Lunch

"Dad" the words fell out of your mouth much like the knife that fell out of your hoof. Falling towards the ground, before you quickly dropped your wing to catch it, which resulted in the knife landing quietly in its holster. As you lifted your wing back up you found yourself being stared at by the piercing gaze that was your father’s eyes. "Son" in your mind you grimaced at the word "it’s been to long since I last saw you outside the ring. How was your training session in Fillydelpia?" You shuddered at the mention of that putrid city and all the horrible things that you had done there. You knew that you father wanted you to tell him that it was a great trip, but you also knew that he wanted you to be completely honest with him. gotta think fast. "I was best in class for the whole session, they even let me be the ringleader for almost all of the demonstrations." you calmly explained "In fact, they want me to go back next session as an official demonstrator. They even offered to pay me to come back." your father stared at you as though you were a supermodel asking to be starred in his next show for free, you didn't like that. After a minute of him constantly staring at you, you decided to him the evil eye, and you're really good at giving people the evil eye. Nopony could scare a pony to the point where they wet themselves but you. Finally though, your father backed down, giving you nothing but a shrug and an invitation "Come on, let's talk over lunch." You nodded, and hesitantly began walking beside him. Him being what he is of course.

This little scene with you and your father has happened a few times to many. He gets ran out of town and sends you to an academy for something stupid that he thinks is important until he's settled down in a new town. Then, he calls you back to whatever town he's in now and buys you lunch, acting like a half good father the entire meal.

You were eating lunch in front of what appeared to be a thirty foot tall wine bottle that had been turned into a restaurant. Tipsy Top. You thought to yourself. I think that name fits quite nicely. Lost in your own thoughts, you failed to recognize the food that was sitting in front of you. Dad seems pretty calm right now. Maybe he's been drinking, the last time I saw him this calm was when he drank six cans of beer. One can only hope this means he's turned over a new leaf and is now working at gay bars or in pornos. Then, why would he need me here? The only thoughts that came to mind were incredibly horrifying and perverted, you shuddered at the thought of being sexually tortured by your father. In public no less! If he tries that, I’m kicking him in the balls. Because I am not losing my virginity to my father! You shuddered again this time because of the fact that your father would probably think of that. Apparently you father noticed your slight shudder, because in a heartbeat he looked at you with actual concern on his face.Maybe he has turned over a new leaf.

Son?" he asked,

"Yes dad?"

"Your flank's still blank. Plus you look a little pudgier than you did when you left.  Did they not work you hard enough at that training session?"

Nope, he hasn't changed at all. Well, at least he asked. "They only let us do anything in the ring for about a half hour at a time, and that was only like, four, maybe five times a day. Don't worry though, if you let go back next year I'll be a demonstrator and they're working in the ring almost fourteen hours a day." You replied calmly. In all honesty, they really didn't do anything useful in those lessons, you just wanted to go back so you could be away from your father for a month. You father looked somewhat annoyed at your statement about the training, but he quickly shrugged it off. "Well, I'm sure you'll be able to work it off in maybe a week or two, but for tomorrow nights show, be sure to cinch your fat ass up tight."

"I'll keep that in mind father" you replied, a bit shocked to see that he would say such a thing in public, but then again, he was your father after all. You ignored the statement about the blank flank because you really didn't care anymore, after being bugged about it for your entire life the phrase "blank flank" didn't even register in your head anymore.

You had not gained your cutie mark yet, despite all the painful things that your father made do to try to earn it. In all honesty though, you really didn't care that your flank was blank, it just made it easier to get a job. If a worker didn't know what their special talent was, an employer would be more willing to hire you because it meant you could be trained to become a master at your job. Even if it wasn't your special talent, it would give the employer hope that it might be.

"This place is boring, let's go to my house." your dad commands in a slightly tipsy voice. oh yeah, he's definitely drunk You nod, and get up to leave, waiting beside your father until he starts walking to seemingly nowhere in particular, so you simply fell into step behind him, ignoring the fact that he had put you in this situation more than once. It's to bad that guard managed to escape though, I actually kinda liked Manehatten. You quickly put on your saddlebags and left the restaurant, slowly making your way down to an old alleyway.

It was about five minutes after you left the alleyway, and had just begun making your way across a surprisingly open field (well, open for Las Pegasus anyway) when your father broke the silence.

"Son, I noticed that your gem isn't hidden at the moment, are you tired from the train ride."

nice to know he's still as perceptive as always. "Yep, and I hit my head on that sharp part of the seat to, see." you moved your forelock that had taken you so long to hide the cut with just a slight bit of hesitance, "I cut my head open a bit." the wound was still pretty fresh, healing spells weren't your specialty. "Son, this is horrible!" he exclaimed after he finished looking at the cut.

why is he so concerned for me all of a sudden "Why is that dad?"

"Why is that? WHY IS THAT?" your father was baffled "Because, have to do a show tomorrow morning," mystery solved you thought to yourself, a bit annoyed. "and a new client of mine's going to be there with some extremely good looking..." he looked around to make sure nopony was within earshot before turning back to you and saying in a hushed whisper "merchandise." must be some good looking mares if he's this uptight.   "And I want to make a good impression on her, in case she wants to do business again sometime." a mare leads the ring? Rare but not unheard of. I've heard that rings with mares as their ringmaster are something to see. It was true that mares were uncommon in the business of Ringmasters (the leader of a torture ring, higher than a ringleader. The ringleader is second highest, the ringmaster is the highest.), but the shows run by mares were said to be amazing. Ranging from torture to lesbian to audience participation (male or female). "I don't want to talk in to much detail out here, but I will say this. If we make a good impression during the first half of the performance, she'll let us borrow one her, items. For the second half of the performance. And, if you do a really good job, I might convince her to let you have some fun with it after the performance. In other words, if you do really good in the performance, you're getting your first pet."  great you thought now I have to be an ass twenty-four seven. You kept your mouth shut and just kept walking.

After five more minutes of walking, you arrived at what appeared to be a junk lot. "follow me," your father whispered "no sudden movements, I don't want you any more beat up than you already are. Oh yeah, if I were you I would keep a sleep spell ready to go in here." you nod, your gem glowing slightly as you prepare a sleep spell, just in case. Suddenly, you feel a hard whack on the side of your body, you whip around, only to be staring at one of ugliest pegasus you've ever seen in your life. "Gimme the cash!" he screams "Gimme all of your ca......" he stops mid sentence (which is understandable considering you just knocked him out cold) slumping to ground in a seemingly lifeless heap. Giving you a chance to look at him without fear of getting hurt. boy is he ugly you thought in disgust. And Oh, was he ever. His coat was a sickly green colour, while his eyes were blood red, not to mention bloodshot, the veins in his eyes looked as though they were about to pop from the pressure. On closer inspection, you noticed that he had a giant scythe blade under his wing.  Yet, for some strange reason he seemed familiar to you. "That's Booze Hound isn't it dad?" you deadpanned. "Yep." was your father's simple reply "can't blame you for what you did though, it has been a long time since you two talked. Or even saw each other for that matter." Booze Hound was the head guard of the ring, to make sure that the wrong ponies didn't end up wandering in and screwing their business up My only problem with him is that he was always so paranoid. You checked your side, as it still hurt a bit, and after a few seconds you found the source of your discomfort. A small chunk of wood was lodged in you left side, but with a quick shake of your body, the wood flew out, leaving only a small mark where it had once been. "We should get moving." your father said "I don't want you wiping out the hole ring guard." and with that, you both started walking towards a large pile of doors. why would he be taking me here you thought to yourself, but you knew better than to ask questions and just kept following him.

You soon found yourself in front of that large pile of doors you saw earlier "Wait  here." your father commanded, and you were all to happy to oblige. Dropping to your rump the second the words came out his mouth. Your father walked up a door seemingly at random, though you knew this to be false, and knock on it in an intricate pattern. THUMP....THUMPTHUMP....THUMP, THUMP.THUMP.......THWACK. (well, maybe not that intricate) The door quickly snapped open faster than you thought was possible and your father motioned for you to follow, so you did.

The inside of this, door house was the complete opposite of what you expected, it was like someone had turned a torture chamber into a fancy hotel, and they did a really good job at it. The walls had a beautiful crystal blue sapphire wallpaper pinned up on them. same colour as my gem you thought in a slight haze, you were really tired from that train ride. While the furniture in the room looked antique, the leather smelled fresh. There was a fireplace in the center of the room that looked like a giant ass oil candle (you know, the ones on stands with those big, curved glass fire shields). Other than that it looked like the front lobby of a fancy hotel. There was a desk off to one side of the room, the left side of the desk looked like it could be tucked in to allow access to the door behind it, while shielding the door directly behind the desk from any wandering ponies. You assumed where they each lead, guessing that the one directly behind the desk (the one that you were walking towards), was where the entrance to the staff bedrooms and training areas were. While the one to the left of the desk was the main entrance to the ring. You and your father walked behind the desk and entered the door behind it, only to find yourself in small corridor which seemed to go on forever, which you knew, thankfully, was not possible. However, you never even came close to the end because your father had stopped a short way in waiting for you beside a door on his right (or your left if you prefer). Upon your arrival at the door, your father opened the door and quickly pushed you inside with him, quickly closing the door behind as he did so. "You're really  freaking tired, I know that look in ponies eyes from working in the ring, if they pass out from exhaustion, the Ringleader's going to look pretty stupid torturing a sleeping pony." He smacked you in the flank, really hard, as to if to wake you up again, which you honestly needed at that moment to keep you up, but that hurt. Your father turned to open the door, " And don't think you're getting any special treatment princess. I gave the ponies who you're smacking around the ring tomorrow time to rest as well, like I said, it looks stupid and useless to torture sleeping ponies, or ponies that are so exhausted that they don't even have enough brains in their thick skulls to scream out in pain, let alone register it!" Your father was now outside your, what you guessed was your room. "SO GET SOME SLEEP!" And with his highly trained back legs, he bucked the door shut in your face.

With your father out of the way, you finally took the time to take in the scene that was your room, and what you saw shocked you. If the room wasn't a shrine for your job, it could certainly be confused as one.

The room was almost completely made of leather. The floor was made of a hard, (and judging by the hoofprints, hoofmade as well) leather that was so compacted, you could have mistaken it for hardwood if it weren't for the fact that leather had a slight give to it. The walls were made of the same thing, leather, same colour to, a somewhat dark tan colour to be more precise. On those same walls was every single torture device that you owned, ranging from whips, to bits, to your strictly decorative instruments of pain, including cat-O-nine tails with hooks and a sword that you could never remember the name of, but knew that the blade could split into ten small pieces connected to a steel braid that attached to the handle (you had played with it a couple of times, despite your father’s wishes). The bed was also leather, except for the frame, which appeared to be made out of oak, while the sheets and even the mattress were made of leather It's gonna get real hot in the summer time you thought groggily. As you continued to gawk at the room, comprehension dawned as you realized that you were alone, with that thought, you dropped the spell that hid your wings and dragged yourself over to the bed. You didn't even think to get under the covers, the minute your whole body was on the bed, you slept. And Dreamed.

End of Chapter 2