Chapter 105
Heaving a sigh, Trixie Lulamoon wiped the drool from Sumac’s chin and felt a little peeved with Twilight. She had hoped that when Sumac had woken up from sleep that all would be fine, but that wasn’t the case. Her colt was still stupid as a box of rocks, but at least he was also very affectionate and loving, offering hugs and slobbery kisses.
“Sumac?”
“Hurr?”
“Who’s Mama’s special colt?”
Lemon stopped brushing her mane and looked at Sumac, waiting.
Sumac looked baffled and his unfocused eyes looked around the room, perhaps looking for Mama’s special colt. He sat on the bed, his chin shiny with drool, unable to comprehend Trixie’s simple question. Wickering, Trixie waved her hoof in front of Sumac’s face to get his attention, and then she booped his nose.
“You are!”
The colt’s green eyes brightened and a smile made a slow journey across his muzzle as he realised that he was Mama’s special colt. “Durr?”
“Well, he’s talking again—”
“Lemon…”
“Well, that was a very expressive sound, whatever that was. You could make out that it was a question.” Lemon Hearts reached out her hoof, poked Sumac in the tummy, and a worried smile appeared upon her face as the colt began giggling while shying away from her ticklish touch. “Guess who loves you?”
Again, Sumac looked mystified by the sudden question, and his giggling paused as he struggled to comprehend what Lemon had just asked. His eyes glazed over and went out of focus as he stared up at the two mares. “Uh…”
“I do!” Lemon shouted.
This sudden and unexpected revelation was too much for Sumac, who went cross eyed and fell over onto his back, with all four legs sticking up into the air. After that, he didn’t move very much at all, and Trixie turned her head to look over at Lemon Hearts with one eyebrow arched in concern.
“I think you blew his mind, Lemon.”
“Same thing happened when I tried playing peek-a-boo with him earlier when he just woke up.” Lemon let out a sigh and shook her head. “My little fella has an epic case of the stupids.” She looked down at Sumac, who lay on his back, still having not recovered from her proclamation of love.
There was a knock on the door and both mares turned to look. It was Trixie who pulled the door open, and beyond, there was a familiar purple face that looked very, very worried. She shuffled on her hooves, her ears rose and fell, and she tried to get a better look at the colt lying on the bed.
“You have a lotta nerve, Twilight…” Trixie bit on her lip for a moment to hold back an angry flood, and she thought of far better words to say. “I’m telling our father.” Twilight reacted as though she had been slapped and Trixie held a secret sense of satisfaction as she watched. Twilight was squirming now, standing on three legs and rubbing one front leg with the other, which made Trixie feel better for some reason.
“Well, don’t just stand there, come in so we can thump on you properly,” Lemon said to Twilight. She patted the bed in an inviting manner.
“Any sign of improvement at all?” Twilight asked.
“Not much,” Trixie replied and then she began gnawing on her lip again.
“He made a choice—”
“And if a foal decides to play with fire, you stop them before they burn the house down, not after!” Lemon snapped, reacting with uncharacteristic anger. She lept from the bed, landed on her hooves with a clatter, and went to the doorway where Twilight stood. “Look, I listened very carefully to what you had to say last night, and I can sorta understand why you and Sumac did this, but I don’t have to like it and I don’t have to be super-happy Lemon Hearts! You’ve made me all Lemon Sour and now I have half a mind to put a little lemon juice right in your eye!”
“That seems fair,” Twilight whispered.
Moving with a startling swiftness, Lemon Hearts threw herself at Twilight and embraced her in a fierce, aggressive hug, throwing her forelegs around Twilight’s neck. It took Twilight several long seconds to recover, but recover she did, and she wrapped a foreleg around Lemon in return. A moment later, perhaps as an afterthought, she also wrapped her wings around the angry but affectionate lemony yellow mare.
“I’ve been in contact with Princess Luna.” Closing her eyes, Twilight gave Lemon a squeeze. “She’s going to start extracting information from Sumac’s mind while he sleeps. There is a lot to recover, and Luna says that even if Sumac lives a very long life, we will not recover all of it. There is just too much there.”
“Still having trouble wrapping my mind around this,” Lemon replied.
“Imagine going into a library with millions and millions of books, and none of them have been marked, sorted, or organised. Sumac’s mind is now that library.” Twilight let go of Lemon as the mare pulled away, and then looked into Lemon’s confused eyes. “The only way to know what each book has is to read each and every one. Princess Luna can extract the information, she can take out the books one by one, but she is going to spend thousands of years sorting through everything we’ve recovered. We’re still going to lose a lot of it, as Sumac won’t live long enough for her to retrieve everything.”
Sliding off of the bed, Trixie stood and looked at Twilight, still feeling angry, but also worried and sympathetic. She crossed the room, shoved Lemon aside, glared at Twilight for a time, and then embraced her just as Lemon had. “I’m proud of him,” Trixie confessed in a whisper. “But I am also very angry. With both of you!”
“Moving the books out one by one…” Lemon murmured to herself.
“Lemon and I need to go to work. Who is going to watch Sumac?” Trixie let go of Twilight, stepped back, bumped into Lemon, and gave Twilight a stern-but-loving stare.
“Twinkleshine has volunteered.” Twilight scratched behind her ear with her wing. “You know, she’s pretty scary when she’s angry. I was really relieved that she put that axe of hers away before she started to chase me around.” Twilight looked over at the bed where Sumac still lay, flat on his back with his legs sticking up into the air.
“At least we didn’t come away empty-hoofed,” Trixie said, trying to find the good in the situation.
Something maternal lurked in Twinkleshine, but she would never admit it. Turning her head, she looked back at the little colt following her as she walked over the grass turned brown by autumn. Sumac stumbled into her leg and Boomer appeared to be trying to steer him along by tugging on his ears.
Recovering from his collision, Sumac sat down, his head tilted back, and he murmured one word. “Blue.”
“Sky, Sumac.” Twinkleshine helped the colt get back up onto his hooves again. She was certain that a good walk would help sort him out. Equines needed to walk. They had to walk. Their digestion was dependent upon walking, which aided in hindgut fermentation, walking kept the blood flowing, equines were a species evolved to walk.
“White?” Sumac touched Twinkleshine’s leg.
“Yes, I am white.” Twinkleshine nodded and then took off again, giving Sumac a tug with her magic to get him moving again.
“Lizard!” Sumac shouted as he looked up at his own horn.
Snorting, two tiny curls of smoke shot out of Boomer’s nose and the dragon did her best to look annoyed even as she yawned. Boomer was in dire need of a nap, but Sumac was too stupid to be left to his own devices. The dragon let out a honk of frustration and did her best to get Sumac to walk in a straight line. Finding that the ears didn’t work, she dangled down from Sumac’s horn and grabbed the corners of his mouth in her tiny little hands, mindful of her claws.
Much better.
Tugging on Sumac’s muzzle as though it was made of taffy, or perhaps silly putty, Boomer found that she had much more control if she tugged on the corners of his mouth. Steering equines was difficult, but she was managing, even in her sleepy, dull-minded state.
Everything was going pretty good until Sumac came to a sudden halt and sat down. Boomer sneezed fire in frustration, nothing she did could get the back end of the sitting equine moving, even when she pinched a tender nostril.
Stopping, Twinkleshine said, “Come along, Sumac.”
Sumac shook his head and then looked up.
“Don’t you tell me no, you adorable little fuzzball. Don’t make me get the ‘nope rope’ to lead you along. Bad foals get the ‘nope rope’ if they don’t listen!” Disheartened, Twinkleshine stared at the colt, who didn’t seem bothered at all by her threats. He just wasn’t smart enough to be intimidated. “Sumac, do you want an apple?”
“Aaawpul!” Boomer was still tugging on his lips, trying to get him to move.
“Come along with me and you will get an apple. A green one, to match your eyes.”
“AAAWPUL!” Sumac was now up on his hooves and running in a circle, chasing his own tail as Boomer yanked on the corners of his mouth, trying to steer him into a straight line. “Leezard! Aaawpul! Face taffy!” The colt came to a careening halt, then shook his head, trying to dislodge Boomer, who had to hold on for dear life during the impromptu rodeo.
“That was almost a sentence!” Twinkleshine raised her front hoof and pumped it into the air. “Woohoo! We have cognitive processes!”
“That wasn’t much of a sentence by any standard.”
“Discord.” Twinkleshine looked up at the looming figure that towered over her and Sumac. “Been a while. Where have you been?”
Looking down at Sumac, Discord folded his talons and his paw behind his back to watch the rodeo taking place, delighting in Boomer’s struggles after having his eyebrows burned off by the fearless little upstart. “I was trying to find a nice gift for Twilight to let her know that I cared. Went into a centaur vault. Things got a little crazy and I was trapped for a while.”
“You got trapped?” Twinkleshine looked up at Discord in disbelief.
“Pesky centaurs used nullwood in the construction of many of their vaults. I was caught unawares.”
“How did you escape?” Twinkleshine asked.
“Sumac looks a little… off.” Discord snapped his talons and a bright green apple manifested in his claws. He then held out the fruit to the colt, who was being steered around by a grumpy looking baby pygmy tree dragon who was clearly in need of a nap.
Seeing the apple, Sumac came to a skidding halt, chomped down upon the apple and several of Discord’s talon-fingers. Discord let out a howl, let go of the apple, Sumac let go of Discord’s fingers, and then caught the apple before it hit the grass. Sitting down, the colt, holding his prize between his front hooves, began to eat it with gusto.
“There was an incident and Twilight exposed Sumac to an unparalleled amount of danger. He drank too much tincture and then downloaded the contents of a crystal pylon to his brain. I don’t fully understand it. Now he’s burned out.” Twinkleshine sat down in the grass beside Sumac and watched as Boomer stole bites of apple, her head darting in and nipping off succulent bits.
“I am feeling a most peculiar feeling,” Discord announced, “and no, I don’t like it. Not at all. This feeling is unpleasant. I feel it sometimes around Fluttershy… what is this awful feeling and why is it happening to me?”
“Are you having a friendship moment?” Twinkleshine asked.
“Don’t mock me!” Discord bellowed as he caused another apple to manifest. He waved his paw at the tiny, insignificant pony mare beside him, and then scowled when she gave him a knowing look. How infuriating! Driven to distraction, Discord came down to the ground, lifted Sumac in his talons, and offered him the fresh apple with his paw.
The colt began gnawing on the fresh apple and Discord sat there, on the ground like a common pony, holding the colt in his talons. “Why would any sane or rational being do this to themselves? This feeling is awful. You do this to yourselves intentionally? And all of you call me mad!”
“He’s your friend, isn’t he?” Twinkleshine asked, her tone serious and not at all mocking.
“I have grown very fond of the chaos that he causes,” Discord confessed as he held Sumac. “I… I would miss that chaos if it stopped suddenly. He’s not like the rest of you… well… most of you. His curiousity and his questioning… it makes him different. He makes all of you so uncomfortable and I do so enjoy watching all of you little ponies squirm as you try to sort out the existential crises that he causes you to experience.”
Twinkleshine scooted closer, held out her hoof, and placed it on Discord with a soft, gentle touch. She stroked him a few times, and then the Lord of Chaos reacted…
“Don’t touch me!” Discord snapped as his eyes flashed a dangerous shade of deep, dark red. Unhoof me this instant!” Snarling, his tail uncoiling, Discord plopped Sumac down into the grass with surprising gentleness even as his rage boiled over. “I’ll not have this affront to my sensibilities!” And with that, Discord vanished with a snap from his tail tuft.
Sumac, his apple half-eaten, began to sniffle, wondering where his friend went, and then lacking the means to express his deep and abiding pain, the colt began sobbing as his half-eaten apple fell out of his hooves and into the grass. He let out a shrieking wail as he threw his head back and his terrible tantrum manifested like a typhoon springing out of a jack-in-the-box to surprise the unaware and unwary.
Twinkleshine, who had no idea what had just happened, scooped Sumac up and began trying to comfort him, but had no idea of what to do or how to make the tantrum stop. Frustrated, confused, clutching Sumac to her barrel, she too began to sob as the feeling of being utterly powerless in this situation took over her mind.
Boomer, having reached the very end of what she could endure, began honking over and over, letting the whole world know that she had suffered enough and was in dire need of assistance. Honking, letting out cry after cry, she clung to Sumac’s face while pleading for help the only way she knew how.
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What's the betting somepony tries to convince Sumac to become immortal so they don't lose the information? Particularly given the similar discussions regarding Tarnish. Somehow I can't see Sumac going for it right now, but you never know.
Also, why do I have a funny feeling Lemon Hearts has the beginnings of an idea that might make that unnecessary?
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Sumac brain until further notice
Interesting wondering what Discord did
You know Discord could have, with one snap of his finger, easily un-stupified Sumac, considering how powerful he is with his magic. But then Twinkleshine had to drive him away with her affectionate patting.
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Seems a touch harsh...
wonders how many books have been packed into sumac's brain. As said without reading them there is no way of knowing if you've picked up a children's book or tome of history
7790153 but would've there been any side effects considering how Sumac caught the stupids.
7790153
We have no evidence to support that, especially since that would be bringing order to chaos, which is very different from undoing chaos.
Good heavens, he's accessed the narration. The powers of chaos are coming to full bloom in him, aren't they?
Wait, wait, wait. Now is the perfect time for Vinyl to cash in on her threat.
7790206
We have circumstantial evidence to support it considering what else he can do. This Discord is potentially many, many times more powerful than the Discord of Kudzu's other 'verses if he hasn't lost most of his power fighting Tirek or somesuch. Plus anything that can just alter reality with a finger snap can un-fuck a brain no worries.
As for bringing order to chaos? No, dumping thousands of years of info on Luna's lap and making her cry about how much work she has to do now is chaos. All that infodump, their thoughts of their origins and ideals shattered, everything that was thought they knew challenged or proven wrong. Newly rediscovered technologies, arguing about whether it's best to go straight ahead into putting them into production which could cause Equestria-wide upheaval in good and bad ways or trickle it out so as not to cause damage all at once. Or if anything they learn should be implemented at all.
The turmoil as the sisters learn more to make them even more powerful and they question if they should baby-proof their nation or let hardships befall their ponies with their newfound understanding and such, because after a certain level of ability anything bad that happens is something you can either stop or let happen, but is now your decision and responsibility to decide when, where, and if.
Stuff like that, huge ripples, massive chaos, subtle chaos, drawn-out chaos.
7790119 Or this for a good representation.
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This for the weird...
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I feel so bad for Boomer...
So, who else thinks Discord will be able to extract the info into either Luna, himself, or a metric ass-ton of books, unless he just makes Sumac immortal, possibly as a non-Alicorn?
7790117
because lamp shading
Poor Sumac. Extra heavy duty Stupid is going to take a while to recover from. Now he's a magical battery and information battery. Everybody is going to want a piece of him...
It's one thing to cry on your own, but everyone crying is a terrible spot to be in.
Sumac has become A Certain Magical Index.
Oh, yeah, I forgot about the pylon thing. I guess that's part of the reason sumac got upgrades.