//------------------------------// // Uninspired chapter title HO! (Part 1) // Story: The Blacksmith, The Soldier, The Fool and The Cat // by Cheshire //------------------------------// The foal shuddered as tears ran down his face. His tenth birthday, a happy event by any means, was turning into a nightmare. His parents were gone and nothing he could do would bring them back. The doctors said that their wounds were too severe. "Had they been brought in immediately, they might have been saved," they told him. "However, even in saying that, their chances were slim to none. Even if they did survive, they would have been crippled for the remainder of their lives." The foal shook his head, trying to forget the memories of the day, his tears glistening in the low light of the orphanage bunks. "IT'S NOT FAIR!!!" he screamed. "WHY DID THEY HAVE TO BE TAKEN FROM ME?" The other children stirred in their bunks, trying to block out the crying. They'd all heard it a million times before, and some had even gone through it themselves. They just wanted to ignore the tears, lest they remember their loss too. It was at this point that a middle-aged caretaker, working for the orphanage as part of the night staff, trotted into the mid-sized room to see what the commotion was. She noticed the young foal crying to himself, tears wetting his face. She gently picked him up with her wings, placing him softly on her back and carrying him into the other bedroom, hers, where she held him to her chest. At first, the foal tried to resist, but the strong forelegs and wings of the pegasus mare held him close in a caring embrace. Eventually, the foal gave in to the warm, tender embrace of the caretaker, sobbing into the early hours of the morning. "Its okay Quickdraw. Its okay," the mare cooed softly, these being the last words the foal heard before he fell asleep in the her arms. ---- Although a few odd looks were thrown their way, the group made it uneventfully to the hotel. However, to say that what they found was not to their liking... would be an understatement. The group fell silent as they stared at the sign on the door of the hotel. That is to say they fell silent for around 5 seconds after which Dizzy burst into tears, made entirely of chocolate milk. "WHY?" the childlike girl cried, "WHY MUST THE KITCHEN BE CLOSED?" "Ah quit yer whinin'," the gryphon said gruffly, taking a sip from a hip flask which had seemingly materialised from nowhere. "But... But.. Waffles... Waffles Stormy!" "Well... This was a bust," Quickdraw stated simply, rather depressed at the lack of breakfast. "Why don't we ask the clerk pony what the deal is with this?" Cheshire, the group having discovered that she was in fact a girl (after much agony and some new scars on the gryphon's face), rubbed her eyes rather sleepily from her perch on Storm's head. She yawned silently, stretching her forelegs before taking a quick glance at her surroundings. "Wha... Whoozere? Oh... It's just you morons." "HEY, I resent that!" Quickdraw snapped. "Besides, I'm the only one here with an IQ of 140. Last time I checked, that's on par with the absolute highest level of geniuses in all of Equestria. Hell, I don't even know what I'm doing, wandering the lands with you lot..." "Weren't we about to ask that clerk over there about my waffles?" Dizzy asked, interrupting the stallion before he could continue his rant. "Oh right..." The group wandered over to the clerk, who became quickly overwhelmed and intimidated at the sight of such a varied group of obviously strange travellers. "C-c-can I help you?" she timidly asked. "Err... Yes. I believe you can..." the stallion replied. "Go on sir..." She replied, waving her hoof in a circular motion. "Well, we couldn't help but notice your kitchen was closed..." "Why can't I have any waffles... I has a sad now..." Dizzy interrupted, holding out a large teardrop with a frowny-face on it while simultaneously giving the clerk an adorable puppy-eyes look. "Gah," the clerk managed to sputter, momentarily losing her mental faculties under the sheer adorableness of the look Dizzy was giving her. "Its okay, use your words," Cheshire giggled, obviously amused at the situation. "Cheshire, not helping," snapped quickdraw, shooting an angry look at the cat. "Anyway, we noticed your kitchen is closed and as you can tell, we're pretty hungry. Care to explain?" "Well... That's the thing sir. We can't find the cook. It seems that she's gone missing," the clerk replied, managing to look away from Dizzy "Missing, you say?" the gryphon spoke up, suddenly interested. "Yes sir. Like I said, missing. We went and knocked on her door, but all we found was a ransacked house and claw marks on the floorboards." "Right. This sounds bad. Storm, get up to your room, grab a bag of gem lights or torches." The gryphon gave the stallion a salute as he flew up the stairs. "Dizzy, do you have anything that you can use to defend yourself?" Dizzy snapped out of her puppy-dog eyes and instantly grew serious. "Yeah, I have my hammer." "Good, go get it." "Right away buddy!" she exclaimed, disappearing from the room in a cloud of pink smoke. The Clerk could only watch, amazed, as the group rushed to their respective rooms with determination, not usually seen in the small town. As she waited for their return she thought of her friend, Violet Fritter. She hoped to the creator that Violet was okay.