//------------------------------// // 4 A Sweet Lesson // Story: Rubie Red // by Rubie_Red //------------------------------// In the eternal, howling blizzard, where Rubie and his first friend began their journey. From within that cold, cold mountain, there was a big stallion who was glaring at Rubie’s prison. Sombra. His body was stiff and wouldn’t move, as if he was frozen in time. His eyes would not blink, however a purple mist emitted from his eyes. His face seemed to have no emotion, until his head slowly lowered down. As Sombra watched the sediments of dirt gradually scrape across the ground, his jaw clutched tight and his teeth grinded. His head began to shake from anger as he began to growl. His frightening snarls grew louder and louder, and as they did, the purple mist emitting from his eyes grew brighter and longer. However, Sombra suddenly went silent. The purple mist had disappeared from his eyes and the grip of his teeth loosened. His head was still down. Then, Sombra’s face grew a smile, which then turned into a grin, which then turned into a quiet laugh. It looked as if Sombra was happy that his prisoner had escaped, and in a way, he was. “Rubie, Rubie Red, the stallion who spent his life believing that the outside world never existed. The stallion who lived in a rotten little cage for his whole life. The stallion who would never leave the lost mountain in the everlasting blizzard. Hehehe. I will be coming for you, child, and when I do, you’re going to wish that you stayed as my caged-up pet. You’re going to be responsible for the deaths of all who live in Equestria, so rest in that bed while you still can, because when I come, you won’t be able to sleep for the rest of your life.” Suddenly Rubie shot up from his bed, gasping for air, as if something had been clutching at his throat. He took a few deep breaths while he looked around the room. There was nothing, besides the warm orange painted walls. As the eyes of the stallion surveyed the room his breaths began to slow down. Rubie leaned back on his pillows and looked down at his blanket. “I-It’s okay…It’s okay Rubie, h-he’s not here, he’s gone, h-he doesn’t know where you are. I-It’s just in the past, yeah, and there’s no point on dwelling on the bad things that happened…hehe…ok…so, Luna said to me…the first thing I should do is try and make some…u-uuhh…. friends! That’s the word! Hehehe” With that, Rubie Red rolled out of his bed and landed with his hoofs on the floor. He tilted his neck left and right, which gave out a loud cracking sound. His tail flicked again and again as he stretched out each of his hoofs, all four giving out a cracking sound. “She said it would be easy, and she knows this place a lot better than me…but where to start?” The puzzled stallion went over to his curtains and separated them, allowing a huge burst of light to shine in. Rubie only flinched slightly, it seemed that his mask acted as a sort of light shield. Upon opening the curtains, Rubie could see the town in front of him was absolutely filled with ponies of all kinds. Stallions, mares, fillies, foals, pegasi, earthponies and unicorns. Rubie’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped. He shook his head at the huge quantity of ponies. “Y-You gotta be kidding me!! Th-That many!? H-How!? Wh-Where do I even star- “ He was interrupted by a loud knocking on his front door. The knocking made Rubie jump a little as his head turned to the direction of the loud noise. “There’s someone at the door…? Maybe Celestia told Hope where I live now!” Rubie got excited as he bolted out of his bedroom, almost slipping while he charged down the stairs. He stopped at the bottom. He heard another set of knocks at his door. This time the knocks came at a faster rate. Before he approached his door, Rubie took a gaze around the first floor. He was impressed with the colours in the night, but the radiance of colours that he saw now made him giggle a little. He peeked over to the left to see his kitchen that he had accidentally missed before. It wasn’t the biggest of spaces for a kitchen, but Rubie seemed to like it. His kitchen had a mosaic styled floor, with variations of blue, purple, indigo, violet and red. Rubie’s head slowly leaned in. He felt rather drawn to the exquisite style. However, another set of knocks brought Rubie out of the trance. He shook his head rapidly as he approached the door at a rather quick rate, feeling a little embarrassed. Standing in front of the door, Rubie took a deep breath. He then slowly exhaled as he opened his door, smiling. However, when he looked out, Rubie’s smile disappeared, and was replaced with a look of confusion. There wasn’t anypony at the other side of the door to greet him. “What…the” Rubie’s head leaned out as he surveyed his frontal surroundings. Still nopony to be seen. The dark stallion’s ears dropped as he felt a little sad. His head dropped to the ground, and when it did, his eyes noticed something which made Rubie’s ears perk right up. Resting below him was a box, and in that box, to Rubie’s surprise, was twelve cupcakes with pink icing. The icing on each cake were perfectly identical to the rest of them, as if they were all clones. Despite having this wonderful surprise, all Rubie could do was tilt his head in curiosity, which made his slit pupils turn orange. He didn’t know that they were edible, in fact he had no idea what they even were. The confused stallion lifted his front right hoof and slowly moved it to one of the cupcakes. However, before Rubie could even touch them he saw that a shadow was being cast upon him from behind. The dark stallion quickly turned around, but all he saw was the inside of his house. Rubie began to feel a little bit nervous as he gulped. He slowly turned his head back. Suddenly a pink mare dropped in front of Rubie from above. Her mane and tail had a wild and whacky style and she had a huge smile on her face. Her sudden entrance made Rubie jump back in fear. He slipped when he landed back and accidentally fell. “Wh-what??” Rubie thought to himself “H-How did she?? How did she even do that??” The pink mare just giggled to herself at Rubie’s reaction. She spoke in a high, and cheerful voice. “t’hee hee! that’s an interesting way to greet your new friend! Veerrryyy interesting!” Rubie was in utter confusion, who was this mare he thought. Before saying another word, he picked himself up and shook his head a little. Despite being confused, hearing the words *new friend* made him feel a faint sense of happiness. “N-new friend?? R-r…really??” The pink mare rapidly nodded her head. It nodded so quickly that her face was in a blur. “Hihiii of course! I can’t just not welcome somepony new to Ponyville!!” “H-huh? Wait, how’d you know that I just moved in??” “Oh silly!! I know everything about everypony in Ponyville, because everypony in Ponyville is my friend, and from this day on that includes you too!!” On the outside Rubie still looked confused about many things, like her name, and why she didn’t mind his mask, but on the inside Rubie couldn’t help the feeling of joy growing in his heart. It felt a little rushed, but the masked stallion really felt that his life was going to change. For a moment, the pink mare could have sworn that she noticed a tear in Rubie’s eye. Her head tilted to the left. “Hey, are you ok? What’s that in your eye?” Suddenly Rubie noticed that a tear was leaking, he quickly wiped it away and giggled sheepishly. “Y-Yeah of course hehe, it’s just been a while since I’ve seen somepony this nice and generous” “Wowie!! That’s quite a compliment hihii! You deserve a cupcake!! You can tell they’re from me of course cus they’re pink and so am I!! Oh oh oh!! I haven’t even told you that my name is Pinkamena Diane Pie!! Oh well I guess I just did hihiii, but you can just call me Pinkie Pie! Now eat up!!” Before Rubie could speak, Pinkie Pie jumped up and shoved one of the cupcakes in to his mouth. At first Rubie’s expression turned very nervous. However, a few moments went passed until his expression changed to a rather curious look. Rubie chewed slowly. Pinkie Pie began to slowly lean in and her smile grew, she really wanted to see his final reaction to her new recipe. Another chew passed, and another, and another. Then, Rubie’s face lit up. The dark stallion slowly exhaled as he took in the remarkable taste of her cupcake, while his slit pupil colour sunk to a dark red. The flavour felt so incredibly delicious to Rubie that he was slightly becoming cross-eyed. Pinkie Pie’s eyes began to sparkle with delight, her face lit up so bright, as if she was going to explode. The dark stallion finally swallowed the delicious cupcake. He let out a satisfying exhale. “Wow!! That’s heavenly! Wh…What is this legendary flavour??” Suddenly, out of nowhere, a big load of confetti shot out at his face, making his eyes shut from his natural reaction. When Rubie’s eyes opened however, he could see that Pinkie Pie was pointing a cannon at him. Rubie already felt confused enough, but this just made him stare without knowing what to say. Luckily Pinkie had something to say. “Do you realize how big of a deal this is!!! You, Rubie Red have officially proven that my new formula is a fantastical success!! The name of the flavour you are oh soooooo desperately wanting to find out is known as Pinkie Promise, and you’re the first one to eat a Pinkie Promise, with Pinkie’s promise that every Pinkie Promise will be as amazing as every other Pinkie Promise!!! Now that’s something I can Pinkie Promise!” Rubie could at least tell that he had made her happy, which he felt was rather good so far in the whole making friends business. At this moment in time, Rubie started to grow a new feeling. It was a certain churning feeling in his stomach that he had never felt before. Despite it being a churning feeling, Rubie thought that this feeling felt nice. This feeling was completely different to what he felt back in that rotten cage, and it made him think about how much better of a life he would experience. The mask on his face wasn’t enough to stop him from feeling free. Pinkie could see a warm smile growing on Rubie’s face. The stallion spoke confidently. “I bet…no, I know everypony will adore them. You are one talented chef Pinkie Pie, and I feel real lucky to have met somepony like you, cus well, where I’m from, I didn’t really know that there existed a pony as joyful as you.” Rubie may have lied about his origin, but it felt good not to think about where he really came from. It came from Rubie’s heart and he knew it. Pinkie was overjoyed about his comment for her new recipe. She couldn’t stop giggling to herself. “Hiiiihiihiii!! I’d love to hang around some more but I really really really wanna make more and more and more!!!” Rubie felt happy to have made her feel even happier. He was about to wish her luck but before he could, something very peculiar happened. Rubie had noticed that everything around him had suddenly frozen. Everypony in the town was completely still. Even the sound of the wind stopped. Rubie’s head turned in every direction rapidly. He felt very concerned. After a few moments passed, Rubie’s head stopped turning, as he began to hear the voice in his head once again, the very same voice that had motivated him before. “Rubie, you’ve done well, so far.” “H-huh?? It’s you a-again!!” “However, there is much more to do. I knew that you were about to say goodbye, but I’m here to guide you, so you have the best possible time, and to show you how great friends can really be. Rubie Red, don’t say goodbye just yet, ask her about her new recipe. Trust me, you’ll be happier.” “Wh-what?? ……O-ok..but….” “What’s the matter Rubie? Is there something bothering you?” The stallion looked at the sky, watching the still clouds, as if they were floating pieces of ice. “Well…I’m just a little uncertain….” “And what would you be uncertain about Rubie?” “Just about…who you are…and why you’re helping me…” “………..” Rubie looked at the frozen body of Pinkie once again and sighed before speaking to the voice. “Who…who are you…? Are you in this mask…? Sombra said that this mask had a secret power…..I-Is thi-“ “No, I’m not from your mask, just…think of me as your teacher, or guardian, but if you want to call me by a name, you may call me Hodsaw.” “Hodsaw…an interesting name” “I know, I will let you go now” With that, everything began to move again. Everypony carried on with their daily routine in the background as if nothing had happened at all. Rubie could see that Pinkie Pie was taking her first few steps away from him and, just as Hodsaw had said to Rubie, the masked stallion called out. “Pinkie! Hey wait!” The pink mare stopped and turned around with the same smile on her face. “hmmmmm???” Rubie approached her at a rather quick pace. “I-I was just wondering, since…well it was rather fantastic…if I could possibly…. sorta…learn about that recipe…..? I-If I’m aloud to of course…I wouldn’t wanna ruin your secr-” Pinkie Pie suddenly interrupted him. “What are you talking about?? Of course you can come and see!! I’d be absolutely overjoyfuleased!!” “Umm…over what…?” “I thought combining two happy words, which were overjoyed and pleased, would equal twice the joy, but I guess it does sound a teeny tiny bit odd.” Rubie slowly nodded in agreement. “Anyway!! To Sugar Cube Corner!! Follow me!!” The pink mare commanded, and so the two of them went off to Sugar Cube corner. Both ponies had a smile of excitement on their face as they trotted. However, as Rubie trotted, he seemed to notice that some certain ponies were giving him looks. Judgmental looks that made Rubie feel rather uncomfortable. The dark stallion was confused at first as to why they were staring. However, he eventually realized that it was to do with the one thing that he had that they did not: a mask. This began to make Rubie feel a little bit down, but then he realized something that was rather odd. Why was it that Pinkie didn’t mind but these ponies were showing signs that they were? Rubie kept pondering on about this question while him and Pinkie Pie finally arrived at Sugar Cube Corner. Pinkie scurried along a little to the front door and opened it up for the newcomer. Out of nowhere, a top hat with a silver ribbon appeared on her head as she put on a posh, English accent. “Right this way my good sir, thou shall see the super-duper recipe of a Pinkie Promise!” Her accent made Rubie giggle as he entered. He even played along when he went inside, by bowing and putting on the same accent. “I thank you, I shan’t wait another moment to see this spectacular creation” After Rubie lifted his head, the two ponies couldn’t help but just laugh at the other’s acting. While Pinkie laughed, her tail shut the front door. After a few seconds the whacky mare took a deep breath and spoke. “No more wasting time!! This is where the magic happens!!” Then without a second to spare, Pinkie dashed off to the kitchen in a blur. As she did, Rubie regained his breath from laughing. It felt good to laugh at the little things he thought. However, he too didn’t want to waste any time. He followed Pinkie to the kitchen. When Rubie entered the new room, he almost couldn’t believe his eyes. The kitchen was huge. Much bigger than his own. It was filled with cupboards and draws almost everywhere where the eye could see. As Rubie looked right, he could see a rack filled with hanging pans. He then looked to his left and saw a large, pink wooden cupboard. There was a piece of paper attached to the front left door of the cupboard which had the words *THE GOOD STUFF*. Reading these words made Rubie’s excitement build up inside of him. In front of the stallion was a long, horizontal, green, wooden kitchen counter, and he could see that Pinkie was attending to a built-in sink on it. Rubie approached her, while passing a wide, wooden table with a whisk, salt and pepper shakers, and a colourful looking book. When Rubie came to Pinkie Pie’s side, he looked out of the window. He could see the sun, and the sun was shining on his ruby mask. Feeling cheerful and confident, he turned his head to Pinkie and asked. “So, Pinkie, where do we start?” The mare bounced back on to the wooden table and put on a teacher’s hat, which she seemed to pull out from within her mane. “Ok class!! Today we shall be learning how to make Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Promise!! It’s as easy as pie!! Even though it has nothing to do with pie…It’s easy as cupcakes!!” Rubie was a little confused about the act, but he didn’t want to ruin her moment, so he sat down and listened to what she had to say. “Now I know you all already know how bake a cupcake, so tha-“ Pinkie was interrupted by Rubie, who had his hoof up in the air “What seems to be the matter Rubie?” “W-Well…It’s just that….I don’t…really know how to bake one…hehe” “How can you not know!? We learnt how to just last week!!” “What?? Wh-what are you even talking abou-“ “No excuses! I’ll see you after class for arranging your detention!” Rubie’s ears lowered a little as he felt a little down. He was hoping that she was still playing out an act. A few moments went before Rubie finally shook off the feeling of guilt and was back to being filled with excitement. He watched as he saw Pinkie trot over to the pink cupboard with the paper note. Rubie noticed that her trotting looked more disciplined and calm than before, just like a teacher. Pinkie opened both the cupboard doors carefully. She gestured her masked student to come closer, and so he did. When Rubie got closer he could see that inside the pink cupboard were rows and rows of big glass jars. They were arranged perfectly, not one single jar was off position. The one thing that Rubie found most interesting was that every jar was filled to the brim with some sort of colourful dust. Maybe a kind of spice, or maybe decorations for the cupcakes. On the top row the jars were filled with pink dust. Below the top row, every jar was filled with red dust. Below that row, every jar was filled with orange dust. Then yellow, then green, then blue, and on the bottom row, every jar was filled with purple dust. The variation of beautiful colours made Rubie gasp with amazement. He could let out just one word. “...wow” Pinkie Pie smirked, feeling good about herself. “Indeed wow, this, my student, is the secret ingredient!! Grinded gems!!” Rubie’s eyes widened in surprise, out of every kind of ingredient, he was not expecting it to be gems. “Wait a minute, grinded…gems…? That’s the secret ingredient?” He asked. The mare took down a jar of red gem dust. She went over to the green counter and set the jar down next to the sink. Pinkie gestured Rubie once again to come closer, and so he did. When he approached, Pinkie Pie then answered his question. “Actually, there’s more to it than just simply saying that it is the secret ingredient. Now I will be showing you the process of adding the secret ingredient to a cupcake.” She went over to her oven and opened the door. Upon opening it, Rubie could smell the heavenly smell of freshly baked cupcakes. His eyes shut as he slowly took in the wonderful smell. After a few seconds, Rubie opened his eyes again to see that Pinkie had set a tray of fresh cupcakes on the counter next to the red jar. “Now Rubie, watch closely” The dark stallion nodded as he leaned in a little to watch. “Before we can do anything, we have to create a space within the cupcake so we can add a filling.” She took a peculiar looking utensil out from one of her draws. The utensil had a cylinder-shaped handle, and coming out from that handle looked like some kind of long metal end of a spoon. It was as if somepony had taken the end of an ice cream scoop, stretched it long ways and then stuck on half of a rolling pin to it. The mare held the utensil above the cupcake and pushed down into it. She only pushed it down halfway. Pinkie then began twisting the utensil around. Rubie then watched as Pinkie pulled the utensil out, and the center piece of the cupcake along with it. She set the center piece to one side before turning to Rubie, smiling. “Now then, the one super-dupertacular thing about grinded gems is that you can use them in just about anything!! I used the grinded gems in the Icing for your cupcakes, but now we’re gonna try and use them in custard for the filling, so if you please, there is some custard ready in a bowl to your left. Pass it over here please.” Rubie turned to his left and saw that there was indeed a white bowl filled with custard. He was a bit tempted to eat a little of it but he knew that Pinkie was watching him carefully. He shook off the temptation and passed the bowl to her. The pink mare smiled and took the bowl to the wooden table behind her. She then did the same with the jar of red grinded gems. Her masked student went to the wooden table as well, standing next to Pinkie. She took off the lid of the glass jar and then leaned over the table to grab the whisk. “Rubie, I have a teeny little job for you.” The stallion could see that Pinkie’s tail was opening a draw to her left. Rubie watched as Pinkie’s tail took out a teaspoon and then placed it on the table near Rubie, before closing the draw again with her tail. “I want ya to take this teaspoon and put about three teaspoons worth of red gem dust into the custard please.” Rubie took the teaspoon and carefully dunked it into the jar. He then held the spoon over the white bowl and tipped the dust in. The stallion watched the dust sparkle as it fell into the custard. Rubie repeated these steps twice before finally putting down the teaspoon. Pinkie Pie looked rather pleased with what he had done. “Excellent work Rubie. That’s a pitch perfect amount right there! I’ll put this stuff away and then we can get to the next part!” Rubie watched as Pinkie’s mane picked up the glass lid and placed it on the top of the glass jar. As she took the jar back to the cupboard, Rubie smirked a little. He just found Pinkie’s teacher hat funny for some reason. He hid the smirk when he saw Pinkie coming back to the table. She had the whisk in her hoof while she explained to Rubie what was about to happen. “So far now, the gem dust has just sorta half sunk into the custard, and that ain’t really bringing the flavour out. That means that what we’ve gotta do next is mix up the dust and the custard. To do that we’re gonna use a whisk!! Now watch as this is turned from custard and red dust, to red gem custard!!” Pinkie began to mix up the custard and the gem dust with the whisk. Rubie watched the gem dust spread out and sink into the custard. He could see bits of red dust pop up on the custard’s surface before being smothered by more custard. Rubie kept watching, smiling at what was happening. Suddenly a big puff of red smoke came out of the white bowl. Rubie shut his eyes tight as he felt a breeze from the puff of red smoke pass him. Then, when he opened his eyes again, he was amazed with what he saw. Inside the bowl was the custard, but the custard was sparkling. However, the sparkles were not white. Instead the custard sparkled red. Pinkie Pie giggled a little to herself, feeling proud with what she had discovered. “And that there, Rubie, is red gem custard! Just like custard, but enhanced in sweetness, along with a slightly richer texture. Kinda like cookie dough in a way, but still soft enough to be a filling! Now all we have to do now is add some to the inside of the cupcake and cover it up with icing!” With that, Pinkie Pie went to the green counter once again, with the white bowl. Rubie followed alongside her. He watched as she took an ice cream scoop and dunked it in the red gem custard. She then held the scoop over the cupcake before turning the scoop over, watching the custard fall into the hole in the center. After all the custard in the scoop had sunk into the cupcake, the pink mare then took what seemed to be a bag full of icing out of a draw and topped the cupcake with a swirl of pink icing. Pinkie then put away the icing bag in the draw again. Rubie’s eyes widened as he saw the final product. Pinkie Pie took a bow. “And that my student is how you make a red gem custard filled cupcake!!” Pinkie was trying to keep the disciplined act going, but when she lifted her head again she couldn’t keep it in. She began jumping up and down rapidly. “T’heeheeeeheheee!!! I hate to brag but I’m so proud of myself!!” The stallion felt relieved that It was all an act. He chuckled a little at Pinkie’s excitement. “hehe, I can see why” “I know right!!?? I never thought I’d be able to act like that for that long!! Though I do think I kinda made a few mistakes here and there, oh but that’s fine!!” “Oh…I was sort of talking about the cupcake…I mean I know you was supposed to make a Pinkie Promise, but honestly, I think I’m happy that I got to see this instead. Besides, you didn’t Pinkie Promise that you would show me how to make a Pinkie Promise.” Pinkie froze for a moment, realizing that she hadn't shown him how to make a Pinkie Promise. However she then began to laugh at Rubie’s little tongue twister, which made Rubie smile. He was about to say that It was time to go, however he remembered that he hadn’t done something yet. When Pinkie Pie stopped laughing, Rubie spoke. “Pinkie…I...I needed to ask something...It’s just something that caught my attention.” Pinkie Pie sat down, waiting to hear his question. “Fire away Rubie! I’m all ears!” “I…well…on my way here…I noticed quite a few ponies were looking at me in a rather strange way. They looked as if they…didn’t want me here…and…some of them even looked scared…which got me thinking…don’t take this the wrong way or anything but…why aren’t you afraid of me…? Why do you…I mean…I…” Before Rubie could finish he felt something enter his mouth. He then saw that Pinkie had put the red gem custard cupcake in his mouth. Rubie absolutely loved the taste. As he chewed Pinkie answered his question. “Hihihiii, don’t be silly Rubie!! I don’t have a reason to be afraid of you! Did you really think that having that mask and those curious eyes were gonna stop you from having friends!? That’s what friends are!! They’re ponies who don’t judge you by how you look, but by who you really are!!” Pinkie’s words really touched Rubie. He felt his eyes water with joy, but he quickly wiped them so he didn’t feel embarrassed. He then gave a little giggle. “heh…hehehe. Thanks Pinkie Pie…you really are a true friend.” Pinkie also felt touched by what Rubie just said. Rubie felt that It was time to leave. He nodded his head to Pinkie Pie in appreciation. “Thank you so much for this lesson Pinkie. I have to go now, but I Pinkie Promise that we’ll meet again.” The pink mare bowed and spoke again with a posh English accent. “Though shall indeed see you again, and though shall be glad as well!!” The two ponies both giggled at each other. Rubie gave one last nod before leaving through the front door. When he went out, he looked up to the sky and smiled. “Thank you, Pinkie Pie. You really have taught me something wonderful today. You’ve taught me one valuable lesson about friendship. One that will show who are your true friends. If you can look past how a pony looks. If you can find somepony who doesn’t judge you for the way you look. If you can find somepony who can see who you are from behind the mask you hide and bring the real you out, then they are a friend worth keeping. They are your true friend.”