Chapter 36
The cemetery was a magical place of quiet and calm that Sumac needed in his life. The transition was difficult, he didn’t know how to talk about it, or even what words to say, but going from a life of wandering place to place to settling down in one spot left him feeling unsettled. He sat in the grass, pulling weeds from around the tombstones with his telekinesis.
Nearby, Pebble followed after Boomer, as the little hatchling ran around hunting for bugs to gobble. Sumac watched them both, delighting in being idle, and having the freedom to allow his mind to wander.
“This isn’t what I expected,” Pinny Lane said to Sumac in a low voice. “There’s some spooky-ooky types who like to hang out in cemeteries. They dye themselves black and act all depressed. They moan about how unfair life is and they hang out in graveyards to be all edgy.”
“I’ve heard about them, but never met them,” Sumac replied. “Trixie brought me to graveyards to teach me a sense of history. Sometimes, the stones have warnings, stories, and sometimes, they’re just meaningful I suppose.”
Sumac looked up from where he was sitting, squinting behind his darkened glasses in the late afternoon sun, and as he looked around him, he noticed that there was no pigeon poop on any of the statues in the cemetery. He smiled and thought of Discord. Sure, the draconequus kept putting the weeds back, but it seemed that Discord was respectful in his own way.
Or maybe, he just hated pigeons.
“Here’s one, Boomer,” Pebble said to the hatchling.
Sumac watched as Pinny turned her head to watch. He saw something in her expression, some look, it was something he had seen before, he had seen it on Trixie’s face. Seeing it made him feel funny, kind of awkward, as if he was witnessing something special and private. He felt his cheeks grow warm.
“My mother, Trixie, she makes that face,” Sumac said in a low whisper to Pinny.
“Oh does she?” A warm smile spread over Pinny’s muzzle. “She must love you a great deal. I was just thinking about a special moment with Pebble.” The older mare took a deep breath, sighed, and her ears drooped down, coming to rest against her face.
“What?” Sumac asked, wanting to know.
“Oh, it’s embarrassing and mooshy—”
“That’s okay.” Sumac looked up, hopeful.
“Pebble had just figured out the walking thing, hitting that stage when she was good at it and didn’t stumble anymore. She was an independent little cuss and she didn’t want any help from nopony, ‘cept her daddy. Sometimes, I think she’d stumble on purpose just to make him freak out and come running over.” Pinny’s eyes moistened. “Anyhow, one day, she came toddling up to me, she had her ears up, and she came over and sniffed my leg. Afterwards, she closed her eyes and rubbed her face up against my leg, and there… there was… there was just something about her little face… how happy she was.”
“Huh.”
“It’s funny… but that was the moment that I knew that I was her grandmother, as funny as it sounds. Sure, I was there when she was born, and I helped Tarnish change a few diapers, and I spent so much time with her… but that moment… there was something special about that moment. Something about… about knowing that I made her happy and she liked being around me. It… it’s more than that though… more than being her grandmother.” Pinny began to sniffle.
“What’s wrong?” Sumac asked.
“Oh, old regrets. Mistakes were made with Tarnish. Things happened… things I regret and still wish I could go back and fix somehow. Things I missed out on.” Pinny continued to sniffle and her smile had a sad quiver to it.
“So, by being a good grandmother to Pebble, you think you can make things up to Tarnish?” Sumac looked up at Pinny and saw an ear twitch as he spoke. He saw some reaction on her face, the corners of her mouth jerked, first down into a frown, then up, back into a smile.
“Not to Tarnish, no.” Pinny drew in a shuddering breath, then reached up and wiped her eyes with her foreleg. “No, to myself. Tarnish forgives me. He’s such a good natured sort. It’s not anypony’s fault, really. But I still sometimes feel bad and I feel the need to make up for it.”
Hearing Pinny’s words, Sumac felt a dreadful tightness in his barrel. He thought about his own parents. He wondered if they would ever feel a need to make up for everything that had happened. Probably not. For a moment, he felt like crying, but he drove the feeling away by thinking about Trixie. She was his mother now, and she did right by him. Oh, sure, she had tried to leave him, but even then, she was trying to do right by him, she just didn’t understand what she was doing and needed some help to sort things out.
“Thinking about somepony that you love?” Pinny asked in a knowing voice.
Nodding, he replied, “Mama.”
“You saved your mother, you know.” Pinny reached out one long gangly leg, placed it over the small of Sumac’s back, and pulled him a little closer. “I only knew Trixie a little. Tarnish kept rescuing her, you know. He rescued her from the diamond dogs, he found her again when she was down and out, and then there was that time that he and Maud saved her from an angry mob that wanted to burn her as a witch.”
“What?” Sumac’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding me?”
“I’m being serious.” Pinny looked down at Sumac. “She had gone exploring in some old ruin in the south, no doubt trying to find something that would help her become great and powerful—”
“She did that sometimes.” Sumac nodded in understanding.
“She soaked up a whole bunch of bad magic and she didn’t know it. She became ill, fled the ruins, and took refuge in a little farming community.” Pinny’s brows furrowed as she dredged up the old memory. “Every time she used her magic, it caused gremlins, mephits, and quasits to appear.”
“All of those are types of imps,” Sumac said, recalling what little he knew.
“An angry mob of superstitious earth ponies descended upon Trixie and when she tried to defend herself, even more imps appeared and soon, the entire town was under siege. The earth ponies were convinced that if they burned poor Trixie, the rampaging army of imps would go away.”
“That sounds pretty bad.” As Sumac spoke, he felt a shivery sensation in his spine. He didn’t like this story. It was scary, in the worst sort of way. He himself had encountered overly superstitious earth ponies who didn’t much care for him or Trixie, because they were unicorns.
“Tarnish, who was in the area, he had been battling with monsters from deeper within those dangerous ruins, he and Maud went to the town to find supplies and recover. There was a whole troupe of adventurers with them. There was Hachikō, the diamond dog who roams the land, righting wrongs, there was Cranberry the Monster Wrangler, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch were there, Daring Do had been there to fight the monsters, but she had to go off and take care of something else, and Rainbow Dash had tagged along, hoping that something awesome would happen.”
“A town full of ponies trying to burn Trixie as a witch isn’t very awesome.” A deep crease of concentration appeared on Sumac’s forehead. “That’s not awesome at all. So they saved her? She couldn’t defend herself?”
“Trixie was sick from the bad magic. All she could do was cast a fireproofing spell on herself, but not much else. She figured out that it was her magic that was causing the imps. Tarnish found her tied up in the bonfire and she was happy to see him. Octavia gave the villagers a good scolding, Tarnish got Trixie purged of bad magic, and much to everypony’s relief, there was a happy ending to this tale.”
“I hope the villagers got more than a lecture.” Sumac’s lower lip protruded and the more he thought about it, the angrier he got. “Those ponies were jerks.”
“From what I understand, Princess Twilight Sparkle went down there and gave them all a stern talking to. Didn’t do much good from what I hear. They were not impressed by alicorns and refused to even acknowledge that she was their princess.”
Sumac’s eyes went wide and he sat there in stunned shock. He blinked, once, twice, then a third time. He sucked in a deep breath, indignant, and then began to sputter as he couldn’t say anything coherent. His ears pitched forwards in an aggressive manner and he fell silent as his face contorted into an unpleasant scowl.
“A big fan of the princess, I take it,” Pinny remarked as she rubbed Sumac’s back, trying to get him to calm down. “She’s been good to you, I know. She tries to do right by everypony, but she has a special place in her heart for ponies like Trixie and Starlight. She’s a good pony, and I don’t care what other ponies say.”
Still silent, Sumac stewed.
“We’re living in interesting times, Sumac Apple. A lot of ponies aren’t too keen about the princesses. There’s been some trouble, but I think it is blowing over. Those ponies up there in Canterlot know what they are doing, and ponies are calming down… for the most part.” Pinny paused for a moment and shook her head. “Still, there is a growing divide that needs to be acknowledged. There is a growing number of ponies that believe that we don’t need the princesses anymore.”
Pinny’s head lifted and she looked over at Pebble. The little filly was off in a far corner of the cemetery and she appeared to be having a conversation with an old, weather worn headstone while Boomer continued to explore in the tall grass.
Looking up, Sumac’s anger melted away when he saw that Pinny had that look upon her face again. He leaned against her and looked over at Pebble, then heaved a sigh. He thought about Trixie, he thought about Pebble, he thought about Lemon Hearts and all of the ponies (and one griffon) that were in his life.
“Pebble is like my best friend,” Sumac blurted out, feeling the need to tell somepony. “She’s my first friend my own age. And I don’t understand her and sometimes she’s irritating and other times she’s annoying, and sometimes, well, sometimes she is really stuck up, but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s my friend and I don’t know what I would do if she wasn’t there.”
He felt Pinny give him a tender squeeze.
“Sometimes, I don’t know how to talk to her… she’s smarter than I am by a whole bunch and I’m scared that she’ll think I’m stupid. Or immature. Like in class today when we talked about peepees. I laughed because it was funny, but Pebble didn’t laugh because she didn’t think it was funny at all and she seemed disappointed that I laughed.”
“Talking about peepees? In class? What are they teaching you in that school?” Pinny asked, sounding alarmed and worried.
“Well, we talked about gender barrier and Tinder said that the gender barrier…” The colt’s words trailed off and he took a moment to collect his thoughts. “You talked to Pebble about the gender barrier and she brought it up, which is why we were talking about it, and anyways, Tinder said that he thought that the gender barrier was the yucko feeling that little fillies and little colts have towards one another that keeps them from touching peepees and making more foals—”
“Oh my…” Pinny began to snortle-chortle and tried to hold it in.
“—and Pebble complained that she could feel her brain cells dying and that the maturity level just dropped and then she brought up the fact that little colts are smelly and silly and we talk about peepees—”
Pinny Lane began snerking and she struggled to keep from laughing.
“—and I felt really bad when Pebble seemed disappointed with me for laughing. I mean, it was funny, but she just gave me this look. And I felt real bad for letting her down. Like… like I failed her as a friend.”
“I can’t believe I am about to say this to the little colt that likes my granddaughter…” Pinny Lane sucked in a deep breath and fought to hold back her giggles so that she might continue. “Sumac Apple, you need to keep talking to Pebble about silly stuff like peepees. She’s entirely too serious and wrapped up in her own thoughts. She’s trapped inside of her own head. Tarnish does it sometimes… oh, he doesn’t talk about peepees, but he can be a very silly pony, and Pebble gets immensely frustrated with him when he won’t be serious—”
“You want me to do what?” Sumac blinked in astonishment.
“I want you to just be yourself and try not to worry if Pebble is disappointed with you.” Pinny let heave a sigh and a broad smile spread over her muzzle. “Pebble sometimes needs to be poked and prodded and taken from her comfort zone, at least, that is what Marble says. Marble would know, with all those psychology books she reads.”
“But why?” Sumac asked.
“Pebble needs to understand that the world won’t always meet her on her terms, and that sometimes, she is going to have to deal with things she doesn’t like.” Pinny sighed again. “And I think that is a lesson best learned with a friend, somepony that will help her work through it.”
“I… don’t understand.” Sumac, confused, looked over at Pebble, then up at Pinny. “Would I be helping her?”
“Yes.”
“Well… okay… if you say so… I suppose I could tease Pebble just a little bit… but not too much… if it is for her own good. I’ll give it some thought and see what I can do.”
“Sumac, you’re the best sort of friend that a little filly like Pebble could hope for.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.043 seconds
Total duration
762 users online
736,401 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Paragraph is missing a quotation mark. I'm guessing thats where it goes
7467273
I just don't know what went wrong.
I am reminded of some ancient relationship advice I once was given, and found to be very true.
A Woman goes into a relationship with a Man because she thinks she can change him.
A Man goes into a relationship with a Woman thinking she will never change.
They're both wrong.
I now want to see the fallout from somepony hearing only the one sentence and then informing either foal's parents that Pinny told Sumac he needed to talk to Pebble about peepees. Or the reaction when Sumac himself makes an offhoof comment about it without context.
Ladies and gentlemen, Equestrian justice in action
7467277 There is always change, one of the constants of the universe (theirs or ours)
i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/aoz8kgx8pzknypz7z38n.jpg
Okay all joking aside. I think she is a great grandma. And she gave Sumac great advise. Pebble really does need to be brought out of her comfort zone. I think this whole chapter is cute and funny. Well except for ponies trying to burn Trixi. Let's see how well they like it if we burn them!!!!......I know totally uncalled for. I'm sorry. Well great chapter can't wait for more.
-BFBL
7467341 no, she's definitely not a great grandma, Pebble and Sumac aren't that far along in their relationship yet.
7467356 Okay I think you are trying to Make a joke here but I'm not understanding it.
7467383
You assume that it has something to do with me...
And nothing to do with the characters.
A writer is more than the sum of their characters, you know.
7467374 It's a terrible pun I just couldn't resist. It might have made more sense if I had hyphenated great-grandma, but...
Anyway, the idea was a deliberate misinterpretation on my part so that it came across as if you were identifying Pinny as having three generations of descendants, instead of being particularly good to the second.
7467399 Thank. Come to think of it now that it's explained it's pretty funny.
7467387
In your case, we're pretty sure you're just a bunch of very small colorful horses in a human suit.
7467433
Maaaaaaaaaaaaybe.
7467440
So, is there a rota for positions in the human suit?
No one wants to be the ass end all the time.
7467277
The best advice I got was from my grandfather: The best way to keep harmony in the house, and to always get the last word, is to memorize one simple phrase. 'Yes dear.'
Keep in mind, this came from a retired Lt. Col. In the USAAC/USAF who flew in everything from WWII to Vietnam. Seemed to have worked. ;)
Dammit, I reaaly need to read the rest of the weedverse stories !
7467433 Oh god, I'm a changeling!
7467780
I thought we were discussing secret identities, not common knowledge.
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw4541-fluttersigh.gif
Oh, I can just see how that would go...
"Why hasn't the sun risen? It's ten o'clock and the sun isn't up"
"Did you not hear? Princess Celestia and Princess Luna issued a joint proclamation last night - they've retired. Princess Celestia said that the sun can sort itself out. Princess Luna said the same about the moon and she's stopping her dream patrols."
"What about Princesses Cadance and Twilight? Can't they take over the sun and moon?"
"No, Princess Cadance said that she's on maternity leave and Princess Twilight said that being a school headmistress is a full time job."
"Ah, we'd just have to get used to sitting in the dark then..."
7467780
7467848
I dunno, I might be a burro or a zebra.
7468378
These ponies would respond unicorns used to move the Sun and the Moon long before the alicorns took the task.
That also raises the question of who was in charge of the Celestial Orbs before ponies or life itself evolved in their world .
7468595 I suppose, maybe, that it brings us back to the horrible hypothesis. I think the sun maybe would have moved on its own, being powered by it's own magic, but the amount of magic must have been phenomenal, and it probably went through its magic very quickly.
7468595
7468625
Valid points there.
Thinking on the Horrible Hypothesis, are there enough powerful and willing unicorns available to do the job of moving the sun and moon anymore? There'd probably have to be lots of research done on the spells necessary too as there's probably very few people still around who were also around when they were last used.
Anyway, it would just be moving the source of contention to a different group and not solve the issue of someone or group holding the power. It's the sort of job I'd rather have someone doing it out of the goodness of their heart performing.
7468658
Well, Celestia moves the sun and coincidentally she wields absolute political power.
And, although you weren't a person saying this, not having the princesses in power doesn't necessarily mean that they should stop moving the heavenly bodies. Unless they are only doing it to assure their power, they would still want to do it even if Equestrian has elected officials or something.
hatchling?
Hmn, so maybe we are mid-crisis? Depending on who owns the local infrastructure, it's possible that Ponyville simply isn't getting hit noticeably by it.
Oh my goodness, Pebble is talking to the headstones. Neat, but also kinda creepy.
I like this recommendation. And since it comes from a theoretically responsible adult, I can only assume that it's a good idea.
7469925
She talks to rocks.
Headstones are rocks. Of a sort.
7470949
Oh, it has a direction.
7470949
Believe me, there is a method in his madness
If everything happened as Pinny says, that town was completely right for wanting to burn Trixie. They had no unicorns around who could purge her of the curse or demonic magic or whatever, and if she kept causing demons to attack their town, then it's entirely reasonable to believe getting rid of her would save them, especially if they don't know if she's doing it on purpose or not. Goodness knows I'd burn someone bringing demons to town to protect my kids. Their lives would be far more important than some possible warlock.
The witch-hunt things in history were only wrong because there were no witches to burn, and people used it as an excuse to get rid of people they didn't like. If there were actual evil witches, or at least people who were bringing terrible suffering and death to people around them, even unintentionally, and they were getting caught by the witch hunts, we'd have praised them. But here the villagers are bad guys (from Pinny's story) because the person they wanted to burn was someone we've come to care for as readers, even though one life to protect a village is essentially a good trade.
Clearly things change if there was more to it.
7490072
Even that depends on one's definition of "witch." The magic-casters created by Hollywood never existed, and the kindly herbalist healers of lore were usually not regarded as witches at all, but there were some who would use superstition, poisons, trickery, and fear to gain power over villages. Imagine the Flim-Flam brothers as barn burners and well-poisoners, if you will. That such people deserved burning... is arguable.
7490072 Actually, I far more appropiate reaction would have been exile until they found a unicorn. Attempting to burn her, especially if she WAS an evil witch could easily have gotten them all killed. That's the irony of witch hunts. You know that the one they found was not an evil witch, because without magic of your own, you and everyone else would be dead.
In Trixie's case, some sort of defense would have been necessary but attempting to burn her both stupid and wrong. Especially if you knew it was unintentional. Besides, I doubt summoning spells work that way.
The story of Hachiko the diamond dog has the makings of a great samurai epic.