“Sometimes it lays dormant, sometimes it sears with the intensity of a thousand suns. The slightest spark can ignite the flame raging and consuming everything in it's path. Strength is of no matter when the red before my eyes blurs the vision. All I have ever known in my life is anger and nothing but anger. Why does this stallion, who's confidence I broke put in so much effort to help me?” ~Short Fuse journal entry number 29
~Chapter 3: Stress test~
A couple of hours after meeting Basher and parting ways again Fuse sat in something that once perhaps was a sofa but had long since lost it's glory and found himself looking out of his window contemplating a lot about what had happened the last couple of days. He had reunited with somepony who's confidence he had destroyed by overcoming physical inferiority while they were still foals. They fought and eventually that pony tried to help him get better. But how did he want to make his life any better? Fuse found himself grinding all the gears of his mind making futile attempts to understand what drove Basher to help him. How would it be possible for the green pony to get a purpose by helping him?
Eventually the strain of thought died in the angry pony's head which resulted in Fuse watching the sun slowly set with his mind blank, for some reason feeling tranquil for once. He couldn't determine why or how just that nothing was bothering him or annoying him, that was until he broke out of his trance and decided it would be best to go to bed since he would meet Basher again tomorrow, to make another attempt to resolve the entire situation with Twilight.
Nine in the morning, as agreed, or better said, dictated by him Basher appeared on the town's square and waited for Short Fuse to arrive. Basher grew a little agitated as Short Fuse still didn't appear fifteen minutes after the set time and decided to head over to the red pony's home instead. He bashed on the door quite loudly since the large green pony figured Fuse was still sleeping.
After the first round of knocking Basher didn't get a reply and decided to knock again this time even louder than the first time. After the second round he got rewarded with some curses originating from inside the shed that had to pass for Fuse's house. “Get the hell out of here whoever you are you son of a mongrel,” was clearly distinguishable. “If I have to open that door I swear solemnly I will gut you like a fish,” after those incredibly rude statements it got silent again.
Basher wasn't about to let himself be intimidated by Fuse and was determined to get some stuff done today. He knew arranging to meet at this time of day would pose some problems with the red colt since Basher was aware of the atrocious biorhythm and intended to fix that as well as they were working on stuff anyways. “Fuse, get your flank out of bed and come out, unless you don't need this door anymore because if you're not out here within the next moment I'm coming in,” Basher shouted and bashed a couple more times on the door.
Some screeching emerged from the inside which presumably had to be curses but were distorted beyond anything anypony could possibly understand. Within the given time limit Fuse opened the door looking the mess he was. He looked at basher shooting lightning from his eyes. “Why do you want me to meet you at this horrible time of day, I mean, I hate mornings... actually I pretty much hate every part of the day but I especially hate mornings. Whoever came up with this horrible idea of mornings should be shout out of a cannon right into the sun,” he ranted.
“Good luck with that Fuse,” Basher stated dismissively and rolled his eyes as the red pony vented his rage. “If you're done ranting, shall we head over to miss Sparkle's place to see if we can get anything done there?”
Fuse's rage got replaced by anxiety instantly and he hesitantly nodded since he knew there was little else he could do. “Basher, what if the princess doesn't want to hear anything of it? I mean, you did make a reasonable point yesterday when you said kicking the dragon for doing his job was slightly over the top,” Fuse said with a surprising amount of reason.
“Slightly? Well, anyways you know where you went wrong which is I guess something good, but I think Twilight will be open for reason and an apology. She might not forgive you right then and there and you might actually have to work for it Fuse, if you thought for a second that straightening your life would be easy, you are wrong. But all you have ever done was lash out to the obstacles and challenges in your life, get furiously mad and get yourself banned from everywhere,” Basher stated and looked at fuse. “By the way, you might want to splash some water in your face before we head over to Twilight's, you look horrible.”
“Do you know why I look horrible? As I recall I was given less than a minute to open the door or you would force your way in you fool, anyways, give me five minutes and I'll be ready,” Fuse said in a disgruntled way and headed back inside leaving the door open. Within two minutes the red pony looked somewhat presentable and started walking in the direction of the library where he would meet Twilight.
A short walk later they once again found themselves in front of Twilight's library. They had agreed they would send Basher in again first, and this time the green muscular pony would be equipped with the right knowledge of what had happened between Fuse, Twilight and Spike. “Well Fuse, are you ready? And I must asked since you made a very large fool of me last time, have you told me everything now?” The green pony asked and looked critically at Fuse.
“Yes Basher, everything that has happened, at least what has happened here I've told you. Are you sure this will work?” Fuse asked and looked generally on edge. He had grown anxious during the walk to the library and wasn't at all comfortable. When Basher went inside Fuse started pacing back and forth again. The second Basher had come into his live again he was pulled out of his comfort zone and as it looked like he would be getting back in his comfort zone any time soon which in turn invoked a lot of more questions to the anxious red colt like 'is my comfort zone any good?' and 'did I invoke all of this upon myself?'
Meanwhile while Fuse was grinding his fangs until they were becoming blunt Basher green approached Princess Twilight Sparkle once more. “Good morning miss Sparkle, Like I've announced we would see each other again shortly,” he said looking slightly confident with a small smile on his face.
Twilight's good mood evaporated instantly as she saw the green muscular pony because she knew all too well what Basher wanted to talk about. “Yes, mister... I didn't catch your name the first time, but regardless I know why you are here and my answer remains the same as last time. I do not want to see Short Fuse anywhere near me and especially Spike.” she said and sniffed.
“My name is Basher Green. I would be grateful if you would hear me out. I can see that you are still very angry and after prying the true story from mister Fuse I can perfectly understand why you are very angry,” the green pony stated as calmly as he could while his insides seemed to rearrange themselves as he invoked quite a harsh reaction from the alicorn.
“I will hear what you have to say mister Green,” Twilight said coldly with a slight nervous undertone. The purple alicorn sat down and offered a chair to Basher as well since she figured this might be quite a long story.
Short Fuse was still waiting outside of the library as everything inside was taking rather much longer than last time when Basher had emerged from the library within the minute. His anxiety was slowly converting to agitation which caused him to increase his pacing some more as he couldn't answer the questions that had risen earlier in his mind and whichever way he looked at it he couldn't answer them to save his life. During his pacing he suddenly tripped and fell on the ground face first in the damp morning mud. When he looked around he saw a startled foal and an utterly shocked mother. The foal couldn't be older than a kindergarten foal. The mother instantly jumped in and apologized frantically for her foal. “I am sorry mister Fuse, it will not happen again, please don't hurt my foal.” she said.
“Hurt a foal? What kind of monster does this mare think I am?” he thought and gave the mare a flat stare. He rose an eyebrow and sighed a little. Putting everything in retrospect he figured why the mare thought such a thing. He had kicked a baby dragon, why wouldn't he kick a foal. “I'm okay madam, is your kid alright?” he asked. He did feel some fury inside of him dwindling, ready to burst out for any given reason but since he was trying to fix some things he managed to keep himself together.
The foal's mother blinked her eyes a couple of times and shook her head in complete disbelief. “Oh yea, he is alright,” she replied and scurried along with her foal away from Short Fuse, leaving him all to himself.
Back inside the library Basher green explained everything to Twilight. “Well, mister Fuse is trying to get his life back on track. Or actually, I am forcing him to get his life on track again, it's quite a long story but it boils down to this. I had the displeasure of being in the same class as he, he hit me in the face quite hard and everything went south from there. To be perfectly honest with you, I hate him at least as much as you do. But I digress, I found out what he had done to your baby dragon and I know there is absolutely no way to justify what he has done. I am not here to do that, I am merely here to ask of you to accept his offer to make amends.”
Twilight listened to the story and looked rather intrigued by this all. “If I may ask, mister Basher, why are you helping this pony when you hate him that much?” she asked and tilted her head a little since she could in no way figure out why the green muscular pony would do such a thing.
“That is a very long story miss Sparkle, one I do not want to bother you with.” Basher said in an evasive way. He felt nothing like talking about his own issues and it diverted from his original intention why he had visited the library in the first place. “besides, it has very little relevance to what happened between you and Short Fuse,” Basher stated and sighed deeply.
Twilight Squinted her eyes a little and looked intensely to Basher and finally relieved an exasperated sigh. “Very well, I will hear what mister Fuse has to tell me, on one condition though. You mister Basher, will tell me what compels you to help somepony you hate. The entire story no matter how long it is,” Twilight demanded.
Basher shifted in his chair. He was aware of the curious nature of the alicorn wanting to understand everything around her no matter what. “Okay, I guess...” he replied tentatively and sighed deeply. “if that is what it takes I'll come back later to explain everything.”
Outside Fuse was still pacing and grinding his teeth when Basher finally emerged from the library after the conversation with Twilight. “Well, that took you long enough to get rejected, now shall we head to the inn and drown our sorrows?” Fuse asked under the impression Twilight rejected the offer once more.
“No fuse, you're going in, and I swear by all that is good, if you screw this up I will make you sorry, if miss Twilight doesn't beat me to it that is,” Basher replied and looked rather agitated to the red pony who was unaware of the favor Basher had to do in return.
Fuse rose an eyebrow and looked towards the green stallion. “Yea alright, I'll try to keep it together, gosh, don't worry so much, you know me,” he said.
“Yea, I know you Fuse and that is exactly why I am telling you not to screw up in a language you seem to understand, insults and threats are all that get through that thick skull of yours. So, are we going in or do you want to keep miss Sparkle waiting?” Basher stated and pointed towards the door of the library.
“Wait, you wanted me to go in immediately?” Fuse asked. He did however know the answer already and reluctantly started walking ridiculously slowly towards the entrance of the library. Upon entering he looked at the alicorn standing before him and she stared back. Twilight's eyes shot lightning towards the red colt and Fuse in turn felt dwarfed by the princess who composed herself as large as she possibly could.
“Well mister Fuse, your friend told me you wanted to set things straight. Now in my opinion I have given you plenty of chances but please tell me, and I want to hear it from your muzzle and your muzzle alone,” Twilight said in a near regal voice which perfectly matched her entire presence at that point.
The fanged pony gulped audibly feeling intimidated, scared, nervous and everything in between. He was even too nervous to feel the slightest bit of anger since every form of intimidation would usually lead to Fuse exploding. “Well... ehhhm...” he stammered and looked at Basher. “I haven't got a clue what to say, what do I say?”
“Mister Fuse,” Twilight said and set two steps forward. “Like I said, I want to hear it from you, in your words and not mister Basher's words.” she repeated.
“Very well, I will explain everything the best I can but first of all I should offer you my apologies for what I've done...” he said and stalled at this point. He shifted uneasily barely standing steady on his hooves due to the shaking they did.
Twilight Saw how badly the red pony was out of his comfort zone and decided to drop her intimidating stature a little since it was working slightly too well and caused Fuse to completely slam shut rather than say what he wanted and needed to say. “I cannot tell whether I'll accept or decline your apology, I want to know what you have to say about what you have done to my poor assistant,” Twilight stated.
Short Fuse was relieved when Twilight seemed to ease up a little and he sighed deeply as he mentally prepared himself to explain in essence who and what he was. “Princess Twilight, I am a troubled pony. If it wasn't for Basher over there I wouldn't have seen it. As long as I can remember all I can see is ponies out to get me, I can only see that what is bad and never see the good. All my life I have had this ever present flame of anger burning in me, ready to flare up to unimaginable heights whenever something is put in my way, or when I think I am wronged or for whichever reason you can imagine. I guess you see the point I am trying to make here. But mister Basher has told me I should get myself together and not blame everything and everypony for everything bad happening to me. I shouldn't get angry whenever somepony tells me something I don't like or does something I don't like. To be honest with you miss (…) Princess Sparkle, I don't know how I am going to do this, or how I am going to improve myself. The only thing I do know is that I am very happy to have somepony like Basher Green who is willing to help me. I'll have to make amends for the things I have done, and I am starting with you,” he says and finally sighed deeply and hung his head waiting for the princess' judgment.
“That is quite the story mister Fuse, yet I'm afraid I am not the one you should ask forgiveness to. It is spike you've kicked and hurt. The fact that the result was a broken shelve is one I care very little about, a shelve is easily repaired but pain can last a lifetime in memory. It took weeks for spike to get back to his old self again. The physical harm was naught but some fierce bruising but the poor guy was startled badly,” Twilight explained and looked generally more at ease now. “I am sorry to deceive you like this, but I had to make sure you were sincere before I would let you anywhere near Spike again, I think you cannot blame me for that mister Fuse.”
The red pony shook his head. “I cannot Princess Sparkle, but I really don't know how I can make it up to spike and you as well. However you say you aren't the one I should ask forgiveness to, I think I do need to ask for it since it wasn't really the first fit I threw in your library,” Fuse stated and looked around to see if there was any trace of the small purple dragon he had wronged so badly.
“The authorities have dealt with you when you slammed that mare repeatedly, I think you remember. Anyways, I will forgive you if spike is willing to forgive you, if he is not willing to forgive you I will stand resolute with him,” Twilight said with a certain kind of royal flair to it and headed into another room upstairs and moments later returned with Spike on her back.
The small dragon looked anxious to begin with and literally tried to bury himself into Twilight's mane once he laid eyed on Short Fuse. “Twilight... I don't want to talk to him,” emerged somewhat muffled from Twilight's mane where spike's head was buried.
“Take it easy Spike, he won't hurt you. I'll make sure of that,” Twilight said with a calm and serene voice. Spike emerged from her mane and looked at Fuse rather scared and anxious. “Mister Fuse here has something to tell you, if you will mister Fuse, tell Spike what you've told me.”
Short Fuse felt more at ease this time and he explained everything again, something using a slightly different order and words but it still boiled down to the exact same as what he had told Twilight and surprisingly Spike felt slightly more at ease after the explanation. Short Fuse completed his explanation and for several moments everyone in the room was silent and just looked at each other. Everyone was waiting for what Spike had to say but the little dragon seemed at a loss for words at the moment.
It took some small encouragement from Twilight before the purple dragon finally started talking. “Very well mister Fuse, but you have hurt me quite badly. If you are willing to do me one small favor we are equal,” spike said tentatively and looked at the red, fanged pony.
“Anything you want Spike, I am here to make amends for what I have done to you, I understand I've hurt you pretty badly,” Fuse repeated and hung his head a little to show he was sincere towards the young dragon.
Spike smirked a bit which the red pony didn't seem to like and even Basher picked up the weird smirk emerging on the small dragon's face as if he was breeding on some kind of plan. “mister Fuse, First go to miss Rarity to pick up special sapphires she has gathered for me, then you go to applejack to get two jars of 'Zap apple jam' and finally bring those two things to Pinkie Pie and tell her I have told you to bring you these specific things, she will know what to do with those,” Spike said.
Fuse's jaw dropped open widely and looked at the dragon. “That might sound like just a small favor Spike, but trust me, this will take an eternity to collect. I am not welcome at rarity's shop and she'll most likely just send me away the second she sees me, Applejack hates me for good reasons and Pinkie Pie got a restraining order against me. There is simply no way I can actually get you those things,” Fuse stated and looked slightly irritated.
“Spike, isn't that a bit much to ask from mister Fuse? I mean, he is a very troubled pony who got into a lot of trouble during his life, which resulted in him being banned from most places. He now tries to make amends for what he has done,” Twilight said and turned her head to Spike and for the first time didn't bother to keep an eye on the fanged pony.
Spike whispered something in her ear which Fuse couldn't hear and that infuriated Fuse. “Hey, whispering isn't nice,” the red pony said and grumbled a bit when he looked at Basher to get support for his case which was only replied by an unknowing shrug since he was at a loss here as well.
Twilight actually laughed a little as Spike finished and nodded. “Okay mister Fuse, you might come into the library again, but you'll have to fulfill Spike's task still if you seek forgiveness. Spike explained to me why he has given you this task and I agree with him on this one. So, is there anything I could help you with mister Fuse? Any book you would like to read?” Twilight stated not too unkindly, as she would with any library guest.
“If I could I would like to read something about how my looks came to be. Perhaps I should have asked you sooner miss Twilight, but as you have figured out by now I am not quite the social pony,” He said and still felt small next to the alicorn with spread wings and regal stature. She was a princess after all and figured her being a princes invoked a certain awe within him.
Twilight looked at the red and fanged pony and hummed a bit. She looked at Fuse's eyes and then looked at Spike's eyes which had an uncanny resemblance. “Mister Fuse, have you always looked like this?” she wondered.
“Well, no, as a foal my coat was not as bright as it is now. My mane was brown with light green and my eyes were as normal as anypony's eyes, a deep purple iris. And I sure as the sun sets in the west didn't have any fangs.” Fuse explained and sighed a little. “The older I got the more anger I seemed to hold, and the more my looks started to deviate.”
“Hmmm, I know there is some phenomena that matches yours described in some obscure papers of behavioral and emotional studies made, but since it is very rare in occurrence there isn't much known about it, I'm afraid I can't help you with your looks. Well, that being said, I could perhaps call a favor in from the school for gifted unicorns, I am sure there are grad students who would kill to do their thesis on somepony like you if they major in psychology,” Twilight suggested and looked at Fuse seeing how he would react.
“So if I get this right, you want to let some grad student come over here so it can prod, poke and examine me? Well, it actually doesn't even sound like a bad idea since there is nothing known of it anyways and I can't find out anything myself, besides an affinity with fire I barely had any real skills. Even my cutie mark is a burning fuse so that isn't too helpful either,” he said and chuckled a little.
Twilight smiled and nodded and even Spike seemed to give a small hint of a smile since the small dragon seemed satisfied with the entire situation. “Well mister Fuse, if you come back in three days I will have the grad student who will look into your looks here. Don't plan anything for that day because it will take quite some time.” Twilight said and smiled. “Anything else I can help you with?”
Basher rasped his throat, with all the conversation going on between Twilight, Spike and Short Fuse the green pony had been pushed into the background only to emerge now. “Miss Twilight, when should I come by for... well, you know?” he asked tentatively evading the actual subject.
“Right, mister Green. You can come by later today or tomorrow. But I think your friend needs somepony to talk to first before we conduct our business. If that is all, I still got some work I need to attend to myself. Best of luck mister Green and mister Fuse,” she said and trotted away with a small smile on her face. Spike looked back slightly suspicious to the odd couple.
Fuse and Basher made their way outside but with expressionless faces and both at a loss for words to say. They didn't know what to feel or think of what just had happened just that some progress had been made by the two ponies and mostly by Fuse. However for once Fuse wasn't the one moping around, this time it was Basher who seemed a little ticked off at everything for a reason that still eluded the red pony.
“What was that last bit about Basher? Are you and the princess going on a date?” Fuse asked tauntingly to Basher and chuckled loudly, although his chuckle was closer to some form of raspy laughter. It was clear the red pony wasn't used to laughter since he soon found himself out of breath.
Basher turned a bit angry and growled which quickly killed Fuse's laughter since he didn't want the large pony to lose his temper. Without being fueled by raw primal fury that emerged when the red pony went on a frenzy he had no way to overcome the physical inferiority towards the green pony and he really didn't want another pummeling, the last one still ached.
“It doesn't matter Fuse, I have made an agreement with the princess that was the condition of her hearing you out. I have made this agreement and that was the reason I was so harsh on you screwing this up, which you fortunately didn't, but even though things went a lot better than expected, I'll meet my end of the bargain and go to the princess later today... alone,” Basher stated especially stressing the alone part.
“Clearly you're evading the part what kind if agreement you have made with her, so I am just going to ask. What did you agree with Twilight?” he said and grinned a bit. “anyways, how on Earth am I going to do what Spike asked me to do? I have done something horrible to all three of them.” he said changing the subject since he knew Basher would be reluctant to talk about the kind of agreement he had made with the princess.
“Doesn't matter, just be glad I have actually helped you, even when things seemed though. And about the task that is given to you, that dragon isn't dumb you know, I don't exactly know what you have done to these ponies to deserve all this but I am sure they had good reasons, as did Princess Sparkle,” he said and sighed a little feeling uncomfortable with the course of events. Basher had not expected he had to make sacrifices to help Short Fuse on his way but it did seem logical to him.
“but what if those others require me to do more things I can't do because I am banned from certain places and whatnot, they can't expect me to make up for everything I have done this way,” Fuse complained and relieved an exasperated sigh. He cursed a little into thin air as frustration gnawed the red fanged pony. The only good thing was that he would perhaps be a valuable research asset which might prove to be valuable for whichever reason, if only for knowledge.
“If those others require you to do things then you do certain things. Eventually you'll unravel the entire web of hatred you have spread across this town. You will find yourself belonging here instead of rejected, you will finally be able to call this town your home. Something you haven't been able to do since you were a foal. Don't you like a prospect like that?” Basher asked and sighed a little hoping he could find some way to motivate the red pony to go through all this. Even for a pony with the thickest skin all of this would be a huge ordeal, let alone for somepony as tempered as Short Fuse.
“That sure sounds good, but I have done many things I shouldn't have. And I just know all of this is going to be so incredibly tedious to do. And hard, don't forget it will be hard,” fuse said and rolled his eyes a little in the foresight of making amends not only to the three spike had forced him to, but also to everything connecting everything together. “It seems ever since you caught up with me, everything has. Worse of all, the more you tell me and the more I do, the more I realize I have created the cesspool I've been seeing for the past couple of years myself.”
“That might very well be Fuse, but let's wait until we know what the grad student has to say about it. I think the student will put more effort into finding out what's wrong with you since he still has to prove himself, so don't go in with the same prejudice as you do with normal psychiatrists,” Basher stated hoping to reassure the colt into finding out what actually went through that brain of his. “that aside, how about we call it a day for today since we can't go to the inn, and I need to prepare some things for my appointment with miss Sparkle,” Basher said.
“I don't have anything against shrinks, I just choose not to talk to them since they are all so... shrinky,” the red pony stated and chuckled a little. “Anyways, I concur. We'll call it a day and you can prepare for your date with Princess Sparkle.” Fuse said and now burst into full on laughter which rendered him incapacitated as he was rolling through the still damp mud. When he was done he looked at himself as said: “Now I need a shower.”
“It isn't a date you half witted fool,” Basher said now becoming visibly agitated. “Now stop taunting me or I'll give you a free nose correction.” the green pony stated which immediately shut the red pony up mid laughter. “I'll be going now, I'll see you tomorrow mister Fuse, nine o' clock, same place. And if I need to come and get you again I swear to Celestia I will drag you by your mane out of your bed and throw you in the pond just out of town,” he said and took off with a brisk pace rather mad at Fuse.
“constructions built and webs woven of intricate and near infinite complexity are the downfall of ponies and many of the ancient societies. Disposition towards each and every faction and factor in life are hugely comparable. History has thought us factions fight and strive to have the upper hand of one another but strive can cause the downfall just as easily. Nopony is safe from strive and everypony is impervious to pride. Pride consumes, pride ravages, pride destroys,” ~Equestrian philosophical and historical society.