//------------------------------// // Hoof and Mouth // Story: My Little Heartbreak: Creativi-Tea // by Jet_Black1980 //------------------------------// Chapter Three. Hoof and Mouth. Twilight and Spike blinked at Heartbreak. She was one confusing pony. Either that or she could make a mountain out of a molehill. “Um Heartbreak, you know that there are plenty of ponies that can create things with or without hooves, Right?” Spike asks. Heartbreak sighs. “Yes Spike, I know they can. And how they do it is with their mouths.” “Um yes, Heartbreak,” Spike begins. “Ponies draw things with their mouths.” Heartbreak shoots Spike a nearly deathly glare. “What Spike is trying to ask is, ‘how would hooves interfere with you creating?’” Twilight says trying to get Heartbreak’s attention. “Because what I do is draw or write mostly.” She replies leaning on her left hoof and staring at her right, while twirling it around. “And you can’t do that with a hoof...” “But you can do it with your mouth...” Spike quips, he blinks. “Or if you got the right kind of horseshoes.” Heartbreak looks horrified “I’m not getting horseshoes, Spike. Ever.” Spike sees that he’s going to be shot down in this train of thought. “Um, Seeing that you weren’t a pony before, what exactly did you have before hooves?” Twilight smirks as an idea flashes through her head. “She’s not going to tell you that, Spike. After all, it will only lead to a vortex of dark insanity from which there is no escape.” Heartbreak turns her unpleasant gaze upon Twilight. “Nooo...I can’t tell you because every time I try saying the word, it doesn’t come out right! Thank You Very Much Celestia!” She says nearly shouting at the open air. “Um...what word is that?” Spike asks. “Spike, do you think she would tell us if she could say it?” Twilight asks leaning on her hooves and smirking at Heartbreak. Heartbreak’s left eye twitches. “Are you trying to upset me Twilight? Fine! The word is Haaaoaooof!” Her face scrunches up when she attempts the word. “It’s Haaphhhhhhhhh! It’s Hahahahaaaffffffffffpppp!! It’s Hoooooooooophhhhhhh!” She starts spitting when attempting the word. “Whoa sister! Say it, don’t spray it!” Spike says flicking some dampness off his face. Heartbreak zips over to Spike. “It’s this!” she says pointing at Spike’s claws. “Um... Claws doesn’t even remotely sound like what you were trying to say.” Spike retorts. “No!” She uses her hoof to draw over Spike’s hand. “This whole structure!” Twilight looks at Heartbreak and blinks. “His hand?” Heartbreak’s eye starts twitching and then she tears up. “That’s so not fair!” She cried. “The word exists, I just can’t say it?!” Spike rolls his digits. “You can’t say ‘hand’?” Heartbreak almost snarls at Spike, who in turn backs away. “Hey, hey! Calm down everypony.” Twilight says getting between Spike and Heartbreak. “Heartbreak, It was an innocent question.” She sighs and looks down. “No Spike. I can’t say that word. Along with a bunch of other words that I used to be able to say. Everytime I do, my lips curl up and my tongue gets all rubbery. Instead of...” She points at Spikes digits. “Hand?” Spike asks. Heartbreak rubs her face and nods . “Hoof comes out. Or at least it tries to come out.” “Weird,” Spike comments. “More like annoying and a tiny bit oppressive.” Heartbreak says glowering at the table. Twilight bit her lip on this point. Celestia must have altered Heartbreaks’ language for some reason. It could have dealt with what would have happened if she had actually gone through with erasing her memories, or it could have been something else. Something that she didn’t see at this time...“So you’re an artist, H.B.?” Twilight asked, changing the subject. “When the mood strikes me. It’s not like you can just call a creative muse from nowhere and get inspired like that.” She said swinging hoof through the air. She looked at her hoof as if expecting something, only instead finding disappointment. She sighed and face planted on the table. “I mean you can’t get inspired just like that...” She repeated, only this time clopping her hoof on the table in a sharp manner. Twilight smiles and her horn glows. From the door flies in parchment, ink and quills. “How about we get you started on the basics of learning how to draw again?” She asks. “I know how to draw, Twilight,” Heartbreak responds, her face still on the table. “I just can’t draw with this.” She holds up her right hoof. As the supplies come to rest on the table, she looks up at the things supplied to her. She then sighs. “What is it now?” Twilight asks. “Um...It’s just...” She pauses to collect her thoughts. Twilight gives her an annoyed look. “It’s just what?” “Um nothing,” Heartbreak responds. “Nothing-nothing or something-nothing?” Twilight asks pointedly. “Nothing-nothing! It’s not something important really!” Heartbreak says, her ears folding back a little. “If it’s something, even an unimportant something, then it’s not really nothing- nothing, now is it?” Twilight says, gritting her teeth slightly. “Then it’s a something-nothing!” Heartbreak says, squeaking slightly and starting to hold her hoof up to shield her face. “If it was a something-nothing, then why didn’t you say that it was a something-nothing in the first place, or say that it was something to begin with!?” Twilight says through her teeth as she starts to glower over Heartbreak. “It’s not a big deal! Really! Here!” She attempts to pick up a quill with her mouth and dip it in the ink, however she only marginally is able to do this. “See! Draawing!” She says pulling up a scrap of parchment and trying to draw some kind of line. Twilight doesn’t even take notice of this and brushes aside the supplies she just procured for Heartbreak before getting right up in her face. “No! If we are going to make any progress in teaching you how to be a pony or about the Elements of Harmony, you need to be honest with me about anything that is bothering you!” “Um,Twilight?” Spike asks. Heartbreak starts to look frightened. “Um...it’s jusf that...” “Yes?!” Twilight growls. “Hey Twilight?” Spike asks. “Pleaf don’t burst into flaames Twilight...Buff I don’t uze quiffs and ink...I uze pencilz” Heartbreak says, the quill in her mouth dripping slightly due to a mixture of ink and saliva. “I juzz didn’t wont to upsetzz you...” She explains looking away. “Why didn’t you say that?!” Twilight shouted. “Twilight!” Spike repeats, urgently trying to get her attention. “What is it, Spike? Can’t you see that I’m-” Twilight stops as Spike points at the black splotches on her neck. “You’re getting ink on your coat..” He says. Twilight looks at Heartbreak in a very irritated manner. Spike quickly dives in between the two and pushes Twilight away. “All right. Um Heartbreak, you stay here. I need to have a talk with a certain somepony in the Teacher’s Lounge...” ======================================================================= Spike closed the door to the kitchen behind him and looked at Twilight as she wiped the ink from her coat with a washcloth. He glared at her tapping his foot. “Seriously?” “What?” Twilight asked. “Twilight, there was like a five minute gap between, ‘let’s calm down, mistakes are going to be made Heartbreak’, to, ‘Up in her face, nearly set aflame.’” Spike said. Twilight grimaced and threw the washcloth into a clothes hamper. “Yeah, Heartbreak seems to know how to really push my buttons.” Spike facepalmed. “Again, seriously Twilight? You think that she’s doing this on purpose?” “If she isn’t, she is certainly good at hiding it.” She looked at Spike in a peeved manner while pacing. “Have you noticed that she hasn’t said ‘I’m sorry’ for anything? I let that mare use my favorite set of quills and ink, and what’s she do with them?” Spike rubbed the side of his head. “Twilight...” “She decides to redecorate my coat!” Twilight retorts, her voice starting to rise in volume. “Twilight, You saw how she was walking down the stairs, how she is refusing to eat hay and other antisocial behaviors? Her fighting you is actually stemming from a much more deeply seeded problem that she most likely doesn’t want to admit to.” Spike said in an intelligent and concise way that even had Twilight taken back for moment. “So, now you’re taking her side in this Spike?” Twilight asked angrily. “Twilight. There are no sides here. The problem is that it's hard for her to adapt and she's probably still homesick.” Spike said raising his hand to the door. “Spike I-” Twilight began. Spike cracked the kitchen door open. He pointed out through the small slit. “What do you see there,Twilight?” He asked in a hushed tone. Twilight rolled her eyes and peered through the crack. Two or three rather damp looking quills had been placed on a sheet of parchment while Heartbreak sat at the table still attempting to use another in her mouth. Ink was getting on her coat and around her mouth. She was fighting to show determination, but one could tell that she was tearing up as she sniffed hard. She paused midway when she lifted her hoof to her nose. The mere sight of her hoof causing her ears to droop. She dropped her hoof down, sniffed hard and once again attempted at drawing. “I see her crying. Again.” Twilight said trying to detach herself from the pitiful looking scene. “Really? ‘Cause I see another pony I once knew. A pony that I think that would get what Heartbreak is going through right now. I see Past Twilight. Remember that first month after we moved from Canterlot to Ponyville? You were really down in the dumps. Really homesick. We all had to push you out of bed, push you to get up and moving.” Spike explained. “Her situation is very similar but without any sort of support structure. You had a job and ponies willing to be your friends here. Heartbreak barely has any of those things. She’s starting completely from scratch.” He closed the crack in the door. Twilight blinked, sighed and then rolled her eyes. “I guess you’re right Spike...” She looked at him. “When did you become Doctor Philip?” “Ever since I actually read through that book on psychology you gave me.” Spike said proudly. Twilight raised her eyebrow. “You actually read a book I gave you? The whole thing?” “Um Yeah. Well, most of it. There are a lot of hard words and concepts that I don’t quite understand. I know it’s weird but seeing that we have a pony that looks like she could suffer from a mental breakdown at any moment living with us for the time?” Spike replied scratching his head. “Seemed like something I could do to help. I mean, it’s not like she wants to open up about herself anytime soon.” “So, oh great pony therapist, what do you suggest we do?” Twilight asked. “Well. With her, I don’t think that just buying the Canterlot Gezette is going to do the trick. The book suggested that we try to meet with a compromise.” Spike said looking thought. “Give her something that she’s familiar with, something that reminds her of home, while at the same time having her meet us halfway.” Twilight thought about this. Why hadn’t she seen such a blindingly simple solution to this problem? “Meet her halfway...” She mused looking at a saddle bag set on a small table near the outside door. “I think we can do that,” She replied.