• Published 13th Apr 2012
  • 7,813 Views, 645 Comments

My Little Heartbreak: Creativi-Tea - Jet_Black1980



It's a week later and Twilight is nagging Heartbreak about her first letter to Celestia.

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Mad at the Hatter

Chapter 11

Mad at the Hatter.

Twilight smiled a smile of victory as the grass ball found its target: Heartbreak’s screaming mouth. There was a look of shocked horror on Heartbreak’s face when her mouth closes, which is followed by a disgusted expression and an involuntary twitch from her left eye.
Twilight bends her head down and at Heartbreak. “You’re going to eat that grass, Heartbreak. Now. Chew it.”

Heartbreak looked down at the grass ball in her mouth. It was really more a clump of grass that retained some of its root system and even a bit of dirt. She looked frightened and angry. She quickly shook her head, “No.”

Twilight stomped her hooves. “Grrraaa!” She then got up in Heartbreak’s Face. “I am your teacher, Heartbreak and you, are my student. And you are going to learn to love grass whether you like it or not!”

Spike raced across the street. “Twilight! Stop this!” he shouted, getting between the two ponies. “This isn’t like you, Twi’. Come on! Snap out of it!” he eased Twilight away from Heartbreak. ”Remember what I said.”

“Are you still takin-” Twilight stopped at Spikes dead panned look. Heartbreak was sat upon the ground leaning against what had to be a hat booth, from the looks of both the massive hat shaped sign and the pegasus pony running it. In her mouth was the grass clump, still showing signs of being ripped fresh from the ground and a bit of Heartbreak’s saliva dripping off it. She sighed. “...Right. There aren’t any sides here.”

The magic holding the grass in Heartbreak’s mouth faded and she spat the grass out almost instantly. “Bleh! Ugh!” she started to rub her forearm against her tongue to remove the taste. “Ugh, now I can taste grass and dirt.” She commented, pushing herself off the ground.

Twilight sighed and offered to help Heartbreak up. “Heartbreak, I-”

“It’s. Fine.” Heartbreak said in a way that clearly said that it wasn’t fine.

“Do you have to be like that?” Twilight asked.

“Be like what, Twilight?” Heartbreak asked, avoiding the question while rubbing her tongue against her other forearm.

“That!” Twilight replied.

“I’m not sure what you are talking about, Twilight.” Heartbreak countered.

Twilight growled and stomped her hooves on the ground. Spike looked at her sympathetically, while placing a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. “Heartbreak!” she began.

“Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! Ladies!” came the voice from the hat booth. “I don’t know what is causing the ruckus between you two. But! I do know two very important things. One, I can’t have you two fighting in front of my shop, it’s just bad for business! And two, I know exactly what you three need to fix this situation.” The trio looked at him expectantly.

“And that would be...” Heartbreak asked bitterly.

“Why, brand new hats of course!” He said, waving his hoof at the selection of hats that he kept behind the counter. It wasn’t a fantastic selection, nor were they the fanciest of hats any of them had seen. “Why, I have hats of every sort and every stripe, that can turn any situation right!” he said his voice turning musical.

Heartbreak jutted up from where she was and got right up in the hat makers face. “And just who are you?” She asked staring at him eye to eye. She angrily blew a bit of her mane out of her face.

The sales pony pulled at his collar and swallowed hard. “Why I’m High Hat, Ma’am, and if I have been paying attention, you’d be the lovely Miss Heartbreak? I say, that I the perfect hat that that will bring a smile to your-”

Heartbreak crushed a twitch forming on her face with her hoof. “High. Hat? Really?” High Hat nodded with a big but nervous grin on his face. “Several things, High Hat. One, Don’t call me ‘lovely’ or ‘miss’. Two, jokes about the name, allusions to me being an unhappy p-pony or anything of the like? No. Don’t even make them! And finally!” She said rolling her eyes, while tossing her head. “I swear, if you start singing a song about all the hats you have and how my life would just be hunky-dory-day if I bought just one of them! I swear, I’ll take one of your hats and-”

“Heartbreak!” Twilight shouted, pulling her back from the counter. “You’ll have to forgive her...She’s had a rough week and not much sleep,” She said pulling her to the side. “This is what I am talking about.”

Spike blinked and wrote something down. “Huh...interesting.”

“Twilight! He’s...he’s, Ugh! Whatever...” Heartbreak said, brushing Twilight’s hoof away from her shoulder, she took a deep breath and rubbed the side of her head. “I’m sure you’re right, Twilight,” She said, her expression softening just a little.

“Wait, what? I am?” Twilight said, taken a bit back.

“I’m having difficulty adjusting, avoiding my problems, and taking it out on random ponies who most likely don’t deserve it,” Heartbreak said.

Twilight gave Spike a confused look “Hey, you’re the teacher here, Twilight,” Spike said shrugging his shoulders and giving her a nod to go ahead and handle the situation.

“It’s alright, H.B., I’ve been making my fair number of mistakes today,” Twilight began softly. “I am glad to see that you’re recognizing and admitting to them.” Heartbreak sighed and rolled her eyes a bit. “Which is why...” Twilight started putting her back in front of the counter. “You won’t have any trouble apologizing to Mr. High Hat here!”

“Uhm, right, apologize...” Heartbreak said looking at High Hat. She ran a hoof through her mane. “Right. Apologizing. Well, you see it’s like this, High Hat, I mean Mr. High Hat. Uhm...” She floundered a bit more. “I’ve...”

High Hat made a sympathetic face. “Let’ me guess. You’re the new mare in town...Don’t have too many friends, and due to your name, you’ve heard every single joke in the book dealing with hearts, breaking hearts and tears. I just happen to have been the final straw that was breaking the camel’s back as it were?”

“Well...Yeah, kinda, sorta,” Heartbreak said kinda quietly.

“Well, you need not worry about that. This old stallion has a much thicker hide than that to let something like that bother him!” He replied. “And ya know what? I think I will cut you in on a deal, seeing that you’re new to Ponyville!”

“You don’t have to do that. Really.” Heartbreak replied, backing away and showing a bit of concern.

“Heartbreak...” Twilight began, she then looked at High Hat. “What kind of deal?” She asked.

“Well...” High Hat began. “It’s more like a challenge of sorts.”

“Challenge?” Heartbreak asked her face sharing the same deadpanned look as Spike’s.

“Well...More like a bet!” High Hat said, a wide smile still brimming on his face.

“A. Bet?” Heartbreak said, a growl escaping her throat. Spike quirked his eye. He would have asked that very same question, had Heartbreak not beat him to it.

“Why yes!” High hat reached behind the counter and pulled out a jar that appeared to be nearly filled with an assortment of marbles. “You see, most of my fine hats run around the price of twenty to thirty bits apiece! However, for you two,” He pauses as Heartbreak glowered at him. “You two special ponies, today only, if you can guess how many marbles are in the jar, I’ll give you a free hat!” He smiles and Heartbreak continued to glare at him.

“What’s the catch?” She asked.

Twilight looks at Heartbreak. “Seriously?”

“Well...There is a nominal fee, nothing big, just five bits to play is all!” High Hat says. “But it’s a small fee, and you get the chance to win a free hat!”

Heartbreak said nothing but continued to glare at him. He chuckled and pulled on his collar.

“Alright, you’ve got yourself a deal!” Twilight says, placing five bits on the counter.

“Twilight!” Heartbreak protests.

“I know you’re uncomfortable with ponies buying you things, Heartbreak,” she looks at the jar. “However, it’s five bits and there is the chance to get a free hat!” She said, her voice edging only a little toward angry. She then turned her attention back to the jar of marbles. “Let’s see, it’s roughly the size of a pickle jar, each marble appears to be half an inch in diameter and the jar is filled up about nine tenths of the way full.” Twilight looked like she was doing a bit of math in her head. “I would estimate that there should be at least 144 marbles in your jar, Mr. High Hat.” Twilight said, smiling.

High Hat had a rather wide grin. “Your final answer?”

Twilight nodded while Heartbreak angrily crossed her hooves.

“Well Miss Twilight Sparkle, those were some very nice calculations, and you did a very good job in guessing...” Twilight smiled a satisfied smile at Heartbreak, who only rolled her eyes. “But I’m afraid that you are wrong...”

“What?” Twilight’s face dropped and she looked at the pickle jar more closely again. “I should have been very close!”

“I’m afraid not my dear. You weren’t even in the ballpark.” He says, putting the pickle jar back behind the counter. “But if it is any consolation, I will knock off ten bits on any one of my finely made hats here!”

“Well...I guess that’s better than nothing,” Twilight said disappointingly as she reached for her bits.

Heartbreak’s hoof quickly went up and stopped her. “Twilight, don’t give that colt one bit. Not One.”

“Heartbreak, I know you don’t like me buying things but seriously this has-”

“Twilight, would you just listen to me for a second, please?” Heartbreak began.

Twilight paused. “Alright H.B., I’m listening.”

“Thank you,” Heartbreak cleared her throat. “That...stallion is a Con-Artist!” she said her hoof pointing at High Hat squarely in the face.

“Bwha?? Heartbreak!” Twilight said in a shocked and confused manner.

“What?!” High Hat shouted. “I Say! I am nothing but an honest sales pony and hatter! I would never stoop so low as to-”

Heartbreak got up in High Hats face and looked him square in the eye. “Don’t start that, ‘I’m just an honest sales pony’ bit with me, Mr. High Hat,” she says shaking her hoof at him. “I know your type. Smooth, swathe, and acting all buddy-buddy with everypony, you butter them up, try to make them feel better about themselves and when the moment is right, Bam! You spring some sort of cheap trick to earn extra bits off them.”

“Heartbreak!” Twilight once again protests.

However, Heartbreak seemed to be on a tirade about this. “Taking advantage of any kind of pony you can. Telling them the price of your hats, then offering them some super special deal, lure them in with this marble game of yours, and when they can’t guess the number, hit them with a ‘special discount!’” She points at all his hats. “What a wide selection of rather samy hats you have there, rather bland and boring the lot of them. In fact the only good hat I can see is clearly perched atop your head! Tell me Mr. High Hat. Did you make it yourself or did you buy it?!”

By now, High Hat is sweating and biting his lower lip. His worried eyes are quivering nervously and he almost looks a bit frantic. “I-I-I happened to make this one myself,” he says almost meekly. “I mean, I-I-I make all my hats..”

“Well Bravo!” she replied, clapping her hooves together slowly. ”One good hat and a dozen boring, dull, almost grey ones. What’s the matter? Run out of ideas?!” She shouts angrily.

Twilight pulls Heartbreak away from the counter. “Heartbreak!” Twilight screams looking at her square in the eye. “Enough of this!”

Heartbreak is about to open her mouth to say something, however Twilight quickly clamped it shut with her magic. “No,” Twilight says angrily. “Alright. I don’t know how things are where you are from. However, here, we don’t act like this. And by this, I mean accusing other ponies of swindling them. Or berating them about the quality of their hats. Now are you going to apologize to Mr. High Hat or not?”

Heartbreak frowned and closed her eyes in frustration. She snorted a deep breath and shook her head. “No.” Spike could tell that Twilight was getting frustrated and put his hand on her shoulder.

“Right, I just want you to know that I am disappointed in you then, Heartbreak.” she sighed. “But as you said, you’re a grown mare. You can make your own choices and suffer the consequences of those choices.” Twilight took a deep breath. “Perhaps today isn’t the best day to show you around Ponyville.” Heartbreak looked to the side and nodded a bit. Twilight let the magic dissipate from around Heartbreak’s mouth.

She was quiet for a few moments before speaking. “I...I guess we’ll have to try another day for that. I still have like two weeks to write to Celestia...um...Princess Celestia. When I’ve had more sleep, am not so caffeine deprived or at least tea deprived, and am just overall a better...pony,” She said, her voice nearly dropping to a whisper. Her voice then took on a fake sort of cheerfulness. ”In the meantime, I’ll just go back to the library and practice trying to draw. At least that way, the only pony I’ll hurt is myself,” She said rolling her eyes and grinding a hoof into the ground.

Confound it. Why does she have to be so sad?” Twilight steeled herself and reminded herself of everything that happened in but a few short hours. “Right.” “That is probably a good idea. I have a few errands to run, I should be back in a few hours.”

Heartbreak turned and started walking towards the library. “Alright Twilight. I’ll see you then.”

Twilight’s expression soured. A number of conflicting feelings bubbled up about the whole situation. She could have been a little nicer about Heartbreak’s resistance to adapting to pony dietary needs, but she in turn could have just accepted her generosity about buying the simplest of things. “Not to mention being a little more trusting about other ponies intentions...

“Uh, Twilight, should I go with her?” Spike asked.

Twilight watched Heartbreak walking away. With her head and tail hanging low, it was almost impossible to not feel some sort of sympathy pang for her. “Yes. While she says she knows Ponyville pretty well, I don’t want her getting lost,” Twilight replied. “And...she might open up more to you, Spike. I don’t know why, but I get the feeling she trusts you a little more than me.”

“Pffft, yeah right. Heartbreak doesn’t trust anypony here.” He watched her off in the distance. She sounded like she might be muttering to herself about something. “I mean, it seems like she really wants to, but she’s holding back. Besides, if she wants tea, she’ll need someone to help her boil some water and whathaveyou. I’m sure you don’t want to come back to a kitchen fire, right?”

“Well, no, that is a good point.” Twilight bit her lip. “I’m sure she wouldn’t burn the library down on purpose though.” “At least, I hope she wouldn’t. Last thing we need is an unstable pyromaniac pony on our hooves.

“Right, I’ll see you when you get back Twi’,” Spike said, starting to turn. “And Twi?”

“Yeah, Spike?” Twilight asked.

“While you are, ‘running errands,’ try to think about something like maybe a lesson plan or something,” Spike said. “I mean you’re good at organization, right? So maybe organize your thoughts? I don’t know, I just wanted to sound all smart and stuff...”

Twilight snickered a bit. “That’s very good advice, Spike. I’ll take it into consideration.”

Spike nodded and waved to Twilight before running after Heartbreak. “Hey! Heartbreak! Wait up!” He called out as the tan pony tripped and stumbled a bit.

Twilight frowned. This almost felt like back in Canterlot when she was bringing her before Princess Celestia. She felt that she had done something wrong here and she wasn’t sure how to fix it.

Maybe Spike is right,” Twilight thought walking back towards the Hat booth. “Maybe I just need a little time to organize my thoughts about all this. I might as well apologize to High Hat, seeing that Heartbreak won’t.” “Mr. High Hat? It’s me again, I just wanted to-”

But High Hat was nowhere to be seen over the counter.

“Um, Hello?” Twilight asked peering into the booth. Her ears picked up a faint and rather disconcerting sound. To somepony else it might be the sound of laughing, but it was more broken up. Looking down the mystery was soon solved.

There was High Hat, slumped down on the ground. It was apparent that he was crying with his face buried in one of the many bowler hats that was selling.

“Oh my, goodness!” Twilight gasped in shock. “Mr. High Hat, are you ok?!”

There was a pause in his sobs and then a hard sniff. He removed the hat from his face. “Oh, Hello, Miss Sparkle was it? Oh yes, I’m fine. Just f-fine.” He replied with a faked smile.

Twilight could tell that High Hat was far from fine. “Uh, are you sure about that?”

The brown pegasus sniffed hard again. “Oh yes...I-I-I..” High Hat just broke out in tears. “Oh Sweet Celestia! She’s Right! I am a con artist! And I haven’t a decent idea for a hat sinse Los Pegasus!”

Twilight was shocked for a moment, and then gave him a sympathetic look.. “Is it something you want to talk about?” She asked, totally disregarding the fact that he was openly admitting to being a con artist. High Hat was quiet for a moment. “Mr-”

“No, I would not like to talk about it,” He said in a stern and somewhat angry manner. He stood back up and placed five bits on the counter. Twilight looked as if she was about to say something but High Hat interrupted her.

“I thank you for your concern Miss Sparkle, but I think I will be closing shop early today. Thank you for your time and good day.” He said slamming the shutters to his hat shop.

“Mr. High Hat?” Twilight asked.

“Take your bits and please, just go, Miss Sparkle.” Came the muffled voice.

Taking the bits on the counter, Twilight turned and started to walk. Heartbreak might have hurt him, but she was right about him being a con artist. “Now I really don’t know what to think...