It was a long silent walk for the two of us. The night was empty of life, just like my heart. I try to close my eyes, but all I see is my mom dying in my hooves. Flamestomper had tried to ask me a few questions to try and keep my mind off of what had just happened. He'd ask me my name, what I like to eat, things like that. I know he was genuinely sad for me was trying his best to cheer me up, but I didn’t respond. The only joy in my life had been taken from me.
They approach a Windsor tan colored building, with a red door, and a hay roof. The exposed wooden beams holding the house were an eggshell white. There was a small gated yard with a few toys strewn across the yard. On the front, it read 'Ponyville Orphanage'.
'So this is where he's taking me...'
Flamestomper then set me down on my hooves and led me in through the front door to the admission office. In the office was a dark purple unicorn with a bright yellow mane, who sat behind a rather large the mahogany desk. I looked up to see that on the desk was a wooden name tag, engraved with the name ‘Summer Hooves’.
“Hello, how may I help you today?” she asks cheerfully.
Flamestomper then removed his hat before speaking.
“Yes, I’m here to admit this young colt.”
She then walks over to me and looks me over.
“Oh my what's this?” she says pointing at my hooves, covered in dry blood. “What happened?”
“Well, Cerberus was in town today. He went on a rampage, which sadly caused the death of this young colt's mother. She died in this poor foal's hooves merely minutes ago. I can't imagine anything worse than that.”
Taking one look at me, her smile quickly fades into a sorrowful frown. She then wraps me in a tight hug. It felt warm and calming.
'Just like mom...'
“You poor thing. Let's get you cleaned up,” she warmly smiles.
She trots over to the door and spots a colt walking in the hallway.
“Dusky Night...”
Hearing his name the auburn unicorn colt walks inside the office, looking like he had done something wrong.
“Yes, Ms. Hooves...”
“Can you take this young colt to the bathroom to get cleaned up, please?”
Walking up to me, he smiles and says,
“Sure thing, Ms. Hooves.”
As we begin to walk away, Ms. Hooves calls out to us.
“And Dusky Night, make sure to tell him the rules of the house.”
“Yes, ma'am. So are you ready to go?”
Still in the shock of ‘losing the most important pony in my life’ I barely registered the young unicorn's question. Though he looked at me with a carefree smile, I still couldn't find the means to return it. I simply nod my head.
I follow the colt out of the room, but not before turning to the Flamestomper and uttering a simple thanks. But there was something weird about the way Ms. Hooves was acting when we were leaving. I couldn't hear her words, but I could tell that her personality changed.
As I walk away in my blank, I state wasn't able to really tell what was going on. Everything seem to just slowed down, as if I were in slow motion. However at the same time, it was going by all too quickly. I didn't enjoy the way I was feeling right then, not at all. I didn't my like the way this place felt either.
'None of this should have happened why couldn't I couldn't I have stayed home today? Maybe I would be with mo... No! Bad thoughts. Mom wouldn't want that.'
It took me a while after looking up to register the fact that I was being asked a question, and frankly, I didn't feel like answering them...or anypony.
“So what's your name?” asks the young colt.
I wanted to curl up in the darkness and cry, just lie there in complete oblivion and cry. But my body and mind didn't have that option, or I thought it wasn't. Choosing not to reply I instead pretended I hadn't noticed anything that had been said.
As I follow the auburn unicorn up the stairs, my mind trails off once again onto the current situation. I felt really sick as if I had just received a heavy blow to the stomach.
'I-I can't believe she's really gone... Mommy...'
I let out a brief sniffle.
“My name's Dusky Night,” the young colt smiles. “So, are you new to Ponyville?”
I gave no response. I knew that he was just trying to make conversation, but I was too deep into shock to make any sort of effort to engage him.
“I guess you're not in the mood to talk, huh?” he asks.
I simply nod my head.
“Okay, well I hope you'll wanna talk soon,” he says, with a sincere smile.
We make our way up to the second floor and continue down another hallway. As we are walking, he starts explaining the 'house rules' and whatnot. But I just tune him out. I didn't have time for such nonsense. After a few seconds, we made it to the bathroom.
“You can get cleaned up here, then I can show around. Would that be okay?” he asks.
Once again I nod, then head into the bathroom. As I turn the knob to the shower, I let the water flow down my mane. Washing my hooves, I watch the once dry blood flow down the drain. With the water swirling around the drain, my mind to begin to drift.
“Now, Goldie. Make sure you wash your hooves properly, okay,” my mom says, turning off the water to the bathtub.
“Okay, mom,” I said trotting up the tub.
She picks me up and gently places me in the tub. As I was playing with my toy boat, mom starts to wash my mane.
“Mooooom, I'm not a little foal,” I whine.
“I know, Goldie,” she warmly smiles. “But you always forget to wash your mane.”
I puff my cheeks with annoyance.
'I hate it when she does that,' I pout.
She giggles at my reaction.
“No matter how old you get, you'll always be my little Goldie.”
“But, I'm a big pony!” I huff.
“True, but...” she starts. “You'll always be my baby.”
“Aw, mom...” I say.
After rinsing the soap out of my mane, she gives me a loving smile. That smile always has a way to make me feel loved. While washing my hooves she asks,
“So, are you excited about school tomorrow?”
“Yeah!” I almost shout.
She laughs at my response.
“My, my Goldie. Eager aren't we?”
“Of course mom. You know I love school!” I say with a grin.
“I know you do,” she says, picking me up out of the tub.
After drying me off, she wraps me up in a warm hug. With a quick peck on my forehead, she simply says,
“I love you, my little Goldie.”
“I love you too, mom.”
With that memory, new tears began to flow. I fell to the floor, as I wept loudly crying out for my mother.
'Mommy...why...why did you leave me?' I whisper.
I hear a knock on the bathroom door.
“Hey, are you okay in there?” asks the young unicorn.
“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!” I screamed.
I hear the colt's hoofbeats fade down the hallway. I didn't mean to yell at him, I'm just having trouble handling the realization that everything that I had is gone.
'My toys...my bed...my house...my m-mom...all gone...' I silently cry.
I have no idea how long I was in the bathroom crying, nor did I care. I soon turn off the water and dry myself. As I leave the bathroom, see the same colt I yelled at earlier standing outside the door.
“Are you feeling any better?”
Strangely enough, I did. Though my head did hurt from crying so much I did feel a little better. I nod in response.
“I'm sorry for yelling earlier...” I apologized, looking at the floor.
I felt a hoof on my shoulder. I looked up to see him smiling at me.
“It's okay. I was the same when first got here too. So, how about I give you the tour?” he beams.
I knew he's just trying to get my mind off things, but all I wanted to do is curl up in a little ball somewhere.
“If it's all the same, I would actually like to lay down,” I flatly say.
“Oh, okay. Follow me, I'll show to your bed,” he says.
As we walk down that hall, we were greeted by an older filly. She has a violet and a has a cutie mark of a shinning sun.
“Hey Dusky,” she says waving a hoof.
“Hey, Sunny,” he waves back.
“Who’s the new kid?” she asked with a smile.
“I don't know his name yet, but he just got here a little while ago,” he explains. “I’m supposed to show him around and make sure he understands the rules and stuff.”
“I see...”
She then extends a hoof to me.
“Hi there, my name is Sunny Daze. And what's your name?” she smiles.
As I met her gaze, her face said it all. What was once a warm smile quickly turns to a sorrow frown, as she looked into my eyes. I could tell that she saw the pain that was resonating in my eyes.
“Say, Dusky. Why don't you just show him to his bed and give him some space.”
“Huh, why?” he asks, with a confused look.
“Well, look at him. It easy to see that he's been through all today. So just give him a chance to get over the shock,” she explains.
“I guess you're right,” he replies.
I followed him into the bedroom where everypony sleeps, regardless of gender. There were 6 beds total, three on each side of the bedroom. The beds looked very uncomfortable, as if they were nothing but a brick with padding on it. The sheets weren’t much better, each having tears in various spots. Above the beds were blackboards, which state the name of the foal the bed belong to. From right to left it read: Sunny Daze, Dusky Night, Mist Twister, Scootaloo, Spirit Runner, and Thunder Runner.
“Well I guess you’ll be taking Mist’s old bed because she was adopted,” Dusky said leading me to the bed in the farthest corner of the room.
It looks like I'll be sleeping across from Scootaloo.
'Scootaloo? That name sounds familiar...' I thought.
As I got into the bed, I turn to the wall and try to fall asleep. I hear the hoofbeats of the two ponies leave the room.
“We leave to give you some space,” says Sunny Daze.
I slightly turn my head and utter a simple 'thank you' before facing the wall. After a few moments, I slowly start to drift off.
In my dream, I was walking down a moonlit road. As the cool night breeze caressed my face, I see a figure down the road. Focusing my eyes, I see that the figure is my mom. She was facing away from me, but I could tell it was her.
“MOMMY!” I yell.
I desperately gallop to reach her. But no matter how fast I galloped, couldn't reach her. Just when it feet like I'm getting closer to her, she begins to walk away.
“MOMMY...WAIT FOR ME!” I yell, trying to catch up with her.
As she continued to walk away, the tear began to flow from my eye.
“Mommy...please don't leave me!” I plead.
She then stops and began to slowly turn toward me. I stop in my tracks when I see her face. It was all scratched up and bleeding. The image reminded me of what happened to her. I curled up in a ball and cried into my hooves.
“...olden...” I hear.
I look up from my hooves to see my mother is gone. I look around to see that now I'm in a black void.
“olden...ake...up...”
Looking around, I try to find the source of the voice.
“H-Hello? Who's there?”
“GOLDEN WINGS, WAKE UP!” yelled the voice.
The sheer volume caused me to jump up. I woke up and went crashing onto the floor. Rubbing my head, I get to my hooves to see who woke me up. To my surprise it was the orange pegasus filly from school.
“What's was that for?” I said, a little drowsy. “I was trying to sleep.”
“Well you wouldn't have gotten up otherwise,” she says, with an annoyed frown.
“Well, what do you want?” I ask as I climb back into my bed.
“I came to get you for dinner,” she explains. “If we don't hurry up, we won't get to eat.”
“So what...”
“Look, I know you've been through a lot today. But you're not gonna get any better unless you eat.”
“I don't care...” I sigh, pulling the sheet over me.
“WHERE IS SCOOTALOO AND THAT NEW FOAL?” bellowed a voice.
That voice sounds like Ms. Hooves, but something off. She sounds nothing like the sweet mare I met earlier. After a few muffled responses, she bellowed again.
“Go find them, NOW!”
Not soon after that, we here the patter of hooves running across the floor. We then hear them ascending the stairs. The orange filly then looks at me with eyes pleading.
“We should leave already. You don't wanna get in trouble on the first day, do you?” Scootaloo asks.
To be honest I couldn't care less if I got in trouble. My world had been taken from me, so what else do I have to lose. My thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. I turn to see Dusky Night panting slightly.
“Dusky, thank Celestia you're here. Can you please help me get him out of here? I don’t want him getting in trouble,” she pleads.
“It’s fine Scootaloo, just go downstairs and eat,” Dusky says nudging her towards the stairs.
“Sure, just get Golden Wings downstairs quick okay. You know how Ms. Hooves hates it when we're late for dinner,” Scootaloo says before leaving the room.
Dusky then turns to me with a sincere smile.
“So, you're name's, Golden Wing, huh?”
I nod in response before laying back down.
“Ok Golden Wings, let’s see if we can get you downstairs,” Dusky says before moving closer to me.
I didn't feel like being bothered by anypony right now, especially other foals.
“What’s the point?” I respond.
“So we can eat, duh.”
“I’m not hungry,” I said before turning away from the colt.
He trots over to the side I'm facing.
“Come on, you don’t want to starve. I mean we only get to eat once a day,” he explains.
I turn back to the other side and he moved back to side I was on again.
'Can't he take a hint?' I thought.
I move again, and he moves right along with me.
“I can do this all night, y'know,” he states.
“So, you’re not going to leave until I go with you, are you?” I ask with a sigh.
“Nope! I’m going to stay here until you decide to come and eat. So are you coming?” he says with confident smirk.
“Might as well,” I sigh, as I slowly roll off the bed.
“That's the spirit, Golden Wings,” smiles Dusky Night.
'It's not like I have anything better to do' I mentally sigh.
With that thought, I trudge behind the colt. As we made our way down the stairs, we head toward the dining room. We open the door and see all the foals were sitting around the table, with Ms. Hooves sitting at the head of the table. As we step inside the room, we're greeted by the scornful scowl of Ms. Hooves.
“Dusky, I thought I told you to explain to him the rules?” she says, with a slight firmness in her voice.
This definitely a different mare than the one I met when I first got here. She now seems cold and uncaring. Turning the Dusky Night, I see him shifting nervously.
“I-I did, M-Ms. Hooves,” he stutters.
'Why is he acting like he's in trouble?' I wonder.
Ms. Hooves then gets up from her seat to make her way toward us. As she did, I hear the foals around the table begin to whisper amongst themselves.
'What's with everypony?' I ask, a little confused.
As she stands in front of us, I feel like a mouse standing before a vicious lion. Using her magic to lift us off the floor, she glares daggers at the two of us.
“If that's true, then why was he late for dinner?!” she says pressing her snout against his.
“I don't know,” he gulps.
'I didn't want him to get in trouble because of me. '
I clear my throat to speak, which made turn her attention to me.
“Ms. Hooves, it's my fault,” I start. “He did tell me the rules, I just wasn't hungry so I decided stayed upstairs.”
He then looks at me with mixed look of confusion and relief. She looks at him with a sharp glare.
“Is this true, Dusky?” she asks.
“Y-Yes, ma'am!” he responds.
She releases him and he quickly made his way to his seat. She then presses her snout again mine.
“Let's get one thing straight, you little brat!” she starts.
'Little brat?'
“I don't care that you lost your mom today or the fact that she died in your hooves. We have strict rules here and I expect you to follow them. For example, being on time for dinner,” she explains, in a dark tone.
“But I...” I start.
Her magical grip on me starts to tighten. After a few seconds, it starts to hurt.
“And there will be no talking back. Do you understand?”
Taking the hint, I furiously nod my head.
“Yes...” I strain.
“That's not correct response. You either say 'Yes, ma'am' or 'Yes, Ms. Hooves',” she says with a stoic look.
“Y-Yes, M-Ms. Hooves,” I quickly respond.
“That's better...” she speaks, with a smug grin.
As she releases me from her magical grip, I plop onto the floor.
“Now, hurry up and take your seat.”
“Where's that?” I ask.
She then points to the seat next to Dusky Night and that orange filly, Scootaloo I think is her name. I then took a look at the small amount of food on the table. There was but a single plateful of hay, that look they've lying on the ground for weeks at time. The apples that the nastiest worm wouldn't want. Not to mention our so-called water look like something you would get from a dirty bog. But then I turn to see that Ms. Hooves plate is filled with fresh hay, ripe apples, and she had crisp, clean water.
'Why do we have eat like this and she doesn't?' I silently huff.
She looks up from her plate to catch me staring at hers.
“Is there a problem?” she says, with her words lace with venom.
I quickly turn back to my plate.
“N-No, ma'am.”
After the disgusting dinner, which tasted like it came straight from a landfill, it was time for us to go to bed. As I start walking back to the bedroom, somepony calls out to me.
“Hey, Golden Wings.”
Turning around, I see Scootaloo trotting up to me.
“Hey,” I replied downheartedly.
“So, it looks like we're gonna be living together, huh?” she says, as she made circles with her hoof.
“I guess so...” I reply.
Before she could reply, Ms. Hooves shouts for the dining room,
“Stop talking and get to bed!” she demands.
With that, both Scootaloo and I went towards the bedroom and join the other foals. As we walk up the stairs, Scootaloo turns to me.
“Hey Golden,” Scootaloo said getting my attention.
“Yeah?”
“Now that you’re responding, I'm guessing that you weren't really paying attention to Dusky when he was explaining the rules, huh?” she asks.
“Not really...” I admit.
“Well, they're pretty simple. There's no running in the house, no yelling, be home by nightfall, bedtime 10 o'clock sharp, and be at dinner on time,” she explains. “But the most important rule here is...no talking back to Ms. Hooves. EVER!”
Not sure why she put emphasis on that last part, but at least I now know the rules.
“Well, what happens if we break any of them?” I ask.
“You get sent to the basement for the night and you don't get dinner,” Scootaloo says as we walk into bedroom.
Consider the meal we just had, I wouldn't really call that a punishment.
“Well, it's getting late and don't wanna have Ms. Hooves upset at us, right,” she winks.
I don't know why, but that wink made me slightly chuckle.
“I guess you're right, Scootaloo.”
We both went to our respective beds and wrap ourselves with our tattered sheets. Once everypony was in their beds, Ms. Hooves appeared at the door.
“Good night, little foals,” she says, with a fake smile.
“Good night, Ms. Hooves,” we say in unison.
With that she shuts off the light and closes the door. With the events of today still lingering in my head, I slowly close my eyes to try and get some sleep.