“Was it a nice night for you?” Sumac asked Cinnamon, who seemed rather relaxed as he sat beside him on the steps to Twilight’s castle. The morning was a bit cooler than usual, or it felt that way to Sumac. Autumn drew ever nearer, and while it was not yet cold, it was clear that the long, extended summer was now over.
Cinnamon nodded, but said nothing. Something that was almost a smile was on his face, he sat facing the sun, his eyes squinting, and the faint breeze blew through his mane. His ears twitched with every sound he heard as ponies moved through the town to go to the market, but he didn’t appear to be as jumpy as usual.
“It’s Wednesday,” Sumac said, trying to start a conversation. “There will be magic lessons this morning and archery for me this afternoon. I can’t wait for archery.” The colt smiled and thought of spending a few pleasant hours trying to learn a new skill. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays were going to be great days. Mondays and Fridays, well, Sumac wasn’t so sure about those yet. Friday was good because that was the last day of school for the week, so it wasn’t too bad, but he wasn’t sure what he would do on Friday afternoons. As for Mondays… who liked Mondays? Nopony, that’s who.
There was no reply from Cinnamon, who seemed to enjoy sunning himself.
It seemed that Cinnamon was the quiet sort, so Sumac gave up. It was probably just nice for him to have somepony to sit with, so Sumac allowed himself to be content with that. What Cinnamon needed was a friend and little Sumac was beginning to understand his purpose here at Twilight’s school. Exceptional foals sometimes had exceptional problems, Sumac knew that he most certainly did, and this was a place to help with those problems. Or something. Sumac was still a little fuzzy on the whole thing, but he tried to understand.
Hunched over his desk, Sumac kept to himself, stayed silent, and kept his eyes focused on his textbook, worried that he might attract the attention of Olive. She was sitting in the front of the class, close to the teacher, and sure enough, she was a smug know-it-all. Beside him, Strawberry Hearts was also slumped over her textbook, trying to understand the lesson.
Cinnamon was chewing on his pencil, lost in thought, he was half-in and half-out of his book, alternating between reading and looking up at the chalkboard. Sitting between Cinnamon and Sumac, Tinder stared up at the chalkboard with a dull, vacant stare, understanding nothing.
Behind Tinder, a green filly named Gentle Melody took aim with a plastic straw and fired a spitball right at Tinder’s tender ear. There was a muffled yelp from Tinder, who reached up and rubbed his tender ear with his hoof. The teacher, a mare named Miss Weathervane, turned her head and gave the entire class a stern glare, as she did not know what was going on, but knew there was trouble.
When the teacher turned away to continue writing on the chalkboard, Gentle Melody took aim once more, took a deep breath, and fired. This time, she got Tinder’s other ear, and before Tinder could even turn around, the straw had vanished. She gave the colt in front of her a sweet smile as he glared at her, rubbing both of his ears, and she batted her eyelashes at him.
Tinder it seemed, was playing with a different sort of fire, one he did not yet understand, and it was no less dangerous. Scowling, his lip curled away from his teeth in a snarl, he turned his back to the filly behind him, and he tried to rub away the stinging sensation in his ears.
“Okay class, who can tell me the source of all magic?” Miss Weathervane asked.
Blinking, Sumac looked around the classroom. He knew the answer to this question. Nopony else seemed to be raising a hoof or making any sort of effort to be called upon. He glanced at Olive, expecting her to answer, but she was absorbed in her textbook.
Moving with some hesitation, Sumac raised his left front hoof a little.
“Wonderful, Sumac, could you enlighten us?” Miss Weathervane gave Sumac a broad smile of approval as she stood in front of the chalkboard.
Feeling nervous, he cleared his throat, and then Sumac said, “Magic comes from ley lines. It’s a finite resource, meaning there is only so much of it available to use at any given time. It rises up from the ground and spreads through the air and water. Some ley line intersections are dangerous.”
“Correct.” Miss Weathervane gave Sumac a nod and looked around at the rest of the class. “And can anypony tell me the names of the two ponies who are most knowledgeable about ley lines and their features?”
Nopony raised their hoof. Sumac suspected that he knew, he had a hunch, because he had met them, but he wasn’t one hundred percent certain that they were, in fact, the most knowledgeable ponies on this subject.
The teacher let out a sigh and set down her chalk on the tray. “The foremost authorities on ley lines are Tarnished Teapot and Maud Pie. Their hard work and study have revolutionised our knowledge base and what we know about magic. Maud in particular has shown us that rocks act as batteries, storing up magic and releasing it in a slow, steady flow that makes it safer for all of us, and Tarnished Teapot has shown that certain plants, poison joke in particular, are nature’s way of regulating dangerous levels of magic and filtering it so it is less dangerous to living things. There is a vast, amazing magical ecosystem that we are only now beginning to understand and appreciate, thanks to the hard work of those two, who have dedicated their lives to studying and understanding this subject.”
Sumac could not help but wonder where his magic came from. Did he act as a battery? Was he storing up magic right now and did zap apples help him release it? He had questions, big questions, but not the sort of questions he could ask in this class.
“While this is a class dedicated to the study of unicorn magic, all ponies have magic. The earth ponies and the pegasi have their own special magic and they too, draw power from the ley lines, but not in the same way that we do. Much of their magic is passive, for the most part, though there are exceptions.” The teacher cleared her throat and focused her gaze upon Sumac. “You there, you are friends with Pebble Pie… she has the extraordinary ability to make rocks talk. Have you seen this?”
Sumac, who had in fact, seen a demonstration of Pebble’s magic, nodded. Rocks didn’t have much to say and they were kind of stupid, all things considered. The stone that Pebble had spoken to had been rather antagonistic. It led to a conversation where Pebble had accused him of flirting with her and Pebble’s admission that she hated rocks.
“And you,” Miss Weathervane said to Tinder, “your brother, Flint, has strange wings that we are still trying to understand. He can’t fly with them, but he can create fire.”
“And then there is Pinkie Pie,” Sumac blurted out without permission to talk.
“Yes,” Miss Weathervane replied, and then paused for a moment before continuing, “there is Pinkie Pie. She is quite exceptional, but all of the Pie sisters have shown signs of unusual magic. The rock farm they grew up on is an unusual place, it is a nexus intersection with an impressive, but not too dangerous, amount of magical radiation.”
Looking at the teacher, Olive raised her hoof and waited. When Miss Weathervane nodded, Olive asked, “Why is it that earth ponies are more resistant to dangerous background magical radiation?”
“We don’t know,” Miss Weathervane replied, shaking her head and frowing. “It is a great mystery. It is being studied and many believe that it is just because earth ponies are naturally hardier than the other tribes. For others, folk wisdom is not enough and there are those who seek real answers. But for now, we don’t know. Everything is speculation.”
Without raising her hoof, Strawberry Hearts said, “Since ponies control the environment, it seems we also can control the distribution of magic. Since magic comes up from the ley lines and seeps into rocks and water and stuff…” The filly paused for a moment to think and her muzzle scrunched. “Pegasus ponies manage the rain and I wonder if the pegasi think about where they draw their water from. Some water is more magical than other water, and I wonder if anypony is taking this into account.”
Miss Weathervane adjusted her reading glasses and nodded. “Actually, we are. This is a recent realisation of this problem. After the eruption of Mount Maud several years ago, the Ghastly Gorge is no longer used as a water collection point, and the Froggy Bottom Bogg as well. The magic levels in the water are unstable, hazardous even, and we are still trying to understand what will happen to the Froggy Bottom Bogg and the surrounding environment. One of Equestria’s largest and most important aquifers lies under the Froggy Bottom. It’s scary, not knowing how this will affect our future.”
“How do we fix this?” Tinder asked.
“We have to learn how to live with nature and magic without disturbing it too much. Mount Maud is an unusual case study. We’re learning more and more that while we ponies have a huge influence on nature, we do regulate the weather and the seasons, there is a lot that is beyond our control. We’re agents in a much larger system and we’re not in as much control as we think we are. There is still so much we don’t understand. We don’t know how to fix this, not yet, but effort is being made to understand it.” Miss Weathervane glanced up at the clock and smiled. “It is almost lunch time. I’m glad we had this discussion. I like to have students who are eager to learn and ask questions. Before class is dismissed, I have an assignment for each of you. I want you to come up with one question, a good question, about magical environmentalism, and when this class meets up again, we’ll take turns asking questions and discussing them. Sound good?”
Most of the class nodded, but there were a few groans.
Miss Weathervane pulled off her glasses, folded them, and placed them into a wooden case. She snapped the lid shut and tucked the case into her bag. “Class is dismissed. Have a nice lunch and keep asking questions about the world around you!”
“Hey, you!”
Sumac froze, terrified and paralysed with fear. He gulped, and then his eyes darted around, trying to see if there was a teacher or an adult somewhere nearby. For whatever reason, Olive had decided to mess with him. He felt his mouth go dry.
“I see you’ve finally decided to join the rest of us and get a cutie mark. Good job, loser.”
Olive moved in front of him and Sumac looked up. She was quite a bit bigger than he was, well over a head taller, she had far more muscle, more mass, more bulk. She wasn’t fat, not at all, she had it all. Brawns and brain. She was built like an earth pony. He found himself hating her and recalled how she had tormented Pebble. He also thought about Olive’s awful insinuation about Applejack and Big Mac.
“You know, for an Apple, you’re actually pretty smart. I hate to say it, loser, but I was impressed today,” Olive said to Sumac.
Eyes narrowing, Sumac was gaining his nerve as his anger simmered. His fear was retreating, replaced by slow burning rage. Already, he was wondering if he could give Olive the sound thrashing that she deserved. Maybe with some zap apple jam…
“I was thinking, since you’re so smart, that you should help me with my homework. My parents don’t know anything about magic, and I’m sure you wouldn’t mind doing my homework for me—”
“Get stuffed, Olive.” Sumac was rather surprised by the words that he had just said. He felt his jaw clench. He had no idea where those words came from, they had just slipped out. He couldn’t help but feel that his mouth had just betrayed him.
“What did you say to me, you little scrub?” Olive asked as she invaded Sumac’s personal space.
“Are you as deaf as you are ugly?” Sumac replied.
Olive drew herself up to her full height and towered over Sumac. She glared down at him, her eyes gleaming with what could only be described as amused anger. She lifted up her left front hoof, reached out, and gave Sumac a hard shove.
“You have a smart mouth.” Olive gave Sumac a second shove, and a cruel laugh slipped from her lips. “You’re a funny little colt, did you know that?”
“With how you look, you could be mistaken for a funny looking colt,” Sumac said as other foals began to gather around he and Olive.
“Oh, you are funny,” Olive said as she gave Sumac a hard shove yet again. The amused look of anger was gone, and now there was only anger. Her eyes narrowed as her horn ignited. “I’m a filly!”
“I bet the doctor had to check twice, no, three times, just to make sure.” Sumac felt a rush of adrenaline and he felt jittery all over. He had struck a nerve and he knew it. Olive was no doubt insecure about her looks, as fillies tended to be.
“You scrawny little turd sniffer, I should pound you into the floor!”
“There’s a reason you are an only foal… I bet your parents were too scared to try again!”
The corner of her eye twitching, Olive bellowed with rage, and she was unable to form any sort of comprehensible words. She grabbed Sumac in her telekinesis, twisted him around, slammed him down to the floor, and twisted his forelegs up behind his back. She began to apply cruel pressure, and the foals who had gathered to watch did nothing, frozen in fear.
Olive applied enough pressure that something in Sumac’s right foreleg popped, an awful sound, and he cried out, gibbering in pain. She applied slow, steady pressure, and ground her teeth together, the corner of her eye still twitching from her rage.
“Beg for mercy,” Olive demanded in a gruff voice.
“No!” Sumac’s voice was a pained, shrill squeal.
“Beg for mercy, loser!” Olive applied more pressure and there was another pop, this time from Sumac’s left front leg. Her ears twitched and she giggled in sadistic glee as Sumac cried out once more.
Sumac, reduced to tears, was unable to even talk at this point. He was certain that his front legs were going to be twisted right out of their sockets at any minute. Stars swam in his vision.
“I had to do this to my father to teach him why he can’t punish me or tell me what to do,” Olive said in a low growl into Sumac’s ear as she stood over him. “He had to learn who was in charge… and so do you… now say mercy!”
Humiliated, Sumac yelped, but even if he wanted to say something, he couldn’t. The pain was just too much. He squirmed, writhing in agony, and he realised that at any moment now, he was going to wet himself—the pain was that bad.
“That’s enough.”
Sumac felt the pressure increase even more for a second, and then it was gone. He whimpered when he was let go and he lay on the ground, unable to move, and unable to see because of all the tears clouding his vision.
“Olive, I want you in my office, now.” Twilight’s voice was cold and had no emotion. No anger, nothing at all. It was cold and devoid of any feeling. “Don’t even think of defying me. Now go. Not one word… not one single word. Follow Starlight and do as you are told.”
Blubbering in pain, Sumac curled up, or tried to, but he had trouble moving his forelegs. It was agony just trying to unkink himself. He felt a soft, gentle touch upon him, and then he was lifted in magic.
“Hang on, Sumac, let’s get you to the infirmary,” Twilight said in a soft voice as she pulled Sumac closer to her. “Try not to move too much. Just be still. Everything will be okay, I promise.”
As Twilight carried him away, Sumac, unable to hold it in, let everything out, and his bawling echoed through the hallways. Perhaps antagonising the bully had been a bad idea. His whole body burned with pain, shame, and humiliation. He wanted to go home and he wasn’t certain how he was going to be able to face his classmates after this.
More than anything, he wanted Trixie to comfort him…
Gentle Melody
orig14.deviantart.net/caac/f/2013/211/1/0/gretta_by_ominousedge-d57duqe.png
Ignore the name in the picture. It was a place holder name the artist put there from before I adopted her.
Why is Sumac the one going to the infirmary? Olive surely needs to go much more urgently due to all those terrible burns.
Badly burned horse... She could moonlight as a school lunch.
Sounds bout' right. Oh, bullies loved me as a target, before they realized just how much of a smart ass i was willing to be. But magical armlock sounds like a shit situation, at least he didn't say mercy. For me I couldn't say it because the stomach was always the favorite punching spot.
Holy heck, Olive seems borderline psychotic. Doing that to someone that taunts you, sure, kids are evil... But her own dad?
What're you planning, Kudzu? Is she actually as nasty as she seems, or do you have some sneaky characterization up your sleeve?
So a stuffed Olive did this...
Martini on the rocks coming!
Mmm... I suspect Olive may soon end up wearing a magic supressing horn ring...
Some green pony will use a magical inhibitor for a while, I bet.
And Sumac...poor Sumac...dislocated shoulders aren´t fun. A friend of mine, during a soccer game, just fell in the wrong way and, I swear, the guy was huge as a mountain, I never ever saw him flinch for anything before. He just started to cry, ´till someone managed to put the shoulder back. Wich, by itself, was a even worse procedure then the shoulder being dislocated in the first place.
But, suffering and punishment appart, there is something we are missing here. Olive was trying, in her own twisted way, to be friendly towards Sumac. Shw was REALLY trying, to be humble, to admit that others have as much potential as she does, and that she wanted to tag along then. And Sumac keep having...those...stran...ge...reactions, around Oli...
...
Oh.
Oh boyo !
Dammed be you kudzu, I think I just got what´s going on there !
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Very nice.
As one who went through this shit in school, Sumac, you rock.
Hope you get better soon.
(I hope Trixie is going to wipe the floor with Olive.)
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I think it was less being friendly and more "Since you are smart enough you can do my work for me so I don't have to. Because why do it myself when I can make someone else?"
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I keep saying they should just give him some of Big Mac's Supply of Apple Spice so he can smell like a stallion.
Guess who's gonna kill Olive, boys and girls!
That's right!
Me.
Yea, if you characterize Olive, I'm never gonna forgive you.
7280859 I don´t know if I´using the right words here, but I´ll try.
It seems, for me, that Olive does not know how to stabilish a proper relationship with others without being dominant over everyone. So, for her, acting like this is the closest thing she knows as friendship.
Also, remember, it´s very rare, in kudzu´s stories, that somepony is truly and pure evil. I suspect that something is, quite literally, "charging" Olive´s natural tendency towards rage when she is near Sumac. And if what I suspect is correct, Sumac will make a lot of ponies have several levels and different types of overreactions towards him...
Olive is worse than Diamond Tiara ever was. Diamond never resorted to actual physical violence to get her way.
At the bare minimum, Olive should be EXPELLED. If it turns out that she broke Sumac's forelegs... does Equestria have Juvie?
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Remember the ponies who hanged Tarnished from a tree because he had helped the beated wife of one of them, giving her the money to run away from her husband? Remember Sumac's father, who sold his own brother to get free from justice, and later scammed those Ponyvillians who had trusted him out of their money? Remember how Boomer lose his parents?
Yes, even in Kud previous stories there are bad, rotten ponies.
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Specialized Horn Limiter Ring that only Twilight or one of her special assistants can remove that can be voice activated to restrain Olives Magic by either the school staff, her parents, or trusted individuals. Oh and if Olive or anyone else who isn't allowed to remove it attempts to it will do something to her horn to make that a non-issue,
Looks like Olive needs discipline, from Discord
7281069 I never said there are no pure evils...just that they are uncommon...and I can´t remember (I may be wrong) one single foal in that category. But, there are always firts times.
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Tarnish didn't exactly help her. He paid for her services and she robbed him blind.
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But she's already characterised. She has character. Wut do?
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Think back to the beginning of the story and the conversation with her mother.
7281033 If this were an ordinary school and Olive an ordinary bully that's probably what would happen. Olive is an "Anthony Freemont." She was so powerful so young that her parents were too afraid of her to raise her properly.
Remember though that this is set in Equestria. Discord has arguably the same origin. He was just so powerful he never learned empathy until he met Fluttershy and many consider the mental attacks he used to invert the Mane 6 a form of assault far more vile than anything physical and even he was given a second chance.
Olive too will get her second chance.
The good news is that Twilight will soon be fully aware of what she's dealing with and Olive will finally have an authority figure in her life who she can't frighten or push around.
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Olive is a magical prodigy with powerful telekinesis. That is actually her gift... telekinetic force. And she's a one trick pony, in the most literal sense. She's good at brute force, but not fine control, like say, Rarity.
7281501 I think Twilight is already aware of some of it. We don't know how much she heard of what Olive said before she stopped him.. Downside Twilight is going to be upset at herself because Ponyville is her town and she didn't know.. maybe Twilight has matured enough to realize as much as it hurts she doesn't know everything and occasionally things will slip through the cracks
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Hmm... Oh dear.
Powerful telekinesis. Parents earth ponies, not able to train her in its use. Probably ny unicorn friends or schools nearby that could do it for them. So she's self-taught, she's tested her limits completely on her own, and didn't actually find any yet. Then she's found that she can use her power to get her way, even over her parents that should be authority figures. Add the lack of empathy most young children have, compounded by her parents probably not being able to get through to her due to being terrified of her...
Yep, troubled doesn't even begin to add it all up.
Hmmm, Sumac's going through a very dangerous realization right now...
...he's realized it's within his power to hurt his enemies...I once had to deal with that too--had a guy at school who kept insulting my artwork, claiming my original characters were all stolen from comics in newspapers (it was the late 90's and they were manga styled so there were none in newspapers at the time).
It had become popular knowledge that bullies often teased others due to insecurities with themselves. I called him on having no friends. Within a couple of sentences I had him nearly crying and shouting at me while I kept calm. The good news is that he never tried to tease me again; the bad, I had to lower myself to his level to do it.
It's a tricky path to follow, but being a bully is never in the right.
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You got it. Remember the conversation with her mother...
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Discord should remove her horn for Twilight's safekeeping.
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Explain your epiphany to me. PM is fine if you don't want to spoiler it.
It might sound harsh to say, but sometimes the single best lesson someone can receive while growing up is a good whuppin'.
It's just bad karma that the ones who would really benefit from a good whuppin' are rarely the ones who get it.
I don't know if this is how you write your narratives and build your worlds, but I feel like the above two blocks of text are the foundations of the entire "Weed" cycle.
Good chapter man and can't wait for more.
7281824 It´s more a hunch, not a complet theory but...
I have the feeling that Sumac is the answer for the diminishing in the overall magic avalaible...he can can collect magic, storage and distribute it, pretty much like a battery. But I think that magic is not the only thing that he is capable of collecting and energinzing those around him. Maybe EVERYTHING works this way...even emotions. That´s why I think Olive is particulary evil towards him. ´Cause he is, pretty much, increasing her natural inclination towards violence. You can read several passages where ponies and other species have a slight behaviour change around Sumac, usually becoming more calm and collected. Seems he is draining excessive emotions from most of ponies.
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My theory was somewhat similar, I think his special talent is directly or indirectly amplifying the magic of others, more directly with the zap apple incident, but more subtly with Olive in that by badgering her he indirectly encouraged her telekinesis. Maybe he's essentially a magical capacitor?
Yeeeah i was grinding my teeth a bit with Olive.... need to kick her in her plot..
This is a failure of Foal Services, and if i recall correctly Twilight Velvet is in position of power there. That this kind of situation was allowed to develop speaks VOLUMES about how badly inter-tribe foal-services are managed. The parents have shown to be open about the problem and this has not been dealt with? Assaults on them has not been reported/questioned/acted-upon?
I wonder how this will be resolved, personally i see very few options other than draft to military where this creature is molded to be something that resembles a civilized person.
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It is not about dislocation, it is that she did it calmly and has an history of abuse which she does not see to be a problem. She is not lashing out in anger it is COLD fury which is controlled. And that i think makes this something much MUCH more serious.
Ooo, world-building.
The scary magical Amish are scary.
Interesting implications in this chapter given the original horrendous hypothesis. If magic is finite and circulates through the world in a system akin to the hydrological cycle, what's causing ponies to be in mass average less powerful? Could it be as simple as population increases which dilute the available supply?
Is this an olive branch from Olive now that Sumac has his mark?
Wait, never mind, just more bullying.
That might actually be true given what we've seen from Olive's parents.
Christ. Visit from the Wardens incoming? This sort of behavior in the house of a Princess of all places is going to be hard to get away with.
There we go, and it was Twilight herself that found them. Olive is f*cked, I can't see how anything about this is excusable, even with Sumac's taunting. Especially with that public admission that she's done the same thing to her father, which means there's basically no hope of discipline help on the home front.
7298640 I grew up in Lancaster PA I can confirm the Amish are very scary... (Also very nice!)
Olive ahas anger issues... and family issues. Don't know why but i get the feeling there's more to this than we see. What did that filly do to her father I wonder?
Kids got brass ones. Smart mouth on him though.
I love this world-building, the classroom is a perfect place for it!