"Get up."
"..."
"Come on Ive, hurry!"
"..."
"She'll be here any second! Get up!"
"..."
"Oh no, here she comes... Sorry Ivory, I tried to warn you."
"..."
"What have we here? A sleeper? Get up you worthless orphan!" *crack!* "Yipe!"
"Good, good. Now! Thanks to this orphan's laziness, you all get burnt breakfast this morning!"
We all groaned, but stopped as Helga cracked her whip again and left the bedroom. "Why didn't you wake me up before she got here?" I asked Flash as we all started making our way towards what would be a worse breakfast than usual. "You know she's always this mean whenever one of us is sleeping in"
"I tried! But you wouldn't budge."
"Did you try poking me?"
"Yes."
"Biting me?"
"Gross, no."
I had to chuckle at this. "Kidding, how out was I?"
"Very. You didn't even twitch when I shook you."
"But I could be woke up with Helga's whip." I quipped. "Maybe I should get one for whenever you pull any more all nighters"
"Stow it! Eat!" Helga bellowed as she cracked her whip and pointed to the kitchen table. We each took the seats that we always took. Being a Pegasus I fluttered up to my seat and Flash climbed into his. "Euagh! This is gonna be rough Ive..." Flash whispered as he caught whiff of the breakfast laid out before us.
"I know, she isn't much of a cook anyways when she doesn't purposefully screw up our food" I whispered back, holding my hoof over my nose. "Eat!" Helga cried as she cracked her whip. On command, we all started forcing back the charcoal called breakfast.
~<(^)>~
After breakfast, most of us went back to our room while the rest stayed behind to clean the kitchen. "What chores do you have for today Ivory?" Flash asked me as we did the dishes. "I think that they're dusting, ironing, and..." I had to pause a minute to yawn. "...and sweeping. What about you?"
"Ironing, sweeping, and gardening. You gonna be able to stay awake long enough to finish them all?"
"Heheh, maybe. So long as someone is around to keep me awake"
"Oh I can wake you up right now." He said as he splashed dishwater in my face.
"Hey!" I cried as I splashed him back. Soon we were splashing each other back and forth until Helga came in and cracked us both with her whip. "No goofing off, Scrub!" She cried with another crack. Instantly, we cut the small talk and started working twice as fast as we had been.
I guess now is as good a time to introduce myself as any. My name is Ivory Blossom, and I am one of the "orphans" at Manehatten Orphanage. Though it should really be called Helga's slave house and we should be called slaves instead of orphans because that's pretty much what we are here. I'm a young Pegasus with a sea green coat and light blue mane and tail. Like my friend Flash has pointed out, I like to stay up all night. Mainly because lately, whenever I don't; I'll wake up with weird cuts and bruises on my wings and face and- Oh! hold that thought! Someone's here to visit us!
The bell on the door chimed as it swung open to reveal a nice looking unicorn couple. They were very well dressed, the stallion was wearing a brown trench-coat and fedora while the mare was wearing a slick black dress.
"Welcome to to Manehatten Orphanage! How can I help you?" Helga asked in her fake pleasantness that she only reserved for potential adopters. "Yes, my wife and I were looking to adopt a son seeing as how the doctors said that she is unable to bear foal."
"Oh of course! We have lots of strong, hard working colts here. Oh boys~" She called and me, Flash, and all the other colts within earshot came running. "As you can see, they are all very well behaved and will come when you call. Now, how many were you looking to adopt?" She asked, almost a little too high in spirits that they would take more than one of us.
"Oh, we were just looking for one thank you. And we also wanted a Unicorn so that we could pass on the magic knowledge of my family" The stallion said, causing everypony who wasn't a unicorn's heart to sink as they walked off to continue with their chores. "Sorry Ive, maybe next time." Flash said as I walked past him to continue with the days chores.
~<(^)>~
We had already finished the dishes so I moved on to dusting the big living room. After awhile, I heard a small voice from behind me. "H-hi Ivory." I turned to see a yellow unicorn with a limp orange mane and tail standing behind me.
"Oh, hey there Lemon Wedge. What's up?" I asked when I saw the shy filly.
"O-oh! Not mush.. I mean! Much, I was just wondering if you'd help me get the top shelf over there, I can get to it with my magic but I can't see what I'm doing that high up" She said as she pointed to the shelf over by the window. "You know I'm still a flutterer, Lemmy. I can't fly up that high."
"Oh! That's ok! I shouldn't have asked..." She said, backing away slowly. I sighed, I can't believe she hasn't broken down yet from Helga's shouting, the poor mare.
"How good have you gotten with your magic?" I asked. She seemed to perk up when I asked that.
"A lot better! I can open the refrigerator door with it now! don't tell Helga..." She whispered.
"Don't worry, I'm not quite ready to die," I chuckled. "Do you think you would be able to lift me?" Her cheeks started to glow a faint red when I asked that. "Oh, oh my! I don't know, I've never been very strong but I could give it a try..." She said as she started to to crawl up under me.
"Not like that! With your magic you silly filly!" I said as I jumped back. "Oh, of course, how silly of me..." She looked like she was about to cry, so I ruffled her mane with my hoof. "Don't worry about it Lemmy, we're all silly fillies every now and then" She giggled and started levitating me. She had done a really good job up here, I hardly had to dust at all.
"Thank you so much for introducing us!" I stopped dusting and listened in on the conversation coming from the hall, completely oblivious to the weakening magical influence on my body.
"Oh no, Thank you! I'm always happy whenever I can get these wonderful fillies into a home of their own!"
"Heh. or just out of your mane, you mean witch." I thought to myself as I read between the lines of Helga's words.
"Well anyways, We'll take good care of-" I didn't hear the name of the colt they had picked because the next thing I knew I had fallen on top of a yellow unicorn who was blushing incredibly at being tangled in the hooves of a colt.
"What do you two think you're doing!?" We both looked towards the fuming blood red unicorn that was Helga standing over us. "We may not treat each other like brothers and sisters here, but that does NOT mean that you can just get jiggy with it in the middle of a dusty living room!" She bellowed as she levitated both of us in her dark purple aura. I tried to explain to her that it wasn't what it looked like and that we were just trying to reach the top shelf but she would have none of it.
"Enough! Ten lashes for both of you and no supper! And since you two are so close.." She said with every drop of venom she could muster into it as she levitated a rope out of a nearby drawer and tied it around us as tightly as possible to where we could still breathe. We were begging her not to do it like that but it was a wasted effort as she brought the whip down on both our flanks at the same time.
We were both crying our eyes out by the 3rd lash but I was a small stream compared to Lemon Wedge, which is understandable seeing as how me and Flash would get into trouble almost every day and she hardly even gets a passing glance from Helga unless she's the first kid she sees whenever she has an extra chore to do. After she finished reddening our flanks, she turned away and walked off, probably to see that there weren't any other fillies or colts getting "jiggy with it"
"Owww...." I whined as we laid there on the floor.
"She didn't even bother to untie us..." Lemon Wedge whimpered beside me.
"Yeah, she leaves us tied up until we get out of it on our own.." I explained, hissing at the pain I was feeling in my flank. "I remember the first time she did this to me and Flash, we were stuck together for a whole week before somepony told us" I chuckled, remembering how crazy that week was.
"Really?! O-oh my, I don't want to be stuck to you for a whole week! I mean! I do.. I mean! I wouldn't mind.. I mean!" I cut off her rambling by putting my hoof in her mouth.
"Don't worry, lets just go ahead and find some scissors so we don't have to be like this any longer than we have to"
~<(^)>~
After we got the ropes off we went back to our chores, I went to go iron while Lemon Wedge went out to garden. I expected to find Flash already sweeping the main hallway but he wasn't there. I figured that we got out of sync with lining up our chores because I got in trouble without him, so I just went ahead and started sweeping the house.
After awhile, dinner was ready and everypony but me who was sweeping went ahead to the kitchen to eat. I put my broom up and walked over to the living room to wait until they were done. It looked like Helga had gone out and gotten food that was actually edible just to torture me and Lemon Wedge. Luckily for her I was the only one in the living room so she didn't have to be tormented like I- "H-hey Ivory.." My wings poofed out in surprise and I nearly learned to fly at the soft sound of her voice.
"Jeez Lemmy.. You nearly gave me a heart-attack!" I said, calming down a bit.
"O-oh, I- sorry... I'll just go.." She said, trying to hid the mistiness in her eyes by turning around. "Wait," I said with a sigh. "I'm sorry I snapped at you. You just startled me is all." I motioned for her to come sit by me on the couch. "Whats up?"
"Oh, nothing. I'm just a little sore still from earlier" She said as she rubbed her flank. "Yeah, I'm not sure about you, but I counted fifteen lashes instead of ten." I joked, trying to lighten the mood about that subject.
"How could you even count during all of that? I could hardly think of my own name when all that was happening."
"I'm more used to it than you are, not exactly something I pride myself in; so I could still think relatively clearly during it all." I explained.
"Oh, ok-What happened to your wing!?" She gasped when she saw that the cut on my wing had started bleeding again. "Huh? Oh, that. I'm not sure actually. I've been waking up with them lately on my face and wings, they're actually the reason I've- Whoa! What are you doing?!" I cried as she started doing something to my wing with her magic.
"Oh dear! I didn't hurt you did I?"
"No, but what were you doing?"
"Oh, I just thought that it looked really painful so I was going to see if I could fix it up, I've been doing it for a lot of the girls who had gotten a lot of lashings and-"
"Lemmy," I draped my wing over her causing her to squeak. "You're rambling again."
"O-oh" She said with a bit of a blush. I took my wing off of her and we just sat there awkwardly while we listened to the others eat, causing both our stomachs to growl. Man, she really wanted to torment us tonight.
"You wanna go get something to eat?" I finally asked after awhile.
"B-but we aren't aloud any supper tonight!" She said, no shortage of alarm in her voice.
"She just said no supper, meaning she wasn't going to fix us anything tonight. She didn't say we couldn't go out and about. And if we 'happen' to get something to eat, how is she going to find out? Besides, me and Flash always do this whenever we aren't allowed any supper"
"O-ok" She said with a smile as she got up, stomach growling as she did. "That's the spirit" I chuckled as I got up, my own stomach calling out as well. We both laughed at our stomachs agreement to our decision and went out to go get something to eat.
~<(^)>~
It was sunset when we went out so we took a walk in central park while it was still light, she seemed to be alot hungrier than I was because she could hardly walk without leaning on me; and then we headed over to Guy's Equestrian Kitchen and Bar for supper.
We walked into the dive and saw a tan unicorn with a spiked white mane and black handlebar mustache with rose-tinted sunglasses mixing a cocktail behind the bar. "Hey Guy!" He stopped shaking the drink and looked over towards the door and smiled.
"Ive! Get you're sorry flank up here!" I gladly trotted up to the bar while Lemmy was a little hesitant at first, but followed behind slowly. He finished serving the drink to the other pony at the bar then came up to me and messed up my mane with his hoof.
"How's my favorite trouble maker?" he asked.
"Hehe, I'm good. We got sentenced to no supper."
"Course ya did, otherwise you wouldn't be here" He quipped.
"You two want the usual?"
"I do, but Flash ain't with me this time."
"Heh, I find that hard to believe. He gets into more trouble than I did when I was your age."
"It's true, I haven't seen him since this morning actually. Anyways, I'm got Lemmy here in trouble with me earlier today"
"Aw c'mon Ive, leave the innocents out of your schemes." He chuckled. "Now where is the unlucky colt?"
"SHE, is actually sitting right next to me" I said, trying to hide a chuckle so her blush didn't grow any brighter.
"Oh, terribly sorry Miss. I guess Lemmy is just what this feather brain here calls ya." He said as he gave me another noggie.
"Oh no, it's fine. It's better than what some of the other kids at the orphanage call me."
"Why do they call you that anyways?" I asked.
"I don't know..."
"Well, my name is Guy Fieri." He said as he held out his hoof.
"I'm Lemon Wedge" She said with a smile as she met his hoof.
"Now what can I get for you two?"
"Oh, I'll just have an apple cider."
"Me too, and an order of garlic fries"
"Two ciders and a garlic fry, coming up!" He said as he grabbed a couple of mugs in his magic and quickly filled them with the sweet drink and put the order in at the kitchen. "Here ya go!" He said as he slammed them on the counter. "Thanks Guy." I said as I reached to pull out the bits I had to pay for the meal but he stopped me. "Don't even think about it Ive, it's on the house!"
"Thanks Guy!" I said as I took a big swig of cider. "So what'd you two do anyways to lose your supper privileges?" He asked as the garlic fries were brought out to us. Lemmy stopped drinking and started to get a slight blush.
"Ehehehe, you ever had someone walk in on you at a really bad time and think something is happening that is the exact opposite of whats actually happening?" He put down the glass he had been polishing and paid full attention to our story.
"Maybe, what did they think and what was actually happening?"
"Well y'see, me and Lemmy here were dusting and she couldn't see what she was dusting on the top shelf and I'm still a flutterer so I wouldn't have been able to fly up there for long. So Lemmy levitates me up there and looses her concentration and I fall on top of her and then Helga walks in and gives us the double lash, Y'know the one that me and Flash are always getting; and no supper and now here we are!" I said, taking a breath at the end and a swig of cider.
"Heheh, that's an interesting way to take a mare out on a first date" He quipped, causing me to do a spit-take and Lemmy to blush her brightest yet.
"Date?! No! It's not like that!" I tried to explain.
"Mhmm, what did you two do before you walked in here?" He asked. "We went for a walk in the park-Oh! While I'm thinking of it, can we get an extra order of garlic fries? I think she's really hungry cause she had to lean on me practically the whole walk." I asked, causing Guy to fall over laughing and Lemmy to blush even brighter and hide as much in her mane as she could. "Aha, Ah-ha.. ok, I'm done now. But you two should probably head on back, it's almost closing time."
"Alright, thanks for the ciders Guy. Cya later!"
"Bye Ive! Bye Lemon Wedge, good luck with that feather brain of yours!"
She waved bye and turned away before her face could turn any redder.
~<(^)>~
As we were walking back it started to rain so we started to run back.
"Hey, what did Guy mean when he said 'good luck with that feather brain of yours'? You're not a feather brain, you're really smart." I asked while we were running.
"I-I don't know." she said, I thought I saw a blush on her face but I couldn't tell through the rain. When we got to the orphanage, we saw a hooded pony walk up the steps with a basket in its mouth.
"Oh no.." I whispered as we dove into a nearby bush. "This is just terrible"
"What? What's going on?" Lemmy asked.
"That pony there is dropping off a foal on the doorstep, it's just terrible"
"Oh.." The pony knocked on the door and bolted off before it was answered, leaving the basket.
When the door was opened Helga looked around and saw the foal in the basket and gave a disgusted look and slammed the door.
"Um, Ivory. Are you ok?" Lemmy asked as she saw I was starting to get worked up. "No, I'm not... Helga, I knew she was mean, but I didn't know that she was heartless. To just leave a poor foal out in the rain like this... YOU JUST DON'T DO THAT!!!" I screamed, slamming my hoof into the brick wall beside us.
I was brought out of my rage by the faint sound of crying. I quickly snapped my head up and looked at Lemmy, who looked scared but wasn't crying. That's when I turned my attention to the basket and saw the blankets shifting around a bit. "Oops.." I quickly rushed up the stairs to the basket and started rocking the crying foal in my hooves.
"It says here her name is Scootaloo." Lemmy said, who was holding up a piece of paper beside me.
"Shh, Shhh, it's ok Scootaloo, I'm sorry I scared you.." I cooed, trying my best to calm her down.
"Let me try." Lemmy said as she took the balling Scootaloo in her magical aura and started singing in the most angelic of voices.
"Hush now, Quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, Quiet now it's time to go to bed.
Hush now, Quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, Quiet now it's time to go to bed.
Hush now, Quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, Quiet now it's time to go to bed.
Drifting, off to sleep, exciting day behind you.
Drifting, off to sleep, let the joy of dreamland find you.
Hush now, Quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, Quiet now it's time to go to bed.
Hush now, Quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, Quiet now It's time to go to, bed
Drifting, off to sleep, exciting day behind you.
Drifting, off to sleep, let the joy of dreamland find you."
Scootaloo quickly fell back to sleep after Lemmy had finished singing.
"Wow, I didn't know you could sing Lemmy" She blushed at my complment.
"Oh, I'm not that good.." She said with a small smile.
"Are you kidding, you're amazing! Where did you hear that anyway?"
"I actually don't remember, I've just always known it. Maybe somepony would sing it for me, before I was..." She trailed off toward the end and I could see tears welling up in her eyes as she put Scootaloo back in the basket. I held out my hooves offering her a hug which she accepted.
"Thank you." She whispered with a smile as we released from the hug.
"Of course, what are friends for?" I said with a smile.
"Yeah, friends..." She said, her smile fadding a little before she sneezed. "Lets get outta this rain, don't wanna get sick"
"Right"