Tor Ironclad
I woke up this morning to the sounds of a screaming foal. Before I opened my eyes, I remember thinking, “If this screaming isn’t by my hooves, it will be shortly.” I’m not much of a morning pony. Slowly, rustily, I opened my eyes. Standing in front of me was yet ANOTHER terrified pony. During my time in Ponyville, seeing terrified ponies had become a rather common occurrence. This one was younger than most. She was a white foal with a lavender and pink mane. She resembled somepony I knew, which made me even more slow to compose myself. Wow, did this filly have a set of pipes, it felt like she had been screaming for three minutes before I finally said something. “Hey... Now. Ho-hold up a sec.” I was having trouble formulating my words. I’m not used to having to explain myself this early in the morning. I got up off of the sofa and started moving toward her “I’m one o tha... them good guys.”
I must not have been very convincing, because moments later, I was out cold, lying on the ground. I woke up being shaken gently by miss Rarity. I was a little dizzy, and my head hurt. Lying next to me was a very badly dented frying pan. “Did I do something?” I asked, slightly out of concern that I actually did something bad, but mostly because I was concerned for that poor, poor frying pan. I stared back down at the pathetic and hopelessly dented piece of cast iron, with much regret in my cold heart. My mind drifted to the family the pan no doubt had left behind, young little pannlings that would grow up poor and without a father. It was almost enough to make me weep. Then I remembered that it was just a frying pan and snapped out of my spiraling depression. “Uhhhh... I can pay for that.” I said embarrassed out of my mind.
“Don’t worry about that at the moment, darling. I know somepony who has an apology for you. Tor, this is my sister.” Replied miss Rarity.
In front of me stood the foal I had seen before. She was looking down at her hooves and occasionally scuffing them. She looked like she felt pretty bad about it. “I sure am sorry mister. I thought you might be a burglar so I was really scared when I saw you on our couch. Please don’t be angry with me...”
I looked at her closely. She looked like she felt really bad about it. She still looked scared though. I realized what the reason for that was. “Oh, hey don’t sweat it, I get that a lot. And don’t worry about me being angry. My eyes... just kind of look like that. I promise you I’m not angry.” I could never be angry at a kid, it’s not in my nature. She perked up a bit. She was still very cautious though. I figured I’d try to make her feel a bit safer. “In fact, I’m quite impressed by your strength! Most fully grown stallions can’t even knock me out like that!” We both chuckled a bit, and so did miss Rarity. “Well she is rather good at causing trouble.” The filly gave a laugh that sounded like a ringing chime. She spoke. “Well there was that time with the toast.” The two sisters laughed at this, apparently it was some sort of inside joke. I wondered if Seething Mass would have known what they were talking about. “What is your name?” I asked her.
“I’m Sweetie Belle!” She said cheerily. “Well little miss Sweetie Belle, it is good to make your acquaintance! I’m Tor Ironclad.” “Well it’s nice to see that you’ve met my sister.” Said miss Rarity. I thought to myself, “So THAT’s why she looked so familiar.” “So, uhhh... What are you doing here, mister Tor?” miss Sweetie Belle asked
Inquisitively. “Oh. Well, I suppose I’ll be staying here for a while. I’m not really sure how long. Maybe until I can afford my own house.” After I said that, I could have sworn I saw Rarity’s expression change for a split second. “Are you Rarity’s special somepony?” I’ll admit, that froze me for a second. I glanced quickly at Rarity, who looked about as shocked as I probably did. “Um, well, not really.” Rarity quickly ushered us both into the kitchen, but I couldn’t help but notice her face was tinged with red.
We all sat down and had breakfast. I have problems eating breakfast. Or anything for that matter. There are a LOT of reasons. My jaw is still sore from when I had my Decorations installed, and the grill over my mouth only allows me to eat the tiniest bits of food at a time. It’s not very clean either, so after I eat I always have to rinse my grill out with water just to keep it sanitary. Today was particularly difficult. I can’t eat too well when somepony’s watching me, and there were two someponies watching me eat this morning. Miss Sweetie Belle was watching out of curiosity, and miss Rarity was staring at me as if she was in a dream. I couldn’t tell whom to stare back at, so I finished as fast as possible. “Thanks for the meal! Ummm... I should probably get going here, got more job hunting to do and all that.” I said nervously. I didn’t want to raise suspicion.
“Oh, wait, before you go, I have to tell you something! You see, Pinkie Pie has informed me that Sugarcube Corner is looking for new employees. Be sure to go talk to Pinkie today!” Miss Rarity said that as if she was going to see me off at the front door, but she in fact walked with me all the way to Sugarcube Corner. We had a nice walk together. She slowly but surely moved in closer to me while we were walking and talking. When we finally got to Sugarcube Corner, she was leaning in so close that she was almost touching me. I tried not to notice, but it was a little bit on the obvious side. I really didn’t know what to think. We stepped inside the bakery and were greeted unexpectedly by the one pony we had been expecting to see at Sugarcube Corner.
“Well good morning! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! What can we do for you?” miss Pinkie Pie cheerfully greeted us.
“I have brought Tor here because of the job opening!” miss Rarity replied.
“Oh how exciting and wonderful! That’ fantastic! You know we’ve been needing help for a while now! I’ll go and get Mr. and Mrs. Cake for you!” She exclaimed as she zipped off to grab her employers. They trotted downstairs and were obviously startled. I prepared to have to walk out the door, already planning the next locations on my job hunt, but then unexpectedly I heard Mrs. Cake speak.
“So are you Pinkie’s friend Tor? She’s been telling us all about you for the past few weeks! If you want a job, we can give you a chance. If you do well today, we’ll hire you.”
“Really? That’d be great!” I answered her. Why hadn’t I just started looking here?
“If you’ll follow me, I show you where you’ll be doing most of your work!” Mr. Cake instructed. He looked pretty happy to have a hand.
He took me to an alley behind Sugarcube Corner. The cobblestones were a different color here. They were covered in a thin white dust. A lot of white dust. “This is where we bring our shipments of ingredients! As you can see, there’s flour all over the place.” Mr. Cake told me. “This is mostly why we needed help. For some reason, this is where we drop the most ingredients. Probably because this is where we unpack everything from the cart and carry it ourselves. You see, every few days we get a shipment of supplies by train. It’ll be your job to take the cart from here to the train station to get the stuff we need, then bring it back here and get it in the cupboard. On the days when we aren’t getting a shipment, you can come in and we’ll find something for you to do! How does that sound?”
“That sounds great! What can I do for you today?” I asked excitedly.
“That’s just the kind of attitude we like in an employee!” said Mr. Cake. “Today we aren’t getting a shipment of ingredients, but we think we should see what you can do in the kitchen so we know what to have you do when you’re not carrying the shipments.”
I was a little worried by this. In my experience, cooking was a delicate thing, and I tend to break all that is fragile and delicate. And I do mean all that is fragile and delicate, I finally made a sworn agreement with Rarity that I am not to approach within twelve feet of any expensive silk cloth. Miss Pinkie Pie and the Cakes must have believed in me though, so I decided I’d give it a shot. We went back into the kitchen and miss Pinkie showed me around. She was more excited than necessary, but that is to be expected with her. I was tasked with baking and decorating a cake before the six o’clock, the pony who ordered it would be around to pick it up by then. It was two o’clock so I figured we’d have to hurry a bit. My overseers sat back and watched and gave me additional input. Miss Pinkie gave me the most help. She really seemed like she wanted me to succeed. I tried my hardest, but there were some things I just couldn’t do. Mainly cracking eggs and whisking batter. My magic helped a bit, after I remembered I had it. I was still very shaky with the practical magic miss Rarity had taught me and I remember wishing she were there to help me. But this was one thing I just had to do alone. She was letting me stay at her boutique already, I couldn’t ask more of her.
It was four o’clock by the time I had finished baking the cake itself. Next was the really challenging bit: frosting it. I’m glad the Cakes and miss Pinkie Pie decided to help with that part. I wouldn’t have been able to smoothly spread the frosting without them. It was a beautiful cake. White frosting with a blue trim, red roses garnishing the tops and sides, and to finish it off the cakes frosted the words “Happy Birthday” in bright green letters on top and stuck in a few candles.
At six o’clock we had finished the whole thing. It was really pretty! We just had to wait for the customer to pick it up. At 6:15, a wealthy looking pony trotted in the door. He was a light blue pony with a crimson mane he had waxed into a quite suave and elegant position. He wore a gray pinstriped vest and suit jacket with a red tie. And his moustache was a sight to behold. It was a long, curved piece of art that was so long, it was tips were two inches from the sides of his face. His cutie mark appeared to be one of those fancy drinking glasses that the waiter brings you when you order a sparkling cider, but without anything in it. With an air of perfect elegance and astonishing benevolence, he asked, “Pardon me, but have you finished the order for Aiden Viscard? If you haven’t that’s quite alright, I can be back tomorrow morning for it.” He said.
“We have it right here!” Exclaimed miss Pinkie Pie.
“Splendid! I’m glad it was finished tonight! You see, my employees and I were going to celebrate my birthday tomorrow, and no celebration is complete without a cake!” Said the pony we figured was Mr. Aiden Viscard. “Well happy birthday sir, I hope you have a good one!” I was grinning beneath my muzzle, my first customer was ecstatic! “Thank you lad! I know my beloved employees will be quite happy to join me.” That last remark was a bit odd. He thanked us and paid us extra, it was easy to see he had plenty of money to throw around. He paid us enough to buy five cakes in addition to the one he actually bought for! We were very surprised to say the least. He continued to thank us excessively, marveling over the quality of the cake, then trotted out the front door with a cheery wave and a pleasant smile.
“Does he usually pay that well?” I asked Mrs. Cake.
“He’s never even bought anything here before!” She replied. I thought there was something very odd about how much he paid, but the Cakes gave me some of the money as
a tip so I disregarded it. I guess some ponies just like to be generous, I mentally wished Aiden Viscard on his way. I noticed that there were enough materials left over from the cake we made to make a second cake, so I asked the Cakes if I could make another one. They allowed me to do so, and went upstairs to tend to their foals.
I got back to miss Rarity’s boutique pretty late. When I walked in the door, miss Rarity and miss Sweetie Belle were upstairs. It sounded like they were having a good time, giggling and such. They didn’t notice me come in. I sat down on the sofa and waited for the next time they came downstairs. I sat there for fifteen minutes just messing around with little spells I taught myself. They were pretty amusing. I was right in the middle of one that would make a small pile of rags dance like a pony doll when the two girls started to come downstairs. They were surprised to see me standing in the kitchen next to a big cake on the dining room table. I hoped they would like it. I tried to look as excited as I could, but that’s kind of hard when the only visible part of your face is two big angry eyes. They looked pretty surprised alright. Nopony moved. I glanced back at the cake to be sure it was still okay. The scrawl that said “Thank You!” on top looked like it had been written by a schoolpony, and some of the candy gems had slid a little, but not noticeably so. Other than that, it was perfectly fine. I waited a bit longer, then their eyes lit up. Especially miss Rarity’s. Miss Rarity and miss Sweetie Belle trotted forward and seemed very impressed with the cake I had made. I was glad, because I tried really hard.
“Did you make this?” miss Rarity asked. “Yeah, but it wasn’t much. The real trouble was...” I was cut off. “I LOVE it! The gems are perfect and the colors are perfect and the cake is perfect darling! How did you write on it? Wasn’t that difficult?” miss Rarity interrupted.
“Well, actually it wasn’t too difficult with the spells you’ve taught me. I used those to write with the frosting. It wasn’t exactly easy, but think I...”
“It looks amazing Tor!” miss Sweetie Belle interrupted. I didn’t really think it looked THAT amazing. Well, it was pretty good I guess.
“Well, I’m glad you like it.” I left it at that. I cut the cake so we could each have a slice or two, and we sat down to eat. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did indeed taste good! The others seemed to like it too. We all stayed up and chatted for a while. Later into the evening Miss Rarity sent miss Sweetie Belle upstairs when it got to be her bed time, and we stayed up a bit longer and talked on the sofa.
In the past we usually just talked about stuff miss Rarity liked because I try not to talk about myself very much. If anypony found out about my past, I’d be ruined, sent out into the forest again, all alone. I’d probably go crazy again. Well, crazier. I only ever trusted one pony to keep my secret, and that was Seething Mass. Tonight was different though. For some reason, all miss Rarity wanted to talk about was me. I had to be very selective about what I told her.
“Tor, you have an interesting name. What ancestry is it from?” miss Rarity asked.
“Well, there is a culture of ponies that come from the far northern part of this world, where the ice and snow are constantly falling, and the mountains seem to never end. My parents always told me that’s where the name came from. I wouldn’t know, because I’ve never actually been there.” I replied.
This seemed to mystify miss Rarity at first, then she seemed surprised to hear that I wasn’t from the Far North. “If you’re not from there, then where are you from?”
“Well...” I had to choose my words carefully, “I grew up in Canterlot.”
She was very excited by this. “YOU’RE FROM CANTERLOT???” She squealed in delight, “I can’t believe that darling! The glamor, the nobility, the fashion! Living in Canterlot is my grandest dream! Why were you living on the streets, surely you had a house in Canterlot? I’m sorry to ask, but did your parents have enough money to support you?” Her face was kind, sincere, and beautiful. Suddenly I felt more confident, maybe she could know just a little bit more…
“I don’t really know if they were rich.”
“‘Were’? What do you mean ‘were’?” She moved a little closer to me on the couch and I slipped up a little,
“They were killed by a thief when I was five. I was abandoned on that day. The thief burnt down our house and everything we owned that wasn’t of value, everything that was he took. I mean...” Rarity was looking at me in a very concerned way.
“What did you do? Did you just live in the streets?” She questioned. “I was adopted.” “By whom?” “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Tor, you can trust me.”
“Well she was a pony of noble blood...” Miss Rarity was getting much more excited by the second
“Who was she?”
I was a bit worried that miss Rarity would start to treat me differently if I told her. But I really wanted to tell her. “You have to promise me you won’t treat me any differently if I tell you.”
“I promise darling!”
“Uhhhhh... How much do you promise?” I asked, trying to drag this out for long enough for miss Rarity to forget what we were talking about. I didn’t figure I’d have much luck at that, but I had to try.
“Hmmm... I promise with all of my heart!” She said with the most sincere look I had ever seen.
“Make it a double, super promise.”
“Tor, please just tell me.” She said and touched my hoof with hers. It made me blush a little.
“Okay... Well... It was Princess Celestia...” I mumbled. “Excuse me?” “Princess Celestia.” “One more time darling.”
“It was Princess Celestia...” Rarity was so horrified that she almost fell backwards. Her eyes grew wide, and she sat there, obviously puzzled and terrified. I sat there, defeated. I knew I shouldn’t have told her. When she had composed herself, miss Rarity had one last question.
“Wait... Twilight Sparkle told me about those decorations that you have on you. Why would you have them if you were Princess Celestia’s adopted son?” My eyes went blank. I could feel a bit of the world slip away as the panic set in. Miss Rarity leaned down and picked up a hammer and a nail from underneath the couch. Her beautiful blue eyes blinked and turned red. Her mouth spread open over horridly sharp teeth, an insane grin on her face.
“Tor, darling, what’s wrong?” She asked and I could hear her teeth clacking together as she spoke. I was moving very slowly, the world’s tempo slowed. I looked down at my forelegs. There was blood running from the nails holding my decorations in place. I looked at my wing. The same was happening. All of the wounds caused by the fasteners in my decorations were fresh. I felt the pain of being decorated once more. I fell off the couch and curled up in a corner, trying to protect myself from my torturer. The room turned to a dark void. Princess Celestia and Queen Chrysalis were there, laughing at me. My torturer was coming closer to me, with steps that cracked the earth so harshly I could hear the screams of the stone as it broke. I lay there, awaiting my demise. I closed my eyes for the last time.
I opened them. There was no blood. No hammer. No nail, no Chrysalis, no Celestia. Most importantly, no torturer. Only a very concerned looking miss Rarity, and a terrified me in a corner.
“That’s a very... VERY hard question to answer.” I said, and suddenly the world slipped away.
I awoke on the sofa the next morning, with a bedraggled miss Rarity laying next to me. It must have been very hard to move me up there. She was worried about me all day, trying to do everything for me. I could tell she was concerned and I felt really bad about it all, I don’t like to worry her. Everything went back to normal after I offered to be her mannequin again. We laughed and I apologized for worrying miss Rarity. I never felt closer to anypony than miss Rarity before then. I still can’t believe she can care for me like that, as hurt and damaged as I am. It’s good to have friends you can count on.