//------------------------------// // Chapter 76 // Story: Princess Twilight Sparkle's School for Fantastic Foals // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// Remaining very quiet, Sumac held Pebble while Lemon wiped her face with a few moist towelettes brought by a guard. It was awkward, it was strange, and Pebble’s body was far too warm against his own, which made him uncomfortable. He wanted to be cool and airy again, he was getting far too hot, but he didn’t dare let go. Some things you just had to endure, he supposed, even if they were hot, made your already sore shoulders ache, and made you uncomfortable. It was probably the worst part about being close to another pony, it was easy to get too hot and being this warm made Sumac cranky and frustrated. Below, the great hall was filling up. The many benches were being filled with guests. Pegasus ponies made themselves comfortable in the vaulted rafters overhead. Sumac wondered how many of them were guards just not wearing their armor. Also, up in the rafters was a most peculiar sight, there was a changeling and a harpy. Sumac didn’t know who they were and he wondered why they were there. It was obvious they were guests, but he wanted to know how they had come to be guests and why. There were a surprising number of dragons present, dragons that were about the size that Boomer might be when she was all grown up. Almost pony sized. He gave Pebble a squeeze and wondered what a grown up Boomer might be like. Some of the dragons looked fierce; they were all teeth, spines, and claws. Amidst the chaos down below, Sumac saw Spike running about and the little dragon appeared to be a frantic mess. He had no clue what Spike was doing, but it was no doubt something important, as Spike was carrying a clipboard and a pen. Twilight Sparkle’s Number One Assistant took off at a waddling run and vanished from view, disappearing through a door. Looking about, he saw Vinyl Scratch walking up the wall, moving with slow, shuffling steps as she followed some wires. Still holding Pebble, he leaned forwards a bit to have a better look, as it wasn’t every day that you saw a pony walking up a wall as if it were the most normal thing in the world. He felt Pebble shudder and then she began to pull away from him. A part of him was relieved, as he could now cool off and have his own space, but he felt guilty for feeling that way. “How much longer?” Pebble asked. “Your guess is as good as mine,” Trixie replied. “Hey, I see Twinkleshine and Minuette.” Lemon Hearts vanished the somewhat snotty moist towelettes and let out a sniff. “I wonder how Twinklestinkle is doing—” “Twinklestinkle?” Sumac craned his head around to look at Lemon Hearts and the corners of his mouth twitched upwards as he made little snorts of repressed laughter. “Oh,” Lemon Hearts replied, “she had an accident involving trimethylamine in chemistry class. She stunk like rotting fish for about a month. It was eye watering.” The lemony yellow mare’s head bobbed up and down as she relived the memory and her nostrils shrank as her muzzle crinkled. “She was given an assignment to magic the stink away, but she kept failing at it. She did manage to make the stink worse somehow. She and Twilight both took a crack at it and hoo-wee, it was bad.” “I remember that.” Trixie smiled as she reminisced about her school days. “Winter was setting in and we had to keep the windows open. Everypony froze.” “Enduring hardship builds character,” Lemon Hearts said as she made a very serious face. “This is a blessing in disguise. One day, you’ll look back upon this time in your life and you’ll be thankful that it happened.” Lemon Hearts sighed, smiled, and gave Trixie a nudge. “School was a riot.” “It sounds more like a disaster.” Pebble sniffled a bit, but sounded a bit more like her usual self. Looking down, she saw her rumpled dress, sighed, tried to smooth it out, and then gave up. She eased back into her chair and leaned up against Sumac’s side, as there was just enough room for the two of them. The double doors to the great hall were pulled open wide and a flood of guests began pouring in. Sumac watched them, his ears perked, and he kept an eye on Vinyl, who was standing on the wall. The scent of fantastic food filled the air and he realised that he was hungry. Something seemed to be happening though, but it wasn’t the big moment that he, and others, were waiting for. “I’m hungry,” Sumac said to Trixie. “We’ll eat later,” Trixie replied. “But I’m hungry now.” Sumac was back to being too warm again with Pebble leaning up against him, and now, parts of him were getting sweaty. He wondered if he would start getting stinky. “I ate breakfast too early before the sun was even up and it has to be close to noon now. I’m gonna die.” Rolling her eyes, Trixie shook her head and let out a snort. “If I die, it will be all your fault and ponies will call you a bad mother.” Something that was almost a smile was on Sumac’s lips. “I’ll shrivel up and become a pony prune. Hey, Pebble, are my ribs sticking out?” “Yes,” Pebble replied in deadpan. “But that’s because you are a skinny little stringbean and not because you’re starving.” “Aw, hey, that wasn’t nice.” Doing his best to look wounded, Sumac tried to look as sad and pathetic as possible. Feeling even sweatier, he squirmed away from Pebble now that he had a good reason to do so and wondered how much whining he could get away with before he got into real trouble. He was hungry and he reasoned that there had to be food somewhere. Guests by the hundreds now poured into the great hall and began to fill the benches. Pegasus ponies flew up into the ornate rafters. Vinyl was doing something to a junction box. And Sumac, starving, sweaty, and wanting a bit more room to spread out in, had an awful idea. Overcome with a curious playful feeling, he leaned his head closer to Pebble and placed his lips close to her ear. “I’m hungry enough to resort to cannibalism and you look like you’re fudge-fed.” There was a shrill squeal from Pebble, who moved with surprising alacrity. She scrambled over the cushioned arm of the chair, lept from the highest point, cartwheeled, and landed a few chairs over with a plop. Turning her head, she glared at Sumac and shook her hoof at him. Both Trixie and Lemon Hearts started snickering, with Lemon leaning up against Trixie. “I see Trottingham, I see Fancy, I see Pebble’s underpantsies.” “Sumac Apple!” Trixie, her mouth agape, stared down at Sumac with an expression of shock, awe, and amusement. Now sitting by herself, Pebble sank down in her chair as her face turned a shade of coffee, served black with no cream. “You didn’t see anything.” With her front hooves, she began smoothing out her rumpled dress once more, and never once took her eyes off of Sumac. “Polkadots,” Sumac whispered. Pebble’s eyes narrowed into almost paper thin slits, but she didn’t say anything. Ignoring Pebble’s piercing gaze, Sumac turned to look at his mother. “I’m starving…” Something seemed like it was about to happen, as Sumac could hear music. His stomach was growling now, ferocious growls, and he knew that Trixie could hear it, because she kept looking at him every time it happened. The hunger, his hunger, could not be denied. The crowd down below murmured—thousands of muted voices all speaking at once—and it was growing warmer in the great hall. “Mom, I’m starving. If this keeps up, I’ll be forced to eat Pebble.” “Sumac, stop… just… stop.” Trixie fought to hold back her smile. “You don’t realise what you are saying—” “Pebble looks more and more like a big lump of chocolate with each passing second.” “Meep!” “Oooh, Prince Shining Armor looks amazing and so does Prince Blueblood.” Lemon Hearts leaned forwards in her chair and peered over the balcony rail. After a few moments, she scooted her chair forwards, closer to the rail, so she could have a better view. “There is a buncha stuff in the newspapers about how Shining Armor should be made an alicorn for his service to Equestria. There’s like a really big debate about it. I think he should.” “If service alone qualified a pony, then Tarnish should have been made an alicorn a long time ago,” Trixie responded as she too, scooted her chair forwards so she could have a better view. “It has to be something extraordinary, otherwise, ascendency would lose its meaning.” “Yeah, but Shining Armor has poured his entire existence into serving our nation.” Lemon Hearts peered down over the rail and watched as Shining Armor took his position upon the dais. “If a pony ever deserved it, it’s him.” “If we go by deserving, what about Twilight’s mother? Or her father? Or Tarnish for that matter? Twilight Velvet is shaking everything up. Night Light, well, we both know about Night Light. And Tarnish restored the ancient druidic order.” Trixie rested her forelegs upon the railing and looked down at the ponies below. Prince Blueblood cut a dashing figure in his tuxedo, and her eyes lingered upon him. “Once we go by deserving, we start down a slippery slope where it could be argued that just about anypony could deserve it.” “Eh, maybe you’re right, but Shining Armor definitely deserves it,” Lemon Hearts replied as she conceded to Trixie’s point. Trixie nodded. “I agree, he does.” Sumac, who had listened to everything, realised that something of an argument had just taken place, but it was an argument with no anger, no hard feelings, and both sides seemed happy with one another now that it was over. Curious, he mulled over the words that had been said and tried to figure out how he felt about the issue. Overall, he was impressed by the civilised argument between Trixie and Lemon Hearts. He hoped that he could follow their example and he glanced over at Pebble, who was now climbing back over the seats to get closer to him. She sat down in the chair next to him and gave him a wary stare. He smiled at her and then returned to watching as the events below continued to unfold. He thought about alicorn aspects, the hidden alicorn potential that so many ponies had, and wondered what the world might be like if everypony who had an alicorn aspect about them became an alicorn. No doubt, the world would become a very different place. Emerging from a side door on the right, Princess Celestia stepped out into the open wearing a muted pink dress that was trimmed in all of the colours of the dawn. There were gasps and as Sumac tried to get a better look, Vinyl’s camera was surrounded by a glittery glow, then turned on. Over on the left, Princess Luna stepped out and she was wearing a muted purple dress that complimented Princess Celestia’s dress, and Princess Luna’s gown was trimmed in all of the colours of a sunset. There was a big white earth pony mare that had a sunflower cutie mark that walked with Princess Celestia and a big dark blue earth pony mare that walked with Princess Luna. The four ponies could have all been sisters, for how much they all looked like. An older green earth pony covered in scars approached the dais and he bowed to both of the sisters. “Chesty, did you come to give us away on our wedding day?” Sumac, ears perking, strained to listen to the conversation going on just below him. “No,” the old stallion replied, “I came to party and I hope that the party crashers arrive soon. I brought party favours.” Staring down from the balcony, Sumac struggled to see the old pony’s cutie mark. It almost looked like a stick of dynamite, but he couldn’t be sure. What sort of pony got a stick of dynamite as a cutie mark, and what did a pony have to do to discover that their special talent was explosives? Turning his head, he looked at Trixie for a second, and then back down at the old stallion that Princess Celestia had called ‘Chesty.’ Sumac hoped that the wedding would hurry up. He was starving and the anticipation was killing him. There was a soft touch and he realised that Pebble had taken his fetlock into her own. There was a squeeze and he turned to look at her. She was still blushing a bit and looked kind of flustered. Just as Sumac turned to look at the Royal Pony Sisters once more, Gosling entered the hall…