Sumac could not help but notice that there were some similarities between him and Vinyl, the most noticeable one being that they both wore dark glasses, and for similar reasons. She was quiet, though not by choice, and he was quiet, because he liked to listen and pay attention to the world around him. He was looking forward to the train ride and getting to know Vinyl.
Pebble was wearing something that was indubitably fall coloured. She had on a muted orange dress with dark brown trim that matched her natural pelt colour. The long part of her violet mane had been pulled back into a Fancy braid that was snug against the crest of her neck. Something about her drew Sumac’s attention and he could not help but look at her, sneaking glances when he was certain that she wasn’t paying attention.
It was impossible not to be nervous about the train ride, as the last one had been exciting to say the very least. Sumac was all too aware that there was a very real danger to him—a threat—and he was also aware that Pebble had grown up with the very sort of danger that he now found himself in. She had made it to five, which was pretty good so far, but he took no comfort in that fact.
Yawning, Sumac felt tired and a bit cranky, as he had not slept well and was still plagued by dreams of falling. The dreams of spanking were there too, which bothered him a great deal, as he had been thinking about his behaviour as of late and had determined that he hadn’t done much to deserve a spanking. He had stuck out his tongue and blown a raspberry at Lemon last night, but he was almost certain that doing that didn’t warrant a spanking.
Lemon Hearts had grabbed his tongue with her magic and didn’t let go for quite some time, much to Trixie’s amusement. Sumac didn’t think it was so funny, but what did he know? He was five and he couldn’t figure out half of the things that adults found funny.
“Kiddo, you seem distracted.” Trixie reached out with her hoof and poked Sumac in the ribs. “Quick, explain to me the difference between chemistry and alchemy… one, two, three, go!”
Put on the spot with a blitz-quiz, Sumac emptied his mind of all of his complicated musings and focused upon Trixie’s question. He dredged up the relevant facts that he needed, cleared his throat, and then replied, “Chemical reactions are mundane and are non-magical. An example of this is mixing baking soda and vinegar—you get a harmless reaction that fizzes.” He gulped in a deep breath, pushed his glasses up his nose with his magic, and continued, “Alchemical reactions are magical ones, such as what happens when you combine skunk nuts, whistler leaves, and pony’s ear leaves, which when exposed to electrical shock, makes a powerful stink elixir that causes queasiness and vomiting.”
“Wait, you taught him that?” Octavia turned an incredulous stare upon Trixie her eyebrow arched in concern as her ears pitched forwards.
“I sure did,” Trixie replied without so much as a second’s hesitation. “It got him curious about alchemy and chemistry, because what foal doesn’t want to know more about causing a big stink?”
“I don’t know very much yet.” Sumac’s ears drooped as Octavia turned her very serious looking stare upon him. “I just know some of the basics that I need to know and it will help me have a head start in school.”
“Vinyl Scratch… don’t you dare.” Eyes narrowed, Octavia leveled her stern gaze upon the unicorn beside her. When Vinyl paid her no attention, Octavia poked her mate a few times. “I mean it. We don’t want another incident like the last one involving something incredibly smelly.”
“The skunk cactus,” Pebble said to Sumac in a flat, emotionless deadpan, “Octavia said we are to never speak of it, but she’s the one that usually brings it up.”
“Skunk cactus?” Sumac asked, ignoring Octavia, who was now rolling her eyes at what Pebble had said.
“My father and Vinyl were working on transmuting new species of plants and they modified a needler cactus to have skunk glands. Octavia walked into the lab at the worst possible moment and it went off indoors when she startled my father and he dropped his teacup. My mother ran through a stone wall to get away from the stink and she plowed into Grandpa, who also got a big whiff. It was awful.”
“Oh look, here comes the train!” Lemon Hearts announced in an ebullient, perky voice.
Stuffed into a seat with Vinyl, Sumac had a look around the coach car. This was a somewhat nicer car than the standard commuter car with wooden benches. The well cushioned seats were wide, comfortable, and could be folded back into something that was almost a bed so that a pony could get comfortable. The windows had blinds to keep out the sun, if that was wanted. There was a little cabin made for four that seated all of them and gave them privacy, which Sumac appreciated.
Without warning, Sumac had a slate held up in front of his face. Do you like music?
After giving it a moment’s thought, he nodded. “I like music, but I don’t know much about it. On the road with Trixie, I listened to a lot of songs around campfires.” He saw Vinyl press her lips together and he wondered what she was thinking. After a bit of struggle on her part, Sumac felt her foreleg slip around around him, and he watched as she wiped away her words.
Do you like Triple-Dog-Dare candies?
Sumac paused, feeling a little awkward and embarrassed. He looked at Trixie, who was talking to Lemon, and then he stared down at his own front hooves as he squirmed in his seat. “I’ve never had any. We were too poor. A single box cost more than Trixie and I lived on for several months… I think. I dunno, I never actually asked because she felt bad when she couldn’t buy something.” He felt the leg draped over his withers give him a feeble squeeze.
Hearing a rattle, Sumac looked up and saw that Vinyl had a box of said candies, and she was shaking them. Blinking, awe-stricken, he stared at the colourful cardboard box filled with the most dreadful candies in existence, at least that is what the box boasted in bright red letters.
I love these things, but they are no fun eating them alone. Octavia won’t eat them with me. Vinyl looked serious for a moment as she studied Sumac’s face, and then she gave him a warm smile. I triple dog dare you to eat one.
Ears perking, Sumac sat there in his seat, staring at Vinyl’s slate and the box of candies in question. He had heard stories about them, some scary, some amusing, and he had always wanted to try them. There was always something unpleasant about them, some of them came in awful flavours, usually two or more, but sometimes, they had side effects. You might get a really great tasting candy, but it might also turn your pelt some obnoxious colour.
Sumac felt a prickle of fear as Vinyl tore the box open. There was no way of knowing what you were getting. As the cardboard package was torn open, Pebble leveled her gaze upon the box and so did Octavia. Pebble’s orange tongue darted out and she licked her lips.
“Oh no,” Octavia groaned.
With her magic, Vinyl pulled out a candy and held it up before Sumac. This one was purple and orange, but the colours were a lie. They were no indicator of flavour or side effect, at least from what little he knew about them. He had long dreamed of this moment, as did many foals. Nervous, a little timid, he plucked the candy from Vinyl’s magic and held it up to his muzzle. It smelled sweet and not at all threatening.
“Triple dog dare,” Pebble deadpanned. “Do it, you big scaredy foal.”
Now, both Trixie and Lemon were watching, wide-eyed and curious.
His frogs sweating, Sumac studied the candy, which gave off a noticeable magical aura. Everypony was looking at him, waiting, and the pressure was on. The worst part of Triple-Dog-Dare candies was not knowing what was about to happen. He licked his lips, which felt far too dry, and then he placed the candy into his mouth.
At first, nothing happened. It was sweet, rather good, and Sumac liked it. He began to wonder if perhaps he had gotten lucky and got one of the good ones, but then the flavour began to change and Sumac almost swallowed his own face. This particular candy was flavoured with blazing hot cinnamon and black licorice, which was a vile and horrendous combination.
“BLARGH!” Sumac’s body gave a violent shudder and he struggled to breathe. The blazing hot cinnamon didn’t bother him at all, he liked spicy stuff, but the cinnamon mixed with black licorice was a concoction mixed up in Tartarus. In his mouth, the candy was slow to melt and he didn’t dare spit it out, as it was far too expensive. Left with no other option, he was forced to wait it out and endure the confectionary torture.
Still holding the box in her magic, Vinyl held it out to Pebble and shook it. One of the candies came floating up out of the box, a green and pink one. Needing no further prompting, Pebble opened up her mouth, waited, and Vinyl flicked the candy onto her tongue.
A second later, Pebble made a very strange face. Reaching out with her forelegs, she grabbed Octavia’s foreleg and squeezed it with a ferocious hug. “Oh, it’s so bad… I think it is mango and toothpaste.”
“That’s nothing,” Sumac said as he once more shuddered with revulsion, “mine is fiery cinnamon and black licorice.”
“Eww! That’s just nasty!” Octavia pulled Pebble a little closer and gave the filly a loving squeeze. “You brought this upon yourself, Pebble, now you finish it.”
Lemon Hearts, looking disgusted, tilted her head to one side and stared at the box of questionable candies. “When I was in school, Twinkleshine and Moondancer both agreed to eat one of those. Twinkle… she kept farting and it sounded like bells ringing. Moondancer on the other hoof, she was magically honest for about an hour and couldn’t hold anything back. It got weird. Twilight extracted information from her to gain a better understanding of magical theory.”
“That’s a very Twilight thing to do,” Trixie remarked, “she could have found out all of Moondancer’s secrets, but instead she went after Moondancer’s encyclopaedic knowledge.”
“Oh, I pulled a few secrets out of Moonie.” A somewhat evil smirk spread over Lemon Hearts’ muzzle. “Oh, the things that school fillies think are secrets.”
Prodding Lemon with her hoof, Trixie said, “I triple dog dare you to eat one of those candies.”
The smirk on Lemon Hearts’ face vanished and was replaced with a panicked expression. She turned to Trixie and almost bumped snoots with her. “I’ll only do it if you will.”
Sumac now saw panic on his mother’s face. Distracted, he made a terrible mistake. He crunched down upon the hard candy to finish it off. The flavour that oozed out of the vile confection defied all description, it was the very essence of cinnamony black licorice and then some. As tears rolled down his cheeks, he crunched up his candy a few more times and then swallowed, regretting every second of it.
Being the horrible pony that she was, Vinyl held up the box for both Trixie and Lemon Hearts. She gave it a shake, rattling the candies, and waited for the two mares to pony up. Lemon Hearts looked at Trixie and Trixie looked back at Lemon Hearths. A faint wrinkle appeared on Lemon Hearts’ muzzle, and her ears leaned forwards.
“I think Miss Lulamoon is a chicken.”
“Am not!” There was a flare of magic as Trixie pulled a candy from the colourful cardboard box and she waited as Lemon Hearts pulled out her own torturous confection. When Lemon Hearts had her candy ready, Trixie popped hers into her mouth as Lemon Hearts did the same.
“AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaieee!” Lemon Hearts squealed. “Ugh, I think mine is fishhead flavour… ewww! Fishheads and lemon curd! NOOOOO!”
“Mine tastes just fine.” Trixie smacked her lips and smiled. “It’s a little sour, I think it is tart cherry.” Looking very smug, Trixie stuck her tongue out to blow a raspberry at Lemon—
And that was when Sumac noticed there was something wrong. His mother’s tongue was blackish-green, dried out looking, and covered in a bunch of grody squirming maggots. He almost gagged and beside him, Pebble did gag, and so did Octavia. But poor Lemon, she shrieked.
“ZOMBIE TONGUE! EWW!”
Trixie’s one good eye looked down at her muzzle, which scrunched, and she studied her tongue. After about five seconds, Trixie let out a wordless scream, then grabbed Lemon Hearts, seeking comfort from her lemony companion. Lemon Hearts jerked away from Trixie and tried to shoo the zombie tongued menace away from her.
Vinyl wheezed with silent laughter at the chaos that she had caused.
“I triple dog dare you to eat one,” Sumac said to Vinyl as he tried not to think about his mother’s horrible zombie tongue. He stared up at Vinyl and raised an eyebrow as Lemon Hearts continued to squeal in terror.
Shrugging, Vinyl popped a candy into her mouth in a very nonchalant manner. She smacked her lips a few times, smiled, and then sucked on the hard candy while looking very smug. Feeling a keen sense of disappointment, Sumac realised that Vinyl had gotten lucky. She seemed to have gotten one of the good ones. But then again, so had Trixie. Perhaps the symptoms just hadn’t manifested yet.
As Sumac waited for something to happen, he heard quacking, as if there was now a flock of ducks in their cabin. Ears perking, he paused and tried to figure out what was going on. Again, he heard a quacking sound, and Vinyl looked a bit alarmed. The seat he was sitting on vibrated with each series of quacks and it took a few moments for Sumac to put the pieces together.
A foul stench wafted up and slapped Sumac in the face. Again, there was more quacking as the seat that he sat on with Vinyl vibrated, and the smell grew worse. His lip curling back from his teeth in disgust, he scrambled out of the chair with Vinyl, climbed over the arm, and into the seat with Pebble and Octavia. Almost falling to the floor, Octavia and Pebble grabbed him and pulled him close as once more, a flock of ducks could be heard quacking.
Looking up at Octavia’s confused face, Sumac said, “Vinyl Scratch is farting ducks!”