wrath would no doubt traumatize them, but she was not about to let them walk over her by the sheer size of the group. “It tiz late, and I’ve snatched thee from thy normal… er… lodgings.” It was the wrong word and she knew it, but she wasn’t going to say dumpster or box or anything. It was too cruel. “It is time for sleep, and we shalt work out food and such on the morrow.” They stared at her with blank expressions. She stared back. There was a long silence. Oh, she finally realized. “Ahem. We’ll have breakfast and play tomorrow.” She tried again.

“We get to EAT here?!” one of them gasped. The herd chattered back and forth again, joy in their faces. The single filly in the crowd didn’t look so sure, but she said nothing different from the rest of the herd. Luna saw she stayed near the middle of the crowd where it was safest. Some itching feeling told her the little orange Pegasus was special in some way. She didn’t know how, though. So many, many colts out on the street, and but one filly to be found? Though any foal in such a situation was sad… if she was some anomaly from the cruel ‘norm’, there must’ve been a reason. Well, therapy and such could wait until at least tomorrow, surely. The Princess knew none of her children yet, and they needed to know that she would care for them.

“Yes.” Luna confirmed with a smile. “You will eat here, three times a day. And sometimes snacks too.” She watched their smiles grow and grow, and for a moment she thought they might burst. She considered feeding them right away, but if she did they would be up all night. Starting them on a proper eating schedule to rebuild their poor little bodies would mean resetting their biological eating and sleeping clocks. Perhaps once those were molded back to the norm, other things could be worked on to help them. Until then, though, it was sleeping time. Lighting her horn, the Princess of the night closed the balcony doors and dismissed her two guards. When things were secure, she lit the hearth with magic to heat the place nicely. Opening her closet, she got blankets and began to pass them out. As a princess, she had a rather nice excess, and everypony got one. They began to cluster together, mostly around the fire, to settle down. Reaching, she turned the lamps down to make the room dark. “Good night little ones.” She said softly.

There was silence and darkness, but the Princess could feel eyes on her. She walked slowly to her bed, as not to step on any of them. Pulling the curtains open, she found no less than five of her children already curled up on it. She smiled a little tiredly, and turned to the couch. Four of them cramped together there. Her sitting pillow? No, that was taken up too. Where would she sleep? She turned a slow circle, and saw a set of pastel purple eyes looking at her from the left of the hearth. The singular filly of the herd. Luna’s expression turned neutral. There was vast, cautious intelligence in those eyes. She didn’t know why, but those eyes seemed so much older than they should’ve been. They were large, expressive, and a little reproachful. As if to say ‘how dare you’ something-or-another. There was strength in them. She respected anypony that could look her in the eyes and not tremble in fear or star-struck adoration. Slowly, the alicorn approached the filly who was settled by the fire. “There’s room.” The little filly said, gesturing. The boys were curled up this way and that in a nice semi-circle around the hearth, but there was a little space for one or two more bodies.

“Thank you.” Luna said, sinking to her belly next to her. “What is your name, little one?” she asked softly, as not to wake the others who’d already passed out in exhaustion. The orange filly studied her a little, as if unsure whether to answer or not. “Please tell us? We wish to know so we know our one daughter’s name.” she gestured gently, showing her the carpet of colts around the room.

“Scootaloo.” She said softly, sidling a little closer until she was side by side with the princess. “Are you really gonna be everypony here’s Mom?” she said, her voice whispery and unsure. She looked up at her Majesty with those big, soft eyes. Like she didn’t want to believe such a wonderful thing was true.

“Yes, little Scootaloo.” Luna extended her wing slowly, resting it on the filly’s back as they lay in front of the fire. “And I shalt be thy mother as well.” She leaned to nuzzle her, but Scootaloo shied away a little. The Princess smiled softly. “Forgive me.” She said guiltily. “I’ve always wanted children, merely never had any.” She stared into the fires for a bit, silent. She turned to check on the colts. They lay everywhere throughout the room, pressed together like so many adorable little warm bodies.
Scootaloo didn’t move away, merely laid down with her blanket and the Princess’ wing over her back. The weight of comfort and feathers was… nice, she had to admit. She was wary of the massive alicorn, but if she was going to feed and care for everypony, maybe she could stick around. “Well, now you have lots of us.” Scootaloo smiled quietly, turning and sticking her head under her blanket. Luna knew there was more to the child then met the eye. Why else would the colts consciously keep her at the center mass of their little street-herd? Odd that they already seemed to have some sort of foal-herd mentality when she'd picked them up from all over the city...

End of Part 2