//------------------------------// // Chapter 63 // Story: Princess Twilight Sparkle's School for Fantastic Foals // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// When Pebble reached the kitchen, her father grabbed her with his foreleg and hauled her into his embrace like a sack of potatoes. She pulled away, resisting for a moment, perhaps out of embarrassment in front of Sumac, but then relented and rested her head against her father’s neck. Sumac just stood there on wobbly front legs, looking around, and taking everything in. Pinkie Pie was sitting with Pinny Lane and both of them were doing a crossword puzzle. Octavia, sitting on a cushion on the floor, had a cup of tea held between her hooves. Vinyl was laying on her side with her head propped up on a pillow, sprawled out in a somewhat sunny patch in front of a window. Maud was busy examining the stone floor with keen interest. Sumac felt out of place for some reason and he did not know why. Lifting her head, Maud asked, “Hey, Sumac, want some relationship advice?” “Um…” Sumac responded, “sure? I guess… maybe?” Maud, in deadpan, reassured Sumac that everything was okay. “Sumac, this goes for any sort of relationship, so don’t get skittish.” Maud turned to look at Pebble and Tarnish, then focused on Sumac once again. “The real trick of making a relationship work is figuring out how to motivate the other pony into giving you what you want from them without changing who or what they are. Who and what they are form the reason you started a relationship in the first place. Octavia said that was a heavy thing to lay down on a five year old, but Pebble understood it, so I think you can too.” Sumac realised this was general relationship advice and wasn’t just about Pebble. He sat down, his brain buzzing, and thought about what Maud had said. A cascade of thoughts filled his mind and for a moment, he forgot why he and Pebble had come to the kitchen. “In this group of friends and family, we don’t dumb anything down,” Octavia said, her lips little more than a half an inch from her teacup. “We’re all a bunch of sodding intellectuals and most of us, including Pebble, become downright grumpy if we talk down to one another or say something prattish.” Sumac didn’t know what ‘prattish’ meant, but he could guess. In the oven, something smelled wonderful. Maud returned to studying the floor and Sumac had himself a good look around the ancient kitchen. No doubt, Boomer could find a feast of spiders here. In the back of his mind, he thought about the idea that Pebble had sprung upon him. Something on the stove made a flatulent sound as it simmered and Sumac’s stomach growled. “I hear that you got hurt,” Sumac said to Vinyl, trying to break the ice, and not knowing how to talk to a mute pony. “What happened?” “Oh, Vinyl had a building dropped on her. A large building. Princess Luna took the brunt of it… it was very bad, Sumac.” Octavia gazed at the colt over the edge of her teacup. “Vinyl had her back broken just past her front legs. She almost died.” “And you got better?” Sumac asked. “You got healed?” “Well,” Octavia began, “the healers saved her life, but they really didn’t make her better. She could sort of twitch her legs, but she couldn’t stand on them. She couldn’t feel them at all. She couldn’t feel anything.” Brows furrowing, Sumac tried to put the pieces together. “So how are you moving now?” “Tarnish.” Octavia let out a sigh as her teacup trembled and she almost sloshed some tea. “Tarnish and his hoodoo effigies and his magic stitches. He could never get them working before, but he got them working for Vinyl. Every day, she gets a little bit better, but it’s slow going.” Turning his head, Sumac looked over at Tarnish, who was still holding Pebble. “I practice zebra hoodoo and other forms of magic, like minotaur stitch magic. I couldn’t ever get them to work together before. I tried so many times. I still don’t know how I made it work. Intent, I suppose, or force of will. I don’t understand it and neither do the zebras.” Tarnish’s forelegs wrapped a little tighter around Pebble. “I love Vinyl… I mean, as a friend. As a very close and dear friend. And seeing her the way she was… it almost killed me.” With a screech of chalk on slate, Vinyl wrote something and held it up for all to see. I got better. The slate floated down to the floor and was set down with a clatter. Vinyl let out a sigh and cast a soulful, emotional gaze in Tarnish’s general direction. “I thought that maybe I’d have to go with Daring Do to visit that healing spring off deep in that dreadful jungle again. That last trip we made almost killed both of us and Rainbow Dash. Ahuizotl had that stupid wand that shot shrink rays out of one end and growth rays out of the other… ugh, that was not a nice trip.” Eyes wide, Sumac just stared at Tarnish with his mouth hanging open. “Quick, somepony close Sumac’s mouth before he eats a bug. There are spiders everywhere.” When nopony did anything, Maud got up, went to where Sumac was sitting, grabbed him, and then pulled him over to where she had been sitting. She sat down and pulled the colt close, making certain that his mouth was closed. Now holding Sumac, Maud just sat there, squeezing him, and looking down at the myriad of cracks in the stone floor of the kitchen. Sumac, who under most circumstances, would be trying to escape, made no attempt to do so. It was comforting to be held and there was something about it that made him feel better. “I’d like to have a colt,” Octavia said in an absentminded voice, “and with luck, I will.” Octavia’s words did not register with Sumac, who was thinking about spiders, Ahuizotl, and whatever cinnamony scented goodness was baking in the oven. He wasn’t even thinking about the question he was supposed to ask Vinyl. Sumac couldn’t think of a more safe place to be than with Maud, sitting with her on her cushion. “This is going to be like having twins,” Pinny said as she circled something with her pencil. Lifting her head, the unicorn looked at Pinkie Pie. “Is your Pinkie feeling kicking in yet?” “Nope!” was Pinkie’s chirpy, chipper reply. “Nuts.” Pinny let out an annoyed huff and continued to look for more words to circle. It didn’t take long for Sumac’s thoughts to turn towards other things, like Trixie, Lemon Hearts, and Moondancer, who was now an alicorn of some sort. As he sat there in Maud’s embrace, Sumac suffered a mild freak out over a pony suddenly sprouting wings like that. As his brain chewed on the issue, Sumac realised that flying would be a great skill. Starlight Glimmer could self levitate—she could fly. She had flown while under the influence of his sorcerous amplification, which meant that somewhere in his mind, he had an understanding of how to do it. Maybe? He didn’t know for sure. Not falling to his death was high on his list of priorities. Looking over at Pebble, Sumac knew that was also on her list of priorities, giving them something in common. His left ear twitched as Tarnish whispered something into Pebble’s ear, he tried to hear it without meaning to do so, and he watched as her ear flickered from her father’s words. Pebble’s face grew darker and she let out a low pitched squeal. Sumac watched as she pushed her father’s face away from her ear, and a strange expression was on her face. “Father, no, I will not be moving to the Crystal Empire with Sumac to attend school.” “Why not?” Tarnish asked. “It would be safe. Well, safer. There is the occasional yeti up there, ice trolls, ice orcs, and other things, but it is for the most part, harpy free. I know that you could punch an ice orc to death, Pebby Poops.” “No.” Pebble folded her forelegs over her barrel and looked very much like her mother. She stared up at her father with half closed eyes and her mouth pinched into a fine, crinkled line. To make things even more clear, she shook her head to express her feelings on the subject. “And no trying to charm me either, I’m onto you. Mother and I discuss your tricks.” “That’s not fair,” Tarnish retorted. Life wasn’t fair, Sumac thought to himself. “Tarnish and I discuss your tricks,” Maud deadpanned. “You’re our little lump of chocolate tyranny, but don’t worry, we love you. We figure that you’ll grow out of your jealousy over us being together.” Pebble’s head whipped around and she looked at her mother, her eyes wide, and her nostrils flaring. The filly remained shocked for a few moments, then her eyes narrowed and she continued to glare at her mother with her forelegs folded over her barrel as her father held her. She drew in a deep breath, her barrel expanding, and then she let it all out in loud, pouty huff. “Maud, I don’t know about this—” “Tarnish, we were told to confront the problem and drag it into the open.” Maud gave Sumac a reassuring squeeze, then added, “Pebble can’t continue being the little dictator that runs our lives. We don’t need to ask her permission to do things. You agonised over our decision to go off and have a foal without seeking Pebble’s explicit approval. That’s not healthy.” “I should have a say in these things. They affect me.” Pebble’s voice was low and sulky. “You have a right to express an opinion,” Octavia said in a soft voice, “but you are a foal. You are not in charge, I’m sorry. And you’ve reduced your father to an anxious mess by playing upon his ever so fragile confidence.” “I didn’t mean to do that.” Pebble looked at Octavia and then up at her father. “I dunno,” Tarnish whispered, “a part of me thinks that you did.” “If I did, I didn’t do it on purpose,” Pebble replied in a hushed whisper. “I can accept that.” Bowing his head, Tarnish kissed Pebble on the nose. “Now, about you and Sumac being special someponies, do I get a say in the matter? No one asked me my opinion on the issue. I feel like I should have a say. You didn’t ask me before you did it. Do you even care about my feelings? Somepony should have asked me how I felt.” Pebble grumbled, realising what she had done, and reaching up with her hoof, she booped her father on the nose. “Okay, this feels awful. Is this what I’ve been doing to you and Mother?” Tarnish nodded but said nothing. “Oh crappity crap, this feels terrible—” “PEBBLE!” Pinny, Pinkie Pie and Octavia all said together. “Be quiet, I am having a moment of internal awakening and self actualisation and your shouting is making it difficult for me to figure out what I am feeling.” Pebble closed her eyes and buried her face into her father’s neck. Pebble’s barrel began hitching a bit, almost as if she was about to start crying. “Crap isn’t a bad word.” Sheepish, worried about reprisal, Sumac looked around the room. “I mean, Trixie says it all the time, usually to avoid saying worse words.” Clearing his throat, emboldened, the colt lifted his head up and his ears stood erect. “I know the difference… I said some bad words. Some real bad words and I had a magic surge through my mouth and I made some harpies go berserk and try to kill everypony and each other and whole bunches of them tried to kill me because of what I said. I cursed so bad that I offended a harpy. What does that say about me?” The kitchen was filled with a stunned silence that lasted for what felt like a very long time. The silence was interrupted by wheezing, and when Sumac turned his head, he saw that Vinyl had her eyes squeezed shut. She was clutching her sides and a faint raspy wheezing could be heard. Her hind legs made feeble kicks and her stomach muscles quivered. “She’s laughing,” Octavia breathed. “Oh crap, I am so relieved to hear that sound!” “Yep, that’s the sound of Vinyl laughing. Sumac can be a funny little guy, usually when he’s trying to be serious.” Pinkie Pie pronked away from the crossword puzzle book she shared with Pinny, bounced across the room, and flopped down upon Vinyl’s cushion with her. Pinkie began hugging the albino unicorn and squeezing her, holding Vinyl as she laughed. Lifting a foreleg, Vinyl clung to Pinkie as she laughed, and it was obvious to all that saw her that she was in pain. The laughter was hurting her. Sumac, whose brain told him that he had an opportunity, slipped free of Maud’s gentle embrace and went over to Vinyl’s side. He sat down near Pinkie and Vinyl, and then looked Vinyl in the eye from where he sat, about a foot away from her head. Clearing his throat, Sumac summoned his courage. “Vinyl Scratch, will you be my master?” The laughter came to an abrupt halt. There was a gasp from Octavia, and another one from Tarnish. Pinkie cranked her head around to stare at Sumac. Pinny put down her pencil. As Sumac sat there, waiting for an answer, something dinged. “Cinnamon buns are done!” Pinkie Pie shouted as she lept up from off of the floor. “Woohoo! Hot and sticky cinnamon buns! Now it’s time to squirt those buns full of frosting!”