A Hard Clip-Clop Life
Chapter 28: A Hard Clip-Clop Life
I don't know what you're playing at, but that was one joke too far, Equestria.
'Seriously, a pony based on Cosby of all doctors?! I barely remember -that- show! Well, maybe that one episode where the guys all got pregnant and gave birth.’ The uneven clip-clop of my hooves on the Ponyville cobblestone was irritating me. Seems while this Heartbreak flambé magically healed within a Disney Afternoon, the pain still remains. 'And your favorite OC, Robin Goodfilly, her coming in to save the day, while welcome, is far from suspicious, very far from sup-'
"Uhm, H.B.?" Fluttershy's voice cuts through my /irritated thoughts like a hot knife through room temperature butter.
'Ha. Flutterbutter, Mutterbutter flutter. Flutter mutter butter-' Shut. Up. Brain. Now is not the time for your random nonsense. Gathering myself up. I attempt to clear any hostility from my voice by taking a deep breath through my nose, holding it, and slowly letting it out. "Yes, Fluttershy?"
"Uhm..." Comes the hesitant tremble. "Are you alright?" the question finally comes out in a hushed tone.
"Why...? Is my mane and tail doing the 'thing' again?" I peer over my side, a shiver going down my spine. This whole outing has been just a series of weird events one after another. Much to my relief or maybe chagrin... really at this point I don't know anymore- my tail isn't animating. 'I guess that's good. Can't be the predecessor to the Maneia-wait, no. Can't think about -that- just yet!'
"Oh... no..." Fluttershy replies, her words coming out as an almost sad croak. "I-I just wanted to know if you were alright..." she stammers...
Poor Fluttershy... Why is she even doing all this? 'To help you learn a lesson about kindness. Elements of Harmony, remember?' Yes, brain. I remember all that.
It just feels like... I don't know... Maybe she was right with that first 'lesson' after she helped me with the dishes... Oh, and getting to the hospital the first time. And she led me back to the couch, my ass still sore from where Robin 'Goodfilly' stabbed it...
'That Robin Goodfilly... I can't put a hoo-Finger! Finger. I can't place it, but there's something about her that's niggling at me.'
Is it that all too toothy grin? The overly helpful expression? The way she seemed to arrive at just the right moment just now? The-
Crap. Fluttershy is still looking at me, eyes darting back and forth, head pointed down, expectantly waiting for an answer no matter how small.
"I'm fine," Yeah, sure. 'Fine'. What was that acrogram again? Fe-Fucked, uhm... Insecure... nauseated? no... Neurotic? And... What was 'E'? E... E... Emotional. Right. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Oh... Okay..." Comes the reply among the stead clip-clop of her hooves and the odd pattern of mine. I am really unsure how used to that sound I am.
A question starts to pester me in the back of my mind, one that seems to shove its way forward past the crowd of thoughts, ideas, notions, and yes, even other questions that are currently living rent free in my head.
"Fluttershy…" I have to begin this slowly. After all, the two of them are 'fffriends'. Then again.. she's made acquaintances with stranger things...
"Mmm, yes?"
"How... well... do you, like, know Robin?" Hoooo-boy. That sounded like a teen girl trying to get the latest dirt on some... one named... Heather.. or some other bitchy sounding name.
"Uhm... Well enough?" she says with an air of uncertainty.
==================================
"Well enough?" Came Heartbreak's almost needling inquiry.
"Well, she has been in Ponyville for two years..." Fluttershy said, looking thoughtfully at the ground, tapping her chin and glancing skyward. "I think she's doing her round of tour here as a nurse."
"Round of tour?"
"Mmhm," Fluttershy said, nodding. "Every native born pony has to have at least a couple years or more of service, whether that be as a uhm... soldier or the medical field as a nurse!"
"Oh..." Heartbreak said, her face blanching and eyes growing wide in alarm. "That's only for native born p-ponies... Right?"
"Uhm... Right." Fluttershy replied, almost picking up on Heartbreak's unease. "That's not surprising though. After all, she did tell you that she served. You should say something to assure her.' "And I'm sure that you wouldn't have to worry about that, seeing that they aren't ... even... uhm... well..."
"From Equestria?" Heartbreak asked, her tone stiffening and practically taking on a harsh growl causing the demure pegasus to flinch a little.
Heartbreak sighed, stopped and rubbed her forehead. "I apologize, Fluttershy. I didn't mean for that to sound like... that. I guess that's what happened... Robyn and especially 'Doctor' Puddin' Pop got under my skin more than I realized. Really futzed with my emotions."
"It's... ok..." Fluttershy replied. "Robyn does have your best interests at heart. I think it's that she's not really a nurse pony..."
"I was kind of figuring that out cause of the whole 'tour of survice' thing." Heartbreak said. "So..." She began hesitantly. "Whaat sort of p-pony is she?"
"Oh, well, didn't you see her cutie mark?" Fluttershy asked, a bit surprised that H.B. didn't know everything about Robyn right off the bat.
Heartbreak paused and blinked a few times before tapping her chin. "Actually, I don't think I have..." she said, proceeding to walk forward, the gray cobblestone path from the hospital now giving way to the purplish stone that made up Ponyville's streets. "I guess I was too busy getting poked, pestered, and... per... snickered? To take notice..."
"Well, she's actually a theater pony!" Fluttershy explained.
"That explains her... eccentric... mannerisms..." Heartbreak said, looking as if she had to chew on her words before speaking them.
"Uhm, yes..." Fluttershy said, a bit confused at where such a comment even came from. "Then again, she must be having a great deal of anxieties and worries over everything she's been through... She and I were in a play together."
"You were?" Heartbreak asked incredulously, her eyebrow lifting before she sniffed at the air.
"Oh yes!" Fluttershy said, nodding before looking worried. "Is there something wrong?"
"Uuuh, i-it's just, I never thought you would be in a play is all..." Heartbreak said, her attention being drawn to one of the many food venders that lined the street they were on.
Fluttershy blushed. "It was more of a favor for Robyn; one of the extras came down with a cold, so they were short of a tree in 'A Summer Sun's Celebration's Midnight Nocturne'."
"That's quite the mouthful," Heartbreak replied, once more sniffing at the ever enticing aromas. "Saaay, speaking of a mouthful... How about we stop somewhere for dinner and you tell me all about that play? My treat."
"Really? I mean, only if you're feeling like it..." Fluttershy said.
Heartbreak made a slight pained face as her stomach pleaded at her with a sharp gurgling noise. "Yeah... I would definitely say that some part of me is feeling up for it."
==================================
The path away from the hospital to the Ponyville Orphanage was a windy, twisty one that curved back behind the schoolhouse and lead down through a valley, around an ominous tuff that hid a grove of gnarled old oak trees, that, despite having foliage, seemed incapable or perhaps unwilling to produce any acorns.
Cream Puff turned her face away in shame from those geriatric oaks, whose bark seemed to curl into soured, judging, almost disapproving faces. Of course, this only brought her line of sight to a tangle of thickets below the trees. A thicket that at one point could have been called rose bushes.
Now, be it because of the apathy of a groundskeeper or the outright lack of one, the delicate shrubberies were now more a dome shape filled wicked thorns rather than 'ruby red roses'.
Passing through the creaky, rusty, ornate rod-iron gate with a family crest that neither Cream Puff, nor Jeepers Creepers knew, nor really cared to learn about, was a yard that belied, much to the dismay of the oaks and roses (who were clearly embroidered in a competition to see who could resemble something that came from the Everfree Forest first) a mostly well trimmed grass lawn.
One could say mostly, after all there were places where the green stuff was left to grow long, where invasive species of feather crab grass grew, threatening to tickle or pinch the noses of those who dared wander too close respectively. There was also that one dead patch where all things refused to grow, on account of an infestation of poison joke needing to be cleared a few summers ago.
All of this was no surprise to the little filly and her prodding travel companion. Especially the well groomed parts of the lawn, it was, after all, their primary food source for most of the year.
Sprawled in the middle of this entanglement stood a dark, somewhat, forlorn building.
This place could have been at one time called a home, maybe to a rich eccentric and his wife, who in the early days of both Ponyville and their marriage, would have been the hopeful place for the two ponies to set down roots, have three foals, and out of kindness of their hearts, take in a few colts and fillies to fill the many rooms of the estate with love and laughter.
These, however, were just a few flights of fantasy that little Cream Puff would have at night to put her to sleep on the barely comfortable cots that the Equestrian State had provided the orphanage.
Otherwise the best way to describe the place was drab.
The building as a whole was painted in an unpleasant gray. The windows of which were black framed and iron barred. Iron bars that despite tears in the cheap coat of paint which showed pocks and rust, tattling on their true age, still had some holding power.
The roof was decorated with small, garish, cement, gremlin-like gargoyles: nine to be exact. Three in the front, three in back, two above the walls of west and east wings, and one perched right above the front patio that glared at foals as they passed the heavy black doors.
Under that scowling sour faced stone gorgon, leaning await in the stark ebony door frame, one hoof crossed over her other foreleg was the scowling sour faced Miss Hayneighan.
Atop her head was a short red mess of tangle that looked to be barely curled today. Her red mottled dress had a v-cut that dipped just to where the front of their barrel divided. Around her neck was a string of red coral beads that Cream Puff was still convinced was from ill-begotten gains from one of the card games she hosted in the sub-subbasement.
Then, there was her makeup.
Cream Puff didn't know what mixture of pale yellow stone and pollen Miss Hayneighan used or why that much eye-shadow was applied, but it was in word: excessive.
Finally there was her cherry red (of course) lipstick. Right now it was drawn up in a tight expression of ear pinning disapproval. Though, this was normal or at the very least, it was when she was not 'entertaining'.
'Momma had a word fer fillies that looked like that!' She caught herself. 'But best not ta be thinkin' it, otherwise it could get on ma face an' she'll make me worsh the dishes too!'
That was wishful thinking. Of course she was going to make the little filly part of the dish cleaning crew.
"Thank you Jeepers, you can go... Your ant farm is back in your room again..." Miss Hayneighan turned to Cream Puff, practically looking down her muzzle at her. "Little filly, where have you been?" she asked, her hoof trailing up to roll her necklace as she staggered slightly against the door frame. "You're late for dinner prep and I had to get Rag A. Muffin to start in place of you due to your absence.
"Ah was out deliverin' muffins ta a sick pony," Cream Puff started, with twang as neutral sadness as she could drip in without sounding super sorrowful.
"Oh, don't give me that sob story," Miss Hayneighan scolded, her hoof reaching around the corner for a glass tumbler filled with an amber liquid that clink-clanked almost musically due to the ice cubes it contained. "You were galivanting about with that one mare in hopes she'd take more of a shine to you again... Weren't you?" she asked, swirling the glass about.
Cream Puff hesitated in answering. "Ah-"
"What was her name again? Heart Attack? Heart A. Corn? Heartfelt? Heartburn?" She slurrily asked, before lifting the glass and draining it of half the contents. "Pffeh, did you at least remember to bring the paperwork in case she actually wants to take you in?"
"No, Miss Hayneighan..." Cream Puff slumped, she couldn't begin to count how many times she had this conversation. "An' her name is Heartbreak!" her head drooped as she looked away. "But she likes ta be called 'H.B.'" she said, almost reciting her favorite pony word for word.
"Oh yeah," Miss Hayneighan said, scoffing as she downed the rest of her drink, leaving only the tinkle of the ice cubes as she set the glass down. "Maybe remember that for next time and you won't have to come back here..." She mocked, setting the glass down before leaning on the door frame. "Now, seeing that you're finally done playing in Ponyville, you can get your shiny clean flanks in here and set about doing something useful by making supper for all your fellow stablemates!"
"Yes, Miss Hayneighan..." The little filly replied, walking up the stairs and through the door.
"Oh stop acting so sorry for yourself!" The scarlet dress wearing-pony guffawed. "Otherwise, I'll have to treat you like-" her words were interrupted by a lift of a hoof to cover her mouth for an expulsion of gas. "-like an actual pony or better yet, I'll give you something to be sorry about!" She turned and looked down at the filly. "And do we want that?" she asked with a curling smug smile.
"N-no, Ma'am, Miss Hayneighan, Ma'am..." Cream Puff answered, her ears trying their hardest to unpin and look perked, as she tried not to trudge back though those three black beams that made up the door frame and into the almost opulent foray waiting room of the orphanage.
"Good to hear. But I would be more convinced if you smiled more." Miss Hayneighan curtly said, her speech slightly slurred and her gate shaky as she once more picked up the glass. "If anything, it'll be good practice when the inspector shows up to make sure that I'm still mucking your stalls..."
"It would be a lot easier if the air didn't smell like gone off cider burps..." Cream Puff said, just under her breath.
Miss Hayneighan's ear snapped back before her head followed suit. "What did you say you little blank flank?" she hissed.
"Uhm-uh..." Cream Puff panicked a little. "Biscuits! Cheddar biscuits! Ah could make some ta go with supper."
Miss Hayneighan's eyes narrowed and her lips pursed in a soured expression, her hoof pushing aside some books on a bookshelf, the hidden treasure behind which gave a distinctive glass clink. "Hmmph, only if you haven't used up what flour we have wooing your newest claim as a 'forever home.'"
Cream Puff let out an uneasy chuckle. "Ah'm sure ah saw a bag or two still in the pantry..."
The mare's judgmental eagle eyes stayed on her trembling quarry before relaxing and turning away, her hoof pawing to the back of the bookshelf. "Good, now get to the kitchen..."
"Y-yes, Miss Hayneighan, Ma'am." Cream Puff said, relief in her voice as she turned down the hall to the kitchen.
"And one more thing, Cream Puff," Miss Hayneighan musically chimed, pulling out a bottle whose contents were a familiar amber color.
"Y-yes, Miss Hayneighan, Ma'am?" Cream Puff asked, flinching dread tainting her body language.
"Those biscuits better be better than those rubbery pucks you made last Tuesday," She said, pouring more of that harsh, burning, sour smelling liquid into the parched tumbler. "Or else. Understand?" She asked, glaring as she once again looked over her nose at the filly, this time taking a rather loud slurping sip from her glass.
"Y-yes, Miss Hayneighan..." Cream Puff replied, before continuing her way down the hall, only relaxing once she was sure that she was out of earshot of the cantankerous ... mare. "Mama's cheddar bay biscuits are not rubbery..." She muttered with the squeaking of the opening kitchen doors.
==================================
Walking out of The Onigiri, I cannot say that I have not felt more satisfied food wise since I got here in the land of magical talking ponies who, if they get hungry, will just nibble readily on their neighbor’s lawns.
The restaurant as its namesake suggested was surviving a wide variety of what I would label as 'asian-themed' vegetarian dishes.
Everything from twisted-fried tofu skins on a stick with a sweet teriyaki glaze, to fried rice with simple vegetables, and rice balls wrapped in seaweed!
Fluttershy, being who she is, kept it simple, only a small plate of seaweed salad with decorative flowers, a gelatin-like dessert (agar-agar, I think?) and a cup of pale green tea.
I, however, was starving and requested so many things that maybe I shouldn't have.
Something that I'm sure of is the MLP knock-off of California rolls, without any meat.
Wait... Did California rolls have meat in them? Ugh... Food fog is clouding my brain a little. Whatever... The small portion of fried rice was good and the tofu skin thing was too.
But the two things that stole the show?
The washed flour dish that had the taste and more importantly, texture of actual cooked chicken and the ice cream mochi balls.
Fluttershy was curious about that last one so I shared one- strawberry- she wasn't much of a fan of the stretchy-chewy feel of the mochi, but seemed really delighted by the honest-to-goodness real strawberry ice cream with chunks of real fruit inside.
I washed all this down with several cups of a nice refreshing Darjeeling tea- that thankfully lacked any grassy or hay notes.
When I asked about it, I was told that they sourced the tea, along with much of the inspiration of many of the dishes from the owners of Lah-Tea-Dah.
With how many 'Eastern' influences Subtle Brew has...
Fet, if feels wrong of me to think of her as a 'walking human-Asian stereotype'.
'It's just a form of convergent societal evolution, H.B.’ I tell myself as the two of us walk down the street, my stomach feeling a bit distended. 'It's -not- anything more. It's just how things developed here, and it's merely a coincidence.'
The sun is starting to get tantalizingly close to the horizon, a promise of a few cool breezes.
Almost as if on cue, a sharp cold zephyr goes through my mane.
"Ooooh," Comes out a contented sight. That hit the spot..."
"I'm glad-" Fluttershy starts, but then stops, her wings flickering about. She momentarily looks anxious, but then takes a deep breath and lets it out and looks at me with a rather... sweet? Soft? I would say kind, but that feels redundant. This is Fluttershy we're talking about here. She might as well be that personification of that ponified Owl City song.
"That you enjoyed the food..." she finally says
"It was really good food," I answered, holding back a small belch. "Wasn't expecting something like that to be in Ponyville though." The foggy satisfaction is reminding me that a food induced coma is most likely going to be in my future and that maybe I ought to find a nice place to lay my head down before it happens.
Turning the corner, I notice the golden hued signs are reading some familiar directions. One of which leads to a once again, familiar destination.
"Oh, look!" Fluttershy gasps, kind of peeking over my shoulder. "It's the library..."
"Yes, yes it is," Hooh boy, was it just me or did that sound kind of... leading?
"Did you know that Twilight is back from Canterlot?"
"Uhm, I might have? I don't know..." Shit. Did any of them tell me that? I feel like I need to take notes on my own life just to-
"Maybe we should check in on her and see how she's doing?" Ooooh... She's definitely asking that in a leading tone. A Flutter tone that she used on the CMC in that one episode- oh what was it- 'Stare Master'? Right, that was the name, when she tried to pull 'Let's play the quiet game' on the three of them. "I mean, only if its okay with you..."
Gah! She's using the pleasing Flutter gaze!
"Uuuugh," Oh she's not going to let up here is she? "I guess it wouldn't hurt to see how she's doing- but not for long, right? Cause I am pretty full, and tired, and, ya know, kinda getting over... well... everything?" I clear my throat of a little phlegm.
"Of course, just to catch up and see that she's doing okay.' She says this with a rather ... mirthful? I don't know, maybe it's trying to be a reassuring smile.
"Well," Hard to argue with that, I guess. "As long as it's a short visit." Ugh, let's just get this over with...
==================================
Looking up at the warm light emanating from the Great Oaks Library, Heartbreak felt a pang of nostalgia.
'It was only last month that I was rooming with Twilight and company, yet, like with everything, it feels so much longer,' she thought, a chilled sense of ennui settling through her.
A part of her really did want to pop in on Twilight, see how she and Spike were doing, show off her new glasses! And-
Just then the cooling dusk air was pierced by an unsettling, hollow, ghostly screeching hooting sound.
"Oh, Look!" Fluttershy gasp, her eyes turned skyward in wonder as she pointed out a winged black silhouette took flight from the highest branch of the library, soundlessly darting into the dark before letting out another warning cry. "Owlowiscious is on his nightly patrol! Looks like he's decided to perch in that tree!" She practically narrated in a sweet enamored voice. "Nature is so fascinating..." she quietly murmured.
"Y-yeah.. fascinating..." Heartbreak echoed, finding herself walking backward, practically cowing behind Fluttershy, as memories of the last encounter with Twilight's fine feather friend flooded forth... "You know, maaaybe we should come back another time?" she asked, peeking at the pair of golden luminous eyes that threatened to pierce her if she even dared to take another step towards the library.
"Bu-" Fluttershy began, her big doe eyes about to glance at the terrified mare almost cowering more than she could muster on her worst of days, only to be interrupted by Owlowicious' loud hissing formidably by a splayed feather display that made the normally smallish owl appear at least three times his size! "Oh... Oh... my..." She said with a great deal of dismay, her ears drooping.
"I don't speak... owl, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't the answer to how many licks to the center of a tootsie pop, and instead someth-thing not so very nice?" Heartbreak asked, the smallest of uneasy chuckles in her voice. A chuckle, that, though small, was somehow cut short by another intimidating hissing. "Right?"
"Oh... Well... I mean," Fluttershy wanted to try and soften the meanings behind these clearly threatening postures, however, with one more wide-eyed hissing, wing flapping, and loud hooting, it was all too obvious that H.B. I wouldn't buy it. "N-no... no it wasn't," she finally conceded, her wings twitching, and her ears folded sadly.
"Oh... Well..." Heartbreak said, her eyes locked on the offending owl. "Maybe another time. I mean, I've got food to digest. Besides..." She began to back away from the Great Oaks Library. "I wouldn't wanna be a bother, we can come back another time..." she uneasily repeated.
"A-are you su-'' Fluttershy began, only to be once more, interrupted by a low, growling screech hoot in the trees. "Uhm... Of course, you're right. I have to make sure that my... uhm... animal friends are fed...'' she said, following heartbreak's lead down a road that was definitely away from the angry bird.
"Walk me back to my place before going home?" Heartbreak asked, her head turning and eyes pleadingly seeing assurance.
Fluttershy only smiled a wary yet understanding smile. "Of course I will," she replied while following alongside the trembling Heartbreak.
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Nice to see an update on this story, I find it a bit odd that is story is apparently nearing reaching as it lacks the turmoil for HB to struggle with herself in developing her sense of kindness, or at least open herself up to take someone in despite of her own personal emotional issues that she is trying to get a handle on. Through think that it's necessary for HB to have absolutely no coaxed or pressure by anyone of the M6 in order to get take in Cream Puff as her ward, I think Shy is doing a good job in not trying to lead HB into a particular direction to get her in touch with kindness, or spoonfeed it to her, even might not be confronted with herself on what kindness means, but I think Shy could appreciate brining out her indignation on the foals living condition(we got hints with her frustrations with Zephyr) and get more scrutiny from foals services on Hayneighan to keep her on a tight leash, but I wonder how in Ponyville would be willing to take care of all these foal as a guardian? Not everyone can have the energy to take care of children that aren't their own with care and affection. I don't think HB could become a guardian but I think helping out with the foals with her book reading could with more conviction or be willing to to do more for the community with could help with having a little more drive in her life Looking forward to see more of this story again soon-ish.
11458294
There's gonna be another chapter either late today or tomorrow....
11458299
looking foreword to it then
I really don't think HB should adopt a foal at all, it's a terrible idea. Regardless of how sympathetic and needing Cream Puff is made to look the fact remains that HB certainly isn't the mothering type and obviously doesn't want to be given they'd rather be a male human on earth. Plus there just isn't that kind of relationship there, and trying to make one would just be unwillingly forcing it on HB.
:3
I'm curious as to how Gummy will react to her now...
Also, Miss Hayneighan has a lot in common with Mrs. Mavilda from The Christmas Tree (a rather peculiar animated film).
11458598
Wasn't that that reallllly disturbing animated xmas movie?
11458634
Think so. I remember Mrs. Madilva using the money that was meant to buy the orphans new clothes to bet in poker or something like that. Been a while since I thought about that awful movie and I blame Miss Hayneighan for that. Bad pony, bad.
11458299
Is that chapter gonna explain how HBs soul is rough and torn and those sharp edges cut into the very nature of others like salt in a wound? Or is that explained in Epilogue?
Nice Italian Job reference.
"Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional"
You see those columns over there? That's where they strung up thieves who felt 'fine'.
11458946
Wait and see.
11458984
Is that where that's from!? Whelp, I learned something. And here's another thing! You don't have to wait for the next chapter! It's up!