Following along after Pebble, Sumac ignored his aching shoulders. She was troubled, upset, and he didn’t know what to do. As he stumbled along behind her, he began piecing everything together, at least, as much as he could. Most of the time, Pebble was very grown up and serious, she said ‘mother’ and ‘father.’ But earlier, she had said ‘mamma’ and ‘daddy.’
It dawned upon him that these were clues, indicators of Pebble’s real moods. When she was calm, or at least under control, she acted very grown up, she was very prim and proper. But when something was bothering her, like now, the… oh, what was it? Sumac tried to recall the right word as he thought about it. After a few moments of thought, his brain offered up a suggestion.
Facade?
Yep, that was it. When Pebble got emotional or something was bothering her, her well practiced facade began to show some cracks. There were warning signs that the volcano was getting ready to vent some steam… or erupt, as it had. Perhaps more importantly, Pebble was still a foal, with all of the fears, all of the insecurities, and all of the troubles that a little foal could have.
He thought back on his many conversations with Pebble and tried to recall times that her speech had changed, but he couldn’t recall any instances at the moment, try as he might. Feeling troubled, he was scared, afraid, he was doing something that would get him punished.
“Pebble…”
No response.
“Pebble,” he said again.
Still no response.
“Pebble, please, slow down. This hurts real bad.”
Hearing these words, Pebble stopped with such an abruptness that Sumac bumped into her backside, bounced, and took a tumble. The colt lay on the ground, panting, in pain, and his green eyes glittered with fear. Pebble turned about and peered off back in the direction of Ponyville, which was no longer visible. They had walked for well over an hour, deep into the Whitetail Woods.
“We’ll need a camp,” Pebble said in a voice filled with calm. She sounded like her usual monotonous self. “I don’t know what to do about dinner, I’m sorry.”
Boomer, who didn’t seem pleased with this situation, let out a worried, smoky hiss.
“It should be someplace open, like a clearing,” Sumac suggested.
“Why?” Pebble turned her head and looked at Sumac. “The trees offer protection.”
“I like seeing stars. If I can’t have dinner, at least I can look at the stars.”
Pebble’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t reply, not right away. She stood there, thinking, and after a few seconds, she nodded. “That seems reasonable. Distractions are good. After you’ve rested a bit, we’ll keep going until we find a suitable clearing with a good view of the sky.”
“We have to keep going?” Sumac whined.
“We’ve committed ourselves to this. Going back now would be embarrassing and we’d be punished.” Pebble’s ears drooped. “I’m big enough to look after myself. Everything will be fine.”
Still whimpering, Sumac wondered if he had committed a spankable offense. Even worse, who? Trixie might use a brush to paddle him, and if she held it in her fetlock, that might not be too bad, but if she used magic… ouch! Applejack might get involved though… or Big Mac. Gulping, Sumac began sweating as he lay on the ground, fearful of his immediate future.
No doubt about it, he was about to become the Plotless Colt, a tragic figure, a colt with his bum paddled right off, leaving him with no backside. Just thinking about it made him feel like crying. Or worse, he might get dragged to the middle of the town and Trixie and Applejack might sell tickets to ponies so that they could come and paddle his backside. He imagined a very long line developing, one that looped around buildings and houses, and Applejack and Trixie might become very wealthy. Big Mac might even turn it into a roadshow, hauling him around, collecting bits, selling tickets, and inviting ponies to come and paddle the rotten colt. Behold, the Plotless Wonder! In his mind’s eye he pictured Big Mac wearing a very fancy top hat and shuddered.
Could a pony get a cutie mark in spanking? Sumac didn’t even know who to ask about this. The Alicorn Princess of Spanking was just too terrible a thought and he let out a whine of fear, unable to deal with the places where his imagination went.
“Come on, Sumac, lean on me and I’ll help you along…”
It was getting dark now. Sumac, sitting on a large, flat rock, watched as Pebble set up camp. There wasn’t much to set up. They had no tent, they had no dinner, but they would soon have a campfire. Pebble went over to a very large boulder half buried in the ground, stood there for a moment examining it, and then she stood up on her hind legs.
Sumac wondered what she was doing. She was just standing there, staring at the rock, not moving, and she had a very sleepy looking expression upon her face. But the sleepy expression vanished, replaced by anger, which simmered a bit and became rage. Pebble was absolutely terrifying to look at. She trembled, her muscles quivering, and her beautiful face contorted into something unpleasant.
“YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!” Pebble let out her super-scary scream as she rammed her right front hoof into the half buried boulder. There was a terrific crack on impact and it shattered, becoming almost a half dozen chunks of rock. Still enraged, she began kicking the shattered bits over to where she wanted to start a fire, and formed a ring with them, pounding them into the ground.
In the entirety of his life, Sumac could not recall ever feeling more terrified. Castle Midnight paled in comparison to this. He had a quiet moment of terror when he realised what would happen if Pebble lost her temper and got into a fight with Olive. Earth ponies, well, some earth ponies, were scary. Real scary. Pebble, if she got mad enough, could punch Olive and send her to the moon. Or, punch Olive and turn her into unicorn salsa. Or would Olive be a tapenade?
He decided right then and there that if he was going to ever ask her to see her cutie mark, he was going to be very, very polite about it and on his very best behaviour. Being punched into unicorn salsa didn’t sound like it would be very pleasant. Not at all. He couldn’t even imagine what it might feel like. He had no wish to become Sumac Applesauce.
“I have to treat the entire world like it is made of spun sugar candy,” Pebble said in a soft voice. “My mother and I both. The whole world is this big fragile place and I have to hold everything in. But I can I feel myself slipping sometimes. I don’t know how my mother does what she does. I don’t understand how she just holds everything in. I don’t understand how she holds back the rage that is always there!” The filly’s voice rose in volume.
“Um…”
“Sometimes, I just want to let it all out.”
It took a dedicated effort on Sumac’s part not to wet himself. His overactive imagination showed him Pebble wrecking Ponyville. He thought about everything that Pebble had said, what she had told him, and what he was seeing in his mind, thanks to his overactive imagination.
“Just let it all go and hold nothing back…” Pebble cracked her front fetlocks and the corner of her mouth twitched. “My mother can punch a rock with so much force that it generates enough heat to turn the place of impact into a liquid state.”
Shivering, Sumac waited for this to blow over. Pebble seemed to be having another eruption. He hoped that, this too, would pass.
“My mother can move with enough speed and force that she causes sonoluminescence. She can generate temperatures that have to be measured in kelvins. Somehow, she just holds everything in and I don’t know how she does it. She has the rage but she never shows it.”
“Um, maybe she wanted to leave behind a world for you to grow up in?” Sumac cringed and hoped that Pebble wouldn’t direct her outburst at him.
There was no reply from Pebble, no words, she hunched over the fire pit and a scowl of concentration appeared upon her face. The muscles in her jaw clenched. For a second, her whole body trembled, and then she went still. In a soft, still voice, she said, “We should get a fire started.”
“Okay.” This was something he could do. He had lit a lot of fires. Sumac concentrated for a few seconds, his horn glowed, and then there was a poof of flame from the pile of wood. Waiting, he watched as the flame flickered, it grew, and began to devour the fuel that it had been offered. He could see the flames reflected in Pebble’s eyes. She looked kinda scary.
“I don’t know where the rage comes from. It’s just there.” Pebble’s voice was soft, almost timid sounding now. “It’s always there, in the back of my mind, and sometimes I just get hung up on stuff. Sometimes I get hung up on stuff that I think I’m okay with, but I’m not.”
“That’s okay, Pebble, I think that happens to all of us. Just most of us don’t have super earth pony strength.” Sumac cleared his throat and held out his foreleg. “Come over here and sit with me.”
With an unreadable expression, Pebble did. She came over and sat down on the rock with Sumac, then leaned up against him. She let out a sigh, closed her eyes, and began to take deep breaths. Sumac sat there, his heart pounding in his barrel, sitting next to a filly that could turn him into unicorn salsa, or applesauce, as the case may be.
“I got teased in my cooking class.” Pebble’s monotonous confession was just loud enough to be heard over the crackling of the campfire. “They teased me and they laughed at me. Why do such stupid words have to hurt so much? Why do I let it bother me? Why do I care what they think? I don’t get it… am I that weak and stupid? Some kind of mental… cripple? Why is it so hard to ignore it?”
“Pebble, I don’t think you’re stupid at all.”
“I want things to go back to how they were. I want to sleep between my parents again. I want things to go back to a time when I was happy and the rage was easier to deal with.” Pebble’s barrel began hitching and she let out a few sniffles.
“You can’t stay little forever.” Sumac’s voice was almost a whisper. “You have to grow up sometime. The world is a rough place. The world is not a safe place. You’re going to get hurt. Things are going to hurt you. And somehow, all that anger is gonna have to be held in somehow.”
“I know,” Pebble replied, her voice now almost a whine, “I know, I know, but I’m having trouble dealing with it. I don’t want things to change. I don’t even know if I want to be here… the only thing that’s made me stay so far is you.”
Bowing his head, Sumac wished that the smoke from the fire wouldn’t blow in his face. It was making his eyes water, it was hard to breathe, and his nose was starting to run. It was awful, and he didn’t know how to deal with it.
“I really like you, Sumac.”
The smoke was unbearable and Sumac struggled. There were two fires now as his vision blurred over, which somehow doubled the smoke as well, and made it very, very difficult for him to be the big, strong colt that Pebble needed. He coughed and could feel the rubbery, lumpy texture of a big slimy booger in his throat. There was nothing he could do. He had to sit here, stuck, with a booger caught in this throat. It wasn’t like he could just hawk it up or grind it out while he sat here with Pebble. He could feel his sinuses draining down into his gullet and it left him with a queasy sensation.
“I like you so much that I get jealous when you are with other ponies… or Silver Lining.”
Frogs sweating, Sumac thought about the implications of Pebble’s confession.
“You sit and you listen and you actually listen because I can tell by your face that you are listening and thinking, and I can talk to you and tell you things and the rage inside quiets down a bit. It’s nice. It quiets down… but it never goes away.”
“I uh, well, you, uh, we, um… us”—Sumac stopped stammering when he felt something soft, somewhat damp, and velvety press up against his cheek, just below his glasses—“what?” It took him several long seconds to realise that Pebble had just kissed him on the cheek. He felt his brain melt into goo and then it trickled down his neckhole, where it left a funny, warm fuzzy-wuzzy feeling in his stomach.
“I’m really glad I got to see that!” Pinkie Pie burst into view and sat down beside Pebble and Sumac. “I brought marshmallows. Mind if I join you?”
Pebble did not respond and her face turned a very, very dark shade of brown in the firelight. She squirmed, but did not look at her aunt Pinkie. Instead, she rubbed some dirt off of her dress and pretended as though Pinkie wasn’t there.
“Twilight is circling overhead, waiting for me to give her a signal.” Pinkie leaned over a little bit and set the sack of marshmallows down upon upon the ground. “Some smart pony built a campfire in the middle of a clearing where searching pegasi might see—”
“Sumac… you…” Pebble facehoofed when she realised that she had been outsmarted.
“We thought that we’d give you some time to have a friendship moment and sort everything out,” Pinkie explained in a chipper, cheerful voice. “I’ve been listening for quite a while. Pebble, I’m sorry that you got teased, but running away isn’t the answer.”
“I know,” Pebble replied, her ears drooping.
“Am I in trouble?” Sumac asked, still trying to recover himself and his liquified brain.
“Trixie is the one that told us to look for the campfire. She trusted you to be sensible, once we figured out that you two had run away together. She’s at home, waiting for you. She didn’t see the point in coming along because her leg hurt and she knows that you know how to take care of yourself in a scrap. She was real proud about that. She bragged about it.” Smiling, Pinkie Pie picked up the sack of marshmallows and tore it open with her teeth.
“So what happens now?” Pebble asked.
“Well,” Pinkie Pie replied after she spat out the bit of plastic from the marshmallow sack she had torn off, “I give Twilight the signal and then we have marshmallows. I’d expect a bit of a lecture from Twilight, but probably nothing too serious.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Pebble slumped down and avoided looking at Pinkie, her face still a much darker brown than usual. She opened her mouth, ready to say more, but Pinkie butted in before Pebble could get any words out.
“Teasing hurts.” Pinkie’s face became unusually serious. “It hurts real bad. I’m sorry that it happened, Pebble. Now I’m kinda hurt, because you didn’t come to me. I’m trying so hard, Pebble, I really wanna be your friend.”
“I’m sorry.” Pebble’s face drooped.
“It’s okay.” Pinkie Pie smiled at her niece and then made a waving gesture up at the sky. “Hey, while we’re here together, maybe you can talk to me and tell me about everything that’s happened. Right up to and including that kiss.” Pinkie Pie winked at Pebble. “Just wait till I tell your parents!”
A strange muffled sound came out of Pebble’s mouth and her face turned the same shade as a cup of black coffee left in a dark room. She snuffled a bit, squirmed, and then got up from where she sat beside Sumac. Saying nothing, she launched herself at her aunt Pinkie, and threw her forelegs around the pink pony’s neck. She squeezed, and let out a shuddering sob of relief.
A second later, Twilight landed on three legs, and Sumac let out his own gasp of relief.