Chapter 13
Let’s Get Creativi-Tea.
Twilight was nearly skipping as Zecora led her back to her hut in the EverFree Forest. “This will be perfect. Heartbreak gets some tea, relearns her special talent, writes a letter to the Princess, slowly works her way back to harmony, and I will show myself to be a good teacher!” Twilight blinked at her excitement in all this. For a moment she wondered if there was anything wrong with her. Maybe she was channeling Pinkie Pie in all this. Zecora set down her bags and started putting some of the things she had bought from earlier that day away.
“So, Zecora,” Twilight began, “I can’t begin to express how grateful I am with you doing this. I mean for you, it’s most likely no big deal, but Heartbreak’s situation is...complicated. And if I can just get her at least one thing that’ll remind her of home, something she can use to cope, hopefully that will ease her into dealing better.”
Zecora just smiled. “It is quite ok, I am just glad to be helping you and Heartbreak, start the day.” She started opening some cabinets. “And now the time has come, to gather a number of things. From teas to herbs, to papers and strings. And if, Twilight, you could tie the bags off at the end, I would be very grateful to you, my good friend.”
“You mean after you’ve mixed up the tea, of course,” Twilight said. “What all is in this tea you’re making?”
Zecora took out a mortar and pestle. “Creativi-tea is a complex blend. Nine ingredients are to be added, ten if you count the one added at the end.”
“Ten things in one tea? How can that be?” Twilight blinked, Zecora was rubbing off on her a little. “I mean, that sounds like a lot of things going on in one tea.”
“Many things to make one tea, but the results are wonderful, as you shall see!” She picked up a pouch and set to work. “First, tea as black as night,” small black curled up tea leaves fell into the stone mortar. “Then Rooibos, known to my people as Red Brush, to make it taste right.” She started to grind them with the stone mortar. “Orange juice and lemon zest, this will make the tea taste best!” She took an orange half and juiced it right there, pouring the liquid in with two freshly ground teas.
Twilight paused wondering how this kind of tea would keep with that much liquid added to it. “Uhm...”
Zecora took out a bright yellow lemon and sized it up. Her head ducked behind the counter and when she returned, there was a knife between her teeth. An almost delighted smile crossed her face as she took it to the surface of the lemon. As disturbing as it was to watch a zebra do that to a lemon, at least the room smelled rather nice. When she was done there was a half white and yellow lemon on the counter, along with the scent of freshly cut and sliced lemon peel.
“Oh...my,” Twilight said, more than a little disturbed.
“Next comes some green nettle! With all the acids in the tea, this will help Heartbreak’s stomach settle.” Zecora took down what appeared to be some rather dried herbs hanging from above. She proceeded to crunch them up on the counter under her hooves, “All these things, a pleasant taste they do carry. To truly please the pallet, we add a hint of blueberry.” She pulled out a few small dried berries from below the counter, they balanced on her nose for a few seconds, and into the green dust she pounded them in. “Twilight Sparkle, would you be so kind, putting this mixture in, I mean if you do not mind.”
“Not all, Zecora,” Twilight said lifting the powdery green remnants of the nettle and blue berries up and into the mortar.
“And now what gives this tea its true powers!” She once again reached up above the counter and pulled down what looked to be some more herbs. “Licorice, Hearts Desire and Vanilla flowers!” She held the stalks of the flowers in her mouth and added them each in appropriate amounts. Then she began to grind the concoction up once more stirring it thoroughly.
“Twilight please, could you continue to stir, till all the colours blur?” Zecora asked.
“Sure...” Twilight said “How long is that?”
“About after four and twenty times the pestle is turned, once that number is reached, maximum potency is earned.” Zecora said pulling out what appeared to be an animal skin from her closet.
Twilight almost stopped mixing the tea as she looked at the skin in shock. “Is that...?”
Zecora nodded. “Yes, it is an animal skin. Please don’t ask me how I got it. Telling you, I wouldn’t know where to begin.” She began to start shuffling on the fur rug. Twilight couldn’t imagine how Zecora could keep such a thing in her closet, but who was she to judge another culture? Mentally, she counted the number of times the pastel went around. It was about four minutes before she reached the full four hundred and twenty turns.
“Alright, done Zecora! Now what?” She asked.
“See the papers to your side? Take the tea and in parts of five, divide.” Zecora said still rubbing her hooves on the furry rug below her.
Twilight obeyed and divided the somewhat sticky and grayish tea into five parts with her magic and then placed each little ‘blob’ onto a paper. She guessed the next part was twisting the papers around the tea, and then tying the string around the ends. “That’s easy enough, but what does this all have to do with dancing on a fur rug?” she thought to herself. “Done and done!” Twilight said, pleased with her work.
“This might be seen as a bit tragic, but bring me all five tea bags close to me, without using your magic.” Zecora said finally stopping.
Twilight blinked and then shrugged. She lifted the little bags of tea by their strings in her mouth before trotting back over to Zecora. “Zo, wat’s thiz lazt ingredeent you’re talking about Zecora, I counted all the ingedeents you oosed and dere was only nine, wat’z the tenth?”
Zecora lifted her head when Twilight was less than a foot away from her. Twilight’s eyes opened wide as the tea bags themselves floated up towards the zebra without any magical aid at all. “I am sorry to keep you in the dark, but the last ingredient for this tea...” There was a crackling from her snout and a slight hissing from the tea before a mighty snapping static pop arced between Zecora, the bags and then Twilight’s teeth!
“Augh!” Screamed Twilight as her jaw involuntarily clenched, her eyes went wide and then her mane and tail stood up and out from the static electrical charge Zecora just sent through the bags.
“Is the Creative Spark.” She finished nabbing a small rubber container. She quickly placed below the somewhat glittering teabags. “Now, I need you to unclench your jaw, open wide and say, Ah!”
Twilight’s muscles cried against her, and the adrenaline coursing through her system was hard to fight off, but eventually her jaw loosened its hold and the tea bags fell in. Zecora smiled and watched a rainbow coloured arc of static buzz over the bags with a quiet hissing noise. Twilight coughed. “Ouch, wow...” She shakes her head as the zebra’s eyes go wide and she smiles at her handy work. “That packed quite the punch.” Twilight said, her mane and tail unpuffing as she shook about.
“And now clever Twilight, a word of warning. For this tea, when you are storing.” Zecora said slamming on a rubber cover. “Keep in a dark cool place and out of direct light,” Zecora got close to Twilight. “And whatever you do, One bag per cup is what is right. Two is one too many and three is more than plenty.”
Twilight blinked. “What happens with three tea bags?” Twilight asked, shaking her head, that static bolt was leaving her just a little dazed.
“In your mind, ideas are always flowing, Creativi-tea redirects ideas already there to the surface, getting them out and going. With more than one bag, there is no ending to the idea lag. Ideas continue to come you see, and it isn’t long before the creative spark turns into Insani-tea.” Zecora warned. “However, to make sure this batch retains its full power, you must use it Twilight, within the hour.”
“So, I better get going then,” Twilight replied.
“Oh, one more thing that isn’t funny, do not add too much honey.” Zecora warned.
“Right, one teabag per cup of tea, use the first one with in this hour, and don’t add too much honey. Or it will lead to insanity.” Twilight nodded and took the rubber container from Zecora.
“Yes, now be on your way. Twilight Sparkle, you have a pleasant day!”
Twilight walked out of the door and put the creativi-tea into her saddle bag. “And Heartbreak said that you couldn’t just call upon a creative muse and get inspired out of nowhere! With a little magic, we’ll just see about that!” She began to trot her way back home.
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I look blankly at the paper before me. And in turn the paper looks blankly back at me. I have been chewing on the end of the pencil for a good full three to five minutes. “Damn it, think of something to draw, H.B., anything, sure you are terrible at drawing with your mouth but you need to start somewhere,” So, I attempt to draw a circle.
For any artist the basic shapes: circles, squares, cones and cylinders are where you work from. From there, it is learning the details. For a great number of people, that’s where the real problem lies. The details get in the way of the whole drawing. They’re seeing the forest and not realizing that forests are built one tree at a time. And really, sometimes that is a hard concept to figure out.
As I draw the circle with the pencil, or attempt to, the pencil pivots in my mouth. I murf in frustration. I push the pencil to the side of my teeth and clench down. It works. Sorta. I am now figuring out that equine skulls aren’t the same as human skulls. There is a gap between the front teeth and those grinding molars. But it’s working better than before and that’s all that matters. Sure, on the show they showed Applebloom moving the pencil effortlessly with her lips, but that filly had practice. Whereas, I do not.
From the kitchen, I can hear Spike clattering about with something other than the teapot. I would ask him what he was doing, but I don’t want to spit the pencil out of my mouth. The circle I just drew looks like someone flattened it. “I can erase after I try again.” I tell myself. Rotating my head around like this feels uncomfortable. I haven’t a clue how anypony from the show draws without the aid of some kind of magic. Being a unicorn in all this would make this a hell of a lot easier.
“Then again, it was wise of them to just make me an earth pony,” I think to myself. “If I was a pegasus, I would have some extra wonk. Cloud-walking, weather control, flyi-” I stop mid-thought. For most the thrill and freedom that the idea of flying without any aid of a machine is enough to make them take the wings. However, the mere thought of that reminds me of the fall from Cloudsdale. I have a hard enough time walking down the stairs, flying would send me into fits. I reel and shake my head of it. “Now I am not sure why they didn’t make me a pegasus, The torment of thinking that I am trying to adjust to flying should have been have been tempting enough.” I return to trying to draw some basic shapes here.
That’s when I can feel a cold trickle at the end of my lip. Saliva, my old foe, I see we meet again. I attempt to suck it up and keep it away from my paper. No sense in getting all this wet too.
“But had they made me a unicorn...” I blink and wonder. “I don’t think I would have reacted the same way that I did in front of the nine when they showed up again. True, I don’t think I would have any fucking idea how to use that magic, but I have seen enough of the show to know that magic requires willpower and focus. Those two things alone could have made me more dangerous. I could have done something, anything,” a snarl creeps on my face. “I could have made them pay for what they did.”
I stop drawing. That thought alone causes me to cringe at the very fact that I had even had it.. It was like that one time in the military, right after cruse week, the week where you are forced to serve others in the kitchen. I was on dish duty working at the steamy end of a dishwasher. The Sunday after it was all over, I just wanted to take a shower, relax and take five. However, a group of three black guys came into the shower. I have nothing against skin colour, I have nothing against race. Hell, race doesn’t even matter anymore. But they started joking and hazing me, I just wanted to take a shower, damn it. Eventually I said something that almost got me kicked out that day. Something that after I said it made me think, “Did that just come out of my mouth?!” Something so vile, that when they decided to make me polish the bullet head of the torpedo in front of the ‘ship’, I couldn’t stand to look at myself in that well polished surface.
I scowl at the drawing before me. These thoughts aren’t productive. Besides, back on that world, there is a good chance that nobody even remembers that event.
Knowing that still doesn’t make my own memories that I have of the event go away.
“Damn it, H.B.,” I tell myself. “Pull it together. Stop beating yourself up. What’s happened has happened and there isn’t anything to be doing about-” suddenly I feel a pair of eyes on me.
“Hey, that’s pretty good.” Spike’s voice says.
I jump in surprise and hear the crackling of the pencil in my mouth. I turn and look at him. As I open my mouth the pencil falls out and lands in front of me. “Spiiiike!”
Spike in turn, jumps back a bit. “What?” He replies.
Looking over him, my fear response kinda withers and dies. In one hand, he is holding a tea tray, upon which is a standard tea cup and a small plate of sandwiches. In the other is a tea kettle, from which I can smell the mint tea brewing. All these things are nice, but the thing that is getting me, is the apron that he is wearing. The pink frilled one with a heart on it. It looked funny when he went on his ‘dragon quest’ in the show. But seeing it now in person, it looks downright ridiculous. I just roll my eyes and stifle a snort. “You shouldn’t sneak up on p-p-ponies like that.”
“Sorry,” he replied, rolling his eyes. His brow is slightly furrowed. I hope he didn’t pick up on my amusement at his apron. “So,” he pauses, and scratches his head. “What is it? An orange? A rock? Some ponies’ head?”
I sigh. “It isn’t anything, Spike. I am trying to draw a circle.”
“Oh,” Spike said. “It’s a pretty crummy circle.”
“Thank you soooo much, Spike,” I reply, sighing. At least Spike is refreshingly honest. Twilight would give me an encouraging, but somewhat dishonest smile and tell me to keep practicing. Which is what I am going to continue doing anyhow, but still.
“Hey, it’s what I am here for.” Spike replies placing the small plate of sandwiches next to me.
“I thought you were here because Twilight doesn’t have any confidence in my ability to navigate my way back to the library,” I go to pick up the pencil again. “Those better not be grass-sandwiches.” I say frowning.
Spike frowns back at me. “Like I would serve you grass after what happened in front of the hat shop. Give me some credit. I am no big fan of eating just plain grass, let alone grass that’s just growing on the ground. But that whole thing...Yeah.”
I mull this over in my head and decide to take a chance. Spitting the pencil out, I gingerly bow my head down to take a nibble on the sandwich closest to me. I am met with something crunchy and a familiar taste rolls over my tongue.
“Cucumber?” I ask, tentatively.
“They have cucumbers were you are from?” He asks me.
“I think cucumbers are a universal constant that span the whole of all realities, Spike,” I reply taking another bite. “Like their vines somehow have the ability to grow through dimensional walls or something.” Spike looks at me blankly. I chew some more. “That means, that I think that cucumbers are everywhere, Spike. My world, your world, every world.”
“So, cucumbers are unencumbered?” Spike asks, scratching his head.
“Ha. Ha,” I reply, while taking another bite. “But yes, that is what I am saying cucumbers are unencumbered in their numbers.”
“So,” he says, pouring the mint tea, “I take it that you like cucumbers?”
“Actually, I do,” I reply, enjoying the texture of soft white bread and crisp green cucumber.
Spike takes a honey stirrer and dips it into a honey jar. He then lets a dollop of honey trickle down into the tea, before giving it a stirring. He then reaches over me and sets the tea down on the window sill.
“C-c-aaareful,” I say, nervously watching the tea moving dangerously over my sketchbook.
“I am.” Spike tells me, the tea cup still clattering as he moves his hands away.
I blow on the tea and eye Spike who seems to have a nervous smile on his face. Like he wants me to like said tea and at the same time is really wanting to say something. I take a long sip. Mint tea isn’t always my favorite kind of tea, but it is alright. If it is done right that is.
“Uhm...thanks for the tea, Spike,” I say. “It’s really good.”
Spike looks all proud of himself. I snort a little at the sight. That apron is meant to look cute, but really it does look a little over the top. I roll my eyes a bit.
“Something wrong, Heartbreak?” Spike asks me.
“No, nothing is wrong, Spike,” I reply.
“Then what was that look about?” He asks.
“There wasn’t a look,” I tell him, turning and looking at him. I blink. The combination of a serious looking Spike, and that damnably ‘cute’ apron is setting me on the verge of having a laughing fit. I bite my lower lip and stifle a snort.
“Alright, that was definitely a look,” Spike says, pointing his finger at me. “It’s like you want to laugh about something but you’re stopping yourself. Or is that just something that, ‘all the beings on your world do?’”
I stifle a few more snorts. “Yes Spike.” Ugh! I want to tell him to go change, or just do something else. “That’s what they all do on my world.”
He looks thoughtful. “I don’t think I believe you. What is it really?”
“It’s nothing, Spike,” I reply.
“The last time you said it was nothing, it was actually something,” Spike replied critically. “And we both know where that lead.”
“It isn’t anything that really matters, Spike,” I protest.
“Oh-ho! Now I know it’s something,” Spike says crossing his arms. “Out with it Heartbreak. Come on, I don’t want to have to pull a Twilight and say that I am the, ‘teacher’s aid.’ Tell me what it is.”
I grimace and then frump. “You’re not going to leave me alone about it until I tell you what it is, are you?”
“Nope!” He says, looking aloof.
“Fffffffffffffffine.” I reply. I take a long sip of the tea next to me in order to delay actually telling him what it is that he wants to know. “If you really must know, it’s the apron.”
“That’s it?” He asks me pointing at the apron. “You’re making a big fuss over this?”
I turn my head away. “Yes. I can’t look at you in it without wanting to just laugh, alright?”
He looks a bit confused and slightly conflicted. “I am not sure how to take that, on the one hand-” I snort at him with a slight glare. “Uh, I mean On the one hoof, there is the fact that you're laughing. And the book that Twilight gave me said that laughing is a good thing. Right?” Spike asks me.
“I don’t think I should be laughing, Spike,” I reply, turning away again. Damn it. Again the combination of Spike and the apron caused a chuckle.
“You want to know what I think there, H.B.?” He asks, leaning against the couch.
I sigh deeply. I can’t tell him that I don’t care about what he thinks. That would just be rude. Even if I did tell him that I didn’t care, he’d just tell me anyway. And then there is also the fact that I am sure that Twilight could think of some rather unpleasant punishment for making a baby dragon cry. Like writing on a chalkboard with my mouth. “What, Spike? What do you think?”
“That you seriously need to lighten up, if you think that laughing at this is bad now, you’re never going to get in harmony when it’s Pinkie Pie’s turn to teach you.” he tells me, alluding to the fact that I will have to face other teachers.
“And on the other h-hoof?” I ask trying to steer the conversation to a more comfortable area.
“On the other hoof, Rarity made this for me,” Spike replies.
In my mind I can hear dice rolling and the GM saying “You’ve failed in your uncomfortable conversation vs save roll. Want to make for another try?”, “Oh, I see.”
“What is it with you and her?” Spike asks me. “I mean, really what happened that night?”
“It’s nothing, Spike,” I reply and then cringe. By saying it is nothing, I have made into something. I bring my hoof to my forehead. “Ffffetlocks.” I sigh. “Right, by calling it nothing, I’ve made it into something.” I smack my head against the soft couch. I was hoping for a flat hard surface. But hope in one hand... “When I first crashed through the library window, I was trying to make sense of everything. My mind latched onto the first thing that sounded rational. I was dreaming. So, I was a bit confused and delirious at what was what. Alright?”
“So you called her a marshmallow?” He askes me.
Damn it. I have to think of something quick. “It was the first thing that came to mind. She kinda looks like a marshmallow, alright?”
“And the part where you attacked her?” He asked me, a small trail of smoke rolled its way out of his nostrils, while he gave me a deadpan glare.
“Crap, I should have known that he’d be pissed about that. It was only a matter of time before he would confront me about it, right? *sigh* Better now, than later.” I rub my front hooves together and look away. “Again. Delirious. The Counsel of Nine had just cut their ties with me, literally and figuratively speaking,” the thought of that night and that moment passes through my mind. I would say ‘as a bad memory’, but why repeat myself? It is a bad memory. “And then...Kylie...she...” I shake my head, I don’t want to think about it.
“Right, we won’t go there,” Spike replies, his expression softening.
“It still doesn’t mean that I acted appropriately,” I say, sniffing a bit. “It’s just that she stole my name and branded me, but not before renaming me. And then, she just kept repeating that name. She took the last thing I had that was really mine and then pushed my nose into it all by just repeating the thing she forced on me, again and again!”
“Whoa! Hey, I didn’t mean, I said that we didn’t have to-” Spike begins.
But I need to explain myself. “She was all like ‘I have to put toys away Heartbreak, goodbye Heartbreak, have a nice life, Heartbreak.’” I rub my forearm against my face sniffing hard. I can feel the depression almost instantly evaporate into seething rage. “Then Rarity comes in and she’s all like, ‘So, Heartbreak is it? Well now that we have a name, we’ll have no more of this fuss, Heartbreak!’.” I rub my hooves on my face. “Ugh! Just thinking about it!” I turn my face away from Spike. I don’t like that I am like this, right now. The sudden sharp changes in emotional states are disconcerting. I seriously hope that this doesn’t become the norm for me.
Spike puts a hand on my side in an effort to comfort me. “Hey, like I said, we don’t have to go there if it is that upsetting. I am just glad to know that you didn’t really mean to do what you did.”
“Yeah, If the situation was normal. If everything was different, I wouldn’t, I really couldn’t...I didn’t mean to-” Then Spike’s hand brushes up against me in a wrong way, a small bit of laughter manages to escape me before I can stop it.
“What’s so funny?” Spike asks. “You really didn’t mean to attack Rarity, Right?”
“I really didn’t mean to nearly attack Rarity, Spike, It’s just that-” I am interrupted once again as a tickle forces another laugh and then much to my unpleasant surprise a giggle out of my throat. “Spike!”
Spike pauses and then grins. “Oh, I see what’s going on here.” He reaches both hands up to my side and proceeds to start tickling me.
“Whoa, whoa! Spike, I told you not to do that!” I say, between broken laughter.
“I know what you told me,” Spike’s mischievous grin worries me a lot. “But, I don’t see you in much of a position to do anything about it...” He then searches about what I think is called my ‘barrel’, and damn it! I am rather ticklish if you find the right spot. And fuck, Spike seems to have found that spot on me.
“Come on, Spike!” I try shouting out through what can be called a young adult girl’s laugh. “Stop!”
“Ah-Ah-Ah!” Spike says, jeering a little and hopping up on the couch. “You have insulted Rarity’s dresses and aprons more than once today! And you haven’t completed Twilight’s assignment to smile more. As teacher’s aide, I decree this is a just punishment!” He keeps attacking the area that would have been my armpit. “And you didn’t say please!”
“P-p-p-please, Spike!” I force out through the laughter. “Stop!” As I shout out that last word, my leg juts up and knocks over the tea, which proceeds to spill right on to my sketchbook. I jump up and glare angrily at him. “SPIKE!” I shout.
“Uh...heh-heh..Sorry?” He replies.
Just then the door opens. “Spike, H.B., I’m back and I have a surprise for-” Her voice drops and out of the corner of my eye I can see her with the “Great, I leave them alone for a little white, and Heartbreak is going to hurt Spike.” look on her face.
“What great timing you have there, Twilight...” I think to myself my expression melting from anger to worried fear.