//------------------------------// // Youth // Story: Fizzlepop's Future // by milesprower06 //------------------------------// Grubber came out from the kitchen and found Fizzlepop as the only remaining pony in the dining room following breakfast service. "Hey, Fizzlepop, are you doing alright?" Grubber said, coming up to the table with a small stack of strawberry pancakes, climbing up to his chair and sitting down next to her as she poked at her half-eaten hash browns. "I just had a rough night, that's all." Fizzlepop answered. "Well, I think it's been a few rough nights, based on what I've heard." The unicorn shot her friend an annoyed look, before returning her gaze to her half-eaten breakfast. Apparently these crystal walls weren't as thick or as soundproof as she'd like. "Yeah, I'm not sleeping well..." Fizzlepop admitted. "And you seem to have lost your appetite, too. Sorry, it's pretty hard for the castle chef not to notice." Grubber added, pointing to the food on her plate. "Princess Luna was luckily able to help me last night. It's more than missing friends. It's like... Kinda like homesickness, but different. When you stay home but somepony else left." "Princess Twilight?" "Yeah. I miss her, Grubber. Like, really, really badly." "Hey, I get it," Grubber sympathized. "She's done so much for us, starting with saving your life, and now that's she's not here on a daily basis anymore, yeah, being affected by the absence is pretty understandable." "It's a bit more complicated than that. I left home when I was pretty young. I was too angry to really go through any kind of homesickness back then. I didn't really miss my parents or my former friends. So Luna suggested that... Maybe that's what I'm going through now, with Twilight, and that I should find ways to cope the way a younger pony would. I'm just trying to figure out what to do about it. And I guess I have to, with what Thunderlane and Rivet said to me yesterday." Grubber did hear whispers that two of her most senior officers had cornered her in the barracks after dinner yesterday... "L.C., we don't exactly know what's wrong, and you don't have to share details with us, but we both feel like you need to take a day or two for yourself. You look like hell." Thunderlane said directly. "I'm fine, Captain." "We also hope you respect your squad enough to not blatantly lie about your well-being to our faces like that, ma'am." Rivet interjected. Fizzlepop's ears began to fold back, and she couldn't look either of them in the eyes. "Berrytwist, we know how much you care about this squad, and in return, we care about you too much to let you do this to yourself. You don't need to share anything with us that you don't want to, but at the same time, we feel that you need to take some time to get some personal things sorted. Now are you going to do us that courtesy, or do we have to get Redheart to declare you medically unfit? You know I'm not above doing that." Thunderlane said. The pegasus' tone was caring and full of worry, not threatening. She absolutely knew he would resort to that if he felt forced to. Saying nothing, she nodded silently, and removed her helmet. "Alright. You win, Captain." Grubber gave it some thought as he finished off the last of his pancakes, while Fizzlepop mainly just moved three quarters of her uneaten pancakes around her plate. "Actually, that gives me an idea for after today's Friendship Feast. Speaking of which, Thunderlane, Gallus, and I have to get started on that." Grubber said, taking his plate to the kitchen. When he returned, Fizzlepop had found it in herself to take one more bite before deciding she was done. "Want me to help out at all?" Fizzlepop asked. "No no, this is your day off. You do whatever you like to unwind, and I'll be back in a few. Don't worry about me." With that, Grubber left the dining hall towards the kitchen, leaving Fizzlepop to scrape the rest of her breakfast into the waste bucket, and take her plate to the kitchen and give it a quick rinse, where the hedgehog, pegasus, and griffon had already gotten started for the weekly community luncheon every Saturday. Deciding to take Luna's advice, Fizzlepop decided her first stop of the day would be the School of Friendship. Exiting out of the main doors into the Ponyville morning, she noted that this was the first time in a very long time that she was outside without her armor. Trotting down the steps and turning towards the school, both Berryshine and Blossomforth had to check themselves, as saluting a superior that was out of uniform was deemed inappropriate. The unicorn stepped through the School of Friendship's main entrance, and saw just under a dozen ponies doing a variety of tasks, from hanging welcome banners and painting and polishing walls and fixtures. The first day of classes was just about three weeks away, and Ponyville's population was set to jump considerably for the school's second year. She made her way down the main hall towards Administration, and went to the Headmare's Office. The door was open, so she knocked on the door frame to announce her presence, and Starlight Glimmer looked up from the current paperwork on her desk. "Fizzlepop, well isn't this a surprise. Come in, come in. What can I do for you?" Starlight greeted, magically pushing a chair out for her on the other side of the desk. "Morning, Starlight. I'm hoping you and I can talk for a minute, if you have the time." Fizzlepop replied, taking a seat. "I have more time than you think. I was actually just wrapping things up here. Sunburst insisted I take a breather today." Starlight said. "Heh, so you and I are in the same boat already." "What do you mean?" The headmare asked. "I'm not sure how much you know, but I've pretty much been placed on unofficial medical leave while I figure out how to put some pieces together. You were the first friend to come to mind because I remember how you told me that our fillyhoods were somewhat similar." Starlight used her magic to softly close the door to her office, locking it. "I'm glad to know they said something, because I was getting pretty close to doing so myself. I'm all ears, Fizzlepop." She said, pouring two mugs of cocoa, an old habit from her days as a counselor, sliding one to her friend's side of the desk. "How have you been these past couple weeks? Since Princess Twilight left?" Fizzlepop asked. "I can't exactly complain. Getting the school ready for the new year has kept me plenty busy." Starlight replied. "Do you miss Twilight at all?" "Every day." Fizzlepop scoffed. "How are you dealing with it? Because I'm barely functioning... I'm hardly eating, that empty castle's driving me nuts, four hours of sleep a night if I'm lucky, nightmares... Luna had to swoop in and rescue me last night." Fizzlepop averted her gaze and ran a hoof through her mohawk as she poured her heart out to the former counselor. "Now it's gotten to the point that my squad has sidelined me for fear of my health until I figure this out. Luna told me that it might have to do with how young I was when I left home; that Twilight's departure is making me go through this because I didn't when I was a filly." Starlight took another sip of cocoa as she took in Fizzlepop's words. "Well, I know how I said that our fillyhoods were similar, but there is no doubt in my mind that you had it harder. After Sunburst left, I stayed at home, sheltered, with my magic. You were around the same age when you left Equestria, with no stable magic. How you managed to survive out there is beyond me." "Mostly by sleeping where I could, making money where I could, and stealing my next meal when I couldn't make any." "Exactly. Every day was a struggle for you. I think Luna is right; your mind couldn't afford to go through detachment or separation anxiety because it had to focus everything on surviving." "So we're too different?" Fizzlepop asked. "Well, there could be similarities. Maybe what helped me could help you. When Twilight took me in, yeah, I fell back into the comforts I enjoyed when I was younger. You've seen my room, Fizzlepop. Does it look like the room of a battlemage or school headmare? No, it looks like it belongs to a 10-year old filly." "Yeah, that's true." "I always enjoyed flying kites when I was a filly, and I still do it today. What did you enjoy? Don't think about it too hard, just name the first thing that pops into your mind." Starlight asked. "Playing ball with my friends." Fizzlepop replied. Starlight smiled softly. "Well, I think I have the perfect thing for you. I was planning on doing it anyway. You up for a game of Buckball?" "What's Buckball?" Starlight had taken Fizzlepop back to Sweet Apple Acres, and walked along the fence line. Towards the southwest end of the property between the dirt road and the hills of apple orchards was a clearing with a large white painted circle on the grass, with smaller circles painted inside it dividing it into smaller zones, and a center line splitting the court in half. "This is a buckball court. It's a game played by all three races at once." Starlight told Fizzlepop as they stepped onto the court, the center of which had been played on so much that it had been stamped down to the dirt. "Heh, you actually managed to get here first." They heard a familiar voice coming over the hill. Applejack came over from the barn followed by Damiadon and Big Mac, who was pushing a small cart with rubber balls and wooden buckets. "And I brought a sixth, too." Starlight replied, motioning to Fizzlepop. "I was just starting to explain to her how the game works, she's a first-timer." Starlight lit up her horn, and brought over a bucket and a ball over to the two of them. "Like I was saying, it takes all three races to play. The kickoff is in the center circle, over there." Starlight began, pointing to the smallest circle in the middle. "The earth ponies are on offense. Their role is to kick the ball into their team's basket. The pegasus are on defense. They guard the opposing team's basket. They can use their wings, hooves, heads, and bodies to block an incoming ball, but cannot interfere with the bucket in any way, or fly into the unicorn's play area. As you can imagine, the unicorns are the goalkeepers. They can levitate the buckets anywhere in their play area. If a ball is scored, they pass the ball back to their kicker. Rounds last five minutes. Sound simple enough?" Starlight asked as she took a second bucket and offered the first one to Fizzlepop. "I... Think so?" Fizzlepop asked, taking the first bucket in her magical grasp. "It's alright, L.C., it makes more sense in actual play. Let's get some practice rounds in. Big Mac and Rainbow can be on your team. Starlight, Dami, you're over here." Applejack directed. Once everypony was in their positions, they had the first kickoff. Applejack got the first touch, and sent it towards Starlight's basket, only to be deflected by Rainbow down to Big Mac, who kicked it up, and Fizzlepop quickly lined her bucket up with the ball's arc. But a split-second before it sunk in, it was caught by Damiadon, who rolled into the trajectory and tossed it back to Applejack as he completed his roll and dipped back towards the center. 'Huh. Whad'dya know, I guess the punk does know a thing or two about flying.' Fizzlepop thought to herself. With the two agile pegasi on defense, it was a fairly low-scoring round, with the first point going in Fizzlepop's bucket at the three-and-a-half minute mark, with a low shot that nearly hit the ground before Fizzlepop scooped it up just in front of the boundary line, and before Damiadon could dive down and block it. "Nice aim!" Fizzlepop told Big Mac. "Eeeyup. Nice reaction time." The red stallion replied. It was certainly more intense and complex than playing catch years and years ago, but after a 45 minutes of playing 8 rounds, they were ready for a meal, and to her surprise, Fizzlepop felt and heard her stomach growl in hunger. "Well, that was a nice break, and after lunch, we're gonna get back to work. Thanks for the game, you two." Applejack said as Dami and Big Mac packed up the buckets and balls. "Hey, AJ, Dash? Can I talk to you for a second?" Fizzlepop asked once she was confident Dami and Big Mac had gotten out of listening range. "I'm gonna head over to Fluttershy's in a minute, but how's he doing?" She asked the two of them. "Honestly? Not bad." Rainbow admitted. "The reason we were able to take this game break today was because of how we've gotten a little ahead of schedule with his help." "Yeah, once he started workin', his attitude seemed to improve, and with a bit of small talk over the course of the last week, we've learned a bit about his life. He ain't such a bad guy, he's just had a lot of bad luck. So maybe all he needs is a little hoof up." Applejack added. "Well, I'm glad to hear that." Fizzlepop said, only for her stomach to growl again. "And I'm glad to hear that." Starlight commented. "Here," Applejack began, digging into the saddlebags she had put back on, and came out with an apple granola bar. "Something for the walk to Fluttershy's." She finished as she tossed the snack to Fizzlepop before she and Rainbow followed Big Mac and Dami's trail back to the farmhouse. "I'm gonna head back into town for a bite to eat. You gonna be alright?" Starlight asked. "Yeah," Fizzlepop replied, nodding and already starting into the granola bar. "Thanks, Starlight. I think this really started to help." Starlight came in for a quick hug. "Happy to do it. Come to me anytime you want to fly a kite."