Chapter Nineteen
Anger Management
⠀
⠀
It had only been a week, but school in Ponyville was already clearly better than school in Hollow Shades was. It wasn’t so much the school itself, but the fact that Morning had two friends now.
That was still new to Morning, and at times it could be a little overwhelming. But now for the first time, she could go home at the end of the school day and just be alone when that was what she wanted. Sure, the castle had lots of others living in it, but they gave her space when she wanted to be left alone.
All of that made school better. Other foals were easier to be around when she didn’t also live with them, and it was nice to spend time with her friends. Plus Miss Cheerilee was really nice, and Morning felt a little better learning from an earth pony than from an alicorn who was also one of the most accomplished magic users in all of Equestria.
Morning was even learning to see what the others saw in recess. It had always just been a time for her to read or hide away and play make-believe games, but now she had two friends to play with. That was what they were doing now. It wasn’t Morning’s favorite game, but they were playing hide-and-seek during recess.
At least she wasn’t seeking. Morning didn’t like that much. But hiding? She was good at that. She had years of practice hiding from other foals, and she put it to good use in their game. She looked around and decided on her hiding place – a bush that she was small enough to carefully crawl into, and then no one would see her.
The branches poked at her when she crawled in, but she ignored that. It would be worth it for her perfect hiding place. She made sure to tuck her tail in, as that was the only thing that ever gave her away, and she waited.
Morning was in place, and just in time; Pound had finished counting and was looking around. Morning could see out a little through the branches, though she couldn’t always see well enough to know where he was.
From what she could see, he looked in some obvious places first. Behind trees, under the slide, places like that. She wasn’t sure where Pumpkin was hidden, but it seemed Pound didn’t find her either.
He walked off somewhere Morning couldn’t see, and she smiled to herself. He’d never find her here.
Some ponies walked closer to her. Morning risked moving the branches enough to get a look at who it was. It wasn’t Pound or Pumpkin, so it didn’t matter, just three of her classmates that were always together.
They called themselves the Hero Club, and they really seemed to take that message to heart. They seemed to think that since the Elements of Harmony were all getting older and not going on adventures anymore, a new generation of heroes was going to be needed, and that it was going to be them. That they were all six years old didn’t seem to matter to them.
“So what are we going to do today?” one of them asked. Her name was Snake Eyes, and she was a white unicorn with a very fluffy brown mane. She had talked to Morning once before, and afterwards, Morning couldn’t find the cookies her mama had packed into her lunch box. Needless to say, Morning didn’t trust her.
“I don’t know,” Boomer said. She was a red earth pony with a blonde mane. She wore glasses and always seemed kind of grumpy. Morning didn’t like her much either, though they had never talked. “Looks like all the good stuff is taken. We could wait our turn to play tetherball or something.”
“Actually, I think we should try to find that new filly,” the last one said. A mint-green pegasus with a darker green mane, her name was Gusty Breeze. She was the only one Morning didn’t have a negative opinion of, but anyone who was part of the Hero Club rubbed her the wrong way. “What’s her name? Morning something?”
“Morning Glisten,” Snake Eyes said. “She seems alright. But what do we want to talk to her for?”
“Think about it,” Gusty said. “You know who her moms are, right?”
“Mom says it’s okay for a pony to have three moms,” Boomer said. “Seems kinda weird to me, but if Mom says it’s alright.”
“It’s not that,” Gusty said. “Her moms are heroes. They’ve saved Equestria and everything! We should ask her to join the club!”
“Well, two of them are,” Snake Eyes said. “My mom talks about Princess Twilight and Fluttershy all the time, but Sunset Shimmer…”
Morning tensed up and began listening more intently.
“What’s wrong with Sunset Shimmer?” Gusty asked.
“She is pretty weird,” Boomer said. “She used to be Princess Celestia’s student when she was younger, but then she just sort of disappeared. Then all that bad stuff happened, with Nightmare Moon and Tirek and Discord and all that stuff. Then she just comes back, and suddenly everything is good again.”
Gusty seemed to consider Boomer’s words. “So? It sounds like her being around is a good thing.”
“No way,” Boomer said. “Think about it. Where did she go? Nopony knows anything about what happened to her, and if she’s so good, why didn’t she help when we needed her? I think she had something to do with all that bad stuff.”
“So, what?” Snake Eyes shrugged. “She started dating the princesses because she couldn’t beat them? If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?”
Gusty tapped her chin. “She married the princesses, Snake. She got close to them. What if she’s still planning something?”
“Bingo,” Boomer said. “So if we stop her, they might make us princesses!”
“Boomer, we have to stop her for Equestria,” Gusty said. “We’re not doing this because of the reward.”
“Yeah, but they could give us a reward too…” Boomer kicked at the ground.
“So what’s the plan?” Snake asked. They all turned to Gusty.
“We need more evidence,” Gusty said. “We know she’s bad, but we need to prove it. Maybe she writes her evil plans in a diary or something and we could swipe it.”
“Leave it to me,” Snake Eyes said. “We just have to get close to her. Maybe we should talk to Morning Glisten after all.”
Morning had heard enough. She was going to talk to the Hero Club, but there was no way she was going to let them get anywhere near her ma.
She forced her way out of the bush, getting pricked by all the branches because she didn’t bother to leave as carefully as she entered. The Hero Club all took notice of her, stopping their conversation to watch her.
Boomer walked over to her. “Oh, hi, Morning. We were just looking for you.”
Morning stood up and walked over to Boomer. She gritted her teeth and glared, then she punched Boomer in her stupid face.
“Ow! What the hay!?” Boomer glared at her.
“Hey!” Gusty jumped between them. “What’s wrong with you!?”
Rather than answer with words, Morning jumped at Gusty, tackling her to the ground. Morning took advantage of her position of being on top to punch Gusty. “Don’t talk about my ma like that!”
Gusty quickly proved stronger, however, easily rolling them over. The two of them rolled a few times, but in the end, Gusty was on top. “How dare you hurt my friend!”
Ponies rarely ever hit Morning back, so she wasn’t prepared for the feeling of Gusty’s hoof against her face. But it only motivated her even more, so she struggled against the other filly, eventually squirming free.
“Get back here!” Gusty called.
Morning was distantly aware that her friends were calling to her. They seemed to want her to stop, but she couldn’t do that. Gusty had insulted Morning’s parents, nopony was allowed to do that!
Morning felt pressure welling up in her horn and she channeled it into a spell – she wasn’t sure what spell – and aimed it at Gusty. There was a small pop, then nothing.
Forgoing the use of magic, Morning ran at Gusty full force. The other filly turned around, and for a second Morning thought she was going to run.
Instead, she aimed a kick squarely at Morning. It caught her in the shoulder and sent her flying backwards.
She landed on her back, and everything felt like it was spinning. She tried her best to get up, but only fell down again.
The next thing Morning knew, she was looking up at Gusty Breeze, who looked furious. “Don’t ever try to hurt my friends again! You… You…”
Morning had to get up. She had to teach Gusty a lesson. Had to teach all of them a lesson. She had to defend her moms, she had to…
She had to…
Morning couldn’t get up, and not just from the pain. Her body was sore all over, and everything that had just happened was sinking in. She couldn’t move, she could only lay there as she started crying.
“Easy, Hero…” Snake Eyes said to Gusty. “You got her…”
“Morning!” With the fight over, Pumpkin ran over to Morning and kneeled down beside her. She was soon joined by Pound Cake, though neither of them seemed to know what to do or say.
It didn’t matter, because Morning’s crying alerted someone else to what was going on. “What’s going on here?”
Morning hid her face at the sound of Miss Cheerilee’s voice, but she couldn’t stop crying. She was hurt, and she was angry, and she was scared.
What would they do with her? This was exactly what had gotten Morning sent back to Small Steps before, what were her moms going to do with her now? She no longer thought they wanted to send her back, but after something like this…
“She started it!” Gusty said.
“She punched me in the face!” Boomer added.
“Yeah, Gusty was just protecting her,” Snake Eyes finished.
Morning felt somepony take hold of her protectively. “But they were talking about Morning’s moms!” Pumpkin said. “They, uhm, prov… provo…”
“Provoked her,” Pound said.
“Yeah!”
“And why didn’t anyone come and get me during any of this?” Miss Cheerilee asked. Instead of answering, everyone shifted in place nervously. She sighed. “Okay, let me get a good look at you all. Is anyone hurt?”
“No,” Gusty said.
“My face hurts,” Boomer said.
Morning peaked through her hooves to watch as Miss Cheerilee looked over Gusty and Boomer. She didn’t seem to find anything wrong with them, so she quickly moved onto Morning. “Come on, Morning, let me get a good look at you.”
Morning turned away.
“You need to let Miss Cheerilee see,” Pound Cake said.
Morning wasn’t sure that was a good idea, but she trusted her friend. She pulled away her hooves and looked up at Miss Cheerilee.
“Oh dear…” the teacher said. “That’s going to be a black eye.”
Morning didn’t care about that. It hurt, but she was more afraid than hurt at this point. She wasn’t even that angry anymore, she was just terrified of what her moms would say.
“Do you want us to take her home?” Pound Cake asked. “We know the way.”
“No,” Cheerilee said. "Why don’t you two help her get into the schoolhouse? Her moms gave me a journal I can write to them in case I need to get a hold of them.”
It looked like Morning wasn’t even going to get to put off them finding out until the end of the school day. With her friends each supporting her on one side, Morning made her way into the schoolhouse.
“Does it hurt?” Pound Cake asked.
Morning sniffled. “A little…”
“Poor Morning…” Pumpkin said. “Stupid Gusty Breeze…”
They made their way to their usual seats, and Morning just put her head down on her desk. She noticed the Hero Club had come inside as well, sitting on the other side of the classroom. The two groups didn’t pay much attention to each other.
Miss Cheerilee pulled open a drawer and pulled out several small journals, one for each filly involved in the fights. She wrote a message in each of them, then put them back into the drawer.
“Now then,” the teacher said when she was done. “What happened, exactly?”
No one answered at first. Thinking about it made Morning want to start crying again.
“We were playing hide-and-seek,” Pound Cake said. “I didn’t see how it started. The first thing I saw was Gusty yelling at Morning.”
“Because she hit Boomer!” Gusty said.
“But Boomer was talking about Sunset!” Pumpkin said. “They all were, I heard them!”
“What do you mean talking about her?” Cheerilee asked.
“They said she’s evil!”
“We said she’s suspicious,” Snake Eyes corrected.
“I tried to talk to Morning about it, then she punched me!” Boomer said.
“Is that true?” Miss Cheerilee asked, looking directly at Morning.
All Morning could do was nod.
“I’m disappointed in you,” Miss Cheerilee said, looking over the room. “You all should have known better.”
“We didn’t do anything!” Pumpkin said.
Miss Cheerilee smiled at her. “Oh, except you two. Although you really should have known enough to come and get me at the first sign of trouble. But that goes double for everyone else. You three should never have been talking about Morning’s mom like that, but Morning, you should have come and told me instead of hitting Boomer.”
Morning pursed her lips. It wasn’t like adults ever did anything when she told on other foals before.
Miss Cheerilee turned her attention to the Hero Club. “And when Morning hit Boomer, you should have come and told me about that instead of fighting.”
“Yes, Miss Cheerilee…” Gusty said.
“Uhm, are we all in trouble?” Snake Eyes asked.
Miss Cheerilee sighed. “We’ll see after I talk to your parents. But no matter what happens this time, you’ll all be in big trouble if anything like this happens again.”
Before that message could even sink in, there was a flash of light. All eyes turned towards it, except for Morning, who just hid her face in her hooves. She knew it was a pony teleporting, and that it would only be one of two ponies doing it.
“What happened!?” Twilight asked, a note of panic in her voice. “Is everypony okay!?”
“It’s all calmed down now,” Miss Cheerilee said. “But Morning was in a fight with another filly.”
“I am so sorry,” Twilight said. The sound of hoofsteps alerted Morning that she was walking over towards her. “Morning? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Morning said without moving her forelegs away from her face.
“Why are you hiding?” Twilight asked. She didn’t sound angry, but she would be. “Let me get a good look at you.”
“Morning may have a bit of a black eye,” Miss Cheerilee said. “Why don’t you and I talk about what happened?”
“Oh, Morning…” Twilight stroked Morning’s mane, which caused her to wince. Not because she was sore and the touch hurt a little, but because her mom seemed so concerned for her.
“Princess Twilight and I are going to step out,” Miss Cheerilee said. “But I’m leaving the door open, and I’ll hear if any of you say or do anything.”
Nopony answered, and Morning heard hoofsteps heading for the door. Once they were gone, Morning took a look around. Gusty was pointedly ignoring everyone while Snake Eyes gently patted her on the shoulder. Boomer was glaring at Morning, and it looked like she might have a black eye of her own.
Pound and Pumpkin were both looking at Morning with concern. Pound whispered, “Do you think you’ll be in a lot of trouble?”
“I don’t know,” Morning whispered back. She felt like crying again. “Do… do you think they’ll want to send me back?”
“No way,” Pumpkin whispered. “They love you.”
Morning nodded a little, hoping that Pumpkin was right. But of course, she had thought that once before, too…
They all sat in silence for a few minutes, then the two mares walked back in. Morning forgot to hide her face, so she and Twilight finally got a good look at one another. Twilight didn’t look angry. She looked sad and worried, and that made Morning bow her head.
“Morning, you’ll be going home with Princess Twilight. Pound, Pumpkin, you two can return to recess. The rest of you will have to wait for your parents to get here.”
Morning stood up and walked over to Twilight while looking down at the ground. Once her view consisted of Twilight’s hooves, she stopped.
“Come on,” Twilight said. She sounded tired. “Let’s go home. I already have your things.”
The two of them started walking, and neither of them said anything. Part of Morning wanted to run up and hug her mom and say she was sorry, and part of her wanted to run away and never have to face whatever consequences were coming.
She did neither, of course. She just walked along with her mom leading the way back to their castle.
She chanced a look up at Twilight after a few minutes. She was carrying Morning’s bag in her magic, and she had her eyes facing forward. She seemed to notice Morning was looking at her, as she looked down and their eyes met. Only for a moment, then Morning turned away.
“So,” Twilight said after a while, “Miss Cheerilee says this started because the other fillies were saying mean things about us.”
Morning frowned. “Not all of you. They like you and Mama.”
“But they don’t like Ma?”
Morning shook her head. “They think she’s a bad pony. That she only married you two to get close to you and she’s going to do something bad.”
“I see.” Twilight used her wing to brush up against Morning. “I’m sorry you have to deal with ponies talking about us like that. If we weren’t famous, nopony would say those things.”
What? Twilight was apologizing to her? Morning looked up in disbelief, unable to say anything.
“But we are famous, Mo Glow. Ponies are going to say things about us. Sometimes they’re going to say horrible things that you’ll know aren’t true. That’s never going to be a good reason to hit somepony.”
Oh, that made more sense. Morning bowed her head. “I’m sorry…”
“You’re going to have to apologize to the ponies you hit too.”
Morning nodded meekly. “Okay…”
“I can’t make them apologize to you, but they should.” Twilight bent down to nuzzle Morning. “I want you to know that even though what you did was wrong, they weren’t right either.”
Morning nodded. “I know.”
“Next time, talk to Miss Cheerilee. She can take care of things like this.”
“Okay.” Morning chanced the question on her mind. “Uhm… you aren’t going to send me back to Small Steps, are you?”
“What? Of course not.” Twilight stopped in her tracks, so Morning did the same. “Morning, we are never sending you back. We couldn’t even if we wanted to, everything’s been finalized. We are your legal parents now.”
Morning looked up at her. “Really?”
Twilight smiled. “Really. And besides, we don’t want to. You’re our daughter, and we love you.”
Morning blinked, and tears started welling up again. Other ponies had said that her parents loved her, but none of them had ever said it yet. She stepped forward and Twilight scooped her up into a hug.
Her mom started walking again, walking on three legs while cradling Morning in the fourth. Morning cried gently while holding onto her, overwhelmed by all of the events of the day.
“It’s all alright now,” Twilight said. “But don’t think this is getting you out of trouble! I don’t know what your punishment is going to be yet, but it’ll be something.”
To her own surprise, Morning laughed a little bit. She didn’t mind that so much.
The sun hadn’t even come up when Morning felt somepony shaking her. She looked up and blinked sleep out of her eyes, seeing her ma looking down at her. Her horn was lit, casting weird shadows over her face in the dark.
“Rise and shine, kiddo,” Sunset said. “We’ve got somewhere to be today.”
“Huh?” Morning sat up and rubbed her eyes. She regretted it as her left eye still hurt at the touch. “But it’s Saturday.”
“Yeah, and it’s time for your punishment. Sleep is for ponies who didn’t get into fights at school.”
“Oh.” Morning looked down, the reality of having to face a punishment really sinking in for the first time. She had been so happy that her moms still wanted her that she hadn’t spent much time thinking about her actual punishment.
“Come on,” Sunset jerked her head. “First breakfast, then we’re heading out.”
“Why does it have to be so early?” Morning asked as she got out of bed. Sunset left the room, so Morning shuffled after her.
“Because what we’re doing starts at dawn, and I still want you to get some breakfast first. I thought you liked being up early?”
“Not this early!”
Sunset chuckled. “Yeah, well, imagine how I feel. I gotta get up early and I didn’t even do anything!”
Morning let out a yawn as they walked into the kitchen. She took a seat and Sunset got each of them each a bowl of cereal and some toast. They ate in silence, both of them too tired to talk much.
Little by little though, Morning did wake up. She noticed things as she did, like the fact that Sunset seemed to be just as tired as she was, if not more. “Why isn’t Mama the one getting me up? She’s up early anyway.”
“Because she has to work, and helping her isn’t a punishment.” Sunset grinned. “Seeing all the animals is fun. What we’re doing today is not.”
“Oh.” Morning frowned, both wondering what they were doing and wanting to wait as long as possible to find out.
They finished their breakfast, then Sunset marched them out of the castle. They didn’t take anything with them, so whatever they were doing either didn’t need tools, or the tools they needed were already there.
The sun was just starting to come up as they walked. Sunset seemed to be watching it, which made Morning curious. “Is it true that Princess Celestia is like your mom?”
“Where’d you hear that?” Sunset asked.
“From Mama.”
“Ah. Well, it’s complicated.” Sunset sighed. “My mother isn’t a good pony. She never cared about me. She ran a company, and she spent all her time doing that and never paid attention to me at all. She’s not, like, a bad pony, but she was a bad mom.”
“Oh.”
“So then Celestia took me away from my parents because they weren’t taking care of me, and I lived with her for a few years.”
“So she is like your mom?”
“It’s… like I said, it’s complicated.” Sunset looked at the sunrise. “Celestia is… she’s not good at being close to other ponies. I think if I told her she’s like a mom to me, it would really weird her out. I mean, she cares a lot about me and everything, but she still thinks of me as her student.”
Morning looked at the sunrise. Somewhere out in Canterlot, Princess Celestia had to be awake and raising it, and yet Sunset was way out in Ponyville. “So why don’t you live in Canterlot?”
Sunset shrugged. “Twilight lived here already. I was living in the human world after I ran away from Canterlot, then I moved here to live with Twilight and Fluttershy.” A moment passed, then she added, “I mean Mom and Mama. Someday I’ll get used to calling them that.”
Morning giggled. All of her moms started using their new titles around Morning, but her ma struggled with it more than the others.
It seemed like they walked through all of Ponyville, passing very few ponies on the way. Occasionally they would pass by houses with the lights on, and once they passed a coffee shop that was full of ponies, but otherwise it was very peaceful to walk through Ponyville at this hour.
They walked for so long that Morning thought maybe they were just going to keep walking all the way to the next town, but they eventually came to a stop at the edge of town. It was a place Morning had been a few times before, although she hadn’t expected to go there as part of her punishment.
“Sweet Apple Acres?” Morning asked. “What are we doing here?”
“I’m visiting, you’re working.”
Morning wasn’t really sure what working at Sweet Apple Acres was going to be like, but she suspected she was going to find out. The Apples were all out and about, and one of them came walking over to greet them.
“Hey there, Morning. Hi, Sunset,” she said. Morning couldn’t remember her name, but she was Applejack’s sister.
“Hi, Apple Bloom,” Sunset said, reminding Morning what her name was in the process. “How’s it going?”
“Pretty good. So y’all ready to work up a sweat, then?”
Sunset shook her head. “Oh no, no way. I’m going inside and chatting with Granny Smith over coffee.” She jerked her head towards Morning. “This is your worker today. I trust Applejack filled you in on what to do?”
“Yeah, she told me. Don’t worry, I’ll work her good and hard for you.”
“Sounds good.” Sunset turned to Morning. “Apple Bloom is your boss as long as we’re here. Do what she tells you to do, and if you finish, tell her you’re done so you can do something else. I’ll come get you when it’s time to take a break.”
Morning frowned and bowed her head. “Alright.”
Sunset nodded and walked towards the farmhouse. Apple Bloom smiled and led Morning to a wicker basket. “Alright then, you’re gonna need this.”
“I, uhm… I’m not good at levitating.”
Apple Bloom laughed. “Yeah, me neither!” She patted her head to show it was hornless. “ ‘Round these parts, we do things without magic. Just balance it on your back like this.”
With a little help from Apple Bloom, they got the basket on Morning’s back. It was small enough for a filly like her, while Apple Bloom carried a bigger one. They walked out into the apple orchard.
“What are we doing?” Morning asked.
“Apple bucking.” Apple Bloom walked over to one of the trees. “So whatcha wanna do is get in front of the tree like this, then jus’ give it a good kick.”
Apple Bloom demonstrated, positioning herself in front of the tree and facing away from it. She reared back and kicked out with her hindlegs, and a bunch of apples fell into her basket. Morning blinked, not quite sure she could pull that off.
“Give it a try on that tree over there.”
Morning had her doubts, but she walked over to the tree anyway. She positioned herself like Apple Bloom had done, and she kicked back at the tree.
There was a loud thud when her hoof made contact with it, but that was all. No falling apples, just a filly with a basket who felt very silly.
“There ya go,” Apple Bloom said.
Morning cocked her head to the side. “But nothing happened.”
“Yeah, you need more practice. Keep doing that, and eventually you’ll get the hang of it. Come find me, my brother, or my sister when ya got your basket all filled up.”
Morning frowned as Apple Bloom walked away, bringing her full basket somewhere else. With a sigh, she tried again.
Nothing happened.
Again.
Nothing.
And again.
Morning kept hitting the stupid tree, but no apples fell. She even looked up to make sure they were there, and saw that they were. She just wasn’t strong enough.
What were they thinking? She was just a filly! She was six years old, she couldn’t do this! And it made her legs hurt to keep kicking a tree like this.
This was so dumb. She had been looking out for Sunset. Nopony should be allowed to say things like that about her family, they were good ponies – even if they were also dumb ponies for making her do this. They took her in, and ponies needed to know that Morning wouldn’t let anypony talk about them like that.
Morning gritted her teeth and kicked, imagining it was stupid Gusty Breeze.
Nopony really understood. Morning was under all this pressure now. She was supposed to be a princess, and okay sure, maybe princesses shouldn’t go around fighting with ponies like Gusty, but no one was telling her what princesses were supposed to do! She wanted to be a good filly, a good princess. She wanted them to be proud of her, and no one was telling her how to do that.
She adjusted her stance, and she kicked.
They all kept telling her that she only needed to be herself. That was all well and good for other ponies. Ponies like her moms, they were good! They didn’t have to worry about what would happen if they were their true selves because their true selves would never get into fights, or yell at other ponies, or do all this bad stuff like Morning did.
It wasn’t fair! Morning was just trying to be good and she didn’t know how! And kicking a stupid tree wasn’t going to help, but she had to do it anyway, so she put all of her anger into it, and she kicked with all her might.
An apple fell. Just one apple, and it missed her basket, but it fell. Morning blinked, then she smiled. She did it! She actually managed to buck an apple!
She picked it up and tossed it into her basket, put a grin on, and launched another kick.
There was no end to it. Morning finally filled her little basket, then Apple Bloom just gave her another one. She was angry about that, but she just channeled that into apple bucking.
Little but little, she got less angry. Not that she wasn’t, but she wore herself out hitting the apple trees, and she found her anger was replaced with tiredness.
And eventually, Sunset came to get her. She was levitating a pitcher and two cups with her. “Break time, Mo Glow.”
Morning was huffing and sweating, so she wasn’t about to turn that down. Rather than go anywhere, Sunset took a seat in the shade of the tree that Morning had been bucking, so Morning did the same.
Sunset poured them each a glass of apple juice, then passed one to Morning. It was cold and refreshing, just what she needed after working so hard.
“So how do you feel?” Sunset asked.
“Hot.”
Sunset laughed. “Yeah, that’s fair. Heard you’ve been doing good work, though. Been at it for an hour already.”
“It’s only been an hour!?”
Sunset laughed again. “Yeah, afraid so. But don’t worry, you don’t have to put in a full day’s work or anything.”
“So how long do I have to keep bucking apples?”
Sunset seemed to think for a minute. “I guess that depends on you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, tell you what. You asked me earlier why I was the one taking you out here today, and I did tell the truth about Fluttershy needing to work, but there’s another reason. How about I answer that, and maybe you’ll understand better.”
Morning nodded. “Okay.”
Sunset looked at her for a while, then took a long drink of her juice. When she was done, she looked down at her hooves. “I was a bully. A really bad one. I almost killed my best friend. I almost killed Twilight once. Not on purpose, I didn’t want to kill either of them. But I did a lot of really bad things before I met your other moms.”
Morning thought back on what she heard the other kids saying, about how her ma wasn’t a good pony. She hadn’t expected there to be any truth to that…
Sunset looked at her. “I was just so angry. I was angry at everything, but mostly, I was angry at myself. I knew I had done some bad things, and instead of working on being better, I just let myself become worse and worse. Then I met Mom, and she turned me around. Showed me another way.”
“Did she make you buck apples?”
Sunset chuckled. “No, she did something much worse. She made me have friends.”
Morning scrunched up her face. “That’s not worse!”
Sunset laughed. “To me, it was the worst thing I could imagine. Opening myself up to someone else, letting myself care about someone… It was hard. But that’s not really the point right now. The point is I was just so angry. And I know you get angry too.”
Morning bowed her head.
“It’s okay, Morning. It’s okay to be angry. Even when it’s over something you know you shouldn’t be angry about. It’s never wrong to feel things. On the walk over, when I was talking about my mom, I was angry then. Not at you or anything, but at her. Because just talking about her makes me angry. And it shouldn’t, but it does. I get angry, but I’ve learned to control that anger.”
Morning nodded. She needed to control her anger. “How do you do it?”
“It’s hard. It took me years, and I still mess up. Remember when we saw my dad in Canterlot? I couldn’t control my anger then, and that was bad. But mistakes happen, and all I can do, all anyone can do is try again.”
“It’s hard to keep trying though…”
Sunset placed a hoof under her chin and gently guided her face up so she could see her ma smiling at her. “I know. Trust me, I know. And that’s why we’re here. See, it’s not just about punishing you. Don’t get me wrong, what you did was bad and you’re still grounded. But punishing you isn’t something we want to do. Instead, we want to show you how to be better. And we don’t know what will help you the best, so we’re trying something.”
“Bucking apples is supposed to make me less angry?”
“What did you feel when we made you buck apples?”
“I… I got mad I had to do this…”
“And then what about as the day went on?”
“I guess… I got less angry…”
Sunset nodded. “It’s never okay to hit somepony just because you’re angry. But you know, if you get angry enough that you want to hit something, there’s an awful lot of apples to buck.”
“So if I get angry… I should come and buck apples?”
Sunset nodded. “That’s one thing you can do. And if that doesn’t work, there are other things we can try too. We’re willing to try as many as it takes to help you work out your anger.”
Morning bowed her head, but not because she was upset. For perhaps the first time ever, it really struck Morning how great her moms were and how lucky she was to have them.
She looked at the tree, then back to her ma. “Do I still have to keep bucking apples?”
“Well… what do you want to do? You said it helped you feel less angry. Do you still think you have more anger to work through?”
“I don’t feel angry right now. I just feel tired.” Morning tilted her head to the side. “Can I take a nap?”
Sunset laughed. “You know what? A nap sounds good. I think this feels like a pretty good spot for one, too. What do you think?”
There was some truth to that. The grass was nice and soft, and the autumn air was cool. Still, Morning thought she knew a way to make it better. She stood up and walked over to Sunset, then curled up against her. “Yes, this is a good spot.”
Sunset wrapped a leg around her and kissed her on the head. “Sleep well, Mo Glow.”
Exhausted as she was from the day’s work and as comfortable as she was with her ma beside her, Morning knew she’d be able to do just that.