At the Gala

Once Upon a Time in a far away land there was a Kingdom called Equestria and in this kingdom there was a young mare named Iris. She lived in the basement of a grand manor that belonged to her aunt, Madame Cinch and her two spoiled daughters, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Madame Cinch was one of the wealthiest ladies in the town for she owned a jewel mine up in the hills. Her workers would dig up rare gems and she would sell the gems to local jewelers. Though Cinch was her aunt, she was treated more as a housemaid.

Madame Cinch didn’t want anyone to know that she was related to Iris because of her unique… heritage. Iris’s mother (who was Cinch’s sister-in-law) was a brown Earth pony with a golden yellow mane, tail, and bright green eyes like emeralds. She fell in love and married a…well… a Werewolf. Yes Iris’s father was a giant Werewolf with black, shaggy, fur and huge bright blue eyes. Werewolves were the ultimate predators of Equestria; they had the ability to change from common Earth ponies to wolves. Thanks to this ability, Werewolves hunted down many ponies. However Iris’s father thought it was wrong to eat ponies since they often used their abilities to take care of the world, hence why he married an Earth pony.

Iris was a perfect blend of both her parents. She looked much like her pony mother, similar brown pony body with long slender legs and pony face. From her wolf father she had his big blue eyes, black wolf tail, fangs, big furry ears, black mane, and soft shaggy fur though it was the same color as her mother’s coat.

After her father’s death, Iris and her mother had little to no money to support themselves. They had no choice but to go live with Iris’s Mother only living relative, her sister-in-law Madame Cinch.

Cinch allowed for them to come live with her if they agreed to serve around the house for her. Iris’s Mother agreed to this arrangement. She became Cinch’s personal maid washing all the clothes, the bed sheets, the dishes; she did everything she was told. Meanwhile, Cinch had Iris take care of her prize-winning bloodhounds on their small farm. Being part canine herself she grew close with them and they were her first real friends. A few years later, Iris took on all the responsibilities of the house due to her mother’s illness. Then her mother died a year later. She asked Cinch to raise her daughter as one of her own.

As the years past, Cinch’s Jewel mine was running low. Her jewelry business was making little money and had to lay off most of her workers. She also sold a few of her possessions in order to upkeep her family’s lifestyle. Her only hope now for any money was to marry her daughters off to rich noblemen.

As soon as Princess Celestia raised the sun, Iris would smack the alarm clock hard with her hoof as soon as it went off and get ready for the day. Though there were plenty of spare rooms in the manor, Cinch had Iris live in a tiny room down in the basement. There were no windows at all, hence why she needed the alarm clock to wake her up. She got dressed putting on a long sleeve dark green shirt, a dirty old apron, and a dark purple bandana over her head to hide her huge ears.

She headed up the stairs, stepped into the kitchen, right into the small bathroom to clean herself up. As she stepped out from the bathroom she went right back into the kitchen. She started filling the kettles with water and placing them on the stove to warm up. While she waited for the water to boil, she grabbed a bag of dog kibble, placed it on her back and walked out the door to the backyard.

As soon as she stepped out she was greeted with loud barking from the dogs in the kennels. Cinch owned six bloodhounds that she used in the mines to sniff out any gems. Iris opened the gate and closed it behind her with her back hoof. She opened the bag and poured the kibble into a trough. She tossed away the empty bag and opened the kennels. The dogs came flying out as soon as the door swung open. Most of the dogs made a line straight for the kibble. Two of the dogs ran up to Iris to jump up and lick her face, she giggled from being tickled from their wet sloppy tongues. After they stopped licking, she walked out of the kennel and locked the door behind her.

She stepped back into the kitchen and heard the kettles whistling. She took the kettles off the stove and placed a pan on top. She began cooking eggs with toast for everyone. Once the toast popped out of the toaster she then heard the bells go off. There were three silver bells that hung on the wall right next to the door. Cinch and her daughters rang these bells whenever they needed Iris for anything. Iris let out sigh, her eyes never leaving the toast as she placed it on the three plates. She made a plate for herself as well, but she put a lid over it so none of the mice could get to it. She knew she could eat it later; it would be unwise to let them wait any longer for their breakfast.

She placed the first tray on top of her head and carried the other two on her two front hooves and walked straight out the door on her hind legs and straight up the staircase. Most ponies couldn’t walk on their hind legs, but for Iris it was quite easy. With her elbow, she knocked on a white door that had an image of a silver spoon on the front.

“Come in Iris,” said the voice within the door.

She opened the door by pushing her elbow on the handle and walked right into the room.

“Good Morning Silver Spoon!” she greeted the gray mare in the bed; this was Silver Spoon, Cinch’s youngest daughter. Her fur coat was grey, her mane was…well…silver…hence the name! Her eyes were still quite droopy as she put on her bright pink glasses on to see Iris placing her breakfast on her nightstand.

“Good Morning Iris!” said Silver Spoon while stifling back a yawn. “Thank you for breakfast” she looked over the plate food. She took the teacup and kettle from off the plate and poured herself a cup. She slowly sipped the tea so she wouldn’t burn her tongue “Hmm…Earl Grey my favorite. By the way I left my laundry by the door…” she pointed to a large gray bag with the word ‘LAUNDRY’ across the front “I need that done today so I have clean clothes for school tomorrow”

“Of course Silver Spoon” Iris responded.

Out of all her relatives, Silver Spoon was the only one that was kind of…sort of… nice to her. She was the only one to ever volunteer on occasion to help her out with the chores or at least make her own meals. Iris figured it might be because when Silver was little and got her new glasses she was bullied by everyone at school. She was the only one to comfort her during this time. Diamond Tiara and Cinch did nothing and told her to quit being such a crybaby about it. One day some kids threw a rock at her breaking her glasses and leaving a huge cut on her face. Iris happened to be there, she ran after the bullies barking and glaring her huge fangs at them. They ran away screaming, once they were gone she walked over to Silver Spoon. Tears and blood were streaming down her face. Iris gave her a tissue to cover the cut and carried her on her back all the way home.

They weren’t exactly best friends but Silver Spoon was grateful that despite how her family had treated her she still helped her out.

Iris grabbed the bag with her free hoof and closed the door behind her with one of her back hooves. She walked down the hallway and stopped in front of a pink door with a silver tiara on the front.  She knocked on the door.

“UNHHH… finally… get in here Iris!” the voice from behind the door commanded.

She opened the door and inside was a pink mare sitting at a vanity mirror brushing her light purple white striped mane, this was Diamond Tiara Cinch’s other daughter.

“What took you so long? You should have been here ages ago” she glared at Iris with her huge blue eyes. Iris set down her plate on the little coffee table and poured some coffee from the pot into the cup.

“Sorry Diamond Tiara,” Iris said while placing the cup of coffee in front of her on the vanity mirror. “But you of all ponies should know that you can’t rush perfection” she said with a smug grin on her face.

“That’s no excuse Iris. You know better than to keep me waiting,” said Diamond as she continued brushing her hair. Iris simply rolled her eyes annoyed at her cousin’s response but also relieved that she didn’t catch her quip.

She put her hairbrush down and handed over a piece of paper to Iris, “Here is a list of things I need you to do before the end of the day”. Iris took the piece of paper and looked over the list: Pick up dress from Sassy’s, prepare cupcakes for class tomorrow, shine all shoes, wash all clothes, wash bed sheets, pick up books from the library, and drop off broken jewelry for repairs.

“Um…Diamond I don’t know if I can get this all done today” she stated.

Diamond turned away from the mirror to look up at her “What?”

“I said I don’t know if I can get everything on your list done today, I have a lot of other chores that also need to be done”

Diamond rose up “Are you refusing my orders…Iris?”

She let out a sigh “No Diamond! I’m saying I don’t have enough time”

“Hmm…I wonder what mother would have to say about this”

“Seriously Diamond! You’re really going to bother her over…”

It was too late. She stormed right out the room. Ran down the end of the hallway to a set of giant purple doors, Madame Cinch’s Bedroom. She burst through the doors. “MOTHER” she wailed.

Iris was still in the Diamond’s bedroom in shock of what happened. “Really” she thought to herself. She let out an exhausted sigh and grabbed both bags of laundry. She stepped out of the hallway and placed the two bags by the railing. She took the plate of food off from her head and carried it down the hallway. As soon as she arrived at Cinch’s bedroom door she stopped as she heard her voice “Iris! Come here dear” a chill went down her spine. She opened the door with hoof and walked right through.

The room was almost completely dark; the only light source was from the doorway. Iris slowly walked in approaching the coffee table. Diamond Tiara was standing next to the table with a wide, evil, grin spread across her face. Iris set the plate of down on the table. Across from the table was a pale green unicorn wearing glasses and her purple hair up in a bun sitting on a little couch looking down over some papers in her lap.

“Yes… Madame Cinch…you called for me?” Iris stuttered.

Madame Cinch set the papers down on the coffee table and poured herself a cup of tea. She leaned back in to her couch while she continued to stir her cup. The waiting was agonizing. Iris was tense inside, oh sweet Celestia what is she going to say, she thought to herself. Diamond Tiara was also getting impatient, her grin slowly dropped away and became bored. Cinch finally stopped stirring her drink, placing the spoon back on the plate and took a sip of her tea. She rested the cup on top of her lap and slowly looked up with her cold, pale, pink gaze. Looking into her cold stare, Iris felt a chill going down her back. She wanted to look away from those awful eyes, but knew it would just make the situation worse.

“Iris” Cinch finally spoke in a dry tone “Care to explain to me why you refused my daughter’s simple request”.

Iris took a long, deep breath, releasing all the tension inside and began “I’m afraid this is all just a misunderstanding. I did not refuse her requests I simply stated that there wasn’t enough time to do all of them today. I have her list if you want to…”

Cinch lifted up a hoof to signal her to stop “I don’t need to see it”. Her hoof slowly dropped back into her lap.

“The solution here Iris is quite simple…make Diamond Tiara’s requests your first priority. You can do the rest of your chores after that.”

A wide grin spread across Diamond Tiara’s face as she savored her littler victory.

“Thank You Mother”

“Your Welcome dear. You are free to go. I need to speak with Iris alone for a minute”

“Of course Mother”

As she turned to leave, she looked to Iris with an evil look in her eyes and a sly smirk.

Once Diamond closed the doors behind her, Cinch looked back up at Iris.

“How many times must we have this conversation Iris?”

Cinch placed her teacup on the table and stood up, hovering over Iris. As tall as Iris was Madame Cinch was taller than her by a head. She started to walk around the table, stopped in front of her and looked down into her eyes.

“Iris you know how important my reputation is…right?”

“Yes Madame” Iris automatically answered.

“And you know that I love my daughters and that I value their happiness above everything else…right?”

“Of course Madame”

“And you understand why no one can know about your true…lineage. If anyone found out about what you really are and that you were actually family not only would the citizens of this village kill you, but it would destroy my reputation and ruin any possible chance for my daughters to marry any wealthy noblemen… or even a local peasant…right?”

“I understand clearly Madame”

“Then you understand that you must remember that you are a servant first. You serve My Daughters… and me. Not only for our protection but for you as well my dear…is that clear?”

Iris took a moment to pause before she answered “Yes Madame”.

“Good! My laundry needs to be done as well. You may do it after you have finished Diamond Tiara’s requests. That will be all… you are dismissed”

“Yes Madame”

Iris grabbed the bag by door and quickly left the room. Once she closed the door behind her, she slid down to the floor and let out a deep breathe of air.