//------------------------------// // Threadbare // Story: Vinyl Scratch, Mentoring is AWESOME! // by SciWriter //------------------------------// The next day. Well now I had done it. Or more to the point, Rainbow Dash and Lightning Strike had done it. I was stuck having to plan a comeback concert. Okay so that’s not so much a bad thing but it complicated matters. Lightning was still coming over to visit on a daily basis now and I needed time to concentrate, a task which was darn near impossible around a pegasus filly with a worse penchant for hyper activity than even myself at her age. I was making up plans for the lighting arrangement as she came bouncing in my front door (yesterday I gave her a key so she could just come in and out). She immediately started flying over my work, like a giant bumble bee and asking questions. “What’s all this?” she asked. “Can we do another lesson… I’m not sure I learned anything yesterday, well not about DJing anyway. You just had me dance in a field for a few hours. Sure was fun though.” I cringed on the inside. Truth was, she was right. Yesterday I had completely abandoned the idea of teaching Lightning and I was pretty much getting set to use her to my advantage. Her electricity seemed to radiate with the beat of any given song and when she danced, just like any little kid, she liked to try to make big moves during significant changes in the music. Normally this would look kind of silly, but whatever silly move she made would be punctuated by huge bolts of lightning, which not only gave me a kind of pyrotechnics display, but a loud boom to punctuate my musical statements and shake a crowd off their hooves. In a word it was AWESOME! To be fair, I wasn’t entirely being selfish here either, or dishonest. If Lightning was a star attraction at my show because of her powers, this would no doubt help with her issue of constantly scaring other ponies away with her powers. Also, in order to get her to practice right I did have to tell her I was helping her with her dance moves and her timing. It’s not like she was a robot and just did things automatically. Still, DJing was what Lightning wanted, not pyrotechnics performer… which… I’ve never heard of the latter. “What’s this symbol… and this one-or this one- or this one?” Lighting was about five feet above the paper so I actually didn’t know what symbols she was pointing to on my light display anyway, let alone could I answer. “Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me!” I finally broke out my pen and notepad. 'So… I see you stopped by Sugar Cube Corner before coming here.' “How’d you know?” Lightning asked. ‘I am totally psychic.’ “That’s amazing!” ‘Yes, yes I am.’ I sighed. Toying with a philly’s head and getting ego trips was great but it didn’t get things done. I had actually planned for somepony else to look after Lightning today, but strange to say, her antics were growing on me and I liked the company. Still, ‘Lightning, would you mind staying with a friend of mine today?’ “Rebel Rainbow?” ‘Rainbow Dash lives about fifty feet in the air and I don’t know the cloud walking spell to keep your brother up there.’ Dusk was there by the way, he was just being his usual much quieter self. 'Just come with me.' I walked out my front door and a few blocks away from my home, the two foals trailing behind. Finally I reached my destination. I knocked on the door of a kind of mint colored house. The door opened to reveal my gray hoodie wearing friend Threadbare. Threadbare was green with brown hair and red eyes. She and I had been buddies since we were about ten and we discovered we both had red eyes. Yep, a decade old friendship started over eye color… we were kids. I’m not gonna say she was like another sister, but she was still great to hang out with and there for me in a pinch. Also I loved to argue music theory with her. Oh and before you ask, yes, DJ’s know music theory better than some more classical composers, we have to. ‘These are the kids I wanted you to watch,’ I wrote, looking at my friend. She smiled at Lightning and Dusk, which was easy to do simultaneously because at the moment Lightning was carrying her brother. “They’re adorable. You say they’re brother and sister. Looks like they get along.” ‘Oh you wouldn’t believe how well,’ My eyes went wide as I realized that statement. As often as they were around each other and as different as they were, I very rarely saw a fight come up and stick for these two. Dusk was pretty docile, however Lightning always conceded to him almost immediately when he stood his ground on something. ‘The colt is quiet, a breeze to watch. Keep both eyes on the pegasus though, you really never know what she’ll do next.’ “What makes you think any kid is predictable?” Threadbare asked. I nodded over at Dusk. “Is he now?” I looked at him. ‘Well… he is a pretty good dancer and I think… I think Scootaloo is his role model.’ “Iffy choice there.” I shrugged at this. “Well you want to come in for a bit before you go?” ‘Got work to do, sorry.' “Good luck with the upcoming show!” I nodded for Lightning to carry her brother into Threadbare’s home. (***) Threadbare’s Point of View Once inside my home, Lightning gently set down her brother and took off. She started zipping from one side of the room to the other, looking at the books on the one side of my house, and then in the blink of an eye she was buzzing around my coats. I looked at the two foals. Lighting was yellow with a blue mane and her brother was cyan with a blue mane with yellow highlights. They both looked cute. That was about as far as my assessment of them could go however as I had to keep up with Lightning. “Do you wear all of these?” Lightning asked, picking through several of the coats. I didn’t really care as long as she didn’t hurt anything. “Oh goodness no kiddo, I sell them, only during the winter though… well Rarity buys my scarfs out of season, but I think those are for accessories.” I thought for a moment. “Doesn’t make a lot of sense that.” “Who can understand Rares? She’s a dweeb,” Lightning said. “Hey!” I scolded. “Would you like someone to call you that?” “Hmmm?” Lightning asked going through a nearby stack of scarves. “Wouldn’t that mean they stuck around long enough to get that impression?” she chuckled. “I guess I WOULD like that.” “Stuck around?” Lightning sighed and touched down on the ground. “Let’s get this over with.” She stomped her front hooves on the ground and a bolt of electric energy shot out from her form, blasting through my roof and sending me into impulse mode. Before I knew it I had grabbed little Dusk from his spot on the floor near my books and hid behind a desk. “I should leave right?” the filly asked, avoiding looking at me. I stood back up and shook my head. “Well… my poor roof! I hope it doesn’t rain today.” “I could stack a few books over the hole-“ “You most certainly will not! Water destroys books!” I shouted. Lightning backed up a little, biting her lip. She didn’t seem afraid, just like she was waiting for something bad to happen. Dusk ran from behind the desk with me to stand beside his sister. He didn’t say anything, he just smiled at her and she seemed to almost instantly relax. Still she wasn’t smiling. Vinyl was right, they were an odd pair. I nodded at them. “No, I won’t kick you out… would it be too much to ask that you not do that again?” “Well for one THAT powerful to come out I have to mean it, or get really mad, but no matter what, when my mood changes lightning starts to appear around me. Really happy? Sparks and blue haze. Really mad, bolts. In fact I think there’s always something happening even when it can’t be seen.” Lightning shook her hoof, staring at it. “Can’t prove it though.” “I won’t piss you off alright?” “Just don’t hurt my brother, you should be fine.” I walked over to them and hugged Dusk to me. “How could I ever hurt a cute little thing like this?” Dusk smiled, not giving the usual disgust of a colt his age. Lightning finally smiled. She started flying again. “If we had a unicorn here we could just plug the hole with piece of wood or something.” I looked at the hole. I was counting on protecting my walls from crayons and my books from being randomly ripped apart. A hole being torn through my roof by a little filly though… I shrugged. I had actually experienced something like this before while watching foals. Foalsitting has nothing to do with my cutie mark, which is a needle and red thread, but it brings in money. Not too long ago I had taken care of Dinky. Dinky had two parents that weren’t unicorns, Derpy Hooves and Dark Writer. As a result, her magic lacked many of the natural inhibitors that a normal unicorn has. I took one of her toys away when she was being cranky and she blew a hole in my wall. I knew better than to be afraid of this however. Most unicorn foals with poor inhibitors at least had their life preserver inhibitors still intact, meaning they didn’t hit other ponies with their magic unless they really wanted to. However I wasn’t really aware that pegasi even had enough magic for that to be a problem. I actually was a little nervous here. Then again, I trusted that my friend Vinyl would not intentionally put my life in danger… a warning still would have been nice! I rummaged through a small toolbox I had on hoof and pulled out a staple gun. I then pulled out a small bit of tarp fabric. “Can you staple this up there for now? I’ll contact a carpenter pony later.” Lightning took care of it quickly. Yes I trust kids with staple guns, not like it’s a complicated tool. She did a sloppy job but oh well, the tarp stayed in place. “Now, lunch is a ways off, so what do you two want to do?” Lightning landed back next to her brother. Dusk shrugged, but Lightning got a huge grin on her face looking at him. She crouched down like a cat. I realized immediately she meant to rough house. Dusk just stood there looking at me, boy was he in for a surprise. Lightning rocked back and in an instant was- knocked right off her hooves and onto her back, Dusk moving with a sudden speed and slamming straight into her. I smiled watching them rough house. “So the colt is the docile one?” I mused to myself. Lightning was much faster and more coordinated, but it was like a dog fighting a cat. Dusk used his whole body to keep her off balance and he was actually dominating her. That is of course until she took to the air and crashed him into the ground a few times (gentler than it sounds, but still rough). This was cute, but I knew it would probably get out of hoof pretty quick. I pulled a book off one of my shelves. Pinocchio. “Would you two like to hear a story?” I asked. They both immediately stopped fighting, looking at me with enthusiastic eyes. And so I read to them, Dusk laying on the floor next to me and Lightning buzzing above my head. As I started to tell the tale, I made sure NOT to keep to the story proper, because where’s the fun in that? Pinocchio, in my version, had a crazy sister puppet that followed him everywhere he went. They both wanted to be real foals and together they faced the challenges of the story. There were several points in the story where Lightning seemed scared, like when she and her brother were swallowed by a whale and when they were transformed into lizards. However a quick tug to her tail usually changed her mood quickly, letting her get out of her trance. She was really into the story! Dusk wasn’t so much. Instead he was apparently listening, but also looking around the room and basically exploring with his eyes. Lunch was a few pp&j sandwiches, three for Lightning as she was extremely hungry. We visited the hardware store to find someone to fix my roof. There was a large brown earth pony with a pub cap who was very rude to me when I asked for his help. Around strangers I’m actually very shy, at least strangers over age of twelve. “I said two hundred bits!” he yelled. “I-I… I don’t have-“ “You don’t have? You don’t have what? You must have it somewhere! You want your roof fixed or not?” “Well I do, I do, but you see… well… I think I’m just gonna go to somepony else-“ “Oh no you’re not! You’re going to sit there and wait for me. I’ll fix the roof and you’ll owe me, got it?” “Um… well… you see-“ “Got it!?” He started glaring at me. I heard a loud clap and a light flashed. I looked to my right, seeing the ground smoldering a few feet away. I looked back to the stallion to notice a little yellow pegasus was now flying in his face. “Leave,” she said simply. He did, very quickly I might note. She could be handy, I started to wonder if I could “borrow” her from Vinyl more often. As I walked away I heard a familiar sing song voice. “Oh darling I was actually hoping I would find you… Threadbare is it?” I turned around to look at Rarity. I knew Rarity as a customer but only as a customer, what she wanted I had no idea. I looked at her nervously, eyes wandering to the left a little. “I’ve been creating this dazzling red dress for ponies of your particular complexion.” “What complexion is that?” “Well… green. It’s a difficult color to offset properly.” I looked at my hoodie. “I just wear gray,” I said, starting to wonder if it looked wrong. “Oh yes I can see that gray… can… go with anything in a pinch,” I could easily read between the lines on that statements. For my part it might have been better had she started cussing me out, it would have been easier to know how to feel then. Also Lightning would have scared her off too but that was just a temporary bonus. “Look, I don’t like putting ponies on the spot…” If she didn’t like doing it, Rarity sure was good at that. “Perhaps, if you like the dress, I could trade for a few scarves or a discount?” “Well um….” “I really need a green pony. You would be surprised how many customers I have that are green and I have to get this right.” “I-I” I needed a way out, an excuse. I spotted Lightning Strike flying overhead. “Might be up for it later but as you can see,” I pointed a hoof at Lightning who was currently hovering about twenty feet in the air. “I’m foal sitting right now. That one in particular- I’m not even sure where she gets her energy from, but I’m a little nervous about having her just wander off.” “She looks old enough to run with my sister and her friends… oh dear,” Rarity began, looking at the foal. She called up to Lightning. “Darling, can you come down here?” Lightning Strike flew down in an instant a huge grin on her face. Rarity chuckled, “You weren’t kidding about her energy.” Rarity turned her hoof in the air, “If you would be so kind child, just spin once, let me get a look at you.” I had never really taken in Lightning Strike’s appearance, but now that somepony was calling attention to it… she was adorable. Yellow and blue was a common color combination for ponies, but she had other traits that stood out. Lightning’s mane was jagged, coming out in three long spikes which receded in length as they reached the top of her skull. On the top of her head then were three long hair spikes, like long weeds growing out of her scalp. Her tail was just a normal long haired pony tail, thick and not really styled, just looking natural. Then there was the poor filly’s face. The right side of her face was swimming in a random arrangement of freckles. However the left side of her face was clear. Honestly with children you see all sorts so even with really strange ones you tend to just pass things off. Rarity looked concerned. She held a hoof up to her chin. “I can fix this… I’m pretty sure I can fix this- come with me.” “Why?” asked Lightning. “How do you feel about make overs?” Rarity asked back. “Never had one.” Rarity nodded and mumbled to me, “I can see that.” She then spoke up. “Darling, you’re cute to some adults, but I think your current appearance may turn other children away.” “You think others not liking me has something to do with the way I look?” Lightning asked. “Well I won’t say it's right of them, some of the best ponies I’ve met have been the ugliest-“ “Ugly?” Lightning asked, starting to look dejected. I glared at Rarity. That was beyond uncalled for. “No-no, you’re not ugly… not particularly…” “Um… I need to be fixed?” My glare started to intensify, no one messed with my charges. Rarity started stumbling on her words. “Fix… um… fixed is the wrong word… improved upon. You no doubt have a beautiful personality, why don’t we make sure you’re outside matches the inside yes?” Hearing that statement I choked back a laugh. To be honest, Lightning’s outward appearance rather did match her personality, goofy, full of energy and a little hard to predict at times. Still, looking at her and remembering the hint she earlier dropped about not having many friends, Rarity fixing up her appearance couldn’t hurt. I sighed and decided maybe Rarity was in the right, just not so good at wording things. Lightning looked over at Dusk, who just shrugged. “I’ll have to talk to Vinyl about you giving her a makeover however,” I noted. “I don’t really have the money for such things right now. Actually I’m just looking for someone to fix my roof-“ “A carpenter? I know several darling and…” Rarity half whispered in my ear, “Besides the filly really needs help, this is practically charity, I’ll do it for free just let me help.” And there was Rarity’s famed generosity and not so… complimentary tongue, both on full display. “Listen, you can model for me tomorrow, but I simply cannot allow this to go unaddressed, both of you, come with me.” “Her brother?” I pointed at Dusk. “He can follow if he likes… I didn’t even notice him, he’s quiet.” I nodded and shrugged at this. We all walked into Rarity’s small dress boutique. (***) After about thirty minutes, Rarity came out with Lightning Strike. Lightning looked… different. Her back mane had been slicked back and fluffed out a little and her front spikes had been laid down, the hairs made even. Rarity gave an awkward grin and walked away from her a short distance with me. “I’m at a loss for what to do with her freckles. My first instinct was to just cover them up with makeup, but they’re just too many and they’re too dense, she would look lopsided with that much make up on only one side of her face, even more than she does right now. And evening it out would look like she applied the makeup herself. However the hair was easier. Honestly I’m not even sure how it got-“ Behind us both we heard what sounded light a subtle electric shock followed by a loud clap. Rarity and I looked back to see Lightning’s mane returned completely to its former self. Lightning had been looking in a mirror and her smile started to fade. In only a few seconds Lightning looked ready to cry, Dusk running over to her from the waiting room where he had been playing with a set of blocks. Lightning looked at the ground as he stood beside her, trying to give her a huge smile chalked full of its own energy. “I’m ugly!” Lightning shouted. Dusk put a foreleg over her shoulder, again trying to show her a big smile. “No you’re not,” Dusk said so casually it was like he had not a single doubt in his mind that she was wrong. Lightning looked back at the two of us adults, I tried to smile, but the shock on Rarity’s face blew away any positive vibes I could manage. Lightning started crying and ran out of the boutique. Watching the filly run out Rarity just stood there. “Um…” She stammered. “That’s… that’s never happened before. I mean I’ve heard of unruly hair but that was ridiculous.” She reached out a hoof as if to pull back the filly who had just run off. “Um… I didn’t mean to upset her.” I sighed, partially enraged. “I’m not good with kids. Maybe I should just-“ “Oh no, you’re fixing this. Follow me,” I walked out. Just as I suspected Lightning hadn’t run far, she was just sobbing outside the store. I walked around the filly. “Lightning, you’re not ugly.” I said. Rarity walked on the other side of the filly. Dusk finally appeared running out the doors after us. The filly actually was ugly by this point, tears streaming down her cheeks, snot coming out her nose and her face scrunch up with her lip protruding. “Rarity, you’re going to have to be the one to set this straight.” I said, trying to calm down. Lightning was fast becoming a bit of a friend to me and I didn’t like ponies hurt my friends. Still I tried best I could to realize Rarity’s point of view. Rarity wasn’t a mean pony. Still, she had messed up and she needed to own it, at least in my mind. Rarity put a hoof on the filly’s chin and lifted her face. She smiled warmly at the filly. “Listen child. I guess I can forget that a lot of us aren’t very blessed when it comes to physical appearances,” Okay that didn’t sound like it was going to help, but I bit my tongue for the moment. “You should have seen me at your age. You’ll change as you grow, trust me. However for now… now that I look at you… you’re different. You actually pull that look off, which isn’t easy to do- what’s you’re secret?” Lightning looked as confused as I was. “Well I simply must know. I mean, the freckles, the strange mane, the non-matching tail, but you pull it off… well not right now. Let me see that big grin you were wearing earlier.” Lightning grinned at Rarity slowly. “There! I knew it was there. You’re look is very… well just very you. I’m honestly a little jealous. I’m generic by comparison. They should call you Rarity.” “And you Lightning Strike?” Lightning asked. “Well that name might not fit me very well, but I think you get the idea.” Rarity nodded to herself. “You’re not always going to feel pretty, but when you don’t, just remember all the ponies around you who accept you anyway.” She looked up at me. “There’s Threadbare, apparently Vinyl Scratch, you’re brother and me, just to name a few. You can’t be as bad as I’m sure you’re thinking, if we still like you, now can you?” Lightning’s grin faded, but it was replaced with a far less forced normal smile. (***) My little group, minus Rarity, left the boutique. Rarity did however give me the contact information for a few good carpenter stallions. She also apologized profusely. Before I went to the carpenters, I did however stop by sugar cube corner to give the foals strawberry shakes. Lightning seemed to need a pick me up after all. (***) I finally hired someone far less expensive than the pony Lightning scared off. After hiring the mare that was to fix my roof, she informed me I would need to stay outside while she worked. I was about to suggest to the two foals that we design a game, however Lightning almost immediately preoccupied herself flying over the roof and watching the carpenter pony. We also got some rather unexpected company. Seeing us outside a young orange filly turned her scooter sideways and skidded to a stop, hitting Dusk with a small dust cloud. She hopped off yelling “Hey Dusty!” I was about to come to my charge’s defense, however as he growled at her, he still had a bit of grin on. “I got something to show you.” She parked her scooter by the side of my house. “You’re not the only one with sweet dance moves. Check it out.” And away little Scootaloo went. Spinning, jumping and a few odd slides. Instead of the expected shouts of “cool” or “sweet” like one would expect, Dusk just watched the filly with rapt attention. Course I just then realized I was doing the same thing. Finally the filly had done her whole routine, whatever it was supposed to be and trotted to a stop. “So, what do ya think? Pretty cool right?” Dusk just nodded. “Oh just a nod huh? Think you can do that stuff?” she asked. Dusk seemed to think for a minute. “Maybe?” he asked. “I mean, it did look kind of hard. Maybe if you showed me again?” “Hmm?” Scootaloo asked. “You mean you want me to teach you?” He nodded. “Well… for a teacher you could certainly do worse.” “Well before that, I’ve been kind of wondering if you could show me how you do things on that scooter of yours.” “Oh that?” She looked over at her scooter. “It’s nothing special. Do you have a scooter?” “Not right now.” “Well I can’t really teach you without one.” Dusk grunted. He then looked back to Scootaloo. “Well how do those dance moves work, they were really neat.” “Neat?” Scootaloo didn’t seem to know how to take that statement. “Yea.” “Okay…” Thus I witnessed a kind of junior teaching session. Dusk was actually rather graceful for a kid his age, not to say he didn’t fall flat on his face several times. However the colt was determined and in about an hour he had at least a few steps memorized. As this took place I also watched Lightning circling overhead, not seeming to be doing anything in particular, just flying for the heck of it. Finally I pulled out a book I had with me and started reading, every so often looking up to make sure the kids weren’t getting out of control. Mentally I noted to myself that with the amount of energy my two charges had, I was so glad I wasn’t going to be taking care of them into the evening. Putting them to bed would no doubt be a chore. Scootaloo ran over to me. “Hey Threadbare, got any stories for me… please?” Oh yes, I was a bit of a story teller in general, sometimes making them up on the fly. Before I could say anything Scootaloo yelled back, “Dusk, Lightning, c’mon you guy have got hear one of her stories, they’re really good.” Dusk was quickly beside his friend while Lightning didn’t seem so enthusiastic. She was still flying, but actually starting to look tired for her part. I had to think for a minute. “Well um… Let’s see…” However it was just then that I noticed Vinyl coming over to me. I sighed, actually kind of wishing to keep going with these two, but all things come to an end I suppose. However instead of interrupting, Vinyl took a seat in front of me and smiled, waving for me to continue. Lightning dropped down beside the older mare. She smiled and then laid down. She fought her eyes to keep them open and then I about laughed out loud as she suddenly just lost the fight and passed out. “My audience seems to be growing… and shrinking somehow.” I chuckled. “Let’s see, a story… where to I begin?”