//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: A Filly's New Hope // by Mocha Star //------------------------------//         “Miss Nova, the boss, mister Cherry, wishes to see you,” a guards pony said as she stood at the door to the shack.         With a widening grin, Nova turned to the mare. “I’m gonna go see the boss guy!  I’ll see you in a bit and let you know if I’m getting out,” she said as she pranced out of the door, missing the look of worry and sorrow on her surrogate mother’s face.         “Follow me,” the mare said as she led Nova towards the large house.  Never had the young mare been so close to the house before.         It stood like a multistoried mansion compared to her shack she shared.  It was simply a two story yellow house with a porch.  Something nondescript by most standards, yet Nova still stopped in her tracks to gawk at it.         “Come, mare.  You’ve been summoned, you must come or return to your home for the duration of your fine.”                  “I-I’m coming!” She said hurrying behind the mare and up the white painted steps.  “Wow, this’ so cool, and clean,” she giggled as she entered the house.           The temperature drop shocked her at first.  “Why’s it so cold in here?”         The mare sighed and grumbled. “Air conditioning, fool.  Enjoy it, now you must be cleaned and checked.”         “Huh?  You mean like a pond?  I walked on the rocks yesterday,” she said looking to her cracked and worn hooves.         “A bath, you idiot!  Sheesh, they never get smarter,” she grumbled as she walked past a flight of stairs and to a door, opening it with a light shove on the handle.         “A-a bath?  Like-”         “Shut, up,” the mare said turning and leaning close to Nova’s face sternly.         She turned and marched into the room with white walls, polished floors that slanted slightly to a drain, and a large clawfoot tub in the center that was at least twice her size with a shower curtain opened all the way around it.         “...Wo~w.”         “The water is warm and ready, get in and I’ll scrub the filth from your body,” she said trotting to a sink she slipped a stiff brush onto her hoof and walked on three legs to Nova.  “I said ‘get in’, do you understand that?”         Nova nodded and hopped to the rim of the tub and began to pull herself up.  Her rear legs scrambled for a grip as her hooves scraped against the side of the tub.  She yelped as she felt a shove from under her tail.  She flipped sideways into the water.                          She surfaced and coughed water as she began to flail, trying to stand only to slip and fall to her chin against the side of the tub.  “Ouch!”         “Oh, shut up you little turd stain.”         Nova gasped and sank into the water quickly, finally finding a place to plant her hooves she stood, the water just to her chest.  “You said  bad words,” she whispered as her ears perked and listened for another to grow her vocabulary with.         Without another word the brush was dipped into the sudsy water and a foreleg pulled Nova to the side of the tub.  “Ouch, owie, owie, owie!  You’re brushing too hard, it hurts.”         “Nothing compared to later, now shut up and let me get the crap out of your fur or I’ll brush harder.”         Nova winced with every pass of the brush as it ground against her side, then blank flanks, then legs, neck and to her face, but not across it.  She was turned and held to the side, being forcibly brushed again.           “Stop whimpering like a dog or I’ll treat you like one.”         “S-sorry, it just… hurts so much.”         The mare sneered as she pressed very hard on a small lump of dirt on the filly’s rear leg.         “Ouchie!”           “That’s half as hard as I can clean you, now shut it.”         Nova trembled and looked to the water.  What was once clear with white bubbles was now murky, dark, and full of not only clumps of dirt, but of her fur as well.         “There, stay still,” she said as she pulled the plug and drained the water.  The shower curtain was pulled almost closed then the mare returned to the sink, trading the firm bristled brush for a softer one and grabbing a toothbrush in by the handle in her teeth.         She returned as the water nearly finished draining and turned the tap on, turned a smaller level, and waited.         Nova watched intently as the water stopped and a rumbling sound traveled through the pipes before the shower began, startling her.  “Gah, it’s raining?!  It’s so cold…”         With a couple twists the water warmed to a comfortable level.  “Ah, it’s like a summer rain now… much better, thanks,” Nova said opening her mouth and gulping some with a hum.         “Open your mouth.”         Nova complied as the mare looked in and snorted.  She slipped the brush out of her hoof and gripped the toothbrush and carefully cleaned the young mare's mouth.  “Close your eyes, if you open them the soap will hurt you.”         “Okay.”         A moment later a hoof held Nova’s cheek as her face and horn nub was lightly brushed.  She winced in fear several times but the feeling was like no other she’d ever felt.  She felt cleaner than she could remember.         “Turn around.”         “Okay,” she said before she inhaled sharply as her undertail area was carefully cleaned.           “There, now to get you dry and into a nice dress.”         “A-a… a real dress?” Nova said with a growing smile.         “Y-yeah,” the mare said hesitantly, “just, uhm, sorry for being so mean…  I,” she paused and steeled her features, “come, filly.”         “I’m a mare, ya know, right.”         “You will be,” the mare mumbled with a frown.         “You mean in my dress?  Oh, will it be pretty, with lace and gems and a million colors and a flowingingness that I saw in a picture once?”         …         “This’ nice,” Nova said as she looked at the yellow dress, “it goes with my fur, even though it’s a little loose, though.”         “Come, time to meet the boss.”         “Oh, will he tell me how pretty I am before he tells me to go home?”         THe mare was silent as she gulped.  The corners of her muzzle pulled down slightly as her eyes blinked away some moisture.  “Come, and be silent.  The only advice I can give you to bite this,” she said as she lifted Nova’s hoof and slipped a piece of wood that was covered with teeth marks.         Slipping it into the young mare’s sleeve she turned and led the confused filly out of the rooms and up the flight of stairs.  Turning left to a door at the end of a hall the mare pointed.  “Go, and… just go.”         “Uhm, okay?”         Nova walked ahead, into a shadowed corridor to the doorway where she knocked lightly on the door.  Her coat smelled so good she barely noticed the scent of incense wafting through the cracks of the door.