Unexpected Relations

by Edward256

Chapter 4

The next morning the girls awoke in a bit of a cuddly mess. The upper half of Saffron Mango's body was laying across Bon Jour's midsection, who in turn had her head on Sandwisp's head, whose hind legs had wrapped around Saffron's flank. Sandwisp was the first to wake up, and in moving her head Bon Jour's head fell to the bed, waking her up. She looked around to notice the mess of the bed covers and the snoozing figure across her back.

"Looks lahk you got yerself a li'l probl'm there," teased Sandwisp in a whisper.

Indeed Sandwisp was not wrong. Bon Jour did not dare move any more in fear of waking Saffron, despite the little drool staining her coat. She was too cute like this.

"Shall Ah ask them ta bring u' breakfast?"

Bon Jour's cheeks flushed. Her parents coming up and seeing this was too embarrassing. She glared at Sandwisp, who just returned a smirk. However, Saffron Mango did start waking up. She looked over to see Bon Jour's face.

"Morning," she mumbled. As her vision cleared she noticed the angle of her friend, and that she was laying on her. She quickly lifted herself off.

"So sorry," she apologized. She then noticed Sandwisp's legs and pulled herself away from them.

"It's all right," reassured Bon Jour. "I didn't really mind."

"Ya sure don' as long as yer parents don' see it," said Saffron, that smirk still hanging in there.

Both Bon Jour and Saffron Mango made almost identical expressions of embarrassment.

Sandwisp laughed. "Come on. Let's get some breakfast."

They made their way down stairs, had breakfast, and went out to have their fun, hopefully to bump into somepony that needed help with their Cutie Mark. Saffron Mango put on her helmet, mounted her scooter, buzzed her wings, and set off through town. She had a plan in mind and that was to try to reach new heights with her scooter; to try and do some parkour with her scooter.

She scouted out her surroundings, looking for something worth grinding on or kicking off from, or both. She saw a fence and steered towards it. She made a jump with her scooter, grinded along the fence, jumped over a couple of heart-shaped posts and returned to the ground after the last post. She did not see anything in particular she could jump up to from the fence. A little disappointed she looked again.

She spotted her next target: a fence that started in the ground and angled its way up to a post. Apparently somepony had figured they could save some money by letting the ends of the fence go into the ground rather than buying end-posts. Not far from this angled end was a tarp pulled very low over a shop entrance. Saffron quickly calculated her next move: Grind up the fence, kick off the post, bounce off the tarp, and land safely on the other side.

She beat her little wings hard to gain momentum and executed her plan. Before hitting the fence she angled the scooter a little and slid up the fence. She kicked off the post as she hit it, and landed on the tarp, though not in the dead center. Bouncing off the tarp and doing a flip she quickly saw she was about to land on a bench, and to one side of it sitting in a peculiar way was a green unicorn mare. Saffron did not let that distract her and quickly corrected her aim with her wings so she would miss the unicorn. She landed on the bench anyway but missed the unicorn only by a hoof, startling her. Saffron rolled off the bench and continued on unscathed, looking for her next thrill.

It took Saffron a while before she found something, and she had to look again before seeing a potential. She saw a bench next to a house with sturdy flower boxes on the front corners. The flower boxes looked like they were part of the rest of the structure - almost like balconies made just for the flowers - and could potentially hold Saffron's weight. She saw her mark: Grind across the backrest of the bench, jump off and grind along the edge of one of the flower boxes, then jump to the other flower box on the other side of the building, possibly grind it backwards, and land safely on the other side. As much as she wanted to reach up onto the roofs, she did not see the opportunity right here.

Once again she revved up her wings, rocketed towards the bench, and jumped. She grinded the backrest of the bench with the scooter at a greater angle than before, and kicked off just before the bench ended. She soared up and towards the flower box, her wings correcting hers and the scooter's angle. She was focused, she was confident...

"Congrats on getting you..."

"Dad?"

And she was distracted. If she was just about to hit the ground there would be a very small chance she would be able to miss it. Unfortunately she was at the apex of her ascent and there was a wooden corner coming at her very quickly. During her distraction she had turned her head away from her goal, and in doing so the rest of her body and scooter followed slightly.

This meant instead of catching onto the edge of the flower box, the back wheel caught the side of the flower box, tipping the whole thing into the flowers growing there and the handlebar being violently yanked out of Saffron's front hooves. With her previous momentum and the tipping of the scooter, she flew into the corner of the wall the flower box was attached to and slammed her back into it. Because of her angle she spun a bit, hitting her helmeted head against the wall, and crashed through the flowers. However, she did not stop in time and slipped off the edge of the flower box, falling into a bush below. As if to add insult to injury, as her head rolled out of the bush and her chin hitting the ground, her scooter landed on her helmeted head and the handlebar hitting her on the nose.

There she lay for a while in a daze - covered in scrapes and bruises - having the whole event replayed in her mind, forwards and backwards and in no particular order all at the same time.

"Hey, are you all right?"

Saffron Mango came out of her daze at the sound of that voice. She looked up and saw a pony had come out of the house. No doubt he had at the very least heard the clatter of the scooter, if not the thump of her body against the wall.

Saffron got up out of the bush, wincing as the branches scraped her sore spots and any other open wounds, and replied "I'll be fine."

"What in Equestria were you--" the pegasus pony stopped in mid-sentence as he looked up and spotted the ruined plants in the flower box. "Did you just plough your way through that flower box?"

"Sorry," said Saffron Mango apologetically, picking up her scooter. "Was trying out a stunt and got distracted."

The male pegasus shook his head. "What were you trying to do while flying with that thing in hoof?" he gestured at Saffron's scooter.

"Actually, I... I can't fly," said Saffron guiltily. "I actually..." She looked towards the bench. "I kinda..."

The male pony looked to where Saffron was looking, then he looked up at the flower box.

"Oh," he said as he realized what the filly was trying to accomplish.

He looked at Saffron again and uttered another "Oh," as he slowly realized something else.

"Oh!" he gasped as things finally clicked in his mind. "Saffron Mango?"

"Yeah...?" answered Saffron with uncertainty. "How do you know my name?"

"My name's Zest. You probably don't remember me very well. You were quite young when we took care of you."

"Took, care, of..." Saffron repeated the words very carefully, a battle of shock and joy that this could be her biological father, and possibly a mother hiding in the house.

"Yes, you and the rest of the orphans here," Zest gestured towards the house. Saffron's heart sank, as did her face. Zest noticed this. "Oh, um. Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no... Just... For a moment..." Saffron took a moment to compose herself. "You wouldn't happen to know who my real parents are?"

Zest did a double take. He knew kids that were adopted from here would one day come around and ask such a question, but he did not think it would be at this age.

"I'm afraid not," he answered. "You were kind of left on our doorstep. No faces, no note. You looked to be newly born. We were the ones who named you."

"Oh," uttered Saffron in a disappointed tone.

"Are... are you okay with your adoptive parents?"

"Yes! I'm okay with them. I love them. I just... You know... Wanted to know."

Zest nodded his head in understanding. "I can understand that."

"Hey, Saffron Mango!" a familiar voice called out.

"Hello, Princess Light Wisteria," said Zest, bowing.

"Please, no need for that," said the princess waving, a dismissive hoof. Her title was relatively recent. She used to be a unicorn, and in fact the very same unicorn who became Ponyville's librarian. After her many accomplishments she was given a pair of wings and the title of Princess. She later got a castle which grew out of nowhere North of Ponyville.

She turned her attention to the smaller and slightly more colorful pegasus. "Saffron, you look pretty banged up there. What happened?"

"I, um... Tried a new stunt," she said, looking up at the flower box. "Thought I would combine my scooter tricks with parkour."

Wisteria did a double take. "That's a very dangerous sport! And at such high altitudes!" she exclaimed, following Saffron's gaze to the flower box. She winced as she imagined every possible scenario the filly could have gotten up there and every possible horror that could have happened to have given the filly those scrapes and bruises. Most of these thoughts were dismissed seeing as Saffron Mango was alive, standing, moving, breathing normally and talking coherently.

However the bruise growing on Saffron's back got Wisteria worried.

"I think you should get yourself checked up at the hospital."

"I feel fine, really," said Saffron through a slight wince.

"I must insist, Saffron. I'll even accompany you there," said the princess, as she ushered Saffron onto the scooter so Saffron did not have to put any strain on her legs. Wisteria used her magic to push the scooter along as they headed toward the hospital.