Chapter 13
It was a strange thing to realise that he wanted to be with Pebble. Sumac, feeling unsettled, reflected upon this as he waited for his lunch to be brought to him. It wasn’t that he wanted to ditch Trixie and Lemon Hearts; no, he just wished that Pebble was here with them, having lunch. Using his telekinesis, he lifted up a savoury garlic breadstick and began nibbling.
Tomorrow was the first day of school. He was looking forward to it, but he also had his worries. He knew that Olive would be in a different class; she was older after all, but the chance of running into her was high. She was big, mean, and green; the very thought of her caused him to have fits of worry. A part of him still wanted to see if he could take her in a fight; Sumac was ashamed to even think about it, but no matter how he tried to banish it from his mind, the thought continued to linger like an unwelcome guest.
“It was very grown up of you to order the grilled portobello bisque,” Lemon Hearts said to Sumac in a prim, proper voice, the sort of voice one used in fine dining establishments. “Most foals your age would have ordered off of the foal’s menu and would have got the textured vegetable protein nuggets with macaroni and cheese.”
“Blech.” Sumac shuddered at the mention of the dreaded nuggets. He hated them. He had tried them once at a hayburger restaurant. They had been quite vile, rubbery, and just plain gross. Once he recovered from hearing Lemon Hearts mention the nuggets, he beamed, feeling very grown up and responsible.
“Sumac can be an adventurous eater. He once took part in a contest eating hot chili peppers.” Trixie glanced across the table at her colt and then her eyes returned to Lemon Hearts. “He scored fourth place. Got a ribbon. Also won twenty bits. I think he held on just for the bits.”
“Oh my.” Lemon Hearts, who had been looking at Trixie, turned towards Sumac. “You poor dear… I can’t imagine the consequences of such a thing.”
“He sat in the river for hours…” Trixie smiled at the memory but said nothing else about it. She reached over and brushed her hoof along Sumac’s foreleg, a gentle caress to show that she cared. “I was proud of him. He brought in the bits. He’s my little provider.”
Sumac felt a rosy warmth in his cheeks and he slouched down on the padded bench. He felt Boomer adjust her position as she clung to his horn, snoozing, and he continued to gnaw on his breadstick as he waited for his lunch.
“Sumac inherited more than his father’s mechanical aptitude,” Trixie said in a soft voice of maternal pride. “He has his father’s sense of showmanship… at least, there are times when he displays it. Flam Apple was a very smart pony. He had exceptional intelligence—too bad he wasn’t smart enough to realise that you only get one chance to make things right.” Trixie, having said her aside, let out a sigh and shook her head. “Sumac has his father’s knack for making bits. You’d be surprised, Lemon Hearts, but little Sumac here has a downright uncanny business sense already for a colt his age.”
“Oh my,” Lemon Hearts replied as she levitated a breadstick to gnaw upon.
“But he has shown none of his father’s greed.” Trixie cast a sidelong glance at Sumac and then stared down at her water glass with a thousand yard stare. “I don’t want to boast or anything, or act self important, but I’d like to think that I had something to do with that.”
“You taught me to be a good colt,” Sumac said around a mouthful of mooshed breadstick. “And I must be doing something right if Twilight trusted me with Boomer. Olive certainly didn’t get a dragon to look after.” Sumac swallowed his food and scowled. What Olive needed was to be taken down a few pegs.
“I still need to work on your table manners though.” Trixie began to chortle as she relaxed a little bit, seeing and knowing that her comment was well received and not taken as self-aggrandising. She reached over, brushing Sumac’s mane away from his face, careful not to disturb the sleeping hatchling that was still no doubt digesting a fine meal of spider and recovering from a bath.
“Can I say something a little blunt?” Lemon Hearts asked Trixie.
“Sure, why not?” Trixie turned towards her friend and waited.
“It’s strange, funny even, to see you with Sumac. When I remember how you were in school and when I see you now, it’s kinda shocking.” Lemon Hearts gave Trixie a gentle smile and shook her head. “I’m not holding your past against you, it’s just, you’ve changed.”
Sumac took another bite of his breadstick and stared at the two mares he shared the table with. This was an adult conversation, something he was comfortable with, he spent a lot of time with adults, but this felt wrong to intrude upon.
“I was Olive.” Trixie began sniggering, but also tried to keep it down so she wouldn’t disturb the other guests in the restaurant. “Oh, I was such a horrible, wretched little filly. And everypony called me—”
“Bossy Blue,” both mares said together and then began giggling in unison.
Trixie leaned over against Lemon Hearts and patted her friend upon the foreleg. “I didn’t know you’d end up being my friend. I’m sorry we were enemies.”
Blinking, Sumac took everything said in. Trixie was Olive. That was quite a thought. He detested Olive and the idea of being friends with her when he was older unnerved him. A part of him didn’t want Olive to get better—he didn’t want to be friends with her. He wanted to keep on disliking her. Feeling just a little ashamed, Sumac ate the last section of breadstick while staring down at his placemat as both Trixie and Lemon Hearts continued to giggle together. It was wrong to feel this way and he knew it.
This was how otherwise good ponies went bad…
He adjusted his glasses, wiped his muzzle with his fancy cloth napkin, then glanced over at his adoptive mother and Lemon Hearts. He liked seeing Trixie happy. She deserved to be happy. He began to think that it was going to be nice living with Lemon Hearts. It would be sort of like having two moms, but he tried not to think about that too much. He could learn more magic with a second unicorn around.
He knew that he had magical talent, but he didn’t know how much magical talent. It was difficult to trust adults on this issue; adults wanted to encourage him, boost his self esteem, make him feel better, they wanted him to believe in himself. He knew that he was above average, at least, he had been told that he was, but he didn’t know how far above the average he was. In the back of his mind, he wanted to be magical enough to be a wizard, not just another unicorn with a few spells. He wanted to be magical enough to become an apprentice, to become somepony’s pupil. Of course, he knew that he wasn’t magical enough to become Princess Twilight Sparkle’s personal student, or any of the other princesses for that matter, but he hoped that somepony would take notice of him.
Trixie had done much for his magical education, she had been his teacher, but now, as his mother… well, a little unicorn just wasn’t his mother’s apprentice. Nopony would take anything you did with any sort of seriousness. That was a good way to be laughed at. He needed a Master or a Mistress. He needed to get noticed.
He also needed a cutie mark—something indicating some skill in magic would be wonderful.
Sumac felt torn; he worried about his cutie mark. He wanted something that would show that he had skill in magic, that his destiny was to be magical—but he also wanted something to show that he was an Apple. It was a conundrum. His ears perked as Lemon Hearts whispered something to Trixie and then both of them continued to giggle while looking at him. To be magical or to be marked as an Apple? If he had to choose… Sumac sighed when he knew that he would rather be marked as an Apple. He was going to have to give up a promising future in the magical arts.
Looking up, he saw the waiter coming, bearing a tray piled high with food.
Stepping out into the bright sunlight, Sumac Apple waited for his eyes to adjust after being in the dark theatre for so long. He heard Boomer let out a sleepy, smoky yawn, followed by an adorable, tiny snort. He stepped aside so he wouldn’t block the exit and stood blinking behind his darkened glasses.
The movie was something for grownups, a romance flick. There had been lots of over the top dialogue, far too much kissing, (even one kiss was one kiss too many) and a syrupy, sappy end where the noble guardspony gave up his place in the guard to become a stay at home father while the mare continued to dominate the business world with her canned chili company.
There was sure to be a sequel; the idea of a bumbling stay at home dad (and a former guardspony no less) with a foal was considered comedy gold. He would no doubt endure all manner of horrible humiliation, failure, and would be an incompetent caretaker. Because stallions were idiots when it came to looking after foals. Sumac grunted in annoyance as he thought about it and wondered what Big Mac would have to say about the issue.
At least Trixie and Lemon Hearts had enjoyed themselves. Sumac wasn’t about to let out even a single peep of complaint. Trixie deserved a nice day, and no doubt, Big Mac would approve of Sumac being so grown up about the issue.
“You know, Sumac could use a better bookbag. I have a lot of bits saved up… I’d like for Sumac to go to school on his first day and not look like a ragamuffin.” Trixie, who also stood blinking as her eyes adjusted to the out of doors, reached out and prodded Sumac on the backside. “He could use some school supplies.”
“Shopping is always fun,” Lemon Hearts said in an agreeable voice. “Fall is coming. I know for a fact that Twilight has field trips to Canterlot planned. It’ll be cold at the higher elevations.”
“Sumac will need a jacket. Something better than the ratty old collection of scraps I keep patching—”
“Hey, I like my jacket.” Sumac turned and looked up at Trixie. “I like it because you keep fixing it. Nopony else has a jacket like it.”
“Sumac, kiddo, it hardly even fits you anymore. It might not even fit you now. When you wore it last spring, you kept ripping it when you moved. It was far too tight.” Trixie sat down and watched as several ponies exiting the theatre went past. “You’ve grown, Sumac. You’re getting so big for your age—”
“I’m five,” Sumac retorted, “and I’m scrawny. I’ve seen other colts that are five and they’re bigger than me.”
A patient smile appeared in Trixie’s lips as she leaned forwards. She raised one hoof, extended it, and booped Sumac on the nose, causing him to go cross eyed. A nearby gopher clutched his chest, let out a grunt, and fell over, stunned at the sight of the maternal boop.
“We should go to Jaycee Pony’s Department Store,” Lemon Hearts said, offering up a suggestion. “They’re having a sale. We can get Sumac a few things Trixie, and we can get you a few nice things as well. You deserve to treat yourself.”
“But I—”
“No buts!” Lemon Hearts snapped as she stomped her hoof. “No buts, no buts, no buts—”
“Unless you want some papercuts!” both mares finished together, reciting a rhyme from their days in school together. They both began to giggle again.
The two of them sure did giggle a lot together, Sumac noticed. And they kept looking at each other, staring at one another in a funny, happy way. It was nice seeing Trixie happy. He sighed; knowing that a trip to the department store was a forgone conclusion. They would drag him around the store for hours, make him try stuff on and make him look at the things they were going to try on, he just knew it. At the end of it all, he suspected that he would come out smelling like flowery, girly perfume. The world was a horrendous place and life just wasn’t fair, not at all.
This was going to be awful, he just knew it.
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Those two do not necessarily contradict each other, my dear little Sumac. Take Zapp Apples for example.
7123443
I love it. My grandfather worked at J.C. Penny's. This amuses me greatly.
*Has vietnam-like flashbacks of shopping trips with grandmother and aunts to jc penny*
chance/was or chances/were
7123500
Please. You think you had it bad. Think about the poor employees during the holidays
'to' should be 'too'.
I'm surprised it wasn't Neigh-c-Ponies. And Kudz returns!
7123610
I never left.
He's five?!
I pictured him as nearly CMC age, but we know that a five year old Sweetie Belle was much smaller than current Sweetie (because we saw her fifth birthday party).
What did that poor gopher ever do to you?
7123443 Or maybe an apple *on fire*.
Oh, Sumac... you had Princess Celestia trying to steal you out from under Twilight. I don't think you have much to really worry about.
7124003
As a student in her school... not as her personal student. Big difference.
7124006 Still! That's one heck of a compliment to be paid.
7123466 7123500
Sumac's worrying too much about his Cutie mark(family trait?), as Apple Bloom and Babs Seed's marks show, you can have an apple style cutie mark even with a talent that has nothing to do with apples.
Hmm... do I see Lemon and Trixie perhaps?
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/687/970/993.jpg
7124936
He's kinda young and he worries about silly things. Somepony needs to set him straight.
... okay, I admit.... that one was actually pretty clever.
Oh dear... J.C. Penny is like 70% clothing. He is doomed. God suprise shopping with females is terrible.
7127037
I go to the store, I find three things that fit and leave. Any female in my family goes, we are stuck there for hours.
7128415 more or less that.
7136380
From the rules.
Please remember that this story is rated E?
Thanks!
Well, this is unfairly adorable thus far. Glad to be somewhat back in the swing of things with your stories, though I still have a crapton of your work to catch up on.
You know magic apples are a thing.
7137452
Good point. That is an option.
But if it is that, then I expect the lie to be revealed at some point...? Or not... If it was a lie, how would Trixie react...?
Geeze, could they not come up with a better name? The marketing on that product is atrocious.
Bad thoughts, Sumac.
Bossy Blue, eh?
Better thoughts!
Interesting thinking from the kid about needing a Master or Mistress.
A zap apple, clearly.
Face it, kid, you're going shopping whether you like it or not.
That is one mellowdramatic gopher. Rarity would be proud.
Surely, they can get him some shampoo that doesn't smell like flowers?
Also, wow, i didn't realize he was FIVE. He IS smart.
That poor gopher!
i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--FWZj9PbQ--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_320/18ci4vycvuud2gif.gif
I know your pain sumac, I know your pain....
I sense much Shipping in this fanfic!! Lemon Hearts X Trixie FTW! <3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb1vcaqAivY
7691999
iambrony.steeph.tp-radio.de/mlp/gif/182566%20-%20animated%20artist-goddesscelestia%20do_not_want%20jesus_christ_how_horrifying%20shocked%20twilight_sparkle.gif?1344079800
Jaycee Pony's, eh?
I like the way you have Sumac be a precocious, brilliant child -- yet still a child.
We were all smart children once -- but not all of us can connect with that side well enough to communicate it in writing.
NO! Bad pinkie!
We are not doing this a second time! One musical parody is enough for now.
Sounds like the pacifier.