Sky High

The next few days in Ponyville were realitivly calm, there were no quarrels between the ponies and the weather was fine. Unfortunately for Skye, Applejack, Big Mac, and Granny Smith had to rush to Canterlot for business, trusting him with Applebloom.

The little filly wasn't any problem for Skye. She was capable of doing most things for herself and only called for Skye when there was either something too big to move or too tall to reach. He even resorted to making a few meals for her and her friends whenever they asked. The real problem for Skye was his nightmares, something that he forgot about over the week...

Skye was limping around the city, wincing in pain every other step. There was something wrong with his front right hoof ever since it was slammed into a building. On top of that his back had been aching for a few days. Things like this never happened to anypony at the orphanage and Skye had no clue what to do. On top of all that, It wasn't too uncommon for the silhouettes to accidentally kick him off the street, only furthering his pain.

Every night Skye would return to his alleyway and finish off any of the scraps he found that day. Then he would lay on the cold, hard bricks and fall asleep, hoping his pain would heal overnight. However one night was particularly promising. Skye was laying in his alleyway, finishing off an already finished fish when he looked upon a white leg. He looked up to see the white filly staring at his leg with some kind of box in her mouth.

“H-Hi!” Skye weakly exclaimed toward his potential new friend.

“You're hurt...” The pony said, practically ignoring Skye.

“Yeah, it's nothing, don't worry about it. I'll be fine.” Skye said very unconvincingly.

The white filly put the box down next to Skye and opened it. “Don't move, ok?” Skye nodded, not quite sure what she was doing. She pulled out some kind of roll of cloth and unraveled just a bit of it. She walked over toward Skye's injured leg and started to wrap the cloth around his leg, putting what seemed like a ton of pressure on Skye's broken leg. Skye screamed out in pain as the pony wrapped the cloth around his fractured leg. After a few minutes of listening Skye's whining the white pony had finished applying her version of a tourniquet. “Ok, all set!”

“*sniff* Thanks...” Skye said with tears in his eyes.

“Your welcome! So now that I helped you, will you help me?”

Skye looked at her confused, he wasn't sure how hurting him helped him. He looked down at his leg, all she did was wrap the cloth around his leg in some weird kind of way.

“Sure.” He was going to help anyway, that's just the way he was.

“Yay! Follow me please.” She said as she trotted toward the main street, Skye limping slowly right behind her. Whatever she did helped, at least a little bit. Skye couldn't bend his leg, which wasn't a bad thing, it stopped him from moving around the bone as much as possible.

Skye followed the mare through the streets, where the silhouettes were even more dark but thankfully, in fewer numbers. The two ponies walked for about a quarter of an hour in complete silence until the white pony turned around to look at him. “My name's Lenis by the way.” She said as she turned around and continued walking. Eventually the duo were at the entrance of the Light District, a place Skye had been shooed away from before. Two guards stood before the gilded line that separated the two districts.

“Good evening Miss Lenis...” The guard started, starring at the dirty pony behind her. “...who is your friend?”

“He's a friend I helped in the dark district, he's going to help daddy!”

“Oh, well wasn't the nice of you!” The guard said to Lenis before returning his attention to Skye. “Hey!” The guard yelled at Skye, stopping in his tracks. “Don't cause any trouble kid, got it?” Skye nodded as he very quickly hobbled past the guard.

After only a few minutes of walking Lenis walked toward the biggest building Skye had ever seen. It was at least ten times the width of his orphanage and three times as high. It had huge pillars at the entrance and was made out of a material he'd never even seen before. Luckily for him she started walking into the building. “Daddy I'm home!” She shouted waiting for her father to appear from one of the various entrances of the foyer. Suddenly from up some stairs trotted a tall stallion.

“Ahhh, welcome back Lenis. I'm glad to see you're fine.” He looked upon the dirty, injured pony behind her with a smile. “Ahhh, is this the friend you promised me?”

“Yep!” She jumped out of the way, showing her daddy all of Skye. The stallion walked down the stairs toward Skye, scaring him for a just a little bit. To Skye he didn't seem like a silhouette, he felt like something much worse, something much more worthy of fear.

“And what's your name little colt?” He asked directly to Skye.

“Sk-Skye, sir.”

“Awwwwww.” Lenis piped up. “That's a pretty name!”

Almost ignoring Lenis, yet still smiling toward her when she talked, the stallion spoke, redirecting his attention toward Skye. “Good to meet you Skye! My name's Avaritia, have you ever heard of me?” Skye shook his head no, he hadn't heard of any of the higher class ponies. “Well I'll have you know I'm a very important stallion Skye and I need your help. You see, it wasn't until recently that I have acquired this mansion. Sadly the mansion did not come with help and it is much too large for Lenis and I to take care of ourselves. Do you understand?” Skye nodded his head yes. “Excellent! I would like you to come to this mansion everyday and help me clean. I would also like you to answer any doors and serve food for any guests. Do you think you can do that Skye?” Once again Skye nodded his head, not 100% sure that he could do everything asked of him. Yet, he promised, or at least felt like he promised, his new friend that he would help her father. “Amazing! I'll even give you a bit everyday! So don't forget to come everyday! Ok?”

“Yes sir!” Skye piped up as soon as he heard the word 'bits'. He had been around, or in Skye's case not been around, money long enough to know that he needs it for everything. What Skye didn't realize was that Avaritia was a greedy, greedy pony. Avaritia was the first pony that every ambassador would talk to. He would provide information about the city, the trade, and most important, Avaritia would hook up the ambassador with a meeting with the Mayor, at their request.

Yet Avaritia did not gain his position by any respectable means. He had cheated and extorted his way from the bottom to the top. He had neglected his ill wife for months before she finally passed away, the same day he was elected to his position. He felt very little remorse and had a smile on his face the entire day. The only thing he loved just as much as his money was his daughter. He loved her so much, that she was rarely allowed to leave the residence. The only time she was able to leave was when she was secretly under supervision of some payed off guards. He cared deeply for his little daughter and started feeling bad that she was coped up in her safe home when, one day, he walked by a little colt in a dark alleyway. The colt seemed like a perfect playmate for his daughter and about as quickly as he could, snatched up the colt. And that was how Skye was offered a job.

Skye left the mansion with a smile on his face, he had already had a plan. He was going to spend 6 bits every week on food and save 1, hidden somewhere in his alleyway. Not only that but he was allowed in the Light District whenever he wanted. He wouldn't care how grueling the work would be, he was happy.

Skye had been working for Avaritia for weeks on end. The work wasn't challenging but there was always tons of it. Skye never complained though, whether he was climbing endless flights of stairs on his broken leg or was carrying heavy boxes with his injured back. What Skye enjoyed the most was spending time with Lenis. She would follow Skye around everywhere, sometimes she wouldn't even talk, she simply enjoyed his company. There was however, one particular conversation between Skye and Lenis that sparked Skye's attention.

Skye and Lenis were walking down one of the many hallways. She had been following Skye around all day and rarely talked, she seemed down and Skye noticed. Every time she held her head low Skye would walk up to her and nuzzle her neck, something he learned she liked very much. She would always look up at him and smile before he went back to his work. She once again looked down and Skye once again nuzzled her making her smile.

“Thank you.” She said, in a low, sad tone.

“You're welcome, but what's wrong?”

“Oh, well... it's just, I haven't been doing that well in my schooling and, well, when you nuzzle me you remind me of mother. She used to always nuzzle me whenever I was feeling sad.” She looked at the ground again, causing Skye to nuzzle her again.

“I'm sorry to hear that but where is your mother? I haven't seen her around anywhere. Is she on a long business trip?”

A tear formed in Lenis's eye. “She... mommy...” Her voice broke at the word 'mommy'. She ran away from Skye as fast as she could. Skye tried to follow, but his first step cause him to yelp in pain. He walked as quickly he could the same direction Lenis ran off toward. It wasn't long before Skye ran into Avaritia, who stopped Skye's pursuit.

“Skye. A word if you may. It's about my beloved wife.” He waited until he had Skye's full attention. “Roughly a year ago my wife was diagnosed with a fatal disease. While I wouldn't like to go into detail about the disease, you should know that she only had about nine months to live. She spent those entire nine months with Lenis and both of them enjoyed every minute of it. Nine months later or around three months ago my wife had finally passed. Lenis was completely distraught and wouldn't leave the house. Ever since then she never really liked to talk and she always enjoyed being alone. I was hoping that you would be able to change that. Can you do that for me Skye?”

Skye nodded as Avaritia allowed him to pass. He roamed the halls looking for Lenis and eventually he walked toward a door at the end of a hall. He couldn't help but hear Lenis's sobbing as he quietly opened the door. Inside was what looked like the master bedroom. It was roughly the same size and the only visible difference was the color of the room. The bed was covered in rainbow streaked blankets, the walls were practically a portrait of a field, blending in with the blue sky. The ceiling was depicted as the night sky with shooting stars with rainbow trails. Lenis was lying on her bed, crying.

Skye walked up to her bed and climbed right onto it and right next to Lenis, who didn't even seem to notice him there. “Lenis?” Skye said as she looked up toward him, tears in her eyes. “I'm sorry Lenis, I didn't know what happened to mother. I didn't know there wasn't anything you could do.” She went back to sobbing, practically ignoring Skye's apology. “Ya know Lenis, I have two sisters somewhere in the world, I don't know where they are or what they look like now, I don't even know if they're still alive.” Lenis stopped sobbing and looked up at Skye, wondering where he was going with all of this. “So I was wondering Lenis, if you'd like to be my little sister? Don't you think that'd be cool?”

Lenis took a long hard look at Skye before she jumped up to nuzzle him with tears of joy in her eyes. Tears that haven't been shed by her for well over a year. It meant so much to Lenis that she had a big brother. She felt protected now, the same protection that her mother gave her. Avaritia looked into the room from the door smiling, he no longer had to worry about his daughter. He walked away happy, now he can spend all of his time on his job.

The two ponies sat in Lenis's room for hours sharing secrets and tell each other information about themselves. Skye learned a lot about his newly acquired little sister.

Two weeks later Avaritia was starting to get annoyed. Skye was fully healed and was finishing all of his chores at a stupidly quick rate. He would spend half of his time in the mansion playing with Lenis, which normally ended up being very loud. Not only that but Lenis's performance with her tutors were severely lacking. Not to mention whenever an ambassador would visit the mansion the two little ponies would constantly disrupt his business. He had to get these little ponies out of his house.

He had to enroll them into a public school.

But there was another problem with his plan. All of the schools in the Light District would not enroll any pony from the Dark District. He knew that Lenis would once again fall into a state of depression if she couldn't see her 'Big Brother' again. He only had one option, enroll his perfect daughter into a school in the Dark District.

He decided on the schoolhouse located near 'The Hole' or what is now called 'The Old Hole'. It was considered the most safe and cultured of the schoolhouses in the Dark District and promised amazing results. Hesitantly he signed the papers for his daughter. He also signed the papers for Skye.

He didn't want to do that.

Skye woke up to a small snout nudging him in the face. Opening his eyes he quickly realized that it was Applebloom with a half-concerned, half-scared look in her face. Skye spoke first.

"Hi Applebloom, something wrong?"

"I had a bad dream... did you have one too?"

"Well, I wouldn't say I did." He looked at Applebloom, who didn't appear to have any intention of leaving. "Would you like to sleep with me Applebloom?" Her eyes lit up as she scrambled to get under the blankets next to Skye. Skye slid over, giving Applebloom as much room as he thought she would need. "Good night Applebloom."

"Good night Skye."