Sympathy For The Devil

by Closer-To-The-Sun

Chapter 5: Fluttershy

Chapter 5: Fluttershy

“Applebloom, I’m having a crisis.”

“A crisis?” the filly tilted her head in puzzlement, “What do ya mean, Mr. Morning Star?”

“I’m talking about all of this,” the stallion stretched out his limbs as if he was trying to encompass everything in his shop, “I feel like all of this is doing nothing.”

Applebloom wasn’t sure how to reply, “Well, you’re at least tryin’, right?”

Morning Star sighed as he leaned on the counter with his limb support his head, “I’ve been doing this since time immemorial. Even longer than that, and I’m starting to question if this was a good career choice….”

“What did ya want ta be when ya were mah age?” Applebloom asked as she started to resume her sweeping.

This caused Morning Star to stop and think, “You know, that’s a good question. What did I want to do when I was….” he stopped as he looked at Applebloom, trying to guess her age, “….eight?”

Applebloom seemed to take offense to the assumption, “Ah’m thirteen years old!”

“Really? You’re so….short….” Morning Star stated as he measured her with his hooves from afar.

The filly cleared her throat, as to get Morning Star back on track.

“Right, right. I really need to do something about my lack of focus. Anyway, when I was in my youth, my formative years, I really wanted to be a chef. Not just any chef, but a bakery chef,” A warm, non-malevolent smile appeared on his face, “There’s no other smell quite like fresh baked bread.”

Applebloom smiled as well, “That’s a really nice dream. But what happened?”

Morning Star’s smile disappeared as he closed his eyes, “Well….”

He was interrupted by the front door opening. The bell rang. In entered a yellow pegasus. She trotted meekly and carefully. She looked nervous as she spoke out, “H-Hello?”

The stallion hurried around the countertop and went over to her aside, “Welcome to Tchort’s Trinkets. How may I be of service?” He returned to the same stallion that Applebloom knew as her boss.

The yellow pegasus shied away from the sudden appearance of Morning Star, “Ah!” she squeaked and hid behind her large pink bangs.

“Come now, no need to be frightened, I’m the owner of this shop, Morning Star. There must be something I can interest you in,” Morning Star offered.

“I-I’m Fluttershy. I was out and about and….I saw this shop,” Fluttershy was slowly opening up, “It must be new, right?”

“Newer than you might think,” Morning Star smirked, “Come, let us find something just for you!” He put his limb around Fluttershy as he pulled her along through the aisles of various knickknacks.

“I….uh….I don’t know if there’s really anything….I’m not really in the market for anything right now….” she insisted.

Morning Star was persistent, “Nonsense, there is an item here with your name on it!”

The stallion pulled Her right up to a large fancy mirror that was leaning against one of the shelves, “How about this beautiful mirror?”

Fluttershy seemed captivated by the mirror. The mirror itself looked brand new while the carved brass framing was old and dirty, needing a good cleaning. It seemed to have some sort of aura around it.

“This mirror is from the fabled Myrtles Plantation. A number of rumors and legends surround it, but it’s nothing to worry yourself about. Just look how elegantly it looks in it’s brass framing? This kind of quality can’t be matched in this day and age,” Morning Star explained.

The more she looked at her reflection, the more Fluttershy grew attached to the mirror. “I certainly do like now it looks. Very elegant,” she commented.

“How about it, would you like the mirror?”

“I don’t know….”

“It’s yours, free of charge.”

“Really? That’s so kind of you.”

Morning Star had a sly smile, “Just be sure to visit in the future and patronize my shop in the future, and we’ll call it even!”

Fluttershy nodded with a bright smile, “Of course!”

“Excellent,” Morning Star smiled back. He clapped his hooves together and called out, “Applebloom, please help Ms. Fluttershy with her new purchase!”

Applebloom groaned as she arrived to where the other two ponies were. She was not looking forward to hauling the large, heavy, and fragile mirror through Ponyville. If she couldn’t shelve the Necronomicon, what chance did she have with the mirror?

-----

“Thank you for helping me move the mirror to my home, Applebloom,” Fluttershy expressed her gratitude to the little yellow filly.

“Jus’ doin’ mah job, ma’am,” she saluted with her hoof before she bent down in pain from hauling the mirror all by herself. She stretched a few times in hopes to relieve the pain.

Fluttershy looked on worriedly, “Are you okay? You didn’t have to move it all on your own.”

“Ah’m fine. All part of the mah job,” Applebloom insisted.

“How about some tea? Would you like a cup before you go back to the shop?” the pegasus smiled gently.

“No thanks, I should be gettin’ back. Mr. Morning Star can be grumpy if I don’t dust ‘round the shop,” Applebloom explained, “It’s so weird, the dust….just keeps coming back every day. Like it doesn’t wanna stay clean. And there are times it looks like I didn’t dust at all….”

The pegasus was a little concerned about what Applebloom was saying, but she didn’t push the topic, “Alright then, have a safe trip back.”

The two ponies said their farewells and Fluttershy was left in her house. She looked at her new mirror, mounted on the wall with a dresser in front of it.

“It looks so regal,” she said, “though it could use a little cleaning on the frame. I should make some tea before I get started.”

Fluttershy left to her kitchen to put the kettle on, leaving the mirror unattended.

As she was gone, a hoofprint appeared on the surface of the mirror. It was coming from inside the mirror.

-----

“Is it time, Mr. Morning Star?” the filly asked.

“Not yet, Applebloom. We’re still open for about ten more minutes,” he insisted as he looked at the newspaper that was laid out on the countertop. “Hey, looks like the Baltimare Ravens won. Looks like Mammon owes me some money. Doubt he’ll actually pay up, greedy S.O.B.”

“Who ya talkin’ ‘bout?” Applebloom trotted up to the counter to look at the paper.

“Oh, just one of the demons I work with. He’s good at his job, but he’s really difficult to work with at times. He’s just always forcing others to be content with of being in-“

The front door opened, interrupting Morning Star.

“Hello! Welcome to Tchort’s Trinke- Oh, Ms. Fluttershy, you’re back. So soon?” the stallion was a little confused.

Fluttershy nodded as she trotted to the back counter, “Yes, I came back because I need some polish to clean up the frame of the mirror I just got.”

“Wait….nothing happened with the mirror?” Morning Star asked.

“Well, funny that you should ask that. While I was making some tea, I noticed that there was a strange hoofprint on the mirror. I figured it was just from when Applebloom was moving it to my home, but it didn’t come off when I tried to clean it. Then, wouldn’t you know it, I saw other ponies in the mirror. You can imagine how friegthened I must have been, but as they looked like they were trying to break out, I asked what they wanted. Well, one thing led to another and we got to talking and enjoying each other’s company.”

“Excuse me? You were talkin’ ta….ghosts?” Applebloom asked with a raised eyebrow.

Fluttershy giggled slightly, “Sounds funny, right? But we got to talking and it turns out they just wanted somepony to talk with. Apparently they were trapped in there a long time ago and we just had a pleasant conversation over some tea. Did you know ghosts can drink tea? I certainly didn’t, but they really seem to like earl grey.”

“That’s really neat, right Mr. Morning Star?” Applebloom asked as she looked to her boss.

Morning Star was repeatedly hitting his head against the countertop as if it was some sort of ritualistic punishment. “How? How did this happen like this? And why? Why? Those trapped ghosts were of murder victims, looking for vengeance and killing anypony they encountered. You should have at least been driven to insanity by them! They shouldn’t of wanted a stupid tea party….”

Fluttershy watched, very perplexed, “Um….I’m not sure if this is a good time, but do you happen to have any polish for the brass frame? I want to make the mirror much more chipper and happier for the spirits in the mirror.”

He stopped hitting his head against the countertop, but he didn’t lift his head off of the counter as he spoke. It sounded muffled, “Applebloom, can you get her the normal polish, not the vanishing one. And then….you can go home. I….I just need to be alone for a bit.”

The pegasus looked at Applebloom, “Is he always like this?”

“He’s jus’ a lil’ sad right now.”

Comments

[Jake The Army Guy]

This story is the definition of a flawed gem. It's very rough around the edges, and could use some polish—I think it would have been hilarious if, instead of trying to attack Morning Star and Apple Bloom, the "killer doll" was waving and smiling as she read from a book—but still, it's very smart and fun to read. I can't wait to see how this affects the rest of Ponyville!