The Scarecrow
By Lonelyrider

Story Highlights:
Quadruplets
Half angels
Kemonomimi
Pegasi
Equines
Anthros
Humans
Manor
Orphanage
Equestria
Siblings
Negative influence
Family friend
Good example

Young Thomas the troubled new arrival to the family orphanage is at it again, but thankfully many come to the rescue.

The children were outside playing around the big fenced-in acreage about the brick manor, as the family butler came out to quickly check on them all and seeing they were playing contentedly, he hurried back inside to his duties. The children's beloved nanny Annette was ill that day and unable to attend to them, and the staff had insisted to their parents and masters that they go ahead and go out to dinner and the opera as the servants would watch over the children; after all, the staff had pointed out, James & Lonely's children were, behaviorally & quite literally, little angels. They were to find that wasn't true of all the other children also in their care, however.
Martin & Henrietta rode by the playing kids on the huge jungle gym astride their two Dartmoor ponies, as the children had outgrown their old but beloved Shetlands, who now lived happily as petting zoo animals beside their parents' own strong steeds.
"Hi Brucey, hi Tommy! Look, daddy said Marty & I could ride Billy & Milly in here while he and momma were at the opera. Dad said next time, he's taking all four of us with them." Henrietta gushed excitedly. Her older brother by a few minutes, the stout and strong lad Bruce, smiled approvingly at his sister atop her pretty mare with pink ribbons in both their manes as she spoke to him.
"Who cares? No girls, go away." Bruce's frenemy Thomas said, waving with his hand & pushing on Henrietta's pony mare, who snorted.
"Come back later and chat with me sis, have fun with Marty riding Bill and Mill." Bruce told her warmly.
"I will. Bye Brucey, Tommy." Henri remained ladylike towards Tom despite his hostility and curtsied atop her mount before trotting over to join her brother as they rode on.
"I'm bored. Hey, what's that, down there?" Tom stood up, knocking over Bruce's big toy soldiers he was sharing with Tom.
"Oh, that's Farmer Peterson's land, he and my dad are best mates. Sometimes, my dad helps Farmer Peterson plow his fields, cause my dad is as strong as a horse like Mr Peterson is." Bruce boasted proudly; he and Tom were both anthro horses themselves, though Bruce was a pegasus anthro getting wings from his brawny human angel father and his equine side from his anthro mule mom. Tom stood up, his tail swishing.
"I wanna go see." Tom started to climb the high wood fence surrounding the manor Bruce's parents had erected to keep the many kids in their care safe as they played outdoors, scaling it expertly. It was clear Tom had done so many times.
"Tommy, hey, wait a sec! We're not supposed to climb the fence! My parents let us out here to do whatever we like as long as we promise to stay inside the fence where it's safe." Bruce repeated what he held true to Tom, who scoffed at him as he landed on the other side. Now the boys could hear but not see each other.
"Always such a goody-goody. I'm gonna go stab that dumb scarecrow. You guys live in the country. What could happen?" Tom announced, and he ran off. Bruce backed up and ran at the fence from afar, flapping his young wings and catching a light gust of wind, he took off and soared briefly over the fence, using the gliding skills his winged father had taught him.
"I'll be back guys, I'm just bringing Tommy back!" Bruce announced. Henrietta and Martin gathered by the fence as did the many other orphans watching through the tiny cracks in the sturdy wood fence as Bruce went to Tom, who had pulled out his pocket knife and was stabbing Farmer Peterson's scarecrow so that straw exploded from it with each thrust of his blade.
"Die, scum!" Tom laughed.
"Tommy...come on, leave it alone. Let's go back." Bruce begged, taking Tom's arm, the other horse boy ignored him, brushing him off roughly and keeping up his violence. Bruce looked about nervously, knowing they were trespassing and breaking his kind parent's rules.
"Tommy, come on, please? My dad isn't going to be able to trust us if we do naughty stuff like this." Bruce pleaded further.
"Then you go back, whiny baby!" Tom laughed. Tom saw Bruce gasp and step back in fear, and Tom watched a light shadow tower over them from behind in the mostly cloudy day. Tom whirled and stabbed at air with his knife as a mighty hand picked him up by his overalls and dangled him like nothing with a loud snort.
"Let me go, I'll kill you I will, get off me!" Tom screamed.
"Farmer Peterson, sir, I can explain. I was only on your field to try and get my friend Tom to come home with me, I'm sorry for trespassing, Mr Peterson, sir." Bruce explained humbly.
"& you?" Farmer Peterson eyed Tom, who stabbed the huge anthro draft horse with his knife; Marshall Peterson knocked it from the boy's hand and stepped on it with his mighty shoed hoof, crushing it.
"No way! It was just a dumb scarecrow anyway. Now let me go, you big dumb drafter!"
Marshall did, and Tom stumbled into Bruce, who caught him and knelt respectfully before his father's best friend.
"I'm surprised yer' one of James & Lonely's, laddy. Ye have no manners, not like kids of theirs. What did my scarecrow ever do to ye?" Marshall asked Tom in his brogue, re-stuffing the injured object with straw.
"I promise to come right back with Brucey, I'm gonna go help real quick." Henrietta told the other kids, and rising like a Biblical angel straight up with her wings, she too flew over the fence and joined her older brother and a struggling Tom.
"Hello Mr Peterson, farmer, sir. I'll help Mr Scarecrow." Henrietta took out her portable sewing kit she kept in her fancy girl's purse that her parents had gifted her and Bruce saw her intent and straightened the scarecrow and stuffed it as Henri took her needle and thread to it and the two siblings tried valiantly to repair the wound Tom had inflicted as Marshall watched Tom, who scowled with his arms crossed as Henrietta sewed the injured scarecrow and Bruce held it still for her until she was done. Marshall softened at Henrietta and Bruce, who smiled and curtsied & bowed at him respectfully.
"Thank ye, children. Your young friend will face no penalty from me, in exchange for your kind deeds here today. You," Marshall caught Tom, who had started to run off towards the woods with a struggle, with a huge mighty arm, and shoved him forward in front of Bruce and Henrietta, who were heading back to their parents' fenced yard, "Will go back with Bruce & his sister."
"I won't! Let me go!"
Tom bit the huge farmer, who barely showed it if he felt pain from the boy's teeth.
"Kids, catch him and don't let him climb back out again." Farmer Peterson tossed Tom high into the air and back over the fence, where the many other orphans caught him with laughter on the other side of it.
"I'll try to keep him with me so he doesn't get hurt. Sorry about your property, Farmer Peterson." Bruce said with his hands folded on his stomach gentlemanly holding his hat.
"You kids fixed him up for me very nice. Here, take these. & for the rest of ye, too. I'll be out working my farm for a bit, I'll keep an eye that no kids scale the fence again whilst I am. Go on back home, now. I'll see your father this weekend at the tavern, and will tell him how good you two were. Take care, wee ones." Marshall smiled at the children who thanked him excitedly for the sweet apples he'd given them and he'd thrown a big bag of them for the orphans to enjoy inside the fence, which they pounced on.
"Bye sir!" Bruce and Henrietta called in a warm greeting and holding hands, they both backed up and ran at the fence and glided over it so they were also inside with the other kids. Tom was sulking in a corner as the servants came out to check on the kids again.
"Oh dear me. Kids, dinner time! Come inside, all of you. Now, now. Single file, please! Settle down. My goodness. One at a time! You'd think the master and mistress never go out! Stop fighting kids, stop that at once." Luke the butler tried to wrangle the unruly orphans as Henrietta and Martin brought their ponies to their father's stable boy so he could care for them and took their place with their other two polite siblings at the back of the line. Farmer Peterson watched Tom reluctantly follow his friend Bruce inside and finally it was quiet once more outside the LightningSword manor as Marshall went to work digging up a root crop.






Photography credit & thanks to: https://unsplash.com/photos/person-.....rf-hQNhD7DtP_o