//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Angelswift // by Nevel //------------------------------// The sun was high in the sky at this point and shining through the window. Lance had positioned his foreleg so the sun wouldn't shine into Cherry's face. He wanted her to sleep as long as she could. Lance hadn't slept all night. The images of last night kept creeping back into his mind, whenever he closed his eyes. Was his father dead? What if he had been home just a minute later? Would Cherry Blossom be lying in a hospital instead of right here with her big brother? Lance held back a tear at the thought. He had to be strong. For her. "Ponyville!" The conductor shouted. He had shown up beside them and was shouting loud enough to wake any other passengers who may have fallen asleep. "Ponyville is the next stop!" Cherry Blossom stirred and then looked up at her brother. "Morning sleepyhead." Lance said to her with a smile. "How you feeling?" Cherry said nothing. Instead she rested her head back down against his foreleg. She's been through a lot. Lance thought to himself. It's a whole new world for her now. She never got to go far outside at home. Taking the garbage to the bins outside was the furthest she had ever gotten to go. Now she was out in the big wide world with only her brother to protect her. She was scared, but she knew she was safe. "Wanna take a look outside?" Lance asked her. "You can see our new home from here!" Curiosity got the better of her. Cherry Blossom looked towards the window, then sat up and stepped over to see outside. After letting her eyes adjust to the light, she saw it. Ponyville looked magnificent. No large buildings, no giant signs or eye soars obstructing your view. No flashing lights going all day and night. Ponyville was a simple quiet town. Miles of open fields of grass, beautiful and unique houses. A farm with thousands of trees, some lakes and even a forest at the far edge. And above it all was a single mountain. A city seemed to be hanging off the side of it. Like it was floating just below the clouds. It looked like a princess’s palace. Cherry turned towards her big brother, her large hazel eyes alight with wonder. "What's that big palace up there?" She asked with excitement in her voice. "That's Canterlot." Lance replied. "That's where all the rich fancy ponies live. It's also home to the princesses." "You mean Luna and Celetseia?" Cherry's smile was getting bigger at the mention of the Princesses. Lance smiled back as he corrected her. "Celestia, yes. And remember when I told you that one day I was gonna become a Royal guard?" Cherry nodded at him. "Well, this'll make things easier. Ponyville is right in the shadow of Canterlot, so we won't have so far to go once I've saved up enough bits and we could then move to the city. Would you like to live up in that big palace with the princesses?" Cherry smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "Ponyville!" The train conductor was making his way back down the train. "Next stop is Ponyville!" Lance turned back to Cherry Blossom. "Well, this is our stop. You ready?" The smile faded from Cherry Blossom's face. She had her hopes up about going to live in Canterlot and completely forgot that that wasn't where they were going. "Hey. Don't worry.“ Lance tried to comfort her. ”We'll be there one day. I just have to get a job and save up. It will take a while but I promise, you'll like our new home in Ponyville." Cherry raised her head up and nodded. "And besides, it's just you and me now. Together." Lance gave her his best smile and she returned it back, jumping down from the seat and ready to see her new home. The train slowly came to a stop. The other few passengers began making the way off, but by the looks of it, no other ponies were coming on. With how early it was, it wasn't too surprising. They were lucky they could even get a train that late to take them to Ponyville. They stepped off the train and the sun shined down on the both of them. The clouds were mostly cleared, making for a beautiful day and a deep blue sky. The ground was still wet beneath their hooves and the wind had an early morning chill to it that made Lance wish he'd packed something warm for them both to wear. He looked down at Cherry Blossom and saw her shivering. Lance knelt down next to her, low enough for her to climb on his back. "Come on, let’s find our new home." Lance smiled at her as she quickly jumped onto her brothers back, then they took off at a quick trot. * * * Every house in Ponyville was bright and colourful. Some houses even designed to look like sweets. All except this one. Walls of dark grey stone, a green door with paint peeling, dirty windows on either side of the door, overgrown vines clawing up the walls to the roof. The roof itself was in serious disrepair, faded red tiles were missing from the roof, and the chimney was cracked and beyond use. Lance Angelswift, with Cherry Blossom at his side, looked at the house in silence. Neither saying a word. Lance knew this house would be abandoned, since this was their mother’s birth house and after inheriting it, she moved out but for some reason, never sold it. The house was on private land, close enough to the Everfree Forest to have the shadows of the trees touch the back of the house at the suns lowest point, yet so far away from Ponyville itself, that no other home could be seen. Only one path led to this house and it was a small overgrown dirt path that had weeds all the way down it. "Let’s take a look inside." Lance said quietly. He hadn't expected the house to be completely left to rot over the years. Surely somepony would have helped to keep it in repair. Beautify the landscape? Lance walked to the door. He pushed against the door and expected it to be locked, but to his utter surprise, it opened. The door creaked loudly and immediately stopped. Something was blocking the other side of the door. Lance looked down and saw letters. Years of letters all piled up. Lance gave a hard push and all the letters slid across the room. Many of them looked surprisingly new. Which meant someone was still sending mail. "Well, looks like we'll have plenty to read." Lance tried to joke, but then noticed Cherry wasn't next to him. He turned around to see she was at the window, looking at a flower bed below it. Lance walked over and saw a row of weeds and small bits of litter and leaves that seemed to have blown over from the forest. But that wasn't what she was looking at. Among the weeds was a single white Calla-lily, drooping downwards but not touching anything below it. It looked like it was fighting to prevent itself from falling and touching the weeds and dirt below. Cherry looked at it like it was the most beautiful thing in the world and it was struggling to survive. "Don't worry" Lance whispered "We'll have plenty of time to fix everything up and make it all look like a real home, you'll see." The little pink filly didn't respond straight away. She just kept looking at the lone flower. "Can we help it?" Cherry asked, finally looking at her brother. Lance gave her a smile back. "Of course we can." He looked around, seeing if there was a watering can or anything like that nearby. Lance told cherry to wait there while he went around the house. There wasn't much to find, just a large open space. No garden, just weeds, long grass and the forest trees about a hundred yards away. No, there was something else. Near the forest edge was exactly what he was looking for. Lying on its side was a small metal watering can. Lance went over to it and leaned down to pick it up in his mouth. It was quite rusty at first look but the handle looked safe enough to grab. Biting down on the handle, he lifted it up and turned toward the house. But something pulled on it, forcing him to look back to the forest. Some vines had grown around the spout and were tightly wrapped around it, going into the ground beneath the long grass. Lance pulled hard on the watering can and the vines pulled tight. Lance pulled again harder and this time the vines tore off. He stumbles a step, just managing to keep his balance. Then he heard a moaning sound coming from inside the forest. Lance stared into the forest. Surely it was just his mind playing tricks on him. That forest didn't just moan in pain. Did it? Lance blamed it on a lack of sleep then shook his head. He carried the watering can back towards the house, turning his head slowly one more time, back towards the forest. "Is something wrong?" Cherry made Lance jump right out of his skin, dropping the watering can. Cherry had been wondering what took her big brother so long and came to check on him. Lance caught his breath then turned to her. "No. No, nothing’s wrong. Just...“ Lance turned back to the forest once more, not finishing his sentence. "What? What is it?" Cherry started to sound nervous. Lance turned back to her and then laughed at himself. "It's nothing. Your big brother's just a little tired, that's all." He kneeled down and then picked up the watering can in his mouth. Lance headed over to the front door and went inside. * * * The house wasn't in the best shape. Dust had settled on every surface. Mould and mildew spread out from the windows, cobwebs covered every corner and hung between every open doorway. On the bright side, the house still had running water. Lance had let Cherry Blossom water the flower in the garden, and told her that the other weeds would have to be cleared out soon. She had asked to do it right away, but without the proper tools, it would just be a waste of time. They had checked every room in the house, seeing what could be kept and what needed replacing. Food was top of the priority list. There was no fridge and the cupboards held nothing but a few rotten pieces of fruit and a few expired cakes. All of which were now lying in the bottom of the bin outside. Everything in the house was completely covered in dust. There was only one faded blue cushion in the house and a small bed. Other than that, there was nothing else here. While food was a top priority, there was an even bigger problem. Money. Lance had spent all his bits getting them here and that may have been a foalish move. No money means no food. He wasn't about to let his sister starve. They were both pretty hungry by this point and it looked like they would have to make do with what they could find. Being ponies, they could eat grass no problem and there was plenty of it outside. But it looked quite unhealthy. This grass hasn't been trimmed down in years and most of it had been touched by all kinds of small animals from the forest. The colour of the grass was a bit off too. Instead of a healthy green, it was lighter, almost going yellow like it was dying. A lot of work was going to be needed to fix up this house. Lance went outside and picked up the healthiest looking pieces of grass he could find. Even just in his teeth the grass felt brittle and stale. He used the watering can to gather the grass in and planned on washing it in the sink once he was back inside, just to be safe. There were no plates or tables in the house, so Lance cleaned off the side counter for them to eat off of. They ate slowly, Cherry protesting the taste of the grass. But there was nothing Lance could do. This would have to do for at least one day. * * * The rest of the day, they spent cleaning up as much of the house as possible. It was a horrible and filthy job, but they kept at it. Lance eventually got to the letters on the floor by the door. Maybe some of these are for mother? Lance thought to himself. There were a lot of letters, but what surprised him wasn't that these letters were addressed to all different ponies, but they were all delivered to the wrong address. What kind of mail-pony would make a mistake this bad? Repeatedly! He scooped up a large number of them, mostly those that hadn't faded over the years and looked at them. The one that grabbed his attention the most was a bright pink one which was addressed to “Mr and Mrs Cake” Sugercube Corner? I think I saw that while walking through the town. Lance stared down at a few other ones. Most looked like junk mail, but he saw another pink envelope. This one was addressed to a pony named Miss Cheerilee, Ponyville Elementary School. An elementary school? That's perfect. I can ask her if Cherry Blossom can enroll there. Lance had a plan. First he'd head to the Sugercube Corner, to deliver the letter, and then ask for directions to the school. Looking outside, Lance saw that it was only the mid-afternoon. Plenty of the day to go. “Cherry?” Lance called out to his sister, she came around the corner looking like she had been rolling around in the dust and dirt. “Yes?” Lance couldn't help suppress a laugh seeing how silly she looked. Cherry saw her brother trying not to laugh, then tilted her head, dust drifting off her mane. That was it. Lance broke out laughing as she looked even more confused. “What's so funny?” she asked innocently. Lance composed himself, as he looked back to his sister, wiping away a tear with a hoof. “We're going out,” Lance said “but first we've gotta get you all cleaned up.” Cherry looked down at herself and noticed how filthy she was. “Well, you’re not exactly Mr Soaps either!” Cherry replied with a smile. Lance gave himself a look over. He was just as filthy as she was. Cherry giggled when she saw his face, and then poked her tongue out at him. “Oh no you didn't!” Lance started her down. “Oh yes I did!” Cherry responded, and stuck out her tongue again. Lance chased her and she ran into the next room, Lance jumped at her but Cherry screamed and then she moved swiftly out the way, laughing as ran for the door again, looking for a place to hide. “You can't escape me!” Lance gave chase again right into the bedroom. She was clearly hiding under the bed and Lance stopped. He then slowly began walking around the bed. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Lance called out in a sing song voice. “I know you're here.” Lance mock looked in all the silliest places. Behind dusty curtains, on the bed itself. But with very few places to actually look before being forced to go where he knew she was, that part of the game had to end quickly. “I know where you are. You're. Right. HERE!” Lance shouted as he dropped to his belly and was face to face with her under the bed. She screamed and turned to crawl out the other side, but he grabbed her by the tail and dragged her out, she was screaming between fits of giggles as he began tickling her! “S-STOP! HAHA! STOP!” She cried out between breaths and screams. Tears forming in her eyes. “Do you give up?” Lance kept tickling her as she rolled and squirmed on the dusty and dirty floor. “YE-YES!! I-I GIVE UP! I GIVE UP!!” Cherry stopped screaming as he stopped with the onslaught of tickling but she continued to laugh afterwards none the less. Lance pulled her up and held her in a tight hug. They both stayed there for about a minute holding each other and catching their breath. “Come on, we need to get cleaned up.” Lance set Cherry Blossom down. She still had tears in her eyes, but they were the kind that wouldn't break a heart, but rather melt it. They had both been through a lot in the last twenty four hours. Their father, the long trip leaving them with no money, a practically empty house on the edge of a creepy forest. But as long as they had each other, they knew everything would turn out fine.