Life of Cinder

by SandStorms

Running Away

Cinder opened his eyes and flicked them across the room. Good no one is up, he thought. He jumped down from the bed quietly grabbed his saddlebags and slowly made his way across the room. He avoided spots on the wood floor weaving across the floor, back and forth, what was a ten second walk from Cinder’s bed to the door took a full minute. Cinder expertly dodged the squeaky boards, for he took the liberty of memorizing the location of everyone, he planned a path beforehand and had walked it many times in the night. While doing this, almost getting caught a few time when he missed placed a hoof. Some of the children where such light sleepers that Cinder bet they would wake to a pen dropping from the other side of the room.
Cinder finally made it across and pulled the key out of the top of the bag and put it into the door leading to the lobby. It slid in and with a turn the tumblers unlocked. Cinder turned to make sure he had not awoken anypony, when he saw all was still he opened the door and walked out shutting it behind himself.
Cinder’s heart was beating so fast that he didn’t notice the door click shut…
He walked into the lobby that he had come in when he first arrived. A single candle was lit on the front desk. Sitting in the chair was an older pony, probably into his late adult years. Though, much to Cinder’s relief was sound asleep. Cinder, almost at a crawl, moved towards the front doors of the orphanage. Cinder carefully slid the key into the lock once more and made a move to turn the key when he heard a voice behind him, and with the luck Cinder has had the past few weeks, it was none other than the bully himself.
“What are you doing?” Blitz asked forcefully.
Cinder whipped around and faced the pony. Great just what I needed! “None of your business! Now go away!” Cinder said in a hushed tone so that he didn’t awake the sleeping pony.
“You’re running away aren’t you! You know I probably would get some sort of reward for stopping you, and you would be stuck here with me too, then we could have all sorts of fun!” Blitz said not worrying about the pony at the front desk. “Come here so I can turn you into the administrator!” He said walking over towards Cinder.
Cinder without thinking reached back to his bags and grabbed an item he hadn’t bothered to look at since he left his house for the last time. He wrapped his hoof around the handle of the knife and whipped it out, and pointed it at Blitz.
Blitz froze at the sight of the knife. Cinder growled, “Take one more step and there will only be one reward you will be getting.”
Blitz looked horrified, he even took a step back in fear.
Cinder then turned unlocked the door, swung it open, grabbed the key and ran for his life. He ran for a few blocks then turned down a dark alley and fell into a pile in the corner. He was frozen in fear of what he had just done. I just threatened to kill a pony… That thought passed through his mind a few time when he looked down at the knife he clenched in his hoof. He through it down in fear and it skittered across the stones. Cinder must have sat there an hour because the sun began to rise. Cinder rose grabbed the knife and returned it to his bags wrapped in the towel.
He then grabbed a slip of paper out of his bag and read what was written. It was given to him by Stone for when he made his escape. It contained the address of his apartment. Cinder put the note away and trotted down the road hoping no one would be up yet.
Cinder walked down street after street seeing more and more ponies every minute that passed. Cinder worried that he would soon be caught. Then again you don’t often see a young colt walking around with decently sized saddle bags on a Saturday…
Just when Cinder thought he was completely lost his spotted the street he was looking for. He looked down it and on the end he saw a large building. Cinder went to it and saw it was apartments. He went up a floor and found the room number that was written, then Cinder cautiously raised a hoof and knocked on the door.
Silence….
Cinder waited a few seconds more and knocked again. This time Cinder heard movement within, there was a thud and some shuffling sounding behind the door. Then Cinder heard the bolt of the door click open. He heard a voice say annoyingly while the door opened, “I told you I would give you your money once I have it! I have only just moved in---“ Stone stopped when the door was fully open. He looked as though he had just gotten out of bed, judging by the sounds Cinder had heard, he thought that it was a logical guess. Stone stood there for a few seconds frozen.
Cinder broke the silence, “I could just go, if you want me to come back later…” he said turning.
“No Cinder wait!” Stone snapped out of it. “It’s great to see you!” Stone said pulling Cinder into a hug.
“Great to see you too.” Cinder said though it was muffled by Stones mane.
“Come in!” Stone said turning and walking into the apartment.
Cinder walked in and saw things cluttered everywhere, “Nice place I guess.”
“Sorry about the mess,” Stone said sitting on the sofa, “Sit here I want to hear about how the escape went!”
Cinder sighed looked at the ground and sighed, he made up his mind, he was going to tell Stone the whole truth. Cinder explained what happened starting from when Stone had left. When Cinder got to the part about the incident with Blitz the night before, he pulled the knife out of his bag. “…and I threatened him with this…” He said.
Stone was silent his face unreadable as he looked at the knife. He finally said after a minute. “Where did you get that?” He pointed at the knife.
Cinder said picking up the knife and returning it to his bags, “It is the knife that killed my parents; I even was the one who pulled it from my father’s side…” Cinder’s eyes filling with tears.
“Why do you torture yourself with it?” Stone asked.
“I don’t ever want to forget the ponies that ruined my chances of having a normal life,” Cinder said, “Look I haven’t slept all night, do you have somewhere for me to sleep?”
“Yea I took the liberty of making up a small bed next to mine where you can sleep.” Stone said standing and walking from the room.
Cinder followed and saw the bed he was talking about. It was half the size of his original bed at the orphanage, but the perfect size for Cinder. He placed his bags next to it and laid down.
“Good night, or should I say good morning?” Stone joked.
Cinder laughed at that, he laid his head down and his eyes began to close. Cinder then fell into a deep sleep, he was safe.