Prologue
The white pegasus stood looking through the glass at her newborn filly. Though the filly had a black coat whereas her parents both had white ones the mare had to admit that the filly was rather beautiful. The pegasus looked to the unicorn beside her and they both smiled at their filly. A white mare with a pink mane and a red plus sign looking cutie mark indicating she was a nurse then walked in and looked at the proud parents of the little black alicorn sleeping peacefully in the bed. "What shall you name this pretty little filly?" the nurse asked.
"I think we should call her Shadow Rose," the filly's father said.
"That sounds like a wonderful name," the nurse said smiling and picking up a clipboard sitting on a table by the wall. "Shall I write that down?" she asked turning to the pegasus.
"Why Shadow Rose?" the pegasus asked the unicorn beside her. She personally thought that it sounded nice and had a ring to it but was curious as to where her husband had come up with the idea.
"She has a black coat and black mane with stripes the same color as your red mane," he said, "it reminds me of a rose hiding in the shadows of the leaves on a bush." The pegasus looked lovingly at her husband fondly remembering their first date. They had had a picnic by a rose bush in Canterlot's biggest and best garden and she had looked at a rose hiding in the shadow of a big leaf and picked it for him.
"I think that's a lovely name," the pegasus said. The nurse pony then wrote the name down and took the clipboard with her as she left the room.
"It's a shame she didn't get my coat or mane," the unicorn said with an air of superiority, "if she had gotten my blonde mane or white coat she would've looked stunning."
"Yes well maybe she'll have your blue eyes," the pegasus said knowing that it was best to just go along with it, "though she certainly does have my eye shape." Since the filly had yet to open her eyes since being born the pegasus and the unicorn could only tell that she had the same eye shape as her mother. They were both eager to see if she would have the leaf green eyes of her mother or the ice blue eyes of her father.
It was then that the filly woke up from her nap and yawned stretching her tiny wings. She slowly opened her eyelids to reveal a pair of blood red cat's eyes. The pegasus was so shocked to look upon the sight of her filly's demonic eyes that she bolted straight into the roof flapping her wings frantically. The unicorn looked at his wife alarmed by her reaction. "What is it!?" he asked, "What's wrong!?"
"Her eyes," the pegasus said slowly lowering herself back to floor level, "will you just look at her eyes." She pointed a shaking hoof to the filly staring at her mother and father so innocently directing her husband to the source of her horror and shock. The pegasus then turned her head away no longer being able to bear the sight of her filly or her eyes.
"What about them?" he asked still staring at his panicked wife. The pegasus gave him a hard look then turned her head to the filly in an unspoken instruction to him. He slowly tore his eyes from the pegasus still extremely worried about her panicky state and turned his head towards the filly. He gasped from the shock of what he saw before him. "What in all of Equestria?!" he boomed. He slowly backed away from the glass along with his wife. "They're absolutely demonic," he said shakily.
"She is an absolute raksha," the pegasus said using the word meaning demon from an old language she had once studied. "It just all fits her black coat and parts of her mane, her eyes, everything," she said shuddering.
"I can't believe I am the father of that," the unicorn said disbelievingly.
"I can't believe I gave birth to that," the pegasus said shaking her head, "I mean what's wrong with us that we had a filly like that?" She looked at her husband for comfort or a conformation that there was nothing wrong with them that it was all some joke.
"There's nothing wrong with me," he said an undertone of disgust and hurt in his voice, "I'm shocked you would think such a thing." She immediately realized what she said and dwelled in the odd sense of deja vu. She recalled when she had once before asked him almost the same thing and how he had said the same thing.
It had happened on the night they had first met. She was touring the most famous garden in Canterlot on the night of the Grand Galloping Gala looking for the rarest lily in all of Equestria, the sacred Nymphaea Caerulea or Water Rose when she bumped into the white unicorn that later became her husband. "Hey watch it," he had said glairing down at her. The haughtiness in his attitude had immediately got on her nerves and she didn't even bother to look up at whom she was talking to before she smarted off.
"Why don't you watch it," she had said angrily. She was already irritated trying to look for the rare Water Rose that she had promised a friend she would get a picture of so they could use it for a lesson for the class they taught together on gardening and the attitude of the pony she had run into wasn't helping calm her down any.
"How dare you speak to me that way," the stallion said, "there is clearly something wrong with you to have not only run into me but also speak to me in such a disrespectful tone."
"What's wrong with me?!" she said no longer trying to contain all her irritation and anger built up over the night, "What's wrong with you!? You certainly couldn't have been paying attention to where you were going no more than I was if you bumped into me!" "And let me tell you something sir," she said still going off, "I don't care who you are and what respect you expect to have but you won't get any respect from me talking to ponies that way."
"There's nothing wrong with me," he said an undertone of disgust and hurt in his voice, "I'm shocked you would think such a thing." She had then looked up to look the stallion in the eye and realized who she was talking to giving a barely audible gasp she backed away a little. After a moment's thought decided she didn't care who this pony was she was going to put him in his place.
"Do you speak to everypony that way?" she asked calming down a little after ranting. He slowly shook his head yes obviously not wanting to speak. "Well it's amazing no pony has hit you yet," she then gave a little laugh having felt like the stallion now knew who he was messing with and moved a little closer to him and extended her hoof in greeting. Instead of taking her hoof and shaking it he burst into tears, she stood there shocked before wrapping her hooves around him in a comforting hug. She had then proceeded to calm him down and they sat there talking. He told her of how he had come to the garden to be alone after he had been hit by a mare after being self-centered and haughty all evening and how horrible he now felt for it and she told him of the flower she was looking for and together they looked for it finally finding it and laughing at the many tales they had to tell each other.
"You're right dear there's nothing wrong with you," she said leaning her head on his shoulder and remembering that night, "or me for that matter." She took some comfort in that knowledge and with a deep breath sat down in a nearby chair. She was suddenly exhausted and didn't know what to do now. She heard the door open and saw the nurse pony come back in.
"Okay everything's set," she said smiling, "you guys can take little Shadow Rose home as soon as you'd like." Having had her eyes closed the nurse didn't see the grim expressions on the couples faces or see the horrified look pass between them. After a couple moments of silence the nurse opened her eyes to see the looks on the two ponies' faces. "Is something the matter?" the kind nurse asked worried about what seemed to be troubling the new parents.
"Yes," the pegasus said, "I can't bear to look at that filly let alone take her home and raise her."
"I fully agree with my wife," the unicorn said, "I simply could not love that filly and raise her as though I did." He looked at his wife for support who just nodded her head in agreement.
"You two ought to be ashamed of yourselves," the nurse said now angered with the newbie parents, "why how could anything be so wrong with this little filly that you two have to act like Celestia would lock you in a cage in the deepest darkest forest and throw away the key for having the filly?"
"Her eyes," the pegasus said, "that filly has the worst most demonic eyes I have ever seen." She then shuddered and buried her face in the unicorn's shoulder. The nurse turned to look at the filly to see what the couple could be talking about and gasped at the sight for she was looking into a pair of blood red cat's eyes that did indeed look absolutely demonic on the little black alicorn. She shuddered and turned back around to face the couple.
"I can see why you say she's demonic," the nurse started, "but she is still your filly and you shouldn't judge her just by her eyes." She looked sympathetically at the two ponies she had been angry with only moments before, "you owe her that much." The couple looked at the alicorn and trembled at the blood red cat's eyes that looked back at them wondering what the future could possibly hold.
The next day the filly's parents took her to the house they were staying at in Daffodil Valley near the Everfree forest where they had been visiting some family when they'd had Shadow Rose. Due to Shadow Rose being a newborn she couldn't travel all the way to Canterlot until she was at least 6 months old so the family stayed in Daffodil Valley with the filly's grandparents and parents to the filly's mother until then. The filly's parents never ventured outside with the filly or allowed anypony to know that they even had a filly except the filly's father having to write to Princess Celestia and tell why he and his wife weren't there doing their duties back in Canterlot.
After 6 months of the filly's parents trying desperately to look past the demonic eyes of the filly they finally realized they would have to make a decision. They could take Shadow Rose back to Canterlot and raise her as they had for the past 6 months or they could take her somewhere and hope somepony who could truly love the filly would find her and raise her as their own. As much as they tried to look past the filly's eyes there was always that blood read cat eye stare haunting them and they both knew they could not give the filly the love she deserved to have.
"I just can't do it anymore," the pegasus exclaimed after three days of debating on what to do with Shadow Rose. She looked at the little black alicorn who was playing with one of her few toys and winced as the filly looked at her.
"You can't do what?" the unicorn asked somewhat confused as to what exactly she was talking about.
"I just can't look at Shadow Rose and pretend I can truly love her in a way any parent should love their baby," she said sadly, "she deserves parents who can love her for who she is."
"I agree with you completely dear but what should we do about it?" the unicorn asked. He didn't want to abandon the filly but he knew he and his wife couldn't love her and treat her like she would need her parents to love and treat her as she grew up. He wanted to do what was best for the filly and both he and his wife couldn't decide what that was exactly. "What have your parents said about it?" he asked the pegasus. He knew she had told them the situation and asked for their advice. Both her parents were pegasi who were known in their community for their wisdom on life and he felt they could certainly help them with the painful decision he and his wife were trying so desperately to make.
"They said we had to do what we thought was best for her," the pegasus answered solemnly, "and I think that means we have to leave her somewhere where she'll have the chance to find somepony who can love her despite her eyes." She looked sadly at the filly oblivious to what her parents were going through and let a tear escape the contents of her emerald green eyes.
"You really think abandoning her would be best?" the unicorn asked seriously. His wife slowly shook her head yes and they knew then what they had to do for their filly's sake. "Ok then," he said, "tonight you should take her into the Everfree forest and there we'll leave her and hope somepony finds her." The pegasus shook her head and began to make preparations to do just that.
Later in the dark dead of the night well after Luna had raised the moon the white pegasus carrying the little black filly snuck through the town and into the Everfree forest that bordered it. Once they had traveled so deep into the forest that the filly could never find her way out the pegasus set the filly down and laid a red blanket with the word raksha magically engraved on it on the filly "I'm sorry," the pegasus said tearfully before spreading her wings and flying away leaving the filly to whatever the future held for her.
The filly looked at her mother's silhouette as it flew off. The filly crawled under a leaf of a plant that was twice her size and curled up to wait for the mother she assumed was coming back for her. As she sat she nervously looked around scared that something from the shadows that surrounded her would snatch her away from her safe place of hiding. She waited and waited for her mother to come and take her back home and as the night grew colder she began to think that maybe her mother wasn't going to come back. "Maybe she's forgotten me," she thought, "or maybe the scary shadows captured her." The filly started to shake from the night that continued to grow cold and from the reoccurring thoughts running through her head. She curled into a ball under the blanket to keep warm and started to cry wishing desperately for somepony to wrap her in their hooves and take her someplace safe and warm.
As the filly lay there crying she heard a sound that was not her wails, she briefly ceased her crying to listen and recognized the distant sound of hoofsteps rustling the thick undergrowth of the forest. She quickly sat up and looked around hoping to find her mother or father coming to take her home. She hesitantly called out one of the few words she knew at the age of six months, "mama?" She looked around again and called out once more. She had given up hope and laid back down when the hoofsteps came closer. "Mama?" she called once more her heart beating so fast she could hardly breathe.
"No your mother is not me," a strange new voice said, "come away from your place of hiding I want to see to whom I'm talking to." The filly hesitantly crawled out from under the giant leaf the red blanket that was her mother's parting gift dragging behind her. She stared curiously at the strange black and white striped pony never before having seen a pony such as the one standing before her. "Is this a little filly I see before me?" the pony asked. The filly looked up at the pony giving the pony a better look of her red cat's eyes. "Your eyes are a sight to behold," the pony said then she glanced around, "little filly have you been left here in the cold?" The filly slowly shook her head yes and hung her head thinking that it was all her fault. "Little filly do not be ashamed," the pony said reassuringly lifting the filly's head, "it is not you who is to blame it is your mother and father that has abandoned their daughter."
The pony then bent down to inspect the blanket and saw the word written on it, "Raksha it says here on this blanket you drag with you so Raksha I shall call you." The pony then started walking back in the direction she had come from. The filly watched the strange pony walk away then glanced at the sky where her mother had taken off to. The pony stopped and turned towards the filly, "come with me little filly your parents will not come so I shall give you a place you can call home." The filly looked once more at the sky then quickly crawled to the pony that picked her up to carry her to wherever it was they were going. The filly looked at the sky once more then gave up all hope her mother was ever coming back for her.