Out of the Slums

by A Crisp 20 Dollar Bill

Chapter 3: Tea Time, Part 1

Kamili woke up with the feeling of warmth and softness covering every inch of his body. Keeping his eyes shut, he took it all in and sent up a silent prayer of thanks. His body was still sore from the day before, but it felt much better now. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times; it was dark. The only light source came from under the door crack a few feet away. After a few minutes, Kamili could make out most of his surroundings. However, he couldn’t make out the ceiling. On top of him lay an enormous stack of fuzzy blankets, each one filled with intricate designs. There were at least ten of the things covering him, but it wasn’t like he was complaining. Flipping himself onto his chest, he examined the piece of furniture that he had been laying on, comatose. It was a fancy couch made of red fabric and supported by a gold frame.

Damn, it's just as classy as it is comfortable! Kamili thought.

Propping himself up with one of his forelegs, Kamili took in the room that he’d been occupying. He assumed it to be a spare room for storage, spotting some boxes stuffed with fabrics and… gems? Kamili rubbed his eyes and looked again. Yep, those are real, he thought. How rich is this pony? He pried his eyes off of the entrancing sight of the jewels and glanced to his left. There was a stool sitting there with a little slip of paper lying on top of it with a note scribbled in pen.

I have a couple of small things that I must attend to, so I trust that you can wait here in the shop for my friends and I to arrive back. In the break room down the hall to your right, there are cups, tea bags, and sugar on the counter with a kettle to heat up the water. Or, if you prefer, there is a coffee machine with some coffee still left in it, though it might have gotten cold by the time you wake up. It is quite cold, even in the shop, so I advise bringing a blanket or two out with you. We will be back by noon-time.

~R

P.S. Do NOT spill anything on those blankets. I will know. Thank you.

Kamili read and re-read the note over and over to get it through his head. What were the odds that this pony came along and took him in? Allowing him to stay in the shop, with no expenses mentioned whatsoever? No, there has to be more of a catch than just cleanliness…, he thought, unless this pony is the single most generous pony in Manehattan.

However, he didn’t really feel like analyzing too much more, and right now, he could do just about anything for a cup of tea.

Kamili rose slowly off of the couch and, tossing two of the blankets on his back, walked towards the door, swaying a little with each step. His hooves throbbed in annoyance. He reached the door, swung it open, and had to squint at the light pouring through the door frame. After his eyes adjusted, he stepped out into a short hallway. Turning right, he walked down the tiled-floor hallway towards the break room.

The room looked small from where he was, with a light yellow wallpaper covering most of it, though there were a few places where the original brick was showing through. On the counter directly in front of him was a white mug, two teabags, and a small pile of sugar packets, just like the note had said. There was also a coffee maker, which was about a quarter of the way full with said substance. The corners of Kamili’s lips turned up slightly. As he took staggered steps down the hallway, he heard a quiet voice coming from inside the room.

“...Now you be sure to be kind to our new guest, he seemed to have had a tough day yesterday. He’ll be walking in any minute-”

Kamili peeked into the break room and glanced to his left, where a pony sat, looking down at the ground next to her. He remembered her as the yellow pegasus mare from the night before. Her yellow coat was combined with a pink mane and eyes a moderate cyan. She was wearing a purple sweater, for the cold, obviously... idiot... Kamili thought. A white cup, identical to the one he had seen walking in, sat in front of her on the wooden table. Steam was rising from it; Kamili assumed she had recently made a cup of tea herself. With her ear flicking, the yellow mare’s eyes suddenly darted to his position and she gave an audible “Eeep!” combined with a slight hiccup, making Kamili chuckle a little bit.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

The yellow mare blushed lightly, slowly getting out of her seat and twirling her hair absentmindedly with one hoof. “It’s ok, I startle easily.”

The two stood in silence for a moment, awkwardly making eye contact with each other. A few more seconds passed until the silence was broken by another soft hiccup. She glanced away and giggled. Kamili’s corners turned up ever so slightly more.

“I’m sorry, I still need to introduce myself, don’t I?” The mare took a few steps towards him, making eye contact once more, though now the connection felt more stable. She held out her hoof, ready to shake. “My name’s Fluttershy, I’m Rarity’s friend, the pony whose shop we’re in.”

As a sign of courtesy, Kamili took Fluttershy’s hoof, bowed his head, kneeled, and kissed the hoof. He noticed her tense up, and glanced up at her. Fluttershy’s face had begun to glow a light pink.

“Uh…”

“Oh! I’m sorry,” Kamili exclaimed, shooting up. “That’s how my momma used to tell me I should greet mares I’ve just met. Just a little courtesy-”

“No, no, it’s fine, it’s fine,” replied Fluttershy quickly, looking down and away slightly, “I’m just not really… used to that kind of… greeting… I guess…” Another few seconds passed before she gave another little squeak.

“Sorry…”

“Hey, Ms. Fluttershy?” spoke Kamili gently. She looked back up at him and nodded.

“Mmhm?”

“I really think we should move away from the apologizing part and towards the thank-you-for-letting-me-stay-in-here-or-else-I-would’ve-been-a-zebrasicle-out-there part, don’t you?”

“Oh! Uh, yes, I agree.”

“Good, because I could use a seat right about now, my hooves are absolutely killing me.” Kamili motioned a hoof towards the table. Fluttershy gave a quick nod and pulled out a chair for him. Whispering thanks to her, Kamili promptly sat down and leaned back, sighing heavily and grinning.

“Not as good as that fancy red piece of work I slept on, but at least it’s something. It sure does feel good to get off these things, they hurt like hell,” he said, holding up a hoof. He then took the blankets from his back and laid them across his torso and hind legs. “Say, would you be kind enough to heat up another cup of water for some tea? I’d appreciate it.”

Fluttershy gave an “Mmhm!”, and went to go fill up the kettle on the counter in front of her, Kamili’s eyes following her over. She glanced down at the two teabags on the counter and back at him. “There’s only Earl Gray here, Rarity seems to be a fan of it, if that’s ok with you…”

Kamili nodded. “That sounds fine to me.”

“Alright, good, good.” Fluttershy took her gaze off of him and towards the sink, where she started filling up the mug. “I’m more fond of ginseng myself, actually.”

“Ginseng, huh? I’ve heard it tastes good.” Suddenly, Kamili spun around in his chair, facing Fluttershy with a goofy expression on his face as she moved to put the kettle on to the stovetop. “Hey, you know what would be cool? Ginseng tea bags that could actually sing to you!”

Fluttershy smiled mischievously and glanced towards him. “Sounds a bit chaotic, don’t you think?”

“You’ve never met me, Miss,” Kamili responded, raising his eyebrows. Fluttershy let out another soft giggle as she turned on the fire underneath the kettle. She turned back to face him once again. “Speaking of, I still haven’t gotten your name. Who are you?”

“My name is Kamili. I live in the Bronclyn area. Been living in this city my whole life.”

Fluttershy trotted a bit closer. “That’s interesting. I didn’t know that there were any zebras living in Manehattan.”

“There’s a pretty large population of us, yeah. You’re telling me you’ve never seen a zebra in Manehattan before, ever?”

Fluttershy shook her head. Kamili tapped a hoof to his chin. “Hmm, weird. And here I was thinking it was a small world.”

“Well, you aren’t the first zebra I’ve met. My friends and I know a very nice zebra named Zecora that lives inside the Everfree Forest. She only speaks in rhymes.” The kettle started whistling, signaling Fluttershy to go fill Kamili’s cup.

“Huh. I think my momma knew a few zebra who did that too. Do you know if she emigrated here before you met her?”

Fluttershy placed Kamili’s cup on the table in front of him.“Not really, Zecora’s never really talked about where she came from.” She turned around to go get a tea bag and some sugar. “Maybe we could arrange for her to meet your mother, maybe we could fi-”

She turned around, tea bag and sugar packet in hoof, to find Kamili staring dismally at her, his mouth slightly agape. He didn’t say anything for the next few seconds.

“I’m sorry, what’s wrong?”, said Fluttershy, worried.

He gulped. “My momma… She… she’s been… … …gone… for a while…” Kamili stammered, slowly; the feeling of despair and melancholia rushed over him like a tidal wave. A tear rolled down his right cheek. Fluttershy teared up and ran to Kamili, embracing him in a tight hug.

“Imsosorrykamiliididntrealizeididntmeantohurtyouareyoualrightimsosorry!” she wailed, almost incoherently. Kamili was thoroughly unprepared for the hug, but returned the warm, wet embrace.

“It’s ok, it’s just… It’s still hard to take in for me all this while later, but I always love to talk about her, I loved her very much.”

Fluttershy tightened the hug. “Goodness, Kamili, your father must have been so devastated when he found out, how is he?”

Kamili tensed up, catching her off guard. He sighed. “I never knew my dad. He left us about a year after I was born. I’ve always thought it was my fault.”

Fluttershy immediately backed out of the hug, looking at him with a very somber look on her face. “Kamili, I… I’m really sorry to hear that.”

They sat in silence for a moment. Then, Kamili slowly held out his forelegs. Fluttershy smiled and took the invitation, giving him another hug.

“Best not to think too deeply about the past right now, I’ll get depressed n’ shit,” said Kamili, chuckling a bit. He let go of Fluttershy and grinned at her, seemingly cured of his sudden sadness. “Damn, we’ve been being sentimental for too long. The water better not’ve cooled down yet!”

As Fluttershy placed the tea bag and sugar on the table, Kamili turned around in his chair to see his cup in front of him, and luckily, vapor was still rising from the top. What he didn’t expect to see, however, was a trio of raccoons looking at him curiously from the opposite side of the table. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Kamili turned back to Fluttershy with a confused look on his face.

“Uhm… wha-”

“These are the resident animals of the boutique, Smoky, Softpad, and Smoky Jr,” Fluttershy explained, walking back around the table and introducing the raccoons one by one. “They’ve been living here since even before Rarity signed the lease to the shop. I’m sorry if they startled you, they sure startled Rarity when she first met them…”

“No, it’s all good,” Kamili said, nodding and dunking his tea bag in the warm water. He then scrunched up his muzzle, pondering for a moment. “Now that I think about it, when I was walking down the hallway after I woke up, you were talking to someone…” He looked up, made eye contact with Fluttershy, who had taken her seat across the table with the family of raccoons, and furrowed his brow in thought. A moment passed, and his eyes went wide. “You don’t mean… You can talk to them?”

Fluttershy blushed, looking down at the trio in front of her. “Yeah, it’s my special talent actually. I take care of hurt animals at my home in Ponyville. I look out for them, feed them, give them love… It’s very fulfilling, in my opinion.” She looked back up at Kamili, who was beaming at her.

“That is quite possibly the most amazing talent I’ve ever known a pony to have! Damn, I wish I could talk to animals. There’s a couple of rats that live in my house, they got real friendly with me somehow, it would’ve been cool to know what they thought of me.” He pointed a hoof at her. “You, my friend, are a treasure.”

Fluttershy blushed and smiled bashfully back at Kamili. “Well, you haven’t gotten to know the rest of my friends yet, hmm?”

“That’s right, I haven’t. Speaking of them, why’d they just leave you here? Where are they?”

“Well, Rarity had a meeting with one of her co-workers this morning; they design Bridleway costumes together. The rest of us had already made plans to come with her, but I offered to stay back just in case you woke up, so you wouldn’t be alone.”

“Awfully nice of them, and of you. By the way, you wouldn’t happen to know the time? They did say that they’d be back by noon, and there wasn’t a clock in the room I was sleeping in.”

Fluttershy turned to Smoky and asked him to go check the clock in the lobby. The patriarch squeaked an answer and jumped down, scurrying off down the hallway; Kamili quietly observed. He then focused on the tea before him. He removed the tea bag from the water, tore open the top of the sugar packet, and sprinkled in the whole thing. He didn’t have a spoon, so he carefully swirled the cup in a circle in an attempt to diffuse the particles of sugar into the tea. He glanced up at Fluttershy and the rest of Smoky’s fluffy family, who had seemingly begun a quiet discussion in the absence of Smoky himself.

Kamili finally took a sip of his tea, which had taken longer than normal to make due to the excessive awkwardness, apologizing, hugging, and whatnot that had taken place a few minutes prior. The warm liquid flowed down his throat, slowly heating him up on the inside. “Not bad”, he muttered, smacking his lips. In the middle of his second sip, he heard the familiar sound of scurrying feet against the tiled hallway floor, and, to his mild surprise, followed by the less familiar sound of hoofsteps and the chatter of mares. Kamili, Fluttershy, and the two raccoons looked towards the door frame as Smoky scurried in with the rest of Fluttershy’s friends following behind him.

“Well! Looky who decided tuh wake up!” said the orange mare, who was dressed in a blue sweater that covered her front half.

“Well, once I knew I was gonna be in a room by myself with six pony mares, I wasn’t just gonna leave,” replied Kamili in a joking tone. He smirked, only to slowly retract it after a few seconds of very awkward stares from some of them. The pink one giggle-snorted and Fluttershy started quietly laughing behind him, though, so… half credit? The purple-haired mare, dressed in a purple hood and boots, took a few steps toward him.

“I wouldn’t have thought that the zebra we saved would’ve had such an inappropriate taste in humor, but then I thought back to yesterday morning, and I changed my mind,” she said to Kamili, in a slightly annoyed tone. He frowned in confusion and he furrowed his brow. Glancing to the mares behind her, their faces slowly turned to shocked realization.

“Wait,” the rainbow-haired pegasus said, flying up to him in the blink of an eye; she was dressed in a red scarf and a purple winter hat and boots. “you’re the guy that groped Rarity’s ass? What the hell? You’re lucky it was dark last night, punk, or else we woulda left you out there on the street.” She finished her angry outburst with a hard poke to Kamili’s chest. Promptly afterward, she was enveloped in a purple aura and dragged back next to the lavender pony in the back of the group.

“B-but that wasn’t even me, it was my brother! I was the one that pulled him off of you!” Kamili exclaimed. Rarity raised an eyebrow. She tapped her hoof to her muzzle in thought. “Hmm. I guess it was. Still, that was highly vulgar.” Kamili gave an audible Hmph and crossed his forelegs loosely.

“Girls, please, don’t be like that with our new friend,” Fluttershy said, raising her voice. As Kamili looked back at her, she got up from her chair, her face tinged a light pink. “Kamili and I talked a little bit before you got here; he’s been so kind and open to us.”

Rarity looked disparagingly to the family of raccoons for confirmation, who nodded in agreement. She sighed and turned her head back to Kamili. “Well... I apologize. I shouldn’t have been so hard on you right off the bat, it was idiotic of me. …Kamili, your brother really scared me. However, if Fluttershy deems you a ‘kind’ individual, then I think you’re fine with us. She is the expert in that field, after all.” Kamili nodded, though he still felt a twinge of distrust for the white unicorn.

As Rarity walked around Kamili towards Fluttershy, the lavender pony in the back stepped forward; she was wrapped in a yellow scarf and red earmuffs. Kamili raised his eyebrows; his eyes hadn’t deceived him the night before. He tensed up slightly. “Y-you are an alicorn?” he stammered. She nodded.

“Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. Nice to meet you, Kamili,” she said, holding out a hoof.

Kamili sniggered. “You’re messing with me.”

“What?”

“You. Are the Princess of… Friendship.”

“Wha… Come on!” Twilight looked annoyedly at Kamili, who was starting to laugh a little louder. She then took a few quick glances between him and her friends, some of whom started to join in with him. “It’s a perfectly reasonable title in this day and age!”

“Well, tuh be completely honest wit’ cha Twi,” the cowpony replied, chuckling, “Ah’ve always found it tuh be a lil’ bit corny.” Twilight rolled her eyes. Kamili finished laughing and looked to her.

“That was one way to lighten the mood, huh? Well, Princess Twilight, it’s an honor to meet you,” he said, tapping his hoof with hers. She gave him a smile and walked around towards Rarity and Fluttershy. The rest of the mares trotted forward; the cowpony found herself in the front of the group.

“The name’s Applejack, pleasure tuh meet yuh,” she said, smiling wide and giving Kamili’s hoof a strong tap. She stepped out of the way just in time for the pink pony to bound up and bounce. Kamili recoiled his body but left his foreleg extended out. The pony landed right on the tip of Kamili’s hoof with the tips of all for of hers, smiling from ear to ear. Strangely, to Kamili, it felt like she weighed as a feather. He looked over to the other mares, who just shrugged, as if this was just a daily occurrence from her.

“Hiya pal! My name’s Pinkamena Diane Pie, or Pinkie Pie for short, or Pinkie for super-duper-extra short! Though, I have heard some of my friends call me Ponkers or-”

“Alright, alright. Nice to meet you too, Pinkie,” Kamili ejected quickly, still tensed up from the sudden approach. “Uhm, do you think you could… uh… stop doing that?”

“Stop doing what?” she replied; she suddenly felt like the weight of a full pony on the tip of his hoof. Kamili jerked his hoof towards his body in surprise and Pinkie hopped off and trotted towards the girls. He frowned and, in confusion, let his eyes follow her over to her friends.

Finally, the rainbow-haired mare walked up at a slow pace, with her head down slightly. Once she got closer, she raised her head and stuck out her left foreleg.

“Rainbow Dash. Sorry for hitting you.”

Kamili grinned and bopped her hoof. “It’s fine. I would have acted the same way if I had any real friends that were mares. From the looks of you, I’d rather not get on your bad side.” Rainbow Dash smiled back and lifted herself into the air with her wings. “That’s right, ‘cuz if you do, I’ll pummel ya faster than the speed of sound.” And with that, she migrated over to join the now complete group of friends looking at him from across the table. Kamili turned his chair to face the table, and more importantly, his tea. After grabbing it and taking a long sip, sending warm waves throughout his body, he looked up to the mares.

“So. What’s the plan here?”

“Uh, well…” Fluttershy started in a hopeful tone, before trailing off and looking at the girls, lost. “I… I don’t know, actually.”

Rarity glanced over to her. “Well, darling, since you decided to stay back, I’ll have to catch you up to speed. But first,” Rarity looked back to Kamili, “my zebra friend, could you tell us who you are?”

Author's Note:

Sooner than expected, the third chapter is here!

Again, some of this was written before some of the second chapter was done, but after this, it's only forward from here (with the story, that is).

I hope you all enjoy! Please comment down below with any questions you might have.

Thanks!
A Crisp 20 Dollar Bill

Comments

[Double_Bubble]

Not bad so far, but the conversations are somehow a little bit... off? Hard to explain.
The story itself is interesting.

[A Crisp 20 Dollar Bill]

9526352
It may just be the way that I write, I'm an amateur, after all.

Hope that doesn't stop you from enjoying the story!

[Double_Bubble]

9526717
No, I am really curious about what will happen.