//------------------------------// // Ch1: Prologue // Story: Shots for the Mare Without Meaning // by GigglesOCM //------------------------------// Chapter I- Prologue It’s was a wonderful dawn to a beautiful day in New Fillydelphia when a healthy baby filly was born, Mr. and Mrs. Vines are proud and so they rejoice to their now complete family. After 6 years of trying, they have finally succeeded in giving birth to a healthy foal. To be absolutely honest, the new found parents expected a miscarriage, so this was truly a joyful occasion. They felt as though the clouds of Olympus themselves moved out of the way to shine heavenly light upon their ever so grim lives, and the light was a new born filly, and so they celebrated with wine from Mr. Grape Vines winery. “Only the best…” he declared and so continued, “…only the best for such a beautiful child of mine…” of course the child did not partake in any drinking except from her mother’s breasts. As is Equestrian tradition, the foal must be named within one year if not on the foals first birthday. But right there the mother knew and named her filly Berry Vines. Later on, Berry started preschool. She began that year rather shy and withdrawn from the class, unsure how to interact with the other foals in the classroom, she would normally stand by the teacher’s side and tell when one of the other students hit or said bad things. Half way through the year, Berry was subjected to bullying; she had no friends and was alienated from a lot of the group activities by the other foals, she tried so hard to get along with the others, really she did, but the other students would taunt her and repeat things their parents had said about her father, whenever she tried saying something back she would always get in trouble with the teacher. Nearing the end of the school year, she was suspended for fighting with another student, only for 5 day though and when she returned a week later, she was teased with a hurtful and cruel nickname, “Berry Punch”, she never wanted to hurt anypony. Afterwards, Berry was home schooled until she turned 10, where Berry was sent to Fillydelphia high school. Around this time Berry’s mother, Green Vines began seeing doctors for her heart palpitations. Because of all the bullying, Berry had become very unsure and timid with herself and her decisions and Berry’s mother became her only outlet for her feelings because her father, Grape Vines, was usually out at his winery running the business and providing for the family. The bond Berry shared with her mother is indescribable yet all too natural. Berry was 13 when it happened, late December, she was excited for the hearth warming eve celebration going on later that night. She had come a long way since preschool. Berry had many new friends and received great education at fillydelphia high. of course though, there was no school on that day, the day of the pageant. In fact, Berry was out all day with her friends doing some hearth warming eve shopping, and Grape Vines was needed at the winery for celebration preparations, leaving Green alone in the house all day. Berry had met up with her father in Fillydelphia central; in reality they were planning a surprise party for Green. Green’s condition was getting increasingly worse as the days progressed, and Berry couldn’t stand seeing her mother so unhappy, so Berry set out to make her mother as happy as Berry was having such a wonderful mother… Ah, memories of ode, Green was a gentle and caring mother, gave twice as much as she received. When berry was younger, Green would trot past her room sometimes in the middle of the night to find her crying under her sheets, and like any mother she set out to comfort her child, singing her soothing lullabies and reading her stories like “Tara, the strong”, and “mare in the moon”, all great bed time stories, but Sometimes none of this would help, in that case she would hold her and let her cry until she fell asleep and then Green would fall asleep herself. “Sometimes you’re emotions need to be free, Don’t be afraid to show your feelings.” She would say to berry …While Berry was relishing in sweet memories, Grape sent Berry to retrieve her mother; she gleefully complies and raced home for her… Another time berry had gone to the Equestria Games with her mother and got terribly lost. Eventually a security pony found her and brought her back to her mother. When Green found her daughter, she broke down into tears, crying and kissing her and holding her close, she said to her “I’m never going to leave you ever again, not as long as the skies are blue!” …Back to reality. Berry was home, sweet home. So excited, so very, very excited. Another memory plays back… It was late in the afternoon, Berry looked dazzling in her dress, and she was all ready for her first dance, the winter ball. She sat in the living room waiting for her date. Her mother glances over and saw that she was nervous and walked towards her “what’s the matter my little Dionysus?” (Dionysus being a term of endearment for ‘fun loving’ and ‘joyful company’ for the ponies) Berry told her that she was unsure of herself, what if her date didn’t like her dress or what if he stands her up, Green understands her worries and tells her “then it’s his loss. You’re a beautiful pony, whether you know it or not. And I can’t imagine any pony who wouldn’t want to take you to the winter ball.” “thanks, mom” berry hugs her mother tender wiping a tear from her eye, just then There is a knock at the door, “well, don’t keep him waiting dear.” teased Green. …After snapping out of yet another wonderful thought from her past, Berry called out for her mother as she entered the house. The whole house was dark and lifeless in expression. Berry continued up the stairs and called out once more, before recalling another memory… “mommy, I’m scared” Screams a small filly clenched to her mother “It’s alright, sweetie, watch… Wee!” Green began to swing the Ferris wheel cart back and forth slightly to show her that it was fun. Berry was not convinced and grappled onto her for protection. Green sees this and stops “It’s okay really, Berry. Mama’s got you.” Green holds Berry close “Nothing can hurt you when you’re with mama…” Loud shrieks of terror fill the hallways of the household… the skies were awfully dark that day… A decade later on one of Luna’s more dark and yet illuminating nights, late November, two earth pony mares staggers out of a bar after another night of drinking. The mare stand at 4’3”, an average height for a filly her age and weighs that of an average mare would as well. Her fur is pink with a tint of purple which appears as a dull purple in the dim moonlight, and her red-ish purple mane (which, just as her fur, appears darker) is messy and rather puffy as though she had just gotten out bed, her tail mimicking her mane with puffy cowlicks. Her nose is big and puffy, which indicates that she is a heavy drinker. Deeply blushing from the alcohol, she walks along, her dark purple eyes sort of cross as she hics and giggles, yet they shine from the moons barrowed light. Upon her flank is, of course, her cutiemark, a single strawberry nestled in front of a purple grape vine. The other mare however, is of much more ominous proportions; she stands roughly a bit taller than Celestia herself. The mare’s mane and tail is big, poofy, messy, and it sort of reminds Berry of the pink earth pony from the bakery with the exception of her frontlock which leans forward and curves in a crescent shape unlike the baker’s, and her mane is a crystal clear blue that sparkles in the moonlight (and would seem to sparkle regardless of what light shines through her locks) as where her fur is a bright yellow with a slight, almost unnoticeable, orange hue and a couple of little pink freckles across her face. Her legs are long and sleek and from the back of each leg she has her hair grown out, each lock is long and flowing like a small bonfire as her orange hue becomes more noticeable the longer her fur gets. Another thing that makes this mare stand out would be the glowing disk floating above her head, one can only think a odd fashion statement, but just as interesting is her cutie mark, or brand really, it’s a peculiar looking smiley, but considering what we know about this mare, it should be considered normal for her. The smiley face has two long horizontal oval for eyes kind of like a normal smiley face does, but what makes this smiley so different is the smile itself. Its smile pans across its face curving upward to give it that happy sensation literally stretched out ear to ear (given if it had ears) and has three jagged teeth symmetrically placed into the smilies wide open mouth. Rather weird place for a brand like that, but, other than that… she’s normal. The two stagger, intoxicated, across the street when the tall strange mare looks up into the night’s sky directly at the North Star, which is known to be the faintest star in the sky. almost unnoticeable, but sure enough there it is. As she stares at it, walking along with her shorter drunken companion, it starts to flicker in and out. She stops and takes the thick glowing ring from above her head and looks close at it like you would a stop watch that has no numbers on it, just those little tick mark things. She looks up, then back down, and then up again, now the star is gone, it takes her a minute to notice. Soon she realizes and goes to inform her companion of something, who is on the other side of the street slouching on a light pole (the companion that is). The tall mare dashes towards her like in an old Saturday morning cartoon, most literally in fact, probably intentionally. Unsurprisingly enough, she runs into the light pole, knocking the other mare on her butt. Her head vibrates like a ringing bell, all zany like, and in response to this she puts both hooves on her head, trying to stop the shaking. Once she is still again she turns to her friend who is heaving her body back and forth incoherently, staring at a blank wall with a poster of Vinyl Scratch and Neon Lights, a concert advertisement. Approaching her and speaking with a drunken lisp “Listen, um… Burr-ray, I-I… I… me… I g-gotta go… ya’know, I gots things to-ta-to do, you know that…” she leans towards her ear and whispers “… ya’know, dat demogerd sturf.” Berry sits there for a moment thinking, not quite sure what of, but she eventually realizes something. she replies “OH! O-okay granny p-pi-pee…” she giggles to herself and continues, “Good luck wift that burby sturf, ya’know I’z has a bebeh too? She so pretty…jurst likes her mommsy…” Granny Pie, the only name I could presume this characters name to be, rests her hoof on Berry’s shoulder “burr-ber-ray, you-your drunk… you needs to goes home before be-before… before the…” ??? Whatever she just said was illegible most likely to be gibberish, but Berry has seemed to have understood it and the two parted ways. Before the other mare could get too far, Berry turns back to see her walking with some dark figure carrying a large pointy stick… Berry settles on the fact that she is indeed drunk and continues home. Wow… crazy night. Home, sweet home. Berry makes an attempt to be as quite as possible as she enters her cluttered home, but fails from lack of dependable motor control and stumbling on all the junk laying about, making plenty of noise on her way to the fridge. She stubbles into the kitchen and opens the fridge with the intent to make a PB and J sandwich (that’s peanut butter and jell-o). The kitchen itself is a mess. Dirty dishes are stacked to the ceiling which block the window right behind the sink letting in little moon light, the floors are sticky with old food and week old garbage, and the whole place reeks faintly of burnt popcorn and moldy milk. There is hardly any food in the cabinets, its mostly just empty boxes, and the fridge is no different. The table is covered in papers and letters from foal services, warnings mostly, some are threats, all meaningless, foal services can’t come near her without going to court. Berry shoves the papers off to make room for her divine cuisine, also pushing some plates and cups off, hitting the floor shattering with large crashes. Berry leans over the pile of shattered glass “ssssssssh! Ponies are trying to sleep.” Berry then leans back up and returns to her sandwich. While Berry dines on her clever culinary creation, a little pink unicorn trots into the kitchen but Berry doesn’t notice her until she speaks “Mommy?” Berry looks behind her, her PB and J stuffed in her mouth, to see her daughter, Pinchy Punch, was up out of bed wrapped up in a cozy blanket. Pinchy is a little under half Berry’s size and has pink fur and a slightly darker pink mane, and her eyes are olive green shimmering from disrupted sleep. Upon her flank is no cutiemark. Most girls her age normally had their cutiemarks, and Pinchy is indeed a very gifted filly, why she could cook fine cuisines fit for royalty, and has great talent for arts and crafts and a keen eye for colors and decorations (unlike myself, whom can’t tell hot pink magenta from salmon, apparently). She is such a gifted child, and yet, has nothing to show for it. Berry is not fully aware of Pinchy’s presence just yet, even though she is standing right in front of her. It takes her a few seconds to finally recognize her and speak, of coarse, with the food in her mouth Pinchy can’t make out what her mother is trying to say. Berry swallows her food “he~y… shouldn’th youz be in bed’th? Ith an stool night youz know?” her words spill out with the sickening aroma of warm alcohol. “It’s Saturday, mommy…” Pinchy replies back before Berry’s breathe smacks into her nostrils like a wet towel on bare skin “augh!” Pinchy disgustedly exclaims, covering her nose with the blanket “Mommy, have you been drinking that stinky water again?” Berry leans against the table, trying to fib her way out of the situation when suddenly the table slides away on the linoleum floor causing her to tumble to the ground, opposite to the shattered glass, where she finally emits to a few drinks “I swear it was only three drinks. Ten, tops!” Pinchy shakes her head in disappointment before trotting over to help her mother up onto her hooves. She loves her mother despite what everypony else thinks about Berry, and why shouldn’t she? Berry has only looked out for her and protected her like any good mother would, but who is going to protect Berry? Even she can tell her mother has a problem. Just the night before Berry promised no more drinking, because her mother was afraid of losing Pinchy. Pinchy is oblivious to the threats and demands made by foal services, but she is well aware of the fear of losing her mother, just the thought of it brings her to tears, in an attempt to hold herself together, she pushes those kinds of thoughts out of her mind. Pinchy loves her mother, as much as any filly could love their own moms, but Berry told her that bad ponies wanted to take her away from Berry. Pinchy doesn’t want that to happen, she doesn’t want to leave her mother all alone. The two of them have traveled to the couch when Pinchy tells her mom to gets some rest, Berry didn’t object, beside, crafting creamy confections of sheer culinary genius is tiring work, and so Berry lays down on the lumpy sofa for some much needed rest. Pinchy takes the blanket she had wrapped around herself and covers Berry with it, hugs and kisses her mother goodnight, then turns to head back to bed. “Pinchy…” Berry calls out faintly, grabbing Pinchy’s attention, she turns back around to face her “yes, mommy?” “…you know mommy loves you, right?” “…yeah, mommy, I love you too… goodnight…” “…goodnight, my little…” Berry snoozes off before finishing her sentence. So Pinchy takes her leave and heads straight for bed, she has a big day of cleaning ahead of her. “…Dionysus…”