Flicker, feeling a renewed sense of spirit and self, looked around the table at the ponies eating breakfast with him. His eyes lingered the longest on Knick-Knack, but Hennessy was a close second. He hadn’t slept much, there was just too much to think about, and he had spent most of the night staring up at the ceiling, wondering how he was going to get help.
He would start by asking Doctor Sterling, as that seemed wise, but beyond that, he was clueless.
Buckwheat pancakes. Buckwheat wasn’t wheat, and it wasn’t even a grass. It was a food for the poorest of the poor and Flicker wondered why his mother still bought it. He didn’t mind eating it, he just wondered why it continued to be a staple in this house when he sent so much money home.
“It’s time to go back,” Flicker said after swallowing.
“What?” Twisty almost choked, she coughed, and then continued, “You’re not healed!”
“I’m healed enough,” Flicker replied as he turned to look at his mother. “There is much that we could be doing. Schooling, for one. Light duty work won’t hurt us. Also, if I am to get help, I’d rather do it sooner than later. I fear that I will slip into complacency and go back to how I was.”
“Well, that’s very honest of you to say that.” Conk leaned over the table and rested his forelegs against the edge, close to his pushed away and now empty plate. “I’ve been meaning to ask, did you and Hennessy have a nice talk last night?”
“We sure did.” Hennessy lifted his head away from his food, and his muzzle was covered in applesauce. “If’n we’re gonna be going, I wanna thank ya’ll for being so nice to me. It means a lot. I’ll try to keep Flicker on task and see that he gets sorted out.”
“No go.” Knick-Knack looked at her brother and her face was very distraught.
“Knacky, I’m sorry.” Flicker took a deep breath and steeled his resolve. “There is much work to be done and I’m not one for lazing about.”
“I am,” Knick-Knack said as she peered over her plate at her brother. “Stay and I won’t blow my fart whistle no more. Promise.” The little filly’s ears drooped. “Being lazy is good… sleep in, warm bed, lots of naps, snuggling with Mommy, play with toys… all good.”
Putting down his fork, Flicker sighed. This was why he hated coming home—leaving. He became aware of the fact that Piper was looking at him, and for whatever reason, he couldn’t meet her gaze. Did she want to stay? She still needed more time to heal, but she could do it in a classroom. An unfamiliar feeling of doubt and uncertainty lingered in the back of Flicker’s mind.
“Knacky, I love you so much that I can’t even talk about it. There is just too much to say. I love you and I want what is best for you, and I am in the best position to make sure that you have it. You deserve the world, and I want to give it to you.” Flicker glanced at his mother, then his father, and continued, “I love all of you, even if I don’t say it much. Mom, Dad, both of you deserve to be able to retire and live a comfortable life someday. Knacky, you need your education. These are things I want to give to all of you, and it means I have to work for it.”
Looking just a little sulky and a bit confused, Knick-Knack glared at her brother for a few seconds, and then her angry, petulant stare softened. Her lower lip started quivering, and it became obvious that this wasn’t an act or a ploy. Grunting, Flicker lifted her out of her seat with his magic, pulled her over to where he sat, and then held her in his forelegs, easing her in so he wouldn’t hurt himself.
“Do you have any friends, Knacky?” Flicker asked as he pulled his sister’s head to the base of his neck and held her.
“Fluttershy watches me while Mommy works, I like her,” Knick-Knack replied. The filly squirmed in her brother’s embrace and closed her eyes. “She smells like aminals and pee sometimes.”
Across the table, Conk began snorting as he tried to keep a straight face.
“I was there when Fluttershy put Angel Bunny in the dirt and she was sad and she cried a lot and then she got the new Angel Bunny and she was happy.” Knick-Knack snuggled up against her brother, yawned, and wrapped her forelegs around his right foreleg, holding on tight to her brother. “She told me letting go was hard.”
“It is, Knacky, it is.” Flicker leaned back in his chair and rubbed the top of his sister’s head with his chin, moving it in slow little circles between her ears. She was bigger now, and there was a lot more of her to hold. His sister was also an earth pony, and therefore heavy. The softness and warmth of her pelt, the silkiness of her mane, all of these things served as a reminder of what was at stake. These were all things that were precious to him, things that he would miss.
“Go when I’m sleeping, okay?”
Flicker asked, “Why?”
“It’s like tonsils, if you all sleepy, it won’t hurt.”
Ear twitching, Flicker remembered that his sister had suffered tonsillitis. He had paid for the hospital bill so that his parents wouldn’t have had to put a lien against the farm. Through narrowed eyes, he looked over at Piper, who nodded, and then at Hennessy, who also offered up a nod of acknowledgment. So, that’s how it would be then. Knick-Knack would go to sleep and they would slip away. She would wake up, have a good cry about them being gone, and then get it over it in the way that only the very young could.
The breakfast table became a very quiet place indeed as Knacky drifted off to sleep in the embrace of her big brother.
In a way, he envied his little sister, and he wished that he too, could just sleep through the uncomfortable parts of life. She would wake up with the really painful part over, maybe cry a little, get cuddled by his mother, and then everything would be good again. As he stood there watching, his mother and his father both hugged Hennessy, and his mother even kissed him.
The pair of them went after Piper next and worked her over. Piper seemed surprised and it occurred to Flicker that Piper might not have experienced the affection of pegasus ponies before. Flicker didn’t have much time to think about it before his parents were all over him. Being a stoic, he stood there and endured it.
“Our home is your home,” Conk said to Piper and Hennessy as he wrapped his foreleg around his son’s neck. “Our door is always open to you and you are free to come here at any time. Bring Flicker back to visit.”
“Okay.” Piper began to tear up a bit and the filly stood there, sniffling, wobbling on her unsteady legs, but remaining upright through effort. “Thanks, Twisty… for our, uh, talk that we had. I don’t think my mother and I could have had that talk.”
“It was nice to talk about it,” Twisty replied as she squeezed her son Flicker with her wings.
“That was a really funny story that you done told me, about how you used to fly over Conk’s head to give him some shade while he was working.” Hennessy shuffled on his hooves a bit as a broad grin took over his face and it almost appeared that the colt’s face would start to ache from happiness.
“Look after one another,” Twisty said as she rose into a hover, her wings buzzing. “All great things start with great friendships. Just look at Twilight Sparkle… Ponyville is what it is today because of her friendships. There is something about the three of you… or maybe I’m just being a silly pony.”
Pulling away from his son, Conk wickered a bit and stomped his hoof on the old grey floorboards of the porch. “Better get going before Knacky wakes up. Good luck, Son.”
Flicker drew in a deep breath and said, “Goodbye, all of you…”
There were several hours to kill before the train departed for Canterlot and Flicker found himself waiting in a cafe bookshop with his friends. The scent of coffee and tea filled the air, along with the scent of light, pleasant breakfasts. He had kept an eye on Piper and had determined that her problem was that she didn’t push herself very hard through pain.
The guild would fix that. Piper was capable of walking and moving about, but didn’t want to deal with the pain of doing so. It was something that would be fixed in time, and if he didn’t set her straight, somepony else would. Flicker was inclined to believe that he might be a bit more kind about it than somepony else though, though his ‘kindness’ left a lot to be desired.
Browsing the books, Flicker perused the best selling self-help section, wondering if there was anything that might help him. His eyes fell upon a display of best selling books, and on the top row was a book with the smiling face of Starlight Glimmer. How to Make Friends When You Suck At It. The title was refreshing, honest even, and Flicker considered a purchase just for the inflammatory title alone. Honesty should be rewarded. Starlight was a known seditionist that had come back into heel and Flicker wasn’t sure how he felt about her.
Also on the bestseller list was a perennial Twilight Sparkle book. Friendship With Naptime Benefits: Consensual Snuggling, Cuddling, and YOU. Also includes, Sharing Your Sleep Space With Pegasus Ponies, An Addendum.
“Meow?”
“No Spud, I don’t think our relationship requires any further redefining.”
“Meow.”
“I don’t care that you’re disappointed.”
“Meow…”
“No, Spud, I don’t think that’s physically possible for me to do what you are requesting. How rude.”
Down on the fourth shelf, Flicker noticed a sunny yellow book with a pleasant cover and there was a picture of a mare that seemed familiar, but Flicker couldn’t quite place where he had seen her or met her. So, You Find Your Same Sex Friend Attractive: What Next? Flicker’s eyes darted to the left, then to the right, and he had himself a good look around without knowing or understanding why he was doing what he was doing. This was Ponyville, for crying out loud.
He lifted the book, flipped it around, and looked at the back cover. It was written by a mare named Lemon Hearts and there was something reassuring about her smile, both on the front and the back cover, which used different pictures. Down at the bottom of the back cover, he read the words, ‘Published by the Twilight Sparkle Friendship Foundation, a nonprofit organisation.’
Sighing, he put the book back. The book was for ponies who weren’t sure if the pony they found attractive was gay or not. He had already covered that monumental hurdle and now he had to figure Hennessy out, a task that seemed next to impossible. The search continued for anything that might be helpful.
One book had a tasteful brown paper cover over it and curious, Flicker peeled it back to have a look, wondering what there was to hide. Friendship Is Nice, Fronking Is Nicer: A Guide For Getting What You Want, When You Want It, by Cadance, Princess of Love. Peeling back the paper a little more, he saw the grinning face of Princess Cadance in the bottom right corner. He began to feel a little uncomfortable as he thought about the Princesses, the beautiful, wonderful figures of order and harmony that they were… well, it was easy to understand why this book was covered in brown paper, which he slipped back into place. It couldn’t exactly be called obscenity if one of the princesses was doing it, but little foals should most certainly not see this book. How graphic.
Princess Cadance was allowed to have her hobbies. Flicker shuddered and turned away.
Along the bottom shelf, there were more paper covered books, and Flicker, with his morbid curiousity, had to have a look. After a look around to make certain that nopony but Spud was looking, he peeled back the paper. The Necessity Of Lube And If You Are Smoking During Or After Sex, Something Is Wrong.
Nope. He let go of the paper and decided he was done looking at those books down there. Good heavens, down there at the bottom, a foal might see them. What was this world coming to? Cringing, he backed away from the best seller self help shelf and decided that he would look elsewhere. There needed to be laws against that sort of smut.
“Hennessy found a book!” Piper announced as she came careening around the corner and almost plowed into Flicker, as she was still unsteady on her legs. She stood there, excited, and her eyebrows bobbed up and down as her grin widened. “It’s about city-country romance and I think it will help the two of you.”
Flicker focused his blank, stony stare upon Piper and said nothing.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Piper got right up into Flicker’s face. “You might have been raised on a farm, but you don’t act like it anymore. You’ve become refined, Mister Nicker, and Hennessy feels dreadfully self-conscious around you.”
This made Flicker worry a bit. “He does?”
“Well of course he does, you self-absorbed twit.” Piper relaxed a bit and stepped back.
“Well, I don’t want him to feel that way.” Flicker began disseminating this new information through his mind, sending it through all of the proper channels. “How do I fix it?”
“How would I know?” Piper returned.
“Well then, what use are you?” Flicker demanded as his ears leaned forwards over his face. “Why tell me this just to make me worry if you don’t have a solution?”
Eyes going wide, Piper looked up at the much larger colt with shock and surprise. Stewing, she backed away a little more, her tail flicking from side to side, and she shook her head in disbelief. “Apologise at once!”
“What’d I do?”
Huffing with exasperation, Piper rolled her eyes, ground her teeth together, and stomped her hoof on the floor. With a flash of magic, Piper hoisted Spud up into the air like a sack of potatoes, held him close, and stormed off, leaving Flicker standing all alone and confused. Flicker watched them go, blinking, trying to figure out what had just transpired.
“Meow.”
“Oh sure,” Flicker muttered, “take her side…”