The Glass Ceiling Building

Life has never been kind to me, it seems. It was a bright moonlit night, no clouds in sight in the city of New Neighleans. But as soon as I got out of the Hay Corner, it started to rain. So here I am, gray colored mare Earth pony, sitting in the cold rain, in a roof of a doorway, nowhere to go.

No matter how much I try to better myself, it seems life just tries to hurt me more. It seems that the only people that understand me are my siblings, my older sister, Sonnet and my little brother, Allegro. But even though I have only two people in my life that seems to care, at home, nothing seems right.
I always hated coming home, each day after school, another place I hate as well. At school, I’m only bullied by the others for being small and nerdy for a earth pony, especially one that still hasn’t have her Cutie Mark. All of ponies seem to have it age 15, but for me? Nothing. So each day, I go to school where I’m picked on constantly, then I go home where I’m picked on even more worse.

My mother doesn’t like any of my siblings and me. She always says under her drunken stupor, that she blames us for father leaving. That because we came to hurt their relationship that he left. Of course, we know logically that he left because of her drinking and abusive nature, but still hurts when she says it. But we will never tell her that, it’s too risky. With her drunkenness mixed with hatred, she goes on to verbally and physically abuse us. To tell her the truth, would probably make things worse.

You could be saying, “Why haven’t you told anyone about this?” I would, trust me. I wish I could, but then we would be separated, and little Allegro needs us. He’s the only reason why I go home each day to hear and feel this abuse, because if he’s alone, mother will hurt him even more horribly than she does to us. Sonata and I are both bigger than him, we can handle the pain more than him. He’s only a small colt… the beatings will send him to the hospital.

But as much as I say why I go home each day, today wasn’t like the others. Things were bad at school, but it seems I reached my limit of all the crap I gotten all my life. I couldn’t take it anymore, I kept thinking and over thinking everything that was happening to me. And by the time I got home, my mother spitting out poison towards me and my siblings, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I left. I just opened the door and left, with tears flooding down my golden eyes and I just kept on walking.

Before I knew it, I arrived at downtown New Neighleans near Hay Corner, where all the tourist and culture of the city flourished. When I was younger, when things were okay, I always liked coming here with everyone. It seems like going to Downtown with my family is the only good memory I have with my mother and father. As trumpets blew around the street, tourist and locals swarming the street like ants and vendors screaming out products they were selling surrounded me, I couldn’t help think that this is the way my life was supposed to be, maybe I’m meant to be like this. No more happy family, just abuse and sadness for me. As I thought this, I panicked. What if that’s my talent? I quickly looked toward my rear to check if that’s what my Cutie Mark supposed to be. I chuckled at myself with self-pity. Even being abused wasn’t my talent, how sad that there’s nothing for me to be. I then looked down and kept walking down the street, as night flew in.

As soon as I left the Corner, I found myself at a small street, “Crow Street”, it was called. As soon as I saw the sign, rain started to pour. Looking for a place to stand to wait out the rain, I went toward a doorway with a roof and sat down to think.

As I sat down near the door, I heard a creak. I looked around for the source of the sound, when I did, the door behind me cracked open a hole and I fell through.
I laid there on the floor, pain flowing through my back. Can my luck get any worse? I sat down after a while, and looked around my surroundings.

I could make out some shapes of tables and chairs near a small stage and bar, in the darkness of the large room. While it was a bit creepy in a way, it was better than being outside in the rain. I wandered around the room, looking around. It seemed like a small theater, but sadly abandoned. I started to wonder how beautiful it must have looked like in its heyday, full of people clapping at the actors, enjoying themselves, not caring about anything but their entertainment. The décor seemed of something you see in patriotic posters from 18th century, but classy. On the walls of the room had pictures of what seemed the employees, guests and owner of the establishment, happily looking at me from the faded pictures and dusty frames. As I continued down the wall, I saw the stage. I decided to have a bit of fun, and decided to stand on it. I climbed the stairs and walked down it, but as soon as I did, I heard a small crack, like a branch was breaking. I looked around and once I noticed what was going on, the floor underneath me fell out and before I knew it, my lower half was stuck in a small hole.
So not my day….

I tried to wiggle my way out, but I was very stuck in there. “HELP!” I cried out, but I thought, who in the hell am I screaming for? There’s no one here, I doubt anyone will come to rescue me from outside.

“What the hell? Who’s there?” I heard a voice echo from somewhere in the room.

“Hello! A little help please?” I cried out in the darkness, hoping I wasn’t just hallucinating from my depression.

I heard clops going around the room, rummaging through the area. I looked around, hoping to see what was going on. Suddenly, a bright light hit my eyes, hurting them. “There we go.” I heard the same voice say. My eyes started to get used to the light and I saw this Zebra mare, staring at me, with a smile on her face and a lantern in her hoof.
“Hello there. How did you get there?” she asked, staring at me with amusement.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know anyone lived here." I started to explain myself. "It looked abandoned. I- I was just looking for a place to stay from the rain.” I guess I was hoping that she wouldn’t call the police if I explained. I don’t want to go back there. “No, you’re right. It’s abandoned. So you aren’t breaking and entering. But someone is living here. Hold on.” She said to me, as she turned away from me and looked out at the room. “GADGET!!!!!!!!!! GET YO’ ASS OVER HERE! WE GOT A FALLER!” She screamed. “I’M COMING MARE! HOLD ON!” I heard another voice far out in the room. She turned to me and saw my surprise from her sudden screaming. “Sorry, I’m trying to get him out here to fix the lights and then get you out. So until then, I’m Sous Clean. Call me Sous. I’m the manager of the cleaning department of The Glass Ceiling Theater.” “I’m Ballad. Just… nobody.” I said, looking down for a moment. Sous looked at me with perplexity and then just smiled. “Well then, nice to meet you Ballad. Interesting title you have there, though. Don’t worry, we’ll get you out of there in no time.”

As soon as Sous said that, a black male unicorn pony with green short hair, came running towards us with a tool box in his mouth from the darkness.
“I’m here! Sorry. I was looking for some tools needed to open the fuse box.” He said, dropping his tools as he talked. “Well, then you got them. Then get working!” said Sous, running out of patience.
The unicorn then ran to the back of the stage and started to work on something, because he was making a lot of noise. After a few minutes, the room flooded with light. The male unicorn came back and smiled at us. “Fixed it! Now then.” He came to me and just shook his head. “Damn… what a doozy. Well then, let’s get this little one out of here.” He said smiling at me. “Name’s Gadget Tinker! Gadget is what you can call me.” I smiled at him, but really, I was getting tired of all these introductions, I just wanted to get out of here! Sous must be able to read minds, because she just snapped at him. “Enough introductions! Get her out of there!”

He quickly ran to the toolbox and started to get to work, ripping apart wood planks. “Sous, as soon as I get a lot of these out, she’s going to start falling down, grab her.” He said, as he worked. Sous nodded and grabbed my arms, smiling at me. A few minutes passed and he announced, “Got it! Get her out.” Sous pulled on me and I climbed out quickly, falling on the floor, sighing from relief. “Good job, Gadget.” Said Sous, patting him the back. Gadget smiled proudly at his fine work. Suddenly a small growl was heard and Gadget blushed. Sous started to laugh, “All that work made you hungry, huh?” he smiled in agreement. Then another growl came, but not from Gadget but from me. I blushed deeply from that sound, thinking about when was the last time I ate today. “I guess you’re not the only one.” Sous walked to me and patted my head. “So Ballad, want to join us? We have plenty of food.” I nodded shyly, looking down on the floor. She motioned me to follow her and we all got down the stage and out a side door where the bar was located.