Angelswift

by Nevel

Chapter 3

By the time Lance and Cherry had left Sugarcube Corner, it was night time. They had stayed and enjoyed the party, as well as help themselves to a few extra cupcakes. Cherry had fallen asleep towards the end and Lance decided it was time to go home. She was now resting on her brothers back as the ivory pony made their long walk home. Lance looked up towards the moon, enjoying the nights air. He could see Canterlot far away, lit brightly against the dark shadow of the mountain.

One day, we'll be living up there.

Lance still didn't have a job though. He had asked Cheerilee if the school needed a caretaker or anything, but sadly the school didn't need anypony like that. He had also asked the Cake's if there was a job available at Sugarcube Corner, but again he was turned down. Getting a job was gonna be harder than he thought.

But at least next week Cherry will be starting school.

Unfortunately Lance had to get her some school supplies, which meant more money. The good mood that Lance had been in faded quickly. Everything depended on him. Food, living, supplying. Tomorrow he'd have to search every place in Ponyville looking for a job.

Maybe the market will have something? Their all farmers, right? Lance thought to himself. Surely there must be somepony willing to take on an extra pair of hooves.

Lance had a plan for tomorrow. Before he realised it, he was on the dirt path that led to their home. The path was still overrun with weeds, and being outside the edge of the town, no pony seemed to dare come here. He thought back to the party and everyponies reaction to when he told them all where they were living.

- - -

Cherry Blossom was rolling a ball on the floor towards the two foals. First to Pound Cake who would bounce it back, if not a little too hard, and then after Cherry would get the ball back, she'd roll it to Pumpkin Cake. Who would immediately pick the ball up and begin sucking on it. Mr. Cake was always there though to take the ball from her and help her to roll it back to Cherry.

“They look like there all having so much fun, don't they?” Mrs. Cake had said to Lance. They had been talking about if he could get a job working at Sugarcube Corner before she had gently let him down.

“Well, Cherry's never really- I mean, yeah. Yeah they do.” Lance almost said something that would have brought up too many questions. Cherry's never had friends before, being kept inside a house working day and night. He was glad that that part of their life was over and he'd never see her like that again. Lance took a quick sip of the fruit punch he had on the table next to him. The song on the record player just changed to something a lot more lively and Lance heard Pinkie say something about jam before bouncing to the dance area she'd set up.

“So tell me deary," Said Mrs. Cake, getting Lance's attention again. "Where exactly in Ponyville are you staying?” Lance knew some pony would ask this eventually. Maybe he could just sugar coat it and not exactly say what the place was like.

“Well, it's just a little place outside the town. Nothing special. It's just on the edge of the forest.”

Needle Scratch!

Everypony had stopped where they stood. All conversations went quite, followed up by whispers. Lance couldn't help but notice all eyes were on him. Mrs. Cake shakily touched a hoof to Lance's shoulder.

“De-Deary. Surely you don't mean the old house by... Everfree Forest, do you?” Mrs. Cakes sounded a little worried.

Just then the Cake's foals began crying loudly. Mr. Cake picked them both up saying he was taking them to bed. Lance looked back to Mrs. Cake.

“Look, I know that the house in currently in a state of disrepair, but as soon as I can find a job-” Mrs. Cake cut Lance off.

“Deary, it isn't the house we're worried about. It's the forest!”

“Wait, what?” Lance asked confused. Just then, a unicorn with a mint green coat and the same colour mane with a white stripe stood forward.

“That forest isn't safe.” The mint unicorn said. Then another pony that was next to her stepped forward. She had a cream coloured coat and a blue and pink curly mane.

“All kinds of monsters live in there!” Then suddenly each pony at the party were stepping forward one after the other.

“The forest is hexed!”

“Haunted!”

“Evil!”

“And Spoooookie!” Pinkie appeared behind Lance. “You can't stay there. Everypony that's lived there has mysteriously disappeared! They say the house is like an evil monster that welcomes you in and when you fall asleep, WHAM! It'll trap you inside and crawl away and spit you out into the heart of the forest where the wicked enchantress of the forest will take your soul and use it to put on a puppet show, and the only guests are the monsters of the forest!“

Suddenly there was the sound of crying and everypony looked to the source. Cherry Blossom was running across the floor and jumped into her brother, holding him tight while she cried her heart out. She was terrified. Lance looked at Pinkie with a scowl on his face.

“Look what you've done!” Lance gave a nasty look to everypony in the store. “You should all be ashamed of yourselves. Making up ridiculous ghost stories. Let alone believing them!” Lance then held the filly tight to himself.

“I-I d-don't w-wanna go back t-there!” Cherry spoke between sobs.

“It's okay,” Lance whispered to the little pink filly. “You've really got nothing to worry about.” Everypony in the room hung their heads in shame. Their fear, paranoia and over reacting had just terrified a little filly. Pinkie stood frozen. She, worse then everypony else, with her over-active imagination had perhaps caused the most damage. Mrs. Cake walked around to Cherry Blossom and got down low to Cherry's eye level and began speaking in a very gentle voice.

“It's all right deary. There's really nothing to be scared of.” Cherry's crying had quieted down. The mint green mare then stepped closer.

“Y-Yeah, we're sorry. It was all just... a bad joke.” Each pony murmur'd in agreement. One by one the ponies came forward and began saying they were sorry both to Cherry and to Lance. All but one pony. Pinkie had disappeared.

- - -

It had been a really rough end to an otherwise good day. Cherry had fallen asleep shortly after the trouble with the ghost stories. When Mrs. Cake had saw Cherry was asleep she leaned in close to Lance.

“I'm sorry about all of this deary. But I'm serious when I say, stay out of the forest.” She had told him. “And if you do ever have to go in, do not leave the path for any reason.”

Lance had wanted to argue again about the ghost story nonsense, but stopped himself when he saw the serious expression on her face.

They were close to their home now. Lance could see the candlelight in the window.

Candlelight? We never lit a candle before leaving? Lance thought to himself.

“Cherry. Cherry, wake up!” Cherry Blossom was still on his back, she looked at him with her eyes half closed. “I need you to get down for a minute.” She looked puzzled as he knelled closer to the ground for her.

“Why? What's wrong?” Cherry noticed the worried expression on her brothers face. Lance looked back to the house.

Father wouldn't have tracked us down would he? Lance thought to himself. Oh Celestia, how could I have been so foalish? Of course he would think to come here first.

What was he going to do? He couldn't fight him! His father was twice his size. Lance looked down to his sister.

“Cherry. I need you to promise me you'll stay here.”

“What? But-” Lance cut her off.

“Promise me!” Cherry heard the worry in Lance's voice. She knew something was wrong when she looked over to the house. Cherry nodded as she stepped away from her brother.

Lance slowly made his way to the front door and noticed it was slightly ajar. Lance peeked in and saw no pony in the immediate hallway. He pushed the door open without a sound and then stepped inside. The kitchen was to his left, living room to the right, further down the hall on the left was the bathroom and the bedroom on the right. Lance stepped into the kitchen first.

There was a bunch of candles lighting up the whole kitchen, and Lance saw the watering can right in front of him. This would have to do, if he was forced to defend himself. He knew there was nothing else in the house so he headed toward the living room across the hall. A floorboard creaked as he stepped into the hall. It echoed throughout the house and suddenly everything instantly became quieter. It was already silent, but the sudden noise made it feel like the world had stopped moving altogether. Not a sound could be heard inside or outside. Lance thought he saw a darker shadow coming from down the hall, to the right.

He's in the bedroom.

Lance steadied himself, creeping down the hall as silently as he could. The door was only slightly open and he could see the light of the candle, flickering and coming through the crack of the door. He'd have to open the door quickly. Almost twenty four hours later and it seemed he was in the same situation as last time, back at his home in Las Pegasus. Only this time Cherry was safe outside. But was their father perhaps waiting for them? Just waiting for the door to open, before jumping out.

Taking a deep breath, he decided to just bull rush in. With the watering can held in his mouth, Lance quickly charged forwards into the room, knocking the door open with a loud bang. Lance looked around the room quickly seeing only the bed and two candles on the windowsill lighting the room. He saw no other pony here. Lance hesitated as he put down the watering can to check under the bed. Nothing. Lance stood up and turned around.

Something then suddenly dropped from the ceiling hanging upside down.

“SURPRISE!!” Lance screamed with shock as he jumped backwards from the intruder and he tripped over the watering can. He landed hard on his flank as he heard giggling. He looked up and saw Pinkie Pie drop from the ceiling.

“What!? P-Pinkie!?” Lance regained his composure as he stood up.

“So, what you think? Is it nice? Do you like it?" Pinkie was bouncing up and down on the spot.

“What's going on? What's with all these candles? What are you doing here in my home?”

“OH! Well, you see at first I was all sad because I'd made you mad for making Cherry sad, so I thought that the best way to turn those frowns upside down was to make this creepy house into a SUPER MAGNIFICENT AMAZING WONDROUS FANTASTIC HOUSE!” Lance looked around the room properly this time and saw that the bed had been completely cleaned off, the sheets had been replaced along with the blankets and pillows. The floors had be dusted and washed, as well as the walls.

“Pinkie. Did... did you do all of this?” Lance asked, stunned.

“Yep, I did every room from top to bottom!” Pinkie said with a proud smile.

“But how? You've only been gone from the party for like an hour.”

"Silly. You think I'd give away a pinkie secret?" Pinkie giggled as Lance walked out into the hallway to check the other rooms. The bathroom was spotless. The kitchen sparkled. The living room was completely devoid of dust and cobwebs now. Lance even saw that all the letters had been stacked into three piles and another small tiny pile of pink letters sat to the side.

“Those are all my old party invitations. I was just gonna reuse them for next time. I think I should just hoof deliver them myself. That way I can see all my friends more and no pony will ever have to worry about missing out on a Pinkie Pie party!” Lance looked at the other letters. They were all in order. Not just by how close the houses were, but each pile represented dates of how old the letters were. The third pile was a mess, but it was all junk mail that was completely worth tossing outside in the garbage. Just then Lance remembered something as he looked out the window.

“Cherry!” Lance then rushed to the door and looked outside to where he left his sister. She was gone.

Comments

[peace corps general]

Oh no THIS IS BAD!CALL THE ROYAL GUARD!CALL THE NAVY!CALL THE ELEMENTS!