//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 - Comic Blues part 3 // Story: Story of Diane Pie: Role in Life // by Middle Ground //------------------------------// We finally got back home after a long day and I was really tired from working at the bakery and from picking up Day and Charm. The first thing I did was walk into the second floor and fall on the comfy couch to rest my tired hooves. Then Charm got up in my face to show me his newly given comic. "Dude, this is the best! Bab is so cool...! I have to thank her for this! I know, I'll ask her on a date!" Charm never ceases to amaze me sometimes.... I was too tired to take him seriously. "I'm gonna go read it now! Yes!" Charm runs up the stairs to his room to read his new comic. Finally I can rest. I was nearly about to fall asleep. "Hey Big Sis, is Love still at work?" Day was next pony to get at my face. "Yeah, she is. She's been so happy to have her bakery back lately that she's been spending more time there. She'll be back later." I'm pretty sure Tough Love will be back at 9pm again.... We then heard Miss Jubilee and Bitter Sweet walk up the stairs. "We're back~! I hope you guys had a good day~!" Miss Jubilee sounds as cheerful as ever. "Day is here? Then where is Charm?" Bitter Sweet took off his coat and sat in one of the living room chairs. "Charm is in his room reading his new comic book. He was very excited about it too." And his excitement has exhausted me.... "That silly colt, always on about his comic books. He's so easy to excite~! And he's going to be excited about tonight's dinner, Cucumber Salads~!" Miss Jubilee began making the dinner Charm apparently loves. We talked about stuff that happened today. Day got a B+ on her math test, Bitter Sweet had another boring day at his office looking over his papers, and Miss Jubilee had a busy day selling her cherries to ponies. I never asked where she puts all that money. Maybe next time she goes out selling. Finally, Tough Love returns home after nearly three hours of hanging out at her bakery after closing time. "Yay...! Big Sis is back!" Day then gave a big hug to Tough Love. She looked tired but still happy. "Hey guys, I'm back. I hope I'm not late for dinner...." Tough love sat next to me to rest from a long day's work. "You're just in time~! Diane, would you be a dear and go get Charm for me~?" I was still tired but I made my way up to the third floor anyway. When I got there I saw Charm looking out the window on the right side of the room. "Charm, dinner is ready. Are you coming down...?" I was expecting him to still be reading his new comic but he wasn't. I noticed he had a blank expression on his face. "Yeah, I'll be there...." Charm even sounded like he lost his spark. This is concerning. I started being nosy again and sat next to him. "Charm, what's wrong? You're usually excited about something. I thought you would be reading your comic book one hundred times already." He does do that quite often.... "I'm just...thinking about stuff. I'll be down in a minute." Whatever he was thinking about must be serious. I then turn my attention towards his new comic. I thought it might have had something to do with Charm's unusual behavior. It was titled, 'Power Ponies #53: A Hum Drum-ble Beginning' and I decided to look through it. What a silly title.... It was rather short compared to the other comics Charm had. I mostly skimmed passed the first few pages that talked about how Hum Drum came to be, he was in an orphanage, he was happy there, but then I stopped at page 8. Something horrible happened to Hum Drum: the orphanage was burned down because of a short circuit in the oven while the orphan keeper was cooking for the orphans. Hum Drum was out admiring the Power Ponies doing heroic stuff and came back to see everything burned to the ground. And what's worse, none of the ponies living in the orphanage survived. Hum Drum was all alone. Eventually, he was found by the Power Ponies leader, Trot Summers, or Masked Matter-Horn, and was then taken into the Power Ponies. After reading those last few pages, I knew exactly what happened to Charm. He was an orphan and he lost all the ponies he made friends with at the orphanage he stayed in. He must have been at the comic book store or something and didn't know about it. Then he was found by Miss Jubilee and the rest was history. I figured the writer must have taken inspiration from that incident and applied it to the comic book. I could see tears running down his cheeks passed his sunglasses. Reading such a comic that was just like his tragedy must have been painful for him to do. I got next to him and embraced him, hoping to comfort him. Afterwards, Charm eventually got over his sadness and calmed down. "Charm...I know it must have hurt losing all that you loved. But it was an accident. It was no pony's fault it that happened. If I had to give some advice, live on for them. Try to be the best that you can be and move on with your life. That's all we can really do." I'm not sure if that will help, but it was the only thing I could say. Charm then gave a deep snort of his nose and rubbed the tears from his eyes. "Yeah! I just need to be cool for them! I just gotta be myself! Yeah!" Charm then rushed downstairs and just like that he was back to normal. That...resolved rather quickly. "SWEET! CUCUMBER SALAD!" I could hear Charm being excited from downstairs. I gave a sigh of relief, "He's back to normal...." I then went downstairs and joined them for dinner. I was not only tired but really hungry. I'm just glad I could help somepony else again.