Princess Twilight Sparkle's School for Fantastic Foals

by kudzuhaiku


Chapter 32

Distracted by his own thoughts, Sumac thought about Starlight’s predicament. Being a Monday, he didn’t have archery, and he had muddled through the afternoon without knowing what to do. He had settled on attending a friendship lecture with Spike as the speaker, but he hadn’t listened to it very well, which made him feel bad. He just had too much going on inside of his head to pay much attention, but he tried, because he liked Spike.

Now, he was just waiting for Lemon Hearts and Trixie to finish up so he could go home. He was tired, he was sore, and his shoulders ached from hobbling around. Still, he found that he enjoyed school, even if he didn’t understand everything and struggled with fractions.

He thought about the road. While he enjoyed school well enough, and living in a house was pleasant, he missed his nomadic life. He adjusted his glasses, thought about the long days of walking beside Trixie as she pulled the wagon, and then after thinking about it for a time, he decided it was better this way. Trixie had been hurting herself to keep pulling the wagon along. He liked it here, he liked having friends. He liked having Silver Lining clinging to him, or listening to Flint and Tinder bickering, and he liked how sometimes Strawberry Hearts’ magic went wrong… terribly wrong. He was glad to know Cinnamon. He liked being to able to talk to Pebble. All of this had meaning for him now and he wasn’t sure if he would ever give it up.

He sat in a comfortable chair with his book bag beside him, waiting, trying to pass the time. Boomer was napping, which she did a lot of, and there wasn’t anypony else around. Sumac was all by himself, alone with his thoughts. Thoughts about grown ups sometimes being wrong, or maybe not knowing what they are doing, or that sometimes grown ups cried and that they had the same sort of feelings that foals did, but had to be more responsible about how they managed them. He thought about life not being fair—and it wasn’t—but no matter how unfair life was, friends could make it better. Starlight seemed to feel better knowing that she had a friend.

It occurred to Sumac that the real magic of friendship wasn’t the power to blast monsters with the Elements of Harmony, it was the ability to soothe the ache of how life hurt you, when things were wrong, or weren’t fair, or adults made mistakes, or abuse happened, or bullying took place. Friendship made these things bearable, and that was a pretty special magic. Friendship made it easier for Starlight to do a job that she didn’t want to do. Friendship made Sumac want to return to school, even though it was here at school where he had been both bullied and humiliated by Olive. It was his friendships that made him want to be a better pony, because the idea of letting his friends down bothered him on some deep fundamental level that he had trouble comprehending.

So consumed by his thoughts, he did not see a purple pony princess approaching…


“Hello… how are you feeling?” Twilight smiled, a warm, loving smile that somehow made the room brighter. It was an effect that could not be explained, but it could be noticed. She lowered her head and, acting very much like her mentor, she looked into Sumac’s eyes, trying to see through his darkened lenses. “Trixie will be done soon. She has a project that she feels passionate about. She likes her job.”

“That’s good,” Sumac replied, not knowing what else to say.

“Starlight and I had a long talk.” Twilight drew in a deep breath and her wings fluttered against her sides. “A very long talk, and it was about you, Sumac Apple. Do you know what we talked about?”

He was tempted to say Olive, but bit back that response. “Friendship?”

“Correct.” Twilight nodded her head. “We talked about friendship.”

“Did you have trouble making friends with foals?” Sumac asked.

There was no reply from Twilight. Instead, she sat down in the chair beside Sumac, made herself comfortable, leaned over, and looked at Boomer. Then, she said, “Yes I did. Foals were little… and I was so big and grown up. Or I thought I was. It was hard for me. I was still having trouble just making friends with adults. But then I had a realisation that changed my life for the better.”

“What was it?” Sumac looked up at Twilight with genuine interest glittering in his eyes.

“I thought about Cadance… she was older… and far more grown up than I was. She was my friend. She did it somehow and I realised that I could do it too. So I started to mentor some foals, like the Cutie Mark Crusaders. We became friends… very close friends, and it just sort of happened. Before that point, when I was having trouble, I realised that I was just trying too hard.”

“Was Starlight trying too hard?” Sumac felt the question needed to be asked.

“Maybe.” Twilight let out a soft sigh and then her eyes began to wander around the room. She returned her attention to Sumac, drew in a deep breath, and then shook her head. “Starlight still has so much to learn… and so far to go. It’s been very, very hard on her. But every friend she finds makes it a little easier for her. Ponies like you make the difference.”

“Ponies don’t like her.” Sumac looked up at Twilight and felt the need to say more, but he wasn’t sure what. Unable to express himself and say what he wanted to say, he chose to remain silent.

“Yes, there are ponies that still don’t like her, don’t trust her, and don’t want anything to do with her. And it hurts her. She made enemies. She hurt a lot of ponies. Sadly, there are ponies that I know and love a great deal that refuse to forgive her, and it hurts me. I wish some of my friends would do better… but I understand that some very complicated things happened. I hope that time, and maybe a few wise words from me, might make things better.”

“Just more of life being unfair,” Sumac remarked.

“Perhaps,” Twilight replied. “By the way, I haven’t forgotten about Boomer’s special piece of shell… I’m sorry for the long wait, but it will be worth it, I promise.”

“I can wait.”

“Thank you, Sumac.”

“Starlight and Olive are going to end up having a lot in common,” Sumac said, his brows furrowing. “Ponies aren’t going to want to forgive Olive if she ever comes around and does better. She’s gonna be hated and nopony is gonna wanna be her friend.”

“That is my fear, Sumac… that is my fear. And if that happens, I am afraid that it will only push her back into darker, more dangerous places.” Twilight cleared her throat. “I am hoping that Starlight and Olive can become friends with each other. They have a lot in common… so much they could talk about and learn from one another.”

“Do you think Starlight might stumble back into darker and more dangerous places?”

Twilight did not respond right away. She sat there, her eyes darting back and forth, her left ear twitching up and down, and there was a faint rustle of feathers as the muscles in her wings tensed and clenched. Her mouth opened, but no words came out, and then her mouth closed. After a few more failed attempts, she managed to say, “She might, Sumac. She might. I’ll admit to the possibility. I would be lying if I tried to say that the darkness has been purged from her. It hasn’t. She wants to get better though, she has a sincere desire for that. She has a better chance of recovery and doing good if ponies like you try to be her friend. Olive too. I believe that sometimes, the failure of the individual is an indicator of the failure of their peers as well, an outlook that Princess Cadance shared with me.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We’re herd animals, Sumac… and sometimes, as herd animals, we shun a fellow herd member and maybe we try to push them out of the herd because we don’t like them, or don’t want to forgive them, and maybe, just maybe, we impede their reintegration back into the herd by turning others against them and holding grudges that influence what other herd members think.”

“That… that’s… that… that’s awful,” Sumac stammered, trying to put his feelings into words and failing. “I never thought of it that way… I wouldn’t want to do that… that’s not fair, especially if somepony is really trying to do better. That’s just mean.”

“It’s why Trixie stayed on the road. She worried about rejection.”

Hearing these words, Sumac slumped down in his chair and thought about everything being said. He had the first real glimmer of just how complicated his feelings about Olive really were. If he really wanted to get revenge against her, he could ruin her life if she ever decided to turn things around. He could turn others against her. He could sow the seeds of hatred and distrust. He could use sympathy for what happened to him to make others think she wasn’t sincere. He could make others doubt her. Little Sumac, a colt, had a very grown up realisation, and it made him feel very small and insecure. He could make her suffer, he could make her hurt, he could continue to punish her, and it would be all the more painful if it happened when she had a sincere desire to get better, to do good, to turn things around.

Sumac hoped that he wasn’t that petty.

Just the thought made him feel sick to his stomach.

Not only could he be a friend, but he could be an enemy as well. He had the power to make another pony’s life worse. It was a dizzying thought and Sumac wasn’t too happy about this realisation. He worried that he might be tempted in a moment of anger to make her suffer or hurt. He felt the pressure of tears building up and hated how emotional he was. It was hard being a foal sometimes.

And then, a second realisation hit—this information, this knowledge would always be there. He couldn’t go back to how he was just a few minutes ago, before this knowledge had infected his brain. He was stuck with his crushing realisation and it would be forever with him. He knew that he would be forever questioning another pony’s motivations and worrying about this very issue.

“Ugh, my brain! Why does it gotta be like this! I hate being smart!” Unable to hold it back any longer, Sumac began bawling, overcome with all of the emotions bubbling up inside of him. “I hate it! I hate it! I don’t want to be smart! It sucks! SUCKS!”

Horn glowing, Twilight plucked Sumac from out of his chair and plopped him down beside her. She wrapped a wing around him, pulled him close, and then wrapped a foreleg around him too for good measure to comfort him as he sobbed.

Boomer awoke, let out a worried trilling sound, and then began tugging on Sumac’s ear in an attempt to communicate her sense of concern. The little hatching looked frantic, she was only half awake, and it was obvious she was scared. Sumac was her world, and something was wrong with her world. Her world had sprung a leak and was shaking.

When ear tugging didn’t work, Boomer grabbed a hank of Twilight’s mane, scurried up Twilight’s neck, and then perched upon Twilight’s horn. She let out a worried honk and then took a more defensive posture, willing to protect if she couldn’t make the leaking stop. Her head bobbed up and down to show that she meant business. She might be tiny, but she was every bit as ferocious as her kin that were hundreds of times her size.

“Sheesh, Sparkle, leave a foal alone with you, and you make them cry.”

Lifting her head, Twilight saw the suggestion of a smile upon Trixie’s face.

“My poor kiddo… he’s so emotional… I worry sometimes.”

“Yeah, he’s having a moment,” Twilight said, “we had a very serious talk.”

“And by talk, you mean you did whatever you did to make a little foal cry,” Trixie replied as she sat down in the chair that Sumac had been sitting in. “Hey, kiddo, what gives?” Reaching over, she prodded Sumac.

Sumac hiccuped in response, but failed to put anything into words. He leaned against Twilight, buried his face against her, and then continued to let everything out. It hurt too much to try and hold it in.

After getting comfortable in her chair, Trixie let out a weary sigh. She leaned over and looked at Twilight. “That’s the thing with foals, they leak. I learned that on the very first day with Sumac. If one end wasn’t leaking, the other end was. Both ends make noise, some pleasant, some not so pleasant.”

“Well, there must be some good to them,” Twilight replied, “ponies keep having them.”

“Oh, they are very pleasant to snuggle with and make for excellent bed warmers.” Trixie let out a low, soft chuckle.

“I see.” Twilight rubbed Sumac’s back with her foreleg, trying to soothe him.

Hearing the idle chatter of the adults was calming. It let Sumac know that everything was mostly okay. He drew in a deep, shuddering breath, and then continued to let it all out, hoping that Trixie and Twilight would keep talking. They were two voices that he trusted and he needed to hear them.