//------------------------------//
// Equestrian Greed/Equestrian Kindness 
// Story: Beyond Me 
// by Boopy Doopy 
//------------------------------//

“Wow, he really laid into you,” Twilight commented casually as the pony left. “I guess going into business isn’t all it seems. But I told you that already, didn’t I?”
“If you’re just going to mock me, then I really don’t want to hear it please,” I said as I put my head on the table I was still at. “Eight percent isn’t even that much, and yet he was treating it like it was the end of the world.”
“Maybe businesses in Equestria aren’t the same as ones on Earth, since you’re from there. I mean, you don’t really act like any pony I’ve ever met, so it would make sense if the economics were different, too.”
“Economics shouldn’t change from place to place! What makes sense on Earth should make sense anywhere else you can open a business at!”
Unless the ponies themselves were different like she said. Heck, Celestia herself said I didn’t act like anypony she’d ever met. There was a certain sense of ‘happy-go-luckiness’ about these people, a sort of naivety. They didn’t pick up on things that would’ve been obvious to any twelve year old who came here. I wondered if that affected their business strategies and how businesses liked to compete with one another. It would explain why a store named ‘Quills And Sofas’ could exist selling only those two things. Because ponies were too naïve to compete with one another to expand business.
There was a way to use this to my advantage, I knew that, but I couldn’t think of what it was. Were ponies just not greedy? No, they had to have some sort of greed, otherwise they wouldn’t have opened businesses, right? Right.
Maybe. Maybe they didn’t. If you had a cutie mark to tell you exactly what your station in life was, was there any reason to question something like that? If you just did what was on your butt, everything would work out in this world, apparently. Why was there a reason to be greedy if everything was predestined to work out?
If ponies weren’t greedy, I could probably throw out opening a business. There had to be some sort of greed for any sort of American style economic system to work out, otherwise you’d just end up like Applejack in a run down barn and not questioning it because the picture on your butt tells you that this is good at. Without some level of greed, it’d be much harder to worm my way into politics. I had to see if ponies were greedy.
“Where are you going now, Asher?” Twilight suddenly asked as I got up and ran outside. I didn’t reply, looking around for Filthy Rich to catch up to him before he got to the Apple Family orchard.
“Mr. Rich!” I called, running after him. He turned around and had the good grace to stop for me, but I was still huffing and puffing by the time I caught up to him. That was another thing to put on the list of things to do. Working out.
“I can help you make way more money than you do already,” I said breathlessly. “Without losing any customers, too. I can help you.”
“Oh?” he asked, raising an eyebrow curiously. “Can ya now, little filly?”
“Please don’t call me… a filly,” I asked. “But yes, I can, if I… gosh, I need to work out.”
“I’m not sure ya know as much as ya think you do, little girl,” he said as I laid down on my back in the grass to catch my breath. “This isn’t little foals’ business. Ya might think you’re grown because you have a cutie mark for money, but you’ve got a lot to learn.”
“If you just… give me a chance…” Was I an asthmatic? Or was I getting sick with something again? I could not run for anything, and felt like I was struggling for breath.
“Asher?” a voice I recognized called out to me. “What are you doing out here talking to Daddy?” Diamond Tiara asked. I didn’t know how she found me, but it might have been a good thing. She was my friend and could probably vouch for me.
“You’re not gonna pass out, are you?” she asked. “You look like you want to roll over and fall asleep. Are you sick again?”
“I’m fine,” I said breathlessly as I sat up. I might have been dealing with more than just dysphoria today. It would explain why I woke up feeling bad. Not to mention, being sick did make me more emotional.
“I was just… talking to your dad about helping him with his business.”
“And I was just telling your friend that I was perfectly fine managing my business without the help of little fillies who already hurt it once before.”
I cringed at that word. He was still doing it, without any regard for what I told him already.
“She’s gonna help you, daddy?” Diamond asked. “Cause she’s, like, the smartest filly I know. She’s the pony I was telling you that Silver Spoon likes. She’s even smarter than her.”
“Oh, I’m sure she is, pumpkin,” Filthy Rich replied, sweetness in his voice. “But your friend already messed things up by talking to Miss Applejack about raising her prices. You know high prices are bad for daddy’s business, sugar.”
“Yeah, but she totally helped Applejack rebuild her barn with the extra money she’s getting! She didn’t mean to mess up things for you, and I’m sure she could fix it. She’s that smart.”
“Lord, please take this dysphoria away,” I prayed. “I’m gonna ball up and cry if they keep calling me a girl today.” It was nice that Diamond was vouching for me like I needed her to, but it was going to absolutely kill me to keep hearing, especially if I was getting sick again.
“Pleeeease, daddy?” Diamond asked, blinking her eyes in a puppy dog expression. “She told me before she wants to own a business! She can help, and if she messes up, you can teach her what to do! She got her cutie mark while she was helping Applejack! Please?”
“Mmmm… darling, I… well… I don’t see why not, but only if she knows what she’s doing. Sure, sugar.”
“Yay! That means you, Silver Spoon and I can finally have that sleepover!”
“That sounds like fun,” I said flatly, still somehow trying to get my breath again. “Thanks Diamond, you’re wonderful. But maybe not tonight for a sleepover?”
“Of course, not tonight, Asher! I mean, if you’re sick again, I don’t wanna get sick, do I? But soon! Oh, this is so exciting.”
“I’m sure it is, sweetheart,” Filthy Rich smiled politely as he eyed me. “Now run along, pumpkin, so I can talk to your friend alone for a minute.”
“Okay, daddy!” She gave a quick hug with that, leaving the stallion and I alone, Filthy Rich brooding over me as he looked down at me with disdain.
“I guess ya can consider yourself lucky to be friends with my daughter, little filly,” he told me aggressively, apparently not caring about his tone when he talked to me. It was both annoying and relieving not to be patronized, but I once again shivered when he used the phrase ‘little filly’.
“Please don’t–”
“No, I’m talking now, missy,” he said. I was about five more ‘missies’ away from crying as he said, “I know ya think you might know it all, but entering this business isn’t as easy as getting a cutie mark and being on your way. I’m gonna be watching you very carefully to make sure you aren’t out to try and ruin me. I don’t take kindly to ponies messing with the money I make, even if they are little fillies like you, missy.”
Yup, there was greed. The exact greed I asked for. I guess I should’ve expected this, but somehow, I thought things would be approached more professionally and he would have respect for someone being viewed as young helping out Applejack.
“I will be watching you closely,” he finished. “Don’t go messing with the prices of my goods again.” He walked off casually with that, waving at ponies he passed by as if he didn’t just chew me out. Yup. Once again, that went poorly. I didn’t think he’d be inviting me to Canterlot anytime soon, or chatting me up to anyone.
“Lord, I…” I didn’t know what to say. I was on the verge of tears from dysphoria. Why couldn’t he just take the hint and stop calling me a girl? It felt almost malicious on his part, and I found myself sniffling because of it. Not that I was surprised. In fact, my emotionalness only served to make me feel worse.
I got up to head back to the library after a few minutes, but as soon as I did, I broke out into a fit of coughing. Yup, I was sick. Again. Apparently the fifty vaccines they gave me when I had diphtheria didn’t work. What it was this time, I didn’t know, but it got the tears to run down my cheeks now.
“I’m fine,” I said aloud to myself, staying upright lest I fall and not get back up. “I’m fine. I’m gonna help Filthy Rich even though he hates me, and then be a politician even though Celestia hates me, and then get over being a girl and a pony even though I hate my body severely, and then…”
I missed my family. Right then, it was hitting particularly hard. I missed going to work every day at my job and studying for college and going to church every Sunday and my parents teasing me about who I was and my views and everything. I missed it all. I missed it, and I was never going to get those things back. I was stuck here for the rest of my life. I was gonna grow up to be an old woman because God willed it and there was nothing I could do about it but deal with it. I hated this all so much.
“Asher?” Diamond Tiara asked, suddenly appearing next to me again. She was with the three other girls I called my friends, all four of them looking at me with concern in their eyes.
“And all of my friends are ten year old girls. This is so stupid!”
No, don’t think like that. I couldn’t think like that. It wasn’t their fault that I was hurting. In fact, they probably only wanted to help me, especially given their sad looks.
“You haven’t cried in, like, three weeks,” Scootaloo said. “What’s wrong?”
“The same dumb thing as always,” I said bitterly, flopping back down into the grass on my stomach and coughing some because of it. “I miss being at home. I miss my life. I don’t hate being here, but I hate that I have to live here forever in this body. I just miss home.”
“Awwww…” All four of them flopped down next to me, pressing into me and wrapping their hooves around me. I wasn’t a comfort-through-hugs kind of guy, but I appreciated the sentiment of what they were trying to do. It made me feel a little better at least.
“We can try and make Ponyville like Earth if you want,” Scootaloo suggested. “That could be a fun thing to do.”
“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle agreed. “And we can do things humans do, if you want! You said there was a thing called ‘Independence Day’ where you’re from before where they put lights in the sky! We can have a holiday like that here!”
“Thanks, guys, but no,” I responded. “I appreciate the thought, but it wouldn’t be the same without the context of history.” I sighed and continued, “It’s more than just that anyway. Ponies just don’t act the same as humans do. I don’t know what about you guys is different, but it’s something, and you can’t replicate that.”
“Well, how can we make you feel better?” Silver Spoon asked, sounding the most sad of the bunch somehow.
“I don’t think there’s anything you can do,” I said, “but that’s okay. It’s not your fault that I…”
I started to cry at the thought that I finished in my head. It was probably me being sick that was messing with my emotions, but it felt like God sent me here and then abandoned me. I couldn’t shake the feeling, and it was one that made me cry, genuinely cry, for the first time. I cried a lot here, but it didn’t ever feel as genuinely sad as this felt now.
“I’d rather just lay down and be alone for a while, if that’s okay.”
“Well we’ll let you lay down, but we’re not gonna leave you alone, Asher,” one of them said. “That’s not what friends do.”
“Yeah, we’re here for you, even when you’re sad and upset, just like you’d be there for us.”
That made me smile a little bit as I cried. Of course, God didn’t abandon me, even if I felt like that. The proof I had in that was the four kind girls he allowed me to meet and become friends with. They were so genuinely nice, something that I absolutely appreciated about ponies. Unlike humans, most of them were not only genuinely nice, but went out of their way to help someone in need from what I saw.
“Thank you guys. You’re all amazing. But I don’t think you’ll want to be around me since I’m pretty sure I’m getting sick again.”
“If you’re getting sick, then we’re gonna get sick, too,” Silver Spoon said, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle agreeing as Diamond Tiara reluctantly nodded her head. “Like they said, that’s what friends are for.”
“Now cuddle pile on Asher, everypony!” Sweetie Belle cheered, and I flinched as they all geared up to force their weight on top of me.
“Don’t jump though. Please don’t jump.” They listened to what I said, instead moving to carefully lay on top of me as I fell back to sleep in the sun.