//------------------------------//
// Chapter 40 
// Story: Princess Twilight Sparkle's School for Fantastic Foals: Winter Break 
// by kudzuhaiku 
//------------------------------//

A haunting sound came from the strings of Octavia’s cello, a mournful dirge that seemed to be the sum of all of the world’s sorrows. Sumac listened while he was carried into the kitchen and watched as Octavia stood and played in an out of the way corner. The room wasn’t freezing, but it was chilly enough after being in a warm bed that Sumac almost shivered. He didn’t make it very far before he was snatched, plucked from Trixie’s back, and he was taken by Pinny of all ponies.

Pinny was big enough to baby Sumac, and by comparison, he was no more than a yearling when compared to the giantess. He was flipped right over, a disorienting, dizzying move, and then he found himself cradled in the crook of her foreleg. Sumac was far too big to be babied by most mares, and now he found himself in the most awkward of positions, because this was rather comfortable and warm—but also dreadful, because, babying.

Boomer came running over, lept, and landed upon Sumac’s exposed stomach. The points of her claws caused the most awful prickle-tickle and she made herself right at home using Sumac as a sofa. Awake, alert, and aware, Boomer was in a state of fine fettle. Of course, the awake part could change at a moment’s notice.

Sumac knew that Pebble and the others were no doubt standing in the corner still, but the kitchen was missing many faces. Of Megara there was no sign, and the Pies seemed absent, including Maud. Vinyl tinkered with some kind of contraption that appeared to be writing musical notes on a strip of paper that spewed out while Octavia played. This captured Sumac’s curiousity, but he was in no condition to go over and investigate.

Other than Octavia’s mournful melody, the quiet persisted; nopony said a thing. Pinny said nothing, Boomer was quiet, the kitchen remained wordless. Lemon Hearts pulled Trixie in for a quick peck on the cheek, but Trixie it seemed had other plans and turned the tables on Lemon with an enthusiastic smooch. Twinkleshine shuffled a deck of cards, she smiled, but she remained in silence.

It was blissful.

Lemon Hearts went to work preparing tea while Trixie and Twinkleshine also shared a smooch, though this one was a bit more hesitant and awkward. Though it was embarrassing to watch, something about it comforted Sumac, perhaps because everything felt right with the world. The machine was still spitting out paper and Vinyl appeared to be suffering in mute frustration. Comfortable and content, Boomer licked one eye, and then the other.

Then, without further ado, Boomer broke the silence. “Two,” she announced while holding up two clawed fingers. Looking thoughtful and possessing bright, gleaming, freshly-licked eyeballs, she seemed to struggle with whatever came next. “After?”

“Three,” Sumac replied, and he watched a third clawed finger pop up beside the first two. He could see the look of immense concentration upon Boomer’s face, and he wondered if such vigourous thinking heated up Boomer’s brain, because she licked her eyeballs again, much to his disgust.

“After?” Holding out her tiny hand, she held up three clawed fingers right in front of Sumac’s snoot.

“Four.”

Another clawed finger popped up. “After?”

“Five.”

Now, Boomer seemed vexed and perplexed, and Sumac watched, waiting, wondering where this was going. From up above him, high up above him, Pinny’s face stared down and she too, seemed curious. Twinkleshine was dealing cards but had her eyes on Boomer. After much struggle, and some eyeball licking, the little dragon brought her other hand to bear.

“After?” she demanded.

“Six.” And just like magic, Sumac’s words caused another clawed finger to spring up.

It seemed that Boomer would run out of digits before she ran out of curiousity. “After?”

Very much like a patient older brother, Sumac supplied the answer: “Seven.”

“After?”

“Eight, nine, and ten, Boomer.”

When the baby dragon ran out of clawed fingers, she let out a muted honk of distress. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. After?”

Sumac, who was getting ready to reply, saw Tarnish leading a line of fillies behind him. They were small, but seemed even smaller behind him, with their heads not even reaching his hocks. His neck was longer than some ponies' legs. Pebble seemed to be in a good mood, along with Ambrosia—surprising, given that they had been standing in the corner for hours. Hidden Rose appeared miserable though.

“Sorry, Boomer, we’ll have to do this later.” Turning his attention to Tarnish, Sumac said, “Mister Teapot—”

“One little spot of trouble and suddenly I’m ‘Mister Teapot.’ What gives?” Tarnish stood in place while the fillies all darted around his legs to go and sit down at the table.

“I have a question,” Sumac said, and the colt wondered if, perhaps, he was letting his curiousity get the better of him. Taking a deep breath, he committed himself to this question, because he had to know. It was a matter of science. For science, great risks had to be taken, otherwise, what was the point of living?

“Shoot.” Tarnish’s ears stood up when the kettle clanged against the iron stovetop.

“How did you and Maud make Pebble?” Sumac asked in the innocent way of foals everywhere and he heard a strange sound come from Octavia’s cello, an awful sound that could not be described. “I’ve watched farm animals do it, but for you and her, it’s a problem of reach. How?” He felt Pinny shaking now and the mare holding him made strange noises down deep in her long neck. “The parts that need  to connect are too far away from each other.”

Twinkleshine’s shuffled cards went shooting across the room, flying everywhere, covering everything, and something about this caused Trixie to become beet red. Turning away, Trixie made the mistake of looking at Tarnish, which only intensified her redness, and she hastily turned to look elsewhere. A truly awful cacophony came from Octavia’s cello and Vinyl had removed her glasses to stare at poor Sumac. Pebble had turned a shade of radiant black-brown and had covered her face with her front hooves. Ambrosia facehoofed and her sister, Hidden Rose, did the same a second later.

“We had to fill out a lot of government requisition forms,” Tarnish said without skipping a beat. “And when that was over, we had to go down the hall where they keep the forms for high rise construction. Once we had that done, Princess Celestia herself had to keep an eye on our creative doings to make certain that proper safety procedures were observed. What happened next was fraught with danger and involved ropes and climbing gear.”

“Are you pulling my leg?” Sumac asked.

“No,” Tarnish replied in deadpan. “Princess Celestia was there. Ask her yourself, I’m sure that she’d love to tell you the story of how Maud climbed the mountain. Just ask her the next time you see her.”

Eyes narrowing, Sumac tried to tell if Tarnish was telling the truth. Octavia had given up on playing her cello. Twinkleshine was playing fifty-two pickup. Lemon Hearts was biting her lip while she stood next to the stove. Pinny was shaking and distressing noises could be heard coming from her. No matter how hard he tried, Sumac could not determine if Tarnish was telling the truth.

“Very well”—Sumac squirmed in Pinny’s embrace while she trembled—“I’ll ask Princess Celestia the next time I see her.”

“You do that, Kiddo.” Trixie, still blushing a furious red, bobbed her head up and down in a manic, disturbing sort of way. “It’ll be a good chance for you to get to know the mysterious workings of our government bureaucracy. Trixie is positive that Princess Celestia would love a chance to explain all of this.”

The adults were being weird again.

“Now that we have that out of the way, Hidden Rose, I do believe that you have something to say to Sumac.” A dreadful hardness could be heard in Tarnish’s voice and all of his friendly jovialness was gone. “Go on, do the right thing and save yourself. Otherwise, you know what will happen.”

Without warning, the world wobbled; Sumac found himself lifted and then dumped into a seat, which sent poor Boomer scrambling. She lept to the table, landed, scanned her surroundings with both eyes pointing in different directions, and then dove into the fruit bowl with a terrifying snarl.





Hidden Rose appeared to be sitting on red hot coals, given how she squirmed in her seat. Sumac knew the feeling a little too well; it was difficult to perform under pressure, and an apology was a performance. It had to be a believable performance too, something that was done right on the first try, otherwise things would only get worse. Just a few months ago, Lemon Hearts taught them all about apologising in a special class, and when the time had come for Silver Lining to pretend to apologise, she had broken down in tears.

No doubt, his poor cousin had all of the same fears he did; spanking first and foremost among them. It was always a looming threat, always a fear, something that always came to mind when consequences were thought of. The fear of a spanking was worse than the spanking itself, to be sure, though Sumac couldn’t be certain about this. His mind went to dark places, to things that he had trouble remembering—things he didn’t want to remember—the shadowy time with his real mother.

Shivering, he pushed those thoughts out of his head and reminded himself that he had three real mothers now. Real ones. Ones who loved him and did what was best for him. Still, the pain, the fear persisted, something awful that lurked on the edges of memory, something best left forgotten. Resting his front legs against the table’s edge, Sumac looked his struggling cousin in the eye.

“Look, I’m a lot like my Ma… when I get riled, I get stupid and I act real dumb…”

So far, this was not a good start, but Sumac continued to listen.

“I got real mad, okay? You did that thing you do, and I could feel it takin’ me over, and it got me mad. I was so angry that I couldn’t think right, so I went off and I ran my mouth and I said whatever it was that I could say so I could get you in trouble. Worked up as I was, I wasn’t thinkin’, I was reactin’, and I guess I lied without thinkin’ ‘bout the words comin’ out my mouth, and I’m powerful sorry, ‘cause yer family, and I never meant to hurt yer feelin’s all those other times, ‘cause I was just funnin’ around with you. What do I say to fix this?”

A plate full of cookies was plunked down on the table but nopony went to take one, not yet. Sumac was tempted though, because he was hungry, but he was also thirsty and in need of a drink. Ambrosia glanced at the cookies, but her sister didn’t; no, Hidden Rose stared down at the table, her ears limp as noodles, and she rubbed her front hooves together in distress.

“Sometimes,” Pebble said to Hidden Rose, “you can’t fix what went wrong. Trust me, I’ve had a lot of things blow up in my face and I couldn’t make them right. All I could do was try not to do it again. I’m not so good at that, either. Sumac is the most forgiving pony I know—”

“And that’s why I feel bad!” Hidden Rose blurted out while throwing both of her front hooves up into the air. “He’s nice and he’s probably gonna forgive me even if I don’t deserve it! I feel powerful ashamed!”

“Yeah.” Pebbled sighed the word and then she too, eyeballed the plate of cookies. “That’s the worst of it. There’s been moments when I’ve been less than a perfect friend. Sumac is just about the only friend I have, because nopony wants to put up with my sh—”

“Pebble Pie!” Octavia snapped while pointing her bow at Pebble.

“—enanigans.”

Not satisfied with Pebble’s verbal gymnastics, Octavia’s eyes narrowed and her quivering bow revealed her displeasure. Under most circumstances, this might have been funny, but Sumac wasn’t willing to risk laughing. Lemon too, had a sour look on her face, and as for Tarnish, Sumac guessed that he wasn’t buying Pebble’s quick correction either.

Extending her hoof, Pebble held it out to Hidden Rose. “Here’s to having friends that we don’t deserve.”

After a long moment of hesitation, Hidden Rose stuck out her own hoof, and bumped Pebble’s. It seemed like an earnest moment and Sumac felt satisfied with it, but should he be? The adults were no help, most of them still had angry faces and raised eyebrows. None of them held any indicators that helped Sumac to determine if he should forgive his cousin. Why did this have to be so difficult?

“Sittin’ in the corner left me with a lot of time to think, and I didn’t much like what I had to be thinkin’ ‘bout.” Hidden Rose shrank down in her seat. “I really am sorry. I tease too much and I know it. Big Mac has threatened to tan my hide if’n I don’t stop teasin’ others in school and Miss Cheerilee has threatened to toss me out. I just get carried away. I don’t know how to stop.”

Leaning forward, straining to hold his head up, Sumac decided it was best to be blunt. “Are you a bully?”

Hidden Rose squirmed in her seat, turned away, and then let out a distressed squeal. An odd silence claimed the kitchen, with everything becoming muted somehow. The logs in the fireplace crackled, the fire popped, but very little sound could be heard. Tarnish sighed, but it seemed distant and far away. Ambrosia was chewing on her right front hoof, but the scraping sound of her teeth was almost nonexistent.

“Yeah,” Hidden Rose replied while looking away, “yeah I am.”

“I can’t stand bullies.” Sumac wanted to say more, but didn’t. When Hidden Rose gulped, his temptation to unload was almost unbearable, and for the briefest moment, Sumac wondered if he could make his cousin cry. The temptation blew past though, and after feeling antagonistic for a moment, Sumac was now moved to pity. He realised that he had stood on the threshold of bullying, and found that he didn’t like it. What made a bully progress beyond this point?

With the power of his voice, he could make for a fearsome bully… but at what cost?

“Apples are s’posed to stick together, and I blew it.” Hidden Rose let out a huff, rolled her eyes, and shied away when Pebble reached out to comfort her. “Sumac, give me a chance to turn over a new leaf… and when I’ve done that, I’ll come a askin’ for yer forgiveness. Okay?”

“Deal.” Sumac said nothing more, he didn’t dare, not after the dream that was still fresh in his mind. If Hidden Rose was going to save herself, it had to be her own doing.

“I am actually sorry though. It’s always been just teasin’ and I ain’t ever felt too bad about it, but this time, I do. Ma ‘n’ Mac’ll kill me if I make things a mess with you.” Lifting her head, Hidden Rose dared to look at Sumac. “Bein’ an Apple means something and I can’t ruin that.”

This Sumac trusted, and he nodded, confident that Hidden Rose would make things right. Octavia drew her bow across her strings and once more, she coaxed out a mournful song that filled the kitchen with sorrowful sound. The kettle too, raised its voice in song, a shrill sound that only lasted for a few seconds before Lemon Hearts lifted it from the stove.

“Ask me for help,” Sumac offered.

“You’d help me?” Hidden Rose asked.

“We’re Apples,” Sumac replied.

“I’ll do that… cousin.” Hidden Rose seemed hopeful.

Sumac’s thoughts turned to his grandmother, Dandelia. He felt a hoof touch him and he knew it was Pinny, another pony that had endured great difficulty for forgiveness. Sumac didn’t know the whole of the story, but Tarnish’s magic had estranged him from his own mother—for a time.

“So is everything good?” Ambrosia seemed tense and she waited for Sumac to respond.

“Yeah, everything is good.” Saying this, Sumac watched as Ambrosia relaxed. Content with how things had turned out, Sumac used his magic to pass the cookies around, and he wondered what the adults were thinking. Really, it didn’t matter what the adults were thinking, because they had sorted this out among themselves, and Sumac was happy with the outcome.

“Rose, look!” Ambrosia pointed down with her hoof at her sibling’s backside. “It happened! Look!”

Hidden Rose almost fell out of her chair when she bent in half trying to look at her own hindquarters. “What’s goin’ on? What am I lookin’ at here?” What just happened?”

“Ya big ‘tard, those is apple leaves! Three of ‘em!”

“Why’d I get three apple leaves as a cutie mark? What’n tarnation? Why not an apple?”

Ambrosia shrugged while Tarnish went sprinting off to find a camera. “You wasn’t good enough to get an apple, ya just got the leaves, at least that’s something you can wipe with—”

“Well thanks a lot, ‘Brose!” Glowering at her sibling, Hidden Rose reached down and rubbed her new cutie mark on the right side with her hoof. “Why apple leaves? I didn’t ask for no apple leaves. Nuts and gum!”

Smirking, Sumac put down the plate of cookies just as Tarnish returned with a camera…