Read The Bridge
 
Melody cradled the baby, before looking up at the mysterious visitor.  
“Where did she come from?”
 
A saddened, tired, low voice responded.  
“Her mother was…. a very good friend of mine…”
 
A tear joined the rain drops that were drenching a leonine snout. Lead Choir put a hoof on his wife’s shoulder before looking up at the shadowed face that towered over him.
 
“Where is she?”
 
“… Gone…”  
The being looked down for some time as it braced one of its hands on the doorframe to steady itself. It never made a move to enter the house.  
“Please… I don’t know the father either other than he is deceased. I ca-n’t explain much, I don’t have much time… I beg you!”
 
The creature looked up at the couple. Even in the dim light, its red eyes looked full of one emotion. Grief. It looked at the sleeping child.
 
“She must be cared for, but I cannot-”
 
Melody Chime walked up and fearlessly put her free hoof on the creature’s lowered arm, balancing on her hind legs. She looked up at the tall figure, a small but honest smile forming on her face. She knew what was being asked, and nodded. A tiny squeak diverted all three adults’ attention. The baby was awake, looking up at her surroundings with curious eyes. She looked at her audience, before giggling gleefully and reaching up past her wrappings, reaching out for them all.
 
Lead Choir couldn’t help but smile at the tiny tot. Her eagerness to reach out and show affection to complete strangers was a strong tug on the heart strings. All of what was happening was sudden and demanded investigation later. But for now, he was more than content at what was being told to him. And the words of a soul clearly pushed to desperation’s threshold were rarely lies. Besides, the couple was already adoring the infant that squealed with joy as they looked down at her. Lead Choir couldn’t avert his gaze as he rubbed his head against his wife’s.
 
“She will be loved here…”
 
The figure shifted, slowly extending one of its long arms. Sharp claws were carefully held away as it offered up a gentle paw to the infant. After a few looks of amazement and curiosity at a hand that dwarfed her, the little pegasus foal was soon rubbing her head up against its soft palm with a sweet smile. She snuggled up to the creature for a bit, before letting a drawn out, content yawn and curling up against it to nap. The stranger, the infant’s protector, smiled as another tear flowed down from his eye. He very slowly pulled his paw back into darkness.  
“It is well then… Be good parents to her…”
 
Before either of the couple could respond, the beast turned tail and bolted off into the storm. Melody, not wanting the child to catch a draft, was quick to carry the baby into the living room as her husband got the door. Lead Choir had just managed to grasp the handle when lightning flashed and lit up the forest. He spotted the newcomer standing almost a hundred meters down the road, standing up and looking up at the sky. It was not any creature or being he’d ever seen before in his life, but looked like it had a crown of some sort on its head. It was standing there one moment, and it was gone the next. It didn’t run off the road or dive into the trees. It just, vanished.
 
Wanting to get one occurrence out of the way before he brought up a new one, Lead Choir closed and relocked the door before seeing to the baby they apparently just adopted.
 
The stallion’s heart swelled. Suspicious circumstances or not, he already knew an unbreakable bond was being set. Helped that the baby seemed to almost radiate joy and love to all those around her. Melody looked her husband in the eye as a joyful tear ran down her face. They’d been wanting a child for so long, now it seemed that nature itself wouldn’t stop them.  
The two earth ponies beamed at the sleeping pegasus foal.
 
“What should we call her?…”
 
Melody looked over to the song she’d just been playing. It was a foreign piece, but one she held very dear. It was her wedding song.
 
“…Mi Amore Cadenza.”