It’s been 2 weeks since the so-called tour and Zero is still bothered by it. the mare still keeps to herself and anypony who approaches her has little to no conversation with her and she almost never talks back. All she does is come in, stands by herself in a corner until we get our assignment, clear or moves the clouds, and is the first to go home, she even rushes when we have to work late. But the most noteworthy thing about her is how she does her work. She was always pushing herself even when there’s little work to be done.
While Zero and Thunderwing were walking the streets of Manehattan after finishing work for the day, Zero was pondering to himself about the mare.
“Are you still thinking about her?” Thunderwing asked.
“She’s so…different” Zero sighed “I just don’t get her deal, we co-workers should stick together but she just does everything herself and talks to nopony, it’s weird.”
“Or maybe she just wants to be alone did you ever think of that, back in school some mares were like that,”
Zero crossed his arms and gave a small smirk at the nostalgia. “Ok I see your point, but they usually talk to me….when they’re being bullied.”
“Yeah except you can’t head-butt somepony and expect the problem to be solved,” Thunderwing gave a small chuckle recalling his friend's protective nature back in their school. Fighting bullies and making friends, although his parents didn't approve of fighting, the thought of protecting others keep their thoughts at bay.
“True, but If I just get an answer from her, I might give up on this,”
As Zero and Thunderwing were about to turn the corner at the end of the street, the same mare they were talking about was running down the street they were about to turn on, and the two friends caught notice of this.
“Hey, it’s her!” Zero shouted as he pointed in the direction she was heading. Besides work, nopony sees where the mare goes, and Zero never liked being left in the dark, even if it wasn’t his business.
“Ok, we finally spotted her somewhere besides work” Thunderwing said sarcastically, “what about it?”
Zero looked at his friend with a smirk, “We follow her and see what she’s up to.” Before Zero could to do as he claimed, Thunderwing grabbed his shoulder.
“Dude, it’s called personal space and you need to respect that, plus that’s stalking.”
Knocking his hand off his shoulder, Zero continued walking “I’ll respect it once I get some answers,”
Thunderwing sighed; knowing Zero he was going to get into a lot more trouble than it’s worth, he decided he can’t do this alone.
“Wait, I’ll come with you.” Thunderwing offered. “But if we’re going to follow her, let’s use the rooftops.”
“And this is why your my best friend,” Zero smiled knowing his friend got his back as usual.
The two followed the mare as they did their little hobby of parkour across the buildings, at some points they had to fly to another building when she had to cross a street; eventually they both stopped and noticed the mare run into a large old looking building across the street.
“Hey, I recognize that building,” Zero noted, “That’s…..the old homeless shelter,”
Thunderwing gave a curious look, “you’ve been here before?”
“Hardly, my mom usually comes and volunteers to help when she has the time; I went with her at least twice,”
“So I guess she’s homeless, well there’s your answer Zero now let’s-“
Zero hoped off the building and fluttered to the shelter below, once he landed and grabbed the door handle Thunderwing stopped him once again.
“What are you doing?!” Thunderwing exclaimed.
“What does it look like, I gonna go talk to her,” Zero replied.
“But you got your answer, she’s homeless and obviously doesn’t want to talk about it now let’s go.”
“I want to see if she needs anything, like money or clothes, she always comes to work in that dirty robe, guess this explains it,”
As Zero and Thunderwing walked in they looked around at a sight they were expecting, several poor looking families eating small portions of food or drinking bottled water, they all had depressed looks in their eyes and wore dirty clothing, some were actually happy as they were playing with their foals, this made Zero slightly happy knowing people can smile, regardless of their situation.
“Any sign of her?” Thunderwing questioned.
“Not yet, let’s ask one of the workers” Zero noticed a familiar face handing out a blanket to a stallion, “Hey, Onyx!”
Onyx turned his head and smiled, he was a black earth pony stallion with blue mullet mane and black eyes, he was wearing a brown vest with a yellow shirt underneath and wore blue baggy pants.
“Hey, it’s White Star’s kid,” Onyx acknowledged. “what brings you here?”
“I’m looking for a mare, she’s-“
“Well now, it’s about time you started looking at girls, are her melons big?” Onyx gave a cheeky laugh and got a couple of glares from the mares around them.
Zero sighed and shook his head “You haven’t changed I see, but anyways she has a scarlet ponytail, violet eyes and a gold coat, I saw her run in here a minute ago, have you or anyone else seen her?”
Onyx stopped laughing and gave a serious look. “No,”
Thunderwing decided to speak up finally. “Are you sure, because I’m sure she-“
“Listen,” Onyx interrupted “I can’t just tell you that kind of stuff, and with winter starting, a lot of the ponies are gonna need our care to say warm, I think you two should leave,”
“But I just need to-“Zero started, only for Thunderwing to grab his arm and shook his head as a sign to give it up.
“Alright, we’ll leave,”
Zero and Thunderwing headed off to the exit and left the building, two minutes later, two ponies walked in dressed in black and wore sunglasses, both with jet black manes but one was a brown earth pony and the other was a lime unicorn, both of them were greeted by Onyx.
“C-can I help you?” questioned Onyx as he was slightly intimidated by the twos appearance.
“Hello good sir,” said the unicorn “My name is Keen Eye, and this is my partner, Sharp Tongue, we are social workers from Canterlot and we’re looking for this mare,” Keen Eye took out a picture of the mare in question, she was a gold coat Pegasus mare with a scarlet ponytail an violet eyes, Onyx recognize her as the same one Zero and Thunderwing were looking for.
“I’m sorry but I haven’t seen her,” Onyx replied calmly
“Hm, how about this filly?” Keen Eye took out another picture; this one had a filly with short bright red mane with a vermillion coat and blue eyes.
“N-no, listen we’re very busy and winter is coming in, I think you should lea-“
“Don’t worry, it won’t take long, we just want to take a look around to see if they’re snooping around,” Sharp tongue smiled, “plus we have search warrants, so we have a right to look,” , this caused Onyx to sweat nervously.
“Wait,” Ordered Keen Eye, “Look around you; certainly we can make things… interesting for everypony,”
This made Sharp Tongue smile even more “Your right, Alright you poor unfortunate souls, we’ll give anyone who can sniff out theses Rats a reward of three thousand bits. Winter is coming everypony, just think about all the delicious food you can eat or all the warm cozy clothes you can wear, but most important… think about the foals,”
Sharp tongue pretended to cry as he covered his face in shame while smiling underneath, the ponies around the room gave looks of anger, sadness, and hunger. Despite the stallion’s attitude he was right, they do need this.
“We’ll be staying at the hotel down the street from here,” Keen Eye explained. “we’ll wait at least a week, stay warm everypony…if you can.”
With that, Sharp Tongue left several pictures of the two girls on a nearby bed and walked out, once they were out of sight, Onyx went to the far back of the room where two hooded figures came out of a broom closet.
“Are they really gone?” said the taller figure.
Onyx nodded.
“Thank you,”
“I’ll do my best to keep you two safe,” said Onyx. “But I can’t say the same for everyone else,”
The figured took of her hood, revealing the scarlet mare with her sad expression “I understand…it’s the same everywhere I go anyways, the only question is how long until I get run out of town again,”
“Sis?” the small figure took of her hood, revealed her teary blue eyes and her red mane, “when will they stop looking for us,”
“Soon, Ember,” the scarlet mare replied as she forcing a smile while wiped the tears from Ember's eyes. “Why don’t we get some food okay?
“Ok!” Ember beamed as she ran towards the kitchen area; while the scarlet mare followed her, she was getting glares from everyone, this made her feel uncomfortable and she put her hood back on.
“When will this end?” she whispered to herself.
The next morning the scarlet mare woke up next to her sister, Ember, who was sleeping soundly, making the mare smile. She went to a nearby sink to wash up for the day, once she returned to her bed, she noticed Onyx walk in; he usually comes in early to watch Ember while she’s at work.
“Morning sleepy head,” Onyx greeted.
“Morning,” the mare yawned.
“Heading off to work huh?”
“Yeah, see you in a few, and don’t let Ember go outside today,”
“Gotcha,”
As she waved goodbye, she looked at the orange sky, it was tiring and welcoming, that Zero guy was right, it was beautiful. As she walked down the street she saw some ponies walking around and getting into taxes, she even saw a couple foals running out their apartment buildings with backpacks saying goodbye to their parents as they left for school. The mare smiled at this remembering when she left for school with Ember and gave her piggyback rides.
At least, she used to….
The mare snapped out of her nostalgia and continued walking to the weather control building.
After a peaceful morning walk, the mare finally made it to the building, she doesn’t mind her job, it was actually pretty nice, it was easy, the pay was good, and when it’s a sunny day she can spend time with Ember. If she’d stayed in this city she can make a decent living her….. But she knew it wasn’t possible.
“At least I can make the best of it,” she mumbled
The moment she walked in she was taken aback by a small bag that was being held in front of her face, the pony who was holding the bag was none other than Zero Gravity.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to surprise you, but I noticed you been working hard lately and I found out about your…situation, so I decided to help you out and give you a hundred bits as a start,” he said as he gave a goofy smile.
The mare furrowed her brow and smacked the bag away from his hand and started to walk to her usual corner until Zero grabbed her arm.
“HEY WHATS YOUR DEAL?!” Zero shouted, only for the mare to smack his hand away and shout back.
“MY DEAL IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!”
“I WAS JUST TRYING TO BE NICE, MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY!”
“I DON’T NEED YOU OR ANYPONYS DAMN PITY!”
“WHATS SO WRONG WITH SOMEPONY WORRYING ABOUT YOU!”
The mare was going to reply but she was taken aback by the Pegasus again, he said he was worried about her, but why?
“Whats going on here?” Cosmic asked as he and the other Pegasi walked over to the two.
“I offered her some money and she just smacks it out of my hand,” Zero explained.
“Blaze, is this true?” questioned Cosmic
Blaze then gave an upset look “Please don’t say my name, I don’t want other ponies to know me,”
“Blaze, you’re being suspicious, please just let me explain it to them,”
Blaze was going to continue to protest, but she realizing how pointless it was, she was going to leave in a matter of time anyways, so he might was well.
“Fine,” she huffed as she crossed her arms
“First off, her name is Blazing Glory, she prefers Blaze,” Cosmic noted “She…hasn’t had a good life lately, all she wants is to earn enough for a living, that’s why she works so hard, she’s got no family and she’s not very social so don’t except to become friends, she just wants to be alone and for you to respect that, now please, let’s get to work.”
Everypony cleared out at the command, leaving Zero and Blaze in a defeated look.
“Hey,” Zero started, “I’m really sorry about the shouting and snooping and stuff,”
“Just….leave me alone, please,” Blaze replied as she started to walk away to her corner, only to glare back at the bag of bits she smacked and pick it up.
It started to rain that evening and Blaze was flying back at the shelter at full speed, she doesn’t like working late and leaving Ember by herself, even if Onyx looked after her, those Social workers might show up and take her, and she can’t let that happen….not again.
Upon arrival, she noticed the power went out and there were candles all over the place, she figured the lightning must of knocked out the power, making her way to her bed, she noticed that Ember had already fallen asleep, as she had already covered her body with the whole blanket, but Blaze didn’t mind, she need it more anyways. Resting her head on the bed she was about to pull the blanket off and give her sister a goodnight kiss as a sign that she had returned from work.
But once she did, she realized it wasn’t her beloved sister, but a large pillow, without given time to react, the scarlet mare was hit in the back of the head with a plank of wood and fell unconscious. Behind her was Keen Eye holding an unconscious Ember and Sharp Tongue holding the plank of wood.
“Finally, I didn’t think some poor old sap would rat her out so fast,” commented Sharp Tongue.
“Who cares, tie her up, gag her, and let’s go,” Replied Keen Eye. “Let’s leave now and catch the next train to Canterlot,”
Zero was flying home after setting up the thunderstorm for the evening. Rain was something he enjoyed; the sound of it hitting his window while he slept made it more peaceful in his opinion, but right now he was in a sour mood, he felt bad for Blaze, sure he felt bad for homeless ponies in general, but unlike most homeless ponies he’s met she was young and doesn’t have a family, so he plans on talking with her one last time and give her an offer she can’t refuse…maybe.
“OK, what should I say,” he thought out loud. “Hey, I know you want to be alone and don’t need my pity but I was wondering if, you want to…no that’s no good, YO, whats up, I wanted to know if you can use a friend and we can hang out, Zero Gravity style,” then he face palmed himself and sighed. “I’ll be lucky if she doesn’t shout in my face again."
Looking down he saw two figures walking out of the homeless shelter, it looked like they were carrying something but he couldn’t make it out due to the heavy rain, until lightning struck and he briefly saw one figure carrying a filly and other figure carrying Blazing Glory.
“They look like they mean business, better get help,” normally he would notify the police, but police would take too long to show up due to the size of the city, and he can’t leave and go to the station or he’ll lose them, so he used his ear piece and hoped Cosmic can connect him to Thunderwing for help.
“Cosmic, I need you to connect me to Thunderwing; I need to tell him something important,”
“Alright fine, but don’t get used to these personal call,” replied Cosmic.
After a few seconds Zero heard what sounded like a tired Thunderwing answering his call “you wanted to tell me something important?”
“Dude, meet me by the shelter in the sky, and bring a hoodie,” Zero demanded.
“Are you trying to scare your sister with the fake breaking and entering prank again?” Thunderwing yawned.
“THIS IS SERIOUS, JUST GET OVER HERE!”
“OK, ok, I’ll be there but tell me what you’re up to first,”
“Alright, but this involves a plan that you need to go along with.”
Keen Eye and Sharp Tongue were closing in on the train station, the fact it was still open was a miracle, luckily nopony else were on the streets while they were carrying their “luggage” or it would raise a couple eyebrows. Unfortunately their thoughts we’re proven wrong when two hooded figures can out of a nearby alleyway and approached them.
“Hey, beat it,” barked Sharp Tongue, “we have business to attend to.”
“We don’t want much” said one of the figures. “We just want the mares,”
“Any particular reason why we should give them to you,” asked Keen Eye.
“Well you see, I’m a lonely stallion and that mare you got there has a nice….body, so we were wondering if you can let us… have our way with her, and you already helped with tying her up and gagging her so she can’t cry or scream.”
Sharp Tongue smiled. “I like your thinking kid, but what about the little filly,”
“Oh, well my partner here likes them young and soft, after all, we want her first time to be…special,” the figure gave an eerie chuckle.
“And if we say no?” asked Keen Eye.
One of the figures pulled out a knife before responding “if you say no, things get ugly,”
Keen Eyes horn started to glow as a sign he was ready to fight, but Sharp Tongue in steeped in front of him and blocked his path.
“Oh come on, let them have their fun,” Sharp Tongue decided. “After all, this isn’t the first time we thought we had her and she got away, we’ll just say we found their bodies and it was already rotting by the time we found them it will save us them trouble,”
Keen Eye's horn dimmed, “Fine, but get rid of them for us would you,”
The figure smiled. “Gladly,”
Handing over the mares, the two business ponies watched the hooded figures disappear into the alley they came from before going inside the train station. Once they knew they were out of their sight, Zero and Thunderwing headed towards the nearest subway; once they were underground, they took off their hoodies and sat the mares down on the nearest.
“Alright, lets untie them before somepony suspects something,” said Zero as he took out his knife.
“Ok, who do you think were the ponies in black?” questioned Thunderwing.
“Don’t know or care, their gone and the girls are sa-“
Once Zero started to cut the rope on the mare, she suddenly broke free and grabbed Zero's arm threw him against a wall, she took the knife from him while he was moaning in pain and bucked Thunderwing between his hind legs, causing him to fall to his knees, she then pointed the knife to his neck and took the gag off her mouth.
“So you want to have you way with my sister you sick freak,” Blaze hissed.
“N-N-NO, we only did that so we can save you two, honest!” pleaded Thunderwing.
“Alright then, how do I know your telling the truth?”
Zero then got up and cracked his back to ease his pain. “First, why do it where ponies can see us instead of an alleyway, second, why would we untie you.”
Blaze didn’t move for a moment and thought about his theory, once everything checked out, she finally pulled the knife away from Thunderwing, “Alright, now it’s my turn to ask the questions, why did you save us?”
Zero tilted his head in confusion “well, you looked like you were in trouble,”
“Hmph, well…..thanks then, Ember, let’s go.”
Ember broke free from her ropes and ripped of her gag before hoping off the bench and following her sister out of the subway.
“W-wait!” shouted Thunderwing after recovering from his assault, “I want some answers from you, as well,”
Blaze halted before walking up the stairs, “well you’re not getting any, Ember lets go,”
Before Blaze could continue, Ember grabbed her hand and pulled her back “Sis, these nice ponies are the first ones to actually saved us from the bad ones, don’t you think we owe them?”
“It’s ok,” Zero assured. “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine,”
“No, she's right,” said Blaze calmly “I’ll cooperate, what do you want to know,”
“Actually, let’s go to my place,” Thunderwing offered. “So we can talk in private,”
They all nodded and let Thunderwing led the way.
Inside Thunderwing's apartment everyone was sitting at a table in the kitchen area, Zero and Thunderwing sat at one end of table while Blaze and Ember sat on the other.
“We don’t have to worry about waking anyone; my mom is doing an investigation out of town. But let’s not bother the neighbors,” Explained Thunderwing.
“Alright, let’s get to the point,” Began Zero, “Who are you really?"
“What do you mean?” Blaze said curiously.
“Ember called you ‘sis’ back in the subway and Cosmic said you had no family, so I concluded you must of lied about who you really are,”
Blaze gave a sad chuckle. “You’re pretty sharp,”
“Well when you have a dad as a defense attorney, he teaches you a couple things,”
“Well, my name really is Blazing Glory and you guessed right, this is my sister, Ember, but the story isn’t a complete lie, it’s just…incomplete,”
“What do you mean?” questioned Thunderwing.
“Me and Ember have living like this for about five years now; we've been all over Equestria constantly running from…them,” she trailed off.
“Those…Business ponies?”
“The social workers, yes, they been looking for me since I…left that place,”
“Is that place...” Thunderwing chimed in.
“The Guardian Angels orphanage in Canterlot, you’ve heard of it?” She questioned
“I’ve heard that it’s one of the well-reviewed orphanages in Equestria, but I’ve heard fillies are always trying to running away from that place,”
“BULLSHIT,” Blaze shouted as she got up from her chair, “THAT PLACE IS LIKE ANOTHER TARTARUS , ALL OF US JUST WANTED TO FIND HAPPINESS AND BE ADOPTED, BUT ALL THOSE DAMN WORKERS FEED US TWICE A WEEK AND ABUSE US FOR FUN, JUST LOOK AT WHAT THEY DID TO MY SISTER!
Ember lifted up her robe to show two stitches on the lower part of her stomach and bruises on her ribs, causing Thunderwing's and Zero's mouth to gap open.
“How can they hide this from everypony, especially the Princess?” Thunderwing exclaimed.
“Unicorns run the place, so whenever somepony stops by they lock us in a soundproof basement and cast an Illusion spell to make it look like it’s a sanctuary, So the first chance I got, I grabbed what I can and ran away, I kept watching how most of the others made an attempt to escape and took note of it. Ember and I are the only ones to make it this far,”
“And they never stopped looking for you did they,” Thunderwing said.
“I’m old enough to have a job so they’re only after Ember now and they’ll probably lock me up somewhere so I can’t tell anypony their secret. We’ve been hiding in town after town and city after city, and every time we think we’re safe, they find us and try to bring us back. Overtime, we learned to defend ourselves but they’re so damn persistent, I tried to ask for help but once they saw my sister, they would call somepony for help and cause too much attention and…you get the point,”
Thunderwing stood there with tears in his eyes thanks to Blaze’s story, But Zero was completely silence for the majority of the story, he sigh. “Guess that explains it huh,”
“Yeah, it was nice to have somepony lend an ear, Anyways, thanks for the help but we’re gotta go,” she whimpered as she and Ember got up from their chair.
“Wait, where are you going?” Zero asked.
“Wherever the wind takes us I guess,” she answered as she grabbed the doorknob.
“Before that, I wanted to ask you something,”
“Alright last question, shoot,”
Zero took a deep breath “I was wondering if…I don’t know…..you wanted to stay with us, maybe.”
Blaze released the doorknob for a moment “I….can’t, they’ll find me again, plus you guys still live with your parents, if they see Ember they’ll-“
Zero grabbed both of Blazes shoulder and they looked her in the eye, “Blaze, don’t worry, me and Thunderwing will convince our families and explain the situation, I promise will keep you safe no matter what.”
Blaze started into his eyes for a moment and gave it some thought, she recalled Zero giving her those bits earlier and saving her from the social workers, nopony has been so kind to her before… at least, not without a reason, she had to ask.
“Why?” she began to cry. “Why would go so far to help somepony as helpless as us, why be so kind when you can just turn us in and keep your hands clean like everypony else I've met, why do any of this for us?”
Zero chuckled and gave a happy smile “Well I’d hate see somepony as lonely and sad as you without any friends, plus whats so wrong with having someone care about you,”
Blaze stopped crying as she was taken aback by Zero’s statement and then looked at Ember to see her face beaming with happiness, knowing for once in the past five years, they found a place to call home.
“So,” Zero continued “is it for here or to go?”
Blaze gave an honest laugh in what seemed like ages and replied “Here,”
“Thunderwing, you cool with this?”
Thunderwing finally stood up and gave sigh as he smiled “I don’t see why not.”
“I don’t think we have to ask your sister now, do we?” Zero said to Blaze, only for Zero to be assaulted with a hug by the filly in question. “I’ll take that as a yes, anyways lets crash here for the night since the storm isn't letting up,”
“Sweet, I haven’t had a sleepover in ages,” said Ember.
“Good idea, but hopefully my mom doesn’t come home, she’d kill us” said Thunderwing.
“Alright,” said Blaze
Thunderwing walked to his room and came back with three inflatable beds, once he finished blowing them up he gave everypony a pillow and blanket.
“Alright I’m going to bed, night” said Thunderwing as he closed the door to his room.
“Night,” everyone else responded as they laid down on their beds, as Zero was beginning to drift but felt something poke his side.
“Hey Zero,” said Blaze.
“Yeah,” he yawned.
“Thank you for letting us stay here,”
“Don’t thanks us yet, we have a big day tomorrow,”
“What do you mean?”
Zero gave a chuckle. “You’ll see, anyways good night,”
As Zero turned over and began snoring, Blaze was a little curious for what he had in store tomorrow, but decided to shrugged it off, she then look towards her sister to see she’s fast asleep, not only is she happy that the social worker think they’re dead and won’t hunt for her anymore, but her sister is finally safe and can finally escape the memories of that orphanage.... and hopefully forget the memories of the earlier days.
Next time: Dreams and Goals