Road to Riches

by Makin' Cupcakes

Chapter 3

"How much money is in the bag?" Half-Pence muttered as Prince Blueblood fled from the street.

"50 bits," I remarked, "and a laundry ticket." I flicked that out of the small slip of paper into a gutter drain. We both were still awed by how charitable the prince had been. It wasn't common that somepony that hasn't been under a sustained roof in years was getting hand-outs. Other ponies were eyeing us down, probably thinking of the best way to kill us and take the money for themselves. We wouldn't let that happen.

We rushed down the road, dozens of refugees chasing after us. Our best bet was getting into a soup kitchen, at least there the guards would forget about our line-cutting and run-off the low-lives that would be getting their cracked hooves over our clothing, trying to find the smallest amount of gold.

I turned to Half-Pence. She looked back and nodded. I knew what that meant. Both of us started rushing through the ganged crowd that formed a half-line/half-mob around the royal building.

"Wait your turn," "Quit cutting," "Stop bucking pushing." There seemed to be more and more ponies after us than before. But luckily, the door of the kitchen was open.

"Halt!" The two pegasi guards grabbed us, but then released their grips when they also saw the horde of angry peasants reaching for our pockets. While the two officials were busy dealing with the crowd, we slipped in under their upraised wings.

A few months back, Half-Pence and I vowed that we wouldn't enter another soup kitchen unless we were starving to death. I'm glad this was an agreed exception. We couldn't stand the thought of being so helpless as to getting free food from the Princess's orders. If we wanted to eat, we would work for it.

The first thing I saw in the massive building were the tables. White linens covered each one of them. They were going to waste, though, mostly because the locals thought they were napkins. The line to 6 large vats of soup were small and short-lived. There were also vending machines, stocked with bottles of apple cider. When we're through here, I thought, we're coming back here for lunch tomorrow.

I turned to Half-Pence, but she was staring at somepony's overflowing pocket. I didn't know the richest of the poor would dine at what we recognized as a one-star eatery.

After a few minutes, the two guards came back in, one with a small cut on his cheek. I guess we hadn't noticed the commotion outside.

"Are you citizens alright?" the cut-one said, "what were they chasing two for?"

"Well," I retorted, "if you must know, one of your friends came and took somepony's allowance." I pointed to Half-Pence, and I figured she didn't want to say what we had done to get that money either. "The Prince, though, gave us the small fraction of what was stolen, but neither of us will stand for this oppression." I turned to Half-Pence, and she nodded with approval.

"We apologize for the acts of some other officials," said the other. "I shall report these crimes to the court as soon as possible. But for now," he said as he directed us to an empty table with four chairs, "we will be happy to accustom you to two to a full course meal, no charge."

That made my spirits rise. We trotted over to the table while the guard went to lock the door of the kitchen. Probably not to let anypony in and ruin our meal, I thought. Half-Pence and I sat across from each other. She had the greatest grin on her face, one I haven't seen in years. We had a few minutes to talk until our food came, but we let the silence roll in. We were greeted by eight royal guards. Surprisingly, none of them had silver platters.

"What's the deal, where's our food?" Half-Pence shot out those words like a bullet.

A large, bulky guard spoke up for the first time.

"By special orders from Princess Celestia, we are taking you into custody for theft."

Comments

[Broneyofnoel]

They don;t really charge at soup kitchens, although, this is Equestria

Also, i am surprised by everypony's generosity, sounds like Equestria is ruled by Rarity.

[wlyteth]

This can't be good... Can't wait for more!

[Warmsparkle]

[Lunarassasin]

75189 (really) going and lieing to arest someone applejack would be ashamed

[Broneyofnoel]

76770 What?